The Milburn Big Box Set

by Nancy McGovern

  Sadly, Nora noted the blackboard announcing Charlotte and Jeremy’s wedding, which stood untouched in the hall. By now, someone ought to have rubbed off the words, but she supposed Janina had had no time.

  “No, thanks,” Nora said. “I just came about that email you sent me. The cancellation.”

  “Oh, yes.” Janina clutched her head. “My dear, I’m so sorry, but you do understand that I…”

  “That email you sent me,” Nora repeated, and stared off into space.

  “Yes, dear. I’m really sorry. But I had to cancel. I can’t possibly have guests stay over here right now. The police might still need to—”

  “You spelled my name wrong.” Nora said in quiet wonder. “You spelt it Norah with an H. My name is Nora. N-O-R-A. No H.”

  “Oh?” Janina looked impatient. “Well, in any case, I have your check right here...”

  “Eliza’s suicide note,” Nora said. “Simone told me about it. She said it was funny how Eliza had spelled Charlotte’s name wrong. Who could possibly spell their sister’s name wrong?”

  “What?” Janina looked very confused. “Nora, are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” Nora said. “I just need to get out of here.”

  “Not so fast.” Janina’s hand snaked out and caught Nora by the wrist. “What did you mean about Charlotte’s name being spelled wrong?”

  Nora gasped. “You said it once before. You said that Charlotte had given you a hard time for spelling her name wrong. You did it again when you wrote that fake suicide note. I remember now.” She closed her eyes. “Eliza’s phone was on her. She was taking selfies with Wyatt right before she died. But Deputy James said they found the phone in her room. You placed it there. Right after you wrote the note. In all the confusion when her body was found… you stole her phone somehow.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Janina said. “But we’ll clear this all up soon. Come to the kitchen with me.”

  “Why? So you can feed me a batch of poisoned frosting?” Nora asked.

  “I won’t do anything of the sort,” Janina said. “Nora, I promise you, I’m not the killer.”

  She spoke so earnestly, Nora believed her. Janina’s face looked ten years older in the space of a few seconds, one of her eyes was twitching, and lines had appeared on her forehead.

  “I do believe you,” Nora said. “You didn’t kill Eliza.”

  “Why would I?” Janina asked. “I had no possible motive!”

  “I was so blind,” Nora said. “I should have seen it all along.”

  “You can’t tell anyone,” Janina said. “If you’ve guessed…”

  With a shove, Nora pushed Janina off her, and raced away, watching as Janina fell to the ground and let out a yell of despair. An answering yell came from somewhere within the house, but Nora didn’t bother to stay. Her heart was beating like a drum in her chest, and she was convinced that a single second more in this place would be inviting death.

  Someone was chasing her. She heard footfalls behind her, the heavy sound of a body rushing toward her.

  “Stop!” the man called out.

  Breathless, she forced herself to go faster and faster. There was her car - safety!

  She ripped open the door and jumped in, but already, Wyatt had caught up with her. He yanked the door open, even as she leant across the door and reached for the glovebox. He was dragging her out, and she’d just grabbed hold of the Taser, when a shot rang out.

  “Wyatt Engle, you’re under arrest!” Sean called out. “Get your hands off her.”

  The first shot had just been in warning, but Wyatt had taken it seriously. He dove to the ground, and then hastily crawled away inside the mansion. Sean ran up to the car, and checked on Nora. “Are you all right?” he asked. “Did he hurt you?”

  “He killed Eliza!” Nora was a little hysterical. “You can’t let him get away, Sean!”

  “He’s not going anywhere,” Sean said, in a determined voice. “But you, get out of here, and do me a favor. Call Deputy Ellerton and Deputy James. I need backup.”

  “You can’t go in there,” Nora said. “He might have a gun, and Janina’s in there too. She faked the suicide note.”

  “I’ll handle it,” Sean said. “You need to get out of here.”

  A shot rang out, and Sean threw himself against Nora. A red flower bloomed under his sleeve. Wasting no time, he pushed Nora to the passenger seat, and started the car. Desperately gripping one hand against the steering wheel, while his other pressed against the wound, Sean drove off with a screech of tires. Behind him, a volley of shots followed.

