In Good Hands: Book 5 Georgie B. Goode Gypsy Caravan Cozy Mystery (6 page)

He looked regretful. “No, sorry, we’d just walked around the corner of the display. You mean someone deliberately moved it? That’s bad, man. People these days…”

Other people nearby were listening with interest. Georgie widened the conversation to include them. “Did anyone see someone near the trailer?”

They all glanced at each other and shook their heads.

“Is that Jaxx Saxby over there?” Tracey asked. “Are you going on her show?”

“Yes, that’s right.” Wanting to check on Tammy, Georgie dipped into her pocket for some of the vouchers she always kept there for customers. “Thank you for your concern. Here are some vouchers for coffee and cake on us. Enjoy your day!” She handed around the vouchers to smiling patrons, and went back to Tammy.

Seth, who seemed to double as the film crew’s medic, had roped in Layla to hold the ice cubes in place while he dabbed some sort of antiseptic on Tammy’s palms.

“Ouch,” Georgie said, looking at the angry red grazes. “You did a job on yourself.”

“Tried to break my fall,” Tammy said briefly, her attention on Jaxx who was still holding forth about workplace safety to the only person she could corral, her producer. Lilli looked as though she’d like to pop her employer one on the nose.

After hearing what Ella had to say, it was a wonder that Jaxx had anyone left working for her at all.

Georgie put a hand on Tammy’s shoulder. “You OK?”

Tammy wrenched her gaze away from Jaxx and glanced up, managing a weak smile. “I’m fine. Nothing broken. It was the shock more than anything.” She glanced mournfully down at the torn knee in her new pedal pushers and the spots of blood staining the sunny yellow fabric. “So much for the new outfit.”

It was obvious from the crease in Tammy’s forehead and the pain in her voice that she wasn’t as fine as she was making out.

“There.” Seth finished his ministrations with the antiseptic and took the ice pack back from Layla. He ran gentle fingers along her ankle, and nodded. “Swollen, but it should be okay if you rest up. Let me bandage it for you. You might want to get it X-rayed just to make sure.” He delved into a bag at his feet, and had her ankle efficiently wrapped within minutes. “There you go.”

“Thanks.” Tammy put her foot on the ground and tested it gingerly, standing with his help. She sucked in a breath and then sent him a trademark Tammy smile, albeit a little dimmer than usual. “Dr. Seth, man of many talents. How come you had all that with you?”

“Always carry it. Jaxx has us filming in all sorts of locations, so we all did a Red Cross first aid course before the show started its first season.” Seth started packing away his supplies.

“And a damned good thing we did,” came Lilli’s voice from over Seth’s shoulder. “Jaxx is a walking disaster. Wherever she goes, trouble follows.”

They all automatically looked behind her to see if Jaxx had overheard her producer’s rash comment, but she was over at the barrier rope, happily engaged signing autographs and posing for selfies with the growing group of onlookers.

“Don’t worry,” Lilli said, seeing their reaction. “I’m careful about what I say when she’s near.”

Georgie seized the opportunity. “What do you mean, trouble follows? What else has happened?”

“You name it.” Lilli hesitated a moment, and then looked straight at her. “I know she’s trying to talk you into doing a new show, but you should know what you’re getting into.” Then she slapped herself on the forehead. “Don’t know why I’m telling you this: you’re easy to work with and it’d be a success, I’m sure. If I have to stay with Jaxx, I’d like to work on a show with you. But…they say forewarned is forearmed.”

She looked over at Jaxx, but she was still busy with her fans, growing more animated by the minute. “Oh,
thank
you,” she was exclaiming. “How
lovely
of you to say so…yes, the show has won awards! And we have some really big names lined up—wink wink, say no more!”

“At least that will cheer her up.” Lilli folded her arms, watching her boss work the crowd. “Nothing our Jaxx likes better than playing to the crowd.”

“I guess it takes a big personality to carry off a show like that… but tell me what you mean,” Georgie pressed.

“Just a succession of little accidents and things going wrong. On our last shoot, about the Torrens Tech-Toys franchise, Celie Torrens received minor burns while demonstrating; the one before that, it was Lisa Glynn from Glynn’s One-Hour Makeovers. Nothing major yet, thank God—that’s why she’s making noises about people suing: she’s getting worried they’re going to sue
us.”

