Despite Tuesday being new release day for books and another day of a packed store, Ellie and Ma’May made the executive decision to close up an hour early. Not just to give them time to put away the last of the new inventory that had been delivered a day late, but so that they could get ready for Abbie Ainsley’s wake.
With a fresh bowl of food placed in front of Beau, Ellie had a quick rinse off in the shower. She kept her curly hair tucked up in a shower cap while she got washed up. Getting it wet would mean either hours of air drying time, or almost one hour under a hair dryer and she didn’t have time for either. A dusting of dry shampoo would have to do, which she would apply once her light bit of makeup was done, but before she got dressed.
Ellie didn’t wear a lot of makeup and most of what she did own had been small items that came out of gift sets she’d gotten from friends, coworkers, and her mother for different holidays and occasions. She pulled three of the small bags out of a dedicated drawer in her dresser. One of them was a shimmery silver, another a glittery gold, and the third one was a pleather clutch and unzipped them. She dumped their contents on her bed and picked out a tiny tube of lipstick in a spicy neutral color, a small stick of pencil eyeliner, a quad of miniature nude eyeshadows, and a mini-mascara. It wasn’t too much, but Ellie had never taught herself to use makeup properly and she didn’t think a wake was a proper place to try to attempt anything special anyway.
With her features more highlighted than made up by her light bit of makeup, she moved to the outfit she’d gotten out earlier that morning and steamed in preparation for tonight. It was a skirt suit combination in a dark navy blue that she hadn’t worn since the meeting that finalized her divorce. She figured that its solemn but professional appearance was perfect for the occasion.
Sliding on the knee length pencil skirt made Ellie question how perfect the outfit was for the wake. It hugged the curves of her hips a little more snuggly than she remembered and she had to tug the waist together to get the zipper to pull all the way up. It definitely wasn’t a good start.
Things only got worse when she slipped on the plain white blouse she’d aimed to wear under the skirt’s matching blazer. She’d worn it at least once every week when she was working in Chicago, but it had been months since she’d put it on. To her dismay, the buttons pulled across her chest and showed off much more of her beige bra than she’d intended. For almost any other occasion, she would have just said ‘Oh well,’ and worn it, but for a wake? There was no way.
With a sigh, she pulled off the blouse and grabbed a plain black V-neck t-shirt that would cover up more than the blouse would have. It wasn’t as polished as she would have liked, but Ellie didn’t have much choice.
Before she pulled on the blazer, Ellie spritzed her hair with the dry shampoo and finger combed it through her hair. A little scrunching of her curls was enough to make them look clean and bouncy, so she grabbed her blazer and walked out of her room.
It wasn’t until they were getting out of Ma’May’s car at Thompson’s Funeral Home that Ellie pulled her blazer on and realized she probably should have done so before they’d left the apartment. While she could get the buttons closed in the front, the sleeves pinched her upper arms and it was tight across her back. She felt like The Incredible Hulk and that one flex of her arms would have all the seams popping.
“Stop tugging,” Ma’May instructed as they walked toward the front doors of the funeral home together.
That was easy for her grandmother to say. May Reid might be a bit eccentric, a little bit loud, sometimes sassy, and occasionally bossy, but the woman knew how to dress herself up when she wanted to. Her silvery-blonde hair was pulled back in a loose, but sophisticated bun, she’d applied a light bit of makeup to appear a little more professional, and she’d ditched her usual flowy peasant skirts and funny t-shirts for a pretty black dress and a smart pair of heels.
Ellie kept fidgeting with the sleeves of her blazer as they entered the funeral home. Dundurn, not being very big, only had the one funeral home and it only had one room for visitations and wakes. There had only been one or two times when a second room might have been nice, and this was one of them. Not for two separate wakes, but for the fact that Ellie had assumed correctly and most of the entire town had shown up, or at least everyone who didn’t live in the new subdivision.
The crowd was large enough that Ellie needed to push her way through groups of people to get any further inside than the front entrance, which was only made harder by her too snug clothes. To her great appreciation, it appeared that so far everyone was too busy talking amongst themselves to notice how silly she looked, or at least felt.
Which meant they weren’t noticing her at all. It was the perfect time to do a little eavesdropping. Of course, not that she wanted to listen in on anyone’s personal life or private conversations, but if she could hear something that might prove worthwhile to the case, then it could give her something to go on when she finally got to Lilith.
With a nod to her grandmother, Ellie squeezed her way between two groups of people and moved toward the guestbook. Not only would it give her a good place to stand back and do a little listening, but she could flip through the pages and find out who had already signed the book. As long as no one had left yet, she would have a good idea of who was inside the building.
Behind her, a man she recognized as Bert Sterling, the local high school janitor, was chatting with three of the teachers at the school. Each one of the ladies helped to stock their classrooms with generosity from May’s Books, and Ellie didn’t even need to look up to know which of them was speaking.
“Such a tragedy,” Ms. Bookout was saying. It was a common phrase in regard to Abbie’s death and Ellie was starting to suspect it wasn’t because people actually viewed it as such, but that it was a default ‘safe’ thing to say.
