Probable Paws (Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series Book 5) (14 page)

B
y the time
I left the Hamiltons’, my head was spinning. If Josie didn’t kill Adelaide, then who did? Evie’s behavior and odd demeanor put her at the top of my list. Josie had said she’d heard the squeaking of the dumbwaiter, which made me wonder if someone snuck up in there and killed Adelaide. That ruled out Evie and Julie, though, since all they had to do was walk down the hall. But someone who didn’t want to be seen passing Evie, Julie, or Josie’s rooms might have used it. Someone whose room wasn’t in that hall but still had access to the house. Max? Lisa? John?

Josie said they’d given the paintings to Max. Did Max want the paintings because he knew the book was in one of them, or was he just trying to protect them from Lisa and make sure they stayed in the family, as he’d told Striker and me the night we were in the cottage? And if so, what did he do with them? They weren’t in the cottage.

I had to admit that I liked Max, but I couldn’t let that cloud my judgment. He’d seemed pretty upset that first night when he caught me digging in the daisy field. Had he buried the book there in the time capsule?

He’d seemed sincerely upset about Adelaide’s death when he came to the bookstore to tell me that Josie had lied about being in the house that morning, but maybe it was all a ploy to cast suspicion away from him. He knew I was friends with Striker—maybe he thought I’d tell the police and they wouldn’t look at him as a suspect.

My eyes fell on the cottage as I pulled out of the Hamilton driveway. I needed to go talk to Max. But if he was the killer, that could be dangerous. Though that had never stopped me before, and I couldn’t call Striker or Gus because I didn’t have a reason to suspect Max of Adelaide’s death other than the fact that he might have killed her for the spell book. And I certainly couldn’t tell them about
that
.

I pulled out onto the road and then drove up to the dirt road that ran behind the cottage. I parked my Jeep right at the cottage this time. If I disappeared, maybe someone would remember seeing it there. I walked right up to the door and knocked.

No answer.

I peeked in the window, cupping my hands over my eyes. The red and green lights on the equipment blinked, but the screen savers on the monitors were up. No one had used the computers in a while, and there was no sign of Max.

“Looking for someone?”

I spun around, and Julie was standing behind me, a pie plate with a blue-checkered cloth over it in her hand.

“I was looking for Max.”

She frowned. “Oh, he’s not home?”

“No.” My eyes were still on the pie. “Did you bring that from your house?”

She glanced back at the mansion. “Yes. Cook made it, and I thought I’d run it over. It’s blueberry. His favorite. What did you want? Maybe I can help you.”

I studied Julie for a second. The rest of the Hamiltons had regarded me with suspicion from the get-go, but Julie didn’t seem suspicious of me at all. Maybe I could get some information out of her. “Max and I have been working on something together, and I was wondering if there was a place he might store things that were precious to him. You know, like a hiding place. I was supposed to pick something up …”

She gnawed on her bottom lip. “The only place I know of is the time capsule, but he wouldn’t put anything in there until the ceremony.” Julie pointed to the spot in the daisy field where the earth had been disturbed.

“Yeah, he told me about that. What is the ceremony?”

Julie shrugged. “My grandma started it a long time ago. We all put stuff in there. Every year we have a ceremony and put in some memorabilia for future generations.”

“How big is it?”

“Oh, about this big.” Julie balanced the pie plate as she spread her hands apart to indicate a container about three feet by four feet. Big enough to fit a book or even a small painting.

“When was the last time you guys buried something in it?” I asked.

“We do it every year on September fifteen.” Julie looked at me curiously.

“Interesting.” It was June, and judging by the way the ground was disturbed, someone had put something in there recently, not last September. I flicked my gaze back to Julie. “Do you know when Max will be back?”

She shook her head. “I actually thought he would be here, but you know Max. He comes and goes.”

“Right. Well, thanks a lot.” I wanted to rush over to the time capsule and start digging, but I couldn’t do that in broad daylight with Julie watching, so I forced myself to walk back to the car. As I drove off, I craned my neck to look at the daisy field. Something had been buried there. Was it the spell book?

If it was, and Max was the killer, it might not be safe to come back and dig around there at night by myself. But if Max did kill Adelaide for the spell book, then why bury it in the time capsule? Surely he would want to use it right away or keep it handy…unless he was trying to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Maybe Max didn’t kill Adelaide but knew the power of the book. Once Adelaide was gone, he buried it to keep it safe. From whom? Evie?

There were a lot of what-ifs running around in my head, but one thing I knew for sure—I had to find out what Max was up to.

* * *

I
called
Max’s cell phone and left a message for him to return the call. It might have been my worst mistake ever, but I mentioned the digging I’d seen near the time capsule. He might have one of his surveillance cameras pointed at it and might have caught someone burying something there. I had a gut feeling that Max was a good guy and, if I was right, he might be able to help. But if he was on the
other
side, he would know I was onto him, and that might not be good for my health. I shuddered to think of the harmful spells that might be inside that book. Spells he could use on
me
.

I rustled around the shop nervously. I called out to Adelaide, but she didn’t show. Robert and Franklin popped in to discuss the weather, but they hadn’t seen even a whisper of mist from her.

