Death Bee Comes Her

by Nancy CoCo

  “I need about two hundred of these in this blue,” she said and held up a color swatch. “Next week, can you do that? You see I’m getting married and I’ve decided to have candles for all the guests. I know it’s last minute but is it possible?”

  “I certainly could do that,” I said and took the color swatch. “Do you want tapered or in mason jars?”

  “I like the mason jars,” she said. “We’re having an outdoor country wedding. We were going to have it at one p.m. so there would be plenty of light, but then my aunt can’t come into town until late, so candlelight it is.”

  “Perfect,” I said and told her the price, giving her a nice quantity discount.

  “Oh, you’re a lifesaver,” she said and gave me a quick hug. “The candle shop said they couldn’t do that many so quickly.”

  “Huh,” I said, puzzled. “Well, don’t worry, I’m your girl! Hi, I’m Wren.”

  “Nice to meet you, Wren. I’m Amy . . . Amy Packard, soon to be Amy Timagowa.” She flashed a hefty diamond ring at me.

  “When do you need to pick up your candles?” I asked.

  “Would it be a bother to bring them to the wedding venue?” she asked and crinkled her face.

  “There will be a delivery charge. Where is the venue?”

  “It’s at the White Horse Winery.”

  “That’s about thirty miles from here,” I said. “Sure, I can do it. Hang on while I write you up a work order and quote for the work.”

  I went over to the counter and pulled up a form I used for just such transactions. I filled it out as she stood by the counter. “Here you go,” I said. “I’ll need a third down to begin.”

  “Sure, anything,” she said. “You are a lifesaver,” she repeated.

  The door cackled and I looked up to see Jim coming toward me with a very serious face. “If you’ll excuse me,” I said to Amy. “Porsche will finish ringing you up.”

  I met Jim halfway. “You need to come with me,” he said quietly.

  “Okay, where are we going?”

  “Down to the station.” He wrapped his hand around my arm.

  I glanced over at Porsche. “I’ll be right back,” I said. She let me exit the building with little fuss.

  “What is going on?” I asked. “You can let go of me, I’m coming willingly.”

  “I should have put cuffs on you, but I thought I’d save you from that,” he said gruffly. “I’m going to keep my hand on you.” He opened the back door of his squad car and tucked me in. I felt the door close and lock, and dread filled me. Something must have happened.

  He got into the driver’s seat.

  “Has there been a break in the case?” I asked and leaned forward as he pulled out into traffic.

  “A witness has come forward.”

  “Oh, that’s good news,” I said. “Isn’t it?”

  “Yes and no,” he said.

  “Why are you taking me in if you have a witness?”

  “I want you in the lineup.”

  “In the what?”

  He pulled into the police station and let me out of the car. “I want you in the lineup for the witness.”

  My heartbeat picked up. “Wait, aren’t witnesses unreliable? What if they wrongly identify me? Should I call my lawyer?”

  “You can call your lawyer,” he said as he pulled me toward the station. “After the lineup.”

  I tried not to make too big a fuss as he dragged me into the station, through the lobby to the rooms in the back. I didn’t say anything further. Matt had told me not to say anything without him present, and I was going to follow that rule. Jim sat me in a chair just inside the squad room. Three other women my age sat in chairs with our backs against the same wall.

  “Stay here until we call you in.”

  “Yes, sir,” I said and sent him a mock salute.

  He gave me the side eye and disappeared into the depths of the squad room. I pulled out my phone and texted Aunt Eloise what was going on. I promised not to say anything and asked her to call my lawyer and get him down to the station as soon as possible. If I was going to be arrested, I wanted Matt here.

  “Try not to think bad thoughts,” Aunt Eloise texted me. “It might just be to rule you out.”

  “I’d like to know who the witness is,” I texted. I craned my neck and looked around the squad room. “I don’t see anyone I recognize.”

  “I’ll find out where Linda is,” she texted back. “So help me if it is her—”

  “Don’t say anything more,” I texted. “Call Matt.”

  “All right, ladies, come with me, please,” a female cop said. I noted that she was brunette, around my age, and her name tag said Shelley. I wondered if it was her first name or her last name. “Please wash off your makeup. Cold cream and washcloths have been provided for you.”

  There were four of us in various costumes, all in strong face makeup. My zombie Tin Man face paint was silver and red. I hated to take it off before the end of the day. It had taken me a full hour to do properly, but there was nothing to do but what I was asked.

  Once we were all clean faced, she had us sit back down in the chairs for what seemed an eternity. Finally, she came back. “Please follow me.” We walked down a hall and around a corner. She opened a door into a narrow room, and we lined up against the wall and faced a mirror. I’d seen this on television. But I’d never wanted to be part of the lineup in real life.

  She closed the door and I craned my neck to look down the line. We all sort of looked similar. Our heights varied a bit and our hair color went from dark brown to my soft auburn. A disembodied voice came over a speaker. “Please look straight ahead. When I call the number in front of you, please step forward.”

  I dutifully looked ahead. My number was four. The officer asked us one by one to step forward. Turn to the left. Turn to the right. Step back. My heart rate picked up when my number was called. I took one large step forward, turned left and then right and stepped back. The ensuing silence felt like forever.

