by Tim Myers
“Honestly, Jennifer, let’s go.”
“I’ve never seen you this eager to go anywhere in your life,” I said as I put the sign up on the door.
“I’m worried if we don’t do something soon, your brother’s not going to have any choice. If he has to arrest Sara Lynn, I doubt she’ll ever speak to him again. We all have our differences from time to time, but we’re all the family we’ve got, and I won’t see our bonds destroyed.”
“Hang on a second,” I said when we were outside. “I forgot something.”
“Jennifer, is it absolutely necessary?”
I grinned at her. “It’s going to be hard to give her a sympathy card if we don’t take it with us.”
I grabbed the card, and then dead-bolted the shop door. Heaven Scent was just down the block, so at least we didn’t have far to walk. It was a good thing, too, because as we made our way down Oakmont, it started to rain. Though the day had been warm enough, the raindrops were chilled and stung as they hit. We made it to Heaven Scent just in time. As Lillian and I rushed into the store, the sky opened up and we were in the middle of a full-scale rainstorm.
“Where did that come from?” Lillian asked me as we caught our breath.
“I’m not sure,” I said as I looked around the shop.
I’d been in Heaven Scent a few times in the past, but the mixes of aromas were stronger than I’d remembered. The shelves were lined with bath soaps, fragrances, candles and batches of potpourri. If it contained a scent and a tourist might want it, Heaven Scent was bound to carry it. There were also wind chimes and dream catchers hanging in the window, along with a vast selection of stained-glass trinkets that must have caught the sunlight and spread it around the room. If there’d been any sunlight, anyway. Eliza also ran an accounting service on the side from the back room of the store. She’d approached me about keeping my books when I’d first opened, but I could keep track of my corporate assets with a checkbook and a calculator. At the time, Eliza had told me that she ran the small operation mostly just to keep her hand in her former profession, but scents and aromas were her first and true love.
There were no customers in the shop when we walked in, and I was beginning to wonder if Addie was there herself. “Hello?” I called out, hoping to get someone’s attention.
“One second,” I heard someone shout from the back room. Hanging out in the empty store, I was suddenly glad for every customer I’d ever had. I knew business would pick up for all of us once the summer started, but how in the world did anybody survive the other nine months of the year?
Addie Mason came out of the back room, brushing some of her frizzy red hair out of her face as she put a folder bulging with papers on the counter. Her eyes were red, and I wondered why she’d come to work so soon after losing her business partner. She looked even thinner than normal to me in her emerald green pantsuit, and I pondered, not for the first time, exactly how much she weighed. Actually, I didn’t want to know. It would probably just depress me.
Addie looked surprised when she saw that Lillian and I were her customers. She said curtly, “Don’t tell me you’re out in this mess shopping.”
I held my card out to her. “We just wanted to come by and tell you how sorry we are about Eliza.”
She took the card, but didn’t open it. “I should probably thank you for the thought,” Addie said, “but to be honest with you, I’m kind of surprised to see you both here.”
“Why? Can’t we visit you to express our sympathy?” Lillian asked.
Addie frowned. “Don’t pretend we all don’t know who did it. Sara Lynn didn’t try that hard to hide it.”
“My sister didn’t kill your partner,” I said.
Addie didn’t answer, but her eye roll was enough for me.
“Come on, you know Sara Lynn isn’t capable of doing that.”
She said, “You’re wrong. There’s no doubt in my mind that she did it.”
The blunt callousness of her words shocked me. Without thinking, I said, “What makes you think the police aren’t looking at you as a suspect?” Lillian touched my arm. “Jennifer, that’s enough.”
I pulled away. “She started it. Sara Lynn didn’t kill Eliza.”
Addie nearly shouted, “You’re her sister, I understand why you’d take up for her, but I’m not about to let anybody pin it on me. I’m innocent.” There was real anger in Addie’s eyes as she stared at me.
“So you say.” I gestured around the room. “Who gets her share of the business now? Does it all go to you?”
Addie blushed—an easy giveaway, considering her pale skin. “So what if it does? That doesn’t mean I killed her. Your sister had a lot more reason to want Eliza dead than I did. Since it’s pretty obvious you didn’t come here to buy anything, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“I wouldn’t dream of staying somewhere I wasn’t welcome,” I said.
I’d started for the door when she called out, “You forgot something.”
She held the card out to me, but I wouldn’t take it. “Whether you believe it or not, the sentiment in there is real,” I said.
“I don’t need your sympathy,” Addie said. Then she tore the card I’d worked so hard on in half, and dropped both pieces on the floor. I started toward her, but I couldn’t break through Lillian’s restraining grip.
“Come on, Jennifer. Let’s go.”
My aunt practically dragged me out of the shop onto the sidewalk. The rain had lessened some, but it was still coming down at a good clip.
“Where do we go now?” I asked.
“Back to the card shop,” Lillian said as she stormed off, and I had little choice but to follow her.
