by J. B. Lynn
“Good,” Amanda said. “So maybe you won’t dismiss all of this out of hand.”
“Dismiss what?”
Amanda took a deep breath and began to explain. “I didn’t believe in any of this at first,” she told him. “But now…”
“Believe in what?” Tom asked, his tone more encouraging than skeptical.
“Tell him about me,” Rupert urged.
Amanda glanced over at him and frowned again.
“What are you looking at over there?” Tom asked, following her gaze.
Looking back to Tom, she hesitated for a second, then simply said, “A ghost.” She fell silent as she let that sink in.
“A ghost?” To his credit, Tom kept most of the cynicism out of his tone.
“Tell him he looked at his phone while you were upstairs and seemed very unhappy with what he saw,” Rupert urged.
“He says that—”
“So, it’s a male ghost?” Tom interrupted.
“Rupert,” Amanda said. “It’s his painting that’s in Ash’s place.”
“The painting that almost got Bea killed?”
Amanda nodded.
Tom considered all of that information for a long moment. “Okay, go ahead.”
Amanda was impressed that he was even willing to listen to what she had to say.
“He says that when I was getting the cookbook, you looked at your phone and seemed unhappy with what you saw there,” she said.
Tom glanced around the room. “You could have had a camera watching me,” he said. “You’ve got the monitor upstairs; you would have seen me doing that.”
Amanda let out a sigh of dejection. Of course, his argument was logical.
“He looked out for Rena,” Rupert said. “He was the one who asked Piper if the girl could sleep in her shop. She didn’t want to allow it, but when she mentioned it to Letty, Letty took her in.”
“I didn’t know that,” Amanda said.
“Didn’t know what?” Tom asked.
“He says that you kept an eye on Rena and you had asked Piper to take her in at night,” Amanda revealed. “Piper didn’t want to do it, but when she mentioned it to Letty, Letty started letting her sleep here.”
Tom nodded slowly and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Piper could have told you that.”
“But she didn’t,” Amanda said. “Call her, confirm that she didn’t tell me.”
“Or Rena could have,” Tom countered.
“You can ask her, too,” Amanda said.
Tom frowned and stared deeply into her eyes, as though trying to read the truth there. Finally, he said, “I think I believe you.”
Amanda smiled. “Okay, now that I got you to believe in ghosts,” she said, “I need you to believe in Bea’s visions, and Winnie’s drawings.”
Tom looked around. “I don’t suppose you have any alcohol here,” he quipped. “I could really use some liquid courage.”
Amanda shook her head. “I’m not kidding.”
“I know you’re not,” Tom said seriously. “That’s what scares me.”
29
“And he believed you?” Bea’s voice cracked as she asked the question.
Amanda nodded. “Let’s just say he didn’t dismiss everything I said.”
“And you told him about my drawings?” Winnie asked. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but Amanda had already done it.
“Yes,” Amanda said.
“Did he recognize the spot?” Bea asked hopefully.
Amanda shook her head.
“And you told him about my visions?” Bea asked.
Amanda nodded. “He didn’t understand what they meant, either.”
“So, basically, you told him our secrets, and he didn’t have anything useful to add.” Winnie took a leather coat off of a hanger and gave it a sharp snap, needing an outlet for her frustration.
“I guess I should have talked to you first,” Amanda said.
“You said you were going to show him the cookbook,” Winnie said. “You didn’t say anything about telling him about the other stuff.”
“I’m sorry,” Amanda said. “It just came out. I should have consulted you first.”
“You’re darn right you should have.” She really didn’t like the idea of her secrets being out in public. She was having enough trouble coming to terms with her gift on her own.
“She was trying to get some more help,” Bea said, sticking up for their older sister.
Winnie watched as Amanda turned and mouthed “thank you” to her.
“But he wasn’t any help,” Winnie reminded them.
“He asked a lot of questions,” Amanda said.
“Great,” Winnie groaned. “More questions.” She desperately wanted to leave the shop, to have some time to herself to think this through, but they needed to put the shop back together so that they could reopen the next day. Greta had called offering her assistance, but they had told her not to come in.
Something in Bea’s tone when she’d been on the phone with the employee told Winnie that she never wanted Greta to come in again.
“There’s something I haven’t told you guys,” Bea said.
Winnie threw herself dramatically into the velvet-covered chair between the dressing rooms, covered her eyes, and asked, “Now what?”
“It’s a visual,” Bea said. “I’ll go get it.” She limped out of the shop, toward Ash’s place.
“I really am sorry,” Amanda said.
Winnie sat up in the chair and gave her sister a hard look. “He was our greatest chance of finding out who had Letty killed. Now he’s going to think we’re all crazy.”
Amanda nodded. “That’s why I wanted him to have all the facts of the case.”
“Those aren’t facts,” Winnie said. “Okay, maybe the cookbook was a fact of some kind that we don’t understand, but the rest of it... Bea has visions we don’t understand, and I’m drawing the woman and a treasure map, neither one of which I can identify.”