  “Number two, please step forward.” I resisted the urge to look at number two as she stepped forward, then turned side to side again.

  “Number four, please step forward.”

  Great, I was one of two suspects getting a closer look. I did exactly as I was told. We stood in our line for another eternity before the door opened and the policewoman stood there with Jim. “Wren Johnson, please come with me,” he said.

  I followed him with only a slight look back. All the other “possible suspects” got to turn the opposite direction and follow the female officer down the hall.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “I’m taking you to an interview room,” he said. His tone was authoritative and clipped.

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  He didn’t answer me. He stopped in front of a door and opened it. “Please go in and take a seat.”

  “I need to see my lawyer.”

  He studied me with a steel gaze. “You have your phone. You can make a phone call.” Then he stood in the doorway and crossed his arms over his chest.

  I turned my back on him and called Matt’s law office.

  “Hanson and Company, this is Sherry. How can I help you?”

  “Hi, Sherry, it’s Wren Johnson. I’m being held at the police station. Please have Matt come straight away. He told me to call if I needed something and before I talked to the police.”

  “Oh, okay,” Sherry said. “Your aunt already called and Matt is on his way.”

  “Thanks.” I hung up. Jim walked up to me and held out his hand.

  “I need your phone and anything else that is in your pockets.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “No, I’m serious.”

  “Fine,” I said and was not ashamed to say I might have pouted a bit. “Here.” I put my phone in his hand and pulled fifty cents, an unused tissue, and a lip balm out of my pocket. “That’s all I have.”

  He studied what I put in his hand. “Take a
seat. We’ll be in shortly.”

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

  “Shortly.” He turned and walked out of the room. I heard a click as the door locked behind him.

  I put my elbows on the table, resting my chin in my hands. If Linda was trying to frame me, I was going to have to figure out what to do about it. Clearly having her candles in my shop was not enough to keep me out of jail.

  Chapter 11

  “I’m glad you called me,” Matt said as he entered the room with a briefcase in his hand. “Do you know what they are holding you for?”

  “No clue,” I said. “Officer Hampton brought me in for a lineup. I thought it was to take me out of suspicion, but afterward they kept me and let everyone else go.”

  “Okay, have you said anything to them?”

  “I asked to call you.”

  “Good,” he said. “I’ll go find out what the heck is going on.”

  He was gone for what felt like forever. I’d already waited long enough so I stood and paced the length of the small room. Finally, the door opened and Jim came in with Matt.

  “So? What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Please have a seat,” Jim said.

  I sat down and Matt sat next to me.

  “As I told you earlier,” Jim began, “we had a witness come forward.”

  “Did they see who killed Agnes?”

  “The witness picked you out of a lineup,” Jim said.

  “What?” I turned to Matt. “That’s impossible. I didn’t do anything.”

  Matt patted my hand. “Let’s just take a breath.” He turned to Jim. “What are they claiming they saw my client do?”

  “They say they saw your client talking to Agnes about a half an hour before she was found dead. They also said they saw you hand Agnes the lip balm.”

  “They are lying,” I said. “Didn’t you say Agnes had been dead a while? How could I have met with her only a half an hour before? Besides, I didn’t even know the time of death—”

  “Stop talking.” Matt put his hand on my arm and stared at Jim. “Who is the witness?”

  “It’s Mildred Woolright,” Jim said. “The thing is, the judge said we are to let you go. There isn’t enough evidence to arrest you . . . yet.”

  “There never will be,” I said and stood.

  Matt stood with me. “We’re done here.” He took my arm and pulled me out of the room, through the bullpen to the reception desk, where they returned my phone and other belongings. We left the building and I took a deep breath of free air. His BMW SUV was parked across from the entrance and thankfully the news crews were no longer there. That thought made me realize that I had missed Alicia and the tea house. How was I going to explain that to a reporter?

  “I’ll take you home,” Matt said and unlocked his passenger door, so I climbed in. As he closed the door and went around the car, I glanced at my hands and realized I was shaking.

  “Are you okay?” he asked as he turned on the ignition.

  “Let’s leave, please.”

  “Fine,” he said. We headed down the street to the alley behind my store. He parked in the back parking space next to Porsche’s Dodge van and looked at me as he turned off the car. “What happened? Did you see Agnes the morning she died?”

  “No,” I said. “I only saw her when Everett found the body. I don’t know who Mildred thought she saw, but it wasn’t me.”

  “I believe you,” he said. “Right now all they have is the word of one woman. It has taken her a while to come forward so her testimony will be suspect. I’ll need to discredit her. Do you know why she would identify you?”

  “No. Maybe her eyes are bad or she thought she saw me but it was just another girl with auburn hair.”

  “That’s why they did the lineup,” he said. “To see if she can pick the killer out. Unfortunately, she picked you out right away.”

  “It’s ridiculous. I was in my apartment that entire night making new product and then sleeping. How do you prove where you were if you were alone?”

