“Is that when Karen stopped painting? After the party?”
“No, that was a little while after, but I know she threw away everything she painted around then. She said they were all awful.” Melanie checked her watch and drew in a deep breath. “I have to go soon. I’m collecting my parents from the airport. They were on vacation in Bermuda and now we’re planning Karen’s funeral. That’s not what you expect to do for your sister, is it? Last week, we were planning her wedding flowers. Now, we’re using them for her funeral. Isn’t that sad?”
I had to agree it was. “How were things between Karen and her fiancé?” I asked getting up when Melanie rose.
“Great. He’s the nicest guy and they were so happy. Karen said he was the best thing to ever happen to her and she’s not usually the kind of person to make such statements. He’s devastated. His parents flew in last night and we’re all trying to support him too. I was at their house because we were scheduled to make the wedding favors together. The doctor had to sedate him after the police came.”
“Did Karen have any problems with anyone? Anything she was worried about?”
“No, she seemed really happy. We were all relieved she got through her depression.”
"Your other sister, too? I'd like to speak to her."
"Claire? Oh yes. She was really happy that Karen met Connor right before she went overseas. She works for a medical agency in Africa. She can't get a flight until the end of the week so talking to her won't be possible."
I figured I’d asked enough questions and I didn’t want to make Melanie feel defensive by bombarding her with anymore just yet, so I thanked her and she showed me out.
“Who is your client?” Melanie asked at the door. “I didn’t think to ask before. I’m kind of not thinking clearly right now. Who asked you to look into Karen’s death?”
“Fairmount Gym,” I told her,” but I’d appreciate it if you kept that confidential.”
“The place where she died?” Melanie frowned, then blinked. “Do they think we’re going to sue?”
“That never came up,” I said, not strictly honestly. Fact was, I didn’t want to distress her just as much as I didn’t want to plant that idea in her head. The Fairmount Gym was paying the agency fee to find as much evidence as possible to clear them of any wrongdoing, not paying me to get them sued.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Please don’t question my parents if you don’t need to. They’re grieving. And Connor is really out of it. You can ask me anything else you need to know about Karen.” Melanie took a card from the slim console table and pressed it into my palm. “If you find out anything, please call. We’re still waiting on the coroner’s report and the police can’t tell us anything.” She rummaged in her purse and came up with another card. “The detective we spoke to is called Adam Maddox, if that helps any?”
I assured her it did, and she added, “We just want to know what’s going on so we can lay Karen to rest.”
I nodded. “I’ll be in touch,” I said, which wasn’t really a promise or a refusal, but Melanie smiled and seemed to think that was good enough. As I walked up the block to my car, again, the niggling feeling in the pit of my stomach told me Karen’s upset had something to do with her previous job. The three of them were photographed at a party. What happened there? What could have been so bad that she couldn’t confide in her sister? And was it enough to make someone kill for?
Chapter Nine
Thanks to Solomon giving me the okay to take a pro bono case, I met Lily at The Coffee Bean, a popular coffee shop and hang out location. We were ready to canvass our first store as planned. She had a huge, heavy looking purse with her, which she kept on her knees, her arms clasped around it. She was smiling when I entered, which worried me.
“What’s in the bag?” I asked, bringing our coffees to the table.
Lily took a furtive glance to the left and then to the right. She narrowed her eyes at an older teen, tapping on his laptop’s keyboard, and he averted his gaze.
“What’s with you?” I asked.
Lily unzipped the bag and fixed me with a determined stare. “You never know who’s listening. The walls have ears! The thieves could be here. Right! Now!”
I looked around. The Coffee Bean was close to empty except for the teen, now packing his laptop into his bag and clearing away his coffee cup and a crumpled muffin wrapper. There were also two elderly ladies, deep in conversation, and a young mother, with a sleeping baby on her lap. “I think we’re good,” I told Lily.
