Just Deserts in Las Vegas Read online

  “I’ll call you, yeah?” Ian said to Sally.

  She covered up the end of the phone again. “If I ever get off the line again, yeah. Talk to you later, Ian. Bye, Tiffany.”

  We showed ourselves out, while Sally continued to hold the phone a foot or so away from her head to keep Pepper’s wails from permanently damaging her hearing.

  “What do you think’s up with Pepper?” I asked Ian when we were safely outside.

  “Don’t know. Maybe she lost a follower on one of her influencer accounts or something.”

  I smirked. “Yeah. I guess if it’s anything that affects the case we’ll hear before too long.”

  And as it turned out, I was right.

  When we met up with Rachel and Hunter they were sitting beside each other at the same table as that morning, both of them trying hard to keep smiles off their faces. They were holding hands and had an expectant look on their face as we approached. I was suspicious immediately.

  “Hi,” I said as I sat down. “So what’s the news?”

  “Well—” Rachel started

  “The thing—” Hunter said at the same time.

  They both stopped, glanced at each other, and laughed.

  “Go ahead, babe,” Hunter said, nudging Rachel with his shoulder.

  “Thanks, babe. The thing is… I mean, what’s happened, is that…” Rachel closed her mouth again and frowned before trying again. This time, she spoke with precision and confidence. “Mrs. Watson left Silver Bend to us in her will.”

  “What?” Ian and I said simultaneously.

  “You’re not going to believe this, but do you remember when she accused me of stealing? And I got upset and stormed out?”

  “Yep.”

  “It turns out she knew I wasn’t stealing back then. She found out. She was trying to play some kind of prank on me, or just tease me a bit. But she left a note in with the will, saying really nice things about me. About how I was a good influence on her granddaughter, and that she’d mistreated me when she fired me from her ice cream shop back in high school. It said that Hunter and I would know what to do with Silver Bend better than anyone else, and she knew we could make it a success. Of course she left most of her money to Pepper and her dad, but she left the ghost town to us. Can you believe it?”

  “Wow,” Ian said, doing a good impression of disbelief. “And you had no idea about it?”

  “Nope,” Hunter said, shaking his head. “We had no idea! But we’re over the moon, aren’t we, babe?”

  “We are, babe. With Silver Bend, we’ll be able to retire even earlier! It’ll be the perfect lifestyle business while we raise our family. And imagine how good it’ll be for the kids, all that fresh air and nature, none of the crime of the city.”

  I hoped their future kids had a penchant for playing with rattlesnakes and coyotes, because there wasn’t a heck of a lot else out there to play with.

  “She must have written the will quite recently,” I said.

  Rachel shrugged. “Yeah, it was changed just a couple of weeks back.”

  Ian tapped my knee under the table. “Pepper.”

  He was right. That explained Pepper’s wailing on the phone to Sally.

  “Does Pepper know?”

  Rachel and Hunter looked at each other.

  “Yes. She’s… not happy. She thought it was going to be left to her and her dad. He wasn’t mad. But she was pretty upset.”

  It didn’t seem to me like Rachel and Pepper’s friendship was long for this world. Not unless they handed the town over to Pepper, which it didn’t sound like they had any intention of doing at all.

  Rachel and Hunter looked at each other again, and then as one they stood up.

  “We just wanted to let you know what had happened, in case it was important for your investigation,” Rachel said. “We didn’t want you to think we were keeping secrets from you, did we, babe?”

  “No, babe. That’s why we wanted to fill you in. But we’ve got to get back to work now. Thanks for meeting us.”

  Ian pulled out his phone and checked the time. “Back to work? It’s night time.”

  “Work-life balance,” Hunter said. “Isn’t that right, babe?”

  Ian and I both gave them confused looks. It looked like a supreme imbalance to me.

  “Right, babe. First we work, then we live! One more year of the grind, then Silver Bend here we come.”

  “Congratulations on the inheritance, and have a good evening.”

  “We will!” they said cheerily as they left me and Ian behind in the café.

