by Tonya Kappes
“Henry’s handwriting has gotten worse over the years.” Bernadine walked outside and stood on the door stoop. “Before we dig into this and you tell me exactly how you and Flora got this, tell me what’s going on with you?”
Willow pulled me around every single bush that lined the front of the cottage, smelling, sniffing and snorting whatever she could.
“It wasn’t real late when Flora and I got finished.” I pulled a little more, but Willow was persistent on walking over to the unattached garage. “Flora made me mad so I went to see Donovan.”
“Why did Flora make you mad?” Bernadine asked.
“Did I say that?” I clenched my jaw when I realized I had let that little detail slip.
“You did.” Bernadine didn’t miss a beat.
“Oh nothing.” I brushed it off. “And Donovan informed me that he wasn’t in the market for a relationship where I saw him only at night.”
I stopped. Hearing those words leave my mouth didn’t sound so great. Donovan was right. The few dates that we had went on were either at his house or mine. The few sleepovers were me showing up late and needing his expertise in the computer department. And then I didn’t sleep in the same room with him.
“I’m sorry, Holly. But what was that about Flora?” Bernadine showed no signs of relenting. She was determined to find out about my little disagreement with Flora.
“That’s not the end of it.” I followed Willow back over to the cottage steps where Bernadine had sat down on the stoop. I sat down next to her and Willow found her way into the center of Bernadine’s legs. “I was so upset that I had pulled over and found myself at The Livin’ End.”
“No you didn’t.” Bernadine’s eyes widened. “Were Charlie and Sean there? Because Charlie said. . .”
“Yeah. I remember all to well what she said when she dropped off those goodies for Second Cup.” I sighed. “And they were there. So I went in and found them dancing to mine and Sean’s song,” my voice broke. “I ordered not one, but two shots of tequila.”
“Holly, you have to let go of him.”
“I thought I had, then I paid the bartender to interrupt the jukebox and play Elvis.” I looked down at my fingers in shame. I had lowered myself to all lows.
“Not Suspicious Minds?” Bernadine cleared her throat when I nodded. “Oh, Holly. Did they see you?”
“They slipped out, but you know Sean. He’s so street smart, he knew it was me and waited for me to leave.” The more I talked, the more I was disappointed in myself for my actions. I knew better than that. “He stopped me and alluded to me that he still had something for me. He held me tight and whispered in my ear right as Donovan showed up because he felt bad for turning me away.”
“No,” Bernadine gasped bringing her hands to her mouth.
“Yep. I screwed up.” I let out a big sigh. “Donovan said things about how beautiful he saw me and accepted me as I was. It was awful. Damn Sean,” I whispered.
“What are you going to do?” Bernadine asked.
“I don’t know. There is so much going on that I feel like I need to get all of this settled before I can think about dating.”
“Don’t worry about me.” Bernadine patted my leg. “It’s not looking good, kid. Tell me about Flora.”
“It’s nothing.” I stood up and brushed myself off, trying to avoid all conversation about Flora. I was still mad that she believed Bernadine could have killed Henry. “Why doesn’t it look good?”
“You know how I told you I took care of the situation, which meant the knife set.” Bernadine’s eyes dipped. Her lips turned down. “Officer Hart came over with a search warrant. They took apart everything in and around the house. In the row boat they found the knife set without the missing big butcher knife that someone stole and killed Henry with.”
“What is Bennie saying?” I kind of knew what he had told Flora, but I wanted to hear what he had told Bernadine.
“He said it wasn’t looking good. His guy couldn’t find any information about the lead on Charlie but I knew if I could get this calendar, it would show something to help me.” She waved the calendar in the air before she stood up and hugged me. “This might just save my ass.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t arrest you.” I made a simple observation.
“I have forty-eight hours to get my affairs in order and turn myself in,” her voice choked and tears lined her eyes. “I’m in deep crap.”
“Don’t you worry about that.” I pointed to the calendar. “You take that home and try to figure out if Henry was with Charlie or Dr. Russell so we can at least give that information to them.”
