“Not much crime?”
“Well, not as much as Chicago, but surprisingly we’ve had our fair share of murders lately.”
“Us, too, but we’ve seen more than our fair share before.”
“I noticed.”
“Look, Betts,” Jim said, returning to his chair, “I’ve got to be available for any call, so forgive me if I get up again, but I need you to tell me quickly about what you saw on the bus. I know you didn’t steal any credit cards. I don’t think Mrs. Montgomery does either, but I need to know what happened. Go over that whole block of time again, just in case.”
“Sure.”
I had told Cliff about Mr. Hart leaving the cooking school, but I hadn’t told him about the alleged missing wallet because I’d gleaned that information from Sally and even she hadn’t been totally certain about what she thought she’d heard.
As I recounted everything again, inserting as many details as I could remember, including a comment about maybe hearing from somewhere that a wallet might have been missing, I thought I caught a look between the two of them that they didn’t want me to catch, but I couldn’t be certain and I didn’t stop the story to ask.
When I was done, Jim looked at Sam and said, “You think?”
“I don’t know, Jim, but it sure is curious,” Sam said.
“What?” I said.
“Cece Montgomery’s credit cards weren’t the only things stolen,” Jim said after he looked at me a long minute. “I can’t give you more details, but it’s another lead. Oh, we did find Suzi Warton’s car. Whoever took it abandoned it outside of town, not far from the bed-and-breakfast. We’re looking for clues, but it seems to have been wiped clean.” I guessed that they’d learned about the other missing items from Leroy a few minutes after he and Georgina had come over from the shoe shop, but it didn’t feel like the right time to take credit for helping steer the information in their direction.
“The car still in good shape?” I asked.
“Yes. It looks like whoever took it didn’t even put ten miles on it.”
Suddenly, Sally appeared in front of me. I jumped slightly, which garnered looks from the police officers, but they didn’t comment.
“Jake’s done,” she said. “He’s fine. Cliff is fine. I’ll be back.” She disappeared again.
Jim’s phone buzzed and he stood and excused himself again.
“Did Jim really need to talk to me right away or was it his way of keeping me from the other thing that was going on?”
Sam smiled. “Actually, it was Cliff who thought you might need something to do; however, the information was helpful to their investigation, I know that. Don’t tell Cliff I ratted him out. I think he just wanted to make sure you were safe.”
I looked around the converted jail that today reminded me of a big-city police station. “This was the place to put me, then.”
Sam smiled again and stood. “Nice to meet you, Betts. Excuse me, too, I’ve got a couple calls I should make myself.”
“You can go,” Jim said a moment later. “Jake should be back across the street in a minute.”
“Did everything go okay?”
“Still going. No one’s picked up the bag yet. We’ll watch it. I’ll try to let you know.”
I stood and wove my way to the door. Someone I didn’t know unlocked it, let me out, and then locked it again. Once securely on the boardwalk, I resisted the urge to wipe my hand over my forehead and say Phew. As I stepped toward Jake’s, I heard a voice that sounded somewhat familiar.
“Oooh, how about some cookies?”
I turned to see that two of the foodies weren’t spending their time beside the hotel pool. Vivienne and Charlene seemed to be taking full advantage of everything Broken Rope had to offer. They both had on one of our signature T–shirts that featured a cut and frayed rope and said: I broke the rope and got away with only this lousy T–shirt.
“Hello,” I said as I turned. “Remember me?”
“Of course, Ms. Winston. How are you?” Charlene said.
“I’m fine. How are you two?” I paused. I still didn’t understand the dynamics of the group, but I felt I should say something. “I’m sorry about your friends.”
“Thank you. We have hope that the other two will be found alive and well, but we are truly sorry for Mrs. Carlisle. Though we didn’t know him well, Mr. Carlisle always seemed like a nice man.”
“You didn’t know him well?”
“Not really,” Vivienne said.
“You traveled together for many years, though, right?”
“Oh, well, yes mostly. The Carlisles just joined us last year.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure how I’d missed that detail or if it mattered, but it was somehow interesting. “I didn’t know.”
“There would be no reason for you to know that,” Vivienne continued. “In the meantime, we’ve done every tourist thing Broken Rope has to offer. You have the best cemeteries around. We’re going to spend whatever time we have left continuing to explore those. And we’re sticking together, just like the police told us to do. Don’t roam around alone and all.”
“After we get some cookies.” Charlene pointed to the Broken Crumbs cookie shop at the other end of the street.
“Sounds great. Mabel’s cookies are wonderful.”
“Excellent! What else should we do? Let’s see, we’re going to see the Sally Swarthmore show this afternoon. In all these years, I’ve never taken the time to see that show. We’re usually in for the Showdown and then out of here soon afterward. As horrible as the reasons are, we’re trying to see more of the town than we ever have,” Vivienne said as she pushed her sunglasses up her nose.
“Did you notice the cemetery next to the cooking school? That’s where Sally is buried,” I said. “As well as some other infamous Broken Rope residents.”
“I had no idea! How exciting to see Sally’s grave. It’s her real one, right, not just a tourist gimmick?”
“It’s the real one.”
