Tea Shop Cozy Mysteries - Books 1-6

by Katherine Hayton

  The sheriff’s car pulled up next to the park and Willow’s heart filled with dread. There was no alternative. She must tell him what she’d done with the cords and admit to her culpability in what had happened. With a scoop of her hand, she pulled Mavis up close and rubbed her face against the kitten’s soft back. They wouldn’t let her take the pet into a prison cell with her. She should probably say her goodbyes.

  “What’s the matter?” Trisha asked. She must have noticed the misery spreading across Willow’s face.

  “I think I might have caused the accident.” Willow sighed and fought back the tears as she replaced Mavis in the picnic basket. When the kitten was safely tucked inside, she handed the whole thing over to Trisha. “Could you make sure that Mavis gets home? Harmony can look after her if I don’t make it back for a while.”

  Willow turned and raced off to meet Sheriff Wender before he wasted time making inquiries in the park. If she handed herself in as early as possible, perhaps the system would treat her more lightly.

  “Not now,” the sheriff said, holding a hand up as Willow approached. “I’m here on official business, and I’ll ask you questions when I’m good and ready. Not before.”

  “But I—”

  Willow tried anyway, but Sheriff Wender shook his head and pointed to a deputy pulling up in another car behind him. “If you’re that eager to share information, see Harvey. He’ll be able to sort you out.”

  The sheriff strode off, eating up the park in long strides. Willow followed his progress until he greeted the director, then turned back to the deputy with a raised eyebrow.

  Although she didn’t have complete trust in Sheriff Wender—after all, he’d been a year below her in school—Willow felt sure he had the good of the community foremost in his mind. She wasn’t familiar with Harvey at all and couldn’t be certain of his intentions. Better that she held her own counsel until the sheriff was free.

  Willow mumbled an excuse to the deputy and hurried back to where Trisha was still standing, nonplussed. “Change of plan,” she told the woman in a cheery voice. “I think we should call it a day and go home instead.”

  “That sounds good to me,” Trisha said, sounding relieved. “I can’t stand to hang around out here, knowing a man died so close by.”

  “Exactly.” Willow took the picnic basket off Trisha and placed it carefully down on the ground while they shook out and folded up the rug. “If you’d like a cup of tea to settle your nerves, we should be able to get back to the tea room before they stop service for the day.”

  “That would be fantastic.” Trisha waved Willow in front of her and stayed close on her heels as they left the park. “I wonder what will happen to the production, in light of such a serious accident? It could shut them down for weeks.”

  “More like months, or maybe even for good,” Harmony said when they explained to her what had happened. She shook her head. “Anything involving an accident at work is serious business. There’ll be an official investigation, of course, but I’m sure that the studio in charge will want answers too. It’s their insurance that will be on the line.”

  “They wouldn’t really take the show off air altogether, would they?” Willow rubbed her stomach as it tightened with anxiety. “It’s so popular, there’d be a public outcry.”

  “If the studio's insurance premiums go through the roof, it doesn’t matter how popular Miss Walsham Investigates is.” Harmony patted the back of Willow’s hand, but her words needed stronger comfort than that to take the sting away. “Plus, if they can’t get advertisers in their time slot, the station won’t buy the season.”

  “To think this morning, I was looking forward to seeing a live taping and now I might never see the show again!” Willow peered into the tea room. “Are there many customers left in there? I’d like to close up shop and have a cup of tea alone.”

  “Does that mean I’m disinvited?” Trisha said with a worried frown.

  “No! Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way at all. I just meant, alone with my friends, not with customers looking on.”

  “Tiffany served up the last table a few minutes ago,” Harmony answered. “So, it shouldn’t be too long before you can close the doors and have the place to yourself.”

  A knock came on the door, and Willow jumped. When she opened it, Sheriff Wender was standing on the doorstep. “Do you have time to answer a few questions?”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Willow said, though her insides were now so tense they belied her words. “I’ve got something to get off my chest.”

