Murder Before Marriage

by Raven Snow

  Rowen shook her head. “It’s personal.”

  “I hope it’s not about you and Eric.” Tiffany tapped the Lovers card with the end of a fingernail. “If it is then trouble is coming… and change, big change.”

  “It’s not all bad though, is it?” Rowen knew the cards before her might look scary, but that didn’t mean that they were. Sometimes change could be a good thing. Maybe it meant that Peony and Tina were about to finally let the world know about their relationship. That might be difficult for the both of them, and it would certainly be dramatic. It probably wouldn’t be a bad thing, though. At least, it wouldn’t be a bad thing in the long run. Rowen wanted the two of them to stay together. She thought they made a cute couple. If they were going to stay a cute couple, they would have to tell their respective families about their personal lives eventually.

  “It’s not necessarily bad,” Tiffany agreed. “But this does point toward some… rocky waters ahead. It could also indicate something bad in the near future.” She looked up from the cards and back to her daughter. “Is there something you want to tell me? I won’t judge, I promise. Maybe I can help more if I know more.”

  Rowen hesitated but finally shook her head. “I can’t.” It was the truth. It wasn’t her place to tell Tiffany about Peony and Tina. Heck, it wasn’t her place to ask for a reading for them in the first place. This definitely overstepped some ethical boundaries.

  Tiffany’s frown deepened, but she didn’t push the matter. She looked back to the cards instead. “Look out for this.” She put her fingernail on the Devil card, on the Lovers chained at his feet. “I’m not sure if it’s someone or something abstract.”

  “Material gain,” said Rowen.

  “Anything material that has an allure to it. Anyone who’s offering you something, anyone who wants something.”

  Rowen’s thoughts turned to Kyle. How could they not? He could very well be represented there in the Devil card. The idea wasn’t very reassuring. She wasn’t sure what more she could do about him. She could warn Peony and Tina, but surely, they already knew. Surely, they were already wary.

  “Change is coming.” Tiffany tapped the Tower next, drawing Rowen’s eyes to the lightning bolt splitting the structure and the people falling. “There’s not a whole lot you can do about that, I’m afraid. A drastic change is coming one way or another.”

  “It’s not necessarily bad though, right?” Rowen knew she had already asked, but she felt the urge to hear it again.

  “No, but… Be careful.” As if she could no longer stand looking at them, Tiffany plucked up the cards and shuffled them back into her deck. “Well, if you can’t tell me anymore, I really need to be going.”

  “Where are you going?” asked Rowen, even though she already had a pretty good idea.

  “I’m going to meet up with your father.” Tiffany dropped the cards into their black silken sack. “And that woman he’s engaged to. I’m going to get the rest of those papers signed. That’s what you wanted, right?”

  “That’s what he and his fiancé want.” Rowen wanted it too, though she didn’t say as much. She wanted it for different reasons. She wanted her father to leave town, and she wanted him to do it without Coreen. Maybe if he took Gaby along with him his daughter would be the last thing on his mind. Granted, Rowen didn’t actually want Gaby sacrificed to her father. It just seemed like the lesser of two evils. She had done her best to warn Gaby away. It wasn’t her fault if Gaby was unwilling to listen to reason. Hopefully, she would make sure there was a pre-nup. Hopefully, see what kind of a person Desmond truly was sooner rather than later. “Just get it over and done with. The sooner it’s out of the way, the better.”

  ***

  Rowen went home after visiting with her mother. It had been a long day. Between tracking down Desmond and teaching Coreen the ins and outs of the office, she was exhausted. Not that showing Coreen the ropes had been so bad. It had been a little fun, actually.

  Coreen was happy to be at the office, and the office seemed happy to have her. She’d had the foresight to stop by a local bakery and buy cupcakes. That was an easy way to buy the affection of her coworkers. Peony, Willow, and Rose had all found their way to the kitchen as soon as she arrived with them. Peeling off the wrappers to lick at the buttercream icing and spongy cake helped break the ice.

