He nodded and doffed his hat to us as Anika came in with Arthur back on his leash.
“This Gypsy lady here told me I might find the man I was looking for if I waited in her basement for two minutes, and…well, I guess she must be a pretty good and genuine psychic.” The Sheriff sat down, and we all relaxed.
Hmm. Maybe she can see the future – or maybe she just got lucky.
“I’ve got a fresh pitcher of tea in the refrigerator,” Irene got up to get the tea and some glasses.
“What flavor?” Cammy asked. “Bats’ wings or eye of newt?”
“I’m all out of those. You’ll have to settle for peach today, Broomhilda.”
Cammy started to get to her feet, but I pulled her back down. “Stop, Cam. She helped us a lot today.”
Fortunately, her attention turned to Zach as he came in and cuffed the boy. We all sat and talked, telling the Sheriff as much as we could about the events at the water tower, and he reciprocated with some of the missing details about the murder.
A text came in on my phone, and I looked at it. It was from Travis:
Don’t forget about prime rib at the Swamp Fox tonight. I’ll pick you up in an hour. XOXO.
Yeah…that might be a nice way to end the evening – and a glass of wine or two will definitely be on the menu.
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Chapter Seventeen
The Swamp Fox was a spacious and beautiful place now – a far cry from the dim and dingy old dive it had turned into over the years until Carson and Beth turned it into a first-class supper and dance club.
“Cheers!”
Travis raised his glass of beer, and I accepted his toast with a clink from my wine goblet. We were at a small intimate table with candlelight in the new piano lounge. I have to say, I really loved the relaxed and classy feel, especially after this hectic and emotionally draining weekend.
“Hey – take it easy on those sweet potato fries!” He reached across the table and took four of them, which quickly ended up in his mouth. “You’ll spoil your dinner.”
I laughed. I really loved the sweet potato fries, and I even came out after midnight once in a while to get a plateful.
“Uh huh – or maybe you just want them all for yourself.”
His eyes lit up, and he nodded boyishly. “Actually,” he said before putting another bunch into his mouth, “I just want you all for myself.”
I could live with that.
“So,” he continued, “why was the Sheriff taking the food critic’s wife – Marguerite, isn’t it? – away in handcuffs when I came to pick you up? I thought you said that his secretary’s son was the killer.”
“Yes, the boy did it. At least, he shot the arrow.”
“Two medium rare…with a plain baked potato for the lady and a fully loaded one for the gentleman,” the waiter said as he put our steaming plates of prime rib down in front of us. They smelled delicious.
“So,” he said as he cut a large piece of the succulent meat, “why did he arrest the girl?”
I was already chewing and had to wait a minute to respond. “She was in cahoots with him. Apparently, as unlikely as it seems, she had a long ongoing affair with Nathaniel since high school. And his mother, Anjolie, didn’t approve. They had a long-running dislike for one another. Marguerite ran with a rough crowd and didn’t have the social graces that Anjolie preferred. And Marguerite thought that Anjolie was too meddlesome and controlling.”
“Sounds like every mother and every kid on the planet so far.”
“I guess.”
The piano player began playing Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer. It always makes me feel happy for some reason.
“Mmm…I love ragtime music, Trav.”
He nodded.
“Anyway…Antoine was a Georgia boy before he got the big job with the paper in New Orleans, so they asked him to be a judge at the pageant last June. Anjolie had been a pageant official, and Antoine realized that she would be a perfect fit for the sort of ‘chief of staff,’ master scheduler, publicist, and secretary that he needed.”
Travis was beginning to understand. “And, not to be outdone, Marguerite tempted him with her feminine charms got married a few months later.”
“That’s right. She really was very close friends with Pamela Tedesco, who won the Miss Georgia Pageant last year, but Nathaniel prevailed on her to help him with his plan to kill Pamela and transfer the crown to his twin sister, Ana Chantay.”
“But…why?”
“Well, it seems that the beautiful daughter was Mom’s favorite. She got all the doting attention while Nathaniel was the ugly duckling who rarely saw her. He was raised by his grandmother while Anjolie took Ana everywhere and groomed her to be a pageant queen. He thought if he could make his mother’s dream come true and make his sister the queen, his mother would love him more.”
“Yikes. One of those love-hate things, I guess.”
“Kind of. So Marguerite helped him out. She had Pamela come to her suite in the Inn to get dressed before the play, and she sprayed the lining of her gown with an odorless but extremely flammable chemical. And the arrow tip had something like napalm on it, so that’s why she burned up so completely. Then, after I saw Marguerite go out to meet Pamela for the play, she doubled back through the solarium door in back a little later, sneaked into Anjolie’s room on the second floor with a key she lifted from behind the front desk, and aimed the laser marker at Pamela’s chest so Nathaniel would have a better target in the dark. They found it in he purse.”
We enjoyed the rest of our dinner and shared a nice dessert of chocolate cake with strawberries. Travis reached across the table and took my hand. Then he started jerking his head to the left.
“Got a bad twitch, cowboy?”
“Nope. I just want you to pull your chair around and sit next to me. My arm has a hankering to wrap itself around your shoulders.”
I complied quite willingly.
“So, Jessie, there’s still one thing that’s bothering me. You said you looked at the video and were sure it was a woman who shot the arrow – and Anjolie is the one with the archery expertise.”
“You are correct, sir,” I said teasingly and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You may have noticed that his movements are actually quite feminine. He came to believe from a very young age that if he could act like a beauty queen his mother would love him more and he would get more of her attention. So he learned the Sylvestrian runway walk to perfection, how to smile and wave, and even how to walk in heels and answer questions about social issues. He even practiced archery day and night for years to become as good as his mother. But he just couldn’t transform himself into a beauty queen for her. But he did train Marguerite well enough to be win Miss Savannah and be competitive in the pageant.”
