Red, White, and Blue Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  “That’s right,” Lucy said slowly. “I hadn’t thought of that. I would feel horrible if I was just a few feet away from Ed and somebody murdered him and I never saw a thing.”

  I couldn’t imagine what her family must be going through right at that moment. The guilt of being so close as she died without knowing it would eat me alive.

  Chapter Four

  “Look what I just bought,” I said, opening the box of fruit that was sitting on my kitchen table. The cherries in the box looked sweet and delicious. “Now I just have to get the pits out.” I frowned. Pitting cherries wasn’t something I enjoyed.

  Lucy stood up and looked into the box. “Oh my, Allie, what are you going to do with all of those cherries?” She plucked up one of the cherries and went to the sink and rinsed it off.

  “I’m going to make cherry jam,” I said. “And cherry cake. And cherry cobbler, and maybe even dry some of them.”

  “Well, you certainly have your work cut out for you,” she said coming back to the table and popping the cherry into her mouth. She grinned. “This is an excellent cherry.”

  “Aren’t they, though? The Co-op always gets the best fruit and vegetables around.”

  “Are you going to sell the jam at the Co-op?” Jennifer asked and grabbed a handful of cherries and went to the sink to rinse them off. “I like cobbler, if you were wondering.”

  “Yes, I’m going to sell them there and maybe at Henry’s, too. I sold a few jars of the plum butter at Henry’s last month, but not as much as I’d hoped for. I think it’ll do much better at the Co-op.”

  Sarah joined us in the kitchen and she spotted the box of cherries. “Oh wow,” she said and came over to look at them. “That’s a lot of cherries, and they look wonderful.”

  “Help yourself. I’m going to get them pitted and cooked up today. I’ll probably have to get another box or two at the Co-op in the next couple of days,” I said. “Anything Cherry flavored always sells well.”

  She took a small handful of cherries and rinsed them off at the sink. “They smell good, too,” she said.

  “I bought a new cherry pitter and I’m going to wash these up and get them pitted,” I said. It was a job, for sure, but nothing beat fresh cherries to bake with.

  “Has Alec said anything else about the murder at the beach last night?” Lucy asked, leaning back in her chair.

  “I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to him this morning yet,” I told her as I got my grandmama’s old metal colander from a lower cupboard. “I still can’t get over that it happened so close to us and we didn’t see a thing.”

  “Me either,” Lucy agreed. “Say, I bet cherry scones would be really good. Maybe with some vanilla bean added?”

  I turned and looked at her. “That is an excellent suggestion. I’ve got all sorts of recipes running through my head, and I’ll come up with something as tasty as these cherries deserve.”

  “Cherry cobbler sounds good to me,” Jennifer suggested and pulled up a chair and sat down.

  “I don’t know how you do so much cooking and baking, Allie,” Sarah said and came over to sit beside Jennifer. “I can hardly find time to heat up a frozen dinner.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “I can’t remember when the last time was that I ate a frozen dinner. But you’re a college student, so I can see where a frozen dinner is easier for you than cooking something from scratch.”

  She nodded. “Plus the dorms don’t exactly help facilitate any kind of real cooking.”

  Sarah and Thad would be here for a few more days and then they would head back to Wisconsin. Her parents lived an hour and a half from the college they attended, and I knew at this point that Thad wasn’t going to spend a lot of time here in Maine without her. I was grateful for what time I was given and made up my mind not to complain about it. Sarah had grown on me, but more importantly, Thad was crazy about her. And for that I was grateful.

  “I need some caffeinated sustenance,” Lucy said and got up and went to the coffee pot. She poured herself a cup and then looked at us. “Anyone else want some coffee?”

  Jennifer jumped up and brought her coffee cup over to the pot and Lucy filled it for her. “Thanks.”

  “The dead woman was Julie Summers’, cousin right?” Lucy looked at me for confirmation.

  I nodded as I began filling up the metal colander with cherries. “Yes, she and her family were here visiting from Omaha.”