  “Sorry we never met properly until recently,” Rose had said, a note of guilt in her voice after finishing her first cupcake.

  Coreen had shaken her head like it wasn’t a big deal. “I’ve been busy,” she assured her. “There hasn’t really been time to meet new people.”

  ***

  Coreen was a fast learner. It hadn’t taken much time at all to get her acquainted to what went on in the office. Rowen must have been smiling as well as she came through the front door of her home. “I take it Coreen’s first day went well?” asked Eric, looking up from the sofa.

  Rowen reached down and scratched Chester between his ears as he trotted up to her. “Yeah, I’d say it went well for her.”

  Eric raised an eyebrow. He had noticed her phrasing. “For her? Are you saying it didn’t go well for you?”

  Rowen raised her shoulders in a shrug. “I had… an eventful day.”

  “Oh?” Eric’s voice lilted up at the end, inviting her to elaborate.

  “What’s for dinner?” Rowen didn’t much feel like expounding upon all that had been wrong with her day. She certainly didn’t feel like doing it on an empty stomach.

  “I made a sandwich. Want me to make you one?”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  “Turkey, mayo, and lettuce.”

  “And roast beef.”

  “And roast beef,” Eric repeated, pushing himself off of the sofa. He headed for the kitchen, and Rowen followed him.

  “Had to teach Coreen all about what we do at the Inquirer,” Rowen said, climbing onto the stool at the bar. She put her elbows on the polished marbled surface and her chin in her hands while she watched her husband open the fridge to prepare her dinner.

  “That’s good, isn’t it?” Eric started transferring ingredients to the countertop. “You wanted her to work with you, right?”

  Rowen nodded. “Yeah. Peony, Willow, and Rose all seem to like her, too. I mean, it wasn’t that I thought they wouldn’t. Coreen is nice, and my cousins are all pretty easy to get along with. I thought they’d hit it off.”

  “What’s the problem then?”

  Rowen bit at her bottom lip. It felt raw between her teeth. She had already worried off a lot of the skin. She really needed to leave it alone before it started bleeding. It would still be raw tomorrow at the rate she was going. “Is Tina here?” she asked, quietly. She looked up at the ceiling as she asked, like she could somehow see her walking around upstairs.

  “Not yet. Why?”

  Of course she wasn’t there. Rowen recalled that she hadn’t seen her car out front. “I got visited by that brother of hers today.”

  “Did he live up to his reputation?”

  “He did indeed. I don’t like him one bit.” Rowen told Eric about her run in with Kyle. She told him about all that had happened and the bad taste that had been left in her mouth.

  “He seems gross.” Eric declared once Rowen had finished. He slid her sandwich across the bar to her on a plate. “Water or soda?”

  “Water. I don’t need the caffeine.” Rowen shook her head. She had more than a bad taste in her mouth, she realized. “I don’t like this. I don’t like any of it.”

  “The Kyle stuff?”

  “Any of it.” Rowen reached out and accepted a glass of ice water from Eric. “Thanks.”

  “And by not liking it, do you mean…”

  “I mean, I have a bad feeling.”

  “Oh.” Eric pulled a stool around so that he could sit across from her. “Do you think something’s going to happen?” His voice had grown quieter, more serious. He knew as well as Rowen did that feelings she got were often more than just hunches. They her
alded something, usually something bad.

  Rowen nodded. “I got my mother to give me a reading, but I still can’t figure out what it is. I’m afraid it might have something to do with Kyle. I don’t like how he just barged in and tried to blackmail me. That’s not good, right? That’s the kind of thing a desperate man does.”

  “Have you tried calling Tina?”

  “I called her when it happened. I was going to check back in with her, but I didn’t know she wasn’t here.” Rowen sighed and looked at the phone sitting next to her plate. “I guess I should call again, huh?”

  “It might set your mind at ease,” Eric offered.

  “If my mind can be set at ease. If something bad hasn’t happened.”

  “That too.”

