Scent to Kill: A Natural Remedies Mystery (Natural Remedies Mysteries) Read online

  “What did Jackson say?”

  “He’s not happy about it, but he said he’ll help me. He’s been hired as a security guard for the duration of the shoot so he’ll be there to protect us.”

  “Hector can help, too,” Allie said. Hector had been in the marines and was one tough dude.

  “With Jackson, Hector, and the cops, I think we’ll be okay. Bottom line, it’s a chance to make some money, and with the off-season coming, I really need it.”

  “I know you do. Okay, we’ll do it. We’ll leave the city in the morning and meet you at noon.”

  I thanked her and rang off, relieved that my team was in place. I turned the key and drove a few hundred yards west and parked in front of the Curious Kitten, the new antiques store that had just opened next to Nature’s Way. (Nan’s Needlework, my old next-door neighbor, had closed when Nan retired last month.) I grabbed Qigong’s leash, hopped out of the car, and peered through the shop window—at a set of dishes with the Bixby crest.

  I couldn’t believe it. They were the same dishes I had just seen in the Bixby manor’s dining room, though these were clean and shiny. I decided to go inside and poke around. I picked up Qigong and entered to find a man in his sixties sitting behind the counter. He was wearing reading glasses and a sweater with patches on the elbows. He looked up as the bell above the door tinkled. “Welcome! I’m Arthur Beasley.”

  “I’m Willow McQuade. I’ve taken over Nature’s Way. Claire Hagan was my aunt.”

  “I’m so sorry about your aunt. Terrible business.” He shook his head. “But it’s lovely to make your acquaintance, Miss McQuade.”

  “Willow, please. And thank you. Is it all right if I just browse a bit?”

  “That’s fine. Just let me know if you need anything.” He pulled out a ledger and began to study it.

  I scouted out the store. In the back among cookie jars, vintage signs, and colorful dog dishes, I found the rest of the set that was featured in the front window. I examined the crest and determined that it was the same one that I had seen at the estate. I was sure that these had belonged to the Bixbys, but were they the exact same dishes I’d seen in that dusty dining room—or another set? And how did they wind up here? I browsed my way back to the front where I spotted The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Catcher in the Rye, and The Call of the Wild in a glass case. “Are these first editions?” I asked, thinking of the books I had seen in the Bixby study.

  Arthur lifted his head. “Oh, yes. We only sell the finest books here.”

  Before I could ask about the dishes and the books, a short, pear-shaped, gray-haired woman wearing jeans and a T-shirt came out from the back.

  “Willow, meet my wife, Agatha. Willow McQuade is our new neighbor, dear.” Arthur sneezed. He grabbed a tissue from a box on the counter and blew his nose.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said to me, then turned to Arthur. “You need to see a doctor. That cold is no better and it’s been almost two weeks.”

  “Maybe it’s allergies,” I said. “I have quite a few products in my store that can help you, like stinging nettles, which is a natural antihistamine. Zinc can help the immune system, and fish oil helps reduce inflammation. You can also use a neti pot to clean out your sinuses.”

  “A what?” Agatha asked, looking confused.

  “It’s a way to irrigate the sinus cavity. You put a quarter teaspoon of noniodized salt or sea salt and a quarter teaspoon of baking soda into a cup of warm water and use it to rinse out the bacteria.”

  “And that works?” Arthur said.

  I nodded. “It’s one of the things that might make a big difference. You also might try an aromatic diffuser. The scents of essential oils like pine, cedar, and eucalyptus can open up your sinus passages. Acupuncture can even help. I have a practitioner, Hector, next door who’s excellent.”

  “Perhaps we could do a trade,” Agatha said. “Do you see anything in here you might be interested in?”

  “The plates in the window are nice.”

  Agatha nodded. “Yes, they just came in.”

  I pointed to the case with the first editions. “These are also interesting.”

  “Indeed they are,” Arthur said.

  Agatha frowned. “Those are very pricey. Probably more than we would ever spend in your store.”

  “I understand. Can I ask where the plates and the books came from? Do you buy from estate sales?”

  Arthur began to answer, but Agatha cut him off. “Our sources are confidential. You understand.”

