"You can imagine my surprise when I sat in that rocking chair at four o'clock waiting for our usual exchange and there was no sign of Etta. She never walked past. Haven't seen her since, which is why I waved you down. I just wanted to make sure she was all right."
"Yes, yes she is fine." I decided not to mention Minnie's death. That was Etta's news to relay to her neighbor, if she felt inclined.
"That's good. I'm relieved," Weston said.
"Maybe she wasn't feeling well or had a more pressing matter," Lacey said with a knowing brow lift. The coroner said Minnie died between two and five in the afternoon. Now, it seemed, Etta had mysteriously not taken her usual walk at four o'clock.
"We'll let you get back to your bird watching," I said. "I'm glad we could relay good news to a concerned neighbor."
Lacey and I headed down the path to the jeep. "Huh, I wonder exactly where Etta Derricot was at four in the afternoon if she wasn't in the park feeding pigeons," I said.
"I was just wondering the exact same thing."
Chapter 19
Lola met us at Cider Ridge Inn for dinner. We had decided to make some vegetable pot pies. Lacey and I had stopped at Emily's garden for some potatoes, carrots, green beans and sage. Other than a few early century milk cans and glassware from the depression era, it seemed Lola's first find, the Brown Brothers Pottery, was going to be the only real treasure. She sat at the kitchen table sipping some iced tea and lamenting her long day of scavenging while Lacey chopped vegetables and I prepared pastry dough for the pot pie. Naturally, Edward had joined us, silently watching the scene from his perch, his long legs and tall black boots dangling over the brick hearth. I'd been too busy and too surrounded by other people to have a conversation with him, but something told me I'd be hearing a lot about Lacey once the visitors left.
Even though the murder investigation was at the forefront of our thoughts, we had veered off on other subjects during the drive home and the vegetable pick at Emily's. And once Lacey met my adorable goat nieces, we spoke of little else the whole way home. Lacey spent a few minutes online to find out if there was any kind of ordinance in Port Danby that would keep her from having a goat of her own. Much to her dismay, there was no livestock of any kind allowed inside the town limits. It seemed Lacey would need to buy a farm in the rural area just west of the main town. She was so excited about the goats, she actually checked out the real estate site to see if there were any farms available. Again, no luck. She came to the conclusion that she would just have to travel back to Firefly Junction to visit again. I heartily agreed.
Lola had gotten into a game of catch with Newman, tossing it from her chair just high and far enough for him to catch and return it. "What was the reasoning behind making it vegetable pot pie instead of the usual chicken or turkey?"
I turned back to her. "There will be a rich gravy and flaky crust, need I say more?"
"No, you needn't." Lola relaxed back and stretched out her long legs, crossing her feet at her ankles. "Good thing I found that piece of pottery on day one, otherwise this trip would be a total bust."
Lacey's face snapped her direction. "Except that we've met new friends and had a great time."
Lola looked rightfully embarrassed. "Yes, of course. I'm loving every minute of this trip. I just meant a bust as far as antiques were concerned. By the way, I talked to Ryder earlier. He took in a massive order for a January wedding."
"Awesome," Lacey said. "January is usually slow, but I guess it won't be this time."
"Ryder is your shop assistant and Lola's boyfriend?" I was fairly certain but wanted to make sure.
Lacey scooped up some chunks of sweet potato and put them in the pot. "Yes. He is the best assistant anyone could ask for. He knows everything and he's always in a pleasant mood."
"Unless I do something silly to throw his day out of whack, which I am prone to do," Lola confessed.
Lacey snuck an affirmative head nod my way. "I've been thinking about the case, Sunni." She tossed carrot chunks into the pot. "What would Etta's motive be for killing her sister?"
"Did the twin do it?" Lola tossed the ball again. Newman missed it and it bounced down the hallway. The dog bounded after it.
