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I did try to work on the dresses. I truly did.
Neither Nancy nor I really wanted to walk into that now empty house, so we decided to make the drive into Oak Hill. They had a fabric shop there. That was something that Wind’s Crossing was sorely missing. Not that our small population would support such a store.
I made a quick call, and we picked up Sapphire on the way. Nancy and I agreed to stay quiet on what was happening on the home front for now. Should have known better than that. My sister had both of us spilling our guts within minutes.
Surprisingly, she laughed. Not exactly the reaction I had expected from her. It sure as shooting wasn’t the reaction I was personally experiencing at the moment.
“It’ll sort out, trust me.” She glanced over at me, her eyes shining with mirth. “You are totally underestimating Mom, you know. Can you ever recall a single time when that woman didn’t get her way on something?”
Well, when she put it that way. No. No, I couldn’t. Mom had a way of getting us to do exactly what she wanted us to do and making us think it was our idea to do. She was a master.
“But she’s a baby.”
Sapphire raised an eyebrow at me. “And you really think that’s going to change things?”
Again, now that she put it that way... no. Probably not when I thought about it. An unhappy baby was kind of hard to deal with. But then, I knew Kimberly far better than Sapphire did too. She was a stubborn woman who put her kids first and foremost. She’d weather through a lot if she truly thought it was for the best of baby Pearl.
Which is one of the reasons the Goddess had seen fit to make her baby Pearl’s mom in this lifetime. In other words, Mom just might have met her match.
Still, Sapphire’s words did make me feel a little bit better, and Nancy seemed to take her cue from us too. We visited the fabric shop and bought yards upon yards of soft, satiny pink material.
And no, Mom’s dress wasn’t white. She’d always said that white just wouldn’t do for a witch. We weren’t exactly known for our chastity. Kind of the opposite, actually. Not that us Ravenswinds were nearly as wild as the townsfolk believed we were. Not by half.
But we couldn’t exactly deny that we had children out of wedlock, now could we? That fact kind of spoke for itself. So yeah, bottom line, Mom’s light blushing pink wedding dress was perfect for us.
We matched the color as best we could. I was planning to do a wide band of offsetting white at the waistband of each dress anyway. That would help minimize any obvious color differences.
After our shopping trip, we dropped Sapphire off and headed home.
“You think Sapphire is right? Will Kimberly and the kids really come back?”
I glanced over at her. The girl deserved an honest answer. “I don’t know. But she is right about Mom. I know you never got to meet her, but she is a force to be reckoned with when she wants something,”
Nancy nodded, but she was still looking out the window. “So is Kimberly.”
Yeah. That’s what still had me worried.
***
IN THE END, I DIDN’T get a whole lot done on the dresses. I might have felt a tiny bit better about the situation, but not nearly better enough to concentrate on something as delicate as sewing two wedding dresses.
Or cutting them out, either. I didn’t want to risk ruining the fabric by a wrong cut. So, instead, Orville came over, and we had a nice little small family movie night.
When Nancy finally headed up to finish up her homework before bed—normally that was done right after school, but nothing was normal about this day—I finally turned to Orville. I needed another distraction. Movies just weren’t cutting it for me.
“Tell me about Kenny Driscoll. Any idea who killed him?”
Orville shook his head. “No. But there is a weird thing about it. Whoever killed him tried to make it look like a robbery gone wrong.”
“Tried to? I’m guessing that means they failed?”
He looked at me. “I’d say so, yes. Kenny had a small lockbox of ‘collateral’ for people placing overly large bets. It wasn’t touched. I mean, it isn’t like it was secured or anything. It was just sitting there. And the whole thing wasn’t all that heavy, either. Couldn’t have weighed over fifty pounds total. If it was a thief, I just can’t see them leaving that behind.”
“Kind of sounds like the very thing a burglar would be looking for to me.”
“Exactly. All they took was cash that Kenny kept in the counter drawer, his watch, his phone, and his laptop. Not exactly enough worth killing someone over.”
“Sure wouldn’t seem like it. But I’m guessing that there’s another reason you don’t believe what they’re trying to sell you.”
He smiled at me, and the arm around my shoulders squeezed just a bit. “We’re going to make such a great team, you and I.”
“Well, duh.” Isn’t that what kids today say to someone who says something that’s already a well-established fact?
“If I’m right, the same person that killed Reverend Castle killed Kenny Driscoll. I just can’t figure out what tied the two killings together.”
“Betting?”
Orville scrubbed at his face. “I don’t really see that fitting in here. Kenny was the one that took bets and paid them out. If Castle welshed on a bet through Kenny, it wouldn’t affect the person or people that he was betting against. In all likelihood, they wouldn’t even have known it was him. It’s not like Kenny posted that information anywhere.”
“So what else tied the two men together?”
“That’s just it. Nothing that I’m finding. And believe me, I’ve looked. And looked again. Kenny wasn’t exactly a church-going man, so he wasn’t a member of the church. They were far enough apart age-wise that they hadn’t gone to school together. And Kenny wasn’t exactly a man to volunteer for community services either. So their paths only ever crossed at that betting shop of his.” He threw me a quick glance. “It’s a conundrum.”
I just looked at him. Orville must still be on that word of the day kick. “Feel proud of yourself?”
He grinned at me. “A little. I managed to use today’s word several times. Pretty easy in my line of work.”
It would be.
Even with the household of only three, and no super young kids in the house, Orville still refused to spend the night. Too bad, too. I really could have used the companionship.
I still felt like I’d really messed things up with Kimberly. I was hoping little baby Pearl could mend the fences, but that was quite the task to give to a not quite yet seven-month-old baby.
Still, if anyone would be up to it, it would be her.
After walking Orville out to his car, and a great goodnight kiss that made me wish even stronger that he was staying over, I made my way to my little apartment. I stared at the satiny fabric for a few minutes, but nope. I just didn’t have it in me tonight. If the shop was going to be closed for a few days, I’d make up for lost time then.
That was my plan anyway.
I fed Bridget her midnight snack and spent a long while trying to console her. I was upset about Kimberly leaving. Bridget? She was inconsolable. I guess to her, it kind of felt like losing Mom all over again.
In a way, it did to me too. I just hoped it wasn’t a permanent loss.
In my defense, the day had been a long one, and a lot had happened. I think that in itself was a good reason to have forgotten such an important thing as Amie’s earlier call.
However, that wasn’t a mistake I was likely to repeat.