by Tegan Maher
“Don’t borrow trouble,” Scout said, placing his hand over hers. “He may have been hotheaded when he was younger, but that was years ago. Things will work out. You’ll see.”
“I sure hope so,” she said. “But you know as well as I do, folks have a long memory, and the fact that his last big blowout was with Scott won’t exactly work in his favor.” My ears perked at that, but before I could ask for details, a customer a couple of tables away asked if he could get a refill and she apologized and stood to go.
“Do you want me to stick around?” I asked, worried about her.
She waved me off. “Absolutely not. There’s nothing we can do, anyway. You two go have fun and I’ll see you tonight.”
“So what was that about Jeremy and Scott?” I asked.
He blew out a breath as he wadded up his napkin and piled his silverware on his empty plate. “Jeremy has a history of being a hothead. When he was younger, it was almost a guarantee that if he showed up at the Dead End, there was gonna be a fight. And the last one he had before he pulled himself together was a knock-down, drag-out with Scott over a woman and money. They buried the hatchet on that a long time ago, though.”
They must have, considering Jeremy had been working at the feed store.
We paid the bill and left, and I felt a little better when I saw Dee smiling and chatting with a table. She was an optimist and I hoped that carried her through.
Scout insisted on taking me to Red Lodge, a little town thirty miles away, so I could experience a drive-in movie. When I’d confessed over dinner that I’d never been to one, he’d insisted I was missing out on a critical piece of the American experience and called them on the spot to see what was showing. When it was over, I had to agree it was an experience I’d never forget. It was like we’d stepped back in time and I felt like I should have been wearing a poodle skirt. I was looking forward to doing it again.
It was nearly one in the morning when we pulled up in front of my tiny cabin. “I had a really nice time,” I said as he turned off the engine.
“Me, too.” He climbed out of the truck and walked around to my side, opening the door so I could step out.
The curtains fluttered ever so slightly and figured Dee was up and waiting for me. Scout walked me to my door.
We stood there, awkwardly, on the stoop. our eyes never meeting. Me bending and straightening my knees, and him scratching his jaw before looping his fingers in his belt loops. Finally, unable to take it anymore, I stood up on my tiptoes and planted a quick peck on Scout’s cheek.
“I had a really nice time.”
Scout chuckled. “So you said.”
I felt my cheeks heating up as I nodded. “Right.” I glanced at the door. “Well, I better get inside.”
Scout nodded. “Yeah. It looks like Dee is waiting up for you.” He gave me a small smile as he walked away.
“Good night, and thanks for the movie,” I said as I opened the door and stepped inside. I had barely shut the door when Dee squealed behind me.
“So how did it go?” She clapped her hands together.
“Great until the intensely awkward moment you probably just witnessed. But forget about me—you’re much more chipper than you were the last time I saw you. What gives?” I toed off my shoes and headed to the kitchen.
“What gives is that this evening I heard all the latest gossip from Nikki, that other part-time waitress I hired for the café. Remember, I told you she used to work with Annie and me when Fiona ran the place. At least she did before Fiona fired everyone except me.” Dee shook her head. “She stopped in for a quick bite when she got off from Buns.” Dee’s eyes sparkled. “With her around, I now have the inside track to everything going on in this little town.”
I bit back a laugh as I poured us both a glass of tea. “Buns?”
Dee gave me a wry smile. “Yeah. Hair Today, Bun Tomorrow. It’s the local hair salon, but everybody just calls it Buns.”
My lips twitched as I fought back the desire to really laugh. “Of course they do. So she’s a stylist?”
“Yeah,” Dee said, pulling her feet underneath her as we took seats on opposite ends of the couch. “She knows everything going on in this town.”
I rolled my eyes. “I doubt she knows more than Linda.”
Dee snorted. “Who do you think does Linda’s hair?”
“Ah,” I said, taking a sip of my tea before setting it on the stand table. “She does have the dirt, then. So does either of them know who killed Frank and deposited him so generously on our property?”
