Lemon Pies and Little White Lies (12 page)

“I hope so, but I’m not feeling very confident,” Ella Mae said. “After all, I’ve made no progress in identifying the person who murdered Joyce Mercer.
If
she was murdered, that is. No one’s bothered Fiona, and Carol said that she hasn’t seen a single suspicious visitor within a mile of her mother’s house.” She sighed. “And the research we’ve conducted on super storms has only led to more riddles. Cryptic metaphors in Latin, Greek, and Aramaic.”

Ella Mae had a pile of water-spirit references at home. Her kitchen table was covered with photocopies and scribbled notes, and her head was filled with imagery from the epic poem
Beowulf
. She and Suzy had been reading dozens of scholarly articles on the poem because one of its villains, Grendel’s mother, was often called a water witch. In every translation, this powerful and dangerous woman lived in or near a lake and possessed a magic sword.

“She sounds like the Arthurian Lady of the Lake,” Ella Mae told Suzy one evening during a research session. “Except that she’s described as a warrior too. The only way to kill her is by striking her with a sword made by giants.”

“I think that’s code for enchanted,” Suzy said, and signaled for Ella Mae to pass her the article. Ella Mae was
comforted by the knowledge that Suzy’s photographic memory would store every word of the fifteen-page article.

By the third week in April, they’d exhausted their references on the Lady of the Lake and magical swords. They’d examined all known local sources as well as those they’d purchased from rare bookstores or found online. Finally, Suzy asked Opal Gaynor if they could examine the oldest documents in the Gaynors’ library. These were not books, but sheaves of parchment, vellum, or animal skin kept in airtight containers and hidden in a small room behind one of the polished mahogany bookcases.

Not only did Opal grant them full access, but she also brought them sandwiches and cups of strong coffee. Her manner was still standoffish, but Ella Mae didn’t expect warm and fuzzy from Opal Gaynor. That just wasn’t in her nature.

Tonight, however, it was Loralyn who came into the hushed room bearing a silver tray. She placed it on the table where Ella Mae and Suzy were studying the crude illustrations on a cracked and faded scroll. Because it was encased in a glass box, Opal had lent them jeweler’s loops. They were both so fixated on the strange images that they didn’t realize Loralyn had entered the room until the thud of the tray being dumped on the table made them jump in their seats.

“Hot tea and ham and cheese sandwiches, compliments of my mother,” Loralyn said with forced civility.

Suzy smiled at her. “This is such a lovely surprise! It’s been too long since we’ve seen you, hasn’t it, Ella Mae?”

“It has. Thank you for the hospitality, Loralyn.” Ella Mae put down the jeweler’s loop and rubbed her sore eyes. “I’m sorry we had to invade your privacy, but we’re hoping the gems in this library will lead us in the right direction.”

“Perhaps there are no answers,” Loralyn said.

Loralyn sat in a leather armchair and gestured at the main
room behind her. “Every rug, painting, and stick of furniture that my father bought for that space is gone. My mother has replaced it all. My father’s been replaced too. She’s going to divorce him and marry that cretin, Robert Morgan.”

“I wish you hadn’t been caught in the middle of your parents’ drama,” Suzy said. “I wish they’d both put you first.”

Loralyn shrugged. “I guess it’s up to me to look out for me.” A wistful expression crossed Loralyn’s face. “It would have been nice to have had a sister. Look at your mother and your aunts, Ella Mae. Thick as thieves.”

“Why do I have the feeling that you’re up to something, Loralyn?” Ella Mae asked suspiciously.

Loralyn leaned forward and tented her fingers. “I have a major decision to make. I have to decide which Clover Queen to back.” She turned her cold stare on Ella Mae. “It would be nice if I knew which one of you was the real deal.”

Ella Mae couldn’t conceal her irritation. “Do you plan on selling your services to the highest bidder?”

Loralyn’s eyes flashed and, for a moment, she looked like her old self. Fearless and arrogant. “I would, but there are other people to consider. My employees, for example. And those who work for Gaynor Farms. Most of them have shown me more affection than my own parents. I can’t turn my back on them.”

Ella Mae’s inclination was to distrust everything Loralyn had to say. After all, she’d always been a skilled actress and a master of manipulation. She stared intently at Loralyn. “The only person you’ve ever cared about is yourself, so why don’t you tell me the real reason you’re sitting here right now?”

