“Okay, just for the record, Ms. Cornwall, did you see anyone approach the maintenance shed at the Good Shepherd Cemetery last Saturday at any time during the day?”
“No, I did not.”
She wrote in her notebook, then sat back.
“It must have been you that left a pink lip print on the back of the chief’s shirt yesterday.”
“It wasn’t my fault. He stopped without warning. How did you know it was me?”
“Elementary, my dear Moonbeam. I know he went across to the library to see you, and he came back with lipstick on him. And, you’re the right height.”
“Well, congratulations, Officer Vanderbloom, I believe you’re ready to sit for the sergeant’s exam.”
“Don’t be flip. The chief was not amused when one of the guys pointed out the lipstick and ventured a guess as to how it got there.”
“Well, too bad. I was hoping his wife would be the first to notice.”
“His wife died three years ago, before he left the Toronto force.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I hadn’t heard about that. Was it an accident?”
“She had a congenital heart defect that she didn’t know about. She got pregnant and for some reason just died in her sleep one night when she was three months along. I didn’t hear this from him, by the way. He never mentions her.”
“That’s horrible. No wonder he’s so … uh …” I searched for a more charitable word than I usually used when thinking of Chief Redfern.
“Rigid?” Thea drained her cup and gestured to the waitress for a refill. “I didn’t know him before, so I don’t know how, or if, he’s changed.”
“Well, you’d think he’d have a girlfriend by now. Somebody to mellow him out.”
She looked directly at me. “What about you? Have you found yourself another man to take your mind off your ex?”
“Hardly. Look at me. I’m one step from living on the street now that I’ve been fired from the library. Even if I wanted a man, which I sure as hell don’t, what man would want me?”
“Ah, Moonbeam, there are plenty of men around who would be interested if you’d just pull your head out of your butt and stop trying to get even with Mike Bains. Get on with your life, why don’t you?”
I was sick of being told what to do, and practically sputtered at her, “You haven’t heard the latest. Look at this.”
Opening my purse, I unfolded both the final notice of taxes and the article from that week’s Sentinel and shoved them across the table.
Thea might have been quick, but she wasn’t that quick. “What am I looking at here? An article about the mayor running for MP, which is no shock, and a tax notice from the Town of Lockport.”
“Read the part about Mike donating fifty acres of wetland to the province. And this notice is for a fifty-acre property I own down by the river.”
Now she got it. “Are you saying he’s donating your land? Maybe there’s another property. Although, if you don’t pay this by Friday, Bains could buy this piece of wetland before it goes to public auction.”
Thea folded up the papers and passed them back. Standing up and placing her cap perfectly straight on her head, she looked out the window at the street and said, “Moonbeam, it looks like you’re finally getting screwed again, but not in a good way.”
Chapter
FIFTEEN
For the first time in two years, I didn’t know what to do with myself. There was no place I had to be. It was too early to make my second trip of the day to take pictures of Glory’s gestating jungle monstrosity. And it was way too early for the yoga class I taught on Tuesday evenings at the Golden Goddess Spa.
Then I thought of something constructive to do. I should be calling prospective cleaning customers. Initially, I had been desperate to fill my empty Wednesdays with a paying job, so, playing a long shot, I responded to an ad placed in the Sentinel by Fern Brickle who required cleaning help four hours a week. Fern, well-to-do but not part of the country club set, had agreed to give me a week’s trial. To my surprise, and probably hers, I turned out to be superb at cleaning. Toilets I wasn’t so crazy about, but they came with the territory.
Glory heard about my success at Fern’s and, when her own cleaning lady quit on her, she begged me to step in. Despite her complaining, I knew Glory never had her house cleaned so thoroughly, but now I wasn’t sure if she wanted me back at all.
Allison must have been watching for me to return for my bike. As I zipped my jacket and tucked my hair into my helmet, she came sprinting down the steps to the parking lot.
