by Tonya Kappes
“June?” Jenny broke the jolt of energy digging into my soul.
“I. . .” A tear broke out of my eye and down my cheek.
“I think it’s time for Ms. Rossen to have her dinner. If you don’t mind, Ms. Heal, visiting hours are over.” Pearl stepped up and took the lotion from me. “I’ll be sure to give Jenny some of this fine lotion you have left for her.”
Pearl’s words stung. Faith’s words hit me. Pearl? Was Pearl the killer?
“Pearl, how is your momma?” Jenny asked. “I haven’t heard her laugh in a couple of days.”
“She’s fine, Ms. Rossen. I’ll be sure to tell her to stop by and see you when she’s on her way down to bingo.” Pearl took Jenny by the arm and led her over to her bed. “Ms. Rossen, you take your afternoon nap and I’ll put the Gerbera on the windowsill for it to get a little sunshine while you rest your eyes.”
“June, aren’t you going to say goodbye?” Jenny held her arms out as her legs dangled from the side of the bed. “I’m so glad you are here. Burt told me you were working hard. I don’t know why on earth he ever wanted to buy a company that sold women’s lotions. Especially since he’s never left home or been married.”
“Now you rest.” Pearl laid a blanket over Jenny and turned back to me.
Before I could ask Jenny what she meant by saying Burt was never married and he owned Head To Toe Works, Pearl had dragged me out of the room, her fingernails dug deep into my skin, leaving little indentions when she let go.
“What are you doing here?” Pearl questioned. “That woman is fragile. As if you didn’t see for yourself. And what was wrong with that bottle?”
“You need to tell me everything you know. Who broke into my store and who killed Burt Rossen?” I ignored her question and asked my own questions.
“I’m not telling you nothing!” She put her finger in my face. “I have a good gig going here with my momma and you ain’t going to ruin it. Do you understand me?”
She grabbed me when we heard the elevator doors open and none other than Tiffany Rossen stepped out. Pearl jerked me around the corner and planted herself up against the wall.
“What is she doing here?” Pearl asked with a trembling voice. “This is not good.”
“Pearl, what is going on? There is no time to pretend you don’t know something,” I said in an urgent voice.
“Mr. Burt owned this place when he met that witch of a woman, Tiffany, at the bar that night.” She spoke fast. “They had a one-night stand and she came here looking for him, ranting and raving how he got her pregnant and he was going to make an honest woman out of her. Ms. Rossen is so sweet and kind, she would’ve died if she knew Tiffany and her flashy ways, so Mr. Burt kept his momma a secret from Tiffany all this time.”
“How do you know all of this?” I asked.
“I have a degree in accounting and I was the onsite accountant here. I kept the books,” Pearl said.
“None of this makes sense.” I had heard of some crazy and off-the-wall things in my life, but this took the cake. “You left a good job here to work on the factory line?”
“That ain’t the half of it.” She pulled me closer after she took another look around the corner. “When Tiffany couldn’t get her little lotion company off the ground,” she quieted.
“Tell me, Pearl.” I knew this was the part I needed to hear.
“I was in my office in the administration building going through the books and something was off. The numbers weren’t adding up. Of course we were off a few dollars here and there but when it became thousands of dollars a month, I knew they were cooking the books to pay for her little lotion company.”
“Cooking the books?” I tried to follow her as close as I could but I just didn’t understand.
“Tiffany wanted her lotion company to do well, so she made Burt take from the old people. Their money. Changing their wills for Tiffany and Burt to become the beneficiaries.” Pearl gulped. “When I confronted them, Tiffany said they wouldn’t hurt my momma since my momma lived here and then they demoted me to that factory. If I didn’t keep my mouth shut, Tiffany threatened to price my momma out of here and I just couldn’t afford to put her anywhere else making factory money. As long as I kept my mouth shut, they would take good care of momma.”
“What about Mac?” I rolled my hand in front of me to hurry her up. My gut told me time was of the essence.
