Carl came striding over and took Harvey’s pulse with exaggerated concern. “If you live through the next hour, you should make a good recovery. Just remember to breathe.”
They went through hallways and past the entrance to the baptistry, into a small room that opened into the sanctuary at the side of the platform. Pastor Rowland peeked out. The music was changing.
“Mrs. Wainthrop is being seated,” he said. “Ready?”
Harvey and Eddie followed him out and found their marks, and Carl and Mike joined them.
The candles were lit, and the church was packed. Church members filled the back half, and there were uniforms everywhere.
His sisters, Gina and Rita, were grinning and crying at the same time. Gina’s 12-year-old, Alissa, gave him a tiny wave, and Harvey smiled back. Mayor Weymouth and her husband sat behind them, next to Thelma Blake, who was resplendent in a platinum wig and a silver lamé dress. In the next row sat Marcia Towne and two teen-aged boys. Those couldn’t be Chris’s boys. On second glance, Harvey guessed they could. Grandma Lewis was smiling contentedly, and he caught her eye and smiled. Over on the other side, Jeff, Travis, and Randy looked well-scrubbed and formal in neckties, in the row behind their mother.
Beth was starting down the aisle.
Eddie’s inhaled sharply, and Harvey looked at him.
“Sarah,” Eddie whispered.
“Where?”
“Six rows back, on the aisle.”
Harvey spotted her as Beth reached the front and Leeanne started down. Sarah was wearing a bright pink dress, not her uniform, and beside her was a tall, dark-haired man.
“Who’s the guy?” he asked, but Eddie was watching the bridesmaids now.
Leeanne was striking, and if anything, Abby was more so. She looked so much like Jennifer, Harvey almost put his glasses on.
When Jennifer and George stepped into the doorway, he had trouble breathing, like the day he’d been shot. Her white dress was demure and lacy, and her mom’s lace-edged veil swept the floor. But under it, her hair fell loose to her hips. No braids. No hairpins. No elastic bands. She’d taken it down during the last hour, and he knew it was just for him.
“You okay?” said Eddie.
“No.”
“You gonna pass out?”
“No. I can’t in front of the mayor.”
Beyond Eddie, Carl was looking anxiously at him. He whispered something to Eddie, and Eddie relayed to Harvey, “Carl says, breathe!”
Jennifer smiled at him, not looking at anyone else. Harvey breathed.
George was looking a little shaky himself as he handed Jennifer over to him. When the ring slid onto her finger, Harvey just about burst. “Mr. and Mrs. Harvey A. Larson.” He grinned all the way down the aisle and out the door of the church. Cameramen and reporters thronged the walkway.
“Who invited you?” Harvey asked Ryan Toothaker.
“This is a big event,” Ryan said.
“You’re doing stories for the society page now?”
Video crews from two TV stations had set up on the pavement. Harvey couldn’t believe it. He looked at Jennifer, afraid she would cry again.
“We can get mad, or we can laugh,” he said.
“Let’s laugh and forget about it!”
He squeezed her hand, and they walked down the sidewalk and into the fellowship hall door. He wished they had gone through the halls inside, but the press loved it. They chased after them, asking how they’d met, who designed Jennifer’s gown, and where they were honeymooning.
They got inside and took up their spot for the receiving line. Harvey thought Jennifer would collapse before it ended. After half an hour of it, he asked Jeff to bring her a stool. She kicked off her shoes and perched on it for the duration. Harvey told Rick to make sure the guests knew they could eat.
He met so many Wainthrops that day, his head whirled. Grandma Lewis was adopted by Carl, Margaret, and Julia, and was having a great time. She kissed Jennifer and whispered something to her that made her smile. Marcia Towne told Harvey she was thinking of remarrying, and said she was glad Harvey had found the right woman after all these years. He was happy for her, too. It had been really hard on her when she’d lost Chris.
Jennifer’s old working pals, Jane Morrow and John Macomber, came around to chat with her for a minute and compare software settlements. Harvey’s sisters cried on him a little bit. He’d talked to them both on the phone after the Murphy-Nadeau story hit the airwaves, but he wished that he’d had more time to spend with them. All of the police officers brought their families through the line. Harvey met Nate’s wife and children for the first time.
