Oh, boy. Go ahead, you can tell me,” he said.
“Nope. Not even a flutter,” she admitted.
“So we’re good?” he asked.
“Totally.”
“Phew, you had me nervous there for a second,” he said. “I mean, I love kids. Other people’s kids. You know, the kind you get to play with and give back after you’ve spoiled them completely rotten.”
Lindsey laughed. “I feel exactly the same. Does this make us defective?”
“No, it makes us honest,” he said. “I can love kids and not feel the need to have any of my own, and so can you.”
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you more,” he replied.
“Not possible,” she argued.
He laughed, sounding pleased. “See you in a few hours.”
“Can’t wait,” she said.
Lindsey ended the call and glanced at the clock. It was just a few hours until he’d be there, and she discovered she really couldn’t wait. She missed him. Was this how their marriage would be? Always looking forward to the end of the day when they could be together? She certainly hoped so.
Lindsey was out front on the curb when Sully pulled up in his truck. She yanked the door open and climbed in, letting the heat wash over her from the vent in the floor. The temperature had dropped when the sun set, and now it was bitterly cold. She leaned across the seat to give Sully a quick kiss before buckling herself in while he merged with the traffic onto the main road.
Neither of them had learned anything more about Steve Briggs’s death or the people in his life. Emma had stopped by the pier to talk to Sully about Steve’s boat, what it might have been worth, and where a person who had stolen it might take it. It was off-season, so if they’d stolen it to sell it, it was going to be noticed. Marinas all up and down the Connecticut shoreline had been alerted to its possible theft.
Lindsey shared her conversation with Naomi and mentioned her thought that Steve might have been having an affair. Sully seemed to reject that theory, but Lindsey wasn’t sure if it was because he was defending his friend’s honor or if Steve really wasn’t the sort to cheat, even in an unhappy marriage.
They reached the outskirts of town, and Sully turned onto a narrow back road that was poorly lit and jutted with potholes. The truck bounced and crunched over the uneven pavement until, mercifully, an old single-story ranch house came into view. A large conversion van sporting a vibrant flowery paint job was parked out front on the circular gravel driveway, and Sully parked behind it.
Lights were on in the short stone house, which gave it a welcoming feeling, despite being surrounded by deep dark woods. It was quiet, the slamming of the truck doors the only sound to be heard as they climbed out. No dogs barked, no birds chirped. It was a winter night, and anyone, person or animal, with a lick of sense was snuggled up somewhere, keeping warm.
Sully took Lindsey’s hand in his and led the way up the steps to the front porch. He knocked on the door with a gloved fist, and they waited. Just when he was getting ready to knock again, the door swung inward, and there stood a tiny woman, dressed in a burgundy velvet robe with angel sleeves, a dropped waist with a gold rope tie and a hood. Her long gray hair was curly and had bold streaks of blue. She looked like a pagan wisewoman.
Before either Lindsey or Sully could utter a greeting, she began to chant, “Sage and sweetgrass burning free, as the sun returns, so shall it be.” She then held up a burning bundle of sage, which she waved in front of them as if fumigating them.
Lindsey leaned close to Sully and said, “I’m going to go ahead and say no.”
He turned to look at her, laughter in his bright blue eyes. “She is a bit more than we bargained on.”
“With her, our wedding will be like dinner and a show,” she said.
The woman hushed them, and Lindsey pressed her lips together and tried to look contrite. It was difficult since this was dinnertime and she was missing it to be brushed down with sage smoke by a woman who looked like she’d just walked out of George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones series.
Finally, the woman stopped chanting and extinguished the sage smudging stick by sticking it, smoking side down, into a snowdrift. She inclined her head and gestured for them to enter. Lindsey half expected the house to be full of medieval sword-and-sorcerer-type artifacts, at the very least a gargoyle or two, but instead the front parlor that she led them into was painted a cheerful butter yellow color with dark blue upholstered furniture, a crackling fire in the fireplace and one—no, two . . . wait, make that three, four, five—cats all reclined on various pieces of furniture in the room.
