The Diva Serves Forbidden Fruit

I love painted furniture. But I have no artistic skill whatsoever. Is there an easier way?

There is an easier way! Use decoupage to attach a picture that you like or use stencils!

“Wong!” I called. I raced to the bottom of the main staircase and yelled for her. When I heard her hurried footsteps upstairs, I raced back to the laundry room.

Wong caught up to me. Wordlessly, I pointed the glow of the flashlight at the bottom of the basement stairs where Frank lay crumpled.

“Is he dead?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t go all the way down. I thought it would be better if you checked so I won’t mess up a potential crime scene.”

Wong pulled out her radio and requested an ambulance. “Should I call Wolf?” I asked.

“Let me check on him first. Paisley and Frank’s mom are going to freak.”

I waited at the top of the stairs as Wong crept slowly down. She shone her flashlight around, stepped over Frank, and disappeared. I guessed she was making sure no one was hiding in the basement.

From where I stood, it appeared to be a finished basement with wall-to-wall carpeting in a peachy cream shade. The walls were a vertical-grooved cream paneling, probably covering up ancient bricks or stones.

Wong returned and knelt beside Frank. I could see her checking for a pulse. She ran up the stairs. “He’s alive. Stay right here. Don’t let anyone in except the EMTs. I’m going outside to tell Wolf. One of us will be back in a flash. Got it?”

I heaved a breath of relief. “Got it!” I affirmed. I certainly didn’t want any of the children seeing their dad like this.

In her absence, Dr. Chryssos arrived. “Sophie! How lovely to see you again.” He leaned toward me with a grin. “We really have to stop meeting like this.”

I smiled at his old joke.

He stepped back. “Is that a black eye?”

“Probably.” I hadn’t taken the time to look at myself in a mirror. But my cheek felt hot when I touched it.

“I bet Lark has some freezer bags somewhere,” he said.

I followed him into the kitchen. “I don’t think he’s dead,” I blurted.

“That’s good news!” He chuckled. “A condition I rarely encounter. Hmm, someone must have gotten their information wrong or I wouldn’t have been called.”

He poured crushed ice into the bag and folded a fresh kitchen towel around it. “Who punched you?”

“Frank’s mother.”

Dr. Chryssos shook his head. “Keep that pressed against your face. If you have any vision problems, I want you to go to your doctor right away. I’ll just check on him since I’m here.” He walked down the stairs.

The sound of the ambulance siren was music to my ears. With so many people and tents on the street, they pulled up in the alley behind Lark’s house. I could hear the boys outside, greeting the EMTs by their names. I flew to the kitchen door and asked Mrs. Gurtz to keep the children out of the house.

She flashed me a horrified look, but clearly understood and immediately organized a game around the side of the house. All of them went with her, except for Tommy.

The EMTs walked by him into the house. I showed them to the basement door and watched them walk down.

I felt someone behind me and turned, expecting Wolf. I found Tommy looking at me wide-eyed, his chest lifting and falling rapidly. “Is somebody dead?”

“No.” I patted him on the shoulder to reassure him. “Go on with Mrs. Gurtz.”

He didn’t budge. “What happened to your eye?”

“Someone hit me.”

“The person who’s dead?”

“No one is dead, Tommy.”

“A lot of people lie to me because I’m a kid. Are you lying to me now?” he asked.

“You are so smart,” I told him. “I am not lying to you. That’s what Officer Wong told me.”

“Who is it?” he asked.

He was clever enough to know it was most likely someone to whom he was related. But I thought his mother or a professional should tell him the news about his dad. It wasn’t my place. So I lied. “I’m not certain. Now, shoo!” I turned him around toward the door and marched him out with my hands lightly on his little shoulders. “Go on.” I stayed there and watched to be sure he didn’t follow me back inside.

Wolf finally came around the side of the house. I pointed him in the right direction. “Have you told Paisley and Carmela?”

“They know Frank has been located. Wong may have to handcuff both of them. Carmela is ready to brawl.”

It didn’t take long for the EMTs to bring Frank up the stairs on a stretcher. He was securely bound in place so he wouldn’t shift, and they had placed a neck collar on him. I hoped he hadn’t broken his neck. His eyes were partly open but didn’t seem to register anything. I hoped for the best. He might be a jerk, but he didn’t deserve to die.