We got back to Custom Card Creations and I unlocked the door. By the time we got inside, the rain had practically stopped. Lillian grabbed a few towels from the back and threw one to me.
“That went well, wouldn’t you say?” Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.
“She started it,” I said.
“What are you, in third grade? We went there to get information, not start a common brawl.”
“We found out what we wanted to know,” I said. “She practically admitted that she would inherit Eliza’s share of the shop. What else do we need to know?”
Lillian thought about it a moment, then said, “Let’s see, I wanted to ask her if she had an alibi for last night, if she knew anyone else who might want her partner dead, if Eliza had any family she was close to, who was handling the estate . . . little things like that. Jennifer, if you’re going to keep looking into this, you’re going to have to learn to control your temper.”
“I’m sorry,” I muttered, hating every second that Lillian was right. I’d lost it when that woman had accused my sister of murder, and by blowing up, I’d cut us off from a possible source of information.
“I can fix this,” I said softly.
“I don’t see how. Give me a second to think this through.” Lillian paced around the shop as I dried my hair with the towel. It would be frizzier than I liked, but I didn’t have time to mess with it at the moment. I was just glad I’d already planned to go back to my apartment before dinner tonight.
“I’ve got an idea,” Lillian finally said.
“Tell me. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. If I bring you in there right now, it will be like throwing gasoline on a bonfire. But if I manage to get seven words in, I think I can smooth things over with her.”
“I can’t imagine what those seven words could possibly be,” I said. “Just let me worry about that,” Lillian said. “This might take some time.”
“Take all you need,” I said, regretting again the way I’d blown up. After Lillian was gone on her mission of reconciliation, I tried to put myself in Addie’s place. Not only had she lost a business partner, but she and Eliza had been close on a personal level. And what did I do? I waltzed in there like I’d owned the place, and started in on her. Not good, Jennifer. No
t good at all.
I tried to distract myself with card making, but for one of the few times in my life, I just wasn’t in the mood. A customer or two would have been great, but just my luck, the brief rainstorm earlier had evidently kept the shoppers at home. When the chime finally announced a visitor, I was willing to give away half the store to keep them there.
Then I saw that it was Greg Langston, probably the only person on earth I didn’t want to see at the moment.
Chapter 5
“Does your girlfriend know you’re here?” I asked, immediately regretting my harsh choice of words. Somehow Greg brought the worst out in me lately, and I couldn’t seem to stop myself from firing verbal shots at him. All in all, I was not having a good day dealing with people, and I wondered if I should just go home—while I still had one—lock my door, take my phone off the hook, and pull the covers over my head until this attitude of mine passed.
Greg let my snippy question slide. “Stephanie would have a fit, but this isn’t about her, it’s about you. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said as innocently as I could manage.
“Come on, I saw the way you stormed past my shop earlier. You weren’t out on a social call.”
I looked at the clock. “Greg, that was almost half an hour ago. What took you so long, if you were worried about me?”
He suddenly got the guiltiest look on his face, and I knew why he hadn’t come over.
“What’s the matter, were you too busy giving her private lessons? Don’t tell me, your new girlfriend suddenly developed a strong interest in pottery. Or is it just the potter?” Even as I said it, I wondered where that had come from.
“Jennifer, do you honestly think you have the right to ask me that? You’re the one who didn’t want me anymore, remember? You can’t act jealous now if I happen to be seeing someone else.”
It didn’t help my temper knowing that he was right. “You know what? That’s absolutely true. In answer to your question, I’m fine,” I said. “Thanks for stopping by.”
“You’re not going to brush me off that easily,” Greg said. “Just because we’re not together doesn’t mean I don’t still care about you.”
“Do it from your shop then, would you? I’ve got cards to make.” I walked to the door and held it open for him. After a few seconds, he took the hint and left, but not before saying, “Be careful, Jen. You have a tendency to get into things too deep before you realize what you’re doing.”
“Thanks for the advice,” I said. I wanted him out of there before I said anything else I’d come to regret later.
He shook his head, then walked away.
I cried out in frustration once he was gone as I swept a box full of custom-made paper off the counter. Just my luck, the seal came loose in midflight, and an avalanche of paper wafted down to the floor. Why did I let him get to me like that?
Lillian walked in as I was trying to collect the errant papers. “I’m sorry I missed the parade. It must have really been something if that’s the size of the confetti. Do you want to tell me what happened?”
“No, I can’t afford to have you disappointed in me twice in one day. I had a little tantrum, but I’m all better now. What did Addie say?”
“Well, it took some time and a little feather stroking, but I finally convinced her that we meant well with our visit. In fact, she wanted me to tell you that she was sorry she destroyed your beautiful card. I helped her piece it back together, and she really was touched.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know how you do it, but I’m hoping you’re willing to teach me. I thought it was hopeless when you said you were going back in there.”
