Caramel Killer: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 12

by Kathleen Suzette

  We headed over to them and I picked up a Christmas cookie scented one and inhaled. “Oh, this smells so good,” I said and held it for Christy to smell.

  “That smells yummy,” she said. “I might have to get one of those. Oh look, there’s a chocolate peppermint one.” She picked it up and inhaled.

  “Aren’t those wonderful?” Polly asked. “I took two of the chocolate peppermint candles home.”

  I picked up another candle and smelled it. “Blackberry cobbler. This one smells really good. I’m definitely getting one of these.” There was an apricot cinnamon one that smelled just as tasty as the blackberry one. “I need this one, too.”

  Christy laughed. “You’re going to spend all your Christmas money on yourself.”

  “I know, I can’t help it. I’m a sucker for a really good quality candle.”

  “You and me both,” Polly said. She straightened the candles on the table.

  We all turned toward the door when the bell above it jingled and two customers came in, followed by Dave Jennings. Christy and I glanced at each other. Polly went over to help the two customers that had come into the shop in front of Dave while he made his way to a wall of wind chimes.

  “We need to talk to him,” Christy whispered.

  “I know.”

  We made our way over to where he was gazing up at the wind chimes. “Hi Dave,” I said. “Those sure are pretty wind chimes.”

  He picked up one that had green glass hummingbirds. “It is kind of nice, isn’t it? My wife loves hummingbirds.”

  “I bet she’ll love that then,” Christy said. “There’s just so many nice things in here. I could spend my entire paycheck here.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, my wife told me I had better get her some candles for Christmas, so that’s what I came in for, but this wind chime caught my eye.”

  “The candles are wonderful here,” I said. I was trying to come up with a way to ask him about Fagan, but I didn’t want it to be obvious. I needed to be subtle about it.

  He glanced over at the display of candles, then he turned to me. “So are you and Ethan still thinking about renting that cabin?”

  I looked at him for a moment, confused. Then I remembered we had asked about renting a cabin. “We’ve been talking about it. But right now, he’s incredibly busy with Fagan’s murder investigation. I think it would be fun to rent a cabin though. It’s better than camping out, because of course, you’re inside a cabin.”

  He nodded. “There’s a fireplace in that cabin. You can’t beat it during the winter. How is that investigation into Fagan’s death going?”

  I shrugged. “You know how it is. Ethan’s a police officer and he won’t tell me everything that’s going on. I wondered though, do you have any more thoughts about what might have happened to him?”

  He looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “Yes, if you want to know what I think, Ethan should talk to his wife. The two of them had all kinds of issues.”

  “What kind of issues are you talking about?” I asked and picked up a wind chime that had copper cats on it.

  “Why do you think he wanted to come to that cabin? It’s because he wanted to avoid his wife. She was always nagging him and on his case about one thing or another. They fought all the time.”

  “I had no idea,” I said. “He told you this?”

  He nodded. “He said he’d get rid her if he had the chance, but it would be too expensive to go through a divorce.”

  I was surprised by this. Although Jeff Lukens had said Fagan went to the cabin to get away from his wife, I couldn’t imagine it was bad enough that he wanted a divorce. “He really said that?”

  He grinned and shook his head. “You seem surprised by that. I don’t know why you are. If a man had to slip away from his woman to spend time alone in a cabin watching a football game, then there are problems in the marriage.”

  “Of course there were. I don’t know what I was thinking.” I was stunned by this. Was it true or was he just being unkind?

  “Was he always alone when he went to that cabin?” Christy asked.

  He shrugged. “As far as I know he was by himself. Why? Have you heard otherwise?”

  Christy shook her head. “No, I haven’t heard anything at all. I just wondered.”

  “It would have been the ideal place for him to slip away with a girlfriend, but as far as I know, he didn’t have one. But you might mention to Ethan that he needs to have a talk with his wife. There’s something going on there.” He looked at me meaningfully.

  “I will definitely mention it to him.”

  “You know, it wasn't that long ago that Fagan said he was going to close his shop and leave her. I asked him why he was going to do that, and he said she was so controlling he just couldn’t take it anymore. You’ve got to watch those controlling women.” He hung the wind chime back on the hook.

  “Controlling women? What about controlling men?” Christy asked before I could respond.

  He grinned. “Hit a sensitive spot, did I? I guess that goes for controlling men, too. People like that don’t like it when a person decides they don’t want to be controlled anymore. And Fagan didn’t want to be controlled.”

  “Well, who would want to be controlled?” Christy asked. I could see her getting hot over this conversation and I knew I needed to redirect her attention, or she might say something she’d regret. Dave had, after all, smashed in a woman's window and he was possibly a murder suspect.

  “I’m sure no one likes to be controlled,” I said. “But Janna doesn’t seem to be the controlling type. Are you sure he was telling you the truth?”

  “Why would he lie?” He looked at me like I was crazy for suggesting it.

  “I don’t know. I guess I’ve known both of them for a long while and I wouldn’t think of her as controlling.”

  He shrugged. “Suit yourself. Believe what you want, but I know what he told me.”

