“You look better.” I swept past him into the room.
“Yes but I’m thinking of still downing the cold medicine. I kind of like the haze it puts me in. I do less thinking in that fog.”
“That medicine has always affected you worse than others. I remember my theory that you were allergic to the stuff.” I turned to him as he shut the door and walked into the room.
He swept his arm around. He had clothes draped on chairs and across the foot of the bed. “Have a seat, if you can find one. I’ve been turning housekeeping away. I don’t want to see people. Especially not the group of people I traveled here with, who have now turned on me.”
I stayed standing. “Looks like I just walked into a pity party. And I forgot to bring a gift for the host. You’ve really got the heat cranked up in here.” I unzipped my coat but left it on. I wasn’t planning to stay longer than it took for a few quick questions.
“I was trying to sweat the cold out of me.”
“Maybe you should think about getting those tonsils out, after all.”
“I don’t think it’ll matter with where I’m going.”
“And I forgot my tiny violin,” I added. “Has Detective Briggs talked about charging you?”
His head moved halfway between a nod and a shake. “Just a matter of time. Says he’s having some more lab work done first. The man has it out for me.”
“Who? Detective Briggs? Nonsense. He’s an honorable, smart man with a great deal of integrity.”
Jacob grinned wryly as he walked to the nightstand. “That was a strong, impassioned defense.” He picked up his pack of clove cigarettes and pulled one out.
“You’re obviously still drunk on cold medicine if you can label that impassioned. And if you’re going to light that thing, at least wait until I’m gone.”
“That’s right. I forgot about that million dollar sensitive nose. The nose that just pushed me into the worst week of my life.” He put the clove cigarette back in the box. “Why did you come here today?”
“Wow, you are feeling better. Some of those traits that made it easy for me to walk out of your life are now on full display. I came here hoping to help. But maybe you should just keep drinking that cold medicine.”
I turned to leave.
“No wait, Lacey. I’m sorry. I’m just on edge.” He laughed weakly. “Withdrawals from antihistamines.”
“You’re the only man I know who can always find an excuse for being irritating. But I’ll give you this one since you’re going through a lot. And you have had an excessive amount of medicine. We both know that makes you a little strange.” I straightened with a breath as it struck me like a bolt of lightning.
Jacob caught my change in posture. “What’s wrong?”
“The Bahamas. The cold medicine. Remember when you walked out onto the beach in the middle of the night? You had no recollection. Just a ton of sand in your room and bed.”
“Yes, we figured out I was sleepwalking. My mom told me I used to do it all the time when I was a kid. Especially when I was—”
“Sick,” I finished for him. “Then you take medication, and the next thing you know you’re walking in your sleep and not remembering a thing.”
His face smoothed as he truly comprehended my meaning. “I was sleepwalking when Autumn saw me. That’s why I can’t remember a thing. That’s why there was an orange soda in the refrigerator. I must have sleepwalked to the catering tables and grabbed an orange soda.”
“In your socks.”
Jacob was the liveliest I’d seen him since he got to Port Danby. “I’d forgotten just how brilliant you are, Lacey.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll go next door and tell Redmond right now.”
“He’ll no doubt tell you that sleepwalking is a weak alibi. I’ll let Detective Briggs know that I can confirm that you do sleepwalk. Not sure if it will help or not. Before you go to Redmond, Jacob, I wanted to ask you something else.”
“Anything.”
“Does Hazel have a key to your trailer?”
The question came out of left field, and it threw him for a second. “I don’t know. I didn’t give her one specifically, but I guess she might have one. Why?”
“Just wondering. Today I went on a plane ride in a friend’s small two seat Cessna. We flew over the coast and over Maple Hill and the manor. Dash, the pilot, dropped the plane low enough so I could see more of the ground below. I saw that bright blue sweater she’s been wearing. Hazel was going inside your trailer. Why would she be going in there?”
He scratched his unshaven jaw. “Hmm I’m not sure. I didn’t ask her to go inside for anything. But she might have needed some paperwork or something.”
