by Tonya Kappes
“Death? Your death?” Ernest was all confused.
“I was saying that I’d rather see my own death than Debbie’s. She was a wonderful woman, and I had no reason to kill her.” I pointed to the memorial card. “I’m sure if you go to the psychic convention and talk to those people before they leave town, they might give you some insight into Debbie and her career.”
“I’ll write these down and see if my secretary will go check out the convention, but my number one priority is Zula… err… keeping you out of jail.” Ernest let it slip that he was only helping me as a favor for Granny.
Debbie Dually’s eyes grew big as she gave a couple of quick nods. Encouraging me to say something about Kate. Kate was next to her, with a look of compassion on her face.
“You know, Ernest,” I sat down next to him and put my hand on his back. “Granny is awful smitten with you, and I think you should ask her out, regardless of what happens with me.”
“She is?” Beads of sweat instantly formed along his brow line.
I reached over to the coffee table and plucked a tissue from the Kleenex box and handed it to him.
“I don’t know, Emma Lee.” He wiped the napkin all over his face. “Every time I go to ask her to go courting, I break out into a sweat. I’ve only ever done that one other time.”
“With Kate?” I asked with a slight smile on my face.
“How did you know?” His jaw opened, and his brows furrowed. “There’s no way you could’ve known I was a sweating mess for my entire married life.”
“I know Kate and you were married for a long time, and it could only be Kate that you think about and may be holding you back from dating someone like Granny.” The more I talked about him and Kate, Kate’s ghost drifted farther and farther away from Debbie.
“Go on,” Debbie Dually was rubbing her hands together. “Go in for the big kill.”
“I think Kate would want you to have some companionship. That’s all.” I patted his back. “You don’t have to date Granny or even marry her, just go to supper every once in a while or maybe watch a movie.”
“He hates movies,” Debbie blurted out. “He loves to bake.”
“Maybe not a movie. Granny can’t sit still for that long.” I smiled, hoping it was a good cover. “You know, I’m not sure how you feel about cooking or baking.”
“Baking?” He interrupted me. “Oh, I love baking.”
I fanned my hands out in front of me.
“Perfect. Granny loves the kitchen, and she’s always cooking and baking. I bet if you have some amazing recipe, she’d love to feature it in the diner.” I nodded with raised brows.
“I do make some really good lemon squares.” His face was lit up. “Kate loved them.”
“Maybe you should keep the part about how Kate loved them to yourself.” It was merely a suggestion because Granny would want Ernest all to herself and not have to share with his deceased wife.
“Good idea. Geez, Emma Lee.” He grabbed his cell phone out of his briefcase. “I think I’ll ask Zula right now.”
“She’s at the funeral, remember?” I reminded him. “She’s there because I’m here to answer any questions you need to ask me about Debbie Dually.”
There was a little ruckus in the corner of the room between Debbie and Kate. When I looked up, Kate was barely visible. She blew a kiss Ernest’s way.
He lifted his face and set his eyes on the corner, though I was sure he couldn’t see her. He lifted his hand to his cheek.
“I think Kate would approve of some companionship with Zula.” Ernest grinned.
Chapter Nine
Debbie didn’t stick around for the questioning after Kate had slipped away upon finding her peace in the afterlife. Then Ernest realized Granny just might be a catch, and he should ask her out.
In fact, he didn’t even wait for me to leave the room when Granny had gotten back to the Inn from the funeral procession. He asked her if they could have a baking date, and she jumped at it.
That was my cue to hightail it out of there and get home. I had a big day ahead of me tomorrow and was ready to hit the sack.
Instead of crossing over the town square to walk back to the funeral home, I took the long way around and walked Main Street.
Doc Clyde’s office was in the first building, followed by Higher Ground Café. There were small picket fences between the coffee shop and the courthouse. The courthouse was the tallest building in the Sleepy Hollow downtown area and right in the middle of Main Street.
Dong, dong, dong!
