Banana Split and Bodies

by Allyssa Mirry

  “The truth is I thought he was rather annoying,” Brie admitted. “He worked at the local library as a librarian, and I ran into him before with my reporting and research. I think he developed a crush on me because he was always trying to get my attention. He started stopping by Cones and Cola because he knew I visited Amber there. I told him that I wasn’t interested in him romantically, and Amber was rude to him, but he kept coming by to say hello. Then, about a week ago, he said more than hello.”

  “Was he harassing you and Amber?” Lydia asked, wondering if Amber might really have a motive for his murder. Maybe Brie wanted to see if there was anything she could do to protect her friend.

  “No. And I don’t think Amber ever paid any real attention to him. She thought of him like a fly buzzing around,” Brie admitted. “And I wasn’t much better. But he came into the ice cream shop recently, and he told me that he had a big news story for me. One that could make my career.”

  “And you think this story could be the reason why he was murdered?” asked Lydia.

  “Maybe,” Brie said, frowning. “I didn’t take what he said seriously at the time, but now the timing looks suspicious to me. What if he did find something out and he was killed for his effort?”

  “Do have any idea what the story was about?”

  “Not really. He said that it involved a cover-up and high-ranking people in town. That was why I didn’t put much stock in what he said before. I thought he was just trying to impress me. But if he was right, the information could have gotten him killed.”

  “I can understand why you were skeptical,” Lydia said. “It’s hard to believe that there was a big cover-up in our little beach town.”

  “I wanted to tell the police, but I decided it was a bad idea,” Brie continued. “Since I didn’t know who the higher-ups Norman was referring to were, I didn’t want to inadvertently tip them off. It might even involve someone at the police station.”

  “It couldn’t involve Leo, though. He’s a very honest man.”

  “But if the detectives know, then the people who killed Norman might find out,” said Brie. “I can’t take that chance. I’ll need to figure out who did this on my own. I owe it to him after I didn’t believe him.”

  “Why do you want my help? Why trust me?” Lydia asked, suddenly suspicious.

  “Because you’re a nobody.”

  “Thanks?” Lydia said in response to the insult.

  “I mean that I know you’re not one of the higher-ups that Norman referred to in town. You’re new and just own a candy store. You couldn’t have been involved. And I need to find out who killed him if there’s a chance there could be a cover-up. I owe it to him after not believing that he was on to something. But I’m not usually an investigative journalist. I normally write up reviews of the bands at Crabby Craig’s or local interest stories. My crime beat is just what the police and some witnesses near the scene tell me. I don’t know how to actually catch a killer. But you’ve done it before.”

  “I wasn’t planning on getting involved in this,” Lydia said.

  “Fine,” Brie said, changing direction and walking the other way. “If you don’t want to help me, I’m not going to plead. And I don’t want to waste any more time. I know there’s something big going on in town and someone is willing to kill to keep it a secret. I’m going to figure out what it is with or without you.”

  Lydia jogged to catch up with her. “If someone is willing to kill to keep this quiet, I can’t let you do this on your own. I’ll help you.”

  Brie nodded. “Thank you.”

  “And I’ll try not to tell Leo in case there’s a leak at the police station that could get back to the killer, but I’m not going to lie to him. I trust him.”

  “If those are your conditions, I guess I have to agree to them. But my condition is that we start right away.”

  “I have to make sure that my employees will be all right on their own for a longer period of time than originally planned, but then I can go,” Lydia agreed. “And I think I’ll grab some banana split taffy for the trip. I need a sweet pick-me-up.”

  “If you want,” Brie said. “But I was planning on visiting the morgue first. I have a contact there who can give us some information on the victim.”

  “Right,” Lydia said, remembering firsthand how this contact had affected the news in the past. “This is where you get your information if the police tell you no comment.”

  “You’ll have to promise me that you won’t reveal this source to your brother though.”

  “What if I can’t?” Lydia asked.

  8

  The Medical Examiner’s Office

  “This is ridiculous,” Lydia said.

  “If you can’t agree to keep a source secret, then this is the way it has to be,” Brie retorted.

  Lydia was feeling silly. She was seated in the waiting room outside the medical examiner’s office and was wearing a blindfold. Brie had insisted that she wear it if Lydia wouldn’t promise not to tell Leo who it was that talked to the press at the medical examiner’s office.

  Lydia didn’t want to betray her brother, and she felt like he really should know if she came across the information, but the longer she sat there with the blindfold on, the more she began to reconsider this stance.

  “He’s here,” Brie said as Lydia heard footsteps approach.

  “What’s going on?” a male voice asked. “What sort of news story is this? Do people want to be blindfolded near dead bodies? Is this some sort of weird trend I should be aware of?”

