by Tonya Kappes
“Hi, let me know if you need any help.” I winced when I saw them.
The two ladies from this morning were back.
“The sign does say open.” They both pointed to the door with the sign.
They liked to look at the beads and a thumb through some of the beading books. Whenever I asked them if I could help, they politely said no and went on their way without buying a thing.
I nodded. “Yes, we are now open.”
I turned back to Sean. He was staring at the place on the floor where Doug’s body had been.
“Well, you’re the one who had a fight with him in public the night he was killed.” I whispered through gritted teeth.
“Shhh.” His neck craned, looking at the two women hovering over the charm selections. “I’m telling you, I didn’t do it.”
The plumper of the two women glanced over her glasses, making eye contact with me, and then quickly looked away. She tapped her friend on the arm and they made a beeline for the door.
“Thank you!” I shouted in a sarcastic tone. “This isn’t the place or the time to talk about this. That’s two sets of customers you ran off.”
“You believe me don’t you, Holly?” Sean asked.
“Depends.” I said. “Give me your grandmother’s chandelier.”
He pulled back and stood as straight as a pin. His chest heaved with frustration.
“Never, Holly Harper!” Sean yelled, and then turned to leave. “I’d rot in jail before I’d give you that heirloom.”
“Then you don’t need me to get you off the hook. Get your dead grandmother to help you!” I screamed at the back of his head before he slammed the door.
I wasn’t sure what the right time and place to discuss how the two of us are murder suspects would be, but it definitely wasn’t right then. Even though I knew those two women weren’t going to buy anything, I still wasn’t happy he’d run them off with all his whispering.
I was beginning to regret not taking Jim up on his free surveillance installation. He’d said the camera was all I would have to pay for, but who’d steal from a bead shop? More importantly, who would want to pin a murder on me?
Chapter Fourteen
I didn’t accomplish anything after Sean left. My mind was in no shape to bead, sort, or stock. I even sent Marlene home after she came back from getting her coffee. People shuffled in and out all day asking all sorts of questions about how to make a bracelet or earrings, but most of the banter was about the murder of Doug Sloan.
Marlene had called to say she wouldn’t be able to make it to the Divas’ meeting tonight, which put me in a bad spot, because she was the one who was supposed to be bringing the food. Luckily, shortly after her call, Ginger called to tell me she was coming and said she could bring some of the leftovers from earlier.
She didn’t say a word about how the family was doing. She acted as though everything was okay and said she’d be there on time. That was a sure sign she wasn’t doing well. Ginger was never on time. She was just like Elizabeth Taylor. She’d be fifteen minutes late to her own funeral.
When Cheri came home, she took Willow upstairs for a quick nap before the Divas arrived, which would be soon. They trickled in one by one.
“I heard about the fight.” Flora mentioned with her cell phone stuck on her ear. “No, not you. I’m at my divorcee meeting. I’ll call you back.”
She snapped her cell shut just in time for it to ring in again.
Of course, she’d heard about the fight I’d had with Sean. If I were a betting woman, I’d say Marlene was on the phone with the Divas as soon as she walked out to get her coffee this morning. I’m sure it was all over Swanee by now.
Flora had perfect high cheekbones that any woman would crave and the ivory skin to match. She had to be one of those girls who never got a pimple, even during that time of the month. Her wavy light brown hair was enough to convince you that she just walked off the beach.
“I just can’t believe it. No way, no how, do I believe you killed Doug.” Bernadine sifted through the bead boxes, putting mismatched beads in their correct spot. “But Sean is a different story. Do you think that your lying, very good-looking ex-husband did it and is trying to set you up? You know he’d not only get all the jobs in town, but he could also stop paying alimony if you were in jail.”
That was a quit a mouthful to digest. Of course, I had thought about it, but obviously all of Swanee thought about it too. Have they already convicted Sean?
“That’s too easy.” I got all our different projects out of the storage closet and put them on the tables.
