Varnished without a Trace

by Misty Simon

  I laughed. “You don’t have to be my pass into everywhere. And I hesitate to involve Jenna when she works for me and she and Nathan are fighting. I don’t want to add to their troubles.”

  “Oh, I know you get in plenty of places all on your own. But this murder and second corpse is just baffling. The other people who have died under mysterious circumstances have always seemed to be bad in their own right, but this one just feels different. And with Hoagie missing, there almost has to be more going on than a hidden secret that someone doesn’t want to get out or a business deal gone wrong.”

  “Actually, I think you are incredibly right. And I’m with you on this one being something bigger. I guess I could go see if Nathan needs any help now that the store is closed for a bit for water damage. Jenna’s working at the moment, and I could offer my help without it seeming too weird.”

  “It’s a sound plan, or at least as sound as any of your plans tend to be.”

  I stuck my tongue out at her and she giggled.

  “So mature, Tallie.”

  “I can’t be all things adult.”

  “And I wouldn’t have you any other way.”

  We left just as the front door opened. Todd stood in the doorway with his arms crossed and a stern look on his face, as if giving us warning that we had taken too long to get off his property.

  Was it just a death in the family that was making him overly negative, or had he always been like that and I had just never noticed it? It was worth checking out, and I knew exactly who I was going to see after I’d talked to Nathan. Once I found him.

  * * *

  The hardware store was cordoned off with tape when I drove by on my way back home. A big, black banner ran across the front doors with the words “We Miss You” spelled out in hammers. Who had done that? And why were they assuming that Hoagie was dead? Or were they really missing Ronda? I had a hard time believing that last one, but stranger things had happened before.

  I still had three other children belonging to Hoagie to talk with. Maybe they didn’t all feel like Chrissy, or maybe she just thought they did because that was what she wanted . . .

  She had been the black sheep in her family for years. It could be that she wanted them all to feel like she did, but they didn’t. It bore thinking on to come up with a way to talk to the others without seeming like I was talking to them. But Chrissy might have warned them that I was looking into things and therefore they wouldn’t talk to me at all.

  I needed to put Max on doing some background digging.

  I did want to find out if Nathan really was the only inheritor of the hardware store, though. That felt like it would be significant if it was true. And when had Hoagie’s children been told?

  But no one answered after I walked up the two flights of metal stairs to knock on Nathan’s door. He would have to wait. I texted Jenna to see where she was, and if she knew where her husband was. When an answer didn’t come back right away I figured I’d hear from her soon enough.

  Which led me to the other side of Main Street, where I could get my caffeine fix, my sugar fix, and my gossip fix, all at the same time. Mama Shirley would give me that last one while my best friend, Gina Laudermilch, could give me the other two in spades.

  The Bean There, Done That sat on Main Street in all its glory. It had been the scene of a crime a little while back, but that smudge on its reputation was nothing compared to the way it shone in the early afternoon sunlight. I was fully aware this would be my second visit in one day, but who else was counting? Not Gina, because my money spent like everyone else’s and she didn’t even give me a discount.

  People came in and out of the front door to the point that Gina had removed the bells that jangled above it. It was too distracting to have them going off all the time, in her opinion.

  So nothing jangled when I pulled the door, but the din of conversation probably would have drowned everything out anyway. The place was stacked with people at the lunch counter, in chairs at the tables. And one topic of conversation dominated the whole place.

  The Hogarts.

  I caught bits and pieces of people who were sad and others that were laughing at the things the man had done over the years. From the time he’d worn a top hat every day throughout the year until he’d started going bald in a fringe like a friar, to the time he’d run a huge train around the whole store to make the kids laugh at Christmas. No one said a word about Ronda, just Hoagie and the way he’d given to the community, and some speculation about where he might be, though most were talking as if he were indeed dead.

