Scent to Kill: A Natural Remedies Mystery (Natural Remedies Mysteries)

by Chrystle Fiedler

  “You didn’t see anyone put it there?”

  “No, and neither did Wallace. I asked him.” Her eyes searched my face. “What’s wrong? Why are you asking all these questions?”

  I showed her the note.

  Merrily shuddered. “This is getting scary, Willow. Someone doesn’t want you investigating for Simon.”

  “No kidding.” I hadn’t even told her about the falling branch or getting locked in the shed. “But they’re not going to scare me off. For one thing, Simon is depending on me. And for another,” I said, suddenly understanding. “If they sent me this letter, I must be getting close to finding Roger’s killer.”

  When I pulled into the driveway in front of the Addams family mansion Friday afternoon, crew members and production staff were hustling in and out of the Bixby house. Jackson was in a heated discussion with Tom, who wore ripped jeans, a white, sleeveless T-shirt, a thick silver chain around his wrist, and shades. He was trying too hard to look cool. I got out of the car with Qigong and started toward them, but as I did, Tom gave Jackson the finger and stormed off.

  “What was that about?” I asked Jackson.

  “I think he’s drinking on the job,” Jackson said as he watched Tom head to the tent. “Rick asked me to talk to him. I told him I’m in AA. But he doesn’t want to listen to me.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “Wait. He’s probably close to bottoming out now that Roger’s been murdered.”

  “Especially if he’s the one who did it. The stuff I found in his studio points in that direction.”

  “True,” Jackson said. “But Roger had lots of enemies besides Tom. Keep in mind, Roger was the one who was paying Tom off and giving him a job. Tom may be unhinged, but that doesn’t mean he’s deranged enough to destroy his major lifeline. I think one of the reasons he’s such a mess now is that Roger’s gone, and he’s terrified of what will happen without his brother to support him. He might have had motive to kill him, but he had an equally strong motive not to.”

  I nodded. “Okay, Tom’s iffy but possible. Same for Carly. So that leaves James Russell, trying to avenge Daniel’s death. And maybe Arthur and Agatha Beasley, who are somehow selling off all the Bixby first editions. And who else?”

  “Well, I keep thinking about that phone message and wondering who on this set could possibly know that you have cats,” Jackson said.

  I mulled it over. “The only one I can think of is Amanda. She was poking around at the store that day. I remember she looked into my office.”

  “And there’s a good chance she knows about the third-floor bathroom, which means she might know about the secret passage.”

  “Plus, she’s done all that research for MJ,” I said. “She knows about Daniel’s murder; she would have the information to re-create it.”

  “So we add her to the list.” Jackson looked around. For the moment, we were alone. “Now, on to more enjoyable matters.” He pulled me close and I could feel the heat between us. “Happy anniversary, Willow.” He kissed me. Qigong jumped on Jackson’s legs, wanting attention. Jackson reached down to pet him. “And to you, too, buddy.”

  I smiled. “It’s really been a wonderful three months.”

  “There’s more where that came from.” Jackson kissed me on the tip of my nose. “Are you free for dinner? I thought we could go off campus.”

  “That sounds wonderful. But I need to show you something first.” I pulled the anonymous letter from my bag and gave it to him. “I think it’s from my mystery caller.”

  He read it and handed it back to me. “It might be. It could also be from whoever locked you in the shed yesterday. Obviously, they want you to stop snooping. So, maybe you are closer to finding out the truth. Let’s eat and we can discuss.”

  When we entered the tent, Rick, who had his cell phone plastered to his ear, waved us over to his table. Pierre, the director, was also at the table, on his phone and scribbling in a notebook. Tom, Carly, Sarah, and Cassidy, the wardrobe mistress, were standing on line to get lunch.

  Rick ended his call. “Hey, Willow, how you doin’, darlin’?” He looked at Jackson. “How did it go with you know who?”

  “Not so good. He isn’t ready to admit he has a problem.”

  “Aw, hell.” Rick petted Qigong. “Tom would have to be a pain in my ass about that, too.”

  Jackson shrugged. “It takes time for some people to come around.”

  “Well, don’t let me hold you up. You two gonna eat? I think you’ll like what they’re serving, Willow. It’s all vegetarian and all organic. It was MJ’s idea. Meatless Fridays.”

