Heather stood in disbelief, looking down at the computer monitor on the police chief’s computer. Chief MacDonald, who sat behind his desk, had rolled his chair slightly to the right so Heather could have an unobstructed view. Sitting on the other side of MacDonald’s desk, in the two chairs facing him, were Joe and Brian, who silently watched Heather.
“I can’t believe this!” Heather finally blurted. She looked up at Brian and asked, “How is this even possible? I know what I saw.”
Brian shrugged. “Whoever you saw Friday morning, it definitely was not Olivia Davis. As you saw in that video, she boarded that plane when she said she did.”
“This is crazy,” Heather muttered as she began pacing behind the chief’s desk.
“Heather, let me ask you something,” Joe began.
Heather stopped pacing and turned to Joe.
“First, everyone in this room knows you saw a woman with a distinct hair color like Olivia’s wearing a quilt jacket early Friday morning. You told us all before Olivia Davis ever arrived in Frederickport.”
“And?” Heather frowned.
“When you saw the woman that morning, how long did you actually look at her face?”
Heather shrugged. “I don’t know. I looked up, saw someone coming out of the yard. The next moment, the one I thought was Olivia looked me in the face. I know our eyes met. Then my phone rang, and I looked away to answer the call. When I looked back, they were already walking up the street. That’s when I noticed the quilt jacket.”
“How far were you from them?” Joe asked.
“I told you, when I first saw them, I was just leaving out my front gate, and they were leaving out the front gate of Pearl’s yard. I don’t know how many feet that is.”
“And after you answered the phone call and when you turned back and noticed the quilt jacket, how far were they up the street?”
Heather considered the question a moment and then said, “They were just past Marlow House.”
Joe let out a sigh. “I think I know what happened.”
“I would like to know, too,” Heather grumbled.
“You obviously saw someone with the same hair color as Olivia Davis. And that person was wearing a quilt jacket. And later, when you first saw Olivia Davis, your mind played tricks on you, making you believe it had to be the same woman, because they were similar in looks and were wearing a similar jacket.”
“But from what Olivia told Danielle, her quilt jacket is a one of a kind. She made it,” Heather reminded him.
“But that’s your mind playing tricks on you. It’s making you think it was the same jacket because of the other coincidences. Can you honestly say they were wearing the exact same jacket? That’s a considerable distance from your front gate to Marlow House. I don’t know how you could have distinguished the fabric patterns of the pieces making up that jacket.”
Heather stared at Joe. After a moment, she closed her eyes, let out a sigh, and opened her eyes again, returning her gaze to Joe. She shook her head. “I honestly don’t know anymore.”
“I also bet that when you try to remember that encounter with our mystery woman, your brain fills in the face with Olivia’s. After all, they are undoubtably similar, and after you first met Olivia at Marlow House, you were convinced it was the same woman.”
“I’m glad you could get away,” Danielle told Lily. The two friends sat together at a booth in Lucy’s Diner. The server had just brought their beverages, taken their lunch order, and left the table.
“I figure I might as well enjoy spur-of-the-moment lunches with girlfriends while I can. Before long, the two of us will each be occupied with not one, but two little demanding humans!”
“I still can’t believe you’re pregnant, too,” Danielle said.
Lily grinned. “I was shocked myself. I thought we were being careful. But you know what they say, no birth control is a hundred percent. But after this baby, Ian has agreed to get snipped.”
They chatted a few minutes more about their pregnancies and then shifted the conversation to the reason for their afternoon meeting.
“I just figured, since we both had weddings at Marlow House, it will be easier for me to put together a list of what I need to do for Mel’s wedding if you help me. You’ll probably remember things I forgot.”
“I think it’s a great idea.”
“While Mel insists she isn’t good at planning social events, she already got a list to me this morning on things she wants to do.”
“Such as?” Lily asks.
“She says she absolutely does not want me to prepare the food. She thinks that will be too much for me, considering the pregnancy.”
“I agree with her. Does she have any idea where she wants to get the food?”
Danielle nodded. “Yes. She’s going to use Pearl Cove’s catering service and wants to order a wedding cake from Old Salts. She wants the double fudge chocolate cake.”
“In a way, you’ll be making the wedding cake,” Lily teased. Old Salts used Danielle’s double fudge chocolate cake recipe, yet they called it Marlow House’s Double Fudge Chocolate Cake. It had become a favorite with their customers.
