"Possible suffocation. Not sure on the time of death yet but she's been dead a few hours."
"Suffocation," I looked at Lacey. "Guess that's why we didn't see any sign of injury."
"Have they figured out how the trunk got here?" Lacey asked. "It would have been heavy with a body inside."
Jackson nodded. There was a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. He seemed to realize that I had found a kindred spirit in Lacey. "Actually, it wasn't too hard to solve that part of the mystery. There was no forest litter or scratches on the sides of the trunk and no obvious tracks on the trail. The women said it was normally just filled with feathery light objects like hair wreaths and flower garlands so they could carry it to their ceremonial spot. It seems the trunk was carried here first. The body was added later."
"Detective Jackson," one of the coroner's team called.
"Head home and I'll fill you in tomorrow," Jackson said as he walked off to talk to the coroner.
Lacey pulled in her lips, wanting to say something but seemingly not sure she should.
"Speak your mind, my friend," I said.
"It's just that I feel as if you and I are living in parallel universes, only on opposite sides of the country. And, of course, you're a journalist and I sell flowers. But I must say—"
"My detective reminds you greatly of your detective?" I asked.
"You took the words right out of me." Voices turned our attention to the altar. Raine and Lola were helping Aubrey and Nora pack up the silk leaf vines and the pumpkins and gourds. Across the way, Wanda and the other women were packing up whatever leftovers the police and coroner's team hadn't snacked on. There wasn't much left except the empty thermoses and earthenware mugs.
Lacey leaned her head closer. "I would love to get my sniffer near Wanda."
"Oh? Anything in particular you were hoping to find?" I was sort of disappointed with myself for not already knowing where she was heading with this but then it was my first nasal forward investigation.
"Camphor. It's the one odor that seemed out of place on Minnie's clothing."
I tapped the side of my head. "Duh, of course. I'm having to retrain my entire way of thinking now that I've joined forces with a spectacular nose."
Lacey tapped the side of it. "Spectacular. My nose has been called many things but never that. I rather like it. Now, let's put this spectacular nose to work."
We meandered over to the table where Wanda and the others were packing away the refreshment goodies. I couldn't help but notice that Wanda didn't look nearly as distraught as the others. Everyone else had drawn faces, lacking color, with frowns that were nearly hanging to their chins. Wanda casually packed the earthenware mugs into a box that was filled with tissue paper to keep them from breaking. She was focused on her task and at the same time looked as if she would just as soon whistle while she worked. That was, if a dead body hadn't just disrupted an otherwise celebratory night.
"Here, let us help so we can all head home and put this terrible night behind us." Lacey moved as close as she could without intruding on Wanda's personal space. She made a point of reaching all the way across the table for a shaker of cinnamon. I busied myself stacking napkins. I'd already seen Lacey's nose in action so I knew she was at work sniffing for evidence. It wriggled back and forth as she swept past Wanda. She lingered for a bit longer than needed to reach for the cinnamon and then straightened.
"Where would you like the cinnamon?" she asked.
"Right over there in that box." Wanda pointed to a box on the ground. Lacey shook her head my direction to let me know she hadn't detected any camphor. It didn't prove or disprove anything, but it was good to know.
We finished helping with the clean up, then I blew a quick kiss to Jackson and the four of us headed along the trail back to the parking lot.
"Whoa, if you looked up the word dreamboat in the dictionary," Lola said as soon as we passed through the shrubs surrounding the clearing, "that guy's picture would be right smack dab under the definition. Lucky you, Sunni Taylor."
"Yes, but dating a dreamboat has its drawbacks." I'd picked up one of the flameless candles to lead the way. I lifted it, mostly to scare off any critters. "On bad hair days, or days when I've got a big old pimple or you know those days when you just look in the mirror and all you see is the flaws, well it's hard to face someone who is . . . well . . . flawless. Makes me self-conscious."
A dry laugh spurted from Raine's mouth. "That must be a terrible hardship, and the day I see you self-conscious is the day I trade in my tarot cards for a business suit and office cubicle."
