by Lynn Cahoon
The group finished setting the table and quickly took their seats for the evening meal. Uncle Pete sighed as he took a chicken breast from the plate and passed it on to Cat. “You cook like an angel.”
“That’s what you tell me all the time.” Shauna grinned at the compliment. “But I appreciate people who like my food. It makes me feel needed.”
“So where did you get the interns?” Seth piled mashed potatoes on his plate, then made a well for the gravy. “I didn’t know Covington had a criminal justice program.”
“They don’t. These are pre-law students. I’m pretty sure each one is hoping to get a credible tip so he or she will be tapped to work the case by the prosecutor.” Uncle Pete took the bowl of potatoes and mirrored Seth’s movements.
“Now, where would they get an idea like that?” Cat broke open a piece of corn bread, the steam filling her mouth with the taste. She spread butter on both sides.
“I might have said it was a possibility.” Uncle Pete shrugged. “Hey, it worked. They’re happy and Katie doesn’t have to answer all those calls herself.”
“Are you any closer to finding out what happened?” Cat set her fork down and looked at him. “Can you tell us how he died? The rumor mill is going wild.”
Uncle Pete stared at her for a long second. Then he set his fork down. Using his napkin, he wiped his lips. Then he nodded. “I’m going to have to talk to you again anyway. Someone is saying you’re her alibi.”
“Let me guess—Jessica.”
Uncle Pete didn’t look surprised but instead he looked thoughtful. “Don’t tell me you actually are her alibi.”
“No. Not even. She stormed in here today and demanded I lie to you. So what’s up with that? I don’t think she has the guts to kill a fly, let alone her brother-in-law.” Cat tore off a piece of chicken and pointed it at her uncle. “This isn’t the woman I was friends with before Michael and I divorced. She’s like a bad clone.”
“Well, your friend has some explaining to do. She and the victim had been talking on the phone daily. His phone is filled with calls from her.” Her uncle paused, looking at Cat. “Do you think she might have been having an affair with him?”
Cat almost spit out the chicken. “Jessica? No way. She was so in love with Tyler it was uncomfortable to be around them sometimes. Or at least . . . that’s the way it was five years ago. Heck, how do I know? This Jessica isn’t the same person I knew then.”
Uncle Pete returned to his meal, looking thoughtful about what Cat had told him.
When they’d finished the main course, they all had a cup of coffee and a slice of pie with vanilla ice cream on top. Then Cat ventured the question again. “So how did Greyson die?”
Her uncle didn’t look up from his dessert. “Someone hit his head very hard from behind and left him to die on the floor of the bakery. Someone with a lot of anger.”
If that didn’t describe the Jessica who’d come to visit today, Cat thought, nothing did.
Chapter Eleven
Seth’s phone rang as they were sitting, drinking coffee. He glanced at the display, then stood. “Sorry, I have to take this.”
Cat heard him answer as he walked outside. “Hey, Nate.”
“I don’t care what Nate wants me to tell Dee Dee now; he’s out of luck.” She got up and got the coffeepot to refill her cup. “Anyone else want some?”
Her uncle held up his hand. “Me. I’ve got some paperwork to finish up tonight.”
The door to the kitchen opened and Seth walked over to Uncle Pete. “Sorry, you’re going to have to take that to go. Nate was almost run down outside Bernie’s a few minutes ago.”
“Oh, no. Is he all right?” Shauna stood and grabbed a couple of to-go cups from the cupboard. “Cat, fill these. Seth, I take it you’re going with Pete?”
“If you don’t mind. Nate asked me to come and he’s kind of shook up.” Seth took the cup Shauna handed him. “Thanks.”
“You’ll need to bring your own car. If Nate needs to go to the hospital, you might just save him an ambulance bill.” Uncle Pete took the coffee from Shauna. “Of course, if he’s really hurt, you’ll have to follow him.”
“Do you need anything from me?” Cat followed her uncle to the door. “Maybe I should . . .”
