Crimped To Death

by Tonya Kappes

  I looked around. Sean and Charlie were in a heated conversation at the front of the stage, away from the lights. That was where I needed to be. . .away from him.

  “I’m going to work on the table decorations.” Patsy waved bye and headed over to the adorable table lanterns where they were putting cute bling and candles in them. That was definitely her cup of tea. Bling looked good on and around her.

  “Spill it.” Ginger walked over and picked up the balled-up, mangled set of lights that was going to keep us busy for a while.

  “More than ever I believe that Charlie had something to do with Henry.” I could feel it in my gut. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was something. “When Patsy came to the shop, she confirmed that Henry and Charlie were having an affair. But. . .” I bit the edges of my lip. I looked over at Charlie. My eyes clouded with anger as she and Sean seemed to be making up. “Sean told me that Bernadine stood to gain millions of dollars upon the death of Henry Frisk to pay out the rest of the alimony. And if Henry changed the alimony, the insurance policy would be deleted too.”

  “So that was the evidence they had to arrest her?” Ginger’s eyes grew bigger.

  “Yeah.” I didn’t understand why Bernadine hadn’t told any of us about it.

  “That’s a big deal.” Ginger held up the ball of lights, sighed, and put them back down. “It gives her motive much larger than killing for alimony. Especially if it’s millions.”

  “That’s what I thought too. But why didn’t she ever mention it?” I asked. “I walk with her every day and she never mentioned it. Ever.”

  “Some people don’t like to talk about money.” Ginger handed me the ball of lights. “Do you think you can figure this out?”

  “Can I talk to you?” Charlie walked up behind us unannounced.

  “I’ll go get us a drink.” Ginger looked between me and Charlie before she bolted off.

  The noise of the decorating committee seemed to lower to a hush whisper. I didn’t want to look to see if they were watching what was going on between Charlie and me so I kept playing it cool.

  “Sure.” I shrugged and sat down on the barn floor. I winced in pain from a jab in my pocket. “I have to keep working on these lights if we are ever going to get them up before tomorrow night.”

  “I hear you are asking all sorts of questions about my relationships with Dr. Russell and Henry Frisk.” Charlie didn’t have as much of a problem popping a squat on the barn floor as I did.

  I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out the metal piece from the dental floss, Henry’s dental floss, and Dr. Russell’s dental floss along with the infamous feather.

  “I’m not saying I wasn’t in the beginning stages of a relationship with Henry when he was killed, but he made it clear that he wanted to try to make it work with his ex-wife.” Her hooded eyes swept past my shoulder.

  I put the floss down on the ground and turned to see what she was looking at. Sean was talking with Patsy and I bet it made Charlie jealous. Sean and Patsy looked over at us staring at them. Patsy’s face hardened when she saw Charlie.

  “Henry told you that the night of his death at The Livin’ End and you killed him for it.” I fanned the feather in the air. “You killed Henry Frisk.”

  “I did not kill Henry,” she whispered through gritted teeth. “Bernadine did. She found out about the affair and she killed him.”

  “So why were you fattening her up?” I asked.

  “How did you know about that?” Tears clouded those big beautiful eyes of hers and it made me happy that she was an ugly crier.

  “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize you refused to give me a piece, but fed Bernadine like I feed my pig. Bernadine was doing everything right to lose weight. But putting two and two together was part of it. The icing on the puzzle was when your sister, Barbie, told me all about poor pitiful young Charlie who would sabotage anyone to get what she wanted.” I jabbed the feather in her face. “You wanted Henry Frisk. Let me tell you something.” My face was inches from hers. “You don’t need to kill me off to get your paws on my ex-ass. You can have him.”

  I stood up and dusted myself off.

  “I’m going to find Sean.” Charlie glared at me. She held her hand out. “Do you want me to give Patsy her feather back?”

  “What?” My nose curled in disgust.

  “The feather.” She held out her hand. “It goes in the side of the Burberry Fedora. Pasty’s missing hers.” She looked around. “I’m sure no one else here has the same hat, though I want one. But I couldn’t afford one.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked eagerly.

