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AFTER SHE LEFT, WYATT poked his head out from the back and looked inquiringly at Beatrice.
“All clear,” she said with a chuckle.
He walked sheepishly into the living room and sat down. “Sorry. I just suddenly felt a real lack of energy right when she knocked on the door.”
“Oh, I totally understand that. Meadow can sometimes pull the energy right out of a person,” said Beatrice. “Were you able to nap?”
“I think I might have drifted off for a minute or two, but then my phone rang. It was Edgenora calling from the church office and scheduling a meeting with a mother of the bride,” he said.
Beatrice lifted her eyebrows. “Was it, by any chance, Colleen Roberts?”
Wyatt blinked at her. “Now how on earth would you know that?”
“Just a lucky guess. Meadow mentioned that her daughter was having a big wedding and that Colleen was very involved in the process.”
Wyatt looked puzzled. “I somehow don’t even remember that we know Colleen.”
“I don’t think that we do. But her name has come up today as someone who might have known Gerald Carpenter pretty well,” said Beatrice.
Wyatt sat down next to her on the sofa and absently patted Noo-noo, who was still taking a nice nap. “You mean that they were involved somehow?”
“That’s what I’ve heard, although I can’t confirm it. But it’s possible.” Beatrice snapped her fingers. “While I’m thinking of it, I was supposed to ask you to schedule a pastoral visit with Salome Hewitt.”
Wyatt pulled out his phone and looked at his calendar. “Of course I will. Is she doing all right?” he asked with concern.
“I don’t think she is, no. Gerald had apparently fired her recently and she’s been struggling to provide for her daughter.” Beatrice paused. “I have the feeling that Salome would rather me prepare you for what the meeting might be dealing with—she feels incredibly guilty that she had an affair with Gerald. An affair that resulted in the birth of her daughter.”
Wyatt nodded slowly. “I see. It does sound like she’s had a tough time of it lately.”
“And we didn’t get the full picture of it from Mark this morning.”
Wyatt said, “But Mark might not have known. As far as he was concerned, Salome was asking for a raise and his father was being stingy. It could be that that’s as much information as Gerald shared with him. After all, it doesn’t exactly put Gerald in a good light. I wouldn’t think he’d want to share that information with his son.”
There was a tap at the door and Wyatt and Beatrice stared at each other.
“Well, she was gone,” said Beatrice, getting up off the sofa. “You can scoot off again, if you want to.”
“No, I’m good this time,” said Wyatt.
But it wasn’t Meadow at all. Instead, a middle-aged woman with blonde hair, red lipstick, and expensive clothing stood outside the door.
“Can I help you?” asked Beatrice.
The woman smiled at her, showing off a perfect set of gleaming teeth. “I’m imposing on you, actually. My name is Colleen Roberts and my daughter’s wedding is coming up in a couple of months. I called the church office and we set up an appointment with your husband, but I was in the area and thought I’d just run by and see if I could knock this one thing off my list right now. I swear it will only take a few minutes. You have no idea what my list looks like.”
Beatrice stood back a bit from the door to let her in and the woman sailed in, notebook in hand. Wyatt stood up to greet her and she flashed that perfect smile again.
“How did you know where we lived?” asked Beatrice. She realized that her voice sounded a little tight, but she couldn’t really help herself. It was hard enough finding a line between Wyatt’s ministry and private life. It didn’t help when they were approached at home.
“Oh, Meadow Downey told me. I met her out a few minutes ago, running another errand. She asked me all about Elena’s upcoming wedding. You know how Meadow is—she absolutely loves a wedding. And she told me all about your upcoming grandbaby,” added Colleen with a rather insincere smile. “Congratulations to you both!”
Beatrice had no doubt that Meadow had told her. And probably a lot more than Colleen wished to hear.
“Thank you,” said Wyatt politely. “Please, won’t you sit down?”
It was a fairly rhetorical question since Colleen was already on her way to one of their floral, overstuffed armchairs.
“A coffee maybe?” asked Beatrice dryly.
