White Colander Crime (21 page)

After dinner they washed and dried the dishes. As she hung up the damp dishcloths over the stove handle, Jaymie said, “On another subject, I think I need to follow my grandmother's advice about something,” she said. “It's going to haunt me if I don't do that no-bake fruitcake right, but I need a bunch of stuff: vanilla wafers, gingersnaps, marshmallows. Do you feel like making a run to the grocery store in Wolverhampton with me?”

“I'm up for it if you are. Let's go. I'm ready.”

Jaymie eyed her; for someone who had suggested a movie night she seemed awfully eager to go shopping. They took Jaymie's van, since Valetta had walked over, and Valetta griped all the way about how cold the van was, and how torturous the passenger seat. They parked, did their shopping in a nearly empty store and exited to the van. Jaymie started it up, let it run for a moment and backed out of the parking space.

Valetta said, “Do you mind making a side trip?”

Aha, and now the real reason Valetta hadn't minded venturing out into the cold night. “Not at all. Where to?”

Valetta glanced over at her, her face shadowy in the dim parking lot light. “Believe it or not, Eva is in that pageant at the same school as Jocie.” She looked at her watch, pressing the button to make the dial light up. “I know her number is third, in just about fifteen minutes.”

“If I show up there it'll look like I'm stalking Jakob!” Jaymie objected. “Especially after saying no to his invitation!”

“He won't even know. I just want to stand at the back and watch Eva so I can tell her I was there. I didn't think it was important to her that her old aunt was there, but when she found out this afternoon that I wasn't coming she sounded really bummed. I feel awful, and I'd like to be there. I was going to ask if you minded just peeking in on it. C'mon . . . what can it hurt?”

Reluctantly, Jaymie gave in and headed out of town to the side road the school was on. They parked in the lot and entered, moving down long hallways adorned with cutout snowflakes and snowmen, as well as bulletin boards detailing upcoming events in the New Year. The school was the one Jaymie had gone to, but Valetta and the others—Becca and Dee—had gone to an older school that had been sold and was now an office and light industrial space.

They made their way to the auditorium and snuck in the back. It was a big room that doubled as the gymnasium, with a small stage at one end. Tonight the lighting was low, and the floor, marked with borders and foul lines for basketball and other games, was full of rows of folding chairs, mostly taken. Someone was plunking away on the piano, playing some ubiquitous winter song, as a school ensemble sawed away on screechy violins and twittered on off-key recorders.

Valetta grabbed Jaymie's arm and hauled her to sit down in seats near the back. Eva's solo was next, and Jaymie was surprised by how sweet she sounded, singing a song about a snowman who fell in love with a snowlady, and how they got married and were together until they melted in spring. The message was that though nothing lasts forever, it was important to enjoy the good things life has to offer while they last, a surprisingly deep message for one so young.

“Sounds original. I wonder who wrote it?” Jaymie whispered, as the audience applauded.

Valetta grabbed the program that was lying on a chair in front of her and adjusted her glasses. “Eva said they had a volunteer who was helping with the pageant and she was writing all the songs. Let me see.” She ran her finger down the page and stopped. She looked up at Jaymie. “Talk about your coincidences? Guess who the volunteer is who wrote the song?”

“I can't guess.”

“Lily Meadows!”

“Austin said something about her volunteering at a lot of things!” The next act was announced, and it was the Fun Time Tumblers. That was Jocie's team! Jaymie watched the little girls and boys, aged five to eight, tumbling and dancing, moving confidently about the stage. She easily picked out Jocie because of her short but sturdy stature. The little girl was so very confident, doing her tricks and then standing front and center for applause.

It was spellbinding. When Jaymie was a kid she was awkward and afraid to take up space in the world. That lasted through the teenage years and well into her twenties. It was lovely to see children of all different body types and abilities who were so sure of themselves, with radiant smiles and laughter.

Jaymie leaped to her feet and clapped, cheering enthusiastically, completely forgetting herself in the moment. And then she saw Jakob; he was standing, too, and turned to see who the other cheering nut was. When he saw her, he smiled, his grin huge and warm, like a warm hug from a distance. He bent over, spoke to someone beside him, then sidled out of his row and made his way down the aisle and toward her.

