The unseasonably warm weather showed no signs of letting up as Wednesday rolled around. People in Dundurn were officially declaring it an Indian summer, though Ellie wasn’t sure that term was exactly acceptable anymore. She didn’t correct people who said it in the store, but she found herself cringing a little more every time someone did say it.
Normally people in Dundurn would be turning on their furnaces for the coming cold snap by early October, but Ellie was tempted to turn the air conditioner back on as she set up chairs for their book club meeting. It wasn’t that warm out, she didn’t think so at least, but her anxiety was ramping up her heart rate and she was starting to sweat.
“You sure about this?” Ma’May asked as she set out the drinks. This time they were serving water bottles to their guests, each with the caps that had been thoroughly inspected before anyone arrived. They weren’t the best for the environment, but Ellie was going to be sure to recycle every bottle after the ladies left for the night.
“More than sure,” Ellie said, and she meant it. She’d had nearly half a week to prepare and now everything was ready for her plan to move forward.
Three plates of cookies sat on the card table in the center of the circle of chairs that she’d set up. Unlike the last time, it wasn’t off to the side or out of view. It was exactly where every single person would see it. Where no one could touch it without being seen.
The bottles of water weren’t out of the way, either. Ellie had placed one bottle under every one of the nine chairs that created the circle in the middle of the store. She’d considered placing a tenth chair as well, as a sort of memorial to Abbie Ainsley’s memory, but then thought better of it. Despite trying to observe a murderer, Ellie still wanted to make the night enjoyable for all the women. They had no definitive proof that a murderess was amongst their group and she should remember that people were innocent until proven guilty.
That, and Ellie didn’t want to make it too obvious she was trying to sniff them out if the murderer was in attendance. If she kept things light and happy, they would be more apt to let their guard down. It could end up helping her in the end if she avoided making the evening too sombre or tense.
With a few minutes to spare, Ellie set up a stack of books on the counter. Katie Rollin’s book was next in line and she’d picked a novel that was a little less like some of the others that the ladies in the group had nominated. With a photo of a garden on the cover, she’d described it as classic literature written in the present. Ellie hadn’t heard of it, but she was pretty sure that Katie if had picked it then it was probably something very worldly and bound for awards. The woman had very highbrow taste in her books.
Ellie was just straightening her sweater when there was a knock at the door. With a hand to fan herself from the unseasonable warmth, she went over to the door to let Hettie and Margot into the shop. Cynthia was coming up the sidewalk behind them and she held the door for her, too.
“Thank you ladies so much for coming,” Ellie said as she ushered them to the circle of chairs. “Feel free to have a seat if you’d like.”
“Thank you, dear,” Hettie said as she lowered herself into a plastic chair. Ellie did the same and watched as Cynthia and Margot followed suit. Ma’May would be in charge of the door from there out and Ellie’s job was to keep a close eye on everyone around the circle. There could be no slip ups.
Katie was next to arrive and Simone was with her. It didn’t appear they’d specifically come together, but they were chatting and smiling as Ma’May let them into the store.
“It appears we’re only missing some of our younger club members,” Simone pointed out with a heavy sigh. “What is it with younger people not keeping appointments?”
Ellie couldn’t hide the roll of her eyes at that. There were still a few minutes until the meeting was set to start and thought it might be better to give Roni and Lilith the benefit of letting them actually be late before anyone started complaining about it.
With a minute to spare, there was another knock on the door and Ma’May let Roni into the store. She was still wearing her work uniform as she quickly trotted to an open chair and sat down.
“Sorry, guys,” Roni apologized as she pulled off her light jacket. “One of my baristas was running late for their evening shift and then the espresso machine decided to have a meltdown and ugh, what a day!”
“It’s okay dear,” Simone said, completely forgetting – or ignoring – her very recent complaint about Roni’s near tardiness.
“You still made it in time,” Katie reassured her. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Thanks,” Roni said as she grabbed the water from under her chair and took a big swig. “Did I miss anything?”
“Not yet,” Ellie said. “We’re just waiting on Lilith.”
“If she even finds it worth her time to come at all,” Cynthia scoffed.
“She’s only a minute late,” Hettie reminded her.
Katie shook her head. “That girl is always late, though. Even when she was a kid. Half the time she never bothered showing up for things at all.”
Ellie didn’t realize Katie had known Lilith when she was a child, but it shouldn’t have surprised her. Not only was Dundurn a very small town, but they were only fifteen years or so apart. For all Ellie knew, perhaps Katie had babysat Lilith when she was little.
“Well, she better be here soon,” Margot added. “It’s her book we all read, so one would hope she’s here to discuss it!”
“Let’s give her a few minutes,” Ellie said. Her eyes followed Cynthia as she grabbed a few cookies and sat back down. The older woman happily munched on one of each of the varieties of cookie that Ellie made, but the other women seemed hesitant to follow her lead. Ellie couldn’t blame them, but she had to wonder if they secretly suspected her of poisoning Abbie. The idea of people suspecting her sent a chill down her spine.
