Triple Dipped Murder

by Gretchen Allen

  Yvette beamed. “I appreciate that. You and Heath have been so good to me over the years, it’s the least I can do. It’s his sixtieth birthday party, that’s an important one.”

  “Maybe I can get Nate to help out too, so you don’t have to take away any employees from the shop?” Audrey offered.

  “Nate’s coming?” She felt a little silly even asking, of course he was coming for his own father’s party.

  “He is. Apparently, we told him early enough, so it didn’t interfere with his wife’s important life,” Audrey said wryly.

  “It’ll be good to see him. Is Bridget coming too?”

  Nate Briggs. Yvette hadn’t seen him since he got married. Audrey and Heath had tried their hardest to convince him not to marry Bridget but when he finally did and made the move to Florida, they were devastated. Neither of his parents trusted his wife, both feeling like she was just using Nate; the woman hadn’t worked a day in her life.

  “Not if I can help it.” Audrey slapped a hand over her mouth.

  Yvette giggled at Audrey, knowing just how upset it had made her when Nate told her he was leaving Heritage. She didn’t disagree but refrained from commenting. After all, what Nate did really wasn’t her business anymore.

  The two women finished up their plans for Heath’s surprise party, promising to get together later in the week to finalize the menu.

  Picking up a bag and a sheet of tissue paper, Yvette dropped two apple fritters in and folded the bag over. Shrugging her shoulders, she picked up one more and took a big bite. Hearing stifled laughter from behind her, she turned around to see who had caught her filling her face.

  “They are pretty tasty, aren’t they?” Colleen asked.

  Wiping crumbs from her shirt, she agreed. “They’re delicious.”

  Yvette had been trying to figure out how to approach Colleen without arousing her suspicion, so luck must have been on her side today. She had so many questions for the woman and figured now was as good a time as any to confront her about Laura. Being in a public place didn’t hurt either since she wasn’t sure if the conversation would go similarly to the way it had last time.

  “I haven’t seen you around lately. Busy over at the boutique?” Yvette asked.

  “Could be better,” Colleen replied with a grimace. “I don’t know if everyone is avoiding the place because of Laura or what, but it’s been a pretty slow lately.”

  “Oh wow, you’d think they’d be coming in left and right to support you now that you lost your business partner.” Yvette tried to make Colleen think she was on her side.

  “Want to take this conversation over to my store? I’d rather not have it in front of everyone.”

  Dandelion was just two doors down from Stafford’s, so they didn’t have to go far but Yvette wasn’t sure how to respond. She didn’t really want everyone to hear what they had to say either but at the same time being alone with Colleen probably wasn’t the best idea. “Sure, let me just pay for my snacks and I’ll meet you there,” she said, feeling a little reluctant.

  “Where did we leave off?” Yvette asked as she came through the doors of Dandelion Boutique.

  “Everyone pretending like I don’t exist after Laura got herself killed?” Colleen scoffed. “You asked why customers weren’t coming in. I don’t really blame them I suppose, it’s a hard situation. Leave it to Laura to still be ruining things from the grave.”

  Yvette did her best to hide her shock at Colleen’s harsh words. She was well-known for her mood swings, but this was a little out of the ordinary for her. “I remember you saying she was considering leaving the business. Would it have been better if she did, do you think?”

  “Yes and no. She really made me angry when she said she’d be taking time away. I knew it would eventually lead to her saying she’d be going for good. It was all over Steve’s money, too. I knew she wanted to just sit back and live off of him. She may have been brilliant when it came to making sure this place looked so stunning,” she waved around the store, “but, she always held everything over my head.”

  Yvette could remember over the years, listening to the two women bicker over the business. It was making more and more sense why Colleen might have actually killed her.

  “You did a lot around here, too. Don’t sell yourself short,” Yvette told Colleen sincerely.

  “I’ve spent the majority of my life living in that woman’s shadow.” She shook her head. “Does it make me a terrible person to say that I think that employee of yours did me a favor?”

