Chapter 11

A slight rapping on the door woke them. "Grace? Hello, Grace? Molly? Are you two awake?"

"Um, yeah, Zoe. We are now." Grace yawned and mumbled.

"Sorry, but there's somebody here to see you," Zoe said.

"Oh. That's weird. Who is it?" Molly asked. She sat up, bare-breasted, her hips covered by the comforter. She lifted it to cover her chest just in case Zoe opened the door.

"Anna Bonnet Sanders," Zoe answered. "I didn't know you three knew each other."

"We don't," Grace said. She came instantly wide awake. "We'll be right down."

Grace and Molly looked at each other. "Isn't she the girlfriend of the investment broker doing business with Jeremy?" Molly asked.

"Yeah, she is. Or was. I heard they broke up, remember?"

"What does she want with us?" Molly slid out of bed and began to get dressed. She tossed Grace her underwear and bra while she put on her own. Then she reached for her jeans and sweater.

Grace put on her underthings then shimmied into her jeans and pulled on her shirt in record time. "Guess we'll find out in a couple of minutes."

After checking themselves in the dresser mirror and trying to tame their sex-wild hair, they hurried downstairs.

A beautiful Black woman was waiting for them in the parlor along with Emma and Zoe. They must have already put Lily down for a nap, Grace thought. Good. We can use the backup.

The woman was dressed in a colorful wrap dress and stylish shoes. Her coat was hanging on a hook by the door. She moved with an elegance that a woman was either born with or paid a hell of a lot of money to learn.

She had a lovely face and large dark eyes that seemed so deep one could easily get lost in their depths. Her lips were full, and her gleaming white teeth showed in her smile.

Ordinarily, Grace would be taken with someone so outstandingly beautiful, but Anna Bonnet Sanders' smile was cold and predatory. "How do you do? I'm Anna. I assume you're Molly?"

"No, I'm Grace. This is Molly," Grace said, indicating Molly by putting an arm around her shoulders. Marking her turf, so to speak. She's mine. Deal with it.

"Oh, pardon me. How do you do, Molly?" She reached out a hand with long, perfectly manicured nails studded with rhinestones.

Molly shook it and nodded to Anna. "What can I do for you, Ms. Sanders?"

"Oh, do call me Anna. I was hoping you and I could have a private chat."

Grace did not like the sound of that and practically growled.

Molly didn't like it either, evidently. "Anything you can say to me, you can say in front of Grace."

"I prefer us to be alone."

Molly lifted her chin. "I prefer otherwise."

Anna sighed, as if greatly put out. "Very well." She looked pointedly at Zoe and Emily. "If you two ladies will excuse us…?"

Zoe looked like she was about to argue, but Emily took her arm and quieted her. "Of course. We'll go check on Lily, our daughter. She's asleep in the nursery."

She led Zoe upstairs, and Grace knew Emily would get an earful when Zoe got her alone. Probably about being ordered out of a room in their own house by a perfect stranger.

"Please, have a seat, Anna," Grace said, gesturing to the sofa.

"No, I prefer to stand, thank you." Anna never looked away from Molly for a moment. "I'll make this short and sweet. I understand you're the girlfriend — or was — of that piece of trash Jeremy Prada. Is that true?"

Molly looked at Grace, almost in a panic. "I…I was. A year ago."

"You mean to tell me you haven't talked to him in all that time?" Anna asked. Her arms crossed in front of her.

"No. Not in a year."

Anna's lips curled into her shark smile again. "Listen. It's just us girls in here. I'm not wired, and I'm not with the police. I only need to know where my money is."

"I have no idea where your money is!" Molly said, her eyes wide.

"Come on. The boyfriend must've let something slip during pillow talk. Please tell me it's not in an offshore account. Or in Switzerland, God forbid? Tell me where it is."

"I don't know where it is. I swear to God, I don't!" Molly cried.

Grace stood up. "That's enough. Molly has told you she doesn't know where Jeremy put the money he stole. I'm sorry if you got caught up in a Ponzi scheme. Why didn't your boyfriend stop you from investing in it?"

Anna looked like she'd been slapped in the face. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, please. Everybody knows you were sleeping with Albert Herves while you were working for him." Grace watched Anna's steel demeanor melt. "You can't tell me you thought it was still a secret?"

"I-I didn't know you knew. You're not a resident in town, and Molly didn't run in the same circles I did. How did you find out?"

"That's not important. What is, is that Molly doesn't know what Jeremy did with the money."

