~ Jenna ~
The morning after Kellen’s death, I’m in the office. My heart still hurts and my mind still reels when I think about what happened. The image of Kellen lying lifeless on the bed plays a constant loop in my head. It’s so hard to come to terms with the thought that this time yesterday she was alive. Now, she’s not. I’ve never been one to just stand around and wring my hands after something bad happens. I have to stay busy and at least try to do something to help make things better—or at least as good as they can be in a situation like this.
While my mom is at the police station giving Jack her statement, I’ve helped Alicia open the shop. We’re trying to figure out what we should and shouldn’t say to the curious who are bound to stop by for the scoop after the news of Kellen’s death breaks and the town goes crazy.
It’s only the second time someone has been murdered in Hemlock and just seven months after the first one. I have a feeling people might take it personally.
I know, in the wake of everything that’s happened, the last thing I should be worried about is the whereabouts of the dress Kellen was supposed to wear in the fashion show, but it’s missing. It’s one of my mother’s first original designs. She was so proud of it and so excited for Kellen to model it. It was supposed to be in that box—or a box just like the one that contained the beehives.
If Alicia and I can track it down, it’s one less thing my mother will have to worry about and it might even offer some clues to who killed Kellen.
“I called the hotel,” Alicia says. “They checked the parking lot and all the garbage cans and didn’t find a dress.”
“Are they sure?” I ask.
Alicia shrugs as she grabs a microfiber cloth and begins dusting the shelves and merchandise near the wrap stand. “All they said was nothing turned up after the police searched the premises. Apparently, they were instructed not to touch anything out of the ordinary that turned up. They’re supposed to contact the police. I don’t know how hard they looked.”
“Well, if the police searched the premises yesterday, they probably did a thorough job.”
“I hope so, but it’s weird that the dress didn’t turn up. What if the killer dumped it in the laundry or a trash can?” Alicia says as she runs her cloth over a rhinestone tiara and then returns it to its place on the accessory shelf. “The Hemlock Police Department isn’t a big outfit. Do you think they thoroughly searched everywhere?”
“Who knows?” I say as I open the register and put the money from the bank bag into the till. “Obviously, the dress is still missing.”
I realize it may sound callous going on and on about a missing dress when Kellen is dead. “I hope you don’t misunderstand, Alicia. It’s not that we care so much about the dress. It’s that it could lend a clue. Somehow, somebody was able to get ahold of the box that was intended for Kellen, remove the dress, and put a fricking beehive in there. It boggles my mind.”
“Do you have any idea who might have done it?” Alicia asks.
I shake my head. “I don’t, but when my mom gets back from talking to Jack, I’ll see what she thinks. I just hope Jack doesn’t think she had anything to do with it.”
Alicia’s eyes grow wide. “Kellen was her friend. She would never do anything like that.”
“You and I both know that, but Jack had no compunction about naming me a suspect in Riley’s murder last December. I like him, but he’s proven himself to be a cop first… even though he has a thing for my mother.”
“Well, I can’t see how the evidence against Maddie could be anything more than circumstantial,” Alicia says. “And that won’t hold up.”
“I hope so.” I say the words as I glance at my watch. It’s ten o’clock. Time to open the shop. I unlock the front door and say a silent prayer that the curious gossip hounds don’t stop by before I have a chance to talk to my mother.
As if I’ve conjured her, she appears across the street. I see her through the shop’s glass front doors. She’s wearing a pair of white slacks with a pretty cotton blouse with a lemon print. She looks fresh and summery with her dark hair pulled back from her face. As she gets closer, I can see her pretty face looks grim.
My stomach tightens.
I open the door for her. “How did it go?”
She sighs. “All I know is I’d better come up with some pretty substantial leads if I don’t want to remain the lead suspect.”
“Lead suspect?” Alicia cries.
“That’s ridiculous,” I say. “How can he consider you a suspect? What grounds does he have?”
“Did he really say that?” Alicia asks.
My mom lets the strap of her purse slip from her shoulder. She catches the bag between her arm and her body. “Maybe I’m being a little dramatic. Obviously, he didn’t arrest me, but right now he doesn’t have much to go on.”
“Please tell me he’s not looking at arresting anyone just to cross it off his list and call the case closed,” I say.
That’s how it felt when he arrested me last year. I thought I’d forgiven him, but him even looking in my mother’s direction when thinking of Kellen’s murder is reopening old wounds. Not for myself, but for fear of my mother going through the same thing.
“I don’t think he will do that,” my mother says. “Especially if we can get a jump on it.”
After she puts her purse in the office, Mom brings Alicia and me up to speed on what she learned when she was talking to Jack—there were no fingerprints on the beehive frame, which had been encased in a large plastic box with a lid. That’s why we couldn’t hear the sound of bees buzzing and the reason none of the critters escaped or dripped honey.
“Whoever did this went to a lot of trouble to pull this off,” Alicia says as the bell on the door sounds the familiar refrain from Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus.” We all clam up and look at each other before smiling and greeting the customers, a mother and daughter who, we soon realize, are there to look at dresses and not collect gossip.
“I’ve got them,” Alicia says.
“Thanks,” I say.
