The Realm of the Shadows (Tropical Breeze Cozy Mystery Book 2) (16 page)

That night when I finally got to bed, I was especially lonely. When your household boils down to a ghost-hunter and a grumpy old housekeeper, you are truly alone. It would’ve been so good to talk to Michael, to tell him all about the séance,
really
tell him about it – the séance that
I
had been to, not the one-act play the others had been having.

I was still too stubborn to call him, but something more subtle occurred to me. Michael usually played golf on Wednesdays, but he had quit golfing. If I just happened to go into Tropical Breeze, and if I should still be there, say, around lunch time, I might just possibly run into him, purely by accident, if he went to Don’s Diner for lunch, and there was an excellent chance he would. He hated eating at home alone.

So . . . .

I felt a sudden burning need to go downtown on Wednesday morning, and once I had my diabolical plan in order, I couldn’t wait to go. It was still too early for lunch, but I could kill some time – I mean, I needed to check on things – at Girlfriend’s.

I parked in the alley behind the resale shop, as usual, and went inside. Nobody was in the back room, so I went on into the showroom.

My faithful Florence was arranging a new window display, and when she saw me coming, she said, “Oh, Taylor, thank you, thank you, thank you. I thank you, Wicked thanks you, my houseplants thank you –“

“Your houseplants?” I said, laughing.

“She overwaters them.”

“Hello, Wicked,” I said over my shoulder. The shop cat is a practical joker, and likes to sneak up behind me and then fly past my head, scaring the life out of me. I couldn’t see him preparing to launch, but I knew he was there.

With a disappointed growl, he gave a token leap anyway, and I smiled at him to let him know he hadn’t scared me. I reached out to scratch behind his ears, but since I’d spoiled his fun, he backed up, glared, then leapt onto the top of the entertainment center we used as a display cabinet and began washing himself.

“Be that way,” I told him.

“What on earth would make you bring Myrtle back to Cadbury house?” Florence asked, adding quickly, “Not that I think it’s a bad idea.”

I didn’t answer because I’d seen something that shocked me speechless. I pointed upward to the picture rail.

“When did
she
come back?”

“Oh, Basket? She was at the back door this morning. You bad girl,” she told the cat, “making us all wonder where you’d went. And after Taylor took you in and gave you a home.”

At the back door. This morning. And last night we were fooling around with séances. Barnabas had told me my experience with the goddess Bastet had changed me forever, and now I believed him.

When Vesta had been murdered, she had called upon the goddess Bastet to avenge her. That’s when the black cat had first appeared to me and begun to guide me toward achieving justice. Then, without explanation, the cat disappeared. Now she was back, and I didn’t understand why.

“I don’t need you now,” I told the cat.

“Oh, hush,” Florence said, shocked. “You’ll hurt the poor thing’s feelings. She’s glad you’re back,” she told “Basket.”

Basket didn’t care. Or rather, Bastet didn’t care. Florence had given her a name eerily close to the goddess’s name, and I had always wondered about that.

“She knows what I mean,” I said, still gazing into the cat’s intensely green eyes.

Immediately, it began again. That haze of green permeating the room, the sounds and scents of another time and place crowding around me, just beyond the edge of my senses.

“I know what happened now,” I said desperately, wanting to let the goddess know I didn’t need her anymore.

“What on earth?” Florence was saying, but I didn’t pay any attention to her.

“I can do this without you. Really I can.”

The regal black cat rose, paced the picture rail back and forth one time, then settled in her place again and blinked her eyes slowly, one time.

“Oh, you don’t think I can?” I said.

Florence was really worried now, offering me tea, but I ignored her.

With an infinitesimal lift of her chin, the cat stared at me.

“Well, I’m not taking you home,” I told her. “I’m not living in my house now. Somebody else is, and there’s a
dog
.”

The cat glared in outrage. Then the green eyes narrowed knowingly.

“Okay, okay, so I’m living at Cadbury House now, and I don’t have any pets there. You can’t come!”

She leapt down, walked over to me, levitated to a table beside me and continued to stare.