  “Good thinking,” I said. “Where is she?”

  “She’s lying down. We’re going to try to shoot this afternoon to make up for the time we lost because of Roger’s funeral. But I still think we’ll be here until Monday. We’ll wrap things up on Labor Day. Can you two stick around till then?”

  “I can,” Jackson said.

  “I think so,” I said. “But I just have to check with Nick, Allie, and Hector.”

  “Good enough,” Rick said. “Now, let’s get some grub. Pierre, you eatin’?”

  “Hold on,” he said into the phone, and pressed it against his chest. “I have to get this done first. The lab that Roger decided to use screwed up the dailies. I only got half of them back.”

  “What’s missing?”

  “MJ’s meeting with Max.”

  “We need that!” Rick said, sounding stressed. “That’s the best footage we’ve got so far.”

  “I know that,” Pierre said. “Not to speak ill of the dead, but Roger’s mind was not in the game. I’ve never seen as many screwups as we’ve got on this shoot. It’s amazing that we have cameras.”

  “Fix this, Pierre,” Rick said.

  “I’m working on it.” Pierre put his phone back to his ear.

  “I don’t need this,” Rick said as the three of us, along with Qigong, got in line. “Pierre shouldn’t even be working on this. Roger was the unit production manager, as well as executive producer, and now that he’s gone, we’re all doing double duty.”

  While Rick took another phone call, I pulled out my phone and texted Allie, Hector, and Nick and asked about their availability this weekend. I heard back from Nick immediately, who said he was available and would be teaching Slow Yoga tonight. I thanked him and slipped the phone back into my pocket.

  Tom still hadn’t been served. Carly, Cassidy, and Sarah were still behind him along with half a dozen other people. We could hear him complaining, “Why is this taking so long? Do these caterers think we have all day?”

  “They’ve had a lot of people to serve. We’re almost there,” Cassidy said, trying to calm him down.

  Tom raised his voice. “Don’t you people know that time is money?”

  “Tom, you’ve got to control yourself,” Carly said, her voice soothing.

  Ignoring them, Tom turned to Rick. “Tell them, Rick. We got to get a move on!”

  Rick sighed and ended his call. “Calm down, Tommy. You’ll get fed soon.”

  Tom spun around, stepped toward Rick, and jabbed his finger into his chest. “Don’t call me Tommy!”

  I was standing right behind Rick and I could smell the liquor on Tom’s breath. I looked at Jackson, who nodded and mouthed, “He’s drunk.” He turned to Tom and said, “Get back in line, Tom. You need to eat something.”

  Qigong growled.

  “Shut up, Jack, and you, too, mutt,” Tom said as he walked back to his original place in line.

  “Tom, cool it,” Carly said in a stern voice.

  “Please don’t make a scene,” Sarah added. “You don’t need to do this.”

  “No, he doesn’t,” Cassidy said. “But he is. I swear, of all my cousins, the Bixbys are the craziest.”

  Tom wasn’t listening. He grumbled until he reached the serving station. There, things just got worse. “Give me a cheeseburger,” he said to the server.

  “It’s vegetarian, Tom,�
�� Carly said, sounding exasperated. “Pick something else.”

  “Fine,” Tom said. “Give me a meatball sub.”

  Cassidy rolled her eyes. “Vegetarian means ‘no meat.’ ”

  “All right then, give me a turkey sandwich.”

  Rick sucked in a breath and walked up to Tom. “Get a veggie burger and fries. People are waiting, Tommy.”

  “I am not eating some damn vegetable burger!” Tom leaned forward and pushed the tray of freshly made Gardenburgers on the ground. Fortunately, the server got out of the way. But Rick wasn’t so lucky. Tom whirled around and punched him in the nose. “And I told you not to call me that!”

  Sarah screamed. Qigong started barking uncontrollably. Rick held his face and groaned. He gave Tom a death-ray look. “You punk! You’re fired!”

  “You can’t fire me,” Tom yelled. “I have a contract signed by Roger. He was my boss, not you!”

  Jackson grabbed Tom’s arm and pulled him away from Rick. This seemed to appease Qigong, who stopped barking. Jackson plunked Tom into a chair at Rick’s table, across from Pierre, and put his hand on his shoulder. “Stay put.”

