“Her shoe?” Jake repeated.
“It was a street shoe. You know, one with leather soles. Everyone in the spa wore soft-soled shoes or slippers. But this person was wearing regular shoes. My first thought was that someone had walked in on me by mistake and there I was, stark naked in the hot tub. And then I got a panicky feeling, like something terrible was about to happen.”
“Your intuition kicked in,” Elizabeth said wisely.
“That and the fact that the street shoe just sounded so wrong,” Clare agreed.
“Go on,” Jake said.
“I leaped for the middle of the pool. Valerie was already swinging the dumbbell. She had it clutched in both hands. It crashed into the pillow and fell into the pool.”
“Clare came that close to having her skull crushed,” Elizabeth said tightly. “She would have been dead or horribly injured by now if she hadn’t moved when she did.”
“What did you do next?” Jake asked Clare, careful to keep his voice neutral.
“Leaped out of the tub, of course,” Clare said. “But Valerie was already off and running before I could grab my robe. By the time I got to the door, she had disappeared.”
“You reported this, I assume,” Jake said.
Clare and Elizabeth exchanged glances.
“We did tell the assistant manager,” Clare said carefully.
“He called the cops?” Jake pressed.
“She,” Elizabeth corrected. “Her name is Karen Trent. And no, she did not call the police. She didn’t believe us when we told her what had happened. Claimed we misinterpreted events.”
“The dumbbell,” Jake said, thinking.
“Was still in the spa pool.” Clare nodded. “But Ms. Trent seemed to think that it had been accidentally dropped by whoever mistakenly opened the door of the treatment room.”
“Did you two call the police?” Jake asked.
Clare said nothing.
Elizabeth pressed her lips together.
Jake exhaled slowly. “You didn’t call the cops.”
“I have some issues with the Stone Canyon Police Department,” Clare said.
“Because of what happened to Brad,” Elizabeth explained hurriedly. “And no one would have taken me seriously without some hard evidence because everyone believes I had a nervous breakdown a while back.”
Clare lowered her bottle and looked at Elizabeth. “There’s also the little fact that you didn’t actually see anything. You were in another therapy room at the time. It would have been my word against Valerie’s.”
“True,” Elizabeth said. She turned back to Jake. “The Stone Canyon cops would have gone through the motions because of Dad but they wouldn’t have turned up anything. The bottom line is that what evidence there was got washed off the dumbbell when it went into the water.”
Maybe not all the evidence, Jake thought. He slouched back in his chair, stretched out his feet and drank some water.
“The SUV that tried to run you down in the mall yesterday,” he said after a while. “Think that was Valerie?”
“There was an SUV parked in the Shipleys’ garage this afternoon that looked identical,” Clare said.
“Let me clarify,” Jake said softly. “You went out to the Shipley house this afternoon all by yourself to confront this obsessed, crazy woman.”
Clare blinked and then flushed a dull, angry pink. She did not take criticism well, he noted.
“I thought I might be able to talk to her,” she said coldly. “Get her to see reason.”
“Clare didn’t tell me what she was planning to do,” Elizabeth put in quickly, “or I would have gone with her.”
Clare slumped deeper into her chair. “Okay, in hindsight going to see Valerie alone was probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”
He let that go. Snarling at her now probably wasn’t going to accomplish much. Besides, the main reason he wanted to read her the riot act was because he couldn’t think of any other way to work off some of the tension chewing up his insides. Nothing he said was going to change what had happened that afternoon, he reminded himself. It was time to focus on a plan of action.
“Where, exactly, do you stand with the Stone Canyon police on this thing?” he asked.
“I’m not an official suspect, if that’s what you mean,” she said. “But I was asked not to leave the Phoenix area for a while.”
“Just until the medical examiner makes an official determination of accidental drowning or suicide,” Elizabeth explained. “That shouldn’t take long. After all, Valerie Shipley’s death is a very high-profile case for the Stone Canyon police. I’m sure the authorities will rush the autopsy.”
“Meanwhile, it looks like I’m going to have to do a little hand laundry in my bathroom sink tonight,” Clare said wearily. “I’m out of clean clothes.”
Elizabeth frowned. “I can take some of your things back to the house and have the housekeeper do them for you.”
“That’s okay. Thanks, anyway. I’m sure the management of the Desert Dawn Motel won’t mind me hanging a few hand-washables out to dry on the balcony.”
Jake glanced up at her room. “The sight of your lingerie hanging from the railing would probably add a certain colorful charm to this establishment. But I think there is a better solution.”
“I know. Go shopping again.” She made a face. “It may come to that if the Stone Canyon police won’t let me leave town soon. But I’d like to avoid running up any additional expenses, if possible. This trip has already cost me a lot more than I intended to spend.”
“Send the bills to Dad,” Elizabeth said. “He’s the one who asked you to come down here.”
“I know, but I have this policy,” Clare said softly.
“‘Never take money from Archer Glazebrook,’” Elizabeth quoted, irritated. “Yes, I am well aware of your dumb policy. But if you won’t let Dad help you out, you’ll have to take the money from me.”
Clare sighed. “I’ll keep the offer in mind. With luck it won’t come to that. I’m still hoping to be on my way back to San Francisco in a couple of days.”
Jake set his water bottle aside, sat forward and folded his arms on the table. “One thing’s for sure, you’re not spending the next few nights here at the Desert Dawn.”
Clare gave him a quelling look.