Silence of the Lamps (20 page)

“But you have to walk the length of the yard to get to it,” Joe murmured.

“Good exercise,” Bella maintained, and Caprice understood with just one look at her sister that she’d fallen in love with the house.

“We’d have to redo the basement for a family room,” Joe said.

“Or,” Bella proposed, “we could just use that middle room for a family room and the TV. The kids would be right here with us. We don’t need a formal dining room. A table in the kitchen’s dining area can seat six or eight, and we have the counter too where we could always put the kids.”

Kayla smiled. “You haven’t seen the upstairs yet. Granted, there’s only one big bathroom for all of you, but there’s a screened-in balcony off of the back bedroom. It was once a porch, but now it’s closed in and weatherproofed. There’s room for three or four lawn chairs, maybe a chaise. It’s sort of a little sunroom.”

“Oh, let’s go look,” Bella said enthusiastically. She followed the real estate agent to the stairs.

“She likes this place,” Joe said with surprise in his voice.

“It has character,” Caprice said calmly. “How do you feel about being so close to Mom and Dad’s house?”

“I’m fine with it,” he assured her. “I don’t know what we would have done without them over the past year. I never thought I’d say it, but I’m grateful for all of you, even you.”

She and Joe had had their head butts, but underneath it all, he was a good guy.

“If this is what she wants, we’ll see if we can negotiate a good price. I can live with the garage,” he decided.

She laughed. “And if you need help decorating, you know my number.”

Chapter Seventeen

The Monday morning breakfast meeting of the Kismet Chamber of Commerce at the Purple Iris Bed-and-Breakfast seemed to be attended by more members than usual. Because summer allowed for more freedom? Or because the Purple Iris with its beautiful restaurant wasn’t only a tourist destination but also a popular place for residents of Kismet and York to gather?

The bed-and-breakfast had a quaintness about it, from its stained glass windows with iris motif to its vintage wood trim. The restaurant, a recent addition by owner Holly Swope, had already garnered great reviews. The Chamber of Commerce had managed to reserve it for this morning’s meeting. Holly had offered to serve her guests breakfast in their rooms to accommodate the Chamber patrons. Naomi, Grant’s ex, could be having breakfast in her room right now. The nine guest rooms were usually occupied throughout the summer because the bed-and-breakfast was at a convenient location between York, Gettysburg, and Lancaster. Lots of sights to see in the area, from the Amish country, to the battlefield, to the historic buildings in downtown York.

When Caprice entered the dining area with its lilac-colored drapes, yellow-and-purple pin-striped wallpaper, and framed iris prints, Holly—all dressed in purple—greeted her. “I’m glad you could come,” Holly said, her blue eyes sparkling.

The evening Caprice and Seth Randolph had enjoyed dinner here, the owner of the B&B had reminded her that the Chamber of Commerce breakfast was a way to network and that new projects were afoot. When Caprice thought about Seth, she didn’t regret her decision to end her romantic relationship, if not her friendship, with him. But they hadn’t been in contact since the night she’d chosen Grant. She hoped sometime in the future they would be again, no matter what happened with Grant and Naomi. Grant’s ex should be leaving soon. Had he made a decision yet?

Her attendance at this morning’s breakfast was just another way for her to put that out of her mind. Besides, she wondered if Jeanie Boswell might be here, or another business owner who might have had dealings with Drew.

Holly ran her hand through her short black hair. “You’re early. Have a seat at any table. Service will start soon.”

Members of the Chamber were scattered around the room at the round tables, over which hung white enamel and crystal chandeliers. Caprice scanned each table until her eyes fell on someone she knew. Kiki, Rowena’s friend, was seated at a table all by herself. She’d been reading a pamphlet, but when she raised her head, she spotted Caprice. She waved and Caprice crossed to her.

“Have a seat,” Kiki said, motioning to the one beside her. “Unless you’re meeting someone else here.”

“My friend Roz will probably attend. Maybe we could save her a seat?”

“Of course we can. Are you talking about Roz Winslow who owns All About You?”

“
I am.”

“I often frequent her shop. She doesn’t just carry those short dresses with bare midriffs for twenty-somethings but classy clothes I can wear too.”

“She tries to appeal to all ages and all sizes.”

“Rowena told me you’re still looking into Drew’s background. You heard about the break-in at her house?” Kiki wanted to know.

“I did. I can’t believe she went after the burglar with her cane. She is one gutsy woman.”

Kiki harrumphed, “Or foolish. I told her she should be staying with me until this whole situation is taken care of, until the police catch the murderer. She insists no one’s going to drive her out of her home. I suppose that’s a good thing because that means even Jeanie can’t do that.”

