by Laura Durham
“I know,” I said, pushing back the emotion that threatened to overflow into tears. “Do you mind if I untie her?”
Veronica laconically raised one shoulder, and I bent down and began unwinding the ropes around Kate’s wrists. Her forehead was sweaty, and strands of blond hair stuck to the sides of her face, but otherwise her bob was still bouncy and her eye makeup still flawless. If I wasn’t so happy to see her, I’d have to hate her.
“Did you know?” I whispered.
“Not for sure until just now.” Kate rubbed her wrists when I’d freed them. “The joyriding in costumes and masks was weird, but I thought the bride needed to blow off some steam. I tried to text you where we were going, but I must have dropped my phone. I did think Veronica was acting pretty calm throughout the entire ordeal considering what a high-maintenance pain in the neck she’d been during the planning. What’s this about a nerve agent?”
I hoisted her to a standing position and put an arm around her waist. “I’ll tell you later.”
“So your dad goes to jail, and I go home and, what?” the groom asked. “You become the new CEO and ride off into the spoiled-little-rich-girl sunset?”
Veronica’s nostrils flared. “Don’t be difficult, Tad. You’ve had a nice run of it. Let’s not ruin it now.”
“Ruin it now?” he yelled. “You faked your own kidnapping, and now you’re dumping me on our wedding day. How am I the one ruining it?”
“He makes an excellent point,” Fern said.
Cara rolled her eyes and fired a shot at Tad. “I hate lovers’ spats.”
Fern screamed as Tad clutched the top of his arm where red had begun to seep through his shirt. The groom glanced down at the blood and began to sway in place. Before he hit the floor, Kate ran over and caught him under one arm, and Fern took him by the other, and they lowered him to the floor.
“You shot him?” Veronica and I said at the same time.
“You didn’t want to?” Cara asked her cousin. “Come on. We talked about this. You can do better than him.”
Veronica stared down at her former fiancé as Kate pressed both hands to his wound and blood stained the gray paving stones beneath him.
“He’s not dead.” Cara let out an exasperated breath. “I haven’t killed anyone.”
“Yet,” I said, and her eyes flicked to me. “You must have thought about what happens next, right? I mean, you’re the brains behind this, am I right?”
Cara pressed her lips together, but Veronica fluttered a hand at me. “No one needs to get hurt. There’s plenty of money to go around now that my father is out of the picture and I’m in charge.”
“You think you’re going to pay us off?” I asked. “All of us?”
“How much were you thinking?” Fern asked, looking up from the floor.
I shot him a look.
“What?” He looked abashed. “It never hurts to ask.”
“Listen to your friend.” Cara waved her gun in Fern’s direction. “That is, unless wedding planners make a lot more than I think they do.”
I’d never admit that wedding planning wasn’t always the most lucrative business considering the number of hours we had to put in to pull off big weddings. And we couldn’t exactly charge clients more for being high-maintenance, although I often wished we could have a list of surcharges for things like calling more than twice a day, sending over a hundred emails a week all about lipstick colors, or texting me after midnight.
“I’m sure Annabelle and her friends will see reason.” Veronica winked at me. “After all, my mother did pay them all a pretty penny to plan my wedding.”
I felt a surge of irritation that Veronica thought I would help her cover up a crime just because I was her wedding planner. This definitely did not fall under my job description.
“Of course she did,” Cara said. “You are the princess, after all.”
Veronica’s cheeks became mottled red. “What does that mean?”
As the two women bickered, I heard Kate’s voice.
“Annabelle, I think he’s losing a lot of blood.”
I could smell the metallic tang and tried not to focus on the bright red covering her hands. We had to get Tad out of here and to the hospital. This wedding day may have been a disaster and would be my first without an actual wedding ceremony, but I was not going to let the groom bleed out in the barn. I slipped my hand into my dress pocket as subtly as I could and tried to dial 9-1-1 without seeing the screen.
