Murder Before Marriage

by Raven Snow

  “We were chatting and watching the stars. It just sort of happened.”

  “You were drinking,” Rowen added, wrinkling her nose. “And smoking.” She could smell both alcohol and pot on him. No wonder he had fallen asleep. The two had had themselves a little party out there under the stars.

  “A little bit. We were just catching up. It was almost like old times, like we were teens again.” Desmond was smiling, but that smile fell as soon as he noticed the look Gaby was giving him. “I’m sorry I didn’t call. I really am… We talked about you a lot, Babe! She approves of us getting married. She says we sound like a good match. She knows this stuff, too. She’s got psychic gifts, like I told you. She can tell we’re meant to be.”

  “Mmm-hmm,” Gaby hummed. Her arms were still crossed. “Well the next time the two of you are catching up, maybe you can ask her to sign the parts of those divorce papers that she missed.”

  “She didn’t sign everything?”

  “Why else would I—” Gaby stopped talking. She raised a hand in front of Desmond’s face. She was done talking, it seemed. “I’m going back upstairs. Coreen, Rowen, it was nice to see you.” She spun on her heel and headed back into the hotel. A little bell tinkled before the door slammed shut behind her. Good, Rowen thought. Maybe this would change Gaby’s mind. Maybe now she would think better of marrying a man like Desmond.

  Probably not, though. People who weren’t her family seldom listened to Rowen. Heck, even her own family failed to listen to Rowen regularly.

  Chapter Five

  “Just sign the papers,” Rowen urged her mother. She had managed to get her on the landline at the Greensmith family household.

  “I did, Dear,” Tiffany replied, not for the first time. Her tone was exasperated, like Rowen was the one who wasn’t paying attention.

  “No.” Rowen took a deep breath and made a conscious attempt to keep her temper from flaring up and coloring her words. “You didn’t sign all the papers. Gaby said so. Apparently, there were a few places you missed.”

  Tiffany sighed long and loud. “Of course.” She didn’t sound surprised. “This is why I hate all that red tape nonsense this government of ours makes us do. It’s so silly to impose order onto nature. What’s wrong with just letting things be? Marriage is… It’s such a silly construct. Like monogamy.”

  Rowen rather liked marriage. She also liked monogamy just fine. She didn’t fault someone for disliking either, but she desperately hoped that wasn’t the case with her mother and father. With any luck that ship had sailed. “I think Gaby wants to be Desmond’s new wife, his only wife.” She stressed that statement, just in case her mother had somehow forgotten or overlooked that fact.

  “I know,” Tiffany snapped, like she was offended Rowen thought so little of her common sense. “That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.”

  “Oh, believe me. I know that. If I could stop Gaby from marrying him, I would.”

  “He’s not a man who can or should be tied down. It’s a mistake to try. He’s like me. He needs to be free. He needs to wander. That woman’s idea of travel is booking herself in at a fancy hotel. They’re incompatible.”

  Rowen agreed, but she didn’t want to say so. She didn’t like the tone her mother had taken. There was a wistful quality to it, like she wanted to be the one marrying him all over again. For all those negative words she had to say about marriage, she sounded a lot like someone who missed it. “That’s not for you to decide. Just sign the papers like they want. Be done with it.”

  “I never said I wouldn’t.”

  “Good.” Rowen hesitated. She was torn between hanging up and asking the question that was gnawing at the back of her mind like a hungry rat. “You and he… The two of you didn’t do anything last night, did you?”

  “Rowen!” There was scandal in Tiffany’s voice. For all her free love ideology, even she sounded offended by Rowen’s insinuation. “Of course we didn’t do anything. We sat and talked. It was nice. We had a lot to talk about. There’s a lot of history between the two of us, you know?”

  “Not really. I’d never even met my father until recently… Remember?” Rowen couldn’t help but add that last part, sneering slightly as she did so. It was ludicrous that Tiffany could speak so highly of the man. She had enough problems with her own mother not having been there. Listening to the woman wax lyrical about a man that had done even less than she had as a parent was nearly more than she could stand.

