by Tegan Maher
“And the evidence against Jeremy isn’t circumstantial?” I was starting to think coming there had been a waste of time.
“Look,” he said. “I know you’re trying to help Dee out, but there are things about Jeremy they probably haven’t told you.”
“I do know about the history he has with the family. But I also know he wasn’t the only one. Dave didn’t like him, and there was also money missing from the books and Scott doesn’t necessarily have an alibi, whether you choose to believe it or not. For that matter, who’s to say Helen’s husband didn’t do it? It’s not like it would be the first time a guy was killed for fishing in somebody else’s pond.”
I grabbed my purse and stood up so forcefully I almost knocked the chair I had been sitting in over. “I’m sorry to have wasted your time, but you said you owed me one and I was hoping that meant you would at least listen to what I had to say,” I hissed.
His nostrils flared. “I listened. You just didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. And no matter what you think, Jeremy is the obvious suspect here, far and away. I am giving this case due diligence. That’s all I can say.”
He let out a long breath but didn’t say anything else, and I didn’t know whether he was telling the truth or just offering platitudes. After maintaining eye contact for a few seconds, I shook my head and grabbed my purse. I’d tried to do it the right way, and it had netted me zilch. The girls were right—we were going to have to solve it ourselves.
Chapter Thirteen
“SO WHAT’S GOING ON with you?” Dee asked for about the millionth time as I stormed around the kitchen, grabbing vegetables for the salad and chopping them with enough force that pieces ended up flying farther than I intended for them to.
“I just can’t believe Gabe is being so hardheaded about this,” I growled, slicing the end off a cucumber so hard it wobbled and rolled off the cutting board and across the island. “Due diligence, my lily-white ass.”
She grinned at that but touched me on the shoulder. “Don’t be too hard on him. He’s got a lot of pride, and just because he didn’t give you the answers you wanted doesn’t mean he didn’t listen to what you said. He’s reasonable, and a good cop.”
There was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it.” Dee wiped her hands on a towel. “You just stay here and keep abusing those poor innocent veggies.”
I glanced around at the mess I’d made. The tomatoes were more mashed than they were quartered, the cucumbers looked like they’d been sliced by a ten-year-old, and the onions for the hot dogs were chopped almost to a puree. The island was a mess, covered in onion and cucumber peels, tomato ends, and bits of lettuce. I took a deep breath and set the knife aside. Dee was right—I was being unreasonable.
Dee, Nikki, and Annie walked in.
“So,” Nikki glanced at Dee and then Annie, “you doing okay in here, honey?”
I shook my head, giving her a half-smile. “I’m not sure the salad is going to be edible tonight I sorta took my frustration out on it.”
Annie smiled and set the bowl she’d been holding on the counter next to me. “That’s okay. I brought a green bean casserole, so we’ll have some vegetables that haven’t been completely massacred.” She bumped her shoulder into mine before putting her arm around my back and giving me a reassuring squeeze.
“And I brought potato salad and grape escape,” Nikki said as she set a bowl and a bottle of wine down on the counter next to the green bean casserole.
I peeled the lid back on the potato salad; it was a perfect, light yellow hue, and I didn’t see a hint of onion anywhere—just the way I liked it.
There was another knock on the door. “Excuse me, ladies.”
Scout was standing on the porch, a six pack and a bag of what looked like spices in one hand and two bags of ice in the other.
“I wasn’t sure what spices you had here, so I brought some with me just in case,” he said, smiling as stepping through the door when I pushed it wider. “I can’t expect to be invited back if I under-season the burgers.”
“Heaven forbid,” I said, smiling back. His clean scent filled my nostrils as I brushed by him, and my heart skipped a couple beats. I was starting to believe I really had feelings for him, but I didn’t trust that just yet. If I did, I wanted to be dead sure before I risked our friendship.
