Wedding Bell Blunders: A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery

by Kathleen Suzette

  “But this Jared works at the grocery store,” Lucy said, taking a sip of her coffee. “That’s what Mr. Winters said. It doesn’t seem like a bad drug dealer would work at the grocery store.”

  “In the frozen foods section,” I added.

  He shrugged. “Maybe business hasn’t been so good. This is a small town, maybe there are only so many people who buy drugs around here.” He was smirking when he said it.

  “I’m sure it doesn’t matter how small of a town it is, there’s always going to be people that are going to be involved in drugs,” Lucy said. “Is he a killer? Do you think he killed his cousin?”

  Alec shrugged. “I wish I knew. If I could get him to come in here and confess to me, that would make my job a lot easier, and then Allie and I could go on our honeymoon.”

  I looked at Lucy. “We need to talk to Jared and see if we can get him to confess to Alec so we can go on our honeymoon.”

  “Oh no, wait a minute,” Alec said. “You are not going anywhere near him. I’m serious about him being a bad guy.”

  I sighed and sat back in my chair. “Come on Alec, go down there, and put some pressure on the guy. We need to get this wrapped up so we can go on our trip.”

  He shook his head and chuckled. “Well, what have you been up to? Have you been calling around for places to stay on our honeymoon?”

  A change of subject. I nodded. “I’ve got a route mapped out, and we’re going to stop in six small towns over the next two weeks. We’ll stay in a bed-and-breakfast in three of those towns, and in the other towns, we’ll stay in motels. I think it’s going to be a quaint and picturesque trip.” I could hardly wait. I’d already seen pictures of the towns and the places we were going to stay online. I had called the places we were going to stay, and they thought they wouldn’t be over-booked for the next few weeks, and I hoped they were right. There was a lot to see in our two weeks on the road.

  “Well, you know how I love quaint and picturesque,” he said, teasing me. “I don’t care where we go. As long as we’re together, we’ll have a good time.”

  “Aw, you two are so sweet,” Lucy said. “Wait until you’ve been married a few years, and you’ll treasure the time apart.”

  I looked at her and chuckled. “Wait a minute. You treasure the time you spend apart from Ed?”

  She shrugged. “Sure. Makes the time that we’re together more bearable.”

  I gasped. “You don’t mean that. Lucy, tell me you don’t mean that.”

  She chuckled. “No, I don’t really mean that. Honestly, as long as we’ve been together, our marriage is still pretty decent. And it better be because no one else would have us. When you’re set in your bad habits, no one else will have you.”

  Alec chuckled. “Familiarity breeds contempt, but sometimes it also breeds laziness. I know most people think laziness is a bad trait, but it’s not that bad. As long as the two of you stay unmotivated to change or to look for somebody else, you’ll be fine.”

  Lucy nodded. “Those are my sentiments exactly. Honestly, I can’t imagine being with anyone else for the rest of my life. I’d have to shave my legs more often if someone else came along.”

  I shook my head and took a sip of my coffee. “Honestly, Alec, how long do you think it’ll be?”

  He sighed. “Allie, I don’t know. But I promise if it goes beyond two weeks, I’ll get somebody from the police station to step in for me. They can keep me apprised of what’s going on.”

  My heart sunk at the mention of two weeks. It would be that long? I wanted to be on our way and spend some time with just Alec, and I didn’t want to be interrupted by phone calls from the police department telling him what was going on in the investigation. “I’ll try to be patient, but don’t be surprised if I’m not.”

  He nodded. “Duly noted. I’ll do my best to get this thing cleared up as quickly as I can.”

  “Now that that’s settled, Allie, what are you making us for dinner?” Lucy asked.

  I glanced at her. “Us? What do you mean us?”

  “Didn’t I tell you? We’re having our kitchen remodeled, and we don’t have a stove right now.”

  “No, you didn’t tell me that. Why didn’t you tell me that?”

  She shrugged. “It’s my anniversary gift from Ed. See? Sometimes he is romantic. I’ve wanted the kitchen remodeled for years now. I’m finally going to get granite countertops. I can hardly wait.”

