Murder and Salutations (Book 3 in the Cardmaking Mysteries) (12 page)

“
No matter what?” Lillian
asked again.

“
Yes, now just
go.”

Lillian pulled the pantry door nearly
closed, then I heard her high heels clicking on the hardwood floor
as she went to let the realtor in. The only light I had was coming
in through the narrow gap in the door. I was glad I didn’t get
claustrophobic.

Through the crack, I could see Polly as she
walked into the kitchen. Her hair was dyed a shade of blond few
people could naturally claim. She wore a dark blue suit, and a
colorful scarf that added a blast of color. I could smell her
perfume soon after she came in. Poor Lillian must have been
overwhelmed by it if it was that strong in my confined space.

Lillian said, “Why don’t you take a seat at
the bar? This is my favorite room in the house.”

Polly said, “I’ll need to look around later,
but we can certainly start here. I see you’ve got a fireplace in
the kitchen. That’s excellent, you know.”

“
I enjoy it,” Lillian said.
I could tell she was straining to keep her voice level. She had
admitted that she wasn’t a big fan of Polly, so I knew how hard it
was on Lillian to make it appear otherwise.

I could see Lillian’s foot from where I
stood, and if I strained, I could barely catch sight of Polly’s
left arm.

“
Lillian, do you mind if I
ask why you’re moving? I never thought you’d leave Rebel
Forge.”

My aunt said, “Sometimes one needs a
change.”

Polly jumped all over that. “Now, dear, you
mustn’t blame yourself for your relatives’ actions. We all know you
had nothing to do with what happened the other night.”

“
What exactly are you
referring to?” Lillian asked.

“
Why, the murder, of course.
How difficult it must be to see your niece accused of the
crime.”

“
I hadn’t realized Bradford
had made an arrest yet,” Lillian said. I could tell without even
seeing my aunt’s expression that she was straining not to throw
Polly out.

“
Of course not, but everyone
knows it’s just a matter of time. So you’ve finally decided to go
out on your own again. Jennifer must be crushed by your decision to
leave her. From what I’ve heard, she wouldn’t be able to run that
little shop of hers without you.”

“
Jennifer will be fine,”
Lillian said. Her foot was nearly a blur, it was bobbing up and
down so fast.

“
Honestly, just between the
two of us, she really did bite off more than she could chew. You’re
propping her up, aren’t you? I can’t imagine she makes enough on
her own to buy food for those two stray cats she has, let alone pay
rent.”

Despite my promise to Lillian, I was ready
to rush out of the pantry and let Polly say those things to my
face. Lillian must have sensed it, too.

“
Since we’re letting our
hair down,” Lillian said, “you must have mixed emotions about
Eliza’s murder yourself.”

“
Whatever do you mean?”
Polly asked.

“
Now that she’s out of the
picture, I can’t imagine the chamber choosing anyone else but you
to run the organization. It’s rather convenient, isn’t
it?”

“
I’m just as crushed as
everyone else in Rebel Forge about what happened to Eliza,” Polly
said.

“
I’m sure you are,” Lillian
replied. I doubted that Polly believed that she was being sincere.
“So, have you already made your bid for her office, or are you
going to wait a few days? You’d better not tarry, dear; you know
how much power the president has.”

“
It’s a great deal of work,”
Polly said. “In fact, I often helped Eliza with the day-to-day
operations.”

“
Were you helping her the
night of the banquet?” Lillian asked. “I understand the two of you
had quite a discussion at Hurley’s that night.”

“
That’s utterly ridiculous,”
Polly said. “I don’t know where you’re getting your information,
but Eliza and I got on wonderfully all the time.”

“
So you’re claiming now you
didn’t fight with her that night?” What did Lillian know? If she
had information about Eliza and Polly fighting, she hadn’t shared
it with me.

“
We were discussing the
award presentation,” Polly said.

“
From what I heard, you were
talking about more than that. It was just before she died, wasn’t
it? You might have been the last person to see her
alive.”

