Never amounted to much? “But obviously, you’ve remained on friendly terms for her to confide in you,” Celeste said.
He walked past her and stared at the kitchen door.
“No, not really. We ran into each other here the day of the wedding,” he said. “It was the first time I’d seen her in years.”
“You hadn’t seen her in years, but she confided in you?”
“It was after Wes died,” he said. “I saw her somewhere in the hotel. I think it was in the gym, and she was upset so naturally, I asked her if there was anything I could do. She said that she was afraid of losing her position in Wes’s company, and I told her to sit tight and everything would be okay. That’s all there was to it.” He paused and cleared his throat. “Why are you giving me the third degree about Kylie?”
She clasped her hands together to keep them from trembling—not out of fear but rather, anger.
“Because I’ve come to realize that you’re a liar, Bill.”
He looked as if she’d slapped him. Apparently, words do hurt, especially when it’s the truth.
“Excuse me? How dare you say that to me?”
Celeste swallowed the bad taste in her mouth and told him what she thought of him.
“I saw you kissing Kylie, and I overheard a conversation you had with her in the hotel stairwell. You didn’t just run into her. My guess is that you’ve been having an affair with her and now you stand here acting as if you don’t give a rat’s ass that she’s upstairs having a crisis. Not only that, Emma told me that you came to her the morning of her wedding asking about a large parcel of land she owned that Kylie wanted. If you weren’t acquainted with the Carlyles before this weekend and hadn’t seen Kylie in years, why would you insinuate yourself into their business?”
A crimson tint colored his face and even seemed to darken his eyes. Celeste stood firm.
“And finally, a little while ago, I saw a photo of you at Wes and Emma’s dinner dance. You were with Jerry Hardison, who was arrested in Charlotte this morning for dealing drugs. According to Emma, you weren’t invited to that party. What were you doing there?”
He shook from head to toe and balled his fists. For a split second, Celeste feared that he might strike her.
“Whatever is or was between Kylie and me is none of your damned business, and Jerry Hardison is one of my clients. He planned to be in Blowing Rock that night and asked me to meet with him. If it’s true and proven that he’s a drug dealer, I will certainly break off my association with him.” He paused and took a deep breath before continuing. “How dare you stand there and accuse me of insinuating myself into someone’s business when that’s exactly what you’re doing.”
She bit the inside of her bottom lip. He may have had her on that point.
“Now, if this interrogation of yours is why you called me over here,” he said. “I have better things to do with my time.” He stopped and pointed his index finger at her. “No one besmirches my honesty or my motives, and you can consider our contract canceled, Mrs. Adams. Perhaps, you can coax your precious Emma to get off her ass and do some PR work for you.”
Whoa, where did that come from?
“I’m surprised you didn’t accuse me of murdering Wes Carlyle or was that the next point you intended to make?”
He pivoted on his heel and plodded to the parking lot.
“Don’t you want to stay and see what happens with Kylie? Don’t you have any concern for her?”
Bill waved a hand in the air. “I’m sure it will be on the evening news.”
“I guess you wouldn’t have anything to do with why she’s despondent enough to take her own life,” she called after him.
Her remark stopped him in his tracks for a couple of seconds, but he hurried on to his vehicle, gunned the engine, and sped out of the parking lot. She noticed his smartphone glued to his ear. He’s probably canceling all of my advertising. Well, I put my foot in it, didn’t I, Howard? She could have sworn she heard her husband laughing.
She heard footsteps and saw Abby and Emma coming up the path.
“I’m afraid I didn’t accomplish much except making a fool of myself,” Celeste said.
“Oh, no,” Emma said. “For you to rile Bill to that extent, you had to have found an exposed nerve, and you did catch him in a lie. His remarks were certainly enlightening for me.”
“How so?”
Emma shook her head. “I had no idea that he regarded me with such contempt.”
“I caught that, too,” Celeste said.
“I wonder what’s happening upstairs with that poor girl,” Abby said.
Celeste rubbed the tight muscles at the base of her neck.
