“In other words, it’s one big, potentially dangerous experiment? I can’t let you do this, either of you.” Del dropped the baby carriage cutter on the table and stood up. “I forbid you to try this stunt.” He grabbed his jacket and hat and strode toward the alley door.
“It’s our store and our risk,” Olivia said. “We aren’t asking for permission. Or for protection. We’ll hold the memorial as planned, whether or not you take part. It’s up to you.”
Del’s shoulders dropped. “Livie Greyson, you are the most stubborn woman on the planet.” He turned to face her. “You know perfectly well I’ll be here. If something happened to you—or Maddie—I’d never forgive myself.”
“Thanks for the afterthought,” Maddie said.
Del waved the papers Olivia had given him. “I have work to do. Tomorrow we will discuss how to keep you two from getting yourselves killed.” He slapped his hat on his head and opened the alley door. “Meanwhile, Cody will check on the store as often as he can. If you hear anything suspicious outside or inside, don’t explore on your own. Call my cell. I’ll keep it with me. If for some reason I don’t answer, call 911. Got it?”
“Got it,” said Olivia.
“Yes sir,” said Maddie.
“And lock this door behind me.”
As Maddie locked the door, Olivia said, “Okay then, to work. We need to cut and bake the cookies tonight so they will be cool enough to decorate tomorrow after closing. I’ll dig out the additional cutters we’ll need.”
“Hold it,” Maddie said with authority. “You will not be digging or cutting or baking anything, not tonight.”
“Stop fussing.”
“I do not fuss. I command. Go upstairs, and take that noisy creature with you.” Maddie pointed to Spunky, curled in a snoring ball on his blanket. “Then take a warm bath, eat something, and relax with a good book. Having completed those tasks, fall into bed and sleep as long as you can. Frankly, Livie, I’ve never seen you look so awful.”
“Thanks ever so much.” She had to admit she felt exhausted, not to mention sore and stiff. “However, you are right, my friend.”
“I am?”
“I need all my strength to get through the next couple days, and my reserves are depleted. Promise me, though—if you need me for anything, even if you’re having trouble finding those extra cookie cutters, give me a ring.”
“I know the location of everything in this store,” Maddie said. “Do not set your alarm and do sleep all day. Here’s your cuddle toy,” Maddie said. She lifted a sleepy Spunky, blanket and all, and slid the bundle into Olivia’s arms. “Now go away.”
Chapter Twenty-three
For some reason, Olivia’s alarm had switched from a gentle beep-beep to a high-pitched whine. Also, her body was being used as a punching bag. She slogged through the quicksand of sleep until she could identify Spunky as both whiner and assailant. He was expressing his displeasure at being cooped up too long. Given her soreness after her recent accident, Spunky’s five pounds felt like five hundred. She lifted him off and rolled onto her side. “Remind me why I thought adopting a puppy was such a good idea?”
Spunky responded by bouncing off her sore shoulder.
“Would you give me a break?” Olivia reached over him for her cell phone. She had defied Maddie’s order to sleep all day by setting her cell’s alarm for eight a.m. She hadn’t heard it go off, but it must have, given the bright daylight edging her bedroom curtains.
Olivia squinted at the upper-right corner of her cell. “Four o’clock!” She sat up. “Ouch!” Spunky leaped backwards with a nervous yip. Olivia rubbed her eyes and checked the time again. Four o’clock all right, with a little “p.m.” following behind. She’d slept through her alarm and then some.
Instantly she thought of Clarisse and how close she was to learning the truth. The thought cleared Olivia’s head and muted her awareness of pain. In the next thirty-six hours, she intended to find out who had killed her friend.
After a shower, a cold slice of sausage pizza, and a couple extra-strength ibuprofen, Olivia took Spunky downstairs for a quick visit to the side yard. When he’d finished, she tucked him under her arm and entered The Gingerbread House. Over by the antiques cabinet, Maddie was deep in conversation with two women, who were exclaiming over some vintage cutters. Maddie spotted Olivia and winked at her over the customers’ bent heads.
