Dedication to murder, p.1
Dedication to Murder, page 1
A QUESTION OF MURDER
“Okay.” Marc nodded in resignation. “I’ll behave, because the killer has to be someone in these pictures, which means there must be something. . . a hint, a clue, as to what is about to take place. And we need to keep looking until we find it. The longer a murderer goes free the more likely they are to get away with it or—”
“Kill again?”
“Exactly, and since we don’t have a motive and a sweet old lady is dead, we don’t know what we’re dealing with.” He sat back; his unblinking eyes gazed past Addie at the sidewall. “Of course, it could mean the poison must have been in the cup before she drank from it.”
“But look at all these pictures. It appears as though she used the same teacup all afternoon and as far as all these photos and videos show, no one but her, Laurel, or Catherine refilled it.”
Marc regarded Addie and he slightly shifted on the sofa beside her. “There is one other possibility that we haven’t considered yet.”
“Which is?”
“She took the poison herself . . .”
Books by Lauren Elliott
Beyond the Page Bookstore Mysteries
MURDER BY THE BOOK
PROLOGUE TO MURDER
MURDER IN THE FIRST EDITION
PROOF OF MURDER
A PAGE MARKED FOR MURDER
UNDER THE COVER OF MURDER
TO THE TOME OF MURDER
A MARGIN FOR MURDER
DEDICATION TO MURDER
Crystals & CuriosiTEAS Mysteries
STEEPED IN SECRETS
Published by Kensington Publishing Corp.
DEDICATION to MURDER
Lauren Elliott
Kensington Publishing Corp.
www.kensingtonbooks.com
Table of Contents
A QUESTION OF MURDER
Also by
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2023 by Lauren Elliott
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
The K and Teapot logo is a trademark of Kensington Publishing Corp.
ISBN: 978-1-4967-3514-0
ISBN: 978-1-4967-3518-8 (ebook)
Chapter 1
Addie Greyborne turned the key and jiggled the front door of Beyond the Page Books and Curios to double-check it was secured tightly. She stared in disbelief at the CLOSED sign she’d hung in the door window before leaving. Never in all her years as the owner, did she think her bookshop would be closed on a Saturday, one of Greyborne Harbor, Massachusetts’, busiest shopping days of the week.
“Did you find it?” called her best friend and local tea merchant, Serena Ludlow.
Addie waved the small brown stuffed bear in the air and grinned.
“Good, now pick up that dress, and don’t you dare get the train or the hem grimy! You’re already late for your own wedding, so let’s get a move on,” Serena hollered through the open back door of the awaiting white limousine.
“Sorry,” panted Addie, maneuvering herself and the floaty tulle skirt of her ball gown styled wedding dress into the back seat. “I just couldn’t let Catherine go through her first night of dog sitting, with Pippi not having her little buddy Baxter with her. Been there, done that—Pippi would cry all night and Catherine would hate me forever.”
“I know, I know, you don’t want to take the chance that Miss Catherine will never speak to you again, because you know as well as I do that you couldn’t run your bookstore without her and Paige’s help, but really, was all this necessary right now, on our way to the church?” Serena said, finally getting Addie and her ivory wedding gown into the back seat.
“Yes it was, and not just for Catherine but for poor little Pippi. She’s going to be so confused by me disappearing for three weeks as it is,” Addie puffed, sorting out the sparkly beaded border at the hemline of her dress. “And since you made a point of calling her Miss Catherine, if my hunch is right, I don’t think she’ll be Miss Catherine Lewis much longer. I have a feeling the next wedding invitations we receive will be announcing the marriage of her and Felix Vanguard, and we can go through all this again.” Addie grinned. “Fun, hey?”
“Yeah, so much fun,” Serena said, shaking her head with disbelief. “But after all these years of being single, I really can’t see her getting married at this stage in her life.”
“I can, and she deserves to find happiness too. I mean, you’ve seen them together. They’re like two love struck teenagers.”
“Well,” Serena huffed, smoothing out Addie’s skirt. “We’ll worry about their wedding if it happens. Right now I’m only worried about yours, so let’s get a move on.”
“Okay, okay.” Addie laughed and reached over to pull the door closed.
“Whatever you do, don’t catch the hem in the door,” screeched Serena. “It’s bad enough that Simon’s probably standing at the altar right now thinking you’re a runaway bride, let alone having to have your cousin Kalea re-sew the skirt and delaying the service even longer.”
“We’re not late.”
“Pretty close, and I wish you’d have let me go to the bookstore to look for that stuffed bear this morning like I wanted. You know, before we got you dressed in your gown.”
