by Annie Irvin
“I huffed and puffed trying to keep up with Fred,” Maggie laughed. “By then whoever it was had disappeared ahead of us and there was no way of knowing if we still followed them or not. Fred took my hand and we ran along a well-worn path between the two properties. In short order we spotted a figure crossing Olivia’s pumpkin patch. So we slipped behind the garden shed and watched the figure sneak to the back door of the house. That’s when Fred shouted ‘Come on! Hurry!’ and we took off running.”
Lonnie spoke up. “And when you reached the backyard you gave me quite a turn. I was shivering despite my sweatshirt and jacket, and I felt sorry I let Harper talk me into something so totally stupid. I’d been picturing Summer snug and warm in her own bed while I sat freezing to death on the front porch. The whole thing was just insane. There was no guarantee crazy Summer would show up or Harper’s plan would work even if she did sneak into the basement. I looked at my watch and saw it was already past midnight. So I decided nothing was going to happen that night and left my chair on the porch. I walked around the side of the house just to check things out. At first all I heard was a bullfrog croaking and an owl hooting. But when I reached the backyard I became aware of other sounds—heavy breathing and pounding footsteps. Believe me, it stopped me dead in my tracks. I reached into my pocket to get my phone and send Harper a text and darn near wet my pants when I realized I held her gun instead of my cell. That was when I caught sight of a man and woman sprinting across the lawn so I jumped into the shadows beside the house to hide.”
Lonnie paused. Paul sat tapping his fingers on the table, a perturbed look on his face.
“Everything came out okay, don’t look so upset,” Lonnie said, patting Paul’s arm. “Anyway, I thought, damn, Summer brought Mickey with her! Why hadn’t we considered that? Discretion might be the better part of valor but the thought of those two losers overtaking my sister down in the basement overruled good judgment and without thinking of the consequences, I switched on my flashlight and shone it directly in their faces.”
Maggie laughed. “You assumed the stance of a Ninja and yelled ‘Halt now!”
“Your flashlight startled me,” Fred cut in, “and I almost yelled right along with you.”
“Instead, you shouted, ‘Someone just broke into the house,’ and I shouted, ‘Harper’s down there and it’s the murderer you saw,’” Lonnie exclaimed.
“That’s when we heard such a bloodcurdling screech as ever there was coming from the basement. We all three froze in our steps,” Maggie declared.
“But just for a second,” Lonnie affirmed.
“So now you know how we came to be in the right place at the right time,” Maggie said. “It’s your turn, Harper. Tell us how you figured out Grace knew about the three affairs.”
Harper stretched her legs out in front of her and nodded ‘yes’ to Fred’s offer of a refill on her coffee. After a couple of sips, she said, “I caught on to the first one when I found two letters in Grace’s office desk. She’d written one to Deacon Fairweather and the other to Bruce Abbott.” Harper put down the muffin she’d been nibbling on and paused for effect. “She’d caught Pastor Hart and Fanny Abbott going at it on the pastor’s desk.”
“Oh, good grief. That’s kind of disgusting,” Maggie groaned.
“The minister doing it with a parishioner or Harper’s snooping?” Paul asked Maggie in all innocence.
Harper cast a sideways glance in his direction before continuing her story. “I talked to Fanny and found out Grace gave her and Lawrence one week to confess to Daphne and Bruce or else the letters would get mailed. Fanny insisted she was with Bruce the entire evening and I believed her, although I planned on checking her story out with her husband. But when Daphne told me her husband disappeared during the time Grace was killed I figured he could have been off breaking one more Commandment.”
“Busy week for busybodies,” Maggie muttered.
“I don’t suppose either one of them thought that even if they did confess, Grace might have mailed the letters anyway,” Fred said.
“Gosh, Honey.” Maggie raised her eyebrows and looked wide-eyed at the man she loved. “You would make a very evil blackmailer.”
“Good thing I’m so darn nice, isn’t it?” Fred smiled at Maggie while he grabbed the coffee pot to refill all the cups.
After finishing the last bite of her muffin and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, Harper went on with her account. “So now, Lawrence stuck out like a sore thumb. He had motive even though it was hard to believe a minister could do such a thing. But I figured the thought of knowing everything he held dear was in jeopardy might have pushed him beyond his limit of tolerance. And he had opportunity.”
“So you kept up your sleuthing even though you had two suspects,” Fred scolded.
“Well, there wasn’t any concrete evidence pointing to them having been in the shed. And then I stumbled onto the next batch of evidence,” Harper said picking up her blueberry muffin.
Lonnie gave a snort and poked her in the ribs. “You’re among friends. Tell exactly how you stumbled.”
“Okay, okay,” Harper said. “I uncovered a picture of Mickey and Summer in Grace’s desk at her house. I confronted Summer and Mickey about the photo. Summer admitted to the affair and said Grace threatened to tell Lucy about the two of them but gave them one week to tell Lucy themselves. Perfect motive since Lucy would have ripped what little heart Mickey has out of his chest and fed it to him. Then she’d have ruined his business. Later, I found out both Summer and Mickey had the opportunity during the festival to kill Grace.”
