“I’m sorry, but this has to be cleared up tonight,” Elise said. She began walking forward, knife in hand, giving Viv and me no choice but to keep backing up. We kept moving back until we found ourselves in the workroom, pressed up against the center table. “You see, you two are my only loose ends.”
“I’m not following,” I said. It was a blatant stall tactic. For I can assure you, with a knife that big pointed at us I was following this conversation more closely than I had ever followed anything in my life.
“You are the only two who know that the hat on Lady Ellis’s head at her time of death is not the hat she ordered, which is a minor detail that could cause an unfortunate amount of suspicion to come my way,” Elise said. “Well, you two and my husband, but he’s of no consequence anymore.”
The look of evil satisfaction in her eyes led me to believe that whatever had happened to Lord Cheevers had been about as pleasant as what had happened to Lady Ellis.
“But he was at the viewing . . .” I trailed off. Damn it, when would I learn to keep my mouth shut?
Elise gave me a frosty look. “Yes, the poor man was so grief-stricken over his lover’s death, but you knew that, didn’t you?”
“I don’t understand,” I said. This time it was true. I had a feeling her crazy train had hopped the tracks.
“How did it feel to almost have your life snuffed out?” Elise asked.
In a flash of memory, the burning sensation in my lungs returned, but this time the terror that had gripped me turned into rage.
“You think I had something to do with Lady Ellis and Lord Cheevers buying your hat?” I asked. “It was a mistake, an honest mistake.”
“No, you see, it wasn’t,” Elise said. She turned the knife as if enjoying the play of light upon its blade. “They did it on purpose. They did it to hurt me. Vicks always wanted whatever I had. I should have known that eventually, she would take him, too, and you helped them. After all, you are quite the home wrecker yourself, aren’t you?”
“But I didn’t know . . .” My voice trailed off as I realized that in her crazy mind I had been a part of her husband and her best friend’s plot to hurt her. And given that she knew about my own personal scandal, I didn’t think there was anything I could say to prove otherwise.
“Elise, this is madness,” Viv said. “Scarlett didn’t know the hat was yours. She didn’t even know who your husband was. They tricked her as well.”
Elise stared at me as if trying to see into my soul. I could hear the ticking of the clock on the wall and feel every beat of my heart in my chest.
“It doesn’t matter,” Elise said. “I knew when you got back, Viv, that you would figure out that Scarlett sold the wrong hat to Vicks. I did try to find the hat once to spare us all but no luck. If that bloody wardrobe hadn’t been locked, none of this would have been necessary. I’m afraid my temper got the better of me when I couldn’t open the cupboard.”
“You ransacked the shop?” I asked. “After the tea, when Lady Ellis’s garden hat wasn’t among the ones I offered?”
Elise gave me a bored look. “Viv once told me she kept all of the special hats in the wardrobe, and I knew that’s where Vicks’s hat would be. Do you remember?”
Viv nodded, but I wasn’t sure if it was because she remembered their conversation or because she was trying to pacify Elise.
“When you said it was Lord and Lady Ellis who had been in the shop, I realized you didn’t know who the man with Vicks really was. I thought I might not have to kill you after all,” Elise said. “But then you saw my husband at the wake, and I knew you would figure out that he and Vicks were a pair and that the person most likely to kill Vicks would be me. I didn’t know you were back, Viv, so this just makes things all the easier.”
“Elise, you don’t have to do this,” I said. “You can declare it a crime of passion to have killed your husband’s lover.”
“And my husband?” she asked.
Viv and I exchanged a wide-eyed glance and then turned back to her.
“Yes, I’m afraid he’s suffered an unfortunate accident. After the wake, he was so distraught, I offered to make him some tea. That will be the last time he puts his thick lips on any of my china,” she said with satisfaction.
There was no way I could hide my look of horror. Elise narrowed her eyes at me.
“Oh, please, he got off much easier than Vicks. I made her wear the hat. I wouldn’t let her put anything else on, and then after she confessed to sleeping with my husband, I stabbed her.”
