by R A Wallace
Leah Sprouse finished entering the new acquisitions into the computer. She and her husband, Daryl, often traveled to antique sales to add to their stock. Although many sales were on the weekends, others were during the week. If necessary, one of them remained at the store while the other went to the sale. It was a practice that had worked well for them over the past decade.
They were both collectors at a young age and met at an antique sale in their late twenties. Now in their forties, they’d been married for fifteen years. They rented the equivalent of two shop spaces in the building on Main Street. Vintage Teaberry was sandwiched between Olde Tomes and Teaberry Togs. They were both very concerned about their future in the building prior to Ross McMann purchasing it but they’d been hearing from some of the other shop owners that Ross had been offering extended contracts at the same rate. The previous owner had been threatening to increase the rate so high, they wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
Still, Leah was surprised to find a letter from Jennifer Parker in her daily stack of mail when she finally remembered to check it. Hopeful that it was good news, she began opening it as she walked through the shop looking for her husband. She found him creating a new display from a lovely corner hutch they had just acquired Sunday at a sale.
Daryl had positioned the hutch in the corner and was now artfully adding antique china cups. He was a small, serious-looking man with dark skin, thick glasses, and thin hair which he kept cropped close. Leah knew that his quiet demeanor hid a wicked sense of humor, the character trait that had drawn her to him in the first place.
Daryl glanced over at Leah when she stopped behind him to admire his work. “What do you think?”
“It looks amazing. You were right about the piece, as usual.” Leah hadn’t seen his attraction to it when they’d first found it buried in the corner of an old barn. Concerned about the condition of the hutch given where it had spent what must have been many years, she was hesitant to bid on it.
They’d been unable to get close to it physically to check it out before bidding because of everything else piled around it. And once it had been dug out after their lone bid on the item, the layers of filth on it had worried her even more. But now that Daryl had it cleaned up, she could see the amazing craftmanship and detail of the piece.
Daryl stepped back to admire his own work then turned to grin at his wife. “It does look amazing, doesn’t it?”
Leah hummed in agreement, then pulled on her glasses to read the letter.
Daryl glanced down at the paper in her hand. “What’s that?”
Leah read a few more sentences and smiled before looking up at her husband. “Ross McMann has offered us a long lease extension at the same rate.”
Daryl nodded. “I’m not surprised. I got the feeling from my conversations with him that he’s supportive of the businesses in the building and he wants to help us succeed. We’ll have a better chance at that if we don’t have to worry about having a space to sell our products.”
“I wonder if Susan knew about this. I thought I saw Caitlyn leave to make deliveries earlier. I’m going to go down and see Susan for a minute but then I’ll be right back,” Leah said as she waved the letter at her husband.
Susan had been a great help to Leah and Daryl when they had first decided to open their shop. She had offered them a great deal of anecdotal stories and guidance using her own years of experience as a shop owner.
Susan looked up from the computer at the front counter when the door opened. She smiled at Leah when she entered. Leah and Daryl had moved into the building only ten years ago and weren’t from Teaberry initially, but they had quickly become prominent members of the business community. Both had strong networking skills which they used to their advantage to learn about new potential acquisitions and sales. Susan glanced down and saw the letter in Leah’s hand.
Leah followed Susan’s gaze and held up her letter. “We got ours. It’s an offer of an extension.”
Susan quickly deduced that the letter was from Ross and nodded. “Good to hear. We were all so worried not long ago that we might have to move out.”
Leah pulled her brows together and took a guess. “You haven’t gotten one yet?”
Susan shrugged.
Unwilling to say anything further that might upset a woman Leah greatly admired, she opted to change the subject. “I feel so bad for Jill and Janice. Have you heard any news?”
Susan shook her head. “No, but I hope the police clear things up quickly so they can move on and begin to heal.”
Leah chatted with Susan for a few more minutes, then returned to her own shop. She followed a woman into the store but didn’t recognize her from behind.
“Can I help you?” Leah asked.
Megan turned and smiled at Leah as Daryl came to the front of the store.
“Megan, what brings you in?” Daryl asked.
He had admired the younger woman’s taste in antiques when she had first decorated the Teaberry Farm Bed and Breakfast. She had wanted the furnishings to be authentic to the period of the house. Daryl and Leah had enjoyed their shopping trips looking for unique items that might fit in with what Megan had in mind.
“I was hoping to ask you some questions.” Megan explained the request of the Swindell twins.
“Oh, I’m so glad to hear that you’re helping them,” Leah said.
Daryl nodded in agreement. “We’ve been worried about them.”
“I understand you were at the engagement party?” Megan asked.
“Oh, yes. We wouldn’t miss it. The Swindell’s were very helpful when we first opened our business,” Daryl said.
Megan asked them similar questions as the other guests she’d been speaking to, but Daryl and Leah weren’t able to give any additional details or information about anything that had happened at the engagement party.
“It’s such a shame though,” Leah said as an afterthought.
“What’s that?” Megan asked.
“Well, Jill had picked something out that Blake was supposed to buy her for an engagement gift.” Leah looked over at Daryl. “Did he stop by when I was out?”