I heard the sound of tires on gravel and stopped tapping on my phone. All our heads swiveled toward the open barn doors as one of the black-clad security guards entered with his gun drawn.
I let out a breath. “Thank heavens. I was beginning to wonder what you guys were here for.”
The guy was young with brown hair cut short and sunglasses he now pushed onto the top of his head. His eyes scanned the group, dipping to the groom splayed out on the ground, and landing on Cara. He lowered his gun. “You said no one would get hurt.”
It took me a moment to process what happened. “Hold on,” I said. “You’re with her? You’re part of this?”
Cara sauntered over to the guard and flung an arm around him, her gun still pointed in our general direction. “I’ve been spending a lot of time at the house and so has Mason. One thing led to another.”
He tucked his gun behind him in the waistband of his pants. “You said this was just to teach your father a lesson.”
“It is, baby,” Cara cooed at him. “This was an accident.”
Fern rolled his eyes. “Please tell me all straight men are not this gullible.”
“This explains why the security team didn’t see anything and why the barn was never checked,” I said, more to myself than to anyone else.
“We need to get out of here,” the guard said to Cara. “The house is crawling with cops and Homeland Security. I have my SUV waiting at the far end of the property line like you said. We can be there in five minutes in the golf cart.”
Cara grinned. “And my father?”
“Dragged off in handcuffs.”
Veronica flinched and a look of regret crossed her face. “I should go tell the rest of my family I’m okay.”
“Hands up.” Daniel’s booming voice caused everyone in the barn to freeze as he and his brother rushed in with guns drawn.
We all lifted our arms except for Kate, who kept her hands pressed to the groom’s gunshot wound. Cara dropped her gun, and Daniel lifted Mason’s out of his pants before he could reach for it. He kicked both off to the side, ordering the couple to put their hands on their heads. Mike spun Veronica around and began to cuff her.
“What are you doing?” She tried to shake his hands off. “I’m one of the victims.”
“Nice try, princess,” he said. “I heard everything.”
“And I recorded it.” Fern produced his phone from the pocket of his black pants.
Richard hurried into the center aisle of the barn, his eyes going to the groom and his usually tan face paling. “Are we too late?”
Hermes ran over and sniffed around the groom’s head before giving him a quick lick and settling himself beside Kate.
“When did Hermes get here?” Kate asked.
“It’s a bit complicated,” I said, “but basically Leatrice is here dressed as a jester and may or may not be romantically involved with Sidney Allen.”
Kate shook her head. “How long have I been in this barn?”
Veronica started to cry as Daniel led her and her cousin outside. Through the open barn doors, I could hear sirens in the distance getting closer.
Mike came to stand beside me, his eyes going to the groom. “I called an ambulance. They should be here in a few minutes.” He put a hand to my waist. “Are you okay?”
“Kate’s okay. I’m okay. I take it you got my texts?”
The corners of his mouth twitched up. “Actually, Richard found me and told me everything.”
“He found you?” I asked, watching my best fri
end kneel next to Kate and give her a one-armed hug.
“Actually, he almost mowed me down in that golf cart, but yeah, he found me and told me and my brother we had to come with him immediately—no questions asked.” Reese rubbed a hand over his forehead. “Riding with him down here while he steered with one hand and held his dog with the other might have been the scariest two minutes of my life. He filled us in on everything so rapidly he might want to consider moonlighting as an auctioneer.”
I put a hand to my mouth to keep from laughing and crying at the same time. “That sounds like Richard.” I craned myself to look out the barn doors. “How did we not hear the golf cart drive up?”
“We off-roaded on the grass for the last half of the ride and parked a decent distance away.”
“Good thinking,” I said.
Reese flicked his eyes to Richard. “You should thank Mario Andretti.”
Richard stood up and joined us. “Nice work, Detective.”
Mike held out his hand. “You too. This never would have happened without your quick thinking and even quicker driving.”