  “Of course.” I took out my phone from my purse and told a white lie. “Would you mind if I took a few pictures of the books? My uncle Nick is a collector, and I think these might interest him.” I knew that Nick, Aunt Claire’s former boyfriend, wouldn’t mind being classified as a collector. But his great interests were yoga, herbs and other natural remedies. Agatha nodded and I clicked off a few shots. After I was done, I thanked them and headed for the door. “It was nice meeting you. Please come over to see us if you need help with those allergies.”

  “I will, thank you,” Arthur said.

  I stepped out onto the sidewalk and looked inside. Arthur and Agatha were arguing heatedly. Since they were distracted, I quickly clicked off a photo of the plates in the window, too. As I walked back to Nature’s Way, I wondered how the Beasleys obtained the plates and the books. Had Roger been selling off the goods from the estate so he didn’t have to split the profits with Carly—or to finance the shoot? Or was it Tom, who clearly needed money? It could even be Mrs. Florrick, supplementing her income, thinking no one would notice now that Max and Roger were both gone. Who needed the money most? I would have to find out.

  When I walked up the steps to Nature’s Way, I found a large box on the front stoop. I checked the return label and saw that it was my order from an aromatherapy company. This was good news since I needed the contents for my seminar tonight. It had been a long day, even for a Monday, but I was determined to do a good job.

  Inside, Qigong headed straight for my office. I grabbed the box cutter from underneath the counter and slit the box open and was rewarded with the smell of lavender. Which was not surprising, considering that it contained lavender essential oil along with lavender soap, moisturizer, candles, neck pillows and wreaths, and twenty-four gift bags that held samples of lavender products. I unpacked the box and arranged a display of some of the products on the counter.

  Merrily came over to the cash register and rang up a sale. “How did everything go up there? How is Simon?”

  “It went well.” I told her what Rick and I had agreed on. “The funeral for Roger is Wednesday morning, and Simon was released from jail and he has a good lawyer. But right now I need to focus on tonight’s seminar.”

  “Gotcha. What do we need to do first?”

  “Let’s push all the tables to the front of the store by the window and set up the chairs here.” I motioned to the space to the left of the counter near the door. “Say, six across.” I helped Merrily arrange the chairs and placed a gift bag on each one.

  Next, I asked her to grab the card table from the storage closet. I placed the lavender essential oils on it, along with two platters, one with the ingredients for stress-relieving smelling salts, and one with empty jars to put the salts in. I also put out two glass vases for the lavender that I knew Jackson was bringing from his garden.

  Once that was done, I grabbed a table from the café and put it next to the card table. I placed a bowl of organic punch on it along with recycled cups and napkins and Merrily’s scrumptious organic raspberry scones. The guests could enjoy them during the break.

  Finally, I felt ready. As I headed into the kitchen to grab some dinner, my phone rang. The caller ID identified an outside caller. I pushed Accept anyway and said hello, but was greeted with silence. “Hello?” I said again.

  “You’ve been asking a lot of questions, haven’t you, Ms. McQuade?” said a threatening voice that sounded so mechanical I couldn’t identify it. “Didn’t any
one ever tell you that curiosity killed the cat? You do have cats, don’t you, and a dog, too?”

  I felt stunned and sick inside. Did someone know that I had talked to Mrs. Florrick or found the camera or talked to the Beasleys?

  “Who is this?” I demanded, but I could hear a quaver in my voice.

  “You’ve been warned.” The line went dead.

  I immediately called for Qigong, and when he ran out of the office, I breathed a sigh of relief. Next, I ran upstairs to check on Ginger and Ginkgo. I found them lounging on my bed, safe and sound.

  I went back downstairs. As I walked up to the counter, Jackson came in with two large bouquets of dried lavender. I went over to him and Qigong followed me. “I just had this really weird phone call.” I told him what had happened.

  Qigong jumped up on Jackson’s legs. “You’re okay, aren’t you, fella?” He reached down to pat Qigong’s head and scratched him behind the ears. Qigong rolled over, and he rubbed his belly, too. “Are the cats okay?”

  “They’re fine.” I took the lavender and put it in the vases. “Thanks for these.”

  He shook his head. “I knew something like this would happen. Maybe you should reconsider your promise to Simon.”

