The Barrell, Bats and Bubble Gum

by N. L. Cameron

  She didn’t look very distraught to me. “I have no idea about the will. You would be better to ask Sheriff Mills about that. He must know which law firm the will is lodged with.”

  “I already know that,” Winnie snapped. “It’s with Frank Law and Sons, but they won’t tell me anything.”

  “So, what exactly do you want me to do?”

  She sliced her finger through the air. “I want you to march downtown this instant and find out. I want to know what’s taking so long, and I want it done now.”

  That old rebellious streak reared its head in my guts, but I couldn’t continue this now. I took Winnie by the arm and steered her toward the inn. “Come inside. We can talk about this better in the library or something.” Anything would be better than talking to her where she might find that pot growing. I had to give Levi time and space to get rid of it before someone saw it.

  I led her away, but when I guided her into the library, she wouldn’t sit down. “I’m so distraught I don’t know what to do.”

  “Well, I’m sorry to say this, but I don’t have anything to do with this case.”

  “You have a lot more to do with this case than that fat sheriff. He won’t talk to Frank Law to save his life.”

  “If you’re so distraught, why do you want to hear the will?”

  She fixed her glittering little eyes on me. “If Max left me the station, I have to get it running again as soon as possible. I shouldn’t even have to explain this to you. You’re running a business. How long do you think you would last if you shut down for a several weeks?”

  “You think Max left you the station?”

  “Why shouldn’t he? He was closer to me than anybody else.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he thought someone else might be better suited to run it. Maybe he was close to some of his family. I hear he had quite a few relatives in town. Are you connected with them at all? I suppose you must be if you lived with Max for so long.”

  For a fraction of a second, she stared at me in mute shock. Then she set her hands on her hips and humphed. “I might have known I wouldn’t get any help from you. You’re just as bad as that useless sheriff.”

  I couldn’t stand that. That was the worst insult she could throw at me, but I didn’t lose my cool. “Now, Winnie. Take it easy. If it means that much to you, I’ll look into the matter of the will. I’ll track down this Frank Law and see what’s up.”

  She squared her shoulders, but she didn’t smile. I’d known her all of five minutes, and I could already believe she wasn’t capable of smiling if her life depended on it. What a contrast she made with easy-going, loveable Charlie. “Well, I should hope you would. It’s the least you can do.”

  I didn’t bother to tell her again that I had nothing to do with this case, that I was a stranger and owed her nothing. Everything I said bounced off her iron exterior. “I’ll do it, and I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  Her chest couldn’t keep up with the rest of her when she spun away. It almost threw her whole body off balance. She barked, “Good,” over her shoulder. She stormed out of the inn and slammed the door behind her.

  I had enough. So many shocks in one day couldn’t be good for anybody, and I hadn’t accomplished any of the things I set out to accomplish that day. I slunk back to my apartment, and for the first time in weeks, I shut the door.

  I retreated to the couch and pulled out my laptop. I opened the website construction page, and Charlie’s enthusiasm and his ideas rushed in to fill the vacuum left by Max’s death. All his ideas about turning the inn into a local-food attraction flooded my mind with energy. I could concentrate as never before.

  I worked on the website in a fever of excitement for hours. I changed the layout, the pictures, and rewrote most of the text. I introduced new pages dedicated to menus, the gardens, and local-food sustainability. This was going to be the greatest thing to hit the Barrell Inn since Prohibition.

  I would get people coming from all over the country to learn, to eat, to take tours. I would get Charlie talking their ears off about plants and soil and… well, everything. He would entrance them with his charm and good nature. This couldn’t be more perfect.

  I got so worked up about it, I forgot all about Winnie and Max’s will and Nathaniel’s pot. I even forgot about Levi quitting Fisk patrol. I forgot all about it, right up until the moment I closed my laptop. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

  So, Max had a girlfriend. A girlfriend like Winnie would make anybody grouchy. Then again, a boyfriend like Max would turn any woman on the planet as sour as Winnie. Man, they must have been a pair!

