by Jessica Beck
"If you don’t mind, I think that sounds wonderful," I said. "It’s amazing how much I’ve missed this place in the short time we’ve been working on Wally’s murder."
"I know exactly what you mean. It gets in your blood," Moose said. He kissed my cheek, shook Greg’s hand, and then left, holding hands with my grandmother as she turned her responsibilities over to Jenny.
I kissed Greg, and when he raised one eyebrow, I asked, "Do you remember what we were talking about earlier? That’s exactly what I want for us."
He just smiled, but it was the perfect response, and I was glad yet again that I’d found him, or more importantly, that we’d found each other.
Chapter 9
"Aren’t you closed up yet?" Moose asked impatiently as he unexpectedly came into the diner at just a minute before seven, our usual time to lock the front doors.
"I was just on my way," I said. "What’s the rush? If I remember correctly, you never used to be all that concerned with watching the clock. Besides, I thought you were heading home to be with Martha? What happened to your big plans?"
"It turns out that we’ve got somewhere to go tonight, after all," Moose said. "Do you remember when I said I was going to ask a few friends to dig up some information on Wally Bain?"
"Sure. Did one of them actually come through?"
"You bet they did. How long will it take you to close the place up?"
"I need ten minutes, and that’s if everything goes right."
"Has that happened yet since you took over?" Moose asked.
"No, but I haven’t given up hope yet. It’s bound to sooner or later."
Greg came out of the kitchen. "What’s all the hubbub, Bub?"
Moose said, "I need your wife."
"Well, no matter what your reasons might be, you should know that I need her more."
"Just this second?" Moose asked.
"Well, I might be able to loan her to you, just as long as you bring her back where you found her, and in pretty much the same shape she was in when she left," Greg answered with a grin.
"When you two comedians are finished talking about me as though I were a lawn mower, you can find me at the register, closing out our day."
"I can do that myself," Greg volunteered. "Your grandfather sounds like whatever he has on tap is urgent. Go on. I’ll be fine."
Greg had closed out the register a few times before, and it had always been an absolute nightmare straightening the mess out the next day. As much as my husband was a wizard in the kitchen, he was a disaster when it came to anything even approaching the diner’s finances. "Thanks for the offer, but I can handle it. It won’t take long."
"Not as long as it will take you tomorrow cleaning up after me, anyway, right?" he asked with a grin.
I just smiled, and started running the reports on our cash register. While it was calculating what we should have in our till, I was totaling up the actual cash and checks to see if the numbers matched. Usually it was fairly close, within pennies, but there were occasions when it was off by more, and I had to painstakingly go through everything until I figured out the discrepancy. I’d once been off by twenty dollars, and I was wearing myself to a frazzle when I pulled out the cash drawer and saw a bill caught underneath.
There were no real problems tonight, though, despite Martha having run the register so much during the day. My grandmother had a tendency lately to round off her all of numbers, and most likely the only way things had balanced now was that she must have equally under and overcharged our customers throughout the day.
I slid the deposit into its bag and handed it to Greg. "Here you go. Do you mind dropping this off on your way home?"
"I’d be glad to. I’ll see you there later. Be safe, Victoria."
"I promise," I said.
Moose asked Greg, "What about me?"
"I figured you could take care of yourself," Greg said as he patted my grandfather’s cheek, "but you should be careful, too."
"That’s better." He turned to me and said, "Come on, Girl. We’re burning daylight."
"Moose, it’s been dark for well over an hour."
"It’s an expression, child, and you know it."
Once we were in Moose’s truck, I asked, "Where exactly are we going?"
"We’re headed over to Abel Link’s place."
"You’re kidding, right?" I asked. "Can we rely on anything that man tells us?" I’d heard rumors about Abel since I’d been a little girl. He was eccentric beyond belief, and I didn’t know if half the things I’d heard about him over the years were even true."
"Abel’s a good man, no matter what most folks around here might think. He said that he might have an idea about what really happened to Wally Bain, and I say he’s worth listening to."
As Moose drove to the eccentric man’s house out in the woods, I tried to recall some of the wild rumors I’d heard about him over the years. Abel was a tried and true hermit, and everything that entailed. There were stories that he ate road-kill, and that he took a bath only during the full moon, whether he thought he needed it or not. "How do you know so much about him? As far as I know, he’s never stepped one foot into the diner."
"Victoria, believe it or not, I have a full life outside of The Charming Moose. I’ve known the man for years. Abel has been an eco-friendly advocate before it became fashionable, and he’s proud of the fact that he’s been off the grid for more years than most folks in Jasper Fork have been alive. Granted, Abel’s incentive has always been just as much about being cheap as it has been about trying to save the world, but he’s one of the few folks I know who actually practices what he preaches, and that’s saying something."
As we drove to Abel’s place, I realized that we were getting closer to Wally’s farm than I’d realized. "How far are we from Wally Bain’s place?" I asked Moose.
"It’s less than a mile if you go along the back roads, which is exactly what we’re going to do," Moose said. "That’s why I asked him in the first place."
