Sealed with a Kill (22 page)

Brenna fell into the seat beside her. “Repeat, please.”

Tenley gave her a small smile. “You heard right. I’m having a baby.”

“Congratulations?” Brenna said and waited to see if Tenley laughed or cried. To her profound relief, Tenley laughed and hugged her.

“It’s all right,” she said. “It was a surprise, but Matt and I are very happy.”

“I’m so glad,” Brenna said.

“We’re going to get married,” Tenley said. “We’ll have a small ceremony at the church and a gathering of friends and family at the Fife.”

“It sounds lovely,” Brenna said. “If there is anything I can do to help, just ask.”

“Will you stand up for me?” Tenley asked. “I don’t know how my family is going to take this, and I want someone up there with me who is actually happy for me.”

“Done,” Brenna agreed. She felt her throat squeeze tight, and her eyes grew damp. “Truly, I’m honored.”

Tenley hugged her again. When she pulled back, Brenna looked at her friend and said, “Wow, a baby.”

“Good word—
wow.”

“Are you scared?” Brenna asked. “I mean, it’s a huge life change.”

Tenley looked thoughtful and then she smiled. “I feel as if I finally have the life I’ve always wanted.”

Despite the pallor of her skin, there was a peacefulness about Tenley that Brenna had never seen before. It seemed that despite the chaos around her, she had discovered what mattered most in her life: Matt and their baby. Brenna was relieved. She couldn’t think of anyone who deserved her heart’s desire more.

“I’m so happy for you,” she said. “Still, you look wiped out. Go home and take a nap. I’ll watch the shop for the rest of today, so long as you don’t mind if I close a bit early.”

“You have someplace better to be than here?” Tenley asked.

“I do.” Brenna stood and walked back into the shop. Tenley followed.

“Well, don’t leave a girl hanging. What could be better than this? A date? Do you have a date? That’s it—you have a date!”

Brenna went over to the corner and hefted the small dresser she had salvaged the week before onto the worktable. She had sanded it down at home and smoothed out most of its dents and gouges. She had given it a base coat of dark olive green, which was finally dry. Now she needed to start working on her layout.

“I am not leaving until you tell me who your date is with,” Tenley said.

The door opened halfway through Tenley’s sentence, and they both started to see Dom Cappicola walk in.

“Date? Who has a date?” Dom asked.

Tenley looked at Brenna and gestured toward Dom with her head. Brenna shook her head no. Tenley made a small
oh
out of her mouth, and then her eyes went wide as she realized who the date must be with.

“Call me,” she said. “Wardrobe must be discussed.”

“Definitely.”

“Promise.”

“Okay, I promise. Now go and rest.”

“Good to see you, Dom,” Tenley said as she passed him on her way out.

“You, too,” he said.

When the door closed behind her, he looked at Brenna. “Something I said?”

She smiled. “No, she’s feeling a little under the weather.”

“So, you must be the one with the hot date then,” he said. He was wearing a single-breasted black overcoat over a sweater and slacks. Per usual, he was emanating a raw power that made Tenley’s cute little paper shop seem alarmingly combustible.

“Yes, I do have a date,” she said.

“Finally,” he said. “Williams is going to take you out and bore you to tears.”

A surprised laugh burst from Brenna, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Dom’s dark brown eyes twinkled at her.

“It’s so much easier to compete with a real person than the idea of a person. I think you and I will actually have a fighting chance once you go out with him and realize he’s not all that.”

“You think so?” she asked.

“Know so,” he corrected. “Just you wait. You’ll be begging me to take you out again.”

“Uh-huh.” She decided to change the subject. “I don’t suppose you were able to find out anything about Lester and Morse?”

“Back to business,” he said with a sigh. “No worries. I’ll be waiting for your call tomorrow.”

Brenna just shook her head.

“So, as we know, Lester was shopping around his portion of the company.”

“Why didn’t Morse just scrape up the money to buy him out?” Brenna asked.

“Well, the business hasn’t been doing that well over the past few years, and the bank turned down Morse’s request for a loan that would have let him buy Lester out.”

