Murder Wears a Little Black Dress

by Debra Sennefelder

  “Did you have the reading?” Kelly asked.

  “No. No way. I don’t believe in that stuff. Oh, there’s Carly. Let me see if she needs any help.” Liv dashed away, leaving Kelly alone, mesmerized by Bernadette.

  The psychic, if she really was one, had a unique aura around her. Kelly couldn’t quite put her finger on it. While not able to pinpoint what made Bernadette intriguing to her, she did realize she needed to stop lurking and welcome the woman to her shop.

  Her shop. That still sounded weird to her. She never thought in a million years she’d own a business, much less a consignment shop. Yet, there she was. Bernadette turned and caught Kelly staring. Not cool, Kell. Bernadette probably thought Kelly was some kind of stalker. Time to act like the professional she was supposed to be.

  Kelly smiled as she set forward to introduce herself. She extended her hand. Hopefully, Bernadette would receive her better than Irene Singer did earlier. “Hello, I’m —”

  “Kelly Quinn.” Bernadette shook Kelly’s hand. Her grip was firm. “Very nice to meet you.” Her dark eyes with flecks of gold held Kelly’s gaze. “I’m sorry for your loss. Your grandmother is at peace now. She wants you to know that. She’s…she’s proud of you and your decision.”

  Her granny was proud of her? All the weight that had been crushing Kelly’s shoulders eased up for a moment. Her granny was proud of her. Wait. Did Bernadette just read her?

  “I see you two introduced yourselves.” Liv returned with an armful of clothing. “Carly wants me to hold these for her while she checks out the back room.”

  Kelly nodded absently. She was entranced by Bernadette, who still held on to her hand.

  “Passing over to the other side is often a welcome relief for people.” Bernadette’s voice was soothing and confident.

  “Would you like to try the dress on?” Liv asked Bernadette, gesturing to the garment draped over the psychic’s arm.

  Bernadette blinked. “Oh, yes.” She let go of Kelly’s hand and gave Liv the dress. “I was immediately drawn to it.”

  “The dressing room is right there.” Liv turned and walked just a few feet to pull back a curtain and hung the dress in the small space outfitted with a mirror and a stool. Bernadette followed and stepped into the dressing room. She pulled the curtain closed.

  Liv returned to Kelly’s side. “Cat got your tongue?”

  “What? No.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re falling for her routine? Lucky Cove is small and people talk. Especially about your granny. There’s nothing she can tell you she couldn’t have learned from the gossip mill.”

  Kelly wouldn’t agree that she was falling for Bernadette’s routine, but she was curious. Her first summer as an intern for Ralph Lauren, a fellow intern went to see a psychic in the East Village. Kelly nearly choked on her latte when she found out Bethany forked over a thousand dollars for readings. For a fashion student working only for course credit, that was a lot of cash.

  Later she found out the psychic turned out to be right about several things. She nailed the cheating boyfriend, an awesome job opportunity at Tory Burch, and a health scare that landed Bethany in the hospital. So maybe there was something to psychic readings. Who was Kelly to judge?

  “You’re falling for it. I can see it in your eyes.” Liv shot Kelly a stern look she’d picked up and honed from her mother. “This could all be some kind of prank to drum up business for her and her soothsayer cousin. Halloween is just a few days away.”

  Before Kelly could respond, Pepper came up beside her and leaned close to whisper, “Camille just called and gave me a heads-up your uncle is on his way over.”

  “Good grief.” Kelly rolled her eyes. Her uncle Ralph had been hovering around the shop since the day Granny’s will was read, and not because he wanted to lend a hand to help Kelly. Manual labor wasn’t her uncle’s thing, but underhanded business maneuvers were his specialty.

  “Do you think he’s up to something?”

  Kelly shrugged. “He’s always up to something. Unfortunately, because he’s executor, I have to deal with him. Can’t Camille keep him in the office?”

  Camille was Pepper’s sister-in-law and Ralph’s secretary. Both women shared a mutual dislike of the man, as did most normal people.

  Pepper shook her head. “No can do. He’s already left.”

