To Bead or Not to Bead, Glass Bead Mystery Series, Book 4

by Janice Peacock

  “So what’s the diet? Wait, don’t tell me. You’re not seriously going to eat them, are you?”

  “They’re supposed to be very filling and zero calories. I guess they help you feel full so you eat less. It seemed like a good idea.”

  “No Val, it’s a very, very bad idea. Cotton balls can get caught in your digestive tract and cause a blockage—you could end up in the hospital, or worse.”

  “That would be terrible. Who’d take care of you, Gumdrop, and Stanley?” Val asked. I could take care of myself and the animals, but that wasn’t the point.

  “Why all the crazy diets, anyway? I mean, you’ve never been on a diet before, and you don’t look like you need to lose weight.” Val was naturally curvaceous, but nothing about her told me she was overweight. Even if she was extra voluptuous, she always seemed to love her looks and wanted to flaunt all she’d been endowed with and then some.

  She pulled the wet dog out of the tub and toweled him off.

  “I haven’t had a boyfriend in a while and I thought…well…I thought…maybe there was something wrong with me,” Val started to choke up. She stopped drying Stanley and used the edge of the towel to dab the corner of her eyes. Stanley took that opportunity to shake the rest of the water off, which doused us both from head to toe.

  “Ugh! Stanley!” I grabbed a towel from the rack and dried myself off. As Val busied herself with the dog, I snatched the bags of cotton balls and made a break for it. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Val, and I think Buff Brown would agree with me that you’re perfect.”

  As I entered Val’s living room, there was a knock at the front door. This was likely the police officer I was waiting for. I looked through the door’s peephole, but it wasn’t a uniformed officer. It was Zachary, and he had not one, but two pints of Molly Moon’s ice cream.

  I let myself out of Val’s house, taking her latest problematic diet accoutrements with me.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked as I took one of the pints from him. “Ooooh, salted caramel.”

  “What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t come over and see you after someone broke into your house?”

  “I don’t know, maybe the kind who listens to what his girlfriend says? I said I didn’t need you to come.”

  “But I wanted to come.” He wrapped his arms around me in a huge hug.

  Val must have heard us on the porch, because she opened her door and found us there in a tight embrace.

  “Oh! Well, I didn’t want to interrupt, but um, maybe you two want to take whatever is going on there inside. This is a family neighborhood,” she said with a giggle, and then shut her door.

  We put the ice cream in the freezer for the time being, and then walked through the house together. I confirmed that nothing been stolen.

  “Do you want to file a report?” Zachary asked.

  “Since nothing is missing, I don’t think so, but do think I’m ready for some ice cream,” I said, as I headed for the kitchen in search of my ice cream scoop and some bowls. I made us each ridiculously large bowls of ice cream—salted caramel and a flavor called melted chocolate—and we sat on my little patio eating it. It was the perfect end to a not-so-perfect day.

  TWENTY

  The following morning I awoke to the sound of my phone ringing. It was Bev.

  I answered, still groggy from a fitful night’s sleep.

  “I listened to your cat purr for far too long yesterday afternoon, and I’m getting awfully tired of it. I’m hoping you’ll remember to wear your mic today.”

  “Sorry, Bev, I left the jacket with the mic on it on my bed. Sounds like my cat was sleeping on it. I won’t let it happen again.”

  “Any news?” Bev asked.

  “Yes! Last night when I got home I interrupted a burglar. It was scary, but it doesn’t seem like they took anything.”

  “Oh, hon, I’m sorry to hear it. Did someone from the department stop by?”

  “Yeah, actually, Zachary came by, and together we looked the place over. Nothing appears to be missing. Oh, but there is something you should know. I explored the theater the night before last and was able to get into the theater’s box office, but I wasn’t able to find anything important. The file cabinet was filled with scripts and headshots. Daniel must have taken his laptop home with him.”

