by S. Y. Robins
“And I heard they think you did it,” Audrey wailed suddenly. Her face was in her hands, and she fumbled in her purse for a tissue.
“I…” Emmeline froze. She tried not to speak, but the words tumbled out of her mouth anyway, unbidden: “I’m so scared. I keep thinking everything I do looks guilty.”
“I know what you mean,” Audrey whispered. But her mouth clamped shut when Emmeline looked at her, and she dropped her eyes away.
“What do you mean?” Emmeline asked, almost coldly, before she could stop herself. Did the woman feel guilty because she’d cast suspicion on someone else?
“Nothing. I don’t know why I said it. I guess because we were both competitors and…” Audrey did not look up. But a few moments later, her voice came again, so soft that Emmeline almost didn’t hear it. “I feel so guilty.”
“What?” Emmeline, halfway out of her seat, dropped back down and fixed her eyes on Audrey.
“I voted for you! I voted for you because I thought you were so much nicer than him. I know people say I vote for myself, but I never do. I think other people’s quilts are nice, too, you know,” she added defensively. “But then I kept thinking, maybe if I hadn’t voted for you—then there wouldn’t have been that tie, and no one would have been talking about your face after you lost.”
“Who was talking about it?” Emmeline demanded, before she could stop herself. “Who said it was me?” There were tears in her eyes and she dashed them away angrily before realizing how guilty the questions made her sound.
“They don’t matter,” Audrey said fiercely. She looked up and met Emmeline’s eyes without flinching. “I know you didn’t do it. You’re not a murderer. They’re being crazy. You lost a craft competition, not…” She shook her head and looked away. “I don’t see how they could think you did it over that.”
“That’s what I thought when they showed up this morning,” Emmeline said. To her horror, her voice was quavering. She bit down on her lips and looked away. “I kept talking and talking and I can’t remember all of what I said. I wasn’t watching any of it because it never even occurred to me—and then—”
“I know you didn’t do it.” Audrey’s voice was fierce. “I know you didn’t. I believe you.”
Emmeline looked back and felt her face crumple at the kindness.
“Thank you so much.” She gave a laugh that was mostly sniffle. “I don’t suppose you’d go tell the police that. Give me an alibi or something.”
“I wish I could,” Audrey said, but she didn’t look up. “But I was home, remember?”
For a moment, all Emmeline could feel was blinding rage. Audrey was choosing her own story over Emmeline’s, when she could easily have said she was in the back hallway—and for all Emmeline knew, maybe Audrey had been there. She was just opening her mouth to say that Audrey had better go, when she caught sight of the woman’s face again. Audrey looked wretched, guilty and tortured and…
And for some reason, Emmeline wasn’t sure anymore what she thought.
“I know,” she said. “Lucky you had a headache, huh?”
“Not for Mr. Pike,” Audrey muttered.
Emmeline looked up sharply, but the woman’s face was utterly still all of a sudden.
“What?” Emmeline asked softly.
“I didn’t say anything.” Audrey smiled and picked up her purse. “Thanks for talking. Be safe.” She left so quickly Emmeline didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye, her untouched scone still sitting on its plate.
4
Emmeline closed the shop without sweeping the floor or wiping down the tables. She very nearly speeded on the way home, keeping her gauge hovering perfectly over the 35 while clenching the steering wheel so tightly she thought it might break. The last thing she needed was to get caught breaking a law right now, but she could hardly think for all the new information tumbling around in her head.
She had to tell someone. Like Nick. She admitted to herself, blushing a little, that when she’d heard Audrey’s voice say hello, Nick had been the first one she wanted to tell. You’ll never guess who came to the shop… And that last comment!
Emmeline knew, deep down, that Nick didn’t think she was guilty—but she’d felt about two inches high since he walked out of the kitchen to ask what was going on, and found her with the policemen. Even the bacon and pancakes had tasted like nothing after that, although she’d made all the proper yummy noises. She had to tell him this.
