“Oh heavens, I don’t recall, but at least several weeks. I told Big Charlie, and we both knew it was him. In our hearts, we knew.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
Thelma smiled and adjusted her wig. “It’s okay. He’s okay, and I know that. I’ll see him again. Big Charlie, too.”
Del centered Thelma’s lopsided wig. “I like the blue ribbon. It goes nicely with your yellow dress.”
“I was reminded of Buster, so I decided to wear yellow in his honor.”
I shifted in my seat and stared out the café door.
“What’s wrong?” Thelma asked.
I flipped back around. “Nothing, I just wanted to make sure lightning didn’t strike the café.” I winked, and she laughed.
Del pursed her lips. “Oh, shut it. I got a heart.”
Thelma leaned in and whispered, “It might be turning black, but it’s still got a little touch of red to it.”
Del grunted and walked behind the counter, mumbling what I suspected was something unkind and inappropriate the entire way.
“Jack said he already spoke to Rashid Patel,” I said upon her return with the coffee pot.
“Yeah, Rashid said that. I would have told you, but you hung up too quick.”
“You hung—never mind. Did he happen to tell you why he went there?”
“Something about wanting to make amends with Bobby. Said he wanted to forgive and forget.”
How convenient, I thought. “Did he talk to him?”
She nodded. “Said Bobby was okay with it, too.”
“Does that strike you as strange?”
“What Bobby forgiving someone?”
I nodded.
“Do deer eat gardens?”
Thelma sipped her coffee and said, “Actually, yes, they do, but my neighbor Mr. Hamby said there’s stuff at the hardware store to stop them. When I read the label, it said it had poison in it, so I didn’t buy it.”
“Why not?” Del asked.
“Because I didn’t want to poison myself, silly. What do you think?”
Del dipped her head back and pressed her hands together to pray. “Dear God, bless her heart. I don’t know how she’s survived all these years.”
“I walk every day and don’t drink or smoke.”
Del threw her hands up in the air. “I wasn’t talking to you. I was praying for patience to God.”
I stopped myself from laughing. “Anyway, I know I’ve said it before, but I didn’t really know Bobby all that well, except for high school, of course, but even then, he wasn’t the nicest guy. To think he’d suddenly change his tune overnight like that is kind of hard to believe.”
“Well, I knew Bobby real good, and once he’s mad, he stays mad. No way he made amends with Rashid.”
“Then why would he lie?” Thelma asked.
“Because he killed him, that’s why,” Del said, and rather loudly, too.
“Del.”
She stared at me. “What?”
“You don’t want to scare your customers away, do you?”
She waved her hand. “I do that every day.”
“We don’t want to publicize who we think might have killed Bobby.”
She gasped. “Oh, yeah. You’re right. Sorry about that.”
“In speaking with Jesse and Julia—well, Jesse really—I don’t get the feeling he did it. He was genuinely surprised I could have been asking if he had. But he made it pretty clear, without actually saying it, that he didn’t want me talking to his wife.”
“Probably just wanted to protect her,” Thelma said. “My Charlie used to do that all the time. Never even let me answer the doorbell when those religious people came by. Said he didn’t want me to invite them in, but I knew it was his way of protecting me.”
“Nah, he just didn’t want them in his house,” Del said.
I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, Julia is a hot one, and I’m a little weary of her.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t explain it. She’s obviously got a temper, and when we got there last night, she was blatantly rude.”
Delphina broke off a chunk of my biscuit and stuffed it into her mouth. “Killers can be feisty.”
“She does have a lot to lose.”
Thelma took part of the biscuit also. I was grateful it was free, since I’d yet to take a bite. “Like what?” she asked.
“Bobby’s cart threatened their business, their livelihood, and they have a child. It’s not easy nowadays, and maybe she snapped.”
“But nobody saw her at Bobby’s that morning.”
“Doesn’t mean she wasn’t there.” Del folded a paper napkin into a square and flattened it with the palm of her hand. “So, we’ve got one hot-tempered momma with everything to lose, and a forgiving business owner who can’t tell time? Doesn’t sound like much.”
“And a fired employee, and yours truly.”
“You didn’t kill Bobby.”
“And the husband. And if you watch TV, it’s always the husband,” Thelma said.
“I don’t think it is in this kind of scenario Thelma,” I said.
“Don’t matter, the pickins are slim, that’s for sure, and I got to get lunch started.” Delphina stood, but before she headed back into the kitchen, she said, “I think you need to have another meeting with Agnes. Somehow that knife got into the office and stuck in Bobby’s back, and my guess is she knows what happened.”
__________
OLIVIA HANDLED THE second tour of the day, a group of seniors from a neighboring town, while I finished a few tasks on the competition’s to do list.
We’d considered canceling the event entirely, but the town looked forward to it, so instead, we decided to do it in Bobby’s honor. That meant among other things, adding some additional posters, letting the Mayor know to change his opening speech, and reconfiguring the contestants booth spaces.
Once I’d finished that, I sat down to once again rewrite the information for Hamilton House. I wanted to edit Agnes’s story as well as add something to honor Bobby.
