Organized for Picnic Panic (Organized Mysteries Book 6)

by Ritter Ames

  “My girls obviously intend to get their share of burgers,” she said with a laugh.

  Meg pulled her phone from a pocket. “I’ll text Gil and tell him to round up our boys. They’d hate it if your girls got the jump on them.”

  “No doubt.”

  “Thank you again for putting all of this together, Kate,” Meg said. “Between running errands for my mother these past couple of days, as well as trying to stay on top of all the back-to-school tasks, I’ve been meeting myself at every turn.”

  “You’re the one who volunteered to pick up my kids from school tomorrow and keep them overnight when I go to Boston with Keith,” Kate said. “I’m the one who is grateful. Organizing picnic stuff is nothing compared to dealing with four wound-up kids the first week of school.”

  “Let’s just say I know my limits. Running kids around is preferable to planning picnics and making sure I don’t leave something important at the house,” Meg replied.

  “This is why we work so well together.”

  They turned their attention to the food, and the women started with chip bags. First, they opened the top, and then they pushed up the bottom of each sack, so the chips rose into the normally empty packaging space. A serving bowl evolved out of the reconfigured bag, making the chips easier to reach for munching. The frozen water bottles used to keep the coolers cold were now about half-liquid again. Kate and Meg took out four or five of each to finish thawing before the grilled food arrived.

  “My boys will always load up on soda if they can,” Meg said. “But at least the cold water is here. Maybe it will guilt them into not drinking so much sugar.”

  “I’m pinning my hopes on the watermelon pillars. That’s what I call them anyway,” Kate replied, as she pulled two big plastic containers from a cooler. After popping the top on one, she showed her friend how she’d cut the watermelon into long square columns.

  “That’s so neat. Kind of like watermelon popsicles. How did you do it?”

  “I cut the melon in half. Next, I cut each of the halves into slices about an inch wide,” Kate explained. “Then Keith helps by holding the sliced melon together, so I can go perpendicular and cut the long slices about an inch wide in the other direction. Then I leave the length as is, so the pillars are different heights. People can pick the size that suits their appetites, and they’ll have a bit of rind to hold each time to avoid some sticky juice and make the whole thing easier to hang onto.”

  “Neater, too,” Meg said. “My boys always have juice running down their arms when they walk around eating a big slice of watermelon. Their faces get covered with the sticky liquid. All that stickiness encourages visits from every fly in the immediate area. Don’t even get me started on the way dirt clings to the juice.”

  An empty chip wrapper blew by, dipping and diving onto a blanket, followed by a flyer from one of the food vendors. Kate scooped up the trash. “I’ll be right back,” she called to Meg, as she headed for the nearest green trash receptacle.

  A park maintenance employee stood beside the double bin. Kate got a quick look at his face before he bent down to fiddle with one of the steel legs on the receptacle. He wore a cap, but she noticed the way his brown hair curled around his collar and ears, the way Keith’s did when he went too long between haircuts.

  Kate was still new enough to Hazelton to not be acquainted with most of the townsfolk, and she was shy about starting conversations with strangers. But it seemed rude not to at least say something to the maintenance worker. Standing there with trash in her hands, she called up her courage and spoke.

  “Hello,” Kate said, taking in the man’s green uniform shirt and work gloves. “How are you? I didn’t realize the city made you work today. I figured everyone had Labor Day off.”

  “Uh, we try to keep someone on staff throughout,” he said. The man didn’t look up, focusing his attention on the job at hand. “Keep the big problems at a minimum that way.”

  “Well, I’ll leave you to it,” Kate said as she tossed the trash over the side of the bin. “We appreciate the pride everyone takes in keeping the park well-maintained. Thank you.”

  He grunted something, but Kate didn’t catch the words.

  As she walked back to the picnic blanket, she looked around the park. She did love the way everyone took care of Hazelton. The town was small, but the fierce civic pride showed in events like this one, and the way people appreciated what they had. Even before she married Keith and became a pro hockey player’s wife, she’d lived a lot of different places. But she counted her lucky stars every day that when her husband’s career-ending knee injury occurred a year ago, they landed on their feet here in his Vermont hometown. It just felt right.

