Scott had stayed quiet, listening to her and getting up halfway to check the roast and baste it with the pan juices. He looked perfectly at home in the compact kitchen, and was a neat cook, rinsing and drying things as he went.
“I’ll have to give it thought.” He opened a cupboard and pulled out a couple of plates, set into a rack that kept them secure for travel.
“You’re the right kind of person to live in a small space,” Georgie mused, watching him. “A place for everything and everything in its place. No wonder you look comfortable in my van. Jerry always looks as though he wants to punch holes in the walls to make more room.”
“He likes his slides, I’ve noticed.” Scott nodded at the wall of the dinette. “He should approve of this, then.”
“What, just one slide in the whole camper?” Georgie mocked. “Not nearly enough.”
He topped up their wine and looked at her speculatively. “Okay, so Nick’s on side, but Katherine’s being secretive. You’re sure that this medium is conning her?”
“Yes. As certain as I can be, considering that as usual I don’t have any actual facts.”
He picked up on the frustration in her voice. “It’s always going to be that way for you, Georgie. You’ll know things that other people can’t know, and often you won’t be able to prove it. All you can do is keep digging, and nudge people to do the right thing. Shine a spotlight on things.”
Shine a spotlight on things. Georgie imagined a bright beam of light exposing nasty secrets hidden in dark corners, lighting up the faces of shadowy villains. She liked that idea.
“And if I can’t help?”
“Then you can’t. You need to be able to live with that.” Scott stood up and opened the oven door, and a heavenly smell wafted out. “Let’s see if we can come up with a plan after dinner. Time to relax.” He set the roasting pan on a heatproof mat, and reached up to flick a switch on the overhead cabinet. Soft classical music filled the air.
That sounded just fine to Georgie.
~~~
As it turned out, their after-dinner plans didn’t include any discussion about exposing fake mediums or the difficulty of bringing people to justice without any actual proof. Instead, they opened a second bottle of wine and caught up on each other’s family history. Georgie discovered that Scott had not only a brother called Bluey who did “something with computers”, but two sisters, Viv and Lissa, who co-owned a cafe in a large country town. His father was a retired long-haul truck driver who could, apparently, fix or build anything, and spent much of his time helping out friends or family.
From the way Scott talked about them, Georgie could tell they were a close family. She envied him that. “I always wanted a sister,” she told Scott. “But no, I just have Jerry.”
“But thanks to Jerry, you have Tammy,” he pointed out. “Just as good as a sister. And you can share my sisters.”
Georgie flicked him a quick glance. Did he mean ‘you can share mine’ as a casual comment, or ‘you can share mine’ as in her future sisters-in-law? What was she supposed to say to that?
Nothing, she decided, reaching for the bottle and tipping the last thimble-full into her glass. When in doubt, say nothing.
Scott grinned at her and wriggled back comfortably in his seat. “Did you know every thought shows on your face?”
“They do not.”
“Yes, they do. And we’re going to get married one day. But don’t worry about it now.”
Georgie choked on her wine and she felt her heart leap while her eyes met his.
And blip, just like that, instead of her worrying about what it all meant and whether it was pre-ordained or whether she’d even like him enough to marry him or how dare he presume, she felt a kind of warm tide flow through her and something settle into place.
He was right, they would. But it didn’t do to let any male get too comfortable. Not even someone as calm and centered as Scott.
“Well,” she said, “we’ll see.”
“That was what my mother always said when she meant ‘no’,” Scott observed, watching her finish off the tiny amount in the bottom of her glass. “But not you.”
“I’m the fortune-teller here,” Georgie reminded him, “not you…and I’m not hearing any voices telling me there’s a wedding in my future.”
“But I’m from a long line of astrologers. It’s written in the stars.”
Thrown off course, Georgie considered that. “You are? How many generations?”
“Counting me, two.”
“Two.”
“Yup. Mum, then me.” Scott finished off his own wine and then took both empty glasses to the sink and rinsed them.
