Sweet Fire and Stone (A Sweet Cove Cozy Mystery Book 7)

by J A Whiting

  “I don’t think that’s our man,” Courtney joked.

  “Is that all the info out there?” Angie asked.

  “For the most part.” Tom looked at the entries on the screen. “These other things aren’t about the man staying here at the B and B.”

  “I wonder.” Mr. Finch stroked Circe’s black fur. She had jumped off the fridge and curled up in the man’s lap.

  Everyone turned to Finch.

  “I wonder if Mr. Withers is playing a joke on us. Perhaps he takes on a new name wherever he goes.”

  “I saw his ID though. It said Walter Withers on it.” Ellie opened the oven door and slid out the lasagna and the lentil pie.

  “His address must be on the ID. Did you notice it?” Jenna swiveled her stool around to face her sister. “Doesn’t he have to list his address on the B and B guest card he fills in?”

  Ellie frowned. “He told me he was in between apartments since he had to travel so extensively. I didn’t need a zip code to verify his credit card because he paid in cash. In full, for the month.”

  “He’s clever,” Angie sighed. “Look up Clarence and Angelina Crosswort. See if you can find anything on the internet about them. I can’t believe they rented the house right next to the one that burned down last night. It’s a strange coincidence.”

  “And you thought you saw them in the second floor window.” Courtney tossed the salad ingredients. “Why wouldn’t they come out of the house last night to see what was happening?”

  “Maybe it was my imagination. Maybe no one was in the house at all.” Angie added the dry ingredients to the bowl and mixed them. “I felt bad for scaring Gloria when I rushed up on her in the dark.”

  Courtney looked at Angie. “How well do you know Gloria?”

  Angie was aghast. “It’s not her. She’s not involved in the fires.”

  “How can you be sure?” Courtney cocked her head.

  Before Angie could reply, Jenna tapped some more at her laptop keyboard. Tom leaned over her shoulder and then straightened. “Nothing at all on the internet about the Crossworts.”

  Ellie’s voice was high-pitched. “How can there be nothing? There isn’t one thing?”

  “Come look if you like. Nothing comes up.” Tom faced Angie. “Are you sure you got their names right?”

  “I’m sure.” Angie rolled the cookie dough into small balls and placed them on the baking sheet. “It’s exactly as I suspected it would be. Nothing to go on.”

  “These aren’t normal people.” Tom put his hand on Jenna’s shoulder. “Stay away from them.”

  “We can’t.” Courtney carried the salad bowl to the kitchen island. “One is living in our house and the other two keep showing up in Angie’s bake shop.”

  Ellie groaned and plopped into the chair opposite Mr. Finch. She put her head in her hands. “What are we going to do?”

  “Well, these people haven’t done anything wrong.” Finch put his teacup on its saucer.

  Courtney took salad dressing out of the refrigerator. “Except lie about their names and where they came from.”

  “But that isn’t a crime,” Finch said. “I don’t think so anyway. These people may very well be harmless. However, in case they aren’t harmless, we will keep our eyes on them and remain suspicious.”

  Euclid arched his back and let out a hiss.

  “That isn’t comforting,” Ellie told the orange cat. She looked off across the room. “Do the police always have to bring us unwanted news?”

  Angie gave Ellie a wary look. “Why are you mentioning the police?”

  The back doorbell rang and Courtney went to see who it was. She returned with Officer Talbot.

  Angie raised an eyebrow at Ellie. The tall blonde had recently started making statements out of the blue and then moments later, what she mentioned happened or appeared.

  “Evening.” The officer removed his hat. “Chief Martin asked me to come over.” He cleared his throat. “One of us will be stationed out front of the Victorian each night for a while. We’ll be sitting in a squad car most of the time, but we’ll be strolling around the grounds now and then throughout the night. Chief Martin thought it best, for the time being, due to recent circumstances going on in town. He thought your guests may be concerned about the recent fires and would feel more at ease if there was a police presence out front. He’d like to stop by tomorrow and talk to you.”

