“I didn’t strike her,” he said.
“You pushed her and it’s the same thing!” Julia said. “I never took you for a thug. A fool, yes, but not a thug. Have some dignity!”
With Charlie momentarily distracted by Julia’s sense of decorum, I slipped my phone out of my pocket and, keeping it behind my back, muted the speaker, hit my 9-1-1 quick dial button, and slid it back in my jeans. It was a move Gilroy had taught me when the station gained the ability to trace open cell lines. He told me to practice if I was going to continue with my “meddling” ways. Fortunately, I’d listened to him.
“It’s Wayne I want!” Charlie shouted. “Don’t you get that? Now get out of my way before I make you get out of my way!”
Pulling Julia back, I said, “It’s all right. We can’t stop him doing what he wants to do. He has a right to be angry.”
Julia stared. “What are you talking about? He’s as much to blame as anyone.”
“No, he isn’t,” I said, stepping on the toes of her left foot. She squawked.
Charlie wheeled about and seized his car keys from the small console table against the wall.
“We won’t stop you, Charlie,” I said, dragging Julia with me toward the front door. “I understand your anger. But I want you to think first. Don’t ruin your life over Wayne. He’s not worth it.”
“My life’s already been ruined,” Charlie moaned. “I’ve lost everything. I have nothing left. It doesn’t matter what I do now.”
Keeping his eyes on me, he slowly lowered his head. This short, beefy man was about to mow me down.
“We’re leaving!” I flung the door open and darted outside, pulling Julia with me.
Charlie clipped Julia’s heels as he flew out the door. He cut through the junipers that lined the walk and shot for his driveway, but before he could back his car into the street, Gilroy’s SUV blocked him.
I could hear Charlie scream as he pounded his steering wheel.
CHAPTER 18
I told Gilroy I would meet him at the Valentine’s Day dance, seeing as how he and Officer Turner had their hands full processing Wayne. Earlier, Gilroy had talked Charlie out of his crazy tree, but he nevertheless warned Turner to keep the man out of the station while Wayne was in a cell at the back awaiting transfer to the county jail in Fort Collins.
Wayne, hounded by his own guilty conscience, had confessed to killing Brigit and Anika as soon as Gilroy showed up at his downtown real estate office. Assuming he was under arrest, that the law had finally caught up with him, he’d spilled it all—in full hearing of his fellow real estate agents.
The funny thing was, Gilroy had no more proof that Wayne killed his wife and her friend than I did. Operating on instinct, and without telling me, he had come to the conclusion that Wayne was the murderer. And then, obligingly, not knowing that Gilroy was grasping at straws and searching for evidence, Wayne had admitted everything.
After Brigit’s stunt with the flyers, he had stormed home, he said. Brigit was drunk and vulnerable, he told Gilroy. The perfect victim. He’d grabbed a metal stake from the yard, intending to taunt and frighten her with it, but she laughed at him. She tore his Valentine in two. And then she turned her back on him. He struck her. Horrified by his own savagery, he fled the house for his car and drove into the foothills.
But he’d committed murder. He had crossed that line. A second murder, if it meant covering his tracks, was easy by comparison. And Anika, so sure of her cleverness, was talking too much. He knew she would say the wrong thing one day. She had already suggested that he was violent toward Brigit—to make it more believable when she came to his defense, she’d told him. First she would implicate him, then she would absolve him.
When Anika described her fake phone call to him, the one Julia had overheard, it became obvious that she was a loose cannon and her chief aim was to protect herself. And so Wayne got into her car, kissed her, and without another word opened her car’s tool kit, removed a screwdriver, and stabbed her. She trusted him so utterly that she didn’t even flinch until it was too late.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Julia said. “More punch, maybe?”
I made a face. “Definitely not.” Gilroy’s delay had given me a chance to chat with Julia at the punch table, but standing there, I’d also been obligated to try a cup of the sticky sweet pink punch.
“It’s horrible, isn’t it? I feel like warning people. So what are you in such deep thought about?”
Julia tried to hide it, but I saw her shoot a glance at Royce and his date for the evening, Andrea Miller. The couple looked like they were having fun, and Andrea, I had to admit, was rather stunning in her sapphire blue gown and sequined bodice.
“I was thinking about Wayne and Charlie.”
“Don’t. It’s over.”
“I’ve never seen someone more out of control than Charlie was at his house, but somehow Gilroy got him to calm down. People respect him, and not just because he’s the chief of police.”
“He’s a good man. Don’t you dare lose him.”
“I’m not planning to.” Looking back, goodness, that rare quality, was what had drawn me to Gilroy, even more than his pale blue eyes and the way he wore his cowboy boots. Goodness, after all, was in short supply in the world. I wanted to be around him. And not just him. I craved the company of good people like Julia and Holly. They brightened the world around them, they made my heart lighter, they gave me hope and optimism, and they made me more like the woman I wanted to be.
