Wake Up to Murder (A Ricki Rydell Mystery Book 2) Read online

  Just as Chris was about to answer the question, the radio crackled with noise. He pressed his ear to his shoulder and listened. “I don’t know. I have to go.” He ripped a piece of paper out of his ticket book and passed it off to her.

  “What’s this?”

  “That’s a citation for talking on the phone while driving. See you in court.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “Gotta run.” Chris smiled and walked away.

  “He’s not going to hear the end of this. If I have to go to court and actually pay a fine for talking on the phone, he’s going to get it. So much for favoritism.”

  Chris turned the siren and lights on and tore off down the highway. Ricki figured that while she was sitting there, she might as well try to reach out to Marty once more. She stopped herself. He hadn’t replied to her last text message asking about Denise Myers. This time, however, she had a bigger question. Why would somebody named Denise Myers create a fake ID with Marty’s fiancée’s old address on it? And what was that fake ID doing in a duffel bag at a television station in Millsboro? Marty needed to hear about this because maybe this was a clue that only he could make sense of.

  She managed to talk herself into calling him. This was an issue that couldn’t wait. He picked up after the second ring. “Ricki, hey. Wha’s up?” His speech was slurred. She either woke him up or he was drunk. Being that it was still early in the morning, she hoped it wasn’t the latter. “Sorry, I, uh, didn’t your text. I was been busy.”

  “Are you okay? You sound kind of out of it.” Maybe calling him was a mistake.

  “Been up al’night. Drunk as a punk or skunk, whatever.”

  “Maybe I should call back another time.”

  “Naw. Um, your text. Uh, let’see. Denise. Don’t know her. Should I?”

  She had to tell him. She rattled off the address and name to him, leaving out the part of how she found the license. “Does that sound at all familiar?”

  Dead silence. Not dead air. He was still there, breathing heavy. “That’s weird. I think I might know, but I’m not sure. Let me sober up, do some calling around, and I’ll get back to you.”

  The tone in his voice had changed. He spoke more clearly. Whatever Ricki had said seemed to have woken him right up. Maybe she did a good thing by snooping. “Would you like me to make you dinner? We can talk then.”

  “That would be nice. You’re so much like your mom.”

  Ricki laughed. “That’s the first time anyone has ever said that to me. Call me when you’re feeling better.”

  She hung up and pressed the edge of the phone to her lips, thinking. She didn’t know what calling around Marty needed to do, but she wanted to be ready for him when he had more information. In the meantime, she had other people to investigate.

  Eighteen

  On Wednesday night, the Rydell family sat down to dinner at Hilltop Inn on Lake Somerset to celebrate Thea and Andy’s wedding anniversary. Chris made Ricki promise not to talk about anything to do with Kari Olson’s murder or anything to do with the investigation of her death. Since she was overwhelmed with confusion surrounding the case, especially after talking with her brother about whoever this Denise Myers was, she agreed to keep her mouth shut. Besides, it was her parent’s night, not hers.

  Everyone had gotten dressed in their best clothes for the evening, which Ricki was grateful for as she spent most of her time in sweats. The night was planned perfectly. Her parents finally agreed on what courses they wanted so Ricki pre-ordered their food with Bryce assuring her everything would run smoothly.

  Hilltop Inn was busy that night. She had no idea why there were so many people coming to Lake Somerset when the fall foliage had already dropped to the ground. The wine festival was over, the jazz fest long gone, and the next event wasn’t until light-up night at the end of November. Maybe something else was going on at the hotel next door that she didn’t know about. What did it matter? She was happy to see her parents so happy, especially her mother. Hilltop Inn was her favorite restaurant.

  Chris and Ricki had argued back and forth about what to get their parents for their anniversary, so both decided to get them their own thing instead of collaborating. Her brother wouldn’t tell her what he was getting for them which left Ricki struggling to come up with the perfect present. She settled on giving them the option of either a condo in Florida or a home renovation. She thought it best to leave it up to them instead of thrusting something on them that they may not even want. She couldn’t wait to see the look on their faces when they opened the gift.