“It’s as though we’re jinxed.” Lilli rolled her eyes. “Jaxx the Jinx. Spell that with two xx’s, of course.”

They all laughed, but Georgie’s mind was starting to put things together.

Tammy, Celie Torrens, Lisa Glynn…all female. And the person she was looking for was—she thought—female.

Was there some kind of link?

Crystal ball time…

Chapter 8

Georgie stood at the door of her gypsy caravan and watched Jerry's brake lights flash for a moment before he turned out of the gate, taking Tammy off to the hospital for an x-ray. She had gone under protest, insisting that she knew that it wasn't broken, and all she needed was to sit with it elevated for a while, but Jerry refused to listen.

Georgie turned and allowed her gaze to rove around the caravan for a moment. It was strange how doing the shoot with Jaxx had given her a new perspective on her precious home on wheels. Not that she hadn't always loved it; she had. But seeing Jaxx’s enthusiasm, and hearing the admiring comments of the film crew, had made her realize again just what a special little home it was.

Her gaze rested on the crystal ball, visible only as a dark shadow on the shelf, still covered with its black velvet cloth. She walked over to it and lifted it down, smoothing her hand over it as she removed its covering. The crystal winked back at her in the light from the stained glass window, filling her with deep glow of satisfaction. Maybe the cryptic messages it delivered sometimes drove her crazy, but it was unique. She realized anew why her great-grandmother had been so insistent that she carry on the tradition. Fortune-telling wasn't about entertainment – well, it wasn't
only
about entertainment. It was, indeed, a gift, being able to tap into realms that other people couldn't.

Slipping into the comfortable velvet-covered seat at the table, she set the crystal ball down and gently ran her fingertips over the surface.

This time, she didn't form a question. She just gazed at it and opened her mind in an invitation for anything important to be made known to her.

The crystal ball warmed under her fingertips and she felt a rush of anticipation. Good, she was going to get something. She sat quietly, breathing evenly, and waited.

The familiar white mist appeared, swirling gently. This time, it didn't turn the same threatening dark gray as it had when she did a reading for Jaxx; it formed pale white-gray spirals, growing thicker one moment and dissolving to a few fragile threads the next.

Finally, an image appeared. At first, it was a dull grey shape, but then it gained clarity: the house on the cliff. The same one she had seen when shooting the crystal ball scene with Jaxx.

Georgie focused more closely on the house, swiftly noting features while the image was relatively clear. It was an older house, made of some kind of grey stone, yet it didn't look threatening. It was bathed in sunlight, and behind it she could see an ocean, impossibly blue. Georgie felt more images flow into her mind. It was somewhere warm, she could feel that. She had a sense of time, too: it was somewhere Jaxx had been within the past six months, but not recently.

Then the house began to fade, like an out-of-focus photo, but at the same time a red car drove up and parked outside the front door. It was closely followed by another one, exactly the same. Georgie frowned, peering more closely, waiting for someone to emerge. Would she see a face? Recognize somebody?

Nobody stepped out of either car, and the image blurred further.

“No!” Georgie murmured, stroking the crystal ball as thought that might bring it back. "Don't go away…"

Her pleas failed to have an effect. The image faded kept fading until it disappeared. The mist swirled again, then suddenly vanished.

All gone.

She stared at the crystal globe, pushed aside the disappointment and focused on remaining receptive and calm. She closed her eyes. If there was anything more to come, it was not necessarily in the crystal ball itself.

The same image that she had seen before floated into her mind: Jazz, leaning against the car, gazing at her reflection in a lake. This was really bizarre: these images must be important to be repeated like this.

Within a nanosecond, it was replaced by a completely different scene: Jaxx again, but this time looking at herself in a mirror. She reached out a hand to touch the mirror, and her reflection did the same. Two hands touching: Jaxx and her twin, staring at each other. As she watched, Jaxx’s expression grew frosty, and her eyes narrowed, staring at her image. The girl in the mirror didn't reflect the same expression. Instead, she smiled – a slowly growing smile that seemed to rejoice in the anger and discomfort of the real Jaxx.

In a blink that was gone too. The feeling of expectation in the room disappeared, too, and Georgie knew that that was as much as she was going to get.