“According to Nikki, who heard it from Linda, who heard it from the sheriff, the number one suspect right now is Scott, the victim’s son, which is why I’m so chipper, as you say. I guess he worked for his dad and the man was awful to him. It also doesn’t look good that Scott is Frank’s sole beneficiary and, to make matters worse, he took out a life insurance policy on his daddy three months before he conveniently turned up dead.”
Maisey faded in as she was speaking and started to say something. Her gaze drifted to the stand table and she glowered at me. “Were you raised by wolves? That stand table is hand-carved oak and over a hundred years old. Put a coaster under that glass before it leaves a ring!”
Bear raised one sleepy eyelid and gave a soft woof at the sharp tone. He still wasn’t quite sure what to make of a see-through human who wouldn’t pet him.
For my part, I cringed and turned to do as she demanded. There wasn’t much that got to her but a glass on bare furniture was one of them.
“Sorry,” I muttered as I wiped off the moisture and plunked the little square of granite down before setting the glass on top of it. Then I realized the absurdity of apologizing to a woman who’d been dead for more than a century for something I did in my own house to my own property, though to be fair, the table had been hers first. The politics of living with a ghost were mind-boggling sometimes.
I turned back to Dee and frowned. “A life insurance policy, huh? That certainly doesn’t make him look good.”
“I know,” she said, eyeballing Maisey before she slid another coaster toward her before setting her glass down. “Scott said he did it because his dad had rage issues and a bad heart, and he ate like crap. Scott figured it was only a matter of time before he died from one or the other.”
She shrugged. “But honestly, it could have been anyone that worked for or did business with Frank. He was horrible to his employees, and his prices were outrageously high but people either had to suck it up and buy from him or go to Red Lodge. Rumor had it he padded his monthly accounts too, so people were charged even more than they should have been. A couple people called him on it, but he claimed it was a mistake—that somebody else’s stuff had been put on their tabs by accident.”
I bit my lip and nodded as I thought about all of that. She wasn’t really telling me anything Scout hadn’t mentioned, but it had more teeth when it came from more than one person.
Maisey tsked. “A man who acted like that back in my day wouldn’t have lasted long before somebody plugged him. The only difference is the law wasn’t nearly so strict then. If he cheated somebody and was caught fair and square, I doubt it would have been considered a crime.”
I wasn’t an advocate for just up and shooting somebody, but I had to wonder if crime would be such an issue if we still lived by the rules she had.
“Also,” Dee continued, “according to Scott, there seems to be a lot of money missing. He’s insisting that whoever was embezzling from his father is probably the person that did it. He figures his Dad found out money was missing and confronted the culprit.” Dee frowned and shook her head. “But I don’t see how anyone could embezzle from Frank. He was the only one who ever handled the books and the money. At least, that’s what Jeremy says.”
“Jeremy knew Frank?” I asked.
Dee nodded. “That’s where the questioning comes in. Jeremy worked for Frank part-time.”
That explained it, then. “So Jeremy thinks it was j
ust routine questioning?”
“Course it wasn’t routine questioning,” Maisey said. “He worked there. That means he had opportunities to take the money and it also would have been much easier for him to cart a dead body out of there. Nobody would question seeing his vehicle there, no matter the time of day or night. Plus if he treated his employees like crap like Dee says, he had motive, too.”
Dee stood up and stretched. “That’s all true enough. But I can’t process it all right now. I’ve been going since seven this morning and I’m runnin’ on empty. I gotta get some sleep.”
I nodded as I stood and picked up our empty glasses. “I hear ya. It’s been a long day for me too. Get some rest.”
She turned back to me before she shut the door to her bedroom. “I’ll try to be quiet in the morning, but I have to bake some cookies for the ladies auxiliary meeting that’s being held tomorrow tonight. I made some cupcakes at the café yesterday for a busy mom to take to school for her son’s birthday, but I just ended up being in Jeremy’s way, and they came out lopsided. That kitchen isn’t big enough for a cook and a baker to work in together and the oven is crap.”
