by Annie Irvin
“Wow, how did she answer that?”
“Heatedly and loudly. She insisted she didn’t know anything about a missing apron or a missing button and then she slammed the door in my face.”
“Are you thinking the lady doth protest too much?”
“Me thinks she doth.”
Lonnie started pacing the living room floor, keeping her eyes riveted on the butternut-colored apron. “Where in the basement did you find it?”
“Over in a corner, stuck in a Red Wing crock.”
Lonnie’s stomach growled.
“Let’s eat,” she said, marching into the kitchen.
Rummaging in the fridge for deli meat, Lonnie exclaimed, “Hey, you have potato salad.”
“I asked her if Mickey broke up with her,” Harper said.
Lonnie removed the lid from the plastic container and sniffed at the contents. “I think it’s still good, too.”
“It’s all good,” Harper replied, retrieving a loaf of multigrain bread from the cupboard. Harper poured some iced tea into a couple of glasses. “What do you think I should do?”
Lonnie didn’t answer. Instead, she set meat, cheese, pickles, bean salad, hardboiled eggs, and mustard on the counter next to the bread and potato salad while Harper opened a bag of potato chips.
For several minutes, the women were too busy building sandwiches and scooping salads onto their plates to bother with conversation. Carrying their food and glasses of iced tea to the table, they settled down in their chairs before Lonnie finally answered Harper’s question.
“If Summer killed once she can kill twice. Besides, how would you handle that? Knock on her door again and say ‘guess what? I’ve got you with blood on your apron.’ She’d probably do more than slam the door in your face!”
“You have a point,” Harper conceded.
“If you go to the cops, they’re going to ask you why you tampered with evidence. Not only tampered with it, as is the case with the apron, but in the case of the button you actually hid evidence.”
Harper nodded her head. “Damned if I didn’t,” she agreed, thinking about the letters she found at Wilcox and Wilson and how she’d squirreled them away. Not to mention the prying she’d done in Grace’s desk, removing the picture of Mickey and Summer. After munching for a minute and taking a sip of tea, she continued, “So there’s only one thing for me to do.”
“Which would be what?”
Harper looked directly at Lonnie. “I need to get a confession out of Summer. Once I have it, well, it won’t matter so much about why I removed the apron—without really thinking, mind you, since I was in shock—and the cops will just be glad I actually found the button which is more than they got done anyway.”
“And how in God’s name are you planning on wrangling a confession out of Summer?”
“I’m thinking we can use Mom’s tea party to do it.”
“And how is that?”
“I still have to work out the details to get Summer to confess. Don’t worry, it’ll come to me. Why don’t you meet me out at the Inn after you get off work? I have to go back and get the rest of the stuff for the shop. We’ll iron out the details on exactly how we’ll pull one over on Summer and trap her. Okay?”
“What’s with this ‘we’ stuff? You got a mouse in your pocket?”
That evening, Harper, Lonnie and Ezra lugged the last of the collectibles up from Olivia’s basement, scooting the boxes into the back of the Ford. After dismissing Ezra to find more relaxing things to do before supper, Harper quietly led Lonnie back into the basement.
“There,” she pointed to the Red Wing crock sitting in the corner where the apron had been hidden. Harper worried Ezra might want to carry the crock up for her or wonder why she didn’t want it but she had kept him busy enough with the things she did want. She would definitely get the crock later, she promised herself.
“So, what’s the plan?” Lonnie asked, squinting at the crock as though it might hold the answer.
“At the tea, when we’re all sitting around the table, you and I can drop a few casual remarks about cleaning out the basement.”
“What are we going to say?”
“Something like ‘tomorrow we’re going to really clean out the basement’ or whatever.”
“Yeah, you could say something like ‘Mom is letting me have all the stuff down there and we’re going to haul it all out tomorrow.’ How’s that?”
“That’s good,” Harper agreed. “I’ll stuff the apron in the crock, then I’ll hide down here and when Summer sneaks in to retrieve the evidence, I flip on the lights and we have her. Then she’ll confess and we can call Hal Kennedy to come arrest her.”
“And when will Summer come for the apron?”
Harper looked a little surprised. “Why, later that night, of course.”
Lonnie gave her sister a look that said ‘you’re nuts.’ “You can’t know for sure,” she scolded. “You sound as though Summer will happily make a reservation to be in the basement at ten o’clock tomorrow night.”
“Just listen up a minute,” Harper grunted. Lonnie made a habit of going off half-cocked instead of hearing her out. It was one of those annoying little-sister traits which had hung around for over fifty years. “If you were Summer and you found out the only piece of damning evidence from the murder you committed was in jeopardy of imminent discovery, what would you do? And when would you do it?”
Lonnie shrugged and then sighed. “Okay, I guess somehow I’d try to sneak down into the basement and grab the goods before the cleaning people invaded and beat me to it.”
“Exactly!”
