Silence of the Lamps

by Karen Rose Smith

  “It’s personal,” he admitted.

  Without causing them further awkwardness, she answered, “No, she’s not, but she’s very picky.”

  Detective Carstead’s eyes gleamed with what Caprice thought was amusement as he nodded. “Good to know.” Then his warning came again, but it was a little different from those he’d given her before. “Watch yourself, Miss De Luca. Remember that talking to the wrong person could be as dangerous as chasing a getaway car down a high-traffic highway.”

  “I understand, Detective, I do, and I promise, I’ll keep you in my loop.”

  He shook his head. “Your persistence is admirable. I just don’t want it to be regrettable.”

  On that note, he left her standing on the beautiful patio, thinking about what he’d said.

  * * *

  Caprice wasn’t telling anybody close to her about the Rack O’ Ribs threat. She didn’t want her family worrying about her. She would take care and not go anywhere alone . . . at least not for the next few days. She was meeting Bella to look at the houses, and then she’d go home to her pets inside of her alarm system. She’d keep her phone near her hand so she could dial Detective Carstead if she needed to. Tomorrow was the open house, where scads of people would be all around her. Nobody would be able to get near her. For today and tomorrow, at least, she would stop asking questions. However, at some point, everything would come to a head. It always did. If the murderer had his eye on her, she’d want it off of her.

  But for now, she’d help Bella and Joe decide whether they should buy a house.

  At five-thirty, Caprice rode with Bella and Joe in their red van to the first house on their list. The real estate agent was there when they arrived. The neighborhood, maybe about ten years old, was located near the shopping center on the east end of town.

  As they entered the house, Caprice knew it was considered a high rancher. That meant inside the foyer, steps led down to a family room and basement area. Another set of steps led up to the first floor, which consisted of the living room, dining area, and four bedrooms. That was the main aspect of a new house that Joe and Bella were looking for—a room for the baby that could be a guest room later, a room for Timmy, a room for Megan, and a suite for themselves.

  The bedroom area in this house stretched over the garage, and Caprice thought about that garage being unheated in the winter and the cold floors. They went upstairs first without Bella and Joe making many comments. They would have to install new carpet in the living room and dining area. When they toured downstairs, they saw that the family room was large and spacious, but there was only a small basement area for storage. And, of course, the whole place would have to be redecorated to Bella and Joe’s taste.

  After they’d scoped the yard, which was mostly grass with no shrubs, they all gathered on the front walk. Their real estate agent, Kayla Langtree, who was in her late thirties, wore her hair in a blunt, straight cut, neck length. Her large green eyes were her best feature.

  She was only five foot three, and Joe seemed to tower over her as he asked, “Will they come down in price?”

  “Every deal is about negotiation now,” Kayla said. “But this house has been on the market for a year, and they’ve cut the price three times. So I don’t know if you can get them to go lower.”

  “The question is,” Caprice interjected, “Do you like the house?” She studied Bella, not Joe.

  “It’s all right,” Bella said, not with much enthusiasm.

  “It has four bedrooms,” Joe pointed out. “That’s what we need. Even without the price going lower, it’s in our range.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good-enough reason to buy a house that you’re going to live in the rest of your lives,” Caprice advised them. “Bella, you’re not saying much.” That wasn’t like her sister at all.

  Finally, a conclusion burst out of Bella. “It doesn’t have any character.”

  Joe looked puzzled. “What do you mean, character? We can decorate it however we want. You can even paint the walls your favorite color instead of the green I like. We need to find something, Bella.”

  Although Bella and Joe’s marriage was back on track, they still had their disagreements and their personality quirks. Joe obviously didn’t understand what her sister was talking about.

  “Can you explain to Joe what you’re looking for?” Caprice asked Bella.

  “I’ll know when I find it,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s just something—” She waved her hand in the air. “The house where I grew up has character. It has a red-tiled roof and casement windows and plaster walls. It has a multitiered yard and a little balcony.”

