by J A Whiting
Her sisters exchanged glances. Something told them that Ellie’s wish probably wouldn’t come true any time soon.
***
Angie and Courtney made their way along the brick and cobblestone sidewalks of Coveside passing gift shops and restaurants and coffee shops. Even in late afternoon, when most people were on the beach, the area was packed with tourists wandering around the cozy streets and browsing in the shops. People stood on the drawbridge which traversed the skinniest part of the cove taking photos of the boats bobbing in the harbor.
A T-shirt shop had taken over Nana’s former store. Long ago, the small space was a tiny fisherman’s shack that was attached to a larger building. That building now housed a restaurant. The two sisters entered and asked for the owner. When he came out to meet them, they introduced themselves and asked if the man had known their grandmother.
“Sure, I did. I’ve been here for years. Virginia was a nice woman.” He wiped his hands on the apron he had tied around his waist and shook hands with the girls.
“We wondered if you knew her well. Would you consider yourselves friends?” Angie asked.
“I wouldn’t say we were friends, but certainly friendly. We were both at work most of the time. There is never much time for chit chat when you’re running a business and it’s tourist season. Your grandmother always paid her shop’s rent on time. She took good care of the premises. She was an excellent tenant. Can’t say the same for the people I’ve rented to since she retired.”
“Do you know any people she was friendly with?”
“She was friendly with everyone. Don’t know of any specific friends.” An employee came up beside the man and spoke to him about something that was needed in the kitchen. The man excused himself for having to get back to work and walked away.
Angie and Courtney stepped outside and visited other stores. Some people had only been in the cove for a few years and others knew Nana, but had not been close to her. After an hour of wandering around the cove talking to store owners and employees, the girls sat down on one of the picnic tables to the side of one of the seaside cafes.
“This is just a wild goose chase.” Angie smoothed her hair back. She squinted in the bright light of the day and wondered why she always forgot her sunglasses. “Did Nana belong to any clubs or organizations in town?”
Courtney shrugged. “I don’t know. How can we be related to Nana and not know much about her?”
“Why don’t we head home?” Angie couldn’t help feeling disappointed with the little information they’d gathered during their day of investigating. She thought it best to return to the Victorian and focus on other things hoping that giving her mind a break would result in a new idea to pursue. “I feel like cooking something tasty for dinner. What would you like to have?”
“Spaghetti and meatballs.” Courtney grinned. They headed up the brick sidewalk. Courtney placed her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “You know what’s nice about being a person who loves to eat?” She didn’t wait for Angie to respond. “Having a sister who loves to cook.”
Chapter 9
The four girls and Mr. Finch sat crowded around a table in one of the carriage house apartment kitchens. The two cats made a new perch on top of the refrigerator in the cramped kitchen. Angie made spaghetti, sauce, and two kinds of meatballs, beef and veggie, with garlic bread for dinner. Even though she could have prepared the meal in the carriage house and then carried the dinner to the Victorian’s dining room table, they all felt lazy and decided to just squish together in the small space.
“I’ll be so glad when the kitchen renovations are finished and things can get back to normal.” Ellie passed the basket of bread to Mr. Finch.
“‘Normal’ isn’t a word that works in this family.” Courtney wiped a drop of sauce from her chin.
Finch smiled at the sisters. “I believe the word ‘normal’ is overrated.”
“We’re going to the store tomorrow to start making candy.” Courtney couldn’t hide her excitement. She and Finch had hired Attorney Ford to draw up papers cementing their business partnership and she was eager to begin working. “I can’t wait to start.”
“I believe it will prove fruitful for both of us,” Finch said.
“We’re going to introduce the new partnership at the Fourth of July weekend celebration. We’re going to have a booth at the street festival to sell some of our candy. We’re making chocolate truffles and Turkish delights.”
“We’re all going to be at the celebration then.” Jenna smiled. “Maybe we can get tables and booths next to each other.” She was planning on displaying her jewelry at the festival and Angie was going to have a booth selling some of her baked goods. Ellie was planning to take some breaks from the B and B duties to assist her sisters now and then throughout the day of the festival.
