Invitation to Murder (Book 1 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (22 page)

“
It must
have
crushed you when Donna picked
her for her maid of honor, the way you felt about her.”

Beth’s nostrils flared. “It was a mistake,
but it’s been corrected, as far as I’m concerned. Donna and I grew
up together. She didn’t meet Tina until kindergarten.” As she
spoke, Beth waved the knife she’d been using to cut fresh carrots
in the air around me. This was one woman I wanted to stay on the
good side of. She looked suspiciously at me, then asked, “So if the
wedding’s not off, then why are you here? You’re not going to be in
the wedding party, too are you?”

“
Gracious, no,” I said
before she could get the wrong idea. “My aunt and I are doing an
article for the paper about the wedding festivities, and we’re
asking everyone to show us the earrings the bride gave
them.”

“
That’s silly. Each pair
is identical to every other one.”

“
Let’s just say it’s our
hook to involve the reader more,” I said, stealing a line from my
aunt.

“
Well, I can’t show you
mine,” she said resolutely.

“
Beth, I didn’t expect you
to have them on you. We can drop by after work if that’s
convenient.”

She hesitated, chopped a few more carrots,
then said, “I suppose I’ll have to confess to someone sooner or
later. I don’t have mine.”

“
What happened to them?” I
asked, suddenly very aware of that knife in her hand.

“
I lost them, okay? I’ve
torn my whole room up, but I can’t find them. I swear they were on
the dresser in my bedroom, and the next thing I knew, they were
gone.”

“
When did you first notice
they were gone?” I asked, hoping she’d say the day of the
murder.

“
Yesterday,” she admitted.
“I had a bridal shower at my place and invited every woman in the
wedding party for a little get-together. I was going to wear them
to the party, but I forgot to put them on before everyone got
there. When I realized I’d forgotten to wear them halfway through,
I slipped back into my bedroom and they were gone.”

“
Do you mean that someone
took them?” Beth looked exasperated. “Of course not, I don’t mean
that at all. Why would someone steal something they already had?
After all, we each got a pair. I must have mislaid them somewhere
and then forgot about them. I’m afraid I do it all the time. I
don’t know what I’m going to tell Donna. I’ve been looking all over
town for a pair to replace them, but she must not have bought them
in Rebel Forge.”

“
Don’t worry; I’m sure
they’ll turn up,” I said.

Jack poked his head in the door. “Beth, your
customers are waiting for their salads. Jennifer, you need to
scoot.”

“
Thanks, we were just
finishing up.”

Beth grabbed my hand. “You won’t tell anyone
about the earrings, will you?”

“
Donna won’t hear it from
me,” I said. There was no way I was going to keep that to myself,
but I would keep my pledge not to tell the bride.

“
Thanks.”

I followed her out of the kitchen, said
good-bye to Jack, then collected Lillian and left. As we walked
toward Custom Card Creations, Lillian said, “Now, tell me
everything she said.”

“
I don’t know what to
think about her story. Maybe you can help me figure it out.” I
relayed Beth’s tale as we walked, finishing up as we neared the
card shop, “So what do you make of it?”

“
There are several
possibilities.” “Enlighten me,” I said as I unbolted the
door.

HANDCRAFTED CARD-MAKING TIP

Use foam tape on your adornments to make
them jump off the front of the card! It’s amazing what a little
added dimension will do to enhance your card’s visual appeal.

Chapter 16

There was a pile of mail on the floor by the
slot, as well is a few handwritten notes. They would have to wait,
though. It sounded as if my aunt was on to something.

She said, “First, we need to consider the
fact that Beth just mislaid them as she claimed. But we can’t
disregard the more ominous possibilities. She could have lost one
earring at the murder scene while she was killing Tina. There was
no love lost between them, according to your conversation with the
girl.”

“
You actually think she
killed her so she could be the maid of honor instead?” I couldn’t
believe that.

“
I’m not saying it was the
only reason, but it could have been the final indignity for her.
After all, if that was her motive, she was rather successful at
achieving what she wanted, wasn’t she?”

“
What else have you got?”
I said as I sorted the mail from the handwritten notes.

“
The other possibility is
that someone from that party is the murderer, and she saw an
opportunity to steal a complete set of earrings without throwing
suspicion on herself. If a single earring shows up somewhere, it
could be a plant in order to frame someone else, especially since
you can’t just buy these earrings in town without special ordering
them.”

“
You have a devious mind;
you know that, don’t you?” I said as I smiled at my
aunt.

“
My dear child, no one
could survive the marriages I’ve had without one. So I’m afraid
we’re back where we started.”

“
At least we can be pretty
sure we talked to the killer today,” I said. “We covered everyone
in the wedding party.”

“
And that means that you
showed the murderer you weren’t taking her warning seriously
enough,” Lillian said. “I don’t like that.”

“
There’s nothing I can do
about that,” I said. “Do you mean the added menace, or my
disapproval?”

“
Either one,” I said. “I
can’t let anything stop me from doing this.”

“
So where does that leave
us?” Lillian asked. “We take care of business, make some wedding
invitations and wait to see what happens.”

“
Being passive doesn’t
sound like you,” Lillian said. “I don’t know what else to do at
this point, and those cards are due in a few days. Don’t worry; I’m
not giving up yet.”

“
Then by all means, let’s
make cards.”

I held up a hand, going through the notes in
the pile. There were three from Sara Lynn, one demanding that I get
an answering machine for the shop. I’d written that on my
opening-day wish list, and then had promptly forgotten to buy one.
One note was from Bradford, scolding me for vanishing without
telling him first, one was from Anne Albright wondering when she
could pick up her Art Deco invitations, and another was from Greg
Langston asking me to call him at my earliest convenience. When
pigs fly, I thought as I crumpled up that particular note. The last
thing I needed in my life was another round with him.

