Buzzkill (Pecan Bayou Series) (17 page)

Good to know I
now had the weather channel on speed dial.

My dad’s phone
rang. He looked at the caller ID. “It’s Art. I’d better get this.” He stepped
from the table and moved to the back of the restaurant.

Mr. Andre, who
had been standing to the side and talking to a waiter, came over. “Oh dear,” he
said, “doesn’t your father know it’s bad etiquette to talk on your cell phone
at your own daughter’s rehearsal dinner?”

“Probably not,
but I’m sure it was important.”

“More important
than manners?” Mr. Andre harrumphed.

My father
clicked his phone shut and returned to the table.

“So, what did he
say?”

“A couple of
interesting things. What do you say you and I go to the bar and get a refill on
my beer?”

I scooted out
from the table, and the assembled crowd looked up as if I were about to propose
a toast.

“Oh, um, I’d
like to propose a toast to everyone who has helped me put our wedding
together,” I said. “Aunt Maggie, you’ve been wonderful.” Mr. Andre began to
sulk in the corner. “And of course Mr. Andre.”

The diners
politely lifted their glasses as Mr. Andre beamed and did a flourishing bow. I
knocked back a swig of my champagne and headed to the bar with my dad.

“Whoever stabbed
Morton sure knew what they were doing,” he said. “One quick efficient thrust,
and he never had a chance.”

“Unbelievable.
Morton was such a nice guy,” I said. “I just can’t imagine who would want to
kill him. He went to church, he raised prize-winning roses and he was a good friend
to Martha.”

“I think he was
a good friend to a lot of people. How well do you know Martha?”

I shrugged. “I
don’t know. She seems like a sweet lady to me. I was pretty impressed with how
she turned it around after Lenny’s death.”

Mr. Andre, now
upset we were ignoring our guests, zeroed in on us.

“People,
whatever is going on over here, it needs to stop. We are on stage right now,
and it’s your job not to ruin the show.”

“Some of us
don’t live in your make-believe world,” my father said.

A scream shot
through the room, and the dinner chatter silenced.

“What happened?”
Judd said.

“A face, I saw a
face in the window,” said Leo’s mother.

“Where?”

“Over there.”
She pointed to a bush outside the restaurant. My father rushed out the door and
around the building. One good thing about inviting half the cops in town to
dinner was that we were well-protected from peeping Toms. Elena headed out
behind my dad. Mr. Andre stood at the door with his arms crossed. He wanted to
be in control – but at no personal danger to himself.

I stood at the
window scanning the  grounds for the intruder. 

“Uh-huh,” my
father said. “We'll take a look.  Back me up Elena.”

“I'll search the
parking lot.”  George said putting down his napkin. It was good to know my
wedding party could double as security.

“Can you tell us
what he looked like?” Leo asked his mother.

“He had a pudgy
face and this awful black eye where his nose should be. It was terrible,” she
said.

 There was a
bright light in the bushes. At first I thought it was the reflection of
gunfire, but now shot echoed in the night.

"Got him. He tried to
blind me with his flash." My dad said holding Bernard Price by the neck of
his jacket. He pushed him into the room. Bernard stumbled.

"Would you like to tell us
what you were doing out in the bushes?"

Bernard cleared his throat and
straightened the camera strap around his neck. "The job of a paparazzi is
never easy."

"Paparazzi?" I
questioned.

"Yes Ma'am. You wouldn't
let me take your wedding pictures, and then you bring in the famous weatherman,
Mark Garret from Dallas. The girls at the diner wouldn't shut about him. So I
got to thinkin' it might be an even bigger paycheck if I got some candid photos
of him."

"One problem," Mark
said. "No one cares about candid photos of weathermen."

"No one cares about
weathermen, period. They're just blocking the map." Mr. Andre added.

Bernard shot a glance at Mark
and Mr. Andre and then extended his hands to my father.

"Take me away. I hope I
get a cell with good light."

"I don't carry cuffs to
rehearsal dinners, but you can tell me all about it down at the station."

