Larcency and Lace Part 7

"How gallant. Did he seem immediately interested in what was happening here? Did he know that we were friends?"

Eve sighed and sat back on her heels. "Yes. He was interested, said he had a thing for local history, and could I take him to see the place? I mean we could see it out the window from across the street as clear as day. But how did he know that I knew you well enough to show him the place, the rat? I'm usually smarter than to fall for a line."

"You were smitten. Forgive yourself. I do. He probably knew we were friends from the Mystick Falls gossip mill. Tunney or Oscar from the hardware store probably told him."

Eve huffed. "I'm going right over to Vinney's to give him a piece of my mind."

Her destination caught me off guard. "That's not a bad idea, but you're not going without me. First, however, since the quilt is made of vintage clothes, I'd like to take a minute to see if I can get any vibes like I did when I was working on Sherry's vintage wedding gown. However, I don't want to touch it any more than I have to, because I suspect that the rest of Big Foot here was wrapped in it. Under no circ.u.mstances do I want to see what the other side of it looks like, nor do I want to touch it."

"Eeeyeww."

When I nudged the quilt from the drawer to the floor with the feathers, the connected bones jiggled, so Chakra tackled them and batted them off the quilt quicker than I could stop her, not that I wanted to touch them. Didn't matter; she sent the foot-if that's what it was-flying beneath the body drawers.

"Out of sight, out of panic?" I suggested.

Eve scoffed and wiped her brow with the back of a hand. "You wish."

Chakra, who I was beginning to think understood my needs better than I did, returned to my lap.

"Thanks, sweetie cat. That was really skeeving me out."

"I can't believe you're going to touch that quilt," Eve said. "At least I'll know enough not to go bonkers when your mind disappears and your body stays behind. Mad? Could any of this be construed as tampering with evidence? Like at a crime scene?"

"What crime?" I asked, manipulating the quilt with the feathers to find the pocket. "Think animal foot."

"What kind of animal? And don't say a dog."

"A dinosaur or a bear?"

"Okay, I get your drift and I'm trying to work with it."

"Good. Let me try to read the quilt, then we'll go see Vinney, and after that, I'll call the police."

"You will?"

"Tomorrow at the latest."

"Madeira," she said, sounding very much like my conscience.

A scold, I didn't need. "Shh. I'm concentrating."

I slipped my hand into a pocket on one of the quilt squares, closed my eyes, got nauseous and dizzy, and found myself staring at an old wishing well made of round stones. I did not want to look inside the well, but I went closer, despite myself, and started to peek over the edge, when the air turned to ice.

"She's going to faint," Dante whispered.

I opened my eyes. "Eve!" I caught her before she fell.

Her eyes opened, and as I cradled her, Chakra licked her hand. Slowly, Eve's color returned. "I'm sorry," she said, sitting up. "But you didn't talk the last time you zoned in front of me."

"I talked? What did I say?"

"You wailed a soft and eerie 'Isobel' twice. What did you see?"

"An old wishing well."

"That's all?" Eve fanned her face. "That doesn't sound too frightening."

That's why I'd described it that way. She'd found a dead body. She'd had enough trauma for one night.

"Where did Isobel come into the picture then?" Eve asked.

I shrugged and hugged Chakra. "What say we go home and wait until tomorrow to visit Vinney? Better still, we go to the Sweets. I found something with Dolly's name on it earlier."

"Vinney probably won't be at home tonight. He works the late shift sometimes."

"Doing what?"

Eve tilted her head. "I never got that quite straight."

He's a third-shift burglar, I thought. "If he's not there," I said, "I guess it wouldn't be too smart to break in and look around, see if we can find a bag of something suspicious or . . . bony?" I looked straight at her. "Unless you have a key?"

Her color returned in spades, as did her smile. "I have a key."

Twelve.

It always depends on how it's done-it mustn't be overtly exhibitionist.

-GIORGIO ARMANI We took my rental to visit Eve's skunk du jour so no one could ID the car. Well, maybe we weren't exactly planning to visit him. If he wasn't there, we'd search the place, scope it out, or whatever the universe deemed appropriate.

How's that for justification?

We had to pa.s.s by the Sweets' house on the way, and their lights were on. I had that packet for Dolly, and I was pretty sure that if anyone had information that might help me free Tunney of suspicion, it would be the Sweets.

Dolly once told me that they rarely slept anymore, except for catnaps during the day, so with my usual quick thinking, I pulled into their driveway on two wheels. "Do you want to come in with me?" I asked Eve. "I'll only be a minute."

"No, thanks, Mad. It's been a draining night. I'll just close my eyes for a few."

"Good. Rest."

The front light had gone on and now both Sweets were standing at the screen door waiting. "Madeira? Is that you?" Ethel asked. "Is something wrong, dear, that you're here so late?"

