He chose to answer by coughing violently, then he said, "You didn't talk to the newspeople, did you?"
"No," she said evenly.
He looked almost disappointed, then said, "Right this way," and led her and Guy to a pew in the back of the crowded chapel. "The service will begin in five minutes."
Her arrival caused a stir, she noticed. Heads turned and whispers ensued. She looked around and saw that Mona sat like a stone on the front pew, staring at the closed casket in the front of the room, with Steve Chasen sitting next to her. Curious. On the other side of the aisle, Sheena sat in the front pew, dressed outrageously in yellow—to match her car, no doubt. Next to her sat a few people whom Penny didn't recognize, but judging from the odd orange glow of their skin, she guessed that they worked for Sheena at the salon.
Hazel lifted her hand to Penny from about midway, and Penny smiled back gratefully. She saw people she recognized as Deke's clients, or colleagues from New Orleans. Jules was there, sitting off to herself on the other side of the chapel. She looked at Penny, then shook her head mournfully and looked away, rubbing the head of her carved walking stick.
Chief Allyson Davis and Detective Maynard sat on the same pew as Penny and Guy, but down a few feet. They both were watching her intently as she sat and seemed to observe how other people reacted to her presence.
The wood seat of the pew was hard and cold—like Deke, she thought suddenly, unable to reconcile the warm, fun-loving man with the body lying beneath the spray of white roses over the lid of the deep purple and bright gold casket—the colors of LSU. It was so surreal that she could almost believe he wasn't dead, that he'd simply gone on a trip or moved away. Except she'd seen his stabbed body, rid of much of its blood, his cold, dead eyes staring at nothing...
She shuddered, and next to her, Guy gripped her hand. Gloria Dalton appeared at the end of the pew and shimmied down to sit on the other side of Penny. And just before Greg Goddard closed the chapel door, Liz arrived, seeking out Penny with red-rimmed eyes. Gloria moved down so Liz could sit next to Penny. She smiled at the two women, feeling fortified by their presence.
The service was heartbreaking...heartbreakingly short, that is. There was no minister, which was strange, considering how religious Mona propped herself up to be. Greg Goddard gave the eulogy, which mentioned Deke's college days, his law degree, his practice, his father, and his mother, even his "companion" Sheena Linder...but his eight-year marriage to Penny Francisco was noticeably omitted.
She choked back tears to think their marriage hadn't even warranted a shout-out in his eulogy. Guy squeezed one hand, and Liz squeezed the other. She stared at the back of Mona's head, wishing for once that she had the ability to telepathically convey what she was thinking into the mind of another. At this moment, she hated the woman who had smothered her son, resented his choice of bride, and on occasion, bullied him.
After the eulogy, there was a short prayer and the announcement of a graveside service at Garden Hills Cemetery. Then, as a hymn played, visitors lined up to file past the closed casket to pay their respects. Since those seated in the back went first, Penny had to walk past Mona and Sheena. She glanced at her ex-mother-in-law, whose face was immobile, but her eyes were practically shooting fire. On the other side of the aisle, Sheena the "companion" was wailing like a banshee, crying, "Oh, my Deke! Oh, my precious, darling Deke!"
Penny bit her tongue—where was a moving car when she needed one?
As Penny approached the casket, she leaned on Guy's arm as the finality of Deke's death at last washed over her. The man she had loved for her entire adult life...gone, like a season that had slipped through her fingers while she wasn't looking at the calendar. The impact of the loss echoed in the canyon of her heart, exacerbated by the fact that she felt like an outsider, while his mother and his mistress held court over his casket and most of the people in the room thought she was responsible for putting Deke here. But, shored by the support of her friends, she didn't break down. Instead, she touched the casket lightly and sent a loving prayer heavenward.
And the casket tipped over, crashing to the floor and resting on one corner.
The room chorused with gasps and startled cries. Penny jumped back and stared at the casket, half expecting it to open and spill Deke out at her feet.
"Haven't you done enough?" Mona screamed at her.
Penny pulled herself up. "Couldn't you at least have acknowledged our marriage in the eulogy, Mona?"
