Death Rides a Pony, page 21
As the ambulance drove off with its lights flashing and siren blaring, the sisters were left standing on the sidewalk in front of the boutique, still wearing their robes, watching the vehicle maneuver through the narrow street.
‘Is it too early in the day,’ Summer said after a long moment, ‘for me to pour us a couple of stiff drinks?’
TWENTY-TWO
Half an hour later, Hope and Summer were once again in their garden, but with neither coffee mugs nor liquor glasses in their hands. They had barely finished dressing before Detective Nate and a team of sundry investigators had arrived at the brownstone. It turned out that Nate had received news of the attack on Sean through the emergency services, and he was more than a little displeased that he had not been informed by the sisters directly.
‘Were you ever planning on reporting the incident to me?’ Nate asked them in a stiff tone.
Hope and Summer were sitting on one of the rattan settees on the patio while the detective stood in front of them, the toe of his scuffed shoe tapping impatiently against the equally scuffed leg of the resin coffee table.
‘Of course we were,’ Summer said. ‘Everything just happened so quickly. Wouldn’t you like to sit down?’ she added, gesturing toward the neighboring settee while offering Nate a conciliatory smile.
She had apparently used that smile with him once too often, because he responded with a harrumph rather than a smile of his own.
Summer’s tone stiffened in kind. ‘There was no delay on our part. Sorrel called for an ambulance immediately.’
‘Who is Sorrel? What was she doing here? And how is she connected to Sean and/or Davis Scott?’
At the litany of questions, Summer folded her arms across her chest. ‘She is Sorrel Packard of Sorrel’s Sachets. While on her way to the festival this morning, she dropped off a cutting from a plant that she had promised me. And as far as we’re aware, she has no connection to either Sean or Davis.’
Nate harrumphed again. ‘How certain are you of that last fact?’
‘Are you suggesting—’ Summer began sharply.
In an effort to keep things amicable, Hope interjected, ‘In the short time that we’ve been acquainted with Sorrel, she has never once mentioned Davis or alluded to the events on the carousel. With regard to Sean, when we initially discovered him in the garden, Sorrel didn’t even know his name. She only recognized him as having been at Amethyst’s booth because it’s located next to her booth.’
Hope expected Nate to pull out his notepad and start scribbling in it, but he continued to tap his shoe against the coffee table instead.
‘And Rosemarie?’ he inquired. ‘When did she arrive?’
‘Before Sorrel,’ Summer answered. ‘Rosemarie—’
She was interrupted this time by a shout from a member of the investigatory team at the gate. They beckoned to Nate, and with a gruff instruction to the sisters to stay where they were, he headed down the flagstone path.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Hope said, ‘It’s probably best if we don’t tell Nate about Madam Gina.’
‘Agreed. It will only confuse him and the whole situation further. Her prophecy was wrong, anyway. There hasn’t been another death – thankfully – and certainly not at the boutique.’ Summer frowned. ‘I don’t understand why she would pretend to have a vision like that. A dead body in a specific location can so easily be proven false. Why didn’t she predict something hazier and less precise? That would have been a lot more convincing if her goal is to talk Rosemarie into paying for a doggie séance.’
Hope nodded. ‘I’ve been wondering the same thing. It’s pretty clear that Madam Gina got her information about us and the boutique from Rosemarie’s exuberant chattiness. No doubt Rosemarie also told her about what happened to Davis on the carousel, which then gave her the idea of a second body turning up elsewhere. Even so, throwing around revelations of a fictitious corpse is a bit excessive.’
Summer considered a moment. ‘Unless being excessive is precisely the point.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, it could be that we’re looking at it wrong. Maybe it has nothing to do with Rosemarie and her wallet, or that’s only a secondary goal. Maybe the primary goal is us – to get our attention.’
‘But why?’
‘I have no idea. But I think that we definitely need to visit the farmers’ market next week as we planned to learn more about the woman. After all, forewarned is forearmed. That applies equally to charlatans and the spiritual world.’
