by Ellen Riggs
“Not so meek anymore,” I said, smiling. “I was known as the grim reaper in my old company.”
Her sparse silver eyebrows rose like seagulls. “Really? That’s surprising. No wonder the pig didn’t manage to kill you.”
I laughed. “She’ll probably try again. Now, what did you mean by my family knowing about Lloyd’s misdeeds?”
Edna snapped the recliner upright, all the better to stare me down with brown eyes that were still sharp. “Ask your sister.”
“Which one? I have four. You vaccinated all of us.”
“I did more than that,” she said. “They were all pretty wild, except for you.”
“Not Daisy,” I said. “She was the model child and second mother to me.”
“And now a mother to fools,” Edna said. “What I wouldn’t give to land a shot in the arms of those younger twins. Pranksters and brats.”
I couldn’t deny it, so I stuck to the point. “What does any of this have to do with Lloyd?”
“I have no idea.” She leaned forward and stared at me. “But Daisy will. She was at your farm at four or five on Monday afternoon. Isn’t that the time he supposedly died?”
My eyelids dropped instantly. I’d learned long ago that looking down bought a second or two to regain emotional mastery. But this took me so much by surprise that my lids actually locked in place. “She was at my place?”
“She didn’t tell you? That seems strange, doesn’t it? I assumed you knew.”
Now my eyes met hers again. I hoped they were as hard and bright as I knew they could be when I was under siege. “My family is welcome to come and go as they like, of course. Daisy’s been helping me with interior design for the inn. I expect she came to measure for the new rugs.” I glanced around. “She has quite an eye, you know. If you’re ever looking to refresh.”
Edna’s eyes were hard and bright, too. “This place will look exactly as it does today when I’m carried out, feet first. But thank you.”
“Well, it’s lovely,” I said, getting up and going to the window. “Just a little dim.”
I started to pull back the curtains and she gave a loud squawk of protest. I soon saw why. On the window ledge sat a pair of binoculars. While Edna was still fighting her way out of the recliner, I held the binoculars to my eyes and directed them toward Runaway Farm.
“Give me those,” she said, bustling over.
I stepped quickly to the right, fending her off with my left hand. “An unobstructed view, and the hill really helps. You’ve taken down a lot of trees to keep an eye on my place. Is that what they call being neighborly in Clover Grove these days?”
She yanked the binoculars out of my hand and I let them go so abruptly that she nearly stumbled. “A single senior can’t be too careful,” she said. “Your animals create havoc, and your sister’s having liaisons with dubious characters in your own barn without your knowledge. Not to mention a murder in broad daylight. So yes, I’ll keep an eye on your place, Ivy Galloway. Just so you know, I have a gun, too, and I’m trained to use it.”
“You saw Lloyd with my sister?”
She shook her head, looking almost disappointed. “I saw her arrive and go in the house for a bit. Then Lloyd arrived on foot. He’d parked his truck out of sight somewhere. I guess Daisy saw him because she stormed out of the house and went down to the barn. She was probably giving him a piece of her mind over your fine.”
“The fine I got because of you.” I signaled Keats and then headed for the door.
“Now, don’t be like that, Ivy. I’m just trying to keep this town safer for everybody. A dog that boldly chases chickens could just as easily attack children.”
The heat that had never really left my face since the regifted pie revelation just burned a little brighter. “My dog would never attack children, Miss Evans, and I would thank you not to slander him.”
She followed me to the door, chuckling. “You’re an odd girl, Ivy. It seems like you’re more indignant about my slandering your dog than your siblings.”
With my hand on the doorknob, I turned and smiled. “Well, of course. My siblings can defend themselves—if there’s anything to defend. Keats can’t. And for your information, there’s no better dog on the planet.”
Rolling her eyes, she picked up the pie from the hall table. “Do you want to pawn Gwen’s pie off on someone who likes peaches?”
“All yours. I’m sure the pastry is delicious.” I opened the door and added, “You never know who might be arriving hungry.”
