“I wish I did, but I have to run.” Still, I swiped a pancake. It was dotted with chocolate chips, which was all the sweetening I needed. “I’m meeting Vicki and Mason for a wedding powwow and breakfast. We’re so close to the actual date or else I’d ask them to reschedule.”
“I understand.” He washed his hands and kissed me on the forehead. “Will you be around this evening? Laura and I were hoping to go out to eat and would love for you to join us.”
“I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
“You wouldn’t be intruding,” Laura said, coming into the kitchen. Misfit trailed behind her, until she stopped. Then he proceeded to weave in and out of her legs, demanding attention. “Actually, I’d like for you to be there. We haven’t had much of a chance to talk.”
It was a good idea. They might be staying at my place, but I’d barely been home. And if Dad and Laura were planning on staying together for more than just a few months, it would be a good idea to get to know the woman he was spending his time with. Who knew, maybe one day I’d be calling her “Mom.”
Okay, it’s unlikely I’d ever do that, but the idea was good.
“When we were out yesterday, I overheard some people discussing a new place in town,” Dad said. “The way they were talking, it’s supposed to be really good. I thought we might give it a try.”
“Okay.” How could I resist? “I’ll come.”
“Great!” Dad kissed my cheek, and then, surprisingly, Laura stepped forward and gave me a brief hug. Behind her, Misfit glared at me like I was intentionally hogging all the attention. As soon as Laura stepped back, he reached up and batted at her hand, claws nowhere in sight. She scooped him up and hugged him close, causing him to purr loud enough that everyone could hear it.
“I really should get going,” I said, scratching my cat behind the ears. He accepted it, but instead of leaning into my hand like usual, he pressed himself closer to Laura, like he was afraid I might try to take him away. I took a large bite out of the pancake, considered leaving it behind, but decided to take it with me for a snack instead. “I should be home this afternoon.”
“Perfect.”
I eyed the orange juice with longing, but didn’t have a cup with a lid. If I tried to take it with me, I’d inevitably dump it into my lap. I gave Misfit one last ear rub, grabbed my keys and purse, and then headed out the door.
Vicki and I had agreed on meeting at Death by Coffee, both because it was convenient and because it allowed us to keep an eye on the place since Jeff and Lena would be working alone during the morning rush. They’d managed it before, but it was a lot for two people to handle on their own. It only reinforced my idea that we needed to hire someone else.
Mason and Vicki were already there, seated so they could watch the counter. Mason’s best man, Charlie Yow, was heading for the door as I entered. He was tall and good-looking, and was going to be on my arm for the wedding. Despite my dating Will, I felt kind of special such a good-looking man would be walking with me down the aisle. Heck, it felt like I was surrounded by good-looking men lately.
“Am I late?” I asked, checking the clock to be sure.
“No,” he said. “Something came up at home. Mason said I could take off and he’d fill me in later.”
“Oh. Well, good luck.”
Charlie touched an imaginary hat brim, and then hurried out the door. I hadn’t gotten much of a chance to get to know him as of yet, but he seemed nice enough. I wondered if his wife minded me walking with him at the wedding. Since Vicki didn’t want a full bridal party, just the maid of honor and best man, she’d asked if we’d walk with one another down the aisle. We’d both readily agreed, but now, I was wondering how Will would feel seeing me walk with another man.
Death by Coffee was busy, but not so much Jeff and Lena couldn’t handle the crowd. I waved to them, and then joined the line to put in my breakfast order. We’d started selling pastries a month ago, so I ordered a cheese Danish to go along with my coffee and cookie. Lena took my order, and Jeff filled it. They worked well together, barely needing to communicate much more than to pass on any special requests.
I carried my food to the table and sat down across from Vicki. “Looks like they have it under control,” I said.
“I’m not surprised,” Vicki said. “It’s why we hired them.” It was supposed to come out light and jovial, I think, but she sounded depressed.
It wasn’t hard to figure out why.
“How are you two doing?” I asked, taking a bite of my Danish. It wasn’t Dad’s pancakes, but it was still really good.
“As best as we can,” Mason said. “It’s been a rough couple of days.”
“I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to go through with this,” Vicki said.
“With what?” I set my Danish aside and swallowed. “You can’t be thinking of canceling the wedding, are you?”
“It might be best,” Mason said. He looked as if saying it pained him. He reached out and took Vicki’s hand and squeezed. She gave him a thankful smile, before the melancholy was back.
“Someone died,” she said. “And it was so close to the wedding. It feels rude to go on like nothing happened.”
My heart did a little pitter-patter. They couldn’t really be thinking of canceling, could they? I scrambled to come up with something to say to ease their minds, but what? Cathy had died. And she’d done so in Vicki’s own house, mere days away from the wedding. You couldn’t simply scrub that away and pretend it never happened.
“We wouldn’t simply cancel it,” Mason said after a moment. “We’d reschedule. Maybe give it a few months for everything to get back to normal. We could make adjustments for the extra people your parents want to bring if we did that.”
I looked to Vicki. “But this is when you’ve always wanted to get married.” She’d always loved the summer, and used to talk about how overrated fall and spring weddings were. Sure, the leaves during the fall were beautiful, but the weather was often touchier. The summer sun was hot, but that meant she could take her honeymoon and go to a beach like she’d always wanted.
