Daisies and Destruction

In the midst of ‘sort of’ planning a wedding and helping Nellie Smith, Port Danby’s mayor, figure out what is wrong with Marty Tate, the town’s beloved lighthouse keeper, Lacey gets pulled into her favorite pastime—solving a murder. While two neighbors engage in a well-publicized feud about a new oversized barn, one of them winds up dead. Was it the enraged neighbor? Lacey soon discovers the victim has more than one enemy and there are plenty of motives to go around.

“I do. There. Now picture us on a breezy beach in front of turquoise blue water surrounded by ivory sand and a few curious gulls. I'm wearing a pretty but not too frilly satiny dress and James is dressed semi formal but with just enough wind in his hair to not look fussy. It'll be as if you were right there witnessing it all in person." I pushed the pink rose into the vase and glanced up to check reactions. Elsie did not look the least bit convinced, and Lola, who had been gnawing on a red licorice whip with the veracity of a dog chewing a rawhide, let the red candy dangle from her lips. Her teeth had stopped working their way along the piece of leathery licorice.

Lola blinked at me several times before yanking the licorice free from her mouth. My fickle pet crow had, of course, flown over to the counter to sit next to the woman he adored, but he was now more interested in the licorice dangling from her fingers. "You can't possibly be serious about this elopement idea." Lola waved her hand dismissively. "It's just a phase," she told Elsie confidently as if she was some sort of psychologist assuring a nervous parent that their child's crayon eating habit was nothing to worry about. "She'll come to her senses soon. Ryder and I toyed with the idea of eloping too, but we eventually realized it was a big mistake that would carry with it a lot of regret." Now she was talking to Elsie, her coconspirator in the push for a big wedding, as if I, the actual bride-to-be, wasn't in the room.

Elsie fell right in along with it and nodded in agreement. "I think everyone considers that option at least once during the wedding planning. It's such a monumental task to plan a big wedding. It scares people off. In a few weeks, she'll be coming to me ready to taste cake samples." Elsie tapped her chin with her forefinger. "I'm sure she'll go straight to the chocolate cake notion, but I'm thinking something a little more exotic like browned butter and caramel or possibly even something citrusy, mandarin orange with a vanilla butter cream."

"Since you two have this imaginary wedding well in hand, I'll continue with my work." I shook my head and laughed to myself as I carried the vase of roses to the cooler.

Briggs and I had given it a lot of thought. Neither of us wanted a big wedding. The idea of eloping and getting married on a beach in Hawaii sounded so romantic we'd both fallen in love with the idea... much to the dismay of my two best friends and my mom. Dad was game for the elopement. Anything that helped him avoid wearing a suit and tie and kept him from having to shell out gobs of money was all right in his book.

Lola and Elsie were still chattering away about possible venues, music choices and their bridesmaid dresses. That alone should have made them pleased as punch about the elopement. After all, what woman didn't have at least one taffeta dress that only saw the light of day at a friend's wedding before retiring to the back of a closet for the rest of eternity.

The bell rang as I slid shut the cooler door. Ryder was out on delivery, so I was alone at the counter for the morning. I hurried out to meet the customer and was instantly pleased to find that the town mayor, Nellie Smith, had walked in. I'd had some hand in helping Nellie win the election for Port Danby Mayor, and I patted myself on the back more than once for it. Nellie had turned out to be a fair, honest and hardworking mayor. This morning her silvery white hair was swept up in a few shiny clips, and her softly wrinkled face crinkled with a smile.

I raced forward for a hug. "Nellie, what a nice surprise."

"Nellie," Lola started almost immediately, "maybe you can talk some sense into this woman." Her serious tone didn't really match the straw fedora and Pink Floyd t-shirt she was wearing but then most of us wouldn't recognize Lola without them. "She's planning to elope, but Elsie and I just aren't having it."

I looked toward Nellie for some support, but it seemed I wasn't going to get any.

"Oh, what a shame," Nellie said. "I was so looking forward to seeing you two get married."

Lola and Elsie both crossed their arms and grinned smugly at me.