  The dressing room curtain swept back, and Bernadette stepped out wearing the black dress. Kelly struggled to find a word to describe how amazing Bernadette looked, because she was blown away. Stunning was the first word that popped into Kelly’s head.

  Bernadette had pulled her long hair up into a messy bun to show off the scalloped eyelash-trimmed lace bateau neckline, which showcased her elongated neck. The bodice and skirt of the dress, intricately sewn pieces of fabric and lace, skimmed her lean torso and hugged her hips, and the scalloped lace hem gave a tease of her long legs.

  Kelly stepped forward. “It’s beautiful on you.”

  “Kelly’s right,” Liv agreed.

  “Exquisite. The dress is meant for you,” Pepper said.

  “I can’t see how you wouldn’t want to buy this dress. If it looked that good on me, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.” Kelly wasn’t trying for a hard sell. She really meant the compliment.

  Though, Bernadette didn’t look as excited about the dress as Kelly felt. Bernadette’s face should have been all lit up. Women knew when they looked darn good in a dress. Heck, Kelly had done her fair share of happy dances when she’d found a dress her body rocked. But not Bernadette. The expression on her face was void of any emotion.

  “If I were twenty years younger, I’d buy the dress.” Pepper laughed.

  Both Kelly and Liv knew Pepper meant thirty years younger, but what woman didn’t want to shave a decade or two off?

  “You don’t like it?” Kelly’s brows furrowed.

  Bernadette hadn’t moved since coming out of the changing room. She stood there as if frozen in place.

  “We’ll find you another dress,” Pepper suggested.

  Bernadette shook her head and then shut her eyes. She swayed as she dragged in a deep breath. “There’s something wrong. Wrong with this dress.”

  Kelly, Liv, and Pepper exchanged looks. There wasn’t anything wrong with the dress. It was perfect.

  “I feel it. It’s happening far away.” Bernadette’s soft and lyrical voice captivated them.

  “If she starts to levitate, I’m outta here,” Pepper quipped.

  “I’ll be right behind you,” Liv agreed.

  Bernadette’s hand flew up and pressed against her chest. And her eyes opened suddenly; her gaze was set dead ahead. “There’s a man. I see a man. He’s far away.”

  Kelly, Liv, and Pepper looked around the shop. There weren’t any men. In unison, they asked, “Where?”

  A chill skittered along Kelly’s spine. This was getting weird. “What’s going on?” she whispered to Liv, who replied with a simple shrug.

  “Do you think we should call someone?” Pepper asked.

  “Who?” Kelly looked around, and customers started to turn their attention to the sideshow playing out in front of the dressing room. This wasn’t good for business.

  “An ambulance,” Liv suggested.

  “Let’s just get her changed out of that dress and out of the store.” Kelly stepped forward and stopped when Bernadette stretched out her arm, her palm facing Kelly.

  “No! No! No!” A look of stark panic flashed in Bernadette’s eyes just before she screamed, “He’s dead,” and then she collapsed to the floor.

  Chapter 2

  “Holy crap!” Kelly rushed to Bernadette and dropped to her knees beside the unconscious psychic. What just happened? One minute Bernadette was trying on the dress, and another minute she was seeing a dead man and then, bam, she was on the floor. Kelly’s mind raced as adrenaline pumped thr
ough her body. “Call 9-1-1!”

  Pepper dashed to the sales counter, knocking over a display of mini-pumpkins as she reached for the phone. Meanwhile, all heads in the shop swiveled to see what was going on. Double holy crap! This wasn’t how the first day of the big three-day sale was supposed to go. Customers weren’t supposed to faint or see dead people. Focus, Kelly, focus on the unconscious woman. “Bernadette, can you hear me?”

  “Is she breathing?” Liv asked.

  Kelly nodded. She was. Thank God.

  “What do we do?” Kelly wished she’d taken a first aid class. She’d had plenty of chances over the years, but something more interesting always came up, like brunch or a sample sale. Maybe her sister wasn’t completely wrong about her. Lesson learned. The next first aid class she saw offered she’d sign up for.