"How’d you get in touch with him? I heard that he doesn’t even have a telephone," I said.
"He doesn’t," Moose said. "I had to drive out and ask him face to face, and when I did, the old coot told me that he’d have to think about it."
"Then how did he manage to summon you tonight?" I asked, curious about how the old guy functioned without the very basics we all took for granted every day.
"Abel traded some corn to Ernie Oliver today for a pint of fresh milk, and one of the conditions of the swap was that Ernie had to deliver a message to me."
"It must not be that urgent, or Abel would have made the trip to tell you himself."
Moose shook his head. "You don’t know just how cheap Abel is. He measures his gasoline by the teaspoon, and he doesn’t waste a drop of it on nonessentials."
"Is his place even lit at night?" I asked.
"You’d be amazed by how much light a kerosene lantern puts out," Moose said. "Besides, we’re not going there to take in the ambiance. We need to hear what Abel has to say."
Moose pulled off the highway onto the same rut of a path that we’d taken before, and as we drove up the lane, I recognized the driveway Moose had used to turn his truck around when we’d tried to get to Wally’s earlier.
As we turned off onto the path to Abel’s place, Moose’s truck headlights reflected back toward us.
My grandfather explained, "Abel told me once that he raided the junkyard and got every reflector he could find. He claims it’s the only way he can find his way home at night, though when he was ever out after dark is a mystery to me."
When we finally got to Abel’s house, at first I thought the earlier storm had leveled his place as it had made its way through our area.
"What happened? Did the storm hit his house?" I asked, concerned for the man’s safety.
"Not that you can tell. This is actually the way it’s supposed to look," Moose said with a grin.
"If you say so," I replied, but I really didn’t believe it.
"Turn those blasted things off!" Abel yelled. "You’ll scare the pigs."
"I didn’t realize they were out running loose," Moose said, though he did as he’d been instructed and shut off his headlights.
It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the lack of direct light once we got outside into the chilly night air, but once they did, I found that I could see fairly well with just the light from the stars, and the moon overhead. As I looked skyward, I said, "Wow, sometimes I forget just how bright the stars are out here in the country."
"It’s free entertainment, that’s for certain," Abel said, as proud of the display as though he’d had something to do with it himself. He was a short and wiry man, and though I’d expected to find him looking wild with a flowing beard and shaggy hair, he was actually quite presentable, though whoever had cut his hair so short had butchered it quite a bit in the cutting. Abel must have noticed my surprise at his appearance. "I trade haircuts with one of my neighbors. Neither one of is very skilled at it, but then again, no one has to look at either one of us all that much, so it doesn’t really matter." He looked up at the stars himself before he continued, "I come out most nights it’s clear to enjoy the show. I hate to be cooped up. If you hang around here past midnight, we might even get to see some shooting stars tonight."
"We’d love to, but I’m afraid that’s a little too late for me," I said as I tightened my jacket around me. "I start my workdays before six o’clock just about every morning."
"That will make an old woman of you if you keep it up," Abel said. He was wearing an old mechanic’s jumpsuit, but it had been patched so often that it was hard to say what the original material had been made of.
"I got your message," Moose said after he shook Abel’s hand. "What’s so urgent?"
"Did that fool Ernie tell you that it was pressing? It’s more like something I just thought you might be interested in knowing. It might be something, but then again, it could be nothing at all."
I tried not to show my disappointment by the news. "We’d be pleased to hear whatever it is you have to say," I said. Despite my expectations, I found myself warming up to the man. There was an odd quirkiness to him that appealed to me.
"In the middle of the night when Wally was stabbed, I saw some strange lights coming from that direction," he said as he pointed out into the darkness.
"What kind of lights were they?" Moose asked.
"I can’t rightly say," Abel said as he scratched his chin. "I was coming back from a trip to the outhouse when I spotted them off in the woods."
"Were the lights from a car or a truck?" I asked.
"Neither one," Abel said.
"How about a motorcycle?" Moose asked.
"No, it wasn’t that, either."
"Enough with Twenty Questions, Abel," my grandfather said, clearly getting frustrated with the man’s lack of communication skills. "What did you see?"
"Sorry. I appear to have gotten out of the habit of talking to folks these days. It looked for all the world to me like a pair of flashlights bobbing up and down in the woods side by side, but it was deathly silent. That’s how I knew that it wasn’t from a motor vehicle," Abel said.
I looked where he’d been pointing and asked, "What’s that way?"
"Wally Bain’s place is over in that direction," he said. "That’s why I told you that it might be something important."
Moose nodded. "Exactly what time are we talking about?"
"Three o’clock in the morning," Abel said proudly. "I make that trip every night at the same time. You could set your watch by my kidneys."
I’d pass on that particular offer. "Any idea of who or what it might have been?"
"Not a clue," Able said. "I just thought it was odd, that’s all."
"Did you happen to see where they were headed?" I asked.
