Buried to the Brim

by Jenn McKinlay

  “You would have what?” Tilly snapped. She glanced at her sister-in-law in disgust. “You knew he was drugging me, using my accident as an excuse to hook me on opioids, and you did nothing.”

  Mary glanced away. Guilt bowed her shoulders. “You’re right. I should have done something to help you, and we all should have done something to stop him.” She raised her head and glared at Richard.

  “This has all been very entertaining,” Richard said. “But it seems to me that all we have here is a bit of gossip. You have absolutely no proof.”

  “Actually, I do,” I said.

  Richard gave me a look of derision as if I was unworthy of his notice. I turned to Tilly and asked, “Did Gerry own a Rolex watch by any chance?”

  “Yes, I gave him one for our wedding. How did you know?” she asked.

  I glanced back at Richard. His affection for pretty things was about to get him in very deep trouble.

  “I saw it on Mr. Swendson’s wrist on the night of the cocktail party,” I said. “And I just saw it again on Mr. Freestone’s wrist when he checked the time.”

  Detective Inspector Bronson stepped forward just as Richard bolted for the exit. Thankfully, Harry and Alistair were able to run him to ground like a rugby ball.

  They tackled him hard and snatched him up by the arms, carrying him so he was forced to walk on his tiptoes to Bronson with Muffin trotting along beside him, having no idea that her human was going to be gone for a very long while.

  “It’s not his, it’s mine, you’re mistaken, you can’t prove anything,” he argued. “Unhand me, you thugs!”

  I turned to Bronson and said, “Every Rolex has a serial number that corresponds to its production date. If Tilly has the certificate of authenticity, it will prove that this watch belonged to Swendson.”

  “I do have it,” Tilly said. “It’s in our jewelry safe, I’m sure of it.”

  The detective inspector grinned, looking like he’d just won the big crystal bowl full of kibble.

  “Mr. Freestone,” Bronson said. “I’m sure this will come as no surprise, but you’re under arrest for the murder of Gerry Swendson.”

  Chapter 18

  The tea was anticlimactic after that. Aunt Betty posed with her trophy with the other winners, all of whom moved up a peg since Richard and Muffin were removed. Two of Richard’s followers offered to take care of Muffin for him, which was a step up in the world for Muffin.

  It was decided that Freddy, despite the paperwork issue, would keep his first-place finish. Andre took loads of pictures, and then we all staggered back to the hat shop to drink some champagne and reflect on the events of the day.

  Nick poured everyone a glass and offered a toast to Freddy. Raising his glass, he said, “Here’s to you, old chap. You were in it to win it and indeed you did. With some help from your friends and your excellent lid. At first it looked dicey, and was off to a rocky start, but you won them all over with your bum in the shape of a heart. To Freddy.”

  “Hear! Hear! To Freddy,” we said in a chorus, and clinked glasses.

  The bubbles were delightful and refreshing after a day that left me parched. Fee made up a plate of cheese and crackers and various fruits. It wasn’t a meal though and I knew we were going to have to do something about that. Personally, all I wanted was a pie from Pizza Express and bed. This had absolutely been one of the most exhausting days of my life.

  * * *

  * * *

  A cream-and-tan-colored fur ball dropped at my feet. Poor Bella looked flat-out exhausted with her snout on my shoe and her upper and lower legs splayed as if she didn’t even have the energy to curl up into a ball.

  “Aw,” I said.

  “Poor thing,” Viv said. She was standing beside me, smiling down at the puppy. “We need to make her a proper bed in our living room upstairs. Do you think she’d like that old quilt of Mim’s? The one with the flowers on it?”

  I stared at her. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Very carefully, I said, “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

  Viv sighed. “I don’t like to go back on the things that I say, you know that.”

  “I do,” I said.

  “But when you handed her to me today, well, she yawned and her little pink tongue curled up, and she’s just so soft, and she has no one. I mean, what will happen to her if we don’t take her in?”