I practically jumped out of my skin when the courthouse clock dinged nine times, signaling it was nine p.m. I hurried past, knowing Sleepy Hollow would soon be in full darkness and ready for the night slumber. The crickets had started to rub their legs, the tree frogs were singing their songs, and the fireflies had already started to flutter about, making it appear as if twinkling lights were all over the mountainous background.
I hurried past the courthouse and noticed a sale on steaks in the window of Artie’s Meat and Deli, which reminded me to see when Jack Henry was going to be off work so I could fix him a romantic supper. When I turned up the street to head toward Eternal Slumber, I noticed Girl’s Best Friend Spa still had lights on.
My curiosity got to me, knowing that Mary Anna Hardy was going to snoop around to see what she’d heard about Debbie Dually’s death and how everyone thought I was involved, so I decided to walk past the street the funeral home was on to go the spa.
Mary Anna was sweeping up hair when I looked through the window. When I tapped on it, she saw me and waved me in.
“Why are you here so late?” I asked.
“You know me. Purdy Ford’s funeral was smack-dab in the middle of people’s appointments after work. They didn’t want to miss their weekly blowouts.” She talked with her hands and chomped on her gum. “I told them to come on in after the funeral, and I’d get them in.” She sighed. “Where you going this time of the night?”
The Girl’s Best Friend Spa was the typical small-town hair salon.
“I was at the Inn and heading back home for some much-needed shut-eye,” I said right before Fluggie Callahan emerged from the bathroom.
Her fanny pack was clipped around her waist. She wore a long-sleeved white tee that was tucked into her pants, which were about three inches too short and pulled plumb up to her armpits. She had on a pair of white tennis shoes and a camera around her neck. Her usual outfit.
“Well, well. Just the person I wanted to see.” An evil grin crept up on her face. “I’m surprised you came in here with my car parked right outside.”
I turned around and looked out the window at her beat-up wood-paneled station wagon parked in front of Girl’s Best Friend Spa. I wanted to kick my own self in the butt because I wouldn’t have come in if I’d seen it.
“What happened to your eyelashes?” I blurted out a question that wasn’t filled with manners. Her white lashes were now black, making her look completely different.
“You like?” She came towards me with her eyes wide open for me to get a good look. She took her big glasses off her face and rotated her chin left, then right, then left again. “I had them dyed.”
Mary Anna obviously didn’t touch Fluggie’s hair. Her sandy-blond hair was pulled up in the normal scrunchie-and-bobby-pins look she always seemed to be going for. I wondered why she didn’t dye her lashes to match her hair.
“Let’s not fuss about appearances. You know I’m not one to make a big deal out of how I look.” She unzipped her fanny pack and took out her notebook. “Do you have a statement for the Sleepy Hollow News on the murder of Debbie Dually?”
“Fluggie Callahan, I’d be ashamed.” Mary Anna was quick to come to my rescue. She said a few things, but Debbie Dually had ghosted in, and what she had to say caught my attention.
“A regular.” Debbie sighed and floated around Fluggie. “Never really did what I told her was in her future.”
I practically gasped when I hear
d Debbie say that Fluggie was a client.
“What did you want to know about her? You were a client of Debbie’s, weren’t you?” I gave Fluggie the back-off look when I’d noticed her stiffen.
“I went to see her once,” Fluggie protested.
“Once a week,” Debbie snorted. “Like a lot of regulars.”
“Yes. You went to see Debbie Dually once a week.” I snapped my fingers. “But you didn’t do what she’d suggested.” I grabbed Fluggie and gave her a huge hug. I let go and left her standing there speechless. “Thank you, Fluggie!” I yelled over my shoulder on my way back out the door. “Mary Anna, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
I practically ran down all the way back to Eternal Slumber, not alone.
“What on earth was that about?” Debbie swept in front of me and behind me.