  “Maybe so, but maybe he was just upset over something and said things he might have later regretted,” I said. “And you just said that he said he couldn't afford to divorce her. So obviously he didn't mean it when he said he wanted to sell the shop and leave her.”

  He snorted. “Could be. I guess it doesn’t matter to me though. I’m not married to her.”

  “I bet your wife could tell us a thing or two about being controlled,” Christy said testily. Her arms were crossed in front of her and her chin jutted out.

  He narrowed his eyes at her. “How’s that?”

  She shrugged. “I just think in this case, it takes one to know one. A controlling man, I mean.”

  I smiled at Dave. “I think we’ve got to get going now. See you later.” I took hold of Christy’s arm and steered her back to the candle display so I could get my candles and we could leave.

  “What are you doing?” she hissed on the way over to the table.

  “Taking you out of harm’s way. You know he might be a murder suspect twice over, and he smashed Sonia’s window. Let’s not go making him angry.”

  She snorted. “He doesn’t scare me. He’s a jerk.”

  “He doesn’t scare me, either. Unless he’s a murderer.”

  I bought the chocolate peppermint candle and the apricot cinnamon one and we left before Christy could get us killed. Dave had just moved to the top of my suspect list. There was something about him that I just didn’t like.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “We need to build a snowman,” Ethan said as we walked through Pumpkin Center Park.

  “We need a lot more snow than we’ve got now,” I said. He held my gloved hand as we walked across the park the Saturday following Thanksgiving. The snow that fell Thanksgiving night had melted and there were only tiny patches of it left here and there.

  “Yes, we do,” he said and chuckled. “But as soon as we get a decent snow, let’s build a snowman.”

  I smiled. “We’ll build a snowman, a snowwoman, and two snowcats.” Last year we had done the same, but we had only had one cat, Boo.
Now that we’d added Licorice to our family, we had to add another snowcat.

  “That sounds like a plan,” he said. “I’m kind of looking forward to Christmas. Maybe we should go caroling?”

  I turned and looked at him. “Caroling? I didn’t know you would like something like caroling. I agree, let’s go caroling. Let’s take a sleigh ride and really do up Christmas this year.”

  He chuckled. “And let’s not forget that we’re going to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

  “No way am I going to miss that.” Since Ethan and I had begun dating last fall, we hadn’t missed any of the Peanuts specials. There was something about those shows that brought back memories from my childhood and watching them never got old.

  “Agreed,” he said as our boots crunched through the fallen leaves on the ground.

  “Do you know who I think murdered Fagan?”

  He glanced at me. “No, who do you think murdered Fagan?”

  “His wife. She had the most to gain from his death.”

  “And why do you say that?”

  I shrugged and brushed a lock of hair from my eyes. It was windy out and probably not a great day for walking in the park, but we had a few minutes and it felt good to get out in the fresh air. “There’s just something about the whole situation. Without him, she doesn’t have to worry about him gambling away their money. I’m sure his gambling put a lot of stress on their marriage. And without him, she has her house and the business. Plus, she has Gina running the business, so if she doesn’t feel like doing it herself, she doesn’t have to.”

  “That’s a possibility,” he said thoughtfully. “But what about his bookie? If he was in so deep with him, why wouldn’t he kill him?”

  I sighed. Dave Jennings was a very good candidate, too. “I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I have. He’s my next best guess. Did you check out whether he was suspected of murder in Montana?”

  “I did, and there is no record of that anywhere. I think that’s just a rumor that’s going around town because of the line of work he does. I’m talking about his side job of course, and not the glass shop.”

  “Isn't there any way you can arrest him for illegal gambling?”

  He shook his head. “On the surface, he’s squeaky clean. That doesn’t mean we aren’t keeping our eye on him though.”

  “We also have to consider that he smashed in Sonia’s window when she didn’t pay her debt. Do you think that really happened?”

  “Do you think there’s a reason it might not have happened?”

  I shrugged. “I guess I don’t know that for sure, but it’s still hard for me to believe that Sonia gambled. But there isn’t any reason for her to lie, right?”

  “I can’t imagine why she would. She sure didn’t file a police report if it really happened,” he said. “I checked on Dave to see if he had a police record here in town, and he didn’t. Like I said, from the looks of it, he’s squeaky clean. Except for what everyone says about him.”

  “Squeaky clean,” I said thoughtfully. “Isn’t it odd how some people who appear to be squeaky clean are anything but?”

  “It isn’t odd, it’s almost kind of normal. At least in my line of work it is. People claim all kinds of innocence until you look deeper into their stories.”

  I nodded. “I bet you see all kinds of things.” I glanced at him. “Are you still just as happy about having become a police officer as you were when you first began?”

  He was quiet for a moment and it surprised me. I had thought he would immediately say yes. I looked up at the bare trees. The sky was beginning to cloud up again and the wind was getting stronger. It might not have been a good day for a walk in the park.

  “Well, I certainly have experienced more than I ever imagined I would since I took this job, and I guess that’s a good thing. It depends on how you look at it. But I think I’m still happy that I did. There’s something satisfying about arresting someone that has done something as terrible as commit murder. And I can’t dismiss that satisfaction. It’s really become something that I live for.”