“Bennie said they questioned Dr. Russell about the fight and he said it was all just professional rivalry and he had an alibi.”
“Really? I was sure he had something to do with it.”
“I’m afraid not. But someone has done a great job setting me up.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “Do you believe me when I say I didn’t do it?”
“Of course.” I reached out and rubbed down her arm.
“No one, not even Bennie believes me.” She shook her head, her red curls swung around. “He told me I should probably confess if I did it out of a crime of passion.”
“Passion?” I thought that was a funny word to use on a murder.
“I told him about Henry coming over and sweet talking me before he was killed.”
“You told him about. . .” I wiggled my brows.
“Sex?” She nodded and then sighed. “Yeah. It’s not looking good. I have forty-eight hours left of freedom. So I’m going to pour a large glass of wine and scour this little calendar.”
“Do you want company?” I asked knowing I wasn’t going to be of any use looking at her when I had to find out about Charlie.
“Nah. You have to open the shop and I’m going to go to Second Cup to meet with Sadie to see if she wants to run the shop for a few. . .,” she swallowed hard, “years.”
I didn’t remind Bernadine that I had the Barn Dance Committee meeting this morning and I was sure Dr. Russell was going to be there, not to mention Sean since he was the contractor overseeing the build on the stages and the actual inside of the barn.
Ginger was going to meet me there so I didn’t have to go by myself, plus she knew Dr. Russell pretty well. Since her family owned half of Swanee, she’d been on a lot of committees with Dr. Russell.
Willow was settled for the time being. I grabbed a quick shower and threw on my sweats, only they were way too baggy to wear. I couldn’t believe it. I shut my bedroom door to look in the full-length mirror that hung on the back.
Sure enough, they didn’t fit. I rotated to the left and scanned down my body, and then I did the same thing on the right. I squealed and rushed over to my closet.
“It’s time.” I moved the clothes hangers one-by-one down the steel rod looking for that one pair of button-up jeans I had been holding onto for years.
I pulled them out when I found them at the back of the closet and held them up in the air. Quickly I took off the baggy sweatpants and slipped on the jeans. I had to do a little sucking in to get them buttoned, but nothing too bad. The light brown sweater would cover any type of muffin top that was spilling over my jeans.
“Muffin top,” I laughed and thought about Ms. Food Watchers’s muffins Bernadine was selling at Second Cup.
Snort, snort. Air escaped out of Willow when she plopped back down in her dog bed.
With a giddy-up in my step with my weight loss, I grabbed my bag, phone, and keys before I darted out the door.
Food Watchers was on my way to the meeting and I had a few minutes to kill before I showed up so I popped in the Food Watchers to get a weight. I knew Bernadine wasn’t probably going to go to next week’s meeting and my curiosity to see what my weight loss was nagged me.
There wasn’t a meeting, but the center was open during the day.
“Good morning!” The ever-so-cheerful Charlie bounced out from behind the counter. Her eyes lit u
p with anger. “You.”
“You!” I bit back.
“What do you want?” She planted her hands on her hips. Her fancy beaded bracelets jingled. “I don’t have all day. I’ve got to be at a meeting.”
“For your design job?” I asked.
“How did you know about that?” She shifted, putting her weight on her right heel.
“I know a lot about you.” I glared at her with a little bit of warning in my voice.
“Hi there,” Barbie came out from the meeting room, as chipper as ever. “I have noticed your weight loss. You are looking divine.” She drew her finger up and down my body.
Ahem, Charlie cleared her throat.
“You go on to your meeting. I can take care of . . .,” she hesitated.
“Holly Harper.” I stuck my hand out because I hadn’t officially met her.
“Harper. Harper. Where have I heard that name?” Her neon pink fingernail tapped her temple. “Isn’t your little boy toy. . .”
“Sean’s ex.” Charlie grabbed her large black fringe purse and tossed it over her shoulder along with her flowing blond hair and trotted out the door.