  “Damn. I thought you’d be able to find something. The Greers must keep their records at their house. Any chance you’re going to be able to make it over there sometime soon?”

  “As a matter of fact, I want to go to the Greers’ house this morning to buy some beads. I’m hoping I’ll be able to do some snooping while I’m there.”

  “Good job, Jax. I have faith in you.”

  “Thanks. I promise I’ll report back.”

  “You can do better than that. Wear the damn mic.”

  I called Nika and told her I was ready to buy some Thai silver beads. As luck would have it, she was available to have me come over right then, as I had hoped. I jumped in the Ladybug and headed to the Greer mansion. I checked the mic in my little boutonnière on my jacket just before I headed up the long driveway. I followed it around to the right, as Nika had instructed, to arrive at the side entrance of the converted carriage house that served as the storage facility for Amanda’s bead business.

  “Knock, knock,” I said, poking my head in the door of the bead warehouse.

  “Hello, Jax. Come in,” Nika said, handing me a basket. “Just fill up this basket with whatever you’d like to purchase. Mrs. Greer said you could have our wholesale discount.”

  I looked out across the dozen long wooden tables that held thousands of six-inch strands of silver beads in every shape and size imaginable, from small plain disks the size of sunflower seeds up to silver-dollar-sized pendants. I walked up and down the aisles between the tables, selecting a few strands as I went. Nika busied herself at the laptop on one side of the room, near another door that stood ajar. What I needed was for Nika to wander off and leave the computer unattended, but that seemed unlikely.

  I decided to see if I could find a reason for Nika leave so I could do some snooping without her around.

  I yawned. Then waited and hoped. There was no reaction from Nika. She just kept typing on her laptop. I yawned again, even louder than the last.

  “Oh, dear, I’m so sorry. I’ve just not been getting enough sleep lately,” I said, trying to be as obvious as possible. I hoped she’d be the polite hostess she’d been the last time I was here and ask me if I’d like coffee. Finally, she did.

  “I could make coffee. Would you like that?” Nika asked, looking up from her laptop.

  “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble,” I said as I tossed a few more strands of beads into my box.

  “No trouble at all. I’ll be right back,” she said. I waited until she left, heading down the long breezeway that took her to the main house.

  I sprinted to the laptop and carefully looked at the screen, filled with spreadsheets, an email program, a mailing list, and an order processing system. I should have brought a thumb drive with me so I could copy some of the files that looked like they might be useful in the investigation, but I hadn’t thought of that, and now it was too late. I looked under Nika’s desk and in the file drawer. Nothing was there except her stylish monogrammed purse stuffed in a drawer.

  Next to the laptop, the storeroom door was ajar. This was the small storage space where Amanda had taken the necklace she’d given me for the auction. It contained two more tables full of silver necklaces. Perhaps they kept these in this room because they were more valuable. The price of silver had been on the rise and storing the more expensive pieces in this room might have been a security measure.

  I moved across the room to another table of small beads, so I didn’t look guilty of snooping when Nika returned. I was sure she’d be back soon, and I didn’t want to be caugh
t looking suspicious.

  “I’m so sorry to take so long,” Nika said, entering the warehouse, her voice echoing off the walls.

  She poured coffee into a dainty china cup with a floral design and handed it to me.

  “Thanks,” I said, adding some cream and sugar to the cup and took a few sips of the coffee. It was delicious. “Such great service.” I continued drinking my coffee and shopping, figuring I should buy as much as I could afford since I wouldn’t get another opportunity to get such a steep discount, plus the longer I stayed, the more likely it was that Nika would leave me alone so I could do some more sleuthing. I knew I could use many of these beads in some of the earrings I made, so I tried to think creatively as I shopped. Unfortunately, I found I wasn’t thinking very creatively. In fact, I was having trouble thinking at all.

  And I was feeling tired. Wasn’t coffee supposed to wake me up?

  And then I was feeling a little woozy.

  And a little lightheaded.