“Wait, Bliss. Please, can I talk to you?”
Determined to stand firm, I waited for her to reach me.
“Bliss, I called the board, and they agreed to keep you on till the end of the month. That should give you more time to line up something else.”
I seriously considered it. I would be crazy not to. Continuing to work a few more weeks at the library would give me a chance to resolve some key issues without worrying so much about money, issues like pollinating two giant plants, finding another place to live, extricating myself from marijuana purgatory, screwing the Weasel right back … Actually, these issues were so pressing, I didn’t have time to work at the library.
I hopped on my bike and called to Allison over my shoulder, “Gotta go. Oh, and thanks for the offer, Allison, but I’ve made other plans.”
It was peaceful and quiet at the back of my trailer, but I couldn’t shake a feeling of unease. There was no smell of four-legged carnivore and no sinister rustlings in the underbrush. I was fishing at the bottom of my purse for my key when I emerged from the shade of the trees into the bright sunlight of the courtyard. A sense of being watched forced my eyes upward from the key in my hand.
Snake was staring at me. He wore his dusty leathers and chains, with a skull-patterned do-rag wrapped around shoulder-length, greasy black curls. I froze for a second, then darted up the two steps to my door and tried to open the lock. My fingers wouldn’t grip the key and I dropped it twice onto the platform porch. I looked behind, but Snake hadn’t made a move in my direction. Neither had he taken a step back. Finally, on my third try, I jammed the key home.
Locked inside, I watched through the narrow slit in the curtain as Snake opened the Quigleys’ door without knocking. He looked up once toward my trailer before closing the door. God, where was Rae? Should I check on her? No, I didn’t think Rae was in immediate physical danger from Snake. But I could be. Who knew what was going on in that shack built onto the back of the Quigleys’ trailer?
With the baseball bat securely between my knees, I sat on my worn bench and contemplated the bottle of wine tempting me from the counter. I looked at my watch and sighed. Pretty soon I had to do the ugly plant run, then I was due at the spa. I wasn’t looking forward to returning to the trailer after dark tonight.
With fingers still shaking, I pawed through the junk drawer again until I located the list of potential cleaning customers. Within the hour, I had booked two clients for Fridays, starting next week. The rest of the list had found alternate cleaning help but would keep me in mind if circumstances changed. Two phone calls went unanswered and I left messages.
A stomach rumble sent me to the fridge. Empty. Not even a cracker. Simon probably had more crumbs in his cage than I did in my whole trailer. I perked up when I remembered the stacked cans in my cupboard.
Somehow I had to find work for Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Suddenly, my hasty decision to walk away from the library before the end of the month didn’t seem like such a smart move.
I turned over one of the old tax notices and, with my pencil stub, wrote the total of my bank account on the top of the page. Then I wrote down what I could reasonably expect to earn in the next three weeks before rent was due again. I could probably make the rent payment without dipping into the bank account, but it would be close. I still had to buy gas for the Savage. And, if I wasn’t mistaken, Dougal was starting to take note of the amount of food I was removin
g from his fridge. Well, I would cut back on food for a while if I had to. And there was the slight possibility I could coordinate the pollination of the two Titan Arums, but I shouldn’t count on that money. The whole thing seemed too quixotic to actually work.
So, without touching my bank account, I could survive for a month. Put another way, if I paid the back taxes on the swamp, I had a month to sell it back to the Weasel. Or I’d threaten to blow the whistle on his crooked scheme to donate land he didn’t own to the province.
On the other hand, I could let the swamp go, allow the Weasel to take it away from me, and use my savings to keep myself going for six months while I tried other means of squeezing my share out of him. I could even find a safer place to live.
Turning my hands on the table, palms up, I looked at them, envisioning one choice in each. I had to make a decision now, and it had to be a choice I could live with, no matter what happened. I looked at the numbers written on the paper.
What the hell.
