Warrior, Fatal & Flawed Read online

  “What is wrong with you?” CeCe snapped at Maya as I stepped outside the door.

  I felt blindsided by the news that Neil was a suspect.

  “Mariah!”

  I turned to see Lee running down the steps of the hotel. He jogged up to me.

  “They let you out. That’s great news.” I almost meant it.

  Lee brushed it off. “My lawyer showed up. They didn’t have any physical evidence to keep me there, so they let me go. Plus, with my car in the shop, it’s not like I can leave town any time soon. So, silver lining, I can spend some time with you.”

  He smiled. I laughed. He wasn’t serious. His smile grew broader. Oh, my gosh, he was serious. I held out a hand that could only be considered a STOP sign.

  “Lee, no, you cannot spend time with me. I have a business to run and, and, and, a life that I am building here. It does not include you. I don’t know how to make that any more clear.”

  He smiled again and shrugged his shoulders. “Guess we’ll wait and see. How about breakfast?”

  I blew out a breath and shook my head. How dense could he be?

  “If you are hungry, you can go to the coffee shop or the diner. Both have good choices. I have a business appointment in ten minutes, so I have to go.”

  I pointed out the diner and the coffee shop, then turned to cross the street. I didn’t look to see if he followed my directions. Part of me didn’t even want him to see where my yoga studio was so I could hide there, but it was a small town and he’d find out soon enough.

  I slipped into The Yoga Mat and breathed in the quiet and stillness. My private appointment would be there shortly, so I set up my yoga mat and sat down in the center of it. After a couple of deep breaths, I jumped up to run through a few Warriors.

  The Warrior poses of yoga, Virabhadrasana in Sanskrit, challenge and push us to dig deep for confidence and courage, both of which I needed right about now. The front door quietly opened and Neil slipped inside.

  I padded out in my bare feet to meet him. He gave me a quick hug.

  “I know you have your private coming in. I just wanted to let you know that I’m not on the investigation of your ex-husband anymore.”

  “I know.”

  He nodded. “I figured you might, but I wanted to tell you myself.”

  “Why did they take you off the case? You didn’t know Serena, did you?”

  We were talking quietly. I’m not sure why. No one else was in the studio.

  Neil threw up his hands. “She came in while I was waiting for my dinner in the diner and she sat down next to me at the counter. Apparently, Bev told Cindy that Serena flirted with me and that we left together.”

  My eyes widened and I leaned a little away from him, shocked but waiting for his explanation. Bev was our regular waitress, as honest as they come. She would not have lied to the Sheriff’s officers.

  “No, we didn’t leave together, Mariah. My order was finally ready, so I took it ‘to go’ and she followed me out.”

  Neil paused, running a hand through his hair. I reached out and touched his arm so he would look at me.

  “Apparently, she has a habit of doing that, Neil. It doesn’t say much for her self-esteem, poor girl.”

  Neil shrugged in acknowledgement. “And that’s it. I got in my car and drove home. But between that and the fact that I’m dating you –”

  “We’re dating?”

  “We’re not?”

  We both froze and stared at each other, then we both started to talk at once.

  “I guess you could say we’re dating.”

  “It’s still new, of course.”

  We froze again and started to laugh.

  I leaned against the door jamb by my office. “So, we’re dating.”

  Neil leaned toward me and quickly brushed his lips to mine, then leaned away. “Yeah, I guess we are.”

  The door swooshed open and the student I was expecting stuck in her head. “Am I interrupting?”

  I waved her into the lobby and turned quickly to Neil, now my voice lowered with good reason. “What are you doing now that Josie has taken over the investigation?”

  Neil looked at his shoes. “I’m working the front desk.”

  “No. Way.”

  He shrugged. “Someone has to do it and Thompson is on vacation.”

  “Watch out for paper cuts.”

  He grimaced and gave me a knuckle bump, then slipped back out the front door. I shook myself a little and moved into the studio, trying to bring my mind to my student and her practice. How was I going to spend the next hour not thinking about how to clear both my ex-husband and my brand-new boyfriend of murder?

