Invitation to Murder (Book 1 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) (6 page)

“
I’ve seen that look in
your eyes before, baby sister. You think you can solve this
yourself, don’t you? Jennifer, I’m warning you, you’re in way over
your head here.”

I wouldn’t have been so aggravated with him
if he weren’t right. “You don’t know everything just because you’re
sheriff here. I’ve got a good head on my shoulders when it comes to
things like this, and you know it.”

He shook his head. “We’re not kids anymore,
and this isn’t make-believe. That girl’s really dead, and she’s not
coming back.”

“
That’s why we need to
make sure her killer doesn’t go free, don’t you think?” Honestly,
sometimes my brother could be so thick. “We can figure this out
together, Bradford.”

“
Even discounting you
including yourself in my investigation, there are two guys from the
state police over there right now. Do you honestly think that we
can come up with something that they might miss?”

“
We’ll never know unless
we try. Come on, what’s it going to hurt if you take me to the
crime scene so I can look around for myself?”

“
You are absolutely out of
your mind. There’s no way I’m letting you get within two miles of
that house.”

“
Afraid of a little
competition from your baby sister?”

He shook his head. “What I’m afraid of is
that the killer is still keeping an eye on the place. How’s she
going to react if she sees you snooping around after she warned you
to butt out? Kid, do you have a death wish or something?”

“
I’m not a kid,” I snapped
automatically, but maybe my brother had a point. He’d discussed a
few cases in the past with me, and I’d even given him a nudge in
the right direction on occasion, but I was directly involved in
this one, and it could have dire consequences for me if the killer
found out what I was up to. “You say the killer shouldn’t see me
going to the murder scene. Fine then, I’ll wear a disguise and you
can take me by after the state cops leave.”

“
How do you plan to
disguise yourself? Are you going to wear a mask or something? Yeah,
you’re right. That wouldn’t look too suspicious.”

“
Be serious, Bradford.
I’ll borrow one of Lillian’s wigs—goodness knows she has enough of
those—and I’ll wear high heels and put on some of those big
sunglasses. Sara Lynn won’t even recognize me by the time I’m
finished.”

“
Why the sudden desire to
dig into this, Jennifer? You’ve never shown this active an interest
in any of my cases before. All your help has been from the
sidelines in the past.”

“
I never heard anyone get
murdered while I was talking to them on the phone, either. Come on,
Bradford, this is important to me. If my life’s at risk, which you
seem to think it is, shouldn’t I have the right to investigate the
crime scene myself.

“
I knew I was on shaky
ground as far as logic went, but it made a lot more sense to me to
actively go after the killer than to wait around for her to decide
to knock me off. I always favored action over delay, sometimes even
when I would be better served by having a little patience. I was
willing to admit that about myself.

He scratched his left ear, walked over to
the window and stared outside. “I was right; you have lost your
mind.”

“
So you’ll take me?” I
asked.

“
I’ll never hear the end
of it if I don’t, will I? I suppose you want me to sneak you into
the morgue so you can see the body, too, huh?”

“
Don’t be gross, Bradford.
I’ve got no desire to see that poor girl laid out on a cold steel
table.” I grabbed my purse. “Let’s go.”

“
You mean right now? I
thought you had to get if your disguise together.”

“
I do, but I’m finished
here, and the quicker we do this, the sooner I find out what really
happened to Tina Mast. The state police should be gone by the time
we get there, shouldn’t they?” I held the door open for him, but he
didn’t budge. “Are you coming, or do I have to go without you?” My
brother frowned as he walked out the door I held for him.
“Sometimes I honestly wish I were an only child.”

“
Well, life’s full of
disappointment sometimes, isn’t? Meet me at Lillian’s. I need half
an hour to get ready.”

“
Yes, Ma’am.”

As I drove my Gremlin to my aunt’s house, I
felt my pulse speed up. Odds were that I wouldn’t be able to find a
clue that everyone else had missed, but I owed the attempt to that
girl who had been on the other end of the line.

