At the Drop of a Hat Read online

  Viv glanced at me in a panic. Of the two of us, she really wasn’t the quickest on her feet. Me? I could lie to get out of a jam before I even realized I was fibbing. Truly, it was a gift.

  “We are thinking of stocking cowboy hats,” I said. “And since you are such an Alan Jackson fan, we thought you might want to know. What size head do you have anyway? Have you ever been properly measured? I’m quite sure if you pop into the shop, Viv can measure you.”

  Franks stared at us for a moment. I knew he didn’t believe a word I said, but he looked like he was deciding to play along. He rubbed his mustache. “An authentic Stetson would really add to my karaoke set.”

  Viv was looking at me over his shoulder. She mouthed the word “Stetson?” I ignored her because I’m good at that, too.

  “Oh, we also came down to see how our customer and friend Ariana is doing,” I added. “We’re working on her wedding hat, you know.”

  “So you said,” Franks said. “Brown or white?”

  “Excuse me?” I asked.

  “The hats,” he said. “Will they be brown or white?”

  “Both,” I said. It was impetuous, no question, especially when Viv started jumping up and down behind his back like she was having a fit, which, of course, she was. I had a feeling Viv wanted to carry cowboy hats about as much as she wanted to chew tobacco and learn to spit.

  “Excellent,” he said. He gave me a broad grin under the mustache. “Let me know when they’re in.”

  “Will do,” I said.

  He turned his attention to Ariana. “We’re going to be taking you in for another round of questioning in a few moments.” His voice was sympathetic when he spoke. “You’ll want to advise your counsel to come with you.”

  “I’ll go and get Stephen,” Trudy said. She squeezed Ariana’s hand with her fingers. “Chin up, my girl. We’ll get through this.”

  We watched her walk down the hall. She was clearly a woman on a mission.

  Ariana gestured to the custody sergeant standing near us and then asked Franks, “May I have a few moments alone with my friends? Girl talk.”

  “There really is no place to receive visitors,” Franks said, looking around the custody area with a frown. “All right, if the three of you want to chat in private, you can go in there.”

  He waved toward the cell behind us. I glanced at Viv and felt myself start to balk but then I looked at Ariana and realized she had many more hours to go in the tiny room on her own. If she wanted to talk to us in private, surely, I could handle it since I would get to leave.

  We piled into the skinny room and Inspector Franks gave us all a nod and then he headed back down the cell-lined hallway. The officer closed the door after us.

  I stood a good half foot away from the wall and folded my arms over my chest. I was determined not to touch anything.

  “Is it just me or does it seem like Franks isn’t really going after Ariana?” Viv asked.

  “It’s not you,” I said. “We’ve seen him when he’s fully engaged. This isn’t that.”

  I shifted to stand beside Ariana. She was wearing jeans and a fleece and a pair of slip-on boots. They were the sort of clothes you threw on in the middle of the night when you were called for an emergency such as comforting a brokenhearted girlfriend, suffering a death in the family, or being brought in for questioning in the murder of your boss.

  “How have they been treating you, Ariana?” I asked.

  “Other than the harsh accommodations,” she said, “the inspectors have been very kind. They’ve brought me tea and a hot breakfast from the station canteen and they let me use the lavatory out there instead of this manky thing.”

  “Have they been accusatory at all?” I asked.

  “No, not really,” she said. “Which given that they brought me in late yesterday, I figured I was in for a much rougher time of it.”

  “Do you know why they brought you in?” I asked.

  “They haven’t said.” Her voice was low and weighed down with worry. “But I think there must be something, some sort of evidence, that they think ties me to the murder.”

  “What could it be?” Viv asked. “Either you pushed him or you didn’t.”

  I glanced at Ariana. She met my gaze, and I knew she was thinking about the same thing I was—her confession that she had wanted Russo dead.

  “Did you and Russo have a fight?” I asked.

