“I thought that once the crowd had been given the details they’d disperse and go back to their rooms, but that awful man, Eddie’s cousin Gary, was there. He started talking about how he’s convinced you’re some kind of witch and he thinks that you used your psychic powers to make the police believe Eddie killed Gina!”
“Whoa,” I said, snapping my eyes wide. “That’s crazy!”
“It gets worse,” Cat said.
“The man’s a drunk, Cat! How could people believe that pile of dung?”
“It wasn’t that they believed him, Abby. I mean, it was obvious Gary had had one too many, so no one was really buying into his line of crap until one of the other bridesmaids—I think her name is Christina—told everyone about how you did a reading for Ellie yesterday. She said you kept telling Ellie that her fiancé had done something terrible and you wouldn’t tell her what it was, but then you went and told Duffy and now everyone is mad at you for ruining Ellie’s wedding.”
My knees gave out and I sat down hard on the bed. “That is so far from the truth, Cat, that I can’t even comment.”
“Claire and Sam have been telling everyone how humiliated they are. I even heard Claire make the suggestion that perhaps you were switched at birth.”
“What?! What do you mean she’s suggesting that I was switched at birth?!” I said, outraged.
“Well, one of Nina’s relatives was talking with Claire at the hotel, and I overheard Claire say that when you were born she didn’t entirely trust the nurse who was assigned to care for you in the nursery and that she thought there was a distinct difference between the baby she gave birth to and the one who was brought to her from the nursery a few hours later.”
I put my head in my hand as I felt the first hint of a really good headache begin above my eyebrows. “Maybe she’s right,” I said after a moment.
“Oh, come on, Abby. Of course she’s not. You know Claire; she’s just that shallow.”
“No, I’m serious, Cat. Maybe I was switched at birth. If that were really the case it sure would explain the difference between Mommy Dearest and me.”
“Abby, you were not switched at birth. Which is fortunate, because I’m still glad to be related to you, and that is not just because next to you I’m the cute one….”
I smiled ruefully into the phone. “Gee, thanks,” I said.
Cat chuckled. “So where are you, anyway?”
“I’m at Viv’s,” I said easily, as my lie detector went off in my head.
“Really?” Cat asked me, and I could tell by her tone she knew full well I was not where I claimed to be. “What room are you in? Because I’m here at Viv’s and I haven’t seen any sign of you.”
“Uh…” I said as my brain searched for a backup story. “What’re you doing at Viv’s? I mean, here?”
“I came by to check on you and see if you’d heard anything else about what happened. Viv said she stayed over at Nina’s last night and didn’t get home until a little while ago. She said that she completely forgot to give you a key, and she’s assuming you’re at Duffy’s.”
“Uh…”
“Yes?” Cat said, the smugness in her voice evident.
I made several sounds into the phone that I hoped sounded like static. “Sorry, what did you say?”
“So are you at Duffy’s?” my sister pushed.
“Sorry, Cat, crrrrch, I can’t hear you, crrrch, I think I’m losing the connection, crrrrrchhhh!” and I flipped the lid to the phone closed.
“Morning,” Duffy said from the hallway.
I jumped a little, as I hadn’t realized he’d been standing there. “Hey! No fair sneaking up on me!” I groused as I worked to straighten out my bed-head.
“Your curls look good in the morning,” Duffy said with a lazy drawl.
“Thanks,” I said, pulling my hand down from my hair and standing up. “Have you been awake long?”
“Couple minutes. How about some breakfast?” he asked.
“You cookin’?” I said, my interest piqued.
“Depends on which room you’d like me to cook in. I could cook in here if you’d like,” he said with another lazy drawl and a steady gaze.
“Ha!” I said, and began to move around the bed, straightening the covers nervously. “I like pancakes. You know how to make pancakes?”
“Yeah,” Duffy said with a chuckle. “But if I make ’em you gotta do the dishes.”
“Deal!” I said quickly.
“Naked,” he added as he pushed away from the doorjamb and headed down the hallway.
