“Hello, Baxter!”
Baxter bounced around like a crazed cotton puff, pouncing and running in circles. I grabbed a treat from the bowl next to the door, and he danced on his hind legs. He seemed to know that cuteness was a sure-fire antidote for a stressful day, and I couldn’t help chuckling at his antics. It’s hard to resist anyone who is that happy to see you.
I put my purse down and scooped Baxter into my arms, getting a lick on the chin and then a play-bite to the tip of my nose. I blew a puff of air in his face, and he pulled back, only to return with more licks and wiggles.
Reluctantly, I put Baxter down and went through the mail. It, too, was gloriously normal: a few bills, a couple of catalogs, and a magazine. I snagged the magazine out of the pile and carried it with me into the kitchen, promising myself some reading time later.
But first, it was time for Baxter’s walk. Baxter might weigh in at under six pounds, but he walks with a hustle that proclaims to the world that he has things to do and places to go. It was after five, and past the heat of the day, although in Charleston, that didn’t mean it was cool. I tried to get my mind off of the B&B problem. Baxter can move surprisingly fast for a little dog, and he takes his nightly rounds seriously. He sniffed his way along the garden walls, tried to peer beneath the gates or look through the wrought-iron fences, and wagged a greeting to everyone we met.
“Hello, Cassidy!” I looked up to see Mrs. Morrissey heading my way. Baxter saw her too, and began to dance on his hind legs.
“Hello, Mrs. Morrissey,” I replied with a smile.
“How’s Baxter today?” she asked in that tone people reserve for babies and small animals. I had never seen Mrs. Morrissey looking as if she wasn’t on the way to or from a dinner at the Country Club. Her hair was perfect, despite Charleston’s constant humidity. St. John suits looked as if they had been made with her slim frame in mind, and her minimal jewelry was all the more notable because the gemstones were, indubitably, real. Rumor had it that her late husband had left her quite well off, both monetarily and in the currency that really mattered in Charleston, social connections. And somehow, she had decided to take a shine toward me and Baxter.
“You know Bax. He’s up for an adventure,” I replied. Baxter had finished wiggling all around Mrs.
Morrissey’s stylish pumps. Now he sat looking up at her, blinking his black button eyes, expecting a treat.
Mrs. Morrissey did not disappoint. From her small purse, she produced a single dog biscuit, which she ceremoniously held out to Baxter. He knew the drill, and jumped to his feet, happily dancing in a circle before she handed the biscuit to him.
“How are things at the store?” Mrs. Morrissey asked. She had been a good friend to my late uncle, and even now, she occasionally stopped in when the mood struck. I enjoyed our conversations, because she moved in the rarified air of Charleston’s old elite and usually knew everything about everyone.
I sighed. “There’ve been a few problems lately,” I said, as Baxter crunched his biscuit. “A couple of customers made purchases and then had second thoughts.”
“I see.” She gave me an inquiring look. “By the way, how are you doing? I heard you weren’t feeling well.”
I felt my face flush red. “I think I’ve been skimping a little too much on lunch lately.”
Mrs. Morrissey nodded, but there was a twinkle in her eye. “Of course, dear. Your Uncle Evan had spells of that, too, on occasion.”
I fought the urge to do a double-take, mostly at her use of the word ‘spells’. Could Mrs. Benjamin Taylor Morrissey, doyenne of South of Broad, have an inkling about what really goes on at Trifles and Folly? She looked amused as I recovered.
“Maybe it runs in the family,” I replied. “I need to remember – less coffee, more food.”
She smiled. Unlike so many older ladies of her social standing, Mrs. Morrissey had not removed all evidence of a life well lived with Botox and cosmetic surgery. Her skin crinkled around her bright blue eyes, and the fine lines around her lips hinted that perhaps in younger days she had been a smoker. It made her look real, and I respected her for her courage. “You haven’t been down to the Historical Archive for a while,” Mrs. Morrissey said, her tone gently reproving. She gave me a sly smile. “We could have told you about Trinket’s ancestor and the Iroquois Theater fire.”
