Orange Thyme Death

by Leena Clover

  “You do that,” Anna nodded.

  “What are your plans for the day? Aren’t you going to open the bookstore?”

  “The cleaning crew isn’t done yet,” Anna replied. “And the workmen are doing some last minute stuff in the café portion.”

  “So you can join me and Aunt Mary?”

  “Actually, I made some other plans.”

  Cassie frowned, giving Anna a suspicious look.

  “What could be more important than this, Mom? Don’t you realize how serious this is? The police might arrest you any moment.”

  “You’re stressing too much,” Anna dismissed.

  Cassie poured a little syrup over the last remaining piece of pancake and speared it with her fork.

  “What are you hiding, Mom?” Her face crumpled suddenly and she looked at Anna in dismay. “Are you feeling alright? Do we need to go to the doctor?”

  “I just had a doctor’s appointment, thank you very much. And what have I told you about coddling me, Cassie?”

  “I worry about you, Mom. We all do. Now tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Nothing!” Anna snapped. “Meg’s coming here for breakfast. We are going out after that.”

  Cassie felt a stab of jealousy.

  “Out?”

  “I’m taking her shopping, okay? We might drive to some outlet malls or go up to San Francisco.”

  Cassie realized they had planned a whole day without her. But she couldn’t really blame them after the cold reception she had given Meg.

  “Sorry I asked!”

  “I just want to spend some time with my granddaughter.”

  “I hope you enjoy yourself, Mom. I mean it.”

  Cassie went to her room and dialed Mary’s number. Mary appeared thrilled to hear from her.

  “Aren’t you going to San Francisco?”

  So the Firecrackers already knew about Anna and Meg’s impending trip, Cassie realized.

  “I have bigger fish to fry, Aunt Mary. You are friends with that medical examiner, aren’t you?”

  “You mean Rory Cunningham? He’s more my husband’s friend than mine.”

  “You think you can pick his brain?”

  Cassie explained what she wanted to know.

  “I don’t know, Cassie. He’s a busy man.”

  “Mom says he’s partial to your banana cream pie.”

  “Are you putting me to work, young lady?”

  Cassie knew Mary was just kidding. She would gladly bend over backwards if it meant helping Anna.

  “Why don’t we all meet for lunch at the Tipsy Whale?” Cassie suggested. “The man’s gotta eat, right?”

  Mary promised to get back to Cassie and hung up.

  Cassie heard some voices out in the kitchen and figured Meg must have arrived while she was on the phone. She curbed her curiosity and stayed in her room. Anna knocked on her door a while later to tell her they were leaving.

  “Drive safely, and bring me some salt water taffy from Fisherman’s Wharf.”

  Cassie waited until she heard the front door close. She gave them a few more minutes before venturing out in the living room. Mary called to confirm their lunch appointment.

  Cassie had a couple of hours on her hands. She changed into her bikini and headed out to the pool. Twenty laps later, the clanging in her head still hadn’t abated. Cassie settled into her favorite cabana and wondered if Gino had made any progress running a background check on Meg. Was it too early to ask him for an update?

  The phone rang and Cassie’s face finally broke into a smile.

  “Hola Bobbykins,” she crooned. “You’re just what I need right now.”

  Bobby looked lean and mean, fresh out of the shower.

  “One of my clients cancelled at the last minute. I’m free for the next thirty minutes.”

  Bobby had stuck with Cassie through some pretty bad times. She trusted him more than either of her ex-husbands. Tears welled up in her eyes as she stared at the familiar face on the screen.

  “What’s the matter, babe?”

  “You’ll never guess what has happened.” Cassie wiped her face with the back of her hand. “I need you here, Bobby. I can’t talk about this on the phone.”

  “Is the IRS bothering you again, Cass? I thought you made a deal with them?”

  Cassie’s tears were flowing freely.

  “You’re scaring me now, Cassie. Get a hold of yourself.”

