A Flower Girl Murder (5 page)

“So, did you tell him?”

“I did, but I wish I hadn’t. The man went completely mad! It was like he was blaming me or something. It was extremely awkward. The sheriff was there, too, and he tried to talk some sense into Father Pendergrass, but the man kept yelling that we were breaking the law and that we had no right to examine Natalie.”

“Oh, you poor thing!”

“No, poor
you
! At least my work is now done, but you are the one who has to take care of the body from now on.”

“Don’t worry about me. I like my work. As long as no crazy parents interfere too much.”

“Do you thing it had something to do with that purity ring? I noticed she was still wearing it,” the nurse said. “Maybe Father Pendergrass went all mad because she broke her pledge.”

“What purity ring?”

“You don’t know? The kids were all in a purity circle. Father Pendergrass organized it and his two daughters, Emily, Josh, Trevor and Kevin were all in it.”

“Never heard of it, but I’d surely want to sign
my
kids up for that.”

“I wouldn’t hurry if I were you, seeing that it didn’t seem to work out too well for Natalie. Poor girl. I wonder who the father of her baby was.”

Sage couldn’t write fast enough. All this was golden. Only all the names were a bit confusing for her, but she’d ask Prim later.

Speaking of Prim, suddenly the cafe’s door flung open and a flustered Prim rushed in, taking a look around.

“Oh, there you are!” she said loudly and Sage almost jumped. She’d been completely lost in her notes. Prim greeted the two ladies and hurried to her sister’s table. “Let’s go Sage, I have something important to tell you.”

“So do I,” Sage said, gathering her things and sipping the last of her coffee.

On the way out, she managed to take a look at the two women who had stopped their conversation after Prim’s interruption. One of them, presumably the nurse, was a thin, smart-looking lady with thick, black-rimmed glasses and a short, raven-black bob, and the other one was an extravagant, plump woman with too much make-up and a dramatic, bright red hairdo. Sage felt sorry she couldn’t linger a while longer and listen to them, but Prim was practically dragging her out the door.

It seemed that whatever her sister needed to tell her couldn’t wait another minute.

CHAPTER FIVE

Two Detectives and a Roast

Back in the peach-and-cream kitchen, Sage inspected the large circles of sweat on her T-shirt with a wrinkled nose. It was impossible to stay in the same clothes for more than a couple of hours in this weather. She wasn’t about to jump in the shower just yet though. She needed to hear what Prim had learned in the home of the dead Natalie. Her sister had kept annoyingly quiet on the way home.

“I don’t want anyone to overhear us,” she’d explained, but Sage knew that was a ridiculous excuse since no normal person would venture outside during the hottest part of the day. They were alone in the streets of Rosecliff and even the large oaks that lined Seaview Street, the street that Prim lived on, didn’t provide much relief with their thick shade. The air was stifling.

“Here, shred these,” Prim instructed, shoving a large plastic bowl of peeled carrots in front of her dazed sister.

“Prim, come on, tell me already!” Sage whined. The last thing she was in the mood for was shredding carrots. “You made it look like a matter of life and death.”

“Okay, okay,” Prim said, settling on the opposite side of the kitchen island with a huge knife and a head of cabbage in front of her. “I’ll tell you, you shred. Dinner is not making itself.”

“Ugh,” Sage snorted and got started on her task. She genuinely wished dinner
did
make itself.

“So, I went to the Pendergrasses house, right?”

“Right,” Sage said, confirming the obvious with a roll of her eyes.

“And I think you might be right. Something’s just… well, off. First of all, Father Pendergrass acted like nothing had happened. I mean, he was so polite and even creepily bubbly, like I was there on a social call. Every time I tried to offer some condolences, he changed the subject. I think he might have still been overwhelmed by everything that went on. Then, the doorbell rang while we were having tea, and it was Kevin, the groom from the wedding. Then the Father flipped out and sent him on his way. He was so upset to see him and yet, he was very friendly with me. I don’t know what all that was about. And finally, I asked where Jasmine was and if she needed to talk to someone, you know, because her mom passed away a few years back. Then I heard a creak and looked up and saw her, Jasmine, peek through a crack in the door of her upstairs bedroom. As soon as she saw me, she closed the door and hid.”

Prim stood for a moment, staring at the untouched cabbage and blinking. Then she turned to her sister.

“Don’t you find it strange? I mean, with all the insisting that there be no examination of the body and then the lack of emotions…”

“Wait until I tell you what’s strange,” Sage said, concern ringing in her voice.

She left the shredder for a minute to go and retrieve her notebook and started recounting what had happened in the cafe. When she was done, Prim looked even more mystified. She had forgotten all about dinner.

“Should we tell Ben?” Sage finally asked.

“No,” Prim said, lost in thought, “He said we should leave the whole thing alone. He doesn’t want any trouble with his superiors. Plus, we could be wrong.”

“So, do you think it could be murder?”

“Well, what I think is that it was definitely
not
natural. Especially now that we have a secret baby in the picture. I think Natalie was going to reveal it at the wedding and someone wanted to stop her. Why else would she carry around the pregnancy test?”

“I know. But why at the wedding?” Sage thought aloud.

“Remember what you heard this morning in the village green? I think it must have been Natalie that you saw there and the father of her baby. They said they couldn’t let the wedding go through.”

“Do you think it was the groom then? Maybe he was in a secret relationship with Natalie. What was his name?”

“Kevin. And he certainly does have a motive if she was threatening to show he hadn’t been faithful to Jasmine.”

