A Christmas Wedding To Remember Part 9

"Oh sure, that's mainly social. And organizing. I'm good at that."

Grandma Ellie smiled. "I'm sure you are dear."

Guests were filtering in. Little sis and BFF along with their respective boyfriends.

Rohan's best man and the grooms. And Roger, Julianna's older brother. She recognized so many from that awful night and yet she didn't know a lot of them by name.

The pool area filled with large numbers of party-goers all dressed in elegant dresses and wearing shoes that could take care of a large chunk of her month's rent.

And as Maxine made sure drinks were kept filled and appetizers made the rounds the buzz of laughter and chatter rose. By anyone's standards this was a successful party.

She heard snippets of conversation. People talking about what they had done for Christmas and Boxing Day sales. It seemed strange to hear guests talking about deals they had scored when they were wearing designer dresses and flas.h.i.+ng gifts of jewelry from boyfriends, husbands or significant others worth thousands of dollars.

Rohan was eating pizza and drinking a long necked beer. He'd started off at Julia's side but right now he was immersed in a conversation about the game. She looked around and found Julianna in a cl.u.s.ter of people. The cl.u.s.ter included her little sister and the bridesmaids.

She headed in their direction with a tray of hor douerves. What she heard alarmed her.

"Don't you remember anything?"

Julianna shook her head although she didn't seem that sure. "I don't," she said, sounding a little puzzled, "every once in a while I get...almost a flash of something...as if I'm seeing a piece of a puzzle."

There was an excited buzz of conversation. "What does the doctor say? Does he think you're going to remember? Maybe if you tried hypnosis."

Maxine tapped her on the shoulder. "Do you think I could talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure," she said, letting Maxine lead her away from her friends. "What is it? Are we out of drinks or-" Julianna asked, concerned.

"You can't tell people you're starting to get your memory back. If the person responsible for you attack hears-" Maxine didn't have to finish the sentence.

Julianna's eyes widened as a look of horror crossed her face. "You really think someone here is responsible?"

"I don't know what to think," Maxine said helplessly. "I don't want anything to happen to you and I just think...it would be safer if you didn't say you were starting to remember until you can remember everything."

Julianna frowned. "I'm sure there's nothing to worry about," she said. "I mean you're talking about my closest friends and family." A cloud of doubt and apprehension dulled the sparkle from her eyes, damped down the energy coming from her in waves.

And although Maxine could hear her laughing and talking for the rest of the night it was as if her sparkle had been cut by half. Maxine could feel a pain in her own heart. She spent her life making things to make other people happy.

And she loved doing it. She loved bringing a special cake to an event or watching a young child's eye light up looking at all the chocolates in her display case. She hated causing pain to Julianna or anyone else. She would hate seeing anything bad happen to Julianna even more.

As the dessert bar was unveiled party guests crowded forward, grabbing cupcakes and personalizing them with sprinkles and drizzles of caramel and raspberry sauce, covering them with chocolate chips or slivered almonds.

In the midst of it someone smashed a cupcake into another guest's face who retaliated in kind and before Maxine knew what was happening a food fight was on.

She heard shouting from the other side of the pool area. At that moment someone stepped back or was pushed into the pool grabbing a friend and dragging them in as he went. More people jumped in with shouting and splas.h.i.+ng.

Patrick rushed out along with another plain clothes policeman searching frantically for Julianna in the melee and breathing a sigh of relief when he saw her laughing as she splashed someone.

The mood had been broken with the appearance of Patrick and his fellow officer. Party goers came up out of the pool, drying themselves off as best they could and gathering together for a last minute toast to the New Year before dispersing into the night.

Suddenly there was a scream of terror from Grandma Ellie over by the Chocolate Fountain. Maxine took off at a run, followed closely by Patrick and the officer.

It was obvious why her Grandma Ellie had started to scream. There was a man in the chocolate fountain. Not all the way in. It wasn't big enough. His head was face down in the chocolate fountain. And it was more than apparent he wasn't breathing.

Chocolate had started pooling and now ran over the edge of the fountain and in rivulets towards the pool. Someone thought to turn the fountain off.

