Raising Prosperity

by Cherie Mitchell

  Reuben’s lips twitched. “I did hear from Apex.”

  “Well? What was her explanation for sending you the photos of her hands?”

  He blushed furiously and wouldn’t meet her eyes. “They were a sexual reference.”

  “What? Do I want to know why? Actually, I don’t think I do.” She screwed up her nose and took a gulp of coffee.

  “I told you she had very soft hands. Anyway, she’s fine. She’s flying out today and this time it’s confirmed. She called me from the airport.” He sat back in his chair and looked at her from beneath lowered brows. “What about you? Did you tell your boyfriend that his Saturday night of fun and games is off the cards?”

  Prosperity rolled her eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend. And yes, I told him I was working.”

  “Good.” Reuben swiveled his computer monitor around so Prosperity could see it. “Blue Jay Candy. Seems Rump Gum and Blue Jay have a long-standing grudge. It started years ago when Charlie Rump released a new product and Henrik Kruger accused him of stealing his intellectual property. The two families never made up afterwards.”

  Prosperity scanned through the article and gazed at the accompanying photos. “Who’s that?” She pointed at a photo of a fox-faced man with mean eyes and a pouting, petulant mouth.

  “Lance Kruger, Henrik’s son. He’s the guy who’s been sailing around the island in the luxury yacht.”

  “Blue Jay … ” There was something scratching at the back of Prosperity’s mind and trying to find its way out.

  Reuben’s phone rang and he glanced at the Caller ID. “It’s Lindy. I’d better take this.”

  Prosperity went back to reading the article, interested to note that Blue Jay was considering moving aggressively into the field of exploding bubblegum in direct competition with Rump Gum. That decision would have certainly put the cat among the pigeons if Ophelia was still alive.

  Reuben thanked Lindy and ended the call. He looked grimly across the desk at Prosperity. “You were right. Those charms aren’t made of pig iron. They’re high grade sterling silver.”

  Prosperity whistled. She unhooked the apple charm from her bag zip and sat it on the desk, admiring its tiny perfection. “I thought it looked too well made to be a dime trinket. Blue Jay really pushed the boat out with this promotion.”

  “Lindy said the charms were crafted by a master jeweler. She expressed doubt that items of that value would be dropped into a bag of candy to sit on the shelf at a convenience store. In her opinion, if a company was offering a prize with such a high dollar value, they’d put tokens in the bags and ask the winners to apply to claim their prize.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m going to use one of your patented phrases—if something smells like fish, it generally is fish. I think I need to contact the Kruger family and see what they have to say.”

  “Blue Jay … ” The realization hit her like a bolt from the blue. “Ruby! Ophelia’s tattoo! Do you think the bluebird had anything to do with Blue Jay candy?”

  “Why would Ophelia get a tattoo of her competitor’s logo? I think you’re barking up the wrong oak tree there, Prosperity.”

  “She loved cryptic stuff. Perhaps it was some kind of derogatory comment on Blue Jay candy. Blue jay, drugs, leaping fish … I just can’t seem to make the connection but I’m sure it must be there somewhere.”

  “Nope, that explanation isn’t doing it for me. From what we’ve learned about Ophelia, it just doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing she’d do. I don’t think there is any relationship between Blue Jay candy and her bluebird tattoo.”

  “I guess.” Prosperity fiddled with the apple charm. “I feel as if we’ve made one step forward and two steps back.”

  “That’s the nature of investigative work. It only serves to make it all the more satisfactory when the case is finally solved.”

  “Mmmm.” Prosperity pulled a tube of hand-cream from her shoulder bag and applied the cream liberally to her hands. “What else have we got on the agenda today?”

  Reuben turned the monitor back around. “I have to send a few emails and make a few calls. I’ll try and set up a meeting with Lance Kruger and I want to give Ophelia’s jeweler a call. What say we meet back here in my office in two hours? Have you got stuff to get on with until then?”

