Sweets Galore: The Sixth Samantha Sweet Mystery (The Samantha Sweet Mysteries) (11 page)

Sam helped Zoë neaten the kitchen
after the others trekked out. “So far so good,” she said. “Mother isn’t driving
you crazy is she?”

“Other people’s mothers usually
don’t. I think we’re only affected by the buttons our own mothers know how to
push. Don’t worry.”

Darryl was pulling on his jacket.
In his teddy-bear way he was always a calming influence and Sam knew by
watching them that her father had liked the big contractor right away. “You
ladies almost ready?”

Her parents’
Towncar
was already in the crowded hillside lot and Darryl pulled their Subaru in
beside it. The vestibule of the alpine-styled building was empty and a maître
’d led the way through the main dining room to a side room that had been set up
specifically for their party.

“Oh my
lord
, Sammy!”
Rayleen’s
voice rang out
above all others. “
Look
at our
bride!”

She had no clue how much she
sounded like their mother, Sam decided. In the five years since they’d last
seen each other it was amazing how much Rayleen had begun to look like her too.
No doubt that was the very same shade of Clairol.

Rayleen rushed forward with a big
show of hugs and kisses.

“So, where is that handsome man of
yours?”

“He’ll be along any minute. A few
last details at the office.”

“This place—it’s gorgeous! I bet
ya’ll
eat here all the time. I know I would.”

Joe Bob, the football jock from
high school who had rapidly gone round in the middle, stepped forward and
pulled Sam into a smothering hug.

“You look good, Sammy. A few extra
pounds really fills out a woman like you,” he said.

She backed out of the embrace and
stared at his gut. Ignore it, she thought. Just remember how well that dress
fit this afternoon.

He caught her stare. “Yeah, well.
I sure don’t get out to the gym like I should,” he said. “Hey, how ’bout those
Cowboys this season? Great start for them, huh?”

“Joe Bob, don’t bring up
football,” Rayleen said. “You know it’s a big old sore spot with the boys right
now.” She gave a glance toward the two teens who sprawled in chairs at the
table with glum expressions and
earbuds
. She looked
apologetically at the group. “They’re not happy about missing Friday night
football at home, that’s all.”

Buster and Lily showed up just
then, along with Willie and Lester, so the little circle of cousins was
complete. Exclamations for
Lub
and Chub reminded Sam
exactly why she’d never once considered moving back to her hometown. If you
weren’t enchanted by football or cotton crops, or thrilled by semi-annual trips
to Dallas to shop for clothes at Neiman-Marcus, you absolutely didn’t fit in
with her mother’s crowd. Sam put on a bright smile and gave a little wave
toward her nephews.

“Everyone, let’s take our seats,”
Nina Rae announced. She began directing. “Let’s have our bride and groom right
there, in the middle of that long section, so everyone can visit with them.”

Sam resisted expressing a
preference and sat where she was told.

“Where is Beau anyway, Samantha?”

“He’ll be along.” She glanced at
the doorway. His quick stop did seem to be taking longer than expected.

Kelly appeared and her eyes
widened a tad. Sam motioned her inside.

“I know, the crowd’s a little
intimidating,” she whispered in Kelly’s ear as her daughter took the seat on
her right.

“Have I ever seen them all in one
place at one time?”

“It’s been years, probably.”

“Even when I spent time at
Gramma’s
in the summer, I don’t remember all these.”

Sam went into the short version of
which ones now lived in Oklahoma, and which in what parts of Texas. “And of
course Willie moved to Colorado, gosh, about the time I came to Taos.”

Chairs scraped and when a waiter
appeared with small plates of bread and tiny bowls of oil for dipping, a rush
of muscular arms reached out from all sides. Sam leaned back in her chair,
intent upon ignoring the calories so her dress would zip again tomorrow. A
young man dressed in black began taking orders for drinks and Sam sensed that
the air in the room had changed. She glanced up to see Beau at the doorway.
Something was wrong.

He made eye contact and tilted his
head toward the exit. As Sam stood he mouthed, “Kelly too.”

