A Ghost in Time (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 3) (5 page)

The complaining lowered to a dull roar and I made my little speech about harmony and good intentions and how we all had to get along—and then Star stepped forward to say her piece.
 

I braced myself for the onslaught. I glanced over at Bebe. She was looking vulnerable and fierce, all at the same time. But her hands were gripping the arms of her chair and something was pulsing at her jawline. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see her
really
mad. Something told me it might be a life-changing event.
 

Star took the podium. She looked out at the crowd, and she smiled. “Hello everybody. Isn’t it a beautiful day?”

I had to look twice. This was a different Starflower from the woman I’d seen the night before. She was obviously a genuinely pretty woman, and now she was acting like one, nodding, smiling, being gracious. But I wasn’t the only one surprised at her unusual manner. Talk was simmering, whispers were buzzing.
 

“People, people, calm down,” she was saying like some sort of benevolent leader. “This isn’t the way to go about this.”

Okay, just what was her angle? This was not the Star we all knew and hated. I stared at her, trying to figure it out.
 

 
“Our goal is to have a clean and fair competition,” she was crooning like a mother to her baby, “without the cheating that was allowed to go on last year.”

Right.
Her
cheating was what she was talking about. Who would know about that better than she did?

“We do this to advance the cause of the cut flower industry. We want to make everybody happy this time. There is nothing in the world like being a grower, working with the soil, producing such beauty, such health for the community. Flowers do nothing but make people happy. And that’s what we want to do, make everyone happy.”

I glanced over at Bebe. She met my gaze and gave me an almost imperceptible shrug. She didn’t know what was going on either. But I was beginning to think I could figure it out.
 

Star tried her angry talk with the other growers, and she’d met a lot of resistance. She’d seen she might not be able to get where she wanted to go with that attitude. So she’d turned on a dime. Why not? What would it hurt her to try a little sweet-talkin’?

“Now I want you all to come to a party tonight. Once we’re all together, just us growers, we can talk candidly and make our plans. I’ve reserved at room at the country club. The margueritas will be flowing. The ribs are already smoking on the barbecue. All we need is you all to come on over and help us celebrate.”

It was jaw-dropping to watch her wave to the crowd and then blow them kisses. And there were the apprentices, standing behind her and grinning like wolves waiting for the little lambs to arrive at the slaughter…uh, party.

The woman was utterly diabolical.

Chapter Six

Jill looked up to see us coming into Mad for Mocha and she told me later she saw right away that we were shell shocked—that things hadn’t gone well at the town council meeting.
 

“Come on over here,” she said. “How about the back booth? You’ll be practically invisible to the average customer and you can cry into your lattes if you want to.”

Numbly, we did as she suggested. We weren’t sure what had just happened and we were even less sure of how to deal with it. Sliding into the booth, we stared at each other like zombies, shaking our heads.
 

But we didn’t have long to commiserate alone. Fred Carver came in close behind us and he made a beeline to our table.
 

“Mind if I join you?” he asked, dropping into a seat without waiting for an answer.
 

“Did you follow us from the meeting?” I asked, disgruntled and at sea.
 

“I sure did. I thought I ought to come along and give you two a heads up on what exactly is going on here.”
 

He had a tough, determined look and I wasn’t sure if that gave me confidence or more trepidation. He looked from Bebe to me and back again, shaking his head.
 

“Sometimes I think you two were chosen for your positions just because you are the most out of the loop of all the growers in the valley. You two don’t have a clue about the forces that control things around here.” He puffed out his chest. “So I’ve assigned myself to be your Sherpa on the cold and slippery byways of the Destiny Bay Cut Flower Association maze.”
 

He looked around a bit furtively. “I just don’t want to be too obvious about it. You know what I mean? So what I’m about to tell you is on background only. Not for publication. Capice?”

I stared at him, getting more confused all the time. “Are you in the mob?” I asked him.
 

He looked startled. “Hey, my mother was Italian. What of it?”