  “I don’t know.” Liv pulled her cell phone from her back pants pocket and swiped it on.

  “What are you doing? Pepper just called 9-1-1.”

  Liv typed and talked at the same time. “I’m Googling what to do with an unconscious person.”

  “Why not just ask Siri?”

  “Good idea.”

  “I wasn’t serious.”

  But the situation was getting serious. Shoppers closed in around them, whispering, and not one of them offered to step forward to help. It looked like Kelly wasn’t the only person who hadn’t taken a first aid class.

  “Bernadette!” a voice from the crowd called out. Heads swiveled again, toward the voice. “Oh, no!”

  Kelly’s breath caught when she looked in the direction of the voice. Bernadette? It couldn’t be, but the woman looked just like Bernadette. Same height, same hair color, same aura. The only difference was the doppelganger was wearing a flowy burgundy caftan beneath a knitted sleeveless black duster and her blond hair was pulled up into a high ponytail.

  “I sensed something was wrong.” The woman broke through the crowd and hurried to Bernadette’s side. She stroked her hand across Bernadette’s cheek.

  “Who are you?” Kelly asked.

  “I’m her cousin, Maxine Lemoyne. She must’ve had a vision.”

  “This has happened before?” Kelly glanced to Liv, but she was still Googling answers about what to do with an unconscious ghost whisperer. No help there.

  “A side effect, if you will, of being gifted.” Maxine gently shook her cousin’s shoulder and whispered her name in an attempt to rouse Bernadette, who stirred and, within a few moments, opened her eyes. “She’s back with us.”

  The crowd let out a collective breath of relief.

  “What…what happened?” Confusion crossed Bernadette’s face.

  “You passed out.” Kelly stood and swatted at Liv’s hand. “You can stop Googling. She’s awake.”

  Liv flashed a sheepish look as she returned her phone to her back pocket. “Thank goodness. Is she okay?”

  Bernadette stood with the assistance of her cousin. “It happened again, didn’t it?” She wobbled a little as she found her footing and rubbed the back of her neck.

  “Do you think you should get up? Maybe you should wait for the ambulance.” Kelly heard sirens approach, which was a welcome relief.

  “No, no. I’m fine. Maxine is correct. I…I had a vision. I saw a man. A man was…murdered,” Bernadette said, and the crowd gasped.

  Triple holy crap! Did Kelly hear Bernadette correctly?

  “Murdered? Who?” a woman from the crowd asked.

  Confirmation. Kelly did hear Bernadette correctly.

  It was time to break up the crowd and get them back to shopping while Psychic Girl took her vision to some other store. “Why don’t we go into the staff area for some privacy?”

  “The dress is haunted?” another woman asked.

  “You’re selling haunted clothes,” a third woman chimed in with not so much a question but a statement and started the crowd buzzing with speculation.

  “No wonder everything is on sale,” another woman added to the hysteria.

  Good grief. Kelly was going to lose a whole bunch of business if she didn’t do some damage control. But what? She scanned her memory, but nothing from her Retail Management 101 class had prepared her for haunted merchandise. Damn!

  “She’s okay, everybody. Why don’t we give her some room?” Pepper made her way through the shoppers and gingerly yet firmly shuffled them away from Bernadette. “She’s going to be fine.”

  “I need to take this dress off now. The murder is connected to this dress,” Bernadette declared.

  Kelly and Liv stared at each other. They had to be thinking the same thing. “You’re saying a woman wore that dress when she murdered a man?” A part of Kelly was scared to hear the answer.

  “Yes.” Bernadette’s hands wound around her neck to begin unzipping the dress.

  “Who was the woman? Who was the man?” Liv asked.

  “I need to get this dress off. The energy is too disturbing.” Bernadette pivoted and raced to the dressing room, pushing past the shoppers who still gawked at the scene of the alleged supernatural visitation.

  Kelly chewed on her lower lip. The shift in the mood of her shoppers was disturbing. They were too busy talking about Bernadette and not busy shopping.