“Mickey O’Connell always was a cocky jerk,” Fred interjected.
“True,” Harper agreed. “And it might not have bothered Summer if people learned she was doing it with her brother-in-law, but it would have put an end to the affair and she was in love with Mickey. The chances Mickey would have picked her over his wife, kids, and business were slim and she had to know it. Anyway, Grace was murdered before the week deadline was up, and I really suspected one of them.”
Paul spoke up. “You assumed Mickey and Summer met up in the shed, Grace found them there, and one of them killed her.”
“Yes. But then Mona Potter dropped a bombshell and implicated Roy and Glennis Turnbuckle.”
“Roy and Glennis? Bombshell?” Fred looked puzzled.
“Grace apparently stumbled onto some counseling notes in Pastor Hart’s office. She discovered Rachel became pregnant when she was a teen and gave the baby up for adoption. She pulled the old ‘give ‘em a week’ routine with Roy and Glennis, too. If they didn’t tell Roger everything, then Grace would. It was motive and thanks to you and Fred, Maggie, I knew the Turnbuckles had opportunity.”
Fred looked perplexed for a minute. Then the light went on. “You mean when I saw them walking out toward the garden shed around the time Grace was murdered.”
Harper nodded. “The finger of guilt pointed to them, also.”
“Wow,” Maggie exclaimed. “That bit of news must have really excited Grace.”
“So Rachel never entered your head?” Fred asked.
“Not then. Just Lawrence and Fanny at first. Then Summer and Mickey. Later it was Roy and Glennis. I never did believe the police were on the right track with Jersey Simon and looking at him was a waste of time.”
“Maggie and I wondered about that line of thought,” Fred admitted. “If Simon was a big time crook we didn't figure leaving a bloody body behind was a probability. He’d have done it cleaner and neater.”
Paul nodded in agreement with Fred and laid his arm across the back of Lonnie’s chair.
“Tell them why you settled on Summer as the killer,” Lonnie coaxed Harper. “Even though it turned out it wasn’t Summer.”
“Lonnie and I recreated the murder scene out in the shed.” Harper shivered at the memory of the cold spot she encountered while kneeling by the unconscious Alice that day, as though she’d felt Grace’s cold, dead spirit. Casting a look at Lonnie
she knew her sister was thinking of the unexplained shadow she'd seen. The sisters shared a covert glance before Harper continued.
“I discovered a button which Lonnie and I recognized as belonging on one of the aprons the servers wore only during the festival. Why was it on the shed floor? If Grace had struggled with her killer and pulled the button off the apron then it stood to reason the killer must be one of the girls working that night. The only one with any motive was Summer, or at least that’s what I thought at the time. She undoubtedly felt the old witch put a major hitch in her relationship with Mickey plus threatened to destroy her relationship with her sister. Why wouldn’t she hate Grace enough to murder her? When I found out Summer disappeared for awhile from her place on the back porch, it sewed it up in my opinion. I figured she either saw Grace go out to the shed and followed her or else she met Mickey out there and Grace caught them.”
Maggie posed a question. “So when did you find the bloody apron?”
“Mom called and said she was ready to clean out the basement. She wondered if there was anything I might want for the shop. I found the crock with the apron stuffed in it.”
“Harper went to Summer’s apartment and made sure she knew we knew an apron was missing,” Lonnie volunteered. “Then she came up with the plan to make sure Summer knew we were going to go through every nook and cranny down in the basement, where we’d obviously find the bloody evidence.”
“You used the tea party to lay the bait!” Maggie exclaimed. “That was clever.”
“I planned to hide in the basement because I knew she’d show up to reclaim the apron. Lonnie was supposed to be the lookout on the front porch, text me when she saw her coming, and then call the cops.”
“You know it all makes sense in some odd sort of way,” Fred said.
“An odd female sort of way,” Paul added, blinking as three pairs of female eyes turned on him. “Just saying,” he muttered.
“You never tumbled to it being Rachel?” Paul asked.
“I did actually,” Harper smiled, “right before she came down the basement steps! I ran across an old clock and I thought about how I used to reach up to dust it on the mantel when I was a kid. It was then I remembered Rachel picking up a lit candle from the mantel in order to blow out the flame. She complained because she dripped some of the hot candle wax onto her white blouse. I could see her standing there holding the candle, not wearing an apron. That’s when I remembered talking to Rachel at her apartment where she told me she saw Summer that night out by the pumpkin patch after dark, something Rachel couldn’t have seen if she’d stayed in the dining room where she was supposed to be at the time. It all fell into place then.”
“So Rachel killed Grace to keep her from telling Roger about the pregnancy,” Maggie mused.
Harper nodded and continued. “Yeah. Here’s what Hal and I figure happened. Rachel often went in to work early at the hardware store. She was there the morning Grace came in and threatened Roy and Glennis with exposing her to Roger. Roy and Glennis didn’t know she was there since she was busy with planning the wedding and had been taking a lot of time off from work. She must have overheard the whole thing with Grace. I can imagine how it ate at her. She’d finally found Mr. Right but before she got the chance to walk down the aisle and claim him, Grace Potter planned to ruin it all.”
