by Emma Watts
“And yet the company was owned by Liam, yeah?”
“No. He doesn’t own the company. He owned a few of the boats. Before Daniel got into offering scuba diving lessons, he lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Even though Daniel worked hard, he never really made a lot of money, just enough to keep it ticking over. Apparently he got into an agreement with Liam and sold his boat to him for cash so he could pay off a few debts. Instead of losing a good fisherman, Liam bought the boat and told him that if he could come up with some new ways to increase business and attention down at the harbor, he would sell the boat back to him for a reduced price as long as he got a percentage of whatever new ideas he came up with. Seems Daniel started offering scuba lessons and then he and Matthew began diving shipwrecks hoping they would score the big one.”
“Did they find anything of interest?”
Logan laughed. “Not for a while. Though a few days before he died, he was in here all giddy. He paid for everyone’s drinks.”
“He came into some money?”
“Close, he said he thought he was about to come into some money. Don’t ask me from where. As I have no idea.” He took a deep breath and then filled up my coffee some more. “By the way, how you liking Haven so far?”
I grimaced.
“That bad?” he asked.
“What do you know about Ivy Finkle?”
He smiled. “Other than she is strange?” He slung a towel over his shoulder and leaned in close. “Don’t say anything,” he turned his head to the left and right. “But some say she is a witch.” He stared at me blankly then he burst out laughing. “Oh I nearly had you there. That one usually works on folks around here.” He straightened up and got this glint in his eye. “No, she’s okay. A little dotty but harmless. Why?”
“Oh no reason. I was just curious to know what locals thought of her.”
“So did she hire you in the end?”
“I’m considering it.”
“I would take the job. Jobs aren’t easy to find around here.”
I looked at the sign behind him that said WE’RE HIRING. He must have noticed as he looked over his shoulder then laughed. “Oh that. Right. Well the way I see it, it makes my store look busy.”
“Are you serious?”
He smiled and leaned back against the counter. “That and if Sylvia quits I have a long list of people ready to take her place. I figure it keeps me one step ahead.”
“Ivy said…”
“Oh I know what Ivy said. Don’t listen to everything that woman says.”
“But you just said she’s harmless.”
“You can be harmless and still have a few screws loose.” He got up to go serve another customer, and I thanked him and headed out. After leaving the café, I’d only made it a few yards down the street when I spotted Sylvia coming out of an apartment above a store that sold wedding dresses. The strange thing was she was wearing an oversized hat, scarf and a pair of sunglasses. I wouldn’t have recognized her had she not put the sunglasses on as she was coming out. I watched from a distance as she made her way down a metal staircase at the side of the building and then rounded the corner and began heading down towards the harbor. Call it curiosity or my natural instincts gained from years of having family members investigating mysteries, at least according to a batty old woman who was soon to become my employer, but I decided to follow her. The fact that she’d blamed her own mother only piqued my curiosity.
Sylvia kept her head down low and moved at a fast pace heading for Liam Vaughn’s office. The building was unmistakable. Located close to the harbor’s edge, it was mostly made up of tinted glass, with a stone foundation. There was a large sign that said Vaughn’s Real Estate. Outside was parked a black Bentley, a pickup truck and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Why are you going in there? I thought as I passed by Afterlife Bookstore which was where I was initially heading. I was going to tell Ivy that I had given it some thought and I was prepared to take on the job even if it did mean putting up with her bizarre behavior. You see, when it came down to it, I couldn’t go back, not to Jersey. There was too much there that reminded me of my ex, besides if I was going to make a new life for myself, it meant putting down some roots. All this talk about a curse sounded like a load of baloney to me but then again after what I had witnessed yesterday, it had me questioning everything.
In the window of the real estate office there was a large whiteboard that showed photos of properties in the area that were for sale or rent. I stopped outside and pretended to look at them while every now and again my eyes would divert to where Sylvia was sitting patiently waiting to speak to Liam. A secretary at the front desk would glance up every so often and look at her, then glance at me. Sylvia turned her head to see what she was looking at and I moved out of sight.
A few minutes and the loud and brash-sounding Liam came out of his office still talking away over his Bluetooth earpiece.
“Yes. Tell them to book in next week. I’m in the middle of clearing things up here. Okay, speak to you soon.” He then tapped the side of his ear and looked at Sylvia.
“Sylvia. Please. Come into my office.”
She rose from her seat and he guided her into his office. He told his secretary to hold all his calls and then he closed the door behind him. Great. Thinking that was that, I was about to leave when I heard Sylvia’s voice. It was muffled but loud enough that I could tell it was her. I slipped down the side of the building and noticed a window partially open, a window to Liam’s office.
A workman nearby glanced over and I brought out my phone and pretended to be looking up a phone number. He walked on and I returned to listening in on the conversation.
“You said you would hire him, that was the deal.”
“And I will, Sylvia. But I need a little time for this to all blow over,” Liam replied. “The cops are breathing down my neck at the moment and the media are all over this. Right now our boy Tobias is at the forefront of their investigation. I can’t be seen offering him a position here so quickly after your father fired him.”
