Murder in the Mix Box Set Read online

  “The Widow’s Walk is the exploration of a young woman’s second coming-of-age after her husband dies. It’s basically the thespians’ version of erotica.”

  I gasp at the salacious thought, but before I can expound on the horror, a couple of familiar faces crop up. Meg waves us over, and attached to her side is Hook Redwood, my BFF Keelie’s newly minted ex-fiancé.

  I give my sister a quick embrace. Meg looks, dare I say, elegant with her dark hair styled straight as a pin, her makeup toned down from the cartoon version I’m used to seeing.

  “You clean up nice,” I’m quick to say while Greer does her best to stick her tongue into poor Hook’s defenseless ear. She really is a supernatural menace.

  Meg scoffs at the thought of cleaning up well. “Are you kidding? I’m not putting on my face again until I get back to Vegas. And those yellow contacts? They’re starting to affect my vision. I think I’ll stick to my baby blues for a while.” She pokes Hook hard in the chest. “Can you believe this guy is running around Honey Hollow and no one has managed to snatch him up?”

  “Keelie did for a time. They broke off their engagement a couple of weeks ago.” I can’t help but sneer at him while Greer wraps her entire body around him. Hook really is a looker, tall, well-chiseled features, a brick of paper white teeth, and the mind of the Wolf of Wall Street—his former profession.

  He holds up his hands, and Greer dangles off him with the grace of a ballet dancer. “It was all her. My heart and wallet were ready for a wedding.” He winks at Meg. “But that’s all in the past. Tonight, my body is ready for all the fun you’re willing to fling my way.”

  Meg pulls him in with a husky laugh. “And a fling it will be. I like ’em quick and I like ’em dirty.”

  I’m about to clear my throat when another pair of familiar faces bombards us, my mother and her psychotic new boy toy, Rich Dallas.

  “My girls are all here!” she trills while producing Lainey from behind her as if pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

  I glance to Everett and shrug. “It looks like we have date crashers.” I give a little wink, and both my mother and Lainey let out a little yelp.

  Lainey pulls me in hard. “Did you say date?” Both Lainey and I share the same caramel waves and hazel green eyes despite the fact we’re not biologically related.

  “That’s right.” Everett blinks a short-lived smile, and half the crowded foyer sighs his way. “Lemon was kind enough to spend her evening with me.”

  Mom’s jaw drops. “What does Detective Fox think of this new arrangement?” she whispers it, presumably to me, but I’m pretty sure every ear in our tiny circle has picked up on it.

  “He doesn’t have a say.” I glance to Everett. “He’s too busy contending with his wife.”

  The lights flicker, and bodies quickly hustle into the opened doors that lead to the great hall.

  Lainey wrinkles her nose. “I’d better find Forest. He was getting us a drink at the bar.” She leans in. “I’ll be by this week to shore up the details for my engagement party—and you had better spill all the dirty little details about your date with Mr. Sexy!” She scuttles off before there’s sexy fallout, because let’s face it, she didn’t exactly whisper that last part.

  Mom grazes my arm with the gloves limp in her hand. “And what a saucy way to start the night. Perhaps the hint of saucy things to come?” She offers up a flirtatious wink to Everett, and Rich Dallas turns fifty shades of jealous.

  “All right, little woman,” he drawls it out in a country accent, which I’m pretty sure is real. He’s got a black velvet suit with white satin piping, a sheriff’s star cinches his vest together, and he’s donned a ten-gallon hat for the occasion. I’m sure the fifty rows behind them will appreciate that. “You’ll keep those pretty peepers feasted on me and me alone, ya hear?” He honks out a laugh while his hands honk over her waist, riding a little too high for my taste.

  Mom leans in, giggling up a storm. “Isn’t he something?”

  Everett’s chest expands. “He’s something.”

  They turn to take off, and I grab ahold of my mother. “Hey? What brings you and Lainey out this way? Have the two of you been enjoying the theater behind my back all these years?” I’m only half-teasing. Honestly, I can’t even remember the two of them mentioning movies, let alone theatrical arts that are situated in a playhouse.

