The Honeyed Taste of Deception

by CeeCee James

  Chapter 21

  At four o’clock Elise got her expected text. She was actually surprised Sonya had waited so long. It was short and succinct.

  Meet me at the mall ASAP

  “Time for me to go,” she informed Max. Brad had left for work an hour earlier and she’d been lazing on the couch watching Friends reruns. Staying awake all night had taken its toll and her body felt like she’d been beaten up with a two by four.

  Standing in her doorway, she looked back at the inside of her house. She didn’t want to leave. Warm light spilled from the windows and splashed on the honey-wood floors. Max was perched up on the forbidden china cabinet. The couch was a hand-me-down and draped in colorful throw blankets. My home is cozy. Safe. I’m doing this job so I can live here.

  She backed out of the driveway and turned onto the street. Her head was still sleepy. I need to get some coffee. Suddenly her eyes sprang open. Passing her on the other side was the beat-up green car. She watched in her mirror to see it hit its tail lights as it passed her house.

  Goosebumps trickled up her spine. The green car slowed, but didn’t stop. Eventually, it continued on like it had the last time.

  Elise turned the corner feeling shaky and sick. He was watching her. Thinking back to their conversation, she recalled him saying he had a new job. But who was he?

  And who had given him the job?

  There was nothing for it. She had to call Brad and let him know. Maybe he’d seen the green car around too.

  At the stop sign, she quickly dialed. She grimaced as it went straight to voice mail. “Brad, this is your troublemaker. Listen,” she cringed, “I forgot to let you know that this weird guy in a green car has been watching my house. Today is the second time I’ve seen him drive by. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but anyway. We can talk about it later. Have a good day, hon.” She hung up.

  There. At least that was done. Maybe I’ll ask Catalina if she knows who he is. She sped toward the mall, more excited than ever to get this wedding done and over with.

  She parked her car and achingly walked across the parking lot. A van was there with the back rolled up. What is it with these white vans? This one had a giant flower on the side. Inside, two men grunted and manhandled tubs of green carnations down with the trolley.

  Elise yanked open the door to the mall only to stop, paralyzed. All she could see was stack upon stack of boxes. How in the world is this going to be a gorgeous wedding venue by tomorrow?

  Every muscle in her body clenched in protest at the work ahead. She sucked in a breath and pushed forward. Most of the action was around the fountain. Men, presumably hired from Craigslist, wobbled on tall ladders to hang lights. Sonya watched from below with her hands on her hips. She wore a white t-shirt with her tattoos all exposed. “Over there more,” she directed.

  Elise maneuvered around a set of planters and a giant rolled rug. “H-hi,” she called hesitantly.

  Sonya wheeled around until she spotted her. “Hi.” Sonya lifted her hand in greeting. She smiled as she walked over, more chipper than Elise had ever seen her. “Did you get some sleep?”

  “Yeah, and you?”

  “Oh, I napped in the other room for a little bit. There’s just too much to finish up for any real sleep for me.”

  Elise numbly nodded. What is she, a robot?

  “Come on, let me show you what we have left to get together.” Sonya strutted ahead down the left hall, never questioning if she’d be followed.

  And follow her, Elise did, like a puppy at the heels of his owner, hurrying to keep up. Sonya pointed to a business that once sold shoes. “In here,” she pointed. Elise opened the door to discover even more boxes. “This is the beauty salon. The furniture will arrive tonight, so we’ll need to get this room ready.”

  Elise spent the next couple of hours unpacking the boxes. Each unpacked box was set out in the hall, where it mysteriously disappeared, most likely stored away by one of the other workers.

  Sonya came to check on her around dinner time. “This looks good,” she said looking around. “I’ve ordered pizza, and there’s a ton. Come have some and then I’ll set you on your next task.”

  Elise had high hopes as she followed Sonya back, but the arboretum was still a madhouse. “Don’t worry,” Sonya said calmly. “This all really will come together. It has to.” The last words were spoken fiercely.

