Gilt by Association

by Karen Rose Smith

  “What are we doing?”

  “We’re stepping outside for a couple of minutes, okay?”

  A minute later, they stood outside the back entrance. Seth held her face in his hands and kissed her. The world as she knew it dropped away.

  After the kiss, he said, “I just couldn’t wait another minute for that. I know it’s cold out here, but I want to give you something.”

  “Now?”

  “Now. You never know what’s going to happen in the next minute or so.”

  He took a box from his trousers pocket and handed it to her. “This is for you.”

  “Seth, what did you do?”

  “Nothing earth-shattering. I saw it and I thought you’d like it. After all, it is Valentine’s Day.”

  The little box had a silver foil lid, and she removed it now as she peeked inside under the glow of the parking lot lights. Several charms and glass beads decorated a bracelet. The beads were painted with colorful flowers. One of the charms was a peace sign, another a kitten shape. A small heart dangled from the center of the circle of charms.

  “Oh, Seth, it’s beautiful.”

  “It doesn’t exactly go with the pearls you’re wearing.”

  “That doesn’t matter. Can you put it on for me?”

  He clasped it around her wrist.

  This time she reached for him and kissed him full on the lips. “Thank you.”

  “It’s a selfish gift, really,” he said. “I want you to look at it and think about me.”

  She wasn’t sure what this meant, except that Seth didn’t want her to forget him. “I thought you’d forgotten about me, that you were too busy to even think about us.”

  “That’s not true. Yes, I’m busy, and I still don’t know what’s going to happen after the fellowship. But I do think about you—a lot. Now come on, I’d better get you inside before you freeze to death.”

  When they returned inside, the DJ was taking a break. She felt the little charms along her wrist move as they walked to where she had been seated before. When they reached the table, her mom and dad stared at them speculatively. Vince’s brows arched, and Roz just smiled. Grant was nowhere in sight.

  When Caprice’s eyes went to his empty seat, Roz stood and came around to say hello to Seth. While Seth was greeting the other De Lucas, she leaned close to Caprice. “Grant left when he saw you two dancing together.”

  Even though Seth’s bracelet was a welcome weight on her arm, Caprice’s heart cracked a little when she thought of Grant going out into the cold, dark night.

  Just why did love and life have to be so complicated?

  Chapter Fourteen

  After only a few hours of sleep, Caprice awakened in her bed, felt the furry warmth of Sophia on top of the covers beside her left hip, heard the snuffling snores of Lady on her mat on the floor beside the bed. Glancing across at her dresser painted with hummingbirds and flowers and the pastel braided rugs on the floor, she thought back to the real reason she’d awakened, other than to feed the animals, who didn’t seem all that ready to get up themselves.

  There was a really good reason for all of them to sleep late.

  Seth hadn’t left until almost three-thirty. No, they hadn’t done anything they weren’t supposed to do, according to Nana, her mom, and church law. They’d seemed to have so much to talk about. Everything had poured from her—her feelings about Joe and Bella, the new baby, what had happened before, during, and after Louise’s murder.

  She and Seth also had had to get something straight about their communication. If she had more time than he did for e-mails, he wanted to know about her life. He’d insisted she didn’t have to feel as if she were rambling on or boring him, because she wasn’t. He wanted to hear it, and when he got the chance, he’d do the same for her.

  After they’d come home from the dance, she’d made him real hot chocolate from cocoa, an imported chocolate bar, milk, and sugar. The sweetened whipped cream on top was just the bonus. They’d tried to have a real talk. But his idea of kissing after every few words was a little different from the serious discussion she wanted to have. She liked it; oh, how she liked it. Somehow their kissing had become their discussion. Somehow just sitting there together and holding each other tight had been what they both needed. But after he’d left, she’d felt as if she was in limbo again. The thing was, before he’d left, he’d taken her face in his hands and he’d told her it wouldn’t always be like this.

  But exactly what would it be?

  Yes, she’d always been that girl, and then that woman, who rolled with the punches. But now maybe she needed more stability in her life. Maybe now she needed to know just what came next.

