There was a moment or two of silence while they all pondered on the puzzle.
Jody was the first to break the silence. “And besides, the parsnips weren’t from the suppliers; Tommy brought them in from his family’s garden.”
Another look traveled around the room.
“Oh, but I’m sure he didn’t have anything to do with it. He’s such a sweet boy. There isn’t an evil bone in his body.”
Celestial drank the last of her tea and placed her cup on the counter. “So who did want Tammy dead and why?” she asked no one in particular.
Dakota was the first to speak. “Everyone who ever knew her knew she was a hideous bully and didn’t deserve to live among decent people.”
All eyes turned towards him.
“Well, it’s true!” he declared, “We were all thinking it.”
Athena buzzed and flew onto Celestial’s shoulder. “Tommy had the most to gain. I mean, being beaten up by a girl is pretty humiliating.”
Tamara shook her head. “I can’t see it. Anyone who would put up with that kind of abuse hasn’t got the cahoonies to murder someone.”
“But it’s always those quiet ones who snap and do something completely out of character,” Athena said.
Jody rubbed her hands over her face. “I really think I would have seen a change in him if he was intending to kill her.”
“I have an out-of-the-box theory,” offered Celestial. “What if Elaina did it to tarnish your reputation?” If everyone stopped coming to your diner they would have no choice but to go to her restaurant.”
There was a collective bobbing of heads at this theory.
“One thing’s for sure,” Tamara remarked, “very few people are going to be sad that she’s gone.”
Chapter 4
Celestial smiled as she and Jody pulled into the car park at ‘Jody’s Diner’. It was situated at the far end of the high street and set back enough to allow room for diners to park. There was a large illuminated sign floating above the entrance declaring ‘Jody’s’ as open.
“I love how you’ve taken advantage of the shape of the building,” Celestial said as she looked up at the furnace to one end of the building which had been made to look like a rocket.
Jody nodded and smiled. “You have to be creative when you turn a funeral home into a restaurant.”
Celestial laughed and they entered the diner.
Inside was clean and bright with metal tables and the obligatory Wurlitzer at one end. The fact that it was an old funeral home was known by most of her customers as they were local but it wasn’t something she advertised.
Jody led Celestial through the narrow gaps between the tables towards the kitchen, briefly stopping to greet regular customers.
They made it to the kitchen where Jody offered Celestial a glass of iced tea. “I’m so glad they haven’t got a cause of death yet,” said Jody. “If they make this a crime scene, I don’t know what I would do.”
Celestial put a gentle hand on her arm. “I’m sure it won’t come to that.”
Jody sighed. “Well, the health department has been here but we got a score of one hundred so nobody can say anything negative about our hygiene practices. Trust me there is nothing here that would have caused food poisoning.”
Celestial looked through the kitchen to the diner. “How’s business today?”
“Not as busy as it would normally be at this time but I’m sure we’ll survive. I just need this whole thing to be over.”
They sipped their tea in silence. Celestial looked around the kitchen; from the red tiles on the walls to the stainless steel surfaces, it was indeed, spotless. Her eye travelled to the end of the kitchen where she caught sight of something shiny underneath the cabinet. She placed her glass on the side and watched Jody who was checking a list of some kind. Celestial moved toward the object.
“Sorry Celestial,” said Jody, shaking her head, “are you okay there? I just need to check this delivery slip.”
Celestial paused mid crouch and turned. “I erm . . . thought I heard one of my earrings drop,”
“Oh, I’ll help you look,” said Jody, placing the piece of paper down.
“No, no it’s fine!” Celestial cried tugging at her earlobes. “False alarm, I can still feel them in my ears. You carry on.”
“Okay, that’s good. Perhaps when I’ve finished this we can have some lunch?”
“Excellent idea,” Celestial enthused before bending back down and scooping under the cabinet to collect the object without even looking to see what it was. It felt cold, heavy and square. Once Jody’s head was back in her delivery slip she glanced at the object. It was a fancy lighter with what looked like some faded initials on the front. She slipped it into her purse.
Jody wrote something on the delivery slip and placed it into a wire tray. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped. There was a loud commotion coming from inside the diner.
Celestial’s brow knitted. “Who on earth is that?”
They both made their way to the dining area where they were confronted by the harsh voice of an angry Elaina Chavez. Her dyed-blond hair pulled into a bun as severe as her features.
“How can you not have any artichokes?” she scowled at the young girl who was attempting to serve her.
“I’m sorry, but they’re not on the menu,” she ventured.
“Well a proper establishment should be able to adapt.”
The poor young waitress was standing with her notebook open and her eyes wide searching desperately for an escape.
“Where’s your boss?” Elaina snapped.
Jody looked across at Celestial. “That’s Elaina Chavez, she owns that new diner on the other side of town. We’ve had a few words. She’s not a very nice person; I think she wants to be top dog in the restaurant business but she serves new fangled cuisine so I told her there was room for us both.”
“What did she say to that?”
Jody nodded her head towards Elaina. “Not much obviously.”
