Cooper, Katy, and I walked into Dale's house and headed to the kitchen, where people seemed to be gathering. I recognized a few ladies from church, which reminded me that I hadn't been in a while, but I knew they were part of a group of people that my mom belonged to who sprang into action during times like these. Every bit of counter space in the kitchen was covered with food—casseroles as far as the eye could see.
Katy leaned over to me and whispered, "Even if everyone who was at the funeral comes here, it looks like Dale will have a lifetime supply of leftover casserole."
"Well, at least he won't have to think about cooking," I said.
"Good point," she replied.
"Come on, come on, come on. Grab a plate and help yourself!" one of the ladies called out.
I wasn't particularly hungry, but having a plate of food in my hand would make me feel a little more like I belonged. I saw a casserole that looked like some type of Mexican food and made a beeline to that one. The three of us filled our plates before taking them into the other room, which was the living room. Someone had moved the furniture against the wall to make room for more tables and chairs, which I assumed were provided by the church. People were congregating in small groups and chatting. We took a seat and dug in. I didn't see Dale or Susan's sister yet, but figured they would probably be the last to leave the church. So I would just sit here and be polite until they got here.
"Oops, we forgot to get drinks," Cooper said. "I'm going to go grab some. What do you two want?"
"I'll take iced tea if they have it," I said.
"Same," Katy added.
Cooper then handed me his plate to hold while he went to get us some drinks.
"I don't know if you saw," I said to Katy, "but Josie MacArthur walked into the funeral about halfway through."
"No, I didn't. Why on earth do you think she would come to Susan's funeral?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, obviously, they knew each other, but I don't think they were friends or anything. Though I can understand her wanting to pay respects her even if she didn’t personally know Susan."
"That's true. No matter how you might feel about someone, you have to be a real monster not to be willing to put your differences aside after they die."
"I agree, but I'll tell you, I've heard a lot about Josie that just makes me very surprised that she would come."
"Speak of the devil," Katy said softly, nodding at the front door. Josie walked in as Cooper handed us each a paper cup of iced tea.
I had been surprised that Josie was at the funeral home, but I was even more surprised to see her here. This was more of a family thing, so it made me question her motives, thinking they might not be so pure after all. I saw her nervously look around, and when she caught my eye, she gave a quick nod, then headed into the kitchen to get some food. She came back out and started looking around for a place to sit. I nudged Katy over and motioned for her to join us.
"What are you doing?" Katy whispered.
"I was going to go by her hotel and talk to her today, but she's here, so I might as well be friendly," I said.
Josie sat down between me and Katy, balancing her plate of food and her drink, not looking very comfortable.
"Thank you for making space for me," she said.
"Of course," I replied, wondering how long I should give her to eat before jumping into some of the questions I had for her. That magic number ended up being five minutes, and that was all I could stand. I would be the first to admit that patience wasn't one of my virtues.
"I was surprised to see you at the funeral home, and even more surprised to see you here," I said. To her credit, Josie didn't seem fazed at all by my comments.
"We weren't best friends or anything, but this is my third year at the Hunter's Hollow Fall Festival contest, and I had a lot of respect for Susan and your mom. So, I figured it was the least I could do to come pay my respects."
Katy caught my eye and gave a slight nod, because this was exactly what we had just talked about, and it did make sense.
"Can I ask you a question?" I said.
"Sure, go ahead," Josie replied, looking at me warily, unsure of what I was going to ask.
I couldn't exactly blame her; I would probably feel the same way.
"Compared to what you're known for—bridal bouquets, and how many bridal bouquet competitions you've won—why spend your time here at this small-town festival?"
A look of annoyance crossed Josie's face, but it was gone as fast as it had come. I knew I hadn’t imagined it, though.
"I grew up in a town much like this one," she said. "In central Iowa. I don't get home much, and when I heard about this competition, since it's so close to me, I thought, 'Why not?'"
Which made sense to me, except she seemed to be so focused on winning, wanting an extra table, demanding I drop out… If this was just because it reminded her of home and was close, and it wasn't even a bridal flower arranging contest, why did she care so much?
"Do you do all your designs? I'll tell you, that was the hardest part for me. Thank goodness for Susan and her creativity."
At this, Josie's eyes narrowed. I was pretty sure she knew that I knew there had been some scuttlebutt about some of the competitions she'd entered where she didn't design her own work—accusations of her using someone else to design her entries.