“Emma, did you finish looking at the photos from the dinner party?”
“No, when your desk clerk called, we stopped at that point,” she said. “And hearing the news about Kylie, I didn’t feel like going on.”
“Maybe, we should continue looking at those,” Celeste said. “I was intrigued by the picture of Jerry Hardison putting that envelope in Kylie’s purse. Was he putting the envelope in it or taking it out and what did it contain?”
“I left the tablet on the sofa,” Emma said. “I’ll go get it.”
Celeste and Abby sat on the bench that faced the mountain. She’d spent much time in that spot with Howard, felt the breeze, and been at peace with her life. Now, she was tempted to ask, as Emma had, what the hell happened?
“Thank goodness, this latest emergency is at a time when most of the guests are out taking advantage of the beautiful weather,” she said. “However, when Bill said that it would be on the evening news, I began to panic. The Gran Vista is going to be associated with a murder and an attempted suicide within days of each other. Without a public relations expert, I wonder if the hotel can weather this.”
“Oh, sure it can,” Abby said. “You’d be surprised how short people’s memories are—not to mention the number of people who pay little attention to the news anymore.”
Celeste stood and walked to the flowerbed that contained Howard’s memorial stone. His ashes had been scattered at Grandview Overlook, but the children had wanted a headstone placed on the property for the sake of future generations. Kevin kept multi-colored zinnias planted around it along with Howard’s favorite flower, snapdragons. It made a beautiful display through the spring and summer months.
“I’m feeling sick that I had a confrontation with Bill. Maybe, I should’ve kept my mouth shut, but I can’t help thinking that he’s part of why Kylie is having a breakdown. Seeing those photos of him at the party gave me the idea that he was up to something underhanded.”
“I thought he was hanging around a little too much,” Abby said. “And I saw him telling Renee how to do her work. I could tell that she was irritated.”
“Bill either wanted in on that resort venture or more than likely, he wanted to buy Emma’s land. I think he used Kylie’s affection for him to keep abreast of all the developments. Maybe, Kylie let it slip that Wes was marrying Emma to get that parcel without having to pay for it. Bill tried to stop the wedding at the last minute, but I had to step in and play fairy godmother. I was so obsessed with hosting the perfect wedding.”
Abby turned and stared at her. “Celeste, what are you saying? Do you have proof of this?”
She shook her head. “No proof except for my intuition and a lot of coincidences so let’s just keep that between the two of us.”
Celeste looked toward the cottage and saw Emma coming toward them walking at a brisk pace. Tears streamed down her cheeks. What is wrong now?
Celeste and Abby hurried to her.
“Emma? Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay. I know who killed Wes.”
Emma handed Celeste the tablet.
“My niece made a video of Wes and me dancing,” she said. “Tessa used the 360-degree mode. At the fifteen-second mark, watch the empty table—mine and Wes’s table. Tessa’s sister, Lynn had made cute place cards that read ‘brid
e’ and ‘groom’. While Wes and I were dancing, she switched them as a joke.”
Celeste skipped to fourteen seconds and paused the video at seventeen seconds. The pain in her neck intensified.
“Oh, God.” She backed it up and replayed it. “Abby, take a gander at this.”
Abby leaned forward to get a better view. “It looks like she put something in the drink. Can you enlarge the screen and replay it?”
Celeste stopped the video, tapped the plus mark to zoom in, and hit replay.
“Oh, no,” Abby said. “This is when it happened. She emptied a small vial of liquid into the glass.”
Emma fell forward, and Abby caught her. “That drug was meant for me,” Emma cried. “She didn’t know that Lynn had switched the place cards.”
Recalling one of the phone conversations she’d overheard, everything suddenly made sense to Celeste.
“You’re right, Emma. The principals in that land development wanted your parcel so badly that they would do anything to have it,” Celeste said. “And when Wes died by mistake, it threw them into a tailspin because they couldn’t predict what you would do.”