  “I’ve got plenty to get on with.” She left Reuben’s office to walk down to her own, still pondering the possibility of the bluebird on Ophelia’s mysterious tattoo having something to do with the Blue Jay brand. Sure, Reuben seemed to think there was no connection but what if he was wrong? He’d disregarded her suggestion too quickly, in her opinion. However, she did have to concede that Ruby had a lot more experience in this kind of situation than she did.

  “Hey, you.” Officer Ryley stepped out of the lunchroom with one of his Mom’s floral plastic containers in his hand as she walked past.

  Prosperity sniffed appreciatively at the savory smell of reheated pot roast and potatoes that wafted up toward her nose. “Good to see that your lunch is safe these days.”

  “Yes, now that Terry has gone there hasn’t been any more trouble.”

  “Where is Terry nowadays?”

  “I don’t know. He’s due in court for his theft charge soon but I have no idea what he’s doing with himself in the meantime. I can’t say that I care; any man who steals another man’s lunch is no friend of mine.” Ryley set his jaw stubbornly. “I don’t care if I never hear his name mentioned again.”

  “Fair enough.” Prosperity left Ryley to his pot roast and continued on to her office. She’d fallen behind on her paperwork due to the amount of time she’d spent away from the office and a couple of hours of uninterrupted diligence was just what she needed.

  She switched on her computer and tossed her empty coffee cup into the trashcan as she heard her phone ring. She grabbed it from her bag as she sat behind her desk, hearing Blaine’s voice booming down the line as soon as she answered. “Are you avoiding me, Miss Spartanburg?”

  She quelled her flicker of irritation. “Not at all. Some of us have busy lives.”

  “I’d hoped to see you tonight. I thought we could have a nice meal, watch the sunset, take a stroll, and see what comes up.”

  “I’m sure you did. However, we’re getting close to cracking a major case,” she crossed her fingers, “and I have work to do.”

  “You seem to be making a habit of brushing me off. When will you say yes?”

  “When I have some free time. At this stage, I don’t know when that will be. I’m sure you and Madame Ruth can lure some other girl out to watch the sunset and see what comes up.”

  Blaine chuckled. “You got that right. But we were both hoping to spend the evening with a particularly pretty little Forensic Pathologist.”

  Prosperity pretended to gag. “Have you ever listened to how patronizing you sound when you talk to women?”

  “Nope. Girls seem to like how I talk.”

  “Great! Go find one of those girls to talk to. This particular girl has a lot of work to do.” She went to hang up but Blaine was speaking again. “I’m not letting you end the call until you give me a firm date for dinner.”

  “Blaine … can’t we just glide? I’ll see you at school next week. We can sort out a date then.”

  “Nope. I need you to tell me a day before I hang up. How about Monday? We could go bowling then we could have dinner at Bad Moon Rising.”

  “Okay. Anything for a quiet life. But if something important in relation to this case reveals itself in the meantime, I won’t hesitate to cancel.”

  “Monday it is.” The glee was evident in his voice and once again, Prosperity felt bad for always putting him off. “Bye, Prosperity.”

  26

  Ophelia’s Essence

  The afternoon passed quickly at the office. Reuben was unable to track down Lance Kruger to arrange an appointment but he said he’d keep trying. However, he had managed to connect with Ophelia’s jeweler.

  “Sh
e said Ophelia’s charm bracelet contained 32 unique individual charms, with some of them valued up to $600,000 apiece. She said she would email me a photograph she took the last time Ophelia gave her the bracelet for cleaning and to check the links and clasps. Oh, here it is now.”

  He opened the email and Prosperity walked behind his desk to look over his shoulder at the screen.

  Reuben twisted his head around and glanced up at her. “Anything look familiar to you? One piece of jewelry looks the same as the next to me so there’s no sense in me having an opinion.”

  “Can you enlarge it?”

  Reuben smirked.

  “Sure can. Name the time and place.”

  “Can you keep your mind out of your pants? Just enlarge the photo, will you?”

