by Tegan Maher
“And you weren’t having any doubts about the relationship?” I asked and was a little surprised when his ruddy cheeks pinked under his tan.
“I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “She was an okay woman, but I doubt we would have made it to the year mark.”
“Did you kill her?” I asked. I figured if I could catch him by surprise, he might get flustered.
“What? No!” There was no pause, and the outrage on his face was real. Also, my meter didn’t so much as quiver.
I nodded. “Okay. I believe you. I had to ask though.”
“What about Noreen?” Hunter asked, shooting me a dirty look. I supposed that was probably a question I should have let him get around to in his own time.
Frank thought for a minute before answering. “I don’t imagine so. They were friends. About the only close one Barbie had. She was a member of the Keyhole Lake Chamber of Commerce and had some girls from there that she’d hang out with sometimes, but mostly it was just her and Noreen. They did somethin’ at least twice a week.”
“Noreen said Barbie Lee was gonna make her a partner,” I said.
He pressed his lips together in thought. “Maybe so. I know Barbie was tryin’ to take on new clients and that Noreen had found her a few leads. I suppose it’s possible.”
“Had they fought recently?” Hunter asked.
“Not that I know of,” Frank said, taking a pull from his beer. “Last I knew, they were goin’ out to Fancy’s last night. I don’t know why Noreen wasn’t with her.”
Hunter nodded. “Okay, then, we’ll get out of your hair. Can you think of anybody else—tenants, owners, anybody—who might have wanted her dead bad enough to do it?”
He shrugged. “Miranda was spittin’ mad when I went out there yesterday afternoon and told her I had to order a unit. Can’t say as I blame her because it was hot as Hades in that apartment, and it had already been three days. She was lookin’ at another three because I had to order the AC, plus another day on top of that at least for me to install it. That’s a two-man job, and my assistant only works on certain days because he’s goin’ to trade school to become a tech.”
“Was she murderin’ mad though?” I asked.
He cast Hunter a guilty look. “I hate to say it, but yeah, maybe. This wasn’t the first time she’s had to wait on maintenance. She had a whole slew of choice words that I don’t care to repeat. She did her best not to take it out on me, but if Barbie’d been standin’ there, she’da been pickin’ her teeth up off the ground.”
I sighed. That was another check in the Miranda column, and we were starting to run out of options.
Chapter 16
“I hate to ask it, but how well do you really know Miranda?” Hunter asked once we were back in the truck.
I shrugged, starting to wonder myself if maybe we already had our murderer. It wasn’t looking good for her. “Not well. Just from talking to her at Fancy’s, I suppose. But I’d like to think I’m a better judge of character than to miss that.”
“Anybody’s capable of murder under the right circumstances,” he said, casting me a sideways glance.
“Do you really believe that?” I asked, and he nodded.
“I do, especially in this circumstance. I don’t think most people would commit premeditated murder, but I think that most of us could do it if we were mad enough or if there was enough at stake. Think about it. Can you imagine killing somebody if it was them or Shelby?”
When he put it that way, I had to nod. After all, I’d been in that situation. I hadn’t killed any of the witches that had attacked us, but I would have in a heartbeat if I’d had no other choice.
“Yeah, I suppose I can. But we also live under much different rules than most people. I mean, we have people with deadly magic that would like to remove us from the planet.”
“Is that really different, though?” he asked. “The concept is the same and so are the emotions. If it came down to Shelby or the person who was threatening her, it wouldn’t matter if they were magical or not. If a bank robber had a gun to her head, or if somebody tried to kidnap her in a parking lot, you wouldn’t even think twice. You’d just react. Or if somebody was attacking you, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine hitting them with a rock to get them off of you. You might not even mean to kill them, but it could happen.”
“So you think maybe this was an accident? Maybe Miranda and Barbie got into it and Miranda hit her in self-defense?”
“Maybe, he said, lifting a shoulder. “Or maybe she just got so mad that she whacked her in the spur of the moment.”