“Makes sense.” I was almost relieved by his answer. I hated to think that sweet, little Hazel had anything to do with the murder. Hazel had asked me not to bring up her leaving the company to Jacob, in his misery, but he looked less miserable. I was still holding on to a strand of suspicion. “Boy, I guess you’ll miss Hazel when she’s gone.”
He moved his shoulders with a weak shrug.
“What? I thought Hazel was the office dynamo. Whenever anyone needed something, Hazel was the person to see.”
“She’d lost her edge in the past year. Her mind was definitely not on the job. I wasn’t all that surprised when she turned in her notice. I think she was still hurt that she’d been passed up for a promotion to office manager. She was sure the job would be hers, but there were some awesome applicants. Frankly, Hazel didn’t even make the top three.”
“Poor Hazel. She must have been devastated. Still, her new job at Tremaine’s sounds exciting.”
Profound confusion crossed his face. “Tremaine’s? She didn’t get the job at Tremaine’s. That was partially my fault too. My letter of recommendation wasn’t exactly glowing. Robert Tremaine and I play golf occasionally. I didn’t want to lie on the letter and have it ruin our friendship.”
“Oh, Jacob.” I couldn’t hide the disappointment in my tone. “Hazel has been your most devoted assistant. Couldn’t you have flowered up the language some to make it more abstract? You know, like a college midterm essay where you kind of know the answer but all the important details are missing.”
He gave me a ‘seriously’ look. “But that college essay doesn’t come back to bite you on the—on the golf course.”
“Fair enough. I wonder why Hazel would lie to me?”
“She probably figured you’d hear that she left the company. She wanted to make it seem like she was moving on to bigger and better things. Far as I know, she’ll be unemployed.”
“Now I’m feeling depressed about Hazel. She’s been putting on such a brave face. But it explains why every time I brought up the job at Tremaine’s she looked kind of confused. Anyhow, I’ve got to open up the shop. Let Redmond know that if he needs a statement about your sleepwalking habit, I’d be happy to tell him what I know.”
“Thanks for stopping by, Lacey. After my socks came back with matching soil samples from the murder site, I was starting to really fear for my sanity. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it.”
I opened the door and smiled back at him. “Because you were tipsy on cold medicine. Lay off that hard stuff. It’s ruined plenty of people’s lives.”
He laughed as I walked out. I’d always liked his laugh.
Chapter 35
Ryder was pouring water into the three Valentine’s arrangements in the front, staring absently out the window as I pulled off my coat and put away my things.
“Everything all right?” I asked.
I’d pulled him from his thoughts. “Huh?” He gave his head a shake. “Yes, fine. We had another twelve orders.”
“Wonderful. I’ll tally them up and make sure we have everything we need.” As I spoke, he seemed to have drifted back to his daydream. It seemed to be an unhappy one at that.
I decided not to pry. But he just didn’t seem himself.
“I broke it off with Cherise,”
he said suddenly.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Ryder. What happened?”
He walked back from the window. “She was trying to control me too much. Telling me when and where and what I should do. I need someone who’s a free spirit like me.”
My gaze drifted across the street to Lola’s Antiques where Lola was moving antique chairs around in a sidewalk display. She had a black bowler pulled down over her red curls and she was wearing her favorite vintage Led Zeppelin t-shirt. I was still convinced Ryder and Lola were right for each other. But I had promised myself to stay out of it.
“Well, I’m here now, Ryder. If you need to take the rest of the day off, feel free.”
“I might leave around noon. Some of my friends are heading out on a whale watching cruise. The weather’s so nice today, I thought I might join them.”
“Perfect.” I picked up the folder that was nearly bursting with Valentine’s orders. As I lifted it, one of the order sheets slipped out and drifted to the ground, landing right near the trash can. I leaned over to pick it up and got a strong whiff of sage. Apparently, Ryder had given up on his sage bundles. He’d thrown them all away.