Richard cleared his throat and shook my boyfriend’s hand as patches of pink appeared on his cheeks.
Maybe this day wasn’t a total loss after all.
Chapter 31
“Are you sure about this?” I asked Alexandra as she wheeled the wedding cake to the center of the dinner tent dance floor and Hermes trotted along behind her.
I had to raise my voice over the clattering and clunking of the band packing up and the waiters clearing the tables of all china and crystal. The tall floral arrangements had been removed and lined up to one side of the tent, and one of Buster and Mack’s white delivery vans had backed up with its milk truck back doors open so their setup team could load them inside to be delivered to local retirement homes. Cardboard boxes had been filled with Venetian masks wrapped in bubble wrap and were now stacked on the edge of the dance floor where men on tall ladders stood pulling down the fabric draping the inside of the tent ceiling.
“It’s the only food that hasn’t been tainted,” she said, holding up the silver cake knife the bride and groom would have used to cut their ceremonial first slice. “And I, for one, am starving.”
“More bubbly anyone?” Fern asked, holding up the bottle he hadn’t needed to use down at the barn before topping off his own glass.
“You don’t all have to stay,” I said for at least the tenth time as I leaned my elbows against the bare plywood of a table that had been stripped of its tablecloth. Part of the Wedding Belles service was to stay until the end of break-down, and after such a long and emotionally draining day, I was rethinking that part of our contract. I wondered how strange it would be to add a clause about weddings being canceled by criminal activity or the bride being hauled off to jail.
“So you’ve said.” Fern winked from across the table where he sat in a gold ladder-backed chair next to Leatrice.
“I’m here for the cake,” Sidney Allen said while making googly eyes at Leatrice.
His performers had all packed up the moment they’d heard the wedding was off and had left as soon as they’d given their statements to the police. I’d hoped Sidney Allen would join them in the mass exodus, but he and Leatrice now seemed to be attached at the hip, although his pants were hiked up much higher than that, and her hips were still bedecked with bells.
Kate nudged me as she looked at Leatrice and Sidney Allen whispering and giggling. “Am I losing my mind, or did Leatrice snag herself a boyfriend faster than even I could?”
“Let’s not use the term ‘boyfriend,’” I said. I was hoping this was a passing infatuation. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of being charmed by Sidney Allen, but I had to admit he was more palatable when he wasn’t screaming into his headset and running around flapping his arms about his creative vision.
“I don’t know.” Kate tilted her head as she watched Sidney hitch his pants almost to his armpits and slip an arm around Leatrice. “They’re kind of cute together.”
“Did you hit your head?” I asked her. “Should we have you tested for a concussion?”
She smiled at me and took a sip of her champagne. “Today gave me a new appreciation for the small things in life.”
Richard leaned over me from his seat on the other side of me. “Sidney Allen and Leatrice definitely qualify as small things.” He dropped his voice even lower. “Pretty soon he’s going to be a head resting on top of his pants.”
I swatted at him. “Be nice.”
“When am I not nice?” Richard asked, feigning an expression of being deeply wounded as Hermes leapt into his lap. “Do not answer,” he said as Kate and I both opened our mouths.
I patted him on the leg and rubbed his dog’s head. “I’m actually proud of how well you’re handling this. You had to throw out all the food you’d prepared for the wedding, and you didn’t swoon once.”
“Swoon?” Richard wrinkled his nose at me. “Honestly, Annabelle. As if I swoon.”
Off the top of my head, I could think of multiple occasions where Richard had fainted from the stress of an event or murder investigation. I decided not to argue with him since he’d been the one to call in the cavalry for us today, and he was handling everything remarkably well.
“It helps that we were paid in advance,” Mack said as he walked up with Buster behind him. “None of us would be nearly so calm if we were out of pocket for all of this.”
“So true.” Fern hiccupped. “Although I’m guessing we won’t get tipped today.”
