Dead Before The Wedding: A Carly Keene Cozy Mystery (Carly Keene Cozy Mysteries Book 1) (9 page)

She probably wants me back there,
Carly thought
, so she can feel superior. Well, that’s not going to happen.
“Hey, Mona. How are you holding up?” Carly was trying to be sympathetic, but Mona’s brusque attitude made it difficult.

“Well, I’m about as good as a girl whose fiance was murdered by some scheming Jezebel can get, if you must know!” Mona’s nostrils flared, and she glared at Tucker. “I mean, I’m practically a widow, and then I find out that she’s got some little brat and says it’s Larry’s. Hmmph. Shameless hussy, that’s what that girl is.” Mona tilted her head back, looking down her nose at Tucker. “She’ll get what she deserves in prison, I’m sure. And child services ought to just go on and take that kid. I mean, apparently she left it with her daddy, who I’ve seen and who is as old as the hills.”

Carly could see Tucker’s face getting red, and his hands had curled into fists. He probably hated Mona pretty hard right about now. To his credit, he managed to maintain an otherwise calm appearance, not unlike a skinny Buddha in blue jeans and an Old Navy t-shirt.

“Mona, what did you need to see me about?” Carly was determined to change the subject, because buddha boy didn’t look like he could stay calm and quiet for long.

“It’s about my money. I paid you a huge deposit for my wedding photos, and now I won’t be needing them, but I will need my money. After all, I have so many costs to cover, what with the funeral and all. And I’m going to need that deposit back on the cake, too.”

“Well, I’ll be happy to get you the deposit for the photos. I was just going to drop it into the bank for you, but I can just write you a check right now.” Carly was glad to at least have that errand off her to do list.

“I’d prefer cash.” Mona put her hands on her sizeable hips and explained, “I have to go out of town to take care of some of Larry’s business, god rest his soul, and I didn’t want to have to fool with cashing a check.”

Carly glanced at Tucker, whose expression clearly stated that he didn’t believe Mona’s audacity any more than Carly did. “I guess I can run over to the bank and cash a check,” Carly offered, “but it’ll be a few minutes before I can leave.”

Mona was about to say something when the sound of little feet running on the floor distracted her. Tyler came barreling into the lobby, grinning from ear to ear. “I cooked! I did mixing!” Shell followed behind, laughing.

“I let him push the button on the big old stand mixer back there. He got such a kick out of it…” Her laughter trailed off when she saw Mona, and she stopped just behind the counter.

Mona just glanced at Tyler at first, but when Tyler called out to his uncle, recognition flared in her eyes. “What on earth are you doing with that woman’s brat?” She probably meant for this to come out in a roar, but her face was contorted with anger, and it seemed to be choking her. She took a deep breath, and spun around towards Carly. “I’ll bet you think this is funny, don’t you? That little brat is nothing but a painful reminder to me, but you wouldn’t care, would you?”

For half a second, Carly wanted to feel pity for Mona. But just then, Tyler walked over to Carly and tugged on her arm. He whispered something, and pointed to the keychain hanging from Mona’s purse. Carly leaned in to listen to him, and she was just able to make out the words “Can I” from his little whispers.

“Can you what, sweetheart?” Carly was blatantly ignoring Mona’s fiery stare, and Tyler reached up again, pointing at Mona’s keychain, which was glittery and sparkly, perfectly attractive to little kids and trashy women.

What happened  next happened so quickly, Carly barely had time to think about it. As Tyler’s little arm hung pointing in the air, Mona snatched her bag violently off the countertop, clutching it towards her ample bosom and spilling half the contents onto the floor in the process.

“Will somebody get this little brat out of here? Look what he made me do!” Mona was making a big show of her predicament, and Tyler looked like he was about to cry.

Hugging Tyler defensively, Carly chided, “Mona Durham, don’t you yell at this baby! Look, I can help you pick this up…” Carly nudged Tyler towards Tucker, who looked like he was ready to blow a gasket. Carly shook her head in an exaggerated
NO
, and turned back to Mona, who was frantically grabbing at the things that had fallen out of her purse.

“You just leave my stuff alone, Carly! I don’t need you sticking your nose into my personal belongings like you stuck your nose into Larry’s!”

