Deadly Greetings Part 13

"Jennifer, I prefer to think of it as being able to confirm your account of the conversation if you ever need it. I was doing you a service, young lady."

"And I greatly appreciate it," I said, fighting to hide my smile. There were days when my aunt was the only bright spot around, and this one was shaping up as one of those times.

"Don't keep me in suspense. What did it say?"

"I don't think we'll ever know," I said as I took off my coat. "He made up a quick lie about her trying out Christmas cards on him. It wasn't the slightest bit credible, but I couldn't shake him."

Lillian frowned. "Jennifer, perhaps he's telling the truth."

"What do you mean?"

Lillian paced around the shop. "You know as well as I do that Maggie liked to experiment with her card making. Is it that unreasonable that she wanted to field-test a few of them? She could have mailed the card to Howard before she decided to mail the ones to you and Hilda. I'm wondering about something, though."

"What's that?"

Lillian bit her lip, then said, "I don't mean to sound petty, but it appears that everyone in the club got a card but me."

"That is odd," I said. "You and Maggie got along, didn't you?"

"As far as I was aware," she said.

"Don't worry about it, Lillian," I said. "I'm sure she wasn't in her right state of mind when she sent those cards. I'm going to break one of our rules, if you don't mind."

Lillian perked up. "I'm always up for rebellion, you know that. What did you have in mind?"

I flipped the sign from open open to to closed. "We're shutting the shop down so we can both go to Maggie's memorial service." closed. "We're shutting the shop down so we can both go to Maggie's memorial service."

"I don't mind staying behind," Lillian said. There was a tinge of hurt in her voice.

I took her hands in mine. "Listen, I'm sure she didn't mean to slight you. Besides, I need you there to catch anything I might miss. I loved Maggie, but I'm not going to this thing for her. I want to see who else shows up, and how they act."

Lillian nodded suddenly. "I'll go with you, then. It did surprise me that you were willing to attend, given how you feel about funerals in general."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, fighting the tears before they could develop. "It's no secret how I despise them," I said, trying to fight off the images of my parents after they were dead, laid out in finery some stranger had chosen for them. "We'll say our proper good-byes to Maggie after we figure out what happened to her."

"I'd be honored to do just that," she said. "I hope you have something more appropriate to wear than what you had on last night."

I thought about my closet and tried to come up with something I could wear. "I've got a charcoal gray dress; it's close enough to pa.s.s for black," I protested.

"Jennifer, Jennifer, you simply must let me buy you a basic black dress. It's the answer for so many different social occasions."

As we walked back outside, I said, "We'll worry about my fashion sense later, if it's just the same to you. Right now I have to get home and change. If we both don't hurry, we're going to be late as it is."

Lillian said, "You drive home. I'll change as well, then meet you back here. That way we can go together. Fifteen minutes, Jennifer."

"I'll make it if you can," I said, knowing my aunt's penchant for trying on a dozen outfits before finding one that worked.

"Count on it," she said.

Back at my apartment, I was tempted to have a conversation with Jeffrey Wallace, but there wasn't time if I was going to make my deadline. I changed as quickly as I could, sparing a few minutes to say h.e.l.lo to Oggie and Nash, then dashed back out. Despite my tight schedule, I rapped on Jeffrey's door, but he didn't come out.

Barrett opened his, though.

He looked startled to see me there. "Jennifer, are you going to Maggie's memorial?"

"I am," I said. "I was just checking on Jeffrey."

"So you're on a first-name basis with both of us already," he said with that slightly smug smile of his.

"I do my best to get along with the people around me," I said a little too stuffily, even for my taste. For some reason, Barrett brought it out in me. "Will your girlfriend be attending with you?"

That got him, and I secretly celebrated the point. "I told you, Penny's not my girlfriend."

"That's right; you did say that, didn't you? If you'll excuse me, I'm late."

I heard a man chuckling inside Barrett's apartment, and realized that his father was taking great joy from my zingers. Him I could get along with.