  Nora was already on the phone with the other Deputies, even as Sean headed to the hospital.

  “Wyatt?” she asked.

  “He’s got nowhere to escape to,” Sean said. “I’m taking you to the hospital first, you’re hurt!”

  “That’s your blood not mine,” Nora said. “You saved my life, Sean.”

  “About time the Sheriff of this town did something, right?” Sean said with a pained chuckle. “All right. Get out- I’m heading back to Wyatt’s.”

  “You’re doing no such thing,” Nora said. “We’re getting you to a hospital. Deputy James and Deputy Ellerton are more than capable enough to catch Wyatt.”

  “I just can’t believe I didn’t see it,” Sean said. “It should have been obvious to me from the first.”

  “But I can’t blame you,” Nora said. “I didn’t see it either.”

  “How did you guess?” Sean asked.

  “I didn’t,” Nora said. “It was only when I was talking to Janina, and I remembered that she’d misspelled my name in her e-mail, that it clicked together for me. Janina misspelled Charlotte’s name too. Charlotte gave her a yelling for it. Simone had told me that it was funny how Eliza misspelled Charlotte’s name in her suicide note. She wrote “Charlot”. The fact stuck in my brain- and then I remembered that Eliza’s phone should have been on her at the time of her death. After all, she’d been taking selfies while the ceremony was in progress.”

  “I remember that,” said Sean. “Rather tacky, I thought at the time.”

  “Well, it became clear to me. Janina had stolen the phone from Eliza’s body, and in the confusion, she typed out a hasty suicide note, and placed it in Eliza’s room.”

  “Makes sense,” Sean agreed.

  “Once that became clear, so did everything else,” Nora said. “Janina would only do something so drastic to protect someone she loved. Wyatt. She guessed that Wyatt had poisoned the cake, and she tried to save him by pretending Eliza had committed suicide.”

  “But why did Wyatt poison the cake?” Sean asked. “He couldn’t have had anything against Jeremy or Charlotte, and he had no way of knowing Eliza would eat the cake first.”

  “That’s where we made a fundamental mistake in assumptions.” Nora said. “The prank. It all comes down to the prank.”

  Sean nodded. “That’s what I was at the Legrand Manse when Wyatt attacked you. Something about Matt’s story seemed off, and I thought Wyatt would clear it up for me.”

  “Matt didn’t confess, did he?” Nora asked. “He had nothing to do with the crime.”

  “No,” Sean said. “But he did confess to breaking off the statuette heads. He said he was jealous of Jeremy and Charlotte. But he swore up and down that he had nothing to do with poisoning the cake. He admitted that he had no idea what Eliza had been plotting. He and Timmy were both outside smoking when Bret and Eliza hatched the plan.” Sean shook his head. “There’s still so much I can’t figure out, though.” He parked the car outside the ER. “Right, you’ll have to tell me the rest later.”

  “You sure you’re all right?” Nora asked anxiously.

  “I’m fine,” Sean said through gritted teeth. “Just a scrape.”

  “Sean Dracon, you’ve been shot,” Nora said. “Don’t play the hero. It’s alright to scream and shout a little bit.”

  “Wyatt’s going to be screaming and shouting once I get
my hands on him,” Sean said. But his body sagged with relief when the nurse offered him a painkiller, and he was more than a little glad when they wheeled him away to remove the bullet.

  Nora stood waiting in the lobby, and texted everyone she could think of.

  In fifteen minutes, Harvey had reached there, and was holding her in a tight embrace. She felt light-headed with relief.

  “They caught Wyatt,” Harvey said. “He was trying to run away, but Deputy Ellerton had sent out an APB. Jackson PD caught him trying to escape on the 191.”

  “And Janina?” Nora asked.

  “She stayed home and gave up quietly when Ellerton showed up,” Harvey said. “What happened? How did it all happen so fast?”

  “Wyatt killed Eliza,” Nora said. “All this time, we thought that there was no way anyone could have predicted that Eliza would eat the wedding cake before Charlotte. But Wyatt knew. In fact, I’d bet that he dared her to do it on their poker night.”

  Harvey whistled. “That makes sense.”