I stared at her, open mouthed. “You know?”
Mrs. Morrissey chuckled. “Historians are the worst gossips, my dear. We gossip about the dead as much as we do the living. And, as they say, we know where all the bodies are buried.”
Her grin was positively impish. “Trinket had been down to see us not long before she sold the glasses to you. She wanted to validate a family story about her great-grandmother and a rather miraculous escape from a very famous theater fire, which was quite the scoop for the papers down here at the time, even if it did happen up North.”
Teag had Weaver magic, but I had my sources, and one of them was Mrs. Morrissey. She was one of a dozen older women whose blood was a blue as the rinse in their hair, and who spent their many volunteer hours serving as the keepers of Charleston’s long and sometimes salacious history. They could be the icy guardians of propriety, but if they liked a researcher, they could point the way to old and juicy scandals.
“I imagine she was horrified,” I replied. “I’ve read a little about the fire online. It was awful.”
Mrs. Morrissey nodded. “I’ve known Trinket for years, and she seemed genuinely distraught,” she said.
“It’s no wonder she wanted to be rid of the glasses once she knew the story. I imagine it haunted her dreams.”
“I’m sure that made it impossible for her to enjoy using them, once she knew about it,” I agreed.
Mrs. Morrissey adjusted her necklace. “Ah well, so long as you and Trinket are both well, that’s what counts.” She narrowed her eyes. “Aren’t you getting your floors redone soon?”
I nodded. “The work starts tomorrow. Baxter is going to the dog spa, and I’m going to stay at Gardenia Landing.”
“I imagine you’ve heard about the ghosts?”
Did everyone know? “I didn’t know Gardenia Landing was haunted,” I said, hoping I could feign surprise.
“Hmmph,” Mrs. Morrissey said. “I’d be more surprised if it weren’t. What with all that’s happened there.” I raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
Mrs. Morrissey nodded. “For all their wealth, the Harrison family had more than their share of tragedy. Several children died young, including a daughter who came down with what used to be called consumption. It’s said that the babies were buried in the home’s garden because Mrs. Harrison couldn’t bear the thought of them being far away from her. Then the wife of one of the sons went mad. She drowned in the garden fountain.”
She frowned. “But the worst of it was when Mr. Harrison got caught up in the unpleasantness about those smugglers and that awful Jeremiah Abernathy,” she said, as if it were a story everyone had heard.
Mrs. Morrissey checked the tasteful, diamond-studded watch on her thin wrist. “Oh dear, I’d better run. Stop down sometime at the Archive and I can tell you more. Gardenia Landing’s address has been well-known in Charleston for a long time.”
With that, she bade Baxter and me good night and headed off toward her next social engagement. I watched her go for a moment, then turned back to Baxter, who was eagerly pulling toward the remainder of our route. “I’m coming, I’m coming,” I said, letting him take me down the sidewalk.
I was glad Baxter knew the route, because Mrs. Morrissey had given me several new things to think about. If Gardenia Landing had a sordid past, could that have made the items we sold Rebecca ‘come alive’? I wondered. Obviously, I needed to do some digging, and Mrs. Morrissey seemed quite willing to take me on a tour of the B&B’s dark side.
It was late afternoon, and in Charleston’s picturesque narrow streets and historic alleys, the shadows were lengthening. Only when we were halfway down a pretty little cobblest
one sidestreet did I realize that the shadows seemed to be a lot darker than they should be for this time of day. I picked up my pace, but the shadows felt like they were closing in.
Baxter has the heart of lion in the body of a guinea pig. He wheeled on the shadows with a snarl and began to bark a shrill alarm. I scooped Baxter up in my arms and started to run, feeling like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, except instead of flying monkeys, we were being chased by shadows.
I only dared one glance over my shoulder. Shapes were stirring in the shadows, things with long, outstretched arms and grasping hands. I managed a burst of speed, and we ran out into the light of the cross street, right into the path of a Toyota Corolla. The driver slammed on the brakes and laid on the horn.