The next morning
as the sun filtered through my curtains, I was immediately hit with a pang of
anxiety. This was it. The big day we had planned for, saved for and waited for.
Leo’s mother had driven to town in her RV, a necessity for someone in a
hurricane zone, so Leo and Tyler had used that as their hotel. It was peaceful
in my little house as I made the coffee, and I decided to take a moment to
cherish the peace. The rest of the day would be filled with chaos, but this
moment was mine. I grabbed my piping-hot cup of coffee and crawled back under
the covers. I pulled my knees up to my chest and sat sipping quietly. I
mentally went through today’s checklist.

I would start
with helping to decorate the church. After that, I was having my hair done
along with Elena down at the Best Little Hair House in Texas. Miss Ruby had cut
my hair for so long that being with her this morning was only right. Through
years of pigtails, pimples, bad dates and bad marriages, Miss Ruby had a gift
for making me feel better. From there we would go to the church to climb into
our dresses and hopefully not mess up the work that Ruby had done. My last task
was simple. All I had to do was walk down the aisle with my father and then
take Leo’s hand.

The phone on the
night stand rang. I reluctantly put down my coffee to answer. My moment was
gone. Time for action.

“Betsy? How you
doing today, darlin’?” my father said.

“I’m fine. A
little nervous, but I’m fine.”

“Don’t be
nervous. You’re doing the right thing marrying that fella,” he said. “Why, if
he wasn’t a man, I’d marry him myself.”

“Daddy!”

There was a
pause on the other end.

“Thanks for
callin’ me that today,” he said. “I know I’ve already given you away once, but
somehow it just feels like this time I’m really losin’ you.”

“You’ll never
lose me, Dad.”

“Oh yes I will,”
he replied. “You say that, but you’re about to move away with your brand-new
husband. You have your own life to live, and that’s how it should be.”

“Is it really?”

“Yes, it is, and
you know it.”

“I was just
sitting here thinking about everything we’ve been through in the last few
months,” I said. “I had no idea it was this difficult to get married.”

“Yeah, well,
hopefully preparing for a wedding is like a waiting period for a gun license.
Gives a person time to cool off before they go and do something stupid,” my dad
said.

“You would
equate getting married to using a firearm. It’s just that sometimes I thought
about all the things that went wrong … Charlotte actually coming to Texas,
fighting with Prissy Olin …”

“And don’t
forget the little matter of your florist being stung to death by bees.”

“And Morton,” I
added. “Poor Morton. I don’t know how Martha is handling all this.”

“Martha?”

“Yes, she was
sort of involved with both men.”

“Wait a minute,”
said Judd. “I thought he was just a friend. You mean to tell me that Martha was
seeing Morton Fischer on the side?”

I explained what
I knew about their friendship and how Morton escalated it after Lenny died.

“I can see I’m
going to need to call her in and question her on Morton’s death. What motive
would she have?”

“I’m not sure
why she would want to kill Morton,” I said. “Right now, I’m thinking of how.
She had access to the bees, but I just don’t see her jabbing a knife into a man
who was such a good friend. Especially after all he tried to do for her.”

“What did he do
for her?”

“Helped her fix
up her place. I also got the feeling they were always together at church
functions.”

“Like he was her
church husband?” said my dad.

“Well, she
certainly couldn’t bring Lenny, now could she?”

“So what would
possess her to kill him?”

“This probably
doesn’t sound too good on the morning of my wedding, but one husband is enough
of a problem for any woman,” I said.

“Something your
mother might have said.”

“How very
complimentary of you.”

“Do you think
Charlotte will be at the wedding?”

“Are you
worried?” I said. “No, I think she’s long gone. Like Martha and husbands, I had
one mother too many. I’m just thankful Aunt Maggie is still there for me.”

“Me too,
darlin’,” said my dad.

“Any news on who
or what was hiding in the bushes at my rehearsal dinner?”

“I will have you
know we’ve put an APB out for one-eyed perpetrators,” he said. “I was thinkin’
when you’re up front saying your vows, just turn around and take a look-see …”

“Very funny. I’m
just wondering if we’ll have any people there at all.”

“You aren’t too
popular right now, that’s for damn sure.”

