Dave had black hair and a thick beard. I knew who he was because he’d been into the candy store at times, and we’d struck up a conversation. Today was Ethan’s day off and he was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans and didn’t look like the police officer he was.
“Hi,” Ethan said. “My name is Ethan Banks, and this is Mia Jordan. We were wondering about your cabins. Do you rent them out?”
He nodded. “I know you from the candy store,” he said to me, then he looked at Ethan. “I only own three of them. This one and those two across the way,” he said pointing at the other two cabins.
Ethan and I glanced at the cabins across the way. “Do you rent them by the night or for longer periods?”
“I can do anything you want. By the night, weekend, or a couple of weeks or longer. Did you have any dates in mind?”
“Actually, I was wondering if Fagan Branigan rented a cabin from you anytime recently?”
The man stared at Ethan for a moment. “Yes, he rented this one. You’re a police officer, aren’t you?”
Ethan nodded. “Yes, I guess I don’t look the part without wearing my uniform. Is there anything you can tell me about Fagan? When did he rent the cabin last and for how long?”
“Are you asking and in an official capacity?” The smile was still on his face, but I felt something shift.
“I can ask in an official capacity if you want, but I just had a few questions for you is all. Are you okay with that?”
I did my best not to look at Ethan. He still sounded agreeable, but I felt like that might change at any moment. He was great at getting people to talk to him just because he was so friendly, but if he needed to, he could become less friendly.
Dave nodded. “Sure. What did you want to know?”
“Just wondered if Fagan came out here often to use these cabins.” He glanced at the cabin we were standing in front of. “When was the last time he was here?”
“I’m guessing somebody told you that might be the case,” he said, sounding guarded. “He came out here every now and then. Mostly in the fall.”
“What kind of amenities do you have in these cabins?” I asked. As soon as it was out of my mouth I winced. But the thought had crossed my mind that if there wasn’t television or Internet reception, Fagan couldn’t have been out here escaping his wife to watch football.
“We have satellite TV and Wi-Fi. It cuts out sometimes, especially the Internet, but we still have it. I figure most people are out here to enjoy the great outdoors anyway, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.”
“Oh good,” I said. “That’s what I was wondering.” I glanced at Ethan, but he didn’t look at me.
“When was last time Fagan rented this cabin?” Ethan asked again.
“A couple of weeks ago. Why?” he asked.
Ethan produced a key from his pocket. “Does this key go to one of your cabins?”
He looked at it. “It looks like one that might go to one of them, but I guess I wouldn’t know unless we put it in the door and try it.” He took the key from Ethan and stuck it in the door and turned it. The key moved freely in the lock and he turned and looked at him. “I guess it does belong to this cabin. Where did you get it?”
“Fagan’s pocket when his body was found. Do you have any idea what might have happened to Fagan?” he asked.
His jaw tightened. “Honestly? If I were you, I’d have a nice long chat with Jeff Lukens. The two of them were friends, but not really the kind of friends you might think.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ethan asked.
“I think it’s called frenemies. Have you heard the term?”
“Sure I have,” he said. “Why do you think he might have had something do with Fagan’s death?”
“Let’s just say I don’t think Jeff had Fagan’s best interests at heart. He was always getting him into trouble. Fagan had a drinking problem you know, and while most of the time he was good and stayed away from it, when Jeff came around, he suddenly did have an issue with it. And that caused issues with his wife, as you can imagine.”
Ethan nodded. “I can imagine. Do you mind if I have a look around the cabin?”
He considered this a minute. “I guess I don’t mind.”
“Did anyone rent this cabin after Fagan stayed here the last time?”
“No, I was just cleaning it up. I rented it out for the Thanksgiving weekend. And like I said, I just got done cleaning it.”
That didn’t bode well for any evidence that might have been in the room. I wished we knew earlier that Fagan made a habit of staying here.
He stepped aside, and Ethan entered the cabin. I stood near the door. The cabin was small and homey looking. There was a queen-size bed along one wall and a door that led to the bathroom. The kitchen was more of a kitchenette along one wall with a sink, cupboards, a microwave, and a small refrigerator. It was all you would really need for a short stay away from home. Ethan walked around the room and then went to the small bedside table and opened the drawer. He slid it closed and then went to the other one. When he was done with that, he looked through the kitchen cabinets and then went into the bathroom.
The scent of pine cleaner could be smelled in the cabin and if there had been evidence, it was long gone now.
“Satisfied?” he asked when Ethan emerged from the bathroom.
Ethan nodded. “Looks nice and clean. Did Fagan have any plans for renting the cabin again? Or did he have his own key all the time?”
Dave hesitated before answering. “He had his own key. I just asked him to let me know when he was going to make a trip out here to the cabin to make sure I hadn’t rented it to someone else.”
“The two of you must have been very close,” Ethan said, eyeing him. “If you gave him his own key, I mean.”
He shrugged. “I guess you can say that. We were friends.”
“Rumor has it you might place a few bets for people. Maybe you placed a bet for Fagan,” Ethan said.
