Murder Before Marriage

by Raven Snow

  “Yeah, well, Mom and Dad moved into a smaller place after we all left home.” Tina seemed to sense that she should get on with things. It was very late, after all. Rowen was having difficulty stifling her yawns. “And I just moved into a place that’s slightly bigger. They know that, so they volunteered me to, like, house him while he’s here. They’re like that. They just volunteer you for stuff.”

  “You can’t say no?”

  Tina’s eyes widened. She stared at Rowen, like she had just asked her if she had considered trying to fly by flapping her arms real hard. “I can’t say no.”

  “Why not?”

  “I just… You just can’t.”

  Eric returned from the kitchen with two cups of coffee in hand. He handed one cup off to Rowen before sitting down beside her with his own mug in hand. “Sorry,” he muttered, motioning for her to continue as if he hadn’t interrupted.

  “I…” Tina began to talk again but grew distracted. “Can I have a cup?”

  Eric choked on his first sip of coffee. Rowen managed to be a little more collected. “You seem a little on edge. How about you finish telling me what’s going on and then I brew you up something relaxing? Secret family recipe.”

  Tina frowned but nodded. “Well, anyway, they don’t know that I was getting the bigger apartment because of Peony. We were planning on moving in together.”

  “Aww.” Rowen hadn’t meant to interrupt, but she couldn’t help it. She hadn’t known about that either.

  “Yeah, well, they don’t know we’re together or anything. They think I’m getting a bigger apartment because I’m just making more money these days.”

  Rowen knew that Tina and Peony were still keeping their relationship on the down low. Rowen’s aunts and uncle didn’t even know. Not that they would have been anything but happy for the two of them. Rowen wondered how Tina’s family would react, wondered if that’s why they had been so secretive for so long. If that was the case then what was it that bothered them? Was it the fact that Tina was dating a woman or that she was dating a Greensmith? Maybe it was both. “Why not just tell them that Peony is moving in as a friend and roommate?” As far as temporary lies went, that seemed like a pretty good one to Rowen.

  Tina opened her mouth to respond but closed it again. She bit down on her bottom lip. Rowen’s lie was an obvious one Tina hadn’t thought of, it seemed. “Well… That’s not what I said. I said something else, and I can’t change it now.”

  “Okay.” Rowen took a sip of her coffee. “What did you tell them?” she prompted when Tina didn’t offer up that information herself.

  Tina looked up. She had been looking off as if deep in thought, twirling the dark, dyed red of her hair around a finger. “Huh? Oh. I told them that my apartment was flooded.”

  “Flooded?” Rowen repeated, at a loss.

  “I couldn’t think of anything else! They blindsided me, and I didn’t want him to stay. It was the first thing that came to mind!”

  “Okay, so your apartment is flooded.” Rowen made air quotes with the hand that wasn’t holding her coffee. “So, what’s the problem? What can we help you with?”

  “Well…” Tina glanced at Eric. She had been talking to him until Rowen showed up, after all. He likely already knew what it was that she needed. “I was wondering if I could stay here for a while.”

  “Stay here?” Rowen looked from Tina to Eric then back again. She wasn’t sure why, but she really hadn’t expected to hear those words come out of Tina’s mouth in that order. “Why here?” She didn’t mean to be rude, though she realized quickly that the question she’d just asked could easily be construed as such. “I just mean… Why not with Peony?”

  Tina inclined her head. She seethed through her teeth like answering that question would pain her. “I don’t think she wants to stay with your family,” Eric said, being blunt about it.

  “Oh.” Rowen couldn’t blame her there. The Greensmith household was an acquired taste. Rowen had enjoyed her childhood there. The house had been crowded with her Grammy and aunts and cousins. That cramped and noisy life had seemed so normal. It had been normal, at least it had been for her until growing up and moving away. Obviously, she hadn’t stayed away. Lainswich had drawn her back eventually. She had returned to her crowded life then and she had liked it… more or less. It was still a nice house.

  Her family was still full of wonderful people. It was just that you never got a moment of silence or a few hours alone. Everything was so hectic there. Things had calmed down over the years, as her cousins all married or moved out.

