Death at the Dog Wedding

by Stacey Alabaster

  Suddenly, the grin faded from Elliot’s face and I placed a hand on his shoulder as he leaned against the gate of the dog park. “I’m sorry. This must be tough for you to talk about.”

  He straightened up and tugged on his denim jacket. “I guess there’s no sense dwelling on the past. We need to figure out what to do going forward.”

  “Going forward?” I asked, looking into the dog park where Massie and Jasper were playing happily together. “You mean with Massie?”

  Elliot shook his head. “No, not with Massie. She’ll stay with me, I assume. I mean with the yoga studio.”

  I gulped. Guilt started to warm my chest as I remembered I still hadn’t given them my decision.

  “I didn’t know you still had anything to do with the yoga studio?”

  “It would have been a lot easier to organize things if Ollie hadn’t quit,” Elliot said, shaking his head in disapproval.

  I was surprised to hear Elliot mention Ollie’s name. “You know Ollie?” I asked him as Jasper dashed toward the edge of the dog park when a golden retriever began to approach. But instead of going toward the dog, he headed toward the exit gate. That was strange. Did Jasper want to leave the park? I normally couldn’t even tempt him away from the place, even if I had a big juicy piece of streak to tempt him with.

  “Yeah, I know Ollie,” Elliot said.

  “Huh.” He had stumped me a little. I mean, sure, Pottsville is a small town. I supposed it wasn’t that unusual for the two of them to know each other. Especially seeing as Ollie had worked for Elliot’s best friend. So I just shrugged a little and decided to let it go.

  Massie was left alone to play by herself in the middle of the park. The golden retriever tried to gain her interest, but she seemed to be pining away after Jasper, who couldn’t have cared less.

  “Elliot, I hate to ask this.” I paused for a moment and tried to choose my words carefully. The memory of Maxine meeting Massie was clearly a raw one for him and I didn’t want to upset him, or cast a shadow on it. “But have you ever seen Massie acting…a little abnormally?”

  He turned to me with a heavy frown. “Abnormally? What on earth do you mean by that?” He glanced at Massie over his shoulder and then asked. “What, you mean, like, depressed?”

  I shook my head. “No. Not depressed. Aggressive.”

  His face turned red. His voice rose in offense. “Aggressive? George, what exactly are you asking? Massie is the gentlest dog you could ever meet in your life…”

  I tried to calm him down. I didn’t want to upset him. I held my hands up. “I’m only asking,” I said gently, trying to disarm him. “I heard some unhelpful gossip, that’s all, and I just want to get it cleared up.”

  He took a few deep breaths. “Sorry,” he said. “I just got a little worked up there. I can’t believe that anyone would call Massie aggressive.” He may have taken a few deep breaths but there was still a vein bulging on his neck and his eyes were still wide open in disbelief. “Who said that about her?”

  I turned back to the dog park. Jasper was still laying near the gate as though he was waiting for me to click the leash back onto his collar and take him home.

  “A dog walker,” I said, not wanting to name Felicity specifically. Anyway, it was the truth.

  Elliot shook his head. “Which dog walker?” he asked, confused.

  “His name is Bej,” I said.

  “I’ve never heard of that guy,” Elliot said, sounding annoyed. “So you’re telling me that Massie attacked this dog walker?”

  I paused for a moment, then I had to shake my head. Admit the truth. “No,” I said gently. “To be honest, Bej always thought that Massie was a sweet dog. But he was scared of her for some reason. He heard that Massie attacked someone else.”

  “And who is this someone else?” Elliot asked.

  “Her name is Felicity,” I finally said, shoving my hands into my pockets.

  Elliot’s face fell and he shook his head. “Of course,” he mumbled, his face turning hard with bitterness. It sounded as though this was the least surprising thing he had ever heard. I may as well just have told him that water was wet, going from his reaction. He turned away from me.

  “What does that mean?” I asked. “Do you know Felicity?”

