Sweetness and Light (A Sweet Cove Mystery Book 5) (16 page)

Courtney scowled.  “Maybe I’ll go up there and make her answer our questions.”

Ellie said, “You can’t do that.  She’s a paying guest in this B and B.  We cannot harass the clientele.  Let it go.  Her business isn’t our concern.”

Jenna’s brows furrowed.  “It might be our concern, if she was involved in killing Nelson Rider and bashing Mr. Finch over the head at the reception.”

Ellie twisted the linen napkin in her hands and glanced towards the stairs.        “Let the police question her.”  Ellie gripped her tea cup.  “Tell Chief Martin.  Let him handle it.  I’m afraid of her.”

Courtney kept her voice soft.  “Chief Martin doesn’t have powers.  If we talk to her, we can use our skills to sense if Kim is telling us the truth or not.”

Ellie stood and started to gather the used plates.  “Well, your skills don’t seem to be of much use lately.”

Courtney’s eyes widened.  “Well….”  She didn’t know how to defend herself because what Ellie said was true.  “You should talk,” she fired back lamely.  The sisters had been experiencing interference in picking up on things.  Either they didn’t feel anything at all or the clues were being jumbled.  Courtney’s shoulders drooped.

Angie’s phone buzzed and she read the message.  She let out a sigh.  “I’m going to the resort to meet Josh for dinner.  I need a break from all of this.”

***

Angie sat on a stool at the resort’s bar waiting for Josh to finish up with a last minute problem before meeting for dinner.  The bartender recognized her and struck up a conversation.

“It’s fairly quiet here tonight.”  Bob wiped the granite counter top with a white cloth.  “The past days have been hectic with police and detectives and media milling around.”

“It was certainly an unexpected event.”  Angie shook her head.  “People think of the resort as a place for relaxation and fun.  A murder is the last thing anyone imagines would happen here.”

The bartender poured seltzer into a glass, garnished it with a slice of orange, and placed it in front of Angie.

She took a sip.  “Did you happen to meet the victim?  Did he ever come in here for a drink?”

Bob leaned an elbow on the counter.  “He came in with that Senator, the night he was murdered.  They had a drink, and then they parted.  Later on, the Rider guy came back.  Sat here at the bar, we chatted.  He said he was restless and thought another drink might help.”

“Did he seem nervous about anything, worried?”

Bob kept his voice low.  “He seemed addled, you know, like the way a nicotine addict acts when he needs a smoke.  Twitchy, a little tremor in the fingers.  The Rider guy had a bit of a glassy-eyed look.  You know what I mean?  He needed something.  Booze, cigarettes, something stronger, maybe.”

“Did you have a chance to talk?”

“It was busy that night, but when Rider came in, there was a lull.  We shot the breeze for a while, nothing earth-shattering.” Bob moved down the bar to wait on a fashionable, young couple who came in and sat down.  He made two Martinis for the man and woman and then returned to talk to Angie.

“You know, Angie, the Rider guy said some things I thought were kinda’ odd.”

Angie cocked her head, questioning.

“Yeah.”  Bob’s forehead creased trying to remember the exact words.  “I mentioned something about his upcoming wedding.  How did he put it?  Rider said something like, ‘poor Beth, I don’t want to hurt her.  She’s put up with enough.  She doesn’t want to marry me either, so no wedding.’”

“Really?”  Angie had a tight expression on her face.  “He said that?”

“Yup.”  Bob nodded.  He held a beer glass in his hand and dried it with a towel.  “Then he said something like, no senate either.  Whatever that meant.  I figured he was high or drunk and didn’t know what he was muttering.”

Angie looked across the bar, deep in thought.

“What do you think he was talking about?”  Bob asked.

“Did you ask him why he said that?”

“I didn’t get the chance.  He got a call and left in a hurry.  Left me a big tip, though.”  Bob started away to wait on a group of people who gathered at the far end of the bar.

When he was two steps from Angie, she asked, “Did you tell the police what Nelson said about not wanting to get married?”

Bob looked back and shook his head.  “I just, this minute, remembered it.”

Angie was so distracted by the thoughts running through her head that she jumped when Josh approached and touched her shoulder.  She whirled around and saw him standing next to her, with a warm smile on his face, his eyes kind and caring.  All worry dropped away and Angie’s muscles relaxed as Josh bent and kissed her lips.  They walked arm and arm to the resort dining room and sat at a table near the windows where they talked and mooned over one another.  Candlelight flickered over their faces.