“I know.” She closed her eyes and looked as if she might cry. “But how can we do it now, after all this?”
“What happened is terrible,” I said. “But you shouldn’t let it affect your wedding.” It felt callous of me, but I needed to be realistic. “You’ll lose all your deposits and since everything has already been ordered, you’d be out the money for the cake, the flowers, and everything else.”
“And that’s not to mention our friends and family who’ve flown in,” Mason said, frowning as if he’d just considered it. “They might not want to make the trip again.”
“Give it a few days,” I said. “You’ll feel better once the police have it all figured out.” Hopefully, by putting the killer behind bars. If there truly was a killer. Oh, how I wanted to believe it all was one big accident and that nothing would need to be changed. Because if someone the Pattersons knew was responsible for Cathy’s death, it could very well make Vicki’s mind up for her.
“We really don’t want to postpone the wedding, but felt as if it might be best,” Vicki said, looking at Mason. “It wasn’t our idea, not really.”
“Dad.” Mason’s frown deepened. Raymond Lawyer did that to a lot of people. “He and Regina sat us down and gave us this long lecture about responsibility, saying it would be best to hold off until everything blows over.”
“I think he hopes we’ll change our minds and break up.”
“He wouldn’t want that,” I said, though I wasn’t so sure. Raymond Lawyer was downright mean, as was Regina Harper. The two of them together was a nightmare pairing that had somehow survived far longer than it had any right to.
“I’m not so sure it’s Dad,” Mason said. “He likes Vicki in his own way.” He met Vicki’s eye. “He might not say it outright, but since he hasn’t actually told you he disapproves of you, it means he kind of likes you.”
Vicki smiled and patted Mason’s hand.
“I know. I kind of like him too. Sometimes.”
“But Regina’s another story,” I guessed.
Mason nodded. “She thinks Vicki is a bad influence on me.”
I very nearly laughed. “How could she even think that?”
“You,” Vicki said, turning to me.
“Me?” Why was everything always my fault? “What do I have to do with it?”
“Nothing as far as we can tell,” Mason said. “But Regina is good at holding grudges, and you’ve made such a bad impression on her, she’s holding it against everyone you know.”
“That’s . . . That’s . . .” Unfair? Unwarranted? I couldn’t even sputter the words.
“We don’t hold it against you,” Mason said. “We like your quirks.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Vicki laughed. It was good to hear there was still some good humor there. I hated seeing her so down. “We usually don’t pay them any mind, but with Cathy’s death, I think we both let them get to us.”
“We did,” Mason said. “It’s really such a shame.”
And right back to the murder we went. It seemed that no matter what I did, it reared its ugly head.
But since we were already on the subject . . .
“What can you tell me about the people that came with your parents?” I asked. “I only met them briefly. Do you think one of them could have had a reason to kill Cathy?” Or steal the necklace, for that matter.
“I don’t know any of them all that well,” Vicki said. “I never was one to get involved with their friends, because, well, you know.”
I did. Whenever the Pattersons had a big get-together, Vicki and I would often find somewhere else to be. When we did try to be sociable, it always ended badly, often with creepy older men hitting on us.
“Anything you know might help,” I said, drawing a knowing look from Mason. He knew I was going to involve myself in the investigation, and by the slight nod I received, I could tell he approved.
Vicki sighed. “Well, you know my mom and dad, so no need to go over them. Though, sometimes, I wonder if I even know them all that well.”
“What about Jacques Kenway?”
Vicki shrugged. “I think he’s a cousin. As you know, my family isn’t all that close.”
Other than her mom and dad, Vicki never saw anyone else from her family. Part of it was because Gina and Frederick were so standoffish, none of their relatives bothered to keep in touch. I’d met Gina’s sister once, and from that single conversation, I realized how little Vicki’s parents were liked. They were probably the most famous of the Patterson clan, but when you treat your siblings like underlings, it’s hard to stay close.
It was kind of sad, really. There’s usually a point in most people’s lives where all they’ll have left is family. Because of the way they’ve treated everyone, Gina and Frederick might one day find themselves alone.
“Do you know anything at all about him?” I asked, returning my thoughts to Jacques.
“Nothing,” Vicki said. “I’m pretty sure Jacques isn’t his real name, but other than that, he’s a stranger.”
“What about Vince Conner?”
“Up until the day he showed up, I’d never heard of him before,” Vicki said. “So, there’s nothing I can tell you.”
Disappointing, but I wasn’t surprised. Besides, it was the other guests I was most interested in since they had reasons to go after either Cathy or the necklace.
“Lyric Granderson?”
A tight smile flashed across Vicki’s face before she answered. “Lyric doesn’t like our family all that much. I was surprised to see her here, to be honest.”
“Because of the necklace.”
Vicki shrugged. “I don’t know. We met on set a long time ago, and I guess you could say we became friends. Our moms were both in the same movie together.”
“The Nest of the Viper,” I provided.