  “No,” Lydia said quickly. “And I recognize that voice. He is the medical examiner.”

  She had heard him before when he interacted with Leo in her presence and recently at a crime scene. She knew the voice belonged to the medical examiner, Murray McGee.

  Brie grumbled, “I guess you can take off the blindfold.”

  Lydia complied and saw the medical examiner’s confused look firsthand.

  “What’s going on?” he asked. “Is that Detective Doherty’s sister?”

  “This town is too small sometimes,” Brie muttered. Then she smiled and said, “Lydia is helping me with a story, but I wanted to protect you as my source.”

  “I appreciate that,” he said. “And what can I help you with?”

  “I need to know more about the dead body, Murray.”

  “I figured that might be it,” he said with a knowing nod.

  “Because you tell Brie things about cases for the paper regularly?” asked Lydia.

  “I wouldn’t say regularly,” said Murray. “But I have given her some inside scoops upon occasion.”

  Lydia wondered if this was another man who seemed to have been charmed by Brie and wanted to impress her with a great story. Was he revealing secrets about ongoing investigations to flirt with her?

  “I know it was Norman Nunn who was killed,” Brie said. “My friend found the body and she said that it was bloody.”

  “It was,” Murray agreed. “But if your friend was at the crime scene, then it already sounds like you have a story. You already have enough facts to tell the people a decent amount about the death.”

  “But don’t you think that people in town need to know everything that I can tell them about how their beloved librarian met his demise?” asked Brie. “Norman Nunn was a purveyor of information to the good townspeople. There’s a good deal of interest in how he died. The people here adored him.”

  Murray looked saddened. He raised his fist to his chin as he thought. “People do love their librarians.”

  Then, Lydia realized how Brie convinced Murray to talk to her. It wasn’t because he wanted to date her. He wanted to make sure that the town had the proper news.

  “I can find out more about his life,” Brie said. “But I need to know more about his death.”

  “He was bludgeoned?” Lydia suggested.

  “That’s right,” Murray said. “The blunt force killed him. He was hit repeatedly with an object.”

&n
bsp; “Repeatedly?” said Lydia. “That makes it sound like this murder was personal. Maybe this was a crime of passion.”

  “Or the killer was thorough,” Brie said. “He wanted to make certain that Norman Nunn was dead.”

  “Do you have any idea what the object that killed him was?” asked Lydia.

  “It was a long cylindrical object, but it did have some weight to it. My guess is that it was a cane.”

  “Something that wouldn’t be suspicious to see someone with on the boardwalk,” Lydia said.

  “What time was he killed?” asked Brie.

  “Sometime between eight and ten,” Murray answered.

  “Amber closed the shop around six that day because of all her troubles with Kara, but she’s normally open until ten on summer nights.”

  “Did he have anything on him?” asked Lydia.

  “I think just his wallet. That’s all I can tell you now,” Murray said. “But I hope that’s enough to describe in the paper and will allow you to honor his memory.”

  “Thank you,” Brie said. “It will be a great article.”

  She and Lydia left, and Brie drove them back to the boardwalk. They started walking toward the taffy shop, discussing what they had learned.

  “Well,” Lydia said. “We know a little more now than we did before.”

  “But what Murray said is consistent with someone killing Norman to keep him quiet. They must have followed him to the ice cream shop, and when they saw that no one was around, they hit him.”

  “And the murder weapon is most likely a cane,” Lydia said. “I wonder if any of the people that the librarian was looking into used a cane or walking stick.”

  “I wish I knew what he was looking into,” Brie said. “I should have listened to him more.”

  “You don’t have any idea what it was? He didn’t give any hints?”

  Brie threw her hands up. “He was being somewhat secretive. He wanted to make a grand reveal when he finished all his research. And I didn’t take him seriously at the time. The only thing I remember was him mentioning that Lyndon Malcolm Wallace would be impressed.”

  “Who’s that? Is he someone involved in his investigation?”

  “I don’t think so. He’s not anyone I know of in town, and I know almost everyone. All the important people anyway. I looked him up, but the only Lyndon Malcolm Wallace I found was an author who died a hundred years ago.”

  “So, it’s unlikely that he was involved in the cover-up or murder,” Lydia said.

  Brie stomped the ground. “I should have paid more attention to him.”

  “If he never gave you a believable story before, then you can’t blame yourself for not believing it now. And if he was killed because of whatever cover-up he was investigating, then you could have been in danger too,” Lydia said. “We’ll make sure he receives justice by catching his killer.”

  “You know,” Brie said thoughtfully. “You’re not as annoying as Amber had me think.”

