Adams Grove 03-Wedding Cake and Big Mistakes

by Naigle, Nancy

  “It was her.”

  “She was really nice. I didn’t know her all that well. She’d been hanging around for a week or so, mostly asking questions about Dad and the town. That’s messed up she wound up dead.”

  You got that right. Connor followed Derek back into the shop, where Carolanne was waiting. “I think you got stood up for yoga, Carolanne.”

  Derek said, “Don’t feel bad. It’s not personal. She’s always doing stuff on the fly. They left Saturday. I have no idea when they’ll even be back.”

  Carolanne looked disappointed. “Well, darn. I was really looking forward to it, too. I hope your dad gets back in time to do the cake for Jill’s grand opening, if they’re still going to have it.”

  “He’s already got the decorations started. Don’t worry about the cake. If he doesn’t make it back, I’ll finish it up,” Derek said.

  Connor took the bag from Carolanne. “Gina had your cell number in her bag.”

  “Yep. That’s hers. She made that tote bag. Where’d you get it?”

  Connor lifted the huge yellow-and-silver bag. “This? She made it?”

  “Yeah. That was her thing. She’d sit and fold wrappers and turn them into those bags. They’re pretty cool. She made me a case for my iPad out of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups wrappers. I always have a ton of them because I like to use them in the cupcakes. People love them. She asked me to save them for her. I thought she was a nut, but then she came back the next day with the iPad cover for me. It’s really cool.” He gazed off like he got lost in the memory for a moment.

  “Sorry, man,” Connor said.

  “Me, too.”

  Carolanne saw the pain on the boy’s face. “Any idea what could’ve happened to her? Was she afraid? Worried?”

  “Mostly sad. Quiet. I can’t imagine her being the type to make anyone mad. Like I said, she was nice.”

  Connor’s phone rang. He gave Derek a nod. “I’ve got to get this. We’ll catch you later,” he said as he answered the phone.

  Connor and Carolanne headed out of the bakery and down the block as Connor talked on the phone.

  Carolanne spotted Scott getting out of his car and nudged Connor.

  He ended his call and yelled out to Scott. “Hey, man. We were just coming to see you.”

  Scott held the front door open for them. “Come on back. There’s a call I need to take, but come with me.” He led the way and punched the speakerphone button on his desk.

  A gravelly voice came on the line. “Medical examiner.”

  “It’s Sheriff Calvin. What’ve you got?” he said into the phone.

  “Got some information for you on your Jane Doe,” said the medical examiner.

  Scott winked at Carolanne. “Our Jane Doe has got a name now. Gina.”

  “That’s good,” said the medical examiner. “The cause of death was drowning.”

  “Ha,” Connor laughed out loud, then whispered, “don’t need a degree to figure that out.”

  Carolanne nudged and shushed him.

  “Got anything useful? We found her floating in the pond with a turtle perched on her leg. That was sort of a dead giveaway,” Scott said.

  “Good one. Dead giveaway,” said the ME with a booming laugh. “I’m going to use that.”

  Scott made a face. “The humor is free. What else did you learn?”

  “Your girl was unconscious before she went in the water. She didn’t fall in. She was dragged down to the water. The bruises tell that story pretty clearly.”

  “That changes things,” Scott said. “Not an accident?”

  The ME’s voice lost the silly undertones. “The car hitting her may have been an accident, but her ending up in the pond and drowning—no, there was no accident about that.”

  Scott picked up the pen from his desk and rolled it between his fingers as he spoke. “So she was hurt and maybe unconscious before she got dragged to the pond?”

  “Yes, she was alive when she went under. Probably unconscious, but the injuries she sustained could have been fatal, too, if she didn’t get immediate care.”

  “What kind of damage are we talking?”

