Murder of a Royal Pain

EPILOGUE

Your Wildest Dreams

“I knew I’d find you here.” May stood in the open doorway of Skye’s office with her hands on her hips. “You promised you’d stay home today and rest.”

“I said I’d think about it.” Skye wasn’t surprised to see her mother at the high school. Although she had spent two hours on the phone the night before reassuring May that despite the bruises on her face she was fine, Skye knew her mom wouldn’t be convinced until she saw for herself that her daughter was unharmed.

“It’s a shame Wally isn’t a better shot.” May marched across the room to Skye’s desk.

“What do you mean?” Skye glared up at her mother. “Wally’s a great shot. He saved my life.”

“Maybe.” May’s expression was rigid and hard. “But if his aim were better, she’d be dead, instead of just wounded.”

“I thought you liked her.”

“I had her to dinner once.” A faint flush rose in May’s cheeks. “It’s not like I adopted her.”

“Only because you couldn’t get a court date.”

May ignored Skye’s snide comments and asked, “You said her real name was Stacy Dennison, with two Ns, right?”

“Uh-huh.” Skye wasn’t surprised by the change of subject. It was a tactic her mother often employed when she didn’t want to admit she was wrong.

“You know, now that I think about it, I must have met her mother when I was in the hospital giving birth to you. The woman’s name was Mary Dennison. Our rooms were next to each other, and the nurses kept getting us mixed up. She even got flowers that were sent to me.” May tapped her lips. “At the time I wondered if she was related to your father’s side of the family, but when I looked into it, she didn’t seem to be.”

“Thank goodness.” The last thing Skye wanted was to find out she and Jackie were cousins.

May nodded, then gestured at the cluttered room. “Why is this place such a mess?”

“Jackie kept starting projects, but never finished them.” Skye decided it was easier to refer to the fake social worker by that name, rather than try to get everyone to use her real one. “And I’ve been too busy to clean up after her.”

“I’ll help you straighten up.” May opened her purse and pulled out a dust cloth and a can of Pledge. “You’ll feel better once everything is spick-and-span.”

“Knock yourself out, Mom.” Skye didn’t bother to point out that she was fine with the way things were. A busy May was a happy May, and a happy May didn’t ask as many probing questions.

“The first thing we need to do is get someone to haul this stuff away.” May pointed to the knee-high piles of folders and the old file cabinets Jackie had placed next to the door, but never arranged to have removed.

“I can do that.” Kurt sauntered in. “I’m Kurt Michaels.” He held his hand out to May. “I don’t think we’ve met, but I’ve heard a lot about you. I understand you’re the best cook in Stanley County.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you, too.” May looked him up and down. “You’ve managed to charm a good portion of the female population here in town.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.” May’s lips twisted. “A charming man is like a dog with his tail wagging—you’re never quite sure if he’s going to fetch your slippers or bite the hand that feeds him.”

“On that note”—Kurt looked chagrined—“how about I get rid of those files you mentioned?”

May nodded regally, and he began loading the folders on the wheeled chair behind Jackie’s desk—the one Jackie had managed to charm the custodian into finding for her.

Skye told him where the incinerator was located, and added, “Go ahead and leave the chair in the boiler room, too.” She wanted it, and all things that reminded her of the pseudo social worker, out of her sight.

Once he disappeared down the corridor, May made a clucking noise, and said, “He sure is a handsome devil, but I wonder about him. Everyone says he doesn’t talk much about himself.”

Skye picked up her pen, intent on going back to work on the report she’d been writing. “That’s for sure.” She had some questions for Kurt as well. He had disappeared while Jackie was being loaded into the ambulance. It was as if he didn’t want to be around once Wally wasn’t distracted by more pressing matters.

“I’m surprised you’re at school today.” Simon’s smooth tenor drew Skye’s gaze to the doorway. He greeted May, then said to Skye, “I stopped by your house thinking you’d take a sick day.”

Skye quelled her impatience. “I wasn’t sick.” Why did everyone think she should have stayed home?

“Any word on Jackie, or whatever her name really is?” Simon took a seat in a visitor’s chair.

“Wally called before I left for work and said she was going to be okay.”

“That’s good.” Simon straightened the crease in his pants. “At least Boyd won’t have her death on his conscience.”

“Yes. Mom was just saying that.” Skye shot her mother a pointed look, but May had found a couple of flattened cardboard boxes and was busily assembling them.

Before Skye could continue, Kurt returned, trailed by Trixie, who said, “Look who I found wandering the halls.”

“Guess I can’t get away with anything around here.” Kurt flashed Skye a mischievous grin and leaned against the old file cabinets.

“I bet you’ve gotten away with plenty,” Skye challenged him.

Trixie, refusing to be sidetracked, demanded, “So, fill me in.” She dropped into Skye’s second visitor’s chair. “Everyone is buzzing about Jackie being a fake, but I have a feeling that’s only the half of it.”

“Okay.” Skye leaned forward, placing her elbows on the desktop and folding her hands. “First of all, Jackie has been in Scumble River before—twice. She was here about a year ago during the spa murder. She called herself Veronica Vail, and claimed to be a state police officer. Then, in the spring, she pretended to be Imogene Ingersoll, a contestant in the cooking contest.”