Finally they got to go to their party. Jennifer took her veil off, so Harvey wouldn’t step on it as they went from friend to friend. They were supposed to eat, but even Jennifer seemed too keyed up to sit down and look at food.
Jeff was hanging around Beth, and Harvey glimpsed Sarah and her escort talking with other cops. Sarah had introduced the man in the receiving line, with no explanation. Eddie didn’t seem worried about her, but was carrying on a stereo flirtation with Abby and Leeanne.
“How soon can we leave?” Jennifer whispered in Harvey’s ear.
“Uh, don’t we have to eat cake or something?”
She took his hand and pulled him quickly out into the hallway. As soon as they were out of sight of the doorway, she threw her arms around him. “I love these people, but I’ve about had it, Harvey.”
He kissed her. Not the altar kiss, the other one.
When they went back toward the fellowship hall, Jeff was talking earnestly to Beth just outside the doorway.
Harvey said to him, “We’ve got to do some fast cake eating and flower throwing so we can get out of here.”
“Sure,” said Jeff.
Beth said, “Go to it.” Harvey wondered if that was their cue for car decorating.
They cut the first slice amid dozens of popping flashes and left the rest of the cake for Mrs. Williams to deal with. Harvey thought his eyes would never recover from all the photos. Reporters had somehow been absorbed into the crowd and were eating cake.
Arnie came by with two cups of punch in his hands. “How you holding up, captain?”
“Okay,” Harvey said, “but I don’t understand what makes this event so interesting to strangers.”
Arnie laughed. “Enjoy it.”
“Who’s that guy?” Harvey asked Jennifer, nodding toward a tall young man with a cake plate in his hand.
“I thought you invited him.”
“How can this happen?”
“I have no idea,” she said.
They went to the table where her parents and grandfather were seated, eating cake with the mayor and her husband. Mike and Sharon were telling them all about their trip in the Allagash. Jennifer whispered in her mother’s ear.
“Already?” said Marilyn.
Jennifer shrugged.
“My dear, you haven’t danced with the groom yet,” said Mayor Weymouth.
“We’re not dancing today, ma’am,” Harvey said.
“Oh, I was looking forward to it,” the mayor said.
Jennifer said to her mom, “I’ll get Beth and Abby to help me with the dress.”
“What, I don’t get to come?” Harvey asked.
She halted in confusion. “Well, it takes two people to get me out of this dress.”
He smiled and squeezed her hand. “I’ll meet you in the entry in fifteen minutes.”
That seemed to please her, and she went after her bridesmaids.
Harvey walked over to the guy neither of them could claim and stuck out his hand.
“Hi, I’m Harvey. You must be a friend of Jennifer’s.”
“No, actually, I’ve never met her before. I’m Dave Veilleux, Eddie’s cousin.”
“Oh, right. We played basketball once.”
“Yeah. Congratulations!”
“Thanks,” Harvey said.
He collared Eddie and dragged him away from a gi
rl he’d never seen before. “Come help me get ready.”
Eddie followed him down the hall to the room they had changed in.
“Boy, you Thibodeaus are literalists, aren’t you?” Harvey asked, shaking his head.
“What do you mean?”
“I just met your cousin Dave. I guess when the invitation says, ‘M. et Mme. Thibodeau et famille,’ you figure it means the whole clan.”
“That would be my mother,” said Eddie. “I’m sorry, Harv, but this wedding turned out to be the event everybody wanted to be at. My mom included Dave and Marie and the kids in the RSVP.”
Harvey peeled off the tuxedo jacket. “What is this phenomenon? It’s surreal. Rick says he and Dan counted three hundred-plus guests, and reporters on top of that. I hate going to weddings. And this is just an ordinary wedding. A cop and a records clerk. What is the big attraction here?”
“Come on, Harv, you’re a local hero. You personally arrested a congressman and solved the Blake murder the same day.”
Harvey turned on him. “The press has been after Mike and me at the station all week. Mike is going to be interviewed on national TV Monday. If I weren’t going to be in London, the mayor would make me do it, too. Doesn’t it ever end? It’s my wedding, for crying out loud!”
