Strung Out to Die

by Tonya Kappes

  “Stop right there!” I screamed, and my keys were strategically placed in between my fingers like Donovan had taught me in the first defense class.

  I was so aware of my surroundings that it wasn’t even funny. As a matter of fact, I was proud of myself.

  The two women stopped. There was a look of fear in their eyes.

  “You two aren’t going anywhere.” I pointed my keys at them, and then motioned them over to the shop door. “I’ve got a few questions for you two.”

  They clutched their purses, and walked backwards up the steps. They planted their backsides up against the shop door.

  I unlocked the door and ushered them in. They shuffled to one of the tables and then eased themselves down in chairs.

  I looked around, but Marlene was nowhere to be seen. She hadn’t even been there.

  “Damn, Marlene.” I muttered before I turned my attention back to the women.

  “I agree.” One of them muttered back.

  “I second that!” The other one screamed and smacked her hand on the table.

  “What?” I jumped, and held my hand over heart.

  I was aware of my surroundings, but not prepared to be scared out of my skin.

  “Where is Marlene?” She questioned me. “We aren’t playing games anymore. Are we Tallulah?”

  Tallulah shook her head. “No, we aren’t.”

  “That’s right.” The other woman stood up and put her hands on her thick hips. “I want my Spinel back. I’m going to get it one way or another.”

  “Your Spinel?” I asked, my nerves tensing immediately. “You mean the Spinel Marlene’s husband gave her?”

  The two women cackled.

  “Husband?” Tallulah hit the other one on the arm. “Did you hear that, Mimi?”

  Mimi shook her head. “I see she’s lied to you too.” Her lips were thin with anger.

  Tallulah stood up and pulled out the empty chair next to hers. “I think you are going to need to sit down.”

  I think she was right.

  “Marlene, precious Marlene is a gold digger.” Mimi said, with a fire in her eyes. “She pretends to love them on their deathbeds, takes their money, and then disappears.”

  “Mmm hmm, that’s right.” Tallulah was the best head nodder I’d ever seen.

  “You see, she began to date my husband while we were separated, but he was still my husband.” Mimi planted her elbows on the table and leaned in. “On his death bed, she took his Spinel, which was a family heirloom. When his mother died, she left it to me.”

  She sat back and crossed her arms.

  “That yellow Spinel was locked away in a safety deposit box. Marlene flashed them the key, and without any identification, they let her in.” Mimi stood up and paced back and forth as she continued her story.

  “The bank video tapes proved it.” Tallulah took the chance to have her say between Mimi catching her breath.

  “We’ve been looking all over for her. Then we saw your newspaper article in the South Burrow Daily about the new shop.” Mimi said.

  I snapped my fingers. “I remember the picture they took had Marlene in it.” I pointed over to the cash register where I had taped the picture on the side of it.

  “That’s when we started coming around here. But she refuses to talk to us.” Mimi’s nostrils flared with fury.

  Everything started clicking. Marlene being so secretive about her past, her obsession with learning the wrapping bead technique, plus her interest in Doug Sloan.

  “We left her several notes.” Tallulah said. “Finally she did meet us at the pier, but she refused to give it back.”

  “We were going to give her one last chance when we came in yesterday.” Mimi sat back down and pounded her fist on the table. “But she refused to listen and kicked us out of the shop. I’d love to take one of those four-inch heels of hers and whack her with it.”

  “What? Here? You were here with Marlene yesterday?” I was more confused than ever.

  “Yes, we came in here to talk to her, but she refused to listen.” Mimi drew back in the chair.

  “Oh, and that camera man asked us to leave. He said we were disturbing the business.” Tallulah seemed inexplicably dissatisfied.

  Mimi sat still looking into the distance as if she was trying to remember something.

  Jim did say he was going to come and readjust the cameras, but he’d failed to mention that he was here, or anything about the little scuffle.

  “Anyway, that nice handyman was going to say something, but we haven’t heard from him either.” Tallulah reminded Mimi.

