Freezer I'll Shoot (A Vintage Kitchen Mystery) (25 page)

“He’s a good little pup,” Ruby said, taking another treat out of her pocket and feeding it to the Yorkie-Poo.

“So now you know your secret is safe, right?” Jaymie said.

Ruby nodded. “Only Marg knows, and now you and Valetta.”

“We won’t say a word.”

“I think we’d better make sure folks know we’re not brother and sister though. I know there was some gossip about me, and I want to put an end to that, but I just don’t want my past getting around.”

“I think it’ll be okay.”

“So, now what, Jaymie?”

Jaymie looked off into the dark, across the road into the dark pines that lined her road. The island felt peaceful to her again, and she reflected on all the work they had done to make it perfect. “Now I face dinner at Rose Tree Cottage with my family and Daniel’s parents. Thanks to Valetta, I think the cottage is as ready as it’ll ever be. At least I won’t be ashamed of my island home.”

“When does the big dinner take place?”

“Day after tomorrow. Then my article comes out in the
Howler
the very next day. I don’t know which one makes me more nervous.”

“Good luck, hon,” Ruby said, reaching over to squeeze Jaymie’s hand. “You remember what I said about Daniel. A good man like that is hard to find. I didn’t get mine until I was into my forties.”

Twenty-three

S
AMMY DOBRINSKIE WAS
on Jaymie’s cottage doorstep the next morning, clipboard under his arm, his expression troubled.

“Sammy! Didn’t expect you this morning,” Jaymie said, holding the screen door open for him. “C’mon in. Do you want to have a coffee down at the new patio?”

“Uh, sure, okay. I guess it’s real early, isn’t it?” he said, his cheeks reddening. He pushed his lank hair back and clutched his clipboard to his chest.

Jaymie had on her pajamas, but at least that was, this time of year, a pair of cotton shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt. No bra. “Just go on down, and give me a minute.”

It took her ten minutes to change, brush her hair and teeth, and assemble a tray of coffee cups, the carafe and milk and sugar. As she descended the lawn, she saw Garnet and Ruby sitting out on their patio, overlooking the joint ravine lot. Garnet waved. Jaymie called out hello, then continued on to the patio. Sammy was pacing, but as he saw her approach, he dashed to pull out a chair for her and help her with the heavy tray.
Nice manners,
Jaymie thought. He’d do well with girls once he got over his shyness.

“I’m s-sorry for butting in,” he said, in a rush of words. “I get thinking, and forget how early it is, and then just rush out and do stuff. Sometimes when I realize how early it is, I’m at the doors of a Home Depot that’s not, like, open yet.”

“It’s okay, Sam. What have you got there?” she asked, and poured a cup of coffee for each of them.

He laid the clipboard down and showed her the finished sketches of her landscaping. “I had some other ideas, and wanted to show you before we take off. Mom and I are driving down to the school this morning to find a place to rent near the college. We’ll only be staying there overnight, and I know I’ll be seeing you again, to take pictures of the landscaping, but I wanted to get this done.”

She looked at his sketches, while he added four spoons of sugar and lots of milk to his cup. He had elaborated on the themes he had already introduced, of “living areas” on the cottage property, and they discussed his ideas for a half hour. Some, they decided, were too complex unless the family decided to modernize and expand the cottage, something Jaymie was not in favor of, though it would make the property more rentable. But there were still a couple of ideas she liked very much, including a barbecue and fire pit area, for families to hang out with their kids and toast marshmallows.

“Do you want to come back tomorrow after I’ve set the whole thing up for a meal . . . I mean,
before
the family supper? Will you be back in time? I want you to be able to photograph all your hard work in its best setting.”

He looked relieved and grateful. “I would. I was kinda afraid to ask, after everything that went down. I know you’ve been super busy. But it will look its best if I do it with the area set up for use.”

“Don’t be silly. I’m really sorry about your dad,” she said, touching his arm briefly, “but it must be good for you and your mom to know who the real culprit is, isn’t it?”