  “Injuries to her rib and chest area that resulted in a torn aorta due to blunt force and some extremity injuries. It’s not uncommon for pedestrians to sustain primary injuries from the impact of the vehicle. Secondary injuries occur when the impact with the vehicle forces the pedestrian into contact with the road or something else. Looks like she got it good, and she was facing the vehicle when it hit her. It broke her pelvis. Looks like she tried catching herself when she fell backward, which explains the bruising on her back and tailbone and the broken wrist, too.”

  Carolanne rubbed her wrist.

  Scott glanced over his notes. “You’re speculating that she was hit by a car or injured, but not dead? Then dumped there in the pond? Drowning was the cause of death.”

  “Injuries are consistent with that.”

  “Guess they weren’t taking any chances.” Scott tapped the pen against the wooden desktop. “It also means it could have happened anywhere.”

  Carolanne said, “Except that we know she was here in Adams Grove.”

  Connor spoke up. “It’s dark on that part of Route 58. If she’d been walking, it could have been an accident, and if the initial injuries were sustained on Route 58, there’s no telling where the driver is. Could have been anyone from anywhere cruising down that stretch of road.”

  “True.” Scott frowned. “Can you determine an approximate time of death?”

  The ME answered, “You found her at about one thirty in the afternoon. I’d say that she was in the water about five and a half hours. Maybe around eight-o-five a.m.”

  “You can get that precise?”

  He laughed. “No. Scientifically, I came to the conclusion of four to six hours, but honestly, her watch stopped at eight-o-five. Probably when the water seeped into the mechanism. I’m guessing it probably ran for a little while, but the water would have caused the battery to fail.”

  Scott put the phone on mute. “This guy drives me nuts. He’s one weird dude, but he does know his stuff.” He took the phone back off mute. “Had to have happened early that morning, then. Thanks, man. Keep me posted.”

  “I will,” the medical examiner said. “Don’t think there’s much more I can tell you on this one.”

  Scott ended the call. “We’re making progress.”

  “I think we’ve got something else that will help.” Connor handed the bag over to Scott. “Carolanne found this. It belonged to Gina, and Derek Honeycutt knew the girl, too.”

  Scott pulled the items out of the tote one at a time. “Gina, what were you looking for? Who didn’t want you to find it? Or was this really all one big accident?”

  Carolanne folded her arms across her chest.

  Connor wondered the same thing. Could it have just been some kind of random accident that she died right here in the same town, within a mile of the other tragedy her family had endured in the seventies?

  It seemed a little too convenient, but somehow that seemed more comforting than thinking there was a killer among them.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Feeling a little zoned out, Connor wondered what Carolanne was feeling as they walked back to the office. It was unsettling to hear the details come together about the mystery woman with the turtle on her leg. When she was a mystery woman, the death hadn’t seemed nearly as bad—now that she had a name and ties to the town, it felt personal.

  They hadn’t said a word the whole walk back, and Carolanne went upstairs to her apartment instead of back to work. Connor went to his office and forced himself to put his mind on work so that he might elevate his mood. He worked up the papers for Mac. It wasn’t his place to make him wait, he’d decided.

  Once that was done, Connor went and pulled the paperwork on the Dixon farm and reviewed it again. If Gina truly had been the daughter of Lindsey Dixon, then the decisions on the Dixon farm would have been in her hands. If the
re were no other heirs, that property would go to the town of Adams Grove. Who stood to gain from that? Just about anyone with the cash to buy the property. It was definitely prime real estate. Plus, if they logged the land, there’d be a heckuva windfall just from that.

  He tucked the paperwork back in the folder and filed it away. He spent the rest of the afternoon responding to inquiries, but his mind kept going back to the cute redhead upstairs packing to move. For a tiny little gal, she clomped around like an elephant.

  Nostalgia swept over him again. What is it about weddings and accidents that make people reexamine their own lives? Losing Mom this year hadn’t helped, either. Connor opened his desk drawer and grabbed the keys to the lockbox area where they stored records. It didn’t take him but a moment to find what he was looking for. He knew exactly where it was.

