Shear Magic, page 9
part #5 of Silver Hollow Series
“Hold it right there!” Issy yelled at the cat.
Brimstone turned innocent round, golden eyes on her. “What? I was just putting this little guy back. He lifted his other paw to reveal a purple toad that he was somehow holding in such a way so as not to harm it. “Dumb thing must’ve hopped out. Doesn’t know a good thing when he has it.”
Brimstone dropped the toad into the terrarium. “You should stay in there, buddy. Free room and board.” He closed the lid before hopping on top of it and looking at Issy. “You need to press down and make sure this thing is really secure so they don’t get out.”
“Umm, thanks for the tip,” Issy said.
Brimstone hopped down and then walked off, swishing his tail in their direction. Just before he disappeared down the bird care aisle, he said, “You know, sometimes things aren’t always what they look like. Sometimes it’s exactly the opposite of what you think is going on.”
Issy watched him go, her hands on her hips. “That cat. You never know what he’s going to come out with.”
“You can say that again.” Gray thought about Brimstone’s words as he watched his dark-gray tail disappear around the corner. Something clicked in his brain.
He snapped his fingers. “I got it! What if it was the opposite of what we’ve been thinking? What if it wasn’t Beth who was lying about Eric?”
“What do you mean?”
“Beth said she was mad at Eric because he wouldn’t take her case because he didn’t work on anything to do with insurance. We knew she was lying because Tim had hired him to look into his mother’s insurance claims. But what if Beth wasn’t lying? What if Tim was lying about why he hired Eric? What if he really hired him to look into something with his father, and in doing so, Eric discovered something about what happened all those years ago?”
Issy stared at him for a few seconds and then started toward the front of the store. “There’s only one way to find out. We need to pay Tim Stevens another visit.”
Chapter 14
Chocolates fresh from Ember’s shop in hand, Gray and Issy arrived back on Tim Stevens’s doorstep that afternoon. Gray had known they’d need an excuse to get in the door a second time and had remembered that Ember had mentioned Mrs. Stevens liked her vanilla creams. So what if they’d mixed a little truth potion in with the creamy vanilla centers? It was for a good reason. Spelling people without their consent was generally frowned upon in the paranormal community, but this was a special case. Gray was innocent, and he wasn’t about to go to jail for a crime he didn’t commit while the real killer roamed free.
Tim answered on Issy’s second knock, his expression quickly morphing from wary to welcoming when he spotted the candy.
“Didn’t think I’d see you two back here again so soon,” Tim said, letting them inside after a few seconds’ hesitation. He seemed only mildly suspicious of their motives. Gray didn’t know if that was good or bad. Judging by the questions they’d asked the other day, he’d have to be dense to not realize they were looking for Eric Naill’s killer. If Tim was innocent, he wouldn’t be suspicious. On the other hand, if he had killed Eric, he might act as if he wasn’t suspicious to throw them off track.
“We wanted to do something nice for your mother after seeing her the other day. Ember mentioned she was fond of her vanilla creams.” Issy took two boxes from Gray and handed them to Tim. One was the vanilla creams for his mother, the other peppermint bark, which Ember had said was Tim’s favorite. “We also brought you some of your favorite peppermint bark too, to say thanks for answering our questions and for taking such good care of your mom.”
Tim’s cheeks flushed slightly as he took a seat on the sofa across from them. Today he was dressed in brown and nearly blended right into the room. “It’s nice to feel appreciated.”
“Yes, it is.” Gray took a seat in an armchair beside Issy and glanced over to find Tim’s mother out of bed today. She sat in a rocking chair near the unlit fireplace, knitting and mumbling to herself. Gray managed to pick out the words “barbershop” and “Charlie” from her otherwise unintelligible murmurs. “Perhaps your mom would like one of the vanilla creams now?”
“Here,” Issy said, rising to take one to her. “Let me.”
Tim’s mother gobbled up the candy, her eyes immediately brightening and her foggy expression clearing thanks to the little spell Ember had cast over the treats. She picked up speed with her knitting. “Such a lovely day out, Timmy.”
