Murder and Salutations (Book 3 in the Cardmaking Mysteries) (22 page)

For now, it was time to spread my own seeds
of destruction and put the town of Rebel Forge on notice I that I
wasn’t going down that easily.

Next on my list was Kaye and her drugstore.
I walked there with a fierce stride, daring anyone to cross me. On
my way into the drugstore, Reggie— Gail’s boyfriend, or ex—nearly
knocked me over coming out. “Jennifer? What are you doing
here?”

Why was everyone so surprised to see me? “I
have an errand to run,” I said. “How about you?”

“
I needed
to pick up some medicine for my father,”
he explained. “I’m glad I ran into you. We need to
talk.”

“
Sorry, I don’t have time
right now.”

I tried to brush past him, but he wouldn’t
budge. “You can’t move into the cottage,” he said. “I won’t allow
it.”

“
I know you’re not happy
about the arrangements, but it’s between your mother and
me.”

“
Not if I make an issue of
it. And you’d better believe me, I’m going to. I’d like the key
back.”

I laughed at him, though I probably
shouldn’t have. “You’re too late. I moved in last night.”

He was startled by the statement. “What? I
didn’t realize ... It doesn’t change anything. You still have to
move.”

“
When your mother tells me
that, I’ll go,” I said. “But not before.”

He stared at me, then brushed past,
dismissing me with a glare. If Reggie thought I was going to be
that easy to evict, he was sadly mistaken. Helena was another story
altogether, but I’d have to hear the words from her lips, and I
didn’t think she would ever say them.

Kaye was at the front checkout. “Jennifer,
thank goodness you’re all right. I can’t believe that lovely old
building is gone. The historical society has been trying to get it
designated as a landmark for years, and I honestly believe we would
have succeeded this time. Whoever burned it down should be
executed.”

She couldn’t fake the ardor in her voice.
Kaye’s declaration took the steam out of my step for a moment. “Do
you have any idea who would be capable of doing it?”

Kaye looked shocked by the question. “No
civilized person, that’s for sure. I just don’t understand why. How
did you manage to escape?”

“
I moved out yesterday
afternoon,” I said.

“
How fortunate,” Kaye said,
then her eyes narrowed. “You were displaced unwillingly, weren’t
you? I bet it infuriated you.”

“
Wait one second,” I said.
“If you’re suggesting I had anything to do with that fire, you’re
nuts.”

“
I’m just saying, some
people may think that’s how it looks, Jennifer.”

“
Then let them say it to my
face,” I said. “Do you have any suspects besides me?”

“
I didn’t mean to make it
sound that harsh,” Kaye said.

I waved a dismissive hand in the air.
“Forget about it. Well, do you?”

“
No, I’m sorry, I
don’t.”

I started for the door as Kaye asked, “Where
are you going now?”

“
I need to speak with
Polly,” I admitted.

“
You can’t. She stopped by
here yesterday after noon. She was on her way to the Outer Banks.”
The banks were a popular vacation destination for folk from our
part of Virginia. While we had beaches of our own, the chain of
islands on the North Carolina coast were particularly lovely,
especially the parts not infested with summer rentals and T-shirt
stands. I could still remember the open stretches of windswept
dunes from my childhood, and the last time I’d beer there a few
years before, it had been difficult believing it was the same
place. Too many people with too much money were ruining one of the
country’s most beautiful and delicate habitats, and it didn’t
appear that anyone was doing anything about it.

“
Did she say how long she’d
be gone?” I asked.

“
Just a few days, I think,”
Kaye said.

“
I’ll talk to her then,” I
said.

Kaye wasn’t finished, though. “I’m guessing
Luke Penwright’s on your list, too, isn’t he?”

“
Why do you ask?”

“
Jennifer,
I make it my business to know people You’re speaking to everyone
your brother interviewee
the night
Eliza was murdered. Don’t bother denying it.”

I grinned at her. “Okay, I won’t. Do you
have any idea where I can find Luke?”