I shivered and kicked the freezing AC down a little. “I suppose so. Have you gotten anything back on the hair that was wrapped around her fingers?”
His gaze whipped to me. “How did you know about that?”
“I do have eyes,” I said, smiling. “Before you got there, I took a look for myself. I was afraid somebody would do somethin’ goofy like move her, so I figured I’d take a look while I could.”
He huffed a breath out through his nose and smiled. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. But to answer your question, no. It’s too soon yet. Jim said he’d do his best to have something back to us today. Tomorrow at the latest. I got a search warrant for Miranda’s house and sent her hairbrush along with the sample. We might not know who did it if there’s not a DNA match, but we will know for sure whether or not that hair was Miranda’s.”
Jim was Keyhole’s coroner and forensics expert. He was born and raised here but had moved to Atlanta after he’d graduated from college to work for the FBI. He still spent most weekends and as many of his days off as he could here. If we needed anything at all, we just had to ship it to him, and he gave us priority if he didn’t have any outstanding cases of his own.
“So until then, we have diddly squat.” I was frustrated even though I knew from experience that murders weren’t usually solved in a day.
“Well,” he said with a deep breath. “Yeah, we do. We have Miranda.”
Something occurred to me. “Were you able to unlock Barbie Lee’s phone?”
He nodded. Yeah. The only people she talked to all day were Miranda, another tenant who had a leaky ceiling according to the voice mail, Harvey Jackson—that’s the guy she was with at Bobbie Sue’s—and Frank. She had texts from Frank, too, and several from Noreen. Some were about work, then there was the one call, where I assume she canceled their trip to Fancy’s.”
That was disappointing, but again, it wasn’t like I expected somebody to call her and say, “Hey, Barbie Lee, this is so-and-so, and I’m on my way to Fancy’s. Come out the back door so I can smash you in the head with a rock.” Though that would have been handy for sure.
“What are you doing now?” I asked.
“There’s not much to do. I’d like to talk to the people Barbie worked for, but it’s Sunday, and all of their offices are closed. None of them are local, so it’s not like I can hop in the truck and go question them in person.”
“No, I suppose you can’t. If you don’t mind, drop me off at my shop. I’m gonna swing by and grab my truck. I brought it and the trailer to town. Do you gotta go back to the office?”
He shook his head. “Nope. I locked up when we left, and like I said, there’s not much else I can do before tomorrow anyway.”
“How about you follow me back to the farm, I’ll drop off the truck, then we’ll swing by and grab a pizza from Duck’s and head to your place. I’d like to get those bedrooms painted so we can put the pin in that part.”
We’d been slowly remodeling the house he’d bought when he’d decided he was going to stay in Keyhole, and all we had left was some painting. It was a nice three-bedroom, but even though he was living at the farm, he hadn’t decided to sell it or rent it out. I think in the back of our minds, it was there in case living together turned out to be a flop. We were past that, now, though, so it was time to figure something out.
“That sounds good,” he said. “Oh, in all the confusion, I forgot
to tell you I talked to Kenny. He has a vacation coming up at the end of summer and wants to come visit us.”
Kenny was one of his buddies from Indianapolis. Hunter had left there to get a fresh start, but he’d kept in touch with a handful of people. Kenny was one of them.
“Sounds good to me,” I said. “Anna Mae’s getting married in September, remember. Aside from that, my schedule’s wide open.”
He laughed. “I don’t imagine he’ll want to do a wedding, so we’ll schedule around that if possible. Besides, I have best man duties that I’ll be dealing with, so I’d rather not have to entertain anybody while I’m trying to do that. Or split my time.”
We spent the next twenty minutes talking about the wedding details. His list was a lot shorter than mine, but he was serious about them. And to be fair, it was his responsibility to make sure Matt was dressed and the ring made it, so I’d say in terms of importance, we had an equal share. The bachelor party was, of course, a secret affair, though I suspected it was going to be a quiet deal. Matt wasn’t big on crowds; even though he’d overcome a lot of his anxiety in the last few years, his PTSD was still a serious issue that he struggled with.
