Melt Down Murder

by Gretchen Allen

  * * *

  “Oh, hey, boss.” Tonya smiled when she saw Yvette walk through the dining area. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was wondering if you had a few minutes to chat?” Yvette looked and saw a single customer in a corner booth and motioned for Tonya to follow her to the other side of the store.

  Tonya raised a brow. “Sure, is something wrong?”

  “I don’t know.” Yvette sighed. “I’m assuming you heard about the body they found at the lake house?”

  “The body you found, you mean? No one wanted to bring it up but we all know what happened.”

  Rubbing her hands together, Yvette continued, “they still haven’t released the identity of the man and there’s something I overheard you saying on the phone that I was hoping you’d be able to clear up.”

  “Me? Of course. How can I help?” Tonya’s eyes flashed with worry.

  “You mentioned you were having friends come to town. Did they ever show up?”

  “Umm, no. What is this about?” Tonya asked.

  Yvette dove into the story that Mark had told her and was hoping against hope that those people weren’t her friends. “So, when I heard you say the name Marissa on the phone the other day, my mind immediately went back to what Mark had said.”

  The color drained from Tonya’s face. “That’s Marissa.” She pointed to the lone woman in the shop. “Her fiancé, Jordan, and she got into a fight and she hasn’t seen him in a few days. They are here visiting Marissa’s cousins. Jordan didn’t want to stay with them because they’d never really gotten along with one another and they had family coming to town. So, they were looking for a cheap place to stay for a few nights. You don’t think…”

  “I’m not sure what to think but do you think she’d mind if I asked her a few questions?”

  “Uhh, yeah. Let me ask her. Should I tell her what’s going on?

  “No, let me talk to her. I don’t want to cause her any concern if I’m wrong.”

  Yvette took a deep breath and held her head high as she walked over to the table to greet Marissa.

  * * *

  “So, I guess I’ll go to the police, but I don’t even know what to say,” Marissa Ashford sniffled.

  “Ask for Heath and tell just him your name and everything you know about Jordan. Any information you have will be helpful,” Yvette reassured the woman.

  “He has no real family around, no one but me, anyway. Poor Jordan, I’ve been so mad at him for taking off and he might, oh gosh, he might be dead.” Marissa broke down.

  “That’s why it’s so important for you to go to the police. I understand how worried you are but the sooner you can help answer any questions the sooner all of this may get figured out.”

  “I understand. I’ll do everything I can.”

  “Do you mind if I ask why he left? Did you two have a fight?” Yvette hoped she didn’t give herself away. She didn’t want the woman to know that Tonya had already shared that with her.

  Marissa fiddled with the napkin dispenser on the table. “I should have known something like this would happen. Every time Jordan gets upset, he overreacts, and we get into a fight. I was so sick of arguing that I did something that I thought would be helpful, but like Jordan always says, my crazy ideas never amount to anything good.”

  Yvette tensed, opening up her mouth to speak.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Marissa began, clearly noticing Yvette’s surprised reaction, “Jordan is a good man. He was already upset because I didn’t tell him I was planning on us staying at my cousin’s house while we were in the area. The two never really got along, especially recently. We were hoping to have a quiet wedding on the fifteenth of next month but that was the same date as theirs was. They’d been planning a large wedding, so we agreed to push ours out a bit since we only had a small guest list. He knows how much this wedding means to me and he was angry and thought that I’d caved.”

  “So that’s how you two ended up staying at the lake house?”

  Marissa nodded. “We were on our way out of Merryville from my cousin’s house. We’d just spoken to my aunt Darla, and she was giving us a hard time about wedding stuff. Making sure our decorations didn’t match or that our food wasn’t even close to the same as my cousin’s so things were already not going well. The argument was getting a little intense so when we saw the farm, we decided to stop there and walk around a little. I met the guy you told me about and he offered us a few nights at the lake. In hopes of ending the fight between us, I paid the guy as quickly as I could. I only wanted to salvage what was left of our trip.” Her eyes welled with tears.