  A makeshift table had been set up and was covered with pizza boxes. It also was surrounded by workers. Elise walked over. Several of them stepped out of the way so that she could grab a slice. She took a bite, all the while looking for Sonya. Sure enough, there was her boss, tapping her foot. Elise walked over with the pizza. “Have you eaten?”

  Sonya nodded. “Earlier. You ready to see your next task or do you need to finish…”

  “No, show me. I can bring this along.”

  A voice stopped them in their tracks. “Hey, hey! How are things going?” Uncle Rozzo strutted through the door and pulled on the lapels of his jacket. Sonya rolled her eyes before turning around to face him. “Mr. Petrovitsky, what a surprise.”

  “Well, I’ve just come from the rehearsal and wanted to check in.”

  The tall woman smiled with the humor of an iceberg. “I’ll be happy to answer your questions. Just let me get my assistant on her next task.”

  “Sure, sure. You go right ahead.” He poked his fingers into one of the boxes along the wall to see inside.

  Sonya spun around and strode down the opposite hallway, her jaw muscles jumping. This time she led Elise to the food court where another forest of boxes awaited.

  Elise bit back a whimper.

  “Start here,” Sonya directed to a box of table linens. “Once you get the tables covered, start with the chairs. I’ll send someone to help.” Then she paused before turning back to Elise. “I keep seeing him.”

  “Who?”

  “Rozzo. Let me know if he does anything weird. I don’t like how he’s lurking around.” Her soft voice went even lower. “I don’t care how nice Catalina is, you know how carnies are.” Sonya gave a firm nod to make sure Elise understood her, and stalked away.

  Elise’s head throbbed. Lovely. There’s a mountain of work and suddenly my boss is paranoid on top of being a perfectionist and crazy. She surveyed the tables and rubbed her temples. Almost over. I can do this. From the Panda restaurant came voices, and then loud laughter. She walked over and peeked in.

  The back kitchen was filled with caterers preparing for the reception tomorrow. Ice chests and boxes lined the walls, with the counter filled with silver tureens and china dishes. One of the women looked up. “Hi! Are you working with us?”

  Elise shook her head. “Sorry. No, I work for Sonya.” At her boss’s name, the woman made a face. The other caterers laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Elise asked. Great, what did Sonya do?

  “Let’s just say she has quite the reputation.”

  Elise nodded, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. “Okay. Well, I’ll be out here if you need anything.” She turned back to the dining area and the task of dressing the tables.

  She was delighted to see a familiar face. “Tanya!”

  The dark haired woman who was bent over a box turned around. “Oh my goodness! You remember me?”

  “Yep. You’re the good news-bad news lady.”

  Tanya smiled and shook out a tablecloth. “So how’s it been with Sonya? She’s a work horse, that’s for sure.”

  “I’d call her a tyrant!” called a voice from one of the caterers.

  Tanya widened her eyes. “I’d never say that in her hearing. I’ve seen her punch a contractor right in the face. That woman scares me.”

  Elise felt her eyebrows lift at the news. She grabbed a tablecloth and shook it out. She suddenly had the energy to really kick it into gear.

  In the next few hours, they really made a difference to the dining area. Every table and chair was covered. Elise and Tanya were unwrapping the tables’ center pieces when Sonya
showed up.

  “Just leave those in the box,” she directed when she saw what they were doing. “I need the men to come in here and hang lights and I don’t want them broken.” With her arms crossed, she surveyed the room with a satisfied smile. “It’s coming together. Good work, ladies.” Then addressing Elise, “I just have one more thing for you to do. Come back out and help us set up chairs.”

  Elise straightened from where she’d been crouching by the last box. Her thighs felt shaky, reminiscent of when she’d finished her race. How in the world is this woman going so strong?

  The arboretum was finally shaping up. Half the boxes had disappeared, instead replaced by two huge carts of chairs. Two men pulled the chairs off the stack. Elise joined the crew in carrying them to rows designated by chalk lines. Up in front more people worked on the flowers and assembled the trellis.

  After another hour and half all three hundred chairs had been set up with the rug ready to be rolled up the aisleway.

