The Other Lady Vanishes (Burning Cove #2)(42)

“I need something to help me get over the shock of spending all that money. I suppose it’s too early for a martini.”

“Save the martini for tonight when you’re actually wearing the new dress and the shoes,” Raina said.

They found a small, shaded table at an outdoor café in a busy shopping plaza. Smartly dressed women with bags from various nearby stores strolled past, chatting with friends and discussing the latest fashions.

She was not a huge fan of coffee—she preferred tea—but it was good to have coffee with a friend, Adelaide thought. It made her feel almost normal.

She and Raina were gradually working their way into a deeper friendship. One day they might even feel free to exchange their most closely guarded secrets. But that day had not yet arrived. How did you tell a new acquaintance that a few months ago you had been diagnosed as having suffered a nervous breakdown? That you had been used as a test subject in a secret experiment conducted in an insane asylum by a doctor who was later murdered?

A story like that would make even a very good friend question your sanity.

When the coffee was delivered, Raina raised her cup in a small salute.

“Here’s to a great evening out,” she said.

“You do realize this isn’t a date.” Adelaide fortified herself with a sip of the strong coffee. “Jake and I are curious about Dr. Paxton because he seems to have gone missing on the night Zolanda died. But I doubt that we’ll learn anything useful. You said you had some news of Thelma Leggett?”

“Not a lot,” Raina said. “Not yet. But I’ve been doing some thinking and there are a couple of things that bother me. The first is that Thelma Leggett was not a big or muscular woman. She was, in fact, shorter and more slightly built than her boss. So how did she manage to overcome Zolanda and push her off the roof? For that matter, how did she manage to convince Zolanda to go up to the roof in the first place?”

Adelaide lowered her coffee cup. “You don’t believe that Thelma Leggett murdered Zolanda, do you?”

“Anything is possible and we still don’t have many facts, but, no; the more I consider the question, the more I’m inclined to think that Leggett wasn’t the one who pushed Zolanda off that roof—assuming she was pushed. Jake Truett seems convinced that Zolanda was in the blackmail business. If that’s true, it leaves us with a lot of suspects.”

“That’s what Jake says.”

“I am not convinced that Thelma Leggett murdered Zolanda but I agree with Truett—we need to find her. She’s the only one who can shed some light on the death of her boss. I’ve done some research. Leggett and Zolanda both lived in L.A. but Leggett wouldn’t dare go home. It’s the first place the police would have looked.”

“Then she’s on the road? Maybe holed up in an auto court someplace?”

“Maybe, but there may be a more likely possibility. My contact in L.A. says he talked to one of Leggett’s neighbors who told him that a few years ago Leggett’s mother died and left her some property on the coast. The neighbor said there was a cabin on the property. I’m trying to find out where it’s located.”

“Do you think that Thelma might be hiding out there?”

“It’s possible. When I worked as a secretary for a legal firm, I was frequently asked to locate individuals. In my experience, when people run, they tend to head for a place that feels familiar, a place that feels safe.”

Adelaide tightened her grip on the coffee cup. That was exactly what she had done, she thought. She had run to Burning Cove because it felt somewhat familiar, somewhat safe. When she was a little girl, her parents had taken her there every summer for a vacation. Her father and mother had often talked about retiring in Burning Cove.

Her mouth went dry. In retrospect, taking refuge in the seaside town might have been a huge mistake. If the people who were looking for her had used the same logic that Raina was using, they might have already found her. It would certainly explain why someone had spent a night lurking in the fog, watching her house.

“Adelaide?” Raina leaned forward a little. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

Adelaide forced herself to focus. “I was just thinking about what you said. You’ll let us know right away if you track down the location of the property that Thelma Leggett inherited, won’t you?”

“Of course. Meanwhile, do me a favor.”

“What’s that?”

“I know why you and Jake Truett are going to the Paradise Club tonight, but try to have a good time, anyway.”

Adelaide managed a shaky smile. “I’ll do my best.”

They finished their coffee and walked back to Raina’s convertible. They stored the shopping bags in the trunk, and Raina got behind the wheel.

Adelaide opened the passenger side door. She was about to make a comment on the very fine weather, when she felt a ghostly shiver of awareness on the back of her neck.

She paused and glanced back over her shoulder. The shopping plaza was still busy, still filled with shoppers and people enjoying the pleasures of the sidewalk cafés. But at the very edge of her vision she glimpsed a man in a fashionable dark blue linen jacket and tan trousers. She could not see his face because he was in the process of turning away from her. In addition, he was wearing a straw hat angled so that it concealed his profile.