A Flower Girl Murder (6 page)

“Do you need those? I’m throwing everything out!”
Natalie called from somewhere outside the camera scope. Jasmine and Emily were laughing at something and didn’t seem to hear her.

“Stop the camera, you crazy girl!”
Jasmine giggled,
“We don’t want my naked butt on my wedding film! Nat, did this bra come with an extra strap?”

“I told you I was throwing everything out! You could have asked earlier,”
Natalie groaned and the camera followed her as she knelt in front of the trash bin and started fishing out the lost plastic bag with the strap.

“Okay, rewind,” Prim said, “This is just girls being silly. There’s got to be something better later on.”

Sage agreed and pressed the button. There was more laughing, throwing of clothes, trying on shoes. A phone rang and more laughing followed. Sage and Prim looked at each other in desperation. This was completely useless. It had been fifteen minutes and none of their suspects had even entered the scene. Sage increased the speed of the rewind and the little figures started dancing like puppets in front of them.

“Sto-o-o-p!” Prim yelled and Sage jumped, spilling popcorn into her lap. She paused the film.

“What? I didn’t see anything!”

“I can’t believe it! What
is
that?!”

“What? Prim? Come on, tell me!” Sage almost stood up in anticipation, staring at the screen.

“Play it!”

The figures started moving on screen again.

“
Ouch! This thing’s thorny,
” Natalie whined as her sister was tying a corsage on her wrist.

“
Hold on,
” Jasmine said, “
I’m just trying to see how they look. I’ll get rid of these stupid thorns.
”

“What are we looking for?” Sage asked, bored as she watched Jasmine tie another flower bracelet on Emily’s extended arm.

“You see those corsages? They are purple!
Purple
!” Prim was outraged. “How did I miss that at the wedding? Stupid little girl, asking for an all blue wedding and messing up my whole design with
purple
?! Where did she even get them? I know she didn’t order them from me…”

“Okay, you are officially sick,” Sage declared, sinking back into the sofa pillows. “Can we concentrate on the murder here?”

“I’m sorry,” Prim sighed deeply, “You are right, keep going. It’s just very upsetting when someone puts in as much effort as I did… Yes, keep going. I’m done now.”

Nothing much happened in the next hour of film, so Sage skipped it, slowing down only when Natalie, Jasmine, Emily and the two groomsmen sat down at a table in the Cheshire Cat. Dan served them coffee and Sage mentally scolded herself for noting how attractive he looked when he was still a bit sleepy and his eyes slightly puffy. Before she could stop herself, she wondered what it would feel like to wake up next to him, but immediately reminded herself that all men were liars and concentrated on the film.

As Emily and Jasmine stood up to leave for the hair salon, Natalie was sorting through the various packets of sugar and apparently couldn’t find what she was looking for. Trevor, one of the groomsmen, went to another table to bring her what she needed. It was a small, pink packet of sweetener, which he gentlemanly emptied into her cup by himself. Then all three girls hugged, which made the camera lose focus and Emily and Jasmine left the cafe.

“That’s it! It’s him,” Sage shouted, pausing the movie.

“You don’t kill with a pack of sugar, Sage,” Prim said.

“You don’t know that! We couldn’t really see what happened. Was he good friends with the groom? Remember, we thought Kevin might have an accomplice.”

“Yes they are good friends, but these six have all been good friends since they were little children. Trevor and Natalie even used to date, but it didn’t work out in the end.”

“Well, maybe the groom isn’t the father at all. And Trevor is. Maybe Natalie wasn’t about to reveal anything in front of everyone and just wanted to tell him, but her father somehow caught on, and… Oh, Prim, it’s all such a mess!”

“Let’s just finish watching the thing,” Prim said, grabbing the remote from her sister’s hand.

The girls in the film were back in Jasmine’s bedroom and she was all ready and glorious in her wedding gown and full make-up. She was tying up the corsages to the other two’s wrists (which made Prim cringe once again), when a knock came on the door. Natalie went to check who it was and started screaming.