  “Chrissy Nash plays the widow’s best friend.” She gently swats me on the wrist with her gloves. “Get it? The widow’s best friend? I believe that’s what they refer to as type casting!”

  Chrissy Nash just so happens to be my mother’s best friend. Chrissy is Mayor Nash’s ex-wife. He openly cheated on her for so long it’s a wonder they lasted as long as they did. It’s nice to see her coming into her own. And if the play is as erotic as Everett suggested, then we will truly see just that.

  Rich leans in toward my mother. “And if they cast you as the merry widow, I’d have to take out the leading man. I’m the only leading man in your life and don’t you forget it.”

  Mom’s about to respond with a pithy, albeit naughty response no doubt when she’s so rudely whisked away in Rich Dallas’ arms.

  Everett leans in as he steers us into the theater proper. “Let me know when she’s ready to file a restraining order and I’ll help walk her through the process.”

  “Aw,” I coo up at him. “Now those are the sweet nothings I like to hear.”

  Greer sticks her finger down her throat and pretends to gag, following alongside us like a love-struck puppy.

  Everett leads us to our seats, middle of the theater twelve rows back, visual perfection if you ask me. Of course, there’s no seat for Greer, so she makes do by sitting on his lap.

  “Well played, Greer, well played.”

  Everett leans in. “I’ve got a surprise for you, Lemon. Do you want it now, or do you want it back at my place?”

  “Ooh.” I can’t help but trill. “Was that your brilliant plan all along? Get me back to your place so you can show me what brings the girls to the yard?”

  His features smooth out, and his brows dip low. “It was my plan to fill you in on what I know about the case, but if you want to swing by so I can show you whatever your mind has decided it needs to see—I have no problem with that.” His lids hood dangerously low. “I’m getting the feeling you have a filthy mind, Lemon.”

  Greer runs her finger over his lips as he says it, and it’s disconcerting.

  My mouth falls open. “You’ll spill what you know about the case now if you know what’s good for you.”

  A laugh rumbles from his chest. “Maureen Taylor is playing the part of the widow tonight. Does the name ring a bell?”

  I quickly glance to the playbill tucked in the seat in front of me and snap it up. “Maureen Taylor…” I find her picture, a black and white square filled with a grinning face I swear I’ve seen before, her hair so short it must have been shorn with shears around her ears, and I gasp. “It’s her! The woman from Heritage Hall. You and Judge Kremer implied she was having an affair with the recently deceased.” In truth, I’m afraid to whisper Judge Shumaker’s name as the crowd grows silent around me. Maureen is the secretary down at the courthouse, so there are bound to be others from the office here who have come to watch her performance.

  Everett nods as the lights dim low. “We’ll be sure to congratulate her when the night is through.”

  “You bet we will.”

  Greer relaxes over Everett as if he were her favorite sofa as she readies to take in the play with the rest of us. I know for a fact my first order of business at the supersensual meet and greet will be inquiring on how to banish a poltergeist from your boyfriend’s lap.

  I sit straight as a pin. Everett is not my boyfriend.

  Noah pops to mind. Sadly, he’s not either.

  The theater goes black before the spectacle gets underway, and I can’t help but note Greer Giles gives off an eerie green illumination as if Everett just cracked her like a glow stic
k—and I have a feeling had she lived just a wee bit longer he would have.

  The play starts up and away we go into a raunchy wonderland where we collectively watch Maureen Taylor sway, swoon, and bend over with the best of them. At one point, there is a very detailed mattress scene with lots of action and even more moaning. Maureen does this pretzel like trick with her body while the leading man dives in and— I squeeze my eyes shut tight as if I were on a roller coaster speeding out of control. Good God, I can’t watch. My mother and sisters are in this very room with me! My cheeks burn ten shades of burgundy as a riotous applause starts up.

  I can feel Everett lean in close, his minty breath on my cheek, and my insides tingle like they do for Noah. So not fair.

  “You can open your eyes, Lemon. Show’s over.”

  My lids blink twice and, sure enough, the house lights have erupted as bright as the sun and bodies are making their way to the rear.