  “And that was her husband she was arguing with?”

  “And she argued with her son a time or two,” Jennifer reminded her.

  “So our suspects are her husband and her son?” Lucy asked and brought her coffee and set it on the table. I had already drunk more than my share of coffee that morning and I passed on her offer of another cup.

  “So far, that seems about right,” I said.

  “Except for that man said that she was arguing with another man down by the restrooms,” Sarah reminded us.

  “I wonder if Alec will be able to track him down?” Lucy asked. “For now we can talk to her husband and son, but if Alec can’t find the other guy, I don’t know what we’ll do.”

  I nodded. “That’s what I’ve been thinking. How do we find the man that she argued with? He could have been a tourist just here for the holiday. I hate to say it, but that woman was so cantankerous, she could have started an argument with anyone.”

  “She did seem pretty cranky,” Jennifer agreed. “I wonder why? Maybe we should all go talk to Julie and see what she knows about it?”

  I turned and looked at her, giving her the eye. “No, we all aren’t going to go and talk to Julie. But I might go down there and talk to her. Maybe I’ll bring her a cherry cobbler.”

  “Oh, but I wanted a cherry cobbler. Are you going to make two of them?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “Maybe. If you behave yourself,” I said and went to the sink to rinse the cherries.

  “How are you going to get the spits out?” Lucy asked me.

  “I’ve got this little contraption,” I said, holding up the little metal cherry pitter I’d bought online.

  She frowned. “I bet that’s going to take a long time.”

  I glanced at it. She might have been right. “Let’s see how it goes,” I said. “I should have gotten one that pitted more than one at a time.”

  “I think that would have been a better idea,” Jennifer said.

  Dixie, my black cat, sauntered into the kitchen and rubbed up against Jennifer’s legs and purred loudly. She reached down and scratched his ear. “Hey, boy,” she murmured.

  Once I had rinsed the cherries, I picked up the metal cherry pitter and stuck a cherry into the top of it and pressed the lever. The pit popped out easily, and I tossed it onto a plate. I did another and another, and I realized I had made a mistake in buying a single cherry pitter. This was going to take forever. I picked up the colander of cherries, the pitter, and the plate and went back and sat down at the kitchen table.

  “I should have bought three or four of these and you all could have helped me,” I said as I stuck another cherry into the pitter.

  “That is going to take you forever,” Lucy said, eyeing the pitter in my hand.

  I nodded. “That’s for sure. I think I’ll place an order for one that pits multiple cherries right away. It’s a good investment for the business, anyway. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “Had to be her husband,” Sarah suddenly said. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. I mean, a teenaged son can be annoying, but everybody expects that sort of thing from them. But the husband seemed fed up with his wife. I bet he killed her.”

  I pointed a finger at her. “I was thinking the same thing. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it was him.”

  “And he didn’t cry when he found out she was dead. Wouldn’t you cry if you just found out your spouse was murdered?” Jennifer pointed out.

  “I know I would,” Sarah agreed.

  “But maybe she was having a secret affair with that myster
y man near the bathrooms,” Lucy said. “What if it’s somebody we don’t know anything about? Which is actually true. We don’t even know who the guy is.”

  “Well, I doubt he was here in town for long, since no one knows who he is,” I said thoughtfully. “But, maybe he comes every year? Maybe Anita Towers had made his acquaintance previously, and things fell apart, and they argued. If he disappears into the crowd, then what are the chances that the police are going to find him?”

  “I like how you think,” Lucy said and took another sip of her coffee and picked up one of the cherries I had already pitted and tossed it into her mouth.

  “Hey,” I said. “You just ate part of my work.”

  “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. It was looking at me.”

  I shook my head. “I’m going to order a bigger cherry pitter right away,” I said again. Even though the pitter I had was making quick work of the cherries, I had fifty pounds of them and I was going to be exhausted by the time I was finished. My grandmama used to pit cherries with a knife. The woman was dedicated.

