by Laura Durham
“No wonder Buster and Mack were so excited about tonight,” I said, running my fingers over the smooth beads of a place mat. “They’ve really outdone themselves.”
“Would your designer friends consider coming to New York for an event?” Seth asked.
“We’re getting bored of the New York designers,” Topher added.
“If they traveled to Bali, I’m sure New York wouldn’t be an issue,” Kate said.
“Buster and Mack used to work in New York,” I reminded Kate as I bent down to look inside the small cages for my name. “Until Jeremy ran them out of town.”
Topher grasped my arm. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
I looked down at his hand, surprised at the firm grip. “That our friends used to have a floral design studio in New York.”
“Not that part.” Topher shook his head. “Who ran them out of town?”
“Jeremy Johns,” I said. “Do you know him?”
Topher released my arm and exchanged a dark look with Seth. “Oh, we know him all right. He spread some not-nice rumors about us a couple of years ago. The best thing that ever happened to us was when he disappeared from the event scene a little less than a year ago.”
I did some mental calculations and figured out that Jeremy must have left the New York event market after our disastrous experience with him during our yacht wedding in DC. “Then you’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you.”
“He’s here,” Kate said, glancing around her.
I ignored the fact that Kate had stolen my thunder as Topher and Seth gaped at Kate then back at me. “It’s true. He’s on this trip with a Long Island planner called Sasha.”
Topher’s hands clenched into fists by his side. “Then he’d better hope he doesn’t run into me because I will wring his neck.”
I gave a nervous laugh as people looked over at our group. Topher’s outburst had not been quiet. “It’s probably not the best idea to joke about killing someone after everything that’s happened.”
“He’s not joking,” Seth said, his face as contorted with anger as Topher’s. “Jeremy Johns had better watch his back.”
Chapter 19
“Why is it that the only two people we’ve ever known to like Jeremy have been brassy women with crazy red hair?” Kate asked, referring to Jeremy’s former client and our former stepmother-of-the-bride.
“We do seem to know a lot of people who despise him,” I admitted, running my eyes down the table to locate the hated designer. I saw an empty seat beside Sasha but didn’t see Jeremy.
We’d taken our seats at the table after a thorough search of the small gold birdcages. Kate sat next to me with Richard across from us, while Fern was at the other end of the long rectangle between Carol Ann and Topher. Seth and Topher had managed to calm down enough to be seated, but one glance down the table at Topher told me he wasn’t over it. Seth was seated next to Chatty Cathy a few chairs down from me, but his chair was also vacant. Not that I blamed him for taking a few minutes alone before Cathy talked his ear off the entire dinner.
“So, what do you think?” Mack slid into the open chair beside me and the delicate bamboo groaned from his weight.
I was about to tell him I didn’t know what to think about Seth and Topher’s feud with Jeremy, but then I realized Mack wanted my opinion on the decor he and Buster had created for the dinner.
“Stunning,” I said, meaning every word. “You and Buster have outdone yourselves.”
Kate leaned across me. “Seriously gorgeous.”
Mack smiled and his face flushed so that it nearly matched the red of his goatee. “The pool decor was my idea.”
I put my hand over his and squeezed. “It’s inspired.” I glanced down the table and saw that Seth had reappeared. “You don’t happen to know two planners from Saint Events in New York do you?”
Mack slipped his pink napkin out of the gold ring and draped it across his leather pants. “Topher and Seth? Sure, they were rising stars when Buster and I were closing up shop and moving to DC. Nice guys.”
“Well, they’re here,” Kate said, motioning to where they were sitting. “They had some flight issues getting here, but they arrived today while we were up in Ubud.”
Mack craned his neck to see to the end of the table. “I wonder if they remember us after all these years.”
“I’ll tell you who they do remember,” I said. “Jeremy.”
Mack’s face darkened, reminding me that he and Buster still held a grudge against Jeremy Johns for trashing them all over New York and forcing them to leave town. I knew that if the Christian biker florists allowed themselves curse words, they’d use them all on Jeremy.
