by Kate Bell
“I didn’t know he was related to you. It’s a shame what happened.”
“Everyone in the family has been broken up about it. Most of my relatives live out of state, but Eldon and his mother still lived here. I’ve always called his mother grandma. It’s nice since both my real grandmas died when I was small.”
I nodded. “I feel terrible for Mrs. Howell. I spoke with her after Eldon’s death and it just breaks my heart.”
She nodded. “It’s a terrible shame, that’s for sure. I can’t imagine having your only child die, even if he was sixty years old.”
“Do you know who might have wanted to kill him?” I wondered since she was family if she might have heard something that might shed light on the murder.
“I have no idea. You hear things from time to time about different relatives but I really didn’t hear much about him.”
I looked back at the door and was surprised to see Benjamin Cartwright walk through it. He had been so angry and bitter toward Eldon that I couldn’t imagine him attending his funeral. But maybe he had a reason to. Maybe he was gloating over the fact that Eldon was dead. And maybe he was also gloating about what he had done.
I looked at Amanda to see if she had any reaction to his being here, but she didn’t seem to notice him.
“It’s a good turnout for the funeral,” I said.
“I figured there would be. He was Pumpkin Hollow’s only lawyer after all,” she said looking over the crowd.
She had a point about that. Pumpkin Hollow residents tried to keep as much business as possible within the town. I was certain many of the people in this room had had Eldon work on their legal business.
I watched as Benjamin sat on the back pew on the other side of the room. He nodded as somebody passed by and spoke to him. Then his eyes went to the casket up front and I saw him grin. Chills went down my spine. Had Benjamin done it? Maybe he really was gloating over Eldon’s death. I kept my eye on him for a few minutes and then turned my attention to the funeral director when he took the podium.
I tried to pay attention to the words the funeral director spoke, but I confess, my eyes were all over the room, wondering if the killer was here. It seemed odd that all the eyes I saw were dry. I knew Eldon’s immediate family was grieving, but everyone else looked as if they were attending a business meeting. It made me wonder again if Eldon had a lot of enemies.
Chapter Eighteen
It had been more than two weeks since Eldon Howell had been murdered. At random times during the day, the image of a werewolf stabbing or devouring people would flash across my mind. It gave me the cold chills, and it wore on me. Every time I asked Ethan about the investigation, he said he had more people to interview. I suspected he was keeping something from me. It wasn’t that this surprised me. After all, he was a police officer, and I knew there were things that he couldn’t share with me. But the idea of a murderer still out there on the streets bothered me. I thought it was especially cowardly that the killer had dressed in a costume on Halloween night to do their dirty work—the night that everyone in Pumpkin Hollow looked forward to all year long. The killer had spoiled the memory of that night for years to come.
The more I thought about what I knew about the various suspects, the more I thought that Matthew Barnes had to be the killer. Who else had a bigger grudge against Eldon? Although there were certainly enough people who had at least a little something against Eldon, Matthew’s career had suffered because of what he had done.
The Halloween season was now officially over for this year. The cold November winds were blowing, and I glanced up at the dark cloudy sky. It would snow before long and I both looked forward to it and dreaded it. Snow was a lot of fun the first couple of times it snowed each year, but it was also a lot of work and by the time January rolled around, I was usually sick and tired of it.
I stopped in front of the glass door that read Matthew Barnes, Attorney at Law. I glanced at my reflection in the glass and straightened my coat before pushing the door open. My appointment was at 4 o’clock. I glanced at the clock on the wall. 3:52.
Matthew’s receptionist was young and blond and looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I’d seen her before.
“Good afternoon,” she said with a smile that revealed perfect teeth. “May I help you?”
“Yes, I have a 4 o’clock appointment with Mr. Barnes.” The waiting area of the office looked like a comfortable living room with high-end furniture. The sofa and over-stuffed chairs had carved wood frames and floral patterned fabric. The color scheme was dark and rich. An Oriental rug covered the floor between the two sofas and carved wood framed paintings hung on the walls. The receptionist sat at a mahogany desk that looked antique. I was impressed with the place. If you had unpleasant business to attend to with a lawyer, this setting would put you at ease while you waited for your appointment.
“He’s ready for you right now. I’ll show you to his office.” She got up and came around the side of the desk, then led me down a hallway. I could smell the faint scent of cinnamon and something else that I couldn’t quite place. When we got to Matthew’s office, she knocked, turned the doorknob, and pushed the door open. “Mr. Barnes, your 4 o’clock is here.”
Matthew was going through paperwork on his desk and looked up. “Mia, it’s good to see you.” He got to his feet and extended his hand. “Thank you, Cherise.”
I shook his hand and took a seat in front of his desk while the receptionist left and closed the door behind her. “It’s good to see you too, Matthew.”
“It’s such a cold, dark afternoon, I hope it doesn’t snow before I leave the office,” he said and sat back down.
My eyes went to his wrists, but he wasn’t wearing a watch. “I know what you mean. I hate driving the highway with snow, but I think it will hold off for a bit.” I folded my hands in my lap and we made small talk for another minute or two.
“Now then, you needed advice on a website, didn’t you?”