  “Jackson, I can’t do that. I need to solve this for him and for my own peace of mind. I’ll just have to keep a closer eye on my pets. I can take Qigong with me to the estate and put the cats in the office and ask Merrily and Wallace to watch them.”

  “I think you’re crazy,” Jackson said, incredulous that I wasn’t giving up. “This is only going to get worse.”

  I looked at the clock over the counter: 6:45. The door opened and five women came in. I said hello to them and then said to Jackson, “Can we please talk about this later?”

  He sighed and gave me a kiss. “Yes, we can. I’m going upstairs. C’mon, boy.” Qigong trotted after him.

  People continued to stream in, excited about the seminar. By seven o’clock, almost every chair was taken. I pushed the phone call out of my mind along with Jackson’s disapproval and Roger’s murder and focused on what I needed to do.

  “Thanks for coming out on a Monday night to learn about aromatherapy,” I began. “I think you’ll find it worthwhile.” The door opened and Carly and Amanda scurried in and took seats in the back. Carly mouthed, “I’m sorry.” First, I was surprised to see her, then I wondered if something had happened to Simon.

  I refocused. “Aromatherapy is the art and science of using essential oils to relax, balance, and stimulate the body, mind, and spirit. My favorite fragrance is lavender. The lavenders, whose botanic name is Lavandula, are a genus of thirty-nine species of flowering plants in the mint family.” I picked up a bottle of lavender essential oil. “It’s good for stress, tension, and anxiety and can help you sleep better. The use of lavender dates back to the ancient Greeks. Later, the Romans used it to scent their baths. So people have been relaxing, thanks to lavender, for a long, long time.”

  I explained how to add lavender oil to bathwater or an electronic diffuser, and how it could help with sleeplessness. Then Merrily and I got ready to show people how to make their own lavender stress-relieving smelling salts.

  Merrily took the platter with the ingredients, and I took the one with the jars, and we went around the room to pass them out. While we were doing that, Amanda got up and wandered to the back of the store and went into the bathroom. She must have learned where it was when she visited this morning. On her way back, she stopped by the shelf near my office and peered in through the open door. Was she just curious—or snooping?

  Once we had handed out the ingredients and the jars, and Amanda had returned to her seat, I said, “First open the jar, then open the baggie with the rock salts and empty them into the jar.” I waited until everyone had done so. “Now open the sample bottle of lavender essential oil and put ten drops on the salt.” They all did. “Now, the best part, take a good whiff.” All put their noses in their jar and took a deep breath. Sighs were heard all over the room. “Can’t you just feel the stress melting away?” Everyone nodded. “You can keep it on your desk or on your nightstand.” I smiled as everyone clapped. It never failed to amaze me how the simplest things could make such a difference.

  I took some questions from the audience and, after that, told the participants that if they liked they were free to browse and shop. Most of them did just that, heading for the essential oils and other products with lavender, which was what I was hoping for. I rang up almost $1,800 in sales.

  Most of the participants had made purchases and gone on their way when Simon came in. He went straight to Carly. I finished helping a customer and joined them.

  “Anything new?” Simon asked me.

  “Nothing new. This is going to take time, Simon. I know it’s hard to be patient.”

  “It is when every time the phone rings or someone comes to the door, I think it’s the cops.”

  “Your lawyers are working on this, and so is the PI they hired this afternoon,” Carly said. “Willow can only do so much.”

  The door opened and Roger’s brother, Tom, came into the store. He was wearing ripped jeans, an orange Galaxy T-shirt, and sunglasses. I understood Simon showing up, but Tom? Somehow, I was sure he wasn’t there for the lavender oil.

  “Carly!” he yelled. “Rick said you’d be here. Want to go get a drink? We can toast to my big bro Roger, and your husband. He would have wanted it that way. No tears, is what I say.”

  “He sounds like he’s already been drinking,” Merrily said to me in a low voice. “He must be hurting.”

  “I think you’re right,” I said, and winced as Tom spotted Simon.

  “What is he doing here?” Tom demanded. He pointed to Simon and said loudly, “You should be in jail.”