  Now that I knew about the will, I had to find out what it said. I never really thought about it before, but now Winnie had shoved the truth in my face. The motive for Max’s murder sat right there on the main street. The garage must have been a lucrative business. A lot of people would be happy to get their hands on it.

  Max and Winnie couldn’t have had a very friendly relationship all these years if she didn’t know for certain he left her the station. She must have wondered a long time if he went behind her back and changed his will, or never wrote her into it in the first place. Maybe they fought about it, or maybe they fought about something else and he punished her by cutting her off.

  A thousand new and interesting possibilities presented themselves, but they were all conjecture until Frank Law read that will. No wonder Winnie wanted so badly to find out what it said. I could barely contain my curiosity long enough to get my keys and drive to town one more time.

  I couldn’t go now, though. It was already getting dark. Camille flew back and forth between the dining room and the kitchen to serve dinner to the guests. I’d been AWOL so long, I had to make an appearance now before I woke up with a mutiny on my hands

  I waited for Camille to scurry out of the way before I strolled into the dining room. Half a dozen guests already sat at their places. They exchanged polite conversation and called greetings to their friends.

  I took a pass by the buffet tables. Camille outdid herself yet again. She put on a masterpiece for every meal. I waited until she came back before I said, “Fantastic job, Camille. This is fit for the Queen.”

  She blushed and opened her mouth to say something when a stir went up in the room behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see the guests leaning closer to each other. Some pointed toward the dining room door and whispered behind their hands.

  I followed the direction of their stares to see Fisk standing in the doorway. He gazed around the room in dismay. When I checked the tables, I saw the problem. “Camille, there’s no place set for Mr. Van Steamburg.”

  Camille didn’t turn around. She went right on basting the turkey. “No, there isn’t.”

  “Why not? He’s a paying guest at this inn, and I won’t have him abused or bullied just because he’s different.”

  Camille spun around with a gasp. “Abused or bullied? What are you talking about?” Then she saw him standing there, too. “Oh, my gosh! I’m so sorry. I didn’t know Mr. Van Steamburg was coming to dinner tonight. He didn’t say anything about it to me, so I assumed he was going back to the diner. I’ll set a place for him now.”

  She hurried away, but the other guests still tittered and nodded in his direction. Not one person in the place offered him the slightest warmth of welcome or hospitality. This couldn’t go on, not under my roof.

  I strolled up to him and smiled. “Good evening, Mr. Van Steamburg. I’m sorry Camille forgot to set your place. She thought you were going back to the diner, and she’s going to set it now. If you don’t mind, I’d like to join you and check how your stay is going. I want to make sure you have everything you need.”

  The look of relief spreading over his misshapen face almost made me cry. “That would be lovely, Miss Garrett. It’s been many years since I enjoyed the company of a woman as attractive as you. I would be delighted to share your company for dinner.”

  Camille rushed in and set another place at the tabl
e. The woman on one side curled her upper lip at Fisk, but I positioned my chair between him and the other guests. I had to protect him from their vicious glares and ungracious whispers.

  He started eating while I made chit-chat, but I couldn’t help surveying the rest of the dining room. Pretty soon, the other guests concentrated more on their meals than on Fisk, but the tension still hung in the air. So, I wasn’t the only one who thought the worst of Fisk. I’d treated him as badly as the others. I had him followed and followed him myself. I reported him to the Sheriff and tried to implicate him in Max’s death.

  Now I had to look the consequences of my actions in the face. Whatever else Fisk was, he was a human being. He had a right to come and go without a bunch of heartless people causing him problems. He had enough problems of his own already. He had to put money in my pocket while he waited for his car to be repaired—if it ever got repaired.

  Chapter 6

  Another morning, and I tootled down the mountain to Hunterville to fill up my gas tank. I hung my arm out the window on the way back. A full tank of gas always gave my spirit wings. I could just keep on driving forever and never look back.

