A Séance in Franklin Gothic

by Jessa Archer

  “I know. But I’m going to look like a jealous girlfriend. I hate that.”

  “You might look a little jealous,” she admitted. “But unless he’s been at his typewriter for the past few hours, he’s probably already heard the grapevine version of your squabble with Ms. Tucker. And this is Thistlewood, sweetie. The grapevine version will have you pulling out Meredith’s hair and telling her to keep her hands off your man.”

  I groaned. She was right. “He’ll be stopping by the Star later, after his walk. I’ll talk to him then.”

  “Good,” Wren said, “because someone needs to warn him. Those women seem a bit on the shady side. Maybe they’re planning to rob him? Although, Lord help them if they are. You already broke that woman’s fingernail off for stealing my Disney junk. I can only imagine what you’d do to her if she starts messing with your man.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Oh, you are hilarious today, Wren Lawson. A real laugh riot.”

  “But I’m not wrong, am I?”

  An engine sputtered to a stop at the curb. We turned to see Elijah Davenport behind the wheel of a pickup that had seen better days. I’d completely forgotten about the little alien he’d asked us to hold for him until he pulled up.

  “Just a second,” Wren said as he headed toward us. We leaned the table we were about to carry around back against the side of the house, and she hurried over to make her last sale of the day.

  But when she looked next to the chair, the toy was gone.

  “I’m sorry,” Wren said. “I put it right here by my chair. You didn’t sell it, did you, Ruth?”

  I shook my head.

  “Well, where did it go?” Elijah said. “I have to find it!”

  Wren and I exchanged a look. The guy looked like he was about to break into tears, and she slipped into the voice she uses to console mourners. “I’m really sorry. Someone must have picked it up. I don’t have another one, but there’s a Buzz Lightyear toy in the garage that didn’t sell. One of his wings is a little wobbly, but…”

  “No. I want the alien!” Elijah dropped down on one knee and began looking around under the few tables that were still standing. He was kneeling in almost the same spot where Mindy had been earlier, and I suddenly realized that I knew exactly who had picked the darn thing up.

  Apparently, Wren did, too.

  “If you really want it,” she told Elijah, “you might want to check with Meredith and Mindy Tucker.”

  Elijah’s eyebrows shot up. Not far. It was a subtle reaction, but a reaction, nonetheless. He’d recognized their names.

  “They’re staying down near the marina,” Wren continued. “Please tell Meredith that Wren and Ruby sent you. And you can also tell her I said that since she got the toy for free, she should cut you a deal.”

  Elijah left without a word, peeling off from the curb then doing a sloppy U-turn in the middle of the street.

  We put away the table leaning against the side of the house and then went back around front to break down the refreshment table. Wren gathered the now-empty cookie plate and lemonade dispenser to take inside, and I grabbed the small trash and recycling cans she’d set up next to the oak tree and emptied them into the larger bins that she kept in the garage. I knotted the plastic trash bag and tossed it inside, but as I was about to empty the recycling bin, a flash of color caught my eye. There among the clear plastic water bottles and white paper cups was a single orange can.

  Pacific Boost.

  ✰ Chapter Eleven ✰

  A text message came in just as I unlocked the door to the Star’s office at a quarter of one. It was Cassie, asking if I could please stop by The Buzz on my way back from the yard sale. I’d actually thought about stopping in when I walked past a few minutes before, but the coffee counter looked pretty busy. Since I was woefully behind on the week’s paper, I’d resisted temptation. But I turned the key to lock the door again and headed back down the block to see what she needed.

  The Buzz was still crowded, but most of those hanging out seemed to be under the age of thirty. A few were browsing the shelves of books downstairs, and quite a few were sipping drinks from the coffee bar, but it was pretty clear that most of them were waiting for a one o’clock gaming session up in eBuzz.

  Cassie was behind the counter with her back to me, steaming a silver carafe of milk.

  “You rang?” I said as I took one of the stools at the counter.