“Oh, all right,” I said. “But just for this one night. Myrtle likes cats, right Florence?”

“Only Wicked, and you can’t have him!” she said, convinced now that I was coming unglued.

“Well, if Myrtle
is
allergic to Bastet, so much the better.”

Florence put her hand on my arm and turned me away from the cat. “Her name is Basket, not Bastet. Now you come right along to the back room. I’m going to give you an aspirin and some tea. No, I won’t take no for an answer!”

So by the time I got to the diner, I’d had my tea. And an aspirin.

As I walked in the door I looked around casually, then drooped. Michael wasn’t there.

“Yes, its’ only the diner,” the floor waitress said. “Were you expecting the Kasbah?”

“Oh, hi DeAnn,” I said. “No, it’s just that it’s always so cold in here and I forgot to bring a jacket. I got a little chill.”

“Huh. Most folks tense up when they get a chill, they don’t droop, but whatever you say. Listen, honey, why don’t you just call him?”

“Oh, hi Walter,” I said, ignoring her pointedly.

Walter “Wizard” Sheets was at the counter having a malt, and he saluted me with it. “Hey, Taylor.”

“Mind if I join you?” I hiked myself up onto the stool next to his and gave a nod to J.B., the counter waitress, which was all I needed to do to get my lunch. She’d bring me an unsweetened iced tea and grilled cheese sandwich with fries automatically: it was all I ever had there.

I turned back to Walter. “So you and your crew are still hanging around, eh? Actually, I saw Teddy yesterday.” I leaned in. “We had a séance.”

“I know. With the psychic from Spud.”

“You know her too?”

“We know all the local whiz-bangs.”

I reared back. “Wizard! Blasphemy!”

“Not any more. Want to know why Teddy’s hanging around Cadbury House? Because he’s sniffing around for his next act. The show’s been cancelled.”

I was stunned. “He never said a word about it.”

“It’s called denial. Teddy’s the only one who didn’t see it coming. I mean, come on, one of the ‘talent’ gets killed because of some crazy stunt and he thinks the network won’t notice?” He shook his head. “Only Teddy could be so dense. And now he thinks that if he can come up with a blockbuster idea fast enough, he’ll get the show back and everything will go on as it did before. I don’t think he can imagine life without it.”

“What was he doing before?”

“Like your friend Edson does – professional paranormal investigator – not that you can really make a living at that unless you have a reality show or write a lot of books. Teddy can’t write, and there are only so many people who want to get rid of a ghost, have the money, and are silly enough to think you actually know what you’re doing. But don’t worry about him. His daddy’s rich, which is why Teddy gets to fool around with the paranormal instead of getting a real job.”

“Oh, man,” I said, feeling sorry for Teddy in spite of myself. My order had come, and I picked up a hot, salty French fry and crunched it. “So that’s it? You guys are kaput?”

“We’re finishing up the shoot at the St. Augustine lighthouse tonight. We’ve got a contract to fulfill for a complete season, and this will finish it. They’ve refused the footage from Cadbury House, for reasons obvious to everybody but Teddy. And then . . . like you said, kaput.”

“I’m sorry. What are you going to do now?”

He shrugged his massive shoulders. “I’m a mechanic. I’ll find something. But it was fun while it lasted, and it gave me time to perfect a little invention of mine. Look.” Enthused, he stood up, lifted a satchel from the floor, set it on his stool and opened it. Then he took out a strange-looking object that looked like an old-fashioned folding wooden ruler. At one end was a pair of pincers and at the other, a small handgrip.

“A folding grabber,” he said proudly.

“A folding what?”

“Grabber. You know. That thing about a yard long with a trigger mechanism that makes the pincers at the other end grab things that are out of reach. I guess you don’t have any old folks in your life, do you?”

“No. Not
that
old, anyway.”

“Well,” he said, “one day you’re going to need one of these yourself, and you’ll have one you can easily keep on the tray of your walker or stash in the side pocket of your wheelchair, so it’s handy whenever you want it. I’m going to call it the ‘Emily,’ in memory of my mom. She sure could’ve used one of these. Her grabber was always falling off the tray of her walker.”

