Pleating for Mercy

Now he’s a catch.”

They fluttered their fingers at us and scurried off toward Derek, who’d been watching them, that same smug smile on his lips that he’d had at the church when he’d seen Ruthann glide down the aisle.

My stomach turned watching Ruthann fall against him, as Karen scooted back to Ted. I followed Derek’s arm as it snaked around Ruthann’s waist. Soon they melted into the crowd.

“Which leaves Mr. or Mrs. Kincaid,” I said, picking up where I’d left off.

I glanced at the chair next to me where I’d put my clutch as Mama said, “Or their daughter.”

My mind screeched to a halt. “Where’s my purse?” I bent down to peer under the table. I searched around my chair, even lifted my napkin up in case it had shrunk and was now a miniature version of its former self. But I didn’t see the purse.

It hadn’t.

“It’s gone?” Mama asked, her accent deepening so that “gone” sounded like ga- won. “Is the . . . you-knowwhat still in it?”

My skin turned instantly clammy, my heart hammering in my chest. I’d set it down on the stool at the bar, right next to Mr. Kincaid, while I was listening to him regale his friend with stories of his affairs.

My conversation with Mrs. James shot into my head. She’d said she hadn’t seen Derek at Reata, but that day in Buttons & Bows, she’d said she’d seen Keith Kincaid and his lawyer there plenty of times.

I whirled around, my head spinning. I slapped my hand over my mouth. “It wasn’t Derek.”

“What wasn’t Derek?” Mama asked.

Madelyn’s mouth had formed a speechless O.

“Keith Kincaid and Nell. You were right, Mama—it was a married man.” And Mrs. Kincaid knew about it, I suddenly realized. That’s why she’d so pointedly asked about Reata. They were stronger together than apart because they knew each other’s secrets, Mr. Kincaid had said.

I searched the table and chairs one more time, just in case I’d overlooked my purse. It hadn’t materialized.

I must have left it on the chair at the bar. Please let it still be there, I silently pleaded. I ran back to the bar while Mama and Madelyn looked everywhere else.

The barstool was empty. No purse. And that meant no ring.

Miriam sat at the head table, looking miles better than she had that morning, although it was clear that she was tired. My charm wasn’t fully working with her. Curious. With my cell phone as my only comfort, I made a beeline for her and cut to the chase. “Who knows I have the ring?”

She stared at me. “I . . . I . . .”

The deejay’s music pounded in my ears. The questions Will and I had talked about pumped through my mind with the same blinding rhythm. “Where did you find the ring, Miriam?”

“It was in my dad’s desk. In his study,” she added. “I was looking for a paper clip and . . . and I saw it. After those texts, I knew it was one of the diamonds . . . so I took it.”

Like a trigger, I suddenly remembered Ruthann, or maybe it was Karen, saying Nate couldn’t return the engagement ring to a store because of the custom diamond and that his dad said he’d take care of it. My fingers carved through my hair. How, how, how could I have forgotten that?

Cold sweat beaded around my hairline. Could Derek have pulled off a diamond-smuggling operation alone? More conversations flooded back to me. He and his dad took turns coming home. Someone had told me that, though at the moment I couldn’t for the life of me remember who.

Another thought struck me like a bolt of lightning. I left Miriam staring at me, trying to sort out all my disjointed thoughts. The same scenario I’d worked out if Derek had been the father of Nell’s baby worked if Keith Kincaid was the father of the baby. Only he hadn’t been in the country when Nell was killed. If Nell had tried to blackmail him into staying with her and becoming some kind of a family, he would have relied on the one person he trusted to take care of things.

I was back to Derek.

Only Derek had been at Billy Bob’s when Nell was murdered.

So who?

Where were Will and Sheriff McClaine? I couldn’t . . . I needed fresh air. Or better yet, the ladies’ room. Across the hall. Through the entrance. Up the stairs.

I stopped at the door, more pieces falling into place. Mrs. James had said something about another Kincaid wedding, hadn’t she? But Miriam wasn’t seeing anyone.

Keith Kincaid’s chastisement of Derek circled back to me. “Got one practicing over there,” he’d said. “Even gave her a ring, the fool.”

Mama had put Hoss’s ring on her right hand because she wasn’t ready to go public, just like . . .

I pushed open the door and stepped in before I realized I wasn’t alone. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. My purse sat on the sink, its contents spilled out on the counter. A blur of olive green chiffon. An acrylic- nailed, French-manicured hand held Josie’s first engagement ring.

The scene spun together, becoming a cohesive whole.

The door closed behind me with a quiet whoosh. My gaze lifted. And I stared at the face of a killer.

Chapter 53

My mind suddenly conjured up the voices I’d heard outside Buttons & Bows the night Nell died. Mama and I had overheard an argument. Snippets of conversation. One quiet voice we couldn’t make out, and another, agitated. It hadn’t been lovers.

It had been Nell and Ruthann.

She moved like a gazelle, effortlessly positioning herself between me and the door. “Why?” I asked, but I knew the answer. I’d heard it from Lori Kincaid herself, that first day in Buttons & Bows. It takes time and effort to maintain an image. It’s like a house of cards. One bent corner, and the whole thing comes toppling down.

“Was it the blackmail or the pregnancy?”

The vein at Ruthann’s temple pulsed. “Take your pick. Both? I had to do something. She was going to ruin things for me. The pregnancy was bad enough, but, look, I’m under no illusions. I know Derek really loves me. Men like the Kincaids cheat. And Nell went after him. Mrs. Kincaid learned how to deal with it—”

“Yeah, diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”

She flashed the rock on her right hand. “This is my engagement ring.”

“No, it’s your payment for services rendered. He’s been working you, Ruthann. He got you to do his dirty work—don’t you see that?”

Ruthann let the ring drop into her hand, showing it to me on her palm. “Derek said Nell could keep it. It’s worth forty thousand dollars. She could have sold it, raised her kid, and everything would have been fine.”

“But she wanted love, not money.”

Ruthann had killed Nell to protect the reputation of a family she wasn’t even a part of. I didn’t have a sliver of doubt that she’d do it again to protect herself.

The only way out of the bathroom was the door I’d come through. And she was blocking it. I asked her another question to keep her talking while I figured out what to do.

“Do Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid know . . . what you did to Nell?”

“Derek and I planned it together. It was a game—who could come up with the better plan. When he showed me Miriam’s old sewing stuff, I knew it would work. I made sure he went out with friends that night. No one knew about me and him yet.” She smiled softly. “He said he wanted me to be his secret for a while longer.”

My heart went out to her. She really thought Derek would stand by her, and nothing I could say would change her mind. I looked at my purse. “How did you know I had the—”

“You are so talented, Harlow, but you’re not very smart. I watched you at the bar listening to Mr. Kincaid. I’d already put things together. When that shelf at your shop broke and the jars fell, I knew Nell had been trying to hide