Lonnie shoved her hands into her jeans’ pockets and paced back and forth, broaching the subject of what might happen if Summer decided to have two victims instead of just one.
Harper smiled. “I have a gun. It’s actually Eli’s gun. A little .25 caliber Colt. He bought it years ago and when we divorced, he wanted me to keep it. Said it was more of a woman’s weapon and maybe I’d feel safer living alone if I had it in my dresser drawer. I’ll put it in my jacket pocket and I’ll be holding it when I confront Summer.”
Lonnie looked appalled. “What if you accidentally shoot her?”
“I’ll keep the safety on. Besides, I’m sure just looking down the barrel of the Colt will be enough to keep Summer in place until the cops show up.”
“How do you know the cops are going to show up?”
“You’re going to be on lookout and when you see Summer—she’ll probably park down the road a ways and sneak across the yard to the house—you’ll call 911. It should only take a few minutes for the sheriff to get here from St. Stephens.”
“How are you, or rather we, going to keep Mom in the dark about all this? And Violet and Ezra, too?”
“They won’t catch on to what we’re saying. We’ll tell Mom tomorrow there are a few more things I want to get out from the basement on Thursday. Then she won’t think anything is unusual about what we say at the tea.”
“It sounds reasonable,” Lonnie admitted. After a brief pause, she asked, “Harper, do you really think Summer will come down here for the apron?”
Harper nodded at her sister, “I don’t think she'll have any other choice.”
Chapter Twenty One
Harper and Lonnie arrived early on Wednesday morning and offered to help Olivia and Violet, although Harper knew everything would be under control and most all of the tasks would be completed for the party.
Olivia draped a runner made from old Irish lace—in the Waterford family for over one hundred years—across the antique sideboard in the dining room.
Violet smiled. “I polished that piece of furniture with a mixture of beeswax and lemon, and if I do say so myself, it gleams like new.”
Harper surveyed the dining room. “The room looks lovely,” she told her mother and Violet. “You have certainly outdone yourselves today.”
Olivia placed a small two-tiered crystal stand in the center of each of the three linen-
covered tables Ezra had pulled close together so the tea partiers could “chatter and not miss out on each other’s gossip.” Olivia filled the stands with the petit fours she and Violet spent most of Tuesday afternoon creating. Each little sponge cake was iced with butter cream frosting and decorated with pastel fondant flowers.
“My, they do look quite delicious,” Olivia declared after she finished placing the petit fours.
Violet piped up. “I thought we were going to need to hide them from Ezra yesterday. Didn’t you notice how he kept popping into the kitchen? He’d been sniffing those cakes all afternoon and I just knew he was biding his time until we turned our backs on them. Then, wham, half of them would disappear.”
Olivia laughed. “After all these years, I know Ezra pretty well. I had a few extras set aside for him,” she said. “He deserved some cake after all the extra work he’s done around here lately. He even scouted down by the river for extra bittersweet yesterday so we could add it to the vases with the mums and asters.”
“You’ve been a thoughtful employer and good friend all these years,” Violet sighed. “Ezra and I will miss all that. It’s time, though, for us old horses to settle down in a nice quiet paddock. We’re done kicking up our hooves.”
Olivia smiled at Violet. “But it doesn’t mean the three of us are ready to be put out to pasture.”
“Well, I heartily agree with you,” Violet said.
The rattle of plates preceded Lonnie as she wheeled the serving cart into the room and placed the last of the tea items on the buffet table. She eyed the layout. “The food looks super.”
“What’s to eat?” Harper asked.
“Well, we have open-face cucumber sandwiches, shrimp salad in pastry, open-face prosciutto finger sandwiches, and deviled ham and asparagus lady fingers,” Violet rattled off the menu.
“We’re also serving lemon scones with raspberry butter and clotted cream,” Olivia added. “And along with the petit fours, our desserts include stuffed strawberries with white chocolate crème as well as chocolate raspberry mini bunt cakes.”
“Good grief,” Harper exclaimed. “How did you two find the time to do all this?”
“Well, dear, we started early Monday morning. And to let you in on a little secret, we didn’t do all of this ourselves.”
“That’s right,” Violet cut in. “We had some help. Maggie volunteered. She knows who to contact to get out-of-season items like the asparagus and strawberries. After your mother ordered a few supplies from her, well, Maggie drove over here and offered her help with the baking and prepping.”
“We have three kinds of tea, too,” Olivia mentioned as she struck a match and lit the candles on the sideboard. “If this is our last hurrah, we decided to make it a mighty fine one.”
Violet flashed a big grin at Harper. “Olivia wants me to be a guest, too. How sweet of her is that?”
“After everything you’ve done for Mom all these years, Violet, you should be the guest of honor.” Harper put her arm around Violet’s broad shoulders and gave her a hug.
Blushing, Violet muttered, “I hear guests arriving,” and she hustled out to the foyer to show the guests in.
Mindy and Carly were the first to show up.