  Angie thanked the officer and saw him out. When she returned, she looked at her family. “Well.”

  “That isn’t comforting either.” Ellie moaned.

  “It is comforting.” Courtney took salt and pepper from the cabinet. “Chief Martin takes care of us.” She smiled. “Although, we do pretty well taking care of ourselves.”

  “I’m not sure how reassuring the police car out front will be.” Tom held Jenna’s hand in his. “It might make the guests worry that they’re in real danger.”

  Angie’s shoulders drooped. “I think the chief is using the guests’ concern as a cover for him really being worried about us.”

  “I’m worried about our house.” Jenna looked at Tom. “It’s always empty. It could be a target if someone is actually setting fires around town.”

  Tom said, “I thought the same thing. I’ll bring more lamps and floor lights over there tomorrow morning and we can keep them lit all night. I’ll also install some security lighting around the perimeter of the house. We’ll keep those on all night as well.”

  Jenna nodded. “Good idea.”

  Courtney put the salad and salad plates on a tray and headed for the hallway, but paused at the table where Ellie was sitting. “You might want to start practicing your telekinesis. If anyone comes at us with a weapon, it might come in handy if your skills are in good shape.”

  Ellie let out a long groan. “We need a plan, one that doesn’t involve me.”

  12

  Angie could feel the Crossworts approaching the bake shop before they even opened the door and walked in. When the bell jingled, Angie looked at the entrance out of the corner of her eye. Dread ran through her body and she let out a sigh. Louisa started over to the old couple’s table, but Angie placed her hand on the young woman’s arm to stop her.

  “I’ll take care of them today.” Angie pushed her shoulders back and plastered a smile on her face. She advanced across the room as if she was going into battle. “Good morning.” She set down two white mugs on the table. “I’m Angie Roseland. I’ve been meaning to introduce myself.”

  The couple seemed to shrink down in their seats, their eyes wide. The gray-haired man wore his usual huge, dark overcoat. The woman’s brown winter coat looked threadbare. Her eyes were sunken in her face and her skin had an almost yellow tinge to its appearance. Dark circles showed beneath the lower lids. Angie wondered if the woman was ill.

  “Coffee?” Angie held a coffee pot in her right hand and waited for one of them to respond.

  The woman turned away and looked out the window. The man gave a curt nod of his head and Angie filled the two mugs. “You’re new to town?”

  Again, the man gave the slightest of nods. Nervous energy poured off of him and it felt to Angie like a wall of dark fog was enveloping her. She took a tiny step back.

  “Where are you living?” She asked even though she knew very well where the couple had rented a home.

  The man raised his skinny arm and gestured. “Edge of town,” he croaked.

  Angie nodded. She thought that was an odd way of describing the area where their new house was located since it wasn’t that far from the center of Sweet Cove. Angie pressed on. “There was a fire last night. Did you see it?”

  The man shook his head. The woman was still gazing out of the window.

  “Angie,” Louisa called to her from behind the counter. She held up a twenty dollar bill. “Change?”

  Angie nodded and before she headed to the back room to get more change from the safe she said, “I didn’t get your names.”

  The man hunched over th
e tabletop whispering to the woman across from him and he pretended not to hear. Angie waited for several seconds and then gave up.

  “Have you been able to get anything out of them?” Angie asked Louisa.

  “Nothing really. They requested coffee the first day they came in. Every morning when they show up I just fill their mugs and say some pleasantries. Now that I think of it, they never say a word to me.” Louisa moved down the counter to wait on a customer. “Takes all kinds, I guess.”

  The morning passed in a flash of busyness and just before noon, Chief Martin showed up. He made eye contact with Angie and took the table at the far end of the room. Customers asked him questions about the fires in town and he answered calmly and reassuringly. Angie carried over a mug of tea and a chicken salad sandwich with a cup of tomato bisque and sat down across from him. “Thanks for the police car in front of the house at night.”

