Proposals and Poison

by Rachelle J. Christensen

  “But they’d need proof to open any kind of case against Drago,” I said.

  “They have loads of proof. There are tons of documents that Drago signed as things passed through. He said he stopped paying attention—there just wasn’t time to analyze every piece of paper that went through company channels.”

  “Oh no. Jessie, there’s got to be something we can do to help him.”

  “I’ve tried calling a few lawyers to get an idea of what his best move is, but they’re all so expensive and they don’t really want to give a free consultation.” Jessie wiped her eyes with the tissue again.

  “I actually have a good friend who is a lawyer. He mostly does family law, but he might be able to give Drago some advice.”

  Jessie dropped the tissue and grabbed my hands. “Really? Oh, that would be a lifesaver.”

  “I’ll give him a call and see if he has any time in the next few days. Why don’t you give me Drago’s information and I’ll pass it along to him.”

  “Yes, thank you,” Jessie said.

  “No promises, but we’ll try.”

  Jessie gave the info, and then hugged me before she left. My heart broke for her. It was unfair that all of this was being dumped on her and Drago when they were trying to plan their wedding. Wasn’t it enough that his family was against their union?

  The mid-July heat was stifling so I cranked on the air conditioner in my Mercury Mountaineer. The leather seats were a plus in the summertime once the air conditioner hit its stride. I dialed Luke’s number, and it rang several times before he answered.

  “Hey, you enjoying the heat?” I asked.

  “Just wishing you weren’t so busy, ‘cause today is the perfect day to go cruising up the mountain,” he replied.

  “Don’t tempt me.” Sitting on the back of the Harley with my arms around his middle and the cool mountain air rushing past us was exactly where I wanted to be at the moment.

  “Maybe next Saturday?”

  “No, it’s the art festival. The one my family’s all coming to.”

  “Oh, that’s right. Well, I wondered if you’d like to go to church with me tomorrow?”

  Wow. He was asking me to church? That would open up the floodgates for questions if he was a regular parishioner. “Sure. What time?” I answered before I had a chance to second-guess myself.

  “Starts at ten, so I can pick you up at a quarter ‘til, if that works.”

  “Yes, that’d be nice. Hey, uh, I called not just to get you to take me on another date—although I’m really glad I called now—but I need a favor.” I was rambling, but since he’d just asked me on two dates in the same phone call, my brain was jumbled with twitterpated birds singing songs of love.

  “Okay, I’m considering.” I heard a smile in his voice and wished I could be having this conversation in real time.

  “Would you be willing to do a free consultation for a friend of mine?” I paused, but decided to just dump the info before he had to answer. “It’s Jessie Wilder. Her fiancé Drago has been accused of embezzling from Lost Trails Construction. They fired him last week and now they’re pressing charges against him. I’m planning their wedding, they’ve already put money down, and Jessie has a little boy. I feel so bad for her.” I sucked in a breath and waited for him to answer.

  “And you’re sure that this guy is innocent?”

  I hesitated. “I really don’t know. I haven’t met him, but I’d like to take you over to meet him.”

  “Well that’s not really my area of expertise, but I’d be willing to give him some ideas about what he can do,” Luke said. “Sounds like you’re pretty booked today and tomorrow. What about Monday before nine?”

  “Yep, that’ll work,” I said. “Thanks. I’d better run before I’m late to my own wedding.”

  Luke laughed at the joke that I always used while working on weddings I planned. “See you later.”

  PAPIER MCHE BALLOONS

  Inflate over-sized balloons. Dip crepe paper, strips of colored paper, and/or lace in mixture of 1 part flour to 2 parts water and affix paper to balloon until it is completely covered. Allow to dry for 24 hours. Add another layer if desired for stability. Pop balloon and cut a small hole in the bottom to insert battery-operated tea light. Tape the tea light in place. Tape over the hole. Thread string, twine, or ribbon through globes and hang from trees or backdrops for mood lighting.

