Murder in a Cape Cottage, page 15
“Sounds like you’re nervous about that.”
“I am, a little.” I swallowed. “What if they don’t like me?”
“Mac.” He grabbed my hand and pressed it to his lips. “They are going to adore you. Seriously. And vice versa.”
“All right.” It wasn’t, but I’d deal with that tomorrow.
“Did you get the security camera thing all arranged?”
“Yes. Forrest Ruhlen’s granddaughter is going to install them. I’ll meet her at either the bakery or my shop in the morning and confirm the placement. She’ll give me a link to the software, so we can sign up ourselves and arrange billing. She’ll show me how to use the app, too.”
“Thanks for handling that. I told Joseph I’d be available all day to help with the dinner. I mean, when I’m not getting my parents settled.”
“Aren’t you picking them up at Logan?”
“No. Mom wanted to rent a car. Her flight and Dad’s are getting in close to the same time, and she said she’d bring him down.”
“Not late afternoon, I hope.” It was more than a two-hour drive from the Boston airport to here, but it could take much longer during rush hour, especially on a Friday.
“No,” Tim said. “They should arrive in Westham by three. Dad’s on a red-eye to New York, and then he’ll hop on a shuttle up here.”
“He’ll be tired when he gets in.”
“Maybe not.” Tim laughed. “He’s like me. He can sleep anywhere.”
“It’s a gift.” I could no more sleep on an airplane than on a bed of nails, points up. I was wound too tight for that. “Remind me where they’re staying?”
“They grabbed an Airbnb right here in town.”
I peered at him. “They’re sharing a bed?”
Tim laughed. “They’re friendly, but not that friendly. No, it’s a cottage with four bedrooms. Jamie and the kids will stay there, too.” He pulled his mouth to the side. “She hasn’t answered my text from earlier. I hope everything is okay out there.”
His sister had a troubled past. Her two older children had a different father from the baby’s. Neither man had stuck around. Jamie had tried to die by drug overdose in the fall. Tim had flown out to Seattle in a hurry to watch the kids until his father could drive up from California to take over. I loved that the men in the family were nurturers and hoped Jamie could get it together—and keep it together—for the sake of her kids.
“She must be busy packing for her and the kids.” I stroked his hand. “The older ones have to be super excited to take a plane trip and to see you again. They’re probably bouncing off the walls and not helping at all.”
“You’re right. That’s gotta be it.” He blew out a breath and mustered a smile. “Now, tell me what’s happening in the case. I bet that’s probably more on your mind than the wedding is.”
“You know me too well.” He truly did. I knew I was out of the mainstream, not being more excited about my wedding than about an eighty-year-old corpse. But that was who I was and at this age, there was nothing I could do about it. “I seriously don’t think the police are paying any attention to who killed poor Della and Manny.”
“But you have thoughts about it.”
“I do.” I sipped my pinot gris. “I think Richard Ruhlen was involved, Forrest’s father. And Kit Swift.”
“Related to Win?”
“Her great-grandmother. Plus Sarah Winslow—Win’s great-aunt—and maybe Eugene Winslow, Sarah’s brother.”
“But why kill their friends?” Tim asked. “And in Ruhlen’s case, it would have been his own sister.”
“Awful, isn’t it? I’m not sure they were all that friendly, when it came right down to it. Kit Swift had imagined Della was her rival. The Ruhlen family didn’t want Della to marry Manny. I don’t know why the Winslows would have been involved unless it was peer pressure.”
“They were all in their teens, right? I remember what that was like. But a double murder? Gives you the creeps, doesn’t it?”
“I’ll say. High school peer pressure might have made me say I wanted to kill somebody.” Somebody like my archrival, Victoria. “But it was only a phrase. Nobody I knew would actually act on it.”
“Same here.” He drained his wineglass. “Eli said something about a Lee Winslow today. Related?”
“He did?”
“Yes.”
“It’s the same family. Lee is Win’s uncle, her mother’s brother. What did Eli say about him?”