  “That’s something worth celebrating,” I said. “As far as dinner? I don’t know. Let me rummage through my freezer and see what I’ve got.” If I’d known that Lucy and Ed were going to be hanging out at dinner time, I would have picked up some more food from the grocery store. I suppose it didn’t matter. I could make another trip. I heard that there was somebody in the frozen foods department that I might want to have a conversation with.

  Chapter Twelve

  I was wary of going to talk to Jared after what Alec had told me. If Alec thought enough of it to say that Jared was a bad person and to stay away from him, then it made me pause. Sure, all criminals were bad people and were people that I needed to stay away from, but Alec had been direct about this. But he hadn’t said anything about Skip Thomas. Skip was Richard’s younger brother, and I knew him fairly well. He worked at the hardware store, so I took a drive over there the next morning.

  The new house we had moved into still needed some work done, so I had a reason to stop in. We had had some major renovations done by a contractor, but there were a few projects that I was going to work on. One of them was the garden in the backyard. I really envisioned it looking like an English garden with a large variety of flowers growing in the yard. And I wanted a fountain of some sort in the backyard. It was still early in the spring, but I knew that the hardware store would be starting to get some of their spring merchandise in. I headed inside and then out to the back patio where they kept the seeds, planters, and other outdoor items.

  When I stepped outside, I was a little disappointed at the offerings as far as fountains were concerned. It looked like they hadn’t gotten their spring stock in yet. But there was a lovely, scalloped fountain with a cherub standing in the middle of it, and I thought it was cute. It would look nice in my garden once the ground warmed up enough to get things planted. I ran a finger along the edge. It was made of a manufactured material that was lighter than the cement I had envisioned. Glancing around, I realized that I was going to have to look into what grew well here in Maine. At my old house, I had mostly planted a handful of rosebushes, and I had filled the planters along the front with petunias and marigolds. I wanted more than that for my new garden.

  I glanced over and saw Skip waiting on a customer at the outside register. When he finished, he looked at me, and I smiled and nodded.

  He grinned and came over. “How are you doing, Allie?”

  “I’m doing well, Skip. I’ve got my eye on this fountain. Are you going to get any more in for spring?”

  He nodded. “Oh yeah, any day now we’re expecting a big shipment of outdoor items, and I’m sure there are going to be some fountains in it. This was left over from last year, but it is kind of nice.”

  “I just moved into a new house a few weeks ago, and I’m thinking about planting a big flower garden. An English flower garden.” I smiled.

  He nodded appreciatively. “That sounds great. We’ll have some more seedlings coming in soon, too. It’s a little early yet, but the ground will start to warm up in a few weeks, and you can get started planting.”

  “That’s what I was thinking. I’ve never done a lot of gardening, so I’m going to have to get online and find out what grows well here in Maine.”

  “Fortunately, summers are mild, so you can grow a whole assortment of plants. This fountain would be nice in the middle of a garden.”

  I nodded. I liked it a lot, but I wanted to wait and see what else they got in. “Skip, I heard about Richard. I’m so sorry.”

  He nodded sadly. “I still can’t get over it. I took a
few days off from work when I heard, but that was just depressing, sitting around at home, so I decided to come to work.”

  “We had hired the catering company where he worked for my wedding. I don’t know if you knew that. Alec and I got married last weekend, and Richard was there catering the reception.”

  His eyes got big. “Oh, no. I heard that he got sick while working a wedding reception. I had no idea it was yours.”

  I nodded sadly. “I was just so sorry this happened to him. We did everything we could until the ambulance arrived, and I was hopeful that once he got to the hospital that he would recover.”

  He looked off into the distance for a moment, and then he looked at me again. “It’s crazy. A diabetic drug? I don’t understand it.”

  “Your mother said that he wasn’t diabetic.”