Lillian squatted down and helped me gather the rest of the paper. “You actually might have helped more than you realize. I had the distinct impression Addie needed to blow off some steam before she came apart, and you just happened to be handy.”
“Hey, what can I say? Everybody needs a special purpose in life. So what’s your gut reaction? Did she do it?”
Lillian paused a moment, then said, “She could have. When I asked her about her alibi, there were at least ten minutes she couldn’t account for. She claims she ducked out of Hurley’s to get her inhaler from Heaven Scent, but nobody saw her go, or, more importantly, come back. The store’s worth quite a bit, despite their low sales at the moment. The two of them owned the building outright, and it all goes to Addie now. The only person left alive with any family connection to Eliza is Luke Penwright, and once they were divorced, she made sure to change her will. Addie said Eliza couldn’t wait to disinherit him.”
I couldn’t believe the flood of information. “How did you manage to get all that out of her in just half an hour?”
“That just took five minutes,” Lillian admitted. “Your little tirade loosened her up, and by the time I walked in, she was dying to tell someone how wrong you were.”
“So what do we do now?”
Lillian looked at the clock, then said, “I’m going to take a long lunch, and when I get back an hour before closing, I’m going to take over so you can go to your apartment and get ready for your date tonight.”
“It’s not a date,” I said automatically. “I was talking about the case.”
Lillian shrugged. “I’ve got a few calls to make, but they can wait. Jennifer, you can’t let this ruin your evening. If nothing else, I don’t think Gail would ever forgive you.”
“I still think we should keep digging,” I said. “Proving that Sara Lynn is innocent is more important than my social life this evening.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Lillian said. “You don’t get out nearly enough, and I won’t let you cancel this. We can investigate more tomorrow, I promise, but just for tonight, I want you to concentrate on having fun. Okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed reluctantly.
Lillian nodded. “Then I’m off.”
She was gone again before I could stop her. I hadn’t eaten yet, either, and I didn’t want to wait until four o’clock to have my lunch. I should have known she’d realize that, though. Thirty minutes later, a waiter named Tommy from Hurley’s showed up with a hamburger and fries. As I offered to pay him, he said, “It’s taken care of, and the tip, too. I don’t know how you managed it, but I didn’t even think we delivered our food.”
“I’m special,” I said as I slipped him a five despite his instructions. Tommy was in college—I’d heard Jack saying something about it the night before—and while he put up a token protest about taking more money, I managed to convince him just the same.
I felt worlds better after I’d eaten, but the threatening skies kept things quiet in the shop, and I couldn’t bring myself to make any more cards. I finally just gave up and grabbed the paperback mystery I’d been reading during my spare moments, from where it was stored safely away in my purse.
Dame Agatha Christie herself couldn’t hold my attention as I kept thinking about Eliza Glade’s killer. Someone had to have had the guts of a second-story man to kill her with all those potential witnesses just on the other side of the door. Had the perpetrator planned to kill her with the letter opener from the start, or had it been a weapon of opportunity once the murderer was on-site? I knew Bradford thought that anybody could be a killer given the right circumstances. I couldn’t imagine being able to bring myself to do it, and I hoped I never would.
The next few hours felt like an eternity until Lillian finally showed up again.
“How was lunch?” she asked as she took off her coat.
“It was great. Let me pay you for it,” I said as I reached for my purse, “Please, it was the least I could do,” she said. “Have you had many customers since I left?”
“For all the good I did, I might as well have gone home right after you left.”
“Don’t worry, Jennifer, soon enough we’ll be longing for the good old quiet days.”
“I hope you’re right,” I said as I straightened the counter displays
for the fourth time in two hours. “If you’d like, why don’t we just shut the shop down an hour early and you can go home, too.”
Lillian shook her head. “I don’t mind working until five,” she said.
“Really, I’m fine with it. In fact, I’d feel better if you took off, too.”
“That’s nonsense. I have nothing else I need to do.”
Something was going on. Normally my aunt would jump at the chance to go home early, even though she was only a volunteer and could come and go as she wished. “What is it? What aren’t you telling me? You’re not having a man meet you here, are you?”
“Jennifer Shane, I have enough places to entertain my gentleman friends without using your store as a rendezvous point.”
“Then what is it? I’m not going until you tell me.”
She frowned, then finally said, “If you must know, I’ve made a few telephone calls, and I’m hoping I get some answers before we close.”
“Is there anything I should know about?” I asked.
“I won’t know that until I get my answers,” Lillian said plainly.
I held her hands in mine. “You didn’t do anything silly, did you? I won’t have you taking unnecessary risks, Lillian.”
“You worry too much,” she said as she withdrew her hands. “Now go. Have a lovely evening.”
“Be careful,” I said as she ushered me out of the door of my own shop.
“I’d say the same thing to you, but it might just do you some good to take a chance tonight. I expect a full report in the morning, Jennifer.”
“You’re overly optimistic about a blind date,” I said.
