Azure and Cora joined us. “What won’t appear?” Azure asked.
Cora rubbed her hands together with excitement. “Oh! Sandwiches!” she said. “I love sandwiches. There are so many ways to make them healthy, like using a wrap instead of bread.”
She eyed the plates that Penny and I held with disapproval. “We have to remember to thank Annie, when she arrives,” she said.
She grabbed two plates and handed one to Azure.
I looked around for drinks, and spotted a stand of bottles, all filled with liquids of various colors. As I walked over to them, I answered Azure. “Penny was saying that magical food won’t appear unless it’s being used to fuel good things.”
“Of course,” Azure said. “That’s a fundamental rule of magic. It can’t be used selfishly—which, I might add, is a really good indication of the caliber of this place.” She motioned to the building around us. “We would never have been able to build it using magic if our intentions weren’t pure.”
I poured out a tall glass of purplish-pink liquid, and then waited while my friends finished filling their plates. As I waited, I heard several guests nearby gushing about what a great lecture Neil had delivered.
“So informative!” one said.
“I feel my magic getting stronger already,” another said.
“And it’s just Saturday!” a third said. “We have all day tomorrow, too. I can’t wait to learn more from him. I am so glad I signed up for this and made the trip.”
It felt good to be in the sunny lobby, surrounded by food, friends, and chatter about how wonderful the lecture was. I was in a good mood as I led the way out onto the deck.
We settled into a table, and for the next hour or so we ate, drank, and talked over the clues of our case. I told the ladies about my conversation with Kitty Ghupta, as well as my meeting with Beatrix earlier in the morning. Cora had some news of her own—she’d read over the registration paperwork for the male guest that Alyssa had been arguing with.
Apparently his name was Adam Carpenter, and he was staying in room 300. I made a mental note of the name and room number and mentioned that I might try searching for him on the InterRealm Net. That led to a discussion about scrying, of course. I was eager to teach my friends the details.
“You mean we can look into the past, or the future?” Penny asked.
I nodded, and took my last sip of my fruity-flavored purple drink. “That’s what Skili said,” I told my friends.
Cora folded her cloth napkin and placed it in the center of her empty plate. “Then why didn’t you look into the past?” she asked. “Maybe you could look on this Net thing, and find yesterday afternoon. Maybe we could figure out what happened to Carlisle that way.”
“It wouldn’t work,” Azure said. On her plate she had a pita pocket stuffed with grilled veggies and hummus.
She lifted it up to her lips, but before biting in she said, “You girls are still so new to witchcraft. Believe me, I’ve been practicing for a long time. The InterRealm Net will only show the user their own past. Since none of us were in that bathroom with Carlisle, we wouldn't be able to access that particular time and space. It would only show us what we were doing, from three to four,”
“Crap,” said Penny.
I had to agree with her sentiment. “Unicorn poop,” I said.
Cora eyed us with disapproval. “Will you two stop it with the bathroom talk at the table? Azure is still eating.” She motioned to Azure, who had a mouthful of food.
I nodded sheepishly and then moved on. “I guess we can’t just look it up on the net, then,” I said. “We’re going to have to keep working on this case the non-magical way.”
“Which means motive, means, and opportunity,” Penny said. She lifted her steaming mug of coffee and took down a big slurp.
“Yeah,” I said. “I know of three beings here at the center who had motive: Alyssa and Beatrix both stood to benefit from Carlisle’s death because they’re going to inherit money. And this Kitty Ghupta lady could have been motivated by her boss, who I’m sure wasn’t pleased by Carlisle’s review.”
Penny held up a finger. “So we’ve got greed,” she said. She added a second finger. “And revenge. I like it. Well, I don’t like it as in like, ‘yay for greed and revenge!’, I’m just saying, in general, good work, Marley. You’re really taking to this detective thing.”
“I have to,” I said. “This center depends on it.”
“You’re saying we have three suspects so far,” Cora said. She pulled out a clipboard from her pink purse. “I’d better take some notes.”