“Well…long day for you. I’ll bring you home. Say…I can take a look at your kitchen drain tonight if you want. You said it was leaking.”
“Not necessary. Lionel already took care of it.”
He looked disappointed and tried again. “Well, have you heard the latest Blake Shelton album? I downloaded it, so we can listen to it and split a beer at your place or something.”
“I’ve got it. It’s great.”
Poor guy. He was trying everything to get into my carriage house tonight.
“But, I’ll tell you what, Travis. I haven’t brought the mail up yet. All those envelopes might be pretty heavy for me this time of night. I’d really appreciate it if you could carry them upstairs for me.”
“Yes, ma’am. We can’t have a little lady like you trying to lug a half-dozen envelopes all the way up those stairs. But I might need to stay and rest for a while after all that heavy lifting.”
I hugged him and nestled my head against his chest. “Tell your dad to turn out the porch light, babe.”
He kissed me on top of the head.
“Let’s go get that mail, sweetheart.”
It was nearly midnight on Monday – a pretty slow and relaxing day compared to our busy and hectic weekend. Everyone had gone home including Carlo, and the guests in the Inn were hunkered down in their rooms. Even Arthur was asleep by his dish in the lobby with Moodance resting at his side.
I was enjoying the quiet solemnity and doing the food order for the next day. I loved being in the Tea Room kitchen this time of night when it was peaceful and I was all alone.
“Well, let’s hope we get a nice peaceful week around her for a change, Jessie. Dang! It seems like the forces of good and evil never stop pestering us!”
Well…almost all alone. Granny came by to say hello, and Mom was right beside her.
“Well, you’re right about that, Gran. We could use some peace and quiet.”
Mom gave me a strained smile, and I could see that she had something heavy on her mind. I knew what it was – she was going to tell me how she died. A feeling of both excitement and apprehension came over me.
Granny could feel the elephant in the room coming to life and tried to make her exit.
“Well, I guess I’ll leave you two alone to talk about things.”
“Not so fast, Mother,” Mom said to her, stopping her before she could escape into the lobby. “You have to be here for this too.”
Granny timidly floated back to us with her head down, hiding behind Mom as much as she could. That seemed very odd to me for my devil-may-care Granny to seem so timid all of a sudden.
You could have cut the tense silence with a knife as Mom and I looked at each other. It seemed like a very long time before she spoke.
“Jessie…honey…” She stopped and gulped a little. “…I know you want to know why I left you…why I died so suddenly and inexplicably.”
There was another long pause, and then she began again.
“Do you remember when Madam Irene’s mother, the Great Esmeralda, was killed shortly before I died?”
“Yes, of course. It was terrible. She was beaten and bludgeoned and left in a lifeless heap in the sitting room of her fortune-telling shop. They never solved her murder either.”
“And they never will. You see…she was tossed and battered and killed by spirits – demons from another realm. Someone had opened the gateway to an evil underworld.”
“It was Irene, Kat. You know that.” Granny finally lifted her head to contribute to the conversation. “It had to be her. Who else could do that?”
“Perhaps, Mother. Anyway, they wanted to use Esmeralda as a vessel to bring their powers into the human world so they could eventually rule the earth and reign havoc here. They tried for a very long time, and she talked about it often with me. She refused to help them.” Mom took in a breath and then let it out with a feeling of exasperation. “So they killed her.”
“That’s terrible – but what does it have to do with your death, Mom?”
“Well, they had to accomplish two things before they could proceed with their plan to turn our world – well, your world – into their playground: They had to train a human person in their ways to be the medium between their dark forces and the real world, and…”
I was beginning to understand. “…and they had to get rid of the guardians of the good forces who would try to stop them. And that was you. You and Granny protected the portal to the good and natural forces and spirits – behind those doors in the basement.”
“Basically, yes.”
“So they killed you, and Irene is still in training to be the human embodiment of their powers and evil cause.” I was sure that was it.
“No. Well, you’re right about Irene. But they didn’t kill me. They tried to win me over to their side.”
I was confused. “Then who?”
There was another long silence, and this time it was very chilling.
“Who, Mom? Who killed you?”
She looked down and shook her head just a little. Still, there were no words. Finally Granny floated to the front and looked at me with wide eyes that were filled with horror or shame or disbelief. I couldn’t really tell what it was that I saw in her eyes, but it sent chills through every cell of my body.
“I did it, Jessie. I took your mother.”
I was numb. I couldn’t hear or see or feel. Time passed, but not for me.
“Jessie…Jess, honey…”
It was like I was looking at the world through cloudy water, and I was completely submerged in it. It blocked out all of my senses except for a hazy image of the world around me that seemed more surreal than real. Gradually the fog lifted, and I could hear my mother calling me.
“Jessie…sweetheart. They came for me with a whole army in a sneak attack. They either would have possessed me and turned me into their slave to do their bidding, or they would have killed me in a horrible manner, just as they did to Esmeralda. Your grandmother really had no choice. What she did may have saved the world. When your grandmother finally told me what happened, I knew I had to tell you right away – because you are the one who is in danger now. You are the guardian of the forces that will have to defeat the demons and close the gateway to their horrible realm.”
I knew my life would never be the same. I felt a pain in my stomach…this truth was really hard to bear…but I also felt empowered. It was my job now to learn everything I could about my mission – and about my powers.
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Jesse Delacroix: Curse of the Bloodstone Arrow (The Whispering Pines Mystery Series Book 3) Page 12