Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
While it had been a long day, I had promised to go with my friends to the Summer Arts Festival, which was up the mountain. None of us were volunteering tonight, but we wanted to show our support for the carnival and the artists and crafts people who had booths on the site.
I had a longtime love of arts and crafts. I looked forward to picking up some new purchases. Even though it had been almost a year that I had been living and working in the old church, I was still trying to make it my home.
While I didn’t like a lot of stuff around, I did have a love of being surrounded by beauty in both the clinic and the house. Making things pretty for patients helped to put them at ease and gave them things to look at while they waited.
Every few months, Abigail helped me switch things around in the patient rooms, so there were always pieces of interest. Those things could open up conversations with patients, who might be curious about the items. Once they were relaxed, they could more easily tell me what was really going on.
I met my friends behind the pub, where the shuttles were stationed to take people up and down the mountain. It was a way to control traffic, and to keep the downtown part of Sea Isle free of too many cars.
With Abigail, Tommy, Mara, Jasper, and Angie with me, we scored a private van.
“I’m sad we’re missing a new episode of Professor T,” Mara said.
“We can watch it tomorrow,” I promised.
“No,” she said. “Tomorrow is s’mores on the beach. Remember? You contributed to that one. And the big bonfire by the pier.”
“I forgot,” I said. “Maybe, when this week is over, we can catch up with the good professor.” We actually watched several different UK mysteries together. We called them wine and chill evenings, and we usually did them a couple nights a week.
Even though I didn’t believe in gossip, it was one of the best ways to keep in touch with what was going on in the town.
“Any news about the murder?” Angie whispered so the driver didn’t hear.
I shook my head. “Nothing definitive. One thing I wanted to run by you all is did any of you see the victim with a server at the train party? The person wore one of those Scottish hats that has the pom-pom on top.”
They shook their heads.
“Why? Do you think one of the volunteers killed him?” Mara asked. “That’s terrible. I have the list of servers if you need it. Well, I already gave it to Ewan.”
“I spoke with him, and he and his team are following up,” I said. “I only wondered if one of you might have seen the face. The person who told me about the food server outfit only saw them from the back. And if it was our killer, there is a chance they borrowed the outfit for the night.”
“The ones who wore those outfits came from the catering company,” Mara said. “I’ll be honest, I wasn’t responsible for checking them in, as they were part of the vendors. I only checked in volunteers and guests.”
“So, someone could have snuck in without you knowing?”
She nodded. “And if that person never made it on the train, I wouldn’t know,” she said. “They could have gone onto the platform but taken one of the paths into the forest behind the station.”
I hadn’t thought of that. I’d been thinking the killer would have to go back through the front entrance. But the platform behind the station had steps on each side with paths going in different directions. That way people exiting the train didn’t necessarily have go back through the building.
That was how the murderer could have escaped. I wondered if Ewan had considered the same thing. Most likely he had. When I texted him earlier, he said he would meet us at the art fair.
And yes, he’d been joining our crime television nights. He sometimes made fun of the procedural elements on a few of the shows, and I’d learned a great deal from him when he explained what was proper.
“I’m surprised you don’t have a booth for your patisserie,” I said to Jasper.
He laughed. “I needed my nights off. I’ve been baking twenty-four/seven the last few days to keep up with the demand of the festival. Even with help, we’ve been exhausted.”
Jasper’s business had grown so much in the past year, I wasn’t surprised. Everything he made was delicious.
“I hear you,” Mara said. “I’m ready for summer to be over. Though, our summer help will be headed off to university. We have such a strong crew, and they are like family. I mean, who works for free at that age? They all volunteered to help out on the train that night as different characters.”
I snapped my fingers. “Maybe, we could ask them if they noticed anything strange that night.”
Mara laughed. “I kind of did already, and they didn’t remember anything out of the ordinary. But now that we know the person might have been dressed in one of the server uniforms, we can ask. Come by tomorrow before dinner service.”
“I’ll do that.”
The van pulled up to the huge stone library on the edge of town. The fair was in a large field behind the building where several booths had been set up.
“It’s loud,” Tommy said softly.
Abigail reached into her bag and pulled out his noise-cancelling headphones.