  “It looked that way down at the park, but I didn’t want to interview anybody until I had a handle on the situation. Did you see something pertinent?”

  As the sheriff looked at her expectantly, Willow felt a sudden reticence descend over her. The admission she’d been only too ready to impart earlier seemed a lot harder to say here, in her living room.

  “Would you like to come in and have a seat?” she asked, gesturing behind her.

  “Unless this will take a long time, then I’d better not,” Sheriff Wender replied. “I’m still waiting for the scene examiner to determine exactly what happened, so I’d like to get back to him as quickly as possible.”

  “Surely, it’s obvious what happened?” Trisha pushed up behind Willow, almost spilling her out the doorway. “We saw a man get electrocuted before our eyes, and so did everyone in the park.”

  “And we’re trying to find out why that happened.” The sheriff’s voice stayed level and calm, not rising to the excitement of Trisha’s tone. “Willow?”

  The tears came out of nowhere and took Willow’s breath away. Each time she wiped one away, another was there to take its place. With a frustrated puff, she let them fall.

  “I had to fiddle around with a whole lot of the electrical equipment,” she admitted, struggling to get the sentences out in an order that made sense. “Mavis was hiding behind a bunch of cords, and I couldn’t get to her. I pulled out a lot of plugs and then put them back.” She gave a rueful smile. “Obviously, not in the correct place.”

  Sheriff Wender hesitated for a second as though waiting for something more. “That’s the information you couldn’t wait to tell me? That you pulled some cords out and then later plugged them back in again?”

  “It was under the same table the sound man stood beside when the dreadful accident occurred,” Willow explained. “I don’t know what I did wrong, but it must have been a terrible error to cause poor Angel so much harm.”

  “Come with me,” Sheriff Wender said, turning on his heel and striding away with a pause. “We’re going down to the scene, and you can point out everything you touched.”

  When he reached the sidewalk without Willow following, he turned back with a raised eyebrow. “Well? I can hardly point out what you touched to the examiner by myself now, can I?”

  Willow kissed Harmony and Trisha goodbye and waved to Mavis before following the sheriff back to the park.

  * * *

  “Yeah, that wouldn’t have done anything,” the scene examiner said through pursed lips. Willow had just demonstrated all the actions she remembered, this time with the generator turned off.

  “Are you sure?” Willow peered at the man, trying to assess his ability with just a glance. Although only half an hour or so had passed since the incident, she’d already grown used to the weight of responsibility. To have this man dismiss her part in a few quick seconds took her by surprise.

  “The power socket is designed not to electrocute anyone. We’re looking for an ungrounded source of electricity, not a plug and not a plastic wrapped cord.”

  The sheriff nodded to Willow. “Thanks for coming down, you’re free to go.”

  When he turned his back on her to confer with the gentleman, Willow felt at a complete loss. “But don’t you want a statement or something?”

  “Yes.” Sheriff Wender shot her a strange look. “But I know exactly where you live so I’ll visit again when we get to that stage. Just don’t l
eave town, okay?”

  He offered her a smile, and although Willow returned it, she still felt on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop. When nothing further happened after a couple of minutes, she walked away, remaining poised for trouble to arise out of nowhere.

  When she got back home, both Trisha and Harmony breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness,” Harmony said, handing Mavis over to give Willow a welcome that was very enthusiastic given she’d only been away for a few minutes. “It terrified me to think the sheriff would lock you up while he tried to find out what had gone wrong.”

  “I was so sure I’d caused that poor man’s death,” Willow said, walking through to the lounge and plunking herself down on the sofa. “It felt bizarre for them to just dismiss it.”

  “I suppose they know what they’re up to,” Harmony said, joining Willow on the couch. “There can’t be many sources of electricity on an outdoors set.”

  “I think the table was it,” Trisha agreed. She stayed standing, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “It’s just lucky that whatever went wrong for Angel didn’t get you or Mavis.”