"That rat bastard took me for everything I had! He took advantage of me." Tears welled up in Anna's beautiful dark eyes. She suddenly didn't look very predatory anymore…more like the prey in a documentary about hungry lions. "Albert had just dumped me, and by that I mean from both my job and his bed. I was floundering, and Jeremy was so sweet and kind…"

"I know. He could be very comforting when he wanted to be," Molly said. She patted the sofa next to her.

Anna sat, and Grace could feel her shaking. "I started an affair with Jeremy. It was so good in the beginning. Plus, it drove Albert out of his ever-loving mind. That was icing on the cake, though. It was more important that Jeremy made me feel wanted and needed, and beautiful. He made me feel necessary . Can you understand that?"

"Yes, but you don't need a man to make you necessary or relevant. You are a strong, beautiful woman," Grace said.

"He had me wrapped around his little finger. I'd do anything for him. So when he said he could invest my savings and get me a huge return in a short turnaround time, I fell for it. I gave him everything I had."

"And he lost it, did he?" Grace asked.

"He said he did. I didn't believe him. He lied about things…about who he was sleeping with, for one. He was having an affair with a woman named Bridget McBain. She works in a beauty shop here in town. She's not even a stylist — she washes hair and sweeps up." The other Anna, the tough one, started to peek through the tears, showing herself again. The shark was coming back, and it was pissed. "When I confronted him about her, he said he was leaving me for her. Leaving me! For a hair-washer. I could've killed him!"

Molly and Grace exchanged a knowing look. "And…did you?" Molly asked.

"Did I what?" Anna growled.

Grace cut in. "Did you kill him?"

Anna sputtered. "N-no! No, of course I didn't. That's absurd. I have an alibi. I was at home, working on my résumé."

"Uh-huh. Okay. Well, you've found out what you needed to know. Molly has no idea what Jeremy did with your money." Grace stood up, indicating Anna's time in the house was done.

"Well, I don't believe her. I want my money. Do you understand? You'd better figure out what he did with it quickly, or you'll be sorry!" Anna spat, stood up, and grabbed her coat from the hook. "Thanks for the hospitality!" she hollered as she stormed out the door, slamming it behind her.

"Wow. I did not think it would go that way when we came down and met her," Molly said. "She seemed so refined."

"Refinement only stretches so far when it's a mask you wear," Grace said. "That woman is about as refined as a polecat, and her claws were out."

"What am I going to do? I don't know what Jeremy did with their money. I don't know anything." Molly cried. She leaned against Grace, sniffling.

"Honey, nobody expects you to know anything. At least nobody who is thinking clearly and not desperate. We all know you left him long before he started this Ponzi scheme of his."

Grace looked up at the sound of feet on the stairs. Emily and Zoe were coming down, and Zoe was carrying Lily.

"Poor little girl. Did the door slamming wake her up?" Molly asked.

Grace noticed Molly's eyes were glinting with tears and tightened her arm around Molly's shoulder.

"Yeah. What happened down here? We could hear Anna yelling, but couldn't follow what she was saying," Emily said. She took Lily from Zoe, propped the tot against her shoulder, and began to rock her, patting her back.

"I'm sorry she woke Lily. She was really angry with me because I don't know what Jeremy did with the money she invested in his Ponzi scheme."

"Jeremy might not have had it," Zoe said. "He would've made his money early on, with the first investors, then skimmed some off each investment going forward. But money from later investors would have gone to pay off the earlier investors, and so on. He probably just made off with the last tier's investments. Unless he didn't pay anybody . That's also a possibility."

"Well, she thinks I know. She practically threatened me. Told me I needed to remember where he stashed the money ‘or else.'" Molly shivered.

"You don't think she was the one who hit your car, do you?"

"No, I don't think so. I think she wanted to know about the money, and if she killed us, her opportunity to find out would've been gone," Grace reasoned.

"She did mention that Albert Herves was cheating on her with a girl named Bridget McBain. Maybe we should talk to her," Molly said.

"I think we need to quit fooling around and go straight to the top and have a conversation with Albert Herves," Grace said.

"Sheriff Maverick isn't going to like it if she hears about it," Emily warned. "Plus, Albert Herves is a pretty powerful guy. You need to be careful."

"Maybe we should talk to Bridget McBain first. She might be able to give us some insight into Herves," Molly said.

Grace nodded. It sounded reasonable. "Okay. Tomorrow, we'll go talk to Bridget McBain. I also want to talk to Sheriff Maverick and find out what's going on with my maze."