Chapter 20

I went into the Ice Pit and was stopped by the catering manager to ensure that the right courses were in the right order. I sent the miniature shrimp cocktails out first in tiny martini glasses along with sippers of pink champagne. They really pumped the icy air into the place as it filled up with guests. The atmosphere was one of excitement. Guests’ breath puffed out as they talked, leaving a surreal feeling of fog and ice. The ice bar tables were lit softly. The décor was understated and yet sparkly and grand. The stars twinkled overhead.

“Pepper, everything is so divine,” Jen said as she rushed up to me. She wore a lovely silver flapper gown that hit just above the knee with fringe that hung below so that when she walked the tops of her stockings and garters showed. It was the demure-yet-naughty-flapper look that had been all the rage in the twenties. She wore a mink stole and long opera gloves.

“Thank you,” I said.

“These are my colors,” she said.

“Oh, no, not exactly,” I said. “Please note the cobalt blue accents and the starry night ceiling. Samantha wanted a pop of color. You were all silver and white. She also asked me to make it glittery and snowy and star-filled.”

“Well, you certainly accomplished that,” Jen said with a smile. She snagged a tiny champagne glass off a waiter’s plate. “Samantha must be thrilled.”

“I’m glad you came,” I said. “Mrs. Thomson said that she wasn’t sure if Samantha would feel comfortable without girlfriends.”

“Well,” Jen said, and winked at me, “I know you wanted me to see how your proposals go, and I was happy to see our little girl comfortable on her shining night.”

I grabbed a drink as well and swallowed it straight down in one gulp. “Isn’t it funny how you all know each other?”

“Oh, honey, it’s the country club way. Samantha and I grew up in the same social circles. I might be five years older than her, but we’ve know each other forever, and once you’re out of high school then it’s all one big happy family.”

“Except for the waitstaff,” I said with a shake of my head. “Let’s hope that nothing happens to anyone here.”

“Oh, dear, that’s right, your sister’s event had that awful girl dying,” Jen said. “I’m sure you learned to better interview your staff, right?”

“Right,” I said, with a short shake of my head. “And I gave them all strict instructions not to drink while serving guests.”

“Great idea,” Jen said. “Do the same for my event.”

“Oh, I plan on doing it for all my events from now on.”

“Good,” Jen said, and waved at a woman who passed by. “All right, I must go mingle or Samantha might get suspicious.”

“Take a careful look around,” I suggested. “You never know when it might be your last event.”

“Will do,” Jen said, winked, and walked off to say hello to Mrs. Fulcrum and Clark.

I texted Detective Murphy. “Please come and bring backup.”

My phone dinged back. “Send me evidence.”

I blew out a breath and sent him the e-mail with the pictures. Then I texted. “This won’t make sense unless you know that Ashley’s mom found a remnant with the Xi Omicron Mu symbol on it. She said it triggered Ashley.”

There was a long pause.

“Pepper.” Stephanie called my name. I looked up to see her motioning for me to come over to the bar. “Toby’s here.”

I nodded and followed her to the kitchen. Toby was in the back with Brad, who looked confused.

“Hi, Toby, thanks for this,” I said, and greeted him with a kiss on the cheek.

“Pepper,” Brad said, and greeted me with a hug. “You look awesome. Are you involved in the charity event Jen is attending?”

“It’s a proposal party,” Toby said.

“Oh, right, for Clark Fulcrum and Samantha Lyn Thomson,” Brad said with a pointing gesture. “I remember Jen said she was coming to see one more of your proposals, this one really extravagant. More in keeping with what Jen was looking for in her proposal.”

“That’s right,” I said. “It’s fully in keeping with Jen’s proposal.” I waved for Stephanie to come forward. She did and I took the Tiffany box from her. “I planned on Jen being really surprised,” I said. “Brad, here’s the engagement ring. You’re going to want it.”

“What? Now? Before Clark?” Brad seemed confused and that made me happy. If he was caught off guard, here’s hoping Jen would be as well.

“Yes, before Clark,” I said. “It’s a double proposal. Now, I need you two to go change into an appropriate jazz-age costume.”

“A double proposal,” Brad said, and broke out into a wide grin. “Yes, this might actually work.”

“Please don’t let anyone see you. Lacey will take you through the waiters’ entrance to the costume tents. Text me when you’re dressed and I’ll have someone bring you back.”

“Will do,” Toby said. “Come on, Bradley. Let’s do this thing right.”

“Wait!” I said, and put my arm on Toby’s. “Did you call Amelia?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“She’s going meet me at the bookstore tomorrow for coffee.”

I grinned and made a fist pump. “Yes!”