At the sales counter, Olivia’s mother handed a small Gingerbread House bag to another customer, a husky woman who looked familiar. When the woman turned to leave, she recognized Binnie Sloan, editor of The Weekly Chatter . Binnie’s tight mouth expressed displeasure. As soon as she saw Olivia, however, a predatory smile spread across her face. Spunky squirmed in Olivia’s arms, but she held on tight, feeling in need of his protection.
“There you are, Livie, just the person I wanted to see.” Behind Binnie, Ellie waved to get Olivia’s attention and shook her head in silent warning.
“Hey there, fella,” Binnie said, reaching her hand toward Spunky’s head.
Spunky responded with a low growl. Olivia could feel his muscles tighten. She backed up a step to prevent him from biting Binnie’s outstretched fingers.
Binnie dropped her hand. “Not very friendly, is he? Anyway, I dropped in to let you know I’ll be covering your little memorial service tomorrow for the newspaper. Your mom tells me it’s private, which is why it’s so important for me to report on it. Everyone who knew Clarisse Chamberlain needs a chance to grieve her loss.”
It took a chunk of willpower for Olivia to keep her eyes from spinning toward the ceiling. “I’m afraid the memorial will be closed to the press,” she said. “It will be a time for Clarisse’s family and close friends to remember her in private. I’m sure you understand.” She managed a tight smile. Spunky growled in his throat.
Binnie gave Spunky a wary glance. “Have you considered how the rest of Chatterley Heights will react to being excluded from her circle of ‘close friends’? They might feel deeply hurt, don’t you think? Maybe even angry?”
And if they don’t feel hurt or angry, you will urge them to do so. “As an experienced journalist,” Olivia said, “surely you can help the town understand our need for privacy. It will be a quiet, simple get-together, nothing newsworthy. If anything exciting does happen, I’ll be glad to report to you afterwards.” A rash promise, perhaps, but it was never a good idea to alienate the press in a small town.
Ellie appeared beside Olivia, providing a gentle air of support. “Livie dear, shall we begin closing? It’s past five.”
Binnie Sloan, however, was immune to hints. “On another topic,” she said, “I hear you were involved in a single car accident yesterday. Ran right into that guardrail we locals like to call the Drunk Stopper. Care to comment?”
Alienating the press was starting to sound more appealing. Sensing his mistress’s rising irritation, Spunky bared his teeth. Olivia had never seen him do that before. Ellie wove her fingers into the fur on his neck and stared into his eyes. Ellie must have lost her magical touch, though, because Spunky’s growl turned menacing.
Without comment, Binnie headed for the door, her lips pressed into a thin line. When the door closed behind her, Spunky relaxed at once. Ellie rubbed his ears and said, “What a good, good boy you are. Olivia, are you quite sure that you’re feeling all right after that dreadful accident? Your brother said—” Spunky’s tail beat a staccato rhythm against Olivia’s arm.
“Mom, I’m completely fine, I promise you. What just happened here?”
Ellie smiled. “Merely an experiment in dog whispering, dear. Now, if I hurry, I can make my poetry group on time. You two have fun decorating cookies this evening. Don’t stay up too late.”
The Gingerbread House kitchen smelled of orange zest, cookie dough, and pepperoni pizza, with an overlay of French roast coffee. Racks of cutout cookies covered half the worktable, and most of the remaining space was disappearing fast as Olivia gathered the ingredients for royal icing.
>
Maddie had brought along her Aunt Sadie’s trusty twenty-year-old Artisan stand mixer. “This calls for the big guns.” She gave it a loving pat. “So let me get this straight,” she said. “You don’t want me to have too much fun decorating these cookies?” Maddie was wearing jeans ripped across the knees and a tight T-shirt that said, “Born to Gambol,” in case there was any doubt.
“I want the shapes to be recognizable,” Olivia said. “If we hope to see anyone react to our designs, they’ll have to know what they’re looking at.”
“So I could decorate a baby carriage with, say, magenta, as long as it still looks like a baby carriage?”
“Sure, within reason. But I have some ideas for specific cookies.” Olivia pointed to the nearest rack, which held cookies in the shape of a hooded baby carriage on wheels. “Any color is fine, but make sure some are blue and some are pink. If there’s a grandchild out there, we don’t know the gender.”