Dr. Chryssos ran up the stairs. “Looks like a bad fall. If I had to guess, I’d say he broke his neck. We’ll know as soon as they get X-rays. I’m not sure how long he’s been lying there, but I’d guess it happened during the night.”

“Any chance you can tell whether it was a chance fall, or he was pushed?” asked Wolf.

“I couldn’t do a thorough exam on him. Impossible to tell. But the fact that the lightbulb was shattered doesn’t bode well,” said Dr. Chryssos.

He and I followed Wolf to the front door where Wolf gave Wong the signal to allow Paisley and Carmela to come into the house. The two of them ran, Paisley besting Carmela by a significant margin.

“The EMTs are transporting Frank to the hospital,” Wolf told them. “You can see him on the stretcher out back as they load him into the ambulance.”

Carmela was breathless and stomped through the house, half bent over. I hoped we wouldn’t have to send her in the ambulance as well. Her condition didn’t prevent her from waggling a finger at Wolf. “You are out! When I’m through with you, you won’t have a job. And don’t think I can’t put a curse on you.”

To think I had been concerned about her!

She was out of earshot when Dr. Chryssos said sarcastically, “Charming. And she curses people, too!” He shook his head. But then he looked at me and said, “I’m told you’re not seeing anyone at the moment.”

Wolf’s head snapped toward him. “Don’t be so sure.”

“That was completely unnecessary,” I muttered at Wolf.

“Oh!” said Dr. Chryssos. “Have I been misinformed?”

I hurried to answer before Wolf could say something snide. “You have not. Wolf is just irritated because I had a chat with Bennett Bickford this morning.”

“I have no idea what time she arrived there,” Wolf teased.

“Bennett? Isn’t he a little young for you?” asked Dr. Chryssos.

“I also talk to Tommy, who is ten,” I said, and strode out the front door.

Dr. Chryssos caught up to me. “Would you care to have dinner tonight?”

“I would like that,” I said. “What time?”

“Seven? At The Laughing Hound? I know the manager. I’m sure he’ll accommodate me with a late reservation.”

“Sounds great. I’ll meet you there.” I didn’t bother telling him I knew the manager, too.

Dr. Chryssos went on his way, and I phoned Francie and Nina to see if they were available to cover for Paisley at her tent.

While I was on the phone, Tommy wandered out to the tent and waited politely while I finished my phone call. “Will my dad be okay?” he asked.

I sat down in a chair to face him eye to eye. “I hope so. He took a very bad fall down the stairs. He’s at the hospital now and the doctors will do their very best to help him get better.”

“Who pushed him?” asked Tommy.

“Why would you think someone pushed him?” I asked.

“Because they don’t like him.”

“Who doesn’t like him?”

Tommy shrugged. “I don’t know who they are. I’ve heard people talking is all.”

I opened my arms for a hug, and he laid his head on my shoulder. After a minute, I said, “I bet Mrs. Gurtz could use some help with your brothers.”

He pulled back and nodded. “Mom says we have to be nice to her because she’s old.”

“That’s probably true.”

“And her daughter has a disease and can’t help her earn money, so she’s poor.”

“That’s very sad. Another reason to be nice, huh?”

“Her grandson steals from them.”

“Ohh. That’s not nice at all!” I made a mental note to be careful what I said around Tommy. He clearly paid attention when the adults were talking.

“But I like Mrs. Gurtz no matter what. I better go help her.” Tommy ran to the gate and let himself through. I watched until he disappeared in the rear of the house.

Poor Mrs. Gurtz. Taking care of Paisley’s brood would have worn me to a frazzle. I was impressed that she could handle them.

Nina and Francie showed up fifteen minutes later, armed with a cooler of drinks and goodies to munch on. They fussed over my eye and Francie handed me a cold can to hold against my eye.

“What happened to Mars?” I asked.

“He had a meeting,” said Nina. “We thought we’d be okay with so many people around.”

“Francie, do you know a Mrs. Gurtz?” I asked.

“Sure! At one time she was the most popular cleaning woman in Old Town. Don’t tell me she died.”

“As a matter of fact, she’s in the backyard caring for the Eames boys.”

Nina perked up. “I can always use a good housekeeper.”