  “Your parents’ house would be way out of our price range,” Joe grumbled.

  “Caprice’s house has character too,” Bella protested. “It has that arched front door that you don’t see anymore, and that little copper overhang. It has a fireplace and a cute back porch.”

  “Caprice’s house wouldn’t be big enough for us,” Joe pointed out, still not quite getting the message.

  Caprice put her hand on Bella’s arm. “Joe, what I think she’s looking for is a house with unique qualities. This isn’t like buying a car with a checklist. It’s more like finding a house that had some love in it, even if that was just in the choice of a Quoizel ceiling lamp.

  Joe shook his head. “How about we go look at the second house.” He apparently had learned to accept Bella’s thinking without arguing with it. That was smart.

  As Joe drove them to the second destination, Caprice noticed they were headed toward her parents’ neighborhood. Maybe they were just going to drive through that area.

  “This house is near Mom and Dad’s?”

  “About a block away,” Joe said, with a straight face, not letting his feelings on the subject show.

  Bella glanced over her shoulder at Caprice and just gave a shrug. “In the listing it seemed to have what we need. It’s a much older house, probably a hundred years old. But it has four bedrooms and a renovated kitchen. The picture on the Internet shows some large spruces on either side of it, so that could be why we haven’t noticed it and why I don’t remember it.”

  When Joe pulled up to the curb in front of the house, Caprice remembered it. She’d once ridden her bike up and down these streets and often passed it. It was tucked between the spruces, which had grown larger over the years. There was a myrtle-covered bank in the front, and eight steps led up to the full front porch where a wooden swing was attached on the left side. A cane rocker and a small table sat nearby it. Caprice guessed if she peeked in the large plate-glass window there, she’d see into the living room.

  After they climbed the steps, Joe said, “Someone’s going to have to paint these porch railings at least every other year.”

  “I like the white with the pale yellow siding, don’t you?” Bella asked, ignoring his paint remark.

  He gave her a shrug.

  The door was an old-fashioned one with sidelights on either side. The white storm door was decorated with a black emblem of a carriage with a horse.

  Once inside the foyer, Joe stared down at the parquet floor. “Is this practical with kids?”

  Kayla said, “It has a polyurethane finish.”

  Blue and brown tweed carpet covered the steps, which led to a landing, then turned left to the upstairs. Caprice could see the kitchen straight ahead. To her left, wooden pillars looked as if they supported the living room. The woodwork over and around the doors and the archway were a deep rich golden brown and appeared to have been taken care of over the years.

  Bella ran her hand down one pillar. “Isn’t this beautiful? And look at those French doors.”

  French doors led from the living room into what could either be a dining room or a family room. Bookshelves in a beautiful birch lined the wall straight ahead in that room.

  “A lot of care has gone into this house,” Bella said. She turned to Kayla. “Why are they selling?”

  “An older cou
ple lives here. They’re moving into one of those retirement villages. You know—one floor, wheelchair accessible. The steps are becoming a problem for them. But they raised their family here, and as you can tell, the house has been renovated through the years and well taken care of.”

  In the kitchen, Caprice glanced around and couldn’t find any fault. There was a unique corner sink with a counter that stretched across the room. The dishwasher was housed on one side of it, but on the other side were four stools for anyone to sit and snack or have a light meal. There was a large-enough area behind that for a dining room table and a hutch. A four-foot-square plate-glass window looked out over the backyard.

  Kayla motioned to the left. “That’s the downstairs powder room.” She opened a second door beyond it. “This leads to the utility room and the pantry.”

  “What’s the basement like?” Joe asked.

  “Basic. Cement floor. Furnace.”

  “And what about a garage?”

  “There’s a wooden structure in the back that the couple had sided when they sided the house. It can house two cars.”

  “But you have to walk the length of the yard to get to it,” Joe murmured.

  “Good exercise,” Bella maintained, and Caprice understood with just one look at her sister that she’d fallen in love with the house.

  “We’d have to redo the basement for a family room,” Joe said.

