Skein of the Crime (11 page)

Thwarted yet again, Carl stood on his hind legs, paws on fence, and barked doggy threats into the cottonwood trees above. Brazen perched contentedly on a branch, prized crab apple in his front paws, and smirked down at Carl.

Kelly wasn’t entirely sure squirrels could smirk, but if any of them could, it would definitely be Brazen. No matter how fast Carl ran or how fierce his bark, Brazen was always one step ahead of him to scamper to safety in the broad, leafy branches above. From the safety of his perch, Brazen chattered back at Carl, taunting him with a squirrelly shake of his tail before scampering to higher branches.

Kelly leaned against the open patio doorway, enjoying the morning sun’s warmth. “Missed him again, Carl,” she commiserated with her dog, who was pacing back and forth beside the fence, sniffing the ground for traces of essence of squirrel. “You’ve got to get quicker on the trigger, big guy.”

The sound of her cell phone ringing on her desk inside the cottage got her attention, and Kelly pulled the screen door closed. Let autumn’s warm weather and scents perfume the air.

“Kelly Flynn here,” she answered in her usual fashion.

“Good morning, Kelly. Did I get you at a bad time?” a man’s deep voice came across the line.

Kelly recognized the voice of Don Warner, her new accounting client in northern Colorado. Since Warner’s development company was located in Brighton, Colorado, which was north of Denver, Kelly and Warner had been doing a lot of their consultations over the phone. She’d only traveled to his office twice.

“This is a good time to talk, Mr. Warner; how’re you doing?”

“I’m doing quite well, Kelly, and you’re going to have to start calling me Don. We keep a pretty relaxed tone over here.”

“Okay, Don it is. How can I help you this morning? I’m almost finished with your August monthly reports, by the way.”

“That’s great, Kelly, but this isn’t about reports. I thought you might like to come out here and take a look at our plans for this new industrial park we’re planning outside Brighton. We’ve already broken ground.”

“Why, thank you, Mr., uh . . . Don. I’d really like to see the development at this early stage.”

“I kind of thought you would. I want to keep you in the loop on things as they’re going along. That way, you’re better able to understand how the expenses are moving around here. I’ve got a lot of projects simmering on the stove.”

The idea of learning about a new building development from the ground stage up fascinated Kelly. Don Warner had developed projects all over northern Colorado. Shopping centers, office buildings, apartment complexes. She’d jump at the opportunity to see more of Warner’s projects in person.

“I’m really anxious to see this new project. What time works for you?”

“I was thinking about Friday, day after tomorrow. How’s that? Could you be out here early, say eight thirty? The contractors start at seven, so they’ll be pushing dirt, digging foundations. Right now, we’ve got a lot of holes in the ground. But I want you to take a look at the scale model. It came out better than I thought. And it gives a good idea of the scope of the build-out.”

“I look forward to seeing you, then. Friday morning at eight thirty. I’ll bring my coffee,” she joked.

Warner chuckled. “Don’t worry. I know you like your coffee. We’ve always got a huge urn going plus plenty of fresh doughnuts.”

Kelly groaned inwardly. Doughnuts and coffee. Everyone’s early morning downfall. “See you Friday, Don.” She’d need a lot of coffee to counter that sugar high.

“Hey, what are you two up to?” Kelly asked as she entered Lambspun’s main room.

Mimi and Megan sat beside each other at the end of the library table. Open magazines were spread all around them. They both looked up at Kelly at the same time.

“We’re trying to get organized,” Megan said, her face solemn. “And it’s slow going.”

“You mean the wedding? Hey, you’ve got a whole year. You should be fine,” Kelly said as she dumped her bag on the table and pulled out a chair.

“
Ha!
That’s what
you
think,” Megan scoffed. “We’ve checked with a couple of hotels, and their banquet rooms are booked for next October already.”

“Already? Wow.” Kelly pulled out Steve’s hat, so as not to dislodge the double-pointed needles clustered in a circle around the crown. She was in the finishing stages now.

