by Linnea West
"Sorry guys," she said. "I knew that Tessa really likes a good chardonnay and the type I wanted was apparently hiding somewhere so it took a little longer than expected to find it. Did you guys talk about anything interesting while I was gone?"
"No, we were just talking about Christmas," I blurted out, saying the first thing that came to mind.
Derek worked hard to cover the initial grimace that crossed his face as he wondered where in the world I had pulled that from.
"I was saying that this would be a great room for a Christmas party and then I said maybe I would host something here and Derek agreed and then we talked about how we would decorate it," I said. The words were just spilling out of my mouth and I couldn't stop myself.
Both Mandy and Derek just stared at me, the same confused expression on both of their faces as I rambled on about strings of lights and roaring fires and how we could fit three Christmas trees in this room if we moved things around a little. Finally I grabbed the wine bottle and poured us all another glass of wine that I hurriedly drank half of so I wouldn't keep blabbing on.
"Okay," Mandy said once I shut up long enough for her to get a word in. "I know you love Christmas, but that was a bit much."
"You're right, let's not talk about it again until November," I said.
The three of us laughed as we clinked glasses once more. Mandy had definitely picked out a good chardonnay and as I sipped it, I tried to push back my uneasy feelings about the murder and Carol. Something was still not right, but I didn't know what it was.
Chapter Sixteen
Raucous laughter filled the front yard of the B&B as all of the girls gathered before departing on the party bus for Mandy's bachelorette party. I had suggested we have the party a few weeks ahead of time, but Mandy wanted her mother to attend and Sally wasn't able to come until Thursday morning, so here we were two days before the wedding. I was planning to have fun, but hopefully not too much fun. This wedding weekend was meant to be a marathon, not a sprint.
The coach bus pulled up in front of the house and we all piled on, dragging coolers of drinks and random paraphernalia like a large, blow-up palm tree that was fast becoming one of the girls for some reason. The party had already been going on for two hours in my backyard and many of the girls had already had a few too many considering that it could barely be considered evening. Mandy had been doing a great job of pacing herself, mostly because I kept handing her a bottle of water and taking drinks out of her hand. She had on a plastic tiara with a veil and a costume tutu around her waist along with a large smile plastered on her face. She was obviously having the time of her life.
The bus had once been a coach bus for large group field trips and such, but it had since been converted into a party bus. Down both sides of the bus were bench seats that stretched the entire length of the bus and in the middle were two poles that some of the more innovative girls were already using for dancing. There was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling and colorful rope lights around the top of the bus that gave it a feeling like we were already at a dance club.
Our first stop was The Loony Bin, which was in downtown Shady Lake. It was a classier establishment than some of the other joints we were going to that evening, so I figured we should stop there first before we could cause too many problems. I had also warned Rich we were coming so that he would be ready for the onslaught of giggly almost middle aged women who would be filling up his bar and grill for an hour or so.
"Girls, I just want to say a few words," Sally said. She stood at the front of the bus as it lurched out of the driveway and towards downtown. "You are all such a great group of girls and you love Mandy so much. Thank you for always being there for her and I hope we can all have fun, but not too much fun tonight."
Smatters of applause and cheers came from around the bus as Sally winked a cheeky wink at everyone. Then Sally walked over and turned up the volume on the radio as she changed it to a station that was playing some sort of hip-hop that I didn't recognize, but that certainly made me want to dance.
"But for now, let's get the party started!" Sally yelled above the music and all of the girls started screaming and whistling as they jumped out of their seats. I started to shake my booty along with them but all too soon, the bus stopped in front of the Loony Bin.
I tried to shove my way to the front but before I could get there, Rich came bounding up the stairs. At first I was afraid that he had decided to turn us away because we were already too rowdy, but instead he had a big smile on his face.
"Hello ladies," he said. "I'm happy to tell you that I have complementary shots for all of you and the upstairs private seating area is open for you. We have a band scheduled to start playing in about fifteen minutes. So let me know if you are ready to have a good time."
Another cheer went up and I couldn't help but "WOO" along with them. Rich used to be a serious guy, but as he aged and found love again with Sue, he had loosened up considerably.
Rich went back down the stairs and as we got off he handed each one of us a necklace that had a big plastic medallion that said TEAM BRIDE and lit up in different colors. As we entered the bar, the patrons had lined up to form a gauntlet that we had to run while we high-fived everyone. As I ran through and smacked hands with a bunch of townies that I knew, I couldn't help but be so happy to be back in Shady Lake.
Once I was upstairs, I had to assume that Rich wanted the Loony Bin to become the bachelorette party destination in the area. The walls were covered with banners declaring TEAM BRIDE and there were big diamond rings made from cardboard. It was so much fun and all of the girls immediately started snapping pictures of themselves and each other, probably to post on social media. I just sat back and enjoyed the fun.
A few minutes later, two bartenders came up the stairs with trays full of shots. It had been a while since my party days, but a best friend only gets married once usually. At least, Mandy would only get married once. I decided to partake in the shots which made me feel both like an old fuddy-duddy and like I was 21 again. We all had a Girl Scout shot that tasted like chocolate mint and a Scooby Snack shot that just tasted sweet. That was chased down by a bottle of spiked cider that someone handed me.