  The sun shone on the mountains when I got back to Heather’s Forge, but the moment I drove into town, the cordoned-off gas station assaulted my senses with all its questions. I’d promised Winnie I would find out about the will, but instead of turning off to Frank Law and Sons, I noticed Sheriff Mills rolling into the police station. I parked there instead.

  I got into his office before he took his place in his chair. He eased his weight down and leaned back. “What can I do for you today, Missy? Don’t tell me you’re still interested in Max’s death.”

  I didn’t wait for him to offer me a seat before I took the chair opposite his desk. “Can you just describe the scene to me? I’m wondering where and how Max was found.”

  “There’s not a lot to tell. The car in question was parked in the bay nearest the filling station office. Max was found draped over the hood. End of story.”

  “So, the hood was closed? That means he wasn’t working on it at all.”

  The sheriff shrugged. “I don’t know about that. He might have closed the hood for the night, or he may have been getting ready to open it to work on it.”

  “Maybe he wasn’t working on it at all,” I countered. “Maybe that’s why Fisk got mad and killed him.”

  “There’s no sign anybody did anything to him. All Max’s tools were in their places in his tool boxes. Nothing was missing, no cash taken from the till. Max’s death was an accident—nothing more.”

  I settled back in the chair. This was going to be tougher than I thought. “Did you check his work logs to see what he’d been working on? Did you check any of Max’s paperwork to ensure it’s all in order? He could have owed people money. He could have been on the verge of collapse.”

  Sheriff Mills chuckled and shook his head. “Where do you come up with this stuff? Max Nash ran a successful business. He was never in debt in his life, and he certainly never came close to collapse.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Everybody knows. Anybody who knew anything about him knew he always conducted his business by the book.”

  “How do you know if you didn’t check? He could have kept it hidden. From what Winnie says…”

  He shot out of his seat. “Winnie!”

  “Yes, Winnie. He had a girlfriend for the last ten years, but they don’t seem to have gotten along very well.”

  Sheriff Mills slumped in on himself. “That’s putting it mildly.”

  “What can you tell me about her relationship with Max?”

  “I can’t tell you anything about her relationship with Max.” He turned away and switched on his computer. “That reminds me. Your friend’s car has been released from evidence. He can come and pick it up anytime he wants.”

  I frowned at him. “My friend? Oh, you mean Fisk! He’s not my friend. He’s a guest at the inn.”

  “Well, tell him to get that car out of the impound yard. We’re running low on space.”

  “But the car’s not running. How’s he supposed to pick it up if he can’t drive it?”

  “That’s his problem. He’s been on my tail for days to give his car back, and now he’s got it. What he does with it, that’s his own business.”

  I stared at him. He paid no further attention to me but farted around on his computer like I wasn’t there. The matter was all solved in his mind. Max’s death was an accident. Fisk was innocent, so why couldn’t I accept that?

  I wandered out into the sunshine, but I couldn’t rest. I walked past my car to the deserted filling station. Already the town stayed asleep much later than before, now that motorists no longer stopped to fill up at Max’s.

  The yellow cordon tape flapped in the breeze. It offered a shabby barrier to anyone wanting to go inside and do some hunting around. I would have loved to stick my nose in there, but I had to obey the law, even if the yellow tape didn’t tell me to do it.

  I hovered around on the sidewalk and peered through the open garage doors. The bright red tool boxes, the hoist, and the coiled air hoses still sat in their places, undisturbed. Winnie didn’t really think she would run this business, did she? She would have to hire a mechanic, probably someone from out of town, and I couldn’t see her pumping gas, either.

  She probably though she would sit at home and rake in the dollars while someone else did the work, just like she did when Max was still alive. Maybe she thought she could do all that without putting up with Max’s grouchiness if she killed him.

