Page 6 of Wedding Cake Carnage
I suck in a quick breath. “You saw him, too, huh?” And byit, I mean my tiger friend who was sent to assist in solving Jana’s murder.
Carlotta is transmundane like me, further classified a supersensual—meaning, we can see the dead—humans and animals alike. It used to be that when they appeared it meant nothing more than a scraped knee for the person they came back for. But for the last ten months straight, they’ve been a harbinger for murder.
I’m not sure why I have this gift, but it turns out, my grandmother Nell Sawyer had it, too. For a long time, Nell was the only one who knew I had this gift, and it wasn’t until last winter that I learned she had it as well.
Nell died in January, but she came back last month to help with Rich Dallas’ murder investigation. And was I ever glad to see her. She gave me a little insight to my future, such as the fact I’ll be a mother someday. She also hinted that something awful was about to happen to Everett, and boy was she right.
The other thing she mentioned was the fact my powers seem to be growing. It used to be I could only see the dead, then a few months ago I began to hear them, and the next thing I knew, they had the ability to move things in the material world—talk about a fright. One of the human ghosts, Greer Giles, was able to linger on right here on earth, and she now haunts my mother’s B&B along with her two-hundred-year-old boyfriend, Winslow Decker.
Lainey and Forest head this way, and Lainey looks as if she’s seen a ghost herself. Lainey doesn’t know about my gift. Only Carlotta, Noah, and Everett are apprised of my ability to see the dead—and that about puts a cap on who I’m sharing that spooktacular little secret with.
Lainey’s arms flail through air. “Oh my God, you found the body, didn’t you?” Lainey and I share the same caramel hair coloring and hazel eyes. Even though I’ve always known I was adopted, it was our shared looks that gave me hope that my parents had the details wrong.
“A body?” Mom pauses midflight from popping a bite of my pink champagne cake into her mouth.
Forest nods. “They found a woman outside, shot through the back. A buddy of mine just let me know.” He heads over to Noah. “Are you securing the building?”
“I’m letting the deputies take care of this until I can get Lottie into her van and on her way back to Honey Hollow. In fact, I was about to ask if any of you would mind staying with her until I get home.”
Carlotta moans and lifts a hand. “I’m in. Lottie and I will play gin rummy until you get back.”
“No, we won’t.” I take a moment to glower at Carlotta. “We can snuggle with the cats and watch TV. I don’t have it in me to think or play games.”
Keelie wraps an arm around me. “I’m coming, too. So who did you find?”
“Yeah.” Lainey leans in. “Anyone we know?”
Everything in me says run. The last thing I want to do is tell my poor stressed out sister that her wedding planner was just murdered in cold blood.
Meg comes up with her boyfriend Hook by her side. Meg is our younger sister, younger than me by a year. She’s dyed her blonde locks jet-black, and it looks stunning juxtaposed against her pale blue eyes. Meg used to work the female wrestling circuit in Las Vegas for a time, but she’s been back in Honey Hollow for a while now. These days she’s teaching the strippers down in Leeds how to bust a move, and she’s getting paid a shiny nickel doing it.
Meg slings an arm around Lainey’s shoulder. “Just heard your wedding planner bit the big one.” She clicks her tongue. “Let me guess, Lot. You found the body?”
A guilty look sweeps over my face, and Lainey howls so loud you’d think someone just fired a bullet into her back, too.
“Oh my God!” Lainey roars my way. “You arenotpermitted to come within a hundred yards of either Forest or me for the next three weeks. Do you understand?” The veins in the sides of her neck distend. Lainey has made it known in the past that she feels I might be a tad bit of bad luck when it comes to attracting the Grim Reaper.
She yanks Forest by the hand as they take off.
“She’ll come around, Lot,” Forest shouts as they make their way out of the venue.
“Wait!” Meg grabs Hook, her official boyfriend now that Keelie is out of the picture. For a while Hook was dating both of them. “Hook has some listings he’d like to share with you!”
Hook pushes out a greedy grin. “I’m the number one sales person at Redwood Realty. Anybody up for buying a house?”
Meg yanks him off before we can contemplate the advantages of having a mortgage payment with far too many zeros on the end.
Carlotta giggles up a storm as if she were a schoolgirl.
“What?” I snip, because I’m not finding a darn thing funny.
“Oh, don’t mind me. It’s all this yummy sugar. It’s going straight to my head.”
Mom threads her arm through Carlotta’s. “Come on. Let’s get to Lottie’s and prepare the house for her. Lottie, I have the spare key. We’ll have the tea on by the time you get home.”
Keelie wraps her arms around me. “And I’ll drive her straight there.”
Both Carlotta and my mother scoop up as much cake as their arms will allow before ducking for the exit.