“Do you remember my wrinkled forehead?” Abby asked. “That’s what I was thinking. None of us could come up with a motive for why anyone would want to kill Wes, but Emma was a different story. She had something that someone wanted badly.”
Some movement to her left shifted Celeste’s attention to the hotel.
“They’re coming out,” she said.
The paramedics brought Kylie out. Her inert body was strapped onto a gurney and her eyes were closed. She must be sedated. Alan followed behind—his face downcast and his hands shoved into the deep pockets of his khaki shorts. Brad placed an arm between Alan and the ambulance.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You can’t go with her. She’ll be taken to the psych ward at the hospital for observation, and they’ll call you when you can see her.”
Using the back of his hand, Alan wiped tears from his eyes.
“I feel so badly for him,” Emma whispered.
Alan retreated inside the hotel without seeing them standing there. Celeste pulled her phone from her pocket and called the front desk.
“Maddie, when Alan checks out, tell him there’s no charge…Yes, this whole weekend has been a tragedy for that family.” She paused and watched Brad’s determined stride as he came near to them. “And it’s not over, yet.”
She hit the end call icon and dropped her phone into the pocket of her jeans.
“I don’t expect you to divulge anything that happened upstairs,” Celeste said. “But is she going to be okay?”
The tilt of Brad’s head and his tightened lips told her more than his words. “I’m not a psychiatrist, Celeste.” He looked at Emma who was still weeping in Abby’s arms. “She did have some interesting things to say that may put us closer to solving Wes Carlyle’s murder.”
Celeste held the tablet in front of her.
“Thanks to a short video that Emma’s niece took during the dinner dance, we’ve discovered who doctored the drink, but it may not have been intended for Wes.”
Brad took the tablet from her. They all remained silent while he watched. He replayed the incriminating section of the video a few times—zooming in and out.
“She put the drug in the glass at the bride’s seat,” Brad said. “Why did Wes drink from your glass, Emma?”
Emma didn’t answer him. She buried her face against Abby’s shoulder.
“Emma’s niece switched the place cards as a joke,” Celeste said. “And apparently, Missy didn’t realize it.”
“I see,” he said. “Why would Missy want to drug you, Emma?”
“I wish I could tell you,” Emma said. “But I can’t even put my thoughts together right now.”
With most of the puzzle pieces assembled, Celeste put forth her theory.
“The night Wes died,” Celeste said. “I overheard Missy talking to someone on the phone. She said, ‘I don’t know how it happened.’ Then, she asked the person on the other end if the marriage was even legal since Emma and Wes had been married for less than twelve hours. The last thing I heard her say was, ‘Maybe, we don’t have anything to worry about’.”
“I’m beginning to believe I interviewed the wrong people,” he said. “I should’ve been talking to you. I have a feeling you have it all worked out.”
“There were a few people involved in this golf resort development that Wes was putting together, and the whole deal hinged on Emma’s property. When Emma started to get cold feet and had second thoughts, they decided to be more aggressive about it. Someone came up with the idea to drug Emma. Under the influence of ecstasy, she could’ve been signing a birthday card for all she would’ve known.”
Emma stood up straight and wiped her face with an old tissue she pulled from the pocket of her jeans.
“But how would they do that without Wes’s knowledge?” she asked. “He would’ve been able to tell that I was drugged.”
Celeste made eye contact with Emma. Let it sink in, Emma.
Emma’s mouth opened and a squeaky noise came out ahead of her words. “Oh, God. He was part of it. He knew Missy was going to do it.”
“But Wes didn’t realize that she had spiked the wrong drink because of your niece’s joke,” Celeste said. “And he accidentally killed himself.”
“The fool didn’t know that I’d already signed the papers,” Emma said.
“And let’s not forget that Emma has a heart condition and takes medication for it,” Abby said. “That drug could’ve killed her.”
Emma sniffed. “And if they had killed me, Wes would’ve still had Dave’s land. That’s why he refused to sign Tom’s pre-nup. It had nothing to do with believing that we’d be married forever.”
