by Jessica Beck
“Are you implying that he doesn’t need me?” Elizabeth asked bitingly as she took a bold step toward the woman she suspected of having an affair with her husband.
One step was all she got to take though, as Hazel and Jennifer moved in on either side of her, effectively blocking her forward progress.
The head caterer coughed once at that moment, and then she spoke. “Mrs. Martin, if you’re ready, dinner is served.” In a near whisper, she added, “My staff has requested that they leave early, due to the storm conditions outside.”
That brought everyone’s attention to the windows. There still wasn’t much to see there but the darkness that surrounded us. I couldn’t even tell if the icy rain was still accumulating outside. There was something isolating about being thirteen stories above the ground, and I wasn’t sure I liked it. The two-story cottage I shared with Jake was usually plenty high enough for me. When I’d lived in the bedroom upstairs during the time Momma and I had cohabited after my divorce but before my second marriage to Jake, I’d loved being able to look out onto the park at night, especially in winter. It had allowed me to be close enough to the action but still remain a little above it all.
This was overkill, though.
“I think it stopped,” Jennifer’s husband, Thomas, finally said. At least I assumed it was her husband, judging by the way she had her arm wrapped in his.
“No, listen closely,” the man who must have been Hazel’s husband, Reg, replied. “You can hear it tapping against the glass.”
“Even so, it’s not enough to worry about,” Thomas replied.
“Says the man who isn’t going to be driving home in it tonight,” Reg replied, grinning. It appeared the two men were friends as well, given their bantering nature. In a way, it made perfect sense to me. Hazel, Jennifer, and Elizabeth were all so close, and all in the perceived same social network, that it would have been bound to happen that their husbands would at least get along.
“Yes, you’re the champion of the common man,” Thomas said with a grin.
The caterer shot him a quick glance flush with anger, but she managed to suppress it so quickly that I wasn’t even absolutely positive that I hadn’t imagined it.
Evidently I hadn’t. Thomas saw the look as well, and he quickly apologized. “Please forgive me for being so glib with my friend. We tend to poke each other at every opportunity, and I didn’t think before I spoke. I am truly sorry. I didn’t mean to be insulting.”
“Of course,” the caterer said, though her lips were still pressed firmly together after she said it.
Jennifer stepped in at that moment and whispered something quickly to the caterer, who immediately smiled.
“What did I just miss?” Thomas asked his wife, clearly a bit miffed that she’d whispered what she’d said instead of saying it loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“Do you really want to know, dear?” Jennifer asked him sweetly, though it was clear there was more than a hint of warning in it. I knew the fiery redhead. If he called her bluff, or what he might perceive was a bluff, she’d tell him exactly what she’d said, and right in front of the rest of us, too.
“Never mind. I said I was sorry. What more can I do?” he asked.
“You can help the caterers after the meal by taking their equipment downstairs to their van,” Jennifer suggested.
“I can do that,” Thomas agreed happily.
“That’s what you get for calling me common,” Reg said, chiding the man while he had the chance.
“As a matter of fact, my husband would be delighted to help you as well,” Hazel said, giving her spouse a severe look.
“Me? What did I do?” he protested.
She didn’t answer, at least not with words. It was amazing to me how much power one arched eyebrow had, though.
“What I meant to say was that I’d be delighted to join you,” Reg added quickly.
That got him a kiss on the cheek from his wife, which seemed to be all of the positive reinforcement that he needed.
“Now that that’s all settled, let’s eat, shall we?” Elizabeth asked. It was clear the entire evening was grating on her nerves, and I suspected that the sooner it was over, the happier she’d be.
“Let’s,” I said. “But we still need to deal with Joan’s note.”
“I keep telling you all, it wasn’t meant for me!” Joan protested. “And I’d really appreciate it if you’d stop saying that it was.”
“The mystery note, then,” I corrected. “I don’t suppose anyone wants to confess to authoring it, do they?”
What a shock. No one stepped forward.
“Very well,” Jake said as he removed an evidence bag from his tux jacket pocket to put the note in. “If you all don’t mind, I’ll just hold onto this for now.” I had been expecting some kind of statement clarifying his position, but it appeared that I was in the minority.
“What are you, some kind of cop or something?” Cheyenne asked him, clearly interested in my husband for the first time that evening. Money might have done it for Candida, but with Cheyenne, it appeared that she was attracted to lawmen. It wasn’t that unusual, and it didn’t help matters that my husband looked so dashing in his tuxedo, but I still didn’t have to like it.
“I used to be, once upon a time,” he admitted.
“Interesting,” Bernard Mallory murmured as he looked at Candida.
“It can be,” Jake agreed.
“I feel so safe just knowing that you’re here,” Cheyenne said with admiration clear in her voice. I may not have been happy about her giving my husband attention, but Jason was clearly even less pleased.
“You heard the caterer,” he snapped. “We won’t solve anything this minute, so let’s eat before everything gets cold.”
As we all walked into the dining room again, I made it a point to put my arm in my husband’s. I held him back while the others moved forward so we could have a little chat.
“Surely you’re not jealous of her, Suzanne. She’s just a child.”
