Fee’s face got heated and she glanced down at her plate as if embarrassed. I glanced at Viv. Now she was stabbing bits of chicken with her fork as if they’d done something to offend her.
“The police seem to think Aunt Betty’s intake of gin might have had something to do with her lack of discretion,” Harry said. “So, even though it would seem unlikely that she would draw attention to herself, they’re not ruling her out, not by a long shot.”
“That’s rubbish,” Andre said. “They’re grasping at straws. Anyone can see that the real killers are Penelope and Jasper Young.”
My head whipped in his direction. This hypothesis totally worked for me since I loathed those two, but it needed to be fact-based. “How do you figure that?”
“Because they’re horrible people,” he said. “I think they’d poison the lot of us just to win that stupid crystal bowl.”
I laughed. The assessment was certainly apt. Then I remembered that Penelope had said she was going to have to tell DI Bronson what she had overheard, and it was clearly about me. I wondered if I should mention it to the others. Probably, but I didn’t want anyone to get upset.
I glanced to my left to see Viv ripping her naan into small pieces. Okay, I didn’t want anyone to get more upset than they already were. She was actively avoiding looking across the table to where Alistair and Fee were nudging each other and smiling. A closer look and I could see that the look on Viv’s face was one of misery.
I was torn. On the one hand, when I thought about the fist bump I’d seen Alistair and Fee exchange earlier, I was pretty sure they were doing this to nudge Viv, which she deserved for keeping Alistair dangling for so long.
But on the other hand, if I was wrong and in fact Fee and Alistair were really becoming a twosome, then I couldn’t deny them the happiness they were finding, and as their friend, I wanted to be happy for them. But coming full circle, Viv was my cousin and she’d been through a rough time. If she felt anything for Alistair, I wanted her to have that opportunity. The tension running across the table from Viv to Alistair felt like a live electric wire. Not knowing what to do, I opted to drink my wine, because wine makes everything better.
“Who else is considered a suspect?” Nick asked. “We’ve got the young wife, the ambitious dog owners, the people who’ve filed a lawsuit against the company, Aunt Betty, who else?”
“What about his sister?” Viv asked. She must have realized the murder talk wasn’t going to go away. “Mary Swendson was more than his sister, she was his business partner, too.” She glanced up at Fee. Her stare was hard and flat. “When you share something like that it’s a bond. It requires complete trust. Maybe Gerry did something to betray her trust and she killed him.”
Fee quirked one eyebrow up and met Viv’s stare. “He betrayed her trust? He’s the one who’s dead, yeah? Seems to me, killing your brother who is also your business partner is a bigger betrayal of trust than anything he could have done to her.”
“Well, we don’t know much about their business, do we?” Viv asked.
“Actually,” Harry said, but I put my hand on his arm, signaling for him to stop.
“A business relationship is a fragile thing,” Viv said. “Spending day in, day out with the same people, you think you know them but maybe you don’t.”
“Yeah, maybe you don’t,” Fee agreed. “Maybe there are things more important than business that have to be taken into account.”
The two women were staring at each other. I noticed everyone was glancing from them to me as if I was supposed to do something about this. I’m sorry, did I look like I was wearing referee stripes or carrying a whistle? That was a big “hell no.” I wasn’t going to get into the middle of this mess. I’d either lose a friend or a cousin or both. Nope. I was just going to keep my mouth shut.
“I guess sometimes people just surprise you,” Viv said. She took her napkin off her lap and dabbed her mouth. Then she tossed it onto the table and rose from her seat. “Thank you for dinner, Nick, it was wonderful.”
“I can see that by the way you’ve cleared your plate,” he said.
Viv had created some sort of portrait art, using the rice and chicken and bits of ripped-up naan. I wasn’t sure but it reminded me of Edvard Munch’s The Scream.
“If you’ll all excuse me, I’m not feeling very well,” she said. She reached out and patted Nick’s arm and then went to pick up her plate.
“Don’t,” I said. I shooed her away from the table with my hand. “Go rest. I’ll wrap up your dinner so you can finish it later if you get hungry.”
