Murder and Salutations (Book 3 in the Cardmaking Mysteries) (18 page)

“
I’m trying, believe me. I
still love him. That’s why he’s driving me so crazy. I don’t know
what to do.”

I wanted to pat her shoulder, to offer her a
hug or something, but if I wrecked Lillian’s car, she’d have my
hide for a seat cover in her next Mustang. “Can I do anything to
help?”

“
I’m afraid no one can,” she
said. “Thank you for asking, though.”

“
I’m here if you need me,” I
said.

After a few moments, my sister said,
“Actually, there is one thing you can do for me, Jennifer.”

“
What’s that? Just name
it.”

“
Find out who really killed
Eliza Glade,” she said. “That’s the only way I’m ever going to be
able to work this out with Bailey.”

“
I’m trying,” I
said.

“
Then try harder. Would you
mind taking me to Forever Memories? I need to be among my favorite
things right now.”

“
I understand completely,” I
said as I headed for her store. I found great comfort in my
card-making supplies, and realized it would be the same for Sara
Lynn.

I pulled up in front of her shop, and she
leaned in and said, “You’ve got to help Bradford find out who did
this.”

“
I promise, I’ll do my
best,” I said. But as I drove down Oakmont to Custom Card
Creations, I couldn’t imagine what I could do that I hadn’t already
tried. One thing was certain: whoever had shot at Bailey and me
must have suspected that now I knew his secret, too. That meant
that I’d have to be especially careful if I didn’t want my name on
the hit list as well. I had a strong feeling that if I found out
who killed Eliza, I’d know who took those shots last
night.

Chapter 10

Lillian was standing by the window, peering
outside, when I drove up and parked in front of the shop. Before I
could get out, she was there beside me. Her gaze scanned the paint
job as I joined her and handed her the keys.

“
That’s one sweet ride,” I
said, grinning at her.

“
Jennifer, you nearly gave
me a heart attack.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
That bread truck,” she
said, nearly shouting.

“
You’re kidding. Lillian, he
was the one who nearly hit me. Besides, it wasn’t that close a
call.”

“
You were near enough to
smell his breath,” she said.

“
Would you forget about your
car? It’s fine.”

She calmed down long enough to ask, “How’s
Sara Lynn?”

“
She’s pretty upset,” I
said. “She made me promise to find out who killed Eliza Glade, as
if we haven’t been trying to figure that out all along,
anyway.”

“
Then we need to redouble
our efforts,” Lillian said. “And we will, just as soon as you take
care of something else.”

“
What’s that?” I asked,
looking around the store. “Is there a customer I’m
missing?”

“
No, but we did have a
visitor while you were gone.

Greg Langston was here, and he was
determined to talk to you.”

“
Well, I’m not ready to talk
to him,” I said. One confrontation this morning was one too many,
as far as I was concerned. Greg was just going to have to
wait.

“
Jennifer, you need to tie
up this loose end so we can work without distraction,” she
said.

The bad thing was that I knew she was right.
“Fine. I won’t be gone long.”

“
I won’t hold you to that,”
Lillian said.

“
Trust me, what I’ve got to
say can be handled in thirty seconds.”

“
It’s not your opening
statement I’m worried about,” Lillian said. “It’s his
rebuttal.”

“
He’s not talking me into
anything else,” I said. “I promise.”

“
Jennifer, you know how I
feel about people making promises they can’t keep.”

“
Just watch me.”

I left the card shop and walked down to
Greg’s pottery store. If Greg wanted to talk to me, he was going to
get more than he’d bargained for.

He was with a customer when I walked in. If
I didn’t know any better, I’d say that he’d planned it that way
just to defuse my temper. I didn’t care how irrational that
sounded, even in my head. I wasn’t in the mood to have anyone cross
me, including my own subconscious.

The customer finally left, clutching two of
Greg’s kiln salamanders like they were made of gold. Greg took the
partially melted and twisted triangular cones used to gauge the
temperature in his kiln, added a few features like legs and a face,
glazed them, then retailed them to the public as small knickknacks.
“I sell more of those than I have any right to, especially since
they’re basically free to create. Jennifer, I honestly tried to get
to you last night, but your family wouldn’t let me near you. I’m so
happy you’re all right.” He gestured toward my wrist tenderly. “Are
you all right? Were you scared?”

“
What? No. Yes, of course I
was. Listen, we need to talk.”

“
I came by your shop a
little while ago,” he said, “but your aunt told me that you were
with Sara Lynn. How’s she holding up?”

I shook my head. “Greg, right now we’re
talking about us. You and me, for the last time there will ever be
a you and me. Last night was the biggest summation of our
relationship that there could ever be. Anybody who thinks God or
Fate or whatever Supreme Being they believe in doesn’t have a sense
of humor is insane. We can’t even have a farewell dinner without it
being interrupted by gunplay. If that’s not a sign, what is?”

Greg stared at me a few seconds, then said,
“I believe it was a sign, too. Just not the same one you
think.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
I don’t think we should
have ever broken up,” he said, his words coming out in a rush.
“Think about it, Jennifer. There’s a reason we didn’t finish this
between us.”

“
Yeah, some lunatic took a
couple of shots at me.” My voice was shriller than I liked, but I
couldn’t help it. “Greg, we don’t belong together, not anymore. I
loved you at one time, I’ve never denied it, but there’s no future
in this relationship for either one of us.”

He stepped closer than I would have liked,
but I didn’t back away. “Jennifer, look into my eyes and tell me
you don’t still love me.”

I felt his presence, a strong aura that made
my knees go weak. “It’s no use,” I said, but even I was aware of
the lack of conviction in my voice. “I can’t do this.”

“
You’re right,” he said,
stepping even closer. “There’s no use fighting it
anymore.”