  “Joey? They let him out...” Yvette said, her heart racing.

  Colleen had a look in her eyes that Yvette had never seen before. “What do you mean they let him out? They have to think it’s him.”

  Yvette knew she needed to get out of there. She had been leaning toward what her dad had said, that it didn’t make sense for Colleen to have killed Laura, but she wasn’t so sure about that anymore.

  “You don’t mean that. You’re upset, and sad you lost your friend!” Yvette backed up from the counter where she and Colleen had been standing.

  “I do mean that. I loved her but I’m glad she’s gone. She won’t be around to tell me what to do anymore and poor Steve won’t run out of all that money he won in two months because of her overspending.” Colleen’s face turned red as she clenched her fists and came around the counter toward Yvette.

  “I’m calling the police. I can’t believe you killed her. How could you do something so terrible?” Yvette shouted, her adrenaline spiking.

  “What?! You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Colleen’s eyes went wide.

  She continued backing away until she was nearly to the front door. Colleen took a few quick steps toward her. Yvette turned around as fast as she could and ran out the door into the street. Looking around hoping someone was nearby so that she could ease her anxiety. There was no doubt in her mind now that Colleen killed Laura Hudson.

  14

  I was so scared.” Yvette broke down.

  “Why did you even try to talk to her and why on earth would you go alone?” Amelia led her friend to a chair in her living room.

  “I don’t know. I was just frustrated that I couldn’t figure out who killed Laura. I was beginning to think that it really was an accident, and the police were wrong. Her husband may have been upset that she was buying so many things but, he was her HUSBAND. He loved her. I know they say it’s always the spouse, but they truly loved each other, and it didn’t make sense.”

  “What about Joey?”

  “They let him go, but he hasn’t returned my calls or stopped by Sundae Afternoon so I’m not sure.” Yvette leaned back in the chair.

  “Have you told Heath yet?”

  “No. I came right here. I just wanted to catch my breath for a second.”

  “I mean, don’t you think you should call him? He needs to know what happened, so he can be the one to check it out,” Amelia scolded.

  She sighed and pulled out her phone. “You’re right.”

  Yvette called Heath at the Police Station and told him what happened when she went to see Colleen. Her jaw dropped as she listened to what Heath had to say. Embarrassed, she hung up the phone and put her head in her hands.

  “What just happened?”

  Yvette opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t get the words out.

  “Out with it!”

  “So, obviously you heard me tell him what happened. But then he told me that Colleen had an alibi for the day Laura was killed. She was at a vendor conference.”

  “But why did she act the way she did at the store then?”

  “I don’t know but Heath told me something else. He told me that he was on his way to arrest Joey. They just let him go and now they are doing an official arrest.”

  “I thought they cleared him? What did they find? Did he confess?” Amelia took a breath.

  “Me too, and I don’t know. Heath told me to stay away and stop getting involved.”

  “I know
you’re disappointed, but isn’t it a good thing they caught the killer?” Amelia put her hand on Yvette’s shoulder.

  “Of course. No one wants a killer running around town.”

  Amelia breathed a sigh of relief.

  “I’m sorry. I have to go see Marie and Steve. I feel like I’m somehow responsible for hurting them. I stuck up for Joey and he killed a member of their family. I need to go apologize to them. Oh no, I have to find Colleen too, she must be so upset with me.”

  Yvette darted out of Amelia’s house and ran down the walkway to her car with tears blurring her vision. She had never felt so guilty in her entire life. She’d stuck up for a killer, fought with her family and the police about it, and somehow managed to accuse an innocent person of murder. She knew she had to make this right.

  15

  Yvette drove as fast as she possibly could while still obeying the law, to the Hudson’s house. She saw both Marie and Steve sitting on their front porch. They stood when they saw her pull in and Marie started walking down the stairs to greet her.

