Clock and Dagger (24 page)

“That's fine,” I said, feeling my face turn the same color as my hair.

•   •   •

T
he party broke up shortly afterward. Ben helped carry the leftovers upstairs. Blue and Bezel didn't hear us come in, so we caught them spooning. Blue was excited to see the possibilities of leftovers coming in the door and his tail thumped the floor the moment he heard us put the food on the kitchen table. Bezel tried to pretend she hadn't been sleeping against Blue's side. The two of them stretched languidly and then trotted over in unison.

Ben leaned over and said hello to both of our furry masters.

“Give them some of the cheese—Bezel will be your best friend for a nibble,” I said.

Ben went to get it, and I put the glasses in the dishwasher.

“Ruth, I wanted you to know, those flowers were for you,” Ben said as he tore up a few little pieces of cheese for Bezel, who hopped onto a kitchen chair, expectantly licking her
chops. Blue chomped the piece Ben held out for him, swallowing it in one gulp.

“What flowers?” I asked with my back to him, even though I knew.

“The flowers I brought by the day after Mark died. But then Jeff was with you—”

“He wasn't with me,” I said, trying not to break the glasses as my grip tightened.

“I know that, now,” he said softly. “I don't normally listen to the rumormongers, but I saw you both that morning . . . I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and I'm sorry I didn't talk to you. But I'm not the only one who got the wrong impression, you know.”

“I know that. I didn't realize I was such a source of gossip for this town.”

“Ruth Clagan, you have been the source of gossip in this town since you arrived.” I could hear him stepping closer behind me. “You're an enigma.”

“Only if you don't ask me what you want to know,” I said. I turned and looked at Ben, and didn't try to look away this time. He was one handsome man. Trouble in blue jeans and boots. I reached over and rubbed my knuckles over the buttons of his shirt. “All you have to do is ask,” I said, looking up at him.

“Ask you what?” Moira asked, coming up the stairs.

“Ask me if I was seeing Jeff Paisley,” I said, clearing my throat and taking a small step back from Ben. “Which I, for the record, am not. At least not romantically. We're friends, good friends. That's all.”

Moira had the good grace to look abashed. “It's been a tough few days,” she said.

Blue nuzzled against Ben's leg, looking for more treats.

“It has,” I agreed. “A really tough few days. At least Jeff is getting some of the credit for breaking the case and exposing this criminal element.”

“Thanks to you,” she said, allowing Bezel to gingerly sniff her arm for signs of snacks. “Any word on how Tuck is doing?”

“I called Nadia this morning,” Ben said. “She said he's still in rough shape, but he's awake.”

“I wonder if he'll be in any legal trouble?” Moira asked.

“I have no idea,” I said. “I think that it is going to take Jeff some time to untangle all of this. Maybe Tuck can help.”

“I don't know about the two of you, but I still can't believe that Rina is a killer,” Moira said. “Never mind the rest of it. Can you imagine, Orchard was almost a hub of crime!”

“It's crazy, isn't it? But it also makes sense, now that we know what was going on,” I said.

“Maybe to you,” Moira said handing me the last glass from the counter.

I shoved some things around and got it in. “Is that all the dishes?”

“I'll hand-wash the serving plates,” Moira said. “One more question.”

“Just one more?” Ben said, grabbing a towel.

“For now. Why did Beckett help her with her alibi? About being in Marytown and not at the open house? Didn't he know what was going on?”

“According to Jeff, and Nancy, he had no idea what Rina was doing. They both believe him. Beckett didn't want us to know that he was actually slinking around the festivities even after his shop was left in the dark that night. He thought Rina was covering for him, not the other way around.”

“It doesn't say much for his intellect, does it? That he had no idea?” Ben said.

“Rina said that Beckett thought everything revolved around him. I think that's true. Why would he doubt for a minute that Rina was on his team?” I wrapped the block of cheese up and put it in the refrigerator.

“Makes me almost feel sorry for him,” Moira said. “Almost.”

“Fifty thousand dollars goes a long way toward getting us all to forgive him,” Ben said, scratching the back of his neck.

“What do you think Beckett's going to do?” I asked.

“I'll bet he's going to open the bookstore,” Ben said. “I think he's really into it. Besides, at this point everything he owns is tied up with the shop. Now that he's made his contribution to the Clock Tower Fund.”

“He's trying to buy his way back into our good graces,” Moira said, looking skeptically down as Bezel attempted to eat the fluff on her boots in the absence of cheese.

“Obviously,” Ben said.

“Question is,” I said, scooping Bezel up into my arms, “will his plan work?”

I
finished putting the candles in the cake and stood back to survey my work.
Happy Belated Birthday, Caroline!
it said in bright blue letters.

“You're sure about the decoration?” I asked Levi for the umpteenth time. The big yellow smiley face in the center of the cake didn't seem very Caroline-like to me.

“I'm sure. It's symbolic. We've decided that next year is the year of the smile. I want to remind her of that.”

“This past year was a tough one,” I said.

