by J. B. Lynn
She shook her head. “We were just fooling around, being stupid.”
He shook his head. “No. The police are pretty sure it was part of the attempt to rob the Choo mansion.”
“I don’t even know what that is,” she told him. “I was hanging out with some rich kids, they dared me to jump off a balcony to a pole. I missed and I got hurt.”
Tom nodded slowly. “That’s what the police report says.”
“I’m telling you, I had nothing to do with that,” Bea said defensively. In the back of her mind, she wondered if he’d looked up her juvenile record, where she’d been convicted of shoplifting.
He nodded slowly. “I believe you. And I believe that Amanda had nothing to do with Richardson’s death. Now, if we could just find Winnie, I could clear all of the Concordia sisters.”
Bea pulled out her phone and asked, “Can I call her?”
“Please,” Tom requested.
Bea dialed Winnie’s number, raised the phone to her ear, and waited, holding her breath. She really needed to find Winnie. And she really hoped that their middle sister had nothing to do with Richardson’s death.
24
Winnie wasn’t sure how long she’d sat on the beach sketching, but she knew a lot of time had passed because, suddenly, it was too dark to even see what she was drawing.
Looking up, she realized that almost all of the beach goers had left Siesta Key Beach and the sun had set.
Stiffly, she got to her feet and brushed the sand off of her clothing. She flipped her sketchbook closed. She’d been drawing the same things over and over again, probably for hours. A woman’s face, a woman’s face with haunted eyes. And a treasure map. She kept drawing the same map over and over again, not adding any more details, just making copies of it. She pulled out her phone to call for an Uber, but realized that the battery was dead.
She trudged back over the sand and walked along the same mat that they had pushed Bea’s wheelchair out on when they had come to scatter Letty’s ashes. She’d come here, knowing that it was one of her godmother’s favorite places and hoping that being here would bring her closer to Letty.
But it wasn’t Letty she felt closer to. She couldn’t get the image of the woman or the map out of her head, no matter how many times she drew them.
When she reached the empty parking lot, she looked around for a long moment, trying to figure out how she was going to get home. As though divinely delivered, Jim pulled up in front of her.
“You look like you need a ride,” he said.
She nodded and got into the car.
“Are you okay?” He brushed the hair away from her face and studied her carefully.
“Sure,” she said noncommittally.
“You weren’t answering your phone,” Jim said.
She held it up for him. “Battery’s dead.”
“Everyone’s looking for you. Bea’s worried sick,” he told her, putting the car into gear.
“Why?” she asked.
Jim glanced over at her sharply. “You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
He took a deep breath and said, “Try to remain calm.”
Winnie’s heartbeat doubled and her throat constricted, making it hard to breathe. Being told to remain calm always prefaced bad news.
“There was a murder,” Jim began.
“Is Amanda okay?” she asked quickly. Jim nodded. “Because you said Bea was worried, but you didn’t say anything about Amanda, and Amanda is an even bigger worrier than Bea is,” Winnie said all too quickly, as her anxiety got the better of her.
Jim held up a hand to silence her. “Your sisters are okay,” he told her. “Rumor is, that it was Richardson that was killed in the shop.”
“What shop?”
“One Woman’s Junk,” Jim told her.
Winnie shook her head. “No,” she corrected, feeling a wave of relief now that she understood what the misunderstanding was, “it was Perkins that died in front of the shop.”
Jim nodded. “Yes, Peter Perkins died in front of the shop,” he agreed. “Richardson died inside.”
“Died inside?” Winnie freaked.
“Technically, I heard he was killed inside,” Jim told her matter-of-factly.
Trying to take in this latest revelation, Winnie slumped in her seat. “Who killed him?”
“I don’t know. Tom Keller is investigating.”
As Winnie digested what Jim had told her so far, a bad feeling came over her. “Explain to me again why Bea is worried about me and Amanda isn’t.”
“I don’t know what Amanda’s doing,” Jim told her. “Detective Keller took her to the police station to question her and take her statement.”
“Is Amanda a suspect?” Winnie asked.
Jim shrugged.
“Then take me to the police station,” she said.
“I don’t think that’s a good—”
“Don’t think,” Winnie interrupted. “Just take me there.”
He gave her a sideways glance.
Realizing she was ordering him around, she added softly, “Please.”
Nodding, he made a U-turn in the middle of Tamiami Trail.
Winnie clutched her sketchbook to her chest even tighter. None of this made sense, not Perkins being dead, not Richardson being killed.
“You’re not going to be sick in my car, are you?” Jim teased, trying to lighten the mood.
She shook her head. “When did all of this happen?”
“Hours ago,” Jim told her. “That’s why Bea’s so worried. You didn’t come back. You didn’t answer your phone. I told her I’d go look for you at the beach, and Ash took her to Red Bug Slough to look for you there.”
“I lost track of time,” Winnie told him.
“Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem,” Jim told her gently. “You had no way of knowing what was going to happen.” Then he gave her a sidelong look. “Did you?”
Frowning, she turned to look at him fully. “What are you asking?”
He shook his head and laughed awkwardly. “Nothing.”
