A Bridal Bouquet and a Body (A Heavenly Highland Inn Cozy Mystery Book 8) Read online

“Do you have everything you need?” she asked. She was yawning when Mitchell spun around and tried to kiss her.

  “Ugh, sorry,” Vicky laughed.

  “Oops,” Mitchell smiled. “Everything I need, except for you,” he said with a pout. “I don't want to go.”

  “Don't be such a wuss, Mitchell,” Connor called out as he carried their bags out to the car. Mitchell shot a glare in his direction but didn’t say anything.

  “You're going to have a great time,” Vicky promised him. “And so am I,” she kissed him again, this time without the yawn.

  “All right,” he sighed. “Now, I’m not sure if the cell phone service has improved out there but the last time I went there was no service. So, if there are any problems, anything at all, just call me and I’ll contact you when I can. Understand?” he met her eyes intently.

  “I understand,” Vicky replied. She laughed a little when Mitchell's expression was one of doubt.

  “I’ll be back tomorrow morning in plenty of time to get ready for the wedding,” he smiled.

  “Have fun,” she insisted and nearly pushed him out the door. He was meeting up with Sheriff McDonnell, two other police officers, Rex, and Phil. Vicky was sure it was going to be quite an interesting experience for all of them.

  Vicky watched as Mitchell drove down the driveway. As she was walking back to the front counter she heard the rumbling of a truck pulling into the parking lot. She peeked out the window, and just as she had hoped, it was a truck from Highland’s Party Shop. It would have the party tent she had ordered. She was excited as she ran out the door to greet the delivery driver. A sullen young man climbed down out of the truck.

  “Where do you want it?” he asked glumly. Vicky frowned at his attitude but she was determined not to sweat the small things.

  “In the garden,” Vicky pointed towards the aisle that had been created throughout the gardens just beyond the pool.

  “Let me get my cart,” the young man said and walked around behind the truck. He opened the back doors of the truck and tugged down a metal cart. Then he reached into the truck and grabbed the tent which was in a long rectangular case. “Oof,” he muttered as he pulled at the tent. “Did you order the deluxe or something?”

  “Just the regular wedding tent,” Vicky replied as she watched him struggle with the tent. She didn't think it should be that difficult. Then again from the redness of the boy's eyes and the way he kept swaying on his feet she was fairly certain that he was not completely sober. “Do you need some help?” she finally asked.

  “No, I've got it,” he replied gruffly and latched the tent to the cart. He wheeled it into the garden and placed it where Vicky asked. “Do you want me to help set it up?” he suggested as he glanced at her.

  “No, I can set it up myself,” Vicky said with confidence. The shop charged extra to set it up and she had used similar tents for celebrations before so she felt she could handle it easily. Besides, she wasn't sure she would trust him to set up anything that her family and friends would be under.

  “Suit yourself,” he shrugged. He wheeled the cart back through the garden and loaded it back into the truck. As he drove out of the parking lot Vicky tried not to think about his sour attitude. She wanted to be excited over finally having the tent that she had been looking so forward to receiving. It brought home that the wedding was actually happening and it was very close.

  “It's here!” she clapped her hands and started towards it.

  As she hurried over to it, she heard someone call out from behind her.

  “Don't touch it until I get there!” Ida hollered. Still dressed in plaid pajamas she rushed over to Vicky.

  “Let's check it out,” Vicky said happily. “But I think we should move it a few feet over there,” she pointed towards the small fountain that had recently been installed.

  “Perfect,” Ida agreed. The two women grabbed the case containing the tent and tried to drag it over to the fountain.

  “I didn't think it was supposed to be this heavy,” Vicky grunted as she tugged at the end of the tent. Ida pulled as hard as she could, but the tent wasn't going anywhere. “On second thoughts maybe it's perfect right here,” Vicky sighed.

  “Good thing it was left in the right place,” Ida said gleefully. It was in a beautiful spot in the center of the gardens. It was surrounded by blossoming bushes, and flowering trees. There would not even be a need to decorate the outside of the tent with flowers and ribbons, as nature was doing it for them.

