A Criminal Celebration in Hillbilly Hollow

by Blythe Baker

  Autumn nodded. “It’s okay. I understand,” she said.

  I left the building wondering if Autumn was really alright. She seemed so detached from the whole thing, like it was happening to someone else. I reminded myself that she was probably still in shock. It would all hit her soon enough.

  I went to my truck and drove back to the farm, conscious of how late it was getting and how much work I had to get through tonight. And that was without thinking about the murder and what exactly those notes proved or didn’t prove.

  7

  It was the night of the rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal itself had gone perfectly well, and it had been easy for me to imagine how perfect Hope Community would look with the floral arrangements in place, how perfect we would all look in our wedding clothes.

  The black cocktail dress I had chosen for tonight was nice enough, but it didn’t compare to my wedding dress. Billy looked resplendent in his black suit, but I knew he would look even better tomorrow at the wedding.

  I couldn’t believe it was finally nearly time. After so long resisting Billy’s charms, and then what felt like the world’s longest engagement, we were finally here, ready to take our vows.

  Just one more night. That was all that kept going through my head. One more night as a single woman. Suzy had been quick to remind me that I should embrace every moment of my single life, although it was hard to believe she meant it. She was positively glowing since marrying Brian and having Emma Rose.

  I’d opted against having a night out with the girls. Instead, Suzy, Beth and I had spent a pleasant few hours having brunch together this morning before the rehearsal got underway. It was nice, just chatting with my friends and enjoying the most delicious pancakes I had ever tasted.

  I didn’t regret my decision for a moment. My evening was busy enough after the rehearsal and soon I meant to get an early start on a full night’s sleep.

  I looked around the dinner table. My grandparents were there, of course. Suzy and Brian were there with little Emma Rose. Brian was Billy’s best man and naturally Suzy was my matron of honor. The other three groomsmen were at the rehearsal dinner too; Billy’s two brothers and an old friend from medical school. And Beth, my only other bridesmaid. They were the people who mattered most to me. There would be more people at the wedding. We’d invited what felt like the whole town, but these were our nearest and dearest.

  “Are you alright?” Billy asked me quietly as we ate our meal.

  The meal was beautiful. Chicken in a creamy mushroom sauce with sautéed potatoes and a cauliflower puree.

  “I’m fine.” I smiled at him.

  “You seem quiet,” he said. He laughed nervously. “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?”

  “Never,” I reassured him. “I was actually just thinking that the people in this room are the most important people in the world to us. It seems so magical to have them all here in one place to share this with, doesn’t it?”

  “It does.” Billy smiled. “But just remember, there’s another person in the room too.”

  I frowned, not understanding what he meant. He laughed softly at my expression and nodded to Derrick. Derrick was here in an official capacity, taking pictures of the rehearsal for our wedding album.

  “Just try not to look like you’d rather be somewhere else.” Billy laughed. “I’m not sure that’s a look we want to try to explain to our grandkids one day.”

  I laughed and nodded, melting inside at the thought of us growing old together and one day having grandkids to share our memories with. It felt so far away, and yet, I knew how fast time passed us by and it would be here before we knew it. The notion made me even more determined to enjoy every minute of tonight and tomorrow. One day, this weekend would be a distant memory, and when that happened, I wanted it to be a good one.

  As we finished up the meal, the wait staff quietly moved in and cleared the plates, replacing them with a delicious looking slice of pie. As I ate it, trying to concentrate on the conversations and laughter around me, I couldn’t help but find myself watching Derrick. Margene had mostly reassured me that he was harmless, but I kept thinking what if she was wrong? What if she had believed the wrong story?

  Derrick’s sullen expression as he moved among the tables snapping pictures did nothing to quell my anxiety. Was he always like this? I had no idea. I had never met the man before my wedding planning began. Maybe it was his way of trying to blend into the background and be unobtrusive. Maybe he was upset about Summer’s death and was just doing his best to get through the night. Or maybe he was planning his next kill. Maybe he was going to strike at my wedding.

