Her hand shot out and caught me at my knees. I fell. She crawled over me and pressed a wool blanket into my face. “Why are you protecting her? She’s a tramp. She’s having my husband’s baby. She’s destroying my life!”
She pressed the blanket down over my nose. I couldn’t breathe. I turned my head one way and then the other. She didn’t let go. Her knees were on my arms and I couldn’t move. Where was Nick? I closed my eyes and felt dizzy from the lack of oxygen.
And then the weight of her lifted and the blanket was pulled from my face. Nick dropped down beside me. I put my hand on my throat and gasped for breath. Joyce stood up and ran. Her foot caught on the pearls that were scattered on the floor and her feet shot out from under her.
Nick grabbed a bundle of black tree-climbing rope and wrapped it around Joyce. He knotted the ends and secured her to a fixture with D-Clamps.
“You heard me,” I said between ragged breaths. “You were in the ceiling. I didn’t think you’d come.”
He put his hands on either side of my face. “Are you kidding? That’s the first time you ever asked me for help.” He pulled me into a hug. “I’m a firm believer in positive reinforcement.”
Finally!
Before I knew it, sirens pierced the air. I unlocked the mall doors and watched a squadron of cop cars and an ambulance pull into the parking lot. Several cops and EMTs filtered out of their cars and charged into the building. Tom Kenner was moved to a gurney and rolled out. Joyce Kenner was handcuffed. Nick and I sat by the camping display, his arm around me, a blanket not dissimilar to the one I bought the night of our “overnight surveillance” wrapped around us.
And then a voice I hadn’t heard for the past five months said, “Quit it with the cuddling and tell me what you’re mixed up in this time.”
In the two years that I’d been back in Ribbon, I never thought I’d be so happy to hear that voice. I looked up at dear, sweet, ornery, tan-from-Tahiti Detective Loncar.
Nick leaned close to my ear. “I hope you don’t mind. I called for backup after the gunshots.”
I smiled at Nick and then gave Loncar my most stern expression. “It’s about time you came back from vacation,” I said.
32
CHRISTMAS EVE
The night before Christmas, we gathered for a party at Cat’s house. Cat had recovered from the past week. She was dressed in a vibrant purple dress and the pearl necklace that George had left behind in the fireplace. Her shiny red hair framed her face, and her smile, that had been in hiding for the past week, now reached her eyes. If all went as planned, her baby would arrive in a few weeks. The glow of pregnancy had eradicated any residual negativity from George’s death.
Eddie adjusted the tinsel on Cat’s Christmas tree. Dante sat on the sofa drinking eggnog. Nick was in the kitchen assembling us a plate of hors d’oeuvres. Other people mingled. Both Cat’s and George’s families had finally arrived thanks to a break in the weather. Neighbors who’d been stopping by all week with casseroles now enjoyed a glass of champagne. The vast array of sympathy flowers had been layered with colorful red poinsettias and lent a cheerful backdrop to the party.
I was dressed in the ivory fringed dress that I’d tried on the night we found George’s body. The hardest part of the evening had been accessorizing, since the dress called for several long strands of pearls. In deference to what had gone down, I forwent the pearls and wore a band around my hair with a small flower on the side. My only other accessory was the engagement ring.
Christmas had come way too quickly this year. I’d been so preoccupied with Cat’s situation that I’d barely noticed the dates changing on the calendar. My vacation had sped by in a blur of early mornings, late nights, crime scene clean-up, and suspicion. When Nick had tactfully pointed out that the holiday was in two days, I swore he made it up. It hadn’t taken much more than a cross reference to the closest four desk calendars to prove him right. One, he could fake. Four sent me into a panic.
“Don’t worry about it,” he’d said. “The holidays are about being with friends and family, not about presents. I’ll help you forget about what happened.”
What happened.
Tom and Joyce Kenner had enjoyed a long marriage and a certain lifestyle thanks to his business. But Tom had risked that marriage on more than one occasion by having affairs on the side. Joyce pretended to look the other way as long as Tom made it up to her with jewelry, but this last time was too much. When she found out he had a dalliance with an employee from the mall, she threatened the kind of divorce that would leave him rubbing two pennies together trying to make a nickel.
