Gran shook her head, indicating she had no idea what the girl was talking about, but Odelia said, “I know exactly what you mean, Janice. Thank you so much. You’ve been a tremendous help.”
“Glad I could help. Will Opal be all right? We all feel terrible about what happened.”
“She’s fine.”
And she was. That morning, Opal’s lips and face had been back to their natural proportions, and the swelling in her throat had completely disappeared, too.
Odelia rang off and shared a grim look with her grandmother. “So now what?”
“Now we tell Opal and she’ll have to take care of the tricky part.”
“Call the police, you mean, and have Suzy arrested.”
“Exactly. Our work here is done, honey.” And she raised her hand for a high five, which Odelia half-heartedly slapped.
“What? You don’t look happy.”
“It’s just that… the evidence is a little thin, don’t you think? All we have to go on are the words of Janice, and she wasn’t even a hundred percent sure.”
“Good enough for me! You heard Suzy. She’s one ambitious young lady, and can’t wait to rise up in the world of showbiz. The only person standing in her way is Opal, so she decided to move things along by bumping her off. Easy peasy. Come on. Let’s get out of here. I’m sick and tired of this Opal business.”
“And here I thought you were her biggest fan.”
“Was her biggest fan.”
They walked out of the conference room and into Opal’s office. Contrary to her custom, Opal had come in to work on a Sunday, as eager as Odelia and Vesta to find out who the culprit was.
“And? How did it go?” asked Opal as she rose from behind her desk. On top of her desk Prunella was softly snoring. Odelia’s own cats were in the studio canteen, enjoying a meal. Odelia hadn’t wanted to bring them in today, not seeing the point of dragging them out there again while they could simply stay at the house and enjoy its surrounding gardens and Helga’s cooking, but the foursome had insisted they join her. They hadn’t sat in on the interviews, as that would have been a little hard to explain.
“We got her,” said Gran triumphantly.
“Who was it?” asked Opal anxiously.
“Suzy Parker,” said Odelia. “Janice formally recognized her voice.”
“Suzy!” said Opal, and dropped back down in her ergonomic chair. “Oh, sweet Jesus. She’s the best one I’ve got.”
“Well, she did it,” said Gran. “Do you want me to get her in here? You can interrogate her yourself. I’m sure she’ll confess immediately.”
“Yeah. Yeah, that might not be such a bad idea. Anything to keep this out of the press.” She shook her head as Gran hurried out. “I don’t believe this. Suzy. I trained her myself. I thought one day she’d take over from me. She’s got it, you know, whatever it is. Bright, charismatic, beautiful, and she genuinely likes the job.”
“You were grooming her to take over?”
“Yeah, well, not officially, but she’s best suited for the job.”
The door opened and Gran walked in with Suzy, who sported a smile from ear to ear.
Opal cleared her throat and sat up a little straighter. “Suzy. Take a seat, please.”
“Did I get the job?” asked the girl, who was, indeed, very vivacious, Odelia thought.
“Well… see the thing is…”
“You’ve been caught red-handed, my dear,” said Gran, who didn’t believe in beating about the bush.
“Red-handed?” asked Suzy, turning to Gran. “What do you mean?”
“Let me handle this, Vesta,” said Opal. “Look, Suzy. There’s no easy way to say this, but—”
“You thought you could get away with it, didn’t you?” said Gran. “Couldn’t wait for Opal to retire so you decided to speed things up a little. Bump her off. Well, you were careless, young lady.”
“Vesta,” said Opal. “I’ll handle this, all right? Suzy, I’d hate to call the police and have you arrested, so if you come clean now, maybe there’s a way we can deal with this without involving the law. But you have to tell me everything.”
“I don’t understand,” said Suzy, her eyes playing ping-pong between Odelia, Gran and Opal. “What’s all this about bumping you off?”
“First you cut her brake lines, then you poisoned her coffee, then you dumped a light fixture on her head, and yesterday you tried to have her killed by Botox overdose!” said Gran, pointing an accusatory finger in the young woman’s face. “Confess, you murderous vixen! Confess!”
“Vesta!”
“I don’t—brake lines? Poisoned coffee? I have no idea what you’re talking about!” said Suzy, her smile having vanished and been replaced with a look of utter confusion.
Either she was a very good actress, Odelia thought, or she really had no idea what was going on.
“You tried to kill me, Suzy,” said Opal. “Several times. Why?”
“Yes, why did you do it—confess!” Gran cried.
“I didn’t do it!” said Suzy. “I didn’t try to kill you. I never came near your car, I never poisoned any coffee, and I have no idea what you mean with death by Botox!”
“Oh, bullshit,” said Gran, and gestured to Odelia. “Play the recording, Odelia. Play it!”
And Odelia played it.
“That’s me,” said Suzy. “That’s my audition tape.”
“Your voice was formally recognized as belonging to the woman who phoned my beauty salon yesterday,” said Opal, “instructing them to administer a Botox dose that could have been fatal.”
“You phoned the salon!” said Gran. “You did that! Not smart, young lady! Not smart at all!”
“But I never called anyone! Whoever called the salon, it wasn’t me.”
“Suzy Parker,” said Opal in her best authoritative voice. “If you don’t confess now, there’s nothing more I can do for you. I’ll have to hand this matter to the police.”
“But I promise you, Opal,” said Suzy, on the verge of tears now. “It wasn’t me!”
“Oh, playing coy now, are we?” said Gran. “You weren’t so coy when you dumped that cyanide into Opal’s coffee, were you?”
“I never came near Opal’s coffee!”
“That’s probably true,” said Opal with a frown. “I was poisoned at the house, and Suzy has only been at the house once, to deliver some documents.”
“She could have snuck in,” said Gran. “Not hard to do. Not hard at all.”
“Unlikely,” said Opal, shaking her head. “I have pretty good security. If she’d tried to sneak in, she would have been caught.”
“See!” said Suzy. “I didn’t do it, Opal. I swear to God!”
“Okay, fine,” said Opal. “I believe you. But then who did?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t.”
“You’re not going to let her off the hook that easily, are you?” asked Gran, sounding disappointed. “She did it!”
Opal seemed to be of two minds about Suzy, and to be fair, Odelia couldn’t blame her. It was hard to see in Suzy a hardened killer. Frankly she didn’t think she did it, either.
“Haven’t you noticed anything out of the ordinary lately?” asked Opal. “Someone saying something weird, acting suspicious?”
Suzy was shaking her head. “Nothing. We all love you here, Opal. We adore you. We wouldn’t do anything to harm you. None of us.”
“Well, someone did,” said Opal, “and if it wasn’t you, it was one of your colleagues.”
“I vouch for them,” said Suzy, lifting her chin. “I vouch for each and every one of them.”
“Oh, hell,” said Opal, leaning back. “This is a nightmare.”
Just then, her phone sang out a tune, and she picked it up. She listened for a moment, then her eyes widened and she put the phone on speaker. “Can you say that again?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“I said, I have your friend Marilyn,” a metallic voice spoke. “And if you want to see her alive again, you will come to Bluff Point at midnight, with a million dollars in cash. Alone. No cops.”