“I wasn’t here for a haircut anyway. I dropped in to see you.”
“What about?” Preston scowled at me. I sat two seats down from him and tried to look earnest and a little desperate.
“Hooliganism. I can’t talk to Lowell about it because he’s just too close to the family.”
“Somebody in your family is kicking up a bunch of dust?” That got his attention. His ears started swiveling like an old-fashioned satellite dish. He snatched the paper off the chair beside him and patted it with a gnarled hand. I moved over and lowered my voice to barely above a whisper.
“Hazel’s been out joyriding. She wrecked my car and did her best to corrupt a youth while she was at it.”
“She’s always been a rip, that woman. Was the kid underage?”
“Nope. That was the only saving grace to the entire incident. We’re at our wits’ end. I’m afraid she’s incorrigible.”
“Every year she manages to get up to some new sort of deviltry.”
“Do you remember the year she led a naked toboggan team down the sled route?”
“Hard to forget a thing like that. The worst part was the way Hazel kept asking if I was gonna frisk her.” Preston shook his head hard, like he was trying to rattle the image out of his eyeballs. “Something about the maple festival brings out the worst in that woman.”
“That’s just it. Hazel’s shenanigans have got to be the worst thing to ever take place during the festival.” I waited to see if he would take the bait. Preston wasn’t a gossip like Myra but he was a born storyteller. Which is why he spent so much time at the barbershop. He had a built-in audience.
“You can take heart in the knowledge she hasn’t caused the biggest stir,” he said. I crossed my arms and tipped my head like I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“I haven’t heard of anything worse happening in my lifetime.” And I hadn’t either. Spooner was before my time so strictly speaking I was still telling the truth. I watched, pleased with my work, as Preston leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers together over his rounded gut. It looked like I might be here for a while.
“Maybe not during your lifetime but not long before you added your twig to the Greene family tree there was Spooner Duffy.”
“The guy who just turned up dead in the town hall basement?”
“The very same. I knew he would come to a very bad end.”
“What could he have done for you to expect him to show up under a pile of coal in the cellar of a public building?” Now I was even more concerned that Preston could have been involved from the way he was taking on a gleeful glow.
“He ran off with the earnings from the festival and left a string of broken hearts in his wake.”
“Sounds like there should be a lot of suspects. Too bad he didn’t turn up sooner.”
“If we had known he was dead instead of gone I would have taken the investigation in a whole different direction.”
“Was Spooner the only suspect in the robbery?”
“He was the only one missing. And he had a whole lot of reasons to hightail it out of town. Who better to suspect?”
“Lowell says the money wasn’t with the body unless it disintegrated. And he sure didn’t bury himself.”
“Well, I couldn’t have known that at the time.”
“But now that you do know it, if you think back, was there anyone else you would have questioned more closely?”
“Why all the questions about Spooner? I thought you wanted to pick my brain about your nutty aunt.”
“You brought up Spooner, not me. And I hope everyone ends up being more interested in Spooner than in Hazel.”
“I guess you have a point.”
“So was there someone else you suspected?”
“I did wonder a bit about Jim and Tansey.”
“What about them?”
“It occurred to me at the time that we only had their word for it that they ever actually put the money in Karen’s desk drawer.”
“No one else saw them go to the town hall?” That seemed hard to believe.
“Jim, Tansey, and a couple of other people were involved in the final tally of the take. Several people saw the money go into the bank bag but that’s the end of it. I never managed to run down any witnesses that saw them going to the town hall or driving away from it either.”
“Downtown Sugar Grove clears out pretty fast at the end of the festival. Everyone from out of town leaves altogether and residents are just happy to get home out of the cold. Just because you didn’t find anyone who saw them doesn’t mean they made off with the money.”
“It didn’t help put them in the clear, though, either. I’m not saying they did it but you did ask if I suspected anyone else at the time.”
“What about Karen? She knew the money was going to be in her desk and she probably had the opportunity to take it out before Jim got there. Did you ever suspect she could have had anything to do with what happened?” Karen seemed like a nice enough person but the last few months had taught me more than I ever wished to know about how people weren’t always what they seemed.
“Karen said Jim was waiting for her on the town hall steps when she arrived at work that Monday morning.”
“It would have been easy enough to come in earlier and then leave again. That way she could have pretended to discover the theft right along with Jim.”
“Karen may have done some things I wished she hadn’t and she may have even done some things she wished she hadn’t but I can’t see her taking the money. And I can’t see her killing Spooner for it either. After all, she wrecked our marriage over the guy.”
“You never married again?”
“Take some advice from an old geezer. When you find the right person, don’t let him get away, because there may not be anyone who ever comes close to them again.” Preston slumped a little in his chair. Without thinking about it I found myself reaching out and squeezing his hand.
“I’ll remember,” I said as I felt him squeeze mine back.
* * *
It was easy enough to approach Sarah Gifford Sparkes in a place where she had very little chance of escape. I am certain my grandmother was surprised when I volunteered to help out in the church nursery at Wednesday evening service. It was a task I had generally avoided ever since I was a teenager.