By the time we were done with all of that, the band came on stage and the lead singer called the bachelorette party down to the dance floor. We all piled down the stairs, careful not to trip each other as we giggled and stumbled our way to the open space that had been cleared as a dance floor.
The band started playing fun cover songs and all of the girls plus the townies that frequented the place all sang along and danced. As the party got going, girls from the party kept handing me shots that I just couldn't turn down. The night was becoming one fun blur.
I glanced at my watch at one point and realized that we would need to get back on the party bus after another ten minutes or so. I swayed along to the music, wishing I would have forgone the bus and just partied here all night.
The crowd parted and standing across the dance floor from me was Rebecca. The first time I had seen her, she had been dressed down in schlubby pull-on mom jeans and an oversized t-shirt with cartoon characters. The next time she had been a bit more pulled together with a plain shirt and regular jeans. But now she was dressed in a sleek, dark purple dress that fit her just right. She was wearing big, red earrings that looked like fireworks, but they looked oddly mismatched somehow. Her blunt, red haircut seemed somewhat toned down. Now it was all less "little kid" and more "mature woman." I wondered if Murray's death had led her into some sort of crisis of character.
Rebecca was staring right at me through the crowd of people. My blood alcohol level told me it was a great idea to go talk to her right now about the murder and her sister relationship. After all, my sisters were with me at the party tonight.
I danced my way across the floor and reached Rebecca, who danced with me for a little while before she grabbed my hand and led me to a table just a ways off from where the band was playing. I sat down, happy to
give my feet a break. My head was spinning and I was so happy and just having a really, really great time.
For a few minutes, we just sat in silence and I gazed out at the dance floor. Mandy was having a great time and she was so pretty. She was going to make a beautiful bride. Tears sprung to my eyes and I started crying as I thought about her wedding. She had waited so long for this and Trevor was such a great guy, even if he was a nincompoop. He'd given me a pretty sweet bicycle, after all. Then I realized that Rebecca was just sitting and staring at me as I cried. I picked up a napkin and dried my eyes.
"Mandy is almost like a sister to me," I explained, trying not to trip over my words. "I'm just so happy she is getting married. I bet you felt this happy when Carol married Murray, may he rest in peace."
I felt like I was a pretty smooth operator, being able to slide all of that in. Rebecca was nursing a glass of red wine and she studied my face as she swirled it around in the glass. She lifted it to her lips and took a drink.
"My sister and I actually aren't all that close," she said. "I was always glad she married rich, of course, but I never would have called her a friend. She was my boss and I was her employee. It just happened that we shared a last name for most of our lives."
I let that sink in. The music was still pounding into my soul as I swayed back and forth. I looked at my watch again. We had to get back on the bus, but I really wanted to keep talking to Rebecca. That's when I came up with what seemed like a great idea.
"You must be sad that your sister killed Murray," I said. For once, my bluntness could be blamed on something besides just a character flaw. "You should come with us on the party bus."
Rebecca eyed me up and down before she picked up her wine glass and drained it. She stood up from her chair and grabbed her purse.
"You know what? I will," she said. "I will come with you on that bus. For once, I want to be the one out having fun instead of my sister."
"Umm, okay," I said. I hadn't actually expected that she would say yes. "I have to get my purse and round up the girls. Meet me by the front door."
Sally took charge and asked the lead singer of the band to announce that all of us girls had to go. After a mad stampede up the stairs to grab our things and chug down the rest of half consumed drinks, we were headed to the door.
As I walked by Rebecca, she slid her arm through mine. I flashed her a smile and she smiled back, but there was something about her face that suggested it wasn't an entirely happy expression. No matter, hopefully I could get her to loosen up a little more and tell me about her sister. If this went well, I would have to consider doing more of my investigative work after having a few shots.
Chapter Seventeen
After leaving the Loony Bin, the party bus took us on a long, scenic drive around the lake and then out into the country. The plan was to hit some of the super small townie bars that were in all of the tiny towns that were scattered around Shady Lake. That meant some party time on the bus before we got to our next stop.
A few of the girls started playing truth or dare while some of the others pulled out a deck of cards and started shuffling and dealing some other game. Mandy was happily ensconced in the games, so I turned my attention to Rebecca. She was sitting at the very back of the bus. Even though she was all alone, she didn't look lonely or even awkward. She had pulled a beer out of one of the coolers and was nursing it as the bus turned onto a country road and started out of town.
"I hope you are having fun," I said as I plopped down next to her.
"Oh yes, it's a blast," she said with a straight face.
"I bet you did this sort of thing for Carol before she married Murray, right?" I asked. I figuratively patted myself on the back for sliding back into my detective mode. I was being pretty slick, if I did say so myself.
"No, like I said before, Carol and I weren't really friends," Rebecca said. Shoot, I had forgotten about that. "When she got married, I was barely invited to the ceremony. She only included me because she said she would be chastised by everyone if she didn't. We grew up poor and we only had each other by the time we reached adulthood. Our bond was one of survival, not companionship."