Gray glanced at Issy. That was the first semi-intelligible thing Mrs. Stevens had said. Apparently the chocolates were working.
Tim was surprised too. He looked at his mother wide-eyed. “What did you say, Mom?”
Her face clouded over. “Knit one, perl two. Or is it perl two and knit one?”
“I’m not sure, Mom.” Tim’s voice was full of hope that his mother would answer with something that made sense, but instead she fell back into the mumbling.
“Why don’t we go in the kitchen,” Gray suggested, nodding at Mrs. Stevens, who was fully absorbed in her knitting. It didn’t look as if they were going to get anything out of Mrs. Stevens after all. He wanted to take Tim’s focus away from his mother and figured he would be more willing to talk if he wasn’t in the same room with her.
“Okay.” Tim carried the box of peppermint bark with him. The kitchen was done in the same warm tones of brown and burnt orange. Most of the appliances looked as though they’d been transported from 1972, and the obligatory large wooden spoon and fork hung on the wall. They all took a seat around the small table near one side of the space, and Tim dug into his treats. Soon, he was grinning and bright, just like his mother in the other room. Except hopefully his words would make more sense.
“So Tim, I just found out that my hair salon is where your dad’s barbershop used to be.” Gray figured he’d warm Tim up, and then once he’d eaten enough candy, he’d hit him with the question about why he’d lied about hiring Eric. Plus, he wanted to see just how much Tim knew about his father.
“Yeah. That’s where his shop was.” Tim picked out another piece of peppermint bark and bit in.
“Do you remember much about the barbershop?” Gray asked.
Tim shook his head. “Nah, I was too young. Mom used to drive by and tell me about it, but it was empty then. No one wanted to rent it because of what happened to my dad.”
“Tim. We know you lied to us about why you hired Eric.”
Tim swallowed hard. He looked at Gray, then he looked at Issy, then he picked out another piece of bark and shoved it into his mouth.
“Eric didn’t do insurance investigations. He wasn’t looking into denied claims for you, was he, Tim? Can you tell us the real reason you hired a private investigator?” Gray persisted.
“Fine. I’m no good at lying anyway,” Tim said, his posture slumping. “It was Mom. She wasn’t always as senile as she is now. When I was younger, she was normal. Her mind got worse over time. One thing she’s never forgotten is her belief that Dad didn’t kill himself. She’s always sworn it was murder. At first I was skeptical, but now I believe her. I don’t remember much about my dad because I was so young when he died, but I do remember that he wouldn’t leave us. There’s no way he would have killed himself and left us unprotected like that. I wanted to prove it once and for all while my mom still had the capacity to understand what was happening. That’s why I hired Eric. To dig into what really took place and reveal the truth.”
“Even if it meant you found out your father was into something bad and that’s what got him killed?”
Tim made a face. “My father was not into anything bad. Eric would have told us. He just said he was onto a good lead.”
“And that’s why you seemed so upset when we told you he was dead,” Issy said.
Tim nodded, his eyes filling with tears as he reached for another piece of bark. “And now I’ll never know who killed my father or be able to prove that my mother was right all this time.”
Gray sat back and exhaled slowly. It seemed Tim wasn’t the killer. He was too upset about not being able to prove the truth. Gray could see how desperate the guy was to prove that his father had not killed himself.
But Eric had told Tim he had a lead. It sounded like the investigation he’d hired Eric Naill to conduct had unwittingly opened a hornets’ nest. One that someone clearly wanted closed up again. Then again, considering what Gray had heard about the black-market toad warts, that hornets’ nest might reveal that Tim’s father wasn’t the upstanding citizen Tim thought. If word of his involvement got out, would that hurt Tim’s mother even more? Tim seemed hell-bent on proving that his father didn’t kill himself for his mother’s sake. How far would he go to protect his father’s reputation? Murder?
Then again, Eric would have never told Tim about the black-market toad warts because Tim wasn’t a paranormal. Unless Charlie was into some illegal human stuff too, it was doubtful that Eric had given Tim information on his father that would cause Tim to want to silence him.
