by Amber Crewes
“Oh, no,” Lucky replied coyly as the woman batted her eyelashes. “This is my performing partner, Wendy. She helps me out with my tricks sometimes. She’ll be working alongside me during the funeral.”
Meghan bit her lip. She wondered if Pamela, Mia, and their family knew about this Wendy woman. Wendy appeared younger than Meghan, with giant dark eyes, a tiny waist, and hair that cascaded down her back and nearly reached her bottom.
“Nice to meet you all,” Wendy said as she licked her lips flirtatiously. “I’m from Las Vegas, but this bad man here wanted me to come help him. I would help Lucky with anything…”
Lucky winked at Wendy. “She’s quite a gal, this Wendy.”
Meghan watched as Wendy tucked her hair behind her ears and sidled up to Lucky. She whispered something to him, and sneakily reached a hand behind his back to swat his bottom.
“That’s enough,” Jeanne Marie declared matter-of-factly. “You two shouldn’t be flirting on the job, and I’ve had enough of your PDA. You’ve been hired by us, and I demand you two behave as professionals.”
Rupert sighed. “Please excuse my wife,” he apologized to the group.
“Oh, stop, Rupert,” Jeanne Marie commanded. “I will speak my mind as I please.”
Lucky marched up to Jeanne Marie and stared into her eyes. “I’ll have you know that I don’t let fancy pants women talk to me like that,” he stated as he glared at her. “I have a wife at home. Wendy is my partner for performing. That’s the last you’ll say about it, ma’am.”
Meghan’s heart pounded as she watched Jeanne Marie look into Lucky’s face. She rolled her eyes at him. “I won’t let hired help speak to me this way,” she told her husband. “Rupert, this clown and his special friend simply won’t do for your father’s funeral. Clown, you are dismissed.”
Jeanne Marie turned and stormed out of the room and Rupert followed her. “Well, that was rude,” Wendy snickered as Lucky crossed his arms. “What a rich, snotty lady!”
Mr. Cazale turned on his heel and chased after them. “I need their business,” Meghan heard him muttering.
A few moments later, Rupert and Jeanne Marie reentered the library, and Jeanne Marie pointed to Lucky. “We’re going to have a chat,” she growled as she gazed at the clown. “If my husband is going to insist on hiring you, I’m going to tell you how I expect you to act. Come with me.”
Lucky turned to blow a kiss at Wendy, and then, he followed Jeanne Marie out of the room. He emerged from the hallway ten minutes later, a nervous smile on his face. “I think the beautiful lady is going to be a satisfied customer,” he announced to the room as Mr. Cazale sighed in relief. “She told me what she expects, and I plan to deliver.”
“More like she paid him off to act a certain way,” Rupert muttered under his breath. “She does it all the time to our staff at home. This isn’t a surprise.”
Jeanne Marie marched to the green velvet couch in the middle of the room and sat down. “Now that that’s settled,” she announced. “Let’s enjoy ourselves. Meghan? Please serve us some of the foods you brought over. Mr. Cazale mentioned you had some items that we could taste test?”
“Of course,” Meghan agreed.
“And Ducky?”
“It’s Lucky,” he answered flatly.
“Of course. Lucky? Let’s see some tricks from you and Wendy.”
Lucky bowed reverently. Meghan saw him cough and scratch his ears. He did it again and again, but then regained his composure.
“Let’s see some acrobatics,” Jeanne Marie commanded as Lucky nodded.
“Your wish is my command,” Lucky obeyed as he gestured for Wendy to join him. Lucky lifted Wendy into the air, and she balanced on his shoulders as she juggled a set of colorful balls.
“Ta-da!”
Jeanne Marie clapped her hands. “Wonderful. Rupert? What do you want to see?”
Rupert joined his wife on the couch. “How about some flips?”
Lucky grinned. “Those are my specialty!”
Lucky threw Wendy across the room, and she tumbled in the air, managing to land on her two feet with a smile on her face. “And now, the triple flip!” Lucky yelled in delight as Wendy clapped for him.