Hunter dropped me off at my truck with a kiss and a promise to get my favorite toppings. I didn’t want to tell him, but he really was all that and a bag of chips.
Chapter 17
We spent the whole evening working on his house, but we managed to finish it up. All we had left to do was put the furniture back in place. He’d already brought some pieces over to the farm and had decided to leave the rest in the house and sell or rent it furnished. He was leaning toward renting it because it never hurt to own an extra house.
I was grateful that my deadbeat father didn’t show up in my dreams with his weird unicorn, so I got the rest I needed and was fresh as a daisy for the shopping excursion with Anna Mae. She was almost vibrating with excitement when she got out of the truck.
“You ready?” she asked, tucking a strand of platinum hair behind her ear. “I wanna get a head start so we can have lunch afterward. I didn’t want to eat before I tried on the dresses.”
“You look awesome. Besides, you’re gonna be eating at the reception, so you may as well have it fitted so you have a little room!”
“Hopefully I’ll have lost this last five pounds of baby weight by then, so the wiggle room will be built in. I swear, no matter how hard I try, my hips just won’t cooperate.”
“Knock it off. You’re gorgeous. Now get in the car. I didn’t eat either, but that’s only because I overslept. I did, however, bring muffins, so if you’re not going to eat yours, I’m eating in front of you.”
She grinned as we climbed into her little sports car, and I couldn’t help but notice how much different she was from the timid woman I’d known for so long. When she’d been married to Hank, she’d always sort of faded into the background, almost like she was trying to make herself smaller. She probably had been, I suppose. But now that he was dead, she was rich and independent, and Matt was in her life, she was confident, sassy, and most importantly, she was happy.
There was an open spot right in front of the boutique, so she zipped into it. By the time I dropped a couple of dimes in the meter, she was already inside.
“Hey, ladies!” Penelope, an impeccably dressed, middle-aged redhead with a short shag called to us as we entered. “I was wondering when I’d see you.”
“I just had to wait until I shed the baby weight,” Anna Mae said. “But now I’m here with bells on! I want to try on the dress in the window please, and Noelle’s going to look for bridesmaid dresses.”
“Let me get that for you, then,” Penelope said. “Is that the only one you want to look at?”
“No, but it’s my favorite that I’ve seen,” Anna Mae replied, her blue eyes sparkling. She looked around. “There are so many choices!”
“You look around while I’m getting it. Do you think you want a veil or a hat or a hairpiece? Maybe a combination?”
“I think I’ll have to see them all,” Anna Mae replied. “I didn’t get much of a say in anything when I married Hank. Mama Doolittle did it all. The only thing I did was show up for the fittings.”
That made me mad all over again, but rather than let it darken the day, I doubled down on my resolve to make this the wedding of her dreams. “You wear whatever you want. It’s your day.”
She was grinning like a kid in a candy store. “If you wanna pick through the racks over there, I’ll start looking at the bridesmaid dresses.”
It wasn’t going to be too hard to pick a color because it was just me, Rae, Bobbie Sue, and Coralee. Even though Coralee was a blonde, she had the same complexion as Bobbie Sue and me minus the freckles. And Rae looked good in just about anything. I was the biggest of the three of us, so if I found something that complimented my figure, those two would be knockouts. The only rules I’d been given were no shoulder pads and no weird floofy skirts. I could work with that.
Penelope came back with the butterfly dress and barely had a chance to hand it over before Anna Mae was rushing to the dressing room.
“You need any help in there?” I called.
“Yeah, I need you to zip me.”
I stepped in and slid the zipper up, and when she turned around, I was stunned into speechlessness. It was like the dress had been made just for her.
“Oh, Anna Mae, it’s stunning,” I said, trying to take in all the little details. Butterflies trailed up the long satin sleeves, complemented by seed pearls and sequins, and a lone butterfly adorned the neckline so that the wings formed the dip at the cleavage.
