Bundle of Trouble(63)

She was only a few years older than Michelle and me, maybe thirty-five or -six at the most, yet she hadn’t aged well, probably due to a combination of her fair skin, smoking, and/or stress. Her face was lined and she seemed a little angry.

Not unusual, I imagined, for someone whose half-sister had been killed a week ago.

“KelliAnn?”

She looked me up and down. “Yes. Can I help you?”

I extended my hand. “Kate Connolly. You probably don’t remember me; I was in Michelle’s class at Holy Rosary.”

She smiled, showing off astonishingly white teeth. I self-consciously ran my tongue over my own.

How were people getting their teeth so white these days?

“I do remember you.” Her face darkened. “You found Michelle, right? Come in.”

I entered the spacious apartment, decorated in cream and green. It was fastidiously clean; the hardwood floors shone and every surface seemed to sparkle. I sat on a leather armchair. She hovered over me. “Something to drink?”

I recalled my vow not to consume anything prepared by a suspect. That didn’t include the sister of the victim, did it?

Maybe prudence would be best. “No. I’m fine. Thanks.”

KelliAnn sat down on her sofa, her ego deflated, as though my declining a beverage had hurt her feelings.

“KelliAnn, I’m so sorry about Michelle. We weren’t close, not since high school, but what a tragedy. I—”

“Thank you. It’s been really rough. She was the only family I had left. My mom died when I was in high school, and our dad died a few years ago.” She played with the locket around her neck. “The police told me Michelle overdosed.”

“Combination of diazepam and alcohol.”

“Yes.” KelliAnn squinted and dropped the locket. “How did you know?”

“I’ve been hired by Gloria Avery to find out who killed Brad.”

KelliAnn paled, stood, then sat. “Gloria? Really? I never got the impression that she cared all that much.”

“About Brad?” I asked.

“Either one of them, really. She’s . . . well, let’s just say she’s a lot like Michelle’s mother was.”

I recalled KelliAnn had not gotten along well with Michelle’s mother. Their father, a commercial airline pilot, had lived a double life, married to Michelle’s mom on one coast and maintaining a long-term affair on the other coast. When KelliAnn’s mother passed away, her father took her in and she came to live with Michelle and her mother.

Our high school was small, about three hundred students, so everyone was privy to the drama that Michelle and KelliAnn were going through as they went from strangers to half sisters.

I did my best to sidestep that land mine. “When’s the last time you saw Michelle?”

“We talked daily, but I hadn’t seen her since last week. Now, I wish I’d made the time. I had no idea she was so down that she’d kill herself.”

“You think she killed herself?”

Her brow wrinkled and creased, highlighting the sun damage on her face and causing her to look angry again. “Well, unless she accidentally overdosed. I mean, yeah. She had a tendency toward self-destruction. When Brad left her, she completely fell apart. She was starting to get better and then the police found his body. She just came apart at the seams.” She shook her head. “And Brad left her for another woman. I don’t know if you knew how vain Michelle was, but she was supervain. So imagine the hit to her ego when he told her he was leaving her.”

“Do you know who he was seeing?”

She shrugged. “Sure. It’s no big secret.”

She knew! I could barely contain my excitement. I tried to remember I was supposed to be a professional.

As calmly as I could, I asked, “Who?”

She leaned over and whispered conspiratorially, “My neighbor, Jen.”

Hippie chick was the other woman?

“Jennifer Miller?”

KelliAnn looked confused. “You know her?”

Now I felt foolish. I had met Jennifer, but didn’t peg her as the other woman. What other clues were under my nose that I was missing?

I shrugged at KelliAnn and tried to hide my inexperience. “Well, I did speak with Jennifer early on in my investigation. I am a PI, you know.”

KelliAnn resumed fidgeting with the locket. “Right. Of course. Well, Michelle knew Brad was two-timing her, but I didn’t think she knew with whom. And I certainly didn’t want to tell her, ’cuz, I’m the one who got Jennifer hired at El Paraiso in the first place.”

“You felt responsible that Brad was cheating on Michelle? That’s absurd! If he was a big cheat, that has nothing to do with you!”