Wedding Day of Murder (18 page)

Tosh’s sister, Bede, caught Lacy’s
attention from across the room.

“Lacy, I brought my ones,” Bede
announced. She held up a fat wad of dollar bills.

“Great,” Lacy said, confused. She
turned to Kimber and Riley. “She knows the party is already paid for, right?”

“Those are for the stripper,”
Kimber said.

“Someone hired a stripper?” Lacy
exclaimed.

“You did,” Riley said.

“I did? When did I do that?”

“You said you hired entertainment,”
Riley said.

“What?! Even if our
ultra-conservative grandma weren’t here, I wouldn’t have any idea how or where
to hire a stripper,” Lacy hissed. “Plus, gross! If I wanted to see a sweaty
stranger gyrate in his underwear, I would join a gym.”

“Your concept of both gyms and
strippers is spot on,” Riley said. “If you weren’t talking about a stripper,
then what did you mean by entertainment?”

“I hired a clown to make balloon
animals,” Lacy said.

Riley and Kimber looked at each
other and erupted in laughter.

“That’s going to be one surprised
clown when Bede shoves a dollar down his pants,” Riley said. Kimber bent over,
howling.

“Stop it, girl, I can’t breathe.”

“He doesn’t just do animals,” Lacy
added. “He also makes flowers, hats, and swords. He’s really good. I hired the
best one I could find.”

They laughed harder.

“I might have the baby right here,”
Riley said, pressing her hand over her belly.

“Do it,” Kimber urged. “Maybe the
clown can make you a balloon bassinet.”

“I don’t understand what’s so
funny,” Lacy said.

“The entertainment,” Riley gasped.
“You said, ‘If you know what I mean.’ What else were we supposed to think?”

“I thought everyone knew I meant
the balloon clown. I thought it was a given. I would
love
to have someone to make balloons at my party.”

“You’re living the dream now,
girl,” Kimber said, which sent her and Riley into another fit of giggles. Lacy
left them and wandered to the punch table. She didn’t understand what was so
funny. Was she so out of it that it would be considered normal to hire a
stripper for her pregnant sister’s wedding shower? With her mother and grandmother
in attendance, no less. Did people really do that?

Her thoughts were interrupted when
the door burst open. The protesters streamed in, led by Rain and followed by
Joe who was trying ineffectually to stop them.

What
now?
Lacy thought. She set down her punch and went forward to try and
diffuse the situation, whatever it might be.

Across town at his office, Jason
was distracted. He was supposed to be sifting through the backgrounds of all
the protesters, but he couldn’t concentrate. What if he was barking up the
wrong tree entirely? What if Michael was right? What if the mayor and his
fellow officer were responsible for Carl Whethers death? What if they were
laying a meticulous trap for Lacy? How could he fight against the powers that
be if he was part of them? On the other hand, wasn’t it paranoid to suspect his
coworkers of such heinous foul play? They were sworn to uphold the law, the
same as he was. Wasn’t it far-fetched to believe they would break that oath in
order to exact revenge on Lacy?

His phone rang. He did a double
take when he saw that it was Michael. How had the man gotten his number? He
almost didn’t answer it. Somehow he knew it wouldn’t be good news, and his mind
was already muddled with too many shades of gray. He had to answer it, however,
if only to assuage his raging curiosity. What had Michael found? He knew
without being told that Michael had broken into places to do some snooping.
Good or bad, he had to know what the answers were.

“I have a good news, bad news
scenario,” Michael said when Jason answered. “The good news is that the mayor
and detective are in the clear. I won’t say how I know, but trust me on that.”

“What’s the bad news?” Jason asked.

“I believe I found Carl Whether’s
computer,” Michael said.

“That’s not bad news,” Jason said.
Carl Whether’s computer might yield a treasure trove of information; it could
be the key to everything.

“It is if you consider where I
found it,” Michael said.

“Where did you find it?” Jason
asked. Michael was enjoying the dramatic reveal a bit too much, in his opinion.

“Are you sitting down?” Michael
said.

