Murder & Spice and Everything Nice: Ivy Bloom Mysteries

by Caryn Thomas Mitchell

  “I don’t know. I mean, if we assume it’s murder, then we are also assuming a murderer. Which is creepy. But to assume it’s not a murder, well then they can go on their merry way,” I said as I got some cold tea out of the fridge and put some cheese and crackers on a plate.

  “It’s so sad. I mean I didn’t like either of them, but it’s sad that they’re gone. The least we can do is try to figure out what happened,” Gigi said as she layered cheese on a wheat cracker. It gave a satisfying crunch when she bit into it and I proceeded to make one for myself.

  “And hope that people stop dying here on our property!”

  “Yeah, there’s that too, who’s going to want to come shop here if they’re risking their life to do it?”

  “Nobody, that’s who. But since Amos and Mother Ruth were running the Little Flowers together, it must be related. I wonder if there was any money? Does someone inherit?”

  “Motive, you’re talking about motive,” Gigi said as she blew a wisp of hair out of her eyes and stacked another cracker with cheese.

  “Right, let’s make a list,” I said, pulling one of my yellow legal pads out of the drawer in the side table.

  “Well, really, I don’t know who knew them. I mean, they shop and live here, but they keep to themselves inside the compound.”

  “We should take a look.”

  “Inside the compound? Are you nuts? We have police for that.”

  “It’s true, we do. But they’re going to wait on reports, and it’s not their store that keeps ending up with dead people on the grounds,” I said, crunching another cracker for emphasis.

  Gigi sat thoughtfully for a minute. “Okay, look, we can ask around some, but don’t do anything crazy. Honestly we’re more likely to get in the way than to help. We don’t know what we’re doing.”

  “Right well, we don’t have to get in the way, exactly. We just want to ask some questions. You know, for clarity.”

  “I can’t help but be creeped out by what’s happened. What have you got that’s stronger than tea?”

  “I’ve got some vanilla vodka, want a splash?”

  “Liquid courage, why not?”

  We toasted with our iced tea glasses after we’d each had a short glug of the vodka.

  “What next?”

  “Well,” I said, nibbling on another cracker, “I do think we need to go in the compound, have a look around, see what we can find out about who’s in charge now, what happens to the place, which Little Flowers might be happy to head for the hills, which ones will stick around. Does someone inherit?”

  “It’s going to be hard to be subtle and find all that stuff out too.”

  “We’re up to it!”

  “What’s this we business?”

  “Oh, come on, you’re in, you know you want to ask around just as much as I do.”

  “And what will we tell your beau?”

  “My…beau?”

  “You know,” she said, rolling her eyes, your boyfriend the detective.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend, he’s just Drake.”

  “Ok, what will we tell Just Drake?”

  “Leave that to me, you don’t need to tell him anything.”

  “See, he is your boyfriend.”

  “What are we? 12? He’s not, he’s just a friend,” I gave her my sternest we’re done with this face.

  “Fine, whatever. So, what shall we do? We can’t really bring a book over, how ‘bout food? Cookies, brownies, cake, pie?”

  “Sure, cookies. I’ll bake some of my chocolate chip cookies, we’ll put them in a basket and head over in the morning. We’ll probably have to be closed tomorrow anyway.” I sighed thinking of losing yet another day’s revenues. The renovation hadn’t been cheap, and we were going to have to make some money sometime.

  I brushed the thought away, feeling selfish as I thought again about the two people who had lost their lives. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they had come to an abrupt end. Time to figure out what the heck is going on in this town.

  First thing in the morning Gigi was at my door carrying coffee and a bag of bagels.

  “You’re genius, you know that?” I said, digging in and licking cream cheese from my fingers as delicately as I could.

  “I know,” she said. “Now come on, we have to get this show on the road.”

  We slid into my car and I headed for the cove where the compound was perched. It stood upon a small bluff, with beach access on one side and the road on another. Between the two was a tall and ungainly collection of decidedly unattractive buildings.

