by Kathi Daley
“I’m heading to the bar,” Booker said.
“Right behind you,” Jackson seconded.
Adam looked at me. “I know you just arrived, but I hoped we could dance before my brother starts feeding me the guests he’s promised I’d dance with.”
“I’d love to.” I draped my jacket over the back of the chair next to Parker, took Adam’s hand, and followed him to the dance floor.
“You look beautiful,” he said as he took me into his arms, and we began to move to the music.
“Thank you. And you look quite handsome.” I stared into his eyes as he’d taught me to do during our practice sessions. “There are a lot of people here. More than I expected.”
He sighed. “Yes. Archie did get aggressive with the guest list this year. Unfortunately, I wasn’t kidding about my obligation to dance with half the women in the room, but I wanted us to have this first dance, and then, if you’re still here, I’d like to claim the last dance of the evening as well.”
His hand tightened on mine.
“I’d like that.”
Adam didn’t return me to my table until three songs had come and gone. For my part, I could have danced the night away in his arms, but I knew he had obligations, so when his lips lingered on my cheek just a bit longer than was customary, I whispered that I’d be looking forward to that last dance together. As predicted, Booker and Jackson were both at the bar when I returned to the table. Josie had brought a date who liked to dance, as had Hope, so both couples were on the dance floor. Tegan was dancing with Archie, so it was just Parker and Jemma at the table when I arrived. I’d only been at the table less than a minute when a man who Parker seemed to know walked over and asked her to dance, leaving Jemma and me.
“Have you tried the champagne?” she asked. “It really is very good.”
“I haven’t, but I am thirsty. Maybe I should head to the bar.”
“No need.” She raised her hand and wiggled her fingers. Less than a minute later, a man in a tuxedo came over with a tray of the bubbly stuff. Jemma told him to bring us a bottle, which he agreed to do.
“I’m impressed,” I said.
She shrugged. “I’ve been here before, so I know if you ask for something, someone will bring it to you. The brothers really do go all out. There’s an array of food and a lovely fire through the archway on the other side of the ballroom. Parker mentioned that she was starving before she was whisked away toward the dance floor, so I figure when she gets back, we’ll go and make ourselves a plate.”
“That sounds good.” I took a sip of my champagne. It really was the best I’d ever had.
The food, like the champagne, was excellent. Booker and Jackson joined Jemma, Parker, Tegan, and me in the dining area once we let them know we were going for food. Hope and her date, as well as Josie and her date, seemed content to dance the night away. I sort of doubted we’d see much of either couple.
After we ate, Tegan convinced Booker to dance at least one dance while Jemma joined Jackson at the bar, and Parker and I went outside for some fresh air.
“It’s freezing out here, but it really is getting warm inside,” I said.
“Yeah. I remember going in and out all night long last year. It was nice of Adam to save us a table near the door.”
“Everything really has been perfect. Adam told me that the ball is really Archie’s baby, but I know he put a lot of work into the preparation as well. The decorating alone must have taken days and days, although they did seem to have a crew to help out.”
“It sounds like you and Adam have gotten close,” she said as we walked out and stood next to one of the outdoor fireplaces.
“He’s been helping me with my mystery, so we’ve spent a fair amount of time together.”
“How’s that going?”
I wrapped my arms around my waist in an effort to ward off the chill that seemed to snake around me despite the fire. “I guess we’re making progress, but it seems obvious to me that whatever happened was complicated. I hoped to find easy answers when I set off across the country, but I can see that any answers I do manage to dig up aren’t going to come easily. Still, I guess there are a few things that are starting to come together.”
“That’s good. I really do hope you find your answers.”
“Me too. This probably isn’t the best time or place to talk about it, but we’ll get together soon, and I’ll fill you in. With your access to resources, you might be able to help.”
“I’d be happy to if I can.”
After we returned to the table, Parker was whisked away by another man she knew. Booker and Tegan were still dancing, so Jemma and Jackson joined me.
“I don’t think Josie has taken a single break,” Jemma said after she’d topped off all our champagne glasses. I guessed it really was a good thing we’d come in a limo. Not that I’d drank much. I’d mostly just sipped on a glass to make it appear as if I was drinking, but in reality, I’d probably consumed less than a glassful.
“She’s going to be exhausted tomorrow,” Jackson agreed. “We may need to postpone brunch and just do lunch.”
“I think she planned to serve brunch around lunchtime,” Jemma said.
I was about to agree with Jemma’s assessment when Archie wandered over and asked me to dance. I happily accepted. Archie was a fabulous dancer who put me right at ease despite my very limited ability. Dancing with him was fun and relaxing while dancing with Adam was a bit intense.
“So I hear we may be related,” he said as he whirled me around the room.
“Adam told you about our conversation with Camilla.”
He nodded. “He thought I might know something since I spend a lot more time with our family in England than he does, but as far as I know, we don’t have any long lost cousins.”
“Yeah, the idea does seem like a longshot, although Camilla said that the woman I seemed to have been with at the house was in some way connected to the family. Perhaps she was a friend of the family or even an employee.”