Lily inclined her head to the mother and baby. “She could be married to the thief.” Next, she nodded to the elderly ladies. “They could be evil masterminds. Looks are deceiving you know. Just think about Lord Whatshisname and Ben Rafferty.”
“I guess,” I agreed halfheartedly, thinking about my last case, which didn’t end exactly as planned. There were just too many con men involved and one of them was always one step ahead of me. I tried to let it go, but truthfully, it still annoyed me that Ben Rafferty escaped. “But,” I continued, “I still think we’re safe. What’s in the bag?”
“Okay. So I have mace, a camera…” Lily started heaping things onto the table. “A notebook, wigs, three hats, sunglasses. I brought some for you too.”
“Uh… thanks?”
“Let’s see… what else? A dog bone. My wedding invitation sample. A recording device in case you don’t have a spare wire. My phone. Spare charger. Oh, no weapon. Did you bring your gun?”
“No!”
Lily sighed. “Well, that’s just plain bad planning.”
“I don’t normally bring my gun anywhere. It stays at home in a locked drawer where it belongs. I don’t need to shoot people. I only shoot at the range.”
“It’s for protection. We might get shot at.” Lily looked strangely hopeful with her wide eyes. “Should I get a bulletproof vest?”
“We’re only going to look into the thefts,” I told her, before taking a sip of the hot caramel latte. Delicious. “We’re going to ask a few questions. Take a few notes. Observe a little. See if anyone saw anything. Out of the kindness of our hearts,” I added, since we weren’t getting paid.
“And so no one steals my dress,” added Lily, less altruistically.
“And we’re definitely not getting shot at.” I poked through the items she assembled on the table. The camera and the notepad were a good idea. The recording device and the cell phone charger, too. But… “A dog bone?” I held it up, glad it was encased in a plastic wrapper. “What’s this for?”
“In case we break in somewhere with an attack dog that needs subduing.” Lily paused, then added, “Duh!”
“O-kaaaay.” I placed the bone back on the table and held up the wig and the invitation. “And these?”
“Disguises. We have wigs, hats, and sunglasses, in case we need to change our appearance. The invitation is in case one of us needs to pretend to be a bride and we can say, ‘Yep, there totally is a wedding! Not faking!’. Genius, right?!”
“It has your name on it.”
“Oh, crap. I didn’t think of that.”
“Besides, you are a bride so we don’t need to pretend, and I don’t think we need to dress up either. Why are there three hats?” I asked, poking them. “We only have two heads.”
“In case one of us wants to change.”
“Hmm.” I held back a laugh and Lily pouted.
“This is going to be less fun than I thought it would be.”
“Sorry, but you volunteered us,” I pointed out.
“For a good cause. My dress! To think I was worried about a serial killer screwing my wedding. Having my dress stolen would totally blow it!” Lily scooped her items into her purse and zipped it shut. I hoped she didn’t plan on lugging it around with her the whole afternoon because she would get a very sore shoulder, which would make her whine. The only whines I could tolerate needed de-corking. “Where are we heading first?” she asked. “What�
��s the plan?”
I pulled my notepad from my purse and flipped it open, checking the brief notes I’d made. “First stop is the bridal store down the street. Georgina’s Gowns. They were raided first. My cousin, Sian, got her wedding dress there. I haven’t been by since, but it’s a good place to start. The second store is downtown, and the third one a block from there. The fourth store is in West Montgomery so we can go home after that.” I stopped. I forgot that neither of us lived in West Montgomery anymore. I had my bungalow. Lily and Jord were still in her parents’ house in Bedford Hills while their new house underwent renovations.
“We could go to my bar afterwards?” Lily suggested. “Jord gets off shift at six. He might join us.”
“It’s a date.”
“Threesome!”
“Gross.”
Lily giggled. We waited another ten minutes, talking strategy, until our coffees were nothing but frothy dregs. Fortunately, Lily decided to stow her bag in the trunk of her Mini before we made our way to Georgina’s Gowns, just a few minutes’ walk away. Having been recently burglarized, it was not apparent. The windows gleamed, the lettering was perfect, and the white awning overhead provided a light canopy over the window and door. I looked closely for a security camera and noted they had two, one fixed on the door and one that looked out onto the street.