By the end of the evening, Angie felt as light as a feather.  She hummed as she unlocked the back door of the Victorian and sashayed into the kitchen, with thoughts of Josh dancing in her head.

Courtney stood in the middle of the kitchen holding a spoon in the air in front of Ellie who was seated on a stool at the center island.  “Go ahead, try again.”

“I just can’t do it.”  Ellie hung her head and her long, blonde hair fell over her face.

Angie’s eyes went wide.

Courtney heard Angie come in, but didn’t turn to look at her sister.  Her arm was outstretched dangling the teaspoon from her fingers.  “What’s cookin’, Sis?”

“I’m about to ask you two that same question.  What’s going on?”

“Go ahead.”  Courtney urged Ellie to try again.

Ellie leaned against the counter with her chin in her hand.  “We’ve been practicing for a few days, but I can’t do anything.”

“Like what?  Eat from a spoon that’s located twenty feet from you?”  Angie smiled and sat down next to her sister.

Courtney lowered her arm.  “She just has to believe in herself.”

Lifting her head, Ellie groaned.  “How did I ever make that bullet soft?  How did I bend that gun barrel into a pretzel?  Did that even happen?” In a previous investigation, Ellie was instrumental in saving her sisters and Mr. Finch by using her mind to make a bullet as soft as a marshmallow and twist the barrel of a gun like it was rubber.  She had never done anything like that before or since.

“I’m surprised that you’re talking about what you did, let alone attempting to practice your skills.”  Angie was amazed that Ellie was practicing because the whole thing had always frightened her.

Ellie’s blue eyes were serious.  “With all the trouble that’s happened over these past months, I thought what I could do might come in handy again someday and that I should be ready.  Not that I want to do anything.  It scares me.  It’s just that I worry about all of you.”

Angie rubbed her sister’s arm.  “I think Courtney might be right.  Maybe your fear overrides your ability.  Like the stupid static is overriding our abilities to understand clues and sense what people have done.”

Euclid and Circe trilled from their perch on top of the refrigerator.

Angie looked up at them and she experienced a moment of clarity.  “Huh.”  A slow smile spread over her face.  “I wonder.  The bad stuff that’s been happening, has it weighed us down?  Has it made us deaf to the things that float on the air that we can usually pick up on?”

Courtney’s eyes widened with excitement.  “You haven’t baked anything for us for ages.  Bake something.  Think positive thoughts while you mix.  Clear out the heaviness around us from all the bad things we’ve had to deal with lately.  And then, let’s take what you bake down to Robin’s Point.  We’ll eat it there where Nana’s cottage used to be.”

“A picnic in the dark.”  Ellie smiled as she pulled out a mixing bowl, flour, and measuring cups and piled the things on the island.  She halted.  “What do you want to make?”

“I haven’t agreed to bake yet.”  Angie laughed as she opened the pantry closet, lifted her apron from a hook, and slipped it over her head.

Mr. Finch came into the kitchen from the back of the house and saw Angie in her apron.  “Well, it looks to me like you’ve made up your mind to bake something.  What treat are you making, Miss Angie?”

Angie pulled her hair into a high ponytail and washed her hands in the sink.  She turned around and folded her arms over her chest, thinking.  Angie had the ability to transfer intentions into what she baked which would then influence the thoughts or feelings of whoever ate the treats.  She tapped her fingers on her upper arm.  “It needs to be something sweet, but light.”  She looked at the people in the kitchen.  “How about a blueberry-lemon tart?”

“That’s perfect.”  Jenna came in from the hallway with Tom following her.  “It’s one of my favorites.”

“What’s the occasion?”  Tom carried two empty mugs.  He and Jenna had been sipping coffee while rocking on the front porch watching the tourists streaming by on the sidewalk in front of the Victorian.

Courtney explained while Angie went about measuring and mixing.  Tom, Jenna, Mr. Finch, Courtney, and Ellie each took a stool at the counter to watch Angie bake.  The two cats each kept an eye on the proceedings from high on the fridge.

Angie lifted her eyes from the bowl in front of her to see the audience gathered along the opposite side of the center island and she let out a chuckle.  “Maybe I should sell tickets to my performance.”
 

Chapter 22

It was midnight when Tom, the four sisters, and the two cats sat down on the blanket that Courtney had spread on the lawn at Robin’s Point at the edge of the bluff looking out over the sea.  Stars twinkled overhead and a silver path of moonlight streamed over the surface of the ocean and seemed to end at the foot of the cliff.

