The Bakers and Bulldogs Mysteries Collection: 20 Book Box Set

by Rosie Sams

  “Yeah,” Melody said, even as she determined that such a thing would be impossible. “You too.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Did you notice anything strange when you dropped off the cake?” Melody asked as she and Kerry got into the van.

  Kerry shook her head. “The only thing I do remember is that none of the bridesmaids seemed excited when I saw them at the venue. They were all so quiet, like Laurel.”

  “So, it wasn’t just Laurel?” Melody mused. “So odd.”

  They drove in silence for a few moments.

  Melody looked out the window as they passed the church. The bridesmaids in their pink taffeta dresses were still outside the church, along with a few other guests. “I thought Al would have cleared everyone out by now.”

  “Hard to keep people from sticking around when something so drastic has just happened,” Kerry remarked.

  “Yeah….” Melody slowed the van down before pulling up to the curb and coming to a stop. “I think I’d like to have a word with one or two of them.”

  “Wait a minute, Mel,” Kerry protested. “Didn’t you just say that you’re glad that it’s the police who are investigating this and not you.”

  “No, it was Leslie who said that.” Melody’s seatbelt was already off, her hand on the door handle. “I, for one, want to know what happened, and this is the perfect opportunity.”

  Kerry looked concerned but eventually shrugged. “I’ll wait for you here.”

  “Thanks, Kerry. This will be quick,” she promised and got out of the car. She moved across the manicured grass, listening as the people around her offered their own unfounded speculations on Robin’s untimely death. Melody offered solemn smiles to a few familiar faces, most of them customers from the bakery. After making her way through the onlookers, she made it to the bench where the bridesmaids were gathered.

  “Excuse me?” she greeted.

  All eyes turned to fix on Melody. She gave a small wave. “Hi, I’m Melody Marshall, the cake decorator.”

  Laurel nodded. “Hey, I remember you. Is there something you need?”

  Melody paused, debating over the best way to glean information. The last thing she wanted was for the girls to think she was suspicious of them even though, at this stage, everyone was a suspect. “I just wanted to check on everyone. How are you all holding up?”

  Laurel stepped forward as she took the liberty of speaking for the entire group before any of the other girls had a chance to speak up. “It’s a little difficult to grieve for someone as vile as Robin Werther,” she said.

  Melody was taken aback by Laurel’s fierce and terribly blunt comment. “That’s quite an accusation, Laurel. What makes you say that Robin was vile?”

  Laurel sighed before speaking. “We all heard the rumors, Melody. I’m sure you did too.”

  Melody offered a slight nod.

  “I know how Dorinda adored him, but I never liked the man. Especially after learning what he really wanted from Dorinda and how he behaved around women,” Laurel explained.

  A few of the bridesmaids murmured words of agreement.

  Perhaps this was why Laurel had been so lackadaisical at the shop. If this is truly what Laurel believed of Robin, Melody could hardly blame her.

  “Robin didn’t deserve Dorinda. I will not shed any tears over his death. He has fooled many women, broken many hearts,” Laurel said.

  “Wow, that’s really sad to hear,” was all that Melody could say. “Is that how you all feel?” she added, remembering what Kerry said about the general lack of enthusiasm.

  “We feel the same way Laurel does,” one of them said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

  “He had a fling with one of my friends while he was engaged to Dorinda,” another bridesmaid piped up. “The woman was so broken after I told her that he had a fiancé.”

  “I heard him bragging once to his friends about how lucky he was to catch an innocent fish like Dorinda. He said she would be the key to secure a position in the hospital,” a fellow bridesmaid noted.

  Melody would have thought nothing could shock her after what had already transpired, but she felt thoroughly overwhelmed by the bridesmaids’ stories. If this was running in circles for a while, didn’t anyone care for Dorinda? “If all of you felt this way, why didn’t anyone think to warn Dorinda? Maybe this tragedy could have been avoided if someone had spoken up.”