“I suppose that’s possible. I have some photos and stuff in my suite. I told Adam I’d help him look through things next week.”
“That’s very nice of you. I really appreciate all the help you and Adam have provided.” I looked around the room. “Especially since I can see that you’ve both been really busy. The decorations are wonderful.”
“Thank you. This ball is something that is close to my heart. It was something that meant a lot to my mother.”
“Adam mentioned that.”
“I remember growing up here in this house and looking forward to the holiday season when mother would transform things into a wonderland. It would take the crew days just to get all the trees placed and decorated.”
“I was here a few days ago when they were decorating the ballroom. It did seem like a huge undertaking.” I looked around. “The tree was in, but I don’t remember all the poinsettias. There must be hundreds of them.”
“Brenda brought them by this morning. We wanted them to be fresh, and I didn’t want to have to take care of them all week.”
I frowned. “Brenda? You mean Brenda from the Christmas tree lot?”
He nodded. “She owns a florist shop just down the street from the Christmas tree lot. She provided the plants for the tree lot as well.”
I remembered the plants that had been placed in the office when I first arrived on the day Bradford was found dead. “Does Brenda have a van?”
He nodded. “Sure. Brenda uses it for deliveries. Even though it’s a good size van, it still took her two trips to deliver all the plants she provided for the ball. I know the Winter Ball is a profitable event for her, but I do appreciate her willingness to ensure the freshness of the plants.”
I hoped the thought that had suddenly popped into my head was unfounded, but the more I thought about it, the more certain I was that I had a new name to add to our suspect list.
Chapter 16
The snow was coming down hard the following morning, which
was fine with me since spending a morning sipping coffee by the fire and remembering the perfection of the previous evening seemed like the optimal start to what I hoped wouldn’t turn out to be a stressful day. I’d decided not to mention my suspicion about Brenda to the others last night. It was such a magical evening that I hadn’t wanted to ruin it for anyone. I figured that today would be soon enough to discuss my idea with the rest of the group. This weekend was the Christmas on the Boardwalk event, so the town would be packed, and it was likely that Brenda would be present at the Christmas tree lot or the Santa House when the time came to track her down and ask her about the timeline that she’d followed that Wednesday morning.
The more I thought about it, the more it seemed possible that it had been Brenda’s van that the Christmas tree delivery guy had seen. The poinsettias in the office couldn’t have been there for long. They were delicate plants that needed to be cared for, so it was unlikely that Brenda would have dropped them off before the day the Christmas tree lot was to be set up. I’d run the scenario through my mind dozens of times since Archie and I had spoken last night. It seemed that whoever had been driving the van arrived at the tree lot between seven and eight. The man with the Christmas trees had shown up around eight and had noticed the van, and it had been gone by the time Jackson showed up about thirty minutes later. I had no idea why Brenda would kill Bradford or why she’d return to the scene of the crime if she had, but a story that included Brenda showing up at some point after seven, unloading the poinsettias, and then killing Bradford and leaving by eight-thirty, made sense in my mind. On the one hand, Brenda had returned to the lot around nine and hadn’t acted skittish, which it seemed that she would have if she’d known about the dead body in the storeroom. On the other hand, after Brenda arrived, and I’d informed her that he wasn’t there, she’d only rapped on the bathroom door once before opening it and then turning to the storeroom. I remember thinking at the time that she’d been bold to open the bathroom door the way she had, but if she’d already known the room was empty, there would have been no reason for a double knock.
If she was the killer, then I supposed that returning to the scene of the crime did make sense in a way. She’d been the one to find the body right in front of me, so she’d been looked at as a witness and never as a suspect.
Of course, even if Brenda was the killer, I had no proof of that or even a motive for her to have killed the man. I wasn’t sure who all would be showing up for brunch this morning, so I decided it might be best to show up at cottage number three and talk to Jemma and Josie before the others arrived. I texted the roommates and told them I had something to discuss. They texted back and said they were up and that I could stop by whenever I was ready. It was nice and warm and cozy in the cottage, but also sort of empty without the dogs since Coop wasn’t going to be returning the animals until brunch, so I headed toward the bathroom to shower and get dressed.
“You’re both up a lot earlier than I thought you’d be,” I said an hour later after I joined my friends for coffee in their warm and cozy living room.
“I danced a lot but barely drank anything,” Josie said. “My feet are a little sore, but as a waitress, I’m on my feet all day, so I’m used to it.”
“And while I spent my fair share of time at the bar with Booker and Jackson, I mostly nursed the same drink all night,” Jemma added. “How about you? How are you feeling?”
I smiled, remembering the absolutely perfect last dance I’d shared with Adam. “Really, really good, actually.”
“It looked like you were having a nice time,” Josie grinned. “I thought you said you didn’t know how to dance.”
“Adam has been giving me lessons, so I’d have some basic moves to get me started.” I took a sip of my coffee. “It was really fun. Even more magical than I expected it to be.”
