A Sprinkling of Murder (A Fairy Garden Mystery Book 1) Read online

  Praise for the Previous Mysteries of Daryl Wood Gerber

  On the Cookbook Nook Mystery series:

  FINAL SENTENCE

  “With a bodacious cast of characters, a wrenching murder, and a collection of cookbooks to die for, Daryl Wood Gerber’s Final Sentence is a page-turning puzzler of a mystery that I could not put down.”

  —Jenn McKinlay, New York Times bestselling author of the Cupcake Mysteries and Library Lovers Mysteries

  “In Final Sentence, the author smartly blends crime, recipes, and an array of cookbooks that all should covet in a witty, well-plotted whodunit.”

  —Kate Carlisle, New York Times bestselling author of the Bibliophile Mysteries

  On the French Bistro Mystery series:

  A SOUFFLE OF SUSPICION

  “Gerber ticks all the boxes for a successful cozy: a capable protagonist, intelligent dialogue, a fine sense of place, eccentric yet plausible suspects, and clues galore.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “[Gerber] creates colorful, enjoyable characters.... One word of warning: her descriptions of the food and wine pairings are so very vivid and realistic that readers should not be hungry when they read this mystery.”

  —Booklist

  “A sweet treat with dazzling characters, a sleuth full of charm, and blossoming romance.”

  —Seattle Book Review

  “Just as delicious as the first... When it comes to the word ‘appetizing’ you automatically think of food. But when it comes to the literary scene, this series is well beyond appetizing. Not only are the foods incredible, but the characters and plot are equally superb.”

  —Suspense Magazine

  A DEADLY ÉCLAIR

  “A Deadly Éclair has everything a good cozy mystery needs: charming and off the wall characters, a unique setting, and a mystery in need of solving! Although this is my first novel by the author, it definitely won’t be my last.”

  —San Francisco Review of Books

  “A Deadly Éclair is like having dinner with old friends. It has the laughter, the stories, the fun, and the good food all in one cozy.”

  —BB Haywood, New York Times bestselling author of the Candy Holliday mysteries

  A Sprinkling of Murder

  Daryl Wood Gerber

  KENSINGTON BOOKS

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Praise

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Acknowledgements

  Acknowledgments

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  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

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Recipes

  Teaser chapter

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, or events, is entirely coincidental.

  KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2020 by Daryl Wood Gerber

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-1-4967-2634-6

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4967-2634-6

  ISBN-10: 1-4967-2634-0

  First Kensington Trade Paperback Printing: July 2020

  Thank you, Nancy Drew, for being such a wonderful protagonist. You made me love to read.

  Acknowledgments

  We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our

  exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know

  the place for the first time.

  —T. S. Eliot

  I have been truly blessed to have the support and input of so many as I pursue my creative journey.

  Thank you to my family and friends for all your encouragement. Thank you to my talented author friends, Krista Davis and Hannah Dennison, for your words of wisdom. Thank you to my Plothatcher pals: Janet (Ginger Bolton), Kaye George, Marilyn Levinson (Allison Brook), Peg Cochran, and Janet Koch (Laura Alden), and Krista Davis. It’s hard to keep all your aliases straight, but you are a wonderful pool of talent and a terrific wealth of ideas, jokes, stories, and fun! I adore you. Thanks to my blog mates on Mystery Lovers Kitchen: Cleo Coyle, Krista Davis, Leslie Budewitz, Roberta Isleib (Lucy Burdette), Peg Cochran, Linda Wiken (Essie Lang), Denise Swanson, and Sheila Connolly. I love your passion for food as well as for books. Thanks to my Cake and Dagger and Delicious Mystery author pals, Julie Hyzy, Jenn McKinlay, Roberta Isleib, Krista Davis, and Amanda Flower. I treasure your creative enthusiasm via social media.

  Thank you to Facebook fan-based groups, Cake and Daggers and Delicious Mysteries. I love how willing you are to read advanced copies, post reviews, and help me as well as numerous other authors promote whenever possible. We need fans like you.

  Thanks to those who have helped make this first book in the Fairy Garden Mystery series come to fruition: my publisher, Kensington; my editor, Wendy McCurdy; my copy editor, Debra Kane; my agent, John Talbot; my cover artist, Elsa Kerls; and my biggest supporter, Kimberley Greene. Thanks to Madeira James for maintaining constant quality on my website. Thanks to my virtual assistants, Sheridan Stancliff and Marie McNary, for your novel ideas. Honestly, without all of you, I don’t know what I would do. Fly off to Neverland? You keep me grounded.

  Thank you to Chief Paul Tomasi of the Carmel Police Department for answering all my questions. Any mistakes as to police department procedure are my own. Thank you to Beverly Turner, though we have yet to meet. Your book Fairy Gardening has been a true inspiration to me. Your instructional videos are amazing.