I was quick to put the Corolla between me and the alley, but the shadows did not venture past the sidewalk. I pantomimed apologies to the driver, and scooted away, glad we were only a block from my house. That’s when I spotted a tall, thin man in a broad-brimmed hat, standing on the corner. I might not have paid any attention, except that he seemed to be staring at me, and although the hat hid much of his face, what I could see looked not just wrinkled, but withered. Something about his silent regard gave me the creeps, and I walked off in the opposite direction as quickly as I could.
No one was around as I unlocked the door, and I let the wash of cold air revive me. Baxter went straight to his water dish, lapping thirstily. I locked the door and pulled the curtains back to look at the street again. I spotted the tall, thin man again. He was slouched so I couldn’t make out his features.
Baxter destracted me for a moment and when I glanced again the man was gone.
After I checked the deadbolt again, I went to the kitchen for some ice water. I poured some kibble into Baxter’s bowl, then opened the fridge to figure out what to make for dinner, and decided I wasn’t hungry.
Trying to get my mind off the attack in the alley and the man outside my house, I flipped through the magazine. One paragraph in an article on organizing closets caught my eye. “Many people hold on to items because they’re really using them as ‘memory anchors’. They’re afraid that if they get rid of the item, they’ll lose the memories they’re reminded of by the piece.”
What if you wanted to get rid of bad memories that a particular item brought to mind? I wondered. What if certain pieces soaked up memories and events more than others?
Normally, I could tell right away whether or not a new item had any kind of supernatural residue, good or bad. That’s what was baffling me about the B&B problem. Did something happen after we sold the pieces that turned regular objects into dangerous items?
Soon enough, I’d get the chance to see the Gardenia Landing ghosts up close. The more I heard about the B&B’s new haunting, the more it looked like trouble.
Chapter Five
I WAS READY for the floor refinishing crew when they knocked on my door bright and early. I’d already dropped Baxter off at the puppy spa. As much as I hated to be away from him for a few days, I knew he would have fun at the dog resort. And while Baxter enjoyed his occasional visits to Trifles and Folly, he wouldn’t like being there alone at night, especially since dogs are sensitive to supernatural activity. Even I didn’t want to be there overnight. I’d lived in the apartment over the shop when I first inherited Trifles and Folly, but being that close to some of the sparklers and spookies was just too much.
Once I’d gone over the instructions for refinishing the floors with the workmen and handed off my keys, I tossed my laptop and luggage into my little blue Mini Cooper and headed for the shop.
Thankfully, there were no new reports of perfectly normal old items suddenly turning into haunted horrors. I basked in the boredom, compared to the unsettling events of the last few days.
“I’ve got a list of contacts for the people who sold us Gardenia Landing’s items,” Teag said. “I made a few calls yesterday evening, and some this morning. Want to know what I found out?”
“Sure,” I said, pouring a cup of coffee to fortify my resolve.
Outside, a steady rain deterred shoppers, giving us the chance to talk undisturbed. Teag leaned against the counter with his cup of tea.
“The tea set came from Avery’s Auctions,” he said. “Belinda Avery remembered it. G.R. Collis silver.
She wasn’t aware of anything unusual in its background, but she said she’d call the former owner and ask.”
“I had to leave a message for the mirror lady,” he continued. “Helen Butler used to own the tablecloth.
She was pretty hesitant about talking at first, but I finally got her story. Seems the tablecloth belonged to her grandmother, and it was used for holiday dinners. One holiday, Mr. Butler’s grandfather had a heart attack at the table and died.”
“Oh my,” I said. “Still, lots of linens and furnishings are present when someone dies, and they don’t become haunted.”
He nodded. “Unless there’s something else at work. The vase originally held funeral flowers and was used for special occasions for fifty years or so. The owner’s daughter sold it because she didn’t like the style.”
I remembered the vase, a heavy cut glass piece, early 20th century – not very old by Charleston standards. I had thought it was pretty. “No hints at all?” I pressed, disappointed.
“I even asked her about the funerals where the vase was used,” Teag said. “Most were deaths from old age or natural causes, nothing dramatic. But the first funeral, when the vase came into the family, was different.”
