“What little bird?” Dani wondered if she was making any sense. After all that had just happened to her, her brain might have jumped its tracks.
“I had a meeting with the chief. Her daughter, who was playing receptionist, is apparently keyed in to all the PD gossip and is in a state of teenage rebellion. She left a note thumbtacked to the admin’s door informing me that Mikeloff had brought you into the station and was taking bets that he’d get you to confess.”
“Oh.” Dani drew in a deep breath to stop herself from falling apart. “Well, he didn’t succeed, so I hope she bet against him.”
“I’m sure she did.” Spencer smiled. “Do you need a ride home?”
“Yeah.” Dani swayed. “That would be great. I feel a little dizzy.”
“Stress.” Spencer wrapped an arm around her and guided her to the elevator. “Let’s get you out of here and you can tell me all about it.”
Silently, he led her through the station and out to his truck. Helping her in, he buckled her seat belt and headed toward her house.
They didn’t speak until they were seated at her kitchen table drinking tea and nibbling on the leftover lunch-to-go peanut butter s’mores bars.
“Tell me everything you can remember from the moment Mikeloff showed up to the minute you walked out of the interrogation room.” Spencer ate his cookie in two bites and stared expectantly at her.
“Mikeloff said that if I didn’t go with him to the station, Ivy would spend the night in jail.” Dani hesitated. Did she trust Spencer enough to believe that he’d still want to help her if she revealed that his niece continued to be the detective’s second choice of suspect? Taking a fortifying sip of tea, she quickly added, “But it was a trick. I don’t think Mikeloff has any real interest in Ivy.”
“Go on.” Spencer took a pen and notepad from the inside pocket of his suit coat. “Once he got you to the station, what happened?”
Dani described her wait in the chilly interrogation room, then repeated as much of the detective’s questions and her answers as she could recall. Finally, she said, “So after I demanded to leave or to have a lawyer, he stormed out of the room. It took forever, but he eventually came back with my purse and let me go.”
“So what Chief Cleary wasn’t willing to share with me was the lack of injection site. She must have known that Mikeloff would use that as an excuse to fixate on you.” Spencer relayed the rest of his conversation with the chief.
“So.” Dani clutched her cup. “Even though she suspects that Mikeloff is a bad cop, the chief can’t, or won’t, take him off the case?”
“That about sums it up.” Spencer gently peeled Dani’s fingers from the mug. “Chief Cleary is sympathetic and would love it if we turned up any evidence against Mikeloff, but the union would fry her if she tried to remove him without cause.”
“So we’re still going to keep going with our own investigations?” Dani’s shoulders slumped.
“Yes.” Spencer kept his hands covering hers. “But we now know that the insulin wasn’t injected. We just need to discover which of our suspects knew that Regina would eat all that food after the luau.”
“I may have some insight on that.” Dani pulled away from Spencer’s grasp. “Last night, after I finished cooking for the Karneses’ dinner party, I found Regina’s housekeeper by the side of the road. The Bournes had fired her, and when she tried to leave, she got a flat tire. While we waited for help, she admitted to me that Regina was bulimic.”
“Which means we need to figure out who knew about her disorder.” Spencer’s eyes gleamed. “Certainly her fiancé would know.”
“And probably her ex and her best friend.” Dani sighed and pursed her lips.
“So we still have three possible suspects.” Spencer reached for another dessert bar.
“More than that.” Dani pushed the plate closer to him. Seeing anyone enjoy her food always warmed her heart. “While I was preparing dinner last night, I overheard the Karneses and their guests discussing the reason Regina was kicked out of her sorority.”
“Oh?” Spencer chewed and swallowed. “I didn’t know she had been.”
“She stole one of the pledge’s manuscripts.” Dani repeated the conversation she’d heard.
“We need to get that girl’s name,” Spencer said as he jotted down a note.
“Any idea how?” Dani asked. When Spencer didn’t answer, she said, “I have one more person for our suspect list: Professor Karnes.”
“Did he have an affair with her?” Spencer’s eyebrows went up.
“Not exactly.” Dani described the recorded kiss and the identity theft.
“It seems as if Miss Regina has been a very naughty girl,” Spencer drawled. “It’s going to be hard to find out who hated her the most.”
Dani crossed her arms. “Well, like I said to the detective: I think Bliss has the best motive. At least, the most recent best one.”
“True.” Spencer tapped his chin. “And who would know more about Regina’s bulimic habits than her best friend?”
Chapter 18
A few hours later, as Dani loaded the van with the food and equipment for the football booster dinner, she scowled at the memory of her telephone conversation with Kipp. Her ex had thrown a hissy fit when she’d told him that she hadn’t yet found his book.
Dani had explained that she would look for it on Friday and that her Thursday schedule had been disrupted—although she didn’t tell him it was due to a police interrogation—but he didn’t care. At first he’d tried to charm her, but when that didn’t work, he’d just stated in that annoying you-have-always-disappointed-me tone that he would be at her house first thing Saturday morning to pick up his book. He’d then hung up without giving her a chance to respond.
Tomorrow was back-to-back gigs. The usual lunch-to-go would occupy her morning. In the afternoon she had a hundredth-birthday celebration at an assisted-living facility;
