Anita’s explanation made sense and, given that she was calmly discussing this instead of trying to kill me, my feeling that she was the killer was waning. But Flora had said she’d been in the houseafterMadame Zenda was killed. If Zenda was her contact, then what was she doing in there? Hiding evidence?
“Then why were you in the guesthouse after she was killed?”
Anita sighed.“Fine. I’ll tell you. I was meeting Victor Merino.”
My left brow quirked up.“Why?”
“I’ve sort of teamed up with him for the story. There’s a lot riding on it.”
“So, let me get this straight. You were teamed up with Madame Zenda and then, after she died, you teamed up with Victor. How? Did you already know him?” What if Victor had killed Madame Zenda because he wanted the fame and knew that Anita could help him get it?
She shook her head.“I didn’t know him. He saw me talking to that movie producer downtown and asked me all sorts of questions. I guess he already knew about the movie. Anyway, he suggested we combine forces.”
“Combine forces? How?”
“He was going to feed me information. That’s why I met him in the foyer the other day and why I’m here now. He said something is about to happen.” Anita glanced out over the yard. “But I’m not so sure I believe him.”
“Did he saywhat was going to happen?” I didn’t like the ominous way that sounded, but then Victor did seem to be overly dramatic. “I think sometimes he exaggerates.”
“Yeah, that’s why I’m out here to follow him, just in case.”
I peered into the dense overgrowth of the yard.“He’s out here?”
“No. The only one I’ve seen is that weird tea-leaf reader.”
“Gail? Why do you say she’s weird?” I thought she was weird too, but wanted to know Anita’s reasons.
“No background.” At my curious look Anita stood straighter. “I’ve done background checks on all these people. They’re all mediums who have businesses and a history. All except Gail. Not even a classified ad back in her paper in Ohio. And the other day when I was talking to the movie producer and ran into Victor, guess who I saw watching us?”
“Gail?”
“Yep.”
I’d seen Gail watching Victor too. At least that’s what I thought she’d been doing when I’d run into her looking for tea in the pantry. But why watch Victor? If she’d seen him with the movie producer, then she knew about the potential movie. Was she trying to steal the limelight from Victor somehow? But why not just claim she could talk to Jed herself? If she did that, then the attention would be on her. Instead, she was hiding and following people.
“What do you think she’s up to?” I asked.
“Beats me.” Anita bent down to pick up the tote bag she’d dropped when I’d startled her. The bag spilled over and a copy of the early etching of the guesthouse with Jed Biddeford and family tumbled out.
My eyes went right to the buckle on his shoes. Anita knew about the buckle. My eyes flicked to hers, a shiver running through me. I grabbed the paper, noticing another one behind it. This other one was of Jedediah Biddeford signing something. He had a fancy carved-ivory quill pen in his hand. Why did she have these drawings of Jed? Was she scoping out Jed’s belongings? Maybe planning to leave another piece of memorabilia on her next body?
“Aha! You have a photograph of the drawing of Jed’s buckle!” I pointed to the shoe in the photo.
Anita tried to snatch the papers away, but I pulled them out of her hands. She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.“Of course I have images of Jed. Like I just told you, I do my research. I looked up all kinds of things about the family.”
“Why would you need to do that? Seems like a lot of work,” I said.
“Not really. They have all this stuff down at the bank. There’s a whole display of Remington memorabilia and since the Biddefords were big in town back then, there’s a lot of images of the Oyster Cove Guesthouse and Jedediah Biddeford too.”
I usually did my banking online but now I remembered the display down at the bank. It was off to one side and included all kinds of things like the bank’s first coin, etchings of the original bank—an old shack complete with iron bars—various old desk implements, pens, bank notes and so on.
“Do they have personal items there?” I was thinking about the shoes.
Anita grabbed for the papers again and this time I let her take them. They crinkled as she shoved them in her tote bag.“Personal items? I’m not sure. I mean, they have an old inkwell and a desk blotter that they first used in the bank. It’s kind of like a mini museum.”
It was probably a long shot, but what if the killer got the buckle from the bank? Some of it was locked up, some of it was out in the open. If the shoes with the buckle had been there, would the killer have been able to swipe it without anyone noticing? This didn’t let Anita off the hook, she’d been there and knew what was in the collection. Would she be dumb enough to admit that to me now, though? Probably not.
Suddenly I had the urge to make a deposit at the bank. I wanted to see exactly what was in that display… or, more importantly, to see if anything was missing.
Nineteen
I rushed in the back door and down the hallway on the way to my car, which was parked out front. I didn’t make it to the door though because a heated argument was brewing in the parlor.
“I call foul on that! If you talked to Jedediah Biddeford, then I’m a monkey’s uncle.” Esther’s voice reached me in the hallway and I looked into the parlor to see her looking down at Victor, her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.
“I’m telling you the truth!” Victor was wearing a gray velour jogging suit. He patted his mustache and looked up at Esther innocently. “Jed will talk to me tonight. We’ll find the treasure and he will give me a unique clue to solve his murder.”
“Ha! That’s how I know you’re lying.” Esther leaned down toward Victor. “There is no treasure.”
“How do you know that?” Victor fixed her with a shrewd gaze.
Esther frowned.“I… Umm… Well, after all these years it’s doubtful. And I read that there was a big treasure hunt here a few weeks ago. Nothing was found.”
“We’ll see about that.” Victor shifted in his chair, noticing me in the doorway. “Your guesthouse will be famous. Especially when they make the movie.”
“Movie?” Gail, who was on the sofa and had been gazing into a dainty floral teacup looked up at him. “What movie?”
“Yeah, what movie?” Esther echoed.
Victor made a face at Esther.“Don’t give me that. I saw you in town. You know that there is a movie producer sniffing around the story of Jedediah Biddeford’s skeleton. And he is well aware that I am the only real psychic here.”
“Madame Zenda claimed that she was going to talk to Jed’s ghost too and look what happened to her,” Gail said.
Something flickered across Victor’s face. Guilt over killing Madame Zenda or fear that the same thing would happen to him?
Esther spun on her heel and went to sit in front of her crystal ball. It was on the table next to the window and the sunlight filtering in made the ball glow with an eerie light. She passed her hands over it and closed her eyes.“I don’t think Jed would like having his story sensationalized in a movie and I doubt he has any good clues as to who his killer is. And good luck with that treasure!”
Victor waved a hand at her.“We’ll see tonight. I think I will pick an interesting setting. Like maybe the old family graveyard or that spooky gazebo. It’s important to set the ambiance, you know how movie people are all about that sort of thing.”
Esther glared at him. Gail went back to gazing at her teacup. I turned and left to go to the bank.
I didn’t know whether or not Victor was really going to talk to Jed, but he was right about one thing.Something was going to happen tonight. I hoped there would be a clue to this whole thing at the bank.