Nate, there were no potential daddies who’d been in Buttons & Bows, and the sheriff thought one of the people in my shop that day had stolen cording that had been used to strangle Nell. Problem with that was I still hadn’t found hide nor hair of a single piece of cording, braiding, or any other trim that would make that odd pattern on Nell’s neck.
I’d been so sure Nate was guilty that I hadn’t given much thought to any other possibilities, not really, but now... “You can let it go,” Will had said when he doctored my cuts a second time.
I’d pushed my glasses to the top of my head and rubbed my eyes. “But what if—”
“No what ifs. It doesn’t matter what Nate’s up to with the company. He didn’t have anything to do with Nell’s murder. He’s in the clear. You just need to finish the dresses. You didn’t promise Josie anything else.”
I realized he was right, of course, but sitting on the front porch with a piece of leftover fried chicken, courtesy of Nana, and a glass of ice-cold lemonade, I couldn’t stop worrying that Josie was stepping into a hornet’s nest and if she wasn’t careful, she was going to get stung, but bad.
I looked at my watch. 11:15. Two hours, forty-five minutes. Finally, the gate in the arbor creaked open and Miriam trudged through, the glimpse of peace she’d shown yesterday all but gone. Now she looked as though the weight of the world was on her shoulders. Dark circles and the Dallas Cowboys ball cap on her head spoke loud and clear. She’d gotten less sleep than I had, not a good look for the maid of honor of the biggest social event Hood County had seen in a dozen years.
The latch reengaged with a loud click. “Hey,” I called, waving the chicken leg I’d just taken a bite of.
“Hi,” she said absently, glancing at the spot amid the bluebonnets where Nell had been found.
“Isn’t it hard looking at the yard, knowing someone died right there?” she asked as she came up the porch steps. “Do you think you’ll ever be able to look at it the same way?”
I’d asked myself that very question a hundred times since that night. “Hard” didn’t even begin to describe the spectrum of emotions I had experienced. “No, I don’t think I will,” I said, putting the chicken down, my appetite gone.
She needed to get into her dress, anyway. I still had a few things to finish, but until she tried it on, I couldn’t wrap it up.
Just as I started to stand up, she sat in the chair next to me. “We should get started,” I said, but then I lowered myself back down.
She rocked slowly, to and fro, to and fro, lost in her thoughts. “I used to think death was about the person dying and how they felt,” she said after a stretch of silence.
I settled against the back of the chair and fell into rhythm with her. “And now?”
“Now I think it’s more about the people left behind. I think if you believe there’s something more than what’s here, the moment death comes, you’ll be at peace. But it’s the rest of us, the ones left behind who have to deal with our grief . . .
What an odd question. I hoped I made a big enough mark on the world and the people in my life that they’d take joy in remembering me. “Do you want to forget her?”
Her only answer for a few seconds was the creaking of her chair. “No.”
“The fact that she was in our lives means that she had an impact on us. Even on me, and I barely knew her.” Her gaze stayed glued to the thatch of bluebonnets. “I’m going to put a fountain there,” I said. “In memory of Nell.”
She nodded, fighting the tears glistening in her eyes. “That’ll . . . that’ll be real nice,” she said.
Will had told me to leave it alone, but one thing had been bothering me since meeting with the sheriff. I hadn’t been able to get her alone during the final bridesmaid fitting, but now was my chance. “Miriam, when did your dad get back home?”
She wiped away a rogue tear with the back of her hand and considered my question. “Friday.”
“That’s what I thought, but I heard your mom say no one was allowed to drive his car except him. But didn’t y’all come here in the Lincoln?”
She grimaced. “My mother’s not allowed to drive his car,” she said, “and neither am I. But the boys are.”
Ah, the male chauvinist good-ol’-boy thing. “So Nate was—”
“No,” she interrupted, shaking her head. “Nate had his own car. He had some meeting to go to. Derek drove us.”
She started rocking again. “He and my dad both go back and forth. Home for a month, then back to the Ivory Coast or wherever it is they go. Derek’s been home for four or five weeks now—”
“—and it’s been a nightmare. Ever since—” She stopped and gnawed at the corner of her fingernail and snuck a glance at me. “All they do is fight. They can’t hardly stand to be in the same room with each other.”
I stopped rocking, trying to sort everything out. “Miriam, you just said Derek drove ‘us.’ Were you there? Did you come into my shop that day?”
“Only for a minute. I waited in the car.”
“You know Nate has an alibi. When Nell was killed, he was on a trip somewhere.”
She sighed and allowed herself a small smile, the first one I’d seen from her since I’d been back in Bliss. “South Texas. I heard. I . . . I was so afraid maybe he’d done it.”
“Why?”
She shook her head. “I can’t . . . I just . . . it was a mistake.”
I thought about how Miriam had said it was her fault Nell had died, and how Nell had been hiding Josie’s ring in a button jar. I stopped rocking again. “Did you tell Nell where Josie’s first engagement ring was? Is
Her eyes popped wide and she gawked at me. “What?”
“The day she was killed, she hid the ring in the shop. I found it—”
Her voice came out in a faint whisper. “Where is it?”
I held my hand up, stopping her. “It’s safe.” I didn’t add it was in Meemaw’s safekeeping. I suspected Meemaw hadn’t known what Nell was up to, thus the rogue leg and shattered mason jars. But as I’d finished the bulk of Josie’s dress, I’d recounted aloud everything about the murder case, hoping she was listening.
“She was hiding it for me,” Miriam said. “
I tried not to react, keeping my rocking chair rhythm steady. Whatever I’d expected, it hadn’t been Miriam copping to a jewelry theft.
“I gave it to Nell to hold and now she’s dead.”
“But you’re the only one who knew Nell had the ring, besides Nate, right? And he wasn’t in Bliss when Nell was killed—”
She covered her face with her hands. “Oh, God,” she moaned. “All I want is to keep Holly safe. If anything happens to her . . .”
I squeezed her hand, willing enough strength into her to get through the wedding. “It won’t, Miriam. Just tell me who—”
She looked through me, like she was looking into the past. “It’s not Nate. It was never Nate,” she said.
Chapter 48
“Diamonds,” Miriam said.
“A girl’s best friend,” I said.
She said, “Nate.”
I said, “Innocent.”
It felt like we were playing a word-association game. Either that or rewriting the lyrics to that old 1970s song “Undercover Angel.” She said, “Derek.” I said, “Shiver.” I still couldn’t believe I’d dated him, even briefly. It was better left forgotten.
She said, “Diamonds” again.
I said, “What about them?”
“This is going to sound crazy, I know, but hear me out.” She took a deep breath before saying, “I think Derek