“We’ll head back out there later if Leroy will let us use the car. He’s been kind of stingy with it and the rental company says they won’t have any more to rent for a couple days. Broken Rope must be having a good summer.”
I nodded. “At least he’s been bringing you dinner,” I fished.
“Not us. We’ve been going out late to that Bunny’s place. Had the best corned beef sandwiches last night,” Charlene said.
What had Leroy done with the three dinners?
“Bunny’s serves great corned beef,” I said. “I hope you have a good time. Let me give you my cell phone number in case you need something.”
As I finished giving them my number, Jake opened the front door to his building. He looked no worse for the wear as he signaled to me. I was so relieved to see him that I forgot all about the detail of who ate the three dinners.
Gram used to tell me that the devil was in the details. I never quite understood what that meant, but I was sure to find out very soon.
Chapter 19
“There wasn’t much to it. Only a few people were in the park, none of whom paid me the least bit of attention. I walked to the bench, put the bag under it, and left. I had no further instructions and still don’t have any. I assume the police will be watching the site until something happens. I guess that could be any time or never. Betts and I were talking about how unsophisticated it all seems. Maybe whoever did this is naïve enough to think the police—if I actually did contact them—would just leave after I dropped the bag,” Jake said to Gram.
He pulled his foot up to the bottom rung of the stool. I’d made him come with me back to the cooking school. I wanted him away from his archives and distracted from dwelling on much of anything. I’d told him he and I would cook dinner. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to have him there when it got dark and I performed my ghost experiment for Gram, even though I knew he wouldn’t see much of anything. When we’d arrived at the school, Gram had just finished cleaning and was working on website ideas. She’d offered to
cook us dinner instead of us cooking if we told her about the rest of the day.
“You haven’t received any calls or anything?” Gram asked.
“No,” Jake said. “Nothing else other than the two notes.”
Gram looked over as she stirred her old-fashioned spaghetti sauce. Meatballs were cooking in the oven, and the pasta had just been thrown into the boiling water. We didn’t have any hard bread on hand, but she had transformed a loaf of regular bread into something cheesy, garlicky, and buttery. Improvisation, she often said, was just as important as a good recipe. When she was growing up, she lived out in the country and they didn’t always have the ingredients they needed. Gram claimed that we’d all gotten lazy because if we didn’t have garlic bread or French bread around, we ignored the perfectly good regular bread that was just waiting to be included in a delicious spaghetti dinner. To be fair, substituting one type of bread for another wasn’t as interesting as some of her other tricks involving cream, applesauce, and spices.
“Do Jim and Cliff have any strong leads?” Gram asked.
“Not that they would share with me,” I said.
“Well, I stayed around the park as long as I could, and that bag is still there, sitting right where Jake put it.” Sally appeared with her free hand on her hip.
“Sally’s here,” I told Jake. “The bag’s still there.”
“I suppose the police are, too,” Jake said.
“It took me some time to figure out who was who, but yes, they’re still there,” Sally said.
I nodded at Jake.
“Who knows what’ll happen now. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Gram said.
“Miz, did you put the right amount of sugar in that?” Sally asked.
Gram turned slowly and looked at the ghost. “Yes, Sally, it’s fine.”
“Good.”
I laughed.
Jake said, “What’s going on?”
“And did you tell them what we found?” Sally said to me.
“I didn’t yet,” I said.
“What did you find?” Gram asked.
“What’s going on?” Jake said again.
As we ate, I first talked about the details in Edgar O’Brien’s book. Gram was more interested than I thought she’d be, and Jake was always into that sort of thing, even if he’d heard at least some of it before. It had been awhile since he’d looked through Edgar’s notebook and he hadn’t ever read it closely, so he soaked in everything I said.
Sally still hadn’t been able to get inside the Monroe House, and the construction workers were still there but seemed to be doing nothing except guarding the place from trespassers. I admitted that I’d forgotten to ask Cliff about the condemnation notice, but considering everything else, Jake forgave me. We still had a few days and would hopefully be able to talk to the police after they solved the more important crimes.
It was the piece of fabric that proved the most interesting, though. When I told them about it, Jake and Gram had me fetch it immediately. Between the two of them, they had it preserved in a plastic bag before I could even set it down on the butcher block.
“You just had this in your car?” Jake asked. I thought he might cry at my apparent disregard for the find.
“Other things happened. Sorry.”
“This could be something important, Betts,” Gram said. “Good job not just throwing it away.” She was trying to find the positives, but the tone of her voice told me she was as baffled as Jake at the way I’d handled it.
“We’ll have it tested,” Jake said.
“How? What do we tell the police?” I said. “The ghost of Sally Swarthmore told me where to dig to find this piece of fabric that could be part of the dress her sister claimed she saw her burn. Oh, and we’d like to know if that spot is blood and who it belongs to.”
Jake smiled. “We don’t need the police. I can afford to hire a lab to do my bidding. I’ll find out as much as I can.”
“I don’t understand,” Sally said. “What could he find out?”
I told Jake Sally’s question. She wouldn’t comprehend completely, but he said, “I’m sure I can find out if it’s blood. I don’t know if I can find out whose, but I’ll try. I can get a date on the material, probably close to when and even where it was made. Science can uncover many things these days.”
