“Luck. Bad luck,” I say under my breath.
Rudolph saunters over, and I reach up and give his glowing forehead a quick scratch.
“Guess what? I know who killed Isabelle, I think. And if I’m right about another hunch, I think maybe this same person killed Larson.”
“Great work, Lottie. How much whiskey is in it for me if I help you capture the killer?”
“How about I empty Carlotta’s liquor cabinets?” I ask as we head out toward the tree lot that extends to the back end of the petting zoo.
Rudolph chuckles. “I’m afraid I’ve beat you to it.”
I lift a finger to say something, and there she is crouched near the edge of the corral petting a reindeer through the slats in the fence.
“It’s you,” I say, trying to sound perfectly normal, perfectly undeterred by the fact I’m ready to hand her over to Noah or Ivy or any sheriff’s deputy in the vicinity.
“Lottie.” She rises to her feet, her eyes sharpening over mine. “I’ve heard you’ve been asking questions.” Her lips bleed a dark smile. “How about we take a little walk?”
Chapter 20
The night is dark, the stars are artfully hidden behind a veil of dark clouds, and the evergreens span out before us like a maze.
“So what’s this I’m hearing?” She shakes her head in disbelief as we walk along the edge of the woods. I’ve learned enough over the last few months to know not to get too far from a crowd in the event I need help, but something tells me I could take this girl if she tried anything. And yet suddenly I’m feeling foolish for letting myself fall into the habit of leaving Ethel at home. What good is having a gun if I don’t have it here to protect me? “Why are you asking questions about my father of all people?”
“Oh, that.” I glance to Rudolph and shrug. “That was just a weird coincidence.” I really have no logical answer to give her.
She steps in front of me, and the friendly look in her eyes I’ve grown accustomed to takes a dark and dangerous turn.
A breath hitches in my throat. “Charlie—I don’t know what you think I know, but I can assure you it’s not what you’re thinking.”
“Oh God.” She kicks the ground hard as if she were starting to unravel. “Stupid, stupid me trusted those idiots to keep a secret. I should have known better. They have no idea how to keep an exclusive luxury resort under wraps, let alone something like this.”
“So it’s true? I mean, you poisoned Isabelle to make her look as if she were a drug addict?”
She groans hard as if she might be sick. “So what? She was toying with my family.”
I take a slow step backward. “I guess the same could be said of your mother.” I shrug. “Isn’t that right? She slept with Larson’s father. That is how you came to be.”
She swallows audibly. “So you know everything. God.” She pinches her eyes shut. “Look, Isabelle killed my mother. My mother wouldn’t have gotten sick if she didn’t find out about the affair. She was wracked with guilt from every direction.”
“Your mother died?” My heart breaks for her. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize—”
“It doesn’t matter. It was still her fault. She put that disease inside of her. The Rosenbergs were all a disease. And after my mother died, I got rid of the two most lethal parts.”
“Two? You killed Larson?” I take a deep breath at the thought of a bona fide confession.
“She never thought I was good enough. None of them did. They hated everyone, but they despised me. They worked their hardest to make sure I was miserable. And don’t think Larson didn't enjoy lording her mother’s death over my head. She had me by the shirt for the last six years, but no more.” Her voice vibrates with anger.
“Then why didn’t you get away? Why go into business with her?”
“Larson was getting ready to confess everything. She was going to turn me in if I didn’t stay around and play the part of her lackey. When she heard I was looking into Swift Cycle, she made sure she would be a silent partner who did none of the work and took eighty percent of my paycheck. I don’t have a trust fund to live off like some people. She was going to drive me insane and to the poor house. Larson was an albatross around my neck, and I couldn’t stand her another minute.”
“Is that why you lost it at the party that night?”
Her chest bucks. “She lured me into the room, Lottie. That horrible, horrible room. It’s where we found her mother staggering that day. And Larson had a wonderful idea. She picked up a fire poker and said she’d finish off her mother for real, and then she blamed it on me. On me! I wasn’t trying to kill anyone. I knew slipping a mickey into her drink was pushing it too far already.”
“You sent the flowers?” I shake my head, still trying to piece it together. “But the initials were C.B.” I suck in a quick breath. “Wait a minute. Your father is Bowen Bradshaw.”
Her chest bucks with a laugh. “My mother never took his name, and when I was old enough I changed my last name to match hers. She was constantly clawing to get away from him, but her life never really panned out how she thought it would. She wanted to be a Rosenberg, but Cumberland didn’t think she was the right pedigree to be his wife.”
“So you tried to kill Isabelle as an act of ultimate revenge.”
“Don’t you listen?” Her voice hikes an octave. “I said I wanted out. I was ready to forget all about my vengeance. But no, Larson swung that thing at her mother as if it were a baseball bat. I tried to stop her. I dug my nails into her skin until she bled.”
The DNA test comes back to me. “It was Larson who killed her.” I shake my head in disbelief. “And she did it to set you up. She was a monster, Charlie. Let’s go now and tell the sheriff what happened. They’ll understand. You were losing your mind. You can plead insanity.”
