Teaberry Invitational

by R A Wallace

  “Announcers?” Megan tried to remember the names.

  Pat nodded. “In fact, Phoebe and Van sat at the bar. There weren’t any free tables on the restaurant side. You might want to talk to them. Van in particular. I noticed that he was here the whole time I was. He may have seen something.”

  As another group of people entered the restaurant, Megan thanked Pat and left. She stood in front of the restaurant and texted Susan. She got a response almost immediately. She walked around the corner of the restaurant to the tables in the back. It looked like Ross, Susan, Vince, and Bev had just finished their meals and were lingering over drinks.

  “Hey, how did it go today?” Megan took a seat at the table.

  “We can honestly say that we had a lot of fun,” Susan said with a grin at Ross.

  “I don’t think the golf world has to worry about us taking it by storm,” Ross agreed. “But we didn’t embarrass ourselves either.”

  “Then it was a good day,” Megan said.

  “How are you doing with your puzzle so far?” Bev asked.

  “I was hoping Susan and Ross could help.”

  “We were just talking about that,” Susan said. “We might have one or two pieces. I don’t think you’ll be able to solve your puzzle with them…”

  “But they might help to see the overall picture,” Megan finished.

  “I did see Jay in something of a discussion,” Ross said. “I wouldn’t call it an argument, exactly. But there was a little heat to it.”

  “With who?” Megan asked.

  “The golf instructor, Wes. Have you met him yet?” Ross asked. At Megan’s nod, he continued. “It was about Maya, the young player.”

  “She seems to have her fair share of detractors.” Megan thought of Avery, the man she’d spoken with earlier.

  “Apparently Jay was one of them. I heard Wes tell Jay to lay off her.” Ross shrugged. “Like I said, it might not help your puzzle.”

  Megan turned to Susan. “I only have background information. I don’t know if you noticed, but Maya doesn’t have anyone around to support her.”

  Megan had wondered about that.

  “Her mom passed away a few years ago,” Susan said.

  “Is her dad working?” Megan asked.

  “That I don’t know. I can tell you that it’s been years since I’ve seen him here at the golf course. Other than dropping Maya off, Sebastien doesn’t have anything to do with her career.”

  Megan saw the waiter heading toward their table. “I should let you go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  As she passed through the outdoor seating area, she saw a group of men that she recognized. She’d spoken with them while working on a different puzzle. They recognized her also and called out greetings.

  “Press pass? Have you turned from amateur sleuth to reporter?” Jack asked.

  Megan stopped at their table. “I have not but I am on double duty. You wouldn’t happen to have any clues for me, would you?”

  “You’re talking about the death of Jay Kerns?” Dave asked.

  Megan nodded.

  “We knew him, of course. We followed his career,” George said.

  “Career? I knew he was going to be a guest announcer at the tournament. He was also one of the sponsors, right?” Megan asked.

  “He was,” Jack agreed.

  “But that’s now,” George said. “We’re talking about when he was young.”

  “Back in the day, he was a phenom,” Dave said.

  “He was? That must have been quite a while ago,” she said. She hadn’t found any recent articles on that when she was looking up information for the town web site.

  “It doesn’t seem like a long time ago, but it was,” Jack agreed.

  “Were you here the night he died?” Megan asked.

  “Oh, sure. We’re here almost every day,” George said.

  “We didn’t stay late though,” Dave added.

  “It got real busy,” Jack said. “We figured we should give up our seats.”

  “We left around the time Pat usually does,” George said.

  “She stayed late that day,” Dave said with a nod. “She switched her schedule up.”

  ***

  Ava felt her stomach churn as she walked slowly from the parking lot of the community college to the building that housed the classroom she was to speak in. It was a familiar feeling. As a child, she’d always hated going to school. She was glad that she hadn’t passed that trait down to Bella. Her daughter loved school and everything about it. Ava wondered if that was because Bella looked at things differently. Maybe she should take a lesson from her daughter. Bella loved learning. She was willing to ignore the odd comments that she got from other kids for being smarter than most of the people around her.

  Maybe Ava should focus on the positive parts of going to school and forget about the rest. She still couldn’t believe that she was at a college or that anyone would want to listen to her talk about how she had started her business, Maid in Teaberry. As she neared the building, she saw a group of students gathered out front. She thought she recognized some of them. They’d asked her questions after her first presentation to the class.

  “Hey, you came back,” one of the students said. She smiled a greeting. “I was hoping you would. I thought of some questions I wanted to ask you after you left.”

  “That happens to me all the time,” another student said. “I remember what I should have asked hours later.”

  “That’s good,” Ava said. “I planned for question time at the end of the presentation today.”

  “I was wondering how you knew that you wanted to own a cleaning business,” one of the students said. “Maybe you can address that in your presentation?”

  Ava laughed. “I will, but I don’t think you’ll find a formula for success. In my case, it was just a matter of finding a job that allowed me flexibility as a young single mother.”

  “I think there are a lot of people who need that kind of advice,” another student said. “I just got married last fall and my wife is due at the end of the year. We’re trying to figure out how we’re going to juggle work and kids.”