  Kate joined Meg who was setting out clear cups with lids that held salad. Her friend said, “I’ve seen individual salads stacked in Mason jars, but never plastic cups like this. Is that the fork’s handle sticking out of the middle of the lid?”

  “Yes,” Kate replied. “I like Mason jars because they’re reusable, but for kids in this kind of setting, the clear plastic cups work much better. I saw salads like this somewhere with the fork tines sticking out of the top of the lid of the salad, but that doesn’t keep the eating surface clean. Instead, I put the tines in the salad as I layered it. When it came time to put on the lid, I poked the end of the handle through the opening intended for a straw and with a little wiggling I can get the lid on with the fork inside. Now it’s ready to go and everything stays clean.”

  “Perfect. But do you have any ideas about how we can actually get the kids to eat the salad?” Meg winked at her friend.

  Kate shrugged. “The novelty might encourage them to eat a few bites. A little is better than nothing, particularly on a day like today, when they’re chowing down on desserts and hamburgers and hotdogs non-stop. The pickles and onions and relish and other condiments are in the two muffin tins I covered in plastic. There are plastic spoons and knives for us to use to scoop and spread them on our food.”

  Meg glanced up and froze. She nodded her head at a man and woman on the other side of the park. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. Look over there, would you?”

  The radio station’s general manager, Jim Trace, leaned one hand against the side of a maintenance building while his other lingered on the breast of Gina Fears. The attractive brunette didn’t look like she minded being pawed out in public. Even by a married man.

  Kate scanned the crowd and stopped as her eyes found Jim’s wife, Bernadette. Mrs. Trace had an unrestricted view of the show her husband was putting on—and she did not look happy. Bernadette turned her attention to her son for a split second, before shooing him away to go play games with his friends. Once he had taken off, she tucked a dark curl behind one ear and rose from the blanket.

  Bernadette marched over to her husband’s tête-à-tête.

  “I’ll hold Jim if you want to pin down the tramp,” Meg said, crossing her arms and frowning. “That way Bernadette can give Gina an earful.”

  “You’re right about her being a tramp. Gina Fears is also a talent agent for many of the on-air personalities at WHZE,” Kate said. “I’m sure she and Jim have spent long hours ‘negotiating’ contracts at the radio station.”

  Meg’s mouth fell open as she turned toward Kate. “She’s not Keith’s agent?”

  “No, Keith doesn’t have an agent anymore, and we like it that way. I met Gina when she was a trainee with one of the agency’s established agents. Even then, she did whatever it took to get the job done. She’s just being her normal awful self.” Kate frowned, then continued. “Keith was agent'd by another guy at the same agency. The day after Keith’s knee surgery, his wonderful agent came by with a get-well card, a vase of flowers, and the paperwork dissolving their agreement. Since Keith wasn’t a top goalie for a pro hockey team anymore, his agent had no use for him and walked away. Hours later, WHZE called to offer Keith a job.”

  “What did the agent say when Keith got the call to be a sports anchor at the radio s
tation?”

  “What do you think?” Kate arched an eyebrow. “He wasn’t pleased about losing a percentage of Keith’s earnings because he’d delivered the agency termination agreement too quickly.”

  “I hope Keith told him where to get off.”

  “Not in so many words. Keith never likes to burn any bridges, but we never heard from the jerk again. Gina is an agency rep for WHZE radio now and visits the station on a regular basis.”

  “How did our little town get so lucky?”

  The councilman/one-man-band was headed their way. Between his music and the noise of so many people, Kate and Meg couldn’t hear what Bernadette was saying to Jim. They watched her pull her husband away, but he worked his way free, and both appeared to be yelling at the other. Then he doubled back to hand a wine bottle to Gina. She smiled and nodded, but Bernadette looked ready to explode.

