Twenty

My blood ran cold.

Addi still clutched Dave’s hand and looked at him like he was wonderful. I had no reason to imagine that she had set the fire. But it was beginning to appear that someone wanted to be rid of Dovie.

In fact, it opened a whole other realm of possibilities. The most important one, perhaps, being that the person who set the fire might have sent Dovie the email firing her and added the other two as a cover.

“Do they have any suspects?” I asked.

Dave tore his eyes away from Addi’s. “Um, no. Not that I’m aware of.” He stared at me for a moment, as though he was thinking. “Did Judge Barlow call you?”

“No. As a matter of fact, I’m just headed that way.”

He glanced at Addi. “I was there this morning. Be sure he tells you about it.”

I squinted at him. He didn’t want to say more in front of Addi? Before she could ask, I changed the subject. “Are you still planning to visit Louisa today, Addi?”

She glanced at her watch. “I’m late! They’ll be waiting for me.”

She stumbled in her hurry to rush back, but Dave caught her. “I’ll walk over to the inn with you.”

They were sweet together and clearly had a strong mutual attraction. I liked Addi so much. But it worried me that she had ties that linked her to everyone in this mess. She’d been in love with Seth. Of all the WAG Ladies, she had the strongest connection to Wagtail. And her main contact in Wagtail was the judge, who was having mysterious issues of his own. As fond as I was of Addi, I couldn’t help feeling leery. She seemed to be in the middle of the peculiar things that were happening.

I watched them walk off, wondering if Dave had the same reservations.

Trixie and I continued to Judge Barlow’s house. I was a block away when I spotted Dovie behind a tree in the yard across the street from Judge Barlow’s place. Trixie raced toward her. As I neared, I heard Dovie saying, “Shoo, Trixie! You’ll give me away!”

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“You wouldn’t have seen me if it hadn’t been for Trixie.”

That wasn’t true, but there was no point in squabbling about it. “Are you spying on the judge?”

“I want to see who’s in there. Do you think he hired a new housekeeper? And by the way, it’s not Rose. She has walked past me four times.”

Good grief. All his admirers had come to spy on him. Sure enough, Aunt Birdie marched toward us and nearly collided with Rose.

Mae Swinesbury, the judge’s neighbor, emerged from her house and watched us from her porch. After a moment, she joined us. “What’s going on out here?”

I tried to make light of the situation. “Everyone is worried about the judge, but no one wants to admit it.”

“Worried? Well, I must say I wondered why Dovie didn’t arrive for work this morning.”

“Dovie, come out from behind the tree.”

Mae raised her eyebrows. “Are you hiding from someone?”

I waited for Birdie and Rose to reach us. “I’m sure he’s fine, Mae. It’s just that no one heard from him today, so we’re going to check on him. Now, ladies, I’m going in there to have a chat with the judge. And you may not come with me.”

They protested quite vehemently, but their pleas didn’t sway me one bit. I crossed the street and knocked on the judge’s door.

He swung it open eagerly, but then his expression turned to disappointment. “Oh, it’s you.”

I seemed to be getting that unenthusiastic greeting a lot. Fritz was far more welcoming toward Trixie.

“Well, I’m glad you’re here anyway,” he said. “I had a hostile visitor. It was horrible. I had to call Dave.”

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“My nerves are shattered, I can tell you that.”

“Who was it?”

“We don’t know. He banged and made sinister noises.”

The judge looked quite fine. Fritz stood beside him, wagging his tail.

“May we come in for a moment?” I asked.

He looked right past me and waved at his trio of admirers as though he was thrilled to see them.

“I’d like to have a quick word alone before they come in.”

His smile faded. “If you must.”

Trixie and Fritz engaged in canine social niceties, but I followed the judge into the kitchen. It looked like a hurricane had blown through. “What happened in here?”

Fritz and Trixie trotted in, skidding on what appeared to be flour on the floor. Noses down, they sniffed out a cracked egg with a broken yolk flooding out of it, a blackened slice of toast that had been ineffectively scraped, and the entire contents of a can of tuna, which they politely shared.

“Dovie didn’t come this morning, so I fixed breakfast for Fritz and me.”

“You had tuna for breakfast?”

“To be honest, we didn’t have much breakfast. The toaster is impossible. Everything comes out charred. I tried my hand at pancakes, but that didn’t go very well, either. I thought I’d move on to tuna for lunch.”

“So you didn’t fire Dovie?”

“No, of course not.”

“Did you write emails to Rose and Birdie asking them not to come around?”