“Good news, they have cameras,” I said, nudging Lily as she added a hat to her outfit. “They might have caught something on tape.”
“Hurrah. Easy case! Let’s go crack this mutha open!”
I sighed, but followed her inside anyway, entering into a wooden-floored, roomy space with glass cabinets displaying shoes and jewelry across one wall, and racks of white dresses at the back. A couple of mannequins wore dreamy gowns and I had to stop myself from running an appreciative hand over them as we crossed to the cashier’s desk where an assistant waited. Her nametag read “Cindy” and she was absolutely expressionless as I asked for the manager.
“Georgina isn’t here,” said Cindy. “Can I help?” She glanced over toward the shoppers, pulling out dress skirts and cooing, then back to us, her smile never leaving her face, but somehow, not exactly illuminating it either. I couldn’t decide if she looked crazy or just super perky.
“It’s about the robberies.”
“Oh my! Oh yes!” Cindy exclaimed, putting a quieting finger to her lips. She lowered her voice and nodded to the other patrons. “We’re keeping that very quiet. You must be from the insurance agency. I’ll get you the forms you asked for.”
“Okay,” said Lily as she nodded. She beamed at me as Cindy crouched behind the desk. A moment later, she popped up with a slim folder and passed it to me.
“This is a list of all the items that were stolen, the deposits and balances paid. Some of the dresses were due to be picked up the next day, you know. We had to drive all over to get new, matching dresses, but we did it. We never,” Cindy fixed Lily and I with a serious look, “never, ever, let a bride down.” She straightened, smiling at us both. I couldn’t help smiling back. Okay, maybe she was a little manic, but she was sweet, and helpful, and so what if her forehead didn’t move? “Okay, if that’s all you need…?”
“Your security tapes from the day of the robbery as well, please,” I told her.
“Oh, I thought you knew.” Cindy grimaced - somehow managing to still smile - and shrugged. “We only got the cameras installed after the—” here she dropped her voice again, “—you know what.”
“Right, of course. Did anyone see anything suspicious? Maybe that day?” I persevered.
“No, I was here all day. It was a Friday and we had a lot of new brides come in that afternoon, but nothing suspicious. I mean, no guys or anything. That’s always weird when guys come in. I mean, we’re a bridal shop! We sell bridal, bridesmaid, and mother-of-the-bride. No menswear here.”
“Did you notice anyone outside the store?” asked Lily, leaning in. Despite leaving her bag behind, she somehow managed to extract a hat and was now wearing it.
“No, it’s pretty busy here on Fridays. I didn’t see anything unusual at all, but we were so busy, I didn’t really look outside.”
Lily’s hat slipped over her eyes. She pointed one finger under the brim and pushed it back. I tried not to imagine her in a Western, but failed. “Any of the brides acting in a way you wouldn’t expect?” she asked, oblivious.
“Not really. I mean, they’re all so excited, right?”
“Right,” we agreed.
“So… you’ll be in touch? We’ll get our insurance paid out?”
I waved the file as we turned to leave. “I’ll make sure it gets to the right people,” I told her, which meant precisely nothing, but she seemed to accept that.
Lily and I waited until we were in her car before we spoke again. “That was easy,” she said, removing the hat and tossing it into the backseat. “We have a whole list of everything that was stolen. Shame about the security tapes.”
“Yeah, that was a downer, but we can assume one thing,” I decided.
“What’s that?”
“Whoever cased that store was probably a woman.”
“Riiight, because no guys go in there?”
“Nailed it,” I said, and Lily high-fived me.
“So all we have to do is look for a woman, pretending to be a bride, who’s hiding way more dresses than she needs. Hey, do you think maybe it’s a really indecisive bride? Or maybe a kleptomaniac? Or maybe she couldn’t afford her dream dress, so she didn’t want anyone else to have theirs?” asked Lily.