A few minutes turned into fifteen and Ellie gave in. They couldn’t spend the whole night waiting for Lilith to show up. She would need to lead the discussion, which would only be more difficult as her brain began to wonder just why Lilith had skipped out on the meeting. Especially when she’d said how much she was looking forward to it in the first place.
“All right then,” Ellie said as she stood to get things going. “Did everyone finish the book?”
The seven other heads in the room all nodded that they had. Many had smiled as they did so and Ellie hoped they were off to a good start despite the rocky beginning of the meeting.
“Good, good,” Ellie said, and she let herself smile as well. She was worried about what Lilith was up to, but she had to get through the meeting. “How about we start with the general plot. Thoughts?”
Katie was the first to raise her hand to speak. “I’m honestly surprised how much I enjoyed it. I don’t usually read books that have too much horror, and I definitely don’t read books with adult themes, but this was actually pretty good.”
“I completely agree,” Simone noted. “It had me blushing a few times, but it was done tastefully. I enjoyed it, despite it being a more mature book, if you catch my drift.”
Ellie certainly did. She’d read the book cover to cover and it had her pulse pounding in a few spots. There had been some worry while she was reading that some of the other ladies might complain about the content, and she was relieved to see they’d enjoyed themselves with it.
“Oh, you girls are silly,” Hettie laughed. “It was spicy! I loved it, had my pacemaker a thumping. Though I bet when we get to my book, you girls will all be blushing up a storm. I’ve read this ladies other books and my goodness. Let’s just say some toes will be curling!”
The rest of the group laughed and Ellie found herself laughing right along with them. Hettie might be their oldest member, but she was possibly the most fun. Well, right after Ma’May, who was laughing herself silly.
“I can’t wait!” Ma’May said. “I’ve been looking for something extra hot to keep me warm when it starts getting colder. How about we read Hettie’s book next?”
She was only joking, but the laughing began to slow.
“I believe my book is next,” Katie said. Suddenly she was the only one not smiling out of the whole group.
“I was only joking,” Ma’May said with a laugh. “I’m sure your book will be excellent. And with this unseasonably warm weather, it might be best to wait until it actually begins to cool down before we read something hot.”
“Yes, well my choice was already pushed back for Lilith,” Katie said with a sneer. “And that girl can’t even be bothered to show up tonight. The nerve of her.”
“I’m sure she just got tied up,” Roni said. “These things happen.”
“They seem to happen a lot more with Lilith White,” Margot said. “You think with everything that’s happened, she’d be doing things to make herself look less suspicious, not more.”
“Perhaps that’s not an appropriate topic for tonight,” Simone said. “Lilith may be a bit of a flake, but we are better than gossiping about her, especially when she’s not here to defend herself.”
Ellie had to agree, though a voice inside her didn’t want to. The more the ladies gossiped, the more information she might be able to glean from their conversation. Either against Lilith, or possibly against one of them.
“Yes, I think Simone is right,” Katie agreed. “How about we get back to the book? I did what to see what everyone thought of Dawn’s secret past.”
“Me too!” Cynthia chimed in. “Do you think she’s going to tell Kevin?”
“His real name was Jase,” Roni corrected her. “He was just using Kevin as an alias.”
“Right, right.” Cynthia waved her off. “But he’s going to find out, right? Is there a sequel?”
“There is,” Ellie confirmed. “I checked earlier, it’s a four part series. Unfortunately we are sold out of the rest, but I can see about ordering more copies if you ladies would like.” What Ellie didn’t add was that she’d bought the rest of the series for herself and Ma’May to read two days ago.
“I’ll take a copy of each,” Hettie declared. “As soon as possible. Lord knows I need more steam in my life!”
The ladies laughed again, all of them this time, and Ellie was glad to have things back on track. She was also glad to see no one touched anyone else’s water bottle, and as sad as she was to see she and Ma’May now had a mountain of cookies to eat themselves, she was happy to know that she’d seen every single cookie that was eaten. Ellie knew without a shadow of a doubt that nothing had been tampered with.
With the meeting wrapped up and Katie’s chosen book distributed to the club members, Ma’May locked the door for the night. She led the way upstairs and Ellie was about to follow her, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. Not yet.
“I’m going to take Beau for his walk,” she told her grandmother. “He’s been cooped up all night and probably wants to stretch his legs.”
Ma’May eyed her suspiciously, but said, “Okay,” and unlocked the front door for her once again. It was still warm out, much too warm, and Ellie’s sweater was more than enough to keep the chill off her as Beau led her down the street.
Normally on their night time walk, Ellie let Beau lead her for a while before she gave him the command to head home. That had taken a fair bit of relearning when they’d first moved in with Ma’May, but now he knew exactly where to go back to.