  Cassie had kept her secret for twenty years. There was only one person she had trusted with it, only one person who had held her hand through long sleepless nights when she questioned the decision she had made as a child.

  “I don’t know what to do, Bobby. Will you please help me?”

  “Hang on! I’m taking the next flight out. Just hang on, sweetie.”

  Cassie hung up, thankful she had a friend she could count on. She needed to talk to someone about Meg, someone who wasn’t related to the young girl who was supposed to be her biological daughter.

  Chapter 11

  Meg walked on the beach, thinking about the last few days of her life.

  Things had moved fast and she was still reeling a bit from the recent developments. When she set off on her trip to California, she had warned herself not to have high hopes. Shuffled from one foster home to another all her life, Meg was used to life letting her down. Getting adopted at sixteen had been the one good thing that happened to her. It had restored her faith in humanity.

  Meg didn’t know exactly when she had decided to go find her birth parents or why. What did she hope to achieve by meeting someone who had given her away? But her adoptive parents had encouraged her. Her therapist had encouraged her. They thought it would give her the closure she needed to get on with her life. So Meg started her research. She added her name to certain online databases and searched websites that promised to unite adopted kids with their birth parents. She had struck gold a few months in.

  Meg had seen Anna’s message on one of the websites and decided to come watch her from a distance. Anna’s enthusiasm and warmth had bowled her over. Maybe grandmothers were like that.

  She was less sure about Cassie. Meg sensed her hesitation but she didn’t blame her. Cassie had seemed like a cool person when she ran into her at the local university. She looked so young. Meg had been shocked when she learned Cassie was her birth mother.

  Meg spotted a surf board embedded in the sand and walked toward it. Dolphin Bay had a well kept secret. Surf enthusiasts flocked to the small beach where the waves were big and the crowds small. Meg had spotted a flyer for surfing lessons at the Yellow Tulip Diner and signed up.

  Two girls were standing near the surf board. One of them waved at Meg.

  “Hello! Are you here for your lesson?”

  Meg nodded, feeling a slight apprehension. Raised in the Midwest, she wasn’t really a water baby.

  “I think this was a mistake,” she said. “Can I cancel now?”

  The girl laughed and patted her arm.

  “Don’t be scared. You’ll be riding those waves before you know it.” She nodded at the other girl. “Ask her.”

  Meg couldn’t stop staring at the tall, brown haired beautiful young girl. They were about the same age but she possessed a sophistication Meg found sorely lacking in herself. The girl surprised her by greeting her with a quick hug.

  “Hi. I’m Ashley. I’m new to surfing too. This is just my third lesson and I’m having a blast. Trust me, you are going to love it.”

  Meg had to agree after a while. She barely noticed when the hour was up. She was already paddling out in the water and standing up on the board by herself.

  “Aren’t you starving?” Ashley exclaimed. “Do you want to grab some lunch?”

  The surfing instructor recommended a small shack half a mile down the beach.

  “They are not fancy, but they do a mean fish and chips.”

  They thanked the instructor and set off toward the shack. Ashley chattered nonstop about how great everything was. The sky
was a super shade of blue, the ocean was a beautiful turquoise, the waves were just right, and the water was awesome, neither too hot, nor too cold. Meg thought she was a very positive kind of person.

  After a few minutes, Meg tuned Ashley out and thought of her shopping trip with Anna. They had driven into San Francisco the previous day and done a few touristy things. She had been tongue tied at first, not sure what Anna wanted to talk about. But Anna had coaxed her into opening up and speaking her mind. Anna had made it very clear how happy she was to have Meg in her life.

  “I’m not letting you go now, not after it took me twenty years to find you.”

  Did that mean she had been searching for Meg all this time?

  “We’re here,” Ashley’s voice echoed in her ear. “Hello! You look lost. What are you thinking about, Meg? Is it some hot guy you met in town?”

  Meg cracked a smile at that. Dating was the farthest thing on her mind right now.