  Reuben increased the size of the image and Prosperity peered closer. “There’s my apple! There’s Blaine’s Kombi van, there’s Meghan’s hourglass, and there’s the ship’s wheel you gave to your niece. Ruby, your eight-year-old niece is playing with a $600,000 charm!”

  “Are you sure?”

  Prosperity picked up the apple charm from where it still sat on Reuben’s desk.

  “Look.” She held it up close to the monitor, sitting it alongside the photograph. “Same shape, same single leaf on the stalk, and same curve to the stalk. It’s the exact same charm.”

  Reuben was already reaching for his phone. “I’ll call the Blue Jay factory direct and try to get hold of Henrik Kruger. Lance isn’t answering my calls and the company clearly has some explaining to do.”

  “There’s no point in phoning them now. The Blue Jay factory is located in Hanoi, Vietnam. It’s the middle of the night over there.”

  “Hanoi?”

  “Yeah, I read it on that article you showed me before. The company moved the factory offshore two years ago to save costs.” Prosperity walked slowly back to her chair. “What happens next? This is theft. Big time theft, which quite possibly has a link to a brutal murder.”

  “I know.” Reuben drummed his fingers on the desktop. “Kruger is the man I need to see.” He glanced at the time on his Garmin Instinct GPS watch. “We need to get going. I promised Pinnacle we’d be there to watch his gig.”

  “But it’s only five o’clock!”

  “Yeah, but I want to grab something to eat on the way.” He logged off his computer and snapped his desk drawer shut. “Time to make like a dog and flea. We’ll sort this charm business out tomorrow. One more day isn’t going to make any difference.”

  After a quick dinner, Prosperity and Reuben made their way to Tail Spinners and were directed by the burly, heavily tattooed Pacific Islander door attendant to the ‘by invitation only’ room where Pinnacle was performing. He looked hard at Prosperity and she was afraid for a second he’d recognize her, but he gave up and ushered them in.

  The gig had already started as they entered the room and Prosperity gazed up at the stage to see Pinnacle in full, glorious, Technicolor, rap star action. His bald head shone beneath the hot lights, his gold chains rattled and clinked, and his stage presence commanded the attention of everyone in the room. He inclined his huge head in acknowledgement of Prosperity and Reuben’s arrival as he bent his mouth close to the microphone.

  “My new friends have walked in at just the right time. My next song is one that I wrote for a dear, departed friend of mine. Put your hands together for my personal dedication to the one, the only, Ophelia Rump!”

  The small crowd clapped and cheered as Pinnacle strutted across the stage and back again, as cocky and colorful as a bantam rooster. He pulled the microphone from its stand and began his rap.

  Yo Miss Rump and her pop-pop, a bubble-o

  Gave her some gum and she was good to go-go

  Shaking that booty and popping that gum

  Lady was fine and she always made me c—

  “Come with me. Pinnacle has a VIP table reserved for you.” A coolly beautiful woman in a short skirt and French Maid style apron appeared at Prosperity’s elbow. “He said to tell you to order whatever you like and he’ll join you shortly.”

  With Pinnacle’s chant thumping in her ears, Prosperity and Reuben followed the waitress to their reserved table at the front of the room. From here, they were close enough to see the sweat on Pinnacle’s brow as he continued his rap.

  Ophelia Rump was one groovy chick,

  Chompin’ and chewin’ all night on my stick,

  Yo Miss Rump and her pop-pop, a bubble-o

  Gave her some gum and she was good to go-go

  Reuben raised his eyebrows. “Very … artistic.”

  “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

  The waitress returned to take their order and Prosperity sat back to watch the show. Pinnacle certainly knew how to win his audience over. He had a natural style that seemed to pull a person in and she found herself enjoying the performance immensely. She was disappointed when he put the mike down and told the room he was taking a short break. However, she was pleased to see him step down from the stage and head directly for their table.

  “Hey.” He sat down on the spare chair and the waitress immediately shimmied up to place a tall glass of something indistinguishable in front of him. He raised his glass in a toast to Prosperity and Reuben. “Glad you could make it. What did you think of Ophelia’s song?”

