The Bead Seller

by Wendy Meadows

  “I have nothing to tell you, but I’ll go down and answer to the best of my ability.”

  “If you have someplace to park your cart, I can give you a ride.”

  She shook her head. “I’ll make my way down there if you will give me twenty minutes or so. Can you promise me I’m not being tricked into getting arrested for trying to make a few cents?”

  “I promise that won’t happen.”

  Brenda and Phyllis waited in Mac’s office for Grace. She told him that Ms. Baker stated she saw nothing, but Brenda thought she was hiding knowledge of the crime.

  “I promised her she wouldn’t be harassed for selling her beads. I do think she saw something or perhaps she had something to do with the murder.”

  Mac’s eyes opened wide. “What motive would someone like that have to murder Kelly Reed?”

  “I don’t know,” Brenda said. “Maybe she knew her from somewhere. It’s still mysterious to me why she came to the bed and breakfast to peddle to the troupe. She may have known that Kelly was there.”

  “You said she left right away when you asked her to.” Mac got into his vein of playing the devil’s advocate, a role Brenda came to expect from him. “And you said she left peacefully.”

  “All of that is true but she is hiding something, and you’ll notice that too, Mac, when she gets here.”

  Brenda glanced at her watch and wondered if the eccentric woman would keep her promise. She heard the clicking of the cart wheels on the tiled floor of the waiting area. The clerk rang Mac’s office and told him someone was there to see him. Brenda went out and greeted Grace Baker and showed her into the office.

  “This is Detective Rivers,” Brenda said. “I hope you had time to recall something on your way over here. We know you were on the beach when the acting troupe took a break down there. Did you see anyone who may have acted aggressively in any way toward the woman who was killed?”

  Grace’s eyes shot open. “I didn’t know she died there. I saw someone checking her over and was sure she got up. I turned around and started back to the old fishing hut where I sometimes sleep.”

  Mac asked for the approximate distance from the scene to the hut. Grace stated there were three huts between but couldn’t calculate exact distance. “The others get used but the one I found hasn’t been used for a long time. I have to sleep somewhere.” She fingered the longest rope necklace and a soft sound of shells rubbing together permeated the pause. “I had no idea she died.”

  “Did you hear words before it happened?” Brenda asked.

  The bead seller pressed fingers against her forehead. “There was a lot of arguing down there. That’s one reason I started to leave. I don’t like an invasion of the peaceful environment.” Mac pressed for details. “I heard and saw the pretty woman yelling at the handsome man. She looked like a goddess from the sea itself. Her words were bitter, and I got the impression she didn’t like the woman standing by herself observing the beautiful ocean. That one looked like she just wanted it all to stop.”

  Grace had nothing else to say for the moment. Perhaps she could convince them that she left before she saw anything happen, but it was too late for that. She already told them she thought the woman was alive, so they would know she had more information.

  Brenda rested her hand lightly on the bead seller’s right arm when she noticed the shudder. “Can I get you something to drink? I’m sure there is hot tea or coffee, or perhaps a cold drink?”

  “A drink of cold water would be fine,” Grace said. Brenda left to get it for her.

  Phyllis felt mesmerized with the woman, who seemed to withdraw from her and Mac. She probably would have curled up into a ball if possible, Phyllis thought. Mac sensed what Brenda had promised him. Without a doubt, this woman saw the crime that unfolded before her eyes. He was sure Grace Baker knew the actress died at the scene.

  “Miss Baker,” he said, “you stated you thought the woman was alive when someone bent over her. Did you see her get up and walk away?”

  Grace nodded several times. She took the glass of ice water from Brenda and thanked her.

  “How could a dead person get up and walk away?” Mac held his eyes on the bead seller. “Did you have anything to do with her murder?”

  Her hands clenched the cold glass until Brenda feared she would break it in half. “I didn’t kill anyone. I can’t say anything else.” Her hands shook when she attempted to set the glass on the edge of Mac’s desk. “I have nothing else to tell you because I don’t know anything else.”

