A Séance in Franklin Gothic

by Jessa Archer

  I had to admit I was curious how Wren’s sale would go, even though the appeal of yard sales in general mystifies me. Yes, you might occasionally find a hidden treasure, but mostly it was about paying a few bucks for someone else’s unwanted junk and adding it to your own, until you collected up enough to warrant your own purge. Wren had been saying she needed to hold one for months now to clear out some of the stuff she’d inherited when her grandmother died. Not the sentimental things, but duplicate muffin tins, tv trays, and the like. She’d kept putting it off, but then she picked up this book about how to simplify your life a few weeks ago. Suffice it to say that she had discovered a lot of things in her closets that just didn’t spark joy, and that seemed to have pushed her to finally schedule the sale.

  But Wren’s house, and by extension her yard, were attached to Memory Grove, Thistlewood’s funeral home. People could be very superstitious, and all of the items she’d be offering for sale had spent time inside the building that also housed the recently deceased. Morbid curiosity would probably ensure that she got a decent turnout, but I couldn’t help but wonder how many of them would actually buy something.

  Once Cronkite’s empty belly had been filled, I dressed quickly and sent Wren a text saying that I was on my way. I’d thought Cassie was still asleep, but when I looked outside, I realized that her car was already gone. She’d been stretched out on the couch with the cat next to her when I’d finally gotten home the previous night.

  Cronkite, who sleeps in Cassie’s room at night, was relaxing in a patch of sunshine on the dining room floor as I headed for the door. He seemed mighty pleased with himself about something, and I realized that he had almost certainly just conned me into giving him a second breakfast. There was no way he’d have let Cassie get out of the house without feeding him. We were clearly going to have to invest in one of those fridge magnets that you flip to let each other know whether or not the greedy little liar had been fed.

  Wren was already setting up when I parked in front of her house. Several large tables were already set up, and another was tipped onto its back as she struggled to unfold one of the legs. She stopped when I got out of the Jeep and put her hands on her hips. Her expression left no doubt that she’d already heard at least some of the news from last night.

  “Girl, why aren’t you still in bed? After the night you had, I could have handled this myself for a few hours. Wouldn’t have been as much fun, but…” She shrugged. “More to the point, though, why didn’t you call me last night to let me know what was happening?”

  “Because by the time I got a minute to myself, you’d have already been asleep. And I was exhausted.”

  “Well, luckily for you, Cassie stopped by to grab the books I promised her and filled me in.”

  “I couldn’t believe she was already out and about this morning.”

  “She said she couldn’t sleep. And I can definitely understand why. It’s just awful. Is Kate doing okay?”

  “As well as can be expected, I guess.” I unfolded the other set of legs so that we could stand the table up. “Ed and Sherry are taking her in to give her statement this morning.”

  “Oh,” Wren said. “Cassie didn’t know that part.”

  “Yeah. She was conked out on the couch when I came in. Blevins called before I left Sherry’s house. I didn’t mention Kate to him, but her entrance at The Buzz wasn’t exactly subtle.”

  A car slowed down near the curb, and two middle-aged women eyed the tables. “Can you believe it? They were poking about before six this morning. The sun wasn’t even all the way up yet. They’ve already asked me for a sneak peek. Said they drove all the way from Sevierville. But I just pointed to the sign and told them to come back at seven.”

  “Well, you advertised it as being at the funeral home,” I said with a laugh. “I’d imagine we’re going to get some characters. So, what do you need me to do?”

  We spent the next few minutes getting things set up. Mostly it was small items that she had in rubber containers marked $1, $2, $5, and so on. There were also a few small appliances, some occasional tables, and a dresser that was much heavier than it looked.

  Before we even had half the stuff set up, there were already three customers, and the car that had been circling earlier was also pulling up into the driveway across the street. Yes, the house was currently for sale, but it still seemed a little rude to hog their driveway.

