Buried In Buttercream

come out here now.”
    She walked back to Savannah and Dirk, shaking her head. “He’s converted that back bedroom into a workshop, and I can’t get him out of there. If he’s not working on Lizzie’s dollhouse, he’s making feeders and houses for the birds.”
    Savannah thought of her own grandfather, forever tinkering in the shed behind his and Granny’s house. And she felt a pang of sorrow for this couple, whose family had been visited by tragedy ... and they didn’t even know it yet.
    Stealing a look at Dirk, she saw he was feeling as miserable as she was. Notifications were the pits; no way around it.
    An older man came down the hall, looking mildly disgruntled to have been disturbed. With his shoulder-length, curly white hair, big white mustache and goatee, and a red and green plaid, flannel shirt, he reminded her a bit of Santa Claus.
    “What’s all this about?” he asked as he entered the room. “Who’s this?” He nodded toward Dirk and Savannah.
    Again Dirk took his badge from his pocket and introduced himself to the man.
    Less friendly than his wife, he eyed them both with suspicion. “Well, what can we do for you two?” he asked gruffly.
    “Honey, we should at least ask them if they want to sit down,” Geraldine told her husband. Then she turned to them. “And would you like some cookies? They’re fresh from the oven.”
    “No, ma’am,” Dirk said. “We’d best get to what we came here for.” He shot Savannah a helpless look. He often froze at this point in a difficult notification.
    “I’m afraid we have some bad news for you,” Savannah began.
    “Our son, Ethan?” Mr. Aberson asked, his voice cracking.
    “No. To the best of our knowledge, your son is all right. It’s his wife, Madeline.”
    Geraldine gasped and sat down abruptly on the footstool of a winged-back chair.
    Reuben placed his hand on her shoulder and drew a deep breath. “Well, I guess it’s bad, or you wouldn’t have come here in person to tell us about her.”
    “Yes, sir,” Savannah said. “Earlier today, there was an incident at a country club where she was working. And I’m sorry to have to tell you that she ... sustained some injuries. Those at the scene did all they could for her. But her injuries were fatal.”
    The elderly couple simply stared at them for the longest time. Savannah was beginning to think they hadn’t heard her, or perhaps she hadn’t been direct enough.
    “Madeline has passed away,” she said simply.
    “She’s dead?” Reuben asked.
    “Yes,” Dirk told him. “I’m sorry.”
    Geraldine clapped her hands over her face and she started to shake. She stared up at her husband, as though looking to him for direction on how to act.
    But he was relatively impassive, considering the news he had just received.
    “How did she die?” he asked, as though he were inquiring about the temperature outside.
    “We won’t know for sure until after the autopsy has been performed,” Dirk told him, “but we’re pretty sure she was murdered.”
    Geraldine started to cry softly into her hands. “This is terrible,” she said. “Poor little Lizzie.”
    “Lizzie will be okay.” Reuben Aberson tucked his shirt into his pants and adjusted his belt. “She still has her father ... and us. She’ll be fine without that stupid, heartless—”
    “Reub! You mustn’t speak ill of the dead,” his wife said, grabbing his hand and pulling on it hard. “She’s ... well ... she was ... our granddaughter’s mother.”
    “No matter what’s happened to her, I’m not going to start pretending like she was a good person.” Reuben pulled his hand away from his wife’s and walked over to the door. “And if that’s all you two have to tell us, I’ll thank you for the news and tell you good-bye now.”
    “Mr. Aberson,” Savannah said, “even if you weren’t on good terms with your son’s wife, you would still want her killer brought to justice, wouldn’t you?”
    He didn’t reply, but he didn’t open the door.
    “Do you know anyone who would want to do her harm?” Dirk asked.
    “Everyone who ever knew her,” Reuben replied, stone-faced.
    “That bad, huh?” Savannah said.
    Geraldine rose and walked over to stand beside her husband. “You’ll have to forgive us,” she said, “even if you think we’re hard-hearted. But Madeline and our son were in the middle of an awful divorce. And she’s said some terrible things about our boy, horrible lies ... to try to gain complete