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“A QUICK CHECK? ARE you having contractions?” Beatrice fumbled, and her book fell to the floor. She absently picked it up, still focused on the phone call.
“Maybe. That is, it sort of feels like labor pains, but I just don’t know for sure. Since it’s regular office hours, I decided to just head over to the doctor’s office instead of the hospital,” said Piper.
“You’re driving yourself?” asked Beatrice, now more concerned.
“I’m fine, really. I just wanted to make sure, that’s all. The school called in a substitute, so I was able to leave.”
“Where’s Ash?” asked Beatrice. She was already looking around to see where she laid her car keys.
“His phone went to voice mail, which means he’s in a meeting. But his meetings at school only last a few minutes, Mama, so he’ll be checking in soon and will be on his way. Besides, it might even just be a false alarm.” She paused. “It looks like Ash is trying to call me. I’ll be in touch soon.”
Piper rang off, and Beatrice took another deep breath. She answered quickly when the phone suddenly started ringing again. “Hello?”
It was Meadow, and she sounded wired. “Beatrice? Is everything okay? I just saw Piper drive by in the opposite direction. Why isn’t she in school?”
Beatrice said in as calm and measured a voice as she could evoke, “Piper is just fine, Meadow. She’s on her way to the doctor’s office just to get a quick checkup.”
“But she just had a checkup. What’s changed?” Meadow’s voice was both concerned and excited.
“She’s having a few pains, and she wanted to get them checked out, that’s all,” said Beatrice. “She said it may be a false alarm, but she thought she’d go in to see since it was during office hours and she wouldn’t have to go to the hospital.”
Meadow was now really charged up. “So if they check her and say she’s in labor, they’ll need to transport her to the hospital. Where’s Ash?”
“Piper thinks he’s probably in a meeting.”
“He didn’t answer his phone?” demanded Meadow in a voice that seemed to indicate that Ash would live to regret that action.
“She said that his meetings are super-short and that he always checks his messages immediately afterward,” said Beatrice.
“For heaven’s sake,” said Meadow in a disgusted voice. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. I’ll head over to their house and pick up the suitcase, just in case. They gave me a key in case of emergency. You go stay with Piper. After all, if she needs to go to the hospital all the way in Lenoir, she’s going to need a ride. An ambulance from the doctor’s office would be very expensive!”
“True,” said Beatrice. “Except that I have Miss Sissy with me.”
“Just grab her and take her along! When I meet you at the doctor’s office with the luggage, I’ll take Miss Sissy and you take the suitcase.”
Beatrice opened her mouth to say something else, but then closed it again when she found that Meadow had already hung up. She had the feeling that Piper would consider Meadow’s plan overkill, but it wouldn’t hurt to be on the safe side in case Piper really did need to go to the hospital.
She walked out to the backyard. “Miss Sissy?”
The old woman, who’d apparently nodded off in her chair, jerked awake and glared at her.
“We’re going to need to hop in the car.”
Miss Sissy suddenly looked alert. “The baby?”
“We don’t know yet. But I need to go to the doctor’s office, just in case the baby’s arriving. Meadow will meet us there later and can take you back to the Patchwork Cottage, if you like.” Beatrice realized she’d have to text Wyatt to pick up Noo-noo, if she and Piper did need to head off to the hospital.
Miss Sissy galloped to the house, handbag clasped firmly to her side, looking fiercely proud to be part of an important moment. Beatrice hurried behind her, finally finding the car keys, and heading out the door, sending a quick text to Wyatt, just to keep him updated.
They climbed into Beatrice’s car and set off.
“Poky!” growled Miss Sissy.
Beatrice thought she was pushing the speed limit a little, personally. Thank heavens Miss Sissy wasn’t behind the wheel. Otherwise, it would have meant a wild ride on the sidewalk to the doctor’s office. “It’s not an emergency,” said Beatrice. “Piper is probably just fine.”
Beatrice’s phone started ringing persistently. It had fallen to the passenger’s side floor in Beatrice’s hurry to get into the car. “Can you get that?” Beatrice asked the old woman.
Miss Sissy, still looking very pleased to be part of all the action, reached down and snatched the phone up. She stared fiercely at the device, trying to decide how to answer it since her own phone was just a basic model. Finally figuring it out, she growled, “H’lo?” into the phone.
Then she grimaced and said, “Slow down!”
