The Lavender Teacup

by Mary Bowers

  Not the show. I could pretty much have told her what they’d gotten from The Professor that morning while Ed interviewed him, and if they got their cut-in footage, I was happy for them. What I really wanted to know was how it was going, having to work with Teddy now that they were no longer a couple.

  “Oh, that hasn’t been a problem. I can handle Teddy. But why is it that men think it’s sexy to act like philandering swine? They must be trying to impress other men, because women don’t like it.”

  I shrugged. “Some of them do.”

  “Then they need to get their hormones adjusted. Oh, well, I suppose a man can’t help thinking like a man. So Teddy goes into his masher act, but deep down inside, he’s really a gentleman, and that’s a lot more attractive.”

  I raised my eyebrows and she quickly backpedaled. “I just mean that when I say no, he backs off. If he kept up the swine act, I’d be able to hate his guts and that would be the end of it. But I have to admit it, I really do like him. It’s just that I have to keep on telling him no, over and over again, but other than that he’s kind of fun to work with.”

  “You sound almost as if you still care about him. Anyway, you like him.”

  She stopped and put down a conch shell she’d been looking at. “Yeah. I do. In spite of everything. He’s just a big, bad Teddy bear – he even has the right name. I just don’t trust him in a relationship. Don’t be fooled, though. When it’s showtime, he’s a real pro. In that way, he’s always been easy to work with. It’s when the cameras aren’t rolling that you have to watch out for him.”

  “Well, at least now you have Arielle to keep him distracted for a while. She’s not too subtle around Teddy.”

  “No,” Lily said, softening her voice. “Talk about someone who needs her hormones adjusted. She’s pretty obvious about it, too. Desperate. And she’s at an age where desperate is not a good look.”

  “You feel sorry for her,” I said.

  “I would if it were just the way she acts around Teddy. Otherwise, I’m beginning to think she’s got the soul of a wicked stepmother from a fairy tale. Maybe even a witch. You know what I caught her doing when I came in last night?”

  “What time was that? I didn’t even see her last night. I thought she went to bed early.”

  “We came in just before midnight. The whole B&B was quiet, and we trying not to wake anybody up. Porter went nuts, as usual, but he wasn’t too loud. You didn’t hear us?”

  I shook my head.

  “Well, Arielle did. She came shooting out of the kitchen and welcomed us in, but I could tell she was blocking us, trying to keep us from seeing what was going on behind her. I peeked around her, but she zigged when I zagged. Then, step by step, she backed us up into the hallway where the rooms are. Smiling and being charming the whole time, of course.”

  “Were you able to see what she was doing in the kitchen?”

  “She had what looked like a rack of test tubes on the cooking island. I am not kidding; I saw it. And there was a big pot of something boiling away on the range top, and she had a really old-looking book laying open on the cooking island. It looked like she was doing a high school science project. I only got a quick glimpse, but I’m pretty sure of what I saw. And there was a terrible smell in there. I mean awful. I’ve never smelled anything like it.”

  “Was she cooking?”

  “No, definitely not. She was . . . compounding something. There were little brown bottles on the cooking island, some with droppers, and lots of utensils. This morning as I was passing through the kitchen to the back patio, I ran my fingers across the cooking island where I’d seen the test tube rack and I felt a bump of something. I was able to scratch it up with my fingernail; it was soft, and when I looked at it outside, I thought it was wax. The terrible smell was gone, but then she’d been making our breakfast and brewing coffee in the meantime. That and a few open windows would have gotten rid of the odor.”

  “You seem to have some definite suspicions about what it was she was doing.”

  It took her a moment, but finally she told me. “I really think she was doing some kind of witch’s brew. And wax? That says voodoo to me.”

  “As in voodoo dolls?”

  “I know it sounds wild, but this is Key West, remember. People are a little different here. And if she’s been making strange potions and voodoo dolls, I’d stop calling her Ella if I were you. After all, we have to eat her cooking every day, and she prepares the plates in the kitchen, out of our sight.”

