The Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen

Oh great, that was all I needed for Dearest to recognize me. I’d have to do this quickly.

I drew a deep breath, expelled it, and began. “Each one of you has been called here today for a reason. Each one of you knew Jennifer Weatherby. Each one of you was close enough to murder Jennifer Weatherby. And one of you … one of you did just that.”

I waited a moment for the hands-to-heart dramatic gasp, but obviously no one was as impressed as I was by my theatrics. I cleared my throat and continued. “A little over a week ago, someone disguised as Jennifer walked into my office. This person told me that her husband, Ned Weatherby, was having an affair and she wanted me to trail him for a week and keep a record of his activities.”

Ned sputtered. “That’s … that’s preposterous! I wasn’t having an affair. Jennifer was—”

He paled. He looked at his mother, his father, then quickly to the floor.

“What is it, Neddy?” his mother asked, turning in the chair to look up at her son. “Jennifer was what?”

Loyally, Ned remained silent.

So I finished for him. “Jennifer was having an affair herself, wasn’t she, Ned?” I had no desire to bring this out into the open, but I had little choice in the matter. “She was having an affair, and you knew about it.”

He let out a shuddering breath. “Yes, I knew. She and Billy Star had been involved for some time. But was is the operative word, Ms. Dodd. Jennifer ended it.”

Billy hmphed loudly, but didn’t say a word.

“Still, that must have angered you, Ned.”

“Of course it angered me!” He looked at his hands and played a moment with the wide gold band he still wore. When he spoke again his voice was softer. “But I wasn’t always the best husband in the world. Jennifer deserved … more. More attention. More affection. More everything. I was so concerned about making money, growing my business, sometimes Jennifer felt … forgotten. I know she did. That’s why … that’s why that damnable Billy Star was able to seduce her.”

“Why didn’t you fire Billy?

“I couldn’t. When I bought him out—”

“—and you bought him just before stocks in the company skyrocketed, Ned?” I offered. Yes it was a dirty dig, but I wanted to gauge his reaction. I thought there might be a trace of guilt there, but Ned didn’t skip a beat.

“That’s right. When I bought the son of a bitch out, his continual employment was part of the agreement. I couldn’t fire him for anything short or embezzlement. Certainly not for … for having an affair with my wife.”

“Still,” I baited, “your wife turned to another man. That had to make you angry, and not only with Billy Star. But with Jennifer, too.”

“Jennifer broke it off with Billy. She and I … we were trying to work some things out.”

“What kind of things?”

“Everything!” Ned swallowed hard and wet his lips. He appeared to be on the verge of tears. “We were renewing our vows on the weekend. And … and we’d come to some understandings. She wanted to go visit her family in Toledo more, and I promised to go with her once or twice over the next few months. And she didn’t want me going to Pastor Ravenspire’s church so much. She didn’t trust him.” He glanced at Ravenspire, who himself squirmed in his chair. “Sorry, Pastor. That was a sore point between us. And Jennifer … Jennifer promised to stop seeing Billy.”

I’d glanced at Billy often through this exchange — his face grew redder, his fists clenched tighter. And now I redirected my questioning to him. “And did she stop seeing you, Billy?”

“She said … she said she wanted to break it off,” he admitted, “but … but I know she didn’t mean it. She couldn’t have meant it.” He began to cry. “I … I loved her. And I know she would have loved me if it wasn’t for Ned. Ned took everything from me with the business. I couldn’t … couldn’t let him have Jennifer too.”

“So you pursued things with her still?”

He nodded. “I did. Best I could. Quietly. But I would have shouted it from the rooftops if I could have. But, for Jennifer’s sake, I didn’t want anyone to find out. Not until I’d won her back.”

“But,” I continued, “Ned finding out was the least of your worries, wasn’t it.”

Billy’s sideways glance confirmed what I had suspected.

“Luanne finding out was.”

The pen stopped flying over the steno pad.

“Yes,” Billy said. “She scares the hell out of me.”

“That’s enough, William,” Luanne said crisply.

Apparently, Billy didn’t think it was enough. He ignored her warning. “Luanne found some letters I had written to Jennifer. I was trying to win her back, but … but Ned was doing everything he could to ruin that. Picking her flowers, wooing her. Working fewer hours so he could spend more time with her. So I wrote Jennifer, and told her how I felt. It wasn’t about the money! About the business! Not anymore and I told Jennifer this. Somehow Luanne ended up with those letters. How she found them, I’ll never know.”

“I’m intuitive,” Luanne said.

“No,” I walked over to Dylan. He handed me Jennifer’s journal. “You’re nosy. Recognize this? If you were snooping through Jennifer’s journal, then chances are you were snooping through her mail too. You’ve got your own key to the house. You had access to Ned’s and Jennifer’s itineraries. You knew when the were home and when they weren’t.”

Luanne paled, but she lifted her chin. “Someone had to protect Ned!”

“It’s too bad no one protected Jennifer,” I said. “You knew about this journal when no one else did.”

“Luanne?” Ned said in disbelief. “You … you spied on my wife?”

“I had to. Don’t you see, Ned?” she implored. “I always knew that little tart would betray you. So I did what I did to protect you.”

“How … how much protecting did you do?” Ned asked, his voice trembling as if he was afraid of the answer. “You’ve never lied to me before, Luanne. Please don’t start now.”

Luanne’s bottom lip quivered. But she squared her shoulders as she answered. “Over the years of your marriage, I’ve read all of her mail. Every letter she put in that desk drawer, I’d sneak in here and read it. And of course, I read her journal. Kept track of her activities. But I did it all to protect you, Ned!”

Billy glared at her. “You bitch! You killed her!”

In a flash, Billy was on Luanne; his hands wrapped around her throat. Almost as quickly Dylan and two male cops pulled him off of her.

“How could you kill her?” Billy shouted, straining in the grip of the two officers. “How could you do such a thing?”

“I didn’t!” Luanne shifted her gaze from Billy to me. “Ms. Dodd, you’ve got to believe me. I didn’t kill Jennifer.”

I nodded slowly. “I know you didn’t.”

Chapter 20

You know, I don’t normally enjoy being the center of attention.

Ahahaha! That is so not true. I just love being the center of attention. Smack dab in the middle of it. Like right about now. No one in the room was entirely sure where I was going with this. Well, no one but me, Dylan, and possibly now the murderer.

After Luanne’s denial of guilt and my attestation also to her innocence, the room was so quiet you could hear the proverbial pin drop. I mentally broke into a chorus of Queen’s We are the Champions but thought better of actually belting it out loud. Too cocky, even for me. And besides, I had a ways to go before I was home free on this.