Detective Shannon checked for a pulse. There wasn't one. As he called for back-up and his partner told all remaining guests to take a seat in the chairs poolside Maxine felt numb.

She put a protective arm around her Grandma Ellie's shoulder and helped her off to a nearby chair. As Grandma Ellie continued to s.h.i.+ver, she found a blanket and wrapped it around her.

"It's OK, Grandma. It's not your fault."

"But it is my fault," her grandmother said, clearly upset. "If I hadn't gone inside for one minute-"

"How could you know any of this would happen?"

"But, but. If I'd just stayed there, watched over the fountain the way I said-" Grandma Ellie's voice rose in anguish.

"This might have happened anyway," her mother said appearing at her side and kneeling down beside Grandma Ellie. "It's not your fault Mom. You did everything you could to keep Julianna safe tonight, to keep everyone here safe. Otherwise you'd have been at home or out celebrating with friends."

Her grandmother continued to sob as Maxine held her hands and her mother rubbed Grandma Ellie's back.

Chapter Eight.

It was light by the time Grandma Ellie, her mother, Walt and Maxine were allowed to leave.

Statements had been taken from everyone still there. And the rest of the party goers would be waking up to a police man ready to question them.

Her mother and Walt had taken turns sitting with Grandma Ellie that night. Usually able to handle anything life threw at her with her trademark wit and humor this had thrown her badly. Even after she'd fallen into a fitful sleep she kept waking and crying out.

"I can stay with her," Maxine said, but her mother wouldn't hear of it.

"You've been up since the crack of dawn yesterday and the next couple of days are going to be horrible for you. You need to sleep," her mother said refusing to take no for an answer.

Except of course she couldn't. She kept reviewing the evening in her mind. Everything had been going so well...And then. The food fight started. She tried to remember who had started it and couldn't. Things kept slipping through her mind in a kaleidoscope of colors and pictures mixing together in nightmares of sound and color.

Detective Shannon came over early the next afternoon, eyes blood shot and bleary from lack of sleep. His clothes, too, were uncharacteristically wrinkled.

"Have you slept at all," Maxine asked although she wasn't much better. So far most of Victoria was still asleep, blissfully unaware of what had happened. She shuddered thinking of the headlines when they did wake up.

Happy New Year.

He shook his head. "We had to secure the crime scene and question everyone there. We'll question the guests that had left today."

"It's as if there's some type of curse on me," she said gloomily. "I think I'm going to quit catering and just stick to running the shop. There's enough business to keep me going without the catering."

"This has nothing to do with your catering," Patrick said harshly.

"I don't know, every time...I can't keep doing this." She shook her head.

"You can't let some killer take your dreams away," Patrick said darkly. "If you do he wins."

"I was hoping I could find some clues into what happened to Julianna last night. We all were," she said brokenly. "You're right. I should stop being so nosy and just let you do your job."

"I don't think that would've stopped this," Patrick said softly. "Whoever attacked Julianna in the first place is still out there. You may have stopped something happening sooner." He shook his head. "And h.e.l.l, I was hoping maybe you'd find out something. It wouldn't be the first time." He gently put his hand under her chin, lifting her face to his. "Maybe you did," Patrick said looking her straight in the eyes. "Between us maybe we can come up with some answers."

She just shook her head not looking at him.

"It's worth a shot," He said roughly, pulling her to him.

For just a minute she thought he was going to kiss her. Her heart sped up. She closed her eyes relaxing into him. And then he pulled away.

She didn't want him to kiss her anyway.

He pulled out a picture of a man. The dead man she thought, stomach queasy.

She blinked, trying to focus, as her eyes blurred with tears. He looked familiar. Had he been around the fountain when the food fight started or when it had ended?

"I don't know. I heard them talking about what everyone did for Christmas, the holidays, the game coming out, university, sports." She paused for a minute. "One of their friends wanted the inside scoop of when they were going public." She shut her eyes, squeezing them tight, trying to remember. "I don't know why, they all denied it-but somehow I got the impression AC Gamers IS going public."