Luckily for her, he was even waiting on the porch when she arrived, sitting on the fake wicker furniture they never used, one leg jiggling with impatience.
“You’ll never guess what happened,” he burst out, as Emmeline came up the steps.
“I was going to say that to you.”
“Oh, did something happen at work?” Nick waved his hand. “Not important. Listen. I’ve totally cracked the case.”
“I thought you wrote really important literary stuff, not mysteries.” Emmeline grinned as Nick grabbed her hand and pulled her inside. “Okay, so what is it?” She was not thinking about how gorgeous his mouth was. Not at all. She was not thinking about standing up on tip toe to kiss him.
“Okay, so.” Nick drew her into the living room and looked out the windows. “I was grocery shopping and I heard two little old ladies talking. God bless little old ladies, they know everything about everyone and they love to gossip.”
“So?” His energy was infectious, and she’d already been twitchy. Emmeline was fairly bouncing on her feet. “Tell me!”
“Well…” He was clearly enjoying drawing this out. “You know how the policemen asked you about the prize money?”
“Yes?”
“Well, I know who could really have used it.” He looked enormously pleased with himself.
“Nick, tell!” She was laughing.
“It turns out the mayor and his wife are having money troubles,” Nick announced. “Or at least, one dear little old lady saw them go into the financial advisor’s office looking worried, and another dear little old lady saw them come out looking devastated. And—what?”
Emmeline was poking him in the arm.
“James Pike was a financial advisor!” She burst out. “He was their financial advisor! I think. Was that what you were going to say?”
“No, I was going to say that the little old ladies were talking crap about the Galloways’ car.” Nick’s eyebrows were about as far up as they would go. “Yours is much better. Really? I thought he was a professional sculptor.”
“No, apparently not. These little old ladies saw them on Tuesday, right?” When Nick nodded, Emmeline flailed her hands. “That’s when Audrey said she saw him! And she was pissed. He didn’t mention he was entering anything in the craft competition. She said—well, never mind what she said then, because she showed up at the tea shop today.”
“What? Really?”
“Yes! Just before I left, no one else there.” Emmeline drew him over to the couch and leaned in close, suddenly imagining Audrey lurking outside in the bushes, listening; the thought was enough to make her snort with laughter. “She looked terrible, like she hadn’t slept at all, like she was really upset. She kept saying she felt guilty, and talking about what it must have been like to be bludgeoned to death. She nearly threw up talking about the blood!”
“Holy—you’re kidding me.” Nick’s mouth was hanging open. “Really? Audrey?”
“Yes! And then, at the end, I swear, I said something about how it was lucky for her that she had a headache and she wasn’t there, and she said it wasn’t lucky for James Pike.”
“Maybe she thinks you did it,” Nick said slowly. “She thinks you killed the winner, and it would have been her if…no, that can’t be right, she wouldn’t have won anyway.”
“I’m telling you, she knows something.” Emmeline shook her head. “I really think…” But she did it froze on her lips. She looked up to see Nick watching her, frowning. “I don’t know! She was so weird the night of the competition. I met her an
d I just really didn’t like her, and then while everyone was looking around for a killer, I thought—well, who would no one suspect?”
“Wow.” Nick chewed on a fingernail. “You don’t like her, really? She always seemed really sweet to me.”
“She’s pretty,” Emmeline said in a quelling manner. “Might that have been it?”
He laughed.
“Anyway, it all fits—her saying she feels guilty, covering it up by saying she could have voted for me as a tiebreak, none of it makes sense unless it was her!”
“Maybe…” Nick shook his head. “But something doesn’t add up to me. I don’t think it was her.”
“Murderers can be pretty, you know,” Emmeline said, exasperated.
“I know, I just…” Nick looked around himself, then leaned in conspiratorially. “Let’s tail her.”
“What?”
“Let’s go wait outside her house. See if she goes anywhere.”