  Chapter 6

  Lee showed up fifteen minutes before the noon Vinyasa class wearing a pair of obviously new light sweatpants, a crease still running down the middle, and a bright white t-shirt.

  I stared at him from the office doorway. “No.”

  “I’m here for yoga, Mariah.”

  “You can’t stay.”

  “Take his money, Mariah.” Stormy murmured in my ear as she slipped by me on her way into the lobby. “I’ll talk him into a pass.”

  “But-”

  Stormy waved off my protestations. Apparently, I needed to chat with her about the whole boss-employee thing.

  Stormy showed Lee where to put his shoes in the cubbies, then spoke quietly with him at length. When she came out of the office with his credit card, she smiled in triumph. “Six-month pass. He wants you to like him again.”

  I closed my eyes and breathed deeply of the Peppermint and Orange mixture I had put in the defuser. “He is not staying for six months and we will reimburse him when he leaves.”

  “Whatever you say, boss, but that’s not our policy.”

  Stormy was right. I didn’t usually reimburse students when they quit showing up for yoga, but I knew Stormy had taken advantage of Lee’s desire to get on my good side.

  I blew out a breath, then walked closer to the defuser to breath in the essential oils more directly. If students hadn’t been watching me, I probably would have stuck my face to the defuser to get a more intense scent. The oils I used were consumable, so it wouldn’t have hurt me.

  Peppermint and Orange would give an energizing scent to class. Peppermint is known to not only clear the sinuses but also increase focus and concentration. The Orange added an overall energizer. The combination was one of my favorites.

  I breathed deeply a few more times, feeling my head begin to clear.

  Stormy continued moving around the room, getting the studio ready for class and assisting students who wanted to make a payment. She had a way of being quick but calm. Stormy had helped me out when I was accused of murder a couple of months back.

  The lithe young woman and I, the nearly middle-aged yoga teacher, had started out as, well, enemies and turned into friends. Now she was undergoing yoga teacher training at a studio in Sacramento. I hoped she would be another teacher on our staff when she finished. Right now, it was just Cindy and me.

  Lee set his mat near mine at the front of the room. I sighed and checked my watch. Only an hour. I could handle an hour if I just looked at Lee as one of my new, slightly annoying students who didn’t know any better.

  Class got under way and I led them through the warmups to the Warrior sequence. Whenever I feel the need to work on something in my own life, my students end up working on it, too. No sense in doing extra work, right?

  I brought them into a Warrior I pose, Virabhadrasana I, where students stand with one foot behind the other, hands at their chest or over their heads. It looks simple but can be a tricky pose. I cued the students to rotate their hips forward, pressing down on the edges of their back foot. I felt stronger and fiercer just doing the pose myself, and I wished that for my students.

  Lee bobbled a few times but kept his balance, watching himself in the mirror and generally following the cues I was giving. He caught me looking and winked. Dang it.

  When class was over
, Lee walked into the lobby bubbling over as he talked with the other students. “That was so relaxing, yet I’ve never felt so energized, even after a good massage.”

  He took his time putting on his shoes, apparently missing the mental telepathy messages I was sending him. Get out of my studio. Leave me alone. Go away.

  Shoving his foot into a tennis shoe, he looked up at me and grinned. “How about lunch?”

  So much for telepathy.

  “I have a lot of work to do, Lee. I run my own business.”

  He looked around my small studio. The look on my face must have stopped him from saying what he apparently was thinking. His face fell. “I thought you were going to get me off this murder rap. You said you would help me, that you knew how to do this.”

  He had me there. I sighed audibly. “Okay, you can buy me lunch. Let’s go to Luigi’s Pizzeria.”

  Lee made a face. “Do we have to? Serena and I went to dinner there before we went to our room yesterday and the guy flirted with her the whole time.”

  “Lou, the owner?”

  “Fifty-ish?”

  “That’s him.”