  I switched seats so I was sitting across from Ian. “What do you think?”

  “I think now they’ve got a motive for murder.”

  “Yep. But they claim they had no idea what was in the will.”

  We sat in silence for a moment. “Pepper clearly didn’t have any idea what was in the will anyway,” I said. “I assume that’s what her screaming was about earlier. She was completely shocked.”

  “Must have been. I’ll call Sally and confirm it with her when I get home.”

  “And if Pepper really thought she was going to inherit Silver Bend, she still has her motive. And considering how upset she seems to be…”

  “You’d be upset too if you murdered your own grandmother for nothing.”

  What I really needed to know was who knew what was in the will before it was revealed. Surely that would give me the person with the best motive. Was it Rachel and Hunter, or were they genuinely taken by surprise? Had Pepper seen an older version of the will in which she was the recipient?

  “Okay, I’ve got a shift at the casino. Let’s think it over tonight. I have a feeling things are going to fall into place soon.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ian confirmed with Sally that Pepper’s telephone theatrics the day before had been her reaction to finding out that a large chunk of her expected inheritance wasn’t actually going to be hers. But I wanted to see both of their reactions, in the flesh, to the news, so the next morning we headed back to their condo. This time, we didn’t tell them we were coming in advance. I didn’t want them to prepare.

  We managed to get into the condo building without having to buzz up to Pepper’s apartment by following another resident inside through the gleaming front doors. We rode the elevator up to Pepper’s floor and walked over to the entrance to their apartment.

  Ian reached for the doorbell, but I took his wrist and lowered it. There were sounds coming from inside. It sounded an awful lot like yelling or arguing. And when you’re a detective investigating a murder, yelling and arguing are some of the best clues you can get.

  “Shh, listen.”

  “…my money! My credit card!”

  “You said you’d support me! You want to go back on that now? After I’ve dedicated my life to you?”

  “Sometimes I wish you didn’t!”

  “Don’t say that. Please, Pepper, never say that. I’m sorry. Come here.”

  The volume of the voices lowered and became inaudible. The argument was over. With a shrug, I reached out and rang the doorbell. It was a full minute before the door finally opened.

  Pepper smiled at us with red eyes.

  “Oh, hi. I didn’t know you were coming. I’ve been, umm, chopping onions.” She wiped the back of her hand across her face.

  “Can we come in a minute?”

  “I was just—”

  Ian walked inside past Pepper as if she’d already said yes, and luckily she was too polite to stop him. I quickly followed behind.

  “We won’t take up too much of your time,” I said to her.

  Inside, Dylan was sitting on the white sofa. He turned to watch us enter, a displeased expression on his face. On the other side of the room in the open-plan kitchen, I noticed a distinct lack of chopped onions on the counter.

  “What do you want?” Dylan asked in a much sterner tone than I’d ever heard him use before. The laid-back guitar player was sounding more like a bad-tempered, uptight su
it.

  “Just following up on our earlier conversations. Are you guys doing okay? It sounded like you were having a disagreement.”

  “We weren’t having a disagreement. Everything’s fine. Isn’t it, Pepper?”

  Her hands went up to her face and she began to sob.

  “No,” she said between sniffles. “It’s not fine.” Sob. “We were fighting. And everything’s going wrong.” Sob.

  I wanted to clap my hands and rub them together. Maybe the truth would finally come out now.

  “What are you fighting about?” Ian asked.

  “Nothing,” Dylan said.

  “Money,” Pepper said, earning a mean look from her fiancé.

  “Not money. It was just a stupid credit card.”

  “A credit card is money, Dylan! Someone has to pay the bill!” She turned to face me. “He took out a credit card in my name and used it.”

  “You’re blowing it out of proportion. I only did it because I needed a new guitar and—”

  “You’ve already got three guitars!”

  “Oh, it’s going to be like that, is it? After all I’ve done for you? You don’t even know the half of it, Pepper. You really don’t. The things I’ve done. Do you think Eric Clapton has just three guitars? Brian May? Huh? I’m a real musician, Pepper. Without a guitar, I’m nothing.”