It would have been easy enough to turn my
cheek as he started to kiss me. I’d done it enough times in the
past to be an expert at it. But I didn’t even move, I’m sorry to
say. Ten seconds into the kiss, I’d forgotten why I’d come there in
the first place. I’d also forgotten my name and my birthday. Wow. I
was about ready to give in completely, regardless of the
consequences, when Greg’s front door opened. As he pulled away from
me, I caught a glimpse of Stephanie’s back as she ran back out the
door.

And then Greg gave me the only real answer
I’d been expecting all along. If he was really interested in being
with me, he would have at least said something to me before he
raced out after her. Instead, all I heard were his pleas to
Stephanie to stop. He didn’t even look back at me as he bolted down
the street after her.

I shook my head, trying to wipe the images
I’d been entertaining out of my mind. At last I knew that whatever
Greg and I had shared was finally dead. It still stung as I saw him
race through traffic to catch the woman he loved. More than a
little part of me was sad that I wasn’t the one for him, though I
knew in my head that he wasn’t the one for me, either. There was no
denying we had a physical pull between us, but that was all it was,
and I refused to try to build anything more solid on just that. I
needed more, and to be fair, I was sure that Greg did, too. It was
finally time to move on.

I couldn’t exactly lock his shop up, since I
didn’t have a key, but I did the next best thing. I flipped his
sign to the closed position, then turned off all the lights. It
would have to do until he got back. Waiting there for him was out
of the question. I just hoped he understood what had transpired
between us as clearly as I had.

I walked back into the card shop and Lillian
was about to say something when she must have caught the look on my
face. Without a word, she stepped up to me and wrapped me in her
embrace. No doubt we looked ridiculous, with me towering over her
and trying to bury my head in her shoulder, but I didn’t care. I
let my tears out, and the ferocity of the outburst startled me.
After I’d cried for a few minutes, I pulled away. “Wow, I haven’t
cried like that in ages.”

“
You were past due,” Lillian
said. “I gather it didn’t go as smoothly as you’d
hoped.”

“
It was awful,” I said,
dabbing at my eyes with a Kleenex. “He kissed me.”

“
Was it really that bad?”
Lillian asked, obviously surprised by the admission.

“
No, that’s the point. It
was so good it curled my toes.”

“
So what’s the awful
part?”

“
Stephanie caught us, and he
ran after her without saying a word to me. It’s over. It probably
has been for a long time—I’ve known that in my head—but my heart’s
just catching up with the fact.”

“
I’m so sorry,” Lillian
said. “Give it some time, and you’ll feel better. Would you like to
go home early today?”

“
No, thanks,” I said. “As a
matter of fact, I’d like something to throw myself into. Like a
murder investigation.”

“
Jennifer, are you certain
that’s what you want to do?”

“
I’ve never been more sure
of anything in my life,” I said. “Let’s get started.”

Lillian got out our whiteboard and erased
the day’s specials we’d tried last week. Every day we’d offered a
different discount on something, and it hadn’t been worth the time
it had taken to come up with the specials. Perhaps it would work
when we had more foot traffic in the store, but it was a bust this
time of year.

I took a soft cloth and erased the board so
we could start fresh. I replicated the listings we’d done on her
mirror at home a few nights ago.

“
Do we have anything new to
add?” I asked as I studied it.

“
I’m not sure how the
shooting fits in, or Bailey’s mysterious stalker,” Lillian
said.

“
I’m not, either. So who do
we tackle first?”

She tapped the board under Addie’s name.
“Why don’t we look at motives? She gets the shop. That’s got to be
worth a fortune. Is greed a big enough motive?”

“
You’d better believe it,” I
said and wrote that single word under her name. I wished I had a
green marker to write it in, but our St. Patrick’s Day blowout had
turned into a flop, and I’d killed the marker in the
process.

“
So how about the others?” I
asked as I studied the list.

Lillian took a red marker
and wrote
love
under Luke Penwright’s name. “And the others?” I said,
gesturing to Polly Blackburn and Kaye Jansen. “I’ve got it,” I said
as I wrote
envy
down for them.

Lillian studied the list, then said, “We’re
covering our share of the seven deadly sins, aren’t we?”

“
One of them is usually
behind every murder, wouldn’t you say?”

“
It’s always a good place to
start,” she said.

I tapped the closed marker on my chin.
“There’s something that’s been bothering me. Bailey said something
about another man in Eliza’s life, and I don’t think he was talking
about her ex-husband. Could this mystery man have killed her when
he found out about Bailey?”

“
It’s possible, but who do
we put down?”

I made a big black X on the
board, and wrote
love
under it. Lillian studied the addition, then said, “So let me
get this straight. We know that one of these people probably killed
Eliza, including our mysterious stranger. And we think we know the
motive, but it’s a multiple choice question instead of a true or
false exam. Does that about sum it up?”

I threw the marker down. “It’s hopeless,
isn’t it?”

“
I wouldn’t say that,”
Lillian said. “But we do have a way to go before we make anyone the
least bit nervous.”

“
So what do you
suggest?”

Lillian thought about it, and so did I.
Finally, she said, “If we can eliminate one of our suspects because
of logistics, we might finally get somewhere.”

“
Gotcha. I’ll talk to Kaye
and Polly to see if they’ve got alibis.”

“
Jennifer, I can do
it.”

“
Honestly, I don’t much feel
like being around here right now,” I said. I was afraid Greg would
come back, and I didn’t want to talk to him until he had a chance
to get his emotions in check. “Please?”

“
Fine, but be back here by
three. I have something I simply must do then.”

“
I’ll be back in plenty of
time,” I said. “So what’s so important?”

“
Jennifer, if I’d wanted you
to know, I would have been a little more specific, now wouldn’t
I?”