"That was kind of strange, too, now that you mention it. Both lights came toward me at first, but then all of a sudden they vanished as they headed in the other direction down the old hunting road," Abel explained. "That whole path’s pretty torn up from the storm, so I doubt they walked all the way back to the main road. Eventually it loops back to the highway, but no one but a madman would drive it in either direction if they had any other choice. It’s bad enough to walk it."
"If they came in by the opposite way, they couldn’t have driven very far. That road’s been blocked by a recently fallen tree. It must have come down in the storm," Moose said. "We saw it across the path ourselves."
Abel scratched his bare chin, and then he said, "I don’t know what you think you saw, but that tree didn’t come down until after Wally was stabbed. I heard the chainsaw myself."
"When exactly was that?" I asked.
"It had to be around nine in the morning. I didn’t think much of it at the time, and since it was well after the lights I saw earlier, I never put the two things together. Some folks from town who are too cheap to buy their Christmas trees from the lots in the city poach a pine from back in the woods. I get one from back there myself."
"Did you happen to notice who was back there cutting?" Moose asked.
"No, I’m sorry to say that I was sitting with a sick pig. Anyway, I thought you might like to know about the lights."
"I’m curious about one thing," I asked him. "You keep saying lights. Are you sure that there was more than one?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I noticed that there are a lot of reflectors on the drive up to your place," I said. "Could one beam have been reflected into two before you saw it?"
Abel thought about it, and then he shrugged. "Now that I think about it, I can’t be sure. It could have been one person on that path all along, but it wasn’t more than two or three, at least not with the lights I saw."
"So, we’re either looking for someone working alone, or two or three folks acting together," Moose said, the exasperation clear in his voice.
"That sounds about right to me," Abel said. With a look of keen interest, he asked, "Are you two heading back into town by any chance?"
Moose nodded. "I’m taking Victoria home, and then I’m headed that way afterwards. Why do you ask?"
Abel picked up a bushel basket that was loaded with corn that he had nearby. "I was kind of hoping that you could drop this off at Doc Piper’s place on your way and save me a trip."
"Are you paying down your bill with your corn, Abel?" Moose asked with a smile.
"The doc and I have an understanding," Abel said as he nodded. "The deal is, I keep him in corn, firewood, and wild honey, and he tends my needs. I like a man who’s not afraid to barter."
"I bet you do," Moose said. "Sure, throw it in the bed and I’ll see that he gets it."
"Good man," Abel said with a smile.
Moose asked, clearly joking, "All I want to know is what’s my pay for delivering it?"
Abel reached into the bed and pulled out a single ear of corn. "There, that ought to cover your expenses. If you like it, come on back. I’ll make you a deal for more that’s so good that you won’t believe it."
"I know better than try to horse trade with you, Abel," Moose said as he shook the man’s hand. "Thanks for the information, and the ear of corn."
"I just hope that it will help you catch that killer. It’s bad for business when someone starts getting rid of farmers around here. Tell me, who am I supposed to swap with if everybody else is gone?"
As we drove back toward town, Moose said, "Well, that meeting wasn’t nearly as productive as I’d hoped it would be when we left the diner."
"I don’t know about that," I said. "Abel thought it could be useful information, and even if it doesn’t pan out, I’m happy for the opportunity to meet him. I like that man."
"I figured you might," Moose said with a smile.
"Why, because I’m drawn to quirky folks?"
"You wouldn’t be my granddaughter if you weren�
��t," Moose answered. "I just hope it’s not another dead end."
"Come on. It has to be significant, if we can just figure out what it means, don’t you think?"
"Maybe, maybe not. It might mean something, or nothing at all, just like Abel said when he first told us. Victoria, that’s all we need, another wild goose to go off chasing to nowhere."
"Don’t forget that one of these days, if we follow enough of them, we might just end up catching a killer," I said as Moose pulled up to the house I shared with Greg.
"Stranger things have been known to happen," Moose said. "Good night, Victoria. Do we start digging again bright and early tomorrow?"
"I’m willing if you are," I said.
"I’ll be at the diner first thing, then."
As I got out and closed the door, I asked, "First thing for you, or for me?"
"If I’m not there at the crack of noon, you have my blessing to rouse me out of bed yourself," Moose said.
I waited until he drove away, and then I glanced up at the stars before I headed in. Despite the chill in the air, I stood there in silence staring towards the sky.
Greg came out a minute later. "Victoria, is something wrong?" he called out from the darkened porch.
"No, everything is fine. I was just looking at the stars," I admitted. "They’re a lot brighter out in the country, aren’t they?"
"I don’t doubt it for a second," Greg said. "Are we thinking about relocating?"
I laughed. "No, I love where we live. Come on, let’s go inside; it’s getting nippy out here. Care for some hot chocolate?"
"You know me. When have I ever said no to an offer like that?"
"Not since I’ve known you," I said.
Once I had the mixture of milk and the special blend of cocoas simmering on the stovetop, I turned to Greg and asked, "Do we have anything special planned tonight?"
"As far as I’m concerned, they’re all special," Greg said with a grin as he pulled me close.
"Flattery will get you everywhere, you know," I said as I reveled in his embrace.