He nodded. “I, uh, wanted to tell you . . . My mom, when she lied about that night, about being home, and all, and me being at a sleepover . . . I knew she went out. She followed my dad, but lost track of him. She ended up on the Canadian side, thinking he was going to visit some woman there.”

Jaymie was silent.

“He, uh . . . He had a girlfriend. But the woman dumped him before he got murdered, from what the cops told us Anyway, that’s all that was; my mom was scared they’d come after me if they knew I was home alone that night.”

Jaymie knew the rest about the night of the murder, that Will had called Urban to meet him at the marina, where he actually murdered him, stowed him in the office, then, under cover of darkness, moved his body using the wheelbarrow. Will then took the wheelbarrow back to the marina and dumped it in the river.

“Are you guys keeping the marina?” she asked.

“Yeah, for now. Mr. Redmond is buying out Mrs. Lindsay’s half, I think, and he and his . . . Uh, Ms. Redmond are going to manage the marina while we’re gone.”

Jaymie bit her lip, and glanced over at him. “You know, Sammy, that they aren’t really sister and brother.” Garnet and Ruby were fine with folks knowing that much, they just didn’t want her past associations gossiped about.

He smiled and tossed his lank hair back. “Yeah, I know, but it’s hard to think of them as . . . as a couple, after all these years.” He turned pink again, subject to the same problem with blushing that Jaymie had always had. “Y’know what I mean? I’ll get used to it. Eventually.”

Jaymie did know. It would take a while to let it sink in that they were husband and wife, on the run from her father’s mob buddies. As much as they had wanted to keep it secret, there was a very real threat that the whole island would soon know about Ruby’s past. The news chain was mysterious and efficient. It wouldn’t come from her, though. “Garnet will make a good co-owner for you and your mom. How is she doing?”

“Mom went to see Mrs. Lindsay this morning, and I think it made her feel better. Did you know that Mrs. Lindsay is putting her house up for sale?”

“I heard something about it.”

“Someone is looking at it today, some rich folks from out of state.”

“Yuck. I hope they don’t ruin it. It’s got the best view on the whole island.”

• • •

DANIEL CALLED, AND
she spent a half hour on the phone with him, reassuring him that she was just fine, and downplaying the actual sequence of events so he wouldn’t freak out on her. She then had to do the same with her father. He wanted her to come home right then, but she told him that she still had work to do, and she’d be home later.

She then worked all day to get the place just right. Later that afternoon, Zack came over and grilled her on everything she knew, thought, or conjectured. By the time he was done, she was exhausted and ready for him to leave. He didn’t look so attractive through the jaded and exhausted eyes of a woman on the brink of telling him off.

She took the ferry back to Queensville, had a satisfyingly long gossip with Valetta at the Emporium, checked in on Cynthia at the Cottage Shoppe—it was almost ready for its grand opening; Cynthia had taken Jaymie’s suggestions for the kitchen, but had bought up a lot of the enamelware dishes, so Jaymie kept all she had won at the auction—and returned home. Her mom and dad were out to dinner, so she had the house to herself. She got an email from Nan confirming that the article was indeed going to be in the paper, along with a couple of photos. Her blog was still lonely, with just three followers—Valetta, Dee Stubbs and Becca—and a comment or two.

She slept like a log, and awoke early, as nervous as a kid on the first day of school. Becca had called to say she and Kevin wouldn’t make it for the actual dinner, but would come the next day to meet Daniel’s parents. Jaymie had been counting on her big sister’s help, and it made her crazy that she would have to bear the brunt of all the stress herself.

Her mother fretted over Jaymie’s hair, her clothes and every other little thing about her. Jaymie had put on too much weight. She couldn’t wear shorts; wasn’t she going to wear a skirt? And she wasn’t just going to put her hair up in a ponytail, was she? Why didn’t she curl it for once?

Finally fed up Jaymie escaped, heading out to the island early with a loaded Red Flyer wagon full of vintage tableware and linens. Her parents were coming out later, with the Collinses. The two mothers had actually—unexpectedly, amazingly—gotten together and made all the food, so for once, Jaymie didn’t have to worry about them.