“He did the same thing to Seth and Topher that he did to you and Buster,” Kate said. “But more recently, so it’s still fresh in their minds.”
“Jeremy is a cockroach.” Mack spat out the words. “No matter what happens he manages to survive, even though he should have been squashed years ago.”
Kate shook her head. “It really is amazing someone hasn’t pushed him in front of a bus by now.”
I shushed Kate, hoping no one had heard her. I didn’t want the story of how we knew Jeremy and why we had such bad blood with him to circulate through this crowd since it involved us and another murder investigation.
I sat back in my chair as a waiter placed a white bowl with a wide flat rim in front of me. The ceramic rim was punched with small holes, leaving a small depression in the middle. I read the menu card explaining the glistening golden jelly topped with tiny black orbs: king crab ice jelly topped with caviar. I glanced across the table at Richard who already had a bite of the first course in his mouth, his eyes closed in apparent pleasure.
Mack nudged me. “You don’t think all the courses will be this small, do you?”
I eyed the elaborately arranged bite of food in my bowl. “I’m not sure, but there are ten of them.” I’d wondered how I’d manage to eat ten courses when I’d first scanned the menu card. Now I knew. “Haute cuisine is about the design of the food and the flavors more than the volume.”
Mack scooped up the crab jelly and caviar onto his fork. “Down the hatch.”
I followed suit, placing the entire course in my mouth. The sweetness of the crab combined with the sharp saltiness of the caviar as I chewed. I swallowed, taking a sip of cold white wine to wash it down. I was surprised by how much I liked the dish, despite the congealed texture.
“Where is Buster?” I asked Mack as I set my fork in the empty bowl.
He leaned back so I could see Buster’s large form a few seats away wedged between Kristina and Brett. I tried to catch his eye, but he was deep in conversation with the two LA planners. I ran my eyes over the rest of the guests, noticing a few empty chairs. Chatty Cathy wasn’t at her seat, and I felt relieved for Seth that he’d get a few minutes reprieve while she powdered her nose. I couldn’t find Alan in the group but I thought I’d spotted him at cocktails. The seat next to Sasha remained empty. I wondered if Jeremy had decided to skip dinner after realizing Topher and Seth had arrived. It wouldn’t have been hard for him to overhear them threatening him.
The terrace buzzed with the sounds of people talking and silverware hitting china as waiters cleared the first course. Now would be the perfect time for me to talk with hotel security about Jeremy’s connection to the two victims. Especially since Jeremy wasn’t around to overhear me.
I stood up, setting my napkin to the side of my beaded placemat since I intended to return, and made a beeline for Carol Ann. She and Fern looked up as I approached.
“Annabelle!” Fern’s face was slightly flushed, and I noticed a waiter in a black vest refilling his empty wine glass. “Carol Ann may let me take her blondee.”
My eyes flitted to the woman’s curly brown hair, and I cringed at the thought of her as a platinum blonde. I’d seen the transformation of my nutty neighbor’s hair from Wayne Newton black to electric burgundy to Marilyn Monroe blond, each change more sho
cking than the last.
“But Carol Ann has such pretty hair,” I said, touching my hand to her bouncy curls.
Fern waved away my protest. “She’s ready for a change. Something bold and life changing.”
Having Fern bleach her hair until it was the texture of cotton candy would definitely change her life.
I grasped Carol Ann’s hand and pulled her up. “Before you boldly go where no hairdresser has gone before, do you mind if I steal her for a moment?”
Fern made a pouty face but took a swig of wine and turned to talk to Topher and Dahlia.
“Is everything okay?” Carol Ann wore a worried expression. “I tried to seat you next to your friends.”
I smiled at her. “Everything’s great, and the first course was actually delicious. Mack may need a dozen more to get full, but that’s another matter. I wanted to see if you could introduce me to the head of hotel security.”