  Brenda couldn’t let her go yet. They may never get her back. She could easily return to wherever she came from in the first place.

  “Will you go with me back to the beach now? I want to see where you spend some of your nights.” Grace hesitated. “I just need to get a fuller picture in my mind,” Brenda said. Grace finally agreed.

  Mac took Brenda aside and gave her several suggestions for more questioning of the bead seller. Phyllis took Grace to the car and reassured her they just wanted information she may have.

  “Kelly Reed was well liked,” Phyllis said. “Everyone wants to find whoever killed her. No one believes you had anything to do with it, but I do hope you tell Brenda all you know.”

  Grace thought about her words. She feared for her life if she told everything she witnessed that night. The graceful woman who slumped so easily to the ground had plagued her day and night since the incident. The eyes that looked her way would never be forgotten. She wasn’t sure if the killer saw her or not, but she couldn’t take chances. The dilemma whether to tell everything or not was an impossible one to come to terms with.

  Detective Bryce Jones joined Mac after the women left. He laid out several folders.

  “The one on top belongs to the psychic staying at Sheffield. There are handwritten notes you may be interested in. The other folders came from Rocky Masters’ room and that information concerns business dealings he has. I noticed some are legal papers as if in preparation to present to a court or to a lawyer, possibly. And this is a diary kept by Carol Morgan. I thumbed through it briefly. It’s mostly about her troubles at home.” Bryce shuffled to the bottom of the pile. “This envelope contains a contract that was taken from Kathryn Parker’s room.”

  Mac opened it and read through the two-page contract. It looked as if the failing actress was given a lead role at last. There was no specific play indicated but apparently the next one that came along would be hers. No other actors were mentioned, and Mac wondered if Kathryn was meant to replace Kelly Reed in leading roles.

  “Are there names on any of the business papers from Rocky’s room other than his?”

  Bryce opened the folder he felt was important and pushed it toward Mac. Rocky Masters was listed as co-owner of a culinary business named R & M Culinary School.

  “Keep going, Mac, and you will see in the following pages a possible connection in the murder of Kelly Reed.”

  After a few minutes, the lead detective leaned back in his chair and gave a low whistle. “Let’s get back to the bed and breakfast. I’ll go ahead while you gather at least four officers. I want to get there before the guests leave.”

  Mac arrived just in time to see Jeffrey slam the trunk lid of their rental car. Tiana settled into the front seat. Mac told them to both get out and come back inside. The troupe arrived in time to see several patrol cars speed up the driveway. All guests were halted at the front door and told they could either go to their rooms or into the sitting room.

  “Wait until further notice,” Bryce said. “No one is to leave before we say you can.”

  Mac called Brenda on her cell phone and told her to gather as much as possible from Grace Baker and head back to the bed and breakfast. He told her about the discoveries he and Bryce made about some of their guests.

  “You can tell Grace Baker that she has nothing to fear and tell her why. It should make her tell everything she knows.”

  Keith sat next to Kathryn in the sitting room. Tiana and Jeffrey joine
d them. Tiana said nothing, but Jeffrey expressed disappointment that they weren’t allowed to leave as planned. Kathryn smirked.

  “Maybe they suspect you of killing Kelly. Isn’t that why we’re all stuck here?”

  “We certainly didn’t kill her,” Tiana said.

  “As a psychic, you must know who did it,” Keith said.

  “I’ve been so rattled over the entire matter I can’t begin to read into any of it.”

  “Maybe that’s because you aren’t a real psychic. You read me wrong for sure,” Kathryn said. “I think my day is coming when I’ll have the lead role I deserve in a play.”

  Jeffrey and Keith stared at her. Both wondered if they sat with a killer but had no comment. Jeffrey edged closer to Tiana and patted her arm. He hoped their ordeal would end soon so they could finally put the entire weekend in the past.