"No, we don't have much to go on yet," I said. "We talked to Etta, the sister. They'd been very close growing up but they weren't talking anymore. It seems Etta didn't care for Minnie's unique lifestyle. However, she said she'd come to grips with it lately and realized she had judged her too harshly. Yet, it seems they still never communicated." I tossed flour on my ball of pastry dough and began rolling it out. "Like you, Lacey, I've been trying to come up with a motive for Etta to kill Minnie. I suppose it's possible she was lying about coming to grips with Minnie's Wiccan lifestyle. Remember her church threatened to kick Etta out because of her relation to Minnie."
Lacey chopped away on another carrot and stopped to taste a piece. "Hmm, fresh from the garden beats store bought anytime." She returned to her task. "But it seems like a rather drastic solution to Etta's problem. What about the shop? Maybe Minnie owns the property and she's left it to Etta in her will?"
I rolled along with the pin and flattened the dough. It was Emily's flaky pie crust recipe so I was certain it would be delicious on a pot pie. "Except that Etta was already left a fortune by her late husband. I just can't imagine she'd go to such lengths and risk everything for that small piece of property in Hickory Flats."
"Good point. Etta certainly didn't seem to be lacking in money," Lacey said. "That house was fabulous. Maybe there was some hidden issue between the two sisters, some terrible fight or family problem that Etta wanted to keep quiet or quash to keep it from harming her reputation in the community as a fine lady."
"That's always possible," I said. "We know so little about the two women. I'll ask Raine if she knows anything else. She seemed to have some insight on the Smithers twins." I stopped my rolling for a second and leaned my hip against the counter. "But here's the other sticky question. How did a little old woman like Etta, who is supposed to have severe arthritis, manage to hold a pillow over her sister's face long enough to suffocate her? That would take some strength."
Lola got up from the chair to help herself to a carrot. "It would take some strength if the person she was suffocating was much stronger than her. But Minnie was probably no stronger than Etta. They were identical, so unless Minnie had, I don't know, been a carpenter or painter or lumberjack when she was young, she probably had about equal arm strength as her twin sister."
I looked at Lacey. "She's got a good point."
Lacey tilted her head side to side. "She occasionally comes up with them."
"Hey," Lola said. "But she's right. I'm probably more of an anti-good point person. Lacey is the town's unofficial therapist and purveyor of good points. But I do have a good idea," she added. "Minnie's shop probably had a website and a blog. Especially if she was some high falutin' member of Wiccan society. Sometimes comments reveal all kinds of friends and enemies."
"Another good point," I said.
"Guess that's two for two, so I'm probably maxed out." Lola walked over and picked up the ball. "I should go before I do something predictable to ruin my perfect record. Newman and I will be outside playing ball. Call me when that veggie thing is done."
Chapter 20
While the vegetable pot pie baked in the oven, filling the house with what Lacey referred to as tasty delight, we sat down at my laptop to follow Lola's suggestion to check out Minnie's site. There was a big banner on her web page about closing out the business. She had everything online marked down twenty percent.
"Her site is really nice," Lacey noted. "She must have spent a pretty penny getting it set up. I wonder why she decided to go out of business."
"Maybe she just felt like retiring. Or maybe she wasn't turning a profit." I clicked on one of the more popular products, a mixed collection of incense. It had over a hundred reviews, mostly good but with several one stars. One was from a poster who referred to thems
elves as WW.
Lacey and I both pointed it out at the same time.
"Wanda Wonder," Lacey said. "This incense was made in China. Cheap product sold at top dollar. Don't buy it." Lacey straightened. "That could very well be our friend Wanda."
I clicked over to Minnie's blog where she gave advice on proper altar settings and ritual chants. It seemed she had quite a few people following her, including one person called Rolo who was not a fan.
Rolo's last comment came after a post about casting spells to help the garden grow. "You and your spells, you witch! You put a curse on me and my life is ruined. It's all your fault and I will never forgive you." Rolo's other posts were similar, accusing Minnie of causing havoc with her blasted curse.
Lacey and I looked at each other. "Who do you suppose Rolo is?" Lacey asked.
"I don't know but I'm thinking we should probably find out." I snapped my fingers as a light bulb turned on. "Wanda mentioned Minnie's ex-husband. His name was Roland."
