“My Lacie,” she said over and over. “My Lacie.”
Once the ceremony was over, Kat felt like she’d been in some kind of a trance. She and Mitzi were wiping their eyes and laughing at each other. Then they looked around the auditorium. They weren’t the only ones crying and hugging. Everyone looked so proud of the graduates they were there to support. Grandparents, children, young and old, were united in mutual joy at their loved ones’ success.
Blaine put his arm around Kat’s shoulders. “How’s my little fountain?” he said teasingly.
“Oh, you,” Kat said with a tearful smile, looking up at him.
Mitzi let out a half-laugh, half-sob as she got her compact mirror out of her purse. “Waterproof eye makeup was a wonderful invention.” She dabbed at the bottom of her eyes with a tissue.
“She learned that on one of our early dates,” Rex said with a grin, leaning over. “I took her to the movie theater to see some sad movie or other. She went in looking like Marilyn Monroe…”
“And I came out looking like Marilyn Manson,” Mitzi said with a giggle. “And Rex was too embarrassed and polite to say anything to me about it.”
“The relationship was too young and tentative,” he interjected.
“So he let me walk all the way down the street and into a fancy restaurant looking like that, with these big old black marks halfway down my cheeks.”
“You didn’t, Rex,” Kat said with a laugh.
Mitzi nodded. “He did. I got one heck of a fright when I excused myself from the table to look in the bathroom mirror!”
“And I was so embarrassed when she came back and confronted me about it that all I could do was stammer into my wine glass,” Rex said, “which I then knocked over, spilling red wine all over the fancy white tablecloth.”
Tyler groaned. “This sounds like the date from hell.”
“You bet it was,” Mitzi said. “And, like Rex said, it was red wine, and he got a little patch of it on my dress when it spilled.”
Kat laughed. “So… how did you two end up getting married?”
Mitzi and Rex looked at each other and grinned conspiratorially.
“Oh, he’s okay, really,” she said playfully. “A total klutz, but we all have our shortcoming, except me, of course.”
“Well, we won’t let him anywhere near the mimosas this afternoon,” Blaine said, getting up. “We’d better get going.”
“Yes, let’s,” Kat said.
They met Lacie in the parking lot. She hugged Tyler first, which stung Kat a tiny little bit, in spite of herself. But she reminded herself Lacie was a grown woman now, and it would no longer automatically be mommy that she would run to first with a problem or anything else.
Kat still got a lovely embrace from Lacie. “I’m so proud of you,” Kat said into her ear.
“Thanks, Mom,” Lacie replied. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
They agreed to meet Tyler and Lacie at the Warren house in a little while. Lacie wanted to say goodbye to all her friends, and the others headed back to Blaine’s car.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The back of the Warren house was just as beautiful as the front, maybe even more so. Beautiful landscaped trees swayed over the backyard in the breeze, and the May sunshine reflected on the ripples of the swimming pool. A riot of red and white hibiscus bushes bloomed everywhere, and a soft spring wind carried their scent throughout the garden and onto the brick patio where they were sitting. Freshly cut flowers were arranged in a vase on top of the wrought iron, glass-topped table. It was a beautiful setting and everything in the world felt right to Kat.
While they’d been attending the graduation ceremony, Mitzi and Rex’s maid, Alison, had set up the brunch on a side table on the patio. It was really a gorgeous spread to behold. Platters of marinated goat cheese with crackers, smoked salmon and bagel strata, spinach salad with strawberries and raspberry vinaigrette, and petite cheesecakes with fruit toppings were spread out on the side table. Just looking at it made Kat’s mouth water.
The four of them, Kat, Blaine, Mitzi, and Rex, nursed mimosas until Lacie and Tyler arrived. The atmosphere was free and easy. In fact, they were having such a good time they didn’t hear Tyler’s car pulling up, or even know Tyler and Lacie had arrived until Alison led them out onto the patio.
“We’re so proud of you,” Mitzi said, spotting them first. “Congratulations again, Lacie, our graduating girl!” They raised their glasses in unison.
It was all hugs, kisses, and well wishes for the next few minutes, until Lacie and Tyler were sitting with their own mimosas in hand. They spoke about graduation, Lacie’s plans for graduate school, and Tyler’s hopes for his veterinary career.
“Shall we get started on the food?” Mitzi offered.
“Yes,” Lacie said, so enthusiastically that everyone laughed.
“It looks gorgeous,” Kat said.
They all stood up and began to help themselves from the side table.
“Well, I do love to cook,” Mitzi said, “and now that my weight isn’t the problem it used to be, I can indulge in some of these things.”
Kat took in the feast with her eyes, as she added a hearty serving of spinach salad to her plate. “You must have spent all day yesterday cooking, Mitzi, and probably this morning as well.”
“Oh no,” Mitzi said with a laugh. “That would stress me out far too much. I did everything ahead of time. I even prepped the salad, so all I had to do was throw it together this morning. And I coordinated with Alison so she’d uncover it and dress it just before we arrived.”
Rex smiled as he piled crackers onto his plate. “Watching Mitzi get ready to entertain is kind of like a military operation!”
