Wedding Cake and Widows: A Comedy Cozy Mystery (Mom and Christy's Cozy Mysteries Book 8)

by Christy Murphy

  I hit the button to the elevator and decided that no matter what happened at the tournament, I was going to have fun. This trip would be something to remember. Normally, I shied away from photos, but not today. I didn’t care how I looked in this t-shirt, and I didn’t care what other people thought.

  Christy Murphy was embarking on a new life, and it began now.

  On my way to the reception desk for directions, I spotted Lexi by the bathrooms. I headed over to find out if she knew where the pre-tournament poker class was. That was when I realized she was on her phone and whispering.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered into the phone. “I’m here at the party, but I haven’t found out anything.”

  I wondered what she meant by that and who she was talking to. Before I could hide and eavesdrop, she spotted me. “Hey, Christy!” she yelled. “Are you going to the class for the tournament?”

  She said something to whoever she was talking to on her phone and hung up. I couldn’t make out what she said.

  “Yes, but I don’t know where it is,” I replied.

  “I’ll take you there, and I promise not to cry and ruin everything,” she said.

  Maybe it was good that I stuck with her. I could have fun and do some sleuthing. DC might’ve been right. “Who were you talking to? I didn’t mean to rush you off the phone.”

  “Oh, it was nothing,” she said. “Business stuff.”

  I followed her through the lobby and onto the main floor of the casino.

  “It’s just beyond the slot machines and past the diner,” Lexi said.

  “What type of business are you in?” I asked.

  “I used to be a model. I still do that from time to time for older stuff. Like your mom.”

  “I don’t exactly think you and my mom are in the same age group,” I said.

  “I mean, I do promotional appearances and catalog work like your mom does,” Lexi said. “It would’ve been so great to be your mom’s agent.”

  “So you’re an agent?” I asked.

  “I run the agency. We do smaller stuff. Personal appearances for trade shows and things like that. I know a lot of girls from modeling that have gotten older or just didn’t have the looks for the major stuff like me.”

  “Oh,” I said. If Lexi wasn’t pretty enough or too old to do ‘major stuff,’ I wondered where I ranked in the world. Nope, I told myself. I would not do that to myself anymore.

  Naturally, in that exact moment we passed by a mirrored advertisement sign. I could see Lexi’s tall, thin profile next to my not so tall and doughier profile. How did she make her diaper t-shirt look so sexy? It was like the world wanted to humble me, but I opted not to go that way.

  Someone else’s beauty didn’t need to diminish my appreciation for myself.

  “I’d love to talk to your mom sometime,” Lexi said. “She’s been in the business for a while. It would be great to get her perspective.”

  “Well, it’s a long bus ride back,” I said. “I’m sure Mom would be glad to talk to you.”

  “Or maybe I could come by the Lucky Dragon one day?” she asked.

  “We’re there a lot,” I said.

  As we entered the tournament room, I spotted the ladies from the book club and Briana, Dar-dar, and Wenling. Dar-dar was wearing his I gotta go t-shirt, a blonde wig, and full makeup.

  Sylvia bounded up to us. “There you are,” she said to Lexi. She turned to me. “Glad to see you’re here, too.” Although, it was mostly just to be polite. She turned her attention back to Lexi. “You’ve been gone all morning. I worried you’d gone back home.”

  “I just needed some time to myself,” Lexi said.

  I’d been hoping to ask Lexi how it was exactly that she and Sylvia became friends. For a moment, it felt like there was a slight frenemy vibe going on there.

  “Christy!” Briana called out to me from the front row. “We saved you a seat!”

  “And I saved you a seat,” Sylvia said to Lexi.

  “Oh great,” Lexi said, but I got the vibe that maybe it wasn’t that great. There was something going on between the two of them. “Oh, and Christy,” Lexi called to me just as I headed in the other direction. “Don’t forget to ask your mom if I can talk to her about personal appearances.”

  “I’ll tell her,” I said.

