“Erica?”
I was pretty sure that was Freddie calling after me. But not certain. Who could hear anything over all this jazz music and party noise? Not me. Besides, I couldn’t answer him anyway. I was busy too. Running away. Well, maybe not running … speed walking. I was speed walking toward the ballroom with a dog clutched in my arms. Nothing weird about that.
Okay, so maybe hiding from one’s ex and one’s ex’s new girlfriend wasn’t the most mature thing in the world to do. But I needed to start my adulting adventures slowly. I’d have more success that way. And in all fairness to me, it was really hard to be fine when everyone was telling you you’re not fine.
I hustled my way through the crowd smiling and nodding at the early guests, being careful not to make eye contact long enough for anyone to waylay me with talk. A moment later I spotted the perfect safe haven by a small bit of wall that separated the foyer from the ballroom. There was a seating area with a coffee table, a large potted frond-type plant, and three heavy leather club chairs—one of them unoccupied.
I laid Stanley on the floor and quickly scissored my way over the armrest of the open chair, landing my butt awkwardly in the seat. I nodded at the identical faces seated across from me. “Hey,” I said, probably too quickly to achieve the level of casualness I was going for. “I like your outfits.”
The twins across from me exchanged identical looks.
“Really,” I went on, darting a quick glance behind me. “The matching tuxes are cool.”
They were cool. Then again, the twins were cool.
I turned back to them. “You kind of look like hit men for Al Capone. Very gangster.”
Kit Kat and Tweety were my pseudoaunts and the only other inhabitants living on my mother’s island. Currently their friend Alma was putting them up in town while the lake was frozen over. It was tricky business living on an island in winter. In the past, the twins just bulked up on supplies until the lake was safe enough to cross by snowmobile, but their place had burned down last spring and the new one wasn’t ready yet. They had been staying with my mother and me at the retreat, but this year none of us wanted to be stuck on the island, so we were all staying on the mainland until we could get back and forth.
The twins were in their seventies and completely identical in both appearance and dress tonight—right down to the thick black bow ties hanging loose around their necks, collars slightly open. It was a good look for them. I couldn’t really see them in flapper dresses. They were also holding identical glasses of what I was guessing was Scotch. They looked right at home.
“Erica,” Tweety began. “What the h—”
“Oh!” I said, jumping to my feet. “Just one second.” I shuffled the half step over to the large fern and grabbed the pot. Hmm, this sucker was heavy. I pushed it against the hardwood floor but that made an awful scraping sound—and these floors had to be a hundred years old. I then tried rocking it side to side a few inches away from the wall to give us some more cover. After that I dropped back into my seat, with its back against the small partition wall, and smiled. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“What the hell are you doing?”
I nodded. “I’m, uh…”
“Hiding,” Kit Kat said, leaning back in her chair to see into the foyer. “She’s hiding. Grady and Candace have arrived.”
“Ah,” Tweety said knowingly.
“Well, I wouldn’t say that I’m hiding exactly. They surprised me. That’s all.” I started chewing the corner of my mouth before I remembered I was wearing lipstick. I gave my teeth a quick rub with the side of my finger. “I just needed a second to compose myself. I’ll go and say hi in a bit.”
I got an identical “Uh-huh.”
“No, really. It’s kind of like spiders,” I went on.
“Spiders,” Tweety repeated, tapping the side of her glass.
“Like I’m fine with spiders in theory. And I don’t squash them with tissue when I see them in the house. In fact, I take them outside by trapping them in a glass and sliding a piece of paper underneath.” I made the gesture with my hands. “But it’s not like I want to be surprised by one running across my pillow when I’m half asleep. ’Cause that’s terrifying. Like Candace and Grady suddenly appearing when you’re not expecting them. You know what I mean?”
“Nope,” Kit Kat said.
I nodded. “Can you see them?”
She leaned heavily over the armrest of her chair to peer out into the front hall. “Yup. They’re talking to Rhonda and some beautiful redhead.”
Tweety had to get up to lean over her sister to see. “Oh yeah. She is beautiful.” She looked over to me. “Nice dress. Kind of looks like yours. But, you know … what’s the word I’m looking for?”
“Nicer,” Kit Kat replied. “Much nicer.”
“What?” I leaned over to get a peek. Huh, Grady and Candace had their backs to me, but I could see Rhonda and her cousin. Wow, she was gorgeous. And yes, she was wearing a dress near identical to mine except hers was white and silver, not red, and was probably the dress that my dress wanted to be when it grew up. She also had finger-waved hair—perfectly done finger-waved hair by the looks of it—that wasn’t in the shape of a mermaid. How had she found time to do that and deliver a baby horse? They must teach that in grad school.
I sat back down. “That’s Rhonda’s cousin Jessica,” I said. “She’s a vet.”
“Oh that’s good,” Tweety said, sitting back down. “Maybe she can take a look at Freddie’s dog. I think it might be dead.”
