Brew or Die

by Caroline Fardig

  So he couldn’t see me rolling my eyes, I got up on tiptoe and whispered in his ear, “I bet you could teach me a lot of things.”

  Kacey’s voice cut through our discussion. She shrieked, “It’s time!”

  I picked up a necklace. “I guess that’s my cue. Could you help me with this, Xander?”

  He took the necklace from me and slowly placed it around my neck. After he clasped it, he let his fingers trail down my shoulders. He leaned over and brushed his lips against my ear as he said, “I’ll find you later.”

  A chill skittered down my spine, and not in a good way.

  Chapter 14

  I walked into the enormous Broadway ballroom, which was Leonidas’s central hub for the wedding expo. It was packed to the gills with vendor booths of many kinds—except other wedding planners, of course. They also had other smaller rooms in the convention center, each dedicated to a single type of wedding vendor—bakeries providing cake samples, photographers offering impromptu engagement photo shoots, wedding attire shops allowing brides to play dress-up in the gowns the shops had carted in, and even dance instructors offering mini lessons in ballroom dancing.

  I found Pete easily enough in the mayhem. He was talking to two other handsome, tuxedo-wearing men, but when he saw me, he stopped mid-sentence, mouth hanging open. My reaction to seeing him wasn’t much cooler. I was staring back at him, also speechless. He was, for lack of a better word, dashing. I hadn’t seen him in a tux since our choir days in college, and this time he wasn’t wearing some old rumpled, rented suit—this thing had to have cost as much as my dress. His dark hair was freshly trimmed and expertly styled. He was the picture of male perfection. And he was coming right toward me, so I needed to quit being so hot and bothered.

  As I was trying to squash my thoughts, he said quietly, “Jules, you’re…breathtaking.”

  I smiled, for some reason suddenly feeling the urge to tear up. “Thanks. You, too. Or…maybe you’re not supposed to call a guy breathtaking.”

  He laughed, finally breaking the tension. “Thanks, I guess. So did you find out anything?”

  “Yes, a lot. But for starters, I found out we’re supposed to at least pretend to mingle with the crowd or we’re going to get busted.”

  “Right. Maybe we should look for a more deserted space to hang so we can talk.”

  He made a grand show of offering me his arm, and I took it, smiling and waving at guests as we walked past them, but not slowing down to chat like we should have. We headed out of the ballroom and down the back hallway, which was largely deserted.

  I let go of Pete’s arm. “Did you discover anything regarding the case?” Noticing something odd, I peered at his face closely. “And are you wearing guyliner?”

  Grimacing, he said, “Yeah, they made me.”

  I burst out laughing.

  “Shut up, Jules. And focus. I didn’t find out anything specific about the case. But I did learn something interesting—Xander Leonidas has a twin sister who’s his polar opposite.”

  I sobered immediately. “A twin, really? Does she work at the family business? I don’t remember seeing another Leonidas when I did my research. What’s her name? Xena, perhaps?”

  “Nobody’s named that in real life. Her name is Alexa Thorpe, and she’s the VP of the wedding side. Word is she took Mommy’s maiden name a few years ago because she couldn’t stand being associated with her twin anymore. She reminds me of a stuffy librarian. She is mean.” He whistled.

  I remembered Alexa Thorpe’s photo from Leonidas’s website because her face was so strikingly beautiful, yet at the same time it seemed that she had gone to great lengths to tone down her looks. She was the only employee who hadn’t had her hair flawlessly styled for her photo, instead looking like she’d rolled out of bed and pulled it up into a hasty bun. She wore no makeup and hid behind thick-rimmed glasses. I’d been surprised that Ophelia Leonidas had allowed that less-than-perfect photo to be put on her website.

  “Lovely. Well, I think you should work your Pete Bennett charm on her. Maybe you can get her to open up about how terrible she thinks her brother is. I’ve got Xander on the hook already. I’m pretty sure he’s penciled me in for sex later.”

  His eyes bulged out. “Damn. You work fast.”