  If Lou Alveretti had been flirting with Serena, he might be able to tell us more about where she went last night. Lou had a habit of hitting on younger women. I was curious what he might say about Serena.

  The restaurant was mostly full when we stepped inside, but we found a small table in the corner. Lou saw me and waved, then came over with water and menus. His face fell when he saw who I was with. He pointedly turned his attention to me.

  “Mariah, how are you?”

  “Good, Lou, and you? Heard anything from Tamara lately?”

  He shook his head. “I hoped to get to L.A. soon, but the restaurant has been pretty busy. Tamara left right after the workshop she taught for you guys and she’s not wild about coming back here any time soon.”

  Lou’s sort-of girlfriend, a celebrity yoga teacher, had been accused of murder and spent a couple of days in the Jasper County Jail. No wonder she didn’t want to make a return visit right away. Tamara and Lou had been googly-eyes over each other just a couple of weeks ago, blathering on about how they were soulmates and blah, blah, blah.

  Clearly, I was not sympathetic. They were that annoying couple that was always really handsy with each other, even when other people were around. I actually couldn’t wait to bust his chops over flirting with Serena. That’s the mean side of me coming out. I like to think of it as my pre-yoga side, but clearly there are residual effects.

  “So, Lou, I hear you met my ex-husband and his girlfriend yesterday.” It wasn’t a question.

  Lou threw a glance at Lee, then turned back to me. “They did come in yesterday, yes.”

  “Then I’m sure you heard what happened to her.”

  Lou frowned and nodded his head toward Lee. “Yeah, I heard your ex-husband killed her down at the river. Poor kid.” His eyes flashed as they met Lee’s. “If you weren’t here with Mariah, I’d throw you out. I don’t serve people who abuse women. Or kill them.”

  Lee started to rise from his seat. I waved him back down.

  “Settle down, Lou. Lee didn’t kill her. We’re trying to find out who did. Did you see her last night without Lee?”

  Lou thought for a moment, pursing his lips and shaking his head. “No. We were short-handed, so I was here until closing.”

  I could believe that. Lou Alveretti was notoriously short-tempered with his staff, so turnover was fast and frequent. “What did you do after you closed?”

  Lou shrugged. “That was after eleven, so I wrapped up some pizza and took it home.”

  “What kind of pizza?” I knew from the crime shows I watched that asking for details can help you see if someone is lying or not.

  “Barbecue chicken. It was one of the specials, so we had some leftover.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “I thought you were eating vegan for Tamara.”

  “I’m trying.” Lou grinned sheepishly. “It’s too hard to do every day, Mariah. Besides, I’m not going to waste good pizza, even if there is meat on it. Tamara would understand.”

  No, she wouldn’t. Tamara didn’t even like meat in the vicinity of her food. But I decided now was not the time to quibble with Lou about his dietary selections.

  “You didn’t see Serena after they ate here yesterday?”

  “Who’s Serena?” Lou looked puzzled.

  “My girlfriend?” Lee spoke up, irritation ringing in his voice. “The one you kept flirting with when we were here yesterday? The one who died?”

  Lou laughed, blushing a little. He turned back toward me. “Of course, I remember her. She was very attractive, and I couldn’t figure out what she saw in a doofus like this guy.”

  Lee bristled. I put out my hand again to calm him.

  “Were you flirting with her?” I tried not to sound too judgmental.

  Lou shrugged, holding his hands up by his shoulders. “I flirt with every woman. It’s strictly for business reasons. Speaking of which, can I take your order?”

  Lee and I placed our orders. I’d had a lot of Lou’s pizza in the past couple of weeks, so this time I chose the Fettucine Alfredo. Lee ordered an individual meat-lovers’ pizza.

  When Lou went to give our orders to the kitchen, I played with the breadbasket he had deposited on our table. “Have you thought of anyone else who might want to kill your girlfriend?”

  “Mariah, you saw me drive into town yesterday. That was literally the first time I’ve been to this hole in the wall.”

  My hackles went right up. “Hey, it’s not a hole in the wall.”