“Thank you,” she said. She left the room, calling over her shoulder, “Good night, everyone.”
We all called after her and I glanced at Alistair and saw him watch her leave the room. His eyes looked shadowed with regret but Fee leaned into him and whispered something I couldn’t hear. He gave her a small nod and then turned to Harry.
“What do you think our chances are against the Black Hornets, mate?” he asked.
My beloved launched into a very windy monologue about the Hornets’ strengths and weaknesses versus their own team’s. As riveting as this was, I excused myself to wrap up Viv’s dinner. I picked up her plate and brought it to the kitchen, where I covered it with a sheet of cling wrap and put it in the fridge. I stalled, wiping down the counters, hoping that Fee would join me after a bit. Sure enough, she did. She brought both of our wineglasses with her.
She took the bottle of chardonnay that sat on the counter and filled our glasses. She handed me mine and tapped her glass against it and said, “You know I would never do anything to hurt Viv intentionally, yeah?”
“I know,” I said. “But I’m pretty sure she’s hurting now and it seems pretty intentional.”
“Sometimes you have to hold someone’s feet to the fire to get them to do what needs to be done,” Fee said.
“Is that what you’re doing?” I asked. I really hoped it was.
She neither confirmed nor denied. She just said, “Trust me.”
“I do,” I said. “I definitely do.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“But—” I began but she shook her head. She wasn’t going to tell me any more. She was just going to leave me wondering? It was straight-up cruel. “You’re a cold woman, Fiona Felton.”
“But effective,” she said.
She led the way back to the table and I don’t think I imagined it, but with Viv gone there was more space between Fee and Alistair. They seemed to have regained their old friendship with none of the flirty weirdness that had been happening between them before. I noticed Nick glanced at them a couple of times, and I knew he was thinking the same.
“So, what’s the plan for tomorrow?” Andre asked. “It’s the day they look over the coat, teeth and all of that. Are you and Freddy ready?”
“I don’t know, what do you think?” I opened my mouth and showed him my teeth, scoring a laugh as he choked on his chicken curry.
“Warn a fellow when you’re going to do that,” he cried. “That’s enamel cruelty.”
Nick snorted and said, “Tooth to be told, she got you with that one.”
I glanced at Harry, who was chuckling. “I’d say she got to the root of it.”
“Dental puns, really?” Alistair asked. “Have we not drilled deep enough?”
That set them all off again. Fee was laughing into her napkin along with the others and, per usual, I just couldn’t stand to be left out.
“I think we all need to brush up on our puns,” I said. I laughed pretty hard at that one, but I was the only one laughing. “Get it? Brush up?”
“Oh, Scarlett.” Fee sighed. “May the floss be with you.”
The entire room erupted. I gaped at them all. I knew it was a joke to ignore my puns, but seriously, “brush up” had been a good one. I turned and glared at Harry.
“It was a good one,” he said. “I even felt my mouth twitch up a bit. Right here.” He pointed to the corner of his mouth and his lips curved up a teeny bit. I threw my napkin at him.
Harry laughed and then hugged me. He was big and warm and smelled too good to stay mad at for more than a moment. Dratted man.
“I suppose we should call it a night,” Alistair said as they all settled down. “The show starts early tomorrow.”
“How are you feeling about it, Scarlett?” Nick asked. His voice was full of genuine concern and I smiled at him.
I gave him a nervous look and admitted, “I’m okay. I just hope I don’t let Aunt Betty or Freddy down. He’s in the lead. I would hate to muck that up.”
“You won’t,” Harry said. He kissed my forehead and then leaned back to meet my gaze. “You’ve done amazing and Freddy’s in first place. Nothing can stop you now.”
Except for the crazed murderer on the loose, I thought. But at least I didn’t say it out loud.
Chapter 13
“How do I look?” I asked as I entered the hat shop from our apartment upstairs. I twirled in my sage green Jenny Packham collared day dress with elbow-length sleeves and a flared skirt.
“Like a winner,” Harry said. Then he kissed me and my nerves evaporated.
