Slay Bells Ring

by Karen Rose Smith

  However, 6:30 p.m. came and went and he didn’t walk in the door. She kept checking the bar stools in case he knew of another entrance she didn’t. Still, he was tall enough and broad shouldered enough that he’d be hard to miss.

  The evening business began to pick up, and she was trying to decide how long to wait past a half hour. Suddenly the front door opened and two people walked in who she’d never expected to see together.

  Bailey Adler wore a long, black winter overcoat, and with him was Kiki Hasselhoff! They slipped inside as if they didn’t want to be noticed and settled at a table in a far corner. Caprice didn’t move. She didn’t want them to notice her. What did a bookstore owner and a land developer have in common?

  The Chamber of Commerce, maybe. But Caprice couldn’t imagine what else. She knew a bit about Kiki, who was good friends with one of Nana’s friends. Bailey Adler was an unknown quantity, except for what she’d heard about him from Maura and Deanne.

  Bailey and Kiki’s business only lasted about fifteen minutes. Then Bailey stood, pushed his chair back with a bit of agitation, and left. As far as Caprice could see, they hadn’t even had a drink.

  After Caprice put enough bills on her table to pay for her soft drink and the waitress’s tip, she approached Kiki’s table before the bookstore owner could leave. Slipping into the chair that Bailey had vacated, she said, “This isn’t the type of place where I’d expect to see you.”

  Kiki looked startled for a minute, but then she gave Caprice a wry smile. “No, it’s not my usual stomping ground. Let’s just say I’m not a sports enthusiast.”

  Caprice laughed, hoping to put Kiki at ease, and that little interchange seemed to have done it. “So why are you here?”

  “This is where Bailey wanted to meet. Why are you here?”

  “I was supposed to meet one of Chris Merriweather’s buddies, but he didn’t show.”

  “You’re investigating?”

  “Not precisely. I’m just gathering information where I can.”

  “You really helped Rowena when her nephew was murdered. I can’t thank you enough for that. I felt helpless. You did something about it.”

  “You weren’t helpless. You were her best friend and stood by her. That counts.” Caprice glanced over at the bar where the waitress was busy lining up drinks on a tray. “Bailey’s name has come up while I’m gathering information. Can I ask why you two were meeting?”

  “You can ask. When the council vote goes his way for the rezoning, he wants me to move my bookshop into one of his stores. He even offered to cut the rent for the first year.”

  “I have to wonder why. Don’t you?”

  Kiki gave a snort of disapproval. “I don’t have to wonder far. I believe after that year, the rent would double and keep going up. I’ve been around long enough not to fall into that trap. I’m staying right where I am with a landlord I can trust. I as much as told him that, and he wasn’t happy.”

  “I wonder if Bailey is wheeling and dealing because he wants to assure the city council he’ll be able to rent the stores and bring in revenue. Maybe he has to have proof of that.”

  “That’s possible. You said you were gathering information about Chris Merriweather. Chris had warned all of us shop owners that Bailey could be ruthless and we shouldn’t fall for his spiel. Chris’s word was gold, so it is possible Bailey’s having problems finding renters. He might have to bring in someone from outside. I don’t know if any of us want that, and I don’t know if the town council would approve that.”

  The two women locked gazes and seemed to read each other’s thoughts.

  Finally, Kiki said in a low voice, “You’re not really thinking Bailey could have committed murder, are you?”

  “I don’t know. Could Chris’s opposition be a motive for murder?”

  Kiki shook her head. “I don’t know. Whenever money’s involved, it’s always a possibility.”

  The waitress finally crossed to them to take their orders. Kiki said to Caprice, “So how about having a drink or coffee with me? We’re both here. We can say we rooted for our team at Susie Q’s.”

  “What team?” Caprice joked.

  Kiki patted Caprice’s arm. “A team that won’t have the wool pulled over our eyes, not by Bailey and not by anyone.”

