A Suspicion of Strawberries (Scents of Murder Book 1)

by Lynette Sowell

  First Charla’s death at my store, and now this. Jerry would have to straighten everything out for me. But I wouldn’t call him until I knew Ben had left for Jackson. Pride, I know. Even for me this was way over the top.

  Once I’d been fingerprinted and photographed, I stood at the phone and trembled. I didn’t want to bother my parents. Momma and Daddy didn’t need my news. Not tonight, anyway.

  Di answered on the second ring, her voice tentative and strained. She was probably puzzled by the “Greenburg PD” that I imagine popped up on her caller ID. Especially after it woke her from a sound sleep, unless she was still cleaning up after a sick kid.

  “Di, I’m in jail, and I need your help.”

  “Jail!” Di’s shriek made me jerk the phone from my ear.

  “Don’t say anything to Momma and Daddy.” I lowered my voice as I told her about the food dehydrator. “Fortunately, the overeager rookie brought it back here as the alleged evidence. My fingerprints are on that box, but so are Melinda Thacker’s.”

  “But what about you?”

  “I’m okay. Can you come and get me?”

  Fleta the bailiff laughed from across the booking room. “You can ask someone to come down tonight all you want. But they can’t post bail until morning.”

  I tried not to frown at Fleta. It wasn’t my fault I didn’t know the bail procedure. And where was sweet Anna who ran the desk out front during the day? Home asleep, like the other law-abiding citizens.

  “I could try to get away,” Di said. “Stevie’s throwing up now, and Steve’s not much better… . Can you give me awhile?”

  “Never mind. Get some rest tonight. I just learned

  I have to wait until tomorrow to get bailed out.”

  “I’ll try to come in the morning or see if Daddy can. Someone will come for you.”

  After that, we ended our call. Fleta gave a chuckle when I hung up the phone. She tapped my elbow and escorted me back to one of the three cells in the jailhouse. “In you go.”

  “Fleta…please…this is all a misunderstanding.” As if my trying to play the “I’m practically family” card had worked before.

  “I can’t do you any favors, and you know that.” The cell door clanged as she slid it closed. “What if word got around?”

  A small cot jutted out from one wall. I sank onto its lumpy mattress. “I know, I know.”

  She flashed a toothy grin at me. “Then it’ll keep ’til tomorrow, and we’ll get it all figured it out then.” The radio squawked from the front office, and its sound echoed to the back where the cells were located—where I currently sat, trying not to glare at Fleta’s retreating form.

  I rolled onto my back and looked at the fluorescent light which had just commenced blinking. Maybe if I asked, Fleta would turn it off. Or maybe there were rules against turning out lights in cell blocks. Someone down the hall snored.

  Common sense told me I should cry or spend the night worrying, but at that moment, I realized the truth of what I’d mentioned to Di earlier. The food dehydrator was safely in custody, too. If I’d tried to drag that down to the station myself, it probably wouldn’t count as evidence. But brought in carefully and tagged by the good young officer…

  “Lord, I’ve messed up plenty tonight,” I whispered. Hopefully the snorer wouldn’t be disturbed by my prayers. “But I know You’re with me, and I’m okay. I’ll probably never live this down. But it doesn’t matter.” I rolled onto my side. The mattress smelled only slightly stale, and I wondered if someone doused it with fabric deodorizer regularly.

  I tried not to give in to the feeling of a caged leopard. No wonder they wanted to pace. I’d just lost the last of my personal control, and I fought off the sensation of the walls and bars closing in. I’d fought so hard against being controlled by people’s expectations—the town, my parents, Di, Ben, add any other name I could think of. And some of those people (I wasn’t totally convinced about the town) loved me. They were only trying to help. Which made me fight harder.

  “I’m sorry, Lord. I surrender to You. You’ve given me so much: my family, Ben, my business. Friends. You have more for me, too, and I’ve been letting fear and stubbornness hold me back. I can’t do this alone, pushing people away and trying to figure everything out. I can’t.” I brushed away a tear.