Jody and Celestial walked over to Elaina who was tapping the table with her fingernails.
“Thank you Katy,” Jody said smiling at the girl. “I’ll take it from here.”
She regarded Elaina who was sneering at her. “How can I help you?” she said with a short smile.
Elaina slumped back in her chair. “I thought I’d check out the menu, you know, to ensure that you’re not trying to copy mine.”
Jody took an unconscious step back. “Why in the world would I want to copy your menu?”
Elaina shrugged her shoulders and protruded her bottom lip. “Because you know very well that my restaurant is far superior to this . . . this,” she held out her hands and turned. “Whatever you call this diner or greasy cafe.”
Jody took a deep breath before continuing. “Ms Chavez, if indeed that is your real name, we serve real, homey, wholesome food here. We have no desire to start serving ostentatious, overly-priced dishes that wouldn’t keep a fly satisfied!” Her voice raised an octave by the finale of her speech.
There was a smattering of understated clapping from the customers
Elaina was struck dumb by this outburst but Jody was on a roll. She continued. “So why don’t you take your bony ass back to ‘The Rich Garden’ or whatever fancy smancy language you used to make it sound even more pretentious and never come back here again!”
The discreet clapping was joined by whoops of encouragement from the diner customers.
Celestial couldn’t help be impressed by Jody’s controlled behaviour whilst being insulted in front of her customers. If she was in Jody’s shoes she would be hard pressed to not turn the woman into a slug.
Elaina stood and smoothed her skirt. “If you only serve good ol’ fashioned food, then why was one of your patrons killed by something as fancy as honey-glazed parsnips?”
She glared at Jody showing no indication of moving.
Celestial could see Jody’s hand shaking. She moved towards Elaina. “I think it’s
about time you leave.”
Elaina looked at her sharply. “I—”
“Now!” Celestial insisted.
Elaina cleared her throat, raised her chin and clip-clopped her way out of the diner.
Chapter 5
Nikoli wanted to keep his mind clear and his eyes open, something that was already made hard enough from how tired he felt from the recent strings of excitement in his life. It felt that just yesterday someone he’d known had been murdered, and someone else he knew was being prosecuted for it.
To his right, the medical examiner was closely studying the results of the covered dead body in front of him. Nikoli had of course been called to the case, but whether it was due to his work ethic or simple bad luck was anyone’s guess. Finally, the medical examiner coughed to gather Nikoli’s attention. “Excuse me...?” Nikoli’s head snapped to attention, “Yes? I'm sorry.”
“No problems there, this is pretty perplexing…” the examiner continued, once again looking over the papers in his hands. Like he was trying to make sure what he read was exactly what it meant on paper. Nikoli’s stomach tensed as if the situation wasn’t always so perplexing.
“The victim was presented to a hospital before she was found dead, complaining about shortness of breath. She had believed this was a symptom of an allergic reaction, and that she must have eaten something with parsley, which the victim was allergic to.” The M.E. went on for a moment, eyes still switching rapidly between the body and the papers, still trying to glue things together.
“She was unable to say whether or not she witnessed parsley anywhere in her food, or whether there was any present during the preparation of her dish. The doctors gave her antihistamines for the symptoms, but this seemed to only worsen the effects.” At this point, with all his expertise, even Nikoli was starting to realize that this had begun to sound more like a murder than an accident. “Did they attempt to treat the symptoms immediately?”
The M.E. nodded. “The doctors reported that the victim had begun to experience an asthma attack. However, the victim doesn’t suffer from any asthmatic illnesses.” The medical examiner began to circle the table where the body was, putting away the papers for now. “She had even begun to complain of an intense burning in her stomach, which she and the doctors felt was more reminiscent of food poisoning.”
That was what Nikoli had honestly been waiting to hear. As horrible as it was, the word was already spreading through town that Tammy had been having problems with the local businesswoman and diner owner, Jody Stillwell. This could be evidence that Jody or at least someone who works with or for Jody may be responsible.
“You think it’s food poisoning?” Nikoli asked, his gruff voice echoing off the pristine floors, and booming especially loud in this silence. He watched as the M.E. moved on to a different table and began to examine buckets and bags on the table. He then switched out his usual papers for a different stack and began to read over them intensely as well.
“We have the contents of her stomach, right here. A preliminary examination has identified what seems to be parsnips and some sort of honey sauce among her stomach contents.” As if for the first time in this visit, the examiner looked up from his work to address Nikoli directly.
“I’ll need some time to do a more thorough investigation of this and other contents for anything that supports my theory, so for now, I’m going to need you to be patient with me, Nik.”
Nikoli nodded, said his goodbyes, and took his exit from the medical examiner's office. He found his head swimming with questions and theories. He tried to parse through the new information and organize it, but began to feel overwhelmed. Nikoli rubbed his eyes to remove the strain and considered his options. He didn’t know much about the case so far, it was still in its infancy, but maybe he could coerce some help from a friend.
Besides, given Celestial’s line of work, something in her house of strange smells was bound to calm his nerves and ease his tired mind. Even if it was just Celestial herself…
Nikoli stepped into the shop only moments later, just as Celestial seemed to finish up with some customers. Perfect, he thought, now we can talk.
