by R A Wallace
“Yeah. Good point.”
Megan disconnected and looked at Dan. He had remained close enough to hear most of the conversation.
“Are you going to get involved if they suspect foul play?” Dan asked.
Megan shrugged. “I don’t think so. I mean, I didn’t know the person. Do you recognize the name? Alice Durant?”
Dan shook his head slowly. His family had been in Teaberry for so many generations, he joked that he was related to most of the residents somehow. “Nope, doesn’t ring a bell.”
Megan heard Henry’s strangled crowing in the barnyard and glanced out the kitchen window. He’d kept their guests entertained all weekend with his ability to escape the chicken coop. She smiled at Henry’s antics as he chased a bug. Then she thought again of the people she had met at the retirement community.
Dan looked away from Henry and focused on Megan. “Uh, oh. I know that look.”
Megan looked up at Dan. “I’m going to stay out of it. But what if something really happened?”
“The police will figure it out. Right?” Dan waited for Megan to agree.
“Yeah. You’re right.” Megan offered a smile. “I’ll go get the bedding.”
On her way upstairs, she wondered how everyone at the retirement community was taking the death of Alice Durant.
Chapter Three
Early Monday morning Leah Sprouse parked her car across the street from Vintage Teaberry, a shop devoted to selling antiques that she and her husband, Daryl, had opened a decade ago. Vintage Teaberry was sandwiched between Olde Tomes and Teaberry Togs. Anderson’s Florist was on one end of the long brick building on Main Street and Tea & Thyme was on the other. But it was still too early for any of the shops in the building to be open. Leah paused and enjoyed the view. Owning their own shop was a dream and the excitement had yet to fade.
Daryl exited the car and walked around to join his wife of fifteen years. He, too, gazed at the storefront where they spent much of their day and the focus of their lives. “It never gets old, does it?” He was a small, serious-looking man with dark skin, thick glasses, and thin hair which he kept cropped close.
Normally, they would park in the alley behind the impressive brick building, but today they would be leaving for a meeting in a few minutes. They’d only stopped to meet with another resident wishing to drop off an item for the upcoming sale. They would then go to the meeting and would be back at the shop before their normal opening time.
Leah turned to her husband and smiled at his veiled pun about owning an antique store never getting old. “That’s the truth.” Taller than her husband, Leah’s love for antiques matched Daryl’s but it was his sense of humor that had originally attracted her to the quiet intellectual.
A pickup truck slowed then parked in front of their shop. A young man got out. He looked at the closed sign on the front door first then his head swiveled around until he spotted Leah and Daryl approaching him.
Ben nodded a greeting then went to the rear of his truck and began unloading the piece of furniture that he hoped they’d be able to sell on his behalf. He’d wrapped it well in moving blankets and had strapped it down. He was removing the straps when Daryl caught up with him. Leah went to the front door to unlock it and hold it open. Between the two men, they moved the piece into the shop easily and set it gently on the floor.
“I really appreciate you selling this on consignment for me,” the young man said. “It was my grandfather’s. He passed away last year.”
Daryl helped Ben begin to remove the blankets.
“Are you sure you don’t want to hold on to it?” Daryl asked. He wondered if the young man would berate himself years from now for parting with the piece. It wasn’t uncommon.
Ben removed the last of the protective blankets and shook his head as he stood back to admire the piece one last time.
“He always wanted me to go to college. I just started this semester. I’m trying to work and take classes at the same time but the money I make from selling this would really help with my tuition next semester,” Ben explained. “I think he’d be okay with it.”
Leah picked up a moving blanket and began folding it, then handed it to Ben.
“It’s a pretty piece,” she said as she picked up another blanket. She couldn’t fault him for his moving skills. He had wrapped the piece very well.
Daryl cocked his head to one side and rubbed his chin as he examined the piece. He had handled hundreds of pieces over the years and had lost out on hundreds more in bidding wars.
“This looks familiar,” Daryl muttered.
Leah looked at the ornate oak hall tree more closely. “I don’t remember having a hall tree like this before.”
Daryl shook his head. “No, the piece we had before wasn’t a hall tree. But it had the same ornate carvings.”
Daryl turned back to Ben when he realized where he’d seen it before.
“Do you know where your grandfather got the piece?” Daryl asked. He was pretty sure he already knew the answer.
Ben shrugged. “I was with my grandfather when he bought it. It was one of the farms outside of town.”
“Do you remember if it was in the area of the Teaberry Farm Bed and Breakfast?” Daryl asked.
“Yeah, I guess it was. I was just a little kid at the time. I remember that we went to some sort of auction. There wasn’t anyone living at the farm then. Not that I remember anyway. Grandpa found this out in the barn and bid on it. No one else wanted it because it was covered in filth at the time.” Ben took the last folded blanket from Leah. “That would have been before the current owner.”
“We helped the owner of Teaberry Farm acquire some new pieces after she opened the B&B. She couldn’t afford everything at once. She bought a few pieces over time. She already had a hall table that matched this piece that she’d found in the barn,” Daryl said with excitement.