  Courtesy of www.mashedpotatoesandcrafts.com

  The harp was set under the shade of a green ash tree; the music was light and ethereal, nothing that would stir up the excitement of the pets in attendance at the wedding. Lorea was the leash checker, as I had insisted that all dogs be on a leash. There were a few cats, but leashes didn’t work as well for cats, so I told Lorea to keep an eye on those felines. One guest had brought his iguana, and the hideous-looking thing sat on a chair next to him, enjoying the sun. It was still too hot at seven thirty on that July night, but Trixie and Derek wanted their reception to be at sunset. I had checked, and sunset would be at 9:18 p.m., hopefully the heat and end of day would encourage the animals to rest during the ceremony.

  Trixie had been a pleasure to work with despite the special canine circumstances, because she had a great eye for unique beauty. She and Derek had made two dozen papier-mâché balloons and hung them from the trees. The hanging orbs were black, white, yellow, and green to match Trixie’s wedding colors. They looked like giant ornaments, and I happened to know that they each had a small battery-operated tea light inside that would provide mood lighting during the reception.

  The guests were all settled, and I was about to give the signal to Lorea to prepare Mike to walk Trixie down the aisle, when one of the canine guests started howling. Everyone looked toward the mournful sound of the bluetick coonhound seated near the back of the audience. There was a man standing near the coonhound with a yippy poodle on a neon-green leash. He must have just arrived and somehow set off a chain reaction, because now several dogs were howling. My heart rate increased as the animals began squirming and straining at their leashes. The iguana slithered off his chair and into the grass at his owner’s feet. A cat growled, and that’s when Sadie decided it was time to get the party started.

  I’d only met Sadie briefly, because Trixie hadn’t brought her by the shop after the first incident. Sadie was much too excited about life to go in stores with breakable items. I was grateful for that, but at the same time a worry had been gnawing at my gut ever since. If Sadie couldn’t behave herself in a store, then how could she behave herself at a wedding attended by more than a dozen other animals?

  Derek tightened Sadie’s leash as she jumped forward barking at the man in the back, who must have been wearing bad cologne.

  “Sadie, no!” Derek cried as the dog lunged forward, pulling him away from the pastor, who held his Bible close to his chest and retreated to the side of the tree he stood under.

  Sadie kept straining, and rose petals bounced around in the basket attached to her collar. Hopefully the wedding rings weren’t already in Sadie’s basket; I could just imagine Sadie running after some cat and sending the rings flying. I cringed and looked back at the bluetick and the now-snarling poodle next to the man who was talking to Lorea. She was pointing toward the parking lot and he was shaking his head.

  “I can’t believe this,” I mumbled. I didn’t run toward him, but I hurried as quickly as I could with my wedge sandals. I had chosen the less speedy pair of shoes because heels would sink into the grass. As I approached, the man’s features came into focus. He looked familiar. It wasn’t until I was within earshot of his and Lorea’s conversation that I recognized him as Lily’s father, Phil Andrus.

  “Sir, all I’m asking is that you walk your dog around the parking lot for a few minutes while we get things settled here,” Lorea said.

  “But I just got here,” Phil answered. “I walked Otis here so he wouldn’t be hyper.”

  Lorea gritted her teeth and looked in my direction.

  I held ou
t my hand. “Hi, I’m Adrielle Pyper, the wedding planner for Trixie and Derek.”

  He shook my hand and bobbed his chin. “Phil Andrus.”

  “Yes, I remember seeing you over at Lily’s house. I’m her neighbor—er, was—I’m so sorry for your loss. So, so sorry,” I blabbered. I grabbed onto his arm and pulled him away from the group.

  He swallowed, and his eyes tightened. “It’s been terrible.”

  “Lily was so excited about her upcoming marriage. I was helping her get started on the details.” Right after I said the words, I saw Phil stiffen and realized that I’d said the wrong thing. Before my brain could catch up to my mouth, I said, “Tim didn’t do it. There’s no way he could kill Lily.”

  Phil stopped and turned almost robotically toward me. “People are capable of many things that we could never imagine.”

