Body Bags & Blarney by J.D. Shaw Page B

walked back into the living room, shutting off lights as she passed
through. “So, did she raise them ridiculously high?”
    “Well, well,
well.” Kathy teased back. “Look who wants to know what the competition is up to
all of a sudden.”
    Vivienne
double checked that the dead bolt on the front door was locked and peeked out
one of her front windows. “I’m simply doing what any good businesswoman would
do.” The street outside was quiet and some tiny snowflakes, looking like
diamond dust, swirled in the frigid night air.
    “She was
pricing herself right out of small jobs.” Kathy replied. “Corporate functions,
they can handle that sort of thing. But as for small private events, I think
people were skipping her and just going to the warehouse club to buy what they
needed for much less.”
    The shower
turned off and the ceiling creaked overhead as Joshua walked around the
bathroom. Vivienne switched off the last floor lamp in the living room and then
dashed into the kitchen to turn on the dishwasher. “Maybe they’ll just take the
money and put it in the bank?”
    “Or move
away.” Kathy added. “Property taxes are driving people out of the state.”
    “That’s true.”
Vivienne made her way back to the living room and climbed the stairs. “Listen,
I need to get to bed because I have a bunch of king cakes to bake tomorrow
morning for a certain jewelry party at the fabulous Trade Winds Clothier.”
    “Can I pick
them up around two?”
    “Sure.”
Vivienne replied as Joshua opened the door to the bathroom and a cloud of steam
rolled into the hallway.
    “All clean.”
He grinned, wrapped in a large blue bath towel.
    “I’ll see you
then. Goodnight Kathy.” Vivienne ended the call and walked over to her handsome
boyfriend. She ran her fingers through his thick chest hair, still wet from the
shower and smelling of Irish Spring body wash. “Fancy meeting you here,
Deputy.”  
    He took her
free hand gently in his and led her into the bedroom. “No more business for the
night.”
    “Whatever you
say.” She cooed back, setting her phone on the dresser. “I would never go
against the advice of the town’s Deputy.”

 
    *             *             *

 
    When she awoke
the next morning, Joshua had quietly left for work as he usually did, allowing
her to sleep. As per his routine, she found a good morning message scrawled on
the small white board on her refrigerator. ‘Fed the cats. Have a wonderful day.
Love you, sweetie.’ As she poured herself a cup of coffee from the pot he had
brewed an hour earlier, Tommy and Sammy curled around her legs and meowed. “Oh
no, you aren’t getting a second breakfast from me today.”
    They both
followed her over to the kitchen table where Joshua had left the morning
newspaper. There was a picture of Suzette’s burned down business and a story
about the fire. Vivienne sat down and read the article, but as usual, there was
nothing all that interesting to be learned. There was no foul play suspected,
no victims killed tragically. The photograph was the most compelling part, with
a nice action shot of orange flames leaping high into the air as a stream of
water from the firefighters battled it down into submission.
    The morning
flew by at break-neck speed as she and Stephanie worked on getting the king
cakes ready for Kathy’s jewelry party.
    “I’m excited
to see what she has to offer.” Stephanie dusted a handful of green sugar onto
the frosted sweet bread, adding the final color to the purple and gold already
in place.
    “I saw a
little preview of a ring. I would never have known it was a fake.” Vivienne
loaded one of the finished cakes into a box and tied it up with twine.
    “Not that I
have many glamorous events to wear jewelry to between work and classes.”
Stephanie handed her the next cake to box up.
    “I’m not
exactly a party girl here either.” Vivienne winked as she boxed the second cake
and cut a piece of twine off