She was in her late seventies and had hair of an impossible paprika color. It was curled and teased into a bubble at the crown of her head, while the sides and back were stick straight. Someone had once described Juanita’s hairdo as a mushroom cloud, and Leslie couldn’t disagree. The older lady had soft, pudgy hands with pink nails buffed to a long, gentle curve. She carried a large bag, and a small dog with huge ears that reminded Leslie of butterfly wings peeked out from thetop.
“But you did get the salsa recipe from Cherry, didn’t you, Leslie?” Juanita had owned a chain of ten Mexican restaurants scattered throughout Michigan and Indiana until she “retired” in 2000, and she had recently passed on her secret family recipe to Leslie viaCherry.
“It was perfect. I never would have thought to stew the tomatoes and peppers in vegetable stock before blendingthem.”
“And the vegetarians of the world thank you for using vegetable stock instead of chicken stock,” Cherry said. “Such a little thing, but it definitely broadens what we caneat.”
Iva Bergstrom had taken the last chair. She was a woman of sixty-fiveish with round apple cheeks and neatly styled blue-white hair. “So nice to see you again, Leslie. And now you’ve moved to Michigan permanently—to open a B&B, is that what Iheard?”
“Yes, and it’s haunted—but Leslie hasn’t seen or heard of the ghost yet. She’s been here more than a month,” Orbra informed them just as Bethy appeared with a crowded tray that made Leslie’s mouthwater.
Besides blueberry and apple cinnamon scones, the newly arrived tray also held tiny white stoneware pots of clotted cream and jam, finger sandwiches with salmon salad or cucumbers sliced paper-thin, and profiteroles. There were small plates and tiny spoons, irregular lumps of sugar in a dish, a narrow bowl of fresh berries, and half-dollar-sized open-facedquiches.
“Can you believe she’s heard nothing?” Orbra went on. “Not one sign of the ghost. I don’t think she’s trying hard enough. It’s not as if the ghosts in Wicks Hollow are shy oranything.”
Leslie was well aware of Wicks Hollow’s reputation—at least among the Tuesday Ladies; she didn’t think anyone else had the same crazy notion—of the area having a particular propensity for ghostly happenings and haunting instances. She didn’t believe it herself. After all, an historic town with so many old, Victorian buildings obviously attracted legends and tales just by virtue of the fact that they had history. Plus, the Tuesday Ladies—well, they were…old. And some of them were battier thanothers.
“Your inn is haunted, Leslie?” Iva said, and her eyes sparkled with interest. “I’vegotto come and visit. I went to see a medium last week,and—”
“Sounds like a great way to scare off potential customers,” grumbled Maxine. She picked up one of the triangular sandwiches with fingers curved like talons. “We had some ghost-happenings back over the summer, you remember that,Juanita?”
“Yes, of course I remember.” Juanita rolled her eyes. “Ay-yi-yi, Maxine! It was only a few months ago when that all happened with Diana and that nice Ethanand—”
“Don’t try an’ tell me my memory’s going,” groused Maxine, showering crumbs everywhere. “At least I can hear everything—which is better than you, when I have to repeat it all thetime.”
Hadn’t Maxine just accused her friend of being blind, not deaf? Not that Juanita seemed to exhibit either symptom. Leslie glanced at Cherry, and saw that she and Orbra were laughing silently together. Tears were streaming down Cherry’sface.
“Did the three of you ladies really drive all the way to and from Chicago together?” Orbra said to Iva when she could speak clearly. “You have my condolences,” she added in anundertone.
“It’s really Hollis who’s the saint. He drove us, the lovely man, and that’s why I told him he could golf as much as he wanted while he’s here on vacation. Hollis lives in Grand Rapids,” Iva explained to Leslie. “But he’s taking the entire month of October off to spend it here in Wicks Hollow with me.” Iva’s cheeks went slightly pink as Cherry and Orbra made “oooooh” and “awwwww” noises. Leslie couldn’t help but laugh, because they sounded as if they were in middleschool.
“Hollis and Iva are very hot and heavy,” Cherry explained. “She met him back in April, and I swear, he’s been down here in Wicks Hollow more than he’s been in GrandRapids.”
“He’s very handsome and has more hair than Maxine does—which is saying a lot for a seventy-year-old man,” Orbra put in. “Iva’s got him wrapped around her littlefinger.”
“I told Hollis the only thing hehasto attend is the reunion,” Iva went on, studiously ignoring the razzing. But her cheeks got even morepink.
“Oh,” Leslie said, reaching for a small blueberry scone. It was warm and practically crumbled in her fingers, chock-full of tiny wild blueberries. “That’s right—there’s the big class reunion on thenineteenth.”
“That’s right. There ain’t enough of us left from each of the classes—we’re all dead—so we bunched ’em all together into one big reunion,” Maxine informed her. “It’s my sixty-second reunion, and Juanita’s fifty-eighth, and Iva’s—what one isit?”
“Thirty-fifth.”
“Right. Thirty-fifth.” Maxine paused, peering at Iva as if she didn’t know whether to believe her or not. “Thirty-fifth?I thought you were older than that. Aren’tyou—”
“You’ll never guess what happened,” Iva interrupted loudly. “You know that little store, up on Gertrude? The one that’s hardly ever open and looks like it needs a goodcleaning?”
“Damned eyesore,” Maxine grumbled. “Someone ought to do something aboutit.”
“Well, someone’s going to,” Iva replied brightly. “Turns out the owner is—was—a client of Hollis’s law firm. The man was over a hundred, and he died about a month ago. So there’ll be a new owner at the shop. And guess who it is!” She looked at Maxine as if she were dangling a donut on a string in front of a very hungrychild.
“Tell us,” Juanitasaid.
“Ethan Murphy’ssister!”
“You mean that red-headed girl? Looks like a gypsy? Likes to read palms?” Maxine growled. “She said I was gonna live to a hundred myself. Not sure how I feel about that,” she addedgrumpily.
“Yes. Her name is Fiona. I expect once all the legal tangle’s taken care of, she’ll come down here from Grand Rapids and spruce the placeup.”
