Much Ado about Nutmeg

by Sarah Fox

  “Then I’ll take it,” I said with a surge of happiness. “Thank you, Mr. Gorski.”

  “My pleasure.”

  After wrapping up my business at Timeless Treasures, I headed for the hardware store, feeling like I was walking on a cloud. A few weeks back, Brett had revealed that he’d always wanted an authentic ship’s wheel to display on the wall. We’d been working together to renovate and update our Victorian for several months, and I loved the idea of adding a nautical element to the family room. Hopefully Brett would like the wheel I’d purchased.

  By the time I reached the hardware store, the effect of my frozen lemonade had worn off and I’d gone from pleasantly warm to hot. The air-conditioning inside the store was a welcome relief. I headed straight for the aisle where I knew I’d find light bulbs. The light in my office at The Flip Side had burnt out the week before. It wasn’t a big deal since the days were long and bright at this time of year, but I wanted to get a replacement while I was thinking about it.

  As I turned down the right aisle, I caught sight of Leigh’s husband, Greg, up ahead. I was about to raise a hand to wave at him when he darted out of view. I continued on to the end of the aisle to see if I could spot him again, but he was gone.

  That was strange.

  Maybe he’d been in a hurry to get to another part of the store, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Greg had been trying to avoid me.

  Chapter Sixteen

  My thoughts hopped around like agitated rabbits for the rest of the day. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t settle my mind, and I found myself unable to sit still for more than a few minutes at a time. Brett and I ate barbecued shrimp and veggie skewers for dinner as storm clouds rolled in to darken the previously bright blue sky. By the time we’d cleaned up after our meal, the first low rumbles of thunder could be heard in the distance.

  When every last dish was put away, Brett settled on the swing on the back porch, checking his email on his phone. Bentley flopped out near Brett’s feet and I stood by the porch railing, watching Flapjack as he prowled along a log at the top of the beach. After a few minutes, I wandered after him and scooped him into my arms. I gave him a cuddle as I carried him back up to the porch, and he rewarded me with a purr that almost matched the distant thunder. I set him on the railing, and he hunkered down, his tail twitching as he kept an eye out for birds.

  I left him there and eyed the space on the swing next to Brett, wondering if I should give relaxing another try. Brett took my hand, tugging me closer, so I sat down next to him, setting the swing in motion.

  “You’ve been restless all evening,” he said, running his thumb over my knuckles. “What’s going on?”

  “Too much on my mind, I guess.”

  “Because of the murder? The wedding?”

  “Both, but mostly the murder. The wedding plans are going well so far, so I’m not too worried. Just anxious for the day to get here.”

  “Me too.”

  I leaned against him and he put his arm around me. His presence and the gentle movement of the swing eased some of the tension from my muscles and slowed my thoughts by a notch or two.

  “Have you heard anything new about the murder investigation?” Brett asked.

  “No. Have you?”

  “No. All I know is that Ray’s working long hours to deal with that case and everything else.”

  “He mentioned that when I saw him.”

  “At least there haven’t been any serious accidents on the roads this week despite all the extra traffic.”

  “Hopefully it’ll stay that way. We don’t need any more tragedies.”

  “That’s for sure.” Brett ran a hand over my hair before resting his arm across my shoulders again. “How’s your investigation going?”

  “Not too well,” I said as I watched the stormy clouds over the ocean. “Except now I think I’m convinced there’s only been one murder.”

  I told him about my conversation with Rowena at the Beach and Bean.

  “Her grief is genuine. I’m sure of that. I really don’t think she killed her husband.”

  “But you still have a long list of potential killers in Yvonne’s case?” Brett guessed.

  “Unfortunately. I haven’t managed to eliminate anyone else.”

  “Did you share everything you know with Ray?”

  “I did. Hopefully it’ll be of some help. I keep going over everything in my mind, but I don’t get anywhere. I’m missing something. Possibly a whole lot of things.”

  “You’ll find all the pieces and fit them together.” He sounded so sure.

  “I wish I could be as confident as you are.”

  He gave me a gentle squeeze. “I have enough confidence in you for the both of us.”

  I snuggled closer to him as a fork of lightning lit up the gray sky far across the water.

  “I don’t want to worry about mysteries and puzzles tonight,” I said. “All I want to do is enjoy this.”

  “This?”

  “You and me. Us.”

  Brett kissed the top of my head. “That sounds good to me.”

  * * * *

  By morning, the storm was nothing but a memory. The sun was shining again, and the only clouds in the sky were a few puffy white ones out over the water. The Flip Side was as busy as ever, and it wasn’t until midmorning that the line out the door disappeared and the rush died down. I took advantage of the lull—if it could be called that—to change the light bulb in the office and answer a few emails. I’d considered telling Leigh about my trip to the hardware store and her husband’s odd behavior, but in the end I decided not to, at least not yet. It would only add to her worries. Whatever was going on with Greg, hopefully it would resolve soon so Leigh could relax. If Brett had been acting strangely and wouldn’t tell me why, I’d be beside myself with worry, so I had a good deal of compassion for Leigh.