  “Yes. I know my fashion,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “Where did they go?” The clues started adding up in my head. “I have got to find Sean.”

  “I thought you said that. . .” There was intensity in her lowered voice.

  “Never mind what I said!” I took off in a mad dash. “I’ve got to find him!”

  I bolted out the door with the feather in my grip. I had to find Sean. I didn’t know where they went. All I knew was that he was in the hands of a cold-blooded killer.

  “Hey Holly!” Reba darted to the side when I almost ran smack dab into her.

  “Hey! I. . .I have to go,” I said in a haste.

  “I wanted to thank you for having me there today. I’m so looking forward to working with you.” She grabbed my arm. “I love the design. But I have to confess that I was a little taken aback to see Patsy Russell in your shop.”

  “Patsy?” I stopped fighting her to get away.

  “Yeah, Patsy Russell has the best beaded jewelry collection and she wasn’t shy pointing out to Margaret McGee and her mom the flaws in all of the jewelry you made for Margaret.” Reba’s eyes smoldered with fire as she continued to talk. “I told Margaret not to listen to her. She even took Margaret’s bride box home with her and tried to fix what she said was messed up, but Margaret’s mom got wind about what Patsy was doing and marched over to the Russell mansion demanding Patsy give back the box.”

  “Wait.” I shook my head because it was having a hard time wrapping around what Reba was telling me. “You are telling me that Patsy had access to Margaret’s bride box?”

  Everything started to add up in my head like a cash register.

  “Yep. And when I saw her today, I had to chug down that champagne to even deal with the fact she was there.” Her brows rose. “In fact, Patsy lost her only friend that day. Mrs. McGee.”

  “Thanks, Reba!” I jumped up on my toes. “You didn’t happen to see Patsy just now did you?”

  “Yeah.” Reba pointed toward town in the direction of the police station and Henry Frisk’s office. “She jumped in an old truck with some hot guy. Probably another man that would stand in the way of her money like Dr. Frisk.”

  “Dr. Frisk?” I asked. My stomach knotted in fear.

  “Mrs. McGee said that Patsy wouldn’t stand for any competition for her hubby and dare risk losing money. Patsy saw Dr. Frisk as a liability to her checking account.”

  I didn’t stick around to hear the rest of what Reba had to say. I knew I had to get to Noah Druck and give him the information I had and free Bernadine.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  “Where in the hell did they go?” My eyes darted all over the roads as my Beetle sped down the streets of Swanee.

  I looked at all the cars I sped past with a little bit of hope that one would be Sean’s truck. I had to get to the police station and let Noah know about the feather.

  The idea that Patsy Russell could have killed Henry never even crossed my mind. But the feather was the telltale clue that she was at Henry’s office. Plus the fact that she probably had the crimp tool from my shop. Marlene was going to have to start taking good inventory when we get those bride boxes back. Or I was going to have to change my policy.

  But why? Why was Patsy visiting Henry? Was she really after him for a relationship? Why did she do it? None of it made sense. What made sense, was tha
t I had the missing piece to Henry’s murder.

  I grabbed my cell out of my pocket and my finger got pricked by the metal piece. I took it out and looked at it. I pulled the car over to the side of the road and took the dental flosses out of my pocket.

  I inspected both of them.

  Henry’s non-wax floss had a metal piece on it but it was different than Dr. Russell’s new floss which had two metal teeth sticking up to cut the floss, like the one I found at Bernadine’s house.

  Why would that have been at Bernadine’s?

  My phone chirped a text message. I looked at it.

  I’m out on bail. Call me. B.

  “Bernadine,” I gasped and dialed her immediately, putting her on speakerphone.

  “It was awful. Just awful.” Bernadine sobbed.

  I pulled the Beetle back onto the road.

  “Lock your doors!” I screamed out. “I need you to call Noah Druck and tell him I’m on my way. I know that Patsy Russell killed Henry. I have the missing evidence to prove it.”

  “What? What is it?” Bernadine begged to know.