  Yvette reached across the table and offered the woman her hand. “Can I get you some water or anything?”

  “No, thanks, I’m okay.” She wiped away a tear. “Thank you for being so nice. I couldn’t get in touch with Jordan and he didn’t take our car, so I thought maybe he just went home or something. I came to apologize to Tonya for basically blowing her off. She knows how Jordan is though, and never did agree with me sticking by his side since he was always such a short fuse. But he was only like that when it came to making sure I was happy. He loved me.”

  “Tonya has always been a great judge of character and it’s good to have friends around that have your best interest at heart,” Yvette told the woman honestly.

  “She’s a great friend for sure. I’m so glad I was able to talk to you or I’d have left and never known a thing.”

  “I’m happy to help. Anyone that is a friend of Tonya’s is a friend of mine. Speaking of, I’ll send her right over.” Yvette rose from the table and put a hand on Marissa’s shoulder before heading to her office.

  There is no way that Tonya had anything to do with Jordan’s death, no matter how much she didn’t like someone. She wasn’t going to even entertain the thought of that.

  Hoping to distract her mind from everything she’d just learned, Yvette turned on her computer and began working on payroll for the week. She was interrupted by her phone dinging, signaling a text message. Pulling it from her pocket, she saw a text from Amelia.

  Where have you been?!

  I just talked to Mark! You aren’t gonna believe this!

  I’m working from home today, come over NOW!!

  Yvette needed to talk to someone and now that Mark had finally told Amelia that he knew more than he’d originally let on, she could confide in her and hopefully figure out a little more about Jordan and who could have killed him. So far, the only person that even knew him was the sweet woman that Yvette had just met. Certainly, she couldn’t have had anything to do with it. Amelia was always good at working things out that seemed difficult to understand so hopefully this was a puzzle she was willing to help solve.

  13

  Having been friends for several years, Yvette knew exactly what the look on Amelia’s face meant when she saw her.

  “Did you already know?” Amelia asked, hands on her hips.

  Yvette let out a breath and stared at her feet. “I’m sorry,” she admitted. “I didn’t want you getting upset with Mark and letting it get to you. I’m sure he thought they were just a sweet young couple in need. It’s not like he could have known what would happen. For all we know, they really might be a sweet young couple that has nothing to do with this. I met Marissa earlier and she was lovely.”

  “You met them?! You knew about this for that long without telling me?!” Amelia looked hurt.

  “If you’d just hear me out, I think we can make some sense of this. Please?”

  “Fine,” she sighed, shaking her head.

  “After I went to talk to Mark and learned that he’d rented out the house but didn’t get any information from the people other than a single name, I went searching online but couldn’t find anything. I can’t even begin to tell you all the ideas that were popping in my mind, but I didn’t know which direction to go. I thought that I’d reached a dead end until I overheard Tonya on the phone, using the same name that Mark had told me. Once I dec
ided to talk to her about it, I stumbled across even more information and that’s what I’m hoping we can discuss.” Yvette sat back in the chair, hopeful that her friend would agree.

  “I’m still mad you didn’t tell me, and I hate that you are so caught up in this but go ahead…”

  “Once I finally got the courage to talk to Tonya, I ended up actually meeting Marissa,” Yvette explained the conversation she’d had with the woman.

  Amelia’s jaw dropped. “You said she was lovely but seems to me she’s the only person that could have killed him.”

  “What makes you say that?” Yvette titled her head.

  “She said they were fighting and that he overreacted often. What if that’s the case here too? Maybe the fight got so bad that she couldn’t handle the arguing so she killed him to make it stop and is just pretending to be the nice person you think she is?”

  “I’d normally say that’s ridiculous, but Marissa did tell me that Jordan wasn’t very kind when it came to her ideas of how to fix their relationship. I suppose it’s possible she could have done it.”