Once in the kitchen, he slid the beer in the fridge. “Wow,” he said. “I figured we’d need to use a cooler, what with a baker and a chef in residence, but this looks more like an echo chamber than a fridge.”
Dee swatted at him. “In case you’ve forgotten, we’re still staying at the cabin. And I can’t keep up with the baking I have to do for the cafe and the country club, let alone have time to make extra just for fun. Although,” she said, pulling a peach-colored box emblazoned with the words Blissful Bites in a whimsical script from the freezer, “I did manage to make up a little something for dessert.”
“Holy crap on a cracker, Dee!” I exclaimed. “You decided to go with the name we came up with together!” We’d been tossing around names for a solid two weeks, and Blissful Bites was something we’d come up with when Sadie Montgomery, a bride she’d baked a wedding cake for, had left after her taste test. She’d proclaimed she just had to take another bite of all five samples because each was “sheer bliss.”
“I did,” she said, her eyes twinkling. “I figured since I’m sort of making a name for myself, I should actually pick one and go with it.”
“So what did you make?” Scout said, reaching to open the box. Dee slapped at his fingers, then opened the box herself. “I went more with indulgent than fancy,” she said as everybody peered into the box. “Frozen mud pie.”
My stomach rumbled; she’d made one of those several weeks ago, and I’d eaten my half of it and then some. She gave me a lopsided grin when she heard my traitorous gut. “I figured you’d be okay with it.”
I smiled back. “I’m more than okay.”
Maisey popped in and peered into the box. “Oh, I do love a good mud pie,” she said, her face wistful. “Or I used to, anyway.”
My first impulse was to try to look normal, like there wasn’t a ghost in the room, but then I took a good look at the group hovering around the box. Dee gave me a questioning glance, and her expression shifted; she knew what I was thinking and nodded. Next, I looked at Maisey, who was shifting her gaze back and forth between me and Dee.
“You ready?” I asked, and a wide grin split her face.
“Wait just a minute,” she said, then faded out. Two seconds later, she reappeared wearing a nice pink dress and her standard floppy hat, with a pretty fuschia flower. She’d even skipped the galoshes in favor of a sensible pair of ballet flats. I rolled my eyes and smiled.
“Do I look okay?” she asked, patting her bun.
“You look great,” I assured her. “You looked just fine before.”
Scout and the girls looked confused. “Who looks okay?” he asked. “Who are you talking to?”
“Maisey,” I proclaimed.
“Your friend from Orlando?” The puzzled expression on his face reminded me what I’d said to get myself out of the hot seat when I’d accidentally addressed her before.
I shook my head. “There is no Maisey in Florida. Maisey is the woman who built this place, along with her husband.”
“But ...” Annie said, trying to follow along but failing spectacularly, “this house was built like two hundred years ago.”
“Indeed it was,” I said, and I noticed Dee was having a hard time keeping a straight face. “Don’t freak out. She’s always been here—the only difference is that now you’re going to know about her. It’s not fair that we pretend she’s not here and have to exclude her whenever we have company. This is her house, too.”
“Okay,” Nikki said, anticipation lighting her face. She’d apparently caught on to what was going on. “Freak-out mode disabled. Bring it on.”
I nodded to Maisey who’d floated around the table to hover at
my side, where everybody could see her, then faded in. “Everybody, I’d like to introduce you to Ms. Maisey.”
Nikki clapped her hands in delight, Annie went pale, and Scott tried to say something, but all he managed was to flap his jaws like a fish gasping for water.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Maisey,” Nikki said. “I have so many questions for you!”
“Honey, I’ve been cooped up in this house for two centuries,” Maisey replied. “I’ll gladly answer all of 'em if it gives me somebody to talk to.”
“Is she ...” Annie was doing her level best to recover. “I mean, you’re dead.”
Maisey laughed. “I am at that. But it seems the universe didn’t think I was quite ready to cross over to meet my maker just yet.”
Scout, for his part, still looked pole-axed, but he gave her a tentative smile. “Have you been here the whole time?”