“You better be true to your word and not messing me around. If he goes down, so do you. I will tell the cops everything.”
“Now, now, Sylvia, no need to start threatening. My word is my bond.”
“Like it was with my father?”
“That’s not the same. Your father brought a lot of his troubles on himself. If he hadn’t had a problem with drinking and gambling, I wouldn’t have had to take the steps I did.”
“Yeah well, you better come through this time or I will go to the cops.”
“I wouldn’t do that. Things could get real difficult for you and Tobias.”
“Are you threatening me?” Sylvia spat back.
“Sylvia. Sylvia,” Liam said in a condescending tone. “You know that despite my differences with your father, I always had his back. I might not have liked the guy but I would never have wanted to see him dead.”
“That’s debatable,” she said. “What about that time—”
Before Sylvia could finish what she was saying, my foot snapped a bunch of sticks outside the window. I’d been leaning in trying to hear better when it happened. The next thing I heard was the door to Liam’s office open. I quickly hurried away, slipping into a crowd of tourists that were making their way up from the harbor to the town. I stayed with the group until I reached the bookstore, even then I didn’t go immediately inside. I lingered near the door with my hand on the handle looking back towards Liam’s office. I saw him and Sylvia come out and take a quick look down the side of the building before he shook his head, gave her a hug and she went on her way.
“Spying, are we?” Ivy’s voice cut into the silence before she chuckled. I turned to find her peering out to see what I was staring at.
“No, I wasn’t. I was just…”
“Admit it, it’s in your blood.”
I closed the door behind me and tried to shift the topic away.
“Okay, Ivy.”
“Okay,
what?”
“I’ll take the job. When can I start?”
She pulled a set of keys out of her pocket. “Right now. Here you go.” She dropped them into my hands and then guided me over to the register counter.
“Right now? But it’s the end of the week.”
“Nothing like the present. Tomorrow you can sleep in. So listen up. The register is easy to handle.”
* * *
Over the course of the next thirty minutes she brought me up to speed on how to use the register, how to search for books in the computers, how to place an order if the book wasn’t in stock and then where she kept all the new stock that was to be added, and how she had it all arranged. She had quite the system. It was pretty simple actually. Nothing fancy. And for the first time since I’d met her she actually talked with me without freaking me out with magic or telling me stories about the curse. Now if she could just keep that up, I figured we’d get on well.
“Okay, so you think you have that?”
“I think so.”
“Good,” she said scooping up her bag and coat. “Oh and I nearly forgot. Every Wednesday at noon, Adele the Dutch lady swings by with some of her delicious soup. Whatever you do, don’t upset her. It has taken me years to build a relationship with her. She has one heck of a temper on her and it doesn’t take much to upset her. The last store owner who did was banned from buying soup from her.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
Ivy walked over to me and placed her hand on my arm. “My dear. Once you have tasted her soup, all will become clear but until then, you are to heed my words. For all that is good and sacred in this world, do not get on her bad side. Just smile, be polite, give her the money she asks from the till and she’ll hand over the goods.”
“Sounds like seedy dealing.”
Ivy chuckled, pointed at my face and then headed towards the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To run some errands.”
“But what about the store?”
“You will be fine. Just remember the cash register can be a bit finicky at times. When it acts up, strike it once on the left side, once on the right, then one last time on the top and that should do it.”
“Why not just buy a new one?”
That only made her laugh harder as she left the store.
Chapter 8
An hour inside that store felt like a day. A grandfather clock in the corner of the room ticked over. A fan behind me churned, getting stuck every few seconds and then kicking back in. The smell of dusty books was comforting. Mr. Jenkins sat below the counter in his soft bed, curled up and every now and again looking up at me as if expecting me to drop a treat or engage in a conversation the way Ivy did. The silence was peaceful but on the other hand it had a way of causing me to think too much about Brian and all the things that had gone wrong in our marriage. I’d always imagined that I would be sixty years of age sitting in some porch rocker with my partner reminiscing life’s good memories or curled up with one of my grandchildren. Instead, I was thirty-three years of age, divorced, no kids and no prospects on the horizon and to top it off, I’d discovered that my mother was some kind of Agatha Christie with supernatural powers. It was a surreal situation for sure.
I was busy going over a list of books that Ivy wanted ordered in when the bell above the door jangled. I glanced up to see a blond woman, pretty, petite, wearing a floral dress and sandals. Her eyes were red as if she’d been crying. She dabbed at her face with a scrunched-up tissue.
“Hello there,” I said in a cheerful voice, hoping to be the one to cheer her up.
She offered back a thin smile and turned back to the books on the shelf. I got up from the chair and knocked over a cold cup of coffee on the counter and it went everywhere. Yeah, not exactly my finest moment. “Shoot.”
The woman looked over as I frantically rushed into the back room and returned with some paper towels to clean it up. As I soaked it up she chuckled. “Happens to me all the time.”
“Glad to know I’m not the only klutz then,” I said.