Daryl shook his head and frowned. “No, he never came in to get it.”
“He didn’t buy the gift Jill had specifically asked him to buy?” Megan asked.
Leah shrugged. “Maybe he just forgot?”
Chapter Seventeen
The Anderson Landscaping crew broke for lunch shortly after noon. Jax walked over to his truck and took out a cooler from the back seat. He reached in the cooler and pulled out a zippered bag with ice and a wet face towel. He’d gotten the idea from Trina back during the worst heat of the summer. Having an icy cold towel to wipe his face and neck when he was drenched in sweat felt like the most amazing gift. He stuffed the towel back into the bag, grabbed his and Trina’s coolers, and then carried them both over to the picnic table.
They’d chosen to pack a lunch today rather than buy something. Seth had his own cooler and was already pulling things out of it when Jax reached the table. He set Trina’s cooler in front of her and began unloading his own. He watched Trina anxiously as she touched based with Didi on the phone. Trina met his eyes and smiled. Jax relaxed immediately. It must mean Jasmine was okay.
Trina disconnected the call and tucked her phone back into a zipped side pocket on her cargo pants. “Mom says she’s doing just fine. Like it never happened.”
“Man, I can’t believe how quickly you can find yourself in an emergency room with kids,” Seth said. He couldn’t imagine the stress Trina and Jax must have been under when they were waiting at the hospital to hear from the doctor. He had no idea how he would deal with Evan being hurt.
“I don’t think I thanked Justin for coming down to check on us,” Trina said with a frown. She turned to Jax. “Do you remember if I did?”
Jax reached over and took some of her potato chips. “He knows.” Jax looked over at Seth. “How is the deck coming along?”
“Good.” Seth fr
owned.
Jax was waiting for Seth to talk more about the deck. When he didn’t, Jax looked up at him again. “What?”
Seth shrugged. “Jessilyn and I were talking about the murder.”
“What about it?” Jax asked before biting into his sandwich.
“She said she heard the twins fighting.”
“Did she tell the police?” Jax asked.
Seth looked at Jax. “How do you know when to bother the police and when not to? I mean, do you call the police to tell them about your day and everyone you talked to?”
Jax shot Seth a look. Seth was right. Where do you draw the line? “Okay, I get your point.”
Trina set her sandwich down and looked between Jax and Seth, concern on her face. “Actually, I just remembered that I saw something too. I was going to mention it to you but then Jasmine was stung, and I forgot all about it. I mean, it’s probably nothing.”
Jax thought about it for minute, then made a decision. He pulled out his phone and called Megan. She picked up on the second ring. Jax found out that she was already in town and only a few blocks from where they were. He asked her to stop by and gave their location. She parked her truck next to Seth’s just as they were finishing their lunch.
Megan walked over to the picnic table and greeted everyone. “What’s up?” She sat on the picnic bench next to Seth and across from Trina. Jax was next to Trina.
“Trina and Jessilyn may have some pieces to your puzzle,” Jax said.
While they waited for Megan to arrive, Jax explained to Seth and Trina about Megan’s past history with mysteries. Megan had told Jax that mysteries were like puzzles to her. She might not understand the whole puzzle at first, but she was sure that once she had more pieces to the puzzle it would start to make sense. Sometimes people had information and they didn’t even realize it or didn’t understand that it was pertinent. That tiny piece of information they held may help to explain part of the larger puzzle.
“Jessilyn told me that she heard the sisters arguing in front of their shop before that man was killed,” Seth said as he put the debris from his lunch back into his lunch cooler. “She felt pretty bad about saying anything though.”
Megan smiled. “Tell her that the twins have already told me about some of that. They’ve been arguing a lot lately.” Megan turned to look at Trina.
“It’s probably nothing,” Trina said again with a shrug. “I saw a man walking around the property when we were there mowing the lawn. You know, that day before the party.”
Megan drew her brows together. “Walking around?”
“Yes, in the fields. It looked like he might have been trying to take measurements. He had one of those surveyor’s wheels. We sell them at the feed store. There’s a wheel at the end of a long handle. You push the wheel around and it takes measurements,” Trina explained.
Megan nodded to indicate she knew what Trina was referring to. “Do you know what he looked like?”
Trina made a face to show she was thinking about it. “About as tall as Jax but older, maybe in his forties or fifties?”
Megan thought that sounded like Blake but wasn’t sure how to confirm it. Then she remembered the pictures she had taken at Tea & Thyme with Blake standing next to Jill. He had wanted the information posted on the web site about Tea & Thyme getting an expansion to serve customers. Megan pulled her phone out and scrolled through her gallery until she found the pictures. She passed the phone over to Trina.
“Yeah, that looks like him,” Trina nodded confidently. She began to pass the phone back to Megan, but Seth reached for it instead.
“I’ve seen him too,” Seth said with a frown. “I didn’t notice him walking in the fields. I saw him talking to some guy with what looked like a real estate logo on the side of his car.”
“Where was this?” Megan asked.
“At a gas station outside of town on the south side. I was driving out to a job when I stopped to fill up. They were parked kind of in my way and I had a tough time getting around them to the pumps. Some people don’t take into account the extra room you need when you’re pulling a trailer.” Seth handed the phone to Megan.