I closed the shop so we could work on our projects and discuss what was going on in our lives, just like we had at meetings at the church. When I met Bernadine there, I thought she was so nosy, hanging around all the conversations. She was always going around the room collecting everyone’s trash and cleaning up after them,but she wasn’t really being nosy.
Bernadine had to be the neatest person in Swanee, right down to her appearance. Bernadine’s marriage was like the ones you hear about where the couple wakes up one day and realize that they don’t know each other.
He’d come out better off than Bernadine. She got the house on the lake across from my cottage, and he got their huge mansion in Ft. Meyers, Florida. There was still a bitter taste in Bernadine’s mouth. After all, she had moved to Swanee for him.
He thought he wanted the small town life, while she wanted the beach and sand. When it came down to the end, Bernadine was the one who ended up loving Swanee and all her new friends.
“Please don’t sort the beads.” I noticed Bernadine had moved onto the tiny seed beads that were virtually impossible to keep separated.
“Nah, I can do it until everyone else gets here.” She knotted her long crimson hair in a bun so she could dig through the beads without hair in her face.
I wasn’t going to bother trying reason with her. If she weren’t sorting beads, she’d be in the office arranging the desk. My mind and heart didn’t have the energy to argue. Plus, what she’d said about Sean was weighing heavily on my mind.
“Hello!” Ginger yelled as she came into the shop.
Cheri followed Ginger in with her backpack slung over one shoulder.
Willow ran straight over to them. Cheri took one of the foil trays out of Ginger’s arms.
“You have to eat all this food before I gain ten more pounds,” Ginger said. They sat the trays along the counter, which was the usual place we put food. Ginger took a bottle of wine out of her purse. “And this.”
I drug my finger along my elastic waistband to remind me not to eat the cookies that were still wrapped up in the shop boxes. I was determined to lose this weight one way or another.
No matter how normal Ginger was trying to act, there was still a little uneasiness between us. I wasn’t sure what to say, so it was was just easier to keep my mouth shut and let the other Divas do the talking.
Flora came back in, sweeping her hair behind her shoulders and giving Ginger a big hug.
“If you need anything, you let me know.” She handed Ginger a card. “If you need a good lawyer, my ex might’ve been a bad husband, but he’s a cutthroat lawyer. Right, Holly?”
I nodded, not sure what she wanted me to say. I barely knew the man. He only drew up the few papers that I needed to establish The Beaded Dragonfly.
“I told her we were all here for her. Just like we are here for everyone. Right, Holly?” Cheri raised her eyebrows, waiting for me to agree.
“Why is everyone right Hollying me?” I stopped and looked at them.
“What’s this?” Bernadine was near the storage closet putting away some of the empty boxes I had left out while putting up the rest of the inventory.
She held a note in her hand, reading to herself.
“Holly.” Her eyes grew big. Bernadine stood there with a blank expression, amazed and visibly shaken. “I think you are being framed for the murder of Doug Sloan.”
Her hands shoo
k as she held the note out for me to take. Ginger and the other Divas tripped over themselves to see what the note said.
I read the typewritten letter out loud, “Meet me on the pier by the lake or there will be blood on your hands. 10 p.m. tonight.”
The note clung to my hands, like it was glued there. My feet felt heavy, and I stood there, more uncertain than ever.
“We need to call the police.” Cheri grabbed the note.
Ginger looked over her shoulder as Cheri read it out loud.
“I understood it the first time.” I reminded them I didn’t need to hear it again.
I didn’t want to hear about it anymore. Whoever it was wanted me to meet them by my cottage, and they had mentioned blood. I don’t do well when blood is involved.
“Who was here today?” Ginger asked.
“Only a couple of customers, Marlene, and Sean.”
“Marlene and Sean?” Bernadine sounded suspicious. “Where is Marlene tonight?”
“Don’t be silly.” I put the notion out of my head.