‘You’re right about that!’ Seeing that Nate had started back toward them after concluding his discussion with the team at the gate, Hope added quickly, ‘Don’t be too hard on him, Summer. Dylan told me that Nate was really disappointed about the Green Goat last night. Apparently, he had been looking forward to it.’
‘The Green Goat?’ Summer’s brow furrowed. ‘I have to confess that with everything going on yesterday evening, I forgot all about it.’
‘I did, too. I gave Dylan a vague explanation and excuse, and I suggested that we try again another time.’ Hope didn’t add that Dylan and Nate had possibly gone to the Green Goat with Larkin and Janice instead.
Summer’s brow remained furrowed. ‘When did you see Dylan last night?’
Hope hesitated, unsure whether to tell her sister about the cozy foursome that had entered the tent while she had been talking to Sean on the folding chairs, but Nate returned before she could say anything more.
‘Any helpful clues?’ Summer asked him, both her expression and her tone brightening perceptibly.
‘We’ll address that in a moment,’ Nate responded, his own expression contemplative. ‘First, I’d like to go back to Rosemarie. You said that she arrived before Sorrel. Why was Rosemarie here?’
‘It was exactly what I told you would happen yesterday,’ Summer explained. ‘After Rosemarie had a chance to calm down and wrap her mind around things, she realized how absurd her accusations against us had been. She came to the boutique to apologize and make amends.’
‘But so early in the day?’ Nate questioned.
Summer spread her hands and gave a little shrug. ‘If someone comes to our door upset and crying, Hope and I don’t send them away simply because we haven’t yet finished our morning cup of coffee.’
Hope restrained a smile. Not only did Summer succeed in completely avoiding the topic of Madam Gina, but she also made herself sound remarkably kind and warm-hearted at the same time.
Nate must have thought so, too, because when Summer once more motioned toward the neighboring settee and invited him to sit down, he readily accepted. Summer caught her sister’s eye and inclined her head in the direction of the potting stand beside the patio door. They used the potting stand as a makeshift bar. It was crowded with whiskey, bourbon, and a host of assorted liquor bottles. Hope restrained another smile, knowing what her sister was thinking: Nate could have probably used a stiff drink, as well.
‘We’re going to need your fingerprints for elimination purposes with regard to the gate,’ he said after a minute.
They nodded.
‘And we’re also going to need a list of everyone who may have recently been in contact with the gate, the back of the garden, and the alleyway.’
‘But the alleyway isn’t restricted,’ Summer told him. ‘Anybody can access it. All the neighbors and whoever decides to wander down from the adjacent street, regardless of the hour of the day.’
Nate’s harrumph returned. ‘You should get a lock for your gate.’
‘We have a lock,’ she replied. ‘Unfortunately, it’s a wee bit broken at the present moment.’
‘Due to Sean entering your property without permission?’
‘Oh, no, the lock has been broken for a while.’
The harrumph repeated itself. ‘Then I suppose later today I’ll be installing a new lock for you.’
Summer didn’t express any surprise at the offer, nor did she decline it. Instead, she gave the detective a demure smile and thanked him in a soft voice.
‘We would greatly appreciate that, wouldn’t we, Hope?’ She didn’t wait for her sister’s answer. ‘If you come by after the festival closes, we can open up a bottle of wine, relax out here on the patio, watch the sunset …’
There was not the slightest hesitation from Nate. ‘I would very much enjoy that.’
Hope choked back a laugh. Forget the Green Goat on some indeterminate day in the future. Summer had managed to wrangle herself a date for that evening. Whatever time Nate had spent with Janice the previous night had clearly not dampened his interest in Summer even a little.
‘If it’s all right with you,’ Nate said, ‘I’ll invite Dylan to join us. I installed a lock on my aunt’s gate a few weeks ago, and it required four hands.’
