Deadly Greetings (Book 2 in the Cardmaking Mysteries) (30 page)

I’d taken my shower, had gotten dressed, and
was drying my hair when there was a knock at my door, I could think
of a dozen different people who could be on my doorstep, and I
didn’t want to talk to a single one of them. I glanced through the
peephole lit and saw Barrett standing out there with a dozen roses
in his hands.

“
Go away,” I said through
the door.

Barrett said “Jennifer, I want to talk to
you.”

“
Well, I don’t want to talk
to you,” I said.

“
Penny and I are finished.
Can we start over?”

This guy was out of his mind. I threw the
door open after I grabbed my baseball bat. “Would you like a little
of what Wayne got last night, or are you going to leave me alone?”
I asked.

“
These are for you,” he
said, holding the roses out like they were some kind of
shield.

“
I don’t want them. Barrett,
if you’d turned Penny away the other night, things might be
different between us now, but you made your choice.”

“
It was the wrong choice,”
he said. “Can’t I have a second chance?”

“
Sorry, I’m fresh out,” I
said. Maybe I was a little hard on him, but I wanted to be sure
there was no doubt in his mind where we stood.

“
At least accept these as an
apology.”

He dropped them at my feet, then started
down the steps. I picked them up and threw them at him before he
could get to the bottom. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

As he dodged the cascading flowers, I saw
that I had another visitor just coming in. Greg had a bouquet of
Shasta daisies with him, but when he saw the roses careening down
the stairs, he started to back up.

“
If this is a bad time, I
can come back later,” he said.

Barrett looked at him like he wanted to kill
him. “That would be great. We’re not finished here.”

Before Greg could leave, I said, “You’re
wrong there. We never even started. Come on up, Greg.”

He stepped over the roses and walked up the
steps. In a lowered voice, he said, “Seriously, if this is a bad
time, I can always come back later.”

“
I think your timing is
perfect,” I said as I led him inside, bolting the door behind
him.

Greg started toward me, and I backed off a
few steps. I asked him, “What do you think you’re doing?”

He looked confused by the question. “I
thought we were making up. I was wrong. It’s not over between
us.”

“
You bring me flowers once
and think that makes everything all right? Have you lost your
mind?”

“
But they’re daisies,” he
said, obviously grasping for something, anything, to make things
right. “They’re your favorite.”

“
I don’t care if they’re
solid gold. You know what? Maybe you should just go.”

He didn’t budge. “Listen, I don’t know what
I walked in on, and I’m not sure I want to know, but whatever
issues you have with that guy don’t involve me. I’m one of the good
guys, remember?”

“
It’s hard to tell you’all
apart without a program sometimes.”

He looked so pitiful I couldn’t leave it at
that. Trying to soften my voice, I said, “Listen, Greg, I really do
appreciate you coming by, and the flowers are beautiful, but what’s
happened in the past between us can’t be fixed by a dozen
bouquets.”

I unbolted the door and held it open for
him.

“
Thanks for stopping by,
though.”

He shook his head as he walked out. “You’re
welcome, I guess. See you later.”

“
Sure,” I said as I closed
the door behind him. As I put the daisies in water, I wondered what
I was going to do about Greg. When he’d been in my life, I’d
enjoyed great swooping highs, but I’d also seen more than my share
of despair. Did I really want to go through all that again? The
history between us was so strong that he was a comfortable choice,
despite the way I felt when I was with him. But was I going to let
myself be satisfied with comfortable anymore? I still wasn’t sure
what I was going to do when I left my apartment and headed for the
card shop. Thankfully neither of my neighbors were in the foyer, so
I could make a graceful departure without any more confrontations.
Penny’s car was gone from our little parking lot, but after seeing
Barrett’s track record with her, I didn’t doubt she’d be back in
his life again soon, at least for a little while.

Lillian was already at the shop when I got
there, a strange and nearly unique occurrence. “I didn’t think
you’d be coming in today,” she said.

