Trouble at TeaFest

by R A Wallace

  “I know I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead,” Madison said with a shake of her head. “But that man had issues.”

  Megan sat back in her chair. “Tell me about them.”

  “It started at the wedding. You know, Courtney and Austin’s. Jason should have been focusing primarily on the bride and bridegroom. Of course, he would need pictures of the bridal party and the guests as well. But every time I turned around that day, there was Jason with a camera pointed at me. At first, I thought I was imagining it.”

  Megan nodded encouragingly when Madison paused in her story.

  “After the wedding, I felt like someone was watching me all of the time. I’d turn around and usually there was no one there.”

  Megan raised her eyebrows. “Usually?”

  Madison shook her head again. “You’re going to think I’m crazy.”

  “No, I’m not. Go on.”

  “I think there was someone following me. But I think it was a woman.” Madison sat back in her chair and waited for Megan’s response.

  Megan smiled. It was what she’d hoped Madison would say. It meant her hunch may be correct. Megan looked at Madison’s oval face and camera-loving cheekbones. She wore her long dark hair straight. Her large brown eyes looked pensive at the moment but usually were sparkling with intelligence and wit. Her light brown skin tone gave the impression that she was perpetually tan. She was a photographer’s dream.

  “What did the woman look like?” Megan asked.

  “Like a model. She was around five nine, maybe a size two at the most. I’d guess runway but not recent, the clothes weren’t this year. Caramel colored hair, lots of highlighting but it didn’t look professional. I’m guessing she did it herself.” Madison watched Megan smile. “Sound like someone you know?”

  “Yes, I think she is. Did you have a chance to speak with her?”

  Madison nodded. “A couple of times. Once at the lake and once at the TeaFest. In both cases, she was asking me about men. At the lake, she wanted to know who Jerry Stevens was. I ran into him, literally, on the trail and we ran together back to the parking lot. That’s the first time I saw her.”

  “And the second?”

  “I was telling Jason Malone to stop taking my picture. He was following me around the TeaFest, creeping me out again. She wanted to know if Jason was a friend of mine.” Madison’s beautiful face was scowling again.

  “Did Jason see you speaking to her?” Megan asked, holding her breath. If her theory was correct, the answer was important.

  Madison thought for a second and shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. He had walked away and was swallowed up by the crowd.”

  Megan let out her breath and smiled.

  “What’s going on?” Madison asked.

  Megan explained everything that she knew about Jason Malone’s death, what she had learned since then, and her theory about the murderer to Madison.

  “If that’s true, you need to be careful,” Madison said seriously. “Don’t take any chances. That woman seems to pop up everywhere.”

  “I agree, but the same goes for you. That’s another reason why I’m here. She may be particularly fixated on you.”

  Madison looked around. “I have a lot of work to do here. I hadn’t really planned to go anywhere anytime soon. I think I’ll be safe. What are you going to do next?”

  “I still have a few pieces of the puzzle that are missing. I need to talk to one more person to fill in the gaps.” Megan pulled her purse strap back onto her shoulder and stood. “I’ll let you get back to work.”

  “Be careful out there,” Madison cautioned again.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Matthias Reynolds looked over at the woman sitting across the table and smiled. He was having lunch with Barbara at the Teaberry House Restaurant. After the rest of their friends had left to return to their homes following the weekend gathering, Matthias and Barbara had begun settling into their new life together. In addition to gathering old friends to reminisce about the past, Matthias and Barbara had gathered them together to help celebrate their future together.

  They’d been married at Barbara’s home Sunday morning but with the recent murder of Jason Malone, they’d not yet made the news public.

  “Do you think we should?” Barbara was asking.

  Matthias grinned. “If we don’t, they’re going to think we’re living together without the benefit of marriage.”

  Barbara grinned back. “You have a point.”

  “Given the fact that I’m still hanging around and that we’ve been seen together so much, I’m sure some are already wondering.” Matthias nodded in the direction of two waitresses. They were standing near the entrance to the kitchen, watching Barbara and Matthias, while they whispered to each other.

  Barbara tilted her head and pretended to think about it for a minute. “Who knows, it could boost my poll numbers.”

  Matthias shook his head. “I’ve seen your poll numbers. There’s no room for improvement.” Barbara had won hands down for so many years, no one bothered to run against her anymore.

  Barbara’s phone buzzed on the table and she picked it up. “It’s a text from Megan Bennet. She wants to know if she can speak to me.” Barbara looked up at Matthias.

  “Sounds like you were right about her. She must be sleuthing.” Matthias signaled for the check.

  Barbara returned Megan’s text while Matthias settled the bill. On the way out of the restaurant, she explained to Matthias that they would meet Megan nearby at the town square. They walked the short distance and found Megan already near the fountain.

  Megan watched them approach and noted the proprietary way Matthias guided the mayor over to the bench near her. “Mr. Reynolds, it’s good to see you again.” Megan smiled at her recent guest.

  “Please, call me Matthias,” he replied with a smile.

  He had come to like young Megan Bennet. He was beginning to think he would be seeing quite a bit more of her as the mayor’s husband. Barbara had mentioned her bright mind several times. Barbara and Matthias took a seat on a park bench while Megan stood in front of them.

