'You heard about that, too?'
'I told you, people here like to talk.'
'Well, there's no proof she was murdered. I'll bet she didn't maintain that old rust bucket she drove.'
Angelica picked up her fork, speared a chunk of tomato. 'Surely that's what yearly car inspections prevent.'
'Let's get back on topic, which is you moving to Stoneham. There's nothing for you to do here. There's no shopping, no art galleries, no museums, no gourmet restaurants-and as you pointed out, no shoe stores.'
Angelica toyed with a piece of pasta. 'Perhaps it's my destiny to bring culture and a sense of style to this little backwater.'
'Stoneham is my home. Don't call it a backwater. It has history and charm and it doesn't need outsiders coming in with an agenda to change it.'
'Au contraire. You yourself are an outsider. Bob Kelly told me the majority of booksellers were all recruited from out of state to come here. And you just said yourself that most of your customers are out of towners.'
'Yes, but-'
'Most of the villagers don't mind you little guys opening shop, but they don't want malls and big box stores moving in and changing the area's character, not to mention all the people from Boston crossing the state line just because it's cheaper to live here.'
'Tell me something I don't know.'
'Change happens, Tricia,' she said, pointedly. 'Whether some people want it or not.'
Tricia's temper flared. 'You do not need to live here in Stoneham.'
Angelica swirled the wine in her glass. 'And I may not stay long. Just long enough to see you through this ordeal.' And then she did something that totally startled Tricia; she laid one of her hands on Tricia's. 'I may not have been the best big sister in the past, but I intend to make up for that now.'
Flabbergasted, Tricia could only sit there with her mouth open. Then she shut it. Angelica had never before displayed even a hint of altruism. Something else was behind her visit, and her newfound sisterly love.
How long would it be before she revealed her true intent?
Being labeled the village jinx didn't seem to have an impact on customers at Haven't Got a Clue. A busload of bibliomaniacs on a day trip from Boston had unloaded an hour earlier, and business had been brisk. It was easy to tell the townsfolk from the transients. The villagers paused at the shop's windows, faces peering in to see the jinx on display like at a zoo, judgment in their eyes. Tricia braved a smile for each of them, but the faces turned away.
Tricia rang up a three-hundred-dollar sale for a British first edition of Agatha Christie's
'Please sign our guest book,' she suggested as she handed over the purchase to a dapper old gent.
'I will, thank you.'
The phone rang and Ginny stepped up to the counter, taking the next customer. Tricia answered on the second ring. 'Haven't Got a Clue, this is Tricia speaking, how can I help you?'
'Hi, Tricia, it's Mike Harris.' Aha-one friendly voice remained among the locals. 'Scuttlebutt about town is that you've developed into the village jinx. How's it feel to be raked over the coals?' Then again…
Tricia sidled over to the front window, looked across the street to Mike's campaign office. 'I'm feeling the heat but so far haven't been burned.'
'How'd you like to escape the pressure cooker for an hour or two? I know a little bistro up on the highway that serves a mean lobster bisque, and their sourdough bread is the stuff of legends.'
'Right now that sounds heavenly.'
'Fine. I'll pick you up at eleven thirty.'
'I'll be here.' Tricia hung up the phone and turned to find Ginny at her elbow.
'A date?'
'It's not a date.'
'That'll be thirty-seven fifty,' Ginny told the elderly male customer. 'Then what do you call lunch with a handsome man?'
'An escape. Can I help you find something?' Tricia asked a matronly woman in a denim jumper.
Six sales and fourteen more nudist tracts later, Tricia glanced at the shop's clock. The Care Free tour bus had picked up its passengers and there was sure to be a lull in foot traffic, assuring Tricia she needn't feel guilty for leaving Ginny alone in the shop.
At precisely eleven thirty a sleek black Jaguar pulled up in front of Haven't Got a Clue, its powerful engine revving. Ginny gawked and inhaled deeply. 'Ooh! I smell money.'
'Behave,' Tricia scolded and grabbed her purse. 'I'll try to be back within-'
'Take your time. I'll be fine here,' Ginny said. 'But you'll have to report on everything the two of you talk about.'
'No promises,' Tricia said, suppressing a smile as she headed for the door. Then on impulse, she stopped, went back to the counter, and fished one of the nudist leaflets from the trash, stuffing it in her handbag. 'See you later,' she told Ginny as the door closed behind her.
In celebration of the beautiful early autumn day, the Jag's windows were wide open, and Tricia bent down to see Mike's smiling face. 'Hop in.'
Tricia opened the door and slid onto the cool, black leather seat. 'What a beautiful car. The insurance business must be booming.'
'Not bad if I say so myself.'
Tricia pulled shut the door and buckled her seat belt as Mike eased the car back into traffic. Her gaze momentarily lighted on the Cookery, the yellow crime tape still attached to the door frame reminding her of Doris Gleason's murder. She shook the thought away and concentrated on the Jag's dashboard, with its GPS screen and rows of buttons and switches. It reminded her of the cockpit of a jumbo jet. She wiggled her shoulders deeper into the leather, remembering she had once been used to this kind of luxury in the early days of her marriage to Christopher. She glanced across the seat, caught Mike's eye. He looked fabulous in a gray pin-striped suit, crisp white shirt, and a pale yellow silk tie-and nothing like her ex. 'You're dressed to the nines. For my benefit?'
'I'd love to say yes, but I've got a speaking engagement later this afternoon. There's always next time.' Again he flashed those perfect white teeth.
Next time. That sounded nice. Maybe Angelica had been right. In pursuing her goals to get the bookstore up and running Tricia had neglected to factor in time to build a social life.
'Is this little restaurant in Milford?'
'Just east of there. It's only twenty minutes down the road. Don't worry, I'll have you back to your store before the Red Hat Society bus comes in.'
Tricia stifled a laugh. 'Do you have all the tourist bus schedules memorized?'
'I'm making an effort. Stoneham's economy has rebounded thanks to tourism. I want the business owners to know how much I appreciate their efforts to keep the village in the black.'
'Happy potential constituents mean a landslide victory?'
'Something like that.'
'Forgive me, but I thought the village voted for these kinds of things in the winter-not on traditional election day.'
'That's right. This is a special election at the next town meeting to fill the spot left by Sam Franklin, who had a heart attack and died a few weeks back. My opponent and I are pretty much evenly matched.'
Tricia couldn't remember seeing any other literature for the selectman campaign, realizing she didn't even know the other candidate's name.
'What made you decide to run?'
'Too many former Stoneham selectmen have been outsiders who came to the area after retiring. They fought against the idea of tourism, wanting Stoneham to remain a quaint little-dead-village. They were also lawyers,' he said with contempt. 'They didn't have a clue how to bring life back to the village. It was people like Bob Kelly who turned Stoneham around. The board begged him to take the job of village administrator, but he said he couldn't
