Page 65 of She Doesn't Have a Clue
“Quit stalling,” Juliette murmured.
Kate sighed, moving toward a thick fringe of fern leaves and closing her eyes against the sight of poor dead Aunt Rebecca. “This is where we found her.”
There was a solitary gasp, then a long, surprising silence. Kate cracked an eye to catch the rest of the bridal party looking at her expectantly. Kate thought it was rather underwhelming, all things considered.
“There’s nothing there,” Cassidy said finally.
Kate frowned, realizing she hadn’t bothered to actually check for the body before revealing the body, and turned to the frond. Sure enough, there was nothing there, just a pot of soil and a few wilted leaves.
“Somebody moved her!” Kate said, and that got her a few gasps of shock, which was, frankly, more like it.
“Kate,” Jake said from across the room, drawing all eyes to him. He looked almost pained to say it, but continued, “she’s over here.”
“Oh,” Kate said, deflating. She’d picked the wrong fern.
Jake swept back the fronds of a tree closer to the false wall—which was obviously the right spot, now that she was actually paying attention to the room—and there was poor Aunt Rebecca. She looked a little grayer, a little stiffer, and a whole lot deader.
“Oh, Aunt Rebecca!” Kennedy cried, turning to Spencer and burying her face in his shoulder as sobs hiccupped out of her.
“This will require a great deal of paperwork,” Steven said with a sigh.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Cassidy demanded, looking just as upset. But Kate wondered if she was upset for a different reason. After all, she’d only recently been accused of potentially poisoning Kennedy. “You just left her there to rot in the fern. Who does that?”
“Some of us could have been planning new inheritance requests now that the witch is dead,” Richie said.
“Richard,” Cassidy said, so severely he immediately clammed up.
“You don’t have to call me Richard,” he muttered sullenly, turning away. “You sound just like her.”
“I wasn’t leaving her there to rot!” Kate protested. “I—we—left her there because…” Oh boy, here it came. The really big reveal. “Because someone murdered her.”
Kennedy buried her face deeper in Spencer’s shoulder as Richie sidled up and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, cuz, it’ll be okay,” he said, patting her awkwardly. “What you should really focus on right now is getting all the paperwork squared away so we can talk numbers and timelines for the November inheritance request meeting.”
“There’s a great deal of work to be done before then,” Steven said, giving Richie a reproachful look. “Like talking about allocation of assets, for one. Including Hempstead Manor and the surrounding lands.”
“Oh my god, not the resort business already,” Richie said, rolling his eyes. “She’s barely cold, Steve.”
“And these matters need attendance,” Steven said, his brows falling into a severe line.
“Both of you should be ashamed,” Cassidy said, crossing her arms and staring them down. “Poor Ken has just had her wedding ruined and lost our aunt, and all you can talk about is money.”
“Oh, like you wouldn’t take a piece of the pie if you could,” Richie said, rolling his eyes. “Don’t act like you didn’t come here to beg Aunt Rebecca to let you back in the will so you could make your inheritance claim. We all know about your massive business loans. Honestly, a food truck that only serves hush puppies? What the hell were you thinking?”
“They were sweet and savory,” Cassidy said hotly. “They covered the full umami spectrum! And that’s not why I’m here this weekend. I came because I love Kennedy, and I wanted to be here for her.”
Except Kate knew that wasn’t true, because she’d seen Cassidy arguing with Rebecca. She’d seen Rebecca slap Cassidy, and now more thanever, Kate wondered what it was Cassidy had said to elicit such a reaction from her aunt. And how she might have retaliated.
“Awfully convenient for you now, isn’t it?” Richie muttered. “With the she-beast out of the way and the family fund still in the family. Kennedy will definitely let you back in the will.”
“I don’t need to be let back in the will,” Cassidy ground out.
Why didn’t she need to be let back in the will?Kate wondered. Unless her debts magically disappeared, which Kate knew from her own college experience was not possible. Most people she knew would be paying off student loans until they croaked. Kate had paid her loans down to a manageable lump, thanks to Loretta’s royalties, but she couldn’t imagine what kinds of debt Cassidy had, going to a private culinary academy. Even Marla sometimes complained about the cost of her master’s degree, and what it had really done for her in comparison.
Richie and Steven might have been her best suspects for Aunt Rebecca’s death, but Cassidy had just jumped up to the top of her list. She had means, motive, opportunity, and she seemed awfully confident about not needing to be let back in the will. What did she know about the Hempstead inheritance and her place in it, now that Rebecca was out of the picture?
“Oh please, we all know Uncle Alexi cut you off when your mom died,” Richie said, waving a hand. “You made a big enough show about it when you got here.”
“That’s not what I was doing,” Cassidy said, her voice getting thick. “And he didn’t cut me off. He told me…”