They spent the rest of the car ride to the police station in silence.
Just as they pulled up, Detective Tom Keller was escorting Amanda out of the building.
Jim honked his horn, getting his attention.
When Keller saw that his passenger was Winnie, he hurried over to her.
“Miss Concordia, I have some questions for you.”
Ignoring him, Winnie got out of the car and threw her arms around Amanda. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” her older sister assured her.
Winnie leaned back and examined her face; she wasn’t sure she believed Amanda’s assertion. She looked pale and wan. “I should have been here.”
“Where were you?” the detective interjected.
Winnie glanced over at him. “I was at the beach.”
“Can anybody confirm that.”
Amanda stepped between them. “My sister is not a suspect.”
“Your sister won’t be a suspect as soon as I can clear her,” Tom told her in a tone that brooked no argument.
Amanda shook her head but fell silent.
“Were you with anyone?” he asked again.
Winnie shook her head.
“Can anyone confirm that you were there?”
She shrugged. “I took a SCAT bus and then was sitting alone. Drawing.”
He frowned.
“You can’t be serious,” Jim interjected. “You don’t really think that she was the one who killed him, do you?”
Tom shook his head. “I’m just trying to get as many possible suspects off the list as I can.”
“You shouldn’t have put her on the list,” Amanda told him harshly.
Tom frowned and gave her a look that Winnie couldn’t quite understand.
“I’ll take them home now,” Jim said firmly. He was obviously trying to put an end to the conversation.
Tom nodded. “Just don’t leave town, ladies.�
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Jim opened the back door of the car and Amanda climbed into the back seat.
Tom pinned Winnie with a stern gaze. “I’ll have further questions for you.”
“But I won’t have any more answers,” she told him tiredly. She reached for the front passenger door of the car.
“Take care of your sister,” Tom said in a voice so low that she barely heard him.
Glancing over, she was surprised to see the concern on the detective’s face.
“I’ll try,” she said. Taking care of Amanda had never been easy for anyone, including Letty. She usually held herself at a distance from everyone, even when she did need help.
And Winnie had the feeling that all of the Concordia sisters needed help now.
25
Piper had been generous enough to allow the Concordia sisters to use her shop, even though it was closed for the evening.
Winnie and Amanda waited for Bea to show up, nibbling on cookies and sipping tea.
Piper was in the back, making a ton of noise, singing Disney songs as she set up for the next day.
Bea knocked on the door. Winnie hopped out of her seat and unlocked it for her, letting her inside.
“Where were you?” Bea demanded to know as they sat down.
Winnie did her best to ignore the accusation that she heard in her younger sister’s voice. “I went to the beach to draw. I lost track of time.”
“We were worried,” Bea told her.
Winnie nodded her understanding, knowing that telling them her phone battery had died would just sound like a defensive excuse. Instead, she focused on Amanda. “Did you kill him?”
Amanda blinked, leaning slightly away in her seat. “What?”
“Well, you were the only one in the shop when Richardson ended up dead,” Winnie said, fighting to keep a straight face. She couldn’t help it, she was too amused by her older sister’s horrified expression.
“Oh,” Bea said, warming up to her part and winding Amanda up. “That is the most logical explanation.”
Amanda stared at her younger sisters; her eyes wide. “What? You both think that I killed him?”
Bea shrugged, and it was such a great performance that it took all of Winnie’s self-control not to burst into laughter.
It was the shrug that pushed Amanda over the edge.
“You think that I killed him?” she yelled.
Bea shot Winnie a worried look, and Winnie knew she was concerned they had taken things too far.
“We’re just kidding,” Winnie told her quickly, “we know you didn’t kill him.”
“You’re just kidding?” Amanda yelled even louder. “A man is dead. I was questioned by the police. I was fingerprinted,” she said, as though it was the most single traumatizing event of her life.
“Take it easy,” Bea soothed.
“And you think it’s okay to tease me about something like that?”
Amanda was physically shaking, and Winnie felt a twinge of guilt.
“We were just kidding,” she repeated. “We were just trying to lighten the mood.”
Piper, who’d heard the yelling, came out of the kitchen and asked, “Is everything okay? Can I make you something? A cup of warm milk, maybe?”
Amanda rounded on her, and Winnie knew that it wasn’t going to go well. “No,” Amanda said through gritted teeth. “I don’t want a cup of warm milk. I want to be able to get back into the shop. I want people to stop dying at the shop.”
Piper nodded sympathetically and backed away without saying another word. A moment later, she burst into the chorus of Hakuna Matata.
“She was just trying to help,” Winnie said.
Shaking her head, Amanda plopped into the nearest chair, crossing her arms over her chest and sulking like a three-year-old.
“Look,” Winnie said. “I’m sure being fingerprinted is standard procedure.”
“It is not standard procedure to have a dead body in your store,” Amanda insisted.
“She has a point,” Bea said.
Winnie shot her younger sister a look, silencing her. She was doing her best to diffuse the situation with Amanda, she didn’t need Bea stirring things up.
“Why don’t you tell us what happened,” Winnie suggested.