He was sensitive to sounds and too many people.
They would be sticking to the outskirts, except for the small Ferris wheel in the center of a small carnival.
I’d drawn the straw for riding it with him as his sister was not a fan of heights.
It was her brother’s favorite thing at the carnival.
“Come find me when he’s ready,” I said. “I’m going to look at some of the art.”
“He’ll want to play games for a minute and throw all my money away.” She laughed.
“You love those games just as much as he does,” I said, smiling.
“Aye.”
“I’ll come with you,” Jasper said to Abigail. “Can we start with the ring toss?”
Tommy made a thumbs up.
I laughed.
“I need to find some new art for the pub,” Mara said.
“Let’s hit that first row,” I said looking out over the colorful booths.
The first one featured the glass blowing artists. The fragile pieces from vases to glasses to spears and statues were gorgeous. I recognized the man behind the counter.
“Evening, Doc,” Mr. Agnew said. “And Mara, they let you out of the pub tonight.”
We laughed. “They occasionally let me have some free time.” The joke was she enjoyed every minute she worked at the pub, and she had taken it over so her grandparents could travel more. After working in the corporate world for a while, she loved having her own business.
“Your work is beautiful,” I said. We’d talked about his studio when he’d come in a few months ago. I’d meant to get up the mountain to it but hadn’t had the time.
“Dinnae be saying that, it’ll go to his head,” his wife said. Mrs. Agnew was a hoot. While he was the artist, she ran the business side of things and was quite practical.
They laughed as if that was the best joke ever. It was hard not to smile around them. In truth, many times she had told me how proud she was of her husband.
“I love these spheres,” I said. The sparkling lights hung from booth to booth, caught some sapphire ones that were mesmerizing.
“They are witches’ balls,” Mrs. Agnew said. “Long ago they were used to help float sea nets. Nowadays, people put them in baskets or on a stand like this.” She held up a brass one.
“I love these,” I said. “And I like the idea of having different colors in a basket.”
“Lara, five booths down, makes the most beautiful baskets,” Mrs. Agnew said. One of the things I so admired about this town was how people looked out for one another.
“I’m thinking this ship needs to go on the back of the bar,” Mara said. “I have no idea how you did that with glass.”
“Lass, you have great taste,” he said. “And ’twas a tricky one.”
“I have a glass box on one of the shelves with the liquor,” Mara said.
“I know the one,” he said. “It will fit.”
We made our purchases and Mrs. Agnew promised to deliver them the next day.
We visited several more booths before Jasper came up. “It’s your turn with Tommy and the Ferris wheel.” He laughed. “I offered, but he wants you.”
I nodded. “We’ve been talking about it for weeks. He thinks it is funny that his sister is afraid of heights. He calls her the bravest woman he knows, except when it comes to Ferris wheels.”
“She is,” Mara said. “Who else do we know who has been through more, and is as kind and smart as she is?”
“You make a good point.”
I headed toward the Ferris wheel where Abigail and Tommy stood waiting. He had an enormous stick of cotton candy but handed it to his sister when he saw me.
I’d loved roller coasters and Ferris wheels when I was a kid. While I’d never considered myself an adrenaline junkie, working in the ER all those years had the same sort of thrill.
But I’d mellowed with age and my new practice as a country doctor was just fine with me. The pace was slower and hours shorter most days.
Helping to solve suspicious deaths in Sea Isle had helped that old adrenaline junkie though. Even if the subject was sad, it was fascinating to be learning new skills at my age. That said, on the investigating side, I still had a way to go.
When we reached the top of the ride, it paused for longer than normal.
My guess was Abigail had asked the operator to do that for Tommy.
It was one of his favorite things to be up high and have a view of the town’s two parts.
One part down the mountain by the ocean, the other laid out in front of us.
The scene was like a painting, it was so beautiful everywhere I looked.
Tommy pointed toward the sea, where the full moon was reflected over it.
“Gorgeous,” I said softly. I smiled. He saw beauty in so many places, especially in the garden. And many times, he’d share it with me and Abigail. I took my phone out of my pocket and snapped a few pictures. One of which, I would have framed for him.
The ride jolted again and began to roll down. That’s when I saw them.