Part 7 (1/2)
”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 wis.h.i.+ng 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 wis.h.i.+ng 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 s.h.i.+ft sometimes.”
”Doing what?”
Eve tilted her head. ”I never got that quite straight.”
He's a third-s.h.i.+ft 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.”