  The one-man-band’s music grew louder and louder as his song reached a climax, but Kate and Meg kept their attention riveted on the drama unfolding in front of their eyes. Jim handing Gina the wine bottle apparently caused Bernadette to reach her limit. Her expression radiated fury. The one-man-band’s song came to an abrupt stop just as Bernadette reach up to slap Jim. A smack of flesh on flesh echoed in the sudden silence.

  This unusual sound caused heads to turn. The whole town saw what happened next.

  Jim cursed. Bernadette fired off several muffled sentences. The only words that Kate and Meg caught were “home” and “car” and “my wine.” Jim turned to go back to Gina. Bernadette stepped in front of her husband. But her action would not deter Jim. He grabbed his wife’s wrist and pushed her away.

  The music started up again, creating a distraction and overriding the threesome’s conversation. Bernadette stomped over to Gina, pointed at her, and yelled something before turning on her heel and stalking away. Rather than pick up her picnic stuff, she blew right by everything.

  As Bernadette stormed off toward the parking lot, Jim and Gina started laughing. Their expressions made it clear they were enjoying themselves at Bernadette’s expense. Kate’s heart went out to the angry wife who was leaving in humiliation. The one-man-band stopped playing his music. As the two women friends watched, the councilman raced over and caught up with Bernadette. He slipped an arm around her shoulders and walked her toward the parking lot. “Wow! Bernadette gave Jim what for,” Meg said. “Wish we’d been able to hear what they all said.”

  “I have a feeling we know exactly what they said,” Kate replied.

  “Have they been having marital problems?” Meg asked. “Has Keith mentioned anything?”

  “Not in so many words, but I have a little information,” Kate said. She explained that Jim started at the radio station a few months ago, hired on after the owner’s over-managing wife was murdered. A case Kate was instrumental in solving. “Their son is entering sixth grade, so he’s about twelve.”

  “Sad. But maybe this is a wake-up call for their marriage, and they’ll work it all out. We can hope, anyway.”

  “Awfully public wake-up call,” Kate mused. “Hard to bounce back from such high-level humiliation.”

  They didn’t have time to discuss it anymore because their four kids arrived, with Gil trailing behind. He brought burgers for both women, but Kate set hers aside. She scrambled to get everyone situated and to place the items within everyone’s reach. As she and Meg already assumed, everyone had some kind of soda to drink, and the adults consumed the water, instead of the kids. The four children enjoyed shaking up the salads and even ate a few bites after their burgers and hotdogs. The watermelon gained their attention, however, and finished satisfying their appetites.

  “Aren’t you going to eat, Mommy?” Samantha asked.

  “I’m waiting until your daddy gets finished.”

  “He said he’d be here soon. They were almost out of burgers for him to cook,” Suzanne added. “When does the magic show start?”

  Kate looked toward the impromptu stage set up on the north side of the park, and then she glanced at her watch. “Looks like the opening curtain goes up in ten minutes, kids. Everyone finish your food, so you can get a good seat for the show.”

  The kids scrambled to their feet, and each grabbed another handful of watermelon pillars before taking off at a trot.

  Gil pulled Meg to her feet and said to Kate, “Come on. You’ll miss all the fun.”

  “I’ll catch the magician sawing a woman in half next time,” Kate said, smiling. “You two go on. I’ll clean up and wait for Keith. He should be along any minute.”

  “I can’t leave you with the mess after getting you to pack everything,” Meg argued.

  “Go on.” Kate waved at them. “We’ll meet you guys over there before the magician gets his magic rings disconnected.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  Kate removed the lid from one of the coolers to use as a trash tray. In her peripheral vision, she saw the rest of the crowd move in three directions: toward the magician’s stage, toward the softball field to the south, and toward the parking lot to leave early and beat the traffic. She scooped up plastic cups, bottles, napkins, and utensils, until the pile reached a height she feared might spill as she walked. Then she headed to the trash bin.

  On the way back, she noticed Gina sitting alone in a lightweight chaise longue beneath the sheltering shade of a hemlock tree. The woman sipped from a wine glass in one hand. In the other, she held the bottle Jim and Bernadette had fought over. When Gina raised her glass in a sloppy greeting, Kate veered over to talk.

