by J. B. Lynn
3
A cloud of tie-dye and gauze, enveloped in a cloud of patchouli, bustled into the store.
Happy to see Harmony, Letty’s friend and a fellow shop owner, Bea smiled. “Good morning, Harmony.”
“Blessings,” the older woman replied.
“How are you feeling?” Bea asked.
Harmony had gotten caught up in the fire at the dry cleaner’s, owned by Bruce Gold, at the end of the strip mall. Strangely, Richardson hadn’t taken responsibility for her assault.
“Fit as a fiddle,” Harmony replied. “I came to check on how you girls were doing?”
“We’re doing well,” Winnie said, while surreptitiously moving as far away as possible from the odor Harmony effused.
Bea bit back a smile, watching as Amanda, doing her best to be polite, fought not to wrinkle her nose in distaste.
“I came to remind you to charge your crystals,” Harmony said.
“Charge our crystals?” Bea asked. She and each of her sisters had inherited crystal jewelry from their godmother. They all believed that the crystals energized the powers that each of the Concordia sisters now seemed to possess after getting struck by lightning.
Bea had visions when she touched certain items. Winnie seemed to draw things she had never seen but that had significance to things that were going on in their lives, and Amanda could hear and talk to ghosts. Plus, they now all seemed to be able to talk to certain inanimate objects.
“You have to put them out in moonlight,” Harmony told them. “It’s going to be a full moon.”
Bea nodded her understanding. “Is there anything else we need to do?”
“I’ll bring a Tibetan singing bowl by for you,” Harmony offered.
Bea watched Winnie, standing behind her, roll her eyes.
“It’s an excellent tool,” Harmony continued. “Did you know—?”
Suzanne, the woman in charge of shooting the television show Killer Cupcakes, Cookies and Coffee at the nearby bakery burst in, an unlit cigarette dangling from her mouth. “Tell me you have an apron.”
The three sisters looked at each other, semi-panicked. She had already bought out all their pots and pans, dishes, plates, housewares section, and all of Piper’s café kitsch from PerC Up.
Unimpressed, Harmony plucked the unlit cigarette out of the other woman’s mouth and strolled out of the store without a word.
Suzanne’s jaw dropped open, but she didn’t protest. She just watched her go. “This is a weird town,” she muttered under her breath.
Bea didn’t disagree with her assessment. “I don’t think we have any aprons,” she said.
“I think we do,” Amanda said suddenly, staring off into the space above a rack of clothing.
Bea assumed that she was watching the ghost, and the ghost had helpfully found an apron for them.
Amanda hurried over and pulled out an apron covered with cartoon owls that looked stoned. She winced at its ugliness, even as she held it out for Suzanne’s approval.
“Fine,” Suzanne snapped. “I’ll take it. I don’t care. I just want to finish this job. This show is going to be the death of me.” She stalked up to Amanda and yanked it out of her grasp. “Put it on my tab.” She walked back out.
The Concordia sisters all looked at one another.
“Does she even have a tab?” Winnie asked.
Amanda shook her head.
“Just let her have it,” Bea said. “It’s not like we were going to get anything for it anyway. She did us a favor by taking it off our hands.”
Her sisters nodded, knowing that she was the one who knew the value of everything in the shop.
“I think we need to redesign this place,” Winnie announced.
Bea looked at her curiously. “What do you mean?”
“We could make it a lot more aesthetically pleasing,” Winnie said, her inner artist coming to the forefront. “We could pay more attention to how we have the colors spread out and how we display some of our more attractive items.”
“Maybe Sandy can get us another model,” Amanda suggested, referencing one of the pickers who often brought things into the shop to sell.
“That would be fantastic.” Winnie nodded enthusiastically. “I’m going to sketch out a layout.” She ran upstairs.
“It’s nice to have her on board, finally,” Bea said to Amanda. Her older sister nodded. Winnie had been the most resistant when they had first got here. It was nice to know now that she was willing to do whatever it took to make a success of the shop.
“We could pare down, too,” Bea said, looking around. “Some of this stuff is just never going to sell.”
Amanda nodded. “You would know.”
Bea’s gaze shot back to her sister, hearing the respect Amanda was offering her. It felt strange to get her older sister’s approval, and Bea found herself standing up just a little bit straighter and smiling just a little bit more.
As though the universe wanted to test Bea’s resolve, the quirky picker, Peabody, strode in carrying a large cardboard box that they couldn’t see the contents of. She was curious what he found for them. Sometimes he had some amazing finds, but in the past, he had also brought them a singing lizard, a gently used hearth brush, and a box made of human teeth. When he’d last left the shop, he’d seemed pretty outraged that they did not buy into his theory that the tooth fairy had some nefarious plan to take over the world.
Peabody grinned at them enthusiastically. “Ladies,” he declared. “I have brought you treasure.”
“Do tell,” Bea invited, indicating he should put the box down on the counter in front of the cash register.
Instead, he put it on the floor with a heavy clunk.
Bea fought back the urge to giggle as he opened the box and took out a large ceramic lidded pot, which he placed on the counter.