“Hey,” he said, hugging her. “You came after all!”

She could feel the heat in her cheeks, and saw, with a side glance, how Valetta was watching with a grin on her face. Jaymie introduced them, Jakob taking Valetta's hands in his for his special kind of warm handshake. “We had to run to the grocery store in Wolverhampton,” Jaymie explained. “Valetta wanted to stop in to see her niece, Eva, who sang just before Jocie's tumbling troupe came on.”

A woman a couple of rows ahead turned and shushed them. Jakob took her arm. “Can we talk for a minute? Maybe out in the hall?”

“I'm going to find Brock,” Valetta whispered. “I just want to say hi, and tell him how great Eva did.” Valetta made her way down the aisle, scanning the audience for her brother.

“I don't want to take you away from your family,” Jaymie said.

“It's okay. My mom is backstage already. She volunteers with the troupe to make costumes. It started because they couldn't find ones to fit Jocie properly, and my mother is a great sewer, so she now makes all of their costumes. It gives her an excuse to buy pretty fabric, she says.” He took her arm and they retreated into the hallway. Once there, he took her in his arms and hugged her again. “It's so good to see you,” he murmured into her ear. “And to hug you.”

“Mmm, I agree.”

They stood like that for a few long minutes, then he released her. “Do you want to meet my folks tonight?”

She felt her heart thud again. “I'm not prepared, Jakob. I'm kind of a mess; we just had dinner and then scooted out.”

He looked disappointed, but nodded. “But soon, okay?”

“Soon,” she agreed. “I just want to make a good impression.”

“You couldn't
help
but make a good impression.”

She smiled up into his warm brown eyes. “Jocie was so good! She has so much confidence and joy; you're doing wonderfully with her.”

He nodded in satisfaction. “She needs to know she can do anything she wants: math, art, singing, dancing, writing.”

“How do you negotiate it all? I mean, society telling you your little girl needs to be smart and pretty and successful. What if she just wants to be a princess?”

“Then she can be a princess.”

Jaymie nodded. “That's good, that freedom. She can be a princess or an astronaut or—”

“No, not
or
 . . . she can be a princess
and
an astronaut, a fashion model
and
a baseball player.” He paused and smiled down at her. “I hope that one day, if I ever have a boy, I will teach him that he, too, can be a cowboy
and
a fashion model, a truck driver
and
a florist. I don't want my little girl limited by any imaginary lines in the sand. I don't think I'm saying that correctly, but . . .” He shrugged.

“You're saying it perfectly, Jakob,” she said, touching his arm and looking up into his eyes.

Just then, a door down the hall swung open, hitting the wall behind it with an echoing thud. Lily Meadows stormed out, then stopped and furiously tapped a message into her phone.

Jaymie started away from Jakob. “That's Lily Meadows,” she said under her breath, and explained that she was looking into Delaney Meadows' possible involvement in Shelby's death. “I just don't know what to think, whether he's involved or not. I wish I had a way to get into his office alone.”

He chuckled and hugged her close. “You are a never ending source of wonderment,” he said, then let go of her. “I'd better go back to my brothers,” Jakob said, stroking her arm. “Can I see you one evening?”

“Let's talk tomorrow. I'd love to see you, but I'm doing the Dickens Days walk for the next few nights.”

“I can meet you there!” he said, with a quick smile. “Gotta go. You be careful.”

As he ducked back into the auditorium, and the sound of a guitar and warbling voices echoed out into the hall through the open door, Jaymie watched Lily. The slight woman gave up texting and hit a series of numbers. She paced, her arms folded over her bosom, the phone held up to her right ear.

Her neck and cheeks were red, and she seemed on the verge of tears. Jaymie started down the hall toward her as she talked to someone, then hit the hang-up button and threw the phone down the hall. It smacked against the wall and some plastic chipped off the case. It all skittered down the hallway with an echoing clatter.

