Miz Scarlet and the Bewildered Bridegroom (34 page)

After so many years of
working side by side, the two former partners had finally given in
to their romantic urges. These days they were making up for lost
time on the weekends Larry’s daughter was at her dad’s
house.

“Sure. I’ll be back in
a jiffy. I should get started on the rooms anyway. They won’t tidy
themselves.” Larry was already hunched over in the chair, typing
rapidly on her tiny keypad. I set the paperback down on the chest
by the door on my way out.

I dispatched Jenny to
the third floor to start cleaning, while I went down to the kitchen
to fetch Larry her breakfast. Pulling out a tray, I grabbed a
blueberry muffin from the plastic bag in the bread drawer and
plated it, and then I grabbed a mug from the cabinet, added some
cream and sweetener, and poured coffee from the thermal carafe.
Something was nagging at me, but what? My mind went back to the
story of how Annalee and Gunnar had met.

He talked about how
amiable Annalee’s divorce was, about how her ex-husband was a
genuinely nice guy. What if that was all a myth? What if the former
husband was jealous and wanted to ruin Annalee’s marriage? Would he
be willing to kidnap her on her wedding day? Stranger things had
happened to other brides, so I wasn’t sure we could just rule that
out. Then again, maybe the ex-husband really was as nice as Gunnar
said. We needed some kind of clue to point us in the right
direction, and the only way we’d get it is by looking for
it.

Larry was standing at
the window, her back towards the door, when I brought the tray
upstairs. I set it down on the ottoman, giving her a discreet cough
to signal my arrival. She put up a hand and made a waving motion in
the air. With a shrug, I left her to her investigative
efforts.

But I only got as far
as the top of the stairs before I stopped in my tracks. Something
was different about the Red Oak Room. What had changed? That
paperback book,
Reluctant
Witness
, was no longer on the
chest by the door.

Maybe Larry had it, I
told myself. That would make sense. She probably wanted to examine
it more closely. I ducked back into the room for a second peek.
Larry hadn’t moved. She was still deep in conversation. The
paperback was nowhere in sight.

How could a book just
disappear in such a short time? A glance at my watch told me eleven
minutes had passed since I went down to fetch some breakfast for
Larry.
Reluctant
Witness
didn’t walk away on its
own. Someone must have snatched it. Why would someone risk getting
caught by an experienced investigator like Laurencia Rivera? Was
there something important hidden in that book?

Even as I let my
imagination run wild, something told me to yank on those reins and
pull that horsie back onto the trail. This wild theory of mine was
all wrong. No, this had nothing to do with Karin Frenlind and her
rich boyfriend. I wasn’t even convinced it had anything to do with
an ex-husband. This mystery had something to do with Annalee
herself.

I continued down the
hall to the White Oak Room. I might as well clean while I figured
this conundrum out.

Jenny found me there a
few minutes later. “I’m done with the third floor. Where do you
want me to go next?”

“Why don’t you do the
Black Oak Room? I’ll deal with the library when I finish
here.”

Fifteen minutes later,
I popped into the living room, where my mother was keeping an eye
on two rather rambunctious boys, wrestling on the floor. I shook my
head when she looked up.

“Nothing yet.” I
grimaced. “How are the boys?”

“Active,” she replied
drolly. “Have you seen Scrub Oak anywhere? He’s disappeared. I
can’t say that I blame him.”

She nodded in the
direction of the Pinault boys. Kevin was wriggling on the floor,
trying to escape Kyle’s attempt at a headlock.

“I’ll keep an eye out
for him,” I promised as I left the room.

I had finished the
library and was in the small attached bathroom when I thought I
heard a meow. The feline howl got louder when I opened the shower
stall door.

“That’s odd.” It’s not
like there was any place for the cat in this tiny space. But there
was plenty of room on the other side of that wall. “That rascal
must be in the cloakroom! How did he open the
door?”

It didn’t take a genius
to realize that Scrub Oak’s talents didn’t extend to working the
Victorian hardware with his paws. Dread filled me as I tiptoed down
the hall. After all, there had once been a murder at the Four
Acorns Inn. I had been present when the door swung open and the
victim’s lifeless body was discovered. Was this a reprise of that
nightmare?

By the time I reached
the door of the cloakroom, my heart was pounding hard. I took a
deep breath as my shaking hand gripped the glass knob and slowly,
silently turned it. With a quick heartfelt prayer to the heavens
above, I steeled myself for the task at hand and yanked open the
quarter sawn oak door.

The sight I found
stunned me. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. When
those determined fingers reached out and grabbed me, pulling me
inside, I offered no resistance.

“Hurry
up!”

It took a moment for my
eyes to adjust to the small glow of a flashlight once the door shut
behind me. I found a spot on the floor and sank down, totally
baffled. Scrub Oak brushed up against my knee, looking for a place
to nap.

“I just want you to
know I feel really bad about this,” said Annalee Pinault sincerely.
“I never intended to deceive anyone.”

“Why are you in here?”
I was more than a little confused. What was she doing in the closet
with Scrub Oak?

“I don’t want to lose
Gunnar. I can’t lose him!”

“The man’s crazy about
you,” I responded, my confusion growing by the
moment.

“Look, Scarlet, you’re
young. You’re attractive. But me? I’m...well, let’s just say I’m
older than you. When I found Gunnar, I knew I hit the jackpot. I
couldn’t risk losing him.”

“And you think you will
because....”

“If we get married
today, it won’t be legal.”

“Excuse
me?”

“You know that story
Lacey told about Edna and Big Larry getting married? The marriage
was invalid because she lied about her age.”

“You lied about your
age on your marriage license?”

