Cooking Spirits: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries) (22 page)

“I’m sorry, too,” Angie said. “If you don’t object, I really
would like try to speak to her one day soon. If I frighten her, I’ll quickly
leave.”

“Well, I won’t say no, although I doubt it’ll work out for
you. I’ll give you a signed note so the care home will allow you in. I hope you
won’t be too disappointed by how little she’ll be able to tell you.”

“Me, too.”

After writing the note, Enid walked Angie out to her car. “I
also hope all this background information hasn’t soured you on the house,” Enid
said. “It’s a lovely place, and deserves a happy, loving family in it. I think
you may be just what it needs.”

“Thank you,” Angie said as she got into the car. She had a
lot to think about.

o0o

Paavo found an old receipt for a prescription of sleeping
pills among Gaia’s financial papers, which made it likely she had taken the
pills herself. The case looked more and more like suicide except for one
problem—why?

Back in Homicide, Paavo noticed that a cancelled check for
$350.00 had just been posted to Gaia’s checking account. Apparently, no word
had reached the bank that the account should have been closed.

He got a copy of the check and saw it had been made out to
Brian
Riddingham
on the Tuesday before Taylor Bedford
died. Gaia almost never wrote out any checks.

Paavo looked into
Riddingham
. Only
one person with that name lived in San Francisco.

A half-hour later he stood at
Riddingham’s
door, asking about the check.

He learned that Brian and his wife had sold a white Kenmore
freezer to Gaia
Wyndom
. They hadn’t cashed her check
right away, and never realized she wasn’t still alive.

They had been curious as to why Gaia wanted the
freezer—usually a single woman living alone doesn’t want or need a large
chest-type freezer. She wouldn’t say, paid the asking price, and hired someone
who picked it up the very afternoon of the sale.

Riddingham
knew nothing more.

No freezer had been found in Gaia’s house, and no clue as to
what had happened to it.

Paavo went to see Evelyn Ramirez, the Medical Examiner. “You
were talking about time of death and strange findings on the body temperature.
You said it might have been because the body had been in bathwater for some
time before being found. What if there’s another reason? What if the body was
frozen after death and then put in the bathtub to defrost?”

“Sort of like quickly defrosting a turkey
in water before Thanksgiving?”
The M.E. said with a smirk, but then she
gave it some thought. “You know, that could be it! That would make sense.
But to freeze a human body?
That would take—”

“A large, chest-style freezer?”

“Exactly.”

Paavo’s next job was to find the freezer.

He began phoning haulers and charitable organizations to see
if any had pick-ups from Gaia
Wyndom’s
home. Hours
later, he hit pay dirt: she had called a junk hauler to pick up a freezer and
bring it to the dump. She had made the call on a Tuesday, one week after buying
the freezer, and one day after she called in sick at work.

Paavo met the truck driver and found the freezer relatively
easily. He had it delivered to the CSU so the crime scene investigators could
go over it with a fine-tooth comb.

They found some hairs that matched Gaia’s, which made sense
since it was her freezer, but nothing else.

 
o0o

Angie told herself she only chose to return to the house to
check on the little dog.

When she got there, she couldn’t find him. She hoped Paavo
was right about him living in the neighborhood, and he had found his way home.

Once in the house, however, she again had the sense of being
welcomed, that this could be home for her and Paavo, a happy home.

“All right.
I can’t take this
anymore,” she said to the walls. “Eric? Natalie? Are you here?” She suddenly
had visions of herself as Cosmo Topper dealing with the ghosts of George and
Marian Kirby. She had watched the old black and white film as well as the old
TV shows many times as a child with her mother. She had found them hilarious
back then.
Now, not so much.

“If there’s something here I should worry about, I want to
know it. I don’t want to start out in a house with Paavo that is going to cause
us grief. I need to know right now, immediately!”

Nothing happened.