Since the father of the bride had been taken in for questioning by Homeland Security; the bride and her cousin had been arrested for multiple counts of kidnapping, obstructing an investigation, and attempted murder; and the bride’s former fiancé was in surgery to remove a bullet from his shoulder, it felt safe to say that tipping was the last thing on the mother of the bride’s mind. I’d been a bit surprised she hadn’t fallen to pieces when she’d seen her daughter in handcuffs like Aunt Connie had when she’d seen Cara. Mrs. Hamilton had become deathly calm when she learned her daughter had been involved in staging her own kidnapping to ruin her father, declining to follow her to the police station and instead going with the bride’s brother to the hospital to check on Sherry and the groom.
“The really wealthy ones never tip well,” Kate said. “And sometimes clients tip every single person except the planners, when we’re the ones who found all the vendors for them and made it possible for the rest of the team to do such a good job.”
“Cake bakers never get tipped at all.” Alexandra put a pair of cake plates with slices of wedding cake on them in the middle of the table.
“Because you aren’t usually here at the bitter end,” I said.
“Maybe I should become a cake designer,” Richard said, passing a cake plate to Kate before giving one to me. “You get to drop off the cake and go home. No late nights. No on-site drama.”
“Who are you kidding?” I said. “You love all the excitement of a wedding day. You’d go out of your mind if you had to stay at home and wonder if they liked your cake or not.”
Richard tapped his fingers against the rough wood of the table. “I never thought about that. Never mind.”
I took a bite of the pale-pink cake layered with a dark-pink filling. I’d forgotten the flavors the couple had chosen since we’d booked the cake so long ago, but as soon as I bit in, I recognized the pink champagne cake topped with raspberry mousse. The cake was a moist genoise and the tartness of the fluffy mousse balanced its sweetness.
“Forget food,” Fern said as he tasted the cake. “This is all I need in life. Cake and champagne.”
“There’s champagne in the cake,” Alexandra told him as she cut more pieces.
Fern rolled his eyes into the back of his head as he chewed. “Even better.”
“How are things in the house?” I asked Buster and Mack since they’d come from inside.
“Deserted.” Buster pulled a cha
ir over to our table and it groaned as he sat on it. “The family is either at the police station or the hospital, and it looks like the cops are almost done taking statements in the kitchen.”
We’d all given our statements first since we were directly involved in the case, Kate’s testimony being the most damning to Cara since she was the one witness to how the cousins/sisters colluded.
“So the gummy bear I found on the floor really wasn’t a clue?” I asked.
“Sorry. I must have dropped it by accident. Same with my phone. I think it fell out of my dress pocket when I pulled that costume over my head.”
“That explains the white feather I found outside the front door,” I said. “Veronica must have intentionally kicked her phone under the bed before you three left. That way we couldn’t track her.”
“I should have thought it was odd to wear costumes to ride down to the barn for a smoke break, but the bride seemed so freaked out about getting married and kept saying she wanted to do something wild.” Kate wiped her mouth with a black paper napkin with “Veronica and Tad” stamped on it in gold ink. “She was desperate to sneak a cigarette but said her mother would freak out if she caught her. Apparently Veronica smokes in the barn pretty regularly.”
“And her mother has no idea?” I asked. “Is there anything this family tells the truth about?”
“Doubtful.” Richard produced a dog treat from inside his jacket pocket and gave it to an eager Hermes. “Mark my words. The rot comes from the top.”
I tended to agree with him. The parents had set the example of deception from the beginning, and it had filtered down throughout the family.
“So who drove the golf cart?” I asked
“Cara. I rode in the back. I planned on texting you on the way, but I realized I’d dropped my phone. By the time my Spidey sense was really tingling, we were inside the barn and Cara had a gun on us. Veronica played along with it up until the end though. I wish now she hadn’t. I had to hear her whine all day about her ruined wedding when she was behind it the whole time.”