  Down on the sandy shoreline, Brenda, Phyllis and Grace passed the third hut and arrived at a fourth one that was as Grace told them. It was in need of drastic repair. A few shells rested in a pile next to the dilapidated door. A small three-legged stool was set to the right of the cluster.

  “I often sit there and thread the shells or beads. The ocean sounds are soothing, and I do better work here.” Brenda passed Mac’s message to her and told her why she could now talk freely about the night she witnessed the murder of the actress.

  The woman looked around sorrowfully before she began to speak. “I have a good sense when it comes to reading people. I’m no psychic like that woman proclaims she is. She showed her true colors that night, faking her abilities. I can look at someone and know if they are good or not. It’s like I knew right away when I came into your bed and breakfast and saw you and that young girl behind the desk. Both of you are genuine people and I knew that right away.” Brenda waited for her to move on to the matter at hand. “Take that porcelain-faced woman who argued with that nice man. She’s self-centered and has no regard for anyone other than herself. I saw deep sadness in the man. He looked at the woman watching the sea and I observed sadness in him. It was as if he lost something or someone precious to him.”

  Phyllis and Brenda exchanged quick glances. Brenda realized to get to the real meat of the issue, she must hear the woman out. Perhaps her insight would be pertinent in more ways than one. Phyllis hoped she would hurry the story along.

  “I think you read those personalities correctly,” Brenda said.

  “There were two men I didn’t trust at all,” Grace said. “The one named Rocky…he was arrogant. He was definitely unhappy to be with the rest and I think he was ready to stomp off and leave them. I saw anger in him. He turned and came back to listen to the argument the porcelain one had with the sad man. She was the one who asked him, if the dreamy woman was dead, would he come back to her. I could tell she wanted to kill the other girl, but others were there and that was impossible, wasn’t it?”

  “Who else didn’t you trust?” Phyllis asked.

  “There was one man I believe I heard called Keith or Kevin, perhaps. He definitely acted like he felt sorry for the dreamy woman, but he didn’t care about any of them. I’ve heard over the years that actors and actresses have big egos and generally don’t get along well with one another in the best or the worst of times.”

  The bead seller picked up a dry piece of reed on the floor and swished it back and forth as if searching for more shells. She looked at Brenda. “You are a patient woman. I felt it important to give you my observations. That woman who claims to have psychic powers doesn’t at all. She is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And, she is in love with that angry one who started to leave the others and changed his mind. She called him Rocky. What kind of name is that?”

  Brenda had no comment. “What exactly did you witness, Grace?”

  Tears threatened to spill from her eyelids and she wiped them away. “She was so beautiful and peaceful looking. She was glad when everyone left. I could tell in the way she swayed in her last dance on the sand. She reached for the starry sky and tossed her head back and laughed. She was happy.”

  Brenda became anxious to get back to Sheffield Bed and Breakfast, but she was too close to getting the needed information.

  “You are losing your patience now,” Grace said. “I don’t blame you.” She looked at the Atlantic Ocean. “I watched her for a few minutes. We were the only two down here until I heard whispers coming from over there.” She pointed to the pathway yards from where Kelly’s body was found. “I hunkered down. It was too late for me to leave. I didn’t want to be seen or heard and so I waited and watched. A man and a woman kept to the edge of the seawall and sneaked up behind her. They waited until she stopped dancing and faced the ocean again. The woman stayed in the background. I saw the man pull something from his back pocket. I wanted to cry out a warning but it all happened so fast. Besides, both of us would be dead if I had done that. The man was quick, and she didn’t even have time to struggle much. He had something long and soft around her neck…it strangled all breath from her and I only heard a few short gasps before she went completely limp.”

  Grace wiped another tear away. “Even the seagulls awakened on the sand. They knew something dreadful had happened. The woman joined the man, and both looked down at the lifeless figure. The man knelt down on one knee and felt for a pulse and found none. He looked all around the beach as if to make sure no one saw what he had done.” Grace shivered. “I was sure he looked right at me. I can’t be sure yet that he didn’t see me, but I guess if he did, he would have killed me, too.”

