Euphoria Lane (27 page)

“I forgot to tell you—the guys arrested the bookie. Turns out he had an outstanding warrant. He won’t be digging up dirt on anyone as long as he’s in jail. That means Harry isn’t going to find out anything about my undercover work until the job is done.”

Andi felt a wave of relief rush over her. “Anything new on the reverend?”

“Sorry, no. The evidence keeps pointing to him.”

Andi checked her watch. “It’s after three. I guess you want to go to bed.”

“I’m not totally exhausted,” Jessie answered. “I wouldn’t mind watching TV with you until I pass out. If you’ll make hot chocolate and bring out a plate of those sugar cookies, I’ll change out of this ridiculous outfit.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Andi shuffled toward the kitchen.

“Do you have any lotion?” Jessie asked, rubbing her elbow. “I’m as dry as the Sahara.”

“Under the sink in my bathroom.”

“Thanks.”

Andi opened the kitchen cupboard and found two dark-blue ceramic mugs. She filled them both with water and placed them inside the microwave.

“Andi!” Jessie’s voice, coming from a back room, sounded terse.

“What did Harry do now?” Rage started to build in her gut. If he left another violation letter already she was going to . . .

“Grab a knife from the drawer and stay put.”

What?

“Grab a what?”

“You heard me. Grab a knife and stay put!” There was no mistaking that the barked order came from Jessie the police officer, not Jessie the sister wanting her hot chocolate.

Andi silently slid open the drawer and selected the biggest butcher knife she could find. Touching the weapon brought images from slasher flicks to mind. Listening intently, she heard her sister opening and shutting doors in the bedrooms. Not knowing whether she should speak, she stood, leaning against a counter, holding the knife, blade out, in front of her body.

Please don’t let anything bad happen.

She repeated the half plea, half prayer over and over again.

After what seemed like an eternity, her sister emerged from the bedroom holding the backup pistol she kept in her dresser. “It’s clear,” Jessie reported flatly. “Whoever was here is gone now. You can put the knife away.”

“Someone was here?” Andi squeezed the handle of the butcher knife.

Jessie gently took the weapon away with her free hand. “It’s okay. But you need to come take a look.”

Andi followed her sister into the master bathroom. A message had been left in red lipstick on the mirror. “I told you to stop. You better watch your back,” she read, then dragged in a much-needed breath. Searching the area for signs of Tess, she felt faint. “That woman was in our home, in my bathroom.”

For some inexplicable reason, she was glad she had cleaned the tub that morning. She assumed the reasoning fell along the lines of making sure you had clean underwear on in case you ever had an automobile accident. Not that her granny panties would stay clean if she were ever in a head-on collision.

Was there a saying about making sure your house was clean in case you were burglarized or threatened with lipstick on the bathroom mirror?

Knowing she might be losing her grip on sanity, she turned to her sister. “How did Tess get in?”

“I don’t know, but we’re getting an alarm tomorrow.” Jessie kept the gun in her hand at her side. “And you’re
assuming
it was Tess. You stopped working for her husband and she would have no way of knowing Dad is working for me. I told him to stay away from our condo until this is over. I don’t want anyone connecting the dots.”

“Who else could it be? Reverend Nichols is in jail. I don’t understand why she thinks I’m still working the case. I haven’t spoken to her husband since . . .”

When was it?

She thought back to the board meeting. She hadn’t said anything to him there. Earlier, she saw him in front of Harry’s condo, but she hadn’t spoken to him because she was spying on him.

“Oh, no.”

“What?”

“Meg and I were testing a listening device in front of Harry’s place and the doctor was there with the bookie. You don’t suppose Tess saw us and thinks we were spying on her husband and trying to find her, do you?”

“Where were you when you were playing with this device?”

She hesitated before answering. “Hiding behind a car.”

“Andi. . .”

“I looked around first. There wasn’t anyone around to catch us.”

“So you thought. Leave the spying to the professionals. It’s what we get paid for.”

“I am a professional. Sort of.”

Jessie rolled her eyes.