“Why would I do that?”

It dawned on me that if someone were listening to his conversations, they could hear every word we were saying. That might not be a good thing.

I signaled for him to go into the forest-like conservatory. “Wait for me here, please.” I returned to the foyer, where I opened the door and gestured for the three ladies to come in. I held my finger up to my lips, just as Rose had when I had visited before.

There was no stopping the gasps and shrieks when we walked into the kitchen. They followed me into the conservatory, and I closed the door. Fritz and Trixie came, too, with a good bit of flour dusting their noses and tuna breath when they panted.

“The judge denies having sent you emails. Dovie, you are not fired. Aunt Birdie and Rose, you are welcome here.”

“One of you two must have fired me!” Dovie pointed at Rose and Birdie.

An indignant squabble ensued that was so annoying I was tempted to throw them all out. “Please! Quiet, everyone!”

They settled down but threw nasty glances at one another.

“If it should turn out to be one of you who sent the emails, the rest of us will be sorely aggravated, and rightly so. I suggest you confess now so we can put it behind us.”

They eyed one another but didn’t utter a peep. I felt like a schoolmarm trying to find out who threw the ball at another pupil. “All right, then. We will assume that none of you sent the emails. But that means someone else did.”

Rose frowned at me. “I hate to be stupid, but how could anyone send an email with Grant’s name and email address on it?”

“There are programs that make that possible.” No sooner were the words out of my mouth than I realized that was proof that none of them had sent the emails. The judge could have, of course, but he was crotchety by nature and wasn’t likely to have denied it. Not to mention the fact that he seemed quite relieved that his lady friends were there. None of them were dense, but they probably weren’t sophisticated computer-wise, and pulling a stunt like this would have been a big effort for one of them.

The culprit had to be younger and more computer savvy. Just like the person listening in on the judge’s conversations. In fact, it was very likely the exact same person, oddly intent on disrupting the judge’s life.

They all stared at me, expecting me to clear it up for them. “I’m going to ask you not to speak of this with anyone else. Someone is trying to manipulate you, but I have no idea why. If you suspect anyone or notice anything odd, I want you to tell D—” I broke off. “—me right away.”

Dave’s name had been on my lips, but his new love for Addi was worrisome in this regard. Maybe it was best not to mention it to him. “All right?”

The three women began to chatter as if they were friends. Which they were, I supposed. And there was nothing like a common enemy to unite people. But Rose’s secret would be out of the bag now that Aunt Birdie knew about it. Had she given up on her privacy?

One other thing still bothered me. “Judge Barlow, why didn’t you phone Dovie when she didn’t come in this morning?”

A bit sheepishly, he said, “I thought she had quit. I was harsh with her at the gala.”

Dovie wrapped an arm around the judge. “We’ve had words before. Last night wasn’t any different. Both of us are opinionated and say what we think.”

He smiled. “It was Theona who kept us levelheaded.”

“Now that’s the truth! She always helped us find a way around our differences.”

I said goodbye, but Fritz was the only one who noticed Trixie and me leaving. He walked us to the front door like a proper host. He sat down, not at all interested in zooming outside. I closed the door behind us and wondered again about the day he’d gone missing.

Had Dovie accidentally let him out as the story went? Or had someone else intentionally let Fritz out to upset the judge? Had that been the first stunt?

At this point, I wasn’t sure I could eliminate anyone completely. But I now worried that the person who was trying to upset the judge might be closer to him than anyone had imagined.

I walked back to the inn, knowing I should be concentrating on Seth’s murder. But part of me felt like the pranks on Judge Barlow should be easier to figure out. I couldn’t drag Rose away from the judge right now, but I needed some information from her.

Oma texted me as I walked. Trixie and I headed for the reception lobby. Oma was in the office.

She held out a check.

It was written by Joanne Williams. “Did you cash it for her?” I asked.

“Zelda gave her the money. It wasn’t an enormous amount, so it didn’t concern me very much.”

“Have you tried to deposit it?” I asked.

“Not yet. I should like to know more about the circumstances in which she finds herself first. Perhaps it would be wise to inquire about her situation before shopkeepers and restaurateurs line up at my door with complaints.”

“I gather that job falls to me?”

“You seem to be friends with them.”

I nodded. That wasn’t exactly the case, but it was part of the job.

As I walked by the registration desk, Zelda called out to me.

“Hey, Holly! You’ll never guess who claimed that grubby T-shirt. Louisa!”

“The one with the Walley World logo on it?”