  Since Bryce knew the Rydell family from ages ago, he waited on them personally, as a gift to the happily married couple of thirty-two years. “I have everything perfectly timed, but if you need me to slow down, just let me know and I’ll wait for you to catch up. Now, what would you like to drink? I know good old Andy here doesn’t like champagne, but it is a special occasion. What do you say, old man?” Bryce was only a few years younger than her father, but the two always enjoyed a good old man joke.

  “You can bring the ladies champagne, but I’ll take a beer. Chris, beer?”

  “I’m not a lady, but I’ll take champagne, too.”

  Upon realizing his mistake, Andy got a good chuckle out of his faux pas. “No offense. I didn’t know you liked champagne.”

  “Only on special occasions.”

  To save her father from further embarrassment, Ricki interrupted. “And this is a special occasion.” She looked to her brother and whispered, “Should we give them their presents now or wait till after dinner?”

  “We could do it now while we’re waiting for the food.”

  “What are you two whispering about?” Thea said, unfolding a napkin and placing it in her lap.

  Ricki cleared her throat. “Well, we were debating on when to give you your presents.”

  “Oh, you didn’t have to get us anything.” She always said something like that, but Thea Rydell loved to get presents. “But since you went to all the trouble.”

  Andy lowered his face and laughed. “You never change.” He squeezed his wife’s hand. “And I love you for it.” Andy then clapped both hands and rubbed them together furiously. “Okay, whatcha got?”

  “Should we do this together or do you want to flip for who goes first?”

  Chris took a quarter out of his pocket. “Heads or tails?” Ricki called heads and won. “Figures. You always win a coin toss. How is that possible?”

  Ricki smirked and said, “HA! I’m the oldest anyway.”

  “Only by ten minutes, honey,” their mother said.

  Ricki took an elegantly decorated envelope out of her bag and presented it to her parents. “Now, you get to decide what you want.”

  Thea took the envelope and opened it. Andy looked over her shoulder. She gasped in surprise, putting her hand to her mouth. “Ricki, you can’t afford this. Can you?”

  “Honey, this is too much,” Andy said. Tears welled in his eyes and his chin quivered. “I’m so proud of you for what you made of yourself.”

  Ricki tried not to get all weepy along with them, but it was getting very difficult especially when her mother started to cry. “You guys have always been so supportive of everything I’ve done in my life. I think you deserve to have something nice. So, which one do you think you’re going to choose.”

  “That’s a tough one,” Andy said. “I’m not sure how I feel about someone coming in my house and redoing it. I like doing that stuff myself.”

  “Well, I spoke with Damon, and he said that if you wanted to help out, he would allow you to do that. There was a little formality with insurance, though.”

  “I don’t know. With the way the weather has been, this Florida condominium is sure looking kind of nice right now.”

  Andy looked to his wife. “I thought you hated Florida.”

  “Where did you ever get the idea I hated Florida?”

  Andy, Chris, and Ricki turned to each other and burst out laughing.

 
“Oh, come on. I never said that.”

  “You don’t have to decide now,” Ricki said. “Think about it for a while. Do what you think is right for you and your lifestyle and let me know.”

  Andy leaned over and gave his daughter a peck on the cheek. “That’s from the both of us.”

  “My turn, I guess.” Chris reached in his dinner jacket and pulled out a small envelope. “It’s not anything like hers, but I thought it was perfect for you guys.”

  “You open it this time since I did the last one,” Thea said. She watched as Andy pulled two small strips of paper out of the envelope. She gasped again, her eyes growing big. “Two tickets to the Pittsburgh Film Festival?”

  While her parents gushed at the sight of the tickets, Ricki turned to her brother. “How did you score those? I called and they said they were sold out.”

  “I ordered them months ago. See, I plan ahead.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because it was supposed to be a surprise.”

  “Whatever.”