“Well, that’s terrific, Walter. I’m impressed! I hope you make a fortune with it.”

He ducked his head, looking like a shy bear. “Aw, I didn’t do it for the money. I did it because I think seniors need it. I’m even working on an extension model, which will reach out seven, nine or eleven feet, though that one needs some work. I passed out some prototypes to my friends. The feedback is that it’s a little glitchy, and I have to give some thought to whether or not there’s even a market for it. With these thin sectors, by the time you get it fully extended, it’s starting to knock things over instead of grab them.” He chuckled, gazing down at his invention affectionately. “My mom could only reach the bottom shelves of her kitchen cabinets, so all the others were empty. If I can perfect it, I might come up with something that will let you bring down a jar of peanut butter from the top shelf without dropping it on your own head.”

“And what about the . . . I think Seth told me you were working on a ghost trapper?”

He looked at me sideways. “I would’ve worked on a paranormal eggbeater, if they’d told me to. They gave me a workshop and a budget, and didn’t make me sign anything saying my own inventions belonged to the production company. I got an old washing machine out of some dump, took the control panel off, rigged up some wires and dials, and presto! – a containment device. I even put blinking lights on it, for when they gave me a ghost to, ahem,
contain
, if ever.”

We laughed together, then he reached over the satchel, picked up his malt and finished it, then got his wallet out to pay the bill.

I put a hand on his arm and held it. “Walter, your mother would’ve been proud.”

He looked down at his feet, smiling and blushing. “Thanks. Well, good luck with the shelter. Hopefully Teddy will give up and go ghost-hunting somewhere else soon.”

“From your lips to God’s ears,” I said.

Going back to Cadbury House would’ve meant stopping at Girlfriend’s and picking up the black cat. I tried to think of something,
anything
else I could do in town, just to delay it. Strangely, it never occurred to me to simply forget about the cat and go home. As before, she had a hold on me, and I resisted. I decided to go knock on Bernie Horning’s door and see what she was up to. Her house was within walking distance from Locust Street, and she would’ve been getting this week’s
Beach Buzz
ready by now.

She opened the door, saw that it was me, gave me a conspiratorial stare and glanced left and right, as if spies were hiding in the bushes.

We were alone and she knew it, and finally she leaned forward and said, “Lance Skinner has planted a mole on us.”

I digested this silently for a moment. Then I said, “I knew it. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Get yourself in here,” she said, disappointed I hadn’t fainted dead away from the shock. “Let’s talk.”

Once I was seated at her breakfast bar, she leaned against the kitchen island and stared at me. “Okay, sister, spill it.”

Pieces of the puzzle were falling into place so fast, I couldn’t find the words to explain. Bastet had been right: I pulled on the string, and it all came unraveled. And I had needed to pull it toward myself – myself, Cadbury House, and my old house.

I started waving my hands around crazily as Bernie frowned. “Don’t you see? It explains
everything
. Porter’s strap, why Michael stopped playing golf, Jazz’s glasses, the sale of my house falling through when it did, Charlie constantly misplacing his blueprints, and – omigod – even the murder!”

“What murder?”

I wasn’t even listening to her. I sat back, overwhelmed by the synchronicity, then added, “Well, almost everything. It doesn’t explain the lady in the loft.”

“Honey, I have no idea what you’re talking about, but
I’m
talking about hizzoner the Mayor taking bribes. What’s all this about a murder?”

“Oh! Thanks for reminding me. Can Kyle get a police diver to go down to the riverbed around the spot where Seth drowned?” Kyle Longley was the Flagler County Sheriff, and also a close friend of Bernie’s. Some people even called him her boyfriend, though he was much younger than she. “Do they have a diver on the Sheriff’s Police Force?”

“Taylor, they’re
all
divers. Maybe not officially, but this is Florida. All of his men can dive, but why should they? Was Seth murdered?”

“Yes. But the Mayor isn’t the mole,” I said, thinking fast. “He can’t be. What’s all this about bribes? How did you find that out?”