  I took a step back, involuntarily shaking my head. “I know, but—”

  “I hope he’s innocent,” Phil interrupted. “But I trust the police, and they must have evidence if they’ve arrested him.”

  “But you don’t really believe Tim did it,” I protested. “Do you?”

  “Tim is a fine man and I was happy to support Lily, but I’m not sure they would have made a great match. The years change us.”

  “Adri, I think we’re ready now.” Lorea approached from behind and motioned to the guests, who may as well have been sitting in a petting zoo. From this angle, the bushy tail of a raccoon stuck out from the side of the fifth row.

  “If we make it through this wedding, it will be a miracle,” I hissed. I pasted on a smile and followed Lorea to the mass of whimpering, barking, yowling guests of Trixie and Derek’s wedding.

  During the ceremony, I kept glancing at Phil. He sat in the back, stoic, next to Otis, who was very well behaved. I thought about what he’d said, about what people were capable of. I knew it was true, but I still didn’t want to believe it of Tim.

  Thankfully everyone, pets included, survived Trixie and Derek’s wedding. My nerves felt frayed and my back was stiff from holding in the stress that at any time someone would start howling again. By the time the wedding was over and cleaned up, even if I’d had the energy to visit Tim, visiting hours at the jail were closed. I tucked away the questions for Tim that were burning in the back of my brain, and made plans for the next day.

  I took a few minutes to sort through the folder of emails that I’d compiled from my correspondence with Lily. Things had kept me so busy that I hadn’t had much time to examine the notes after I’d turned the first folder over to Tony.

  After I read through all of the emails, I slumped in my chair. There wasn’t anything remotely significant. I’d made a few notes of possible questions for my own suspects: Phil, Rose, the mystery gunman, Tim (even though it couldn’t be him), Javier, maybe his mother Tina, and even Vickie, the grouchy assistant from Tim’s vet clinic. If Tony saw my notes, he would laugh and he wouldn’t try to hide how ridiculous my ideas were.

  My chair squeaked as I leaned back against it and stared at the ceiling. Then I remembered something that had me sitting up straight and scrambling for my phone: Lily and I had texted back and forth a few times. Maybe there was some clue in the short bursts of messages on my phone.

  I scrolled through my texts until I found Lily Rowan’s name. The picture next to her name made it hard to swallow. My finger hovered above her smiling face before tapping into the messages. There were about a dozen, so I pulled out a spiral notebook and began writing down information that Lily had sent. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

  Scrolling back through the texts, I paused on one from last Friday, just four days before Lily died. I had asked her if she could come to my shop and meet, and she hadn’t replied for several hours.

  Lily: Let’s try for next Tuesday. There are some things at work that are stressing me out and I can’t concentrate on my HEA right now.

  Me: No problem. I’ll bring some ideas to go over with you.

  Lily: It’d be nice if we never had to worry about money, right?

  Me: For sure!

  I frowned at Lily’s mention of her HEA, or Happily Ever After—that chance had been stolen from her. I studied the conversation again. The turn in the conversation to money seemed a little out of place when I read through it now. Lily hadn’t mentioned money before. She seemed sensible, and hadn’t spoken of anything that extraordinary in costs. Besides, her stepdad Phil was footing the bill for her wedding, and anything he wouldn’t have covered could easily be paid for by Tim. He did very well with his animal clinic.

  I slid my finger back and forth over the conversation. Was I making more of this than there really was? I wrote a note and a few questions about the conversation in my notebook. It was an account of information that I would give to Tony—after I asked Tim what he thought it meant. Maybe it would mean something to Tim, and if not, I’d ask Tony if he thought the text sounded abnormal.

  With the faces of my suspects dangling on the edge of my consciousness, I finally dropped off to sleep.

  At six-thirty Sunday morning, I dragged myself out of bed and hurried to get ready for church with Luke. My plan was to visit Tim right at nine when visiting hours opened and then speed back to my condo in time for Luke to pick me up. It wasn’t much time, but I couldn’t wait another day and the visiting hours were extended on Sunday, so I needed to take advantage of the chance to do my own investigating. I didn’t tell Luke or Tony, because I knew they would discourage me, but both of them would find out. I would tell Luke later, and Tony would hear about it when he came into the station on Monday morning.

