Page 67 of The Aura Answer
“Complaining loudly, refusing to take painkillers, and flinging things if anyone tries to make her sit still. I’m surmising she’ll recover,” he said dryly, grabbing a cookie and settling into his computer chair. “What have I missed?”
“Me, telling y’all you’re insane and ought to be locked up. The whole town and a ton of visitors will be out tomorrow. You can’t set yourself up as targets!” Gracie prayed they would listen. She knew they wouldn’t. So she had to sit here and figure out how to save them all from themselves.
“The craft and food fair is in the morning,” Evie said soothingly. “Everyone will be out in the street having a good time while we set up. At noon, we’ll hold the gallery exhibit in the courthouse where Bertie and Blockhead can tune in, when everyone is at lunch or resting or preparing for the parade.”
The Holiday Festival was supposed to be a pre-Christmas Eve shopping rush and family outing, not a hunt for a killer. Ghosts weren’t exactly holiday spirits unless Evie thought she was re-enactingThe Christmas Carol. What would Bertie be—the ghost of Christmas present?
The discussion gave Gracie cold shudders. “Where will the kids be?” she demanded, not in the least fooled by her sister’s plotting. Evie had no respect for danger and no attention span for planning.
“Pris is manning the chocolate booth, so Dante will have the twins. You can lead Aster around with him. We don’t need you to help set up the exhibit. Loretta will be with Mavis, and then she’s going down to the school to help finish up the floats and rehearse for the play. If you meanallthe kids in town, they’re pretty much doing the same thing. It’s not until the parade at two, when themayor shows up, that we need to worry. So we have to bring this to a close before then.”
“You can’t really expect a stone-cold killer to accept an invitation to see Bertie’s sketches!” Although, yeah, that almost made sense since someone had been attempting to steal those sketches. That didn’t make her any happier.
“It’s all we have,” Nick said, working on his laptop, printing out publicity flyers. “Maybe you ought to stay with Pris in the chocolate booth and be our guard post.”
That’s what she wanted to do. But if she meant to write Evie’s stories... She was crazy to even think it, but she wanted to see what happened. She was tired of being left out. And she was recognizing that it was her own fault that she was always left behind. She was a wimp, a yellow-bellied doormat letting others walk all over her.
She needed to broaden her comfort zone. So she squirmed and listened.
“If we’re ready to start...” Jax taped up a photo to the wall. Evie’s normally unflappable fiancé was looking a little harassed. “We need to determine our most likely suspects and make certain they attend our little event. Judge Rhodes was there when Block was killed. He’d just ruled on the zoning laws in Larraine’s favor—does that mean he’s against the mall, doesn’t know about it, or that she threatened him with his high school infractions and he caved?”
Gracie tried to picture their stylish mayor threatening the dull, conservative judge and couldn’t rule it out. Larraine’s flamboyant confidence would have Rhodes strangling on his necktie. And with all this talk of blackmail... Who knew what the mayor might be holding over his head?
“We have Bertie’s sketch of Layman handing Rhodes cash, so Rhodes definitely knows Layman. And Rhodes hates the old courthouse and is presumably in favor of new everything.” Evieperched on the pool table and nibbled her chocolate chip cookie. “But if he ruled in Larraine’s favor, then maybe he’s honest.”
“According to the yearbook, Rhodes won gun competitions,” Nick added. “That was his sport and probably put him ahead of Larraine in the scholarship competition.”
“Both Turlocks were at the courthouse and have gun licenses.” Jax taped up a photo of father and son. “Teddy Jr. sells guns in his sporting goods store. He tested positive for drugs in a rifle team competition in college. He was later arrested for selling, but his father pulled strings and got him off.”
“I did not know that,” Evie said.
Gracie could have said the same. This town really held its secrets. “So that’s why he’s running a sporting goods store instead of following in his father’s footsteps?”
Raven hair braided, Iddy crossed her long legs on an overlarge bean bag cushion. “That, and he’s an idiot. Maybe he smoked his brains, but his ex-wife confided that he flunked his LSAT. She thinks he’s still selling pot, at least. Or lying about store profits, because she couldn’t get a decent settlement based on the store’s income. Or lack thereof. But he’s never short of cash. He laid down a bundle for that Corvette.”
Ah, so that’s why Iddy had been recruited. As the only veterinarian in town, she knew everyone with animals, which included most of the county. Gracie only knew people with kids.
“Teddy Turlock Jr. and the Shepherd twins went to school together,” Gracie offered, reluctantly joining in. “I was a freshman when they were seniors. They were caught smoking behind the bleachers several times, but they were all on the football team and just got rapped on the knuckles.”
“Toby and Verity were in your class.” Evie swung her foot. “So they probably knew about that too. Are we trying to say Teddy Jr. or the Shepherds gave drugs to Bertie? Were they all at the Corvette party fordrugs?”
Reuben and Roark looked bored. Small town gossip wasn’t their thing. Gracie gathered hacking computers was more to their liking, or maybe spying. They were simply waiting for action, not gossip.
“You’re the one who first said the Shepherds sell pot,” Jax reminded Evie. “How do you know that?”
Evie pointed at Iddy.
Their cousin shrugged. “The Shepherds won’t let me near their dogs, but I’ve trained La Chusa to keep an eye on them. Because the dogs bark all the time, I was afraid they were chaining the animals and neglecting them. I’m pretty sure what the raven is seeing are marijuana plants.”
Gracie sighed in admiration as Nick’s square-boned model face frowned impressively as he asked, “So in the sketch with the Corvette, they were all having a pot party? Do we now have to suspect the mayor’s tree-hugger son and the woman who gave us the gallery consignment?”
Evie shook her head negatively. Gracie intervened. “Even I could tell that Verity was scared when she gave us those sketches. She was the one who framed them to hide the Main Street drawing. Since her mother and Layman have a relationship, she may even have helped Bertie steal it. We just don’t know when or how.”
“The two tree huggers had to know something was going down,” Reuben pointed out, flipping through his laptop and studying his notes. “Verity’s mother is dating Layman, and Toby is Block’s son. They probably overheard conversations. So they paid Bertie to follow the Turlocks all summer.”
“Toby would be totally against a trailer park on the swamp, and his aura seems clear. I don’t know Verity’s place in this.” Evie studied the gallery of suspects.
“So why were they all together at the pot farm?” Nick persisted. “Wasn’t Bertie about ten years too old for that lot?”