“A treasure,” he declared.
“What is it?” Amanda asked.
“A guzunder!” Peabody clapped excitedly. “Isn’t it a beauty?”
Amanda gave Bea a questioning look. She shrugged helplessly, having no idea what a guzunder was.
Peabody shook his head with disappointed disbelief. “You’ve never seen a guzunder? It’s otherwise known as a thunder pot, a jerry, a po…as in pot de chamber.” He looked at them expectantly.
“A chamber pot?” Bea asked slowly.
“Yes! Isn’t it a beauty?”
“You mean, for people to pee in?” Amanda asked.
Bea bit back a smile hearing the disgust in her voice.
Peabody crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his foot impatiently. “Let me tell you, using a chamber pot is a much better option than trotting out to the outhouse in one’s nightdress.”
“How would you know?” Amanda snapped. “Do you have a lot of experience with outhouses?”
Peabody blinked his outrage and reached for the pot.
Bea put her hand on the lid. “We’ll be happy to sell it.”
“We will?” Amanda asked.
“Yes.” Bea shot her sister a warning look. Peabody was a good picker and they couldn’t afford to alienate him. They’d already offended him once about the tooth fairy. “This is an excellent find.” She gave the man a grateful smile, for good measure.
Peabody beamed his approval, gathered up his empty box, and strode out the door with a victorious cry of, “Guzunder!”
4
Amanda nervously paced the length of the shop, waiting for the arrival of Detective Tom Keller.
Rupert, leaning against the bookshelf, watched her with amusement. “What is it you’re so worried about?”
She shrugged. “That journal could contain the clues to figure out who Letty was helping. It could lead to whoever was responsible for her death.”
Rupert chuckled. “I really hope you never play poker.”
Amanda gave him a hard look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re more nervous than someone about to undergo a root canal,” Rupert said with
a knowing smile. “It has very little to do with the journal, and a lot to do with the man you’ll be sharing it with.”
Amanda froze, then shook her head. “Who knew that ghosts had such active imaginations.”
Rupert crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at her. “I’m dead, not blind,” he told her. “I’ve seen the way you look at him. I’ve seen how flustered you get whenever he’s around.”
Ignoring him, Amanda resumed her pacing. She wouldn’t give the ghost the satisfaction of knowing he was right, but the idea of spending alone time with Tom Keller was putting her on edge. She told herself she had no right to feel the butterflies in her stomach. Keller was a man already spoken for by Piper, and Amanda wasn’t the kind of woman who would ever get in the middle of someone else’s relationship. Still, he was the first man she’d been truly attracted to in many years, and she couldn’t help but be swept away a bit by the thrill of it all.
A soft knock at the front of the shop jolted Amanda out of her musings. Tom Keller, for once not wearing one of his button-down gray shirts, but a red, long sleeve t-shirt, stood at the door, holding two pizza boxes.
“Ah, red, the color of love,” Rupert mocked.
Trying to quell the butterflies that seemed to be fluttering double-time suddenly, she hurried over and let him in. Once he was inside, she locked up behind them, not wanting to be interrupted by any unexpected visitors.
“Sorry I’m late,” Keller said.
Amanda shook her head. “We didn’t nail down a time.”
Keller looked around. “Where are your sisters?”
“Bea is out on a date with Ash, the carpenter,” Amanda replied. “And Winnie’s out with Jim, the accountant.”
Keller frowned. “If you had let me know it was date night, we could have rescheduled for another time.”
She quashed the wave of disappointment that rose up within her when she realized he wasn’t thrilled about the idea of spending time alone with her.
“I didn’t even know they were going to be out this evening until a little while ago.” She bit the inside of her lip, wondering guiltily if she should have called and rescheduled the meeting until her sisters could join them.
“You can just put that down there,” she said, pointing to the counter by the cash register. “I’ll just run upstairs and get a chair.”
“I can do that,” Keller offered as she moved toward the steps leading toward the apartment.
She shook her head, ready to tell him it wouldn’t be necessary.
“Really,” he said before she could get a word out. “I invited myself here, the least I can do is carry my own chair.”
Amanda nodded and motioned for him to follow her up the steps.
When he reached the top, he paused for a moment, taking in the view of the apartment.
“This is where you’re staying?”
Amanda shrugged. “For now, it’s where Winnie and I are both staying.”
“Must get crowded,” Tom remarked. Amanda picked up the chair behind Letty’s desk and then handed it over to him. “We’re making do.”
He turned to go back down the stairs, carrying the chair. “Wait,” she said impulsively.
He turned back to look at her, raising his eyebrows.
“Richardson, the fire inspector,” she began stiltedly.
“We’re still building the case against him,” Keller said.
She shook her head. “Winnie said that when he was here, doing the inspection, she got the impression that he was looking for something. Has he mentioned that to you? And when he was getting ready to…” She trailed off, not wanting to say the man had been getting ready to kill her and her sisters. “He claimed his boss wanted something Letty had. Has he talked about that?”
The detective shook his head slowly, then let his eyes wander around the room. “Any idea of what he was looking for?”