“What is going on here?” Lacy
asked. Kimber flanked her on the right side, bolstering her confidence. Kimber
might not look like much, but she had a crazy temper and could be lethal in a
fight, a lesson Lacy learned the hard way the one and only time they got into a
physical altercation in college.

“They burst in rambling about
something,” Joe said. “Practically bowled me over in their hurry to get up
here.”

“Cultural excess,” Rain screamed,
pointing to the chandelier and gift table. “You are the worst sort of rich
person! That’s enough food to feed a half dozen people.”

“There are nine people here,” Lacy
said. “It’s a party.”

“There shouldn’t be any parties
when children are starving,” Rain said.

“If there were any starving
children here, I would invite them inside for a meal,” Lacy said. “This is a
private party. You have to go.”

“No! We won’t go!” Rain began to
chant. “Come on, guys,” she urged, but her group was slowly breaking up, lured
by the food and punch. Two of them had already picked up glasses and were
filling them with pink punch.

“Stop it!” Lacy cried. “You are not
allowed to drink our punch, you are not allowed to be here. Go away before I
call the police.”

“What’s the deal here? What’s going
on?” Bede asked. She and the other sisters streamed over, surrounding Lacy and
Kimber like a gang.

“Nothing, it’s okay,” Lacy said.
“There’s a bit of a protest going on, but they’re leaving now.”

Rain crossed her arms over her
chest and plunked herself down. “Make us.”

“Okay,” Bede said.

“Awesome,” Bridget mumbled, rolling
up her sleeves. Together, they picked up Rain and began dragging her toward the
elevator. By the punch bowl, Betsy and Belle grabbed the two stragglers and
dragged them away, too. The other protesters followed like lambs.

“This is not the party I planned,”
Lacy muttered. “And if they touched the cookies or cupcakes, someone is going
to pay.” She and Joe followed behind the group. Her presence wasn’t necessary,
since Tosh’s sisters had everything well in hand. But she was the hostess; she
supposed she should be the one to oversee the bouncers.

They dumped Rain and her ilk
unceremoniously on the grass outside the Stakely building. “Beat it,” Bede said.

“We have a constitutional right to
speak our minds,” Rain said.

“And I have a constitutional right
to make you eat your teeth,” Betsy said. Rain looked up at the four imposing
sisters who now towered over her.

“All right, we’ll move across the
street, but that’s as far as we’ll go.”

“We’ll stay here to make sure you
get settled in,” Bridget said. They waited until Rain and the protesters
gathered themselves and crossed the street, settling comfortably under an oak
tree. A few of the protesters scratched at the grass and fell asleep.

“Thank you, guys. Where did you
learn to be so intimidating?”

“Catholic girls’ school,” Bede
said. “No one is scarier than nuns, Lacy. C’mon, we’ll walk you up.”

“That’s okay, you guys go ahead. I
think I see my entertainment.” She squinted against the setting sun, shading
her eyes. Down the street a big-footed clown slowly ambled along, dragging a
tank of helium behind him.

“I’m going to go get my dollars
ready,” Bede said.

“O-okay,” Lacy said. She hoped she would
gather the courage to disappoint her soon or she might be the first person to
be sued by a clown for sexual harassment. “Hey,” she called out when he was
close enough to hear her. “I’m glad to see you. The party needs a boost.” He
smiled.
Clowns are creepy,
she
thought absently.

“I am sitting down,” Jason assured
Michael.

“After I made a fruitless search
of, uh, certain properties, I started thinking about what you said.”

“What did I say?” Jason snapped.
Pulling information from Michael was like extracting teeth. His flair for drama
was too much for Jason’s frazzled nerves to handle.

“You said that everything started
when the protesters arrived,” Michael said.

“Yes,” Jason prompted.

“Someone else arrived with the
protesters,” Michael said.

It took a few seconds to process.
“Andy,” Jason breathed. “Are you kidding me?”

“I wish. I had a bad feeling about
him the first time I met him. Something was off, but Lacy and Kimber loved him
so well, I talked myself out of it. But then I figured since I was already
investigating, I might as well check him out. I found two laptops. One is his;
one is not. The other is scrawled with the initials C. W.”

“Oh.” Jason said. He didn’t know
what else to say.

