Every good Irish person knows that green on your wedding day is bad luck; it calls to the fairies to come. If the bride were to lift both her feet off the floor, they might secret her away.

  Granted, modern brides are not quite as superstitious as those of a few hundred years ago, but it’s lovely that Morgan would respect the ways of old. There is honor in tradition, along with comfort, and more than a little weirdness.

  Seemed like the actual wedding ceremony only took moments. As is our custom, the bells handed out at the beginning of the ceremony were rung right after the vows were exchanged. In their married life, when Morgan and Liam hear bells, it will remind them of that vow and that commitment. Maybe not the same as an angel getting its wings, but still, significant.

  They recited semi-traditional Irish vows.

  The bride and groom danced back down the aisle, followed by the flower girl and the best man. Then the parents of the bride and groom, beaming, walked down the aisle and out the doors.

  We were invited to join the wedding party in an adjacent conference room. There was a beautiful backdrop set up at the end of the small room, and each of us was invited to take a picture with the bride and groom, individually or as a group.

  With all the catcalls and jokes made, some of those pictures are going to be priceless.

  When all the pictures were taken, which didn’t take long since there were two photographers taking them, we were invited back to the ballroom.

  While we’d been having pictures taken, the ballroom had been transformed.

  Where just minutes before had been an area for the ceremony was now the DJ’s sound equipment.

  Where the flowers had outlined the window, creating the perfect backdrop for the bride and groom making their vows, the wedding cake was now centered.

  To the right of where the chairs had been for the ceremony, the divider had been taken down. At the far end of the huge room, a buffet was set up. Long tables with silver serving dishes arranged at different heights, full of fabulous food. Cruise buffets and Las Vegas can’t do a better job than Jovana did. The only thing we were missing was an eight-foot ice sculpture.

  As we entered the door, there was a table with place cards. The outside of the card was framed with teal blue. I found the table with teal blue sand in the centerpiece and placed my card near a plate. I’d grabbed A.J.’s as well, but I’m not convinced he will sit down long enough to require an actual chair. Nana and Adeline were at our table as well. So was one of my aunts and a couple of friends of Morgan’s family.

  Morgan had disappeared when the pictures in the conference room were done.

  The DJ announced Mr. and Mrs. Liam O’Flynn, and in walked Liam and Morgan. He was still in his tux; Morgan was in a different dress. Gorgeous. Soft white. Same neckline, but this one was a fitted column dress with lots of beading, but no appliqués.

  Servers came around with drinks.

  The wedding party and parents made their way down the buffet.

  The DJ called us to the buffet one table at a time. For the people not standing in line at the buffet, drinks were brought to the tables.

  We got our food and enjoyed the meal and the company.

  Morgan and Liam came to each table to talk to their guests. It was then I got to get a close-up look at her dress.

  “I love both dresses.”

  “Just one dress.”

  “But it was a ball gown and now it isn’t.”

  “It had an overskirt that Velcro-ed on and off and some appliqués that were on chiffon that came off too.”

  “Genius.”

  “I think the designer is going to go a long way. When I told her that I was going to marry a traditional Irish guy, she knew just what to do. The appliqués are all of Irish flowers. There is a horseshoe, a little golden one, sewn into the dress. She will take it out, and it becomes a charm or a necklace. There are little bells embroidered into the dress. She even has Jordan’s name in beads.” She showed me the personal touch.

  I introduced Morgan and Liam to Nana and Adeline.

  Nana said, “The dress is beautiful, but it is the woman in it that truly shines. You are a very lucky young man.”

  Liam all but burst with pride. “I am a lucky man.”

  The whole table responded. “We know!” Good-natured laughter all around.

  The tables were cleared, the bride danced with her groom, and the groom with our mother. Then my dad was dancing with Morgan’s mother, and my mother was dancing with Morgan’s father. Then the bride was dancing with her son, and the groom was dancing with their flower girl.

  After that first dance, Liam and Morgan took to the microphone, thanked everyone for coming, their parents, then Jovana and her husband. They looked shocked. Liam and Morgan explained that without the help of Jovana and her husband, whom they’d never met before their generous offer of the use of the ballroom, they would have been unable to have their fantasy wedding. The music came up. Morgan and Liam looked like they would waltz, but instead grabbed Jovana and her husband and danced them around the ballroom like they knew what they were doing. It was stunning. Who knew my brother could dance like that. Morgan is such a good influence. They must have been practicing for a while now.

  The next dance, Morgan took A.J. out on the dance floor, and Liam took Sara. The DJ announced that the dress was Sara’s design and was commissioned with great help from A.J.

  After that, the party really got going.

  Lots of dancing. Lots of eating for those that found their way to seconds and thirds from the buffet. Lots of drinking. Lots of storytelling. Lots of blending of family and friends.

  At one point, a very proper looking woman accompanied Morgan to our table. She was introduced as Nana Jo. It is sometimes the most innocent comments that shove you in a whole new direction.

  “Cara, you and your sisters are such a testimonial to the wonder of nature. Each of you looks so different.”

