“How about you explain why eight of the dogs recovered were considered deceased by the people who buried them?”
I swallowed hard. That wasn’t good. How could that happen? Lost dogs, yes, but resurrected dogs? That was way too much. If Birdie found out I had screwed up that bad, she was going to kill me.
“Can we just get on with this, please? It’s been a trying day.” And my grandmother’s sure to make it worse when she hears about my drunken, botched spell.
Gus flipped open a notebook and I explained where in the lake I saw the body, leaving out the part of momentarily turning into a mermaid. I listened as Leo told him who to call first for the dive and then I remembered the phone. I pointed them to that as well.
“Is that it? Can I go now?”
“Yes. I think we have everything we need. Are you going to cover the story?”
“I don’t know.” I stuffed my towel in the bag and slipped my cover-up on. “That’s up to Parker. Come on, Thor.” He came prancing up to me and I clipped the leash on him.
We were halfway up the bank when Leo called, “One more thing, Stacy.”
I turned back.
“You look amazing in a bikini.”
I pulled into the driveway at the inn and cut the engine. Thor’s tail thumped in anticipation, and I decided it might be a good idea to have a chat with him. I swung my arm over the seat and turned to face the dog.
“All right, my friend, listen up.”
Thor’s ears tilted toward me.
“When we go inside, I want you on your best behavior, do you understand?”
He groaned and slapped a paw on the passenger headrest.
I narrowed my eyes. “I mean it. That girl in there is in pristine condition and she’s going to stay that way until I can find her family. So that means”—I counted on my fingers—“no sniffing, no licking, no leg-lifting, no googly eyes, and—above all else—keep the lipstick in the tube. Comprendo?”
Thor slapped his other paw on the front seat, settled his chin between the pair, and looked at me with raised eyebrows.
“Good. Let’s go.”
I hopped out of the car, slung the bag over my shoulder, and circled around to open the rear door.
Thor decided I hadn’t properly toweled him off at the beach so the second his paws hit the pavement, he shook his entire body forcefully, head to tail, launching a loogie at my chest.
I tried to wipe it away with my damp towel, but only managed to maximize the snot stain.
Thor sat down, waiting patiently.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
He blinked, innocently.
I bent over, my face near his. “Let’s not forget that you were the one who kicked Chance out of bed last night. Consider us even.”
He snorted and trotted up the steps while I fished for a key. It was close to 11:30 when I twisted the door handle. I could still smell the freshly picked strawberries and mint from the garden. Lolly must have made her signature berry crisp.
Fiona had asked me to come by at noon, but rather than change clothes at my place first, I thought perhaps they needed help cleaning up the breakfast dishes. Plus, on Sundays, Thor was treated to a special feast, which was why I’d kept his breakfast light.
What I didn’t expect was a Metallica song rushing at me, accompanied by a thin, heavily tattooed man who spent too much time in the sun and not enough time at the dentist.
“Oh, hey there, mama.” He raised his chin. “Sup?” He punched a button on his phone and turned off the music.
“Nothing much. Sup with you?” I hung my bag on the hall hook.
The man, who looked to be past forty, was drinking what appeared to be a Bloody Mary and his hair was still wet from a shower. He was wearing biker boots and a muscle shirt that read More Cowbell. He tucked a chunk of hair behind his ear and said, “Just chillin’. Long night, you know. My ears are still ringing.”
He smiled and lowered himself into a tufted pink chair adorned with ivory tassel trim and lace doilies. I couldn’t help but think he would look less out of place if he were about to sit down to tea with Queen Elizabeth.
Then he crossed his legs and reached for a coaster, carefully arranging it on the end table before he placed the glass on top of it. He double-checked to make sure it was doing the job.
I glanced at Thor, who didn’t know what to make of the guy. He paused, then gave the all clear by curling up on the cool tile in the hallway and closing his eyes. Only his nose moved, searching for a clue as to what was on today’s menu.