Marlene wouldn’t hurt a fly, or at least I thought so. Granted, we didn’t know much about her, but what I did know, I liked.
Bernadine tapped her watch with a bright red fingernail. “We’ve got fifteen minutes. We can all pile in my Suburban.”
She grabbed the note from Cheri, which I wished they’d stop passing around because the police wouldn’t be able to get any good prints off it.
“No.” Flora ripped part of it out of Bernadine’s grasp. “I think we should take it to the police.”
“Great, you ripped it.” Bernadine went into the office and came back with the tape dispenser.
“I think we should at least go see who it is.” Ginger patted my arm. “I know you didn’t have anything to do with Doug’s murder. I’m not so sure about Sean or Marlene, but not you. Let’s go see and then go to the police.”
That was all the Divas needed to hear. We all piled into the Suburban like sorority girls going to a keg party. Even Willow snorted with excitement. Kinda laughing, kinda nervous…kinda scared.
Chapter Fifteen
“We can hide under the pier,” Cheri yelled from the third seat.
I’d just walked around this lake with Bernadine last night, but the pier had never seemed scary to me—until now.
Some of the boards were broken, some had nails sticking out of them, and some just looked completely rotted. I wouldn’t walk out onto it in broad daylight, much less hide under it in the dark.
“No…nope; I refuse to go hide under that pier.” I folded my arms in protest.
The note was obviously left for me, and I didn’t plan to be the next victim. We were only there to find out who had left the note, and then we were planning to go straight to Noah.
“Fine.” Flora also yelled from the third row of seats. “We’ll park at your house and hide in the woods.”
That was the best idea Flora had in a long time. The woods were between my cottage and the lake. It would be the perfect place to hide.
Moonlight reflected off the dark surface of the water whenever it wasn’t hidden behind a passing cloud. We could see Bernadine’s solar powered lights that ran from her house down to her boat dock twinkling across the lake.
“Tiptoe and keep quiet,” I admonished everyone before we got out of the car. “Now, we aren’t going to get too close. We just need to get close enough to see who it is.”
I put Willow in the house and quickly pulled on my rain boots. I’d been through those woods many times and they could make a mess of your shoes in a hurry.
The Divas were about as quiet as a bull in a china shop. None of them must have ever played Clue or Spy before.
“Oh, Yuck!” Flora lifted up a foot to examine her shoe.
A glop of muck and leaves hung from the high heel.
“Shh.” Did I really need to remind them that my life was on the line?
I held my hand out to quiet them. I could hear twigs breaking in the distance. We stopped dead in our tracks. A flashlight was flickering near the pier. We needed to get closer, and we needed to get there fast. It was already after ten, and I desperately wanted to see who was threatening me.
We saw three shadowy figures standing close to the pier that seemed to be in a heated discussion—make that a shouting match.
Like in a cheerleading pyramid, I was on top of the other Divas trying to hear what they were saying. I needed to know if they were waiting for me. I was pretty sure they thought I wouldn’t show up.
The wind started up a little more, and the trees began to sway more violently.
“Who is that?” Bernadine pulled her glasses out of her pocket and put them on. “It sorta looks like…”
Suddenly, the moon came out from behind a cloud and lit up the lakeshore as bright as day.
“No.” Flora gasped in disbelief, as one of the shadows stepped into the moonlight.
The silence of our little group was absolute as we watched full-figured Marlene stomp back to her car, leaving the two others angrily screaming at her from the dock.
“Marlene?” Ginger looked over at me with a questioning look in her eyes.
Sure, there were some things about Marlene that we didn’t know. Like how both her husbands had died, or where she was from, or if she’d ever had a job other than the part-time one I’d given her at the shop. Okay, there was a lot of stuff we didn’t know about her, but she seemed to fit in with everyone. Everyone that is, except for Ginger. Even though Ginger was my best friend, that wouldn’t Marlene any reason to leave a threatening note for me or frame me for murder.