“No! Get out of here! You can’t see her just yet. Don’t you know it’s bad luck!”
Then she squeezed out through the slightly open door and closed it behind her. Apparently Natalie was out there with Kevin and it took a while before she finally returned to the room.

“Okay, he’s gone now. We should hurry, he says that almost the whole town is gathered at the sea terrace already.”

The door opened again and this time Father Pendergrass came in.

With that, the camera suddenly died and the screen went blank.

“So, what do you think?” Prim asked, getting up to gather the bits of popcorn sprinkled on the sofa, mostly around Sage.

“I’m a bit disappointed,” Sage said, “I thought there would be more in the film that we could work with. Still, I wonder what happened when Natalie and Kevin were out in the hallway. If it was the two of them earlier in the park, maybe she just pretended to be sending him off, so she gets another chance to talk to him right before the wedding. Maybe it was his last chance to stop her from revealing his wrongdoing. But how would he kill her in the hallway?”

“You know what?” Prim said, “We might get a chance to talk to him tonight. He comes to tutor my boys in Math every now and then. I know he’ll probably be upset right now, but I’ll call and invite him over after dinner. The boys have a Math test tomorrow anyway, so it’s not like we are completely setting him up.”

“Perfect! Now I just have to find a reason to stick around for my nephews’ Math lesson…”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Math Lesson and a Groom

It had only been a few hours since Sage jumped out of her sister’s truck to help her decorate for a wedding in the morning, but it felt like days had passed. As Sage was carrying the tray from the kitchen over to the living room, carefully balancing the teapot and porcelain cups and saucers, she realized that she hadn’t thought about Derek all day. A whole entire day!

This was a first. Her mind had been so preoccupied with the mystery that she barely had time to eat and take a quick shower, before she returned to her notes and started pondering once again who could have done it. Who could have killed Natalie? It was strange that it was a murder that finally made her snap out of her depression and made her interested in the world around her.

She wasn’t going to let the bad thoughts sneak back into her mind, so she pasted a charming smile on her face and entered the living room. Prim was sitting in one of the leather wingback chairs, legs crossed at the ankles and fingers clasped in her lap, and her face seemed warm and full of compassion as she was listening to something Kevin was saying.

“Excuse me,” Sage said, “Hope I’m not interrupting.”

“No, no, not in the least!” Prim said, standing up. “Kevin, this is my sister, Sage. She’s staying with me for a while.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kevin said politely and turned to face Sage. She could see now that he looked tired and ruffled, his hair tousled and his eyes puffy as if he’d been crying.

“Well, why don’t you two get started on tea and I’ll go see what’s taking the boys so long,” Prim said with a discreet wink at her sister. “I hate to be taking so much of your time, Kevin, especially at a moment like this. We’ll be right down.”

Sage settled in her sister’s seat and started pouring two cups of tea, though she could care less about tea right now. She wasn’t a tea person anyway, unlike Prim. But the situation was making her nervous and she needed a moment to think of something to say.

“It was a beautiful wedding,” she started, but felt that she wasn’t going to go anywhere with that and added, “And I’m really sorry things turned out like this. I’m sorry about your friend.”

“Yeah, it was a shock to all of us,” Kevin said. It didn’t seem like he was shutting off, so Sage used the moment.

“So, no one knew about this disease that she’d had?” She pushed a cup of tea towards him.

“
I
didn’t.”

“But your wife, I mean Jasmine, she must have seen it coming. How is she taking the whole thing?”

“She’s pretty shaken up, I guess. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her yet. I think she’ll be needing her space for a while.”

“That’s true. And to think that the whole day started so well. I saw Natalie early in the morning when Prim and I were setting up for the wedding and she looked in perfect health.”