She gave a quick nod. “I have been. And I thank you for takin’ such good care of the place.” She knitted her brow. “Except for the gardens, of course. You let them go to seed, but I reckon it ain’t your fault. It was already grown over when you started comin’ around.”
He dipped his head. “My apologies, then. If I’d known there was somebody here to enjoy it, I’d have gladly brought them back around.”
She gave him an appraising look. “I almost showed myself to you a handful of times, but I didn’t want you to lop your toe off with that new-fangled electric thing you use to cut the weeds. Your dog saw me though.”
Now a grin spread across his face. “I owe him an apology, then. I thought he was being batty when he barked at nothing.”
“Take him a burger,” she suggested. “I’m sure that’ll make up for it.”
“I have no doubt,” he replied. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Her gaze wandered over the lot of them. “It’s nice to meet you all, too.”
I felt as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders as Nikki began bombarding her with a ton of questions. After a few minutes, Annie had recovered enough to do the same.
Scout excused himself to get the grill ready, and Maisey flitted back and forth between everybody, tickled pink to be a part of things.
Dee hip-checked me. “That was brilliant. I was getting tired of pretending she wasn’t there too. They handled it about as well as we could have expected.”
“They did,” I said, watching as she bossed Scout a little at the grill. “Though I’m not sure the novelty will last long.”
She laughed. “Why should we be the only ones she bosses? Now she has three more people to share the love with.”
“There is that,” I said, smiling. At least she wouldn’t be able to focus on me and Dee all the time.
When the burgers and dogs were done, we filled our plates and drinks and went out to the sunroom, where we ate and just enjoyed the company and the great weather. Bear made his rounds, begging a piece of burger or a bit of hotdog wherever he thought he could get it.
The food was good, Nikki was regaling us with all the latest town gossip, and we were all laughing and having a really good time. It was nice. And it helped take my mind off of my unfortunate encounter with the sheriff.
That didn’t last forever though, because the conversation shifted to it naturally. I told them about my encounter with the sheriff. “I just don’t get it,” I said when I was finished. “It’s like he doesn’t want it to be anybody else.”
Dee swirled the contents of her glass. “The sheriff has never really had a whole lot of use for Jeremy and has a personal grudge against him.”
“Why?”
“Because,” Nikki said, “when Jeremy was younger he was always getting into trouble.” she shrugged. “It was mostly small things like vandalism, fighting, and underage drinking, but one night while he was sixteen or so, he got drunk and decided to steal a car and go for a joy ride. He ended up getting in an accident.” She took a drink and looked at Dee, who had been staring at her as she started her story.
Dee turned to face me. “He hit another vehicle and hurt the other driver pretty badly. Thankfully, she recovered and is fine, but Jeremy was sent to juvey for it. Then, because he was a minor, his record was sealed. The town gave him hell for a long time, but as far as the law was concerned, his time was served and as an adult, he could start over. His juvenile record behind him.”
I frowned. “So the sheriff thinks he got off too easy and figures he can make him pay for that crime by nailing him for this one? Even if he didn’t do this one?”
Nikki nodded. “Something like that. His uncle was killed in a drunk-driving accident, so he takes a hard stance on it.”
“And it doesn’t help that the victim from way back then was Gabe’s friend,” Dee added.
Now it all made sense. It definitely wasn’t right, but it made sense. The sheriff was looking for a harsher punishment for Jeremy. “Maybe someone else should be working this case. Surely the rest of the town can see that this investigation is biased.”
“Some people have moved on and accepted that Jeremy has changed, but others will always see that young trouble maker whenever they look at him. Gabe and a lot of the older people in this town fall into the latter category,” Nikki said.
“That doesn’t mean he killed somebody,” I grumbled.
“If you ask me,” Annie piped up, “I think Beatrice did it. That woman always had a horrible temper, and I can’t imagine she took it too well when she found out he was cheating.”