  I joined Dar-dar, Wenling, and Briana at the front for the class. Wenling had bought herself a pair of dark sunglasses.

  “Is that to hide the redness in your eyes?” I asked Wenling.

  “It’s hiding the money in my eyes,” Wenling said.

  I turned to Briana for clarification.

  “She read a book in the lobby that told her it helps keep people from spotting any tells regarding her hand,” Briana explained.

  I laughed. “Let’s take a quick selfie.”

  Wenling immediately slid next to me, pushed up her sunglasses, and smiled. Briana and Dar joined in. I snapped the pic.

  I showed it around for approval before saving it.

  “You never want to take selfies,” Wenling said.

  “I want to remember this trip. It’s been really great,” I said.

  “I agree,” Dar said.

  “I’m going to let my winnings remind me,” Wenling added.

  The class got underway, and before I knew it, it was tournament time.

  Being in a poker tournament terrified me. My hands shook when I had a good hand, and they shook when I had a bad hand. Basically, I shook my way through most of the tournament, wishing that I had terrible cards, so I could fold and drink free Diet Coke without having to worry about what to do next.

  I heard Wenling cackling and smack-talking at her table two rows away from me.

  “I beat you so bad. You should have folded sooner,” I overheard her say.

  “You don’t have to gloat so much,” another familiar voice responded.

  I turned to see whose voice it was and discovered Sylvia was seated at Wenling’s table. They both had an enormous stack of chips. Their gambling acumen impressed me.

  “If I don’t gloat, how will you know how bad I beat you?” Wenling asked.

  Several people chuckled.

  Wenling was brutal. Her small stature made her more comical than threatening.

  “Why are half the women in this tournament wearing t-shirts like yours?” a lady at my table asked me.

  “It’s part of my bachelorette/promotional party for an adult diaper company,” I explained as I checked out my cards. I smiled as I folded.

  The woman shook her head as she smiled. “I thought I’d heard of everything.”

  Within an hour, half the players had been bumped from the tournament. It impressed me to see how many women from my party were still in.

  My chips had dwindled to almost nothing, and I went all-in on a pair of tens. I got beat by someone who “flopped” three of a kind.

  All that poker talk sounded cool, even in my head. It’s amazing what you can learn in an hour.

  I said my goodbyes to a chorus of congratulations from the women I’d played with.

  When I stood to leave, the stiffness in my legs reminded me just how tense I’d been.

  Dar-dar waved bye to me as I exited. He still had a decent amount of chips, and Briana was now playing at the same table as Wenling. Her stack looked pretty impressive, too.

  Some ladies from the book club waved goodbye as well. I was proud at how smart my friends were. I hoped one of them finished “in the money”, meaning they’d get cash for being in the top twenty finishers. The odds looked good.

  With time to kill, I thought I’d explore the casino.

  A crowd of people gathered by the slot machines to take pictures, and I realized they were taking photographs with Mom.

  Her hands were filled with free swag, and her t-shirt cannon was tucked under her arm.

  “Mom!” I called out to her.

  “That’s my daughter, the one who’s getting married,” Mom told the small crowd around her.

>   The crowd of people turned to me. I waved as I came over and helped Mom with her things.

  Mom took a few more photos and then wrapped things up. “It is my daughter’s bachelorette party, so—” Mom paused as she did her cross-legged squat and said her line, “I gotta go.”

  The crowd laughed as Mom did her poop walk for a couple of steps as we headed to the elevator. She turned and waved goodbye.

  Mom’s happiness brightened my mood even more. Mom had always been ambivalent about acting, but this gig was different.

  “You’re really enjoying being the spokesperson for the diaper company, aren’t you?”

  “It’s so much more fun than my other acting,” she answered. “In all of those, they always made me make sad faces all the time.”

  Most of Mom’s acting had been her making sad faces during a show about war or in an environmental brochure. I had no idea that my mom was so good at comedy.

  “Does this mean you don’t want to cater anymore?” I asked.

