Murder on a Silver Sea (Myrtle Grove Garden Club Mystery Book 3)

by Loulou Harrington

  “But you’re fretting anyway,” Jesse pointed out.

  “Probably shouldn’t. Miss Amanda’s steady as a rock. But that was what my mom said just before she headed to the casino and lost what little bit she still had. ‘Don’t you fret now, Bobby Don, I know what I’m doing,’ is what she said on her way out the door. Kind of hard to trust those words now.”

  Chapter Eight

  “Well, that was interesting.” Jesse slid into the passenger seat and buckled her seatbelt. “Bobby Don was nothing like I expected. I can see where Bethany might not like him, but he seems pretty happy here. And seems genuinely fond of Amanda.”

  “Ditto on Mandy,” Sophia agreed. “She loves to cook, loves living in a fancy house she doesn’t have to pay for, loves it when Amanda goes out of town, and loves having Bobby Don around for an occasional, um, assignation. Without…well, without commitment issues, shall we say.”

  “That’s known as a booty call these days, Mom,” Jesse said.

  “Well, anyway, Mandy sounds very sincere.”

  There was a moment of silence as both women turned expectantly to Vivian, who was focused on navigating the long unpaved road that would take them back to blacktop. Gravel crunched beneath the car’s tires and pelted the undercarriage with an occasional stray stone. The repeated freeze and thaw of winter had given a washboard texture to the road’s surface.

  Steering around a pothole, Vivian glanced toward Jesse, then back to the road. “My turn?”

  “Did you have a chance to talk to Frankie?”

  “Oh, yes. While Sophia kept his mother busy, he showed me all around the vegetable garden. In fact, he would like to join the Myrtle Grove Garden Club. I explained that we don’t have regularly scheduled meetings but that we do have a public project in the works. So we exchanged emails, and he’s looking forward to helping us with the Town Square.”

  “About our investigation?” Jesse prodded.

  “Sure. That boy does love to talk, and he’s very serious about his landscaping career. That’s why he wants to join our group. He says he’s grateful for the job here, but it’s not where he wants to spend the rest of his life. Oh, and he thinks that Trisha has a boyfriend and is planning to get married sometime in the next year and move away. That’s a secret, of course, so we’re not supposed to tell anyone.”

  “And why would she tell him, since he obviously can’t keep a secret?” Jesse asked. “Or did she tell him? Do you think he’s just guessing?”

  “Oh, I think she told him. They appear to confide in each other, and it sounds like they’re close.”

  “How close? Like Bobby Don and Mandy close?”

  Vivian shook her head. “I don’t think so.” Breathing an audible sigh of relief, she reached the end of the gravel drive and turned onto a narrow blacktop road that was important enough to have a broken white line painted down the middle of it. “More like friends-since-childhood close.”

  “Does he know anything about this boyfriend?” Sophia asked. “Like a name or what he does for a living?”

  “All Frankie knows is that the boy’s a senior and graduates in a couple of months. Trisha finishes her Associate’s Degree this semester and after that, if this boyfriend gets a job out of town, she can finish her Bachelor’s on-line if she needs to.”

  “So, she has it all worked out,” Sophia said.

  “Pretty much,” Vivian agreed.

  “Which means she already has everything she needed from Amanda. And that would take Trisha Oglethorpe off the list of suspects as far as I’m concerned.” Jesse added. “What do you think about Frankie?”

  “He seems like a very nice, completely harmless young man,” Vivian said. “And I’m beginning to think Bethany O’Connor has bats in her belfry. I think we can probably tell her that her little dog is safe and forget this whole thing.”

  “There are people we haven’t met yet,” Sophia reminded them.

  “And won’t, either. They’re halfway across the country on some secluded island,” Vivian said. “Which makes me wonder why anyone would want to be here.”

  “And yet nobody seemed sorry to be left behind,” Jesse pointed out. “Anybody learn anything about Treena or Celeste?”

  “Mandy said that as a little girl Celeste was Amanda’s helper in the garden. And that it built a bond between them.”

  Jesse glanced toward Vivian and remembered her own days helping in Vivian’s garden, listening to the birds and watching the butterflies and bees, and learning from Vivian that flowers are important because so many other things depend on them.