  “That’s it, troops,” she said, sitting up and awakening both Sophia and Lady. “Enough of this whining about what could be and what might be. We have a murder to solve.”

  Lady got to her feet, ran to the door, and wagged her tail. Sophia just looked at Caprice as if she were crazy. She yawned, blinked her golden eyes, swished her fluffy tail, stretched out on the bed, front feet toward Lady, back paws toward Caprice. Then she meowed.

  Caprice ran her thumb over Sophia’s nose. She had a toothbrush on her nightstand she sometimes used on Sophia’s little face. Sophia loved to have her cheeks brushed with it. But right now, Caprice had to let Lady out, feed both animals, and then get herself to early Mass. Shape Up would be open by then and she’d go for a swim. And if a swim didn’t straighten out everything in her head, or at least put it in some kind of order, she’d text Nana and see if she was going to be home. When all else failed, when she couldn’t wrestle a problem to the ground by herself, she visited Nana.

  To Caprice’s relief, Mass calmed her down. There was something about ritual, familiarity, something to lean on, that gave her renewed hope in finding love. Although the frigid temperatures outside prohibited her from visiting the statue of St. Francis behind the church where she’d often sat to contemplate life, she stayed after the service until everyone left. Lighting a candle for Louise, she recognized the fact that grief was weighing her down, too. How could it not be? She had to recognize it and accept it to get through it. If she’d learned nothing else in her thirty-two years, she’d learned that. She couldn’t figure anything out until she got a grip on her emotions. But a grip didn’t mean ignoring them.

  Although she sometimes figured out staging ideas and decorating plans when she was swimming, today she tied her hair back, slid on her goggles, stretched a little, then swam. She swam hard, just wanting to burn off everything. This wasn’t a Zen experience today, it was an exercise in energy output. It was a way to forget she didn’t know when she’d see Seth again. It was a way not to think about the way Grant had left the fire company’s social hall. It was a way to put the sight of Louise’s body on that greenhouse floor in the recesses of her mind, at least for a little while.

  Afterward, when she pulled into her driveway once more, she knew she was going to take Lady to Nana’s.

  A half hour later, after she’d texted Nana and found her at home, she knocked on her door. She wanted some quiet time with Nana, so she went to the outside entrance that led into her apartment.

  Nana opened the door and smiled. “It’s about time you came for a good, long visit. Did you have lunch?”

  “I haven’t even thought about lunch.” She asked Lady to sit, removed her leash, and the cocker went inside.

  “But I bet you gave Lady and Sophia lunch,” Nana guessed.

  “Before I left.”

  “You should treat yourself as well. But not to worry. How about chicken soup and peanut butter sandwiches?”

  Caprice followed Lady inside, and unbuttoned her pea coat. “You’re not having dinner with Mom and Dad?”

  “We’re going to join up tonight around six. They wanted me to go with them to visit friends after church, but I wanted to come back home. Good thing, too, or I would have missed you. Are we having tea or coffee?” Nana asked.

  Remembering her lecture from Loui
se, she answered, “I’ll have tea.”

  “Then tea it is.”

  Pulling pretty cups from the china cupboard, Nana studied her closely. “I think you need a little brightening today. What’s wrong?”

  There was that sixth sense of Nana’s, alive and well.

  “I’m just a little sleep deprived,” she said.

  “I suspect I know why that is. Your mom and dad said Seth turned up at the dance.”

  “Yes, he did. I didn’t know he was coming.”

  “The way I hear it, you danced with Seth, Grant left, and then you left with Seth.”

  “It wasn’t exactly like that,” Caprice said defensively, feeling a little judgment in Nana’s tone.

  “How do I have it wrong?”

  “Not wrong—” Caprice sighed. “I’d only had a couple of quick e-mails from Seth since September. I e-mailed him more often than he e-mailed me, and I knew that’s the way it would be. He was busy.”

  “You were busy.”

  “But I’m not saving lives, he is, and sometimes his shifts go past twelve hours.”

  “Point to Seth,” Nana said, as if she were keeping some kind of score.

