Fish, Chips, and Murder

by Patti Benning

  “That sounds delicious,” Emily said as she preheated the oven. “Isn’t it weird that so much stuff has happened over the past week, but here we are, cooking like normal?”

  “Maybe a little,” Autumn said. “But the rest of the staff has to go about their jobs like normally, too, don't they? Everything still needs to get done.”

  “Yeah, but we’ve been having staff meetings every morning to talk about what happened and plan how we're going to handle things with the residents. You're just kind of thrown into all of this, aren't you? I haven’t seen you in any of the staff meetings.”

  “I suppose I am,” Autumn said. She began slicing the mushrooms while she waited for the butter to melt. “Speaking of the rest of the staff, how is Alicia doing?”

  “She's great. It's a pity that she doesn't want to work here full-time. I think your uncle’s playing chess with her out in the dining room right now.”

  “That's good. I think she likes having something to do during the day. I'm sure she'll stay as long as we need her to.”

  She added the mushrooms to the pan, stirring them slowly so they wouldn't stick as they began to brown. Emily was beside her, washing off the potatoes at the sink before wrapping them in aluminum foil.

  “Nick still has no idea what happened Archie?” Emily asked at last.

  “None,” Autumn said. “There is no reason that those doors should have been open. And even if we could figure out why the doors were left open, that wouldn’t explain why he decided to go outside on his own.”

  “His poor grandson. I hope he doesn’t blame himself. He met with Mr. Holt on Sunday morning.”

  “Really? I didn’t know that Nick had seen him yet. He's been so busy dealing with everything here, we haven't had much time to get together recently.”

  “It's just so sad. Archie was nice. It still doesn't seem right to think that he's gone now.”

  “I know,” Autumn said.

  “And did you hear about the things that keep going missing? Who would steal from the residents? It can't be one of the construction workers. None of them have been back since Archie's body was found.”

  “When was the last item stolen?”

  “Saturday,” Emily said. “As far as I know, nothing happened on Sunday.”

  “It happened while Percy Greene was here?”

  Emily blinked. “I guess. Or at least, the items were noticed to be missing after he left. But why would he take stuff from the residents? And why would he plant the stolen items on your aunt?”

  “I have no idea,” Autumn said. “It just seems odd that stuff goes missing whenever he's around.”

  “Well, you could say that about any of the staff as well. I wasn't here Sunday, and nothing got stolen, but I worked Saturday, and a couple of things did go missing. But no one thinks I'm the thief.” She blinked. “Do they?”

  “No,” Autumn said, giving the younger woman a smile. “No one thinks you're the thief. And I know it's probably not Percy. It's just a coincidence, but sometimes coincidences are important. I’ll mention it to Nick later.”

  “Well, whatever happens, I hope it stops soon. Everyone's unhappy. We don't like not being able to trust each other.”

  “I wish there was a way we could catch the thief in the act,” Autumn said.

  Emily grinned at her. “Well, why don't we set a trap?”

  Autumn fell silent while she added the chicken, salt, and pepper. While she stirred, she considered what the younger woman had said.

  “You want to set up a trap to catch the thief?”

  “It would be fun,” Emily said. “And besides, we can't let whoever is doing this get away with it. Stealing is wrong, especially when you're stealing from elderly people. And Mr. Holt doesn't need all of that stress, does he?”

  “No, he doesn't, but I don't know how we would possibly set up a trap like that.”

  “Well, luckily for you, I have plenty of ideas.” Emily grinned mischievously. “And I'm sure your friend Alicia would be happy to help us as well.”

  Autumn groaned as she began simmering chicken broth in another pot after setting the chicken and mushroom mixture aside. Alicia was always game for anything and had her own fair share of mischievous ideas.

  “You're right about that, Alicia would love setting up a trap to catch the thief. I guess if the two of you want to do it, I'll help, as long as it's not something that’s going to cause a disturbance or get anyone in trouble who doesn’t deserve it.”

  “I bet we could get your aunt and uncle to help as well,” Emily mused. “And Mr. Phillips. He's friends with your uncle, isn't he? I know he likes this sort of stuff.”

  “He does. Let's see what you and Alicia come up with first, though. I don't want to get the residents involved in something like this if we don't have to.”

  Emily nodded. She had finished the potatoes and was beginning to make the brownies. Autumn waited while the broth heated up. Once it started simmering, she added rice to the pot. She began stirring it, humming as she went. She knew Emily was probably busy trying to come up with plans to catch the thief, but her own thoughts had turned back to Archie. Why had he gone out to the construction site in the middle of the night? It didn't make any sense at all. She was certain that he had a good reason, but for the life of her, she couldn’t think of what it might have been.