“Do you remember the name of the real estate company?” Megan asked.
Seth shook his head.
“When was it?” Megan asked.
Megan thought if the gas station had a security camera Erica might be able to get footage, but she’d need a window of time to help her narrow the search.
“Friday.” Seth gave her an approximate time.
Megan asked a few more questions but didn’t get much more information than what they had already told her. Jax told her about an odd comment that Cy Douglass had made but Megan wasn’t certain of the significance. She left them with her thanks and got back into her truck. She started the truck but called Erica before pulling away.
Chapter Eighteen
Megan returned home in the afternoon to gather her thoughts about everything that she’d learned so far and to get some dinner started. Although there were still a few hours before Dan would be home from work, she didn’t want to leave it until the last minute. She found Henry in the barnyard, scratching in the dirt. He got excited when he saw her.
“Let’s go look in the garden and see what we have left,” Megan said to the rooster.
Henry seemed happy to go along with her idea. She carried a basket with her that she’d picked up in the barn before going to the garden.
The pepper plants were really just gearing up. They’d been producing since earlier in August, but they seemed to prefer the cooler nights and really began flowering more heavily recently. Henry followed along as Megan gathered a few peppers that had reached the right size. Most of the other vegetable plants had already quit producing and she’d pulled them out. She’d already dug all of the potatoes and had frozen most of them. There were some left that she’d kept out to use for baked potatoes. She had done the same with the onions. Most were now frozen, but she had kept some in her fridge to use fresh.
Thinking about the homemade sausage she’d just gotten from her neighbor and friend, Tom Jenkins, she thought that sausage sandwiches with peppers and onions on the grill sounded good. She would add some potatoes. Maybe she’d make a quick Apple Crisp for dessert.
She was walking back to the house with Henry following along when she heard a car pull into the drive. She walked around the corner of the house and found Ava at her front door.
“Ava, I’m back here,” Megan called. Henry lost interest and went in the direction of the chicken coop.
Ava walked around the porch to the rear of the house and met Megan as she climbed the steps. Megan set her basket of peppers down and motioned for Ava to take a seat.
“Can I get you something to drink?” Megan asked.
“No, but I thought I saw you making cider the other day. I’d really like to buy some. Bella loves it,” Ava said.
Megan nodded her agreement.
“I also wanted to talk to you about something.” Ava sat back in her chair but twisted her hands in her lap.
Megan watched Ava fidget. “Is something wrong?”
“It’s just, you know that I’m in people’s houses all the time. Sometimes I hear things and I’ve always kept them to myself before, you know?” Ava said uncertainly.
Megan sat back in her chair. “You heard something that you want to tell me, but you feel guilty about it?”
Ava sighed and nodded. “I wouldn’t normally do this, but after you helped me when I was scared about a ghost in the elementary building…” Ava shrugged. “I understand how you gather pieces of information to solve your puzzles now. I think I might know something that would help with the recent murder.”
“Really? You heard something when you were cleaning a house?” Megan asked.
Ava nodded again. “I thought it sounded odd at the time, but I told myself it was none of my business. When I was cleaning the Swindell house, I heard that man ask Miss Swindell about her deed.”
&
nbsp; “Her deed?” Megan prompted.
“He wanted to know where it was. He sounded a little angry or maybe it was frustrated. I don’t know. I just assumed they were all tense because of the party. But I can’t see what that would have to do with a deed or why he felt he needed it right then.” Ava looked at Megan as though she might know.
Megan tried to piece the information together with what she already knew. After thinking for a moment, she smiled at Ava. “Well, I can get that cider for you now.”
Ava remained in her seat and began twisting her hands in her lap again.
Megan paused halfway to standing and sat back down. “Was there something else?”
Ava nodded, looking miserable again. “It was something someone else said.”
Megan raised her eyebrows in question but didn’t interrupt.
“I clean for Mr. Douglass. Do you know him?” Ava asked.
“Cy Douglass? He owns a farm out this way,” Megan said.
Ava nodded. “Yes, that’s him. I’ve cleaned for him for years. He’s a nice man.”
Megan had always thought so too. She waited to see what Ava had heard.
“He was upset about Miss Swindell marrying that other man,” Ava said.
That surprised Megan until she started doing the math. Then she realized that Cy Douglass and the twins were around the same age. They probably had gone to school together. Of course, he could have been upset for any number of reasons, or maybe Ava had just misunderstood. But Jax had mentioned something also.
“Did Mr. Douglass say why?” Megan asked.
“He said the other man didn’t deserve Jill. He sounded pretty angry about it.”
Megan thought that could sound like jealousy if Cy felt strongly about it. She asked Ava if she’d gotten the same impression.
“Now that you mention it, that’s exactly what it sounded like. Huh.” Ava looked surprised.
Megan got the cider for Ava and thanked her for the information. Then she called Erica again and explained what Ava had told her and mentioned that Jax had also heard negative comments from Cy about Blake Vargo. She could hear Erica talking to Jerry on the other end of the phone as she relayed the information.