“
You mean besides the
killer, don’t you?”

Lillian hesitated, then said, “Tell me about
the argument.”

“
I honestly don’t know what
you’re talking about. If someone thought we were fighting, they
were mistaken.”

“
How interesting,” Lillian
said.

“
You don’t believe me?”
Polly said. “Do you honestly think I’d kill her to get control of
the chamber? You must be joking.”

“
Polly, I want you to look
at me. Does it look like I’m kidding?”

Suddenly the realtor stood, and I could see
her face for just a second. “Lillian, I don’t think you’re serious
about selling this place at all.”

“
Perhaps you’re right,” my
aunt said. “Thanks for coming by, though.”

“
My pleasure,” Polly said as
she fled the room, and then the house. I waited for Lillian to come
back, but after a minute I couldn’t stand the suspense. I swung the
door open and walked out of the pantry.

Lillian came back into the kitchen, a tight
smile on her lips. “That was interesting,” she said.

“
I can’t believe you let her
sit there and talk about our family that way,” I said.

“
Jennifer, the only way I
was going to get her to talk was by egging her on. I kept expecting
you to break out of the pantry any second and hit her with a can of
peas.”

“
They were green beans,
actually,” I said. “You did a good job holding your temper
in.”

“
When you’ve been married as
many times as I have, you get good at certain things, and holding
your tongue is one of them. It’s a shame you couldn’t see Polly’s
face when I asked her for her alibi.”

“
That was slick, I’ll give
you that,” I said. “How did she look?”

“
Like I’d just stepped on
her tail,” Lillian said. “I might not have any proof she did it,
but Polly certainly didn’t do anything to encourage me to take her
off our list.”

“
So it’s lunch with Luke
next, right?”

Lillian nodded. “It’s set for one o’clock,
so that will give us time to open the card shop and sell a few
things first. Are you ready to go?”

I followed her out as she locked up, then I
rode to the shop with her in her Mustang. Her last one had been
wrecked, though not by Lillian, and I thought she’d try something
different, but in the end, she’d gone with a nearly identical
vehicle, down to the color of the carpet and the convertible
top.

As she drove to Custom Card Creations, I
said, “Does the entire town really think you’re carrying my
business with your checkbook?”

Lillian laughed harshly. “Jennifer, you
can’t believe one tenth of what that woman says.”

“
You didn’t answer my
question,” I said.

“
Who cares what they think?
You and I both know that you’re making it on your own. Does it
really matter what the local gossip is?”

“
It does to me,” I said.
“I’m still a little sensitive about the fact that you don’t take a
salary from the shop.”

She glanced over at me. “Are you kidding me?
I use more supplies than you’d ever have to pay me. I’m getting the
bargain here, not you.”

She pulled into a space near the shop, but
not directly in front of it. As I started to get out, I saw that
Lillian was staying in her seat. “Aren’t you coming?”

“
If you don’t mind, I think
I’ll take the morning off. I want to do a little snooping before my
lunch with Luke.”

I glanced at my shop, then back at Lillian.
“I can come with you, if you’d like.”

She laughed. “Jennifer, I know you’d regret
every second away from this place. Go on, run the shop, and I’ll
see you at lunch.”

“
Are you sure? I don’t want
you taking any chances without me,” I said.

“
Jennifer, I was watching
out for myself long before you came into this world. I’ll be
fine.”

“
You’d better be,” I said.
“Who else could I afford to hire if something happened to
you?”

She drove away, and I opened the card shop
for business. Lillian had been right: I was exactly where I wanted
to be. While I found a great deal of satisfaction in digging into
the lives of the folks in Rebel Forge and helping unearth the
truth, my first love was making and selling cards.

STENCILS AND STAMPS

A terrific way to jazz up your greeting
cards is through the use of stencils and stamps. Most specialty
craft and hobby stores carry a wonderful selection of each. Be
creative with your ink to make the additions jump off the card. I
like to shade the stamps and stencils I use with specialty marking
pens. The results are beautiful, and all you need to do is color
between the lines! Don’t worry if your pen strays now and then. It
just adds to the charm of your card!

