Death at the Dog Wedding

by Stacey Alabaster

  Jasper had been waiting too long, I decided. And I didn’t even want this job!

  “I-I’m…”

  Meg leaned in closer. “Look, George, you’re doing really well. At this stage, the one-on-one interview is just a formality.” I gulped and followed her into the room where somehow I also managed to dazzle her with amazing answers to all the behavioral questions.

  “George, I’d like to offer you the job.”

  I was stunned. “Um, I am going to have to think about it for a day or so, if that is all right.”

  “Of course!” Meg said brightly. “We don’t expect you to accept it on the spot, though it would be lovely if you did,” she said with a laugh.

  “I understand that Ollie quitting suddenly has put you in a tough spot,” I said, picking up my purse.

  She frowned. “Quitting?” she asked, stifling down a little laugh. “Oh, Ollie didn’t quit. He was fired.”

  I sat back down. “Fired?” I asked.

  Meg nodded. “It was a terrible business,” she said, shaking her head. “Maxine caught him stealing from the till, and she was forced to fire him on the spot.”

  Huh. Ollie had kept that little tidbit hidden from me. I thanked Meg again and said I’d be in touch.

  Chapter 7

  “Brenda?” I called out, stepping inside the craft store. Sure, the door was locked, but that wasn’t that unusual. Sometimes she locked it even when she was inside because she doesn’t want customers coming in until right at 9am. She was a real stickler, and rules came before customer satisfaction as far as Brenda is concerned.

  But it was 9am. Five past, actually. And Brenda was nowhere to be seen.

  The store was dark so I flicked on the lights and tried Brenda’s number

  “I am not supposed to answer the phone in here,” she hissed at me from wherever she was.

  “In where?” I asked. Where could she possibly be that was so top secret at 9am in the morning? “Brenda. Are you in the library holding secret craft circle meetings without me again?”

  “I am in the hospital, Georgina.”

  “Oh,” I said, suddenly feeling very bad. “What happened?”

  “I fell and hit my head.”

  “But you weren’t actually unconscious, right? So the trip to the hospital is just a precaution then?”

  I understood that she was being extra careful, but I couldn’t see why she couldn’t make it into work a little later in the day.

  “You can start after lunchtime if you like,” I offered, thinking I was being generous.

  “I need the day off!” Brenda exclaimed.

  Uh-oh. This was serious. Brenda never wanted a day off for any reason. She really must have hit her head hard.

  “But what am I supposed to do if I need to take a break later on?” I asked.

  “You are just going to have to manage without me…”

  “But I need you, Brenda, how am I am supposed to…” I stopped myself short from saying ‘investigate Ollie some more’ and instead ended with “handle things without you?”

  Brenda was my sole employee. There was no one else who could cover her shift.

  I considered my options. I could close for the day, put “Closed due to illness” on a sign in the door. It would be basically true, even though the real reason would be more like “And due to the owner tracking down a prime suspect.”

  Being a business owner is hard work. I considered for a moment how nice it would be to just work for someone else, to just clock in and clock out each day without taking any of the responsibility home with me. I thought for a moment how nice it would be to take the receptionist job at Be Alive Yoga.

  Right. My other options. I could just run the store for the day, and try to follow Ollie afterward. But time was of the essence.

  Normally, in situations like this, I would call Adam.

  But there was no way I was going to call him after what I had seen at Felicity’s. I was trying to not even think about that dinner.

  So I only had one option.

  “You’re going to do great,” I said with confidence. At least he had taken his uniform off. Mostly. He was still wearing his hat and his badge. Apparently, those things were non-negotiable.

  “I need this. I am on call, after all,” Ryan said. “So, I can watch the store—as long as there are no other murders in Pottsville.”

  You never knew with this town, to be fair.

  I nodded and hoped that Ryan’s presence wasn’t going to make my store look too much like a murder scene.

  I had no more time to fuss. “You’ve got it, Ryan. I have total trust in you!”

  I groaned when I’d only gotten halfway down the street and saw a familiar mop of black curls coming toward me. “George!” Meg beamed at me. “Have you given any more thought about the job offer?”

  I had, actually. I’d been seriously considering it. I could sell the store and leave the responsibilities of being a business owner behind me. Just collect a steady paycheck without any of the pressure. But it was a fantasy, really. That kind of stability.

  I gulped. “Can you give me until the morning for my definitive answer?” I asked her, stopping for a moment.

  She looked disappointed. “Well, okay, sure. But no longer than the morning, okay?”

  I nodded.

  I had managed to get one thing out of Meg before I’d left my job interview. Ollie’s new employer. He was working for the local government in a large building on the edge of town that was surrounded by pine trees.

  “Ollie!” I said brightly, as I walked into the building and saw him in front of his desk, looking over blueprints.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, quickly hiding whatever it was he was looking at. I threw him a wide smile.

  “Just here to make a complaint about a little issue I am having with the road in front of my house.”

  A ruffled Ollie told me to wait in the holding room for a bit while he organized a meeting room for us. “I’ll book meeting room three. Then we can have a proper chat about whatever it is that is bothering you, Georgina.” Very formal.

