by J A Whiting
“Courtney?” Angie took a step towards her sister, but the chief put his hand on Angie’s shoulder to stop her.
After a few moments, Courtney shuddered and she sucked in a breath of air. She put her hand up to her forehead. Angie rushed to her side and placed her hand on Courtney’s arm. “Are you okay?”
Courtney blinked several times before shaking off her stupor. “Angie.” Her voice was just above a whisper.
“Did you sense something?”
“Finch was in the back room. There was talking … then, shouting. The energy in the room was chaotic, dark. I saw a knife. And then Finch was on the floor.”
The chief asked, “The voices you heard. Was it a man’s voice? A woman’s?”
Courtney’s forehead creased. She turned to the chief. “Both.”
“Was the man’s voice Finch or someone else?”
“I’m not sure.” She shook her head. “I don’t know for certain.”
“Could you see anything?” the chief asked.
“Just the glint of the knife, and only for a second.”
A crash sounded in the back room and the three of them jumped. They rushed to see what had happened. A book had fallen or had been pushed by Circe off the top shelf. The chief pulled on surgical type gloves, leaned down, picked up the book, and turned it over in his hands.
“It’s false.”
“What?” Courtney asked.
“It’s a fake book.” He opened it. The inside had been hollowed out. The chief removed a leather notebook that was hidden inside and thumbed through it. “It’s a list of transactions. It looks like a ledger of transactions. Seems to be for artwork purchases and sales. No names, just initials.” The chief looked up. “Finch must have been dealing pieces of art.”
“Illegally, it seems,” Courtney said. “If it was legit, why would he hide the deals in a fake book?”
“Maybe this is how Finch became so wealthy.” Angie peered over the chief’s shoulder and stared at the notebook in his hands. “Was he dealing in stolen artwork?”
The chief let out a sigh. “Good question. This will take some research.” He shifted his eyes to the black cat sitting on Finch’s desk. “Thanks, Circe.”
She trilled.
Chapter 20
“My brother was dealing artwork?” Mr. Finch rocked gently in one of the front porch chairs with Circe asleep in his lap. “Thaddeus never ceases to amaze me. Were the pieces stolen?”
“Chief Martin doesn’t know yet if the works were stolen or if your brother was handling the items as a broker bringing wealthy investors together to buy and sell.” Angie placed a platter of ginger-molasses cookies on the small table near the rockers.
“It seems suspicious to me.” Courtney sat on the floor of the porch with Euclid curled beside her. “If whatever he was doing was legal then why hide the paperwork? He had the information hidden in a fake book.”
“I can’t believe this. It’s like a TV show or a movie.” Jenna shook her head.
Tom had stopped by on his way to a new renovation project. He sipped an iced tea and reached for another of Angie’s cookies. “What’s going on around here? Is a small town a good cover for people who are up to no good? Is a small town like Sweet Cove a good hiding place because no one expects bad things to happen in a quaint, little town?”
“Could be.” Jenna rocked beside Tom. “There has certainly been a lot going on here recently.”
Ellie opened the front door and held it for Mr. and Mrs. Foley who carried suitcases and a carry-on bag. They bustled onto the porch. “We’re off,” Mrs. Foley smiled at everyone gathered outside.
Circe and Euclid woke and jumped onto the porch railing. They stared at the Foleys.
“I didn’t realize you were leaving.” Angie stepped forward to shake hands with the couple.
“We decided to cut our visit short by a few days.” Mr. Foley placed his suitcase on the floor. “We’ve accomplished what we wanted from our visit.”
Mrs. Foley said, “We saw so many of the sights. We had a lovely time. We’re feeling well-rested and eager to get home for a week before we head off to Europe.” She turned to Ellie. “I will be sure to leave you a five-star review for your lovely B and B.”
The couple started down the steps with their things. Tom stood and went to help Mrs. Foley with her suitcase. “Let me get that,” he offered.
“Oh, my, thank you. It was lovely meeting all of you.” Mrs. Foley bustled to the car. She opened the passenger side door and placed her handbag on the seat.