“You said you had regulars. Fluggie didn’t do what you suggested. Why? Did she not like what you had to say?” The answers to the questions didn’t matter. What mattered were the clients’ responses to what Debbie had told them. “Did you make them mad? Mad enough to murder you?”
“I…” Debbie appeared to have stumbled over her thoughts. “I guess some could be mad. I mean, I do have the one guy, though he’s not a client, but his wife was.”
“Yes. I heard about him through Mazie. David told her. That guy could be your killer. What did you say to his wife?” I asked and walked down the driveway on the far side of the funeral home where the entrance to my apartment was located.
After my sister Charlotte and I had taken over Eternal Slumber from Granny, Charlotte had a house to live in, but I didn’t. We’d redecorated and did a little construction in the back of the first floor to create a small apartment. It was nothing fancy. A bedroom with a small kitchenette and a family room with just a couch and TV.
When I unlocked the door, I thought I was alone. I threw my keys on the small table right inside and heard the TV. The family room was on the left, and my bedroom was on the right.
“Where have you been?” Jack Henry had one arm over the back of the couch and had turned over it to look at me. “I called Zula when you didn’t answer my text, and she said you’d left a while ago.”
“You aren’t going to believe this, but Fluggie Callahan was a regular of Debbie’s. Like once a week.” I walked around the couch and sat next to him, letting him wrap me up in his big arms. “Not only that, but Debbie had a customer who she must’ve told something very important. The customer’s husband has been stalking Debbie ever since. There’s a record of the police being called.” As I talked, I could see the look on Jack Henry’s face start to change. There was some jaw clenching and eye twitching that told me what was coming, but I still continued to talk. “David said there are phone messages on Debbie’s answering machine and everything. That’s a motive if I’ve ever heard one. Plus, she’s got regulars like Fluggie who don’t take her advice. What if one of them killed her because they didn’t like what she said?”
That must’ve been the straw that broke the camel’s back for Jack Henry. He slowly uncurled his arms from around me and scooted a little away from me, getting a good straight-on look at me.
“Emma Lee, I know you need her to cross over, and all of these are great leads, but I can’t let you go investigate all of this. It needs to be turned over to Trevor.” Jack Henry had lost his marbles. “You need to stay far away from everything and everyone. I stopped by to see Trevor, and he told me he was keeping a close eye on you because Beulah Paige told him you liked to do your own snooping in other cases.”
“That…” I had to bite my tongue not to curse her. “You know me. You know I’m not going to sit in this funeral home and work on Peter Shelton’s funeral that’s not for two days.”
Poor guy. He’d been sitting on ice for three days already. He died of old age, but his family was scattered all over the states, and they were all coming, so that meant we couldn’t get Peter’s body in the ground until they all came in for the funeral.
“About that.” Jack Henry scooted to the edge of the couch and clasped his hands in between his legs. “The Shelton family had him moved to Burns while Purdy’s funeral procession was on to the cemetery.”
“They what?” I jumped to my feet. “I was going to use that money to pay for Ernest Peabody’s fees.” I started to pace back and forth. “I bet this was all Bea Allen Burns’s fault,” I said through my gritted teeth.
“Calm down. We will get through this.” Jack Henry didn’t sound so sure, but those were the only hopeful words he had. “The Fenwicks and Pastor Brown also left notes saying they were going to change their preneed arrangements.”
He didn’t need to know, but I was going to go see Bea Allen at some point tomorrow. She was deliberately using this little murder rap to steal my business from me, and I was going to stop her, no matter the cost.
It was then and there that I knew I had to keep any and all information about Debbie’s killer and my investigation from Jack Henry. He might not be the sheriff of Sleepy Hollow anymore, but he was still going to play by the book. That wasn’t how I got the murders of my Betweener clients solved. It definitely wasn’t how I was going to get Debbie’s solved with me being the one under the magnifying glass.
Chapter Ten
The alarm went off way too early. Normally, I’d hit the snooze button a few times before I got out of bed, but not today! Being the number-one suspect in a murder investigation and really wanting to get out of town to gather more clues for your case were motivation to get up.