  “Which is a reminder,” Vivian pointed out, “that Amanda has given a home to two mothers and their children for most of those children’s lives. Far longer than Bethany has been around.”

  Drawn out of her reverie, Jesse asked, “Could we be overlooking something here?”

  “What?” Vivian answered. “A lonely, divorced woman with no children of her own takes in hard luck relatives and creates an instant family for herself?”

  “She was still married when she took in Helen and her twins.”

  “That doesn’t mean she wasn’t lonely,” Vivian said. “The young Amanda Carmichael I knew was never a philanthropist. She was spoiled and self-centered and married to a husband with a roving eye.”

  “But then why did she take in Helen?” Sophia asked from the back seat.

  “I’ll be damned if I…” Jesse stopped, and her voice dropped to a whisper, “Oh my, surely not.”

  Vivian braked, whipped the car halfway onto the narrow shoulder, put on her flashers and turned to stare at Jesse. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t formed a complete thought yet.”

  “But, what if…” Vivian pressed.

  “What if what?” Sophia demanded from the back seat. “It’s something devious, I just know it. I don’t do devious well. So, what are you two talking about?”

  Vivian twisted around to face her. “What if Brandon Carmichael was the man who ruined Helen Oglethorpe and left her pregnant and abandoned halfway across the country?”

  Sophia frowned. “That sounds pretty far-fetched. Why would a woman take in her husband’s lover and children?”

  “Well, why would a spoiled, selfish, self-centered man who had everything but a conscience agree to take in his wife’s distant relation? Someone who meant nothing to him? If he wasn’t the father, then he was hoping to seduce Helen at some time in the future,” Vivian argued.

  “Okay, I see your point,” Sophia said. “I suppose it’s too late to go back and question Helen some more.”

  “It’s not worth it,” Jesse said. “It’s all just wild speculation, anyway. We can go back later if we need to.”

  As Vivian pulled back onto the road and continued toward Myrtle Grove, Sophia asked, “So, what do we do now?”

  “Wait, I guess.” Jesse stared out the passenger window, watching the countryside speed by. “Maybe Winnie will have heard something else from Bethany by tonight.”

  “Maybe SueAnn will turn up something else,” Vivian suggested. “Or, who knows, maybe I’ll remember some juicy tidbit from the past. Not that there’s much chance anything from twenty years ago will have a bearing on what’s happening now.”

  “You never know,” Jesse said. “In the meantime, Mom and I have some baking to do before we go to bed. If you do remember anything, give us a call.”

  “Definitely,” Sophia added. “Bethany might be imagining the danger to Amanda. But just in case, I’d feel awful if anything happened and we hadn’t done all we could do.”

  “You are so right, Sophia.” Energized, Vivian laughed and slapped the steering wheel with her palm. “And to think, I was ready to write the whole thing off just a few minutes ago. Now look at us!”

  “And sometimes the past does affect the future,” Jesse warned. “Even the most innocent people can have something in their lives they’d rather keep hidden. You never know the lengths someone will go unt
il their secrets are threatened.”

  Chapter Nine

  Breakfast had come and gone. The lingering brunch crowd overlapped the later lunch arrivals, and tables refilled as quickly as they emptied. Winnie had been ominously silent since begging off the trip to Amanda Carmichael’s the previous afternoon.

  “You still haven’t heard from Winnie?” Sophia asked as she squeezed past Jesse to set an order on the counter.

  Jesse shook her head. “Tried to call her last night. Her phone went straight to voicemail.”

  “Uh-oh, I hope nothing has happened to her dad. Maybe she just turned off her phone to get a good night’s sleep.”

  “I hope it’s that simple.”

  Lindsey set a chai latte next to Sophia’s order. “Did I miss anything last night?”

  “Talk fast,” SueAnn said as she transferred the items on the counter to her empty tray.

  “Not really.” Jesse answered Lindsey without looking away from the sandwich she was building. “Everybody we met seemed like regular people who enjoy their jobs and were grateful to Amanda for everything she’s done.”

  “Bummer.” SueAnn lifted her tray. “It seemed like such a great opportunity for simmering resentment and thwarted passion.”