  “That’s right. We haven’t heard from him.” Mimi confirmed.

  “Sean? You’ve seen Sean?” This discovery hit me full force. I steadied myself against the table.

  Had he been here all along? Why was he having these conversations with Marlene? What did he want to tell me about Marlene?

  “A few days ago, when we came in here, he was standing right there.” Mimi pointed to the counter where I’ve seen him lean over to take in Marlene in all her glory. Only, I didn’t have to worry about Marlene wanting Sean. He was too poor for her taste.

  “He said he’d find out and he took our number,” Mimi said.

  Frantically, I shook my head. “Marlene was supposed to be here and Sean”…I fumbled around the shop…“Sean won’t return my calls.”

  I took their phone numbers and hurried them out of the shop before the beading class arrived.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  There were so many things I needed to do before the beading class started, but couldn’t think about even attempting to do a single one of them. Tallulah and Mimi didn’t help matters. They’ve confused me even more.

  The front door opened, Cheri popped her head in. “I wanted to say hi before class.”

  He-hon, he-hon, he-hon. Willow pulled her head out of a trashcan underneath one of the beading tables. She darted out to greet Cheri, tipping over the can and spilling the trash onto the floor. Great, another mess for me to clean up.

  “You’re such a good girl,” Cheri said, bending down to pet her. In typical Willow style, she rolled over onto her back with her little piggy hooves in the air waiting for Cheri to scratch her belly. “Can I take her for a quick walk before class?”

  “Yes,” I answered quickly before she decided to change her mind.

  That would be one thing that I could cross off my to-do list, even though taking Willow for a walk was probably the healthiest chore on the list.

  “Okay.” Cheri walked over to the counter where I kept Willow’s leash.” Let’s go, beautiful.”

  Groink, groink, groink. Willow’s little black eyes were fixed on Cheri and her tail twirled in excitement.

  I walked them to the door and flipped the sign to open.

  The storage room is where I store everyone’s projects out of the way. I gathered up the projects for that night’s group. The class was one of the more advanced classes I taught. It covered the techniques of using wire, wrapping, and making flat looped spirals which made this earring project very popular. It was a difficult project that required the use of both hands, so I only had five students per table, giving them plenty of elbowroom.

  I also limited the class to only ten students. That allowed me enough time to walk around to each one and give them the attention they had paid for. Each student was so different. That was the best part. I enjoyed helping them learn.

  Just then, the shop phone rang.

  “The Beaded Dragonfly,” I said into the cordless on my way back into the storage room to get the snacks for the class.

  “Holly?” Jim Rush’s voice escalated as if he was surprised I answered. “You’re still there? Aren’t you closed?” Why would Jim think I was closed? Is it a weekend?

  I laughed. Of all people, Jim should know that a business owner just doesn’t shut the lights off at quitting time.

  “Why are you calling me if you didn’t think I would answer?”

  “I was goin
g to run by on my way home, and readjust the camera angles for you,” he said. “Ginger said I should call first, because you might have a class scheduled. She said that you probably wouldn’t want me making noise if you did.”

  I put out a few cookies and chips, along with some two-liter bottles of soft drinks on the open bead tables. I had to make sure it was back far enough so Willow couldn’t stick her big snout up and get into it.

  “Ginger was right.” There was no way I wanted to see Jim Rush on a ladder during a beading class, though it was important to get those cameras working as soon as possible. “We’ll be out of here within one-and-a-half hours if you can stop by after that.”

  The phone was between my ear and shoulder, which was not comfortable. I’m surprised Flora’s head wasn’t permanently lying to the side, and her shoulder hunched up. Regardless, it was the only way to talk to Jim while I got out the chain-nose and round-nose pliers the students were going to need.

  “Sounds good. I’ll be there.”

  “Oh, Jim,” I said, stopping him from hanging up. “How’s Ginger doing?”