So Tom did what he always did. He faked the paperwork on a valuable necklace to get it through customs. He canceled the order to the retailer, intending to declare the merchandise a loss and give it to Joyce instead. The value of the necklace was close to a million dollars, but to Tom it was worth the price of forgiveness.
But George, his newest sales rep, was eager to be successful. Unaware of the true value of the necklace, he convinced Cat to buy the canceled order for Catnip so his new employer would be out nothing.
Tom threatened George about the necklace. During his interrogation, Tom admitted to telling George to get that merchandise back or he’d never see his baby. He’d planned it all along: meet at Catnip after the holiday party, get the pearl necklace. But Shana burgled the store and I caught her in the act. Later, when the stolen pearls were discovered in Cat’s office, Tom knew that somebody else was on to him. He could no longer expect the police to link the burglary to the murder. He tracked the thefts to Shana and Aguilar and committed a second murder, hoping Shana’s confession would lead him to what he was really after. Aguilar would have made a better scapegoat, but one small detail kept Tom from killing Shana instead.
His affair had been with her.
Shana, unaware of the value of the missing necklace, had given Tom the only other necklace from Kenner & Winn left in the store: the one I’d put on hold. Tom used it to strangle Aguilar. If I had thought more about that and less about clothing karma, I might have realized Shana knew more than she’d admitted. The million dollar necklace that I’d destroyed inside the camping store had been dropped when Aguilar tried to hide the stolen jewelry in the ceiling of Cat’s office.
George, not willing to risk the life of Cat or his unborn child, faked the fight with Cat and told her he needed space. I liked to believe that he planned all along to reconcile with Cat when things blew over. Nobody saw murder coming—especially people who lived on the right side of the law.
As for Joyce’s rant when she attacked me? I had myself to blame. When I’d found her shopping for lingerie at Catnip and told her that Cat had gotten pregnant in April, it coincided with Tom’s latest discretion. Cat moved from the “pregnant lesbian” column to the “scheming other woman” one. In Joyce’s mind, destroying Cat’s life was simply payback for an affair Cat had never had.
The doorbell rang, but Cat was caught behind a throng of family members and neighbors. She signaled to me to answer it. When I opened the door, Jim and Lela stood outside. I invited them in. Jim helped Lela out of her chinchilla coat and I looked away, remembering what she’d worn (or not) the last time she’d removed it. Tonight, she was tastefully dressed in a red wrap dress. Even under the jersey, or in spite of it, I could tell the woman had a great body. Maybe that’s why she was comfortable parading around in her undies.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing you in one of her outfits,” a voice whispered in my ear.
“I don’t see what’s so special about a wrap dress,” I countered.
“I was talking about her other outfits.”
I turned around and faced Dante. “I don’t think I own an outfit like those.”
“Shame.” Dante handed me a flute of champagne. As I held the glass to my lips, I watched him take notice of the engagement ring on my left hand. “So that’s it,” he said.
I shrugged. “That’s it.”
“He’s a lucky guy
,” he said. He tapped his flute of champagne against mine and walked away.
I threaded my way through the crowd toward Nick. He stood by the tree, talking to Lela and Jim.
“What I don’t understand is how you came to think I had something to do with the murders,” Jim said.
It was Lela who answered him. “Honey, we have been acting a little suspicious. It wouldn’t take much for someone to think we were up to something. Consider it from their point of view.”
“And then we saw the pictures from my office,” Cat said.
“What pictures?” Jim asked. “Oh, no. You installed a camera in your office? How much did you see?”
“Let’s just say we saw a little more than a business meeting,” Cat said tactfully.
Lela turned beet red and slapped Jim’s arm playfully. “I told you it was icky,” she said.
Jim put his arm around her. “From now on, only your place or mine. Until we agree on a house that can become ours.” She turned her face away from him and he kissed her on the cheek.
“I’m sorry I suspected you,” I said. “Someone was going after my friend and I couldn’t let that happen.”
Jim smiled. “Maybe someday you’ll think of us as friends, too.”
“Remember, Jim, Samantha is a very good customer,” Cat said. “You might want to make sure ‘someday’ is sooner rather than later.”
