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I swung by Bitter Beans to officially close up shop and make sure that Captain was fed, but when I reached into my pocket to get my keys, I found an unpleasant surprise.
"Oh crap!" I exclaimed, looking around. Georgia's book was missing. It was too dark to find it now. Johnny and I had gone on all of those carnival rides and there's that whole thing about securing loose items. It could have gone flying off anywhere. I cursed and then heaved out a huge sigh. It was like this book was doing everything it could to not be read by me. I calmed myself and decided I'd just have to ask Johnny to steal his dad's copy when his dad was passed out on the couch some night.
Captain was thrilled to see me and I realized that neither of us really wanted to be alone while Granny wasn't around. I told myself staying at her place would mean less of a commute the next day, but really, I just wanted to be around places that had her touch.
I pulled the number of the mainland hospital out of my jeans pocket and dialed. In a few minutes, reception had connected me to Granny's room.
"Paige!" Granny exclaimed.
"How are you feeling?" I asked.
She shushed away my concerns. "Right as rain. I have no idea why these fools are keeping me here. I'll be home tomorrow."
I wanted to ask her all about Georgia's book and what happened in the back room, but the nurse's caution not to stress her out haunted me.
"I'm so glad you're feeling better" were the words that finally came out of my mouth.
"Such a fuss! I was just feeling a little woozy," she said. "They said someone tried to poison me! Craziest thing I ever heard. Horse tranquilizers! Do they think I'm a pony?"
"Any idea who might have done it?" I asked.
"The whole night's a little fuzzy," she replied. "We were there at Wanda's—"
"HI PAIGE!" shouted Wanda in the background.
I felt a wave of relief that Granny wasn't alone there at the hospital. If a positive outlook helped people to recover faster, Wanda would have Granny back to her old self in no time.
"And then I went to the Founders' Festival to enjoy the night air," Granny continued, "but I got a message that Georgia's books had come in and were being held at the ferry terminal. They said I had to go pick them up right away if I didn't want to pay overnight storage fees. So I went over and someone helped me load them into the back room..." Granny's voice trailed off. "I saw so many people and ate so many things, there's no telling what happened."
"You can't remember who helped you?" I pressed.
"A total blank." I could hear her sigh on the other line. "It is what it is, Paige. It's a small island and eventually, someone will hear something. But I don't want you out there trying to solve this mystery. Probably just some dumb prank by an idiot teenager."
"But Granny—"
She cut me off. "I almost lost you when Jake went off the deep end. I want you to leave this alone. We'll tackle it together when I get back."
"Okay," I lied, trying to be supportive. I didn't dare risk saying anything more, so instead, I changed the subject. "Is Wanda staying all night with you? Does she need me to find her a hotel?"
"Oh, she's got her daughter over here on the mainland. She's going to spend the day with her and then come get me tomorrow afternoon when they let me go. We'll have a nice little ride back on the ferry. Who knows, maybe pick ourselves up a couple of sailors."
I laughed. Leave it to Granny to find the bright spot in the middle of a storm. "I'm glad that you've got someone there. Should I call Mom?" I asked.
"Don't you dare!" Granny replied in horror. "I swear to St. Elvis Presley that if you call that mother of yours and tell her what happened, I will fire you so quick it'll make your head spin."
"She'd want to know..." I replied.
"She'll get in a huff and come out here and next thing you know, she'll be shuttling me off to some old person's home. Everything is FINE."
I heaved a big sigh. I was going to get read the riot act if Mom ever found out what happened and that I hadn't told her. "Okay, but if this gets out? I'm telling her it's your fault."
"Well, I'm not going to tell her," said Granny.
"I WON'T TELL HER!" shouted Wanda.
"And neither will I," I replied.
"Problem solved! Now, you just hold down the fort for me and I'll be back before you even miss me."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
Captain came over and booped my leg with his fuzzy head. I picked him up and he meowed into the receiver. "Captain says sweet dreams!"
"Sweet dreams to the two of you! I love you both!" Granny replied and then hung up the phone.
Talking to her made me feel a little better. I was still not thrilled with the whole situation, but the huge weight hanging over my head seemed to lighten by at least 20lbs. I took out the trash and fed Captain. I swept up as he played and left him downstairs to do his cat thing as late as he needed to do it while I crawled into Granny's bed upstairs.
It felt like the alarm went off the moment my head hit the pillow. I got up, got showered, and headed down to the shop. I got the baking done and then was slammed from the moment the doors opened until a couple hours before noon. The nice thing is that when you're so busy, you don't even realize how quickly the time is passing. I felt really bad, though. Our credit card machine kept denying people's cards.
"I am so sorry," I apologized handing the card back to yet another customer. "We seem to be having an issue with our reader."