  I took this in. “I’m not crazy about it being so dangerous for you. But I can see where arresting criminals would be satisfying. I could never do your job. I know you’ve seen some terrible things and then there’s the danger factor built into it.”

  He squeezed my hand and smiled. “I wouldn’t want you to do my job. Somebody’s got to make candy for me.”

  I chuckled. “Well then, I volunteer for that job. But I’ve got my eye on his wife. I think she might have done it. If I’m wrong, then Dave Jennings is next on the list. Even if he was never suspected of murder in Montana, he’s still doing something illegal. That kind of job is dangerous, and he’s the one who is behind that danger.”

  “You can say that again,” he said.

  We walked in silence for a few minutes. “Are you close to making an arrest?” I asked him. “What about that medallion? Were there any fingerprints on it?”

  “We couldn’t get good prints from the medallion. But again, there were so many of those made, it could have belonged to anyone. Some tourist probably dropped it.”

  We looked up and saw Sonia Perrins riding a bicycle down the sidewalk toward us. She was wearing a helmet and a heavy coat with a backpack on her back.

  “I wonder where she’s going?” I said to Ethan.

  “I see her riding her bike now and then,” he said. “She even goes out on the highway sometimes. It isn’t very safe, and I told her to be careful, but she says she’s been doing it for years.”

  “I guess I’ve seen someone riding around town and hadn’t realized it was her,” I said.

  When she looked up, I waved at her and she slowed her bike to a stop and waited for us on the sidewalk. We headed over to her. She was grinning as she adjusted her helmet.

  “Hello, you two! It’s a beautiful day for a ride, isn’t it?” she asked when we got closer.

  “It’s kind of cold and windy,” I said, glancing up at the sky.

  She waved the statement away. “Nonsense. I love riding when the weather is like this. There’s just something about it that makes me happy. Riding my bike is the time when I feel the most alive.”

  “Have you been riding long?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Probably close to ten years now. I started it when my husband died. It gave me something to take my mind off the loss.”

  “Oh? I hadn’t realized you were widowed,” I said. Janna had said she was married to Fagan’s uncle and had gotten divorced, and now I wondered if she had been married more than once.

  She nodded. “Yes, Jonathan died of liver cancer.” She made a clucking sound. “It happened so suddenly, and I’ve missed him ever since.”

  Her eyes got misty. “I’m sorry to hear that.” A drop of rain hit my forehead and I looked up. “I hope the weather holds so you don’t get caught in a storm on your ride.”

  “I stay prepared,” she said, motioning toward the backpack she wore. “My late husband taught me that.”

  “It’s good that you channeled the grief into something that’s good for you,” Ethan said.

  She nodded. “It’s harder to get out once it starts snowing. Then I have to settle for the stationary bike in my house, but I sure do love getting out into nature when the weather is at least decent enough that it doesn’t keep me from riding.”

  “How long were you married, Sonia?” I asked.

  “Only four years. It was a shame. He was the first husband I actually liked,” she said and laughed.

  I chuckled. “How many times have you been married?”

  “Three times, if you count the annulment. My mother always said I couldn’t make up my mind about anything.”

  “It’s hard to find the right one,” Ethan said, smiling at me.

  I smiled back. “Who’s watching the store?” I asked Sonia.

  “Beth Simmons. She doesn’t work very many hours each week, but I hired her about six months ago. It’s been working out really
well. I can get out of the shop now and then and go for a ride.”

  I had forgotten about her part-time employee. It seemed like every time I went in there it was usually just her working by herself.

  “Well it’s good that you can get out in the middle of the day and go for a ride,” I said.

  She nodded and then turned to Ethan. “Well Ethan, have you found Fagan’s killer yet? They did us all a favor you know, but I suppose you have to do your job and arrest them anyway.” She chuckled.

  Ethan smiled. “I do indeed have to do my job and arrest the killer. We haven’t arrested anyone yet, but we will find them. Fagan deserves justice.”

  She smiled and shook her head. “I guess in your estimation he deserves justice, but not in mine. Oh well, what can you do? At least he’s gone, and he doesn’t trouble me anymore.”

  “Exactly how did he trouble you?” Ethan asked. “I know you mentioned he wanted you to pay the water bill, but what else did he do?”

  “What did he do? What he did was exist.” She laughed. “No, I’m kidding. He always had a spiteful remark when he saw me, or he’d tell my customers that my books were infested with bedbugs. Can you believe that? It was always something. Maybe I should have been able to let it go, but when it goes on and on, year after year after year, it’s hard to just let things go. One day I went out to get into my car and someone had let all the air out of my tires. Another time my back window on my car had been broken.”

  “The window was broken while you were at the shop?” Ethan asked.

  She shook her head. “No, it was parked in my driveway. But Fagan and I had had a big argument one day and when I got up the next morning to go to work, it was broken. I just know he was the one that did it."

  “I’m sorry to hear you had so much trouble with him,” he said. “Did you report any of this to the police?”

  “I called the police when the air was let out of my tires, but they said there wasn’t anything they could do since no one saw anything. They told me I was lucky the tires hadn’t been slashed.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t call it lucky when I had to call a tow truck so they could put air my tires.”