“What woman?”
“I don’t know,” Winnie said. “That’s the whole point.”
“Can I see her?” Amanda asked.
Winnie wanted to tell her no. She wanted to keep something to herself, but she knew that her sister would be like a dog with a bone and not let it go.
She moved to the stairs so she could go up to the apartment to get her sketchbook. “Do we think Nutmeg isn’t coming back?” Winnie found herself asking.
Amanda blinked, caught off guard by the question.
“I don’t know,” she replied sadly. “I didn’t mean to let him out,” she said guiltily.
Winnie shook her head. “That dog can get loose any time he wants,” she said. “Don’t blame yourself. I was just saying that it’s strange he’s been gone so long.”
“It’s strange that he dropped Pim at PerC Up and then never came back,” Amanda remarked.
Winnie nodded. She made a mental note that she’d spend some time, once the shop was back in order, looking for the dog.
“I’ll get the sketch for you,” she said, climbing the stairs.
The bell over the door jangled, almost as soon as she reached the apartment. Bea was back.
She grabbed her sketchbook and galloped down the stairs.
“It’s for me,” Bea told them. “Like Letty left that for you,” she pointed to the sketchbook, “she left this for me. It was wrapped with my name on it and everything.”
“Where did you find it?” Amanda asked.
Bea pointed to the jewelry case. “I was trying to find a place to display the dagger. And I found this under the padding for the case.” She waved something rectangular in their direction.
“What is it?” Winnie asked, a sense of trepidation stealing over her. The sketchbook hadn’t given them any answers, just more questions.
Bea unwrapped the picture frame and held it out for them to see. Winnie gasped when she saw the photo. There were no pictures of her family in Letty’s place, so it was strange to see t
he picture of Bea as a baby.
“I’ve never seen this one before,” Bea said. “She obviously had it made for me.”
“And yet, she didn’t ship it to you,” Winnie said. “Don’t you think that’s strange?”
Amanda pulled the frame from Bea’s grip and lifted it closer to her face, staring at it intently.
“That’s definitely Bea,” Winnie said, worried that her older sister was going to burst their youngest sister’s happiness bubble.
Amanda nodded.
“And that’s Letty,” Bea said, pointing to their godmother.
Amanda nodded again. “It is.”
“Bea was such a cute baby,” Winnie said, looking over Bea’s shoulder at the photograph.
“Mom looks so happy,” Bea said wistfully.
Winnie sensed Amanda’s hesitation. “It’s a great picture,” she chided gently. “Bea should be happy to have it.”
“She should,” Amanda said slowly. “It is.”
She handed back the picture frame to Bea. “I’m glad you found what she left for you.”
“Now we just have to find whatever it is she left for you,” Winnie said.
Bea nodded, then turned to look at the shop. “Maybe we’ll find it putting everything back together.”
The sisters got to work cleaning up the shop, but Winnie could not shake the feeling that something was really bothering Amanda.
When Bea started working in the front of the store, away from them, she took her chance and whispered, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Winnie winced. There are no two words in the English language that wield more power than a woman saying I’m fine.
She knew that her sister was not fine, but she knew from that response that she wasn’t about to discuss what was bothering her.
“If you need to talk about it…” she began to offer.
Amanda shook her head tightly. “I’m fine. It’s fine. I need some air.”
Winnie watched as Amanda stalked out the back door, into the alley.
She stood where she was, feeling torn between her two sisters, as she so often had as the middle child.
She wanted Bea to be happy about her find, but she sensed it was making Amanda really upset, and she didn’t understand why.
“Now what am I supposed to do?” she muttered under her breath.
“Harmony said you were supposed to do it together,” Pim lectured.
Winnie glanced at the toy sheep, who’d been restored to his place on the bookshelf.
Though she didn’t say it out loud, she had to admit that Harmony had been right about everything else.
Whatever came next, the Concordia sisters were going to have to work together to figure it out.
30
Winnie was rearranging the contents of the back storeroom when she heard the bell over the door jangle in the shop and Bea yelled out a greeting. “Hi, Jim.”
Assuming Jim was there to see her, she hurried out to the front.
“Have you got a sec?” he asked.
She nodded and shot Bea a questioning look.
Her little sister just shrugged, obviously having no more answers than she did.
“Let’s go for a walk,” Jim suggested. He opened the door and waited for Winnie to walk out.
The unforgiving heat was an assault to the senses, and she sucked in a breath as they left the air conditioned shop and stepped outside.
She glanced up at Jim, who appeared tense. The lines around his eyes a little deeper than usual, his jaw tight.
“Is there something wrong?” she asked.
He nodded. “You could say that.”
“Did they arrest someone?” she asked, both curiously and with concern.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. This is personal.”
She glanced at him sharply, wondering what personal problem he could be having.
“Did you want to tell me about it?” she asked.
He nodded slowly as they wandered past Ash’s shop, the smell of sawdust and varnish in the air.