‘Then we’ll open up two bottles of wine,’ Summer responded smoothly.
‘Let’s hope the weather holds for us,’ he added. ‘A few clouds are beginning to roll in, and some of the team were saying that rain is expected later.’
‘That does seem to be the popular opinion. Rosemarie brought along an umbrella this morning, too. But if it should decide to rain this evening, we’ll simply take the wine inside,’ Summer remarked with the same smoothness as before.
Nate nodded, apparently well satisfied with the plan. Summer nodded back at him. The two shared a warm look. Hope sighed, wondering whether Dylan would feel any warmth toward the invitation now that he had spent more time with Larkin.
A voice carried to them from the group at the gate. Although it wasn’t directed toward Nate, it returned his focus to the more pressing matter at hand.
He cleared his throat. ‘Going back to an earlier point, did Sean have permission to enter your property?’
‘We didn’t specifically allow him to enter,’ Summer replied, ‘but we also didn’t prohibit him in any way.’
‘So, then, what was he doing in the back of your garden?’
For the first time since Nate’s arrival at the brownstone, Summer wavered. She glanced at Hope, but Hope couldn’t help her. She didn’t know what Sean had been doing in the back of the garden, either.
‘It’s possible,’ Summer answered slowly, ‘that Sean was looking for me.’
‘Looking for you?’ Nate echoed. ‘In the middle of the night?’
Summer shifted awkwardly on the settee. ‘Well, yesterday evening I was talking to Sean in the main tent at the festival.’
Hope listened with increased interest. She had been waiting for a further explanation as to what the pair had discussed so gravely on the folding chairs.
‘Sean was telling me a very sad story about his sister and young nephew. And I was telling him about—’ Summer stopped and shifted again.
This time, Hope knew why her sister was reluctant to continue. Summer had been telling Sean about Gary possibly following her, and she didn’t want to share that piece of information with Nate, understandably enough.
‘You were telling Sean about what?’ Nate prompted her after a moment.
Summer shook her head. ‘It’s not relevant. What’s more important is that Sean abruptly cut the conversation short and said there was a person in the tent whom he recognized from the night before. I remembered what Megan had told us about seeing Sean switch directions after the booths had closed for the evening and Davis had disappeared, so I asked him about it. Sean confirmed Megan’s story and started to explain that he had turned around because he had been curious about where this particular person was going. I never found out who the person was or where they went, because Sean said the person was now leaving the tent. Then he jumped up from his chair and raced out of the side flap. That was the last I saw of him until the gate this morning.’
There was a brief silence.
‘It sounds,’ Nate mused, ‘as though Sean spotted something two nights ago that he wasn’t supposed to, but he didn’t understand what it meant at the time. Then, when he recognized the person in the tent yesterday, he must have realized that what he had witnessed was connected to Davis’s death.’
Summer drew a shaky breath. ‘So Sean knows who the murderer is.’
‘In all probability, yes. He must have confronted the person after leaving the tent, or, at a minimum, given them a reason to worry that they were going to be exposed. It would explain why Sean was attacked last night and very nearly silenced for good.’
‘But why did Sean come here looking for you?’ Hope asked her sister.
‘My guess,’ Summer answered, ‘is that he was trying to warn me. Sean was awfully distracted while we were talking, so he easily could have imagined that he told me more than he had. Or he planned on telling me afterward, because I already knew part of the story. What I can’t figure out is why he went to the garden and not the front door. Maybe he thought it would be faster or safer somehow.’
‘There’s a good chance that going to the garden saved his life,’ Nate remarked.
Both Hope and Summer looked at him in surprise.
‘While in the process of strangling Sean, the assailant must have gotten spooked before being able to finish the job. A dog barked nearby, a light turned on in one of the neighboring brownstones, or a car drove down the adjacent street. Sean was already unconscious, which caused the perpetrator to believe – or at least strongly hope – that he was dead, and they decided to get away before somebody appeared. A less robust person might have succumbed more quickly, but Sean was strong enough to make it through the night until you found him this morning. It also helped,’ Nate added, ‘that we’re in the middle of the summer and not the winter. Being exposed to freezing temperatures for so many hours in his condition would have made survival much less likely.’