  Rowen picked up her phone and found Tina in her contacts. She called her. The phone rang several times before finally going to voicemail. Great. Rowen found herself more worried than ever. She hated it when people didn’t answer their phones. Normally it wasn’t anything to actually fret over. It usually turned out that the person had left their phone in their car or in their living room while taking a shower. Maybe the ringer was turned on vibrate or even off completely. Rowen wasn’t sure what the case with Tina’s phone was. All she knew was that she wished she hadn’t called her. She wanted to finish her dinner. She didn’t want her stomach roiling with worry.

  “No luck?” asked Eric even though the answer was obvious.

  Rowen didn’t tell him no one had answered. He had no doubt figured that out himself already. She called Peony instead. If Tina wasn’t answering her phone, she might. There was a decent chance that they were together.

  No answer from Peony either. Rowen tossed her phone back to the countertop with a little more force than intended. It skidded across the surface and nearly toppled to the floor. Eric put a hand down to steady it. “Careful,” he warned.

  “They’re probably all right, aren’t they?” Rowen asked, idly pulling the crust from her sandwich.

  “If you think they are.” Eric spread his hands and raised his shoulder in a small approximation of a shrug. “You’d know better than I would.”

  Rowen would know better than he would. She wished she didn’t just then. She wanted to be told she was worrying over nothing. She wanted to be told that and believe it. Unfortunately, that concern still gnawed at her. “It’s probably fine,” she said, like she was trying to will herself to believe it. She didn’t know that everything was fine. All she knew was that there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot she could do about it. She wouldn’t know who to call or where to go or what to do. In the absence of a more productive way to conduct herself, Rowen picked up her sandwich and took a bite. If this all came to a head later on tonight, (and it might) she was going to need her strength.

  ***

  Tina didn’t show up that night. She didn’t call to say she wasn’t coming either. Calling her didn’t do any good. Calling Peony produced similar results. Rowen considered calling Lydia or Nadine, but it felt a little premature. Those two would work themselves up into a lather. Even if Rowen called under some false pretense, they would sense the mounting concern in her voice. They were perceptive like that, seasoned pros at making a mountain out of a mole hill. Rowen prayed this was just a mole hill.

  Rowen tried to wait up for Tina. She sat herself down on the sofa and turned on the television. Eric sat down beside her and Chester between them. They watched a marathon of eighties movies on network television. Rowen could feel her eyelids drooping before the first film had even ended. It wasn’t even midnight before she fell asleep.

  The sun was creeping in through the slats in the blinds before Rowen woke. On any other day, she would have woken up about fifteen minutes before then. She usually set her alarm on her phone but hadn’t last night. She’d been waiting on a call and hadn’t meant to fall asleep, after all. Not that sleeping in was a huge deal. There were benefits to working at a family owned and operated business. Those perks were often downsides as well. Margo, Willow, and Peony all abused the lax schedule of the Inquirer to some extent. If they were very late, Rose would give them a call. Rowen expected it to be Rose when she answered the phone.

  “Sorry,” Rowen said, her heart speeding up in her chest. She stood suddenly, waking Eric and making Chester jump. Her own head swam. It hadn’t been ready for the sudden change in elevation and made black spots dance in front of her eyes. “I forgot to set my alarm last night. I guess Eric did too.”

  “What time is it?” asked Eric, suppressing a yawn.

  “T-that’s okay.” It wasn’t Rose’s voice on the other end of the phone. “I’m… uh. I’m not at work either.”

  It took Rowen a moment to place who the voice on the phone belonged to. “Willow?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What’s up?” Rowen’s heart started pounding faster than ever. A million different terrible scenarios started flooding through her head. Had something happened? Was Peony hurt? Was it worse than that? “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah… Well, no. I mean, Peony is okay and Tina is okay, but…” Willow trailed off again. She had been the one to call Rowen, but she was clearly having quite a bit of trouble relaying the why of it. “I’m down at the police station. You should probably come down to the police station.”

  “What happened?”

  “Um… I’m not sure how much I can say.” Secrecy wasn’t a problem Willow typically had. It was usually harder to keep her from sharing everything she knew. Rowen could pick out voices in the background of their phone call. Maybe that had something to do with it. Maybe Willow was surrounded by the police. They definitely wouldn’t want her leaking sensitive information.

