The Final Vow

by Amanda Flower

  “She didn’t do it,” Benji said defensively, flipping one of her braids over her shoulder.

  “I know you care about her. I’ll try to believe that, for your sake.”

  Benji’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Thanks, Kel.”

  I folded my arms. “But to help her, I’m going to have to know what sent her to jail.”

  Benji sighed. “That’s what I was afraid you’d say.”

  twenty-one

  Detective Brandon eyed us as Benji and I drew closer to the church. We were within a few feet when she said, “You win, Cambridge.”

  “I—I win?” I stammered. Of all the remarks the detective could have made when she saw me, I hadn’t ever considered that one to be in the realm of possibility.

  She shrugged. “Yep, you win.”

  I really would have doubted that I’d heard her correctly the first time if she hadn’t repeated the remark.

  “How did I win?” I asked.

  She gestured toward the church. “You win access to the church. I got a call from the mayor just a little while ago, ordering me to release the church back into your care tomorrow morning.”

  “From the mayor?” Benji yelped. “Of New Hartford?”

  I would have yelped it too if she hadn’t beat me to it. “The mayor called you?” I still had trouble believing it. The mayor was an overweight, elderly man who’d been in office since the 1990s. As far as anyone in the village knew, he didn’t do much more than play Solitaire on his city-paid-for laptop in his enormous office on the third floor of the town hall. Despite that, no one in the town had run against him in the last twenty years. The people of New Hartford like the status quo and a mayor who stayed out of their personal business.

  Brandon nodded. “Apparently, he and your Henry Ratcliffe friend play poker together twice a week. Henry called the mayor and told him what happened. The mayor offered to take care of the ‘little mix-up with the church,’ so the mayor called me.”

  “Because Krissie insists on having her wedding inside the church even after what happened,” I said. No wonder Brandon was upset. I certainly wouldn’t want to receive a call from the town mayor like that.

  The detective pointed her index finger at me and mocked pulling the trigger. “You got it.”

  I frowned. “Detective, you sound almost defeated.”

  She glanced at me before putting sunglasses over her eyes. “I don’t like being called into the principal’s office, as it were. The mayor doesn’t care that this is an active crime scene, about the chain of evidence, or that a young woman was murdered. He just cares about winning at poker. Even more than that, I don’t like an old boys club.”

  My frown deepened as it dawned on me how hard it must be for her to be the only female officer on the force. Yes, she was tough, and yes, she outranked most of the men there. However, the fact that she was a woman made her stand out, and stand out in a way that she didn’t always want. I’d always suspected that she’d dressed plainly in order to be counted as one of the boys in the department. Now I was sure of it.

  “In any case,” I said, “I hope you were able to do whatever it is you needed to do in there in order to find out what happened to Vianna.”

  She frowned. “I’ll find out who is behind this, and that’s something I’m certain of.”

  Next to me, Benji winced. I knew that she must be thinking of Piper as a prime suspect in Vianna’s murder. I realized that Brandon must know what Piper was guilty of.

  “I’ll let Krissie know what’s going on,” I said. “She’ll be grateful that she’ll be able to have the wedding ceremony in the church. It’s her dream.”

  Brandon lifted her sunglasses and eyed me. “Was it her dream ever since she was a little girl, or just since she met you and wanted to make you miserable?”

  I didn’t even bother to answer.

  The detective’s lips curved in a smile. “Thought so.” She seemed pleased with herself, and here I was a moment ago feeling sorry for her. There was no reason to feel sorry for Detective Candy Brandon, as far as I could tell.

  I rocked back on my heels. “Did you know about Vianna’s inheritance?”

  Brandon smiled. “I was wondering when you would find out about that.”

  “It’s hard not to when there’s a reporter standing outside the visitor center asking what I knew about it.” I scowled.

  She dropped her sunglasses back down over her eyes. “I knew the press would get a whiff of it eventually. I just wish it had taken them a little more time.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? How long have you known?” I demanded.