  Lester Walkins had a story about the way he’d refused to prosecute a shoplifter and had instead taught him to shelve and stage the store to the point where he’d become a professional and now set up box stores across the country to make them shine. Lester was on the side who thought Hoagie was on his way to eternity.

  Fran Keller, who thought Hoagie was just hiding out somewhere, told a story about the time Hoagie decided that Halloween should be celebrated on the day it actually was set on the calendar, instead of the Thursday before, like the borough had set aside. It was a huge bone of contention within the community. To this day, unless October 31 fell on a Thursday, kids in our area never got to actually trick-or-treat on Halloween. The borough said it was for safety reasons, with the traffic on Friday or Saturday nights. Most of us didn’t understand and thought it was ridiculous yet left it alone to fight other, bigger battles with the borough.

  But one year Hoagie decided to take Halloween back and handed out candy, had a parade in the store, and dressed up as Santa Claus on the day itself. The town had come after him, and he’d mock-battled with the officer in charge of the arrest all those years ago.

  I think it was Burton at that point, too. Poor guy never seemed to get a break.

  We kids had loved having two Halloweens, and from then on, we could always dress up on the actual holiday and go into the store for candy. We hadn’t had a parade in years, and Hoagie hadn’t dressed up himself again, but it had been a fun thing for those who wanted it to be the holiday itself.

  He’d done a lot for the community, and the community would be behind him, to support him in the death of his wife no matter how many people hadn’t liked her. But where was he? Unless he’d killed her. And I’d bet dollars to the doughnuts I was eyeing in the bakery case that some would still be behind him even if he’d done the deed.

  A few people whispered to one another, including Jenna and her friends. She’d never texted me back about talking with Nathan, and I might need to corner her. I had thought she still had another house to clean, but I could have been wrong without my calendar. I’d check that too, just as soon as I got the scoop on everything else.

  I wished those whispered words were the conversations I could hear, but aside from plunking myself down right outside their sphere and figuring out how to get an invisibility cape in the process, it wasn’t going to happen. However, there was always Mama Shirley, who would know what everyone was saying regardless.

  Gina gave me a sad smile when I came up to the counter. She’d already made me a steaming cup of cookies and cream coffee mixed with hot chocolate. I had been hesitant to try it when she’d first put it on the menu, preferring my whoopee pie latte, but then I’d fallen in love with it. I didn’t mean to cheat on my favorite coffee, but this one was pretty stellar all on its own.

  “So, have you found out anything more about the dead guy?” she said as I bellied up to the counter.

  “I haven’t. I think I figured out who he was, though, but I don’t understand why he would have been here in the first place. He was already dead and embalmed in West Virginia. Someone moved him here. But who?”

  One of her eyebrows shot up. “That’s a lot of work in very little time.”

  “Not really.”

  “Let’s not play games. What are you going to do about it? Burton was already in here, talking with Mama Shirley. I don’t know what about, because she won’t tell me, but they looked pr
etty serious.”

  He had invited me to help. He’d better not be going around my back to cut off my primo, number one source of information . . .

  “Of course she told him to mind his own business and she’d mind hers, and if he’d figure it out on his own, you wouldn’t have to be involved anyway.”

  I snickered, because that was a good one. I’d have to tell her that when I saw her. It was something I’d been saying for a while. It’s not like I wanted to get involved with all these murders. In fact, I’d rather they stop altogether, but that didn’t appear to be happening, so we needed to figure them out as soon as possible to make sure the killers were behind bars. Or at least off the streets, so the town would be safer. And if that meant I solved things to make my town a safe place, so be it.

  “Where is Mama Shirley?” I asked, taking a sip of pure heaven with a shot of caffeine.

  “She’s down at Carl’s to see if there’s anything she can do to help. She and his wife play bingo together, and that’s like a sisterhood. Not quite the Bingo Queens, but it’s close.”

  Dang it! I wished I could be in that sisterhood, but I didn’t play a lot of bingo. And I refused to get a Bingo Queen tote made to carry around my own set of troll dolls.

