Tea Shop Cozy Mysteries - Books 1-6

by Katherine Hayton

  Trisha snorted. “One flash of her claws and he’d probably back down. He reminds me of a boy who used to bully me in junior high.”

  “I’m sorry. Did the teachers sort him out for you?”

  Trisha shook her head, revealing a small, wicked smile. “No. I gave him a thump one day after class and told him I hated him. Apparently, all the hair pulling was because he liked me so when I said that, the boy burst into tears.”

  Willow laughed in sympathy. She remembered quite a few incidents of hair-pulling at school herself. The only one that had ever really hurt had been in elementary when her best friend Sarah had decided that they were no longer friends. The jerk on her ponytail as she walked off to sit with another group of girls had been the final insult. Harmony had wandered over to see if Willow was okay and the rest was history.

  “It looks like they sorted out the issue with the script,” Trisha said, once again pointing to a blurred blob that Willow presumed was a person. “Now, it’s Presley Sampson that looks hacked off.”

  A few seconds later, while Willow continued to strain to make out any recognizable features at all, Trisha inhaled sharply.

  “What?” Willow cried out. When Trisha took a second too long to speak, she pounded on the rug and gave a laugh full of frustration. “Tell me! What is it?”

  “I think I know why the director was giving Polly more lines,” Trisha whispered. She checked behind her before leaning closer to say, “I just saw him give her a hug that reached into places it shouldn’t.”

  Willow put a hand up to cover her mouth. Of course, she’d heard all kinds of tales about stars and directors but for it to happen on Miss Walsham? Scandalous. A second later, she leaned in, pressing Trisha for more details.

  “What happened? Where exactly did he put his hand? Are you sure?”

  Trisha burst into laughter, clapping a hand over her mouth when the nearby onlookers turned to stare. “It wasn’t anything too rude, just overly familiar for a working relationship if you get what I mean.”

  Willow hugged herself, at the same time not wanting to be a gossip but also wanting to know absolutely every last tidbit. “I can’t believe that with the choice of two actresses on set, he’d go for Polly.”

  “She is a few years younger than Miss Walsham,” Trisha said with a slight air of bitterness in her voice. “It shouldn’t surprise you all that much.”

  “What do years matter when you’re talking about a two-bit actress and a star?”

  “All quiet on the set,” a man called out to the crowd, holding a finger up to his lips in case they hadn’t understood. “We’re about to roll film in a minute, and we don’t want to do any retakes due to excessive noise.”

  Willow mimed a zip across her lips and pulled Mavis into her lap to make sure the kitten didn’t run off again. Trisha gave her a nudge with her elbow and Willow turned a delighted face toward her, seeing exactly the same expression mirrored.

  “I can’t believe this is really happening,” Willow whispered, then squeezed her eyes shut for a moment in a paroxysm of joy. “We’ll see Miss Walsham in action, live!”

  Chapter Three

  Willow could barely stand to watch since her excitement levels were so high. She wanted to run and burn off her energy but instead contained herself to thumping her hand down flat on the rug and giving an occasional squeal.

  Once, when she was a lot younger, Willow had gone along to see a band that had been top of the charts. She could hardly recognize their name a year later, but at the time she’d been over the moon at the opportunity. When the music started, her teenage self had given the sound system a run for its money with her screams of joy.

  For a moment, as Thera stepped forward to say the first lines in the scene, Willow found herself back at that moment. Just like when the band had come onstage, she wanted to wave her arms about in the air and scream.

  A lot of years had passed in between the two events though, and Willow acted her age. However, it was a close call.

  “Sorry,” a man called out from the edge of the scene area. Willow guessed he was a sound man since he clutched a boom mic in his hand and was now examining the head.

  A second later, Claud yelled, “Cut!”

  Thera Bourne turned with a frown of annoyance. “What’s the matter? Didn’t I get the right line?”

  “You were perfect, Thera,” Claud said. “What’s the problem, Angel?”