  “Kid, do you want to be a caterer?” Mom asked. “You only went into the business to help me. And now I don’t need help. I’ve got plenty of money, and I qualify for the SAG pension. So now is the time for you to figure out what you want.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. It’s fun hanging out with you and Wenling at the Lucky Dragon.”

  “You can still come to the Lucky Dragon every afternoon, and you can run the catering business like you have been for the last few months, but now that you have a new life and a new husband and even some money in the bank, don’t you think it’s time for you to think about what you really want? It seems like your entire life you’ve been doing whatever you can to help your ex-husband or help me. What do you want?”

  With an exception to wanting to be with the people I loved, I never really allowed myself to dream. I didn’t actually have to do anything right away. We were going to go on a honeymoon after the wedding, and when we got back, I’d be setting up the new house. During that time, I could really think. What did I want to do?

  We arrived in the room and I helped Mom put away her stuff. “DC called, and he wanted to know what we knew about Rhett Filbert.”

  Mom turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

  “He said he didn’t think that Cal Warrington’s death was an accident.”

  “You didn’t tell them we were doing an investigation, did you?” Mom asked.

  “Mom, I shouldn’t keep things from DC,” I said.

  Mom looked at me without saying a word.

  “But between all the stuff that we had to do for the wedding and the accident with the van, it just didn’t come up,” I said.

  Mom smiled. “We can tell him what we know now, but we should just not mention when we found out about everything.”

  My mind jumped back to our conversation earlier. Man, I should’ve come clean months ago.

  Mom paused in thought. “Rhett is the only person we haven’t talked to.”

  “I know. We can have DC meet us at the Lucky Dragon, and we can trade info,” I suggested.

  “No, let’s not get everybody all riled up again. DC may suspect that there’s something up, but it could have something to do with what Ford found out from Derek. From what I can gather, there was definitely some sort of embezzling happening at the dealership. And it looks like it stopped.”

  “Rhett?” I asked.

  “Ford couldn’t prove that. He suspects it might have been the manager.”

  “And speaking of the Lucky Dragon,” I said to Mom. “Lexi wants to meet you there and talk about personal appearances.”

  Mom tilted her head in a questioning manner.

  “She used to be a model and now she books personal appearances,” I explained.

  “I already have an agent. One of the best agents,” Mom said.

  “No, she knows that. I got the vibe that she really wanted to talk to you alone, and I also got a vibe that there’s something going on between her and Sylvia.”

  “Interesting,” Mom said.

  “Do you still think it was an accident?” I asked.

  “Let’s focus on the wedding,” Mom said. “But we’ll talk with DC.”

  I knew that wasn’t truly an answer, but Mom was right. The wedding needed to be the priority. We could always investigate more after the honeymoon.

  16

  The bus rolled up to the Lucky Dragon on Main Street. Exhausted, I remained in my seat as everyone de-bused, if that’s a word.

  Jerri, Lacey, and Michele—several of the ladies from the book club—exited and said their goodbyes and their well wishes.

  Mom attempted to wake Wenling, who’d passed out cold for the entire ride. She’d come in twelfth place despite only seeing ten minutes of instruction in the class. Brianna had “bumped” Wenling out of the tournament and went on to finish fifth.

  Dar had won a handheld vacuum cleaner as a “door prize.”

  I was proud of everyone—diapers and all.

  When I got off the bus, DC waved at me. I hadn’t expected him to be waiting. I ran to him, and we hugged. Then he gave me a big kiss.

  “Aww,” Dar-dar said. “The lovebirds.”

  A few of the other members of my bachelorette party hooted and teased us a little. I didn’t mind.

  “Did you have a good time?” DC asked.

  “The best,” I said.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  “I could eat something,” I said.

  “Maybe your mom wants to join us,” he said. “We can talk about the case.”

  Whoa! He used the word ‘case’ again and he wanted to discuss it with Mom and me.

  Mom approached us.