Addie struggled to draw in a deep breath. As much as she loved the fitted bodice when she was standing, sitting was a different matter as it confined her ribs and her ability to breathe.
Serena took one look at her face and pinned her fingers under Addie’s arms. “You’re lucky you picked June to get married in and not December, or you’d freeze in this sweetheart neckline.” She gave a tug up. “There, that should keep the girls in place now,” she said as she fluffed out the full skirt that cascaded around Addie’s lace appliqué ivory shoes. “Perfect.”
It would be perfect if the placement of the girls were the issue. Addie fidgeted in her seat, leaned her elbow on the armrest, extended her corset encased upper body as far up as her spine would allow, and sucked in a much-needed breath. “I would have let you go in,” she managed to wheeze, “and look for it, except I couldn’t remember where Baxter was.”
“I’ve got eyes too. I could have looked around just as well as you, and not taken a chance of ruining the most perfect gown in the world,” Serena added, her tone clearly showing her disapproval over Addie’s actions. “Now let me see your hair.” Serena pulled back, scanning Addie’s appearance, grinned, and sighed. “You are the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen. Now here, let me fasten the veil so when we get to the church you just have to march through the door and straight up the aisle.”
Addie fidgeted with the veil Serena pinned to her hair. “This knotted braid at the back doesn’t look too old-fashioned, does it?” Addie asked, trying to glimpse her reflection in the side window.
“No, my friend.” Serena approvingly gazed at her. “The knotted braid, along with the golden highlights you had put into your natural honey-brown hair, make you look so regal with that veil. It’s all perfect.” She sniffed.
“Now don’t you start crying, you’ll make me cry too and ruin my makeup. Simon will think he’s marrying a raccoon instead.”
“I can’t help it.” Serena dabbed a tissue at her damp eyes. “You’re beautiful and Simon is a lucky man, raccoon eyes and all.”
When they finally arrived at the church and managed to get inside without mishap, Serena peeked through the door from the foyer into the sanctuary. “Oh no!” she exclaimed.
“What’s wrong?” A wave of panic coursed through Addie.
“My brother brought Ryley Brookes as his plus-one and she’s holding my little Oliver!”
“Is that all?” Addie patted her chest as she peeked out into the sanctuary. “Oh, he looks so cute in his little tuxedo, and just look at little Addis on. She’s such a doll. Well, she will be when your mother can get her hair barrette to stay in place,” Addie said with a soft laugh.
“Geez, look at the expression on Ollie’s little face. He knows a witch when he sees one. I give it about ten seconds until Ryley hands him to Marc, because I don’t think kids are really her thing. One, two, three . . .”
In that moment, little Ollie grabbed a handful of Ryley’s dark, short-bobbed hair and gave a yank. “Ouch.” Addie winced and said, laughing, “That wasn’t even ten seconds.”
“I know, and I hope Marc figures her out pretty fast. Knowing how much his life has changed since becoming the doting uncle, I wonder why she even agreed to be his date today.”
“Perhaps now that she’s the police chief in Salem, they’ve found they are on a more equal footing and have decided to give their relationship another try?” Addie steadied her voice, noting the difference in how Marc responded to the wiggling one-year-old in his arms and how Ryley’s face told her she wanted to get as far away from the scene as she could. “I don’t think you have much to worry about,” said Addie, stepping back and smoothing her veil. “Judging by what I see, I doubt Marc could ever truly be happy with the likes of Ryley Brookes.”
“It doesn’t appear that way to me. I think that now that you’re getting married to someone else, he knows this is ultimately the end of any fantasies he’s had about you and him getting back together. She feels free to dig her claws into him again without worrying he’ll want to, or be able to go running back to you,” Serena said smugly.
“That was never on the table and you know it, and as far as him being with Ryley—well . . . you know what Emily Dickinson wrote, ‘The heart wants what it wants,’ even if little sisters don’t get it.”
“I don’t remember that last part in the quote.”
“I added it because clearly Marc sees something in her to make giving it another try worthwhile, even if you don’t agree with him.”
A piano and cello rendition of the Perri and David Hodges song “A Thousand Years” began playing and Serena’s dad, Wade Chandler, stepped in beside Addie. “Are you ready?”
She looked up into his reassuring eyes and nodded.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered, linking his left arm through her right one. “And thank you for allowing me the honor of walking you down the aisle today.”
A smiling Catherine slid up to them and took her place on Addie’s left. “Me too,” Catherine whispered, leaning into her. “You have no idea how much this means to me.” She gave Addie’s arm a slight squeeze.