Alicia adds under her breath and through a smile, “I want to hear everything. So be prepared to catch me up.”
“Of course,” my mom says over her shoulder as we adjourn to the office, which seems fitting since this might just be the place where the switch originated. Though, I don’t see how it could’ve happened. But maybe we will see something.
“Let’s make a list,” I say as we each sink into our respective desk chairs. “Who would’ve wanted Kellen dead?”
I’m busy rounding up pen and paper when I feel my mother’s gaze on me. I look up and she has a funny look on her face.
“What is it?” I ask.
“I didn’t want to say this in front of Alicia. Well, I wouldn’t want to say it in front of anyone, really, because…” She shakes her head.
“Tell me,” I say.
Mom takes a deep breath. “Last night after you left the hotel, Fran, MJ, Hailey, and I stood around the parking lot for a few minutes talking. It felt like maybe if we stood there long enough we’d see Kellen walk out of the front doors and tell us it was all a big prank.” She waves away the words. “We didn’t really believe that would happen, but we were all sort of clinging to each other. We just…” She shakes her head and sits quietly staring into the middle void.
I let her have a moment with her thoughts.
“Guess who we see leaving the hotel after you left?” she says.
I shrug. “I have no idea. Who?”
“Olivia Knowles.”
“What? I thought she blew you all off? I mean she was too busy to be bothered with the fashion show, right?”
“She said she was on deadline and couldn’t spare the time. After all that went down with the lawsuit, I really couldn’t blame her for not wanting to join us.”
“You’re being generous,” I say. “Everyone in your writers’ group knows that Olivia was a piece of work. Right? I mean the way she acted, as self-important as she was, no one really wanted her to be part of the reunion, did they?”
“Maybe. Well, she and MJ still keep in touch, but at one time or another, most of us had an issue with her. Or should I say she had an issue with us. She used to think she could appropriate character names and tropes and such. But that was when she was just starting out. I think she grew past that amateur misconception.”
“I don’t know, she always seemed pretty full of herself. She’s what I call a climber. The type of person who is desperate to befriend someone she thinks can help her, but doesn’t have time for those who aren’t useful. I mean, she’s published now, but you’re still working your butt off trying to get your work in print. Has Olivia ever offered to help you?”
Mom purses her lips as if she’s suppressing a sad smile. “That’s beside the point. We’re working in different genres now.”
“Yeah, but I remember Fran once said that Olivia’s publisher deals in romance novels and mysteries. She could help you if she wanted to, but she doesn’t want to help anyone but herself. In fact, Olivia Knowles would not only knock you down if she thought it was between you or her, she’d step on your neck to make sure she got it. I think you were generous to even extend the invitation to her to be part of the reunion.”
“Well, she is one of the founding members.”
“So, she showed up at the hotel?”
Mom nods.
After Mom and I finished talking to Jack in the hotel last night and returned to the lobby to tell the rest of the group what happened, I left to go home. I knew they’d want to spend some time together coming to terms with what had happened. Since I hadn’t officially been part of the group, I decided to let them have their time together.
“Did you talk to her?” I ask.
“No, that’s the thing. We called to her, but she just got into her car and drove away. I’d like to think she didn’t hear us. She was talking on her phone and didn’t seem to see or hear us.”
I lean in and put my elbows on the desk. “Let me get this straight. Olivia Knowles, sworn enemy of Kellen Corsi, shows up on the sly at the hotel where Kellen is found murdered?”
The words hang in the air as Mom and I look at each other.
“I know how it looks,” she says. “I guess I’m so numb that I didn’t think much of it at first. Actually, I didn’t want to believe she could be capable of something like that, but it doesn’t look good, does it?”
I lift by brows. “Well, I’d say you are off the chief suspect hook. This seems pretty cut and dried to me.”
“Jenna, we don’t know for a fact that Olivia killed Kellen. That’s why I didn’t want to say anything about it in front of Alicia. Turning up at the scene of the crime doesn’t automatically make her guilty.”
I frown and lean back in my chair. “Let’s see, Olivia was mad at Kellen because, not only did she think Kellen stole from her the idea that launched Kellen’s career—the very career Olivia covets—she was mad enough to take on her publisher and take her to court. Um, I’d say that’s a pretty good motive. She was spotted at the same hotel on the same day that Kellen turns up dead. I’d say that’s pretty clear-cut opportunity. She knew that Kellen was allergic to bees. That was the premise of The Sting of Death—”
“Yes, but that doesn’t prove she had the means. We have no proof that she tampered with the boxes in my car. When would she have had the chance?”
“Someone did. And I’d say not only is it coincidental that Olivia was at the hotel at the same time, but that Kellen died in the same way that victim in this disputed book perished.”
We stare at each other. I can tell my mother, who always tries to see the best in people, doesn’t want to believe it.
“Please tell me you told Jack about this.”
“I did tell him,” she says. “But, Jenna, with as litigious as Olivia has proven herself to be, let’s keep this between you and me. The last thing we need is for her to slap us with a lawsuit.”
“Absolutely,” I say. “Not only is she litigious, she’s vindictive. If she’s already killed once, I’d wager that she’d have no problem killing again.”