  “It’s a question we face a lot in the court system. Luckily you are innocent until proven guilty. It’s why I need any information you can give me about your relationship with Mrs. Woolright. I can use it to help the jury understand why she would lie.”

  “I don’t have a relationship with Mildred.”

  “Have you done something to make her angry?” he asked.

  “No,” I said and made a face. “I barely know her. I think the last time I saw her was the morning I found Agnes. She caught me talking to Everett and called me a crazy cat lady. I think I told her I wasn’t crazy but I was a cat lady.”

  “And?”

  “She walked away.”

  “Where did you see her?”

  “On the promenade, right before we found Agnes.”

  “Well, that is interesting,” he said.

  “Do you think she’s involved in Agnes’s death? Did she have an eye for Bernie? I understand he has a way with the ladies her age.”

  “As far as I know, Bernie only had eyes for Agnes,” Matt said. “Dad’s been paying attention to anything coming out of the Snow household.”

  “Did you go to her wake?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “I’m glad you stayed away.”

  “The seniors advised me not to go,” I said. “Besides, Bernie kicked me out of his house when I brought a casserole. I wasn’t about to be publicly humiliated again.”

  “It was a smart choice. It’s best to lay low as much as possible right now.”

  “Low is the only way I can lie right now,” I mused. “They made me take off my makeup. With Halloweentown this entire week, I’m going to have to go straight upstairs and reapply the Tin Man face.”

  “It’ll be worth it,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, by voluntarily going down to the station and washing off your makeup, you have shown them that you are willing to cooperate. It’s a good thing.”

  I blew out a breath and opened the car door. “Thanks for coming down and taking care of things.”

  “My pleasure. Do you want me to walk you inside?”

  “No, I’m sure I’ll be fine,” I said and got out of his car. I leaned into the open window. “I sure hope you get to the bottom of this soon. I won’t have much reputation left.”

  “We’re doing our best,” he said. “I promise.”

  Inside, the shop was crowded with people in costume. I helped Porsche out at the counter for an hour and a half as we worked through the crowd. By the time things died down, it was an hour from closing. Not enough time to make replacing my full face makeup worthwhile.

  Josie arrived dressed in a classic witch costume complete with black dress, striped stockings, pointed shoes, black hat, and green makeup. “Wren! How are you doing?” Josie was five foot five and enviously thin with a narrow face and large eyes. Her red hair was covered by a green wig and witch hat, but her freckles shone through the makeup. She rushed over and gave me a big hug. “You’ve been on my mind ever since that first call.”

  I hugged her back. “Things are a bit crazy.”

  “I know,” she said. “I heard about today. I’ve been telling everyone at the station they are barking up the wrong tree, but I’m a newbie and so they aren’t listening.”

  “Hello,” Porsche said and came out from around the counter.

  “Porsche, this is Josie,” I introduced them. “Josie and I were both on the debate team my senior year of high school.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Porsche said.

  “It’s been a while since Wren and I have touched base,” Josie said and sent me a look. “I do follow you on Instagram, but we were supposed to have lunch last year—”

  “Oh my gosh, has it been that long?” I felt the heat of embarrassment rush up my cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I understand,” she said and her eyes showed that she did truly understand and was only teasing. “I could have r
eached out myself, but I was busy training as a nine-one-one dispatcher.”

  “You’re an emergency dispatcher?” Porsche asked.

  “Yes, my first day I got Wren’s call about Agnes. It was like taking a test,” Josie said.

  “You did very well,” I said and gave her arm a squeeze.

  “I heard they made you do a lineup and Mildred claims she saw you that day talking to Agnes and giving her lip balm?” Josie said. “Scary.”

  “I know it’s crazy,” I said. “I don’t know why Mildred is saying this.”

  “That’s not good,” Porsche said. “We need to figure out what is going on with these old women, and we need to figure it out soon.”

  Just then Aunt Eloise barreled into the shop and the door cackled with a sharp sense of doom. Her crazy cat lady costume was in full force. She held Emma in her arm while wearing Evangeline in a backpack and Lug in a front-facing carrier. Her face was painted in white and gray zombie makeup.

  “I know who killed Agnes,” she announced.

  That stopped all three of us. “Who? How? Why?” we asked.

  “It wasn’t Mildred,” Aunt Eloise declared, “although that woman had plenty of reasons to want Agnes dead.”

  “Then who?” Porsche asked.

  “It was Theodore Woolright,” Eloise stated.

  “What?” Josie asked.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “It would certainly explain why Mildred claims to have witnessed you giving Agnes the lip balm,” Porsche said.

  “Who are you?” Aunt Eloise asked Josie pointedly. She glanced at me. “Should we take this upstairs?”

  “Aunt Eloise, this is Josie. We knew each other from school. She’s the new nine-one-one dispatcher.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Eloise said and took me by the arm. “I don’t think we should be talking around her. She works with the cops.” She glanced over her shoulder at Josie. “No offense.”

  “None taken,” Josie said. “I fully understand. You don’t want to put me in a difficult situation. So, I’ll just go for now.” She gave me another hug. “Nice to meet everyone.”

  “That was rude,” I said as we watched her leave. The store was completely empty now except for Porsche and Eloise and me.