He loved finding the right homes for the antiques they discovered. He would call Megan today and let her know. Ben’s grandfather must have bought the piece at the auction sometime before Megan bought the farm.
“Maybe she’d like this one?” Ben asked hopefully as he glanced at the time on one of the antique clocks on a shelf. “I need to go. Thanks again for helping with this.”
Daryl and Leah locked the shop after Ben left and got back into their car to go to their meeting.
“I hope Megan is interested,” Leah said. “We’re running out of room for all of the pieces people are dropping off on consignment for the upcoming sale.”
***
Jessilyn double checked the figures in the spreadsheet on her computer then printed the page out. She would bring it to the meeting in case anyone asked for specifics. Glancing at the time on her computer, she saw that she only had a few more minutes until the meeting began.
As the Teaberry Events Coordinator, she was often responsible for creating unique ideas to help foster business in Teaberry, but she couldn’t take credit for the current project. The Teaberry Community Sale would involve anyone in town who had an interest in selling gently used items. It had been the brain child of Daryl and Leah Sprouse. She’d thought the idea was a good one and Jessilyn had jumped on board immediately.
She was certain it would draw visitors from many areas who would be interested in visiting different locations throughout the town for the sale. Jessilyn was convinced that other area businesses would also benefit from the influx in visitors.
Grabbing her printouts, she hurried down the hall to the meeting room. The mayor, Barbara Reynolds, was arranging a coffee tray. Jessilyn recognized the baked goods from Lauren Dempsey’s oven. No one could bake like Lauren. Daryl and Leah Sprouse walked in a moment later.
Barbara waited until everyone had a chance to get some coffee and pastries before beginning the meeting. Leah and Daryl weren’t from Teaberry initially, but they had quickly become prominent members of the business community. Barbara had been intrigued with their idea from the beginning. Thanks to the hard work put
in by Jessilyn to coordinate the event with the entire community, they were now set to have the Teaberry Community Sale in eleven days.
Barbara sat at the head of the table and directed her question to Jessilyn. “How are things going on your end?”
“I think we’re in good shape,” Jessilyn said. “The list of participating sites for the sale have been posted on the town web site. Megan has been updating the list as more people decide to give it a try. We’re going to have dozens and dozens of private homes holding garage sales, many of the businesses in town are getting involved with their own sales, and the entire retirement community will be open with residents selling items.”
Jessilyn paused for a moment and looked over at Leah and Daryl.
Leah nodded. “For those who are interested in selling old or large pieces but who don’t want the trouble of having a sale are dropping their items off with us. We’ll sell the items on consignment for them.”
“Not everyone is in a position to have hordes of people descend upon them,” Daryl explained.
“Understandable,” Barbara agreed. “And it’s an excellent way of allowing more people in the community to be involved.”
“The police have a plan for handling the increased traffic flow in town,” Jessilyn said. She sat back in her chair then looked over at Barbara. “I think we’re on track.”
“Excellent, but not surprising. You always make it look easy and I know it isn’t, so I thank you for the work you’ve put in to this,” Barbara told Jessilyn.
“Hear, hear,” said Daryl. “We may have come up with the crazy idea, but we could never have coordinated a project this large on our own.”
Jessilyn smiled her thanks for the kind words. She really did love her job.
Chapter Four
The mood in the police station Monday morning after receiving the initial report from the coroner was somber. Erica and Jerry reviewed the notes taken by Rhys and Ian from Saturday evening. Both men were scheduled for the afternoon shift again today. Erica and Jerry would be taking the lead on the case at this point and assigning tasks to others as needed.
Jerry stood next to the murder board, ready to write. So far, they didn’t have much information. Erica sat on a chair in the middle of the room, staring up at the board with the notes from Rhys and Ian in her lap. What was left of it anyway. The twins were taking up most of it.
“Name is Alice Durant. Age seventy three. Maiden name Milner. Her husband passed away about fifteen years ago.” Erica glanced up to watch Jerry enter the information on the board.
“Were they living here at the time?” Jerry asked.
Erica looked back down at the notes. “No, looks like she moved away for… about fifty years. She just moved back to Teaberry ten years ago and moved directly into the retirement community.”
“So, she was around twenty three when she moved away,” Jerry said to himself.
He took a step back from the board and crossed one arm over his flat stomach, resting the other elbow on top. He rubbed his chin with the hand holding the erasable marker as he thought.
Erica looked up at him again. “The next of kin is Alex Milner, age twenty five.”
Jerry wrote the information on the board. “He’s from here?”
“A few towns over,” Erica read from the notes. “Same state but apparently he didn’t visit often.”
“Huh,” Jerry grunted. “Lived that close and he didn’t visit? If I had done that to my grandmother, I would have heard about it from the rest of my family.”
“Says here that Mrs. Durant didn’t have children. Alex is somewhere in the Milner tree, but we don’t know where,” Erica summarized from the notes.
“Still,” Jerry said as he set the marker down.
“Yeah.” Erica set the folders on the table next to her. “You ready to ride out there?”
“Let’s do it,” Jerry said as he pulled Erica up from her chair.