“Why, Ms. D?” Justin edged his way into the room and settled cross-legged on top of the testing table—the one Skye had retrieved after Jackie had thrown it out.

“She was studying me and my life. Those previous times she was just an observer, trying to figure out the best way to get rid of me and take my place. Once she decided on a plan, it took her a while to steal her social worker identity. She had to get the real Jacqueline Jennings’s birth certificate, then use it to get her graduate school diploma, which she then parlayed into the school social worker certificate.”

Before anyone could respond, Homer pushed his way in. “What in the hell is going on around here?”

“I have no idea.” Skye wondered how many more people would try to crowd into her tiny office.

Homer claimed one of Jackie’s visitors’ chairs and turned it to face Skye. “Boyd called me at midnight and gave me some half-assed story about Jackie’s not being a real social worker and trying to kill you. I thought he was drunk, but I guess it must be true, because the superintendent is running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to find someone else to blame for hiring her.”

“Yeah.” A baritone voice boomed from the doorway. “And guess who he’s got his beady little eyes on?” Charlie stomped in and took the last chair.

Skye looked around the room. “It’s really no one’s fault, or maybe it’s everyone’s fault.” Her office was beginning to look like the inside of a subway car during rush hour. She half expected people to start popping out of the desk drawers. “Dr. Wraige should have checked Jackie’s references and credentials. Homer and the other principals should have been more suspicious that she was always Johnny-on-the-spot, and I should have trusted my instincts that there was something off about her.”

“I didn’t hear everything you said to Boyd after we went back to the police station yesterday,” Simon said. “But I gather Jackie was responsible for all of the unfortunate events that have happened to you and the schools during the past couple of months?”

“Yes. She confessed everything to Wally before she went into surgery last night at the hospital. He said she thought she was dying.”

“What did she own up to?” May finished filling one carton with things from Jackie’s desk and started on another.

“Let’s see.” Skye closed her eyes and tried to put Jackie’s actions in order. “The first thing was slashing my tire and leaving me that note to make me think Mrs. Idell had done it. Maybe she was retaliating because I yelled at her for changing the locks on our office and taking my chair.”

“How about what happened to you at the haunted house?” Justin asked.

“Yes. She tried to scare me into quitting A Ghoul’s Night Out by leaving the bloody ax for me to find and blocking the bathroom door so I couldn’t escape. She also strung up the rope, hoping I’d injure myself and have to drop out, maybe even leave town.”

“She used me to try to scare you, too. Didn’t she?” Justin said, his expression guilty. “By having me tell you the story about the American Legion hall being haunted.”

“Yes, but there was no way for you to know that,” Skye reassured him. “The weird thing is, she said she wasn’t the one I heard crying. No one else was in the bathroom, so maybe I just imagined that part.”

“Or it was the ghost.” Justin grinned.

Everyone ignored him.

May said, “So Annette’s death was an accident.”

“Yes.” Skye’s expression was grim. “A series of unfortunate coincidences.” She sighed heavily. “Jackie was also the one who tried to run me over using Dr. Paine’s car—she claimed she was only trying to scare me into leaving town. But when those attempts didn’t work, she started poisoning my cookies, trying to make me so sick that I’d have to go on disability and be stuck at home.” Skye’s voice quavered, and she blinked back tears. “Gloria’s death was another accident.”

“I bet she planted the chemical bombs here at the high school, too,” Trixie exclaimed.

“Right you are. She wanted the principals to love her. She needed to be seen as the hero,” Skye clarified. “She was the one who steered the girls at the junior high to the Internet site that said getting pregnant would be cool, as well. My guess is she’s the one who changed the meeting time in order to get me into trouble. And I doubt she speaks Russian. We’ll have to reevaluate that poor boy.”

“What I don’t understand is why.” Simon wrinkled his brow. “Why did she do all that? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I’m sorry to say, in a twisted way, her actions do make sense.” Skye gave an uncomfortable laugh. “She thought she was entitled to my life, that it had been stolen from her.” After explaining what Jackie had told her about her background and her thought processes, Skye concluded with, “She is a classic case of narcissistic personality disorder.”

“You mean someone who is charming, but has no conscience?” Charlie asked.

“No. That’s a sociopath. A narcissist can win people over only in the short term. He or she can’t maintain the illusion of friendliness and caring for very long.” Skye struggled to explain, finally quoting the definition of narcissistic personality disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: “‘Someone with grandiose fantasies, a total lack of empathy, and a hypersensitivity to the evaluation of others.’ ”

“In other words”—Homer snorted—“she can’t take criticism, takes advantage of the people around her, and thinks her shit doesn’t stink.”

“In a nutshell, yes,” Skye agreed. Trust Homer to cut to the chase. Then she muttered under her breath, “And since you usually believe only what you want to believe, you ate it right up.”

“But why?” Justin drew his brows together. “What caused her to be that way?”

Skye felt a twinge of concern. Maybe she shouldn’t have allowed the teenager to stay and hear all this. But since she had, she needed to try to help him understand.

