The Haunted Beach (Tropical Breeze Cozy Mystery Book 4)

by Mary Bowers

  “I’ve just been sitting on the walkover, thinking. Something is taking shape in my mind, Taylor, and I’m afraid.”

  He waited for her to tell him not to be silly. Instead, she said, “Me too. I had another dream last night.”

  Some of his old nervous energy returned, and he sat up and grabbed a pen. “Tell me about it.”

  “It was more about the shape of things than specific details. Does that make any sense to you?”

  “No.” He wrote it down verbatim anyway.

  She stopped and started a little, groping for some way to convey the essence of her dream. It was important, she knew. She didn’t know why it was important; she just knew that it was.

  Finally, she said, “Things aren’t in balance yet. There’s a heavy weight hanging over us, and when it falls . . . .” She stopped, groping for a way to make herself clearer. Then she began again. “The objective hasn’t been achieved. But it will be soon, and when it is, somebody else is going to . . . die. Lord, I feel like a two-bit fortuneteller, but if you laugh at me, I’m going to drive over there and smack you one.” She tried to chuckle, but she only sounded frightened.

  Ed was still making notes. “I have no inclination to laugh at you.” Finally, he put the pen down and sat back. “I have exactly the same feeling. By the way, there is other news. You remember my neighbor, Willa? Well, she eloped today with the man who rents the house next to hers.”

  “Oh.”

  Dead silence.

  Before she could try to comfort him, he told her good-night and hung up. Then he stared into the cat’s eyes and said, “Why won’t you come to me in dreams, the way you do Taylor? Is my skull too thick?”

  She blinked, settled her chin on her paws and went to sleep.

  Chapter 21

  When Teddy called to ask why Ed was late getting to Spuds for the shoot on Monday, he told him it was the twins’ day to clean and he had to wait until they were done.

  “Oh, come on!” Teddy had said. “You trust them, don’t you?”

  “Not for a minute. They wouldn’t steal anything, but they’re nosy. They’d go through everything in the house, and then run down the block telling everybody all about it. My office –“

  “They won’t go in there and you know it. Now that you’ve trapped the ghost of Frieda in there, they wouldn’t go in there if you paid them. Actually, you do pay them,” Teddy said, frowning and working it out.

  Lily grabbed the phone. “What did the twins bake today?” she asked wisely.

  “That had nothing to do with it. Scones. Anyway, I’m on my way now, and by the time you get set up and ready to go, I’ll be there.”

  He had tried everything he could think of to slow the twins down, but knowing Teddy needed him in Spuds, they were like greased lightning. For once he tried to chat with them, and they wouldn’t even gossip. At least they’d brought the scones.

  So Ed arrived at the haunted warehouse in plenty of time, and when he got there Teddy was already glassy-eyed, exasperated and sweaty. He was one of those rare individuals who look even more attractive when they’re a mess, though, and the setting was perfect. Bars of filtered sunlight striped the interior of the dilapidated structure, and sprouts of ragged undergrowth crawled out of the floor and reached through the walls like grasping fingers. Sad-looking wooden furniture was deteriorating here and there, evoking broken homes and broken dreams. This episode was going to look great.

  It was a rare daylight shoot. Teddy’s black jumpsuit was sleeveless, and his magnificent biceps gleamed. His wet hair hung in spikes over his forehead and stabbed down over his eyes. The camera loved him.

  Ed came into the warehouse looking like a professor about to conduct a chemistry class. Then he stood still and frowned, looking around. It was worse than he had feared.

  Purity was slowly pacing, an enraptured look on her face. She wore a virginal white dress and was clasping a small white book. Ignoring Ed, she trailed by chanting in Latin while Teddy brooded in the background, looking dangerous. Ed sighed. This already looked like one of those sex-and-death, forbidden ritual things, and he hoped the two of them weren’t going to get too worked up.

  Lily called them together and reminded them of the sequences they’d mapped out, and then the chaos began.

  As the shoot heated up, Purity erupted in terrifying visions and the book went flying. She started clutching at Teddy, first grabbing his arms, then his torso, and finally going after him from behind and putting him into a hammerlock. Once she was attached to him, she hung on like a barnacle, moaning into the back of his jumpsuit.