  “Supposedly he has a thing for redheads, so it’s not all due to my magnetic personality. But that isn’t the best progress I made this morning.” I filled him in on everything Boz had told me about Josie and Kacey’s rocky relationship. At the end of my story, I snapped my fingers and began pulling up my voluminous skirt. “I almost forgot. I texted Shane to find out if he has any dirt Josie might have told him about Kacey.”

  Pete’s eyes were riveted to my thigh as I plucked my phone from its black lace holster. “That’s uh…where did you get that thing?”

  “Maya. What, do you think it doesn’t go with my dress?”

  Eyes still glued, he said, “That was not what I was thinking.”

  Secretly pleased at his reaction, I joked, “You’re such a perv. Here. Shane texted me back.” I held the phone out so we could both read Shane’s response: Kacey was Josie’s assistant. Around this time last year, they were both assistants vying for a promotion to an event planner job. Josie won out, and Kacey became her assistant. They weren’t friends, but Kacey wasn’t out to get her or anything like that.

  I could see the wheels turning inside Pete’s head. He said, “Josie makes a monumental mistake at the expo last year, and Kacey gets blamed for it. Then Josie gets the big promotion. Kacey becomes her lackey, only to watch Josie eff up the first major party she’s in charge of. That has motive written all over it. Even the nicest person on earth would harbor bad feelings about how that played out.”

  “You’re right. And given what happened here last year, maybe Kacey wanted to be the one to swoop in and take over Josie’s tasks, thus saving the day.”

  He nodded, finishing my thought. “Putting her in perfect position to walk into the job that should have been hers in the first place.”

  “I say we start with her.”

  —

  Pete and I searched the main ballroom for Kacey, but had no luck. The place was now packed with hundreds of people, so it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Worse, we were stopped countless times by young brides and their mothers, who wanted to know all about my dress and whether or not Pete was single. I was at a loss as to what to say about the dress, so Pete, sensing that, saved me by flirting unabashedly with the ladies until they forgot their questions.

  After over an hour of torture, we went back out into the hallway and headed for the smaller rooms in the convention area.

  “Did you not read over any of the materials you got about what you were supposed to say today?” Pete asked.

  “I never got any materials. Maya set this cover up for me, so blame her for my ignorance.”

  “Well at least come up with something to talk about, because I don’t want to have to keep bailing you out by chatting these women up. It makes me feel dirty.”

  I smirked at him. “Oh, is Fabio not enjoying all the attention?”

  He smoothed the front of his jacket. “Not as much as I thought I would.”

  I turned my head away from him to hide my smile. For all his big talk, Pete was a total sweetheart and often struggled with pulling things over on people while he was undercover. We walked around the entire wedding expo, looking in every room Leonidas had rented out, but it was as if Kacey had disappeared.

  Pete was beginning to get frustrated, so I said, “The point of us being models rather than guests is that we should be able to have access to behind-the-scenes areas. Let’s explore a little deeper.”

  “Fine.”

  After taking a quick peek in the men’s and women’s dressing areas we’d gotten ready in this morning, we slipped through a rear door into a service hallway between the two ballrooms. This place was bustling with activity—mostly waitstaff refilling trays of finger foods and drinks th
ey’d been carrying around all afternoon. Above the din, we could hear yelling at the other end of the hall. Sure enough, it was Kacey.

  “Applegate Floral’s booth should never have been placed next to Sondra’s Flowers and Gifts. Raina Applegate and Sondra Schultz are mortal enemies, Rex! You should know this! They’re going to be bickering all day, and it’s going to ruin the atmosphere of the entire place,” she cried.

  I craned my neck to see who she was talking to, but I assumed it had to be the same Rex who was a friend of Josie’s. I was about to ask Pete if he could see them, but he was several feet away from me, speaking quietly to one of the waiters. Leaving him behind, I crept closer to Kacey, hoping to be able to see and hear a little better. I was getting some strange looks from the servers, and one of them even muttered something about me not being where all the food was being kept. So maybe we didn’t have as much access as we’d envisioned, but I figured it didn’t matter as long as Kacey didn’t catch either of us back here. I was already on her shit list from this morning, and I wouldn’t put it past her to fire us on the spot if she thought we were doing something we weren’t supposed to. Luckily, she had her back to me, and I was shielded by a nook made by a set of doors I assumed opened into the back of one of the ballrooms.