“Stanley’s not dead,” I said, leaning over to pat his belly … and maybe check to see if he was still breathing. “Just really old.”
“We’re really old,” Kit Kat said, smiling at her sister. “And you don’t see us passed out on the floor of a New Year’s party.”
“Not yet anyway.”
They clinked glasses and laughed, arms crossed over their bellies—probably to prevent any laughing hernias.
We fell into silence.
“So…” Tweety said with a slow nod. “You want to talk about it?”
“No. No. You guys just carry on with whatever you were talking about. Don’t mind me.”
“Okay,” Kit Kat answered. “Hey, Erica, did you hear Burt Young died yesterday? He went to five different family Christmas dinners. Doctor said no heart could take that many marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes.”
“Interesting,” I said, looking over my shoulder.
“Although,” Tweety went on. “I think it would take more than just sweet potatoes. I’m going to ask Joyce what kind of desserts he had. She knows Betty, Burt’s wife, pretty well. She’ll find out the real deal. Eggnog cheesecake,” she said with a knowing wag of her finger. “Now that’s a killer.”
“Sounds nice,” I said, stretching up a little farther in my seat.
Kit Kat slapped my knee. “Burt Young dying sounds nice?”
“Sorry. Sorry,” I said, sinking back down. “I was just … nothing.” I shook my head. This was ridiculous. I was being ridiculous. I needed to focus. I was here to do a job tonight, and despite what Amos had said about this letter writer being all bark and no bite, I couldn’t help but think finding out as much as I could about the threats to Candace was an important part of doing that job. Now might be a good time to do a little intel gathering. “Hey, have you guys heard about anything weird at all happening around town lately?” I was purposely avoiding any details. Amos was a sweet kid. I didn’t want to get him in trouble for being loose-lipped about police business.
“You’re going to have to be way more specific than that,” Tweety said. “Do you mean weird like Mr. Carlise mowing the church’s lawn at five in the morning?”
“Or weird like Mrs. Coulter stealing her neighbor’s cat and trying to pass it off as her own,” Kit Kat finished.
“Neither. Weird like illegal maybe?”
“Nothing that jumps to mind. Why do you ask?”
“No reason really,” I said, trying to look like I meant that. “I just heard something about Candace that—”
“Candace! Oh we’ve got news about Candace,” Kit Kat said, hauling herself up excitedly in her seat.
“I can’t believe we’ve been sitting here talking about a dead man and his sweet potatoes when we could’ve been talking about what we heard at euchre last night.”
Kit Kat nodded and leaned in too.
I thought about resisting the group huddle. I was pretty sure, judging by the excitement on their faces, that this was some pretty salacious gossip, and I was trying to be a better person, but who was I kidding? Sure, I had moved on, but I was still human. And it was totally normal for me to be interested in what my ex was up to. I mean, would social media even exist if people weren’t interested in what their exes were up to?
“Well,” Tweety said, leaning in even closer—which made me lean back. I didn’t want to get drunk on the fumes of her breath. “It seems there was a new man in town yesterday looking for Candace.”
“Big guy,” Kit Kat added with a double pop of her eyebrows. “Really handsome.”
I frowned. “How do you know he was looking for Candace?”
“He was sniffing around MRG.” MRG Properties had bought an old Victorian house on Main Street and had converted it into a temporary base of operations.
“That could be anyone,” I said. While my interest was definitely piqued, given the letters, I didn’t see what was so exciting about this. “It was probably work related.”
“No. No. No,” Tweety said with a devilish smile. “That’s not what it looked like at all.”
Kit Kat nodded. “Word has it, he was nervous. Like he couldn’t quite work up the guts to go up to the door.”
“At least one source had him carrying flowers.”
I cocked my head. “What exactly are you two getting at?”
They exchanged looks before Kit Kat said, “You put it together.”
I sighed. “Candace isn’t cheating on Grady.” I believed that too. In many ways, Candace and I didn’t have a lot in common. As a person, she was warm and welcoming and sweet. And not that I wasn’t those things, but … well, she was much better at them. And even though I couldn’t see us having sleepovers anytime soon so we could braid each other’s hair, I did believe she was a good person. “She’s not the type.”
“We never said she was cheating,” Kit Kat said deadpan. “What a thing to say!”
“Although,” Tweety added, pointing her Scotch glass at me, “it would make sense given all the other rumors that have been floating around.”
I looked from one twin to the other. “What other rumors?”
“You know. All the ones about Grady and Candace—”
Suddenly Kit Kat slapped my knee. “Whoop! Whoop! Red alert! Red alert! The eagles are flying.”
“Who’s flying? Grady and Candace?”
“How many other people are you hiding from tonight?”
I popped to my feet and lunged to the far side of the wall. “I’m not hiding. I’m just taking a moment to get myself to—”
“Erica! Not that…”
And ran right into Candace and Grady.
“… way.”