  “DC wants to discuss the case,” I said.

  Mom shushed me. “Let’s not talk about it here. Let’s go to the diner down the street. Just the three of us.”

  DC shot me a questioning look. It wasn’t like Mom to keep things secret from Wenling and the rest of the gang, but he agreed. I think he preferred it that way. Dar, Wenling, and Briana approached us on the sidewalk.

  “I’ve got to get to the cafe to do some work, so I’ll get a ride home,” Dar said as he waved goodbye.

  Briana came by with a droopy-eyed Wenling. “I’m going to give Wenling a ride home and head home myself.”

  “You’re not even going to check out the receipts at restaurant first?” I asked Wenling. Wenling always wanted to check the receipts.

  “I’m sure it’s fine,” she said.

  “She doesn’t want to tell Jennifer about her winnings,” Mom mumbled into my ear.

  I smiled. So that’s what it was.

  Mom and I put our luggage into the van in the back of the restaurant and then headed down Main Street. It was four in the afternoon, the sun was out, and the shade from the trees made the temperature perfect.

  “I can’t wait until we move into our new house,” DC said.

  “It’s going to be great,” I agreed. I loved that I wouldn’t have to move out of Fletcher Canyon.

  When I was younger and always wanted to live in a bigger town, I was excited to move to Hollywood. But now that I was older, I really loved Fletcher Canyon and all the people here.

  We arrived at the diner, and Mom excused herself to the restroom. I figured I’d go when she came back.

  “Hey lovebirds,” Sheila, the waitress, said to us.

  “How’s business?” I asked.

  “I thought it was ridiculous that Al opened that coffee shop across the street, but it actually works out even better. People come here to eat, and then they go over there to drink coffee and hang out,” she said. “It cuts down on the lingering of the kids who really don’t have any money to tip.”

  “You wouldn’t want any cheapskates,” I said, looking at DC.

  “Only the handsome ones,” Sheila joked.

  “I’m not a cheapskate,” DC said.

  “Frugal,” I reassured.

  “Sensible,” Mom said as she returned.

 
; “Miserly,” Sheila kidded.

  “I’ll start off with a cup of coffee black,” DC said.

  “Water for me,” Mom said, and I ordered a Diet Coke.

  “So what makes you think Rhett might have something to do with Cal’s death?” I asked DC once Sheila was out of earshot.

  “It’s hard to put my finger on it, it’s mostly a hunch. That’s why I’d really like you two to look into it.”

  “You don’t want to look bad if you’re wrong,” I said.

  “What? You guys don’t want to do it, now that I actually want you to help me?”

  “Mom’s concerned that it’s going to interfere with the wedding,” I said.

  “I agree with that,” DC said “This Rhett Filbert character just seems so unreliable, and with all the different iterations of the will, I can’t help but think that something’s going on there.”

  “According to Ford, Cal was on medication that made him dizzy,” I said.

  DC nodded. “I’m aware of that, but something just isn’t sitting right with me.”

  “Did Ford tell you anything about the finances at the dealership?” Mom asked.

  “How do you know about that?” DC asked.

  Uh-oh. Would DC be mad that we were on this case the whole time?

  “We went to the dealership to look at cars,” Mom explained. “We told Derek, the top sales guy, we were friends with Ford to get the discount. He said he needed to talk to Ford about some funny business at the dealership.”

  “Oh, so that’s how that meeting happened,” DC said. “I thought Ford arranged it. He told me that his dad had arranged for a forensic accountant to look over the books. It looks like someone was inflating the cost of cars or buying them at way too high of a rate, but I’ve got to be honest. I think maybe the old man was slipping.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because the cars that were bought at too high of a price were the cars that Cal himself authorized,” DC explained. “I think he just didn’t want to admit that he didn’t understand what a good price for a used car was anymore.”

  “Interesting,” Mom said.

  Al, the owner of this diner and mayor of Fletcher Canyon, entered the restaurant and approached us.