"So did you work as her housekeeper so that you could survive?" I asked.
Rebecca drained the dregs of her beer. She stood up and threw the bottle in the recycling bin where it clinked against all of the other bottles that had been drained so far tonight. Grabbing a bottle of whiskey, she returned to her seat and looked at me.
"Yes, I did," she said.
She uncapped the whiskey and took a pull, then handed it to me. I tried to just sit and hold it, but after a few silent moments, I took the smallest of drinks from it, hoping it would appease her.
"See, when we got to be adults, we only had each other because our parents had died," she said. "They had been dirt poor and when they died, they hadn't even left us a penny. Carol had somehow managed to get a full-ride scholarship to college, but I wasn't as smart. We moved into an apartment together because I worked full time. She promised me that if I could help pay for her expenses while she was in school, she would help take care of me after that."
"That was really sweet of her," I said.
Rebecca squinched up her face as she gave me a look. Grabbing the whiskey out of my hands, she took another long pull off of it. It seemed like such an act of desperation that I had to look away, embarrassed to be staring at her. I scanned the bus to make sure that Mandy was still having fun and when she gave me a big smile and a wave from the middle of one of the card games, I knew I didn't have to worry. Once Rebecca was done, she slammed the top back on the bottle and wiped her upper lip.
"It would have been sweet if she had kept up her end of the bargain," Rebecca said. "Once she graduated, I had planned on going to school. I may not have been as smart as Carol was, but I was no dummy. But by that point, Carol was engaged to Murray and he was a piece of work. He had promised her a lavish lifestyle if she just agreed to be his trophy wife. And without even thinking of me, she had said yes. Then she told me that the only way she could help me was if I worked for her. She said that she would take care of all of my living expenses and give me a small stipend if I would be their housekeeper. I didn't have a lot of choices, so I said yes."
"But it was a good job, right?" I said. I felt so invested in her story that I almost fell over when the bus went around a corner. I pushed myself back up onto the seat, trying to be casual about it. "Like Carol did take care of you."
"She did and she didn't," Rebecca said. "She did let me have some nice things like these earrings that used to be a part of a fancy jewelry set. Carol also let me drive one of their luxury cars and my bedroom was nicely decorated. I even got to watch the fireworks from that fancy boat that Murray loved so much. But I was still considered a servant. I wasn't one of the family. I couldn't just waltz into the dining room at dinnertime and sit down to eat with them."
Rebecca's face hardened as she talked. Her eyes grew dark and her hands clenched into fists at her sides. I wasn't sure what to make of this and I was starting to regret inviting her along on the bus when all of a sudden, it all cleared away. All traces of the anger vanished from her face and she was back to being the smiling Rebecca like she had been at the Loony Bin.
"The one happy spot is that Murray put me in his will," she said. "I stand to inherit a lot of money now that he is dead. I can finally go back to school and make something of myself."
I was about to ask her about her relationship with Carol now that we all knew she was the prime suspect in Murray's murder. But the bus turned into another parking lot and chugged to a stop, making several of the girls topple over into the open center of the bus, laughing the whole time.
Even I stumbled a bit towards the other side. Before I could get my balance, Rebecca was already making her way off of the bus. She was waving a fan of twenty dollar bills and promising rounds of shots for everyone that followed her. Naturally, she became the mother duck to a whole swarm of tipsy women.
Once we were inside the bar that we had inundated, much to the chagrin of the older men who frequented it, I spotted Mandy making her way to the bathroom. I followed her to make sure she was having a fun time.
"Tessa!" she squealed once I grabbed her arm. "Thank you for planning this. I'm having a great time."
I relaxed a little bit. As long as Mandy was having a good time, then the night would be considered a success. All of this was for her, after all.
"I just wanted to make sure everything was good," I said. "I'm going to go get you a water, alright? We need to stay hydrated."
Mandy just nodded at me with shining eyes. I could tell she was in that place where she felt really good, but if she wasn't careful she'd fall over the cliff into blackout real fast. If the bachelorette party had been a few weeks earlier, that would have been alright, but no one wanted a massive hangover the day before their wedding.
As I got us a round of waters, one of the girls I hardly knew pulled me by the arm into the bathroom. Her name was Kiley and she had already linked arms with my sister Tilly and another girl I hardly knew. For some reason, she had decided she needed a posse of people to join her in the bathroom. As I was washing my hands, Kiley came out of a stall and took the sink next to me.
Suddenly, she bent down and stuck her head under the running water. I stared at her in horror for a moment before grabbing her by the shoulder and pulling her out.
"What in the world are you doing?" I asked.
Her hair was dripping down her shoulders and running in rivers down her shirt as she flashed a wide smile at me. Then Kiley started to laugh and a bunch of the other girls started to laugh with her.
"I just didn't want Mandy to know that I have had way, way, way too many drinks," she said. "So I figured if I just gave myself a little wash, she wouldn't be able to tell I was drunk."