“Oh,” Courtney said, “I almost forgot. Attorney Ford told me that he would look into the land records from around the time Nana owned the cottage. He’ll let us know as soon as he finds anything.” Courtney took another piece of garlic bread from the basket. “Delicious meal, Angie.”
Angie blinked. She hadn’t been paying attention. “Huh?”
“You’re awfully quiet tonight.” Jenna placed her hand on Angie’s forehead. “Are you feeling okay?”
Angie put her fork on her plate. “I’m not that hungry I guess.”
Conversation stopped and four faces stared at Angie, six counting the cats. Angie always had a good appetite unless she was ill.
“What’s the matter with you?” Ellie eyed her sister.
“You don’t look pale,” Courtney noted.
Jenna moved her hand from Angie’s forehead to her cheek. “She doesn’t have a fever.”
Angie batted Jenna’s hand away from her face. “I’m not sick. Can’t a person just not be hungry?”
“Not you.” Worry lines crinkled Jenna’s forehead. “You always want to eat.”
Euclid arched his back. A low hiss grumbled in his throat.
Ellie’s eyes were wide when she looked up at the orange cat. She turned her attention to Angie. “What’s wrong?” Her voice quivered.
“Miss Angie.” Finch leaned forward, a kind expression on his face. “You can tell us what’s bothering you.”
Angie raised her eyes. Her posture seemed slightly diminished. “I don’t feel comfortable in here.”
Ellie practically leaped from her chair, glancing about the space with wild eyes. “Why? Why don’t you feel comfortable?”
Jenna said softly, “Why don’t you sit down. It’s okay. We’re all together.”
Circe jumped from the refrigerator onto the counter and down to the floor where she padded over to Angie. The cat leaped onto her lap and settled.
Angie stroked the smooth fur. “I don’t know why. I feel like something is off in here.” She made eye contact with Ellie. “It’s nothing dangerous. I just can’t put my finger on it.”
“Do you want to leave and go back to the Victorian?” Courtney asked.
“No, no.” Angie ran her hand over her hair. “Being in here … makes me feel … sad.”
“I wasn’t expecting that.” Jenna put her hand on Angie’s arm. “Maybe your feeling will become clearer and we’ll understand why the space makes you feel that way.”
“It’s okay.” Angie forced a smile and picked up her fork. “If it means anything, then the sensation will become stronger. Let’s finish dinner.” Wanting to steer the conversation in a different direction, she said, “Maybe later we can watch a movie.”
“I will have to take a rain check on the movie, I’m afraid,” Mr. Finch said.
“Oh?” Ellie refilled Finch’s water glass. “Do you have other plans tonight?”
“At the risk of the Roseland sisters’ famous teasing …” Mr. Finch cleared his throat. “I have a date.” He sat up proudly.
Hoots filled the air.
“Well, well.” Jenna raised an eyebrow. “Is the lucky woman Betty Hayes?”
“Indeed it is.”
“Just to remind you, Mr. Finch.” Ellie’s voice was playfully stern. “You are only paying for a single room here at the B and B.”
The comment instigated gales of laughter, since Ellie was the last person anyone expected to tease Mr. Finch about a lady-friend.
Mr. Finch’s pale cheeks tinged pink. “I’ll keep that in mind, Miss Ellie.”
The group finished their meal and cleaned up the kitchen with Courtney washing and Mr. Finch drying the dishes. When most everything was put away, Finch excused himself for the evening and received another round of hoots from the girls. He tut-tutted them for their foolishness, but walking out of the apartment leaning on his cane, there was clearly a spring in Mr. Finch’s step.
Wiping down the table top, Courtney smiled. “I love it that Mr. Finch has a girlfriend.”
“I never would have put those two together.” Jenna shook her head.
“I agree, but for some reason, it works.” Ellie put the last clean plate back on the shelf. She turned and leaned back against the counter, and then stood straight. “Where’s Angie?”