  “So for all these months, I’ve tried to forget about him.”

  “But you didn’t do a very good job . . . unless Grant was around.”

  “It wasn’t like that, either.”

  “Go ahead and explain,” Nana instructed her, but said it as if she already knew the story.

  “Grant and I have this . . . friendship. After he saved my life last summer and adopted Patches, I thought we were getting closer.”

  “So you began to have expectations,” Nana filled in.

  Caprice thought about that. Yes, maybe she had. “When he called me before the murder, he mentioned he’d be going to the dance, so I thought maybe we’d actually be there together, maybe even go together. But he didn’t invite me.”

  “Hmmm,” Nana said, as if that meant something important.

  “He hardly talked to me when I was helping Nikki decorate, when he was working on the food drive, but I figured that was just because he was busy.”

  “Uh huh,” Nana said this time, and it sounded just as weighty.

  “Roz suggested I knock his socks off with a beautiful dress, and I found one that I thought would do that. I even had my hair done by Roz’s hairdresser.”

  “Your mother and dad said you looked beautiful.”

  Caprice shrugged. “I thought I looked pretty good, and when Grant saw me, I was certain I’d surprised him with my appearance in a wow kind of way. We talked when we went through the buffet line and while we ate, but then the music started to play. Mom and Dad danced, Roz and Vince danced, and Grant just sat there. He didn’t ask me.”

  “So you got angry and went off in a huff.”

  “No, I didn’t. I didn’t get angry. I got sad, and I was disappointed. So I decided just to freshen up and try to get a better attitude. And maybe when I got back, we could talk more and maybe he’d tell me why he didn’t want to dance.”

  Nana shook her head and clucked her tongue.

  “What?”

  “A man doesn’t want to have a conversation like that, in a place like that.”

  “He doesn’t want to have that conversation anywhere .”

  Nana stirred the soup on the stove. “Expectations, Caprice. There they are again. The more you expect, the more he’ll back off.”

  When Caprice was silent, Nana finally suggested, “Come on, tell me the rest.”

  “When I came out of the ladies’ room, there was Seth.”

  “Looking like Prince Charming.”

  “Looking darn close to it. He took me in his arms, danced me away, stole me outside, and he gave me this.” She showed her Nana the bracelet, pointing out each charm that was special because Seth knew she liked peace signs and hearts and kitty cats.

  “We talked until three-thirty, and then he left, and I don’t know if I’m going to see him until summer. I’m not sure what to do.”

  Nana switched off the stove burner with a click. “Pull the jar of peanut butter from the cupboard. You’re the one who doesn’t use jelly. We’ll toast the bread, though, and the peanut butter can melt on it. You used to like it that way when you were little.”

  “I still do,” Caprice confessed.

  Five minutes later, they were sitting at the table with their soup, tea, and peanut butter toast. Nana spooned up noodles, chicken, and a little bit of corn, blew on it lightly, and then ate it.

  After she did, she picked up her napkin, wiped her mouth, and set her hands in her lap. “Do you want my advice?”

  “That’s why I came over today.”

  “There isn’t an answer, you know. At least not a right one or wrong one. You know two men who seem to be honorable men, worth your time, and maybe even your commitment. The thing is, you aren’t committed to either man and neither man is committed to you. So there’s only one thing you have to do. You have to stop trying to protect your heart. You have to figure out what you want, and which man is worth the risk.”

  “And then?” Caprice asked, almost holding her breath.

  “Then you jump into it with both feet and without a net.”

  Without a net. She did that when she solved a murder case. But could she do it when it came to love?

  Nana patted Caprice’s hand. “It will work out, you know. It always does. Time, patience, and listening to that little voice inside of you. Trust me.”

  Caprice did trust Nana. That was easy. Because the subject of Seth and Grant had nowhere else to go, and no answers today, she said, “I need your help with something else.”

  “What is it?”

  Caprice took her e-tablet from her large, fringed bag and opened it. All of her notes were on the notepad app. She read them off to Nana, knowing Nana’s eyes sometimes bothered her. She went from the murder scene, to Chet, to Don Rodriguez, to Pearl Mellencamp and Rachel, and everything in between that she had listed in her notes.