Tim frowned. “He said he heard a noise outside last night. He went down to check, and this dude was poking around Gin’s shop.”
“Salty Taffy’s.” Gin and Eli lived upstairs.
“Yes. Eli asked him what he was doing, and the guy claimed he was interested in buying property in town.”
“At night? During the last week in December? What time was it?” I asked.
“Around ten. Eli said Gin was already asleep. The man seemed harmless and possibly high on something.”
“Gin didn’t say anything about it.”
“Eli might not have had a chance to tell her yet. He goes into work super early sometimes.”
“With the break-ins around town this week, Eli should tell the police about Lee.”
“Right. That’s why we’re putting up security cameras. I’ll make sure he knows.” Tim gazed at me. “You said the bridal shop was burglarized. Where else has been broken into?”
Huh. “I don’t know. But Eli needs to call the cops, in case this Lee isn’t actually harmless. Plus, now they would have a name for him. That could change everything.”
“You’re right. Mind if I call him now?”
“Of course not. I’ll clean up.”
Tim went into the living room to make the call. As I carried the plates to the sink, I thought about the purple-eyed, greasy-haired man snooping around a candy shop at ten o’clock on a cold night. He had to be the Westham burglar. Didn’t he?
CHAPTER 39
At eight thirty that evening, Tim was on a long call with his sister in the living room, speaking in low, serious tones. I sat reading the coloring book mystery in the kitchen, avoiding my nuptial obligations. When a call came for me from Gin, I headed upstairs to talk with her. The spare room doubled as an office, with a kind of Murphy bed tucked away in a cabinet. I plopped onto the desk chair.
“I’m calling to check in with you, Ms. Bride.” Her voice sounded like she was smiling.
“I am here, Ms. First and Only Attendant.”
“Everything under control?”
I cleared my throat. “I might not have paid sufficient attention to my vows yet.”
“Mac! You have to.”
“Ugh. I know, Gin. And I will, as soon as we’re finished talking. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t thought about them.”
“But it’s a really big step, right?” She gave a low laugh. “To say in front of your family and close friends how you feel about Tim and what you, well, vow to do to keep the marriage healthy and alive.”
I swallowed. “It’s a huge step. What if I freak out during the ceremony? What if I, like, chicken out or freeze?”
“Listen, hon.” Gin’s voice was low, reassuring. “You like things under control, right?”
“You know I do.”
“So the best way to control this particular situation is to write down your vows. Practice saying them out loud. Don’t look in a mirror, but pace around and memorize them.”
“As if I was going to be in a play?”
“That’s a good way to look at it. You need to learn your lines. That way you’ll know what’s going to happen. You’ll be confident in what you’re going to say. And you won’t freak out, I promise. Plus I’ll be right next to you with your cue cards, so to speak.”
I’d never acted, but this could be a good plan to get me through the formal part of the ceremony, which for some reason I was finding terrifying.
“All right. Thank you.”
“Now.” Ice clinked before she spoke again. “Apparently you and Tim knew about this Lee Winslow character before I did. Snooping around my shop, indeed. Eli called the police about him. They seemed glad to have a name for the guy.”
“I’m glad he called. Tim mentioned it at dinner.” I told her about coming across the bridal shop break-in. “You can only imagine how happy I was to have my dress in my car instead of out somewhere as stolen property.” I swiveled to gaze at the garment bag I’d hung on the outside of the closet door. “Oh, and my grandmother did the fitting this afternoon.”
“Reba did? That’s perfect. You’re going to look stunning in that dress, Mac. You are so not a girly girl. It’s simple and elegant. Just right.”
I couldn’t help but smile. How I looked when I married Tim wasn’t one of my worries. He would love me, regardless. But it couldn’t hurt to feel confident in my appearance on our special day, and the photographs of us would be around for a very long time.