Courtney and Jenna glanced around the combined living-kitchen space.
“Did she go back to the Victorian?” Courtney looked out the window to see if her sister was walking back to the house.
Jenna walked over to the two bedrooms off the living area and stood in the doorway of one of them. Courtney came up behind her and peered into the room. Angie moved slowly about the bedroom looking around. Euclid and Circe sat on the bed watching her. Euclid let out a low hiss. Angie stopped. “It’s something about this room.”
Courtney strode in and opened the closet door and all the drawers in the dresser and the two nightstands checking the spaces for anything that seemed off. She shrugged. “Empty.”
Angie sat on the bed. “Do you feel sadness in here? Do you feel anything?”
Courtney shook her head. “No, but the sadness thing you’re feeling is creeping me out.”
Angie grinned. “I expect that reaction from Ellie, not you.”
“I heard that,” Ellie called from the kitchen.
Jenna crooked her thumb and gestured to the kitchen. She whispered so that Ellie couldn’t hear her. “She has ears like a bat.”
Courtney chuckled. “Maybe that’s her special power.”
***
Returning to the Victorian from the carriage house, the girls strolled along the brick walkway, the cats trailing behind. The sky was clear and the sunset painted violet and rose streaks across the horizon.
Jenna said, “Want to sit on the porch for a while? It’s so beautiful out.”
They sat in the rockers and watched tourists strolling along the sidewalk in front of the house, some heading up the street into town for dinner and shopping, and others going down the street to the beach for an evening walk on the white sand.
“I can’t stop thinking about Nana.” Courtney leaned back in her chair and put her feet up on the porch railing. Euclid and Circe sat on the rail watching the people going by.
“I know.” Angie sighed. “It’s always in the back of my mind. Did someone hurt her? Will we ever find out?”
Jenna asked Ellie, “Do we have pictures of Nana besides the ones in the carton you brought out the other day when Tom found the box in the wall?”
“I think that’s all we have.” Suddenly, Ellie planted her feet on the porch floor to halt her rocking motion. “Wait. There’s a box of Nana’s stuff. Mom gave it to me … a few hours before she died. She told me to hold onto the box for safekeeping.” Ellie’s blue eyes were like saucers. “But I forgot about the box after Mom’s accident. Mom put it on the shelf in my bedroom closet. I never looked in it. It must be packed away from when we moved here. It must be in one of the boxes that we put in the carriage house.”
Jenna eyed her sister. “Mom gave you a box of Nana’s things?”
“You forgot about it?” Angie asked.
“I didn’t lose it.” Ellie’s voice went up an octave.
“Why did Mom give it to you?” Courtney sounded slightly offended.
“You were only eighteen. Jenna was working in Rhode Island. Angie was working two jobs. I don’t know. Mom told me to keep it safe for all of us.”
“Well, what’s in it?” Jenna’s voice was tinged with annoyance.
“I told you. I never looked in it.”
“Really?” Courtney shook her head.
“Yes, really. I forgot I had it.”
Euclid made eye contact with Ellie and hissed.
“Oh, don’t you start in on me,” Ellie told the cat.
“Okay, okay.” Angie jumped in to cool things down. “It’s understandable. Mom gave you the box, she died the same day. The box got overlooked with everything that happened. No wonder you forgot about it.”
Ellie pouted and twisted a strand of her long blonde hair in her fingers.
Courtney stared across the lawn at the street for a few moments. Her eyes widened and she whirled her head towards Angie.
Angie startled when she saw the look on her sister’s face. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I feel the thrumming.” She pulled her feet off the railing and sat up in the rocking chair. “Do you feel it?”
Angie shook her head.
“It’s strong.” Courtney leaned closer to Angie and took her hand. She looked her in the eyes. “Feel it?”
Vibration pulsed in Angie’s hand as if the beating of her youngest sister’s heart pounded in her own chest. Thrum, thrum. She had never felt the sensation this strong.