I had made the appointment under the guise of wanting advice for the business website I had built for Pumpkin Hollow. I was sure there weren’t going to be any issues since the website was benefiting all the Pumpkin Hollow businesses in the Halloween district, but I wanted an excuse to speak to him privately.
“Yes, I’m sure I’m being silly, but I wanted to make sure that everything looks up to snuff.”
“I took a look at it for you after you sent me the link, and I really think you’ve done a fine job there. I bet it helps bring in more business to Pumpkin Hollow.”
I nodded. “Thank you, I certainly hope so. I would love to see Pumpkin Hollow as bustling and busy as it was when I was a child. Of course, sometimes we long for the way things used to be when we were children, don’t we?”
He nodded. “You can say that again.”
We spent the next twenty minutes discussing different aspects of business along with ideas I’d had for the website. I wanted to add a blog with at least a monthly article on people in the community. I thought we had a lot of interesting characters around town and tying them to businesses where possible would be fun.
When it felt like things were coming to a close, I decided to bring up the murder. “Did you get a chance to go to Eldon Howell’s funeral, Matthew?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could manage.
He looked at me, his hands flat on the desk. “I didn’t go to the funeral. Honestly, with the past that we had, I can’t imagine he would have wanted me there. Of course, it’s not like he would have had anything to say about it. He’s dead.” He chuckled.
“No, I suppose he wouldn’t. I went and there were a lot of people there. It was really very nice,” I said. “I thought I might have just missed you, but I guess not.”
He nodded. “I’ll tell you something, just between the two of us, the more I think about it, the more I think Jane Graves killed him. Who else would it be? She had the most to gain from his death.”
“Really? I would have thought his children would have ga
ined the most, financially at least.”
“If she hadn’t stepped into the picture, they certainly would have. But, I have it on good authority that Jane forced Eldon to sign a contract. Should something happen to him, she would receive a nice fat settlement in return for taking care of his mother in her final years.” He folded his hands together across his belly and grinned.
I looked at him, letting this sink in. If it was true and Jane was getting a settlement of some kind, then that could explain the cold shoulder she had gotten from his ex-wife and his children. But why would Eldon sign something saying she would get a settlement and why would he entrust the care of his mother to her when his mother didn’t like her?
“How do you know that? Why would he agree to give her a settlement?”
He shrugged, the grin never left his face. “You know how it is being a lawyer. You hear things, things people don’t want to get around town. Maybe she had something on him. It’s not like Eldon was the most ethical person in the world. Whatever it was, he kept it between the two of them.” He gave me a sly grin. “But trust me. That woman is coming out on top of things as a result of Eldon’s death.”
There was something about his demeanor that bothered me. Actually, I knew exactly what it was. He was smug. I thought he really was glad that Eldon was dead.
“Tell me Matthew, what about you? Don’t you have a lot to gain from him being dead?”
Now the grin left his face and his eyes hardened. “What do you mean by that? I have nothing to gain by his death.”
I shrugged. “Revenge? He got your license suspended and then got you fired from a law firm years ago. There’s been a lot of time for things to simmer under the heat of bitterness and boil over into rage.”
His jaw tightened, and he was quiet a moment. “Oh, I got my revenge all right. But I’m not the one who brought it about. He deserved to die in a filthy alley by himself, and that’s what he got. I’m not a bit sorry it happened, but I’m not the one who did it.”
I nodded slowly. “That’s what you say. But anger and hatred can fester like a rotting sore until the poison oozes out and infects everything. You killed Eldon. You couldn’t take one more day of him living his life while you suffered the repercussions of what he did.”
His jaw tightened and anger flashed in his eyes. “I think your appointment is over now. But I want you to know something—I didn’t kill Eldon Howell. And I’m sorry I didn’t get to enjoy the satisfaction of killing him.”
“Who told you about the agreement between Eldon and Jane?”
“Like I said, I’m not going to disclose that information.”
“I don’t believe you. Not one bit,” I said, my hands gripping the sides of the chair. I was pushing things, and I knew it. I hadn’t meant to accuse him of the murder, but his smug attitude got to me. I was certain now that he was the one who had killed Eldon.
“Miss Jordan, it’s time for you to leave. And if I find out you’ve been spreading lies about me around Pumpkin Hollow or any place else, you can bet I’ll bring charges against you.”
“I suppose you know exactly how to do that, don’t you?” I knew I shouldn’t push him like this, but I wanted more information. He was lying about the financial agreement between Eldon and Jane, or at least, I was pretty sure he was.
He got to his feet, and I picked up my purse from the floor next to the chair.
“It’s time for you to leave. Don’t be difficult or I’ll call the police.”
I got to my feet and nodded at him. “Okay Matthew, maybe I’m wrong. And if I am, I apologize. But if you did kill Eldon, you won’t get away with it.”
“I wish I had killed him. But I didn’t, and you need to leave.”
I headed for the door and didn’t look over my shoulder before closing it behind me. If he really was the killer, I might be in trouble now. I pulled my phone from my front pocket and quickly texted Ethan telling him where I was and that I was on my way home. I didn’t tell him I had accused Matthew, but I figured if I didn’t show up, he would know where to look.