  “Of course I do. She used to be a regular at the yoga studio. Until they had a falling out and Maxine told her not to come back ever again. It’s the only yoga studio in Pottsville, you know. So that caused a little tension.”

  Goodness. “So… Felicity didn’t like Maxine then?”

  Elliot scoffed.

  “She hated Maxine,” Elliot said, rolling her eyes. “So of course she would make up rumors about her dog. It was the easiest way to hurt her.”

  “Felicity wanted to hurt Maxine?” I asked, my heart speeding up a little. I thought about the lost time at the wedding, the way that Felicity had sped off.

  Oh my goodness. I was right all along. I’ve got to warn Adam before he makes a big, big mistake.

  I felt the adrenaline flood me and I knew I had to get out of that dog park. I had to stop Adam before he made a very stupid mistake.

  But I knew I had to keep calm, at least for a little while, until I could get more information from Elliot. It was time for me to take a few deep breaths myself.

  “Hang on,” I said. “Why did Felicity invite Maxine to the wedding if she hated her?”

  Elliot shrugged. “It wasn’t Maxine she was inviting, really, was it? It was Massie. And she couldn’t exactly not invite a dog without looking like a total piece of work…”

  I stared down at Massie, who was looking sad now that her new friend Jasper had grown tired and all but abandoned her, forcing her to play by herself.

  Elliot continued. “Believe me, I heard an earful about it all from Maxine at the time of the wedding planning. How Felicity was giving her the cold shoulder and refusing to invite her, even though Massie and Flora always played here at the dog park.”

  “So the easiest way to ban Maxine from the wedding was to make up a rumor about Massie,” I said, as it slowly dawned on me. The rumor had had nothing to do with Bej being double-booked. It was purely out of spite. “If she went around telling people that Massie was aggressive then there was a perfect reason not to invite her to a dog wedding.”

  “I mean, I knew that Felicity could act a little low, but this is another level,” Elliot said, almost shaking with anger. “It is one thing to make up rumors about Maxine, but about an innocent dog? Dogs get put to sleep over rumors like this.”

  I hadn’t even thought of that. He was right—it was a serious accusation. But I had something even more serious on my mind. I picked up the leash and called for Jasper to come to me.

  “Elliot, we’ve got to find Felicity now. And we have to act quickly.”

  “George, why?”

  “Because she’s a killer, Elliot. And my ex-husband is about to propose to her.”

  Chapter 11

  The bushes were prickling against my bare shoulders. It had been a warm morning when I’d left the house and I hadn’t dressed for a late-night stakeout at the time. “Looks like a romantic night,” Elliot whispered as we watched the candles flickering in Felicity’s kitchen.

  I rolled my eyes. “Tell me about it. Not the first one I’ve stumbled upon, either.”

  Elliot glanced over and looked me up and down, then tilted his head a little as he looked back in through the window. “So is that really your ex-husband?” He sounded surprised.

  I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to take offense to that question or not.

  “Yes. We were young when we met,” I said, tucking my hair behind my ear, feeling a little self-conscious. Did he think that Adam was too good-looking for me? That I was too old for him?

  “No, no, I didn’t mean it like that,” Elliot said. “Just that you are an attractive woman and he…kind of looks like a slob, to be honest.” Well, maybe compared to a sophisticated young man like Elliot, he did.

&
nbsp; I never thought of Adam as unattractive, though. And he certainly looked young for his age. I wondered if perhaps Elliot was just trying to flatter me and I blushed a little.

  “And what does he do for work?” Elliot asked. “He looks like he’s in a band or something with hair like that.”

  “He works at the local supermarket as a cashier.”

  It may have been dark, but I could see the look of judgement that came over Elliot’s face. “What?” I asked. “There’s nothing wrong with being a bagger at forty.” I was trying to defend Adam, honest I was, but I realized as soon as it came out that I sounded as judgmental as Elliot looked. He shot me a deep look, straight into my eyes like he was looking into my soul.

  “I’m just surprised that a woman like you would have been married to a guy like him.”