  Last but not least, thank you, librarians, teachers, and readers, for sharing the delicious world of a fairy garden designer in Carmel-by-the-Sea with your friends. I hope you enjoy the first of what will become many stories.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  (listed alphabetically by first name)

  Humans

  Bianca, trail guide

  Brady Cash, owner of Hideaway Café

  Courtney Kelly, owner of Open Your Imagination

  Dylan Summers, detective, Carmel Police Department

  Emily Watkins, wife of Mick Watkins

  Eudora Cash, romance author

  Glinda Gill, owner of Glitz Jewelers

  Gregory Darvell, dog trainer

  Gus, a security guy working for Kipling Kelly

  Hattie Hopewell, Happy Diggers garden club chair

  Hedda Hopewell, loan officer

  Holly Ho
pewell, cottage landlord and neighbor

  Isabella Acosta, owner of Acosta Artworks

  Joss Timberlake, assistant at Open Your Imagination

  Kipling “Kip” Kelly, Courtney’s father, landscaper

  Lauren, a young customer

  Logan Langford, landlord of Cypress and Ivy Courtyard

  Meaghan Brownie, harpist, half owner of Flair Gallery

  Mick Watkins, owner of Wizard of Paws grooming salon

  Miranda Watkins, Mick’s sister

  Miss Reade, librarian

  Oriana Gray, inn owner and councilwoman

  Pastor Li, pastor at the congregational church

  Petra Pauli, councilwoman

  Rodriguez, female police officer, Carmel Police Department

  Sonja Schmidt, assistant at Wizard of Paws

  Tish Waterman, owner of A Peaceful Solution Spa

  Ulani Kamaka, reporter for the Carmel Pine Cone

  Victoria Judge, attorney

  Wright Youngman, attorney

  Yvanna Acebo, employee at Sweet Treats, weekend baker for Open Your Imagination

  Fairies and Pets

  Cocoa, Isabella’s poodle

  Fiona, a righteous fairy

  Merryweather Rose of Song, guardian fairy

  Paint, a trail horse

  Pixie, Courtney’s Ragdoll kitten

  Shep, Mick and Emily Watkins’s German shepherd

  Zephyr, a nurturer fairy

  Zeus, Petra’s collie

  Chapter 1

  Do you believe in fairies? If you do, clap your hands!

  —J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan

  “Do you see her? Is she down there?” I tried not to let my five-year-old customer hear the panic in my voice. Of course Fiona was down there. She wouldn’t have flown the coop. Okay, she was mad at me for telling her to make herself scarce, but honestly! “Look hard,” I said.

  After a breathless moment, the curly-haired girl—Lauren—who was peering into a huge strawberry terra-cotta planter, popped upright, and spun in a circle. “Yes, I do, Miss Kelly. I see her.”

  Once upon a time, when I was five, I’d danced among the flowers and twirled to my heart’s content, too.

  “Call me Courtney,” I reminded her. Children who came into Open Your Imagination, my fairy garden and tea shop, didn’t have to be formal. The more familiar, the more fun. “And keep your voice soft. You don’t want to scare her.”

  “Courtney,” she said. “I do see her. I really do.”

  “What does she look like?”

  “She’s... she’s...” Lauren wiggled nervously as if I’d really put her on the spot.

  I’d felt the same when I saw my first fairy. A week after my mother planted a fanciful garden filled with yarrow, lilac, and a host of herbs to attract butterflies, I met her. I had been dressed in something similar to what I was wearing now, denim overalls, a lacy shirt, and a gardening apron. She had been as pretty as the sunrise.

  Lauren waved her arms. “She’s green and silver and blue and... and...”

  “Go on,” I encouraged. I hadn’t wanted to trust my eyes, either, but my mother had told me to believe. Meadows, rivers, and mountains, she said, were alive with spiritual beings who would give a helping hand to those who asked nicely. I stroked the silver locket that held my mother’s portrait. She’d given me the locket that Christmas. An image of a fairy was etched into the lid. The word Believe was engraved on the underside.

  “Mommy,” Lauren called.

  She and I were standing on the slate patio, a roofed outdoor garden space. Her mother was sitting at one of the many wrought-iron tables. She smiled indulgently and whisked her hand, encouraging her daughter to speak. Muted sunlight filtered through the skylight in the pyramid-shaped roof. The ornate fountain carved with fairies and gnomes burbled in the background. A number of customers browsed fairy figurines on the verdigris bakers’ racks and spoke in hushed tones. A few others chatted about how pretty they thought the twinkling lights were that we’d woven through the vines and the potted ficus trees. A cluster of women was checking out the miniature Pink Splash hypoestes plants and golden Monterey cypress we had in stock.

  “Tell me about her wings,” I prompted.

