Sugared Demise

by Kate Bell

  “I’m going to go through my bookshelves then,” I said. “Oh, by the way, Matthew, do you have the time? I’m hoping Ethan isn’t waiting on me.”

  He began to lift his left arm and then he stopped and looked at me. He chuckled. “I’m afraid I lost my watch recently and my cell phone is in the car.” He put his arm back down by his side and continued smiling at me.

  “Oh my goodness, I hope you find it soon. My dad is so attached to his watch. He lost it last month, and it took him nearly a week to find it. I thought he’d lose his mind if he hadn’t found it as soon as he did. He never really got into carrying a cell phone,” I said.

  “I know how he feels. I just bought the darn thing, and it was pretty expensive. But I think I removed it before I went to bed last night and the cat probably knocked it down off of my dresser. I was in such a hurry this morning I completely forgot about looking for it.”

  “You’ve got to watch those cats,” I said with a chuckle. “I recently adopted a black cat, and he’s into everything. If I’m not careful, he’ll knock down every water bottle I open.”

  “That sounds exactly like Skippy,” he said.

  “Oh, silly me. I do have my cell phone in my pocket,” I said and slipped my phone out of my pocket to look at the time. “6:22. I bet Ethan isn’t even home yet.”

  Hearing Matthew had recently lost an expensive watch put me on alert. I had to wonder if he really lost it at home or if he was in an alley on Halloween night.

  “I bet he’s been working long hours lately. Have they figured out who killed Eldon? It would be a shame if they never found his killer.”

  I watch his face as he said it, and I noticed his jaw tightened. “It’s a terrible tragedy, isn’t it? I can’t believe there’s been another murder here in Pumpkin Hollow, but I know Ethan is going to find the killer. He won’t give up on that.”

  He glanced at me and looked away. “Yeah, I don’t know what’s gotten into this town. It seems like it isn’t safe to walk the streets of Pumpkin Hollow and that’s terrible for the tourist trade.”

  “It does worry me,” I said, keeping an eye on him. “Especially since it’s been people that live here that committed the murders. It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

  He turned back toward me with a grin. “Maybe it’s true about the curse? That rumor rears its ugly head from time to time and some people are convinced that it’s true.”

  “I know what you mean,” I said. “Some people around here are so superstitious. I mean, come on, there’s no way curses exist. It’s just people making incredibly bad decisions about how to handle their problems.”

  “You can say that again,” he murmured.

  “So Matthew, do you have any idea who would want Eldon dead? Besides Benjamin Cartwright?” I asked. I figured I may as well put it out there and see if he would add anything to what he had already told Ethan and me the other night. It was all anyone talked about in town and I figured the gossip had to be making the rounds.

  “I imagine there are a whole lot of people that wanted him dead. And it would appear to me that someone finally made good on that desire.”

  “It would appear that way wouldn’t it?” I said.

  “Well, it’s my turn to order. You have a good evening, Mia,” he said as he moved up to the counter to order.

  “You too,” I said. I bit my lower lip, disappointed that our conversation was over. I had more things to ask him. I wondered if his story about the watch was true, but I doubted it.

  As it was, he had just moved to the top of my own personal suspect list.

  Chapter Eleven

  As luck would have it, Ethan got off work early. He was just getting out of his pickup when I pulled into the driveway of my little cottage. I waved at him as I got out of my car.

  “Hi Ethan, I don’t know if you’re hungry or not, but I picked up some soup,” I called across the street.

  He smiled big and headed across the street. “Soup sounds great,” he said as he pulled his coat tighter against the wind that had started up late in the afternoon.

  “How does potato cheese soup from Franken Diner sound?” I asked reaching back into my car to get the white paper bag that held the two containers of soup and the second bag that held freshly baked cornbread and honey butter.

  “That sounds absolutely perfect,” he said and took the bags from me. “I’ll carry those in for you, it’s the least I can do, seeing as you went to the trouble of picking it up for us.”

