A Bead in the Hand (Glass Bead Mystery Series Book 2)

by Janice Peacock

  I raised my hands in surrender, but mostly to show her I wasn’t holding anything. She glowered at me. We were in a stand-off, and she wasn’t moving until… what, I didn’t know.

  Lowering my hands, I pulled Miles’s key card out of my pocket.

  “See, I’m okay. I’m a guest at this hotel. Here’s my key.” I hoped she understood what I was saying because there was no way I could manage to say it in Spanish. “I was confused and came to the wrong room,” I fibbed and flashed another smile. She wasn’t buying it.

  She pointed toward the elevator and shouted a single English word.

  “Go!”

  I walked as quickly as possible to the elevator door, trying to be speedy but also nonchalant, in that I didn’t just try and break into a crime scene way. I hoped the maid wasn’t going to call security, because I wasn’t looking forward to explaining this escapade to Ryan or one of the other security guards.

  SIXTEEN

  BACK IN THE LOBBY, I dropped into a slick vinyl chair, glad I’d escaped from that catastrophe. Once again, I found myself looking down at my Chucks. They rested on fancy carpeting that looked like it could use a good steam cleaning, or better yet, replacement—some of the stains looked like they might never come out.

  For the second time this weekend, a shiny pair of high-heeled sandals entered my field of vision. Oh geez. Tiffany had finished her chat with Miles and was back to make her next demand. The feet in front of me had the same pink toenails I’d seen last night. Earlier, when we were together, I hadn’t noticed Tiffany’s feet. With the rest of her practical clothes, she must have felt she could let loose a little with cute sandals.

  I followed the legs up. These were not Tiffany’s legs, skirt, blouse, or face. I nearly fell over.

  “Val?”

  “Bruno, he came over, and I was with Rudy—”

  “Val, what are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Bruno was so angry, I thought he was going to punch Rudy, even though he and I are just friends!”

  “Val, what are you doing here?” I asked again.

  “I slammed the door in Bruno’s face and got out of town—”

  “Val, who’s taking care of Stanley?” I hoped that asking a different question might derail her from the frantic telling of her story.

  “I dropped him off at Tessa’s. I just had to get out of there.”

  Craig had his hands full with the kids, without adding a high-maintenance dog to the mix. I hoped Tessa’s house would still be standing when we got back on Monday.

  “And Gumdrop? Where’s Gumdrop?” I asked.

  “Do you know if they allow pets at this hotel?”

  “Do not tell me you brought Gumdrop with you.”

  “Okay, I won’t tell you.”

  An oversized neon pink tote was sitting at Val’s feet. It had a strange boxy shape. I knelt down and listened. A deep purr vibrated from inside the bag.

  “You brought Gumdrop with you?”

  “I couldn’t leave him at home. He’d get lonely.”

  “Actually, Val, Gumdrop doesn’t understand about lonely. He really wouldn’t have cared. In fact, he might have been glad to have all of us out of his house for a while.” Gumdrop thought of the house as his own, and that I was merely his servant, feeding him twice a day, and supplying him with the occasional cube of frozen catnip.

  “I was worried about him, and I didn’t want to leave him at home in case Bruno came back.”

  “How did you manage to drive down here without going insane from Gummie’s howling?” The cat and I had driven from Miami to Seattle a few years ago. For the first couple of hours, all he did was howl, “Yelloooo. Yellllllooooo. YeLLOOO.” I finally had to drug him with a kitty Ambien before I lost my mind.

  “I gave him a double dose of catnip,” Val told me. “Can a cat overdose on catnip? Because he seemed pretty limp after the second cube.” Gumdrop was addicted to the tiny catnip-infused ice cubes that I make for him. I wished I’d never introduced him to the stuff. He had become a little drug addict.

  “I don’t know, Val, but he’s alive, because I can hear him purring. Next time, though, only one cube at a time.”

  “Oh, and the other thing is that I played him some classical music on the ride down, and he seemed to really like that.”

  “Classical?” I’d never thought to try that.