  It took a moment for me to absorb all this. “Are you serious? You think she might be trying to harm me?”

  She gave me a steady look. “All I’m saying is, why take chances? She was up to something she didn’t want us to see. That says to me it wasn’t anything good. And if somebody here is messing around with black magic . . . .”

  We’d walked out of the long mall and were on the street again, moving along the sidewalk. I took three slow steps after she mentioned black magic, then stopped and faced her. “Are you thinking about the teacup? You think she might have – what? – put some kind of a hex on it?”

  “Look, Taylor, Oswald Grist is her uncle. She’s in and out of his shop all the time, and I bet she can open the door of that cabinet he’s got it in with a piece of wire. Maybe she even has a copy of the key.”

  “But . . . why?”

  “We’re here, aren’t we? She watches our show. She’s got a crush on Teddy. She told her uncle we were coming to Key West and had him call our hotline. Her uncle doesn’t even watch our show, but he was all worked up about this teacup by the time Ed interviewed him.”

  “You think she’s the one who suggested to him that people were dying because of the cup?”

  “She might have. Or he suggested it to her. Either way, she’s not being honest about it. Remember at breakfast when she pretended she didn’t even know about it? Why? It couldn’t be for any good reason. Whatever she’s up to, she might be using a little black magic to push things along. I’ll tell you straight out, Taylor, I’m worried about this antique shop owner.”

  “Why?”

  “Arielle and her cousin Darrien are going to split his estate someday, and Arielle is hurting for money. And as soon as Maryellen Grundy is finished with that painting, guess where the teacup is going?”

  “Right back to Uncle Oswald,” I said. “Oh boy. And if she’s a witch, you think she might be using spells or potions to cause what’s been happening with the teacup?”

  “It did cross my mind. I’m not sure. She was definitely doing something weird in the kitchen last night, and it wasn’t making quiche. Listen, Taylor, I don’t like this situation at all. I can’t wait to get this show done and get out of here. If she’s into black magic, it shows evil intent, whether you believe in that stuff or not, and the next potion she concocts might be something to use on you.”

  “Or you,” I said. “After all, she has to know that you and Teddy were engaged at one time. She may even suspect that Teddy is only using her to try to make you jealous. It’s certainly obvious to everybody else.”

  “I never thought of that.”

  We walked on for a bit, our fun shopping excursion spoiled.

  As we came to the block the B&B was on, she stopped me at the corner with her hand on my arm and earnestly said, “Until we figure this all out, will you please do me a favor? Stop needling Arielle. We have no idea what kind of a person she is. She might be dangerous.”

  “You’re right,” I said. “I’m actually kind of ashamed of myself. It’s just that the very sight of her rubs me the wrong way. I don’t usually take an instant disliking to somebody, but Arielle brings out the alley cat in me.”

  “And you’re our psychic expert,” she said, giving me a gentle conk on the head. “Get it yet?”

  “Yeah, yeah . . . .”

  We moved on, but before we could open the front door of The Sailor’s Rest I asked her, “Have you told Ed any of this yet?”

  “No. I wanted to talk to
you first. You’re pretty well grounded. You know how it is: when you see things like this, you wonder if you aren’t making too much of it. But now that I’ve said it all out loud, I think something is seriously off about Arielle. After all, she started it all. When she found out we were coming, she told her uncle and had him call Ed. She’s been controlling everything so far, if you think about it.”

  “To what end?”

  “That’s the question. You’re right. I’d better tell Ed.”

  “We’ll go tell him together. He tends to overreact about things like this.”

  We looked at one another and grinned for the first time since she’d told me about Arielle’s suspicious behavior.

  As we walked up to the door of the B&B, Lily said, “I’m really not superstitious, but it doesn’t hurt to knock on wood every now and then, right?”

  “Right.”

  Chapter 17

  “Voodoo is not my primary area of expertise,” Ed said coolly, “but naturally I have a casual knowledge of it.”

  “Doesn’t everybody?” I asked with a shrug.

