Adams Grove 03-Wedding Cake and Big Mistakes (30 page)

Although the artisan center officially closed at six, it took nearly forty minutes to clear everyone out and finalize the sales. Connor sat by wondering what the heck Carolanne was up to. He hadn’t laid eyes on her since their blowup earlier. He glanced at his watch, anxious to get out of there and see what else he could find out to help Ben. Keeping Carolanne from stirring up more trouble was top of mind, too.

Jill plopped down in a bright-blue folk art–style chair carved and painted to look like a glitzy mermaid. She kicked her shoes off and pulled her feet up into the chair. Patsy and Jim sat in the pink flamingo love seat next to her. Garrett stepped up behind Jill and rubbed her shoulders as they recapped the highlights of the day with his parents.

Elsie walked out of the office waving a tablet in the air. “Ready for the official numbers, Boss?”

Carolanne followed at her heels.

When did she get back?
It was a relief to see her, but he still had his worries.

“Yes.” Jill scooched to the edge of her seat. “I know it’s good.”

Elsie leaped into the air. “It’s awesome!”

Carolanne took in a long breath and then started running through the stats. Her jaw was set and her voice tight. “I’m going to have to run after this, so I’m going to make it quick, but all the details are in the report. We had a total of four hundred and five people at the ribbon cutting. People came from nine different counties. By the end of the day, one thousand two hundred and sixty-two people had visited from eleven states.”

“That means we had vacationers, don’t you think?” Elsie said, then started drumming on the counter. “We sold an average of…Drumroll, please…”

Carolanne was still mad, but more than that, she was upset. He could tell by her clipped sentences and the fact that she was acting like he was invisible spoke pretty loudly, too.
I’m sorry, Carolanne.
She was here out of duty and friendship to Jill. He should’ve known she’d never let Jill down.

Jill, Garrett, and Elsie started slapping their hands against their thighs in a faux drumroll.

“Twenty-three dollars per visitor.”

Connor could tell Garrett was doing the math in his head.

“I see smoke coming out of your ears,” Elsie chimed in. “That’s over twenty-nine thousand dollars.”

“You’re kidding!” Jill raised her hand to her heart and glanced to Pearl’s portrait. “Lordy goodness, I never would have dreamed that many people, let alone that much money, coming through these doors on day one.”

Elsie pulled a slip of paper from her back pocket. “I was keeping track of some of the repeat sales. Mary Claire’s note cards were a big hit. I don’t think we have but a couple left, and those are the Christmas ones. We had a lot of lookers at the western pottery, but I think it was a little high-priced for impulse buyers. I bet some people come back for it, though. You know what we sold out of? Those gum wrapper purses.”

Connor noticed Carolanne straighten when Elsie mentioned the gum wrapper purses.

“I’m not even sure when they came in. Elsie must have checked them in,” Jill admitted.

Mrs. Malloy piped in. “You’re right. Lara from the diner bought the very last one. She was showing it to me. She helped the girl collect the wrappers to make them.”

“Ben dropped them off during the reception. I saw him put them back here. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him, so I’m not sure where he got them, but they were really popular,” Elsie said.

“I know who made them. It was Gina Edwards.” Carolanne straightened. “When did my dad drop them off?”

Connor knew what she was thinking. He was thinking the same thing. This could help clear Ben. Only, no one else in the room had any idea just how important this piece of trivia was.

Elsie looked like she was searching the ceiling tiles for the answer. “At the wedding reception. Yes, I remember now. He said she wanted to sell them on consignment.”

“Whoever made them did an amazing job,” Jill said.

“Jill, it was Gina who made them,” Carolanne said, stressing the girl’s name.

Clarity registered on Jill’s face. “That Gina?”

Elsie rambled on. “They’re great. I’d hoped to buy one for myself. Wish I’d done it now. We’ll definitely need more of those. We also sold a bunch of those cute little wine stoppers with the funny faces on them, too.” Elsie folded up the paper.

Carolanne walked over to Elsie. “Are you a hundred percent certain that Ben dropped those handbags off for you on the afternoon of the wedding reception?”

“Yes. A hundred percent certain. In fact, hang on.” She ran over to the cash register and brought back an envelope. “Here’s who we’re supposed to make the check out to. Gina Edwards. Just like you said.”

“I’ve got to run,” Carolanne said. “I’m sorry, Jill. I’ll explain later.”

Carolanne headed out the door to her car.

Connor caught up with her. “Carolanne, wait!”

“I’m in a hurry.” She stomped her foot. “I forgot I locked my keys in my car this morning.”

“You don’t have a spare?”

“Yes. Just not with me. I have one at the house.”

“I can take you to get it, or I can drive. You know Ben wouldn’t have brought those purses in if he’d killed Gina. That would have been flat-out stupid. He was trying to help her,” he said.

“Exactly.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Connor drove Carolanne to the sheriff’s station, but Carolanne wasn’t in an appreciative mood. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the arrest.”

“Let’s just fix it, OK?” She messed with her seat belt and avoided his look.

“He asked me not to tell you. I was caught. I wanted to help, and I didn’t want you to worry.”

She held up her hand. “Don’t. Not now, OK?”

“I’m on your side on this.”

She stared out the window, although there wasn’t much to see now that the sun had set.

Connor hated to ask, but he needed to know where they stood. “You didn’t file any—”

“No. I didn’t. I was mad and feeling protective of my dad. You’re right about small-town law being totally different than practicing in New York.”