Feeling increasingly foolish, she sat down on the sofa,
waiting, but soon got up and went to the refrigerator. She had left an unopened
bottle of Chardonnay in it the night of the séance. Sitting around waiting for
ghosts to appear was definitely a reason for some wine.

To her surprise, the wine was gone. She looked in the trash
receptacle under the sink and found the empty bottle there.

Who would have come in here and drunk her wine? That meant
she wasn’t the only person interested in the house.
But to
drink a whole bottle?
That seemed a bit rude!

She opened the dishwasher. Inside were two stemmed glasses.
She had washed, dried and put away the few glasses and dishes used for her
séance ‘party’ the night before. What were these doing here?
And
why two of them?

“Eric? Natalie?” Her voice quavered.

Just then, she heard what sounded like the glass door in the
living room sliding on its track, and then the ‘thud’ when it shut against the
door frame. Had someone just entered the house? She froze, scared.

It couldn’t have been a ghost, could it? They didn’t need to
open doors to enter a room, did they? She quietly slid open a drawer to look
for a knife for protection, but it held nothing more lethal than a butter
knife. She took one out of desperation.

Holding it with two hands, she peeked into the living room.

It was empty.

Cautiously, she eased her way to the glass door. It was
unlocked. She snapped the lock into place. Had someone been inside the house
when she entered, and snuck out when they heard her go into the kitchen?

If so, she wasn’t about to stick around to
find out.
Faster than she thought possible, she ran out of the house to
her car, locking the doors as soon as she got in. The little dog must have
found its way home, and so would she.

Chapter 24

CAT ARRIVED AT Angie’s home at 10
a.m., surprisingly early, since Cat usually didn’t face the light of day until 9
a.m., and took another two hours to dress, fix her hair, and put on make-up.

Last evening, Angie had phoned her and told her someone had
been inside the Clover Lane house and left through the back door, leaving it
unlocked. Cat then knew Angie had duplicated the house key and proceeded to
lecture her about it. Angie assumed she was now here to demand the key.

“Have you chosen a wedding planner yet?” Cat asked as she
sauntered into the living room.

Her words were a surprise. But if Cat wanted to make Angie
feel bad, she had succeeded. “No,” Angie confessed. “I just don’t know what to
do! I’m spending more time trying to find someone to hire than I am working on
my wedding plans.”

“What about your dress?” Cat asked.

“No.”

“Bridesmaids’ dresses?”

“No!”

“Wedding party?”

“
No!”
Angie grew more frantic with each question.

“All right, calm down. We’re going to do it this way. I’ll
take charge of the clothes for everyone. Bianca, who’s the ‘people person,’
will handle the guest list, reservations, and dealing with caterers and so on;
Maria and her husband will handle the music at the church and the reception,
plus the photographer;
Frannie
will be in charge of
decorating the church and the reception hall plus ordering all flowers,
corsages, etc., for everyone who needs them; you, Angie, will take care of the
invitations, meal, cake, and liquor plans, but once you choose the caterers,
baker, and bartender, you turn everything all over to Bianca to handle. Plus,
you will oversee and agree or disagree with what everyone else comes up with.
Anything you don’t like will be changed. Now, stop fussing and start enjoying
your wedding!”

Angie was flabbergasted. Cat didn’t even ask if that was
what she wanted or not. On the other hand, who knew her and her taste better
than her sisters? Who could she more easily work with to get exactly what she
wanted?

She looked at Cat and smiled for the first time. This
wedding might actually happen…in only four months! “Thank you!”

The two then took off for the Bridal Boutique shop on Maiden
Lane.

“Miss Amalfi!” the owner cried. “Thank goodness you’re
here!”

Really?
Angie thought
that was a strange thing to say. “Kellie, this is my sister, Caterina Swenson,”
Angie said. “She’s going to help me.”

“Another sister?”
Kellie looked a
little sick.

Now Angie was even more confused by the normally controlled
woman.

“I’m so glad to meet—” Kellie began when Cat cut her off.

“I understand my sister liked a Vera Wang last time she was
here. Can you show me the dress?”