  “God, Tom, can’t you behave?” Pierre said, looking up from his notes. “It’s like working with a five-year-old.”

  “Shut up,” Tom said.

  “Grow up, Tom. You and your brother are the same. I thought when he was gone, we might have some peace around here, but no such luck.”

  For a brief moment, I wondered if Pierre should be a suspect in Roger’s murder. But he’d need more of a motive than aggravation.

  Tom tried to get up. Jackson pushed him down again. Tom glared up at him. “Do that again and I’ll have you fired!”

  Pierre grabbed his notebook and his phone and walked up to Rick. “You and I need to talk when you get back.” Pierre gave Tom a withering look and left the tent.

  “Do you want me to call the police?” Jackson asked Rick.

  Rick shook his head. “No, don’t do that. We’ve had enough trouble with them already.” He groaned again. “This really hurts. Can you take a look, Willow?”

  I walked up to Rick and pulled his hand away from his face. His nose was swelling, and the area under his right eye was already black-and-blue. “I need a napkin filled with ice, please,” I said to the server. She grabbed a cloth napkin, reached into the cooler, filled it with ice, and handed it to Rick. He put it on the side of his nose.

  “It’s really throbbing.”

  “He needs to go to the ER to get an X-ray,” I said.

  “I’ll take him,” Carly offered.

  Rick shook his head. “I need you here if I’m going to be gone. Get Amanda.” Clearly Amanda had quickly become his go-to person, just as she had been for Roger. “I also need you to go and see MJ and tell her what happened, okay? Tell her not to worry. I need her mind clear for the show.”

  Carly pulled out her walkie-talkie and called Amanda. Amanda ran into the tent a few minutes later. Her face blanched when she saw that Rick was holding ice on his nose, but she quickly agreed to take him to the ER.

  Rick took the ice pack off his nose and pointed at Tom. “You’re drunk. Go home.”

  “I can work.”

  “I don’t want you here. Go. Come back when you’ve sobered up.”

  Jackson released Tom, who left the tent mumbling expletives. He stalked toward his car, Sarah and Cassidy following him. Jackson and I with Qigong on his leash weren’t far behind.

  “He shouldn’t be driving,” Jackson shouted, and sprinted toward the car, trying to reach it before Tom did.

  Sarah got there first. “I’ll drive,” she said, deftly slipping between Tom and the car door and taking the keys from his hand. “I’m going to take you to your studio. And you’re going to sit there quietly and not give me any trouble. If you even say a word, I swear, I’ll call the police.”

  “Call me and let me know when you get him there safely,” Jackson said, handing her a card with his number. “If I don’t hear from you in twenty minutes, I’ll call the police.”

  Meanwhile, Carly was walking Rick to his car. Amanda got to Rick’s Mercedes first and opened the passenger door for Rick, but as she leaned in to help him into the car, her cell phone dropped out of her back pants pocket and tumbled onto the driveway. Qigong grabbed it and ran, pulling his leash out of my hand. “Qigong!” I knew that he would chew through the cell phone “skin” in seconds.

  I ran after him, calling his name, and finally caught up to him at the guard booth. I grabbed his collar. “Qigong, sweetie, let me have it.” He thought about it for a moment, then dropped it at my feet. He’d left four tooth marks, two on the top and two on the bottom. “It’s okay, I’ve got it,” I yelled to Amanda.

  But as I wiped it off on my shirt, I noticed a text-message conversation that she had probably been having when she got Carly’s SOS. I glanced at Amanda but she was busy helping Rick into the car. I took a closer look at the screen. The first line was from someone named Annie.

  HOW R U DOING?

  MISS L.A. NOTHING SAME SINCE ROGER DIED. I THINK C KNOWS.

  THAT SUCKS.

  ALSO THINK C MAY HAVE KILLED R OR HIRED SOMEONE TO DO IT!

  Now, this was interesting. I looked up from the screen. Rick had settled into the passenger seat, but Amanda was staring right at me.

  I kept my expression calm, walked up, and handed her the phone. “Sorry. I’ll be glad to replace the skin for you.”

  She glanced at the text and then at me and shoved the phone into her front pocket. She rounded the car and opened the driver’s door.