  I drove to Hailey and passed through the security checkpoints to enter the Blaine County detention center. After I retrieved my wallet, notebook, and pen, I was led to a room with a screen connected to Tim’s cell. Inmates were allowed only two twenty-minute visits per day by video, so I was grateful when Tim agreed to my visit.

  The fluorescent lights in the room were an unnatural bluish color, and one of the bulbs flickered accompanied by a low hum. In the quiet of the room, the buzz seemed to increase while I waited for Tim to show up on the screen. With a flicker, Tim came into view. The cell was all white walls with a steel bunk frame and a blue mattress.

  Tim wore a faded orange jumpsuit and had shackles on his wrists. My stomach clenched as I took in the pallor of his skin. It might have just been the lights, but it appeared as if part of his life had been sucked from him—and in a way, it had. I still felt certain that he didn’t kill Lily.

  As Tim lifted his head to view the screen, one corner of his mouth pulled upwards in what might have been a half smile, but the hollow look in his eyes just made him appear like a wounded animal. He studied me for a moment, probably wondering if I was there to accuse him like everyone else.

  I couldn’t smile, not when he was dressed in a jumpsuit, but I tried to convey with my eyes that I believed he was innocent. I opened my mouth to say so, but he spoke first.

  “Hey, Adri. Sorry you had to come here.”

  “It’s no problem.” I cleared my throat. “Listen, Tim, I know you didn’t kill Lily.”

  He leaned forward, and the first bit of life ignited in his eyes. “You do?”

  The poor man. It was hard to imagine the pain he must be feeling, losing his fiancée and then getting arrested for her murder. I glanced to the side, where an armed officer stood nearby—a reminder that nothing on the video visitation would be private. “I wanted to talk to you because ... well, I thought maybe if we worked together, we might remember some detail that would help your case.”

  “My lawyer has advised me not to talk to anyone without him present,” Tim said.

  “I think that’s wise,” I said. “But I’m not just anyone. I know you. I knew Lily. I want to help you.”

  Tim stared at me through the screen for a moment. Then he leaned back and blew out a breath. “I’ve thought and thought. No alibi, no witnesses, all evidence pointing to me.” He held up his hands. “I can’t
see any way that I’m ever gonna be free.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Unless we figure out who really killed Lily.”

  Tim’s lower lip trembled; he coughed, and rolled his shoulders back. “The police said they have no other suspects. They’re not even looking at anyone else.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” I said. “I happen to know that some people on the force don’t believe you did it.” I leaned forward and tapped the table with one of my chipped blue fingernails. Maybe I was fudging the truth just a little, because Tony hadn’t said what he really believed about Tim. “I know that maybe this seems like a long shot, but I wanted to ask you a few questions. And even if you’ve answered them before, I still want to know.”

  Tim nodded. “Sure. This beats sitting here staring at the wall.”

  I flipped open my trusty spiral notebook, at the same time clicking my ballpoint pen open. “Tell me about the night Lily died.”

  “I wasn’t at the office. I’d planned to take off early to be with Lily, but I was called out to treat a horse with colic. The owner had another emergency with one of his kids while I was treating the horse, so they left before I was done.” Tim sat as still as a statue in front of the video screen. “After that, no one can attest to where I was. I finished with the horse after five, maybe five thirty, and then headed back to my place to shower and change. Lily was supposed to come over to my house for dinner. I’d been working on a little surprise for her, to celebrate our engagement.” Tim stopped and wiped his mouth with his hand.

  “I’m so sorry.” There was nothing else to say. Nothing that would bring Lily back or help with Tim’s pain. I knew something of what he felt. After my best friend was murdered, there was an empty space inside that echoed with memories of all the times we’d shared. Every time I thought I was doing better, something would knock up against that empty space and the hollow ringing of my sorrow would start all over again. There weren’t very many words that helped me then. “What evidence specifically do the police have against you?”