  I told myself my last thought was ridiculous. Even if Derrick had killed Summer, in his mind, he had a reason for it. There was a difference between some sort of revenge killing and picking off random people at a wedding. Still, the idea that I might have a murderer present at my wedding did nothing to keep me focused on the moment.

  I shook my head, trying to shake away the worries. Deep down, although I wasn’t ready to rule Derrick out completely quite yet, I didn’t really believe he had done it. He was maybe just one of those people who hated their jobs and did nothing at all to try and hide that fact, not even from paying customers.

  I still thought Doris was the best suspect for Summer’s murder. She had more than enough motive. Not only did Summer treat her with obvious distain, she had also robbed the woman of a fair chunk of money. And then there were the threatening notes. Those alone didn’t prove Doris had done anything wrong. Sending a nasty note and murdering someone were worlds apart. But it put her at the very top of my suspect list. She had expressed murderous thoughts, which was more than Derrick had done. At least Doris wouldn’t actually be present at the wedding once the guests started to arrive.

  “Come on, Suzy, surely it’s time for your speech now,” Richard, one of Billy’s brothers, said as we finished up the dessert.

  “Oh no, no one wants to hear from me.” Suzy laughed.

  She made it clear that her protest was only a formality. It was obvious to me that she very much wanted to give a speech. I smiled to myself as Richard waved away her protest and Suzy got to her feet.

  “Well, what can I say about Emma?” she began.

  She had obviously put a lot of thought into the speech. That was just Suzy’s way. I wondered briefly what she would have done if no one had requested it. It honestly wouldn’t have surprised me all that much to learn that she had put Richard up to his request, prior to the dinner.

  “Emma is my best friend. We’ve been best friends since we met on the first day of elementary school and we’ve never looked back. We’ve been through it all together: our first holidays, our first loves, our first heartbreaks. We’ve laughed and cried and shared our secrets. And when I married Brian, Emma was right there by my side, as I will be there for her tomorrow. I named my daughter after Emma, which I think tells all you need to know about how much I love this girl. I just hope my own little Emma turns out to be every bit as smart, funny, and utterly amazing as my best friend.”

  She paused and raised her glass.

  “Here’s to you, Emma, my best friend, and to Billy, the man who will spend the rest of his life making Emma happy, or he’ll have me to answer to.”

  Laughter came at that and Billy did a theatrical gulp.

  “I guess I’d better be good to you then, huh?” he teased me.

  Suzy sipped from her glass.

  “To Emma and Billy,” she said.

  “To Emma and Billy,” the guests repeated.

  I could feel my cheeks flushing from the champagne and the embarrassment of having all eyes on me. That was the one part of my wedding I was really dreading. Being the center of attention was always more Suzy’s thing than mine. I was happier as part of the crowd.

  Suzy sat back down, smiling as the guests clapped their hands for her. I wished she could walk down the aisle in my place and I could just pop up from somewhere behind the altar to recite my vow
s.

  I was pulled out of my worries as Derrick approached and took a few group shots of Billy and me with various members of the party. By the time he had finished, I had managed to pretty much swallow down my worries about walking down the aisle, but that left room in my head for my doubts about Derrick to creep back in.

  I reminded myself about the whole innocent until proven guilty thing and turned my focus back to Doris. Maybe I could slip into her home tomorrow while I knew she would be distracted at the church. I dismissed the idea immediately. Billy would never forgive me if I was late to our wedding because of me snooping around in Summer’s murder investigation. I still hadn’t told him I was looking into it at all, or about her ghostly visit and the threat of ruining our honeymoon. Besides, I told myself, everyone needs a day off, even those seeking justice for ghostly visitors.

  As Derrick moved around the room, my gaze followed him, and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Autumn. She had hung back, keeping herself scarce, staying behind the scenes and making sure everything was running according to plan. What had happened to draw her out?