  I watched him curiously as I waited. Strange that a man who just got fired could so easily walk in and get a job with the local government as a town planner. Didn’t you need more than just receptionist experience to land such a job?

  He paused for a moment to stop at a co-worker’s desk—a larger brunette woman—and told her something that made her throw her head back and laugh.

  Well, I’ll just wait here all day while you flirt, then.

  Finally, Ollie managed to drag himself away from his co-worker’s desk and lead me to the meeting room. “Door open or closed?” he asked me.

  The windows and doors were all made of glass, so it wasn’t as though we were afforded any privacy either way. So I shrugged and told him to keep it open. I noticed the brunette lean back on her chair and peer in, then look away as though she hadn’t been doing anything. But her ears were pricked. “On second thought, let’s shut it.”

  Ollie grinned at me as he closed the door and settled down in front of me. “This must be a pretty serious matter then.”

  The brunette was still trying to catch a peek at us out of the corner of her eye. I wondered what that was all about, but did my best to ignore her. I had to come up with a serious reason for being at the roads department before Ollie figured out my real reason for being there.

  “I have a complaint about a pothole outside my house,” I stated. And it was true. There was a pothole. It had just never bothered me that much, to tell the truth. “And I hear that you are the guy to see about that.”

  Was he rolling his eyes? He certainly seemed to be, but managed to be polite as he grabbed a pen to take my details. “How long has the pothole been there?” he asked, still keeping his voice even.

  “Oh, as long as I can remember,” I said, recalling. “From the day I first moved in.”

  He raised his eyebrows at me. “And you haven’t been in this town for v
ery long, have you, Georgina?”

  I settled back in my chair and smiled at him. “I prefer George. And in answer to your question, I’ve been here long enough. Long enough to see the way this town runs and to see how it could be run better.”

  It was a pointed statement and it did nothing to lower his eyebrows, which were now fixed in a shocked/offended state in the middle of his eyebrows.

  “I’m a local businesswoman, Ollie. I contribute to the economy of this town.”

  “I’m sure you do.”

  “I pay your wages,” I couldn’t help pointing out.

  He shrugged, casually, but there was a little bit of tension in his shoulders. “I pay my taxes. So, I guess you can say I pay my own wages.”

  That did shut me up a little bit.

  “Well, I’ll happily look into it for you,” Ollie finally said, before standing up and gathering his things as though that was the end of the matter. He wanted me out of the glass meeting room. “It must be a real hazard for cars.” He started to stand up.

  “I don’t have a car, actually,” I said, shooting him a look. “But I’m sure you wouldn’t want me falling into it while I am walking and breaking my neck.”

  He sat back down. I wasn’t sure, but had I just threatened to throw myself down into a pothole just to teach the local government a lesson?

  “You’ll have to forgive me,” he said, a little contritely. “It has been a really tough week.”

  I nodded. “Of course,” I said softly. “Your former employer just died.” I waited carefully for his response.

  He sucked in a deep breath but still looked a little white. “I still haven’t come to grips with it,” he said, sounding dazed. “I may have ended things on bad terms with Maxine, but it’s still a huge shock. It’s as though it hasn’t really happened.” He gazed through the glass door, around the office at people who were opening the fridge and fetching cans of soda, typing lazily on keyboards. “How can life just go on as normal?”

  I felt bad for how harsh I had been on him. Of course he was grieving. People react to loss in all kinds of different ways. Even if he and Maxine had parted badly, that didn’t mean her death hadn’t affected him.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, returning the apology. “I should take your complaint more seriously.” He opened up his folders again.

  I looked down at my hands. “I suppose it does sound rather trivial when compared to what you are dealing with.”

  He shook his head. “No, I should have been more professional. I have been letting my emotions cloud my judgement here at work,” he said, sneaking a look at the brunette before he turned his eyes back to me. “The pothole is a danger to all humans.”

  “And it’s very dangerous for my dogs,” I added. Then I remembered that he wouldn’t care about that. He’d already outed himself as a dog-hater. The way he had reacted to Massie.

  Just when I’d started getting him on my side, I’d taken another three steps back. I was getting nowhere fast. “Dogs should be kept on leashes. If one of them is loose and falls into a pothole, that is the fault of the owner, not the government.” Whoa, whoa.

  He must have seen the shock on my face because he took a few deep breaths before he responded.

  “Like I said, Georgina… George. I will look into it. In the meantime, I suggest not walking along the road in high heels.”

  It wasn’t like me to be sheepish. Usually, even when I know I am not wanted somewhere, I can paint on a bright smile and act as though I am a popular and invited guest.

  But not this time.

  “Hi, Felicity.” I was holding a peace offering of flowers, but she gave them a dirty look and didn’t make any moves to either take them or invite me inside.

  I could tell I was the last person she wanted to see. Well, the feeling was mutual. But it was time to put our differences aside. “I need your help,” I said, taking a step inside her house before I was even invited to do so.

  “My help with what?” she asked, stepping aside as I walked in through the hallway.

  “Your help in finding Maxine’s killer.” My tone was blunt.

