Morgan sat in a tall chair behind the counter and proceeded to measure dried herbs into a mortar.
“I know. I saw Eli Stark in town yesterday and he was pestering me about selling the shop again.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him we’d sell over our dead bodies.” Morgan picked up a pestle and started grinding away at the herbs.
Fiona smiled. Eli Stark had been after them for almost a year to sell the small piece of land their shop sat on. He had visions of buying it, along with some adjacent lots in order to develop the area into high end condos.
Even though their parents early deaths had left Fiona, Morgan and their two other sisters property rich but cash poor the four of them agreed they would never sell. Both the small shop and the stately ocean home they lived in had been in the family for generations and they didn’t want
their
generation to be the one that lost them.
The only problem was, although they owned the properties outright, the taxes were astronomical and, on their meager earnings, they were all just scraping by to make ends meet.
All the more reason to get this necklace finished so I can get paid
. Thankfully, the caffeine had finally cleared the cobwebs in her head and Fiona was ready to get to work. Staring down at the amethyst, a vision of the perfect shape to cut the stone appeared in her mind. She grabbed her tools and started shaping the stone.
Fiona and Morgan were both lost in their work. They worked silently, the only sounds in the little shop being the scrape of mortar on pestle and the hum of Fiona’s gem grinding tool mixed with a few melodic tweets and chirps that floated in from the open window.
Fiona didn’t know how long they were working like that when the bell over the shop door chimed again. She figured it must have been an hour or two judging by the fact that the few sips left in the bottom of her latte cup had grown cold.
She smiled, looking up from her work to greet their potential customer, but the smile froze on her face when she saw who it was.
Sheriff Overton stood in the door flanked by two police officers. A toothpick jutted out of the side of Overton’s mouth and judging by the looks on all three of their faces, they weren’t there to buy herbs or crystals.
Fiona could almost hear her heart beating in the silence as the men stood there, adjusting their eyes to the light and getting their bearings.
“Can we help you?” Morgan asked, stopping her work to wipe her hands on a towel.
Overton’s head swiveled in her direction like a hawk spying a rabbit in a field.
“That’s her.” He nodded to the two uniformed men who approached Morgan hesitantly. Fiona recognized one of the men as Brody Hunter, whose older brother Morgan had dated all through high school. She saw Brody look questioningly at the Sheriff.
The other man stood a head taller than Brody. Fiona noticed his dark hair and broad shoulders but her assessment of him stopped there when she saw him pulling out a pair of handcuffs.
Her heart lurched at the look of panic on her sister’s face as the men advanced toward her.
“Just what is this all about?” She demanded, standing up and taking a step toward the Sheriff.
There was no love lost between the Sheriff and Fiona. They’d had a few run-ins and she thought he was an egotistical bore and probably crooked too. He ignored her question focusing his attention on Morgan. The next words out of his mouth chilled Fiona to the core.
“Morgan Blackmoore … you’re under arrest for the murder of Prudence Littlefield.”