“
You just missed him. He’s
on his way out of town. For good, from the way he was telling
it.”

Blast it all, I needed to talk to him. If he
was running because he thought he’d been successful in killing me,
I had to dissuade him of that notion. I knew Bradford couldn’t hold
him, but if he left for good, my brother might never be able to
find him again.

“
Thanks,” I said as I raced
out the door.

To my surprise, Kaye followed me outside.
“Try the Petrol Planet. He said he had to gas up first, and I’m
willing to bet he’s still there. He’s driving a forest green motor
home.”

“
Why are you helping me?” I
asked her.

“
You may not believe this,
but I hope you figure out who killed Eliza. We weren’t close—far
from it, actually—but I don’t want people in town whispering behind
my back for the next thirty years that I was one of the suspects in
the case.”

“
I’ll buy that,” I said.
Then I remembered I didn’t have my car. “Any chance I could borrow
your car?”

Kaye shook her head. “Sorry, but I’m not
willing to help that much.”

I raced toward Sara Lynn’s shop, hoping that
she was there. If I couldn’t borrow her Honda, I was out of
luck.

“
It’s an emergency. I need
your car,” I said breathlessly as I ran into Forever
Memories.

Sara Lynn reached into her purse—tucked
safely behind the counter—and tossed me her keys.

“
Don’t you want to know what
I’m doing?” I asked.

“
Tell me when you bring my
car back.”

I had to look twice to be sure it was my
sister and not some imposter. It was a sure sign that she’d been
shaken up by last night’s events, since there was no doubt in my
mind that Bradford had already brought her up to speed on what had
been happening.

I raced toward the gas station, and sure
enough, the motor home was still at the pump.

As I pulled in behind it, I changed my mind
at the last second, and swerved so I could keep it from leaving
before I was ready. I got out and saw Luke coming out of the
cashier’s office.

“
Jennifer, you really should
slow down.”

“
I will as soon as I have
the time. I was hoping I’d catch you. I heard you were leaving
town.”

He nodded. “There are just too many bad
memories around here for me. Now that Eliza’s gone, there’s no
reason for me to stay.”

There was a group of men standing by the
entrance and I felt like Luke had said it for their benefit, not
mine. If he wanted to put on a play in public, I was game.

“
Funny, I never thought of
you as a coward.”

He gave me a hard look; the men standing
around had dropped all pretense that they weren’t listening to
every word.

“
You’d better be careful
there, Jennifer.”

“
What are you going to do,
attack me? Like someone attacked your ex-wife?”

His face reddened at my goading, and I saw
one of the men flinch. “That’s enough,” he said when he could
control his voice.

“
I don’t
think so. If you loved Eliza as much as you claim, you surely
wouldn’t run away with your tail between your legs if there was a
chance her killer
might be caught.
Don’t you want to be there when, Bradford brings him
in?”

I saw a few nods out of the corner of my
eye, and I could see that I was scoring some points. Luke must have
noticed it, too.

“
Do you really think your
brother’s capable of catching anything more than a
cold?”

“
Look at his track record,”
I said. “He’s good at what he does.” I was on solid ground there.
Bradford was the best sheriff Rebel Forge had ever had, and more
folks said it than me. “I can’t believe you’re just giving up. I
thought you were a real man.”

He actually took a step toward me as I said
that, and I could see the pure hatred in his eyes. Only the sight
of the men standing by watching kept him from approaching me more.
I thought he was going to come after me anyway when one of the men,
an older fellow named Moss Marlette, said, “She’s got a point,
Luke. What’s your hurry?”

That emboldened one of the other men to say,
“I knew your daddy, and he never gave up a day in his life.”

Luke wanted to scream, I could see it in his
eyes, but instead, he plastered a fake smile on his face and said,
“You know what, Jennifer? You’re right. I’m turning this rig around
and parking it back at Campers’ Cove, and I’m not leaving until the
worm that killed my Eliza pays for it.”