"Regardless of what you may have heard," she said tightly, "I create all of my own designs. That's what I'm known for. My originality and creativity."
I had clearly struck a nerve with that line of questioning.
"I didn't mean to imply anything. I was just saying that it is the hardest part of this whole process for me. Did you hear that someone sabotaged Jenni’s flowers?"
“No. Why would I? What are you getting at?”
Defensive much, I thought. I started to ask her if she had found more table space, since I knew that was one thing she wanted, but before I could, she got up and excused herself.
"Well, that's one way to scare someone away," Cooper said.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't help it if she doesn't like answering my questions." While talking to Josie, I had noticed that Dale had arrived. He was standing, talking to someone I didn't recognize. I figured now would be as good a time as any to go over and talk to him. I didn't expect to have a lengthy conversation, but it might be a start.
"Are you guys done? Can I throw anything away for you?" I asked as I stood up.
"I think I want to go have a little bit of what I think was a peach cobbler I saw over there," Cooper said.
"I'm fine. I'll just sit here and hang out while you two are doing your thing," Katy said, having noticed that I wanted to talk to Dale.
I saw Betty talking to another woman I recognized from the church but whose name I couldn't remember. As I walked over to Dale, I said hi to Betty, telling her I'd be back around to talk to her. As I approached Dale, he and the gentleman he was talking to finished up their conversation, and the man walked away, leaving Dale and me standing alone. He gave me a sad smile.
"I apologize for my attitude the last time I saw you," Dale said contritely.
"Oh, don't worry about it at all. You've been through a lot," I said, giving him a soft smile. "I heard you talked to Sheriff Blackford yesterday," I said, treading softly, not wanting to upset him.
"News travels fast, I guess."
"Well, you know how rumors run around here. Surely the sheriff doesn't think you had anything to do with what happened to Susan?"
"He did," Dale answered honestly.
I mean, I knew if the sheriff wanted to talk to him, there was a reason, but I hadn't expected Dale to be so forthcoming.
"May I ask what he wanted to talk to you about?"
"The same exact thing you commented on—the insurance money."
That didn't shock me; that was kind of a red flag if there ever was one. I said as much to Dale.
"I know. I should've told you the truth, which is what I had to tell the sheriff."
"And what was that?" I asked.
Before answering me, he looked around the room for a second. He caught Megan's eye and motioned for her to come over.
"Megan, you remember Presley Sands from the other day. She was working with Susan on the flower contest," he said.
“Of course. My sister spoke highly of you.” Something in her tone told me that was a lie.
"I’m so sorry for your loss, Megan," I said.
"Thank you."
"I brought you over here so we could tell Presley about the insurance money," Dale said, looking at me. "It just makes more sense for Megan to be here to back up my story," he said, captivating my interest.
Now I really wondered what it was he had to say.
"Well, I guess we knew we couldn't keep it a secret forever," she said ruefully.
I didn't want to be pushy, but my curiosity was really growing.
"Dale took the extra insurance money out because of me," she said.
I stood there dumbstruck.
"What?" I said, looking back and forth at them wondering what the heck was going on.
"I'm in need of a kidney transplant, but insurance won't cover everything, and as you can imagine, they are very expensive."
"I'm so sorry to hear that," I said.
"Thank you," she said. "Susan knew all about Dale getting the extra insurance. In fact, it was her idea. She said if anything happened to her, she wanted to make sure I could get what I needed."
I had no idea what I had expected Megan to say about the reason for taking this extra insurance money, but I can certainly tell you it wasn't that.
"Why keep it a secret?" I said.
"We did it so close to when Susan died, we were afraid of how it would look," Dale said.
That made a lot of sense because it could make Megan look like a main suspect. “What did the sheriff say?"
"He asked to speak to Megan, and he asked for documents to prove what we're saying, which we are gathering now."
I could sense a little anger seeping into Dale's voice. Apparently, Megan did too, because she put her hand on his arm in a very friendly way. "It's okay. You can't blame him. He has a job to do."
"I know," he said, his shoulders hunching over a bit.
Now that I knew there seemed to be a plausible reason behind him increasing Susan's life insurance, he seemed like less of a suspect. If the sheriff wasn’t arresting Megan, then I could probably cross her off as well. I still thought Josie was a front runner. I didn’t believe her claim that she’d entered this contest for fun.