  Prosperity shared a quick glance with Reuben before answering. “It was sublime. You really caught her essence.”

  Pinnacle nodded his approval. “Yeah, that’s what I tried to do. Catch her essence.”

  “Did Apex get away okay?” Reuben asked politely.

  Pinnacle stared coldly over the rim of his glass and Prosperity noticed one of his heavies step closer to the table. “Yes. My daughter has now left the island.”

  “Ah, I’m pleased to hear it.” Reuben suddenly looked as if being somewhere else for the foreseeable future might be the best idea he’d had all night.

  “We might have found some leads on Ophelia’s case.” Prosperity thought it might be wise to jump in at this point with a change of subject.

  She briefly wondered what Apex might have said to her daddy about her relationship with Reuben before deciding she didn’t want to think about it. Apex and her soft hands had left Martha’s Vineyard and all was now well in Prosperity’s world. She pulled her hand-cream out of her bag, aware that her own hands again felt uncharacteristically dry, and surreptitiously applied a dab to her skin under cover of the tabletop.

  “You’ve found some leads? That’s awesome! Are you close to making an arrest?”

  “Not yet.” Reuben-the-cop was back. “But we’re following a positive line of inquiry. You’ll be one of the first to know once we’ve finalized our investigation.”

  Prosperity had a question she was itching to ask. “Pinnacle, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. I read that you attended a Pygmy Jerboa Fundraiser with Ophelia. What was her attraction to such a seemingly obscure charity?”

  Pinnacle smiled fondly. “Ophelia developed an obsession with kangaroos as a child after a family vacation to Australia. As an adult, that obsession expanded and she developed a deep love for all creatures with a kangaroo-like appearance. Wallabys, gerbils, jerboas—you name it. If it looked anything at all like a kangaroo she voted herself as its biggest champion.”

  “That’s sweet.”

  “Ophelia was sweet,” Pinnacle agreed solemnly. “That was her essence, the essence I tried to capture in my song. I wanted my rap to pay homage to her innocence and sweetness and I think I succeeded.”

  “Ah, okay.” Prosperity felt Reuben kick her ankle under the table. “How lovely.”

  “I’ve got a few other people to see. Enjoy your night, peeps.” Pinnacle was already halfway across the room before he’d finished speaking, headed toward a darkened table in the corner.

  All this talk of jumping mammals had reminded Prosperity of Mish and Joey.

  “I need to talk to Mission Talbot again. He acted really weird t
he last time I saw him and I was surprised to find him still here on the island. I’ve still got the feeling he’s hiding something and as we’re in the business of tying off loose ends, it makes sense for me to have another yarn with him.”

  “I’ll come with you. I’ll pick you up from your apartment tomorrow morning and we’ll speak to him together. We’ve got another busy day tomorrow so we should check on Chase’s alibi and call it a night.”

  Reuben tipped his head back and finished his drink.

  “Time to make like diarrhea and run.”

  “Ew, Ruby. Just … ew.”

  27

  Mission Un-Accomplished

  “You said that Mission Talbot is the location scout for The Dog’s Bawlz, is that right?” Reuben had arrived right on time to collect Prosperity from her apartment and they were now driving toward Katama Beach.

  “That’s right. He hasn’t told me why he’s still here in Martha’s Vineyard now that the movie production has been canned. I called him before you came by to pick me up and told him that we need to speak to him urgently. He didn’t sound too happy about it, but he’s agreed to meet us at Bad Moon Rising.”

  “Why do you think he’s reluctant to see us?”

  “I don’t know. At first I thought he liked me but then he was acting weird the last time I saw him.” She thought about it for a minute or two. “Actually, I’ll revise that last statement. I think he’s just a weird person. He was probably acting completely in character. He has a therapy wallaby, which is a little unusual, and he seems to be quite highly strung. I just think Mish’s normal is different from my normal and I’m the last person to stand in judgement of anyone else. You can’t knock another man’s coconuts down until you’ve checked the nuts on your own tree.”