She touched Kelly’s arm to get her
attention away from Rayleen who was going on about how cute Kelly’s hair would
be in a different style.

She met
Rayleen’s
gaze. “We’ll just be half a second.
Kel
?”

Beyond the door Beau waited.
“Let’s step outside for a minute,” he said, his eyes sweeping the half-full
dining room.

“You have me a little worried,”
Sam told him as the brisk air hit her.

He took a deep breath. “At the
office just now, there were a bunch of calls over the scanner. I put in a call
to Taos PD to see what was up, whether I needed to send my men. It’s a fatality
over at the La Fonda. I hate to say it so bluntly but, it’s Jake Calendar.”

Sam felt her mind cloud over.
Glancing at Kelly, she saw similar shock.

“He’s dead?” Kelly said in a tiny
voice.

Chapter
9

Sam had to clear her throat before
words would come out. “What happened, Beau? He was healthy as a horse. Wasn’t
he?”

“The investigation falls to the
municipal authorities, not my department. We’re county. So I don’t know many
details. At this point they’re only saying that they’re treating it as a
suspicious death.”

“Well, I would think so,” Sam
said. She glanced toward Kelly whose face was very pale in the evening light.
“When will you know?”

“That’s just it,
darlin
’. I have no authority to go in there. And you know
how Pete Sanchez feels about me. Sometimes his guys are cooperative, sometimes
I get the feeling they are under orders not to be.”

A year ago, when Beau’s previous
boss lost his job for covering up a crime after having an illicit affair, Beau
had won the sheriff’s position by default. The sheriff’s cousin, Pete, the
current police chief, somehow deemed it Beau’s fault and now seemed determined
to throw roadblocks up every time their paths crossed.

“About all I can do is have some
of my guys keep their ears open, see what we can learn that way.”

Sam turned to Kelly. “Honey, I’m
sorry. Even though he—”

Kelly blinked hard, twice. “I
barely knew him but still . . . It’s hard to imagine this.” Her voice was small
and shaky.

“I know. I know.” A chill passed
through Sam. “Is there something we should be doing, Beau?”

Beau shook his head. “I can’t
think of anything, really.”

Sam’s head swam. Jake had
mentioned some wives. Didn’t say anything about children. It could be that
Kelly was his next of kin. She’d tuned Jake out the minute he began asking for
money and had never given him much chance to talk about anything else.

Memories crashed over her like
waves in a storm—Jake’s infectious smile and flirtatious eyes, their warm
nights together, the decision to leave him behind and make her own life with
her baby. Regrets: never telling him about Kelly, being short tempered with him
in the past few days, perhaps not taking his request for the money seriously
enough. They’d gone different directions, made separate lives for themselves.
She knew a life with Jake would not have been a peaceful one; his displays of
temper in recent days proved that. But still, she felt the loss of him, knowing
he was now gone from this world.

Kelly walked ahead, Beau took
Sam’s hand—back into the restaurant, beside the tables of strangers. In their
private dining room she could tell that Joe Bob was on his second beer and her
father was nearing the bottom of his bourbon glass.

“Sorry for the delay,” she said,
mustering as strong a smile as she could.

Her mother sent her a funny look
and Sam knew she was in for a round of questions later.

Beau deftly changed the subject
and soon had the men telling hunting stories. She pressed Kelly’s hand under
the table and both of them tried to act as if everything were normal.
Eventually the long dinner was over and she used the excuse that she had a lot
of details to tend to so that she and Beau could go home alone. He made another
call to his office but didn’t learn anything new about Jake’s death, and she
found that between the upsetting news and the fact that she’d napped all
afternoon she couldn’t sleep until well after midnight.

* *
*

Saturday morning. Her wedding day.
Sam woke with Beau’s arm around her, snug and content within the walls of their
home. She looked at her left hand, half hoping that the wedding had already
happened, wishing they could leave their normal world behind and start the
honeymoon right now. But her third finger wore only the garnet ring he’d given
her for their engagement and she knew their gold bands were still in her
jewelry box, waiting for the afternoon ceremony.

Beau moaned and nuzzled close to
her neck. She smiled. Life would be this, every day from now on.

