CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I remained in my chair, too shocked by Debbie’s accusation to move. Had Nikki lied to me again? Even after our agreement to be totally transparent? Was there more to the story, something so shameful she still couldn’t admit it?

The two elderly women said good-bye as they walked past me. I smiled woodenly and picked up my cup to finish my coffee. When I tried to take a drink, my hand shook so badly that I put the cup down.

Grace pulled out a chair and sat down across from me, concern etched in her fine features. “Abby, love, I couldn’t help but overhear what that horrid woman said about Nikki, but please remember that her true purpose was to unnerve you. Don’t believe a word she said until after you’ve had a serious sit-down with Nikki.”

“But what if she was telling the truth? What if Nikki is in deeper than she can admit?”

“Abby, you’re letting that tosser plant fear in your heart, and you must stop it immediately.”

“Tosser?”

“It means idiot. Now are you going to be okay, or shall I give Marco a quick ring and have him come down?”

“No, I’ll be okay. But you’re right. Debbie was trying to make me believe the worst about my best friend. Thank you, Grace.”

I forced myself to go back to the workroom, where I sank onto my desk chair and put my head in my hands. Beneath my floral bib I was sweating. I hated confrontations almost as much as I hated bullies, and although I hadn’t been afraid to stand up to her, Debbie had surely attempted to bully me.

But it was the bombshell about Nikki that really upset me. Despite what I’d told Grace, Debbie had indeed given me doubts about my friend.

I took another order from the spindle and stepped into the big cooler to pull my stems. The morning was half gone and I’d only done one arrangement, so I had to step it up in case more orders came in. But as I sat on the stool putting together a beautiful birthday bouquet, I found that my usual enthusiasm had deserted me.

•   •   •

I was wrapping the bouquet—a mix of tulips, orchids, and miniature gerberas surrounded by variegated pittosporum—when Grace brought me a cup of soothing chamomile tea. “Feeling any better, love?”

“A little, thanks.”

“You did an admirable job of standing up to our phony Miss Jones. I’m proud of you, Abby.”

“Thank you. I usually enjoy interviews, but Debbie caught me off guard.”

“It was indeed a surprise attack.” Grace clicked her tongue. “Shameful behavior on her part. But you’re doing just the right thing by getting those talented hands back to work.” She patted my back. “I’ll be out front if you need me.”

I took a sip of tea and closed my eyes, rolling my shoulders to relieve the tension. I debated whether to call Nikki—I knew she’d still be at her apartment—but decided to talk to Marco first. I rang his cell phone but it went straight to voice mail. I left a message for him to get back to me and returned to the table to finish the bouquet.

I had just cut a length of white satin ribbon when I heard, “Yoo-hoo.”

I glanced around as Jillian came through the curtain with a big smile on her face. “I wasn’t sure if it was your Saturday to work but I decided to take a chance. I just had to share my amazing news with you.”

I was actually glad to see her, grateful for the diversion. “Great. Come in and sit down for a while. I could use some good news.”

“Not good. Amazing.” She dropped her silver leather tote on the floor and perched on the stool next to mine. As usual she was dressed like a model in a navy crossover top with open shoulders and black leather trim, fashionably tight icy blue jeans with artistically ripped holes in the legs, and silver sandals that looked like open-toed boots with slits.

Practically wiggling with excitement, Jillian said, “Remember that face cream your mom invented?”

“Yes,” I said as I began to fashion a bow.

“Remember how I asked her who was going to sell it for her?”

“Yes.”

“Remember how she said she hadn’t even thought about it?”

I stopped looping the ribbon, already regretting my decision to ask her to stay. “Yes, Jillian. I remember all those things. Get to the punch line.”

“Guess who got your mom’s products into the spa.”

“Wait,” I deadpanned. “I know the answer to this one.”

“Very funny. Yes, it’s me. And here’s the best part. Your mom’s face cream is going to make its debut at my birthday party! Everyone will get a free makeover, starting with her facial wash followed by her soon-to-be-famous face cream.” She clapped her hands very quickly right under her chin. “Yay!”

Now I felt bad for being snide with her. “That is amazing, Jillian. I’ll bet Mom was thrilled when you told her.”

“Beyond words, Abby. Beyond words. And this all happened just in the nick of time. My party is seven days away. Seven days! Isn’t that exciting? Anyway, I just had to come by to share the news.”

