Adams Grove 03-Wedding Cake and Big Mistakes (23 page)

“You took a day off?” Jill stood with her hands on her hips.

“I know! Aren’t you proud of me?”

“I think I am, but I’m not sure.” Jill broke into a smile. “Is this my best friend, or did somebody body snatch you?”

“Stop.” Carolanne grabbed Jill by the hand and dragged her over to the couch. Once she moved a stack of empty boxes out of the way, they sat down.

“Look at you whipping through this place like there’s no tomorrow,” Jill said. “You’re almost as organized as I’d be.”

“See how I even marked them with what the contents are? I’m having a ball with it.”

“You’d said you were going to hire someone to do it for you.”

“I changed my mind.”

“I see that. I don’t know what’s gotten into you.”

“It’s all good. I’ve never been better. So, what are you doing here?”

“Garrett was running late for a meeting down here with the zoning guy, so I gave him a lift. He won’t be long. I’m meeting him for lunch at the diner”—she flipped her wrist—“in about ten minutes. Since I was here, I wanted to ask you something. Your dad said you picked him up from the hospital. He said he’s going to try to come back to work on Wednesday. Does that sound like what the doctor said?”

She nodded. “He’ll have to take it easy, but they say he should be fine.”

“OK. I just didn’t want to take a chance.”

“Thanks. I really appreciate that.”

“Really? I mean, I just wasn’t sure how you’d be feeling about everything. I know you were hesitant about me hiring him in the first place.”

“I was, but you know, Milly was right the other day. Do you remember what she said?”

“That people don’t swallow pins?”

“That, too, but no. She’d said, ‘Your future will be as good as you let it be.’”

“So?”

“So, I’ve been hanging on to a lot of bad stuff for way too long. I realized that when I saw Dad’s car wrapped around that post. Did you see it?”

“They’d cleared it by the time Garrett and I got out of there.”

“It was awful. I can’t believe he didn’t get killed. I’ve been so mad at him for so long. I guess it just became habit. It’s wrong.”

“That wreck must’ve been bad.”

“I can’t even tell you how bad. Words can’t describe what it looked like. I’m not sure how he got so lucky, but I’m not going to take the second chance lightly.”

“Wow. OK. Now you’re really freaking me out.”

“That’s OK. I’m freaking myself out a little, too. Jill, I feel so different. I don’t know, but maybe it’s letting all that anger finally go that’s making me feel so alive. Whatever it is, I’m grateful for it. I feel like a lot of bad stuff that’s been weighing me down has just been swept away.”

“Well, that’s good.”

Carolanne took in a deep breath. “I’m going to miss this place.”

“This place or living with Connor?”

“I’m not living
with
Connor. I’m only living here because you corralled all of your fiancé’s time to finish the artisan center instead of my house!”

“True, but I kind of did you a favor.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Because it gave you more time to realize that Pearl was right about you and Connor. Besides, now you can fill up all those extra bedrooms in that house with little redheaded babies. And before you start denying it”—Jill checked her watch—“I also need a little favor, but first let me say that Connor gets my vote.”

“OK. I’m not sure you get a vote, but I’ve recorded it just in case. What is it you need from me?”

“Part of my grant requires we do some statistics and stuff for the grand opening. I know you were going to come and be on hand in case we got too busy, but I was wondering if you’d help me with the numbers. You were always a much better math girl than me.”

“No problem. I’m still planning to come over Thursday night and Friday night to help you get ready, too.”

“That would be great.” She got up and headed to the door. “Will Connor be coming with you Thursday?”

“Wait and see.” Carolanne wasn’t sure herself what the answer to that question was. “Now, you better leave, or you’ll be the one who’s late.”

Chapter Twenty

Connor was shocked when he walked into Carolanne’s apartment on Tuesday morning. The empty boxes that had been stacked all over the place now rested neatly in rows four boxes high, labels out, near the door. Not one picture hung on the wall, and nary a knickknack was left unpacked.

“Wow.” He turned in a circle, flipping the daily crossword on his leg. “Is that my imagination? Do I smell coffee, or did you already pack the coffeepot?”

Carolanne walked up to him with a grin of amusement and a paper cup of coffee in each hand. “Hope you don’t mind the disposable cups, but I was on a roll.”

“I guess I should be flattered you thought to keep two cups out.”

“You should,” she agreed.

He took the cup of coffee. “Did you stay up all night?”

“Come sit. I don’t have any stuff, but I still have furniture.” She sat on the couch, and he sat down at the other end of it. She pulled her bare feet up onto the sofa and sipped her coffee. “I was up until about three, but I slept good knowing it was done.”

“It couldn’t wait until today?”

She shook her head.

He caught her uneasy glance.

“I’ve got something I have to do today. It’s not going to be pleasant.”

