Death Among the Doilies

by Mollie Cox Bryan

  * * *

  Later, everyone gathered in the dining room for a toast from Jane, including Adrian, who had not ventured far from Cora most of the evening. Cora had to concentrate to focus on her guests, but caught his eye from time to time.

  Jennifer, the woman with the yarn shop, grabbed her hand. “I just want to say how wonderful this weekend has been.”

  “I’m so glad your daughters sent you here,” Cora told her. “It’s been wonderful to get to know you.”

  Was Cora imagining Jennifer’s restful glow? Could one weekend of crafting and relaxing be enough to get her started on a healing path, away from the darkness of grief?

  She continued to hold Jennifer’s hand as Jane cleared her throat.

  “To Cora,” Jane said, “A dreamer, a doer, a good friend. Thank you for providing this space for us.”

  “Hear, hear!” people chanted around the room.

  Cora took in the crowd—the guests lifting their glasses to her, Ruby, Cashel, Jude, her uncle and new aunt—and she felt an onslaught of warmth. She wanted to remember this moment forever.

  Craft Projects

  Making Your Own Herbal Beeswax Candles

  This is the simple version of candle making that Ruby teaches in her cottage.

  Supply List

  • Rolled beeswax sheet

  • Lengths of cotton wick

  • Herbs

  • Sharp craft knife

  Directions

  • To roll your own beeswax candles, start by warming the beeswax sheets until pliable. A blow-dryer works great for this purpose.

  • Smooth side up, sprinkle the herbs all over the inside of the sheet.

  • Tightly roll the sheet around a length of wick that has been cut slightly longer than the length of your candle. (You can cut the beeswax sheet to make smaller candles, or leave the sheet whole for taller candles.)

  • If you prefer a variation, cut a diagonal from the top left-hand corner of the sheet to about halfway down the center of the right-hand side and tightly roll up the beeswax, so the candle becomes tiered as it takes shape. Experiment with different angles of the diagonal, cut to create a variety of tiered beeswax candles.

  • Gently press the end of the sheet into the candle to seal it.

  Making Easy Soap Balls

  Making soap balls is great way to use up some of those leftover soap bits that we all seem to have lying around. You can have ajar where you collect the bits of soap instead of throwing them away. When you get ajar full, try making soap balls. You can get creative with this, if you want. Consider adding in flower petals or herbs or try layering colors.

  • Collect up all of your soap scraps and divide them up into similar or complementary colors. You can mix your colors and make soaps that look like river rocks or speckled eggs.

  • Using a cheese grater, shred up your soap bits into containers. If the soap has been around awhile, you may want to add a very small amount of water, essential oil, or carrier oil to moisten the mix slightly.

  • Grab a small handful of the soap shreds, squeezing and rolling them into a small ball. Be sure to press until the soap ball is really hard and no longer squishy. Add another layer and continue squeezing and rolling. Keep going until the soap is the size you want it.

  • If you want to cut the ball in half, you will need to use a large smooth knife or, better yet, a pastry scraper with its thin blade. Gently push the blade through the ball. You may need to do a little damage control around the edges, smoothing them back down.

  • Let the balls sit for a week or two so the added moisture can evaporate and the balls can harden up.

  Simple DIY Tea Cup Bird Feeder

  This is one of the simplest bird feeders you can make from tea cups. If you don’t have extra tea cups on hand, there’s always the Goodwill and other secondhand shops. Using old tea cups to feed the birds? What could be better?

  Supply List

  • A tea cup and saucer

  • Wild bird seed

  • Super adhesive glue

  • A hanger or string

  Directions

  • Make sure your cup and saucer are clean and dry.

  • Squeeze some of the glue onto the edge of your saucer. Tip your tea cup onto its side and place on top of the glue. You will need to let it set for about twenty-four hours before you hang it outside.

  • Next all you have to do is pour in your birdseed and hang up your feeder.

  Cora’s Upcycled Burlap Pumpkins

  This is a fun craft that you can keep as simple as you want or you can decorate it to the hilt. It’s totally up to you. It’s also a great way to use those leftover plastic grocery bags.

  Supply List

  • Burlap bags or yard burlap

  • Twine

  • Hot-glue gun

  • Grocery bags

  • Stones or beans

  • Optional embellishments (ribbon, leaves, berries, etc.)

  Directions

  • If you don’t have a burlap bag, and just have the burlap, first square up your yard of burlap (it will probably be wider that thirty-six inches). Find the center of the piece of burlap. Round the corners, creating a thirty-six-inch diameter circle.

  • Cut four lengths of twine at forty-eight inches each. Lay them out symmetrically on the back side of the burlap.

  • From a scrap, cut out a small two-inch circle or square of burlap. Where the twine joins in the center, hot glue the small piece to secure all the lengths of twine. *Make sure you have something underneath the burlap because the glue will go right through to the surface beneath!! This will be the bottom of your pumpkin.

  • In order to provide weight and keep your pumpkin upright, you want to fill a ziplock bag with rocks or pinto beans.

