divorced divas 02 - crimped to death (12 page)

Bernadine’s crimp tool was missing from the Wine and Bead class. They found the crimp tool in his office. And she’s missing the exact same knife Noah Druck claimed was the actual murder weapon.

As much as I didn’t want to believe Bernadine didn’t do it, Officer Hart’s words replayed over and over.
“I think when your lifestyle is about to change that puts a great deal of stress on a woman, don’t you?”

“Marlene!” Bernadine used her butt to swing open the bead shop door. The bells jingled. She held her arms in the air, a bottle of wine in each. “Grab the glasses. It’s wine o’clock and I’m drinking a few glasses.”

Chapter Thirteen

“Noah Druck showed up right after you left with a warrant to look for the knife set.” Bernadine wrapped her fingers around her wine glass. She lifted the glass to her lips and took a big gulp. “He was a little too late.” She winked.

“What does that mean?” I asked her.

The Divas trickled in one-by-one for the impromptu meeting interrupting my conversation with Bernadine. The wink wasn’t a friendly wink. It was the kind that told me she took care of something. What was that something?

“Bernadine,” Cheri rushed over to Bernadine’s side. Her black hair was neatly tucked up in a teal crocheted beret. “How are you?”

“Someone is definitely trying to frame me for the murder of Henry and I have no idea who it is or why they are doing it.” The edges of her eyes dipped into a frown.

I watched her body language closely as Ginger, Agnes, and Flora got caught up on the gossip of what was going on with the investigation. She told them about the crimp tool and the knife, but failed to tell them that she had a matching set of knives minus that particular knife. I kept my mouth shut.

“It’s my understanding that Bradford was at The Livin’ End the night Henry was on a date with some blond girl.” It was a good time to get the Divas involved in the investigation. Bernadine was a Diva and I was going to have to put any doubts aside and try to help figure out who really did kill Henry.

“Date?” Agnes Pearl picked at the grey hair that curled in the middle of her ear. “Henry was dating?”

All eyes slid to Bernadine.

“I thought he was dating me.” Her voice lowered along with her head. She twirled her fingers in her lap as silence fell over the group. “Apparently, Henry was trying to sweet talk me into signing the papers to discontinue the alimony money by telling me how much he missed me and wanted to get back together. And he got me back in bed just hours before someone killed him.”

Something then happened that never happened. The Divas were speechless. I’m not even sure if any of them were breathing.

“That bastard!” Marlene yelled out snapping everyone to the present.

“Bastard,” Agnes Pearl whispered and shook her head.

“Did you tell Bennie about that?” Flora hen-pecked on her phone. We all knew she was sending Bennie a message. “Any of them two-bit women could have killed him.”

“Why?” Bernadine asked.

“Maybe he told one of them that he was going to get back together with you?” Cheri smacked her hand on the table. We all grabbed our wine glasses to save them from tipping over.

“Yeah, yeah.” Marlene chomped. “What if he was serious about getting back together and he met the blonde to tell her that he was getting back together with you?”

There was a little glimmer of hope in Bernadine’s eyes. I could tell she was wanting so bad to think Henry was regretting all he had done to her, but deep down we all knew he wasn’t.

“Agnes, do you think you could have Bradford over for a little lunch or dinner and pick his brain?” I asked.

“I do owe him a batch of fudge for getting me out of my ticket.” Agnes said.

We all kept our lips pinched. Agnes was always causing some sort of trouble and Bradford spent most of his time trying to get her out.

“That would be great, Agnes,” Bernadine said and fiddled with the zipper on her jacket.

Willow’s hooves sounded like high-heels trotting out of the storage room. She could hear Bernadine’s snack baggie from miles away. I glanced up at the clock. We had been here for almost forty minutes and nothing was getting accomplished.

The facts still remained. All the evidence in the murder pointed to Bernadine.

There were people there that I needed to question about Dr. Russell and Henry’s fight. Cheri had a plausible suspect with the other women, but Dr. Russell had more to lose than anyone. . .his livelihood.

“I’m still thinking we need to look into Dr. Russell’s fight with Henry.” I tapped my watch. “That is why I am going to the Barn Dance Committee meeting tomorrow night at seven.”

