by Ellery Adams
It was a bright pink rose. A wild rose. A William Shakespeare 2000. The same rose Jed had given her.
Nora grabbed the beautiful flower and then jerked as the sharp tip of a thorn pierced the skin of her thumb. Angry now, but unable to show her feelings in front of her customer, Nora wiped the blood beading on her fingertip on the flower’s velvety petals and then tossed the mangled, bloodied mess into the trash can. Staring at the crushed bloom, she asked herself, How had Collin known?
Chapter 12
Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.
—G.K. Chesterton
The trouble with planning a break-in on a summer night was that darkness didn’t fall until after eight o’clock, which gave Nora plenty of time to question her sanity.
After a supper of cold fried chicken and green beans, Nora felt restless and irritable. June and Hester wouldn’t arrive for another hour, so she put on her hiking boots, gathered her berry basket and walking stick, and headed out into the fading light.
Despite the steepness of the slope behind her tiny house, she didn’t have to rely on her stick as much as she feared. Her injured ankle was healing, and Nora could put weight on her right foot without wincing.
When she reached the train tracks, she paused. She stared westward, to where the trains roared through the tunnel before having to slow down at the Miracle Springs station platform.
Though she couldn’t see the tunnel, an image of its black maw filled Nora’s mind. She thought of Neil Parrish’s death, and in thinking of him, she forgot her restlessness. Mostly, what she felt was grief. Before Neil Parrish had joined her on that park bench, Nora’s life in Miracle Springs had been private and peaceful. She’d exchanged that privacy for friendship. That peace for danger.
Still, tranquility could be found at the edge of the woods, and as Nora crossed over grass stippled with buttercups to where the raspberry and blackberry bushes formed a wall of leaves, thorns, and insects, she could almost pretend that her biggest worries were increasing the bookstore profits and when to find time to buy more shelf enhancers.
Nora loved berry picking. She loved the cloyingly sweet perfume surrounding the bushes, the fervent buzzing of bees, and how her basket slowly filled with the jewel-toned berries.
Her fingertips were stained indigo by the time she was done and the first of the evening’s fireflies were sparkling among the trunks of the pines.
“Hey.”
The voice almost startled Nora into dropping her basket. She swung around, preparing to defend herself, but suddenly realized she’d left her walking stick on the grass several feet away.
“Sorry.” Jed raised both hands. A plastic grocery bag hung from his left wrist. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I wasn’t scared,” Nora said tersely. “I just didn’t expect you to creep up on me like that. Why didn’t you say something earlier?”
Jed picked up Nora’s stick and offered it to her. As she reached for it, his hand covered hers. “I wasn’t going to talk at all. I was going to come back later, but my feet just kept moving toward you. Not that I can blame them. You look like a fairy queen, out here in the twilight.” He took a step closer to her, still holding the walking stick. “With that moss-green shirt, you almost blend into the background. Except that you could never blend in. You’d stand out anywhere.”
Nora slid her hand out from under Jed’s and touched the scar on her right cheek. “Because of these?”
“Your scars make you different, yes,” Jed said, his eyes locking on hers. “But they’re not all I see when I look at you. To me, they just add another dimension to your beauty.”
This time, he handed Nora the walking stick without trying to touch her. She accepted it reluctantly. Because now, she wanted him to touch her. The brief brush of Jed’s fingertips against hers had ignited a spark.
In the purple half-light, Nora stood inches away from him and wondered how much electricity could be generated if their lips met. Or if their bare bodies were pressed together, skin to skin?
“Did you visit your friend today?” Jed asked as he moved away. He pulled a plastic bag from his pocket and approached the berry bushes. He didn’t start picking, however, but waited for Nora to reply.
“I did,” Nora said, trying to sound casual.
Jed plucked a fat blackberry from its stem and popped it in his mouth. He chewed slowly, savoring the tart sweetness, and then licked a droplet of juice from his palm. The next berry went into his bag. As did the next.
