Deadly Sweet Tooth

by Kaye George

  “See? I got them for almost nothing. It’s a divorce and she left him for another man.” Mrs. Gerg leaned close and whispered, even though they were in Tally’s living room with the front door closed to the street. “It’s that trashy couple down the block and across the street from me. I never liked them. So now the man is selling everything that belongs to her.”

  Was that legal? Tally wondered. Or was it theft? She would hang onto these in case the police wanted them back some day. She realized that the address Lily had given Tally for her parents’ house was across the street from Mrs. Gerg. It was worth a try.

  “Do you know a couple named Vale in your neighborhood?”

  “Oh yes, I do. Or I did. They moved away. They were very nice people.”

  Alarms went off for Tally. “When did they move?”

  “Oh, let’s see. It was a while ago. Maybe a year? Their daughter, Lily, moved into an apartment with her cousin Amy, the daughter of Mrs. Vale’s brother. They’re almost the same age. Amy’s family lives on a ranch outside town.”

  Tally wanted to sit Mrs. Gerg down and quiz her about the other two women, but needed to do some homework on them first. She thanked Mrs. Gerg profusely for the necklace and for the information.

  “Why do you want to know? Oh, I know. She’s working for you, isn’t she?”

  “Yes. She’s a good employee. I’m very happy with her.”

  “I should say so. She’s an angel. Never been in trouble a minute in her life.”

  After Mrs. Gerg left, it occurred to Tally that she should, in the future, probably run all prospective employees past Mrs. Gerg before she hired them.

  When Tally saw Allen’s number pop up on her phone as she was bedding down, she considered not answering it. But that would be stupid. And juvenile.

  He sounded perfectly relaxed. And friendly. “Hey, Tally. It’s good to hear your voice. I feel like I’m so far away.”

  “You’ve only been gone two days, right? But, yeah, it’s good to hear you, too.”

  “Look, I’m sorry our date didn’t go well. I want to make it up to you next time I’m in town.”

  “I guess it was my fault, too. It’s just that—”

  “I know, you’re so concerned about your parents and what happened to Fran.”

  Something occurred to Tally. “Did you know her? Do you know the Abrahams?”

  “Sure, I did work for them when I was doing the contracting, the handyman stuff.”

  She should have thought of that before. “What did you think of them?”

  “Well, I liked Len a lot. Fran, not so much. Okay, not at all. I’m not the only one. No one could stand her.”

  “I wonder what made her so mean. I don’t think she used to be that way. They were both friends and even business associates with my parents a long time ago, before I was born.”

  “Really? One thing that probably hardened Fran was the way Len ran around.”

  “He does have a roving eye, I’m learning.”

  “Both eyes. Plus other body parts. I don’t know why she stayed with him.”

  “Or why he stayed with her.”

  “Oh, I know that part.”

  Tally sat up in bed. “You do?”

  “I heard him complain about it. He was practically shacked up with the latest starlet. She was on him to leave Fran, but he and Fran had a prenup. He told her he couldn’t afford a divorce. Fran would get everything. Their house, bank account, all of it.”

  They talked a bit more and ended with tender good nights. Tally figured killing Fran had to be considerably cheaper than divorcing her.

  Chapter 18

  In the morning, Tally decided to concentrate her research on Greer Tomson next. She was almost positive Greer had given her an altered driver’s license. What would be the best way to handle that? Direct confrontation? First, though, she would look up her address.

  She closed her office door and sat at the desk. Greer had only filled in one address on the form. When Tally put it into her computer and looked at the street view of the shabby apartment building, she was appalled. In appeared that Greer lived in abject poverty. Tally wondered if her mother—the one who was either dead or alive, depending on which story Greer was telling at the time—lived there, too. She was glad she had given the poor girl her job back, even if she wasn’t a very good worker. Greer had listed her mother as her only reference. How did she expect to get away with saying she was dead? Tally should have noticed that.

  Her application answers were odd for another reason, though, now that she stopped to think about it. The woman had had lots of jobs, having dropped out of high school a few years ago and worked since then. But none of the jobs had lasted very long. Had she been fired from them? All of them? Maybe she needed to be shown how to behave properly in a work situation.

  It was Sunday. Molly was working and Tally had given Greer the day off, back to the original schedule. Molly was in the kitchen whipping up batches of candies as Tally started on payroll, still in her office.

  “I hate to bother you,” Molly said, sticking her head in the doorway. The hubbub of the busy shop poured in through the opening, borne on the smell of a new batch of peanut clusters. “But we’re running low on peanuts. I need some more if I’m going to finish the peanut clusters.”

  Tally saved and closed her files. “I’ll run get some.”

  “It’s Sunday, Ms. Holt. Where you going to get them?”

  “I’ll have to use the grocery store. How much do you need?”

  The amount for one batch wouldn’t be too bad. It wouldn’t break her bank. They were getting a shipment on Monday. It wouldn’t take long at all and she would swing by the place where Greer lived to try to see if she actually lived there. Why hadn’t she checked these things out before she hired them? She had trusted what they put on paper without verifying anything. Greer should also have given her references from her previous jobs, at least one or two. Tally was learning how to run a business the hard way—by doing it wrong.