  “Oh, most of us did, I assure you,” Laurel said, “but Dorinda was too deaf to hear us. She was also too blind to see how Robin behaved with other women. She only wanted to see the best in him. I told her to leave the guy alone because it was plain to see that he was no good. But, instead of listening, she just kept on defending him. I don’t know what kind of spell he cast on her. I guess that’s why they say love is blind.”

  Everyone nodded in agreement, except for one petite brunette who kept her eyes on her lap as she fiddled with the wilting bouquet she still held in her hands. She looked even more heartbroken than the others and sat on the far end of the bench, separating herself from the other girls. The bridesmaids lapsed into their own conversation amongst themselves then, and Melody jumped at the opportunity to speak with the reticent brunette.

  “Are you doing all right?” Melody asked. It seemed a bit redundant, but the girl had kept herself far from the conversation, so perhaps she hadn’t felt included enough to offer any input.

  The girl glanced up and nodded before looking back down at the bouquet.

  “How do you know Dorinda?” Melody asked, sitting down next to the young woman.

  “Dorinda’s a friend of mine from back in our university days,” she said. A sad smile came to her mouth. “We suffered through chemistry lab together.”

  “I see. What’s your name?” Melody asked.

  “Cathy Peck.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Cathy. I’m sorry about all of this. I’m sure Dorinda would be grateful to have you with her at a time like this. Perhaps you can see her once they’re all finished at the police station.”

  Cathey nodded, looking close to tears. Her sorrow prompted Melody to ask if she was close to Robin.

  Cathy tensed at the question. “Do I have to be close to Robin to feel this way? Doesn’t he deserve someone to grieve for him? Is it also a crime to grieve for someone even though he was not that nice of a person?” Cathy asked.

  Cathy’s defensiveness was tangible.

  “No. Of course, it’s okay to grieve for someone. I’m sorry if it came out differently,” Melody was quick to say. “It’s natural to be sad when something so tragic has happened.”

  A moment of silence passed before Melody spoke again. “So, you only knew Robin through Dorinda?”

  Cathy nodded. “Yeah, Dorinda talked about him all the time.”

  Melody hated to jump to conclusions, but she wondered if Cathy’s genuine grief on Robin’s behalf stemmed from some sort of deeper attachment that she wasn’t prepared to disclose. Perhaps she had been one of his “women”?

  “You really had no other… connection with him?” Melody ventured. The moment the words were out of her mouth, she wished she’d been able to figure out a more tactful way to phrase the question.

  “What—what are you saying?” Cathy demanded, her proverbial bristles shooting back up again. “I hope you don’t think that I… I mean, Robin and I….”

  Melody waited on Cathy to find the right words, but the distraught bridesmaid only grew more flustered the more she tried. “I won’t be accused of anything,” she finally said, her voice taut.

  Before Melody could contradict her statement, the livid bridesmaid stalked toward the church without so much as a goodbye or a backward glance.

  “Wow, okay,” Melody said, feeling more suspicious than ever. She glanced at her watch, remembering Kerry before standing to bid the bridesmaids goodbye.

  “Anything?” Kerry inquired as Melody resumed her place in the driver’s seat.

  “Did I find out who committed the murder? No. Ho
wever, I did find out that almost everyone feels the exact way Laurel does about Robin.”

  “You mean that he was a no-good, manipulative womanizer?”

  “Yeah, that.” Melody threw the van into drive and steered away from the church. “Each bridesmaid had a story about why Robin was no good. Except for one….”

  “Oh?”

  “Her name is Cathy Peck. She seemed far more genuinely distraught. But if you ask me, she seems to be more upset about the loss of Robin than about what this whole ordeal has done to Dorinda….”

  “Seriously?”

  “She says that he deserves someone to grieve for him.”

  Kerry scowled. “No one has a heart big enough to feel sorry for that despicable character.”

  “Unless…..” Melody ventured.

  Kerry’s eyes lit up with recognition. “Unless she had a deeper connection to him….. unless they were involved.” She crossed her arms, her face contorted with thought. After a few moments, she shook her head, straightening up. “Okay, this is all very interesting, but I think you’d better leave things to the police from here on out. This is getting a little too weird, and I don’t think you should be involved. None of us should.”