“Is this where all the Housewives of Frederickport hang out?” A familiar voice interrupted their conversation. Danielle and Lily looked up to Heather standing over their booth.
Lily arched her brows. “Housewives of Frederickport?”
Heather shrugged. “As opposed to us working girls. Can I sit down while I wait for my order?”
“Oh, sure,” Danielle said before scooting down the bench to make room for Heather.
Heather sat down in the booth and dropped her purse to the floor by her feet. “I’m just picking up something to take back to the office for Chris and me.”
“So you got your car back?” Danielle asked.
“No. I’m picking it up after work. Chris loaned me his car. But I already spent most of my lunch hour at the police station. Thankfully, I have a boss who won’t get pissy if I eat at my desk when I’m on the clock.”
“Did you get arrested again?” Lily teased.
“No. But I should probably be committed to an insane asylum,” Heather said before telling Danielle and Lily what had happened at the police station.
“So that woman you saw really wasn’t our new neighbor?” Lily asked.
Heather shrugged. “Apparently not. I’m totally baffled. I suppose Joe’s explanation makes sense.”
“Joe is always good at coming up with a reasonable explanation for an unexplainable event,” Danielle snarked.
“Do they have any leads?” Lily asked.
“The murder weapon was an antique letter opener that belonged to our other neighbor Becca Hammond,” Heather said.
“Becca is a suspect now?” Lily asked. “Just when we stop worrying about one neighbor, another one becomes a suspect?”
Heather shook her head. “No. Becca loaned the letter opener to the library a month or so ago, to be used in a display. Someone stole it. They have no idea who took it. It could have been anyone. Whoever took it, that’s probably who killed Betty. Unfortunately, the library doesn’t have a security camera set up.”
“Unlike the airport,” Danielle quipped.
Heather let out a sigh. “I tell you what; do you want to know one thing I’m thankful for?”
“What?” Danielle asked.
“Imagine if I went to the police after Olivia picked up the keys and told them she was the one I saw with Betty. And then they get the videos from the airline and think I made it all up.”
“You know, Heather is right,” Lily told Danielle after Heather left the restaurant with her to-go order and headed back to work. “People would start questioning her motives. They might even consider her a suspect, but at the very least, they would question her character. Not very nice to make up such potentially damaging stories about someone she doesn’t even know. And imagine if they had charged Olivia with murder, all based on what Heather saw. If not for the video they got from the airport, they could convict Olivia of murder.”
Danielle didn’t have time to comment; for the next moment, the server came with their food. By the time the server left the table, someone else had arrived.
“I thought that was your car out there,” Kelly told Lily when she walked up to their booth.
“You here for lunch? Want to join us?” Lily offered.
Kelly glanced briefly at the food just served and said, “I’m not really hungry, but I wouldn’t mind just sitting down for a minute and getting something to drink, if that’s okay.”
“Sure.” This time it was Lily’s turn to scoot down the booth, making room for another person.
“I was just at Adam’s office,” Kelly explained. “Checking on new listings.”
“Still looking for a house?” Danielle asked.
Kelly let out a sigh. “Yeah. But there’s not much on the market right now.”
“Have you decided on the wedding?” Lily asked. “Last night you sounded like you and Joe might accept our offer.”
Kelly looked at Lily. “Joe and I talked about it last night after we got home from dinner. Pearl Cove would be an amazing venue, but we feel a little funny having you guys pick up the tab.”
“We told you, we want to do this for your wedding gift. You are Ian’s baby sister. He adores you. He wants to do this for you.”
Kelly stared at Lily for a moment. Finally, she broke into a slight smile and said, “That’s really sweet of you to say.”
Lily grinned. “Hey, it’s true.”
Kelly took a deep breath before saying, “This morning, before I went to Adam’s, I stopped by my parents’ house. I wanted to talk to Mom about your offer and how Joe and I were seriously considering it. I wanted to see what she’d say.”
“And?” Lily asked.
“Mom started crying.”
“Crying? Why?”
“I have no idea. She just started crying. I asked her what was wrong. She wouldn’t say. She just made me promise not to tell Ian.” Kelly paused and looked at Lily. “But I didn’t promise not to tell you. So when you tell Ian, can you ask him why Mom was crying?”