“I think so, too. And wait until you see the necklace Abo Reba gave me to wear. It’s old and has blue. Best of all, it was a gift from my grandfather to her, and she’s been saving it for me. It’s perfect.”
“That’s awesome, Mac. But listen to this,” Gin went on. “I spoke with Emily Swift at Shearlock Combs today.”
“Which is the best name for a hair salon, ever.”
“Agreed. Anyway, we happened to be both waiting at the same time for our dye jobs to set up. She was focused on her phone, and then she started swearing under her breath.”
“Being you, you asked her what was wrong.”
“You bet. Turns out she’s not that happy with either her husband or Win.”
“About Orrin starting a yoga studio?” I asked.
“She mentioned that, but it seemed like they might have other conflicts, too.”
“The twenty-five-year itch?” I asked.
“Could be. Then she said something about her ‘damn daughter’.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. Emily and I aren’t exactly buddies. She buys a lot of candy from me, but that’s about it. Something must be bothering her, big-time, for her to open up like that.”
So Emily was upset with Win and with Orrin. Plus, she’d said she was estranged from her brother. Was Emily a difficult character, or did she have reasons for these discontents with the people closest to her?
Gin said something away from the phone. “I have to go, Mac.”
“Okay. Have you shared what you learned about Emily on the thread yet?”
“It’s not much, but I will. And you have your homework to do.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I gave a salute, even though she couldn’t see it. “Oh, you and Eli are good for the rehearsal tomorrow at five?”
“At the church, right?”
“Yes. And Gin?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for the pep talk,” I said. “I needed it.”
She laughed. “Any time, my friend.”
I swiveled back to the desk, where a yellow legal pad and a pen awaited. Except . . . the lines were already filled with wedding vows. Tim had clearly been working on his. I averted my eyes and flipped the paper over the top and behind the pad. We’d agreed not to consult each other on the wording. I didn’t want him to think I’d been peeking.
I sat back, thinking. Why was this so hard for me? What happened to the old standard lines that both members of the couple recited? “In sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, for better and for worse.” Were there more of those pairs? They captured it so well, I didn’t see why I had to reinvent the wheel.
Maybe I could go with something über-simple like, “I want to spend my life with you, no matter what happens.” I twirled the pen and laughed to myself. I would need to add, “As long as you keep me supplied with freshly baked cinnamon rolls and blueberry scones.” Humor was good, wasn’t it?
This wasn’t that hard, after all. I sat forward, about to put pen to paper, when Tim trudged up the stairs. I whirled and held up both hands.
“I didn’t read a word, I promise.” I took a second look at him. “What’s wrong?”
He sank onto the small armchair in the corner of the room. The only time I’d seen him look so dejected was last summer, when I hadn’t felt I could commit to our relationship. More specifically, I hadn’t been ready to commit to having children with this bighearted man. I stood and went over to him, laying my hand on his shoulder.
“Is Jamie okay?” I asked.
“She and the kids aren’t coming.”
Oh. I leaned down, wrapping my arms around his disappointment. “I’m sorry,” I murmured.
“I wanted to have the whole family together, just this once.” He took one of my hands and laid it against his cheek.
“Of course you did. Did she say why she’s canceling?”
“Not exactly. She claimed the kids all have colds and she was worried about taking them on the plane.” He fell silent.
He didn’t sound like he believed her. I waited. Gin had been right. We didn’t have much dysfunction in my family, and I was lucky for that.
“I think she made up an excuse, Mac. I’m worried about her. If she’s starting another slide, she might lose custody of the children. They are such sweet kids, despite their crazy family life, and they adore her. My heart breaks into little pieces thinking of them being split up.”
I slid in to sit on his lap. He wrapped his arms around me and held on tight, as if he could keep Jamie’s family together with his embrace.
CHAPTER 40
The next morning—the day before my wedding, I realized with a gulp—I sat at my laptop upstairs and carefully crafted my few lines of vows as Tim puttered in the kitchen. I hadn’t gotten anything down on paper last night, because I’d spent the rest of the evening comforting him. He’d been so disappointed about Jamie being a no-show at our wedding. This morning he seemed in better spirits, and we’d sat sipping coffee together for the first half hour after our rather leisurely and delightful sleep-in.
