Invitation to Murder (Book 1 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (12 page)

Before I could say another word, he was
gone. I knew I’d been a little too hard on him, but I hadn’t been
able to help myself. Greg had a tough time apologizing about
anything, and I’d ground him down pretty good, but it was the only
way I could be sure he got the message. Once upon a time I would
have meekly accepted his offering without hesitation, but I‘d lived
and learned since then. If he was truly sorry, he was going to have
to do better than he had so far. I considered throwing the flowers
away, but they were too pretty to just toss into the trash can, and
besides, I loved roses. It wasn’t fair to them. I grabbed a vase,
arranged the flowers, then put them by the cash register. Lillian
came out of the back just as I finished. “So you came to your
senses and accepted them,” she said, smiling.

“
I took the flowers, but
not the apology.” Lillian started to say something, but from the
look on her face, it was pretty obvious she changed her mind at the
last second. Once I was sure she was intent to leave it alone, I
said, “You can go home now. There’s no reason to hang around,
because I don’t know how long the lesson’s going to
last.”

“
And leave you here alone
with a stranger?” she said. “Your brother would have my hide. I
think I’ll stay in back until you’re ready to go home.” I felt my
blood pressure spiking. “Now don’t you start with me. I won’t have
it!”

“
Jennifer, I have an idea.
What if I stay, but for a completely different reason? I need to
learn to make cards as quickly as possible if I’m going to be of
any help to you at all. May I audit your lesson
tonight?”

I frowned and considered it. “If it weren’t
such a good idea, I’d refuse on general principles. Tell me
something, Lillian. I know I drafted you into doing this, but do
you really want to help me here at the shop? It’s not that I don’t
love your company, but I feel guilty forcing you to work with me
here, especially since I can’t even afford to pay you.”

“
Dear, sweet Jennifer,
there is nowhere I’d rather be. If we’re being honest with each
other, I’m not certain I have your passion for handcrafted cards,
but I do feel it’s possible I’ll develop it. What we’ve done so far
has been fun, but I need more experience before I can decide if
this is how I want to spend my time. Is that a fair answer to your
question?”

I hugged her, then said, “It’s the best one
you could give. In that case, I’d be delighted to have you join us
here tonight.”

There was a knock on the front door, and I
saw that my student had finally arrived. I said, “I’ll let Melinda
in, and you gather up more supplies from the back so you can join
us.”

After I let Melinda in, I was going to tell
her about Lillian joining us when I noticed her eyes were red “Is
everything all right?”

“
I’m sorry I’m late,
Jennifer,” she said.

“
I don’t give a flip about
that, but I can see that you’ve been crying.”

She dabbed at her eyes. “I thought I would
be all right, but I’m not all that certain this is a good
idea.’

“
Tell me what’s wrong. I’m
a good listener.” The woman was obviously distraught about
something, and if I could help her, I would. I hated seeing anyone
in pain.

“
A young woman I was very
fond of is dead.” She blurted it out, then covered her face with
her hands.

“
Are you talking about
Tina Mast?” I asked as I patted her shoulder.

She jerked her hands from her face. “How did
you know that?”

“
My brother’s the
sheriff,” I said, trotting out that same tired old excuse I’d used
before. It was a nice little generalization that didn’t come close
to explaining the entire truth about my involvement in the
situation, but it seemed to satisfy everyone I gave it to, so who
was I to mess with perfection? “So how did you know
Tina?”

“
She was a friend of my
son’s. Tina was set to be the maid of honor at Larry’s wedding. Now
I’m not even certain there’s going to be one.”

“
He’s the young man
marrying Donna Albright. I didn’t know you were the groom’s
mother.”

Melinda said, “Now you’re scaring me.”

“
I’m doing the wedding
invitations. I just never put you together with the groom, that’s
all. As far as the wedding going forward, Anne Albright was here
this afternoon, and she ordered a hundred invitations. I’m working
on them right now.”

