Page 61 of She Doesn't Have a Clue
“I wouldn’t know. We were too busy trying to block the window with some old drapes. It was all I could do to get them up, with the wind gusting like it is.” He shook his head, frowning as he looked back over his shoulder.
“What?” Kate asked, sensing his discomfort. “What is it?”
Jake leaned in closer, his voice a ghost in her ear. “Somebody buggered with the wooden frame on the window. On all of them. I checked. The boards were pried apart, the glass hanging loose. That’s why it crashed so easily. Somebody sabotaged the frame.”
Kate’s brows shot up in surprise. “Richie and Steven?”
“They look awfully pleased with themselves up there, don’t they?”
Kate had to agree, the black sheep of the Hempstead family looked very conspiratorial with his partner in crime, smirking around the room at the other guests as Spencer’s cousin droned on. First the generator, then the water line, now the windows in the ceremony room. Not to mention the fire. Had they sabotaged the wiring down here? As a member of the Hempstead clan, Richie would certainly know about the secret passages.
“The, uh, the rings?” Spencer’s cousin/officiant asked loudly, nudging Cassidy. “Anybody got the rings?”
“Oh!” Cassidy said in surprise with a nervous little giggle. “Sorry. I have them right here.”
Cassidy fished around in the pocket of her bridesmaid dress—so convenient, Kate thought, putting pockets on everything these days—and pulled out a small wooden box. Something clinked to the ground as she withdrew her hand, flashing in the glare of a lightning strike, and everyone in the bridal party leaned down to look.
“Cassidy,” Kennedy said, her voice full of confusion. “Is that… mynecklace?”
“Oopsies,” Kate sang sotto voce. When she’d assumed that Kennedy’s dress was the poofiest garment bag, she hadn’t factored in Kennedy’s old Hollywood style. Her dress was smooth satin, nowhere near as decked out in crystal and tulle as Cassidy’s maid-of-honor dress.
Cassidy gasped. “I don’t know where that came from.”
“It came from your pocket,” Juliette said, loud and clear from the other end of the line.
Cassidy shook her head, looking around like she was just catching on to what this might mean for her. “Wait, that’s not… I didn’t take your necklace, Ken, I swear it! I have no idea what that was doing in my pocket. Someone must have planted it there!”
“I thought you said you put it back in Kennedy’s wedding dress,” Jake whispered in Kate’s ear.
“I thought I did,” Kate said out of the side of her mouth, unable to tear her gaze from the drama unfolding at the front of the room. “There were multiple bags. I picked the poofiest one and assumed it was the wedding dress.”
But in Kate’s defense… well, she didn’t really have a defense, did she? The necklace was definitely planted, and she was definitely the one who’d done it.
“Oh my god, I know what this is!” one of Kennedy’s bridesmaids, a friend from college, cried. “Youare the one who’s been trying to mess up Ken’s big day all along! What did you do, put something in the oysters? Make her sick on purpose so you could steal the necklace and hock it to pay off your food truck loans?”
“No, of course not!” Cassidy cried, focusing on Kennedy. “Ken, I would never—never—do anything to hurt you. You’re my… You’re like a sister to me. Really, you don’t even know. Please, this is some huge misunderstanding!”
“Kate, you have to say something,” Jake murmured.
“I know,” Kate said, gnawing at her bottom lip. But did she, really? The only defense she had was the truth, which was the exact same thing Cassidy was claiming right now. And Kate could see how well that was going. If she stood up and said it was her, that she’d planted the necklace, then she’d be the one everybody was yelling at now. And she’d had quite enough of that this weekend, thank you very much.
And there was still the business of Rebecca’s body in the fern upstairs. Someone had killed her, and Kate had seen Cassidy arguing withher aunt the day before. She might not have taken the necklace, but Kate was sure she wasn’t innocent here, either. Really, Kate couldn’t even be sure Cassidy wasn’t the one who’d taken the necklace in the first place. Someone had taken it and planted it among Kate’s things; who was to say it wasn’t Cassidy?
Still, it was hard to watch the woman get raked over the coals about it now.
“Kennedy, please,” Cassidy sobbed. “Just let me explain.”
“I bet this is about the money, isn’t it?” said another of the bridesmaids. “You blame Ken for not backing you up to get access to the inheritance fund!”
Kate winced, and Jake gave her a hard stare. “Kate.”
“Shhh, I can’t hear,” she said, putting a hand over his mouth.
“It’s not a soap opera, Kate!” he said, his voice muted beneath her fingers. His lips did feel nice, though.
“I know,” she hissed. “But this whole scene could force a confession out of Cassidy, and wouldn’t that be in everyone’s best interest? I don’t want to derail them now.”
“If anybody was going to hurt Ken for the money, it wouldn’t be me!” Cassidy said, her voice pitching above the growing noise in the room. “It would be Richie. He’s the one who needs more cash to pay for his addictions!”