  I spun away. I couldn’t think about that right now—or ever. I wasn’t a detective. I was an inn owner, and one on her way home to work on her new website. I headed back to the Police station to get my car when I spotted Fisk Van Steamburg himself.

  He strolled down the sidewalk—without his balaclava, thank goodness. Now was my chance to talk to him and tell him about his car. That should cheer him up, but when I took a step toward him, I hesitated. Here he was, walking in town, in the middle of the morning.

  That guy spent all night roaming the streets and mountains around this town. He returned to the inn in the early hours, and now here he was, back again with the dew still damp on his shoes. Didn’t that guy ever sleep?

  I thought back over the events of the last several days. At almost every hour of the day and night, Fisk was up and walking around. He never spent more than a few minutes to half an hour in his room. He changed his clothes but never his trench coat. What was going on?

  That question gave me the impetus to cross the street and intercept him. “Good morning, Mr. Van Steamburg. I trust you slept well last night.” Yeah, right.

  He didn’t smile back the way he did in the dining room. He swept the town with uncertain eyes. His lips curled back from his uneven teeth, and his eyes rolled dangerously in their sockets. “Something’s not right around this town, Miss Garrett.”

  “Call me Allie, and I have good news for you. Sheriff Mills just told me your car has been released from evidence. You can pick it up any time you want to.”

  He inched closer and lowered his voice to a confidential murmur. “I think someone is following me. I saw someone lurking around behind me the last few nights. He wasn’t there last night, but he could come back at any time.”

  Seeing him genuinely frightened sent a stab of guilt through my heart. He could only mean Levi, and I was the one who put Levi up to following Fisk. I should have listened when Levi told me to leave this poor man alone.

  “Once you get your car, you can leave town. You won’t have to worry about anybody following you anymore.”

  He wrung his hands in despair. “How can I leave town when the car isn’t running? I can’t even drive it out of the impound yard.”

  I took his arm. Whatever else I did, I had to make it up to him. “Don’t worry. Let’s go back to the inn. I’ll call the tow truck driver to tow it down to Hunterville. We’ll get it repaired, and you ca
n be on your way.”

  He tugged his arm out of my grasp. “I’m not ready to go back yet. I haven’t finished for the day.”

  I studied his disgusting features. “Can I ask what you do every night when you wander around in the dark? What are you looking for?”

  He didn’t answer. He moved away down the sidewalk, fidgeting and worrying his hands. His eyes danced from one landmark to the next, but he didn’t notice them with his usual sharp acuity. He walked past them, going nowhere.

  At that moment, a hand landed on my shoulder with a loud thump. “Allie darling!”

  I didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. Only one person in this town called me Allie darling like that: Eliza Potter.

  She scooted around in front of me and swept me up in a bear hug. She kissed me on the cheeks. “Where have you been hiding all these weeks? How could you abandon me in my hour of need?”

  I had to smile. “Sorry, babe. I’ve just been busy with stuff, but I hired a new gardener. Things should start to settle down, now that Levi isn’t working two jobs to cover for Nathaniel.”

  Eliza sighed and cast her eyes up to heaven. “Please don’t mention Levi Stokes. I’m in deep mourning.”

  “What do you have to mourn for? He’s not dead. He’s still alive, and his jeans are still just as tight as ever.”

  She elbowed me in the ribs and cackled. “And you’ve been checking all the time to make sure, haven’t you?”

  My cheeks burned, and I looked away. “No, I haven’t. I don’t have to check because he never wears anything else.”

  Eliza hooked her arm through mine, and we set off toward my car. “You don’t know how lucky you are to have him working right there, at the inn, all the time. You can go get yourself an eyeful whenever you want.”

  I couldn’t stop the blood rushing to my face. “Is that what you came over here for—to talk about Levi?”

  “No, as a matter of fact. I came over to tell you about a date I had with Nicholas Patuchik.”

  “Who’s that? I never heard of anyone by that name around town before.”