  Stuffing Assembly

  • Use the natural-color bags for the outer bag so if you get a glimpse of the bag through the burlap it won’t be white. (It’s also a good idea to turn the bag inside out, so the store logo won’t show). Place your bag of rocks or beans in first and then just stuff it full of the plastic bags. Keep stuffing until it’s stuffed pretty tight. Tie the bags at the top.

  • If you don’t have a burlap bag, now flip your burlap circle so the twine is on the underside.

  • Place filled bag on top of your burlap circle. Pull up on all sides, gathering up all the ends until the burlap circle is completely cinched up. Then, from underneath, keeping the twine lined up the way you laid it out, bring each piece of twine up on opposite sides and tie off tightly, creating the ribs of the pumpkin. Take another length of twine and tie around tightly.

  • If you have a burlap bag, just stuff your stuffing inside.

  • After tying off, you will have several long pieces of twine at the top. Scrunch the burlap up and wrap the twine around to make the stem! (Hot glue the twine as you wrap to make the stem.)

  • Now, just add any embellishments that you might have on hand! Embellishments could be ribbons, berries, leaves—well, whatever you want to try.

  Making Your Own Decorative Broom

  Here’s a simple version of broom making that you can get as creative as you want with—but these fun brooms are just for decoration.

  Supply List

  For three broomsticks:

  • Wooden dowel (one-inch diameter, thirty-six inches long)

  • Tree branch (approximately thirty-six inches long)

  • Bamboo branch (approximately thirty-six inches long)

  • Acrylic paints (any color you like)

  • Paintbrush

  • Fine-grit sandpaper

  • Willow twigs, bamboo, and decorative grass (for broom brushes)

  • Three pieces of black interfacing fabric: two-by-ten-inch strips.

  • Raffia and twine

  • Hot-glue gun and hot-melt adhesive

  Directions

  • Paint the wooden dowel with acrylic paint; let dry. Sand with fine-grit sandpaper for a worn look.

  �
�� Choose one of the broom brush materials (willow twigs, bamboo, decorative grasses) to go with each broom handle. For each broom, lay the brush material across one length of interfacing fabric so that about two inches of brush material extends beyond the fabric. Hot glue into place; let dry.

  • Wrap the interfacing end of the brush around the bottom of the broom handle (with the interfacing facing in), gluing into place as you wrap. Let dry.

  • Wrap raffia or twine several times around the top of each broom brush and glue into place.

  • You can get even more creative with these brooms by adding in flowers and herbs.

  Cora’s Peanut Butter Protein Balls

  Ingredients

  • 1½ cups rolled oats

  • ½ cup vanilla whey protein powder (about 2 scoops)

  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon

  • 1 tablespoon chia seeds

  • ½ cup smooth natural peanut butter (or any nut butter)1

  • 3 tablespoon natural honey

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • ⅓ cup raisins, chocolate chips, Craisins, or preferred add-in

  • 2–4 tablespoons liquid (almond milk, milk, water, etc.)

  Directions

  • Add oats, protein powder, cinnamon, and chia seeds to a large bowl.

  • Add in peanut butter, honey, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine.

  • Add in raisins (or preferred add-in). Mixture should be slightly sticky but still crumbly.

  • Slowly add in liquid one tablespoon at a time, and using hands (get dirty!), combine until it comes together in a sticky ball that holds together. If mixture is too dry, add in more liquid but not so much that it won’t hold shape.

  • Place in a container to set in the fridge for at least thirty minutes.

  • Store in fridge until ready to eat.

  Notes

  If you enjoyed Death Among the Doilies

  be sure not to miss Mollie Cox Bryan’s

  Cumberland Creek Mystery series, including

  SCRAPBOOK OF THE DEAD

  Halloween means spooky scrapbooks for the

  Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop, but what’s

  been happening around town is truly frightening.

  First a dead woman is found in the freezer at Pamela’s

  Pie Palace, and the next day a second woman is found

  murdered by the river. Reporter Annie Chamovitz

  learns the victims were sisters and is certain their

  deaths are linked. Most bizarre of all, both women

  were found clutching scrapbook pages.

  As their Saturday night crop quickly becomes an

  opportunity to puzzle out the murders, the ladies

  begin to wonder if Pamela is hiding more than her

  secret recipes for delicious pies—or if the crimes are

  related to the startling discovery that there are gangs

  in Cumberland Creek. As All Hallows Eve approaches,

  the crafty croppers must cut and paste the clues to

  unmask a deadly killer.

  Keep reading for a special excerpt.

  A Kensington mass-market paperback and e-book

  on sale now!

  Chapter 1

  She hadn’t shown up for work a few days in a row. Had she been in the sub-zero room that whole time, slowly freezing to death?

  “With these immigrants, you just never know,” Pamela said. “They are hard workers, but sometimes things go wrong.” She wrung her hands, which were white with tension.

  “What do you mean by that?” The sheriff placed his hands on his hips, as camera flashes went off. Crime scene technicians buzzed around the room.

  Annie stood with her arm wrapped around Randy, who was trembling—but her recorder pointed toward the sheriff and Pamela, owner of Pamela’s Pie Palace, where the body of a young woman had just been found.