  “Oh, that was quick,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how much you’d need to do after Wren’s sale was over.”

  “She cleared out most of the junk, so there wasn’t really much to put away. What’s up?”

  “Hold on just a sec and let me finish this drink. Sugar-free vanilla latte for Dana,” she called out, leaving the cup on the far side of the counter. Then she came back over to me. “They’re not here yet, but I’ve got a couple of people coming in that you may want to talk to.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Who’s that?”

  “Sawyer Jackson and Julissa Lopez. Assuming Julissa can get away.”

  “You had their numbers?”

  “No. But Jake had Sawyer’s number,” she said, glancing up toward eBuzz where Dean’s cousin kept an eye on the gamers. “And Sawyer said he’d call Julissa. Like I told you last night, I feel a little responsible for them being out there in the first place. I thought maybe you could get some more information from the two of them, but most of all, someone needs to convince them to just bite the bullet and tell their parents. Just this morning, I’ve had five different people ask me about Tessa or about Kate’s outburst last night, so word is definitely getting out. Maybe Blevins would go easier on them if he doesn’t have to hunt them down.”

  “Maybe. And Blevins already knows. The station called Sherry last night. Told her to have Kate down there at ten thirty. Ed was going with them. They were planning on getting D’Arcy Jones to meet them there. So it might already be too late to come clean voluntarily.”

  Cassie nodded toward the front window. Julissa Lopez and a tall thin young man in a black T-shirt with a red dragon on the front were crossing Main Street, headed our way. “Well, they’re here, so at least you can give it a try. Want to use my office so you’ll have some privacy?”

  I smiled. “Look at you, with an office and everything.”

  “There’s no window, and it doubles as a storage room,” she said with a little laugh. “Plus it probably still smells like hazelnut since I dropped a bottle of syrup back there yesterday. You’ll need to drag another chair back there, but at least you won’t have everyone staring at you while you talk.”

  I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Ed, letting him know that I was at The Buzz talking to the other two participants in last night’s almost certainly fatal séance. He messaged back to say that they were finally leaving the sheriff’s office. The official story they’d been given was that Blevins had been called away, but the dispatcher had worked for Ed when he was sheriff and she’d admitted that she was pretty sure there was no emergency. Blevins was just being a jerk. He’d finally arrived a little before noon, almost exactly as Ed had predicted.

  The two teens approached the coffee bar with all the enthusiasm of the condemned heading to the gallows. Cassie introduced us, then poured me a coffee—a regular one, not the fancy white chocolate stuff—and handed Julissa and Sawyer two bottles of water. Then Julissa grabbed a chair from one of the tables and we went into the office.

  Once we were seated, I pulled my notebook out of my bag and asked them if they’d talked to Kate since last night. They both nodded.

  “So you knew Kate was giving her statement this morning? And that the body disappeared?”

  “Yeah,” Sawyer said. “I told my parents this morning. My dad is friends with Sheriff Blevins, and he’s buying the line that she’s playing a trick on us. Apparently, the word of his buddy who wasn’t even there holds more weight than the word of his son who was in the room at the time. Who saw—” The boy tensed up, biting his lip. He seemed on the
verge of crying.

  Julissa rubbed his shoulder, clearly fighting back her own tears. “My mom is filling in over at the Maryville store today. I’m going to tell her when she gets home around three. And by three fifteen, the Thistlewood High senior class will be down two members, not one.”

  “She’s not going to kill you, Liss,” Sawyer said.

  “Maybe. But I’ll probably be wishing she had. If I get bounced from ROTC, she’s gonna…” She took a deep breath and then shook her head to clear it. “Doesn’t matter, though. The only reason we’re here is that there’s stuff we could get in trouble for if we tell the police. And… someone needs to know everything. Otherwise, we may never find out who killed Tessa.”

  My eyebrows went up on her last words. “Why do you think someone killed her?”