  My heart started to flutter. “I imagine she could find a good home. Of course, she might just as easily land in a bad home.”

  “Exactly,” Viv said. She looked at me with a frown. “Damn you, you made me care.”

  “I’m sor—” I began to speak but then I noticed that she wasn’t looking at me but rather past me at Alistair, where he was standing with Harry.

  Oh, man, here I was again. To meddle or not to meddle? To be clear, in case there is any doubt, when these are my choices, I always choose to meddle.

  I glanced back at Viv. “It’s not too late. If you care, you should tell him.”

  “And just ignore that he and Fee seem to have found each other?” she asked. “I could never do that. Never.”

  I glanced across the room where Fee was chatting with Nick, Andre and Aunt Betty. She was laughing and petting Freddy, where he sat between her and Nick, basking in their affection. I mulled over our dinner party and how Fee had told me that she’d never do anything that would hurt Viv, and then I remembered the covert knuckle bump I’d seen Fee and Alistair exchange at the dog show. They were up to something; I was sure of it.

  “What if they’re just really good friends?” I asked.

  Viv was staring down at Bella, looking forlorn. When she glanced up, she looked resolved. “No, it’s more than that. They seem enthralled with each other, and look at them. Why wouldn’t they be? I mean, Fee is gorgeous and Alistair . . .”

  “Yes?” I asked, hoping that I’d hear some acknowledgment of what a great guy he was.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Viv said.

  “It matters to me.”

  Viv started and stared at me with wide eyes. I looked past her and, sure enough, there was Alistair.

  “Please tell me that’s Harry,” she whispered.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  She closed her eyes, looking pained. Then she blew out a breath and made her face a pleasant mask.

  “Don’t do that,” I said. “This is your chance. Tell him how you feel.”

  “Go away, Scarlett,” she said. Her voice was high, almost piercing. “And take him with you.”

  “No,” I said. “At least to the second part.”

  I bent over and scooped up Bella. Good grief, I was sure she’d gained a pound since we’d found her that morning. She relaxed against me like a boneless blob. I crossed the room to join Harry and passed her off, feeling my heart do a silly cartwheel when he cradled the puppy in his solid arms. What is it about a man with a puppy or a kitten that renders a woman brainless?

  “What’s going on over there?” he asked.

  “I am hoping a moment of truth,” I said. “Although whether it’s going to make any diff—”

  “What?” Viv cried. “How dare you?”

  I turned around and saw her toss the contents of her champagne glass into Alistair’s face. He blinked and shook the fizzing beverage off his face. I glanced at the others, watching from the other side of the room. Nick, Andre and Aunt Betty looked shocked, but Fee was smiling. Harry grabbed a kitchen towel from the counter and tossed it at his friend. Alistair snatched it out of the air without even looking.

  “Refreshing,” he said. He wiped off his face and hair.

  “Don’t,” Viv said. “Don’t make light of this.”

  “Ah, Viv,” he said. “I’ve never made light of how I feel about you, but a man can only hear ‘no’ so many times before he has to quit for his own sanity. So, tell me, should I quit
on you?”

  Viv glanced from him, to me, to Fee, and back to him. She looked agitated and uncertain, both unfamiliar looks for Viv, and she nodded.

  “You could have something really special with Fee, she’s a wonderful woman, and I won’t mess that up for you,” she said.

  Alistair looked rueful. He glanced past Viv at Fee and said, “Should we tell her?”

  Fee stood and walked toward them.

  “Tell me what?” Viv asked. “Oh, no, please tell me you’re not getting married. I mean, if that’s what you want that’s great, but it . . . oh, God, can I leave now?”

  “No, you can’t,” Fee said. She took Viv’s hand in hers and gave it a squeeze. “Alistair is my friend and that’s all he is, yeah?” She lowered her head so that she was looking Viv right in the eyes.

  “What are you saying?” Viv asked.