Addie could see through her own tear-blurred eyes that Catherine and Wade’s weren’t any drier than hers as they all sniffled. These two people meant the world to her. Since her own father had passed, Wade had taken her under his wing without reservation, and treated Addie like another daughter since she and Serena had become friends. And Catherine—well, if it hadn’t been for Addie’s grandmother’s interference after Addie’s mother died when she wasn’t much more than a toddler, Catherine would have ended up as Addie’s stepmother back then. In Addie’s mind, there were no two people she would rather have had walk her down the aisle toward her new future.
Serena pulled three tissues out of the hidden pocket in her Caribbean-green, floor-length bridesmaid dress. “Now stop it or we’ll all end up bawling our eyes out as we walk up the aisle.” She sniffed and tugged another tissue out and wiped her nose, and glanced at Paige Stringer, Addie’s assistant bookstore manager, and Addie’s cousin Kalea Hudson as they took their places in the front of the procession line. “Do you guys need one too?”
Paige shook her head of blond free-flowing curls and gestured to the tissue she already had clutched in her hand that held her bridesmaid bouquet, and Kalea just shook her upswept, auburn head of hair, and smiled stoically.
“Ready?” asked Wade again.
Addie nodded at Serena, who had moved to the front of the procession and she gave a soft tap on the closed doors. In perfect unison, the ushers, two of Simon’s coworkers from the hospital, opened the double doors into the sanctuary. When all the guests turned toward the entering wedding party, it struck Addie that this was really about to happen.
Her knees wobbled. Her heart raced, and she struggled to fill her lungs when Paige, Kalea, and Serena, her maid of honor, started down the aisle. Wade placed his right hand on their linked arms and urged Addie to follow. Catherine gave her hand a light squeeze, as they stepped into the sanctuary behind her bridesmaids.
It occurred to Addie in that moment why it had become common practice for both parents to escort the bride down the aisle: It was to keep her from running away—because that’s exactly what her initial reaction was. Then she remembered what Serena said she did at her wedding. How the only way she had managed to make it through the aisle walk to the altar on her big day, was to block out every other face and focus on Zach, and him only, because this was their day; no one else mattered but the two of them.
Addie clung to her friend’s words as her eyes darted from one face to the other while she frantically searched for Simon by the altar. When she caught sight of him, she fixed her gaze and took the next step. Her only thought now, was of the man who made her believe the world could be a better place. When she was with him, he made her believe in Camelot and other fairy tales; and at the end of her long walk down the aisle, she’d be met by her Arthur. Or, was Simon her Lancelot? She really didn’t care. Addie only knew that the dream she had shared long ago with her dearly departed David was about to become a reality with the only other man she’d truly loved since him, and this was her fairy-tale princess bride moment at long last.
Through her tears she took her place at the front of the church. Her head was spinning; her heart ready to leap out of her chest. This was finally happening, and in a few minutes the man she loved like no other was about to become her husband. The minister’s words faded in and out in Addie’s mind, and as Simon smiled and took her hands in his, she wasn’t even certain if the vows she recited were the ones she’d written, or some semblance of incoherent rambling, but since no one snickered or laughed, she figured she had pulled it off as written and rehearsed.
When they kneeled on the plush bench to each light a candle that represented them being separate, which the minister would then use the flames of each to light a third candle, representing the marriage union, she let out a soft gasp as a wave of panic surged through her. Simon gave her a curious side glance. She forced a smile, but her mind reeled. The soles of her shoes were now in clear view of everyone. Had she remembered to take the price sticker off the bottom?
The rest of the ceremony went by in a blur because all she could think about was the bright red SALE sticker flashing like a neon sign to her guests. When the minister looked out at the congregation and asked, “If anyone has an objection to this union, speak now or forever hold your peace,” she knew it was nearly time for him to say—I now pronounce you husband and wife—and bubbles of excitement raced through her. It was almost over. Simon and she would be married, and she could finally check her shoes and put her mind at ease . . . but her sense of relief didn’t last long. A crashing sound came from the back of the church, and the double-wide doors flew open.
“Stop, stop the wedding,” yelled a petite, gray-haired woman as she hustled down the aisle waving a file folder; an attractive, younger, dark-haired woman was close on her heels.
“Laurel? Laurel Hill, is that you?” Simon gasped staring wide-eyed at the younger woman as he took a step down from the raised altar platform.
Addie looked at Simon. “What’s going on? What’re Pippi’s veterinarian, Doctor Hill, and her aunt Valerie doing?”
“You mean this Laurel Hill is your new veterinarian?” He looked questioningly at Addie. “And Valerie Price, the woman you met in Pen Hollow last year, is her aunt?”