  “Do you always close your eyes during the good part?” A devious grin plays on the corners of his lips but, per usual, Everett is too stubborn to give it.

  “That’s for me to know and for you to find out.”

  Greer pops up right through his chest like a jack-in-the-box, and I gasp in fright.

  “Are you propositioning my Essex?” she hisses while stealing the playbill right out of my hand and hitting me over the head with it.

  “Holy sh—” Everett catches the paper I’ve rolled into a cone in the midst of my puritanical duress and brings it tight to his chest. “Was you know who responsible for that?”

  I give a guilty nod as if the you know who in question were me. “And I bet that lipstick wearing phantasm has a lot more head bopping party tricks up her sleeve.” I look right at her, her large gray eyes glowing like supernovas. “You do not have the upper hand here, missy. As soon I solve this case, it’s curtains for you. But if you pull another stunt like that, I’ll be sure to pull the plug a whole lot sooner.” I snatch the playbill out of Everett’s hand and return the head bopping favor.

  “Suit yourself.” She stands and dusts off her white dress. The crimson stain over her chest looks suspiciously like a rose corsage gone very, very wrong. “I’ll be in the back. I just have to see what the leading man is packing, and I’m betting there’s a wardrobe change taking place right about now.” She flies straight through the air screaming with pleasure all the way through the thick velvet curtains. I will admit, that little flight through time and space looked like fun.

  “She’s gone to check out the naked men in the back,” I say as Everett and I rise from our seats.

  “At least she’s making the best of it. As will we.”

  Neither Meg, Hook, nor Lainey and Forest are to be seen. I do, however, spot my mother speaking to Maureen and Chrissy Nash down at the base of the stage. Both women glow with pride, and each of them holds a bouquet of red roses to their chests.

  “This is perfect,” I say, picking up Everett’s hand and snaking us through the crowd until we hit ground zero. Everett gives my hand a squeeze, and I freeze once I realize what I’ve done, what I’m still doing. I feel terrible about leading Everett on. But now that I’m no longer officially with Noah, I’m not sure how terrible I really feel.

  “Lottie!” Mother pulls me in and Everett by default. “Can you believe how wonderful these two were? This was Chrissy’s very first foray into the performing arts.”

  Rich Dallas embraces my mother from behind, towering over her like some steely bodyguard ready to rumble with anyone who tries to lay a hand on her—including me.

  “You were great, Chrissy.” I nod to my mother’s gorgeous best friend. Chrissy is tall, fit, and has a waterfall of blonde hair, that even though the color comes straight from a box, it knocks at least ten years off her age. I just hate that Mayor Nash humiliated her by way of having multiple affairs. Rumors have been swirling that his nineteen-year-old girlfriend is pregnant. How I hope that’s not true for both the girlfriend’s sake and Chrissy’s.

  “Thank you.” Chrissy hugs the flowers she’s holding that much tighter. “I really think I’ve found my calling, and it’s all thanks to this woman right here.” She pulls Maureen forward.

  Maureen is all teeth and eyes, a cartoon of a woman with a Cheshire Cat’s grin. Sure, she’s a great actress, but is she a great killer? That is the question.

  My mother waves my way. “Maureen, meet my sweet daughter, Lottie. My other girls are here, too. We’ve all come out to support the two of you this evening.” She winks my way. “Maureen and I go way back. We were sorority sisters at Tri Delta! Can you believe it?”

  Wow, my mother really has a scholastic connection to just about everyone in this case. Go figure.

  “That’s—fantastic?” My stomach sours. Last month when Greer bit the big one, there was an entire sorority kerfuffle.

  Maureen waves it off. “Your mother is a powerhouse of productivity. I said to myself if Miranda Lemon can run that B&B and still have time to paint the town red with this strong buck”—she smacks Rich on his beefy bicep, and he doesn’t flinch—“then I thought why not? When auditions came up, I hopped right to it. And low and behold I got the part.” She looks to Everett. “Judge Baxter, I cannot begin to tell you how much it means that you came out to see me tonight.” Her affect changes on a dime, and is that a tear in her eye?