  I continued adding items to the two tables on the left side of the lawn while Wren greeted the new arrivals and motioned toward the table on the far side of the lawn where she had a drink dispenser with lemonade, bottles of water, and her special kitchen-sink cookies set up.

  One of the first customers was an elderly Hispanic woman with three kids in tow. The oldest was a teenage girl who looked familiar. I was pretty sure I’d seen her with Kate at the diner on at least one occasion.

  “Do you know that girl?” I asked Wren.

  “Not sure of her first name, but her mom works at Miller’s Drugs. Last name is Lopez. That’s her grandmother, who lives with them.”

  “Julissa Lopez,” I said. “She was with Kate out at the factory last night.”

  The girl didn’t look like she’d slept at all, and her dark eyes kept darting around as her grandmother rifled through the clothing rack. Her younger siblings were joking around and looking through the toy collection. The grandmother seemed to be in a good mood, too, so I was pretty sure that Julissa hadn’t yet come clean as to her whereabouts the night before.

  She must have known who I was, because I caught her looking my way on several occasions. Kate had said she’d texted back and forth with her friends, so she might have told them that Cassie and I went out to the factory to check on Tessa. Had Kate also told them that she was going in this morning to talk to Blevins?

  I wanted to ask Julissa a few questions, to see how her story synced up with Kate’s. Not that I didn’t believe Kate’s version, but more that I wasn’t entirely convinced that Julissa and Sawyer hadn’t removed the body. Even if they’d come to their senses later, it was exactly the kind of thing that a couple of panicked teens might do—although you’d think they’d have had the sense to grab the candles and the Ouija board, too.

  She didn’t look like someone who would dump her best friend in the river, though. Or hide a body.

  And she was within earshot of her grandmother the entire time they were there, so I couldn’t really say anything. I gave her a sympathetic smile as the family paid for the items they’d bought. Yes, she’d freaked out the night before and had made a very bad choice. She and Sawyer should have called 911, regardless of the consequences. But Kate said they did try to come back and get her, and they were still kids. Scared kids who had just watched a friend die under suspicious circumstances. If Blevins decided to press charges against the three of them for trespassing and underage drinking, Julissa was probably right that the incident could wreck her chances of a scholarship. That would be a shame if she wasn’t actually involved in whatever killed her friend.

  For the next hour after the Lopez family left, we stayed busy. Then we hit a slight lull. The only ones still hanging around were the women from Sevierville, who had methodically gone through almost every item on every table but still hadn’t bought anything. The dresser had already sold, however, along with an old DVD player, some clothes, and a bunch of kitchen items. I’d even picked up one item—an old Canon camera, which Wren had marked at twenty bucks but said I could have. The only camera I owned was my Nikon, and if Blevins came around asking to see the “backup camera” I’d claimed to have used at the signing the night before, it would be nice to have actually have a second camera.

  Wren frowned, looking around the lawn. Then she crouched down to check under the tables.

  “Did you lose something?” I asked.

  “Not exactly. But I think I left a box in the garage. Would you mind checking for me?”

  I left her to deal with the bargain hunters and headed around back to t
he detached garage, where the door was open. Most of the space inside the garage was taken up by the hearse—large, black, and polished to a high gloss. I’ll admit that it gave me a slightly creepy feeling, and I certainly wasn’t in a hurry to take a ride in it, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

  The box Wren had mentioned was on the other side of the hearse. Inside were dozens and dozens of comic books. They looked old. I thumbed through and saw familiar titles like The Flash and Fantastic Four, along with a few I didn’t remember at all, like Power Man and Iron Fist. They had probably belonged to Wren’s brother, James, who was a lawyer in Virginia Beach, and long past the days when he’d apparently spent his allowance on comics.