  “Oh yes, he especially liked Taco Bell’s ‘Canon in D,’” Val said.

  “Do you mean Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D?’”

  “It made me so hungry we had to stop for tacos.”

  Time to change directions here before Val had anything more to say about classical music and Mexican food.

  “We’d better get out of the lobby before someone realizes you’re smuggling a cat. And before Gummie comes out of his catnip-daze and starts yowling,” I said.

  Val grabbed her giant pink tote with my cat inside. I walked her toward the elevator. She looked nervous.

  “Jax, you know that thing I said about this hotel? You know about the g-h-o-s-t-s,” Val said. I couldn’t understand why she felt she needed to spell, because if any ghosts were listening, it’s likely they’d know how to spell.

  “I haven’t seen a single ghost,” I said, reassuring her. I realized she didn’t know about Saundra. “Look, Val, I’m going to need your help. We’ve had a murder—”

  “Oh honey, you didn’t kill someone, did you?” asked Val.

  “No. Seriously, Val, concentrate.”

  “What can I do to help?” asked Val.

  I gave Val the Readers’ Digest version of the weekend’s events. “Here’s my key card for room 611. Go on up, let Gumdrop out of the tote, and put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door,” I said. “Tessa and I are sharing a room. We’ll get a roll-away bed for you. There will be plenty of space. Did you bring anything other than Gumdrop?”

  “Oh, yes, I’ve got an overnight bag in my car for occasions such as these.”

  “Occasions in which a deranged boyfriend causes you to flee your house with a neighbor’s cat to come to a bead bazaar?”

  “In general, any emergency situation.”

  “Val, I’m going to have trouble doing much snooping around because all of the vendors already know me and Tessa. But they don’t know you.”

  “Got it. You want me to interrogate everyone.”

  “No. No, I don’t want that.”

  Val looked at me with a pout, her glossy bottom lip sticking out.

  “What I want you to do is go shopping.” Val seemed to perk up immediately. “I want you to go through the ballroom and shop at several of the booths to see if you can overhear anything the other vendors have to say about Saundra, or anything that seems suspicious.”

  “I can do that,” she said, leaning in with a conspiratorial grin.

  “Take Gummie up to the room and then come back down and get started. Here’s a map,” I said, grabbing a brochure with a layout of the booths. “I’m circling all of the vendors that I want you to visit.”

  “I can do this. You can count on me, honey.”

  “And make sure it looks like you and I have never met.”

  “Got it,” Val said, giving me a little salute and nearly poking herself in the eye with her long red thumbnail.

  “Wear this necklace, so you look like just another bead lady,” I said, taking off my choker, a beautiful piece made with three large beads of clear glass with purple and sparkling gold aventurine swirls.

  “Oh, sparkly, I like it,” Val said.

  The elevator arrived, and Val stepped in, lugging the enormous tote with my cat inside.

  “Why is it so chilly in this elevator?” Val asked as the doors started to close. “Do you think it’s poltergeists?”

  The doors closed before I could answer. I didn’t think it was poltergeists.

  SEVENTEEN

  TESSA WAS PACING BACK and forth behind my table when I skidded to a stop in front of it.

  “Why did you take so long? What
happened?”

  I told Tessa all about my failed attempt to enter Saundra’s room. As I was about to tell her about Val, I noticed that she was staring wide-eyed at a voluptuous redhead entering the bead bazaar.

  “That looks just like—” Tessa said.

  “Val? Yes, that’s because it is Val.”

  “What? What is Val doing here? She’s not a bead lady.”

  “She is today. There was a crisis at home. She’s apparently staying for the weekend. I asked her to do some snooping around. Everyone knows us, or at least they know me, because I’m the one who found the body.”

  “Who’s watching Stanley?” Tessa asked.

  “He’s staying with a friend,” I said vaguely, deciding I didn’t need to tell her that the minimally-potty-trained dog had been added to the chaos at her house this weekend.

  “And Gumdrop, where is he?”

  It was going to be harder to avoid answering this question.