“None,” Amanda admitted.
“I’ll see if I can find out for you tomorrow,” Keller offered.
“Thank you, Detective.”
He shook his head. “Let’s make a deal,” he said. “I’ll try to help you, but you’ve got to call me Tom.”
Amanda hesitated. Calling him by his first name seemed somehow intimate. She nodded her agreement while silently vowing to avoid calling him by any name. She picked up the leather-bound journal off Letty’s desk and followed him back downstairs.
They’d almost gotten to the bottom when she found herself saying, “So there’s something I’ve got to ask you.”
He glanced over his shoulder at her and said, “Okay,” then hesitated with the chair when he reached the store.
“Over there,” Amanda said, pointing to the dressing room area and the velvet-covered chair.
Tom moved quickly toward the area and put the chair down. He turned to face her, waiting for whatever her question was.
She took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and asked, “Is Perkins one of your suspects?”
Tom didn’t respond, he just waited for her to continue.
“Because my sisters and I were thinking, really, everybody who has a store here is thinking, that he’s the one who has the most to gain from all of this…” she trailed off weakly.
Tom nodded and agreed. “It would appear that way.”
Frustrated by his non-committal answer, Amanda got busy getting the pizza. “If you want, we can save this for another time when my sisters are here?”
Tom frowned. “No, I don’t think they need to be here for this.”
“Well, this is going to be a lot for the two of us,” Amanda said. “Maybe you want to bring some to Piper when we’re done.”
Tom tilted his head to the side. “You don’t think she’s capable of getting her own dinner?”
“I just mean…” she stammered nervously. “I mean, you two just seem…” Not knowing how to continue, she waved her hand in the air.
Amusement played in Tom’s eyes as he watched her discomfort, but he offered her no escape.
“You’re close,” Amanda finally blurted out.
Tom nodded. “I’m really glad she’s joining the family.”
Amanda swayed weakly. “You’re engaged?”
“That is not what he said, you nincompoop,” Rupert interjected.
5
“Engaged to who?” Tom asked, as though the very idea startled him half to death.
“Piper,” Amanda said. “You just said…”
She didn’t get the rest of her sentence out because Tom Keller, he who was overly fond of wearing gray shirts and somber expressions, threw back his head and laughed so loudly that the sound echoed off the walls.
“You really need to listen better,” Rupert drawled from his place over by the bookshelf.
Amanda shot him a dirty look and made a mental note to ask Harmony if there was something they could use to keep ghosts away when she was trying to have important conversations with real, living people.
“You thought I…” Tom gasped through his gales of laughter. “Me and Piper?” He bent over, he was laughing so hard, he could barely remain standing at all.
“I don’t see what’s so funny,” Amanda snapped, feeling like the world’s biggest fool.
Tom shook his head and attempted to regain a modicum of composure. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just, that was the last thing I expected you to say.”
“I don’t see why,” Amanda said crossly. She thrust the pizza boxes at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “You spend a lot of time there, and you’re always in deep conversation with her.”
His eyes shone. On any other man, she would have thought it was interest, but with Tom Keller, she had no idea. She figured he was still laughing at her. “Have you been spying on me, Ms. Concordia?” he asked.
“No,” Amanda said a little too quickly.
“Oh, you totally have,” Rupert mocked from his spot by the bookshelf.
Amanda wanted to just grab one of those books and beat the ghost over the
head with it. She was having enough trouble following the conversation with Tom Keller, she really didn’t need the ghost being a dead Greek chorus.
“You have been,” Tom crowed victoriously. Understanding dawned in his eyes. “Is that why you’ve been running so hot and cold with me?”
Amanda stood up straighter and shook her head. “I have not been running hot and cold.”
“Oh, you keep telling yourself that, sweetheart,” he said with a wink.
He put the pizza boxes down on the desk chair and moved closer to her. Though, stalked might be more accurate, Amanda thought, eyeing him warily.
She wanted to back up, but she was trapped between a collection of ironing boards and a giant stuffed termite toy.
Keller moved even closer, stepping into her personal space. “I am not involved with Piper.” He stared down at her, as though trying to brand into her brain that he was telling her the truth. “She’s already engaged to someone else.”
“But you said she’s going to join your family,” Amanda reminded him.
Tom nodded. “She is. She’s engaged to my sister.”
Amanda blinked, surprised. “You have a sister?”
“What?” he teased. “You thought they broke the mold when I was created so there can’t be any more Keller kids out there?”
“You haven’t mentioned her,” Amanda said defensively. “And Piper hasn’t said anything about her.”
“Piper is pretty private,” Tom said. “So am I. So I would ask that you not tell anyone what I’ve just told you.”
Amanda nodded.
“Can you keep that kind of secret from your sisters?” Tom asked, the challenge in his voice obvious.
“We’re not so close that I have any compunction to tell them everything,” Amanda told him.
He squinted at her. “You all work and live together, and you’re not close?”
Amanda shrugged. “I mean, we’re getting closer, but as a general rule, we’re not close, so keeping that kind of secret won’t be a problem.”