  For a moment, Willow thought he was using a term of endearment, but then the sound man responded to the name. “It’s just there’s a crackle on the line. I don’t know where it’s coming from, but if you could start the scene again from the beginning, that’d be great.”

  Thera sniffed and turned back to the director, hands on hips. “I thought you said you were bringing along the best crew,” she scolded him. “Now, I’ve got to stand out in the hot sun for another half hour while pollen lands all over me and gets my allergies all fired up.” As if to punctuate her complaint, she gave a light sneeze.

  “I’m sure I can sort it out in a minute,” Angel called out. “The static in the air must be higher than normal.”

  “Why don’t we all take a short break?” Claud got up from his director’s chair and waved for everybody’s attention. “We’ll start again from the top when we come back. Give it fifteen minutes.”

  The other crew members wandered off, and Thera gave a snort before heading back to her trailer. The director walked over to the man on the edge of the set.

  “I thought you and Thera had a thing.” To Willow’s ears, Claud sounded casual, but from the hard set of his face, he was holding back a strong emotion. Anger maybe, or jealousy. “If this is some strange way to air out an argument between the two of you, I want you to call it quits right now.”

  “Believe me, I’m not staging this for Thera’s benefit,” Angel said with an edge to his voice. “Do you think I want to be standing out in this field in the middle of the day for any longer than I have to? I’ve already got a headache trying to keep the extraneous sounds down to a minimum. If I could work out a way to get out of here half a day sooner, I’d be doing it right now.”

  “Okay. Well, fix it up as soon as you can, okay? If I have to call into the studio to tell them we’ll need an extra day on the outdoor scenes, they’ll string me up alive. We’re already running over budget on these specials. If we don’t get the show in the can today, count yourself fired.”

  Claud stalked back to the director’s chair, then changed his mind at the last minute and headed for the trailers instead. He hesitated with his hand raised to knock on the door that Thera had disappeared inside, then appeared to change his mind and moved to the co-star’s unit.

  Trisha gave a low whistle. She looked just as entranced with every minute of action off the stage as Willow was interested in the actors when they were on it. “I wonder how many relationships are going on between the cast and crew? It seems they’re a very tightly knit bunch.”

  Willow laughed at Trisha’s pursed lips and raised eyebrows. Inside, however, she felt a tiny jolt of disappointment. In her mind, Thera Bourne was synonymous with Miss Walsham and therefore should only carry on with the character that her on-screen persona had taken a fancy to.

  Watching the interplay between her, the sound man Angel, and the director Claud wasn’t nearly as much fun.

  “Oops. I think your kitten has made a break for it,” Trisha said, pointing to where the ball of fluff was disappearing under a table.

  Willow gave a shake of her head. She’d been so entranced by all the action she hadn’t even noticed Mavis crawling out of her lap. Now she had to hurry down the slight hillside slope to follow the cat.

  “Come on, Mavis. I’ve still got some chicken if you’re a good girl and come straight out.” Willow clucked her tongue and snapped her fingers, but the kitten just retreated farther under the table.

  The ground was so soggy down here that Willow didn’t want to get down on her hands and knees. That would completely
ruin her good sundress. Instead, she tried to duck walk as far underneath as she could get.

  Mavis treated her advancement as a game, squeezing herself into an impossible space beside a tangle of cords and wires. They were fastened to a multiplug board, and as Willow reached out for the kitten, it nimbly jumped behind the plugs and peered out through a thicket of electrical cords.

  “Bad kitty, Mavis. If you don’t come out of there right now, I’ll have to eat all of the chicken sandwiches by myself!”

  Unfortunately, the threat didn’t faze Mavis at all, and she continued to crouch in place.

  “Fine. I hope you understand that I’ll look like an absolute mess for the rest of the day. You’ll have to hang your head in shame at the looks I’ll be receiving!”

  With the warning in place, Willow got down onto her hands and knees and crawled underneath the table. Mavis shrank back a little, which made her feel terrible, but the kitten couldn’t stay there all day. The crew would come back soon and start filming again. A cat on the loose might interrupt them at an inopportune moment.