“I haven’t seen you do a horoscope ever since I’ve known you. Or a pack of cards.”
“You don’t know what I do in the privacy of my own camper. I might do a spread every night.” Scott put his hand under her elbow and drew her out of her seat and up into his arms. “I knew you’d be here tonight. Why else do you think I prepared dinner for two?”
“Because you could use the leftovers tomorrow if I didn’t turn up?”
“Skeptic.” He nodded to the right, where his bed was looking invitingly comfortable. “Stay tonight?”
Georgie rested her head against his chest and smiled, where he couldn’t see her, and injected doubt in her voice. “Only if it’s written in the stars.”
“Loud and clear.” She felt laughter rumble in his chest. “Tomorrow night too.”
“Don’t push your luck.” Even as she said it, her arms crept around him and hugged him tight, giving her away completely.
Rosa had seen him in her crystal ball. Scott’s mother had seen Georgie in the stars.
It was meant to be, she thought, and for a few hours put all thoughts of awkward teenage boys and fake mediums out of her mind.
CHAPTER 9
It was Tammy who finally came up with an idea for finding out who the mystery medium might be.
“I’ve got to do something while I hang around here waiting to see what Jerry does with the vintage division,” she said to Georgie, paying a visit before the day’s fortune-telling sessions started. “So why not go undercover?” Her gaze alighted on the pink ceramic pig that sat beside the crystal ball, and she leaned forward to peer at the words printed on the sticky note adhering to its rotund belly: Donations to Red Cross. “What’s this?”
“My new policy.” Georgie beamed with satisfaction. “I’m just doing this for fun from now on. It’s donation-only, and it’s all going to a good cause.”
Tammy pursed her lips. “You’re doing readings for free?”
“Yes, and only when I feel like it. It’s kind of stage-dressing for the gypsy caravan, but people who really need me will find their way somehow.”
Tammy thought it through. “You don’t need the money, because of the commissions for vintage vans and consults on design… and nobody can call you a fake, because the readings are just for fun.”
“Exactly. And I’ve got a new line of clothing coming up,” Georgie reminded her. “Win-win.”
“Is this because of Nick and his mother?”
“Kind of,” Georgie admitted, “but I never liked taking money for doing this.”
Tammy shook her head. “No wonder Jerry always says you don’t have a business head on your shoulders.” Then she held up both hands. “I did not just mention Jerry’s name. I am not thinking about Jerry.”
“Mmm,” Georgie said, “so I can see. Now what’s this about going undercover?”
Tammy ran through her reasoning. One, Katherine wasn’t likely to give up a name. Two, trying to follow her had its problems. They couldn’t really sit around outside Katherine’s house all day and night waiting for her to go out, not even if they did it in shifts, like real detectives. Three, Nick couldn’t follow his mother because he was either at school or football practice or the gym most of the time, and he didn’t have a car anyway.
“So I thought,” Tammy said, “you could phone her
and tell her that you had new information and to come and see you—but then you can be late for the appointment so she has to wait. I’ll be waiting too, and I’ll have a story ready to convince her that I need to see a really good medium.”
“There’s a slight problem,” Georgie said. “I don’t have any new information. Believe me, I’ve asked the crystal ball.”
Tammy waved that off. “Invent something. It’s all for the greater good.”
“Can’t do that. No fake stuff. Never ever.” Georgie thought of what her great-grandma Rosa had told her once, about her own completely talentless mother making up fortunes or winkling the information out of people without their realizing it. Rosa, who really could see the future, was dead against it. So was Georgie. At least that was one thing they agreed on.
Tammy leaned her chin on her hand, furrowing her brow at the pink pig while she thought. “All right, fair enough. Tell her the truth then—that there’s nobody watching the house, and if there’s someone out to get her, it’s coming from somewhere else. That’s true enough, isn’t it?”
“She’ll be scared out of her mind if I tell her that.”