  “Thanks,” Lydia said.

  “Let’s meet again tomorrow to work on this case,” said Brie. “I’ll see if I can remember anything else that Norman told me.”

  “I’ll do what I can to figure out what he was working on too.”

  “See you tomorrow,” Brie said.

  Brie walked the opposite way as Lydia headed into Doherty’s Taffy and Trinkets. If Lydia had been told yesterday that she would be investigating a case with the best friend of her rival, she wouldn’t have believed it. In fact, if you had told her that she would have been civil to Brie for any reason other than not to appear unfavorably in the newspaper, she wouldn’t have believed it.

  However, now it seemed like she had a partner-in-solving-crime and they definitely had their work cut out for them. They had to uncover what the librarian had been working on and then determine how it related to his death. Basically, they had two cases that they needed to solve, and it seemed like they didn’t have much time to figure it all out. If this was because of a cover-up and the killer had already struck once to keep the secrets hidden, he might strike again.

  9

  Some Difficult Conversations

  “I can’t believe it,” Trina said. She was on her couch under a blanket with the container of soup that Lydia had just brought her in her hand.

  “I know minestrone isn’t the usual soup for sickness, but the last time I brought someone chicken noodle soup it seemed unlucky,” said Lydia. “And I made sure that it still tastes good with a banana split salt water taffy dessert.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” Trina said. She put the soup down on the table and tried to push it away to prove a point. However, in her tired and weakened state, it looked a bit pathetic.

  “Do you want a spoon?” asked Lydia. She was standing in the doorway to the room, trying to balance helping her friend with not getting a close encounter with the germs.

  “No. I want to make sure that I heard you correctly: you’re investigating a case with Brie Rankin? What if this is some sort of trap so she and Amber can make you look guilty and she can write about it? Think of the quotes you could be giving her.”

  “I don’t think Brie has any ulterior motives. She just wants to get to the bottom of this and thought that teaming up was the best way to do it,” Lydia said. “I trust her.”

  Trina pulled her blanket closer up to her chin and pouted. “Do I need to be jealous?”

  “Jealous?”

  “I know that you’ve done some sleuthing with Daniel and that your employees have volunteered to help find clues, but I thought investigating was mostly something that we did together. I thought it was something where you needed your best friend as your backup.” Trina punctuated her speech with a sneeze. “You’re not replacing me, are you?”

  “Of course not! I’m helping Brie because she needs me on this case, but I’d still rather have you at my side. I could never replace you. You’re my best friend. And to prove it, I brought you soup and taffy.”

  “Maybe you should make me some apple taffy,” Trina joked weakly. “I could have a piece every day to keep the doctor away.”

  “Actually, I think you really should see a doctor. I want you feeling better,” said Lydia, “because I also really want to give you a hug to show you that you’re my best friend, but I don’t want to get sick.”

  “I wouldn’t wish this cold on my worst enemy,” Trina said in between sneezes. “And that might just be Amber or Brie. Be careful with them.”

  “I will,” Lydia promised.

  “And don’t replace me,” Trina reiterated.

  Lydia reassured her again that she had no intention of replacing her. She made sure that Trina was settled and then headed home. She wanted to jump into a hot shower to wash off the germs she had been in proximity to, and then she wanted to call Daniel. She had briefly told him that she was going to check on something with Brie to let him know that she was fine, but she wanted to let him know more of the details.

  However, when she reached her house, she saw that her plans would be delayed. Leo was on the porch, leaning against a pillar and staring at her as she approached. She waved as she walked up.

  “Hi, there,” Lydia said. “What brings you here?”

  “Are you investigating Norman Nunn’s death?” he asked accusingly.

  “You just get straight to the point, don’t you?” she said with a smile that he didn’t return. “What makes you ask that?”

  “Well, I heard from the medical examiner that you visited and were asking about the body.”

  Lydia sighed. “Murray really can’t keep any secrets, can he?”

  “You don’t deny it, do you?”

  “No,” Lydia said, moving closer to the porch. “I did go to see him, but I was there with Brie Rankin.”

  “And you are investigating?” he said with a roll of his eyes.

  “I’m helping Brie with a story,” Lydia said neutrally. “I could really use some good press, and I thought it would behoove me to be in her good
graces.”

  He stared at her as if he didn’t quite believe what she was saying. Lydia didn’t want him to stay in “detective mode” and continue with his interrogation. She tried to change the subject.

  “I should really check on Sunny. I was gone most of the day.”

  Though Lydia was pretty sure that her beach bum dog was asleep somewhere in the house, she always was happy to see the pup, and it provided a nice excuse. Leo also loved the dog, and he wouldn’t push back against this request.