“Huh?” I was lost.
 

“Never mind.” Bebe put her hand over mine, trying to shut me up. “We’re listening, Fred.”

He leaned forward and spoke like a conspirator. “Here’s the deal. Last year, the flower show was a mess. Someone poisoned all the best flowers just before the judging and no one in charge would do anything about it.”

“Who did it?” I asked, and Bebe squeezed my hand again. I gave her a look of pure annoyance. Why couldn’t I ask him that?

He leaned even closer. “We never found that out, though many of the growers swear it had to be Starflower. She won everything. Her flowers weren’t touched. And she’s the only one we figure is outrageous enough to try something like that. But we couldn’t prove it. The only thing we could do was to work at getting a better power structure going that would at least try to get to the bottom of things when lightning struck.”

Okay, Bebe was just sitting there, taking it all in, but it seemed to me there were a few flaws in his story and I wanted to clear them up. So I ignored her kicking me under the table when I said, “Who’s this ‘we’ you keep talking about?”

He frowned at me. “I’m not going to give you names, but it’s a small core of the biggest growers. We got together and got Bebe in as chairman. And we’ll be the ones to make sure Star doesn’t take her out. Don’t worry about that.”

“So you’re saying you put Bebe in as an honest broker? But what do you want from her in return?”

He was glaring at me by now. “Just what I said. Honesty.” He hesitated, then added, “We lucked out when you were hired on as Activities Director. We were pretty sure, as Bebe’s niece, we could count on you to be a straight shooter.” Though by now, he was giving me looks that told me he might be having second thoughts.

But what the heck! This was all too cloak and dagger for me and I had to protect our interests too. So if I had questions, I was going to raise them.
 

“My advice about this party tonight,” said Fred. “Don’t go. You do realize that her house backs up to that golf course? The country club is practically a second home to her. Her home turf—you get it? This whole set-up is just to box you into a corner and tear you to shreds. If she gets you to come, she’ll have something to bounce off of. If you don’t show up, she’ll be whistling into the wind.”

“But don’t you think I need to defend myself?” Bebe asked.

“She won’t be able to vote you out just because you’re not there. Believe me, we’ve got enough backers to keep that from happening.”

I frowned at her. “If you do decide to go, I’m going with you.”

“Of course,” she said vaguely. I could see that she was really worried. “I don’t know why I’m even bothering,” she murmured, but the look on her face said otherwise.
 

“Listen, we’ve all got to fight this woman. You don’t know her. She loves nothing more than humiliating anyone who gets too close to her. You’ve heard of people who can’t stop making their friends the butt of practical jokes? That’s Star in spades. So one thing you’ve always got to be aware of—watch your back!”

Bebe looked even more worried. “You know, I’ve never been much of a fighter before.”

“You’ll learn,” Fred said. “Whatever you do, don’t give in to this woman. The rest of us are counting on you.” He looked around. “Now, I’d better get out of here before the others arrive.”

“Others?”

“Sure.” He nodded as he rose from his seat. “This place has become our traditional place to go after meetings. Didn’t you know?”

Bebe looked at me, stricken, as he disappeared from view. “You see?” she said. “He’s right. I’m supposed to be the chairman and I didn’t even know everyone met here after meetings.”

I frowned. “Why would you have to have a place to meet after meetings?” I said. “I mean, you’ve already had the meeting. What’s the point?”

But she wasn’t listening. She was thinking hard and feeling apprehensive. I felt for her, but I wasn’t sure how to reassure her. We seemed to be on shaky ground, no matter what we did.
 

“How do we know he’s on the up and up?” I said at last. “What if all this stuff he just told us is so much biased rambling? Everyone has a side to push and another side to demonize. How are we supposed to know what’s true?”

I was practically wailing by the time I got to the end of that rant. It was all too much.
 