“I enjoy it, I really do,” Mitzi protested.
“Well, we certainly appreciate the effort,” Blaine said. “This is like the perfect meal for the perfect day.”
“Absolutely,” Tyler said. He looked happier than anyone, and grinned from ear to ear as he looked down at the food. “I sure picked the right girlfriend if I keep getting invited to places like this.”
“Tyler,” Lacie said, laughing.
“Sorry, Dr. Warren,” Tyler said to Mitzi. “I didn’t mean to sound rude. It’s just the food looks truly wonderful. I’m so proud of Lacie, and today’s just been a great day. Maybe I’m a little too happy.”
Mitzi laughed, a hearty laugh, throwing her head back and showing her white teeth. She patted him on the back. “Savor it, son. You can never be too happy.”
Kat was happy too. Sitting down at the table and eating a piece of smoked salmon bagel strata, she felt truly at peace with the world. Tyler and Lacie laughed together, and he fed her little pieces of food now and then, which was endearing to Kat. Her beloved daughter and Tyler had such a natural rapport with each other, and from what she could see he treated Lacie like an absolute princess. I’ve been silly to worry, she thought.
“So, Dr. Warren,” Tyler began. But he didn’t finish, as his phone started buzzing, and soon his ringtone was echoing around the brick patio. “Oh, my gosh. I’m sorry. Just a second.” He pulled out his phone, looked at the screen and frowned. “Give me a moment, sorry,” he said to everyone, then got up and went to the far side of the pool. They all watched him go.
Rex started to talk, “You know, this salad…”
“No!” Tyler’s voice drowned out the chitter-chatter.
Everyone flinched. Blaine jumped to his feet, and Lacie did the same.
“Ashlee! No!” he yelled again. Then he shook his head violently, like he was trying to shake something out of it. “Okay, I’ll get there as fast as I can.”
Lacie was already running towards him. “Tyler, what’s going on?”
Tyler turned to them, sobbing. “Chance has been murdered.”
“Who?” Mitzi said.
“Chance Nelson?” Blaine asked.
Lacie held him by the shoulders. “What? Tyler, what? Chance, your brother-in-law? Ashlee’s husband?”
>
Tyler nodded. He stammered over his words. “Ash... Ashlee found him… He didn’t come home when he was supposed to. At the newspaper office…”
“Oh, my gosh,” Blaine said.
“The chief… the chief of police is on his way,” Tyler said.
“I’ll drive you there,” Blaine said. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Kat had been dazed, but she quickly recovered and jumped to her feet. They said quick goodbyes to Mitzi and Rex and ran to Blaine’s car. Tyler instinctively jumped in the passenger seat, so Lacie and Kat got in the back.
As soon as they set off, Tyler couldn’t stop talking. “Am I having a nightmare?” he kept saying. “This can’t be real. This just can’t be. I wish this was some kind of a joke. Maybe it is some kind of a joke.” Then his voice cracked. “No, I know it’s not a joke. Not the way Ashlee sounded…” He let out a strangled little sob. “Not Chance. Not Chance. Why would anyone want to kill Chance? He never did anything wrong to anyone. Ashlee’s like…destroyed. I heard it in her voice. Chance? I don’t get this. Why?”
No one knew what to say. There really wasn’t anything anyone could say. Lacie reached over and rubbed his shoulder over and over, but that was all she could do.
“Ever since my own dad died, he was like a father to me,” Tyler said. “Chance? Why Chance? I don’t understand.”
When they pulled up to the newspaper office, the street in front of it was jammed with police cars. Before Blaine had even brought his car to a stop, Tyler had jumped out and sprinted inside the building. Lacie, Blaine and Kat hurried in as well. The first sound Kat heard was the piercing, haunting wail of a woman’s cries, that renewed again and again, more heart-wrenching each time.
When they were inside the building’s lobby, they realized that the noise they’d heard was coming from Ashlee. Tyler was trying to hold her up, but she kept falling to the floor, screaming and sobbing. Even though Kat couldn’t stand the woman, that was forgotten in the tragedy of the moment, and all she felt was pure, human compassion. There was nothing else to feel. The scene was simply heartbreaking.
The police chief was in the corner, making notes, and looking very grim. He walked over to them when he saw Blaine. “Terrible, just a terrible thing,” he said.
“What’s going on?” Blaine asked. “Chance was murdered?”
“Yes.”
“Any idea what happened? Who did it?”
“A fire extinguisher was next to the body,” Chief Moore said. “We’re dusting it for prints right now. It’s likely that was the murder weapon. The coroner is on his way.”
Blaine shook his head. “It looks like those threats on his life were serious, after all.”
Chief Moore’s expression darkened. “Yes. This small town sure isn’t the friendly, safe place it used to be.”
Another piercing wail from Ashlee cut into their conversation.
“Maybe Tyler can get her to be coherent enough that we can talk to her,” Chief Moore said, his face softening with pity for a moment. “She hasn’t been able to get a word out since I arrived. We might have to call an ambulance to get her some help if this carries on.”
