Weddings, Receptions, and Murder

by Stacey Alabaster

  There was a note in his voice like I was in trouble for something, though I wasn’t entirely sure what it could be.

  “I’m calling about the break-in to your car.”

  “Break-in?” I said. “I thought I just got a couple of smashed windows.” I’d assumed some kid had just thrown a rock in through it for kicks, or whatever it was that kids got up to these days.

  “When you told me that you had found the bracelet that day, were you being honest with me?” Ryan asked.

  I sighed. It was time to come clean. I could hardly get mad at everyone else for fudging the facts and then keep telling white lies myself without looking like a hypocrite, could I?

  “Okay, I found the bracelet a few days earlier than I’d originally claimed. But I wasn’t trying to steal it or anything. I just knew it might look a little bit suspicious, that’s all. I just kept forgetting that I had it. It was an honest mistake.”

  But now I wished I hadn’t handed it in at all. If I hadn’t, I could have given it to Hannah right then and stopped her crying.

  “Right. So, you carried around the bracelet for several days before handing it in?”

  I shrugged and leaned against Adam’s car. “Yes, two or three days, I suppose.”

  “George, I think you were being followed for those two or three days. Or at least, for part of them.”

  I felt a chill run down my spine.

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because, George, the person who was following you is the person who broke your car window. They thought you still had the bracelet. They were trying to steal it back.”

  “Who…who was that person, Ryan?”

  Now I suddenly knew. Bianca didn’t kill Cain at the dealership and drive his body to my doorstep on purpose. She really had been at the gas station that day.

  And Cain really had been killed at the gas station.

  And he had been killed by someone Hannah knew only too well.

  Chapter 12

  The ballroom was no longer empty. It was full of tulle and lace and it was so white, it was blinding.

  But the box of Mason jars that were to be used for the party favors was still sitting on the ground, untouched.

  I scratched my chin and thought about it.

  It wasn’t going to be pretty, but it had to be done.

  “It has to be done,” I said to Adam, glancing down at the box of two hundred Mason jars. “They are going to have to be our sacrificial lamb.”

  I started to lean down and placed my fingers underneath the box. It was heavier than I’d expected. I might need some help ruining this wedding.

  “What are you about to do, George?” Adam asked, backing away. He was eyeing me like I was a crazy lady.

  “You’re just going to have to trust me on this one,” I said. “I will explain it all on the drive away.”

  “The drive away? Where are we doing? Please, George, I think you need to calm down…”

  I bent down, grabbed the bottom of the box, and lifted. Nope, there was no way I was going to be able to turn it over myself without the help of a crane. Panting, I looked over my shoulder at Adam. “Look, I know you had some ideas about us spending a romantic day together at a wedding. But please, this is what I need you to do right now. I need your help. And I need you to trust me.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, Adam glanced around, then nodded, bending down to help me. “Okay, but on your head be it, George,” he said with a shake of his head. I caught a little smile there, though. He was enjoying this, just a little, no matter what he said.

  I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and with the help of Adam, heaved the entire thing over with one almighty push.

  The sound of the crash was deafening. Birds outside started to squall and my ears rang as I backed away from the carnage.

  The entire groom’s party came rushing into the reception hall.

  Aaron stood there, red-faced and sweaty like he couldn’t believe what he was looking at.

  “I’m so sorry!” I said to them all as I began to run out of the room, dragging Adam behind me.

  “What just happened…”

  “We will have to go and get some more from the shop! Don’t worry! We’ll only be twenty minutes or so.”

  “But there aren’t any Mason jars left in your shop,” Adam hissed at me.

  Not exactly the point, Adam.

  “Well, who is going to clean all of this up!” Kurt, the groomsman, cried out

  “We’ll take care of it when we get back!” I falsely promised.

  I glared at Adam. “We need to go. Now.”

  Adam slammed his foot on the brakes. We almost skidded off into the ditch by the gas station that Bianca had spoken of. I climbed out of the car and checked—there was another set of skid marks that didn’t entirely fit with ours, but looked to be only a few days old.

  I slammed the door shut and headed into the gas station where a disgruntled employee was staring at me through the windows.

  This time, we needed to find out what had really happened there that day.

  Jesse threw his hat onto the ground when I came storming in through the door.

  “I already answered your questions,” he snarled at me. “Now if you aren’t going to pay for something, I’ll have the cops over here to arrest you for loitering.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud, I’m not seventeen,” I said, grabbing a pack of gum from beside the counter. “Here,” I said, tossing a few dollars at him. “Now I am a paying customer.”

  He shook his head and scoffed, but took the cash.

  “This woman…” I said, bringing up a picture of Bianca. “You said she wasn’t here on Monday, right? You said you never saw her.”

  Jesse glanced at the photo then looked away.

  “I know what really happened when she was here, Jesse. And I know what she saw you doing--tampering with the pumps. Now, if you don’t give me the answers I’m looking for, I’m going to be the one calling the cops. You got it?”

  Jesse glared at me for about three minutes before he nodded, reluctantly. “Fine. She was here,” he spat. “What else do you want from me?”