“Is she trying to?”

“She brought an antique dealer to the reception after Drew’s funeral. I was furious when I found out.”

“How did Rowena feel about it?”

“Maybe she’s survived by taking everything in stride, or maybe she just accepts Jeanie as she is. But she didn’t seem overly upset by it. Jeanie’s trying to convince her to move into a retirement center, but Rowena won’t hear of it. She even told Jeanie she appreciated having the antique dealer come in to appraise some of her belongings. To tell you the truth, I think that got Jeanie’s goat.”

Caprice had to smile until she reminded herself that Jeanie could very well have murdered Drew. “Do you know if Jeanie’s coming to this meeting?”

“I doubt it. She really keeps to herself and doesn’t mingle much. She never has. Quite the opposite of her brother.”

“So she was a loner as a teenager?”

“Yes, she was. On the other hand, she could fly off the handle quite easily. In that way, she was different from Drew. Jeanie was fifteen when she pushed a girl down a flight of stairs because the girl said something mean. I advised Rowena then she should send Jeanie to counseling. But Rowena didn’t want a stigma attached to Jeanie’s name. She did make appointments for her, though, with the guidance counselor at the high school, and that seemed to help.”

“Sometimes all teenagers need is an objective listening ear.”

“I suppose. I have a feeling she resented Rowena because she missed her parents so deeply. Rowena was the surrogate she didn’t want to deal with.”

“That’s a shame.”

“Drew was always closer to Rowena, and maybe Jeanie resented that too.”

“Maybe she just wanted someone of her own to love her.”

“Possibly. That’s why her marriage was a flop.”

“She’s made Posies into a success, though,” Caprice offered.

“Yes, she has, and kudos to her for that. She did well in business school. She has an associates degree. When she used her inheritance to buy Posies, Rowena was concerned. But she’s done well with it, except for one problem. She has trouble keeping employees. I don’t know if that’s because of her temper or because she’s very particular. However, she does do beautiful work with flowers.”

Did Jeanie just have an artistic temperament? Had she become a smart businesswoman, or was she an unstable loner who was capable of committing murder? Caprice didn’t feel she could be that blunt and ask Kiki that particular question.

Nevertheless, she could probe a little deeper. “So you believe Drew and Jeanie were very different personalities?”

“Oh yes. Drew could charm the skirt off of you if he put his mind to it. He had charisma and he knew it. I knew him much better than Jeanie. He’d talk to me when Rowena and I got together. If we played cards, he might even sit in on a hand. If we cooked, he joined us. He came into the bookstore often too.” Kiki frowned and looked sad. “We had our last falling out over that.”

“You had a falling out with Drew?”

“Since he returned to Kismet, he’d come into the store and page through cookbooks. However, he didn’t just page through them. He used his phone to snap photos of recipes. I couldn’t allow that. It’s not fair to the cookbook author. Rowena’s my friend, and I didn’t want to cause a real fuss, so I warned Drew not to do it. After the warning, I caught him doing it anyway. He always tried to get his own way, no matter what.”

And when Drew was thwarted, he apparently made enemies. Now that she had Kiki talking, she wondered if the woman would confide in her about Rowena’s recipes. “I have a question for you, and I’ll understand if you can’t answer. When I found Drew, the Tiffany floor lamp had been overturned and was lying on the floor. I saw a piece of paper sticking out. Can you tell me if Rowena’s recipes were hidden in there?”

Kiki didn’t say a word, but her expression said it all. At first she showed surprise and then a shuttered look that said she was hiding something.

Caprice patted her hand. “It’s okay. I haven’t asked Rowena yet, but I’m going to. I feel her recipes could be an important part of the puzzle—of solving who killed Drew.”

The dining room was filling up now with more Chamber members arriving and seating themselves at the tables. Caprice caught sight of Bronson Chronister, who entered with two men. One of them, Warren Shaeffer, was the president of the Chamber of Commerce. Caprice didn’t know the second man.

Caprice said, “I heard Bronson might run for Chamber of Commerce president. He’s with Warren.”

Kiki targeted her gaze toward the door. “He’s not only with Warren, he’s with Ira Rogers.”

Caprice thought she knew most of the Chamber members. After all, they received a list with every newsletter, and she could identify most of the names. “Who’s Ira Rogers?”

“He is a fund-raising guru.”

“Does the Chamber intend to have a fund-raiser for a special project?”

“That’s possible. But I suspect Bronson brought him along as a guest for another reason. You know my bookstore is a haven for gossip. Residents come in and I overhear lots of conversations. Some I’m not supposed to hear—women leaving their husbands and the reasons why, businesses failing because of poor management, some of the doings in the police department even.”