“What’s going on?” he asked, placing his cup on the table in front of the sofa. “Anything I can help with?”

She groaned and took another sip of coffee. “I’m so dreading it, but I know I have to do it.” She put the cup down on the table. “When I picked up Dad at the hospital, Scott was there talking to him about the…”

“Murder?”

“Don’t call it that.”

“I think it’s clear now that’s what it was.” He hesitated, measuring her for a moment. Clearly she hadn’t realized until just this minute that she was going to be living so close to where such a heinous crime was committed.

“I can’t think of it that way.” She shook her hands like that would shoo away the bad news. “Anyway, Scott showed Dad the picture of Gina, and he said he didn’t recognize her.”

He stared at her, baffled. “OK? No one in this whole town except you and Doris recognized her. Where’s this going?”

She sat up as if preparing to make a speech. “I saw Gina at his house.”

Connor cut his gaze to her.

“I know. It doesn’t make sense. I was over that way the night after the rehearsal dinner, and she walked right out his front door and then drove away in his car.”

Connor leaned back and sized her up.
How did Ben know Gina? He isn’t the type to lie. There has to be something more to this.

“I’ve got to tell Scott. I tried to yesterday, but then he got called away, and then I talked myself out of it.”

“What did Ben say when you asked him about it?” He leaned his forearms on his legs.

She shrank back. “I didn’t ask him about it, but he didn’t offer up any information, either.”

You don’t think…You couldn’t…
“Do you think he did something to that girl?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“No,” Connor said, unable to hold back the bitter feeling in his gut. “But you just said you were going to take the information to the sheriff without even talking to him. Carolanne, he’s your father, for God’s sake.”

She jerked back like he’d just slapped her. “I’m not judging the situation. I’m passing along information.”

“Listen to yourself. That’s bull, and you know it. Your father would never so much as hurt a fly, much less a person.”

She shrugged. “I’m not the bad guy here.”

You just might be.
“If you take that information to Scott, he’ll have to check into it, and then he’ll probably take your father in—and you and I both know that without any other suspects and probably no alibi, they are going to hold him. It’s not going to look good. If you won’t talk to him, I damn sure will.”

“What would I say to him? I can’t call my father a liar.” She gave him a challenging look. “Seriously, you think I should just call him a flat-out liar?”

“But you can call him a murderer?” He slapped a hand on the arm of the couch. “You are unbelievable.”

She got up and walked to the window. “I know. Or I don’t. I really don’t know what to think, Connor.” With arms wrapped around herself, she turned to face Connor. “You don’t understand. I was trying to make a positive move. I went over there, and instead of making a forward step, that girl walked out of his house.” She closed her eyes. “It was like I’d been replaced.”

“That’s weak, Carolanne. Your relationship, or lack thereof one, was by your choice. You know that.”

“It still hurt. She was using his phone, his car, sleeping at his house. It was like a regular little family over there.”

“Did you see them together?”

Carolanne shook her head. “But it was at his house.”

“Did you talk to her?”

“No, but I heard her talking on the phone to someone—her boyfriend back home, I guess—and she clearly said that Ben had let her stay there.”

Connor felt like she was spinning figure eights around him. “Let me get this straight. You didn’t talk to your dad. You didn’t talk to the girl. But you saw her and overheard her whole conversation on what you say was your dad’s cell phone.”

“Right.”

“How did you hear all that if you didn’t even talk to them? None of this is making any sense at all.”

She dropped her head back. “I was nervous about taking that first step, and as I walked up the sidewalk, the porch light came on. I jumped behind the bush at the end of his driveway. I saw her from there.”

Connor couldn’t help laughing. “Oh, this just gets better and better.”

“I’m not proud of how I reacted, but I sure as heck don’t know how I would have reacted if I’d been one minute earlier and she’d answered my dad’s door!”

Ben had been his friend for a long time. He was a kind man, and if Gina was staying there, he had a good reason. Heck, she could have been one of the people he helped through AA. It was no secret he still went to those meetings. They could have met there, but talking to Carolanne when she was in this state of mind wasn’t going to get him far. “If that’s true, if that’s the case, someone else saw Gina over there, and you can rest assured it’s just a
matter of time before Scott puts two and two together. You’re not doing yourself, or your dad, any favors by not getting to the bottom of this.”

“I can’t.”

“You’re stubborn and selfish, Carolanne. He could wind up in jail.”

“I’ll trust the system.”

A laugh of frustration belted out of him like a crazy man. “Carolanne, you and I have seen plenty of cases that have been won for the wrong reasons. I’m not taking that chance. He’s my friend. If you won’t help him, I will.”

“Well, I guess it’s good to know where your allegiance lies. You should probably leave.”

Connor stood. “I was thinking exactly the same thing.” He walked out the door and slammed it so hard that one of the boxes stacked near the door toppled to the floor.

Chapter Twenty-One