Deadly Greetings (Book 2 in the Cardmaking Mysteries) (3 page)

Honestly, how bad could it be?

Chapter 2

At least I had a few days before I had to
move. I probably should have spent more time fretting over my new
domicile, but Custom Card Creations took up most of my conscious
thought. Lillian and I were back working half an hour later.
Unfortunately, the mob of customers clamoring to get in was more in
my dreams than my reality. From the look of things, no one had even
noticed that we’d been gone.

I was restocking some of our stickers when
Lillian approached me. “Jennifer, this new gizmo came in yesterday.
Would you mind showing me how to use it?”

My aunt Lillian had become a card-making
fanatic since she’d come to work for me—something I was grateful
for most times—but it was a tendency that could drive me crazy when
I had work to do at my card shop. Still, I couldn’t expect her to
help customers if she didn’t know how to make cards herself, so I
put the stickers down and took the box from her. We’d just received
a new embosser, and I needed to run it through its paces, trying
papers from my supplier and some samples I’d made myself, before
I’d recommend it to my customers.

I pulled out the tray, pegs and stencils,
then quickly set it up for her, explaining as I went along. “It’s
the simplest thing in the world to use.” I held one of the stencils
up. “See the cutouts? These will end up embossed in your paper.”
There were swirls, curlicues and leafy vines cut out of both pieces
of the hard plastic. “You put the base stencil down, then the top
one above it. Pin it with a peg, slip your paper in, pop a few more
pegs in to hold it all together, and you’re ready to go. Think of
it as a plastic sandwich with paper in the middle.”

She studied it a moment, then asked, “But
how do you get it to emboss? Is it some kind of press?”

I held up a burnishing tool, a gizmo that
looked like an ink pen with a little silver ball on either end.
“Press this into each opening. No, not like that. Trace the
pattern. Don’t worry about filling it in, just go around the
edges.”

She worked at it a few minutes until she’d
traced every opening, then frowned. “I must be doing something
wrong. This looks terrible.”

I fought to hide my smile as I pulled out
the pins, took off the top stencil, then handed the card stock to
Lillian and waited for her reaction. While I hadn’t used that
particular brand before, I had embossed quite a bit myself, so I
knew the process.

Lillian studied the results closely, then
said, “That’s absolutely incredible. Now this is what I call
elegant,” she added as she held it up for me to see.

“
The pattern’s a little
ornate, wouldn’t you say?” I said as I took the card stock from
her. Lillian had used every shape on the pattern sheet, raising
nearly every square inch of the paper. I couldn’t see how anyone
could add the simplest greeting to it.

“
Oh pooh, Jennifer. Not
everyone likes your simple stylings. You really must unleash that
inner artist and let yourself go.”

I took the embosser from her and said,
“Okay, no more self-help tapes for you. Have you been listening to
them while you walk again?”

“
Scoff if you must, but they
truly work.” She gently took the embossing stencil from me. “I’d
like to try one of the other sheets, if you don’t mind.”

“
Knock yourself out,” I
said. “I’ve got to finish restocking these collage stickers.” The
sticker set images came in everything from wedding gowns to teapots
to floral bouquets. They were an easy way to make an elegant card
quickly, and regardless of what Lillian thought, I could make an
ornate card with the best of them. I was just finishing up when the
front door chimed. Not only was it not a customer, as I’d sincerely
hoped; it was someone I really didn’t want to talk to at the
moment.

“
Jennifer,” my brother,
Bradford, said, “have you lost your mind completely?”

“
Sometimes I wonder,” I
said. “What’s got you in an uproar now?”

Decked out in his full police uniform, my
brother spun his cap in his hand, a sure sign that he was truly
angry and not just posturing. I could usually tell how mad he was
by the velocity of the cap. Judging by its current blurring motion,
I was guessing he was pretty steamed. “You moved into a place where
someone died,” he said.

“
Would you like to field
this one, Lillian?” I asked.

“
No thank you. Goodness,
look at the time. Jennifer, I have to dash, but I’ll be back
anon.”