Melinda shook her head. “That woman is
determined that this wedding is going to occur, but I’m not sure
it’s the best idea for everyone involved.”

“
Have you talked to your
son about it?” I asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that
Lillian was listening to every word from the back room.

“
He swears he wants to go
through with it, but I honestly believe that if he had the
opportunity to back out, he would in a heartbeat.”

“
I understand there’s a
time constraint involved,” I said. Boy, that was a euphemism if
ever there was one.

Melinda nodded. “You’d think that Anne would
want to keep that news to herself. Yes, there’s a pregnancy rushing
matters, but we’re in the twenty-first century. I don’t necessarily
approve of having children without the benefit of marriage, but a
forced union can be worse than none at all. At least that’s what I
keep trying to tell everyone. No one’s listening, though.” That
brought another trickle of tears, which were banished immediately.
“I’m sorry. I really would love a lesson, but I’m afraid I’d be
useless tonight, may we do it another time?”

“
Of course. Just let me
know and I’ll be happy to reschedule.”

After she was gone, Lillian came out of the
storeroom. “Well, imagine that.”

“
It does seem we’re
involved in this up to our eyebrows, doesn’t it?”

Lillian said, “I just can’t help wondering
if Anne Albright and her daughter are the only ones who are pushing
for this wedding to go on.”

“
I’m not even certain the
bride wants it. She’s never even bothered to come by to check on
the invitation to her own wedding. That’s rather telling, isn’t
it?”

“
Perhaps she’s too busy
picking out her nursery furniture,” Lillian said. “So, should we
have our lesson anyway?”

I stifled a yawn. “Sure. Just give me a
minute to regroup.”

“
Nonsense, you’re
exhausted. Why don’t we save it for later? I know enough right now
to help you with the invitations, and I can pick up the rest as we
go along. Besides, there’s no need for you to have to teach the
same class twice in a row.”

“
Are you sure? It’s true
that I am worn-out, but I promised you.”

“
And I’m relieving you of
that promise. Honestly, there’s plenty I can do instead. I have an
idea. Why don’t we go out and see what mischief two single women in
Rebel Forge can get themselves into? It might be nice to put our
troubles behind us.”

I considered going out carousing with my
aunt, but we’d spent the entire day together, and as much as I
loved her company, I was badly in need of some solitary time.
“Could I take a rain check? I’m beat, and there’s some paperwork
here that I really need to catch up on before I go home.”

“
I can stay with you until
you finish it,” she said.

“
Come on, go have some
fun. I’ll be fine here. I promise, I’ll be careful going home.
Besides, do you think for one second that my self-appointed
bodyguards are going to leave me alone? Go, you deserve a night out
on the town.”

Was that a glimmer of relief in her eyes? It
looked like her offer to stay had been out of politeness more than
a desire for my company, but I wasn’t about to say anything. She
said, “Jennifer, you may cash your rain check at any time. Good
night, then.”

When I let her out, I half expected to find
my brother or Greg waiting outside the door, but Oakmont was
deserted. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved by the discovery, or
uneasy. I’d been proclaiming my self- sufficiency to everyone in
sight, but now that I was done, I was having second thoughts. I
hated the feeling of vulnerability, that I couldn’t handle
everything myself, and I resented the fact that the killer had
stolen my confidence from me. I was going to have to buck up and
handle it if I was the grown woman I kept telling everyone I was. I
worked through the bills, sadly gazing at the dwindling balance in
my card hop’s checkbook. Business was slow—I’d known it would
be—but seeing the steady decline on paper was more than I could
bear. I decided to get out of there and forget about the Three Cs
for a while. As I locked my front door, I saw someone standing in
the shadows across from my shop. There was no streetlight close by,
so I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman, couldn’t help
wondering whether it was someone watching over me or someone
meaning me harm. I clutched my purse to my chest as I hurried off
to my car, hoping that the watcher wouldn’t follow me. As walked
fast to the Gremlin, I swore if I ever got out of this I’d get some
Mace or something to defend myself with. A gun was out of the
question; I hated the things, and was never really comfortable with
my brother’s carrying one around all the time. But I didn’t have
any problems spraying chemicals into someone’s eyes if he was
coming after me.