  I’d tried once to fit in with the bingo crowd, and my grandmother on my father’s side, who was a die-hard, had threatened not to let me ride home in her car after I won, because only those who had devoted their lives to it should win, according to the old guard. And anyone who was not a die-hard was not anymore welcome to play than the crowd had welcomed those non die-hards on Christmas Eve.

  “Well, when you see her, tell her I have a few questions. Unless you know how Hoagie is related to us. I guess I could ask my mother, but I’m almost afraid to go over there. I’m trying my hardest to stay away from my grandmother for a little while longer.”

  “Hmmm.” Gina wiped the clean counter as she thought. “He’s someone’s uncle, though I can’t remember who. Chrissy, Carl, Caitlin and Calvin are all cousins of yours, but then again, around here we seem to call anyone close to us who’s related in anyway a cousin. I’ll ask and get back to you. But it might be better for you to just go to the source.”

  “My grandmother, remember?”

  “She’s not so bad.”

  “Yeah, but that’s only because you’re new to the family. She’ll want to keep you happy until that second ring is on your finger.”

  Gina glanced down at her left hand and smiled. “After that, I’ll handle her.”

  “I’ll look forward to that with much anticipation. In the meantime, did you know that the hardware store is going to be left to Nathan, and the kids pretty much get nothing? Chrissy told me when Letty and I were over there a few hours ago to clean.”

  “Well, then, it can’t be one of the kids who murdered her.”

  I tapped a finger on the counter. “That doesn’t process. Why not? They could have been angry about how things were going and killed her to get the store.”

  “But you just said they aren’t getting anything, and if Chrissy knows that, I’m sure she’s spread it to anyone who would listen. They would have waited until the will was changed. Killing her now took away all their options. Unless they thought they could coerce Hoagie into changing things without Ronda here. Although I don’t get why he would have gone into hiding then.”

  That was something to think about. “I see your point, but I’ll up you one more that if they didn’t wait, the will was never going to be changed back.”

  “Which would mean they weren’t getting anything at all, no matter what,” Gina finished for me.

  I stuck my chin on my upturned palm and considered. “Do you think it’s weird that we talk about murder and inheritance in the same way we’d talk about what aroma of coffee is best?”

  Her smile was small, but turned into a chuckle. “Not at all. In fact, I think it’s one of our best qualities.”

  Mama came busting through the back at her words. “You have many good qualities, but the best is your ability to keep your thoughts to yourself when they shouldn’t be given to anyone else.”

  That sounded a little like a smackdown. I flinched with my coffee in my hand, almost splashing it on myself.

  Gina looked sheepish too.

  “Both of you, in the back.” Mama surveyed the coffee shop her daughter owned, nodded as if what she saw pleased her, and then turned around. She went into the back room, knowing we would follow her, counting on it because we knew if we didn’t, she’d come back out and drag us by the arms if she had to.

  I scrambled off my seat and came around the corner, pulling Gina behind me when she hesitated. “You know what’s expected,” I whispered.

  “And what if I want to pretend that I’m an actual adult and don’t need to listen to my mother’s every command?” she said back, but I noted she whispered also.

  “Problem in mommyland?”

  “She won’t leave the whole getting-married-to-your-brother thing alone. She wants it soon. Heck, she wants it last month. But I want time to plan the wedding I’ve dreamed of, and she’s not listening. I’m tired of it.”

  “I know you’re saying things even if I can’t hear them,” Mama said from behind the closed door to the back.

  I patted Gina’s arm. “We’ll talk later. For now, let’s just see what she has to say, then go from there.”

  Gina’s lips pressed firmly together, but she didn’t utter another word. Good enough.

  Mama Shirley was smiling at us very pleasantly when we came through the door to join her in the break room. “Girls, I’m not going to scold you. You’re making this old woman feel like I’m a meanie.”