My nose filled with the scent again. “That’s it,” I muttered to myself. “That’s the earthy smell on the cigarette.”
“Uh oh,” Ryder said as I was still kneeled behind the island. “He’s back and he still looks upset.”
“Who is that?” I asked as I leaned farther under the island to retrieve the order.
The goat bell clanged extra loud.
“She’s still not back?” Detective Briggs’ urgent, loud voice filled the store.
I popped up from behind the counter.
His jaw had been tight with worry, but it slowly relaxed when he saw me. “Lacey.” There was a perceptible drop of his shoulders as he said my name. “You’re here.”
I looked around. “It is my shop.”
The few seconds of what I could only read as relief on his face morphed to something harsher. “What on earth were you thinking, Lacey?” It was a tone I’d never heard before. He wasn’t even trying to call me Miss Pinkerton. And he was using far more arm gestures than usual. In short, Briggs was anything but his usual cool, smooth as cream self. “It was reckless of you. Those small planes are dangerous and then the pilot—” He scoffed. “Don’t even get me started on the pilot.”
“I won’t because that subject always ends up turning into an argument, and it seems we are about to enter one without even bringing up Dash. How did you know I went on a plane ride?”
His face turned toward Ryder.
Ryder hesitantly raised up his hand. “In my defense, I didn’t know it was a secret.”
“It wasn’t and you’re not the one who needs to apologize, Ryder.” I turned back to Briggs.
Briggs tapped his chest. “Who me? I have no apology to offer.”
“Think I’ll just head next door for a coffee,” Ryder muttered as he hurried out the door.
“You come barging in here lecturing me and telling me I’m reckless, and you don’t feel the slightest bit inclined to apologize?”
That wonderfully masculine jaw of his shifted side to side, pretending to mull it over. “Nope,” he said with a firm shake of the head. “No inclination. You should apologize to me.”
I laughed. “Now that’s rich. Why should I apologize?”
His features softened as he stepped toward the island. His dark gaze held mine for a moment. “Because I’ve been worried sick. I’ve hardly gotten a lick of work done all morning. All I could think about was you up there in a rattling old tin can with—never mind.”
I stuck the rogue order back into the folder and smiled at him. “You were worried about me?”
“I’ve got more than a few gray hairs, and I could swear they weren’t there before you moved into town. I’m just glad your feet are back on solid ground. Now maybe I can get some work done.” He turned to leave.
“Wait. I have some interesting details that I think might help the case.”
“Of course you do. So glad you’re steering clear of the whole thing.”
I held up my hands in surrender. “No crime in talking to old friends.”
“And ex-boyfriends,” he added.
“Jeez, when something gets stuck in your craw, you just don’t let it go.” I came around to his side of the island. “First of all, this might sound like a stretch but Jacob sleepwalks when he’s had too much cold medicine. I’ve witnessed it firsthand. Strike that. That’s not altogether true. We were on a vacation in the Bahamas with some of the board members.”
“Nice.”
“Yes, well, Jacob was a catch before he was no longer a catch. But that’s not the point. He was sick for most of the vacation.”
“He does seem to be rather delicate.”
“Yes, I see that now that I’m on the outside of his world. It’s easy to overlook things when you think you’re in love.”
“Think?”
I huffed in aggravation. “Are you going to heckle me through this entire story?”
“Nope, I’m done. Go ahead.”
“Jacob was taking a lot of cold medicine, and it made him extra groggy. He woke up one morning and his bed and hotel room were filled with a bunch of unexplained sand. All indications were that he had been sleepwalking out on the beach. Apparently, it was something he did a lot as a kid.”
“I suppose that’s what the lawyer is coming to see me about today.”
“I’m sure of it. Oh, and I nearly forgot, because of the way you entered the store ranting and raving.”
“I don’t rant and I hardly ever rave.” He had returned to the calm, cool detective I knew so well.