Tomorrow afternoon, when I was finished cleaning Fern Brickle’s house, I would stop by the registry office and pay off the taxes. Then I’d wait for the Weasel to find me and offer me a deal. Let next month take care of itself. And the month after that. Who cared? No pain, no gain, Cornwall.
At Arlington Woods, Pan looked alarmed when I asked to speak to Glory. I still had half an hour before my class at the spa.
“You might want to think twice about that, Bliss. The Mistress of Darkness is still chewing nails, and I don’t mean her own.”
Pan was walking me around the side of the house to my bike after visiting the greenhouse. We had taken our look at the plant, and I had snapped the required pictures. The pot crop was coming along well, too.
“I need to know about tomorrow, Pan. It’s my morning to clean, and I want to know if Glory still wants me to come.”
He whirled to look at me. “What do you mean? Of course she wants you to clean the house. You know I don’t clean.”
“I’ve noticed that. But after the other night, I got the impression she was really angry. She yelled at me to get out.”
“Mostly she meant your cousin. Just the sight of him sends her into a frenzy. She’s been eating her special food like crazy, but it hasn’t helped.”
“What special food? Oh, you mean … special?”
Pan nodded his sleek head. “Cookies, casseroles, dips, you name it.”
“You can make all those kinds of food from … you know?”
“Certainly. But it’s very rich, and Miss Yates is going to hate herself when she comes out of this, then she’ll hate your cousin even more when she has to go to a fat farm to lose the ten pounds she put on.” Pan pressed his fingertips to his temples and looked every inch the overworked servant.
“So, are you the creator of all these special dishes?”
“I don’t cook.”
“You don’t clean, you don’t cook.” I was afraid to pose the obvious question, and instead asked, “Who does the cooking, then?”
“Herself doesn’t eat breakfast, eats lunch only on occasion with her closest female friends, and eats dinner at the Club. Unless a gentleman takes her out.”
“Well, I know that, Pan. I mean, who cooks these special meals? I’m pretty sure the Glorious One doesn’t slap on an apron and start chopping up the pot and other herbs.”
He smirked. “I’d love a picture of that.”
I thought about telling him I had seen him the previous night, dropping something off at the Quigley trailer. Trouble was, I didn’t know if his errand had to do with Glory’s diet or something more personal. If Pan was there on private business, it was probably in my best interest to keep quiet.
Pan seemed to make his mind up about something. Moving closer until our noses were almost touching, he whispered, “The less people who know about this the better, but since you keep asking questions and you know about the stuff, I’m going to explain a few things. But if you blab, we could both get hurt.”
I could tell he was serious, so I didn’t laugh. Honestly. This was Lockport. Then I thought of Snake and Ewan Quigley and lost even the desire to smile.
He whispered, “Okay, there’s a person in town called the Baker. The Baker takes private stashes and turns them into gourmet meals to die for. A lot of the influential people in town use the Baker’s services.”
“It must be expensive.”
“The Baker takes a cut of the stash. No money changes hands.”
“Then what does he do with his cut?”
Pan shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m guessing the Baker sells it.”
I sucked in a breath. “Okay, we’ve crossed over into serious criminal activity here.”
“That’s what I’m saying. Now you know how dangerous this whole thing is.”
“I never doubted that. I don’t even like being in the same room with those plants. I keep thinking the feds are going to come smashing through the glass windows with guns blazing.”
“Well, how about me. I have to water and feed the stuff.” Pan managed to look highly affronted at his servitude to the Cannabis Queen.
“Glory must pay you well.”
“I do all right. So, you see what I’m saying here?”
“Not really.”
“We’re both in this, right along with Miss Glory and all her society friends. Maybe more so. Who do you think is going to do more time if they catch us?”
“You. They won’t charge me just for being in the same room, especially if I plead family connections. You, on the other hand, will be kissing your ass goodbye for a few years.” I didn’t add that I could be forced to testify against him. No point branding the words Witness for the Crown on my forehead.