  Bryce wheeled a bottle of champagne on ice over to their table. “I hear a lot of excitement over here. I’m so glad everyone is having a good time.” He popped the cork and poured three glasses. “Happy anniversary, you two.”

  “Can you bring another glass?” Andy said, clearing his throat. “This calls for a toast.”

  “You’re in luck. I just happen to have one right here. Mostly because I knew you would change your mind.”

  With four glasses filled with champagne, Ricki and Chris said together: “Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad.”

  Andy took a quick sip of the champagne before chasing it with a chug of his beer. “Thank you. And thank you for the gifts. You have both made us so proud. We couldn’t have asked for a better set of kids. We tried to trade you in for puppies after you were born, but you grew on us.”

  “Knowing how you feel about Rumpus, I believe it.”

  As anniversary talk turned to more of the everyday mundane things, and the dinner came out to their table as smoothly as a well-oiled machine, Ricki started to notice something odd. She tried hard to stay in the moment and focus on her parents, her family, but it became increasingly difficult as she noticed that everyone in the restaurant was staring at her and whispering. Now, this wasn’t an unusual case of paranoia. It was actually happening, so evident her brother even noticed.

  “Ignore it,” he said, lifting a glass of water to his lips. “Now is not the time to make a spectacle of yourself.”

  Ricki raised a napkin to her mouth and spoke behind it. “What are you talking about, spectacle? I don’t make a spectacle of myself. I’m not asking these people to stare at me. But why are they doing it?”

  “They probably remember the scene you made the last time you were here.”

  “That was weeks ago. People have short memories.”

  “Like I said, ignore it. Pay attention to your parents.”

  Ricki smiled and tried to do just that. Except something across the room caught her eye. A blonde woman, who looked oddly enough like Taryn Wilkes, walked across the restaurant and into the bathroom. When Ricki sat down, she didn’t see anyone who looked like Taryn in the restaurant. The room may have been big, but it was all on one floor and there were no hidden corners in this place. You didn’t come to Hilltop Inn to hide. You came to Hilltop Inn to be seen. It was the place you went when you wanted to show off.

  Ricki kept her eyes on the bathroom door, waiting for Taryn to walk out. When she did, she shot a quick glance at Ricki before walking out the door of the restaurant.

  How odd. Ricki couldn’t let this go. She had her suspicions about Taryn. “Excuse me for a second, I have to run to the lady’s room.”

  “You don’t have to announce when you’re going to the toilet, honey,” Andy said.

  In case her brother was watching, she took a detour to the bathroom instead of heading straight outside to chase after Taryn. She left her coat behind so he wouldn’t get suspicious. Her dress was made of thin material, so she couldn’t stay outside for long, anyway. This was meant to be a quick trip.

  The parking lot was well lit, but the night sky was overcast with dark gray clouds. A threat of an early snowstorm was in the forecast. It made it hard to see clearly. But how hard could it be to spot a woman with Taryn’s build and distinctive bob haircut?

  On the far end of the parking lot, there was a boardwalk that looked out over Lake Somerset. Ricki caught sight of a blonde woman dressed in white, but she couldn’t tell if it was Taryn from where she stood. She cried out her name, but the woman didn’t make any movement of recognition. Ricki raced to the edge of the parking lot to get a better look, but by that time, the woman had vanished.

  Disappointed and shivering, she hugged herself. She looked out over the embankment, wondering how Kari could have ended up cracking her head on a rock before drowning. From where she stood, it didn’t seem plausible.

  First, she didn’t smell alcohol on Kari’s breath that night, and they were all up in each other’s faces. If Kari was drunk, Ricki would have known. That left out tripping and falling to her death due to intoxication.

  Second, there was a guardrail around the parking lot that faced the water’s edge, blocking the way to the embankment below. There was also a chain-link fence further down, closer to the shoreline. In case anyone did fall over the guardrail, the fence would catch them. If Kari had fallen and hit her head right where Ricki stood at that moment, she wouldn’t have gone into the lake. But no one knows where she was killed. A couple of fisherman saw the body floating at the shoreline about a quarter of a mile away. That left miles and miles of possibilities.