As she disembarked the
Ferry Queene
and hauled her wagon along the dirt road toward the cottage—no Hoppy with her today—she saw Zack jogging along the beach, looping back from the dock. How often did he do that? It seemed like she saw him twice a day jogging! He saw her and trotted up beside her. Today he again looked relaxed and casual, not business-suit-all-work Zack as he had been the day before.

“Hi,” she said. She was shyer around relaxed-Zack than business-Zack, for some reason.

“Hey, so today’s the day, right? The family dinner at Rose Tree Cottage. Let me help you with that.” He took the handle of the wagon and started off, with her trotting behind.

She struggled to come up with conversational fodder, but he was keeping too quick a pace anyway, so it had to wait until he hauled the wagon up to the front porch and picked up the heavy vehicle, easily lifting it up to the porch. She would have unloaded it at the bottom and taken three or four trips to get all the china and silverware unloaded. He helped her get it inside, and then plopped down at the kitchen table while she unloaded it onto the counter.

Real vintage china, she had decided, not paper plates. It was the environmentally sensitive thing to do, and besides, she had some nice summery patterns that she wanted to mix and match with plain china. And silver . . . She was going to use her grandmother’s Leilani pattern, because it was so pretty . . . light and floral. Zack fidgeted. She glanced up from wondering about her “Vintage Eats” article in the
Wolverhampton Howler
to find him staring at her, an intense look on his face.

“You’re going to a lot of trouble for this dinner. You must really want to impress Dan’s folks.”

She frowned and looked down at the flowered china in her hands. Did she? She hadn’t thought of it that way, but she did feel the tension that comes from hoping someone likes you. “Not impress them . . . Well, maybe. I don’t know. I want them to like me. That’s natural, right?”

“Yeah, it’s natural to want your boyfriend’s parents to like you. I guess I’d better get going,” he said suddenly, heaving himself up and heading for the front door. “I’ve got to get to work. Got a lot to do today.”

“Okay. Bye!” she called out, as the screen door slammed behind him. What was up with him? Men always said that women were unfathomable, and all the while they walked around being a mystery wrapped inside a puzzle within an enigma.

For the next several hours she was too busy to worry about it. She hadn’t had time to make new cushions for the outside chairs, as she had planned, but she had made a very quick trip to a design store and bought some inexpensive cushions that worked nicely for the time being. They were yellow floral chintz, and they glowed in the shade of the alders. She set the white wrought iron table with the floral china, softly burnished silver, and butter yellow damask napkins, and piled some tarts and petits fours on a raised china tray in the center.

After finishing up, she gave Sammy a call, and told him to come on over. He came with a professional-looking camera and took a couple of dozen photos, awed and grateful at how the work looked, given that with his design and her flourishes, the setting now looked like a landscaping magazine layout.

He took off, since he and his mom were heading back to the college that very afternoon so they could finalize the arrangements for their apartment near the campus. Jaymie dressed in the shorts and nice blouse she thought appropriate for a casual family dinner. She didn’t know what to expect. She had left the menu and food to the two moms, and hadn’t really had a chance to check in on them. It would have been presumptuous, she thought, to have even tried.

When the two older couples arrived, Daniel and the dads doing all the carrying, Jaymie was thrilled that it was all so well organized. Mrs. Collins had made sensible choices for their cottage picnic menu: sliced ham, red potato salad, creamy coleslaw, green salad, sliced tomatoes. It started with a cold soup, a kind of gazpacho that was spicy, but really tasty. Good thing she had brought pretty china bowls along with the plates and dessert dishes.

“This is amazing, Jaymie,” her mom said. They sat in the cool shade as the sun began its descent after a hot August day, the men chatting about golf and politics, while the women had gone over—lightly, not in detail—Urban’s unfortunate demise in the ravine. “I would not recognize the ravine, the way you have it fixed up.” She turned to Mrs. Collins, and said, “Alan and I spend a week here every summer, and I’m really looking forward to it this time. I can bring my book down here, to the shade, and lie on a chaise lounge.”