“The very same. She saw it when I was straightening the lost-and-found box and seemed sort of upset about it.”

“Thanks, Zelda.” Could there be a connection between Walley World and Brenda’s brother, Wallace? Unlikely, I thought. But if my name were Wallace, I might wear a shirt like that as a joke.

I walked through the hallway to the main lobby, Trixie at my heels.

As it turned out, the WAG Ladies hadn’t left for the hospital yet. They were gathered in the Dogwood Room with Dave. Had one of the shopkeepers complained to him about Joanne?

It appeared that all of them were talking at once. I caught mention of Louisa.

“What happened?” I asked. “Is Louisa okay?”

“It’s Hershey!” wailed Joanne. “He’s gone! I can’t find him anywhere.”

“She let him off leash because he was having so much fun exploring the inn,” explained Dave, “but now she can’t find him.”

“Do you have a photo of him?” I asked. “I can put it online so residents can let us know if they see him.”

“Would you?” She asked for my email address and sent a photo immediately.

“You go ahead and visit Louisa. We’ll be on the lookout for Hershey on this end.”

“I think I should pass.” Joanne’s impeccable composure began to crack.

I understood what she was going through. I had lost track of Trixie a few times. “You stay here with me. I’ll make you a cup of coffee. Give me a minute to post Hershey’s picture. I’ll be right back.”

I hurried to the reception lobby and posted a missing-cat notice to the residents of Wagtail along with his photo. He was gorgeous, with ruddy fur and a fluffy plume of a tail. His copper eyes looked like they glowed.

When Trixie and I returned to the lobby, Joanne was gazing out the window, her arms wrapped around herself so that her hands clutched her elbows. Almost a self-hug.

“He’s so distinctive,” I said. “I’m sure someone will spot him and contact us.”

She continued to stare out the window. “Have you ever gone through a phase in your life when everything went wrong?”

I had to stop myself from laughing. She probably wouldn’t appreciate that, and it might sound like I was making light of her troubles. Had I ever gone through a bad patch! “When I came back to Wagtail, Oma was sick, I thought I hit a man on the road, I had lost my job, my boyfriend was being a total jerk, and then he texted a proposal to me. Oh! And Trixie jumped into his car wet, spilled coffee all over the carpet, then tore open a bag of nacho chips, and mashed them into the wet carpet while she was snarfing them. Nothing was going right.”

She finally turned to look at me. “You seem to have landed on your feet. Are you still with the boyfriend?”

“No. But I have a new one who is far more wonderful.”

She took a breath so deep it must have been painful. “I’ve lost everything. Hershey is all I have left.”

Mr. Huckle cleared his throat. “Excuse me. Your grandmother has suggested I bring you some tea.”

“That would be lovely! Thank you. Perhaps in the private garden?” I asked.

“You ladies go right ahead. I’ll only be a minute.”

“This way.” Joanne followed me through the private kitchen and out to Oma’s garden. A small table and chairs were surrounded by zinnias, petunias, herbs, and tomato plants.

Mr. Huckle was right behind us with a tray of tea and a tiered server loaded with tiny sandwiches and cakes.

When he left, Joanne leaned toward me. “I must say you have the good life with your own butler.”

“There’s another story of being down on your luck. Oma hired Mr. Huckle when he lost his position. Now he’s like family and spoils us terribly.”

Joanne sipped her tea. “It’s nice being out here in the mountains. It’s as though time has stopped and other things are important. No one is running to meetings and trying to fit more into an already packed schedule.”

“I’m glad you feel that way. That’s how life should be when you’re on vacation.”

Her hand shook as she lowered her teacup to the saucer. Her voice was a mere whisper. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when I go home. I’d like to stretch out the days as long as I can. I’m afraid to go.”

I had a feeling we were getting around to her financial problem. “Why would that be?” I picked up a cream puff and bit into it.

“My husband took everything and left me. He was supposed to come here with Oriana’s husband, but instead, during my absence, he wiped out our bank accounts, both business and personal. It’s all gone. I’m going to have to sell the house, but it’s mortgaged, so there won’t be enough proceeds to save the business. He closed our credit cards and cashed out our investments.”

Her breath shuddered. “You know what really gets me? How long he must have been planning this. I started the business all by myself. When we married, I thought I had a partner. He was so helpful, so interested in every facet of the business. Now I have to wonder at what point he decided to steal everything I had worked for. Was it before the marriage? Was that why he married me? Was he a con artist all along? Or did there come a day when my dear husband thought to himself, I’m out of here and I’m taking it all?”