  The chief sipped from his mug. “I know you probably don’t like it, but humor me.”

  Angie smiled and then asked, “Was the fire set last night?”

  The chief let out a big sigh. “It doesn’t seem so. The fire must have been smoldering for some time and once it kicked in, it took off. By the time the firefighters got through the front door, the smoke was already down to the floor, banked all the way down. The fire chief said it was unusual that the fire spread so fast before the call came in from a neighbor. He thinks it started on the first floor.”

  “A cigarette maybe?”

  “Possibly.”

  “No gasoline or some type of accelerant?” Angie kept her voice low so the other customers couldn’t hear.

  Chief Martin shook his head. “None at the town common fire either.”

  “I wonder what we smelled when we were there?” Angie pondered.

  “It’s pretty unusual that both of these fires took off so fast. It’s surprising behavior for fire to flare so rapidly without an accelerant.” The chief’s eyes looked tired and worry etched itself in lines across his forehead. “The fire chief finds it odd, too. He wonders what took so long for someone to notice the fire on Greenhill Road. The whole thing doesn’t seem right.”

  “I told you about that odd couple who comes in here every morning?” Angie leaned in. “They told Betty Hayes that their names are Clarence and Angelina Crosswort, but when we looked them up on the internet, nothing comes up about them. Nothing.” She told the chief that the couple gave Betty a false address for their former residence. “Guess the address of the house they just rented in Sweet Cove.” Angie paused for effect. “The house to the right of the home that burned down last night.”

  The chief’s jaw dropped. He put his sandwich back on the plate and wiped his fingers on his napkin. “We’ll run them through the database.”

  “Don’t be surprised if nothing comes up.” Angie looked defeated. “You know, I thought I saw someone in the Crosswort house last night in the second floor window. It might have been my imagination though.”

  “But you don’t think so.”

  Angie shrugged one shoulder.

  “My officers went to the neighboring houses last night to ask people to step out in case the fire spread. I went to that house myself and rang the bell. No one answered the door.”

  “I guess they didn’t want to come outside.” Angie’s mouth turned down.

  The two discussed the person in the dark coat who frightened Ellie the night of the scarecrow fire and Angie reported that Gloria from the hair salon was wearing a long woolen poncho last night. “She can’t be involved, but I wanted you to be aware that there’s more than one person wearing a long dark coat around here.”

  Angie went on to tell the chief about the odd B and B guest, Walter Withers, and how his name seemed fake and that he had no address. “He paid cash for the guest room so Ellie doesn’t have any credit card info on the man.”

  The chief reached into his pocket and took out a small pad. He removed a pen from his jacket pocket and wrote the names Angie had shared with him on the paper. “I suppose there isn’t anything on the internet on Withers either?” He picked up his soup spoon and started in on the tomato bisque.

  “Only if he’s a painter who died in 1914.”

  The chief kept his head bent over his soup cup, but lifted his eyes to Angie and rolled them. “We asked the businesses around the common for their security tapes. Some looked like they might be helpful because the cameras had a view of the corner of the common.”

  “But they weren’t?”

  Chief Martin let out a sigh. “We watched the tapes. Right around the time the scarecrows would have been set up and lit on fire, there seems to have been an electrical glitch.”

  Angie made a face.

  “Almost like the power that fed the security cameras went out.”

  “Could the tapes have been tampered with?”

  “Three different businesses gave us their tapes. The same thing occurred on all three. They’re all blank during the time period in question.”

  “Blank?” Angie couldn’t believe it.

  “Snowy is a better description.” The chief rubbed his temple.

  A chill skittered over Angie’s skin and she ran her hands over her arms to warm them. “How can that be? All three tapes?”

  “We have a technician looking into it.”

  “There’s not much to go on, is there?”

  “That hasn’t stopped us before.”

  “That brings up something else.” Angie glanced around the shop to be sure no one was eavesdropping. “Mr. Finch worries that the troublemaker might be someone from the past.” She held the chief’s eyes. “Nana’s past.”

