Wedding Day of Murder

by Vanessa Gray Bartal

  “You didn’t want Carl Whethers to tell Lacy about the plan before you could finish it,” Jason said. With every word, he eased imperceptibly closer. Unfortunately, Andy also eased backwards away from him.

  “Of course not,” Andy said. “I want to complete what I started all those years ago; it’s all I’ve ever wanted, besides Kimber. If it makes you feel better, Lacy, I’m okay with letting her name our first girl after you. Knowing her, she’ll probably want to.”

  “Did you take Lacy from her house and the hospital?” Jason asked. He tried to ease closer, but Andy pressed the knife farther into Lacy’s flesh. Jason paused. Andy answered.

  “It seemed like the best way. I could have pushed her and everyone would have thought it was an accident from the medication. But every time I hid her, Kimber kept dragging me to search for her. Relationships are hard sometimes.”

  A little girl rode up on a scooter and stopped beside Jason, observing them as if they were a show. “Andy, look at her. You don’t want to do this in front of her,” Lacy said.

  “I wasn’t planning to,” Andy said. “We’re going to go upstairs, and I’m going to drop you from the window. Then it will all be over, and I can finally breathe easy again. I’ve had a lot of insomnia over this thing. It’ll be nice to sleep.”

  “Kimber’s up there,” Jason said. “She’s going to see, she’s going to know. Are you going to make her watch her best friend die?”

  “Kimber’s on the roof?” he said.

  “No, she’s on the fourth floor,” Lacy blurted. “Oh. Sorry,” she added to Jason who gave her a look that was probably as murderous as the one Andy was wearing.

  “Well, there you go then,” Andy said. “We’ll go up to the roof and get this over with.”

  “Get what over with?” the little girl said. “What are you doing?”

  “Go away,” Jason said, but the girl ignored him. If the look on her face was any indication, this was the best entertainment she’d ever had. Lacy decided to go with that.

  “We’re putting on a play. The clown is pretending to be bad, and that man is pretending to be a police officer,” Lacy said.

  “Oh,” the little girl said. “Are you pretending you’re going to trip over those signs?”

  As she said it, Lacy tripped over the signs the protesters had left on the sidewalk. Andy dropped the knife. Jason leapt. The three of them became tangled together and began to roll. Jason couldn’t land a punch as long as Lacy was in his way, but the harder she tried to get away from him, the more tangled she became.

  “Jason, I really love you,” Lacy called out.

  “Can we talk about this later?” he yelled.

  Beside them, the little girl laughed and clapped. Lacy latched onto a patch of grass and clawed her way to freedom, herding the little girl out of the way as she moved. Jason punched Andy across the jaw. The little girl screamed.

  “It’s okay, it’s part of the play,” Lacy panted.

  “Is the clown supposed to get away?” the girl asked. Sure enough, Lacy turned to see Andy hop to his feet and sprint away. Jason rolled onto his feet and gave chase, but Andy had a head start. Lacy took off her shoes and loped after them.

  “You stay here,” she called to the little girl.

  “No way, I want to see how it ends.” She hopped on her scooter and began to glide beside Lacy as she ran. After a few strides, she got off the scooter and walked it to keep pace with Lacy.

  “Do you want to use my scooter?” she offered.

  “No, thank you,” Lacy panted.

  “You’re really bad at running,” the girl volunteered.

  “I’m barefoot,” Lacy said.

  “No, I don’t mean just today. I’ve seen you before. You’re that lady who passed out in the park.”

  “I did not pass out,” Lacy said.

  “That’s not what the ambulance driver said. He said he’d never seen someone go through a tank of oxygen so fast,” she said. “What are ‘the bends’?”

  “Why?” Lacy gasped.

  “He said he thought you had them. I can’t catch them from you, can I? My mom wouldn’t like that.”

  “You should go home now,” Lacy said.

  “No, it’s okay. I’ll make sure you get wherever you’re going.”

  When they finally caught up with Jason and Andy, it was all over. Andy was cuffed and in a patrol car. Jason was stain-treating the blood and clown makeup off his shirt. “Hey, there you are,” he said. “What took you so long?”

  “I ran,” Lacy said, propping herself on the little girl’s scooter.

  “Ah. Do you think clown makeup is a protein? Because I use different solutions for proteins and non-proteins,” Jason said.

  “Hey, he’s a real police officer,” the girl said. “Does that mean that guy is a real clown?”

  “I’m a police officer,” Jason answered. “And he’s a real bad guy who is never going to hurt anyone again. He’s not a clown, though. Don’t believe everything you see and hear. And go home.” He made a shooing motion. The girl hopped on her scooter and began gliding dejectedly away.