  “They’re teensy,” Lauren chimed.

  I noticed a lot of activity inside the main showroom, the French doors and beveled casement windows of the L-shaped space providing a full view from where we stood. One woman was scrawling her name on the sign-up sheet for the upcoming tea. We didn’t serve tea every day, only on Saturdays. So far, the response for this week’s tea had been tremendous because we’d decided to pair it with a book club event. We were going to discuss The Secret, Book and Scone Society. Scones and tea... a perfect fit.

  “And her dress?” I asked.

  Lauren twirled in place, her tresses fanning out. “It’s silver and looks like my ballet dress.” She grabbed the seams of her pink tutu.

  “So her dress is lacy?” I asked.

  Lauren bobbed her head. “And she has blue hair and sparkly silver shoes, and she glows.”

  “That’s Fiona,” I said. Her hair was actually gossamer and caught the light, much like a prism or the lens of a camera. At certain angles, her hair could become a variety of other colors.

  Lauren stopped moving and splayed her arms. “Why are her wings so small? She can’t fly with those.”

  “She’s able to fly but not long distances. She has to earn three sets of adult wings first, in addition to her current pair.”

  “How will she earn them?”

  “By...” I tapped my chin. How could I explain it?

  Fiona, for all intents and purposes, was a fairy-in-training. She should have been a full-fledged fairy by now, but imp that she was, she’d done one too many pranks in fairy school, so the queen fairy had booted her out and subjected her to probation, during which time Fiona had to get serious. By helping a human, she could earn her way back into the ranks.

  “Courtney, yoo-hoo.” Lauren touched my arm. “How will she do it?”

  “By doing good deeds,” I replied.

  “Everyone should do good deeds,” Lauren said matter-of-factly.

  “Yes, they should.” And not pranks like putting syrup in my tea as Fiona had done earlier. I’d warned her that the queen fairy would frown on her antics.

  Months ago, when I’d pressed Fiona for details of her banishment, she had been vague. One major restriction was that she could not have fairy friends. Though more fairies existed in Carmel, she wasn’t to socialize with them. Yet.

  “How did you meet her?” Lauren asked.

  “She came to me the day after I opened this shop.”

  “Like magic?”

  “Yes, like magic.”

  After Fiona had told me about her predicament, I’d asked her if the queen fairy was a horrible, wicked fairy, and she’d blushed. No, she’d said. The queen was the most wonderful fairy in the whole world. When I grilled her for more information—like were other fairies on probation?—Fiona had dodged the question and instead educated me about her kind. In addition to types of fairies, like air fairies and water fairies, there were four classes of fairies: intuitive, righteous, guardian, and nurturer. Fiona was a righteous fairy, which meant she needed to bring resolution to embattled souls. Of course, there were rules in the fairy world. A righteous fairy couldn’t intentionally put herself in harm’s way.

  “Have you always seen fairies?” Lauren asked.

  “No.”

  At the tender age of ten, when my mother died, I had lost my ability to see them. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I rubbed the locket my mother had given me, I couldn’t see another. In the ensuing years, I grew serious. In high school, I studied hard to make my father proud. In college, I turned my attention to chemistry and earth sciences. After graduation, I joined my father’s thriving landscaping outfit in Carmel-by-the-Sea and dedicated myself to working the land: dig, plant, don’t have fun, repeat.

  Until a ye
ar ago when Fiona appeared. At first I saw a sparkle and heard a tinkle and a ping. And then delightful laughter. She had flitted from behind a pot and introduced herself with a curtsy. When I found my wits, I asked why she would reveal herself to me. She explained that although the sorrow over the loss of my mother had squelched my ability as a girl to see fairies, it was my nose-to-the-grindstone attitude toward life that had continued to suppress me. When I made the decision at the ripe old age of twenty-nine to spread my wings and start a fairy garden business, voilà. My heart opened, and Fiona swooped in. She hoped she could save me so I could save her.

  “There she goes.” Lauren pointed.

  A flicker of light shot from a pocket of the strawberry planter and disappeared in the vines by one of the French doors. Fiona. Still miffed. Tough. If we were going to remain friends, she would have to follow my rules: no shenanigans. I wondered if the queen fairy had given her the same guidelines.

  “Can she come to my house?” Lauren asked.

  “Sorry. No.”

  Fairies had few boundaries, so Fiona could leave the shop and cruise around Carmel, but I didn’t want every new believer thinking Fiona might drop in for a visit. Besides, as of this morning, Fiona had wanted to remain close to me. She’d told me she feared something extraordinary or tragic might happen. To me? I’d asked. She wasn’t sure, but she wanted to remain at the ready. Needless to say, I’d been on pins and needles ever since her pronouncement. I didn’t mind an extraordinary occurrence, like meeting a fairy, but a tragic one? Like my mother dying? No thanks.