“Fall is a busy time in a university town,” Mimi said, before sipping from her teacup. “Everything from sports banquets to reunions to regular business meetings keep all the larger rooms in town occupied. We may have to wiggle the dates.”

Kelly picked up her stitches where she left off. This was the row where she was supposed to knit one stitch, then knit two together, then repeat that sequence around the row. Doing that for each row gradually tightened the circle at the crown smaller and smaller. Finally there would be only a small hole left, and she could easily gather those stitches together on a darning needle and pull the circle closed on the inside of the hat.

“How much wiggle room with dates do you have?” Kelly asked.

Megan sighed. “Not much, actually. We can shift from the last two weeks of September through the last week of October, but we’d be
really
risking bad weather after that. And Marty has a legal conference the second week of September. So, we’ve got a six-week window, more or less.”

“Have you tried every hotel in town?” Kelly asked.

Both Mimi and Megan nodded in unison. “Yeah. All the bigger, nicer ones. I couldn’t believe they were all booked.”

“Don’t worry, Megan,” Mimi reassured. “There are other facilities available. Lots of churches and organizations rent out their large meeting rooms. We’ll find something.”

“I know, but I was hoping to have a . . . well, a pretty setting. Not some drab, gray conference room.” She sounded a little forlorn.

“What about that idea of having the reception outside? September and October are usually gorgeous around here,” Kelly offered.

“Except when a cold front blows in,” Mimi teased.

“Or it snows,” Megan added, a smile peeking out.

Kelly laughed softly. “Okay, you guys, you can make fun if you want. But I’ve been thinking about this. We’ve all been to outdoor events in the fall here, and even if the temperatures drop usually the sun is still out. They simply put heaters all around those big canopied tents. You could do that.”

Mimi and Megan looked at each other.

“You know, we could do that, Megan,” Mimi suggested, sounding hopeful.

“You think?” Megan stared at her, obviously unconvinced.

“Sure you could.” Kelly picked up the ball and ran with it. “They’ve even got sides to those big tents, so if the wind started to blow or whatever, you just pull them down. Sure, it would be a gamble, but it would definitely be a pretty setting. You could put those tents up wherever you got permission. We could find out about local park space rental or restrictions. Find out which natural areas would allow weddings.”

“I’m not sure they do, but there are plenty of private acreages that rent their open spaces,” Mimi ventured.

Megan’s expression changed, Kelly noticed. “Wow . . . now that would be what I’ve always pictured. Someplace outdoors in nature. After all, we live in this gorgeous area.”

“You could look at all sorts of locations, here in town near the foothills or up in Bellevue Canyon or Poudre Canyon. “That’s natural wilderness area. I wonder if they allow stuff like that.”

“I’m not so sure, Kelly. It’s a protected area. They allow camping and picnics, but weddings? I think I know who to call, though. She works for the park service right here in town.” Mimi scribbled on a sheet of paper beside the magazines.

Megan brightened. “Okay, now we’re talking. Let’s see what we can find out. Thanks for the suggestion, Kelly.”

“Glad to help. What are you looking for in the magazines?” She indicated all the glossy colorful pages spread out. She spotted lots of photos of frothy white gowns. “Looks like wedding dresses, right?”

“Ohhhh, yeah. Mimi suggested I start looking at some of the gowns so I can decide which styles I like and which ones I don’t.” She flipped through a few pages. “But you know, they all start to look the same after a while. Lots of frothy, gauzy stuff. Ribbons and lace . . . that doesn’t really appeal to me. I’m not the frothy type.”

“A lot of girls aren’t the frothy type, Megan, but they decide they want something very special for their wedding. You won’t know what really appeals to you until you start trying on gowns.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Megan said dubiously, flipping through the pages.

