The Double Wedding Ring

by Clare O'Donohue

  “So why did you stop speaking?”

  “Because, I guess, after I lost Lizzie I got even more careful. Roger just seemed reckless to me. It wasn’t fair of me. He was a guy who wanted to do the right thing. He just did it differently than I did.”

  “Did he have anything to do with the five hundred thousand that was stolen from a drug dealer in New York?”

  Jesse looked at me hard and shook his head. “I should have known better than to expect you to stay out of it.” He looked away, stared off into the distance, and I couldn’t tell if he was angry or not.

  “Jesse, I’m in it. Roger told Carrie that your girlfriend better like heartbreak. Those bullets were aimed directly at Someday Quilts. Bob Marshall came into the shop today for something more than just a gift for his sister. And tonight he was here looking for me. Not for you, for me. He knew exactly where I would be and that I was alone with Allie. You can be mad that you’re dating a busybody, but in this case, I’m not sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong. This is my life we’re talking about, so it is my business.”

  He didn’t look at me, but he nodded. It wasn’t me he was angry at, I could tell that much, it was himself.

  “I think there’s something about Roger that you’re not telling me,” I said.

  “I just told you everything you need to know.” He was shutting down, physically and emotionally. He seemed on the verge of collapse. There was no point in trying for more information tonight.

  “Sleep,” I said.

  “Yes, please.”

  We got under the covers and curled into each other’s arms. Despite the warmth of his body wrapped around me, I felt a chill.

  “You need a quilt,” I said, trying to mend fences.

  “My girlfriend must not like me enough to make me one.”

  “She likes you plenty.”

  He rested his head against mine, and within minutes he was asleep. But I lay there, wide awake, listening for every noise. Just as I started to drift off, I heard one. The door was opening downstairs.

  I listened. The person was moving around downstairs, opening cabinets and drawers. Not making a lot of noise, but hardly doing anything to avoid being detected. Anna.

  I got out of bed carefully so as not to wake Jesse, grabbed his sweatshirt to keep out the cold, and went downstairs. The light was on in the kitchen, and I could hear more opening and closing of drawers. At this rate she would have inspected every one of them.

  “Can I help you find something?” I asked as I walked into the room.

  She looked up. “I didn’t mean to wake anyone.”

  I glanced into the drawer she had open. It was the catchall, with everything from batteries to pizza coupons. “What are you looking for?”

  “Matches.”

  “Do you smoke?”

  She plopped down on one of the kitchen chairs and let out a heavy sigh. “I wanted to light a candle. I thought I might take a bath, and it’s more soothing by candlelight.”

  I searched through the drawer until I found a book of matches. “Do you have a candle?”

  She grabbed a large white-and-pink-striped pillar candle from behind her purse. “I bought one at this cute little store. I can’t remember the name, let me find the receipt.”

  She grabbed her purse and started fishing through it, placing things on the kitchen table as she searched. Women’s purses, including my own, are like clown cars. We fit far more into them than it would seem possible. Anna’s purse had a wallet, tissues, a set of house keys, her cell phone, two more sets of identical house keys, a business card holder, and a handful of change from the bottom. I wondered why she didn’t just turn over her purse and dump it. It would have been faster. Finally she fished out the receipt.

  “Burke’s,” she said. “Do you know it?”

  “I do.” Burke’s was exactly what she had described, a cute little store that sold the kind of knickknacks that no one needs but for some reason, once you see them, you can’t live without. “We had a visitor. Bob Marshall stopped by.”

  She blinked a few times, slightly bit the side of her lip. “What did he want?”

  “You know him?”

  “He was on the job with Roger. I barely knew him but, you know, weddings and funerals, that sort of thing. He must have wanted to offer his condolences.”

  There was no surprise that he was in town, no questions about how he had known to come to Jesse’s house. And she’d assumed he had been there to speak to her. Maybe he had been, and when he found me alone, he decided to scare me instead, perhaps to throw me off guard. And then there was the fact that Bob knew a lot about me. Maybe Anna was his source, and his partner in killing Roger and shooting at Jesse. Whatever the case, I wouldn’t get the answer from Anna.

  I yawned. “I need to go back to bed.”

  “You’re spending the night?”

  I almost answered, then paused. I knew what I wanted to say, but Eleanor’s voice in my head suggested I keep my smart remarks to myself. “Enjoy your bath, Anna.”

  CHAPTER 34

  There’s something about the sunshine as it reflects off snow. It’s almost blinding. As Barney and I made our usual trek into town, I felt like I was in danger of getting lost. I was in an odd mood. I’d woken up early from Jesse’s and headed back to Eleanor’s for a change of clothes, just as the sun was creeping upward. I showered, got ready for work, and felt energetic about the day. But as I was heading downstairs to make myself breakfast, I saw that Oliver was in the kitchen, sitting quietly and staring off somewhere, deep in thought.

  “I thought I was the early bird,” I said.

  He smiled a little, but I worried I’d been wrong to interrupt him. “Felt a bit of pressure lying down. Couldn’t catch my breath,” he said.

  I rushed over to him. “I’ll call the doctor.”

  “You’ll wake him up.”