  She’d had it easy in Austin with her bakery. Her employees had all been hardworking and trustworthy—never a moment’s trouble. Oh well, now she knew better. She’d been lucky in Austin.

  After picking up the peanuts, she swung her little blue Chevy Sonic down the street where Greer lived. At the last moment, she worried about what to do if Greer saw her checking up on the address. This wasn’t a part of town she usually—or ever—went to. If she got spotted, she could stretch the truth a bit and say it was a shortcut back to the shop. If she didn’t say where she was coming from.

  Some older people and few teenagers were sitting outside the buildings on the front steps of the multifamily dwellings. Maybe they didn’t have air conditioning, poor souls. She slowed when she approached the middle of the block and searched the house numbers. Not every building had one, but the number she sought was displayed in big enough numbers to spot easily.

  An elderly-looking woman sat in a wheelchair on the stoop, right outside the door. A younger woman bent over the older one, facing away from Tally. Even from the back, Tally could tell that the younger woman was Greer. Tally didn’t dare stop, or go more slowly, but she was able to observe that the woman in the wheelchair looked like a stroke victim. One side of her face drooped and her left arm, held against her thin chest, was rigid and shriveled.

  Tally kept going, thankful that Greer didn’t turn around.

  Her heart went out to Greer, living in such an awful place and, it seemed, tending a disabled relative. However, she still needed to talk to her about the falsified license. This wasn’t something she had foreseen ever having to do as a business owner.

  Poor Greer, but poor Tally, too.

  * * * *

  On Monday, the shop was lively. More lively than Tally wanted it to be. As soon as she unlocked the front door at ten o’clock, customers crowded in. They h
ad been waiting outside. That gave her a warm feeling. What didn’t give her a warm feeling, however, was that Greer hadn’t shown up for work yet. Lily, as usual, was in place bright and early. Tally could have been doing some baking in the back at the moment, but needed to help wait on people in Greer’s absence.

  Greer strolled through the front door fifteen minutes late. Half of the first influx had already bought goods and left, so Tally took a deep breath and asked Greer to see her in the office for a few minutes.

  Greer followed her into the small space and sat as soon as she was in. Tally wondered if she was perpetually exhausted from taking care of the woman she assumed was her disabled mother. She couldn’t let her pity get in the way of bringing up what was an illegal, deceptive act.

  “Greer,” Tally said, opening the file folder that was waiting on her desk, rustling through the paperwork, and picking up the photocopy of her driver’s license, “can you explain this?”

  She barely glanced at it. “It’s my driver’s license.”

  “Do you see anything wrong with it? Take a close look.”

  Leaning forward, her eyes wide, she took another glance. “Nope, that’s it. It’s mine.”

  Tally dropped the copy of the license onto the folder and sat back, looking Greer in the eyes. “It’s fake.”

  “What?” Greer pasted surprise all over her face. “What do you mean? They sent me a fake license?” She looked down, avoiding Tally’s eyes.

  “No, Greer. You changed it. I want to know why.”

  Greer kept staring at her own lap. A frown line made a fleeting appearance above her nose. After a considerable silence, she looked up, her lips tight. “I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”

  “Okay. Not supposed to tell anyone what?”

  At that moment, the back doorbell rang. Tally told Greer to wait, suspecting it was her supplier. That’s exactly who it was. He carried in a large supply of everything, including the peanuts she had needed the day before.

  When Tally returned to her office after signing the forms and sticking a few of the supplies away, Greer was gone from her office. Tally could hear her voice. She was working in the front of the store.

  Chapter 19

  It was lunchtime before Tally got a chance to finish her interrupted talk with Greer. She gave Greer the first lunch break, telling her to take her sack lunch into the office.

  After Tally sat at the desk, she took a moment to regroup her thoughts. She really didn’t want to confront Greer, but she had to. “Greer, you’ll have to explain this to me. Is there a good reason for you to have a falsified license?”

  “Yes, there is. A really good reason.” She took a breath, then a bite of the sandwich in her lap, then continued. “My mom and me had to escape. From my father. He was beating us up. We had to change our name.”

  So her father wasn’t dead, either. “Was that at the order of the court?”

  “The court? No, there wasn’t time for any of that. We just had to get away.” She gulped down more of her sandwich and took a swig of her canned soda.

  “So you just took off and changed your names? And your father never found you?”

  “Nope.” She shook her head forcefully. “No, we got away. Clean away. Can I go back to work now?”

  She had finished her sandwich.

  Tally nodded, but sat for a few more minutes to evaluate what Greer had just told her.

  On one hand, it made sense to flee an abusive spouse and parent as quickly as possible. It also made sense to flee secretly, in the middle of the night, so to speak. And her mother was in bad shape. Was that because of having been beaten many times?

  On the other hand, why not go through the courts and get the matter taken care of?

  Tally read through Greer’s paperwork one more time and Greer’s story crumbled to bits. She had put down the length of time at her present address as twenty-eight years. Her age was also twenty-eight. Her stories didn’t match. She hadn’t fled and come to that place.