I couldn't believe it, but Lillian was waiting for me in front of the card shop, dressed in an elegant black number that probably cost more than my monthly rent at Custom Card Creations. "Don't you look lovely?" I said.

"As do you," Lillian said. "Shall we?"

"We shall," I said as I got into the pa.s.senger seat of her Mustang. There was never any question about who drove when Lillian and I went anywhere together. She wouldn't be seen in my Gremlin, while I enjoyed being squired around in her vintage sports car.

As we drove to the grave site for the service, I said, "I b.u.mped into my neighbor Barrett outside his door."

"You're collecting admirers like some people collect stamps," Lillian said.

"I'd hardly call him an admirer," I said. "Who else are you talking about?"

"Greg, of course. He came out to keep me company while I was waiting for you."

"What did he say?" I asked, trying not to hold my breath as I waited for her reply.

"He's troubled," she said. "Jennifer, you know I don't like to meddle."

She broke off as I laughed out loud. After I managed to contain it to a dull whoop, Lillian asked, "Are you quite finished?"

"I'm just glad I wasn't drinking a c.o.ke," I said.

"I believe I'll keep my advice to myself," Lillian said.

"If you can manage that, I'll be more stunned than you will be," I said.

She wanted to be mad; I could tell by the firm way my aunt grabbed the steering wheel.

There was just one thing that might work. I pushed harder. "Come on, you've got to admit that b.u.t.ting out would be completely out of character for you."

She sniffed once, then said, "How can I stand idly by while people I love are constantly making mistakes? Isn't it my obligation to help them find their way?"

"I know you mean well," I said, ducking the question altogether.

"It's true; I'm simply misunderstood."

She drove a few minutes more, and we were almost to the cemetery when I asked her, "So what's your advice?"

She hesitated, then replied, "No, you're right. I do have a tendency to meddle in your life, don't I? I'm going to make a resolution to do better, starting right now. How you live your life is going to be up to you from now on, Jennifer."

I could barely believe what I was hearing. "Does that mean you won't give me advice if I ask for it?"

She frowned. "Of course not. Don't be a nit. But you'll have to ask for it from now on."

She parked among several other cars and started to get out when I touched her arm lightly. "Okay, I'm asking. What advice do you have for me?"

"Do you really want to know what I think?"

"I do," I said.

"Very well. Jennifer, I know Greg has made more than his share of mistakes in the past, but you either need to forgive him once and for all or move on. It's not fair to him this way, and it's not fair to you."

I started to protest when she held up a hand. "Don't talk; just think about what I've said. My, my, we've got an interesting crowd gathering already."

I was about to say something about her earlier advice when I noticed someone standing in the shadows. Bradford had shown up for the memorial, and I wondered if he was there in his official capacity. His squad car wasn't around; then I spotted it tucked behind the trees and out of sight. I started to walk toward him when Lillian grabbed my arm. "Where do you think you're going, young lady?"

"I spotted my brother, and I want to talk to him."

"You'll do no such thing," Lillian said, her voice suddenly a firm line. "It took bribery and begging to get him to show up, and I won't let you ruin it."

"You called him?" I asked.

"I did. Jennifer, what does it cost him to be here? He can claim he showed up for crowd control if he has to, but I want our suspects to squirm a little. When they see Bradford attending dressed in his uniform, the guilty party might do something stupid to give themselves away."

"You're absolutely brilliant," I said. "Now why didn't I think of that myself?"

"That's why there are two of us, my dear," Lillian said, unable to hide the pleasure she was feeling.

"I just hope it works." I caught my brother's glance, offered a quick smile of thanks and received a nod acknowledging it, all accomplished without a word.

As Lillian and I walked forward to the grave site, I noticed that the service was being held in the cremation area. That didn't surprise me; Maggie could always be counted on for doing the unexpected.

There were two faces in the group gathered there that I didn't recognize, but I knew everyone else present. Barrett had beaten me there, but he was standing as far from Jeffrey Wallace as he could manage and still hear the service. Hilda was there, as were Betty and Howard, though none of them looked particularly happy to be there. To my surprise, Hester Taylor was there as well.