“Intellectually? You’re probably right about that. But physically? You’re not blind, and neither am I, so don’t even bother. She looks all grown up to me.”
“Suzanne, don’t be crazy. She’s young enough to be….” He let the sentence die, but I know that he’d been about to say she could have been his daughter. Jake’s first wife had been pregnant when she’d died in a car wreck, and to this day, it hurt him to mention what he’d lost. We’d talked about it ourselves in the past, but it was something he was less and less willing to share with strangers as the years went by.
“Who do you think wrote the note? And was it meant for Joan or someone else?” I asked him, doing my best to distract him from his dark thoughts.
“I honestly don’t know,” Jake said, “but it bears looking into. In the meantime, be careful. I shouldn’t have been so quick to admit that I used to be a cop. Did you see the way everyone closed up when I said it?”
“Everyone except Cheyenne, you mean?” I asked him with a smile.
“This is serious,” he replied.
“I know it is. I just don’t have a clue about any of it,” I answered. “I could see someone leaving it for Jason, but several other folks here could qualify for that kind of harsh message as well. The real question is, what can we do about it at the moment?”
“There’s nothing we can do,” Jake said. “Just watch your step and keep your eyes open.”
“I always try to do both of those things,” I replied.
“Suzanne, I’m not joking. Someone has a mean streak in them, and it might just escalate into something more than leaving a nasty note.”
“I know that just as much as you do,” I said. We had to end our conversation as we all returned to the dining room.
“Are you two coming?” Jennifer asked as she noticed that we’d been lagging behind.
“We’re on our way,” I said, doing my best to put on a brave face.
The truth was that suddenly I didn’t
feel all that much like a party.
The note, and the revelations that had come afterwards, had put a damper on the atmosphere, and I knew that my husband was right.
It would pay for us both to be on our toes until we were on our way home again.
Whenever that might be.
Maybe Jake had been right after all. His instincts, for whatever reason, had been urging us both back to April Springs.
Only now that probably wasn’t an option. With the icy rain still coming down outside, we were all getting closer and closer to being stuck in the penthouse, whether we liked it or not.
CHAPTER 8
As we all walked into the dining room, Thomas’s cell phone rang. It was a jarring sound, given that we’d basically been in a communication blackout. I wondered if he had some kind of super phone that could pick up a signal anywhere or if the boosters were working again, at least for the moment.
“I didn’t think we got reception here,” Bernard Mallory protested. Evidently he’d thought the same thing.
“What can I say? A lot of times it’s hit and miss,” Jason replied.
“Excuse me,” Thomas said. “I really have to take this.” He looked at his wife for approval, and she nodded.
After a brief conversation, Thomas rejoined us. Instead of addressing his wife, he spoke to Hazel’s husband instead. “That was Shag.”
“What happened?” Reg asked, the dread heavy in his voice.
“Greta left him an hour ago.”
“We need to go,” Reg answered, as though it weren’t up for debate.
“I know,” Thomas said, and then he finally turned to his wife. “Jennifer, he sounds as though he might do something desperate. Is there any chance you and Hazel will leave the party with us?” Before she could answer, he glanced at Elizabeth, not Jason. “I’m sorry to do this, and I wouldn’t if it weren’t an emergency, but a friend of ours is in serious trouble. Reg and I have known him for years, and if we don’t try to help him and something happens to him tonight, we’ll never be able to forgive ourselves.”
“You can go without me,” Jennifer said. “I’ll be fine right here.”
Thomas clearly didn’t like that idea. “Seriously? I hate abandoning you like that.”
I was standing close enough to hear her next words, but I doubted that anyone else was. “Elizabeth needs us, too. Go.”
“I’ll be back first thing tomorrow morning,” he said as he kissed his wife.
“Don’t take any chances. If the roads are slick, wait until they are salted,” she told him.
“If they’re icy, I’ll skate back,” he said with a grin.
Reg looked at Hazel pleadingly. After a split second, she nodded as she said, “Of course you should go with Thomas. Your friend needs you. Besides, the party’s going to last for three days. It will be fine. Give Shag my love.”
“You are the best,” Reg said, and after he gave her a quick kiss, he and Thomas headed for the door.
“What about your bags?” Jason reminded them.
“We’ll pick them up in the morning,” Reg said.
“How are they going to get out?” Jake asked our host. “The guard downstairs told us this place was some kind of fortress when it’s in lockdown mode.”
“I’ll let them out,” Jason said. “I know the code.”
“Do you mind if I tag along, too?” Jake offered.
“It’s really not necessary,” Jason answered, clearly unhappy about my husband’s request.
“But I insist,” Jake replied calmly. I could have told Jason that he might as well give up. Jake’s mind was made up, and he wouldn’t change it short of gunpoint. Well, maybe not even then, unless my life was at stake or something equally dire.
“Do you two want to come as well?” Jason asked irritably of the other men. I was a little offended by not being included, but I knew that the offer hadn’t been a sincere one anyway.
“No, thanks. I’m good,” Henry Jackson said.
“As am I,” Bernard Mallory added.
“Then let’s go. The sooner we get you two on your way, the quicker we can eat,” Jason said.