“No.” She shakes her head. In one swift move, she bends over and picks up a rock. She takes out my feet with a quick sweep of her leg, and I’m on my back before I can process what’s happening.
“Lottie!” Rudolph tries to jump over me just as Charlie hurls that mini boulder at my head. I manage to roll, and it misses me by a few inches.
Charlie lands on top of me. “Don’t worry, Lottie. When I heard you were snooping, I grabbed a piece of garland just for you.”
She wraps a wire around my throat and cinches it as I struggle to push her off.
Rudolph brays and barks, and he kicks and leans against her until finally she pops off like a cork.
My fingers claw to free the garland from my neck, and I take a deep breath.
“Lottie!” Noah shouts as he runs this way.
“Noah!” I cry out just as something hard and solid hits me on the head. “Geez,” I say, crawling away as quickly as I can.
“Not so fast.” She clutches onto my ankle and drags me behind a batch of evergreens cut and lying on their side. “I’m sorry, Lottie, but you’re going to die tonight. Just remember, you’re my only victim I didn’t want to kill.”
“You didn’t kill Isabelle,” I shout and kick. “Larson did!”
“Not true,” she riots back. “I tried to wrestle the poker from Larson. I killed Isabelle. I cracked her skull open. I was aiming for her daughter, and she ducked just in time. And Larson laughed. What kind of person laughs as their mother lies there bleeding?”
“A monster. And it wasn’t you,” I say, softening my voice just a notch.
Her eyes narrow in on mine with a renewed fire in them. “That’s where you’re wrong. I am very much a monster. That’s exactly who they made me to be.”
She dives over me again, her hands on my throat.
A spiral of light ignites bright as the sun as Rudolph bucks her in the bottom and sends her flying into the night sky.
Charlie lands in a field of pine needles just as Noah runs up and scoops me up into his strong arms.
“The baby? Is the baby all right? Are you okay, Lottie?”
“I’m fine. We’re fine. Just go get Charlie before she esca
pes.”
I watch as Noah takes off after her.
A spasm of light ignites in the sky overhead, and I look up to see Rudolph flying with eight more reindeer. His nose is lit up a familiar shade of red—and, if I’m not mistaken, there’s a sleigh in the back driven by a wily old elf.
The sound of sleigh bells rings out from a distance as they grow smaller and smaller as they fly true north.
“Goodnight, Lottie Lemon! It was good to know you!”
“It was good to know you, too,” I cry out. “Next time I’ll buy the whiskey!” I shout after him.
“Whiskey?”
I turn to find Everett standing there, and I wrap my arms around him tight.
“Thank you for sharing those secrets with me earlier,” I whisper, pulling back to look into his gorgeous face. “And I know a little secret about you, too.”
He takes a deep breath. “Cressida told me.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t have a good solution.”
I nod up at him. “I do.”
Chapter 21
Fallbrook in December is magical.
It’s late evening, and Everett picked me up after I closed the bakery. Noah was allowed to go back to work and has been bogged down with administrative tasks ever since. He’s healing so well. I’m so relieved and thrilled to have him back, whole and healthy, front and center in my life where he belongs.
There’s a light knock at the door, and I look up at the vanity where I’ve been contemplating my choices while touching myself up a bit. Eliza insisted I change into something proper. She had an entire selection of wedding dresses for me to choose from. Some were humble and pure, and others a bit more ostentatious with far too much fanfare for me to even consider. I chose a vintage dress, off-white lace, floor-length, princess neckline, and capped sleeves.
I’m standing in Eliza Baxter’s overgrown library, in her mammoth mansion with my heart racing faster than it’s ever beat before.
I head to the door and open it a crack. “Yes?”
“It’s me, Lemon. I want to come in.”
“Don’t you know it’s bad luck to see the bride before she walks down the aisle?”
“I don’t believe in luck, and I’m not sure you do either.” His fingers curl around the door as he opens it another notch. “Please.”
“You did say the magic word.” I let him in, and he inspects me from head to toe.
“Lemon.” His voice is threadbare. “You look stunning.” His finger glides over my cheek. “But then, you always do.” He flexes an all too brief smile. There’s a heaviness about his spirit, his eyes pained with remorse and hesitation. “I don’t want you to do this for me. It’s asking too much.”
“And have Cressida take my place? No, thank you.”
“It’s a business arrangement. Nothing more, I promise.”
“No can do. I fit into these lace slippers just fine, thank you.” A thought comes to me, and I swallow hard as I take him in with his fitted Italian suit and his shoes with their mirror shine. “Unless you don’t want me. I mean, I’m certainly not the same pedigree as someone like Cressida.” I shake my head. “I completely understand—”
“There’s nothing to understand. You are a cut above the rest. I would have chosen you a thousand times over. There’s not another woman on the planet I’d want as my wife, and you must know that. And that brings me to my next point. This isn’t about us. This is a business arrangement. You’re still with Noah. As soon as the required time is up, we’ll divorce quietly. This is nothing more than one friend doing a favor for another.” Everett cups my cheeks, his cobalt eyes suddenly watery. “Promise me that.”
I swallow hard and nod. “I promise.”