“Maybe you should stay here and take care of your guests.” Uncle Pete put on his hat and jacket. “Just because you’re my niece doesn’t mean you have to be part of everything that goes on in Aspen Hills.”
“You don’t think this is about the murder?” Cat pushed the question out before he could leave.
“The question is—why do you?” With that, he left with Seth following close behind.
Shauna picked up the empty plates and moved them to the sink. “Your uncle just wants you to be safe. He doesn’t mean to keep you out of the loop on things.”
“I know. I’m a serial investigator. Sometimes I think it’s the writer in me. I see something and add it to something else, then all of a sudden, I have a solution to the problem. I don’t mean to be a pest.” Cat sat with her coffee, watching out the window until she couldn’t see the tail lights on Seth’s truck anymore. “But don’t you think it’s weird that Nate is almost run down right after Greyson was killed?”
“I have to agree with your uncle. I’m not seeing the connection.” Shauna glanced at Cat’s dessert plate. “You want more?”
“No, I’m going to go see what’s going on with the retreat guests.” Cat took her coffee cup and left the kitchen. She found the writers all gathered in the living room. Coffee and desserts sat on the coffee table nearby. Anne looked up as Cat paused at the door and waved her inside. “Hey, we were wondering where you’d taken off to.”
“We just finished dinner with my uncle.” Cat had expected to find the group chatting somewhere. “Do you mind if I join you?”
“Please.” Bren moved over on the couch and patted the seat. “Come sit by me. I’ve been told I’m a horrible guest and need to be more social.”
“You need to keep your phone in your room,” Colleen muttered.
Instead of getting angry, Bren laughed. “You’re right. And that’s exactly where it is right now. In my room. I deserve to have a little time just on my own.”
Cat didn’t want to preach to the woman, especially since she was seeming to be growing a backbone, but she hoped Bren’s newfound strength would continue, preventing her from returning to that scared woman she’d been on the stairs on Monday. “I’m glad to see you taking part in the group activities. That’s part of the joy of the retreat. Writing hard during the day and then coming together to talk about the writing and the business at night. Although I have had guests who did the bulk of their writing after the group broke for the night. I’m just not a night owl.”
“Me neither,” Anne supplied. “If I’m writing tired, I get to a point where I’m writing words and sentences, but they have nothing to do with the story. It’s like my brain takes over and downloads thoughts to my fingers.”
Rick laughed. “I had to throw away a whole page one day because I’d done that. I thought I was getting so much done, but it was all crap.”
“So what were you talking about before I interrupted? Ways to kill people again?” Cat curled up on the couch and watched the group.
“Actually, no. We were brainstorming a title for Rick. He’s a little blocked,” Colleen said.
“You make it sound like I have digestive issues.” He turned toward Cat. “I always have problems with titles. I want them to be cute and punny and that’s just not my wheelhouse.”
“This should be fun. Should I get out the whiteboard so we can brainstorm?” Cat jumped up and headed to the closet where she stored the presentation tools for the retreat. “Or maybe just flip-chart paper and some smelly pens?”
“I vote for the paper, but we’ll clear off the coffee table and lay it here.” Anne waited for Cat to bring the large pad of paper to the couch. “If that’s okay.”
“We’ll just do
uble sheet it and the ink shouldn’t bleed through.” Cat tore off two sheets and handed the box of food-scented pens to Colleen. She spread the paper on the now clear coffee table and Colleen dumped the pens on top.
Molly sat cross-legged on the floor and took the blue pen and opened the cap, holding it under her nose. “Blueberry!”
“I like the cinnamon one the best,” Anne announced, grabbing the brown pen before anyone else could.
They huddled around the table. Cat looked to Rick. “So what do you have so far?”
He grinned. “Book Two of the Southern Chefs Mystery series. The books are all about a group of chefs in Atlanta who solve mysteries together. We’d just started playing with the title when you walked in.”
Cat wrote “Southern Chefs” in the middle of the page. “Let’s see, food phrases that work as murder hints.”
