“And she threatened to turn you in?” the sheriff asked. Good. Get him interested in talking and maybe he’ll wave the gun again. I was too surprised to make a break the first time, but if it happened again. I’d be ready.
“She said she’d tell if I didn’t pay her off,” Jake said.
“She tried to blackmail you?”
“She said if I didn’t pay her five hundred thousand dollars, she’d give Emma’s ashes to the sheriff. She seemed to think you’d still be able to tell she’d been poisoned.”
“So Dr. Langslow inadvertently enlightened Mrs. Grover on how you killed her sister, your late wife, and you killed Mrs. Grover to prevent her from blackmailing you?”
“You can’t give in to blackmailers,” Jake said, very earnestly. “They’re like crabgrass; you never get rid of them. And I already had one on my back. It was going to be hard enough to get rid of her.”
“Someone else was blackmailing you?” Dad asked.
“Of course,” Jake shouted, jerking his head in Mother’s direction. “She was!” There were murmurs of astonishment from the crowd. Jake seemed to be enjoying himself now. It was nice that someone was. The crowd was hanging on his every word, and in case they missed anything the first time around, Aunt Esme was repeating everything he said at the top of her voice into Great-Aunt Matilda’s good ear. I hoped the sheriff and his deputies weren’t getting so interested that they’d forget to rescue me if the opportunity came up.
“Well, I never!” Mother said, in her chilliest manner. “I can’t imagine what would ever have given you that idea.”
“She kept at me,” Jake continued. “She kept telling me that she knew exactly what I had done, and it was all for the best. She even told me she knew all about the rice pudding.” Everyone looked at Mother.
“Well, I did,” Mother said, perplexed. “I knew how much Emma liked it, and you were so good to learn how to make it for her. So few men would go to that much bother. I don’t see what rice pudding has to do with it, anyway.”
“That was what I fed her the poison in,” Jake shouted. Please, Mother, I thought; don’t get him any more excited. “I thought you knew that! And I almost had a heart attack when I found out you expected me to marry you to keep you quiet!”
“I can’t imagine what could possibly have given you that idea,” Mother said stiffly.
“You kept going on about married couples keeping each other’s little secrets.”
“I’m sure you were asking something highly personal about Dr. Langslow.”
“I was asking if he knew what you knew.”
“Knew what?” Mother asked.
“About Emma!” Jake shouted.
“You needn’t shout, Jake,” Mother reproved. “If he did, he certainly didn’t tell me, or I would never have accepted your proposal.”
“Are you suggesting,” Pam asked, “that although Mother knew you had killed your first wife, she was so eager to marry you that she was willing to blackmail you into doing it?” Put like that, it seemed so implausible that even Jake was taken aback.
“Well,” he waffled, “it seemed so at the time.”
“And then Mrs. Grover tried to blackmail you, and you killed her,” Dad picked up the tale. “But you realized that you’d never feel safe as long as I was around asking difficult questions about Mrs. Grover’s death. So you decided to shut me up by getting rid of me. And Meg, once you decided she was a threat.”
“No you don’t,” Jake said, suddenly, dragging me with him as he whirled about to look behind him. Some of the deputies had edged their way around there. I assume they were trying to surprise him.
“Get out of my way,” Jake snarled, and dragged me with him until he had his back to the garage. “Someone bring my car around. We’re leaving.”
Great. From maid of honor to hostage. I suddenly realized that I was still holding my bouquet in the hand that wasn’t clutching at the arm that was choking me.
“Jake, you don’t have to do this,” Mother said in her most soothing tones, and started to walk toward us as she talked. “I’m sure Dr. Langslow knows a psychiatrist who could help get you off. Why don’t you just turn Meg loose and we’ll sit down and talk to him—”
“You stay away from me,” Jake wailed. “Stand back or I’ll shoot her! I swear I will!”
Everybody stood back. Stalemate. What did Jake have in mind—fleeing the country with me as his hostage?
