Weddings, Receptions, and Murder
Page 5
I smiled but ignored his comment.
“The other customer wasn’t due to turn up till nine,” I said, suddenly feeling a little deflated as I realized a flaw with my theory. “And Bianca dropped the car off at my place at eight. On the dot, believe me. I hadn’t even had my coffee and I still had my slippers on. So how could they even have known Bianca sold the car to me until well after the fact?” I sighed and pushed my empty glass away.
Still, the thought had sunk in deep and was starting to unsettle me. There had to be more to it—maybe I really was onto something. I was going to have to find out the name of this other customer.
And I was going to have to find out where they had been during the early hours of yesterday morning.
Chapter 7
Fresh flowers cured everything, right?
I arrived at the shop the next morning with a bright smile and a bouquet of flowers for Brenda. I couldn’t remember what kind she liked when the florist asked me, so I’d just thought about it and said, “It doesn’t matter. Even if I pick her favorite variety, she will pretend it’s her least favorite. So surprise me.”
The florist had gone with sunflowers. My personal favorite, as it goes. But, somehow, sunflowers were not very Brenda-esque.
“It’s not my birthday,” she said suspiciously, taking in the scent of the flowers anyway.
“No. But I was hoping that I might be able to borrow your car,” I said, batting my eyelashes at her. I knew, probably, that I had a better chance of asking the sun not to rise tomorrow, but you never know.
“Not a chance,” she said, screwing her nose up as she placed the flowers down on the counter. “You’re not one of the approved drivers on my insurance and I don’t trust you to even drive the car to the other end of the street. Never mind wherever it is you’re going.”
She shoved the flowers to one side and I knew that If I wasn’t the one to put them in a vase with fresh water, they were going to wilt and die.
“I’ll find something to put them in,” I mumbled as I walked away.
Why did she always have to be such a stickler for the rules? I almost offered to pay for any accident I might get into, out of pocket, but I realized that might be tempting fate. Maybe she did have a point. That didn’t mean I was happy about it, though.
I returned with a tall vase and stuck the flowers in it. The flowers were so tall and heavy that they leaned over the edge, threatening to send the glass toppling over.
“How am I supposed to get two hundred Mason jars and a hundred yards of lace to a venue three miles out of town?” I asked Brenda. “I need a car. Hannah is relying on me.” I hadn’t spoken to her since she’d called me the day before, but I was pretty sure that she was still expecting every last item delivered to the winery. It wasn’t so much a Do It Yourself wedding now as a “George does it for you” wedding. I didn’t want to be the one responsible for ruining her big day. “Do you want to be responsible for ruining her wedding?” I asked, hoping that a bit of guilt might work on her, at the same time almost knowing that it wouldn’t.
She shrugged and returned to her book of inventory, putting her glasses back on. Unmoved. “You can’t lay any of this on me. Maybe you should never have agreed to take this on. Don’t you have enough on your plate as it is?”
“Come on, Brenda. Something like this will be good for business. And unless you have any suggestions that will help me get these jars and this lace to the winery, maybe you should keep them to yourself,” I said with a calm smile, even though I was feeling less and less calm the further the conversation progressed.
She looked up at me pointedly. “And maybe you should have a car of your own.”
I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. “You are the one who told me not to get a car!” I said. See? Deliberately contrary when it comes to having an opinion on anything I did.
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have bought a car with a dead body in it,” she said, placing her reading glasses down to the tip of her nose. “I knew something like that would happen.”
Oh, this was just unbelievable.
“I hardly did it on purpose! And what do you mean, you knew this would happen?”
Brenda peered at me over the top of her bifocals. “First a haunted house, then a haunted car…”
She was the second person to mention a ‘haunted’ car in as many days. I didn’t stop and correct her, though. I just stood there and felt my cheeks burn, feeling scolded.
The house I bought when I’d first arrived in Pottsville, the one I thought I was getting for a steal, had a history to it, one could say. By history, I mean someone had been killed there.
They say it was haunted, but I’ve never seen a ghost there.
Still. I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe the silly little rumors and whispers held some truth to them after all. Perhaps this sort of thing just…clung to me. Not that I was haunted, per se. More that I just attracted these type of people and events. Like a curse.
I thought about Adam and caught my breath. He was one of the curses in my life. So to speak.
It had all happened a long time ago, right before Adam and I had split up. It was one of those memories I liked to keep buried somewhere deep in my subconscious and never think about. And for fifteen years, I’d been able to do just that.
But then one day, about a month ago, Adam had turned up in Pottsville. And like a dog foraging for a bone, the past had been dug up.
You see, sixteen years ago, when Adam and I had been living together as husband and wife, Adam had been accused of murder. Not just accused. Arrested.
Found innocent in the end, of course.
Still, doubt lingered.
And now he was back in my life again. Along with my possibly haunted house and my newly haunted car. Death just kept following me.
But I’m not particularly superstitious, so I just have to write it off as a bunch of crazy coincidences.
