So Pretty It Hurts

skin, in his case almost Draculean. There was a swollen quality to his face, as if he were on steroids for some kind of health ailment. It was clear after a moment that Collinson, the younger one, was the man in charge.

Scott explained very quickly what had happened. He presented himself as open, eager to cooperate, but at the same time firmly in charge and not at all obsequious. I would have been impressed except I kept remembering that hours earlier he’d suggested to Jessie that he wanted to add me to his personal spank bank. When he finished talking, I briefly offered my portion of the story, describing how I’d been woken by Laura and had gone into Devon’s room to investigate.

Natch, the cops wanted to see the body right away. We accompanied them to the small barn, and when we reached Devon’s room, Scott unlocked the door. While the cops entered the room, Scott and I stood silently in the hall cooling our heels, not making eye contact. The police emerged about ten minutes later.

“Where is this Laura Ash now?” Collinson asked.

Scott informed them that she was back with the others, and Collinson said he would like to speak to her in private, and then to Scott and me in that order. The other guests could be interviewed randomly once the police were finished with us. Scott suggested using his study on the ground floor of the bigger barn. Devon’s bedroom was relocked before we left.

Laura was questioned for about ten minutes, and when she came back upstairs, she appeared totally stricken, as if she’d just turned over critical info about a mob boss. I wondered if there was something Laura hadn’t told me or whether she was being eaten up by guilt for not having delivered the water when Devon initially called her. Scott’s interview lasted about twenty minutes, and then it was my turn.

“You’ve been up since before three,” Collinson said to me, gesturing toward a chair. “You must be awfully tired by this point. I appreciate your cooperation.”

I had dealt with more than a few local police over the years, and most seemed to overcompensate for their small jurisdictions by acting fairly gruff or bossy. This dude was different. His soft-spoken approach was a real departure. But I told myself to be careful. For all I knew, his easy style was simply a way to lower someone’s guard.

“I’m on my fifth cup of coffee, so I’m awake enough,” I said. “Before we start, it’s only fair for me to point out that I’m a journalist. I cover celebrity crime for Buzz magazine—and this will definitely be something I’m expected to report on. But I haven’t done anything yet. I want to first help in the investigation.”

Collinson eyed me silently for a moment. Ray blinked and squeezed his eyes shut for a beat or two. It was a weird little tic he had.

“Thank you for your candor,” Collinson said finally. “Now why don’t you take us through what happened again, but this time step by step.”

I did as he said, leaving nothing out—except of course Scott’s request to take Jessie and me to pleasure heaven at the same time. Just in case Laura hadn’t been a hundred percent forthcoming, I mentioned the time gap in Laura’s response to the phone call from Devon as well as the mystery call—though from Collinson’s blank expression, I had no way of telling whether this was new info or not. I also recounted my brief conversation at the edge of the woods with Devon Saturday morning. This, of course, was new, and he sat up straighter.

“That was all she said?” he asked. “Nothing specific?”

“No, nothing specific—and she seemed fine a short time later. But she definitely looked rattled in the woods.”

“Was anyone using drugs here tonight?”

Aha. He might look mild-mannered, but he wasn’t going to pull any punches with his questions.

“Not that I’m aware of,” I said. I added, though, that Devon had appeared to be buzzed when she left for bed.

“Any theories then about what might have happened to Ms. Barr?”

“I thought of drugs, too, but I also wondered if she might have died as a result of complications from an eating disorder. She seemed very thin. And as you saw, there was the bottle of ipecac in the bathroom—the stuff used to induce vomiting.”

Slowly Collinson turned his gaze toward Ray, who blinked hard and then shook his head.

“There was nothing like that in the bathroom,” Ray said. “Nothing like that at all.”

Chapter 5

The first thought that flew through my mind—and it wasn’t a very nice one—was that maybe Detective Ray had blinked too long and missed it. Then I wondered if he might have mistaken the small bottle for some kind of beauty potion.

“I’m positive it was there,” I told the two men. “Do you want me to show you?”

“Yes, please,” Collinson said bluntly.

Back we went to the guest quarters. The sky was faint with color now, as if someone were shining a flashlight through a burlap sack. I could see that it was still snowing. How would we all make it out of here today? I wondered.

Collinson unlocked the door to Devon’s room with the keys Scott had obviously turned over to him and motioned for me to enter. After leading me past the bed, he asked me to examine the bathroom, and without touching anything, point to where the ipecac had been.

“Someone’s taken it,” I said, shocked. “Someone managed to get into the room and remove it.”

“Why do you think someone would do that?” Collinson asked evenly.

“I haven’t any idea,” I told him. “Maybe—I don’t know, maybe to protect Devon’s reputation? So it wouldn’t come out that she was bulimic.”

He ushered me back into the bedroom.

“The bathroom light was off when Detective Ray and I entered the room earlier. How then did you happen to see the bottle?”

My mind raced as I deliberated whether I should try to fudge my answer just to protect my butt—but I decided against it. I’d had my butt singed before from being less than forthcoming with cops.

“I looked in the bathroom when I found Devon’s body,” I said. “I thought it might be helpful to see if she’d taken any drugs.”

“Helpful to you as a reporter?” he asked.

See, I’d been smart not to underestimate him.

“Yes, partly,” I conceded. “But mainly I just wanted to know what was going on. At least we now know that someone with sticky fingers has been sneaking around.”

“All right, Miss Weggins, you can go back with the others,” Collinson said. “We will join you in a few minutes.”

When I reached the great room, everyone looked up but no one said anything. I poured yet another cup of coffee in the kitchen area and motioned with a look for Jessie to join me at the island. As she made her way over, Detective Ray appeared at the top of the stairs and asked Scott to return to the study. I figured the cops wanted to chat with him about how someone had managed to slip into Devon’s locked bedroom.

“You okay?” I whispered to Jessie when she reached me.

“Yeah, but this is so freaky,” she said anxiously. “Am I going to be interrogated?”

“There’s nothing to worry about. Just tell them what you know—and you and I will catch up later.”

“This whole weekend has turned into a nightmare,” she said. “The only good news is that Nash is going to kiss our asses for being at the scene. When are you going to call it in?”

“In just a bit. I want to keep my eye on what’s going on here for a while.”