A Taste of Trickery (Japanese Tea Garden Mysteries Book 3) Read online

  A Taste of Trickery

  Blythe Baker

  Copyright © 2018 by Blythe Baker

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Description

  Newsletter Invitation

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  About the Author

  When tea tastes like danger ...

  Maddie’s difficult ex-mother-in-law and her crazed old parrot are at it again, stirring up new drama in the Morgan household. Maddie has no sooner resolved the last crises involving her family, than a new problem arrives in the form of a dangerous business rival determined to shut down her tea garden. To make matters worse, a severed hand has just been found in the tea garden and no one seems to know where it’s come from! Can Maddie discover the truth and unravel an old crime before the perpetrator gets close enough to end her investigation permanently? Or has Maddie Morgan donned her detective hat and her gardening gloves for the last time?

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  1

  “I just love these blooming teas, Maddie,” my favorite customer, Mrs. Odine, gushed as she brought three packages of the buds to the counter. “Watching them bloom in the teapot is as enjoyable as sipping the tea.”

  “I’m glad you like them,” I replied. “They’re surprisingly colorful. I didn’t even know such a thing existed, until I came here. I probably shouldn’t say that too loud. I’ll blow my cover as a businesswoman and tea expert.”

  “I’ll never tell.” Mrs. Odine laughed. In her sixties and built like a blue post office mailbox, Mrs. Odine had a contagious laugh that was loud and seemed to come from deep down inside, making me giggle every time I heard it.

  The blooming teas she was talking about were every bit as much a gimmick as they were a real treat for tea enthusiasts. The instructions said to boil water in a kettle as normal, then to pour it into a special teapot of clear glass, already containing the dried flower bud. Within minutes, as the tea steeped, the colorful flower would bloom.

  “So, how’s business?” Mrs. Odine changed the subject. “I’ve noticed a ton more cars have been parked in the lot lately.”

  “Things have been going very well. Knock-on-wood.” I rapped gently on the counter. “In fact, thanks to visitors like you, I’ve got some big plans to expand the grounds. Nothing monumental just yet but the garden is getting bigger.”

  “That’s wonderful. Well, I’ll be back next week.” Mrs. Odine dropped her bag of tea in the bulky purse slung over her arm. “My husband and I are going to the opera in a few weeks and I’m desperate for one of your paper fans to go with my ensemble.”

  “Great. See you then, Mrs. Odine,” I said.

  “Say ‘hello’ to Mamma Jackie for me. How is she?”

  “The same as usual.” I forced a smile.

  “Well, I’m glad she’s recovered from that awful business. Thanks again!” She waved over her shoulder as she left the gift shop.

  I took a deep breath. Just the mention of Mamma Jackie had the tendency to start an ache in the back of my head. My ex-mother-in-law was living with me in the big house I had recently inherited from my late grandmother. Renovations were making for tension and cramped living.

  If that weren’t enough, there was that “awful business” Mrs. Odine had referred to, when Mamma Jackie had been kidnapped a few weeks ago and I had been forced to rescue her from the clutches of a maniac with a passion for valuable antiques.

  So, yes, “Mamma Jackie” wasn’t a name I liked to speak these days. At least, not while I was at work in the souvenir shop or in the garden. This was my happy place.

  Since reopening the Japanese tea garden in south Texas left to me by my late grandmother, I had learned to appreciate the property, both for its own sake and for its potential as a profitable tourist attraction. I could see why my grandmother had loved it here, before her declining health and eventual death had temporarily caused the garden to be closed.

  I was glad to be the one bringing the place back to life these days. Watching visitors was a real treat, as they parked their cars and took off for the garden paths, wearing jogging pants or carrying cameras or sketchbooks. Lots of people brought their four-legged friends to get some exercise among the hills and little waterfalls. Running in wide-open spaces especially appealed to the canines and so far everyone had been very respectful of the property, cleaning up after their dogs.

  Now, I thought how lucky I was that the garden was becoming so popular, as I busied myself with tidying up inside the little giftshop near the pagoda at the top of the hill. I had just opened for the morning and Mrs. Odine had been my first customer.

  A cool morning breeze drifted through the shop’s open doorway, stirring loose tendrils of red hair around my neck. I loved being alone in the shop at this early hour, smelling the aroma of tea indoors and the flower scents drifting in from outside, while my employee, Kelly Ward, manned the entrance gate and collected fees from visitors at the foot of the hill.

  But my peaceful mood this morning was doomed to be interrupted.

  Just as I was reorganizing a row of little paper souvenir fans, I heard a shout in the distance.

  I saw a muscular fellow with a bald head approaching the shop. I had noticed him entering the garden earlier but he’d had his big German Shepherd trotting along with him then. There was no sign of the dog now.

