Murder With Jammin’T

by R A Wallace

  It wasn’t the answer he expected. He realized that she was feeling insecure. He waved at the materials for the endcap.

  “You mean, like end up with a shelving unit that doesn’t hold anything because you did it wrong?” Cole asked. “Then you figure out what you did wrong and you fix it. Sometimes, you might even ask for help or hope someone walks by and tells you that you need to measure it first.”

  Julia searched his face to see if he was making fun of her.

  “Julia, they know we’re kids and we’re just learning. They expect you to make an effort, but they don’t expect you to know everything right off the bat.” He waved at her with the next upright beam before positioning it. “There must be some reason why she offered you a job.”

  “She said she liked my advice about clothes for kids our age.”

  Cole could see that. One thing the girl could do was dress in nice clothes.

  “Okay. So you’re going in with knowledge that she doesn’t have. You’ll help her and she’ll help you.”

  “You think so?” she asked.

  “I’ve found that as long as I make the effort they expect, then my bosses are willing to give me the chance to prove myself.”

  Julia made a face as she considered it.

  “Why did they think you were stealing, anyway?” he asked curiously.

  She shrugged. “I guess a lot of the stores around here have been having that problem. They figured it was kids doing it.”

  ***

  Rhys pulled into the parking lot of the clubhouse as the retirement community.

  “How do you want to handle this?” he asked after turning off the engine.

  Ian had been wondering the same thing.

  “I guess we just tell the truth and see where they want to go from there.”

  They entered the clubhouse and found several of the residents there along with the part-time receptionist, Gina.

  “Thanks for gathering everyone together,” Ian said to Gina.

  “Not everyone was here. Some took the minibus ride into town,” Gina explained.

  Ian looked around at the expectant faces.

  “Might be for the best,” he said. He looked over at Rhys.

  “We think we have most of the mystery solved for your missing items,” Rhys said.

  “I don’t see you carrying anything,” Willie said with a frown. “Does this mean I’m not getting my car keys back?”

  “Or my ebook reader?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah. If you caught the thief, shouldn’t we be getting our stuff back?” Carl asked. He lifted his reading glasses from his nose. The old pair he’d been using since the other glasses were stolen just weren’t doing it for him.

  “Did you arrest anyone?” Laura asked curiously.

  “No, ma’am,” Ian said.

  “I don’t understand,” Victor said reasonably. “If you know who the thief is, why haven’t you done something about it?”

  Rhys looked around the room as the others made noises of agreement.

  “We’re thinking that’s up to you,” Rhys said.

  “Us?” Gina asked. She looked around the group, her eyes filled with confusion.

  “The thing of it is,” Rhys said. “Everything that you reported stolen was taken from your homes.”

  “Yeah, so?” Silas said.

  “So, you know the person who took them,” Ian pointed out. He watched the group look suspiciously at each other.

  “One of us?” Laura asked.

  “A resident from your community,” Ian clarified. “Someone that you invited into your homes.”

  Rhys listened to the murmurs of confusion.

  “Who would do that?” Victor asked.

  “And why?” Joyce added.

  “Well, we aren’t psychologists,” Rhys said. “But, from what we understand, it happens sometimes.”

  “Officers, you’re confusing us.” Victor shook his head in exasperation. “What are you trying not to say?”

  Rhys sighed. He shot a look at Ian. Ian shrugged.

  “Apparently, there are times when people can’t help themselves from taking things, just to have them. They may not even realize that they’re doing it,” Rhys said.

  “It’s a little above our paygrade, but from what we understand, it may be due to something psychological,” Ian explained. “The doctors here can explain it much better than we can.”

  “What do we do now?” Gina asked.

  “Again, ma’am. That’s up to all of you,” Rhys said. “The shops in town are implementing some new policies to help deter this kind of situation. We’re told they’ll be working with some of the staff from here.”

  “We’ve spoken with the director of the facility. They’ve agreed to coordinate that effort,” Ian added.

  “It’s up to you if you want to file charges for your missing items.” Rhys looked at each member of the group.

  “I don’t think that’s necessary. Not for me,” Ann said. “I already got new bingo chips anyway.”

  “I’ve replaced my playing cards,” Joyce said. “I needed a new deck anyway.”

  “I’ve never even used my spatula,” Josie said. “What’s the sense in that? I’ve been saving it in a drawer all these years because it was a gift. That’s silly.”

  Victor thought of the pen he never used and nodded. “Me too.”

  “Me three,” Laura said. “Who needs a large gold apple taking up space on a shelf.”

  “Collecting dust,” Gina agreed.

  Everyone laughed. They all turned to look at Rhys and Ian.

  “We’re sorry we took up so much of your time,” Willie said.

  “You did the right thing,” Rhys insisted. “Because of you, we solved a difficult situation that the shopkeepers in town were having.”

  “Hopefully, someone will be getting some help that they need,” Ian said under his breath as they left the clubhouse.