Alone in her condo the next morning, Andi double-checked her bedroom window to make sure it was shut and locked. The night before, the police determined that’s how the intruder had entered. Embarrassment had washed over her when the officer, one she hadn’t met before, said the window hadn’t been shut all the way.

Live and learn
.

Andi shuffled into the living room and slid open the blinds covering the sliding-glass door. She breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t find trash or birdseed covering her porch. The cameras Luke had installed had done little to prevent Harry’s shenanigans, but. . . She turned toward the laptop she had left on her coffee table. She hadn’t thought about the cameras the night before because the intruder, Tess, had climbed in through her window. But there was a possibility Luke’s second camera caught her sneaking toward their condo.

She sat on the sofa and booted up the computer. Within minutes, she had the monitoring site up and running. With a click of a few keys, she rewound the feed to the previous night. She pushed “Pause” when she spotted someone in a black sweat suit jogging around the back corner of the building. Strands of blonde hair protruded from the black hood that conveniently hid the jogger’s face.

Leaning back against the sofa, she studied the picture on the screen. The blonde hair had to be Tess’s. Andi spent the next few minutes watching the footage again and again. Something didn’t feel right, but she couldn’t place her finger on what bothered her.

Finally giving up, Andi closed the site and thought over the events of the past few days.

“Harry, you went too far when you locked everyone out of the community.”

She typed “AZ Homeowners’ Associations” into her search engine and waited.

Scanning the results of her search, she found, “Homeowners Associations adversely affect real estate sales.” She clicked on the link and waited. An article dated 2009 appeared. “Realtors report lower sales in locations where neighbors report problems with their homeowners’ associations.” Andi scoffed as she read. “Problems? Try an outright war.”

After printing a copy of the report, she jotted down the name of the reporter and dialed Information. She had promised her new friends she would find a way to solve their problems that did not involve vandalism. After several calls, she was given the number for the reporter’s voice mail.

“My name is Andi Stevenson, and I have a follow-up story for you.”

Luke arrived at Andi’s during his lunch break. “I brought burgers and shakes. You interested?”

“A handsome man bearing gifts.” She stepped aside. “Do enter, sir.”

Placing the food on the dining room table, he caught the scent of her strawberry shampoo. Before she could reach for her lunch, he pulled her into a full embrace. She felt so good in his arms, he couldn’t let go.

“I have thought about this moment all morning.”

“I feel much better now that you are here.” She hugged him tighter. “Tess left another threat.”

Luke pulled back. “What?”

“She broke in and wrote a message on my mirror with lipstick. She warned me to watch my back.”

“I don’t understand. I thought you stopped working for Doctor Owens.”

“It’s a long story,” she said. “Why don’t we sit down and eat? I’ll tell you every sordid detail.”

Meg rushed through the open door. “There’s a huge crowd marching down the street. I think they’re going to lynch Harry!”

“I guess Harry didn’t come home last night, or he would be dead already.” Luke joined Meg at the door. “We had better stop them before they end up in jail. That’s where Harry belongs, not the neighbors.”

If it wasn’t one thing in this place, it was another.

Andi locked up and joined them. Nearing Harry’s condo, they found a TV news van and camera crew among the growing crowd.

Roxie handed out picket signs to the neighbors while an attractive reporter interviewed her. After chanting the quotes on the signs, “Ban HOAs,” “Abolish HOAs,” “Protect Your Wallet from HOAs,” Roxie pointed to Harry’s condo. “The man who lives there is the president of our homeowners association and he’s a—”

“He has been interpreting the rules in such a way that it is nearly impossible not to break one,” Meg interjected before Roxie could finish her description of Harry. “And the board is nothing but a group of puppets who follow his lead. Instead of limiting his power, they keep adding to the rules.”

“And the board spies on everyone daily,” Andi said, wanting to add her two cents.

“No matter how hard you try to follow the rules, you can’t.” Meg took over the conversation. “They make them up. They send you violation letters for having a broom on your porch or feeding a pet outside. They’ll decide these actions are against some vague ‘no nuisance’ rule or a vague ‘keep your porch clean’ rule. After paying all of these fines, we don’t have the money to take them to court. And if we do, and lose, we have to pay their fees as well as our own. If they lose, then everyone here will just be given an extra assessment to pay their lawyer fees. It’s a lose-lose situation. At least for the neighbors.”