  She rolled her eyes. “I had no reason to tell you. And I’ve only known since we searched Vianna’s apartment. We found paternity test results on her kitchen table that proved she was Maxwell’s daughter.”

  “You just sat on that information.” I threw up my hands. “It could be the reason why someone murdered her.”

  Brandon scowled, and deep lines appeared on either side of her mouth. “Of course I know that. And I didn’t just sit on it. I was figuring out the number of people who knew who Vianna really was, thinking I could narrow down my suspect list.” She eyed me. “You appear to be surprised by the news.”

  “I didn’t know. Am I suspect?” I asked.

  She chuckled. “Everyone is a suspect. Just some are more likely than others. And as far as I can tell, very few people knew. Only Henry Ratcliffe from the Cherry Foundation, and Vianna’s assistant Piper.”

  Beside me, I heard Benji take in a sharp intake of breath.

  I wasn’t surprised to hear that Henry knew. Vianna would have gone to him first when she’d learned about it. Piper knowing about it was a surprise. I peeked at Benji out of the corner of my eye. She was playing with her new radio, flipping it over and over again in her slender hands. I had a feeling that the radio’s days were numbered.

  Another thought struck me. “How long did Vianna know that she was Maxwell’s daughter? Why is this just coming to light now?”

  The police detective studied me like she was trying to decide how much to tell me.

  “If you don’t tell me, I’ll just go to Henry.”

  Brandon sighed. She knew this wasn’t an idle threat on my part. “According to Henry, Vianna told him she found a letter and a handful of documents that her mother left her, telling her who her father was. Her mother passed away last year.”

  My heart constricted. “I knew she didn’t have any family, but I didn’t know she’d lost her mother so recently.”

  Brandon raised her eyebrows. “Did you have a reason to know? I wasn’t under the impression the two of you were close.”

  “We weren’t, but if I’d known, I would have … ” I trailed off. I would have what?

  “You would have what? Been kinder to her?” Her tone was ironic.

  I clenched my jaw. “I might have been more understanding as to why she was being so difficult, if I’d known she was going through a hard time.”

  “Maybe you should just assume that everyone is going through something you don’t know about and be kind to everyone,” Brandon said.

  The comment smarted because I knew she was right. And the fact that I had to hear it from her of all people, who was rude to just about everyone she met, made it that much worse.

  “And you don’t need to tell Krissie that the church will be available for the wedding,” the detective added.

  I frowned, surprised by her sudden change of topic. I’d expected her to continue to make me feel as terrible as possible. “I don’t?”

  “She already knows.” Brandon nodded to spot behind me. I turned to see Krissie and Piper heading in our direction from Maple Grove Lane. They weren’t alone. Much to my surprise, they had Justin Cambridge, Eddie’s young brother the environmental lawyer, in tow. What on earth was Eddie’s brother doing there? I
had a bad feeling about this in the pit of my stomach.

  “Kelsey!” Krissie called across the wide expanse of lawn. “Thank goodness that you’re here.” She ran across the green toward me. Her stride was stilted because her pointy heels continually became snagged in the grass. Piper and Justin followed in her wake at a much more sedate pace.

  Krissie wasn’t the least bit out of breath when she reached me. She did teach people to exercise for a living, so she was in top physical shape herself. For the briefest moment, I wondered if that meant she’d be strong enough to throw Vianna through the window.

  “Kelsey, did you hear the news?” she shouted when she was a mere three feet away from me.

  “What news?” I asked, even though I assumed she meant the reopening of the church, not the reporters learning that Vianna was Maxwell Cherry’s heir.

  “The wedding will be in the church!” Krissie threw her arms around me. “Isn’t it wonderful? I can have the wedding I always dreamed of.” I grimaced as she hugged me. “You really came through for me, Kelsey!”

  “I’m happy to help,” I said. “But why is Justin here?”