“Good evening, Ms. Dimovski,” Sully said. “I’m—”
“I know, Captain,” she interrupted. “Come in and sit. We’ll talk.”
She crossed the room to the fireplace, where a squashy sofa and two matching armchairs were arranged for optimum heat. There was also a huge mural painted on the wall, depicting their hostess in the center of the woods with her arms raised high and the sun perched on her open palms. Huh. Lindsey tightened her fingers around Sully’s hand, but she wasn’t certain whether it was for courage or to keep it together. The urge to laugh kept bubbling up inside of her.
“To answer your unasked question, I am an ordained pagan,” Ms. Dimovski said. “Winter solstice is coming, so I am preparing.”
“Ah,” Sully said. One syllable, and yet it spoke volumes. He and Lindsey sat on the sofa, which had a fat gray tabby draped across the back of it, while Ms. Dimovski took one of the chairs.
“You were looking for something a bit more traditional for your marriage ceremony?” she asked.
“Well, um, Ms.—” Lindsey began, but was interrupted.
“Don’t worry, you won’t offend me. And call me Donna, please.” She pushed back the hood of her gown, revealing the rest of her long gray hair and her amazingly wrinkle-free face. She looked much younger than the gray hair would indicate, but it could be a dye job, or maybe she was prematurely gray. Donna turned to Sully. “Well?”
“Traditional,” he said. “We were definitely looking for traditional.”
“And you?” Donna turned to Lindsey.
“Er, we just need someone who is ordained to read the ceremony to us,” she said. “Honestly, I think we might be too tame for you.”
“Really? No drinking a goblet of each other’s blood then?” Donna asked.
“No!” they said together with a note of panic.
“No binding your legs before having you walk across hot coals as one?”
“Definitely not,” Sully said. This was good, since Lindsey found herself incapable of speech. Did people really do that?
“No public consummation of the marriage vows?” she asked.
“Oh, hell to the no,” Lindsey said. Her voice came back with force.
“Pity.”
Sully started to rise. He glanced at Donna with a look that was apologetic, and yet not so much. “I’m sorry. I think we’ve got the wrong address.”
“Relax, big guy,” Donna said. “I’m just messing with you.” She waved a hand for him to sit as she laughed. It sounded like more of a cackle, high-pitched and coming from her throat. It made the hair on the back of Lindsey’s neck stand on end.
“About the hot coals, drinking of blood or public consummation?” he asked.
“All of it,” she laughed harder. “That being said, I’m not really who you need for this ceremony. First of all, you need someone who believes in the sanctity of marriage. I don’t. And second, Saturday is college football, and I can’t miss it. You’d have to reschedule the time of the ceremony or, even better, the date of the ceremony if you want me there.”
“College football?” Sully asked. He glanced at Lindsey. “Didn’t see that coming.”
“It’s my one true love,” Donna said. “Well, besides my cats, but they’re named for our teams, aren’t you, cuties?” She gestured to one cat and said, “That’s Tiger, there’s Wolverine, this one’s Ducks—it’s all right, sweetie, the name will grow on you—over there is Gator and, last but not least, the one with the stripe down his back is Sun Devil.”
Sully took in all the cats with a grin. “Clever.”
Donna shrugged.
“Well, we can’t change the date and time of the wedding. We’re down to just a few days as it is,” Lindsey said.
“Then I can’t help you.”
“I don’t suppose you know of anyone else who is ordained to marry people?” Sully asked.
“Other than the guy you had originally, Steve Briggs, no. Those straightlaced types don’t really run in my circle,” she said. “It doesn’t take much to get ordained online. You could ask a friend to do that for you with the Universal Life Church.”