I fanned myself as he walked away. That man was definitely a morning-sex kinda guy. Trouble was, he was incredibly cute when he was rumpled.
After I’d straightened up the room I grabbed my cell and called Dave. He answered groggily, “Hey, honey. How’re you?”
“Morning, Dave. I’m fine. Did I wake you?”
“Naw,” he said, yawning into the phone. “I been up most of the night.”
“Yeah?” I asked my brows wrinkling. “You okay?”
Dave yawned again before answering. “I’m fine. Just can’t sleep, is all.”
“Missing your old lady?” I said with a smile.
“Naw. It’s your little buddy.”
“Eggy?”
“Yeah. He’s got to bring all his new squeaky toys to bed, and about every hour he wakes up and squeaks one or two of them just to make sure they’re working.”
“Well, duh!” I said, laughing at him. “Now you know why I don’t buy Eggy squeaky toys.”
“Yeah, but he’s so cute with ’em. He tries to carry like three or four at a time and he can barely walk. It’s hilarious.”
“We’ll see how hilarious it is in another day when you still can’t sleep,” I said. “So otherwise he’s okay?”
“Yeah, he’s fine. So how’s the wedding? You walk down the aisle yet?”
“Dave, I am not walking down the aisle. It’s my friend Ellie who was supposed to get married.”
“Hmmm. Sounds like now she’s not.”
“Looks that way.”
“Let me guess. You predicted the groom would be a real scumbag and now she won’t marry him.”
I smiled at how well Dave knew me. “Not quite, but you’re really close.”
“So, does that mean you’re coming home early?”
I paused for a moment, thinking about that. My flight wasn’t for another three days, and knowing what I was about to face with Ellie and the rest of the wedding guests, the prudent thing might be to leave town early. But then I thought about Sara, and how we still didn’t know where she was. Perhaps I needed to be part of the solution while I still had a little time left. “Naw, looks like I’m gonna stick it out here until Sunday. I need to wrap up some stuff and help out a friend if I can.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line, and finally Dave said, “Abby, you don’t always have to be the hero, you know.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“It means that when someone’s in trouble you’re the first person to march to the front lines on their behalf, and sometimes the better thing to do is wave the white flag and come on home.”
“Jesus, Dave. Now you’re getting all preachy on me.”
“I’m just sayin’, I know how you are.”
“See you Saturday, pal,” I said, and disconnected.
Padding out to the kitchen, lured by the fresh smell of pancakes on the griddle, I found Duffy on his own phone. “So, no confession, huh?” he said, and, noticing me, waved me over to a bar stool. “Yeah…uh-huh…okay. Well, give him a little rest and I’ll be there in a couple of hours. I need to check on my sister first.”
I took my seat at the bar and unfolded my napkin as I listened to Duffy. A moment later he disconnected and began piling hotcakes on a plate that he set in front of me. “Smells delicious,” I said with a happy smile.
“When it comes to food, I don’t mess around,” Duffy answered, pouring the ba
tter for his own portion onto the griddle.
“So Eddie didn’t confess?” I asked as I swiped butter onto my breakfast.
“Nope. He steadfastly denies any and all wrongdoing. But he hasn’t lawyered up yet, so I’m gonna head in and see what I can pull out of him. I’d like to know how his wallet ended up at Gina’s crime scene, and why a set of bloody scrubs was found in Gina’s car.”
“Freaky coincidence?”
“Maybe. But I’d like to hear it from Eddie.”
I cocked an eyebrow in his direction, “Kind of a catch twenty-two for you, huh?”
Duffy nodded and ran a hand through his thick brown hair. “You said it. If he can’t give me a reasonable explanation, then I’ve got to push him on Gina’s murder. If I can’t get him to ’fess up, and we find more evidence from the crime scene linking him to Gina’s murder, then it’s a tougher trial. If he is guilty and cracks, then I risk my sister hating me for the rest of my life.”
“You can’t really believe he did this,” I said. The more I pointed my radar at the question of Eddie’s guilt, the more convinced I was that he was innocent.
