by Leena Clover
“Oh Frank, stop it!” Star said, turning red.
Jimmy Parsons stared at them with a scowl on his face. It was clear he wasn’t dealing well with the interloper.
Jason arrived at the café at nine the next morning. Jenny handed him a box with a giant chocolate cupcake. Jason’s face broke into a smile.
“So you can still smile,” Jenny teased. “Why didn’t you say you wanted cake?”
“Where to?” Jason wanted to know.
Jenny told him what she had discovered the previous day.
“We are going to see Peter Hampton again. And this time I am not going to budge until he starts talking.”
Peter Hampton was sitting in the same spot on his porch, staring at the bird feeder again. His brow furrowed when he spotted them.
“Didn’t I tell you to clear off?” he roared.
“We need to talk, Mr. Hampton,” Jenny said with her hands on her hips. “What were you doing at The Steakhouse?”
“It’s a free country,” the old man sneered. “I was getting a meal.”
“You were doing more than that.”
Peter Hampton folded his hands and looked away.
“Look, we are sorry about your wife,” Jenny began.
“We were married for fifty six years,” the man said. A single tear rolled down his eye. “I was supposed to take care of her.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Jenny said gently.
“He had all those fancy certificates,” Peter said. “My Genie said Dr. Smith was getting old. This Gianni fellow had access to all the latest technology. He promised he would make her sciatica go away. She believed him.”
“He was giving fake prescriptions,” Jenny stated. “When did you find out?”
“Not until it was too late,” Peter Hampton said bitterly. “That Costa fellow said it was my Genie’s fault. She couldn’t read, he said. She was never supposed to take those pills.”
“You went to The Steakhouse to cause a scene, didn’t you?”
Peter Hampton straightened in his chair. His eyes hardened.
“I was prepared to do more than that. I was carrying a knife under my jacket. I was going to kill that bastard in the restroom.”
“What happened?” Jason asked, fascinated.
He was finally beginning to act like his old self.
“I chickened out,” the man said. “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill a man in cold blood.”
“Even though he was responsible for your wife’s death?” Jenny pressed.
“I failed my Genie,” Peter said. Tears were flowing down his face freely now. “How am I going to face her?”
“You did the right thing,” Jason said, patting the man on his back.
“Did you argue with Gianni that day?” Jenny asked.
“I let him have it,” Peter nodded. “He laughed at me. Said small town folks were gullible.”
“Did you follow him home?” Jenny pressed.
“No Ma’am,” Peter shook his head. “I went to the Rusty Anchor to drown myself in a bottle.”
“Did anyone see you there?”
“Eddie Cotton did, I guess,” Peter said with a frown. “And a bunch of other people in the bar. Why?”
“Never mind,” Jenny said. “Mr. Hampton, can I bring you a casserole some time?”
“You are the girl from the café, aren’t you? My Genie loved your waffles.”
Jenny was quiet on the way back.
“You miss her, don’t you?” she asked, placing her hand on Jason’s.
“What happened, Jenny?” Jason asked, his eyes full of pain. “Where did I go wrong?”
“You could never go wrong, my friend,” Jenny said fiercely.
“I tried calling her a few times,” Jason admitted. “She won’t answer my calls.”
“You know how busy Kandy is,” Jenny said. “Maybe she’s working on some high profile case and doesn’t want to be disturbed.”
Jason shook his head.
“Her email clearly said we were done.”
“Coward!” Jenny spit out.
She had never been impressed with Kandy’s bossy personality.
“Can’t you forget her, Jason?” she asked. “There’s plenty of fish in the sea.”
“I didn’t go looking for anyone,” Jason said bitterly. “She pursued me. And now she’s backing out.”
“It might be for the best,” Jenny said with a shrug. “If she’s so flighty, it’s better you found out now.”
“I wasn’t completely honest with her,” Jason said after a while. “I think she sensed that.”
“What do you mean?” Jenny asked, bewildered.
“Kandy and I, we were hanging out, Jenny,” Jason stuttered. “But I was, I am, in love with someone else.”
Chapter 13
Jimmy Parsons walked into the Boardwalk Café. He wasn’t a café regular.
“This is a surprise,” Jenny said, welcoming him. “What can I get you, Jimmy?”
“I guess I’ll have a cup of coffee, with cream and sugar.”
“How about some breakfast? I am making waffles.”
“Why not?” Jimmy shrugged.
He seemed agitated.
“Okay, out with it,” Jenny said, placing a plate of waffles drizzled with her special berry sauce before Jimmy. “What’s on your mind?”
“It’s your aunt,” Jimmy began. “Do you think she’s sweet on this new artist fellow?”
Jenny burst out laughing.
“What makes you think that?”
“He’s taking her to dinner tonight, to the Steakhouse, no less.”
“I think she’s just being polite.”
“She can’t stop talking about him,” Jimmy grumbled. “It’s Frank this or Frank that.”
“She never gets to meet any fellow artists,” Jenny offered. “It’s just shop talk.”
“I hope that’s all it is.”
Jimmy gazed moodily at his waffles and took a bite. Jenny took pity on him.
“She likes you, Jimmy. I know that much for sure.”
Jenny decided to talk to her aunt later. The Magnolias came in and settled at their favorite table on the deck.
“You are coming to the town meeting, aren’t you?” Heather asked Jenny. “We need a good turnout.”
“Are you working with Barb now?” Jenny asked.
