We were almost to the door when the oily voice stopped us again. “Don’t you want to hear about the other lady?”
I turned back and noticed he was regarding us with an expression of distasteful satisfaction. I pulled a very reluctant Julia towards the counter.
“What other lady?” I tried to keep my voice tough and professional.
Shady smiled and pulled a Kool from his crumpled packet. “Smoke?” We shook our heads and waited as he lit up and exhaled. “There was two girls that dude met here. I only told you about the one.”
“What did the second one look like?”
He shook his head and grinned. “Cost ya extra.”
I nudged Julia; there was no reason for me to incur all the costs of our expedition. She reached in her bag and fished out a twenty.
“What did the other woman look like?” I demanded.
“I never really got a good look at her, I just seen her from the car. She had dark hair, pretty, wore big sunglasses.”
Great. It could be anybody. “Did you see what the car looked like?”
“It was a dark green SUV. I think it was a Range Rover.”
Jasper’s car; that didn’t tell us much.
“Did he mention her name?”
“Nope. She looked too good to even get out of the car. Kinda snooty.” He leaned over the counter and laid a clammy hand on mine. “If there’s anything I can ever do for you ladies, just call me; I’m real discreet.”
I stared at him in disgust as Julia pulled me out the office door. She stepped onto the sidewalk and shuddered.
“Yuck! That guy was super-gross. I can’t believe Jasper came here to get it on, or that he convinced anyone to come with him.”
“I guess he figured he’d never meet anyone he knew here.”
“He figured right! I need at least a hundred showers.”
I opened the car and we got back inside. “Well, his descriptions didn’t sound like Sabrina, but if she was meeting Jasper she might’ve been wearing a disguise.”
Julia shook her head. “No good ever comes from wearing a blonde wig. Do you remember what happened the Halloween I went as Dolly Parton?”
There are some events that should never be recorded in written form. I shook my head. “I still can’t believe Sabrina resumed her affair with Jasper after the way he treated her.”
We drove back towards All Hallows and I dropped Julia off at her office at Essex.
“Call me if anything happens,” she said.
I promised I would and headed out to Point Savage. I was almost home when I decided to make a detour and turned down Main Street. Ware Realty was in a federal style row house, and I stopped to examine the glossy advertisements for condos, bungalows and vacation cottages splashed across the Regency bow window before pushing open the front door.
“Hello?”
My voice echoed in the small space and I glanced around a sea of white. The style was ultra-modern and minimalist, two of my least favorite things, with white expanses of walls, thick, white carpet, and white and chrome furniture in sleek designs. A reception desk stood near the front door, and a second desk, presumably Alex’s, was against the back wall. Long rows of white bookshelves and a glass topped conference table completed the hipster, magazine look, bought wholesale from a Scandinavian closet.
I walked over to Alex’s desk and stood looking down at financial papers and real estate listings. I noticed some correspondence and picked up a page. It was an invoice marked ‘overdue’ from a contractor at Pinnacle Estates.
I put down the paper and frowned. Pinnacle was a new housing project just outside All Hallows. At its conception, it was designed to appeal to high-end buyers fleeing the New York pricing market, but construction faltered along with the economy and then halted pending an injunction from the All Hallows Historical Society. The society maintained that the land Alex had acquired was part of the Heritage Project, a federally protected historic preservation area, and thus immune from development. It was rumored Alex was in deep financial trouble over Pinnacle.
The front door opened suddenly and a young woman dressed in a blue and orange geometric sundress stood at the door. She blinked at me across the sea of white.
“Can I help you?”
I smiled and held out my hand. “I’m Elspeth Gray; I’m a friend of Alex. I was hoping to catch him here.”
She moved a few of the papers on her desk and sat down heavily. “I’m Megan, Alex’s secretary. He’s out at the construction site.”
“Construction?”
“Pinnacle.” She said it with a gloomy sigh and I saw her adjust the invoices on her desk.
I adopted a sympathetic expression. “I read about it in the Gazette. Is the litigation still pending?”
She opened one of the coffees and took a sip. “I don’t think it will ever stop.”
“What happened? I mean, how did no one realize the land was part of the Heritage Project?”
“Alex was so excited about the project he rushed the title search and missed the paperwork. Now we’re scrambling to save what we can from the deal. It won’t be much. Do you know anyone who’s hiring?”
I shook my head and she moodily returned her attention to her computer screen. “Neither do I.”
I wished her well on the job search and went back outside. The white color scheme had been oppressive and I was glad to be back in messy, disorganized nature. I glanced down at my watch and saw it was almost four. If I hurried I could probably still catch Alex. I took the two-lane highway running to the north of All Hallows and fifteen minutes later had reached The Pinnacle.
The new subdivision consisted of about twenty gorgeous homes set on a cliff high above the Hudson. As I drove through the winding streets, I noticed at least half the houses were still under construction. Alex’s red pick-up was parked near a construction trailer and I parked behind him and went to the door marked Ware Construction.
“Come in.”