I whispered to Lillian, "Did you see that Hester's here?"

My aunt looked in the direction I gestured, then said, "That surprises me, I admit. Don't worry, I'll speak to her later to see her connection with Maggie."

As we stood near the interment site, close enough to hear but far enough back to watch everyone else, I asked Lillian, "So what did you have to do to bribe Bradford?"

"I had to promise to make him a double batch of banana pudding."

From her voice, I could tell that wasn't all. "And what else?"

"Why must there be anything else?"

"Because I know the two of you better than just about anybody else on the planet," I said, "including Sara Lynn." It was true, too. Since I'd opened my card shop, working side by side with Lillian every day had let me get to know her better than I ever had growing up. She'd become much more than a wacky aunt to me; to my surprise, Lillian had also become my friend.

"If you must know," she said with distaste thick in her voice, "I have to watch him eat it, every single bite, and not have the least spoonful of it myself. Your brother is an odd man; you know that, don't you?"

I put my arm around Lillian and hugged her. "Of course I do. It runs in the family." The two of them had been feuding over a bowl of banana pudding from our past, and I was hoping this episode would end the spat forever, but I sincerely doubted it. I wasn't quite sure if Bradford or Lillian would know how to act toward each other without a hint of the resentment they'd shared over the years.

A large woman dressed in a brightly dyed muumuu and sandals walked up to join us, an urn tucked safely in her arms. There were a few whispers in the crowd, and she waited for us all to quiet down before she started.

In a light, tinkling voice that didn't match her physical appearance at all, she said, "Friends and loved ones, we're here not for farewells, but to say 'until we meet again' to Maggie Blake. She was a free spirit, alive with the essence that is in each of us. By her request, I want to read this to you."

From the folds of her outfit she produced a letter, the urn never wavering. "She mailed this card the day she died, sending her voice into the wind from the great beyond. Let me share it with you all now." I'll say this for Maggie: she had certainly embraced card making in her last days.

Samerena, share with those I love, and all those gathered together, that the truth is all that matters, and it will see the light of day soon.

She closed the card, then said, "Maggie obviously wanted to share a sense of her spiritual enlightenment with you all. She was devoted to our yoga cla.s.ses at the Y, and I'm honored she chose me to share this message with you."

I heard a snort of derision and saw Jeffrey Wallace stomping off. I'd have to speak to him later about his reaction, but Samerena wasn't finished. She opened the urn, took a pinch of the ashes within it and scattered them into the air. Thank goodness there wasn't any breeze to speak of. The last thing I wanted was some of Maggie's ashes on me. Samerena took another pinch and sprinkled it on the ground, then took a final pinch and spread it over a birdbath reservoir inset into the ground. "To the sky, to the sea, to the land," she said, and I felt a chill run through me. After a moment of silence, she put the urn into the ground, nearly stumbling as a fold of clothing tightened, but she managed to right herself.

"She wanted each of us to say good-bye in our own way." Then she shoveled a small portion of dirt over the hole and handed the trowel to Hilda, who had been standing closest to her.

Lillian asked me in a whisper, "Have you seen enough, or do you want to shovel, too?"

"Let's pull back," I agreed. I had no desire to partic.i.p.ate in the ritual, suspecting that Samerena had made it up herself on the spot. "Did you hear that message?"

"That woman is certifiable," Lillian said. "I don't get this New Age mumbo jumbo."

"I'm not talking about that," I said. "I mean what Maggie wrote her. It didn't have anything to do with spiritual enlightenment. Maggie knew whoever killed her would be at the service. The truth she was talking about was a lot more concrete than Samerena thinks. Maggie was warning whoever killed her that they weren't going to get away with it. I just wish I had as much confidence in us as she had."

"Just what do you think you're doing?" Barrett's voice behind me froze my blood. There was real animosity in it, but I was tired of having him push.

It was time to push back.

HANDCRAFTED CARD TIP.