  “More like simmering passion.” Sophia’s grin just missed becoming a snicker.

  The listeners’ eyebrows went up and they leaned closer.

  “What!” Lindsey demanded.

  “The cook and the groundskeeper appear to have a clandestine affair going on,” Jesse explained. “Although the only person who doesn’t seem to know about it is Amanda.”

  “Well, that alone was worth the trip,” SueAnn said. “Anything else? I’ve got to get this to table four.”

  “Just that everyone seems bothered by this sudden trip,” Jesse added. “They think something happened to set Amanda in motion, but no one seems to have any idea what it could have been.”

  SueAnn sighed and turned with her loaded tray. “I love a good mystery,” drifted back over her shoulder as she headed into the packed dining room.

  “And you sound like someone who might have had trouble sleeping last night,” Sophia said to her daughter in a voice meant for the two of them.

  Jesse shrugged, neither admitting nor denying. “What seems innocent on a sunlit afternoon can be a lot harder to reconcile when you’re lying alone in bed trying to sleep. That, and I can’t stop worrying about Winnie.”

  “I know, hon. I’m worried, too. But then Winnie’s not a big talker under the best of circumstances,” Sophia reminded them both. “If there is nothing going on, she’s not very likely to call you and tell you that.”

  “Where were you at midnight when I was imagining all sorts of dire things?”

  “Less talking, more sandwich making.” From nowhere, SueAnn reappeared at the counter with yet another emptied tray.

  “I can work and talk, boss lady,” Jesse teased. “What order are you looking for?”

  “Table six, Mrs. McBride and her two daughters.” SueAnn glanced over her shoulder toward the group, then back, and whispered, “I think Crystal—that’s the youngest one who’s still a newlywed—is pregnant. And I gather that Mrs. McBride wishes they had waited until Crystal’s brand new husband is done with his residency.”

  “Well, I think I agree with her. Here’s the salad.” Sophia placed a chef salad with chunks of pineapple-glazed chicken on the tray and set a small pitcher of balsamic vinaigrette beside it.

  “Quiche,” Jesse announced. She slid a flow blue plate onto the tray with one hand and quickly followed it with a Bavarian porcelain plate in her other hand. “Plain turkey and mayo on toast. I’m guessing that would be for Crystal.”

  SueAnn nodded her agreement. “With club soda. Well, I’m off.” She picked up her filled tray, turned and plunged back into the crowded room, weaving her way with the grace of a gymnast.

  Jesse was halfway through prepping a sandwich of thin-sliced roast beef with spicy horseradish spread, baby greens, and Brandywine tomato slices from a local greenhouse when her phone began to vibrate. Whipping off her gloves, she had the phone out and answered before she had time to think. She was pretty sure she had seen the name “Winnie” as she was accepting the call.

  Before Jesse could speak, Winnie was already talking, “I’m so sorry. I know you’re in the middle of lunch. I’ll talk really fast, but this can’t wait.”

  “That’s okay, Winnie. Slow down. We’re not running behind, and Lindsey can help Mom if she needs to. What’s happening?” In spite of her efforts to remain calm, Jesse’s heart pounded, a sure indication of how much tension she had been suppressing.

  “Dad’s out of ICU and in a regular room. It took a lot of tests, but they finally decided he had a stroke. They don’t know yet how much damage was done and what his recovery chances are. He’s pretty wobbly, but he keeps trying to get up and walk, so he can’t be left alone.”

  “Oh, Winnie, I’m so sorry.”

  “I don’t know how they can tell dementia from a stroke,” Winnie said, “at least as far as his comprehension goes. And I’m so tired I can’t think straight. LaDonna’s taken over Roy Lee’s funeral arrangements. God bless that woman. Roy Lee made a good choice there.”

  “Is there anything we can do?” Jesse asked.

  Beside her, Sophia made sympathetic noises and nodded her agreement to whatever Jesse said. In the meantime, Sophia took charge of the meal orders in front of them.

  “Yes, but not about Dad.” Winnie stopped to draw in a deep breath and let it out loudly. Then she did it again.