Caprice could bet Kiki kept her ear tuned in to all of those conversations. She’d formed little reading nooks where her bookstore patrons could be as comfortable as guests as they paged through the latest novels or magazines.

“So what other reason might Ira have for being here?”

“There’s scuttlebutt that Bronson’s throwing his hat in the ring for a seat in the state house. I’ve also heard he has his eye on Congress after that. With his family money behind him, fund-raising at grassroots level on up, and his own success, he has the wherewithal to rise in the political scene. You mark my words. State house. Senator or governor. President.”

Wow. Caprice hadn’t thought that far ahead for Bronson. But why not? “I imagine he’d interview well and look good on a TV screen too.”

Kiki laughed. “That’s what it’s all about these days, isn’t it?”

Caprice hoped if Bronson was elected, he would be elected for more than his good looks and facile interview skills.

With her attention focused on Bronson, she didn’t see Roz come in, but her friend hurried over to the table and asked, “Did you save a seat for me?”

Kiki motioned to the seat on the other side of her. “With you two smart women here to have a confab, I imagine we could think up projects on our own that would benefit this Chamber of Commerce. Let’s give them ideas to bring more tourists to this town.”

Roz laughed. “I’m game.”

Caprice said, “I’m in too.”

The three of them had much to talk about over breakfast, and Caprice had a lot to think about concerning Jeanie Boswell and her brother, who might have been her rival not only for Rowena’s affection but also for her inheritance.

* * *

When Caprice returned from the breakfast, she realized the meal and the meeting hadn’t taken as long as she’d expected. Parking at the curb instead of in her driveway, she decided to take a short detour over to Dulcina’s house to see how she was doing with the cat, and to find out how Rod and his girls had enjoyed the concert. Lady would be okay for another fifteen minutes.

She knew she probably worried about her furry crew more than most, but they were like her kids. Though she had to admit, she wanted children, as well as fur babies.

Caprice crossed the street and went to Dulcina’s door. She pressed the bell. If Dulcina was busy, she wouldn’t stay.

When the door opened, Dulcina’s headphones lay around her neck.

“If you’re working, I don’t have to come in,” Caprice assured her. “I just wanted to see how you and Halo were getting along, and if the concert made any inroads to relationships with Rod’s girls.”

“I do have a bunch of records to transcribe this morning, but come on in. I want you to see what I fixed up for Halo.”

No mention of Rod. Hmmm.

After they transversed the living room and entered the kitchen, Dulcina motioned under the cubicle where a stool could sit at a built-in desk. Halo was nestled into receiving blankets in the storage bin, sound asleep.

“She likes this one best,” Dulcina pointed out. “I put another bed in a darker corner of the sunroom. She uses them both, so maybe she knows what they’re for. It’s as if she’s nesting. Sometimes she’ll get in, go around in a circle, and paw the receiving blanket before she sits down.”

The receiving blanket was patterned with cute little yellow ducks waddling across it. Caprice crouched down beside Halo. Although the cat had looked as if she were sound asleep, her ears twitched and she gazed up at Caprice.

Caprice said, “You’re going to be a mom. I guess you’re getting ready. Are you eating a whole lot?”

“I’ve been feeding her about every four hours and she gobbles it down. I give her crunchies in between. She’s such a sweet cat. I don’t know how she ended up out there on her own.”

“She could have gotten lost and not been able to find her way back. Then if she was injured and hurt, she might have wandered even farther. Or someone could have put her out because they couldn’t pay for the cat food. It’s hard to know. But she does seem like a real sweetie. We can hope she knows how to mother.”

“I’ll help her,” Dulcina said with certainty.

“I won’t hold you up,” Caprice said. “How did the girls enjoy the concert?”

When Dulcina hesitated, Caprice knew there were probably problems.

“Leslie wasn’t impressed. She said she didn’t connect with Ace’s music. But during the concert, I saw her foot tapping along. I even caught her snapping her fingers at one point. She wants to seem so removed, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to reach her.”

“And his younger daughter?”

“Vanna was into it. She even asked her dad if she could download Ace’s music after they were back here. They stopped in for a few minutes because Vanna wanted to see Halo. That was the only hopeful sign of the evening. Leslie even asked me questions about the pregnancy and how long it would be until the kittens were born. I told them after the kittens were old enough, they could come over and play with them because I’m sure they’ll have energy to burn. So maybe kittens can make a difference when a rock concert didn’t. It was sure nice to have the evening out, to sit next to Rod and just hold hands. For a change, he didn’t seem to mind doing that in front of his daughters.”