I stood up from my stooped over position. “I doubt I’ll hear you, but thanks. ”
Dee smiled. “I’ll make an extra dozen and leave them for you, just in case.”
Far be it for me to turn down free cookies.
Chapter Nine
I AWOKE BRIGHT AND early to find Bear sprawled out across the couch. Apparently, he’d gotten up with Dee and just hadn’t made it back to the bedroom. Dee’d left a carafe of coffee on the counter in the kitchen. I was still tired and debated going back to bed, but I felt guilty doing that after keeping her up so late when she had a baking job to do. So I poured myself a cup of coffee, trudged back to my bedroom, and pulled out a set of old gray sweats. The least I could do for her was go up to the lodge and see if she needed any help or, at the very least, keep her company.
I took a quick shower and pulled on my sweats, tucking my hair under a baseball cap. I downed the remainder of my first cup of coffee as I was walking back to the kitchen, the grabbed my to-go mug and filled it up before walking to the front door. “Come on, Bear,” I said, and held the door open.
He yawned before climbing down off the couch and stretching, then shook out his fur before walking past me and outside. I smiled—it was a dog’s life for sure.
My SUV was gone, so I figured Dee probably needed more supplies for her baking gig or just had a ton of supplies already in there from the day before and couldn’t carry them all. I continued my slow walk to the lodge, breathing in the cool morning air and enjoying the bird song. I was just climbing the steps to the veranda door when my SUV came down the drive.
I paused and waited for Dee to park and get out. Her mouth was set in a grim line as she shut the door and walked toward me.
“You all right?” I asked.
Dee shook her head. “I thought I was going to have to cancel the cookie order for the ladies auxiliary so I could work the diner. The sheriff just made Jeremy his number one suspect,” she growled as she walked past me and into the lodge.
“What? Why?” I followed along in her wake as she stormed into the kitchen and began pulling pots and pans down and setting them on the island with a little too much force.
Dee paused and leaned against the counter. “Because someone saw Jeremy get into a fight with Frank the day before he was killed. Jeremy doesn’t deny it. He said that Frank was double charging a guy who was really strapped for cash and barely able to keep his ranch running.” She ran her hands through her hair. “I guess the argument got pretty heated and Jeremy punched Frank.”
I put my hand to my mouth. “Yeah, but heated enough to kill him?”
Dee shook her head as she began pulling out wooden spoons, flour, eggs, butter, milk. “He didn’t hurt Frank at all. Not really. But the fact remains that someone saw Jeremy assault him.”
“So they were just fighting there in the store?”
“No. They were in the back. I guess the customer came in and couldn’t find anybody up front, so he walked to the back and peaked through the door. That’s where he witnessed the fight. The Jeremy from when we were younger, the boy, yeah, he definitely would have done something like this. But not Jeremy the man. I wouldn’t have believed any of it except for the fact that Jeremy admits to it all and the witness, according to the Sheriff, was pretty unhappy about being cornered by the Sheriff and asked about the incident.”
“How did the sheriff even know to question this witness?”
Dee shrugged. “Someone saw Jeremy leaving the store in a hurry and noticed who was in there at the time. I guess they shared all that with the sheriff and he took it from there.”
“Lots of people have fights,” I said, scrunching my brow. “It’s all pretty circumstantial, so I don’t think this will amount to anything. The sheriff doesn’t have any hard evidence that Jeremy did anything other than scuffle with him, and surely they won’t bring him in on assault charges since the guy he hit’s dead. I wouldn’t worry about it too much until you have more reason too.”
Dee kind of bobbed her head. “You’re probably right. But then again, sometimes cops seem more interested in solving a case and getting it off the books than actually making sure he got the right person.”
“I don’t think Gabe will be that way,” I said, hoping I was right.
Scout’s truck rolled up the driveway and he stuck his arm out the window and waved.
