Cloudy with a Chance of Ghosts (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 4) (6 page)

Meanwhile, as usual, it had set the parrot to screeching his head off. The less said about him, the better.

I looked around the yard, thinking I hadn’t seen much of Aunty Jane lately. Aunty Jane is a ghost attached to our family. She knew my grandmother and originally came to California with Bebe when she married Jimmy Miyaki whose family started Miyaki Farms, the flower growing fields we lived on. Now the two of them seemed to have lost that close connection and I seemed to be picking up where Bebe left off. I felt nothing but love for this elderly lady in her bright Hawaiian muumuu and her jaunty straw hat. But where could she be? I had a sudden chilling thought. What if she was so depressed by losing Bebe’s closeness that she’d left us altogether? That set up a thread of panic in my heart and I began to look for her much harder.
 

A sudden wispy movement drew me to the shed, and there she was, cowering behind the brooms and rakes.

“What is it, Aunty?” I cried, wishing I could reach out and give her a hug. My heart was touched by the wary look on her face.
 

She shook her head and tried to wave me away. “Nothing, nothing, I’m alright.”

“Is something scaring you?”

She shook her head again. “No, no. Just go. I’ll be alright.”

I looked around the yard but I couldn’t catch a glimpse of anything that could be threatening her. Unless it had been the catfight. Those cat voices could get scary.
 

“Do you want to come into the house?” I asked her.
 

She hesitated, then came out a little from behind the equipment. “Is Bebe there?” she asked.
 

“No, she’s got a meeting with the gang over at the bundling station. I think they’re going to be working for a few hours. They have a lot of planning to do.”

She looked at me, then nodded. “Okay,” she said. “I come with you. Okay?”

“Sure,” I said. “I’d love to have you.” I laughed as we walked toward the back door. “I only wish I could offer you a cup of coffee, but I guess that wouldn’t work out, would it?”

She didn’t seem to find anything amusing about that concept and she gave me a look that was meant to quell my bubbly morning attitude. It seemed something serious was afoot in her world. I wondered if I was going to get any hint of what that was.
 

She didn’t come in very often, but when she did, I knew she liked to watch a little television, so I took her into the living room and turned it on for her. There was a cooking show on and I thought that couldn’t really be interesting to her, but she seemed to like it. Little by little, she began to relax. I was tempted to quiz her on what was wrong, but I decided against it. She would tell me when she was ready. Maybe.
 

I wanted to talk to her about what had happened the night before at the hotel, how I’d seen what I guessed had to be ghosts in doorways along the corridor. I wanted to understand that, and to ask her why I was starting to see things like that more often.
 

You had to think that plenty of people had probably died in a hotel that size that had existed for over one hundred years. Still, it gave me the shivers to think of those sad, lonely faces I’d seen. They had shaken me deeply. I had to work on not letting that sort of thing blindside me again.
 

I got busy clearing the breakfast dishes and cleaning the kitchen, and then my phone rang. It was Jill.

“I talked to Jagger,” she said. “They’re letting him go home this afternoon.”

“Really?” I grimaced, afraid that was just letting him out on bail, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.
 

“But he wants me to go out to Carlton’s place and pick up his paintings from the show this morning. Can you go with me?”

“Sure.” I didn’t hesitate. What else were friends for? “I’ll get the truck and I’ll come by and pick you up in half an hour.”

Sami was peeking in the window, lifting one paw to tap the glass, which was what he did when he wanted to come in. I went to the back door and opened it, but he took his time, being careful, looking around corners.
 

“He’s not here,” I told him, knowing he was on the look out for Silver. “You can come on in, you silly cat.” I reached down and gave him a scritch on his cheeks.
 

He looked up at me and gave a mournful little meow that broke my heart. It was as though he was saying, “I used to love you, Mele. I thought you were a force for good around here. Now my faith in you has been broken.”

“Oh, Sami,” I said. “We still love you best. Honest.”

But I whispered it, just in case Silver was nearby and listening, and the look in Sami’s eyes as he lashed out with his tail let me know he’d noticed. You couldn’t win with this guy.
 