  Ed could only lift an eyebrow and shake his head. The shot of him cynically observing the vertical coupling would be featured in the show for laughs. It was typical Ed, the Ed that America had come to love.

  When Porter clamped his teeth into Purity’s floating hemline and began to pull, nobody tried to stop him, even when part of her dress ripped away. The incident where she kicked at Porter would be edited out, naturally. The part where Porter bit her on the ankle would also not appear in the show, but Ed suspected it would end up on the internet, being passed around for years to come.

  It was about 104 degrees in the warehouse, the day was still and humid, and perspiration was rolling down all exposed skin. Purity’s hot breath must have felt like the kiss of the dragon on Teddy’s back, Ed mused as he watched them. Still, nobody tried to peel her off. At one point, Ed glanced at Lily, standing back with a headset and notebook computer, but she seemed content to let it play out. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying it.

  Finally, Teddy managed to twist himself away from Purity, bouncing an elbow off her head, and they all went rolling down the warehouse – Teddy, Porter, Wyatt the videographer and Elliott with a boom mike – calling for Juniper, the purported name of the farmer’s daughter. Ed followed them sedately, coughing gently in the dust.

  The only thing good about the debacle was that things got so overwrought that Ed didn’t have any time to think about Willa and Rod, flying back from Las Vegas with wedding pictures.

  “By the way, Ed,” Lily said as they headed back to the vehicles after wrapping up, “I talked to Taylor Verone today. She’s coming over tonight.”

  “How nice,” he said. Then, when he reached the door of his little green car, he looked over at her and stiffly asked, “Did she ask about Willa and Rod?”

  “Only about when they were expected back in town,” she said. Her nonchalance was unconvincing. Ed nodded curtly, got into the Geo Metro and turned the ignition key.

  As usual, his car came to life like a drunken beast, shaking, growling and wanting to know where she was. Once she settled into a gentle ta-tappita-tappita-tappita, Ed patted the steering wheel and drove away. She backfired once at the end of a quarter-mile, then carried him quietly home.

  Ed dreaded the sympathy and covert glances he was going to be getting from Taylor, but it had to be faced. In his young days, his pedantic manner and small size had delighted the neighborhood bullies, and social encounters of any kind (with the living) were uncomfortable for him, but Ed could face derision, insults, or even a punch more easily than pity.

  She was lounging in the living room when he got home, and she came and waited while he unlocked his office door, then followed him in.

  “Been trick-or-treating?” she said, smirking at his Haunt or Hoax? jumpsuit.

  He gave her a flat stare, then continued booting up his computer.

  “You know,” she said, gazing at one of the ghost portraits, “the more I look at the Frieda pictures, the less creepy they look to me. There’s actually a sort of beauty to them, a grace, a rhythm. You know how she’s been moving, and how she’s going to move next.”

  “And sometimes, you can hear her laughter. It’s silver,” he added, without knowing why.

  “Silver? Your ears are better than mine. Still – I see your point. Where there is dancing, there must be music and laughter too.”

  He sighed heavily. “You’re a very n
ice lady, Taylor.”

  “No I’m not. I’m a pushy broad. If I wasn’t, I’d never have been able to keep my animal shelter going all these years.”

  “I’ll grant the pushy broadedness, but you’re also a nice lady. You’re here for moral support. I appreciate it. Thank you. You can go home now. I’m fine.”

  She smiled. “That’s the Edson Darby-Deaver I know. Now. Let’s go congratulate the happy couple.”

  “Doesn’t one leave happy couples alone so they can wallow around in their new-found happiness?”

  “Now, Ed, don’t be bitter. I saw Willa when I got here. Since you weren’t home yet, I took a stroll down to the walkover to see if the ocean was still there, and Willa came out to tell me the good news, which I already knew, of course. She invited us down to her house for cocktails tonight. She wants everybody in Santorini to come.” Leveling a steady eye at him, she said, “We are going. Together. You may drink yourself under the coffee table if you like, but we are going. If you start to really make a fool of yourself, I’ll get you out of there. I promise.”