  Sprawling in what appeared to be a totally random fashion, the half dozen buildings effectively blocked the view of the water, took up beach access, and made a really ugly addition to the landscape. Really ugly. It was almost criminal. No, it was definitely criminal.

  This was the crux of the dislike between Father Amos and the rest of the town. Erecting this bit of ugliness along the shoreline had caused all manner of hostility. He had gotten approval for one thing, and built something entirely different, from what I’d heard. And since it was considered a church, the town wasn’t even getting tax money for this monstrosity, and he was so mean no one wanted to go to the trouble of confronting him in court.

  I pulled up alongside the driveway and steered into the sandy soft roadside. The driveway of the compound had several cars parked on it, and there wasn’t room for mine.

  “Must have company,” I mused.

  “Doesn’t look like the police, I wonder who’s here,” Gigi said.

  Tall pink (yuck) walls surrounded the entirety of the compound, and the only place to go in was a gated doorway at the end of an overgrown path.

  We got out of the car, and as we approached the doorway, we heard yelling.

  Gigi held her finger to her lips, and we slowed down in order to try to hear better. We didn’t want to look like we were tip-toeing, even though we were.

  Chapter 9

  “You are leaving, in no more than ten days. This is my property now and I’ve got plans, plans that don’t involve a gaggle of girls!” said the voice on the other side of the hideous pink wall.

  Many voices were raised in response, a chorus of oh no’s, and you can’t do this, and what will we do. The little flowers sounded genuinely scared. And why wouldn’t they be, they’d been living this sheltered life for who knew how long, years for some of them, and now they were going to be cut loose. Who knew if they had anywhere to go? Or if they did have someplace, if they wanted to go there. You never know what sort of family life they might have come from that would make living in a new fangled religious sect with a stern and controlling leader look good.

  Gigi and I were approaching the door now and we scuffed our feet deliberately to they’d know we were coming, then Gigi raised her hand and knocked.

  Everyone inside became quiet and one of the young women answered the door. They were still wearing their shapeless white outfits, and I glanced around to see if I could find Daisy.

  “Hi,” Gigi said, “I’m Gigi, and this is my sister Ivy, we’re so sorry for your loss, uh, losses. We baked you some cookies.”

  “We?” I mouthed at her when she caught my eye, and she nodded slightly. Fine, whatever!

  “We came to see if there was anything we could do to help,” I interrupted, looking from face to face. “But if we’ve come at a bad time, we can go,” I said, indicating the doorway.

  “No, I was just leaving,” the man who had been speaking growled. “I can see myself out,” he said, and brushed past us without an introduction.

  “Bye”, Gigi mouthed behind his back as he stormed off. Honestly, that girl was going to get in big trouble someday.

  I looked around for Daisy and found her sitting on a bench underneath a nearby tree.

  “Hey,” I said, sitting next to her and offering a hug, “I’m sorry for your losses, how are you?”

  “I’m okay,:” she sniffed, “but that man!”

  “Yeah, that sounded unpleasant, who w
as he?”

  “He’s Eli, Father Amos’s brother. He’s not part of the group, they never got along, but he’s next of kin I guess. Mother Ruth was supposed to inherit, but now…” she looked like a fresh round of tears was going to overwhelm her.

  “Take a minute, maybe I can help if I know what’s going on?”

  “I don’t know how anyone can help,” she said, “we don’t really have anyplace to go,” she waved her hands indicating the rest of the group. “And he is saying we have to pack up and get out right away. It’s not fair, I mean it’s his place but where will we go?”

  “What about your families?” I asked, thinking I probably knew the answer.

  “Some of us can go home, but others can’t really. Either there’s no home to go to, or our families aren’t people we want to live with. This was a real haven for a lot of us, we loved to garden and make our herb and spice packets, they sell really well, you know?”

  “I didn’t really know, actually. I thought it was more about, well religion.”