“Where would she go? It’s not like there’s a body to hide.”
“I don’t know what she’d do. But it’s worth checking, right? I mean, what were we going to do tonight, anyway? Sit at home, watch some TV.”
“Oh.” He must have forgotten about the wine and steak. Emmeline tried to smile. “Good point.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s go. Are you hungry?”
“We’ll stop somewhere for food. Maybe donuts! We’ll pretend to be cops.” Nick grabbed his keys and led her out to where his tiny, battered car was waiting.
“I thought you made a gazillion dollars on your last book,” Emmeline said, staring at it.
“I did, but it seems more writerly to have a tiny old beater. I feel like someone’s going to accuse me of being a big hack. The book wasn’t that good.”
“Apparently, several million people don’t agree with you.” But Emmeline grinned as she folded herself into the passenger seat. “It suits you.”
“Exactly.” He put it in gear and drove them through town, waving at people as he went. “Wave, Em. You have to make sure if the whole police thing gets in the news, people say, Her? Never!”
“Uh huh.” Emmeline looked out the window as they pulled up in front of the mayor’s mansion. “They live here? No wonder they’re having money troubles.”
The house was gigantic, two-story columns flanking the front door and what seemed like a mile of carefully manicured lawn between it and the street. Hydrangeas and chrysanthemums bloomed along the path to the front door, and the driveway was brick, with a pattern worked into it.
“Now,” Nick announced, “we wait.” He pulled the box of donuts out of the back seat. “Dinner?”
“Why, thank you.” Emmeline chose one dusted with cinnamon sugar and tried to eat carefully, licking her fingers clean. The coffee from the donut shop was, blessedly, nowhere near as strong as Nick’s. “I’ll be up all night with this coffee.”
“We may need to be. Who knows when the suspect will try to do something shady?” He grinned.
They sat as rush hour cleared around them and the sun began to set, its early departure a sign of oncoming winter. The golden leaves around them faded into shadow, and Nick put on the radio softly. A few times, it seemed to Emmeline that he was about to start talking, but he never did, and once or twice, she nearly got up the courage to say that she’d really been looking forward to dinner tonight, but she didn’t have quite enough courage for that.
It was around eight that a car came down the drive.
“Duck,” Nick whispered. He pulled out his phone pretending to study it, watching out of the corner of his eye, then shrugged. “You can sit up. That was the mayor. Maybe he’s going out for—duck!”
“What is it?” Emmeline nearly banged her head on the dashboard.
“Now she’s leaving. And the chase is on. Buckle up, Em.”
Emmeline’s heart was pounding as they tailed Audrey through the streets. She drove slowly, her lights off even in the fading light as if she did not want to be noticed, her path taking them out of town. Nick, meanwhile, stayed a good distance back, his lights also off, looking around himself as they drove.
“Where are we going?”
“There’s nothing this way but forest.” Emmeline felt the back of her neck prickle. “I don’t like this.”
“It’ll be okay.” Nick looked over at her. “If it’s too weird, we’ll just call the police and go, okay?”
“Are we…are we actually doing this?” For some reason, as Emmeline met his eyes, she felt a rush of courage. “I can’t believe this.”
“Neither can I,” he admitted with a grin. “I normally sit on the couch and watch other people do stuff like trail criminals around, while I wear sweatpants. I…kind of like this. Wait.” His voice changed. “She’s pulling off the road. Do you want to follow?”
“Yes,” Emmeline whispered.
But when they came around the corner, they saw Audrey’s beaten up old truck blocking the path. She was standing in the road, holding a gun.
“Holy crap.” Nick lifted his hands off the steering wheel.
“Can we—” Emmeline could hardly breathe.
“Get out of the car!” Audrey’s voice was wild.
With a look at each other, they complied.
“Did Marvin…” But then the woman dropped the gun, a frown creasing her face in the dim light. “Emmeline?”
“Uh. Hi.” Emmeline looked at Nick, who shrugged.
