Crimped To Death

by Tonya Kappes

  “So I’m going to have Bradford over for fudge. Cheri you are. . .” Agnes was assigning tasks. “You. . .”

  “I will go get my teeth cleaned from Dr. Russell and tell him that I had an appointment with Henry to get a cavity filled.” She shrugged. “And since he is dead, I had to come to him.”

  “Where do you normally go?” Flora asked adjusting her phone between her shoulder and ear.

  “I haven’t been to the dentist in years.” Cheri showed her teeth that were perfectly white and straight. “I’m sure I don’t have a cavity, but he doesn’t know that. I can tell him about my fake visit to Henry and see if I can get him all riled up and want to talk to me.”

  “Holly, you are going to find out about the fight between Dr. Russell and Henry.” Agnes pointed her crooked finger toward Flora. “What are you going to do?”

  “Me?” Flora jerked back. Phone was still in her hand. “I gave you Bennie. He is the glue holding this shit together.” She twirled her finger around.

  All of us jumped when there was a knock at the door. Bernadine’s baggie of carrots flew in the air. Willow scrambled to eat them all up.

  “Charlie, what are you doing here?” I asked when I opened the door to find her standing on the bead shop steps. She was crazy if she thought I was going to forgive her for being so mean and rude.

  “I’m here to drop these off to Bernadine for Barbie.” She held the tray of low-fat goodies in the air for Bernadine to see. “Sadie said you were down here for a bead meeting.”

  Charlie didn’t bother to wait for me to step aside. She stepped high-heel right on over me like a long-legged giraffe. I couldn’t help but notice the Swarovski crystal toggle bracelet on her wrist.

  Snort, snort, snort. Half of Willow’s body was stuck in the Under of the sterling silver bead shelf.

  “Barbie told me to have you try this one.” Charlie handed Bernadine the specially wrapped muffin. Marlene reached over to get a pinch. Charlie smacked her hand away. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Charlie’s wrist. “That is specifically for Bernadine. If you want one, you can buy one at Second Cup in the morning.”

  “You little. . .” Marlene spit between gritted teeth.

  “Charlie,” I interrupted before Marlene did to Charlie what someone had done to Henry. I ignored Willow. She was distracted by a stray carrot. “Where did you get that bracelet?”

  “I made it.” She ran her hands over top of it almost hiding it from me.

  “Where?” I asked out of curiosity.

  “My house.”

  Her house?

  “Nice.” There weren’t any noticeable flaws, which made me wonder if she was really a novice beader as she had acted like in the Wine and Bead class.

  “Thank you, Holly.” She sat the plate of treats next to Bernadine. “Barbie hopes they sell. I would love to hang around, but I’m meeting Sean for a drink.” She winked and turned to strut out the door. “And who knows what the night will bring.” She shrugged.

  “Don’t pay her any attention, Holly.” Flora said when the door closed right behind Charlie. “She can have your sloppy seconds.”

  “Yeah. Sloppy seconds,” Agnes repeated with a chuckle. “She sure does have a nice body though.”

  “Why didn’t you let me at her?” Marlene pumped her fists in the air. “I’d show that blonde bimbo a thing or two.”

  “OHMYGOD!” I jumped in the air. My adrenaline was pumping. My mind was reeling. “Blonde. Bracelet.”

  I was putting two-and-two together.

  “What, Holly?” the Divas said in unison.

  Weak, weak, weak. Willow cried.

  “Henry remodeled the old building and used Buskin Design. Charlie is an interior decorator for Buskins. She’s blonde. Henry was with a blonde at The Livin’ End.” I smacked my hands together. “And she can’t make a toggle bracelet without a crimping tool and she was here the night of the Wine and Bead!”

  Weak, weak, weak.

  “Stop, Willow!” I screamed.

  Cheri rushed over to see what Willow was wanting in the Under.

  “Umm, Holly.” Cheri stood back up. She held up a pair of crimp tools in her fingers. “And I don’t think you are missing any crimp tools either.”