Alex sat alone at the desk, a series of blue prints in front of him and a troubled expression on his face.
“Hi, Alex.”
He groaned and pushed back his chair. “Elspeth, I really don’t have time for this right now.”
“No, no, I’m not here to investigate. Just a friendly chat.”
He eyed me suspiciously and then gestured towards a folding chair. “I could use one of those right now.”
“How’s business going?”
“The same as it is for everyone else…lousy.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m sure you’ll be able to weather the storm.”
Alex shook his head; his expression glum. “I wish I shared your confidence but it doesn’t look good. The housing market isn’t recovering from the slump and these properties aren’t moving. The worst part is I have all these historical nut jobs breathing down my neck. Who cares anyway? This was all just wilderness until I bought it. It’s not like I’m tearing down Native American villages.”
“The historical society is very devoted to its cause.”
“If you mean they’re a bunch of whack jobs, then I agree with you one hundred percent. I just wish they’d find something else to save. Every day I’m behind on this job I owe more money. We can barely afford our own house payment, and you know Coco, she loves to shop.” His tone was bitter, and I raised a brow as he continued hurriedly. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Coco’s from Manhattan and I promised her we would move back there once we got the Pinnacle project off the ground. Coco can be very…demanding. I don’t blame her. Once you achieve a certain lifestyle you don’t want to go back to living like you did in college.”
“I’m sure it can’t be that bad.”
Alex groaned. “It’s worse. I’ve sunk every penny I have into this project and had to get a loan from Jasper as well. I guess the only good thin
g that’s come out of all this is that I don’t have to worry about that.”
He caught my expression and flushed. “I didn’t mean it like it sounded. It’s terrible that Jasper was killed, but at least it gives me some leeway with the loan. Nora isn’t in any hurry to collect. She said there’s plenty of money in the estate to help out family.”
“Nora’s very generous.”
“Yes, she is. She’s the best.” He broke off suddenly and stared at the wall behind my head.
“Nora told me you’d been very good to her,” I said encouragingly.
He smiled. “That sounds like Nora. She always has something nice to say about everyone, including her bum brother-in-law.”
“She said you helped her through some rough patches with Jasper.”
“Jasper treated her like crap.”
“I know, but I think you made up for him.”
He eyed me suspiciously but my innocent expression gave nothing away. His own features softened. “Nora is special. Have you ever seen her at work? The way she connects with the kids at her school is really terrific. It would be great to be able to do something like that…something really worthwhile.”
I eyed him a moment. “Why did you get into construction?”
He shrugged. “It was Coco’s idea. She figured since All Hallows didn’t have any other construction companies it would be an open market. When we started we were making money hand over fist. Then the market tanked. That’s when I realized I was in over my head. I’ve tried to tell Coco how much trouble we’re in but she just says we have to wait it out.”
“Maybe she’s right.”
“Maybe she is, but I don’t know how much waiting a man is expected to do.”
The last remark was so wistful I stopped and stared. He caught my eye and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Elspeth, but I really have to get back to work. I expect I’ll see you at the funeral?”
He turned back towards his paperwork and I left the trailer. I decided to take the scenic route along the cliffs as I thought about Alex Ware. Jasper’s death had been very convenient for Alex and his business. Just in time, really, and as Alex put it: How much waiting was a man expected to do?
I was so absorbed in my detection theories that at first I didn’t notice the car following close behind me. The road out to Point Savage was one-lane, with a large cliff on one side and a wall of trees on the other. It was one of the prettiest drives in the village, and I figured it was a tourist on a leisure drive, slowing down to let them pass.
The car sped up and advanced on my driver’s side. I glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed that it was the dark blue car I’d seen before on High Street. I couldn’t see the driver, just a vague outline of shape. I nudged my car a little further to the right and waved again for them to pass.
They didn’t pass.
The impact of metal on metal was sudden and intense, and the crash jolted me to the right against a thin guardrail protecting me from a sheer drop into the Hudson. As I struggled to regain control of my Chevy I jerked the steering wheel hard back towards the left. The other car swerved to avoid the impact and fell back, riding on my bumper.
I tried not to panic. What was this? Road rage? My driving wasn’t that bad.
The car swerved out again. It started to pull alongside me and I pushed on the gas and watched my speedometer slowly inch forward. My old clunker groaned at the unexpected exertion. C’mon, baby, I urged. I glanced fearfully in my rearview mirror and noticed the other car was still at my side and gaining fast.
The second jolt was accompanied by the sickening sound of crunching metal as the driver’s side of my old Chevy buckled and creaked. I jerked towards the guardrail again, but this time the other driver went with me, forcing me against the side with a shriek of tires. I could smell hot metal and hoped I hadn’t set my car on fire. As we rounded a bend I saw a truck approaching from the opposite direction. I slowed my car to a crawl and rolled down my window, honking and pointing towards the car behind me. The other driver swerved out but saw the truck approaching and quickly fell back. I noticed the license plate was covered in mud and the number obscured.
