What is going on? Yvette said to herself. The person in the car hadn’t gotten out yet. Should I go check on them? she wondered. Before she had too much time to think, she heard female voices screaming in the distance. Looking around, Yvette didn’t see anyone, so she pulled her phone out again and slowly opened her car door.
This time she could hear footsteps, almost as if someone was running. The shouting was getting louder.
“Yvette!” Tonya yelled.
“Tonya? Marissa? What’s wrong?” Yvette ran to meet the women, not looking back at the car.
“We have to get out of here. You drive.” Tonya’s chest was rising and falling quickly.
“You need to tell me what’s going on first. Do you know who’s in the car?” Yvette asked before running around to the driver’s side of her SUV.
“That’s my aunt Darla,” Marissa blurted. “She came here looking for me. Saying if I didn’t come with her something bad was going to happen.”
“She’s getting out of the car, we have to go NOW!” Tonya yelled, backing away from Darla.
“But why? Why are we running from her?”
“She just confessed to killing Jordan. My aunt is both reckless and ruthless.” Marissa’s face was puffy from crying.
“And apparently dangerous.” Yvette’s heart raced.
Slamming the doors shut behind them, Yvette moved her fingers to the ignition. Finding nothing there, she looked around frantically for her keys, coming up empty handed.
“What are you doing? Hurry!” Tonya shouted, turning to look out the back window.
“I can’t find the keys. I must have dropped them when I got out before.” Yvette’s expression was grim. “If I can just open the door, they might be right outside the vehicle.
“That’s crazy. Let’s lock the doors and we can wait for the police. I called them right after Darla left.” Tonya was interrupted by a knock on the car door behind her.
Yvette pressed a hand to her chest. “Thank goodness you called them already.”
“It’s her!” Marissa’s jaw dropped. “She has the keys.”
“Hey, ladies. I’m so sorry I frightened you,” she looked at Yvette. “I seemed to have lost control of my car.” Darla’s voice was muffled through the closed windows.
“That’s the woman that came in Sundae Afternoon the other day,” Yvette realized.
Tonya nodded. “I knew she looked familiar, but I only met her once at a family party I went to with Marissa.”
“Don’t bother.” Marissa got out of the car. “You already ruined my wedding and killed my soon-to-be husband. I don’t think worrying about telling a lie to a stranger matters very much.”
“What is the matter with you? I did you a favor killing him. He was a horrible man.” Darla stammered.
“No, he wasn’t. He treated me well and the only reason he was so upset was because everyone in my family seemed to only care about Evan’s wedding. No one stopped to think about how I felt about everything. I may have agreed to change the date, but you have to know that I didn’t want to. Jordan was mad that I gave up and let you guys take control of everything. He was only trying to protect me, and you killed him!”
“He tried to ruin their wedding. How can you stand here and protect someone like that?”
“The same way you can stand there trying to justify killing your niece’s fiancé because he wanted her to have the wedding of her dreams,” Marissa yelled, her hands flying around wildly in anger.
Terror took over Marissa’s face as Darla took a step closer to her. “I don’t care who you are or what you mean to me. No one, and I mean NO ONE, gets in the way of my son’s happiness.”
“We’ll save that for you, Aunt Darla…” Marissa glanced past Darla, noticing the police cruiser headed in their direction. “Nothing like making your son happy by going to prison,” she said, glaring at her aunt.
19
Yvette Loretta Lockhart. What were you thinking?!” her mother stared at her from across the table.
“I know, I know.” She’d hated when her parents used her full name but no matter how old she got, it always achieved the effect they were going for.
Charlie looked at his wife and then glanced toward his daughter. “I dunno. I’m a little proud of her.”
“What?!” Both women snapped their heads up.
“She was right about nearly everything! Maybe Yvette has a knack for this sort of thing after all.”
“I don’t know about all of that but I’m glad that it all got cleared up. It shouldn’t be too much longer before the lake house is back to normal once the cleaners are done. I’m sure it’ll be quite some time before any of us decide to actually go back up there though,” she muttered.
“I can’t believe how crazy people get when it comes to weddings,” Abigail said, shaking her head slowly.
“No kidding. What I saw up in that loft was gruesome. I know when it comes to love and marriage, some women really take the term bridezilla to a new level. I guess this time it was the mother of the groom that went off her rocker.”
Darla had been so upset that Marissa and Jordan had picked the same day for their wedding that she made Evan call and tell them to change it. In turn, Jordan was furious because he knew how much his bride-to-be wanted that date, since it was the day her grandmother was married many years before. Jordan confronted Evan and Darla, telling them it wasn’t fair. Marissa said he even went so far as to suggest a double wedding with the people he couldn’t stand to be around, just so she’d have the wedding she’d hoped for.
After Marissa found out what Jordan did with the caterer, they got into a huge fight. Marissa went to the only place she could think of to find some solace, her family. While Evan and Marissa were trying to come to an agreement, Darla went to the lake house and killed Jordan, then apparently came back to the house and cooked a full meal and acted like nothing happened.
“What a shame,” Abigail pushed her dyed platinum blonde hair behind her shoulders and slid closer to the table.
“Let’s discuss something else,” Charlie laughed dryly. “There’s something about murder talk at the table that makes me lose my appetite.”
Yvette smiled her agreement. “Well, I’ll be in Townsend next week, so that’s exciting. I’m a little nervous but I’m looking forward to it.”
“You’ll do great,” Charlie told his daughter.
Yvette was thankful to be safe and felt relieved that the correct killer had been caught. Jamie was a lovely young woman that was arrested for murder when Darla called in an anonymous tip offering information that falsely accused her.
When Yvette had spoken with Evan, he told her he’d struggle knowing what his mother did, but at the same time, he was thankful that he and his soon-to-be wife could have the wedding they dreamed of, not the one his mother wanted.
Yvette had a busy week ahead of her, but she was happy that life was slowly getting back to normal. The first thing Yvette had on her list for the upcoming week was to visit Jerry and his lemonade stand. After all the tragedies that Yvette and the town of Heritage had experienced, she knew that it was time to bring her old tradition back. Jerry had inspired her to go to the florist weekly and purchase a bouquet to give away as a random act of kindness. Yvette would ask Jerry what he thought about Sundae Afternoon taking a page out of his book and offering tokens as well. Jerry could even keep a few to pass out at his lemonade stand to offer his customers a free ice cream, after all, everyone deserves a little bit of unexpected happiness.
Also by Gretchen Allen
Sundae Afternoon Series
Book 1: Triple Dipped Murder
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Melt Down Murder Page 7