“Ella Mae . . .” Suzy began, clearly shocked by her friend’s rudeness.

Loralyn’s mouth curved into a sickle-shaped smile. “I’ll
pledge my loyalty to you on one condition. You must restore my father’s gifts.” When Ella Mae raised her hand to protest, Loralyn narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice to a dangerous hiss. “You need me, Ella Mae. If you ever come face-to-face with Nimue, she will crush you beneath her feet. She has something you don’t.”

“Which is?” Suzy asked breathlessly.

“A magic weapon,” Loralyn said, pointing at the drawing in the margin of the ancient scroll. “The first sword ever forged, as legend would have it.”

Ella Mae and Suzy exchanged astonished glances. “What legend?” Suzy shot to her feet in her eagerness to hear more.

“Give me your word, and I’ll tell you all I know,” Loralyn said, her gaze locked on Ella Mae.

It sounded so simple, but Ella Mae knew she couldn’t accept Loralyn’s offer. Jarvis Gaynor was a fire elemental. He’d committed murder. He deserved neither the return of his powers nor his freedom.

“Why are you trying to rescue your dad?” Ella Mae spoke very gently. “He betrayed you. He threatened to kill you. On the other hand, your mother protected you. She wanted you to see your father’s true colors so you’d realize that your loyalty for him was misplaced. She loves you, Loralyn. Help us for her sake.”

“I’ve been my mother’s puppet for far too long,” Loralyn said flatly. “I’m done with that now. My father never recognized my full potential. If I give him what he wants most, he’ll see that I’m just as much
his
daughter as hers. We can build a new relationship. Make up for lost time.”

Ella Mae’s heart ached for Loralyn. Like everyone else, she just wanted to be loved and accepted for who she was. And like all children, she wanted her father to be proud of her. And though Ella Mae sympathized, she couldn’t agree
to Loralyn’s terms. “I can’t restore his gifts even if I wanted to,” she said, hoping Loralyn would drop the subject. “If I were capable of such a feat, Hugh wouldn’t be thousands of miles away searching for a way to restore his own.”

“You’d succeed if you had the sword Nimue carries,” Loralyn said. “With it, you could save both men. Because Hugh and my father bear little resemblance to their former selves. They’re hollow shells. And Hugh will never come back to you the way he is now. Even if he does, do you really think he could love you again after what you did to him?”

Though the words punctured Ella Mae’s veneer of confidence, she remained composed. “I’m sorry, Loralyn. I can’t give you what you ask. Your father is volatile. He’d set things on fire to escape from prison and would undoubtedly hurt innocent people in the process.”

Loralyn rose to her feet and turned to Suzy in appeal. “Talk to her, Suzy. You two can examine this scroll for days and still not find what you need.”

“I will not agree to your terms,” Ella Mae said tersely. “Not now. Not ever.”

“In that case, prepare for heartbreak, Clover Queen.” Loralyn’s glare could have frozen water. “Your only hope of reuniting with Hugh Dylan just slipped through your floury fingers.”

•   •   •

Loralyn’s threat haunted Ella Mae through the rest of the night and into the next day.

“I need a joyful memory,” she told Chewy on the way to Canine to Five the following morning. Chewy had his head out the window and was smiling his biggest doggie smile as his ears flapped in the wind. His eyes glimmered in the spring sunlight and his tail thumped against the passenger
seat like it was a bass drum. At the first red light, he pulled his head and front paws back inside the Jeep’s cab and pressed his body against Ella Mae’s side. It was the equivalent of a Chewy hug, and Ella Mae scratched his neck and kissed his black nose in gratitude. He then licked her right on the lips and she laughed. Seconds before the light turned green, she glanced to the left and saw a little girl on her bike staring at them in delight. The little girl shouted, “Your dog is
so
cute!” before riding off toward the park.

“If only I could keep you in the kitchen, my heart would definitely be lighter,” Ella Mae said to Chewy when they reached Canine to Five. “But I don’t think the health inspector would approve.” She nuzzled him once more before leading him inside and then drove the short distance to the pie shop.

In addition to the wedding order, Ella Mae also had to prepare pies for a birthday celebration. The administrative assistants from an accounting firm had chipped in to purchase treats for their boss and his partners and Ella Mae wanted to make sure they got their money’s worth.