  Sonya walked up and squeezed Elise’s shoulder. “You did good. Go home and take some of that pizza with you. I’ll see you by nine tomorrow.”

  Gratefully, Elise carried a box of pizza out to her car and dropped into her seat. One more day. Just one more day.

  As she pulled out of the parking lot she saw the green car again. This time it was parked, and the driver was standing by its bumper talking with someone.

  She drove by slowly, half wanting to duck, half needing to see.

  The man turned his head and his face was illuminated by the streetlight.

  Uncle Rozzo.

  Elise gulped and slammed on the gas. Her skin prickled as though a bucket of ice water had been dumped on her.

  What do I do? She grabbed her phone before chucking it, frustrated. Brad was still at work and hadn’t responded to her message yet. Do I go home? The idea creeped her out. She drove around aimlessly, amped up on adrenaline.

  After fifteen minutes she found herself outside Angel Lake Park. She stared at the sign illuminated by her headlights and gave a sarcastic snort. This place was her refuge, even after all these years. Whenever she had a puzzle to work out, she often found herself here. She turned the car off and sat in the dark. If she concentrated, she could just make out the moonlit ripples of the water between the trees.

  She sat forward. There was something else moving between the trees. A person. Elise’s creeped-out meter had hit its max and she jammed the keys in, ready to tear out of there. Something stopped her—intuition maybe. She leaned forward to watch some more.

  The figure was slender. Tiny.

  Waif-like.

  Elise grabbed her jacket from the back seat and opened the door. “Lucy?” she called. The sound of her own voice made her pulse ramp up.

  The figure turned toward her for a moment before ducking away. But not before Elise had a chance to see the thin face with the large eyes.

  “Lucy! It’s me, Elise.” She looked desperately in her car. “I have some food for you!”

  As the minutes passed it became apparent the teen wasn’t coming forward. “Okay, I’m leaving now. The food will be by the sign.” There was no indication that she’d been heard. It’s freezing out here. If only I could get her to come home with me. With a sigh, Elise placed the pizza and the jacket on the ground. Feeling bummed out, she slowly drove away.

  Chapter 22

  Wedding day. Elise had awakened that morning with the biggest feeling of relief, as though waking from a nightmare. As she stretched in her bed, some of the previous day’s events flashed through her mind—Lucy sleeping in the freezing cold. The creepy man driving by her house. She sighed and sat up. I can only tackle things one at a time.

  After her shower, she pulled her dress suit from the closet and wrinkled her nose at a stain she hadn’t noticed on the edge of the skirt. Frosting. Lovely. She dabbed at it with a wet wash cloth and put it on. A quick chignon, a few swipes of mascara, and a granola bar, saw her out the door.

  The parking lot was half-way full with two attendants dressed in full clown gear directing traffic. Elise followed the direction of one, and soon had the Pinto pulled into an empty spot. It was early yet, but Catalina’s limousine was already there. Elise frowned, having expected to beat the bride-to-be.

  She grabbed her jacket and shoved the remaining bit of granola bar into her mouth. Chewing, she checked her hair and then her teeth before climbing out.

  The morning air was cool, but the clear sky overhead promised a beautiful day. Trees planted at the ends of the parking medians were unfurling baby leaves, as crocuses pushed through the dirt at the bases of their trunks.

  A smile crossed her lips, despite her growing concern that something was bound to go wrong. Think positive! Hopefully it’ll just be something as simple as the wrong wedding cake topper.

  In the meantime, she had a job to do; to make this the best darn circus wedding that there ever was. She walked up to the entrance with a smile of approval. It was already shaping up to be a success. Green carpet lined the walkway up to the entrance, where two more clowns in white gloves stood to open the glass doors.

  Elise gasped when she walked through the mall doors. The crew had obviously worked well into the night, transforming the mall’s arboretum into a truly fairy tale scene. The waterfall was softly lit with green and golden lights. A blanket of woven carnations wrapped around its rock base. The flowers looked moss-like, instead of being the blaring colors of a football team that Elise had been expecting.

  The workers had succeeded in assembling a white latticed trellis to arch over the wedding ceremony. Tiny lights twinkled amidst white trailing flowers woven in the wood framework.