“That’s the one.” Vicki sighed. “We got along well enough back then. She was a couple of years older than me, and she’d often get me to do things for her, like steal her mother’s hairbrush, or hide a prop. Childish mischief.” A look of fond remembrance passed over her face, and then was gone. “And then something happened and she stopped talking to me. I never did learn what it was.”
“The necklace,” I said. “The one your mom tried to give you. Apparently, Lyric’s mom wore it in the movie and she thinks it should belong to her.”
“And she blamed you for that?” Mason asked.
“I suppose.” Vicki shrugged. “I don’t know. We were young. I just figured she’d moved on and found new kids to play with. And since our parents were never in the same movie together again, it wasn’t all that strange that we lost touch. I wish I could tell you more, but we were just kids doing kid things back then. We never saw each other outside the set. I didn’t even recognize her at first. It wasn’t until I was on my way home the night she’d arrived that the name registered. I suppose that tells you all you need to know about how close we were.”
Which wasn’t well at all. It was also probably why I’d never met her. If Lyric had hung around Vicki outside the movie set, I likely would have been involved in some of their mischief. It made me wonder if we would have been friends, or if she would have looked down upon me, much like she did today.
“Okay, what about the Herrons?” I asked.
Vicki looked pained when she answered, “I don’t really know them either. I’ve seen them around before, but never actually talked to them. Sorry.”
“I heard Cathy Carr planned their wedding,” I said.
“If she did, it would be news to me. Like I said, I barely knew them. I’d seen them around parties and whatnot, but never interacted with them at all.”
“Gina told me about it,” I said. “She claims something went wrong with the wedding and they blamed Cathy for it.”
“Do you think they came all this way for revenge?” Mason asked.
“I don’t know. It does seem excessive,” I admitted. “But if they killed her here, maybe they thought it would be easier to get away with it because of how small Pine Hills is and because no one here knows them well enough to accuse them of anything.”
It didn’t explain why Cathy had had the necklace in her possession when she’d died, or why it was a fake. It very well might have been a coincidence.
A new thought slowly trickled through my brain. What if Cathy was stealing from the people she was planning weddings for? Could that be what had gone wrong with the Herrons? Had they caught her in the act back then? It would explain why they were so angry with her, because if all the fuss was over a cake or the wrong flower arrangement, you’d think they would have gotten over it by now.
Maybe the Herrons hadn’t come all the way to Pine Hills to kill Cathy, but instead, happened upon her while she was attempting to steal from the Pattersons. One thing leads to another, and the next thing you know, you have one dead wedding planner, and a necklace no one could explain.
In a way, it made sense. Cathy steals from the Herrons, gets caught, and learns from her mistakes, but not in the way you’d think. Instead of stopping, she decides to make replicas of the jewelry she plans to steal, replaces the real thing with the fake, and no one is the wiser.
Of course, all of this was pure speculation without a hint of proof one way or the other. I tucked it into the back of my mind to consider later.
Conversation moved on from there to the actual wedding, though my mind kept drifting back to my top suspects. While I might have talked Vicki and Mason out of postponing their wedding for now, it was obvious they were still considering it. Vicki kept second-guessing everything about the ceremony and reception, and Mason spent an inordinate amount of time frowning. It was sad to see, considering these were the two cheeriest people I knew—well, maybe outside of Jules Phan and Lance Darby, that was. My neighbors were about as happy as you could get.
And then, as if she could hear my thoughts . . .
“Do you th
ink you could stop by Phantastic Candies for us?” Vicki asked. “We have to meet with my parents after this, but I want to make sure our order is okay.”
“Of course,” I said. Jules was handling sweets for the wedding. Every table would have specially made chocolates that would very likely be to die for, knowing Jules.
“Thank you so much. With everything that’s happened recently, I’m just so paranoid that something else is going to go wrong.” Vicki stood, gave me a hug.
“I’m happy to check,” I said. And if it led to me getting to taste the chocolates, all the better.
Mason rose and shook my hand. “You’re a good friend,” he said without a hint of irony in his voice.
“I try.”
And then with nothing further to discuss, we parted ways. Mason and Vicki headed for their conversation with Vicki’s parents, while I got to visit a candy store.
I think we all know who got the better end of that deal.
12
My weakness for sweets is practically legendary. So, it was no wonder that, when I pulled up in front of Phantastic Candies, my mouth immediately started watering and a hankering for salted caramel nearly overpowered me. I parked, and all but floated through the door and inside to the sound of a giant piece of candy being unwrapped.
Jules looked up as I entered, a large smile spreading across his face. “Krissy!” he said, coming around the counter and giving me a big hug. “What brings you in today?”
“What else?” I stepped back and breathed in the scent of sugar and chocolate. “Candy.”
He laughed. “Of course.”
Jules Phan wasn’t just the owner of Phantastic Candies, but he was also my next-door neighbor. He had an upward slant to his eyes, and caramel-colored skin that made me want to sink my teeth in the sweet stuff even more. Today, he was wearing a bright yellow suit and tie, and a hat with a long ostrich feather in it. When he walked, his shoes clicked, telling me he was wearing his tap shoes. He didn’t always dress like this, but when working, he made sure to stand out for the kids who frequented his shop.
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