forgotten to give Kevin.
The key turned stiffly in the lock. The lid was old and hard to lift, but when I did, music began to play. “It’s absolutely wonderful!”
Austin looked uncomfortable. “How did you get that key? I tried to open it a few times, but it wouldn’t budge. What song is that playing?”
“I found the key like you found the box,” I mentioned. “I don’t recognize the song either.”
“I do,” Gramps said. “ ‘Five foot two, eyes of blue, has anybody seen my gal?’ It was popular back in the day.”
I turned the box over, then looked at the inside again. It was lined with mother-of-pearl. A small inscription carved into it—“
“What do you think?” Austin eagerly asked. “Worth at least something, right?”
“I’m sorry, son.” Gramps took the music box from me. “I’m afraid this is part of the police investigation into the murder at the inn. If that turns out not to be the case, you might get it back. I’ll leave word with your mother, if that’s the case.”
“I’m not going to jail or anything, am I?” He said as he began writing down his name, address and phone number on a piece of paper Gramps had handed him.
“I don’t think so,” Gramps said without much reassurance. “But next time, don’t go removing things off of private property without permission.”
Austin seemed a little skittish at this point. I smiled to reassure him. “If it turns out that you get to keep the box, I’d like to buy it from you.”
I copied his address and phone number since I knew the original would go to the police. Gramps looked at him sternly before he left. I wished I could clean up the music box and listen to it play for a while.
But Gramps wrapped it up in some newspaper and set it to the side. “Maybe it shows that Johnny was here to see Lizzie. Maybe he thought they could make up after all those years. I guess we’ll never know.”
“But surely it doesn’t prove Miss Elizabeth killed Johnny either,” I argued. “It seems more like something he didn’t have a chance to give her.”
“You have a good heart, darlin’.” He kissed my forehead. “But sometimes good people do bad things. It’s the nature of man. Or woman. I’m going to take this down to Chief Michaels. I’ll make sure he knows you’d like it back.”
The overcast skies gave a gloomy feel to the rest of the day. Of course, it didn’t help that I spent much of my time thinking about Miss Mildred being tested to see if she was competent to stand trial for something she didn’t do. I didn’t care what Gramps said about good people going bad. That wasn’t what had happened here.
Once it started raining at about three P.M., foot traffic disappeared from the boardwalk. Shayla, Trudy and I had coffee before I went back to Missing Pieces. Anne Maxwell and her daughter were waiting for me. We stepped in out of the rain, and I showed her the racks of clothes I needed her to go through. I left her alone with them while I showed Ginny the toys in back where she could play.
Kevin came in around five, his Windbreaker soaked. The wind and rain accompanied him in the front door, creating a puddle on the floor, but I was still glad to see him. “Not much going on out here,” he observed. “Too bad it’s so wet. We can’t do any painting today either.”
I was virtually stuffed full of information and bursting to share what I’d learned since I’d seen him last. We sat on the tall stools behind the counter and watched the seagulls playing tag in the rain while I told him about my visit to Miss Mildred and the discovery of the music box.
“I heard from the chief that they released Brian McDonald around lunchtime,” he told me. “They knew he didn’t steal Miss Elizabeth’s purse, and he had an alibi for the medical examiner’s time of death. It was from his girlfriend, so it wouldn’t have stood up if they’d found him with the purse. The chief told him to get out of town.”
“He’s not prosecuting him for stealing all those purses?”
“I guess not. You didn’t press charges. None of the other women did either.”
“What about Miss Mildred?”
He nodded. “I think they had a judge and the DA up there talking to her today. Luke Helms was there with her. They’ll probably bring in a psychiatrist and a few other doctors to make the final assessment. But from what you’ve told me, they’ll find her incompetent and she’ll be institutionalized. The only good thing about that is that it spares her jail time.”
“Because she won’t back down from saying she saw Miss Elizabeth’s ghost, right?”
“Yeah. Even in the Outer Banks, it’s one thing to believe in folklore but another thing when a ghost turns up with evidence that places you at a murder scene.”
“Have you heard anything about the testing they’re doing on the murder weapon?”
“The chief gave me back the derringer we found at the inn. It wasn’t the weapon used to kill Johnny. I haven’t heard anything about the weapon they think killed Miss Elizabeth. But ballistics is faster than DNA. It’ll probably be a while before we know for sure about that.”
“The only thing I could squeeze out of Tim was that the shovel they think was the murder weapon was not a regular garden shovel.” It wasn’t much, but I wanted to add what I could to our investigation.
The news we shared did nothing to alleviate the dark day. We sat for a long time not talking as the evening came down prematurely on Duck. Anne and Ginny finished up the clothes. They waved as they walked out the door. I took a look at the job Anne had done and admired her work. If I could ever afford to hire someone, I’d certainly give her a call. In the meantime, at least both of them had some new-to-them clothes to wear.
I closed the shop about five. It was early, but no one had come in for hours. The rain was still a steady downpour. My mind kept working on helping Miss Mildred, but there didn’t seem to be anything I could do.
Between that, the rain and no customers, I was completely depressed. Even Kevin’s offer to cook dinner in exchange for eating at my house the night before didn’t pick my mood up. But knowing Gramps would be out that night playing pinochle, I agreed to go to the inn with him. Better to be depressed with someone else than by yourself.
Shayla and Trudy stopped us as we walked toward town hall so I could check my messages. We stood under the bright blue canopy on the boardwalk, which thankfully kept most of the rain off of us. “Don’t you two look chummy?” Trudy giggled and nudged Shayla.
“A little
“Dinner at the Blue Whale,” Kevin explained. “You’re both welcome to join us. I make a very good lasagna. My grandmother on my mother’s side was from Italy. She taught me how to cook when I was a little kid. There’s plenty for everyone.”
Shayla muttered something under her breath about Kevin being too full of himself to think there was enough of him to go around. Trudy giggled again. Both women agreed they wanted lasagna for supper in the worst way.
“I have to check my messages,” I told them. “Then I can go.”
“We’ll meet you there,” Shayla said. “You can find the way without us, right?”
“Sure.” I wondered what she was up to. Didn’t she and Tim have something going on now? She acted like she was still interested in Kevin and I was getting in her way.
“We’ll wait.” Kevin smiled. “Maybe the rain will ease up.”
“Shayla has the coolest idea,” Trudy told us. “She wants to do a seance for Miss Elizabeth and maybe Wild Johnny too. The Blue Whale would be the perfect place for it. It’s kind of spooky anyway.”
We all looked at Kevin to see what he thought. He shrugged. “Why not? Although I’m not crazy about people thinking the Blue Whale is spooky. It might hurt business once I’m open.”
Shayla linked her arm through his as we walked into town hall. “
I said hello to Nancy, who was still at her desk, and then heard someone clear his throat. At the sound, Shayla moved away from Kevin. “Tim! I didn’t know you’d be here,” she simpered. “I was just thinking about you, honey.”
Tim nodded to me. “Dae. Could I have a word with you? Official police business.”
