Roast Turkey and a Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  “I can do that,” she said. “I love sweet potatoes. I’m so glad we get to cook the community meal today, I think it’s a lot of fun.”

  “We’ll see if you think it’s fun when you’ve been on your feet for a few hours,” Mom said. “Aching feet have a tendency to make you change your mind about a lot of things.”

  Natalie laughed. “Oh, Grandma, you’re so funny.”

  “Just remember to pick a college major for a job that doesn’t involve working on your feet, dear,” Mom said.

  “What do you want me to do?” Stormy asked me.

  “Why don’t you work on the green salad? I have a feeling I’m going to be here a lot later than I planned to be. I may need you to go to my house and start working on our dinner if I can’t get out of here in the next couple of hours.”

  She nodded. “It might not be as good as you make, but I’ll certainly give it my best.”

  “It will taste even better to me because I won’t have to cook it,” I assured her.

  I had found the menu that Tori had prepared taped to a refrigerator door with the volunteers schedule. I checked over the list of dishes, and came up with a plan to get everything done on time so it would still be hot by the time we served the meal. Fortunately for all of us, we only served food from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m., so even if I ended up having to stay the entire day, I would still have time to get home and work on our dinner. Stormy could leave and put the turkey into the oven and do some prep work for me.

  “Oh my,” Mom said, looking into the refrigerator. “Look at all these pies. I see pumpkin, pecan, apple, maybe some peach or apricot, and coconut cream. I say we just stop what we’re doing and all have a slice. You know, to keep our strength up.”

  “No one touches those pies,” I ordered. “We have people expecting dessert after their dinner and we are not going to disappoint them.”

  She groaned and shut the refrigerator door. “You’re no fun, Rainey,” she said. “I hope Diane gets back with those donuts soon. I feel like I haven’t eaten in days.”

  “I’m quite certain that isn’t true,” I said and went over to the kitchen sink to wash my hands. “Can someone volunteer to wash some of these dishes?”

  “I can do it,” I heard a voice say from behind me. I turned around as Ron White, the dishwasher from Sam’s Diner entered the kitchen.

  I was a waitress at Sam’s and I was happy to see him. “Good morning Ron, I’m so glad to see you! I would so appreciate you handling these dishes.”

  He nodded and smiled. “I thought you would have your hands busy with the cooking, and I figured I could spare a few hours to come down here and clean up.”

  “You don’t know how thrilled I am that you did,” I said and gave him a hug. “We will be serving dinner on paper plates thankfully, so there won’t be a lot of dishes, but there are already some serving bowls and utensils that need washing.”

  He nodded. “You got it,” he said and headed over to the sink and got busy.

  I surveyed the scene as more people arrived to help out. The local business owners were true to their word that they had given Tori and were here to help out the community. It made me proud to live in Sparrow. When push came to shove, we always took care of our own.

  I poured two cups of coffee and headed out to the alley with them to hand to whoever needed a fresh cup. The police officers were still milling about, and the coroner had finally shown up. I headed straight over to him in the hope that a cup of coffee would improve his mood.

  “Good morning, would you like a cup of coffee?” I asked brightly. I didn’t know his name as he wasn’t from Sparrow.

  The coroner was a man that appeared to be in his late fifties, his face craggy with age. He eyed the cup in my hand and then gave me a curt nod. “That might be just the thing I need.”

  I held the cup out to him and reached into my apron pocket for packets of creamer and sugar. “Creamer and sugar?”

  He nodded, and I handed him several of each. I glanced over at Cade, who had a smile on his face. He knew I was trying to butter up the coroner.

  “Coffee?” I asked him. He nodded, and I handed him the other cup. “Does anyone else need coffee?”

  There were a couple of takers on my offer and I headed back to the kitchen. I hated that Tori had died on what should have been a happy, festive occasion. But I was going to do my best to make things easier on the police officers, and on the members of the community that would come for dinner later.

  Chapter Five

  I had hoped to get away from the community center early, but it didn’t work out that way. Tori had plenty of workers scheduled to make and serve the dinner, and she had had enough foresight to schedule them at intervals so there wouldn’t be too many people in the kitchen at once, nor would we be shorthanded. I had to give it to her; she was a great planner. It was a shame she wasn’t here to see it all come together.

  There were a lot of hungry people that showed up at 10:30 and formed a line at the front of the community center. I suspected some showed up simply to check out the reason for all the police officers that were gathered at the back of the building. I wanted to pop back out and see how Cade was doing on the investigation, but there was simply too much work to be done in the kitchen.

  We began serving people at 11:00 a.m. sharp, and I worried we wouldn’t have enough table space. But as the first diners finished their meals, people in the queue were seated and there was a smooth motion of people coming and going that came about. Tori had thought ahead and wrangled a dozen high school students to do nothing but clear the tables, wipe them down, and assist diners with things like salt, pepper, napkins, and utensils. The kids were in great spirits and as soon as a place at a table was emptied; they were there cleaning it up for the next diner. My teenaged nephews Brent and Curtis had been volunteered by Stormy, and I was glad to see them helping out.