  “Of course it’s possible Yvette! You don’t know anything about these people.”

  “That’s precisely why I’m going to learn more about them. We need to know more about Marissa’s family. It’s not fair to blame only Marissa when we don’t know the whole story.”

  “You are gonna get me in trouble one day,” Amelia shifted in her seat, but her face gave her away as a willing participant.

  “I knew I could count on you,” Yvette grinned. “Okay, so, Heath hasn’t released the name of the victim yet. I told Marissa she needed to go talk to him and tell him everything she knew. If it was her fiancé I found, she needs some closure.”

  “There’s something missing, though. Mark rented our house to these people, only knowing the woman’s name and then when you talked to her, she said, Jordan had no family, just her. Is he some mystery guy, no family, no friends, no name? Isn’t it odd that they both didn’t talk to Mark? I know you said she was trying to surprise him, but it seems a little strange. Maybe the guy was into some unsavory stuff. We can’t assume they are good people.”

  Yvette didn’t know what to think but she really wanted to get to the bottom of things. She felt ten times better being able to talk to Amelia about it and as long as she could stay out of Heath’s way for a while, there was still time for her to make sense of everything she knew.

  “Seems like Marissa is the mysterious one,” Yvette shrugged. “I can’t find a thing about her online, and I even went looking through several photos I found on social media since I know what she looks like, and I still came up with nothing.”

  “All this information is frying my brain. Want to go get something to eat or go shopping or something while we talk more?” Amelia asked, grabbing her purse.

  “Sounds good, we can do both but let’s start with food,” Yvette chuckled.

  * * *

  “This is fantastic,” Yvette said between bites of her turkey and cranberry wrap.

  Picking up a sweet potato fry from her own plate, Amelia agreed. “The bistro always has the best lunch specials, I come here all the time when I’m working.”

  “I know, I’m sorry I interrupted your day. You said you were working at home and I just barged in.”

  “That’s not quite how it happened,” Amelia chuckled. “I told you to come over, and I was having a hard time getting inspired at home, anyway. I’m working at home all week and have a huge tour coming up for Halloween, but I can’t seem to settle on anything.”

  Yvette’s eyes narrowed. “It’s August.”

  “I know, I know. It’s still far away but you know how the holidays get around here. I won’t have a day off for weeks once October gets here so I like to start early.”

  “I can help you do some planning if you want. May do me some good to get my mind off murder for a few minutes,” Yvette offered.

  The women were deep in conversation, working on ideas for the Heritage Halloween Tour when a voice they both recognized interrupted them.

  “Hey, ladies, how ya doing?” Heath Briggs asked, standing at the end of their table.

  “What are you doing here?” Yvette blurted out.

  “Jeez, Yvette. I’m getting a grilled cheese for lunch.” Heath looked surprised.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m surprised to see you is all. I know I shouldn’t be asking but I was wondering if Marissa’s information was any help in your investigation?”

  “Marissa? How do you know about Marissa?” Heath stepped back, confusion in his eyes.

  “Oh good, so she did stop by. I feel so bad for that poor woman. I can’t imagine what she’s going through,” Amelia lowered her head.

  “I’m not exactly sure what you two are talking about. I haven’t spoken to Marissa and I’m not even sure how you know about her.” Heath said before taking a seat.

  “I just met her this morning. She’s friends with Tonya from work. I told her she needed to meet with you and tell you about Jordan and fill you in on a few things. She thought her fiancé was mad and left town.”

  “I’ve been at the station all morning until about fifteen minutes ago. I’m not really following what you’re saying. Are you positive she was coming?” Heath asked.

  “I am. She was a nervous wreck.”

  “Listen, girls, I need you to stay clear of this whole mess.” Heath sighed. “I suppose there’s no harm in telling you since we’ll be releasing the information later today. The body was identified as Jordan Ashford and his next of kin has been notified. We’ve been looking for Marissa since I spoke with Mark. I’m assuming he’s the one that told you about her.” Heath rubbed his chin. “We haven’t been able to make contact with her and she’s our lead suspect. Now, where did you say you saw her?” he asked.

