Miz Scarlet and the Bewildered Bridegroom (25 page)

Just after three, while
I was rolling out my pastry crust, Edna showed up in the kitchen
with her book in hand, on her way out to the garden to read for a
while.

“I just want you to
know where I am, just in case you need me.”

Those words reminded me
that we weren’t quite out of the woods yet as far as trouble was
concerned. With a request to keep an eye out for suspicious
activity, I encouraged Edna to find a comfortable seat and enjoy
her book.

“And if you finish it,
feel free to help yourself to the sequel.”

“There’s a
sequel?”

“Yes,” I laughed.
“You’re welcome to borrow it for your trip to Boston,
Edna.”

“I might just do that,”
she told me cheerfully, as she headed towards the back
door.

She spent the remainder
of the afternoon on a chaise lounge, in the shade of a big copper
beech tree down by the pond. I checked on her from time to time,
tempted to snap a photo of the reclining reader for Larry. My
workaholic friend would never believe me if I told her that Edna
was actually relaxing outdoors, without a broom or dust rag in
hand.

Just after six, as the
gang gathered on the patio, Bur fired up the grill. Kenny poured
the mai tais while I threaded the shrimp onto skewers and brought
them out to my brother on a platter. I made a second trip outside
with the corn before returning to the sun porch. It was a
comfortable night, so I opened all the windows, letting in the
light breeze, and pushed two tables together to accommodate the
large group. Jenny threw a pair of red-and-white checkered
tablecloths on and arranged the place settings.

My mother and Thaddeus
sat outside with Ruth and Lacey, keeping my brother company. I
could hear the genial conversation as they swapped
stories.

Jenny, meanwhile, took
all three dogs for a trip through the woods. “We’ll be about twenty
minutes. Call me if you need me.”

Edna insisted on making
herself useful in the kitchen, so I put her in charge of the hors
d’oeuvres. I pulled the crab-stuffed mushrooms from the oven and
left it to her to plate them, and then I pulled the cheese board
down from the cupboard, grabbed the sliced cheddar and seedless
grapes from the refrigerator, and opened a fresh package of whole
wheat crackers.

“There you go,” I
smiled. “It’s show time!”

“Scarlet, do you have
any fresh parsley? I thought it would be nice to garnish the
mushrooms.”

I reached into the
crisper drawer and retrieved a handful of greenery.

“Do you have a sharp
knife handy?” she wanted to know. With a quick chop of the blade,
she minced the herb and sprinkled it on top of the mushrooms.
“That’s better.”

“Nice touch,
Edna.”

“Yes, it
is.”

I followed her to the
back door and held it open while she stepped down and carried the
platters out to the patio. I went back to the kitchen to finish my
preparations, the only one still inside the house, save for Max,
who was still up in the attic storage room, keeping
watch.

Through the open
kitchen window, I could hear the occasional howl of laughter.
Everyone seemed to be having a good time. You’d never guess we’d
had so many calamities in such a short time.

I put the tossed salad
into small bowls, arranged cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, and
pitted black olives on top and put these on a serving tray along
with a pair of small pitchers containing salad dressing. I carried
the tray to the sun porch, placed a bowl of salad at each place
setting, and set the dressings in the middle of the table. After
adding ice to the goblets, I filled those with water. “Now we’re
ready to eat.”

Glancing out the
window, I could see my brother hadn’t yet put the shrimp on the
grill. I had time for a quick trip to the powder room. I headed
down the hallway and rounded the corner in time to see a sight that
chilled me to the bone. A masked man was tiptoeing up the front
staircase. Dressed in black, with rubber-soled shoes, his furtive
behavior gave me a bad case of the chilly willies. Knees knocking,
I quickly contemplated my options. I could scream. It was possible
the family would hear me and come running. Or I could bolt down the
hall and make my escape, joining the others outside. That seemed to
be my best option.

Before I could flee, a
hand covered my mouth and another hand wrapped around my waist. I
felt myself dragged into the powder room.

“You’ve got bad timing,
Scarlet!”

“Max!” I
exclaimed.

“Shush! For heaven’s
sake, be quiet!” he hissed at me.

“But there’s a man
sneaking upstairs!” I whispered back, trying to get free. He didn’t
let go.

“I know. I want him to
think he’s getting away with it!”

“Oh. You do?” I asked.
Max nodded and then released his too-tight grip on me. The moment
his hands were at his sides in the narrow confines of the tiny
powder room, I shook myself off and sorted myself out. “Who is
he?”

“He’s the guy who’s
supposed to cause trouble for the Four Acorns Inn. Now, I need you
to go back to the kitchen and act like nothing’s wrong. Can you do
that?”

“But....”

“Can
you?”

“I guess
so.”

“I mean it, Scarlet.
Don’t blow this lead for us. Not a word to anyone.”

“Should I send Ruth in
to see you?”

“No,” he growled,
exasperated. “Go back to your canapés and cordials! I have work to
do!”

With that, I found
myself manhandled out into the foyer, propelled by a very
ungentlemanly shove. This was not the usual Max Weingarten
behavior. I made a mental note to remind him of this fact once the
matter of the intruder had been resolved.

I was nearly back in
the kitchen when I remembered that I hadn’t done what I set out to
do.

“Shoot!” I mumbled,
wondering if I could get through dinner without a trip to the
powder room. There was no way. “Well, I can’t go back there now;
can I?”