Euclid leaped off the porch and ran to the vehicle. He jumped onto the roof of the car and sat there as Mr. Foley opened the trunk.
“Euclid,” Jenna chastised the big orange cat.
“Come here, boy,” Angie called to him.
Euclid sat like a statue. He would not budge.
Courtney started to laugh, but caught herself as a tingling sensation flowed through her body. She jerked her head towards Mr. Finch who had just pushed himself up from his rocker. He had a concerned expression on his face. Finch and Courtney made eye contact and the two of them hurried down the steps heading to the driveway. “I’ll get Euclid,” Courtney said.
The rushed way that Courtney and Finch walked to the driveway gave Angie a twinge of anxiety as she watched them from the porch.
Mr. Finch leaned on his cane and limped over to the car. When Courtney approached the side of the vehicle and reached up for the cat, Euclid slid down the rear window, jumped to the side, and hurtled into the trunk. Mrs. Foley cried out.
Mr. Finch sidled up to the open trunk. He pretended to be after Euclid, but his real intention was to get a look in the back hatch. Courtney joined him and the two of them rustled around the packed items of the trunk feigning an attempt to capture the cat.
“Oh, no, no. I’ll take care if it.” Mr. Foley used a mock cheerful tone as he tried to shoulder Finch and Courtney out of the way.
Euclid scratched at a plaid blanket that was draped over an object that was pushed into the rear of the trunk. Mr. Foley’s efforts to keep Courtney from reaching into the hatch became more aggressive and the young woman elbowed him in the side.
“Oh, sorry.” She pretended she hadn’t meant to jab him.
Once Euclid uncovered the object, he took a mighty leap from the vehicle over the heads of the people crowded at the rear of the car.
“What’s this?” Mr. Finch reached forward to take hold of something that looked like a rolled up piece of carpet.
Foley tried to slam the trunk. Courtney blocked him.
Finch pulled the item forward.
Mr. Foley tried to grab the object out of Finch’s hands. Finch leaned back and swatted Foley over the head with his cane. Mr. Foley stumbled back and fell on his butt. Just as his wife lunged at Finch, Courtney stuck her leg out and tripped the woman. Mrs. Foley crashed to the driveway in a disheveled heap.
The whole thing only took several seconds. The others stood on the porch gaping at the melee in the driveway.
“What do you have there?” Tom asked Finch.
Finch held a canvas in his hands and he unrolled a foot of it.
Angie gasped when she saw the colors and shapes. “It’s…”
“The painting from my brother’s living room.” Finch glared at the Foleys.
“The stolen painting!” Ellie reached for the phone in her pocket, pulled it out, and called 911.
“Robbers.” Anger contorted Mr. Finch’s face. “Did you kill Thaddeus?”
The Foleys attempted to scramble away, but Tom blocked their escape and pushed them back onto the pavement of the driveway. He growled at them. “I’d stay where you are, if I were you.”
Euclid sat on the porch railing looking smug.
Angie sidled up next to Ellie. “I bet the Foleys won’t be leaving a five-star review for the B and B now.”
***
After the police came to the Victorian and hauled the Foleys away, Tom, Finch, and the four sisters sat on
the porch discussing what had just happened.
“Right under our noses.” Ellie fumed. She got up and paced back and forth the length of the front porch. “That’s great advertising for the B and B, isn’t it? People will avoid coming here because they’ll think we harbor criminals.”
“You know,” Courtney said, “people might be drawn to the excitement of staying at an inn where criminals visited.”
Jenna rocked in her chair. “Maybe you should put that information on the B and B website. You can charge people extra to stay in the very room used by convicted felons.”
Ellie groaned and plopped onto one of the chairs.
“How could murderers sit right at the table with us and none of us pick up on it?” Mr. Finch’s face had lost its color. The exertion of wresting with the Foleys and the revelation of their misdeeds had worn him out.
Angie sat on the porch railing next to Euclid and Circe. “So the Foleys killed your brother and stole the artwork from his living room wall?” Something about it didn’t seem right to her.
“It must have been an art deal gone wrong,” Jenna speculated.
