Do I really need to lose weight, or am I just overreacting to all those wedding magazines?
She had always been a proponent of loving her body as it was, and now she felt like a hypocrite. She went into the bedroom and got dressed. Her body really did feel fine to her, but she told herself it was about her health too.
I eat too much sugar. I have to be careful, or I’ll wind up like dad, borderline diabetic. She sighed to herself. Remember, it’s all about moderation.
Charlie gave her one of his looks, as if to say, “I’m glad I’m a cat. Now, what’s for breakfast?”
He jumped off the bed and Susie Q trailed behind him as they strolled into the kitchen. Ashley dutifully followed like a good pet owner and filled their dishes. In her next life, she wanted to come back as one of her cats: spoiled, pampered and loved to bits.
She made a cup of coffee and a quick bowl of oatmeal, and sliced a banana to go on top. Then she opened her laptop and went to get her notes to start her day. As she passed their living room window, she noticed a light snow had fallen. Everything in their courtyard and street looked frosted. She got her phone and took a few photos of the wintery scene. A school bus went by, then a shuttle bus with a sign that read, “The Play’s The Thing. The Northwest’s Finest Shakespeare Festival.”
That reminds me, she thought. We need to book a weekend up there after the honeymoon for summer season to see some performances. She and Sean each knew of some local Comfortville residents that were acting at the festival. She wanted to say hello to them and take in some good theatre.
Just then, her stomach got queasy. The feeling of sadness from early that morning clouded her thoughts again. Ashley brushed it off. We have to make sure we don’t see anything sad, especially right after our honeymoon. Sean had told her that he didn’t want to see a play like Macbeth or Hamlet.
“Let’s go to a comedy, Ash. The Merry Wives of Windsor or The Taming of the Shrew would be perfect after our wedding,” Sean had joked.
A quote from Hamlet came strongly into her mind at the moment. Specifically the murder in the play and how Hamlet wanted to prove who did it.
“I’ll have grounds more relative than this—the play’s the thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.”
She shook her head. I’m just relating that to the title on the bus, she thought. Time to get to work!
She sat at the kitchen table while she ate her oatmeal and drank her coffee and perused her notes.
Meanwhile, a detective sat at his desk in a small town farther northwest and started a murder investigation on some poor soul who never saw it coming.
Chapter Two
Ashley and her mom had a lovely afternoon at the new florist shop. They indeed had beautiful wedding bouquets and centerpieces at good prices. Ashley liked what she saw and made a mental note to come back.
The cake tasting at the sweet shop was delightful. Ashley had a small taste of three cakes and they were delicious. Instead of old school butter cakes with heavy frosting, she opted for the lighter versions which still tasted wonderful but were far less caloric. Her mother was surprised.
“You’re the girl who’s always believed in butter!” April exclaimed.
“Very true Mom. Nothing makes things taste better than butter. But I have to think about our guests, and these light cake versions taste pretty good.”
April sighed. “It’s your cake dear. Choose what you want. But promise me you won’t change on me forever!”
Ashley laughed. “Look at me. That’s not going to happen.”
“As a matter of fact, I was just going to mention that you are looking skinnier by the moment. I know what you said about your dress, but don’t go overboard with your diet,” April said.
“Mom, I’m not dieting. I’m simply cutting back on the bread, pasta and pastries, and the weight is slowly coming off.”
“I did the same thing,” the girl at the wedding cake shop said. “I didn’t cut those things out of my diet totally, I just cut them down and lost ten pounds.”
April’s eyes opened wide. “And you work at a cake shop! That’s amazing! Well, I would never have that kind of willpower if I worked here.”
The salesgirl beamed at them and held out her hand. On it was a beautiful diamond ring and a wedding band. “I just had a ‘Winter Wonderland’ wedding. Both of our birthdays are in December and we wanted to celebrate our union then.”
“Congratulations!” Ashley said. “That’s wonderful.”
“Yes, congratulations!” April said. “And now you can eat whatever you want. That’s what marriage is all about. Everyone puts on weight after getting married. Bet you can’t wait to stuff your face now.”
“Mom, time to go. I still have work to finish up today.”
Ashley noticed the salesgirl trying to stifle her laughter as they walked out.
***
The day had turned out brilliantly sunny, melting the light snow that had fallen in the morning. But it was getting colder now as the sun started to set, and clouds were rolling in from the west. Ashley buttoned her coat and reached over to wrap her mom’s scarf tighter around her neck.
“Are you having a good time doing this with me? Going out and doing wedding things together?” April asked. She stared into her daughter’s face.
“Of course Mom!”
April looked at her shyly. “It’s just that I know you’ve done a lot on your computer, and young women your age now have the internet to help them plan for their big day, but I still say nothing can replace going places with your mom while you shop for your wedding. I did it with your Nana. There’s nothing like it. Then you have all those memories.” April drifted off.
Ashley noticed tears in her mother’s eyes. “Oh Mom! You can’t hug your computer. I wouldn’t replace this for the world.” She reached over and tightly embraced her mother. She heard April choke back a sob.