"Get out!"
Guy positioned himself between Penny and Mona, but Penny was relatively sure he would bolt if Mona charged. Sheena was freaking out. Greg Goddard rushed to right the casket, shouting for men to help. Detective Maynard gave him a hand, as did Allyson, who was as strong as any man there, Penny conceded. When all was settled, the spray of white roses looked a little worse for wear, and the corner of the purple casket was a bit...crumpled.
The sight of it stirred a memory in her mind, but she couldn't place the significance of it before Guy swept her down the aisle and outside.
"That was memorable," Guy declared.
"Are you okay?" Gloria asked.
Penny nodded, although she was shaking. She glanced around for Jules Lamborne, but the old woman must have left, because she was nowhere to be found.
"I almost had a heart attack when the casket fell," Liz said, fanning her tear-streaked face. Then she winced. "I don't suppose you're going to the graveside service?"
Penny shook her head. "I don't think that would be such a good idea. I'll take flowers to the vault later." Privately.
Liz gave her a one-arm hug. "How about let's grab a drink before I head back?"
Penny nodded, thinking she could use one, and Gloria and Guy agreed to join them.
"Just a moment, Ms. Francisco," Detective Maynard said, striding up to her. Gloria edged closer to Penny's side.
"What is it?" Penny asked, wondering how the day could possibly get worse.
"That was quite a show in there," he said mildly.
"What do you want?" Gloria demanded.
Maynard grunted. "We got the autopsy report from the M.E.'s office. Turns out that Mr. Black was unconscious when he was stabbed." He angled his chin at her. "But then, you know that, don't you?"
Penny shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about. Are you saying he'd passed out?"
"No. He was struck on the back of the head, and postmortem bruising showed that before he died he was struck on other parts of his body as well, with a cane—the cane that Ms. Linder said you threatened her with when she arrived."
Penny's mind raced, thinking back. "The cane was sitting in the umbrella stand by the office door. When I heard a noise downstairs I picked it up."
He made a clicking noise with his cheek. "If you're telling the truth, that's too bad, because you might have obliterated any other fingerprints that might have been on it."
She bit down on the inside of her cheek to stem her tears of frustration. Why had this happened to Deke, and why was this happening to her?
"Penny admits she held the cane," Gloria said, "but that doesn't mean that she hit Mr. Black with it." Then she glanced around at the people who were staring in their direction. "Detective Maynard, this is hardly the place for this discussion."
"You're right," he said amiably. "And I suspect we'll be asking Ms. Francisco to come back to talk to us real soon." Then he frowned. "By the way, Ms. Francisco, I can't seem to find any record of you or your family in Kingston, Tennessee."
"No?" Penny squeaked, trying to remain calm.
"No," he said, watching her intently.
Her throat convulsed. "That's because I grew up in Kingsford."
" Kingsford?"
She sighed in relief. "That's right. You must have misunderstood."
He gave her a tight smile. "My mistake."
Gloria tugged at her sleeve, pulling her away. Her eyes were clouded with concern. "Are you okay?"
Penny nodded, although she was far fro
m okay. She walked to Guy's car a bit unsteadily and climbed in, sinking into the seat. "I don't know how this situation could get more crazy."
But Guy didn't answer—he was staring at Liz's Mercedes as she pulled out of the parking lot. "Is that the car your friend always drives?"
"Yeah," Penny said. "Why?"
"Well, for starters, it's the car I'm going to trade this one in for some day."
"That's nice."
"And it's the car that was sitting in the parking lot of the store Friday night when I drove by to take Carrie home."
Penny sat up. "Friday night? After the party?"
"Yeah. It was maybe...ten o'clock, or a few minutes past."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. That car, or one just like it."
He pulled onto the street, and Penny unwittingly looked directly into a rolling news camera. She cursed under her breath and frowned, her mind clicking. That would have been right after Liz and Wendy had left the party. Why would they have parked in the parking lot of her store?