“But how did he do it? I was racking my brain all day,” Sage said, “And all I could think of was poison, since we were all there and there wasn’t a gunshot or anything. That’s why I asked Dan about them having breakfast. Natalie was there before the wedding, but Kevin wasn’t, so he couldn’t have slipped her something then.”

“Well, maybe someone else was in on the whole thing. Maybe someone helped him.”

“Now that’s getting a bit too grim. They all looked like a bunch of normal teenagers at the wedding.”

“They did,” Prim said gloomily, “And what about Father Pendergrass? Why would he react so irrationally to the whole thing? Though I doubt he would kill his own daughter…”

“You are forgetting the purity circle. Maybe he was more upset than we think when he found out she was pregnant.”

“But,” Prim said, “I thought he only learned about that
after
the nurse told him. If he knew beforehand, it would make sense. Everyone knows how insanely strict he is with his daughters. He made them wear those promise rings and gave out similar ones to their best friends, who were also in the circle. Maybe you don’t know that, but the Pendergrasses are the richest family in town and the oldest and keeping up a good name has always been a number one priority for the Father. Not to mention he is also the head of the church, so it makes sense he would want his daughters to set a good example to the other kids. He even went as far as declaring that he’d disinherit either of them if they had any relations with boys out of wedlock.”

“What a strange little town this is,” Sage said, “It all looks so calm and peaceful on the surface.”

“I have an idea,” Prim said suddenly, jumping to her feet, “Wait here, and start shredding already! I’ll also need you to cut the cabbage and put the roast in the oven. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.”

“Wait!” Sage tried to stop her, but Prim was already out the door.

Sage hadn’t the first clue about how to put a roast in an oven.

“What’s going on?” Prim said as she stormed in the kitchen, sniffing the air, “I don’t smell anything burning, but I don’t smell
anything
either.”

“I did what you told me,” Sage said apologetically, “I cut and shred everything and put the roast in the oven.”

Prim, despite her so far serious expression, started laughing.

“You are serious?” she managed to say in between her convulsions, “You thought I asked you to just
put
it there?”

“You could have been more specific, Prim! How do I know what you meant? Plus, I know every oven’s different. I didn’t want to mess it up. You were out so fast. I hate when you do that.”

“Okay, okay,” Prim said, catching her breath, “Half an hour shouldn’t be too much of a delay. My poor little sister!” She ruffled Sage’s hair playfully. “How are you going to take care of your own family?”

“I’ll improvise,” Sage countered, “I’ll just feed them candy or bring them over to your place. Like every day, six o’clock sharp, and leave them in
your
expert hands. Where were you anyway?”

“Oh, you’re going to love this!” Prim said, clearly proud of herself. “I went over to Emily’s house. Emily’s the other bridesmaid by the way. I know that she was the one with the camera, filming everything from before the ceremony. She asked me to film the flowers and decorations. Only later she passed the camera on to her mom when she had to start walking down the aisle.”

“Oh, yes! I remember. She was filming me too, when I was delivering the bouquets. So?”

“Well, I apologized that it was probably not the best of times, but that I needed the film for my portfolio as I had another wedding in a nearby town coming up soon.”

“And she gave it to you?”

“Yes. It didn’t take much convincing. The girl was still pretty upset about the whole thing. I don’t think she could’ve protested less.”

“Well, at least we know she is not the one who killed Natalie if she was filming everything the whole time. It would have been kind of tricky.”

“Yeah, and we also know that the breakfast in the Cheshire’s Cat is not on the tape, since Emily was with Jasmine in the hair salon at that time. Like Dan told you. But still, we could watch the thing and see if anything comes across as suspicious.”

“You are amazing Prim!” Sage said in awe of her sister’s cleverness, “I wouldn’t have thought of that myself. Let’s watch the thing.”

“We need to be quick though. Ben is coming back in about an hour and the boys will be here soon as well. I don’t want Ben to know we’ve been snooping around.”

“So, we are doing this?” Sage asked.

“Doing what?”

“Investigating a murder?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but let’s face it. There are too many questions here. We both know we won’t be sitting around and ignoring this whole puzzle.”

“Alright then!” Sage squealed, but toned it down once she saw the reprimand in Prim’s eyes. “Let’s watch a movie!”

CHAPTER SIX

Popcorn and a Scary Movie

Primrose and Sage settled in the large, soft sofa in the living room with two giant bowls of popcorn. The entire house seemed to smell of salty butter. While Sage lay sprawled in her shorts and tank top, shoving fistfuls of popcorn into her mouth, Prim was sitting with her back straight, carefully picking a single piece of popcorn and putting it in her mouth gracefully as if a million strangers were watching and judging her. Sage looked sideways at her sister and burst into laughter.

“What?” Prim said, offended.

“If you could see yourself! Do you ever relax?”

“Not when I’m in company. I think I owe it to you not to behave like a pig.”

“Oh, if that’s how it’s going to be…” Sage said, the smile not leaving her face. “Too bad we are related and soon the whole town will know what kind of family you come from.”

“Stop it, will you? Just hit play. We don’t have all day!”

“Alright, alright,” Sage mumbled with her mouth full of melting popcorn. “But the film is four hours. We don’t have all that time. I’ll just fast forward through it and you tell me to stop if you see anything, okay?”

“Okay,” Prim agreed.

The TV screen came alive and the other two sisters, Jasmine and Natalie, came into view. It all seemed comical when the film was put on fast forward. Jasmine was walking about in her bedroom, which still bore signs of her childhood, wrapped in a towel, her hair twisted in another one on top of her head. Natalie was ripping off the tags from the bridal lingerie and tossing the pieces of white lace on a chair. Sage slowed down, so they could hear what the sisters were talking about.