“Awesome dog. Saw him last night. He yours?” The guy took a sip from his Bloody Mary, carefully lifting it and placing it back on the coaster.
“Yep, all mine. That’s Thor.”
The man smacked his head. “Geez, sorry, chica.” He stood. “Where the hell are my manners? I’m Brian, but my friends and the band call me Buzz.”
“Oh, you’re in the band. You guys were great last night, really great,” I said.
He smiled and thanked me. Asked if I was staying at the inn as well.
“No. Actually, I’m the granddaughter. I just came by to help out.”
“Well, your grandmother sure knows how to put on a spread.” He slapped his stomach. “I’m stuffed.” He lifted his glass and said, “And I don’t usually drink, especially not this early, but Lolly makes the best Bloody Marys.” He took another sip.
“Well, it was great to meet you. I’m sure I’ll see you around. By the way, I’m Stacy.”
He stood and extended his hand.
A jolt surged through my body the instant I grasped it. Then the vision came. The man from the lake in the plaid shirt, yelling about something. A look of surprise on his face. Then a shocking blast of wet cold and…darkness. The scream I had heard when I was playing in the outfield echoed in my head as the image faded.
“Hey, hey, Stacy. You all right?”
I realized I was gasping for air. I had to get out of there. Away from him. I backed up, slowly. “I’m fine. Just a little hot is all. I just need some water.”
He took a step forward, looking confused, concerned. “Why don’t you sit down? I’ll get it.”
“No!” I said too loudly. I smiled at him, trying to mask the nervousness. “I mean, it’s fine, really. I just overdid it swimming is all.”
I glanced at Thor. His legs were twitching. Asleep.
“Thanks, though. See you around.” I fled.
It wasn’t until I was halfway down the private hallway that I stopped and looked back.
Had I just grasped the hand of a killer?
Chapter 10
I gathered my composure and swung the door open to the kitchen. Fiona was standing at the sink, lemony suds popping all around her as her hands scrubbed a stubborn copper saucepan. Her auburn locks were twisted into a chignon and she wore a breezy linen blouse with matching pants. Espadrilles adorned her pedicured feet.
I heard the clinking of glasses and plates coming from the dining room, but I didn’t see Birdie or Lolly.
“Hi, Aunt Fiona.”
She had a smile on her face when she turned around, but it disappeared the moment she laid eyes on me.
“Heaven’s, child, what happened to you? You look like you’ve been through a car wash without the car.”
Yeah, fighting with a dead sea urchin will strip the shine right from your hair.
“I went swimming with Thor. I would have changed, but I wanted to see if you needed help cleaning up.”
She rinsed the pan and set it in the drying rack and turned back to me. “Actually, we’re all done here. Lolly is just putting away the dishes. Did you meet any of our guests?”
Should I mention what just happened? The visions that hit me when Brian touched me were intense. But what if I were wrong? What if the energy had just projected onto him somehow? He was at the park yesterday, after all. Perhaps he met the deceased?
Or maybe he was there when the cement block was chained to the dead man�
��s ankle.
I decided to tread lightly. “I did meet one, yes. Brian. Said he was with the band. I was wondering when they had the chance to check in with having to play that late.”
Fiona waved her hand. “Brian and his band, The Hell Hounds, have been staying here for years. I just gave him a key after the softball game.” She grabbed a towel and began drying the saucepan. “They play at Cinnamon’s tavern sometimes too.”
At times, I felt like I had never left; other times it was as if I had been gone a million years. I had never heard of this band before and certainly had never seen them perform at the Black Opal. Cinnamon might be a better source of information than the aunts on this guy. It was one thing to be on your best behavior at a bed-and-breakfast run by three older ladies, but at a booze-fueled bar, people weren’t as guarded.
I turned my attention to the initial reason for my visit. “How is Keesha? Did you learn more about her?”
Fiona was rummaging through the refrigerator. She pulled out some leftover pot roast and sweet potatoes, grabbed Thor’s dish from the cupboard, and set it on the counter.
