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“Well, almost,” I cautioned. “Henry didn’t really give me a timeline for when he thought the D.A. would drop the charges.”
At that exact moment, Victoria’s phone rang from inside her purse. She excused herself, then went to get it and put it to her ear. “Victoria Parrish.”
She was quiet as the person calling seemed to respond at length. During that time, though, the slightly worried, distracted expression she’d been wearing shifted into one I could only describe as pure joy.
Eventually, she said, “Yes, I understand. Thank you so much for calling to let me know.”
And then she lowered the phone and stood there for a second, as if she wasn’t quite sure what she was supposed to do next.
“Well?” Hazel prompted, while Archie went over to take Victoria by the hand, his expression also questioning.
“That was the district attorney,” she said, smiling. “All the charges against me have been dropped.” Her fingers tightened on Archie’s, and she added, “We can go on our honeymoon!”
He stared at her incredulously for a second, and then pulled her into his arms, kissing her so passionately that I guessed he’d completely forgotten they had an audience.
Which was fine. The only important thing was that it looked as though the two of them would get their happy ending after all.
There were still a million odds and ends to be handled — although the plunger had done the trick, thank the Goddess — but at three o’clock the following afternoon, Archie and Victoria’s friends and family gathered in their backyard on a picture-perfect October day, and watched the two of them become husband and wife.
The expression Archie wore as he kissed his beautiful bride was almost incredulous, as if he still couldn’t quite figure out how he’d managed to get such an exquisite creature to become his wife. But she kissed him back, smiling, their hands clasped in one another’s, and the reality of it seemed to sink in, that despite all the tribulations he’d suffered, he’d survived to come to this place, to have Victoria at his side in the gracious home they’d bought together.
I’d never met Victoria’s parents before since they lived in Minnesota and had only come to Arizona to see their daughter married, but the two of them seemed wonderful, friendly and down-to-earth — and, I thought, very relieved to see the last of their children married off to someone they apparently thought was just perfect for her.
“Don’t they look amazing together?” Victoria’s mother, Jenny, whispered to me as the newlyweds cut their cake later at the reception. “Like a couple of movie stars or something.”
Since I’d privately thought Victoria and Archie could have stood in for a pair of celebrities from Hollywood’s golden age, I didn’t disagree with that assessment one bit. “They do make a beautiful couple,” I whispered back. “I’m so happy for them.”
“Me too,” Jenny said, and blinked back some fond tears. “Me too.”
A little later, I was dancing with Archie — a slow waltz, since I’d told him I didn’t want to do anything more vigorous — and I commented, “Your new in-laws seem to approve of you.”
“And you’re surprised by that?” he returned, although the slight smile he wore told me he hadn’t been offended by my words.
“Not at all,” I said smoothly. “I’m just glad for you…for all of you.”
He inclined his head, and we danced in silence for a few moments. Then he said, “I don’t think I’ve thanked you properly for coming to Victoria’s rescue. That was quite something, figuring out Melanie Knowles was the real murderer.”
“Well, I had help,” I said. “Henry’s really the one who saved the day.”
“Perhaps,” Archie allowed. “Either way, it means Victoria and I don’t have to worry about what’s coming next, and that we can leave for California in the morning and know all of this mess is safely behind us.”
I only nodded. It was true that my friends deserved to sail off into the sunset to enjoy themselves in Napa.
But I…
…well, I still had a lot of questions that needed to be answered.
Calvin wasn’t too thrilled about my plan to visit Melanie Knowles in jail, although he also didn’t try to talk me out of it.
“Do you even think Henry will let you see her?” he asked.
We were both in the bathroom, getting ready for our Monday morning. On Sunday, we’d mostly just lazed around the house, recovering from the wedding, although I’d gotten myself together enough to investigate some of the bigger fraudulent purchases on my debit card, and had discovered they’d all been sent to the same address in Chandler.
Not Melanie Knowles’ apartment…she would never have been that careless…but to a mailbox at a UPS store not too far from where she lived.
It would have been easy enough for her. All she had to do was wait until I was taking a bathroom break, then slip the cards out of my wallet and write down the numbers, expiration dates, and security codes. After that, she would be free to go on an online shopping spree at my expense.
True, she’d been taking a risk, but she’d probably thought I didn’t use that particular card and its attached account very often, since my other three debit cards had been stacked on top of it. And she also might have thought that I’d be way too occupied with Archie and Victoria’s wedding — and Victoria’s court case — to have time to check my account balances.