  There was definitely circus flair in there too. The carpet in the aisle separating the bride’s family from the groom’s was striped with shades of red, blue and green. Two giant urns, also painted in colorful stripes, were filled with white hydrangeas. The four exits leading to the rest of the mall were cordoned off in swaths of rich fabric very reminiscent of the inside of a circus tent.

  Elegant. Gorgeous. Unique. Elise couldn’t believe Sonya had pulled it off. She’d never doubt her again.

  Elise sidestepped the wedding area and ducked behind one of the curtains. Tabitha, Lavina’s beautician, was tucked into the first empty store front. The store front’s windows and doors were covered with white fabric, but light escaped from the edges. Elise lightly tapped on the door before opening it.

  Inside, they’d taken all of Elise’s hard work from the night before and finished it into the image of a high-scale salon. There was even a portable sink and a massage chair in the far corner. Two white couches sat casually in the center of the room, along with a coffee table filled with snacks on silver trays.

  “Elise!” squealed Catalina from a leather beautician’s chair. Tabitha was behind her, looking calm, cool, and just as beautiful as Elise expected any hairdresser of Lavina’s to look.

  “Happy wedding day!” Elise smiled. She reached into her purse and pulled out a small box. “From me, to you.”

  “Oh, Elise! You shouldn’t have.” Catalina’s little hands reached out eagerly. She tore off the lid and gasped at what was inside—a tiny blue-enameled balloon charm. “It’s adorable!” she squealed.

  “Just a little something blue that reminded me of the circus,” Elise explained.

  “I love it! I’ll wear it right here!” Just like that, Catalina tucked it inside her bodice.

  They visited for nearly a half an hour and Elise was relieved to see that Catalina’s apparent happiness seemed uninfluenced by medication. “Well,” Elise said finally, with a glance up at the beautician. “It looks like you’re in good hands. I’ll check on you in a bit, but otherwise, relax and enjoy.”

  “Wait, before you go,” Catalina beckoned her over. In a low voice, she continued, “Have you seen Cook?”

  A feeling of foreboding crept up Elise’s spine. “What? No.”

  “I haven’t seen him since the rehearsal.” Catalina�
�s bottom lip poked out in a bit of a pout.

  “Did he have a bachelor party?” At Catalina’s shake of the head, Elise continued, “Maybe he’s off doing something special for the honeymoon. I’ll keep my eye out for him, but I’m sure everything’s fine.”

  Elise didn’t feel as confident as her words as she left for the arboretum.

  She felt a bit surprised as she entered. Just in the little while that she’d been gone, the room was transformed by noisy people. She stood silently against the wall and watched the remaining seats fill. What was even more bizarre was the number of guests who’d chosen to dress like clowns. She shivered at all the white faces, and painted lips and eyes. The congregation’s chatter was raucous and loud as if fueled by the energy of the costumes.

  “There you are,” Sonya snapped, walking up to Elise. A long bag draped over her shoulder and flapped with the fervor of her steps. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

  “I was with Catalina. Have you seen Cook?” Elise asked.

  Sonya rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. “Are you kidding me? This is a nightmare. Come with me. Now.” She grabbed Elise’s arm with a firm grip and half-dragged her behind the curtain to the right that would eventually open to the reception area. “I have got to talk to you,” she mumbled.

  Sonya looked around, as if searching for a place to speak privately, and finally settled on an empty kiosk. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a manila envelope and placed it on the counter. Her frown lines deepened around her mouth.

  Elise took it in with a flicker of interest. “What’s going on?”

  Sonya tapped the envelope with her fingers, nails short and blunt. A ring glittered on her index finger. “You’ll never guess what came in the mail today,” she whispered.

  With eyebrows lifted, Elise asked, “Well? What?”

  “A letter. Proof that it’s all fake.”

  “What’s all fake?” said Elise, feeling the blood drain from her face.

  “This whole thing. The wedding. It’s a sham. None of it’s real.” Emotion heightened the last of Sonya’s whispered words.