  “Hi, long time no see, Gina.”

  “Kate, how you been?” Gina slurred her words. “I’d love to offer you a glass, but I only have two, and the other one is dirty.”

  Kate had little doubt about who used the other wine glass.

  Gina downed the rest of her wine and rested the base of the glass on her leg. She raised an eyebrow. “I noticed you saw the show earlier—and I don’t mean the magic one getting set up over there.” She waved a wobbly hand toward the stage.

  “Sorry, it was kind of hard to miss.”

  “Don’t apologize, for goodness sake.” Gina poured the last of the wine into her glass and dropped the bottle to the ground. “Life should be entertaining.”

  “It didn’t bother you he was... well... touching you inappropriately at a family event?”

  “Are you kidding? I do whatever it takes to get my clients the best contract and promotions possible. If it means letting a middle-aged radio exec think he might get a little action later, it’s a small price to pay.” She tried to wink but ended up blinking instead. “But he will, of course. Anything he wants. I’ll give it to him.”

  That was pretty much what Kate had already said to Meg earlier, but something made her press the point. “But would you... well, have an affair just to make a deal? Even risk splitting up a family?”

  “I’ve done worse, Kate. Let me tell you, I have washed-up jocks all up and down the eastern seaboard looking for gigs to fill because their pro careers are over. Oh, sorry. Forgot you have a washed-up jock of your own.” Gina laughed and killed the rest of the wine in one long swallow.

  Kate wanted to defend her husband, but knew she’d be wasting her breath.

  Gina got to her feet, wobbling a second before she steadied herself. Waving the bottle, she said, “I gotta be a goody two-shoes now and throw away my empty. Keep the park clean and wholesome. Our responsibility. For all the happy families here. Wish me luck.”

  “Nice seeing you again.”

  Gina laughed as she lurched toward the trash bin. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that. You’ve always been too nice, Kate McKenzie.”

  “You’re not driving any time soon, are you?”

  “I can take care of myself.” Gina slapped herself in the chest with the bottle and almost fell down. Her sparkly flip-flops twisted under her unstable feet. “Don’t worry about me. Mind your own business. Go away.”

  Kate debated tryin
g to intercede more, but decided that she didn’t want to tangle with the drunk talent agent. Besides, she still had her own cleaning up to do. She used the lid again to gather the rest of the trash and was starting her second trip to the bin when Keith showed up with hot and delicious burgers for each of them.

  She gave her husband a kiss. “Go ahead and start eating. I stashed some of those chips you like behind the green cooler so the kids wouldn’t scarf them all up. Let me throw the rest of this trash away and then I’ll join you.”

  “Wait and I’ll do the trash run after we eat,” Keith said.

  “That’s a good idea.”

  They enjoyed the quiet time together. She told him about the girls’ race, and Meg’s intervention in the outcome of the water balloon toss. Imagining Valerie soaked got a laugh out of Keith. Kate relished the time she spent with her husband, but it left her a little sad, considering what had happened with Jim and Bernadette. She told Keith what she and Meg had seen.

  “I’m surprised there hasn’t been a blowup already,” Keith said, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand. “Gina’s been at the radio station way more than she should have for promoting simple contract negotiations. Rumors have been flying that she and Jim were together at the last sports radio convention in Albany.”

  “Poor Bernadette. She obviously left the picnic because of the public mortification, but I didn’t see if her son went with her or stayed with his dad.”

  Keith looked toward the parking lot and pointed. “There’s Jim leaving now, but I don’t see anyone with him.”

  “Wonder what reason Bernadette gave to her son to make him go with her? I saw her direct his attention away before she confronted Jim. I’m assuming she didn’t want to drag him into their quarrel.” Kate frowned as she looked at all the picnic paraphernalia the wronged wife had left behind.

  “Don’t think about it. It will just make you feel worse.” Keith crumpled up the empty chip bag. “We don’t want to jump in too early and make things more of a problem. Instead, how about we do our part with our own trash to keep the park beautiful?”