  “Do you mean without four guitars?” Ian asked helpfully. Dylan gave him a nasty glare.

  “But it’s my credit! You should ask me, Dylan. I don’t mind helping you out and you know that. But you went behind my back. You betrayed my trust.”

  “You really want to do this now? With these two clowns here? Huh? Let’s talk about it later. I’ll make it up to you.”

  “Don’t mind us,” Ian said brightly.

  Pepper glanced at Dylan, and then at Ian and me.

  “What can we do for you? Will it take long?”

  “No, not long,” I said in my best professional tone of voice. “Just a couple of questions.”

  Ian and I walked farther inside the apartment, crossing the room to the dining area. I pulled out a couple of the metal chairs from the dining set, like the one Angel had stood on last time we were here. There was no sign of the whiteboard this time. I figured it had been wheeled into the bedroom. Or thrown out.

  “We heard about the will. About how Silver Bend has been left to Rachel and Hunter. Did you know that was what the document said?”

  Pepper balled up her hands into fists and then took three exaggerated deep breaths. Her face was flushed red.

  “I did not know about that, no.”

  “Were you upset?” Ian asked.

  Pepper took two more deep breaths. I got the impression that if she didn’t take them, she might simply explode.

  “I can’t believe it. I really can’t. Nanna left it to Rachel. Not me. It’s just… It’s wrong. It should be mine, shouldn’t it?”

  “Mrs. Watson got to decide who she wanted to leave it to,” Ian said.

  “But I’m her granddaughter! It should have gone to me!”

  “Do you have any idea why she might have left it to Rachel instead of you?”

  “No!” Pepper began to pace up and down. Then she froze.

  “It was your fault,” Dylan said sullenly to his partner.

  Pepper ignored him.

  “She did something dumb, didn’t you?” Dylan continued. Again, he was ignored.

  “A few weeks ago, I went to see her,” Pepper said, her face now ashen. “I… I confessed that it was me that stole the money from the cash register back in high school. It was for my channel, the confession I mean. I wanted to show my followers that honesty is the best policy.”

  “So you confessed to your Nanna and then she wrote you out of her will?” I confirmed. Horrible Nanna really was horrible.

  “I guess?” Pepper began to pace again. “I can’t believe it! She was supposed to forgive me! She did forgive me—that’s what she said. She lied! She lied about forgiving me and then gave my inheritance to Rachel! She’s not even a relative! How could she do this?”

  “Because she was a b—”

  “Dylan! Don’t you dare say that about her again! I’ve told you before.”

  “Well, she was. And this just proves it. And Rachel’s just as bad. That’s probably why your Nanna put her in the will. They were kindred spirits. Two horrible, mean people together.”

  Pepper whirled and walked over to me, grabbing me by the arm.

  “Do you think Rachel tricked my Nanna to get herself put in the will?”

  It seemed the close-knit group of friends was rapidly fraying.

  “Do you think she did?”

  “Yes,” Dylan said from the sofa.

  Pepper frowned. “No.” She sighed. “I don’t think she did. But she has no right to my inheritance! She should give it back to me. Don’t you agree?”

  “I can’t comment on that because I’m involved in investigating the case.” This was not exactly true. The truth was that I couldn’t comment without upsetting Pepper even more, and she was upset enough as it was.

  “Do you think I should sue her?”

  “Yes!” Dylan called from the sofa. They’d clearly discussed this already. Rachel ignored Dylan and focused on me.

  “I always find it’s best to avoid lawyers where possible,” I said evasively.

  “Makes sense.” Rachel put her hands against her cheeks and made a sound somewhere between a growl and a moan. It was obvious this whole situation, from the death of her grandmother to being cut out from a part of the will, was having a terrible effect on her.

  “ Are you guys finally going to leave us alone now? Have you finished gloating about the will? Finished upsetting us?” Dylan asked.

