by Raven Snow
Margo removed her shades and sat down next to Peony at the table. “Isn’t it crazy that Aunt Nadine is getting married in less than a week?”
Willow groaned. “Don’t remind me.”
“Don’t remind you?” Peony shot a dirty look at her sister. “You’re not the one who has to live with them. They make the worst noises at night. God forbid I have to come downstairs to get a glass of water.”
Rowen remembered well how it was to stay here these days. She and Eric had been forced to spend several nights back in the Greensmith household after their own home was overtaken by an angry swarm of wasps. “I’ll stay on the lookout for a place you could manage by yourself,” Rowen promised. Not that that promise meant much. Lainswich wasn’t exactly awash with prime real estate, hence the rising prices.
“How’s it going, kids?” asked Reginald, effectively putting a stop to any gossiping they might have done. Peter was right behind him.
“Just fine,” Margo said, quickly.
“We cleared out a spot for the wedding,” said Rowen.
Peter’s face lit up at that. He looked very much like his brother, with a short stature and graying hair. “I appreciate that. Thank you so much.”
“Rose and Ben were a big help.” Eric glanced at the door. “I think they’re still outside with Nadine.”
As if on cue, Nadine entered the room. She had a curious expression on her face. It wasn’t quite a smile. It was more like she was trying to put on a pleasant expression and it wasn’t really working out. It became only marginally more genuine when she saw that the table was set. “Oh, good, we can all go ahead and eat.” She said that very quickly. “Lydia!” she called. “Come eat!”
Lydia made her way into the room, looking quite a bit more upbeat than her sister. She paused at the door to kiss her husband. They lingered a bit too long staring into each other’s eyes for comfort. Rowen supposed she should just be happy that she could finally tell the brothers apart with about an eighty percent success rate. Reginald was a bit more outspoken than his brother. Peter’s personality was more compatible with Nadine’s. He didn’t speak as loudly or as much as his brother and, when he did, he was generally pleasant. Currently, Peter was frowning at Nadine. It was like he could tell that something was wrong but knew it wasn’t the time to ask what.
“Well, let’s eat, why don’t we?” Lydia made her way to her seat at the head of the table. She looked around, her brow furrowing slightly. “Where’s Rose?” she asked, calling attention to the fact that her daughter wasn’t in the room.
“Oh, they were just behind me,” Nadine said, quickly.
Sure enough, there came Rose and Ben. They were holding hands, Ben leading the way. Rose’s eyes were on the ground. It looked like her mind was racing. You could practically see the thoughts flying through her head behind those dark eyes of hers. She snapped to attention when she realized that all eyes were fixed on her. She focused instead on the dining room table and all the food laid out on top of it. “Looks good!”
Everything settled down then and the Greensmith family took their seats. Food was passed around and spooned out onto plates while small talk was had. It was the typical family dinner… except for Rose and Ben. Rowen couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but something wasn’t quite right with those two. There was something secret there. Rowen could tell.
Oh well. Rowen pushed the matter to the back of her mind. Rose would tell her what was wrong when she wanted to tell. Meanwhile, Rowen just focused on food. It was delicious, as per usual. Lydia and Nadine cut no corners when it came to a family meal.
“Reginald made the chicken,” Lydia said proudly, turning her head to her husband and smiling.
Reginald smiled as well, though Rowen could tell he was trying not to look too proud of himself. “There wasn’t much to it,” he assured them.
“Peter made the buns,” Nadine offered.
Peter’s face went a little red. “There really wasn’t a whole lot to that. It’s not like they’re made from scratch or anything. They came out of a tube.”
Nadine laid her right hand on top of Peter’s left. “Still. You’re getting better at cooking.”
“It’s fun,” Reginald agreed.
“I think I do more cooking than she does these days.” Eric glanced at his wife.
“That sounds about right,” Rowen agreed. “I’m not the best at anything that’s not breakfast foods.”
“Why would you ever need to cook anything else?” asked Peony. “Breakfast is delicious.”