Elise smiled to herself as if pleased. “It was a poor decision to leave the hat on her head, but I felt there was a certain poetic justice to it; besides, I had to hurry before the housekeeper found me.”
“But surely, if you’ve killed your husband, someone will notice his absence and you’ll be caught,” Viv said.
“No, I made sure everyone thinks he’s on a business trip to the Continent. That should buy me a little time. Now there is a grass shack in some small village in Thailand calling to me and I must go.”
“You’re mad,” Viv said. “Four murders? How do you possibly think you’ll get away with four murders?”
“Oh, but I’m not going to murder you,” she said. “No, you’re going to have a horrible accident.”
“What are you talking about?”
“A tragic fire,” Elise said with a mock-sad face. “The beautiful cousins were just reunited when a horrible fire engulfs their home and the two women and their hat shop are scorched beyond all recognition.”
“Scorched?” Viv and I asked faintly.
“Cooked, toasted, fried,” she confirmed. “Let’s go upstairs and set the stage, shall we?”
Viv looked at me and I knew what she was thinking. If we went upstairs, we were done for. She tipped her head imperceptibly toward the table. Fiona had left several wooden hat forms she’d been using on the table. I frowned at Viv. I had no idea what she was thinking.
“Go on, upstairs with you,” Elise ordered. “I have places to go and people to see.”
“I wonder what Mim would say about this,” Viv said.
“Who cares?” Elise asked.
“It’s just that she was so particular about her things in the shop,” Viv said. “Remember, Scarlett?”
She looked again at the table and then at me. I was standing closer to the table so I knew she was trying to tell me something. And then, I remembered.
One summer on my vacation to London, Viv and I had taken a few of the wooden hat forms for brims that Mim kept in her storage closet to the park. We used them as toy boats in the fountains and as clunky Frisbees. We tied one to a tree branch and used it as a swing.
Mim had been furious. These had been two of her favorite hat forms and we had battered them beyond repair. We’d spent all of the next day scrubbing every floor in the three-story house. Lesson learned.
That being said, I had developed a knack for flinging the round wooden form pretty far. Is this what Viv wanted me to do now? Did she think I could grab it and hit Elise with it before she stabbed one or both of us? I didn’t think it was possible, and even more than not wanting to be stabbed myself, I really didn’t want Viv to be harmed. I’d just gotten her back.
“Scarlett!” a voice called from out front. It sounded like Nick.
“Oy, Scarlett, you’ve left your door unlocked,” Andre called after him.
Elise whipped her head in the direction of the door. As soon as she did, I snatched up one of the circular hat forms and heaved it at her arm. There was a solid thunk and with a yelp, Elise dropped the knife. Viv dove forward and sacked Elise in a tackle worthy of an American football player. I kicked the knife away.
Nick and Andre dashed through the open doorway, yelling, “What the bloody hell is going on?”
Elise was struggling but Viv had her pinned. I snatched some ribbon from the table and used it to tie Elise’s hands and feet. When I stood, I saw my friends staring open-mouthed at us.
“Oh,
Nick, Andre, you’re here,” I said. “Excellent timing. My cousin Vivian has returned.”
They stared at Viv and then at me and then Elise, who was struggling and cursing on the floor, trying to wrench her hands free of the ribbons.
“Pleasure to meet you,” Andre said as he extended his hand to Viv. “Although, you seem a bit tied up at the moment.”
Nick chuckled and said, “No, she’s just stringing you along.”
Vivian laughed and said, “I’m a frayed knot.”
The three of them were hooting, when I said, “I knew you were all bound to get along.”
They all stopped laughing and looked at me. “Aw, come on. That was a good one. ‘Bound’? You have to give it to me.”
Nick shook his head and threw an arm about me. “Don’t unravel on us now, Scarlett.”
The others laughed and I pouted.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go call the police.”
“Fine,” I said.
• • •
We called Inspectors Franks and Simms and Harrison and all three arrived within moments. Simms bagged Elise’s knife and hauled her off to the station with a couple of uniforms while Franks stayed to interview us.