  Then she looked up at Nana. “So what do you think?”

  “You found Louise’s body, but you didn’t tell me anything about the crime scene. What do you remember? I know it’s difficult to think about her lying on that floor, but think about everything around her. That might give you a clue where to go next.”

  Caprice closed her eyes, making herself relive walking into the greenhouse. “Peat pots were knocked over. Tiny seedlings were destroyed. The stool was on its side, too, like Louise had grasped onto it and fallen over with it.”

  “What about her potting bench? What about anything that could have seemed out of place?” Nana prompted.

  Ever since the murder, Caprice had been trying not to visualize the crime scene. So doing it now was like a splash of cold water on her face. It was a shock all over again, and Nana must have seen that because she pushed Caprice’s cup of tea toward her and suggested, “Take a sip.”

  Caprice did, bent over to pet Lady, then she took another sip and a few breaths. When she closed her eyes and breathed deeply, she suddenly remembered something else.

  She blurted out, “There was an open box of chocolate candy, and two of the candies were on the floor.”

  “What kind of candy?” Nana asked. “Was there a brand on the box lid? Something like that?”

  “The box lid was plain white. Nothing on the box, either. But the candy on the floor looked like those peanut butter creams Louise liked so much. Mom was going to send her some. I wonder if she did.”

  Reaching for her purse, Caprice took out her phone and called her mother.

  “Hi, honey,” her mom answered. “How did it go with Seth last night?”

  That wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have again now. “Can we talk about that when I see you?” Caprice asked, knowing her mom wanted to stay in the loop, and Caprice wanted to keep her in the loop.

  “Does that mean you’re up or down?”

  “Neither right now,” Caprice said lightly. “I p
romise, I’ll tell you all about it. But I have a question.”

  “Hold on a minute. Your dad’s going to turn down the heater in the car so I can hear you. Okay, there we go. What’s your question?”

  “Did you ever send Louise that box of peanut butter creams?”

  “No, I didn’t. After her trip to the hospital and stomach upset, I didn’t think it would be a good idea. Why?”

  “Maybe Chet sent her peanut butter creams,” Caprice mused.

  “Maybe,” her mother said cautiously, “but he was planning that trip with her over Valentine’s Day weekend. I wouldn’t think he’d send her anything beforehand, not Chet. He’s so practical that way.”

  If not Chet, maybe Don Rodriguez? Caprice wondered. She didn’t want to go into what she’d seen at the crime scene with her mom.

  “Did you have a good time at the dance last night?” Caprice asked.

  “I always have a good time with your dad, you know that. That’s what I wish for you someday.”

  Someday.

  But right now, she had to get to the bottom of a murder.

  Dead ends. That was all that Caprice was finding. But maybe a visit to The Pretzel Party would turn up more.

  After her morning routine on Monday, Caprice had surfed the Internet trying to find anything she could about Louise Benton—Louise Downing—before she’d arrived in Kismet. But she’d found zip. She’d even gone to real estate sites. She’d searched Louise Benton in Texas, too.

  Some people had luck on search engines. She didn’t . . . except for the obvious definitions and descriptions. She could call Marianne Brisbane, but she’d decided to try another avenue first.

  The Pretzel Party’s Outlet Store, factory, and distribution center were located on the outskirts of Kismet, near Pennsylvania Pharmaceuticals, a company that had plenty of legal woes right now. She remembered when she and Grant had gone there searching for another kind of evidence. But she wasn’t going to think about that now, or Grant, or Seth. Valentine’s Day was over and she had a life.

  She didn’t intend to buy any pretzels, so she headed for the building attached to the store, entered the lobby that was utilitarianly decorated at best, and went straight to the desk of a person she wanted to talk to—Verna Mae Ludwig. Verna Mae and her mom volunteered at the soup kitchen that the church helped with once a month. She was friendly and talkative and full of gossip. If Chet was in his office, she’d talk to him about that candy and see if he’d sent it. But if he wasn’t, Verna Mae might give her a new lead.