Invitation to Murder (Book 1 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (8 page)

A few minutes later, a convertible with four
teenage boys drove by—hooting and whistling at me as they
passed—but I didn’t let it go to my head. They were out doing some
young-male bonding, no doubt on a hormone rage that would have
spurred them on to give my aunt Lillian the same reaction. I’d
dismissed them from my thoughts when I saw a car coming back from
the other direction, and wondered if they were looking for a little
more sport than just harassing me from the road. I watched as the
car approached, but I was relieved to see that it was a different
make. That was about all I could say for sure, since I’ve never
been someone who cared about the difference between a Chrysler and
a Chevrolet, if there was one. I’d always driven cars with
character, like my sweet little Gremlin.

I was still watching the headlights when I
saw the driver suddenly jerk the wheel and send the car careening
right at me. I couldn’t tell if the driver was on a cell phone or
reaching for a dropped doughnut, but I was about to get run over if
I didn’t do something fast. I jumped off the road into a tangle of
briars, and the car still barely missed me as it raced past. As I
pulled myself out of the brush, I looked down the road to see if
the driver was at least going to come back to see if I was all
right. The car just kept going, though. He probably didn’t even
realize he nearly killed me. Except for a few scrapes on one hand
and a scratch on my right cheek, I was no worse for the k
encounter, though my legs did shake a bit as I started walking
again. I was a fair distance from the Gremlin when a car’s
headlights picked me up and the vehicle slowed down. Oh, no,
whoever had run me off the road was coming back to take another
stab at it. Without waiting this time, I jumped off the pavement to
b get clear when I heard a voice I knew. “Where are you going,
Girl? Have you lost your mind?”

With a sigh of relief, I turned back toward
the car and greeted my aunt Lillian.

“
What happened to your big
investigation?”

“
Bradford had to answer an
emergency call,” I said, not wanting to go into too many details,
“So you decided to keep the disguise on and go for a midnight
stroll along the highway? I would have spotted that coat anywhere.
There’s not another one like it in all of Virginia.”

For good reason, I thought, but kept it to
myself, “Thanks for giving me a ride. Bradford had to drop me off
kind of fast.”

She snorted once. “That figures. Would it
have killed your brother to at least drive you back to your
car?”

“
There was an accident out
on the highway, Lillian. They needed him out there.”

Lillian caught a glimpse of my face. “What
happened to you? You look like you just wrestled an. alligator and
lost.”

I explained about being forced to jump off
the road to keep from being hit.

Lillian paused, then asked, “Jennifer, how
can you be so sure it was an accident?”

“
What, you think someone
just felt like committing a little homicide and chose
me?”

“
Remember why you’re
wearing my outfit? You wanted to disguise yourself. Well, have you
considered the possibility that you failed, and that the killer was
trying to tie up one more loose end?”

The idea chilled me to my soul. “I liked it
a lot better when it was just a random act of violence.”

“
No one wants to be
targeted, my dear. You really should take some
precautions.”

Before she could say another word, I
snapped, “If you invite me to stay with you tonight, I swear, I’ll
get out of the car this instant and take my chances with another
drive-by.”

Lillian looked absolutely startled as she
pulled in behind my Gremlin. “Honestly, I didn’t mean anything by
it. I was just trying to help.”

I seemed to be alienating everyone who loved
me. I put a hand on hers and said, “Listen, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t
have overreacted. It’s just that no one thinks I can take care of
myself, and it’s starting to get to me.

“
Jennifer, my dear, we all
realize you’re quite capable of dealing with adulthood, but none of
us want to see you in danger. You’re our family, and we love
you.”

“
I love you, too,” I
said.

“
We’ve discussed
everything but what I’m dying to know. Did you have a chance to go
to the crime scene?”

I thought about refusing to answer, since
Bradford had gone out on a limb to get me into the murder scene,
but I knew my aunt well enough to know that she wasn’t about to be
thwarted, so I took the path that was easiest. “I found an earring
on the scene that I had to be the killer’s.”

“
So it was the woman from
the phone after all.”