  Melody didn’t promise Kerry anything. This was too weird….. and she wanted to get to the bottom of it as much as anyone.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Smudge was so excited to see Melody enter the house that she hopped around like a kangaroo as her owner set down her belongings. After the unimaginable stress of the day, Melody couldn’t have been more grateful that she had such a happy little companion to come home to.

  “Hey, buddy,” she said, ignoring her fancy dress and getting right down onto her knees with the dog. “I’m sorry I was gone for so long. You wouldn’t believe how this day turned out.”

  Smudge rolled onto her back, her mouth open, tongue hanging out of her mouth in a show of pure bliss as Melody rubbed her tummy.

  Melody glanced down the hallway, but couldn’t quite bring herself to turn in for the evening. “Tell you what,” she told her dog as she stood to her feet and kicked off her fancy high heels. “We’ll go for a walk. I think I need one as badly as you do.”

  It only took Melody a minute to change into yoga pants and hoodie. When she returned to the front of the house, Smudge was waiting at the door. She snatched up the leash, and the twosome were on their way.

  Melody and Smudge walked their usual route. Melody was so lost in thoughts of the day that she didn’t even notice Alvin’s approach until Smudge released a few welcoming, high-pitched yaps in response to his nearness.

  “Hi, Mel,” Alvin greeted.

  Melody released a breathless laugh. She couldn’t tell if she was breathless because she hadn’t realized Alvin was following them or simply because of his nearness in general. “Hey. Sorry, I must have been lost in thought.”

  Alvin shrugged. “Not surprised about that after today. I was headed to your place to check in on you. How are you holding up?”

  Melody stopped walking when she noticed that Alvin looked nearly as stressed as she felt. His earlier well-combed hair was a little rustled now, his eyes lined with worry. Still, Melody thought he was handsome, even in a casual outfit of jeans and a t-shirt. The attire suited his easy-going charm. However, the fact that he was worn out was unmistakable.

  “It’s been a long day,” Melody remarked. Smudged jumped up and down at the sheriff’s feet, eager for attention. They laughed, and Alvin leaned down to scratch behind Smudge’s ears. “Let me take her for a while,” he offered, taking the leash from Melody before they continued down the path.

  “Are you getting closer to figuring out what really happened at the church?” Melody asked.

  Alvin sighed, raking one large hand through his hair. “I don’t think so, Mel. But, it’s early yet so we’ll keep trying. We’ll need to test for fingerprints and uncover the murder weapon if the investigation is to go anywhere. I just hope that the murderer hasn’t destroyed the evidence yet, whoever he may be.”

  “Or she,” Melody added, wryly.

  “Huh?”

  Melody shook her head. “All I mean is that the murderer could be anyone at this point. There were so many people at the church and so many who didn’t seem to like Robin Werther very much.”

  “You’re right about that,” Alvin agreed.

  “So, what if the criminal did destroy the evidence?”

  Alvin’s mouth formed a distressed line. “It would be pretty difficult to pin down the murderer if that’s the case, but not impossible. It would just take a little more work. With each day that passes, the chance of discovering the evidence lessens because the murderer has more time to cover his tracks. That’s why my crew is going to be working non-stop on this case until justice has been served.”

  Melody watched Smudge prance contentedly in front of them, thinking. “What about Ambrose? Are you going to discount his claims simply because he admitted outright to the murder, which doesn’t seem very… crook-like?”

  “If Ambrose really did do it,” Alvin explained, “he’d be able to produce the weapon he used. He hasn’t done much in the way of hiding thus far, so it would be believable that he would still have the murder weapon in his possession. However, he hasn’t come forward with it yet.”

  “But, should he decide to come forward with it, he would be convicted immediately?”

  Alvin nodded. “If the weapon corresponded with the wound in Robin’s chest and the rest of the evidence, yes.”