  Justin threw up his hands. “What, are you disappointed to see me, Kel?”

  “Surprised is a better word.” I frowned at my former brother-in-law.

  He gave me his boyish grin in return. His dark hair was tousled as if he’d just woken up from a nap, which wasn’t out of the question when Justin was concerned. I’d caught him snoozing mid-day more than once when I was married to his older brother.

  Krissie gripped her small flower-printed handbag tighter. “Justin is here about the chickens.”

  “The chickens?” I asked. I didn’t even bother to keep the surprise from my voice.

  She nodded. “The attack chickens. They have got to go, you know.”

  I shot Benji a look. I knew that her calling Shepley’s hens ‘attack chickens’ would come back to haunt me. Everything always did, when Krissie was concerned.

  Benji must have thought the tops of her boots were the most interesting things in the world, because she stared at them intently. She and I would talk about the chickens later. She and I both knew it.

  “They aren’t attack chickens,” I said. “They’re just plain old free-

  range chickens. They’re nothing to worry about.”

  “How can you even say that?” Krissie cried. “They charged me yesterday, before all this unpleasantness happened.”

  “Unpleasantness” was one way to describe Vianna’s death.

  “They were walking by,” I said. “They didn’t charge you.”

  Justin rubbed the back of his head, mussing his hair even more. Not that it made much difference in his appearance. Justin was boy-next-door cute, just like his older brother. And a long string of women had fallen for his charms. The problem with Justin was, he became bored easily and was always on the lookout for the next girl to charm. I noticed him give the detective a once-over. If I was kinder, I might have warned him that whatever he was thinking was a very, very bad idea, but as it turned out, I wasn’t that kind. Justin was a big boy and would have to learn that lesson on his own.

  Benji pushed her braids out of her eyes and spoke for the first time. “You can’t kick the chickens off the Farm. Where are the chickens going to go? They live here.”

  “Not any more. Tell them, Justin.” She elbowed her future brother-in-law.

  Eddie’s younger brother looked pained, but I suspected the pain came more from Krissie’s orders than from her elbow. “I thought we could take some time to catch up first,” he said.

  Krissie elbowed him in the ribs a little bit harder, and he grunted from the impact. “There’s no time for small talk. We don’t have all day.”

  Justin rubbed his side. “Kelsey,” he began.

  When he said that, I knew I was in trouble. I’d known Justin just as long as I’d known Eddie—practically my whole life—and the younger of the two Cambridge boys rarely called me by my full first name. I was always “Kel” to them. Since he called me Kelsey, I took that as significant and a warning.

  I nodded at him to go on.

  “It’s been brought to our attention that the chickens have hurt someone. Because of that, I have asked the court to make you remove them from the Farm. It’s a public safety issue,” he added apologetically.

  I glared. “Who has been hurt by the chickens? They’ve been here all summer, and this is the first I’m hearing of a chicken-inflicted injury.”

  Krissie elbowed Piper this time. Her elbows were really getting a workout.

  Piper’s blue bangs fell over her eyes. “I have.”

  Benji stared at Piper in utter shock. I imagined my expression was much the same. A few feet away, Detective Brandon stood off to the side with a big grin on her face. I was happy to see that someone was enjoying herself.

  I glared at Justin. “I didn’t realize that best man duties include policing chickens.”

  “Come on, Kel,” he said with the same whiny sound in his voice he’d had whenever Eddie and I wanted to go somewhere without him.

  “Who wants to get rid of my chickens?” a voice bellowed from the side of the church.

  Krissie yelped and jumped behind Justin.

  “Uh oh,” Benji whispered.

  My thoughts exactly.

  twenty-two

  Shepley, looking even more bedraggled than normal, came around the church with his nostrils flaring. Long strands of his gray hair fell out of his ponytail.

  Gertrude, his large red hen, followed a few steps behind her owner. Her talons appeared longer than normal and her eyes were narrowed. They made a fearsome pair. I couldn’t blame Krissie for jumping back to hide behind Justin.