He nodded and stepped back. “I guess. Anyway, remember what they said during the Second World War, ‘Loose lips sink ships.’”
I agreed. I didn’t want to be the torpedo aimed at anybody’s ship.
Chapter
SIXTEEN
The class was performing the Tree Pose, and two of the fifteen participants had already fallen over onto their yoga mats. This pose promotes balance but is not one of the more simple yoga moves. Staring at a spot directly in front helps and, to maintain my own equilibrium, I was concentrating on the sweating nose of the thirty-something woman who had positioned herself in the middle of the front row. She was doing pretty well, although yoga consists of slow movements and if you sweat you’re probably trying too hard.
The perspiring woman crashed to the floor, followed by several others. My line of sight was now cleared to the back row where I noticed that one of the few still standing was a male. As the woman on either side of him fell over in unison, I saw he was wearing black bicycle shorts and matching muscle shirt. This was not a good look for …
Chesley Belcourt. Now he was standing like a lone sapling in a fire-ravaged forest. We both stood firmly, one foot high on the inside of the opposite thigh, arms reaching ceilingward with palms pressed together. Our eyes locked.
Chesley held onto that pose like he could do it forever, but I drew a bead on his eyes. I always won the blinking contest against Blyth and Dougal, and I knew how to stare without blinking. Chesley’s eyes moved away slightly and I followed them. When he moved them back, I was there too. Within seconds, it was over. His concentration broken, Chesley’s left foot fell off his right thigh and impacted the floor. That was good enough for me.
“Okay, everybody. Good session. Now lie flat on your mats for the Corpse Pose. Eyes closed and let your hands and feet open naturally.”
After five minutes, I dismissed the class with a bow over pressed palms. “Namaste,” I said, and they repeated the salutation.
Usually I hit the shower facilities before leaving the centre, but I didn’t want to take a chance on losing Chesley. I retrieved my clothes from the women’s locker room and dressed in the hall, replacing my yoga pants with a pair of jeans and shoving sockless feet into my boots. I was relieved no one saw my tattered French cu
ts.
Holding my small gym bag, I took up a position in front of the men’s locker room door. I figured it would take Chesley a few minutes to wiggle out of the tight bicycle shorts, an image I didn’t dwell on.
Garnet Maybe came by and handed me a twenty she took out of her pocket. Then she drifted back to her office, not even curious as to why I was loitering outside the men’s locker room.
The country club set attended exercise classes at their exclusive club house, leaving everyone else to drop in at Garnet’s Golden Goddess Spa, so I wasn’t concerned the Weasel’s influence would get me fired here. Still, I had no qualifications as a yoga instructor and I knew that when Garnet found an instructor who did, I was out on my keister. Until that day arrived, however, I just tried not to cause anyone permanent physical harm.
Just when I was ready to storm the locker room and drag Chesley out by his lips, the door opened. His head eased out and, when it swivelled far enough to catch sight of me, he jumped back and tried to close the door again. I put my weight against it, which, admittedly, didn’t do much, but just the gesture seemed enough to show Chesley how silly he was acting.
Holding his canvas carryall to his chest, he stammered, “Oh, hello, Miss Cornwall. Very nice class.” He didn’t move from the threshold.
“Call me Bliss. And may I call you Chesley?” I put on the fake realtor’s smile and captured his elbow, propelling him into the hall and away from the safety of the smelly locker room. “Are you and your mother planning to stay long in Lockport? If so, I’m sure Elaine Simms can show you more suitable properties than the Barrister house.”
Chesley trembled in my grasp. “Well, Mum and I are just trying to get a feel for the area first. And we haven’t totally discounted the property you showed us, Miss Cornwall, ah, Bliss.”
I’ll bet. “You have my card if you want to reach me, Chesley. I’d like to stay and chat a bit longer, but I have an errand to run.”
Corpse Flower: A Cornwall and Redfern Mystery Page 11