  Ricki got lost in her thoughts. The sound of waves lapping against the shore entranced her with its steady rhythm. It would have been difficult for anyone to hear footsteps coming up behind them, including her. She felt someone push against her back with great force, knocking her over the guardrail headfirst. She put her hands out in front of her, hoping to catch herself before doing a face-plant against a rock. She felt a pinch on her skin and then heard a snap as she crashed into a pointy rock. The searing pain in her left arm was all she could think about for a split second. She let out a shriek.

  The pointy tips of her high-heels caught on a rock, stopping her from sliding further down the embankment. Once she regained some semblance of composure, she yelled out for help. No one came to her rescue. She cried out again, pressing her sore arm to her chest while holding onto the jagged rocks with the other.

  Suddenly, she heard footsteps running across the parking lot. An older man looked over the guardrail and gasped in horror. “Are you all right?”

  “No.” Ricki’s whole body trembled. Something against her stomach was wet. She didn’t want to look down, but she had to know. The fall not only mangled her wrist but also cut it open. Blood had soaked into her dress and ran down her hand in rivulets. “My family is inside. The Rydells. I’m going to need a doctor.”

  A woman and another man came running over to help her. “Are you hurt anywhere else?” the woman said.

  Ricki bit her lip and shook her head.

  The young man eased his way down the embankment and helped her to the top. He took his jacket off and wrapped it around Ricki’s shoulders, helping her over the guardrail. Ricki hugged her arm to her chest, gritting her teeth in pain.

  Thea Rydell came running out to her daughter, pushing onlookers out of the way. “I’m her mother and a nurse. Honey, what happened? Chris is calling 911. Let me see.”

  Reluctantly, Ricki showed her mother, expecting to see a horrified reaction at the sight of her daughter’s bloody arm. There was a quick flash of shock from Mom before Thea, the nurse, took control of the situation.

  “That’s a doozy. We’ll get you fixed up.” She took the scarf from around her neck and wrapped it around Ricki’s wrist to stop the bleeding. Ricki did her best to hide her pain, not wanting to send her mother into a panic.

  “Put your
other arm around me and we’ll get you inside,” Andy said.

  “I don’t want to go inside. Can we do this in the car?”

  It didn’t matter anyway as an ambulance pulled into the parking lot in the nick of time.

  Chris ran over and hoisted Ricki up off her feet and carried her to the ambulance. “What happened?”

  Ricki didn’t want her parents to hear, so she whispered in his ear, “Someone pushed me.”

  “Did you happen to see who it was?”

  “Taryn Wilkes.”

  Chris cocked his head to the side. “That mousy girl from school?”

  “She’s not so mousy. I think she’s the one who killed Kari. Now she’s trying to kill me because I’m onto her.”

  Nineteen

  “Mom, I’m okay.” Ricki appreciated her mother waiting on her at every turn, but there were only so many ways to fluff a pillow. It wasn’t like she had major surgery. She had only fractured her left wrist and needed about six stitches, but Thea hovered over her daughter like she was about to take her last breath.

  “Hush. You just keep still and let me take care of you.”

  “Do you miss nursing that much?”

  “Really, Ricki. You’re my daughter, for heaven’s sake, and you slipped and fell last night.”

  “I had help.”

  “Was his name Dom Pérignon?”

  Ricki hadn’t said anything to her mother about last night. It would only worry her even more. Only Chris knew, and he promised to keep quiet until she was ready to share the story with others. After she filed a police report, then she would talk. Chris said he’d have someone from the station come and see her later that day, after she got some sleep and the effects of the pain pill wore off.

  “Now, how are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt if I don’t move it.” Rumpus jumped on the couch and crawled across her stomach and planted doggie licks on her face. “Or if my dog climbs all over me.”

  “Rumpus. Down.” He jumped down immediately, sitting at Thea’s feet. “Good, boy.”