“I cannot believe it,” Mrs. Portwood said. “And what if there really is a murderer on the loose? You know, I hear she was poisoned.”
“Like, food poisoning?” Ms. Abraham asked.
“You haven’t heard?” Bert Sterling asked, but Ellie wasn’t surprised. Ms. Abraham was known as a hard worker, but not exceptionally bright. “I heard it from Adam who heard it from Janelle, but everyone is talking about it. Abbie Ainsley was murdered.”
“No!” Ms. Abraham gasped, but the other teachers confirmed they’d heard the same. Ellie hated that word had gotten out about what happened, or at least some of it. It was only going to make Dave look worse when Will Murphy brought him in for questioning.
Ellie’s mind immediately snapped away from the teachers’ conversation when she thought of Dave. He had to be there, it would look terrible if he wasn’t. She flipped through the pages of the guestbook, but realized it might be silly for him to sign it himself. For his own sake, he needed to be there. Otherwise it would only make the gossip that filled the town even worse.
Gently pushing her way past the small group, Ellie stopped at the catered table of food and used it as another opportunity to hear what other people were discussing in case something important came up.
Near the table, a group of older women including Hettie and Ma’May were chatting and none of them looked very pleased. Ellie was careful to keep her eyes on the table, but she resisted putting anything more than a few pieces of fruit on her plastic plate while she listened.
“I just can’t believe her!” one of the women griped. “Who does she think she is, parading around like that at a wake?”
“And monopolizing poor David’s time like that,” another said with a disapproving cluck of her tongue.
“Glutton for attention, that one is,” Hettie noted. “She’s always been like that, ever since she was a little girl and my Flora used to babysit her.”
“You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if she had something to do with this,” one of the other ladies said and Ellie took that as her cue to move on since she didn’t need any more than that to realize who the ladies were talking about. There was no one else who would be brazen enough to be so demanding of attention at someone else’s wake. And monopolizing Dave’s time? It had to be Lilith, and even better, other people had put her on their suspect list. The longer she stayed on it, the better it was for Dave.
But the more likely it was that Lilith would get paranoid and clam up fast.
She barely made it to the double doors when a familiar voice stopped her. “Ellie, hey,” Stella Chadwick called to her.
“Stella, how are you?” Ellie asked. She couldn’t help it, Ellie’s eyes immediately travelled down to Stella’s big, round belly. She was still carrying high, a good sign that hopefully the baby wouldn’t be early.
“A little upset,” Stella said, and when Ellie’s eyes moved up to the young woman’s face, she noticed the flush in her cheeks. Her eyes were rimmed red and her nose was pink, probably from the scratch of tissues. “But Ken is coming back from the oilfields this week.”
“I thought you said he might not make it back before the baby’s birth,” Ellie noted.
Stella nodded. “He wasn’t supposed to, his boss wouldn’t give him the time off. Once he told him what happened though, he gave him a week off. It’s not much, but at least I’ll get to see him for a little while.”
“Hopefully he can get a little more time off when the baby gets here,” Ellie noted, but from Stella’s face, she realized it was the wrong thing to say.
“It might be easier if he isn’t there,” Stella admitted. “Just so we don’t get attached. We both know we can’t give her a good home. If we let ourselves get attached while our emotions are running high, we might make a bad choice.”
“I understand,” Ellie said, and she was pretty sure she did. She’d looked into adoption pretty heavily in the past and understood that birth parents often changed their minds in the delivery room. It was no one’s fault, but she was happy to see Stella understanding it was a possibility.
“Thanks Ellie,” Stella said. “I should get going. It’s not even late, but being pregnant really makes you sleepy.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ellie assured her. “You need all the rest you can get right now.”
With a tight hug, Ellie saw Stella off before she returned her attention to getting through the crowd.
Said crowd got thicker as Ellie made her way into the main – and only – visitation room in the building. The room was full to bursting and Ellie kept saying, “Excuse me,” and, “Pardon me,” as she pushed her way through the double doors and toward the back of the room where Abbie’s casket was on display for people to say their final good-byes.
She never got that far. Before she got within ten feet of the back of the room, the crowd cleared some and in the center of the open space, directly blocking the casket, was Lilith White. She was hanging off of a very uncomfortable looking Dave Ainsley while people looked on in poorly veiled disdain.
“I just can’t believe it!” Lilith sobbed to anyone who would listen. “And poor Davy, my goodness. Who would hurt my best friend? I’m heartbroken! She was my oldest friend.”
Dave tried to pull away from her. It was obvious he not only was uncomfortable, but he must know how bad it looked to have another woman all over him like Lilith was.
Ellie knew it was up to her to get him out of there, even if it meant sacrificing herself.
“Lilith, sweetheart,” Ellie said as she approached Lilith. She used her sweetest, most put on sugary voice as she spoke. “Oh, darling, give me a hug.”
With a nod that screamed, “Thank you,” Dave made his escape the moment Lilith’s hands left his arm. She latched onto Ellie like her life depended on it, and squeezed her so hard that Ellie was sure her blazer was about to rip down the seams.