Closing the door quickly, I hurried down the front walk and met Kellan halfway.
“How’d the apology go?” he asked.
“Great,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Aside from Edna dissing my regifted pie, we bonded like only good neighbours can.”
“You regifted?” His teeth flashed in a rare smile. “That’s a fineable offence under town pielaws.”
I laughed, despite the anxiety sitting like a fat pig on my chest. He was obviously going inside to interview Edna about what she saw on the day of Lloyd’s murder and she’d waste no time implicating Daisy. The only thing worse than being accused myself was seeing my sister in trouble. On the bright side, Edna would undoubtedly drag out her moment of glory, which meant I should be able to reach Daisy first.
“I came here to grovel, Kellan,” I said. “What’s your excuse?”
He shrugged. “Just a chat. When someone dies, you chat with all the neighbours. Routine police work.”
“Why don’t you chat to people with a motive to kill Lloyd first?” I asked. “Like Nadine or the people who shot at him?”
My tone was edgier than I intended and his eyebrows went up. “I don’t need advice on how to do my job, Ivy.”
“Sorry,” I said, slipping past him. “Grovelling makes me grumpy. Especially after getting rolled by a pig.”
“If it helps, you smell much better,” he said.
“Gee thanks,” I said, opening the door of the truck.
Keats jumped in and I was about to follow when Kellan called after me. “Ivy?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re staying out of this like I asked, right?”
“It’s only been two hours, Chief,” I called back. “And it’s not like I don’t have my hands full enough. My first guests arrive in less than three weeks and everything needs to be perfect. If you could clear my farm’s name by then, I’ll give you all the free pie you could ever want.”
“Doing my best,” he said. “Behave or I’ll assign a police detail, and they won’t be as nice as Asher.”
Giving him a wave, I climbed into the driver’s seat. I fussed with my purse, hoping Kellan would go inside. Instead he stood on the bottom step watching until I finally turned the key in the ignition. Putting the truck in reverse, I stalled out immediately. With my face nearly in flames, I did it again. And again. Why did driving backwards seem so much harder with a stick? And an audience?
By the time I managed to turn the truck around, Kellan was grinning from ear to ear. I’d forgotten how gorgeous his smile was, and it was a shame I wasn’t likely to see it again anytime soon.
On an up note, I managed to burn some rubber on Edna’s short driveway as I pounded the gas and screeched away. In the country, the first time you lay a patch is a rite of passage.
It was never too late to come of age.
Chapter Twelve
I stalled another six times, maybe more, on the way to Daisy’s house. So many that Keats crawled between the seats to sit in the rear on the floor. “I’m sorry buddy, really. I’m just freaking out a bit right now.” I dared to take a quick glance and saw one blue eye looking up at me reproachfully. “Well, come on. Edna all but said Daisy murdered Lloyd. You know Daisy. She’s the last person in Clover Grove who’d ever kill someone.” I thought about that and added, “Unless she was defending her family. If a space alien came down and tried to abduct any of us, she’d slay it, for sure.”
I took a deep breath and focused as I made the l
ast turn. The left turns scared me the most. What if I stalled in oncoming traffic? With my stick skills declining rapidly, it was a real risk.
The younger twins, now 14, were shooting hoops in the driveway when I pulled in. They nearly collapsed in joint hilarity when I not only stalled the truck but started rolling back down the small incline. I managed to pull the parking brake in time and they ran down to greet me. Reese had done me the favor of getting a tattoo of a treble clef on his ear so that I could finally tell them apart. He said it was because of the girls. He was a natural flirt, but Beaton was always swooping in for the close after Reese had done the hard work. Both boys were in a rock band of questionable talent and were never short of female admirers.
I held the phone to my ear and signalled I’d join them in a second. In truth, I just wanted a chance to collect my thoughts before confronting Daisy. But when the boys resumed their game of one-on-one, something struck me for the first time. They were cute boys who would soon be handsome men… and they didn’t look one bit like their dad, Roger. The older twins, on the other hand, were the spitting image of their dad, with brown, curly hair and dark eyes. Beaton and Reese, however, had blue eyes and russet hair verging on auburn.