“I think you may be mistaking me for someone else. Fagan had issues in his marriage, and sometimes he just wanted to get away. You can understand that, can’t you?”
Ethan gave him an even look. He nodded and turned to me. “Thanks for letting us have a look around. If you think of anything that might have happened while he was here, or if you remember something he said that might seem significant, you’ll give me a call, won’t you?”
He nodded. “No problem,” he said. “If you decide you want to rent the cabin, give me a call. I have a listing online.”
“Will do,” Ethan said, and we headed back to his truck and got inside. He pulled out of the parking area and headed back to town.
“So that was it? That’s all you’re going to do? Jeff said Dave was a bookie. Why didn’t you tell him that you knew he was a bookie?”
“I know what he said. And he is not the only one that has said it. But I don’t want to do too much shaking in case I need to question him again. And if there is any shaking that needs to be done, I’ll do it then.”
“What was in the bedside table drawers?”
“A Bible, blank notepad, and a couple of pens. Nothing exciting.”
I sighed. We rode back to town in silence. I didn’t feel good about Dave. In fact, I didn’t feel good about Jeff Lukens, either.
Chapter Thirteen
I wasn’t convinced about anything at this point. Fagan was dead, and somebody had killed him, but it felt like there were too many suspects. I looked out at the darkening sky through the front window of the candy store. With it being so close to Thanksgiving, we were bound to get snow any day now. The air had a distinct bite to it, and I was excited about the possibility of the first snowfall.
“I made some more caramel turkeys,” Mom said. She held a tray of the sweet morsels up. “This time when I made the white chocolate ones, I added a buttercream filling to them. I hope it’s not overwhelmingly sweet. I left one of them out of the plastic bag so you could try it.”
“Well, I’ll
just have to try that out for you then,” I said and picked up the little white chocolate turkey. I took a bite and my mouth exploded in creamy vanilla goodness. “No, they aren’t too sweet. These are perfect. I really like them.” She had piped tiny orange and yellow flowers onto them in royal icing. They were as adorable as they were tasty.
“Good, that’s what I was hoping for,” she said as she took the tray of turkeys and set them in a basket on the front counter. She had used my idea of adding haystacks and put one in each plastic bag along with three or four pieces of candy corn.
“I think those are so cute. You did a great job on them,” I said. Mom was good at piping tiny flowers and rosettes onto the candy, but I usually lost my patience over it. It took a steady hand and the ability to keep from becoming frustrated easily.
“Thank you,” she said. “I think at Christmas time I’m going to do the same thing with reindeer and fill some of them with peppermint filling.”
“I can’t wait for that,” I said. It was slow today since it was so close to Thanksgiving Day. People were out grocery shopping and preparing for the big day and buying candy didn’t cross most people’s minds. “We should have just closed the shop until Black Friday. I don’t think we’ll see very many customers.”
“Maybe,” she said. “But I’m hoping to sell my turkeys.” She grinned and went back to the kitchen.
The bell over the door rang, and I looked up and Janna Branigan walked in. She smiled at me. “Hello, Mia,” she said. “How are you today?”
“I’m doing well, just getting ready for the big holiday. How are you doing, Janna? I’ve been intending to stop by your house and check on you, but time got away from me.”
She walked up to the counter and put her hands on the top of it. “I’ll tell you, I really don’t know what I’m going to do with myself. I’m going stir crazy and staying in the house all the time just feels suffocating. I thought I’d stop in and maybe pick up some fudge. Fagan loved your pumpkin spice fudge.”
“I know, he came in almost every week during the Halloween season to get some. When it was out of season, he usually bought chocolate fudge with walnuts.”
She smiled. “He did. He brought it home for me. I told him that I didn’t need all that candy sitting around the house, but he would always bring me more.” She chuckled. “He had quite the sweet tooth, and he liked to share.”
I wondered about what Dave had said about Fagan wanting to get away from his wife. It sounded like Janna thought they had a good relationship.
“Janna, are you going to keep the costume shop open?” I asked her.
Her brow furrowed. “I’ve been trying to decide what to do. Part of me says to close it down and sell everything, and the other part of me thinks I should keep it open. I haven’t worked in years, just kept myself busy with hobbies and such. But I can’t stand to be in the house alone anymore and I’m wondering if keeping the costume shop open is the best option. It would get me out of the house, and honestly, Gina practically runs the place herself, so if I didn’t want to be there every day, she would be fine running it for me.”
“I know Fagan relied on her quite a bit.”
“You can say that again. She’s been indispensable down at that store.” She looked at the turkeys in the basket on the counter and picked up a chocolate caramel one. “My, isn’t this cute?”
“It sure is. My mother made those. The white ones have a buttercream filling and the milk chocolate ones have caramel in them.”
She looked at me. “Turkey in the straw?”
I laughed. “Yes. You’d be surprised at how many people don’t get that.”
She nodded. “Probably the younger ones. I think I’m going to get one of these.” She placed the bag on the counter and looked into the display case. “I do not need any more fudge, but that doesn’t mean I might not get some.”
“Let me know what you want,” I said. Janna was pretty, with her long blond hair tied back in a simple chignon.
