Lacey, who was extremely intuitive, sensed that the morning hadn't gone too smoothly for me. She kept the banter light and enjoyable or at least light and enjoyable for two women who loved a good murder mystery. She caught me up to speed on all the evidence she had uncovered in the Hawksworth murders. It sounded so intriguing, I was instantly envious that I, too, didn't have some century old mystery to solve. Then I reminded myself that even though it wasn't a murder, unraveling the reason for why Edward Beckett had been caught between two worlds was no small bowl of peaches. I hoped to get back to my research into the life of James Henry Milton, Edward's son, as soon as I had time.
I pulled the jeep up to the curb in front of Minnie's Shop of Magick. Jackson's car and two black and whites were parked out front. Obviously, the shop was closed to customers. I put the jeep in park. "I suppose I should have expected them to be here this morning."
"Actually, that works in our favor," Lacey said. "Now we'll be able to get inside and sniff around for clues." She tapped her nose, then slumped back. "I just remembered the embarrassing sneeze fit I broke into when I walked in there yesterday. It might be impossible for me to smell anything between all the—well, all the smells."
"We can certainly nose around though." I unfastened my seatbelt. "As long as a certain someone allows us to come inside, which he probably will if he doesn't want the cold shoulder for the rest of the weekend."
Right then, Jackson stepped out of the shop and into the sunshine, a ray of light seemed to come through the trees just to illuminate him in all his handsome glory.
Lacey turned to me. "I'll bet it's really hard giving that man the cold shoulder."
"Yes, I was talking brave and like a big shot, but in truth, you are right. He just has to flash those amber orbs and that smile my way and I'm melted butter."
Lacey sighed. "Yep, it's the same for me. Only James has brown eyes." She opened the door. "Let's go solve this murder, partner."
"I'm with ya." We climbed out of the jeep.
Jackson's smile greeted us. "Yep, that's a butter melter," Lacey muttered from the side of her mouth as we reached him.
"Why am I not surprised to see you two at this particular location this fine morning," Jackson said.
I patted my purse. "Just out doing a little shopping. That's all."
"In Hickory Flats?" He glanced at the shop behind him. "And at a magic shop, no less."
I waved my hand at him. "All right, let's dispense with the charade. Lacey and I are here to do a little snooping around. Just like me, she knows her way around a possible crime scene so we won't be in anybody's way."
"I guess you two can look around. But be careful. Someone pushed over a few of the shelves. Terrifying scene," he said with a dose of sarcasm. "There are broken candles, handmade soaps and crystals all over the place."
"That does sound horrifying. We'll be cautious. Do you think it was some kind of robbery? Why would someone push over displays?" I asked.
"Maybe they just wanted to make it look like a robbery," Lacey suggested.
Jackson nodded. "That's probably the case. The coroner says she died of asphyxiation by suffocation. He says there wasn't much sign of struggle, so that makes the scene inside the shop more confusing. Her twin sister, Etta, came to identify the body this morning. She was distraught enough that she had to be rolled out in a wheelchair. Her housekeeper accompanied her. Both women left sobbing and shaken. She died between two and five in the afternoon, a good seven hours before she was discovered. "
I nodded at Lacey. "That gives us some solid information."
"Uh oh, I forgot about the double trouble team combining forces. Remember my rules," he started.
"Yes, I remember them . . . sort of," I said.
"Maybe you should recite them so Lacey can hear them too," he suggested.
Lacey put up her finger. "Let me see—stay out of trouble." She tilted her head side to side. "That's sort of a given. Stay clear of killers and don't ever approach a suspect. Not necessarily in that order."
"Impressive," Jackson said.
"Not really. I hear the same set of rules from my boyfriend, Detective James Briggs."
Jackson smiled. "I think Briggs and I should exchange stories sometime. Seems like we'd have a lot to talk about." He led us to the front door of the shop and motioned us to step inside. He didn't follow but popped his head in to speak to the two officers searching for evidence. "Officer Pierce, these two women are going to check out the scene. They know not to touch anything, and they won't get in your way." He winked at me. "I'm off on another case. I'll call you later."
Lacey and I walked around a fallen cabinet. Minnie's colorful crystals were strewn about the floor like rocks on the beach. "Do you think Minnie was murdered right here in the shop?" Lacey asked.
I stopped and looked around. Certain shelves, the lighter ones, had been pushed over to create a sense of havoc as if a massive, terrible fight had occurred. But it looked more staged than violent. "I think the killer was trying to set the scene, make it look as if a wild brawl had happened, but it feels sort of—"
"Fake?" Lacey asked. "Like they picked and chose which displays to push over."
"Exactly." I stepped back and nearly tripped over a broken candle. "I can almost see the person, you know, rubbing their chin and trying to figure out what to topple to create the biggest mess to distract the investigators." I peered over at the officers. One was on his phone and the other was lifting some of the fallen debris, looking for evidence.
I lifted my foot to avoid some handmade bars of soaps and managed to step right into a slippery mess of spilled body lotion. "Great, so much for me not disturbing anything." I reached inside my purse for a tissue to wipe the bottom of my shoe. "Wait, the rug is missing. Minnie had it right here in the center of the room."
"That's right. That was the rug wrapped around Minnie's body. And if the lotions are all over the floor, that proves the killer did this after the fact. Just like we thought, to make it seem as if there had been a fight. But Minnie was probably already dead and wrapped in the rug when the killer pushed over the displays."
"I would high five you right now"—I glanced over at the officers who both looked to be early twenties—"but I think we'd be dating ourselves."
"We'll just pretend we did it." She reached up and rubbed her nose.
"Are the smells getting to you?"
"A little. It's all the spilled lotions and soaps. I prepared myself for the onslaught of fragrances I encountered yesterday, but everything is magnified now that the stuff is spilled everywhere."
"This place is a mess. Now that we know it was just a staged scene, I doubt we'll find anything worthwhile." I took one last survey of the shop. "I don't understand how Minnie was suffocated standing in her own shop. The usual go-to device for suffocation is a pillow over someone's face in bed. Or did the killer knock her out and put her body in the trunk, then she suffocated inside?"
"But the coroner would have found a head wound or some signs of violence if she had been knocked unconscious." Lacey turned her head and covered a sneeze.
"Good point. Boy, this double trouble thing kind of works. Now, let's get you out of here and give your olfactory cells a break. I've got an idea of where to go next."