Grandma mentioned something about what people won’t do to avoid their relatives. It was easier to let her think that I was going to the church to avoid Hazel and Jade. I certainly couldn’t tell her about the favor I was doing for Tansey.
I knew talking to Sarah at the church was a great idea because she’d have a difficult time not answering my uncomfortable questions if she wanted to encourage me to volunteer again. On my way to the church, I turned over in my mind how to ask my questions. Despite the fact Tansey had called me a snoop, I really wasn’t all that great at making people uncomfortable. I preferred to leave things like that to Myra or even Hazel.
By the time I arrived in the church basement Sarah already had her hands full with squawking children. A wailing baby perched on her hip and a toddler with a sippy cup clung to her leg. Three other preschool-aged children chased one another around the small room, leaving a trail of graham cracker crumbs and discarded blocks in their wake.
“Dani, your timing is perfect.” Sarah thrust the crying baby into my arms. I jiggled it up and down and patted it experimentally on the back. It grabbed a fistful of my hair and began to tug. I can’t say I enjoyed the pain but at least she had stopped crying.
“Does she always freak out like this?”
“She fusses nonstop every time her mother drops her off. You can’t turn someone away from attending church but I find myself hoping her family would move to another town.” Sarah yawned extravagantly and collapsed into one of the two rockers at the far side of the nursery. “I real
ly appreciate an extra set of hands.”
“I was planning to drive Spring and Hunter in for their youth group anyway. I figured while I was here that you might like some help.”
“I’m surprised you have the time, considering it is sugaring season and the festival preparations are in full swing.”
“There is a bit of extra work to do for the festival now that Tansey is out of commission.”
“I heard she took a tumble at the Stack. Is she still feeling poorly?”
“She isn’t quite herself. You know she was friends with the guy whose body was found in the town hall?”
“That’s hardly surprising. Spooner was really well-known around town.”
“I never met him but what I keep hearing is that mostly he was friends with all the women. Even ones who were as young as you were at the time he was in town.” I tried to keep my eyes on Sarah and her reaction to the conversation about Spooner but the baby kept moving her head into my line of vision. I couldn’t feel irritated though. She really was awfully cute with her big dark eyes and cowlicked hair sticking up all over her head.
“I guess that’s right. I know I was crazy about him but at least he was smart enough not to give any encouragement to the pastor’s underage daughter. I was pretty heartbroken at the time but looking back, I’m grateful I didn’t get myself into any trouble.”
“Cliff Thompson said Spooner was spotted chasing you around backstage at the opera house at least once.”
“Cliff does love a good story. Spooner was trying to get me to take a message to Theresa Reynolds. She was still Theresa Carter then, of course.” Sarah shot out an arm and grabbed a little boy who held a wooden toy hammer poised above a small girl’s head. “I told him I wouldn’t and he kept following me around trying to convince me to do it. I ducked backstage to try to lose him but he followed me there, too. I expect that’s what Cliff was talking about.”
“What did he want you to tell Theresa?”
“He didn’t want me to tell her anything. He asked me to give her a note.” Sarah traded the boy a cracker for the hammer and sent him on his way.
“Did you finally agree to do it?”
“I did. I was so embarrassed by the scene he was causing that I took the note just to quiet him down. Spooner had a real thing for Theresa even though she made it clear she wasn’t interested. He just wouldn’t leave her alone.”
“You didn’t happen to read it, did you? If I had been asked to give another girl a note from a guy I had a crush on I wouldn’t have been able to resist the temptation of reading it.” I smiled at her, hoping enough time had gone by that Sarah wouldn’t be reluctant to fess up.
“Of course I did. He wanted her to meet him at the town hall the next night after the festival ended. He said he was doing some painting there after hours and that they’d have the place to themselves.”
“Did you give her the note?”
“You know how when you are a teenager everything seems so important? Almost life or death?”
“I remember.” Sarah was right. When I was a senior in high school, life felt so overwhelming and exciting all at the same time. Everything was suddenly too complicated and every choice felt like it had earth-shattering consequences.
“I did something I was ashamed of. I always looked up to Theresa. She was a couple years older than me, she was prettier than I was, and her family let her do things I never was allowed to do.”
“I can understand that.” Even though Piper had been my best friend since elementary school there were times when I had envied her. Especially in high school when she was so much more sophisticated at navigating the social scene than I had been.
“She had gotten engaged to Gary Reynolds only a few weeks earlier at Christmastime. Instead of giving the note to Theresa, I gave it to Gary and asked him to pass it along.” Sarah squirmed in the rocker and I didn’t think it was from the weight of the toddler in her lap. The memory still stung. “I guess I thought if Gary got mad enough he’d get Spooner off Theresa’s back once and for all and maybe he’d turn his attention to someone else, like me.”
“What did he do?”