  He pulled the original DVD from the file and walked back to his office. He dimmed the lights and stuck the disc in the DVD player built into his credenza.

  Pearl Clemmons came into view. He fast-forwarded through most of the beginning of the video addendum to her will, then pressed the play button.

  He laughed out loud when she accused him of calling her a pimp-granny. I never said that!

  Although, in hindsight, it was probably a pretty accurate description. Once Pearl had a couple matched in her mind, she was like a pit bull about letting go of the idea. That old gal was a pistol. If Jill was even half as feisty as Pearl, Garrett would have his hands full.

  Memories of the day Pearl Clemmons had spent in his office were crystal clear. The recording wasn’t even ten minutes in total, but she’d spent nearly the whole day in his office. She’d even coerced him into buying her lunch on his dime. She must have started and restarted a hundred times. She was playing actress and producer, shouting “cut” and “roll ’em” like she knew what it meant.

  You gave me a run for my money, Pearl.

  Finally, once she’d said what she wanted to say—the way she wanted it to be said—she’d surprised him with that last little add-on. He hit play again and watched as she fussed into the camera. The video moved off Pearl, but only for a second. Then it came right back into focus on her.

  Pearl had gone off on him for stopping the recording before she said she was done. He’d pressed the record button out of sheer exhaustion in hopes that the day would finally end.

  “Jill, dear, tell sweet Carolanne that she needs to get her butt back to Adams Grove. She doesn’t need to let that daddy of hers keep her from getting her a good man right here in town. Fact is, he’s been doing pretty good staying on the wagon.” Pearl hunched forward, leaning on her elbows. “I know she and Connor would make a great couple.”

  He winced at what was coming next. He remembered the way she shook her crooked finger at him.

  “No, you cannot take that off. This is my last wish to my granddaughter. You just roll that ’til I’m done.”

  Turning back to the camera, Pearl smiled so sweetly that nobody would ever believe how bossy she could be. “I know Carolanne can wrangle this one. They’re just alike. He’s got that girl in Chicago or California, some big city somewhere, but God knows, if she ain’t here yet, she never will be.”

  She’d been talking about Katherine, and Lord knows she was right. Too bad I didn’t realize it back then.

  “I love you, dear. You and Garrett find your happiness. The rest will all fall in place.” She blew a final kiss into the camera. “Now I’m done, damn it. It’s not like I was paying you by the inch of tape. You can shut it—”

  The screen went blank in mid-sentence.

  He skipped back to the beginning of that section and replayed it.

  Pearl had been right about everything.

  Right about Ben. He’s a good man. No crime falling apart after losing the love of your life. Right about him and Carolanne being just alike. We fell into an easy routine in no time. I think I was in love with her before the first week was out.

  Right about Katherine, too.

  “Hellooo.”

  Connor turned off the television, dropped the remote on his desk, and went to the reception area of the office. Jill stood there in jeans and a T-shirt that had seen better days.

  “Hi, Jill. You’re a mess. Is this what happens to women after they get married?” Connor walked over to hug her but hesitated. “I was kidding, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you such a sight.”

  “I know. I’ve been unpacking pottery all day. It was a dusty mess, then Clyde’s tail knocked my soda can off the table, and now I’m wearing dirty-soda tie-dye.”

  “Well,” he tried to reason, “it looks crafty.”

  “That’s a backhanded compliment, if I’ve ever heard one. Where’s my partner in crime?”

  “She’s upstairs packing.”

  “Upstairs?” Jill pointed toward the second floor. “As in like she took off a day of work, upstairs?”

  “Yep.”

  “That’s a first.”

  “I know. I’m beginning to take her being so excited about this move personally.”

  “Maybe you should.” Jill leaned against the desk. “So, how are things going with you two?”

  “I figured you’d be in a better position to tell me that.”

  “No. Not really. I don’t know anything. On a good day, she holds her cards close to the vest, but I have to admit I’ve been a little all about me lately with the wedding.”

