I put Erik on speaker. “Where was he?”
“The old Zacharius cabin. Quincey figured we’d be looking for someplace close enough that Henry could easily get to it and back to town, but that was still isolated. He remembered Chief Zacharius’ cabin fitting both those requirements.”
It felt fitting somehow that Quincey had been the one to find Chief McTavish. He’d been on the list of suspects, but this would help clear his name.
“I’ll text you when I know more,” Erik said.
Mark and I went to separate ends of the room to work on writing our vows, while Isabel played with Velma and Toby to give us some peace.
I’d finished my first draft when my phone dinged.
Henry has confessed to everything and is naming names in exchange for some accommodations when he goes to prison. Claims he took his wife’s keys for Mark’s place without her knowledge.
Henry could be lying to protect Bernice, but I preferred to think it was the truth. She’d always seemed like a nice lady. While she likely hadn’t been completely naïve about what her husband had been doing—she’d have known their bank accounts were fatter than they should be—hopefully she had been ignorant of the murders.
Rigman also under arrest as accomplice.
“You were right,” I called to Mark. “About Rigman.”
I flipped the paper I’d been writing my vows on face down, and Mark and Isabel came over. I laid my cell phone down so they could also read the texts as they came in.
He’s claiming he wanted out. That’s why he wanted to leave town. Henry wouldn’t let him go unless he did this last job for him.
The “last job” could have been killing Troy, or it could have been running us off the road. I didn’t feel the need to have Erik specify exactly what role Rigman had played.
All charges against Mark are being dropped.
I turned my face up and smiled at Mark.
He leaned in and stole a kiss. “I guess we get our honeymoon after all,” he whispered.
Our wedding, our honeymoon, and the rest of the life we’d planned.
“Do you have flour and sugar?” Isabel asked.
My brain reeled, trying to make the jump from honeymoon to flour. “I’m not sure.”
Isabel took a sheet of paper off the notepad Mark and I had pulled paper from for our vows. “I’ll pick some up just in case.”
Mark raised an eyebrow at her the way I wished I could.
She grinned. “You two still haven’t picked your cake flavors. I figure we can do two things at once—taste test flavors and celebrate.”
“It’s my honor and great pleasure,” our pastor said, “to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Mark Cavanaugh.”
The recessional music rolled out from the piano, and Ahanti quickly moved the train of my dress aside so I wouldn’t trip on it while Mark and I headed down the aisle. Two more failed attempts with the seamstress had left Mandy up until midnight last night making what alternations she could. The bodice was still a little loose and the hem a little long, but none of that mattered.
Mark and I were finally married.
As we turned to walk about down the aisle, I got a look at all the people who’d come to celebrate with us. We hadn’t separated the church into bride’s side and groom’s side. How could we? So many of the people were here for us both.
Russ sat up front with my parents, in the place I would have given to my Uncle Stan. Erik was with the rest of the Cavanaughs and Elise’s children—who were his children now too.
Tony Rathmell and his wife and little Noah dressed in a tiny tuxedo, Dave and Nancy and all the rest of the Sugarwood staff took over two rows. Across from them were Chief McTavish and his wife and the other Fair Haven police officers, including Grady Scherwin—my last-minute invite. Even Sheila had come.
Liz, my hairdresser, and her little boy, Derek. Clement and Darlene Dodd, Anderson Taylor and the other members of our law firm, the friends I’d made volunteering at the Fair Haven animal shelter and in the lost pets’ group, and so many others filled out the rest of the church.
I’d come to Fair Haven feeling like I’d lost one of the few people in the world who truly cared about me and in the process gained more than I could have imagined. In giving me Sugarwood, Uncle Stan gave me a chance to figure out what I was good at and who I wanted to be. I’d never consider losing him a good thing, but it brought so much good into my life that I knew he’d have been happy for me.
I came to Fair Haven feeling alone.
I wasn’t alone any more.
Want to know how Nicole gets dragged into a murder investigation on her honeymoon? Start reading the next book, Slay Bells Ringing, to find out!
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What we don’t know can hurt us…
The worst way to find out that your boyfriend is already married is to see it on the news. The only way it could be worse than that is if his wife died under suspicious circumstances.
Unfortunately for criminal defense attorney Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes, that’s exactly what happens. Her now ex-boyfriend insists he’s innocent, and he begs Nicole to find out who really killed his wife. She’d like to simply leave him to his fate, but her sense of justice won’t allow it.