“He asked who it was from and when I told him it was from Spooner he opened it right in front of me. I regretted giving it to him immediately.”
“Did he cause a scene?”
“Totally the opposite. He got really quiet except from the noise of his jaw popping. The way he looked across the room at Theresa made me scared.”
“Did he say anything else?”
“He thanked me for giving him the note and he said he would take care of it. He crossed the room and took Theresa by the arm and led her out the door.”
“Do you think he hurt her?” I didn’t know Mitch’s parents well but with a town the size of Sugar Grove a lot of gossip made the rounds. I hadn’t ever heard that there was anything but happiness between Theresa and Gary.
It was one of the selling points Celadon had pushed when she set me up with Mitch. Celadon seemed to think marital bliss was coded into DNA.
“No. I kept an eye out for bruises and that sort of thing for a few weeks but the two of them seemed perfectly fine. They married in August of that same year.”
“I wonder if he ever gave her the note.”
“I have no idea. But I can tell you I never saw Spooner again after Sunday night. I often wondered if Gary met him at the town office instead.”
Thirteen
The next day had dawned cold and the forecast called for below-freezing temperatures. During my morning visit to the sugar bush there was very little sap flowing through the tubing and even less puddled up in the collection tanks.
Usually, once the sap started flowing I wouldn’t have been happy for Mother Nature to put a halt on production. But with most of the day yesterday spent running around looking into the missing money I could use all the help I could get catching up at the sugarhouse.
Fortunately, not only had Loden been willing to fill in for me, the whole process of sugar making had become more streamlined with the modernizations I had convinced the family to install. For instance, just in time for the season we had added an automatic bottler and a filter press to the production process. Instead of hand-filling jugs with a well-balanced funnel or skimming impurities from the boiling sap with a mesh strainer we now had well-oiled machines to act as extra pairs of hands.
Even Grampa had admitted the changes were a good idea. Next year I hoped to add both a reverse osmosis machine and an automatic vacuum unit to our operations. As much as I had hoped to have added the vacuum unit to Greener Pastures already, now I was glad I hadn’t gotten around to it. A vacuum unit helps to increase production even when the conditions are less than ideal.
The reverse osmosis machine would have been a help, though, no matter what. They remove seventy-five percent of water from sap before it even gets to the evaporator. Once we install one it will save countless hours of boiling time as well as the fuel that requires.
With the automation and the low volume of sap I decided that after putting in a couple of hours in the woods I could spare some time to pay a call to Theresa. I pulled up to the bank with a deposit bag and a box of maple-flavored saltwater taffy. It was still early, just past opening, but I knew Theresa wouldn’t be able to resist my offering. She loves the stuff and who doesn’t feel a bit of a craving for something sweet no matter what the hour?
As awkward as things should have been between Theresa and me, they weren’t. Somehow, her son, Mitch, had managed to convince her that he was the one who decided we should break up. I guess Theresa thinks he broke my heart and she has been especially kind to me ever since. I headed straight for her teller window and slid the taffy across the counter.
“What a lovely surprise. You always were such a thoughtful girl.”
“It’s a bribe. I was hoping I could ask you a couple of question
s and thought the taffy might make you say yes.” Sometimes it is best to be subtle and sometimes it’s best to cut straight to the point. I had too much to do with the sugaring to spend any more time than I absolutely had to on Tansey’s mystery.
“Why not. You’re the only customer. Come on into the break room. I’ll have some of this while you ask your questions.” Theresa grabbed the box and motioned for me to follow her through a side door into the back. Most banks wouldn’t allow such a thing, I suppose, but since the bank manager had the good sense to realize the place would fall apart without Theresa he didn’t even look up from his desk when she beckoned me through.
Settled at a table in the break room surrounded by the smell of burnt coffee Theresa unwrapped a piece of taffy and popped it into her mouth.
“I’m working on a commemorative booklet about the first fifty years of the maple festival and I wondered if you could help me out with some of the history of the pageant. I’ve gotten some good information from Jade but she said you were the person to talk to if I really wanted to know what the competition was all about.”
“Jade said that? How sweet of her.”
“Jade told me you were her idol when she started in the pageant and that actually you were her inspiration for entering in the first place. She saw your picture in the family photo albums and hanging in the historical museum and she knew she wanted to wear that same maple leaf crown one day. To hear Jade rave about it I guess it must have been one of the best days of your life.”
“It should have been but I always felt like the entire competition that year got overshadowed by all the chaos surrounding Spooner and the missing money. The speculation about that was all anyone could talk about for weeks. It was as if the rest of the festival hadn’t even happened that year.”
“Did you compete again the next year?”
“I couldn’t. By then I was married and the competition is for Miss Maple, not Mrs. Maple. Although, Spooner almost messed that up, too.”
“I heard about that from Sarah Gifford. She said Spooner was pursuing you despite your engagement to Gary.” I hoped Sarah wouldn’t feel like I was carrying tales but she hadn’t asked me to keep what she told me a secret.
A Sticky Situation Page 9