  “You’ve got to be exhausted. I still can’t believe you didn’t move one of the dates—the grand opening or the wedding date. Two major life events in back-to-back weekends is crazy, even for you.”

  “I couldn’t change the grand opening. It really has to be Memorial Day weekend at the latest, and we’d already picked the wedding date. You know Pearl always said changing dates is bad luck. I couldn’t chance that.”

  Of course you couldn’t.

  “Remember when they moved the Fourth of July celebration to the weekend before, thinking it would be easier for the kids? Rained out. Remember when we moved our camping trip out a week so we could go to that concert? Poison ivy. Remember—”

  “Yeah, yeah. I remember.”

  “Why tempt fate?” she said.

  “I don’t think even fate could come between you and Garrett now.”

  “Gosh, I hope not. That whole dead body thing has me pretty creeped out. I Googled it, but there’s nothing on the Internet about what it means to have a dead body float up during your wedding reception. I think I’m a first.”

  “It’s got to be better luck for you than it was for the girl. I guess you get to set the precedent for this one. You can start your own Wikipedia page.”

  “I think I’ll pass on that golden opportunity.”

  Connor shook his head. “Could have been your fifteen minutes of fame.”

  “No, thanks. Have you talked to Scott? Has he figured out who she was yet?”

  “As a matter of fact, I have and he has. Evidently, that girl had been in the library the other day. Same day Carolanne was in there. She was the daughter of Lindsey Dixon.”

  “From the Dixon farm? The Old Mill Pond Dixons?”

  “The same.”

  “No one has been back to that place in years.”

  “I know. I manage the trust.”

  “It’s so sad.” Jill stood. “I hope they figure out what happened. You know once the County Gazette comes out with the story, other papers might pick it up. I hope we get past the grand opening before they do. This is when it’s nice that the paper only comes out every other week.”

  “True,” Connor agreed. “It could work to your favor and keep the bigger presses off your back.”

  “I’m praying for that,” she admitted, but she looked worried. “Well, I’m going to go up and check in on Carolanne. I’ll put a good word in for you.”

  Am I that transparent? Connor watched Jill go upstairs, then listened to the girly squeals come through the old ventilation system. Everything in this building echoed.
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  He shoved his hands in his pockets, wondering what next week was going to be like around here.

  “You took a day off?” Jill stood with her hands on her hips.

  “I know! Aren’t you proud of me?”

  “I think I am, but I’m not sure.” Jill broke into a smile. “Is this my best friend, or did somebody body snatch you?”

  “Stop.” Carolanne grabbed Jill by the hand and dragged her over to the couch. Once she moved a stack of empty boxes out of the way, they sat down.

  “Look at you whipping through this place like there’s no tomorrow,” Jill said. “You’re almost as organized as I’d be.”

  “See how I even marked them with what the contents are? I’m having a ball with it.”

  “You’d said you were going to hire someone to do it for you.”

  “I changed my mind.”

  “I see that. I don’t know what’s gotten into you.”

  “It’s all good. I’ve never been better. So, what are you doing here?”

  “Garrett was running late for a meeting down here with the zoning guy, so I gave him a lift. He won’t be long. I’m meeting him for lunch at the diner”—she flipped her wrist—“in about ten minutes. Since I was here, I wanted to ask you something. Your dad said you picked him up from the hospital. He said he’s going to try to come back to work on Wednesday. Does that sound like what the doctor said?”

  She nodded. “He’ll have to take it easy, but they say he should be fine.”

  “OK. I just didn’t want to take a chance.”

  “Thanks. I really appreciate that.”

  “Really? I mean, I just wasn’t sure how you’d be feeling about everything. I know you were hesitant about me hiring him in the first place.”

  “I was, but you know, Milly was right the other day. Do you remember what she said?”

  “That people don’t swallow pins?”

  “That, too, but no. She’d said, ‘Your future will be as good as you let it be.’”

  “So?”