“What do you think should be done?” the young reporter asked, flicking her hair off her shoulder like the popular girls did in high school. The move detracted from the seriousness of the situation and, from the reporter’s pose, it was obvious she cared more about how she would look when the segment aired than their plight.

Meg took it in stride and continued to push the cause. “Homeowners’ associations should have limited power. Aside from maintaining the roads and landscaping, they should be allowed to control only the color of the buildings.”

“What about homeowners who want to fix cars in their driveways?” the reporter asked. “Many associations ban that. Are you worried that grease and car parts could detract from the overall look of your complex?”

“Communities should get together and decide on no more than a dozen rules,” Meg said. “The rest should be abolished. You don’t need to micromanage your neighbors to maintain property values.”

Impressed with her speech, Luke and Andi clapped. The rest of the crowd applauded her as well.

The reporter turned toward the camera. “Are you hoping your demonstration will persuade the state legislature to reduce the power of associations?” She handed the microphone back to Meg.

“They already have in some situations, but it isn’t enough. Instead of depending on politicians to solve the problem, communities can take it upon themselves to limit their own power at annual homeowners’ meetings.”

Andi beamed with pride. “Who would have ever thought Meg had it in her to be so articulate?”

“Not me,” Luke said.

A loud, shrill scream brought the interview to a halt.

Andi and Luke ran in the direction of the screams—toward the pond. Andi tried her best to keep up while questions raced through her mind.

Did someone fall in? How deep is the water anyway?

Spotting one of the neighbors sitting on the grass with her head down between her legs, Andi jogged to a stop. Meg, and the others following, slowed behind her.

The young woman, who couldn’t have been more than twenty, lifted her head. The greenish hue of her face warned Andi to tread carefully. She surveyed the scene, not sure she really wanted to know what had brought on the screaming. Closer to the water’s edge, the cowboy held a fishing pole with a burgundy ribbon hanging from the hook. Bent at the waist, he appeared to be studying a large object floating near the surface of the pond.

“Stay back, little lady,” he ordered.

Little lady?

Andi didn’t appreciate the title, but remained still. It didn’t take a brain surgeon to know there was something in the pond the younger woman saw and, as a result, was about to puke up her guts. Andi’s own gut told her it was a body. She hoped it wasn’t human, but she knew better.

The rest of the crowd reached the grassy area and Luke held up his hands to keep them back. “Let me take a look.” It took him less than a minute to investigate and return to her side. He rested his hand on her shoulder. “It’s Tess. You don’t want to see this. It’s much worse than Bernice.”

“Tess is dead?” Her mind had trouble accepting the news.

A murmur traveled through the crowd. The bravest, or the most curious, inched closer.

“Please stay back!” Luke held up his hands again. “She must have been in the water for more than a few days. It is not a pretty sight.”

The young woman on the grass confirmed his statement by vomiting. One of the older women pushed through the crowd to assist her by holding her hair back. A few neighbors backed away. Many stayed in place, straining their necks to get a better view of the body, but they didn’t move forward per Luke’s request.

As Andi watched the poor girl heave again, she thought about the body in the pond and what it might look like. A sudden wave of nausea overcame her, and she gripped Luke’s arm for support. “If Tess has been dead, then who—”

“Left you the threatening message?” He glanced back at the pond. “I don’t know.”

The reporter and cameraman rushed to the pond. Judging by the determined looks in their eyes, no one could stop them. Luke must have known better than to try. He placed his arm around Andi and led her away.

Andi remembered seeing a burgundy ribbon recently. “Luke, please ask Mr. Decker where he caught the ribbon attached to his hook.”

She forced herself to release the grip she held on Luke’s arm and immediately missed the stability his strength had offered. The realization that she had been missing him for years began to take hold. She had never wanted to face the truth before. Crossing her arms over her chest, she hugged herself for comfort while she watched Luke talk to the cowboy.