"Brilliant," Lacey said. "I'll bet you're right. We need to find out more about him. If he thinks his whole life was ruined by a curse, then he certainly had good motive to kill Minnie."
My phone buzzed. I glanced at the text from Jackson. "Yum, Jax is going to stop by after dinner with a lemon meringue pie. Perfect finale to our meal."
"That does sound great." In a wild coincidence, Lacey's phone rang. She pulled it out. "It's James." The size of her smile let me know she was truly nuts about the man.
"Hello, Detective Briggs, are you missing your favorite partner?" she asked.
She listened to his response and a faint blush rose on her cheeks. She held up her finger and got up to walk out of the room for her conversation. I focused back on the computer. Other than some noticeably nasty reviews, a few anonymous and the one, in particular, from WW and Rolo's accusations about a curse, there wasn't much more to indicate that Minnie had a host of enemies or, worse, people who might have hated her enough to kill her. The Rolo commenter was particularly harsh. Could the person be Minnie's ex-husband?
I pulled out my phone and sent a quick text to Raine. I knew she was busy with clients. Saturday night seemed to be a popular evening for reading tea leaves. With any luck, I'd catch her between clients.
"Do you happen to know anything about Minnie Smithers' husband or marriage?" I wrote.
A text came right back. "Not much but I think her married name was Fisher. She just changed it back to Smithers a year ago. Roland Fisher, I think that's his name."
"You don't happen to know anything about a curse?" I added a smiley face emoji.
She wrote back. "Only the curse of being a psychic silly enough to keep agreeing to tea readings on a Saturday night. What are you guys doing?"
"Vegetable pot pie and lemon meringue pie. We'll save you some."
"Thanks. Got to go."
"Where did she go?" a deep voice floated over my shoulder. For the first six months or so of learning how to live with a ghost who could appear and disappear at will, I was constantly jumping and startling. Now I hardly even noticed.
"Do you mean the new love of your life?" I teased.
"There's only one woman in my life this century and she tends to be far too judgmental. Your friend is just a refreshing change from your usual annoying, irritating and altogether ridiculous guests."
"My sisters are not any of those things," I said in the quiet near whisper I'd adopted to not be heard by others in the house.
"Perhaps not all those things but this woman is different. She's much more interesting."
Right then, Lacey came back into the room with her cheeks less pink. Edward vanished but I was certain he was still close by.
Lacey held up her phone. "I told him we were working on a murder case together."
"What did he say?"
"He said—" She deepened and dried her tone. "Of course you are. He also asked how I always managed to end up in the middle of a murder case. I told him, just lucky I guess."
I laughed. "My gosh we are truly kin, do you know that? Like doppelgangers who look nothing alike. Anyhow, I texted Raine to see if she knew anything about Minnie's marriage breakup or a supposed curse. The only thing she could tell me was that her husband's name is Roland Fisher."
"Well, I think Roland Fisher should pop onto our person of interest list," Lacey said. "What do you think?"
"Definitely."
Chapter 21
Lola, Lacey and I sat on the parlor room couch staring out at the shadows in my overgrown backyard. I managed to put aside one slice for Raine before we plowed through the vegetable pot pie, leaving behind only a few pieces of crusts and chunks of carrots.
Lola patted her full stomach. "I feel like that old, fat uncle after Thanksgiving dinner, ready to pop open the top button on my jeans and take a big snoring nap."
"That was a delicious pot pie, Sunni," Lacey said.
"You did half the work, don't forget. I agree with Lola. I keep wondering if it will be in poor taste for me to slink into my room and pull on a pair of elastic waist sweatpants."
"You should totally do that," Lola suggested. "And bring a pair out for me. I'm not picky on color. Just avoid the ones that have the elastic bands at the ankles. I draw the line at those silly things."
Our laughter was followed by groans of discomfort from being too full. "I guess we should have practiced a little more self control," I said. "Poor Jax is going to be disappointed when none of us are interested in a slice of lemon meringue pie."