  In spite of my disastrous sleuthing, God had a reason for me being right in this little cell. Talk about getting corralled long enough to get some sense drilled into me. God had been loving me through my family, Di, and Ben, and I’d missed it.

  I prayed for I don’t know how long, a running conversation about anything and everything. Though I found myself stuck behind metal bars, I felt free. I couldn’t stop the smile. Ironic, me fighting that old trapped feeling, and now it had disappeared in jail. I could hardly wait to reach Ben and pick out some house plans.

  “Baby girl, what have you gone and done?” The door to the cellblock clanged behind Daddy as he burst through it the following morning. He still wore his house slippers, which said a lot for Daddy, who never went anywhere without his work boots.

  “It’s a long story.” I met him at the cell bars. “I’ll pay you back.”

  He waved me off and shook his head. “I talked to Jerry, and they’ll get you to see the judge as soon as they can. He said the charges will likely get thrown out.”

  “Daddy, I need to get him to check that food dehydrator from the Salvation Army trash bin. It’s got fingerprints on it.”

  “Don’t tell me it’s true, then?” A look of shock crossed his face. “You really tried to steal from them? We raised you right, girl!”

  “No, it’s not that. I was standing there with the box, and I’d realized I ought to put it back instead of leaving a note and a donation in the store drop box, when the officer drove up and arrested me.” I clutched the bars and sucked in a breath. “He wouldn’t listen and started reading me my rights.”

  “Well, let’s get going.” Daddy glanced over his shoulder. “Jerry, open this door right now.”

  “Yessir, Mr. Clark.” Jerry fumbled with the keys, and I tried not to glare at him. “Andi, I’m sorry about what happened.” Jerry leaned closer when I passed through the cell door. “I know this case will get tossed out. My overeager rookie’s going to need a refresher course.”

  I bit my tongue. “Jerry, you’ve got to check the prints on that dehydrator. Not just the box.”

  Daddy held up a bag I hadn’t noticed before. “Got us some breakfast bagel-wiches from Honey’s. Ham, egg, and cheese for me. Bacon, egg, and cheese for you. Coffee in the truck.”

  My stomach growled. “Oh.” My throat swelled, and I was eight again, with Daddy making everything right.

  We climbed into his ancient pickup, reserved for runs to the town dump and trips to the recycling plant, and now probably designated for picking up jailbird daughters after posting bail. My eyelids drooped once I fastened the seat belt.

  Then I opened them. “Could you please run me by my store real quick? I need to pick something up and bring it back to Jerry.” I smiled at Daddy and took a bite of my bagel-wich.

  Jerry looked surprised when Daddy dropped me by the station forty minutes later. I lugged in the large cherry scrub container from the party. “Andi. Back again. You forgot your purse. Fleta’s got it.”

  “Thanks.” I put the scrub on the counter. “Brought you something.”

  “Come to my office. We’ll chat.” He motioned, and I followed him behind the glass partition. He closed the door behind us.

  I took a deep breath before starting. “This is the container of scrub from Charla’s party. Did you check the bowl of scrub for fingerprints—Charla’s bowl that you took the day she died?”

  “Well, no, can’t say as I have. Didn’t see the need at the time. Just sent the soap for testing.” He looked thoughtful, but he wasn’t stopping me, and I took that as a good sign.

  “Okay then. I’m asking you again to test everything. The food dehydrator, the container, an
d Charla’s bowl. I believe all three will have the same fingerprints.”

  “And you think those will belong to… ?”

  “Melinda Thacker.” I spoke her name aloud and felt a sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach. “If I’m wrong, so be it. But I think you need to check.”

  Jerry settled onto his office chair and steepled his fingers underneath his chin. “I seem to remember Melinda got picked up for shoplifting back in high school. We’d have her prints on file.”

  I nodded as I played my final card. “I know it’s a long shot. But I’ve had a suspicion about the strawberries ever since the beginning. After this, if nothing comes up, I’ll drop the idea. But if this helps you when you talk to the DA about Seth…”

  He said nothing for a moment, so I pounced again.

  “You owe me this much. I did the hard work for y’all and got arrested in the process. But I know this was Melinda’s, because I followed her to the store last night when she dumped it off. Literally.”