“
It looks more and more
like it. There were pieces of a battered telephone there, and I
don’t even want to talk about the blood.” It was odd, but the scene
I’d explored hadn’t bothered me nearly as much when it’d been there
as the memory was doing at the moment. Somehow it was just sinking
in that a young woman had lost her life right where I’d stood.
Hearing it on the telephone was bad enough; seeing it was pretty
horrible, too; but putting the two together was beginning to scare
the wits out of me. Maybe I should I stop being so pigheaded and
take one of my relatives up on their offer to relocate for a while.
But if I did that, I was admitting that I couldn’t handle the
situation on my own, and I wasn’t about to concede anything like
that.

Lillian patted my shoulder. “It must have
been difficult seeing it like that.”

“
It wasn’t a treat, but
I’ll manage,” I said.

“
If you don’t mind my
asking, where are you off to now? I trust you’re going home.” I had
a decision to make, and I didn’t hesitate for second. “Actually,
I’m going over to Tina Mast’s house to see if I can learn anything
about the girl from her room.”

“
That sounds like a solid
plan. I don’t suppose you have a key, do you?”

“
No,” I said, “I planned
to wing it once I got there.”

Lillian laughed. “I just love a little
breaking and entering. Count me in.”

“
Who said you were
invited?” I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to put my aunt in jeopardy.
After all, I’d been drawn into it when Tina had dialed my number by
mistake, but it wasn’t fair to put Lillian’s life in danger just
because I wanted some company.

Lillian said, “My dear, try to stop me. My
life has been so stale lately. Thank you for livening it up.”

“
Let’s hope it doesn’t get
too lively,” I said. Leaving my car behind, Lillian pulled out and
started driving toward the outskirts of town. “How do you know
where she lived?” I asked.

“
Child, I had a feeling
you’d be going there next, so I looked the address up in the phone
book. We make quite a team, wouldn’t you agree?”

All I could do was laugh. My aunt was many
things, but predictable wasn’t one of them.

I was excited about the prospects of
searching Tina’s room, but as we approached her house, I saw a
patrol car sitting in the driveway. Wayne Davidson, one of my
brother’s deputies, was leaning against the side of his squad car
as we parked behind it. Before we could even get out, he approached
us. “Nice night for a drive, isn’t it?”

“
Let me guess. Your boss
sent you over here to keep us out of the house.”

He smiled and took the toothpick out of his
mouth. “Don’t think you know everything about the sheriff just
because he’s your brother. As a matter of fact, he had me get a key
from the neighbor so you could look around.” He gestured to my
aunt. “Bradford didn’t say anything about her, though.”

“
We come as a package
deal, young man,” Lillian said.

“
I still have to get his
approval before I let you both inside.”

As Wayne got into his patrol car to call
Bradford, I said to my aunt, “He’ll never let you in; you know
that, don’t you?”

“
Just because your brother
and I don’t get along doesn’t mean he won’t do the right thing. He
knows I could be of some help to you, and as sheriff he can’t
afford to thwart me on this.”

t I looked at her to see if she was kidding,
but from the stern line of Lillian’s lips, I knew she believed
every word of it. Personally, I didn’t see any possible way my
brother was about to let her inside. In all honesty, I was kind of
surprised he was letting me go in without him.

Wayne came back a minute later and handed
Lillian a dollar. “You can go in, too. He said Jennifer would know
what the dollar meant. Only thing is, I have to be right with you
both the entire time we’re inside, so you two have to stick
together.”

“
Of course, Officer,”
Lillian said, giving me a smug look as she did so. “Okay, you were
right and I was wrong,” I said as I started toward the
house.

“
Nonsense, I’ve just seen
your brother’s sense of fairness at work more than you probably
have.” We went into the Mast house—both wearing the gloves that
Wayne had urged on us—and flipped on the lights as we walked
through the place. I found Tina’s bedroom on the third try. Inside,
there were posters of rock stars on the walls, beads where a closet
door should have been and a lava lamp on the dresser. The walls and
ceiling were painted midnight blue, and one wall sported a
hand-drawn mural of a coconut tree, a setting sun, and a bird
painted over the top of the window molding. The room looked like a
cave even with the light on.