“I
gotta
get the chores done early,” he murmured, kissing her ear and rolling over.

And life would be
this
, she reminded herself. She had her
own set of chores to do, although today the little jobs would be joyful ones.
Sweet’s Sweets, to finish her cake; Zoë’s place, to deliver and set it up;
Kelly’s house to gather her clothing; and back to Zoë’s to help with any last
details and put on her dress. Beau had his own checklist, first to review the
ranch duties with the neighbor’s son who would look after the place while they were
gone, then to pick up his Western-cut tuxedo and be at Zoë’s on time. She sat
on the edge of the bed and surveyed the little stack of items, including her
underwear and jewelry, that she needed to take with her. She gathered the
things and put them into a tote bag.

At the bakery, the crew were
already well into the normal Saturday bustle. Sam pulled her cake from the
fridge and gave it a close inspection. As upset as she’d been yesterday while
placing the fondant ribbons, only the one teardrop had actually hit the cake.
She pulled a tiger lily from the rack of sugar flowers they’d made and covered
the spot. A quick image of Jake flashed through her mind. What had happened to
him yesterday?

No. I am not going there. Today is for me and Beau.
Whatever was going
on in Jake’s life, it was certainly not part of hers.

She finished placing the sugar
flowers, a sumptuous bouquet of lilies, mums and daisies on top of the cake and
clusters of smaller mums and daisies at each tier. With the yellow fondant and
russet and burnt orange accents, it fit the autumn wedding theme perfectly.

“It’s fabulous, Sam,” Becky said
with a smile.

“I love it. I’m glad it turned out
so well. Now, did Jen put the notice on the door about closing early? You guys
plan on being out of here by one o’clock. The ceremony is at two. And you know
where Zoë’s B&B is, right?”

Nods from both Becky and Julio.

“Do you need help with anything,
Sam?” Jen had stepped into the kitchen.

“Kelly is bringing makeup and hair
stuff. I have no idea what she plans to do to me, but I told her she better
keep it tasteful. Wearing makeup is not my usual thing.”

“Yeah, but you’ll be happier with
your pictures if you’ve added at least a little color,” Jen said. “Just saying.
Lipstick can be a girl’s best friend at times.”

Sam picked up her cake. “Okay
then, I’m out of here. You guys have it for the next two weeks. Don’t let the
place burn down.” She stopped short. “Not to put a hex on it or anything.”

Becky laughed. “We’ll be fine. Let
me get the door for you.”

With the cake safely stowed in the
back of her van and the oversized tote bag containing her jewelry box and other
items on the passenger seat, she took a deep breath and headed for the B&B.
When she pulled down the long drive to the back the sight took her breath away.

Beautiful at all times, the acre
surrounding the large adobe bed and breakfast had been groomed to perfection
for the wedding. Darryl had raked leaves from the spacious lawn where rows of
chairs now waited the arrival of the guests. The log pergola was decorated with
strands of silk flowers woven among the natural foliage. Sam saw Zoë’s hand in
the large pots of purple, orange and yellow chrysanthemums on the flagstone
patio. Long tables with crisp white cloths stood ready for the buffet food and
round dining tables were set up for the meal.

“Hey there, bride and cake lady,”
Zoë greeted as she stepped out the back door. “What do you think?”

“You guys . . . I don’t know what
to say. It’s fabulous.”

“Your mother approved it too,” Zoë
said.

“Is she—?”

“You just missed her. She said
something about making sure
Rayleen’s
boys brought
suitable clothes.”

“Knowing my sister, they did.
Where shall we put the cake?”

Zoë opened the door and showed Sam
an open spot on the kitchen counter, out of the way of the other food
preparation.

“And here is a place you can call
your own, for getting dressed, hair and makeup and all that,” she said, showing
Sam to an empty guest room.

“I thought you were full up right
now.”

“Some folks from Kansas were here
for two nights but left early this morning. I had the room cleaned right away.”

From down the hall came the sound
of a football game on TV. Her father had apparently avoided having to go out
with the ladies by retreating into a favorite pastime. She peeked into the den
and said hello.