"I get self-conscious," I insisted. "Sometimes." I turned to Lacey who was enjoying our banter. "So, no camphor, eh? What if Minnie had the camphor on her clothes before she was murdered? Then it wouldn't show up on the killer."
"True, unless there was some sort of struggle. Even then, if the killer had picked up even a trace of camphor from Minnie's skin or clothes, I probably would have smelled it. It's a powerful fragrance. But back to your first point. If Wanda was the killer and she was careful not to touch Minnie or get near her clothes, then she might have avoided the camphor altogether." Lacey stopped. "Boy, I must be getting tired. I'm talking in silly circles. To put it more succinctly so that it makes sense—not smelling the camphor doesn't take Wanda off the person of interest list. Now, if I had smelled the camphor on her, I think we could have instantly moved her name up to the top of that list."
Lola looked over at her. "Either you're tired or I'm tired, either way, this all sounds like babble to me. I'm ready to climb into the starchy motel room sheets and fall fast asleep. It's been a long night."
"Here, here." Raine lifted an invisible glass for a toast. "Might I just add, that for once I'd like to go out with my best friend Sunni and not have some corpse show up to ruin the whole thing."
Chapter 11
Before parting after our interesting night, the four of us made plans to eat breakfast together at my house before Lola went off for her continued treasure hunt, Raine went to read tarot cards and tea leaves and Lacey and I continued on our murder investigation.
Raine fluttered in with a surprising amount of energy considering we had just gone to bed six hours earlier. And while Lola and Lacey had been much brighter eyed the night before, due to their internal clocks that were linked to west coast time, they plodded in looking a little dazed and exhausted.
"What you two need is some strong coffee." I waved them down the corridor to the kitchen.
"Hmm, just the smell of it is already helping," Lacey said. "Guess the time change and jet lag finally hit both of us. I basically had to pry Lola out of bed by whispering in her ear that all the good treasures were being bought up by little old ladies intent on filling their curio cabinets with pretty things."
"Considering I already paid for the whole trip with my first find," Lola said as she reached for the cup of coffee I handed her, "I almost let those little old ladies have their fun. But then I remembered I'm supposed to be a cutthroat antique dealer, so little gray haired grannies better step out of my way."
Edward appeared the instant he'd heard Lacey's voice in the hallway. He stayed on his perch on the hearth. Newman spotted him and trotted right over with a tennis ball in his mouth.
Raine laughed. "Why is your tennis ball obsessed dog waiting for the empty fireplace to throw his ball?"
I was thrown off by the question but managed to recover. "Considering he barks at invisible creatures in the trees, I think we can just write him off as nutty."
"Maybe he has an invisible friend," Lola suggested, causing Edward and I to exchange concerned looks. Lola sat down at the table with her coffee. "I used to have an invisible friend named Marty. We would play jump rope together, and when I was feeling in the sharing mood, I would let her eat the broccoli and carrots on my plate."
Lacey reached for a banana nut muffin. "I'm not sure if that story is funny or sad."
"Says the woman who has long conversations and the occasion
al squabble with a crow," Lola retorted.
Lacey nodded side to side. "It's true. I do spend what might be considered a kooky amount of time talking to Kingston. Although, I'm fairly convinced he understands every word. And while he's not verbal, he has wonderful communication skills."
Lola rolled her hand out and opened her palm. "I rest my case." She reached for a muffin. "Sure hope I get lucky again this morning. One more good find and I can send a braggy text to my mom. She thinks she's the queen of the hidden treasure hunt," Lola explained.
Edward decided to move closer to the action, no doubt to get a little closer to Lacey. The smidgen of jealousy I was feeling was suddenly mixed with a bit of sympathy for the man. He could only admire a woman from his invisible dimension, and he would never love again. It was like admiring from afar with afar being only a three foot wide kitchen table. I was also feeling a touch worried that his apparent crush on my guest might let him slip and reveal himself or cause some kind of ruckus that would perk up Raine's sixth sense. I shot him an admonishing look but he wasn't paying attention to me. (Fickle ghost.)