  “What can I help you with?” Barbara asked Megan.

  Megan explained to them both everything she had learned since the death of Jason Malone. “I was wondering if you had any more pieces of the puzzle to offer. You seem to keep close tabs on what happens in Teaberry.”

  A shadow passed over Barbara’s face. “Apparently, not close enough.” Barbara shook her head. Matthias reached over and took her hand. “I had some concerns about Jason Malone, it’s true. Lately, I’ve been noticing that he rarely has repeat business and the business he does have is spotty at best. But I didn’t foresee all of this. I didn’t know the situation was this bad.”

  “I’m not sure any of us did or that there was reason to do so until recently. His behavior seemed to be getting worse to the point it was just now becoming more widely known,” Megan said. She began pacing a little in front of the bench.

  “You think something precipitated his recent increase in aberrant behavior?” Barbara asked.

  “Yes, I think someone from his past may have caused it,” Megan said.

  “You think they were in touch with him recently?” Barbara asked.

  “I think she’s here in town. Or, at least, she was. I don’t know if she’s still here.”

  “She? Is it someone I know?” Barbara frowned, thinking that the TeaFest had brought a lot of strangers to town. It was one of the main reasons for the event, but it was also an excellent way to hide in plain sight.

  “Matthias knows her,” Megan replied

  Barbara turned to Matthias and raised her eyebrows at him.

  Matthias thought for a moment then nodded. “You’re thinking of your single house guest. What was her name? She was rarely there. She wouldn’t even have meals with the rest of us. I thought at first that she just didn’t want to intrude on old friendships, but I tried to speak with her a couple of times and she barely respo
nded.”

  “Tamara Hines,” Megan supplied the name. “She wouldn’t say much to me either. At first, I assumed that she could be a part of your group and that’s why she wanted to stay there.”

  Barbara shook her head. “I don’t recognize the name. You said at first you thought that?”

  “Yes, but now I think she was checking me out,” Megan said.

  “Why would she do that?” Barbara asked.

  “She seemed to be trailing many of the women that Jason has been photographing lately.” Megan stopped pacing and took a seat on the bench next to Matthias. “Do you know much about Jason’s past. Before he came here?”

  Barbara nodded. “I checked him out a little after he moved into town and set up shop. What I learned concerned me. But unless he displayed illegal behavior here, there wasn’t much I could do except watch him. He seemed to be escalating lately with his bizarre behavior. I was hearing rumors about him raising the rent on the shops in the building he owns above a rate that the space warrants. I’m sure you heard about that from Caitlyn. Then, there was the incident with you and the letter that you received claiming that Josh owed him money.”

  “Did you learn anything about his past before he came to Teaberry? He must have been somewhat successful if he was able to buy a building in the downtown as soon as he arrived,” Megan pointed out.

  “Oh, he was at one time. He used to travel all over the world photographing some fairly famous models for magazine shoots. He was never in the big leagues, of course. He didn’t work with the elite. But he did fairly okay for a while.”

  “Something happened?” Matthias guessed.

  “Yes. There were rumors that he was engaged to one of the models. I can’t recall her name. But it ended abruptly when some scandal about him broke out,” Barbara said.

  “Let me guess. It involved other models?” Matthias asked.

  “It was discovered that he was following the models outside of work and photographing them without their knowledge. It was leaked to the press that he had hundreds of photos in his hotel room of different women. At the time, that was considered odd but not overly frightening. He was, after all, a photographer and the women were models.”

  “So what was the scandal?” Megan asked.

  “It was when the women started disappearing,” Barbara said.

  “Okay, that sounds a lot scarier,” Megan said.

  “The police investigated everything thoroughly and they could never place Jason Malone in the location of a missing model. He always seemed to have an ironclad alibi. At the end of a very long investigation, Jason was cleared. As it were,” Barbara said.

  “But his career?” Matthias said.

  “It was in shambles. No one would hire him. I worried for a long time after he came here. But it’s been nearly a decade now and there haven’t been any incidents.” Barbara looked over at Megan. “You think that the woman had something to do with all of this? The problems Jason had in the past and his death now?”

  Megan nodded. “If I’m right, she did. And something caused her to come to Teaberry now but that’s the part that still puzzles me. Where has she been all of these years?”

  “Of course, you’re planning on telling the police all of this now, right?” Matthias said, looking directly at Megan.

  “Yes,” Barbara said firmly. “I don’t want to take any chances that anyone else gets hurt. I’ll call the police now. We’ll tell them absolutely everything.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Megan took the pitcher of lemonade and a bottle of wine from the refrigerator and carried it out to the porch. She poured a glass of lemonade and handed it to Lauren. Caitlyn did the honors with the wine, passing glasses to both Erica and Megan. The four women settled into the comfortable seats.

  “So how have you been feeling?” Erica asked Lauren.

  “I’m doing pretty well at the moment. The morning sickness seems to have passed more quickly with this one than with the other two. Although it may have helped that I wasn’t even aware that I was pregnant. I kept blaming my upset stomach on other things.” Lauren took a sip of her lemonade and studied Erica. “Was that just a question to be polite?”