  The menu was simple. Beer battered fish, hand cut fries and coleslaw with blackberry cobbler for dessert. There were a few canisters of seasoning on the rustic wooden table. The server told them it was a choice of paprika, Cajun seasoning or Italian herbs.

  Ashley grabbed the container of Cajun seasoning and sprinkled it liberally over her fish and fries. She dipped the fish in the garlic aioli and took a healthy bite. Meg watched in fascination as the young girl closed her eyes and moaned in delight.

  “This is so good!”

  Meg took a tentative bite. She was more of a meatloaf kind of girl.

  “So, where are you from?” Ashley asked. “You don’t look like a native.”

  “I grew up in the Midwest,” Meg nodded. “Far away from the ocean.”

  “What brings you to our shores?”

  “I took a gap year after high school. Thought I would see a bit of my country before heading off to college.”

  “Lucky you,” Ashley said, licking the creamy aioli off her fingers. “I can’t even think of college.”

  “You don’t like books?” Meg asked tentatively.

  “Music is my jam!” Ashley laughed. “When I was a kid, I dreamed of going to Juilliard. That’s a big music school in New York.”

  “Were you that good?”

  “I thought so,” Ashley said without guile. “I was putting in the work.”

  “What happened?”

  Ashley shrugged. Her eyes had hardened. Meg was surprised at the sudden change she saw come over her.

  “My father died when I was 12. Life just went downhill after that.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Meg said, feeling uncomfortable. “What about your mom?”

  Ashley sighed.

  “She worked herself to death, poor thing. But it wasn’t enough. By the time I was fourteen, I was working two jobs. School was never a priority.”

  “I was lucky that way,” Meg confessed. “I was a bad student but my parents encouraged me every step of the way. They hired special tutors so I could graduate high school.”

  “They sound like keepers.”

  “Best thing that happened to me,” Meg nodded, realizing how true that was.

  She wasn’t planning on telling this stranger the whole story. But her adoptive parents had literally changed her life.

  “It’s a different kind of love, isn’t it?” Ashley said wistfully. “What you feel for your parents? You would do anything for them.”

  Meg nodded but didn’t say a word.

  Her life was too complicated at present. Cassie was her mother but she had no idea how she felt about her. She certainly didn’t love her. Or did she? Should she? Was there some kind of eternal bond between them, forged by spending nine months in her womb?

  “Do you live in Dolphin Bay?” she asked Ashley, shaking off her melancholy thoughts.

  “Oh no!” Ashley said, popping the last piece of fish in her mouth. “I’m a visitor, just like you. I’m familiar with the area though. I grew up a hundred miles down the coast, in Monterey.”

  “And you are just learning surfing?”

  “Kayaking’s more my thing. And honestly, I have been too busy working my butt off.”

  Meg remarked on what a coincidence it was that they had both opted for a surfing lesson that day.

  “Kismet!” Ashley said, drawing a line across her forehead. “Fate, you know. But now that I’ve met you, I’m not letting you off. You better add me to your friends list.”

  “I’d like that,” Meg said shyly.

  “So what do you do when you are not taking surfing lessons?”

  “I have a job at the local bookstore.”

  “I think I know the place. I went there a couple of days ago. Are they renovating or something?”

  Meg told her about the upcoming café.

  “I can’t cook to save my life.”

  Meg assured her she wouldn’t be doing any cooking either. The girls chatted for a while more, devoured the blackberry cobbler and said goodbye to each other after exchanging phone numbers and Instagram handles.

  Meg walked home, wondering if she should look in on Anna. They had planned to try on all the clothes they had bought on their shopping spree. Meg wondered where Cassie was. She didn’t always get a positive vibe from her. Although they had declared an unspoken truce for Anna’s sake, Meg was a bit wary of the woman.

  Meg chided herself for thinking harshly of her own mother. She needed to give her some time to come around. Meg wasn’t sure how she was supposed to behave until Cassie appeared to thaw a bit.

  Would Cassie allow her to get close to Anna?