  By that time, they could hear Lily’s car arriving, and Porter exiting the car, barking.

  Within a couple of minutes, Teddy came into the office and said, “Hi, honey, I’m home. Oh. Hi, Taylor.”

  “Hi, Teddy. Rough day at the office?”

  Teddy was streaked with dust, perspiration and pale pink lipstick. There was a long red scratch down one of his arms, and a side-seam of his skin-tight jumpsuit had ripped open. His hair hung down in stringy locks. “About average.”

  Lily came in behind Teddy, and Porter pushed through both of them and dove at Taylor. Then the dog noticed the cat. Abruptly, he calmed down and sat before Bastet, who didn’t even bother to look at him.

  “Weird,” Taylor said, watching the animals.

  “He always does that,” Lily told her.

  Teddy took a seat.

  “Listen, little buddy, we’re going to have to go over the material we got today. I’m still not sure we have a handle on the narrative here. I want something compelling so we can promote this episode. It’s hot. We should do more daylight shoots, man; the raw footage looks great. The thing with Purity worked. This is Season Two, Episode One, definitely. I love it. So we gotta juice up the story. You know, broken hearts and shattered dreams, potatoes rotting in the field as daddy grieves, yadda, yadda.”

  “Sorry,” Ed said, perking up for the first time. “Taylor and I have a party to attend tonight. Willa and Rod are home, and they’ve invited us for cocktails. You, of course, don’t know them, so you won’t be going.”

  “Oh, I’d love to congratulate them –“

  “You don’t know them,” Ed said firmly. “You’re not going to know them. You will not be coming.”

  Lily tapped Teddy’s shoulder as she walked behind him toward the door. “Come on, Tedders. Let’s throw you into the shower. I’ve got laundry to do, and there’s a John Wayne marathon on one of the movie channels tonight.”

  “Rio Bravo?”

  “I think that one starts at eight. I’ll make popcorn.”

  “All right!”

  After Lily and Teddy were out of the office and down the hall, Taylor asked, “Have you gotten them a wedding gift yet?”

  Ed looked startled. “Are those two actually getting married?”

  “Not them. Willa and Rod.”

  “Oh. Is a gift required?”

  “It’s customary. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. I’m giving them a bottle of champagne – it’s keeping cold in your fridge – and you’re giving them two crystal toasting flutes.”

  “Oh, thank you.”

  “That’ll be sixty-one dollars and forty-eight cents, including tax. If you think that’s too much –“

  “No, no,” he said. “I’m sure you’ve found something appropriate. Will you take a check?”

  “Natch.”

  As he handed the check to her, he said, “I’m giving them flutes?”

  “They’re stemware. You know. For the wine? Oh, forget it. Just get showered. You look like you’ve been running around an abandoned building all day.”

  He opened his mouth to tell her that’s exactly what he had been doing, but caught himself in time. “Ah. A joke. Yes. Well. Shower.”

  He left.

  Ed came out of the guest bathroom a new man, with his wet hair neatly combed and his glasses shining, wearing khakis and a white shirt. Taylor had been sitting in the living room with Teddy and Lily, idly watching a shoot-‘em-up without really paying attention to it.

  “My, you clean up pretty,” she said.

  “Don’t be silly,” he murmured, and they headed out of the house with the gifts Taylor had bought.

  When they got out to Santorini Drive, Daniel Ryder came out of his house carrying a bottle of wine in a gift bag. As if everybody had been watching from their windows, Claire and Ben came out of their own houses on cue, each also carrying a bottle of wine.

  Ed gave a silent backward glance to Parker’s house. There was a light on in the back of the house, where Parker’s office was. Perhaps he was distracting himself by writing. Ed wondered vaguely if he should check in on him after the cocktail party, then decided not to. Hearing about other peoples’ happiness wasn’t going to cheer him up, and might get him even more depressed.

  Claire lifted her bottle and laughed when she saw the other bottles. “You didn’t know what to get either, huh? At least Ed came up with something else. What’s in the box, Ed?”