  Or was her license faked to give herself a different age? Had she lied on her job application? In that case, her stories might match. But why wouldn’t she admit to that?

  Tally went to tell Lily to take her lunch break and decided to skip lunch herself.

  * * * *

  Yolanda had just delivered a basket to an apartment house where a newlywed wife was going to surprise her husband that night to celebrate their first month of marriage. She was proud of what she’d put together. The sturdy wicker basket held a romantic CD, some scented candles, some of Tally’s fudge, and a skimpy nightgown the bride had furnished. Yolanda had also added a few roses and scattered rose petals over everything to remind them of their walk down the aisle.

  She wondered, wistfully, if she would ever be preparing gifts for the wedding of her sister and Eden. A beautiful, public marriage, with both sides of the family beaming at the happy couple. Oh, well, she could dream.

  Driving past the police station on her way back, she did a double take when she saw Len Abraham being escorted into the station by Detective Jackson Rogers. Len wasn’t in handcuffs, but Rogers held him by his upper arm and pulled him along, none too gently.

  Oh, good, she thought. They have another suspect.

  She called Tally from inside her car as soon as she returned to her parking space behind her shop. “Guess who I just saw?”

  “Um, Godzilla? He’s attacking Fredericksburg? No, wait, I know. It was probably Batman and Robin. Hallelujah, we’re safe.”

  “Be serious, Tally.”

  “Then stop making me guess what I can’t guess.”

  Yolanda smiled. Tally had a point. It was so good to have a friend you could be goofy with. She was so glad Tally was back in Fredericksburg. “It was Len,” she said. “He was going into the police station.”

  “Okay.”

  “That detective had him by the arm. I think he’s the next suspect.”

  “It’s about time!” Yolanda heard the smile in Tally’s voice.

  “I know. He should have been the first suspect, right? The husband is always the first one they look at—in movies and books.”

  “I wonder if that’s what’s really going on. Maybe he’s getting some of Fran’s property or something.”

  “Her property?” Yolanda said.

  “I suppose they processed her clothes, whatever she was wearing.”

  The sun was beating into Yolanda’s car, making it uncomfortably warm with the engine and the AC turned off. “Don’t they keep that stuff for a long time?”

  “You’re right. I hope with all my heart that Dad is off the hook, but I’m afraid to let myself think that,” Tally said.

  After she finished talking to Tally, Yolanda called Raul, who assured her the shop was doing fine. Not that fine, she thought. If she wasn’t needed, that meant there weren’t too many customers for him to wait on by himself. She might as well run over and see Kevin. She would drop into his wine store and surprise him.

  She left her little Nissan in the parking space behind her own shop, then came around and entered Bear Mountain Vineyards in the front. Kevin wasn’t visible, so she peeked down several of the aisles until she saw him, standing with his back to her at the far end of one, talking on his phone.

  With a smile, she crept up behind him.

  “No, babe. You know I’ll always do whatever you want. It’s just that—”

  No, babe? Yolanda halted and listened.

  “I always have, lover, I always will. But—” He paused to listen.

  Yolanda finished his sentence in her head. “Always will…lover?” Ice entered her veins and froze her to the spot, unable to move, almost unable to breathe.

  “I know, I know. We need to talk. When can I see you?” Another pause.

  “Absolutely. Whenever you want. Let me know, babe.”

  He
quit the call and stuffed the phone into his pocket. When he turned, the shock on his face nearly matched that on hers.

  Yolanda wanted to say, “Who will you always love?” but she couldn’t speak.

  “Yolanda.” Kevin’s smile was more of a grimace. “Did you just get here?”

  Was he hoping she hadn’t heard any of his conversation?

  “Just now,” she managed to say, barely above a whisper. “I…thought I’d drop in and surprise you.”

  “Yes. You did.”

  An awkward silence blossomed between them until an older man approached Kevin and asked for help selecting a wine for his shrimp boil.

  Yolanda fled before her tears could tumble down her cheeks in front of him.

  * * * *

  After Tally finished the call with Yolanda about Len being taken into the police station, she broke into a big grin. She couldn’t wait to tell her parents tonight.

  “What’s so great?” Lily asked.

  “Huh?”

  “You’re smiling like you just won the lottery.” Lily mirrored Tally’s grin.

  Maybe her family had won it. “Yeah. It’s good news. I’m not sure, but I think they’re finally questioning Len.”

  “About time,” Lily said. “Everyone knows he wanted her gone.”

  “What?”

  The store had been empty, but a family of four entered and Tally pulled Lily to the corner.

  “What does everyone know?” Tally whispered.

  “He’s slept around for years and told a bunch of women that he wanted to leave Fran, but he couldn’t because they had a prenup and he couldn’t afford the divorce.”

  Tally shook her head. “I heard that. But he could have saved money by not wining and dining other women.”

  “Those two had the strangest relationship. Fran didn’t seem to like Len and he was public about not liking her. But she was jealous anyway.”

  “Of Shiny, you mean?”

  “Of everyone.”