  Fee sighed. “I’m saying that sometimes people don’t appreciate what they have until it’s gone, and I didn’t want that to happen to you.”

  Viv was silent. She glanced back and forth between them. She looked incredulous, possibly furious, and her entire body was quivering like a plucked harp string. “Are you telling me that you set me up?”

  Alistair put a hand on the back of his neck. “I take full responsibility.”

  “Piffle,” Fee said. “It was my idea. Don’t you dare go taking all the credit for it.”

  “I thought I was being noble by taking all of the wrath,” he said.

  “There’s no wrath,” Fee said. “I did her a favor. She was never going to give you the time of day until she was forced to realize that you weren’t going to be available forever.” She turned back to Viv. “He really wasn’t. Men like him are few and far between. It was killing me to watch you muck it up.”

  “You are my millinery assistant,” Viv said. “You are employed here to work on hats, not my love life.”

  “I don’t mind,” Fee said. “I can do both.”

  “Fee, this is completely—” Viv began but Alistair interrupted.

  “Brilliant,” he said.

  Viv was blinking and blustering as if she wasn’t sure whether to protect herself in a cloak of outrage or acknowledge that her friend had given her the push she needed. The entire room was quiet, waiting for her to process.

  She looked from Alistair to Fee and then she broke into an exasperated grin. “Yes, it was brilliant except when he asked me out just now I tossed my champagne on him in a show of solidarity to you. You might have explained first.”

  “Sorry,” Fee said, not sounding sorry at all. She hugged them both and then stepped away.

  “Can I take this to mean that if I ask you out again, right now, you’ll say ‘yes’?” Alistair asked.

  “No,” Viv said. “I won’t.”

  The confusion and dismay that swept across both Fee’s and Alistair’s faces was crushing. I reached for Harry’s hand and squeezed his fingers with mine. This was awful. All of our friendships were going to become super awkward and then everything would unravel as Alistair didn’t come around anymore and Fee went off and found a new place to work. My stomach turned and I felt like I was going to be sick. I glanced at the couch and saw that Nick, Andre and Aunt B looked stricken.

  “Ah, I see,” Alistair said. “You don’t forgive us or, more accurately, you really have no interest in dating me ever in this life.”

  “Wrong again,” Viv said with a shake of her head. “You asked if I would say ‘yes’ to a date right now.”

  “And you’re saying ‘no,’” Alistair said. His words were short and sharp with his disappointment.

  “Yes,” she said. “But only because I think it’s high time I asked you out on a date, don’t you?”

  Alistair went completely still. I squeezed Harry’s fingers and felt the return pressure of his fingers around mine. Did this mean what I thought? Could she? Would she?

  “Alistair, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why you’re still interested in me,” Viv said. “But I’ve realized lately, with some help from a friend, how much you mean to me and I’d very much like to take you out on a date. Will you join me for dinner tomorrow, say, at seven o’clock?”

  A smile, as slow as a sunrise over the London skyline, spread across Alistair’s lips. He took Viv’s fingers in his and kissed the back of her hand in a gesture as gallant and romantic as any woman could ever dream of and said, “I’d be delighted.”

  Aw. I sighed and Harry hugged me to his side and whispered, “Thank goodness. I was worried my best man and your maid of honor would spend our wedding ceremony glaring at each other. Speaking of which, I don’t think I can wait until summer, let’s move the date up.”

  “Okay,” I said, because I’m easy like that.

  Fee, unable to contain herself any longer, began to jump and clap. This woke up Bella, who demanded to be put down so that she could run around the room with Freddy, who was barking as if he, too, knew that something big had just happened.

  Nick and Andre began to applaud and we all joined in. Viv blushed, which became deep pink when Alistair leaned down and kissed her quick. With her fingers over her lips and a bemused smile on her face, she said, “Is there any more champagne? I seem to have spilled mine.”