She gave me her “disappointed nanny” look. “I can’t believe Michael hasn’t told you this himself. Taylor, why don’t you just call him?”

“Michael? What’s he got to do with it?”

“He’s the one who uncovered the mole.”

“That’s right, he did!” I said, popping out of my chair, goggle-eyed. I whisked around the counter and gave Bernie a kiss on the cheek. “I’ve got to talk to him. Don’t forget about the diver. ‘Bye, Bernie. And thanks!”

Before I was out her front door, she yelled, “For what?”

It was a bit longer of a walk to Michael’s house, since he lived near the beach in a tonier neighborhood. It gave me time to grow up a little. I should have called Michael days ago, and now that I realized he’d been going through some serious stuff, I felt bad that I hadn’t been there for him. In fact, I’d given him a little extra grief.

He opened the door and we stood there looking at one another for a moment. Then I took the last step up, put my arms around him and murmured into his warm shirt: “I’m sorry.”

He tightened his arms around me, put his face against my head and said, “Me too.”

“Come back, Michael.”

“I can’t. Not until I finish . . . some very unpleasant business.”

I turned my head and looked at him. “Tell me about it. I want to help.”

He made a little smile and his light blue eyes were shining. Then he gave me a quick, impulsive kiss. “You can’t. But you can come in and listen while I blow off some steam. This has been eating me up. I could sure use somebody to talk to.”

“You remember that Benny hasn’t been golfing because he had eye surgery? Well, Bud Kady got a guy to take his place in our foursome on Saturday. A new guy named Marshall Grant. Bud, Wesley and this Marshall were very chummy during the round, talking about things I didn’t understand. When Bud realized I was beginning to catch onto what they were talking about, he gave them the high sign and they cut it out.”

“So what did you think they were talking about?”

“I did an internet search for this guy Grant as soon as I got back into my office, and it turns out he’s a key man for Lance Skinner. The big-shot developer.”

I nodded. “It makes sense that he was interested in Graeme Huntington’s property, but you never said anything about an offer being made.”

“Graeme wanted it kept quiet. There might be people around Tropical Breeze who’d like a big development a few miles south of town to bring in tourists. There wasn’t a chance in hell Graeme would consider selling the place, and he didn’t want to deal with people who had other opinions. Besides, you were so busy getting Cadbury House ready – I just never mentioned it to you. But I knew about the offer, and it was easy to put two and two together on the golf course and guess what was going on.”

“Oh, Michael! Do you think your friends . . . ?”

“I don’t think, I know. I only suspected then, but on Monday I called the State’s Attorney, and her office was already investigating. She swore me to secrecy, reminded me that I was a member of the Bar and an Officer of the Court, practically made me take the Boy Scout’s pledge, and then it came out that I was under investigation too, because I golf with these guys!”

“Are you kidding me? You mean Bud and Wesley –“

“The head of the Tropical Breeze Planning Commission and the Mayor? Great guys to have in your pocket if you want a little help with rezoning and generally greasing the wheels while you put up a huge development that most people don’t want.”

“Oh, Michael, I’m so sorry.”

He stood up from the kitchen counter chair and began pacing, his face red and angry. “I
know
these men. I went to
school
with them! How could they betray the public trust like this?”

I thought about it. “It was the deal of a lifetime, and they knew there would never be another one – not on that scale, anyway. They probably even rationalized that they were doing the right thing for Tropical Breeze, whether the people who live here wanted it or not. Lots of politicians fall into that kind of thinking. Did they approach you to go in with them?”

He stopped and stared at me. “Hell no! They know me better than that. But Skinner wanted the Cadbury property badly, and what he’d have to pay in bribes would be chickenfeed compared to what he’d make on a huge development. Think of it! Fifteen hundred acres sitting on the river, not far from major routes – it’s perfect! Considering that I’m Graeme’s lawyer, considering my relationship with you, and the fact that you want Cadbury House for your shelter, I think you can call it a conflict of interest, from their point of view.”

“What about the other guy in the foursome – Benny – was he in on it?”