  I didn’t think I could handle any more bad news. She was having what looked to be a very heated discussion with the head caterer. She seemed pretty nervous. Was she regretting taking on my wedding? Was the whole thing too much for her in the wake of her sister’s death?

  It looked like she was on the verge of cracking under the pressure of holding together such a big event for the first time by herself. Was that why she was nervous? Had something gone wrong with tomorrow’s catering? Or did she have darker reasons to be uneasy? Was she trying to cover up a crime she had a pretty good motive for?

  “Would you excuse me for a moment?” I said politely to the table.

  Whatever was going on, now that I had seen how worried Autumn looked, I could feel the nerves myself. I wouldn’t be able to relax and enjoy the evening until I knew exactly what was going on.

  I stood up and casually made my way over to Autumn and the caterer. Autumn saw me approaching and smiled warmly at me.

  “Hi Emma. Is everything okay? Are you enjoying yourself?” she asked.

  “Everything’s perfect,” I assured her. “The meal was delicious.”

  She waited, smiling questioningly at me. She clearly knew there had to be a reason I had wandered over here.

  “I just … I couldn’t help but notice the conversation you two were having and how stressed you look, Autumn,” I said.

  Autumn shook her head and frowned slightly. “That’s nothing for you to worry about,” she said.

  “But there is. Look, if something’s wrong I’d rather know now and at least attempt to help fix it rather than find out tomorrow when it’s too late to do anything about it,” I said.

  “Would you have said that to Summer? Or would you have trusted her to handle it?” Autumn asked me.

  I felt myself blush at her probing question. No doubt if Summer were here, I would have been equally worried, but I probably wouldn’t have come over here. I would have trusted her to deal with the problem herself. I decided to tell Autumn a half truth, one I hoped would take the sting out of my obvious lack of faith in her.

  “If the situation was reversed and Summer was here, having lost her sister earlier in the week, yes, I would have said the same thing to her,” I replied. “Otherwise, I would have trusted her to fix it. Just like in different circumstances I would have trusted you to fix it.”

  The different circumstances being if I didn’t half suspect her of somehow being involved in her sister’s murder. I kept that thought to myself.

  Autumn smiled at me, some of the anger leaving her.

  “I assure you that I am handling this, Emma. I did lose my sister, but in some ways that’s what is keeping me going. I know if it was the other way around, Summer wouldn’t have crumbled. She’d have bulldozed her way through your plans and made sure this was the wedding of the year. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Now I’ll tell you what’s going on, but only because I think it will put your mind at rest, not because I need you to step in and do my job for me. Okay?”

  I nodded and Autumn returned the nod.

  “There is absolutely nothing wrong for tomorrow. Everything is on track and I am one thousand percent confident nothing will go wrong. I am a little stressed tonight, but it’s nothing major. I guess I’m affected by Summer’s death more than I care to admit, because I did snap at the catering manager. There is a slight delay getting the coffee course out because the boilers are taking a little longer than normal to heat up. That’s it.”

  I felt relief flood me. It was nothing. Something a wedding planner would worry about because precision timing was totally their deal, but not something I needed to worry about. Not something I even would have noticed under ordinary circumstances when I wasn’t watching every little thing and viewing everyone as a potential murder suspect.

  Autumn turned to the catering manager.

  “Please accept my apologies for my overreaction. I guess maybe I’m channelling my inner Summer a little too much.”

  “It’s fine.” The catering manager smiled. “Trust me, you’re a whole lot easier to work with than Summer ever was. She probably would have fired me for this.”

  Another suspect? No, I had to stop thinking this way at my rehearsal dinner. I didn’t want to look back on this day and remember nothing except details of the investigation.

  Autumn turned back to me.

  “Now, you go back to that handsome fiancé of yours and enjoy your night, Emma. You have nothing to worry about, I promise you.”