  “No, nothing like that,” she said. “It was more that I was ready to leave his employ and he preferred that I didn’t. He . . . he made it very difficult, no, he made it impossible for me to leave.”

  “In what way?” I asked.

  Ariana glanced at the door as if she expected Stephen and his mother to enter at any moment.

  “He said if I tried to quit, he would go public with pictures of us,” she said. “Pictures of us in a compromising situation.”

  Chapter 13

  “Oh.” Viv gasped and put her hand over her mouth.

  “It was a long time ago when I first started working for Anthony,” Ariana said. “I was young and stupid and I was completely dazzled by him and all of his celebrity clients, but when I figured out how he really was, well, I ended it.”

  “But you kept working for him?” I asked. Clearly, I was mystified. I, too, had been misled by my boss but I had chosen to pelt him with cake rather than stay in his employ.

  “I had no choice,” she said. “He wanted to reconcile, but I refused, and then when I tried to give my notice, he showed me pictures that he’d taken of me and him—of us. He had a camera built into the headboard of his bed, and I had no idea. I suppose I should be glad it wasn’t video, but still. He said he would go public with them and ruin my reputation if I quit.”

  “That’s horrible,” I sputtered. I wanted to use much stronger language but we were in public, a police station no less, so I curbed the impulse but barely.

  “The price of being young and stupid,” Ariana said. She looked thoughtful. “I was afraid he would use the pictures to force me to sleep with him again or whatever other perverted thing he thought up in his head. But surprisingly he didn’t. And working for him over the past couple of years hasn’t been that bad, well, except for the gambling, drinking, drug use and womanizing.”

  “Well, I guess that’s something,” Viv said.

  “I know it sounds crazy,” Ariana said. “But despite how awful he was to everyone else, he was mostly civil with me. Still, I always felt trapped and sometimes I thought . . .”

  “What?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “Just that I thought he enjoyed feeling like he had power over me.”

  We were all silent for a moment. Then a horrible thought occurred to me.

  “Do you think the police found those pictures?” I asked. “Is that why they brought you in for questioning?”

  “They didn’t say.” Ariana closed her eyes. “Oh, God, if Stephen finds out that I slept with Russo, I don’t know how he’ll take it.”

  “But it was before you met Stephen, right?” Viv asked.

  “Yes, but Russo was such a notorious pig,” Ariana said. “Stephen hated him. He thought Russo was reprehensible not only for the way he lived his life but also for the sleazy clients he defended. Stephen couldn’t wait for us to be married, so I could quit. Promise me you won’t tell any of them—Stephen, Alistair or Harrison—about the photos.”

  “Oh, Ariana, these things have a way of coming out,” Viv said. “We won’t say anything, of course, but it is better if you tell Stephen so he can be prepared.”

  “What if the photos never surface?” Ariana asked. I could hear the desperate note of hope in her voice and I felt like I was squishing a bug under my shoes when I answered.

  “They will surface,” I said.

  “These things always do,” Viv agreed.

  Ariana bowed her he
ad, and I got the feeling she was trying to find a place of peace, or maybe she was praying. Either way I bit down on the millions of questions I felt bubbling up inside me.

  Viv glanced at the closed door. “What do you think Stephen will do if he finds out about the pictures?”

  Ariana opened her eyes. Her expression was bleak. “I don’t know.”

  Viv and I both reached out to squeeze her hands. Just a few weeks shy of her wedding and this poor girl was watching it all crumble like a sandcastle under a strong wave. I wished I knew of a way to make it better, but I didn’t.

  “You’ll get through this,” Viv said. Her voice was fierce and reminded me of when she called me after my ex had devastated me. Viv was good for a solid boot in the behind. “You’re an intelligent, lovely young woman, and even though it looks grim, the truth will out.”

  Ariana stared at Viv and then she nodded. “You’re right. I haven’t done anything wrong. It’ll be all right. They’ll figure out what happened and I’ll be released.”