  From here, I could see that it was indeed Rex Hudson whom Kacey was berating. He wasn’t lying down and taking it, though. “Spare me the meltdown, Kacey. For one thing, you’re not the boss of me, so get out of my face. And two, Raina and Sondra are grown-ass women who should be able to be professional for one day. I haven’t heard a cross word out of either one of them, so I think all your drama is for nothing.” He gave her a dirty look and added, “As usual.”

  “Oh, really? Well, fine. Let’s just let the situation blow up in your fat face and see who ends up getting Josie’s job.”

  Rex smirked at her. “Kind of like what happened to you last year?”

  Kacey let out a screech and whirled around, coming my way. I panicked and realized the door behind me was the one way to get out of this hallway without her seeing me. I opened the door and stumbled through it, only to trip over several thick cords coiled on the floor and land on my ass.

  I was in the area behind the vendor booths, but the nearby vendors were too engrossed in either tidying their merchandise or speaking with guests to notice my graceless mishap. I struggled my way back upright and smoothed my dress. There were no gaps between booths where I could slip out to the middle of the ballroom, so I had to slink along the wall to find an opening. I was almost to freedom when Josie’s friend Hadley stepped in my way.

  “This area is vendors only. You’re being paid to mingle with the crowd, not hide back here.”

  If she only knew. I thought it best to play the role of dumb model. Turning on some horrendous vocal fry, I said, “OMG, I know, right? I went to the dressing room because I had a serious hair emergency, and I got totes turned around back there and went out the wrong door. Then I was in some random hallway and had, like, no idea where to go. Some cute waiter guy told me to go through that door over there, so that’s how I ended up back here. This place is crazy huge, don’t you think?”

  She looked at me like I was a complete idiot, which was what I was going for. “Just get back to work.”

  I made a show of peering at her nametag. “No prob…Hadley. Hey, are you the Hadley who was friends with Josie? I knew her, and she talked about ‘Hadley from work’ all the time.”

  Her face fell. “Um…yeah. We were friends.”

  “So tragic how she ended up, although I totally don’t get it. She wouldn’t even smoke weed with our friends, and suddenly she’s a dead smackhead? Whatever. I think the cops on her case have their heads up their asses if they think Josie of all people OD’ed. She would, like, barely take Tylenol. Surely you know about what happened to her brother. If you’re her friend, that is.”

  Hadley eyed me warily. “Have you been talking to Shane?”

  Shit. I turned my nose up. “I don’t talk to Shane. He’s a loser. Why?”

  She hesitated for a moment. “Something you said reminded me of something he said to me a couple of days ago.”

  “What, that Josie’s supposed OD is a load of crap? All of her friends think so, and if you don’t, then you’re obviously not as good a friend as you claim to be.” I crossed my arms and smirked at her, hoping to goad her into a reaction.

  “I…” She trailed off, frowning. “I need to go. And you need to get back to work.”

  “Fine. Later, Not-Josie’s-Friend.”

  I watched as Hadley stalked off, pulling out her phone to make a call. When Shane had spoken with Hadley at her office, she seemed to know more than she was letting on about where Josie could have gotten the drugs. I was hoping my little push would make her think twice about keeping quiet on the subject.

  At this point, I needed to find Pete so we could get on with our business. I hurried out of the ballroom and toward the deserted end of the hallway so I could discreetly get out my phone. Facing the wall, I called him and waited for him to pick up. It went to voicemail, so, irritated, I called again. He still didn’t pick up.

  I was about to hit Redial when a man in an absurd British accent said, “Care for some champagne, miss?” and shoved a tray of drinks in my face. I glanced up and began to wave him away, then I saw it was Pete. Shocked, I turned and found that he’d ditched his tuxedo jacket for a waiter’s vest.

  “Ooh, aren’t you just a regular James Bond, going double undercover?” I said, taking one of the champagne flutes from his tray.