“Lordy, Nina, she might be older than me,” said Francie. She whispered when she said, “I don’t think she can do in-depth cleaning anymore. I hear a lot of her clients keep her on because they know she needs the money. Her husband had a good job, but the man did not believe in saving. He was a live-in-the-moment kind of guy. Then he died and her daughter got sick. I forget what she has, but most days she can barely get out of bed, so it’s up to Mrs. Gurtz to support her, too.”

“I heard something about a grandson?”

“Last I heard he was out west somewhere. Mrs. Gurtz put together every last penny she could find to bail him out of jail for theft and that crumb bucket ran off. Never showed for his court date. She lost every cent. Good riddance, I say!”

“She seems very nice, but her life is so hard,” I observed.

“That’s how it is sometimes,” said Francie. “The people with the biggest troubles keep them to themselves and smile so pleasantly that you’d never suspect the problems that plague their daily existence.”

I left Nina and Francie and walked the festival area, taking care of minor matters. News about Frank had spread fast and I found myself answering questions. Most people asked if he was all right. I had no good answer for that. But the second most commonly asked question worried me—was it true that he had murdered Lark?

If he had, who would have thrown him down the stairs? The possibilities were frightening. Paisley or Bennett led the pack. Surely not little Tommy. Could Humphrey have done something like that to avenge Lark’s death? I didn’t know of a reason for Frank to have murdered Dulci, but Emery would certainly have been able to knock Frank down the basement stairs.

I hoped that when he came around Frank would be able to tell the doctors who had pushed him. It was certainly possible that he had fallen, but Dr. Chryssos had made an astute observation about the broken lightbulb. I had to remember to call him Peter tonight!

The day was passing quickly. So many of the vendors asked me about next year’s festival that I went home at one o’clock and posted an online vendor application form for the following year offering a discount to those who signed up early. I hadn’t planned to run the festival the next year but, except for the early hours, it was sort of like a vacation for me since I was close to home. I let Daisy and Muppet out for a few minutes, then shared a lunch snack of leftovers with them. I checked my eye before I left. Holding ice against it had grown old fast. It looked awful. And there was no amount of makeup that could hide it. My vision was fine though. I was grateful for that. I located sunglasses that weren’t quite large enough to cover the spreading bruise and slid them on. I gave each dog a cookie, locked the door, and went back to work.

As I walked to the tents, I looked up at the beautiful blue sky and the sun. The heat and mugginess of summer would appear soon, but the timing of the festival couldn’t have been better. Not a single day of rain.

But the lovely day led me to think about poor Frank, who wasn’t enjoying it. I phoned Wolf to find out if he had an update on Frank’s condition.

“He broke his neck when he fell and is now in surgery,” said Wolf. “They’re hoping it didn’t impact his spinal cord.”

“How are the two Mrs. Eameses getting along? Did the tragedy bring them together?”

Wolf snorted. “I think we can be very glad that we’re not part of that family. We had to put them in separate waiting rooms. Hospital security is keeping an eye on them.”

I thanked him and asked him to stay in touch with updates.

I had reached the vendor area and slowed my pace because of the crowds. Francie and Nina looked comfortable in Paisley’s tent but much of the furniture was gone.

“What happened here?” I asked.

“We’re news central on Frank Eames,” said Francie. “Everybody is coming by to ask how he is.”

“And while they’re here they see Paisley’s beautiful furniture and buy pieces. And a couple of people have picked up pieces they bought earlier,” said Nina. “People know this is their last chance to buy until next year.”

I noticed that the gorgeous armoire was gone.

Nina gestured toward a chair. “The crime scene investigators are in the house. What do you think happened to Frank?”

I sat down and tried to organize my thoughts. “Paisley said Frank left the house last night and never came home. He could have gone somewhere else, I don’t know about that, but he clearly came to Lark’s house. When I looked around this morning, I thought the main floor looked like it had been ransacked.”

“He was searching for the crown jewels,” said Nina.

“Or he encountered someone else who was looking for them,” suggested Francie.

“It seems obvious that two people were there. He might have even taken someone with him. Whoever left him there must have thought he was dead. Frank was lucky in that respect,” I said.

“So that means the second person was already there, a friend who went with him, or arrived later and found him looking for the crown jewels,” Nina summarized.

“I wonder if Frank had found the jewels and a fight ensued over them,” said Francie. “That would account for the fall down the stairs.”

My voice came out rather grim when I said, “Someone bothered to break the lightbulb at the top of the stairs. That means someone planned to push him down.”