  “You’re such a gentleman Ethan,” I said with a chuckle and led the way to my front door.

  “Well you know me,” he said. “I aim to please. Especially where food is concerned.”

  I unlocked the door and Boo greeted us in the foyer. “Hey Boo, how was your day?” I asked him.

  Boo followed us into the kitchen, hoping for a taste of some soup. I went to the cupboard and took out a small bowl and put two small spoons of the clam chowder into it and blew on it. When it was cool, I set it down on the floor for Boo.

  “That’s got to be the perfect combination food for cats isn’t it?” he said. “Seafood and milk.”

  “I try not to give him much milk, but he doesn’t seem to have any problems with it, so he can have just a tiny bit,” I said. “Let’s go sit on the couch and find something good to watch on television.”

  “You got it,” he said, and we both headed into the living room. “This might just be the perfect way to spend a fall evening. Hot soup, cornbread, and you and me watching television.”

  “You’re such a romantic,” I said. “Ethan, I have something to tell you about the case. I stopped in and spoke with Nina at the jewelry store today and she said to tell you she got mixed up on the date when those watches came into the store. Her husband Carl remembered they actually came a few days before Halloween.”

  “Really? That’s interesting. We tested it for prints but they’re all partials. They won’t do us much good,” he said as he turned the television on and looked for something to watch.

  “That’s not all,” I said. “She also said that Matthew Barnes had recently purchased a gold Rolex watch from her store.”

  Ethan turned to look at me. “Really?”

  “Yes, and I ran into Matthew at the Franken Diner and I asked him for the time. He said he had lost his watch. He thinks he laid it on his dresser last night and his cat may have knocked the watch behind it. If you ask me, I think he killed Eldon. He has the most reason to do it.”

  Ethan paused, taking this in. “That’s interesting. And he does have a good reason to kill him.”

  “I think he has the biggest grudge of anyone that we’ve talked to,” I said. “He’s at the top of my list right now.”

  “This is the best potato cheese soup I’ve ever had,” he said as he took another bite. “I bet Matthew could fit into a size medium or large werewolf costume.”

  “I was thinking the exact same thing. If I had to guess, I would say he was somewhere in the neighborhood of 5’7”,” I said. “What about the t-shirt shop near the bank? Have you stopped in to talk to them?” I had meant to stop in and talk to Ralph Mays, the owner of the t-shirt shop, but had forgotten.

  “I did, but they had left early that evening for the Halloween festivities. I was hoping someone may have noticed something, but no go there.”

  I nodded as he turned the television on. “That’s a shame. I dropped by Eldon’s mother’s house and brought her some cupcakes. She was the librarian at the county library when we were kids. Do you remember her?”

  He smiled and nodded. “I do. I haven’t thought about her in years. She must be pretty elderly, isn’t she?”

  “She is,” I said. “She said Eldon was dating Jane Graves, and she did not like Jane Graves one bit.”

  Ethan changed channels on the TV and stopped on an old black and white comedy.

  “Why doesn’t she like her?” he asked me.

  “She feels Jane was very controlling of Eldon. She said she has a ter
rible temper, and they fought a lot and that she killed Eldon. Mrs. Howell really got along well with Eldon’s first wife though and I have to wonder if Jane is just a completely different person and that’s why she doesn’t like her.”

  “I spoke with Jane again, and I really didn’t feel like she had anything to do with the murder,” he said thoughtfully.

  “I wonder why Jane didn’t mention that she was Eldon’s girlfriend when I first spoke with her the day after Eldon was murdered? It seems like it would be a natural thing to say ‘he was my boyfriend’, not, ‘he was my friend’.” I took a taste of the clam chowder and it was just as creamy and wonderful as I remembered it.

  “It is kind of odd,” he said. “I would have thought she would have said they were seeing each other. She was at the haunted house the night of the murder so I’m going to go down there and ask around and see if anybody saw her.

