by D. S. Butler
Loretta hovered beside me. Sometimes her constant presence was an irritation. She had been a ghost a long time and was perfectly capable of picking things up and moving objects around, so I didn’t see why she couldn’t lend a hand now and again.
I smiled at the thought of one of the customers seeing a table wipe itself. Or maybe Loretta could throw a piece of hash brown back at Tommy Breton when he dumped it on the floor.
I was feeling angsty. I hadn’t had a chance to talk things through with Jess yet. She was my usual sounding board, but I decided Loretta would do on this occasion.
Once I got all the customers settled and served, I popped out to the back room, giving Loretta a surreptitious sign that she should follow me.
“What is it?” Loretta asked, her ghostly eyes sparkling. Life for Loretta was pretty boring in the diner, and she loved it whenever I shared any gossip or news with her.
“I went to Cherry Town this morning,” I told Loretta. “I planned to try and find out who the Mayor was meeting there, and I was shocked to find out it was Yvonne. I think they were having an affair.”
Loretta pulled a face. “Ew, that’s disgusting.”
I happened to agree with her, but I was hoping for a little more input than that.
“Grandma Grant thought he was going to Cherry Town for meetings and taking payments as favors to pass things through the planning committee quickly for the new resort, but actually, he was there to meet up with Yvonne and…”
Loretta’s eyes opened wide, and she stared at me before her body started to shake with laughter.
“Oh, it’s too ridiculous. Haughty old Yvonne with Mayor Briggs! I can’t wait to see her and tease her about it.”
I didn’t think she was ever going to stop howling with laughter.
I tried to shush her, but it didn’t do any good. I suppose it didn’t really matter because nobody else could hear her. I had hoped for a little bit of advice, though.
“Loretta, stop laughing,” I ordered eventually. “I need your help. If Mayor Briggs was having an affair with Yvonne, do you think it’s possible he might have had her killed? After all, he is married. Perhaps he needed to keep the affair quiet, and he thought Yvonne was going to tell someone.”
Loretta stopped laughing and shook her head. “I wouldn’t have thought he had it in him. Although I have to admit, I never liked him. His eyes are too close together.”
“What?” I shook my head. “What does that have to do with it? For goodness sake, you sound just like Grandma Grant.”
I gave up on Loretta and left her in the back room. So much for acting as a sounding board. All I learned from Loretta was that the Mayor’s eyes were too close together. Useful.
A couple of other customers had entered the diner while I was talking to Loretta, so I quickly took their orders, passed the order slips through the hatch to Archie, and then joined him in the kitchen and started to make a new batch of lemonade.
“The Chief and Joe were in earlier, for breakfast. Joe asked about you,” Archie said giving me a pointed look, which I ignored.
“Did they mention the investigation?” I asked.
Archie sighed. “It doesn’t sound like they’re getting very far. Poor Yvonne. She was snatched from us too soon. I hate to think of her killer getting away with it.”
“These things take time. I bet the chief and Joe have plenty of leads we don’t know about. I’m sure her killer will be brought to justice, Archie.”
He smiled at me and nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”
For the rest of the day, the diner was pretty busy. I was starting to feel a little nervous that I hadn’t seen Yvonne all day. After our fight this morning, I guessed she was trying to punish me.
I stayed a little later after my shift to help Archie clear up because Alice, who was supposed to be taking over from us, was running late.
Archie and I arrived at the town hall for the meeting just in time. Mrs. Townsend shut the doors behind me. I turned to look at the rows of people in attendance. It looked like the whole of Abbot Cove had turned out for this.
Archie slipped into a seat in the back row, and I caught sight of Grandma Grant and Jess sitting near the front and saw that they had saved me a seat.
I wound my way between the chairs, putting up with moans and impatient huffs of breath as I tripped over people’s feet to get to my seat.
The mayor was already standing at the front of the room next to a microphone.
I sat down beside Grandma Grant.
“This is going to be good,” Grandma said.