  That sentiment made her wonder about Harrison and why he hadn’t met her as they’d planned. Just why didn’t he want to talk to her? There was an obvious reason: maybe he was guilty of murder.

  * * *

  The miniature cat sitting in a Christmas stocking hung from one of the pine boughs on Grant’s Christmas tree.

  “You have great taste in ornaments,” he said the following evening, coming up behind Caprice and nuzzling her neck.

  She laughed. “We both have good taste in ornaments. I’m just glad you can have a Christmas tree here if I can’t have one at my place. I tried that the first year I took Sophia in. She climbed it and made the whole thing shake. I don’t know what Mirabelle would do, but I thought it would be better not to take any chances. Most of my Christmas decorations are hung high in places Sophia and Mirabelle don’t usually go.”

  After snuffling around the base of the tree while they’d set it up, Patches and Lady had pretty much settled for a nap over by Grant’s sofa. “They’re being very good about it.”

  “We’ll hang the unbreakable balls near the ground, though,” Grant assured her. “That way if Patches decides to nose one and it falls to the floor, no harm done.”

  “This is our first tree together,” Caprice proclaimed as if she’d just realized it.

  “We’re going to have a lot of firsts this year,” Grant reminded her, looking as if he had something on his mind.

  Caprice was silent in case Grant wanted to tell her what it was. When he didn’t, she took another ornament from a box on the coffee table and then hung it on the tree.

  He did the same and asked, “How’s the murder investigation going?”

  “Do you want every detail or just the highlights?”

  “If you think the details are important, go ahead.”

  She caught him up on everything she’d found out ending with her stint at Susie Q’s. “So, Harrison stood me up but Kiki and I had a talk. Apparently, Bailey Adler has devious ways. He offered Kiki one of the new retail spaces at a decreased rent for the first year. But she suspected he’d double it to make up for that the second year. She doesn’t trust him.”

  “Have you ever met the man personally?” Grant asked.

  “I spotted him with Maura. But, no, I’ve never talked to him myself.”

  “That’s probably just as well. He’s probably one of those people in a murder investigation you shouldn’t go anywhere near. That’s not a directive, just good advice.”

  She smiled because she knew Grant appreciated the fact she didn’t like to take orders. “I accept all advice from my fiancé.”

  “Okay, so let me try more advice. Don’t be too trusting with Sara.”

  That advice totally surprised Caprice. “Why not? I don’t suspect her.”

  “Is she collecting life insurance money from Chris’s death?”

  “I imagine since Chris was trying to prepare everyone for that event, he could have upped his policy.”

  “But she wouldn’t have known that.”

  “No,” Caprice said slowly. “She wouldn’t have. Brett might know about insurance money, but I don’t know if he’d tell me.”

  “Even if you’re not looking at Sara as a suspect, consider anyone who could benefit from Sara collecting the money or even selling the store.”

  “I suppose any of the kids might benefit. But unless that insurance money was a real windfall, she’s going to need an income. Retirement housing has fees no matter what she makes on the house if she sells it. Maura’s interested in running the craft shop with her. I told her to talk to her mom about it. I’m not sure why it’s so hard to communicate sometimes with people we love.”

  Grant gave her an odd loo
k, then he took her hand and led her over to the sofa where the dogs lay. “Since you brought up having conversations like that . . .”

  There were a lot of conversations they needed to have about the wedding, so she wasn’t overly nervous that Grant wanted to discuss something.

  “. . . we have to think about housing,” Grant continued.

  “You mean, where we’re going to live after the wedding?”

  “Exactly. Do you want to buy a house?”

  That question took her aback. “I have a house.”

  “I’ve given a lot of thought to this,” he said. “My place only has two bedrooms. Your place has three but no place where I could have a home office to meet clients. Maybe we should find something new or build something new.”

  Her breath caught at the idea, and she felt near panic. The truth was, she’d never thought about selling her house. She loved her house. But if she told Grant that, how would he feel? She wasn’t sure how she felt. Until she knew what she was willing to do and what she wasn’t willing to do, she didn’t want to have this conversation. Grant had had time to think about it. She needed time too. So, she was honest about that.