  “Or Miss Walsham,” Willow said. “She was standing right there, too. Could you imagine how horrible that would have been? To lose a star?”

  “It doesn’t bear thinking about,” Trisha said with a shudder. “Should I fetch a cup of tea for myself? Is that okay?”

  Willow suddenly remembered that she was the one meant to be hosting and levered herself up from her seat. “You rest here, and I’ll fetch something. Hopefully, a nice cup of chamomile tea will do wonders for our nerves.”

  Chapter Five

  Although Willow would usually be angry at the lateness of the phone call she received much later that night, she’d been so restless from the day it came as a relief. She knew it would be the sheriff before lifting the receiver, and sure enough, he wanted her to come down to the station to make a statement.

  Harmony and Trisha were long gone by that stage. Together, they’d just recounted the horrible events over and over, so Willow had cut the conversation short and declared that she needed to set things up for the following day.

  Although there was work she should do to prepare the tea room, what she’d actually done was sit and stare at the floor. The tragedy had overwhelmed her so much that anything else seemed too much of an effort.

  “Hey, Mary-Jo,” Willow called out to the receptionist at the sheriff’s office who didn’t look pleased to still be at work. “I hope he’s letting you get away soon.”

  The woman snorted at that. “Chance would be a fine thing. I think the sheriff believes I’m some sort of organic extension that just stays on duty for as long as he wants to.”

  “I’m standing right here,” Sheriff Wender said from the doorway, startling Willow. “If you’re going to talk about me behind my back, please do a better job.”

  Willow followed him through into the office, happy to see him wave her into a chair beside his desk instead of taking her into a private room for the interview.

  “This won’t take long,” the sheriff said as he sat down and flipped through the pages of his notebook. “I just want to have a time line for the events, so I can start off with a solid base tomorrow.”

  “That’s fine,” Willow assured him. “I’d only be lying in bed wide awake if I wasn’t down here.”

  “If you need a moment to collect your thoughts, just tell me,” Sheriff Wender said.

  Willow couldn't remember a time when the man had acted so courteously—it made her wonder if she'd misjudged him. “I'll be sure to let you know.”

  “You said earlier that you were fiddling about with the electrical cords. Was anyone else in the vicinity?”

  After tipping her head to one side for a moment, Willow gave a laugh. “I had to crawl right under the table to reach them,” she said. “So, I think I would've noticed if somebody else was under there. Let me assure you, it was just Mavis and me.”

  “It doesn't have to be right where you were, just nearby. I'm trying to map out the locations of everyone in the park at the time.” After a short pause, he added, “Both to rule people out as well as to rule them in.”

  “What was the cause?” Willow asked, ignoring his question. “Did the scene examiner tell you anything more about what went on?”

  “That's only for me to know at the moment.” Sheriff Wender shifted in his chair. “If you want to be privy to official business, you should come and join us in the office.”

  At that, Willow gave a chuckle, but the sheriff shook his head.

  “I'm serious. If you ever get sick of making cups of tea, give law enforcement a try. You've been helping out on the last few cases more than any of my deputies.”

  “That's lovely of you to say, but I think it speaks more about your deputies than it showcases my skills. I've just been lucky.” Willow thought about the events she'd born witness to, or become involved with, in the past six months. “Or rather, unlucky,” she amended.

  “Keep it in mind, in any case.”

  Willow shifted in her seat. She couldn't be sure, but it seemed the sheriff was stalling. “I've only just managed to get my shop open,” she said in a sterner tone. “I'm hardly likely to drop it now just to try something that half the village would laugh at me for doing.”

  “Okay.” Sheriff Wender held up his hands, palms out in surrender. “Let's just go back to this afternoon, shall we? Any more thoughts about who might have been near?”

  Willow rubbed at her eyebrow. A headache pulsed behind her eye—retribution for the terrible sights it had seen. “Oh, I remember.” She dropped her hand, shaking her head that she'd been so forgetful, to begin with. “Thera Bourne was nearby. I bumped straight into her while I was backing out.”