“Right. Anyhow, when I did the second smell check on the cigarette and the pillow I smelled a faint earthy scent. I didn’t bring it up because I couldn’t really tell what it was. I figured it might have been a natural scent from the cigarette. But now I know it was sage, dried sage to be exact.”
He waited for a longer explanation to go with it.
“Ryder was trying to sell bunches of dried sage. It’s supposed to have a calming effect on nerves. He probably should’ve handed you a bundle this morning,” I interjected and continued quickly before he could respond. “I’ve got a wild theory about how the smell got on the cigarette and pillow, but I don’t want to share it quite yet. I need to pull together a few more details.”
“All right, just as long as you stay out of the investigation.” Sarcasm dripped from his words.
“I’m staying on the outside. You stay on the inside. And maybe we’ll meet in the middle.”
He seemed amused by my plan, but he didn’t oppose it. “I’m waiting on some lab results that I think might lead to a charge today.”
“Oh really?”
“And I have you to thank for that.”
“Oh dear, what have I done now?” I asked.
“Your last inspection of the cigarette got me thinking. We’d found it in Mr. Georgio’s trailer and just assumed it belonged to him. But when you mentioned the absence of menthol, I decided to have it checked for DNA. His employees, who are anxious to get back to the city now, were all very willing to have their cheek’s swabbed in case his didn’t match. All of them except one, that is.”
“Let me guess, Hazel Bancroft?”
His eyes widened. “Yes, how did you know?”
“Lucky hunch.”
Briggs shook his head. “Your hunches are never just hunches, but as you said, hopefully we’ll meet peacefully in the middle on this one.” He cast me a more stern look. “Just remember what happened the last time you approached the murderer on your own.”
A tiny shiver ran through me as it always did when I thought about the last case we worked on where I nearly became a victim. “I will tread carefully this time. Trust me, I never want a repeat of that horrifying scenario.”
Chapter 36
I had the shop to myself. Because of my early morning adventure with
Dash, I had left Kingston at home, something I was regretting now. I could have used the support of a trusted buddy. I had paced the shop floor at least a dozen times, trying to organize the thoughts in my head.
I had invited Hazel to visit the shop so we could see each other before she left town. I decided not to bring up the new job or the embarrassing photo on Instagram. I didn’t want to scare her off. I just wanted to gently nudge some information out of her. When my mind had finally settled on the possibility that Hazel had killed Jasper, I’d set right to work talking myself out of the hideous notion. Hazel was one of the sweetest people I knew. There just wasn’t any way the woman who always met everyone early Monday morning with a smile and a box of donuts, donuts that she hand selected to make sure everyone had their favorite, had killed someone. Unfortunately, it seemed things had gone somewhat awry for her in the time since I’d left the company. I was more than shocked to hear Jacob criticize her work. I wondered if the terrible picture had thrown her life into disarray more than I’d even considered.
I’d been so deep in thought, I hadn’t seen Hazel walk past the window and was startled when the shop bell rang. She looked much cheerier than the last time I’d seen her, which helped ease some of the tension in my shoulders. She seemed like her old self.
“It’s so much warmer today.” She was still wearing the bright blue sweater. She pushed up the sleeves and held up her arm to display a big chunky, white and blue bracelet. “Look at this. I love that Mod Frock. And the owner is very knowledgeable and stylish. I told her she should pick up and move to the city with her shop.”
I ignored the backhanded dig at our small town and walked over to show interest in her newest purchase. The sleeves of the sweater fell down again, and she brusquely pushed them back. In that second, all of the earlier tension returned. As Hazel shoved the fabric of the sweater back, I caught a scent, a very distinctive scent. It was Jacob’s cologne.
Up until then, I’d had many links, but they hadn’t formed a real chain until now.
“The bracelet goes nicely with the sweater.” My voice sounded strained to my ears, but Hazel didn’t seem to notice. “You look much happier than the last time I saw you,” I noted. “What’s changed?”
Roses and Revenge (Port Danby Cozy Mystery Book 4) Page 16