“Are you okay?” Ashley whispered.
“Just thinking about your Nana. I miss her so much. Wish she was going to be here to see you on your big day. She would’ve loved Sean.”
“Yes, she would’ve. They would’ve gotten on like a house on fire,” Ashley said.
They both stood there quietly for a moment in the still cold air, lost in their thoughts. Ashley glanced up from her mother’s shoulder and noticed a light snow had started to fall again. She put her hand out to catch some flakes.
“Look Mom, Nana’s saying hello.”
April smiled as she held out her hand too. “Yes, I think you’re right.”
“Let’s get you home and warm inside,” Ashley said.
***
They drove back in comfortable silence, April gazing out the window at the snow falling on the trees. As soon as they parked, Ashley bounded out.
“I’ve got to give dad a big hug before I leave.”
“He’d love that, but remember, no cake stories,” April warned.
When they walked in, the smell of the fireplace filled the entryway. Ashley walked into the living room and saw a big fire crackling away and her dad, Burt, sitting in front of the TV.
“Well ladies, how was the cake tasting?” he shouted.
“How did you know we were—?” April started to say.
“Have you forgotten we live in a small town? Susan Riley was walking into the same cake shop as you two were walking out of, then mentioned she had seen you to her mom, who mentioned it to her husband Syd, who then saw me at the gas station and told me all about it. Hope you had a good time stuffing your faces while I’m sitting here deprived of anything fun to eat!”
Ashley bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud. “Hi Dad! I stopped in to give you a hug!”
Burt embraced his daughter, but kept on grumbling. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so hungry in my life. Are we eating dinner soon?”
“Yes, dear. I have a great dinner planned for us, and even a dessert. A low calorie, low sugar dessert,” April said.
Burt whispered in Ashley�
��s ear like a little kid. “Do you know what the dessert is?”
“No I don’t. But if Mom is making it, you know it will be good. Got to run! Have a good dinner.”
Ashley gave her father a quick kiss on the forehead and dashed out, shouting good-bye to April, who was already in the kitchen cooking away.
***
Thoughts tumbled through Ashley’s mind on the drive home. She thought about how special this afternoon was shopping with her mother, and how much it meant to both of them. Bonding even more and making memories. It was wonderful.
And the fact that she and Sean had opted for a small wedding in their hometown was so important too. It was what they were all about. Sean had balked at an expensive resort.
“Who cares Ashley? It’s our money. Let’s save it for a house. All the people who love us will be happy we’re getting married, not how fancy the reception is.”
Ashley had unequivocally agreed, and her mom and friends, like dear Lara Longley, were all too happy to help her have the most beautiful wedding ever without spending gobs of money. Burt had applauded the decision too.
“Good to see you kids are smarter than a lot of people your age. Save your money! Your mother and I got married in a little church as soon as I got home from the war, and we had the reception in our small apartment. Everyone crammed in and had a blast. Then we went to Hawaii and got a cheap hotel room with a great view of the ocean, and then laid in the sand for a week guzzling lots of funny drinks with umbrellas in ‘em. Best time I ever had.”
“Then I saw a listing for a wonderful house here in Comfortville, and that was that,” April had piped in.
Ashley smiled to herself. The wedding would be in May, her favorite month. It was her birthday month and an especially beautiful time in her hometown. There was something about spring, with its freshness and new beginnings that had always captivated her. Then they’d fly to Hawaii for their honeymoon, just like her parents had. Except instead of a hotel, she had found a little cottage on the internet right near the beach with its own private garden. It looked heavenly. She and Sean would hide away for a week in paradise.
She noticed the gas gauge was low and pulled the car over to fill up and walked in to pay. There was a long line so she reached for a local paper to browse and focused on the big headline.
“Shakespearean Actor Murdered During Rehearsal.” Ashley read the byline. Apparently the murder had occurred at “The Play’s The Thing” Shakespeare Festival. She attempted to skim through the article, but the line in the mini-mart moved quickly. Before she knew it, she was next in line. She grabbed the paper, then paid for it along with the gas, then went outside to fill up her car. What little information she was able to gather was that the murder had taken place in the little town of Brewer where the Festival was taking place, during a rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet. According to the article, the Brewer Police Department was questioning the cast members. She made a note to try and contact the people she and Sean knew from Comfortville to see what they might know.
But we don’t even have their numbers, she thought. We hardly know them. She would talk it over with Sean at home that evening and see what he thought.
***
Meanwhile, in Brewer, Detective Miller was sitting down to dinner in a café trying to piece together the few clues he had in the case. He had just finished talking to the parents of the murdered actor, Ben Colton, and was trying to process everything they had told him. He hung his head over his plate. He didn’t have much of an appetite, but he knew he had to eat to keep his strength up. He thought about something that Ben’s father had told him.
“I’ve already heard rumors since we got into town that this was a love triangle gone wrong, Detective. That’s garbage. It makes a good story for the locals, but there’s something else going on. Our son Ben had told us in a call that he had stumbled upon corruption going on in town and wanted to investigate it. We warned him not to get involved, but he said he knew people who were affected and he wanted to check it out.”