As I tapped onto my keyboard, I heard Olivia chatting with the seniors downstairs. She handled the tours so well, and it was a joy to listen to her.
I glanced up at my door, and a chunky old woman with gray hair in tight curls smiled at me. “I always wanted to come here. I think the town is quite charming.”
I smiled back at her. “Thank you, we think it’s a wonderful place to live. I’m glad you’re here. Are you enjoying the tour?”
“Oh, yeah. I was here the other day, but I noticed you added a new exhibit in the main room. There sure is a lotta history in this place.”
I hadn’t recalled seeing her the other day. “Oh, yes. We change it up often. You’ll have to come back again soon.”
“Oh, I will,” she said, and then she turned around and left.
I reworded the rest of the changes for Hamilton House, printed it out, and read it out loud. Once I finished, I leaned back in my chair and sighed. This will never fly with City Council, I thought. I wanted it to, but without any basis for the information, it just wouldn’t. How could I tell them all I’d seen Agnes Hamilton’s ghost and she’d showed me her murder, not her suicide? And even if they did believe I saw anything, who’s to say Agnes isn’t just trying to save her reputation by making it up? I wondered if I should wait to redo it, given the fact that Bobby’s murder hadn’t been solved. I would likely have to rewrite in then again, anyway.
Glass shattered in the other room, and a loud screeching scream echoed down the hall. I jumped out of my seat and rushed to the bedroom we used for storage.
An old Tiffany style lamp we’d stored in there recently lay on the ground, the glass shade a puzzle of multi-colored pieces scattered on the hardwoods.
Olivia stormed in, breathless from running up the stairs. “Oh Lord, did you fall again?”
“No, I’m fine. The lamp, it must have fallen. I heard the crash and came running.”
“Oh, Miss Cha
ntilly, your scream scared the living daylights out of me.”
“It wasn’t me. I...Is everyone okay downstairs? What about the old woman that came up here?” It was possible she snuck into the room and accidentally knocked over the lamp.
Olivia tilted her head. “What little old lady?”
“The one with the tightly curled gray hair. She’s about this high.” I held my hand, palm facing the ground, to my chest. “Wearing a blue sweater and tan pants?”
“Miss Chantilly, there’s no women in this tour. It’s the senior men’s club today.”
“What? No, she was just up here.”
She shrugged. “Either your concussion’s getting worse, or you’re seeing the dead everywhere now.” She walked out the door. “I need to get back to the old men before one of them starts looking for the booze he thinks is hidden downstairs. I keep telling him there isn’t any, but the little stinker doesn’t believe me.”
I sulked back to my office, confused and frustrated. Before I got there, I glanced down the elaborate, elegant staircase at the group of men waiting for Olivia. Nope, not one single woman with tightly curled gray hair in the group.
Could she have been a spirit? Did they really just show up and chat with people like that? I fell into my chair and sighed. “How will I know the difference?”
I searched through my previous calls from the night before and clicked on the number for Angela Panther. I hit call and it rang twice before she picked up.
“Hey, Chantilly, I wondered how long it would take for you to call me.”
“I’m sorry, is this a bad time?”
“Not in the least. I’m just having a discussion with my mom. Hey, maybe you can clear something up for us. You’re from the South, right?”
“Yes, but I—”
“Okay, which do you prefer, George Strait or Blake Shelton?”
“I, uh...”
“Neither of us will hold it against you. I promise.”
“Well, I do like Blake, I think he’s really talented.”
“I knew it.” The phone made a static-like sound. “See, Ma? New country is good, too.”
Her mother said, “George is the king of country. Nobody can top him.”
“She does have a point,” I said.
“You heard my mother?”
“Yes, why?”
“My mother’s been dead for over ten years.”
I dropped the phone in my lap.
“Chantilly? Hello?”
I picked it up, stared at it, and then stared at the chunky old woman with tight gray curls waving at me in the hallway. She smiled, winked, and then kind of shimmered away right before my eyes, leaving little sparkles of light fading away behind her.
“I’m here. I’m here. I...does your mom have tightly curled gray hair? And is she short?” I whispered, “Maybe a little on the heavy side?”
“Good grief. Yes, that’s her.” Angela’s voice muffled. “Ma, I told you not to play around with Chantilly. Geez.”
“What? A gal can’t have a little fun now and then? I just wanted to make sure she wasn’t messin’ with my daughter, is all. What’s she gonna do, sue me?”
Oh my gosh, I really could see, talk, hear...oh my gosh. My hands shook, and I needed to sit. I was dizzy. The problem was, I was sitting.
“Ma, enough. You can’t do that, and you know it. Now apologize to Chantilly. You probably just gave her a heart attack.”
“Ah Madone, she didn’t even know I’m dead.”
The old lady peeked into my office again, her head only a foot above the doorknob. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” And then she was gone, just like that.
“She, uh...she just...she just apologized.”
Angela sighed. “Good.”
My head hurt. “Help me.” My voice shook, but it almost came out comical.