She was past me before I could grab her arm.
So much for family loyalty. There was a real friction between my
brother and our aunt, and I was guessing she’d just turned up the
heat another notch. Well, if she was going to bail on me, I was
going to return the favor and sing like a mockingbird in love. “I
rented the place before I knew about its dubious history. Lillian
told me about it.”

“
Just tell me you didn’t
sign a lease,” he said.

“
I could, but you know how I
hate to lie to you.” My brother was used to respect and
consideration from nearly everyone in Rebel Forge, but I was one of
the lone exceptions. He might be the law in our town, but he was
still my brother, first and forever.

“
Grab your jacket,” he said
as he stormed toward the door. Only when he saw that I wasn’t
following him did Bradford stop and turn back to me. “Why aren’t
you coming?”

“
As flattering as your
invitation is, I’d like to know where we’re heading before I’m
willing to leave.”

“
I’ll tell you exactly where
we’re going. Hester Taylor is going to tear up that lease if I have
to throw her in jail to get her to do it.”

“
Then I’ll just have to sign
another one,” I said, standing my ground. If Bradford had
approached me in a calmer manner, I might have taken him up on his
offer of support. In fact, if the oaf had left me alone a few
hours, I most likely would have hunted him down and pleaded for his
assistance myself. What I wasn’t about to stand for was letting him
make my decisions for me. Suddenly I knew that I was staying at
Whispering Oak, whether my brother or Frances the ghost liked it
one bit.

He stared hard at me, something I was sure
made criminals quiver down to their socks, but I returned as good
as I got. Finally, he said, “I never thought much of our aunt, but
she’s really crossed the line. I can’t believe she’d do this to
you.”

I didn’t feel much like defending her, but I
wasn’t about to let Bradford take that swipe at her. “She thought
she was doing what was best for me.”

“
I can’t imagine how,” he
said. Then I saw a grim smile on his face.

“
What’s that all about? What
are you up to?”

He shrugged. “Me? Sis, I’m not going to say
another word. I’m just going to mind my own business.” He glanced
at my clock, then said, “Sorry I can’t stay and chat, but I’ve got
a date for lunch.”

“
Are you taking Cindy out?
Good, your wife deserves a break from the library.”

He shook his head. “No, she’s volunteering
at the school today. I’m taking Sara Lynn to lunch.”

“
Bradford, don’t bring her
into this.”

He tried to look innocent and failed
miserably. “Jen, she’s my sister, too. If your name comes up in the
course of our conversation, it’s perfectly natural that I tell her
your latest news.”

I could see it now, the two of them ganging
up on me after they had a quick bite to eat. It was time to stop
his schemes now. “I’m moving to Whispering Oak. It’s settled. You
can tell Sara Lynn that, and I’ll tell her the same thing when you
both casually ‘stop by’ here after lunch.”

I could tell by his flinch that I’d wrecked
his plan, which did my heart good. I love my brother, but sometimes
I have to step on him a little harder than I want just to get his
attention. Touching his cheek lightly, I said, “Bradford, I know
you love me and want to protect me, and I appreciate it, I honestly
do. But I’m a grown woman. I’ll be fine, I promise you.”

He grunted, uncomfortable as always with
exhibits of emotion. “You’d better be. If anything happens to you,
I’m holding Lillian responsible.”

After he was gone, my stomach grumbled, and
I realized that I was alone. The only way I was going to get
anything to eat myself was to shut the card shop down, and I
couldn’t afford to do that. I rummaged through my purse and found a
few peanut butter crackers, then grabbed the last Diet Coke from my
minifridge. If my questionable nutritional practices didn’t kill
me, how much luck could a ghost have?

Lillian came back to the shop soon after
Bradford left, and I wondered if she’d been waiting in the shadows
for his departure. I didn’t care. She had a bulging bag from
Granville’s Deli, a new sandwich shop that had opened where Carly’s
House of Style had recently been. We were all accustomed to
watching shops come and go on Oakmont, but I’d hated to see Carly’s
shut down. Contrary to its name, the boutique was run by an older
man named Georges, who had better taste in clothing than I ever
had. We’d become friends since I’d opened my place, but Georges
couldn’t afford to stay in business and he’d shut his doors, a
prospect that haunted my dreams nearly every night.