“You?” Flora’s mouth dropped. “I thought you and Bobbi Hart had a little spat about that.”

“Spit-spat.” I blew it off. “It’s time I started to really become part of this community.”

“Holly Harper, I know you better than that.” Agnes Pearl’s eyelashes lowered sending a shadow down her cheeks, calling me out on my downright lie.

“Fine. I had to eat a big piece of humble pie and give her a free stretchy bracelet.” I smiled from ear-to-ear. I looked at Bernadine. “Anything for my Divas.”

“So I’m going to have Bradford over for fudge. Cheri you are. . .” Agnes was assigning tasks. “You. . .”

“I will go get my teeth cleaned from Dr. Russell and tell him that I had an appointment with Henry to get a cavity filled.” She shrugged. “And since he is dead, I had to come to him.”

“Where do you normally go?” Flora asked adjusting her phone between her shoulder and ear.

“I haven’t been to the dentist in years.” Cheri showed her teeth that were perfectly white and straight. “I’m sure I don’t have a cavity, but he doesn’t know that. I can tell him about my fake visit to Henry and see if I can get him all riled up and want to talk to me.”

“Holly, you are going to find out about the fight between Dr. Russell and Henry.” Agnes pointed her crooked finger toward Flora. “What are you going to do?”

“Me?” Flora jerked back. Phone was still in her hand. “I gave you Bennie. He is the glue holding this shit together.” She twirled her finger around.

All of us jumped when there was a knock at the door. Bernadine’s baggie of carrots flew in the air. Willow scrambled to eat them all up.

“Charlie, what are you doing here?” I asked when I opened the door to find her standing on the bead shop steps. She was crazy if she thought I was going to forgive her for being so mean and rude.

“I’m here to drop these off to Bernadine for Barbie.” She held the tray of low-fat goodies in the air for Bernadine to see. “Sadie said you were down here for a bead meeting.”

Charlie didn’t bother to wait for me to step aside. She stepped high-heel right on over me like a long-legged giraffe. I couldn’t help but notice the Swarovski crystal toggle bracelet on her wrist.

Snort, snort, snort
. Half of Willow’s body was stuck in the
Under
of the sterling silver bead shelf.

“Barbie told me to have you try this one.” Charlie handed Bernadine the specially wrapped muffin. Marlene reached over to get a pinch. Charlie smacked her hand away. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Charlie’s wrist. “That is specifically for Bernadine. If you want one, you can buy one at Second Cup in the morning.”

“You little. . .” Marlene spit between gritted teeth.

“Charlie,” I interrupted before Marlene did to Charlie what someone had done to Henry. I ignored Willow. She was distracted by a stray carrot. “Where did you get that bracelet?”

“I made it.” She ran her hands over top of it almost hiding it from me.

“Where?” I asked out of curiosity.

“
My house.”

Her house?

“Nice.” There weren’t any noticeable flaws, which made me wonder if she was really a novice beader as she had acted like in the Wine and Bead class.

“Thank you, Holly.” She sat the plate of treats next to Bernadine. “Barbie hopes they sell. I would love to hang around, but I’m meeting Sean for a drink.” She winked and turned to strut out the door. “And who knows what the night will bring.” She shrugged.

“Don’t pay her any attention, Holly.” Flora said when the door closed right behind Charlie. “She can have your sloppy seconds.”

“Yeah. Sloppy seconds,” Agnes repeated with a chuckle. “She sure does have a nice body though.”

“Why didn’t you let me at her?” Marlene pumped her fists in the air. “I’d show that blonde bimbo a thing or two.”

“OHMYGOD!” I jumped in the air. My adrenaline was pumping. My mind was reeling. “Blonde. Bracelet.”

I was putting two-and-two together.

“What, Holly?” the Divas said in unison.

Weak, weak, weak.
Willow cried.

“Henry remodeled the old building and used Buskin Design. Charlie is an interior decorator for Buskins. She’s blonde. Henry was with a blonde at The Livin’ End.” I smacked my hands together. “And she can’t make a toggle bracelet without a crimping tool and she was here the night of the Wine and Bead!”

Weak, weak, weak.

“Stop, Willow!” I screamed.

Cheri rushed over to see what Willow was wanting in the
Under
.