“Tiffany had gone in and bought that bar right underneath Mac.” She shook her head.
“The woman.” I gasped remembering what Mac had said. “Mac said something about a woman, but I thought he was talking about Jenny.”
“Well, Mr. Burt had a lawyer come here and he changed his will without telling Tiffany. He made his momma the beneficiary of the company. I was here visiting my momma and he dragged me in to be a witness. He said he trusted me.” There were tears forming in her eyes. I felt sorry for the pain she was in. “He said that Tiffany had gone crazy when she found out he changed the will because the paralegal from the law office didn’t know better and sent the papers to the house.”
“And that is how she found out about Jenny?”
“No.” Pearl shook her head. “She found out about Jenny when the Gerbera pot bill he sends his momma came to the house. It was around Christmas. Tiffany showed up here with these deviled eggs and nearly killed poor Ms. Rossen.” Pearl’s eyes grew. “I think she put poison in them.”
“Jenny never found out about Tiffany being her daughter-in-law?” I asked.
“Never. Burt said he didn’t care if he went to jail. Over his dead body would she meet his momma because his momma couldn’t take the stress Tiffany had put him through.” Pearl jumped when we heard a scream coming down the hall in the direction of Jenny Rossen’s room.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Pearl and I rushed back down the hall and tried to open the door but it was locked.
“Burt never locked the door because Ms. Rossen has been blind for as long as I have known her and he wanted to make sure she could get out in an emergency.” Pearl beat on the door.
“Help!” The faint cry of the little old lady was heard from underneath the door.
I grabbed the handle and tugged.
“Pearl, I’m going to ask you to turn your head and close your ears.” I wasn’t about to take no for an answer. When I saw she did what I asked, I grabbed the handle and channeled all of my energy into the handle to open it. I knew it would take all of my energy, but it was worth saving a life.
With the handle hot under my hand, the door flew off the hinges, sending me and Pearl to the ground.
Pearl looked at me with fear in her eyes but didn’t say a word as she got up.
Tiffany Rossen was standing over Jenny Rossen with a bed pillow stuck across Jenny’s face. Jenny’s legs were shaking, her hands gripped the edges of the pillow but she wasn’t strong enough to get Tiffany off of her.
“Get off of her!” Pearl grabbed Tiffany by the backs of her arms and wrangled her to the ground.
Like a caged animal, Tiffany clawed Pearl with the longest nails I had ever seen. The two of them wrestled around while I went to Jenny’s bedside. Jenny was unconscious but still alive.
“Use the oil in life and death.” The highlighted words came out of my mouth without me even thinking about it.
I grabbed the vial of wisteria vine oil out of my purse and quickly unscrewed the lid, letting two drops fall on Jenny’s thin lips. Small bursts of fireworks popped over her eyes, they began to flutter. A loud boom shook the room and Jenny sat straight up.
“What is going on? Ida, is that you?” Jenny asked.
“No, Ms. Rossen. It’s Pearl.” Pearl’s body was lying across Tiffany Rossen’s and her hand was held tight over Tiffany’s mouth, keeping her from speaking. “My friend, June is going to take you for a nice walk. It’s beautiful out.”
With what little energy I had left, I did exactly what Pearl told me to do because I heard sirens in the background and I knew help wa
s on the way. Plus Pearl had Tiffany Rossen under control.
On my way out the door, I grabbed the tie off of Jenny’s robe and tossed it to Pearl. In no time, Pearl had Tiffany hog-tied and ready to go once the police got there.
“I’ll take over from here.” Ida found me and Jenny in the memorial garden.
Jenny had told me stories how she had bought the nursing home with her husband, Burt’s dad, a long time ago and how much he would be proud of his son. I didn’t have the heart to even begin to tell her about Burt and what had transpired between him and Tiffany.
If what Pearl had said was true, it would devastate Jenny.