  “The name is Bennett. Pete Bennett.” Grinning, he took one, too, and clinked glasses with me. “I paid a guy twenty bucks to loan me his vest and take an extended lunch break.”

  I took a sip of the champagne. “Nice. Learn anything?”

  “I followed Rex. He went and tattled to Xander Leonidas on Kacey, said she was out of control. Then I followed Leonidas, who found Kacey and told her to get the hell over herself. It doesn’t seem like he has much use for her.”

  “Hmm. I wonder if that means she was a former flavor of the month that he got bored with or one of the ones who turned him down and paid the price for it.” I took another drink of champagne and thought for a second. “You know, if she said no to him around the time she was in the running for Josie’s job, that could have been a contributing factor in her not being chosen.”

  “Yep.”

  I was about to tell him about rattling Hadley’s cage when a text came to me from Shane. I let Pete read it over my shoulder: I don’t know what you said to Hadley, but she just called me to tell me that the person she goes to for drugs is named Candace Monroe.

  “Finally some information we can use.” Pete couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “So did you get in a chick fight with Hadley or what?”

  “Don’t get excited. It was verbal only. I told her she was a sucky friend if she couldn’t see that something was off about Josie’s OD.” I pulled up a photo of Candace Monroe from Leonidas’s website and showed it to Pete. “This is Candace Monroe.”

  “She doesn’t look like a drug dealer. Which is probably a reason why she’s still in business.”

  Facing the wall for privacy, I pulled my skirt up and stashed my phone away again. “Well, what do you say we find her?”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  I downed the rest of my champagne and set the glass back on Pete’s tray, then reached up and straightened his bow tie. “I have to say, this waiter getup is a total downgrade from your fancy tux.”

  He grinned. “I definitely feel less pretty.”

  An icy Southern voice behind us said, “I am not paying you to canoodle with the help, young lady.”

  We turned to find Ophelia Leonidas herself giving us a steely glare.

  “Oh, Mrs. Leonidas, it’s so nice to meet you,” I said.

  “I wish I could say the same,” she replied, sniffing as disdain dripped from every pore in her body.

  “Cham
pagne, ma’am?” Pete asked, bowing and offering her the tray.

  She sniffed again, then took a glass and waved him away. “Back to the kitchen with you, young man.”

  Pete rolled his eyes at me behind her back and headed down the hall.

  I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.

  She lowered her voice, trying to intimidate me. “I don’t tolerate laziness in my organization.”

  I was dying to say, “But evidently you tolerate drug use, sexual harassment, and murder,” but I didn’t.

  Mrs. Leonidas ran her finger delicately under her nose, sniffing a third time, then continued, “If I find you slacking off again, consider yourself fired.”

  She downed her champagne in one gulp and shoved the flute into my hand. As she did so, she raked one particularly long pinky nail across my fingers. She turned on her heel and stormed away, probably on to bother some other poor employee. Something struck me about her, and when I stopped to think for a moment and put the clues—the constant sniffing, the extraordinarily long pinky nail—together, I nearly gasped out loud. Ophelia Leonidas used cocaine. So yeah, she probably didn’t think anything of the other employees supplying or taking drugs at work.

  My phone buzzed against my leg. I struggled to get it out, only to find a text from Pete that said, Let’s split up—whoever finds Candace first can grill her.

  Great. It was like he’d never seen a movie before. Everyone knows nothing good ever happens after someone says, “Let’s split up.”

  Chapter 15

  For the next hour I hoofed it around the entire convention center looking for Candace, and all I got was cranky and tired, especially tired of being stopped every few steps to talk to bridezillas and their overbearing moms. Evidently Pete didn’t have better luck finding Candace, because I didn’t hear from him. We weren’t exactly cracking this case wide open today.

  I spotted Rex standing between two of the florists—presumably the two he and Kacey had fought about. He seemed to be playing referee and not particularly enjoying it. I hadn’t spoken to him yet, and now that he was agitated, it was as good a time as any. I waited outside the room he was in for a few minutes, hoping he’d be done with them soon, passing the time by pasting on a smile yet again and making up some more bullcrap about my dress that wasn’t even remotely true to tell to another blushing bride.