“We’re going to talk books, music, and movies and see if we are compatible.”

“Good,” I said. Maybe something good would come out of this night. “Now scoot, you two. We have an announcement to make and you have to be in costume.”

Lacey was the manager’s assistant, and she took the guys out through the back to the tent where Gage would work his magic.

I looked down at my phone. There was no answering text from Detective Murphy. I frowned and shook my head. Then I went to find Cesar, who was recording the entire night. Cesar was near the ice dance floor and the big white screen shooting video of the crowd.

“Hi,” I said.

“Wow, you look gorgeous,” he said, and gave a low wolf whistle. I could feel the heat of a blush rush up from my chest to the top of my head. Even in an icy room I could turn beet red.

“Thanks,” I said. “Listen, I’m going to be lowering the screen soon. I need you to pay special attention to that girl there.” I pointed at Jen. “When the screen comes down, I want you to focus on her every word and emotion. Can you do that?”

“Sure.”

“Don’t start yet,” I said. “It’s supposed to be a big surprise and she’ll figure it out if she sees the camera following her.”

“Got it,” he said. “Maybe if I go stand near her and film the crowd from that angle, she won’t think anything about it.”

“Great,” I said. “Thanks. She wants me to get every moment of the surprise and I can’t disappoint her.”

“Don’t worry,” Cesar said. “I’ll get the footage.”

“Thanks.” I glanced down at my phone. Still nothing from Detective Murphy. I was beginning to wonder if he was deliberately ignoring me. I frowned. Maybe he thought my evidence wasn’t enough. I chewed my bottom lip. Maybe it wasn’t, but it felt like it was enough and I had to go with my gut on this. It was too important to me to not let something go. I scanned the room. Mrs. Fulcrum was talking to Mrs. Thomson and Samantha Lyn. Clark had been banished to the opposite end of the room to entertain himself among other guys his age. The guys were playing foosball on ice tables.

I looked at Samantha Lyn. She was gorgeous in a sparkling flapper costume. Her thick blond hair was curled, with baby’s breath woven in like a tiara. Cesar went over to where Jen stood talking to an older couple I remembered from the country club. He kept his camera trained on Samantha Lyn as the girl tried to enjoy herself among the much older patrons of the event. After the third course of hors d’oeuvres, the orchestra cleared away for a swing band. As part of the band’s performance, the screen was lowered and they were backlit so that they looked like a shadow band. People danced the Charleston and other dances. I was happy to see Samantha Lyn trying to dance and have fun. Her eyes sparkled and her skin was flushed.

I looked at my phone. Still nothing from Detective Murphy. I chewed on my lip and looked around. If he didn’t make it, what should I do? Keep moving forward, I guess. I used the phone app to quickly upload pictures into the projector that would be put on the screen behind Brad when he came out. The pictures were of him and Jen from the time they were in high school, through college and today. I made the last-minute decision to add a couple of pictures and change the headline.

Worrying the inside of my cheek, all I could do was hope that I was doing the right thing and that Detective Murphy and his squad would show up.

“Pepper, it’s time,” Stephanie called to me.

“Is everything in place?”

“Yes. Toby has Brad behind the screen now. The man-made snowflakes are ready.”

“Let them fall,” I said, and hit “Go” with my cell phone app. Fat snowflakes fell from the ceiling onto the dancers. I walked quickly over to Jen. Brad’s silhouette showed on the back of the screen.

“Oh, is this it?” Jen asked me. Her gaze went to Samantha Lyn. “How gorgeous is this. I’m getting tears in my eyes.”

“Just wait,” I said, and pushed the next button. The screen lit up with the words I had just programmed into the computer.

“Wait, I don’t understand,” Jen said, her face shocked as she looked from the screen to me then back to the screen where I had typed “Jennifer McCutchen, why did you murder Kiera Smith and Ashley Klein?”

Everyone gasped and turned to me and Jen. “Jen,” I said. “I know you shot Kiera Smith that night at the homecoming bonfire. Why did you kill Ashley? Was it because she was remembering?”

Jen’s face went from confusion to a brief moment of anger to fear to a mask of innocent outrage. “What are you talking about?”

“You went to Morduray College with Ashley and Kiera,” I said, and pointed to the pictures from that homecoming day that played up on the big screen. There on the Xi Omicron Mu float was a smiling Jen waving to the crowd. The float was decorated with the white squares of fabric just like the fabric that Ashley’s mom had put in the scrapbook. “You were up for homecoming queen, but you didn’t make it, did you?”

“No, I didn’t,” she said, her nose up in the air. I noticed the fine tremble in her fingers. “Everyone knows that Kiera was homecoming queen the night she was shot.”