  “You have a way with children,” Lacy said.

  “Yes, and I bet I make beautiful babies,” he said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she said, trying hard to simultaneously breathe and calm the flutters such a statement created.

  “Nothing. Something I heard once,” he said.

  “And that’s all you’re going to say about that?” she asked.

  “For now.” He leaned forward to kiss her, but she held him off.

  “I wasn’t just saying it before because it was a life and death situation. I love you. I’m sorry it took me so long to say it.”

  “Lacy, it’s okay. You don’t have to be on my timeline. Feelings are hard for you sometimes. I get it. Besides, I already knew how you felt; I knew you loved me.”

  “You did?” she said.

  “Yes, I’m kind of a catch.”

  “You really are,” she said. “Humble, too.”

  “Humility is my best quality,” he said.

  “I thought it was stain removal,” she said.

  “That’s not a quality; that’s a survival skill,” he said.

  “It’s good to know you could survive on the street if your washer ever breaks down,” she said.

  “You know it,” he said. He leaned in for a kiss. Her phone rang, distracting them.

  Darth Vader’s picture came up. “It’s my mom,” she said. Reluctantly, she answered. “Hi, Mom.”

  “Lacy, where are you? I cannot believe you walked out on this party. Do you have any idea how bad this looks? Your sister is getting married in two days. Do you have any idea the amount of pressure she’s under? These are her in-laws. This is your party, and you are nowhere to be found. I’ve made all the excuses I can make for you, young lady. You have exactly fifteen seconds to…”

  Jason took the phone and turned it off.

  “You’re alienating me from my family,” Lacy said. “Thank you.”

  “Any time,” Jason said. “Now, where were we? Oh, I remember.” He leaned in and kissed her. “I need you to fill out a report.”

  “Déjà vu all over again,” Lacy said. She took a report, sat under a tree, and started to write.

  Epilogue

  Despite the unsettling events leading up to the big day, Riley’s wedding was set to go off without a hitch. The morning was bright and beautiful with only a slight crispness in the air. Lacy’s dad and Tosh’s parents both made it in time not only for the wedding, but for the rehearsal as well. At the rehearsal, everyone got along like one big happy family.

  For Lacy, the only damper on her day was finding out that one of her oldest friends had been plotting to kill her for several years. As sad as she was about it, it was nothing compared to the devastation that Kimber felt.

  “We used to joke about being mentally ill from our lousy childhoods,” she said when she was finally able to talk about it. “I h
ad no idea he actually meant it.” Someday Kimber would get over the hurt. Being able to open up to someone and love again would probably take longer. Since she was one of Riley’s bridesmaids, she put on a brave face and attended the wedding.

  Before the wedding, all the women were gathered in the room beside the narthex to get ready. Mostly this meant that Lacy’s mom gave everyone orders about how they could best serve Riley and help her get ready. So far Riley hadn’t thrown up, and if one didn’t know she was pregnant, then it would be hard to tell. There was a knock on the door. Lacy answered.

  “Jason,” she said, smiling. After working hours and hours of overtime the last couple of days to finish the paperwork for his case, he had taken the entire day off to devote to her.

  “I brought you something,” he said. He handed her a small bracelet-sized box, robin’s egg blue with a Tiffany’s logo. She opened it and gasped.

  “A cronut!”

  “I had it sent overnight express from Manhattan,” he said.

  “That is so sweet, but you didn’t have to.”

  “I thought you might be a tiny bit secretly sad today. It’s not everyday a girl’s pregnant little sister gets married,” he said.

  “Lacy, don’t eat that, you’re going to spill on your dress,” Frannie called from inside the room, but it was too late. As soon as Lacy bit into the confection, the filling oozed out and plopped onto her dress. She looked up at Jason, horrified. He pushed her back into the room and closed the door.

  “I can fix this,” he said. “Take off your dress.”

  “Is this a ploy?” she asked.

  He set his hands on her shoulders. “Lacy, I’ve never understood why God made me the way He did, but now I recognize that it’s all been leading up to this moment. I can fix this. Let me do it.” He turned her around and unzipped her dress, whipping it over her head before she could protest. He went to the corner, pulled out his stain removal kit, and set to work.

  “I don’t even think he realizes you’re in your underwear,” Riley said. She, Kimber, Frannie, and Lucinda were watching him in fascination.

  “I realize,” Jason said dryly. “And so does Mr. Middleton.”

  There was another knock on the door. “Everything okay in there?” Mr. Middleton called.