“Actually, I’d say five suspects,” I said. “There’s also this Adam Carpenter dude that Alyssa was arguing with out on the deck.”
Cora nodded. “Right. Adam. What do you think his deal is?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know yet. My guess is maybe it’s her fiance. She wears an engagement ring, but no wedding ring. I’d like to know what they were arguing about.”
“Definitely,” said Penny. “And who’s the fifth suspect?”
“Well, that’s whoever the third beneficiary on Carlisle’s will was,” I said. “Beatrix mentioned that she stood to receive half of his money, Alyssa was to get another quarter, and the remainder was going to go to someone else—but she didn't say who.”
Azure used a napkin to wipe her lips, and then said, “That third beneficiary, whoever it is, also has a clear motive for killing Carlisle. Nice work, Marley.”
Cora eyed her clipboard. “I guess we have to keep chipping away at this list, hm? Find out what we can about each suspect?”
I nodded. “Yeah. We’re getting closer, for sure.”
As our lunch began to wind down, Cora pulled out a printed schedule of the weekend's events. “Marley, this afternoon, the guests have a few hours of free time before Neil’s 4:00 workshop. Do you think everything is ready in the spa? I have a feeling a lot of the guests will want to visit.”
“Um... about that...a creature emerged from the bath this morning,” I said, as an uneasy feeling crept into my stomach. “I should probably go check on him and make sure he’s not getting up to any trouble.”
All eyes were pinned on me. Penny’s mouth was hanging open. “A creature emerged from the bath...?” she repeated. “What kind of creature?”
“That does not sound sanitary,” Cora said. “If our mud baths are breeding life, I think we’d better rethink the ingredients we’re using.”
“Relax,” Azure said. “It’s probably just a Golem. They’re big bulky monster folk that are made entirely of magical mud or clay. They’re harmless.”
“Whew,” I said. “That’s really good to hear. I told him he could stay for the weekend. I felt bad about sending him back into the mud.”
“They can be very expressive,” Azure said with a knowing nod. “I can see why you had trouble dissolving him.”
I stood and gathered my dirty dishes. I didn’t want to create more work for Margie, should she be in the vicinity and still insistent on helping, bless her soul. “I also want to make sure he was able to fix the heating elements in the communal bath,” I said. “The bath was cold this morning.”
“Yuck,” Cora said, making a face. “A cold mud bath. I can think of nothing worse.” she stood, too. “To be honest, a hot mud bath doesn’t sound all that appealing, either.”
“That’s because you’re a dirt-a-phobe,” Penny said as she stood.
Azure followed suit, and the four of us headed across the deck toward the lobby. “Is that even a word?” I asked Penny.
The lobby was toasty warm, compared to the deck. I deposited my plate into a bin. “Dirt-a-phobe?”
“Sure it is,” she said. “You can just attach ‘a-phobe’ to anything and it works.”
We all laughed, because Penny sort of lives in her own little world when it comes to the rules of vocabulary. Then we all hugged each other goodbye. Cora was heading home to be with her kids, and Azure had an aerial yoga class in town to teach. Penny
was having separation anxiety from her cat, Turkey, so she excused herself so that she could go hang out with him.
Annie was due to arrive around four, and it was only two. That meant I had a few hours of alone time. I was pretty sure that Cora was right—guests were bound to check out the spa and possibly want massages or custom baths. With this in mind, I headed for the spa, hoping that all was in good order there.
Since I’d left a monster made of mud in charge of repairs, I really wasn’t all that sure it would be.
Chapter Thirteen
I made my way to the spa. I was going to look for Geoffrey in the communal mud bath room where I left him, but before I got there, I spotted him walking down the hallway, with a wrench in one hand and a piece of long plastic pipe in the other. He was whistling a tune as he walked toward me. He left muddy footprints on the floor behind him.
“Marley!” Geoff greeted me with a wave of the wrench. “How goes it?”
“Good,” I said. I eyed his tools. “What have you been up to?”