“Why?” Her eyes grew wide. “What’s happened?”
“Nothing’s happened, but I wanted to tell him some things I’ve learned that might help with the investigation. I don’t want to be accused of withholding important information.”
Carol Ann let out a breath. “Of course.” Her eyes scanned the open terrace. “I know he’s around here somewhere, but he’s probably trying to be inconspicuous.”
“Is he the guy in all black over by that marble column?” I asked, pointing at a Balinese man with a somber expression.
Carol Ann nodded as she led the way over to him and made introductions. One of his eyebrows went up when Carol Ann explained that I had evidence in the murder cases.
“Not evidence,” I corrected her. “Some information about the victims and someone who might have wanted to get revenge on them.”
The man motioned for us to walk further out of earshot of the dinner, and I noticed a few of the guests shooting curious glances our way. I laid out what I’d learned about Jeremy Johns and his relationship with Dina and Veronica. I closed by relaying what Jeremy had said to me when I’d confronted him about knowing the women.
“He really said they got what they deserved?” Carol Ann put a hand to her mouth and shook her head. “It does sound like he was glad they were dead.”
The head of security unfolded his arms. “Where is Mister Jeremy now?”
“He should be at the dinner,” Carol Ann said.
I shook my head. “I don’t think he ever sat down. The chair next to Sasha has been empty the entire time, and I didn’t see him after cocktails.”
Now it was Carol Ann’s turn to raise her eyebrows. “Why would he disappear?”
“He might have overheard Topher and Seth,” I admitted, although I didn’t want to say anything that might make the two New York planners look bad. “They weren’t too thrilled to find out Jeremy was a fellow attendee.”
Carol Ann sighed. “This is a mess. I never should have allowed Sasha to bring him. Actually, I didn’t allow it. I had no idea until he showed up with her. I never should have allowed Cliff and Ted to add Sasha to the list. Come to think of it, they added Dina and Veronica, too. If I hadn’t taken any of their additions, none of this would have happened.”
I didn’t respond to that since I was almost certain the Insider Weddings guys were the ones who’d gotten my crew added to the list.
“We’ll track down Mr. Jeremy and take him to the police for questioning,” the head of security said, his dark eyes holding mine. “I’m sure he’s still on property. Perhaps he returned to his room.”
I felt relieved at the prospect of Jeremy being taken into custody. Neither Richard nor Reese could be upset with me now. I’d given my information to the authorities so they could handle it, and I planned to let them take it from here on out. I thanked the hotel security officer before Carol Ann and I returned to the dinner.
Mack and Kate stood up as I reached my chair.
“We’re going to check on the pool installation,” Mack said. “The wind is picking up, and I want to make sure it doesn’t detach from the bottom.”
Kate looped her arm through mine. “Come with us. Mack’s going to explain how they did it.”
I rubbed my bare arm as I felt the breeze. The second course hadn’t yet appeared, and I didn’t relish the thought of being left at the table with the two people on either side of me missing. “Okay, but let’s make it quick. I don’t want to miss the lobster in croute. That sounds heavenly.”
We walked from the terrace around the corner to where the pool came into view.
Mack pointed at the marble staircase. “Can you two walk to the landing and tell me if the letters are still even?”
Kate and I walked up the marble steps and paused at the landing, turning so that we had a perfect view of the long, illuminated pool.
“They’re even,” Kate called down to Mack, “but there’s an extra letter at the end.”
I felt goose bumps prick my arms as my brain registered the dark form floating at the end of the hot-pink ‘e’ at the end of ‘love.’
“That’s not a letter,” I whispered, clutching Kate’s arm to keep me steady. “That’s a body.”
Chapter 20
“Do you think the person is dead?” Kate asked, stepping back from the edge of the stairs, her hands over her ears.
It was hard to hear her over Mack’s high-pitched shrieks, but I could read her lips.