  “Marie!” Yvette threw her arms around her friend. “I am so sorry. I am NOT the good friend you said I was. I should have tried harder to be there for you, and I never should have fought so hard to prove that Joey didn’t kill Laura.”

  Steve met the girls by Yvette’s car. “What’s going on?”

  “Yvette thinks we’re upset with her for sticking up for Joey.”

  “There is no way you could have known,” Steve said. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Why don’t you girls head inside, and I’ll run down to the bistro and grab us some lunch?”

  “I don’t deserve that. You guys don’t have to be so nice to me.” Yvette could barely look at him.

  “Hogwash,” Steve shook his head. “I’ll be back soon.”

  Marie led Yvette up the walkway to the porch. They were both silent for a few moments before Marie spoke up.

  “You know how they finally figured out it was Joey?”

  “I came here the minute I heard. I didn’t even ask,” Yvette realized.

  “Mrs. Aldridge called the station and told them she remembered something about the day Laura was killed.”

  “Really? After all this time?” Yvette wondered.

  “Yup. She remembered seeing Joey come out from the backyard and down to his truck, said he was soaking wet.”

  “Wasn’t he doing work around here though?”

  “Yeah, and to think that the whole time he was out there with her, I was in the house fixing our lunch. I didn’t even know he was here. Everything looked fine though, so he had no reason to be here at all. When I came out, I found her in the pool. I jumped in and tried to pull her out, but I was too late, her body was limp, and I couldn’t save her.”

  “Marie, I had no idea you were the one to find her! Why didn’t you tell me?” Yvette was stunned.

  “Because she wasn’t the one to find her.” A voice came from the side of the house through the open window.

  Both women turned and saw Mrs. Aldridge shuffling up the porch steps. Marie opened the door and pulled the older woman in by her arm, a strange look in her eyes.

  “You bullied me into telling the police that I saw that young man walking away from your backyard the day Laura died but I can’t sit here and listen to you tell lies anymore.” The gray-haired woman insisted, wrenching out of Marie’s grasp.

  Mrs. Aldridge was the sweetest person ever. She volunteered at the senior center, played weekly bunco games and knitted hats for newborn babies. Had Marie really bullied her? Was she covering for Steve? What had she said to that poor woman? Yvette couldn’t believe what she was hearing and wondered if she should take Mrs. Aldridge home and leave before Steve got back.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Marie snarled.

  Yvette was speechless. Joey wasn’t actually there that day? But that meant that the woman had lied twice, the first time she said she heard Joey and Laura arguing about money and then she’d told the police that she saw Joey leave the scene quickly and soaking wet. Something wasn’t adding up.

  “Stop your nonsense.” Mrs. Aldridge came closer. “That young man was here that day, and I did hear him arguing with Laura. But he left hours before the police arrived. There’s no way he could have done it. You and Laura were the only ones here.” She shook her finger at Marie.

  “What are you saying?” Yvette stood up.

  “I’m saying that your friend here killed her stepmother and I’m not going to hide from her anymore. She told me that she’d make my life miserable if I didn’t do what she asked. I’ve spent the last few days terrified of my own shadow. I’m seventy-five years old and I don’t want to live my life in fear. Something needs to be done about her.” She glared at Marie.

  “Can you believe this?” Marie turned to Yvette, shocked. “She’s lost her mind!” she whispered.

  “I’m not the one who’s crazy here, young lady!

  “I won’t stand here and listen to this.” Marie stared at the old woman.

  Mrs. Aldridge kept going. “I know what you did. You let everyone think that you were a sweet little thing that loved her stepmother. Spending time with her, cooking her meals and going shopping with her. You couldn’t stand her. You knew she couldn’t swim, and you went inside to pretend to make some lunch then you came back out and surprised her by pushing her off that pool float. The boy wasn’t the one that was soaking wet, you were. And not because you tried to save her, but because she struggled when you held her under the water.” The woman finally took a breath.

  Yvette stared at Mrs. Aldridge as if she had three heads.