I shook my head. “I met Beatrice today. Apparently, she had been in Colorado visiting her sister to get some distance and perspective.”
“She was,” Nikki confirmed. “My money’s on Helen’s husband. I did a little more checking on him, and he’s super jealous. Plus, he’s a big guy and owns a boat. I think it’s open and shut. Frank was diddlin’ around with his wife, he found out about it, and bam. Frank’s dead.”
Scout shook his head. “Nah. I think Scott looks like a better candidate for the crime. He stood to inherit everything, and I just heard today, he and his dad had an argument while they were on the boat that got ugly enough that Frank kicked Scott and his friends off the boat and told them to get off the property.”
“Wait,” I said. “I didn’t hear anything about that.” Though it did explain why Dave had been so blasé about Frank being dead when he and James were playing pool.
“Yeah,” Scout said. “Mark Jennings, the vet, was out with them and told me about it the morning he came out to help with the heifer. He said Frank sorta tore through all three of the boys before he set them ashore.”
“And what about that life insurance policy Scott took out three months before his dad bit the big one?” Dee added. “It all seems fishy to me.”
Scout nodded. “And Scott keeps going on about money missing from the store and the books not balancing the way they should. Maybe he was afraid his dad was spending too much or something and decided to get rid of him before he could blow through all of his inheritance.”
A thought struck me. “What if Scott had been embezzling money from the store and his dad found out? Beatrice said some of the sales Scott had made weren’t logged. What if Scott didn’t log them and just put the money in his pocket himself? He sure is making a lot of noise about money being missing. It’s almost like he’s trying to divert attention away from himself or distract from the real crime somehow.”
Scout leaned back in his chair after scraping the last bit of pie off his plate. “Makes sense, at least as much as any of it does. If Frank found out Scott was stealing money from him, he would have cut him off without a dime.”
I nodded. The more I thought about that scenario, the likelier it seemed. “I think Scott definitely looks the most suspect right now, even though it would have taken some serious nerve to shoot his own dad between the eyes.”
Now we just had to figure out a way to prove our suspicions and clear Jeremy’s name once and for all.
Chapter Fourteen
DEE WAS POURING HERSELF a cup of coffee when I walked into the kitchen at seven fifteen the next morning. “Since you have to open the bar again this morning, would you mind giving me a ride into the café? I’ll even cook you breakfast,” she offered.
I grabbed my to-go mug and filled it with coffee. “Sure, but you don’t have to cook me breakfast, really.”
She laughed. “I have some cinnamon rolls that I did yesterday and I’m sure one of them has your name on it,” she said almost as if she could read my mind.
I chuckled. “If that’s the case, I suppose I could make room for a cinnamon roll.”
I followed Dee to the door. Bear was still fast asleep on my bed, so letting him out to do his business before I left probably wasn’t going to happen. Scout still had his spare keys from when he was taking care of the place, so I figured I could call him later from the bar and see if he could stop by and let Bear out for a while, maybe even take him over to his farm for a while so he could play with his German Shepard.
“Do you need me to pick you up after my shift?” I asked as we drove to the café.
Dee shook her head. “I can have Annie bring me home before she goes to relieve you at the bar.”
I nodded. “Maybe we can work on painting a couple more of the bedrooms.” The lodge had seven altogether, and we’d only painted five of them—one each for me and Dee, and three for the road construction guys who’d be staying there. Technically, we could move into the place anytime we wanted, but so far had chosen to stay at the cabin because the electric was a third of the price it was going to be at the lodge.
“Sure. I might have to do some baking. The golf club needs some more pies and cakes, but I can multi-task while they’re in the oven.”
I pulled into a spot right in front of the café and parked, then grabbed my phone and coffee as I got out and followed Dee to the doors. She unlocked them, turned the sign to open, and walked behind the counter to shove her purse underneath. She started flipping on the lights and I tossed a bag of coffee into the maker and then hit a button to start it brewing.