  * * *

  * * *

  We were bustling around Mim’s Whims the next morning when Detective Inspector Bronson stopped by. He informed us that after an intense interrogation and under the advice of his lawyer, Richard Freestone confessed to the murder of Gerry Swendson. Apparently, Gerry had discovered that Richard was manipulating his way into winning the dog show, by bribing judges and so forth, and planned to boot him out of this year’s competition. Richard couldn’t have that so he arrived early on the morning of the agility tests and murdered Gerry by crushing pills of the opioid and slipping them into Gerry’s coffee. Of course, he couldn’t resist Gerry’s Rolex and helped himself to it as the man lay dying.

  Richard had thought he’d have time to arrange the body and make it look like a suicide, but Gerry died within minutes, forcing him to alter his plan. According to Claudia, he’d thought they could hide the body under the dais and then sneak it out later under the cover of darkness after the dog show, but Freddy had put a stop to that.

  Claudia and Tilly knew that Richard had murdered Gerry, so they were trying to lessen their charges for accessories after the fact by agreeing to testify against him. Bronson thought they might get off completely since they hadn’t planned the murder and were brought into it only after it had been committed. Since I felt that all the blame was Richard’s, I hoped they weren’t charged, which I told Bronson in no uncertain terms.

  Aunt Betty stopped by the shop with Freddy in the afternoon, much to Bella’s delight. Betty had been called to an emergency meeting of PAWS, where Liza was removed by the board as the chairman of PAWS, but mercifully they didn’t hire Penelope Young to replace her. They offered the position to Betty instead. She was thinking it over.

  When Harry arrived after work to join us for dinner, he told us that the business world was abuzz with the news of Swendson’s Dog Food. Investors were selling all of their stocks, as it appeared the scandal would likely cause Mary to lose the pending lawsuit over the quality of the dog food and the business would have to declare bankruptcy.

  I tried to feel sorry for the people involved but I just couldn’t manage it. So much drama and for what? A crystal bowl and the title of best in show. It just didn’t seem worth it.

  * * *

  * * *

  Bella became the hat shop dog and while Viv followed her around with a handheld vacuum to suck up the fur she left behind—on everything—the two of them developed an understanding.

  Bella was allowed to spend her days with us so long as she wore the hats that Viv designed for her. Thankfully, Bella took to this new modeling career like a champ, because after the dog show,
we did start a line of hats for dogs that proved to be insanely popular.

  I even added a section to our webpage that showcased Bella in girl dog hats and Freddy in boy hats. Andre took the pictures for us and they came out ridiculously cute. We even did a portrait of Freddy in a top hat and Bella in a bridal veil. Harry didn’t like that one. He said Bella was entirely too young to consider marriage. Unsurprisingly, she has become a daddy’s girl and positively throws herself at Harry when he arrives to pick us up at the end of the day.

  Viv remained aloof with the puppy, refusing to think of her as anything other than an employee, or so I thought. This belief was blown wide open when I came home from a dinner out with Harry and found Viv and Alistair asleep on our sofa with Bella snuggled up in between them. None of them awoke when I entered the room, so I left them to it. It was clear that our entire hat shop crew had gone to the dogs.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Jenn McKinlay’s new romantic comedy . . .

  PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA

  Available Summer 2020 from Jove!

  “I’m getting married.”

  “Huh?”

  “We’ve already picked our colors, pink and gray.”

  “Um . . . pink and what?”

  “Gray. What do you think, Chelsea? I want your honest opinion. Is that too retro?”

  I stared at my middle-aged widowed father. We were standing in a bridal store in central Boston on the corner of Boylston and Berkeley Streets and he was talking to me about wedding colors. His wedding colors.

  “I’m sorry, I need a sec,” I said. I held up my hand and blinked hard, while trying to figure out just what the hell was happening.

  I had raced here from my apartment in Cambridge after a text from my dad had popped up on my phone, asking me to meet him at this address because it was an emergency. I was prepared for heart surgery not wedding colors!