  “He was a good man,” said Tiffany, not deterred from wandering memory lane with her head stuck in the clouds. “He wasn’t quite father material, but some people just aren’t.”

  Desmond had also defended his being a lousy father by stating he simply wasn’t “father material.” Rowen hadn’t seen how that was an excuse then, and she didn’t see why it should be one now. “Just sign the papers.” Rowen hung up before he mother could say anything else. There wasn’t anything more to discuss. Rowen didn’t care about her father’s redeeming qualities. If anything, she just wanted him out of Lainswich and back on the road where he belonged. If Gaby had any common sense, she would leave him. Rowen doubted she would, but she wasn’t going to wait around until she changed her mind. No, Rowen had decided to take care of herself first and foremost. The sooner the papers were signed, the sooner Desmond left town. The sooner Desmond left town, the better.

  ***

  The front door of the Lainswich Inquirer building opened, and Rowen looked up from her desk. She had been gazing down at her phone even after hanging up. Her eyes had unfocused and her fingers were still hovering over the screen’s surface. There was a lot on her mind just then.

  Rowen had expected one of her cousins when she looked up. More accurately, she had expected several of them, expected a whole gaggle of them to wander through the door chatting and laughing. They had left a little less than an hour ago for a late lunch. Rowen had insisted they go without her. She wanted them to get to know Coreen, but someone had to stay at the newspaper to hold down the fort. Rowen had readily agreed to be that someone on the condition that they bring her back some fish tacos. Her stomach growled reflexively when that front door opened, but it wasn’t her cousins or half-sister that walked in.

  Instead, a young man with dark hair walked in. He was wearing black trousers and a vest. The sleeves of his button up shirt were rolled up to just below his elbows. He had a slight frame and there was a cocky, almost bored look around his eyes, like he’d seen all there was to see in this world and was better than all of it. Not that he looked old enough to have seen much more than Rowen had. If she had to guess, she’d say he was at least a few years younger than she was.

  “Hello,” Rowen said, slowly. “Can I help you?” It wasn’t often that someone wandered into their place of business like this.

  “Someone said Greensmiths worked here,” said the young man. It was a statement, not a question.

  “We do,” Rowen replied, not rising from her desk.

  “I’m Kyle.” The young man walked to the desk and offered Rowen his hand. “I’m Tina’s brother.”

  Rowen took Kyle’s hand with some reluctance. She didn’t like the way it squeezed a little too tight around her own, an attempt at a firm handshake that was just plain painful instead. “Well, your sister works at the library… as I’m sure you know.”

  Kyle laughed even though Rowen hadn’t been making a joke. “Yeah, I know where she works.”

  “Then is everything all right?” Rowen asked, striving for some outward semblance of politeness. She might as well make an effort. She got the distinct impression that he wasn’t here for a friendly visit. He wasn’t here to make friends or deliver bad news. No, there was a different sort of motive there.

  “Everything’s fine.” Kyle chuckled. “At least I think it is. You’d probably know better than I would.”

  “I would?”

  “My sister is staying with you, right?”

  So, this was Tina’s brother. Rowen looked the man up and down ap
praisingly. She could see the resemblance. They had similar roundish faces and a similar bone structure. “She is.”

  “While her apartment is flooded, right? They’re repairing water damage.” Kyle’s mouth was quirked into a smile. He asked his question like he knew the answer already.

  “That’s what she said, yeah.” Rowen wasn’t going to lie for Tina. Technically, that had been what she had said. It had been one of the things she said anyway.

  “I think I drove by her apartment building today. I didn’t see any water damage.”

  “Well, you wouldn’t, would you? Not if you were just driving by.” Rowen wasn’t sure what Kyle was getting at. So what if his sister was lying to him because she didn’t want him rooming with her? That was her right. Meeting him now, Rowen thought she could see why Tina was so quick to lie in the first place.