  “Exactly, and that changes how we’ve been looking at it. I thought that the killer was after me, or after Charlotte, but it was Eliza who Wyatt was after all along. He and Bret were the last ones at the poker party, and he must have dared Bret to sneak into the diner with him. That’s what Bret was trying to tell me when he called. He must have figured out Wyatt’s motives for sneaking into the diner in the middle of the night, to plant false evidence, and to poison the cake. The cake he knew Eliza was planning to eat before anybody else.”

  “But how did Wyatt do that with Bret around?”

  “Bret was blackout drunk,” Nora said. “He said that on the phone to me, remember? ‘I was drunk! I blacked out! I didn’t realize…’”

  “Wyatt might have snuck something into Bret’s drink,” Harvey said.

  “Hopefully, he’ll confess soon,” Nora said. “There’s no way he’s getting off easy.”

  “I don’t know,” Harvey said. “I’m not sure there’s enough proof against him.”

  “Oh there will be,” Nora said. “I remember Janina asking him to change his shirt. He had a spot of icing on the one he was wearing. I’m sure forensics can find a clue there.”

  “Right!” Harvey exclaimed.

  “Plus, he once owned a bakery, remember? It was one of his failed businesses,” Nora said. “And as Janina’s son, he knew exactly what cake I was baking. So he knew enough to whip up a batch of buttercream frosting.”

  “Wow,” Harvey said.

  “I was such an idiot,” Nora said. “I should have guessed a long time ago. He even mentioned my new oven to me that day at the wedding. How could he have known about my new oven unless he’d been in the diner? It wasn’t like Bret would talk about kitchen equipment with them!”

  “Right,” Harvey said. “The only thing I don’t get is motive. Why did Wyatt kill Eliza?”

  “Love.” Nora shrugged. “A toxic, poisonous love. He loved Eliza, but she was determined to outdo her sister, and marry an even richer man than Jeremy. She didn’t look twice at Wyatt, and perhaps that burned him up. Matt mentioned to Sean that Wyatt was crazy about her.”

  “At any event, it’s all over,” Harvey said.

  He spoke a little too soon. Almost as soon as he’d said the words, Karen came running through the doors, skidding to a halt in front of them.

  “Sean!” she exclaimed. “Is… is Sean alright? Where is he? I have to see him?” Her make up was smudged with tears.

  “Karen, it’s all right.”

  “Deputy James, Deputy James said he’d been shot. Shot in the heart!” Karen said. “I- I- I can’t lose Sean. I can’t!”

  “Karen...” Harvey said, but Nora gave him a warning look. Deputy James might act like an idiot sometimes, but this time, Nora thought he’d been a downright genius. There was no way he could have misunderstood what Nora had said to him. So clearly, he’d deliberately lied to Karen.

  “I love him,” Karen said. “I can’t lose him, Nora.”

  “I thought you were broken up,” Nora said innocently.

  “I was an idiot!” Karen exclaimed. “I was holding on to my past so tightly, I didn’t see my future standing in front of me. Sean is twice the man JJ was, and if I get a chance, I’ll make him the best wife I can! Please, please tell me he’ll be all right. I’ll do whatever it takes. I can donate blood, I can—”

  “Relax,” Nora said. “He’ll be fine. You’ll get your second chance. Just make sure you don’t threaten to run off to Boston this time.”

  In response, Karen closed her eyes, swayed, and fainted.

  “Whoops.” Harvey caught her before she hit the floor. “I’m getting to be quite an expert at this. I guess she couldn’t handle the good news.”

  “Wonder how Sean will handle it.” Nora smiled.

  “I owe him an apology too,” Harvey said. “If it wasn’t for him…”

  “Don’t,” Nora said. “Don’t waste another moment thinking about it.”

  “I can’t help it,” Harvey said. “I could have lost you. I’m going to apologize to Sean for giving him such a hard time. He’s a good man at his core.” Carefully placing Karen on a nearby chair, he grabbed Nora and kissed her until she was breathless.

  “Wow,” Nora said.

  Harvey grinned. “If you liked this, wait till you see what I do at the altar.”

  “The altar.” Nora was dismayed. “Harvey, we have a wedding in a week, and no place to keep our friends. No venue, either!”

  “Leave it to me.” Harvey grinned. “I’ll find a way.”