Lucky took a long breath, and Meghan noticed he paused to scratch his back. He exhaled, took a step forward, and plunged into a triple flip across the room. He landed perfectly, with his back straight and his legs strong. “Ta da!”
Everyone clapped, and even Jeanne Marie had a smile on her face. “That was marvelous,” Rupert remarked. “Can you do that at the funeral?”
Lucky winked. “Of course I can,” he declared as he brushed an invisible piece of lint off of his shoulder. “Do you want to see another trick?
Everyone nodded, and Lucky threw his hands in the air. He took a long breath and closed his eyes. The excitement was building, and Meghan could hardly wait to see what he would do next.
“And now,” he announced grandly as his eyes opened. “I will perform a quadruple twist with two front step outs.”
“Two?” Wendy shrieked. “That’s unheard of, baby! I mean…boss! Don’t do it!”
Lucky looked at Wendy with a twinkle in his eyes. “Don’t you worry about me, darlin’,” he assured her. “Lucky is gonna have some good luck with this!”
Wendy gasped as he lowered his arms to his sides and took off running across the room. He leapt onto the couch, using it as a springboard, and everyone stared as he curled his body into a tiny ball, twisting and flailing in the air. He nearly hit the cavernous ceiling; his momentum was carrying him high, and Meghan’s body tensed as Lucky pulled out of the twist and reached for his ankles as he spun in the air.
“He’s going to hurt himself,” she worriedly whispered to Mr. Cazale. “There’s no way he can land on his feet. That stunt looks harder than anything I’ve watched on tv at the Olympics.”
Just then, Lucky curled over, letting go of his feet and throwing his arms in the air to slow his fall. He bent his knees, and as the group watched in horror, he landed on his feet, bouncing gently as he stuck the landing.
“You did it!” Wendy exclaimed as she ran to embrace the clown. “I can’t believe you pulled that off.”
Lucky gave a stately bow, and the room burst into applause. “I am full of tricks,” he laughed, but as he chuckled, he began to cough. “Excuse me,” he sputtered as he heaved into his hand. “I don’t know what’s come over me."
Meghan noticed his pale face, and Wendy darted towards him. “Are you okay, Lucky? What’s wrong? Was that landing too hard for you? I bet it knocked the wind out of you.”
Lucky opened his mouth to answer, but instead of speaking, he began to choke. He fell to the ground, clutching his heart. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he began to foam at the mouth. Wendy screamed as she ran to his side. “Lucky! Lucky! What’s going on, Lucky! That’s never happened before. Are you okay? Someone, call for help!”
Meghan reached for her cell phone, but Mr. Cazale put a hand on her shoulder. As if on cue, Wendy let out a horrendous scream. “He’s gone!” she wailed as she draped herself across Lucky’s chest. “He’s dead!”
6
The group stared in horror as Lucky’s body went still. “Rupert! Give him CPR!” Jeanne Marie shrieked as Rupert ran to Lucky’s side and began pumping on his chest.
Wendy wept, her dark makeup trailing down her face. “Why?” she wailed as Rupert pressed his ear to Lucky’s heart and shook his head. “Why? Please, Lucky! Come back to me, my love.”
Rupert rose to his feet. “He’s gone,” he announced quietly as Wendy wailed. “He doesn’t have a heartbeat. I don’t think there is anything we can do.”
“Can we call an ambulance?” Jeanne Marie asked, her face nonchalant. “Surely they can revive him? When my tennis partner, Mitzi, collapsed during our match last week, the paramedics got her back on her feet in about fifteen minutes. She was feeling fine enough to go to her pedicure appointment later that evening.”
“He’s too far gone,” Mr. Cazale protested. “Look at his coloring; his face is the color of ashes, Mrs. Fields. I’ve been in this business long enough to know that he is too far gone.”
“I think we should call anyway,” Rupert disagreed as he reached for his cell phone. “Surely the medical professionals can assist.”