Then she froze—to walk across the road and visit Deke? Her breath started coming faster as the possibilities unwound in her head. Could her friends have stopped by with the idea of telling Deke what they thought of him? Why else would they have wanted to see him, unless...
Penny closed her eyes briefly. Unless Liz was having an affair with Deke. That would explain her friend's attitude toward Deke—maybe she was trying to pretend she didn't care for him to throw Penny off. Maybe that's what she and Wendy had been arguing about as they'd left—Wendy had known that Liz had wanted to stop to see Deke. Then another memory clicked into place: Ziggy saying he'd seen Liz at his restaurant. Penny opened her purse and dug out her cell phone.
"What are you doing?" Guy asked.
Penny ignored his question as she called directory assistance, then called Ziggy's restaurant and asked for him.
"Chere, Penny! How are you?"
"Not so good, Ziggy." She pinched the bridge of her nose to stem a headache building there. "When you saw my friend Liz the other night at the party, you said you recognized her from your restaurant."
"That's right," he said slowly.
"Who was she with when you saw her?"
"Penny, I—"
"Who was she with, Ziggy?"
He sighed. "Deke. But that was a couple of months ago, and it doesn't mean anything fishy was going on."
"Right," she said, her heart shattered. "Thanks, Ziggy."
"Don't jump to conclusions, chere," he begged. "Deke is gone. Forget about it, okay?"
"Right," she repeated, wondering how many different ways Deke could have betrayed her, how Liz was able to look her in the eye.
"And don't forget to call me when you have more, um, you know."
She sighed. "That might be a while—my woodsman said his helper is out of commission."
Ziggy made a frustrated noise. "They will be out of season before long."
Penny bit her lip. She had so many things to worry about other than black truffles. "I'll keep you posted, Ziggy"
"Take care, chere."
She disconnected the call and leaned her head back on the seat.
"What was that all about?" Guy asked.
"My life just turned on end," she murmured. "Again." She wondered, if it kept turning, might it someday be right side up again?
"Do you still want that drink?" he said.
"Want it?" Penny asked. "I might never stop drinking." What had happened when Liz and Wendy had stopped at Deke's? Had they argued? Fought? Was it possible that Liz had murdered him, and was Wendy somehow involved?
When they arrived at the square, the festival was in high gear. By the time they threaded their way through the crowd to Caskey's, Penny was light-headed and dizzy from the thoughts running through her head and the heady scent of the smoke from the peristil fire.
"Don't these people ever get tired?" Guy asked, nodding toward the dancers whirling to the music of flutes.
"Apparently not," Penny said. And as far as she was concerned, the festival couldn't be over quickly enough; when the crowds left, the news media would lose interest in the "Voodoo Murder." To think that the festival would go on for the rest of the week was almost unbearable.
The bar was just starting to get crowded in anticipation of happy hour and free appetizers. Gloria and Liz were sitting at a table, but Liz stood when Penny walked up.
"Penny, could I talk to you, in private?"
"No," Penny said, her voice deadly. "I have something to talk to you about, and I want witnesses."
Liz sat down hard, her face tight with apprehension. "So you know?"
"About you and Deke?" Penny asked. "Yeah, I know."
Liz's eyes rounded. "Me and Deke? No—it was Wendy and Deke who had the affair."
Penny practically fell into one of the vacant chairs and put her head in her hands. "Wendy and Deke? When? For how long?"
Liz sighed, and her shoulders rounded. "In college. You were off on some field trip, and the two of them hooked up." She wet her lips. "When I found out, I was furious with both of them."
Penny closed her eyes. "How...how long did it go on?"
Liz hesitated. "A year or so."
Penny inhaled sharply at the stabbing pain behind her breastbone. "And since then?"
"Not that I know of," Liz said. "But Deke called Wendy after your separation, wanting to see her. She called me asking for advice, and I told her to stay away from him."
"So you both knew I was getting a divorce before Marie called you about the party?"
Liz nodded.
Humiliation burned her from the inside out. "And the dinner you had with Deke in the city?"