Plus, Mazie was already standing at my door with a cup of coffee in hand.
“Bea Allen is sabotaging Eternal Slumber,” I groaned in the passenger seat of Mazie’s car when we passed Burns Funeral on our way to Lexington.
I was happy to accept her offer to drive. It was hard to be in disguise when you drove a hearse. There was no way I wanted to attract any attention to myself at the psychic convention.
“She’s gotten so ruthless since she moved back. They keep trying to get her to join the Auxiliary, and I keep voting her down.” Mazie was good at driving with one hand and drinking her coffee with the other. “It’s a unanimous and anonymous voting system.”
“No wonder they never want to let me in.” I took a drink of the coffee. “I’m sure it’s Beulah who votes me out,” I laughed. “Though I was close to getting in after my trial period.”
“Really it’s just a big gossip session.” She didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know because I’d been the brunt of their gossip circle many times. “What’s our plan today?”
“I want to check out a list of psychics at the convention. Debbie gave me a few names, and she said they would be good ones that might not like her too much.” I’d not seen Debbie since last night. “I don’t have any solid facts about them. I wanted to ask Debbie about each of them, but when I got home last night, Jack Henry was there, and he’s not wanting me to snoop since I’m a suspect.”
“That’s why you should snoop.” Mazie and I had the same thoughts.
There was a lot more chitchat on our forty-five-minute drive to Lexington about different things. We changed from subject to subject. It was nice to finally have a friend I could just talk to.
“Where’s the list?” Mazie drove around the parking lot of the convention center until she finally found a parking spot in the very last row.
I dug into my purse to pull out Purdy’s memorial card.
“I think we should split up the names and find them on our own. And I’ll run them through my library database.” She ripped the memorial card in half, giving me Goddess Jillian and Mystic Mervin. She took Warrioress Roma and Angela Ariel. “These names,” Mazie giggled and unhooked the seat belt.
“I can’t get over how busy this place is already.” I noted the time as exactly seven a.m., opening time. There was a line out the door and around the building as the crowd trickled in the entrance. “Oh!” I jumped with excitement. “I almost forgot to tell you how Debbie
told me Fluggie Callahan was a regular client.”
“Shut up!” Mazie smiled so big. “That’s awesome. You can totally use this little bit of information against her.”
“Against her?” I asked. My gut knotted at the sound of it.
“Yeah. She hurried into the library last night.” Mazie rubbed her eyebrows. “Wait until you see what she did to her lashes.”
“I did see.” Fluggie must’ve gone straight to the library after I left Girl’s Best Friend Spa. “What time did she stop by?” I asked.
“It was nine-something. I was putting away all the carts of books gathered throughout the day to get the library ready for this morning, and she said she needed to use the research computer.” Mazie gave a sly grin and slanted a brow. “Of course I headed straight over to the computer when she left and checked out the history.”
“Mazie, I love you,” I gushed and squeezed her forearm.
“You think people would be smarter than that and erase any sort of searching they do on a public computer, but they don’t.” Mazie shook her head and got her money out as we got to the front of the line to buy our tickets at the ticket window.
“And?” I asked, holding up one finger so the attendant behind the window would charge me for one ticket.
“She looked up Debbie and traced back to Debbie’s roots.” She dug deep in her purse, nearly tripping over her feet when we pushed through the turnstile to enter the convention center. She pulled out some folded papers. “I printed them for you. Debbie Barnett was a transplant from New Orleans where she was born and raised. She married a guy with the last name of Dually, but they weren’t married but three months. I’m not sure what happened, but there’s a divorce decree in there that doesn’t look like it was finalized. It’s got all his information on there, but I didn’t bother looking him up.”
I stepped out of the way of the entrance to take a look at the papers Mazie had given me. Not finalized? This was a bit of interesting news that I’d be sure to ask Debbie once she appeared.