28. Lottie

LOTTIE

“ T o Suze, ” Noah begins to read that ragtag letter Suze received as Everett, Carlotta, Petey, and I gather around Suze right here in the conservatory among the mountain of baby gifts, from cribs to diaper bins, to those modesty scarves that Francine knitted in just about every shade of pastel. The room is still littered with plates and cups left over from the party, along with glitter, confetti, and a trail of baby blue bobby pins scattered across the floor.

“ Do I have to teach you a lesson, too? ” Noah continues. “ Didn’t you learn anything from Ursula? How dare she try to steal my husband! She is a witch, and she deserves to burn in the hottest portal of the hot place downstairs! She kept telling everyone who would listen that her husband was a bore, and that’s why she couldn’t stop herself from looking at other men. Well, I have news—she might have been a homewrecker, but she wasn’t about to wreck mine. I made sure she’d never steal another man again. And I’m getting ready to do the same to you, Suze. If I were you, I’d leave Honey Hollow and go very far away. ”

A stunned silence fills the room as we all take in the gravity of the words. This isn’t just a letter, it’s a threat —one that carries the weight of deadly intentions, and deadly intentions already carried out.

Everett shakes his head as he glowers at the letter. “We need to find out who wrote this. Suze, where did you find it?”

“It was in my purse.” She shrugs. “I could have unwittingly collected it anywhere. As soon as I stepped into the B&B, I reached in to find my keycard and found this folded in my bag instead.”

“Where were you today?” I ask as my adrenaline begins to surge because I’m very well aware of one place she was.

“The bakery, of course,” she snips my way while her bangs flicker in her eyes and she tries to blink them away. “Then I stopped by the library book sale. I heard there was a festival out in Hollyhock, so I stopped by there, too, and picked up some funnel cake.”

“She’s no fool,” Carlotta grouses before giving me the stink eye. “No thanks to you, Petey and I had to abandon ship halfway through our very first bite. You owe us both some serious funnel cake.”

“Duly noted,” I say. “Suze, you went around the world today. That note could have come from anywhere.”

“It’s very specific, though.” Everett tips his head as he examines it again.

Noah nods. “Whoever put this together was convinced that Ursula was after her husband.”

“Or they want us to believe that,” I point out.

“Thank you for defending Ursula’s honor,” Petey says, sounding a bit exhausted by having to defend it himself.

“From what we’ve heard, Ursula was no saint,” I say while wincing his way. “Wait a minute.” I look back at the note. “ She is a witch, and she deserves to burn in the hottest portal of the hot place downstairs, ” I read again. “Why, this sounds as if?—”

“Francine wrote it,” Carlotta shouts so loud her words reverberate off the walls. “Francine always refers to the hot place as being downstairs. My guess is because that’s where she comes from.”

“Francine?” Noah stares at the note, baffled.

“She did have a motive,” I say. “Agatha told me that Francine found out that Ursula was after her husband.”

Carlotta growls, most likely because Mark never took her bait as she mentioned earlier.

“That’s what I heard,” I say. “Agatha Reed said that Ursula went to Mark’s place to pick up some wood carvings for her restaurant over a year ago. That’s where she met both Francine and Mark. She took on Francine to do some seasonal work at the restaurant and?—”

“She took on Mark to do some salacious work in the bedroom.” Carlotta slaps her knee as if it were the funniest thing in the world.

“We don’t know what happened,” I say. “Besides, it’s nothing to laugh at. Francine and Mark have a family—a supersized one at that. If Ursula was trying to upset the apple cart, then she really was a witch.”

Petey sighs. “But like Ursula always said, it takes two to tango.”

“And there’s that.” I glance at the stack of baby blankets with their matching modesty scarves, all meticulously knitted by Francine’s own hand. “Wait a minute. Francine knit the very scarf that Ursula was strangled with.”

“Oh, she’s going to strangle me, Noah!” Suze warbles it out with fear. “Do something, would you?”

I lift a finger. “And there were several baby blue bobby pins found around Ursula’s body. Francine had an entire army of baby blue bobby pins in her hair that day.” I point to a few on the floor.