Suddenly we heard the usual unearthly peacock shrieks coming from directly overhead. Two peacocks were fluttering down from the roof toward us. Jake dodged to one side to avoid them, dragging me with him, and I could feel that the barrel of the gun was no longer pointed at my back. The peacocks were followed almost immediately by Michael, who landed with a thud where Jake would have been if he hadn’t dodged. But the diversionary tactic worked—Jake loosened his grip on me and started to point the gun at Michael.
Here was my chance! I jerked Jake’s arm skyward, the gun started firing, guests began screaming and dropping to the ground.
Luckily my ironwork had given me a great deal more upper body strength than most women have. A lot more than Jake, too. I could keep the gun pointed harmlessly in the air until it was empty. Then I shoved Jake away from me and watched as he was tackled, first by Mother, then by Michael, and then, belatedly, by the sheriff and most of the deputies and ersatz cousins. The lawmen began fighting over who got to handcuff him, their efforts hampered by Mother, who had one knee on Jake’s neck and was beating him over the head with her wedding bouquet.
“Of all the nasty, mean things!” Mother said, punctuating her remarks with blows. “I hope they put you under the jail!”
“Now, Margaret,” Dad said. “I think the sheriff can take care of him. Come and have some champagne.”
Mother allowed Dad to help her up and, after they were sure I was unharmed, they waltzed off toward the refreshment tent. A few guests stayed to gawk as Jake was led away to the car by six of the deputies, or to shake my hand or pat me on the shoulder soothingly. Most of the herd wandered off behind Mother and Dad and started in on the champagne and the buffet. I shooed away the well-wishers, sat down in one of the folding chairs, and put my head in my hands.
“Here, have some champagne,” Michael said, waving a glass of it under my nose. “Or I could get some water if you’re feeling faint.”
“I’m not feeling faint,” I said, glancing up. He looked worried.
“Sorry I ran away with your rescue attempt,” I said.
“Once again, you didn’t need much rescuing,” he said, with a grin. “I don’t know why I bother with these useless acts of chivalry.”
“It gave me the chance I was looking for,” I said. “And now I know what was bothering me last night. Leaving Mother in the car while I went in to fetch the cake, and then seeing Dad hiding in the tool shed. It was staring us all in the face. I should have realized then how Jake got away with it. He was miles away from here when Mrs. Grover was killed—but so was she. He knew exactly how to manipulate Mother to give himself that cast-iron alibi.”
“Well, he didn’t get away with it, thanks to you. If you hadn’t figured it out, the rest of us would still be wondering. Cheer up!”
“Yes; after all, no one will ever ask me to be their maid of honor again. After Samantha’s wedding and now this, I will be considered a complete and total jinx. People will pay me to stay out of town for their weddings.” I took the glass of champagne and drained it.
“Oh, it’s not that bad,” Michael said soothingly. “I’m sure it will all blow over.”
“I don’t want it to blow over. I never, ever want to be involved in a wedding again.”
“At least not as a maid of honor.”
“Not in any capacity. Ever.”
“What about your own?” he asked. “Assuming, of course, you’re interested in having one?”
“I’m not. If I ever get married, I shall elope. That has now become my prime requirement in a husband. Wi
llingness to elope.”
“Sounds perfectly sensible to me,” he said, surveying the chaos around us. “Which reminds me, for some strange reason, and apropos of nothing in particular except that I’ve been trying to drag the conversation around to the subject for what seems like half the summer, do you think there’s any possibility that you might—”
“What on earth is Dad doing?” I interrupted.
“What an odd coincidence,” Michael remarked. “He seems to be proposing to your mother.” Dad was down on one knee at Mother’s feet, and as we watched, she said something to him that provoked applause and raised glasses from the surrounding relatives.
“Hardly coincidental at all. I’m sure he’s been planning this for days.”