“I’ve been in the boiler room,” he said. “Fixing a few issues there. For one thing, the pilot light to the hot water heater went out. For another, you had a leak in one of the pipes. I fixed both problems.”
“Boiler room?” I said. “I didn’t even know we had a boiler room.”
“Oh, you sure do!” Geoffrey said. “Girlfriend, this is your place isn’t it? You’d better know where it is.” He stopped in his tracks. “It’s right next to the central hub to your air ventilation system.”
I frowned.
“Don’t tell me that you didn’t know about that, either?” he said.
He turned, and beckoned for me to follow him. As he made the waving motion, mud spattered on the pristine walls.
We reached a door that blended into the wall so well that I’d never even noticed it. It was just an outline, with no handle. Geoffrey placed his big hands on one side of it and pushed, and it swiveled open. I followed him into a room that had a big rectangular metal thing in the middle. A bunch of circular foil-wrapped tubes snaked out of the metal box and disappeared into the ceiling. There were also vents in the walls. I could hear voices floating through one of the vents.
“Who’s that talking?” I whispered to Geoffrey.
He paused and listened for a moment. Then he pointed to one of the vents. “It’s coming from that one,” he said, “which goes to the communal bath area. Must be people in there talking.”
I nodded.
“Now you know where to go if you ever have an issue with air quality,” he said. “All set?” He headed for the exit.
“Hang on...” I said. “That voice sounded kind of familiar. I think it’s the pink haired merwoman I gave a massage to earlier today. Her name’s Shauna. Wonder what she’s saying?”
I walked closer to the vent, tilted my head to the side, and listened intently to the voice floating through.
“...a little more rustic than I expected,” Shauna said. “I had a two week stay at the Lava Castles in the Fire Realm last month, and that was very chi-chi—we’re talking upscale nightclub, elaborate accommodations, and every service you could imagine in the spa.”
There was a faint sound of splashing, as if someone had moved in the bath, or maybe just stepped in or out.
Then Shauna continued. “I even had a bluelight skin treatment to my face, which I’d only read about in the magazines until then. It’s supposed to reverse aging, you know.”
I rolled my eyes. I’d heard about some of the latest procedures spas were offering these days, and they struck me as a bit over the top.
Geoffrey caught my expression. “What’s a blue light skin treatment?” he asked. “It sounds—”
“Shh!” I put my finger to my lips.
He zipped his “mouth”—or really hole in his mud face - closed.
I tilted my head so that my ear was close to the vent again. I felt a little bit guilty about listening in on the conversation over at the communal bath, but at the same time, it was some of the most honest feedback about the new resort that I’d received so far. Of course, many guests had expressed positive things about the place, but that was to my face. I wasn’t sure if I could trust that they were being honest. But this was different. Shauna had no reason to lie to a fellow guest.
Another voice, this time male, spoke. “‘I’ve heard of that bluelight technology,” he said. “I’m from the Fire Realm, but I’ve never been to the Lava Castles. I hear they’re quite costly, but well worth it. I don’t know if I’d get the bluelight. Did you like the results?”
Another splash.
“Here, let me make some room for you,” Shauna said to someone. “I don’t mean to take up the whole bench. It’s very nice and warm over here.”
There was a pause, and then she said, “I’m really not sure how I feel about the results. I think the aesthetician left the light on me for a few minutes too long. I had quite a burn after that lasted for almost a week. They say that’s normal, but...”
A third voice spoke up. This one I recognized as Lee, Shauna’s blond friend. “I think it worked spectacularly, Shauna. Your skin has a youthfulness to it now that it was missing before. It was starting to get a bit dull, wasn’t it?”
The conversation was starting to get a bit dull, in my opinion. I was almost ready to go when I heard a fourth voice jump into the conversation.
“Your skin does have a nice glow to it.” This was Beatrix.
Hm... I thought. If Beatrix is in there I’d better stick around. Maybe she’ll say something interesting.