“Ida, you have got to see the Gerbera Burt sent me today.” Jenny took Ida’s arm and let Ida guide her through the garden.
“I have to tell you something, Jenny.” Ida’s voice was soft and caring. She was the perfect person to tell Jenny about Burt.
I left them alone and walked back up to the scene of the crime to find Oscar taking Pearl’s statement. After he was done, he asked Pearl not to leave the county in case they needed to ask her more questions, but we both knew that meant she might have charges brought against her since she did know about the will, the embezzlement, and the murder of Burt.
“I guess you stuck your nose in the right place this time.” Oscar drew me to him. “You could’ve been hurt, June.”
“I know, but I wasn’t.” I patted him on the back and pulled away. “What happened to Tiffany?”
“Pearl had her tied up and told us everything. Tiffany couldn’t protest because Sonny had built a case against her.” Oscar pointed toward Sonny.
He waved over at us.
“But I thought Sonny said she was cleared.” I recalled him telling me that the day he told me I was cleared.
“She was until we found out she had been getting her nails done and the scrapes on Burt’s neck had traces of acrylic. He started digging deeper into Burt’s background, finances, all the things we needed warrants for and just put two and two together,” Oscar said. “Tiffany told me how Burt kept her a secret from his mother and how he had changed his will over the past week leaving all of his wealth to his mom. He had even cashed in his retirement to pay back all the money he had stolen from the elderly. When everything started piling up that he was going to leave her, she killed him out of rage. She knew she was going to have to make a go of the factory on her own and Gentle June’s was her ticket, but only without you, so she stole the bottles she saw you use during her Christmas visit to Whispering Falls.”
“So she did break in to A Charming Cure.” I could barely wrap my head around everything she had confessed to.
From the beginning she had lied to me. My intuition wasn’t wrong at Christmas. It told me she was having family problems with her mother-in-law. Hiding a poison in deviled eggs was her idea. Stress was stress and the secret potion worked differently for everyone. And the nails. She lied about not having them, meaning the shadowy figure Madame Torres showed me was her the entire time.
“What about Mac’s? Does Tiffany really have the right to shut him down?” I asked, concerned with Mac’s future.
“All of that will have to be straightened out in time.” Oscar looked over at the door.
Ida was bringing a heartbroken and sobbing Jenny Rossen back to the room. I picked up the stress lotion I had brought her and gave it to Oscar.
“When you talk to her, put some of this in your hands and hold hers, rubbing the lotion in. It will help her.” I watched in sadness as Ida and Pearl helped Jenny sit on the edge of the bed. Jenny clung to Pearl.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Cheers!” The clink of glasses filled the barn and the music blared as Josh led the Whispering Falls group out on the dance floor.
“I don’t know what to say,” Mac said and put Jenny Rossen’s hand around a tall glass of sweet tea.
“I don’t want you to say anything. You deserve your bar.” Jenny had been going around Locust Grove making up for the bad Tiffany had Burt do over the years. She wanted the book thrown at Tiffany for the life she had stolen away from her son.
Jenny sold Head To Toe Works to an international company with a similar name, using the money to pay back anyone Burt and Tiffany had wronged. Burt had left a note in his will to be read only to his mother where he apologized and laid out everything he had done because of Tiffany. He had every account they had embezzled from and Jenny used the sale proceeds from the factory to pay back those debts. She kept the nursing home and made Pearl the head administrator and added Josh to the employee list as Director of Guest Services, a fancy title for him to keep the elderly upbeat and dancing.
Mac reached over the bar top and hugged Jenny.
“Thank you for renting out Mac’s to celebrate your engagement.” Mac turned to me and Oscar.
It wasn’t like we hadn’t celebrated the first time he had asked me, but we felt it was the right thing to do since he had asked my dad.
“We are happy that everyone came.” Oscar looked out on the dance floor and broke out laughing.