He laid his hand on her knee. “Thanks for listening.”

She pushed his hand off her leg. “I did it for my dad. If we get this solved, then we’ll talk about forgiveness. Right now, I don’t have the capacity to process anything else.”

“Deal.”

But she was mad as a hundred angry bees, and she was even going to be more pissed when she found out he had more information that she didn’t. He wished he could tell her, but his hands were tied.

Connor could not wait to get down to the station to bring Scott up-to-date on the details, but between Mac’s information and the fact that he himself had seen and could account for Ben’s whereabouts between the narrowed timeline, Ben was surely in the clear. He just hoped Carolanne wouldn’t act all crazy when they got there.

Connor led the way back to Scott’s office without even checking in at the front desk. “Knock, knock,” Connor said as they walked into his office. “Hey.”

Scott looked at Carolanne. His face showed the guilt and stress of having her dad there behind bars. “I feel awful, Carolanne.”

“You’re just doing your job.”

“I’m trying to get the evidence I need to make this right. I’m sorry. The information came through from the mayor’s office. I didn’t have a choice.”

“I understand. Let’s just figure this out.”

Connor closed the door. “I’ve got more information.” He looked to Carolanne. “You better sit down, too. You don’t know all of this yet, either.”

Carolanne’s jaw pulsed. “You’re going to be the death of me, Connor Buckham.”

Scott looked away.

Connor shrugged. “Don’t sweat it, Scott. I’m used to her redhead fuse.”

“Look who’s talking,” she said. “Can we just get my dad out of jail, please?”

Connor ran down the information he had timelined out on Ben’s activities and what Ben had shared about Gina.

Scott added, “Well, the journals we found at Ben’s house belonged to Gina’s mother. We think she probably got them from the old farmhouse. I’m going to check that out myself.”

“That would explain the chain being down that day,” Connor reasoned.

“Possibly. We didn’t find anything in Ben’s house that pointed to foul play.”

“Of course not,” Carolanne said.

Connor sat on the edge of Scott’s desk. “Mac came to me with some information. You know he and Anita were out of town when all this happened.”

Scott and Carolanne both nodded.

Carolanne spoke up. “He showed up at the artisan center to check in with Jill. That’s when he first heard about it, and…” Carolanne’s eyes lit up. “Connor, why didn’t I realize it before? Did you?”

“What?” he asked.

“When Mac left that night, do you remember what he said? He knew her name. We’d never said it, but he said he was sorry about Gina!”

Connor nodded. “Before you go jumping to conclusions and throwing around accusations, let me tell you what he told me. You see, Mac talked to Gina the morning of the wedding. He told me that himself.”

“He was the last one to see her alive?” Carolanne looked like she was more confused now than before.

“How did this girl get around this town in stealth mode?” Scott looked confused by all the details. “I’ve gone from a big fat nothing to more details than I could wish for.”

Scott’s phone rang.

“Hang on a second.” He took the call, then stood up and started putting on his coat. Gesturing for them to follow him, he whispered, “Come on. We’ll talk on the way.”

They piled into Scott’s car.

“Keep talking, Buckham,” he said after hanging up the phone.

Connor leaned forward between Carolanne and Scott from the backseat. “The short version is Gina was at the artisan center talking to him when he was there to deliver the cake.”

“He told you that?” Carolanne said.

“Yep. It was early, like seven thirty in the morning. She was alive when he last saw her, but he’s worried—real worried—and he needs your help, Scott.”

“I’m listening.”

Connor told them how Mac had pulled him aside and told him that he remembered seeing Gina the morning of the wedding. He’d even talked to her, but he was in a hurry and she was gone before he’d gotten the chance to finish their conversation. He’d assumed that she’d just gotten tired of waiting, but now he knew it wasn’t looking good, and he was right. He doesn’t know what happened, but he knew he needed to clear Ben, even if it was going to make himself look guilty.

“Hold that thought,” Scott said as he turned onto Route 58.

“Where are we going?” Carolanne asked.

“To the Dixon farm.”

A few minutes later, they pulled in front of the path that led back to the Dixon property.

“The chain’s back down,” Connor said.

Scott drove down the overgrown path. The branches seemed to reach and tap out a warning on the windows as they drove to the back of the property.

Connor felt badly about Gina Edwards. This was a nice property. She’d died before she’d known it was her birthright. He wondered if she was the one who had been taking down the chain. “I wonder if she came out here that night.” It might have been when she’d gotten her mother’s journals.
Would’ve been nice to have something happy here to replace those old tales.

Scott pulled his car tight to the right edge of the dirt path to avoid a deep mud gully. Someone had been back here and not that long ago. It was overgrown, but the path was easy to follow because the grass was packed down, leading the way to the old farmhouse and pond.

As they made it to the clearing, he pulled in front of the house. The front door was wide open. Apparently, someone had been doing more than just four-wheeling or swimming back here recently.

Scott called in his location, then turned off the car and grabbed his floodlight.

He flashed the light across the front of the house. He’d boarded up those front windows himself. Only, now, the window next to the door had been shimmied up.

“It would have taken some tools to get that open. I screwed the boards in myself to keep folks out,” Scott said, handing a floodlight to Connor.

Connor swept the light across the space and stepped inside. He could see at least a couple different sets of shoe prints in the dust. The handrail going up the stairs had clear spots where someone had gripped it as they made their way up or down the stairs.