At least this woman didn't apologetically back away and say to void the transaction. Instead, she began rifling through her purse. "No, I'm sure I have cash—" Her voice stopped as she looked at her phone. "Oh no!" she exclaimed as she read the screen.
"What is it?"
"My card has been stolen," she replied, showing me the notification from her bank.
"I am so sorry!" I said, feeling bad for her but a little better for us in that it wasn't our equipment.
She pulled out another card. "Try this one."
It rang through without a problem and I handed over her coffee. "Did you use it anywhere else today?"
"All over," she sighed. "It could have been swiped anywhere. I forgot to buy a return ferry ticket, so I grabbed one this morning, and then a couple things over at the Founders' Festival, I grabbed a t-shirt at... what's it called? Wanda's Place? OH! And some lures at that bait shop. I'm doing a shadow box." she replied. "So strange."
Wanda was over with Granny. "I didn't know Wanda's shop was open..." I stated.
"Oh," she replied, puzzled by my reaction. "It was totally open for business."
"I'll have to run over," I mumbled, noting I needed to find out who had opened Wanda's shop while she was out of town.
"Nicest gentleman there. Red hair... glasses..."
"Oh," I said. "That's Tim. He owns the bait shop."
"AH!" she replied. "So nice that you help each other out. Small town living, huh?"
But in my mind, I started thinking about how Tim had been the first person on the scene when Granny had fallen. He was the one who knew we weren't in the shop. Had he gone up to Granny's room and taken her book? And now he was running Wanda's store?
But before I could ask her any more questions, Nate came running in, breathless.
"Paige," he said. "It's an emergency. Johnny needs you."
I turned to the two customers. "I have to go." We shooed them out. I hated that we were basically sending business to Yvette's café when I had sworn to Granny I would hold down the fort, but I hoped she'd understand that it was for Johnny. I ripped my apron off over my head and dashed towards the door, locking it behind me. Nate grabbed my hand and we ran to the beach.
Johnny was sitting there, cradling Linda's limp body in his arms and moaning low. I ran up to him and threw my arms around him, wrapping him up so that he knew he would be safe. Stan and Fred were running along the top of the cliff, trying to figure out how to get down to the beach.
"Oh, Paige, she's dead. I know she's dead..." he said.
I took Linda's pulse. "She isn't dead," I replied, but I had some suspicions about what was going on.
Officers Stan and Fred were on the sandy shores, rolling out their Police Line tape and shooing back the tourists.
"Linda," replied, Johnny, burying his face into her shoulder. "I think I loved her, Paige."
"You broke up with her," I said, the sentence falling out of my mouth before I realized how callous it sounded. "I mean, I know that you had feelings for her, Johnny, but—"
"Maybe if I hadn't broken up with her," he sniffled. "Maybe then she wouldn't have gone off and gotten murdered."
"Whoa! Whoa. Whoa," said Nate, kneeling down beside him. "You did nothing that 'got her murdered.' She's still alive. The EMTs will be here any minute."
"She said she wanted to have a picnic to talk things out and wanted to meet me here. But when I got here, she was like this."
Stan came walking over, hitching up his pants. "Yep. Most definitely attempted murder." He held up a knife covered in red. "Look familiar, Paige?"
"A knife covered in cherry syrup?"
He looked at it. "Oh. Well. I hadn't tested it yet. It being evidence and all." He squinted at Linda. "Are you sure she hasn't been stabbed?"
"No. No, she hasn't been stabbed." It took a few moments for the cogs in my brain to engage, but they did. "Stan?" I asked. "What were the contents in Georgia's stomach?"
"You mean aside from the poisoned cinnamon rolls your grandmother brought over?" he replied as he stared intently at the knife, still trying to figure out whether it was blood or jelly.
"Stan, I need you to answer me honestly. Was there any cherry pie in there? Grenadine? Anything cherry flavored?"
"Cherry flavoring! Now what crazy—" he stopped himself. "As a matter of fact, I don't know."
"Don't you see!" I practically shouted at him.
"Don't I see what?"
"Georgia was killed by an overdose of horse tranquilizers which caused her heart to stop. Granny was also poisoned with horse tranquilizers."
Stan squinted at me. "What does that have to do with cherry pie?"
"When I discovered Granny, there were fingerprints. Red fingerprints left there by cherry syrup, but they were on the wall. She also had red fingerprints on her shirt, like someone touched the back of her shirt or... pushed her."
"But why would that have anything to do with Georgia?"
"I was over at Georgia's trailer," I said.
"Doing what?" he challenged, folding his arms and glaring at me.
"I just went over there to see if there were any clues. A raccoon startled me, though, so I decided to leave." I left out the part that I only had decided to leave after I had searched Georgia's place. "In the garbage was a napkin stained by what looked like cherry juice."