He and Aunt Betty had come by the shop to collect me for the final day of the dog competition. Amen.
“I swear you two are my OTP,” Fee said.
“OTP?” Viv asked.
“One true pairing,” Fee explained. “The pinnacle of ship.”
“Ship?” Aunt Betty asked.
“Short for ‘relationship,’” Fee said.
“Kids these days,” Aunt Betty said to Harry. “I swear I don’t understand a word she’s saying.”
He laughed. “It’s slang, Aunt B, no worries. I don’t understand most of it either.”
“Thank you, Fee,” I said. “We do good ship if I do say so myself.”
“Don’t give up hope, Fee. Maybe you and Alistair will achieve that sort of pairing,” Viv said. I was rather surprised her voice didn’t leave behind a scorch mark.
I glanced at Fee but she didn’t answer and turned her face away. I got the feeling she was hiding a smile, which bolstered my theory that she and Alistair were in cahoots. Lordy, I hoped this did not backfire on us all.
“We’d best be off,” Harry said. He glanced at Viv and Fee. “Are you two going to be there when they announce the winner?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Fee said.
“I suppose,” Viv said, sighing. She glanced over the counter at Freddy. “Do me proud, boy.”
As we left, I said to Harry, “Did you see that? She actually spoke to him. I really think Viv is coming around on the dog thing.”
He gave me a dubious look with one eyebrow lowered but didn’t say anything. We left the hat shop and climbed into his car. Freddy and I were in the backseat while Aunt Betty rode in front with Harry. I think Freddy might have been nervous because when I petted him a poof of hair rose up into the air.
A chime sounded and Aunt Betty took her phone out of her purse. She glanced at the message she had just received and said, “Oh, bother. We need to make a slight detour, Harry.”
“What?” he asked. “But the dog show.”
“Will have to wait,” she said. “My corgi rescue group needs me.”
“Now?” he asked. “I don’t mean to point out the obvious, because it’s obvious, but we’re a bit busy at present.”
“We’re running early. It’ll be fine. Besides, it can’t be helped,” she said. “I take my role as a corgi rescuer very seriously. Miriam was supposed to be on call today but she has the flu and I’m her backup.”
“Bloody hell,” Harry muttered.
“What was that?” Aunt Betty asked.
“Very well,” he said.
“That’s what I thought you said,” she said.
Harrison followed her directions into Kensington. Parking was nonexistent, so it was decided after much debate that he and Freddy would wait in the car while Aunt Betty and I went on the rescue mission.
I didn’t feel dressed for a rescue but rather more for afternoon tea at a place nicer than my own kitchen. I hurried after Aunt Betty, who strode with purpose toward a redbrick town house. My heels slowed me up a bit as I skipped around a couple of icy patches, trying to ignore the chilly draft that seemed determined to go up my skirt.
“The message says that the dog is on the young side, a female, and her name is Bella,” Aunt Betty said. She was studying her phone as she approached the steps of number 14. She opened the door to the vestibule and I scooted closer to the heater beside the mailboxes. Aunt Betty scanned the residences and then hit the number for 14-C.
“Hello?” a woman’s voice spoke through the intercom.
“Hi, this is Betty Wentworth, I’m with corgi rescue and am here about Bella,” she said.
I could hear barking in the background and the woman said, “Bella from hella? Come and get her, she’s all yours.”
“Oh, dear,” Aunt Betty said. The interior door’s lock clicked and she pulled it open, holding it for me.
We trudged up the stairs to the second floor, where the apartment was situated. The barking got louder as we got closer.
Aunt Betty raised her fist to knock but the person on the other side must have been waiting because the door was pulled open before her knuckles could connect with the wood.
“Take her,” a middle-aged woman with brown hair that was highlighted with streaks of silver said. She was broadly shaped and wore a thick turtleneck under a shapeless cardigan over sweatpants. She had no makeup on, reading glasses perched on her head, her phone in her hand and an air about her that said she’d given up on life and had no intention of reengaging anytime soon.