  “Of course that’s not our intention,” I said before Gina could chime in. “You just looked mad.”

  “But it’s not at you, it’s at that dolt, Burton, who keeps telling me what I can and can’t do. He has to have learned over the past sixty years that that doesn’t work with me. So now we’re going to go top secret.”

  That I could be on board with. Even Gina smiled.

  “What did you find out?” she asked her mom.

  “It’s what I didn’t find out that’s more interesting.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Ican’t find Hoagie on your family tree.” Mama Shirley announced this as if it should have been intoned instead of said.

  It took me a moment to follow what she was saying. “Did you look in the right place?”

  She shot an eyebrow up at me that matched the one from Gina earlier. “Of course I did. And he’s not there.”

  “Wait, do you have an actual tree for everyone in town? Like on a wall in a gallery, the way Sirius Black did?”

  Gina laughed. “She is not going to know what you mean by that, Tallie, because she only watches her daytime soaps. We don’t have actual trees on walls, but Mama does have a book where everyone’s name and place is kept, and if Mama says he’s not there, he’s not there.”

  “But we are related, right?” I asked a second, obvious question and got a frown in return.

  “I don’t know,” Mama said. “I talked to several of your relatives, and they all agree that he’s related to them but can’t remember how.”

  “Did you ask Burton?”

  “That’s the strange part. He said it was through your Aunt Bertha, but I know where that page is and he’s not there. And Hoagie’s never been like a relation that was born on the wrong side of the blanket, or someone who married in. I distinctly remember that he and his family were a solid branch of the tree going back decades, but the more I think about it, the more I realize I don’t know where that started or where it came from. When I pressed Burton, he got pissy and then pretended to take a call to get me out of his office. The darn phone didn’t even ring, but he picked it up and started talking as if it had.”

  “Rude,” I said, baffled that Burton would do that to his favorite cousin. They might have had their differences over the years, but he always came in f
or coffee and to talk with Mama, knowing that nine times out of ten she’d have more info than he could legitimately pay for from an informant.

  “Did he hang up when you walked out?” Gina asked.

  “I don’t know because I was in a huff, but I went in there to see which child he had contacted to make the funeral arrangements, and who he thought might come so we could make sure the whole family was taken care of, so I decided to do some looking on my own. But I cannot for the life of me find out who Hoagie is actually related to.”

  “That is bizarre.” My mind was in high gear as I took a seat on the couch. That only lasted for a second, though, as I popped back up fast enough to have my knees cracking. “I feel like Burton’s hiding something. I thought he was being truthful with me and really wanted my help, but now I’m not so sure. And why is there so much focus on Hoagie and not on finding Ronda’s killer? It’s like she’s being left in the dust.” Could he be playing me? Letting me think I was helping and then running me in circles until he figured it out on his own?

  “You’re not the only one.” Mama stood as ramrod straight as the small set of lockers Gina had installed for the employees she seemed never to be able to keep. “I talked with Gladys Newberry, second cousin once removed from your mother. And she wasn’t able to remember either, and she’s the genealogist in the family.”

  The plot thickened. “So, do you think Burton is trying to hide it, or do you think he feels dumb for not knowing?”

  “I’m not sure, but I’ll find out and get back to you. I want you girls to be careful, though. I have a bad feeling about this one. Please don’t make my mother’s intuition go off the scale.”

  With that, she left, hell-bent on her mission.

  Gina and I turned to each other. “Thoughts?” I asked.

  “I’m really not sure. I mean, Hoagie was always an uncle, but then, he seemed to be an uncle to everyone. Even I called him Uncle Hoagie until I was about twenty.”

  “I’m trying to think back over the years, but nothing strange is popping up for me,” I said. “It’s not always a perfect thing to do the family heritage, and I know he came to our family reunions for years, as long as they were in town. So I’m not sure what to think. He’ll always be my uncle in my heart, but I guess it might be possible that the blood connection isn’t really there.”