“Then tell her…tell her that you see good things coming her way too. Good people who will help her and bring positive things into her life.” She raised an eyebrow. “True?”
Georgie gave in. “All right. I’ll do it.”
She made the call, and an excited Katherine agreed to come that afternoon at two o’clock, the first afternoon reading.
~~~
At two that afternoon, Georgie was peeking through the window of Scott’s camper, waiting for Katherine to arrive. Tammy, with her hair pulled back in a stubby ponytail and dressed in a shapeless cotton sweater over denim shorts, was slumped at a picnic table near Georgie’s van. Somehow, she had managed to look downtrodden and almost plain.
“How does she do that?” Georgie marveled. “She usually has men panting and tripping over their tongues, but today nobody would give her a second glance.”
“Talent,” said Layla, shoulder to shoulder with her. “Tammy could have been an actress; I’ve told her often enough. It’s in the expression. See how she’s got her mouth turned down?”
“And the pose,” Georgie said. “She’s gone all round-shouldered.”
“All in all,” Scott put in from where he was relegated to the kitchen table, “a talented member of the CBI team.”
Then Georgie let out a gasp of disbelief. “Oh no. You’ve got to be kidding.”
Layla frowned and put her nose against the window. “Is that Nick?”
“It’s Nick. Something’s gone wrong.” Georgie kept watching through the window for a few more minutes while Tammy engaged Nick in conversation, and then Tammy looked over towards Scott’s camper and waved them across.
“Damn,” Georgie muttered. She looked at Layla and went outside, hurrying down the steps with the others behind her.
Nick watched them approach; a deep crease between his eyebrows and his hands fisted in his baggy jacket pockets. He looked entirely too worn down for a kid his age. His eyes moved from Georgie to the others behind her.
Tammy had magically straightened up. She dragged the rubber band off her pony tail and shook out her blonde waves and then yanked off the threadbare sweater that they’d dug out of the RV park Lost ’n’ Found box to reveal a form-fitting tank top. Suddenly she was pretty again. Nick blinked, watching the transformation with disbelief.
“Nick says that his mother’s not coming,” she greeted them.
“What happened?” Georgie searched his face. “Did something give us away?”
Nick sighed. “She told that medium about coming to see you, how you were”—his mouth twisted—“another reputable psychic, and you had news for her. But guess what happened then?”
“She told your mother to stay away from me, I’m assuming, since Katherine’s not here.”
Nick nodded. “She told Mom she’d had another message from my father. He warned her that she was in danger of falling victim to false prophets…that she was being too trusting yet again.”
“But I’m not charging anything.”
“Mom told her that. She said it was a devious way of gaining her trust, and that if you couldn’t get to her one way you’d try it another—through me.”
“That’s how Nick found out that his mother was supposed to see you today,” Tammy said. “Madam Fakery told his mum to make sure Nick didn’t go anywhere near you either.”
“Mom told her all about how I videoed our session,” Nick said, looking despondent. “I was hoping to use my pen on her, if I could find out who she was. I can’t now. She’ll be on to me.”
“What a mess.” Georgie slid on the seat beside Tammy. “Sit down, Nick. Council of war, everybody. What do we do now?”
Layla sat beside Nick and Scott squeezed on the end beside Georgie. Seeing Nick’s perplexed expression as his gaze moved from one to the other, Georgie explained. “Meet the brains trust, Nick. Crystal Ball Investigations at your service.”
He looked slightly dazed. “What?”
“A kind of informal criminal investigation team,” Scott said, grinning at him. “We have no evidence and no authority, and a crystal ball that works when it feels like it, but we try hard.”
“And you,” added Georgie wryly, “have better spy equipment than we do. Actually we don’t have any.”
Tammy folded her arms and sighed. “I was really pumped to go undercover, too.”
There was a glum silence for a moment, and then Nick spoke up, his words hesitant. “You still can, if you like.”
All heads swung his way.