******

An hour later we
were over at the church, hanging white bunting over the ends of the pews.

“Betsy,” said my
cousin Danny, “What time will Mr. Leo be in our family?”

“What time?”

“I’m getting two
new cousins today. What time will it be?”

I put my arm
around Danny’s rounded shoulders. “I guess by about 3, your family will have
grown by two.”

Zach smiled and
drew in a breath. Maybe he was getting a little nervous, too.

“Two people
bigger. I like that. I hope you like the wedding cake knife Mama got you.”

Aunt Maggie
turned around abruptly on the small ladder she was balancing on, nearly falling
off. “Danny! It’s a secret. Remember?”

“Oh, yeah.
Sorry.” He turned and looked at me as he tried to figure out how to take it
back.

“Danny, don’t
you know how to keep a secret?” Zach said. “A present is a secret until you
give it.”

Danny’s face
fell. I tried to make him feel better. “What did you say, Danny? I’m sorry, I
didn’t hear you. My mind was on other things.”

“You didn’t? It
seemed like you did. I said that …”

“Danny!” my aunt
repeated.

“Nothin’.” He put
his head down and stuck a bow onto the end of the pew.

Martha Stokes
came in carrying a large vase of deep red roses.

“Danny, help out
Mrs. Stokes,” Maggie said.

Danny rushed
over and took the vase from Martha. As he tried to walk down the aisle, the flowers
wobbled to one side, spilling out a little of the water.

“Careful there,
son,” Martha said. “I put an awful lot of work into that one.”

“Yes ma’am,”
Danny said, slowing his walk and trying to stabilize himself.

Martha Stokes
turned back and then around to look at the sanctuary. “Oh, it’s lovely. This is
going to be a beautiful wedding.”

“Thanks,
Martha,” I said. “We really appreciate you offering to transport the flowers to
both the wedding and the reception.”

“Not a problem.
I want to do a good job with your wedding. Who knows who else might be in the
crowd thinking about getting married …”

Elena blushed. I
wondered if she and Adam had thought about their next step.

“Good, you’re
here.” A voice from the back of the sanctuary called out. Prissy Olin stood by
the open door, her hair rolled tightly in pink curlers.

“After your
wedding, I need you people to get this stuff out of here within a half an hour.
We have a much bigger wedding, and it will take us a while to get the sanctuary
looking presentable after yours.”

“We’ll certainly
try, Prissy,” I said, wondering what the penalty would be if we didn’t comply.

“I hope you can
do better than that. Thanks to you and your little poison lotion incident, I
seem to have the whole town coming. I don’t think you’ll need to decorate past
the first five rows of the church. That ought to do it, don’t you think?”

Maggie came down
the ladder, her fists going into balls. I put my hand on her shoulder to stop
her.

Prissy raised
her hand about to speak again, but I cut her off.

“I think we both
have way too much to do today. So I’d better get to it,” I said, turning both
me and Maggie around.

“Whatever,” said
Prissy, blowing out an exasperated breath. She turned on her heel and left the
church.

“The nerve of
that kid, saying the lotion was poisoned,” Maggie said.

“She did have a
pretty bad reaction to it,” Elena remarked while attaching a little red heart
to each bow. “If you look closely, you can still see some discoloration in her
skin. Of course, with the base coat of foundation she wears, she’ll look better
than a Barbie before the Christmas rush.”

“Oooh. Was that
the wicked witch I saw getting in her car?” asked Mr. Andre as he came in with
baskets of our birdseed bags slung over his arm.

“It sure was,”
Maggie said.

“She wants us
out of here in time for her wedding.”

“Oh really? Then
you should take your sweet time saying ‘I do,’” he said. “Which reminds me, do
we have all of our paperwork in? I’m about to calculate your final bill, and I
need to have every one of the vendor’s bills in front of me.”

“I think I told
everybody,” I said. “Oh, maybe I didn’t get a chance to tell Wilhelm. I can
tell him tonight, or better yet, I’ll just have him give the bill to you at the
reception.”

“That will work.
I haven’t received anything in the form of a deposit being returned from
Chateau Fischer. Do you know anything about that?”