“I found a bunch of pallets at the hardware store, so if you wanna get some work done on those floors, I’m ready to help.”
I smiled, despite the gravity of the conversation I’d been having. The floors were haunting me because a couple of the bad spots were in the guest bedrooms. If I was gonna do the whole B&B thing, I wanted to do it right. I didn’t want to have to close rooms down or have construction going on when I had guests. Now it looked like that was one more worry I could cross off the list.
“You gonna be okay?” I asked as she pulled a tray of cookies out of the oven.
“Yeah,” she replied, brushing a strand of hair off her forehead. “There’s not much I can do other than wait. I took today off to get these done, so other than stopping in to make sure they’re all set, I don’t have to go to the cafe.” She sighed. “Not that I’m not enjoying being a business owner, but I’m glad to get away from the place for a day.”
“From the looks of things last night, you’ll be able to hire another couple cooks and waitresses in no time. Then you won’t have to put so many hours in.”
She nodded as she scooped cookie dough onto a cool sheet. “I sure hope so. I feel like I haven’t had a solid night’s sleep in a week. It’s wearing me thin.”
“I’m gonna go learn how to turn pallets into wood floors if you don’t need me then,” I said, plucking a cookie off a cooling rack. She swatted at my hand with her spoon but smiled. “Let me know how they are. I’m cookied out.”
I couldn’t imagine such a thing as I bit into one of the crispiest, most delicious snickerdoodles I’d ever eaten. “Gold,” I muttered with my mouth full. “You’re gonna be rich before you know it.”
She smiled and blushed. “Go on. Get your floors done.”
After a long day of baking for Dee, and an even longer day with me helping Scout tear apart pallets then sand, and cut them to size, Bear, Dee and I had sprawled out in the lodge’s main room. Dee and I were on the couch, Bear was on the floor in front of the fireplace.
Someone knocked at the front door. Dee and I shared a quizzical look as I glanced at my watch. Seven o’clock. It felt way later than that. I forced myself to my feet and trudged to the door, then peaked through the curtain to see a blonde woman waving. I frowned as I opened the door.
The woman stuck out her hand. “Hi. I’m Nikki. You must be Toni. Dee thinks the world of you,” she said as she grabbed my hand and shook vigorously.
I couldn’t help but notice that her hai
r didn’t move. At all. And she had it styled in this very full throw-back from the eighties look. The dark and heavily applied eye-shadow and the big hoop earrings adorning her ears also screamed late eighties. I couldn’t tell for sure, but if I had to guess I’d say she looked old enough that she could have easily been a teenager during that decade.
Nikki released my hand and peeked around the door. “Come on, Dee. Let’s all go out and celebrate.”
Dee groaned as she shoved herself up to a stand. “What are we celebrating?”
“Why, just how successful the café is becoming and the fact that all of your baked goods nearly sold out this evening. You are definitely going to have to make more.”
“Shoot,” Dee replied, jumping off the couch with more energy than I’d have been able to muster. “I should get started on that right now then before I run clear out of gas.” Dee veered toward the kitchen, but Nikki stepped past me and blocked her way.
“Nonsense. We can all pitch in tomorrow and get some baking done.” Nikki gave a sheepish grin. “Or at least, we can cheer you on while you bake. Maybe do the cleanup for you, or bring you things you need. But tonight, we celebrate. Your business is going to be a huge success. I can just feel it.” She began pulling Dee towards the door. “Come on, Toni. This woman deserves to be celebrated.”
“Wait,” Dee said. “I can’t go anywhere dressed like this. I’m covered in dough and have on zero makeup.” I agreed with her. We were a matching set, except I was covered in stain rather than dough.
Nikki took a second to give us a second glance. “Fine,” she said, “But make it quick. We’re not going anywhere fancy, so jeans and some eyeliner will do. It’s not like we’re on the prowl.”
It took us all of fifteen minutes to get dive-bar presentable, and I was surprised to find the idea of going out with the girls put a little pep in my step I didn’t think I had.