“Oh?”
Teag nodded, and his grin slipped away. “Pretty tragic, actually. Back in the 1920s, the owner’s great aunt and uncle lost two young children to scarlet fever.”
“So funerals, but no ghosts, huh?” I said, chewing my lip as I thought. “I guess we’ll have to see who – or what – the vase conjures up at Gardenia Landing.” I set my coffee aside. “How about the lamp and the picture frames?”
“They came from a moving sale. The people who live at that house now aren’t the ones who sold the picture frames.”
“So a dead end.”
“Yeah,” he replied. “As for the lamp, the couple who sold it are out of town until the end of the week.”
I glanced toward the door to make sure no one was likely to disturb us. “Baxter and I had a little more excitement than we wanted last night,” I said, and filled him in on what had happened.
Teag looked worried. “I don’t like the sound of that. First, shadow men at the B&B, now in an alley where you’ve never had any problems before.” He took a sip of his tea. “We really need to get Sorren in on this.”
I nodded. “We also need to figure out who the guy in the hat is.”
“Tall guy, wide-brimmed hat?”
“Yeah. He was on the corner near where the shadow men came after me, and then again, outside the house.”
“I thought I saw him outside the shop right after I opened up, but then he was gone when I looked again,” Teag said.
“I don’t know about the shadow men, but I think the man with the withered face is real. He seems to be following us or watching us, and I don’t like it.”
“Oh and I forgot,” Teag said. “Maggie called when you were talking to Mrs. Butler, she’s still not feeling well. She won’t be able to work tomorrow or Thursday. But, not to worry. I can cover.”
“You sure? It’s not going to put you in a bind or make you miss anything important?”
“No, I didn’t have anything scheduled,” Teag said, and sighed. “Anthony’s really tied up with those cases. You can make it up to me later.”
“Should I be worried about Maggie? She doesn’t usually call in sick.” I had inherited Maggie with the store and she had been working with us ever since. She was a retired teacher, quite knowledgeable about antiques and how the store ran.
Teag shook his head. “No, I asked. She thinks she got a touch of food poisoning. She just needs some time to recuperate.” He hesitated, and the look on his face told
me that he had something on his mind. “Cassidy?” he said. “Be careful.”
“Count on it,” I replied. “If it looks dangerous, I’m outta there.” I didn’t want to admit it to Teag, but the whole idea of suddenly spooky antiques was making me very nervous. “I left a message for Sorren on his cell phone, but he hasn’t called me back.”
Yes, a nearly six hundred year-old vampire uses a cell phone, and email. As Sorren has told me many times, vampires who can’t adapt with the times don’t survive long. Problem is, Sorren’s work with the Alliance often means he falls out of touch for days or weeks at a time. Then again, his letter gave me hope we’d hear from him soon. It wouldn’t be soon enough.
Chapter Six
GARDENIA LANDING WAS a Victorian ‘painted lady’ with a two-story colonnaded piazza, an intriguing garden wall and an elaborate wrought iron gate to a garden with lush greenery and a fountain. It was exactly the kind of place I would have picked if I had wanted to indulge and pamper myself.
I parked and hefted my backpack and overnight bag out of the trunk, along with a small pack filled with some ‘special’ tools to help me tackle whatever was causing the problems at the B&B. Since I deal better with haunted antiques on a full stomach, I’d stopped for a quick dinner on my way over. I was even wearing my favorite agate necklace and earrings, gemstones I trusted to help protect me from bad supernatural mojo. With a deep breath, I squared my shoulders and resolved to take on the worst Gardenia Landing had to throw at me.
Gardenias were in season, and so was honeysuckle and Confederate jasmine. The burble of a fountain promised cool respite from the warm Charleston evening.
As I opened the door into the foyer, the smell of freshly brewed coffee and warm sugar cookies welcomed me and enticed me inside. I was greeted by a room done in period wallpaper and antique furniture with a large crystal chandelier. Off to the left, I got a peek of a dining room, and to the right, what I guessed was a parlor or library. I’d explore both later, I vowed.
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