Copy Cap Murder: A Hat Shop Mystery Part 6

"How did you know that?" I asked.

"Ava told us," Andre said. He and Nick exchanged a look and I could tell that Ava had told them quite a lot.

"Ava was pretty odd about the whole thing, don't you think?" I asked.

"She's very fragile," Andre said.

"She has a nervous condition," Nick said.

Viv poured the tea for everyone and we all fussed with our cups until we had them loaded just right. I tend to go heavy on the milk at night, thinking it helps me sleep.

"You like Ava," I said to Nick and Andre.

As one, they nodded in agreement.

"She was very gracious about showing her art collection to us," Andre said.

"But she looked utterly unsurprised when Win's body rolled out from under the tarp," I said. "Don't you find that odd?"

I snagged the black currant tart and bit into it. Tarts always make things better. It's a fact.

"I thought it was odd," Fee said. "She looked as stiff as a mannequin, yeah?"

"It's her medication," Nick said. Andre hushed him but Nick shook him off. "We may as well tell them-if they think she had something to do with it, others will, too, and the police are bound to make it public."

"Fine," Andre said. He took a long sip of his tea but he was clearly unhappy about sharing what they knew.

"Ava has a prescription pill problem," Nick said.

"And you know this how?" I asked.

"She told us in confidence," Andre said. "Note that I am stressing in confidence."

"Noted," Viv said. "Do you think the medication could make her dangerous?"

"No," Nick said. "She's taking an opioid a.n.a.lgesic. It tends to blank emotions, not cause mood swings or violence."

"Why did she confide in you two?" I asked. They gave me a hurt look and I added, "I only meant that she just met you and that's pretty personal stuff."

"When she found out I was in the medical profession-" Nick began but Fee interrupted.

"You're a dentist," she said. "Did she know you were a dentist?"

Nick heaved a sigh and shoved chocolate roll in his mouth. Andre patted his arm.

"It's okay," he said. "You are a very good dentist. It was all a misunderstanding. I called him 'Doc' and she a.s.sumed, well, it was just too embarra.s.sing to correct her especially after she a.s.sumed Nick could give her a prescription."

"Oh, that would be awkward," Viv said.

"We merely prevaricated so as to avoid any social unpleasantness," Nick said.

"Meaning you let her think you were a doctor but one who didn't write prescriptions," I said. "Surgeon?"

"Neuro," Nick said. "I figured it's still the head. I told her I'd refer her to one of my colleagues."

Nick looked so sheepish, I had to smile. "You know I love you just the way you are, don't you?"

He actually blushed a deeper shade of pink and looked a little choked up. Viv and Fee added their praise on top of mine and Nick lost it. He blew his nose into a napkin and waved at us to stop. I glanced at Andre, who was grinning at his mate.

"He's adorable when he's fl.u.s.tered, isn't he?" he asked me.

I nodded and then snagged the last black currant tart while no one was looking.

It was clear that Nick and Andre didn't think Ava had anything to do with Win's death. I could let it go then, although I still found her demeanor at the sight of Win's body very odd.

"What about Tuesday Blount?" I asked.

It was as if I'd hit them all with a freeze ray. Nick paused with his cup halfway to his lips, Fee stopped chewing her chocolate roll, Viv wrapped her hands around the cozy on the teapot as if to warm them, and Andre hugged his middle as if trying to self-soothe.

Nick spoke first. "We have never met her. Right, Andre?"

"Nope never," he said.

I looked at the two of them. "But you have heard of her."

They looked at each other with mild expressions of panic. "Maybe once or twice in pa.s.sing," Andre said.

"Pa.s.sing what?" I asked.

"Harrison might have mentioned her on one of our boys' nights out," Nick said. He was studying the inside of his cup as if reading the tea leaves.

"Oh, really?" I asked.

"Harrison was bevvied," Andre said. "So we didn't take what he said too seriously."

"What did he say?" I asked.

"Nothing much," Nick said. "Just that he really thought hewasgoingtomarryher."

I stared at him for a full minute. It took me that long to untangle his word jumble. "Marry her?" I whipped around to look at Viv. "Is that true?"

She gave me the sympathetic look a person gives when they're about to tell you something you don't want to hear like your dog died, you lost your job, or the man you're crus.h.i.+ng on almost married the vilest woman in existence. I am not exaggerating.

"He was smitten with her," Viv said. She sighed. She looked like she didn't want to say any more but was forcing herself because she knew I would keep badgering her. "He did tell me he was going to ask her to marry him, but a few days later she moved out of their flat and he never mentioned her again."

"They lived together?" I asked. There was no other way to interpret Viv's words, but I was still trying to find a different angle. I'm tenacious like that.

"Yes," Viv said. "It seemed quite serious at the time."

I was reeling. It was one thing for Tuesday to announce that they had been a thing and that she planned to get him back. I had a.s.sumed they had just dated. But they had lived together, cohabited, shared a bathroom, and Harrison had almost proposed to her! I felt like I was going to have a seizure.

"He never said," I stammered.

"That's a male heartbreak for you, they don't talk about it," Fee said. I scowled at her and she shrugged. "Sorry but I've seen it with my older brothers. It's not pretty."