  “He’s, um, he’s…”

  “Do not tell me. Just do not tell me she brought your cat with her.”

  “Okay, I won’t tell you,” I said. “Just be careful when you open the door to the room, so he doesn’t escape.”

  “Che casino,” she muttered.

  Tessa used the phrase a lot around me. It meant “What a disaster” in Italian. She often switched into her native language during times of stress or when she was drunk. I’m sure she wished she’d been drinking. I had a feeling that would happen tonight.

  I filled Tessa in on my conversations with Tiffany and Sal.

  “Listen to this—Sal said Luke lost a lot of money on non-refundable airline tickets when Saundra was a no-show at a class in Southern California,” I said. “And, of course, he said that Saundra was rude to her students—including Luke. That could make him angry enough to do something rash.” We looked across the ballroom and watched Luke as he adjusted a necklace around a petite blonde, her face flushed with excitement—or was that embarrassment?—from all the attention Luke was lavishing on her. Luke was well-known, or perhaps a better word was notorious, for being a ladies’ man. He was rugged and tan, and looked like he spent more time in the outback than in a studio designing necklaces. With his lovely Aussie accent, no one—well, no woman—was immune to his charms. He laid it on especially thick when selling in his booth. He’d put a necklace on me once, and I swear, I needed a cold shower after that.

  “He seems like he’s more of a lover than a fighter—or killer,” I said.

  “But what about Sal? Isn’t he also a suspect?” Tessa asked.

  “I guess so. Anyone who was here on Preview Night could be a suspect.”

  “Not just that, Jax, think about it. Luke wasn’t the only one who lost money when Saundra didn’t show up for class,” Tessa said.

  “That’s right, Sal would have had to refund money to all the people who had planned to attend,” I said. “That could be thousands of dollars.”

  “And he wouldn’t have gotten a refund on any of the classroom space he rented.”

  “Okay, so Luke’s on the suspect list, plus Sal,” I said. Both men seemed shady enough to do some unsavory things, but I couldn’t believe murder was one of them.

  EIGHTEEN

  TESSA HAD RETURNED from her latest shopping spree with a bag of books about everything from beadmaking to macramé, and dumped it under my table.

  “Whew!” she said, taking a seat next to me. “I’m going to have to stop for a while and rest.”

  “Hi, ladies,” said Val in a whisper as she arrived at my table, trying to look like a casual shopper. She looked around cautiously, to see if anyone was watching.

  “Having fun?” I asked.

  “I’m not going to stand here long. I don’t want anyone to get suspicious of us,” said Val. “I can give you a full report later tonight.”

  “Are you done shopping?” Tessa asked.

  “Yes. I’m all burned-out on beads. I mean, really, don’t you get tired of looking at beads?”

  “No,” we responded in unison.

  “I mean, really, when do you finally have enough beads?”

  “Never,” Tessa and I responded. We needed Bead-o-holics Anonymous.

  “Seriously?” Val said. “I’ve got to do something else. I can’t look at another bead.”

  “What are you going to do then?” I asked.

  “I heard there’s a fun place called the Saturday Market. It’s supposed to have arts and crafts and artisanal food. You know how I love to eat yummy things. And I heard it can be a real hot spot for singles.”

  “Val—wait. We’ll be done at five, so meet us back in the room and we’ll go have dinner,” Tessa said.

  “Okay, ladies. Sounds good. Unless I get a better offer. I better go now, before anyone gets suspicious,” Val said as she gave us a discreet wave and swished out the door.

  “I’m going to check out that sale on Thai silver beads,” Tessa said. “Anything I can get for you?”

  “No, I’ve at least a pound of those at home.”

  “See you back in the room,” Tessa said, before making a beeline for the table on the opposite side of the ballroom.

  Adriana approached my table. Today she was wearing all white with a long cascading necklace of Swarovski crystals. Val would have exactly two things to say about the outfit: That it was too far past Labor Day to be wearing white and that the necklace Adriana was wearing was her favorite piece of jewelry because of how sparkly it was.