Lillian asked, “What exactly are we looking
for?”

“
Anything that doesn’t
belong.”

“
Where should I start the
list?” Lillian asked.

I ignored her comment and looked at the open
suitcase on the bed. Being careful not to disturb anything, I
searched through Tina’s things with a feeling of violation. This
poor girl had no idea she was going to die so soon, and here we
were pawing through her belongings barely a day later. I couldn’t
find anything that looked out of place, and Lillian wasn’t having
much luck, either. I’d expected Wayne to search with us, but he
spent most of his time just watching the two of us.

“
Could this mean
anything?” Lillian asked as she held up a newspaper
clipping.

One side was from a tire ad, and the other
was a listing of movie times for our duplex theater. “I’ll ask
Bradford if she had a ticket stub on her when they found her,” I
said. “Lillian, I’m stumped. If there’s anything important here, I
don’t have a single idea what it could be.”

“
I confess I’m at a loss,
too. Does that mean I have to give the dollar back?”

I tried to smile, but there was too much
sadness in that room. “I’d keep it. We tried, didn’t we?”

She took my hands in hers. “Jennifer, we did
our best, but we’re not trained at this sort of thing.”

Wayne said, “It’s not as easy as it looks,
is it?”

I rolled my eyes. “And how would you know?
All you’ve done is stand there.”

His cheeks reddened, and I felt bad about
the cab, but I hated failing at anything, especially this, since
there was more at stake than bragging rights with my brother.
“Let’s go, Lillian.”

As we walked back to her car, my aunt said,
“You were a little rough on him, weren’t you?”

“
I know, but blast it all,
I was hoping to find something.”

“
Perhaps the movie ad will
turn something up.”

“
Maybe.” I started to get
in the passenger door of Lillian’s car, then knew what I had to do
first. As Wayne was locking the front door of the house, I said,
“Listen, I’m sorry about that crack. I’m just aggravated, but I had
no right to take it out on you.” I was a master at apologizing; I’d
had enough practice at it over the years.

Wayne smiled briefly. “That’s okay. You did
your best.”

“
Yeah, that’s what bothers
me so much about it. I just hate it when my best isn’t good enough.
Now I It have to call Bradford and tell him I couldn’t do
it.”

“
If you’d like me to, I
can tell him about the clipping. You know I’ll give you both credit
for it, but it might be easier for you that way.”

“
Thanks, I appreciate
that.”

“
Listen,” Wayne said
softly, “you want to go get something to eat or
something?”

“
Are you asking me out?”
His cheeks immediately reddened. “It’s not a real date. You know,
we could just grab a bite or something. Forget it. It was a lousy
idea.”

“
The idea is fine; the
timing’s just off.” He shrugged. “Yeah, that’s the story of my
life.”

I tried to ease the reaction. “It’s got
nothing to do with you, and I’m flattered that you’d ask, really.
But with the shop just opening up and everything involved with
that, I don’t have much time for anything else. Is that okay with
you?”

“
I don’t have much choice,
do I?” he asked. Then, adding a slight smile, he said, “Don’t sweat
it, Jennifer. It was just an idea.”

When I got back to the car, Lillian asked,
“What was that all about?”

“
You’re not going to
believe this, but Wayne Davidson just asked me out.”

“
So when are you
going?”

“
Lillian, I’ve got too
many complications in my life without adding a man to
them.”

My aunt laughed dryly. “My dear, there’s
always room for that particular complication.”

By the time I was back home with my car
parked in front of my apartment building, I began to wonder Lillian
was right. I knew there was more to life than work, but did I
really want to go out with one of my Brother’s deputies? I’d known
Wayne casually for rears, and in all honesty, I wasn’t exactly
attracted to him that way. It was hard for me to make the
transition from a man who was a friend to someone who could be
more. When I fell, and it had happened a few times in my life, it
was usually for a man I didn’t already know, a mystery to be
unveiled, not a guy I’d seen play junior varsity basketball or eat
watermelon on my back porch with my older brother. No, Wayne was
just going to have to go in the file of “Might Have Been but Never
Would,” a folder that seemed to grow thicker with each year.