  “What happened exactly? Maybe I can help repair the damage.”

  “I’m sure the landlord is on top of it. It’s their job.” Rowen leaned back in her chair. She regarded Kyle for a moment, waiting for him to say something else. “You know, you’re probably better off talking this over with her. I don’t know much about her living situation aside from, you know, the fact that she’s staying in my guest room at the moment.”

  “She’s avoiding me.” Kyle went to Peony’s empty desk and grabbed her desk chair. He slid it in front of Rowen’s desk and took a seat. “I want to talk to her, but…” He trailed off and shrugged. “She’s never liked me much. She’s always been jealous.”

  “Okay.” Rowen was seriously considering ordering him to leave. He was making himself at home, and she didn’t like it.

  “I wanna talk to her. I figure you’re the next best thing.”

  “I don’t know how you figure that.”

  That smirk tugged at Kyle’s mouth again. He lowered his voice and leaned forward, conspiratorial. “The two of you are seeing each other, right? Romantically, I mean.”

  Rowen snorted. She had leaned forward to close some of the distance between them, to hear what he was whispering. She leaned back again. “I’m married.”

  “Hey, no judgment here. Marriage vows aren’t what they used to be.”

  “I think they’re still what they used to be.” Rowen took another look at Kyle, a harder look. “What? Did you come here hoping to blackmail me?” The brief dismay that flickered across his face, rearranging his features temporarily, confirmed Rowen’s suspicions. “You were. You were hoping you could blackmail me.” A bark of laughter came from Rowen before she could compose herself. Wasn’t this a nice first impression for someone to make? “You go ahead and tell the world your sister and I are an item. I can promise you it’ll be news to literally everyone. Myself included. I didn’t know I had those kinds of feelings for someone other than my husband… who works next door. Should I get him? I’m sure he’d be interested to know I’m dating someone else on the down low.”

  The smile was finally gone from Kyle’s face. Rowen took a small amount of satisfaction from that. “She’s dating someone though, right?” he asked, both sounding and looking annoyed that his first guess had been wrong. “And it’s a woman, right? It has to be. I know she likes women. I caught her with one when we were back in high school.”

  “If Tina hasn’t kept you up to speed on her love life then she doesn’t want you to know. It’s none of your business. And why does it matter if it’s a woman or not? Is it because your parents don’t know?” Rowen kicked out under her desk, hitting the rolling chair with her heel. “Get out of here. What are you even trying to do? Extort money from someone? Go beg your parents, not me.”

  Kyle opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. His face turned red instead. “Tell Tina to talk to me.” He stood and headed for the door. He stopped halfway there. “Seriously, okay? Tell her we need to talk.”

  “Leave her a voicemail and tell her yourself.” Rowen waved for him to go on. “If she wants to talk to you, she’ll call you back. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though. Not if this is how you conduct yourself around her.”

  “Just tell her.” Kyle stormed out the door before Rowen could get the final word in. It banged shut behind him.

  Rowen waited until she saw a car pulling away from the building before picking up her phone. She didn’t want him knowing she was doing what he asked, but it seemed important to let Tina know what had just happened.

  “Hey, what’s up?” Tina answered after a few rings, her voice a whisper. She was probably still on the clock at the library.

  “So, I think I just met your brother.”

  Silence on the other end of the line. After a few seconds came an exhale. “What did he say?” asked Tina, speaking in a voice louder than a whisper this time. Rowen could hear a door closing. She was probably stepping outside, out to where she could talk with Rowen more freely.

  “He tried to threaten me, if you can believe it.”

  “He threatened you?” Tina repeated those words with a touch of disbelief. At least it didn’t sound like threats were the norm for her brother.

  “He doesn’t think there’s water damage to your apartment and… and he seems to think we’re dating. Or that I’m having an affair with you. I dunno. Whatever you call that. He thinks you’re my mistress.”