  “It’s going to be hard to get people to say they saw her if she was wearing a costume,” I said. “Everyone was wearing a costume.”

  “That’s what complicates all of this. How many werewolves did we have in town on Halloween night? It wouldn’t surprise me if there were more than a dozen of them. Could have been a lot more,” he said.

  “It also doesn’t help that now I’m having doubts whether the killer was wearing a brown werewolf costume or a gray one.” I gave him a sideways glance. I had been certain it was brown in the beginning, but the more I thought about it, the more I doubted what I thought I saw.

  He looked at me. “Mia, don’t you dare feel bad about not running after that killer. I know you do, and it doesn’t make any sense. You weren’t armed and you couldn’t have stopped him. What if he had another weapon on him? I don’t want you to think you should run after somebody who has just committed a violent crime,” he said. “That kind of thing is a job for the police and not a citizen.”

  I sighed. “I know you’re right, but I just feel so helpless about the whole thing. If I had been there thirty seconds earlier, I would have witnessed the murder. And that gives me the chills.”

  He put his arm around me and gave me a squeeze. “I’m really glad you weren’t there. Don’t worry about this, we will find whoever did it. Killers always leave some kind of trail somewhere. It’s just a matter of unraveling the threads that lead back to the guilty party.”

  I knew he was right, but I couldn’t help the way I felt. And I hated what was happening to our small town. I still didn’t believe in a curse. I was sure this string of murders was nothing more than a fluke and we would move on from this and put it behind us.

  Chapter Twelve

  It was just a little after 5 o’clock in the evening when I stopped in at Dr. Graves’s dental practice. Dr. Graves had been my dentist all my life and I had always liked him. He was just one of those people that was always upbeat and happy to see you when you came in for an appointment.

  No one was at the reception desk, so I peered around the corner and into the hallway where the exam rooms were. Dr. Graves’s dental office was the typical small town practice. Each dental chair was in its own little examination room and not out in the open like in the more modern dental offices. I appreciated the privacy when having my teeth worked on.

  “Hello?” I called, walking halfway down the hallway.

  Dr. Graves poked his head out of a room, and when he saw me, he smiled. “Oh hi, hello, Mia. How are you? You aren’t having a dental emergency are you?”

  I shook my head. “Hi Dr. Graves,” I said and gave him a smile of my own. “I just thought I’d stop in and make an appointment for a cleaning since I was driving by. I think I’m overdue, we’ve been so busy this Halloween season that it slipped my mind.”

  Dr. Graves stepped out of the examination room and put a hand on my shoulder. “Well, Mary Lou had to take off early today, but I think if you have a bit of patience I can get the computer at the front desk going and see if I can make an appointment for you.”

  He steered me back down the hall and out front. I went to the far side of the desk while he went behind it to make my appointment.

  “I hate to disturb you,” I said to him. “I hope you don’t have a patient waiting on you back there.”

  He sat down in the black office chair behind the desk and pushed a key on the keyboard. He looked up at me. His silver wire-framed glasses were scooted down to the end of his nose and his hairline was receding more than I had remembered.

  “Oh no, all the patients have left for the day. Sandy’s in the back there cleaning up, and we were just getting ready to leave. It won’t take but a minute to bring up the appointment calendar and make that appointment for you.”

  “I sure do appreciate that,” I said putting both hands on the reception desk counter and leaning forward to look at the computer screen.

  “It’s no problem at all, Mia,” he said as he peered at the computer screen. “You wanted a cleaning then?”

  “Yes please,” I said. “I meant to get in as soon as I moved back to town, but you know how it is with the Halloween season. I feel like I’ve been running ever since Labor Day.”

  “Oh I know exactly what you mean,” he said, still peering at the screen. He reached over slowly and pressed another key on the keyboard. “This whole town gets so busy during the season. I heard we had a tragedy on Halloween night.” He said it quietly without looking at me. He was still squinting his eyes at the computer screen. “I think I can fit you in on November 14th at 10 am. How does that sound?”

