Birthday Party Murder

Book 9: Lucy Stone Mystery

by Leslie Meier

Genres: Mystery; Amateur Sleuth; Cozy Mystery; Female Sleuths

Synopsis

The whole town of Tinker's Cove is looking forward to the celebration marking former librarian Julia Ward Howe Tilley's ninetieth birthday. Lucy Stone, Miss Tilley's closest friend, dreamed up the party idea—at about the same time she decided she's not getting old without a fight. Noticing crow's feet and a potential jelly belly, she's resolved to exercise more and purchase some heavy-duty wrinkle cream, asap! That sounds like a plan—until Lucy realizes her daughter's fourteenth birthday bash, a coed sleepover, may turn her hair white overnight. What was she thinking when she agreed to let Sara have the party? Obviously she wasn't thinking about the hormonal rampages of young teens. On her mind, instead, was the shocking death of Sherman Cobb, the town's oldest attorney, an apparent suicide. His law partner, however, thinks Sherman was murdered. Poking about in Sherman's papers, Lucy turns up an intriguing tie between the dead man and Miss Tilley. Meanwhile Miss Tilley's own past has come back to haunt her in the form of a mysterious niece named Shirley and a biker great nephew named Snake. Soon no one can get to see the elderly librarian because the brash, bossy Shirley says she's "failing." Is Miss Tilley in grave danger? Will Sara's party turn out to be a scandal? Now, as a killer's ruthless plan rushes toward a conclusion, Lucy needs answers fast—or else she and Miss Tilley won't live long enough to make a wish and blow out the candles on this year's birthday cake...

Release date: October 24, 2011

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 228

Sample

Sherman Cobb wasn’t feeling well. In fact, he hadn’t been feeling well for quite some time. He couldn’t even remember the last time he woke up in the morning feeling rested and refreshed, ready to face whatever the new day brought. That was why he was sitting in Doc Ryder’s waiting room, expecting the worst.

He’d first visited the doctor a few weeks ago, complaining of pain and tiredness. “Ordinary enough symptoms,” Doc Ryder had said in a reassuring tone of voice. But when the doctor palpated his abdomen, Sherman was sure he’d noticed an expression of alarm flicker across his face. It was quickly suppressed, but Sherman had noticed it and Doc Ryder’s usually brusque and hearty tone became cautious and guarded as he ordered a battery of tests. “Nothing to worry about—just to be on the safe side,” he’d said, but Sherman hadn’t believed him.

Deep inside, he knew something was wrong, just like some women can tell they’re pregnant long before the strip turns blue on a pregnancy kit. He didn’t know how he knew, but he could feel death overtaking him, like the gradual chill you feel when the furnace goes out. First your hands and feet feel cold; then you notice you can’t seem to get warm and the radiator feels cool to the touch. You check the thermostat and notice the temperature has fallen a few degrees; the oil tank must be empty or perhaps the pilot light has blown out. You go down to the cellar to investigate.

That’s what he’d done. He’d come to the doctor to find out what was wrong. But no matter what it turned out to be, he knew it wouldn’t make any difference. His pilot light was struggling to stay lit, but he knew it was just a matter of time before he finally ran out of fuel.

He sighed and reminded himself that he’d cheated the grim reaper a few times in his life and could hardly complain that his chit had finally come due. He’d had a good life, a productive life. He’d had his share of success; he’d known great happiness. All told, he thought, there was only one thing that he wished had been different.

Maybe it could be, he thought, wondering whether he should simply leave things be or should try to change them after all these years. And if he did, would there be enough time?

Pausing at the kitchen door with an armful of lilac blossoms she had just cut, Julia Tilley realized Papa was angry about something. In her twenty years she had become an expert reader of his moods, always watching for the slightest flicker of his mustache, the curl of his mouth and the lowering of his brows. Not that such acute awareness was required today—she could hear his voice reverberating through the entire house, like thunder.

Julia hesitated, unsure what to do. The lilacs would certainly wilt unless she got them into water very soon. On the other hand, Papa’s anger seemed to be directed to her older sister, Harriet, and Julia was content to leave it that way. She certainly didn’t want to draw his attention by going inside the house.

Moving quickly, she picked up the old enamel bucket that held kitchen scraps and carried it out to the compost heap next to the garden, where she emptied it. She then took it to the pump and filled it with clean water for the lilacs. She set them in the shade and sat down on the porch steps, wondering what to do for the duration. She could walk down the drive to the mailbox, hoping Papa’s tantrum would be over by the time she returned, or she could stay here on the stoop and—well, not exactly eavesdrop because that would be wrong, like opening someone’s mail—but perhaps a phrase or two would come to her and she could figure out what all the fuss was about.

“Damned scoundrel . . . a Communist . . . filthy New Dealer . . .”

