Beers, Lies and Alibis (Warblers Point Series Book 2) (8 page)

“Well, that’s good to hear,” Finn said, as he watched his mom slouch from relief.
 

“Tipper, dear, can ya please get me some water? I’m about to faint meself.” Tipper nodded her head as she headed back out toward the bar, which was now starting to pick up.
 

“Bradon, can you please go help Tipper out?”

Bradon mumbled something under his breath, which thankfully his parents didn’t hear, because they would have chapped his ass for muttering such hideous things about Tipper, who they adored.
 

“Do you need anything from us?” Finn asked Liam.
 

“No, I’m headed back to Neala’s parents’ house to be with Catherine. I’ll be back tomorrow. Tell ma to stop fanning herself and go back home. Everything is fine.”
 

Finn smiled at his brother knowing their mom so well.
 

“I will. Give Catherine and Neala our love.”

“Will do.”

Finn hung up as his parents sat on the edge of their seats, waiting to hear the news. Finn explained everything that was going on and then ushered his parents out the back door so they could go home. He didn’t need any more drama from them. Finn had enough to deal with out in the pub.
 

He stuck his head out the swinging door and was bombarded with the distaste Bradon and Tipper had for each other.
 

“Smack my ass one more time and I am going to rip your balls off and make you choke on them. You hear me O’Leary?” Tipper said, while poking Bradon in the chest.
 

Bradon laughed like the jackass he was and said, “Just a little male attention, sweetheart. I know you’re not used to it with that dead cat you have on the top of your head you call a hairstyle.”

Tipper whacked Bradon in the crotch, making him buckle over and grab onto the side of the bar.
 

“I told you not to mess with me.”

“You bitch!”

“Watch it, O’Leary. I have a lot more whacks where that came from and I am just begging for a reason to use them on you. Don’t mess with me.”

She started to walk away when Bradon put out his foot, making Tipper trip and sending her flying forward. Luckily Finn was on his toes and was able to catch Tipper before she flew to the ground.
 

A crowd formed in the pub as they took pictures and hooted and hollered over the scene.
 

“Alright, alright…get back to drinking, you banshees,” Finn said, making everyone boo him.

“Finn, keep that assfuck away from me or, I swear to God, I will leave you guys to fend for yourselves. I’m only helping you because Fiona asked me to. Don’t make me regret my decision to be a good friend.”

“Sorry, Tipper. I’ll keep him in the back tonight; hopefully he won’t burn too many meals.”

Tipper straightened out her apron and walked off to go gather some orders from the patrons who had taken up seats around the pub.
 

Happy that his brother was crippling in pain from the cheap shot from Tipper, Finn bent over and whispered in his ear.
 

“You asshat, we almost lost Tipper’s help.”

“Good, that bitch…”

Finn flicked his brother’s ear, making Bradon whine like a little bitch.
 

“You’re not talking now. Listen to me and listen to me good, leave Tipper alone. We are barely holding our heads above water right now. I don’t need your whiney ass screwing things up for us. And don’t tell me you’re doing us a favor because this pub is just as much ours as it is yours.”

Bradon stood up and looked Finn in the eyes. A smirk crossed his face as he said, “Daddy Finn is in full force. Will you warm me a bottle for beddy bye later tonight?” Bradon asked, while holding his hands together, pleading.
 

“You’re a dick, you know that?”
 

Bradon just laughed as he walked off with a slight limp. It was going to be one hell of a night for Finn.
 

***

My dearest Blaire,
 

Have I told you how much I miss you? Well I do, I miss everything about you. I miss your smile, your bright blue eyes, your little touches and the way you look so angelic in the morning when your hair is fanned out on my pillow and your eyes are just opening. Damn, that’s when you are the most beautiful.
 

Remember our first date? I can’t ever look at champagne and chocolate covered strawberries the same. That was the night I became addicted to you. You totally captured me in your scent, the way your skin felt against mine, and the way your lips pressed against mine.
 

Did I ever tell you how nervous I was that night? I was so damn nervous to be with you. You are, by far, the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on and the fact that you chose to go out with me was hard for me to understand. I didn’t know what a gorgeous and brilliant woman like yourself wanted to do with a bartender like me, but I lucked out. The Vermont foliage must have clouded your judgment.
 

I hope you know how much I love you, how much I care about you, and how God damn miserable I am without you.
 

You are my forever, Blaire. I love you.
 

-Finn

Chapter 5

“Marge, I really don’t think you should eat that last cookie. You already had two and, Lord knows, a third will plaster itself to your already-prominent love handles,” Sophie heard Maggie tell poor rotund Marge.
 

Marge and Maggie were always seen together around Warblers Point. They shared a pink and purple Victorian duplex on the corner of Main Street that was always full of flowers, bright colored patio furniture and signs that lined the grass telling drivers to “Slow The Eff Down.”

They were an eccentric pair who had lost their husbands ages ago and decided to spend the rest of their lives nagging each other, as well as everyone else in town. Their light banter and snarky comments were a Warblers Point institution that was, for some odd reason, well received.
 

The old coots always spent their Thursday afternoons discussing the book they were reading for their book club, which consisted of just them, eating Sophie’s cookies of the day and insulting each other. Sophie looked forward to Thursdays because she got great joy out of hearing what the little old ladies had to say.
 

“Maggie, you know I take great pride in my love handles. It’s not every day you see such shapely curves on a lady like me,” Marge said, while rubbing her Alfred Dunner-clad stomach roll.
 