  When I returned to the dining area a short while later, I waved to Marjorie, who’d arrived in my absence and was sitting at a small table near the back of the restaurant. She was on her own today, but Sienna was over there chatting with her. I cleared and wiped down a table after a group of four diners left, and when I’d finished, Sienna was still talking with Marjorie. As I glanced their way, Sienna said a couple more words and then headed for the kitchen.

  When she came back through the swinging door a moment later, she hurried to my side.

  “You should talk to Marjorie,” she whispered.

  “For a reason other than to say hello?” I guessed.

  “Yep.” Sienna’s eyes were bright with excitement. “She’s been investigating.”

  I wasn’t sure if I should be excited like Sienna or apprehensive. Either way, I couldn’t deny that I was curious.

  I was about to ask Sienna what exactly Marjorie’s investigation had entailed, but she’d already grabbed two orders from the pass-through window and was off to deliver them to waiting customers. No matter, I could find out right from the source.

  I stopped to chat with a group of regulars and filled a couple of coffee mugs, but then I made my way over to Marjorie’s table.

  “I hear you’re turning into an amateur sleuth,” I said by way of greeting.

  Marjorie grinned at me. “We could form a club.”

  “Ray would love that,” I said.

  She laughed. “Can you sit down a minute?”

  “Sure.” I pulled out the chair across from her and sat down.

  “I’m not sure you’d call what I did sleuthing. All I really did was ask a few questions.”

  “That’s usually what I do too,” I said. “You can learn a lot simply by asking the right questions of the right people.”

  “Exactly!” Her eyes bright, Marjorie leaned closer and lowered her voice. “I’ve been wondering about Felicia Venner ever since Claudia Wu mentioned her name.”

&
nbsp; “Do you know how their rivalry started?”

  “Back in the day, they were both rising stars in track and field, training with the same coach. The people I talked to said they both got jealous of the time the coach spent with the other one.”

  “How did their animosity play out?” I asked. “It obviously didn’t stay completely private if so many people know about it.”

  “It does seem to be common knowledge,” Marjorie agreed. “And, no, they didn’t keep it private. Apparently they argued and sniped at each other all the time, and then one day they got into an all-out catfight at the track during a national championship.”

  “Yikes.”

  “That’s not the worst of it.”

  This time I was the one to lean farther over the table. “What else happened?”

  “A week or two after the fight, Felicia accused Yvonne of hiring someone to shove her down a flight of concrete steps.”

  I winced. “Ouch. Was she hurt?”

  “Oh, yeah. She had to have surgery on her knee and missed an entire season of competing. She ended up switching coaches. She did compete again after recovering, but she didn’t have the success she wanted, or the success that Yvonne had.”

  “That must have made it sting all the more.”

  “I’m betting it did.”

  I sat back and thought over everything Marjorie had told me. “Did anything ever come of Felicia’s accusations?”

  “It doesn’t sound like it. She couldn’t prove anything, and Yvonne swore she had nothing to do with it.”

  “Felicia didn’t see who pushed her?”

  “Just a brief glimpse. It was a man in dark clothing with a hood pulled up over his head. But whoever he was, Felicia still seems to think to this day that he was doing Yvonne’s dirty work.”

  “Interesting.”

  “I thought you’d think so.”

  “What did the people you talked to think about Felicia as a potential suspect in Yvonne’s murder?”

  “I didn’t come out and ask anyone that directly. I was worried I might ruffle too many feathers.”

  “That’s always a risk.” I’d certainly done my share of feather ruffling in the past.

  “But,” Marjorie continued, “I got the sense that a couple of people think it could have been Felicia.”

  “I’d have to agree with them,” I said. “If her grudge has festered for all these years, coming face-to-face with Yvonne here at the games might have caused Felicia to snap.”

  Marjorie leaned back as Sienna swept over to the table and set down a plate of banana nut pancakes in front of her. One of Ivan’s latest creations, the pancakes had the perfect blend of bananas, cinnamon, and nutmeg, with chopped pecans to add some crunch.

  “Have you told Marley everything?” she asked Marjorie.

  “Every last detail.”

  “Thank you for sharing,” I said as I stood up.

  A group of six diners had just entered the pancake house and two more were coming in the door behind them. It seemed the lunch rush was about to start.

  “I’d better get back to work, but I appreciate everything you told me.”

  “My pleasure,” Marjorie said.

  “Is there anything else I can get you?” Sienna was asking as I left to go greet the new customers.

  For the next hour or so I didn’t have a chance to pause between taking orders, serving meals, and cleaning tables. It was after one o’clock when business finally slowed down a bit.

  “So, what do you think?” Sienna asked as she followed me into the kitchen.

  I set down a load of dirty dishes and wiped my hands on my apron. “About what Marjorie said?”

  “It was great intel,” Sienna said, her eyes shining with excitement. “Felicia Venner definitely belongs on the suspect list.”

  I caught Ivan watching us with suspicious eyes, so I took Sienna’s arm and led her out of the kitchen.