  “I don’t know,” Sawyer said. “But someone gave her those drugs. And yeah, she was definitely on something. It wasn’t the first time, either. We…um…” He hesitated for a moment. “You’re like a lawyer or a priest, right? Or a shrink? If we tell you something, you have to keep it secret?”

  “Within limits, yes. If keeping a source confidential put that person or someone else in danger, then I would have to report. But otherwise…yes. If it makes you feel better, I wouldn’t tell Steve Blevins if his behind was on fire, so no—I’m not going to rat you out. If you know something that will help us find Tessa’s body and piece together how she died, tell me.”

  He exchanged a look with Julissa. She nodded, and then he continued. “Kate wasn’t with us. Even though her uncle isn’t still a police officer, Tessa was always a little hesitant about letting Kate know if she was on something. Anyway, it was about a month back, down at Mashburn Rock…”

  He paused, realizing that he’d just given away one of the “secret” spots teens go to swim. The thing about those spots in small towns is that they’re really not all that secret.

  “We swam there when I was in high school, too,” I told him. “Bit of a hike to reach that rock, but that means there aren’t too many tourists around.”

  “Yeah. Or parents, because like you said, it’s a bit of a hike. Anyway, it was just the three of us. Tessa had gotten some acid from this mystery guy she’d been dating.”

  “I didn’t take any,” Julissa said quickly. “My mom makes me pee in a cup once a month. And I was driving.”

  Sawyer didn’t say whether he tried it, which I suspected was an answer in and of itself. “Tessa was strung out,” he said. “Talking about how she could taste the sky. But it was nothing compared to last night. She was just kind of…giggly that day. Relaxed. Here’s the thing, though. Whatever she took last night, it looked like the same stuff. Only this time…”

  He and Julissa told me what they remembered from the previous night. Their story tracked really closely with Kate’s. Ideally, I’d have talked to all three of them separately, but to be honest, they could have all gotten together on their phones and decided what version of events to reveal and what to keep secret. The fact that Sawyer was admitting that there had been some drug use led me to believe that he was being at least mostly honest. And the fact that the two of them were here at all made me believe that Kate was right—they hadn’t removed Tessa’s body.

  “Do you know what it was that she took?” I asked. “Did she give it a name?”

  Sawyer rubbed his face. “Not really. She called it Tessa’s Blend. That’s all I know. Said it was customized. By her boyfriend, I guess.”

  “Okay,” I said, searching for something else to ask. “You referred to him as the mystery guy. Do either of you know any more than that?”

  Julissa shook her head. “The only thing I know is that he was older. She was never interested in anyone her own age. I mean, we knew when she was seeing him, but not exactly who. Always said she had plans for the night. Usually those plans included her claiming that she was sleeping over at my place. Or at Kate’s. We both covered for her, but I think her mom still caught her once. Oh…and she said he had a nice car.”

  Sawyer was quiet. After a moment, he sighed heavily and blurted out, “Okay. I’ve never told anyone this, but I had a thing for Tessa.”

  Julissa closed her eyes, shaking her head slightly. She’d clearly known. Kate had known. Cassie had known. I suspected that everyone, including Tessa, had known that Sawyer had a thing for her. But neither of us said anything. No harm in letting him hold on to the illusion that his torch hadn’t been concealed in the slightest.

  “I never told her,” he said, “because I knew she thought of me as a kid. But back at the beginning of the summer, I had my mom’s car. She and Dad were away for the weekend. Anyway, Tessa asked me to drop her off at that old campground north of Jolly’s on Friday night. I was going to wait around until the guy arrived. It felt wrong to leave her out there alone. But she showed me that she had cell coverage. Said that if he didn’t show, she’d call me. I…I should have gone home. But I pulled off onto that side trail just down from the entrance and waited. The guy showed up about a half hour later. And Julissa’s right. Tessa was always bragging about this guy’s car. But he was in a banged-up old truck. Way worse than what I was driving. I thought maybe it was someone else going into the campground, but I waited, and Tessa was on the passenger side when the truck pulled out.”

  “Did you get a look at the driver?”

