Meow Matrimony

by Lickel, Lisa;

  And so on. I closed my inner ears and focused on Stanley and Ruby who stood an arm’s length from each other near the hall to the lockers and restrooms. All the seats at the juice bar were filled, and even the people browsing through racks of exercise clothing stopped screeching hangers along metal poles.

  Stanley slouched with his hands in his pockets, staring at nothing in the vicinity of Jason’s knees. Stanley had tidied up for the occasion, clipped hair, Memorial Exercise-a-Thon T-shirt over nice khaki shorts. Sandals with no socks, thank goodness.

  Ruby folded her arms and swiveled her attention between Stanley and Jason. Ruby looked good in her T-shirt, a pink one, and her white shorts fit her well.

  Once, when their gazes met accidentally, they stared for five and a half seconds before breaking back to Jason.

  “She would have been so proud of all of you,” Jason said, with a little hitch to his voice. “Ivanna loved to show off the effects of her hard work at staying fit, exercise, and beauty treatments. She believed that when people looked good, they felt good. And when folks felt good, they tended to treat others well. And that’s what Ivanna wanted for all of you. Opening this place was her dream. Thank you for honoring her vision.” He touched the corner of his eye.

  Yolanda held out her recorder.

  I narrowed my eyes.

  As did Elvis. He’d sneaked in the back door and stood near Ruby, recorder pen in his shirt pocket facing Jason’s back. And twisting toward Melody Clark.

  I’d forgotten about her, mesmerized as I was by Jason’s teary performance.

  Melody watched her son from her folding chair. Her legs were crossed elegantly, her silky trousers caressing well-toned legs ending in long narrow beige heels. Melody’s face was a surprising mask of nonchalance, maybe even impatience. I wanted Doralynn to show up and see what happened. Melody clutched the edge of her seat on either side of her crossed legs with slim, be-ringed fingers. I studied them. A large pearl, diamonds, a beautiful opal, something that might have been a Lindy star if I could have seen it up close…was that? I squinted and stared at the unusually large setting on her tiny hand. No, it wasn’t Ivanna’s two-carat monster diamond, but the band was definitely familiar. Oh! More like Amy’s, with three-dimension leaves and vines crawling along it. Interesting.

  Adam must have come in from the back to catch the end of Jason’s speech and set his hands along my shoulders. Good thing I felt his presence first or I might have shrieked.

  “So, on behalf of my mother, Melody…” Jason floated his hand toward her. I almost expected a spotlight to shine on her as she immediately straightened, smiled bravely and waved.

  “We’ll match every dollar that comes today to show our gratitude,” Jason concluded.

  Melody’s smile slipped at the corners and her eyes widened fractionally before she nodded.

  Ruby turned a snort into a cough as applause gained volume when the audience realized Jason was finished. I didn’t blame her since she’d shared that Jason had yet to pay the original investment he’d promised. I squeezed Adam’s fingers before striding to the microphone to turn it off and move the pole out of the way. Before my forefinger found the slide on the side of the mic, however, Jason’s hand wrapped around mine.

  “I’d like to publicly thank this lady, here, Miss Ivy Preston…” Jason’s voice took on a jeer and I froze like a mouse about to become snake food as he stared at me. “She was the one who stumbled across my fiancée’s cold, dead body, after…after…”

  After what, Jason? I thought, ready to pounce and punch. Go on, say what you really think.

  His voice softened, and he released my hand. “Doing a good deed,” he mumbled. “Let’s give her a round of thanks.”

  I managed to thaw my neck and turned to bob in the direction of the gym floor.

  Folks had already lost interest and were getting back to business.

  Ruby went forward to call a change of shift and announce that food had been brought in for the exercisers. More was available for purchase, courtesy of Tiny’s Buffet.

  Jason turned away to be caught by Yolanda for an interview.

  Adam came up quietly to help me break down the microphone and stand.

  Barry offered a mock forehead swipe while keeping up his monologue.

  Stanley had disappeared.

  Elvis was talking with Melody Clark. Hmmm…

  “Food, Ivy. Mr. Mayor.” Ruby broke my train of thought with plates of Tiny’s deliciously charred and greasy fare. I reached for a fry and she slapped my hand. “I saw you with the extra doughnut,” she said. “These are for Mr. Thompson.” She handed the big plate with two sliders and fries to Adam.