Amanda took a deep breath and looked around the room. Winnie wondered what she was searching for. Finally, her gaze landed back on Winnie.
“I was upstairs, and Rupert came and told me…”
“Told you what?” Bea asked.
“That Richardson was there. Dead.”
Amanda wrapped her arms around herself tighter before she continued. “So, I ran down the stairs, and the body was there, with Peabody’s dagger sticking out of him.”
She let out a shuddering sigh.
“That must have been traumatic,” Winnie said sympathetically. She put a hand on her sister’s shoulder to comfort her.
Amanda shook her off. “Not as traumatic as when he attacked me.”
“Who attacked you?” Bea asked.
“Richardson.”
Winnie and Bea shared a worried look.
“Richardson attacked you?” Winnie asked, trying to make sense of it all.
Amanda nodded. “It was terrifying.”
Bea let out a low whistle. “So, you did kill him.”
Jumping out of her seat, Amanda put her hands on her hips and said in her most lecturing tone, “Did I say that?”
Bea raised her hands defensively. “You said,” she sputtered, trying to appeal to Amanda’s sense of reason, “that he attacked you. You said he was dead.”
“Yes,” Amanda said. “Exactly.”
“Well,” Winnie interjected, trying to take some of the pressure off of Bea while trying to wrap her head around the idea that Amanda had taken a life, “self defense is a totally legitimate reason to kill someone.”
Amanda frowned at her and shook her head. “You don’t understand. Peabody’s cutlass was already stuck in him when I found him. He attacked me…after he was dead.”
Winnie blinked, unsure of how to respond.
Bea had no such qualms. “You were attacked by a ghost?”
Amanda nodded.
“Cool!” Bea said enthusiastically.
“Definitely not cool,” Amanda told her. “He was trying to kill me.”
“So, what happened?” Bea asked.
This conversation was beginning to give Winnie a headache. She lowered her head into her hands. She wasn’t the biggest fan of their “powers”, as it was, and she found Amanda claiming to have been attacked by a ghost to be one of the more disturbing side effects.
“Rupert fought him,” Amanda explained, “and I ran outside.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Winnie said.
Amanda shrugged. “I was trying to keep Richardson inside, so I was holding the door shut. That’s when Tom found me.”
“Hang on a sec,” Bea said. “Are you trying to tell us that the detective found you trying to keep the ghost locked in the shop.”
“Well, he doesn’t know it was a ghost,” Amanda said. “He made me open the door to the store, and when he did, there was Richardson.”
“The ghost?” Bea asked.
“No,” Amanda corrected. “The dead body.”
Winnie shook her head. “Why can’t anything just go smoothly?”
Amanda shrugged. “I think we’re cursed or something.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Bea said. “According to Ash, there’s a rumor going around that Bruce Gold’s son is the prime suspect.”
“Or it could have been Hank,” Winnie pointed out.
“All I know, is that it wasn’t me,” Amanda said.
“We should ask Angus,” Bea declared.
Winnie found herself nodding even though it sounded like the world’s most ridiculous suggestion, to be looking for feedback from an ashtray-holding statue.
“We can’t,” Amanda said, “until we can get back into the shop.”
“In the meantime,” Pim said. “You could ask me.”
Startled by his voice, all three Concordias turned around, trying to figure out where the black sheep toy with his face gnawed off was.
“Where are you?” Bea asked.
“Over here,” he called.
Following the sound of his voice, Winnie found him in the corner of the store, on the floor. “What are you doing over here?” Winnie asked.
“The dog brought me,” Pim said with disgust. “He slobbered all over me.”
“Now that must have been traumatic,” Bea said sympathetically.
“More importantly,” Amanda said, getting down to the heart of the matter. “What did you see?”
26
Amanda stared at the little toy black sheep, wondering what he could reveal about the killer of her godmother’s killer. “What did you see?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Pim announced.
Bea groaned, Amanda was pretty sure she heard Winnie curse under her breath, and Amanda fought the urge to hurl the toy across the room.
“Hey,” Pim said. “Don’t blame me. It’s not my fault that I can’t turn my neck. It’s the way I was manufactured.”
“Did you hear anything?” Amanda asked, holding on to a shred of hope.
“Yes,” Pim said self-importantly. “The back door opened and—”
“The back door?” Amanda interrupted.
“Yes.”
“You’re sure it was the back door?”
“I’m sure,” Pim told her, barely containing his aggravation. “I can see the front door from where I was placed on the bookshelf. Nobody came in that way.”
“Okay,” Winnie said, obviously trying to get the conversation back on track. “You heard the back door open…”
“And he came inside,” Pim said.
“Richardson?” Amanda asked.
“I wasn’t sure of his name,” Pim said. “He came in, and I could hear him walking around, and then he was looking inside the case by the cash register.”
“That’s where the dagger was,” Winnie supplied. “I put it there after I cleaned it off.”
“You cleaned it?” Bea practically shrieked.
“It was filthy,” Winnie said with a shrug.
Bea shook her head. “You may have seriously damaged the value. Tarnish is a good thing. It can be worth a lot.”