‘Then we’re grateful for a steamy August,’ Hope said.
Summer nodded in agreement. ‘And we’re grateful that Sean will wake up to tell us who did this to him – and who killed Davis.’
‘You shouldn’t count on that happening immediately,’ Nate replied. ‘From the preliminary report I received on my way here, Sean is expected to make a full recovery, but he might not regain sufficient consciousness to be interviewed for a day or two. And even then, he could have some memory problems in the short term. In my experience, that’s not uncommon with his type of injury. While we’re waiting on Sean to provide us with more information, you’re going to have to be vigilant.’
Summer frowned. ‘Vigilant?’
‘Vigilant,’ Nate repeated with emphasis. ‘Someone – presumably Davis’s murderer – almost succeeded in murdering Sean last night, using your gate, in your garden, at your home. Which means that the person knows who you are and obviously where you live. So you must remain alert and be vigilant.’
Hope and Summer exchanged an apprehensive glance. Neither one had thought of it quite like that.
‘And while we’re on the subject of your gate, your garden, and your home,’ Nate continued, ‘I would like you to identify the attempted murder weapon.’
The sisters exchanged another glance and this time also a sigh.
‘It’s one of the cords from our booth,’ Hope said.
‘You’re sure?’ Nate asked.
‘Positive. We recognized it almost as soon as we found Sean.’ Summer cocked her head at him questioningly. ‘You’ve been in our booth and looked at the cords. You must have recognized it, too.’
‘I did, but I needed confirmation from you. And I also need you to tell me who could have taken the cord from your booth.’
Summer responded with a weary shrug. ‘Anybody.’
‘Can you be more specific?’ Nate pressed her.
‘No. We left our booth yesterday afternoon – after you closed it – and we haven’t been there since. During that time, anybody could have walked in and taken one of the cords. The cords at the back curtains would have been especially easy to grab, because there aren’t any booths facing us to the rear.’
Nate was thoughtful. ‘Where did the cords originally come from?’
‘Jocelyn Frost. She made them – along with the accompanying curtains – specifically for the festival.’
‘Would Jocelyn Frost have had any reason to make an extra cord that wasn’t used with the curtains?’ Nate inquired.
‘I can’t imagine why—’ Summer stopped abruptly and looked at Hope. ‘But Jocelyn did have a bloody finger.’
‘That is an excellent point, one which I had completely forgotten about.’ Hope turned to Nate. ‘Did they discover any blood at the gate? Is that why they called you down there before? And now that we’ve broached the topic, what results have there been concerning the blood found on the carousel platform?’
There was no immediate reply from Nate.
‘Yes, yes,’ Hope said impatiently. ‘Dylan told me that you didn’t want to discuss that piece of evidence with Summer and me because you were trying to keep us from becoming any further involved. But that ship has sailed, the train has left the station, and the horse is out of the barn. After what happened to Sean here last night, we couldn’t be any more involved unless somebody tried to strangle us, too.’
Nate raised an unamused eyebrow at her.
‘Just a minute ago, you warned us to be vigilant,’ Summer reminded him. ‘How can Hope and I be adequately vigilant when we’re missing crucial details in the case? If you don’t give us all the facts, we’ll be forced to find them out for ourselves. Who knows what kind of trouble we could land in then?’
The eyebrow remained raised. ‘That sounds remarkably close to extortion.’
Summer blinked at him innocently – and appealingly.
Nate sighed. ‘Fine. You win. The blood from the carousel platform is being tested, but at this juncture, it’s only circumstantial at best. Hundreds of people rode the carousel on the day of the murder, and the blood could have come from any one of them. In the same vein, traces of blood were found at your gate a short while ago—’