“No, no. Lord knows I’m
well over the age of consent. No, it’s more complicated than that.
I...I realized that the marriage to Gunnar won’t be legal if we get
married today.”

“I don’t
understand.”

“My divorce actually
becomes final tomorrow. I realized that after we set the date, but
I didn’t dare change the arrangements. I was afraid I’d lose
Gunnar. I figured I was fudging it by just a few hours, so what was
the big deal? But then Lacey and your mom told us Edna’s story and
I started to think about the legal implications of all this. And
then, when I was reading my paperback, one of the characters found
out she wasn’t really married to the man she thought was her
husband. I guess I just panicked.”

“You have to tell
Gunnar, Annalee. He’s worried sick about you.”

“I know. I will. I just
need some time to figure this out.”

Scrub Oak purred
contentedly next to me. I reached out to pat him as I pondered the
situation.

“Can I ask you a
question, Annalee?”

“You want to know how I
could be so dumb?” she asked, her frustration and self-loathing raw
and painful as they surfaced.

“No, I was actually
more interested in knowing when you are legally able to
remarry.”

“Ironically, June
8
^th
. Isn’t that
a kick in the seat of the pants? All this wonderful planning was
for nothing.”

“Why don’t you just
wait until tomorrow for the ceremony? We can push things back a
bit,” I offered.

“Everyone’s here to
witness our marriage vows today. I can’t ask my family to postpone
their own plans. Vic already booked passage back to Long Island on
the noon ferry. And Van has to fly out to Chicago tomorrow
afternoon for a big business meeting. This weekend was the only
choice we could all agree upon between now and September; that’s
why I decided to keep my mouth shut.” She wiped away a lone tear.
“Oh, who am I kidding? This is a disaster. I wanted a romantic
occasion we would treasure forever, not some messy screw-up of a
wedding. I really blew it.”

The trouble we’d had at
the Four Acorns Inn over the last two weeks was really scary, but
this situation? To me, it was a lot of fuss about nothing. After
all, nobody died.

“Hmm...” I bit my lower
lip, considering a solution. “What if we worked our way backwards,
Annalee? We could have the reception first with cocktails, dinner,
and even a little dancing. And then, at the stroke of midnight, we
could have a candlelit ceremony in the garden. How does that
sound?”

“Oh!” The bride burst
into tears, big, wet tears that cascaded down her cheeks. The next
thing I knew, she was hugging me like I was the only life preserver
left on the Titanic. In her eyes I saw the recognition that here
was a light at the end of the tunnel. It was worth a shot, wasn’t
it?

“I’ll take that as a
yes. Now, let me give Larry a call.”

“Oh, no! Isn’t she a
cop?”

“She is, but she’s a
cop with a heart. Don’t worry. We’ll get all this straightened
out.”

Larry joined us in the
cloakroom moments after I called her and soon put Annalee’s fears
to rest. “If it’s any consolation, this isn’t official police
business. As far as the Connecticut State Police are concerned,
nothing happened here. I came in my capacity as Miz Scarlet’s
friend, to help her search for a missing guest. We’ll chalk this up
to wedding jitters on one condition.”

“What’s that?”
Annalee’s eyes were now dry.

“I get to attend the
wedding, so that I can vouch for the legality of your marriage,
just in case anyone decides to question it.”

“Absolutely!” Annalee
laughed, a gasp of relief escaping from her lips. Her face relaxed,
making her seem ten years younger. “Thank you, thank you, oh thank
you so much!”

“You’re welcome. Now,
let’s go find the groom and tell him you’re safe and
sound.”

We got all of ten feet
down the hall before Annalee went into panic mode. She froze in her
tracks.

“What if he says he’s
changed his mind? What if he refuses to marry me?”

“That’s doubtful.” said
the trained investigator. “I questioned him for some time. I had
to, just in case he was behind your disappearance. He’s nuts about
you.”

“He’s a standup guy,” I
added. “He knows you really well. He insisted you would never leave
your cell phone behind unless something was really wrong, and he
was right about that.”

“He’ll be so
disappointed in me,” Annalee sniffed. “He’s such a straight arrow.
He never seems to falter.”

“It will be his loss if
he fails to go through with it,” Larry replied
matter-of-factly.

“He’d be a fool,” I
agreed. “Anyone can run into a technical glitch. The important
thing is you want to fix it.”

“I deal with killers
and criminals every day. I’ve met a lot of skilled liars,” Larry
informed her. “It wasn’t your intention to deceive the man. It all
kind of snowballed on you. Planning a wedding will do that to the
sanest of us. You two just have to adjust and move
on.”

“Besides, someday you
two will see the humor in this story,” I pointed out. “Who else
gets married at midnight?”

Gunnar burst through
the door three minutes later, his face tight with worry. The rest
of the gang was on his heels. As the crowd assembled in the
vestibule, he spoke.“Where is she? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. The bride
just experienced a case of nerves,” I smiled encouragingly. “She’s
still talking to Larry in the library. Why don’t you join them?
We’ll give you some privacy. Come on, folks. I’ve got ice tea to
wet your whistle.”

“That’s my mother we’re
talking about!” Vic protested. “I want to see for myself that she’s
okay.”

“Trust me, she is.” I
put a hand on his shoulder, steering him toward the dining room.
“She’s more than okay. She’s getting married.”

And sure enough, she
did. Once Larry explained the facts to Gunnar on Annalee’s behalf,
they went over the legalities of adjusting the plan. As long as the
justice of the peace declared them husband and wife after midnight,
they were all set. The paperwork would reflect they were married on
the date the Commonwealth of Massachusetts determined she was a
single woman again.