“Would you? I’m a little on the sleepy side today, I have to admit.” Colleen glanced over at the kitchen and made a face. “Wow. Looks like you’re having some work done.”
Wyatt said, “A bit of kitchen renovation, although the work has stalled out recently. We’re hoping it will be knocked out soon with a new contractor. But the coffee maker is right here in the living room now, so no worries.” He poured her a coffee himself, adding cream and sugar at Colleen’s request.
“Anyway, Meadow told me that you were both home when I asked her,” said Colleen carelessly. “I just couldn’t help myself.”
Nor, guessed Beatrice, had she wanted to.
Wyatt handed her the coffee. “What is it that we can help you with?”
Colleen opened her notebook and said, “The wedding preparations, of course. But not just that. I heard from Meadow that you both had a very disturbing morning.”
Wyatt grew solemn. “It was.”
Colleen gave him a considering look. “I’m actually a friend of Gerald’s. I was terribly shocked to hear about his death. And Meadow seemed to think that it wasn’t an accident at all? That he was murdered?”
Beatrice said, “The police are definitely investigating his death.”
Colleen blew out a breath. “That is just so hard to believe. Why, I only saw Gerald recently. There I was, having a quiet morning at home in Lenoir, and all the while poor Gerald was lying dead in his office. What a horrible thing.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” said Wyatt kindly. “You said that you and Gerald were friends?”
Colleen opened her mouth as if to say something and then apparently had second thoughts and revised it. “We were. Like I say, I can’t believe it.” She paused. “Although I know Gerald and his daughter didn’t get along all that well.” Her eyes grew wide. “You don’t think that Joan could have anything to do with his death? I mean, they really didn’t get along. Gerald was always complaining about her. He said that she was always asking him for money for one thing or another.”
Wyatt said, “We don’t know anything else about it, I’m afraid. I’m sorry, I’ve got some business I need to attend to later. Was there something regarding the wedding plans that you wanted to go over?”
Beatrice hid a smile. Wyatt was able to finesse everything in a non-offensive way.
Colleen gave a simpering smile. “Yes. Dear Elena’s wedding. I want everything to be perfect!”
The only problem was that Colleen’s idea of perfect and the rules that the church had established for weddings were not aligned. Colleen wanted candles everywhere (and there was a maximum for those, per the fire code). Colleen wanted to attach bows to the pew ends with tacks. Colleen wanted aisle runners in the sanctuary, which were safety hazards for both young and old. Colleen wanted the flower girls to drop real flower petals instead of silk ones (which would stain the carpet).
Wyatt listened very carefully to everything that Colleen said. Then he said, “I can promise you that your daughter will have a beautiful wedding at our church.”
Beatrice added quickly, “All of the brides talk about the natural setting and the church’s history as adding so much to the ceremony.”
Colleen kept quiet, but her face was a little pinched as if she expected to hear some bad news coming her way regarding her careful plans.
“Unfortunately, church policy dictates that some of the added decorations you want for the service aren’t going to be possible,” said Wyatt in a polite, but firm voice.
This clearly didn’t sit very well with Colleen. “I’m sure that we can come to some sort of agreement,” she said smoothly. “Perhaps a sizable donation to one of the church’s favorite charities?”
Wyatt said, “That’s very generous of you, but it isn’t possible for the church to make exceptions for a single wedding.”
Colleen narrowed her eyes and seemed about to argue the point further. Instead, she bared her teeth at them in a smile and said, “I see. Well, we can talk more about this at a future date. I can promise you, this wedding will be very helpful for your church in terms of publicity. I’m inviting all kinds of really fabulous people and I know quite a few celebrities that are planning on attending. You’ll end up with great press and photographs. Anyway, as I said, we’ll talk about this again soon. Good to meet both of you.”
Once Colleen had left and Wyatt had politely closed the door behind her, he leaned back against it and gave Beatrice a look.
“I know,” she said with a chuckle. “That must have been completely exhausting for you.”
“Every single thing that she wanted to do was against church policy,” he said in wonder. “Every single thing. That must be a record.”