  The women turned to Lucinda. “It’s fine, dear. Go to the sanctuary; we’ll be there in a bit,” she said. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” she added in a whisper.

  Lacy sat and used the bag from Riley’s wedding dress to awkwardly cover herself. She ate the rest of her cronut in guilty silence. As the women watched Jason work, Kimber and Riley took bets on how soon he would finish. Frannie hurried him along without success.

  “It’s almost time for the music,” she said more than once. Jason tuned her out and focused all his energy on the dress. At last it was done. He held it up for their inspection.

  “I think it looks better than before,” Lucinda said. The others agreed and gave him a spontaneous round of applause. He helped Lacy put it back on and zipped her up. The music started and everyone began to file out of the room.

  “There’s still a little problem with your dress,” Jason whispered to Lacy when no one was listening.

  “What?” she asked. Had she spilled more cronut than she realized?

  “You look better in it than the bride,” he said. He pinched her and made his way to the sanctuary. She watched him with a goofy grin that soon faded when she caught sight of Kimber’s bleak expression. How could she be happy when her friend was so sad?

  The rest of the wedding went perfectly, and then it was time for the reception. Because Frannie had planned it, it was a splendid affair at the Country Club.

  “I’m not sure what half of this food is,” Jason said as their servers arrived with plates.

  “That’s how you know we’re better than all the people who didn’t have a reception at the Country Club,” Lacy said.

  “I had no idea your parents were members,” he said.

  “They’re not. Mom made Dad call in a favor to some guy they knew in high school,” Lacy said.

  “Is this your idea of a good time?” he asked. “A fancy party at the Country Club?” He stabbed at the mystery meat on his plate.

  “I’ve always wanted to have something outdoors, something casual, with cupcakes and lots of dancing.”

  “That sounds better,” he said.

  “Speaking of dancing,” she said. “Are we going to burn up the dance floor?” She was joking because she wasn’t a very good dancer. He was much better, but then he was better at everything that required movement or coordination.

  “Definitely,” he said, and he sounded serious. Later, after Riley and Tosh had their first dance with each other and their parents, he proved that he was serious.

  “Come on,” he said, leading her onto the floor. After a few songs, Michael cut in. Jason handed her off with a surprising lack of jealousy.

  Maybe I’m growing, he thought as he watched Lacy and Michael twirl and laugh together. He didn’t feel any of the usual twinges that made him want to hide Lacy away from the prying eyes of other men. She was his, but he was hers, and there was no need to have further doubts about that. And maybe it wasn’t so bad to have Michael watching out for her when she was at work. It was a fulltime job and a half; having backup might be okay.

  Despite his best efforts, his mind strayed to work. He hadn’t been able to see what was on Carl Whether’s computer. Detective Arroyo had snatched it up and secreted it away, causing Jason to wonder what incriminating information might be on it. Was it possible that the detective and mayor had hired Carl to write a scathing article about Lacy and bring the protesters? Instead of plotting to frame Lacy, had they been anxious that Jason would find information connecting them to the victim? He would never know for sure. Before he could discipline his mind away from work, his phone rang.

  He answered without looking. “Detective Jason Cantor,” the other person said, and Jason’s heart sank. Not work, not today when he had promised Lacy.

  “Yes,” he said, trying to convey with that one word how much he didn’t want to be on the phone.

  “This is Sergeant Shane Anderson of the Krugen, Minnesota police department. Someone from your office contacted us a few days ago about a Michael O’Donnell,”

  “Yes,” Jason said. The feeling of dread grew worse. He didn’t like where this was going.

  “Is he still in your jurisdiction?”

  Jason looked at Michael. He considered lying, but in the end he couldn’t do it. The law was the law. “Yes.”

  “That’s very good to know,” Detective Anderson said. “We had been keeping tabs on him, but we lost him a few months ago. I may be in contact with you very soon, Detective. I think you and I could have a productive chat about our Mr. O’Donnell.”

  The conversation ended, and Jason put his phone away. Michael returned Lacy and handed her off with a flourish. “All yours again and good as new, mate,” he said.

  Jason whisked her back onto the dance floor without comment. “Did I see you on the phone?” Lacy asked. The apprehension in her tone told him she thought he was being called into work.

  “Yes, but it wasn’t work.”

  “What was it?” she asked.

  She looked up at him, so trusting, so sweet. Someday he would have to tell her the truth about everything. But not today. “It was nothing,” he said. “They’re cutting the cake. You can have my piece.”

  “I knew there was a reason I loved you,” she said.

  Hold on to that sentiment; you might need it, he thought as he led her off the dance floor and toward cake.

 

 

 
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