  “You can call me Adam,” he told her.

  She flushed scarlet and thrust a small plate with one of the miniature burgers and apple slices at me. “You want to keep in shape for the wedding, don’t you, Ivy?” she asked sweetly. “And your shift is coming up.”

  I wolfed the burger, grinned, and went to grab more water to hand out.

  ~*~

  At eight fifteen that evening, the remaining exercisers had turned in their sponsor sheets and limped away. Barry had packed up at four. Tiny dropped off a last load of food at five o’clock, and Yolanda had pegged fifteen minutes with Ruby at the last bell before going back to the newspaper office.

  Stanley, Amy, Elvis, Adam, and I helped Ruby wipe down the equipment, take out trash, and stuff the washing machine with sweaty towels. I was tired.

  Earlier, at six, Ruby had finally cornered me and accused me of being a wimp. “I know your sponsors are mostly fakes,” she’d hissed. “You planning to put up or show up?”

  And just to prove her sixty percent wrong, I’d done a hundred of several things on her machines. And jumped rope. My hips were still singing from the hula hoop, and my stomach muscles crying from crunches. I handed over sixty bucks with my sponsor sheet and a sweaty, weak salute.

  Now, at eight thirty, I wanted to go home and soak in a warm tub. Lavender bath beads, candles, the works.

  I didn’t pay attention to the slamming of the back door, figuring people were coming and going, taking out garbage, loading cars. I made a visit to the ladies room and when I returned to the main floor to collect my purse and keys, the lights were out. “Hey!” I called.

  My only answer was shuffling and giggling.

  “I’m still here, Ruby!”

  “Good,” Ruby called.

  The room flooded with light.

  “Surprise!” a couple dozen voices cried.

  The next best thing besides a warm scented soak for lifting your flagging spirits was a surprise bridal shower with cake and ice cream and spiked punch.

  Addy, who’d come for an hour at 4:00 PM. to show off how strong she was from wrestling recalcitrant pets, now led clapping and came to hug me. She’d also brought a case of toilet paper for the dress-the-bride game like she’d promised.

  Somebody turned on the music and, armed with punch, I went to greet my friends, family, and neighbors.

  Mom had even brought Aunt Chris down from Maplewood. “Don’t worry, she has a room at the hotel,” Mom whispered. “I’ll take her back home tomorrow. She doesn’t want to leave Frumpy that long.”

  “Her cat is Humbert, Mom, not Frumpy.”

  “Whatever. Oh, Martha, there you are. I wanted to ask you…”

  “Were you surprised?” Ruby asked me.

  I grinned and toasted her with my punch. “I sure was. Thank you so much.”

  “I’m sorry we told you to leave the meeting a few days ago. But this was why.”

  I flushed and gulped more. “I wondered.”

  “Stanley and Elvis and some of the guys took Mr. Thom—the mayor—Adam—I mean, out to Tipplers. They rented the back room. Pool, stories, some cards, probably. I’m sure they won’t do anything to embarrass the mayor.” Ruby patted my arm and went to talk to her aunt.

  I was glad that Adam’s and my new friends thought enough of us to throw these parties. I
waved at Celia Gaines, our pastor’s wife. Lannah and Roberta Murphy were chatting. Mom was in a circle with four of the members of the Good Seeds. Addy stood next to Martha. They smiled at me.

  “Geneva tells me you are very happy,” a husky voice from a 1940s movie rasped in my ear.

  I couldn’t help it; I jumped a little.

  “Aunt Chris. I’m so glad you could come. Thank you.” I turned all the way around and considered hugging her. I didn’t know if Mom knew I had kept in regular touch with Aunt Chris. That I liked her a lot more than when I’d been a child. Or was afraid of her. Maybe some of each. She wore blue corduroy pants and a checked shirt under a matching blue cardigan, despite the summer weather. She was about my height now that her shoulders rounded, and age had shrunk her. Her face was sallow and the black plastic glasses did nothing but match the black hair unattractively cut to hang straight on either side of her long face. I never really knew exactly what she did, though it involved a lot of time at the library. Maybe she actually worked there.