He walked while he talked, stopping to examine the red armoire that was Brenna’s largest piece to date.

“Did you do this?” he asked.

“A few years ago,” she said.

He ran a finger over the paper cutouts of Louis XIV—era wigged gents and ladies strolling through lush gardens.

“It’s brilliant,” he said. “You should have your own studio.”

Brenna shrugged. “This is enough for me.”

He turned to face her, opened his mouth to say something, but then seemed to think better of it.

“What?” she asked.

“It’ll keep,” he said. He had a small smile playing on his lips as if she amused him, and Brenna realized that she had become quite fond of him over the past few months. Not for the first time she wondered if things would be different if she had met Dom before Nate. There was no way to know.

“I have another question for you,” she said.

“Let ’er rip,” he said.

“This is very hush-hush,” she said. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“You have my word,” he said. He moved to stand directly in front of her, and Brenna had to tip her head just slightly to look up at him.

“I need to know anything you can find out about the whereabouts of Lynette Compton, former secretary to Rupert Morse. She left Lester and Morse about twenty-four years ago.”

Dom raised his eyebrows in surprise. “I’ll use my contacts at the newspaper. Consider it done. Any particular reason we need to find her?”

“Yes, but I can’t tell you right now. I promised.”

“The plot thickens,” he said. “I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Anything you can find out, particularly about where she is now, would be extremely helpful. But don’t let Ed Johnson know that you’re looking; the man is a pit bull.”

“I’ll call you as soon as I know something,” he said.

He reached forward and pulled her into a quick hug. He was warm and solid and smelled faintly of an expensive men’s cologne. Brenna resisted the urge to burrow against him. Barely.

“Have fun tonight but not too much,” he growled in her ear, and she shivered. She watched the door swing shut behind him.

 

Brenna spent the rest of the day working on the dresser and thinking about Tenley having a baby and the half sibling she didn’t even know she had.

Several of her leaf-peeping students stopped in.

Dan and Jan came to collect their tray and say goodbye.

Today they were wearing matching brown rag wool cardigans that Brenna recognized from a shop in town. Despite finding the body in the woods, they assured her that Morse Point was a lovely town.

Julie and Suede popped in as well. Suede mumbled something that sounded like a thank-you, and Julie sighed.

“This, too, shall pass,” she said. “Or at least that’s what my mother keeps telling me.”

She picked up her tray and was quite pleased with how it had turned out. Brenna wanted to ask her about Dom, if she was going to see him again, but she knew it was none of her business. And asking Julie about her relationship with Dom wouldn’t help Brenna sort out her own feelings about him. In fact, it would probably just confuse her more.

She watched as the mother and son made their way across the green. Julie leaned over to say something to Suede, and it must have been good, because he reached out and gave her a quick hug before resuming his slouching walk.

In thirteen years, that would be Tenley. Brenna couldn’t believe it. Her best friend was going to be a mom. What a lucky baby to have Tenley and Matt for parents. The thought of it filled her with happiness. She’d have to think of something really special to decoupage for the baby.

In the meantime, she turned back to her dresser. She was gluing a paper vine from the bottom right corner of the lowest drawer up and across the next two drawers at an angle that would end in the upper left corner. She loved how the dark brown twisting vine stood out against the green background. The vine was so delicate, however, that it took steady hands and tremendous patience to place it just right.

She was dabbing excess glue off the middle drawer with a clean damp rag when Paula arrived to pick up her tray.

“Hi, Brenna. I hope I’m not interrupting,” she said.

“Not at all; the rest of the tour group has come and gone,” she said.

Paula examined Brenna’s work. “That is lovely.”

“Thanks,” Brenna said. “I like working with my hands. It helps me think.”

“About what?”

“Everything, I guess,” she said. “Presently, about who killed Harvey Lester and what to wear on my date tonight.”

“Ah, so you’re multitasking,” Paula said with a grin. She walked over to the shelf at the back of the shop and retrieved her tray. “Shouldn’t you leave the murder investigation to the police?”