Carly stopped with her hand hovering over a tube of lipstick that had landed by her foot. She looked Mona dead in the eye, and questioned her. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Mona dropped a pack of gum and a tube of mascara back into her cavernous purse, and snarled, “I’m just saying it’s pretty strange you went to Larry’s that morning. I mean, what were you planning on doing when you got there, huh? Maybe you were having an affair with him, too. In fact, how can anybody be sure that you didn’t throw that heater in the bath with him?” If Mona was trying to shock everyone in the room, it was certainly working.

Carly stood up, eye to eye with Mona, and calmly retorted, “You know full well what I was doing at Larry’s house. You’d better be careful with your accusations, Mona. There’s a whole lot of ugly that could come out in the police investigation. People talk, and I’m sure they’re wondering why you wouldn’t answer your phone when I tried to call you that morning.”

Carly thought she saw a flicker of something in Mona’s eyes, a flash of anger fuelled by hate, but something else, too. Mona glared at everyone in the room. “Like I told that half-wit cousin of yours, my phone was on silent. I had the ringer turned down so my mama wouldn’t be bothered by the ringing, since she was sick that day.”
Yeah
, thought Carly,
sick of having you live at home with her.

Mona shoved her arm through the strap of her purse. “Well, I did not come here to be insulted or assaulted by that little brat,” she hissed, pointing at Tyler. “You can just deposit that money into my bank account after all. But do it today. I will never set foot in this crappy little bakery again, and you can be sure that I will tell all my friends how rude and disrespectful that you are.” Mona glared at everyone one last time, then she stormed out the front door, slamming it shut behind her. The glass shook in its frame, and the bell jangled wildly.

“Well, I never!” Shell walked over to Tyler and knelt down beside him. “Did that mean old witch scare you, Tyler?” The little boy had tears in his eyes, and he nodded his head. “Well, you come on with Aunt Shell and we’ll go pick you out a little cupcake. What do you think about that?”

Tucker walked over to Carly and gave her an unexpected hug. “What was that for?” she asked.

“It was a thank you. Thank you for standing up to that woman when she got so ugly about Tyler. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t say something. I mean, I am his uncle and all, but I guess I’m still getting used to that fact.” Tyler looked as though he regretted not speaking up when Mona had been in the bakery, but Carly knew that it would have been pointless.

“Don’t feel bad, Tucker. If you had said anything to her, it would have just made things worse. I think she can’t stand the fact that you look just like your brother. Maybe it just brings back bad memories for her. Or, maybe she is just a mean old witch.” Carly let out a half-chuckle, glad that the mean old witch had left without further incident.

Carly felt her chest relax. She hadn’t realized just how tense she’d been the whole time Mona was in the bakery. She felt something in her hand, and realized that she’d picked up the lipstick that had fallen out of Mona’s purse.
Well
, she thought,
there is no way I’m chasing her down to give her back a tube of lipstick.

She walked back behind the counter, and started to toss the tube into the trash, but something stopped her.
I wonder what shade of violent pink this tube is?
Flipping the lipstick upside down, she read the name.
Blushing burgundy
. “Hmmm,” she said to no one in particular.

“What?” Shell and Tucker responded in unison.

“I never took Mona for a ‘blushing burgundy’ kind of girl.” Carly opened the lipstick and twisted it up. It was practically brand new, with just a hint of having been used maybe once or twice. It was also the exact same shade that Tina Nicholls had been wearing every time Carly had seen her. Putting the cap back on the tube, Carly reached under the counter and grabbed her purse.

“Where are you going?” Shell asked, licking cupcake frosting from one finger.

Carly wrapped the lipstick in a paper napkin and placed it carefully in her purse. “Hold down the fort, you two. I’ve got to go see a man about some lipstick.”

Brandon Sparks listened intently as Carly explained her theory about the lipstick, and she handed it over to be checked for fingerprints. “Forget fingerprints,” Brandon said, dropping the tube into a plastic evidence bag, “we can check for traces of DNA on this. If Tina or Mona applied this lipstick to either of their lips, I’ll know within a week.”

“A week?” Carly looked frustrated. “That’s too long. I think Mona’s planning on leaving town soon, maybe even today. She told me she had to go out of town to take care of some of Larry’s business, and she was looking to get her deposit back on the wedding photos and cake.”