“What about ‘Pecan Pie Poisoning’?” Colleen wrote it down in blue. “What are some other southern foods?”
“‘Catfish Carnage’?” Anne wrote down.
Rick shook his head. “Too spot-on.”
“Shh. No critique during brainstorming. This is our ‘write drunk’ time, to paraphrase a Hemingway quote.” Anne threw Rick a red marker.
“Pretty sure Hemingway didn’t say that, but whatever. So what about ‘A Dead Man and the Sea’?” He wrote it down in neat block letters.
“You are really bad at this,” Bren teased, picking up the black marker.
He poked her with a finger. “Hey, no critiques during brainstorming.”
“And you wonder why we’re just starting the process. It takes a while for everyone to start playing by the rules,” Anne commented to Cat.
Cat was playing with the things she knew about the south. Low country. Shrimp and crab boil. Heat. “Slow Southern Slaying.” She wrote that one down.
“Fried Chicken.” “Bless your heart . . .” Maybe something with that. She was lost in thought as she played around with the words, trying to make the title seem southern and about food, as well as being about murder. She murmured as she wrote, “Bless Your Dead Heart?”
“Arsenic and Old Lace.” Bren wrote as she spoke the words.
“Isn’t that already a title?” Colleen glanced over to where Bren sat.
“Tell us a little bit about the series. Maybe that will help,” Anne prodded.
As Rick explained his premise, Cat thought about the words that kept popping into her brain. Like “Sweet Tea.” Or movies about the south. “A Few Dead Men?”
“What about ‘Sinners and Sweet Tea’? Or ‘Chicken Pot Die’?” Molly got into the fun. “If it’s a vampire cozy mystery, it could be called ‘Chicken Fried Stake.’”
Rick pointed to the paper. “Write those down. They’re really good.”
Molly beamed at the praise and quickly wrote the ideas down on the paper with an orange pen that smelled like a Florida grove. “This is really fun.”
They brainstormed for a few more minutes, then Bren stood and stretched. “I need sugar if I’m going to stay up much longer. Should we pop in a movie while we let the brainstorming ideas settle? Rick can pick one tomorrow morning and then whoever’s idea it was, he has to list you in the acknowledgments.”
“I’m putting all of you in the acknowledgments. This was really helpful.” He followed her out of the living room. “Maybe tomorrow night we can brainstorm titles for the rest of the series?”
Anne shook her head. “I think he’s only half kidding about that. Rick really hates thinking of titles.”
“It takes a village.” Cat nodded to the big screen television and the bookcase filled with movies. “You’re welcome to watch anything. Seth and I like to spend Saturday nights here with the latest releases, so I think you’ll find the selection good.”
She started to leave, but Colleen pulled her aside. “I just wanted to see if you were all right. I was in the living room when that woman came in and started yelling at you.”
“I’m fine. She’s just under a lot of stress.” Cat hadn’t realized any of the guests had been close by to hear the argument. Now she was really glad she hadn’t gone off on Jessica. “Thanks for checking in with me though. That was sweet.”
“Well, according to the lady I talked to in the library who was shelving books, I guess your friend can be a royal witch.” Colleen looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to them. When she decided that everyone was occupied and not listening, she leaned closer to Cat. “She also said that Jessica was having an affair with the dead guy. Can you imagine that? I hear he’s related to her and everything.”
“It might just be a rumor. They spread like wildfire when something like this happens.” Cat didn’t want Colleen to get invested in solving the murder. One person in the house taking chances was enough.
Colleen didn’t look convinced. “This woman was pretty sure about her facts. She said she used to see them meet at the bakery after it closed for business once or twice a week.”
“Jessica and Greyson? They were meeting at the bakery?” It didn’t make sense. Why not invite him over to their house? Unless they were hiding an affair. Cat wondered if Uncle Pete knew about this. “Who did you talk to? Do you remember?”
“Her name was Heidi. She said she’s been at the library for years, almost as long as Mrs. Applebome.” Colleen paused and Cat saw the moment the realization hit her. “You don’t think it’s just rumor, do you?”