  “Come on,” Willow said, trying to get her hand around the jungle of dangling wires to pluck Mavis out to safety. “Don’t be a scaredy-cat!” Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t reach the kitten and felt a bit worried. What with the puddles all over the place, the tangle of electric cords didn’t appear very safe.

  When she’d crawled as far under the table as she could humanly manage and still couldn’t extract Mavis, Willow pulled out the plugs. If it upset the crew, then so be it. Her poor kitten now trembled in fright, and her own stomach was knotted with anxiety.

  Once she pulled the fourth plug out of the board, Willow could finally reach through and cradle Mavis up to her chest. One handed, she tried her best to put everything back where it had been, then backed up and out from under the table once the cords were back in place.

  Just as she thought the two of them had gotten away unseen, Willow backed straight into somebody. “Oh, dear. What on Earth are you doing under there?” Thera Bourne called out. “Do you need some help?”

  Willow turned around, so star-struck that her mouth refused to work and tell the woman she was okay. Luckily, the actress saw Mavis and sensed what had happened. She gave a small chuckle and smiled. “That’s why they tell us never to work with animals or children.”

  After a moment spent frozen in place, Willow finally found her voice. She joined in with Thera’s laughter, wondering all the time if this was a dream. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t get in your way,” she said, then ducked her head down to hide a blush. “You’re my favorite actress playing my favorite character of all time!”

  “Well, that is a big compliment, I’m sure,” Thera said. She held her hand out to Willow to help her to her feet. “It’s nice to meet you, number one fan.”

  “It’s lovely to make your acquaintance too,” Willow said, her eyes welling up with emotional tears. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  “I’d offer to pinch you, but that would probably land me in trouble with the risk assessors,” Thera said with another chuckle. “You’ll have to pinch yourself, I’m afraid.”

  “Can everybody get back in place?” Claud yelled out, jerking Willow out of her moment of star-struck fandom. “We’re about to roll.”

  “I’ll let you get back to it,” Willow said, giving a small curtsey. She practically ran all the way to rejoin Trisha on the picnic rug. “Did you see who I just met?”

  While Trisha squealed, Willow returned Mavis to the picnic basket and locked the lid so that the kitten could only peer through the slit in the top rather than crawl out.

  As she then joined her friend in jumping up and down in excitement, Willow caught sight of herself. Her dress was sticky with mud, and she saw it covered her hands as well. “Is there dirt on my face?” she asked Trisha in sudden horror. When the woman nodded and burst out laughing, it didn’t ease her concerns.

  “She’s going to think I’m a complete grub, thanks to you!” Willow said in a stern voice to Mavis. Since she’d already put her in kitty jail, though, there didn’t seem much else to do. “Is there a bathroom around here I could clean up in?”

  That gave Trisha another laugh. “No. It’s a park, not a beauty parlor. Besides, you’ve already met the great lady looking your worst. It hardly matters now if you scrub all the mud off yourself.”

  The words were unfortunately true. For all that Willow had long dreamed of meeting Thera Bourne, these weren’t the circumstances she’d been expecting.

  “Just think,” Trisha said with a quick hug around Willow’s shoulders. “This will make a really great anecdote one of these days.”

  “I guess.” Willow swallowed her disappointment and gave a smile. “I bet she’ll remember me more than if I’d walked up to her looking like a million dollars.”

  “She sure will.”

  * * *

  With the cameras rolling again, the scene played out in front of Willow and Trisha. The great lady hit all her lines and the various co-stars involved in the particular scene didn’t draw attention to themselves.

  “I can’t imagine how this will fit into a storyline,” Willow whispered to Trisha as the director called cut, and the actors moved back into their trailers. “It’ll be strange to watch the show from the beginning. This can be its own mystery—how does the scene fit together with all the bits we didn’t see being filmed.”