I pressed forward, trying to get something on video before the entire evening went up in smoke. “Look at the pictures, Jennifer,” I said. “That’s you riding on the float for Xi Omicron Mu. Isn’t it?”

“So?”

“Doesn’t that sash identify you as the fraternity’s president?” I pushed.

“Everyone knows this,” Jennifer said. “What’s your point? I thought maybe this might be my proposal night, but you’ve clearly ruined that, and if you’re not careful you’re going to ruin it for Samantha as well.”

“What happened that night, Jennifer?” I asked when the next picture flashed up. “This is you and Ashley and Kiera, isn’t it?” The picture showed Ashley and Kiera laughing. Jennifer faced them holding a piece of Xi Omicron Mu fabric in the air—identical to the one in Ashley’s mother’s scrapbook. “It looks like you’re shouting at them. They’re laughing and you’re shouting. You were very angry, weren’t you, Jennifer?”

“Ashley and Kiera weren’t nice girls,” Jen said, her composure cracking at the sight of them laughing at her and her anger. “They were mean girls. Kiera didn’t deserve to be homecoming queen. Ashley was the worst. She’s the one who would pull horrible pranks. They did mean, terrible things.”

“And you did mean things back, didn’t you, Jennifer?” I asked, and noted that Detective Murphy had finally entered the Ice Pit with four uniformed police officers behind him. “Ashley’s mother told me that pictures from this day and a sign from this fraternity are the only things that triggered Ashley’s memory. They gave her severe headaches and spells just like the one she had when I met her at the country club. Something triggered her at my sister’s reception. I bet that something was seeing you.”

Jen started shaking from head to toe. I could see her freaking out at the evidence of her screaming at Kiera and Ashley the night they were shot. In the picture, her fists were balled up, the incriminating piece of banner in her hand. “I didn’t do anything,” she said. “This is crazy. You are crazy.” She glanced over and saw the police. Then she took a step back. “You called the police? You can’t call the police. This is my proposal. This is my time. You can’t ruin it.”

She raised her fisted hand and took a step toward me, shaking. Brad grabbed her. “It’s okay, Jen, It’s okay. She’s crazy. Don’t worry.”

“I’m going to sue you for everything you’ve got,” she said, and pointed a finger at me, poking me in the chest. “Everything you’ve got. You can’t make accusations.”

“You lied to me,” I said. “That’s not an accusation. You lied to the police as well. You said that you didn’t know Ashley.” I pointed at the screen. “You did know her, didn’t you? Why, Jen? Why would you lie about knowing her unless you’re the one who killed Kiera and you were worried because you thought Ashley saw something? When you saw her bartending at my sister’s wedding, you got nervous. She kept looking your way. You figured she remembered what you did.”

“I lied because I didn’t want anyone to know that I actually went to school with that lowlife bartender, okay?” Jen screamed as people gathered around listening to my story, eyeing the pictures on the screen. “You saw her, Mrs. Fulcrum, Mrs. Thomson. She looked like a wasted drug addict. She should have never been allowed to tend bar anywhere near our social set.”

“I heard that Ashley liked to play pranks in college,” I said carefully. “Look at these pictures of you on the float. Look at the float skirt. Aren’t those Ashley and Kiera’s sorority’s letters? They switched your letters with their own, didn’t they?”

“Those two were horrid, mean girls. They laughed. They thought humiliating me was funny. They were nothing but lowlife girls who had to depend on scholarships and school loans to even get into the school. They had the gall to prank me. Me! My family has a pedigree that goes back seven generations.”

“You’d had enough of their pranks that night, didn’t you?” I asked, and flipped the picture back to the one where she was screaming with her fists raised. “You had a gun that night, didn’t you?”

“Of course, I had a gun,” Jen sneered. “My father insisted that I do. Michigan allows concealed carry. I wasn’t breaking any laws. I had a permit.”

“My guess is that you only meant to threaten them with it,” I said softly. “Isn’t that right? You were so mad you took it out and pointed it at Kiera.” I flipped to another picture where she had her hand in the pocket of the jacket she wore over her parade gown. In the picture you could see the outline of a gun under the fabric. “That’s all you meant to do, wasn’t it?” I said, and stepped closer to put my hand on her arm. “You didn’t mean to shoot Kiera, did you?”