  “There was that too, but Father Amos always said we needed to make our way in the world and take care of each other. If someone got too old or sick, they should be able to stay,” she looked up at me through tear dappled lashes, “I know people didn’t like him, or this place, and considered us a cult. But he was really a good person, deep inside so was Mother Ruth. They cared about a lot of us when no one else did.”

  I wasn’t going to argue with her in her grief, but I wasn’t prepared to imagine Father Amos as one of the good guys either. Still, there was a real loss here and I was more determined than ever to try to figure out what the heck was going on.

  It sounded as though maybe Amos’s brother had real motive since it seemed he would inherit. On the other hand I’d never seen him before, so I wasn’t too sure about opportunity.

  “Had you ever met him before today? Amos’s brother? Eli did you say?

  “Yes,” she sniffed, “Eli is his name. I’m not sure if I ever saw him before, I don’t think so? But we all go to bed early, rise with the sun, Father Amos always said. But,” she lowered her voice and looked around to see if anyone was listening, “he didn’t do that. Lots of times he stayed up late and he almost never got up early with us. We would never question him of course. Sometimes though, I wouldn’t be able to sleep and I’d open the window to hear the surf. I wasn’t supposed to,” she looked down, “but I did anyway, and a couple of times over the last few months I would hear arguing. I didn’t know all the voices, but his,” she looked toward the front gate where Eli had just left, “his sounds familiar now. I’m pretty sure his was one of the voices I heard.”

  “What were they arguing about?” I held my breath, hoping she had an answer.

  “I don’t know,” she shrugged. “I never could hear all the words, just that there was arguing going on.”

  “Oh,” I sighed, breathing again, well it had been worth a shot. Glancing around I saw that Gigi was offering the cookies around. They had been placed on a tray and she and one of the other Little Flowers were making their way around the compound. The women were mostly standing in small groups, murmuring to one another, some were crying, others were consoling, they did look like a sisterhood, and I felt kind of bad about all the time I had spent only seeing them as a cult and not realizing they were real people.

  The mood was broken by sounds out front, and we all headed toward the front gate to see what the commotion was.

  There in the driveway was Nedra, with her big SUV full of realtor stuff, the back piled high with For Sale signs. And in the front yard was a huge sign featuring her picture.

  “Nedra,” I called, “what are you doing?”

  “It’s been listed,” she waved back merrily.

  “They haven’t even had services yet, or a chance to decide what to do next,” I said, exasperated.

  “I can’t help it if the rightful owner wants to sell. My husband has a meeting with the governor and we’re going out of town, I needed to get this done. Sorry if it’s a bad time,” she said lightly, sounding pretty much the opposite of sorry. Her husband Morris, the attorney, had some big deal connections and I guess meeting with the governor fell into that category. Nedra, never one to worry about hurting someone else’s feelings, waved good-bye and left.

  The Little Flowers all looked shell shocked, the entire group was silent and my heart went out to them.

  Gigi came up behind me. “Stay, or go?” she asked.

  “I think maybe we should go, maybe hunt down this Eli guy and see what’s up with him?”

  “Yeah, he’s a skunk. Which doesn’t make him a killer, but we need to know more about him.”

  We said good-bye to the ladies and climbed back into the car. I started it up and pulled away, “Where to?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure, did you find out anything interesting?”

  “Just that Amos’s brother inherits the property and as you saw, wasted no time listing it. Well, and also there were some loud arguments in the last few months with Father Amos and someone, late at night.”

  “Hmmm, well that offers more questions than answers, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah, sorta, how about you? Did you find anything out?”

  “Not really, well, I’m not sure. It seems as though, according to some of the women, the business side was in trouble. There were bills going unpaid. I guess Amos owned some land in Florida too, and they grew and sold spices and whatnot, bath oils, scented hand creams, that sort of thing. But there had been some bad press down south and seems like there was a bit of a boycott. Doesn’t seem like they needed that much money to live on day to day, what with wearing uniforms and eating like birds, but the land here and maybe in Florida, must have cost some money. I wonder where Amos got the cash to begin with?”