  “Yes, thank you,” Ian said to Dylan, giving him a toothy smile as he did so. “Come on, Tiffany. Let’s carry on our investigation elsewhere.”

  “Thanks for your time, Pepper, Dylan.”

  Pepper just nodded at me, her mouth a tight line. She was holding back more tears and was perhaps on the verge of a full meltdown. While I did feel sorry for her, I wanted to leave before it happened.

  “Take care of yourself, Pepper.” I squeezed her shoulders and then turned to leave with Ian.

  “Don’t hurry back!” Dylan called after us as we exited.

  When we’d made it back downstairs again, we regrouped outside the front door of the building to compare notes.

  “Dylan seems nastier than I remember,” I said.

  “I know! And he’s so angry. About as angry as you’d expect if he’d killed Horrible Nanna for an inheritance and then found out it was going to someone else.”

  “Exactly what I was thinking.”

  Before we could get any further in our analysis, my phone buzzed. It was a message from Carl Watson, asking me to call him.

  “I better do it now.”

  Ian leaned up against the wall of the building while I waited for the call to connect.

  Carl answered the phone quickly, and in less than a minute he’d told me all he had to say and hung up the phone. I stuck it back into my bag.

  “What’s up?” Ian bounced himself forward off the wall.

  “Looks like we’re going back to Silver Bend tomorrow. Carl wants us to go.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. He wants to have a memorial for his mother. He says he can’t think of a better place for it. They had the funeral already, but he wants to scatter the ashes. And he wants us all there—everyone who stayed at Silver Bend. He said he okayed it with Rachel already.”

  “I’m not sure I want to go back there now,” Ian said, shaking his head in worry. “Not after what happened, and not now everyone’s mad at each other.”

  “I don’t think we have a choice. We’re still investigating, and this is going to be our best chance to watch everyone outside of formal interviews.”

  “Ugh,” Ian said in resignation. “Fine.”

  And that’s what I was hoping for. Fine wou
ld be about as good as you could expect considering we were going there to memorialize a dead woman, with the murderer almost certainly in attendance. In fact, fine was probably being very optimistic, all things considered.

  “Come on. Let’s go pack.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  We arrived back at Silver Bend for the fourth time in a week, in our customary cloud of dust. As I exited the vehicle, once again I was struck by just how quiet it was.

  Until my passengers emerged from the vehicle, that is.

  I’d driven Nanna—my Nanna, Nice Nanna, and now the only Nanna—as well as Ian, Sally, Brad, and Bridget. It hadn’t been my idea to bring Brad, but when we’d turned up at Sally’s, there he was, waiting for us with a stupid grin on his face.

  “Oh yeah, back in the ghost town! Man, we had some good times here, didn’t we?”

  “No,” Ian and I said emphatically.

  “What?” Brad raised his hands and put a confused-hurt look on his dopey face. “I mean before Pepper’s Nanna died. You can’t tell me you didn’t have fun. Let’s try and recapture that, huh? Should I get my bongos out, or save them for later?” Brad ran his eyes over us as if trying to gauge the mood. “I guess we’ll save them for later.”

  Sally and Nanna were both wearing dark dresses. Ian and I were wearing black jeans, and I’d matched them with a navy blue blouse, while Ian had on a black shirt that contrasted with the silver buckle of his belt and clasp of his bolo tie.

  Brad was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and cutoff jeans. Not exactly memorial appropriate, but I didn’t say that to him, keeping my judgment to myself. I was sure Nanna was thinking the same thing too. I could tell.

  Bridget hopped out of the car and bounded over to me, bouncing around in excitement.

  “Remember this place, girl?”

  Woof! I was pretty sure that meant, Of course I remember. It was only a week ago How could I possibly have forgotten? Doggy language is a lot more concise than English.

  “Nanna? You can go back into the cabin and rest if you like. Carl said that Abner should have unlocked them all, and to keep things easy we should stay in the same ones as last time. He’ll take one of the empty ones. Ian, you can come with me. We’re going to check something out.”