Chapter 7

The door chime announced a customer, but I
was just as happy to see my best friend, Gail, walk into the shop.
“Hey, Jen. Any chance you could take an early lunch?”

“
Would you believe it? I’ve
got plans.”

“
Don’t tell me you’ve got a
hot date,” she said.

I shrugged. “No, but Lillian and I are going
to Hurley’s, and I can’t get out of it.”

Gail shivered. “I don’t know how you can go
back there, especially so soon.” She picked up a card, studied it a
second, then put it back. “Listen, I wanted to talk to you about
last night.”

“
It’s okay, Gail, you don’t
have to apologize. After all, it’s not your fault the guy didn’t
show up. Believe it or not, I had fun, anyway.”

She bit her lip, a sure sign there was
something she had to tell me, but didn’t want to.

“
Go on,” I prompted
her.

“
What?”

“
I know you’ve got something
to say, and it’s not exactly news you’re glad to share. I won’t get
mad, I promise.”

Gail laughed, but it was weak. “You know me
too well. Okay, here goes. Reggie’s not sure it’s such a great idea
that you move into the cottage.” She expelled the words in a rush,
and refused to make eye contact as she did.

“
Yeah, I kind of got that
impression last night. Helena thought it was a wonderful idea,
though. Gail, is, he giving you grief about this?”

She nodded. “Just a little. He thinks you
took advantage of his mother.”

“
What’s the matter? Does he
think I’m not paying enough rent? Helena asked me what I was paying
now, and when I told her, she halved it. Gail, that woman is
lonely. She needs some company, and I need a place to stay. Unless
you’re totally against this, I’m going to go ahead and
move.”

She appeared to think about it a few
seconds, then said, “Of course you should take it. It’s perfect
for: you. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

I smiled at her. “Don’t be
too hard on yourself. The last thing I want to do is come between
you and
your boyfriend.”

“
I don’t know how long
that’s going to last,” she: said. “I saw a side of him last night
that didn’t exactly thrill me. Then when he called me this morning
demanding I talk you out of taking the cottage, I liked him even
less. You know what? I’ll help you move. How’s that for sending a
message of who I really support?”

“
I’d never turn down the
help,” I admitted, “but you’re just asking for trouble, aren’t
you?”

“
Sometimes the world needs a
little trouble to keep things alive.”

The chime rang again, and I was surprised to
see Kaye Jansen come in. She had a basket tucked under, one arm,
and it looked like she had chosen to visit my store on the one day
I wanted to see her.

“
Hi, Kaye, it’s so nice to
see you.”

She looked startled by my enthusiastic
greeting, and I guess I could understand it. We’d never been all
that chatty in the past, so I suppose I caught her off guard, Gail
said softly, “I’ll see you later.” “Thanks for coming by.”

After Gail was gone, Kaye approached me.
“Jennifer, I hate to ask you this, but I’m taking up a collection
from the Oakmont merchants for a floral arrangement for Eliza’s
funeral. Would you care to contribute?”

“
Of course I would,” I said,
trying to sound as sincere as I could. “Let me get my checkbook.” I
reached down to get my purse where I stored it behind the counter,
and Kaye noticed my golden anvil, “I must say, you didn’t waste any
time displaying it, did you?”

It took me a second to realize what she was
talking about. “I’ll come up with a better place for it later. To
be honest with you, winning kind of caught me by surprise.”

“
You weren’t the only one,”
Kaye mumbled.

“
Excuse me?”

Her cheeks reddened slightly. “Goodness, did
I say that out loud?”

“
You did,” I said sternly,
“and I’d like to know what you meant.”

“
Jennifer, you must realize
your choice wasn’t unanimous among the award committee. After all,
you barely qualified for it. I’m afraid there was so much heated
debate that we had to shift our votes to anonymous ballots. Not
everyone was pleased with the results.”