I was ten feet from the Gremlin, my keys in
my hand, when I felt an arm grab me from behind. “Suzanne, where
are you going?”

I whirled around to face a homeless man, his
clothes dirty and his face smudged. He was huge, over six and a
half feet tall, and he must have weighed three hundred pounds. I
tried to break free of his grip, but it was like steel.

“
I’m not Suzanne,” I said,
fighting to keep my voice calm.

The pressure on my arm was suddenly harder.
“Don’t lie to me, Suzanne. You know I won’t take that from
you.”

“
Will you let go of me if
I admit that I am Suzanne?” I thought about hitting him with my
purse, | but I wasn’t sure what kind of damage I could do to
him.

His grip didn’t ease. “What kind of a game
are you playing? You’re going to see him, aren’t you?”

I could smell the liquor on his breath,
overpowering even the stench from his clothing. “I don’t know what
if you’re talking about,” I said.

“
You’re lying.” He pulled
back his free hand, forming it into a fist.

That was all I could take. “Let go of my
arm, you jerk.” I shouted it in his face, close enough to blow his
straggly hair. My words snapped his neck back like a blow.

“
You’re not Suzanne, are
you?” he asked, his voice clearly mystified.

“
That’s what I’ve been
trying to tell you.” My temper was out in full force. “Now let go
of my arm before I make you sorry you ever tangled with
me.”

He pulled his hand away and I was free.
Without hesitating an instant, I jammed my key into the Gremlin’s
lock and jumped inside. When I was safely away, I pulled over to
the side of the road until my nerves settled down. Then I dialed
Bradford’s cell number.

He answered on the second ring. I said, “So
much for your watchdog patrols on me. Somebody just came after
me.”

“
What happened? Are you
all right?”

“
I’m fine,” I said,
suddenly very sorry I’d called him. Here I’d been complaining about
too much surveillance, and now I was whining because nobody had
been there when I’d needed them. Nice consistent behavior there,
Jennifer. “It was just some homeless guy. He shook me
up.”

“
So Frank’s still
around.”

“
You know him?” I
asked.

“
Was it a big man, maybe
six six? He weighs a ton, too.”

“
That was him. What’s his
story?”

Bradford hesitated, then said, “I probably
shouldn’t tell you this, but he was dumped out of a mental hospital
in Richmond and he somehow made his way to Rebel Forge. You know,
when we found Tina Mast’s body, I had a thought that Frank might
have done it, but he was in the shelter at the Presbyterian church
all night. He’s an ex-marine, and he knows how to kill in more ways
than I can even imagine.”

“
You mean he’s capable of
murder?” That was great. My safe little mountain town was suddenly
turning out to be a dangerous place to live.

“
That’s what he was in the
hospital for. I heard he was committed for killing his wife after
he found out she was having an affair with his best
friend.”

I nearly dropped the phone. “Let me guess.
His wife’s name was Suzanne, wasn’t it?”

Bradford hesitated, then said, “Yeah, I
think that’s right. What happened?”

“
He grabbed me before I
could get to my car, and he kept calling me Suzanne.”

“
What did you do? Why
didn’t Wayne step in?”

“
So it was his night to
watch me? Well, your deputy dropped the ball; he was nowhere in
sight.” Wayne lad probably been too embarrassed to face me after
I‘d blown off his request for a date.

“
I’ll have his badge for
that,” Bradford said. “Was he on the town clock, or was he doing
you a favor?” I asked.

“
He was off duty, but that
doesn’t matter. A promise is a promise.”

“
Bradford, you can’t fire
him for that, and you know it. Besides, I handled it fine myself.”
“What did you do?”

“
I screamed at him,” I
reluctantly admitted.