Dolly, the older at a hundred and three, was being held up by her daughter-in-law, Ethel, the younger at eighty-plus.

"Can we talk?" I asked, opening the door.

Ethel smiled. "Of course, cupcake."

I grabbed their arms and insinuated myself between them, where the scent of rose water fought with that of baby powder. I sneezed as I walked them to the sofa and sat them down.

Dolly had deeded me the Underhill building with Ethel's approval. Neither of them wanted to pay taxes on it any longer, so that was my price. I'd paid this year's taxes, which were, of course, for last year, but that didn't matter. It had been an awesome deal all around. They practically gave me the place.

"I have something for Dolly," I said. "And I have a couple of questions for both of you." I pulled out the envelope from my storage room cabinet that Dante indicated as Dolly's. "I found this in my storage room, Dolly," I said handing it to her. "It has your name on it."

Dolly's hand shook as she fumbled with it then she handed it to me to open.

After I did, she pulled out a card. "Oh!" she said. "Oh, I've never been so pleased."

Ethel took the card from her mother-in-law's hand as if it was her due. "A bronze casket and a cemetery plot? Beside your old lover? Are you out of your mind? You know the gossips around here."

Dolly cackled. "I won't be here to care."

"So you're happy about this, Mama? You don't want to be laid to rest beside your husband?"

"Your Edward's father was an idiot, Ethel. I'd prefer to spend eternity beside Dante. Consider it my last wish."

"Oh, please, you've had so many last wishes since you turned a hundred, I'm keeping a journal collection for your eulogy."

I chuckled, despite myself.

Dolly pulled me down to the sofa beside her and kissed my cheek. "Tell him I said yes."

"Mama, are you losing it?"

"You can tell him yourself whenever you want," I said.

"I could," Dolly said, "though I'd hate for him to see me this way."

Ethel made a weak protest, since we weren't making any sense, but I winked at her, so she stopped.

"What he'd see," I said, "is the girl he fell in love with."

Dolly giggled, the blushing centenarian, and Ethel rolled her eyes. "You said you had a question for us, cupcake?"

"A question and a request."

"Anything you want," Dolly said, hugging that envelope to her heart.

I hated to dim her joy but I needed answers. "Did you hear what happened tonight at the playhouse?"

"Of course we did. It's a shame about Tunney."

"And Sampson," I added.

"Sampson never did fit in here," Dolly said. "Transplants rarely do. He only lived here for thirty-three years."

Ethel nodded. "Grouchy, inhospitable man."

"Could Tunney have had a motive to do Sampson in, besides Sampson's sale to the conglomerate? I mean, since the whole town was mad about that. The playhouse fire started right before Tunney closes his market, and he said that he ran over to help like we did, but he was, unfortunately, still carrying a butcher knife when the police got there."

"Was there much blood?" Dolly was one for lapping up the gore.

Ethel sniffed. "Certain people go to the butcher shop after Tunney closes."

Huh? I felt like a bloodhound who'd lost the scent. "Really? Why?"

"You might talk to Sampson's sister, Suzanne, about that."

"Ethel," Dolly said. "You shush."

"I'm only telling our little cupcake."

They'd called me that forever, probably because I ate as many as they made over the years.

Ethel failed to look contrite, though she tried. "It's true that my suggestion is rooted in gossip. So go to the source."

I looked from one of them to the other. "The source of the gossip or the object of the gossip?"

"The object," Dolly said.

Oh sc.r.a.p. If Suzanne Sampson was visiting Tunney after hours, presumably not for meat-cutting lessons, and she turned out to be Sampson's heir, Werner might be able to make a case against Tunney for conspiracy at the least. I'd go to the source, all right. Both of them.

Dolly patted my arm. "Don't a.s.sume anything, cupcake."

Hmm. I forgot how long the Sweets had known me. Long enough to read my fast track mind, apparently.

"Listen, Eve's waiting for me in the car. Do me a favor? Ask around about Vinney Carnevale? See what people know about him?"

"Why?" Dolly wanted to know, getting all perked up for more gossip.

"I know nothing," I said. "But by the time I do, I'm guessing you'll be way ahead of me."

Dolly chuckled as Ethel walked me to the door and watched me get into my rental.

"Eve? Wake up. We need to go see Vinney."

"Oh. Sure. Right." She closed her eyes again.

"You have to give me directions," I said.

"Got any toothpicks?" She blinked her eyes open and started directing me.

Vinney Carnevale lived on the outskirts of Mystick Falls, in an upscale fifties housing development that had seen better days. Among the fixer-uppers, however, his house stood out. "Looks like somebody spent a few bucks to update this place," I said as I parked the car. "Does he have money?"