Skeletons in the Attic (A Marketville Mystery Book 1) (9 page)

Sun, Moon & Stars was tucked at the back of Nature’s Way Whole & Organic Foods, an expansive store that capitalized on all things organic, from meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and vegetables, to vitamins, protein powders, natural skin care, environmentally sensitive cleaning products and herbal remedies. There was also a dizzying array of baked goods—many made with grains I’d never even heard of—and gluten-free products, as well as a massive section devoted entirely to the vegan lifestyle. If you couldn’t find what you were looking for at the Nature’s Way, you were probably too picky to live.

On the opposite end of the sprawling spectrum you had Sun, Moon & Stars, a miniscule retail space packed with a treasure trove of trinkets and textiles, most made by local artisans. Here the savvy shopper could find natural stone jewelry, healing crystals, books on the occult, and flowing cotton garments with tie-dyed patterns, shiny beads and silk embroidery. A hand-painted ceramic incense holder, in the shape of a lotus flower, held a stick of lavender-scented incense.

A vibrant young woman wearing a flurry of multi-colored scarves and what looked to be a one-piece black leotard greeted me. Judging by her voice, soft and breathy, this was the lady I’d spoken with on the phone. I found myself wanting to whisper, as if I were in a library or a place of prayer.

“Callie Barnstable. I’m here to see Randi.”

“Welcome, Callie. You’re right on time.” She pointed to a narrow wooden staircase on the right hand side of the room. “All of our practitioners are located on the upper level. I’ll buzz Randi to let her know you’re on your way.”

The upper level featured a hallway with seven doors, three on each side, with a public restroom at the end. A small waiting area offered a tweedy orange couch with a matching chair, vintage Salvation Army if I had to guess. The main wall was blanketed with a patchwork quilt, the patches comprised of embroidered and embellished fabric scraps in a variety of shapes, colors, and textures. It looked as if it had been a project that many hands had worked on, over many, many hours. The end result was compelling.

I was just about to take a seat when a door opened and a woman drifted out. She had long, dark hair that fell in loose waves down to her waist, cinnamon skin, eyes the color of lapis lazuli and a dancer’s body, long and lithe in black leggings and an oversized sweater in shades of copper. Her nails were painted gloss black, and every finger, including her thumbs, sported a silver ring, some filigreed, some plain, some with stones, some without.

There are few people in this world who radiate kindness, beauty, and charisma. Randi was the personification of all three. She could have bottled and sold her essence like some sort of magic potion. I found myself staring at her, mesmerized. She smiled, revealing a row of perfectly straight, pearl white teeth.

“Welcome to Sun, Moon & Stars, Callie. My name is Randi. I’ve been expecting you.” Her voice had a soft, musical lilt to it, and the faintest hint of a British accent.

Maybe it was her intonation, or maybe it was just my imagination, but I could have sworn she meant she had been expecting me
before
I’d made an appointment. But that was just crazy thinking, wasn’t it? I followed her down the hall and into her room.

The space had been painted floor to ceiling in an inky midnight blue. A myriad of tiny pot lights twinkled overhead, giving the impression of being outdoors on a cloudless summer night. A gigantic candle in a tall wrought iron stand glowed softly in one corner, the scent a cross between cinnamon and vanilla. The only furnishings were a black lacquer rectangular desk, a deck of tarot cards laid out in the middle, and two chairs upholstered in a dark navy needlepoint fabric. There was a sun embroidered on the back of one, and the four phases of the moon on the back of the other. Randi sat cross-legged on the chair with the sun, her feet tucked underneath her, and gestured to the other. Several colorful bangles jangled on her right arm.

“Please be seated.”

I did as I was told, forcing myself to ignore the overwhelming urge to bolt back down the staircase, back to the safety of Snapdragon Circle. What was I, a complete non-believer of all things even remotely occult, doing here? I didn’t even read my horoscope in the daily newspaper.