Euclid let out a piercing howl that caused the girls to jump. People walking by on the sidewalk turned and stared as they strolled past.
Courtney released Angie’s hand and stood up. “Come on. We need to find that box.”
Chapter 10
Courtney flicked on the wall switch flooding the carriage house store room with light. The four girls blinked and squinted until their eyes adjusted. Boxes, suitcases, bicycles, items from Angie’s Sweet Dreams Bake Shop, and things left from when Professor Linden lived in the Victorian crammed the space. They stood staring into the black hole of what looked like a yard sale nightmare.
Euclid and Circe crawled over the mound of things.
“We really need to go through this stuff.” Angie’s eyes roved over the piles.
“It will take a life time,” Jenna moaned.
Courtney pushed some boxes to the side so they could step into the chaos. “Why don’t we just … I don’t know … set it all on fire?”
Three faces gaped at Courtney.
“I’m kidding.” She shook her head. “Sort of.”
“So.” Angie tapped Ellie on the shoulder. “Where’s the box?”
Ellie made a face and released a smothered groan. “I have no idea. When we all moved in, we just dumped everything in a mish-mash. We should have organized it better.”
“The understatement of the year.” Courtney smiled and lifted a box out of the way.
“What did you pack it in?” Jenna checked the tag on one of the suitcases. “What does it look like?”
“It’s a hard plastic container.” Ellie moved her hands in the air pantomiming the shape of the box. “It’s black.”
“Did you put it inside another box? Or in a suitcase?” Angie wasn’t sure where to search first.
“I don’t remember. Everything happened so fast.” Ellie sat down on one of the chairs that had been in the bake shop. “When Angie moves her baking furniture and equipment out of here, it will help.”
“We can’t wait that long.” Courtney removed a lid from a box and checked the contents.
Angie asked Courtney, “Do you think you felt the thrumming because Ellie was telling us about Nana’s box?”
Courtney nodded her head in the affirmative.
“Do you still feel the thrumming?”
Courtney stood, her head tilted slightly to the side, paying attention to the sensations in her b
ody. “Yes. It’s not as strong as that initial jolt, but its still there.”
Angie stepped closer. “Focus on it. See if it strengthens or lessens as you move about the room.”
Jenna nodded. “The thrumming might lead you to the container. Should we all be still and quiet so we don’t interfere with the … what should I call it … the signal?”
“Good idea.” Angie pushed some things to the side to make a short path for Courtney to move around a little and asked her, “You want to try it? You want to see if the thrumming can lead you to the box?”
Courtney straightened her shoulders. “Yes. Let’s give it a shot.”
Angie squeezed her sister’s shoulder and gave her a little grin. “No pressure or anything.”
Ellie warned, “Just don’t let this backfire like Angie’s muffin spell did to Mr. Finch.”
Courtney closed her eyes and took some deep breaths, and then she glanced around and took tiny steps forward trying to listen to whether the thrumming got weaker or stronger.
Euclid popped his head up near a few suitcases and trilled. Courtney headed in his direction. After a few minutes, she whispered, “It’s getting stronger over here.” She moved away from her sisters and walked towards the orange cat who nudged at a blue suitcase.
“Euclid is right. It’s very strong here. It must be in this suitcase.”
Ellie craned her neck to look where Courtney pointed. Her eyes lit up. “That’s it. That’s my suitcase. I put Nana’s box inside of it.”
The girls scrambled to where Courtney stood. They lifted the blue suitcase to carry it over the piles of things and set it down near the door. Ellie unzipped it and opened the top of the large wheeled carry-on bag. “Here it is.” She removed the black container.
“Let’s take it to the house to open it,” Jenna suggested. “In case there are pictures or small things inside, we can spread them out on the coffee table.”
The four sisters and the two cats paraded towards the house in the fading light with Ellie leading the way protectively carrying the box in her arms like it was an ancient relic. Inside the family room, she gently placed it on the low table. The cats jumped up and settled next to the container. Ellie looked at her sisters.