“I know this,” Bebe said quietly, staring down into her latte, “Starflower Moonbeam has been nasty as a wounded badger to me for weeks. She’s accused me of all kinds of things and tried very hard to make me want to quit. No matter how much she smiles at me now, I don’t believe it. She’s my enemy. That’s what she’s chosen to be. And I don’t believe a word she says.”

“Hear hear.”

We both looked up, startled, to find a few of the other growers had gathered around our booth, leaning over the partition, and had heard Bebe’s impassioned statement.
 

“We’re with you, Bebe,” one of them said earnestly.
 

The group introduced themselves all around, but I noticed they weren’t talking very loudly and that some of them kept casting wary glances toward the door. When two of Starflower’s apprentices came in, they all quickly scurried to seats elsewhere.
 

I watched them go and sighed.
 

“They’ll back you all the way, until you actually need anything.”

But Bebe wasn’t listening. She had that faraway look that told me her mind was busy working on important things and she wasn’t going to tell me about them at all.
 

Since we weren’t going to the country club for ribs and margueritas, we needed something to eat and the cupboards looked bare.
 

“I’ll go get takeout,” I offered. “Pizza or chicken or the sandwich shop?”

“Oh, let me think.” She was still cruising on fumes as far as connecting. “How about the sandwich shop. Get me one of their soups. Clam chowder would be great.”

“You got it.” I left the house and drove into town. There was no fog tonight and the streets looked a bit livelier than they had the night before. Funny—it was about the same time in the evening as it had been when I’d thought I had a stalker—but this time I didn’t have any sense of foreboding about me. The little town seemed friendly and benign.

I pulled up in front of Telly’s Subs and Suds and went in, scanned the big menu board and got in line before I noticed that Police Captain Stone was getting some food right beside me.

I looked up into his steel blue eyes, startled. He nodded but didn’t say anything. All the time he was ordering, I studiously avoided looking his way again.
 

It was a shock, seeing him like this—like he was a normal human. I was so used to thinking of him like the villain in my life. Besides, he was Roy’s boss, and that made him doubly villainous, even though handsome in an older man sort of way.
 

I ordered right after he did and once I was done, I knew I would be standing next to him at the counter, waiting for the food to be packed up, ready for me to take it. I took a deep breath, and turned to him with a smile.
 

“So. Captain Stone.”

“Miss Keahi.”

“Fancy finding you in a place like this.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t think I ate fast food?” he asked. “Or maybe you didn’t think I ate at all. Do you picture me hanging upside down from the rafters, waiting for the moonrise before I fly out across the countryside, looking for victims of my bloodlust?”

I stared at him, my mouth hanging open.
 
He had a sense of humor! Who knew?

“No, actually…” I grinned at him. “I thought you probably had a team of beautiful young women who strutted through your house in bikinis, feeding you grapes.”

He made a sound very close to a growl. “Grapes are for drinking, not eating,” he said.
 

“Good point. I like a glass of vino now and then myself.”

We were actually smiling at each other, and that must have been what gave me the courage to ask him a question.
 

“Captain Stone, just out of curiosity, what is it that you have against me?”

If I was expecting to surprise him, I could have saved my breath. His grin went crooked and he said, “You’re too damn smart for your own good, that’s what. Take care.” And with that, he took his food from the server, gave me a nod, and was out the door.
 

That didn’t help me at all. I got certain vibes from the man, things that made me uneasy, and he always seemed to think I was trying to get away with something. He didn’t trust me. It seemed almost personal. But why?
 

He wasn’t talking.
 

I took my own bag of food and headed for the parking lot. To my surprise, he was waiting by my car.

“Sorry for the glib response,” he said. “I thought I ought to give you a straight up answer, since you bothered to ask. Just understand this. It’s my job to keep the peace in this community. We protect and serve. We try to punish the bad guys and make sure bad things don’t happen to the good people of this town. That’s the focus of my life.”

I knew that. What I didn’t know was why he thought I was somehow the antithesis of all that goodness he cherished.