  “We’ve talked to my mom about that, but she swears we are actually related.”

  Teagan piped in, “It would answer a lot of questions if we were adopted or something.”

  Nana Jo smiled politely. “What came to my mind is that although none of you girls look the least little bit alike, you all look just like your momma.”

  Teagan and I must have shown our confusion.

  “Just look at Teagan. She has her eyes. If you look at your mother, you can see each of you girls. If you look at you girls, you can see your mother. It’s when you look at each other that you don’t see it, but just wait, as you get older, you will.”

  “What a lovely thought.”

  We moved on to the next subject.

  A.J. finally had a few minutes to dance. When we’d had our dance, he danced with my mom and his Nana.

  Nana and Adeline were the bells of the ball. No pun intended. They danced the evening through.

  The cake was cut, the last of the toasts were made, and I realized I was more tired than I’d been in a long time, a happy tired. We left in a little caravan. Jessie led the way, then Teagan, then me.

  Teagan and Jessie would follow me home, while A.J. brought Nana home.

  Adeline was going home with Jovana.

  When we were most of the way to the apartment, I called Teagan at a stoplight. “You got a minute?”

  “Why?”

  “I got to thinking. I need your help to check something. It should only take a couple of minutes.”

  “Let me check with Jessie. I’ll call you right back.”

  I thought it through while I drove.

  My phone rang two exits before the apartment.

  “Jessie will drop me at your place, then go over to my place. He’s got some calls to make anyway. He said you can borrow me for no more than forty-five minutes, and you need to bring me home when you are done with me.”

  We laughed.

  When we got in the apartment, I went straight to the computer. I didn’t even kick off my shoes. That never happens.

  “So, what?”

  “Something Nana Jo said. Can you just do something for me? Can you just get us back to that woman you found, the one you are so convinced is Jerkface’s sister?”

  “You can do that, Cara. Just go into your history file.”

  “Good idea, but it was on your laptop, not my computer.”

  “Good point. Give me a minute.”

  She typed away, trying to retrace her steps. After a few minutes, and a few cuss words, she found it.

  “Her name is Kirsten Branden Gagnon. She lives locally. She is about the right age. You ready to spend the money to do a background check on her?”

  “No, but what I want to do is see if I can find a picture of her.”

  “That should be easy enough. We’ll just Google her name.”

  We typed it in, did the search, hit ‘images,’ and tried to divine which image could be her. None of them looked like Jerkface.

  Teagan logged on to her account on the social network, did a search for the name, and got a picture.

  “Sorry to waste your time, Teagan. That didn’t work.”

  “What didn’t work?”

  “I was just sure that we would find the picture, and even though all those girls didn’t look like each other, they would look like her.”

  “What?”

  “When Nana Jo said that we all look like Mom, even though we don’t look like each other, it got me to thinking. They have on TV all the time that the murder victims look a lot alike. None of the girls I saw really look alike, so I was thinking that maybe the thing that held them all together was that they all looked like Jerkface’s sister. Maybe he was out killing them because of some weird thing he has going about his sister, but it didn’t work. Those girls don’t look like her.”

  “It was a good try.”

  “I just can’t let go of what Jerkface told me when I first met him. He kept saying that the key to these crimes is in the minutia. It’s driving me nuts.”

  “Good news is it isn’t a long drive.”

  “Love you, too. Go home. Jessie is waiting for you. A.J. will be home any minute. He’s going to be pooped. I don’t think he sat down for more than twelve seconds today.”

  “He really is a good guy, Cara.”

  “I know he is. You know what is going on with Jessie and his relocation yet?”

  “No decision has been made. He asked me again if I wanted to go with him.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I said that I couldn’t think about it. That I had the wedding and the murders and everything to deal with.”

  “But you didn’t say no.”

  “I didn’t say yes.”

  “But you didn’t say no. That should tell you something. Maybe you should go.”

  “You trying to get rid of me, Cara?”

  “No, I’m trying to be a good sister and tell you that you should go if that is what is best for you, and I won’t even threaten to slit my wrists or anything.”

  “Well, as long as you are being supportive.”

  “That’s what I’m saying.”

  “Even if I decided to go, it would be a process. It isn’t like I’d decide to go and be gone tomorrow.”

  “Do you even know where?”

  “Until I figure out if I’m even slightly interested in going, I’m not going to say where, because it doesn’t matter.”

  “Sure it does. If you decide to move, and you move to Tallahassee, that’s one thing. If you move to Atlanta, that’s another. But if you move to Wasilla, Alaska, that is a whole other issue.”

  “As soon as I know, you’ll know.”

  “Does Mom know you are thinking about it?”

  “I promise, if I move to Wasilla, I’ll send her a postcard letting her know I arrived safely. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t come after me.”

  “Probably not, but she might send somebody. Go home!”

  “You want I should walk?”

  “Lord. I forgot. You don’t have your car. I’m really beginning to worry about myself.”

  FOUR

  “I CAN’T STOP thinking about it.”

  “Last night?” He had that ‘I’m just teasing, but reassure me anyway’ thing going on that guys sometimes get.

