“You mean Olivia?” I asked.
She looked at me and the smile slowly slipped from her face. “What can I do for you two today? Did you ever contact one of those businesses that I gave you a card for?”
“Not yet. It’s been crazy busy at the candy store, and I haven’t had the chance. Those are lovely flowers. Did someone send them to you?”
She glanced at the arrangement on the credenza. “No, I bought them for myself. To spruce up my new cubicle. Aren’t they pretty? I love everything fall. I guess I’ve told you that.”
“They sure are. Aren’t they the same arrangement that was sent to Olivia the day before she was murdered?” I asked sweetly.
She swallowed. “I don’t know. Are they? I can’t remember what they looked like.”
“I bet you do remember what they look like,” Christy said, lowering her voice. “Because you had them sent to her so you could pretend she had a secret admirer and maybe that secret admirer had killed her.”
“You were no admirer of hers, were you, Carla?” I asked.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I’m going to have to ask you both to leave. I’ve got a lot of work to get done today.”
“Why?” Christy asked. “We’re just here congratulating you on your new promotion. A promotion that was made possible because of Olivia’s death. And for your information, John was not fired. He was laid off due to slow sales.”
Carla looked uncomfortable and glanced out her cubicle doorway. “I must have made a mistake. I think I mentioned he may have been laid off, didn’t I, Mia?”
“How could you kill her like that? Did you look into her eyes when you did it?” Christy asked.
Carla’s face turned red, and her jaw clenched tightly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You need to leave. Now.”
Christy looked at me. “I don’t feel like leaving. Do you?”
“No, but I do feel like calling Ethan. I bet he’ll want to have a nice long talk with you, Carla.” I held up my cell phone for her to see.
“Get out!” she shouted, getting to her feet. The buzz of voices in the office stopped at her outburst. “Get out of here, right now!”
“But why?” Christy asked.
“Carla, is there a problem?” a woman asked, stepping to the cubicle doorway. She was older, with short curly blond hair and wore a business suit. I wondered if it was her boss.
“Mrs. Owens, these ladies need to leave. I already told Mia that we didn’t do business directly with small business owners.” Carla was breathing harder than she should have been if we had been having a nice, normal conversation. The words almost came out in gasps.
The woman looked at Carla, puzzled. Then she looked at me. “Perhaps you should leave.”
Christy and I stood to our feet. “Thank you for your time, Carla,” I said, and we headed for the door. I had Ethan on speed dial before we got to the sidewalk.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Poor Olivia,” I said.
“It’s sad, isn’t it?” Christy asked.
“Yes. I even feel sad for Carla.”
“What? Why?” she asked, turning to me.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. She took Olivia’s life and by doing that, she threw her own life away. She’ll be in prison for a very long time. It’s just sad all the way around.”
“I’m not going to be sad about Carla throwing her own life away. She had the ability to choose not to do it, but she did it anyway. She deserves what she gets.”
“I know, she does,” I agreed and sighed. We were sitting on my front step, staring up at the full moon. There was a slight chill in the air, and it felt good. I couldn’t wait until the weather got colder so I could wear sweaters and boots and be comfortable in them.
Headlights appeared, coming up the street, and they turned into Ethan’s driveway.
“Look who’s home,” Christy said. “I should be mad at him, but I guess I won’t be.”
“He would never be unkind to you,” I pointed out.
Ethan got out of his truck and walked across the street, his hands in his pockets. “Hey.”
“Hey,” we both answered him.
“Is there room on that step for one more?”
“Maybe,” I said. We both scooted over for him.
He sat down next to me. “So,” he said, but didn’t continue.
“So, what did Carla say about it all?” I asked.
“She was jealous of Olivia. Jealousy is an ugly thing.”
I glanced at him. “Did she say why she was jealous?”
“Olivia was hired on and she had a real knack for sales. Carla thought Olivia made her look bad to their bosses, and she was sure Olivia was talking to them about her behind her back. She resented being made the receptionist when she had seniority.”
I sighed. “Why didn’t she just get another job? Seems like that would be easier than killing a coworker she didn’t like.”
He chuckled. “It sure would have made things easier. I know Olivia would have appreciated it.”
“And just like that, she killed her?” Christy asked.
“Yes, but first she got thrown out of her cubicle when Olivia got a promotion, and that humiliated her. Their other coworkers teased her about the new girl getting her demoted. I guess the environment in that office was pretty ugly and she couldn’t take it, so she killed her, thereby eliminating her problem.”
I shook my head. “Why were they at work on a Saturday?”
“Olivia had work to do, but Carla wasn’t supposed to be there. She knocked on the locked door and Olivia let her in under the guise of having left her purse behind at the office the day before,” Ethan said.
“And so she killed her,” I said. “It