“Good theories,” I replied as I browsed the list of stolen items, “but I think we should stick with the theory that this is plain theft. The dresses from here alone come to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars!”
“Whoa. And with four stores hit? That’s…”
“Maybe over half a million dollars.”
“I should have opened a bridal store, not a bar,” said Lily. “That’s good money.”
“Yeah, but people only get married once…”
“I hope!”
I continued, “but they carry on drinking.”
“I’d toast that, but I’m driving.”
“Safety first.”
“Next bridal store?”
“You bet.”
“Shuler and Graves on the case!” Lily yelled, gunning the engine.
~
We didn’t have nearly as much success with the other robbed stores. The Bridal Emporium had a closed sign in the window, the lights were off, and both racks and display cases were empty. A “For Rent” placard sat on the window ledge inside the building. We went into the boutique next door and asked when the bridal store folded.
“They got robbed,” said the sales assistant as she busied herself hanging clothes. I suspected she was having a slow day because she became very chatty. “The owner was thinking of retiring anyway so she took that bad luck as a sign and decided not to reopen. I hear she’s gone on a cruise with her husband. Insurance money must have been good.”
“Were a lot stolen?” asked Lily.
“All the dresses,” said the assistant. “Fortunately, the brides managed to get dresses elsewhere, but imagine if that was your wedding day, huh? And how excited you would be about getting your dress? Awful.”
“Really awful,” I agreed. “Was it a weekend?”
“No, a Tuesday, I think, but I wasn’t here. My little boy was sick and stayed home from school that week so I only heard from Jessica, our other assistant, the week after it happened.”
“Did you notice anyone casing the joint?” asked Lily. She lost the hat, but had buttoned her mac all the way under her chin. And added sunglasses.
The assistant frowned, looking from Lily to me, then back again. “Who are you two? Cagney and Lacey?”
“Just curious,” I asked. “My friend is getting married and she heard about this place.”
“Oh. Okay. There’s another store a few blocks away. I heard they got robbed too, but
they’re still open.”
We thanked her and left.
“Cagney and Lacey?” said Lily. “Oh please!”
“Nothing wrong with Cagney and Lacey.”
“Yeah, but we could be so much more modern.”
“It could have been worse. She could have said Diagnosis Murder.”
“Very true.”
“Maybe we’ll have better luck at Montgomery Bridal.”
Montgomery Bridal was open just as we were told and this time, we found the owner right away. She wasn’t quite as interested in helping us, or bored enough to, until she took a closer look at me and asked if I was Matilda Graves’ daughter. When I confirmed I was, she was all smiles and introduced herself as Sally-Anne McLoughlin. “Your mother is such a nice lady. We take Tai Chi together on Sunday mornings. You should come along. It’s not just for older folk, there’re plenty of you young things too. Your mother told me you’re a private investigator. That true?”
“Yes, I work for the Solomon Agency,” I confirmed, glad that the lady decided to open up.
“How come you’re interested in my store getting robbed?” Sally-Anne asked. “I told your mother and a few people. Did she ask you to look into it?”
“No, we heard that four wedding stores had been burglarized…”
“And you took it upon yourselves to look into it. You’re kind-hearted girls, aren’t you? Your mother is proud of you, Lexi. Bet your parents are awful pleased with you too, Lily.”
Lily shrugged and looked away. “I guess.”
“Are you a private investigator too?”
“No, I own a bar,” Lily said, turning back, her composure recovered. “Lily’s.”
“My daughter goes there. Says you have the best cocktails in town.”
Lily beamed. “Thank you. I test them all myself.”
“So, you said four stores got robbed, including mine? I heard about the one near here. The Bridal Emporium. You know it? They didn’t reopen.”
“But you did…”
“Oh yes. I can’t let all my girls down and their menfolk. We sell menswear here too, not just bridalwear.”
Weapons of Mass Distraction (Lexi Graves Mysteries) Page 11