  Able to recognize stalling when she heard it, Jesse urged, “Just say it, Winnie. Whatever it is, it’s okay. You’ve got enough to deal with already. Whatever you need, I’ll do it.”

  After one last, deep sigh, Winnie said, “Bethany called a little while ago. Things have been a madhouse there this morning. Amanda apparently fell down the staircase last night.”

  Jesse gasped and felt her stomach clench. “Is she hurt? How far did she fall? How bad is it?”

  Sophia tapped her on the shoulder and mouthed the word who, along with the appropriate hand gestures. Jesse mouthed back Amanda, and it was Sophia’s turn to gasp.

  “It’s pretty bad,” Winnie acknowledged, her words sounding breathless and shaky.

  “Oh, my God,” Jesse whispered. “Oh. My God.” She knew that voice. It was Winnie’s I-don’t-want-to-say-it-out-loud voice. The one she saved for things that were hard to look at head on.

  Jesse’s legs felt as shaky as Winnie’s voice sounded, and she wished to goodness there was a chair she could plop down in. But there wasn’t, and someone was going to have to say the words Winnie couldn’t bring herself to say.

  Dipping her head, Jesse spoke softly into the phone. “Amanda is dead.”

  Winnie whimpered. There was a rustling on the phone line, probably from Winnie nodding her head.

  “No!” Lindsey said in a stunned whisper from the cash register a few feet away.

  Then, displaying the teamwork that made their work days go quickly and efficiently, Lindsey moved closer and began to fill the other half of the order Sophia had been working on. Sophia herself stood motionless, staring at Jesse in shock.

  SueAnn appeared from nowhere once again. “What happened?” she asked from across the counter. “It’s not good. I can tell.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice even more. “Turn your back to the room, Jesse. You look like someone just…” She stopped as realization hit. “No!”

  “Amanda,” Lindsey confirmed with a nod toward SueAnn. “Don’t know what happened.”

  “Dead?” SueAnn squeaked.

  “Yes,” Winnie said with a sniff, finally confirming Jesse’s guess. “Bethany is practically in hysterics. She’s locked herself in her bedroom with Lady, who was standing over Amanda when they found her.”

  “The dog?” Jesse asked. “It was with Amanda when she fell?”

  “It wouldn’t let anyone but Bethany nea
r her, Amanda that is. The police think it’s an accident, but Bethany is terrified. She… uh, she begged me to send someone up there to help her if I couldn’t come myself.”

  “Oh, dear.” Jesse could feel the rope tightening.

  Surely it was an accident. But why had Amanda gone there in the first place? With no warning, and no preparation, and no reason she could share with anyone—why had she gone running off to such an isolated place, only to die her first night there?

  “We promised we would help her,” Winnie urged in a voice close to tears. “And I can’t go right now. I just can’t.”

  “I wouldn’t let you,” Jesse answered. “It’s just…”

  “You could go. And Vivian could go. And LaDonna said she would help out at the tearoom. She’s done some waitressing. And she says she’s a fair cook,” Winnie assured Jesse, demonstrating that she had done some thinking about the matter before making her phone call. “We can’t just…”

  “I know,” Jesse interrupted before Winnie could present the rest of her argument. “We said we would help her. And I know we can’t leave Bethany there alone. But of all the lousy timing.” Jesse took a deep breath and made her decision. “Okay, could you send LaDonna over here as soon as she’s free?”

  “She’s on her way right now. Oh, thank you, Jesse, thank you.” Winnie sounded a little like someone who might be dancing on the other end of the phone line. “Do you want me to call Vivian for you so you can get back to your lunch crowd?”

  “If you don’t mind doing it. I sort of imagine Vivian will be thrilled.” Suddenly Jesse realized how that might be interpreted. “Not about Amanda, of course. That part is awful, but about the traveling… Oh, just forget I said anything.”

  “Thank you, Jesse,” Winnie said softly. “You’re the best friend ever.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  “Well, I would.” Winnie’s tone didn’t invite argument. “And you’re going to figure out what happened, too. I just know it.”

  With that, Winnie ended the call. Jesse stuck her phone back in her pocket, and lifted her gaze to her mother’s round eyes and Lindsey and SueAnn’s stunned silence.