Chapter Nineteen
“Well, good morning Mia,” Benjamin Cartwright said when he walked through the door.
I looked up from the recipe for chocolate-covered cherries that I was working on. Christmas would be here before we knew it and I was looking at recipes for Christmas candy. I had been jotting down the ingredients from a recipe I had already tried so I wouldn’t forget the adjustments I had made to it. Candy could be temperamental, but I thought I knew enough about candy making to feel brave enough to make some of my own changes to a recipe.
“Good morning, Benjamin,” I said. “What brings you down to the candy shop this morning?” We had only been open for twenty minutes and he was the first customer of the day.
He smiled and walked up to the front counter, placing both hands on the top. “Fudge. It’s always the fudge.” He chuckled and glanced over at what was in the display case, but didn’t move to take a closer look. “And of course, there’s always taffy, jelly beans, and licorice. Your shop is the reason I have so many fillings in my mouth.”
“You don’t know how many times I’ve heard that. But, at least you earned them enjoying yourself.”
“I’m pretty sure Dr. Graves has made enough money off of me to finance his yacht.” He laughed.
“Well, in that case, you have my condolences. Maybe he’ll take you out on the water in that yacht since your teeth paid for it,” I said.
“Funny you should say that. We went out on the lake this past weekend. We might not look it, but we’re both fishing fanatics and he does have a fine boat, although it isn’t quite a yacht.”
I didn’t know that Dr. Graves and Benjamin were close enough for them to take a boating trip together. Benjamin had told me he was a patient and that he saw Dr. Graves occasionally in certain social circles, but he had said they weren’t friends. Now it made me wonder.
“Really? That sounds like fun. Do you two do that often?” I asked him, trying to sound casual.
“Not as often as we would like, but often enough I guess.” He bent and peered into the display case. “You still have pumpkin spice fudge.”
“If you want pumpkin spice fudge, you better grab it now. My mother is about ready to cut everyone off from that delicious concoction until next Halloween season.”
He straightened up and looked at me. “That’s just cruel of her. It’s one of my favorites.”
I chuckled. “It’s one of my favorites, too. How much would you like?” Something about he and Dr. Graves taking a fishing trip together bothered me. It probably shouldn’t have been a surprise, given that Pumpkin Hollow was a small town, but it did surprise me that he and Dr. Graves were close enough to do that, especially when Benjamin had pointed a finger at him and told me they weren’t close friends.
“I think I’ll take a half pound of fudge since we’re not going to get any more for a while.”
I went over to the display case and removed the tray of fudge. “Which lake did you and Dr. Graves go to on his boat?” I asked as I cut and wrapped the fudge.
He glanced at me and walked over to the bulk bins before answering me. “Donner Lake. We caught some beautiful Lake Trout there. They can be caught in shallow water this time of year, you know.”
“I did not know that. It’s beautiful there this time of year,” I said, trying to figure out how to bring up the subject of the murder.
“Say, did they ever catch Eldon Howell’s murderer?” he asked, turning back toward me.
I shook my head, glad he had brought the subject up himself. “No, the police are still working on the case. Hopefully, they’ll have a break in the case soon.”
“Oh? That sounds like you know something,” he said with a grin. He picked up a foil-wrapped hollow milk chocolate pumpkin and brought it to the front counter. “I think I need this.”
I smiled at him. “No, I don’t know anything other than the fact that the police have been working overtime to s
olve it. I’m sure they’ll figure it out soon.”
He studied me a moment, then put the pumpkin on the counter. “Well, let’s just hope they do. I hate for a killer to remain on the loose for long.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” I said. There was something about his demeanor that bothered me. “It’s a shame the Halloween season is over. Did you do anything special Halloween night?”
“I went to the haunted house with my kids. They came to visit and brought the grandkids and we made the rounds of Pumpkin Hollow.”
I nodded “I suppose that’s what everyone did Halloween night.”
“I’ll tell you something though, the more I think about that murder, the more I think Matthew Barnes had to have killed Eldon. They hated each other.”
“I heard there was some bad blood between them,” I said as I rang up his fudge and the chocolate pumpkin. “Did you need anything else?”
“Yes, let me scoop a bag of taffy and maybe some of those orange and black jelly beans over there in the bulk bins. Can you see why I said my teeth have paid for the good doctor’s boat?” he said and headed over to the bins.
We were alone in the candy shop and I hoped he would say more. I suddenly felt he might have some meaningful information about the murder.
“So I see. I hate to think that someone from Pumpkin Hollow may have murdered Eldon,” I said to keep the conversation moving.
He quickly scooped up a bag of taffy and then a smaller bag of black and orange jelly beans. The metal scoop made a crunching sound against the jelly beans as he scooped.
He was back at the front counter in less than a minute. “I’m sure everyone hopes it isn’t someone local, but like I said, I really think it has to be Matthew. I mean, think about it for a minute. Eldon not only got his license suspended, but ultimately he got him fired from his job. It may have been quite a few years ago, but when things like that simmer beneath the surface for years, they can suddenly explode in violence.”