“
Is there anything urgent
in there?” Lillian asked. “No, it’s about what I expected. How
would you like to make some wedding invitations?”

“
I thought you’d never
ask,” Lillian said.

I never thought I’d say it, but thankfully,
we had a slow day at the card shop. By closing time, Lillian and I
had managed to put a real dent in our orders. She’d cut the jagged
patterns out of red stock for Mrs. Albright’s cards while I’d
worked on Melinda’s. I’d run the stock through the printer earlier,
something I’d sworn I’d never do, but there was no way I could
handle a big order on such short notice and still manage to ink
them all myself. It was a little tricky attaching the rings to the
wire on the cards, but I’d come up with a system that made it
possible, though I’d burned my fingertips a dozen times with my
glue gun and managed to stab my thumbs three or four times with the
sharp wire ends. My gun was supposed to be a cool one, but the glue
still got hot enough to sting my fingers when I accidentally
touched some of the melted glue.

“
That was certainly an
interesting day,” Lillian said as she put her scissors
down.

“
It had its moments,
didn’t it?” I said as I kept working.

“
Aren’t you going to go
home?”

I looked at the pile of cards still to do.
“I wish I could, but there’s too much to do if I’m going to make my
deadline.”

“
Sara Lynn won’t approve,
and neither will Bradford,” Lillian said.

“
So what else is new?” I
said as I rubbed my fingertips.

“
You still have to eat.
Let me run out and get us something. Then we can jump right back on
it.”

“
You don’t have to stay,”
I said. “You’re just a volunteer, remember? I’m sure your social
calendar is full.”

“
Posh, let him wait. It
will do him good.”

“
You never did tell me the
name of the new man you were dating,” I said.

“
Imagine that,” Lillian
replied. “So what would you like for dinner?”

“
If you’re hungry, be my
guest, but I’m going to keep working. I’d better call Sara Lynn and
tell her I won’t be home in time to eat.”

I dialed my apartment and my sister picked
up on the first ring. She said, “Are you on your way home? My
chicken potpie will be out of the oven in three minutes.”

“
I can’t
do it,” I said. “I’ve got a deadline I’m against, and if I don’t
put in some extra time, I won’t
make it.” To give my sister credit, she didn’t mention my
AWOL performance that morning. Why don’t you take that home and
feed your husband?”

“
We had lunch together,”
Sara Lynn said. “I don’t want to spoil him.”

“
Whatever,” I said. “I’d
appreciate it if you’d feed the cats. Oggie gets kind of cranky
when his meals are late.”

“
And how could you
possibly tell?” she said. It looked like the two of them were
having a bit of a power struggle, but I wasn’t about to get
involved. I said good-bye, then told Lillian, “You’re free to go if
you’d like, but you’re welcome to stay, too.”

“
I’ll stay.”

“
Then at least go get
something to eat. I don’t want your hunger pains on my
conscience.”

Lillian snorted. “It wouldn’t hurt me to
miss a meal now and again. Let’s get back to work.”

We closed the shop, then continued our
invitation making party. Twenty minutes later there was a knocking
on the door. I peeked outside and saw Sara Lynn standing there with
an enormous picnic basket latched on one arm.

“
It looks like we’re going
to eat after all,” I said I unlocked the door.

As Sara Lynn stepped inside, I said, “This
is above and beyond the call of duty, Sis.”

“
Nonsense, I had no desire
to sit in your apartment alone and eat with your roommates watching
me. She put the basket down on the counter. “So where should we
eat?”

I glanced at the table in the window where
we’d been working, and realized what a pain it would be to move
everything, then put it back after the meal. “Why don’t we eat in
back?”

“
That suits me,” she said.
“Lillian, would you mind setting the table?”

She took the basket from Sara Lynn and said,
“I’d be delighted. You are a special woman; you know that, don’t
you?”

“
I’ve suspected it on
occasion,” Sara Lynn said with a smile. She moved to our worktable
and examined the cards.

“
They’re still works in
progress,” I explained as I pulled the prototypes out of my purse.
“Here’s what the finished products will look like.”

She studied the cards, and despite myself, I
found I was holding my breath waiting for her response. My sister’s
professional opinion meant a great deal to me, more than I was
willing to admit to anyone, most of all myself.

“
They’re certainly
different, aren’t they?” she said. “But why are you making so many
of each design?”

I explained the double
order, expecting her to disapprove. Instead, she started laughing.
“How wonderful. Everyone gets what they want and you get paid twice
for the same job.”

“
For the same wedding,” I
gently corrected her. “I’m still doing two jobs for two
fees.”

“
Of course you are,” she
said. “And you designed these yourself?”

I admitted as much, though I didn’t tell her
one had been done as a bad example that had gone horribly
wrong.

“
They’re wonderful,” she
said as she handed the cards back to me. “I was wrong not to listen
to you.”

Were those angels singing in the background?
It was all I could do not to whoop-with delight. “Hey, Forever
Memories is your shop. You have a right to stock what you
want.”

“
Yes, and let’s look on
the bright side. If I hadn’t told you no, you wouldn’t have this
wondrous shop for your very own, would you?”

Lillian poked her head out
of the storeroom. “Are you two ready to eat?”

“
Suddenly I’m starving,” I
said as I grabbed my sister’s arm. “Let’s go.”

Our chitchat at dinner was
confined to ordinary topics of conversation, and I fought the
temptation to tell Sara Lynn what we’d been up to in our
investigation. I knew she wouldn’t approve of Lillian and me
interviewing suspects, and I didn’t want to ruin the party
atmosphere we were enjoying.

After dinner, Lillian said, “Sara Lynn, that
chicken potpie would have done your mother proud.” My sister
actually blushed. “Go on,” she said as she cleaned up the
clutter.