“My favorite part was the decorations,” Josie said. “Brad and I went out onto the patio to cool off, and with all those lights overhead, I felt like I was in a fairyland.”
“Archie did go all out, as he usually does,” Jemma agreed. She looked at me. “So, what is this about the poinsettias?”
“When I was dancing with Archie last night, he mentioned that Brenda had just delivered the poinsettias that day. Before he mentioned the plants, I hadn’t been aware that Brenda owned a flower shop. I knew she had a business nearby since she mentioned running down the street to check on things when we were volunteering together, but I didn’t stop to wonder which shop was hers.”
“And then Archie brought up the plants,” Jemma said.
“Exactly. I remembered noticing that someone had delivered a bunch of poinsettias to the Christmas tree lot the morning when Brenda found Bradford’s body. They didn’t make a huge impression on me at the time, which might be why I didn’t put their presence together with the presence of a white delivery van. But when Archie mentioned that it took Brenda two trips with her van to deliver all the poinsettias, it suddenly hit me that perhaps the van the guy with the Christmas trees saw that morning was Brenda delivering the poinsettias.”
“So she’s there to deliver the poinsettias, and for some reason, she ends up putting a knife in the man’s chest?” Josie asked.
“I know it sounds sort of unlikely, and I certainly don’t have any proof at this point, but if the van the Christmas tree delivery guy saw belongs to Brenda, then it is a possibility.”
“She was the one who found the body,” Jemma said.
“And when I mentioned that Bradford wasn’t there, she went right to the bathroom, knocked once, and then opened the door,” I added. “It was almost as if she knew the room would be empty.”
“And you did say that she seemed to know to look in the storage room, even though there would be little reason to think he was in there,” Josie jumped in. “But why would Brenda kill Bradford? She’s a married woman with children. She has her own business, and she’s considered to be successful in the community. She’s an active volunteer who has been working alongside Bradford for years. They’ve always seemed to get along.”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I really don’t have a motive in mind. And she did scream when she saw the body, but looking back, the scream seemed a bit much. Like maybe it was scripted. I know if I found a dead body, I’d probably gasp and maybe even let out a little screech, but she screamed like she was the one being murdered.”
“Okay,” Josie said. “Your theory seems plausible, and it does fit the timeline. Now, how do we prove it?”
“I guess we can try to determine if Brenda’s van is the van the man with the Christmas trees saw. We know that on the day of the murder, one of the four wheels was black while the others were chrome. She would have had time to change out the wheel by this point, but someone she knows must have seen the van. An employee perhaps.”
“Cherry Kline works for Brenda,” Josie offered. “The flower shop is closed Sundays, but I have Cherry’s cell number. I’ll call and ask her.”
After the call which netted us the information that the van had suffered a flat and had sported a black wheel for a few days while they waited to get the regular tire fixed, the roommates and I were more certain than ever that it had been Brenda at the Christmas tree lot that morning. Knowing this didn’t prove that she’d killed him, but given the timeline, it did seem likely. The problem at this point was how to prove it. Josie suggested we track her down and ask her, so after calling the rest of the gang to let them know brunch had been postponed until dinner, we checked in with Coop to make sure he was okay with the animals and then we headed into town.
When we found Brenda handing out candy canes to the children at the Santa House, it almost made me feel bad to interrupt her, but murder was murder, so we asked if she could take a break, and then we arranged to meet her near the candy apple booth in the back of the auditorium.
I wasn’t exactly sure what to say to the woman, so I just jumped in and asked her if her van was the van the Christmas tree delivery guy had seen
on the day of the murder.
“It was,” she admitted. “But I didn’t kill Bradford.”
I raised a brow and glanced at Jemma, who shrugged.
“Okay,” I said. “Why don’t you tell us what happened that morning.”
She took a deep breath and suggested we go outside so as not to be overheard. It was freezing outside, but she did have a point about discussing a murder in the crowded auditorium, so we followed her to the back door, where we entered a hallway that led to the boiler room. Once we were all tucked into the small hallway, which was the warmest place we could find, she began to speak.
“I was at the Christmas tree lot that morning. I arrived around seven o’clock with a load of poinsettias that we were planning to sell. Bradford was there and helped me unload them, but when we counted the plants, I realized we were short ten, so I went back to the shop to grab the missing plants. I guess that was around seven-twenty. When I returned to the Christmas tree lot about seven-forty-five, I couldn’t find Bradford, so I looked around. Eventually, I found him dead in the storage room. I panicked and left. I realized once I made it back to the flower shop that it might be better to be around when the body was found to avoid suspicion, so I went back. The rest, you know.”
“Why didn’t you call the police when you found the body?” I asked.
She looked down at her feet. “I had an affair with Bradford last summer. My husband forgave me, but I promised I’d never be alone with the man. I knew if my husband found out I’d personally delivered the plants rather than having my assistant do it, he’d suspect I was there early in the morning for more than just a delivery.”
“And were you?” I asked.
“Yes,” she admitted. “I guess I was. But we didn’t sleep together or anything. I just missed him and wanted to talk.”