  As the rice slowly cooked, she added some white wine and a pinch of salt. It would take a while for the rice to cook all the way, she knew, but the end result would be a mouthwatering meal, so it was worth the time it took. It’s the perfect meal to introduce a new resident to Asheville Meadows, she thought, smiling.

  A loud crash came from outside the kitchen, closely followed by the sound of a woman yelling. Autumn jumped as the peaceful silence in the kitchen was broken. She exchanged a quick glance with Emily, then the two of them raced out of the kitchen, not giving a second thought to the food as they hurried to find out what had happened.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Autumn raced out of the kitchen to see Aunt Lucinda sitting in a chair in the dining area while another resident was standing over her, screaming. Uncle Albert was only a few feet away, but he looked taken aback, too shocked to do anything. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alicia rushing over.

  “What’s going on?” Alicia asked as Autumn hurried over to the table herself.

  “She’s stole my wedding ring,” the resident, Natasha, screeched.

  “Natasha, calm down,” Autumn said. “Just take a deep breath, we’ll figure this out. Your ring is the one that went missing a while ago, right? Why do you think my aunt took it?”

  “I saw it in her purse when she reached in for a Chapstick,” the other woman said. She held up a small golden ring. “I snatched it out. I know she stole it from me.”

  Aunt Lucy was shaking her head. “Di – didn’t…” she managed to stutter.

  Autumn blinked at her aunt, shocked to hear the older woman speaking, something that she hadn’t heard since her stroke years ago. She wanted to congratulate her, and ask how physical therapy was going, but that would have to wait.

  “Natasha, I believe my aunt. She wouldn’t have stolen your ring. Besides, you said you left it in the bathroom, didn’t you? Somebody always accompanies my aunt to the bathroom, so there’s no way that she could have taken it without anybody noticing.”

  Natasha glared at them both. “You’re only siding with her because she’s your aunt.”

  “I’m not siding with anybody, I’m trying to be fair.”

  She remembered the one-sided argument that Natasha had gotten into with Aunt Lucy a couple of days ago and frowned. Something was going on between the two women, but she didn’t know what. She had the feeling that now wasn’t the time to bring it up.

  “Well, somebody stole my wedding ring,” Natasha said. “Do you have any idea what I’ve been going through since I lost it? I thought it was gone forever.”

  “Well, now you found it,” Autumn said, trying to be soothin
g. “I’m glad that you got it back, Natasha. Do you want to sit down? I could bring you a cup of coffee, or some fruit. Dinner won’t be for another forty-five minutes or so.”

  The woman huffed and frowned at them but seemed to decide to leave her battle for another day when Uncle Albert came over to Lucy and put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Come on, Natasha,” he said. “There’s no need to make a scene.”

  The other woman finally relented and agreed to take a seat at another table while Autumn brought her a snack. Alicia hovered nearby, making sure that the chess set was put away properly and that no other issues arose.

  “Do you have to handle stuff like that a lot?” Alicia asked, following Autumn into the kitchen after she had brought out a bowl of fruit for Natasha.

  “No, thank goodness,” Autumn said. “But tensions have been high here lately. Between the missing items and Archie’s death, everyone has been worried.”

  “That woman, Natasha, she really seems to dislike your aunt.”

  “I don’t know why,” Autumn said, frowning as she checked the rice and resumed stirring it. “And Aunt Lucy wouldn’t hurt a fly, and she never goes anywhere without my uncle, anyway.”

  “Isn’t it strange that the ring showed up in her purse, though?”

  Autumn sighed. “Yes, it is, but I know that my aunt wouldn’t steal anything.”

  “Maybe she’s just confused. She might have found those things lying around and thought that they were hers.”

  “She’s only in her mid-sixties,” Autumn pointed out. “She’s here because of the stroke, and because my uncle couldn’t care for her on his own, not because she is having issues with her memory. I suppose she could be suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s, but I would be surprised if it came on this quickly without any warning at her age. All of the residents here see psychologists regularly. Plus, I think my uncle would notice.”

  “You’re probably right,” Alicia said. “I’ve got to say; this place is a lot more exciting than I was expecting.”

  Autumn chuckled. “It isn’t always like this, I promise,” she said. “Things are bound to settle down soon enough. That reminds me, Emily has been trying to come up with a plan. How would you like to help us catch a thief?”

  She left it to Emily and Alicia to plan their trap while she focused on dinner. Good food might not be the most important part of finding a good nursing home, but she knew how much of a difference it could make. Food was a big part of people’s lives, and having exciting, flavorful meals could make the difference between a boring day and a good one. Besides, it was the only thing that she had any control over, and it made her feel better to know that she was doing something to help the nursing home’s future.

  Once everyone was sitting down for dinner, she and Emily began serving the main course. She took the food to Bella and Teddy first. She remembered seeing them both a couple of days ago and gave them a warm smile.