“I have no idea what has gotten into my sister lately, but you are going to have to excuse her.” Barbie made an excuse. I could tell she had to fight an internal battle of personal restraint.
“Your sister?” I asked as shock and awe sat in my stomach.
“Yes. She looks like she’d be my sister, but it wasn’t too long ago that she ate everything in her reach and looked like it too.” Barbie opened a drawer at the weigh-in stand and took out a picture of a much younger version of herself and a very heavy girl next to her. “She’s battled her weight all her life and I had her come work for me. I’m so proud of her. She used to be the jealous type. You know.” She rotated her hand in the air. “Boys and all. Frisk. . .I know that name.”
It probably shouldn’t have tickled me to no end that Charlie had been fatter than I ever was, but it did. And she knew the name Frisk. I would put money on it that Charlie had talked about Henry a time or two.
“Losing weight has given her the confidence to get a real job as an interior decorator and she’s doing great. Especially here in Swanee.” The pride showed on Barbie’s face. “Would you like to weigh?” She put the picture on the counter and gestured to the scale.
I stepped on, looking away from the digital read out.
“Your muffins are flying off the shelf at Second Cup.” I noticed there was a display of her goodies in the center with a life-sized poster of her hung next to them.
“My muffins?” she asked.
“Your low-fat pastries you are selling at Second Cup.” I couldn’t take my eyes off of the picture. It mesmerized me.
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I only sell my stuff here.” She pointed to the display of goodies. “Fresh daily. I’m so happy Charlie has taken an interest in baking with me. Since she’s worked here and lost weight, she’s changed. More confidence you know? Plus she has all those beading tools making that great jewelry,” she gushed. “You should know! You have lost ten pounds!”
She tapped the dingy bell that was attached to the counter in celebration of my big loss, only I wasn’t celebrating. The only thing I could do was smile and stand there with my mouth open after I realized Charlie had been sabotaging Bernadine this whole time.
Barbie wanted to celebrate more, but I couldn’t. When she told me to wait where I was so she could get my celebratory gift for the ten-pound weight loss, I grabbed the picture and ran out of the center as fast as I could.
I jumped in the Beetle and dialed Bernadine as fast as I could.
“Hello.” Bernadine answered on the first ring.
“Do not eat any more of those pastries from Barbie! She didn’t make them and she knows nothing about the deal Charlie made with you to sell them.”
“What are you talking about?” Bernadine asked.
“I went to Food Watchers to weigh in and Barbie was there. To make idle chit-chat I told her how her muffins were selling like hot cakes at Second Cup and she said she didn’t know anything about that.”
There was dead silence on the phone.
“Then she showed me a picture of a fat, F-A-T, Charlie. Fatter than me and you.” I giggled. I couldn’t help it. “She said Charlie has been baking with her. I think she has been baking you full fat muffins to get you to gain weight.”
My head was trying to wrap around all the possibilities running through my brain.
“Bernadine,” I sucked in a deep breath. “I think she has been sabotaging you to get fat because Henry must have been dating her. I bet he told her how good you were looking and she started feeding you those fat treats.”
“Oh my God. All of the treats did come from her about a week after Henry moved here.” Bernadine was putting together the timeline.
“And I bet they have been secretly dating for months. Then he told her he was going to get back with you.” Everything I was saying made sense. “After he made love to you, I bet he told her and she killed him!”
“So all the items I have been selling at Second Cup are not low-fat?” Bernadine seemed more concerned with the goodies. “Because if I have been marketing them as low-fat, I can get in some real trouble.”
“Real trouble?” I couldn’t believe my ears. “You are in real trouble. Did you hear me? Noah Druck told you to get your affairs in order. That seems pretty generous considering they think you killed Henry.”
“But. . .,” Bernadine’s voice quivered.
“No but. Charlie had to have set you up. She’s a devious one.” I was never so sure in my life about who had killed Henry. I couldn’t wait to tell Flora that she was off. . .way off. And that Bennie needed to fire Ernie.