  “Yes, this will do just fine,” Vicky nodded. “Well, I guess we better get it rolled out,” she said.

  “I can't believe you two are starting this without me,” Sarah complained as she jogged over to them. “The boys are helping Henry make breakfast so I can help, too! I can't wait to see it up,” Sarah grinned. “It's going to be perfect!”

  The three worked together to roll out the tent. As they pushed Vicky still felt as if something wasn't quite right. They seemed so easy to set up when they were set up by the party shop and it had looked so much easier on the instructional video. Finally, the three gave it a hard shove, and the tent began to unroll all on its own.

  “Now, that's more like it,” Ida said and wiped her hands together. As the tent unraveled there was an odd lump in the center of it. Vicky's eyes grew wider as the tent spread out. The lump was still there.

  “What's that?” she asked breathlessly as she began walking towards it.

  “Maybe, it's just a place where the tent bunched up,” Sarah said hopefully. Ida was staring at the lump with the same anxiety that Vicky was.

  “A man-shaped lump?” she said with a shake of her head. Vicky lifted the end of the tent and peered underneath. She gasped when she discovered what was hidden beneath it. She whipped back the tent to reveal the body of the new deputy sheriff, Arthur.

  “Oh no!” Sarah cried out and covered her mouth with her hands.

  “This can't be happening,” Vicky groaned as she rushed closer to the body. It was clear that he was dead, and had been for some time, but Vicky still checked for a pulse, hoping that she might be able to save him. When she touched his skin it was cold. She knew that he was gone. She stared down at the body with disbelief. Not only was it the day before her wedding, but nearly the entire police force was off at a bachelor party.

  Sarah dialed 9-1-1 and gave them the details.

  Vicky stepped closer to him and tried to see how he might have died. His cell phone had fallen out of his pocket when the tent was unraveled. The touch screen was lit up so it must have touched something. She bent over to look at the phone without touching it. Displayed on the screen was a calendar reminder for an appointment at eleven-thirty the previous night. The appointment just said.

  Meet PD

  “PD,” she repeated to herself. She wasn't sure what to think of the reminder, but perhaps this had something to do with Arthur’s murder. Maybe it was a crime that could be wrapped up easily.

  “We should call Mitchell,” Sarah said as she stood beside Vicky.

  “And Sheriff McDonnell,” Ida agreed with a nod of her head.

  Vicky was silent for a long moment and then looked up at the two women. She was about to speak up about her suspicions when it dawned on her just what was about to occur. In mere moments sirens would be blaring, lights would be flashing, and Mitchell's mother and sister would be witness to a murder investigation at the inn. If dinner didn't turn them off, she was quite certain a dead deputy sheriff would.

  “Oh no,” Vicky gasped out as she turned back towards the inn. “Mitchell's mother and sister will be awake soon. What if they see the police here? What if they find out about the murder?”

  “Vicky, I'm sure that they will understand,” Sarah said soothingly. “It's not like you had anything to do with this murder.”

  “No, they won't understand,” Vicky said swiftly, her mind spinning with everything that was happening. “If we call Mitchell, he'll have to come back, he'll be busy with investigating the murder, a
nd the wedding…”

  “Vicky, listen to me,” Sarah said sternly. “It's all going to work out, but you need to let Mitchell know what’s happened. If you don’t tell him someone else will and he’ll be angry with you for not informing him.” Vicky hated calling Mitchell back to deal with something like this, it might delay the wedding, and make it difficult for him to enjoy his time with his family. But she knew that she had no choice. Arthur's death had to be investigated.

  “Fine,” Vicky sighed and swept her hands over her face slowly. After she took a deep breath she looked between Sarah and Ida. She took her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed Mitchell’s number. It went straight to voicemail. She was about to leave a message but didn’t know what to say. She tried Sheriff McDonnell and it also went to voicemail. “They might already be out of range,” she said after she hung up. “I’ll call the local police station to tell them what has happened. The officers that stayed behind will just have to handle it until we can reach Mitchell and the Sheriff,” Vicky said. “Besides, maybe it’s not such a bad thing that we can’t reach Mitchell.”