  I bet she’d weep a river if she knew the real reason we were here with our feet on the Ashford Grand Theater floor is because she’s a suspect in Judge Shumaker’s death.

  “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Everett assures her. “I’m proud of you, Taylor. In fact, I’ll bring a box of goodies from the best bakery in Honey Hollow to celebrate tomorrow.”

  Her mouth rounds out with surprise, and it’s only then I notice how unusually large it is. My God, you could drive a train right down her throat.

  She snaps her fingers my way. “You’re the baker!”

  Chrissy laughs. “Lottie is the best baker in all of Vermont. She gets that talent from her mother.”

  Mom takes a bow. “Taught her everything she knows!” She flicks a finger at Everett. “Including how to date the most eligible bachelors in town.” Her shoulders do that shimmy they seem addicted to and Rich gives her sides a tickle until she spins in his arms, and before I know it, he spins her right out of the Everett fun zone.

  Chrissy grunts, “That man. I’ve never seen anyone fall so hard so fast. It really is true love.”

  “It must be,” Maureen chimes. “He keeps asking everyone she knows if they think she’s interested in anyone else.”

  An incredulous huff comes from me. “Insecure much?”

  Both Maureen and Chrissy chortle at the thought.

  My blood boils at the way this stranger just whisked into our lives and quite literally whisked my mother away to God knows where. Dear Lord, he’s practically holding her captive.

  “How I wish I had a man like Rich.” Chrissy fans herself with her fingers before giving a slight wave and melting into the crowd.

  “What do you think of him?” I ask Maureen. Her hair glows like a pumpkin on fire under the harsh stage lights from above.

  Her expression sours as she glances in the direction they took off in. “I like a man who knows what he wants—but if he ever tried to leave me, watch out.” She looks right at me. “I’d kill him.” She takes off, and it’s just Everett and me staring at the void in her wake.

  “Lemon, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “Judge Shumaker was leaving for Burlington.”

  “Bingo.” Everett takes up my hand and tips his head at it as if asking the question.

  “I approve.” I tip my head right back as Everett leads us out into the starry night.

  We wander away from the crowd near the turnstile kiosk by the ticket window with nary a living or dead soul in sight. The air is icy and the wind is doing its best to shoo us away, but we’re too stubborn to leave.

  I look up at him and take in a quick
breath. Everett is stunning in any lighting, but under the pressing light of a paper lamp moon, he’s washed monochromatic—save for his brilliant blue eyes.

  “You think Maureen could have done it?” I can hardly get the words out, my chest is thumping so hard. My entire body has turned into one riotous pulse.

  His chest widens as he closes the distance between us, and I grip my hands on the icy metal of the turnstile behind me to keep from floating into the air. Everett is an intimidating wall of steel once his gaze is heavy upon you.

  “I don’t know if she did it,” he answers. “But I think we should shore up a suspect list for our investigation.” His hand lands over my side as if he were about to pull me to him, and if he does I don’t have it in me to object.

  Do it, do it, a very naughty part of me is chanting.

  “Our investigation?” I’m so giddy I bite down over my bottom lip. Noah asked me to join in on his investigation for the first time ever, and even though I didn’t outright decline, you can bet your bottom cheating dollars I won’t be taking him up on the offer. “I like the sound of that. We didn’t get much out of Maureen tonight though.”

  “We will. I happen to know she shares Judge Shumaker’s love of banana cake. You bake it and the motives will come.”

  A laugh bubbles from me. “I see what you did there. How about the widow? Mr. Rutherford’s wife was trying to off him. Remember? I’m sensing a theme.”

  Everett steps in dangerously close, a lewd grin twitching on his lips. “We’ll make sure to meet with her as well.”

  “Two suspects? I think our investigation is off to a booming start. Don’t forget Judge Kremer.”

  “Ah, yes”—Everett bows his head toward mine, and every cell in my body is on fire, alive and present—“the disgruntled co-worker.”

  “And Rich Dallas? He was missing during a crucial window of time and miffed at the judge for flirting with my mother. Add another suspect and we just might race this one to the finish line,” I pant out the words just as I hike up on my tiptoes. My God, I think he’s going for a kiss!