Several of the men nodded their approval,
but out of their hearing, Luke added, “This isn’t over.”

I nodded. “Anytime.”

I drove off after making sure that Luke was
heading back into town. I’d found the right button to push, but it
hadn’t been that hard. I loved Southern men dearly, but they were
so proud, a lot of the time it made them predictable. I wasn’t all
that thrilled with my own behavior, but I couldn’t rule Luke out as
a suspect if he wasn’t around. I was making quite a name for myself
as a hag around town, but it didn’t matter if it helped find
Eliza’s killer. Things were getting hot in Rebel Forge, and if it
took some stirring to make things boil over, then I was going to do
it.

“
That was fast,” Sara Lynn
said as I returned her car keys to her.

“
And yet I
managed to annoy several people in that
short a time,” I said.

“
Jennifer, are you being
bad?”

I looked around. The only customers in her
store were clustered back by the scrapbooking how-to books. “I’m
trying to find out what really happened to Eliza. I have to believe
that whoever killed her is the same person who took those shots at
Bailey and me, and then burned down my old apartment.”

“
But why would they be so
zealous?” she asked, “It doesn’t make sense.”

I didn’t want to get into it right there
with my sister. “Who knows why lunatics act the way they do?”

She studied me a few seconds, then said,
“Jennifer, you’ve got a theory. What is it?”

“
Me? I don’t know what
you’re talking about.”

“
If you’re trying to save me
from some hurt feelings, I’m a little beyond that. I doubt you can
tell me anything worse than I’ve already heard. Talk to
me.”

I took a deep breath, then said, “Okay,
here’s what I think happened. I think Bailey saw Eliza murdered or
at least witnessed something incriminating that the killer wanted
silenced. The killer followed Bailey to Hurley’s the night I was
there with Greg, and he spotted your husband and me on the loading
dock. I’m willing to bet he wasn’t sure how long we were up there
together, so he was afraid that Bailey told me whatever it was he
was hiding.”

“
He didn’t, did he? Don’t
worry, I won’t tell Bradford if you’re holding something back from
him.”

“
I swear, he didn’t tell me
a thing,” I said. “That’s not completely true. He thought Eliza was
seeing someone else, but that wasn’t his secret. So anyway, the
killer thinks I know, too, so I’m a target. That’s why he burned
Whispering Oak to the ground, to protect his secret.”

“
Then you think Bailey’s
dead, too,” she said in a muted voice.

“
I think no such thing,” I
said forcefully. “Bailey was fine the last time I saw him, and I
don’t have any reason to believe that anything has changed, and
neither do you.”

Sara Lynn stared off into space, then said,
“I always thought it was sheer delusion when people said they knew
when their loved ones died, but I don’t anymore.”

Chris answered the phone nearby, and said,
“Jennifer, it’s for you.”

Sara Lynn fought to find a smile. “Now
you’re getting calls at my shop?”

“
They probably want to ask
me if I’m ever going back to mine,” I said as I took the
telephone.

“
Jennifer Shane,” I
said.

“
Jen, this is Savannah. You
asked me about Eliza earlier, and I kind of cut you off. Since then
I’ve been doing a little digging of my own.”

“
Savannah, how on earth did
you know where to find me?”

“
It was Lillian’s idea to
try there,” she said, laughing. “Turns out that aunt of yours knows
you pretty well.”

I saw my brother’s police cruiser pull up
outside. The second I saw his face, I knew something bad had
happened. “Savannah, can I call you back later? Something just came
up.”

“
That would be fine,” she
said as she hung up. “But don’t forget. I think this might be
important.”

As I placed the telephone back in its base,
Bradford walked in and headed straight for Sara Lynn. He whispered
something to her, and I saw her collapse. It was a good thing
Bradford was ready for her fall. He caught her in his arms, and
started back for the break room without missing a step.

“
Bradford, what
happened?”