“It gets worse,” Michael continued.
“His closet is covered with pictures of Lacy.”

“Oh,” Jason said again. “Do you
have any idea where he is? I’ll pick him up.” He got up and started walking to
his car.

“Here’s where it gets confusing.
Scattered all over his bedroom is what I can only guess to be clown
paraphernalia.”

“Clown?” Jason repeated. Had he
heard Michael wrong?

“Clown stuff. And a book about how
to make balloon animals, along with a receipt for a helium tank and some open
packages of balloons.”

“Lacy,” Jason said. He was running
now.

“How did you get to Lacy from a
balloon clown?” Michael asked, but Jason didn’t answer. He tossed the phone
onto the seat of his car and took off. Lacy was having a party. Lacy loved
balloon clowns. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together and realize where
Andy was headed.

The clown approached slowly from
Lacy’s left, and then another arrived from her right. “Well, this is awkward,”
she said. “I only ordered one of you.”

“All I know is that I got the
message on my machine to be at this address,” the one on her left said.

“I don’t think we need two of you,”
Lacy said. If she hoped one of them would bow out gracefully, she was bound to
be disappointed. They both stared at her, side by side, matching creepy smiles
hiding what must be frustrated expressions. “This is a very important event,”
she continued. “I need whichever one of you is best.”

“What are you saying?” one of them
said.

“I’m saying I think we should have
a balloon off. Make something, and whichever one of you makes the best thing
will win. It’ll be like
Top Chef
for
balloon animals.”

The one on the left sighed and
pulled out a balloon. “This is where my quality clown college education pays
off.”

The one on the right pulled out a
knife.

“That seems like cheating,” the
clown on the left said.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,”
Lacy said. “I’ll pay you a partial rate for the mix up.”

“Quiet, Lacy.”

“Andy,” Lacy said. She smiled.
“What are you doing? Is this some sort of joke?”

“No. This is about putting
something right that should have been put right long ago,” he said.

“I don’t understand. What are you
talking about?” Little prickles of alarm began to work their way up her arms,
forcing the hair there to attention.

“Do you remember in college when
you almost fell out the window and no one could figure out how it happened?” he
asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“That was me. I pushed you. I saw
you standing there, looking out, and this whisper in my head told me to do it.
Such a simple suggestion, but so right. I knew as clearly as I’ve ever known
anything that you needed to die. So I did it, and it felt so good, Lacy. So
good. I wish I could describe to you how good it felt. It was euphoric, but you
didn’t die. You dangled there.”

“You pulled me back in. You saved
me.”

“No, I wanted to do it right. I
didn’t want it to end like that, with you dangling like a bird on a wire. You
were supposed to fall gracefully. You were supposed to plummet. I wanted to do
it the proper way, to make it clean and perfect.”

“So, when I fell down the stairs my
junior year…”

“No, that was you.”

“What about the time I got stuck on
that ski lift and they had to call the fire department?”

“No, that was also you.”

“What about when I…”

“They were all you, okay? When you
think about it, I might be doing you a favor,” he said. “For a while, I
convinced myself that I hadn’t heard what I thought I heard, that I wasn’t
supposed to kill you. I mean, it’s not as if I don’t like you. You’re one of my
best friends, and you’re Kimber’s best friend. Kimber and I are dating now, and
I see a real future for us. That makes things awkward. But when she asked me to
move here, I knew it was a sign. It’s your time to go, and I’m the angel of
death, Lacy. Your angel of death.”

“Well, I’ve gotta go,” the real
clown said. He eased away as quickly as he could, his giant feet flapping on
the pavement.

Down the street, tires screeched.
Lacy looked over to see Jason erupt from his car, grab the clown, and begin
violently shaking him. “That’s the wrong one,” she called. Jason looked at her
and Andy and let the clown go, but it was too late. Andy grabbed her and
pressed the knife to her neck.

Jason eased closer, his hands held
out in a non-threatening manner. “Let her go, Andy,” he said.

“No,” Andy said.

“You don’t want to do this,” Jason
said.

“Not really, but I sort of need to.
I can’t stand to leave things unfinished. I had a Tiger Mother.”