  Chief Martin straightened.

  “Is there any case that Nana worked on where someone might want to take revenge on us? Now that we’re living in Sweet Cove? Now that we’re helping you with cases?” Angie bit her lower lip. “Maybe someone doesn’t like it.”

  The chief sat quietly for almost a full minute. “Mr. Finch could be on to something. I’ll go through the old paperwork. See if anything stands out.”

  “There’s something else.”

  Chief Martin’s eyebrows shot up.

  “Circe found a sprig of mistletoe at the common fire.”

  “Mistletoe?” The chief shook his head, confused.

  “And we noticed that mistletoe is growing in one of the trees in our back garden.”

  The chief looked completely blank not understanding where Angie was going with this. He tilted his head in question.

  Angie asked, “Is it okay if I go walk around the burned house on Greenhill Road? Look for mistletoe?”

  “What is its significance? Why would it be at the locations of the fires?”

  Angie leveled her eyes at the chief. “It has magical qualities.”

  Anyone else would have chuckled at Angie’s statement, but the chief was aware that not everything in the universe was understandable and that some things moved through the world that were hidden from most people. “I’ll make a call. There’s an officer on duty at the burned house and the fire investigators are almost done there. Maybe wait a day or so or the investigators won’t give you access. Of course, you aren’t allowed inside the house. Contain yourself to the outside.”

  “Okay. I might bring the others. And the cats.”

  The chief nodded. “I’d prefer if you didn’t go there alone and please don’t go there in the dark.” The chief’s lips were tight. “Any other tidbits to share?”

  Angie shook her head. “That’s it. For now.”

  Chief Martin sucked in a long breath. “We’ll figure it out.”

  Angie gave the chief a little smile. “We always do.”

  She wished she felt as hopeful as she sounded.

  13

  The late afternoon light filtered through the branches of the trees and long shadows began to form across the lawn. Ellie, Jenna, and Angie stood in the rear garden beneath the tall, old oak tree.

  “Right there.” Angie pointed. “See on
the upper branches. The greenery with the little white berries.”

  Ellie squinted. Her hand shaded her eyes from the low rays hitting her in the face. “That stuff? I’ve never noticed that up there before.” She put her other hand on her hip in an indignant pose.

  “Well, the leaves were out on the trees in spring and summer. Most of them have fallen off, so the mistletoe is more visible now.” Jenna followed her sisters’ gaze up into the high branches.

  “If it was there before, I would have seen it,” Ellie grumped. “I’ve been working out here in this garden for months.”

  “It didn’t just spring up overnight.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Angie wondered if it actually did just appear one night. She eyed the green plant on the tree suspiciously.

  “It looks mature. There’s a good amount of it up there.” Jenna’s skepticism could be heard in her tone. “It had to be growing there for a while.”

  “It’s parasitic?” Ellie made a face like she’d eaten something bad.

  “That’s what Rufus told us,” Angie said.

  “Are you sure it’s mistletoe?” Ellie wasn’t convinced. “I didn’t know it grew in this part of the country.”

  “That’s why we called the arborist.” Jenna turned when she heard the sound of a car engine in their driveway. “Here’s the guy now.”

  A white truck parked in front of the carriage house and a trim, middle-aged man stepped out. “Afternoon.” He walked over to where the girls were standing.

  Before the man could introduce himself, Ellie pointed. “It’s up in this tree. Is that mistletoe? How long has it been up there?”

  The man tried to stifle a grin. “I’m Ted, the arborist.” He shook hands with the three sisters. “I’ll go up and have a look.” He went to the back of his truck and removed some equipment. Before they knew it, the man was high in the tree.

  “It’s mistletoe alright.” The man called down to the girls. “What do you want to do about it? You want it removed?”

  Ellie and Angie spoke at the same time.

  “Yes,” Ellie told the arborist.

  “Leave it there,” Angie replied.