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THE NEXT MORNING, LAUREN woke up with a start. She’d tossed and turned all night, dreaming of a silent alarm. But no one – including the police – had hammered on the door in the middle of the night, demanding to know why they’d been in Paula’s house.
Thoughts of being arrested preyed on her mind all morning. Not even the sight of the lavender cupcakes in the glass case, with their shiny fondant icing and purple sprigs, could lift her mood.
“What’s up?” Zoe asked her just before lunch.
“You know,” Lauren whispered. It hadn’t been too busy, although their customers had oohed and ahhed over her latest creation. Luckily, she’d kept three aside for her, Zoe, and Ed, although she didn’t even feel like eating hers.
“Mitch? Jeff killing Paula?” Zoe appeared deep in thought. “What should we have for dinner tonight?”
“Paula’s house.” Luckily, the only customers were near the back of the room. Annie was curled up in her bed, dozing.
“Oh, that.” Zoe waved her hand in the air. “We’re safe, don’t worry.”
“How do you know that?”
“We haven’t been arrested. Even if there had been a silent alarm, there weren’t any police around.”
“Unless you count Mitch.”
“And he doesn’t even know what we did.” Zoe gave her a sideways glance. “Unless you told him?”
“No! When would I have time to do that? Not that I did.”
“After you went to bed. You could have called him to confess.”
“Well, I didn’t.” Lauren frowned at her cousin.
“Good. We’re in the clear.”
“I thought you said it would be no big deal – and I didn’t see any plants in Paula’s house to water – did you?”
“No,” Zoe confessed. “Never mind. I was wrong. It was a bigger deal than I thought it would be. And you were right to say we shouldn’t do something like that again.”
“I think my exact words were, ‘We are never going to do something like this again.’ ”. Lauren gave Zoe a schoolmarm look.
“Yes, Mom. But now we know that Jeff had a good motive for killing Paula. Years of built up resentment toward the woman who tricked him – or seduced him – into marriage. He’s left with practically nothing after the divorce—”
“He kept his flower shop.”
“So, BAM! He strangles Paula with a hair dryer.”
“Where did he get the hair dryer from?” Lauren asked.
“He probably bought it.”
“And how many years were they married?”
“I don’t know.” Zoe gave Lauren an exasperated look. “I’m building a scenario here. I don’t have quite all the answers yet.”
“We have to find out if they were childless,” Lauren reminded her.
“That’s right.” Zoe nodded. “Ooh, I bet Mrs. Finch would know. She knows practically everyone in town because she’s lived here so long. And it’s club night tomorrow night!”
“How are you going to practice pottery in Mrs. Finch’s living room?” Lauren asked.
“Hmm. I haven’t thought that far ahead,” Zoe admitted. “I’ll read up on it first, because I think it would be awesome to use a potter’s wheel and make vases and stuff like that.”
“Don’t you need to put them in a special oven at a high temperature?”
“Yeah. Maybe there are pottery classes somewhere – there should be in Sacramento.”
“And maybe you can get together with Chris while you’re there,” Lauren teased. She felt guilty when Zoe’s expression dimmed.
“Well, he did text me while you had a cold, but I told him I was too busy then,” she said.
“I’m sorry,” Lauren said. “I would have been fine if you’d wanted to go on a date.”
“I know, but I would have felt mean enjoying myself while you were sick,” Zoe explained. “I guess I could text him back and suggest a movie we could see.”
“Good idea.” Lauren smiled.
Zoe picked up her phone, her fingers busy on the keypad. “It’s all set,” she announced a few minutes later. “Saturday night.”
“I’m going out with Mitch then,” Lauren told her.
“And I’m going out with Chris!”
***
“IT’S CLUB NIGHT, ANNIE,” Lauren told the silver-gray tabby Friday afternoon. The last customer had just left, and she decided to close a few minutes early.
“Brrt!” Annie jumped down from her bed and trotted to the private hallway leading to the cottage.
“We have to clean up first.” Zoe mock-pouted. “Then have dinner, and then go to Mrs. Finch’s.”
“Brrt!”
Lauren and Zoe cleaned up as quickly as they could. Lauren now felt back to normal again – no sign of her cold returning, thank goodness. And she hadn’t infected Zoe or Mitch.
After a quick dinner of beef stew that she’d made yesterday, the trio left for Mrs. Finch’s.