“No, only today I stubbed my toe getting out of bed, then the tail end of my bathrobe ended up in the toilet when I went to the bathroom. Now that was a mess.”
“I bet.” I tossed the paper towel into a garbage can and extended a hand. “Kelly Winters, and you are?”
“Nina Lopez.”
My mouth widened, and she nodded. “Yes, Daniel Moon’s girlfriend.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine what you must be going through right now.”
I took a step back and didn’t realize Mr. Jenkins had come out of his hole to see what all the commotion was about. I stepped on his tail and he let out a high-pitched screech then took off out back as fast as a Tasmanian devil.
“Mr. Jenkins. Sorry.” I grimaced. “Sorry, things aren’t exactly going well here today. I’m new. First day on the job.”
“Oh you are Jamie’s sister?”
“That’s right.”
“He mentioned you were coming. Jamie is a nice guy. He wanted to have me in one of his videos. Something to do with washing a car with a bikini on and lots of soap suds.” She started to laugh.
I raised my eyebrows. “Yeah, that sounds like Jamie.”
Her laughter subsided, and she returned to a somber expression. She let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without him.”
“Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea, perhaps?”
She glanced over to the desk which was still wet from the coffee I’d spilled. “Sure. Some coffee. That’s very kind of you.” I went out back and put the kettle on and observed her running her fingers over the books.
“Looking for anything particular?”
“Law books.”
I chewed on my lower lip. “Oh those would be on the other side.” I pointed to the shelf across from her, feeling proud that I had actually managed to memorize a few of the categories.
“You don’t need to answer this but have the police spoken with you, given you any update on what happened?” I admit I was fishing for details that the paper hadn’t provided. Call it being nosy but I was curious to find out what the cops had told her.
“They pulled me in last night and interviewed me. They wanted to know what I knew about the shipwreck.”
“Shipwreck?” I asked.
“Daniel had been all excited about a recent discovery he’d made just off shore. It’s supposed to be a wreck that goes back to 1857. He showed me a gold coin that he’d brought up. He said that there were more down there, at least 3,000 gold coins and 35 gold ingots. He meant to bring it up later that day, after he’d taught the lesson in the lake. The day he died, I mean.”
“Who else knew about it?”
“He was very tight-lipped. Mainly because he didn’t trust his ex-wife Gloria or even his partner Matt.”
“Did they not get along?”
“He and Matt were really close friends until his divorce. It was only after that he discovered Matt was seeing Gloria which led him to believe that he had played a role in the breakdown of their marriage.”
I nodded and went back to collect her coffee. When I returned she had taken out a book on law and was thumbing through it.
“May I ask what your interest in law is?”
“A woman has to know her rights. Lawyers nowadays are so expensive, I don’t want to waste time. I thought if I got a leg up on what my rights were, I could go in there armed with exactly what I wanted out of my lawyer.”
“Which is?”
“To ensure that the coins, Daniel found remain with me, and that his kids receive a fair share.”
“Remain with you?”
“He told me he had included me in his will.”
“So he brought up the coins?”
“No, but he’d found them.”
“Did he tell you the location?”
“He had drawn up a map the day before he was murdered. I haven’t seen it yet.�
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I arched my brow while taking a sip of my coffee. “Murdered?”
“Oh he was murdered for sure. And I think I know who did it.”
“Why are you certain?”
“Because the map was stolen from his boat that morning before he went out. He called me to tell me that it was gone and he was going to speak with Gloria and Matt about it. He thought they stole it from him.”
“And he never told anyone else about this map?”
“Not that I know.”
“What about Tobias? What was the deal there?”
She sighed and took a seat in a chair across from the cash register. “He liked Tobias, contrary to what anyone will say, he thought he was a good kid.”
“Then why did he fire him that morning?”
“Oh that. You have to remember that he was dealing with people’s lives. Teaching people how to scuba dive is a risky business to be in. People panic. People make mistakes. He couldn’t afford to have one of his workers messing up and he was sure that Tobias had loaded an empty tank on board the boat. He’d warned him about that a few days before but he said Tobias denied it. Either way he had to let him go. Oh, and I know people said that it was probably Daniel that put it on the boat and that he didn’t remember because he drank too much but that is all nonsense. Daniel might have liked his drink, but he never drank while teaching scuba diving. The only time he brought beer out was when he took a group out fishing. And he only gave them one beer each. Nothing that would make them intoxicated. He said it made folks relax, and it also made them more open to take him up on scuba lessons.” She chuckled. “Daniel knew how to work people, that’s for sure.” She paused and brought the tissue up to the corner of her eye. “I loved that man. I can’t believe he’s gone.”
“Nina. What do the police say about how he died? From what the newspaper said, they were still investigating it.”
“They believe he drowned due to being intoxicated, but that’s not true. I think someone messed with his equipment. Turned off his air. Now I knew Daniel well and there was no way he would have stayed down there until his tank went empty and he didn’t drink while he taught scuba diving. I think they will find that his equipment was messed with.”