A Sprinkling of Murder by Daryl Wood Gerber

Author:Daryl Wood Gerber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2020-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Wind chimes in your yard will serenade garden creatures—

squirrels, fairies, and angels.

—Anonymous

At a quarter past five, as Joss and I were straightening shelves in the main showroom, Meaghan raced in to retrieve her harp.

“I can’t stick around,” she said, sliding the harp into its travel bag. “My client who bought two seascapes asked me to dinner.”

I rolled my eyes and asked if he was cute.

Meaghan thwacked me. “I already have a boyfriend, goofball. Plus this he is a she, and she’s very wealthy. She wants to buy more art, and I have a business to run. Rent isn’t free.” She bussed my cheek, wheeled her harp to the exit, and was gone in a flash.

Moments after she left, I moaned. “Shoot. I was going to ask her about Isabella Acosta. When I brought up Isabella’s name at the book club tea, Meaghan wasn’t enthralled with her, but she didn’t have time to discuss. There’s something about that woman I don’t trust. Not just because she pointed a finger at me.”

“She’s different,” Joss said judiciously.

“You said Holly Hopewell’s art is hanging in Acosta Artworks.”

“Yep. Two beautiful pieces, both eight-foot-square seascapes. Holly must have had to stand on a ladder to complete them.”

Maybe I’d ask Mrs. Hopewell about Isabella. Perhaps she could shed light on why the woman had borne false testimony against me.

Fifteen minutes later, when I was ready to tackle organizing items on the patio, Joss asked if she could head out a tad early. She wanted to see her aging mother, a former organist at the Presbyterian Church who was suffering from dementia.

“Of course.” I never refused Joss time with her mom. How I wished I’d had more with my own.

“We had one of our best sales days ever,” Joss added as she shrugged on her overcoat. “We should come up with more themed Saturdays to promote business.”

“Love it. Tomorrow, let’s put a plan together.”

After Joss left and the last customer departed, I turned over the Closed sign and strode to the patio. Yvanna and her sister had tidied up. Every vestige of tea and treats was gone. However, the shelves, as I’d expected, were in disarray.

Pixie joined me and nudged my ankle with her nose.

I knelt and scratched her chin. “A few more minutes. That’s all. Promise. Why don’t you play with Fiona?”

Pixie meowed and swished the air with her tail, signaling Fiona still hadn’t returned. I did my best not to worry. As long as she was keeping her nose to the grindstone and not pranking someone or socializing with other fairies, the queen fairy would be happy and let Fiona associate with me, right?

I said, “Fiona will catch up to us later.”

For the next few minutes, I moved from shelf to shelf reorienting the figurines to face front. Then I reorganized the larger decorative items, including the water wheels, gazebos, slides, and silos, moving them to the lower shelves and repositioning the smaller items, like fencing, lighting, and ladders, to the shelves above. Customers needed clarity when viewing these items.

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