“Wait until I tell her I’m thinking of exploring pottery.” Zoe giggled as they jumped into Lauren’s car. It was too chilly to walk the short distance, and Lauren didn’t want Annie’s paws to get cold on the sidewalk.
“I’m going to work on my hat,” Lauren declared as they pulled up outside Mrs. Finch’s house. “I didn’t make much progress when I had my cold.”
“Maybe you’ll finish it tonight,” Zoe suggested, getting out of the car.
“Maybe.” Lauren didn’t want to be overly optimistic. It had already taken her longer than she’d thought.
Mrs. Finch greeted them, ushering them inside.
“I hope you didn’t catch a chill outside,” she worried as they followed her down the lilac hallway to the fawn and beige living room.
“We’ve got lots of layers on,” Zoe told her, shrugging off her coat.
“We were only outside for a few seconds.” Lauren smiled at the senior.
“Brrt!” Annie agreed.
“And Annie should be well equipped for the cold – her ancestors came from Norway,” Lauren added.
Once they were settled on the sofa, Lauren pulled out her knitting. Click, clack. She found the sound soothing as she started on the next round of her hat.
Zoe told Mrs. Finch about her pottery idea, while Annie visited them all in turn, spending extra time with Mrs. Finch. They admired Mrs. Finch’s hair, which looked neat and tidy in its usual bun, and she told them how pleased she’d been with Brooke’s hairdressing skills.
“What have you girls been up to this week?” their hostess asked. “Do you have any news about who killed Paula?”
“We were going to ask you about that,” Zoe said. “Do you know if Paula and Jeff had kids?”
“No.” Mrs. Finch shook her head. “I only knew her slightly – although I was on better terms with her parents before they moved overseas – but I never heard that she’d had a child.”
“Hmm,” Zoe murmured.
“Why did you want to know?” Mrs. Finch asked.
“Just a theory we had,” Lauren told her. “We heard that Paula and Jeff’s divorce was acrimonious and we wondered if there were children involved.”
“Yes, I heard about their divorce.” Mrs. Finch tsked. “Such a shame. Jeff is a nice young man and deserves a nice young lady. I don’t think Paula was the one for him.”
“Really?” Zoe exchanged a glance with Lauren.
“I think Paula was looking for a husband just so she could say she was married,” Mrs. Finch mused. “Her friend Helen has been married for years, and I think Paula might have felt a bit left out.”
“Anything else?” Zoe asked eagerly.
“Well, there was that spot of bother with Helen’s husband,” Mrs. Finch replied.
“What sort of bother?” Lauren put her knitting aside.
“Brrt?” Annie added.
“Oh, it didn’t amount to much,” Mrs. Finch told them. “But I was there, so I saw it all.”
“Ooh, what did you see?” Zoe stared at her with wide eyes.
“There was a little Christmas party a couple of years ago. Helen hosted it, and invited me as we used to play cards with a few other ladies – it was a regular activity until everyone became too busy,” Mrs. Finch said sadly. “Anyway, Helen invited me to her party. She also invited Paula. I don’t know why she wanted to be friends with her, really.”
“What happened?” Zoe asked.
“Paula and Jeff had broken up and had started divorce proceedings. Paula seemed very bitter about the relationship ending, and made a play for Helen’s husband.”
“No way!” Zoe’s mouth parted.
“Helen saw what was happening and pulled Paula aside. Paula got upset and left in a huff.”
“What about Helen’s husband?” Lauren asked. “What did he do?”
“Tried to fend her off as far as I could tell,” Mrs. Finch answered. “I don’t think he ever liked Paula.”
“And Helen and Paula remained friends?” Zoe crinkled her brow.
“It looks like that,” Mrs. Finch replied. “I used to see them together sometimes when I was doing my shopping. You’d never know that something like that had happened between them.”
“I don’t know if I could remain friends with someone who tried to steal my husband,” Zoe said.
“Me neither,” Lauren agreed. How would she feel if someone she knew made a pass at Mitch? Not happy, that’s for sure.
Lauren and Zoe made coffee using Mrs. Finch’s pod machine. Lauren kept working on her hat afterward, until they said goodnight to their hostess and made their way home.
“I still think Jeff could be the killer,” Zoe remarked as Lauren drove them home.
“Even though he has an alibi?”
“He already lied about it once. What if he lied again?”