  At noon I dished up several meals into covered Styrofoam containers to take to Tori’s husband, Rick Wells. Tori had mentioned her daughters coming home from college but I didn’t know if there would be more people staying at her house, so I made enough for five meals, figuring they could eat the extra food over the next few days if it was just the three of them at his house. I had seen Cade just long enough for him to let me know he had already gone to Rick’s home and gave him the news. I hoped I wouldn’t be intruding, but I felt like he shouldn’t be overlooked at a time like this. I gave Stormy directions to work on keeping the food moving while I was gone and picked up the box that we had put the meals into.

  Rick and Tori’s house sat eerily quiet on the corner of Maple Drive and Oak Street. I headed up the sidewalk carrying the box of food and knocked on the door. Rick’s mother, Elizabeth Wells, answered the door. Elizabeth owned a beauty shop in town and she had worked on my hair several times when my regular hairdresser wasn’t available.

  She gave me a tentative smile. “Hello Rainey,” she said nodding. “Is there something I can do for you?”

  Elizabeth’s hair was blond and done in a modified 1960s bouffant. She wore rhinestone cat eyeglasses and managed to make the look classy.

  “Hello Elizabeth, I just wanted to stop in and pay my condolences if Rick is up to seeing people. I’m so sorry for your loss. I brought some meals. I didn’t know who else might be here, so I packed some extras.”

  She nodded. “That’s so thoughtful of you Rainey. Won’t you come in?” She took a step back, and I entered the house. It was quiet, and the shades were drawn. I didn’t see Rick in the living room, but I followed Elizabeth into the kitchen with the meals.

  “I hope I’m not disturbing you all,” I said apologetically.

  She took the box from me and set it on the kitchen counter. “No it’s fine,” she said. “Rick is reeling right now, as you can imagine.” She sighed, her forehead creased with concern. “Let me go and get Rick.”

  She was gone before I could say anything else, so I stood in the kitchen and waited. I didn’t want to be presum
ptuous and move into the living room without being asked. I thought about removing the meals from the box but I wasn’t sure if they would feel like eating anything now or if they wanted them put into the refrigerator for later.

  In just a few moments Elizabeth returned with Rick. Rick was haggard looking, his eyes bloodshot. I took a deep breath, not wanting to give away how heartbreaking his appearance was.

  “Hello Rainey,” Rick said quietly. “I suppose you know?”

  I nodded. “I’m so sorry for your loss, Rick,” I said. “I don’t want to be an intrusion, but I wanted to bring by some food. I didn’t know if you would feel like eating.”

  “I don’t think I’m up to it right now,” he said. “But I do appreciate you thinking of us.”

  I nodded. “I completely understand. If there’s anything else that I can do for you, you’ll let me know, won’t you?” I didn’t know Rick very well, but we were on a first name basis. He and Tori came into the diner occasionally.

  He nodded. “That’s kind of you to offer,” he said. “But right now all I want to know is what happened to my wife. Have the police said anything to you? When that detective stopped by the house earlier, he didn’t seem to know anything.”

  “It’s early in the investigation yet,” I said. “But the police are working on figuring out what happened.”

  He nodded, his eyes going to the floor in front of his feet. “If you don’t mind, I think I’m going to go lie down,” he said weakly.

  When he had gone, Elizabeth turned to me. “It’s really very kind of you to bring the meals by,” she said. She moved over to the box and peered into it. “I’m so glad you did, with the news that Tori has died, I didn’t get around to putting our turkey into the oven this morning.”

  “That’s understandable,” I said. “I’m just glad I could help.”

  She turned and looked at me. “This has been such a shock to Rick. Just terrible.”

  “I’m sure it’s a terrible shock to the entire family,” I said. “Tori said her daughters were coming home from college for the holiday.”

  She shook her head. “No, that’s the terrible thing. Both Tabitha and Sarah are still away at college. They decided to skip coming home for Thanksgiving in favor of coming for Christmas instead. It’s a terrible shame. They didn’t get to see their mother one last time before she passed.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that,” I said. It broke my heart that the girls wouldn’t get a chance to see her again.

  She nodded and looked at me thoughtfully. “Rainey, do you think she was murdered? Or do you think it was just an accident?”

  I shook my head. “I think it’s too early for the police to know what happened.”

  “Yes, but what do you think?”

  I hated to give my opinion on the matter, especially after Cade had mentioned he thought it might have been murder. “I really don’t know. Why do you ask? Do you think there’s someone that may have had reason to harm Tori?”

  She looked over her shoulder and then back at me again. “To be honest, yes. That Agatha Broome who owns the British Tea and Coffee Company. Do you know her?”

  My stomach dropped. Why on earth would she bring up Agatha’s name? I nodded slowly. “Yes, I do know Agatha.”

  “I probably shouldn’t say this, but she and Tori didn’t get along well at all.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Tori always complained about Agatha. We had those monthly business owners meetings you know, and Tori was president of the association. It seems that ever since she took on that responsibility, Agatha did nothing but cause trouble for her. She went against everything Tori suggested.”