  “I mean beyond that portrayed the in black-and-white movies of the 1930s,” he said snippily. “One doesn’t gain a working knowledge of survival techniques by watching Gilligan’s Island. Voodoo is a profound belief system whose secrets are closely guarded by its practitioners. No, I need sound academic sources here, and my best references are hard-copy, not digital, so I have no direct access to them at the moment.”

  Lily and I gazed at him expectantly. Seeing our faces, he finally said, “I don’t have the right books with me.”

  We both said, “Oh,” at the same time, and I added, “So what now? A quick Internet search?”

  He waved that away, murmuring “Garbage in, garbage out. By the time I winnow the wheat from the chaff, we’ll all be more confused than we were before. I need those books.”

  We were sitting in his room at The Sailor’s Rest with the door closed, and every now and then, Porter would scratch at the door and whine a little, wanting in. Disruptive as he is, I was about to open the door when I heard Teddy greeting him and taking him away.

  Bella had waltzed in with us and settled regally on the windowsill. She wasn’t acting strangely now, just looking out the big window, but I still held my breath. I didn’t want Ed getting any ideas about the cat. Before he could, I quickly said that Lily had something to tell him about the project, and she took over.

  After brooding over his reference books, currently out of reach in St. Augustine, he came to a sudden decision. “There’s no way around it. I’m going to have to instruct my assistant do an abstract of my references and PDF it to me.”

  “Your assistant?” I said. “I didn’t know you had one.”

  He shrugged. “More of an associate, really. Perhaps even an intern. You remember Dobbs.”

  “You’re kidding,” I said. “You’re still associating with The Marvelous Dobbs? I didn’t know that.”

  “In this digital age, association does not involve being together in the same room. I’ll contact him right away and have him drive to my house from Chattanooga. He lives there; in all probability that’s where he is. He can stay in my house until his work is done.”

  “That’s if he’s not in some other city, working on a job of his own.”

  “Trust me, he doesn’t have one.”

  “And you don’t mind letting him loose in your office?”

  This was a bigger issue for Ed, but he decided he’d have to risk it. He dialed resolutely, and when Dobbs answered he was so enthusiastic that Ed recoiled from the phone. I could hear Dobbs’s voice from six feet away. It was a few minutes before Ed could settle him down and tell him what he wanted. While they were talking, Lily whispered to me, “Explain The Marvelous Dobbs.”

  “You haven’t met him yet?”

  “Never heard of him.”

  Where to begin?

  “He’s sort of an embryonic Teddy,” I began. “But more innocent. I think. He’s good-looking, ambitious, young and reckless, and he wants to be a paranormal investigator. Ed is sort of a god to him.”

  “What makes him so marvelous?”

  “I think that’s a leftover from his magician days.”

  Her grin got slowly wider, but apparently she could think of nothing else to say. I leaned in and whispered, “I think you’ll find him very photogenic. The rest of the crew know him. He was hanging around the last shoot, before you rejoined the show. Talk to them.”

  By then, Ed was ending his call and we straightened up and looked innocent.

  “He’s going to take care of it,” he told us. “He happened to be in Waycross, so it won’t take him so long to get to my house. He should be there in a couple of hours. I’m hoping for a preliminary report by the time we get back from the sunset nonsense tonight.”

  “Speaking of which, we’d better go get ready. It’ll be time to leave in half an hour.”

  “Are we telling Teddy about all this?” Lily said.

  Ed considered. “Better not. We need clarification first. It wouldn’t do to get him worked up needlessly, and it would be even less desirable for him to know if Arielle actually is up to something sinister. Teddy finds it impossible to dissimulate.”

  “Yeah, you can see right through him all right,” I said. “The way Arielle hangs on him, he’ll never be able to hide it if he suspects her. And you’d better not mention that you’re using Dobbs. I don’t think he likes him.”

  “He’ll never know Dobbs had anything to do with it,” Ed said, and he followed us to the door and closed it behind us. In a few seconds he opened the door again long enough for Bella to follow us out.