  “We’d better get inside,” someone said. “It’s almost time for class. Maybe we can talk about this more?”

  “Sure,” Ava said. As she followed them into the building, she realized that her stomach wasn’t upset anymore.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I can’t imagine that,” Dan said. “Why wouldn’t Sebastien want to be involved with Maya’s career? He’s her father.”

  “I don’t know. I just thought it was sad that Maya was there on her own like that. It made more sense to learn that someone like Wes was defending her. She’s on her own whenever she’s at the golf course.” Megan reached for his hand to walk up the temporary steps into the new addition.

  “It doesn’t make sense that someone like Jay would criticize her. I mean, he should have known better than to do something like that,” Dan said stubbornly. “He was a sponsor of the tournament. He obviously loved golf. Why would he be critical of the next generation coming into the game?”

  “I don’t disagree. I didn’t know Jay Kerns well enough to understand why he would do it. I can tell you that he’s not the only one to do so.” She looked around to see what the builders had gotten done since the previous morning when they had last checked.

  “What do you mean?” Dan stepped through an open doorway into the next room.

  “After Wes got Maya calm enough to tee off, a man next to me said something. He’s one of the sports writers.” She followed him into the next room.

  Dan shook his head. “Don’t they understand she’s just a kid?”

  “I wonder what ours will be like?” Megan said. She watched the scowl on his face turn to a goofy grin just as his phone started buzzing.

  He pulled it from his pocket and checked it.

  “It’s a text from work. I should get going. We’re still a little short handed since Trina left to work
at the nursery with Jax and Seth.”

  “Have you placed an ad to hire someone else?” she asked as she began following him out.

  “Yeah, and I’ve gotten a few applications.” He turned to help her back down the steps.

  “But?” She walked next to him around the corner of the house.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know why I’ve hesitated.” They climbed the porch steps and he opened the kitchen door.

  “I know you said Cole is still working with you and also out at the golf course. How is he doing that?” She slipped his jacket from her shoulders and put it on the chair. Hers no longer fit her and it was easier to just wear his.

  “He isn’t working with me this week during the tournament. They wanted him out there as much as possible. After that, he’ll have minimal hours at the feed store until school lets out. Then he’s going to be working more at both places.” Dan picked up his empty coffee cup and carried it over to the dishwasher.

  “Wow. Two jobs plus school.” She put the water kettle on the burner and turned it on. “That has to be tough.”

  “What are you doing today?” he asked.

  “I need to stop at the nursery and touch base with Trina.”

  “For the web pages you developed for the nursery?”

  “Yeah.” She rinsed her tea mug and dropped another tea bag into it. “After that, I’ll be back at the golf course trying to talk with more people.”

  He crossed the room and leaned in for a kiss.

  “Promise me you’ll take it easy,” he said.

  “I’m not doing anything strenuous. If anything, walking around the grounds there is good exercise.”

  ***

  Trina lifted the bag of fertilizer and tossed it onto the cart.

  “I’ll have someone take this to your car for you,” she said to the woman.

  “Thank you, that would be helpful. I might be able to tuck some of those plants on the floor in the back seat.”

  “I have some plastic you could put underneath them to help keep the floor clean.” Trina crossed over to the cash register and picked up the radio.

  After requesting assistance at the register, she turned to ring up the next customer. When she saw one of the employees come in to answer her radio call, she pulled a couple sheets of plastic remnants that she kept behind the counter and handed them off to the employee as he went by with the cart of fertilizer.

  “Have a nice day,” Trina called to the woman.

  She watched as someone opened the door and held it for the cart with fertilizer. After her employee and the customer passed through to exit, Megan came inside.

  “Hey, stranger. What brings you in?”

  “I thought I’d stop and touch base with you about the web site,” Megan said as she reached the checkout counter.

  “You finished it?” Trina turned to her computer. “I have to take a look.”

  “How are things going here?” Megan asked.

  “I definitely cannot complain. We’ve been doing better than any of us thought we’d be doing at this point. We had Sal’s old records to look at and we’re topping all his sales at this time in the year.” Trina clicked on the navigation links. “This looks awesome. You got the online ordering code done too?”

  “I did. That’s what I wanted to tell you. I can make it live whenever you’re ready to handle any orders that you get. I set it up so that you get an email whenever an order is placed but I can also have a text message sent.”

  Trina didn’t think twice. “I like the idea of a text also.”

  “Hey, is that our new web site?” Jax asked as he walked in.

  Seth was right behind him. “I want to see.”

  “She has the online ordering system ready to go also,” Trina said.

  “I’ll activate it now if you’re ready,” Megan said as she pulled out her phone. “I can log in and do it while I’m here.”

  “Yeah, do it.” Trina motioned to a customer to go to the other side of the counter. “I can take you over here.”

  Megan finished making the changes and tucked her phone away.

  “It looks like you guys are keeping busy,” she said to them.

  “We’re swamped in a good way,” Jax said as his eyes dropped to her press pass. “What’s this?”

  “I’ve been watching your mom and Ross play golf,” she said with a laugh.