“I’m sure he isn’t. He doesn’t hold public office, so he’d be of no use to them. I’m on the Planning Commission with Bud, but he has the swing vote, and they were probably counting on that. I swear they never approached me, and I think the State’s Attorney believes me, but it could get dicey if they try to implicate me.”

“Oh, Michael! Do you think they will?”

“They might get vengeful when they find out I was ready to turn them in.”

“But you said the investigation was already ongoing.”

“Right.”

“And they are your friends – old friends.”

He looked at me, exhausted. “I thought they were.”

Michael agreed to come back to Cadbury House with me that day. After I explained the other things I had figured out, he was worried about my safety. Which reminded me –

“By the way, I’m bringing a cat home.”

“A cat? Fine with me, but with all this going on, when did you find time to adopt a cat?”

“I didn’t adopt her. She adopted me.”

Many humans talk that way about their animals, but I really meant it. Finally I understood why she’d come. I actually could be in danger until the killer was caught, and she had come to protect me.

“I’m just sorry I wasn’t there for you when all this came down on your head, Michael.”

“You had enough to worry about – and you weren’t exactly happy with me just then,” he said, giving me a hug and a kiss. “Now go get your cat. I’ll be out to Cadbury House later. Is Ed still there?”

“Yes. And I’m glad he is. For a little guy, he’s pretty intrepid. He actually likes spending nights in graveyards!”

“We have a mole,” I said to Ed across the great room as I came in and let the black cat out of its carrier.

“I know,” he told me. “I just figured it out myself. But I don’t know who it is. Do you?”

“Yes. And I think I can prove it.”

Myrtle, coming in and only hearing part of the conversation, said, “Of course we have moles. And armadillos and lizards and raccoons. It’s Florida. Isn’t that that cat you used to have? Basket?”

“Yes. She showed up at the shop again today.”

Myrtle gazed off thoughtfully, as if she actually knew all about the mystical cat. She had been very close to Vesta when she’d worked for The Family. Maybe she did understand in some vague way. Cryptically, she said, “Good. I’m glad she’s here. She’s no Wicked, but she’s something.”

She walked out of the room. Basket looked around, mildly interested, and then promenaded toward my office, which had once been Vesta’s bedroom. Vesta had died there.

“Come and sit down and tell me what you’ve found out,” he said, lowering his voice.

I did. When I’d told him about the Mayor and Planning Commissioner taking bribes, he waved a hand, disinterested.

“That’s not the mole I’m talking about. I’m talking about the one right here, hiding in plain sight and playing all these pranks, though the word ‘playing’ is hardly appropriate. Now that I know a major developer is after the property, I’d say they’re not
playing
at all, and things could get a lot worse.”

“Hiding in plain sight,” I repeated thoughtfully. “So you’re actually thinking along the same lines that I am.”

He nodded. “Teddy. Or somebody on his crew.”

“Yeah. That’s what I think.”

“How are we going to find out who it is – and prove it?”

“I’ve been thinking about that. I saw Wizard over at the diner today, and he said the show had been cancelled. Did you know that?”

“There are rumors all over the chat rooms. After the thing with Seth . . . .”

“Right. Wizard said Teddy is the only one in denial. They’re wrapping up the show – actually, the
final
show – at the lighthouse in St. Augustine tonight. I think we ought to pay them a little visit and do some probing.”

He gazed at me quietly for a moment, then said, “Are you sure? We can’t go flinging accusations without a plan. That could actually make things worse.”

“I’m sure.”

The doorbell rang.

“By the way,” I said, standing up to answer the door, “I finally patched things up with Michael. He’s coming back later. But that’s not him; he has a key. I’m hoping that’s the police.”

His eyebrows rose, but he didn’t say anything.

It turned out to be the police diver I’d been hoping for. I explained to him what to look for, and took him out to the river where I’d seen the black mark on the seawall the night Seth died.

Then I headed to the old servants’ cabins where I’d stashed Porter’s strap. It was still there. I held it a moment, appalled at the pictures in my mind, then brought it into the house and hid it in a safe place.