  “Then I’ll drive you to the hospital.”

  He patted my hand. “I’m okay now. Your mother’s been cooking all sorts of exotic dishes and I’m afraid they’re too much for this old stomach.”

  “It could be your heart.”

  “Nothing to worry about. My heart is fine. But I’ll make an appointment as soon as the doctor’s office opens. Not just an appointment. I’ll see him today.”

  “Oliver, if something’s wrong . . .”

  “This, too, shall pass.” He took a deep breath, as if to prove he could. “It goes so fast,” he said. “Enjoy it while you can.”

  “It’s not over yet. Don’t forget, you’ve got a big day ahead,” I pointed out. “You’re going to dance with my grandmother a week from today. Okay?”

  He mocked me with a stern expression and a firm nod. “Yes, mum.”

  “Oliver, I really think the doctor . . .”

  “I’m fine. It’s just indigestion.” He sounded frustrated with me. I wanted to push but I didn’t. As I had pointed out to my mother, Oliver and Eleanor were adults capable of making their own decisions. Even if this one made me nervous.

  He decided to go back upstairs and try for another hour’s sleep. The changes were hard on him, too. I hoped that was all it was. I decided against my original plan of getting to the shop early to work on my quilt. Instead I waited in the house, making a batch of blueberry muffins and generally keeping myself busy and close until eight o’clock, when my grandmother came downstairs, followed by my parents, and finally by Oliver and Barney. Oliver winked at me, making me a co-conspirator. He wasn’t going to say anything to my grandmother, and I was going to give him until the doctor’s visit to change his mind.

  An hour after that, as Barney and I walked into town, we were passed by Eleanor, my mother, and little Patch on their way into the shop in Eleanor’s car. Patch was standing on my mother’s shoulder, watching the world out the passenger-side window. She was getting more sure of hersel
f and her place in the world, and maybe she also wanted to show Barney that while he rolled around in snow, she rode in luxury. I took a longer route than usual and walked past the bed and breakfast in town. Anna’s friend had spent the night there. I checked my watch. The owner, an old friend of Eleanor’s named Jackie Greene, usually served breakfast until about nine-thirty, and it was that time now. Her guests would either be checking out or heading into town for some sightseeing. It was too cold to just stand there, and Barney was getting anxious, so I decided to go in and just ask Jackie if Anna’s friend was still there.

  But I didn’t even have to go that far. The man in the camel hair coat came out of the bed and breakfast just as I was heading to the door. He smiled as he passed me, but it wasn’t a smile of recognition. Just a friendly morning nod as he turned left onto the road that led to Main Street. If he remembered me as the lady on the roof of Clark’s Dry Cleaners yesterday, he didn’t show it.

  Barney and I hung back for a moment then followed. The man, Jesse had said his name was Ken Tremayne, walked quickly, but given that the temperature had dipped below freezing, it didn’t surprise me.

  I stayed behind Ken, and Barney helped to give me cover by sniffing at everything he could find. When Ken stopped at the edge of the cemetery, I watched him while Barney stuck his nose in the snow to his absolute delight. It was sort of the same reaction I have when a new shipment of fabric comes into the shop, though I don’t actually plunge my nose into it.

  Ken just stood there. Was he going into our cemetery, which housed residents from as far back as the seventeenth century? What would be there to find? I suddenly had images of a suitcase filled with the missing money hidden in an empty grave.

  But no such luck. Instead of walking through the gate, he reached into his pocket and grabbed a pack of cigarettes.

  While he smoked, I tugged at Barney to keep walking. I didn’t want to be spotted staring at the man.

  I walked quickly trying to pass Ken by without being noticed, but Barney was having none of it. A goose, one of many that made a home in the cemetery, waddled toward us and Barney loudly announced its presence. Ken turned and saw me again, and as he did he dropped his lighter. I walked over and retrieved it from the snow.

  “Thank you. You must be a resident of this lovely town. Everyone’s so friendly. ”

  I looked over at the man, who I guessed was in his fifties. There was a slight gray in his brown hair, and a general no-nonsense quality to his appearance, but he was dressed like a man who had money and wanted the world to know it. “I am,” I said. “And thank you. We like it.”

  “Ken Tremayne.” He shook my hand.

  “Nell Fitzgerald.”

  “Nice dog you’ve got.”

  “He is.” I patted his head. Barney had lost all interest in the goose and now sat between Ken and myself at full attention. “He loves the snow.”

  Ken took a drag of his cigarette. “I’m a little lost. I’m supposed to be going to one of the coffee shops in town to meet a friend.”

  “There’s only one: Jitters. And you’re headed in the right direction. In fact I’m heading there myself.” All the better to question you, I thought.

  We started to walk, and I knew I didn’t have much time since there was only a block to go. No point in wasting it with small talk.

  “You’re Anna’s friend,” I said. “I’m Jesse’s girlfriend.”

  “Wow, this is a small town. I met Jesse yesterday. He seems nice.”

  “You didn’t know him before?”

  “You mean in New York? No. That’s a pretty big town,” he said with a laugh.

  “I guess I assumed you were a cop.”

  “Based on?”