  He shook his head. “No, he wasn’t diabetic. He didn’t have any health issues that I was aware of, so there was no reason for him to be taking any prescription drugs. And if he was taking some kind of prescription drugs, why a diabetic drug? I mean, a lot of people abuse prescription drugs, but a diabetic drug?” he shook his head again. “It makes no sense.”

  “No, it doesn’t make any sense, does it?” I hesitated, hoping he would continue talking.

  After a moment he said, “you know, when he was in high school, he got into trouble messing around with drugs. He went to the juvenile detention facility for a while, but when he got out, he was clean. He was the happiest I’d ever seen him, and we were all hopeful that he was getting his life back on track.”

  “But he didn’t?” I asked gently.

  He shook his head. “Apparently not. I suspected he was getting into trouble a couple of years ago because I knew that he was drinking heavily. There’s not much difference between abusing drugs and abusing alcohol, and I asked him about it, but he got mad. He didn’t want to talk about it. He told me that I was just trying to make trouble for him. I guess I can understand why he thought I was making trouble for him. When we were kids, we didn’t get along very well. But after he got out of the detention facility, our relationship improved, and as far as I was concerned, I put all of our issues behind us. I was surprised when he brought it up like that.”

  I nodded. “If he was abusing alcohol, then he may not have been thinking very clearly.”

  He picked up a small clay pot that someone had left inside the fountain. “Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure he moved on from alcohol back to drugs pretty quickly. You want to know what the worst part of it is?”

  I shook my head slowly. “What?”

  “It was our cousin that got him back on drugs. I know it was.”

  I tried to look surprised. “Your cousin? Why would he do that?”

  “Our cousin is Jared Thomas, and everyone knows he’s a drug dealer.” He looked at me meaningfully. “I’m pretty sure that he strong-armed Richard into selling them, too.”

  “Oh, no,” I said. “Why do you think he did that?”

  He shook his head and looked off into the distance again. “It’s just something that I have a feeling about. There were rumors, and his behavior became more erratic. When my mother got him a job at the catering company, I was surprised. I didn’t think my mother should stick her neck out there for him like that. But then he really seemed to enjoy the work, and he was doing really well for a while. And then the rumors started up again. He was selling drugs behind the catering company. I confronted him about it and he denied it.”

  “That’s a shame that he couldn’t get his life together,” I said. “I’m sure it’s difficult getting off of drugs, but it sounds like he was given at least a couple of opportunities, and he just wasn’t able to do it.”

  He nodded. “Exactly. He was given plenty of opportunities to turn his life around.”

  “So where do you think he got the diabetic medication? Do you think that your cousin gave it to him under the guise of it being something else?”

  He looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “I suppose it’s possible. To be honest, I really didn’t even think about that. He probably told him it was speed or something and gave it to him.” He snorted, shaking his head sadly. “That figures. Jared is even more unstable than Richard ever was. Honestly, I don’t know how he hangs onto the job at the grocery store. It seems like they would notice his behavior and get rid of him.”

  I nodded. “I would think it would be hard for him to hang onto a job if he’s using as well as selling.”

  “Oh, he’s using all right. Believe me, I know he’s using. He’s the one that killed my brother, and I hope the police put him away for the rest of his life.” He sounded bitter now, and I didn’t blame him.

  “I know the police will find his killer and put them away. Alec is working on the case. I didn’t know if you knew that or not.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I talked to him the other day. I told him all of this, and I hope that he arrests my cousin soon so he can’t do it to anybody else.” His voice cracked when he said the last part.

  “I’m so sorry, Skip. I can’t imagine how difficult this must be for you and your mother. Please know that you’re in our thoughts and that Alec is doing everything he can to find his killer.”

  He nodded and forced himself to smile. “I certainly appreciate that. And I appreciate all that Alec is doing to find his killer.”

  I nodded. “I think I’m going to wait until you get another shipment of yard items in before I decide on the fountain. But I know that I’ll be back in. I sure do appreciate your help.”

  He nodded. “Anytime, Allie. Come back in a couple of weeks, and I bet we’ll have a lot more stuff out here. Oh, and congratulations on getting married.”

  “Thanks, Skip.”