  Plenty.

  I found a picture of another man and brought it up. I had the photo of him ready, because the bride and groom had set up a website for the wedding.

  “Was this man also here that morning? That same morning that Bianca had a fight in the station and almost ran you over?”

  Jesse nodded slowly. “Yeah. I recognize him. What is it to you?”

  My hand was shaking as I pulled it away.

  Adam tapped on my arm. He seemed agitated. “Who is it?” he asked. I turned around and showed him the picture on my phone, still trying to keep my hand from shaking.

  His face turned white and his mouth dropped open. “Aaron?” he asked. “The groom?” He looked first at Jesse, then back at me for answers. “But what was Aaron doing here that morning?”

  I put the phone back in my pocket and took a deep breath, then stared Adam straight in the eyes. “He probably just came to get gas. But that wasn’t why he stayed. Adam, Aaron killed Cain.”

  Chapter 13

  “The only thing that matters right now is that we stop Hannah from marrying a killer,” I said, nudging Adam so that he would put his foot down on the accelerator.

  “George, I’ve been along for the ride the entire time for this. I think you owe me an explanation now.” He sped up a little.

  “I bumped into Hannah earlier, while I was hurrying to get changed,” I explained softly. “She was missing a bracelet. That’s when I started piecing the puzzle together…”

  “What? The bracelet you found?” Adam asked, glancing at me quickly.

  “Yes. She told me that she had been engaged before she was engaged to Aaron,” I said, gripping the dash. Adam had really listened to me about putting his foot down. Maybe he’d listened to me a little too well. “Okay, okay, maybe slow down a little. We’re not going to be able to stop Hanna
h from marrying a killer if we get killed ourselves on the way.”

  Adam listened and slowed down, but only enough to make the speedometer reduce by five miles.

  “From the sounds of it, Hannah was still torn about marrying Aaron. But he was a good guy, or so she thought. He was more than eager to help out with the wedding planning…” We took a tight corner to reach the road back to the vineyard. It was a little foggy at the top of the hill but I thought I could make out a figure in a long white dress making her way down the hill.

  “So she decided to go through with it. Having no idea what Aaron was really like, or what he was capable of,” I said, holding on for dear life as we sped up the hill.

  “Should I park here?” Adam said, slamming his foot on the brakes. “Out of the way?”

  “Adam, I don’t think we have to worry about ruining wedding photos now,” I said.

  “Good point.”

  “Keep driving. As close to the venue as you can get!”

  He put his foot back down on the gas.

  “Then I got a call from Ryan,” I said, knowing that this wouldn’t be Adam’s favorite part of the story. “He told me that they had found prints on the bracelet I handed in. Those prints belonged to Kurt, Aaron’s groomsman.”

  The one I had seen right before the night of the craft circle, at the gas station. Jesse must have pointed me out to him. Said I’d been sniffing around the joint.

  “Kurt knew I had the bracelet. He had been following me. Followed me from the gas station to the library that night and broke the window of my new car. Well, my second new car.”

  “What was Kurt even doing at the gas station?” Adam asked, gripping the steering wheel.

  “Aaron had sent Kurt back to the gas station to try and find the bracelet.” I stared at Adam. “And not just because he wanted to make Hannah happy on her wedding day. But because it was evidence.”

  Adam just shook his head. “I’m still not quite getting it, George. Why did Aaron kill Cain?”

  I got ready to unlock my seatbelt, one hand on the car door as we traveled up the hill. “Cain was Hannah’s fiancé, before Aaron.”

  “What?” Adam almost swerved right off the road and down the side of the hill.

  “I know,” I said. “I could hardly believe it when I realized it, either. But they were engaged, Adam. Cain believed he was the love of Hannah’s life and that she was marrying the wrong man. He believed he was the right man. He had been threatening to turn up on the day—today—and ruin the wedding.

  “Cain stole the bracelet off Aaron a few days before, as a token. Believing that if he could just get it back to Hannah, and pretend that he found it, he could prove to Hannah that he was the man for her after all.”

  After that, from what I could piece together, Aaron had followed Cain to the gas station to get the bracelet back. There had been a fight. Aaron wanted Cain out of the way, out of his life, and away from his bride.

  And Cain had ended up dead. Stuffed in the back of my new car, while Bianca was hiding from Joshua and becoming an accidental shoplifter.

  Of course, the bracelet had been forgotten in the process. When Aaron finally realized the bracelet was missing, he had sent his groomsman Kurt to get it. That was when I had seen him, waving to me, in the gas station parking lot.

  And he’d been the one following me. The one who had smashed my car window, trying to find the bracelet. Only I’d already handed it into the police.

  Adam brought the car to a complete stop and then just sat there for a few moments, stunned. “I suppose you did have to think a little laterally with this case, then.”

  “I had to be sure, though. Until Jesse identified him, I couldn’t know for certain Aaron had even been there that day.” I hadn’t wanted to ruin a wedding for no reason.

  I probably owed Bianca a huge apology the next time I saw her.

  Adam pointed through the car window. “Is that Hannah?”