Andre and Nick made their departure when it was apparent that this would take a while. They promised to return the next day to get the full story.
When Harrison finally walked Inspector Franks to the door, the detective was positively beaming, and as the door shut after him, I heard him break into a rich baritone as he belted out an Alan Jackson song.
Vivian gave me a perplexed look.
“He fancies himself a country-western singer,” I said. “We really should go and see him at the pub sometime.”
Harrison collapsed onto one of the empty chairs, looking relieved. “Is it finally over?”
“Yes, I do believe the mystery of who killed Lady Ellis is solved,” I said. “But there is one thing I’m unclear on.”
“What’s that?” Viv asked.
“I still don’t understand about the wardrobe,” I said. “Elise said it was locked the night she broke in to search it for Vicks’s hat.”
“And?” Viv prodded.
“And, I’ve never locked it and I don’t think Fee did either,” I said. “So how could it have been locked?”
Viv and Harrison exchanged a look and then Viv got up and started whistling. She didn’t say a word. She just disappeared through the door that led upstairs and finally even her whistle faded into nothing.
I turned to look at Harrison. “What was that about?”
“No idea,” he said. He rose from his seat and headed for the door.
“Harry, what is going on?” I demanded as I followed him. “You and Viv are keeping secrets. Even Fiona said something about the wardrobe just doing what it does. What did she mean?”
Harrison turned to face me, and I felt caught in his emerald-green gaze as he asked, “Are you staying?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, but he didn’t explain. Instead he turned and continued to the door.
“Come on, Harry,” I cajoled. “We’ve been through so much together. Tell me.”
He was almost at the door when he turned abruptly and I slammed into him. He caught me by the arms and steadied me on my feet.
“It’s Harrison,” he said, but he was grinning as he laced his fingers with mine. “Who do you suppose would lock the wardrobe to keep a hat safe?”
“I don’t know. Who?” I asked.
“Think about it,” he said. He stepped forward and kissed me gently on the forehead. Then he let go of my fingers and strode out the door.
I stomped my foot. This was positively maddening. I locked the door and set the alarm. As I crossed the room to go upstairs, I glanced at the wardrobe.
“All right, Ferd,” I said. “You win this round, but I’ll have your secrets yet.”
It may have been a trick of the light, but I was quite certain this time that he did wink at me, and then the faint scent of Lily of the Valley filled the air. It was Mim’s scent. The same scent I had smelled in my room after Elise had almost suffocated me. But instead of feeling the grief of Mim’s loss this time, I felt engulfed in warmth like I was being hugged. I stood perfectly still until the scent dissipated.
“Mim?” I asked. There was no answer. Duly spooked, I raced up the stairs, slamming the door behind me.
Viv had obviously gone to bed, so I tiptoed up to my own room as quietly as I could with my heart racing and my knees trembling. I was being ridiculous. I knew it, and yet, I couldn’t seem to help it.
Then I thought of Mim and her no-nonsense ways, and I stiffened my spine. I was no coward. Was I going to stay and find out what my cousin wasn’t telling me? That Mim was still here in some mystical way? That it was Mim’s ghost that had locked the cupboard and comforted me when I needed it?
Embraced by the hideous pink as I walked into my room, I smiled as I switched off the light.
“Heck, yeah,” I said out loud. “I’m staying.”
Turn the page for a preview of
Jenn McKinlay’s next Hat Shop Mystery . . .
DEATH OF A MAD HATTER
Coming soon from Berkley Prime Crime!
“Take it off, Scarlett. You look like a corpse.”
My cousin Vivian Tremont stared at me in horror as if I had in fact just risen from the grave.
“Don’t hold back,” I said. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“Sorry, love, but pale redheads like you should avoid any color that has gray tones in it,” Viv said. Then because calling me a corpse wasn’t clear enough, she blanched.
I crossed the floor of our hat shop to the nearest free- standing mirror. Our grandmother Mim had passed away five years ago and left her shop, Mim’s Whims in London to the two of us. Viv was the creative genius behind the hats, having grown up in Notting Hill just down the street from the shop, while I was the people person, you know, the one who kept the clients from running away from Viv when she got that scary inspired look in her eye.