  Rhys nodded as they got back into the cruiser. They’d taken the first steps, anyway.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Megan sat in the hard-plastic chair in the waiting room at the police station. She stopped to speak with Rhys and Ian and was told that they were out on a call. Martha assured her that they would be returning to the station soon and could speak with her then. Megan was about to give up when she saw the two men enter. She remained where she was and watched as they stopped at the front desk to speak with Martha. After handing them several notes, she pointed toward Megan and explained that she wanted to see them.

  Megan stood when they walked over to join her. Ian motioned for her to follow them. Megan trailed behind them down the busy hallway back to the main office area. Between the two of them, they somehow made the hallway shrink in size. When they reached the office area, Ian tossed his hat down on the desk before taking a seat. Rhys leaned against a desk.

  “I’ve been trying to figure out the puzzle of who killed the man behind the diner,” Megan said.

  “Erica and Jerry have that one,” Rhys reminded her.

  “I know. I decided to start back at the very beginning. Instead of focusing just on the murder, I’m trying to figure out all of the things that went wrong first,” Megan explained.

  Ian ran his hand over his head. “Such as?”

  “Well, there’s the missing gloves, for one thing. How did Tyler’s gloves end up at Bert and Betty’s when their house burned?”

  “Again, we’re not on that case,” Rhys said.

  Megan nodded. “There’s the missing food. The part of the delivery that never made it to the Jammin’T and was found in a storage unit paid for by Aaron Sorenson.”

  Ian laced his hands and rested them on top of his head. “Also, not our case.”

  “Yes, but the missing cow is,” Megan reminded them.

  “I thought the cow turned up?” Rhys asked.

  “It did,” Megan agreed. “It miraculously showed up at a neighbor’s farm, unharmed.”

  “What are you saying?” Ian asked.
>
  Megan shrugged. “No one can explain how it got there. The cow didn’t open the gate at the Douglass farm, walk down the road, and let itself into another gate.”

  “Okay.” Ian couldn’t argue the logic. “What are you thinking?”

  “The cow also didn’t write a note saying that Holly had sold it.” Megan raised her brows at Ian.

  “Yeah. There is that,” he agreed as his eyes shifted to Rhys.

  “That one is your case, right?” Megan asked, just to be sure.

  Rhys nodded. “Yeah. It was actually Bella’s idea to check at the neighboring farms to see if it was there.”

  “When you have a field full of cows and they all look alike, it’s hard to just eyeball it from the paddock,” Ian explained. “The farmers all had to make the effort to identify each one by their tag number.”

  “Some of them use radio frequency identification, don’t they?” Megan knew some of the larger farms did, anyway.

  “RFID, right,” Ian agreed. “What else did you have in mind with the missing cow case?”

  “I wanted to ask you about the note you found,” Megan said.

  “The one that claimed Holly sold it?” Ian straightened in his chair and turned around to face his desk. He pulled some folders from his inbox and shuffled through them before keeping one and returning the others. After turning around in his chair again, he flipped open the folder.

  “What about it?” Rhys asked.

  Megan explained the note and photo that Becca had found.

  Ian wiped his hand across his face and left it there for a moment, covering his eyes.

  “Yeah, you told us about that but it was just before the murder.” He dropped his hand and looked at Rhys. “We didn’t follow up on it.”

  “We figured Erica and Jerry would when they caught the murder,” Rhys reminded him. “And, they probably did.”

  Ian pointed at Rhys. “We’ll double check.” He looked back at Megan. “Anyway, what about it?”

  “Can you show me the note?” Megan asked as she pulled out her phone.

  Ian took the sealed note from the folder. Rhys stepped across and retrieved it, then stood next to Megan and looked over her shoulder.

  “Linda and Becca explained that manual typewriters were like fingerprints in a way.” Megan held her phone up with the image she had taken of Becca’s note telling her to stay away.

  “Yeah, they’re right about that,” Rhys said comparing the two notes. “And it looks like we have a match.”

  “Why am I not surprised,” Ian muttered from across the room. “Everything about this case has been confusing.”

  “Who would have an old typewriter and would want to steal a cow?” Rhys asked.

  “Technically, they just relocated it,” Megan pointed out.

  ***

  Ward Beecham didn’t try to hide his surprise and delight at finding Megan on his doorstep.

  “Come in, please. We didn’t have an appointment, did we?” Ward asked as he led Megan to his living room.

  “No, we didn’t. I’m sorry to drop in like this, but I was wondering if I could ask you some questions.” Megan took the seat he indicated and declined his offer of a drink.

  “Is this for the town web pages about the history of Teaberry?” Ward settled himself in his favorite chair and looked expectantly at Megan.

  She remembered guiltily that she had told him the last time she visited him that she would be back soon to do that.

  Ward saw the look cross her face. “Now, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot. I’m sure you have a lot of other material that you need to post.”

  “It’s not that,” Megan said truthfully. “I really do want to get more information from you. I’ve noticed that a lot of the visitors to our web site read the information that you’ve already given to me. I want to expand on what we have there. I have started a list of questions to ask you.”

  She watched the flush of pleasure fill his cheeks.

  “Well, that’s nice to hear,” Ward said with a smile. “It’s something to look forward to. What can I help you with today?”