I was about to give up and call for a car from Pottsville’s notoriously unreliable and overpriced taxi service, when a visitor walked through the door.
“Bianca,” I said, surprised. “What are you doing here?”
She was dressed for work, but given that it was 10:00 a.m., she clearly hadn’t gone in to the office. “I remembered you said this was the place you own.” She walked in and started to check out the shelves, bending down to look at some art supplies, paints and brushes. “I always wanted to have a go at painting. There are a lot of cool items in here. Maybe I will have to re-think crafting sometime. It always seemed to me like something only old people did.”
Brenda screwed up her nose.
I didn’t usually agree with Brenda, but on this occasion, I was inclined to screw up my nose as well. I also had a feeling Bianca was being disingenuous. I doubted very much that she was there to talk about crafting items. I decided to ignore her for the time being and concentrated on picking up the roll of lace. Geez. Yep, definitely couldn’t walk three miles with this.
She pulled me aside out of earshot and confirmed my suspicions. “George, did you find out anything more about the case?” she whispered.
I looked around to make sure we weren’t being heard. I considered telling her what had happened at the gas station. Was there any point though, if Bianca hadn’t even been there?
I just knew she had to have made a stop during her trip. Why wasn’t she being honest with me about it?
I received a text from Hannah. “George? Will you be here in a few minutes?”
“I don’t really have time right now,” I commented, trying to be as polite as I could manage. “I need to get all these items to the other side of town and I have no way of getting them there…” The roll of lace slipped out of my arms. I stared at Bianca. “Now that I don’t have a car.” Well, my facade of politeness had slipped pretty quickly.
“Why don’t I give you a ride?” she offered. “It feels like the least I could do. I mean, I know it doesn’t really make up for everything, but…”
“Okay,” I said. “But you can just drop me off. There’s no need to hang around.”
And I made a mental note that this definitely did not make up for anything.
“I love weddings,” Bianca said, misty-eyed as she stepped out of the car and breathed in the sweetness of the air. There was sadness in her voice, and in her eyes. She almost looked like she was about to cry. “This one looks like it is going to be beautiful.”
Hannah had been called away, but we were greeted by one of the groomsmen, Kurt, a young man with red hair who pointed in the direction of the ballroom to let me know that was where all our supplies needed to go. He couldn’t help because he’d just been called away on an emergency related to cufflinks.
“I’ve never been much for them myself,” I commented, climbing out with my arms full. The trunk was full of two hundred Mason jars. I popped it to make sure they had survived the trip. “Even though I’ve been married three times.”
“Three times?” Bianca commented with a small laugh. “That’s impressive.”
“I suppose that’s one word for it. What about you?” I asked, trying again to be polite.
Bianca shook her head sadly. “No,” she whispered. “Not for me.” She walked pensively towards the ballroom.
“You don’t have to stay,” I called out, unpacking the trunk. “I can manage my own way back now.”
I decided to start with the lace, dragging it into the ballroom. I was sweating by the time we got through the door.
Bianca shook her head. “Nonsense. I don’t mind helping out. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like you could use the help.”
I dropped the lace and felt my arms go numb beneath me. Maybe I did need the help. At forty-one, I wasn’t as young as I once was, much as I would hate to admit that. Bianca was at least a decade younger than me. Hmm. Maybe she could be some use.
“No offense taken!” I said with a wide grin. “Help away!”
Together, we managed to get five full boxes of glass jars into the ballroom, along with all the yards of lace and ribbon for the chairs and tables. I stood up and dusted my hands off, smiling when it was all done. Bianca grinned and high-fived me. She didn’t seem like a psychopathic killer. I could admit that, at least.
But there was still something she wasn’t telling me. Something that made me not trust her, even when she was being kind and even fun.
So when she got a phone call, I decided to follow her. “I’ll be right back,” she said, exiting the ballroom.
I nodded, but then crept out after her. Seeing that she had stopped right outside the doors, I tiptoed backward and stayed on the other side, pressed against the wall to listen.
“I told you why you weren’t getting that car,” she snapped, her voice shaking like she was holding back tears. “Our deal was null and void when you…when you did what you did,” she said, starting to sniffle.
She turned around and began to pace back toward me.
I hid behind a large display of white balloons and held my breath.
She was talking to the mysterious person who was supposed to buy my car.
“Whatever. It’s done now. And thanks to you, I am in a world of trouble. If I’d never given the car to her instead, none of this would ever have happened…”
I gulped and wondered whether I should run away now before she spotted me.
“Of course I did… No, no, I can’t tell her. Or the police.”
She ended the call.
I scurried back and sprinted over to the boxes of Mason jars, trying to make it seem like I had been there all along.
Bianca stumbled back in through the doors, pale-faced, her mascara running down her cheek.
“I have to go, George. I’m sorry. Will you be all right getting back on your own?”
Chapter 8
I knew what I had to do. I had to go straight down to the police station. Come clean.
I was hoping it would be a uniformed officer who greeted me, but Pottsville is a small place and the front desk of the police station is often manned by the detectives. I hadn’t spoken to Ryan since the morning he’d accused me of murder, but I tried to put that out of my mind when he nodded at me and said hello.