  “What do you mean?” Sarah asked and narrowed her eyes. “What are you thinking?”

  “I'm just saying that Mitchell is only ever going to have one bachelor party. It is horrible what has happened to Arthur, but it's not going to hurt the case for Mitchell to be gone for one more day. Bobby and Norman can handle it.”

  “Bobby and Norman?” Ida asked incredulously. “Aren't they mainly crossing guards?”

  “Sure, when there's nothing major happening,” Vicky shrugged and tried to believe what she was saying. “I'm sure they went through the same training that Mitchell did. They should be able to handle this.”

  “Maybe,” Sarah said thoughtfully.

  “Bobby and Norman and the crime scene techs will have to handle it until Mitchell and the Sheriff can be contacted. If the murder isn't solved by the time Mitchell gets back, he'll just pick up where the other officers left off.”

  “I don't know,” Ida shook her head slowly. “It feels like there's a lot more to this case than meets the eye. I mean he was wrapped up in your wedding tent, Vicky, what if the murder was a warning of some kind?”

  “A warning to what, not get married?” Vicky frowned. “I'm not going to let someone bully me into being afraid.”

  “Let's not forget that it may have nothing to do with Vicky,” Sarah pointed out.

  “Well, we are just going to have to deal with the murder and organize the wedding,” Ida stated.

  Vicky sighed. “Maybe we should just postpone it. I don't see how it's going to happen now.”

  “Absolutely not,” Sarah said and pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Okay, here's what we're going to do,” Sarah said as she exhaled a long breath. “The boys are with Henry having breakfast. He can prepare breakfast for Maisy and Mae-Ellen as well. Then I'm going to take the boys, Mae-Ellen, and Maisy for a tour of the grounds and maybe I can convince them to go for a swim in the pool. I will just have to keep them away from this section of the grounds and that will give you some time to block off the area of the crime scene. We can just say it is blocked off because of the wedding, it’s far enough from the main building anyway.” Sarah held up her hands, “Just promise me that you and Aunt Ida won't get involved in the investigation”

  “But Sarah…” Vicky began to argue.

  “Thank you, Sarah,” Ida said and shushed Vicky. Vicky sighed and tried to remind herself that a man had died, and that should be the focus of her thoughts. But her mind kept returning to her wedding. Once she had reported directly to the police station that there had been a murder, she knew that things were going to begin moving swiftly. She called the officer who she knew would be on duty, directly. She had got to know most of the officers at the station through Mitchell.

  “Bobby, there's been a murder,” Vicky said quietly into the phone.

  “Ha ha, Vicky, very funny. I'll be sure to have a good laugh with Mitchell about this when he gets back,” he chuckled. Vicky frowned.

  “Bobby, I'm serious, your new deputy sheriff, Arthur, is dead. I found his body in the rolled up wedding tent at the inn a few minutes ago. We have called the emergency number already, but can you try and come out here with as little fuss as possible. I have Mitchell’s family staying here and I don’t want to upset them.”

  “Yes, ma'am,” Bobby replied without hesitation. He was always very obliging and tended to be quite good at following orders. Bobby was a good police officer for many things, but Mitchell had mentioned that he was gun shy, and he didn't handle confrontations well. Luckily, the murder took place before the tent was delivered and it’s unlikely that the murderer would cause more trouble at the inn. Vicky hung up the phone and turned back to her aunt.

  “So, what exactly are we going to do about all of this?” Ida asked as she placed her hands on her hips. “It doesn't look like he left any stains on the tent.”

  “Aunt Ida!” Vicky gasped reproachfully. “I think we should be focused more on the man who lost his life, not the party tent.”

  “It's sad,” Ida agreed as she looked over at Arthur's body. “But let's be honest here, Vicky. We barely knew the man. For all we know he could be involved in criminal things, leading to his murder. What we do know is that your wedding is tomorrow, which means we have less than twenty four hours to figure out what really happened here, and fix it.”