  “Describe the man and woman, Grace, and we’ll be finished here.”

  The three women said nothing after hearing the bead seller tell in detail the features and statures of the culprits. Brenda told Grace she could stay the night in the hut if she wanted but to not cross into the crime scene. The sorrowful woman wrapped herself up in her ratty sweater and seemed to collapse into herself. Having told her story, there was hardly anything left to the poor creature but a husk who wished to be ignored and forgotten.

  Phyllis and Brenda had no words on their way back to Sheffield Bed and Breakfast. Fatigue wrapped Phyllis’s body when she saw William sitting on the top step of the bed and breakfast. She flew into his arms.

  “There are plenty of officers around the entrances, Brenda. I’ll stay out here with Phyllis for a while.” William pulled his wife closer and Brenda walked inside.

  She took Mac and Bryce into the small alcove and told them what their star witness had seen firsthand.

  Chapter 8

  Webs Woven

  Kathryn stood up and glared at Keith. “I think you are the one who did it. You didn’t like Kelly any more than I did. Neither of us deserved lowly roles while she got the good ones. Scott lorded over you, Keith, didn’t he?”

  Jeffrey stood abruptly. “Stop all the accusing. No one in this room is a murderer. The police will get to the bottom of it. In fact, I think they already have proof of who did it.” Kathryn stopped in her tracks and asked what made him so sure. “It stands to reason. Why else are there so many cops around here right now? They know who did it and will soon have an arrest and we can all be on our way again. It was one of us staying here, since the beach was empty except for a few of us.”

  Dr. Arthur Walker walked into the room. “I’m all packed up. I hope this comes to an end soon. I plan to enjoy my week before we get on the road again.” Arthur acted as if he was joining nothing more than a lively party underway in the sitting room. Everyone looked at him in shock, but he did not seem to register their expressions. He poured a glass of iced tea from the sideboard and asked if anyone wanted something to drink. All declined.

  “You don’t seem too worried, Arthur,” Keith said.

  “I have nothing to worry about at all. Only the one who committed the murder should be concerned, and it’s not me.”

  Upstairs, Rocky sat in his room and thought about the contracts and other papers he brought to go over for the last time before heading to court to take back w
hat was rightfully his. When he had been told they were taken as evidence and were being held at the precinct, he became angry. Detective Rivers told him they were part of the investigation and he would have them back in time for his court hearing in two weeks’ time in New York.

  This didn’t satisfy Rocky. He hated traveling with the simpering cast members who bickered with one another constantly. He looked out the window and watched several birds helping themselves at bird feeders along the pathway gardens. The little birds sniped and pecked at each other, trying to get the best morsels for themselves and keep every rival bird away from the choicest seeds. He saw the beautiful little birds were exactly like the greedy actors.

  When he booked the troupe for this stay, Rocky convinced them Sheffield Bed and Breakfast was the perfect hotel for them while in Sweetfern Harbor. Jeffrey mentioned the other historic hotel at the edge of town but Rocky persuaded them, stating Sheffield served top-notch food. He had been a well-known chef, and everyone bowed to his culinary tastes, and they certainly weren’t disappointed. But even the food and the surroundings could not make up for what a sorry bunch of strivers they all were. And it had ended in murder. It boiled his blood and he steamed as he paced his room in silence.

  Downstairs, Tiana walked a few steps away from the others. “I think I’ll take a walk if they’ll allow me outside,” she said. Jeffrey offered to accompany her, but she declined.

  Mac came from the passageway and told her no one was allowed outside. “Please wait somewhere inside. We won’t be much longer.” Tiana looked disheartened but returned to her seat, sipping at a glass of iced tea.

  The detective approached the nearby officer. He told him to stick near the people in the sitting room. It bothered Mac that most of them seemed more eager to escape than to mourn the loss of a fellow actor who had met her tragic death.