  It was like everyone had moved out for the household just for it to fill up again. Rowen’s aunts had gotten married. Lydia and her husband had adopted two children. Rowen’s uncle Norm had moved back in. It was like the Greensmith house itself couldn’t stand not to have feet pounding up and down its stairs and children screaming down its hallways.

  “How long do you want to stay?” Rowen hadn’t planned on having a guest. She didn’t really like the idea of Tina blindsiding her like this. Not that there was a whole lot to do about it. Besides, it wasn’t like they didn’t have the room for it. They had a guest room for occasions such as these. It got used a lot more often than most guest rooms did.

  “I don’t know,” Tina admitted, her face still pink and sheepish. “A week… maybe two?”

  “Two weeks?” Rowen repeated.

  “Maybe three.”

  Rowen looked over at her husband. He shrugged as if to say this didn’t really concern him one way or the other. Rowen doubted he wanted her staying any more than she did. Tina was right. It really wasn’t easy to just say no. “Why is he in town?” Rowen asked, stalling a bit.

  “The woman he works for is in town,” Tina explained. “I thought it might have something to do with your family actually, but… It doesn’t seem like it.”

  “Why did you think it had something to do with my family?” asked Rowen. She couldn’t help it. She could already feel her suspicions forming. As unlikely as it was, it wasn’t impossible. Strange things happened in Lainswich. It wasn’t a place of coincidences.

  “My parents were talking like it had something to do with your family. My brother talks with them a lot more often than he talks with me. And my parents were being super furtive, you know? Like talking in those loud whisper voices people use when they wanna share gossip?”

  Rowen nodded. She thought she had an idea of what Tina was describing. Aunt Lydia was a glutton for gossip. Rowen had heard the recycled line of, ‘Don’t tell anyone, but…’ more times than she could count.

  “They almost told me a few times then decided they shouldn’t say anything at all, since they know we’re friends.”

  Rowen was glad to hear Tina was willing to let the rest of Lainswich think she was friends with the Greensmiths. Granted, it was obvious, but it was still nice to hear. Tina had vocally despised the Greensmiths at first. At least she had until she had found herself mixed up with a serial killer. The Greensmiths had helped her. Heck, Peony had even taken a bullet for her. That’s what had brought the two so close initially. Everyone knew Tina was good friends with Peony, even if they didn’t know they were more than that.

  “So, how do you know that it doesn’t involve us?” asked Rowen.

  “They said as much.” Tina shrugged. “I asked and they stopped telling me that they shouldn’t tell me. Apparently, it’s just some… I dunno. It’s some piece of business that has something to do with his employer’s personal life.”

  “Who does he work for?” Rowen pressed.

  Again, Tina shrugged. “I dunno. Like I said, some woman. I don’t remember her name.”

  “Was her first name Gaby? Gabriella?”

  Tina’s eyebrows shot up. “That sounds right. Why? How do you know?”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Rowen could see that Eric was looking at her. “Because there’s this rich lady named Gaby that’s here because of a matter related to my family.” Rowen gave a long low sigh before
taking another sip of her coffee. It really figured that this would all have something to do with her. Things couldn’t ever happen easily. Everything had to be a tangle of string theory nonsense. “It’s not anything big. It’s just… I’m sure you both heard about my father coming back here. Gaby is the woman he’s getting married to.”

  “Really?” Tina asked, incredulous. “Not a very smart woman then.” She muttered that last part before turning once more to Rowen. “Sorry,” she added quickly. “No offense.”

  “None taken. I thought the same thing. Then again, I hear that my father is great at charming people who don’t first know him by reputation. There must be something he does right.”

  “I wonder why my brother lied,” Tina mused, her words soft again. “He had to have been teasing that it might have something to do with the Greensmiths for my parents to infer as much. But then they changed their minds, so he must have changed his tune. I wonder why he would lie.”