“I’d better check on my mom,” Tim said and pushed to his feet.
Issy stood as well and followed him into the living room toward the front door. Gray heard their hushed tones and Issy saying, “Well, I think we’ve taken up enough of your time.”
It seemed more and more that Eric’s death was about that long-ago scandal. They still had no rock-solid evidence, but Gray would take his progress where he found it at this point. He stood and stretched then turned to go, only to find his path blocked by Tim’s mother.
She grasped Gray’s arm and stared up at him, her gaze earnest. “Charlie was a good barber. But he went off and never came home.”
With a gnarled finger, she pointed to a photograph hanging on the wall beside the sink. Gray hadn’t noticed it before, but upon closer inspection, he saw that it had been taken in Charlie’s old barbershop, now his salon.
He recognized the big windows that looked out on Main Street and the black-and-white-checkered floor he’d liked so much. The floor looked shiny and perfect, not a tile out of place. Three barber chairs were lined up exactly where Gray had his stations. A crooked burlwood staff leaned against the back of one chair, and beside it stood a man who looked a bit like Tim — Charlie, Gray guessed. He had the long wizard hair, and the staff was a dead giveaway, because most wizards seemed to have one. Next to him was a younger version of Bobby Knight and a young woman. Beth Wilkins, maybe? The eyes were definitely the same. He’d been right; she had been beautiful.
“They were such good friends until things started to happen,” Mrs. Stevens said. “A real barbershop quartet.”
“Quartet?” Gray frowned and glanced back at Mrs. Stevens. “But there’re only three people in this photo.”
Tim’s mother just shrugged and walked away, mumbling to herself, her expression going cloudy again as the candy in her system wore off. Weird. Usually Ember’s spells worked better than that.
Frowning, Gray watched her go then glanced back at the photo. Charlie, Bobby, and Beth did look like good friends. In the photo, they smiled, not looking at all like three people involved in a love triangle that dealt in black-market toad warts.
He wondered if Mrs. Stevens knew about the love triangle her husband had allegedly been involved in. And was there a fourth person, or had that just been part of her rambling? Then again, maybe Mrs. Stevens was the fourth person taking a photo of her three friends before she found out her husband was a little friendlier with one of them than she’d thought.
Chapter 15
From Tim’s house, Gray and Issy stopped by Raine’s shop to discuss what had happened. On the way, he told Issy about his conversation with Mrs. Stevens in the kitchen and the photo.
“I wish you would’ve mentioned something before we left the house,” Issy said as they walked into the tropical humidity of the Green Goddess. “I could’ve led Tim back there and asked him about it too.”
Gray shook his head. “I don’t think it would’ve done much good, though. Tim said he didn’t remember much about his dad. He wouldn’t have known who’d taken that photo. That was way before his time.”
“Hey, guys,” Raine announced, coming in from the greenhouse. “Ember told me she made some special chocolates for you to take to the Stevenses. How did that go?”
They filled her in on what had occurred.
“So it really wasn’t Beth who lied about Eric, it was Tim?”
Gray nodded. “Yep. He didn’t want anyone to know he had hired him to prove his father didn’t kill himself. We got the truth out of him this morning, and while we were there, we saw the old photo of the barbershop.”
“Interesting.” Raine washed her hands and then dried them on a towel. “Just because someone took a picture of Beth, Bobby, and Charlie doesn’t mean they were in on the black-market toad warts.”
“True. But what if it was Mrs. Stevens and she found out about all the scandalous things going on?”
“Doesn’t seem likely. She’s not paranormal, so she wouldn’t know about toad warts, and it doesn’t seem she was very quick on the uptake if she didn’t realize her husband was a wizard. Luigi said she never knew about that, right?” Raine picked up a small silver watering can and poured some water into the soil of Mortimer’s pot. The Venus flytrap’s leaves turned in Raine’s direction to thank her.
“Good points,” Gray said. “One thing is for certain: Eric’s death has something to do with this whole business with Charlie. He was looking into the past and must have dug something up.”
“Probably about the black-market toad warts. That’s a much stronger reason to kill. Even now, if the council found out Beth or Bobby was involved, they would be fully punished,” Issy said.