Lola put down the muffin. "Speaking of interesting finds, we never finished our conversation about the old photos from the inn."
Raine's attention snapped my direction. "Yes, what photos?"
I almost wished Edward would make some sort of disturbance to wipe away the topic. With all eyes on me, including Edward's, I had to come up with something quick. But with only five or six hours sleep my clever genes were still turned off. I had nothing.
"Aren't these muffins good?" I asked. "Emily's recipe, naturally. I'm definitely going to keep them on the bed and breakfast menu."
Lacey picked hers up. "They are delicious. Very moist. I rarely have overripe bananas because they are one of Kingston's favorite treats." Lacey seemed to gather that I didn't want to talk about the photos. Lola seemed to grasp that too and decided to drop the topic. But Raine was boring holes in the side of my face with her eyes.
"Sunni, what about these photos that you keep trying to wave off with clumsy topic changes?" Raine asked in a tone that told me don't try and wriggle out of it this time, friend.
I sighed dramatically but it was really a stall tactic. I was grasping at the possible explanations floating in my head. Keeping this huge secret from my friend would very likely have big ramifications and I didn't want to lose Raine.
"Lola and I met through an online purchase I made from her store. She had two old photos of the Cider Ridge Inn, back from the mid-nineteenth century when the Richards family owned it. And, well—" I looked around the table. Obviously realizing I'd been keeping the pictures secret, Lola was pretending to be focused on her muffin, avoiding eye contact. Her silent way of apologizing for bringing it up.
Lacey was doing about the same as she stirred a spoon of sugar into her cup and spun it rapidly enough to start a frothy coffee whirlpool.
I didn't dare glance toward Edward. (Raine didn't need anything else to get her sixth sense brewing.) But I could feel him watching me, no doubt with amusement, waiting to see how I climbed out of this one. He was the ghost but he had it pretty darn easy. Even when he made a misstep, I was the one who had to come up with spur of the moment, reasonable explanations for something that was entirely unreasonable.
"Raine," I said finally (it was time to just go for it) "the pictures are kind of odd. The woman, Mary Richards, is standing on the front stoop of this house. Her figure is perfectly clear or as clear as the nineteenth century camera would allow. Next to her is a kind of gray smear. On first glance, it looks as if possibly the photographer's thumb got in the way. When you look closer, with some imagination, you can almost see a man standing next to her." I added in the imagination chunk, hoping to make it sound less certain.
Raine blinked at me from behind her glasses for a long moment. A tense hush fell over the kitchen. Then she pushed her bangles back on her wrist and picked up her coffee. "Probably just a double exposure or something like that."
Relief nearly made me melt out of my chair. Lacey and Lola relaxed too.
"But why did you keep them secret from me?" Raine asked sending me back to attention.
"Secret?" I repeated. "Not secret, not really. I just didn't mention them because—" and then the easy explanation came to me. (I was giving the coffee credit for my sudden brilliance.)
"I'm surprised you can't figure that out on your own, Raine. I know you believe having the Cider Ridge Inn thought of as haunted will help my bed and breakfast business but I think it will be terrible. It's already on America's most haunted list in several paranormal societies." I turned to Lacey and Lola. "We had one paranormal group visit here, hoping to wake the dead." I fluttered my fingers. "But they weren't the least bit successful. The whole thing turned into a murder too. Not here at the inn but at another inn across town," I added for Lacey's benefit. "I'll tell you about it sometime." I returned my attention to Raine, who was not looking terribly happy about her best friend keeping secrets from her. "Anyhow, I bought the photos from Lola to get them out of public view. I don't want hundreds of ghost hunters showing up the day I open the bed and breakfast. I just want this to be a peaceful, beautiful inn where people can enjoy the mountain views, take nice walks and nibble Emily's delicious recipes." I picked up my muffin, assuming I'd put an end to the topic. As far as I was concerned, I'd come up with a perfectly good excuse for keeping the photos secret. Plus, it was true.
"And, of course, I never would have posted them on my shop's site if I knew that," Lola said.