Sully and Lindsey exchanged a glance. Who could they possibly ask? Ian was already Sully’s best man, and Beth was Lindsey’s matron of honor, and being pregnant, she really had a lot on her plate as it was. The names of their family members flitted through Lindsey’s mind, but it seemed like an awful imposition to ask someone at the eleventh hour. Plus, it would require someone who was okay with being in front of a crowd. Given her own dislike of public speaking, Lindsey couldn’t imagine asking someone to do the same for her.
“Thank you for the suggestion,” Sully said. He started to rise, pulling Lindsey up with him. “We won’t take up any more of your time.”
“That’s all right,” Donna said. “It’s always a pleasure having visitors. Usually, it’s just me and the kitties until the longest night of the year. That’s when we have a houseful. Lots of folks needing to cast out the old negative energy as we welcome back the sun.”
She grabbed a small cloth string bag and handed it to Lindsey, tucking her fingers around it.
Lindsey glanced at the cloth sack and then up at Donna. “Am I supposed to burn this?”
Donna laughed. “No, it’s lavender. Getting married is stressful. Smell that when you’re going sideways, it’ll calm you down.”
“Thank you,” Lindsey said. She was genuinely touched.
Donna nodded. “Don’t fret about your wedding. Much as I dislike any sort of negative energy, including gossip, I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn to say Steve Briggs would not have been a good choice for your ceremony.”
Sully went very still. “Why do you say that?”
“He had some demons about him,” she said.
“Did you know Steve?” Sully asked. His voice was tight, as if he’d defend his friend’s honor if required.
Donna tipped her head to the side. She looked like she was considering what to say. “He wasn’t the same man you remember him to be.”
Sully’s jaw stuck out a fraction of an inch, just enough to let Lindsey know he was planning to take on this woman who was speaking poorly of his friend.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Sully said. “Did you know him?”
Donna considered him, then she nodded slowly, as if accepting that she was going to have to say things she didn’t like. “Yes, I did. I was at his Christmas party, in fact.”
“So he was a friend of yours?” Lindsey asked. The tension was thickening, and she lifted her sachet up to her nose and took a gentle huff. The smell of the lavender was lovely.
“I wouldn’t call us friends, but we were acquainted,” she said. “He came to me once, looking for assistance.”
“In what way?” Sully asked.
“He wanted me to cast a spell on his wife to make her want to have a baby,” she said. She gave them a look. “I’m a pagan priestess, not a Wiccan, and even if I was, I wouldn’t have done such a thing.”
Lindsey frowned. This was the second time today that she’d heard of Steve’s desire for a family. “It sounds like he was desperate for a child.”
Sully glanced at her but she kept her gaze on Donna. “Sometimes people become consumed with a desire that they believe will fulfill them. Generally, it doesn’t. Contentment has to come from within, but when you are a person who has been able to achieve everything you have ever set out to do, being thwarted doesn’t sit very well.”
“You’re saying that Steve was obsessed with having a child,” Sully said.
“Yes,” she said. “But even more than that, he was trying to coerce his wife into having a child. Meanwhile, she was busy with her sidepiece. It really isn’t a surprise that there was a tragedy in that marriage.”
“You think Jamie killed him?” Sully said. His jaw was clenching, and Lindsey debated holding the lavender up to his nose, too.
Donna shrugged. “That I can’t say, but I did walk in on her and a man—tall, thin, slicked-back hair and wearing a shiny suit—canoodling in the gazebo the night of the holiday bash.”
“That sounds like the man she was eating dinner with last night,” Lindsey said. “That’s pretty bold to invite your . . . sidepiece . . . to your annual party with your husband right there. Do you suppose he’s living with her now?”
“Maybe that’s why she announced to the staff that there would be no Christmas bonuses,” Sully said. “She must have known they’d all quit, and then who would be there to see her with her new man?”
“That sounds likely,” Lindsey said. She turned to Donna. “Are you planning to tell the chief of police what you saw?”
“Er.” Donna glanced away, looking uncomfortable. “I’m not on Chief Plewicki’s favorite-resident list.”