  “That’s it!” Krissie squeaked. “That’s the one that tried to peck me! And that’s the one that got Piper. Isn’t that right, Piper?”

  “Gertrude did nothing of the kind,” Shepley bellowed.

  Krissie grabbed Piper by the arm. “Show them.”

  Piper’s blue eyes went wide. “I—I—”

  Benji folded her arms across her chest. “You didn’t tell me that one of the chickens attacked you.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Detective Brandon cock her head ever so slightly, as if she was figuring something out for the very first time. I feared it was exactly what I didn’t want her to know—that Piper and Benji were a couple. I didn’t want Benji any more involved in this, as far as the police were concerned, than she already was.

  “You didn’t tell me either,” I interjected, hoping to deflect attention away from Benji’s comment.

  I felt Brandon give me an appraising look, but I refused to look at her.

  “Can we see the injury, Piper?” Brandon asked in her strongest cop voice. It wasn’t really a question. It was an order.

  Perspiration beaded on the girl’s brow. Although it was a warm day, I knew it had a lot more to do with the situation than the air temperature. Without a word, Piper lifted the sleeve of her short-sleeve dress and showed us her bare shoulder. There was a red mark there.

  Detective Brandon stepped closer to take a better look. “That looks like an abrasion to me. How would a chicken do that, and so high on your shoulder?” She glanced down at Gertrude, who was pecking at the grass at Shepley’s feet. “This must be a very special kind of chicken. Part ninja even? And I would expect to see a scratch or a puncture wound.”

  “The chicken didn’t do it!” Piper cracked under the pressure.

  “Ah ha!” Shepley cried, wagging his finger at her. “I knew she was lying. Gertrude would never hurt anyone.”

  Gertrude bent her neck and examined me with one chicken eye. I wasn’t so sure about that.

  “How did you get the abrasion, Piper?” The detective asked.

  Piper dropped her head. “I got it when I ran through the
woods.”

  “When you were running away from the scene of the crime,” Brandon said.

  Piper nodded, looking miserable.

  Benji frowned. “Why would you lie about this? Don’t you know how much trouble the Farm could get into if there were attack chickens? Don’t you care about the Farm at all? Don’t you care—”

  “I think it’s clear that Piper made a mistake and she regrets it,” I interrupted, fearing that Benji would reveal too much.

  “You lied to me!” Krissie, who’d been quietly seething up to this point, screeched.

  Piper nervously brushed her bangs from her eyes. “You didn’t give me a chance to say anything else! I tried to tell you.”

  Krissie sniffed. “You didn’t try very hard. How can I trust a wedding planner who lies to me? I’ve half a mind to fire you on the spot.”

  “Now, Krissie,” Justin said calmly. “If you fire Piper, who will you find to handle your wedding on such short notice?”

  “She can’t treat me like this!” Krissie cried.

  Justin glanced at the expensive watch on his wrist. “Wow, look at the time. Since the whole attack-chicken thing was a false alarm, and thus I don’t see any way that we can ensure you forcibly remove said chickens, I better head back to the office.” He spun on his heel and bolted toward Maple Grove Lane.

  Krissie took off after him. “Justin! Justin! Come back here!”

  “Wow,” Brandon mused. “He can really run.”

  “He ran track in high school. Sprinter,” I said.

  Brandon nodded. “I can tell.”

  The detective’s cell phone rang and she removed it from her pocket. “Detective Brandon.” She stepped away from us.

  Shepley glared at Piper and then at me. “Are you going to just let her stay here after what she did?”

  “Shepley, calm down,” I said.

  He leaned over and scooped up Gertrude, tucking her under his arm. “Someday, Miss Director, you’re going to wish you hadn’t pushed me so far.” He stomped away.

  I sighed. I would really have to grow a backbone and fire Shepley someday, but like everything else, it would have to wait until after the wedding.