Banana Split and Bodies

by Allyssa Mirry

  5

  Another Accusation

  After calling Trina to tell her what she had learned and making sure that Sunny was settled into a sunbathing spot inside the house, Lydia headed to her taffy shop. Suzanne had appreciated the banana split taffy samples that Lydia had given her, and Lydia wanted to make some more of the new flavor to take her mind off of things.

  She didn’t want to dwell on what Amber had accused her of, and she didn’t want to think about the murder when she had already said that she wouldn’t investigate it. She wanted to focus on making her salt water taffy and running her business.

  She entered the shop, ready to check on her employees and start a new batch of taffy. Making candy often helped her relax. She was pretty certain that even if she made an overabundance of the taffy, she could sell it or donate it.

  Lydia smiled at the customers in the shop and walked up to the register to talk to Kelsey.

  “How has it been this morning?” she asked.

  “Well, the customers who came inside have all been pleasant, and the banana split taffy has been selling well,” Kelsey said neutrally.

  Lydia sensed a “but” was coming. When she didn’t hear it, she asked about their newest addition to the shop. “How has Mona been fitting in?”

  “Oh, she’s been great,” Kelsey assured her.

  Jeff wandered up to the counter to join them. “Did you tell her?”

  “That Mona has been a great addition?” Kelsey asked a little too boisterously. “Yes. I just told her.”

  “All right. What’s going on?” Lydia asked, addressing her employees firmly. She knew something was bothering them, but they seemed hesitant to tell her. It might not be related to Mona, but there was something wrong.

  Kelsey frowned and looked down.

  “Like a band-aid,” Jeff said. “It’s better if we just rip it off and tell her. After all, we don’t want her to be caught by surprise when…”

  The shop door opened, and Jeff and Kelsey both jumped. However, when they all saw that it was a regular customer who bought taffy for the kids she babysat, the workers relaxed.

  “Who are we afraid of?” Lydia asked.

  “The ice cream lady,” Jeff blurted out. “She’s been coming around every hour looking for you.”

  “We told her that you weren’t in,” Kelsey said. “But she keeps coming back, and she won’t tell us exactly what she wants to talk to you about.”

  “But we figured it wasn’t good news,” said Jeff.

  “I think you’re right,” Lydia said. “If she keeps leaving her ice cream shop to come back here, then it must be serious.”

  “She looked seriously angry,” said Jeff.

  “After how she was yesterday, we tried to get her to calmly leave,” Kelsey said. “But she does keep coming back and asking for you.”

  Lydia sighed. “I am glad that you told me, but I think I’m going to jump every time the door opens now.”

  Jeff tried to put on a chipper voice as he said, “Well, you won’t have to be jumpy for long. It looks like Amber is charging this way.”

  Lydia turned and saw that Jeff was right. Amber Allen was headed for their door, and she looked like she was on the warpath. Lydia didn’t want her employees to be forced in the middle of this again and walked over to meet her.

  “Hello, Amber,” Lydia said as the door opened. “I heard that you wanted to talk to me.”

  “So, you finally stopped hiding?” Amber said.

  “I wasn’t hiding. I was dealing with something outside of the business.”

  “If I were you, I would be afraid of showing my face around here. And it’s not just because of your awful hairdos. People are going to catch on to who you really are.”

  “Do you want to go into my office and talk?” Lydia suggested. She didn’t really want to be alone with an angry Amber, but she didn’t want to frighten her customers.

  “No,” Amber said. “I want everyone to know what you did.”

  Lydia balled her hands into fists but tried to remain calm as she spoke. “I’m sorry that you’ve been upset with Kara’s work, but this really isn’t my fault. You hired her because you were trying to spite me, and you were the one who hired and supervised her. I am sorry that you lost ice cream and had to clean it all, but I’m really not responsible.”

  “You think this is about ice cream?” Amber demanded.

  “Well, I did,” Lydia said. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about the lengths you would go to destroy my business. How low you would stoop.”

  “I didn’t touch your ice cream machines,” Lydia protested.

  “I’m not talking about ice cold ice cream, I’m talking about cold-blooded murder!” said Amber, not bothering to keep her voice quiet.

  Lydia took a step back. She was confused and disturbed by this outburst. “Murder?”

  “Don’t pretend that you don’t know. You killed someone outside of my shop so it would be shut down.”

  “Amber, I didn’t kill anyone. And I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “A likely story,” Amber scoffed. “Your brother is a detective, and you’ve been involved in cases before. There’s no way that you wouldn’t know about this.”

  Lydia found another reason to be annoyed that Leo hadn’t wanted to share any details with her. Now, Amber thought that this was proof of her involvement. She thought that Lydia’s denial was part of an act.