The two ladies were complete polar opposites. Marge was short and round, but stylish when it came to old lady clothing. Maggie was tall and the size a toothpick with piss-poor fashion sense that ranged from zebra decorated fish shirts to tie-dyed clown pants. It was almost frightening as to what Maggie was going to find to wear.
 

“You’re going to die an early death, Marge. I can feel your arteries pulsing from here, just waiting to burst from the fat build-up.”

“Well, I never!” Marge huffed, while also licking her fingers after finishing the last cookie. “May I remind you who outran you the other day at the supermarket to get the last bottle of Maccabees Maple Syrup? That was me, not you and your scrawny keester that can barely hold up those ridiculous glitter chaps you have on.”

“That’s just because your fat propelled you forward,” Maggie retorted.
 

“Alright ladies, that’s enough for today. I have to close up shop,” Sophie said, trying to extinguish the fire that was blazing between Marge and Maggie.
 

Marge got up while putting her jacket on and placed her purse on her forearm. “See what you did, skelatore? You made the poor girl uncomfortable with all your death-from-fat talk. Some people die from malnutrition too.”

“At least I’ll be able to fit in my coffin. Yours will have to be specially ordered.”

Marge gasped. “Maggie! I told you I would be cremated. How could you forget such a thing?” Marge said, visibly upset.
 

“Oh dear,” Maggie said with compassion. “I apologize, I completely forgot.” Maggie pulled Marge into a hug as Sophie watched the entire exchange with a cocked eyebrow.
 

What the hell just happened?

The rare and extremely odd moment between the two old birds was disturbed when Murphy walked through the front door, sounding off the bell to let Sophie know that someone had entered her bakery.
 

“Ah, me two favorite lassies,” Murph said, as he walked up to Marge and Maggie who were now swooning over the hunky Irishman. “How are ya today?”

“Oh just fine, Murphy,” Marge said, while swaying back and forth with purse in hand and handkerchief waving in his direction.
 

“Just grand, Mr. Ryan,” Maggie said, while batting her eyelashes at an uncontrollable rate.
 

“Glad to hear it.” Murphy looked up at Sophie and gave her a wink. “Ya about ready, doll?”

Mortification ran through Sophie’s body as both Marge and Maggie’s heads whipped around to look at Sophie. Just from that one innocent comment from Murphy, everyone in town was going to think they were dating. Why the hell would he do that? Especially in front of the core of the Warblers Point gossip ring.

“Uhh…”

“Oh dearie, close your mouth, you’re not a trout.”

Sophie snapped her mouth shut as Murphy laughed at her expense.
 

“Where are you two going?” Marge asked, while twiddling her fingers with glee.

Sophie was about to set the two ladies straight and tell them they didn’t have any plans, but Murphy had other ideas and interrupted her before she could even open her mouth.
 

“Soph and I have plans to watch a movie at my place tonight,” Murphy replied, while holding up a RedBox movie.
 

What the hell? When were these plans made? Sophie was so confused and had no clue what Murphy had up his sleeve, but she was going to find out and she was going to find out as soon as she could shove the nosy women out of her shop.
 

“Well, we best be going,” Maggie said with a wink. “We have to leave these two kids alone. Come on Marge, let’s go sew those pants you busted out of the other night.”

Marge nodded her head and walked out the front door with her friend. They were quite the pair.
 

Sophie followed them and locked up her store so no other customers could come in while she reamed Murphy a new asshole for feeding the gossip mill.
 

“What in the world was that? You know those two are going to tell everyone in town that…”

“Tonight’s the night, lass,” Murphy interrupted her.

“Tonight’s what?” It took a second for Sophie to understand what Murphy was saying and just like that, she clued in. “You mean tonight, as in…tonight?”

Murphy nodded his head as instant nerves took up place in Sophie’s belly. Tonight was the night. Could she actually go through with it? Up until now, they were all talk; they hadn’t really done anything, they had just planned, but now tonight was the night? She didn’t think she could do it; she didn’t think she could go through with playing around with other peoples’ lives.
 

“Don’t,” Murphy said, as he walked closer to Sophie, closing off all the air that she was trying to force down her lungs. “Don’t back out on me now, lass. Everything is planned. The seed has been planted, wheels are in motion, and we have to go through with this.”

“But why tonight? Don’t you think we should think this through a little bit more…?”

“We don’t have the time. It has to be tonight.”

“Why?” Sophie asked, almost desperately.
 

“First of all, it’s Thursday.”

Confused, Sophie asked, “What does that have to do with anything?”

Murphy smiled that devilish grin that Sophie always wanted to smack off his face. “Thursday is book club day, which means that Marge and Maggie saw us together at the bakery and believe that we are watching a movie tonight at my house. So, if anything goes wrong, not only do we have an alibi for each other, but we have the two biggest loudmouths in town telling everyone about it.”

Ooo…he was smart, thought Sophie.

“Secondly, we are expecting to get up to eight inches of snow tonight.”

“Okay…”

“Meanin’ any tracks left behind will be covered up by the snow, givin’ us a clean break from bein’ caught. It has to be tonight, lass.”

The puzzle pieces Murphy slowly put together were all making sense now. He was right, everything was adding up for them to get away with the crime they had perfectly laid out months ago. It was now or never; they couldn’t have asked for a more perfect night to get away with murder…well not murder, but close to it.