“How she must have hated the woman,” Maggie said.
“Around dusk on the night of the murder, Grace saw either Mickey and Summer or Roy and Glennis walking out by the shed. Curiosity made her follow. We know Rachel was standing by the patio door in the dining room—Tammy pointed it out. Rachel could easily see Grace from there because it wasn’t quite dark yet. She came up with the excuse she needed to fetch a mop to clean up some spilled coffee. Instead of getting a mop, she sneaked out and followed Grace to the shed where she waited, then confronted her and killed her. Coming back to the house, she spotted Summer. Tragically, what she didn’t know is that Roy and Glennis came to the conclusion that the only answer to their dilemma was to come clean with Roger. They walked about the property that night discussing how to go about telling him, and were actually in the process of spilling it all to Roger while the bonfire burned. Roger loved Rachel and he truly didn’t care about what had happened thirty years earlier. The three of them agreed to tell Rachel everything before the week was up.”
“So it would have all worked out for her even if Grace got to Roger.”
“Right. For awhile, the Turnbuckles were thankful for Grace’s death. Until they found out Rachel had done it, of course.”
Harper looked out of Maggie’s kitchen window. A spattering of cold rain left marks on the glass. A few brown leaves left on the maple trees shook in the north wind as it picked up steam. It looked as though Old Man Winter was preparing to steal autumn away.
Harper continued, “Apparently, when Mickey hooked up with Summer out by the shed, he dumped her. After he got done with that little errand, he ran into Lawrence Hart and spent the better part of an hour talking to the Pastor about how he wanted to get marriage counseling for himself and Lucy.”
Lonnie chuckled. “He wanted to do a little pre-emptive ass saving and be the one to suggest pastoral counseling to Lucy. Admit all to his wife, beg forgiveness, and take the first step with counseling so she would be less likely to castrate him.”
“Ouch,” Paul winced, pulling Lonnie toward him and kissing her temple. “It definitely pays to be a faithful husband.”
It definitely does, Harper thought to herself, considering Eli for a moment before saying out loud, “I learned through Hal that Lawrence Hart and Daphne are leaving in a few days to attend a couple’s seminar in Missouri. Perhaps he’s confessed to his wife, but whether or not she or his conscience demands he tell the church board about his affair, well, I guess time will tell.
“Bruce and Fanny are still together and I have a feeling Bruce will never hear the truth from his wife about her affair with Lawrence. I ran into Fanny yesterday at the grocery store. We chatted for a minute, and then she told me she’d bought Grace’s Lexus from Marshall.”
Maggie started to laugh and Lonnie joined in.
“What’s so funny?” Paul asked.
“Oh, nothing much, Paul. But if you listen closely you’ll hear Grace spinning in her grave because her biggest business rival is now driving her new car,” Harper explained.
“Every time Fanny shows a house for Wilcox and Wilson Real Estate, she’ll drive there in the Lexus,” Lonnie said, grinning.
“So, Harper, have you heard any news about Lucy and Mickey?” Maggie asked, still chuckling over Fanny’s car coup.
“So far, Lucy hasn’t kicked Mickey out of the house and I heard Summer gave notice at Rubino’s because she’s moving to St. Andrews. I don’t know if Lucy found out about Mickey and Summer, but I’m sure she won’t hear about it from either of them.”
“What about Glennis and Roy? And Roger?”
“Hal Kennedy said Roger swears he’ll stick by Rachel. The Turnbuckles are hoping the psychiatric evaluation she’s undergoing will find she wasn’t in her right mind at the time of the murder. They plan to list the hardware store with Wilson and Wilcox Realty. They have to sell in order to pay for either Rachel’s psychiatric treatment or her legal defense, depending on how the evaluation turns out.”
“Poor Roy and Glennis. Looks as though their retirement dream won’t come true anytime soon,” Maggie mused.
“I’m just glad it’s over,” Lonnie declared, glancing around the table at her husband and friends, her eyes resting on Harper.
“On to better news,” Harper piped up. “Mead and Alice have signed the papers to close on the Inn. They did that yesterday. And they also announced they are expecting. They’ll have more than fireworks at the Inn by the Fourth of July. Mom plans on moving to the townhouse next week.”
“What wonderful news,” Maggie beamed. “We’ll miss Olivia next door but it’s nice to know we’re getting a nice family for neighbor
s and Olivia will finally move to town.”
“Since we are sharing good news, I’d like to make an announcement,” Fred beamed. “Maggie and I have set the date.” He raised Maggie’s hand to his lips.
“Well, heck, let’s celebrate!” Paul laughed merrily. “How about Lonnie and I take you to dinner at Rubino’s this evening! You free, Harper?”
Harper grinned from ear to ear, “I wouldn’t miss it! Champagne’s on me.”
“So when’s the wedding?” Lonnie wanted to know.
“May eighteenth. It will be a very small ceremony. We’re planning on holding it and the reception here at the farm.”
“Oh, it sounds wonderful,” Lonnie laughed. “Think of all of the spring flowers we can decorate with. Providing you let Harper and me help you,” she added, shooting a questioning glance at Maggie.