  “Maybe it came from the women? The Little Flowers? If they had to give up their possessions when they joined, if any of them had any money to speak of, maybe they gave it to him?”

  “True, I’ve heard of that before. Also Amos must have come from somewhere. Maybe he had some money to begin with?”

  I had been driving a little bit aimlessly, but mostly aimed at the middle of town and I had a thought, “Maybe we should go to the bank to ask?”

  “Ask what, where Amos got his money? Sure I’m certain they’ll just hand over his bank statements,” Gigi rolled her eyes.

  “I know, but wait, Shirley’s there now, remember she got laid off at the insurance company and went to the bank as an assistant VP? Her daughter almost joined the Little Flowers, right? She was not happy about that at all. I’m sure we can get her to help us out. Maybe she would tell us something that isn’t strictly private, maybe something that’s just a little bit private?”

  “A little bit private? Isn’t that like a little bit pregnant?”

  “Yeah, kind of, but if we can find out if he opened the account with a lot of money as opposed to a little. Or if he has money transferred in from somewhere else often, or on some kind of schedule. I won’t ask how much exactly, or where from, nothing that could get her in big trouble.”

  “You’re just trying to get her into a little bit of trouble?”

  “Yes, I mean no, not at all,” I sighed, “I’m going to try to get some answers though, unless you have other ideas?”

  “Nope, no other ideas. While you go to the bank, I’ll walk on over to the coffee shop. If I’m gossip hunting, that’s as good a place to start as any.”

  “The best,” I agreed as we pulled up to the bank. As we did, a familiar voice rang out, and none other than Amos’s brother came stomping out of the building, shouting over his shoulder.

  Chapter 10

  I walked into the bank trying to look nonchalant. I felt conspicuous instead. Oh well. I went to the table along the back wall and fiddled with deposit slips while I scanned the room looking for Shirley.

  She was in the back, in an office that wasn’t hers, standing while talking to the bank’s president, Charlie.

/>   Charlie was waving his hands around and talking animatedly, and Shirley was listening, nodding her head in agreement. I couldn’t hear anything but I was sure they were discussing Amos’s brothers visit.

  When she came out of her office, she saw me and waved, I took that as an invitation to approach her desk, even though that’s probably not what she had in mind.

  “Hey Shirley, how’s it going?”

  “Not bad, it’s nice to see you back in town.” She said hugging me, we had been close in high school and it was one of those friendships that seemed to go on forever even when we hadn’t seen one another. “How’s that bookstore of yours? I can’t wait to see it, boy but you’ve had some problems haven’t you?”

  “Yeah,” I sighed, “you could say that. Speaking of which, I saw Eli leaving here just now. Trouble?” I asked hopefully.

  “Well, I can’t really say much, he was in here about Amos’s accounts. Says he will inherit. It’s not that simple, he wasn’t on the account, and we need more paperwork before we just hand him the money.”

  “Oh, wow. Was there a lot? Of money I mean? I would think that they wouldn’t have had too much.”

  Shirley leaned in close, “Well, there was more than one account, one for the cult, uh, group, well whatever you want to call them,” she wrinkled her nose and I thought about how scary it must have been when she almost lost her daughter to them, “and one that was just for Amos, even Mother Ruth wasn’t on it. And that one, woo-hoo,” she whispered, “that one was loaded up with cash!”

  “Really? I had no idea, was it always like that? Did he start out with loads of money, or did it build up, like payments?”

  Shirley sat up and looked around. “Are you looking into the murders?” she asked.

  “Well, kind of. Just sort of poking around. I mean, selfishly, we can’t keep having people die at the bookstore, that’s terrible for business. But it’s my town too, and I want people to feel safe here, and I worry that at the moment, maybe they don’t. I don’t, I mean it’s scary.”