Being raised in the States, I had chosen to go into the hotel industry. Things had been going well until I discovered my rat bastard boyfriend was still married. At Viv’s urging, I escaped that fiasco and came here to take up my share of the business. So far London had done quite a lot to take my mind off my troubles. Viv in particular kept me on my toes, making sure I didn’t lose my people skills.
In fact, the last time she’d gotten swept up in an artistic episode, she’d tried to convince the very timid Mrs. Barker that wearing a hat with two enormous cherries the size of beach balls connected by the stems and with a leaf the size of a dinner plate would be brilliant. It was—just not on Mrs. Barker’s head.
It had taken me an afternoon of plying Mrs. Barker with tea and biscuits and pulling Viv into the back room and threatening to put her in a headlock to get them to an accord. Finally, Mrs. Barker had agreed to a black trilby with cherries the size of golf balls nestled on the side and Viv had been satisfied to work her magic on a smaller scale.
I ignored my dear cousin’s opinion and stood in front of the mirror and tipped the lavender sun hat jauntily to one side. It was mid-May and summer was coming. I’d been looking for a hat to shade my fair skin from the sun and being a girly girl, I do love all things pink and purple.
“Oh, I can just see the headstone now,” a chipper voice said from behind me. “Here lies Scarlett Parker, mistakenly buried alive when she wore an unfortunate color of sun hat.”
I glared at the reflection of Fiona Felton, Viv’s lovely young apprentice, in the mirror.
Viv laughed and said, “I can dig it.”
“In spades,” Fee quipped back.
“Fine,” I said. I snatched the hat off my head. “Obviously, the hat is a grave mistake.”
They stopped laughing.
“Oh, come on, that was funny,” I said. They shook their heads in denial.
“You need to bury that one and back away,” Viv said.
They both chortled.
“I think you’re being a bit harsh,” I said. I replaced the pretty hat on its stand and shook out my hair.
“No, harsh was that hat on your head,” Fee said. She smiled at me, her teeth very white against her cocoa-colored skin. Her corkscrew bob was streaked with blue, she was always changing the color, and one curl fell over her right eye. She blew it out of her face with a puff of her lower lip.
“But I need a sun hat,” I complained.
“Plain straw would look nice,” Viv said. “Maybe with a nice emerald ribbon around the crown.”
“I’m tired of plain and I’m sick of green.” I knew I sounded a tad whiney but I didn’t care. I was jealous of Fee and Viv. Fee’s dark coloring looked good with everything and so did Viv’s long blond curls and big blue eyes, which she had inherited directly from Mim. So unfair!
The front door opened and I glanced up with my greet-the-customer smile firmly in place. It fell as soon as I recognized the man who walked into the shop.
“Oh, it’s you, Harry,” I said with a sigh.
Harrison Wentworth, our business manager, gave me an annoyed glance.
“Harrison,” he corrected me. “Pleasure to see you, too, Ginger.”
I felt my face get warm at the childhood nickname. Yes, Harry and I had a history, one in which I did not come out very well.
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” I said. “I was just hoping you were a customer so everyone could stop telling me how gruesome I look in lavender.”
“I didn’t say you were gruesome,” Viv corrected me as she rearranged the hats on one of the display shelves. “I said you looked like a corpse. Good morning, Harrison.”
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
“Now that’s a proper greeting,” Harrison said, giving me a look.
“Hello, Harrison,” Fee said. She also kissed his cheek and smiled at him. He returned the grin. I glanced between them. They seemed awfully happy to see each other.
Harrison was Viv’s age, two years older than my modest twenty-seven, but Fee was only twenty-one, entirely too young to be considering a man in his advanced years, in my opinion. And no, it had nothing to do with the fact that Harry and I had a history, if you consider me standing him up for an ice cream date when I was ten and he was twelve and breaking his adolescent heart a history. I did mention that I didn’t come out very well in it, didn’t I?
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