Shirley looked around, “I really can’t say anything, this is private business, you know?”
I nodded, what did I expect after all? She could hardly give me his private personal info.
“I don’t want to break any laws, but I don’t like what he did and who he was either,” she said as she turned to her monitor and began tapping computer keys. She rolled her mouse around, clicking through screens. “Now,” she said looking around, “I have to go to the ladies room. If I forgot to click this screen off while I did it, you might see some information. Hypothetically speaking,” she looked me directly in the eye as she spoke, “so I would trust that you would reach over and close out my browser window for me, like a good friend would. So that this sensitive banking info didn’t get into the wrong hands.”
Mutely, I nodded, suddenly aware that she was risking a lot in order to help me out.
Shirley got to her feet and silently walked off to the ladies room. As soon as she was out of sight, I spun the monitor my way and took a quick picture with my phone. Then I clicked out of her screen and left to go to the coffee shop and meet Gigi.
The coffee shop was pretty full, a scattering of people sitting at all the tables. As I walked in I breathed the aroma of the beans and freshly brewed coffee. Just the scent alone was life giving, and my stomach gave a little rumble, reminding me of the pastry counter at the far end of the store.
Gigi was sitting with Luann, the therapist I had run into the day after the first murder. I paid for my coffee and brownie thick with chocolate frosting and topped with nuts and made my way to the table.
“That looks amazing,” said Gigi when I sat down.
“Thanks, I’m sure it is, you want one?”
“I could just have a corner of yours.”
“You could, but you won’t stop there, here go get yourself one, it’s on me,” I said, tossing a five at her.
Gigi laughed and passed the money back to me, “It’s ok, I got it, I’ll be right back,” she nodded at us.
“Crazy girl,” I said, then put my hand over my mouth looking at Luann, “Just joking. She’s not really crazy.”
“No worries, sisters are allowed to talk about each other. How are you? Self medicating with brownies?”
“Yeah, kinda,” I sighed. “This whole mess is on my nerves, you know?”
“Does anyone know what happened?”
“No, toxicology takes forever. Although I would imagine now that there’s a second set of results the police need, maybe they’d speed things up so people don’t keep dropping like flies here.”
“I don’t know how that works,” she reached over and patted my arm, “how are you holding up dear?”
There was something about her that made me want to pour my heart out, but I didn’t really have the time.
“I’m fine, holding up. I really want to get the store up and running you know, but we keep having these troubles. And I mean, it’s nothing compared to what other people are going through. I keep feeling selfish because it’s happening on my property, but I’m not the one that’s, well you know.”
“Dead. Right, I know, still it’s a lot of pressure. You know I’ve been meaning to ask you something. About that handyman in town, the tall one.”
“Carter?”
“Yes,” she snapped her fingers, “that’s him. Is he a ladies man, do you know?”
I nearly choked on my coffee, “Why do you ask?”
Well, I’ve seen him here in the coffee shop with all sorts of women. I’ve seen him with that realtor, Nora?”
“Nedra, her name is Nedra.”
“That’s right, I remember now. And I’ve seen him with a couple of The Little Flowers. Nothing he shouldn’t have been doing, mind you. It just seemed like he was with a weird combination of people, you know?”
I thought about this while I picked apart the brownie, the moist cake topped with thick rich chocolate frosting was soothing, and I took a deep breath while I enjoyed the feel and taste of the chocolate.
Then I thought about Carter. “Well,” I said after I took a sip of coffee, “him meeting with Nedra could be easy to explain since he’s the go to guy for handy man work here. He can tackle just about anything, and her listings often need work,” my mind flashed back to seeing them arguing at the bookstore, before she had been injured outside, and I filed that away to multiple over later. “I’m not sure what he’d have been doing with one of The Little Flowers though, they mostly keep to themselves. I mean I guess one of them could have, I don’t know, been in need of help for the compound? That’s interesting.”
“I thought so. I mean, obviously in my line of work I’m no gossip, or I wouldn’t get any patients, but I did think he was with a weird collection of people over the past few weeks.”
“Huh, interesting. I mean he wasn’t doing anything wrong, and it doesn’t seem like he was hiding, it was just, weird. You know?”
“Kinda, yeah.” I said as Gigi returned with her own thick gooey brownie.
“I have to get back to work, I have an appointment, it was good to see you both. Let’s have tea together soon!”
“We will! Hopefully at the store. I have peach tea in the cafe just for you!”
“Yes, that would be nice. I look forward to it,” she said as she made her way to the door.
“She’s a sweetheart, isn’t she?” Gigi said.
“She is. You know what? She said she had seen Carter here with Nedra, and also with more than one of The Little Flowers. Don’t you think that’s weird?”
“Wellll,” Gigi said as she licked frosting off the plastic fork she was using to demolish her brownie, “I guess. Not really so strange that he was with Nedra, but definitely weird that he would have been with more than one of The Little Flowers. I thought they were kept kind of under lock and key.”
“Yeah, it’s always seemed that way. But who knows what happened there. Or what will happen now?”
“What did you find out at the bank?”