  I headed out of the store and got back into my car. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I saw Jodi Miller walking down the sidewalk, a large shopping bag on each arm. Her head was down, and she was frowning. I honked to get her attention, and she looked up, a confused look on her face. When she realized who I was, she smiled and walked up to my car. I hit the button to roll the window down.

  “How are you doing, Jodi?”

  She smiled and sighed. “I’m doing all right. The weather was nice today, so I thought I’d take a walk. I didn’t intend to do any shopping, but I couldn’t pass up a sale.” She lifted the bags and chuckled.

  “They look heavy. Would you like a ride somewhere?”

  “That would be wonderful. Thank you.” She opened the car door and got in. “I didn’t realize these bags would be so heavy, but the home store has a big sale on pots and pans and linens, so I indulged myself.”

  “I’ll have to stop by there. I love a good sale. Where can I take you?”

  “Oh, my house is just a few blocks away on Seacoast Lane,” she said, pointing up ahead.

  “Well, we’ll be there in a jiffy then,” I said, making a right onto North Street. “So how are you doing?”

  “Oh, I’m doing all right. I’m off for the rest of the day and I think I’ll go home and try out my new pots and pans.” She chuckled. “I shouldn’t have done it, but my pans were so old, and I couldn’t pass up a deal.”

  “You sound like me. I love a good sale.” I made a left onto Seacoast Lane and she pointed out her house three blocks down. It was a cute, white cottage with green shutters.

  “Here’s my house. It’s tiny and doesn’t even have a garage, but it’s all mine and I love it.”

  I stopped the car in front of her house and looked at it. “It’s darling.” There was a carport on the side and a white picket fence. The carport was empty, and I wondered where her car was. “Do you walk a lot?” She had walked to work the other day when Lucy and I had stopped in.

  “My car is in the shop, so for now, I’m walking everywhere. Transmission problems.”

  “Oh no, that can be expensive,” I said sympathetically.

  She nodded. “I’ve got my fingers crossed that it won’t be too expensive. I appreciate the ride, Allie. Talk to you later.�
��

  “See you,” I said as she got out. I waited until she got to her front door and she turned around and waved at me and then stuck her key into the lock.

  I drove on, thinking about the murder case. I hated that Skip and his mother were going through so much with the death of Richard, but now I really had my eye on his cousin. He had to be Richard’s killer, didn’t he?

  Chapter Thirteen

  I made another trip to the grocery store, hoping I would run into Jared. Alec had said to stay away, and that probably would have been the smartest thing to do, but I just wanted to get a look at him. I pushed my shopping cart down the freezer section, in the hopes that he would be there, but I didn’t see any employees working there at the moment. That was unfortunate because I really wanted to see if I could find out anything new.

  Lucy and Ed had stopped by our house the night before, and I had cooked both the T-bone steaks and the ribeye steaks that I had picked up from the grocery store a couple of days earlier. I had served them with baked potatoes and salad. I needed to pick up a few more things for Alec and me since we clearly weren’t leaving for our trip anytime soon. When I looked over the freezer section aisles and was satisfied that Jared wasn’t around, I headed over to the dairy case. We were out of milk and coffee creamer, so I decided I might as well pick some up. Coffee was my life’s blood, and Alec had a pretty big coffee habit himself.

  I peered into the dairy case and pulled out a carton of cream and then looked at the flavored creamers. They didn’t have anything new or fun in the creamer section at the moment, so I grabbed a vanilla creamer and put that in my shopping cart. I looked up and saw Jodi in the coffee aisle nearby, so I turned my cart around and headed down there. “Good morning, Jodi,” I said, smiling. “Fancy seeing you again.”

  She hesitated, a bottle of sugar-free coffee syrup in her hand. She smiled. “Good morning, Allie. How are you today? Your wedding was lovely, by the way. I wanted to tell you that, but in the excitement of what happened to Richard, I completely forgot about it. And then I realized that I didn’t say it when you gave me a ride yesterday. Some days I am so forgetful.” She chuckled.