“That’s a great idea.” Frannie beamed. “Wally and Skye will definitely tell you that you can rely on me.”
While Spencer stepped out of the kitchen to make his call and in between serving customers, Dani brought Frannie up to speed on what she’d learned. Spencer may have had concerns about trusting the young woman, but Dani had made a deal with her and wasn’t reneging.
Frannie took copious notes and often stopped Dani to add her own information. The reporter had discovered much of what Dani had found out. She knew about the bulimia, the nude picture of Bliss, and Laz’s alcoholism, but she hadn’t heard about the identity theft.
“Are you aware that the Bournes haven’t returned from their trip, but they did call and fire their housekeeper?” Dani asked Frannie just as Spencer returned.
He frowned when he heard Dani’s words. “I see you didn’t wait for me to clear Ms. Ryan.” He rolled his eyes. “Good thing her friends say she’s trustworthy.”
“Told you so.” Frannie smirked, then turned to Dani and frowned. “I hope Mrs. Carnet wasn’t canned because she talked to me.”
“That wasn’t it,” Dani reassured her. “They blamed her for Regina’s death.”
“The Bournes think Mrs. Carnet killed her?” Frannie squealed.
“Not exactly.” Dani paused to sell a lunch, then explained, “They just think that if the housekeeper had been there, Regina wouldn’t have died.”
“Which is entirely unreasonable.” Spencer shook his head. “Once the insulin was in the food, unless the housekeeper was able to persuade Regina not to eat it, there was nothing the woman could have done.”
“And if Regina was in a bulimic episode, nothing would stop her from binging.” Dani sold the last lunch and flipped the sign on the window around to indicate she was closed. Taking a seat at the table, she asked, “Frannie, have you found out anything else about the victim or her clique?”
“Besides the fact that Regina might be the meanest person that I’ve ever run across?” Frannie made a face. “I mean what she did to that pledge at her sorority was beyond heinous.”
“Do you know that girl’s name?” Dani asked excitedly.
Frannie shook her head. “The sorority refuses to talk about it, and since it happened a while ago, other people’s memories are fuzzy. I’ve heard Greta and Gloria and Grace.”
“It’s Gail,” Dani said. “But we don’t have a last name. Anyway you could get that?”
“I’ll work on it, but…” Frannie’s lips twitched, then she said, “We may not have to worry about it.”
“Why?”
“In the wee hours of the morning, the cops arrested Regina’s killer.” Frannie wiggled excitedly in her seat. “And I got the scoop.”
“Who?” Spencer asked.
Dani talked over him. “Then why in the heck did you come here asking me about what I found out?”
“My editor wants a follow-up to the story of the arrest, which is in today’s afternoon edition.” Frannie hugged herself. “She said that if it was good, I could do a whole series on Regina’s sordid life.” Frannie beamed. “We’re calling it ‘Posh Mortem—Deathstyles of the Rich and Famous.’”
“Who did the police arrest?” Spencer repeated his question.
“Vance King.” Frannie giggled. “They caught him breaking into the Bourne residence and stealing a video camera memory card. It turned out to be a recording of him dressed in leather pants and a vest, jerking off while he flogged some woman wearing a ball gag, spike collar, and not much of anything else.”
Dani glanced at Spencer. “Evidently, Vance got tired of trying to convince Bliss to let him in the house and decided to take matters into his own hands.”
“So to speak.” Spencer snickered. “So to speak.”
Chapter 22
“I know I should be happy that someone’s been arrested and Mikeloff will have to leave me alone, but it doesn’t feel right,” Dani said as she and Spencer cleaned up the kitchen. “Do you think Vance King really killed Regina?”
Frannie had left a few minutes ago to turn in her first piece on the life and death of NU’s three-time homecoming queen. A lot of the university boosters and Normalton’s upper crust would be extremely unhappy with the reporter’s exposé on one of the town’s wealthiest families and their socialite friends.
“It’s a reach.” Spencer stretched to slide a huge Pyrex bowl onto a top shelf and his shirt pulled away from his waistband.
With his washboard stomach exposed, Dani checked to make sure she wasn’t drooling before she asked, “Why do you say that?”
“First, if King is the killer, why didn’t he return to the house and grab the memory card right after she died?” Spencer continued to put away dishes and pans according to Dani’s chart. “He should have been keeping an eye on the place and gone in when the housekeeper left to follow the ambulance to the hospital.”
Dani had drawn up the diagram Spencer was using for the girls. She liked everything to be in its correct spot. Searching for what she needed while she was in the middle of a recipe annoyed her to no end.
“Second”—Spencer looked around for any stray items—“King doesn’t seem smart enough to come up with as elaborate a plan as insulin in food.”
“True.” Dani finished drying the last couple of spoons, pulled open the nearby drawer, and placed them in their proper compartment. “How would he even know that an overdose of insulin would kill someone? Let alone think to inject the desserts or her snacks?”
“And you said that Bliss was adamant that King was unaware of Regina’s bulimia,” Spencer reminded her. “If that’s the case, he couldn’t be sure it would be Regina who ate the food from the party?”
“Excellent point,” Dani said thoughtfully. “The other thing that bothers me is when would Vance have had time to sneak into the Bourne kitchen and put the insulin in the food? He was falling down drunk by the time I left, and if he’d done it earlier, there was no way to tell which of the pastries