“
Why not? We’re open, aren’t
we?”

She shrugged. “It’s just that after what
happened yesterday, I thought you might want some time to deal with
it.”

I hung my coat up. “You’re here, aren’t you?
Why does everybody think I’m such a delicate flower?”

“
I’ve accused you of many
things, Jennifer, but that’s not even on the list.”

I wanted to scowl, but Lillian’s good humor
infected my sour mood. “Can you believe what happened
yesterday?”

“
I can’t quite grasp what’s
been happening for months all around us. We had a murderer in our
card club and neither one of us picked up on it.”

I straightened a stack of cards that didn’t
need it. “I don’t think a trained psychologist would have spotted
anything. Hilda must have had a lot of practice fooling the
world.”

“
I suppose this means we’ll
have to disband the club,” Lillian said.

“
Not on your life. In fact,
I’m going to start trolling for new members. Do you remember
Daniel, the stay-at-home dad who’s been in here a couple of times?
I’m going to ask him to join us.”

Lillian frowned. “Honestly, Jennifer, do you
think it will ever be the same?”

“
Is that such a bad thing if
it’s different?” I asked. “I’m getting tired of the same old same
old. I think it’s high time we shake things up a
little.”

I was ready to teach some lessons, wait on
customers and make some new cards. It was my life, and I wanted to
get back to it. So I was excited when the front door chimed, but a
little disappointed when I saw it was just my brother.

“
I’ve had warmer greetings
from prisoners in my jail,” Bradford said as he joined
us.

“
Sorry,” I said. “What
brings you here? Have you finally decided to let me teach you how
to make cards? Come on, it will be fun.”

“
Yeah, I’ll put that on my
list. I just wanted to stop by and let you in on
something.”

I saw Lillian perk up She loved getting the
inside scoop. “Go on, we’re listening.”

Bradford ignored her as he told me, “I was
talking to Patrick Benson this morning.” He waited a beat for one
of us to say something, but I wasn’t about to rat him out, and I
knew Lillian wouldn’t either. Though our reasons were different,
neither one of us wanted him exposed for sharing privileged
information with us. After all, he’d saved Hester’s life; there was
no doubt in my mind about that.

When Bradford saw we weren’t going to
comment, he continued. “There’s something interesting about Hilda’s
claims. It turns out she was right, at least about one thing.”

“
I can’t imagine what that
might be,” I said, remembering the look on her face as she’d tried
to kill us the day before.

“
Frances inherited some
property when she died, and I’m sure her family thought it was
worthless, because Frances never put any store in it. When she
died, it passed on to Maggie, but she didn’t know any better either
and left the deed with Patrick, along with some other official
documents. Anyway, Patrick ran across it again last night while he
was doing an inventory and he found it. He called around first
thing this morning and pretty soon he discovered that it’s smack in
the middle of a chunk of land that Undrian Manufacturing wants to
build their new plant on. It’s worth half a million, at
least.”

I couldn’t believe it. “Hilda won’t see a
dime of it, will she?”

Bradford stroked his nose, something I
recognized from our childhood when he was perplexed about you
something. “No, you can’t profit from murder, and that’s a fact.
The odd thing is, though, she could have kept it tied up in court
for years and Undrian would slot have had to pick somewhere else to
build their place, but she signed a quitclaim on it the second
Patrick approached her.”

“
She wasn’t angry she’d been
so close to that much money?” I asked.

“
You’d think so, wouldn’t
you? As a matter of fact, she was crowing about it as she signed
the document, all she kept saying as she did it was, “I told
you’all I was right, and nobody believed me. I was right.” It was
kind of creepy how she focused solely on that, and not on all the
lives she’d destroyed.” He paused a few moments, then said,
“Anyway, I just wanted to let you’all know before it got out to the
world. It was the least I could do after getting it so wrong with
Frances and Maggie.”

I touched his shoulder lightly. “You’re
human, Bradford. Anyone can make a mistake.”