Everett and I walk out together. Eliza has the grand room decorated to the hilt with gorgeous sweeping garland made of thick evergreen boughs, accented with pine cones and bright red holly. There’s an enormous Christmas tree in the center of the room that must stand twenty feet tall at least, festooned with enormous copper and gold globes, bright red bows, and the finest crystal ornaments I have ever seen.
Standing to the right of the tree are both Eliza and Meghan. Meghan is Everett’s younger and only sister. She works in the insurance industry right here in Fallbrook. To the left of the tree is an odd trio that spans the breadth from DNA donor to convicted felon. It turns out, Carlotta needed to give Connie and Cat a ride out this way. Cat and Connie are meeting up with the Canelli brothers’ “good friend” at some diner later, and that good friend happens to be giving them a lift to New York to spend time with family for the holidays.
But as fate or that bad luck neither Everett nor I are sure we believe in, we came across the three of them on the side of the highway trying to hitch a ride. We picked them up, and somewhere along the way Carlotta wrangled the truth from me like only she can. She swore she wouldn’t say a word. Connie and Cat said I was the luckiest girl in the world to have two hot husbands, and just the thought made me cringe. As much as I would have liked for them not to be a part of this, the universe thought otherwise.
And finally, standing in front of the tree, is a kind, older gentleman who is the lawyer for the Baxter family trust. He filled out all the paperwork for the marriage license and tried his hardest to have Everett make me sign a pre-nup—I quickly agreed—but Everett wouldn’t hear of it. He is also an ordained minister, and it’s him who asks Everett and me to hold hands and look at one another. He has us exchange a few simple words, and just like that, he nods his head to Everett.
Everett pulls a ring out of his pocket and slips it onto my finger and I gasp. I recognize this double cushion halo setting surrounded with all round brilliant cut diamonds. It’s the exact ring he selected for me a few weeks back while we were supposed to be helping Bear pick a ring out for Keelie.
I had to take Noah’s ring off before the ceremony, and it broke my heart. Now that I see Everett’s ring, it breaks my heart in a whole new way.
I shake my head. “I don’t have a ring for you, Everett.”
A smile quickens on his lips. “It’s not needed.”
The lawyer clears his throat. “Judge Baxter, you may kiss your bride.”
Everett takes a breath, and his hand cups my cheek as a faint smile graces his face.
“My bride.” He ticks his head to the side as if he could hardly believe it.
He bows in and lands his lips to mine, and a thin layer of tears bursts the seam of my lids. He tries to pull away, but I hold him there with my hand pressed to the back of his neck. And we linger in that kiss, our hearts rioting against one another in perfect time.
Carlotta, Cat, and Connie let out a series of whoops and yelps.
“Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter!” Connie lets out a riotous whistle that could garner the attention of every canine in Vermont.
Eliza steps forward, tears sparkling in her cobalt eyes. Both of her children are carbon copies of her, with the same dark hair, same stunning blue eyes.
“Lottie, I just knew you were the one for my Essex the minute I met you.”
Meghan nods as she pulls me into a firm embrace. “Welcome to the family, Lottie.”
We indulge in a champagne toast, and everyone enjoys a slice of the Yule log I made myself this morning. I always said I wouldn’t be one of those brides who baked my own wedding cake, and here I am, lovingly feeding my new husband a bite as he takes it with his teeth.
It’s all for show, of course, but my heart doesn’t know that.
We wrap it up, I change back into my clothes, and we say goodnight to Eliza and Meghan, and thank the lawyer for performing his duty. Everett assured me that both his mother and sister have agreed to keep this low-key.
Everett and I pile back into his car, with Carlotta, Connie, and Cat, as we take the Canelli girls to the diner at the edge of town.
We get out of the car, and I hug both Cat and Connie goodbye.
Cat wipes a tear from her eye. “You’re lu
cky, Lemon, you know that?”
I bite down on a smile as I look to Everett. “I think you’re right.”
Connie smacks him on the arm. “Don’t forget to go easy on my brother. I’d hate to see you end up on the wrong side of the soil. But if you do, I’m putting it out there right now—I’m good with nightly apparitions in my bed as long as they look like you, big boy.” She gives a flirtatious wink.
He offers a circular nod. “I’ll keep that in mind, but I won’t have to worry about your brothers anymore.”
“Why is that?” I ask, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“Because I had a great day in court this afternoon.” His chest expands as he looks my way. “I thought maybe you might have heard, but since you didn’t, I wanted to save the news as sort of a wedding gift. After a long deliberation process, the jury couldn’t come to an agreement. I was forced to declare a mistrial.”
“A mistrial?” Connie gasps before she and Cat exchange high fives.
“Now what?” My heart is right back to racing. Everett is safe—I think.
Everett shrugs. “Either a plea bargain will happen, the trial will be reborn, or the prosecutor will dismiss the charges. No matter what happens, that case won’t enter my courtroom again. They’re starting fresh, and so am I.”
“Oh, thank God.” I wrap my arms around his strong body and exhale for what feels like the first time in a month.
We say goodbye to Cat and Connie and watch as they head inside the well-lit diner.
Yule Log Eulogy Page 18