Reaching into my purse, I touched the framed photo I’d taken from Lloyd’s bedroom. Was it possible?
“You look sick,” Reese said, when I finally got out of the truck. My legs felt wobbly and my stomach percolated like a geyser.
“‘Sick’ is good, right?” I said. “That’s what you told me last year.”
“Just don’t, Aunt Ivy. Trying too hard to be cool is pathetic.”
“I know,” I admitted. “I’m not myself today. I got rolled by a pig earlier.”
The boys didn’t even pretend to feel bad. They leaned against the garage door howling with laughter as I shared the details. I knew it would solidify my reputation as the “fun” aunt. Unlike my older sisters, I was never hard on the boys, even though they got into trouble on the regular. It hadn’t bothered me because I’d never lived under the shadow of their escapades.
The short interlude gave me a chance to get my game face on before I went in to speak to Daisy. “Give us a few minutes alone, would you?” I said. “I have a personal problem I want to talk to your mom about.”
“I heard you’ve got it bad for the police chief,” Reese said. “Uncle Ash told us you were staring at him all flirty and trying to get him to eat your pie. At a crime scene.”
“He what? Oh my god. I’ll kill— You know what? Never mind.”
“Don’t try so hard,” one of them called after me. “It’s pathetic.”
I stalked away, blocking them all out of my mind. Compartmentalize, I told myself. It was normally one of my stronger skills. Right now, my main goal was warning Daisy.
She was scrubbing the kitchen counter when I walked in, which was business as usual. Daisy wasn’t a full-on germophobe, but close enough that living with five males was probably torture. At home, there was rarely a time she didn’t have spray cleaner in one hand and a cloth in the other.
“Hey Ivy,” she said, eyes dropping to the counter as she resumed her thankless job. “What brings you here?”
“The fact that you haven’t come to me,” I said. “You rush to my side when there’s a curtain and carpet crisis but not when a body’s been found on my property?”
Her hazel eyes flicked up at me and there was a strange look in her eyes. If I didn’t know my sensible, cheery sister better, I’d say she looked haunted. “I did drop by and saw you were in capable hands with Jilly,” she said. “I’ve had my hands full the past two days and I knew Asher had you covered, too.”
I leaned against the counter and crossed my arms. “What’s up? It’s not like you to let me manage my own crisis. And you certainly wouldn’t trust Ash to cover my butt.” I stooped to catch her eye. “Unless you were busy covering your own.”
“Cover my butt? What do you mean?” Her calm voice spiked in a way I’d never heard before. “What have I got to hide?”
“Good question. Let’s start with the basics. What were you doing at Runaway Farm on the afternoon Lloyd died? My nosy neighbor Edna places you there sometime between four and five p.m.”
“Edna Evans? The sadistic nurse?” Daisy almost spit the words. “She spies on you?”
“With binoculars. She saw you go into the house, and then charge out a little later and run down to the barn. Not long after Lloyd had apparently arrived on foot. According to her, you were liaising with Lloyd in the barn and came out alone.”
“I was not liaising with Lloyd Boyce on Monday afternoon.” She spritzed a new coating of spray on the counter. “I went to measure for the rugs. Then I saw Lloyd poking around where he didn’t belong and went down to speak to him about the fine he gave you that morning.”
“And how did that go?”
Slamming the spray bottle down, she glared at me. “What is this? The Spanish Inquisition?”
“It’s a dress rehearsal,” I said, without flinching. She used to intimidate me but not so much anymore. “Because Chief Harper will probably be here shortly. He was going in to speak to Edna as I came out. She’ll share the same story.”
“Oh no. But the boys…” She shoved her hair back with one rubber-gloved hand. “I don’t want them to know.”
Another thing I’d learned in HR was to rip the Band-Aid off the truth quickly and get an honest reaction before people slid into a rehearsed script. If the secret was big enough—and this was a huge one—people always had a script. “About Lloyd being their dad?” I asked.