Before I had a chance to reply, Mayor Briggs began to talk.
I’d been reflecting on the subject of his affair with Yvonne all day, and I wasn’t seeing him in a very favorable light right now.
“Of course, we are all gathered here today to talk about the new resort planned for Abbott Cove, but I must take a moment to mention the recent tragic death in our community,” the mayor began and then broke off to dab at his eyes with a handkerchief.
Were they crocodile tears? How could he stand up there in public and talk about Yvonne as though she were just a casual acquaintance?
“Now, there’s been a lot of ruckus recently caused by a certain individual in Abbott Cove.” The mayor’s tears suddenly dried up as he stared daggers at Grandma Grant. “You would think a long-term Abbott Cove resident would show a little decorum in the face of such a tragic death, and not go to great lengths to draw attention to themselves, throwing tantrums like a child.”
I sensed Grandma Grant tense beside me and knew she wanted to respond. Given half a chance, she would be up there bashing him over the head with the microphone.
She wasn’t the only one. I was furious on her behalf, especially considering what I now knew.
Mayor Briggs was a class A hypocrite.
Grandma Grant had been right about one thing. He was a cheater, and I wasn’t going to sit there and hear him run my grandmother into the ground.
I didn’t really think it through. Perhaps if I had, I wouldn’t have acted so hastily, but I shot up from my chair and said, “That’s quite enough of that, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’m afraid the games up. I know your little secret.”
The mayor stared at me, slack-jawed. His gaze moved between my grandmother and me.
I could hear Jess hissing beside me, “Harper, what are you doing? Sit down!”
Everyone in the hall was staring at me, and I started to feel nervous. I should have waited and confronted him in private, but it was too late to worry about that. I couldn’t stop now.
“I went to Cherry Town today,” I continued, “and I found out that my grandmother has been right all along. You were conducting secret meetings there.”
The mayor’s lower lip began to wobble, and he looked around the room in a panic.
The mayor’s wife, who was sitting in the front row, turned around to tell me sharply to sit down.
“Don’t you dare sit down, Harper,” Grandma Grant ordered. “Carry on. I want to hear this.”
Grandma Grant obviously still thought this was all about the mayor’s dodgy financial deals. She had no idea he’d been having an affair with Yvonne.
I tried to sound more confident than I felt. I put my hands on my hips as I said, “I could tell everyone about it now, including your wife, but I think it would be better coming from you.”
To my shock, the mayor started to cry. Not just a steady trickle of tears but full on, body-wracking sobs.
I didn’t know where to look or what to do.
But I didn’t have to do anything, the floodgates had opened, and the mayor began to admit everything. “You’re right. I’m so ashamed. I took money from businesses trying to ingratiate themselves with the resort. People wanted to clear planning faster, and they gave me money to expedite the process. I’m sorry…”
Mayor Briggs turned to look at his wife, and the shock on her face told me she had known absolutely nothing about this.
But she w
asn’t half as shocked as I was. That wasn’t what I’d expected him to say. I’d been expecting him to come clean about his affair.
“What about Yvonne Dean?” I demanded.
The mayor sniffed and wiped his eyes. “Yes, Yvonne was one of the people I took money from. She wanted to have a place in the new resort for her yoga studio.”
I looked around at the shocked faces in the audience, and when my gaze settled on Grandma Grant, I saw she was beaming up at me.
She slapped me on the back. “Well done, Harper!”
Chapter 16
I felt like a complete idiot.
I stood in the center of the town hall with Grandma Grant and Jess beside me. People kept walking up and trying to shake my hand, telling me they’d suspected the mayor was suspicious all along.
Hindsight was a wonderful thing.
Despite what everyone was saying now, Grandma Grant was the only one who called it, and now she was bathing in the glow of everyone’s admiration, although, undeservedly, most of the attention seemed to be focused on me.
Mayor Briggs had been sent home in disgrace, pending an investigation.