“Thank you,” Shauna said. “If you don’t mind me saying so—you’ve got very youthful skin yourself. What’s your secret?”
Beatrix sounded pleased as she said, “Why thank you. Mostly I’ve been using a cream that I get delivered directly from the Nihlsiam region of the Water Realm. It comes from the very deepest part of the sea. I use their Revitalizing Algae Detox Toner everyday, religiously, and follow it up with a mineral moisturizer and a layer of Firming Kelp Serum. It’s worked wonders, if I do say so.”
“I’ll have to look for it,” Shauna said. “You know, even though this place isn’t quite upscale as the Lava Castles—”
“More rough around the edges,” Lee chimed in.
“Yes, that’s it,” Shauna said. “Exactly, Lee. Rustic, like I said before. But even though... it has a nice soul to it. A nice essence. I think the owner might be driving at a deeper level of healing than simply cosmetic treatments. Do you all know what I mean?”
I couldn’t help but smile. Yes! I thought. They get it!
Lee spoke. “The owner seems very nice. She’s so young... I heard she’s still in her twenties. Imagine that! When I was in my twenties, there’s no way I’d take on such a big responsibility as owning a place like this.”
The man interjected. “She strikes me as a little bit unsure of herself. A little bit apologetic. She has no need to be—I think she’s onto something with this place. The atmosphere is very unique. I feel peaceful here. The place has soul, like you said ... I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Shauna.”
“Thank you. Like you said, Shauna, there’s an essence here that I don’t find at many retreat centers. I’ve been going to quite a few lately, ever since I started on the path of healing some old traumas that have come up. I won’t bore you with the details.”
Thank you, I thought to myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about the man’s past, it was just that I wanted to hear from Beatrix again.
I continued to listen as Shauna and Lee agreed with the man’s statement. I was beginning to wonder if maybe Beatrix had left, when at last I heard Shauna say, “It was unfortunate that the weekend started out with that terrible incident.” There was a brief pause, and then she added. “How are you doing, Beatrix? It is Beatrix, right? And it was your husband who was... well... murdered?”
Lee spoke before Beatrix could answer. “Shauna!” she exclaimed. “Let’s not bo
ther this poor woman with that. She’s here to relax and heal, just as we are. Let her soak...”
“No, no,” Beatrix said. “It’s fine. I can speak about it.” Her voice was loud and clear, without any hint of grief.
She sure can speak about it, I thought. Is she ever going to grieve her husband’s death?
She went on. “The owner girl, this Marley Greene... she’s still looking into it. My husband passed into ghost form, you know—”
The man interjected. “I’ve heard that happens sometimes, after a life is ended abruptly, without closure.”
“Oh yes,” said Lee. “It happened to my husband’s cousin’s friend from high school. He was killed in the middle of the night by a burglar, and he hung around his house as a ghost until his killer went to jail.”
Beatrix continued. “Well, hopefully my dear Carlisle will be able to cross over to the afterlife—whatever that may be—”
“Such a mystery,” the man said.
“Mm,” Beatrix agreed. “He’ll make the journey once this business with his killer is settled. Marley seems to be taking her charge very seriously. She’s made some progress, I believe, though she’s not keeping me particularly up to date in the way I’d like.”
There was another splash. Then Shauna said, “Maybe she thinks you did it, and that’s why she’s not keeping you in the loop.”
“I’m sure she does,” Beatrix said.
“But you didn’t, did you?” Shauna said.
Lee spoke again. “You can’t just ask that, Shauna!” she exclaimed. Then, “But did you?”
“No!” Beatrix said. “Of course not! I loved him. I’m very sad about his passing.”
In my humble opinion, she didn’t sound sad at all.
The man spoke. “Maybe he committed suicide. Was he depressed?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Beatrix said. “His work was very stressful, and it often upset him, but he loved it. I know he wanted to continue adding records to the great deposit for as long as possible.”
Lee jumped in. “What a noble profession,” she said. “How is your daughter doing?”
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