  Tina groaned loudly. She had to be outside. Rowen could hear birds in the background. “I’m sorry, Rowen. I don’t… Did he really say that?”

  “That we were an item? Yeah. I think he was going to try and blackmail me. Maybe I should have let him finish to see what his end goal was, but he just rubbed me the wrong way. I figured it had to do with money. Is he hard up for cash or something?”

  “I wouldn’t know. We’re not really close anymore. I mean, we were never all that close. These days, though?” There were a few seconds more of silence. “You’re lucky, Rowen. You and your family are all so nice. You all love each other so much. Not all families are like that.”

  “Trust me. I know. I’m sorry.”

  “No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “It’s my fault he went to you.”

  “It’s really no trouble,” Rowen assured her, because it wasn’t. “I kicked him right out. Plus, Eric is next door. I threatened to have him come over so your brother could relay to him what he thought was going on between us. He left on his own right after that. Looked pretty embarrassed too.”

  “Still.” It sounded like this all still troubled Tina. “I’ll talk to him, see what’s going on.”

  “All right.” Rowen wasn’t going to argue with her. It wasn’t like this was any of her business… Beyond the fact that Kyle was threatening her and Tina was staying in her house until further notice. Okay, maybe it was sort of her business. Rowen still wasn’t going to keep Tina from attempting to handle it on her own. “You be careful. Call me if you need me. Or Peony. I hope you’ve told her about all of this. I’m sure she’d want to know—and help.”

  “I told her about it.” Another few seconds of silence followed like Tina was thinking about adding something more. In the end she must have decided against it. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  “All right. See you then.” Rowen hung up the phone. She looked at it for a little while after she had, staring down at the desk where it sat. There was something about it, something that made her stomach roil. Was this where that bad gut feeling of hers was coming from? Rowen hoped not. More than anything, she wished she was better at heading off these gut feelings of hers before they happened. She wasn’t someone who had that gift… Though, she did know someone who was.

  Chapter Six

  “I need to leave soon.” It wasn’t like Tiffany to rush her daughter. Normally, she was eager to spend time with her, eager to act like they had always been the sort of mother and daughter that hung out together on the regular. That particular day, she was rushed. Her hands moved through her Tarot cards idly, shuffling them. She wasn’t relaxed as she ty
pically was during a reading. She sat up straight in her chair, in the back of Odds & Ends, her aunts’ and uncle’s New Age shop downtown. Tiffany did readings while she was in Lainswich, and she was good at it. It was, perhaps, her only marketable skill.

  “Well, just do a small reading then. Do, like, a three-card spread or something. It’s important.” Rowen would do a reading herself. She could read the cards, though not nearly as well as her mother could.

  Tiffany frowned. “Is something wrong?” she asked, serious.

  “No,” Rowen said, because it was the truth. As far as she knew, there wasn’t anything wrong yet. It was more the promise of something going wrong. It was something foul on the air.

  “Is this one of your feelings?” Tiffany might not know her daughter as well as her own sisters did, but she still knew some things. “Do you think something bad is about to happen?”

  Rowen shook her head. “No… Well, yes. Sort of. I don’t think it’s going to be anything big. It’s just important.” The two weren’t mutually exclusive. Rowen hoped her mother didn’t pry. “It, you know, might involve family. I just want to nip it in the bud if it is a problem.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Rowen could think of little she wanted to do less. She hated it when her mother acted like they had a close relationship, like she was someone Rowen regularly confided in. “No, that’s all right. Thanks. I just… If you can give me a quick reading, I’d appreciate it.”

  “All right,” Tiffany said with no small amount of reluctance. She started shuffling her cards. She cut it into three parts once then began to shuffle it again. Finally, she laid out three cards. Major Arcana, all of them. It was like the deck was shouting. The Devil, The Lovers, and The Tower. “Hmm.” Tiffany examined the cards thoughtfully. She was looking for some way to present several options, to put a positive spin on things. “What is it this reading is about?”