  “Thank you. And I’m sorry for being so overbearing.”

  Autumn laughed. “Trust me, I’ve worked with some real bridezillas over the years. You are a delight to work with.”

  I returned to my seat, sure that Autumn was telling me the truth. Everything was fine. And I was becoming more and more convinced that she wasn’t the one to have killed Summer. She was just doing what she said she was doing, throwing herself into her work to take her mind off what had happened. It made sense. It was pretty much how I thought I would react in the same circumstances if I was her. Except I would probably have a ghostly version of my dead relative on my case.

  “Is everything alright?” Billy asked when I sat back down. “I saw you talking to Autumn.”

  “Everything’s fine,” I said. “There’s a bit of a delay with the coffee, that’s all.”

  “Autumn looks a bit stressed out, doesn’t she?” Billy asked. “I feel kind of bad having her keep working on the wedding after what’s happened.”

  “Me too,” I agreed. “But she insisted. She says working is taking her mind off Summer, and I get that.”

  The conversation was cut short as music filled the air and Suzy grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet.

  “Sorry Billy, I need to borrow Emma for a while,” she said.

  Billy laughed and gestured for her to take me. I laughingly followed Suzy towards the dance floor as music began pumping out of the speakers.

  “What the …?” I said.

  “Surprise.” Suzy grinned. “I get why you didn’t want a girls night, but that doesn’t mean you get out of dancing the night away with me.”

  I laughed. “What if other people come to the restaurant?” I said.

  “They won’t.” Suzy winked. “I gave Mrs. Harris a nice fat gift voucher for my store in exchange for making tonight a private party.”

  I shook my head, not knowing what to say.

  Suzy read my expression. “You don’t have to say anything. You just have to dance,” she said.

  She took my hand and spun me around and I laughed. The rest of the night passed by in a blur of happy moments, laughing and dancing. We did eventually get our coffees, and for a few hours I was able to forget all about Summer Martin and her murderer.

  8

  After a long but fun-filled evening, I was finally back home at the farmhouse. Billy and I had said our goodbyes after he dropp
ed me off, and we had of course agreed that we wouldn’t see each other now until the actual wedding. Our wedding planner being murdered a few days before our wedding was surely bad enough luck. We certainly didn’t want to invite any more by breaking a tradition as old as this one.

  My grandparents had just turned in. I sat at the kitchen table sipping the last of my cup of hot chocolate with Snowball sitting between my feet, her head resting on my lap. I absently stroked her ear and the top of her head, thinking how this would be my last night officially living here on the farm before I moved in with Billy.

  It was surreal, but it felt right. It was time to start the next chapter of my life. I drained the last of my hot chocolate and went to the sink. I washed my cup out, dried it and put it away. I didn’t want to leave any mess behind for tomorrow.

  I decided it was time to call it a night. It was only eleven, but I wanted a good night’s sleep so I was as fresh as possible in the morning. I headed for the back door so I could go and use the outhouse before bed. Snowball walked at my side.

  “This is one thing I won’t miss,” I said quietly to her as we walked. “It’ll be lovely to have indoor plumbing, especially in the winter when it’s freezing cold out here.”

  She bleated in response, and I took it as agreement. I reached the outhouse and used the toilet. Snowball was waiting patiently for me on the other side of the door as I came back out.

  “Come on girl, let’s go back inside and you can enjoy your last night curled up on my bed,” I said.

  As we headed back to the house, Snowball moved away from me suddenly and lay down on the ground. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. Whenever she did that, it usually meant I was about to get a visitor from beyond the grave. Seeing Summer and getting another lecture from her was the last thing I needed right now. I sighed loudly and waited for her to put in an appearance.

  I didn’t have to wait long, but her visit this time was even briefer than the last. She appeared in the distance, an ethereal figure in white who floated above the ground for a few seconds and then vanished. There was no following me around or talking to me, so I figured she must approve of what I had discovered so far.