Gray rested his hips against a wooden work table and crossed his arms, thinking through all the facts they had so far. “I wonder if Mrs. Stevens was right all along about Charlie. He could have been killed because he found out either Beth or Bobby was selling the toad warts and threatened to expose them.”
“True.” Issy blew kisses to a butterfly that had landed on the back of her extended hand. “Beth and Bobby both hung around at the barbershop, and you said Tim’s mother confirmed it from that photo in Tim’s kitchen. And Gray told me Starla said Bobby never mentions what happened back then, so …” She waved her hand and the butterfly flew away. “Maybe he doesn’t talk about it because he killed Charlie.”
“You talked to Starla Knight?” Raine asked.
Gray winced. “Yes, but I don’t want to discuss that right now, okay?” He did his best to keep his tone neutral and not defensive but failed miserably if the snicker he got from his cousins was any indication. He didn’t miss their exchanged glances either.
“Of course you don’t,” Raine teased before dropping the subject. “But if you don’t want to talk about that, then tell me about Stan and Ursula. Did you see anything juicy?”
“Not really. They were sitting pretty close.” Gray remembered the glint of Ursula’s teeth. “Stan was pretty pale, and Ursula seemed ... err ... full.”
“I knew it!” Raine’s smile faded as she saw the tense look on Gray’s face. “But that’s not as important as getting to the bottom of Eric’s murder. Now that we know more, we have to figure out who would have the most to lose if Eric revealed whatever it was he dug up.”
“It would help if we knew what he dug up,” Issy said.
“True, but we don’t, so we need to think about who seems most guilty. My money is on Beth Wilkins. Her memory loss could be due to her guilt. It would explain why she’s stuck in the past and can’t remember,” Raine said.
“I don’t know. She didn’t lie about why she argued with Eric. But it might be a good idea to talk to her again. She knew what went on back then.” Gray pulled out his phone to check his calendar and saw the long-awaited message from DeeDee. The cops were finished at Shear Magic, meaning he could get back inside and begin cleaning up.
He had a lot to get done in there if he planned to reopen the following day. And he had his second meeting in the woods with Starla that night. The clock on his phone said three p.m. If they went to see Beth again at five, they should be done in plenty of time for his meeting with Starla, and no one would be the wiser. And because Beth liked to frequent happy hour at O’Hara’s Pub, and it was close to Shear Magic, it was a win-win. Granted, the bar wasn’t the ideal place to question a suspect, but perhaps if she’d had a few drinks before they arrived, Beth Wilkins might be more amenable to talking to them. “How about five today at O’Hara’s?”
“Works for me,” Issy said. “If we can just get her to sort the real memories from the past and not mix them up with what’s going on now, we might get the clue we need.”
“How about we try a remembrance potion?” Raine suggested. “I’ve got the ashes of sage and dewdrops from a tiger lily. Issy, can you get me some ground up crow’s nails?”
Issy nodded. “Just got a new shipment in the other day.”
“Perfect!” Raine grinned, and for the first time Gray’s own spirits lifted a bit. “I’ll whip it up this afternoon, then we can slip it into her drink at the pub.”
“Awesome.” He started for the entrance. “I got word I can get back into my salon again, so I’m headed over there to start shaping things up for reopening. Let’s plan to meet at the Main Squeeze first to coordinate it all. DeeDee usually stops there after work, and we can find out what the police have discovered before we talk to Beth.”
Chapter 16
Gray went home to his cabin to pick up Cosmo before heading back downtown to Shear Magic. After unlocking the front door, he walked inside and surveyed the area. Cosmo flew around the room, checking everything out too.
Other than the things he’d spotted in disarray the day before, nothing else had changed. He checked the storage room in the back and found the cops hadn’t made too big a mess there. There was some residue from the fingerprint dust on the back door, and counters and shelves too, but nothing some hard work wouldn’t clean. He opened the back door to check the alley and froze. Martin Ellsworth was hunched over on the stoop, where he’d apparently been snooping around the lock again.
