29
The following afternoon, Laurie arrived at the Landmark Tavern first. She took a table where she could easily see the front door. A few minutes later Tiffany came in. Laurie immediately recognized her from her picture on the Marriage Mobile website. When she stood up and waved, Tiffany slithered over to her table. Her cheeks were still pink from the cold, and she shivered as she slipped off her parka but kept it pulled over her shoulders.
“Boy it was cold out there,” she said with a deep sigh. “I should have charged them more.”
“It is cold today,” Laurie agreed, and then added, “Thank you again for meeting me.”
“No problem,” Tiffany said simply. “Like I told you on the phone, I’m glad to have a chance to dump on the Wakelings.”
When the waitress came over, Laurie ordered a glass of Chardonnay.
“I need something a little stronger than that,” Tiffany announced. “I’ll have a double Chivas Regal.”
“I don’t blame you,” Laurie said, smiling as she sipped her wine. “Before we start talking about the Wakelings, I have a question for you. I’m curious. How did you get into the marriage business?”
Tiffany giggled. “A lucky accident. Sort of like betting on the right horse. Two years ago, I jumped through all the hoops to marry two of my close friends who were getting hitched. It was a tiny ceremony, and they wanted every part of it to be special. You’d have thought Prince William was marrying Kate what’s-her-name. So I said I’d figure out a way to officiate. Turns out, the city will let you register as long as you’re a minister, and I found a church online that was willing to make me one. Hard to believe, huh? Anyway, once it was over, I realized I’d had more fun planning their wedding than any job I ever had, so I figured, what the heck? Let’s give it a try. A lot of people just want to get married; they don’t need a whole fancy thing. I show up with some silk flowers, a half-decent photographer, and the paperwork.”
“No muss, no fuss,” Laurie said.
“Yep. In fact, I used that as my motto when I first started my website. And now my job is to help people celebrate the happiest day of their lives with the person they love. Or the second or third time they find true love,” she grinned.
“Good for you,” Laurie said heartily. “And now let’s get to the reason why we’re here. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about Virginia Wakeling’s murder.”
“And I guess my name came up because that night at the Met Gala I was her nephew’s date?” Tiffany asked as she signaled for another Scotch.
“Exactly,” Laurie confirmed. “Any information you have about where her various friends and family members were at the time of her death would be helpful.”
“Well, I can only tell you about one, which is Tom. We weren’t even halfway done with dinner when I started getting bored. His family was sitting together at a nearby table. They kept giving me nasty looks, like I was dirt or something. Tom and I were at some overflow table of people who had only bought one or two tickets, so a bunch of strangers, basically. And dull ones, at that. There was a couple from somewhere in the Middle East. Their accents were really heavy, and I had trouble understanding what they were saying. Another couple was in their mid-nineties and both of them were half-asleep. I tried to liven things up by telling them stories about my grandmother, but even though I was shouting, I don’t think they heard a word.”
Laurie noticed tears glistening in Tiffany’s eyes. “Is your grandmother still with us?”
“She had a stroke a year ago and has lived in a nursing home since then. She’s very forgetful and her only memories are all the men who were chasing her when she was a dancer.” Tiffany took a gulp of her Scotch. “Anyhow, Tom and I decided to get up and move around instead. When I spotted two of the security guards watching the bottom of the staircase get distracted, I grabbed Tom’s hand and ran up the stairs.”
“Was this when the alarm went off in the costume exhibit?”
Tiffany looked confused by the question. “What alarm?”
“I’m sorry. Never mind.” For a moment Laurie had forgotten Detective Hon’s explanation that it had been a silent alarm. “What distracted the guards?”
“One of them was showing the other one his phone. It looked to me like maybe he was posting pictures from the event or something. You ask me, people spend too much time on social media. No matter where you go, somebody’s face is stuck on his cell phone. Right?”
“Right,” Laurie agreed. She found herself liking this eccentric woman more and more by the minute.