  “It’s wonderful to see the two of you again,” she said.

  “Thanks,” Bella said. “It’s good to see you as well. Andrea, was it?”

  “It’s Autumn, actually. So, what do you think of this place?” Autumn asked.

  “It seems lovely here. What do you think, Dad?”

  Her father nodded. “I like what I’ve seen so far. It took my daughter a while to convince me that this was the best place for me to go, but I can see myself enjoying it here.”

  “It’s such a blessing that a spot opened up for us so soon,” Bella said.

  Autumn bit her tongue, trying to keep herself from reminding the pair that the spot had only opened up because someone had died. She had to tell herself that they didn’t mean any disrespect. For them, it certainly must seem like a miracle to be second on the waiting list.

  “I definitely hope that you get it. I know that the person before you on the waiting list is on the edge about it. They’ve promised to have their answer by the end of the week, and hopefully sooner.”

  Bella nodded, a frowned flashing across her face. When she tried the risotto, her expression cleared.

  “This is fantastic. What do you think?” she asked, turning to her father.

  Autumn smiled as they ate. Watching people enjoy the food that she had cooked was better than any compliment. It seemed that all of her hard work had paid off. She was certain that the nursing home had made a good impression on them, and it was looking like Archie’s room would be filled one way or another. She just wished that Nick would take a break from worrying so much and take some time to take care of himself.

  She looked up and saw him watching from the dining room door. She excused herself to walk over to him.

  “So, how do you think it went?” he asked her.

  “They seem happy,” she said. “How did the tour go?”

  “Pretty well,” he said. “I’ve got bad news for them, though. I got a call back from the people who are right ahead of them on the waiting list, and they have decided to take the room. Teddy will be next on the list, of course, but I know it will be a blow for them.”

  “Well, at least we know that this place is still popular. We’ll get by, one way or another.”

  He nodded, managing a small smile. “I know. Somehow, we’ll manage.”

  She returned the smile with far more enthusiasm. She loved the nursing home almost as much as he did, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t her entire life. Still, she was glad that things were beginning to look up for them.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Now that she knew that her aunt was going to continue to be targeted, Autumn was more certain than ever that she wanted to be part of the plan to set a trap for the thief. It took them a couple of days to settle on an idea. She insisted on talking to Nick about it first, and while he said that he didn’t want to be involved, he agreed that as long as they didn’t do anything against the nursing home’s policy or do anything that might put any of the residents at risk, he was okay with it. He wanted the mystery to be solved just as much as they did, if not more.

  They decided to set their trap on Wednesday evening, a night when all three of them were supposed to work late. No one would question seeing them there after dinner.

  The plan was simple. Alicia had installed an application on her phone that would allow them to track it via Bluetooth and was going to leave the phone lying around the nursing home throughout the day. If it went missing, that evening Emily would use her own phone to track Alicia’s. Once they figured out who had taken it, Alicia would go up to them the next day and ask if they had seen her cell phone. If the person said no, then they would know that he or she was lying and would contact Nick. If they said yes, then they would assume that the person had simply found the phone, and they would reset the trap for the next evening. None of them wanted to point the finger at someone who might be innocent.

  Autumn enjoyed watching Alicia bait the trap Wednesday. The phone seemed to float around the nursing home; during breakfast, it was sitting on one of the long tables in the hallway near the front office. During lunch, it was on a coffee table in the common room. And it dinner, when she asked Alicia where the phone was now, her friend grinned at her.

  “I have absolutely no idea.”

  Autumn chuckled. She didn’t think that she had ever seen anyone so cheerful about a missing cell phone.

  “Did you tell Emily?”

  “Yep. We are going to keep an eye on the lost and found just in case someone decided to drop it off there. Like you said, we don’t want to cause trouble for anyone who is just doing the right thing.”

  Even though all three of them were careful to check the lost and found after dinner, the phone wasn’t there. Autumn was more impatient than usual to finish cleaning the dishes. She desperately wanted to figure out what had happened to the device, and who had stolen it. Their plan wasn’t exactly foolproof, but at least they were doing something. Figuring out who had stolen the money and other items over the past couple of weeks might not be as important as figuring
out what had happened to Archie, but it was better than sitting around and doing nothing.

  After dinner, Emily and Alicia met her in the kitchen under the pretense of helping her rearrange the pantry. She didn’t want to involve any of the other staff in their plan, since they weren’t sure whether or not it was a staff member or a resident that was stealing. Instead, they had simply kept it between the three of them and Nick. She understood him not wanting to get involved more than he already was; it wasn’t very professional, and he couldn’t risk any other marks against him.

  Emily turned on her phone and found the application that would track down Alicia’s cell phone. She grinned up at them.

  “Are you ready?”