Abby maneuvered her over to the bench and sat down with her. Emma laid her head on Abby’s shoulder. For someone who had never been a mother, Abby had the qualities of one.
“Emma, I’ll need to take this tablet in as evidence,” Brad said.
“Of course,” she said. “But you only need the card. I didn’t copy the video or pictures to the tablet.”
Brad removed the microSD card and dropped it into a small envelope that he had in his jacket pocket.
“I’m still curious about who the silent investor in the venture was,” Celeste said. “I suspect someone, but I’d rather not say in case I’m wrong.”
A strange smile crossed Brad’s lips. “I know who it is,” he said. “But…”
“But you can’t share the information,” Celeste said. “I’ll watch the news tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you both for your cooperation in this case,” he said. “You’re free to go home, Emma, and I’ll be in touch later.” He hesitated a moment before speaking to Celeste. “I hope we’ll see each other again when I’m not investigating a homicide.”
She nodded and turned her head toward Howard’s flowerbed. After Brad walked away, Celeste could see that Emma’s pallor had changed to something between pale and ghostly. She doubled over and emptied the contents of her stomach onto the ground.
“Abby, take her into the cottage and give her some ice water. I’ll get a shovel from Kevin’s shed.”
In the evening, Celeste sunk into the sofa cushions with her mug of hot-buttered rum. I’m beginning to see why Howard liked this drink. Using the remote, she turned on the T.V. and giggled when Scooby Doo appeared on the screen. Emma had left it on the Boomerang Network. Oh, why not. She put down the remote and nursed her drink while watching Scooby and the gang run from one room of the old mansion to another.
Instead of returning to Charlotte, Emma had gone to her parents’ home in Lenoir to have quality, recovery time with people who loved her. I don’t know how she’s going to come to terms with this. She hadn’t minded Emma’s company, but Celeste was glad to have her cottage to herself again. I’m getting old and set in my ways, aren’t I, Howard? No, I’m not old. Not yet, but I’m getting there. Sh
e stared into the brown liquid in her mug and swirled it around with the cinnamon stick. She took another sip. This is tasty.
Her phone vibrated, and she saw Abby’s name on the screen.
“Hi, Abby,” she said.
“Are you watching the news?”
“No, I’m watching Scooby Doo.”
Abby’s laughter reverberated through the phone. “Celeste, you need to get out more.”
“So what’s on the news? No, don’t tell me. Let me guess. The story of how an attempted suicide took place at the Gran Vista Hotel only two days following the death of a groom in the honeymoon suite. Maybe, my next ad campaign will be: Whether planning a weekend getaway, a wedding, or a family tragedy, Gran Vista is for you.”
“Celeste, have you been drinking?”
She set her half-empty mug on the coffee table. “A little bit.”
“Well, I hope you’re sober enough to pat yourself on the back for solving the Carlyle case. You had it all right. Missy made a full confession. Wes gave her the drug to drop into Emma’s drink while he distracted her on the dance floor. Jerry Hardison was the silent partner in the resort venture, and he’d been supplying Missy with drugs. They’ve released Jessica, though. Apparently, they couldn’t pin anything on her. Charges are pending against Missy.”
Celeste sat up straight on the sofa. “I’d rather see her go into rehab than go to jail. If she hadn’t been drug dependent, I doubt she could’ve been used that way.”
“Well, we don’t have the particulars, Celeste. I still think of the fact that Emma could’ve died.”
“Right.” She relaxed against the soft cushions. “Was Kylie’s name mentioned?”
“Believe it or not, Kylie’s suicide attempt didn’t make the news.”
“That’s a load off my mind,” Celeste said. “Kylie’s ambition drove her into something she couldn’t control. It’s my belief that she found out with the rest of us how Jerry Hardison and Wes Carlyle had made their money and how they were financing their joint ventures.”
“No matter how it all comes out, it’s a pity,” Abby said. “Do you think that’s what Brad Woods meant when he told Emma that she didn’t really know Wes?”
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