“Wait, what about Joy? I’m her ride,” Bernadette said.
“Don’t worry, she can come hang out at our house for a bit and then we’ll take her home. Is that OK, Joy? I’m sure Katie will appreciate the company since I need to get back to work,” Winnie said. Joy agreed, and the trio left together.
When it was just the four of us and Sana had locked the door to ensure privacy, Detective Park got down to the reason for his visit. “Lila and Bernadette, can you wait for me in that room over there?” He pointed toward the changing room. “I need to speak to Ms. Williams first, but there’s something I need to talk to you about.”
Bernadette and I obeyed. The changing room was too far away from where he and Sana were talking to eavesdrop, so Bernadette and I had to speculate on what was happening.
“Do you think he’s here about the newspaper article?” I asked, chewing on a nail. I thought I’d kicked this habit but guess not. I should visit Winnie’s salon again. If I kept my nails pretty, maybe I’d be less inclined to gnaw on them.
“Has to be. Why else would he want to talk to her? I wonder what he wants from us.” Bernadette cracked open the changing room door and peeked out a bit. “You don’t think . . . It couldn’t be her, right? I really don’t want it to be her.”
“It can’t be her. Mr. Weinman’s the one sending those notes.”
“She could still be Rob’s killer though. I mean, obviously I hope not, but you never know.” Bernadette pulled out her phone to look over the newspaper article. “I wonder who leaked the info?”
I pulled out my own phone to reread the article, maybe get an idea of who could’ve given the Shady Palms News the story. “Who else knew about this? Amir would never do anything like this and neither would Adeena and Elena.”
“Wait, you knew?” Bernadette looked up at me, eyes wide.
“Amir told me and the girls the night before that dinner at Tita Rosie’s Kitchen. He thought it might have bearing on the case, but he didn’t want word to spread since, you know, sensitive nature and all.”
Bernadette looked hurt I hadn’t told her, but just asked, “Well, do you think anyone else knew about it?”
“Rob did. We think he was blackmailing Sana, which Amir considered a motive.”
“So then—”
“Oh my gulay, do you think it was Beth who leaked the story? If Rob knew about Sana’s past, it’s possible that Beth did, too.”
“True . . . but I’m pretty sure you’re just saying that because you’re jealous about her and Jae.”
“Shut up! Not every choice I make has to be about my love life!” And whether or not I was jealous, which I wasn’t, it all made a sick kind of sense if this was her way of lashing out about everything that had been going on. Jae already said Beth saw Sana as competition. Couple that with the fact she wasn’t getting any money from Rob’s estate, the antagonism between her and Valerie aggravating the situation, and, you know, her husband’s murder, and she was bound to implode. “Anyway, it makes more sense that Beth did it than—”
Detective Park suddenly opened the door, causing me to shriek and Bernadette to stumble over since she was still peering through the crack. He sighed.
“I’m going to let it go this one time, but I don’t want to catch you trying to eavesdrop on another one of my conversations. Are we clear?”
We both nodded, and the look on Bernadette’s face told me she was thinking the same thing as me: We were in the clear as long as he didn’t actually catch us in the act.
“Moving on, the reason I asked you to stay is because of these.” He pulled on a pair of gloves before showing us a clear evidence bag holding two envelopes. He handed them to us and said, “I came here to talk to Sana and saw these two envelopes on your car windshields out in front. Considering what’s been going on, I wanted you two to open them in front of me.”
Bernadette and I looked at each other, then opened the envelopes at the same time, pulling out the paper to compare. Same envelope, same handwriting, same message.
Mind your business. Curiosity killed the cat, remember?
Mr. Weinman must’ve found out we’d tipped off the police about him. But why include Bernadette in this? I looked over at her and asked as much. She gave me one of her Are you for real? looks, the one that let me know I had just asked something completely thoughtless.
“Did you honestly think you were the only one investigating? The only one asking questions? Just because I asked for your help didn’t mean I was sitting at home watching K-dramas while waiting for you to get results. Someone must’ve let it slip I was asking about him.”