Lacie looked at the scene in front of her as if her heart was breaking. Kat felt like they’d been suddenly thrust into a parallel universe. They all stood for a moment, watching the horrific scene of Tyler trying to drag Ashlee to her feet as she knelt on the floor, alternately screaming and sobbing.
“Maybe I could help,” Lacie said eventually, then quickly explained, “He’s my boyfriend… What do you want to ask her?”
“Just ask if she has any idea who could have done it,” Chief Moore said.
Lacie gulped. “Oh, right.”
Kat instinctively wanted to rush in and protect her from the situation but knew she couldn’t, and it wasn’t her place to do so anyway. Lacie was a grown woman now. Lacie went over to Tyler and Ashlee, and it seemed to change the dynamics of the situation enough to stop Ashlee from crying for a moment. Lacie whispered to Tyler, who then knelt down and spoke to Ashlee in hushed tones.
“I don’t know!” Ashlee screamed, then she broke into another round of hysterical sobbing.
Lacie came back to the group, a resigned look on her face. She shook her head. “Sorry.”
Chief Moore patted her on the shoulder. “Thanks, Lacie. That’s more than I managed to get out of her.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
At Tyler’s request, and Ashlee’s nodded acceptance, the coroner gave Ashlee something to calm her down. Eventually her crying and screaming stopped. Finally, she fell down into a heap of resigned tears. Kat’s heart almost broke hearing her.
“I’ll use Ashlee’s car and drive her home,” Tyler said, his face and voice torn by grief. “I’ll take some time off from the clinic to stay with her.”
“I’ll come with you,” Lacie said quickly. “We all need to stick together right now.”
He gave her a small, grateful smile, then went over to Ashlee’s purse to retrieve her car keys.
“We’ll drive your car from Mitzi’s place over to Ashlee’s later, Tyler,” Blaine suggested.
“Thank you,” Tyler said, his face strained. “You’ll find the address stored in my navigation system under her name.”
Kat and Blaine barely spoke on their way back to Mitzi and Rex’s, while they tried to process what had happened. It all seemed so surreal to Kat. Had it really been only that morning they’d made the same drive into the neighborhood, enjoying the dappled shade on the tree-lined streets? It felt like a lifetime ago. What a terrible thing to happen on Lacie’s special graduation day. Their memory of this day would be tarnished forever, tainted by tragedy, and haunted by the anguished cries of Ashlee. Kat had never heard anything so disturbing, and she was sure she’d remember those cries for a very long time indeed. Maybe forever.
Chance Nelson. Dead. Killed in cold blood. The thought went around in her head for the rest of the drive. It was a completely perplexing thought. It had all been so sudden and unexpected.
“Chance Nelson, murdered,” Rex said, shaking his head, after Kat and Blaine rejoined them in their elegant living room. Rex’s words echoed Kat’s thoughts. Everyone’s thoughts.
“Yes,” Blaine said. “Apparently, he was hit over the head with a fire extinguisher. His skull was crushed.”
Mitzi gasped. “Good grief. What a horrible way to die.”
Kat frowned. “Yes. Also, what an unusual way to kill someone. One doesn’t wake up and think, ‘I’ll kill so-and-so with a fire extinguisher today,’ do they?”
“So, you think it was a spur of the moment thing, do you?” Rex said, as he crossed one leg over the other and slid his glasses down his nose, looking thoughtful.
“That’s what I was thinking exactly,” Kat said. “More of a crime of passion, rather than something that was meticulously planned.”
“I don’t know about that,” Blaine said. “I agree that the fire extinguisher does seem like a makeshift weapon, but what’s bothering me is that Chief Moore had previously told me Chance Nelson had been receiving phone threats for several days, perhaps weeks.”
“From whom?” Mitzi asked. “Have they been able to trace the calls?”
“No, the numbers were scrambled,” Blaine said. “But I’d say that pretty much proves it was planned. Maybe not for today in particular, but for some time in the future. Maybe whoever did it just happened to get the opportunity today.”
Kat shivered. “With all the reporters out of the office covering the graduation, you may be right. It looked like everyone was gone from the office when we were there.”
“I don’t understand why anyone would want to kill Chance,” Rex said. “He was very well-liked.”
“Unless they were trying to hurt Ashlee,” Kat said, surprising even herself. She’d barely formulated the thought before it came tumbling out of her mouth. “I doubt she’s as popular as he was.”
Blaine’s eyes widened. “Hmmm. That would certainly widen the susp
ect pool.”
“I’ll say,” Kat said. “Chief Moore won’t know where to start.”
It was actually hard to believe that the same Ashlee Nelson who had been such a cutthroat, no holds barred, ruin people’s life machine, was the same person as the broken woman who couldn’t stop sobbing while she was lying on the floor of the newspaper building lobby.
Later, on the way to Ashlee’s house, Kat had turned off the air conditioner and rolled down the windows as she drove. She was driving Blaine’s car, while Blaine drove Tyler’s. She wanted to feel the breeze in her face. Consequently, when she arrived at Ashlee and Chance’s large, colonial style home, she could hear sobbing coming from inside the house through the open car windows.
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