  Drenched in sweat, the man looked anxious, as he hurried up to the shop doorway.

  “Miss, has anyone found a missing dog?” he asked me desperately.

  I came out from behind the counter.

  “I’m afraid not. Have you lost yours?” I asked.

  The guy nodded and licked his lips, worry etched across his features. “He broke away from his leash. He dashed off over by the hills and…”

  “Okay,” I interrupted. “You said he was by the hills?”

  The man nodded nervously.

  “Let’s go and look that way. What’s his name?” I asked, as we abandoned the shop and trotted off toward the open hilly area.

  “Pete. I’ve had him since he was a puppy. He’s training to join me on the police force. He’s never done anything like this before.” The man quickly wiped his eyes as if he was getting choked up.

  “We’ll find him,” I soothed. “I’m Maddie Morgan, by the way. This is my tea garden.”

  “Hi, Maddie. I’m Ray. Thanks for your help.”

  As we approached the hills, we both started to call Pete’s name. A few of the path walkers and artists who had been on the grounds approached us and offered to help. In all, we had about six people calling for Pete when, over the furthest hill, I was sure I saw a dark brown, furry bullet racing toward us.

  “Is that him?” I pointed
.

  The man raced to meet his dog halfway. I half expected the animal to launch himself in the air and be caught in the arms of his owner. As I watched the dog get closer, I could see he had something in his mouth.

  “Isn’t that cute,” I said to the other people who were helping in the search. “He brought his master a present.”

  Everyone nodded as they watched the happy ending unfold. But suddenly, it wasn’t so happy. The way Ray, the owner, recoiled, I assumed the dog had brought him a dead bird or maybe a rodent.

  But Ray didn’t act like it was just a dead animal. In fact, he stood there as if shocked, as Pete sat in front of the gift he’d presented, happily wagging his tail with pride.

  “Maddie?” Ray called and waved for me to come to him.

  I trotted over, expecting to get a hearty, “Thank you and sorry he brought a dead bird. Where can I dispose of it?”

  Instead, I saw Ray’s face even more distraught than before. He’d gone an ashy pink color and was fishing a cell phone out of his pocket and punching in a number.

  What had happened? When I looked at the dog, I didn’t see anything wrong. He didn’t have any kind of injury. He only looked a bit on the dirty side, like he’d been digging.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  Ray didn’t say anything but pointed to the ground. Before I could comprehend what I was looking at, I heard his conversation on the phone.

  “This is Officer Ray Seals. I’m at the Little River Japanese Tea Garden with the owner, Maddie Morgan. My dog just retrieved what looks to be a decayed…”

  I didn’t hear his description, because by this time my mind had shut off.

  As I followed the invisible line from Ray’s pointed index finger down to the ground in front of Pete, I wasn’t sure of what I saw. I blinked a few times and took a deep breath, hoping the haze would clear and my vision would be restored to normal. I’d see a stick in front of Pete or a petrified squirrel.

  But I didn’t. I saw what had made Ray get on the phone with the police.

  It was a badly decayed human hand.

  “I can’t be certain it came from the property. Like I said, my dog brought it to me,” Ray continued speaking into his phone.

  I turned around to go back to the souvenir shop and get a bag or something to put this thing in. I felt stunned. Everyone who had been helping to look for Pete was now standing around, gawking at his find.

  An artist had her sketchbook out and was doing a quick pencil rendition. Joggers held their cell phones up to snap photos. This was going to be all over the place on social media.

  I tried to restore order. “All right, everyone,” I said. “This is my tea garden. The best way you can help us out right now is to just go back to what you were doing and stay clear of this area. The police are on their way.”

  Surprisingly, everyone did as they were told.

  When I turned around, I saw that Ray Seals had removed his police badge from somewhere and clipped it to his belt. That probably had a bigger impact on the gathering than my words. I stood there as he withdrew a purple set of plastic gloves from a pouch at his waist.

  “I’m afraid we might have to close part of your garden for the day, Maddie,” he informed me. “We need to keep people out of this area until we know more.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed. What else could I do? I couldn’t tell the police no.

  I looked at Pete, who was studying me as I shifted from one foot to another. He was a beautiful dog. His coat was a rich chocolate brown with black highlights. His ears pointed straight up in the air and, at this moment, his eyes were so concerned I thought he looked like a child afraid he was in trouble.

  The dog seemed to relax when I scratched him gently behind the ears. His tail wagged happily but he didn’t move from the spot where he sat.

  “I’ll go to the entrance and bring the police back when they arrive,” I said.

  Ray nodded as he got down on one knee and poked the dry, crispy thing with his pen.

  “It’ll be a Detective Michael Sullivan arriving,” he called after me.