"On that happy note, I think it's time for us to go," Nick said to Andre. "I have an early morning."

They both finished their tea and I walked them to the front door while Viv and Fee headed upstairs. We exchanged hugs and I promised to let them know as soon as I heard anything from Harrison or Alistair.

They stepped out into the cold night, but before I closed the door, Andre grabbed my hand and said, "He's going to be all right."

"Oh, I know," I lied.

He gave me a look that told me he knew I was bluffing and then he said, "This might be a good time to let him know you care about him, a fellow facing an arrest for murder could probably use the lift."

"But I don't-" I began but Nick interrupted me.

"Oh, please, Scarlett," he said. "This is us, your first mates upon arriving in Notting Hill. We know you, pet, and you fancy the pants off Harrison Wentworth."

"It just seems that way because I haven't been dating anyone," I said. "Really, we're just friends."

Nick and Andre exchanged a look and then shook their heads.

"Deny, deny, deny," Nick said. "It still won't make it not so."

"Ugh." I banged my head on the door frame, yes, intentionally. "Good night, you two, I'll call you tomorrow if there's any news."

Andre blew me an air kiss and the two of them walked down the street to the flat above their studio.

I watched them walk arm in arm and I envied their relations.h.i.+p. The love and affection that they shared were certainly inspiring. It made me long for, well, that special sort of closeness. That feeling of coming home just because I'd found my soul mate.

Naturally, my thoughts flitted back to Harrison. What was happening to him right now? Was he okay? Why hadn't he or Alistair texted us to let us know what was going on? And how did I feel about Tuesday? Okay, that part was easy. I hadn't liked her before and now I was quite sure I loathed her.

I locked the door and checked the downstairs before heading up. Fee was spending the night at our place in our guest bedroom since she had a fitting with a client early in the morning. I found them sitting at the counter in the kitchen of our flat.

"I'm knackered," Fee said. She paused to let out a jaw-popping yawn. "G'night, girls."

She waved to us as she headed upstairs to the room across from mine. Viv stayed seated, eating salted caramel gelato right out of the carton. She handed me a spoon.

"On top of tea and tarts?" I asked.

"Extreme circ.u.mstances," she said.

I tucked into the frozen treat. I thought about Harry and wondered if he was still at the station. Then I remembered his desire to be a spy. I'll bet he wouldn't have ended up in this mess if he had become a spy. I wished I could call him and tell him that. I had the feeling it would make him laugh.

I glanced at Viv. It hit me, like it does sometimes, that she was married. She had a husband somewhere out there in the great big world. Why wouldn't she tell me about him? It was maddening. Then I had a crazy thought. Maybe she couldn't talk about him, maybe she was sworn to secrecy.

"He's a spy, isn't he?" I asked. "Like MI5 or MI6 or CIA or one of those top secret things."

"Who are you talking about?" she asked. She looked at me like I was mental, not as unusual a look as you would think coming from her.

I stared at her and she heaved a huge sigh and said, "The husband thing again?"

"Just tell me who he is," I pleaded.

"No," she said. Just like that. Who gets away with that? Viv, that's who, I could never get away with a one-word answer. Maybe that says something bad about me, I'm not sure.

"Fine." I nodded in resignation and tucked my spoon into the creamy dessert. We were silent for a moment.

"I don't think I'm going to sleep tonight until I know what's happening to Harry," I said.

"I know, but Alistair is the best," she said. "Harrison couldn't be in better care."

"You're right," I agreed but still I worried.

It took everything I had in me not to question her about her feelings for Alistair, but there were bigger issues at large, namely Harrison's freedom, so I resisted.

"Ava Carson," Viv said. She spooned some gelato into her mouth and let the name perch in the air between us like a bird on a wire.

"Are you going anywhere with that?" I asked after a while.

"I know that Nick and Andre like her, but she's odd and it's more than the drugs," Viv said.

"Agreed." I thought back to the events of the night. "Even if she was heavily medicated, it's still weird that she didn't look surprised when Win was found dead."

Viv met my gaze. "I think so, too."

"She is quite a bit younger than Tyler," I said.

"And they have no children," Viv said. "I don't think she's done much of anything since her modeling career dried up."

"I can see her as a model. She's all sharp angles and straight edges," I said. "And she likes art."

"I think she fancied herself an artist at one time," Viv said with a sniff. Having gone to an art school, Viv was sometimes sn.o.bby about the subject.

"Doped up or not, her face when Win fell out of the tarp showed no surprise, nothing," I said.

"So either she was loopy beyond reaction . . ." Viv said.

"Or she knew who killed him, maybe she even saw them kill him, and she wasn't surprised," I concluded.

We both reached into the tub of gelato at the same time. We worked our spoons around each other and then mulled over the situation while we ate.

"Or she was more than a witness," Viv said. "Maybe she is the killer and that's why there was no surprise when Dashavoy was revealed."

The thought of Ava being so calculating made me s.h.i.+ver, but there was no denying the look in her eyes when Win had tumbled across the steps to the ground. It had been a look of cold satisfaction.