So, it was about Thomas O’Rourke, the young man her sister Harriet had been seeing. Julia had suspected as much. He was a labor organizer and a big supporter of Mr. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Papa, a Maine Republican, had no doubt that Mr. Roosevelt’s policies would ruin the country.

“I love him, Papa, and you’re not going to stop me.”

Julia’s eyebrows shot up in amazement. Harriet was daring to argue with Papa.

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that, young lady,” was Papa’s predictable response.

“I’m not young, Papa, don’t you see? I’m thirty years old. I’ve always done what you said and what has it gotten me? I’m an old maid—too good for anyone in this town, that’s for sure.”

Julia considered this. It was true, she realized, with a jolt. None of the farmers and small tradesmen who lived in Tinker’s Cove would want a college-educated wife like Harriet. Or herself, for that matter.

“Is that what you want? To marry some man and become his laundress, his cook, his concubine?” Papa practically spat out the words.

On the stoop, Julia hugged herself. She could see Papa’s expression as clearly as if she were the object of his wrath. The bristly eyebrows, the narrow nose and hollow cheeks, the frowning mouth. How could Harriet bear to confront him? How could she stand his disapproval?

“Yes, Papa,” replied Harriet, coolly. “That’s exactly what I want, more than anything. I want to feel Thomas’s arms around me, his lips pressed against mine. I want to give myself to him. I want to bear his children.”

Julia’s jaw dropped, and apparently, so did Papa’s. There was silence. A long silence. Julia sat very still, watching the swallows’ swooping flight above the neat rows of baby lettuce in the vegetable garden.

When Papa finally spoke, his voice was as cold and hard as ice.

“Understand this: If you marry Thomas O’Rourke, you are no daughter of mine and you will have nothing that is mine. Marry him and you will become dead to me.”

Julia’s lips twitched, hearing the awful words.

Rachel reached out to gently shake Julia awake, but hesitated. Miss Tilley was almost ninety years old and, like a lot of very old people, didn’t sleep well at night. It seemed a shame to disturb her, even if lunch was ready. She had made up her mind to turn down the pot when Miss Tilley’s eyes sprang open.

“Ah, you’re awake,” said Rachel. “Are you ready for lunch? It’s your favorite, shrimp wiggle on toast.”

Julia Ward Howe Tilley blinked and looked around. She’d been dozing, she realized. Papa was long gone, and dear Mama. And Harriet was dead, too. Julia stroked her arthritic fingers and furrowed her brow. She was the only survivor, the last remaining member of her family. Or was she? What if Harriet had given Thomas O’Rourke a child? Her heart beat a little faster at the thought.

Finally, a sunny day, thought Lucy Stone, wife of restoration carpenter Bill Stone, mother of four and part-time reporter. Thick, gray clouds had covered the little Maine town of Tinker’s Cove for most of March. According to the weatherman, it was global warming that brought one cold, gray, sunless day after another. There hadn’t been much warm about it, but it had certainly depressed everyone Lucy knew. But today the sun was shining and good spirits would be restored.

Lucy reached for her bright pink turtleneck and pulled it over her head, shook out her shining cap of hair and studied her reflection in the mirror that hung over her dresser. Were those gray hairs? she wondered, leaning closer for a better look. She ran her hand through her short, dark hair and gently grasped a handful so the sun that was streaming through the window could fall on it.

When did that happen? she asked herself. When did her hair start turning gray? And why hadn’t she noticed? She considered yanking out the gray hairs, but there were too many of them. She would have to get some hair color. Or should she leave it be and let her hair lighten naturally? She remembered her mother, who had always insisted her hair was as dark as ever, long after it had faded. No, she decided, she wasn’t ready for the salt-and-pepper look.

As she turned her head from side to side, imagining the effect of the hair color, the shaft of sunlight fell on her face. Was that a little mustache she was sprouting on her upper lip? Lucy leaned anxiously into the mirror. No, she wasn’t sprouting a mustache; it was a series of fine lines. Little wrinkles, she realized, dismayed. And there were more, around her eyes. She’d simply have to be more careful to remember to apply moisturizer, she told herself, reaching for her favorite gray slacks.

She pulled them over her legs and automatically reached for the button, but something was wrong. Had she somehow twisted the waistband? She looked down and saw a little pooch of flesh protruding between the two sides of the zipper. She sucked in her breath and zipped up the pants, then fastened the button. She carefully let out her breath and the button held. Just to be on the safe side, she pulled a long black sweater on over the pink turtleneck. The effect was slimming, but she knew it was only a temporary solution. Summer was coming, which meant shorts and sleeveless shirts and—she gasped in horror at the thought—a swimsuit.

She was definitely going to have to do something, maybe exercise more or go on a diet, she told herself as she hurried out of the house and started the car. It was almost eight and she didn’t want to be late for breakfast with the girls.