  “Well, that goes without saying, but I was multi-tasking, ya know, kind of like you were last night, only not quite as much skill, or quite as fun, but the best I can do in my current state.”

  “Current state?”

  “Hungover.”

  “Hungover? Cara, you don’t even really drink. How could you be hungover?”

  “Not on alcohol. On you!”

  I love it when he blushes. “Oh!”

  “What I was thinking about is minutia.”

  “Okay.”

  “The whole thing with Jerkface.”

  “Okay.”

  “My mom used to tell us all the time that it’s just plain stupid to tell a lie because no matter what you do the truth of it will rise to the top. That the more cunning you’re trying to be, the more likely you are to reveal yourself.”

  “Okay.”

  “When Jerkface was talking to me, way back when all this started, he said that Louis was just sure that every crime could be solved with enough inspection of the related minutia. It had a ring of truth to it. It meant something.”

  “Okay.”

  “What if that’s actually what happened? What if Louis was slogging through the minutia and what he found was information that pointed at Jerkface?”

  “Doesn’t that sound just as convenient as the theory going the other direction? The theory Steph and Carmine proposed and you and Teagan got so upset about?”

  “Pretty much, except that my theory feels right.”

  “That’s scientific.”

  “Don’t be like that.”

  “I’m just telling you what the reaction is likely to be.”

  “Then I need to find evidence to prove my theory.”

  “Hold on. First, you’re supposed to stay out of this whole thing and let the professionals deal with it. Remember? We agreed.”

  “But if they’re right, the bad guys are already in jail, if it really is Jerkface and his sister. Or he’s dead, if it was Louis. Either way there isn’t any real threat to me anymore. If the professionals are wrong, then the bad guys were either never in jail, or will be out of jail soon enough, and then when I’m not paying attention because I think everything is just spiffy, it is all gonna sneak up on me and bite me in the butt.”

  “We wouldn’t want that. It’s such a cute butt.”

  “If Jerkface and his sister convince the world at large that Louis was the killer and they were just trying to cover it up after Louis’s unfortunate accident so that the money that was legitimately left to the place where Jerkface’s sister worked would not be hosed up, then they are gonna be in trouble, but not serial murderer trouble.”

  “You know, that never really made sense to me anyway…”

  “Doesn’t make sense to me either, but that’s pretty much what Steph told us.”

  “I’m pretty sure Steph knows a bunch more than she is telling us.”

  “That’s another thing. Why is Steph in on all of this anyway? Seems like it would be a cop thing, not a lawyer thing.”

  “I agree.”

  “When you think of a lawyer involved in any process, you think she is there to protect the interests of her client. If I’m not her client, and we’re pretty sure I’m not — Teagan thinks that Steph approached her, not the other way around — so if Steph had some other interest in this, what is her interest? Who is she protecting? Jerkface and his sister hadn’t even come into the picture yet, and Louis was already dead.”

  “Good question.”

  “And, what is the connection? There has to be one. If Jerkface is the killer, why did they arrest his sister? And if she is the killer, why did they arrest Jerkface? And if they killed together, where does Louis fit in? And if Louis is the killer, then where do Jerkface and his sister fit in? And if it was Louis and Jerkface’s sister, what the hell is that and what about Jerkface?”

  “Those are all really good questions, and I don’t have an answer to any of them.”

  “Well, I’m gonna find an answer to all of them.”

  “And how are you going to do that?”

  “The answer is in the minutia.”

  “Great. I liked it better when we’d decided that it was all over but the court appearance.”

  “Your grandmother told me to stop acting like a ninny, and she was right. I’ve been sitting back and letting life happen to me. That isn’t the O’Flynn way. That isn’t my way. I make my life what it is by the actions I take. Life is cause and effect. Choose your cliché. I’m getting my reality back.”

  “Where do we start?”

  “You go to work. I’m pretty sure that I’m perfectly safe. No matter who the bad guy is, he isn’t going to want to bring attention to himself, so he isn’t going to do anything to hurt me. I’m going to snoop around on the Internet for a while, think for a while, and then call Jovana to see if there is anything I can do to help with the cleanup at the ballroom or somehow pay back her or the girls from the bar for all they have done for me and my family. Then I’m going to check on Adeline. Then I’m going to the mall and finding a completely inappropriate and unbelievably sheer fabulous something to wear tonight. I’m going grocery shopping. Then I am going to meet you back here, with a wonderful dinner prepared, and me, in said unbelievably sheer fabulous outfit, doing my very best to get all of your attention back to more pleasant things.”

  “Well, I won’t be going outside for a few minutes. I’ll put the kettle on so you can have a cup of tea.”

  Good thing we have an automatic shut-off on the kettle.

  Good thing A.J. makes his own hours.

  I’m just sayin’.

  My mom called before I could put my plans for the day into action. “Hello, love.”

  “Hi, Mom, what’s up?”

  “Your brother and his new bride have asked that I give the family a call. They would like to get together here for dinner tomorrow tonight, along with a few members of Morgan’s family, to eat some of that leftover food from the wedding and open their gifts.”