Nora knew she had to get going. She needed to change before June and Hester arrived and she didn’t want Jed to witness the three of them sneaking through the back door of Miracle Books for what was, in fact, a secret meeting.
“I should head home,” she said. “Time to elevate and ice.”
Jed stopped what he was doing and turned to her. “I wish I could help. What I mean is that I wish I could help your friend. I came to Miracle Springs because of the job. And because I was looking for a sleepy town.”
“Two murders is somewhat the opposite of a sleepy town, isn’t it?”
Jed nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t think that kind of violence occurred here.” He tilted his face toward the surrounding hills and then higher, to the darkening sky. “It doesn’t seem right. People need this place to be unlike other places.”
“It’s not the place,” Nora said, feeling defensive of Miracle Springs. She loved her town. After all, Miracle Springs had allowed her to start over again. The empty train depot had been waiting for her, as had the little plot of land behind the depot. Nora liked to think the people had been waiting for her too. Waiting for her to open a bookstore. To fill in that missing piece of the town’s soul.
“Most of the people living here want to help the out-of-towners searching for healing,” Nora continued. “But there are always exceptions. Clearly, not all those visiting our town have come to be healed. Some of our guests have other goals. They plan to taint this place, but I don’t have to stand by and watch that happen. I can do something about it.”
She left Jed then, even though she sensed he had more to say. She would like to have heard whatever it was, but she had to go.
It was fully dark by the time she got in June’s car. Hester was in the backseat, looking queasy.
“You don’t have to do this,” Nora told her. “You know what’s at stake if we’re caught.”
Hester cracked her window. “Why are you focusing on me? We’re all taking the same risk.”
“No, honey,” June argued in a gentle voice. “You and Nora have businesses that rely on your reputations. I keep watch over people at the thermal pools so they don’t drown. And when they’re done bathing, I give them a towel and show them to the changing rooms. I’d lose a job, not a business.”
“If we wind up in jail with Estella, then we’re all screwed, so let’s not get caught. That’s my role. Right, Nora?” Hester asked, sounding far younger than her years again. “To be the lookout.”
“That’s right. June and I will handle the snooping.” Nora shot June a questioning glance. “You have the tools?”
June jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “In the trunk.”
As it would seem odd for three women to be checking out house sites in the dark—especially since the Meadows had yet to install streetlamps—June drove past the entrance and parked behind a row of Leyland cypress trees on the opposite side of the road.
After June handed out flashlights and pairs of disposable gloves from the Gingerbread House, she grabbed a backpack and locked the car.
“What’s in the bag?” Hester whispered.
“A crowbar, broom, and dustpan,” June said. “Just in case Nora’s credit-card trick doesn’t work.”
Before Hester could ask, Nora said, “I found an online article on breaking into your own home. It’s supposedly for people who frequently lock themselves out, and it only works on doors with spring
bolts. If there’s a dead bolt in place, it won’t work. Plan B is the crowbar.”
The women fell silent as they jogged across the road and skirted behind the Meadows sign. They made it to the model home without seeing another car and crept up to the garage service door. Nora peeked through one of the glass panes and froze.
“Annette’s car is still here,” she hissed to her friends.
“What?” Hester and June whispered in unison.
Nora briefly glanced into the garage again. “There are two cars. Annette’s and a pickup truck.”
“Doesn’t Annette live in Asheville?” Hester whispered.
Nora nodded and pointed toward the back of the house.
The women moved slowly along the wall until they reached the bay window in the kitchen. This time, June took a quick look inside.
She jerked away from the window and signaled for Nora and Hester to drop down. When all of them were on their knees in the new sod, June spoke so softly that it was a challenge for Nora to hear her.
“Wine bottle. Takeout boxes. Candles.” She pointed at the house. “We’re not going in there tonight.”
