Page 37 of Wedding Cake Carnage
Tracy stomps over, partially fuming, partially amused. “Well, that’s a new one.” She clicks the rod back into place. “Please take a moment to put yourselves back together.” She gives a sly wink my way. “Wrap it up, honey. I can’t say I blame you. If that was my man, I’d be ducking into stray closets myself.”
She closes the curtain behind her, and I can hear Meg shoutingway to go, Lot!in the background.
“Kill me.” I bury my face in my hands a moment as I scuttle to the left and bump into the desk.
“Nobody is killing you.” Everett lands a kiss to my ear as I bite my lip from the sweet sensation. I glance down at the desk, half-tempted to rake it clean when I spot Jana’s name written on a piece of paper.
“Everett, look at this,” I say, pulling out my phone and taking a picture of it. “It looks like some kind of a receipt.”
He pulls it forward, and we get a better look at it.
“It’s not a receipt at all,” he says, flipping it over, only to find the other side blank. “It’s some kind of to-do list.”
“That makes sense. They worked together.” I take the paper from him and point it to the light.” Under Jana’s name is an entire row of dates, and next to that nominal sums of money ranging from sixty to seven hundred dollars. “Do you think Jana owed Tracy money?”
“Anything is possible.”
The music cuts out, and Everett and I head back into the ballroom, only to be met with a spontaneous applause led by my sisters. I’m so mortified I could drop dead. Speaking of which, that creepy phone call I got at the bakery earlier comes back to me. I haven’t mentioned it to either Noah or Everett as of yet. I don’t want to worry them. They’re liable to team up and banish me from my own bakery. We already know that nutcase that kept Everett hostage knows where I work and live, and I’m not about to be another quasi-hostage of hers and live in fear by avoiding those two places.
The ballroom clears out. I say goodnight to both my sisters and their dance partners before Everett and I head over to Tracy.
Beasty flourishes to life once again and growls out a frightening hello.
“I just want to apologize for our behavior.” I nod to Beasty because I was partially speaking to him. “We don’t usually behave that way.”
Tracy covers her lips with her fingers and gives a coy laugh. “I aspire to behave that way one day.” She lifts a brow Everett’s way. “You wouldn’t happen to have a brother, would you?”
We share a warm laugh as Everett dashes her Baxter-based dreams.
“And again, I’m really sorry about Jana.” I press my lips tight. “Jana was my friend, too.”
She blows out a breath. “Jana was such a great girl. I don’t know what my brother was thinking.”
Beasty roars as if agreeing.
“Pardon?” I blink her way, trying to follow where’s she’s headed with this.
“Oh, you know, it wasn’t any secret. He has a side girl he can’t seem to get rid of. I told him, you’ve got a quality girl with Jana. You’re engaged. That’s not how you treat a woman.” She shrugs and Beasty roars twice as hard as before. “But he let it go on for a little longer than it should have. I spoke to him last night, and we got into it again. He swears up and down he hasn’t been with Monica for over a month.” She wrinkles her nose. “But he’s been engaged to Jana for two. Anyhow, I guess it’s over any way you slice it. I sort of had this dream that Jana would be the one to finally straighten my brother out. I could see it now, the big house, white picket fence, two point five kids, the dog, the cat. Pierce is a good guy at heart. And now I’m afraid he won’t meet anyone that nice again. Jana came from good breeding, you could tell. Monica—pft. She’s a sleaze all the way.” She takes a breath as she collects her bag from the floor. Her eyes connect with mine. “In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were Monica who did the deed. She never took too kindly to losing my brother to a glorified nun. That’s what she called Jana.” Her lips pull down. “I guess you could say Jana wasn’t well-liked by everyone, after all.”
Everett leans in. “Jana owed me money.”
“You, too?” Tracy’s jaw unhinges, and I give Everett’s hand a quick congratulatory squeeze. “That girl didn’t know when to quit. Sure, she was about to cash in with your sister’s wedding, but the bulk of the payment was going to come in at the end. I was keeping her afloat for the last few months. She didn’t want to ask my brother. Too prideful. She was afraid he would think she was only with him for his money. Please, every woman he’s ever dated was with him for the money.”
We walk out together, and she locks up the studio behind us.
Beasty jumps through the glass door as if it were a hoop on fire, and I bend over pretending to adjust my shoe.
“Any luck memorizing that license plate last night from the blue sedan?” That information alone could tell us more about the lunatic who thought she could get away with holding Everett hostage forever.
“It was covered with dirt.” He gives a quick spurt of a growl as he tips his head toward Tracy. “Ask her about the loan repayment.”
Everett glances around. I still haven’t filled him in on Beasty, or Lea for that matter.
“Tracy, can I ask how you were going to have Jana pay you back?” I suck in my bottom lip a moment. And I’m asking this because? “Because she wanted to set up a strange payment system with Everett.” That might work.
Tracy grunts. “Again? I’m telling you, the more I hear about her, the more I’m starting to think she was a scam artist. She wasn’t exactly going to pay me back. And that fumed me, by the way. She didn’t inform me of this, of course, until a few days before she died. She said she’d do my wedding for free.” She holds up her left hand. “Do you see any rings on this finger? I’m not proud to say we had a disagreement just before she passed. I guess it’s something I’ll have to live with.” She starts toward the parking lot, and we pause as we come upon Everett’s car.
“Tracy? Where does Monica work?”