  “Remember to call and update us, Amanda,” Carly said. “MJ will want to know what is going on.”

  “I will, don’t worry.” Amanda got into the car and took off down the road, leaving a dusty cloud in her wake.

  chapter sixteen

  Dr. Willow McQuade’s Healthy Living Tips

  Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. It manifests when the cartilage that cushions our joints degenerates over time. But you don’t have to be old to get it. Knee OA is a common ailment for thirty- and forty-year-olds. One of the first symptoms is stiffness in the morning, usually in the hips and knees, but you can feel OA almost anywhere. Here’s a topical pain relief blend from my friend Jade Schutes, director of education at the East-West School for Herbal and Aromatic Studies:

  1 ounce vegetable oil (apricot kernel or sunflower)

  7 drops of black-pepper essential oil

  4 drops lemongrass essential oil

  4 drops helichrysum (everlasting) essential oil

  Massage on painful joints as needed.

  Yours Naturally,

  Dr. McQuade

  Jackson and I went back into the tent and finally got our veggie burgers, sweet-potato fries, and passion-fruit iced teas. We made camp at Rick’s table, which was still vacant.

  “Well, that was exciting,” I said.

  “And then some. Quite a Friday afternoon, huh? It’s bad enough Roger was knocked off, but Tom is out of control. He really got Rick good.”

  “You were great.”

  “Aw shucks, ma’am, just doing my job.” He’d just picked up a french fry and popped it into his mouth when his cell phone rang. He finished chewing and answered, “Spade here.” He listened for a moment. “Okay, no worries. I’ll be right there.”

  “What’s going on?”

  He stood, picked up his plate, and grabbed his iced tea. “My dog sitter is sick and she needs to go home. I have to go pick up the dogs. I’ll eat this on the way.”

  “How are you going to take care of them and do your job?”

  “I’ll take ’em for a walk to tire them out, and I’m sure they’ll sleep in the car for a while. I’ll bring their dinner, some treats, and toys and a couple of bones. They’ll be fine.”

  “Well, if you need help, let me know.”

  “I will.” He leaned down to kiss me good-bye. “Be back soon.”

  As he left, Cassidy walk
ed past the table with her tray. “Hey,” I said. “Want to join me?”

  “Sure.” She sat down at the table.

  “That was a scene, wasn’t it?”

  “It was classic Bixby,” she told me. “I mean, I should be used to Tom’s shenanigans by now, but somehow he always takes me by surprise. I just can’t believe that a grown human being would throw temper tantrums like that. But then, Roger was the same way. Max was subtler, but he had his own techniques for manipulating things to get what he wanted.”

  I remembered something then. “You said you’re a cousin to the Bixbys?”

  “That’s right. My mom, Monica, and their mom, Aunt Evelyn, God rest her soul, were sisters. We all grew up together in Great Neck. We used to spend summers out here.”

  “That must have been fun.”

  She took a bite of her burger. “It was, lots of fun.”

  “Is that how you got the job on the shoot—through Roger?”

  She nodded. “Yes, but I’ve worked on a ton of shows. I even worked on Simon’s show, Parallel Lives. I’m good. That’s why he hired me. It wasn’t nepotism.”

  “So, you know Simon?”

  She nodded. “I was hired by his line producer, but the costume designer and I conferred with Simon about what sort of costumes he wanted. He’s very charming and well liked.”

  “Really?” This was a surprise. Simon could be charming, but he could also be immature and self-centered.

  “Yes, he’s good to his people. Even the non-union staff get health insurance for free, which is way unusual. He’s great about overtime, and we always have amazing caterers. And the Christmas presents are insane. Last year, everyone got iPads. He’s very cool. I know that the cops think he killed Roger, but I don’t buy it.”

  “Whom do you think the police should be looking at then?”

  “Not Tom,” Cassidy said at once. She gave me a frank look. “I know he must seem like a complete jerk to you. I’d think the same thing if I didn’t know him better. It’s the alcohol that’s got him. He needs treatment. But he’s not a bad person underneath.”

  She picked up her phone, which I hadn’t heard ring or signal an incoming text. She took a moment to read something, then said, “I need to get back to wardrobe. Carly wants us to start at two.” She picked up her tray, which contained mostly uneaten food. “I’ll see you later.”