  Vicky wanted to argue with her, but she couldn't. She knew that Ida was right. She didn't want her wedding to be ruined. She also wanted to make sure that Arthur's killer was brought to justice. She just hoped that both of these things would occur.

  Chapter Four

  Within minutes some officers including Bobby and Norman along with the EMTs had arrived. The medical examiner arrived shortly after the EMTs had confirmed that Arthur was dead.

  “I'll go inside and check in with Sarah,” Ida offered.

  Vicky nodded and turned back to Bobby and Norman. The two stood back a few feet from the body, just staring at it.

  “Your first?” Vicky asked gently.

  “Yes,” Bobby said.

  “No,” Norman replied. “But the first one that I shook hands with.”

  “I understand,” Vicky nodded. “It's very hard to wrap your head around how someone can be alive and talking to you one minute and gone the next.”

  “It's not just that,” Bobby frowned. “I can't even tell how this guy died. There's not a mark on him.”

  The medical examiner glanced up from the body. “It looks like suffocation. There's a bluish tint to his lips. Should I forward Sheriff McDonnell my report?”

  “No,” Vicky said automatically. The medical examiner looked at Vicky for a moment. He was fairly new to the town himself.

  “I was asking the officers,” he said pointedly.

  “She's right,” Bobby said quickly. “Sheriff McDonnell is out of the office and we can’t contact him. Just send it to the main office. We'll take it from there.”

  The medical examiner looked a little concerned but he nodded. As he was taking care of the body, Bobby and Norman cornered off the crime scene as the crime scene technicians arrived.

  While the technicians processed the scene, Vicky led Bobby and Norman away from the garden. Vicky decided that in order for her wedding to go ahead she would need to assist the police to solve the murder as quickly as possible.

  “Listen, I think the first step is to figure out why Arthur was killed,” Vicky said quickly. “If you can figure out the motive then that will help you figure out who the murderer is. So, did Arthur mention anything to either of you about someone giving him a hard time? Did he have any arrests that were rougher than usual?”

  “Well, Arthur had his first big bust already,” Norman said as he scratched at his cheek.

  “Yup, that was a pretty intense take down,” Bobby nodded.

  “Well,” Vicky looked between both of them. “Do you think it's possible that the criminals that Arthur arreste
d had something to do with his death?”

  Norman stared at her blankly. Then he nodded. “That's a good idea, Vicky. I hadn't even thought about that. In fact, they were released on bail yesterday.”

  “Do you know their names?” Vicky pressed and searched Norman's eyes for any sign of detective skills.

  “I can look them up,” Norman said and snapped his fingers. “There will be a record of it. I’ll go to the station and do that now.”

  “I am going to stay here at the scene,” Bobby assured her. “I’ll make sure I don’t mention dead bodies if anyone asks.”

  “Thanks,” Vicky said with a small smile.

  “I’ll go find those details and I’ll text them to you,” Norman said to Bobby. “We’ll get to the bottom of this,” Norman said to Vicky with determination.

  Vicky nodded. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “Let me know if you manage to contact Mitchell or Sheriff McDonnell please.”

  “I will,” Norman said with an eager smile. As Bobby walked towards the medical examiner and Norman walked away, Vicky had to shake her head. She was sure that both men were more than capable of patrolling neighborhoods, manning crosswalks, and even nabbing shoplifters, but they were in way over their heads when it came to murder. She knew if this crime had any chance of being solved quickly she was going to have to play a part in it.

  ***

  When Vicky entered the lobby she found Aunt Ida doing her best to entertain Maisy and Mae-Ellen.

  “There are so many things to do in town,” she was explaining. “In fact I'd highly recommend the Highland Museum, it tells a lot about the history of this town. There's even a little information about this house.”

  “Museums are fine,” Maisy said with a frown. “But I'm more interested in something fun.”

  “Me too,” Mae-Ellen said with a smile. “Vicky!” she waved to Vicky.

  “Hi,” Vicky replied with an awkward smile. “Did the two of you sleep okay last night?”

  “We did,” Maisy nodded. “I was hoping we'd see you at breakfast though.”