“You can’t really believe that. You need to look past your own ego and face facts before we lose Sacred Balance completely.”
A.J. took a deep breath and then expelled it slowly.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inh-
“Okay. You’ve made your pitch and I’ve heard you out. I’m not selling Sacred Balance to Mara Allen or anyone else. This subject is now closed.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Lily flared. “The choice isn’t just yours. I’m willing to sell my share in Sacred Balance to Mara.” Lily’s black gaze met A.J.’s defiantly.
“You don’t have a share!” Despite her good intentions, A.J.’s voice rose. “You’re a co-manager, not a co-owner. You don’t own any part of this studio.”
“Try running it without me.”
“I would love to try running it without you!”
They glared at each other. Then Lily rose with a nasty little smile.
“Maybe you shouldn’t be so hasty, A.J. I very much doubt that you’re going to want to hang around this little town managing a yoga studio now that your boyfriend has dumped you and your mother is about to be convicted of murder.”
For a moment A.J. was so angry she wasn’t sure she could get the words out without choking on them.
“If I were you, I’d get out of my office.”
Lily’s dark eyebrows rose haughtily, but get she did. A.J. slammed the door after her. The satisfying bang shook the pictures on the wall, and the framed photograph of Diantha fell over on its face.
“Well, what were you thinking?” A.J. inquired of the photo as she propped it back on the desk.
Aunt Diantha’s serene smile had never been more enigmatic. Feeling sheepish at her loss of temper, A.J. took a few moments to regain her calm.
After all, what was the big deal? Surely, she should be used to Lily by now.
She went to the window and stared out at the pine trees and meadow. Her anger slowly subsided to be replaced by sheepish humor. Oh, if only she could phone Jake to share that line about toilets being a symptom and not the disease!
She was grinning ruefully as her door opened and Suze peeked in. She whispered, “Are you okay? We could hear you all the way in the front lobby.”
“If she ever gets knocked off, I’m going to be the prime suspect.”
“Take a number.”
They both laughed uneasily.
“Is there anything I can do?” Suze asked.
“Keep her out of my way.”
Suze nodded although they both knew that was a polite fiction. Nobody was going to prevent Lily from going where she liked and saying whatever she chose to.
When A.J. cooled down she called Jake partly because she had remembered that she had never got around to mentioning Dicky’s possible gambling debts, and she was quite sure her mother had never shared that information, and partly because-painful though it was to admit-she missed him and wanted to hear his voice.
“Hey,” he said. He sounded preoccupied but not unhappy to hear from her.
“Every time we talk I forget to mention this, but Mother told me a while back that there’s a possibility that Dicky had gambling debts. He used to bet regularly on horses, and she said he spent a lot of time in Atlantic City.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. She didn’t know for certain that he ever had any problems meeting payments or anything like that, but…”
Jake waited for her to finish, and when she didn’t he said, “Okay. Unfortunately it’s not a whole lot to go on. Any idea where in Atlantic City he used to place his bets?”
“I don’t know. She didn’t know. She didn’t go on those trips. She tries to avoid casinos and that kind of environment.”
Aware of Elysia’s history, Jake said, “Right. Well, it’s another rock to turn over. Maybe something slimy is waiting there.”
“And Mother remembered something else.”
He didn’t quite sigh, but he sounded wary as he said, “Which would be what?”
“A few months ago, when Mother and Dicky started up again, she said he was getting abusive phone calls from an ex-lover. A woman named Dora Beauford.”
“Why didn’t she mention that sooner?”
“She doesn’t think there’s a connection because the woman hadn’t called Dicky for a while-at least, not that she knew. I don’t know that that’s necessarily true. Dora might have stopped calling because he blocked her phone calls. The fact that Mother wasn’t aware of her doesn’t necessarily mean Dora wasn’t still stalking him.”
“Dora Beauford you said?”
“Right.”
“I’ll check it out.”
After a hesitation, A.J. asked, “How’s it going?”
“It’s going. Look, A.J., I’m in the middle of something. I’ll give you a call later, okay?”
“Of course!” she said quickly.
She clicked her cell shut and put her face in her hands.
The intercom buzzed.
“Miz Alexander,” Emma announced.
Glad for any distraction from her crumbling personal life, A.J. snatched the phone up. “Mother?”
“I found her!” Elysia said triumphantly.
“Found who?”
“Peggy Graham’s sister.”
“I didn’t know you were looking for her.”
“Of course I was looking for her. Who else would know whether Peggy killed herself?”
“How did you find her?” A.J. questioned uneasily.
“Oh, you know,” Elysia said airily. “The thing is, pumpkin, she’s agreed to meet with us this afternoon.”
“Meet with us?”
“Who else?”
“The police, for one.”
“Well, we should find out whether she has anything to say before we turn her over to the law, don’t you think?”
Mindful of Lily’s accusations-and Jake’s warnings-A.J. said, “It doesn’t work that way. I think maybe we should leave this to Jake.”
“It’s always worked this way for us in the past.”
“Mother, you make it sound as though we ran some kind of formal criminal investigation agency. The truth is, we’ve just poked around in other people’s business until they got fed up and reacted-sometimes, if you’ll recall-violently.”
Elysia scoffed at this reminder. “What does it matter what the catalyst for truth is?”
“It matters if we blow Jake’s case or get ourselves killed.”
“I. See.” Could there be two more ominous words in the English language?
“I just think-”
“ ‘Sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.’ ” Elysia interrupted with one of her favorite quotes from Shakespeare-one that A.J. hadn’t heard for a few years, and would have been happy to have kept it so.
“Mother.”
“Say no more. If you’re going to abandon me in my hour of need, I shall have to manage on my own. Fortunately I still remember a trick or two from my days on 221B Baker Street.”
A.J. groaned. Lily was going to love this. “What time is this meeting?”
“I’ll pick you up at the studio just after three,” Elysia said immediately, cheerfully.
Seventeen
“Peg was headstrong. Didn’t like not getting her way.”
A.J. and Elysia were sitting in Mart Crowley’s large, sunny garden sipping iced tea.
The garden was decorated with ball-sized Easter eggs and resin lambs and ducks. A giant blue inflatable bunny was lying like a puddle on the lawn.
Elysia inquired, “Was there any reason to suspect your sister’s death was not suicide?”
Mart’s jaw tightened. “Plenty. Peg was not the kind of person to take her own life. And I never knew her to take a sleeping pill. She was positive, forceful. Does that sound like someone who relied on sleeping pills or would kill herself?”
“Was she in ill health by any chance?”
“Nope. Strong as an ox.”
“She didn’t leave a note or anything like that?”
“No.” Mart added grudgingly, “But even if she did kill herself, she wouldn’t have left a note. Peggy had a real thing about her privacy. She wouldn’t have wanted any publicity.”