  “I’m going home with Simon,” Carly said firmly. “I’ll see you on the set tomorrow, Tom.”

  “He killed your husband,” Tom said, raising his voice. “Carly, how can you even go near him?”

  The few seminar participants that were left looked at Tom in alarm and scurried out of the store. This was not what I had planned.

  I texted Jackson and asked him to come downstairs, just in case there was trouble. It felt like the fight with Roger all over again.

  Jackson appeared moments later. “What’s going on?”

  I pointed to Simon and Tom, who were now in a very loud argument and about to come to blows. Jackson went over to them at once. “That’s enough, guys. Let’s break it up.”

  Tom whirled on him. “I don’t take orders from you.”

  “When you’re here, you do.” Jackson took him by the elbow. “This is private property.” He walked him to the door and opened it. “It’s time to say good-night.”

  Tom’s face was turning an alarming shade of red. “You can’t do this!” he yelled.

  “Yes, I can.” Jackson pushed him out the door, then closed and locked it.

  Tom pounded on the door. “You’ll be sorry! I mean it!”

  “Just ignore him,” Jackson said. “He’ll go away.”

  “Thanks, Jackson,” Simon said.

  Carly pulled me aside. “Willow, I’m so sorry. I had no idea he was going to come here.”

  “Is he interested in you?” I wanted to know what exactly was going on between them.

  She shrugged. “I think he’s always had a little crush on me, being Roger’s little brother and all.”

  “Did Roger know?”

  “Yes, but he didn’t care. He never saw his brother as much of a threat.”

  “He didn’t seem to think much of him when it came to his profession either.”

  “No, but Tom actually does have talent. He’s a fantastic sculptor. You should see some of his work. But Roger was only interested in how much money Tom owed him. Roger had plenty to spare, but he didn’t believe in handouts. In his eyes, Tom was a failure.”

  “That couldn’t have been easy for Tom to live with.”

  “It wasn’t. They’d been e
stranged for two years until we came back for Max’s funeral in May. Roger made amends and asked him to work on the show.”

  “Why the sudden turnaround?”

  Carly shrugged. “He wouldn’t say. Just that he owed Tom a favor.”

  An hour later, everyone had gone home, and Jackson and I were in bed with Qigong, Ginger, and Ginkgo. I felt cozy and safe again. The exact opposite of the way I’d felt after that horrible phone call and the fight between Simon and Tom. The information about Tom from Carly, though, was helpful. Tom had motive. Perhaps he had killed Roger to get his money, his job, and his wife. I’d have to keep a closer eye on him from now on.

  “Well, that was interesting,” Jackson said.

  “Thanks for coming to the rescue.” I snuggled next to him.

  “No problem. Now, can we talk about how ludicrous it is for you to continue snooping around when you’re being warned off?”

  “But I’ve already gathered some good info. And I just took the case this afternoon.”

  “ ‘Took the case.’ ” Jackson smiled. “Listen to you, Nancy Drew. Okay, what did you find?”

  I told him about my visit to the manor, finding the camera, talking to the Beasleys and Carly, and what Amanda had been doing in the store.

  “Interesting that Roger owed Tom for something, even though Tom owed Roger money,” Jackson mused. “Maybe Tom had something over his brother.”

  “You think he got his job on the show by blackmailing Roger?”

  “I’m not sure.” Jackson picked up the book he’d been reading. “But that was not a healthy sibling relationship.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I think, too. And?”

  Jackson gave me a worried look. “And Tom is like a grenade about to blow. Please, Willow, stay clear of him.”

  “That’s not what I meant. What do you think about what I’ve found so far?”

  Jackson thought for a moment. I could almost see him tallying the information in his head. “Okay, objectively, good work. The background info from Florrick about Max and her comments about Carly and Roger’s enemies is interesting. So is Lucas’s comment about the murder being tied to the past. The part where you took the camera? Not so good. But it will be interesting to see what the photos show. And I agree that it’s odd that the Bixbys’ dinner set and their first editions appear to be for sale in the Curious Kitten. But if it was Roger who sold them, he owned everything on the estate, so that’s not a crime. I don’t know about Amanda, but Tom definitely bears watching, from a safe distance. A man with a grudge can be a dangerous thing.”