“Marvin…Marvin didn’t send you, did he?” Audrey’s voice was shaking.
“No. Why would you think he would?”
To her surprise, Audrey broke down in tears, the gun dropping out of her hands to the ground. She bent over, one hand muffling her sobs.
“I thought…I thought…I thought he was going to kill me.”
“Why would you think that?” Emmeline picked her way over the dirt road. “What’s going on?”
Audrey looked up, her face tear-streaked.
“He killed James. And I’m afraid once he knows I know, he’ll come for me, too.”
5
“Wait.” Emmeline stopped, confused. “You didn’t know something was wrong that night at the competition?”
“No.” Audrey sniffed and bent to pick up the gun. “I don’t even know if this thing’s loaded. Wait, why are you out here?” Her forehead creased.
“Er…” Nick looked deeply ashamed of himself.
“We were following you,” Emmeline admitted.
“Why me?”
“You were all weird that night at the competition, saying you didn’t like James, then you came into the shop today looking so upset, and you said that thing about if you hadn’t had a headache…”
“If I hadn’t had a headache, Marvin might not have had a chance to be alone with James!” Audrey burst out. She took a deep breath. “And if you must know, I’m…I’m just really shy. I hate all of those events Marvin goes to. I don’t know how to dress up or mingle or anything. I go to the craft competition every year because I love making quilts—and then this year I heard people talking about how I only won because I was Marvin’s wife. It was just all too much.”
She was telling the truth, Emmeline didn’t need any special tricks to see it. Everything was falling into place, and she felt awful for her suspicions. Now that she replayed her encounters with Audrey in her mind, she could remember the woman looking longingly toward the exits. The almost ostentatious lack of jewelry hadn’t been some affectation at being classy or elegant—she just hadn’t known how to dress up beyond putting an evening gown on.
“Why are you sure Marvin did it?” Nick asked softly, and Audrey looked over at him, biting her lip.
“James was our financial advisor. I’ve known something was wrong for a while. I don’t work, so I’m not looking in our accounts very often, but once or twice my card got declined. Marvin would always say it was the bank’s fault, but I thought…I knew something was wrong. So this time, when he went to see James, I insisted on going with him. I had no idea how bad i
t was. He had James tell me something and it was so clearly a lie, and then he sent me outside—but I listened through the door, and I heard everything. He wanted a loan, another loan, and James was saying he couldn’t get it for him.
“And then when he came home after the craft competition…” Her voice quavered. “He looked like he didn’t know whether to be glad or guilty. He looked so satisfied, but also scared. He didn’t even tell me what had happened. When I found out and asked him, he said he hadn’t wanted to worry me—and I knew he was lying, and it all just fell into place. He said everything was fine, and then when I heard people saying you’d done it, I knew he must have told the cops something.” She looked over at Emmeline, her face screwed up. “That’s when I went to see you. I thought…I thought you’d help. I never thought you’d think I had done it.”
“I’m so sorry.” Emmeline shook her head. “I should never have suspected you.”
“I see why you did. It’s just…” Audrey shook her head, then looked over her shoulder. “And now we’ve lost him. He was going to meet someone.”
“If you pull your truck off the road, we can take mine. Maybe sneak up on him.” Nick looked determined. “There’s no way I’m letting him get away with framing Em.”
“Agreed,” Audrey said with a decisive nod. She got into the truck and pulled it off the road, then piled into the back of Nick’s tiny sedan. “There’s a place up about a mile from here, really secluded, by the river. Marvin used to play there when he was a kid. I’ll bet he’s meeting whoever it is there.”
“We may have missed the meeting by now,” Nick said as he pulled onto the road.
“I don’t think so. Marvin’s compulsively early. He’ll be there twenty minutes before whoever he’s meeting. We’ll have to be really careful, though. He knows those woods better than anyone, and I’ll bet he’s watching the road.” Her voice dropped. “He knew I suspected something.”