“So? There’s nothing illegal about getting a refund for wedding stuff when the groom kicks the bucket before the I-do’s.”

“She wanted me to pay her in cash.” Carly put her hands on her hips and planted her feet firmly, defiance in her eyes. “Brandon, I know there must be something you can do. I mean, if you don’t have enough evidence to keep Tina, you have to let her go, right?” Carly wasn’t letting her cousin brush her off with police procedure.

“That’s the problem,” Brandon said. “It looks like we do have evidence that Tina was in Larry’s apartment some time before he was killed.”

Carly was floored. “What evidence? What do you mean?”

“Well, we found her driver’s license on the floor by the front door. I doubt she even knew she’d dropped it, because she tried to tell us it was in her wallet the whole time. We looked, to humor her, and she seemed shocked that it was gone. Then she asked if she could see a lawyer.”

Carly could tell that her cousin genuinely believed that he had Larry’s killer in the cell in the back of the small jail, but Carly just couldn’t be sure of that. “Listen, I don’t know why or how her driver’s license wound up there, and she may well have been dumb enough to go over there, but I really, truly don’t think that Tina Nichols killed Larry.”

“Why do you even care so much, Carly? I mean, it’s not like Tina means anything to you. And if you ask me, having her locked up in here takes out the competition for Mr. Sensitive, what’s-his-name…” Brandon grinned watching his cousin blush.

“I don’t see her as competition, Brandon. I see her as a single mom with a little boy that needs her. Maybe I’m wrong, and she did do it, but what if I’m right, and Mona gets to walk away? If Mona killed Larry, she cannot get away with it.” Carly prayed and hoped that she was right, even if she had lied about Tina not being competition. Darn her cousin for hitting on the one nerve she just didn’t need exposed right now.

Brandon gestured to the bag containing the lipstick. “Well, if this gives us any further evidence, you realize it could go both ways. It could make Mona look mighty suspicious, but it may not necessarily prove anything. And, it could confirm that Tina wears burgundy lipstick, which won’t get her out of jail.” Brandon grinned, and Carly wanted to smack him. How could her cousin joke over something as big as a person’s freedom?

“Yeah, Brandon, and it could free her, too. If that lipstick on those wine glasses match this lipstick, and the lipstick matches Mona, then…”

“Then we still only have circumstantial evidence, unless we find fingerprints on the heater from the bathroom.” Brandon stopped grinning. “I do know how to do my job, cuz. I may not have been the straight-A student that you were in school, but I do know how to catch bad guys.”

Brandon could tell Carly was getting frustrated, so he continued, “If we can get a confession out of whoever’s DNA matches both the lipstick and the wine glasses, we have a solid case for conviction, even without the fingerprints on the heater. I won’t just leave Tina locked up without investigating every fact and piece of evidence. I’ll make sure the right person goes to jail for this.”

Carly knew her cousin would keep his word. If anyone in town valued justice more than Brandon, she didn’t know them. She just wished that she could get Mona to confess to having been at Larry’s house the night that he died. And she just needed to find out why Tina
had
been there. Once she had those two pieces of information, Carly was sure that she could get to the bottom of the mystery behind who killed Larry Gaston.

“Brandon,” she asked cautiously, feeling her brain begin to form a plan, “Does Tina have to stay in jail? I mean, if she made bail she could get out, right?”

“Yeah, technically, but she’s already said that she can’t afford bail money. I mean, it’s only ten thousand dollars, but for her, that might as well be ten million bucks.”

“What if I post her bail? Can she get out then?” Carly definitely had a plan forming in her brain, and Brandon could tell.

“What are you planning, cuz?”

Carly bit her bottom lip in concentration. After a few seconds, she replied, “I think I have a plan, and I think I can get your confession. If we can make Mona mad enough, she’ll lose it completely, and I think she’d totally confess to the murder.”

Brandon frowned. “And how do you plan on doing that?”

“If I tell you, you have to help me do it.” Carly realized that she couldn’t legally blackmail a cop, but she figured her cousin might just be up for her mission once he heard the details.

“Well, okay, but if we get into trouble, I’m calling your mama.” Brandon grinned, and Carly began to explain the plan she had to solve Larry’s murder once and for all.