“Check.” Maddie picked up the revised cookie cutter list Olivia had left with her:
CLARISSE’S COOKIE CUTTERS
1. Hooded Baby Carriage on Wheels
2. Small Angel
3. Dancing Snoopy *
4. Jasmine Flower (Added by Olivia)
5. Jasmine Vine with Flowers (Template added by Maddie)
6. Six-petaled Flower
7. Gingerbread Boy with Crown *
8. Gingerbread Man Running *
9. Gingerbread House *
10. Gingerbread Woman and Girl *
11. Coffin Shape
12. Witch’s Hat
13. Round Tree
14. Dove
15. Nutcracker
UNIDENTIFIED
16. Shield? Coat of Arms?
17. Apple? Bell Pepper?
18. Flower? Grass in Wind? Head with Wild Hair?
“Those little angel shapes,” Olivia said, “make some boys and some girls. And a few of each should have black hair.”
“Aha. Like Jasmine, you mean.” Maddie scribbled a note on her list.
“Exactly. Ditto for the gingerbread mother and daughter. But we should represent other hair colors, too.”
“How about navy blue? Or violet?
“Uh, sure.”
“Puce?”
“Have you been chewing coffee beans again?”
Maddie smirked. “Sorry, it’s the excitement. Carry on.”
Olivia wished she, too, felt the thrill of the chase, but all she could muster was fierce determination. Besides, the ibuprofen had barely touched the aching throughout her body. She rubbed her neck as she pointed toward the right side of the table. “The gingerbread boy wearing a crown—Clarisse must have acquired that cutter before I met her. It was distributed by Robin Hood Flour in the 1980s. She might have gotten hers that way. I wonder if she used it when Hugh and Edward were growing up. Her little boys.” Olivia’s legs felt spongy, and she braced herself against the table edge.
“Hey, you should be back in bed,” Maddie said. She dragged a chair over and pushed Olivia into it. “Listen, tell me what you want, and I’ll do the decorating. If you’re serious about this unveil-a-killer event tomorrow, you’ll need more strength than this.”
Olivia knew her weakness had as much to do with sadness as with pain. “No, even you can’t finish all this decorating and plan the event alone. We need to talk it through while we work. I can rest later, when this is over.”
“Okay, but if anyone has to stay up most of the night, it’s going to be me. Got it?”
“Won’t be necessary.” Olivia drained her coffee cup. “Okay. Gingerbread boy with crown. He could represent either or both of the Chamberlain brothers, or maybe a grandson. Make the crown stand out. I have a feeling that might be important.”
Maddie refilled her own cup and Olivia’s. “I’d better explain this shape,” she said, pointing to a rack of cookies that looked like clouds. “I know you gave me an eight-petaled flower cutter to represent a jasmine flower, but I wasn’t sure anyone would recognize it, even if we use white icing. So I made a roundish template with a stemlike bottom. I’ll pipe icing into vine and flower designs.”
“Good idea. If that doesn’t work, we’ll have to drop a hint.” Olivia thought of her mother. She wasn’t eager to put her mother in danger, but if anyone could drop a hint without raising suspicion, it was Ellie Greyson-Meyer.
“Any idea what the six-sided flower is supposed to be?” Maddie asked.
“That one puzzles me. I suppose Clarisse might have used it to represent Jasmine, but it doesn’t seem the best choice. Jasmine flowers have so many petals; that’s why I gave you the eight-sided flower shape instead of the six.”
“Let’s leave it for now and move on.” Maddie started collecting measuring cups and spoons. “I need to move. You talk. I’ll whip up a batch of icing.”
Olivia retrieved her laptop from the desk, brought it to the table, and sank onto a chair. “Maybe we can get some ideas from this.” She lifted the laptop lid to reveal Deputy Cody’s photo of Clarisse’s desk. “See that one?” Olivia pointed to a cutter shape in the lower-left corner. “That looks like Snoopy Dancing.”
“Hallmark, 1971, red plastic,” Maddie said. She cut open a bag of meringue powder and measured out four teaspoons.
“I’m almost positive Clarisse thought of Sam Parnell as Snoopy, like everyone else in town.” Olivia touched the red image on the screen. “She bought this cutter right here, the last time I saw her. I remember she held it in her hand and said something like, ‘So gleeful.’ She was talking to herself, so it was hard to make out.”