  “You had better get a bigger pitter,” Lucy agreed. “Using that one will take forever.”

  I nodded. What was I thinking? “How are your studies, girls?” I asked Sarah and Jennifer.

  “Fine,” Sarah spoke up. “I can’t believe me and Thad are going to be seniors this year. We’re finally going to graduate next year.” She beamed at me.

  I smiled and nodded. “I can’t believe it, either. I can hardly wait to attend your graduation ceremony. I’ll be the one in the front screaming my head off, by the way.”

  She chuckled. “I would expect nothing less.”

  “And you, Jennifer? How are your grades?” I hadn’t seen anything from the college regarding her final grades and I wondered why that was.

  She glanced at me. “They’re okay.”

  Hello? I sensed trouble in paradise. “What do you mean they’re okay? Are you keeping up with your studies? Is something wrong?”

  She shrugged. “No, I’m keeping up with my studies all right. But I’m going to have to declare a major at some point and I’m clueless about what I want to do with my life. It feels like I’m not old enough to decide what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.”

  “Don’t look at it as forever,” Lucy advised. “Just choose the thing that you enjoy the most, and if you ever have a midlife crisis, you can go back to school and study to be something else.”

  “Lucy gives great advice,” I told her. “Don’t feel like you’re trapped once you choose a major that doesn’t feel right at some point.”

  She sighed and took a sip of her coffee. “All right. I still have a little time yet, and if I change my mind, I’ll just stay in school longer.”

  I nodded slowly, thinking about the bill for extra years of college. “But not too long, okay?”

  She laughed. “All right. Not too long.

  The murder of Anita Towers had been a shock, mostly because we had been so nearby and yet we didn’t see a thing. The fireworks were our excuse, of course, and they were a good one. But there was a part of me that felt guilty that we hadn’t been aware that some poor woman was losing her life that night as we enjoyed ourselves on the beach.

  Chapter Five

  When I finally got enough cherries pitted, I made a cobbler to take over to Julie and her family. I didn’t know how long her cousin’s husband and son would be in town, but I figured they had to have extended their stay long enough to make arrangements to have the body flown home. At the last minute, I stirred in some blueberries with the cherries in the filling. It made a nice red and blue-colored cobbler.

  The next morning I wrapped up the cobbler and texted Lucy to let her know what my plans were. I picked her up on the way over to Julie’s.

  Julie lived in an older ranch-style home near downtown Sandy Harbor. The yard was neatly kept, and as we walked up the steps, I heard a small dog barking from inside the house.

  “Hope that dog isn’t vicious,” Lucy said, eyeing me.

  “I’m sure Julie would put it in another room if it was,” I said and knocked on the door.

  A minute later Julie opened the door and looked at us in surprise. “Oh, good morning, Allie. Good morning, Lucy. What a surprise.”

  I nodded. “Julie, we just wanted to stop by and tell you how sorry we are about your cousin. I can’t imagine how difficult this has been for all of you. I brought you a cherry and blueberry cobbler.” I held up the cobbler for her to see.

  She smiled. “Would you like to come in? That’s sweet of you to make a cobbler for us,” she said, stepping back and allowing us to enter.

  “I always feel so helpless when things like this happen,” I told her. “The only thing I can think of to do is bake something. It’s what got me through my husband’s death, you know. I baked a lot.” A small black poodle sat on a chair near the door and wagged its tail.

  She nodded and took the cobbler from me. “That’s Sylvester. He won’t bite. It’s sweet of you to bake us a cobbler, we certainly will appreciate it.”

  “Hi Sylvester,” I said. The dog thumped its tail against the chair seat.

  We followed Julie into the living room and then she stopped and turned to us. “I know it’s early for dessert, but would you like some coffee, and we can have a piece of the cobbler?”

  Lucy nodded. “We would love some coffee and cobbler,” she said, glancing at me.

  I nodded. “Yes, that would be nice.” We followed her into the kitchen and she motioned to the table and we sat down.