“You’ll adjust, I promise. Your gift is pretty strong though. It’ll be interesting if you ever figure out how you got it.”
“You mean I might not? Does that mean I’ll always have it?”
“It’s possible. I can’t say for sure either way.
I closed my eyes. “I think I need a glass of wine, but I don’t drink.”
“I go for cupcakes and Snickers bars. They help. So does coffee, and lots of it.”
I laughed, and once I started, I couldn’t stop. I laughed so hard, it ended up silent, and tears streamed down my face. “I’m...I’m sorry.”
“Don’t sweat it. If you can laugh, you are farther along in accepting this than I was, so good for you.”
“How long did it take you?”
“A few years.”
“Seriously?”
“I’m a stubborn Italian from Chicago, it runs in my blood. So, is the little gray haired woman the reason you called?”
“Yes, and no, but you can tell her that lamp was expensive.”
Angela relayed the message to her mother.
“That wasn’t me. That was the chick in the wedding gown. She’s one ticked off spirit, let me tell you.”
“Oh boy. She said—”
“I heard. It’s Agnes, and I think I know why she’s upset.”
“Why?”
I explained my job, what I needed to do for Hamilton House’s information, and what I’d written. “I’m trying to do what I can to help her, like you said. The problem is, no one here is going to accept that as fact just because I wrote it, and I’m sure not going to say her ghost told me.”
“May I make a suggestion?”
“Yes, please do.”
“Don’t do anything, at least not yet.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Okay, for starters, you don’t want her to leave, not yet anyway.”
“But isn’t that my goal?”
“Yes, of course, at least eventually. She can help you with the other murder though, so you need her to stick around.”
“That’s true.”
“It’s not the only reason. You should always consider the unintended consequences for your actions. Believe me, that was a hard lesson for me to learn, and I’d rather not see anyone else struggle through it.”
Considering I’d just moved back to town, taken a new job, and was now a possible murder suspect, Angela made sense. I also needed to consider Austin and his life. “So what do I do?”
“Wait it out. She might have more to say soon, or give you something you need for the other murder.”
“I guess, but it would be much easier if she just came out and said it. I saw your mother clear as day, and we had a conversation. Why can’t they all do that?”
“Because the universe likes to mess with our heads.”
She tossed out a few other thoughts, all pertaining to the knife because we knew it was the thing that connected the two murders. We just didn’t know what Agnes was trying to tell me.
Angela Panther forced me to think through the events, to think about different possibilities. I might have been a newbie with respect to spirits, but I was a puzzle solver. “I know what you’re doing.” I laughed. “I have a kid. I’m an expert at this kind of thing.”
She laughed, too. “Then think it through, and when you figure it out, call me. I have some theories, but I think you need to come up with them first.” She paused for a moment and said, “This is a lot of fun, helping you. It’s taking me away from my current situation, so I appreciate it.”
“Are you working another case for the police?”
“No. I’m being dragged into something I’d rather not be dragged into, and I’m heading to Chicago because of it.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Things happen.”
We talked further, said we’d talk again soon, and after we hung up I thought about what she’d said. Before I could come to any conclusions though, I needed to know if the knife was from the restaurant. I had to assume it was, at least based on convenience, unless of course the killer had planned to kill Bobby before coming. If that was the case, then t
he knife could be from anywhere. First things first. Find out about the knife and hope it led me to the killer.
I dialed Jack’s cell.
“Chantilly, I was just thinking about you.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I didn’t. “May I ask a question about the investigation?”
“Didn’t we recently have a conversation about this?”
“Yes, I know, but I’m trying to work through a few things, and just this one teeny little bit of information will help me.”
“I can’t guarantee I can answer, but go ahead.”
Gosh, he was a stickler for the rules. “Was the knife from the restaurant?”
“Why do you ask?”
Because the spirit of Agnes Hamilton isn’t making that clear to me, and I want to figure out which death it belongs to. No, I didn’t say that. I wanted Jack to take me seriously. “I’m curious since there are a few people on my suspect list that would have access to knives.”
“Your suspect list?”
Darn it. “You know what I mean. If I’m a potential suspect, I need to figure out who else is, and I’m trying to get all my ducks in a row.”
“Maybe you should hire an attorney to straighten your ducks?”
My heart raced. “Do I need an attorney?”
“No, Chantilly, at this point you do not. However, you establishing a suspect list sounds an awful lot like you’re trying to investigate this on your own, and I wish you wouldn’t. That could cause my real investigation serious problems.”
“I’m not investigating. I’m just...I just...ugh. Can you please tell me?”
He sighed heavily. “Yes, the weapon matched knives from Hamilton House, but they’re common and could be owned by anyone that has their own restaurant business.”
“So anyone in the restaurant could have had access to one there, or anyone in that kind of business could, too?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Thank you.”
“Is that all?”
“Did you know that Rashid Patel wanted to buy and then rent Bobby’s place?”
“Where’d you hear that?”
“From him. He said he couldn’t actually afford to purchase it, but since he’d heard Bobby was thinking about selling it, he wanted to know if he could lease it now.”
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