  “My missing tool!” There wasn’t anything that made me happier than to see that tool.

  Bernadine really didn’t kill Henry.

  “You might be right.” Bernadine’s hands were over her mouth. “But how are we going to find out?”

  “Henry kept a log of every single meeting he had. Even dates he planned with me when we were married. Very, very structured life he led. One of our downfalls. ” She reached into her purse and pulled out her key ring full of keys. “I have the spare to Henry’s office and I bet his calendar is there somewhere. If he had a date with Charlie, it would be in there. Or his phone.”

  “Phone?” I asked.

  “Yes. He loves to film himself after each patient to dictate. It’s weird but it works. Or he will write something down and take a photo of it if he can’t dictate at the time. Strange, but it works for him.”

  “Great! I will look for the calendar and the phone. It looks like me and you are going to Henry Frisk’s office.” I swallowed hard and pointed to Bernadine. “Charlie is also redoing Dr. Russell’s office. I can’t help but wonder if she and Dr. Russell had something to do with Henry’s murder.”

  “No way am I going anywhere near there.” Bernadine shook her head. “If I go there and Noah finds out, he will pull the you are the one who went back to the scene of the crime stuff you see on TV.”

  “We need to get in that office.” I knew that there had to be some sort of clue somewhere. The calendar. Something.

  “Don’t you think that Noah and she-officer have combed the place and taken out everything they possibly could find?” Flora wasn’t a fan of Officer Kiss either.

  “Maybe.” I shrugged. “But we have to try. And you can go with me.”

  “Me? But I gave you . . .”

  “Zip it and come on.” I grabbed by bag and keys. “Marlene, can you close up? Cheri can you take Willow for a quick walk? And Bernadine.” I turned to look at her. She looked up. Her eyes were hollow. There was the unspoken knowledge of the knife between us. “Can you take Willow home for me? And I’ll call you in the morning?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Flora moaned all the way to Henry Frisk’s dental office.

  “Flora, we have to help Bernadine out.” I reminded her of how we stick together.

  I pulled down the street on the far edge of town where Henry had bought an old Victorian House that had been vacant for years. As part of the revitalization of Swanee, the old house was one of many that sold on the courthouse steps in an auction. Too bad they weren’t doing that when I opened The Beaded Dragonfly.

  “I know that.” Flora tapped her finger on her phone. “But can’t Ernie do this? I just don’t want to be caught doing anything we aren’t supposed to do.”

  “That didn’t stop you when you murdered Bennie’s clothes after he left you.” I reminded her about her little run-in with Noah Druck and how the entire town found out about the Divorced Divas.

  “Plus,” she paused, “I’m not so sure Bernadine is innocent.”

  “How could you say that?” I drove slowly past the dental office. There was still police tape strung all over, which meant it was still considered a crime scene and no one other than authorized personnel was admitted. The place was dark. Scary.

  At the end of the street, I made a U-turn and headed back toward the dental office.

  “Bennie said that the knife that was weapon came from Bernadine’s house,” she said in a low voice as if she didn’t want to say it out loud.

  “How do they know that?” I asked.

  “Noah Druck told Bennie that he needs to get Bernadine to confess because they went back through her credit card statements and she had purchased an exact matching set of knives from a fancy store up in Lexington. One of
those kitchen stores.” She bit her lip and looked out the windshield with her hands folded in her lap.

  “Then anyone could have those knives.” There wasn’t any way I was going to give up that easy.

  “I’m not saying there aren’t.” She shifted her body toward me. “But the coincidence is pretty far-fetched.”

  “Did Bennie ask her about it?” I flipped the lights off the Beetle when I assessed there were no cops cars or anyone else for that matter at the crime scene.

  “No. He was going to drive over to her house after our Diva meeting.” She held up her phone. “That was who I was talking to at The Beaded Dragonfly. He wanted me to let him know when we were going to be finished. That was when he told me about the knife.”

  I pulled the car over a few houses down from Henry’s office and turned the car off. I put my hand on the gearshift between our seats.