“Believe it or not, you’re not the first person to ask me that,” Brenna said. “I would. I mean I know Chief Barker will figure it out, but . . .”

“But?” Paula prompted.

“Tenley is very worried about her father, and I promised I’d do what I could to help,” she said. “I just think if we can answer some questions about the past, we’ll be able to resolve the present.”

Paula studied her for moment as if she were trying to decide what to say. Finally, she said, “I can’t help you with the murder, but I’m pretty good with fashion.” She flushed and then gestured at herself in her khaki pants and blue sweater. “Not for me, of course; I’m a plain Jane, but I read all of the fashion magazines, and I’ve been told I have a pretty good eye.”

“Okay, I’m game,” Brenna said. “At this point, frankly, all advice is welcome.”

“So, who is the man and how much do you like him?”

“He is my landlord, and I like him very much.”

“Did he give you any idea about where you are going?”

“No, but he’s picking me up at seven, so I’m assuming dinner,” she said.

“It’s going to be cold tonight,” Paula said. “Do you own any sweaters that are sexy and warm?”

Brenna did a mental perusal of her closet. “I do have a Donna Karan belted sweater dress in black.”

“Black is always safe,” Paula said. “It can either dress up or dress down. Put out two pairs of shoes, and then when he picks you up and you see what he’s wearing, you’ll know if it’s a low-heeled boot or a stiletto evening.”

“Good thinking,” Brenna said. “I’m so glad you stopped in; otherwise he’d probably find me in my bathrobe still deciding.”

“That could work, too,” Paula said with a giggle. She tucked a stray lock of blond hair behind her ear. “It was nice meeting you and Tenley. If I’m ever in Morse Point again, I’ll be sure to look you up.”

“Please do,” Brenna said. She wiped off her sticky fingers on a paper towel and gave Paula a quick hug.

Paula hugged her back and then left the shop with her tray tucked under her arm. Brenna glanced at the window and noticed it was getting dark. If she was going to get ready for her date, she’d better close up and get moving.

 

Brenna rushed around her cabin, trying to get dressed, but it seemed as if everything was working against her. Maybe it was nerves, but she dropped her mascara wand and got brown-black goo all over her vanity table. Then she pulled on a pair of black tights to wear under her dress and discovered a run. Argh.

She was just fishing a new pair out of her dresser when the phone rang. She hurried over to her purse and snatched her cell phone out.

The number was Dom’s. Maybe he had some information for her. She flipped it open. “Hi, Dom. Hold on just one second, okay?”

“Sure,” he said.

Brenna put the phone down and quickly pulled on the black stockings. She shimmied them into place and then pulled her black dress down over them. A quick glance in the mirror told her she was ready all except for her shoes.

“I’m back,” she said.

“What were you doing?” he asked. “It sounded like an aerobic workout.”

“Pulling on my stockings,” she said.

He heaved a sigh. “I’m going to try not to picture that. It’s entirely too distracting.”

Brenna felt her face grow warm. She tried to ignore it and asked, “Any news?”

“Some,” he said. “One of my reporters from the
Morse Point Courier
was able to track down a Lynette Compton in New York State.”

“Really?” Brenna gasped. “Is there any contact information?”

“Well, that’s the interesting part,” he said.

A knock sounded and Brenna said, “I’m sorry, Dom; someone is at the door.”

“It must be the hot date,” he said.

Brenna glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. It was only six thirty. “If it is, he’s very early.”

“He must be eager,” he said.

“I’m going to let that go,” she said.

“It’s fine. Put me on speaker,” he said. “I’ll talk while you walk.”

Brenna hit the button on her cell that made it go into speaker mode and put it on the counter. “All right, but behave yourself. What do you know?”

“There is no contact information for Lynette Compton, since she died two years ago.”

“Oh, no,” Brenna said.

She glanced through the peephole and saw the back of a blond head on her porch. What was Tenley doing here? Maybe she thought Brenna needed help with prepping for her date. She unlocked the door and pulled it wide.