“Oh my, yes. She’s quite the chatterbox, that one. She’s resting comfortably.”
She turned the oven to two hundred degrees and scooped the meat and potatoes into the bowl, then opened the freezer for a bag of green beans. She dumped that in the bowl as well and spooned some gravy on top. Then she put the whole thing in the oven.
“Why don’t you just get a microwave?” I asked.
“Whatever for?”
She pulled out a stool and sat, looking tired and not nearly as youthful as she had the night before.
I fixed us each an iced tea and sat across from her.
“Thank you, sweetheart.”
“Are you all right?”
Her eyes sparkled like emeralds in the sunlight. “I’ll be fine, just didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked. Lots of visitors last night.”
Oh boy. “What do you mean?” Of course, I had a pretty good idea.
“Well,” Fiona sighed and smoothed out her slacks, “of course there was little Keesha, who had a great deal to talk about, but there were many other dogs who came to me in my dreams—dogs I had known long ago even—seeking guidance on this or that.” She frowned and sipped her tea. “It was odd, really. Not only had I never had so many spirits appear in one night, but usually they are varied in form—not just canine.”
Her brow furrowed and she looked at me. “Where was it you found Keesha?”
“At the edge of the woods, past the baseball diamond in the park.”
I could see the wheels turning as a thought clicked into place. “The old pet cemetery rests in those woods.”
Well, that certainly explained a lot. I had forgotten all about that cemetery. I sucked in a breath as I recalled helping Chance bury a pet there once.
Fiona cast me a suspicious look. “You wouldn’t happen to know why I had an influx of visitors last night, would you, dear?”
I sipped my tea.
Birdie descended the stairs, a trail of lavender following her, and asked, “Would someone explain to me why there is a dog sleeping in my bed?”
“Fiona’s was too soft?” I offered.
Birdie gave me her unmissed look.
“Stacy was just about to explain that, Birdie.”
Betrayer! I shot Fiona a glare. She usually protected me from Birdie’s wrath.
Fiona patted my hand and grinned.
“Okay, but then you need to tell me all about Keesha.”
Fiona nodded and Birdie crossed her bare arms, her bracelets clanking together.
I explained how I couldn’t find Thor and I was worried so I performed a spell. I took them through it, step-by-step.
Birdie rolled her eyes and leaned against the island when I was finished. She crossed one sandaled foot and her purple skirt fluttered. “So not only had you been drinking, but you performed a spell on your own familiar?”
“Yes.” I looked from one to the other. “Is that bad?”
“Bad?” Birdie asked, incredulous. “Is pouring gasoline on a fire bad?”
“Yes.”
“What about using a sledgehammer to pound a nail into drywall? Would that be bad?”
I wasn’t a carpenter, but I could glean the correct answer from her tone. “Yes, I think that would be bad.”
“How about installing a V-8 engine in a scooter?”
Wait, what? “How do you know about V-8 engines?”
Birdie sighed. “The point is, Anastasia, you never cast a spell on your own familiar. When you do, you are combining forces, giving the spell entirely too much power, and the results—as you now know—are disastrous.”
“Okay, got it. No more spell casting on Thor. But no one got hurt and most of the dogs are accounted for. Most found their way home.”
Fiona stood and moved to the oven where she checked on Thor’s lunch. “That is not the way it works. Most likely, you will need to perform a clean-up spell. I’ll check into that. In the meantime, I don’t suspect Keesha was a product of your spell, but I can’t be certain.” She twisted the oven dial to off and pulled the bowl out, testing the temperature with her finger.
“What did you find out?” I pushed away from the table and filled a bowl with water.
Fiona placed the food on a mat near the back door and I set the water next to it. I made sure the door leading up the back stairs was shut tight.
“Go ahead and get Thor and then we’ll talk.”
I opened up the doors at each end of the hallway and whistled. Thor came rumbling through and headed right for his dish. He dug in with enthusiasm, lifting his head and smacking his lips every so often. He ate Fiona’s meals absurdly slow; like a foodie at the opening of a new, hot restaurant, he intended to savor and analyze every morsel.