“Weeks,” Michael replied. “Possibly months. I always found it slightly odd that he was going to so much trouble to make your mother’s remarriage a success. Of course, you realize this probably means another wedding.”
“No, I think not,” I said. “All they have to do is drag the guests back in and take it from the top.”
“Without a marriage license?”
“I imagine they’ll manage. The man shaking Dad’s hand right now is Judge Hollingworth—Mother’s cousin Stanley. Dad is probably arranging some sort of special license.”
“I do like your family’s style,” Michael remarked.
‘That’s because you’re not related to them. You’d feel different if they were your crazy relatives.”
“We’ll see,” he said, cryptically.
The sheriff and his remaining deputies used their bullhorns to reassemble the guests. After a pause while Dad gathered an impressive new bouquet to replace the one Mother had destroyed on Jake’s head, the revised wedding went forward. I made my absolutely, positively final appearance as a maid of honor.
After the ceremony, the sheriff and the deputies drove off with their prisoner, and the rest of the friends and family settled down to celebrate in earnest.
Rob, I was glad to see, had already found someone to console him for the loss of Samantha. A tall, slightly gawky young woman with bright orange hair.
“Meg, this is Red,” he said, in a tone that would have been quite appropriate for presenting the Queen of England.
“How do you do,” Red said, pushing her spectacles up off the end of her nose. “Nice bit of deduction, that.”
“Too bad I didn’t deduce it till the last minute,” I said.
“Better late than never,” she said, shrugging. “Are you really a blacksmith?”
“More or less.”
“Cool!” Red looked impressed. I decided I could get to like her.
“Red’s going to help me turn Lawyers from Hell into a computer game,” Rob said. They went off discussing RAM and mice and object-oriented programming and other things that I had no idea Rob knew anything about. Well, he was happy, anyway.
The party was definitely hitting its stride. Aunt Catriona tried to convince Natalie to play her bagpipes, but reason—or stage fright—prevailed. Undeterred, Aunt Catriona performed her justly notorious highland fling unaccompanied. With her final kick, she lost one of her spike heels, which arched across the dance floor to lodge in Great-Aunt Betty’s bouffant hairdo.
Despite the fact that their usual grounds were occupied by at least four hundred people, the croquet crowd were wandering about with their mallets in hand, trying to set up wickets.
I sat on the edge of the patio wall and gazed over the lawn. These were my family. My kin. My blood. I felt a strong, deeply rooted desire to get the hell out of town before they drove me completely over the edge.
And I could now. The sculptor still had my house till Labor Day, but there was no earthly reason for me to stay here. I could go … anywhere! I began to feel more cheerful.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mother standing at the edge of the rock garden, preparing to launch her bouquet. I gauged the distance, satisfied myself that there was no way Mother’s delicate arm could possibly throw the bouquet anywhere near me, and snagged a glass of champagne with a strawberry in it from a passing waiter.
“Aren’t you going to try for it?” Michael said, startling me by appearing at my elbow.
“No. I’ve sworn them off. I’ve sworn off everything connected with weddings; I told you that already.” I deliberately turned my back on the charming tableau of Mother gracefully waving her bouquet over the heads of a sea of laughing, chattering women.
“I don’t care if she’s had the damn thing gold-plated,” I said. I daintily raised my champagne flute to take a sip—when Mother’s well-aimed bouquet bounced off my head and landed in the hands of a startled Michael.
“You touched it first,” he said, quickly stuffing the bouquet into my hand.
Hordes of relatives swarmed over to congratulate me on my detecting ability, my wedding organizing ability, my bouquet-catching ability. I smiled and murmured thanks and sipped my champagne.
“You’re in a very good mood,” Michael said.
“The damned weddings are over. I can finally think about something else for a change.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Michael said. “Speaking of which—”
“I can’t drink to it, I’m out of champagne.”
“Your wish is my command,” he said. “Back in a jiffy.”