  “Marie? Is that true, did you kill Laura?” she trembled at the thought.

  Marie Hudson leaned against the wall and slid down, looking defeated. “I tried to tell you, Yvette. I called you twice, and you didn’t answer either time. I was feeling so guilty and you have always been so easy to talk to. I knew if I told you what I did that you’d make me feel better about it.”

  “I don’t understand.” Yvette thought back to the missed calls she’d received.

  “She’s right. I didn’t like Laura. I hated her, and I always have,” Marie huffed. “When my father won all that money, and I saw her spending it without a care in the world, I was furious. I get they were married, but it wasn’t her money.” Marie squeezed her eyes shut. “It was supposed to be mine. That was going to be my inheritance and at the rate she was going, I’d never have seen it.”

  Yvette looked around to see if she could find a phone, regretting that she’d left her purse in the car. She had to call the police. Her friend, the woman she’d known for all these years, had just admitted to killing someone. A member of her own family.

  Marie continued, her lower lip quivering, “I pretended to make her lunch, so it would look like I was in the house when she drowned. I pulled her out and ran around the yard a few times to make it look like I was worn out, and then I called the police. I knew that old bat was on to me.” She glared at her neighbor. “So, I told her I’d kill her next if she didn’t tell the police she saw Joey leaving the house for the second time.”

  “We have to call the police, Marie,” Yvette told her friend. “If you turn yourself in, they may give you a break.”

  Yvette knew that wasn’t true, but she was grasping at straws. She should have listened to her father and Heath when they told her to stay out of it. Now, she’d managed to find herself face to face with the killer. Someone she’d thought was her friend. She’d been wrong about so much lately, it was hard for her to even think straight.

  “Now I’m glad you never picked up your phone when I called. I thought you’d be there for me, I thought you’d understand. I didn’t mean to do it, I just lost my patience with my greedy stepmother when I came outside and saw her scrolling a shopping app on her phone. The last thing she needed to do was more shopping. Us three, we’re going to figure this out like intelligent women.” Marie’s tone was menacing. “I’ll leave
town and you can both keep your mouth shut about what you know. No one is calling the police. I’d hate to have to blame two more deaths on Joey.” Marie rose to her feet.

  “Too late. The police are already on their way.” Steve Hudson appeared from the kitchen.

  16

  Are you sure you don’t mind me tagging along?” Gavin asked from the passenger seat.

  “My parents love you and there’s always enough food to go around. Plus, Sunday dinners are for family.” She smiled at her friend as she turned the corner onto her parent’s street.

  “I wonder what all these cars are doing here?” Gavin asked with a sly grin.

  Heath and Audrey, Amelia, Vanessa and her husband Dean, and Yvette’s parents all sat together on the Lockhart’s porch.

  “What’s going on here?” Yvette hesitated for a moment as she climbed the stairs.

  “We’re celebrating.” Abigail got up to hug her daughter.

  “Celebrating what?” Yvette asked. “Were you in on this?” She looked toward Gavin.

  “You being alive? You did almost get yourself killed.” Vanessa gave her a friendly push.

  All of Yvette’s favorite people had come together to be there for her and they’d planned this entire thing without her knowing. They’d taken care of the entree, the sides and even dessert, telling Yvette that she’d had enough to worry about this past week.

  Yvette was thankful that she had these wonderful people in her life and knew they’d all been concerned about her. She certainly hadn’t meant to get so involved in the death of Laura Hudson and definitely didn’t expect to nearly catch her murderer. If it hadn’t been for Mrs. Aldridge being brave enough to confront Marie, and Steve making the spur of the moment decision to enter the house from the back door, Joey would be sitting in jail and Marie would be running around free. Who knows who she would have hurt next. Yvette couldn’t help being disappointed in herself for believing so many of the people that she’d loved could have done such terrible things. She shuddered to think that she had been so close to someone who was capable of cold-blooded murder.