Catharine Bramkamp - Real Estate Diva 04 - Trash Out (39 page)

He looked puzzled.  “I’m just doing my job. Mr. Sullivan hired me,”
h
e nodded to the other man.  “Us, to watch the
b
ride.  Make sure she was safe.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Safe from what?”

“There you are!”  Patrick bounded up and grabbed the man’s arm.  “Good, I have something for you to handle.” Patrick quickly kissed me on the cheek and moved the immovable
object
s
away
me, the
irresistible
force
.  I watched
Patrick gesture toward the back of the silent winery.
Safe?
Carrie’s
parents weren’t in evidence at all. 
Safe from what, or from whom?

I moved to the office where Carrie was holding court. 

“Good, you’re here. We were worried
,
”
Kathleen
snapped
, her neon pink tulle dress did not compliment her skin tone. The
dress puckered along the seams and the back hem was lower than the front. Had she lost weight?

“I am late
,
”
I
answered
mildly.
“Sorry.”

“Allison, does this make me look fat?”
  Carrie wrung her hands.
  She wore a tiny strapless bra and the first of a half dozen stiff slips needed to make her dress stand
out
like a pup tent.

“We reviewed this, you look like a fairy princess.”  I glared at the Furies
. What
had they been saying to the
vulnerable
bride?  A
n
d why did she need to be kept safe? I kept her safe. That was my job.

I stepped deftly out of Claire’s way as she rushed to the flowers draped on Cassandra’s desk.
  I kept my mouth shut, no disclosures,
no
slip-ups
.

T
he Furies hover
ed
around
the bride
.
They
tied Carrie up into the rest of the tulle underskirts and finally dropped the wedding dress over her head
careful not to snag the dress on her huge engagement ring
.  Claire
patted the big fluffy dress
.  Kathleen
picked up the flower
s then
set down the flowers.

“How about a walk?”  Carrie suggested.

“No!”  Kathleen paused
and readjusted her tone
.  “We don’t want the guests to see you before you
r final
walk down the
aisle
.”

“
Brides
are
supposed
to be a surprise.”  Claire‘s
gray
hair looked much more elegant swept up in a high bun.  They both wore long ruby earrings, which could be
real;
the stones cast red
points of light
across the office. 
Like specks of blood
.
I bit my lip.

“Okay, no walk.  What are we going to do for
forty-five minutes
?  We didn’t need to come
so
early you know
,
” Carrie complained. 

“I’ll get some food
,
” I volunteered.  “I bet you haven’t eaten.”

Her eyes were too huge for her face, she really had lost weight, even with the constant tucking and fussing by the bridal shop owner, the dress bodice was about an inch too loose.  It was lovely, no one would notice, but the woman had not been eating.  And Carrie did eat.
She wouldn’t be my friend if she didn’t.

“I’ll find you something round
,
” I promis
ed, and abandon
ed
her to the anxious administrations of her sister’s
-
in
-
law to be.

The
musicians
set up in the far corner of the patio, well under the olive trees.  A few guests greeted one another.  The first waiter appeared carrying a tray of flutes filled with sparkling wine. Patrick
’
s
parents stood by the main tent chatting quietly, every few seconds his mother glanced around, then focused again on her spouse.  I
made my way to
the
food
staging
area,
there must be something I could snatch for the guest of honor.

I had just found two stray corn muffins when Patrick leaped over.  “Allison!”  He grabbed my arm and the muffins almost slid off the tiny plate, I switched hands.

“They’re for Carrie, she’s starving.”

“Are my sisters with her?” 

“They won’t let her out of their sight.”

He relaxed and dropped his hand.

I studied him. Like his sisters, he had lost weight, not a lot, but his
cheek bones
were more defined, his skin was paler than usual.  He also had a haunted look about him that did not bode well.

“You’re having second thoughts!” I accused him.  “Listen, Carrie Eliot is the best thing that could ever happen to you, and you know it.”

He did not disagree but barked out an ironic almost paranoid laugh. I did not join him.  He glanced around,
then
pulled me  (with considerable effort and strain) off to a far corner of the patio.

“Did you ever watch slasher movies when you were a kid? You know the kind with a crazy person who attacks
badly behaved
teens?”

I stared at him.
How did he know?  My brothers liked to hold me down and make me watch
Halloween
over and over
;
I was terrified,
they thought it was fun
ny
.

