31906844db5c02010017a90f3f2ca805

“Daddy uses his private jet,” said Fae, practically sticking out her tongue at Gran. “And private jets can smuggle as many drugs around the country as they want.”

“I don’t think so,” said Odelia. “They have to go through customs just like passengers on commercial airlines. Though the checks might be more cursory for a star like Jeb.”

“I should never have invited Jeb here,” said Helena.

“Mom!”

“But he was feeling so down after things ended with Camilla that I thought he needed a change of scene. Plus, I hoped that somehow, maybe, I could ‘heal’ him, you know.” She laughed a curt laugh. “As if anyone has ever been able to change Jeb.”

“Why change him? He’s perfect the way he is,” said Fae.

Helena directed a sad look at her daughter and touched her hair, with Fae brushing her hand away. Helena clearly wasn’t happy that her drug-abusing ex-partner had decided to continue his self-destructive lifestyle at the lodge, setting a terrible example for Fae.

“So how long had Jeb been down here?” asked Odelia.

“Um, two months or so? He had to get out of LA, and wanted to be close to Fae. I wouldn’t let him stay at the house, though, because of the drugging and the boozing.”

“And the women,” Fae said softly.

Her mother nodded.

“If he was here two months he must have had a local dealer,” said Gran. “He wasn’t slipping a bag of coke through security and he wasn’t going to go without for two whole months, so we need to find his dealer, honey,” she added, tapping Odelia’s chest.

“You know what I think?” said Fae suddenly. “I think Camilla killed herself and then made it look like Dad did it.”

“That’s ridiculous, honey,” said her mother. “For one thing, Camilla would never kill herself. She wasn’t the type.”

“She would,” said Fae, nodding empathically. “To get back at Dad she would have done anything.” She turned to Odelia. “Are you sure that body in the morgue is Camilla’s? She could have used a lookalike, or found a dead body in the graveyard and dug it up.”

“It really is Camilla,” Odelia said. Though she liked Fae’s out-of-the-box thinking.

Fae deflated a little, but insisted stubbornly,“You should definitely look into this. She could have cut herself, then dribbled her blood all over Dad, placed the knife next to him, then taken some sleeping pills and accidentally taken too many.”

“Oh, honey,” said Helena, shaking her head.

“No, but listen! Maybe she didn’t mean to die, only to look so banged up Daddy would have gone to prison for a long time. Only she miscalculated and died—which was just what she deserved.”

“Fae,” said Helena sharply. “I never liked Camilla, but she didn’t deserve to die.”

Fae shrugged and crossed her arms.“Just a theory. You are going to check it out, though, aren’t you, Odelia?”

Odelia assured her she would. Though if there had been sleeping pills in Camilla’s stomach the coroner would have definitely found them.

“Chief Alec told me cause of death was stab wounds, sweetie,” said Helena. “Not sleeping pills. And a woman as self-absorbed as Camilla would never stab herself, not even to frame an ex-husband she hated.”

“I guess not,” said Fae, moping a little. It’s never fun to have your brilliant ideas shot down, especially when you’re trying to save your beloved father from life in prison.

“Trust me,” said Gran now, patting the young woman on the arm. “We’re going to catch this killer and we’re going to make sure he fries in the chair.”

“There is no death penalty in the state of New York,” said Fae with a little grin. “But I like your attitude, old lady. So points for effort.”

“Old lady my foot,” grumbled Gran as they walked away. “How old does she think I am? A hundred?”

“She’s young, Gran,” said Odelia. “Young people think that anyone over forty is ancient. Heck, I am probably an old lady to her, and so is her mom.”

“Impertinence,” Gran said. “If she were my daughter I’d have knocked some sense into her a long time ago.”

“She’s a teenager who’s scared her daddy will go to jail for the rest of his life.”

“She’s a spoiled brat is what she is.” Then she relented. “She does love her daddy though, which kinda got to me when I saw the two of them together in there.”

It had gotten to Odelia, too.“Are you sure we can pull this off?”

“Sure I’m sure. All we need to do is follow the clues and we’ll find the bastard that did this.”

“Unless you’re right and Jeb really did kill his ex-wife in a drug-induced frenzy.”

Gran shrugged her bony shoulders.“I may have changed my mind on that.”

“Oh, you have, have you? And why is that?”

“Like I said, the kid got to me. Besides, you have to trust your gut. And my gut is telling me he didn’t do it. It’s also telling me I’m starving, so are you going to drive me home now or what?”

“Okay, fine, we’re going,” she said, aiming her key fob at her pickup and listening for the telltale beep beep. “Talk about a spoiled brat,” she muttered under her breath.

“I heard that!”

“Good. I wanted you to,” she said as she got in.

“You better show some respect for your elders, young lady, or else.”