“I thought you said I was going too slow,” muttered Beatrice, easing up on the accelerator a bit.
Miss Sissy frowned at her. “Not you, her,” she said, gesturing to the phone.
“Here, put it on speaker,” said Beatrice.
Miss Sissy looked at the phone suspiciously, through narrowed eyes.
“The microphone icon,” said Beatrice.
Miss Sissy hit the right button and suddenly Meadow’s voice filled the car. “Beatrice, it’s a disaster! I can’t get into their house.”
A smile played at Beatrice’s lips as she wondered briefly if Ash had wisely decided to change the locks. “What’s wrong?”
Meadow sounded completely exasperated with herself, “Oh, I dropped the key down the storm drain in front of their house. Ugh! I just got too excited and fumbled it.”
Beatrice said soothingly, “I think it’s okay, Meadow. Ash will probably be on his way soon, and he can give us a key if we need to go grab Piper’s suitcase. She won’t need it right now. Just meet me over at the doctor’s office.”
Meadow sounded relieved. “Okay. Yes, you’re right. I’ll be right there!”
That’s what Beatrice was worried about—Meadow endangering all her fellow motorists. “Take your time!” she said before Meadow hung up.
She parked in front of the doctor’s office, and she and Miss Sissy hurried inside. The receptionist smiled at them: Beatrice looking rather flustered and Miss Sissy looking positively wild. “Can I help you?” she asked.
Just then the door from the back of the office opened up, and Piper walked out into the waiting room. “Mama? Miss Sissy?”
Miss Sissy demanded, “Where’s the baby?”
Piper shook her head ruefully. “No baby today. Sorry for the false alarm. They were Braxton-Hicks contractions, that’s all.” She hugged them both, tightly. “Thanks so much for coming out, y’all.”
Beatrice hugged her back. “No worries at all, sweetie. We just wanted to be here in case it was time.” She pulled her phone out from her pocket. “I should call Meadow real quick with an update.”
But there was no need as Meadow barreled into the doctor’s office, eyes wide and chest heaving.
Piper hurried to her. “I’m fine, Meadow. The baby isn’t on its way today. I’m sorry to get you so worried.”
“Worried? No, I wasn’t worried. Just excited,” said Meadow, a tinge of disappointment in her voice. “But I can wait until our darling grandbaby is finally ready to come.”
Piper said gently, “Sounds good. I’m going to head back to school to finish some things up. I’ve already texted Ash, too, and he’s heading back to the university.”
“That Ash,” said Meadow darkly, as if the entire encounter between the key and the storm drain was his fault.
Piper hid a smile. “He was already getting in his car, Meadow, I promise. He called me back probably just eight minutes after I left the message.”
Miss Sissy looked rather deflated but patted Piper on the arm. “Glad you’re okay,” she said gruffly. Piper gave her another hug.
A few minutes later, Beatrice and Miss Sissy were heading back to the house. Beatrice suddenly realized that they’d left Len completely unmonitored in their scramble to get out of the house. She checked in with him on his progress while Miss Sissy loped out to the backyard again.
Len had indeed made some progress on the work and updated her on it.
After checking in with Len, Beatrice fixed both herself and Miss Sissy some ice waters and headed for the backyard. She opened the door to find Miss Sissy sound asleep and snoring in the supposedly-hated hammock. Apparently, after a full tummy and a rather alarming day, Miss Sissy had decided to give the hammock a chance.
Beatrice settled in a chair at the table, but became uncomfortable after a little while. She was just contemplating a move into the living room, noise or no noise, when Wyatt came into the backyard.
He walked right up to her and gave her a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
Beatrice realized that it had been so busy after finding Salome that she hadn’t even remembered to call Wyatt or text him and let him know what happened. All she’d had the presence of mind to do earlier was to text him about Piper and then to update him on Piper. “I’m sorry I didn’t get in touch about Salome. It’s been sort of a wild day. How did you find out?”
Wyatt said wryly, “Meadow called me a few minutes ago to update me on Piper and then launched into what happened to Salome. She’d heard from Ramsay, of course.”
Beatrice sighed. “And I’d already given you a Piper update, although I was a total failure at updating you on what happened with Salome.”
Wyatt said, “Do you know anything about what happened? I know it must have been such a shock to find her—I know how I felt when I found Gerald.” There were grim lines on his face as he looked at her.