  “Or,” Bella proposed, “we could just use that middle room for a family room and the TV. The kids would be right here with us. We don’t need a formal dining room. A table in the kitchen’s dining area can seat six or eight, and we have the counter too where we could always put the kids.”

  Kayla smiled. “You haven’t seen the upstairs yet. Granted, there’s only one big bathroom for all of you, but there’s a screened-in balcony off of the back bedroom. It was once a porch, but now it’s closed in and weatherproofed. There’s room for three or four lawn chairs, maybe a chaise. It’s sort of a little sunroom.”

  “Oh, let’s go look,” Bella said enthusiastically. She followed the real estate agent to the stairs.

  “She likes this place,” Joe said with surprise in his voice.

  “It has character,” Caprice said calmly. “How do you feel about being so close to Mom and Dad’s house?”

  “I’m fine with it,” he assured her. “I don’t know what we would have done without them over the past year. I never thought I’d say it, but I’m grateful for all of you, even you.”

  She and Joe had had their head butts, but underneath it all, he was a good guy.

  “If this is what she wants, we’ll see if we can negotiate a good price. I can live with the garage,” he decided.

  She laughed. “And if you need help decorating, you know my number.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Monday morning breakfast meeting of the Kismet Chamber of Commerce at the Purple Iris Bed-and-Breakfast seemed to be attended by more members than usual. Because summer allowed for more freedom? Or because the Purple Iris with its beautiful restaurant wasn’t only a tourist destination but also a popular place for residents of Kismet and York to gather?

  The bed-and-breakfast had a quaintness about it, from its stained glass windows with iris motif to its vintage wood trim. The restaurant, a recent addition by owner Holly Swope, had already garnered great reviews. The Chamber of Commerce had managed to reserve it for this morning’s meeting. Holly had offered to serve her guests breakfast in their rooms to accommodate the Chamber patrons. Naomi, Grant’s ex, could be having breakfast in her room right now. The nine guest rooms were usually occupied throughout the summer because the bed-and-breakfast was at a convenient location between York, Gettysburg, and Lancaster. Lots of sights to see in the area, from the Amish country, to the battlefield, to the historic buildings in downtown York.

  When Caprice entered the dining area with its lilac-colored drapes, yellow-and-purple pin-striped wallpaper, and framed iris prints, Holly—all dressed in purple—greeted her. “I’m glad you could come,” Holly said, her blue eyes sparkling.

  The evening Caprice and Seth Randolph had enjoyed dinner here, the owner of the B&B had reminded her that the Chamber of Commerce breakfast was a way to network and that new projects were afoot. When Caprice thought about Seth, she didn’t regret her decision to end her romantic relationship, if not her friendship, with him. But they hadn’t been in contact since the night she’d chosen Grant. She hoped sometime in the future they would be again, no matter what happened with Grant and Naomi. Grant’s ex should be leaving soon. Had he made a decision yet?

  Her attendance at this morning’s breakfast was just another way for her to put that out of her mind. Besides, she wondered if Jeanie Boswell might be here, or another business owner who might have had dealings with Drew.

  Holly ran her hand through her short black hair. “You’re early. Have a seat at any table. Service will start soon.”

  Members of the Chamber were scattered around the room at the round tables, over which hung white enamel and crystal chandeliers. Caprice scanned each table until her eyes fell on someone she knew. Kiki, Rowena’s friend, was seated at a table all by herself. She’d been reading a pamphlet, but when she raised her head, she spotted Caprice. She waved and Caprice crossed to her.

  “Have a seat,” Kiki said, motioning to the one beside her. “Unless you’re meeting someone else here.”

  “My friend Roz will probably attend. Maybe we could save her a seat?”

  “Of course we can. Are you talking about Roz Winslow who owns All About You?”

  “I am.”

  “I often frequent her shop. She doesn’t just carry those short dresses with bare midriffs for twenty-somethings but classy clothes I can wear too.”