“You think she meant Sam or Snoopy?”
“Maybe both. Sam did look pleased with himself when he told me about seeing the word ‘grandchild’ in the private detective’s letter to Clarisse.”
“Vague enough for me,” Maddie said. “Anyway, Snoopy is off to the side in the photo, so Clarisse probably hadn’t thought much about it yet. In fact, look at this gap here.” She drew her finger in a circle around the laptop screen. “It’s like when I work a jigsaw puzzle. First, I group pieces that might go together. Then in the middle I put the pieces that suggest a design to me.”
Olivia arched her eyebrows in surprise.
“What? I can be organized when it’s really important.”
In the interest of time, Olivia let that pass.
Maddie opened a new box of confectioners’ sugar. “I’m only saying, if Clarisse was using cookie cutters to work through a problem, wouldn’t she single out the most important cutters first?”
Olivia zoomed in on the center of the photo. “Actually, you might be on to something. There are three cutters clustered in the middle—the crowned gingerbread boy, the running gingerbread man, and the gingerbread house. Hugh and Edward, maybe? And the Chamberlain home?”
“Which gingerbread man is which brother?” Maddie asked as she added two cups of confectioners’ sugar to the mixing bowl.
Olivia leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. Her head had begun to ache; time for another dose of ibuprofen. Nevertheless, she stayed put and forced her resistant brain to dredge up any judgments Clarisse had made about her sons. There hadn’t been many. Clarisse had kept their less appealing qualities to herself, perhaps because she hoped Olivia would marry one of them. However, early in their friendship, Clarisse had made a couple of telling comments.
“Once when Clarisse was frustrated with Hugh, she said he expected everything to drop in his lap. He needed to work harder, she said, not depend on his charm to get by. She called it a ‘sense of entitlement.’”
“So Hugh is the boy with the crown,” Maddie said. “Lucas told me last night about when Hugh offered to adjust his loan. Lucas said he acted like it was his duty to take care of his inferiors, like Lucas wasn’t smart enough to handle his own finances. Hugh never said one word about Lucas’s mom and dad, how hard that has been.”
“Noblesse oblige,” Olivia said.
“Enough with the French, Livie. I have
trouble with English.”
“Sorry, only you described it perfectly. I’m convinced the crowned boy is Hugh. By the way, did Lucas request those loan concessions?”
“He did not.” Maddie tossed a set of measuring spoons into the sink. “It would never have occurred to him. Hugh came to him, out of the blue.”
“Really. Did Edward know about it?”
“Hugh said that Edward agreed. That’s all I know. Now be quiet while I mix this icing to perfection.”
Olivia relaxed to the familiar sound of a whirring mixer. Her attention drifted among the loose clusters of cookie cutters that surrounded the three central gingerbread shapes. Dancing Snoopy frolicked in the lower-left corner, next to a witch’s hat. If the gleeful Snoopy was Sam Parnell, might the witch’s hat designate someone else who had disappointed Clarisse? Maddie would say the witch had to be Tammy Deacons, and maybe she’d be right.
Four images formed a semicircle along the right side of the photo: a lovely stylized dove, a nutcracker, a rounded shade tree, and two more gingerbread figures—adult woman and little girl. Mother and daughter. Did Clarisse know that Jasmine had given birth to a daughter, or was she guessing?
Olivia wasn’t sure what to make of the dove, nutcracker, and tree. She herself knew that sometimes a certain cookie cutter evoked an emotion, so a dove might simply represent Clarisse’s longing for peace in her family. The tree puzzled Olivia. And a nutcracker . . . She thought back to the nutcracker story. Wasn’t the nutcracker really a prince?
Maddie had finished mixing the royal icing and was collecting little bottles of gel paste food coloring.
“Hey, Maddie, do you remember the nutcracker story?”
“The nutcracker? I’m not sure I ever understood it completely. Too many curses. All I remember is the nutcracker guy was odd looking because he was under an ugly curse, but he was really a handsome prince. Then he does something heroic—like kill the evil mouse king or whatever—but the beautiful princess rejects him because he’s ugly. Those beautiful princesses were mighty full of themselves, you know? Anyway, I think she changes her mind in the end, and the prince turns handsome again, and they live happily ever after in dolly land.”
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