  “I haven’t really considered where we would live up until now. Can you give me a couple of weeks to figure out what I’d like to do?”

  “Of course, I can. It’s not as if we’re getting married next month, though I wish we were.”

  “I looked at wedding dresses with Roz and Bella and Nikki.”

  “Uh oh. The four of you could get into some real trouble.”

  She laughed. “No trouble, and no dress. I didn’t see anything I liked. If I want to order something, I’m going to have to do it really soon. But I don’t want to rush into it. So I think I’d just like to keep looking around and hope I find the just-right dress.”

  “I don’t care what you get married in, as long as we both stand at that altar and say I do.”

  To Caprice, her wedding dress was important. The church and flowers and pearls and lace were important. She was beginning to realize that she’d have to adjust her thinking to fit with Grant’s. She supposed that’s what compromise in marriage meant. She loved Grant, so they could work anything out, couldn’t they?

  The bigger question was, could she give up the house she loved to have a more spacious one with her new husband?

  * * *

  Exercising Lady in Kismet’s dog park the next evening, Caprice realized the one thing she liked best about walking there was watching other dogs with their owners. With about an hour of daylight left, Caprice stood under a decade-old oak and tossed Lady’s favorite ball, watching her run after it, retrieve it, bring it back, and plop it at Caprice’s feet. In the same area of the park, she noticed a woman with a toy schnauzer walk the perimeter of both the closed-in area and then the more open area. The little dog was wearing a sweater that could have been hand-knitted for all Caprice knew. It was adorable in white and red with faux fur around the neck. The red pattern was reminiscent of a Nordic sweater. A black standard poodle wearing a red wool coat pranced by her and Lady. The dog’s male handler was dressed in a black car coat with a black felt Fedora on his head. He was talking on his cell phone, and Caprice wondered if he was wheeling and dealing.

  To her left, a woman who could have been in her fifties trundled by in a white and yellow down parka. She wore a dog sling around her neck. In that sling nestled the cutest little Maltese. Apparently, the pup’s owner was the one who needed the exercise and the pup came along for the ride. Caprice noticed this dog was also wearing a cute sweater and a rhinestone collar too.

  She checked her watch. She was supposed to be meeting her dad here at four and possibly Grant too, if he finished his appointment downtown before dark. The temperature today was around forty degrees, though it would certainly drop as nightfall swept over the town. With global warming, December could be a mixed bag in Pennsylvania. Some years the temperature stayed at almost fifty degrees. Others, they had snow.

  For today, blue skies had prevailed, and although the sun was dipping toward the horizon, its rays still spread warmth. She’d worn her sixties-style navy pea coat with its gold brass buttons. Her wool camel slacks, reminiscent of sixties bell bottoms, had navy binding on the side seam. Her navy leather boots with their chunky heels could have been pulled straight off a vintage shelf. Secrets of the Past had put in the line with its retro style last year. To top it all off and to keep her head warm, she’d worn a John Lennon–style watch cap, also in camel. She and Lady had had a meeting with a dog-loving client late this afternoon, and her attire had been appropriate for that appointment as well as for this walk in the dog park.

  She noticed the black aluminum fencing around the dog park had been decorated in intervals with arrangements of pine boughs. A large candy cane adorned each swag along with a red ribbon. Those candy canes served as reminders to Caprice of the weapon that had been used to kill Chris. How terrible that a symbol of Christmas now had another meaning in her mind. And whenever she heard sleigh bells, she remembered the ones that Chris had jingled as he rode in the parade. She remembered the ones that were still on the sleigh where he’d been murdered.

  Lady’s ears flopped as she tilted her head from side to side and looked up at Caprice expectantly. Aren’t you going to throw it again? she seemed to ask.