The rubber glove moved to Daisy’s throat, as if she were choking. The strangled words that came out confirmed it. “How did you—?”
I pulled the photo out of my purse and handed it to her. “This was on Lloyd’s dresser. I started putting the pieces together and came up with the theory you’ve just confirmed. The blue eyes, the auburn hair. They don’t look like Roger. My guess is that Lloyd consoled you during the period you and Roger separated. The math works out right.”
She literally sank to the floor, sliding down the smooth wood of the cupboards and covering her face with the rubber gloves. “Ivy. Please don’t tell Roger or the kids. I’m so ashamed.”
“Roger doesn’t know?” I asked. “How could he not wonder?”
“He doesn’t like to think about the time he walked out on us. He’s ashamed, too, and he’s blocked out the memory. So I guess he hasn’t looked too closely. We got together again so fast that the boys could have been his. I wasn’t sure myself when they were babies.”
I sat down on the floor too and Keats stretched out beside me. His ears were pricked and his eyes alert, as if to take in every word and gesture. “Daisy, it’s okay. We all have our moments. I’ve certainly had my share and I’m not one to judge. What I’m worried about now is the police. You went down to my barn to confront Lloyd. Was it really about the ticket?”
Her face was still covered with rubber gloves. “No. Lloyd figured things out about the boys three years ago and wanted to get to know them. I refused. They were so young and always getting into trouble.” The gloves came down. “Lloyd’s genes, obviously. Roger never—”
“Focus,” I said. “We don’t have much time and you need to get your story straight.”
“There’s no story. Lloyd had texted me again and when I saw him go into the barn I went down there. We argued about it. I probably yelled.”
“Were there any witnesses? I mean, nearby?”
“Only the horse,” she said. “I told him in no uncertain terms to back off. That the boys were at a tricky age and I had to get them through high school in one piece. He said it wasn’t fair—that I was just trying to protect my marriage.” She started pushing back up the cupboards, and I got to my feet, too. “Can you blame me? This is my family.”
“I know you’d throw yourself in front of a train for those boys. You’re a mama bear and a force of nature. But you wouldn’t…”
&nbs
p; My voice trailed off and she continued for me. “Kill Lloyd? Of course not, Ivy. Even if I could strangle him, like Asher said happened, I wouldn’t. He was still the boys’ father and I intended to tell them someday.” Her wild eyes calmed somewhat. “Truly. All I did was yell some common sense into him and then I left in a big huff. He followed me out still trying to convince me, and I assumed he left, too. I told him to get off your property or I’d call the cops, but he knew I wouldn’t.”
I waited a few beats and then asked, “That was it?”
She nodded. “I felt so embarrassed and guilty I didn’t want to tell anyone. I thought I was in the clear, since no one had seen me.”
“Okay. Okay.” I ran my hands through my hair. “I already texted Asher. He should be here soon and can run interference.”
“No! I don’t want him to know any of this.”
“But then you’ll have to go in for questioning alone.”
“I’m sure the chief has to keep my secret about Lloyd’s role in my past.”
“But people will talk anyway when you become a suspect. They’ll put you under the Clover Grove microscope and maybe someone will figure it out. If I could see the resemblance, others might, too.”
“Don’t say that.” She started scrubbing the counter anew. “It could really confuse the boys, and you know they’ve had some challenges.” Finally she turned. “What should I do?”
It was a momentous day—the first time my capable older sister ever asked me for advice. What a shame it had to be a really tough question that I didn’t know how to answer.
“Daisy, you’re just going to have to tell Kellan the truth, and ask him to keep the personal aspect quiet, given that the boys are minors. If he doesn’t agree, you’ll have to tell Asher, too, and read him the riot act. It’s not as if he doesn’t have plenty of skeletons in his own closet.” I straightened my shoulders and smiled. “If it comes down to sibling blackmail, I’ll back you.”