  “Tell me one thing.” There was no time to answer her questions. “Have you ever had Patsy Russell to your house?”

  Somehow I had to put Patsy at Bernadine’s to explain the metal floss piece.

  “She left a note on my front door that she stopped by to talk about the Barn Dance, but I haven’t seen her since. I tried calling her back. Why?” Bernadine asked.

  “I don’t have time to tell you now. Tell Noah to put an APB out on Sean’s truck. Patsy has him hostage.” I hung up the phone in hope Bernadine would listen to me and do what I had asked her to do.

  When I zoomed past the street where Henry’s office was, I noticed Sean’s truck was parked out front. I slammed on my brakes and threw the car in reverse. I skidded the car right behind Sean’s truck.

  Without thinking about my next move, I ran into the office like I was some sort of hero.

  “Sean?” I called out into the dead silent office. “Sean?” I asked again, but my voice quivered.

  The door slammed behind me. I jumped around. Patsy Russell had a gun in one hand pointed directly at me and her other hand outstretched.

  “Give me the feather, Holly.” There was a slight twist of her lips. “I won’t hurt him if you give me the feather.”

  I put my hands up and she stuck the gun in my ribs.

  “If you don’t give me the feather, I will do to you and lover boy what I did to Henry.” She pushed the gun deeper into my side, causing me to wince. “Move.”

  I did exactly what she told me to do as she guided me into Henry’s office where she had bound and gagged Sean, who didn’t look so big and bad at the moment. In fact, if I weren’t in danger, I would have taken great joy in seeing him in the position he was in. Though I would have never wanted him harmed. . .or killed.

  “Tell me why you did it?” I asked through the pain.

  If she was going to kill me, I at least wanted to know why she caused so much pain. “You are a beautiful woman with so much life ahead of you.”

  What she had done just didn’t add up to me. The whys needed to be answered.

  “It’s not easy being a doctor’s wife. Especially when you have to keep up a good appearance. It costs money.” She tilted the gun sideways and had me get back-to-back with Sean.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of someone go by the window. I knew Bernadine had called Noah and it had to be the police out there ready to storm the joint and free me.

  I didn’t resist. I let her tie my hands and body to Sean’s. We hadn’t been this close since the last time we had made love. Sean’s body was tense. I could feel the fear inside of him.

  “I deliberately planted the crimp tool just so it would link them to Bernadine. Henry had to go. He was taking all of Kevin’s business.” She twisted and tied me up. “Kevin said that we were going to have to go on a budget. I wasn’t about to let that happen.”

  Sean’s hand grabbed mine and squeezed. Somehow it made me feel better knowing he was there with me. Patiently I waited to see if I could see what Noah and the police force was doing on the outside to free us. I squeezed Sean’s hand back.

  “I truly went to talk to Henry about the business, but in his smug high-falutin way, he said that it was Bernadine’s time to shine after what he had done to her.” She had a smug look on her face.

  If what she was saying was true, Henry Frisk really did want to get back with Bernadine.

  “Everyone in Swanee knows that I’m the best dressed and I wasn’t about to let some overweight divorcée come in and steal my thunder.” She stood up after she finished tying me up. She haphazardly waved the gun around like it was play pretend. “When he got a little pushy, I pushed back and the next thing I know, I stabbed him with his own knife.”

  “You are not only beautiful, but you are smart.” I coaxed her ego so she would tell me more. “How did you get the knife?”

  “Well, I figured he wasn’t going to give in so easy and I had already decided that if I needed to kill him so Kevin and I could stay on top, I would. So I paid a visit to Bernadine when I knew you loser Divas were having a meeting and I broke in and took the biggest knife I could find.”

  That must have been when she dropped the dental floss piece Willow had found, putting her at the scene of the break-in.