Lillian handed me a sandwich, and I took it
eagerly from her. “Don’t you at least want to know the
choices?”

“
If it’s not still moving,
I’ll eat it.” I took a single bite and discovered that I’d chosen a
club sandwich, one of the worst ones I’d ever had in my life. The
bacon was still raw, barely warmed, while the bread was at least as
old as I was. If tomato and lettuce were present, they were hiding
from that bite. The rest of the meat was frozen into a solid block.
Lillian at glanced at my expression, then wisely examined her
sandwich before sampling it. Without a word, she is wrapped her
sandwich back up in its paper. “Give that to me,” she said,
gesturing to mine.

“
You know, I’d love to be
able to say that it’s not that bad, but I’m not that good a
liar.”

I handed it back to her, and as Lillian
headed for the door she called out, “I’ll be back shortly.” I was
glad I didn’t own Granville’s. It was going to be hard enough for
them to keep afloat while the greatest influx of our tourists was
absent. While it was true we had hikers during autumn and skiers
during winter and on into spring, there were no crowds like our
summer people, and I was hoping to hang on for their return
myself.

As I waited for a real meal, I was in a
pretty foul temper, hungry as a bear after hibernation, and I was
at in no mood for any foolishness. When I saw Bradford drive up, I
rushed out the door to send him away.

One look at the expression on his face told
me that he wasn’t there to chide me about my new living quarters.
Something was wrong.

“
What is it? Did something
happen to Sara Lynn?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s nothing like
that. Jen, you mentioned that Maggie Blake was one of your
customers, didn’t you?”

“
Sure, Maggie’s in my
card-making club. We meet every Thursday. She makes the most
hilarious gag cards I’ve ever seen. Why?” Suddenly I wished I
hadn’t asked. Maggie was a real jewel, always ready to tell a funny
story on herself, relaying something that had happened to her with
the most hilarious results. Her sense of humor was barely inside
the boundaries of good taste, but the cards Maggie made were so
outlandish they were funny. She was at least as old as Lillian, but
while my aunt fought every advancing wrinkle with creams and
ointments galore, Maggie embraced her age, reveling in it, and I’d
always admired her for it.

Bradford’s voice caught in his throat before
he managed to say, “I’m afraid she had a car accident. After I left
you, I got a call on my radio. From the look of things at the
scene, she must have taken her eyes off the road for just a second.
Cargill Road turned, but her car kept going straight. If she’d had
her seat belt on, who knows? But she didn’t. I’m sorry, Jennifer,
but she didn’t make it.”

Oh, no. I hated the thought of Maggie not
being around anymore.

“
Sis, are you
okay?”

“
I’m not, but I will be.
Life’s short, isn’t it, Bradford?”

He rubbed his neck, then said, “I see it all
the time, but it doesn’t make it any easier to accept, does it?
Anyway, I was on my way out there and I wanted to stop and tell you
about it first. I know she was a friend of yours.”

I hugged my big brother, hanging on longer
than I needed to, but sometimes it was nice forgetting that I was
grown-up. Bradford wrapped me up in his arms, and I let it out,
mourning for my lost friend. After a few minutes, I felt better
than I had any right to expect. I pulled away, wiped the last tears
off my face, and kissed Bradford’s cheek. “Thank you,” I said.

He looked down at me and smiled. “Any time.
If you need me, call, okay?”

“
I will,” I said as I
touched his shoulder lightly. At that moment, his radio crackled.
“Boss, we need you here on Cargill.”

“
What happened?” he asked,
his face suddenly taut.

“
No big deal, but a couple
of rubberneckers watching the tow truck rammed into each
other.”

“
Can’t you handle them,
Wayne?” I’d recognized the voice as belonging to one of my
brother’s deputies. Bradford had a blind spot when it came to Wayne
Davidson, but I knew he was a total creep, and I did everything in
my power to avoid him.