  “That’s fitting, isn’t it?” Trisha said. She lay down on her back on the grass, one hand over her eyes to protect them from the sun overhead. “I hope we don’t see the great reveal, or it might spoil the episode for us!”

  “I can’t imagine that watching this would spoil anything. Just make it all the better when it finally screens on TV.”

  “Presley!” the same rabid fan from before screamed. He was standing a few yards away this time, but the shrillness of his voice cut through the background murmur of the crowd. “Presley Sampson. Can I get your autograph?”

  The woman waved back at the fan, but she was in the middle of getting touch-ups to her makeup. When the lady helping her took away the paper bib that had protected her dress from the powder, the weird man ran forward and grabbed it out of her hand before she could throw it away.

  “Hey,” the makeup lady yelled, but she didn’t run after the man to stop him. At the end of the day, it was just a piece of rubbish that otherwise would have gone in the bin.

  “I thought I was a big fan,” Trisha said in a musing voice. “But that man puts me to shame.”

  “He puts himself to shame, more like,” Willow said with a disapproving glare in his direction. She still hadn’t forgiven him for the earlier disturbance.

  “Oh, look. They’re setting up over by the trees. I wonder if that’s for a later scene.”

  “If they make a move over there, we can always follow them but so long as the cameramen are staying put over here, so am I.”

  Willow pulled a handful of dried fruit out of the picnic basket, ignoring the entreaties of Mavis to be set free. She pulled out the last chicken salad sandwich and give the kitten a small bite to show her she wasn’t holding a grudge, but she wouldn’t let her out. Not with the crew about to shoot the next scene.

  “How’s the microphone working?” Claud called out to Angel.

  The sound man gave a thumb-down and walked closer to the table, fiddling with the stand. “I’m still getting a background crackle,” he called back. “I’ll try the spare in just a second and see if that works better.”

  “Well, hurry it up. We need to film pretty much right where you’re standing.”

  Angel sorted through the equipment and pulled a spare boom mic toward him. Thera Bourne stood nearby, waiting for him to move so she could hit her mark. Claud gave an anxious glance at his watch, then took his seat while Presley stood a few feet away.

  “This is such a great day,” Willow whispered to Trisha.

  Just as the words left her mouth, there was a pop of sou
nd followed by a fizzle. A woman behind them screamed, and Willow glanced over her shoulder to see what the problem was.

  Then Trisha grabbed her arm, yelling in fear and pointing in front of her, not behind. As Willow turned, she saw Angel jumping on the spot, before he collapsed to the ground. A shower of sparks sprayed out around him, landing on the back of his already burned dungarees.

  “Medic!” the director screamed and a second later a man sped across the set, pausing by the side of the puddle where the sound man had fallen.

  “Cut the electricity,” he yelled. A crew member ran to the on-site generator and turned off the engine, bringing its background whirr to an abrupt end.

  The medic paused for a moment, testing the ground in front of him with the tip of a sneakered toe before kneeling next to the felled Angel. He put his index finger to the man’s neck and the whole crowd held its collective breath as they waited for a determination.

  When the medic sat back on his heels and shook his head, Willow knew what was coming. Still, it was a shock when the man proclaimed, “He’s dead.”

  Chapter Four

  “I can’t believe something like this could happen,” Trisha said, wringing her hands. “Especially out here in front of everyone. Don’t they have people to check all the wiring before they let people wander about?”

  Willow pulled the distraught woman into a hug, though her own ability to comfort was numbed by shock. She shook her head. “I don’t understand it either.”

  Mavis batted at the lid of the wicker picnic basket, expressing her displeasure at still being held captive. As Willow walked over to pull her out—as much for her own comfort as for the kitten’s—her eyes widened. She remembered the tangle of cords and the feel as she unplugged them to free Mavis.

  Had she been the one to cause the poor sound man’s death?

  The blood drained out of Willow’s face, and her head jerked up as though someone else had leveled the accusation. Surely her innocent fiddling to retrieve Mavis couldn’t have resulted in something so awful?