  “Is she a member of the crew?”

  As Willow's eyes widened in shock, the sheriff amended his question. “One of the actresses?”

  “She is the actress,” Willow said, giving the desktop a thump for emphasis. “She plays the role of Miss Walsham. Without her, the show wouldn't even have a title, let alone a storyline.”

  “Okay. So, Thera Bourne.” Sheriff Wender jotted a note on his pad. “Who else?”

  Willow gave it a few seconds of thought. “I don't remember anyone else being around. But, then again, I was so flabbergasted to meet my hero I doubt I would've noticed.”

  “And Trisha was with you at the time?”

  “She stayed sitting on the picnic rug while I fetched Mavis.” Willow frowned. “Although, you'd better check with her. I was so fixated on catching my kitten she could've been dancing a jig, and I wouldn't have seen.”

  The sheriff smiled at the image that conjured up. “I think my other interviewees might have told me if she'd done anything like that.”

  “You don't think Trisha had anything to do with it,” Willow said, much more of a statement than a question. “She wouldn't harm a fly.”

  “No, I don't. As I said, I'm just getting a picture of where everyone was at the time. That way, we can narrow down the people who might be involved.”

  “I still worry I might've caused it somehow,” Willow admitted. “I know that your scene examiner said my mucking about with the cords wouldn't cause any trouble, but I can't help but worry that I frayed something or perhaps got a plug in at the wrong angle.”

  “You didn't.” The sheriff shifted in his seat and Willow's eyes narrowed as she stared across at him.

  “How can you be so sure?”

  Sheriff Wender sighed. “If I tell you something, will you promise not to reveal it to anybody else, unless I give you specific permission?”

  “Of course.” Willow crossed her hand over her heart, a subconscious ritual from back in the schoolyard.

  “The reason I can be sure about your actions is that we know how the incident occurred.”

  “So, the examiner found the electrical source responsible?” Willow nodded and breathed out a sigh of relief. Her nagging conscious wouldn't be able t
o taunt her mercilessly tonight! “Thank goodness.”

  “It's not good news, I'm afraid,” Sheriff Wender continued. “The cord that caused the trouble was stripped of its rubber coating and frayed out so it would cause an electrical spike.”

  Willow's mouth dropped open as she stared at the sheriff. “You mean, someone killed the sound man deliberately.”

  He nodded, a grim expression on his face. “We're looking at a case of cold-blooded murder.”

  Chapter Six

  The next morning, Willow had trouble dragging herself out of bed. If it hadn't been for the plaintive mews of Mavis, demanding breakfast, she might have pulled the covers back over her head and napped until the waitresses turned up to start the day.

  During the night, Willow kept waking up to imagined horrors. She saw a malevolent stranger—like the villain who tied ladies to the train tracks in old movies—curling his mustache before he let a frayed coil of electrical wires drop into the puddle that circled around her feet. In another nightmare from which she woke gasping, the same monster had targeted Thera Bourne, and Miss Walsham disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

  With those horrors occupying her night instead of a restful sleep, Willow didn't feel equal to the day ahead of her. “Still,” she whispered to Mavis as she cuddled the kitten close to her chest. “That's what being a business lady is all about. I have to keep going even when I don't want to.”

  Suddenly, the lure of retirement called to her. When Willow had nothing to fill her days, the tea shop had seemed like a dream. Today it was the other way around.

  “You just can't keep me happy,” she said to Mavis in a direct echo of her mother years before.

  “Are you okay?” Tiffany asked when she arrived for work. “I don't mean to sound horrid, but you look pretty dreadful.”

  Considering the words came from a young woman with gum in her hair, courtesy of one of Tiffany's three children, Willow felt nervous about appearing in public. Still, hopefully, the customers arriving for an early morning cup of tea would be so bleary-eyed they wouldn't notice.