“I had several discussions about art with the Foleys.” Finch sighed. “I never sensed that they were the killers.”
Angie said, “Maybe because they’re not the killers?”
Everyone turned towards Angie.
“What do you mean?” Tom asked. “The Foleys just stole the painting, but didn’t murder Mr. Finch?” Tom glanced at Mr. Finch sitting near him. “The other Finch, not you.”
Courtney rolled her eyes at Tom. “Obviously.”
“It doesn’t make sense to me.” Angie slid from her sitting position on the railing and stood. “Suppose they killed candy store Finch. It seems pretty stupid to stay in Sweet Cove for so many days after the murder. Wouldn’t you want to get away as soon as possible? Leave the area as soon as you could?”
“I think Angie’s right.” Courtney faced Mr. Finch. “Wouldn’t we have picked up on their crime if they murdered your brother? Some small prick of suspicion? I bet we didn’t sense that they stole the painting because we were so focused on figuring out who the killer is.” She was careful how she worded her statements. Tom didn’t know anything about the “gifts” that the Roseland sisters had started tapping into. Courtney didn’t want to scare Tom away, so she danced around the issue.
Jenna said, “The cats didn’t like the Foleys, but it wasn’t an urgent sense of alarm like Euclid had that night last month when Professor Linden’s murderer showed up here. Remember, Angie? Euclid practically chewed a hole through the kitchen door trying to get out. He knew Lisa Barrows was the killer. He never behaved that way when the Foleys were around. The cats had a more subtle dislike of them.”
“The cats sense things?” Tom looked confused.
Angie said quickly, “The cats are a lot like dogs. You know, lots of dogs are good judges of character. They take a quick disliking to certain people. The cats do the same thing.”
“I didn’t know cats were like that.” Tom gave the two felines admiring looks.
Angie’s phone buzzed with an incoming text. She read the words and let out a sigh. “Chief Martin says it seems the Foleys have an iron clad alibi for the night of the murder.”
“If the Foleys didn’t kill Thaddeus,” Mr. Finch asked, “then who did?”
Chapter 21
The four sisters and Mr. Finch decided to have dinner together at the Pirate’s Den on Main Street. Even though the restaurant was only a few blocks away, Ellie offered to drive everyone there in her van so that Mr. Finch wouldn’t have to walk. Finch declined the offer. He said it was better to exercise his injured leg and if the girls wouldn’t mind strolling at a leisurely pace, then he would enjoy walking to dinner.
The restaurant was crowded when they arrived, but Bessie, the owner, spotted the Roseland sisters and Mr. Finch as they entered, and she ushered the five of them to a table near the windows.
“This is most pleasant.” Mr. Finch placed his napkin in his lap and perused the menu.
Lindsay, the assistant manager, came to the table to take their orders. She was wearing the earrings that she’d purchased from Jenna.
“They look great on you,” Angie told Lindsay.
“I love them.” Lindsay had her hair in a loose bun and the dangly earrings caught the light and sparkled. “I’ve had a million compliments on them.” She nodded to Jenna. “I tell everyone where I bought them.”
Jenna smiled. “I just made a necklace that would match those earrings. Come by the shop some day and I’ll show you.”
Lindsay frowned. “I’m here all the time now that business has picked up with the tourists. Could you come by with the jewelry some night after we close?”
Jenna offered to bring some new pieces of jewelry to the restaurant the next night and Lindsay readily agreed.
Ellie introduced Mr. Finch and tilted her head towards the candy shop across the street. “He and the other Mr. Finch were brothers.”
Lindsay’s smile faded as she eyed Finch.
Courtney whispered to her. “This Mr. Finch is nice.”
Lindsay looked unsure. She pulled her order pad from the pocket of her apron. “Would you like to order appetizers?”
A woman’s raspy voice called out. “Oh, look. It’s the Roseland sisters.”
They all turned to see Agnes and Mildred Walsh bustling towards their table. Lindsay let out a groan.
“Look at you all out together. It’s hopping in here isn’t it?” Mildred turned to Angie and Courtney. “Did you have any luck with that phone number we gave you from the dry cleaners?”