  He raised his eyebrows, his hands tapping on the tabletop.

  “Okay, but it’s our hole in the wall and I like it here. I really feel like I’m part of the community here.”

  “Whatever.” He took a drink from his water. “They got anything stronger here?” He motioned for Lou to come over and ordered a beer, which Lou quickly returned with and placed on the table.

  “I think the best thing to do is to retrace your steps from yesterday.” I broke a bread stick in half and began to gnaw on part of it. “Maybe something will click and give us some direction.”

  Lee drank deeply from the beer, then wiped off his mouth with a paper napkin. “If you ask me, it was your deputy boyfriend.”

  Snap! I broke another breadstick. “Why on earth would you say that? Neil didn’t even know Serena.”

  Lee sat up and leaned toward me. “You should have seen how he was flirting with her when you weren’t around. She was all over him at the diner and he didn’t seem to mind at all.”

  That didn’t square with what Neil had told me. My brow furrowed as I sat up straighter and leaned toward Lee.

  “You told me you didn’t leave the hotel room last night. How would you have seen them at the diner?”

  Lee hesitated, his mouth open and his eyes darting around the table – everywhere but at me. “I guess I went for a walk at one point. I was a little bit worried about Serena and I wanted to make sure she was safe.”

  I sat back in my chair, crossed my arms and stared at him.

  “You lied to me. Did you lie to the sheriff’s deputies, too?” I slapped the table with my hand. “You always did have trouble telling the truth. Why did I stay married to you as long as I did?”

  Lee had the grace to hang his head. He took another pull on his beer. “It just seemed easier to say I had been in the room all night. I did go out the back door of the hotel at one point just to get some fresh air and I walked a couple of blocks and saw them at the diner. Your boyfriend didn’t seem to mind the attention.”

  He pointed his beer bottle at me, then took another pull.

  I shook my head and mentally kicked myself. How had I let him manipulate me this way? I thought I had outgrown that in the past three years. Something didn’t jibe with Lee’s story.

  “Fresh air? When have you ever gone out for fresh air? You’re lying again, aren’t you? You’re lying right now.” I took
the napkin off my lap and flung it on to the table. “Why would I help you? You haven’t stopped lying since you came to town.”

  I started to rise from my seat, anger radiating from my body. Forget the bread sticks – I wanted to snap Lee’s little finger I was so mad.

  Lee paused, the beer in his hand halfway to his mouth, then slapped it onto the table, sloshing the beer around. He started to rise with me, one hand reaching for me, the other holding on to the beer. “Mariah, wait!”

  I stared from his hand on me to the one on the beer.

  “You went out for beer, didn’t you? You went to the store and got beer.”

  Lee sat down heavy in his seat. The beer finished its trip to his mouth. He sloppily drank a few sips, then set the bottle on the table as he wiped his mouth again. “What if I did?”

  “Are you drinking more, Lee? You were supposed to quit.” I waved my hands around him as I sat back down, leaning toward him so the diners near us couldn’t hear. “You know, stop before it became a problem? Your partners were upset about it three years ago.”

  Lee’s drinking had increased in the last few years of our marriage. I privately thought that contributed to our marriage’s demise.

  Lee’s eyes were on his beer, his fingers playing with the sides. He shook his head. “No, but I’ve definitely cut down. It’s just that this trip has been … stressful. I just needed to take the edge off.”

  He finally raised his eyes to me. He was lying again, and he knew that I knew.

  Before I could follow up, Lou set down our lunches with a flourish.

  “Now, Mariah, I know you have an appetite after all that yoga, but I’ll get you a to-go box for the leftovers. There’s no way even you could eat all that.”

  Lou smiled genially at me. I gave him a half-hearted grin in return. Nothing I liked better than for someone to announce to everyone how much I ate.

  Lee picked up a slice of his pizza and bit off the triangle end. He pointed it at me as he swallowed the bite. “I gotta say, Mariah, you have lost weight since you moved here, but you still seem a little hefty for a yoga teacher.”