“I can’t afford to believe one way or the other, Abs. I have a murder to solve and a suspect in custody. Since I haven’t talked to him yet, I couldn’t tell you one way or the other how I feel about him.”
“So, what are you going to do about Sara?” I asked, switching off the topic of Eddie.
“File a missing persons, then grill Eddie, see if he cracks. If not we’ll just have to wait and see if she turns up or if we can track some more clues to her whereabouts.”
“You’ve got my help if you need it—at least until Saturday.”
Duffy smiled as he piled his pancakes on his plate and came to join me at the bar. “I appreciate that. Right now, if you’re willing, I’d really like you to be there for Ellie. Before I talked to the station I put a call in to Mom, and Ellie’s hurting something fierce.”
“Do you think she’ll want to talk to me? I mean, my sister tells me that the general consensus is that this is largely my fault.”
Duffy stopped pouring the maple syrup long enough to look me directly in the eye. “Abs, right now Ellie’s not pointing fingers. At this moment she’s grieving the loss of one of her best friends, and she’s also worried sick about her fiancé. If I want to work this case I can’t let her grief allow me to overlook the facts. I owe this investigation my full attention, to either present her with the fact that I believe Eddie killed Gina, or that this was all one huge coincidence.”
“Okay,” I said with a nod. “I got ya.”
“Good, now go get naked under the shower while I’m too distracted by my breakfast to join you, and I’ll take you over to Viv’s when you’re done.”
“Sure,” I said, feeling my cheeks flush as I got up to deposit my dishes in the sink. “I’ll get right on that.”
“Better hurry,” Duffy said, his mouth full of food. “I eat fast.”
And with that I bolted to the bathroom.
An hour later we had pulled up in front of Viv’s, which could be seen all the way down the street by the long line of cars parked in front. “Wow,” I said, noting the cars. “Looks like a party.”
“Viv’s gathering the troops, I see,” Duffy said coming to a stop. “Come on, time to face the music.”
I didn’t realize what he meant until we walked through the front door and Kelly and Christina met us in the front hallway. “Hi, Duffy! Hi, Abby!” Christina said with an elbow in the ribs to Kelly.
I smiled at them, but Kelly gave me a dark look. “Isn’t that the same dress you wore last night?” she snapped.
Before I had a chance to answer, Viv came around the corner and announced, “It’s just the lovebirds!” over her shoulder right after she saw us. “Abby and Duffy finally pulled themselves out of bed!” she yelled again.
I turned toward the door, intent on bolting, but Duffy caught me and whipped me back around. “Thanks for the bulletin, Viv. I don’t think they heard you in China.”
“Your swimmers gettin’ a good workout, Duffy?” she asked, and I swore all conversation stopped in the house.
Duffy eyed her with a grin and took a big sniff of the air. “Mmmm. Viv, is that your special meat sauce I smell?”
I took my own whiff as he said that, noticing that there was something garlicky and deliciously aromatic filling the house. “It is,” Viv replied.
“What time’s dinner?” Duffy asked.
“Four thirty.”
“Count me in for a helping,” Duffy said, and kissed me on the cheek before turning and heading out the door.
When he was gone I gave a brief smile to Christina and Kelly and Viv, then bolted to my room. When I opened my door I saw my sister seated comfortably on my bed reading a magazine. “Ah, we meet again, Catwoman,” I said with a flourish.
“Hello, Batgirl,” she said, licking her fingers before flipping over the next page. “Did you have fun at the Batcave last night?”
“I will be so glad to get into something comfortable!” I said, ignoring her question and heading over to my suitcase.
“And Batman, is he well?”
“I know I have some yoga pants in here somewhere,” I said, pawing through my clothes.
“Sworn to secrecy, huh, Batgirl?” Cat purred from the bed.
“Here they are!” I said, holding up my yoga pants in triumph.
“Abby,” Cat said, her tone becoming impatient.
“Caaat,” I said, mocking her as I turned back to my suitcase to fish for the matching top.