  “I did know that a man named Norman Nunn was killed yesterday, but I had no idea it was near your shop. My brother didn’t want me getting involved with his case.”

  “But you wouldn’t even need to find out the details from him,” Amber said. “Because you were the one who did this. After I closed my shop early, because of the other mess you caused, you went looking for a victim so my shop would be turned into a crime scene. You left his body right outside my shop. You’re a murderer. And don’t think I’m going to keep my mouth shut about this.”

  “I didn’t even know the man,” Lydia said.

  “Which makes it even worse. You killed someone only to hurt me. But I’m not going to let this break me. I’m going to let everyone know what you’re up to. And Brie will spread the word too. You won’t be able to get away with this.”

  Frustration coursed through Lydia. It appeared as if nothing she said could subdue the other woman. She seemed bent on accusing Lydia no matter the facts.

  “I think you should leave,” Lydia said, knowing nothing else would be accomplished by their furthered conversation.

  “I can’t wait until I see you rotting behind bars,” Amber said. “And I’m sure once I tell everyone in town, they’ll feel the same. I’ve lived here my entire life. I didn’t run away and then come crawling back.”

  Lydia walked over to the door and held it open. Amber showed as much hatred as she could muster as she stormed out of the shop.

  “Well, I’m glad Mona wasn’t here,” Lydia said, trying to joke to break the tension with her employees. “Or she wouldn’t believe me that it can be calm here.”

  6

  No Comment

  Lydia tried to focus on the day-to-day business of the shop, but it was difficult to focus after Amber’s visit. This accusation had been even worse than the last one. Amber seemed to think that Lydia was so dead set against her that she would resort to sabotage and murder. It wasn’t flattering to think that a fellow shop owner on the boardwalk could believe that of her.

  Kelsey and Jeff seemed a little more at ease now that it looked like Amber wasn’t going to barge in. However, they were also being protective of their boss. They kept questioning whether she was doing all right. If Lydia had been able to push her thoughts of Amber’s accusations and how she planned to tell the town out of her mind, her employees reminded her when they constantly checked up on her.

  They were also asking her questions about the murder, and again Lydia had to explain that she knew nothing about it. All she kn
ew was the victim’s name, that he had been bludgeoned, and that Amber considered Lydia to be the prime suspect in the case.

  At least, Leo didn’t seem to be taking that accusation seriously. It might be because he believed in his sister and knew that she would never be involved in a murder, or he might have been the one providing her alibi. She didn’t know what time the murder occurred, but it was possible that Leo had been over at her house at the time.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Kelsey asked.

  “Yes,” Lydia said patiently because she knew that the question was being repeated because her employee cared about her.

  “I’d be super bummed if anyone accused me of murdering someone,” Jeff said. “Especially at work and in front of people.”

  “I think I need to get some air,” Lydia said, not wanting to revisit the embarrassing scene that had occurred before. “I’m going to take a walk.”

  “Whatever you need,” Kelsey said. “We can take care of the shop.”

  Lydia thanked them and hurried out onto the boardwalk. It was a beautiful and sunny day that seemed at odds with the horror that she was facing. Someone had been killed nearby, and Amber was starting rumors that she was behind it. She was afraid that Brie would start printing articles that would be technically true when it said that people in town were considering Lydia a suspect.

  Her brother seemed unwilling to tell her anything about the case, so she couldn’t be sure how it was progressing. She didn’t know if the real killer would be caught right away and things would go back to normal or if she would have to face people looking at her like a killer forever.

  To top it all off, her best friend was sick, and she couldn’t spend the night commiserating with her over taffy and wine. She barely wanted to tell Trina what had happened because she didn’t want to upset her when she was stuck at home sneezing.

  “Lydia!”

  She heard her name and turned ready to face whatever new hardship was coming her way. However, when she saw who was calling her, her frown quickly turned into a smile. Daniel was waving and walking toward her.

  Her friendship with the quiet lifeguard had grown after he saved her life, and when they did some searching for clues together. Because he was a widower and Lydia was dealing with her own trust issues after how things ended with her fiancé, they were taking things slowly. They said that they were just friends, but they had gone to see a symphony together, and they had been spending time with one another, though it was often on the boardwalk.

  “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you,” Lydia said. “It’s been a hard day, and it’s barely half over.”

  “I heard that someone was killed near Cones and Cola,” he said. “Many of the tourists on the beach were concerned about the area being designated as a crime scene.”

  “Which is why Amber is accusing me of the murder,” Lydia recapped. “She thinks that I did it to hurt her shop. And I suppose she is losing business by having to be closed on a busy summer day, and it might hurt Cones and Cola’s reputation if it is thought of as a crime scene.”