“She's had a tough few years,” Levi said. I looked over at this gentle giant. We'd met in person only yesterday, but it had been quite a twenty-four hours. After we'd all had wine and cheese at the shop, Caroline, Levi, and I drove out to the cottage to have a quiet dinner together. We foraged for food and, over the meal, Caroline told Levi the story that
she had held back all these years. I was mostly there for support, but I jumped in with details or when it got too hard for her. We got through it. As a family. I stayed overnight at the cottage. I haven't slept that well in years.

“So, how are you doing?” I asked, gathering plates, napkins, and forks, and putting them on the tray with the cake.

“Fine. Really, I'm good,” Levi said.

“You're taking this all really well,” I said, smiling at him.

“I already knew most of it,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I stopped futzing with the cake and turned to look at Levi.

“When I was about seventeen, I started to ask questions about my father. My mother answered some of them, but I caught her in a couple of lies. So I started to investigate on my own.”

“Did she know?”

“No, she didn't. It took some work, but eventually I found out that he was in jail, and I wrote him a letter.”

“What happened?”

“It didn't have enough postage, so it came back to the shop. Thom got it in the mail, and he asked me about it. So I let him read the letter. He asked me not to send it. Then he told me about what had happened and why my mother had always pretended he was dead.”

“G.T. told you everything?”

“He did. And then he asked me to keep it from my mother, to let her live her lie, for the time being. It made her feel safe. He made her feel safe. Thom was great,” he said, smiling to himself. “He let me make my own decision about what to do, but he set it up so I'd do the right thing. He trusted me with the truth, but he also wanted to protect my mother no matter what.”

“Sounds like him,” I said. I nudged him with my shoulder, and he smiled at me.

I looked down at the cake and decided to adopt Levi's theme for the New Year. Only smiles going forward.

We lit the cake, and Levi carried it downstairs to the shop. The party was in full swing. All of the business owners were gathered, ready to welcome in the New Year. Nadia had come by, and busied herself helping replenish food and drink. When I'd thanked her for helping out, she'd shrugged her shoulders. “Just trying to be a better host,” she'd said. “My New Year's resolution.”

“To be a better host?”

“To be more like you,” she said. She gave me a quick hug, and ran up to get more ginger ale for the punch.

Even Beckett was there. He'd shown up with a case of champagne and a lot of humility. I had to hand it to him, the bubbly wasn't the cheap stuff. Nancy wasn't willing to give him a pass yet, but Pat welcomed him at the door.

The model of the clock tower sat on the front counter, welcoming us all to dream about the next steps in restoring the building. The Clock Tower Committee had an open meeting next week at the Town Hall. This was really going to happen. It was thrilling.

When people saw Levi and me walk down the stairs, they started to sing to Caroline. By the end of the song, everyone was looking around. The guest of honor wasn't in the front of the shop. Levi put the cake on the counter and blew out the candles for his mother. I walked around the corner to the workroom. I found Caroline there, bent over a worktable. She was wearing a vision visor and had a light shining down. I walked over to see what she was working on and found three
pocket watches lying on a black cloth. I sighed and shook my head. I knew that look.

“These are all part of the Winter collection,” she said, not looking up from her treasure.

“They're beautiful. Valuable?”

“Yes, I think so. They could be really valuable, but I'd need to open them up.” She looked up at me and removed her visor. She still looked pale, but pain was gone from her eyes. I also noticed that her hair was down, curling slightly under her chin.

“Do you want to open them up?” I asked.

“I do, once I've got both arms working again.” She gestured to her sling, and shrugged her good shoulder. “I've missed working on watches. Your grandfather had me help in the shop, but we hadn't taken in watches.”

“The Clagans are a clock family,” I said. “But we can expand. How about if you hang out your shingle? We can fix clocks and watches. It would be good for business.”

Caroline reached over and grabbed my hand. “That sounds wonderful,” she said.

“Hey, ladies, we're about to welcome in the New Year. And there's a cake to be cut,” Ben said, poking his head into the workroom. He looked handsome, with a black wool jacket over a crisp white shirt. The jeans were black tonight, and they looked fine.

“We're coming,” Caroline said. I helped her stand up. She turned and smiled at us both. She maneuvered to the front of the store slowly, to cheers from the crowd. I saw Levi draw her in and give her a kiss on top of her head. She leaned on his chest, and looked up with a smile.

A few seconds later the clocks all began to chime. They
weren't totally in sync, but it was close enough. “Yay!” I said softly.

“Very impressive,” Ben said, looking at me. “And the clocks aren't bad either. You're a woman of many talents, Ruth Clagan. Happy New Year.”

“Happy New Year to you, barber Ben. Thanks again for coming to my rescue.”

“My absolute pleasure,” he said. He leaned down and kissed me. I closed my eyes and kissed him back.

Fireworks welcomed the New Year.

Julianne Holmes
is the author of
Just Killing Time
, the debut novel in the Clock Shop Mysteries, and is the pseudonym for J. A. (Julie) Hennrikus, whose short stories have appeared in the award-winning Level Best Books. She serves on the boards of Sisters in Crime and Sisters in Crime New England, and is a member of Mystery Writers of America. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, and blogs with the Wicked Cozy Authors at wickedcozyauthors.com. Visit the author at
julianneholmes.com.