I glanced up at the sky. It was clouding over. Maybe a short, sudden shower would slow down the coming riot. I looked back over the sea of relatives. Then again, maybe it would take a deluge.
The band was playing an Irish jig, and many of the crowd were dancing, although most of them obviously had no earthly idea what a jig was like. I particularly liked Mrs. Tranh’s interpretation, though.
“Charming,” Michael said, coming up behind me so suddenly that I nearly fell off the wall.
“My God, you startled me,” I said.
“Sorry,” he said. “I need to talk to you.”
“So talk,” I said, watching two of my great-uncles, who were perched on the diving board beginning some sort of arm-wrestling contest.
“Not here. Come with me,” Michael said, taking me gently but firmly by the arm.
“Where?” I asked.
“This way,” he said, dragging me around the other side of the house to a point out of sight of the wedding festivities.
“Michael, I adore masterful men,” I said sarcastically, “but what on earth is this about?”
“Sit here,” he said, pointing to a picnic bench that had somehow not been requisitioned for the reception.
“I can’t see what’s going on from here,” I protested.
“We know what’s going on,” he said. “Your family are eating and drinking and doing bizarre things. This is important.”
“What if someone needs me?”
“They can do without you for a few minutes. This is important. I want to explain something to you.”
“So explain.”
“No, first you have to promise me something. Promise me you’ll hear me out.”
“Okay.”
“I mean it,” he insisted. “No interruptions. If one of the kids comes running up with a broken arm you’ll send him off to your father. If your mother needs something, you’ll let your sister take care of it. If a dead body falls out of the trees you’ll ignore it until I finish.”
“Michael, whatever it is, you could probably have explained it by now. I promise you, I’ll ignore an earthquake; get on with it.”
“Okay,” he said. And sat there looking at me.
“Well?” I said, impatiently.
“I’m suddenly speechless.”
“That must be a first,” I said, starting to rise. “Look, while you’re collecting your thoughts—”
“No, dammit, hold on a minute, let me explain,” he said, pulling me back down to the picnic bench. And as I turned to protest, he grabbed me by both shoulders, pulled me close …
And kissed me.
It was a thorough, expert, and fairly lengthy ki
ss, and by the end of it I would have fallen off the picnic bench if Michael hadn’t put an arm around me.
“I’ve been trying to explain to you all summer,” he began.
“Yes, I think I’m getting the picture. Explain it to me some more,” I said, pulling his head back down to mine.
It was during the second kiss that the first of the fireworks hit us. Quite literally; the grandchildren had begun setting off an impressive array of fireworks, and one badly aimed skyrocket went whizzing by and sides wiped Michael’s ear.
“They’re doing it again,” he exclaimed, jumping up.
“Have the kids been shooting fireworks at you? You should have told someone; that’s strictly against the rules.”
“No, I mean they’re interrupting us,” he said. “They’ve been doing it all summer. The whole town has, for that matter.”
“You can’t really accuse everyone of interrupting us,” I said. “I don’t suppose it ever dawned on anyone there was an us to interrupt. It certainly never dawned on me. Was there a particular reason you decided to pretend to be gay all summer? Research for a part or something?”
“I didn’t decide; it just happened,” he said. “I turned down some pretty disgustingly blunt propositions from a couple of Samantha’s bridesmaids and then I found they’d spread it all over town that I was gay.”
“You could have said something.”
“I didn’t really give a damn at first. I figured, who cares, and it would keep the matchmaking aunts and predatory bridesmaids at bay. But then you came along, and they convinced you, and every time I tried to explain to you, someone would come along and drag you away to do something for one of the weddings, or something would explode, or a dead body would turn up. It’s been driving me crazy.”
“That’s my family for you,” I said, nodding.
“Let’s go someplace,” he begged, pulling me up from the bench. “Someplace where we can be alone. Come on. There’s no one at my mother’s house. Let’s go there. We need to talk.”
Murder, with Peacocks Page 33
