“No. But I should’ve guessed something was seriously wrong. Mimi was such a stickler for doing everything right.” A note of resentment was creeping into Chris’s voice. “I mean, if she said she was going to do something, she did it.”
“That’s for sure,” said Lucy, thinking of her lilacs. Had they gotten a reprieve or had Mimi already set the wheels in motion for their execution?
“If you ask me,” continued Chris, “I think she must’ve pushed somebody too far.”
Lucy was surprised. “I heard her husband was abusive…”
“He’s no peach, that’s for sure, but he wasn’t home that much. They seemed to go their separate ways a lot.” She paused, then continued in a whisper. “I used to see him over at Frankie’s place a lot, especially on the nights Mimi worked. He’d park in his own driveway and hotfoot it through my back yard.”
“Oh.” Lucy was thoughtful. “Maybe Mimi found out and they had a big fight and he lost his temper and stabbed her.”
“She didn’t mind a fight, that’s for sure. You know she reported me to the town for running a home business?”
“You have a home business?”
“Not really. I have a handful of clients from my days as an investment banker, mostly widows who felt they were in good hands with me and didn’t trust anyone else to handle their stocks and bonds. It’s really more of a favor than anything else, I don’t make much money from it, I just felt bad for the old dears. I’d be in big trouble with the bank, though, if they thought I was stealing customers.”
“How did she find out about it? It isn’t like you’ve got a line of old ladies on your front lawn.”
“The postman accidentally delivered my outgoing mail to her box,” said Chris. “She saw my business name on the return address and questioned me when she brought the letters over. Like a fool I told her all about it when I should’ve told her to mind her own business. I finally got so ticked at her I told her about Fred and Frankie and you know what she told me? She said he was repairing her closet doors.” Chris snorted. “Like anybody would believe that! I’ve called, we’ve all called about one thing or another not working and he doesn’t do a thing to help. These houses could fall down and I swear he’d walk right by, insisting it wasn’t his responsibility.”
“What did the zoning board do?” asked Lucy. “About the home business.”
“I don’t know. The meeting is next week,” said Chris.
“I hope it goes well,” said Lucy.
“Me, too,” said Chris.
Lucy was fidgety on the ride over to Sue’s house; she hadn’t exactly been looking forward to the annual Labor Day cookout that had been a shared tradition for the two families ever since she and Sue were young mothers. In those days, it was a potluck affair, and Lucy would bring a big bowl of potato salad along with hot dogs and hamburgers to be cooked on the grill. But now that Sue and her husband Sid were empty-nesters—their only child Sidra was a producer on the “Norah! Show”—Sue liked to do all the cooking herself and experimented with recipes from Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazine.
With nothing to hold in her lap, Lucy found herself nervously kneading her hands together. She tried to tell herself there was nothing to be anxious about, but she knew Sue too well to think that she wouldn’t be getting back at her for supporting Chris’s ideas for the bake sale. She also hoped Sue hadn’t forgotten that Zoe and Sara were coming and hadn’t gone too overboard with the gourmet stuff. The girls, especially Zoe, weren’t adventurous eaters and would turn up their noses at anything unfamiliar. Last year’s gorgonzola hamburgers—and the girls’ reaction—was something Lucy would prefer to forget. The one bright spot, she reminded herself, was the fact that Sue had invited Toby and Molly. Now that the couple had moved in together Lucy didn’t see much of her only son and she was looking forward to catching up with him—and Molly, too, of course.
The young couple was already seated on the Finches’ back deck when Bill and Lucy arrived with the girls. Toby jumped up and gave her a big hug and Lucy marveled all over again that her little seven-pound baby had grown into this handsome six-footer. Even more amazing, thought Lucy as she embraced Molly, was the fact that he’d managed to snag such a genuinely lovely girl. Toby was working on a frosty Sam Adams and Molly was sipping at a Green Apple Martini. Lucy hoped she knew how much alcohol the drink contained and wouldn’t give in to pressure from Sid to have another and another and another. He was justifiably proud of his bartending skills, but tended to forget that not everyone had Sue’s ability to handle booze. Though, from the look of things, Sue had started drinking in advance of the party.
“Well, you’re here at last,” she said, making it sound more like an accusation than a welcome.
“Oh, you know us. We’re never on time,” said Lucy. “Bill tries but it’s hard to get three females out of the house. There’s always somebody who needs a last peek at the mirror.”
“I can see you went all out,” said Sue, checking out Lucy’s white pedal pushers and striped top. “You wore lipstick.”
As usual, Sue was dressed to the nines in a flowing caftan and heeled sandals. Her glossy black hair was combed into a perfect pageboy, she was dramatically made-up with plenty of mascara and dark red lipstick and her manicure was flawless. Lucy didn’t have a clue how she managed to wear all that makeup and still look human; she felt like a clown whenever she experimented with eyeliner or blush.
“As always, you look lovely,” she said, hoping to charm her with flattery.
Sue smiled. “Sid, Lucy and Bill need drinks,” she called, sounding as if she were addressing a hired waiter. She turned to Sara and Zoe. “Girls, there’s soda and snacks in the TV room, and I got the new Hilary Duff video for you.”
Zoe, Lucy was happy to see, made a polite display of enthusiasm but Sara looked disgruntled as she clumped into the house. “She’s at an awkward age,” she told Sue, by way of apology.
“Too old for Hilary Duff?”
“She certainly thinks she is,” said Lucy, taking a sip of the cocktail that had miraculously appeared in her hand. “She thinks R ratings are ridiculously unfair.”
“Talk about ridiculously unfair—I can’t believe you managed to get out of working at the bake sale.”
“I found Mimi’s body,” Lucy reminded her. “It wasn’t exactly a picnic.”
“Oh, right, I forgot,” said Sue, drifting into the kitchen.