Even Pandora was restless, pacing back and forth and jumping in and out of her cat bed. Her constant meowing grated on my nerves, and I finally dug out her catnip toy to quiet her down. The end of the day came, and Max never returned my call. What was he doing all day? Did he have the spell book? And where were the paintings?

I decided I had no choice but to go back to the cottage and dig up that time capsule. I couldn’t do that until later in the night if I had any hopes of not getting caught. I debated calling Striker to bring him with me for protection, but what would I tell him? I could say that I’d gotten a lead that some evidence was buried in the time capsule, but I didn’t want to have to explain
how
I’d gotten such a lead. Probably better to go on my own.

Five minutes before closing, Pandora raced to the back door and paced back and forth until I closed up. She stared out the Jeep’s side window all the way home, and when I pulled into the driveway and opened my door, she shot out of the car like a bullet and ran over to the path that led to Elspeth’s house. Was she trying to tell me something? I hadn’t checked in on Elspeth in a few days. It couldn’t hurt to go over and see if she was okay while I was killing time before my excursion later that night.

I dropped my purse on the porch and followed Pandora. The smell of molasses cookies grabbed me halfway down the path and dragged me toward Elspeth’s. My mouth was watering by the time I got there. Pandora veered toward the barn, and I toward the rose-laden porch. I could see into the house through the green wooden screen door with its scrolled corners. I knocked on the wooden frame of the screen door, and Elspeth yelled at me to come in. She was in the kitchen, scraping ginger-brown cookies off a cookie sheet onto a blue-and-white-flowered plate with a spatula.

“Would you like some cookies? This is one of your grandmother’s recipes.” Elspeth waved the cookie plate under my nose, and my mouth watered. I grabbed two and sat at the table.

Elspeth busied herself pouring tea. “Speaking of recipes. Did you ever find Adelaide’s recipe book?”

“No. The Hamiltons are an odd bunch. I didn’t see it in the cottage. Do you know of any other places Adelaide might store things she treasured?”

“No, dear. Sorry.”

Disappointment settled on me, and I consoled myself by scarfing down another cookie. I knew the book was in the painting, but what had Max done with the painting? Could I trust him, or was he a killer?

“Do you know anything about Adelaide’s grandson, Max?” I asked.

Elspeth’s white brows tugged together. “Not much. Why do you ask about him?”

I shrugged. “I’ve met him a few times in the course of looking for the book, and he seems a little odd. He was using the cottage where Adelaide stored some of the family heirlooms, but now there’s nothing in there. I just wondered if that recipe book—”

“Oh, I think I know what he did with those. In fact, I saw Max just this afternoon with a bunch of family portraits. I’m not sure if he had any other family heirlooms, though, and I didn’t see any books.” Elspeth’s keen blue eyes studied me over the rim of her teacup.

“You saw him? Where?”

“The historical society. You know that lovely new building they’ve finally finished? They have a lot more room for displays in the museum now, and he was donating some of their things for future exhibits. Adelaide was a huge supporter of the society, and you know if you loan stuff to the historical society for them to put on display, the family retains possession.”

My conversation with Max came back to me when he said he wanted to help his grandmother make sure some of the things remained part of the family. Was he merely helping out with the paintings and didn’t even know about the spell book? And if so, was the painting of Daisy Hamilton in the blue dress at the historical society right now?

There was only one way to find out.

* * *

P
andora was filled
with self-importance as she sat in the beam of light in the middle of Elspeth’s barn. The other cats had gathered around her to listen to her tale of seeing the two ghosts, and a murmur of meows had circulated the barn when she’d told them she’d discovered, through the ghosts, that the book was in the old painting of Daisy Hamilton. Pandora was one of the very rare cats that could see and talk to ghosts, and she took great pride whenever she could use that ability to help Mystic Notch.

“And furthermore, I may have narrowed down who the evil foe is within the Hamilton ranks,” Pandora said.

“How did you do that?” Ivy asked.

“I went on a foray to the Hamilton mausoleum with my human, and we ran into one of them inside. I sensed great evil.”

“But who is it?” Otis said impatiently. “Get on with that so we know who to avoid.”

“The dark twin, Evie. She’s been very suspicious as well as unwelcoming. I felt her watching us from the patio the other night when we were at the Hamilton house trying to home in on the location of the book.”

“Is she the only one?” Sasha asked. “There may be more than one person there working against us. I believe I sensed an abundance of wicked thoughts at the house.”

Pandora’s whiskers twitched. She was sure she’d felt something out of the ordinary from Evie, but she’d also sensed another presence at the house. “We followed the daughter, Josie, out there, but I did not get a strong sense from her. Evie was with the young man, Brian, at first, but he disappeared quickly. Evie stayed in the mausoleum to threaten Willa. Evie was outside the house the other night when we were all there. We sensed evil intentions then as well.”

Inkspot tilted his head. “We’ll take that into consideration. Everyone must be on alert around the Hamilton humans. But we still do not know where the painting is, so I don’t see how we can take action.”

“The book may not even be in the painting anymore,” Kitty pointed out.

“True, but the painting is our only lead,” Inkspot said.

“The information is worthless if we don’t know where the painting is,” Otis hissed.