  “Yeah? Does that mean you’re working on a puzzle?” Jax asked.

  “Well, I did promise I’d keep my eyes open while I’m there,” she said.

  “We might have a clue,” Jax said as he glanced at Seth. “Not a great one, but maybe a small puzzle piece.”

  “Really? You guys were at the golf course?” She hadn’t thought to ask them if they might know anything.

  “Yeah, we handled the landscaping,” Seth said.

  “It looks really nice,” Megan said. “What’s the puzzle piece?”

  “We saw the man that died having an argument,” Seth said. “But I doubt that the kid who was telling him off was the one who killed him.”

  “A kid?” Megan pulled her phone back out.

  “Yeah. She definitely wasn’t taking any guff from him,” Jax said. “I heard him say something to her first. It was something like she shouldn’t be there or something.”

  “Was this her?” Megan asked as she held up a picture of Maya.

  “Yeah,” they said in unison.

  “Anyway, she told him that she had every right to be there and if he didn’t stop harassing her, she was going to file a complaint,” Jax said.

  “Why do you think she couldn’t be the killer?” Megan asked.

  Seth shrugged. “She’s just a kid.”

  “We also saw some of the players going into town when we were there,” Jax said. “Maybe someone else in town heard something?”

  ***

  Barbara Reynolds stepped inside Olde Tomes and tried not to sigh audibly. She’d always had a fondness for bookstores. She could spend hours in them if she had the time. She crossed over to the history section as Tia came in from the back room.

  “I thought I heard the bells on the door,” Tia said. “How are you today, Mayor Reynolds?”

  “Tia, I’ve asked you before to call me Barbara.” She waved the history section. “Matthias has been talking about a new book that’s out. I thought I’d pick it up for him as a surprise.”

  Tia moved across the shop. “He’s probably talking about this one.” She pulled it from the shelf and held it up.

  “That is it, thank you. It helps to be psychic, so you know what your customer’s want,” Barbara joked as her eyes automatically roamed the store.

  Tia laughed. “Not psychic. I just know the books that your husband usually buys when he’s here.”

  The bells on the door opened as a couple walked in.

  “Let me know if you need any help,” Tia called to them.

  “We got a flyer from one of the other shops,” one of them said. “We thought we’d see what you have.”

  “As you can see on the flyer, there’s a coupon there for your purchase if you make one.” Tia turned to Barbara. “I’m telling you, that flyer idea that Caitlyn came up with has been amazing for my foot traffic so far for the golf tournament.”

  “Flyer?” Barbara shifted her focus from the books to Tia. “Caitlyn, you say?”

  “Yes. She designed it and had it run off for us. We all pitched in for the price once she told us the idea.” Tia crossed to her cash register and brought one back to Barbara.

  Barbara glanced at the front then turned it over. “And a map? Clever.”

  “I’ll bet all of us who are listed on the flyer can boast of increased sales from it. I’m hoping the whole week stays this way.” Tia saw the couple move toward the cash register with books in their hands. “Excuse me.”

  Barbara continued browsing for a few more minutes then took her turn at the cash register to pay for Matthias’s book.

  “Would you mind if I hold on to
this?” Barbara asked as she held up the flyer.

  “Not at all. I’ve been putting one in everyone’s bag,” Tia said.

  Barbara smiled her thanks. After leaving Tomes, she walked down to Togs and spoke with Giselle. She heard a similar story about increased sales from her. A visit to Vintage Teaberry, the antique store, had the same results. Finally, she stopped down at Tea & Thyme. She didn’t have to ask them about sales. The addition that Ross McMann had put on for the twins to serve tea and desserts was packed.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Megan found a parking space a couple of blocks down from Caitlyn’s flower shop. Caitlyn wasn’t in the front of the shop when Megan entered, so she walked into the back where her friend created most of her arrangements.

  “How are things going here?” Megan asked as she leaned against a counter.

  “Not bad.” Caitlyn stood on the opposite side of an island working on a bouquet of flowers. “Are you headed out to the tournament today?”

  “I am. Your mom and Ross did well yesterday.”

  Caitlyn grinned. “Mom said they had a lot of fun.”

  “They might be the only ones. Everyone else looked pretty tense to me.”

  “I can’t imagine playing golf with a million cameras trained on me.” Caitlyn lifted the completed bouquet and walked out to put it in a fridge in the front area of the shop.

  Megan followed her. “I’m checking with the shop owners to see if they’ve heard anything about Jay from anyone associated with the golf tournament that might have come to town.”

  “Mom told me that too. Have you had any luck so far?”

  “No, but I’m just starting. Have you heard anything?”

  “No. Am I the first one on your list?” Caitlyn asked.

  Megan nodded as she walked to the front door. “I’m going to work my way down the row.”

  Tia was on a short ladder getting a book from a high shelf for a customer when Megan walked into Olde Tomes. Megan waited until after Tia had rung up the sale to approach her.

  “You look happy,” Megan said.

  “I am having a very good day. My sales are up and my order of a new mystery just came in,” Tia said.