  “Of course, I am,” Caprice assured her, scooping up her ball from the ground and tossing it in a different direction. It landed under a boxwood in a pile of dead leaves and Lady snuffled through them to find it.

  All day Caprice had been thinking about everything Grant had said. Each time she thought about selling her house, her heart hurt. Yes, she wanted to start a new life with Grant, but she liked her neighborhood. She liked her house.

  Shaking her head, she told herself over and over again they could choose a home together. Her home would be wherever Grant was, along with her animals. A home wasn’t about plaster and walls, a bay window, or even a back porch with a glider. No, it was about a house they could choose or build together. Wasn’t that the best way to start a new life . . . with something new to both of them?

  Still, she was sad about the idea of leaving a house she so lovingly painted, decorated, and furnished. It suited her and her pets’ needs beautifully. But apparently it wouldn’t suit Grant and what he needed. She’d just have to work on her affirmations and her thinking. If she’d simply let go and stayed open to ideas, they could work it out together. She knew they could, couldn’t they?

  She was so lost in thought that she missed the sight of her dad loping up the gravel lane toward her with Blitz at his side. The Malamute held his head high and pranced as if he knew where he was going—which was obviously straight toward her.

  Now that the dog had captured her attention, she dropped down into a crouch to greet him. “Hello, you beautiful fella. How are you doing today?”

  Although Blitz was stocky and furry, he was still able to dance from side to side, telling Caprice he was glad to see her. He rubbed his head against her coat. She put her arms around him and scratched his neck. He seemed to like it so much that she kept at it as she looked up at her father.

  “Hi, Dad. How was your day?”

  “About the same as Blitz’s,” he said with a straight face.

  She laughed. “Does that mean you were together all day?”

  “We were. Blitz helped me put together end-of-the-year tax information.”

  “Did he tell you which pile each receipt went on?” She knew how her dad worked. He spread out all over the living room, using categories only he knew to sort the receipts, which he then input into the computer program.

  “He was quite helpful until he swished his tail and everything went flying,” her dad explained. “But then we reorganized into even better categories.”

  Lady came running over to Blitz, and Caprice stood so the two dogs could say hello. “Where’s your ball?” Caprice asked.

  But Lady gave a sharp yip then nosed along Blitz’s sid
e as if to say greeting her friend was so much more important than fetching a ball. They rounded each other a couple of times until Caprice’s dad unleashed Blitz to give him more freedom. Then once Lady had apparently caught Blitz up on what she’d been doing before he arrived, they both ran off in the direction of the ball that had gotten lost in the pile of leaves.

  “How are you really doing?” Caprice asked her dad.

  “I’m keeping busy. Blitz and I mourn together, then we find something to do together. Your mom is making us both one of her special casseroles tonight—ground beef, noodles, carrots, and peas. I’m sure Blitz will enjoy it as much as I will.”

  “If she’s making Blitz food too she must be accepting him.”

  “She is. Who could not love a dog as gentle and special as Blitz?”

  That was Chris’s friend talking.

  “So, how are you?” her dad wanted to know. “How was your appointment?”

  “Mrs. Rivera signed on the dotted line. I’ll be staging her house after the New Year. We had the decluttering talk, and she wants time to try to do it herself with her husband. They’re going to rent a storage unit and move there what they think is in the way. They don’t want to start until after the New Year, which is fine by me. I have enough to keep me busy now.”

  “Work or the investigation?”

  “Both.”

  “Have you found anything out that Brett can use?”

  “Possibly.”

  “And that means?” her dad asked.

  “It means that Harrison Barnhart stood me up. I was supposed to meet him at Susie Q’s and he didn’t show.”

  “Harrison steps to the beat of his own drummer.”

  Caprice gave her dad a look.

  Her father shrugged. “He always has. He wasn’t one to take orders without question from what I understand from Mack. He often had skirmishes with his commanding officer.”

  “But now he owns his own construction company.”

  “Yes, he does, and is quite successful. He’s a leader, not a follower.”