Didn’t Julia deserve the same kind of love I had found?
I found myself glaring at Royce, the thick-headed Dense Man. What was he doing with a woman almost fourteen years his junior? Didn’t he know what he was missing out on? Or was he blinded by the curves of Andrea’s sparkling dress?
If Holly hadn’t spoken, I wouldn’t have noticed her sidle up to the punch table. “Good thing you solved Brigit’s and Anika’s murders,” she said, giving me a discreet kick in the ankle. She’d probably caught me staring at Royce.
“Well, we wouldn’t want murder hanging over the dance,” I said. “But I didn’t solve anything. I just made an educated guess and barreled ahead. Gilroy came to the same conclusion, and neither of us had proof.”
“He’s still coming, isn’t he?” Holly asked.
“Any minute now. Where’s Peter?”
“I left him talking to Lloyd Wilkins,” she said, casting her eyes over the boardroom. “There he is. He’s not much of a dancer, and we’re both beat. We’ll be leaving soon.”
“Such a short night for you,” Julia said.
“That’s okay,” Holly said, flashing a happy grin. “I’ve had enough of other people’s romances for one day. I came to see my friends, and now I have.”
“Well,” Julia said.
I waited for her to go on, but she said no more.
Running my eyes over the dance floor, I saw Officer Underhill and his semi-secret date. Not dancing, but talking. Closely. “Will wonders never cease,” I said. “He really did ask her. That’s the mysterious Natalie, Underhill’s date.”
Julia and Holly snapped to attention.
“Where? Where?” Holly said.
“Standing still on the dance floor,” I said. “See? That’s her with the short brown hair.”
“I wonder if it’s serious,” Holly asked. “That would be nice for Underhill. He needs to settle down and make a life.”
Julia looked away. Our conversation was all couples, on a night dedicated to couples. My heart hurt for her. “Not many people at the punch table tonight,” I observed.
“Once they taste the stuff, they don’t come back,” Julia said.
“How many people have tried it?” I asked. In my desperation to make chitchat, I was again blathering about the punch. But I couldn’t bear the look in Julia’s eyes, the way she kept searching for Royce, or the forced cheerfulness in her voice. I knew her heart was breaking. I knew the humiliation she felt, standing on the outside of life, serving p
unch to the blissful couples. Worse, I knew she was shuttering the hope she had dared to bring into the light of day.
“Maybe twenty people have tried it,” Julia replied. “Pointless of me to be here, really. Would you two take care of the table while I take a quick break?”
I watched her walk out of the boardroom. I knew she was heading outside, or maybe to the public restroom, and there she would take deep breaths and regain her wilting composure. She would return the old Julia, full of smiles and comments about how nice Gilroy looked in his cowboy boots and what a hard worker and good man Holly’s husband was.
She was right. Life for her was like that stupid song about Toyland—the one I’d always hated. She had crossed that border—age sixty—and she could never return to life the way it once was, to dreams the way they should be. Almost every movie and television show told her that, romance novels told her that, advertisers told her that.
“I’ve got half a mind to tell Royce Putnam off,” I said to Holly.
“He’s a nice man, and he didn’t do anything wrong, Rachel.”
“It’s so unfair. He won’t even consider her, and she’s perfect for him.”
I looked back to the door just as Gilroy entered the boardroom. He looked tired but upbeat. I waved and caught his eye. At that moment I wanted nothing more than to kiss and hug him—and to do both before Julia returned. Against all odds, I had found my man, and Julia was genuinely happy for me. But I knew what it meant to be single in a world full of couples. I knew the desperate yearning to belong in a world where couples reigned and singleness trapped you in a strange, foreign land. Punch Server Land. No way was I going to rub it in, tonight of all nights.
“Go on,” Holly said, gesturing at Gilroy with her head. “I can handle the massive rush for punch.”
Gilroy and I met halfway between the door and the table. He gathered me in his arms and we kissed, all but oblivious to the couples around us. “Happy Valentine’s Day,” he said. “I’m sorry I forgot the flowers, and sorry I’m late.”
“You’re not late,” I said. “You’re right on time.” I used to see couples like us, I thought. Couples in love. I used to turn my face from them. In my more selfish moments, I wished they’d get out of my way on the sidewalk or leave the building I was in, go someplace where I didn’t have to look at them. I never thought it was possible for me to join their ranks.
“Has Royce talked to Julia yet?” he asked.
“Don’t mention that man to me.”
Gilroy frowned. “I checked up on him, you know. After you said Julia liked him. I wanted to make sure he had a spotless record. Nothing’s too good for Julia.”
We stood side by side, our arms around each other’s waists, and I nodded toward Royce and Andrea. “There he is. Winner of the Dense Man Award.”
Gilroy let go of me and took a step backward. “What? Why?”