  “Planting the crimp tool not only placed Bernadine here, the weapon was also hers.” She kept the gun pointed at us and tapped her finger. “I’m smart. But dumb at the same time. When I got home, I noticed my feather was missing from my hat. I came back but the police were here. Then I decided to become friends with you by telling my sweet dear hubby that I wanted to learn to bead when in all actuality I already knew how to make those cheap bracelets that you sell at that little shop of yours.” A smiled crossed her face. “Honey, do you think I would really want a Holly Harper original when I only shop at Tiffany’s?”

  The more she talked, the more I wanted to get my bare hands around her perfectly thin neck. I struggled to get up.

  “Don’t worry. I’m going to go look in that little car of yours for my feather. I’m sure you won’t go anywhere.” She disappeared out the door.

  The sound of footprints got my adrenaline going, but the sound of the gun firing got Sean’s going and he was able to free us. We jumped to our feet and Sean tried to hold me back with his arms, but I pushed my way past him and down the hall hoping to see Patsy’s diamonds dripping with her own blood.

  “Two men coming to your rescue.” Patsy pointed the gun at me.

  “No!” I screamed when I saw it was Donovan who had gotten shot.

  “You don’t mess with a Diva’s ex-husband!” I screamed with the fire extinguisher over my head.

  Her hand was shaking so bad, I knew it was my time to take charge. Without even thinking, I flung the steel cylinder right at her.

  A shot rang out as someone flung me to the floor, their body covering mine.

  “Police! Police!” I could hear Officer Kiss screaming and footsteps thundering toward us. “We have four people down. We need an ambulance.” I heard her call.

  Four people? My eyes were closed. I wasn’t sure if I had been shot. But I counted out four people. Donovan, Sean, me, and Patsy. Four down?

  Chapter Twenty Three

  “You are one lucky girl,” Carol, Dr. Russell’s secretary, walked up to the Diva table.

  Ginger, Marlene, Agnes, Cheri, Flora, Bernadine and I had decided it was best to go to the dance together. After what had happened with Patsy murdering Henry, we thought it’d be best to stick together like glue as we always had.

  “Thanks, Carol.” I held up my iced tea.

  I wasn’t going to argue with her. When Officer Kiss had yelled that four people were down and I counted out the four people and knowing Donovan had been shot, I was lucky. The four of us were sent to the hospital. Luckily, Patsy wasn’t good with the handgun so Donovan’s thigh was only grazed by th
e stray bullet and he was treated and released before they let me talk to him.

  Sean and I were just checked out to make sure we were okay and not too shaken up. Patsy, I knocked the hell out of her with the fire extinguisher after she shot Donovan and turned the gun on me.

  Sean said that I saved his life. . .again. I told him not to be so flattered.

  I tried to see Donovan before I left the hospital, but since I wasn’t family, they told me I wasn’t allowed to. That didn’t stop Diva Cheri who sweet-talked a young orderly into letting her in to see Donovan. Unfortunately, Donovan had just been released and that was how I had found out he had gotten only a surface wound.

  Several times throughout the rest of the night and day, I had tried to call and text him with no response. Eventually, his phone went straight to voicemail. He was ignoring me and I was going to have to give him time. Which meant that when the Divas showed up at my post-emergency room bedtime, they talked me into going with them to the Barn Dance.

  The entire day, I had fielded calls about the big shoot out and I was sure I was going to be doing a lot of explaining to more as the night grew.

  There was a local four-man band that was up on the stage belting out the latest Tim McGraw songs, which sounded a lot like karaoke to me, but who was I to judge? I was just glad to be alive.

  The bundled lights seemed to have gotten untangled and strung all over the barn. There were hay bales strewn all around the edges of the barn and were taken up by people’s rumps. And the bar-b-que pit was a hit, just like always. But the dessert line, provided by Agnes Pearl and Bernadine’s Second Cup, was the hit of the night.

  It was true. Bernadine stood to get millions of dollars from the insurance policy that was taken out on Henry and she was planning on donating to a lot of charities, especially the ones that helped children get dental care. It made me proud to see her hard work at Second Cup pay off.

  “So you mean to tell me.” Agnes Pearl wore a plaid bandana tied around her neck to go with the theme of the barn. She talked with her hands, “Donovan Scott showed up to save you?”