  I turned my face away so that he wouldn’t see that I was turning red. “Trust me. He has his charms.”

  We watched quietly for a little while as Felicity brought a dish that looked like a pan of lamb to the table and started to cut into it.

  “So how long are we going to stay huddled in the bushes like this?” Elliot asked.

  “I-I don’t know.” For some reason, temporary paralysis seemed to have taken over me. I wasn’t sure what the best plan of attack was. Earlier, the plan had all been so simple. All I had to do was stop Adam from giving Felicity the engagement ring. I’d thought it would be as easy as bursting through the doors and yelling “Stop!” or grabbing the ring out of Adam’s hand.

  But now that I was there, it didn’t seem easy at all.

  “George?” Elliot asked, waving a hand in front of my face to see if I was still conscious. “Hey. It’s your move here.”

  “What if he is really happy with her?” I whispered, watching as he reached over and took Felicity’s hand.

  Elliot reached over and shook me by the shoulder, as though trying to bring me back to reality. “That’s not really the point here, remember, young lady?” he asked. Right. He was definitely being flirty then. No one calls me young lady unless they’re flirting with me.

  “What-what was the point?” I asked, getting lost in his eyes for a second.

  He pointed back to the house. “The point is that Felicity is a killer, remember? We’ve got to save this guy before it’s too late.”

  “R-right,” I said, standing up. I was a little wobbly on my feet, so Elliot caught me.

  “I just hope you don’t go running back to him,” he said with a grin.

  We snuck up to the back door and I raised my hand to knock on it…but right as I did, I saw Adam through the window. He reached into the top pocket of his shirt and pulled out a ring.

  “Oh my goodness, he is going to do it!” I said, smacking my hands against my mouth when I realized how loudly I had shouted it.

  Elliot pulled back on the door and it opened. “Looks like no one thought to lock it…” He must have caught the look in my eyes. “But I’m not sure this is such a good idea, George…”

  I didn’t care whether or not it was a good idea at that point. I was going to do it either way.

  “Adam!” I shouted as I ran through the door, shocking both of them.

  Felicity dropped the pan of lamb she’d been holding and looked up at me in shock as meat and juice spilled onto the floor, mixed in with broken glass. Flora came running into the room and started to attack the meat. “George…what on earth do you think you’re doing?” Felicity stalked toward me, forcing me to take a few steps backward. “You’re acting crazy.”

  Adam was standing there, pinching the bridge of his nose like I had just humiliated him.

  “Adam,” I said, trying to reason with him. “You cannot marry this woman.”

  He finally looked up at me, embarrassment all over his face. “George, I know that you are upset, but this is not the right way to go about it,” Adam said, placing one hand on each of my shoulders. At least the ring and the box were back in his pocket. I tried to take a deep breath.

  “I am not upset, Adam. I am trying to do you a favor here.” I pulled myself free of his grip and spun around to where Felicity was standing. “You are about to propose to a murderer!”

  Felicity scoffed so loudly that it startled Flora, who was finishing off the last bit of lamb from the floor. “I know you’re jealous, George, but this is taking it a bit too far,” she said, rolling her eyes.

  “I am not jealous! This has nothing to do with jealousy!” I felt Elliot’s hand on my arm. He was trying to lead me back outside.

  But it was Adam who said, “George. I think you’d better go.”

  Elliot came and sat down beside me. I was on a log, my head in between my knees. Had that just really happened?

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself, George. You were only trying to help.”

  I shook my head. “They were right,” I said in a low voice. “I just looked completely crazy in there.”

  Elliot had a reasonable point to make. “I suppose without any proof, we did seem a little crazy in there.”

  I appreciated his use of ‘we,’ but the scene that had been caused in Felicity’s house was all my fault.

  “And now he’s going to ask her to marry him,” I said wearily. I hadn’t even managed to stop that. Not for good, anyway. Maybe I’d paused it temporarily. I looked up at Elliot. “So, how do we go about getting this proof?”