  And he did.

  *****

  Chapter 22

  The Big Day

  The freak storm that had hit them last week had caused temperatures to dip a little, so that the weather that day was just perfect. Nora got exactly what she’d wished for - an outdoor wedding, that she and Harvey had somehow managed to pull off perfectly, with a lot of help from their friends.

  “It’s just a perfect location,” Tina said. “Harvey’s a genius.”

  “Thanks,” Nora said. “It” was a ski resort normally only open in the winter, and popular with aristocrats and celebrities alike. Harvey had convinced the owner, a friend of his, to open it up for their summer wedding. It was, if anything, even more amazing than their previous choice. The hotel itself was a Swiss style chalet, and their wedding was to take place outside, in a little hill dominated by a large beech tree. Karen had the idea of tying wind-chimes and long pieces of brightly colored cloth to the tree, so that it looked a little magical, and sounded ethereal.

  Right at the moment, though, all Nora could think of was that in one hour, she was going to be married!

  “I can’t find it!” Katya said, bursting into the room. Katya Von Kyburg was an old friend, who’d come with her husband all the way from Portland to attend Nora’s wedding. The beautiful brunette looked confused and panicked.

  Tina, who had handled four such panic attacks that day, stepped forward and said, “Can’t find what?”

  “The yellow shoes!” Katya said.

  “Katya!” Nora felt a little panic attack coming on herself. “What do you mean you can’t find them? I can’t get married without those shoes! They’re Raquel’s shoes! They’re all I have left of her.”

  “I…”

  “Now, Nora, deep breaths.” Tina practiced breathing with her, “Remember, the wedding is going to be beautiful, and you’re going to be amazing, and everything will be just fine.”

  “What’s happening here?” Mrs. Mullally came bustling in. “It’s almost time. Are we ready?”

  “Raquel’s shoes are missing,” Nora said, her eyes looking watery.

  “Oh, no, you can’t cry just yet,” Tina said. “Your makeup will be ruined!”

  “I’ve got them!” Simone ran in. “I’m so sorry. Someone spilled a bit of wine on the shoes, and I was just cleaning them up. I’m sorry, Katya.”

  “Did it stain?” Katya asked.

  “It’s perfect
,” Simone said. “There you go.” She handed the shoes to Nora.

  As Nora held the shoes, she felt a sudden calm descend upon her. It was almost like Raquel was standing next to her, giving her strength. She said a prayer, hoping that her parents and her best friend were watching over her, feeling sure that they were.

  “Let’s go,” she said, and her voice was serene.

  Outside, Harvey stood under the tree, with Father Mackenzie on one side, and his best man Sam, Tina’s husband, on the other.

  “Sure you won’t faint, buddy?” Sam nudged him.

  “Sure you won’t lose the ring?” Harvey asked.

  “I’ve got a good mind to steal it,” Sam said. “What did you do, steal the Kohinoor diamond for her?”

  Harvey grinned. “Never mind that. I got her a ring she deserved, that’s all.”

  Sam smiled back.“This is it.”

  The guests were all seated. Harvey spotted Degas and Elly, old friends of Nora’s. Just recently, Harvey had attended their wedding. He gave Degas a short nod, and Degas gave him a thumbs up.

  The music had begun, and Harvey felt his body tense. His shoulders were thrown back, his gaze fixed on the door.

  The ushers entered first. Sean was one of them, as was Harvey’s best friend from high school. After them, came the bridesmaids, Karen, Tina and Katya, looking beautiful in their mint green dresses with cream colored flowers woven in their hair, and bright yellow pumps on their feet.

  Behind them walked Maynard the dog, carrying a basket of flowers in his mouth, and wagging his tail happily. A little girl, Karen’s niece, hopped along the aisle side by side with him, dropping petals as she went, while Simone’s son Will walked on the other side of Maynard, looking uncomfortable yet cute in his three piece suit. Tina walked after him, her face split into a huge smile. She winked at Harvey as if to wish him luck, and gave Sam a look of pure tenderness.

  There was a pause. The music swelled. For a moment, Harvey wondered what he’d do if Nora simply abandoned him. Then, all negative thoughts were swept from his mind.