I wasn’t a crier, but it was all I could do to hold back the tears. “That’s the one,” I said.
“You don’t think I should try on the others?”
I lifted my shoulders. “I don’t think you need to, but that’s what we’re here for, right? So if you want to try on fifteen more, I say go for it.”
“You should try some on, too,” she said, her expression sly.
That hit me sort of like a sledgehammer between the eyes. She was right; before too long, I’d be needing one. Oddly, I found the idea exciting rather than terrifying. I reined it in though because this was her wedding, not mine. There would be plenty of time after hers, and I refused to steal so much as a rumble of her thunder.
“That’s a trip for another day,” I said, grinning. “Today, I need to pick out bridesmaid dresses, and you get to try on all the frilly white ones. Now come on out here so you can see yourself in it.”
Penelope had an area where she’d arranged mirrors so that you could see yourself from all angles. I followed Anna Mae, trailing the train out behind her. The dress was truly a masterful creation.
“That looks amazing on you,” Penelope said. “It won’t need hardly any altering, and it’s a one-of-a-kind, too.”
“Really?” I asked. “Is it some fancy designer?”
She smiled. “I’m not sure about fancy, but it’s one of my own creations.”
My jaw about hit the floor. “Really? I didn’t realize you made dresses, too.”
She nodded. “My mother taught me to sew. She was a whiz at dresses, and after I helped her make one, I was hooked. Of course, most of the ones in here are from other designers. There’s no way I could keep up with demand. It took me weeks to make that. But now I can’t help but feel like the fates had her in mind as they guided my hand.”
Anna Mae was moving and checking herself out from all angles, her face glowing. “I agree. I want it, but I also want to try on others just for fun!”
“Try on as many as you like,” Penelope said, smiling. While you do that, I’m going to go help another client on the seamstress side. I’ll be back in a few.”
I helped Anna Mae out of the dress, then handed her in another that she’d picked and hung up the butterfly one on a nearby rack. While she was changing, I pulled a couple bridesmaid dresses I liked from the racks and took them to the other dressing room. One was an emerald d
ress, and one was a vibrant purple. I tried them on, trying to picture Bobbie Sue, Coralee, and Rae in them. The green, I decided, but I liked them both. I’d let Anna Mae pick the final, assuming she was happy with them.
I changed back into my shorts and tank top and stepped out of the dressing room.
“You okay in there, Anna Mae?” I called, then froze. Olivia was standing at the rack where we’d hung Anna Mae’s dress, running her fingers over the butterflies.
“Hands off,” I hissed so Anna Mae wouldn’t hear.
“Hands off of what?” Olivia asked, never taking her eyes off the dress. “This is the return rack. Anything on there is for sale, and I like it.”
“It’s Anna Mae’s,” I growled. I didn’t want to cause a scene in Penelope’s, but I would if I had to. That dress was made for Anna Mae, and I’d die before Olivia Anderson walked away with it. Or, more precisely, I’d kill her before I let her walk away with it. I’d just have to be careful not to get blood on the dress.
“It was on the return rack,” she snarled back. “And I like it. As a matter of fact, I’m going to take it up and buy it right now.”
“Noelle? Is everything okay? That sounds like Olivia.” Anna Mae’s voice was tinged with concern and a bit of distaste.
“It is,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at Olivia. “But she was just shoving off to find herself another dress.”
“What do you mean, another dress?” Rustling sounds came from her dressing room, and I knew she was changing back into her street clothes.
“You have three seconds to hand that dress over before something really bad happens to you.” I said to Olivia, keeping my voice low.
“Like what?” she asked, smirking as she backed away from me. “Are you going to hit me here in broad daylight, in someplace as civilized as a bridal boutique? You wanna risk damaging the dress?”
She was right. I’d have to curse her, snatch the dress, then uncurse her. Or not. Maybe I’d leave her there for Penelope to use as a mannequin. She’d have to cover up the ugly, but there were plenty of veils.