"No, I know. You certainly had no way of knowing anything about the future of the Cider Ridge Inn. I'm just glad I came across them and was able to buy them. I think they belong here where Mary Richards and her family made their home." I got up to get another cup of coffee. "Boy, I'm in sorry need of caffeine this morning." I added an airy chuckle. I was so relieved to get past the photo subject that I practically skipped to the coffee pot. I picked it up and began to pour.
"Still, I would love to see them," Raine said.
"Ouch." Hot coffee splashed over my thumb. I put the pot down hard and sloshed more coffee onto my hand from my cup. I wiped my hand on a nearby dishtowel. "Sure thing. Some time. But don't you have an early tarot card reading? I'm sure Lola wants to get out to the flea market. And Lacey and I are about to pull on our sleuthing hats." I smiled at Lacey. "I don't know about you, but I'm anxious to get over to Minnie's shop to snoop around."
Lacey pulled on an invisible hat. "Sleuthing hat on." Edward was charmed . . . naturally.
"Ah ha." Raine pointed at me. "You are doing your Sunni dancing on hot potatoes routine, which means you are antsy about showing me those pictures." It finally occurred to her that at least one other person in the kitchen had seen them. She turned to Lola. "You've seen these photos, Lola. What did you think? A photographer's goof up or is Mary Richards standing next to a ghost?"
Lola shrank down some and looked as if she would have liked to slip right under the table. Her eyes flicked my direction, then toward Lacey.
"You've seen them too, Lacey?" Raine asked.
Lacey nodded. "Yes, but just briefly." She didn't elaborate or give a stitch of opinion. Both women looked at me for help.
"All right," I said. "I especially didn't want you to see them, Raine, because it's taken months for you to stop obsessing about the notorious Cider Ridge ghost. You were so disappointed that you couldn't conjure him during our séance. I didn't want you to start getting all caught up with the idea that this place is haunted."
Edward scoffed. "Yes, please, enough with the séance nonsense." I snuck him a scowl.
"I still say it's just a glitch in the photography process." I marched toward the hallway. I had no idea if I was doing the right thing, but what I knew for sure was that once Raine had something in her craw, she never let it go.
Edward reappeared in the hallway. "Do you think this is a good idea?"
"Seems I have no choice," I whispered.
I headed into my room, shaking my head and wondering just how silly this was. At the same time, I felt somewhat relieved to get this secret out in the open. I was already hiding the biggest, most outrageous secret of all from . . . well . . . everyone. So big deal if there was an old photo that sort of lent credence to the ghost rumors. After all, those rumors were already out in the wide open. It still didn't prove Edward existed. Lacey and Lola had already seen them, and I hadn't noticed them checking out dark hallways or empty rooms looking for a ghost. Hopefully, Raine would have the same outlook. She had already failed once to communicate with the ghost. It took her some time to get over the humiliation and disappointment. I doubted she wanted to try again.
I dug under my clean folded shirts to the envelope holding the photos. I pulled them from the envelope. My eyes swept past the image of Mary Richards and landed straight on the smudged, misty face next to her on the front stoop. For a brief moment, I considered just putting them back and making up a lie that I'd lost them. But Raine would see right through that fib. I was sure it would cause irreparable damage to our friendship.
Lacey was collecting the dishes from the table and carrying them to the sink. Edward had repositioned himself on the counter right next to the sink to watch her. It was possible the photos wouldn't matter soon if my ghost became so smitten he forgot himself and did something silly. More than once, Edward's mistrust and dislike of Jackson had caused him to say something that Jackson heard. Even though Edward insisted he hadn't done it and that there was no way Jackson could have heard him, I just couldn't find another explanation.
Raine's chair scraped the floor. She put her glasses back on after cleaning them. It seemed she didn't want to miss one thing in the photos. Raine lifted a suspicious brow at me as she tugged the parchment out of my too tight grip. I grinned sheepishly at Lola and Lacey. They were rightly confused by my entire dog and pony show.
Double Trouble Page 6