***
Gina had assumed that if the police returned, they’d want to speak to both residents and employees. Not wanting to alarm the residents until it had been determined if foul play were involved, Gina had focused instead on the employees. She remembered what Alice’s relative looked like, for the most part. She described him to several of the employees to ask if they’d ever seen the young man on campus.
She’d found three who remembered seeing him. One of them, Leslie Grover, worked in the office full-time. Gina asked Leslie to call her if the police came when Leslie was working. Still, Gina was surprised when her phone rang early Monday morning.
“Looks like they’re here,” Leslie said quietly into the phone. “They just pulled into the parking lot at the office.”
“I’ll be right down.” Gina quickly grabbed her keys before leaving her villa.
She found two police officers with Leslie when she walked into the office. One was an attractive black male with a lot of muscles. The other one was a very pregnant red head.
“And there she is,” Leslie said to the officers as Gina entered.
“You’re the one who found Mrs. Durant?” Erica asked.
Gina nodded.
“Mind if we ask you a few questions?” Erica asked.
Gina looked at the pregnant woman then turned and pointed to some chairs arranged in a group on the other side of the room. It wasn’t uncommon for the residents to stop by the office to chat. They kept the chairs there for just this reason.
“We could have a seat, if you’d like,” Gina said.
Erica sighed in relief when she maneuvered down into the chair. Jerry didn’t need to sit but did so anyway to make the older woman feel more comfortable.
“We understand that you may have seen the next of kin at some point?” Jerry asked.
“Yes, that’s right. I work here in the office part-time to cover for Leslie,” Gina explained.
“He stopped in here when you were working?” Erica prompted.
“Yes, it’s pretty common the first time someone visits. It’s a large campus,” Gina said.
Leslie had remained seated at her desk nearby. She was a young woman in her thirties with short blonde hair and stylish glasses. “We keep maps here to give to visitors and mark where they want to go.”
“Mind if we take one of those?” Jerry asked with a smile.
Leslie smiled back at him as she pulled one from a folder on her desk. Jerry popped up and crossed the distance to her desk quickly.
“Thanks,” Jerry said as he took the map.
“Let me know if you need directions anywhere,” Leslie said.
Erica watched Jerry return to his seat, then turned back to Gina. “Do you remember how long ago it was that you saw him?”
Gina shook her head slowly as she thought. “It was chilly but there wasn’t any snow,” she said slowly, narrowing her eyes as she concentrated. “I would guess maybe six months ago?”
Jerry and Erica shared a look.
“How long was Mrs. Durant here?” Jerry asked.
“About ten years,” Leslie answered. “I looked it up this morning.”
Gina nodded her agreement. “About ten, yes.”
“And her relative just showed up six months ago?” Erica tried to keep the surprise from her voice.
Gina shrugged.
“Did she have any other visitors that you can remember?” Jerry asked.
Gina looked over at Leslie. Both shook their heads.
“Not that I can ever recall,” Gina said.
“I’ve only been here a couple of years,” Leslie said.
“Can you think of anything else that we might need to know?” Erica asked.
“I checked with some of the staff here to see if anyone else remembered the young man visiting Alice,” Gina said.
“And?” Erica prompted.
“I have a list,” Gina said pulling it from her pocket. “I only found two people other than Leslie, but they might know something helpful.”
Jerry looked down at the map in his hand then
back up to Leslie. “Looks like we might need those directions.”
Erica looked out through the window to the parking lot where they’d left their car. On the way to the retirement community, they had discussed the hope that they could find some video of the man while he’d been here. “Do you have surveillance cameras here?”
“Yes, I can look through the files for Saturday and see if I can find anything while you’re speaking to the other employees,” Leslie said as Jerry set the map and the list of names Gina had given him in front of her.
Leslie made some marks on the map then handed it back to Jerry. “Stop back here on your way out and I’ll let you know what I find. I can give you a copy if I do.”
Jerry drove the car to their first stop. It was a maintenance building at the rear of the campus. They found Trevon Grover working on a mid-sized tractor. He looked up when they entered the large open garage door of the maintenance building.
“Can I help you?” Trevon asked as he grabbed a rag to wipe his hands. He wasn’t surprised to see the police after speaking to Gina.
“We understand that you may have seen someone visiting Alice Durant at some point?” Erica asked.
Trevon nodded. “I wasn’t sure when I spoke to Gina about which day it was. But I’ve given it more thought since then. I’m pretty sure it was about ten days ago.”
“Can you describe the man for us?” Jerry asked. He took notes as Trevon did so.
“Where did you see him exactly?” Erica asked.
“Well, I was repairing the street sign on the same road where the villa is,” Trevon said.
“Mrs. Durant’s?” Erica confirmed.
Trevon nodded. “The guy was walking toward her villa. I didn’t pay any attention to him really. Just saw him for a moment or two. Lots of people walk around here.”
Jerry asked more questions, but they didn’t learn much more. They climbed back into the car and followed the map to one of the larger residential buildings. They assumed it was for residents that needed more personal care. It was a large building that looked somewhat like an apartment building. The front entrance was staffed with a middle aged woman.