  I was very concerned about Ginger. She always remained poised in crisis situations and put on a brave face. But with Doug’s murder, she’d been lying low, not coming to any Diva meetings or even returning my calls.

  “She’s not doing so well. Even though we weren’t that close to Doug, he really was all the family she had left.” He sighed. “She’s got a lot of stuff on her plate, being the only Sloan left in Swanee. Anyway, I’ll be by later.”

  After Jim hung up, I had just enough time to get out the rest of the supplies they’d need to make the earrings; ear pins, the jump rings, 20 gauge wire, and all the beads.

  The Miss U Heart Pendant that would dangle from the earrings when the project was finished was so simple and elegant. I had three colors to choose from, light pink, hot pink, and red. Personally, the red one was my favorite.

  I touched my ear, feeling the ones I had made last night so I could show the students the finished project.

  One by one, the class trickled in. They each picked out a Miss U Heart Pendant and took a seat. Weeks before, we had been going over all the separate techniques to make the earrings, but tonight it was time to put those techniques together.

  “Okay, let’s get started.” I herded everyone to their tables after they had mingled around the snack table and socialized for a few minutes.”

  I went over every single element and stone on their bead boards, reassuring them that they were going to love putting together all the steps they’d learned so far.

  “Cut a 5-1/2 inch length of jeweler’s wire.” I used the flush-cutter pliers to cut my wire. “Form a 5-loop flat spiral on one end of the wire.”

  I demonstrated the technique and then walked around to make sure they were doing it correctly. A few times, I had to stop and help form the spiral, since it was a difficult technique for even a beading expert.

  “Bend the straight end of the wire so it passes through the center of one 17mm Swarovski Miss U Heart drop, and back through the center of the flat wire spiral.” I slipped on a light pink heart this time, since I was wearing the red pair.

  I love making the project alongside the students. It shows them that I know what I’m doing, plus, anything I make in class goes into the glass counter to be sold. I sold a lot of premade jewelry for customers looking for quick gifts.

  “String three 4mm Swarovski bicone beads onto the straight end of the wire.” I picked up the beads and strung them. “Form a simple loop on the straight end of the wire.”

  The best part about that project was the simple easy steps. The techniques were hard to learn, but once they had them down, the earrings were a breeze to make.

  “Open a 4mm round gold-plated jumpring and pass it through the simple loop formed in Step 3 and the loop on a gold-plated kidney earwire. Close the jumpring.” I held the finished dangling earring up to show them what I meant.

  A few of them needed help trying to hold pliers in one hand and the earring in the other without dropping it. Once everyone was finished with the first earring, I left them alone to make the second one on their own.

  It was perfect time for me to finish Margaret McGee’s necklace. It was turning out to be more stunning than it looked when it was laid out in her hand. The 4MM pink Swarovski reflected off the 2MM sterling silver balls. The Lotus Pearls added elegance to the entire piece.

  “That’s beautiful.” Cheri gently touched the necklace as I finished the final crimp.

  “I think so too.” I held it up to take a good look. “I hope the bride likes it.”

  I frowned after I laid it back on the table. The satisfaction I thought I was going to have finishing up my first client’s order wasn’t as great as I thought it was going to be.

  “Are you okay? Cheri asked, touching my arm.

  “I’m fine.” I’ve never been good at disguising my feelings. I looked around to make sure no one was listening, leaned over, and whispered, “I’ve always wanted to design for clients and now that I have one, I can’t enjoy it because of the murder and all.”

  Margaret’s necklace was almost complete. I took the white polishing cloth and cleaned each element, making it shine before I put it in the black velvet jewelry pouch.

  “It’s going to all work out.” Cheri went back to her earrings.

  I checked on the other students to make sure they were okay, and they were all doing fine. Some were actually starting on a second pair because they liked them so much. Some of them were planning to give them away as gifts. It made me happy to think that one of my designs was liked by so many members of the class.

