THE WITCH AND THE TEA PARTY (A Rachael Penzra Mystery) (26 page)

“Of course he gains the most financially,” she agreed. “But we don’t know what some of them might gain in other ways, or even over the long run. We have a few ideas.”

I hoped she meant
just she and Dora did. I had to remember to grab Patsy privately and make some sort of plan to find out what the three, and I did mean
three
, of them were up to. Of course in this modern day of electronics, it was more than likely they were communicating that way, but Jimbo was quite up to date in that way, and he would be aware of any gadget his wife might use. Surely he’d know if his wife was in communication with the others.

When he called the next day, I was surprised. While I have a cordial relationship with him when we’re thrown together, our paths really don’t cross that often. “Rachael,” he started. “I need to talk to you, and I’d prefer
that your aunt and Dora don’t know about it. Is there something we can work out?”

“How about me meeting you at The
Cuppa? I can get there around twelve-thirty and we should be okay. Aunt Myrtle and Dora will be busy in the store, and I assume that Moondance is still, er, sticking close to home.”

“Yes, she is,” he sounded uncertain. “She’s being quite saintly about not seeing the other two.”

More like a martyr, it sounded to me, but I didn’t offer my opinion. “That’s good, though I’m sure she misses them. I know they miss her.”

“Have they said anything?” he asked.

“About you telling her to keep away from them? Yes, Aunt Myrtle told me that. I haven’t heard anything more about it since then. I assume they’re just waiting until this mess is settled and things can get back to normal.” I threw that in, hoping it would give him an excuse to back down from his
never again!
stance.

I was really curious about what he wanted to discuss. Patsy had been exceptionally busy with several night courses she was taking, and I’d been caught up with the interviews, so we hadn’t had time to sit down and work out a plan to find out what the ladies were up to. The call from
Jimbo put the issue right back into the front of my mind. I told Patsy and David that I might be taking a long lunch, and explained about the call.

“Maybe he knows what they’re up to,” my niece said, hopefully.

“I hope Moondance isn’t pining away,” David added.

“She’s not a Victorian virgin,” I reminded him.

“David,” my niece shook her head in disbelief. “You don’t really believe that they’ve just taken this lying down?”

“Oh, I’m sure they don’t expect it to last forever,” he said quickly. “I’m sure they’re just waiting until
Jimbo calms down and they can talk to him rationally.”

“Number one, they never take anything lying down,” I told him. “Number two, they don’t get the concept of rational thinking.”

“They’ve been up to something,” Patsy agreed.

“What I’m worried about is that they’re doing something that wil
l only makes things worse if… no, make that
when
they get caught.”

I’d underestimated them. They had no intention of being caught, no matter what the cost.

The Ouija board is not a toy. Something about the board seems to attract spirits, and not always friendly ones. How much truth there is in the stories of demonic interference with the board is open to debate, but while all forms of divination need to be done in controlled conditions, the Ouija board seems to stand out as being highly dangerous. Also called a “talking board”, in one form or another, it’s been around since 1100 AD when it was first recorded in China. It was also popular in India, Greece, Rome and throughout Medieval Europe in one form or another. The planchette, a heart-shaped board used on the Ouija board, is touched lightly by one to three people. It will follow a path to various letters of the alphabet written on the board, or go to the listed words, “Yes, No, Hello, Goodbye”. Often occult symbols will also adorn a board. Scientists believe that Ideomotor responses are behind the movement of the planchette. Since it would be the subconscious directing the movement, it would merely be following the thoughts of the inner mind. Frightening thought, but perhaps that’s what makes it so dangerous.

Chapter Twelve

It was raining when I went to meet Jimbo. According to the weather report, we were in for at least a two-day siege of wet weather. That was all right with me, although I felt sorry for those tourists who had chosen this week of all fifty-two to bask at the lake. But our sandy soil and heavily wooded area needs rain on a regular basis, and fortunately Mother Nature doesn’t worry about a few unhappy campers or we’d never have rain. And I could hardly complain, as it would bring a lot of people into town to shop. They weren’t necessarily heavy buyers, but sales were always up after two or more days of rain. Equally, they usually dropped a bit when the sun first came back out.

He was there first, and stood politely while I seated myself. He’d managed to grab a back booth where we would have a fair amount of privacy. “Go ahead and order right away,” he told me, beckoning a waitress over. “I know you’re on your lunch hour and your time is limited.”

I thanked him and ordered my old standby of hamburger and fries. When they’re well done like they are in that diner, it’s hard to beat them. I’m not above enjoying McDonald’s, but truth be told, it’s a whole different meal. Jimbo followed my lead, only changing his hamburger order to a cheeseburger.

While we waited, he started the conversation. “You probably know that I forbid Ethel to
have anything to do with your aunt and Dora. I was furious with them all. I can’t understand how they manage to get into such messes.”

“It was terribly upsetting,” I agreed. “And I don’t know what it is about them. Aunt Myrtle was always the sweetest of my aunts, and certainly never in any kind of trouble.”

“I don’t blame it on Dora, either,” he admitted. “Of the three of them, she seems to be the most stable now that she’s quit, er…”

“Stealing?” I asked, bluntly. “When you understand her background, you can see how she used her kleptomania as a way to have some power
and control in her life. Being busy with friends seems to have completely changed her.”

“Friends and the way you figured out what was going on at the theater,” he sighed. “That’s another time it could have been dangerous for them, but again, who do we blame? They did nothing wrong. They didn’t do anything to start the trouble.”

“How is Moondance taking all this?” I moved us away from an unrewarding path.