  The sirens stopped just before the boutique’s front door swung open, bringing in a sweep of autumn air and Officer Gabe Donovan. He bypassed the biggest crowd of shoppers the store had ever seen. Too bad their attention was diverted to the psychic who saw a vision of murder.

  “Who collapsed?” Gabe scanned the crowd as he turned down the volume on his radio.

  He’d been a cop for three years, and since Kelly only came back to Lucky Cove for holidays and brief summer vacations, she wasn’t used to seeing him in uniform. To her, he’d always be Pepper’s goofy son.

  “Hi, hon.” Pepper waved her son over. “Bernadette Rydell. She had a vision.”

  “Officer.” Maxine intercepted Gabe and lifted a palm. “I’m Bernadette’s cousin. We don’t need any assistance. She’s fine now, and I’m taking her home to rest.”

  Gabe gave Maxine a once-over, and Kelly noticed the suspicious look in his baby blues. Even though she’d seen him a handful of times on the job, she’d never really seen him in action. His chin lifted, his shoulders squared, he took a wide V-stance, and he propped his hands on his hips. He was in full cop mode.

  “Your cousin should be evaluated by a doctor. An ambulance is on the way.” Gabe’s tone was firm.

  Maxine’s gaze lingered on Gabe before she spoke. “Thank you for your concern, but that’s not necessary.” She turned her head away from Gabe with a snap.

  Gabe shifted his attention to Kelly. “What happened here?” A hint of annoyance sliced through his tone.

  “She fainted after she tried on a dress.” Since Gabe was in the boutique on official business, Kelly decided to keep her answer brief and concise. She didn’t think he’d appreciate the finer details of the dress or how amazing Bernadette looked in it.

  Liv inserted herself between Gabe and Kelly. “Gabe, you’re right about her going to the hospital. She might’ve hit her head when she landed on the floor.”

  Hit her head? What would that mean for the boutique’s insurance? Kelly could feel the premiums skyrocketing, and the last thing she needed was a lawsuit. The way some juries came up with crazy compensations for injuries could land her beyond broke. They couldn’t blame the shop for accepting a dress with a murder attached to it for consignment, could they?

  “There’s no need for me to go to the hospital.” Bernadette had exited the dressing room and handed the dress to Kelly. “What happened wasn’t your fault. I assure you I’m fine and I won’t be suing you.”

  How did she know Kelly was thinking about a possible lawsuit?

  “It’s a hazard of my gift.” Bernadette confirmed Kelly’s fear that the woman w
as reading her mind, making her even more uneasy.

  Maxine wrapped a protective arm around her cousin. “We should leave. I’ll make you some tea when we get home.” She shuffled Bernadette out the door, and the chime of the bell announced their exit.

  “Well, talk about a performance.” Pepper came up to Gabe’s side. She rose up on her tippy toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “Ma, I’m on duty,” Gabe said. “You’re right, Bernadette is definitely something else. Now I have to file a report.”

  “Then you should take a pumpkin spice muffin to go. We have a few left.” Liv turned and dashed to the staff room. She’d had a crush on Gabe forever.

  “How’s the sale going?” he asked.

  Kelly took a moment to scan the boutique before answering. The incident seemed to thin out the shoppers. “It was going well until Bernadette had her vision and fainted.”

  Pepper raised a finger and was about to say something when the boutique’s telephone rang and she excused herself to go answer it at the sales counter.

  “How’s your uncle handling your decision to stay and keep the shop open?”

  Kelly rolled her eyes. It was an involuntary reflex whenever her uncle or his third wife was mentioned. “Not well. If this place ever burns down, make sure he’s at the top of your suspect list.”

  Gabe laughed. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

  “Here you go.” Liv rushed back with one of her muffins in a plastic bag and a napkin. “Baked fresh this morning.” She beamed.

  When she returned she had a new application of her favorite shade of lipstick and added a hint of color to her cheeks.

  Gabe accepted the muffin. “Thanks. This will make report writing a lot easier.” He smiled. Tiny lines creased around his pale blue eyes, and a blush crept across his face. He had a crush on Liv! Why hadn’t Kelly seen it before?