But Nora didn’t think they should leave. Discovering the identity of Annette’s lover might prove useful. This was obviously a clandestine meeting, and Nora didn’t think Collin Stone would approve of his model home being used as an assignation place.
“We can’t go home. We need to see who owns that pickup,” she said sotto voce.
Nora’s friends didn’t speak. In the gloom, their black clothing merged with the shadows, but the whites of their eyes lent them a spectral look.
“It’s probably Dawson,” Hester whispered. “Annette’s and Dawson’s initials were on Greer’s cocktail napkin. They’re both in on this thing—whatever it is—together.”
Decoding those initials from Fenton’s napkin hadn’t clarified anything. Nora and her friends still didn’t understand why Fenton had written a list including Annette, Dawson, and the Madison Valley Community Bank.
Nora frowned. “We’ll wait for them to leave. After they’re gone, we conduct our search. We have to go through with our plans. Estella’s in a room with bars. We’re not.”
“I’m with you,” June whispered. “Besides, this beats wandering around town with my merry band of cats.”
Hester suddenly shushed them.
In the silence, Nora heard voices on the other side of the kitchen wall. The words weren’t clear, but a woman spoke in rapid, staccato bursts. Whenever she paused for breath, a man injected short, quick responses like a boxer throwing jabs.
Lovers’ quarrel, Nora thought. She tried to pick out specific words, but the voices were being thrown in various directions as the couple moved about the room. Nora guessed they were cleaning up the evidence of their meal.
Nora put an arm around each friend. Pulling them in close, she whispered, “One of us needs to see Annette’s boyfriend. The other two should stay here until both cars are gone and we’re positive that we’re alone.”
“I’ll go,” Hester volunteered. “You’re still hurt, Nora. I can run fast if somebody spots me.”
“Hey. I might be fifteen years older than you, but I’m no slug,” June said.
This was not the time for June and Hester to debate their levels of fitness, so Nora gave Hester a little push and said, “Go.”
It was less than five minutes before a light went on in the garage, causing Hester to duck down. Nora could feel June tense beside her as the garage door began to open. In addition to this mechanical noise, Nora heard the slam of a car door.
Look now, she willed Hester.
Hester hesitated for what felt like far too long. Finally, she popped up and glanced in the window.
By this point, all the members of the Secret, Book, and Scone Society had visited the Pine Ridge Properties website and had memorized the names and faces of the main players, so when Hester rejoined Nora and June, she said, “The truck belongs to Collin Stone. He leaned into Annette’s car and kissed her.”
“Another Pine Ridge family man,” Nora muttered acidly.
Headlights seared the darkness at the front of the house and the women instinctively froze. Annette backed her SUV out of the garage first, followed by Collin in his pickup. Within minutes, they were both gone.
“We should have stopped the garage door before it went all the way down,” Hester said, switching on her flashlight and pointing the beam at the ground.
June shook her head. “No. Annette or Collin might have noticed and stopped to see why the door didn’t close.”
Nora headed for the side door leading into the garage. “Let’s see how accurate that article on breaking into your own home proves to be. June? Can you train your light on the area next to the doorknob? Hester? This is when your lookout duty begins. You should create a little distance between yourself and the house.”
“I know you told us that the signal for us to get out in a big hurry is an owl call,” June said. “But all I hear right now are night critters. Bugs and raccoons and Lord knows what else? I might not be able to tell your owl noise from a real owl.”
Hester scowled. “If you hear an owl, just get out.”
June flashed her a smile. “All right, sweet pea.”
Something came over Hester’s features. Even with the flashlights creating weak pools of washed-out illumination, Nora could see that something had caused Hester great distress.
“Don’t call me that.” Her eyes glittered with anger and pain. “Don’t ever call me that again.”
Taken aback, June reached out to her. “Okay, honey. I’m sorry.”
Hester avoided June’s outstretched hand and ran to a large maple tree on the far side of the model house’s driveway.
