“We have a wonderful ceremony ahead of us, with two of my favorite hymns plus a beautiful reading by Lauren, a friend of the couple, who has kindly agreed to step in in the absence of the mother-of-the-bride.”
Nova’s breath hitched. Lauren, the “friend” who’d tried to get her sacked and arrested, was doing a reading? She glanced at Craig, but he gave a small shrug in a way that suggested this was news to him too. So, it must be Pamela’s doing, then. Nova felt a spike of anger and took another deep breath.
“Before we begin, I must ask if there’s anyone present today who knows of any lawful reason why Nova and Craig may not be married.”
There was a pause, and Nova heard a few awkward titters of laughter, as always happened at this moment.
“Wonderful, well in that case—”
“Wait!”
A voice rang out from the back of the church, and Nova and Craig swung round as one to see where it had come from.
A small, squat figure was marching up the aisle from the rear doors, a dog waddling at her feet. The woman was backlit by the outside light so that her blue-rinsed perm looked almost like a halo round her head. Only the words coming out of her mouth were anything but angelic.
“I know a reason why Nova and Craig can’t get married. This wedding has to stop.”
Chapter Forty
Phyllis
Phyllis was aware of every eye in the church on her, and not in a good way. The mother of the groom looked as if she was about to jump up and murder her in cold blood, while the groom’s face had gone bright red. Nova, for her part, looked as if she was about to be sick; this hadnotbeen part of their plan. Still, Phyllis wasn’t going to let herself be distracted. This was her big Miss Marple moment, and she was going to make the most of every second of it.
She walked up the aisle until she was about ten meters away from the bride and groom.
“Who on earth are you?” Craig said.
“I’m Phyllis Hudson, or ‘the old busybody from the book club,’ as I believe you know me.”
“Well, what is it?” the vicar said, in the indignant tone of someone who clearly wasn’t used to being upstaged.
Phyllis ignored him and turned to face the congregation. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid to tell you that there is a criminal in our midst!”
This elicited the exclamations of surprise she’d been hoping for.
“Sitting here in one of the pews is an individual who has stolen,deceived and even committed acts of violence over the past few weeks. All of it aimed at discrediting and hurting an innocent person who stands in front of you now, about to say her vows.”
“Phyllis, notnow,” she heard Arthur hiss.
“Lauren Cook,” Phyllis boomed, rounding on the woman to her right. “Do you deny that you’ve been targeting Nova, sabotaging her at work and even going as far as to frame her for theft and assault?”
There was another, louder gasp from the congregation. Lauren, who Phyllis had hoped would be quaking in her silly pink stilettos by this point, just frowned.
“I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about, Phyllis. Have you been drinking?”
“Don’t deny it! We have your confession on tape, don’t we, Ash?”
Phyllis was going out on a bit of a limb here, given she wasn’t certain that Sandy had managed to extract a confession from Lauren, or that Ash had recorded it. But when she glanced at the teenager, he nodded, and she inwardly sighed with relief.
“What on earth does any of this have to do with the legality of the marriage?” the vicar said, his tone growing impatient.
“I’m coming to that. The theory my fellow book clubbers came up with is that Lauren is concerned for the safety of her job, and so she’s been sabotaging Nova in order to get her sacked. But something has been bothering me about this theory; something that doesn’t quite add up.”
Phyllis began to pace up and down the aisle.
“I understand why Lauren might have undermined Nova at work, but why would she steal the roof money, knowing that would put the community center, and therefore her own job, at risk? And why would she attack her own boss? These, to me, seemed crimesdisproportionate to the motive of simply being fearful for her job security.”
“Right, I’ve had enough of this,” a voice said, and Phyllis looked around to see the groom glaring at her. “This isn’t an episode of bloodyColumbo. Get out of here before I throw you out.”