  Aunt Chris took the initiative and gave me a weak, creaky hug first. I’m not sure why, but her mothball scent soothed me.

  “I am pleased your mother suggested I come,” she replied. “I hope I will be able to meet your young man before the wedding.” She sniffed. “If not this weekend, then next.”

  “You’ll visit church with us tomorrow? Then you’ll meet Adam there.” I chuckled to think of him as my “young man,” but that was Aunt Chris.

  “Geneva also told me about your most current intrigue. How exciting to have been incarcerated. I don’t believe any other member of the family has yet to experience something so…titillating.”

  I cleared my throat and emptied my cup of punch. “Can I find you something to drink or nibble on?”

  We made our way to the refreshments table.

  An hour later, I unwrapped myself from swathes of toilet paper and opened a table full of lovely gifts, everything from new dish towels, new knives, and gift certificates to local eateries, to unmentionables that made the ladies giggle. Mom’s gift was cat-sitting for as long as we needed it. Aunt Chris had given one set of the unmentionables, wrapped in hot pink paper with cupids, much to Mom’s red face. I laughed, and Aunt Chris said she hoped she’d gotten the right size.

  Mom took Aunt Chris to the hotel an hour after that, and then went home with a load of gifts in her trunk.

  I started to help clean up when I was shooed affectionately away.

  “Go home,” Ruby told me. “You had a really long day.”

  “Not like yours,” I protested.

  “There’s not that much left to clean up,” Addy said. She’d returned from packing the last of the gifts into a big laundry basket in the backseat of my car.

  I felt teary-eyed. “Thank you so much. Both of you. This was fun. I loved every minute of it.”

  “I did, too,” Addy said.

  “Any excuse for a party!” Ruby moved off to stuff more trash bags.

  “Your Aunt Chris is a riot!” Addy said. “You don’t talk about her much.”

  “I guess not. She’s my dad’s older sister. We see her once in a while, and she visits on occasional holidays when she’s not traveling.”

  “What does she do? Or did, if she’s retired.”

  “I feel stupid for saying this, but I’m not sure. All I know is that she took care of their parents in that house, then stayed there after they died. She lost a husband.” I frowned. “I think.”

  “You think?” Addy shook her head. “She’s probably the last of that generation of housewives.”

  “Well, her last name is different, but no one ever says anything about her having been married, and there aren’t any pictures. It’s always been one of those things we don’t talk about…wow. I guess I could ask her.”

  Addy patted my shoulder, then pointed me to the door. “Good night, sweet dreams.”

  I drove back to Marigold Street, high on happiness and ice cream, the effects of the lightly spiked punch long gone. Really.

  A new gratitude for Apple Grove welled in me. These were good people. I’d chosen wisely to accept the challenge to move here and make a difference. Look at all the good things that had happened…especially my upcoming marriage. It wasn’t that I couldn’t live on my own or handle my life as a single person. Most of the time. I hadn’t even fallen in love the moment I saw Adam, mostly because I had been sort of planning to marry Stanley for way too long. And I didn’t know Adam had been invited to open a branch store here when Donald asked if I’d be interested in relocating to Apple Grove, so no one could accuse me of following Adam. I liked and admired him as a fellow cat lover, sure, but now look at us. Life was sweet, and I knew we’d catch Ivanna’s murderer and make sure life stayed that way for Apple Grove. I turned onto my street, still believing all would be well.

  Until I nearly hit Officer Tim Ripple, standing in full uniform in the dark right in the middle of my driveway.

  Mom was visible through the clear kitchen door, waving her hands anxiously.

  “Ivy,” Officer Ripple said after I’d parked haphazardly on the other side of the street and approached him. “You’ll have to wait outside.”

  Too late I noticed two other squad cars parked along my street.

  “What’s going on? Who’s talking to my mother? In my house? And where’s Adam?”

  23

  Elvis stepped away from the shadows of my formerly cozy house, now turned scary with intrigue and cops.