  “I mean sometimes they just take off, disappear. Who knows where they go or why? Just last week, one of them disappeared, never showed up for work, and I couldn’t reach her,” Pamela said, her voice quivering.

  Randy had discovered the frozen body early this morning. He’d called the police, then Pamela, then Annie. After that, he began to fall apart. When Annie first walked in, she had barely recognized him because he was so pale.

  “Maybe they go back home? Maybe they find another job?” Pamela flung her arms out.

  Annie wished she could make an educated guess—but she didn’t know many of the local foreign population. Foreign to Cumberland Creek, anyway. In fact, she was surprised to hear there even was an immigrant population in the small town.

  “She was legal, right?” the sheriff asked, leaning in toward Pamela, but Annie heard every word. A big man, Sheriff Ted Bixby sported a twisty mustache that looked like it belonged on a Spanish conquistador, not a sheriff from a small county in Virginia.

  “Absolutely,” Pamela replied, her jaw stiff.

  Nobody should look this good at five AM, not even Pamela, Queen of Pie, wife of the wealthy Evan Kraft. She always looked like she’d stepped right out of the pages of a 1950s pinup calendar. Curvy did not begin to describe her figure. And she was not afraid to show it off.

  “I need to see the victim’s papers,” Sheriff Bixby said more to his deputy than to Pamela. “In fact, I need to see all of them. All the papers for every damn one of them.”

  Annie didn’t like his tone when he said the word “them.” But she’d gotten used to the “white men of a certain age” attitude about some things—like foreigners. In this part of Virginia, they seemed to be ignored, treated with suspicion, or made fun of. She had bitten her tongue so many times she counted herself lucky that it didn’t have a huge gash.

  The sheriff faced Annie and Randy, who’d already answered a barrage of questions. “Get some rest, son.” Bixby looked at him with warmth and sympathy. He was a man who knew that discovering the frozen body of a coworker in a freezer was a jolt to the system. A man with deep family roots in that part of Virginia, he had seemingly been sheriff forever.

  Annie knew that Detective Adam Bryant of Cumberland Creek’s police force did not care for the man. She remembered a conversation she and Bryant had had about Sheriff Bixby during one of the other cases she had covered as a freelance reporter. But this most recent crime had taken place outside of Bryant’s jurisdiction, so he hadn’t been called in. She thanked the universe for that. On this, her last story, she didn’t want to deal with his attitude.

  “Coming through,” yelled someone from inside the freezer.

  The body of the small, dark-haired woman came through the doorway on a gurney. One thin line of red marred her neck where her throat had been neatly slit, and a big gash glistened over the artery where she had probably bled out. A craft knife was still lodged there. Pink and white polka-dotted tape covered her mouth, left in place for the autopsy.

  So neatly done. Where was all the blood?

  She had taken a good look at the scene earlier, but the light shone brighter outside the metallic, dimly lit walk-in freezer and she could see the young woman in detail. “How old did you say she was?” Annie asked Pamela.

  “Her papers say she’s twenty-three,” Pamela replied with a tone leading Annie to believe that Pamela didn’t believe it. The young Mexican woman looked liked she was sixteen, at most.

  Why would Pamela hire her if she were suspicious about her age? Annie felt the ping of intuition pulling at her. Something about this was off. Way off. She needed to talk with Randy after he calmed down, then Pamela and the rest of the restaurant staff. It might be an even bigger story than a murder at the local, much beloved, Pamela’s Pie Palace.

  An older, dark haired woman sobbed and a young, wet-eyed man slipped his arms around her.

  Friends? Annie made a mental note to speak with them.

  “Shhh, Irina,” the man said.

  Irina, what a beautiful name, Annie thought amidst the chaos.

  One of the technicians hel
d a baggie with some colored paper and a photo inside.

  “What’s that?” Annie asked.

  The young woman smiled politely. “Evidence.” She held it up higher.

  “Really? A scrapbook page?” Randy flung his hands up in the air. “I’m going back to the B and B. I need a drink and bed.” Never mind that it was only five AM.

  Since moving back to Cumberland Creek, he had taken a room at the new bed and breakfast in town until he found a house to purchase.

  A loud commotion erupted from around the corner.

  “Randy!”

  Paige and Earl, Randy’s parents, rushed in.

  “Oh thank God you’re okay. Your daddy heard about an incident on the scanner. We were so worried.”

  “What happened?” Earl asked.

  Randy opened his mouth, but no words came out. His face grew even paler.

  “Listen, Paige, why don’t you take Randy home? I don’t think he should be driving,” Annie said.

  “That’s right,” the sheriff chimed in. “At least someone around here has a good head on their shoulders.” He gave Annie an approving glance.

  “Sheriff.” Earl nodded, the appropriate manly greeting in the region. Not “hello.” Not “hi there.” Just a name and a nod. “My boy in trouble?”

  “Oh no, no,” Sheriff Bixby said. “I’ll let him do the explaining on the way home.” He started to walk away.

  “Now, Sheriff,” Pamela called to him. “I can’t let you leave without a couple pies. You said we’ll have to close today and I have all this pie that needs to go. Please grab one or two.”