  “She tries to appeal to all ages and all sizes.”

  “Rowena told me you’re still looking into Drew’s background. You heard about the break-in at her house?” Kiki wanted to know.

  “I did. I can’t believe she went after the burglar with her cane. She is one gutsy woman.”

  Kiki harrumphed, “Or foolish. I told her she should be staying with me until this whole situation is taken care of, until the police catch the murderer. She insists no one’s going to drive her out of her home. I suppose that’s a good thing because that means even Jeanie can’t do that.”

  “Is she trying to?”

  “She brought an antique dealer to the reception after Drew’s funeral. I was furious when I found out.”

  “How did Rowena feel about it?”

  “Maybe she’s survived by taking everything in stride, or maybe she just accepts Jeanie as she is. But she didn’t seem overly upset by it. Jeanie’s trying to convince her to move into a retirement center, but Rowena won’t hear of it. She even told Jeanie she appreciated having the antique dealer come in to appraise some of her belongings. To tell you the truth, I think that got Jeanie’s goat.”

  Caprice had to smile until she reminded herself that Jeanie could very well have murdered Drew. “Do you know if Jeanie’s coming to this meeting?”

  “I doubt it. She really keeps to herself and doesn’t mingle much. She never has. Quite the opposite of her brother.”

  “So she was a loner as a teenager?”

  “Yes, she was. On the other hand, she could fly off the handle quite easily. In that way, she was different from Drew. Jeanie was fifteen when she pushed a girl down a flight of stairs because the girl said something mean. I advised Rowena then she should send Jeanie to counseling. But Rowena didn’t want a stigma attached to Jeanie’s name. She did make appointments for her, though, with the guidance counselor at the high school, and that seemed to help.”

  “Sometimes all teenagers need is an objective listening ear.”

  “I suppose. I have a feeling she resented Rowena because she missed her parents so deeply. Rowena was the surrogate she didn’t want to deal with.”

  “That’s a shame.”

  “Drew was always closer to Rowe
na, and maybe Jeanie resented that too.”

  “Maybe she just wanted someone of her own to love her.”

  “Possibly. That’s why her marriage was a flop.”

  “She’s made Posies into a success, though,” Caprice offered.

  “Yes, she has, and kudos to her for that. She did well in business school. She has an associates degree. When she used her inheritance to buy Posies, Rowena was concerned. But she’s done well with it, except for one problem. She has trouble keeping employees. I don’t know if that’s because of her temper or because she’s very particular. However, she does do beautiful work with flowers.”

  Did Jeanie just have an artistic temperament? Had she become a smart businesswoman, or was she an unstable loner who was capable of committing murder? Caprice didn’t feel she could be that blunt and ask Kiki that particular question.

  Nevertheless, she could probe a little deeper. “So you believe Drew and Jeanie were very different personalities?”

  “Oh yes. Drew could charm the skirt off of you if he put his mind to it. He had charisma and he knew it. I knew him much better than Jeanie. He’d talk to me when Rowena and I got together. If we played cards, he might even sit in on a hand. If we cooked, he joined us. He came into the bookstore often too.” Kiki frowned and looked sad. “We had our last falling out over that.”

  “You had a falling out with Drew?”

  “Since he returned to Kismet, he’d come into the store and page through cookbooks. However, he didn’t just page through them. He used his phone to snap photos of recipes. I couldn’t allow that. It’s not fair to the cookbook author. Rowena’s my friend, and I didn’t want to cause a real fuss, so I warned Drew not to do it. After the warning, I caught him doing it anyway. He always tried to get his own way, no matter what.”

  And when Drew was thwarted, he apparently made enemies. Now that she had Kiki talking, she wondered if the woman would confide in her about Rowena’s recipes. “I have a question for you, and I’ll understand if you can’t answer. When I found Drew, the Tiffany floor lamp had been overturned and was lying on the floor. I saw a piece of paper sticking out. Can you tell me if Rowena’s recipes were hidden in there?”