“All of this makes sense, but how did she get my knife?” Bernadine asked a good question. I was glad to hear her coming back to her senses.
“I don’t know, but I have forty-eight hours to find out.”
“Forty-four,” she corrected me.
Chapter Seventeen
“I’m glad you came.” Bobbi Hart waved me over when she saw me walking around the courthouse to the gazebo.
I gave her a slight wave and walked over. The lawn was filled with the business members of the community. There was a small fold-out table with a couple carafes of coffee on there with Styrofoam cups and an array of doughnuts.
“Help yourself to some coffee. It looks like you could use some.” Bobbi generously noticed my bags under my eyes. “I would offer you a doughnut, but by the looks of things, you aren’t eating them anymore.”
“Oh.” Excitement lifted my spirits. I tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. A little embarrassed, I asked, “Can you really tell?”
“Yes. I was going to say something when you came in the office yesterday, but we got interrupted.” She smiled. It was the first time I had seen Bobbi Hart in a different light and it was nice.
“Thank you, Bobbi.” I glanced down at her wrist. “That bracelet looks great on you.”
“Oh I do love it.” Patsy Russell said. She reached out to touch Bobbi’s bracelet. “May I?”
Proudly, Bobbi stuck her wrist out for all to see.
Patsy’s eyes were covered by her large-brimmed straw hat with the black polka-dot scarf neatly tied around the base of it, draping down her shoulders. Her long black hair spilled down her bare back and landed perfectly at the top of her fitted black halter dress.
“I don’t think we have been properly introduced.” Patsy stuck her hand out. Real diamonds dripped on her wrists along with several platinum rings across her fingers. She tipped her head to the sun. Her large blue doe eyes were mesmerizing. “I’m Patsy Russell.”
“Dr. Russell’s wife.” I shook her hand. It was just the woman I wanted to meet.
“No.” The sun hit her eyes. The deepest of blue was as bright as the diamonds on her ring. “He’s Patsy Russell’s husband.” She winked.
There was no denying
he had worked on her teeth. My eyes drifted between her perfectly white teeth and blue eyes. I couldn’t stop staring. If I was right and Dr. Russell was cheating on her with Charlie, he was crazy. Patsy was hands-down the most beautiful woman in Swanee.
“Yes.” I nodded and laughed. “I like that.”
“My husband told me that you came in the office and mentioned to me that you suggested I come down to put my artistic ability to work.” Her fancy words muddled my mind.
“Yes. Yes, I’d love to give you a free beading class.” I pointed to her jewelry. “My glass beads and crystals are nothing compared to the real thing.”
“Posh.” She waved her hand at me. “I would love to come down there and just have some girl time. How about this afternoon?”
“Um. . .” I didn’t really know what was on the calendar until I got to the shop, but I was sure I could fit her in. “Yeah, sounds great.”
“Wonderful. I’ll be there right after lunch.” She poured herself a cup of coffee. “I’m going to grab a seat. My shins are killing me from the boot camp workout this morning.”
As she walked up to the gazebo, I couldn’t help but notice how toned her calves were in the high heels. Now that Donovan didn’t want to see me—though I was going to change that somehow—and I didn’t dare go to his self-defense class, maybe Patsy could invite me to her boot camp. After all, my calves were a little flabby where I was losing a little weight.
“There you are!” Ginger’s eyes popped out of her head. She grabbed me by my hands and held me at arms length out. “I barely recognized you. I was thinking to myself, who is that hot woman Patsy Russell is talking to?”
“Thank you.” I couldn’t stop from smiling.
“I haven’t seen you in those jeans in a long time.” She smiled. “You look great.”
The coffee table cleared and the crowd moved toward the gazebo. Ginger and I stood back grabbing a cup of coffee.
“Did you break into Henry’s office?” she asked, scanning the area around us so no one would hear us.
“I didn’t break in. I had a key. But yes.” I took a deep breath. “Flora said that Bennie is trying to get Bernadine to confess because the evidence is so great against her.”