Tom unfolded a lawn chair for Mr. Finch, and Ellie placed the picnic basket on the edge of the blanket.  The girls removed the blueberry-lemon tart, dessert plates, forks, napkins, a silver cake knife and server, and a bottle of champagne that they remembered they had in the refrigerator.  They didn’t want to bother packing champagne flutes so they took along small plastic cups.  Not very elegant, Ellie told the group, but they’d do.

Jenna brought two metal lanterns with a candle in each one.  She lit them and placed the lanterns in the middle of the blanket.  Angie cut the tart and passed around the plates while Tom popped the champagne and filled the cups.

“We should do this more often.”  Courtney handed Mr. Finch a cup.

When everyone was served and settled, Ellie suggested a toast.  She looked over at Mr. Finch.  “Will you do the honors?  We need something positive and upbeat.”

“That is quite easy to do.”  Finch cleared his throat.  “As I’ve said many times, I feel like the best part of my life started when I came to Sweet Cove and met all of you.”

Courtney interrupted.  “Don’t forget about Betty Hayes.”  She winked at Finch.

Finch nodded, and though no one could see, just thinking of Betty caused a blush to tinge the older man’s cheeks. He continued with the toast. “And despite our run-ins with the criminal element, I have witnessed honor, friendship, love, and goodness in the people, and felines, around me.  I am truly blessed.”  He raised his plastic glass.  “To all of you, my friends.”

“Here, here.”  Tom tapped his cup against Mr. Finch’s.

“Well done, Mr. Finch.”  Ellie’s eyes were moist.

Everyone dug into the tart.  Even the cats had plates in front of them and they eagerly gobbled the tasty treat.

“I feel better already.  Lighter, happier.”  Courtney sighed and lay back on the grass.  “I feel the thrumming.  It’s good.”  Five minutes later, she sprang up.  “Let’s test to see if our love-fest here with the dessert cleared away the static and negative vibrations from our past investigations that were interfering with our powers.”  Courtney reached for the spoon she had used, licked it clean, and then held it out to her side.  She looked across the darkness at Ellie.  “Do something to the spoon.”

Ellie frowned and her shoulders drooped.  “I’m afraid.”

Mr. Finch requested that the spoon be passed to him.  “There’s nothing to fear, Miss Ellie.  You use your powers for good.”  He rested the spoon on his knee.  “Close your eyes.  Take slow, deep breaths.  Imagine the spoon is as light as a feather floating in the ether.”

Ellie closed her eyes.  Even in the feeble light of the lanterns, the group could see her tense muscles go loose with each deep breath.  Sitting cross-legged on the blanket, her upper body started to rock ever so slightly.  Angie could feel the thrumming in her veins, pulsing in time to Ellie’s swaying motion.  She made eye contact with Courtney who gave her sister a slight nod and a smile.  Two full minutes passed.  Nothing happened.

Angie was about to speak, when the spoon on Mr. Finch’s knee began to tremble.  Everyone’s eyes grew as wide as saucers.  Euclid and Circe stared at the utensil.

Slowly, the quivering spoon lifted an inch above Finch’s knee and hovered for a moment in the air, until it sputtered and fell to the blanket.

Courtney whooped.  Angie’s mouth dropped open.  The cats trilled and Euclid jumped onto Ellie’s lap and licked her cheek as spontaneous applause broke out.

Ellie blinked her eyes.  A giggle escaped from her throat.  “I did it?”

Everyone hugged her and offered congratulations.

“Just keep practicing.”  Courtney gave Ellie a bear hug.  “Just think how you’ll freak out Jack Ford with that trick someday.”

Ellie paled at the thought of revealing the Roseland secrets to her boyfriend.  She knew that, one of these days, a long conversation was in store.  She hoped that Jack would be able to accept the news of her family’s skills as well as Tom had when Jenna told him.  She pushed the worry from her mind as a second round of champagne was passed around the group in celebration.

***

It was after two in the morning when the six humans and two cats stumbled out of Ellie’s van in the driveway of the Victorian.  Tom kissed Jenna goodnight and got into his truck to drive home.  Mr. Finch had been dropped at his house and Courtney walked him to his front door.  Ellie, Jenna, and Courtney dragged themselves up to their rooms and two of the sisters would not be pleased when the early morning alarms sounded.