He waved his hand as non-urgently as he could to get Celestial’s attention, freezing up when she noticed and attempting to convey that they needed to speak when she had time. It took her a moment, but her eyes lit up (figuratively, anyway) and she seemed to rush her current transaction. As the customers made their exit, she followed them to the store’s door and locked it up, for a moment.
“You didn’t have to hurry on my account.” Nikoli started to say, but Celestial just waved it off. “It seemed important. I mean, is this important? You do tend to visit quite often.”
Nikoli attempted to ignore the comment, hoping that the burning in his ears would go away with time. He quickly moved on to inform Celestial of the case, and included the M.E.’s theories about food poisoning.
“But why tell me about all this?” Celestial’s gaze started to wander around the store, causing a disgruntled snort to escape from the back of Nikoli’s throat. “I already know you’ve pushed yourself into this case somehow. It’s becoming a bit of a pattern now.” he responded.
“This time you’re allowed to tell me exactly what you’ve found out,” he added, hoping that he hadn’t come off too disappointed about their usual team-ups. “Can you think of anyone that would want to hurt Tammy, especially given what I’ve told you?”
Celestial sighed, folding her arms as if trying to recall. “Honestly… It could have been anyone. We’ve both been told or seen Tammy’s reputation around town. A lot of people would have wanted to hurt her.”
She shook her head, resigned, “Jody said anyone could have accessed the kitchen, the door was never locked.” Nikoli dipped his head somewhat in thanks for the information. “It’s something, thank you Celestial.”
Nikoli and Celestial parted ways at least for now, but not without Nikoli repeating that Celestial would need to call or message him if she found out anything else. He would’ve warned her about her tendency to break into other people’s houses, but he wasn’t sure that made for a good enough deterrent.
Chapter 6
Celestial breathed in the scent of musk as she placed the stoppers in her latest batch of men’s shaving balm. Her thoughts turned to Nikoli. His last visit had been brief and she had noticed his eyes lacked their usual twinkle. She should have offered him one of her tonics, she thought.
Although their chat was brief, it was good to know that Nikoli was more accepting of her help with regard to local investigations; they made a good team after all.
The doorbell jangled pulling Celestial from her thoughts. She wiped her hands down the front of her apron and went to see her customer.
“Oh, hi Tommy, it’s good to see you. How are you?” Celestial tried to hide her surprise at seeing him with an exaggerated smile.
Tommy Rainford was an average man; average height; average build, with mousy brown hair, but he did possess the most beautiful long eyelashes which framed his bright green eyes. Plus, according to Jody, he was an exceptional cook.
“I wanted to pick up a few items for my mother,” he said, randomly touching various pots on the shelf to his right.
Celestial took a step closer to him. “I’m so sorry to hear about Tammy.”
“Thanks,” he said with a short smile.
“Were you together long?”
“Yeah, we dated on and off for a long time.”
At the risk of overstepping, Celestial asked, “Why did you break up finally?”
Tommy picked up a pot and pretended to look at the label. He shrugged. “She cheated on me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Celestial said, “You didn’t deserve that.”
“It wasn’t just that,” he continued, “she was a bully. She was one of those people who can abuse someone emotionally as well as physically, you know?” Tommy still hadn’t looked up from the pot he was holding.
“That’s terrible. I al
ways think bullies are that way not just to make the other person feel bad but to make themselves feel better; bigger and more confident maybe. They’re the ones who are lacking and it’s their victims who pay the price.”
Tommy looked up. “You sound like you’re talking from experience.”
Celestial smiled. “Well, I have encountered the odd bully myself.”
“Tammy had one hell of a temper,” he said as he began pacing around the store. “One day she got angry because I didn’t buy the right kind of bread from the store. The argument got so out of control that she picked up my baseball bat and began swinging it around.” He demonstrated with an imaginary bat almost knocking over a tall stand of samples. He steadied the unit before continuing. “I’m sure if my mother hadn’t called out from the kitchen to announce she was home, I would have been on the end of her biggest swing.”
“Oh my goodness!” cried Celestial. “Is that when you left her?”
“Yeah, she had actually punched me a few times before that but I thought the bat was a bit too far.”
“Wow that must have been scary.” Celestial was nodding her head in support.
Tommy stopped pacing and looked back at her. “She wanted me to go back to her, you know? I’d left her before but I always went back. Not this time though; I decided there was only so much I was going to take from her and she’d reached her limit.”
“It sounds awful. What did your mom say?”
He shrugged. “She didn’t see her with the bat that time but she knew we had problems. She was on my side, obviously, but I told her I needed to deal with it my way.”
“It must have been hard for her to see you treated that badly.”
“I guess. She encouraged me to leave her; said that there were women somewhere who would treat me the way I deserved to be treated – not like a doormat.”
“She sounds like a good mother to have,” said Celestial.
Brooms and Brains (A Hocus Pocus Cozy Witch Mystery Series Book 5) Page 2