  There was enough time for me to finish the bridesmaid’s bracelets before class was over. I had to hurry up and get this order done before Margaret changed her mind and wanted to cancel our contract. Her mother still didn’t seem so sure about letting me do the wedding with the murder and all. Plus, Margaret’s dad was the city attorney, as well as the Sloan’s private lawyer.

  Also, getting paid would be good. Since Sean was nowhere to be found, I was sure my alimony check wasn’t in the mail. And rent on The Beaded Dragonfly was due… to the Sloan’s.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The next morning was the time to visit Ginger and see if Jim was there. I needed him to get me the video footage of what he had of the shop. I needed to see Mimi and Tallulah talking to Marlene, and Sean talking to Marlene. Maybe there would be a clue.

  Sean’s voice message played in my head.

  Damn machine. I wished I could recover that tape. Sean knew something about Marlene and he wanted to tell me.

  I gasped.

  Marlene had been trying to get her claws into Doug, and maybe Sean overheard something between Doug and Marlene the night Doug was murdered at The Livin’ End. According to Mimi and Tallulah, Marlene would do anything for money. Would she be willing to murder for it?

  Hopefully, Jim got the camera angles perfect when he came back last night to The Beaded Dragonfly. Even though the video angles weren’t exactly perfect when Sean was in there, and it wouldn’t have volume, I would be able to read Sean’s body language.

  I pulled up next to the curb in front of Ginger’s house. I didn’t want to pull into the driveway and block anyone in, just in case someone was giving their condolences. All of the curtains were pulled in the front windows. Ginger must have been worse off than we Divas thought.

  I knocked a couple of times but no one answered. I walked around the side of the house and didn’t see Jim’s truck.

  I was a little disappointed, because I really wanted to talk to him about the video. I went ahead and stepped onto the back porch and looked in the back window.

  Sometimes, Ginger liked to sit at the kitchen table and work on the Sudoku puzzle from the morning paper while watching her afternoon soap operas.

  On several occasions, I’d told her she was beginning to act like an old woman, even though she was only in her forties.

&nb
sp; I looked as far as I could see and she wasn’t in there, but the TV was on.

  I walked back to the front of the house, but stopped when my ePhone vibrated.

  Hoping it was Sean, I pulled it out of my pocket. It was Bernadine, the only other person who knew I had a cell.

  “Hey, Bernadine. Can I call you back in a few?” I asked in a hushed whisper.

  I didn’t want Ginger to overhear me.

  “Marlene is back at your cottage.” Bernadine gasped, causing a shiver of panic to run down my spine.

  “See what she’s doing,” I told he, then bent down behind the bushes that ran along Ginger’s house when I heard a car driving by.

  I didn’t want anyone in Swanee to know I had a cell phone. It would spread like wildfire if even one person found out.

  “How do you expect me to do that?” Bernadine asked with an unwelcome frankness.

  I covered my mouth with my hand and said, “If you can see her, you must be near my house.”

  There was no way Bernadine could see clear across the lake from her house.

  “I’m looking through my binoculars. I saw movement and I thought it was you.” She took a deep breath. “I was going to see if you wanted to walk, but then I thought it might be Jim in the barn.”

  “What is she doing?” I asked, wondering if she was the one who planted Sean’s cell phone in my futon.

  She kidnapped him, took his cell, and put it in my house to frame me. Only she didn’t know that I’d never put anything in an Under.

  “I don’t know. I just saw her turn the corner of your house, and then I called you.” Bernadine was sucking in air.

  “What are you doing?” I asked. The last thing I needed was Bernadine having a heart attack on me. “Dishes?”

  There was clanking in the background and some water splashing like she was doing dishes, but I knew better. Bernadine never did dishes, nor would she get those fancy manicured nails in dirty dishwater.

  “I’m rowing to your side of the lake to see what Marlene is doing, like you asked.” Bernadine said. “I’ve got to go. Come home, now.”

  “Holly?” I heard Ginger calling my name coming from the front of the house. “Holly?”