“You said the magic words, though: church policy. It’s not Wyatt Thompson’s policy. The church deacons and elders came up with these rules, and for good reason. Otherwise, the church would have either a fire on its hands or expensive cleanups,” said Beatrice.
“So you do think she was being unreasonable?” said Wyatt.
“Most definitely. But you were able to stand your ground and appear sympathetic at the same time. I don’t know how you did it.”
Wyatt walked over to drop onto the sofa. “Well, at least we won’t have to worry about that wedding now. I think we got it all straightened out between us in terms of expectations.”
Beatrice said, “I hate to say this, but she’s exactly the person you should worry about. She’s the kind of person who smiles and nods when you’re carefully explaining the rules and then goes off and does exactly what she wants to.”
Wyatt frowned. “You think she might show up on her daughter’s wedding day with candles, real flowers, and aisle runners?”
“I absolutely do. And then I’d expect her to blink and look completely innocent and say that it wasn’t explained to her,” said Beatrice.
“But I did send her out with a wedding guidelines document,” said Wyatt slowly.
“I’d follow back up soon with a digital version and tell her that there was a new church policy in place that families must sign the guidelines and send them back in. Then keep the document on record in case there’s any trouble,” said Beatrice.
Wyatt said, “That’s an excellent idea. I’ll follow up with her soon.”
Beatrice said, “What did you think about everything else that she said?”
Wyatt said, “She certainly seemed curious about Gerald’s death. And eager to implicate his daughter.”
“I think there’s a lot more to her friendship with Gerald than she let on. That’s what Salome was saying, too.” Beatrice stopped talking as there was a rap at the door. Noo-noo perked her ears up and trotted to the door. “Maybe that’s Len, here to save us from a destroyed kitchen.”
“Let’s hope,” said Wyatt heavily.
Wyatt opened the door to see a large, bearded man in overalls. The man bobbed his head in greeting and said, “Thanks for taking me on.” He reached down and scratched Noo-noo behind her ears.
Wyatt said, “Good to meet you, Len. Let me show you the project and we can talk about costs and how much time it might take.”
Len nodded and said, “If we can come to an agreement, I can start this afternoon because the materials I needed for another job haven’t arrived yet.”
Wyatt glanced over at Beatrice and she smiled. “I’ll take Noo-noo back over to the Patchwork Cottage. And this time I think I may take something to work on with me.”
A few minutes later, Beatrice was driving a grinning Noo-noo back over to the Patchwork Cottage.
Posy greeted her as soon as she came in through the door. “Beatrice! I’m glad that you came back. Does this mean that you’re actually getting some work done at home?”
Beatrice said, “We are. At least, it looks like we are, as long as Wyatt and Len agree on the terms of the work. At any rate, I think Noo-noo and I need a break from it all! Since everything went so well this morning, I figured that she and I could maybe spend a little time here? I know I need to get some quilting done.”
“Of course you can! And Maisie will be happy to have you here, too.”
Sure enough, as if on cue, Maisie the shop cat came trotting over to Noo-noo and bumped her head against Noo-noo’s.
Posy said, “It’s pretty quiet at the shop now, so you should be able to make some progress. Is this one of your projects for Piper?”
Beatrice sat down on the sofa in the shop’s sitting area. “I’m afraid so,” she said wryly. “Although I’m definitely under a deadline at this point, obviously. It’s a diaper bag and it’s been a little trickier than I thought it would be. I’ve finished with the burp cloths, thankfully. And Meadow has made a slew of bibs and other things.”
Beatrice pulled the diaper bag out of the tote she was carrying and showed it to Posy.
“You’ve done a great job so far, even if you did think it was tricky. Have you gotten stuck with it or have you just run out of time?” asked Posy.
“Oh, it’s definitely a time issue, for sure. I did run into a couple of places where I wasn’t sure how to move forward with it, but Meadow gave me a few tips. At this point, I think it’s just a race against the clock,” said Beatrice.
The bell on the door rang and Posy walked toward the door to greet the customer. She paused as she saw that it was Joan Carpenter, Gerald’s daughter, looking pale and stressed.