  “What’s going on?” I asked him since Officer Ripple was way too slow answering my first attempt to discover why the police kept me from my home. I felt whiplashed from my good feeling moment of ten seconds ago to abject fear and maybe some betrayal. “Why didn’t you call me? Where’s Adam?” My independence flew like an abandoned kite into the night. I had virtually been on my feet since six that morning, except for ten excruciating minutes of stomach crunches during the exercise-a-thon and the hour opening bridal shower gifts. I was grungy and so tired I wanted to cry. “Ruby said Adam was with you.”

  “He was,” Elvis said grimly.

  “Miss Preston, we have a warrant to search your premises for missing property belonging to the late Ivanna Preston.”

  I turned a fish eye on my new not-teammate Ripple, who was holding a piece of paper in front me, as if I could read in the dark. I was about to open my mouth and let loose when the kitchen door opened, spilling light on the steps.

  “Found it,” Officer Dow announced.

  ~*~

  Which was how I found myself in jail again. OK, in the conference room at the police station, but within sniffing distance of a jail cell with my name on it and doing plenty of sniffing at the thought. I reached for another tissue while waiting for Virgil. Adam and Mom, and Aunt Chris, of course, were not allowed to see me. Or hug me. Or pat me on the shoulder, or say “there, there, we know you didn’t do it.” Or answer the most serious question of whether or not I’d be able to attend my own wedding in seven days and roughly fourteen and a half hours.

  Detective Reyes drummed his fingers on the table, unable to proceed as I’d invoked my right to have an attorney present during questioning. He got up and returned to the table to smack another box of tissues in front of me. With a huge sigh, he apologized. “I’m sorry, Ivy. I’m not mad at you. It’s this whole situation.” He fingered his badge and appeared sorrowful.

  If he was playing good cop, I dreaded bad cop. At least Larkin wasn’t involved this time. I resolved not to respond to Reyes. Of course, it would help if I understood why Ivanna Pressman’s engagement ring was in my sock drawer. At the back, underneath an old pair of hose with a hole in the toe. Like, who cleans out sock drawers more than, um, once a year? If that? What on earth would I do with a dead girl’s jewelry? It was so hot it’d be years before I could sell or hock it. And did I have to burn all my socks, and the whole dresser while I was at it? Because I wasn’t about to wear any of those socks again since some creep had pawed through m
y clothes. Probably even checked out the other drawers.

  I blew my nose and rested my eyes. Then somehow my cheek decided to rest on the table. This was all just a bad dream when I saw Adam waiting in front of the altar with Pastor Gaines. I tried hard to walk toward him in a dignified manner as Cecelia Gaines directed me at the rehearsal, but Aunt Chris was strolling much too slowly.

  Aunt Chris? Mom was supposed to walk down the aisle with me. Where was she?

  Mom! Never mind Mom, Adam and the altar moved backward. Wait! Wait for me! I dropped my flower pot of aromatic geraniums and ran toward…no, don’t turn away, Adam! I’m almost there!

  I had to hurry so my feet wouldn’t sink into the squishy squashy thick pile of the runner. Who put these stilettos on me? Didn’t they know with me, stilettos equaled hospital visits?

  I muscled my way out of the shoes, gathered up the front of my long, white dress and waded to the altar on the boggy carpet. I didn’t know where all the water was coming from, but would need a boat to get out of there. I touched Adam’s shoulder. Why didn’t I have to reach as high? Where were the scars on his neck? The man began to turn at my touch…a too-familiar man with a narrow jaw and receding hairline. He held out a foil-wrapped cube of mocha fudge. Oh, no… “No! Not you again. I already did this.”

  “Ivy? Ivy, honey…”

  I gagged and snorted and wiped drool. Fantastic. I squinted. “Mom?”

  She handed me a tissue.

  I sat up. And wished I hadn’t.

  Adam hunkered in front of me, guarding me from Elvis, Aunt Chris, Virgil, Officer Dow, and Ripple while I wiped my face and pushed my hair into some order. Oh, well. He’d undoubtedly see worse once we were living together as husband and wife. He smoothed the last strays behind my ear with the tiniest of grins, then grabbed my hands and pulled me to stand.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “I was at the…with…never mind.” I stepped closer to Adam, who gathered me in the circle of his arm. If this was farewell to everyone for a long time I was hanging on to it for all it was worth.