“If you insist,” Mr. Cazale dismissed as he shrugged his shoulders. “My address is 53 Chives Street. They’ll want to know where to send the ambulance.”
Meghan could hardly believe her eyes. Lucky lay on the floor, his eyes wide open and his body contorted in an unnatural position. Wendy was crying next to him, her face mottled and her body shaking. Jeanne Marie sat on the couch examining her nails, appearing disinterested in the horrific scene in front of her.
“I have to warn Pamela,” Meghan thought to herself as she stared at Lucky’s broken body. “She will be traumatized if she comes in here and sees this. I need to text Roberto to get her out of the house.”
Meghan pulled out her phone from her red purse and texted Roberto.
Hey! I just realized that there are loaves baking in the oven at Truly Sweet. Can you and Pamela dash over there and keep an eye on them? I’ll pay you both $50!
Meghan hoped that Roberto would get the message and agree to get Pamela out of the funeral home. Her heart thudded as her phone buzzed, and she saw that Roberto responded.
For sure! We went out to get ice cream, so we’ll just head straight over there.
“Thank goodness,” she sighed in relief, knowing that Pamela and Roberto had missed the commotion in the library.
Rupert frowned as Wendy continued screeching. “It looks like you’ll have a lot on your hands here with the funeral for this one,” he said quietly to Mr. Cazale. “It looks like we will need to find another funeral director for my father’s service. It just feels to be in bad taste to proceed here with the entertainer dropping dead in front of us, you know?”
Mr. Cazale’s dark eyes widened. “That won’t be necessary,” he insisted. “The death of this hired entertainer should not spoil our agreement. Besides, you’ve already wired a down payment. I’ve made arrangements with vendors. To change the plan now would be utter chaos.”
Meghan watched as Wendy rose from her place beside Lucky, her hands balled into fists. She marched up to Mr. Cazale and Rupert, her eyes flashing with anger. “HOW DARE YOU?” she roared as the two men’s jaws dropped. “HIS BODY IS NOT EVEN COLD AND YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT BUSINESS? YOU TWO SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!”
Jeanne Marie rolled her eyes from her place on the couch. “Your behavior is shameful,” she muttered as Wendy turned to glare at her. “You make a scene here over this married man who is supposedly your colleague? Your display has been utterly classless, Winona.”
“It’s WENDY!” she screamed as Jeanne Marie looked back at her phone and continued scrolling through her social media profiles. “WENDY! And Lucky was so much more than my colleague! You don’t understand.”
Meghan walked to Wendy’s side and took her hand. “We’re all so sorry for your loss,” she said softly. “It is terrible to lose anyone, regardless of your relationship to them. Can I go get a glass of water for you?”
Wendy collapsed onto the floor. “I just need my Lucky,” she wept as Meghan bent down to hug her.
The sound of sirens grew closer, and soon, there was a knock at the door. “It must be the paramedics,” Mr. Cazale announced. “I’ll go let them in.”
A moment later, a team of paramedics burst through the door. “The patient is right here,” Wendy directed them as she pointed to Lucky’s body. “Help him! Please, help him.”
The paramedics got to work. A broad-shouldered man stripped Lucky’s shirt off of his chest while a young red-headed woman attached a series of wires to his body. Another male paramedic took notes as a raven-haired woman checked for Lucky’s pulse.
“I’m sorry,” the red-headed woman finally said to the group. “He’s gone. There is nothing we can do.”
“NO!” Wendy screamed. “He can’t be gone. Bring him back.”
The raven-haired woman shrugged. “We did our best, but he was already gone. We will run some tests now and see if we can get an initial idea of what happened.”
Wendy curled into a ball on the floor, rocking herself back and forth in the fetal position. “He can’t be gone,” she sobbed. “Lucky was the love of my life.”
“Oh, enough of that nonsense,” Jeanne Marie chided Wendy from her position on the couch. “We should really throw you out of here and have his wife come down. Who are you, anyway? You look to be about nineteen years old. Shouldn’t you be home with your family?”