So I opened a new can and gave Sami a snack. He rubbed against my wrist as I was putting out the food. Love from a cat—so rare, it makes you feel all warm and cozy inside.
 

I went out into the living room. The television was still on, but Aunty Jane was gone. I looked out back, but I didn’t see her. I wasn’t exactly worried. She came and went all the time. But I’d been struck by her mood a little while earlier. Something about her anxiety seemed to have rubbed off on me. I gave up, though, and headed for Jill’s.

I was borrowing a truck from the Miyaki Farms barn—some of Jagger’s painting were pretty big. I’d already made arrangements with the new foreman and it was ready and waiting for me. Now if I could just manage to drive the big old thing, we’d be all right.
 

It turned out to be easier than I’d thought—automatic shift and everything. I cruised up to Jill’s apartment with no problem. She came out in a bright yellow dress with ruffles, making me smile.
 

“You look like a piece of sunshine,” I told her. Lately she was usually in her coffee-colored Mad for Mocha t-shirt, so it was nice to see her all girly again. And here I was in jeans and a silk camp shirt. Maybe I ought to rethink my wardrobe choices.
 

We didn’t talk about what Jagger had been going through until we were well on our way.
 

“I told him we were working on his case,” she said.

I laughed. “Oh, that must have given him a sense of peace and tranquility,” I said. “No worries, mate. The girls are on the case!”

“Sneer if you want to, but I have to tell you, he’d heard about you doing some pretty good sleuthing in the past, so he was impressed.”

“Really?” Okay, I admit it, I was pleased. I might even have blushed, just a little. “Good. Let’s hope others feel that way and give us information when we try to talk to them.”

“No problem there. You’re the girl with the magic touch.”
 

She laughed, but I wondered just how much she understood about the magic. She knew about my getting Bebe to go into a kind of trance that helped her talk about her accident when it looked like she’d caused the death of a fellow cut-flower grower. And now she’d seen what I did with the hotel clerk. But I was pretty sure she didn’t understand about my ghosts—or how the magic was something inherent in my family. What the heck—
I
didn’t understand it!
 

We drove up to the beautiful cliffside mansion and parked in the parking area below the entryway. The little lot was filled with vans and trailers. All the other artists from the show were there picking up their art work as well.
 

We walked up the stone steps and into the foyer and I could tell that Jill was feeling uneasy, wondering if anyone was going to attack her because of Jagger being a “person of interest” to the murder case. We smiled and waved at a number of people I remembered from the day before, then saw Debbie arguing with her father in a side room that looked like a den of some sort.
 

“You have to be careful,” Debbie was saying in a hushed voice, as though she didn’t want anyone else to overhear. She glanced out and saw us and closed the door to the den in our faces, not even a smile or a word of welcome.
 

Jill and I turned and looked at each other in astonishment. Very few people are so blatantly rude. But this was probably a trying time for them.
 

“I guess she didn’t find what she was looking for in Keri’s room,” I said as we soldiered on toward where the art works were being kept.
 

Jill was thinking hard. Suddenly, she gasped. “I think he did it.” She stopped short and grabbed my arm to stop me as well. “Don’t you think he did it?”

“Who?”

“Carlton of course. Who had a better motive? Keri was going to do a tell-all article on him. Maybe she was driving him crazy, always around, always eavesdropping and taking pictures. Maybe there are things in his background he couldn’t bear coming out.” Her eyes got very big. “Maybe he followed her down to the orchard and….”

“Hello ladies!”

We swung around to find Alda Gruening, the organizer lady, beaming at us.
 

“Have you come for one last look at these beautiful works of art?” she asked jovially. “Many of them are still available. Just let me know which ones interest you and I’ll…”

“Oh, thanks Alda,” Jill said quickly. “We’re not here to buy. We’re here to pack up Jagger’s pieces and get them out of your way.”

“Oh.” Her face fell, then took on a new look. “Is he still under arrest? Are they charging him?”
 