“Lily!” Jaymie said, approaching her. Lily was indeed a tiny woman, as Mrs. Stubbs had said, tonight wearing a long skirt and blouse with a cardigan and floral infinity scarf. In book club she rarely spoke up, preferring to let the bigger personalities take over meetings and discussions. But when she did speak it was to make deeply felt observations. Books mattered to her; that was something she and Jaymie had in common. “Are you all right? Can I help?”

The woman turned, her eyes clouded with tears. She dashed them away with the sleeve of her cardigan and crossed her arms over her stomach. “Jaymie, what are you doing here?”

“I'm here to watch a friend's niece. What's up?”

“It's nothing.”

“You don't throw a cell phone for nothing. Come over here. Sit down.” Jaymie led the woman over and pushed her down on a bench in a pool of light outside the auditorium doors. She then retrieved the cell phone and the broken piece, brought it back and set it on the bench, then sat on the other side of Lily. “Tell me what's wrong,” she said, her hand on the other woman's arm.

Lily broke down into tears and wept, covering her face with her hands. Jaymie let her sob, then got a tissue out of her purse and dampened it at one of the water fountains in the hallway. She brought it back and handed it to the woman without comment.

Lily took a deep shuddering breath, blotted her eyes, and said in a hopeless voice, “I think my marriage is over, that's all.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because Delaney is a jerk, that's why!” Her words caught on a sob. “You don't know my husband, but the guy is a class-A jerk, a cheating, lying, misogynistic
bastard
.”

Jaymie wouldn't have pegged him as a woman hater, but who knew? “Are you better off without him, then?”

She took a deep shuddering sigh and shrugged. “Maybe. He's been acting so weird lately, shifty, whispering in the phone, spending hours on his laptop, which, by the way, he has changed all the passwords and codes on. Who does that unless they're hiding something?”

Jaymie decided not to ask how she knew about the changed passwords if she wasn't trying to snoop into her husband's private business. “Lily, I'm good friends with Mrs. Stubbs. She's worried about you. She told me you caught your husband with Shelby Fretter at the Queensville Inn the evening before she was murdered. You thought they were having an affair?”

Lily's head had snapped up. It was like a fawn at the water's edge when they sense danger. “I didn't
catch
him, I
saw
him.”

Any moment the pageant would be over, the audience would stream out, and Lily would have duties to take care of. What did Jaymie need to know from this woman while she had her? “Did you have any reason at all to think that your husband was having an affair with Shelby Fretter?”

Responding to the direct questioning, Lily sat up straighter. “I know I said it, but Delaney just wasn't . . . I never thought he'd be the type to cheat. You know, he doesn't like sex very much. It's money he wants, and he's always trying to figure out some way to get it.”

“Like how?”

She shrugged. “Some new business or venture that would pay off big-time.”

Or some
crooked
venture. Jaymie wondered if his meeting with Shelby was simply business, or something else entirely. There were possibilities, including extortion on one side or the other. “Did you know Shelby?”

“Sure. She'd been to our house for dinner. At first I just thought she was a nice girl. But in her own way she seemed as ambitious as Delaney. I always thought they'd make a perfect pair, not a single human or affectionate thought between them, completely goal oriented.”

“So if that's true, you never did feel that he was going to leave you for her?”

“I guess not,” Lily said, her voice weary. “But something is up, I feel it in here.” She struck herself in the chest, near her heart.

Just then the auditorium doors opened. There was a flood of noise, chatter and people, streaming into the hallway in a cheerful thunder. Someone sang a snatch of “Let It Snow,” and someone else groaned; laughter followed.

“I gotta go and see the kids!” Lily said, jumping to her feet and grabbing the broken cell phone. “They've worked so hard. I'll see you at book club, Jaymie!” She sped away, down to another set of doors and through.

Jaymie caught sight of Valetta and hauled her away before Jakob's family could catch up with them. She was not ready to meet his mother, especially, and she wasn't sure why. In minutes they were on their way back home. She dropped Valetta off at her cottage.

“You get some sleep, kiddo,” Valetta said, looking up at her in the dome light of the van. “You seem kinda jumpy. And it's going to be a busy haul from here to Christmas.”