“What corruption?” Detective Miller asked. “I haven’t heard anything about that.”
“We don’t know. He said something about a big company and water rights? That’s all he would tell us. We didn’t know what that meant.”
Ben’s mother was softly crying. “He said he would tell us more later. He said he didn’t want us to be worried and everything would be fine.” Her face was contorted with grief.
“We have an ongoing battle up here for the water rights to our streams and rivers between the company that wants to bottle the water, and local activists who want them out of town. But there is no ‘takeover or corruption’ going on, I can assure you,” Miller said. “I would have heard about it.”
The parents looked at him and then at each other. Doubt mixed with the tears on their faces.
“I don’t know. I wished we had pushed him for more information,” the father said. He hung his head and choked back his sobs as his wife leaned on his shoulder.
Back at the café, Detective Miller finished his meal and walked out into the cold night. He was filled with sadness. Speaking to the parents of a deceased child was the worst. Even if the child was grown. It wasn’t the natural order of things. He knew it all too well as he and his wife had lost their college-aged daughter to a drunk driver three years ago. There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t think of her. He shivered in the cold and got in his car.
He instinctively knew one thing, though. The ‘love triangle revenge murder’ rumor floating around town rang hollow. He sensed the parents were right. This felt like something more sinister. Could Ben Colton’s suspicion of corruption be something he should investigate?
Chapter Three
The days went on into weeks and months of her catering work, wedding planning, and trying to spend a few hours here and there with her family and friends. Ashley sometimes felt overwhelmed with juggling it all. Even though it was a small wedding, it ate up a lot of time to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Most especially, who was going to do the food? Sean was not in the wedding cake business, so it was a no-brainer to hire that out. But who was going to live up to her standards for the reception meal? Her best friend, Lara, offered to help.
“I can supervise whatever caterer you find, Ash, then you can relax on your wedding day,” she said.
“Thanks, but I still haven’t found out who I want to do it,” Ashley responded.
“I know you’ve looked at a lot of caterers, but have you thought of that new caterer in the town of Watson? I’ve been hearing good things about them. They’re only twenty minutes away and I’m sure they’d be happy to come in for the day,” Lara said.
“I have thought of them, but they’re really new. I’m worried they won’t have enough experience. You know how fussy I am about food.”
“Hey, give them a try. They could be great.”
“Okay, I’ll give them a call. Want to ride with my mom and me and have a taste of their food if they’re available?”
“Absolutely!” Lara said.
Ashley had checked out the menus online for Sumptuous Catering in the little town of Watson, and everything sounded delicious. They said they specialized in seasonal, local and fresh food, just like Ashley did, and their upcoming spring menus made her hungry reading them. After calling and finding out they were available for her wedding date, she, April and Lara took a ride out to the small office and kitchen they had in a barn on their property. Everyone was very welcoming and professional and showed them the facility, and then sat them down for a tasting. They sampled three different main courses and side dishes and they were delicious. Ashley saw how dedicated they were about serving quality food and how hard they had worked to get their operation up and running. She put her initial reservations aside and made the choices for her wedding.
Starters:
Walnut, Fig, and Goat Cheese Salad.
Entrée:
Spring Lamb with Fresh Mint Sauce
or
Roasted Salmon with Lemon Dill Sauce
Side Dishes:
Honeyed Carrots with Thyme
Spring Baby Potatoes with Parsley
Roasted Asparagus in Olive Oil
Dessert:
Wedding Cake
Beverages:
Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, and assorted sparkling fruit sodas. Champagne to go with the cake and for the toast.
Perfect!
They had driven home with full stomachs and feeling very happy about the menu choices.
Ashley smiled to herself. We’ll eat like kings on our wedding day, she thought.
Lara noticed her friend smiling. “What are you thinking about?” she asked.
“It’s all about the food,” Ashley said. They all laughed. It was really about her and Sean of course, but yes, good food was the next important thing.
***
Ashley dropped Lara off and kissed her friend goodbye.
“Thanks for coming along. We loved having you!” Ashley said.
“Yes, thank you Lara,” April said. “You ate even more than me!”
Lara laughed. “You know me, always hungry!” She waved good-bye as she walked in her front door.
“Such a lovely girl. You have such nice friends, honey,” April said.
“Yeah, I’m lucky. Thanks for coming Mom. This was fun. Love you.”
After dropping her mom off, Ashley drove home, but stopped for a lottery ticket first at the mini-mart. She also picked up some trash bags and paper towels and got in line. Her eye caught the newspaper headlines again. She grabbed one, paid for everything, and walked to her car.
The headline read, “New Revelations in Actor’s Murder!” She sat in her car for a moment and scanned the article. It pointed out that accusations of a love triangle and revenge killing, and had short interviews from people that believed it was true. Two of the male actors and a female actor in Romeo and Juliet were under suspicion, although no names were listed. A detective of the police department said the department was working diligently to solve the case as soon as possible. Ashley put the paper down for a moment and reflected on that.
Ashley Crane Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 61