Page 44 of The Aura Answer
“That’s the business your father dealt in,” Jax called after him. But he figured Toby already knew that.
What did Bertie knowmight be the key to the whole case—unless they could find Block’s little black book.
Carryingboxes of paper ornaments pasted and colored by the kids, Evie met Jax and Gracie at the courthouse. Their mother’ssenior citizen gang had bought another tree for the lawn and was stringing it with lights. The material damage left by the mob had been hauled away, but the spiritual wounds needed healing. The courthouse’s sparkly new windows had bars on them—bad juju. Cheerful lights and evergreens were needed.
“You talked to Toby?” Evie asked Jax, setting down her box so she could hug and kiss him because he looked decidedly sour. “He’s keeping his father’s funeral private?”
“And in another county. Your old boyfriend isn’t a total airhead, and I’m not sure he’s telling me everything.” Jax hugged her back.
“Hang this star on top, will you, Jax?” Mavis called from her stepladder. Her short arms couldn’t reach the treetop from her perch.
Evie pecked his cheek. “That’s her way of showing her approval,” she whispered.
“Not setting my hair on fire works as well.” He climbed up and set the star straight, then plugged it into the string of lights.
The day was gloomy enough for the lights to look festive when someone plugged them into the outdoor outlet. Everyone cheered and Gracie hung the first aluminum foil star from a branch. Evie’s veterinarian cousin Iddy hung popcorn-and-cranberry roping for the birds.
Judge Satterwhite stepped outside wearing an overcoat and not his robes. Mavis waved at him. He straightened and brushed his white hair back, but spotting Jax and Evie, he hurried down to meet them as planned.
“His aura isn’t as clear as usual,” Evie whispered. “I’d better go with you. It’s either that, or I go down to the Barn and look for Sammy’s ghost.”
Jax didn’t exactly look happy about either, but he was just her team’s lawyer. If she meant to run a business, she had to be boss. Somehow. Maybe. Sorta.
She was still taking baby steps away from her dog-walking persona. Observation was her superpower, and she had to broaden her spectrum.
The Oldies’ Café was the closest thing Afterthought had to a coffee shop. It stayed busy—which was why Bertie had sketched the town council members meeting in a barbershop and bar, where they weren’t quite as visible to the entire town. Pris really needed to open a café in the empty boutique just down the street, but if Dante returned to Italy...Focus, Evie.
At this hour, the diner wasn’t as busy as it would be later. They found a booth by a window.
“What’s this about?” the judge asked after he’d ordered a coffee and donuts.
Evie sipped her tea and let Jax open his phone to show the judge images of Bertie’s sketches. She kept her eye on the older man’s aura. It didn’t seem to flicker with any particular recognition.
“We have reason to believe Block’s lawyer was showing east side property to a developer. Bertie Walker followed him all summer and into the fall. We don’t have all the sketches, but we’ve taken pictures of those we’ve seen.”
Nice safety net, Jax, don’t let anyone know about their trove of artwork.
Artwork the gallery owner had tried to hide? For why?
“Do you recognize them?” Jax handed over the phone so the judge could flip through.
Another good move, Evie decided, totally tickled with her brilliant fiancé. See if the judge opened up without questioning. His aura... she couldn’t quite translate what was happening there. The judge was an honest man, but all men his age had shadows of some sort, if only a lifetime of doubts. If she had any proof, she’d say his revealed anger... and maybefear?
“Are you sure that’s what Turlock was doing?” The judge handed the phone back. “Or Bertie, for all that matters. The boy wasn’t quite right in the head.”
“Just like I’m not quite right in the head,” Evie said cheerfully. “But thinking outside the box does not mean we don’t know what’s going on around us. We can tell from Bertie’s sketches that he was on those properties. If I recognize them, you do. We do not have pictures of Turlock, or his son, but Toby said he asked Bertie to keep an eye on both of them. Bertie was trying to earn money with these sketches to help his mother—who said she had to move from the house she rents from you. Do you know anything about that?”
The judge looked genuinely shocked,good. Evie hadn’t wanted to believe he’d put that poor woman and her family out of a home. Half her groceries and part of her income probably came from her garden.
Satterwhite wrapped his gnarled hands around his coffee cup as if to warm them. “Louise Walker is having difficulty making the rent. Sammy and his kids moved in with her, ostensibly to help take care of things, but feeding them can’t be helping a lot. She’s been catching up gradually with his contribution, but she’s still raising her late daughter’s two teenage grandkids, and feeding Sammy’s family. She sells produce at the farmer’s market, but that doesn’t pay in the winter. The teens get some SSI, and she has social security, but kids aren’t cheap. I’m not sure how she’s paying what she does.”
“That’s why Bertie wanted to sell his sketches.” Evie frowned and studied her tea. “But if Sammy was already helping his mother, paying Bertie for sketches so his brother could take the money to her doesn’t make a great deal of sense.”
Jax tapped her hand, reminding her to focus. She scrolled back through the phone images. “Except for Patel, all thisfarmland Turlock was purportedly looking at belongs to your mother, doesn’t it?”
Satterwhite nodded and the lines in his face deepened. “A development corporation has been pestering her to sell. She won’t, of course. The taxes would be too steep. I talked to them, and they offered a tax-free land exchange.”
He sighed and looked out the window at people passing by, carrying bags and boxes destined for holiday gifts.