  “Maybe his boss caught him gossiping,” Eric said, offering up his own theory. As a businessman who had once had assistants of his own, he probably had a more useful perspective than anyone else in the room. “Being too nosy in your boss’s personal life really isn’t a desirable trait in an employee. Or maybe she found out he was from Lainswich. Maybe he’s under her microscope a little bit more now, so he has to be careful about what he says.”

  “Could be,” Tina agreed. She no longer looked terribly concerned either way.

  “The guest room is closed off right now, so it might be a little chilly in there.” Rowen took one last sip of her coffee before standing. “Eric, would you mind grabbing an extra blanket and pillow from the linen closet?”

  “Sure.” Eric took a final sip from his own coffee before sitting it on the table in front of him and standing as well.

  “I really appreciate this, guys,” Tina said with a heavy sigh of relief. Her hands were clasped together in front of her. “I’ll really owe the both of you one after this.”

  Rowen shook her head. “It’s fine,” she assured her. “What’s family for?” Tina might as well be family. “Come on. I’ll fix you that tea.”

  ***

  Tina kept right on thanking Rowen profusely. She had more rambling to do, which she did while drinking her tea. Rowen hadn’t been lying about the concoction. It really was an old family recipe. With a mint leaf from the plant on the windowsill and the right intentions while stirring, it helped ease the drinker into a good night’s rest. Tina’s eyelids were fluttering shut before the mug was even empty.

  Rowen led Tina upstairs and saw her to bed. “Thanks again,” Tina managed drowsily, sitting on the edge of the bed and slipping her shoes off as Rowen headed for the door. “I appreciate this a lot. I’ll pay you back.”

  Rowen doubted that last part, but it didn’t matter. “Don’t mention it,” she told her. “Let’s just hope they repair that water damage in your apartment soon, right?”

  Chapter Three

  “I appreciate what you did.” Peony had gone to Rowen’s desk the moment she arrived at the Lainswich Inquirer building. She had snatched the rolling chair from her own desk on the way and ridden it over as it glided across the floor.

  “And what did I do?” asked Rowen, staring blearily at her own computer monitor. She kept sparing the occasional glance in the direction of her coffee mug. A ribbon of steam was twirling up from it. She longed for the caffeine fix, but it wasn’t worth burning her mouth over.

  “You know,” Peony urged. She didn’t elucidate at first, instead inclining her head like she expected Rowen to simply remember on her own. “You gave Tina a place to stay while her brother’s in town.”

  “Oh, right.” Rowen wasn’t sure how that had slipped her mind. She had other things to think about, she supposed. “Yeah, well, it’s not a problem for now, I guess. I kind of wish she’d picked a better lie to tell her parents, but…” Rowen trailed off with a shrug.

  “You haven’t met her parents,” said Peony, quick to defend her girlfriend. “They’re really overbearing. They ask, like, a million questions. It’s super exhausting and super hard to keep up with. Plus, I don’t think they really like me much. I think it’s a Greensmith thing. I bet they’d be mad to know we were moving in together, period. I don’t know what they’d do if they figured out we were girlfriends.”

  “What’s the worst they could do?” Rowen asked, being blunt about it. She didn’t bother to feign concern. She was too tired for that. It had been well past midnight when she had finally crawled into bed. “Be disappointed? You and Tina are both grown. It’s not really any of their business who their daughter is dating.”

  “Don’t be mean. Tina loves her parents. She doesn’t want them to hate me. You would be upset if your mom hated Eric.”

  “I wouldn’t care if my mother hated Eric. That might be a bonus, actually.” That reminded Rowen of something. “How is my mother, by the way?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What time did she get in last night?” When Tiffany was in town she always stayed with her siblings. That meant she would have shown up at the Greensmith household sooner or later. Rowen hadn’t bothered phoning ahead to warn them, though she probably should have.

  “Your mom is in town?” Peony asked the question like it was news to her. The rainbow of bangles on Peony’s arms jangled together as she crossed them over her chest in thought. Her pink lips formed a thin line. “Hmm… If she showed up, she didn’t stop and say hi to me. I didn’t see her at breakfast either. Are you sure she was supposed to get in yesterday?”