  “Of course it will be.” I let my head fall back and I looked up at the sky as I walked back to the shop.

  2

  “It’s a hand, all right,” Detective Michael Sullivan said, as he knelt down on the ground next to Pete.

  Aside from offering me a quick greeting on arrival, he kept his serious work face on, offering no acknowledgement that he and I were sort of dating these days. I respected that he had to stay focused on the crime scene at the moment.

  The dog was still guarding his find for his master.

  “Good dog.” Michael scratched the animal behind his ears.

  “I can’t say where it came from, Detective.” Ray pursed his lips. “But Maddie here says her property is fenced in so I’m assuming it came from somewhere on the premises.”

  “We can’t assume anything until we do a search of the grounds,” Michael said. He looked up at me, since I was standing just a few feet away. I’d shooed all the visitors off the property and put the chain across the entrance to the parking lot.

  Michael said, “There’s a good chance this was dragged into the garden by a wild animal. But a search will let us know for sure.”

  It didn’t take long for several uniformed officers to show up and begin combing the grounds.

  I offered to help and started with the area closest to home, since the back of the public garden butted up against my own backyard down at the end of the street. The last thing I wanted was Mamma Jackie wandering off the veranda and stumbling across a shriveled up corpse or something.

  I investigated around the smallest koi pond and near a tiny pagoda lawn ornament that was along the dividing fence between the public garden and my yard. I was just circling around several large trees, when my part-time assistant Kelly appeared and leaned dangerously far over the side of a small bridge.

  “Maddie?”

  Startled by the sudden interruption, I nearly lost my balance and fell into the pond.

  “Maddie, can you explain yet what the emergency is and why there are cops all over the place? Was it vandals? Don’t tell me a visitor is lost?”

  I realized that in all the confusion of the morning I hadn’t slowed down to give Kelly any specifics about why we had closed up for the day and why Michael and the rest had come swarming in. All I had told her in passing was that there had been an emergency.

  “Hey, Kelly.” I pushed myself up and got to my feet. “No, it’s nothing like that.” I ran my hand through my hair. “A dog found a severed human hand in the garden. He brought it back to his owner and the owner called the police. They’re looking for the rest of the body to go with that hand.”

  Kelly tilted her head like a dog hearing a high-pitched noise.

  “You’re serious? A human hand? This isn’t a joke?”

  “I wish it was.” I sighed. “Right now Detective Sullivan and some of his men are searching the grounds.”

  “That Detective Sullivan is cute,” Kelly remarked.

  She had no idea that Michael and I had gone out on a handful of dates and I wasn’t ready to reveal that fact until I was surer of how I felt about Michael. I liked him but our relationship was still very new and hadn’t started out under the best of circumstances.

  In fact, it had started out with the discovery of a murder victim in my tea garden a couple months ago, a case that was now solved but still gave me the creeps to think about.

  I pushed the similarity of that case and this morning’s grisly events from my mind.

  “Cute is he?” I played dumb. “I hadn’t noticed. I’ll have to take a closer look. I guess I was just too engrossed in the fact a human hand was found by a dog on my property.”

  “Did you see it?”

  “I did.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Was it all bloody and gross?”

  “Not really. It was all dried out. Whoever owned that hand has to have been dead for a long time. Maybe it eve
n came from the cemetery. Isn’t there a cemetery not far from here?”

  “Well, it’s not super close by but it’s down the main drag a couple miles.” Kelly nodded. “Still, I don’t see how a hand could escape a coffin deep underground and find its way clear over here. Not without help.”

  Just then, I saw Michael quickly approaching.

  “Here comes the detective. Maybe he found out something,” I said and hurried up to him.

  Michael told me, “We didn’t find any other remains so far. But I’m afraid the guys are going to have to stay on the premises until they’ve searched the entire property. Meanwhile, don’t panic. There could be a perfectly boring explanation for the appearance of this hand. I wouldn’t be surprised if it somehow came from St. Vincent’s Cemetery down the road a piece. Stranger things have happened.”

  “Ha!” Kelly squawked. “That’s exactly what Maddie said. You guys think alike.”

  I couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of satisfaction from Kelly’s comment.

  “Kelly, we’ve got to stay closed for the rest of the day,” I said. “You may as well go on home. Enjoy the rest of the day. We’ll get to the inventory in the gift shop tomorrow.”

  “I’m afraid we might need you to keep the grounds closed tomorrow too,” Michael said apologetically.

  “The entire tea garden? Come on, Michael,” I grumbled. “Can’t your men work in a grid pattern or something, so I can have some of the paths open while you guys finish searching the others? It isn’t hard to redirect people.”

  “I suppose it’s a possibility.” He scratched his head.