My only other option
was to use the attached bathroom in the library. With great care, I
returned to the hallway, hugging the wall, and ducked into the
room. Padding past the bookshelves, I entered the bathroom, hoping
Max wouldn’t hear me and read me the riot act. A few moments later,
while washing my hands, I happened to glance out the window and saw
a flash of movement. Keeping myself concealed behind the curtain, I
took another peek. Sure enough, the masked man leaving by the front
door and I was just in time to see him remove his
mask.

“Son of a....” I was so
stunned by the revelation that you could have knocked me over with
a feather. I even took another look out the window, just to be
sure. Not only did I know the identity of the intruder, I knew
where he lived and worked.

Of course, now that I
knew who the creep was, I was no longer scared. Oh no. Instead, I
was furious. In fact, I was so furious, it was all I could do to
keep my mouth shut during dinner.

Luckily, Bur was busy
extolling his virtues as grill master, amusing the dinner crowd
with his stories of steaks and Shirazes he had known and loved. As
usual, the ladies fluffed up his feathers and told him what a great
job he had done.

“I personally like the
grilled shrimp,” Edna informed him. “These were done to
perfection.”

“Another of my
specialties,” he crowed.

As soon as I could, I
began to clear the table, removing the empty plates. I carried them
into the kitchen and got busy with a pot of coffee.

“Is something wrong?”
Jenny came into the kitchen, looking concerned.

“No.” I got out the
peach pie and began to slice and plate it.

“Are you mad at me?”
She wasn’t about to drop it and I didn’t trust myself to speak. I
shook my head. “Oh, did you and Kenny have a
fight?”

What was worse,
spitting out a secret I didn’t think Jenny should know or lying to
the teen? Was it so terrible to let her think Captain Peacock and I
had a lovers’ tiff? I tried to cover all my bases with a
non-committal shrug and a generic comment. The only thing I could
think to say was, “I’ll work it out.”

Jenny returned to the
dining room to retrieve the rest of the dishes and silverware in
anticipation of serving dessert, no doubt relieved to escape my
dark countenance.

I filled the coffee pot
with water, stuck a filter in the basket, and added ground coffee.
Flipping the switch, I got the brewing process going before I
pulled out a carton of vanilla bean ice cream from the freezer, to
let it soften while I loaded the dishwasher. My mind was still on
our intruder. I longed to throttle him within an inch of his
life.

“Is something wrong?”
Kenny came in, no doubt tipped off by my assistant.

“This isn’t the time,”
I barely managed to mutter before I clenched my teeth, refusing to
say more.

“Did I do something to
upset you?” he wondered.

“No,” I replied,
scooping out little balls of vanilla bean ice cream on each plate.
He was standing in my way. “Do you mind?”

“Do I mind?” He sounded
baffled. I handed him the coffee carafe. “Wow, you’re in a foul
mood!”

“You ain’t seen nothin’
yet,” I growled.

I endured a long
conversation on popular Boston activities and another on current
movies worth seeing before I had a chance to escape. I hopped to my
feet to pour a final round of coffee, brought Dr. Van Zandt and Bur
more pie, and finally excused myself to go walk the dogs. No sooner
had I harnessed and leashed them than I found Kenny at my
elbow.

“Let’s talk,” he
suggested.

“Let’s not,” I
snapped.

Chapter Nineteen --

“What in heaven’s name
have I done?” There was hurt in his voice. I gazed up at that face
I adored and grimaced.

“It isn’t
you.”

“Well then, who is it?
Why are you so angry?”

I glanced down the
hallway. I could hear laughter emanating from the dining room. “Not
here. Come with me.”

We hurried down the
hallway, leading the canine parade. Once inside the living room, I
shut the door.

“Okay,” he said,
crossing his arms, a frown now on his face. “What’s going
on?”

“Do you know who broke
in here just a little while ago?”

“Huh?”

“We had an intruder
just before dinner. Max grabbed me and pulled me into the powder
room. He insisted that I do nothing. Do you know who that intruder
was?”

“Ah...this is the first
I’m hearing about this, Scarlet.”

“It was none other than
Bobby Zarelli!” I growled through clenched teeth, no longer able to
contain my wrath.

“Okay.” Kenny still
seemed confused. “And who is Bobby Zarelli?”

“I had Neil Kradic and
Bobby Zarelli in my homeroom when I taught high school. I never
expected any loyalty from Neil Kradic, but Bobby
Zarelli?”

“I’m still not getting
the root of your anger here, babe.”

“I tutored Bobby every
day after school for four freaking weeks just so he could graduate
with his class. I busted my fanny to get him caught up. And this is
the thanks I get? He puts on a mask and breaks into my home? He
threatens Lacey with death?”

“You’re sure it was
him?” Kenny took hold of my elbows, pulling me close, as he stared
intently at me. “You’re positive?”

“Yes, I’m positive.
Why? You don’t believe me?”

“Oh, I believe you, Miz
Scarlet.” He planted a kiss on my right cheek, and then another one
on my lips, his mouth lingering. “Did Kradic and Zarelli ever hang
out together?”

“They were inseparable,
like conjoined twins. They lived on the same street and went
everywhere together.”

“What does Zarelli do
now?”

“I’m so glad you asked,
Kenny,” I said through clenched teeth. I was spitting mad. “Bobby
Zarelli works at Moriarty’s Hardware Store. You remember last week
when my set of inn keys went missing? I never lose things, Kenny,
never...or rarely anyway. I thought I put my keys in the basket on
the hall table, but I couldn’t find them anywhere. I went down to
Moriarty’s and that little cheese weasel cut me another
set!”