But nobody wanted to go home. Scandals like this didn’t often happen in Abbott Cove, and everybody wanted to talk about it and dissect what had happened. Every resident of Abbott Cove had an anecdote about how they knew the mayor was corrupt, and they were just waiting for the day when he was exposed.
The only ones who didn’t look too happy were Chief Wickham and Deputy McGrady.
I gulped as I saw them approaching through the crowds of people.
I hadn’t even noticed them when I entered the town hall, but I supposed it wasn’t surprising. I’d arrived late and had only been looking out for Grandma Grant and Jess.
Joe reached me first. “It looks like you’re the town hero again, Harper.”
He didn’t look happy. Before I replied to Joe, my gaze shifted to Chief Wickham, who looked extremely serious as well.
I should have told the chief and Joe what I’d found out before revealing it dramatically at the town hall. I hadn’t planned on doing it, but the mayor annoyed me when he’d made mean comments about Grandma Grant. I had blurted it out in the heat of the moment, and now, I was going to have to apologize.
Before the chief could tell me off, Grandma Grant smiled broadly at him and said, “I told you he was crooked. You should have listened to me, shouldn’t you?”
Grandma Grant had never been magnanimous in victory. She was right, and therefore, she was going to make the most of it and rub it in. For how long was anyone’s guess. But I thought she would probably dine out on this story until at least Christmas.
“I can’t comment on that until after the investigation,” Chief Wickham said in a cool tone.
“Don’t give me that rubbish about a namby-pamby investigation,” Grandma Grant said rudely. “I was right, and nobody believed me. Now you all look like fools.”
Like I said, definitely not magnanimous in victory.
I thought I’d better cut in before Grandma Grant made matters even worse.
“I’m very sorry,” I said. “I should have come to you and Deputy McGrady before I opened my mouth like that. But he really made me mad with his comments about Grandma Grant. I know she can be a pain but…”
Grandma Grant dug me in the ribs. “Hey!”
“But you have to admit she was right about him.” I rubbed my bruised ribs and glared at Grandma Grant.
“I have a question,” I said and moved a little closer to Chief Wickham and hoped nobody else would overhear our conversation. “Do you think the mayor could have killed Yvonne?”
Chief Wickham pulled back in surprise, and Joe, who had also heard my comment, frowned. “I doubt it, Harper. Why would you think that?”
I shook my head. If I was honest, I didn’t really think the mayor was capable of killing Yvonne, the trouble was, I didn’t know anybody who was, and unless we found her killer, Yvonne was destined to remain a ghost and a thorn in my side.
I shrugged. “I don’t really. It was just because he was taking bribes from her… I thought perhaps he didn’t want her to reveal his secret?”
I was clutching at straws, and I knew it.
Chief Wickham shook his head. “I think that might be a bit of a stretch of logic, Harper. But I promise you we are going to have a very close look at the mayor’s affairs, and if he was involved, we’ll find out.”
I nodded. I had to be satisfied with that.
“So how is the investigation into Yvonne’s murder going? Have you got any suspects?”
“I have to hand it to you, Harper,” Joe McGrady said dryly. “You’re certainly persistent.”
* * *
We finally managed to escape from the hordes of people trying to congratulate us, and we walked Grandma Grant home before Jess and I returned to the cottage.
“What’s wrong with you?” Jess asked. “I thought you would be on cloud nine after your dramatic unveiling of the mayor as a dastardly criminal.”
Jess’s words were sarcastic, but I could see the concern in her eyes and knew it was because I’d been so quiet during the walk home.
I couldn’t believe I’d gotten it so wrong.
I knew I could confide in my sister, though. I might worry about what the rest of the town thought of me, but I knew Jess loved me regardless, even when I made a fool of myself.
“I didn’t know the mayor was taking money. Grandma Grant should take all the credit for that. I actually thought he’d been having an affair with Yvonne. That’s why I confronted him at the town hall.”
Jess stopped in her tracks as we walked through the door to the cottage, making me bump into her.