  Felicity barely even took any time to think about it before she shook her head. “I think you should leave, George—”

  “Don’t you want to find out who killed Maxine?” I asked, cutting her off, thinking that would bring her around to my side. When she still hesitated and looked like she was about to show me the door, I added, “And don’t you want to find out who ruined Flora’s big day? I know that dog wedding took months of planning. Now you’ve got nothing to show for it but a depressed dog and a ruined reputation.” I stepped right up to her so that my nose was practically touching her nose. “Don’t you want the guilty party brought to justice?”

  She nodded reluctantly.

  “But how can I be of any help to you, George? I only saw what you saw on the day.”

  Not entirely true, I thought, but it wasn’t what she’d seen on the day that was of interest to me in that moment. I was more interested in what evidence she had.

  “I need to check something on the registry,” I said.

  “Registry?”

  “Yes. Surely you had all your guests check in on the day.”

  She shook her head. “No. I am not going to give away my guests’ privacy like that. It has their contact numbers on it.”

  “Felicity. I need to know exactly who was at that wedding.”

  She reluctantly moved over to the desk in the middle of her living room and pulled out a piece of paper from a manila folder.

  “This is the list of everyone who attended the wedding,” she said, running her finger down the list. “As you can see, I had the names down of everyone who RSVP’d so all they had to do on the day was to check their name off.”

  I spotted Brenda’s name. There was no check next to it.

  “So, Ollie Hall wasn’t even invited to the wedding?” I asked, a little confused when I couldn’t spot his name on the list. There was Elliot, and Maxine, and even I was there. But definitely no Ollies.

  Felicity shrugged a little. “No. I don’t really know him that well.”

  “But he is a friend of Maxine's,” I pointed out. “Or was, I mean.”

  “The only reason I even knew Maxine was there was because Massie and Flora played together at the dog park,” Felicity said, snatching the registry back from me. “It’s not like her and I were particularly close.” She placed the paper back inside the drawer.

  There was something in her voice. A grudge she was holding. She didn’t seem at all sad that Maxine had died. Was it really just a case of indifference? Or was there something more at play?

  So, Ollie was in the clear after all. I let out a frustrated sigh. He probably didn’t even know about the dog wedding, and he sure as heck hadn’t attended it. That had been a dead end. But the killer was on that list. And I needed it. I didn’t think Felicity was just going to hand it over to me, however. We weren’t exactly best friends.

  When she had her back turned, I reached into the desk and quickly snatched the paper. If I had any luck, she wouldn’t go looking for the registry list any time soon.

  I cracked open a bottle of red and studied the list carefully. Ollie must have been at the wedding that day. He was the one with the grudge against Maxine, and the one who had the most reason to want her dead. I was sure I was just overlooking his name. Or maybe Ollie was short for something. My spirits perked up and I searched again for “Oliver.” Still nothing.

  “What’s that?” a voice asked.

  “Gosh, Adam!” I snatched off my reading glasses and placed them on the counter, my heart thumping out of my chest. I spun around to face him. He was looking relaxed as anything, having just woken up from a nap. “You can’t just sleep there all day and then leap up like that. You scared the life out of me!”

  It really was time to get that key back from him.

  It was the first time I’d seen him since the night at Felicity’s house. The first time we�
��d even spoken, actually. Was he just going to pretend like nothing had happened? More to the point, was I? There was a definite elephant in the room and I wasn’t just talking about the fact that Adam had put on a few extra pounds since arriving in Pottsville.

  He stood up and looked around the room sleepily, stretching and yawning. “I wasn’t sleeping all day,” he said, looking at his watch. “Just since my shift finished at four.”

  I spun back to my sheet of paper, trying not to appear too ruffled. “And don’t you have a home of your own to go to?”

  He ignored my question and took the sheet of paper out of my hands. “So, what is this?” he asked, frowning.

  “A list of guests for the dog wedding,” I muttered, trying to get the piece of paper back from him, but he was out of reach and I wasn’t about to wrestle him for it. “Guests who were invited and those that showed up.”

  “So, what’s the theory?” Adam asked, sitting back down on the couch. Jasper jumped up beside him and placed his head in Adam’s lap, eager for a pet.

  I sighed and reluctantly joined them down in the sunken living room part of the open plan. “The theory is that one of those people on that list killed Maxine.” I took a glug of my wine. “But there are dozens of people on that list. So it doesn’t exactly narrow it down for me, does it?”

  Adam inspected the list more closely.

  “Why is Maxine’s name written there in pen?” he asked.

  “What are you talking about?” I moved close to the couch and peered at the list over Adam’s shoulder, my hand resting on his arm for a moment. I quickly pulled it away and coughed, clearing my throat, pretending that nothing had happened. There was still that elephant standing in the middle of the room, however, glaring at me.

  Adam pointed at Maxine’s name. It was at the bottom of the list, which I’d never noticed before. And Adam was right—there was another thing I hadn’t noticed. Where as the rest of the list had been typed up and printed out, Maxine’s name was written in pen at the bottom. But the writing was so neat and font-like that it was a little difficult to tell unless you looked closely. I was a little embarrassed to admit that I had missed it, while Adam had picked up on it right away.