“You brought me fruit!” Lilith said between loud sobs. Ellie had completely forgotten the plate of strawberries and melon slices in her hand and happily handed it over to the nearly hysterical woman. If Lilith were a better actress, Ellie might have believed that she was truly sad, but Lilith spent too much time glancing around the room to keep tabs on who was watching her and let herself smile when someone new looked her way.
“How are you holding up?” Ellie said as a few more angry stares were directed their way. Lilith may have loved the attention, but Ellie did not.
“Just terrible,” Lilith cried. “I can’t believe my best friend is gone. What am I going to do without her?”
A hundred sassy replies came to Ellie’s mind, but she kept her mouth shut. She couldn’t push Lilith away, not yet at least. She had to remain calm and sympathetic to get Lilith talking, but knew that in her current lust for attention, she wouldn’t get anything but, ‘Me, me, me,’ out of the woman.
“How about I treat you to lunch tomorrow?” Ellie asked as she patted Lilith’s hand. “Just you and me?”
“I’d really like that,” Lilith said as she flamboyantly wiped of a tear from her eye. “You really are so sweet,” she went on, but then stopped when her eyes fell on someone else. Ellie turned her gaze slightly to see Connor Guest, Will Murphy’s partner. A spark blazed in Lilith’s eyes and Lilith’s tone changed. “I will call you tomorrow, okay sweetie?” she said as she pulled away from Ellie.
Ellie had no choice but to agree. Lilith pushed her way to Connor and wrapped her arm around the young detective’s neck. With any luck, Connor would be a little wiser than his youthful appearance let on. If Lilith wormed her way into his ear, or worse, it could go very badly for the murder investigation.
“Ms. Reid?” a friendly voice came from behind Ellie. She turned, breaking her watchful gaze over Connor and Lilith, and instead saw Will Murphy.
“I thought we were on a first name basis?” she asked, and her words came out a little more bluntly than she’d wanted.
Thankfully, instead of being angry, he laughed lightly. “Are we?” he asked. “Because you’re the one who keeps calling me Detective Murphy when I’ve asked you to call me Will every time we speak.”
“Oh,” Ellie let herself chuckle with him. “Right. Sorry.” Her curiosity was already getting the better of her and she asked, “So are you guys here hunting for clues?”
“Not specifically,” Will told her. “Although I was about to ask you the same thing.”
“Of course not,” Ellie lied. “My grandmother and I have just come to pay our respects just like everyone else.” That part wasn’t a lie at all. She had come to pay her respects. Now, if she happened to glean any information that was imperative to the case, well, that wouldn’t be wrong.
“Same with us,” Will said, and Ellie got the distinct impression he was leaving out the exact same details she was. “Though I wanted to ask you –”
Whatever he was about to ask, he was interrupted when Ma’May pushed her way through the crowd and said, “Oh, Detective Murphy, how nice to see you here.”
“Mrs. Reid,” Will greeted her, but she waved him off.
“Please, call me May, everyone else does,” she said with a teasing smile.
“All right,” Will said. “May, how are you tonight?”
“As well as can be expected,” she told him. “Paying respects and sniffing out clues.”
Ellie wanted to yell at her right then to be quiet, but all that came out was a laugh. There was no way Will believed her about not snooping, so there really was no reason to be all that mad.
Instead, she changed the subject. “Um, Will?” she asked, turning back to the handsome detective.
“Yes?” he said as he cast a teasing ‘I knew it’ glance her way.
“You were about to ask me something,” she reminded him.
“Oh, right,” he said. “You know what, it can wait,” he told her. “It wasn’t important.”
Ellie eyed him suspiciously, but decided to let it go. As long as he wasn’t giving her the fifth degree for her snooping, she was going to be happy. If he said it wasn’t important, she was going to believe him. Will Murphy didn’t act like the type of man who would wait on something he considered pressing.
“I’ll leave you to it, then,” Ellie said as she led May back into the crowd. The longer they stayed, the more awkward Ellie felt about running into Will again. She wasn’t sure why, but there was something about how he’d acted after he’d tried to ask her something that made her feel off. It was enough that the weirdness she felt turned physical as she got back into the car.
“Did you come up with any suspects?” Ma’May asked as she turned the key for the engine.
“Huh?” Ellie asked, then realized what her grandmother had said. “Oh, sorry. Yes, I’m definitely more convinced the prime suspect is Lilith. You?”
“Agreed,” Ma’May said, and Ellie was thankful to have something to take her mind off Will. “Other people think the same as well, though quite a few are pointing their fingers at Dave.”
“With how Lilith was hanging off him,” Ellie sighed, “I can see why. Her behavior isn’t his fault.”
“But he didn’t do much to stop her,” Ma’May pointed out. Ellie was about to argue, but her grandmother stopped her. “Not that I think it means anything, dear.”
“Exactly,” Ellie agreed. “And I’ve got a lunch date planned with Lilith for tomorrow. With a bit of luck – and a lot of planning – I should have her right where I want her.”