  I shrugged. “Gut instinct.” In truth I was just fishing for his profession.

  “No, actually I’m a former prosecutor. But good guess. I believe in law and order. I just decided to go another way.”

  “Another way?”

  “I still get to catch bad guys, but for more money.”

  “Not anymore.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You said ‘former prosecutor.’ What do you do now?”

  “Defense. It pays even better.”

  “Someone yesterday said Anna’s business partner had come into town. Is that someone else?”

  “That’s me. Well, actually I’m more of a silent partner. I put up the money, provide legal counsel, and Anna does everything else.”

  “Why interior design?”

  “I have money in a lot of businesses. I’m an amateur magician, so I own half of a shop in the East Village. I have a stake in a tapas restaurant in Brooklyn. I’m looking into investing in a bakery in Brooklyn.”

  “Busy guy. It’s amazing you can find the time to come up here.”

  “Anna and Roger are old friends as well as clients. It’s so sad to think he’s gone. And she’s heartbroken, of course. I wanted to do whatever I could.”

  “Anna said they were divorcing, only Roger didn’t want the divorce.”

  “He had no choice but to go along with it whether he wanted it or not.”

  “Because you and Anna are a couple and maybe Roger was holding up the divorce.”

  Ken stopped. He turned his body toward me. Barney pushed his way between us, growling slightly. “What’s your role in all this?”

  “Curious bystander,” I said. “This is a small place and when someone is murdered, even a stranger like Roger Leighton, the whole town is interested.”

  “Maybe the town should get cable.”

  Behind Ken, I saw a familiar but unwelcome figure coming toward us. Bob Marshall. “Miss Fitzgerald, we never stop running into each other, do we?”

  Ken looked over at Bob, and was just as displeased to see him as I was. But given Barney’s reaction to the lawyer, I wasn’t sure if one bad guy was accidently saving me from another.

  “I wouldn’t say we run into each other, Mr. Marshall,” I said. “I’d say you keep looking for me.”

  “You’re right there. I saw your mom and grandmother opening the shop, just as I was coming out of Jitters. Carrie makes really good coffee, doesn’t she? By the way, Ken, Anna’s waiting for you. And she’s not a lady who likes to be kept waiting.” He smiled at me, and then at Ken, before continuing his walk past us.

  “Do you know Bob Marshall?” I asked.

  Ken swallowed hard. “I know of him,” he said. “The fact that you clearly dislike him is the strongest piece of evidence I have that, despite your earlier comments, you are a sane and sensible young lady.”

  Ken hadn’t acknowledged Bob Marshall, who clearly liked to stir up trouble and must have been looking for a reaction. Or maybe they were trying hard to seem as if they were not friends. I’d been linking Anna to one man and then the other, but what if they were the partners who killed Roger? Of course, at least right now, I had no idea what could join them together.

  Ken started walking again. Jitters was up ahead. This conversation would be over soon and I felt like I had only scratched the surface.

  “You said you’re a defense attorney now,” I said. “There’s another lawyer’s name I ran across, C. G. Kruger. Do you know him?”

  He let out a half cough, half snicker. “A crooked lawyer for crooked cops. He represents all kinds of lowlifes, but cops are his specialty.”

  “And that information is well-known among police officers in New York City?”

  “Among the dirty ones, yes. Why do you ask?”

  “As I said, I’m a curious bystander.”

  Jesse took that card, and kept it out of evidence. He knew what it meant. There was a knot growing in my stomach that was getting very difficult to ignore.

  CHAPTER 35

  “It needs to have more stitching over here. It should have a balance between the blocks and the borders.”
r />   Susanne was standing behind Natalie, instructing her daughter on how to finish Eleanor’s quilt when I came into the shop, still focused on my conversation with Ken Tremayne. I debated whether to talk to Jesse, and my reluctance made me feel as though I were doubting him, which I wasn’t.

  I looked around. There were a few customers, but they all seemed in the hunting phase. I grabbed the newest book by husband-and-wife design team Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr and started paging through, calming myself with the images of their beautiful modern quilts.

  “And you should add some hearts there,” Susanne continued.

  Natalie looked up at me for help. She had only been doing longarm quilting since March, but in that time she’d completed dozens of quilts and, to my eye anyway, was an accomplished quilter. Her mother was an award winner and perhaps had a tougher standard, though Natalie’s work was amazing. I was about to make a statement to that effect when my own parent troubles came toward me.

  “Nell.” My mother came out of Eleanor’s office with a sense of purpose I hadn’t seen in her in years. “Grandma and I have it all figured out. Let me show you.”

  As my mother pulled me back toward the office, I caught Natalie’s eye. It was too late to save either of us from the well-intended advice of our moms.

  Eleanor was sitting at her desk, glasses perched on her nose, eyes firmly fixed on the computer screen. “I found a company that will do all the printing for the actual pattern and the cover photo,” she said. “You just upload the design and they take care of everything. They have thin paper or a heavier cardstock; which would you prefer?”

  I looked at the screen. “Wow. We’ve gotten that far?”

  “Not if you don’t want to.”

  My mother sighed. “Of course she wants to. We talked about this yesterday. This is the next step if Nell is going to start her own business.”