“Breathe, Harv.”
He breathed. “Okay. You’re taking my tux back, right? Okay. And just leave my gun in my locker at the station.”
“Right,” Eddie said. He’d had the combination for years. “Hey, wasn’t Jennifer extra beautiful coming down the aisle?”
Harvey smiled. “Yeah, she was.” He was ready. They stepped out into the hallway, and a camera flash popped in their faces.
“The best man was your partner as a detective, wasn’t he, Captain?” a reporter asked.
Harvey blinked and kept walking. “Get them out of here,” he said to Eddie between his teeth.
*****
Jennifer gasped when she saw her car. Streamers fluttered in the breeze, and “Just Married” was lettered on the back window in shaving cream and on a sign on the back bumper. A string of Moxie cans dangled behind. Eddie’s truck was parked next to the car. She was thankful that Harvey’s Explorer was hidden in the garage at Van Cleeve Lane.
“Ready to toss the bouquet?” Abby asked her.
“Yeah.” She moved to the middle of the church steps. A sea of young women were clustered below. Had there really been that many single women at the wedding? The breeze ruffled her hair and the skirt of her new pale blue “going away” dress. She waited until Abby had joined the others and threw her bridal bouquet in Beth’s general direction. Several women crushed together and dove for it. Sarah Benoit surfaced holding the roses.
Eddie was watching from the side, but his expression didn’t change when Sarah waved her trophy. Jennifer turned for kisses all around from her parents, Grandpa, Beth, Leeanne, Abby, Jeff, Travis, and Randy. Harvey was waiting for her, smiling and dashing. Jennifer placed her hand in his. They ran toward Jennifer’s car, but detoured to Eddie’s truck and got in, and he drove out of the parking lot, honking the horn. Then he practiced his elusive driving, to make sure he lost any ambitious reporters.
Harvey sat with both arms around Jennifer, and she leaned her head on his shoulder.
“What do you think about Sarah?” Harvey asked Eddie over her head.
“I think she hates me.”
“No, she doesn’t,” said Jennifer. “That guy she brought was a friend of her sister’s. She dredged him up as a date at the last minute.”
“She told you that?” Eddie glanced at her.
“No,” Jennifer said. “She told Cheryl, and Cheryl told Candi in Records, and Candi told me.”
“So, what does that mean?” Harvey asked. “She’s too insecure to go to a wedding without a date?”
“I think it means she wants Eddie to be jealous.”
“Doesn’t matter,” said Eddie.
“It doesn’t?” Harvey asked.
“Nope. I’m not going out with her anymore. I decided it’s not a good idea right now.”
Jennifer reached out and squeezed his arm. “Take your time.”
“I’m meeting a few girls at the church.” Sometimes he had an attractive air of shyness.
Jennifer smiled. “I saw you talking to Amanda Driscoll today.”
“Who’s Amanda Driscoll?” Harvey asked.
“The Driscolls’ daughter that’s home from college,” Jennifer said. “Auburn hair, blue eyes, five-foot-eight, beige dress.”
“Okay.”
Eddie grinned. “Jennifer, you’d make a great court witness.”
“Thanks, but I don’t want to witness any more crimes for a while.” She was on tap to testify against her old bosses at Coastal, but she’d rather not think about that on her wedding day.
“Do you think Jeff would want to run with me while you’re gone?” Eddie asked.
“That wouldn’t surprise me,” Harvey said. “Ask him.”
Eddie was quiet for a moment, then he said, “Abby sure looks like you, Jennifer. She’s really pretty.”
Jennifer looked at Harvey, trying not to laugh. “Thank you. She’s very special.”
“Of course, Leeanne is special, too,” Eddie said soberly.
“Yes, she is.” Jennifer thought it was probably a good thing for Eddie’s sake that both sisters would go back to Skowhegan the next day.
*****
Harvey built a fire in the fireplace that night, a small one that wasn’t too hot, but big enough to snap and flicker, throwing shadows on the ceiling. George and Marilyn and Grandpa had moved out that morning, and Marilyn had made sure the refrigerator was stocked. Jennifer ate yogurt and her mother’s banana bread in front of the fireplace with Harvey so he would eat. “I saw you take exactly three bites at the wedding,” she said.