Randi seemed to sense my discomfort, because she leaned forward and pushed the tarot cards over to one side. “Elaine says you wanted a tarot reading, but I get the sense that you are not here for that. So tell me, Callie, what it is I can do for you?”

I assumed Elaine was the receptionist/store clerk, and if so, when I made the appointment, I was sure I said I planned to bring an object. So Randi’s ‘sense’ could be nothing more than putting two plus two together. I knew from my limited research that ten tarot cards probably represented the Celtic Cross. I only had five cards, which either meant half of a Celtic Cross, if there even was such a thing, or something entirely different. That’s what I was here to find out. But before I laid out my five tarot cards, I needed to know that I could trust her, or at the very least, test her knowledge.

“Before we begin I’d like to know a bit more about tarot. Gain a bit of an understanding so I know what to expect.”

“Fair enough.” Randi took the deck out of the case and began to shuffle while she talked. “There are several variations of tarot cards. I personally use the Rider-Waite tarot deck, which is the most well-known. Regardless of the illustration, a true tarot deck will contain seventy-eight cards in two parts: twenty-two cards in the Major Arcana and fifty-six cards in the four suits of Minor Arcana.
Arcana
means secrets in Latin. The names of the suits vary, but the most common, and the ones used in Rider-Waite, are Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Are you with me so far?”

I nodded.

“Okay. Now the Major Arcana are also called trumps, from the Latin
trionfi
or triumph. Each of those are named and numbered with Roman Numerals, starting with 0, The Fool, through to XXI, The World.” Randi flipped a couple of cards face up onto the desk—X Wheel of Fortune and XVII The Star. “You can see there’s a lot of detail symbolism in the illustrations, too much to go into at the moment, but something you’ll want to pay attention to if you decide to get more interested in tarot.”

I nodded again. The reverence in her tone, the way she almost caressed the cards, drew me in. It as if she was reading me a beloved bedtime story, and the imagery on the cards only solidified the feeling.

Randi flipped four more cards, face up, onto the desk, one of each suit, Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. “Each suit consists of the same structure, similar to the decks of cards you’d play euchre or bridge with: ace through ten, plus four court cards, a page, knight, queen, and king.”

“So the Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles are a bit like Spades, Diamonds, Hearts, and Clubs.”

“More than you could imagine. In fact, our modern deck of fifty-two cards is derived from tarot cards, and the four suits correspond directly with the suits in a tarot deck. Wands are Clubs, Cups are Hearts, Swords are Spades, and Pentacles are Diamonds. We can take it one step further by associating the suits with hair and eye color.”

“In what way?”

“In tarot, Cups represent people with light brown hair and a fair complexion, Wands those having blonde or red hair and blue eyes, Swords with dark brown hair and hazel, gray, or blue eyes, and Pentacles very dark people.”

“So in the case of tarot, I would be represented by Swords, because I have dark brown hair and hazel eyes. My mother, who was blonde, would be represented by Wands.”

“That’s right. But there’s more. Both decks also represent the elements, in the same way astrology does. Thus, Wands and Clubs symbolize Fire. Cups and Hearts, Water. Swords and Spades, Air. Pentacles and Diamonds, Earth. Someone born under the sign of Taurus, for example, would be represented by Pentacles in tarot, and Diamonds in our modern deck.”

Did she guess I was a Taurus, or did she just pull that out of thin air? This whole visit was starting to wig me out.

“It sounds a lot more complicated than I expected.”

“Tarot takes years to learn, and it’s certainly never mastered. There are no absolutes. However, I’ve been studying tarot for most of my adult life, so I like to think I have developed insight into the cards.” She smiled. “Now, why don’t we turn our attention to the cards that you brought with you?”

I stared at her in stunned silence. How did she know I’d brought cards with me?

Randi laughed, a tinkling sound that reminded me of wind chimes. “No, I’m not a mind reader, if that’s what you’re wondering. Elaine mentioned you wanted to bring something personal, and if it was an object, or a piece of jewelry, I don’t think you’d ask about, or have much interest in, tarot. That, plus, you’ve been fidgeting with something in your handbag all this time.”