  Chapter 12

  Anna Butler was happy. Her trip to San Francisco with Meg had turned out to be better than she expected. They had both had a good time. At least she thought so if she was any judge of character. They had come home weighed down with shopping bags, pleasantly tired from their day out. Anna had urged Meg to stay for dinner and ordered pizza. Cassie had taken her plate to her room.

  Anna was having a leisurely day. She had been walking on air all morning. She had started baking as soon as breakfast was over. Her orange thyme cupcakes had passed her exacting standards. They were going to be a big hit when the café opened.

  “What are you doing at home, Mom?” Cassie asked as she came in from the patio.

  She had spent the morning sunning herself by the pool. Anna gave her an indulgent look.

  “Are you hungry? I haven’t thought of lunch yet.”

  “Do we have any leftovers? I don’t feel like going out to the pub or diner.”

  “There’s some soup,” Anna said. “But I’m not sure it will be enough for all of us.”

  “All of us?” Cassie frowned.

  “Meg said she might swing by.”

  “Wasn’t she here yesterday?”

  Anna put down the pastry bag she was holding and glared at Cassie.

  “So what? She can come here as often as she likes. I invited her.”

  “I think you should be a bit cautious, Mom.”

  “She is not going to pick my wallet, Cassie. Have some faith.”

  “What about your heart, Mom? Don’t get too involved. Not until we know more about her.”

  “That again. Gino told me what you said to him. Going behind my back! I don’t know what to do with you, Cassie.”

  “I’m just doing my due diligence. You would do the same if you hadn’t been blinded by this kid. She’s already got you wrapped around her little finger.”

  “What if she has? She’s entitled.”

  Cassie rolled her eyes and pulled out a loaf of bread and some butter from the refrigerator. She started slicing the bread viciously, refusing to look at Anna.

  “I’m making my special garlic bread. I think it should be enough along with the soup.”

  “With the fresh garlic and parsley?” Anna asked.

  Cassie nodded.

  “That’s the only kind I make.”

  “Let me get you some parsley from the garden.”

  Anna wiped her
hands on her apron and walked out. She took her time coming back. Cassie had already grated garlic into the soft butter. She chopped the fresh herbs and added them to the butter.

  “Let’s not fight, okay?” Anna said, switching on the oven while Cassie buttered the bread. “Tell me what you did yesterday.”

  “I thought you’d never ask. I met Aunt Mary and Rory Cunningham for lunch at the Tipsy Whale.”

  “Rory, the medical examiner? What was he doing having lunch with you?”

  “I wanted to pick his brain about the dead guy.”

  “Did you?” Anna held her breath.

  “Rory said this one was a bit odd. He is not really sure about the cause of death.”

  “Did he say where the man had been killed?”

  Anna wanted to know if the man had died at the bookstore or had just been dumped there.

  “It appears the man was poisoned,” Cassie explained. “But he was also hit on the head. Rory said the timing was such that it is hard to say what happened first.”

  “He must have been poisoned first,” Anna mused.

  “We don’t know that,” Cassie shrugged. “Maybe he got hurt, then ate or drank something that was poisoned.”

  “I guess that’s possible too.”

  They both looked at each other and sighed.

  “Why is everything so complicated?” Anna cried. “This doesn’t help my case, does it?”

  “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  Anna pursed her mouth and began heating the soup. It seemed like there wasn’t going to be any respite for her. Her phone dinged and her expression softened when she read the message that had come in.

  “Meg’s having lunch with someone. There’s plenty of food now, Cassie. You won’t have to share.”

  “Where is she?” Cassie asked curiously.

  “On Surfer’s Beach. Says she just made a new friend.”

  “Good for her,” Cassie said sourly.

  Anna ladled the minestrone soup into her favorite bright yellow soup bowls. She had bought them in Tuscany on a legendary trip she and John had taken to Europe.

  Cassie placed the garlic bread on a plate, picked one up and bit into it.

  “Do you remember what that woman Bertha told us?” she asked Anna. “We still need to find this man who was following William Parker.”