“You fed me cake.”
“That doesn’t count. Fortify yourself.”
He’d been in the house for a week, and it was starting to feel like home. Jennifer made the feeling complete. He turned off both their phones. If somebody died, Eddie and the Wainthrops knew where to find them.
Eddie came the next morning, not ringing the doorbell but knocking softly on the breezeway door at seven-thirty. Harvey opened it with a cup of coffee in his hand.
“Come on in, Ed. We’re almost ready.”
Eddie handed him the morning paper and sat down in the kitchen with the coffee Harvey poured him. The suitcases already sat near the door.
Harvey opened the paper.
“Oh, man!” On the front page was a picture of him and Jennifer, coming out of the church. She was gorgeous, and Harvey looked rather smug. The headline was Priority cop’s wedding hot ticket. He said, “They’re really hard up for news for the Sunday paper, aren’t they?”
“At least it’s below the fold,” Eddie said.
“Well, I should hope so!” The lead story beneath the banner was, ‘Kansas tornado kills 14.’ There was also a follow-up on the Murphy scandal and an update on Elaine Bard, released from the hospital and gone home to recuperate.
Eddie said, “You didn’t watch the late news last night, did you?”
“Uh, no. I was otherwise occupied.”
“Well, the reporter on Channel 3 said you’d married a woman half your age. And on Channel 7 they called it a May-December romance.”
“Oh, man. Did they call her my child bride and say I robbed the cradle?”
“No, but the paper says you’re 45.”
“Do not tell Jennifer.”
“Okay, but Beth taped all the news reports. The reporters all thought it was sweet and romantic, for an old guy like you.”
“It was. It still is.” Harvey skimmed Ryan’s story. He’d been to the morgue for background clippings and had tied in the Coastal Technology case with the romance, and reprised Harvey’s promotion and the Blake case. It was mostly nonfiction, but Ryan had used a little creativity.
“Mrs. Wainthrop had us take al
l your wedding presents over to Beth’s for safekeeping,” Eddie said. “You can open them when you get home.”
Harvey was still reading the paper. “Nova Scotia?” he asked incredulously. “Ryan says we took the ferry to Nova Scotia yesterday for our honeymoon. Where on earth did he come up with that?”
“After you guys left the reception, Mike sort of let the reporters get the impression you were heading for Canada. If they’d known you were still in Portland …”
Jennifer came into the kitchen, wearing an olive skirt and a lighter green top. She smiled hugely at Eddie. “Good morning!”
“How you doing?” he asked, smiling.
“Spectacular!” She bent over and kissed the back of Harvey’s neck, and half her hair floated over his shoulder. Harvey had never seen Eddie’s face so red.
THE END
The Maine Justice Series Continues. . .
This book, Fort Point, is Book 2 in the series.
In Book 1, The Priority Unit, On the worst night of Harvey Larson’s life, his partner is killed and his wife, Carrie, walks out on him. Ten years later, the Portland, Maine police detective has learned to cope with his grief and depression. When he and the Priority Unit investigate the disappearance of software designer Nick Dunham, he meets a young woman who will change his life. Jennifer Wainthrop was the last person to admit seeing Nick alive. Harvey’s partner, Eddie Thibodeau, narrowly escapes death. Harvey must stay a step ahead of a bomber and put together the clues that tell the truth: Dunham’s kidnapping and the bombings are one case, and Jennifer is caught in the middle. News that his ex-wife, Carrie, has committed suicide may plunge Harvey into despair. Will his new faith give him strength to save Jennifer from the same grim fate that claimed Nick?
In Book 3, Found Art, Harvey and Jennifer become fine art aficionados to help solve Harvey’s case concerning a ring of art thieves. The Larsons settle into their idyllic home life, but things take a terrifying turn when they dig too deep. Meanwhile, Jennifer’s sister Abby comes to stay, and Harvey finds himself sorting out her suitors. Should he lift his ban on Eddie when it comes to dating his sisters-in-law? Worst of all, can Harvey put aside his longing for vengeance when Jennifer’s old boyfriend crosses his radar?
Fort Point (Maine Justice Book 2) Page 35