“So, anyway, we slipped up to the second floor. No one was around. It was awesome. We roamed all over. And I still remember—because it was honestly the only fun I had that night—we were looking at the old formal portraits, making faces like the ones in the pictures. Not one of them smiling. Then I remembered I heard that the reason they all looked so grim is because they all had bad teeth. I told Tom that and he burst out laughing.”
Laurie nodded. “I’ve read that George Washington never smiled because he was ashamed of his wooden teeth.”
Laurie could see why Detective Hon’s gut had told him that Tiffany was telling the truth. She told the story as if she were still seeing it in her mind today. She was remembering something that actually happened.
“But when did you realize his aunt had been killed?”
“We were hiding behind a post at the top of the stairs. After about fifteen minutes we headed back downstairs. We were waiting for the security guards to get back on their cell phones so we could slip down. But when I sneaked a peek, you would have thought a bomb had exploded in the main hall. Cops and security guards bumping into each other everywhere. Everyone was standing, and they were trying to figure out what the cops were up to. I’m sure no one even noticed us when we joined the crowd. I asked some man what was going on, and he said a woman had died. We had no idea who it was until I saw Anna next to a guy who looked like a cop. She was crying hysterically while her husband held her. It was awful to watch. I knew it had to be about Mrs. Wakeling; I’m instinctive that way. Anyhow, Tom ran over to check on her and heard Anna telling the police that if her mother was murdered, it was by Ivan Gray. What a terrible way it was for him to find out his aunt’s dead.” Tiffany shook her head. “I mean, I know Tom was only their cousin and it was their mother who died, but they didn’t even talk to him that night. I felt really bad for him. He was crying, too. It was like a man without a family.”
For a second, Laurie’s mind flashed to Alex. He had told her once that he felt like a man without a family once his only relative, his brother, had moved to Washington, D.C. “Tiffany, was Tom with you the whole time you were on the second floor?” she asked, trying to focus on the task at hand. “He didn’t leave for the men’s room or anything like that?”
“The police asked me the same thing that night when it was still fresh in my mind. We were definitely together every minute. Are you going to need me for your show? I really want to be on it.”
“I don’t think so, but I’m not sure,” Laurie said. “It’s late. How about having dinner? The shepherd’s pie would be perfect for this weather.”
Tiffany shook her head regretfully. “Nope, I’ve got a Pomeranian at home who’s probably a few minutes away from peeing on my rug.”
Laurie signaled for the check and told Tiffany she didn’t need to wait if she was in a hurry.
“I’m not letting the puppy keep me from finishing this great Scotch. It makes me feel nice and warm.”
Laurie took another sip of her wine. She did not think that Tiffany had anything else to tell her, but she wanted to establish a friendship with her just in case she decided to put her on the show.
Tiffany made it easy for her by saying, “I’d really love to be on your show, even if for only a couple minutes. If you can possibly mention that I’m a wedding planner, that would be really great. And I can’t leave without asking how Tom is doing.”
“He seems fine, from what I could tell in one meeting. He’s working for the real estate development company that his father and uncle started together. From what I was told, he’s much more career-focused now than he was three years ago. He’s still single, in case you’re interested.”
“I’m not. Sure, I know plenty of women who’d be thrilled at the chance to date someone in that family, but he was definitely not for me. No spark. No pizzazz. And there’s no fun in that family. Honestly, part of me wanted to warn Ivan to run away. He was the most interesting person there, if you ask me. I don’t think for one second that he killed Mrs. Wakeling. The way I see it is that he was teaching her how to enjoy life.”
“You gathered all of that from meeting them that one night?”
“I have a sense for these things.”
She said it as if it needed no further explanation. “So who do you think killed Virginia Wakeling?” Laurie asked.
Tiffany didn’t even pause before answering. “I bet she jumped.”
“No one said anything about her being depressed or despondent.”
“That’s not the way it goes. My guess is that she realized when she was with an interesting guy like Ivan that she just didn’t have it in her to keep fighting her kids about him. They drove her to it.”
“You really believe that?”
“Oh, definitely. I met these people for, like, ten minutes. Trust me, if I were stuck with that pain-in-the-butt bunch, I might jump off a roof, too.”