“Any idea who left it?”
“Not really.” I tried to focus my tired brain. “Lonnie? Seems a step down from pulling a gun on me and Althea. Glen, because I’m asking about what happened in
LA? Doesn’t seem like his style, and besides, he’d hardly have had time to put it there before I got home. Coach Peet? Dr. Solomon, because I’m asking about the drug study? One of the students? Could be any of the kids who were at the ghost hunt.” I sighed and took another sip of the liquor.
“Maybe you should drop the whole thing,” Vonda suggested. “Let the police find out who killed Braden.”
“But I feel responsible,” I said, blinking back tears. “I was there. I was supposed to be keeping those kids safe. And I didn’t.”
“Making the murderer nervous by asking questions all over town won’t bring Braden back.”
I shrugged, not convinced. I didn’t have the energy to argue with her. “What’s new with you?” I asked to distract her.
“The only thing going on in my week is a gaggle of Hollywood people staying with us.”
“Avaline Spirit Whisperer and friends.”
She stared at me, her eyes round. “Are you psychic? How did you know?”
I explained about Avaline’s offer to interview me for the TV show.
“Lucky you,” Vonda said. “Will they have a real Hollywood makeup artist do your makeup? Do you think you could work in a mention of Magnolia House? Do—”
“I’m not doing it.” I poured a little more bourbon. It was making me feel pleasantly woozy.
“I’d do it,” Vonda said enviously. She ran a hand through her short hair. “Anyway, things have been hectic with the B and B. Lots of hurricane prep to do, you know. Ricky wanted to shut the place up and evacuate, but then The Spirit Whisperer people showed up and rented every room in the place, and we decided to ride it out.”
I knew Vonda and Ricky were barely breaking even with the B&B since business had slowed during the recession, so I was glad to hear they were making some money off Avaline and her crew. “Has the spirit summoner communicated with any phantoms at Magnolia House?” I asked.
A grin split Vonda’s pixie-ish face. “No. She looked like she was going to give it a go last evening—started to look all trancey and mystical—but I started vacuuming the living room and she went up to her room. Ricky’s always thought being able to say the house was haunted would bring more clients, but I can’t imagine that people would want to stay in a house infested with ghosts. Visit one, maybe, but not stay. Speaking of which”—she set her empty glass down with a clink—“I’ve got to go. RJ’s running a little fever and I promised I’d be home to read his bedtime story. He’s really into the Percy Jackson books—the ones with the kid who’s half god, half mortal. I tell you, reading them with him has helped me brush up on my Greek mythology.”
“Ever useful,” I said, rising to give her a hug.
“Show the cops that note in the morning,” she said.
“I will,” I promised.
Chapter Seventeen
[Wednesday]
SLIGHTLY HUNGOVER THE NEXT MORNING, I DRAGGED myself to the police station before showing up at the salon. The officer on duty took the note and jotted a couple of lines about what happened but didn’t promise anything would come of it. “Likely just a prank, miss,” he said. “Do you have teenagers? Sometimes kids leave weird notes and stuff for each other.”
I left, depressed that the officer thought I looked old enough to have teenagers. I was barely thirty. Maybe the cop was working from data that said teen pregnancies had increased in Georgia in recent years. Yeah, that must be it. We’d had a woman in the salon just last week who bragged about being a grandma at thirty-two. Ye gods. I crossed Bedford Square, noting that fewer cars than usual were parked at the meters and only a couple of Doralynn’s tables were full when I peered in the café’s window. St. Elizabeth was turning into a ghost town, at least temporarily. At Mom’s, I clumped up the stairs to the veranda before noticing the “Closed” sign on the door. Not really surprised after the dearth of business yesterday and how empty the town looked with so many people having evacuated. I traipsed around the side of the house to the kitchen door.
Mom and Althea looked up as the screen door banged shut behind me. “Hi, dear,” Mom said, giving me a hug and a kiss. She was in the blue cotton robe that hugged her rounded figure and made her periwinkle blue eyes look even bluer. “Tea?”
“Thanks.” I dropped into a chair at the table, catching my reflection in the copper pots that hung from a rack overhead. I hoped my complexion wasn’t really that green.