Sally looked at me. I nodded. “Amazing,” she said.
After we ate and cleaned up and it was finally dark outside, I asked them all to follow me.
On our way to the reception area, I turned to Gram. “Remember what I told you about the ghosts becoming more solid if the conditions were right?” She nodded. “I’m about to show you what I mean.”
I’d thought about whether or not it was a good thing to demonstrate what I’d learned with Jerome. Ultimately, my decision came down to one simple fact: I shouldn’t hide anything from Gram, ever.
Gram nodded again. I turned off the master switch to the big floodlight attached to the outside of the school, above the front doors. I’d seen Jerome become more real even with the light on, but I wanted it as dark as possible.
“Okay, we’re going to go outside,” I said to the curious group behind me.
“Sally’s still here?” Jake asked.
“Yes, this is mostly about her,” I said.
“My favorite subject.” Sally giggled.
It was warm outside but still not miserable. I led the way, the others following closely behind. When we were all out front, I turned around slowly. I’d hoped to see exactly what I saw: Sally had become brighter, more defined, and more dimensional. Gram was looking at her, too. Some light filtered down to us from a streetlamp on the road at the far end of the cemetery. It didn’t do much more than add a creepy milky glow to the tombstones and cast pale shadows around us. It didn’t affect Sally’s transformation.
“I’ll be picked and blistered,” Gram said. It was my least favorite of her sayings.
“You’ve never noticed that before?” I said.
“Never. It’s never happened before, Betts.”
“What’s going on?” Sally and Jake asked in tandem.
“Just a second, Jake. Come here, Gram.” I stood next to Sally.
“Sally, we’re going to touch you and you’re going to feel it. Okay?”
“Really?” She thrust out her ax–free arm. “Please, go right ahead.”
I was suddenly certain that she wasn’t going to try to ax us all to death. If there ever was an opportunity, this was it. She was as close to alive as she was ever going to be in her death, but I felt safe. I hoped I wasn’t being naïve.
I put my hand on her arm, and felt an arm.
“Ooh, Betts, I feel you. How wonderful. Here, Miz, you, too.”
Gram wasn’t scared of anything, but for the first time in a long, long time I thought I saw a grain of doubt in her eyes. This was new to her. This thing, these ghosts who’d been a part of her life for so long, who’d been fairly predictable, had just changed.
“Go on, Gram,” I said.
Sally reached for Gram’s hand and held it. “Miz,” she said. “Oh, Miz, I can’t tell you how much this means to this old dead person.”
Slowly, Gram smiled and looked at Sally. “It’s nice to shake your hand, my friend. It’s very nice.”
I had another idea, but Gram interrupted. She looked at me and said, “Betts, this isn’t the ghosts. As I thought, this is you, my girl. This is because of you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I bet dollars to donuts that if you stepped inside the school or just farther away, I wouldn’t see her like this and she wouldn’t feel me.”
“Really?” I was doubtful. How could I be the catalyst for this phenomenon?
“Go in there, Betts. We need to know,” Sally said.
I hurried back into the school and peeked through the edge of the front picture window. Gram had been right; Sally was back to her less than brilliantly colored and dimensional self. They both smiled and waved m
e back out, which switched Sally back to on.
“I…I didn’t even think,” I said.
“More and more I think these ghosts were for you, not me. That’s probably good. That’s very good, but I don’t know why,” Gram said.
“I wish someone would tell me what’s going on,” Jake said.
“Just another sec,” I said. “Sally, I have an idea, something that might be good, something that might help you, but I’m wondering if you’d do a favor for me if my idea works.”
“What’s the favor?”
“Jerome Cowbender told me that if he tried very hard, he could make the rest of the world see him. Is that true?”
“It takes a lot out of us,” Sally said. “I’ve done it before when I wanted to try to haunt people, but I usually have to leave here shortly afterward and there’s no set schedule as to when I will come back.”
“Sally’s longest time away was about three years,” Gram said.
“Since I’d rather not ever leave, I try to haunt without doing it. That doesn’t work though. Only you and Miz see and hear me. Anyway, appearing must use up something that we need to be here.”
“What if you did it for only an instant?”
“Now?”
“Yes. Jake would love nothing more than to see a ghost. He’s been so helpful. Maybe you could consider it thanks for all he’s done.”
“Hang on, what’s she saying, Betts?” Jake said.
“That it takes a lot out of her and whenever she’s tried it, she’s sent…away shortly thereafter.”
“Then no! Sally, don’t do it. Not yet. Maybe wait a little longer, until you find out…more…whatever it is you need to find out.”
“I appreciate that, but fair’s fair. If you do something that helps me, Betts, I’ll appear, but just for an instant.”
“She wants to do it, Jake, but just for an instant.”
“I don’t want her to leave.”
“I’m going to help her first, I promise,” I said.
Jake bit at his lip and finally said, “Only if she’s okay with it.”
“She is,” I said as Sally nodded. “Okay, Sally, aren’t you tired of carrying around that ax?”
If Mashed Potatoes Could Dance Page 17