  And then the darkness closed in around me.

  When I woke up, Nika was crouching next to me. I was laying on the cold concrete floor beneath one of the tables.

  “Jax? Are you awake?”

  “I think so.” Although I was having trouble keeping my eyes open.

  “Then maybe you can tell me what this is?” Nika asked, holding something small and colorful a little too close for me to focus on it. I pulled back my head to get a better view.

  “Oh, that’s my boutonnière. Careful, there’s a mic in it.” Why in hell had I just said that?

  Nika placed the boutonnière on the floor and crushed it with the heel of her shiny black pump.

  “Why did you do that?” I said, trying to sit up. But, somehow, my body didn’t want to do what I wanted it to do. “What’s wrong with me? Oh my God! You drugged me!”

  “Don’t worry, it’ll wear off, eventually. Now, Jax, we’re going to make this easy. Okay?”

  “Okay,” I said, not knowing what I was agreeing too. Everything was feeling pretty easy right now, other than focusing, talking, or sitting up.

  “Who are you working for?”

  “Um. I work for myself. I’m a glass beadmaker, but you know that, Nika. Okay. Now I get to ask a question. Why does your purse have an M monogrammed on it?”

  “Sorry, that’s not how this game works. How it works is you tell me what I want to know, and you won’t get this.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a syringe full of milky white fluid.

  “Yeah, I don’t want that,” I said, groggily shaking my head.

  “So, you’re going to tell me who you are working for.”

  “My boy Zee,” I said, barely coherent.

  “Jax, you’re not making much sense. Do you need a little shot?” Nika said, grabbing my arm. With all my might, I flipped my body over onto my side, yanking my arm away from her. Using every wobbly muscle I had, I wriggled away from her, like a giant fish out of water, flopping around on the shore.

  “Why is there an M on your handbag?” I asked again, my addled brain was unwilling to let that go. It didn’t make sense. And then it hit me. People called me Jax, because I didn’t like Jacqueline. And Nika, what was it short for?

  Monika.

  “Monika,” I whispered to myself, but I couldn’t really tell how loud my voice was. It must have been louder than I realized.

  “Congratulations, Jax. You figured it out. My name’s Monika. Wow, you really are a super sleuth,” Nika said, her voice thick with sarcasm. She crawled toward me under the table, with the syringe in her hand. I kept wriggling, staying just out of reach. “Now, what I really need to know is what else you know.”

  “I don’t know anything. I swear. I just came to buy beads…Oh, and to see if you might be involved in the murder of Austin Greer.” Somehow my brain had short-circuited. Things were coming out of my mouth that I didn’t expect. “So, if you can just tell me what you had against him, I’ll be on my way.”

  “Austin was just a stupid old man with all his do-gooder projects. Let’s run a theater, let’s work with a homeless agency, let’s donate stuff to all the needy nonprofits.”

  “Yeah, he was so good, you had to kill him,” I said.

  “No, you’ve got it wrong. I didn’t do it.”

  “But you know who did.”

  “No. I swear I don’t.”

  “You’re MO, that Austin wrote in his dying moments. He was trying to write Monika.”

  “It’s not too hard to figure that one out, Jax, but he was wrong. I didn’t do it.”

  “Why would he spend his dying moments trying to write your name?”

  “He likely had figured out what Amanda and I were really importing. He wanted to point the finger at me, if nothing more than to keep the focus away from his wife.”

  “What are you importing?”

  “Who would have suspected sweet Amanda Greer would be the biggest importer of heroin on the west coast? Certainly not you.”

  “But, she doesn’t ever leave the house—she told me herself. How could she do it?”

  “She used to make the trip a couple of times a year, but over time she became more and more afraid to go outside. That’s when she asked me to take over. Poor thing, if she only knew that all the money coming in from her business has more to do with drugs than beads.”

  “You go to Thailand and bring back drugs?”

  “See Jax, even in your drugged-up state, you’re doing quite well figuring this all out.”

