actors. Grey had gone above and beyond.
Darby looked worn out and wouldn’t hold my gaze for longer than a second or two. I jumped up and hugged her. “Are you okay?” I asked.
She briefly hugged me back. “Yes.”
Her reddened nose and puffy eyes tore my heart. “Can you leave?”
She nodded. Before Malone could stop us, we bolted. We drove to the Koffee Klatch, shrouded in heavy silence. I made Darby wait in the Jeep while I ran inside and ordered our usual-to go. Once back in the Jeep, I handed the drinks to Darby and drove directly to my place.
Both dogs greeted us as we walked inside. Missy, wagging, jumping and drooling. Fluffy, sniffing, observing and dismissing.
I tossed them a couple of treats, then we all sat on the couch. The dogs settled between us, not to be denied human contact. Funny how animals just know when we need them the most.
Fluffy sniffed Darby’s coffee, who was completely unaware of the hairy beggar at her side.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Oh, geeze. Even I could hear the betrayal and accusation in my voice.
Darby averted her eyes and clutched her cup like a lifeline. “There didn’t seem to be a right time.”
“Anytime in the last two years would have been better than today.”
She shrugged, studying the floor. Fluffy continued to study the coffee. “I didn’t know you when I first arrived in Laguna. What was I supposed to say? Oh, by the way, you know that spiteful vindictive lady you despise? She’s my biological mother. No worries though, she refuses to acknowledge me.”
That would have worked for me. But I could see her point. A revelation like that would be awkward to fit into a conversation.
I got a sudden whiff of Missy’s atrocious gas. I waved a pillow in the air and glared at her stinky butt.
“So you came here to be close to Mona?” I asked.
Darby sighed. Her deep breath could have been a struggle for bulldog-fart-free-air, but it was probably because she was about to bare her soul.
“Since I was six-years-old I’ve known my biological mother abandoned me because I was a mistake.”
“That’s not true.”
Darby shook her head sadly as if erasing years of hurtful memories. “You can’t change the truth. To Mona I was a mistake. She left us, me and my dad, when I was a couple of months old. On my twelfth birthday, I secretly started looking for her. She wasn’t difficult to find. When my dad found out, he made me promise I wouldn’t approach her until I was out of college.”
“So you moved here, and then what? Showed up on her doorstep like a long lost relative?” I asked.
She took a drink. Fluffy’s long nose followed the cup to Darby’s mouth. Darby finally noticed Snob Dog was after her latte and pushed Fluffy’s face away.
“I’d manage to get invited to some of the same events or bump into her at the same restaurants.”
“You stalked her?” Little Darby had moxie. While I already had respect for my dear friend, I suddenly had a little more.
“One day I worked up the courage to approach her. She looked straight though me.”
I couldn’t imagine how that had felt. My mama had been the complete opposite. I’d meant so much to her, she’d meddled to the point that she played the horizontal hokey pokey with a Miss America judge.
I set my chai on the end table. Missy took it as an invitation to lay her head in my lap.
“My father had told me that when she left, she never looked back. By the time I realized he was right, I’d met you.” A thin smile threatened the corners of her mouth. “You’d convinced me to open the studio. I was making a life for myself here.”
I sighed, realizing the depth of the conflict eating at her soul. “But you were holding out for her to come to her senses.”
“Stupid, huh?”
A sliver of misguided hope clouded her dark eyes. Her pale skin hung on her cheek bones. She’d never appeared as fragile or naive than this moment.
I reached over the dogs and squeezed her hand. “Not at all.”
She cleared her throat and pulled her hand back. “Since I’m spilling all my secrets, I didn’t call Mona about the leash.”
“I know. You’re a terrible liar.” This horrible ache must be what Grey had felt when he’d confronted me about Mona’s phone.
I waited for Darby to continue, but she sat there unsure and embarrassed. Fluffy readjusted, shoving Darby toward the end of the couch.
“Knock it off, you couch hog. You’re not even supposed to be up here,” I said. Fluffy didn’t acknowledge me. Instead, she rested her head on Darby’s leg. Suck up.
“Why
She picked at the side of her coffee cup, then absently stroked Fluffy’s head. “I don’t know. I’d had enough of her bullying. I felt responsible for her. Then Jo made a derogatory comment during the shoot. I snapped.”
“What did Jo say?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
I had a feeling it did. “So you called Mona to… what?”
“To tell her to stop punishing you because of me.”
My stomach twisted in jolt of culpability. “Lord Almighty. That didn’t have anything to do with you.”
“It doesn’t matter. She never answered.”
Mona was either already dead or had screened her calls. Darby still looked worried. I had a bad feeling her story was about to get worse.
“Did you leave a message?” I asked.
She looked away.
“What did you say?”
She took a deep breath, then said in a rush, “You’re a mean and ugly person, and if you don’t stop bullying people, one day someone is going to smash some sense into you.”
The reality of the situation hit me. “Oh. My. Word. I delivered you to the police on a gold platter.”
“You didn’t know.”
“Were you really at home that night?”
She nodded franticly. “I swear. My neighbor backed me up. She saw my car in the driveway all night.”
Even I knew that wasn’t a solid alibi. “Once the police check with the security guard, and he confirms he didn’t let you though the gate, they’ll have shift their focus,” I assured her.
I couldn’t continue to sit in the sardine tin any longer. I patted Missy’s rump, and she jumped off the couch.
“About that,” Darby said, stopping me mid-stretch. “Malone said the guard was AWOL from his station around the time Mona was murdered. Anyone could have come and gone.”
“Only if they knew the code…” By the guilty look on Darby’s face, I had a hunch I wasn’t going to like the answer to my next question. “Did
She nodded slowly. “I’ve had a couple of home photo shoots in Mona’s neighborhood. Sometimes clients forget to add me to the guest list. They’ve provided the code so I could let myself in.”
I grabbed my empty cup and stomped into the kitchen. “Hells bells, Darby. You didn’t tell Malone, did you?”
Darby and the dogs were right on my heels. “I didn’t need to. A client ratted me out.”
As much as I loved her, I was quickly coming to understand I didn’t know Darby. I turned around and crossed my arms. It was time to get down to business. “Why would Mona have you in her cell phone as an emergency contact?”
Missy skidded to a stop directly in front of me. Drool coated her jowls. Fluffy glided past me as if she had somewhere to be, when we all knew she didn’t. Darby stood back from all of us, where she was safely out of arms reach. I’m sure it was obvious I wanted to strangle her out of frustration.
“I don’t know. It feels like Mona’s trying to punish me. But it’s not possible, right? She’s dead.”
I hoisted myself up on the kitchen counter. “Unless you’re being framed.”