He read my expression correctly.
“
Remember that movie,
I
K
now
W
hat
Y
ou
D
id
L
ast
S
ummer
?
”

I nodded but honestly, I
did not want t
o explore the similarities of a
slasher flick
to
t
he wedding of the century, or love, or brides.
My stomached clenched, tiny pricks of sweat started from the back of my neck to my waist.
Shit, Kimberly Sullivan was his sister.

He read my expression and sagged, just a little.

“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you but you must swear not to tell Carrie.
  Not until it’s all over.
”

All over? I did not trust myself to make any kind of encouraging comment.
Especially when I now had two secrets to keep from the bride.

 
Patrick focused on the road behind us.  “
I have another sister.  Her name is Kimberly. 
She
was great, my favorite.
When we were kids, she took it on herself to protect me
from Claire and Kathleen.
She was
the first
to get married.
”
 
He took a breath.  “
Except t
he groom never showed up
.”

I could relate.  I waited, balancing the muffins, resisting taking one myself.
There was more to this story, just from
his
body language, just from the fact that this is the first I’ve heard of an extra sister.  She wasn’t even invited to the
shower,
it must have ended rather badly.

“Did she die?”

He shook his head,
was that
regret in his eyes
?
“We should
not have left her alone that night, but what could we do?  She insisted she was fine, and she had always been strong, resourceful.”  He relaxed a bit.  “She was great at hiding me.  When Kathleen and Claire were on a tear, Kim would find the perfect place to hide and we could play or read all afternoon – Kathleen and Claire never could figure out where we had gone.”

“What happened that night?” I prodded gently. Carrie was waiting for her muffins, but I had to know.

Patrick rubbed the back of his neck and ran his index finger around the inside of his tuxedo collar.  “She
checked into
the honeymoon suite at the Fairmont
alone
claiming she didn’t want to waste it.” He paused and looked up at the
clear blue sky
.  “We thought she was handling it well.  We didn’t know, you know some
time you can’t see it coming.”

“Sometimes
you can’t anticipate what another person will do
,
” I said gently.  Banging and shouting from the reception tent wafted towards us.
More guests arrived, the crunch of cars, doors slammed. People greeted one another.
W
e still had
time.

“
She must have spent the whole night hunting him down.
I never did figure out how she managed to find him, and I have never figured out why the idiot stayed in the
c
ity.
We discovered
Kim
has quite a talent for
hunting people down.
She
found him
at a
North Beach ba
r, romancing yet another woman.
On their wedding night for God’s
s
ake.  And, well, she broke his beer bottle
on the bar
and
he was so surprised she was able to
cut him up
pretty effectively
before
he could defend himself and well before
she was pulled away
. It was quite the scene.  Many reporters, many cops.
”
He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes as if the memory was still terribly recent.

“And many attorneys
.
” 

“Our attorney lives in city, he
was right there on the scene, at least his people were
. We paid.  She had no history,
no signs, not even as a child.  W
e never knew
.
I guess sometimes you can’t know. For a while we’d bring her home, but she doesn’t stay in one place
for very long
.”

Patrick dropped his head in his hands. “So you see?  Carrie’s parents were nothing, easy.  This has haunted us since
Kimberly’s
horrible wedding.
”

“She’s the
forth
child.”

He nodded.  “She’s just trying to save us.  We know that,
Kathleen, Claire and I,
deep down
she really cares about us, really loves us
, but her methods
. .
.”

“Are
unorthodox
.”
I wondered what had
happened to Kathleen and Claire. Had they come close
to marriage
, only to
have their crazy sister appear like the madwoman in the
attic and ruin it all?  Were they worried it was genetic?

I knew about harboring murderous
scenarios
over
former fiancées
, I would have cheerfully killed mine
given the chance and a sharp object.

“
To state the obvious,
I take it
she’s at large again?”

“Yes,
”
Patrick admit
ted.  “She waited for a new shift at the hospital
, and checked herself out. She’s on the loose.  And this isn’t the first time.  She’s really good at this.”

“How is she getting around?’

He shrugged.  “Friends? Enemies? Homeless shelters, y
our United Way dollars at work.
  I don’t know, she’s clever and lovely
and articulate,
everything
necessary
get a
n
easy
hand out.”

“What happened to him
, the runaway groom
?”

“
I don’t know.
We were relieved he didn’t file a lawsuit.
But the circumstances being what they were, it wouldn’t have looked good for him anyway.
We paid for his plastic surgery, after that,
he faded away
.  We
placed Kim in
an institute in San Francisco
.
”