"Sooo..." said Stan, trying to follow my trail, "you think the same person who killed Georgia tried to kill your Granny?"
"Yes."
"And this Shirley Temple Pieman tried to kill Linda the same way?"
I pointed at the knife covered in cherry filling that he was holding in his hand. "I think so," I said.
"Shirley Temple Pieman," chuckled Stan to himself. He slapped his thigh in delight. "I just thought that up myself. Because of the grenadine! And the cherry pie!" He recovered and then screwed his face into a serious look. "No. This is an obvious case of some junkie OD-ing. She probably spiked herself with mushrooms and angel dust and heroin and whatever else it is kids are doing these days."
Johnny began moaning again and rocking Linda's body back and forth.
"Stan, you can't be serious," I said. "Linda is not a junkie."
"Look who she's hanging out with," he replied, pointing at Johnny with disgust.
"Seriously, man," Johnny said to Stan. "All I did was come down here for a picnic, which she set up and I found her here."
"Nope," said Stan, shaking his head. "This has absolutely nothing to do with any of the other stuff going on. Your Granny had a motive. She had all those books and she never paid Georgia. And I must say, from what I've read, there's some preeeettty saucy stuff in there, if I do say so myself."
"Could I get a copy?" I asked.
"No can do. Official police evidence," he replied.
"Not even if it might be able to help us crack this case?"
"Listen here, missy. If anyone is going to crack this case, it is going to be Fred and me. And you know why? Because we're the law around these parts. Not you. Not your little friends here. Fred and me. And if there's foul play, we'll get to the bottom of it. I guarantee. We shall leave no pie tin unturned."
"Just..." I breathed deep. "Could you just check with the coroner? Just ask about the contents of Georgia's stomach?"
Stan was not buying it. "Seems pretty far-fetched."
Officer Fred suddenly interrupted us. He called out as he struggled across the sand. "Hey, Stan! I may have some evidence!" He dropped the wicker picnic basket next to Stan and fell to his knees in exhaustion. He wiped his brow with the back of his shirt sleeve. "It was over by the rocks. Looks like she was setting up a lunch or something." He flipped open the top. Sitting there at the bottom of the basket was a cherry pie. A small slice had been removed. "Should I take it over to the precinct to 'test' it? Maybe with a cup of coffee?" Fred asked, his eyes lighting up.
"NO!" Johnny, Nate, and I shouted in horror.
"What's up with them?" Fred asked, a little miffed.
"There's a cherry pie in her basket and she ate a slice and now she is passed out," I said, spelling out the evidence for Stan.
"This proves nothing!" Stan denied.
"Okay," I said, trying to talk him down. "You have the pie. Just... test it. Would you please just test it before the two of you eat it?"
Stan muttered something under his breath at me, but I think I may have gotten through to him.
We were interrupted by the EMTs running out to where we were with a stretcher. The person in front was Tim from the bait shop, who was supposedly running Wanda's store today. Why was he always the first one on scene?
As the other EMT took her vitals, Tim came over to talk to Johnny, but he paused first and asked me, "Are you okay?" he asked. "This seems awfully familiar."
"Another poisoning," I said, trying to shake off my ridiculous suspicions. "Just like Granny. Who could be doing this?"
He shook his head and gave a low whistle. "Another one?"
"It looks like," confirmed Nate.
"Just not right that your family has been in the center of all this recent trouble, Paige. Last month, Jake and that murder. Now, this." Tim rested his hand on my arm. "You take care of yourself." He turned to Johnny and said, "And we'll take good care of this little lady. I need to ask you a couple questions about how she was when you found her."
"Should I come with you in the ambulance?" Johnny asked.
"Did you know her?"
"She was my girlfriend," replied Johnny. "We just broke up yesterday."
Tim nodded in understanding. "It would be great to have you along."
He and the other EMT moved Linda's body onto the stretcher and as they carried her off, I heard Johnny ask, "So, can I turn on the siren?"
As we stood there watching them go, Stan remarked, "I'm still thinking it was your Granny."
"She's not even here!" I pointed out. "She's in a hospital! Under medical supervision! After being poisoned herself!"
"Details," said Stan. He waved at Fred to move out, and they slowly plodded their way across the sand, leaving Nate and me in horror and shock.
"Don't you dare eat a single piece of pie until we get to the bottom of this," I warned.
"You have yourself a deal," he replied.
As we began to walk back towards Bitter Beans, I happened to glance up at the top of the bluff. Doyle was standing there, just watching us. As soon as he caught me watching him, he flicked his cigarette onto the beach and walked away.
It made me wonder what all he had seen.