  “I was wondering if you could tell me anything about the history of the Jammin’T. Specifically, I’m interested to know if you’re aware of the history of other diners that opened around the same time.”

  Ward steepled his hands together. “Well, there was the Sorenson Diner, of course.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “It didn’t last long.”

  “That’s what I heard. Why was that? Do you ever remember hearing any reasons?”

  “Oh, I didn’t have to hear about them. I’m an old guy, remember? I was around then.” Ward scrunched his face up in thought. “Hold on.”

  Megan watched as he slowly raised himself from the seat and left the room. He returned a few minutes later.

  “Sorry it takes so long for me to get around,” Ward said as he sat back down. He opened a yearbook and began passing it over to Megan.

  She jumped to her feet and crossed the distance between them to take it.

  “Oh,” she said. She looked up at Ward with a wry smile. “Now I see what Ham and Joni Givens meant.”

  “It was very shiny, that’s for sure. And the neon lights.” Ward waved his hand at the yearbook. “There were so many, you couldn’t count them all.”

  Megan looked at the people in the photo. It had several kids who must have been in the high school at the time. She tried to do the math, but failed because it didn’t match up with what she was seeing.

  “Is this you?”

  Ward laughed. “No, that’s my kid brother. Anyway, the shiny metal and the neon didn’t really have anything to do with why they failed in business. They just didn’t have a good menu, their servings were too small, and the prices were too high. The Jammin’T was the opposite. After the initial curiosity wore off, no one really went to Sorenson’s anymore.”

  Megan turned the page of the yearbook.

  “Here’s the Jammin’T.” Megan pointed with her finger at the photo of the building and frowned. “Except it’s not.” She looked up at Ward for an explanation.

  “Let me see.” He held out his hands and she stood to pass the yearbook back to him.

  “Oh, yes. This photo predates the Jammin’T. Before the diner went in there, the Fenimore’s owned it.”

  “Fenimore’s? What did they have?” The Jammin’T had been there as long as Megan had been alive. It had never occurred to her that anything was in the space before it.

  “That was back in the day when people still wanted print newspapers. There was more than one in town back then and they competed against each other like you wouldn’t believe. It was all pretty cut-throat back then.”

  “Patty Fenimore has the phone store next to the Jammin’T now,” Megan said.

  “Yes. Her parents managed to hold on to that small space. They used to have both. The diner space and the small space she has for the phone store.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Megan hadn’t wanted to wait until the next day to continue her search for puzzle pieces but after leaving Ward the previous afternoon and relating everything to Erica that she had learned, it was already too late to continue. She knew that she would have a better chance of speaking to the people who might hold the answers she needed if she waited until the next morning. After seeing Dan off to work, she went over the notes she had made starting from the very beginning with the missing cow. By the time she stood on Vince’s front porch ringing his doorbell, it was a decent hour in the morning.

  “Megan, come in. I thought you might be Bev.” Vince looked over Megan’s shoulder before closing his front door just to be sure there wasn’t anyone coming up behind her.

  “Are you expecting her?” Megan slipped her coat off and handed it to Vince.

  “Yes, any minute now.” Vince hung Megan’s coat up and led her back to the kitchen. “To what do I owe this pleasure? Still working on a puzzle?”

  “I am, yes.” Megan climbed onto the high
stool next to the large island.

  Vince positioned himself on the other side. “Can I tempt you with a muffin or some fruit?”

  “No thanks, but they look great. Are those banana wheat germ muffins?” she asked.

  “Your recipe, actually. I crave them a few times each month,” Vince said. “Technically, they are healthy,” he added with a smile.

  “I was wondering if you have any memories of the Fenimore family?” Megan eyed the muffins. They did look good.

  “Patty Fenimore?” Vince reached over to the side of the island and put a kettle of water on the flat stovetop.

  “Yes. You went to school with her, didn’t you?”

  “We did, yes. Bev, Susan, and I did.”

  “What can you tell me?” Megan rested her elbows on the island.

  “Well, they had the newspaper, of course. It went out of business at some point. Once the Internet became more popular, things like that seemed to fade away a bit.” Vince turned and took a tin of loose tea from the cupboard. He opened the lid and held it up for Megan to smell.

  She smiled. “Very nice.”

  “It’s decaf,” he said.

  “Even better,” she agreed.

  “Goes great with banana muffins,” he said with a grin.

  “You twisted my arm,” she laughed.

  “Could be the baby talking,” he said with a nod as he measured it out into the tea ball infuser. “Now, let’s see. The Fenimores ended up moving away, if I remember correctly.”

  “They did? Do you know why?”

  “When the parents lost their newspaper business, they had to move away to get a job.” Vince turned the stove burner off and lifted the kettle.

  “Do you know what they’re doing now?” Megan watched as Vince poured the hot water into the tea pot with a steady hand.

  “I believe I remember hearing that they were killed in a car accident.” Vince frowned. “Bev might remember more.”

  Megan was about to answer when the doorbell rang. She watched Vince’s face light up.

  “I tell her to use her key, but she says she likes having me at the door to wait on her.” He held up a finger and left the kitchen.