  I was surprised by what Elizabeth was saying. I knew Agatha wasn’t crazy about Tori, but I just couldn’t believe that Agatha did anything more than complain privately to people she knew well. And now Elizabeth was suggesting that she might have had something to do with Tori’s death?

  “Sometimes people have issues with other people, but that doesn’t mean they want to murder them,” I said, trying not to sound defensive. Agatha was my friend and I could feel anger rising up inside of me at the very idea that someone might suspect her of murder.

  Elizabeth leaned against the kitchen counter. “Well, that’s true I suppose. But I’m telling you, Tori had real problems with her. Agatha constantly interrupted her during meetings and would roll her eyes at Tori’s suggestions. Right out in the open. Tori was simply trying to make the business association a more giving part of the community, but she said it was as if Agatha was intent on doing everything she could to hinder her. Tori was so upset about it, and I have to wonder if there were things she wasn’t telling me.”

  I nodded, taking this in. “Well, I know Agatha well enough to know that she wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

  Elizabeth smiled. “Yes, of course, I’m sorry. Here I am trying to lay the blame on somebody when I have absolutely no idea whether they would do something like that. I guess I’m just in shock over Tori’s death. Please forgive me.”

  I felt the tension leave my shoulders. “Of course, I can see your point. Someone that you care about has died and I’m sure until you get answers, it’s going to be an incredibly hard thing to live with.”

  She nodded. “That’s exactly it. Until I get answers about who killed Tori, I won’t be able to rest. Of course, that won’t change the fact that Tori’s dead, but if this was done purposely, I intend to see justice served.”

  While I didn’t blame Elizabeth for feeling the way she did, I didn’t like that she had thrown out Agatha’s name so quickly. Agatha had complained about Tori of course, but I didn’t see it as anything more than her expressing her frustrations with someone she didn’t like. Thinking she had murdered someone was ridiculous.

  Chapter Six

  After dropping off the meals to Rick and Elizabeth Wells, I returned to the community center to finish up the Thanksgiving dinner. I was pleased that things had run smoothly in my absence, not that I thought they wouldn’t. The kids were being great sports about keeping the tables cleaned and handing out needed items to the diners. Stormy ran the kitchen area well in my absence.

  I stayed until the last meal was served, and then I helped Ron clean up. I hated for him to have to do it on his own even though I was anxious to get working on my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. I had sent Natalie home earlier to make sure the turkey was put into the oven and I was confident I would have enough time to finish up the rest of the meal once I got home.

  When we finally got the community center cleaned up and everything stowed away, I said my goodbyes to everyone and thanked them for all their hard work. My feet ached and all I really wanted to do was go home and put them up for a while, but I knew that wouldn’t happen. There was too much work to do for dinner.

  With a tired sigh, I headed home. Stormy and her family, my mother, Agatha, and Cade would be there for dinner. I had also invited my boss, Sam Stevens, and Ron, but Ron had already been invited by his cousin to spend it with their family.

  ***

  “I don’t know how you do it, Rainey,” Agatha said. “You’ve worked so hard since before dawn, and here you are, bustling about the kitchen and getting a spectacular meal on the table for the rest of us.”

  I chuckled. “Well I can tell you one thing, I’m going to sleep well tonight. I’m beat. Besides that, you were there with me at 4:00 a.m. and have been working all day, too.”

  “Yes, but I took a nap as soon as I got home from the community center. I can’t say I’m completely rested, but I sure do feel better than I did earlier today.”

  “Lucky you,” I said and laughed. “We’re just about ready to eat. I think it won’t be more than twenty minutes.” My dog Maggie lay on the rug in front of the kitchen sink. Her eyes followed me around the room, not missing a thing in case I dropped a bite of food that she could snatch up. Maggie was a Bluetick Hound and she never let a dropped piece of food go to waste.

  “Aunt Rainey,” my fo
ur-year-old niece, Lizzy, said running into the kitchen. “I’m so hungry!”

  I turned to look at her angelic little face, her lips were pursed together and her big blue eyes wide. “We’ll don’t you worry honey, I was just telling Agatha we’re going to eat in a few minutes.”

  “Yay!” she said and ran back into the living room to join the other guests.

  “With that enthusiasm, I’d say someone knows they’re going to get a delicious dinner,” Agatha said. “The salad is ready.”

  “Awesome, thank you, Agatha,” I said. Agatha was helping me out in the kitchen and it was much appreciated. I decided I would ignore what Elizabeth Wells had said about her. I had known Agatha for far too long to think she might have killed someone. She didn’t have it in her.

  Agatha had made the salad with mixed greens, chopped red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, purple onions, and then liberally sprinkled it with chopped walnuts and dried cranberries. I could hardly wait. I could have a salad any time of the year, but somehow it seemed more special with the festive colored ingredients and I looked forward to it now.

  I hadn’t heard from Cade since I left the community center and I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see if he had texted me. I was happy to see that he had indeed messaged me, but somehow I had missed it. Probably when I was making the sweet potato pie, I thought.