“It was awful—mostly because she was young and has a child and because I knew and liked her so much. The only good thing that I can say about her death is that I don’t think she must have suffered. She was hit on the back of the head with a pan and likely never saw it coming,” said Beatrice sadly. “She must have turned her back on the person who attacked her.”
Wyatt shook his head, and they were quiet for a few moments.
Beatrice added, “And no, I don’t really know what happened. All I can guess is that the person who murdered Gerald thought that Salome knew too much and decided that she had to be silenced.”
Wyatt said, “But how would Salome know anything? It seems to me that she’s been over at the Patchwork Cottage all the time. Or, if she’s not there, that she was at home with her daughter.”
“Yes, but Salome was at Gerald’s office early on the day that he died. According to Miss Sissy, Salome was talking on the phone with someone that she’d seen at the office the morning Gerald was murdered. She’d planned on speaking with him again about supporting her daughter. She’d approached him about support before, and he’d turned her down. Fortunately, she’d had Carla to help her out. But she wanted to talk to him again and try to reason with Gerald about providing support. She knew his work hours better than anyone and drove up to the factory early in the morning to see him first thing with no one there. She said that she ended up leaving, but she might have seen someone or something before she did. Maybe she didn’t even realize what she’d seen until later. But it might have been enough for someone to murder her.”
Wyatt said, “If Miss Sissy is right and Salome was calling the killer on the phone, shouldn’t it be someone that she knew? Otherwise, how would she get the phone number?”
Beatrice said thoughtfully, “Good point. Although she likely had everyone’s number who might be considered a suspect since she was Gerald’s assistant for so long and might have made phone calls for him. But it could be that she more easily knew how to contact one of the family members.”
“You spoke to Ramsay?” asked Wyatt.
“A little bit. Then I spoke to Joan. She was very upset.”
Wyatt nodded. “It must have been a really rough day for her. She didn’t seem herself when we had our meeting about her father’s service. Of course, why would she be?”
“What was that like?” asked Beatrice. “I was thinking that Laura Carpenter might want to be in charge of all of the arrangements. And it didn’t seem to me that she was a huge fan of Joan’s.”
Wyatt said, “The meeting was all right. But you’re right: Laura was definitely in charge of every aspect of the service. Joan just kept shrugging as if she didn’t want to make suggestions because it might mean having a conversation with Laura. And Mark seemed very distracted, as if his mind was somewhere completely different.”
Beatrice raised an eyebrow. “Well, that does surprise me. I could see Mark wanting to be in control of the service, too. I’d think that Laura and Mark would butt heads through the entire process. After all, making sure the family image is intact seemed very important to him. He was worried about the effect his father’s murder might have on the business.”
Wyatt shook his head. “Something else was on his mind. He was very quiet and reserved.” He paused. “I’m a little scared to ask, but how is everything going inside?” He gestured to the house.
Beatrice said, “Len has made some good progress, but he also discovered some issues that are going to cause a few setbacks.”
Wyatt chuckled. “I was afraid of that. When I was coming in, Len was on his way back out. He said something about going to the hardware store and that didn’t sound like good news since we should have all the materials here.”
Beatrice sighed. “Should have, yes. But he came across two problems from the previous contractor. They’re the kind of things that need to be fixed. I guess we ended up with a better contractor because he spotted the problems pretty quickly.”
Miss Sissy gave a prodigious snore, and they exchanged a smile.
“And she hated the hammock and didn’t want anything to do with it,” said Beatrice, rolling her eyes.
“Everything changes when it’s naptime,” said Wyatt.
“Maybe when she wakes up, she’ll be a little better,” said Beatrice.
Wyatt knit his brows. “She’s not doing well?”
“She had made friends with Salome and was upset when she found out the news,” said Beatrice.
“Upset in what way?”
“Angry. Which is Miss Sissy’s favorite reaction to just about anything. Apparently, she’d gotten to know Salome while she was at the Patchwork Cottage. Anyway, we went to the grocery store for food and had a feast outside, which was a good distraction. And then Piper’s false alarm created a tremendous distraction.”
“And you’re a good friend,” said Wyatt, reaching out a hand for hers.
“Even though she drives me crazy sometimes,” said Beatrice with a sigh. “When she wakes up, let’s see if she’s ready to head back to her house. I can’t think of anything else to entertain her. And when Len is done for the day, I’ll pick up Noo-noo.”