“What was that about?” June sounded stricken.
“We’ll find out later.” Nora knew she appeared callous, but whatever was bothering Hester could wait. Finding evidence that certain Pine Ridge Properties employees had a strong motive for getting rid of Neil Parrish and Fenton Greer was paramount.
June didn’t argue. She held the light steady over the doorknob and watched, fascinated, as Nora pulled a laminated card from her back pocket and began wriggling it into the space between the door and the frame.
“I hope that’s not your only credit card,” June said. “It’s going to be really banged up, whether this trick works or not.”
Nora was razor-focused on what she was doing. “It’s a gym membership card, and it’s not mine. An out-of-town customer dropped it in the shop a few weeks ago. I called to tell him I’d mail it back and he never answered. I’ll cut up whatever’s left of it when we’re done here.”
Working the card slightly back and forth as she moved it higher up the door, Nora was able to determine that the dead bolt hadn’t been turned. She exhaled in relief. She now worked it back down to where the spring lock connected to the doorframe, explaining her maneuvers to June as she went. “This is the moment of truth. I have to hold the card flush against the frame and try to slide it under the triangle-shaped spring bolt. The bolt has a pointy side and a sloped side. This is only going to work if the pointy side is facing us.”
Nora could feel the card contacting the bolt. She could also feel the card cracking right down the middle. She’d been applying too much pressure in its center and it had begun to give.
“Take a breath,” June whispered. “You can do this. You walked through fire and it didn’t kill you. This won’t, either.”
“I didn’t walk through fire. The fire walked through me,” Nora whispered back. Still, she redoubled her efforts, and when she felt the card slide deeper into the space than before, she grabbed hold of the knob and twisted. The door opened and cool air from inside the garage rushed out to greet them.
“Hallelujah! I was sure we’d be smashing a window tonight,” June cried softly. “Actually, I’m feeling a little disappointed. I liked the idea of breaking glass, but I guess it’s smarter for us to come and go without leaving
a sign. Good thing Hester thought of these gloves.”
The two women hurried into the garage.
“No alarm,” Nora said. “How long will this luck hold out?”
“I don’t think the four of us became friends because Lady Luck has been especially generous to us,” June said. “Let’s not push it.”
Murmuring her agreement, Nora led June to Annette’s office.
June went straight to the double windows on the rear wall and opened them as wide as they would go. This way, they could hear Hester’s warning hoot and make a quick exit should the need arise.
As for Nora, she opened Annette’s desk drawer. “It would have been nice if she’d left the keys here,” she said, taking out the second tool she’d brought along. “You’d think a woman so focused on security would have turned the dead bolt in the garage.”
“She clearly had other things on her mind tonight.” Joining her at the desk, June directed the flashlight beam on the locked drawer. “Was this on the Internet too?”
“There are dozens of videos on lock picking,” Nora said. “I was able to practice this one on a lockbox I keep in the store.”
“Really? Using nail clippers?” June looked dubious.
Nora unfolded the nail-file tool attached to the clippers and held it up to the light. “This is all you need.” She slid the tool into the keyhole and jimmied it around until she felt the tip connect with the locking mechanism. Applying downward pressure, she twisted the nail file clockwise and the lock released. Nora pulled the drawer open and flashed June a triumphant grin.
June was too focused on shifting the flashlight beam so that it would illuminate the drawer’s contents. “In the movies, folks always hide a bottle of liquor here. Or a gun.”
Annette didn’t keep booze or a weapon secreted in her desk. What she hid from the world was a framed photograph of her and Collin Stone. Annette’s athletic body was accentuated by a form-fitting black cocktail dress. Collin looked dapper in a dark suit. The pair stood in front of the Meadows sign. Collin had a champagne bottle in his hand and Annette held two flutes in hers. Instead of facing the camera, they were turned toward each other. Collin had been captured mid-laugh and Annette was gazing at him with unadulterated affection.