I could feel her trembling under my touch. Her eyes were filled with anger and tears. “I didn’t point it at Kiera, stupid,” she said. “I pointed it at Ashley. She was not the nice person you seem to think she was. She had a vile tongue. She made fun of me. Me! She laughed and said I looked the fool in front of the entire campus and all the alumni waving and smiling as if I were some kind of float queen, and all the while my float had their letters on it. I took out the gun and shoved it in her laughing face. But she didn’t stop laughing. She saw my gun and laughed harder. She said it was a kid’s toy. She couldn’t be afraid of something so ridiculous.”

“The gun went off,” I said.

“The gun went off,” she repeated softly. “Ashley fell to the ground.” Jen looked at me pleadingly. “I didn’t know what to do. Kiera started screaming. She was running away. She was going to tell.”

“So you shot her.”

“I raised my hand to make her stop. I told her to stop. Stop!” Jen said. Brad stepped back, letting her go with a stricken look on his face.

“She didn’t stop, did she?”

“No,” Jennifer said. “I shot her and she went down.”

“And you left them both for dead.”

“I . . . I got scared. I dropped the gun and fell to my knees.”

“Why didn’t you call 911?” I asked.

“I was in shock. I called my parents.”

“You called your parents?” Detective Murphy said.

“Yes,” she said, her gaze far-off and her shoulders slumped. “I called my father. I was hysterical. He told me to calm down. He asked me to look around. Was anyone nearby? Had anyone heard the shots?” She took a deep breath. “I figured that someone had to have heard. Two gunshots on campus. Someone had to have called the authorities.”

“But no one came,” I said.

“No, no one came. Then I realized that everyone was at the bonfire. There were firecrackers going off left and right. I told my father. He told me to leave. He told me to not go back to my dorm, but instead to get in my car and drive straight home to Chicago.”

“So you drove,” I said. “How were you able to drive?”

“I was in shock and it felt good to run away,” she said. “I put the gun in a tote bag and put it in my trunk. When I got home, my parents met me at the curb. My mother got me inside and cleaned me up.”

“What happened to the gun?” Detective Murphy asked.

“I don’t know,” she said, and shook her head. “Daddy took care of it. He had my car detailed. I spent the rest of the weekend with them. We came up with a story. I was to tell everyone, including Brad, that Aunt Millie had taken sick and I was called home right after the parade.”

“You lied to me,” Brad said, and took another step back. His face was filled with grief and disbelief. “Is that why your parents moved to California? Is that why they wanted you to move with them?”

“Don’t you see?” she said, her expression pleading. “I stayed to be with you. I love you and I stayed. It was going okay. Really, it was . . . until I saw Ashley at the first wedding doing the bartender thing. She took off with Samantha Lyn and I had to know if she told Samantha anything.”

“She didn’t,” Samantha said. “She never told me about any of this.”

“I didn’t know,” Jen said. “I started waiting for her to remember. For the police to come.” Jen shook she was so upset. “Then when I saw Ashley bartending at yet another event, I freaked out. I saw her watching. I swear she knew. She remembered. Then I saw her talking to Samantha Lyn and then you, Pepper. I knew she was telling you all my secrets. If she hadn’t, she was about to . . .”

“So you slipped Xanax in her drink,” I said.

“I just wanted her to leave, you know? I wanted her to forget even being at the wedding. I needed her to forget.”

“Wait,” Brad said. “Where did you get the Xanax?”

“I was in the bathroom with Mrs. Thomson and Samantha,” Jen said. “I saw it in Mrs. Thomson’s purse.”

“You were in my purse?” Mrs. Thomson said, and put her hand to her mouth.

“You left your purse on the counter, remember? You asked me to watch it while you used the toilet,” Jen said. “I took a couple of pills. I didn’t think you would notice.”

“I didn’t,” Mrs. Thomson said, her face going pale. “I trusted you, Jen.”

“It wasn’t supposed to kill her,” Jen sobbed. “Just shut her up. I was going to speak to the hiring manager and make sure Ashley never worked another country club event.” She turned to Brad. “Once we were engaged, Mom and Dad were going to move us to California, far from Ashley and anyone who knew about that night.”

Tears formed in her eyes as she looked from Brad to me and back. “This was supposed to be our perfect night,” she screamed. “You ruined it!” She advanced on me, hands raised like claws as if to gouge my eyes out. “You ruined everything.”

Detective Murphy stepped in and took hold of Jennifer. “Come with me,” he said, and pulled her away. “Don’t make me handcuff you in front of your friends.”

Brad stood in horror as he watched Detective Murphy haul his bride-to-be off. He shook his head and sent me a look of disgust. “I can’t believe you did this. Jennifer only said that because you forced her to. I expect a full refund on my retainer. I can’t believe this outrage.” He stormed off and pulled out his phone. I assumed he was calling his lawyer.