Birdie, Fiona, and I settled around the apothecary table just as Lolly entered from the dining room wearing a wedding dress and yellowed veil. Her two sisters stiffened.
“How are you, dear?” Fiona asked.
Lolly smiled shyly at her. “Happy as I’ll ever be.” She had more makeup on than usual, and the manner in which it was applied made me wonder if she was about to audition for a silent film.
She said hello to Birdie, who smiled back, and proceeded to the pie safe where the dried herbs were stashed. She fumbled around in there for a minute or so, removing jars and shelves until she emerged with a bouquet of crinkled white roses fastened with a brittle gold ribbon.
Lolly held the flowers in her hand briefly, then bent to sniff them, murmuring to the buds. As she did, the petals perked up and the ribbon that held them together gained some luster.
In fact, so did Lolly.
She smiled first at Birdie, then Fiona, before she looked at me. That’s when her smile faltered and a cloud passed over her face.
Fiona jumped up in front of me and said, “Lolly, since I did your makeup, why doesn’t Birdie help fix your hair?”
Lolly nodded and gushed, “That would be lovely! My two sisters standing at my side on this most precious day.” She hummed a melody unfamiliar to me as she drifted up the back stairwell, Birdie close behind.
What. The. Hell. Lolly’s cheese had slid off her pizza long before I could remember, but this was more than just a loose bolt. This was downright creepy.
Fiona got up to refill her iced tea and said, “Now, where were we?”
“No, no.” I shook my forefinger. “First, what was that?”
“What?”
“Lolly. What’s wrong with her? That isn’t the usual mind slippage.”
“It’s June nineteenth, dear. It’s Lolly’s wedding day.”
My jaw dropped. “She’s getting married?”
Fiona chuckled. “No, of course not. This was the day she was to be wed to her sweet Jack forty-nine years ago.”
I racked my brain, but for the life of me I could not remember learning that Lolly had ever been engaged.
Fiona tilted h
er head. “You know, I don’t suppose we ever told you about him.”
I shook my head. “I don’t suppose you did.”
Fiona launched into the story as I let Thor outside.
Apparently Jack Moriarty had been quite the catch. “He had piercing blue eyes and sunny hair. He was lean and tall and very funny. He had us all in stitches all the time. Mother and Daddy adored him,” Fiona said.
“He grew up here? In Amethyst?”
Fiona nodded. “Lolly and Jack were like two peas in a pod right from the start. They played together, helped each other with their homework, stood up for each other on the playground, that sort of thing. As they got older, their fondness blossomed into love. They could finish each other’s sentences, read each other’s thoughts. It was amazing how connected they were.”
Fiona sighed and peered out the window as if the secrets of the past were just beyond the pane.
I waited for her to continue.
“Jack asked Lolly to marry him when he graduated high school, but Mother wanted them to wait. She had plans for us all to continue our…studies.” She stumbled over that last word. “So after a few years, Jack had gone into his father’s brewery business and he was doing quite well for himself. Lolly was all grown up and our parents gave them their blessing.” Fiona took a long pull of her cold tea. “The wedding was to be right here, in the back garden, and nearly the entire town was invited. I had never seen my big sister so happy.”
Fiona paused.
“What happened?” I asked, gently.
She looked at me. “He never arrived.”
I sucked in my breath. “Oh. How awful. Poor Lolly.”
Fiona rose and took her glass to the sink. The ice rattled around the drain as she dumped it out. “To this day, we don’t know what happened to him.” She turned toward me. “And we tried everything.”
I nodded, knowing she meant magic. How awful it must be to find someone you connect with so deeply only to lose him without a trace. How horrible it must be just not knowing his fate.
I knew that feeling. I lived that feeling for half of my life when my mother disappeared.
How odd, I thought, to have this raw, open wound in common with Lolly.
Tiger's Eye (A Stacy Justice Mystery Book Three) Page 6