“He was never under arrest,” Jill said coolly. “And they aren’t charging him with anything. There was no real reason they even took him in for questioning.”

“No real reason?” Alda’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you kidding? He was running off with her purse. And everyone saw them arguing earlier.”

“They barely knew each other,” Jill protested.

“They were dating,” Alda said back.
 

Jill’s mouth fell open but she didn’t make a sound. It was obvious that statement had shocked the words right out of her.
 

Marilee joined us at that point. “I wouldn’t refer to it as ‘dating’ Alda,” she said, pushing back her thick blonde hair and smiling in a strained sort of way. “They went out for coffee after the set-up the other night. Jill’s right. They barely knew each other. No motive I can think of. Give it a rest.”

Alda shrugged, loath to give up on a theory. “What was in that purse that he was so anxious to keep hold of?” she pointed out.
 

I finally thought maybe I could contribute to the general nit picking.

“It looked to me like he was trying his best to get rid of the thing at the time,” I said. “He acted like it was a hot potato and he didn’t want last touchies.”

Everyone frowned at me and I shrugged. People always like fairy tales better than the truth. Jill went off with the two women to look into packing material for Jagger’s pieces, but I lingered behind. I’d seen the little Siamese kitty again and I was wondering where she’d gone.
 

Then I saw her, heading up the staircase I’d followed Marilee up the day before. She turned to look at me, meowed, put her ears back and ran up to the top of the stairs. If that wasn’t a sign that she thought I ought to follow her, I didn’t know what one was. I did as she commanded.
 

She ran right into the same room Marilee had been tearing up over the day before. I followed the cat in, a little short of breath but willing, and she jumped up on the bed and meowed at me urgently, as though I was supposed to know exactly what she was saying.
 

I looked around. The room was beautifully decorated and nicely finished off, with wainscoting and enameled molding. I walked over to where the cat was seemingly pointing, and I gasped. It was almost as though I’d received an electric shock. There was a sense of energy, then a buzzing, and it got louder as I got closer to the wall. There was something there, something behind the paneling, I was sure of it. But before I could begin knocking and poking around, Debbie showed up and ruined everything.
 

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, looking fierce.
 

“Here?” I said, as though I didn’t have a clue where I was. “Oh, here. Uh…the cat wanted me to follow her and I…”

“What cat?”

What cat indeed? I looked around but couldn’t find her. “That little Siamese,” I said, feeling bewildered and a bit foolish. “You know the one.”

“We don’t have a cat.”

I stared at her. “But I saw one. I saw her yesterday, too. She came right up the stairs and….”

“No cat,” Debbie said, eyes flashing. “I don’t want to be rude, but you really are intruding on a private area of the house.”

“Of course.” I looked around but there was nothing that was going to save me. “I’m sorry. I came up here yesterday because Marilee was here. She said this was her bedroom when she worked for you and….”

Debbie was shaking her head. “I think you must have misunderstood. This isn’t Marilee’s bedroom and never was.”

“Oh.”

“There are three bedrooms on this landing. Mine, the one that Marilee used while she lived here, and then this one, which is the one we used as a guest room. Hardly anyone ever stayed here.”

“Oh.”

That threw me for a loop. Why had Marilee lied to me? And where was that darn cat?

Chapter Five

Debbie led me back out of the area very sternly and I felt properly abashed. I really had never meant to intrude on private areas and I was truly sorry. Still…

I caught up with Jill and went with her to start the packing process. It looked like it was going to be a huge job of taping together large pieces of cardboard to form boxes individually around each framed canvas.
 

“Did it ever occur to you?” I grumbled to Jill, “That Jagger did this on purpose?”

“Did what?”

“Got himself arrested so he could get someone else to come pack away his paintings for him?”

“He didn’t get arrested,” she insisted doggedly, not even cracking a smile at my lame attempt at humor.
 

“Hmm.”

Celinda Moore was there, packing away her huge works of body paint splashes of color and complaining about the mess George Marker had left behind when he’d collected his trash can pictures.