  “I’m coming,” Rowen said, and she heard a sigh of relief on the other end of the phone. “Wait for me before you do or say anything. I won’t be long. Are Tina and Peony with you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t let them talk to anyone who isn’t Ben.” Rowen wasn’t sure that Ben would appreciate how much she distrusted his officers, but she couldn’t help it.

  “I’m not sure what I can do about that, but okay.”

  Rowen hung up and hurried up the stairs. She’d need a change of clothes really quick, and she could probably stand to give herself a once over in a mirror. She wasn’t at all sure how disheveled she must look.

  “What’s going on?” asked Eric, raising his voice to be heard as he followed her.

  “I don’t know. There’s something going on, probably that something I was getting a bad feeling about. Peony, Willow, and Tina are all at the police station.” Behind her, Rowen heard Eric swear. She continued on to their bedroom, looking at her phone again as she did so. She called Rose.

  “Hey.” Rose answered almost immediately. She sounded as out of breath as Rowen was.

  “I take it you already know?”

  “Ben called me just a little while ago. I was mostly ready for work. I’m getting out the door now.”

  “On my way too.” Rowen snatched a blouse from her closet and a pair of jeans from off the floor. “Do you know what’s going on?”

  “I don’t know that I’ve heard any more than you have.” There was the sound of a door shutting on Rose’s end. When she spoke again she was a little quieter. “I know someone was murdered.”

  “What?” Rose had definitely heard more than Rowen had. “Who was murdered? What happened?”

  “I don’t know. All I know is that there’s some confusion over who was the last person to see the victim alive and who was the first to discover the body.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “I don’t know yet.” Another door shut. It sounded like a car door this time. “Ben didn’t really tell me much. I’m not sure he can tell me much right now. Sorry, but I have to let you go. I need to drive.” Rose wasn’t one to talk on the phone and drive at the same time. She was a stickler for road safety, for any kind of safety really.

  “Well, give me a call if you find anyth
ing out before I get there.” Reluctantly, Rowen hung up the phone. She shimmied out of her slept-in clothing and stepped into a new pair of pants.

  “That urgent, huh?” Eric was already moving to grab a change of clothes for himself. “Do you know what’s going on?”

  Rowen shook her head. “No, I don’t. All I know is that it can’t be good.”

  Chapter Seven

  Rowen made it to the Lainswich police station faster than she probably should have. Rose would not have approved. In fact, she made it to the police station around the same time Rose herself was pulling in. Rose frowned at her as she stood beside her car, arms crossed. “You made good time,” she commented, an eyebrow raised.

  “Yeah, well, we fell asleep on the sofa last night. There wasn’t a whole lot of getting ready to be done.” It was a lie and an obvious one. They had still taken the time to put on a change of clothes. Rowen had forgone makeup, but her unruly auburn hair had still been wrestled back into a neat ponytail. Add to that the fact that they lived several more miles away from the police station than Rose did and it was obvious something was amiss.

  Rose didn’t press the matter. She clearly wanted to get in there and find out exactly what was going on as much as Rowen did. “Come on.” Rose led the way across the parking lot in the half light. The sky was still mostly gray, but there were touches of orange and pink in places, swirling through the grays like dabs of watercolor. It would have been pretty if the general mood wasn’t quite so… ominous. That was the only word for it. Ominous.

  “Excuse me,” said Rose, stepping up to the receptionist’s desk. She didn’t say anything more than that. She showed up at the station often, no doubt. It was where her husband worked after all.

  The receptionist looked up from her computer. She had a partially eaten muffin and a Styrofoam cup of steaming coffee sitting in front of her. She blinked a few times before saying anything. “Oh, Rose. Hey.”

  “Good morning.” Rose forced a smile, eager to get niceties out of the way.

  “Sorry, I’m still trying to wake up.” The receptionist put a hand over her face to hide a yawn. “I assume you’re here to see your sister.”