“Yes. Right this way.” Kellie led them back into the area
where row after row of dresses hung on racks…and that was when Angie discovered
why Kellie looked so stressed.

Over at the bridesmaids’ dresses stood her
mother and three sisters.
Dresses were being pulled and tugged by the
women, who were so engrossed arguing with each other they didn’t even notice
that Angie and Cat had arrived.

“Here’s the dress Angie liked,” Kellie said, taking one of
the bride’s dresses from the rack.

“Go ahead, Angie,” Cat told her. “Try it on. I’ll get the
others to pay attention to what you’ll be wearing instead of their own
dresses.”

Kellie helped her into the dress and pinned it so that the
floor model fit her the way it should after alterations.

She stepped out into an area with a slightly raised
platform, a half-circle of mirrors, and a place where the family sat. Her
mother and all four sisters were sitting there, waiting for her to appear.

She felt like a bride for the first time as all of them oohed
and
aahed
as she stepped onto the platform. In a
matter of seconds, however, the cries turned negative.

“I see the problem,” Cat announced. “The mermaid line looks
best on someone tall. It seems to emphasize her shortness.”

“She looks like a little kid playing dress-up,” Bianca said.

“Dumpy,”
Frannie
smirked.

“
Bellissima
!”
Serefina
cried. “But not right.”

“
Bleah
!” was Maria’s comment.

“What about that one,” Angie pointed to another Vera Wang
she thought was beautiful.

The second dress one didn’t even get praise as she walked
out of the dressing room.

“Nope, too
poofy
,” Maria
announced.

“Too much frou-frou on it,” Cat said.

“
Bellissima
!”
Serefina
cried. “She looks like Cinderella going
to the ball. But, maybe Cinderella isn’t right for a wedding.”

Frannie
just looked at her,
pointed, and laughed.

“Thanks loads,” Angie said. This was like being stuck in a
bridal intervention from hell. She liked both those dresses.

“Let’s go step by step,” Cat said. “What kind of bodice do
you like?”

“Lots of detail.”

“Strapless?”

“Not necessarily.”

Cat faced the others. “No mermaid, no poofs, detailed
bodice. Got it?”

While
Serefina
sat beside Angie,
holding her hand, the sisters turned into whirling dervishes going through the
sample dresses, pulling out and rejecting one after the other. Kellie tried to
interfere
a couple of times and soon learned her help wasn’t
needed and definitely not wanted. After about fifteen minutes of this,
Frannie
cried out “Ah ha!”

She pulled out a
Lazaro
crepe
satin A-line gown with a silver embroidered overlay, jeweled bodice with a
strapless curved neckline, and a sweep train. The embroidered overlay on the
satin was highly detailed and quite gorgeous.

“Hmm,” Bianca said, taking the dress from
Frannie
. “It’s very traditional. The line is simple but
elegant,
the embroidery on the overlay is stunning.

“It reminds me of the dress Kate Middleton wore when she
married into the British royal family,” Cat said, “except that hers had long
sleeves with lace up to her neck in front, and a somewhat different shape to
it.”

“And didn’t have a silver embroidered overlay or jeweled
bodice,” Maria added.

“I’ll try it on,” Angie said.

After the fitters helped her into it, Angie had to blink a
couple of times that it was really her. The long drop of the A-line gown
against her slim form gave the impression of both elegance and height, and the
magnificently jeweled and detailed bodice gave her relatively flat chest some
depth. Even the train, which Angie didn’t think she wanted, looked beautiful.

She stepped out of the dressing room and up onto the
platform.

To her amazement, mother and sisters were completely silent.

Cat got up, lifted an eyebrow as she slowly walked all the
way around. “What do you think, Angie?”

“It surprises me. It’s nothing like what I thought I
wanted.”

“Do you like it?”

“I love it!”

“
Bellissima
!
Ah, my baby is going to get married.”
Serefina
said,
then
she started to cry. “I’m getting so old!”