“Agreed,” said Willow. “My boyfriend and I don’t really cook. Benji is super bad at it. We have cereal for dinner a lot.”
Nadine sat up straighter in her chair, looking positively scandalized. “I wrote you pages and pages of easy recipes before you moved away.”
Willow shrugged. “Yeah, but I’m an adult. I can eat cereal for dinner if I want to.”
There was still a frown on Nadine’s face. “We’ll talk about this later.”
Willow rolled her eyes but didn’t argue with her mother. “I can’t really say anything,” said Rose, finally dropping that distracted stare of hers to fall into the comfortable pattern of small talk. “Ben and I hardly ever have any time to cook.”
Ben nodded in agreement. “We both have fairly demanding jobs.”
“It’s takeout almost every night,” Rose said with a sigh. “That or sandwich stuff.”
“Speaking of sandwich stuff,” Lydia cut in. “We need to make the finger sandwiches the night before Nadine’s wedding or they’ll get soggy. That means we’ll have to focus on all the cooking earlier in the day. I’ll need everyone’s help for that.”
“Sure,” said Rowen.
“I’ll have to check my schedule,” said Margo.
Ben cleared his throat. He glanced at Rose. She gave him a small shrug before he continued. “Speaking of weddings, I have something of an announcement.”
Lydia’s eyes went wide. She sat up straight in her chair while Nadine looked fixedly down at her plate. Rowen could feel her own pulse picking up a bit.
“Rose and I are getting married,” Ben stated.
Lydia gave a high-pitched squeal, making everyone cover their ears. “You got engaged?! When did you get engaged?!”
Rose idly scrunched her napkin up in her hands. “We’re not engaged exactly.” She bit the inside of her mouth as all eyes turned to her. “We agreed that an engagement seemed kind of pointless.”
Lydia nodded in approval. “You’re not wrong,” she admitted. It would be hypocritical for Lydia, of all people, to judge her daughter for dropping overpriced tradition to just go ahead and get hitched. Not so long ago, she had had herself a hasty courthouse wedding. “Have you set a date yet?”
Rose looked to Ben. Ben, in turn, nodded. “As a matter of fact, we have.” He looked at Nadine.
“They were asking about, maybe, some sort of double wedding,” Nadine explained. “They would use our venue right after we were finished with it.”
Peter nodded. “That sounds fine by me.”
Everyone besides Peter was silent for an uncomfortable length of time. Looks were being exchanged, like no one was completely sure what to think. “Well, congratulations!” said Rowen, feeling compelled to say something before things got too awkward. Everyone echoed her after that. No one sounded terribly sincere. This was so sudden, and it was difficult to tell how the two directly involved felt about it. It was a difficult spot to be placed in.
***
The rest of the dinner progressed with significantly less small talk than usual. Ben didn’t really seem to notice, but it was clear that Rose did. She sat there, staring at her plate as if distracted, merely picking at the food in front of her. “Well, that was fantastic,” Rowen said as soon as she was finished. She stood and took her plate to the kitchen, followed by Eric. After placing her plate in the sink, she left the house with him. It wasn’t that she was leaving yet. She just wanted to get some air on the front porch.
The energy in the Greensmith household at this particular moment was stifling.
“So, what was up with all that?” asked Eric, stepping out into the nighttime breeze behind her.
“You’re guess is as good as mine.” Rowen was thankful he had brought it up first. She hated to think of a match between Rose and Ben as a bad thing, but everything about this felt strangely forced. “Last I talked to Rose, she was complaining that Ben still hadn’t proposed. That was just a few hours ago. I guess she could have brought up the subject with him after our conversation, but…”
“But it’s still weird.” Eric shook his head, like this was a puzzle he was very much stuck on. “When did he even have time to propose?”
“I’m not sure he even proposed,” said Rowen. “I guess he could have talked about it with her on the way over here. Since there wasn’t really an official engagement, they might have just brought it up with Nadine to see if piggybacking off her wedding was doable.”