“Umm, Holly.” Cheri stood back up. She held up a pair of crimp tools in her fingers. “And I don’t think you are missing any crimp tools either.”

“My missing tool!” There wasn’t anything that made me happier than to see that tool.

Bernadine really didn’t kill Henry.

“You might be right.” Bernadine’s hands were over her mouth. “But how are we going to find out?”

“Henry kept a log of every single meeting he had. Even dates he planned with me when we were married. Very, very structured life he led. One of our downfalls. ” She reached into her purse and pulled out her key ring full of keys. “I have the spare to Henry’s office and I bet his calendar is there somewhere. If he had a date with Charlie, it would be in there. Or his phone.”

“Phone?” I asked.

“Yes. He loves to film himself after each patient to dictate. It’s weird but it works. Or he will write something down and take a photo of it if he can’t dictate at the time. Strange, but it works for him.”

“Great! I will look for the calendar and the phone. It looks like me and you are going to Henry Frisk’s office.” I swallowed hard and pointed to Bernadine. “Charlie is also redoing Dr. Russell’s office. I can’t help but wonder if she and Dr. Russell had something to do with Henry’s murder.”

“No way am I going anywhere near there.” Bernadine shook her head. “If I go there and Noah finds out, he will pull the
you are the one who
went back to the scene of the crime
stuff you see on TV.”

“We need to get in that office.” I knew that there had to be some sort of clue somewhere. The calendar. Something.

“Don’t you think that Noah and she-officer have combed the place and taken out everything they possibly could find?” Flora wasn’t a fan of Officer Kiss either.

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “But we have to try. And you can go with me.”

“Me? But I gave you . . .”

“Zip it and come on.” I grabbed by bag and keys. “Marlene, can you close up? Cheri can you take Willow for a quick walk? And Bernadine.” I turned to look at her. She looked up. Her eyes were hollow. There was the unspoken knowledge of the knife between us.  “Can you take Willow home for me? And I’ll call you in the morning?”

Chapter Fourteen

Flora moaned all the way to Henry Frisk’s dental office.

“Flora, we have to help Bernadine out.” I reminded her of how we stick together.

I pulled down the street on the far edge of town where Henry had bought an old Victorian House that had been vacant for years. As part of the revitalization of Swanee, the old house was one of many that sold on the courthouse steps in an auction. Too bad they weren’t doing that when I opened The Beaded Dragonfly.

“I know that.” Flora tapped her finger on her phone. “But can’t Ernie do this? I just don’t want to be caught doing anything we aren’t supposed to do.”

“That didn’t stop you when you murdered Bennie’s clothes after he left you.” I reminded her about her little run-in with Noah Druck and how the entire town found out about the Divorced Divas.

“Plus,” she paused, “I’m not so sure Bernadine is innocent.”

“How could you say that?” I drove slowly past the dental office. There was still police tape strung all over, which meant it was still considered a crime scene and no one other than authorized personnel was admitted. The place was dark. Scary.

At the end of the street, I made a U-turn and headed back toward the dental office.

“Bennie said that the knife that was weapon came from Bernadine’s house,” she said in a low voice as if she didn’t want to say it out loud.

“How do they know that?” I asked.

“Noah Druck told Bennie that he needs to get Bernadine to confess because they went back through her credit card statements and she had purchased an exact matching set of knives from a fancy store up in Lexington. One of those kitchen stores.” She bit her lip and looked out the windshield with her hands folded in her lap.

“Then anyone could have those knives.” There wasn’t any way I was going to give up that easy.

“I’m not saying there aren’t.” She shifted her body toward me. “But the coincidence is pretty far-fetched.”

“Did Bennie ask her about it?” I flipped the lights off the Beetle when I assessed there were no cops cars or anyone else for that matter at the crime scene.

“No. He was going to drive over to her house after our Diva meeting.” She held up her phone. “That was who I was talking to at The Beaded Dragonfly. He wanted me to let him know when we were going to be finished. That was when he told me about the knife.”

I pulled the car over a few houses down from Henry’s office and turned the car off. I put my hand on the gearshift between our seats.

“It’s not looking good, Holly.” She put her hand on mine. “Unfortunately, women do things that we think they aren’t capable of in the heat of passion. Especially since she and Henry had just made love. It is all making sense to me now.”