“Ow, what did you stop for?” I asked, rubbing my forehead. I’d cracked it against the back of her head.
“You thought Yvonne was having an affair with Mayor Briggs?” Jess turned around and looked at me in disbelief.
I nodded. I suppose it did seem a bit ridiculous now, but the evidence had seemed very persuasive at the time.
“I had a big argument with Yvonne before I left this morning. She was acting strange, really shifty, and she didn’t want me to go to Cherry Town to ask about the mayor. When I went anyway, and the server identified Yvonne as the woman who’d been meeting the mayor, I put two and two together and came up with five.” I sighed. “It’s all right. You can say it. I’m an idiot.”
Jess smiled and ruffled my hair as she threw her keys down on the kitchen counter.
“You’re not an idiot, Harper. But I will say you were very lucky that the Mayor confessed to his dodgy financial deals before you’d accused him of having an affair with Yvonne.”
I nodded. I supposed I should be thankful for small mercies.
Jess filled up the kettle. “Tea?”
I nodded. I could really do with a cup of chamomile tea this evening. I would need all the help I could get to help me sleep tonight.
“So, I suppose it all makes sense now,” Jess said. “You were wondering why Yvonne had picked Abbott Cove as her base, and it was obviously because she was planning to do a deal with the new resort. If she got in with that chain, she could have had yoga classes all around the world in all of their resorts.”
I nodded. At least something was making sense. I knew now what Yvonne had been hiding. She was ashamed I would find out about her paying the mayor off in order to secure a contract with the new resort. But that didn’t get us any closer to discovering Yvonne’s killer.
“I hate to say it,” I muttered, “but I actually wish Yvonne was here now. I’m starting to get worried.”
Jess lifted the kettle and poured hot water over the dried chamomile.
“Try not to worry, Harper. I’m sure she’s somewhere safe, cooling off. Did you accuse her of having an affair?”
I shook my head. “No, thankfully. I didn’t come up with that theory until after we’d had the argument.”
Jess smiled as she handed me a cup of tea.
“No harm done then.”
“Thanks. I still feel guilty, though.”
“She did lie to you, Harper. Perhaps not in the way you thought, but she was paying the mayor to bypass regulations. Money is a powerful motivator.”
I nodded sadly. It did make sense. Yvonne had never been interested in Abbott Cove. It wasn’t the town she was interested in, but the resort.
We drank tea and chatted for a while and then Jess went to bed.
I didn’t feel a bit sleepy. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get any sleep, knowing that Yvonne was roaming the countryside somewhere. Maybe I had been a little harsh…
After Jess had gone to bed, feeling sorry for myself, I wandered out onto the porch, keeping an eye out for the little cat. I’d taken to calling it Smudge in my head, named for the little smudge of white by its nose. But there was no sign of the cat. I sighed. Even the cat had given up on me.
I’d been kidding myself. How could I help Yvonne get justice? I’d gotten the business with the mayor completely wrong.
Brooding on my mistakes, I locked up and went to bed. If Yvonne came back, I didn’t have to worry about leaving the door open. She could float right through it.
I lay awake for ages. The chamomile tea obviously hadn’t done the trick.
I couldn’t help stressing over Yvonne, and worrying how angry the chief and Joe were with me for not telling them about the mayor before my dramatic revelation.
It was after midnight when with a sigh I admitted defeat. I wasn’t going to be able to get to sleep, so I slipped out of bed and grabbed the large book of spells from the top of my dresser.
I took it back to bed with me, propped it up on my knees and opened it.
It worked a treat. By page three, I was out for the count.
Chapter 17
The following morning, there was still no sign of Yvonne. I was starting to feel rather despondent and a little worried.
When I arrived at the diner to start the early shift, I felt my stomach twist when I realized Yvonne was not here either. I was sure nothing terrible could have happened to her, but I was worried about her mental state. No one else in Abbott Cove could see her now that she was a ghost, and she must have felt isolated. She had been through an awful experience, and I should have been more understanding when I had the chance.