“Oh?” Sully asked.
“There might be a few parking tickets that have gone unpaid,” Donna said. “Why don’t you tell her what I told you? But don’t tell her who told you. That way she’ll know, but I don’t have to get another lecture.”
“Or pay your fines,” Sully said.
“That, too.”
“Donna, you’re missing a fabulous opportunity here,” Lindsey said.
“How do you figure?”
“You have information—the canoodling—that the chief will definitely want to hear. Presented correctly, I’ll bet you can get her to waive those parking tickets for the information.”
Donna studied her. “You think?”
“I do.”
“Might be worth a try,” Donna said. “I’ll think it over. Maybe call her and feel her out first.”
“Excellent idea,” Lindsey said.
Donna turned to Sully. “You’d better marry this one quick. Smart girls like this are hard to find.”
“Don’t I know it,” Sully said. “I’ve looked for a girl like her my whole life.”
Donna grinned at them and then stood back with her arms held wide. “May the blessings of the crone and the maiden be upon you,” she said.
She put her hands over her heart and gave a gentle bow as they stepped out into the cold. Sully swiftly pulled the door closed behind them.
The thin layer of snow crunched under their feet as they strode to the truck. The sky was a deep velvet purple with pinpricks of stars shining overhead. Lindsey watched her breath mist on the air, and she pulled her coat more tightly about her.
Sully opened her door, and she climbed in. She stuffed the lavender into her pocket before buckling her seat belt.
A draft of cold air entered the truck cab with Sully, and Lindsey shivered against it. He turned the key, and the old engine sputtered to life. They rocketed out of the driveway and back along the road to town. There was only a sliver of a moon, but still the snow on the ground glowed in the darkness.
“I have no idea what to make of that,” Sully said.
“Me either,” Lindsey agreed. “Except that perhaps there was more going on with Steve than we were aware.”
“I just don’t get it,” Sully said. “Why not get a divorce? Why try to force your wife to have a kid?”
“I’m guessing he’d lose a lot financially,” Lindsey said. “Connecticut is an equitable-distribution state.”
“But if he wanted a family, wouldn’t it be worth it to take the financial hit and then go find someone to have a family with?”
“Maybe he wanted it all,” she said. “Or maybe he really loved Jamie.”
“Did he, though?” Sully asked. “He lived here, and she lived there. They were seldom together. I would be miserable if, when we’re married, you lived in another city or state.”
“Same,” Lindsey said. “Luckily, we only have the one home with no pesky choices to make about where we live.”
Sully grinned. “Yeah.”
“So, what do we do now? Tell Emma about Jamie’s extracurricular activities or leave that to Donna?”
“Let’s give Donna the opportunity to do the right thing,” Sully said. “We can tell Emma what we found out tomorrow at the town’s tree-lighting ceremony. In the meantime, we are getting down to the wire in finding someone to marry us.”
Lindsey felt her heartbeat kick up a notch. Everything would be all right. Surely, there had to be someone.
Sully was quiet, and she sensed that he was struggling with all that had been revealed about his friend.
“When do you suppose everything changed for Steve?” Lindsey asked. “It seems like he went from being on top of the world to having his life slowly unravel. A nasty split from his partner, estranged from his wife, at odds with his brother. What do you think caused it?”
Sully sighed. He glanced from the road to her and back to the road. “I think Donna was onto something with him getting everything he ever wanted and not being able to handle it when he was thwarted.”
“It hurts you to even think it, huh?” she asked.
“Yeah, and now we need to find out who the guy in the suit is,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, Jamie having an affair right in front of Steve means she has an even bigger motive than Tony to murder Steve.”
Lindsey shook her head. The thought of a marriage going so horribly awry was not something she wanted to be thinking about just days before her wedding. And yet, here she was. She studied Sully’s profile by the light of the dashboard. He looked grimly determined, and she knew that he would have no peace until he found out what had happened to his friend and why.