Deadly Décor (A Caprice De Luca Mystery) by Karen Rose Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

had told her she’d be meeting Bob here around eight-fifteen, after the board meeting. It was almost eight-thirty, so maybe they had already slipped away. Caprice hoped not.
    She didn’t know any of the kids in the room, so she headed for the desk, where a supervising adult was on duty. The woman wore a name tag—Reena Baublitz. She looked to be in her forties. A brunette with her hair cut in an up-to-date, chin-length wedge, the woman sat at the desk with a laptop open in front of her. Every once in a while she looked over the groups in the room, then went back to what she was doing.
    Caprice decided Reena might have some answers for her.
    When Reena saw Caprice approach, she asked, “Can I help you?”
    “I hope so. I’m meeting my sister here, Bella Santini. She was going to speak to one of the board members after the meeting broke up.”
    “Oh, the board meeting was finished . . .” Reena checked her watch, “. . . a half hour ago. They all scattered afterward. I guess they’re anxious to get back to their families on a Sunday evening.”
    Caprice took out her phone and brought up a picture of Bella and showed it to Reena. “Have you seen her?”
    “Yes, I did. Just a few minutes ago. I thought she was the mom of one of the kids in the arts and crafts room. We keep the young ones separated, you know, from the older ones. Projects work out best that way.”
    Caprice could see Reena was going to march into the pros and cons of that method and was about to interrupt her when a scream rent the air from somewhere beyond the game room.
    Bella! No, couldn’t be.
    But then a second scream followed, and Caprice knew she’d been right. That was her sister’s scream.
    Although Reena and the kids in the room seemed to freeze, Caprice took off, heading toward the blood-curdling sound. Was someone trying to hurt Bella . . . kidnap her . . . mug her?
    As her mom had told her, the area beyond the game room was indeed in the midst of renovation. Plastic hung from the four walls. But the back door led outside. That door was hanging open.
    Again she heard Bella’s voice as her sister yelled, “Help. Someone please help.”
    Now Caprice heard people running behind her, but she didn’t care. She only had one thought. Get to Bella.
    When she ran outside, she stopped short at what she saw. Green paint spilled across the asphalt from an overturned can. In the midst of that paint, a man lay, his head bashed in and bloodied.
    Bella knelt beside him, crying, saying over and over, “He doesn’t have a pulse. I can’t find a pulse.” She was struggling with the body, trying to turn it over, apparently intending to attempt CPR.
    As soon as Bella pushed the man to his back, Caprice recognized him. Bob Preston lay there in the puddle of green paint, and he looked . . . dead.

Chapter Four
    Caprice speed-dialed Vince.
    Before he even had time to ask “What’s up?” as he usually did when he saw her name on his screen, she said, “Bella needs you at the police station. Hurry.”
    An officer was helping Bella into a patrol car, bloody clothes and all.
    Caprice was about to be isolated and questioned by a detective. Her fingerprints were already on file with AFIS—the Automated Fingerprint Identification System—since she’d stumbled into another crime scene. After one look at Bella, the officers at the scene had decided to take her to the station for what Caprice knew would be an interrogation—not merely questioning. She also guessed, as had occurred in the spring when she’d happened onto the murder scene, that her car, as well as Bella’s, would be impounded. There would be warrants issued, and the cars would be towed to the station’s garage and searched.
    “What happened?” Vince inquired sharply, all lawyer now.
    Caprice quickly told him.
    “Are you okay?” he wanted to know.
    “I’m fine. But I heard some chatter. Detective Jones will be questioning Bella, and he’s ruthless. I know what Roz went