  “Atta girl,” I said. Although honestly I wasn’t sharing their optimism. Something felt wrong about the entire situation, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. There was a bell inside the cell to alert the custody sergeant that he was needed. I rang the bell. I was more than ready to get out of the boxlike room. The door swung open and I glanced out past the sergeant who was waiting for us to exit.

  Down the hall Alistair was pacing back and forth. He looked agitated and I could tell that whatever news he was getting it was bad. I fervently hoped it was for a case other than Ariana’s. When he jammed his phone into his pants pocket, I noticed Alistair’s usual cheerful demeanor was grim. He gestured for Stephen and Trudy to follow him and they strode toward us.

  He stopped in front of Ariana. I glanced between them and knew that this was official business. Stephen and Trudy must have sensed it, too, because they moved in close as Viv and I stepped back to give them room.

  “There can only be—” the custody sergeant began and I interrupted.

  “Yes, we know, only two visitors,” I said. “We’re going.”

  “Please don’t,” Ariana said. She gave Alistair a wary glance. “Something tells me I’m going to need all of the friends I can get right now.”

  Alistair rubbed a hand over his eyes. “I’ve just learned that the police will be moving forward with pressing charges against you in the murder of Anthony Russo.”

  “What?” Stephen roared. “That’s preposterous. It’s a trumped-up charge to get media attention. What do they need—a bigger budget to get new panda cars or something?”

  The custody sergeant stiffened and opened his mouth to protest but Alistair didn’t give him the chance.

  “Easy, Stephen,” Alistair said. He rested his hand on his friend’s shoulder as if trying to calm him down. Stephen shook it off. He balled his hands into fists and glared around the station as if looking for someone to take his temper out on. “Losing your cool won’t help Ariana at all.”

  “Bloody hell, I know that, but this whole thing is a lot of tosh,” he said. “The man was a drunkard, everyone knows that. He probably climbed up on the sodding roof and fell.”

  “Perhaps,” Alistair said. The tone of his voice led me to believe that the police had evidence to suggest it was not that simple.

  “What did they find?” I asked. “If you tell us, maybe we can help somehow.”

  Alistair looked uncertain but Trudy pressed forward. “Please, let us help.”

  “You might as well tell us all,” Ariana said. “It’s sure to be on the news, whatever it is.”

  “The crime scene investigators found a tiny bit of fabric in Russo’s fingers,” Alistair said. “The lab has matched it to the shirt you were wearing yesterday.”

  The color, what little there was, drained from Ariana’s face, leaving her just a pale shadow of herself.

  “But how?” she asked. Her eyes scanned all of our faces as we stood in different levels of shock, watching her. She pushed away from the door. “I didn’t do it!”

  The custody sergeant moved in between her and us. “Time for you people to move along now.”

  No one spoke for a moment. The evidence was damning. There was no question about it.

  “There’s more,” Alistair said, ignoring the sergeant who was now shooing us like we were a flock of ducks waddling in the street. “The detectives found your phone in your flat. There were several threatening texts on it from you to Russo.”

  Ariana blinked. “But that’s impossible. My phone has been missing for days.”

  We were all silent as we took in this damning bit of news.

  “I never threatened him,” Ariana said. “Never.”

  “Of course you didn’t,” Stephen said. He stepped forward. “Listen, I know you, and I know you could never harm anyone. Now, there has to be a logical explanation for this and we’ll find it.”

  “He’s right,” Trudy said. She put her arm around her son and reached out to Ariana. “Don’t you worry, dear, we’ll get this sorted.”

  “All right, then,” the custody sergeant said. “These two can stay but you three go. Now.”

  “Ariana, we have to go back to the shop,” Viv said. “But I am going to work on your wedding hat, and you are going to spend your time in here meditating on your special day. This is all just a load of codswallop and I expect it will be cleared up shortly.”

  “Thank you,” Ariana said. “But I need to pay you.”

