Penny sized them up and then sighed. “No. If you found out from her, then you must know the truth. But I paid her enough that she should have kept her mouth shut.”
“We found out when we went through some of her documents,” Trina said. “She was researching locals so she could impersonate people in their lives who died. When she found an especially juicy secret, it seems she exploited it for blackmail.”
“And how!” said Penny. “She demanded money upfront and half of what I would have gotten from the other driver who hit me. She drove a hard bargain.”
“But now that she’s dead you don’t have to pay her the rest,” Lydia pointed out.
“I have been able to breathe a little easier since she died, but I didn’t kill her,” said Penny. “I wouldn’t have paid her if I was going to kill her.”
“Unless her greed grew and you decided you didn’t want to deal with it anymore,” said Lydia. “And you might have thought that you would get away with the crime because everyone assumed you were hurt.”
“But I really didn’t do it,” said Penny. “She was killed three nights ago, right? I was in a meeting with my lawyer that night to discuss my case.”
“You have a lawyer who puts in night hours?” asked Trina.
A blush colored Penny’s cheeks. “We might have discussed more than the case.”
“You’re dating him?” Lydia asked.
“Yes. He’s cute, and we started discussing the fun ways we could spend the money I won together,” Penny said. “You could call him and confirm that I was with him that night. What was discussed would be protected by attorney-client privilege, but he’ll confirm my location.”
Penny dug into her purse and pulled out a business card. Lydia accepted it.
“Thanks. If you really were with him, then you don’t have to worry about the police considering you a suspect.”
“Is there something else I need to worry about?” Penny asked, biting one of her nails nervously. “What do you plan to do with what you found from Miss Cassandra?”
“I’m more interested in finding her killer than anything else,” said Lydia. “But I think you should tell your lawyer that you’d like to drop the case against the other driver. And you should make a quick recovery from your injury. If you do that, we won’t tell the police.”
“And I won’t tell anyone at the salon,” Trina promised.
“All right,” Penny conceded.
Lydia and Trina got to their feet, ready to leave the beach. Lydia was hoping to leave as soon as possible. She wanted to call the lawyer on the business card to confirm Penny’s alibi before Penny had a chance to warn him about what he might be asked. She also didn’t want to talk to Daniel if he was more interested in talking to the bathing beauties than to her.
“You’re not as bad as Miss Cassandra,” said Penny, “but you two really are a pain in the neck!”
12
Cotton Candy and a Clue
“The lawyer confirmed Penny’s alibi,” Lydia reported to Trina as she hung up her phone. “And he was rather smug with his innuendos about their business meeting.”
“I guess this means that Penny can’t be the killer,” said Trina.
They were back in Lydia’s office at Doherty’s Taffy and Trinkets. Trina leaned back in her chair. Lydia tapped her desk as she thought.
“Unless Penny and her lawyer are in cahoots. And they needed to get rid of Miss Cassandra to complete their fraudulent legal case,” Lydia said. “But Penny did agree to drop the suit just now to us. If she killed for it, she might have put up more of a fight.”
“You don’t think she’ll come after us, do you?” Trina’s eyes widened. “Maybe that’s the danger that Madame Waverly foretold.”
“Why are you willing to believe Madame Waverly’s prediction when we keep finding evidence that the other psychic in town was a fraud?” asked Lydia.
Trina shrugged. “Through the years, Madame Waverly has given some good advice. I visited her when I was in high school, and she foretold that I would become a hair stylist.”
“But that wasn’t a hard prediction to make. You always loved styling hair and making people feel beautiful. And if you don’t mind my saying so, you also love gossip. And there’s plenty of that at the salon.”
“True,” Trina said. “And I actually should be heading over there now for some appointments.”
“Maybe you can find out who the mystery woman from Miss Cassandra’s files is while you’re there.”
“The perks of gossip,” Trina said with a laugh.
“I’d really like to track her down,” said Lydia. “While I’m not discounting Penny completely as a suspect, I think it’s more likely that one of the other two people being blackmailed is the killer.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Trina said, heading towards the door. “And you let me know what you find out from your mailman.”
Lydia agreed. She stood up to leave her office as well. However, when Trina paused and frowned, she had a moment of worry.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was just thinking about some other predictions that Madame Waverly made for me through the years,” Trina said, placing a hand on her hip. “I haven’t really had a business venture succeed like she said it would. And I’m still waiting for my white knight to show up.”
With a dramatic huff, Trina left. Lydia hoped those predictions would come true for her friend, but wouldn’t mind if the one about her fighting for her life never came to fruition.
She walked further into the shop and saw that Jeff and Annette were having fun blending the colors in the cotton candy salt water taffy. Kelsey was reading over something in between ringing up customers at the register.