Calling themselves “the girls” was a joke—but the group of four women took their weekly Thursday morning breakfasts at Jake’s Donut Shack very seriously. All married with families and numerous commitments, they had discovered that breakfast was easier to fit into their busy schedules than lunch.

Pulling open the door at Jake’s, Lucy headed for the corner table in the back where they always met. As usual, she was the last to arrive.

“We ordered for you,” said Sue Finch. “Your regular.”

“Thanks,” said Lucy, slipping into her seat and reaching for the coffeepot. “I guess I’ll start my diet at lunch.”

“You’re going on a diet? Which one?” asked Rachel Goodman, pushing her oversize glasses back up her nose. “I’ve heard that Zone diet is very good.”

“Not if you care about your health,” said Pam Stillings, adjusting her macrame shawl. Pam had gone to Woodstock and had never quite gotten over it. “You can’t tell me that eating nothing but meat and cheese and butter is good for you.”

“All you ever eat is brown rice and tofu,” observed Sue, checking her perfect manicure. Sue was a faithful Vogue reader and a borderline shopaholic.

“Well, I like it,” replied Pam, tucking her long brown hair behind her ear. “And it’s good for you.”

“I like it, too. I like everything. That’s my problem,” moaned Lucy. “What should I do? I could barely get my pants buttoned this morning.”

“It’s all a matter of mathematics,” said Rachel, picking up her fork and diving into a big stack of pancakes. Rachel had majored in chemistry before dropping out of college to marry law student Bob Goodman. He was now a partner in an established Tinker’s Cove law firm. “You simply have to expend more calories than you consume.”

“Exercise more and eat less,” translated Sue, stirring some artificial sweetener into her black coffee.

“Look at her: She lives on nothing but coffee,” declared Pam, digging into her bowl of oatmeal. “You do that and pretty soon your metabolism slows down to nothing. It’s smarter to eat plenty of fiber. It makes you feel full.”

“Well, if I’m going on a diet, I’ll need my strength,” said Lucy, as the waitress set an overflowing plate, including a cheese omelet, sausage, home fries and buttered toast, in front of her.

“It’s not fair,” said Rachel, who was frighteningly well informed. “Did you know that our metabolism slows down seven percent every ten years? Figure it out: We need almost twenty percent less food than we did when were twenty.”

Lucy resolved to eat only half of her omelet, and to skip the fried potatoes and sausage.

“That’s not the only thing that’s not fair,” said Sue. “I’m starting to get wattles under my chin.”

Lucy’s hand reflexively went to her throat. Was it as firm as it used to be?

“The skin on the back of my hands is getting so thin,” complained Pam. “They get all wrinkly when I bend my wrists back.”

Lucy looked down at her hands. It was true, the skin wrinkled back like the Saggy Baggy Elephant’s.

“Don’t you hate that?” sympathized Rachel. “But what I mind most are my disappearing lips. Where do they go? No matter how much lipstick I use, they just seem to curl under or something.”

Lucy extended her tongue, tentatively. Her lips still seemed to be there.

“No, the worst thing is that when I look in the mirror, I look just like my mother,” said Sue.

Lucy felt a shock of recognition.

“Frightening, isn’t it? Not that I plan to follow in my mother’s footsteps. She’s addicted to plastic surgery. Just had her third face-lift.” Rachel shuddered.

“My mother weighed two hundred and fifty pounds when she died,” said Sue, who probably wouldn’t hit the hundredand-twenty-pound mark on Doc Ryder’s scale. “But somehow, I still look like her.”

“My mother was in denial,” confessed Lucy. “She dealt with aging by just pretending she looked the way she always had.” She paused, remembering. “She didn’t.”

“My mom smokes like a fiend and drinks like a fish,” said Pam, shaking her head in amazement. “The only reason I can think that she’s still alive is that her liver is pickled and her lungs are smoked like hams.”

“Thanks for the image,” complained Rachel, pushing her ham to the side of her plate. “I’ve lost my appetite, thank you.”

“I guess the thing to do is to learn from their mistakes,” Lucy said. “Mom neglected her looks and got all washed-out looking, but I don’t have to let that happen. I’m picking up some hair color today.”

The others nodded in agreement with Lucy, except for Rachel, who peered at them owl-like through her glasses.

“Don’t you see what you’re doing?” she asked. “You’re all reacting to your mothers. Sue’s mom was fat, so she doesn’t eat. Pam’s mom smokes, so she not only refuses to smoke, she buys all her food at the natural foods store. Lucy’s mom didn’t take care of her looks, so Lucy’s resolved to cover her gray. We need to stop reacting . . .” She paused, collecting her thoughts. Then she spoke. “Instead of reacting we need to formulate our own personal positive paradigm for aging.”