It was fun to see Izzy trying to learn how to two-step, Gerald and Petunia trying to slow dance to a fast song with Orin between them, and Chandra swaying back and forth trying to keep her turban on. Even Mr. Prince Charming looked happy as he wagged his tail from one of the barstools near the dance floor.
Arabella could walk into any bar and fit in, but not the rest of us. And Amethyst was near the door, sitting on the new bouncer’s lap that Max had hired, Ronnie, making sure no one crashed our private party. They had been inseparable since I had introduced them at this very spot.
“I’m so happy our two families have come to see eye-to-eye.” Eloise sidled up next to us with Aunt Helena by her side.
“Not really eye-to-eye,” Aunt Helena protested.
“Not now,” I held my hand up and warned them not to start another fight here.
“I was going to say that we have come to terms that you and Oscar are going to have the wedding that you want and not what we want.” Aunt Helena smiled and opened her arms wide.
“Thank you,” I said and curled my arms around her, giving her a big squeeze. Even Oscar couldn’t help himself. He got off the stool and gave each of the aunts a hug.
“There she is.” The Marys stood at the door of the barn. Their eyes fell on me and they floated over. It seemed as though the mortals around us didn’t even notice them.
“I understand the business contract for Gentle June’s folded.” Mary Ellen drummed her fingers together. The other Marys hovered over her. “According to the contract, if the company was sold while you were under contract, the new company was to purchase your lotion from you.”
“What?” I jerked out of Aunt Helena’s arms. Worry and fear punched me in the gut. There was no way I was going to give up Darla’s recipe or the secret ingredient.
“But. . .” Mary Ellen stuck her finger out and wagged it in front of me. “Mac McGurtle worked his magic telling them that your product line never hit the stores and the bottles that did go out on the truck that morning were packaged in cheap plastic bottles which were not in the contract, therefore making the contract void.”
A smile curved on my lips. My intuition told me Burt knew he was going to make Tiffany go down and he had deliberately used the plastic bottles so I could break the contract.
“You are one lucky spiritualist,” Mary Lynn said before the Order of Elders disappeared into thin air.
“See,” Oscar wrapped his arms around me again. “It’s all working out.”
We stood there for a minute looking at all of our friends gathered in one spot outside the borders of Whispering Falls celebrating the life between worlds that Oscar and I lived in.
“I love you, June Heal. And I can’t wait for you to become my wife.” Oscar’s lips touched mine like a whisper.
Everything I had ever wanted was coming true. Even though my parents weren’t physically there, I knew they were there in spirit and would be by my side
during my wedding on All Hallows Eve.
About the Author
For years, USA Today bestselling author Tonya Kappes has been self-publishing her numerous mystery and romance titles with unprecedented success. She is famous not only for her hilarious plotlines and quirky characters, but her tremendous marketing efforts that have earned her thousands of followers and a devoted street team of fans. Be sure to check out Tonya’s website for upcoming events and news and to sign up for her newsletter! Tonyakappes.com
Also by Tonya Kappes
Olivia Davis Paranormal Mystery Series
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COLOR ME LOVE (novella)
COLOR ME A CRIME
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A CHARMING CRIME
A CHARMING CURE
A CHARMING POTION (novella)
A CHARMING WISH
A CHARMING SPELL
A CHARMING MAGIC
A CHARMING SECRET
A CHARMING CHRISTMAS (novella)
A CHARMING FATALITY
Grandberry Falls Series
THE LADYBUG JINX
HAPPY NEW LIFE
A SUPERSTITIOUS CHRISTMAS (novella)
NEVER TELL YOUR DREAMS
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CHECKERED CRIME
CHECKERED PAST
CHECKERED THIEF
A Divorced Diva Beading Mystery Series
A BREAD OF DOUBT SHORT STORY
STRUNG OUT TO DIE
CRIMPED TO DEATH
Bluegrass Romance Series
GROOMING MR. RIGHT
TAMING MR. RIGHT
Women’s Fiction
CARPE BREAD ’EM
Young Adult
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