Actually I’d been toying with the idea of pulling out my cocoa butter lip balm, but I was trying to break myself of the habit, or at least get it under control.

“I did bring some tarot cards.”

“I gather they are special in some way.”

It was decision-making time. Did I tell her about finding them, or not? I opted for the transparency. If I wanted Randi’s help, I needed to tell her everything I knew.

“I believe they were left by my mother. I found them in a house I recently inherited on Snapdragon Circle.”

“Sixteen Snapdragon Circle?” Randi asked.

“Yes.”

“I lived there for a short time.”

“I know. Or at least I suspected that you were Jessica Tamarand.” I saw by her arched eyebrows that I had managed to pique her curiosity.

“Are you police, or some sort of private detective?”

Odd that she would leap to that conclusion. I wondered why.

“No, it’s just that I was going through my father’s old papers, which included past rental agreements. He died recently and left me the house.”

“I’m sorry to hear about your father. I only met him once, but he struck me as very nice man, kind-hearted and intelligent, but definitely conflicted over something. Likely the loss of your mother.”

“You know about my mother’s disappearance?”

Randi nodded. “My family moved here from India in 1986, when I was twelve years old. There was a lot of local coverage and at the time, my parents were horrified that something of that nature could happen here. They worried they had made a mistake, coming to Marketville.”

I could only assume that Randi had heard all of the rumors, including the one where my mother might have been murdered. It was time to cut to the chase.

“As I was saying, I was going through my father’s old papers and I came upon an old lease signed by a Jessica Tamarand. I noticed the lease had been terminated early, and that, along with some neighborly gossip about a tarot card reader who once lived there and worked here, led me to the conclusion you might have transformed yourself into Randi.”

“Let me guess,” Randi said, smiling. “The neighbor was none other than Ella Cole.”

I returned the smile and stifled a giggle.

“I can only imagine what Ella said about me. I’m afraid I bruised both her feelings and her ego rather badly when I didn’t invite her in the first few times she came over. I gather all the other tenants had done so. I’m afraid I don’t much care for busybodies, and besides, the house had a bad aura, which only seemed to intensify when she was on the property. It was only after I moved into the house that I realized it was the same house where the woman had…disappeared.”

I decided to let the commentary about Ella drop, but the bad aura bit had me a bit concerned. Randi picked up on it.

“Oh, not for you, Callie. The spirits in the house are there to protect you, not harm you. You are meant to be there, and you and only you were meant to find the envelope containing these cards, this message. Otherwise, why had nobody found them before?”

“Probably because they had been hidden under the carpet for many years. Since 1986, in fact, or possibly earlier.”

“That only validates what I believe to be true,” Randi said. “The carpet could have been replaced at any time. In reality, it probably should have been long ago, and yet it was not. Furthermore, it was one of the first things you did upon moving in. These are not coincidences. These are powerful forces at work.”

I wasn’t sure I bought into the theory, but it didn’t seem polite or prudent to tell her so. “Would you like to see the cards?”

“I would.”

“There are only five of them.” I pulled out the paper with my mother’s backward slant handwriting and handed it over, along with the five cards.

“Possibly left as a five card spread,” Randi said. “It’s helpful that your mother made this list. Reading them out of order would bring an entirely different interpretation.”

“Can you tell me what they mean?”

“I will tell you what I read in the cards, but whether this is the message your mother hoped to convey, that I cannot promise. Fair enough?”

I’d hoped for something a little more conclusive, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. “Fair enough. Would you mind if I wrote down everything as you go? I brought a notebook.”

Randi paused to consider. Clearly, this wasn’t a typical request. After what seemed like an eternity, she nodded. “Normally I’d say no, simply because each time you come for a reading, the cards will change, just as our lives change and we continue to evolve. This situation is different, so I’ll allow it. There will be a lot for you to remember, and besides memory can be selective.”