Just as the truck approaching us got within a few hundred feet, my pursuer dropped further back. When I glanced up again in the rearview mirror they were gone.
I kept driving until I came to the rest stop on Fish Tree Hill. My hands were shaking so badly I could hardly dial the number on my cell. Sergeant Jack arrived about five minutes later; lights flashing and siren blaring. I was glad I was being taken seriously. He helped me from my car and took my rather incoherent statement.
He stood and grimly observed the crunched metal. “I need you to come down to the station and make a statement, Elspeth. I’ll arrange for your car to be taken to the shop. Do you need an ambulance?”
I shook my head. “I’m okay, just shaken.”
Jack didn’t leave the sirens on for our trip downtown and I was disappointed. I gave my statement a few more times and drank three cups of really bad coffee. I was so exhausted by the time I got home I could barely pull on my pajamas. Blue’s food bowl was empty and he remained pissed off even after I explained the situation. Apparently, a near-death experience was not adequate reason to delay dinner.
I settled into my favorite chair and called Julia. Her voice sounded worried. “Do you need me to come and stay with you?”
“No, I’m fine. Chief Liddell has a police car parked down the street just in case whoever it was comes back.”
Julia sighed. “We’re getting close.”
“What do you mean?”
“Whenever someone tries to kill Pippa Pepper it means she and Ms. Weebles are close to solving the crime.”
“That’s good news.”
“Yes, isn’t it? All you have to do is survive a little longer.”
“Thanks, Julia; I was planning to do that anyway.”
I hung up the phone and decided to work on Cupcake Chronicles. It was a good stress reliever and I was two weeks away from deadline. I worked until I passed out on the laptop, and woke up around three with my heart racing. I was convinced I’d heard the squeal of tires on the driveway, but when I looked out the window everything was dark and silent…no car, no demonic driver. I crawled up to bed and didn’t open my eyes again until late morning.
Chapter 16
“Tessa, do you have to do that now?”
Ben poked his head irritably from the bedroom door and I turned off the electric mixer. I wasn’t accustomed to having a man in bed, or anywhere else in my apartment, and was trying to get a head start for the Connolly wedding on Saturday.
“I’m sorry, Ben, I’ll try to keep it down.”
He came up behind me and slipped a hand under my robe. “I have a better idea. Come back to bed.”
I shook my head. There was so much to do between now and Saturday and I was already behind, thanks to some extended bedroom episodes with Ben. I was feeling refreshed and energized, almost like back in high school, and was eager to make a success of my fledgling bakery.
“Sorry, I can’t. There are going to be over three hundred people eating my cupcakes this weekend. It’s the biggest order I’ve ever had.”
His hand fell away and he shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’m getting a shower.”
I was relieved I could let the mixer go full blast and thought about the jobs waiting for the next month. Business was booming and the summer wedding season had just started. At this rate, I would be able to afford to expand into the shop front next door and hire at least two additional bakers…
I stopped typing and pushed back my laptop.
I’d gotten up early to get some work done before Jasper’s funeral, but it was slow going thanks to the heroine of The Cupcake Chronicles, Tessa Oglesby. She was supposed to be blissfully in love with Ben Kingston but instead of reveling in being part of a cou
ple at the advanced age of thirty-four she was sneaking out of bed to work on cupcake recipes and serving strategies. My love story was turning into a steamy pile of capitalism and at this rate I would be working on chapter sixteen until Easter.
I scowled down at the laptop. “C’mon, Tessa, give me a break.”
My plea woke up Blue and as he came over for his rub, I glanced up at the microwave clock.
Crap, I was late.
It was time to party.
* * * * *
There’s nothing like a good funeral to take your mind off cupcakes, and Jasper’s promised to be better than most. I arrived at the Old Dutch Churchyard early, anticipating a big crowd, and wasn’t disappointed when I saw the number of cars in the funeral procession.
It was the social event of the year.
Jasper’s handsome polished black casket was decorated with classics of Western literature (his books were featured in the front), bagpipes played as the coffin was lowered (Jasper’s great-grandfather was rumored to have been from Scotland, or had visited there once), and Jasper, with foresight I wouldn’t have given him credit for, had chosen his own tombstone to ensure his legend was properly lauded. It was a tortuously elaborate monstrosity replete with weeping cherubs, lambs and doves carved into over six feet of granite. He’d stolen Keats’s line for his epitaph: Here lies one whose name was writ in water. It was by far the largest and ugliest monument in the Old Dutch Churchyard, and I knew the tears in Alex’s eyes weren’t from sorrow but from the fact Jasper had paid for the stone in advance.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Bootsie Spright stared up in awe at the arabesque wonder.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” I replied.
Crispin busily snapped photographs of the eyesore. “I can’t believe the village board condoned this. I’m a member of the Society for Tradition and Decency and you can be assured we’ll take this up at our next meeting.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Oh yes, the S.T.D. has been an integral part of the village dynamic since its founding.” He stopped and regarded me severely. “I don’t know why you’re giggling, Elspeth, I’m very proud of my S.T.D. status.”
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