“Well, I don’t think they’re swimming,” I said when Mack paused for a breath, working hard to keep the exasperation out of my voice. I felt light-headed as I made my way back down the stairs, holding tight to the cool metal railing to keep from sinking to the ground and hearing Kate’s heels slapping against the stone steps behind me.
I kept my eyes lowered so I wouldn’t have to see the lifeless form in the water as it bobbed facedown with arms stretched out to the side, but I knew the image wouldn’t leave my mind anytime soon. I pressed a hand to my mouth to keep the bile down, wishing the last thing I’d eaten hadn’t been crab jelly and caviar.
When Kate and I reached the pool level again, people had begun to gather around Mack, whose piercing shrieks had morphed into cries. I took a deep breath of the cool night air to calm myself before I joined them.
“Who is that?” Mack flung a thick arm in the direction of the pool.
I shook my head, although I knew in the pit of my stomach who was floating in the water. I’d known the instant I’d seen the bright lights illuminating the fanned-out hair.
Fern ran up to us, his black beret slipping off his head. “Don’t tell me that’s . . .”
“Jeremy Johns,” Richard said with a gasp as he reached us. “I’d know the cut of that Armani suit anywhere.”
Leave it to Richard to identify a dead body by the designer suit it wore. I’d recognized the blond hair that Jeremy usually styled in a sweep over one eye, which now looked like spun gold as it spread out on top of the blue water and was illuminated from below by the interior pool lights.
The hotel security team scurried around us until one man finally lowered himself into the water, wading out to the body and touching a single finger to Jeremy’s neck to confirm that he was, in fact, dead. I could hear a few women crying behind me, but I didn’t turn to see who they were. The only person on this trip who had liked Jeremy was Sasha, and she did not strike me as the type to shed a tear over anything. I suspected anyone who was sobbing over the dead designer was doing so to get attention.
Richard draped his jacket over my shoulders. “You’re shaking.”
“Thanks.” I pulled it tight around me, noticing my teeth chattering. I pressed them together, but my body still shook. “I’m going to sit down.”
I pushed my way through the murmuring crowd, passing Cliff and Ted with stricken faces and Dahlia, who had an arm wrapped around the doubled-over form of Carol Ann. I sank onto the nearest chair at the now-empty dinner table, and Richard sat down next to me.
“I’d just finished telling the head of hotel security why I thought Jeremy
Johns should be their chief murder suspect,” I said. “I guess I was a little off base on that.”
Richard put a hand on my knee. “We all thought he was the most likely killer. I wouldn’t beat yourself up too much.”
“At least I was right about one thing. Jeremy was definitely connected to the first two victims. And connected so much that the real killer wanted him dead.”
Alan appeared from around the corner, his eyes scanning the area until they found me. “There you are.” He came over and bent down between me and Richard, causing Richard to shift his knees and give Alan a death glare. “You all right?”
I smiled at him. “I’m fine. I am getting a little tired of finding dead bodies, though. Have the police arrived yet?”
“Only one, I think.” Alan pointed to Fern, who faced away from us. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were a bit of a corpse magnet.”
I didn’t tell him how close to the mark he was, but I gave Richard a cautionary glance as he opened his mouth then shut it again.
Alan stood. “Let me get you something to drink. You look parched.”
“As long as it’s not poisoned,” I said with as much of a smile as I could muster.
“You spoil me.” Alan winked as he headed off toward a group of huddled waiters.
Richard moved his knees back into place. “Is it me, or is he a bit smothering?”
“It’s you.”
Richard frowned at me. “He’s a little too attentive, if you ask me.”
“I’m not his type, if you ask me.”
He looked over his shoulder to where Alan had walked. “Really? Interesting. Maybe he’s not so bad after all.”
I arched an eyebrow at him and held out my hand. “That was a quick change of heart. Now can I borrow your phone?”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Why?”
“I know you have it on you, and I know you have an international calling plan.” I flicked my fingers in a beckoning motion. “Don’t play coy with me.”