  Melody wondered if she should keep her interview with the bridesmaids a secret, fearing that Alvin might not approve of her meddling. Thinking, though, that perhaps the conversations she’d had were important, she decided against secrecy and took her chances.

  “I talked with Dorinda’s bridesmaids.”

  “About the murder?”

  Melody nodded.

  Alvin’s expression was interested. “What did they say?”

  Melody relayed the common distaste the girls held for Robin and also Cathy’s peculiar reaction.

  “Leslie and Kerry noticed early on that the girls didn’t seem particularly thrilled about the wedding. They all seem to agree that he wasn’t a great guy by any stretch and aren’t exactly mourning his loss. Laurel, being Dorinda’s closest friend, was the most vocal about her hatred for Robin.”

  “Who’s Laurel?”

  “Dorinda’s maid of honor.”

  “Hmm. But Cathy seemed genuinely sad?”

  “It seemed that way to me,” Melody agreed. “She claims she had no direct connection to Robin, but grew very defensive when I pressed the point. I thought that maybe she’d once been an object of interest to Robin, but she wouldn’t confirm anything.”

  Alvin’s expression turned to one of amusement.

  “What?” Melody demanded, stopping once again.

  “I don’t know why you’re a pastry chef. I think you would do well as a detective,” he joked.

  Melody shook her head. “No, I just want to help.”

  Alvin chuckled. “Sure.”

  Melody shot him a look that was meant to silence him but only succeeded in making them both laugh. They continued on with their walk when Smudge started tugging impatiently on the leash.

  “Just thinking out loud,” Melody couldn’t resist adding after only a few seconds. She saw Alvin attempting to hold his laughter out of the corner of her eye, but she foraged on.

  “What if Dorinda was the murderer? I mean, Ambrose was so set on convincing everyone that he was the murderer, perhaps he was trying to protect his daughter. Perhaps Dorinda had begun to see Robin for the cad he was and decided to do him in before he could ruin her life.”

  “Anything is possible, Mel,” Alvin agreed.

  True though it might be, Melody desperately hoped that Dorinda wasn’t the murderer. The situation was gruesome enough already, and she would hate to discover that sweet Dorinda had it in her heart to do something so terrible, no matter who th
e victim might be.

  Melody was about to voice her concerns once more to Alvin when Smudge broke into a run, yanking Alvin behind him. Alvin and Melody laughed as they followed the dog right to the front of a local bar.

  “She’s on a mission,” Alvin joked as they came to a stop. “Hey, what do you need from the bar, girl?”

  Smudge led them in the direction of one of the outdoor tables where a man sat nursing a beer. It took Melody a while to realize that it was the mean version of Fred from earlier.

  “Hey, Smudge, come over here,” Alvin ordered. “We don’t want to interrupt the man’s—” he trailed off when Smudge released a low growl. Alvin looked to Melody in confusion.

  “So smart,” Melody murmured, amazed that Smudge recognized the surly stranger they’d met earlier.

  “Who me?” Alvin asked.

  Melody blushed, waving her hand at him. “No, not you, Smudge. I mean, you are smart, but….” It took her a moment to recover from the awkward direction the conversation had tumbled, but when she had regained her composure, she explained about her earlier encounter with the man. Before Alvin had a chance to stop her, Melody made a beeline for the man’s table.

  “Excuse me, sir?” she said.

  The man looked up, his expression as far from welcoming as before.

  “Hi, I believe we met earlier?”

  No response.

  It wasn’t as if Melody was going to annoy the man any more than she was now, so she pressed her luck and continued. “Did you make it to the Mitchum-Werther wedding? I was there, but I don’t remember seeing you.”

  “What are you talking about?” The man growled, his frown deepening.

  “The wedding,” Melody repeated. “You asked for directions to its location earlier today?”

  “I don’t know anything about that wedding,” the man snapped, rudely, before taking a swig of his beer.

  “But, you asked for directions….”

  “I said I don’t know anything about it!” he snapped again.

  Apparently, he could get more annoyed, but Melody wasn’t giving up. “So, you didn’t make it?”