Page 15 of Little Dark Deeds
I pulled out and looked at him.“Why don’t you join us?”
He nodded and sat down.
I looked at Harvey, then my mother.“What do you know about Tiffany?”
“Well, what had happened was, we were sitting at a table at the reception watching everyone enjoy the evening,” my mother said.“We started chatting about what a wonderful day it had been and how it couldn’t have gone better.Then Harvey received a call from Tiffany’s father, Ron, who delivered the awful news.Harvey talked to Foley and Whitlock, who’d just heard about what happened themselves.The four of us debated whether we should tell you, and we decided the news could wait until today.”
“I hope you know we were just trying to look after you,” Harvey added.“If we’d told you last night, we knew what you’d do.”
He wasn’t wrong.
My first thought this morning was just how fast I could pack and get to the airport.
“You understand our predicament, don’t you?”my mother said.
“I do,” I said.“I can’t say I’m happy about it, but I do.”
“I suppose you’ll want to run along home now, though it’s a shame to get all wrapped up in an investigation so soon after your marriage.You should be spending time with each other, enjoying these first days together.”
Giovanni reached over, grabbing my hand.“We have the rest of our lives to do that.”
We did.
The same couldn’t be said for Tiffany.
I turned toward Harvey.“What can you tell me about her murder?”
Harvey scratched his head.“Tiffany’s father was the first to find her.He arrived at her house, texted her that he was there, and he didn’t get a response.He honked the horn.Still nothing.Then he got out of the car and tried the front door.It was locked, but he knew where she kept a spare key.He used it to open the door, and ...I’m just so sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, Georgiana.”
“No matter how hard it is for me to accept, it’s better for me to have all the details.”
He nodded and continued.“Ron found Tiffany on the bathroom floor.She’d been stabbed multiple times.He checked for a pulse, just in case, even though he didn’t think there’d be one, and then he called for an ambulance.I heard from Foley and Whitlock about an hour ago.They’re at her house now.”
“What did they say?”
“From their initial search, they found nothing missing or taken.There was an open window in her room, which the killer may have come through.Her purse was with her luggage by the front door.There was a couple hundred dollars in cash in the wallet.”
Meaning, it wasn’t a robbery.
“I just don’t understand why anyone would murder such a sweet woman,” my mother said.“Can you?”
“She’d been seeing a new guy,” I said.“I’ve never met him, but she seemed happy with how the relationship was going so far.I think she said his name is Tyler.I’m not saying he had anything to do with her murder, but who knows?”
“I suppose you’ll be heading home now.”
“I will be, yes.”
“I expect we’ll do the same,” Harvey said.“In the meantime, is there anything we can do for you?”
“We’ll speak to Giovanni’s sister and let her know what’s happened.In the meantime, if you see any of our remaining guests, please tell them we had an emergency back home and give them our apologies.”
“Will do.”
Giovanni stood, pushed his chair in, and I did the same.Then we said our goodbyes.With a new plan in motion, Giovanni went to find his sister, and I made my way back to the room, mind racing and anger simmering.I’d find the person responsible for the little dark deed of Tiffany’s death, and when I did, I had half a mind to do to them what they did to her.
A life for a life.
Seemed like the perfect justice to me.