He waited while the waitress served us. Once we were busily adding condiments and fixing things just right on our plates, he continued. “That’s the part I’m upset about. I over
-reacted to the whole thing. When I think about it now, I realize that the fortune telling was nothing more than a fun pastime for them. Nobody in his right mind would give their fortunes any credence.”

I grunted, glad I had a bite of hamburger in my mouth and couldn’t answer properly. It didn’t seem the moment to bring up the strange possession the crystal ball had been exerting on his wife.

He salted his hamburger, unnecessarily in my opinion, but I’ve noticed that many men tend to do that automatically. “Once I cooled down,” he continued. “I apologized, but I did say that I felt she should stick close to home until the killer is found. That just made sense to me, but she took it into her head that I was refusing to allow her to have
any
contact with the others. Well, you know her. She told me that she would do as I ordered and remain in the house, refusing to use her computer or her cell phone after I returned them to her. She handed them back. I left them on the table, but I’ve checked. She hasn’t touched them. It’s really upsetting me.”

“You mean she’s decided to make you feel guilty?” I laughed, relieved. His next words, though, sobered me.

“She says that she understands my feelings and will respect them. I can’t convince her that I was just reacting to the original threat. Rachael, she hardly speaks to me unless I ask her a direct question, and she isn’t herself.”

I hoped what I was about to say was right. “
Jimbo, I think there’s a very good chance that the three of them are using this as a stage for drama. Think of what fun they’re having. It’s not nice that they’ve made you the villain, but I’ve been in your spot. They’ll get over it fast once this mess is cleared up and she can be with them again. I think they’d devised some clever method of communicating without using modern tools and they’re going to drag out every second of excitement they can. When it gets more boring than fun, they’ll put it behind them.”

“I hope you’re right,” he finished off his hamburger and started in on his fries, a much more methodical eater than I am. I’d been alternating the two taste sensations. “I don’t imagine they can come to any harm this way. To tell you the truth, I feel better with my wife tucked safely in the house until this is cleared up. But I would never
really force her against her will, and I don’t want her to stay away from them. I just lost my temper for a moment. I was so upset.”
              “Of course you were,” I told him again. “Patsy and I have been determined to find out what they’re doing, but we’ve been so busy.” I stopped there, not sure if I should tell him what I was doing. That would make him even more reluctant to have Moondance anywhere near my vicinity.

“Yo
u’ve really set my mind at rest.” He finished his fries and sat back replete. I copied him, coyly holding back an incipient belch. “Dessert?” he asked.

“No, I really have to get back to work,” I told him. “This weather will keep us busy. I’m glad we had this talk, and
to know we’re both on the same track.”

He called the waitress over and paid the bill. “Let me know if you figure out what they’re doing, will you?”

I grunted without actually promising, heading back to work feeling relieved. Whatever else, Moondance was not going to be banned from the other two. They were just up to their usual tricks, playing out a scenario nobody understood but themselves. I wondered if the other two realized that Moondance was actually free to talk to them in a normal fashion. It probably didn’t matter if they did. They were having fun.

Patsy was happy with the news. “This is working out perfectly,” she decided. “They’re busy playing their parts in their own play, and it’s keeping them out of trouble. I still intend to find out how they’re managing to stay in contact.”

The day passed swiftly, as busy days are apt to. There isn’t time to get bored, and boredom is the one way I know of to slow the hands of time. Unfortunately, while it slows the material hours, I think it ages a person inside. Since it isn’t a problem of mine at the worst of times, I’m not too sure about my theory.

The store took some extra cleaning. We’d vacuum in the morning, when the mud had had a chance to dry into dirt. I left a fan running to speed the drying and hopefully to clear away some of the musty smell of wet clothing and damp humans.

Patsy and Aunt Myrtle were still there along with David when Brandon arrived. We’d barely finished eating and clearing the table. David slipped up the stairs along with Aunt Myrtle. I hoped she’d go all the way up and not try to hover quietly with him on the steps. Patsy opened the door for Brandon, escorting him into the kitchen where I was putting the last of the dishes away. “Here’s Mr. Mandrell,” she told me. “I’m on my way to class. I’ll see you later.” She nodded goodbye to both of us and left.

“You’re a little early,” I said, starting the coffee going. “Have a seat. The coffee will be done in a few minutes.” I seated myself across from him, ignoring his frown.

“I want to get this nonsense over with,” he told me. “If Nicholas thinks this is making any points with the sheriff he’s more of a fool than I think he is, and that’s saying a lot. Helen says you want my opinion on all the people at the so-called party. I can give you that easily enough.”

Somehow I had the feeling that his opinion wasn’t going to find anybody worthy of his approval. Mostly out of pettiness, and partly because I was sick of hearing everybody say bad things about everybody else who’d been present, I changed tactics. “What I’d really like to know is why Mrs. Brown-Hendricks
invited such an ill-assorted group of people that night.”

He actually looked
directly at me for the first time. He almost looked interested. “Good question,” he conceded. “I’ve worried about that myself.”

Maybe I should have asked that of everybody. It struck me, though, that his wording was odd. Why would he
worry
?
Wondering
would be a more obvious choice. I hoped I could remember to mention that to the others after he left. “Do you have any guesses?”

“I don’t like to talk about someone who has left me an inheritance, but Mrs. Brown-Hendricks sometimes tended to be a little unkind. She often made rather nasty remarks when people had left the room
, or even before they were gone.”

“Do you know how much you’ll be getting?” I asked.

“Not a clue,” he said. “I’m guessing it’ll be around five thousand or so. That would be a likely number since it would only be a thank you. I’ve saved her many hundreds of thousands over the years, but that’s my job. The trouble is that I’ll never know how much she chose to leave me, not for sure.”