Tonight was different. Ellie wouldn’t be able to sleep if she didn’t know exactly what Lilith was up to. She’d let her suspicions of the woman slide and was kicking herself for it now. A little bit of acting could be all it took for her to cross someone off her suspect list? No wonder Will told me I shouldn’t think of myself as a detective, Ellie mentally scolded herself as they walked toward Lilith’s condo.
“No, don’t be like that,” she told herself in a clear voice as her feet picked up speed. Just because Lilith missed their club meeting didn’t automatically make her a murderer. Like Roni said, there could be a perfectly valid reason she wasn’t able to make it. Or, like her usual self, Lilith might have just been flaky and not shown up. There was no reason to beat herself up over it, at least not until she knew why Lilith was a no show.
The row of townhouses where Lilith lived were the first buildings at the entrance of the newish subdivision in town. Lilith had mentioned several times when Ellie first moved back to town that she should look at buying one for herself and raved about how fabulous they were. Ellie had considered it, but balked when she saw the exorbitant condo fees. How Lilith afforded it, she’d never know.
Before she went up to the houses, Ellie pulled out her phone and rang Lilith’s number. She had it for the book club, and thought a quick call might put an end to all her worries.
The phone rang four times before Lilith’s put on sophisticated drawl answered, “Hello!”
“Lilith, hey –” Ellie started, but she was cut off.
“I’m apparently just too busy to come to the phone,” Lilith’s voice continued. “But leave me a message after the beep and I’ll absolutely get back to you as soon as I can. Ciao, darling!”
Ellie sighed. She thought about leaving a message, but hung up when the phone beeped to leave her message. With a soft tug, she led Beau up to the end unit where Lilith lived.
Lilith’s house screamed that it belonged to her, even from the outside. She’d changed the numbers on the front of the house to be golden metal letters spelling out ‘fifteen’ in cursive font and her flowers, though wilting from the cooler weather, were elegant and probably expensive. Ellie looked past all that and knocked on the door.
There was no answer.
She knocked again, and again, and then finally pounded her fist on the door. Peering through the tempered glass window on the door, she could see lights on inside and knew Lilith had to be home, but she was ignoring her.
Or maybe she can’t get to the door, Ellie thought.
She knew she should call Will or 911, but had no idea what to say. “Lilith won’t answer her door. Come bust it down for me.” It was too silly, and they’d tell her she’d have to wait twenty-four hours before she could do anything. Ellie didn’t have twenty-four hours. She needed to know where Lilith was. Now.
In desperation, Ellie jiggled the doorknob and to her surprise, she found it unlocked. Dundurn was generally a very safe town, but people still locked their doors when they weren’t home. There was no way Lilith would just leave her front door unsecured if she wasn’t inside.
“Don’t hate me, buddy,” Ellie said to Beau as she slipped his lead around one of the decorative posts outside Lilith’s front door. He was a good boy and wouldn’t go anywhere without her, but it was always better to be safe than sorry with her best friend.
“Hello?” Ellie called as she opened the door and stepped into Lilith’s front hall. “Lilith?”
There was no answer. With her phone at the ready to call the police at any moment, Ellie pushed herself further inside.
Ellie hadn’t been inside Lilith’s townhouse, but she’d toured one of the models a few months back and knew the layout pretty well. The front door led to two short staircases, one going up and one going down. The downstairs was a TV or rec room area and all the lights were off, so Ellie headed upstairs.
Up the stairs was a living room area and the lights were all on. Two gaudy bright white leather couches were centered in the room, and pictures of Lilith were on the mantel, but to Ellie’s surprise, most of the pictures were of Lilith and Abbie Ainsley together.
“Lilith?” Ellie called as she made her way to the connecting dining room. A plate sat on the table, with remnants of crumbs and grape jelly dotted across it. If Lilith was out, she’d left the perfect recipe for bugs to come join her.
There was still no answer. Ellie wasn’t sure whether to be more worried or relieved. Perhaps Lilith had run out to meet one of her many paramours. Maybe she’d had to run out to get some milk. There could be a thousand reasons she ran out without turning the lights off, but deep down Ellie knew that wasn’t the case.
“It’s me, Ellie,” she called out. “Lilith, are you here?”
Slowly, Ellie crept up the stairs to the third floor. The lights upstairs were off, but Ellie knew she needed to check. The townhouses all had three bedrooms, and Ellie moved to the master and turned the knob for the door.
With a turn, she was inside. “Lilith?” she whispered as her fingers searched for the light switch. Finding the little switch, Ellie flicked on the lights and her pupils reacted to the sudden burst of light.
At first, she wasn’t sure what she was seeing. If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn Lilith was asleep in bed. But as her eyes focused, she realized that wasn’t what she was seeing.
Lilith was in bed, but still fully dressed. Her mouth hung open and her eyes stared up lifelessly at the ceiling.
Lilith White was dead.