“You cannot torture me like this!” she wailed.
“Wanna bet?”
“I’m serious.”
“Me too,” I said as I located my top and began to shrug out of my dress.
“Give me one kernel, one tidbit, just one teeny-weeny little fact!” she said, throwing the magazine aside and batting her eyelashes at me.
I threw on my shirt and began pulling on my pants. “You know that theory you always had about Duffy’s birthmark?”
“The one on his waist? The one I always thought went farther down?”
“Yep,” I said, slipping on a hoodie and pushing my feet into slippers.
“Yeah…” she said, rolling her hands in an “out with it” gesture.
“It doesn’t.”
“It doesn’t what?”
“Go farther down.”
Cat squealed so loud I thought the paint was going to peel. “Will you keep it down! Geez!” I snapped as I hurried over to check the hall to see if anyone heard her.
I saw Viv come into the hallway and I waved at her from the door. She waved back, a large wooden spoon in her hand covered in red sauce. “Come help me with the sauce later,” she said, then turned back toward the kitchen.
“Seriously, I cannot tell you anything,” I said to Cat as I shut the door and moved over to the bed.
“Blah, blah!” Cat said, scooting over on the bed as I sat down. “So was it good for you?” she asked.
“We had a deal,” I said as I crossed my legs and arms.
“You and Duffy had a deal?”
“No, you and I had a deal.”
“What deal?”
“You asked for one teeny-weeny fact. And I just gave it to you, so the subject is dropped.”
“You are no fun, you know that?”
“Crime fighting is no picnic,” I said gravely. “Have you seen Ellie?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.
“No. She’s at her mother’s resting right now. Nina is going to bring her over later when Ellie feels up to it. I understand she didn’t sleep a wink last night. The doctor tried to prescribe her some tranquilizers but Ellie refuses to take them.”
Only I knew that Ellie would not risk her pregnancy by taking some heavy drugs. “She’ll be all right,” I said firmly. “She’s a tough cookie, that one.”
“You never answered my question from this morning.”
“I’m not telling
you anything.”
“No, not that. About if there were any more details about Gina’s murder.”
“Yeah, like I’d fill you in now that I know you’re working for the mob,” I said, tongue in cheek.
“I swear I had to tell them!” she complained.
“You do remember I have an inboard lie detector, right?”
“Abby, you weren’t there. You didn’t see them. They were in a frenzy!”
I rolled my eyes and settled on the bed next to Cat. “The only thing I know is that Eddie is sticking to the story that he had nothing to do with it.”
“Well, hell,” Cat said with a pout. “I already knew that.”
“It’s all I got,” I said, resting my head against the backboard and closing my eyes.
“Did Duffy find out anything else about Sara?” Cat asked.
“You heard about Sara too?” I asked lifting one lid. That was a detail I hadn’t filled her in on.
“Of course. Everyone knows, and we’re worried sick. Half the wedding party has been trying to track her down, and no one’s seen her since you and Ellie told her to go to the dress shop. Nina called right before you two showed up to let everyone know they found Sara’s car in the mall’s parking lot. I understand a deputy has been dispatched to see if she ever made it inside or if she was perhaps overcome in the lot.”
“Whoa!” I said as I sat bolt upright.
“What? What is it?” Cat asked, grabbing my arm.
“Eddie,” I said as I thought back. “That day that we went to the bridal salon. Eddie came home and met us in the driveway. Ellie told him where we were going and who we were meeting. He left before us.”
“Oh, my,” Cat said, her fingers going to twist the necklace at her throat. “Do you think he might be connected with what’s happened to her?”
My left side felt thick and heavy. “No,” I said, thinking on it. “Still, it is another odd coincidence. I strongly believe there is a connection between what happened to Gina and Sara’s disappearance, but how Eddie figures into this is the big mystery.”
“Poor Ellie,” Cat said, shaking her head.
“Poor Sara,” I added as I lay back against the head-board again.
Cat then asked me, “Have you done your police psychic shtick on this case yet?”