Lacey's and Lola's heads popped up simultaneously. "Who said that?" Lacey asked. She looked urgently at Lola. "Did we say we wouldn't be able to eat pie?"
Lola shook her head at me. "Sunni, Sunni, Sunni, have you not developed your dessert stomach? We've stuffed our dinner stomachs but there is always room for dessert because of the little known and not often discussed dessert stomach."
I laughed. "I had not realized. But now that you mention it, that would explain my ability to down two pieces of pecan pie at Thanksgiving after I leave the table barely able to breathe. Who knew we had a separate stomach for dessert?"
"Yep. So your gloriously handsome boyfriend will not be disappointed," Lola said. "We will manage a slice or two of pie just fine."
Redford and Newman raced from the room barking their hellos toward the front door.
With some effort, I pushed myself off the couch. "It seems the pie and gloriously handsome boyfriend, not necessarily in that order, have arrived."
I headed to the entry. Edward appeared next to the front door. "It seems awfully late for him to be visiting."
"Yes, father, but it's only nine o'clock. We mortals have a few more hours of energy."
Jackson held up the pie box. "I come bearing gifts."
I grabbed the box. "I can smell the lemon wafting through the cardboard." I spun around and headed toward the kitchen.
"Good to see you too, Bluebird."
"Oops." I stopped, spun back around, still cradling the box and hopped on my toes. He leaned over the pie and kissed me.
"Who were you talking to when you reached the door?" he asked.
"Huh? Talking to?" I'd found repeating questions always gave me a bit of time to make up a reasonable excuse. Lacey's laugh emanated from the parlor, giving me my out. "Oh, I was talking to Lacey and Lola. Get those dessert tummies ready, girls. The pie has arrived. And the handsome boyfriend, he's here too."
"I'm always an afterthought when there's dessert in the mix," Jackson muttered behind me.
I glanced back at him over my shoulder. "Have they found out anything new about the case?"
"And murder. Your priority list is dessert, murder, boyfriend," he added. We reached the kitchen. Lacey and Lola were not far behind.
"Evening, ladies," Jackson said. "I hope lemon meringue is all right."
"I do not want to exist in a world where there's a time when lemon meringue is not all right," Lacey said. "Thank you so much for brining it."
"My pleasure."
Everyone pulled out a chair. I walked to the cupboard and pulled out four dessert plates. "Should I put on some coffee?" I asked.
Lola shook her head. "Not for me, otherwise I'll be running circles around our motel room all night. Like a hamster in a wheel, only horizontally."
"I'm fine," Lacey said.
"I've already had three cups today," Jackson said. "Think I'm at my limit."
I carried over the plates, a knife and a pie server. I opened the box and began slicing into the puffy mound of meringue and its lemon curd base. I'd almost had too much pie crust at dinner to even think about eating more, but I was sure I'd manage. Dessert stomach, after all.
I handed Lola and Lacey their pieces first, then cut a larger slice for Jackson. "You were about to tell us what else the police found in their investigation into Minnie's death," I said as I handed him the plate.
"Was I?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm pretty sure you were." I sat with my own slice of pie and took a few seconds to enjoy the first tart, sweet bite. "Hmm, this is almost as good as Emi's pie. Now go on." I smiled at Jackson.
"How do I go on when I haven't even started?"
I sat forward. "O.K. you're being particularly ornery tonight, which leads me to believe you are concealing something earth shattering or, at the very least, significant."
He swallowed. "I wish that were the case Unfortunately, a sweep of Minnie's house didn't produce much. The coroner found microscopic cotton fibers in the victim's nose and mouth, so he's leaning toward suffocation with a pillow. The lab is analyzing the cotton fibers on the pillows we took from Minnie's bed. We'll know soon whether they match up."
"Was the bed crumpled or disturbed? Is that where Minnie was most likely murdered?" Lacey asked.
Jackson filled his fork but stopped to answer first. "That's just it. The bed was made. Sheets and blankets tucked into corners and no sign that anyone had even sat on it."
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