  “I agree,” I said once we were out of Ivan’s earshot. I kept my voice low so customers wouldn’t hear us either. “I plan to do some more digging.”

  “We should go straight to the source.”

  “We?”

  Sienna pressed on like she hadn’t heard me. “I know the perfect cover for questioning Felicia. I can pretend I’m doing a summer internship for the Wildwood Cove Weekly. I’ll say I’m interviewing some of the athletes for the paper.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “What do you mean? It’s a great idea!”

  Two diners were ready to pay for their meals, so I stepped away from Sienna to attend to them. When I returned minutes later, she was no less enthusiastic about her idea.

  “It’s a great way to get information from Felicia and to gauge her reactions when I ask questions.”

  “And if she’s the killer?” I said. “You could be putting a target on your back.”

  “I bet you were planning to ask her questions.”

  “But I’m an adult.”

  Sienna rolled her eyes at that. “She’ll be way less suspicious of me asking questions than if you grill her.”

  “That might be true, but we can’t count on it.”

  Sienna picked up the coffeepot. “It’s a good plan, and I think we should put it into action later today.”

  Before I could object again, she hurried off across the room to offer coffee refills.

  When we crossed paths again a while later, she whispered, “You can come with me if that would make you feel better.”

  “Oh, I’m definitely coming with you. There’s no way I’m letting you question a potential killer on your own.”

  She smiled triumphantly. “I knew you’d come around eventually.”

  She dashed off before I could say anything else. I still had my misgivings, but I knew she wasn’t going to take my advice and give up on her plan. When it came to investigating, she could be as stubborn as I could be. I’d just have to make sure she was as safe as possible while she dug for clues.

  In the meantime, we still had work to do. I noticed a man with spiky brown hair take a seat at one of the small outdoor tables, so I headed outside to take his order. It wasn’t until I arrived at the table that I realized the newcomer was the photographer I’d seen at the park on the night of the opening ceremonies. I remembered overhearing him introduce himself to a group of athletes as Jay Henkel. He was facing the ocean and talking on his phone, which was probably why he didn’t notice me approach. I was about to step into his line of sight when I froze.

  “Have you heard?” he said cheerfully into his phone. “The wicked witch is dead!”

  Chapter Seventeen

  My stomach churned. I still stood frozen, hardly able to believe what I’d heard.

  “She washed up on the beach.” Jay’s latest words were delivered with no less glee than his previous statement.

  If I’d had any doubt that he was talking about Yvonne before, it had vanished in an instant.

  Not wanting to hear any more, I stepped forward so he’d see me. When his startled gaze darted my way, I held up the coffeepot and forced a smile.

  He nodded once and then said into the phone, “Hold on a second.”

  “Do you need another few minutes?” I asked, impressed that my voice sounded cheery rather than disgusted.

  “Nah. I’ll have the Belgian waffles with strawberry syrup and a fruit salad.” He returned his phone to his ear. “I’m back.”

  I retreated into The Flip Side, not wanting to hear another word of his conversation. Even though Yvonne hadn’t been the nicest woman, it still struck me as terribly callous to talk about her death in that way. Callous and chilling.

  If he was that cold and heartless, was he capable of committing murder?

  * * * *

  I couldn’t shake the chill that had sett
led deep inside me after hearing Jay talking about Yvonne. It stayed with me the rest of the workday, lingering like an unwanted companion. I thought about telling Sienna and the others what I’d overheard, but in the end I held back. I didn’t want to get Sienna fired up about another suspect. It worried me enough that she was so eager to question Felicia Venner. Part of me hoped she’d lose enthusiasm for her plan by the end of the workday, but I wasn’t the least bit surprised when that didn’t happen.

  “Do you know what Felicia looks like?” she asked me after I’d closed the pancake house and Leigh had left for home.

  “No,” I replied. “I guess that’ll make it hard to find her.”

  “I bet we can find a picture of her online.” Sienna already had her phone out.

  I wiped down one of the tables while she searched the Internet. It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for.

  “Got it!”

  She held up her phone so I could see the photo of a woman with shoulder-length fair hair. She appeared to be in her late fifties, which made sense. That put her close in age to Yvonne.

  “It seems to be a recent photo,” Sienna said, turning the phone so she could look at the screen again. “It says this is from last year’s Golden Oldies Games in Everett.”

  “Okay, so we know what she looks like.” I finished cleaning another table. “Tracking her down might still be a problem, but I guess we should start at the track and field venue.”

  All the track and field events were taking place at the local middle school.

  Sienna tapped at her phone again. “I’ll see if I can find out if she’s competing today.”

  I continued cleaning as she checked the schedule for the games.

  “It looks like she’s got the day free, but other age groups are competing in track and field this afternoon.”

  “So she might be there to watch,” I said.

  “Let’s hope so.”

  Sienna tucked her phone away in her pocket and helped me with the rest of the cleaning. Within half an hour we were out the door. Ivan had seemed suspicious that Sienna had stuck around, but we said good-bye to him and Tommy so quickly that he didn’t have a chance to question what we were up to. As I locked the door behind us, a twinge of guilt made me question it.