“Don’t be offended,” he said, his gaze swiftly touching on Tammy’s generous curves and jittering away again, color rising in his face. “It’s just an idea.”
They waited.
“Well, I was thinking, one thing that might make Mom take me along to this psychic…what if I came home with someone totally unsuitable? Like, um,” he swallowed, stealing a quick glance at Tammy again. “Like trailer trash.”
Seeing the expression on Tammy’s face, Layla let out a crack of delighted laughter. “Tams! That’s so you!”
Scott was biting back a smile, but Georgie joined Layla, gripping Scott’s arm and choking with laughter while Tammy glared at Nick.
Aghast, he inched away from Tammy, close enough to smack him one. “No no! I didn’t mean you are, but you could act like it. I mean, look at who you were pretending to be when I arrived, and look at you now. You could be like, undercover trailer trash, and when Mom freaks out I could say I’ll only listen to what Dad says and...Oh, jeez.”
Finally Georgie managed to speak. “I think what he’s trying to say, Tams, is that you are a good enough actress to pull it off.”
Tammy frowned at Nick. “Is that what you meant?”
“Yes,” he said miserably. “You know, too much makeup, tight clothes, all that.”
“Ah. So I’m to be a trashy cradle snatcher.” Tammy’s brow cleared as she contemplated her changed role. A speculative glint entered her eye. “Ooh. Yes, I think I could enjoy that.” She reached over and tested Nick’s biceps, grinning.
His face now flaming red, he jerked back.
“Right,” said Tammy. “Let’s work out Plan B.”
CHAPTER 10
Nick, it turned out, had already skipped school to come and see Georgie, but they wouldn’t let him pass on football training as well.
“Training is important, Nick,” Georgie told him severely. “I can see your potential future, but if you keep blowing off training, your coach will dump you, no matter how good you are. No college scholarship then.”
Nick flushed. “Yeah, he’s already said.”
Georgie rolled her eyes. “And yet here you are, all set to miss training again. The future can change, you know. We all make choices at any fork in the road.”
“Okay, okay.” Some of the old Nick’s spirit returned, and he gave her a sulky look. “No
need to nag.”
“Right, then off you go.” Georgie crossed her arms and gave him the death stare. “You’ve got my number. Call me when you can talk and we’ll work out a plan.”
She watched him slouch away, and then turned to find the others all looking at her with varying degrees of amusement. “What?”
“He really brings out the mom in you,” Layla said, grinning. “You’ll be telling him to make his bed next.”
“And what’s all this about making choices and the future not being set?” asked Tammy. “I’ve never heard you say that before. I thought it was all, like, “This shall come to pass, watch out!”
“I don’t know,” Georgie said, nettled. “It just felt right. I’m still learning, all right?”
Scott gave her a light tap on the nose. “You’re right, anyway. My mum has warned people in time to change the wrong path in life. She’s saved more than one kid from a night in the cells.” He nodded at Nick’s disappearing back. “The way he’s feeling about Katherine’s situation, he could do something really stupid. He needed a bit of support. And nagging.”
“Speaking of nagging…” Georgie dug her cell phone out of a deep pocket in her skirt. “I’ve been meaning to phone Rosa for days. She was in on the first meeting with Nick, then nothing.” She scrolled through her contacts and stabbed at Rosa’s name. “See if I can pin her down to something. It might be time I put her on speed dial as a consultant, with the lack of success I’m having.”
She listened at the ringing on the other end for a full minute, then hit ‘end’. “I’ll give her a few minutes and then try again. If she’s out in the garden it takes her a while to reach the phone.”
“No cell phone?” Tammy asked.
“We’re lucky she agreed to a landline. As for answering machines—no chance.”
The second time, Rosa answered, saying immediately: “Hello, Georgie! How nice to hear from you. Enjoying the sunshine over there in L.A.?”
Good Riddance: Book 3 Georgie B. Goode Gypsy Caravan Cozy Mystery Page 5