Sage bit her lip, fearing that she’d gone too far. She didn’t have much time, so she’d gone straight to the point. She sipped her tea, but it was scalding and she burned the tip of tongue. She didn’t pay much attention to it as she was waiting for his reaction. To her surprise, the boy didn’t bite the bait as she’d expected.

“I know,” he said absent-mindedly, “I saw her too, in their home when I was checking in to see if Jasmine was ready, and she looked fine to me too.”

Either Kevin was a really good actor, or he wasn’t the man she had seen at the stone terrace that morning. Sage shifted in her seat nervously. When she’d entered the living room, she’d been more than sure that she was going to talk to a murderer.

“Did you talk to her? I mean, did she seem off then?” she asked and noticed that Kevin was getting a bit impatient. It was only normal. They’d dragged him over here on the evening of his failed wedding and now some stranger was interrogating him.

“I only talked to her for a couple of minutes, but if anything, she looked
radiant
. I know she was happy for Jasmine and me. She didn’t look sick if that’s what you mean.”

The door opened once again and Prim came in, looking furtively at her sister to gauge whether she’d been gone long enough for Sage to learn anything. Sage gave her a desperate look.

“The boys are ready upstairs, Kevin,” Prim said, “You can join them. Do you want me to bring your tea?”

“No, it’s okay,” Kevin said, taking the cup, “I’ll manage.”

Something blinked in the dimmed light of the living room and Prim caught on immediately.

“What a beautiful ring!” she said, “I’m so glad you at least managed to exchange rings with Jasmine. I know the day didn’t turn out to be what you expected, but the important thing is that you two have each other for support.”

“What?” Kevin said, confused, almost spilling his tea while following Prim’s gaze to his finger. “Oh,
that
. No, it’s not a wedding ring. That’s my purity ring. You know, for the circle I’m in.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, where is my tact? I completely forgot about that. I actually thought the circle didn’t exist anymore.”

“Well, it probably shouldn’t after Natalie and Trevor…” Kevin said, but suddenly stopped as if he’d gone into forbidden territory. “Yes, it still exists.”

“Sorry to upset you more, honey,” Prim tried to cover up, “Let’s just go upstairs and if you are not feeling up to it, you can leave any time. I know my boys would be grateful for every minute that you can spare for them.”

Sage took her cooling cup of tea to the back porch. It was already about nine o’clock, but it was still hot outside. It was nothing compared to the scorching heat of the afternoon, but the ground still seemed to exude all the warmth it had absorbed during the day. The air had turned and now a balmy breeze came from the sea, ruffling her hair lightly and tickling her bare arms and legs. A chorus of invisible crickets accompanied the pleasant atmosphere and a faint sweet scent carried from Prim’s flower gardens.

Sage sat on the wooden swing and tucked her legs underneath herself. She looked at the millions of stars sprinkled over the deep blue ink of the sky and sighed. What a day! Somehow Natalie’s story had become personal to her over the course of a few hours. Now she couldn’t imagine letting it all go. The funeral was probably going to be in a couple of days and she knew they needed to hurry if they wanted to figure out what really happened to Natalie. She had the nagging feeling that the answer was already in front of her, but she simply couldn’t put the pieces together. They needed to talk to a few more people before things cleared up a bit more.

But what then? What if she actually managed to solve this mystery? Wouldn’t that have been just a momentary distraction from what was really the matter with her life? Namely, that she had
no
life. She’d lost the man she’d loved, the career she’d adored, the environment she’d thrived in. She couldn’t simply push these thoughts to the back of her mind and not deal with them. She needed to find something, anything, that would help her start building her life again.

As she relaxed in the swing, slowly swaying back and forth, this time she invited the memories herself. She was back at that stage in the brightly lit auditorium, presenting her life’s work in front of the most esteemed names in the Biology circles. She had only gone through the first couple of slides, when she’d noticed that something was wrong. No one had seemed to care about what she was saying and the loud whispers had grown into an animated discussions. There had even been some fingers pointing at her. What had gone so horribly wrong?