The others looked at her blankly.

“What is it with her and the big words?” asked Pam. “Can any of you guys help me out and tell me exactly what a paradigm is and where you can get one?”

They all laughed.

“It’s a vision, a plan,” explained Rachel.

“That sounds like an awful lot of work,” observed Lucy. “Maybe we just need better role models. Someone positive.” She thought for a minute. “Like Miss Tilley. How’s she doing, Rachel?”

Rachel provided home care for Miss Tilley, the retired librarian, who was the oldest resident of Tinker’s Cove.

“She’s great,” said Rachel. “Same as always. You remember taking sociology in college? About inner-directed and outer-directed people? Well, Miss Tilley is the most inner-directed person I know. She just does what she does. You know, she eats the same meals for dinner every week?” Sue counted them off on her fingers. “Roast beef on Sunday, cold beef on Monday, chicken on Tuesday, shrimp wiggle on Wednesday, shepherd’s pie on Thursday, chicken à la king on Friday and baked beans on Saturday.”

“Actually, I didn’t take sociology,” said Pam. “And if I had, I probably wouldn’t remember it anyway. But I guess I’m inner-directed because we have spaghetti every Wednesday.”

“It just means that she doesn’t care what other people think,” said Sue.

“She’s just herself,” agreed Lucy. “There’s nobody like her.”

“That’s exactly right,” agreed Rachel. “For example, she likes to wear a certain style of shoe. She’s worn it for years. Gets two pairs every year mail order from the company. Well, they finally discontinued it. So she was looking through the catalog and these sneakers that light up when you walk caught her eye. For kids, you know. Well, she decided she had to have them. I told her they were for kids, that she’d look ridiculous. Didn’t faze her in the least. She told me she doesn’t have much excitement in her life anymore and she was going to get the sneakers. And she did.”

Sue was incredulous. “She’s wearing sneakers that twinkle when she walks?” she asked.

Rachel nodded. “She likes them so much she ordered two more pairs, in case they discontinue them.”

“I’ll have to stop by and visit,” said Lucy. “This I’ve got to see.”

“How old is she anyway?” asked Pam. “She must be getting up there.”

“Actually, her ninetieth birthday is coming up.” Rachel drank the last of her coffee. “I think she’s feeling her age a little bit. Lately she’s asked me to help her go through her closets and drawers to clean things out. She’s also got a meeting coming up with Bob’s partner, Sherman. He handles most of the older clients’ wills and things.”

“Very sensible,” observed Pam. “After all, she can’t expect to live too much longer.”

“Ninety years,” mused Lucy. “Think how much has changed in her lifetime. We’ve gone from long skirts and corsets to . . . Britney Spears!”

When they all stopped laughing, Sue held up her hand. “I’ve got an idea,” she declared.

They all moaned.

“You’re going to love this,” she continued, gazing off into the distance. “Why don’t we have a birthday party for Miss Tilley? A really big party, you know, invite the whole town. Have the high school band and the chorus. She could arrive on a fire engine. After all, she is the town’s oldest resident and she was the librarian for so many years, absolutely everybody knows her.”

“We could do a ‘This Is Your Life’ show,” suggested Lucy. “Bring back people from her past, successful people she encouraged.”

“I don’t know if she’d go for something like that,” cautioned Rachel. “She’s pretty reclusive; she likes her routine. She wouldn’t want to miss her shrimp wiggle. Plus, she doesn’t like attention.”

Sue waved away that objection. “This is a woman who wears shoes that twinkle when she walks.”

“I bet I can get Ted to put out a special edition of The Pennysaver,” offered Pam, referring to her husband and Lucy’s boss, the editor and publisher of the town’s weekly newspaper. “A commemorative edition chronicling her whole life. It will really be a history of the town during the twentieth century.”

“That’s a great idea,” exclaimed Sue. “Are you all with me? May twentieth will be Miss Tilley Day!”

She raised her water glass in a toast and they all joined in. “To Miss Tilley Day!”

A brisk March wind was blowing when Lucy left the restaurant, but solar heat had warmed her car. She slid behind the steering wheel and held her face up to the sunshine as she started the engine. What a great idea, she thought. Miss Tilley Day.

As a reporter for The Pennysaver, she knew better than most how the pressures of modern life were negatively impacting the town. A recent proposal to build a casino had been highly controversial and divided neighbor from neighbor, the town’s fishermen were struggling to maintain their traditional livelihood against increased regulation and diminishing stocks of fish, and an influx of second-home builders had driven real estate prices higher than locals could afford. The school committee was struggling to meet new, higher standards imposed by the state; the volunteer fire department was under pressure to become professional; and the town budget simply could not meet all the demands placed upon it without a hefty tax increase.

Miss Tilley Day was just what the town needed, Lucy thought. A day for year-round residen. . .