“The closest I can figure is that all her life, Jackie felt like a nonentity—a blank slate—which is why she was so good at assuming other people’s identities. Then when the county clerk made the error with our birth certificates, she saw it as a sign. There had been a mistake. She wasn’t a nobody. She was Skye Denison. Which meant I had to disappear, so she could become the person she was meant to be.”

After what seemed like a thousand questions later, everyone left, and Skye breathed a sigh of relief. She was returning to her desk, hoping to get some work done, when Kurt slipped back into her office.

She turned toward him with a questioning look. “Forget something?”

He closed the door. “I need to tell you something before you hear it from Chief Boyd.”

“What?” Skye mentally raced through the possibilities.

“I’m not who you think I am.”

“You don’t say.” She was taken aback for a second, but recovered quickly and added, “You didn’t fool me for a minute with that small-town-reporter bit.” Okay, he had fooled her for way more than a minute, but he didn’t need to know that.

Kurt raised an eyebrow. “What gave me away?”

“For someone who supposedly wrote for a weekly newspaper, you were much too interested in hard news. Small-town reporters are more interested in the high school football team or who was drunk Saturday night than real crime.” Skye summed up her suspicions: “And then, there’s that honking big gun you were aiming at Jackie at the motor court yesterday afternoon.”

“Guess I’m not as good at being undercover as I thought I was.” Kurt’s smile was tentative.

Skye wasn’t distracted by his charisma. “So you were using me.”

“I’m sorry about that, but I had no choice.” All humor was gone from his handsome face, lines etching themselves around his mouth and eyes.

“I knew all that flirting was only an act.” Skye told herself she had no right to be upset about that. She was in love with Wally and didn’t want Kurt’s attentions. Still, she couldn’t help but add, “It’s not a big surprise that you weren’t really attracted to me.”

“That isn’t true.” Kurt cupped her chin in his palm. “I think you’re smart and fun and incredibly sexy.”

“Right. Playboy is always calling me up to model for them.”

“Just because most men like stick women who wouldn’t jiggle if you tied them to a paint mixer”—Kurt caressed her cheek with his thumb—“doesn’t mean that I do. I’m not most men.”

His blue eyes were mesmerizing, sending a ripple of awareness through her, but Skye forced herself to step away from him. “Yeah, well, we know who you aren’t. The question is, who are you?”

“I’m a private detective.” His fingers threaded through hers and stopped her from backing any farther away from him. “I was hired six months ago by the family of Veronica Vail to look into her death.”

“The woman Jackie impersonated last fall.” Skye jerked her hand from his. “You knew Jackie was a fake all along, and you didn’t warn me.”

“I didn’t know. That was the problem.” He scratched his chin. “I found a story about the spa murder that mentioned State Special Agent Veronica Vail. And considering that the real Veronica was already dead by that time, I came to Scumble River to investigate. It wasn’t much of a lead, but it was all I had.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. I was here during the cooking contest, and when I checked out all the contestants, I found out that the real Imogene Ingersoll was dead, too. Unfortunately, the fake Imogene disappeared before I could talk to her.” Frustration deepened Kurt’s voice. “Which made me think that there must be something about this town that was attracting Veronica’s killer.”

“But how did you get a job at the Star?” Skye asked.

“Pure luck. When I was here during the contest I grabbed a newspaper, saw the ad for a reporter, and since my undergrad degree is in journalism, I applied for the position.”

“I’m surprised you were hired so easily.”

“I did work as a reporter for several years after college, so I had references and a portfolio.” Red crept up his neck. “I may have flirted with the owner a little, too.”

Skye didn’t comment on his admission. Instead she asked, “What made you suspect Jackie?”

“I narrowed my search to anyone who was new in town since April, but it took me until a couple of days ago to nail down everyone’s background information.”

“And when you did, you didn’t think to warn me?” Skye’s stare bore into him.

“Well, I had no proof of anything, and at first it seemed as if the impostor was after Annette’s identity. But that didn’t make sense, since she hadn’t left town once Annette had been killed. Everything suggested you were her intended target, but I couldn’t be sure.”

“Right.” Skye stepped around him and opened the door. “What you really mean is that you didn’t want to tip your hand and let her get away.”

“I was watching to make sure nothing happened to you.” Kurt followed her and took her by the shoulders. “I thought I could protect you and solve my case.”

“But your case came first.”

He struggled to respond, then shrugged, bent his head, and kissed her.

The touch of his mouth on hers produced a delicious sensation, and for a long moment Skye responded. Finally she pushed him away. “No. I can’t do this. I can’t betray Wally.”

“That’s good to hear.”

They both turned toward the door, where Wally stood with his hands in his pockets.

Kurt looked from Skye to the chief. “I had to try.”

Wally dipped his head in silent acknowledgment.

After stroking Skye’s cheek with one finger, Kurt saluted Wally and walked away.

Skye hesitated for a heartbeat, then threw herself into Wally’s arms. “You’re not jealous?”

“Should I be?”

She shook her head. “Never.”

Crushing her to him, he whispered against her lips, “Will you marry me?”

Before Skye could respond, Wally pressed his mouth to hers, kissing her until she could no longer think. Which was a good thing, because she had no idea what her answer would be.