  “Flutes,” he answered, looking doubtful. Taylor had brought them gift-wrapped, and Ed hadn’t seen them yet. He still didn’t have a clear idea why you’d give musical instruments to newlyweds. He was interested to see these wedding flutes, and try to discern their traditional roots in tribal mating rituals.

  “Nice,” Claire said.

  “Taylor chose them,” Ed said, giving credit where it was due, and prearranging the blame if they turned out to be weird.

  “I’m sure they’re lovely,” Claire said.

  By then they were at the door to Willa’s house.

  “I guess Rod’s going to be living with Willa now,” Ben said as they waited. “The Greenes are going to have to look for another renter.”

  “Maybe next time they’ll find somebody for Claire,” Taylor said impishly. She watched to see how Dan and Claire would take it, and then nodded smugly to herself. She tried to wiggle her eyebrows at Ed, but as usual, he was oblivious.

  Willa and Rod opened the door together, expressed delight at the gifts, and welcomed their neighbors inside.

  Chapter 22

  The “flutes” turned out to be wineglasses, to Ed’s astonishment. Why couldn’t Taylor have just said so? He looked askance at her, then tried to look as if he’d known all along when Willa thanked him.

  “At least we’ve got plenty of wine to pour into them,” Rod said too loudly, grinning and looking around.

  “I think champagne is called for,” Willa said. Then, a bit shyly, she said to her new husband, “Honey, will you open the bottle?”

  “Of course, darling.” He went about popping the cork and filling the wineglasses on the kitchen counter.

  Ed became very sad. Later, he would try to be happy for them, but right now it was too soon.

  While they were still standing in the kitchen, Ben grabbed a glass and proposed a toast. They all drank, including Ed, but he didn’t listen to the toast, and he avoided looking at Willa.

  “Well, it looks like you’re going to be moving up the block,” Ben said to Rod, after emptying his glass in one gulp. Then he gazed at Willa. “Have you heard from the estate lawyers yet? Because they’re making a hell of a fandango about settling the estate. Something about separating the Strawbridge money from Frieda’s own corporations, or whatever. I still don’t know the status of this house, believe it or not.” As the others cringed, he added, “I’m sure it passes to me next, right? Frieda must’ve left it to Dolores.”

  “I’ve ow
ned it outright for years,” Willa said frostily. Then trying to close the subject, she added, “Frieda gave it to my mother, and she left it to me.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” Ben said, putting his empty glass down on the counter. “Hit me again,” he said to Rod.

  “It looks to me like you’d had enough already when you got here,” Rod said, putting the bottle out of reach on the back counter.

  Ben went to the bottle of red wine he’d brought himself and began to open it. “I can’t stand that soda-pop shit anyway,” he muttered.

  “Now, Willa,” Claire said loudly and brightly, “I want to hear all about the wedding. Where are your pictures?”

  Everybody else began to speak at once, and Willa gazed around with troubled eyes, her face getting red.

  Rod stood beside her and put his arm around her waist. “Well, for starters, we were not married by Elvis!” he said.

  There was too much laughter, and everybody was nervously watching Ben. Dan Ryder began to quietly edge toward the drunken older man.

  “We’ll just see about who owns this house,” Ben said, filling his glass after bumbling for minutes trying to get the bottle open. “We’ll just see about that.”

  “I think you’ve had enough, sir,” Dan said quietly.

  “Who asked you?” Ben snapped.

  Dan was an inch or two shorter than Ben, but he was younger and more physically fit. Something about his stillness and air of command finally got through to Ben, and he stopped the glass halfway to his lips and stared at Dan.

  Dan reached out and easily lifted the wineglass out of Ben’s hand, setting it aside while maintaining eye contact with Ben.

  “Well,” Dan said, not looking away, “we’ve toasted the newlyweds. Maybe we’ll be leaving now, Ben. Shall we?”

  “Throw people out of your own house, pal,” Ben snarled. “This one belongs to me, or it will pretty soon.”

  Rod stepped across the room, blocking Ben in beside Dan. “If that turns out to be the case, I’m sure we can work out a deal with you. Willa doesn’t have much money, but I do. I’ll buy it. Just name your price.”