  “But why would she blame you?” Daniel asked, looking confused.

  Lydia told him that she was about to go on a walk and asked if he would like to join her. He agreed, and they began walking in the opposite direction of the ice cream shop as Lydia explained what had happened.

  “I can understand her being upset,” Daniel said. “But it doesn’t make any sense to blame you.”

  “I know. And yet it seems like my business is going to be just as affected as hers is. Her place is the crime scene, but she wants my taffy shop to be known as where the killer is hiding out.”

  Daniel frowned. “She was always very nice to me.”

  Lydia knew that this was because Daniel was extremely handsome, and Amber had been one of the women hoping to snag him. However, instead of voicing this, she just shrugged.

  “You don’t think there’s any chance that Amber could be behind the murder?” Daniel asked. “Maybe she’s blaming you as some sort of smokescreen.”

  “I don’t know. If she did have a problem with Norman Nunn and wanted to get rid of him, then it could just be a perk to try and blame me. However, since he was found right by her business, Leo and Detective Grey must have talked to her. If they found a connection between her and the victim, then I think she would be stuck answering questions at the police station today instead of harassing me at my shop.”

  “Maybe there was no connection,” Daniel suggested. “Maybe she killed a random person to try and frame you.”

  “I don’t think there’s been any evidence to link me to the crime so it would be a sloppy frame,” Lydia said. “And I don’t think it makes sense for Amber to kill someone just to hurt my business. It’s basically the same thing that she is claiming I did. And I don’t think that is a good motive.”

  “So, who do you think could be a suspect? What is your next step in the investigation?”

  “I’m not involved in this investigation,” Lydia said.

  “Oh,” Daniel said. “I guess I just assumed that you were helping with all murder cases now.”

  “I have to admit that the fact that it happened on the boardwalk and how Amber is trying to smear my name does make me tempted to get involved. But I promised Leo that I wouldn’t. I’d need a really good reason to break that promise when we’re finally starting to get along again.”

  “Fair enough.”

  They continued walking, and Lydia thought about how at ease she was beginning to feel with Daniel. He hadn’t questioned her decision, but had been supportive and hadn’t even considered the possibility that Amber’s rumor had any merit.

  However, her peaceful feeling was short-lived. She saw Brie on the boardwalk and groaned. She considered leaping over the railing and hiding in the dunes, but thought there was a good chance that Brie had already seen her and then she would be sandy for no reason.

  “Here comes bad news,” Lydia muttered.

  Brie walked directly up to them. “Good afternoon, Lydia. I need to talk to you.”

  “I’m afraid I have no comment for the newspaper,” Lydia responded.

  “Well, I have a comment,” Daniel said. “I would like to dispel any rumors that Lydia could be a murderer. That goes against everything in her character. She’s an upstanding person, and I don’t want to see her maligned in your paper.”

  Brie held up a hand. “I’m not here on behalf of the paper.”

  “If you’re here on behalf of Amber, please tell her that I wasn’t involved in what happened outside her shop.”

  “I know that,” Brie said. “I know that you’re not the killer.”

  “Is this some sort of trick?” asked Daniel.

  Brie shook her head. “The truth is that I knew the victim. And I have concerns about his murder. But I’m not sure who I can trust. Lydia, I think I need your help.”

  Lydia couldn’t have been more surprised by this request coming from Brie then if a seagull had landed and asked her aloud.

  7

  Request for Information

  “Pardon?” Lydia said. “I don’t believe I heard you right. You want my help?”

  “Don’t make me beg,” Brie said. “You’re still my best friend’s rival, and I don’t particularly like you. But I know that you didn’t kill Norman Nunn. And I think I need your help to figure out who did.”

  Lydia still felt dumbfounded. “But why me?”

  “Because I know how you solved cases in the past. And I don’t know if I can trust the police.”

  “Why don’t you start at the beginning?” Daniel suggested.

  “I really just wanted to talk to Lydia,” Brie said, giving him a hard stare.

  Daniel looked at Lydia instead of responding.

  “I guess it would be all right,” she said. She would be lying if she said that she wasn’t intrigued.

  He placed a hand on her arm as he said, “I’ll catch up with you later to make sure you’re okay. And
I’ll have my phone on me if you have any troubles.”

  She thanked him, and Daniel left. Brie waited until he was gone and then said, “I knew Norman Nunn.”

  “I didn’t,” said Lydia. “What can you tell me about him?”

  Brie let out an aggravated sigh that Lydia knew wasn’t directed towards her. She began walking, and Lydia followed. It seemed her walk to clear her head was continuing but in a strange new direction.