“What do you have there?” Lydia asked jovially.
“My lines,” Kelsey admitted. “Even though I’ve just been cast because I’ll be cute in the role, I want to do it right. I’m trying to memorize the monologue whenever there’s a lull. I hope that’s all right.”
“Since the shop is still spotless and all the guests look happy, it’s no problem.”
“Thanks,” Kelsey said. “I wish this role presented more of an acting challenge. But, you’re right. Maybe the next part I get will be meatier. And I’ll just do the best I can with the one I have right now.”
Lydia expressed that she thought that was the right spirit to have, but then a customer came up to the register with an assortment of taffy, and they focused their attention on her. Lydia realized that she had met the woman before. It was Nellie, who had been such a fan of Madame Waverly when Lydia had paid her a visit.
“Hello there,” Nellie said with a broad smile. “How did you enjoy your reading with Madame Waverly? She’s wonderful, isn’t she? I’m picking up some salt water taffy for her now. I know she loves sweets and she has been in such a bad mood since just before Miss Cassandra moved to town. I’m not sure if it’s improved any since she died either. But I wanted to do something to cheer Madame Waverly up. Of course, it’s very difficult to surprise someone who can see the future! I just hope she likes it.”
“I’m sure she will,” said Kelsey. “Everyone with a sweet tooth around here loves our taffy. And the cotton candy flavor works well because you expect it to be super sweet, and it doesn’t disappoint.”
“That’s wonderful,” said Nellie. “I want Madame Waverly to know that she’s appreciated. She’s so great with her readings. And very accurate. She warned me about my gardening accident before it happened, you know. It’s true. I hurt myself with a garden hoe and know I have five lines of scratches on my arm. If I had only heeded her advice about the outdoors, I could have avoided it. I’m eager to have another reading and see what she has to say now.”
“Did you say that Madame Waverly had been in a bad mood both before Miss Cassandra arrived and after?” asked Lydia.
“That’s right,” Nellie said, nodding furiously. “I don’t if everyone knows her as well as I do. But I noticed how jumpy she was after
she learned about Miss Cassandra. And I don’t really blame her. It’s all pretty upsetting. That’s why I’m going to bring her taffy.”
Lydia nodded. She appreciated the sale, but she also appreciated the information. Perhaps Madame Waverly had been upset after Miss Cassandra’s murder because she really did have a guilty conscience about the crime.
Kelsey rang up the order, and then Nellie thanked them.
“I’ll let you know what she thinks of the gift. If she doesn’t tell you first! As a psychic, she knows the future. She might thank you for the taffy before I even give it to her,” Nellie said with a laugh. “She really is talented. Believe everything she says.”
Lydia thought that she would take Madame Waverly’s prediction about her with a big grain of salt – or even better, with a big piece of salt water taffy. Lydia decided to try one of Jeff and Annette’s latest batch of the cotton candy taffy as a treat after a difficult few days.
However, this meant that her mouth was full when Daniel walked inside the shop. She chewed quickly so that she would be able to talk to him.
“Hi, Lydia,” he said. “I saw you on the beach near my lifeguard stand. I was surprised that you didn’t say hi.”
She swallowed her taffy and moved closer to him. “I’m sorry. You see, I was busy working on a new case.”
“Oh.” He sounded a little hurt when he asked, “and you didn’t want my help with a case this time?”
Lydia shrugged. “Well, I thought you wanted your space. I didn’t want to intrude.”
It was quiet between them for a few moments. Then, Daniel looked up at her hesitatingly. “Is everything okay between us?”
“Sure,” Lydia said, though she was sure it didn’t sound convincing. “Well, yes and no.”
“Is this because of what I told you about before? I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“What you told me didn’t upset me,” Lydia said, crossing her arms. “I can understand how hard it can be to deal with the loss of a loved one. What might upset me is if you used that as an excuse when you really just don’t want to see me.”
“What do you mean?” Daniel asked, looking taken aback.
“Nothing,” Lydia said before promptly unleashing exactly what she was referring to. “We spoke to Penny on the beach, and she told us how you helped her and how interested you were in her. She said you stared at her.”
Daniel let out a small chuckle. “Lydia, I was helping her because she had a neck injury. I wasn’t flirting with her. If she thought I was staring at her, it was to make sure that she didn’t fall as she took her seat.”
“Oh,” Lydia said, starting to feel foolish after her outburst. “I see.”
There was another moment of silence between them, where Lydia felt her face getting redder and redder.
“Maybe I had no right to ask you about that,” Lydia said, looking at her shoes.