Eric leaned against the wooden banister. “Rose doesn’t seem all that thrilled.”
“You don’t have to tell me.” That had been the very first thing that Rowen had noticed. “It was hard to miss.” Rowen really wanted to get her cousin alone and talk to her about what had happened. She wasn’t sure she would get the chance tonight, unfortunately.
The front door opened suddenly and out walked Ben. “Hey guys,” he said, pausing when he realized he wasn’t alone.
“Hey, yourself.” Rowen managed a smile that at least felt genuine. “Find yourself needing some fresh air, too?”
“Something like that.” Ben removed a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He rattled the box at Rowen and Eric. “Do you mind?”
“Go for it,” said Eric.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” said Rowen.
Ben put the cigarette to his lips and removed a lighter from his pocket. “Only when I’m stressed,” he said with a shrug.
“Weddings can be stressful,” Eric agreed.
“It’s not that,” Ben assured him. “If anything, the wedding is a weight off my mind. I knew Rose was getting impatient to get married even before she came right out with it. It’s just…” He spread his hands as if frustrated by the question and at a loss. “Who has the time?”
“Not you?” Rowen guessed, her tone dull.
“Not me,” Ben agreed. “I’d love to give her a gorgeous wedding, but… You would think a small town like Lainswich would have less work than your average station. Instead, our budget is too low to be anything but understaffed, and we’re always so bogged down with paperwork and the like. I can’t just give myself a vacation whenever I’d like. I haven’t trained anyone to take over for me in my absence yet. I don’t have an employee who has even shown an interest.”
“You could just take an afternoon here and there, couldn’t you?” asked Rowen. “You can’t be busy all the time.”
“You’d be surprised.” Ben took a puff on his cigarette. “I took off for the wedding coming up, and that’s all my free time for a while. Getting married to Rose then is perfect. It’s like killing two birds with one stone.”
“I’m not sure marriage is supposed to be like killing birds,” Eric muttered.
“Huh?” Ben glanced back at Eric.
“He said that’s a good idea as long as you’re both happy.” Rowen went to lean against the banister herself. The breeze was nice. She closed her eyes and focused on it.
“I’m sure we will be,” said Ben. His confidence in that was good, at least.
It hit Rowen all at once, and it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. “Uh oh.” Her eyes snapped open.
“Uh oh?” Ben repeated, looking in Rowen’s direction.
“There’s something on the wind,” said Rowen. It was faint, but it was definitely there. “Something happened just now. Someone got murdered… or they’re about to.”
Ben took a very deep drag on his cigarette. “Great,” he said, breathing out. “That’s just what I was hoping for.” He shook his head. “And you wonder why I can’t take afternoons off.”
Chapter Two
It was the very next day when Peter invited Rowen and her cousins out to eat. Rowen figured this was because everyone was working so hard to get the wedding together for Nadine. Well, that and the fact that he was about to be an official part of the family.
They all sat around the table at Lainswich’s only Mexican restaurant. It was a casual event. Only Margo had dressed up in what looked to be some kind of specially tailored, designer romper. Willow had brought Benji along for some reason. It was just as well since Rowen had brought Eric.
“I know we haven’t spent a whole lot of time together,” said Peter, putting on a smile. He was twitchy, more than a little nervous being here without Nadine or his brother handy. “After Nadine and I are married, I hope we get to know each other a lot better.”
“Absolutely,” Willow agreed, dipping a chip from the center of the table. “I’m always down for free food.”
“It’s better than cereal,” Benji agreed, quietly.
Rowen kicked her cousin beneath the table— or tried to. It was Benji who winced and swore. “Sorry,” Rowen said quickly. “Leg spasm.” She glared at Willow briefly, trying to somehow communicate that it wasn’t polite to just assume lunch was free.
Willow didn’t seem to notice. “Is Ben going to be spending more time with us too after you guys are married?” she asked Rose.