It was a good thing Lillian never threw
anything away. I slipped through her back door using my key then
made my way to her dressing room. Most people had a closet or two
where they stored their clothes and accessories, but not my aunt.
Lillian had taken an entire bedroom of her old house and had
converted it into one huge closet. My aunt loved her Victorian
place, and each new groom had been required to move his belongings
in immediately following the nuptials. How she got them to agree to
that was beyond me. I was certain that one of the reasons she
refused to leave was the room I was standing in. It was like
walking through a time capsule as I browsed through her clothes
trying to find something that would distract anyone watching from
my face. I knew it would be lot harder to be recognized if I was in
clothing I would never wear ordinarily. After all, how many people
would recognize their pharmacist if he was dressed a priest or a
police officer? I found just what I was looking for after twenty
minutes of digging around through paisleys, polka dots and leopard
prints. There was a duster jacket that brushed the ground, made of
a material that defied description, in a color combination only for
those with strong stomachs. Lillian might have wallowed in the
jacket, but it was a snug fit for me. A cross between tie-dye and
paisley, it had more colors than a psychedelic rainbow. Content
that one would recognize that coat as anything I could possibly
wear, I found one of Lillian’s wigs—red, of course—that reached
halfway down my back, couldn’t resist grabbing a pair of her
rhinestone glasses off the stand, and I tried the entire ensemble
on in front of her three-way mirror. I didn’t even know the
stranger looking back at me. I could only look for a few
seconds—the coat was that blinding— but what I saw would do
perfectly.

That’s when I heard giggling coming from the
master bedroom. Oh, no. I had forgotten all about my aunt’s
rendezvous with her latest suitor. There was no way I wanted to
catch them canoodling, so I tiptoed to the back door so I could
make my escape unnoticed.

My hand was on the door when I heard my
aunt’s stern voice behind me. “Stop right where you are. I’ve got a
gun.”

I started to turn around when she said, “I
mean it. I’d rather face a jury for shooting you than wait for you
to come back here some night and try to kill me.”

“
Lillian, it’s me.” I
turned around slowly until she could see my face.

“
Jennifer? What in the
world are you doing? You look positively ghastly.”

“
In my defense, I’m
wearing your things.” Lillian did indeed have a gun trained on me,
a rather large one at that. “Would you mind pointing that thing
somewhere else? Where did you get it, anyway?”

As she lowered the barrel, she said, “You
know how Percy loved to hunt. He left this behind so I could
protect myself. Girl, I’d like an explanation for it that outfit. I
haven’t seen that duster since the sixties.” She frowned, then
said, “It had to have looked better on me than it does on you
now.”

“
It’s a long story, but I
didn’t think you’d mind if I borrowed a few of your
things.”

Lillian scowled. “Jennifer Shane, you know
that whatever I have is yours. Not without an explanation,
though.”

I wasn’t about to tell her what I was up to,
at least not until I had something more concrete to reveal than I
had so far. “How about your beau? Should you really keep him
waiting?” “You heard him?” There was no humor in her voice when she
asked me the question.

“
All I heard was a giggle.
Good for you.”

That appeased her. In a low voice, Lillian
said, “He’s got potential, but I’m not at all certain he’ll make
the final cut.”

“
I would think not. After
all, he let you come out here by yourself to confront an
intruder.”

Lillian shook her head. “Jennifer, my dear
sweet child, not every man is built for battle. It’s my shotgun,
and I know how to use it. If he tried to scare somebody off with
it, most likely he’d end up shooting himself in the foot. No, I’m
using a different litmus test to see if he’ll do. I sincerely doubt
he’ll pass, but in the meantime, he’s an interesting diversion.”
She paused, then called out over her shoulder. “It’s fine; it’s
just my niece. I’ll be in shortly.” Lillian turned back to me, then
said, “Now I must know what you’re up to, young lady. Does your
brother know you’re planning to parade around Rebel Forge dressed
like that?”

