“I’m fine, or, maybe, I don’t know,” I said haltingly. The clatter of cups and plates and voices at the rehearsal dinner was coming over the line. “Can you go somewhere quiet for a second? I need to tell you something.”
“Sure.” A few moments later and the background noise had quieted as Aunt DeeDee came back on the line. “What’s going on?”
I gave her a quick rundown of events: the dead priest, Charlieknocking down the door to his room, and a possible intruder at The Rose who was still yet to be found.
“Oh my Lord,” Aunt DeeDee said. I could almost see her clutching her pearls. “And all of this with Lacy’s wedding tomorrow.”
She didn’t have to remind me. The last twenty-four hours had been fraught, tainted particularly by the Texan side of the family. I hated that the commonality between everything was Anton, and I hated even more that a dead body was the end result. At this point, all I wanted for Lacy was whatever she wanted—to flee, to marry Anton in front of a justice of the peace, to pull the covers over her head and stay in bed until next New Year’s.
“I know,” I said to Aunt DeeDee now. “I’m calling you because I don’t want Lacy to hear it second-hand, and I wanted someone that she trusts to be there with her when she gets the news. This will derail her entire wedding, so she needs to hear that, one way or another, it will be okay.”
“I got you, doll.” Aunt DeeDee inhaled as if steeling herself. “I can pull her and Anton aside privately and let them know what’s happened.”
I smiled despite the situation. Aunt DeeDee would be a calm and steady presence if nothing else. “Thanks.”
“No problem, sweetheart.” I thought she was going to hang up but then she said one last thing. “You just make sure to look after you—and your man.”
“Charlie?” I asked.
“Unless you’re two-timing him, that’s the one. I saw him skedaddle out of the dinner about the time you ran off to the bathroom to have a good cry, and he seemed to have something heavy on his mind.”
Aunt DeeDee’s words of wisdom could seem at times clairvoyant—and she had been the one to suggest a fake séance to solve a murder a couple of months ago—but as far as I knew, she didn’t actually have specialpowers.
I shook my head in wonder. Aunt DeeDee always noticed more than she let on.
“Sometimes even our best intentions come back to bite us in the rear end,” Aunt DeeDee finished, the words cryptic enough for me to wonder if she was actually having the same concerns about Charlie’s method of investigating as me—namely, that it could put him behind bars. “I’d best go relay the news to the intended. Talk soon, darlin’.”
“Talk soon,” I said, as the line went dead.
TWENTY-TWO
As another squad car pulled up, I made my way inside, hoping to catch my breath, but when I stepped into the vestibule, the deputy was scribbling frantically in her notebook as she questioned Charlie. I was concerned by the defeated expression on his face.
I started toward them, but as I approached, Deputy Jill Wright’s eyes darted from Charlie to me. Two months ago, she’d shown signs of romantic interest in him, and while I’d been able to learn to trust Charlie enough not to let it bother me, I hadn’t seen her in person since then—and I certainly hadn’t expected her to be interrogating him, which was definitely happening here.
“Dakota arrived after Todd Anderson fell,” Charlie said, angling his body as if I wasn’t welcome in the conversation. He was always protecting me.
I burst in anyway, speaking with feigned confidence. “I was the first to examine the body.”
Deputy Wright frowned at me and then added something to her notebook. Charlie had trained her well.
“Dakota had nothing to do with his death,” Charlie insisted, as if this were up for debate.
“Of course I didn’t,” I said, confused. “But neither did you.”
Jill took a deep breath as her eyes darted over the pages of notesshe’d already made. “Charlie was the only one present when the man fell from the balcony, correct?”
“Well, yes, as far as I know, but he was searching the property for an intruder,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “He received a call from the security company?—”
“It wasn’t the security company,” Jill said, interrupting me. “I just called and checked in with the system that monitors The Rose. They weren’t the ones who contacted Charlie.”
“Then who did?” And, I wondered, why would Charlie believe them? He was savvy and smart, experienced from his time as a law-enforcer. He wouldn’t leave the rehearsal dinner to wander around The Rose close to nine at night without good reason.
“We don’t know,” Jill answered. “The number is untraceable so far—just ends with a disconnection notice.”
“A prepaid phone.” Charlie shook his head, eyebrows drawn close together. “I was stupid, distracted by the party.”
“Had you been drinking?” Jill asked.