I looked at Cat. “What does that mean?”
“Didn’t they tell you?” she said. She had a hand on her very pregnant belly. “I’m selling the store back to Jim and he and Lela are going to run it together. When we thought Lela was taking something from my office, that was Jim’s offer. He was afraid it would get lost so she took it and gave it to him and he gave it to you.”
“Are you okay with that?”
“That store was a part of my life for a while but it’s time to move on to something new.”
I leaned in close and whispered in her ear. “Full-time mom? Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” she said. “Now, come with me. I want you to open your present.”
“You didn’t have to get me a present.”
“Oh yes, I did. I hope you don’t think it’s weird.” She pointed to a flat box under the tree. I picked it up and shook it. The contents rattled. Cat giggled. I tore off the paper and opened the box. Inside was a suite of black pearl jewelry: earrings, bracelet, and necklaces. I slammed the box shut.
“Don’t worry, they’re knockoffs!” she said. “But they’re perfect with that dress. I couldn’t let you not accessorize because of me.”
I added the jewelry to my outfit and hugged her. Nick put his arm around me. The party pulsed with a level of merriment and joy that we all needed.
The party broke up hours later when the snowstorm started up again. Nick popped his head into the room to see if I was ready to go. He held my coat in his hands.
“Go ahead,” Cat said. “You’ve earned a Merry Christmas as much as anybody.”
“Are you going to be okay? There’s been a lot of change in your life in the past week. A week ago you said all men were rats.”
“Isn’t it wild how things turned out?” She put her hand on her throat and touched the pearls. “My husband didn’t leave me. You’re marrying Nick. And my brother is moving in to help when the baby comes.”
“Wild” didn’t begin to cover it.
EPILOGUE
Nick invited me to spend Christmas with him and his dad. After presents had been unwrapped and champagne had been drunk, he held out his hand. “I have one more present for you, but it’s in my bedroom.”
“Your dad is asleep in his recliner!”
“My dad knows about the present. He helped me get it ready.”
Curiosity took over.
“Trust me,” he said.
I followed him to his bedroom. A giant box, about six feet high and six feet wide, sat in the middle of the room wrapped in a mosaic of wrapping paper squares. A large tab dangled from the top of the box with lettering that read PULL HERE.
I pulled the tab and the box fell open like a drawbridge. Inside were stacks upon stacks of white boxes, all labeled with Nick’s signature logo. There were too many to count, but I hadn’t seen that many matching shoe boxes together since the day I’d stumbled upon Nick’s delivery truck in New York City eleven years ago.
“You were my muse. My inspiration. This whole collection was about you. I wanted you to be the first person to have it. That’s what kept me in Italy.”
I’d like to say that Nick got something special too, but he didn’t. He fell asleep long before I was done trying on shoes.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After close to two decades working for a top luxury retailer, Diane Vallere traded fashion accessories for accessories to murder. Diane started her own detective agency at age ten and has maintained a passion for shoes, clues, and clothes ever since. Sign up for her newsletter for contests, free stories, and more at www.dianevallere.com.
DEDICATION
To Coco
ALSO BY DIANE VALLERE
Samantha Kidd Mysteries
Designer Dirty Laundry
Buyer, Beware
The Brim Reaper
Some Like It Haute
Grand Theft Retro
Pearls Gone Wild
Madison Night Mad for Mod Mysteries
“Midnight Ice” Prequel Novella
Other People’s Baggage
Pillow Stalk
That Touch of Ink
With Vics You Get Eggroll
The Decorator Who Knew Too Much (April 2017)
Material Witness Mysteries
Suede to Rest
Crushed Velvet
Silk Stalkings
Costume Shop Mysteries
A Disguise To Die For
Masking for Trouble
Dressed to Confess (Aug 2017)
Table of Contents
EPILOGUE
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
TwentyOne
TwentyTwo
TwentyThree
TwentyFour
TwentyFive
TwentySix
TwentySeven
TwentyEight
TwentyNine
Thirty
ThirtyOne
ThirtyTwo
AboutTheAuthor
Pearls Gone Wild Page 17