“True,” Jim agreed. “Just don’t get too involved.”
“Does he sound like me?” asked Gussie.
“I mean, you’ll be heading back to Jersey after the wedding,” said Jim. “I don’t know how long Diana will be staying here, or what she’ll want to do next. She has no roots now. I suspect she’ll want to stick around here until she gets some answers about her father’s death.”
“Do many people in Winslow know Dan Jeffrey was her father?” Maggie asked.
Jim shook his head. “She’s only been here a few days. Dan didn’t tell anyone he had a daughter so far as I know.”
“You don’t think she’s in any danger, then.”
“Diana? I wouldn’t think so.” Jim looked at her. “Let me guess. You looked up her father on the Internet. Right?”
Maggie nodded.
“You didn’t think I’d take her on as a client without a bit of background checking, did you? Sure, I’ve got some reservations about her father and why he left Colorado so suddenly. But that guy he saw doing the shooting was freed.”
“What’s this all about? What guy? What shooting?” asked Gussie, looking from one of them to the other.
“I’ll fill you in after Jim’s gone,” said Maggie. “Promise.”
“In any case, there’s no double jeopardy. He couldn’t be tried again. There’d be no reason for anyone connected with that situation to follow Diana or her father to Cape Cod and kill him here. Unless there’s something we don’t know, that problem was solved. Over. Finito. Somehow I think the now-Mr. Jeffrey got himself into another mess here on Cape Cod. And this one he really did have to die to get out of.”
Maggie put up her hand. “One minute.” Her phone was ringing. She glanced down. “Diana’s texting. She wants to know if we’d like her to help again today. Chief Irons’s wife brought over flowers and she’s allergic.”
“Sounds to me like an excuse to get out of the house,” said Gussie. “But, sure. Tell her to come over. The more the merrier.”
Jim got up and brushed the crumbs off his lap. “Sounds like my cue to go to the office. I emailed Lily our list of people who hadn’t RSVP’d by now. She’s going to call them today. I figured she couldn’t mess that up. Okay with you?”
Gussie nodded. “Sounds harmless. Although with Lily you never know. I’m hoping we have the rest of the shop packed by noon. After we do I’ll call Ellen and get Ben to come and pack both our vans and we’ll get them over to the shop. Maybe later this afternoon we could all get together and open the wedding gifts. That’ll be fun, and then I could write the thank-you notes in my spare time.”
“Right! I’ve noticed all that spare time you have,” Jim agreed drily. “But opening gifts does sound like fun. And then tonight I can tell Mother about them. She’s been dying to know what people have sent us. I’m sure she thinks we’ll get silver tea sets and punch bowls, like she did back in the dim dark ages.”
“I have no idea what we’ll get. But we’ll need to thank everyone for everything,” said Gussie. “And I have my maid of honor here to play secretary.”
“’Bye, ladies!” said Jim, backing out the door. “Try to stay out of trouble. See you late this afternoon!”
“What?” said Maggie, who’d been focusing on murder suspects, not wedding gifts.
“That’s one of the jobs of the maid of honor, Maggie! Didn’t you look all this up while you were researching topics on the Internet last night? The maid of honor is supposed to keep track of who gives gifts and what they are. So prepare to have your pen and paper at the ready.”
“Aye, aye, my captain,” said Maggie. “Opening gifts does not sound like hardship duty. It sounds like fun.”
“And good practice, for when you and Will get married.”
“Oops! Missed target,” said Maggie. “I thought we’d settled that. Don’t you remember in the old, old days when you were single, and not engaged? You do not talk to single women about future marital plans or possibilities at or before the wedding of their close friends. It’s a long-standing rule.”
“You’re right. Forgot!” Gussie grinned. Then she leaned over. “Can I whisper, then?”
“No wedding hints. Or engagement hints. Not allowed! Period.”
“Okay, okay. Boring, but you win,” said Gussie.
“So we have a deadline. It’s almost nine-thirty, and you want to finish packing the store by noon. How close are you?”
“Almost there. I finished the doll and toy parts I was working on yesterday afternoon. You could box up the books still in the bookcases in the front room. While you’re doing that I’ll check all the drawers in the cabinets to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything.”
Diana arrived fifteen minutes later, and, with her help, they’d finished the shop by eleven, an hour ahead of schedule. Diana and Maggie decided to pack two more closets upstairs (“I never realized how many closets you had in this place!”) while Gussie telephoned her sister.
“Ellen? We’re ready for reinforcements. Are you and Ben free to come over? We need someone to help with heavy lifting.” She called upstairs, “Diana, do you mind taking a couple of cartons in your car over to the new store?”
“No problem,” Diana called back.
“Then, with your car, we have two vans and two cars,” said Gussie to Ellen. “I wish I could help but…I know, I know. I’ll supervise. Some of the cartons are light. Ben can help with the others. I have the dolly he and I use at shows. I think we can get it all loaded in about half an hour. Then we need to drive everything over to the new shop and unload. Great. See you then.”
“Ellen and Ben’ll be here in about twenty minutes,” she told Maggie and Diana.
“Who’re Ellen and Ben?” Diana asked, as they came downstairs and started sorting the packed cartons.
“Ellen’s Gussie’s sister. She’s a realtor here in town,” said Maggie. “Ben’s her son. He’s about your age. Twenty-one?”
Diana nodded.
“Can’t believe it, but, yes. Ben’s birthday was last month,” Gussie confirmed.
“Is he in college?” Diana asked.
“No,” Gussie answered. “Although he wishes he were. He misses his friends from town who’re away at school now. Ben has Down Syndrome. He lives with his mom and helps at the real estate office, making copies and running errands, and helps at my shop when I need him.”
“He goes on the road with Gussie when she does antiques shows out of town, too,” said Maggie. “He does the lifting for her.”
“That’s right,” said Gussie. “He and I share one thing in common: people with Down’s and people who’ve had polio both have weak muscles. I had physical therapy for years, and still go for sessions when I can. Ben tries to make up for it by lifting weights and running. He’s in Special Olympics, too. He can climb ladders and reach things I can’t, and pack and unpack the van. I tell him he’s my legs and arms now.” The back door of the shop slammed. “And here he is!”
“Hi, Aunt Gussie! Hi, Maggie!” Ben gave them both hugs. “Who are you?” He stared curiously at Diana.
“This is Diana Hopkins. She’s visiting from Colorado and she’s helping us today,” said Gussie. “Thanks so much, Ellen, for bringing Ben over.”
“Glad to be a help. Hi, Maggie! Good to see you. And, Diana? I’m Ellen, Gussie’s sister,” Ellen said. “We were about to take a lunch break anyway.”
“Whoops! I forgot lunch,” said Gussie.
“I didn’t forget lunch, Aunt Gussie,” said Ben. “I never forget lunch.”
“That’s true. You don’t,” agreed Gussie. “Why don’t we load the vans and cars and then stop for pizza on the way to the new shop? Can you wait that long?”
Ben walked around the two rooms of the shop very seriously. “Are we all going to work?”
“I think so,” said his mother. “You’ll do the heavy work, and the rest of us will carry the other cartons and plan where everything will go. Aunt Gussie’s in charge.”