“I’m glad you did. Do you want to have a cup of tea with me to celebrate?”

Jillian blinked slowly as though she hadn’t understood me, then said in a choked voice, “Oh, Abby,” and gathered me up in a fierce hug.

“What did I say?”

She sat back on her stool, smiling tenderly at me. “That’s the first time you’ve ever invited me to have tea with you.”

Now I felt really bad.

My cell phone rang, so I hopped up to reach for it on my desk and saw Marco’s name on the screen. I really needed to talk to him ASAP, but not in front of Jillian. Yet I could hardly send her away now, so I had to let it go to voice mail and think of a way to get her out of the room.

Returning to the table, I said, “I hate to do this to you but I need to finish this bouquet, so would you mind running to the parlor to get our tea?”

“I’d be glad to. What kind would you like?”

“English breakfast.”

“Okay.” She slid off the stool and started for the curtain.

“And I like it steeped for four minutes.”

“Got it. I’ll be back as soon as it’s ready. Then I can sit here and keep you company while you work.”

“Great.” I waited until the curtain had closed again, then quickly phoned Marco.

“Hey, what’s up, Buttercup?”

“I need to talk to you. What are you doing?”

“I just finished meeting with my video expert and, unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get a crisp enough picture of the thief. I’ve got to change the angles of the cameras and try again Monday night. I’m on my way to the jewelry store to talk to Gianni now. Cross your fingers that he’ll give me another extension.”

“Will do. So furniture shopping is out?”

“Yep. We’d better not get ahead of ourselves. What’s going on there?”

“Jillian is in the parlor getting our tea, so I’ll make it fast.” I glanced over my shoulder, then whispered, “Debbie Kennison dropped by this morning unexpectedly after she tricked me into—”

“I can’t hear you, Abby. Too much traffic noise here. I’ll be at the jewelry store in five minutes. Want me to call you then?”

“That won’t work. Will you be home when I get there around three o’clock?”

“I should be just finishing up planting those bushes, but then I have to get back to the bar. Rafe left me a message that Chris, our head bartender, has a stomach virus and won’t be in today. That’s really going to put us in a crunch.”

“Can I help?”

He laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“I just pictured you on tiptoes handing drinks over the bar.”

“I’m not that short.”

“I’m teasing, Sunshine. Don’t worry. We’ll manage. Enjoy your tea with Jillian and I’ll see you at home around three.”

Jillian still hadn’t returned with the tea, so I took an order off the spindle and studied it, then went to the cooler for the flowers. When I stepped out, she was filling two cups from a small china teapot. She glanced over at me. “Hey, remember how we used to have tea parties when we were little with that kid’s china tea set Grandma Knight gave you?”

I smiled at the memory as I cut wet foam to fit a ceramic bowl. “That was fun. My mom used to make chocolate chip cookies to go with our tea.”

Jillian took a sip of the hot beverage, then said reflectively, “I wonder why Grandma left it to you.”

“Maybe because I was older than you.”

“By thirteen months. Oh, boy.” She took another sip. “But I was daintier. You’d think she would’ve entrusted them to me.”

There was nothing I could say to that. I laid out my flowers and began to cut them to the lengths I needed.

“What ever happened to that set?”

“My mom is storing it in her basement.”

She sighed wistfully. “I’ll bet Harper would love to play tea party someday.”

I stopped cutting. “Do you want the set, Jill?”

“Oh, no. I couldn’t ask you for that.” She tried to look concerned. “But maybe if you haven’t gotten my birthday present yet . . .”

“I’ll ask my mom to get them out for you.”

“Happy birthday to me!”

As I began to fit the flowers into the foam, she asked, “What kind of arrangement is that?”

“A centerpiece for a dinner party.”

“You know what you should do? Remember the peony arrangement you made for me in the long, oval white bowl with the gold rim? You should do that.”

“This customer specified orange roses and white gardenias.”

“Oh, I had an arrangement with white gardenias once. Remember when Claymore and I threw our first dinner party? You know what you should add to that one?”

Grace glided in as silently as a ship in the night. “Jillian, could I borrow you for just a bit? I need to attend to customers in the coffee parlor, and we have some ladies in the shop who will need assistance shortly. You’ve helped out there before, so would you mind dreadfully doing that again?”