  “Andi, I gotta tell you, it sounds like a long shot. We’ll see what we find. And if we have a match, I’ll bring her in.”

  “Thanks, Jerry.”

  As I left the station after getting my purse back from Fleta, my heart sank. I shouldn’t feel triumphant about this. Not if it ruined a woman’s life.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I worked at the store for two days after meeting with Jerry. The time crawled. I tried calling Ben but couldn’t get through. A sleepless night greeted me every night I trudged to bed. I had so much to tell him.

  Then I tagged along with Di and the boys to the city park pool in the afternoon. The whole time Di and I lounged poolside while the boys splashed around, all I could see was the winding road that passed the pool, entered the woods, and ended at the lodge where I’d seen Emily pleading with Robert.

  And so my thoughts circled back to Melinda. My heart broke for her. My gut told me, though, that her revenge had cooked a long, slow burn. This wasn’t an “Oops, sorry about the strawberries getting into your scrub” mistake. This was an “I’m going to enjoy making you pay” kind of payback. Besides, she’d gotten Seth to break into the store, I reminded myself.

  “Hey, wake up.” Di touched my arm. “Your tote bag is ringing.”

  I jerked upright in the lounge chair, knocked my towel into a puddle of water, and fumbled for the phone. Jerry. “Do you have news?”

  “We do. Melinda’s prints are all over everything. Her prints are on Charla’s bowl and inside the large vat of that cherry scrub. Yours are all over everything, too, by the way. Except for the food dehydrator.”

  “That’s not funny. Besides, I have no motive.”

  “True.” I heard his chair creak. “Officer Chubb is on his way to pick up Melinda now. I had that chat with the DA about Seth and shared your theories with him. He said to bring her in.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.”

  I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised when my phone rang ten minutes later. And it was Melinda.

  “What did you tell them?”

  “Melinda, I tried to talk to you…” A child in the pool shrieked, and I clamped the phone more tightly to my ear.

  “So that’s what you were trying to do the other night? Talk to me? And now the cops are picking me up to come to the station for questioning. You know, you could have left well enough alone. My parents are going to freak. Between you and my stupid cousin…” Melinda’s voice shook. “Did you know my daddy’s planning to run for a state representative position? I guess not now.”

  “I only wanted the truth.”

  “Oh, no, there’s a squad car pulling up out front—” The line went dead.

  Di was hollering at one of the boys to get off the diving board. Once they obeyed, she turned back to me. “What’s goin’ on?”

  “Melinda Thacker’s getting brought in for questioning.”

  “Boys—we’re leavin’!” Di leaped to her feet.

  Clad in my damp shorts and shirt, I waved ’bye to Diana. My still-damp flip-flops squeaked as I climbed the steps of the police station. Melinda. In spite of what she’d done, my heart went out to her. Maybe I’d get turned away, but I wanted to talk to her face-to-face.

  I found Melinda in the main reception area. Her shoulders were slumped, and whoever had brought her in was filling out some paperwork at the desk.

  Melinda looked up. “I can’t believe you had the nerve to show up here. Daddy said I ought to call a lawyer before I talk to them. So I did. And I’m coming straight after you once this mess is over with.”

  I sat next to her on the bench. “I…I know about the baby, Melinda.” I reached to touch her shoulder. Where was Jerry? I caught a glimpse of him through the glass window of his office. He was on the phone, nodding and glancing my way.

  A wail rose from Melinda, and she wrapped her arms around her chest, drawing away from me. “I loved it. I wanted it. Him, her. It didn’t matter. And Robert never knew.” She hunched over in the chair. “He wouldn’t even talk to me. Emily tried to get him to listen, but he moved on. Then on the Fourth, I saw him with the backstabbing little—”

  My throat tied itself in a knot. “You had Seth break into my store. No one believed him. At first.”

  Melinda straightened her posture. A wave of desperation and rage broke across me when she glanced my way. “Blood is thicker than water, they say. I saw Seth and his little goonies breaking into a store one night in May. Told him I’d turn him in if he didn’t help me get into that ridiculous shop of yours.”