  A swarm of gnats began buzzing around my head as I carried the box back to the front lawn. I tried to ward the bugs off—not an easy task with my hands full—which resulted in an odd, twitchy dance with my head and shoulders. Wren seeing that wouldn’t have been embarrassing in the slightest. I wouldn’t even have cared if the middle-aged ladies from Sevierville had been witnesses. But the woman who was now talking to Wren was none other than Mindy Tucker, Thistlewood’s most recent woman of mystery.

  I actually intended to simply tell her hello. But the words that flew out of my mouth were decidedly less welcoming. “What are you doing here?”

  Wren turned and stared at me with a stunned expression. I put the box down on the ground at her feet.

  Mindy smiled brightly, showing off her white teeth. “Good morning. And…who exactly might you be?”

  “Ruth Townsend. I was with Sherry Hanson last night at The Buzz?”

  “Were you?” she said, tilting her head to the side. “I could have sworn she was sitting alone.”

  I was absolutely certain she was lying. But to be fair, I could hardly blame her, since I was the one who had marched around the side of the house and blurted out a rather rude question. What if this girl turned out to be telling the truth? If she was Ed’s daughter, I didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot, and yet I’d probably done precisely that. I usually found it wise to trust my instincts about people. But if I was being honest, I had to admit it was entirely possible that the worry about what the news might do to my relationship with Ed could be coloring my opinion of Mindy Tucker.

  So I pasted on what I hoped was a pleasant smile. “Sorry about my greeting. I was just a little surprised to see you here after encountering you at The Buzz.”

  That was patently ridiculous, of course. It wasn’t like we were in New York City. In a town as small as Thistlewood, you grew accustomed to running into the same small set of people on a very regular basis.

  “Oh, no problem,” she said. “So…if you’re a friend of my Aunt Sherry, I take it you know my father, too?”

  Wren had been silently taking all of this in. Her eyebrows shot up at the girl’s words, but she very diplomatically pretended to be sorting through some of the things in one of the dollar bins.

  “I know Ed,” I said in a level voice. “If that’s what you’re asking.”

  Wren’s shoulders twitched like she was holding back a laugh.

  The girl turned and yelled to someone who was going through the clothing rack that Wren had set up on the opposite side of the lawn. “Mom, come here. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

  ✰ Chapter Nine ✰

  Her mom was here?

  While Mindy’s back was still toward us, Wren mouthed, “What’s going on?”

  But I didn’t have time to answer. An equally stunning version of the girl in front of me was walking our way. This version was a good bit older, however, and her long hair was a dark chestnut color.

  Was this Ed’s ex? Certainly not his ex-wife. I’d seen a Christmas card she’d sent him last year, with her husband and two kids. He and Lori had parted on good terms and were still friends. But that didn’t rule out an ex-girlfriend. Ed had divorced when he was in his late twenties or early thirties. I seriously doubted he’d been a Boy Scout during the decades since, although it wasn’t something we’d really discussed.

  Looking at the woman walking toward me, I felt underdressed, not to mention grimy. Hauling boxes and furniture around in this heat and humidity hadn’t exactly left my shorts and T-shirt in pristine condition. Mindy’s mom, on the other hand, was wearing tight black jeans and a black sleeveless shirt that showed off arms that were toned and bronzed.

  “This is Ruby,” Mindy told her mother. “She owns the paper here in town.”

  “It’s Ruth,” I said with the most pleasant smile I could manage, which was probably just short of a rictus. How did Mindy know I owned the paper? Had I been talking about the Star when she walked into The Buzz last night? I didn’t think so. And even if I had, she’d just said she didn’t remember meeting me.

  “Ruby, Ruth,” Mindy said, shaking her head. “I’m terrible with names!”

  “Meredith Tucker,” the other woman said, extending her impeccably manicured hand. “So nice to meet you.”

  “She’s one of Ed’s friends,” Mindy told Meredith excitedly as I shook the extended hand.

  “You don’t say? Wow. I haven’t seen Ed in…” She glanced over at her daughter and smiled. “Well, doing the math, I guess it must be twenty-two years. He’s still as handsome as ever, judging from the poster Mindy showed me this morning.”