  Erica’s cheeks flushed a little and she knew it. She’d always cursed her light skin that tended to freckle because she always blushed so easily as well.

  “Are you and Brad getting more serious?” Lauren guessed.

  “He’s moving back in.” Erica smiled at the supportive comments she received from her friends with that announcement. “We are actually talking about kids.”

  “Wow, that’s awesome,” Caitlyn enthused. “I can’t wait to see a bunch of miniature Erica’s running around.”

  “It’ll have to wait a bit until we get married again,” Erica smiled.

  “Do you plan on waiting long?” Megan asked, then smiled as Henry let out a strangled crow.

  Erica laughed at Henry then shook her head. “We don’t really see any reason to wait.”

  “How are things going with your lawyer, Megan? Did you ever get an answer back?” Caitlyn asked.

  “I just assumed all of that would go away once Jason died?” Lauren said, looking back and forth at Caitlyn and Megan.

  “I did hear from Jennifer,” Megan said. “She actually got a visit from Jason’s lawyer, you know, the lawyer that sent me that letter. He wanted to apologize. Jennifer said that she believes he was being genuine. Jason’s lawyer said that Jason gave him some documents that he assumed were authentic and that was why he wrote that letter to me. But afterward, he began questioning their authenticity and he demanded more proof from Jason. When Jason couldn’t produce it, the lawyer backed off and started looking into possibly charging Jason.”

  “It sounds to me like Jason would have deserved that,” Lauren said. “What about your florist shop, Caitlyn?”

  “I guess the building will be sold as part of Jason’s estate. I’m not sure what the details are yet. We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out. Hopefully, our next landlord will be better. What did you learn?” Caitlyn directed her question to Erica. All eyes turned to Erica. They had all been waiting to learn how the story of Jason’s death ended.

  “The police department had already begun looking into Jason’s past as part of the investigation into his death, so we were aware of the allegations at the time about the missing models,” Erica said.

  “Do you think he was involved with that?” Lauren asked.

  “Based on what Tamara has confessed, no. Her real name is Tamara Bledsoe, by the way, not Tamara Hines. The name that she gave to you, Tamara Hines, was actually a case of identity theft,” Erica said to Megan. “I doubt the card she used on your web site to register for her room will go through.”

  Megan shrugged and passed around a plate of crackers and cheese.

  “She was Jason’s fiancé and was also a model. She was never famous enough for anyone to recognize her name, but she did some runway work and a few things for magazines but that was a long time ago. That was how she’d met Jason. Everything was fine at first, but then she found out about his obsession. Apparently, she had a lot of mental issues. Learning that Jason was obsessed with someone other than her set her off.” Erica took some crackers and cheese from the plate and then passed the plate to Caitlyn.

  “You mean, she started killing people and she was never caught?” Lauren asked.

  “The deaths all happened over a period of time in other countries while on location for photo shoots. There never seemed to be a pattern and no one tied anything together. Except Jason. He was the one who got Tamara into a facility for treatment. She’s been in and out of treatment for years,” Erica explained.

  “What set her off this time?” Caitlyn asked, passing the plate to Lauren. Lauren reached for her stomach and quickly passed the plate to Megan.

  “From what we can tell, she got off her meds and then tracked Jason down. That was when she showed up here,” Erica said. Looking at Lauren, she said, “I thought you
were better?”

  Lauren shrugged. “This is better.”

  Erica frowned at Lauren then continued her story. “Tamara claims that she never meant to hurt Jason. But she followed all of us around, including Madison, trying to figure out which one of us was attracted to him. She had convinced herself that Jason’s obsession with a woman meant that the feelings were reciprocated. She couldn’t imagine anyone not loving him. But she said we were all too devious and she couldn’t figure out which one of us it was. So she went to his studio and confronted Jason. He knew that she was in town the weekend of the TeaFest and he was expecting her to show up at the studio so they could talk. But he denied being involved with any of us. For whatever reason, that caused Tamara to snap.”

  “I’m sure being off her meds had a lot to do with it,” Megan said.

  Erica nodded. “I agree. At one point, Tamara had thought the woman that Jason was truly obsessed with was Madison. Tamara was at the lake and saw Jason there taking pictures of Madison. But she spoke with Madison more than once and Madison was emphatic that she had no interest in Jason.”

  “That’s why Madison kept feeling like she was being followed everywhere. Two different people were following her,” Megan said.

  “How did you ever find her?” Lauren asked.

  “She had called Megan’s phone to ask about the availability of a room. We were able to trace her phone and her location based on that,” Erica said. “We’ll never know why Jason felt that he needed money and hatched up an idea to get it from Megan. But given the pressure he was feeling from having Tamara back in his life, it may have had something to do with that.”

  “It sounds like Megan was helpful to the investigation,” Caitlyn said with a grin.

  “I agree,” said a voice from the side of the house.

  “Mayor Vance, Mr. Reynolds. How nice to see you,” Megan said. “Please, have a seat. Can I get you some wine or lemonade?”

  “Wine sounds lovely,” Barbara said, taking a seat on the cushioned wicker sofa. Matthias took a seat next to her.