“Ursula was a hussy.” Suze rolls her eyes. “I can hardly blame Francine for wanting her dead. But me? I’m not interested in Mark in the slightest. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I spoke with the man.”

“Orson did say that trying to contain Ursula was like trying to put out a fire engulfing a stick of dynamite,” I point out. “He knew she was trouble. Even her own best friend couldn’t deny the fact Ursula had an insatiable appetite when it came to men.”

“Okay”—Everett rumbles—“we’ve got enough to put Francine at the top of the suspect list.” He turns to Suze and pins her with a stare. “Tell us everything you know about the Fletcher Hotel. Whatever you’re a part of is endangering my family, and I do not take kindly to people who do that.”

A breath hitches in my throat as I lean his way. “Did you just threaten Suze?”

My entire body enlivens at the thought and a prickle of delight runs from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes. Everett doesn’t say a word. He simply continues to stare the woman down.

“Oh my word, I’ve never been so turned on by my husband,” I say a stitch too loud. “I need to pull him into a dark corner, stat.”

“Lottie.” Noah cringes as he looks my way. “Let’s try to focus on the task at hand.”

“Tell that to my raging hormones,” I shoot back.

He shrugs. “Stop by my place. I’ll see what I can do. But then again, you know exactly what I can do.” His brows bounce as he says it and my mind races with a thousand hot and heavy memories, each and every one of them more searing than the last.

I clear my throat. “Boy, is it getting hot in here.”

“ Speak ,” Everett barks at Suze and a tremor rides through me.

Things really are heating up in here.

“Watch out, Petey,” Carlotta says while taking a step away from me. “I think she’s going to blow!”

“I am not going to blow,” Suze huffs as she eyes the exit. Suze thinks everything is about her, so no one in the room is surprised that she hijacked the barb Carlotta was slinging my way. “I think it’s my bedtime.” She zips out of the room so fast you’d think Noah was ready to cuff her for both murders.

“Mom.” Noah jogs after her but to no avail. He looks back our way. “I’ll take care of this in the morning. She can use a good night’s rest.”

Everett shakes his head. “Hear that, Lemon? In this town, justice can wait, so long as everyone is getting a good night’s rest.” He wraps an arm around my waist—or what’s left of my waist. “Let’s go home and take care of that craving you’re having.” His lips curve just enough to be dangerous—and to let me know we won’t be getting a whole lot of rest tonight.

“Good idea,” Petey says as he floats toward the door. “I think I’ll head back to the Winter Festival and take care of my own cravings. I’ll be sure to hit the chicken pot pie before I venture to the funnel cake. Ursula always said I needed to finish my dinner before I had dessert. Of course, back then dessert was a bucket of mackerel heads. Death has made just about everything more delicious.”

“I can’t wait,” Carlotta says, patting her belly. “What am I saying? I don’t want to be dead. I want to eat all the funnel cake I can handle and then finish the night with some Harry pie.”

“ Eww . That sounds disgusting,” I say as the two of them take off and my mother shows up and hands Lyla Nell to Noah.

“I’ll get her home, Lot,” Noah says as they head out of the conservatory.

“And I’ll go pull up your car,” Everett says as he steps out.

Since he drove to Hollyhock with Noah, he drove my car here. His driving was a bit more NASCAR than I care for, but then we raced over in the event Suze was about to have the life snuffed out of her.

Why in the world won’t she tell us what she knows about the Fletcher Hotel and that illegal gambling room?

“Would you look at all this stuff?” Mom waves a hand around at all of the baby whoozits and whatzits. “I think the gifts have multiplied twice since the shower. But just two more days and all of this will find a home where it belongs.”

Who is Suze protecting? And why?

“Lottie?” Mom waves a hand over my face. “Oh, you’re exhausted.”

Whatever is happening at the Fletcher Hotel is at the heart of all of this, and it’s happening in one of those penthouse event rooms.

The event rooms!

Of course! There’s an empty event room right next to that sleazy den of sin.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m exhausted,” I say as a surge of adrenaline hits me. “In fact, I just had a thought regarding the shower.” I nod her way. “We’re not going to be hosting it here. There’s been a change of plans.”