“Not really my place to judge.” Cat nodded toward the television. “You better get over there if you want a vote in what movie you’re watching.”
Colleen shrugged as she watched her friends. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll probably be asleep within the first fifteen minutes. Watching movies makes me tired.”
Cat knew how she felt. Sometimes when she and Seth were cuddled on the couch, she’d wake up, the movie over and a blanket covering her. Seth would be sitting in one of the other chairs reading while she slept. The first time it had happened, she’d thought it had been Michael sitting there and she must have been dreaming. Thank goodness she hadn’t called out his name.
She didn’t miss her ex-husband and she definitely didn’t love him anymore. But living in the house they’d bought during their short marriage brought back memories at the oddest times. Especially when she was tired. She realized Colleen was watching her. “Sorry, I spaced there for a minute. Anything I can do for you?”
“Just stay safe. I hear from Shauna that you have a habit of snooping around. I’m not sure this is the time to do that.” Colleen blushed as Cat stared at her. “Sorry, I’m a bit psychic and sometimes I don’t control what I’m saying as well as I should.”
Rick passed by with a plate of chocolate chip cookies. “Oh . . . did you have to out your special power? Now she’s going to think we’re all freaks.”
Colleen smiled and took one of the cookies. “Rick, the only one who’s a freak around here is you.”
As she walked away toward the group discussing movies, Rick watched her go. Then he grinned at Cat. “She really loves me.”
“Do not,” Colleen called back without even turning around.
Smiling, Cat left the group to settle in for the evening and decided to check on Shauna. When she went to the kitchen, it was empty. But the back door was open. Cat walked through to the backyard and the path that led to the pasture beyond. Cat would take bets on the fact that Shauna was probably out talking to Snow.
When she reached the barn, three kittens came running up to meet her. The fourth and fifth were on Shauna’s lap, curled up and seemingly asleep. Shauna wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand when Cat walked through the door. “You caught me trying to unwind a bit. And, I realized having a horse is another good thing. They like apples. I can get rid of at least one more a day.”
“I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Cat picked up one of the kittens and brought it to her cheek. “I was just checking in. I’m heading to bed. The writers are tucked into the living room with a movie, even Bren. She s
wears she’s putting away her phone for the rest of the week.”
Shauna sighed. “Sometimes women are in bad relationships. Maybe it’s her, maybe it’s him, but clearly, it’s not working. You have to have your own life, you know?”
“I guess I’ve always felt that way. Even in high school, Seth and I were close, but we both had things that we did apart. My girlfriends and I would go to the theater. Seth and the boys would go to the woods.” Cat sat on a straw bale. “He asked me once if I thought we were too different.”
“You do have different tastes, but doesn’t that make the relationship even stronger?” Shauna absently rubbed one of the kittens’ heads as she spoke. “Kevin had his work. I think his hobby was making more money. But it gave me time to be at the retreat. Doing the things I wanted to do. I think he might have wanted the more arm candy type of wife, but that’s not me.”
Cat looked around the refurbished barn. The feel of the old wood mixed with new life gave the area a magical quality. “Seth’s a good man. We have fun together. I’m afraid I’ve brought him knee deep into my world as he’s now the official handyman slash driver for the retreat.”
“It works.” Shauna met her gaze. “The three of us are friends and that makes the work easy. We all have our roles.”
“It does work, doesn’t it?” Cat yawned and set the kitten down near its mother, Angelica, who promptly grabbed the baby and started to give it a bath. “I’m heading in. Do you need anything from me?”
“No, I’m fine right here. I’ll be in later.” Shauna’s smile was sad. “I’m giving myself time with my memories. I get exactly thirty minutes a day, then I have to get out of my pity party and back to the real world. So far, the process is working.”
“Then I’ll leave you to it. But if you need me . . .”
Shauna shook her head. “Go to bed. I’m fine. And I appreciate your concern.”