  Yvette’s expression dulled. “At Sundae Afternoon, earlier today. She was there to see Tonya and when I realized who she was, I talked with her for a few minutes. It seemed like she was genuinely concerned when I told her what was going on. I urged her to meet with you and she assured me she would.”

  Grimacing, Heath leaned forward in his chair. “You need to stay out of this and stay away from her. She may be dangerous and I’m the one that should be talking to her, not you.” He gave Yvette a stern look.

  “She didn’t know,” Amelia defended her. “Mark was the one who rented the house to strangers.”

  “I’ve got to head out. Maybe I can still catch her at your shop.” Heath went out the front door of the bistro.

  Yvette was shocked. This was the second time she had come face to face with someone who might be a killer and didn’t know it. She was quickly learning that her judge of character wasn’t as good as she thought it had been. Maybe Heath was right, it was time she stayed out of this.

  “I think I lost my appetite,” Amelia said, pushing her plate away.

  “Me too, I’ll drop you off and then I’m going home myself to relax and unwind a little. This has been a crazy day.” Yvette agreed.

  14

  Gavin Dillinger came trudging up the porch steps covered in mud.

  “What happened to you?” Yvette cackled when she saw him.

  “Mr. Gardner happened.”

  Yvette burst out laughing again. “I thought you only had to go shut off his water?”

  “So did I. Instead of just letting the water spray out though, he decided it would be better to catch it in buckets and use it to water his plants. I’m all for saving water, but he asked if I’d help carry the buckets in the house for him. Being the nice guy that I am, I agreed. But then his little dog got out and started chasing a squirrel, and I had my hands full. I tried to dodge the dog but I tripped over him, dropping all the water and landing in the mud. And now… I don’t like squirrels any more than Mr. Gardner does.” Gavin peered down at himself. “I need a shower.”

  At least I can always count on Gavin to make me laugh, Yvette thought to herself, thankful for
the interruption. Her mind was reeling, and she wanted to stay in the comfort of her own home and not worry about anything else for the rest of the day. Thinking Gavin’s idea of a shower was a good one, Yvette gathered her things from the table and went inside.

  She’d only been out of the shower for a few minutes when she heard a noise downstairs. She wasn’t expecting any company and she was certain she’d locked her doors. Yvette grabbed her phone and slowly made her way down the stairs.

  “This is ridiculous. I need to stop being so jumpy,” she said aloud when she realized she’d left the living room window open and what she’d heard was the postman delivering a package to Gavin.

  Just then, the phone rang in her hand and she nearly dropped it. Is the universe out to get me right now? That nearly gave me a heart attack, she thought as she turned it over to look at the caller ID. It was Tonya.

  “Hello?” Yvette paced, hoping that whatever Tonya had to say was good news.

  “Are you sure?” Yvette asked after listening to her employee for a moment. “But, I told Heath that Marissa Ashford was stopping by and he told me she never showed up.”

  Yvette froze. “What do you mean that’s not her last name? I have to go.” She hung up from the call and immediately dialed Heath at the police station.

  * * *

  “I’m sorry, but when they said you weren’t back from lunch yet, I knew I had to come find you,” Yvette said, trying to catch her breath from running from her car into Carlisle’s Bistro.

  “Just trying to enjoy my lunch is all. What’s going on?”

  “We’ve been looking for Marissa Ashford, but that’s not her name. That’s Jordan’s last name but they aren’t married yet. She told me they’d put off their wedding because it was the same date as one of their family members. I talked to Tonya and she said that Marissa was gone when she went back over to the table to talk to her after I left. She tried calling her several times, but she wasn’t answering. She also told me Marissa’s last name was Raven. We need to be looking for Marissa Raven not Marissa Ashford.”