“He should be payin’ for their lunch, not the other way around,” Reba grumbled while Ella Mae assembled the ingredients for the birthday pies.

“At least these are easy,” Ella Mae said. “Strawberry muffin pan pies topped with fresh whipped cream. I’ll make extra for those sweet ladies who are surprising their boss. His name is Franklin Boggs. I don’t think I’ve ever met the man.”

Reba rolled her eyes. “I have. He walks around with a black cloud over his head all the time. An agin’ bachelor who thinks of nothin’ but numbers. Apparently, Ginny over at the Piggly Wiggly tried to tell him a joke once, and he told her she should stick to baggin’ groceries because she had no future in comedy.”

Ella Mae grabbed the sugar canister. “It’s high time Mr.
Boggs lightened up. And I know just how to make him smile.”

Reba turned on the radio and then went outside to hose off the patio and sweep the front porch. Ella Mae hummed along to a Beach Boys song as she washed and chopped a bowlful of glossy strawberries. Next, she gently tossed them in granulated sugar. As her fingers carefully moved the berries, she closed her eyes and thought back to the moment she’d first met Chewy.

She’d been walking home after a particularly challenging culinary class, in which she and the other students had been asked to make a
croque-en-bouche
. This French dessert was made of cream-filled puff pastry balls stacked into a cone and then covered with a caramel glaze and spun sugar. The confection required a delicate touch and frustrated the most accomplished pastry chefs. Ella Mae’s creation had been progressing nicely until she’d burned the caramel. Rehashing her mistake all the way home, she’d nearly tripped over a homeless man sitting near the entrance to the subway.

“Miss?” he called to her. “Please. Would you buy my dog? I can’t feed him no more, and you look like a nice person.” And then he took a squirming ball of fur from inside his coat and offered it to her.

Reacting instinctively, Ella Mae cupped her hands together to receive the precious bundle. The puppy whimpered and gave her palm a timid lick. And then he looked up at her with eyes the color of melted chocolate and whined. Ella Mae immediately cradled him against her chest.

“Does he have a name?”

The man shook his head.

The puppy started to shiver, and though Ella Mae’s husband had told her time and time again that he never wanted pets, she thrust her hand into her purse, pulled out all the
cash she had, and gave it to the stranger. “Can I do anything for you?”

“No, miss. Just give that dog a good life.”

Ella Mae promised that she would. She took the puppy home, where he proceeded to piddle from one end of the apartment to the other. Despite the mess, Ella Mae cherished that first evening with Chewy. She recalled how she’d fed and bathed him and how he’d fallen asleep in her arms.

“I loved you from the moment I saw you, Charleston Chew,” she said, opening her eyes and focusing on the pie filling. “Love is a risk worth taking, Mr. Boggs. If you rescue someone, they may rescue you right back.”

Ella Mae lined several muffin tins with circles of dough, covered the dough with scoops of filling, and then sprinkled a crumble topping over the sugared strawberries. She then slid the pans into the oven and turned to her next task.

The day passed in a rush of activity. It was almost closing time when Jenny came racing into the kitchen, a big smile on her pretty face.

“Come quick! You have to see this!”

Wiping her hands on her apron, Ella Mae followed Jenny through the dining room and out onto the front porch. She arrived just in time to see a small parade of men in business suits and women in skirts and heels march by the shop.

Each person wore a sparkly party hat, and the procession was led by a beaming man holding the leash of a rambunctious border collie. He kept pausing to pet the dog and coo at him. His middle-aged face was completely transformed, and Ella Mae could see the boy he’d once been. He couldn’t stop grinning, and there was a skip to his step that only joy could produce.

“Is that—?” she began.

“The birthday boy, Mr. Boggs,” Reba said. “I just got off
the phone with Dee. She was at the shelter when all these folks wearin’ party hats came in to adopt pets. Apparently, five cats and four dogs found new homes today, and Dee figured you had somethin’ to do with their good fortune.”

“So the border collie is one. And there’s a Yorkie.” Jenny pointed at one of the administrative assistants. “See his head poking out of that lady’s bag?”

Aiden gestured at a tall man near the front. “And that guy with the red party hat is holding a wiener dog. He looks like a kid on Christmas morning.”

“That man at the end has a chocolate Lab,” Ella Mae said. “Look how happy they are together.”

Reba frowned. “But what happens when the magic wears off? Will all these critters be returned to the shelter tomorrow?”