A Murderous Glaze (15 page)

I wasn’t sure who was angrier with me, Bill or the sheriff. They were both yelling at me at the police station; finally, I’d had enough. “Stop it, you two. I keep telling you, I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Bill said, “You don’t call going to Kendra’s by yourself the wrong thing to do?”

“I was taking her soup,” I said. There was no way I was going to admit to either one of them that I’d suspected her of murder. “How is she, by the way?”

Hodges said, “Her size worked in her favor. Herman didn’t hit anything vital, but she probably would have bled to death if you hadn’t come along when you did.” He turned to Bill and asked, “Can I have a second alone with your wife?”

Bill looked at me, and I nodded. After Bill was gone, the sheriff said, “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

“About anything in particular, or just in general?”

“You’re not going to make this easy on me, are you?”

“Not if I can help it. You haven’t exactly been making my life rosy lately.” I was a little jittery from the confrontation with Herman, but I was finally starting to wrap my head around the concept that my landlord was a murderer. How could I stay where I was? Fire at Will was home, and I hated to move. One thing I knew for sure. No matter what happened, I was getting a new couch.

“Yeah, well, that’s why I’m sorry.”

Bill knocked on the door before I could answer. “Are you two about finished up in there?”

“Just a second,” I said, then turned to the sheriff. “And I’m sorry for not trusting you more than I did.”

“Can’t say I blame you,” he said. “Let’s just call it a truce, okay?”

“I can live with that.”

There was a pounding on the door, then my husband called out, “Carolyn, are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Bill. For goodness sake, if I knew you were going to be such a baby about it, I would have let you stay.”

“I was just worried about you,” he said as I let him back in.

I kissed him soundly, then said, “That’s why I keep you around. Let’s go home.” I turned to the sheriff and asked, “Is that okay with you?”

“Sure,” he said. “And Carolyn, try to stay out of trouble, will you?”

“I’ll do my best, but I can’t make any promises. Trouble seems to find me wherever I go.”

“Then it’ll have to look at home,” Bill said, “because that’s where we’re going right now.”

The only thing worse than having Kendra suspect me of being a murderer was Kendra thinking I’d saved her life. No matter how many times I tried to tell her that we’d saved each other, she steadfastly refused to believe it.

It was almost enough to make me think about committing a little murder myself.

I couldn’t have been more surprised when the Firing Squad threw me a party the next night at Fire at Will. There was food everywhere, and the best part was, the place was starting to feel like home again now that the murder tainting the place had been solved.

“Tell us how you figured it out again,” Sandy asked.

“It all happened so quickly,” I said. I wasn’t about to tell them how long it had taken me to make the connection between my former landlord and the murder.

Martha asked, “What was the blackmailing all about? Did you ever find out what Betty knew?”

I looked at Butch and waited for him to answer, but he met my gaze with a shrug. When I realized he wasn’t going to say anything, I said, “I guess we’ll never know.” Once again, I wondered just how reformed Butch really was. On the other hand, did I really want to know?

“All that really matters is that you’re safe,” Jenna said.

“And that we’ve put this all behind us,” I replied. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m fine, honestly I am.”

David said, “If that’s the case, why don’t we do something new, since we’re all here? Does anyone have any ideas?”

“I’d like to learn how to make that face jug you did,” Butch said, ready to pounce on anything that dropped the current line of conversation.

David looked at me and grinned. “What do you say? It’s your shop.”

I glanced at the Firing Squad—my circle of true friends—and realized that there was nothing in the world that I’d like more.

Making Carolyn’s Wind Ornaments

Carolyn’s wind ornaments are easy to create yourself and add a nice touch of whimsy to any tree branch. They also make great additions for the wrapping of any gift, giving a real splash of class to packages wherever you use them. I like to make my own personalized wind ornaments every year to use at home and to give as simple, inexpensive gifts.

You don’t need a potter’s kiln, or any other special equipment, to make these ornaments. Polymer clay—the Sculpey brand for example—will do wonderfully. This clay is readily available at craft stores everywhere and comes in a variety of colors so you don’t have to paint the finished product. When the clay is baked in your oven, it becomes rock hard. You can use your own cookie cutters on the material, and they yield beautiful results.

Knead the polymer clay and roll it out to a quarter of an inch thick. Then take your favorite cookie cutters and simply cut out the shapes you like. I prefer using heavy plastic cutters when I do this, since they hold their shape and don’t deflect under the pressure. Cutters come in many different sizes and shapes, and they’re inexpensive, too.

I also like to add textures to some of my shapes and leave others unadorned. Round ornaments are especially nice to embellish. Adding layers of wavy lines and colorful stars helps create variety. Using different colors of clay will give your ornaments even more life and dimension.

After you’re happy with your designs, simply punch a hole in one corner of the ornament and bake them in your main oven, or a toaster oven if you’d prefer. Once the ornaments bake and cool, they’re hard and ready to use.

If you’re making the ornaments with regular potter’s clay and a kiln, follow the steps above with regular clay, then bisque-fire the ornaments after you’ve rolled them out and cut the shapes. After that, paint or glaze your pieces however you’d like. When you’re finished with the second firing, you have something special—handcrafted, inexpensive, and easy to create ornaments. Most importantly, they’re ready to share!