“I know men look at these things differently, but honestly, James, Andrea is fifty-six and Royce is almost seventy. Julia’s in her early sixties and quite a catch, if you ask me. What’s wrong with the man? Can’t he see how much Julia likes him?”
“She’s never told him,” Gilroy said.
“That’s what I mean by dense. She’s told him in a dozen ways.”
“Not really.”
“So who does he ask out? Andrea and her shiny blue dress.”
Gilroy chuckled.
“Julia’s heart is breaking, James.”
“Sorry, sorry,” he said, biting back a grin.
“Really, it is. It’s breaking. And she has to stand there and serve punch while Royce and his date dance and kiss.”
“Have you seen them kiss?”
“Not yet, but I’ll bet Julia has.”
“Where is she, anyway?”
“Taking a break.”
“That explains it. Good. I didn’t want to miss this.”
“I think we should take her out to an after-dance treat at Grove Coffee to get her mind off this debacle. Something with lots of chocolate in it.”
“Chief Gilroy!” Julia called out. She circled around us, smiling broadly. She was back to her old self, or the appearance of it, anyway.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Julia,” Gilroy said.
“Same to you. Have you tried the punch?”
“Not yet.”
“My advice? Don’t.”
Gilroy held a hand to his stomach. “I’m off sugar anyway.”
“I don’t understand that,” I said.
“Just for February. It’s an experiment.”
“You didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t ask.”
True enough, I thought.
Julia left us for her punch table, and Gilroy, wearing a peculiar grin, stood firmly in place.
“How about a dance?” I asked.
“And miss this?”
I followed his line of sight, and to my horror, I saw Royce and Andrea approach Julia’s table. Heartless Andrea—no, that wasn’t fair. Andrea had no idea that Julia cared for Royce. But she looked heartless, the way she grinned and tittered as Julia poured her a punch. “This isn’t funny, James. It’s awful.”
He put his arm around my shoulder and kissed my cheek. “It’s not. Trust me. I like Julia too.”
I kept my eyes on Julia, ready to intervene at any moment, though aside from kicking Royce in the shins, it wasn’t clear what I could do. But watching her, I suddenly recalled what Gilroy had said moments ago. “How do you know Julia never told Royce she liked him?”
“He told me. The man had no idea how she felt.”
My attention swung back to Gilroy. “You asked him?”
“I know it wasn’t my place to say anything, but Julia deserves a good man, and Royce Putnam is a good man.”
“But Andrea—”
“She’s his baby sister, Rachel.” Gilroy swallowed another grin. “Royce is the oldest of six kids, and she’s the youngest. One of those unexpected blessings. She’s visiting Juniper Grove and wanted a night out. She divorced recently, and apparently she’s thinking of moving back here.”
My mouth dropped open. “Now that I think of it, I haven’t seen them dance or kiss.”
Gilroy laughed.
Back at the punch table, Andrea set her punch cup down and walked away, leaving Royce with Julia—and Holly, who I could see was having her own mouth-drop moment.
I latched onto Gilroy’s coat sleeve. “Is he asking Julia out? Is he?”
He must have been, because Holly smiled, said something to Royce, and made a quick exit.
“Royce is very attracted to Julia,” Gilroy said. “He has been for some time.”
“Why didn’t he say something? Why didn’t he explain who Andrea was?”
“He wasn’t sure Julia liked him. He said Julia always seems irritated when he’s around.”
I smacked my forehead. “Of all the silly—”
“I remember feeling the same way about you.”
“Really? I was attracted to you from the start, but I hated feeling vulnerable, and I thought I annoyed you.”
“It took me a while to figure that out.”
We stood there like a couple of grinning fools, watching Julia and Royce take to each other like teenagers on a first date. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but the body language was clear enough. To a woman, anyway.
Julia smiled, and her hand rose to her hair.
“You know what that move means, don’t you?” I said.
“What?”
“It means Julia’s going to have a great spring.”
FROM THE AUTHOR
We all need a place to escape to from time to time. A place where neighbors drink cups of coffee around a kitchen table (and some indulge in cream puffs), where friends feel safe sharing their hearts’ deepest yearnings, where neighbors stop to chat with neighbors outside flower shops. True, the occasional murder mars the Juniper Grove landscape, but what would a mystery series be without dead bodies? Juniper Grove is stil
l that place of escape, and I hope you’ll join me there for all the books in the series. I look forward to sharing more of Rachel Stowe and her friends with you.
If you’ve enjoyed this box set or any of the books in it, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Nothing fancy, just a couple sentences. Your help is appreciated more than I can say. Reviews make a huge difference in helping readers find the Juniper Grove Mystery Series and in allowing me to continue to write the series. Thank you!
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The Sacrifice
The Club
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Anna Denning Mystery Series Box Set: Books 1-3
CHILDREN’S BOOKS (FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS)
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Juniper Grove Cozy Mystery Box Set 2 Page 37