“Oh, my Gawd,” Mindy squeaked as she took in the elegance of the formal dining room, the mums, asters, and bittersweet adding colorful touches to the cut glass vases. “This is like so awesome.”
“It looks like I’m in a dream for sure,” Carly said softly, taking in the sparkle of the crystal and fine china on the tables, the sheen of polished silver, and the soft glow of the lighted candles.
Tammy drifted in a few minutes later, followed by Riley and Rachel. They offered compliments on the décor.
“It’s very nice,” Rachel commented. “Very pretty.”
“You really went all out,” Tammy chirped, roaming around the room and taking note of everything so she could report back to her mother.
“Very romantic,” sighed Riley who was between boyfriends at the moment and feeling the need to find a new one. After Maggie walked into the room and everyone commented on the big sparkly diamond ring on her finger, Riley sighed again.
Summer, last to arrive, got there right at four o’clock. Ignoring Harper, she greeted Olivia warmly and then engaged in conversation with Riley and Rachel.
With the last guest there, Olivia cleared her throat and announced, “Ladies, we’ll begin. Look for your name on the place cards.”
Olivia had arranged to seat Harper at a table with Mindy, Rachel and Riley. Lonnie joined Summer, Tammy, and Carly at the second table, while Olivia, Violet and Maggie made up the third. For several minutes, the sound of muted conversation was accompanied by the clink of silverware on china as each guest filled her plate with a sampling of tiny sandwiches and sweets.
Thoroughly enjoying every bite of her food, Mindy offered Harper the perfect opening. “How are you doing with the packing, Mrs. Waterford?”
What a good girl, Harper thought. Setting down her cup of Earl Gray, she listened as her mother replied she was almost finished. Then, casually, Harper remarked, “We’re down to the basement on the packing now. As a matter of fact, I sorted through a few things yesterday. I plan to finish the job down there tomorrow.”
Lonnie jumped in right on cue. “That’s right. I’m helping, too. Then we’re going to do a thorough job of cleaning.”
Harper stole a peek at Summer who took a bite out of a cucumber sandwich. Summer didn't bat an eye. She’s a cool customer, Harper thought to herself.
“In fact,” Harper went on, looking directly at Summer and pushing as hard as she could, “we’ll sweep down the walls and scrub out the corners. Very thorough we plan to be.”
Olivia nibbled on a strawberry. “Why, dear, you and Lonnie don’t need to clean the basement. Ezra did such a good job cleaning down there last week.”
“But once we get everything moved out of there, we’ll need to clean again. After all, Ezra didn’t clean under the stuff, he just cleaned around the stuff. There won’t be any stuff left when we get done,” Harper said pointedly.
Talk soon turned to Rachel’s wedding. The bride-to-be became animated as she relayed the plans for her big day to the other girls.
“I didn’t realize how much work a wedding is. I just hope everything goes as planned,” she told Riley.
“It must be wonderful to know you’ll walk down the aisle in a lovely bridal gown,” Riley mused dreamily. “Lots of lace and a long train. That’s what I want anyway.”
Olivia joined the conversation. “I remember how busy we were before each of my girls got married.”
“The hubbub lasted for weeks before each wedding,” Violet said crisply, “and then it was all over in one day.”
“I can’t wait until I find the right man and get married,” Riley sighed.
“Sometimes the right man can be the wrong man,” Summer blurted out, her voice quivering with emotion.
Tammy looked at Summer and frowned slightly. “If the man is the wrong one, how can he be the right one? Doesn’t make sense to me,” she protested.
Summer shot Tammy a dirty look. The gesture wasn’t lost on Harper. She watched Summer’s shoulders slump as though a heavy cloak of misery settled across her back. Summer remained quiet during the rest of Olivia’s tea party and Harper wondered if the silence was nerves over worrying that telltale evidence was about to be uncovered.
At six o’clock, Olivia handed each woman a small gift bag of handcrafted soaps and sachets along with her thanks for having helped the festival run smoothly over the years.
“I’m going to miss coming here,” Tammy said while everyone gathered in the foyer to say goodbye.
“I don’t think the Hoovers will make a lot of changes around the place,” Olivia assured all of them. “In fact, I know they want to keep the Pumpkin Patch Festival going. I’m sure they will need a few helping hands during that time. I’ll give you all good recommendations.”
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��Hopefully there won’t be any more murders out here,” Mindy said tactlessly.
Carly and Tammy quickly replied in unison, “I’m sure there won’t be.”
Rachel muttered, “Of course not.”
Riley proclaimed, “No way,” and Mindy, blushing at her faux pas, silently nodded in agreement with the others.
Harper wasn’t surprised when Summer didn’t add a word to the conversation, only turned on her heel and stomped out the door, a look of contempt on her pretty face.
The early evening shadows spilled across the lawn while the sisters hid out on the front porch, away from Violet’s prying eyes and Olivia’s questioning ones. Harper pulled her jacket collar up around her neck. The air was chilly as it swirled around the house.