“In the meantime, we’ll delay our meal a few minutes until you and Jake return,” Elizabeth said without much warmth.
That clearly made the caterer unhappy. It was obvious that she wanted to get out of there with her staff before the roads became impassable, and I couldn’t say that I blamed her.
I decided that there wouldn’t be a better time to get Elizabeth alone than with her husband downstairs with mine. The moment they were gone, I said, “Elizabeth, do you have a second? Jennifer, Hazel, and I would like to speak to you.”
“This really isn’t a good time,” our friend said, clearly not pleased that we were forcing her hand.
“It won’t take a second,” Jennifer assured her.
“What are we talking about?” Lara Jackson asked as she tried to join us.
“Sorry, but it’s official book club business,” Hazel said, rebuffing her without remorse.
“Wow, you really take your club seriously, don’t you?” she asked us with sarcasm.
“It’s important to us,” Jennifer said as she took Elizabeth’s arm in hers and headed for a quiet corner of the living room. Hazel and I were right behind her.
It was finally time to have that little chat I’d been promised, whether Elizabeth liked it or not.
“What is going on with you?” Jennifer asked Elizabeth the second we were all alone.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Elizabeth protested weakly.
“There’s no use trying to deny it, because we all saw it. You were obviously crying earlier,” I said.
“Why are you all ganging up on me?” she asked us in a hurt voice. “I thought it was a good thing inviting you to this party. This is a chance to celebrate our friendships.”
“Are we really all friends, though? Six of your guests don’t appear to match the rest of us,” Hazel said, and then she quickly added, “I’m not being a snob, but I’m not sure why an estranged old friend of your husband and his business partner are here with their significant others, not to mention two women who work for Jason’s firm. They don’t really seem to fit in under the friendship category.”
“I might even understand the rest of them being invited for whatever reason, but I just don’t understand why Cheyenne and Joan are here as well,” Jennifer added.
“Get in line,” Elizabeth said petulantly. She turned to me as she added, “Suzanne, if you must know, that was the reason I was crying. Jason sprang it on me at the last second, and we had a huge fight. It was bad enough that he invited that thug and his girlfriend to my party, but to include that tramp? It’s insulting to our marriage and the vows we took a long time ago.”
“What about Henry and Lara Jackson?” I asked. “Why did he invite them? There’s a great deal of anger there, especially with Lara. Henry seems as though he’s trying to make it work, but his wife clearly despises your husband.”
“Inviting them here was my idea. Henry and Jason have been friends since they were children, and I’ve hated seeing them fighting this way.”
“It’s not like this is a childhood spat. They have a reason to be so angry with him,” Hazel said before I could figure out how to say it a little more diplomatically.
“What are you talking about?” Elizabeth asked, clearly surprised by Hazel’s statement.
“Jason lost their life savings,” I said.
“Oh, that?” she asked, trying to brush it off. “Everyone lost money on that deal. Besides, Jason didn’t make Henry do anything he didn’t want to do. Is it my husband’s fault that Lara doesn’t understand that? I swear, if she’d just realize that in business, not every deal makes money, this wouldn’t be such an issue. Even Henry seems to understand, but there’s no getting through to Lara. She needs to grow up, if you ask me. You shouldn’t gamble if you’re that afraid of losing. I know my husband has his faults, but he would never p
urposely hurt a friend like that.”
Elizabeth was defending Jason to the end, even with their problems, and I had to admire that, even though I thought some of her loyalty was misplaced. I loved Jake dearly, but that didn’t mean that I had to defend every last one of his thoughts and actions. Besides, she was being a little too cavalier about someone else’s life savings in my opinion. It didn’t surprise me that I could relate to Henry and Lara more than I could my book club friends. It had been my experience that the only people who said that money didn’t matter were the ones who had plenty of it to spare.
“The problem with that attitude is that the Jacksons believe that Jason didn’t lose anything,” Hazel said.
“I’m willing to bet that Lara said that,” Elizabeth said with a frown. “She’s resented my husband’s friendship with her husband for years. That investment was just the latest in a long line of complaints she’s had against him.”
“Then why is she even here?” I asked.
“Who knows? Jason was flabbergasted when he learned that they’d agreed to attend. I’m willing to bet that Henry is as desperate to save his friendship with Jason as Lara is to destroy it.”
“That explains them, but why are Bernard and Candida here? Is that even a real name, Candida?”
“In this day and age, who knows?” Elizabeth asked. “Their presence is odd, I’ll grant you that. They just showed up, at least as far as I was concerned, but clearly Jason had invited them earlier. I told him that he was ruining our celebration, and he started yelling at me! He told me that if he couldn’t work things out this weekend with Bernard, there wouldn’t be any cause to celebrate.” Elizabeth bit her lower lip for a moment before she added softly, “Apparently Jason has gotten himself into some kind of financial trouble. I suppose we both are, truth be told, deeper than I’ve ever seen it in the past.”
“This has happened before?” Jennifer asked, clearly surprised by the news.
“It’s not something I like to talk about,” she said.
“Elizabeth, what it all boils down to is that we’re worried about you,” Hazel said, which was true enough.