  My face went hot. I really didn’t like this feeling. I’d never been the jealous type. But something about this duo was pushing every single one of my buttons.

  “It’s so unfair,” Meredith continued in a conspiratorial tone. “Men only seem to get better with age, and we poor women just kind of fall apart after fifty, don’t we?”

  Wren made a little choking noise and walked quickly over to the women from Sevierville. To be fair, they had been motioning to her, probably wanting to haggle, but I thought she was also desperate to be out of my earshot.

  “Were you at his signing last night?” I asked Meredith, even though I knew she wasn’t. Unless, of course, she arrived after Cassie and I left.

  Meredith shook her head. “No. It’s was late in the afternoon when Mindy and I rolled into town. Traffic was bad getting out to the marina, and I had an awful headache. So I decided to lie down when we finally got to the cabin.”

  “Too bad you missed it,” I said, thinking precisely the opposite.

  “Well, to be honest, I hadn’t really planned on going anyway.” She leaned closer to me, placing a hand on my arm. “It just seemed like it might be best if Mindy talked to her father for the first time alone, without me there as a distraction, you know? So…are you and Ed friends?”

  I nodded, quite certain that Meredith knew exactly what Ed and I were. If they knew I owned the paper, they probably knew we were dating. We hadn’t exactly been keeping it a secret.

  “Wren looks like she could use some help,” I said. “So I guess I’ll see you two around.”

  I joined Wren just as the Sevierville ladies were pointing out that there was a slight dent in the side of the toaster oven.

  “Fine,” Wren said. “Knock five dollars off. There’s an extension cord up on the porch if you want to plug it in to make sure it works.”

  They nodded and scurried off toward the porch.

  “What on earth was that about?”

  I heaved a giant breath. “Mindy, the younger one? She showed up at Ed’s book signing last night just before Kate came in. She claims to be Ed’s daughter, as I’m sure you gathered. Came over and introduced herself to her Aunt Sherry, much to Sherry’s surprise.”

  “Well, what did Ed say?”

  “Excuse me,” a voice said from the front of the porch. Wren and I turned to see an old man dressed in a Bermuda shirt and khaki shorts standing there. He was holding a small crockpot. “How much is this?” he asked in a high, thin voice.

  Wren barely looked at him. I’m not even sure she saw what he was holding. “It’s free.” She gave a little wave with her hand. “Thank you.”

  The man stood there, looking a l
ittle confused but happy. When Wren turned back to me, he walked off, clutching his little crockpot beneath his arm. Across the street, a silver SUV pulled into the driveway of the house that was for sale. Someone, probably the realtor, was lugging video equipment out of the backseat. If he was filming one of those sales videos, he probably wasn’t going to be too happy about all these cars being parked around the place.

  “What did Ed say about this alleged daughter?” Wren repeated.

  “We never exactly got to that part,” I told her. “Kate came staggering in right after Mindy made her little announcement, and then Mindy left. And with everything else going on last night, it didn’t really seem to be a good time to bring it up. Sherry must have thought so, too.”

  Wren was about to say something else, but I stopped her. “Who is that?” I asked, pointing toward two men who were combing through the comic books I’d brought around.

  I didn’t recognize the younger man at all. He looked to be in his early twenties. Average height and weight. Not bad looking at all, but something about his expression led me to think he might not be the brightest crayon in the box. It was a snap judgment, the type that I’ve been wrong about a few times, but I’ve spent a lot of time people-watching as a reporter, and I’ve learned to trust my instincts. I hadn’t seen the guy around before, so I was pretty sure he wasn’t from-here, or if he was, he didn’t frequent the diner or The Buzz.

  On the other hand, the second man—who was middle-aged, short, and a little on the dumpy side—looked vaguely familiar. And along with that vague sense of familiarity came a strong, instant sense of dislike.