Cheri grabbed hold of my shirt and pulled me back out of view. The other two women at the dock waddled back to their car.
“I know them,” I whispered to the Divas when Marlene’s headlights passed over them.
Flora, Ginger, Cheri, and Bernadine asked in unison, “Who are they?”
Cheri’s eyes grew wide and her mouth formed an O as her jean jacket pocket started singing Don’t Be Cruel.
“Shhh!” The rest of us didn’t realize how loud we were being.
“Who’s there?” One of the two women shouted from the car and pointed the flashlight into the woods. “Who’s there?”
Instantly, we took off running. I had a sharp pain in my side from being out of shape. I used to be able to run that distance with no problem, but I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. I didn’t look back until we were halfway to the cottage. There were branches breaking underfoot behind me.
Flora emerged from the trees with her heels under her arm. Bernadine was right behind her and looked like a modern day version of a Greek goddess with leaves sticking out from her hair. They were followed by a tangled mass of scarves flowing in the wind, and I knew Ginger had to be in there somewhere. Bringing up the rear was the ever-so-cool Cheri with her beret perched on her head like a bird’s nest.
“ Holly, I’m so sorry.” Cheri bent down trying to catch her breath. “I totally forgot my phone was on.”
“Who were those women and why was Marlene with them?” Flora asked.
“Did Marlene write that note?” Bernadine asked, pushing Cheri’s hair back up in her barrette. She had apparently forgotten we were on a stakeout and not on a runway.
I put my finger to my lips and motioned for them to follow me. I didn’t hear any sounds of movement, and was sure the women couldn’t have caught up to us. I wasn’t sure if the coast was clear, but we made it into the cottage and plopped down on the couches without turning any lights on.
I parted the curtain just as a pair of headlights passed by, and I figured it was the two women leaving. I flipped on the light and instantly began screaming along with the other Divas.
“Really? This is what the oh-so-great divorced Divas do at their meetings?” Sean was sitting at the kitchen table with a smug look on his face.
“No, don’t kill us!” Bernadine grabbed Flora whose phone was pressed up against her ear. “Call 911, Flora.”
&n
bsp; “I’m not going to kill anyone.” Sean laughed.
“Why should we believe you?” Ginger asked and hid behind Bernadine who was hiding behind Cheri. Cheri was barely visible behind Flora, but I knew she had her keys in her fist.
“Did you kill my brother?” Ginger squeaked out her question.
“Hang up the phone.” I said to Flora and then turned back to Sean. “Why are you here and sitting in the dark?”
The Divas were piled on top of each other like Keystone cops and standing still as posts. There wasn’t a single twitch. This was the first time I’ve seen the Divas go more than one second without saying a word.
“Girls, he hasn’t killed anyone, and he isn’t going to tonight. Right?” I said and looked for confirmation from Sean.
“Right. I just needed to talk to Holly, and I saw the suburban outside. I didn’t know who it belonged to, so I let myself in and waited in the dark.” He never took his eyes off the Divas. “I didn’t want someone calling the police if they noticed the lights were on and Holly’s bug wasn’t here.”
He did have a point. If I would’ve come home and saw that my lights were on, I would’ve driven right back into town to the police station. Maybe I should get a cell phone.
“Where is your car?” Cheri asked.
Flora nodded her head like a bobbing buoy, “Yeah, good point. Where is it?” She pointed her slender finger with the big diamond from her ex-husband in his direction.
“I parked it up the hill, off the road.” He got up and the Divas stepped back, still holding onto each other. “Listen, I’m outta here. Call me tomorrow so we can talk.”
I put my hand up. Doug’s murder and our sneaking around had stirred up a little too much excitement for everyone.
“You should stay. They were leaving anyway.” My eyebrows lifted and I made a zipper motion across my lips. “We can talk tomorrow.”
“What about Marlene?” Ginger whispered to me on the way out.