Jillian couldn’t get off her stool fast enough. “I’d love to help, Grace. Remember when Abby and Marco were on their honeymoon and I helped?”

Grace let her go through the curtain first, then turned to give me a wink.

•   •   •

When I got home, the remaining shrubs were in the ground, and Marco was in our bedroom putting on clean clothes. “I had to take a shower,” he told me. “I was grimy from the clay soil.”

“You did a great job. The shrubs look perfect.”

“Thanks.” He pulled his Down the Hatch T-shirt over his head. “Tell me what happened with Debbie Kennison.”

“Not until you tell me about your meeting with Gianni. Do you have time to sit down and talk?”

We sat side by side on our new sofa, part of the living room set Jillian had designed for us after we’d moved in. Smoke immediately jumped into Marco’s lap, and Seedy, not wanting to be left out, needed a boost getting into mine.

“The good news is,” Marco said, “my video expert was able to get a partial description from the tapes. The bad news is that Gianni was not at all pleased that I need a few more days. He doesn’t seem to understand that a smart thief wouldn’t attempt another robbery so soon. And on top of that, I’m going to have to pay my expert out of the money we earn.”

“All we can do is try, Marco. It’ll be well worth the expense if we can get a satisfied client out of the deal.”

Marco sighed. “You’re right. I’ll reset the cameras after the store closes Monday, pick up the tapes on Tuesday morning, and let my video guy analyze them again.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” I rubbed my hands together. “New bedroom set, here we come.”

Marco reached over to rub Seedy’s head, causing her shaggy tail to wag with pleasure. “So Debbie showed up at Bloomers unannounced?”

“Kind of. She made an appointment for a wedding consultation under a false name to throw me off guard. Doesn’t that say a lot about the type of person she is?”

“False name, false pretense. Cunning and not above lying.”

With his face turned toward me, I noticed that the redness on Marco’s face hadn’t gone away. I put the back of my hand on his forehead. “You still look flushed, sweetie. Do you feel feverish?”

“Don’t start worrying again. I was just out in the sun too long when I planted the shrubs.”

I ran the tips of my fingers over his cheeks. “Then maybe this is prickly heat, because it looks like a rash of some sort.”

He took my hand off his face and kissed my fingers. “I have to leave soon, so finish telling me about Debbie.”

“Okay. Well, first of all, she was rude to Grace and to a pair of senior citizens having tea, so I had to set some rules before I could even start talking to her. And even after that it was a struggle. She wanted total control over the situation, and I wouldn’t let her have it.”

He gave me a high five. “Good job, Mrs. S.”

I gave Marco a rundown on the important information I’d learned, such as Debbie’s fear of Dick’s bullying ways, her trying to blame the bloody gloves on one of Hector’s sisters, her accusation of Hector, and then her bombshell about Nikki.

“I was stunned, Marco. I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t think of anything to ask her after that, which is what I’m sure she was aiming for. But still, what if Nikki did participate in something sinister and can’t, or won’t, admit to it?”

“Don’t play the what-if mind game, Abby. You’ll go in circles. You’re just going to have to talk to Nikki again and see how she defends herself this time.”

“What if she lies to me again?”

“How will you know?”

“See why I’m in such turmoil? I’m afraid I’ll never trust my best friend again.”

“There’s only one way to be sure, and that’s to solve the case.”

“Then we’ve got to ramp up the investigation. If I can believe what Debbie told me, she said the detectives are ready to go after Nikki and the others.”

“What’s your gut feeling about Debbie as a suspect?”

“I have mixed feelings. I believe she tried to save her marriage until she realized that Dick was never going to change. I believe that when she learned he was planning to run away with Kim, it hit her that the marriage was really over. But that’s when her story started to fall apart.

“When she tried to blame Hector, I thought at first that she was lying because it was too obvious what she was trying to do. Yet what Debbie said about him fit with my initial impression, that he has a false facade that can fool people. And then after she told me about Hector inheriting the business, I decided he’s still my top suspect despite my dislike of her. So I’m putting Debbie at number two until we learn more about Barry Barnsmith.”

“Fair enough. Let’s see what Rosa finds out about Hector this evening and plan our next move accordingly.” He patted my knee. “I need to go.”

“And I need to talk to Nikki. Wish me luck.”

“Be strong, Sunshine. Don’t let your emotions feed into the job you need to do.”

An Irish redhead keep her emotions out of it? Right.