“I have to leave town,” he said.
“Well, that will make you seem suspicious,” Winnie said without thinking.
Jim let out a harsh laugh. “Are you saying that I’m a suspect?”
She shook her head. “I was just thinking that anybody who leaves town would be a suspect.”
“Good to know,” the accountant said. “I still have to leave town.”
“Why?” She tried to fight back the sense of disappointment that she felt. Even though she hadn’t known Jim very long, and didn’t know him all that well, she knew she’d miss seeing him on a daily basis.
“My mom had an accident,” he explained. “I have to go up to Pennsylvania to oversee her medical care and take care of some things.”
“Is she going to be okay?”
He shrugged. “I think okay is a relative term. She caused the accident.”
“Oh,” Winnie said, unsure of how one was supposed to respond to that kind of information.
“So, there may be some legal ramifications,” Jim said. “I could be gone awhile.”
“What are you going to do about your business?” Winnie asked.
Jim looked down at her, the muscle in his jaw jumping, as though he was gritting his teeth. “I can pretty much do everything remotely,” he said. “The majority of my clients email me their information anyway.”
“That’s good,” Winnie said.
“It’s good?” he said sharply.
Her forehead creased at his tone. Not sure why he sounded so irritated—she hadn’t been the one to cause his mother’s accident—she said, “I mean, it’s good that you can keep your business running while you’re helping out your mom.”
“So you’re not attempting to try and dissuade me from going?”
She shook her head. “Of course you should go.”
“And what about us?” he asked.
She shrugged and chose her next words carefully. “We’re just at the beginning of something, Jim. Neither of us has any idea where this is headed.”
“I have an idea of where I’d like to see it headed,” Jim told her.
She nodded but remained silent.
“You could come with me,” he suggested.
She glanced up, surprised at the suggestion.
“You’re going to be pretty busy,” she told him.
“But you’ve got the flexibility,” he said. “I mean, who’s going to notice if you’re living here or there?”
She blinked and took a step back.
He halted and turned to face her, rubbing his temples, as though the conversation was giving him a headache. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant, I’d like you to go with me.”
She shook her head. “My place, for now, is here.”
“Why? So you and your sisters can play at being amateur investigators?”
“We’re trying to find out what happened to our godmother,” she told him, trying to understand he had to be under tremendous stress, and not respond with the amount of anger that she was feeling. “We may be amateur, but we’re trying.”
“And you’ve all gotten yourselves almost killed. Twice,” he reminded her. “What kind of judgment is that, to keep putting yourselves in danger?”
“I admit things haven’t gone smoothly,” she said. “But I’m not leaving my sisters. Not now.”
Jim frowned but said grudgingly, “I admire your family loyalty.” He shrugged. “I figured that’s what you would say, but you can’t blame a guy for asking.”
“When are you leaving?” she asked.
“I’m going to make the plane reservations as soon as we’re done with this conversation,” he said. “There’s a flight tomorrow out of SRQ. I’ll take that. I was just waiting to see if I’d be making a reservation for one or two.”
“One,” she said firmly.
Jim nodded. “Well, I have a lot to do before I go,” he said awkwardly.
She nodd
ed. “If there’s anything I can help with, let me know.”
With that, they both started walking in opposite directions. Him toward his storefront, and her toward One Woman’s Junk as she tried to ignore the new sense of loss tearing at her.
31
The sisters had almost gotten the shop back to normal when Piper showed up, knocking on the door.
Winnie unlocked it and allowed her inside.
“Did you hear?” Piper asked.
Amanda, who’d watched the exchange, felt her stomach drop. She was really tired of hearing bad news, and whatever this was, was definitely bad news.
“What?” Winnie asked.
“Suzanne didn’t show up for work today.”
“Who can blame her?” Bea asked. “She looked absolutely miserable yesterday.”
Piper nodded.
“So, she probably just quit,” Winnie suggested.
Piper shrugged. “That’s one of the theories.”
“What do you mean? There’re multiple theories?” Bea asked from behind the cash register.
“She didn’t call,” Piper said. “A couple of the staff members had nothing to do because she wasn’t there, so they came over to my place, and I overheard them talking.”
“And what do they think happened to her?” Winnie asked.
Amanda curled her hands into fists, not wanting to hear what the answer was.
“Well,” Piper said. “Like you said, she could have just got fed up and quit, or…”
“Something could have happened to her,” Bea said, filling in the blank.
“Oh, I hope not,” Winnie said. “I kind of liked her.”
“Yeah,” Bea agreed. “Besides, she was really good for business.”
“That’s a pretty mercenary thing to say,” Amanda interjected.
The other three women turned to look at her. She realized she probably said it with a bit too much venom. It wasn’t Bea she was upset with, it was the photograph, but she hadn’t been able to process that yet.
“Is Tom doing the investigation?” she asked.
Piper shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t even know if there’s an investigation being done. I mean, I guess they have to go and report her as being missing,” she said. “But honestly…” she trailed off.