“No. I’m glad you did. And that we could clear that up,” said Daniel. “I wasn’t lying before. I was trying to be honest about how I felt about dating. And I still don’t feel like I’m ready. But I can’t deny that I was hurt when you didn’t talk to me when you were so close to where I worked.”
Lydia decided that since she had already made a fool of herself once, she might as well go all out. She decided to be completely honest about what was going through her head.
“I don’t know if I’m really ready to get into a serious relationship again either,” she started. “But I was really disappointed when you said we shouldn’t go to the symphony. I feel like there could maybe be something between us. That scares me a little bit. I don’t know if I told you all the details about my last relationship.”
“You haven’t.”
“I was engaged to someone. I loved him. But he ended up not being the man I thought he was. He wasn’t there for me when I needed him. When Uncle Edgar got really sick. And when I really could have used some support. I’m scared that I’ll make the same mistakes. I’m scared that I’ll fall for someone like him again – who only loves me when it’s convenient. Or for someone who doesn’t like French bulldogs because that’s also a deal breaker right now.”
“Sunny is a great dog,” Daniel said softly.
“Dating is really scary. But I felt like you might be worth it. And worth waiting for,” Lydia said. “But now I’m just sad that our new friendship seems to be faltering.”
Daniel stared into her eyes. She was afraid that she had further embarrassed herself, but then a slight smile formed on his lips. “It sounds like it’s really important to you that I listen to this Jersey Symphony. I’ll go with you if you like. But they better be good.”
Lydia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She smiled. “Oh, they’ll be good all right.”
“I’d like for us to be friends,” Daniel said. “And when we’re ready if anything ever develops—”
“You don’t need to say anything else,” Lydia said. “We’ll just see where things lead as we get there.”
“And will you also share your leads with me on your case?” he teased. “I like being a gumshoe with you. Or would we be taffy-shoes?”
Lydia laughed. Then, she updated him on what she had learned so far. She told him about how Leo hadn’t seemed able to focus on this case properly and how she promised Detective Grey that she would help him. She told him about Madame Waverly’s motive and threat, and Miss Cassandra’s research on dead people related to locals in town, and about the blackmail scheme.
“This makes sense,” Daniel said. “I wasn’t supposed to overhear her, but as I left, I heard Miss Cassandra tell her assistant that she could leave for the day to finish her project. Miss Cassandra also mentioned that she was excited for a client she expected to see that night who she said could be a cash cow.”
“That sounds like one of her blackmail victims,” Lydia said excitedly. “This confirms that one of them went to see her that night. She expected to receive a payment, but the blackmail victim decided to kill her instead.”
Lydia looked at the time and then hurried towards the door with a wave to Kelsey. Daniel hurried after her.
“Where are you going?”
“I can’t miss the mail today,” said Lydia.
13
The Mailman and the Mystery Woman
Lydia was glad that she didn’t have a dog who barked at the mailman, though Sunny did seem confused why they had changed their routine and were sitting on the front porch that afternoon. Sunny soon found a comfortable spot to start sunbathing, and Lydia sat on their rocking chair, trying not to move forward and backward too quickly so she wouldn’t appear frantic.
There hadn’t been any letters in her mailbox when she arrived home. She hoped that this meant that she’d beat the mailman there and not that she was so unpopular that she hadn’t received any mail that day. Usually, she at least got one piece of junk mail if nothing else.
She continued rocking as her thoughts alternated between excitement over how things seemed to work out with Daniel and about who the killer could be. She looked at her sleeping pooch who was snoring gently and wondered what sort of attack dog she could be if her mailman turned out to be the murderer.
However, when the cheerful mailman started walking up towards her house and whistling, she had trouble imagining him as a cold-blooded killer.
“Hello there. Beautiful day, isn’t it? Of course, summer days are always lovely here,” he said, handing her a stack of mail. “It looks like you’ve gotten another postcard. It must always be exciting to get those”
Lydia nodded. She loved receiving the postcard from her Aunt Edie’s world travels. However, this was a moment when she wished her Aunt Edie was there in person. Though their mailman Marky seemed easy to get along with, Aunt Edie had actually gained a repartee with him through the years. She knew the names of his children and would be able to start a conversation naturally. Lydia was pretty sure that she was just going to stumble into an accusation, but did her best to try and avoid it.
“Quite different from our sunny weather down here,” he said with a smile.
Lydia sensed he was about to say good day and continue on, so she stopped him. “Do you mind if I talk to you about something besides the weather?”
Marky stood in place. “Is there something wrong?”
“Yes,” Lydia admitted. “You might have heard that a local psychic was killed recently. Well, I’ve come to have some documents that belonged to her. And I’m not sure what to do with them.”
Cotton Candy and Corpses Page 6