  There she was. I gulped. She was headed to the ballroom, all in white, a long veil over her face and four bridesmaids trailing behind her.

  I finally snapped into action and jumped out of the car, making sure that Adam was right behind me. I needed him.

  “Hurry,” I said to Adam. I didn’t have much confidence that 200 smashed Mason jars were enough to keep a wedding from going ahead. If we didn’t get there in the next two minutes, Hannah might have already said “I do.”

  “Stop this wedding!” I called out when I burst into the hall.

  Hannah, midway up the aisle, spun around, stunned. “George, what are you doing?”

  “I’m sorry, Hannah,” I said, stepping forward. I reached out and pointed at Aaron. “But I can’t let you get married to a murderer.”

  Hannah went white and her knees wobbly. She knew what I was talking about. “You killed Cain,” she whispered. Her bouquet fell to the ground. Petals scattered sadly around her feet. “I knew it,” she gasped, the words choking her.

  But Aaron dashed out the side door and sprinted away before he could answer, and before any of us could stop him.

  “I’ll get him,” Adam said, sprinting up the aisle before he chased him through the same side door.

  “Quick, follow him!” Hannah screamed at me. We both arrived to find a breathless Adam sitting on top of Aaron, pinning him to the ground. “He’s a pretty big guy,” Adam said, looking up at me. “But I’m always here when you need me, George.”

  From behind us, there was a loud explosion. Shrieks followed and guests came spilling out, covered in what looked to be sticky pale liquid, drenching their hair and outfits.

  “What the heck was that?” I asked, spinning around.

  Hannah shook her head and stared, slack-jawed. “I’m guessing that was the tub of homemade vintage cider that Aaron brewed and insisted that we serve.”

  Luckily, the guests were all unharmed. Sticky and wet, but unharmed.

  “Looks like you couldn’t even do that right,” Hannah said, staring down at the man she had almost married.

  I guessed that a DIY wedding really did come with a high price tag.

  “This is definitely one of the most interesting weddings I have ever been to,” Adam stated, standing up when the cop cars arrived. “Even more interesting than ours, George.”

  Epilogue

  It was the first day of summer, and the weather was cooperating brilliantly.

  I was lounging on a picnic blanket over yellow sand, watching Jasper play in the waves.

  “See, you still love me, don’t you, boy?” I asked, ruffling his coat before I threw the stick toward the ocean again for him to fetch. He was very good at the chasing part of fetching sticks, but not so good at the part where he brought them back. I figured he’d be busy amusing himself and it would be a while before he came back.

  I leaned back and enjoyed the sunshine, bathing myself in it now that summer was here and I was hoping it was going to be the beginning of a new era of my life in Pottsville. Summer brought festivals and long days, new people and fresh attitudes, and I couldn’t wait.

  “I got these back from the printers before the drive,” Adam said, approaching us from his car, waving a thick handful of fuchsia-colored papers.

  Oh my goodness, he didn’t really get them printed, did he? I thought, sitting up.

  “All official,” he said, handing them over to me.

  Jasper waded a little too far into the ocean and my heart stopped. I jumped up to chase after him and brought him back to where Adam was waiting for us on the picnic blanket.

  “I still think it’s a ridiculous idea,” I said, sitting down on the sand with Jasper splayed out next to me.

  I shook my head as Adam showed me the invitations.

  “I can’t believe you went and got these printed up,” I said, looking through them. “And why so many?”

  Adam shrugged and leaned back on the sand with a grin. “Because we can invite everyone we know. To the wedding of the year.”

  “We don’t har
dly know any people, though!” I cried.

  “Yeah, well, maybe it will be a good chance to meet some new friends. Everyone loves a dog wedding. Come on, George, you know you want to say yes. Do it for Jasper and Flora.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Jasper will love you for it,” he pointed out.

  I sighed and laughed and hugged a panting Jasper to my chest. “Okay, fine. Let’s throw a dog wedding.” I pulled my sunglasses on. “But you’re doing all the wedding planning, and all the decorating. Not me.”

  Adam laughed. “You’re not even going to help out?”

  I shook my head. “I can’t. I don’t have a car.” After my blue-green number was fixed, I sold it back to the dealership at a very bad deal for me but a good deal for Margaret, which put her back in Bianca’s good books.

  “And you’re not going to get a new one, then?” Adam asked me.

  I shook my head. “I think I’m going to stick to walking for a while. I think it suits me better. Besides, the price of gas is ridiculous in our town.”

  Thanks for reading Weddings, Receptions, and Murder. I hope you enjoyed the story. If you did, it would be awesome if you left a review for me on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

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  Lastly, at the very end of the book, I have included a couple previews of books by friends and fellow authors at Fairfield Publishing. First is a preview of Up in Smoke by Shannon VanBergen - it’s a fun (and funny) story about vigilante grannies in a retirement home who solve crimes and stir up all kinds of trouble. Second is a preview of Croissants and Corruption by Danielle Collins - it’s the first story in the popular Margot Durand Cozy Mystery series. I really hope you like the samples. If you do, both books are available on Amazon.