  This wasn’t exactly a confession or new information. And my store wasn’t ridiculous, but I reminded myself this was a Thacker talking. I bit my lip.

  I saw Jerry quietly enter the reception area through a door behind Melinda.

  “I have nothing left to lose. Not since Robert refused to acknowledge our love, not since Charla continues to ruin my life even though she’s rotting in the grave.”

  At that, I flinched.

  “Mike Chandler has the best strawberries in the county, did you know? Sweet revenge, no pun intended.”

  “So, enter the food dehydrator,” I said aloud.

  “You’re smart. I knew that. I should have figured you’d know something was wrong with the cherry scrub.” She flipped her walnut-colored hair over one shoulder, her almond eyes round and reddened. “But I enjoyed drying those berries. Every moment, I thought of Charla’s face when she realized what she’d done to herself. With her own hands. And all I had to do was watch.”

  “So you meant to kill her?” My chest hurt. Melinda clamped her mouth shut, then continued.

  “I didn’t say that. I was sick and tired of it all. With me and Robert, it was flames from the beginning, especially when Charla wouldn’t give him what he wanted.” Melinda smiled at me, still oblivious to Jerry standing behind her. “Oh yeah, I see your shock. Charla wasn’t the town high-class floozy that some thought. She had standards, and when a guy got too close, she took off running. Funny how rumors get started, don’t you think? By the time Charla keeled over, she had enough enemies. She also had plenty of strawberry in her system, here and there, that I fed her.”

  “So the cumulative effect of the allergen in her system pushed her body over the edge once she used that scrub.” I shook my head. All I saw was a broken soul that had given up the struggle.

  “Don’t look at me like that, Andi Clark.” Melinda’s eyes flashed with renewed fire. “You should have quit nosing around. Your business would have bounced back. You know how it is around here. Someone else would have been the big news in Greenburg eventually.”

  “That’s true enough,” I admitted. “But some questions had to be answered.”

  “Why didn’t you just mind your own business? And don’t give me that ‘I-know-what-it’s-like-to-be- disappointed-in-love’ speech. You’ve got someone that any woman in her right mind would fight to keep. I thought I did… .”

  My gaze flicked to Jerry
as I rose, then shot back down at Melinda. There didn’t seem a reason for me to be here. “I’m praying for you, Melinda, and I did want to be your friend.”

  “Save your breath.” She stared at the floor.

  Jerry said, “Ms. Thacker, would you like to give a statement now?”

  The station was a blur as I passed through it and headed to the main doors. My throat hurt, and I dashed tears away. I didn’t know how I could deal with the idea that I was actually right about Melinda. I’d wanted answers and made assumptions but hadn’t paused long enough to consider the ramifications of the answers.

  Once I hit the bright outdoors, I let the tears come. I slammed into someone. Hard. I squinted up into the glare of the sun. “Ben!”

  He had his arms around me in an instant and let me sob as he rubbed my back. “I’m home, baby, for good,” I heard him whisper. “What’s wrong?”

  “It was Melinda. I thought I’d be happy if I knew the truth, but I’m not. She’s being questioned inside right now.”

  “Honey, you tried.” His hug felt good. “I wasn’t happy the other night when you didn’t listen to me, but I know why you were so determined.”

  “You…you’re home early.” I smiled at him.

  “Di called me that night. Said you were in trouble. I came back as soon as I could.” He released me only enough so we could look each other in the eyes. “I wasn’t avoiding you the last time I was home, but I had some important business to tend to. It was either keep my phone off or risk ruining my surprise. When you get it in your head to find something out, there’s no stopping you.”

  “I’m really glad you’re here.” My nose was running, so I fumbled for a tissue in my purse.

  “Here’s what kept me away. Had to find it, order it. Then it was on backorder so I had to go somewhere else to pick it up ’cause I didn’t want to wait.”

  Numb, I nodded, still looking for a tissue. By the time I found one and blew my nose, Ben had produced a small velvet box and gotten down on one knee. I dropped my purse and grabbed my throat.