I knew then there was no use trying to
stonewall Lillian anymore. “Bradford’s taking me to the crime
scene.”

“
What are you talking
about, Jennifer? Has something else happened?”

That’s when I remembered that Lillian had
already left for the day when Bradford had come by to update me on
what had happened to Tina Mast. After I explained how I’d coaxed my
brother into letting me help him investigate, Lillian said, “Give
me five minutes and I’ll go with you.”

“
It was all I could do to
convince him to let me go. If I show up with you, I won’t get to
step inside the front door. I know how far I can push him, Lillian,
and bringing you with me is about four steps farther than he’d be
willing to go.” What I didn’t say was that she had to know how my
brother felt about her. Some people in this world, whether they’re
related by blood or not, were never meant to get along, and my
brother and my aunt were two of them. Throwing them together for
anything short of a wedding or a funeral was asking for trouble,
and I had enough of that to deal with already without worrying
about them. To appease her, I said, “As soon as I finish, I’ll come
back over here and return your things. That way I can bring you
up-to-date on what happened without anyone being the wiser.” I
gestured to the bedroom, then added, “That is if you think you’ll
be finished up here by then.”

“
Jennifer, I believe
you’ve entirely killed the mood for any romance this
evening.”

“
I’m so sorry. I didn’t
mean to.”

She hugged me, then said, “To be honest with
you, it’s time I moved on, but I’ve been reluctant to do so. This
gives me the perfect opportunity to let him down easy and see what
else is out there waiting for me.”

“
Now I feel really
terrible,” I said. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

“
There’s no doubt in my
mind. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a heart to break.” She must
have seen the sadness in my eyes, because she quickly added, “I’ll
be gentle with him, I promise. You always were a sensitive
child.”

I surely didn’t want to stand there
discussing that with her. Bradford was probably beginning to think
that I’d been abducted. I’d taken so long to put my disguise
together. We were meeting at the fire station—neutral ground—and
when I glanced at my watch I saw that I was going to be late. “I’ve
got to run,” I said as I hurried out the back door. I’d thought I
about adding high heels to make me taller, but I didn’t have the
time, and in all honesty, I doubted I’d need to hide my appearance
any more than I already had. After parking a block from the
station, I walked the rest of the way so no one would associate my
outfit with the Gremlin. Only part of that had to do with my
safety. I honestly didn’t want anyone in Rebel Forge to think that
I’d chosen that particular outfit myself.

I pulled the duster tight, cinched the belt
and patted my wig before I went inside. The sunglasses were a
little dark for my taste, but at least they managed to cover more
of my face than one of the masks Bradford had mentioned. He was
standing near the town’s only fire truck as two of our volunteers
polished a bumper. I thought I’d fooled him when he said, “Are you
ready?”

I just nodded, disappointed that he’d seen
right through my disguise. Once we were in his patrol car, I said,
“I can’t believe you knew it was me.”

“
Jennifer, I’m a trained
police officer. I’m paid to be observant.” He added with a grin,
“Besides, I remember when Lillian wore that jacket to a Halloween
party one year. It triggered a migraine headache that I’ll never
forget. There’s one more thing, too. You still have on the same
shoes you did when I saw you earlier.”

“
Should I change?” The
last thing in the world I wanted was to be recognized, especially
in that outfit

“
You did a good job, Sis.
Nobody’s going to know that’s you dressed like that. You fooled
Darrel and Lee, didn’t you? Can you honestly believe one of them
wouldn’t have said something to you if they’d recognized you? Oh,
man, I’d better call Cindy and tell her what I’m up to before the
town gossips call her and tell her I’m stepping out on her.” He
dialed his cell, and had a brief conversation with his wife. Small
towns are big on talk, and I was certain he was right in calling
Cindy before somebody else did, just trying to be helpful. After he
hung up, Bradford looked a little miffed.

“
What’s wrong? Didn’t she
believe you?”