  She set the cobbler on the table and went to the cupboard to get plates.

  “Can I help you with something?” I asked her.

  She shook her head. “Nope, I’ve already got coffee made and it will only take me a minute to get everything together. She went about the kitchen gathering cups, cream and sugar, forks, and the coffeepot, and brought them to the table. When she finished, she pushed her glasses up on her nose and sat down across from me. “There now, we can visit a little while.” She pressed her lips together. “I still can’t believe Anita died.”

  “This is still so shocking to all of us,” Lucy said with a nod. “How are her husband and son doing?”

  She paused, pie server in hand, and looked at her. “It’s just been a terrible shock. Both Bill and Mike are struggling. I mean, they came out here for a week-long vacation, and now they’re going back without a wife and a mother.” She shook her head. “I just can’t imagine it. I mean, she’s my cousin, so of course, I can imagine their loss because I lost someone too. But it’s different, her being their wife and mother.”

  “I know exactly what you’re saying,” Lucy said nodding and picking up a cup and filling it with coffee. “It’s different when it’s a really close relationship.”

  Julie nodded and glanced at me. “I don’t know what they’re going to do without her. Their worlds revolved around her.”

  I looked at her, surprised. There was a lot of arguing going on over at their blanket, and to hear that their worlds revolved around her wasn’t what I was expecting her to say.

  “I can imagine,” I said slowly, trying to come up with a way to ask her what I wanted to know.

  She nodded again and cut into the cobbler. “Yes, Bill and Anita were married for twenty years. I know Bill is just devastated.”

  “That’s a long time to be married to suddenly lose your spouse. Thaddeus and I were married for seventeen years before he died. It was devastating, as you can imagine. Not that it wouldn’t have been just as devastating if we hadn’t been married long. It’s just that when you’ve been with someone for a long time, it’s so hard to even imagine your life without them.”

  She cut me a piece of cobbler and pushed the plate toward me without speaking for a moment. I picked up the plate and poured a cup of coffee.

  “I’m just so thankful that my husband and son are fine. Can you imagine? It makes me wonder if the killer was on the beach just randomly stabbing people and on
ly managed to kill Anita before losing their nerve and killing more people.” She shook her head and whistled. “I can’t imagine someone being so depraved as to run around stabbing strangers.”

  Lucy and I looked at one another wide-eyed. “Oh? You think it was a stranger that killed her?” Lucy asked.

  Julie jerked her head around and looked at her. “What do you mean do I think it was a stranger? Of course it was a stranger. Who else would it be?”

  Lucy shook her head slowly, her eyes still wide. “Oh, I guess I wasn’t thinking. Who else would it be?” She chuckled nervously and shot me a look.

  Julie turned to me. “Anita came for vacation every summer, and so she did know a few people around town, but not many. And she went to school here when we were kids, but most of her friends have moved away, so she’s really just coming here to visit with me. There are so many tourists here this time of year. Of course it had to be a stranger. Who else would commit such a heinous crime?”

  “I think it’s a very good possibility that it was a stranger,” I said carefully. Actually, my best guess was that it was somebody that she knew. Like a family member. “You say she didn’t know many people around here. But she did know some?”

  She nodded. “Yes, most summers she came and spent a month or longer here. She just loved the beach, so we would spend a lot of time going down there and visiting the shops. But she was especially fond of my mailman, Dave Jones. Do you know him?”

  I was shocked. The fact that Julie was saying Anita was especially fond of her mailman and didn’t find that odd, or at least didn’t appear to find that odd, was a surprise. “Yes, I do know Dave Jones. He’s my mailman, too. He seems like a nice person. So, how did she make his acquaintance?”

  “Well, when he delivers the mail, of course. And then a few times I had him over to dinner.”

  It took everything I had not to look at Lucy in shock. “You had your mailman over to dinner?” I asked. She stared at me through those thick coke-bottle lens glasses of hers for a moment, and then she started laughing.