Mimi glanced toward Kelly then back to Megan. “You know what you should do? You should take Lisa, Kelly, and Jennifer with you and go to some of those bridal shops. We’ve got a wonderful one here in Fort Connor. And there’re two in Boulder, and another in Loveland. You could take a couple of weekends and start trying on gowns. It’ll be fun. All of you together.”

Megan looked up at Kelly. “What do you think, Kelly? Could we find a Saturday when all of us could check out these bridal shops?”

“Sure,” Kelly said with a big smile. “That sounds like fun. We can start early and cover all four shops. We’ll do lunch at someplace special.”

“Yeah, and we’ll have picnic stuff for dinner when we get back. That way it’ll be easy. Cool.” Megan grinned.

“Sounds like the super organizer is back,” Mimi said with a laugh.

“I hate to bring this up, guys, but I
am
an accountant, so I have to ask. Have you made a budget yet?” Kelly eyed Megan.

“We’re working on that,” Mimi said, holding up the piece of paper. “We’ve listed most of the expenses, but we’re having to use estimates because we haven’t called the vendors yet.”

Megan scanned the list. “We’ve got caterer, florist, music, dress, wedding cake, hall rental, minister’s fees.”

“That sounds about right.”

“Oh, yeah, photographer,” Megan added, and Mimi dutifully scribbled it down.

“You really should start nailing down those expense categories,” Kelly suggested. “Estimates can be way off, and you won’t know where to start until you’ve decided how much you have to spend.”

Megan wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, you’re right. What do you think, Mimi? Should we start at the top of the list with catering and work our way down?”

“That sounds good to me. We can start calling right now, if you’d like. I’ve already written down all the companies Pete suggested.”

Megan glanced at her watch. “Tomorrow would be better. I’ve got a conference call scheduled in an hour, so I’d better head back to work.” She grabbed her bag. “Let me help you gather all these magazines, Mimi.”

“That’s not necessary, dear. I’m putting then in a special Megan pile in my office bookcase. You run along,” she said with a smile.

“See you tonight, Kelly. We’ve got practice, remember?” Megan announced as she headed for the door.

“I’ll be there,” Kelly said with a wave. Once Megan was gone, Kelly glanced at Mimi. “You’ve having a great time, aren’t you, Mimi?”

“You bet, Kelly. Helping Megan plan her wedding is helping ease the pain over losing Holly.”

“I can understand that,” Kelly said softly.

Mimi’s smile returned. “Plus, I’ve never had a daughter, so I simply love having the chance to be substitute mother of the bride for Megan. I’m actually excited.”

Kelly’s cell phone jangled. “I could tell. Enjoy yourself, Mimi. You’ll keep Megan on track.” She flipped open her phone.

“Kelly? This is Patty. I had a moment before I head to another class, so I thought I’d tell you what I’ve heard so far.”

“This is a great time, Patty.” Kelly dropped her knitting and leaned over the table.

“So far, I’ve only talked to one girl who was at the party, but she spent most of her time in the house. I was outside a lot. She said she saw a couple of people offering pills around. One was a guy she didn’t know, but the other one is someone I
do
know. Rachel Gebbard. She actually went to high school with Tommy and Holly and me. Tommy and Rachel used to date a lot before Tommy got really serious about Holly. Then he dropped Rachel.”

“That’s interesting.”

“Yeah, well, Rachel has always been jealous of Holly and she bad-mouthed her whenever she got the chance. And . . . get this . . . the girl said Holly and Rachel got into an argument over Tommy. The girl was in the kitchen when it happened. She said Holly must have been drunk because she started talking trash to Rachel, and Rachel tried to hit her. But a guy pulled her back.”

“Whoa, it sounds like there was bad blood between those two.”

“Oh, yeah, for years. Rachel’s never gotten over being dumped. And she still has a thing for Tommy.”

“Wow, maybe the source of those pills wasn’t some creepy pill pusher but a jilted ex-girlfriend.”

“It’s possible. I’ll keep asking around to see who else saw something. Gotta run now.”