  “Not a good look,” Sawyer said. “It was almost dark by then. I could tell it was a guy. Average height. I followed them for a couple of miles. But then they turned to head up into the mountains, and I was afraid she’d spot my car. Plus…” His face turned red. “My parents might have noticed if I put too many miles on the car. So, I headed back to town.”

  “How did Tessa get home?” Julissa asked.

  Sawyer shrugged. “I guess the guy dropped her off somewhere near town. She texted me the next morning to say thanks for the ride. That she’d had an…exhilarating time. Her exact words.”

  We sat there awkwardly for a moment, and then I asked, “Kate said that Tessa tended to be a little…obsessive. Was she on any medication? Prescriptions, I mean. Or do you know if she’d seen a therapist? I’m just wondering if whatever she took last night might have clashed with some other drug.”

  Julissa said, “I don’t think she’d ever gone to any kind of counseling. And if she’d been on medication, Kate and I would have known. She actually did stay at my house some of the times she told her folks she was there. But yeah, she could definitely get wrapped up in her pet topics. Lately it was the ghost thing. It was hard to keep up with her. She was one of my best friends, but sometimes you just wanted her to…well, shut up about whatever crazy thing she was obsessing over.”

  “She was just passionate,” Sawyer said a little defensively. “And smart. She was interested in a lot of different things. But I agree that sometimes it could be a little overwhelming. Last year she had this book so that she could study to become Jewish, even though there’s not a Jewish temple anywhere around here. The next month, she was all into Buddhism and reincarnation. That was around the time we went to Mashburn Rock and—”

  There was a tap at the door, and he paused. Cassie stuck her head in and said, “Blevins was here. He asked if I’d seen you.”

  “And you told him…?”

  “I told him I thought you were over at the diner. Or maybe still at Wren’s. You might want to go out through the back, though. And maybe leave separately?” she suggested, looking at Sawyer and Julissa. “I doubt he’s going to be very happy about you talking to these two.”

  Cassie closed the door behind her. Seeing her had reminded me of the other question I wanted to ask.

  “Tessa had recently borrowed a book. You know the one I’m talking about, right?”

  Julissa nodded. “The…Compendium something or other. It’s the one with the séance information. She said Cassie loaned it to her.”

  “Yeah. That’s it. Do you know if Tessa had the book with her last night?”

  “She didn’t,�
�� Julissa said. “It’s a pretty fat book to be lugging around. Also, Tessa was worried it might get damaged, so she just took pictures of the pages with her phone.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a cell phone. “It’s Tessa’s. I was worried they’d find the text messages, so—”

  “You mean you found it under the seat in your car,” Sawyer said firmly. “Tessa must have dropped it before we went inside.”

  He looked over at me for confirmation, but I shook my head.

  “I can keep my sources confidential. But I’m not getting involved in the rest of it, except to say that Kate mentioned Tessa having the pictures on her phone last night.”

  “Tessa asked you to hold it,” Sawyer said. “Kate may not have heard her, but I did. You put it in your purse for safekeeping. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”

  Julissa gave him a tentative smile. “Thanks.”

  “I don’t suppose either of you know her pin?” I asked.

  They both shook their heads. “I knew the pattern lock on her old phone, but this one is new. She’s only had it a couple of weeks.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I need to get moving. The two of you should wait a few minutes and then go. But first, is there anything else either of you can remember? Either about last night, or something she may have said about the guy she was seeing.”

  They both thought for a moment and then shook their heads. I gave them both my number and one of D’Arcy Jones’s cards. “She’s representing Kate. Maybe you won’t need anyone, but if you do…she’s good. And give me a call if you—”

  “Wait,” Julissa said. “The guy. He’s into health food, I think. I was in her car one day, and there was this vitamin water in the cup holder. Or juice, I guess. She said it was his. That he had to order them online or something.”

  I reached into my purse and pulled out the Ziplock bag containing the drink can I’d fished out of Wren’s recycling bin. “Did it look like this?” I asked.