A murdered woman and the killer were still here with us. Never mind the ghost. It was the living that had me shaking in my shiny silver high heels. What would we do now? I looked around again, searching the faces to see if I could pick out who had murdered Tabatha. I honestly had no clue.
Suddenly I felt a bit claustrophobic as if the walls were closing in on me. I wanted to get out of the mansion, but I knew that no one was going anywhere. Not even me, the fiancé of the lead detective on the case. I’d found the body so that meant that maybe everyone would point a finger at me. Was Brannon suspicious of me as well? Surely not. I mean, he trusted me. At least I thought he trusted me. He wouldn’t make me his wife if he didn’t trust me, right? How much longer would this go on tonight?
Brannon talked to a wedding guest over by the staircase. Another flash of the woman from years gone by came to my mind. Was she the ghosts I’d seen? The other officers still stood by the front door. I felt kind of like a caged animal in this place. I just wanted out. Perhaps one reason for my feeling claustrophobic was because there were quite a few people crammed into this mansion. Tammy had said the wedding would be small, but it was far from it.
The sound of footsteps coming from upstairs caught my attention. Brannon had stepped away. No one was by the stairs or coming down. The sound had to come from the ghost. Would she make an appearance again? Why couldn’t anyone else see her? Why was I the lucky one? Or was that unlucky?
I glanced over my shoulder one more time into the library to check if the ghost was lingering, but there was no sign of her. And for that I was thankful. Right now, I didn’t need more scares. Just the thought that the killer was around sent cold chills down my spine. I moved back over to the parlor to join Tammy and my mother. Matteo had stepped over to speak to his parents.
Movement in the foyer caught my attention. They brought down the body. Zipped up in a black body bag. Knowing she was in there and remember the expression on her frozen face. My stomach churned and my hands shook. I just couldn’t look at the scene right now. It was too terrifying.
“What’s going on now?” my mother asked.
I released a deep breath. “I think they’re going hold us here until they’ve talked to everybody.”
Tammy stepped over to us. “I can't believe my wedding turned into this. Who would do such a thing? Which one of my guests is the killer?”
“We don’t know it was a guest,” I said.
“If not a guest then who?” Tammy asked.
“Well, there’s…”
She raised an eyebrow. “I’m waiting.”
I looked around to see who was nearby. “The owner of the mansion.”
“With any luck, they’ll find out right away,” I said.
“Do you think the killer is among us?” my mother asked as she side-eyed one of her neighbors.
“Mom, Mrs. Baumgartner. She’s eighty and has severe arthritis. I doubt she killed the wedding planner.”
My mother shrugged. “You never know.”
I hated to answer my mother’s question, but I had to tell her the truth. She always knew when I was lying or leaving out details anyway. Eventually, she’d figure it out. I mean, I couldn’t blame my mother for how she felt. It was like she had a radar to track my lies. She sniffed them out like a bloodhound in a cardigan. I guess I’d helped her hone those skills. When I was a teenager I lied about where I was going and about why I'd missed curfew on more than one occasion. Things were different now. I was an adult. Lying would be for her own good. I didn’t want to scare her or upset her.
“The killer is still here with us, isn’t he?” my mother asked, figuring out the reason for my silence.
“I told you we don’t know that. The police certainly want to talk to everybody. Even with that, I think we're safe to stand right here. No one else is going to be murdered with all these cops around.”
“Never say never,” my mother said.
“One thing is for sure everyone will remember my wedding,” Tammy said.
“You’ll just have to have a do-over.” I tried the trigger Tammy’s optimism.
The scowl on her face let me know it wasn’t working. My mother glanced around the room checking all the faces and looking for a sign of the killer.
“Who do you think did it? Out of all the people here?” my mother asked with a tilt of her head
“I don’t think you can tell who the killer is just based on reading body language. We have nothing else to go on either. No one here exactly looks like any of the scary movie characters. Everyone was dressed in suits and dresses. Their finest attire.
“Well, sometimes they probably have a look of guilt on their face,” my mother said, gesturing toward her face.
I shook my head. “Mom! It’s dark in here. All we can see are the shadows over everyone’s faces from either their phones or the candles. I don’t think we can detect any guilt from those means.”
“It doesn’t hurt to try,” she said.
“I don’t think Brannon would appreciate if we play detective,” I said.
My mother scoffed. “Oh, please. We know that you’re already snooping around thinking about how to hunt down the killer. He knows that you’re going to meddle into this investigation.”
“That’s not true. I’m staying totally out of it.” I waved my hand.
My mother raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”
“Completely,” I said. “Okay, not completely.”
As I said before, I couldn’t lie to my mother. She’d find out. Plus, now I realized it wasn’t good to lie to my mother. She’d never let me hear the end of it.
“Anyway, if something happens to come along and I stumble on the killer’s identity then I’m certainly not going to turn it away.”
“But you’re not going to actively look for the killer?” Tammy asked.
“No, of course not,” I said. “Okay, maybe I will, but we just can’t tell Brannon because he won’t like it.”
“No, he certainly would not,” Tammy said.
“I don’t think I like it much either,” my mother said. “I mean, this is dangerous, Rip. And there’s a killer around here. I don’t want you to be his next victim. I couldn’t go on if something happened to you.” My mother’s brown curls bounced as she shook her head.
“Nothing’s going to happen to me,” I said, trying to sound confident. “Everything’s perfectly fine. I’m sure Brannon will figure this out soon anyway. Probably before the night’s over.”
“I certainly hope so,” my mother said around a sigh.
I felt terrible that Tammy’s wedding had been ruined, but I was sure that we’d be able to figure out an alternative soon. In the meantime, we needed to get out of this mansion.
As I stood with my mother and Tammy, I scanned around the room at the anxious faces. Even with the shadows cast across their faces, I did as I had told my mother not to do and searched for the killer. Contrary to her claim and as I suspected, no one had a suspicious look on their face.
However, moments later someone caught my attention. Standing in the corner, a tall, thin dark-haired woman acted kind of strange. Standing in her four-inch black heels, she shifted from one foot to the other. It was almost as if she wanted to sprint out of the room at any moment. She wore a black cocktail dress as if this was a funeral. I wondered who she was. How would I find out?