Liz looked surprised, then apologetic. "I asked Deke to meet me. I was hoping I could appeal to his morals." She made a rueful noise. "I asked him to leave Wendy alone, that she wasn't as strong as you are, that when he eventually left her, she wouldn't be able to recover like you have."
That still remained to be seen, but warm appreciation washed over Penny at Liz's confidence in her emotional fortitude. "So that's why you were always so antagonistic toward Deke?"
"I didn't realize it showed," Liz said. "But yeah, I couldn't stand him. He didn't deserve you."
Liz's eyes grew moist, and Penny's chest welled with fondness. She reached across the table and touched Liz's arm. "You have to tell me what happened Friday night. Did you stop to see Deke on your way out of town?"
Liz hesitated.
"I saw your car sitting in the parking lot across the street from Deke’s house," Guy said.
Liz puffed out her cheeks and nodded. "Yes—Wendy insisted. She'd met someone in Atlanta, and she said she wanted to see Deke, that she wanted to get him out of her system."
Penny shook her head in disbelief. "Was it Deke calling her on her cell phone?"
Liz nodded. "Once. Wendy had left him a message on his cell phone that she wanted to see him, but when he called her back, he told her not to stop by, that he was expecting a client to come by the house."
"But she wanted to stop anyway?" Gloria asked.
"Right," Liz said.
"That's what you were arguing about as you left the bar," Penny said. "I saw you."
Liz nodded. "I shouldn't have let Wendy talk me into stopping, but I was hoping that seeing him would be the release she needed to move on." She looked at Penny. "I'm so sorry."
"Did Wendy kill him?" Penny asked thickly.
Liz gasped. "What? No, of course not! Deke wouldn't even let her inside the house. I watched from the parking lot. He came to the door, they talked for a minute, then Wendy came back to the car. She was angry with herself. She said she couldn't understand why she'd ever been hung up on him and she was glad you were rid of him, too." Liz reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope. "Wendy wrote you a letter—that's what I wanted to talk to you about. It's all in here, for you and for the police. She couldn't face you."
Penny recalled Wendy's claim that she
was ill when she'd called, but in hindsight, Wendy could have been crying.
"And you're willing to take a polygraph test?" Gloria asked Liz.
"Sure," Liz said, lifting her hands. "Wendy and I agreed—anything to help clear this up. Deke was definitely alive when we left."
Penny took the envelope, her chest tight with mixed feelings. The affair had occurred before she and Deke had been married, and if Wendy had carried a torch for him all these years, she had certainly been punished for her transgression. "Was Deke alone when you were there?"
Liz bit her lip. "Wendy said that Deke insisted he was alone, but she had a feeling he wasn't."
"Maybe it was the client who was supposed to come by," Gloria said, then removed a prescription bottle from her purse and tossed back two pills.
"Yeah, except Wendy said she smelled a woman's perfume."
"Could have been Sheena's," Guy pointed out.
Or the faceless "other woman" that Sheena was concerned about, Penny thought to herself.
"Isn't that your phone?" Guy asked.
Penny jumped. "Mine?"
"It's coming from your bag," he said, pointing.
Penny pulled out the cell phone, and her heart did a little jig at the incoming number: B.J. She flipped open the mouthpiece. "Hello?"
"Hey, Red, it's me. How was the service?"
She frowned at his assumption that she'd know who "me" was. "Fine," she lied.
"Did you get the locks changed on your doors like I told you?"
"My landlord was changing them when I left. Why?"
"Because I'm on Hairpin Hill."
"And?"
"And I just pulled a .38 slug out of a tree where you told me you were running. If this is what you dodged, babe, it's no blank."
Chapter Twenty-five
Be careful—the potion has a bite to it...
THE NEXT DAY AT THE SHOP, Penny was still antsy from B.J.'s call, but she wasn't sure what bothered her the most—that she'd truly been shot at, or that B J. had called her "babe." Or maybe the fact that he hadn't offered to sleep on the couch last night?
The chime on the door sounded, announcing a customer. Business was still booming, and she'd decided the most constructive use of her time was to work in the store.
Love Can Be Murder Box Set Page 50