“I found this today,” I said, slipping in a little white lie while I pulled the bracelet out of my pocket. “It looks expensive, doesn’t it?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. I sighed, looking at all the pretty diamonds, so perfectly set. So sparkly. “So, if no one comes forward to claim it, I get to take it home, right?”
Ryan looked a little bemused by my request. “I’m afraid it’s not quite that simple,” he said, gently picking up the bracelet and placing it into a clear plastic bag. “Anyway, I’m sure someone will claim this. It must be worth thousands, unless it’s a rip-off.” He examined it more closely and then shook his head. “I’m not sure what I’m looking for,” he said with a little laugh. “It’s not like I’m an expert at diamond evaluation.”
I was, given all the wedding and engagement bands I’d owned over the years. Or, at least, I had a better eye for it than Ryan did. Those were real diamonds.
I leaned forward and looked at the plastic bag that could barely dull the bracelet’s shine. “It’s just so lovely. Seems a shame for it to be locked up in a police station. It should be shown off on a woman’s arm.” I held my own wrist out for him to admire. “Like this one, for example.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I’m a little surprised. I didn’t think it was quite your style,” Ryan commented.
I looked down at the loudly colored bangles wrapped around my wrists. They cost about ten dollars all together, and that was just the cost of materials. I’d made them myself from clay beads that I’d painted red and yellow. Not exactly antique diamonds. I supposed he had a small point, but I did like to get dressed up occasionally.
Ryan took the plastic bag and locked it inside a safe. I sighed. I knew I was doing the right thing handing it in, but part of me felt like ‘finders keepers’ should have applied in situations like this.
“Thanks for dropping it off. How have you been, George?”
I hesitated. Hmm. Was it the time to be sarcastic? Or should I just smile and play nice? “Oh you mean, aside from shoving dead bodies into the trunk of my car.” I inspected my beads while I waited for his response.
“George, you know you can’t take these things personally,” he said with a sigh.
“These ‘things’?” I responded innocently. “Oh, you mean murder accusations.”
“It was hardly a murder accusation. I was simply asking questions,” Ryan replied calmly. “It is my job.”
Well, job or not, that was not what I had needed that morning. I’d had a shock, finding that dead body. And I’d lost my new car! I’d thought that Ryan and I had a relationship that went beyond the mere ‘professional,’ but I guessed that feeling was all one-sided.
“I’ve got somewhere I need to be,” I announced, before shooting him a bright smile over my shoulder. “Let me know if that bracelet isn’t claimed! I could do with an upgrade to my look!”
“Oh, what crazy scheme have you got going on now?” Brenda asked disapprovingly as she looked over my shoulder. She tutted. “Throwing money away on more useless garbage, I see!”
She was referring to the white sand beach and five-star hotel I was staring at wistfully on the computer screen. “I’m thinking about taking a vacation,” I said. “When Hannah and Aaron’s wedding is over, I think I need to take a little break from this town. You’ll be all right if I leave you in charge for a week, won’t you, Brenda?”
I was expecting her to light up at the offer. Be overjoyed at the idea of being left in charge, to do whatever she wanted with the store. Change the decor, rearrange all the display shelves. After all, it was what she had always wanted, righ
t? To have the store exactly how she wanted, and to have me safely away from her on the other side of the globe?
But of course, she had to be contradictory. “You can’t expect me to take on that sort of responsibility!” she cried out in horror. “What if I have an emergency and I can’t come in one day? What if one of the cats is sick and I need to go home early? We are the only two employees of the shop!”
I returned my attention to the beach scene in front of me, staring at the pale blue waters, so clear that you could see the white sand at the bottom. “Then I suppose you just hang a sign on the door that says ‘back in an hour,’ like I always do. Not such a big deal, is it? No one is going to die if they can’t pick up a bottle of craft glue. They can always go to Caroline’s store around the corner if it really is a matter of life and death.”
Brenda shook her head in utter dismay. “It’s this kind of attitude that makes me think that you’re not cut out to run a craft store, Georgina. And you certainly have no perception of how serious a task it would be for me to run the store alone for a week. If you’re going to take off for a week, you’ll have to hire me an assistant.” She crossed her arms and looked at me expectantly. Oh, I could tell she was just bubbling over with glee at the thought of being awarded an assistant.
I wasn’t normally the sort of person who got worked up about things, especially the small things. And usually I could let Brenda’s words roll off me like water from a duck’s back. But I stewed on this for a while. Hire her an assistant for one week? Forget it. That was the most ridiculous request I had ever heard. Then I decided, if she really didn’t want the responsibility of being in charge, then I wasn’t going to give it to her.
But that would mean punishing myself as well. It would mean that if I wanted to get out of Pottsville for a while, I wouldn’t be able to fly anywhere.
I’d have to stick to day trips.
And that meant, I was going to need a car.
And, unfortunately, there was only one dealership within walking distance.