I blew out a long breath and slumped into a nearby chair. “I’m so sorry, everyone,” I said to the crowd. “That was not planned. Please enjoy your evening. We still have dancing and more food as well as a fireworks show.” I turned to Mrs. Fulcrum and Mrs. Thomson. “We can reschedule Clark’s proposal. I know this kind of put a damper on things.”

“A damper?” Mrs. Thomson looked down her nose at me. “This is the worst evening of my life. That girl used my prescription to kill someone. I can’t, no, I won’t have Samantha Lyn involved in this spectacle. Come on, Samantha Lyn, let’s go.”

“Oh, no,” Samantha Lyn piped up and pulled her arm out of her mother’s hand. “We’ve just seen how bad choices can ruin lives. I’m not going to let you ruin mine. I won’t marry Clark. Sorry, Clark.”

“What? No,” Mrs. Thomson said. “You’ve just had a scare, is all.”

“I can’t believe you pulled such a public stunt, Pepper,” Mrs. Fulcrum said. “And now you’ve frightened poor Samantha Lyn. Come child, you and Clark need to go home. You’ll reconsider after the shock has worn off.”

“No, I won’t reconsider,” Samantha Lyn said. “I’m finally listening to my heart. I don’t care if you and Dad cut me off. I’m going to go back to college, somehow, and I’m going to decide my own life.”

“Well, I never . . .” Mrs. Fulcrum said. “The audacity of some people. Come on, Clark, this disastrous night has made one thing abundantly clear. Samantha Lyn Thomson is not the girl for you. We can’t have outbursts like that in our family.” She looked Mrs. Thomson up and down. “We also can’t be associated with people whose misjudgment can cause another person to die.” She grabbed Clark by the arm and pulled him away. Clark didn’t seem at all worried over losing Samantha. He merely shrugged and slouched his way out the door with his mother.

“Well,” Mrs. Thomson said, and took a tissue out of her clutch to dab at her eyes. “I’ve never been so humiliated in my entire life. Samantha Lyn, how could you do this to me?”

“I didn’t do this to you,” Samantha said, and put her hand on her mother’s arm. “I did this for me.”

Mrs. Thomson shrugged away from her daughter. “I don’t even know who you are anymore. You want to go to college so bad? You go ahead and pack your bags. You’ll end up just as twisted as those girls. Maybe even dead,” she sniffed.

“Lots of women go to college, Mother, and graduate just fine.”

“You can expect your things to be put out of my house.”

“Mom, please.” Samantha Lyn looked at me as her mom stormed off.

“If you need a place to stay, I have a spare room,” I said. “You’re a smart and beautiful woman. Go to college. Live your life, you only have one.”

Samantha blew out a long breath. “That’s what Ashley said, too.” She straightened her shoulders. “I’m going to do it, if for no other reason but to make Ashley proud.”

“That’s my girl,” I said, and patted her shoulder.

She smiled at me. “Besides, I’m pretty sure Dad will talk Mom down. At the worst, I’ll move into the carriage house apartment. It’s not the Fulcrum mansion, but it will be a place of my own.” She reached up and kissed my cheek. “Thanks, Pepper, for figuring out what really happened to Ashley and for helping me see that life is short. I need to live my life for me.”

I watched her walk out as the fireworks started overhead. There were still a hundred people at the event. It might not have ended up being a proposal event, but it did raise money for autism awareness. I grabbed a glass of champagne off the waiter’s tray and toasted the stars, then drank it down. I may have found a killer, but this night could ruin Perfect Proposals. I sighed. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Toby came over to me with a glass of champagne in his hand. “Interesting party.”

I laughed and put my hand to my forehead. “I hope that never happens again.”

“I bet,” he said. “This certainly didn’t have the romance you keep lecturing me about.” He raised his right eyebrow. “Maybe my way of looking for a wife using background checks and learning all about her before we meet might be the smarter move after all.”

“Really?” I asked. “You still think that even after meeting Amelia?”

“Oh, yes,” he said, and his smile widened. “I did a background check on her the minute you told me about her.”

“You did?” I frowned.

“Don’t worry,” he said, and winked. “She passed with flying colors.”

“Of course she did,” I said. “I wouldn’t have introduced you if I didn’t think she would.”

“Also, she told me she had me checked out as well,” he said, and sipped his drink.

“She did?”

“Yes,” he said, and smiled. “I passed as well. I was pleased to meet a girl who thought like me on the matter.”

“When’s your next date, again?”

“Tomorrow,” he said. “I happen to know it’s going to go a whole lot better than tonight.”

I chuckled and clinked my glass on his. “Here’s to new beginnings and better choices in love.”

“Hear, hear.”