She opened her eyes, looking at the crystal ball, now nothing but pretty ornament. She raised her eyes and stared unseeingly at the wall.

What?
What
was she supposed get from all this?

"Come on Georgie," she admonished herself. "You know how this works. It's partly what is given to you, and partly solving a puzzle. Figure it out."

The house on the cliff: obviously that was significant. It looked like she would have no choice but to tell Jaxx what she had seen, and ask what she thought. The idea made her quail. Jaxx was
sure
to turn it into a big event on camera… and what if she was wrong?

She’d tell Jaxx only as the last resort. First, she could try Lilli, or Seth.
Somebody
associated with Jaxx and her team would have to know what it meant.

Her mind drifted. Reflections in a pool, reflections in a mirror… What did reflections tell you? Was Jaxx supposed to be looking deep into herself? No, that didn’t work.

Could
Jaxx be a twin? Was this all about some long-held family grievance?

Well, when a crystal ball couldn’t come up with the answer, perhaps the Internet could. Georgie got up, pulled out a laptop from the drawer under her bed, and set it on the table. Whatever there was to be known about Jaxx Saxby, she would find out. And while she was doing that, she could get Layla ask a few questions when she finished filming her segment with Seth.

She took out her phone and called Layla. “Hi. It’s me. Are you still going to shoot that segment with Seth, or are they going to postpone?”

“I’m here with him now. He said he can shoot a few fill-in shots with Tammy later.”

“I’ll make this quick, then.” Georgie told her about the repeated visions, and the new one with the mirror. “I know it doesn’t give us much to go on—but can you ask Seth if a grey stone house on a cliff, with the sea behind it, means anything to him? And Jaxx by a lake?”

“OK, can do. Anything else?”

“Just get him talking, if you can.”

“Should I tell him where this came from?”

Georgie hesitated. Her instincts told her that Seth was trustworthy. “If you like. Play it by ear. I think he’s OK.”

“He’s coming over now. Catch you later.” Layla rang off.

Georgie opened the door of her caravan to let the sunlight stream in, just in time to see Jaxx’s sleek red car roar by. Speak of the devil… Georgie hissed in irritation. Dammit, how many times did she have to tell Jaxx to drive slowly around here?

She glared after the car, watching a mother hastily seize her child by the collar and drag her back out of the way, yelling something after the car and pointing to the speed limit signs.

It seemed she’d have to have a few sharp words with Jaxx.

She shook her head and booted up the laptop. Time to start digging.

Chapter 9

Seth and the second cameraman, Dominic, had Layla walking from one trailer to another while they conferred, exchanged cryptic comments and checked the position of the sun and drifting clouds.

“Can you move over there and stand near the door of that pale blue trailer?” Seth glanced at the sky and motioned to the other cameramen. “Dom, better get the reflector. We’re going to need it with that cloud."

Dominic disappeared in the direction of their truck, discreetly hidden at the back of the workshop, and came back unfolding a large floppy disc, silver on one side and white on the other.

Seth pondered for a moment, his finger on his chin, glancing from Layla to the surrounding trailers. “No, change of plan. I think we'll get a better result if we put you over here. The colors work with what you’re wearing.”

He posed her in a chair with a polka-dot slipcover and positioned a vintage radio and some old magazines at her elbow on the dainty table. "Okay, I think that'll work. Let’s do a sound check.” He winked. “Make sure that it's turned on.”

Layla was beginning to feel like a pro at all this. She pulled the power pack out of her pocket, flicked the switch to on, and stuffed it back again. “Testing one, two, three. This is Layla talking to Seth.”

Seth gave a thumbs up. "Loud and clear. Let's kick off with you talking about how you became involved with the Johnny B. Goode RV Empire. From there we’ll segue into how popular these vintage trailers are, and how you managed to grow the business."

"I don't know that it's all that accurate to say that
I
grew the business," Layla pointed out. "I'm just one of the road team. The RV Empire has different road teams, for different RVs."

"Yes, but Georgie says that you're a super-salesperson.” He looked at his watch. "After I shoot this one, we’ll wrap it up for the day so Dom and I can go and process today's lot. You start talking, and I’ll hold up a hand if I need you to stop. If you get tongue-tied or you need to think, just stop and we’ll redo it."