  “November 14th at 10 am would be great,” I said. “I heard about the murder too, it was Eldon Howell. I just don’t know what this town is coming to.” I didn’t want to tell him I had come upon Eldon’s body right after he had been murdered. I didn’t like the questions that came with that disclosure.

  He glanced at me, then looked back at the screen, and then slowly typed in my name using the hunt and peck method. “I know what you mean. It’s hard to believe that we’ve had another murder. I hope with the Halloween season ending, we’ll get a break from all that. Not that the Halloween season has anything to do with it. But maybe a change in the air is all we need.”

  “I’m hoping for the same thing.” I watched as he typed in my first name as M I K and then backed up, deleting the K and hit A. “Did you know Eldon?” I asked.

  He glanced at me, peering over the top of his glasses on the end of his nose. “Did I know Eldon? Yes, I suppose I did. We went to high school together. And then there’s the matter of him mishandling my divorce.”

  “Oh? I guess you knew him well, then.”

  “I wouldn’t call it well,” he said as he searched for the keys to spell out my last name. “I do think it’s a shame. Death is always a shame. Especially when it’s murder.”

  “I just can’t imagine who would want to kill Eldon Howell,” I said trying to sound mildly bored.

  “Oh,” he said, drawing the word out. “I can think of a couple of people. But the person that comes to mind the quickest would be my ex-wife, Jane.”

  I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear her name since she had a relationship with Eldon. But I was a little surprised at how quickly he put her name out there. I straightened up.

  “Jane? Why would you say Jane did it?”

  He shrugged and picked out an appointment card from the holder on the desk and took a pen from the decorated metal cup that held pens and pencils. He glanced at me and then looked down at the card. “I suppose it’s because the two of them were having an affair while our divorce was going on. Jane has quite the temper. Ask me how I know.” He chuckled and carefully wrote my name on the appointment card.

  I had never heard that the two of them had had troubles in their marriage, and it had come as a surprise to me when I heard they were divorced. Eldon’s mother had also said she had a temper, but it was something I had never seen for myself.

  “Oh?” I said. “I would never have thought of Jane as having a bad temper. Were she and Eldon together long?”

>   He stopped just as he got ready to write the J in my last name and looked up at me. “She claims the relationship began after we got divorced. But between you and me, I don’t believe a word of it. She can say what she wants but I’ve seen that woman at her worst. And it’s something I wouldn’t wish on anyone. And as for the temper? She put on a front around others, but she made no pretense around me. She would lose it over anything, big or small.”

  I tried to keep my surprise from showing. “I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. “And I’d be equally sorry if it turns out Jane did kill Eldon.”

  He nodded. “Like I said, it’s a shame anyone killed him. But as you know, we seem to have a streak of murders here in Pumpkin Hollow this year for some reason. It’s an oddity isn’t it?”

  “It certainly is,” I said. “I hope this is the last we see of a murder here in Pumpkin Hollow.”

  “I’ve heard all about the rumors of a curse on this town. I’m not a superstitious man and I just can’t imagine something like that being true. But I sure am concerned with the trouble we’ve seen this year.”

  I nodded. “That makes two of us.”

  He finished filling out the appointment card and laid it on the counter in front of me. “Well Mia, I’m glad to see you’re back home in Pumpkin Hollow. And I’ll be more than happy to take a look at your teeth and have my hygienist do that cleaning for you. You‘ve always had lovely teeth.” He gave me a smile.

  I smiled back at him trying not to show too much of my teeth. It would be like bragging. “That’s because I’ve had the best dentist around working on my teeth all my life. I do appreciate the work you do.”

  “That’s kind of you to say, Mia,” he said and nodded. “You be sure and tell all your customers where to go after they’ve indulged in all that wonderful candy that you and your mother sell at the candy store.”

  “I should probably take some of your business cards to hand out,” I said with a chuckle. “Nothing like passing on business to another local.”