  “You have to look back at what actually happened on the day,” Elliot stated as he walked me back home. The house was dark. There wasn’t much chance of walking in and finding Adam inside. On that night or probably ever again. “For the proof, I mean. George?” he asked, trying to get my attention. “If Felicity did it, we need to know exactly where she was when Maxine was killed.”

  “I don’t know where Felicity was between the hours of seven a.m. and three p.m. But I have to assume she was with Adam for at least some of that time,” I finally answered. What did it matter now? Let Adam marry a killer, for all I cared. “They might actually be perfect for each other…” I murmured.

  Elliot cast me a sharp look. “Could Adam be in on this?”

  I shook my head rapidly. “No. Of course not.”

  “What was all that about, George?” It had taken Adam twenty-four hours to cool down before he’d finally confronted me in the shop, while Brenda was on her afternoon tea break.

  I could hardly look him in the eye. I started unpacking the mason jars so roughly that one of them cracked when I placed it on the shelf.

  I spun around. “So did you do it?” I asked. “Did you ask Felicity to marry you?”

  He paused for a moment, then shook his head. “No,” he said softly.

  “Oh.” I tried to swallow my surprise. Tried to cover up my relief as I placed another jar shakily on the shelf.

  “It just didn’t feel right.”

  “Didn’t it?” I tried to ask casually.

  He cast me a look. “After what happened, I mean. You kind of killed the romantic vibe.”

  “Oh. I see.”

  I stood up, the last of the jars unpacked. Adam was not there to make nice with me. He was there to lecture me. “I thought you gave up on all this nonsense about suspecting Felicity. George, she was with me. On the day of the dog wedding. Before the ceremony. We had breakfast together.”

  I turned away. I didn’t want to hear it.

  “You can tell me these things all you want,” I said. “But the fact remains that she never wanted Maxine there that day. That was why she didn’t invite her. Maxine had to add her own name to the list. When Felicity found out that Maxine had invited herself without Felicity’s approval, well, Felicity lost it.” Pleased with myself, I stood back and raised my eyebrows. “You’re the one who needs to face the facts, Adam. The woman you love is not what she appears to be.”

  Adam pulled something out of his front pocket. Gosh, he’s not going to rub the ring in my face, is he? But it was a piece of paper. “What is that?” I asked him. Then, realizing what the sheet of paper conta
ined, I was outraged. “You stole that off me?” I asked, trying to grab it out of his hands. “That’s it, you need to give me back my key. You can’t steal things from my house, Adam.”

  “I thought that Felicity might appreciate it being returned to her,” he said quietly. “It was wrong of you to steal it from her in the first place.”

  I frowned at him, confused. Yes. Maybe. But he hadn’t returned it to her yet either. Why not?

  “This is the list of people who were at the wedding, right?” Adam asked slowly.

  I threw my hands up in the air. Yes. We’d been over this. We were just going around in circles. “And with Maxine added on the bottom.”

  “You’re missing something,” Adam said, straightening out the ruffled piece of paper. “Something obvious.”

  I threw my hands up in the air again. This was just getting frustrating. Something seemed to have happened to me over the last week. Ever since I had seen that dinner at Felicity’s house, something made me incapable of thinking straight. Just like Brenda, I seemed to have switched personalities.

  I finally relented. “What am I missing then?”

  Adam pointed down to the list. “These are the people who were at the ceremony. But remember, none of us actually heard the gunshot.”

  My mind was still foggy. “What is your point?”

  “The gun was shot before any of us got there. Before any of the guests arrived. So this list doesn’t tell us anything. It must have been someone whose name is not on this list.”

  And how had Maxine checked her name off, or written it on for that matter, if she had been killed before the ceremony even began?

  I searched the names. Elliot’s name was there. But not Ollie’s.

  He tucked the list back into his shirt pocket and turned away to leave. “I’ve got something I need to take care of now, George.” I could see there was a bulge in the top pocket of his shirt when he put the paper in. The ring box. It was back, hidden in there. But not for long.

  I called out after him.