  “Nonsense,” Viv said. “It’s our wedding gift to you. Right, Scarlett?”

  “Absolutely,” I agreed. “If you need anything, have Stephen or Trudy call us. I’ll be back to visit as soon as I can.”

  “Thank you.” Ariana choked out the words. I could tell she was going to cry, and being the world’s foremost sympathy crier, I felt my own throat get tight.

  “I’ll be in touch,” Stephen said. “Thank you.”

  Trudy was dabbing at her eyes and nodded her thanks as well.

  Alistair, Viv and I backed away. It was clear from the frosty expression on the sergeant’s face, we had pushed this meeting as far as it could go.

  “I’ll walk these two out and be back,” Alistair said.

  Ariana, Stephen, and Trudy nodded. Their faces were a picture of shock and bewilderment. I felt awful for them and the miserable situation they found themselves in.

  Alistair glanced at the three of them, and while his face showed no emotion, I could see him clenching his jaw repeatedly. I wondered if he had told us everything he knew or just the important parts. His expression was inscrutable but I saw him glance at Ariana and away and I got the feeling he knew about the pictures.

  Given that Stephen was his rugby mate, I wondered if the pictures changed things for him. I glanced at Viv and saw her watching Alistair as well. I knew she was thinking the same thing I was.

  She fell into step beside Alistair, catching his attention. “Is there anything we can do?”

  He studied her. His lips turned up in one corner in a self-deprecating smile, as if he knew she was only paying attention to him because of the desperateness of the current situation.

  “Thank you, but no, I can’t really think of anything,” he said.

  Viv met his gaze and I could see she was working her magic, making his brain turn to mush by giving him her full attention. It was an amazing thing to watch.

  “I know I don’t need to tell you that things are seldom as they appear,” she said.

  Alistair’s eyebrows rose. He looked from Viv to Ariana and back.

  “Talk to her alone,” Viv said. “It will make sense, trust me.”

  Alistair nodded. Viv and I paused by the front counter to retrieve our things.

  “If there is anything we can do to help just let us know,” I said.

  “I will,” Alistair said. His gaz
e lingered on Viv. “I’ll be in touch.”

  Viv and I made our way up the hallway, and I felt as if I were leaving a puppy at the pound. I didn’t care what the crime lab had found. There had to be an explanation as to why Russo had a bit of Ariana’s shirt clutched in his hand and it was not because she’d pushed him to his death. Of this, I was sure . . . mostly.

  We were almost out. The pig pile of reporters was still filling the lobby, but I figured we could squeeze our way around them.

  “Ms. Parker, Ms. Tremont, this way.”

  I glanced to the right to see Inspector Simms standing in a nearby doorway. He waved us over.

  “You’ll never get through that mob,” he said. He glanced at me. “And if they recognize you, it’ll be even worse.”

  I nodded. My notoriety had pretty much faded over the past four months, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk being the center of attention again.

  “I’ll show you out the back way,” he said. He gave us a small smile. “It’s used by all the celebrities.”

  We followed him down another narrow corridor past several offices, which had their doors shut. I wondered what went on behind the closed doors and then was sort of glad that I didn’t know. I’d never been arrested and I wasn’t really looking to add that to my curriculum vitae.

  “Here you are,” he said.

  We stopped in front of a door that had a big warning sign on it. It said it was for personnel only and it appeared to be heavily alarmed.

  “Are you sure?” Viv asked.

  I knew she was thinking the same thing I was, that the last thing we needed was to get busted for trying to commit a jailbreak.

  “Sure, just let me deactivate the alarm for you,” Simms said.

  He pressed a code into a panel beside the door and then popped it open. He stuck his head out and scanned the area, stepping back inside and giving us the all clear.

  “Thank you very much,” Viv said.

  She led the way out and I followed. I don’t know what made me do it, but I thought that Simms might be the softer of the two inspectors since he was younger and had gone out of his way to help us out.