“I don’t know,” Rose admitted. She was still looking distracted today. She hadn’t bothered to put on makeup before leaving the house. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face, several frizzy, errant hairs sticking up. “I’m not sure he’ll be able to. He’s always so busy at work.”
“But he loves his work, right?” asked Peter, making an obvious effort to inject some levity into the situation.
Rose nodded. “He loves it. I couldn’t ask him to quit or anything like that. It’s too important to him.”
“I’m sure you’re important to him too,” Peter said before Rowen could. She was beginning to come around to these brothers who loved her aunts. “Maybe he can train someone who can work when he’s unable to. Everyone has to take some time off every now and again. It makes you a more efficient worker. There’s no point in burning yourself out. I’d imagine that goes double for someone in a job as important as his.”
“You’d think so,” Rose echoed.
Rowen wanted more than ever to have a word with her cousin. Before they all went their separate ways, Rowen was determined to get Rose alone. She had some questions she needed to ask her.
“That proposal stuff last night was wild,” said Peony.
“It was,” Willow agreed. She glanced at her boyfriend. “Don’t you go proposing to me any time soon.”
Benji’s eyes went wide, his face burning slightly red. “I wasn’t planning on it.”
Willow frowned. “And why not?”
Benji’s face grew redder. “I don’t— I thought—” he sputtered.
“Ignore her,” said Rowen. “I don’t know why she’s like this.” Rowen looked back to Rose, wondering if she shouldn’t ask her to come with her to the ladies’ room for a chat when her phone rang. Rowen pulled her phone from her purse. All eyes were on her as she checked to see who it was. Ben. Rowen considered answering it at the table, but she had a sense that whatever she was about to discuss with him wasn’t likely to be a meal time conversation. “I’ll be right back,” said Rowen, hurrying from the building. She answered the phone the moment she stepped outside. “What’s up?”
“Are you alone?” asked Ben.
Rowen took a look around for good measure. “Sure looks that way. Why?”
Ben sighed heavily. “Because you were right. There’s been a murder— Well, a death. We haven’t found any evidence that it was a murder yet. It’s just that your track record with these things typically points to murder.”
“Not always, but… Yeah. I guess.” Rowen cringed. “Can yo
u tell me what happened?”
“Not yet. Once you get to the scene I’ll fill you in.”
“You want me to come down there?”
“If you don’t mind,” said Ben. “The sooner the better. You’re usually my best bet at figuring this stuff out.”
Rowen looked back at the restaurant. She sighed. It wasn’t like she could deny him. A potential murder was more important than yet another family dinner. “All right,” she agreed, albeit with reluctance. “Just send me the address so I can plug it into my GPS.”
“Sure thing,” said Ben. “Bring Eric along with you, if that’s possible. Don’t say anything to Rose or the rest of the Lainswich Inquirer. I can’t have this getting out yet.”
Rowen liked the sound of that even less. She was happy to bring Eric along, but it was frustrating to know he trusted Rose so little. It wasn’t like Rowen wasn’t part of the Inquirer too.
“I don’t want to make this difficult for her. It’s part of what we agreed to back when we first started dating.” Ben explained this like it was something that she should be aware of already. “It would reflect poorly on me if I brought her in here. It already looks shady enough when I bring you in.”
“Just send me the address,” Rowen grumbled. “I’ll see you soon.” She hung up and headed back inside. Everyone was still sitting around, menus in hand. It seemed they were waiting to order until she got back. Rowen really wished that she could sit down with them for a while longer. “Sorry, but Eric and I need to go,” she stated instead.
The whole table perked up at this. “What?” asked Peony. “Why?”
“Business,” said Rowen, giving Eric a look that she hoped communicated what she meant.
“There’s been a murder,” said Rose. It wasn’t a guess. She was good at reading Rowen. “That was Ben on the phone.”
Rowen knew she wasn’t supposed to say anything, but it was difficult to keep her mouth shut when Rose was already guessing at the truth. It wasn’t like she wouldn’t know soon anyway. “It was Ben,” she confirmed.
