Chapter 12
Liz took the back hallway to her father’s apartment. When she opened the door and walked in, she found her father and a stunning blonde sitting at the small bistro table next to the galley kitchen, each with a glass of wine in front of them. The woman was somewhere in her mid-forties, dressed in a tailored, navy-and-white-striped blouse under a navy suit jacket. Her skirt came to just above her knees, and she had shapely legs atop two-inch navy pumps. Her large brown eyes were framed by perfectly arched brows.
Oops. Had Liz interrupted a date? Over the years, plenty of women had been attracted to her father. He’d dated sporadically, but no one else could measure up to Liz’s mother, Chloe TreMellyn, whom her father had met at a party in Manhattan while attending Columbia Law School.
Her father said, “Liz, I’d like to introduce you to Charlotte. She and I work together at the courthouse.”
Charlotte stood and extended her hand. Liz considered herself tall at five-foot-eight, but the woman was at least five-ten.
Liz gave her a firm handshake. “Nice to meet you. I hope my father invited you to the Spring Fling festivities at the emporium tomorrow?” She could tell by the way Charlotte dressed, she might love to purchase something from Sirens by the Sea.
Before Charlotte could answer, they heard a banging coming from the direction of her father’s office in the adjoining room.
“I’ll get it,” Liz said. She went into her father’s office and opened the door. Lightning illuminated the Wicked Witch of the West. A drenched Regina pushed against the door and charged into the office. She shoved Liz out of the way and stood in the middle of the room, then pointed at Liz, making a snarling motion with her top lip, exposing perfect teeth. “My recently purchased Mikimoto seventy-thousand-dollar Hyacinthia necklace is missing. Your ‘auntie’ said you were the last one in my room!”
Fenton and Charlotte rushed in from the apartment. “My daughter is not a thief,” Fenton said. “Remain calm. Tell us where you last saw the necklace.”
Regina’s wet hair was separated into snakelike clumps, and she glanced wildly around the room like an unhinged Medusa. She wore a red and white geometric print wrap dress with a plunging neckline that appeared Saran-Wrapped to her body from the rain.
“Why don’t you have a seat?” Charlotte offered.
One of Regina’s hair extensions fell to the floor with a splat. As she reached to pick it up, she exclaimed, “Who the hell are you! I don’t want to sit. I want my necklace!”
“I’m Agent Pearson from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department.”
Liz was stunned.
“Well, then, arrest that girl,” Regina said, pointing to Liz. “She probably wanted to get even with me because I made a helpful suggestion about her unsightly scar.”
Unsightly! “How dare you!” Liz shouted. “I didn’t touch your necklace!”
Aunt Amelia burst in from her nephew’s apartment. “Am I too late? I didn’t mean to imply that Liz took your item.”
“Item!” Regina screeched. “It’s not just an item!”
Aunt Amelia sat in the chair offered by her nephew. “I just meant that Liz might have seen it when she was cleaning. Maybe you misplaced it?”
“I didn’t misplace anything,” Regina spat out.
David Worth materialized in the doorway, holding a half-open umbrella, panting and out of breath. “Regina, I found it. It was under the bed.” He closed the umbrella, hurried inside, then held up a pearl-and-diamond necklace.
Regina pointed again at Liz. “She probably put it there so she could come back later and steal it!”
David mumbled something Liz didn’t hear, and Regina turned on him with venom in her eyes. David tightened his grip on the handle of the umbrella, like he might need to use it to fend off his wife’s ire.
As Regina spun back toward Aunt Amelia on her gold sandals with four-inch heels, she lost her footing on the wet floor and nose-dived onto the tile.
Everyone held their breath as they watched her push herself up on all fours. She screamed, “My knee! My nose!”
David, Liz, and Aunt Amelia all ran to her side.
“Get that girl away from me!” Regina said, as blood gushed from her right nostril. “Call my lawyer!” Regina got into a sitting position, then leaned back against the sturdy partner’s desk.
“Mr. Holt, please call an ambulance for my wife,” David said.
“No ambulance,” Regina screeched. “I’m not going to some subpar hospital. I need my plastic surgeon, and he’s in Cannes.”
Liz took a few steps back, then stood next to the safety net she called her father. She observed Regina’s shrunken form: her plaited hair, bloodstained face, and left knee that was already three times the size of the right, and almost felt sorry for her. Almost.
Agent Pearson, aka Charlotte, grabbed a box of tissues from the top of a filing cabinet and handed it to Regina. “You should be checked out.”
“Mind your own business,” Regina growled, as she stuffed a tissue up her right nostril.
Aunt Amelia took out her cell phone from the pocket of her fuchsia and turquoise caftan and punched in some numbers. “Ryan. This is Amelia Holt. Can you please come to Fenton’s office? One of our guests has taken a nasty spill and we might need your help.” After she hung up, she said to Regina, “Don’t worry, someone from the New York City Fire Department is on his way.”
“‘Don’t worry…don’t worry,’” Regina mimicked. “I’m plenty worried, and you will be, too, when I sue your ass!”
Aunt Amelia looked like she’d been slapped.
A few minutes later, all six-foot-three of Ryan Stone came into the office. Liz felt a weird sensation in her chest. Just because Ryan aroused a feeling of disquiet in her—that didn’t mean she was attracted to him. Perhaps it had something to do with her insecurity after being everyone’s “darling” in the publishing world one minute, then finding herself wearing cement shoes at the bottom of the East River, the next. Coming home had been the right step