“Oh, here, I’m not sure, we can look at it together,” I said, taking out my phone. I opened the camera program and touched the icon for recent photos. As the picture came into sharper focus both of our jaws dropped.
Chapter 11
There was indeed money in his account, millions of dollars. As in more than one million! And there were regular deposits. The amount varied a bit but was around ten-thousand dollars each time.
What on earth? We just looked at each other, then back at the photograph. The deposits looked like they were being transferred from another account, so we couldn’t see whether it was one person, or a bunch of people. But it was a lot of money. nNo wonder his brother wanted access right away.
“Soooo, what do we have here?” I asked.
“Jeeze Louise, I’m not sure. We can’t really see when it started, but it’s obviously been going on for a while,” she said while staring at the numbers in the photo. Taking my phone she enlarged the picture and we were able to see some dates. The deposits spanned more than a year, and never altered by more than a few thousand dollars.
“We can’t see where the money goes, and how much of it goes where, so there’s almost more questions than answers,” Gigi whispered.
“Right? I mean maybe this expands the universe of who might have wanted him dead.”
“Well, it certainly puts his brother dead center…uh I mean right in the middle of it.”
“Not funny,” I said as I elbowed her. “You know if this stuff hadn’t kept happening at the store we wouldn’t have to worry about all this. Who knew I’d come home and end up with a real mystery on my hands? Not me,” I rested my head on my upturned palm, “so, what now, Sherlock?”
“Sherlock? Oh, no, you can’t put that on me. I’m Holmes,” she said, popping the last bite of brownie in her mouth. Glancing up at the door, she turned to me and said “This one’s all yours, I’m gonna walk home. Catch you later.”
Before I could muster a reasonable objection, Drake was at the ta
ble and leaning over me and Gigi was out the door.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hello yourself, so tell me about your visit to the bank this morning.”
“What? There’s nothing to tell.”
“I think there is, and I think you know what, and I’m asking you to not talk about what you found out. Okay? We’re not going to even discuss the legality of what went on there, I’ve got bigger fish to fry right now,” he inclined his head toward the door that Gigi had just walked out of, “I assume you two were in on it together?”
I nodded in the affirmative.
“Well, get to her too, and ask her, no, tell her not to share.”
“Okay, I will. Can I ask what’s going on?”
“You can ask anything you want, and knowing you, you will. I’m not going to answer you though. I will say it doesn’t look like natural causes, in either case,” he frowned, worried. “This isn’t the way things usually go here, you know?”
“Of course I won’t say anything to anyone, and I won’t ask you any questions, although,…” I said, feeling both embarrassed and intensely curious.
He gave me the side eye, “All I can tell you is nothing is as simple as it seems.”
“I didn’t really feel like this seemed all that simple, to be honest.”
“Either way, we need you to not talk about the bank info.”
“I don’t really know that much anyway.”
“Good, let’s keep it that way. Can I get you a coffee?” he asked.
As much as I would have loved to stay and chat, I definitely did not want him trying to figure out what else I knew. Not that I felt like I knew that much. Plus he was grouchy, who needed to spend time with a grouchy cop? Not I. “No, thanks, gotta run, another time though?” I said as I got up and left, wondering if my newfound information meant anything at all.
I was still wondering as I headed to my car. Sliding into the seat I glanced out my windshield and saw Carter walking across the park in the center of town, headed for the natural food store, or Hippie Mart, as we liked to call it. Suddenly I felt a pressing need for some freshly ground peanuts and home made beach plum jam.
This store was another converted house, not as big as mine, maybe from about the same era though. I loved the smell inside, it always smelled like fresh baked bread, and cinnamon, which made me hungry for cinnamon rolls. I found some on the counter and scooped them up, then headed for the peanut butter machine, keeping an eye out for Carter. He was in the back corner, looking in the refrigerator case. There was no one near him, so this didn’t seem like one of his unusual rendezvous. I set my attention to the peanut butter machine, and placed a plastic tub underneath. As Carter came up from the back corner, he stopped to say hello.
“Hey, Carter, how’s it going?”
“Oh, good, you know, busier than I know what to do with, but overall, it’s ok. How about you?”
“Well, we’ve had a rough time getting the store up and running what with, well you know, the issues we’ve had. I feel terrible for The Little Flowers, they’ve had a rough couple of weeks.”
“Haven’t they though,” he shook his head, “I don’t think some of those girls have had it so easy, I feel bad for them especially. They don’t need this.” He shook his head.
“I guess, I mean I’m not sure how they ended up there, but it would be hard to have to make a change.”
“Well, some of the girls were actually sent to him, they aren’t the runaways everyone thinks they are.”
“Sent to him?”
“Yeah, he had sort of a plan for girls who were in trouble, and sometimes their parents sent them to him.”
“What?” I said, entirely too loudly, as the peanut butter grinder had just stopped its loud groaning as it pulverized the nuts to butter.
He looked around and held his finger to his lips to shush me. “Yeah, most people don’t know it, but some of the Little Flowers were pregnant and they came here to have their babies in peace and privacy.”
“Like a home for unwed mothers?”