  “What did you give me in that coffee?”

  “Oh, just a little intoxicating cocktail. Austin had a whole lot of it in his bloodstream when he died. Powerful stuff—it did wonders for him. I can’t believe it didn’t kill him. You seem to be handling it like a champ. I think you could use another dose.” Nika crawled toward me, stopping to uncap the syringe with her teeth as she steadily moved underneath the table toward me. “Sadly, I didn’t want to add murderer to my resume, but I think it’s time for you to go. I can’t have you telling the world what’s going on here—it would ruin my path to Easy Street.”

  I used every ounce of strength I could muster and kicked my legs against the floor to get away from her. My foot came in contact with the wooden leg of the table, and I heard it crack. I kicked again. And again. Finally, the leg broke. The table crashed over, coming down on top of one of Nika’s legs, pounds of silver beads pouring off the table on top of her.

  “Oh God! My leg! You crushed my leg!” Nika screamed, trying to push the heavy wooden table and strands of silver beads off of her. “Help me, Jax. Please.”

  “Help will be here soon.” I crawled to the end of the row of tables. Using hands that barely functioned, either from the drugs I’d accidentally consumed or from pure fear and adrenaline, I dialed Zachary. He picked up on the first ring.

  “We heard everything up to the point when your mic went dead. We just arrived. Hold tight.”

  “Nika’s going to need medical attention,” I said, as I watched her writhe in pain. She found the syringe she’d tried to use on me and jabbed it into her thigh. She visibly relaxed. Within seconds, her eyes closed and her breathing slowed.

  Zachary ran in the door of the warehouse.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, kneeling beside me.

  “A little limp and wobbly, but I’m okay. You should check Nika.”

  He ran to her side and checked for a pulse at her neck. He nodded his head. She was alive. Zachary called for medical support, and soon the EMTs were loading her into an ambulance.

  “Make sure to keep a guard on her,” Zachary said, as the medical technicians climbed into the ambulance with Nika.

  “She—she—tried to kill me. She injected herself with something. Whatever it is, I’m not sure if she was trying to kill herself—”

  “We’re going to get you to the hospi
tal, too. You’re not looking so hot,” Zachary said.

  Things got a little blurry after that. Someone slipped an oxygen mask onto my face, and I felt a jolt of oxygen—that was good. And I felt the bumpy ride in the ambulance while someone held my hand. I opened my eyes, just a little, but the lights hurt. It was Zachary, sitting next to me, his glasses off and his eyes closed.

  “My boy Zee,” I said, though it was muffled through the oxygen mask.

  “Shhhh,” he said, kissing me on the forehead.

  TWENTY-ONE

  I woke up in the hospital, still holding someone’s hand. Expecting it would be Zachary, I gave it a squeeze, and realized it was far too small a hand to belong to him. It was Tessa.

  “Hello, sleepyhead,” Tessa said, seeing that I was awake. I pulled the oxygen mask from my face. “Are you sure you should do that?”

  “I’m okay. I’m just glad to see you.”

  “Dio Mio, Jax, how are you feeling?”

  “A little woozy.”

  Tessa reached over and hugged me. As I looked past her shoulder I discovered, to my surprise, the world’s largest, and pinkest, teddy bear.

  “Um, Tessa, who is that from?”

  “Ryan. He came by and wanted to stay until you woke up, but I sent him away. I can’t believe he’d buy you a stuffed animal, but I guess it is sort of cute,” Tessa said, glancing over her shoulder at the hideous pink bear.

  “That’s sweet, but it’s not really my style.”

  Poking out of the top of the garbage can by the door was a stack of used paper coffee cups. Clearly Tessa had spent many hours at my bedside.

  “Any chance the hospital will let me have something to eat? Maybe some coffee?”

  “Let me see if I can get a nurse,” Tessa said, pressing the call button.

  Moments later a young woman in floral scrubs bustled in.