He pulled away. “Yeah, but most mistakes
don’t kill people. If I’d seen through Frances’s murder, Maggie
might still be alive.”

I started to say something when Lillian
spoke up. “Bradford, you are one of the finest men I’ve ever had
the privilege to know, and the best sheriff this county could hope
for.”

Coming from my aunt, it was the strongest
declaration of support Bradford could receive. He reddened
slightly, obviously uncomfortable with the unexpected praise.
“Thanks. Well, I’d better get going. See you two later.”

Before he could get out the door, I called
out to him. “Bradford, I’ve got one more question for you.”

When he turned to look at me, I could see
the dread in his face of what I might ask.

“
Go ahead,” he said
solemnly.

“
Do you know of any places I
might move into? After what happened the other night, I don’t think
I can stay where I am much longer.”

“
I’ll keep an eye out for
something,” he said, then quickly left us.

After he was gone, I asked Lillian, “Do you
think Hester will mind if we break our lease?”

“
Jennifer, we could paint
her red and she wouldn’t care today. Don’t worry, dear. I’ll take
care of everything.” She paused, then added, “You know, you could
always stay with me. I’ve got plenty of room at my place, and your
roommates would be welcome, I too. I’m certain we can all find a
way to coexist.”

I hugged my aunt quickly, then said,
“Lillian, as much as I love being around you, I think our time at
the shop is enough every day, don’t you?”

She shrugged. “I suppose. So where do you
think you might live?”

“
I don’t know,” I said,
laughing. “And that’s the real beauty of it, isn’t it?”

I was ready to start living my own life, one
day at a time, looking forward and not back. And if I sold a card
or two along the way, so much the better.

HANDCRAFTED CARD TIP

Embossing can be a fun way to add fancy,
decorative touches to your cards without a great deal of skill or
effort. With the right kit, you can edge, add ornate flourishes or
even embed complete designs within your cards.

Embossing is normally achieved by using two
identical templates, with the paper sandwiched between them. A bone
or embossing tool is then used to trace around the edges. The tool
resembles a pen with small balls attached to either end. Don’t
worry if the results you see as you work don’t look absolutely
perfect. In fact, from the side of the card that faces you, there’s
not much to see at all. But when the card is flipped over, it’s
amazing how beautiful the subtle additions of raised images make
your finished card. A dry brush with the slightest hint of paint
can then highlight your patterns in complementary colors, making
the designs jump off the page!

Read on for an excerpt from the next
Card-Making Mystery

Murder and Salutations

By Tim Myers

Writing as Elizabeth
Bright

Chapter 1

For Eliza Glade’s entire life, she somehow
always managed to steal the spotlight from my sister and me, and
wouldn’t you know it, she kept her record perfect, even in
death.

“
You look absolutely
radiant,” I told my aunt Lillian, who was elegantly dressed in a
formal evening gown. She’s more than my aunt, though—Lillian is
also my only employee at Custom Card Creations. My name’s Jennifer
Shane, and I own the shop of my dreams, a little handcrafted-card
store tucked away on one end of Oakmont Avenue in the heart of
Rebel Forge, Virginia. It’s a place where customers can select one
of our own handmade cards, or buy the materials to make one
themselves.

After Lillian and I had worked at the store
all day, we’d changed into more formal attire, and now we were
ready to attend the Chamber of Commerce’s annual awards banquet.
The organization had held the ritual religiously for the past
sixty-seven years, but it was the first time I’d been eligible to
attend. The dinner was slated for Hurley’s Pub, an easy walk from
the store and a place I’d been many times.

Lillian was wearing an evening gown made of
a pastel material that was so sheer, it was nearly translucent. The
emerald green tint of the dress complemented her richly dyed henna
hair, and I’d never felt so dowdy in my thirty-something years of
life. While my aunt was petite and graceful, I tended to feel
big-boned and gawky, and it was never so obvious than when we were
both dressed up.