Patrick looked shocked. "That could be a big deal," he said. "If you hear anything more let me know."

She felt a start of awareness, her eyes widened and she gave a small cry.

"What?" he said.

"Julianna was talking about flashes of her memory coming back. I took her aside. I told her it wasn't a good idea."

"You may have saved her life," he said grimly.

She only shook her head.

In Grandma Ellie's her mother and Walt sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee. They were supposed to be flying out later that day.

"I'll phone and cancel," her mother said now. "We can't leave like...this."

Detective Shannon nodded while Maxine found herself blurting out a"You can't cancel! What about your job, your-"

"You need us," her mother said firmly. "Mom needs us." She looked sharply at Patrick. "You took statements last night. Surely we can let her sleep now."

He gave a small smile. "I'm not a brute. I can wait until she wakes up. But I do want to talk to her. She's got an eye for detail and she doesn't miss much. I'm hoping when she's calmed down she'll be able to remember something. At the very least we can get a better idea of how many people and who were around the fountain area before she went inside."

"Right now I was thinking maybe we could go over your statements again. Everyone was upset last night and it was late. We could have missed something."

Neither of them could come up with anything. When Detective Shannon left they sat at the kitchen drinking coffee, too tired to move, their appet.i.tes non-existent.

Outside, in garish contrast sun shone brightly, while birds sang merrily on trees, stripped down to their skeletal remains, until another spring sent them into bloom. The sky was a clear, cobalt blue and even a dusting of frost, now melting, couldn't change the brilliance of the day.

Maxine's cell phone started to vibrate. She answered it, moving away from the kitchen table. It was Heath. He wanted know what happened and fill her in on anything she'd missed. She agreed to meet him at the Beacon Hill drive-in and go for a walk.

"They let us take all the stuff from the kitchen upstairs. The fountain is still..."his voice trailed off. "I gave Sara and Danielle a bonus. The way they ran up and down those stairs last night they probably burned holes in their shoes. And this has shaken them up."

She nodded as they walked through the park. Small children threw bread crumbs at the ducks as they swam lazily in the small ponds. "It's shaken all of us. I just can't believe..."she shook her head.

"The kitchen was a dead zone. Except for things Sara and Danielle said when they were taking food up or down we might as well have been on Mars."

"I was in the middle of it," she said gloomily. "And I didn't notice anything until it was too late."

"At least Julianna is OK," he said with his trademark optimism.

"For how long," Maxine said sharply.

Later when she said something about AC Gamers going public Walt disappeared with a muttered, "I need to check something out."

"Isn't he acting a little strangely," she asked her mother who shrugged.

"We're all acting differently today. After all," she shook her head. "People don't usually die at a New Year's party."

Except at hers. It hung in the air between them.

"This was not your fault," her mother said. "Walt does a lot of investing. He's probably checking with his contacts to see what he can find out about AC Gamers."

She blinked back tears as she gave her mother a hug. It meant a lot to her that for once her mother wasn't criticizing her. They heard Grandma Ellie in the bedroom.

"I should go to her," her mother said quickly.

"Give her a minute to wake up. She won't like being treated as an invalid," Maxine said.

Her mother sighed but stopped herself from rus.h.i.+ng to Grandma Ellie's aid. She was flipping through a magazine when her mother came out, fully dressed.

Though she was dressed in a bright, pucci inspired tunic and leggings with her trademark gla.s.ses her face was drawn, her eyes not sparkling with their usual intelligence and wit.

"Grandma," Maxine said going to her and hugging her. Her mother joined them in a group hug.

Her Grandma drew back but she had a watery smile back in place. "At least we're together. Although you'll be leaving in a few hours," she said, frowning as she looked at the wall clock.

Her mother wiped a tear away from her eye. "I've already called and cancelled. Walt and I are staying, at least for a couple of days."

Grandma Ellie brightened. "Well, I don't want you to change your plans on my account but I won't say I'm not happy," she said, pouring herself a cup of coffee and sitting down at the kitchen table.

"Have the police arrested anyone?"