  Rowen nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure. I saw her. She showed up at the restaurant when I was meeting with Dad and his fiancé.”

  “Oh. Well, I dunno. That’s weird. I don’t think she was at the house when I left. I mean, Mom and Aunt Lydia were up and about. I figure one of them would have said something if your mom was around.”

  “They would have,” Rowen agreed aloud.

  “Are you sure she didn’t stay with your dad last night?”

  “I don’t see how she could have. I seriously doubt Gaby would approve.”

  “Who?”

  “The fiancé.”

  “Ah.” Peony was silent for a few seconds, after which she shrugged her shoulders. “I dunno.”

  “Great.” Rowen picked her phone up from her desk and looked at it. There were no missed messages, not that she would have expected a call from her mother. Tiffany didn’t believe in phones. How someone couldn’t believe in phones in this day and age was beyond Rowen, but it was what it was. She considered calling her father. She had his number, but she didn’t like using it.

  No, Rowen wouldn’t call Desmond. She considered calling Aunt Lydia next, but if Peony didn’t know anything about where Tiffany was it was doubtful Lydia would. There was no point in worrying her. Rowen took a sip of her coffee and swore when it scalded her lips and tongue. Some sloshed onto her fingers as she fumbled the mug in trying to put it back down.

  “Careful,” said Peony, like that was a useful thing to say now, after Rowen had already hurt herself.

  Rowen tried not to roll her eyes as she pushed off from her desk, rolling backward in her chair. “I’m gonna go make a phone call,” she told Peony. “I’ll be right back.”

  “M’kay.”

  Rowen stood and headed into the small kitchen area. Rose was standing there with a swizzle stick. She smiled sleepily up at Rowen when she saw her. “Good morning.”

  “Morning,” Rowen echoed as she made her phone call.

  “Hello?” Coreen answered the phone on the second ring.

  “Hey, sorry for calling so early.”

  “It’s fine. I was already up. I figured you would give me a call early in the day.”

  “You did?” The words left Rowen’s mouth without much thought. Instinctively, she felt like she should know what Coreen was talking about, but she didn’t.

  “Yeah.” Coreen kept talking, not sounding the least bit offended, like
she hadn’t realized Rowen had forgotten. “And I’ve been thinking about it some more. I think you’re right. It might do me good to get out some, meet new people. If Rose doesn’t have any use for me, I was actually considering maybe getting a part time job somewhere. There’s a supermarket hiring. I remember seeing a sign last time I was there. I hate retail, but it’s lonely here. I’ve been lonely for a big chunk of my life, I think. It might do me some good to get out there and meet some people. Especially if I’m going to be staying in Lainswich much longer.”

  The memories came rushing back to Rowen then. She had asked Coreen if she would like to work with her at the newspaper. “Oh! Right. I, uh— I actually haven’t asked Rose yet.”

  Rose looked up from preparing her coffee. One of her sparse, dark eyebrows was raised.

  Rowen shook her head at her cousin. “Later,” she mouthed. Into the phone she continued, “I’m going to do that soon. This is something else.”

  “You totally forgot, didn’t you?”

  “I didn’t forget!” Rowen lied. “There’s just something else that’s more important.”

  “Yeah? What’s that?” Coreen didn’t actually sound angry. She sounded more amused than anything.

  “Have you heard from our dad today?”

  “Huh? No. Why?”

  “I’m trying to track down my mother. It seems she didn’t go home last night. That is, she didn’t check in at my aunt’s house. I was wondering if she ever got headed that way.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t know. I’m not staying with Desmond, and I don’t keep close tabs on his personal life.”

  “I know. I was just thinking… if you saw him today…”

  “You don’t want to deal with talking to him.” It was a statement. “You want me to go ask him for you.”

  Rowen hadn’t thought about it like that, but Coreen was right. This wasn’t something she wanted to handle directly. It hardly seemed fair. “Sorry, you’re right. I’ll call him myself.”

  “I mean, I can do it if you really don’t want to.” Coreen’s tone had softened after Rowen had admitted to how she really felt.