She glanced at me. “Has Ethan said anything about finding Fagan’s killer yet? I’ve been intending to call him, but I keep putting it off.”
“All I really know is that he’s been investigating. It's probably best for you to talk to him directly." It was better to direct people to Ethan than to give them information he might not want them to know.
She nodded. “Of course. I just want this whole thing behind me. I don’t think I can get closure until his killer is found.”
“That’s completely understandable. Has anything else occurred to you? Anything that might help with the case?” I leaned on the counter while she looked into the display case.
She turned and looked at me. “You know what I think? I think Sonia Perrins might have had something to do with his death. I know that probably sounds odd, and it might seem like she wouldn’t do something like that, but I keep going over all the arguments that she and Fagan had. Sometimes he would come home from work just steaming mad about something she done or said.”
“I heard that they didn’t get along very well,” I said trying to sound noncommittal. If she had something new, I wanted to hear it, but I didn’t want to lead her into anything.
“She would do things just irritate him. It’s like she lived for that.” She shook her head. “I don’t know why some people love to irritate others.”
“Do you think she’s capable of it? Really capable of it?” I asked.
“I know she owns a gun. She had a break-in a couple of years ago and she shot at the intruder. She missed him of course, it was dark. But killing someone on purpose? That takes an evil person, and I guess I’m not sure she would do it.”
I wasn’t sure Sonia could do it, either. Yes, it seemed to be common knowledge that she couldn’t stand Fagan, but murder? She didn’t seem capable of it.
“It does seem like she went to great lengths to torment him, like refusing to pay something as small as a fifty-dollar water bill,” I said. It seemed to me that Fagan would have more reason to harm Sonia than the other way around since it sounded like she was the instigator in their problems.
She nodded. “I think she has money problems. I heard she always wanted to own a regular bookstore that sells new books, but she just didn’t have the money, so she opened that shop selling used books. I think a fifty-dollar water bill was something extra that she was just not able to pay. Why else would she refuse to do it?”
I nodded. “It does seem like a lot of anger over that one small bill.”
What I really wondered was if there was something bigger between the two of them and maybe that was why they couldn’t get along. “Did Fagan and Sonia know each other before they went into business next door to one another?”
She looked at me a moment. “Actually yes, Sonia was once married to Fagan’s uncle. He said that she caused all sorts of problems in the family and he was thrilled when they got divorced.”
Now that made sense. It seemed like there was too much animosity between the two of them to be caused by a water bill.
“Janna, can I ask you a personal question? I don’t want to pry or anything, but there was something I was wondering about.”
She nodded. “Sure, go ahead.”
“How was your marriage? I know sometimes couples hit a bump now and again.” I cringed inwardly when I asked it, but I needed to know.
Her eyes got bigger. “My marriage? It was fine. Why do you ask?”
I shrugged. “I just wondered. It’s none of my business, of course.”
She nodded slowly and seemed to tense up. “I think our marriage was like anybody else’s marriage,” she said. “Sometimes we hit tough spots, bumps as you say, but we always managed to get around them. We were as happy as any couple could be that had been married for almost twenty-five years. In fact, I often thought we were happier than most.”
I relaxed at this news. “I’m glad to hear that. I’m sure you have many fond memories to look back on.”
She turned back to the display case agai
n. There was an awkwardness that hung in the air now and I regretted bringing up the subject.
“I think I’d like a quarter pound of the fudge with walnuts, please.”
I removed the tray from the display case and cut some for her, then put it into a bag with the turkey and slid it across the counter to her. “No charge today.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she said stiffly. “I expect people are thinking all sorts of things about me and our marriage, and probably will until the killer is put behind bars.”
That made everything even more awkward. I was embarrassed for asking about her marriage and I wanted to make it up to her. “No, I insist.”
She hesitated, then smiled. “Thank you, Mia. Have a happy Thanksgiving. Tell your mother I said the same.”
“Thank you.” I bit back wishing her a happy Thanksgiving. How could she have a happy Thanksgiving when her husband was just murdered?
I watched her go, feeling badly about what I had asked.
Chapter Fourteen
It was the day before Thanksgiving, and we had closed the candy shop down. I was thrilled to have an extra day off work. We were planning on a big Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom’s with Ethan and Christy’s new boyfriend, Devon. Amanda and Brian were also going to come for dinner.
I was making a pear cranberry tart, a green bean casserole for Ethan, cranberry sauce, and two pumpkin pies. When I got up in the morning to begin baking the pies, I realized I was almost out of cinnamon and I needed some eggs. Going grocery shopping the day before Thanksgiving is not one of the essential joys of life, let me tell you. But it had to be done because there would be no pumpkin pie without cinnamon or eggs.
Before heading to the grocery store, I decided to drive down Spooky Lane and see how many of the shops were open. In a small town it wasn’t unusual for people to close up an extra day or two around the holidays.
As expected, most of the shops there were closed. I was surprised to see Sonia’s bookshop open, and on a whim, I parked in front.
Caramel Killer: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 12 Page 7