“It was a promising lead, but it turns out the man is innocent,” Angie said.
“Ah. Too bad.” Mildred glanced about the front dining room and waved and nodded to several people she knew.
Agnes smiled at Finch. “And who is this fine gentleman you have with you?”
Ellie introduced Mr. Finch as a B and B guest and left out his name in order to avoid the inevitable comparison between this Finch and the dead one.
Mildred was about to press for their guest’s name when Bessie arrived with menus and showed the Walsh sisters to a table on the other side of the room.
“Those two.” Lindsay scowled. “They’re always up in everyone’s business. Such busybodies.” She leaned down. “And they are such complainers. I’m glad they’re not sitting at one of my tables tonight. When they worked at the candy store, they were in here all the time. I dreaded waiting on them.”
“They have forceful personalities, for sure.” Angie grinned.
The girls and Finch ordered their meals and shared nachos for an appetizer.
“There’s quite a good view of my brother’s candy store from here.” Mr. Finch looked out the restaurant window.
Angie followed Finch’s gaze. The now familiar thrumming started beating in her veins. After only a few pulses, the sensation faded away.
Courtney shot Angie a look. “What is it?”
Angie met her sister’s eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I felt something from you.”
“The thrumming started.” Angie kept her voice low.
Courtney’s eyes narrowed. “Do you still feel it?”
Angie shook her head.
“I felt it, too, but it was coming from you,” Courtney said.
Finch looked from sister to sister. “What’s going on?”
Jenna explained as best she could. Finch looked impressed.
Ellie blinked. She was sitting ramrod straight. She asked warily, “What did you feel?”
Angie took a gulp from her water glass. “I looked across the street at the candy store. The thrumming started up, but it faded really fast.” She took a quick look around the busy dining room. Her heart was beating double-time. “It has something to do with this restaurant.”
“What could it be?” Ellie twisted a strand of her long blonde hair. She seemed like she might get up and flee.
&n
bsp; “Is the killer in here?” Courtney whispered. “We should go get the cats.”
“I don’t think they’d allow cats in here,” Finch observed.
Jenna made a suggestion to Angie. “Look out the window again. Look at the candy store. Does the thrumming start again?”
Angie trained her eyes on the building across the street. She waited for something to start in her blood. She shook her head. “Nothing.”
Jenna let out a sigh. “Why are these abilities such a puzzle? Why are they shrouded in mystery? Why can’t the stupid powers be more straightforward?”
Courtney glanced over her shoulder. “It has to be someone in here. Either the killer is in here or someone here knows who the killer is.”
“How can we figure it out?” Jenna whispered. “I wish we could lock the restaurant door and keep everyone from leaving.”
They were so engrossed in the conversation that they didn’t hear Lindsay come over to the table. “Want anything else?”
Ellie jumped. “No,” she said quickly. “Just the bill.”
Lindsay removed their bill from her order pad.
Mr. Finch held out his hand. “I’ll take that. It’s my treat.”
The girls protested but Finch insisted. Lindsay passed him the piece of paper with the charges written on it and then she moved to the next table. Mr. Finch opened his billfold, removed some cash, and counted out the necessary amount which he placed in the middle of the table. The five of them got up and left the restaurant. They started down the sidewalk back to the Victorian. Stars sparkled in the sky. The main street was crowded with people heading out to browse the stores or to eat in the many restaurants that lined the center of Sweet Cove.
“How will we ever figure out who the killer is?” Courtney moaned.
Mr. Finch leaned on his cane. “Talk to our waitress.”
Under a streetlamp, the four sisters stopped short and stared at Finch.
“She handed me the bill,” Finch said. “We held it at the same time. Something passed to me.” He held each of the girls’ eyes. “She knows.”
Chapter 22
Chief Martin sat in the living room of the Victorian with Angie, Jenna, Courtney, and Finch. Ellie had just finished cleaning up the kitchen from the morning breakfast preparations. She hurried to join the group. Euclid and Circe lay curled up on the rug in front of the fireplace.