Wendy scowled. “My relationship with Lucky is--was--none of your business. We had a connection that was so deep that a snotty, bored, rich woman like you would never understand.”
Jeanne Marie ran a hand through her shoulder-length auburn hair. “Oh, dear,” she chuckled. “You have no idea who are you talking to. My husband and I were about to put a lot of money into yours and Lucky’s pockets, but now, that won’t be necessary….”
“Hey,” Meghan interjected as Wendy furrowed her brow. “Let’s back off for now, okay? She’s clearly upset, and it’s probably best if we don’t agitate her.”
Jeanne Marie raised her left eyebrow. “You are the caterer for the event, yes?”
Meghan nodded. “I am,” she confirmed.
Jeanne Marie curled her lip in a disconcerting way. “Then I would tread very carefully if I were you,” she said softly. “My husband and I are paying you a great deal of money, too. I don’t need a young bakery girl to tell me how to speak to people I am paying. I would strongly advise you to choose your words wisely.”
Meghan frowned, taking a step away from Wendy and retreating to the corner of the library. “I’ll walk over to the window,” she said as Jeanne Marie nodded.
“That’s a good choice,” Jeanne Marie replied haughtily.
Just then, the broad-shouldered paramedic turned to the group. “I think we have an idea of what happened,” he declared as his coworkers began packing up their equipment. “From the initial tests we ran, it appears that the victim died from an anaphylactic shock, likely brought on by a severe allergic reaction. Did he have any serious allergies?”
Wendy nodded. “Nuts,” she whispered. “He was deathly allergic to nuts.”
The paramedic looked around at the group. “Did anyone bring nuts in close proximity to this man?”
“We don’t eat nuts,” Jeanne Marie smugly stated. “We’re on a strict diet of salmon and kale. Right, honey?”
Rupert nodded. “She’s correct,” he said. “We were going to break our diet at my father’s funeral, but like my wife said, we don’t eat nuts, nor did we bring any in here.”
Mr. Cazale shook his head. “I didn’t have any, either,” he told the paramedics. “Lucky informed me that he was allergic, and I had my son clean out the pantry of our peanut butter and cashew cookies.”
Everyone turned to look at Meghan. Her dark eyes were wide in horror. “I brought some banana nut bread,” she stammered as Wendy’s jaw dropped. “I didn’t know Lucky was going to be here. I didn’t even bring it in here, though! I left it in the kitchen.”
“That’s still too close to him!” Wendy screeched as Meghan gasped. “You killed him! You killed the love of my life!”
“I didn’t mean to.” Meghan insisted as the color drained from her face. “It was an honest mistake. Truly, I never would have brought the banana nut bread had I known that Lucky was here.”
Wendy got up in Meghan’s face, her nose only centimeters from Meghan’s. “You will pay for this,” she snarled, her hot, sour breath infiltrating Meghan’s nostrils. “Mark my words, you will pay for this!”
7
“That sounds terrible,” Jack said to Meghan as they sat together at one of the little white iron tables in the bakery. “That Wendy woman sounds crazy.”
“She is,” Meghan
agreed as she sadly twirled her spoon in her vanilla bean latte. “Mr. Cazale and Rupert Fields had to pry her off me. She wanted to fight me, Jack! I’ve never been in a real fight in my entire life.”
Jack laughed. “My poor girl,” he said as Meghan took a sip of her drink. “I don’t know this Wendy, but I don’t think she would beat my peace-loving princess in a fight any day.”
“I am not a fighter,” Meghan confirmed. “And it was clear that Wendy is. The paramedics threatened to call the police if she didn’t stop threatening me. It was humiliating.”
Jack’s face darkened. “You know that I would never let anyone hurt you,” he told Meghan. “That woman had better watch her back. She should know that no one gets to threaten Detective Jack Irvin’s girlfriend and get away with it.”