I wanted to hug her and tell her everything would be okay but since I had no idea what she was dealing with, it seemed inappropriate at best and extremely insensitive at worst. Instead, I followed Aunt Betty into the apartment. It was barren except for a few boxes. The windows were large, without curtains, making the room airy and bright.
Aunt Betty glanced around. “Where is she?”
The woman ran a hand over her face. “Destroying something, no doubt.”
Aunt Betty flashed her an annoyed look and set off into the apartment.
“I’m just trying to get my parents moved into an elderly care facility,” the woman said. “They’re both in failing health and my dad has dementia.”
Her voice broke and she looked like she just needed a good cry. This time I went with my impulse and gave her a half hug.
“There, there . . .” I paused. “I’m sorry, what’s your name?”
“Lynn,” she said. “Lynn Biscoff.”
“Like the cookie?”
She gave me a look. “Yeah, like the biscuit.”
“I’m Scarlett, like the color,” I said. She gave me a watery smile. “We’re here now. We’ll take the puppy off your hands.”
“I can’t thank you enough.” Lynn sighed and wiped the tears from her face with the sleeve of her sweater. She picked up a leash from the kitchen counter and handed it to me. “I don’t know what my mother was thinking, bringing home a puppy last month. She knew they were moving and she knew the new place didn’t take pets.”
I nodded. It sounded to me like her mother had gotten the dog to avoid the move. I didn’t say it because I was pretty sure she’d figure it out on her own when she had a minute to think. Besides, we had enough to deal with at the moment.
I heard the scrabble of dog paws on wood and glanced across the empty room to see a puff ball of white and honey, a miniature Freddy, in fact, coming at me. Aunt Betty was hot on her heels.
“Grab her, Scarlett!” Aunt Betty cried.
For the record, I tried. Really, I d
id. But the dog was half projectile and before I even had my hands out, she rocketed right past me, making me totter on my heels. Aunt Betty blew by me, giving me a none-too-gentle push as she went.
“Cut her off!” she cried.
Aunt Betty went one way around the pile of boxes, and I went the other. Lynn watched, looking too exhausted to move her feet. But to her credit, she crouched down as if Bella might leap into her arms and she’d catch her.
I dropped low and as the puppy came at me, I was certain I’d be able to grab her and said, “I’ve got her! I’ve got her!” My arms hugged air. “I don’t have her!”
How Bella managed to dash through my feet and race back down the hall, I don’t know, but she did. I straightened up, getting a mild head rush, and hurried after her.
“Bella! Come here, Bella!” I cried. “We do not have time for this!”
Aunt Betty was fumbling in her purse, where she found some dog treats. Not the hard-biscuit kind but the sort that were soft and looked like mini sausages.
“Good thinking,” I said.
She winked at me. “She ran into the back bedroom. Let’s slip in and close the door. We’ll probably have to corner her, as she’s either scared out of her mind or thinks this is a game.”
“Given her nickname, Bella from hella, I’m betting on game,” I said.
We slipped into the bedroom. It, too, was bare except for a pile of bedding in the middle of the floor. The closet doors were open and a quick glance showed that it was empty except for a few sad wire hangers. I scanned the room. There was no sign of the willful puppy.
Then I saw a wriggle out of the corner of my eye. The large fluffy blue blanket moved. I waved at Aunt Betty and pointed at the pile on the floor. She nodded. Silently we crept forward. There was another wriggle and a baby growl. As if the fierce Bella was trying very hard to sound ferocious. It was so stinking cute, I felt my heart go smoosh.
Aunt Betty held the treat out and we closed in on the puppy, coming at her from opposite sides of the blanket. There was a wriggle and a pounce and then a little head popped out from beneath the fluffy comforter. Two big ears, a black nose and a pair of sparkling eyes regarded us. Her tongue slipped out of her mouth as she panted and I got the feeling Bella was delighted with us. Before she could dash away, Aunt Betty held out the treat, which caused Bella to wiggle with excitement. While Bella gingerly took the treat from Aunt Betty’s hand, I clipped the leash to her collar.
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