  * * * * *

  Bella was still with me when Michael and I stepped out of our room to head for Mallory Square. Arielle was just coming out of the kitchen as we walked past it. I glanced in quickly, but it was neat and tidy; there was nothing on the cooking island except for a glass cookie jar. By now, I knew that Arielle could also have been coming directly from her bedroom. After the house had been built, a sunporch had been added on in the only place possible: on the far side of the kitchen. Leaving the in-house bedrooms for guests, Arielle had taken this sunroom as her bedroom. It was kind of an odd arrangement (the sink window actually overlooked her bed, though she’d replaced the window with a stained glass panel so guests couldn’t see in), but it left more room for paying customers in the house.

  Arielle had changed into crinkle-cotton pull-on pants and a bright sleeveless top that draped over her trim body loosely. It was the first time I’d seen her with her legs covered up, but she’d compensated by revealing almost her entire top half instead. When I say “loosely,” I mean I could see the color of her bra, (black.) (Also, lacy.) (Also, push-uppy.)

  She looked me over pretty much the same way I was looking at her, then her gaze dropped to my feet, where Bella was weaving around my ankles.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Bella take to a guest the way she’s taken to you,” she commented. “She almost seems like another cat altogether.”

  Unfortunately, Ed was coming down the hall in time to hear this, and I could see him blinking and beginning to wind himself up. I tried to shoot a look at him to settle him down, but he wouldn’t make eye contact. He was thunderstruck.

  Arielle began to baby-talk the cat and reached down to her. Even I was shocked when Bella took a swipe at her and moved to the other side of my ankles to get away from her.

  Arielle stood up, trying to recover her dignity, but I could see that she was as shocked as we were. And hurt, though not physically.

  “What’s gotten into you?” she asked the cat.

  “Fascinating,” Ed murmured, and before he could launch himself on a theory of who it was that had gotten into Bella, I asked Arielle if she was coming to see the sunset, too.

  “I thought I would. My uncle is going to be there, and I like to look out for him. He’s a little fragile, and Mallory Square gets so crowded at sunset, especial
ly when the sky is clear, like it is now. On overcast evenings, nobody bothers to go, but it’s going to be a good one tonight, and I don’t want a lot of people jostling my uncle around.”

  “What about the B&B?” I asked.

  “Oh, it’s locked up. Everything will be all right here, and y’all are gettin’ to be like family. You can just let yourselves in with your keys, and you know where the wine cabinet is and where I keep the snacks, if you get hungry and I’m not here.”

  “So, you don’t mind if we root around in the kitchen for something to eat?” I asked lightly.

  That stopped her. “You’re right,” she said. “I’ll just go leave a few things out in covered dishes, so my bad little Bella won’t get into them while we’re away. They’ll be on the cooking island, by the cookie jar.”

  She was gazing down at the cat and trying to smile, but she was still upset about the swat Bella had given her. Saying she wouldn’t be a minute, she dodged into the kitchen. While she was in there, Teddy and Lily came along.

  “What about Wyatt and Elliott?” Michael asked.

  “They’re distracting Porter so we can get away without any fuss. Then they’re going to hit the bars,” Teddy said, in a way that made me think he’d rather go with them than go look at the sunset with us.

  “We’re here to work, remember, Teddy?” Lily said. Arielle was coming back, and Lily decided to get closer to Teddy and take his arm as she said, “You need to meet all the people that are going to be there. They might be important to the show.”

  Teddy seemed content with Lily on his arm, and he took the lead, saying, “Everybody ready? Let’s go.”

  I tried to follow, but Bella was still weaving around my ankles, and she nearly tripped me. Arielle, abandoned by both Teddy and her own cat, gave Bella another confused look, then waited for all of us to get out the door so she could lock up.

  I had a hard time getting away from Bella, and finally, confused, I asked her, “What’s the matter with you?”

  She sat down then and gazed at me very steadily, holding my green eyes with her own, and when she had my complete attention, she blinked her eyes very slowly, one time.