  “It’s not looking good, Holly.” She put her hand on mine. “Unfortunately, women do things that we think they aren’t capable of in the heat of passion. Especially since she and Henry had just made love. It is all making sense to me now.”

  Everything Flora was saying made so much sense, but I just couldn’t take that for what it was worth. I had to find out for myself. There were too many things about Dr. Russell and Charlie that set off my alarms.

  “Okay. I will give you that it isn’t looking good. But we are here and I want to see for myself.” I pulled my hand out from under hers and took the keys out of the ignition. “You don’t have to go with me if you don’t want. But you have to keep watch and let me know if you see anyone coming.”

  “I can do that.” She nodded.

  Without another word between us, I held my keys in my fist just like Donovan had taught me to do.

  Donovan. Shit.

  I looked down at my phone. It was almost eight p.m. and he would already be in the self-defense class getting ready to teach. I had completely forgotten to call him. Somehow I would make it up to him after all of this was over.

  Quickly I ran behind the house next to the office. A security light popped on. I hid in the shadow hoping no one saw it and if they did, I prayed they thought it was a cat darting around.

  After waiting a few seconds, though it seemed like minutes, I tiptoed over to the office. The thought of a dead body there made my skin crawl.

  I decided to stay around the back in the shadows of the night. I looked around to see if I could see any video equipment like Ginger was looking in on, but I didn’t see any. Nor did I see any large security lights that Henry might have installed himself.

  The gingerbread lattice around the wrap around porch was beautiful. Henry had done a really nice job restoring the old Victorian and I could only imagine what kind of taste Charlie had. She had great taste when it came to her appearance; I could only imagine the pride she had in decorating for the world to see.

  She was going to have her hands full with Dr. Russell’s old office.

  I slipped under the police tape and darted up the steps. I looked left and right, trying to take shallow breaths and keep my cool. My hands were shaking.

  “Calm down,” I whispered and held my hand out in front of me so I could put it on the door handle. I took another deep breath and just went for it. I had the door handle in my hand and turned.

  Nothing.

  What in the world did I think was going to happen? Did I honestly think that the door wasn’t locked? Did I totally act like the police tape wasn’t strung all around me? So there was no other choice but to use Bernadine’s key, which made me a little nervous because I felt like that was sort of falling under the umbrella of breaking and entering. I wasn’t necessarily breaking anything, but I was illegally entering a crime scene that still seemed to be active.

  “What am I doing?” I asked myself and fumbled the key around the key hole.

  All I had to do was think of that bloody knife and how Noah knew it had come from Bernadine’s house. But how did it get into the hands of the killer?

  The office smelled just like a dentist office, which surprised me. The idea of having an interior decorator made me think it would somehow disguise the smell that so many have come to fear. With the sick feeling of being at the dentist and the idea that there was a murder in the exact same place, I began to feel woozy.

  I pulled the collar of my shirt up over my nose and took a deep breath. Secret deodorant was a far better smell than . . .death.

  “Eeck!” I screamed when I looked down and noticed a spot had been cut out of the carpet in the reception area. A spot big enough for one dead Henry Frisk.

  I used the flashlight feature on my cell to get a better look. It was definitely a cut out of what looked to be the place Henry was stabbed. The exposed subflooring had a large dark spot that I could only assume was the blood that had seeped through the carpet and foam.

  My eyes followed the flashlight beam to the cushioned chairs and walls which had numbers written beside them along with some police tape marking the blood splatter. It looked like the murderer might have hit one of Henry’s main arteries and as his heart pumped, the blood shot out onto the walls and chairs.

  At that moment, I was thankful Bernadine wasn’t with me. By the looks of the crime scene, there was no way she could’ve done this. She wouldn’t be able to get any part of her outfit dirty. Whoever did this, had to have blood somewhere on their clothes.

  Obviously, Noah Druck didn’t know Bernadine very well. . .at all.

  I used the flashlight to do a little more looking around, careful not to touch anything. Like Bernadine, the last thing Noah needed was more ammunition to use against another Diva. Then he’d have a field day trying to bring our whole group down.