“He didn’t like to call it that, but yeah, that was one of the things that they did there. It’s why the hours were so strict and the women were so secluded. Some of them, others were there to beat drugs, some were hiding from their families for a bunch of reasons. And yeah…some he recruited for his ‘flock’. He wasn’t all bad. It’s just…well he wasn’t all good either. You know?” he cocked his head to the side.
“I guess, I mean I don’t know. It’s hard to think that people still do that. Hide their kids away when they get pregnant.”
“Yeah,” Carter said, his eyes cast downwards, “they do, it’s really sad, don’t you think?”
Honestly I didn’t know what to think anymore. I mean the bit about hiding their daughters was sad. But, well, so many questions. Was that where the money was coming from? Was this a current-day home for unwed mothers? What on earth was going on? When I had seen the numbers on the bank statement I had immediately thought drugs but it didn’t seem like nearly enough money for that. He could be terrible at it I guess. But now, now I felt like I knew even less than when I had started.
“So, how come you know this and nobody else does? This is a very small town, and the compound is a very big presence.”
Carter blushed, and looked away, “I knew one of the girls that ended up there. Knew her from back home I mean. I saw her in town and she told me everything, she was pretty unhappy. I tried to help her, and some of the others, when I could. He was real strict about giving them money and such, and sometimes it was just a new pair of sneakers, or socks or something that they needed. Or something to cheer them up. A cookie, a muffin, that sort of thing.”
“Right, a cookie,” I said as I looked him straight in the eye.
“No, really, just snacks or the occasional pair of cheap shoes, a sweater here and there from the thrift store. Nothing big, just, I don’t know,” he shuffled his feet as though he couldn’t wait to get away from me, “sometimes a person needs a friend, you know? Amos, he was doing a good thing, but in a bad way.”
“In a bad way?”
“Yeah, I mean he took the girls in when no one else would, but he wasn’t exactly nice to them. Not always, sometimes he was mean, he wanted complete control as long as they were there. It got on my nerves, I have to say.”
“Well, it sounds like you were a friend to them when they needed it, that was nice of you, Carter. And nice the way you kept their secrets for them.”
“Well, thanks. I’d…uh, I’d better get going I guess. See you around.”
And with that he was gone. Good grief, does everyone in this town have a secret?
I paid for my things and went to the car, I decided to take the long way home and make another pass at the compound. Not that I expected to see anything from the road that would tell me something, but you never know, I shrugged to myself. Seems like things are starting to shake loose in this town.
Chapter 12
I pulled over to the side of the road and let the car idle while I stared at the compound and thought about what might have gone on inside. From live births to women detoxing from hard drugs, and girls on the run. It made a lot more sense now that the Little Flowers all stayed so quite and remote from those of us who lived outside. I shook my head as I wondered about the babies born there and where they ended up.
Such a tangled mess, and now Father Amos and Mother Ruth were both gone, and the women would be what? Set loose? Sent home? It seemed a shame on the one hand if they had to go back to places where they were unwanted, but on the other I’ve never been a fan of having to live your life in secret, no matter who might disapprove.
The for sale sign swung in the breeze and I wondered who might buy that spot and what they might do with it. With any luck the pink walls would come down and we might be able to see the water again.
I set off toward home so I could call Gigi and let her know we were under police order to keep our mouths shut. Not that we’d tell an
yone and get Shirley in trouble, but I wanted to talk to Gigi anyway.
When I pulled up the driveway to the house, there on the steps was Gigi, legs crossed, face to the sky, catching the last of the day’s rays, waiting for me.
“I thought you were going home?”
“Nice to see you too, sis!”
“Oh, well, it is nice to see you, just unexpected.”
“Well, honestly, I wanted to hear what had happened with Drake, and Jenn and her dad are out, so I thought I’d come back. They dropped me off.”
“Well come on in,” I said leading the way. We talked as we walked upstairs, “Drake didn’t say much except that we need to keep our mouths shut, and that nothing is as simple as it seems.”
“Which is not very simple at all.”
“That’s what I told him! I did have an interesting conversation with Carter though.”
“Oh, really?”
I filled her in on the multi-purpose nature of the compound, as she drummed her fingers on the kitchen island and looked thoughtful.
“So how does this all come together?”
“Darned if I know. I mean I was sure Mother Ruth did it at first, because, well because it seemed like she would inherit and you always look at the wife. I think they’re married, or were, honestly I don’t know. Anyway, now that she’s gone, I’m just not sure where to look. There was no weapon so no fingerprints, not that Drake would tell us about them if there were. There seems to be a lot of money at stake. So that’s something. Who inherits? That’s the brother I’m assuming. Or at least he seems to think so. There’s motive.”
“Or maybe it was one of the girls who couldn’t get away?”
“Kill her way out? That seems…unlikely.”
“You just never know,” she said thoughtfully, “people aren’t who they seem to be sometimes.”
“True. So where to look next?”
“I think we need to figure out what the brother’s story is. How long has he been in town, how long is he staying, what is it he does for a living.”
Murder & Spice and Everything Nice: Ivy Bloom Mysteries Page 6