  “How’s the sale going for you?” Adriana said, picking up a handful of bargain beads and rattling them like dice. She seemed nervous.

  “It’s going well, all things considered,” I replied.

  “Oh yes, I heard the terrible news about Sandy, I mean Saundra. Back in the old days before she became a big deal, that was what we all called her.” Now this was interesting news. Adriana knew Saundra, and had known her for a long time.

  “I hope you’ll be joining us for karaoke tonight at Club Arigato,” Adriana said.

  “I’m not much of a singer.” Not a singer at all.

  “Oh, none of us are. It’s just our chance to have fun. Don’t make us come and drag you there,” Adriana said with finality. In her mind the matter was settled: I was going out tonight.

  I had just been Shanghaied to a Japanese—not a Chinese—restaurant.

  • • •

  My phone rang while I was sitting behind my sales table. I answered it.

  “Jax. Hi. It’s Zachary Grant. I’m glad I reached you.”

  Detective Grant, the prickly Seattle detective I’d met a few months before, was calling me. How strange.

  “Hi,” I said, trying to find some words that would make sense right now.

  “I suppose you’re wondering why I’m calling. I was driving by your house—”

  “Driving by? Just happened to be in the neighborhood?” I asked. I wondered how often Zachary drove by. Val had said he’d stopped by looking for me last week. Curious.

  “Ahem.” Zachary cleared his throat. He sounded nervous. “Yes, well, I thought I’d stop by. You’re not home, are you?”

  “No, I’m in Portland this weekend.”

  “That’s good because there is a burly man standing on your front steps. He looks angry, like he’s waiting for someone.”

  Bruno. Val was not exaggerating, as she often did, about her crazy boyfriends. Bruno must have been looking for Val. I was glad she was safe with me. Safe, except for the murderer who was lurking around the hotel somewhere.

  “Oh yes, I know who that is. He threatened my neighbor Val and her friend Rudy.”

  “Do you want me to send some officers over to move him along?”

  “I think that would be good. Thanks.”

  “And Jax, do you mind if I stop by some other time?” Zachary asked, with a warmth I’d not expected to hear.

  “Sure, I’d like that,” I said. The stern detective might not be as prickly as I thought.

  • • •


  The bazaar finally closed for the day. I grabbed my handbag and Tessa’s sack of books, and headed for the lobby. When I got to the elevator, Vance was waiting for it. “After you,” said Vance, holding the door open for me.

  “Thanks,” I said, as the doors clunked shut.

  “Sorry your table display got taken away,” Vance said.

  “Tessa and I came up with some creative solutions for making my booth look presentable. I just wish I had some lights.”

  “Hey, you know, I have some lights you can use.”

  “That would be amazing, thanks.”

  “Let’s get off at my floor, and I’ll get them for you.”

  When Vance opened the door to his room and I saw what was inside, my heart stopped. He—and Lin—were kinky. Very kinky.

  His print advertisements were always over the top—his wife dressed in outrageous garb—but what he had stored in his room was much more extreme than anything I’d ever seen in any of his magazine ads. Vance and Lin were into bondage, discipline, and whatever SM stands for in BDSM. I wasn’t familiar with all the ways people could punish each other in the bedroom, but they seemed to have covered all the bases.

  “Vance?” I said, standing in the open door, unsure if I wanted to enter what looked like a torture chamber. I stared around the room, full of all sorts of kinky accouterments: leather cuffs with rings, high heeled thigh-high boots, a whip, a cattle prod, and red satin ropes. It was too much for me, especially the cattle prod.

  He noticed my hesitation. “Oh, don’t worry, it’s nothing. It’s just some props for our next photo shoot,” he said, rummaging around in a black crate on the floor. “Here they are.”

  I took a few hesitant steps into the room, leaving the door open. Vance handed me two adjustable photography lamps. They would work fine as impromptu lights for my displays.

  “I’d better get going,” I said. This room was giving me the creeps, and I didn’t want to stay a moment longer than I needed to. “Thanks for the lights; they’ll help brighten things up at the new table.”