  The artwork on the walls was definitely not like any doctor’s office I had ever seen. They were very contemporary pieces with lots of colors. Even the walls were a bright yellow.

  I peeked my head into one of the dental cleaning rooms. The chairs were modern. I stepped in to get a closer look and couldn’t help myself.

  “Ahh.” I laid back and used the electronic keypad on the arm of the chair to give me the massage treatment Ginger said she had gotten. The feeling of having to go pee-pee hit me. “Not a good time to have to go,” I said and opened my eyes.

  Temporarily, I had forgotten why I was there and quickly jumped up. I plucked a couple of Kleenex from the counter and tried to wipe off any prints before I rushed out of there and down to Henry’s office.

  The office was also modern with a glass desk and chair that was neatly tucked underneath it. He had several Unders in there and there was no way in hell I was going to stick my hand in the depths of the dark. But I had a flashlight.

  I did a little pee-pee dance and wiggled my way down to the floor. With my butt stuck up in the air, I peered underneath the first Under and pointed the cell flashlight. Nothing but dust bunnies so I went down the line doing my routine until I reached the last Under where a little flutter of something caught my eye.

  A feather. A brown and white feather with a red tip.

  Carefully I stuck my hand and pulled it out, keeping the flashlight on it the whole time. Not that a feather was a big deal, but it seemed like a big deal to me.

  Now, if I were in my house, there are feathers all over from my feather pillow. I had no idea how those darn things got out of the pillow, but they did and they were everywhere I turned. Lucky for me, there were no Unders in my house, so I sucked them up in the vacuum.

  I didn’t see any throw pillows and I knew Henry wasn’t farting feathers. I tucked it down in my pocket and got up to find the calendar Bernadine insisted Henry had and his phone.

  The desk was as clean as a whistle with only a laptop on it. The darn thing was covered in what looked like to be fingerprinting powder, which Noah was good at using liberally. That meant that they had already gone through the files on the computer so I didn’t waste my time. And I bet they had already gotten Henry’s phone and phone records. That was probably the first thi
ng Noah had done or gotten off Henry’s body.

  There weren’t any drawers on the desk. Just a couple of sawhorses holding up a large piece of thick glass. Very modern. Very Charlie.

  With the tissues still in my hand, I started to open up all the fancy furniture drawers, but nothing was in them. If he did have a calendar, it looked like Noah had beaten us to it.

  Ding. My phone chimed a text. It was Flora wondering how much longer because she was a little scared.

  Now seemed like a good time since there was nothing there. Not even the carpet. I made my way down the dark hall and nearly passed out when my shin hit something in the dark. I used the light on my phone to see what it was. A fire extinguisher.

  “Damn.” I rubbed my shin when the pain wasn’t going away.

  I passed the bathroom on my way out the way I had come in and decided to slip on in there. I had to turn on the light to see and I used my shoe to shut the door, but not completely. I figured the bathroom was in the far part of the office and no one would be able to see the light, especially with the door partially closed. Hopefully Noah wasn’t going to come back through and do a butt check on the toilet seat, but for good measure, I laid toilet paper all over it and flushed it down when I was finished.

  There was never a time I hadn’t washed my hands after going to the bathroom, but now seemed like the logical time to skip that step. . .only I couldn’t bear to do it.

  With my elbow, I turned on the handle of the faucet and quickly ran my hands under the light stream of running cold water. When I went to grab one of the fancy disposable hand towels, I noticed something sticking out from under the sink base. I used the toe of my shoe to drag out whatever it was.

  “Weekly calendar?” I questioned the wording on the front of the pocket calendar before I picked it up.

  I bet Henry had used the bathroom and when he was leaning over the sink to wash his hands, the calendar had fallen out. But why didn’t he pick it up? Either way, I stuck it in my pocket and headed out the door. I had spent long enough in there and what Noah Druck didn’t find. . .well, as the old saying goes: finders keepers. Especially if it was somehow going to help clear Bernadine from a murder I was sure she didn’t commit.