Now I emailed a copy of my vows to Gin, who gave me a thumbs-up. I also checked the group thread, glad Gin had updated it about Eli talking with Lee Winslow, and about Emily being unhappy with her family. Too bad nobody else in the group had news, though. Oh, well. Que será, será. I added my own about Lee bothering my car yesterday.
I sat back, thinking about Lee and Emily and Win and Orrin and Barlow, the current-day incarnations of the Winslows and the Swifts. Did they have secrets they were desperate to keep? If their ancestors had killed Della and Manny, would any or all of them be trying to cover it up now that Della’s bones had surfaced?
Barlow had a criminal record, or at least criminal wrongdoings in his past. Perhaps his willingness to venture outside the law had extended to protecting past family secrets.
Had his twin brother stayed out of trouble? Orrin had said he’d done well trading stocks, so they’d both been in the financial sector. I ran a search on Orrin Swift but couldn’t unearth anything nefarious.
What about Emily? Did she hold down a day job? I poked around until I found a feature article about her in the Cape Cod Times published three years ago. The headline read, “Heiress to Winslow Granite Fortune Uses Artistic Talents to Etch Headstones.” I paged through it. I’d never thought about how gravestones were inscribed. According to the article, names and dates could be chiseled or sandblasted, but the finest detail came from etching. Emily was quoted as saying that laser etching was becoming popular and was less expensive, but the best images came from hand etching.
I tapped the desk. Interesting that only Emily was described as the heir to the fortune, not both her and Lee. I searched on Winslow Granite, but the company didn’t seem to be in business anymore, as evidenced by the lack of a website. Emily had kept granite in her life. Did she also have secrets she was keeping?
Lee Winslow seemed like a sketchy character, but did he have an actual criminal background? A search yielded mention of a Hard Knocks gym in New Bedford owned by him. But when I clicked the link to the website, it wasn’t active. I didn’t unearth an arrest record for him, though.
Of course, Della’s own family members, Forrest and Kim Ruhlen, also still lived in town, as did Al Cabral, Manny’s nephew. I realized I didn’t know if Al had a family, or Lee or Barlow. Did Win have Swift or Winslow cousins? Did it matter?
I sniffed. Something was starting to smell fantastic. As my stomach let off a hungry growl, Tim called up from the bottom of the stairs.
“Omelets are ready.”
I checked the time. Oops. I had to meet Kim at my bike shop at nine thirty, which meant I would have to get dressed fast and possibly bolt my breakfast.
“Be right down.”
CHAPTER 41
“How’s this?” Kim’s breath came out in visible puffs. She stood on a ladder holding the small camera up above the back door to my bike shop. She’d already installed the camera above the bakery’s back door and then hauled her ladder to Mac’s Bikes. The camera lens was less than three inches across. A long power cable dangled down.
“Looks good to me.” I shivered inside my jacket and tugged my cap farther down on my head. It was frigid out here. I’d walked into town, but as soon as I stopped moving, the cold hit me.
“It has a wide angle, and I’ll leave it pointed down,” Kim said. “In combo with your motion detector light, you should be all set.” She drilled two starter holes, then pulled a glove off with her teeth to position the screws.
“I assume the camera is weatherproof?” More snow was forecast for tomorrow. Whether it evolved into a major storm or not depended on how it tracked. I had fingers crossed for it not materializing at all. Who wanted to go to an evening wedding in a snowstorm?
“Definitely weatherproof.” She climbed down and lowered the ladder. “I need to run the wire inside to plug it in. That way you never have to worry about the batteries running low. Okay if I drill a hole here?”
“Sure.” I unlocked the door. She quickly attached the wire to a plug and plugged in the camera. “Buy you a hot drink?”