“She needs an assistant and I am at a loose end,” Heather explained. “Plus, I feel strongly about this drugs issue.”
“Calling it a ‘drugs issue’ gives the wrong impression,” Jenny said.
“Come to the town hall meeting to voice your opinion,” Heather quipped. “It’s an open forum. We will let everyone speak their mind.”
Jenny was glad to see Heather taking an interest in something other than men.
“How was the party at your place?” Betty Sue wanted to know.
“Jenny did a great job,” Molly praised. “Chris said his father likes me.”
No one wanted to talk about his mother.
“I heard about your hot date,” Jenny told Star. “What do you see in that guy?”
“How do you know about it?” Star asked. She looked embarrassed. “He was quite persuasive. I couldn’t say no.”
“Jimmy was here this morning.”
“What’s he doing, talking about my business?” Star asked crossly. “I need to talk to that Jimmy.”
“I think he feels left out,” Jenny said. “It’s cute.”
“Frank’s just like a tourist. He’ll be gone in a few months.”
“As long as you don’t take off with him …”
Jenny was tossing salad for lunch when the phone rang. It was Tiffany, Gianni Costa’s wife.
“You said you wanted to look at Gianni’s records?” she asked Jenny. “I’ve put everything in a few boxes and set it aside for you. You can come and get them anytime.”
Jenny told her she would come by later that day. She called Jason and asked him if he was up for a road trip.
“Who’s this?” Tiffany asked as she gave Jason a once over.
“Jason lives in Pelican Cove. I rode with him today.”
Jason was being his old charming self. He chatted up Tiffany.
“I was planning to leave my husband,” she told Jason. “He was seeing other women on the side.”
“That must have been hard on you,” Jason commiserated.
“I was just a poor working girl when I met Gianni. I had nowhere to go.”
“You never said you wanted to leave Gianni?” Jenny asked her.
“I put on a brave front,” Tiffany shrugged. “No wife can tolerate a cheating husband. I gave him an ultimatum.”
“You did?” Jenny humored her.
“He had to stop seeing this Heather girl or I was walking out.”
“What did Gianni say?”
“He laughed at me. Said I was free to walk out any time I wanted.”
“Did you sign any prenuptial agreement?” Jason asked.
“Jason’s a lawyer,” Jenny added.
“I did sign something,” Tiffany said with a shrug. “But I didn’t understand much of it. Gianni said I would be taken care of.”
“I can take a look at it if you want me to,” Jason offered.
Tiffany went in and came out with a folder.
“It’s all in there.”
Jason didn’t need a lot of time to skim through the papers. He shook his head and gave them back to Tiffany.
“According to this, you get nothing if you leave your husband.”
“Even if he cheated on me?”
“If you walk out, you don’t get a penny, no matter what the reason is.”
“That’s not fair,” Jenny said.
“Gianni said this was just a formality,” Tiffany said, incensed. “I was so much in love, I didn’t give it a second thought.”
“What did you do later that night at the Steakhouse?” Jenny asked her.
“I was starving, but I didn’t want to stay in that place for one moment more than necessary. I drove back home to Delaware.”
“Alone?”
“Of course! Gianni was too busy canoodling with that tart.”
“You didn’t talk to Gianni at all that night?”
Tiffany shook her head.
“I’m sure he saw me there.”
Jenny wanted to use the restroom. Tiffany pointed down the hallway. Jenny peeped into a powder room and walked on, taking note of the other rooms. She saw a door leading down a small path through a garden. It led to a separate building that looked like a guesthouse. Jenny went inside the bathroom and flushed the toilet. She opened a faucet for a few minutes and came out, wiping her hands.
“Do you like to swim?” she asked Tiffany. “I thought I saw a pool house.”
“That’s not a pool house,” Tiffany pouted. “That’s Gianni’s clinic. It’s actually a guest house.”
“So he could walk to and fro between his house and workplace whenever he wanted.”
“So could I,” Tiffany said with a nod. “It was … convenient.”
“Okay,” Jenny said, standing up. “We’ll get these boxes out of your way.”
They stopped at a small fish and chips shop on the way back. Jenny bit into hot beer battered fish and stared moodily at the water.
“You have to convince the police that Tiffany is a suspect. That might take the spotlight away from Heather.”
“Give me one reason why she’s a suspect,” Jason said, dipping a French fry in ketchup.
“I’ll give you three,” Jenny said, holding up three fingers. “Never underestimate a woman scorned. Gianni cheated on her. I don’t care what she says, she must have been raving mad.”
“Go on,” Jason said, taking a swig of his soda.
“As you said, she didn’t stand to gain anything if she left Gianni. But she inherits his entire ill gotten gains as a widow.”
“And you think that was the motive? Money?”
“Money or revenge,” Jenny said with a shrug.”Call it what you will.”
“How did she do it?” Jason asked.
“I don’t know about that,” Jenny said. “But she had access to Gianni’s clinic. She could have ground up any combination of pills. She had plenty of opportunity.”
“And how did she feed him this deadly cocktail?” Jason asked.
“I don’t have all the answers,” Jenny admitted. “Why not leave something for the police?”
“So she had a strong motive and she had the means,” Jason summed up. “What about opportunity?”
“She was right there at the Steakhouse,” Jenny cried. “She could have easily walked to Gianni’s place from there.”
“That does put her on the scene,” Jason agreed. “Has she given any alibi to the police?”
“I don’t think they ever asked her for one.”
“Why is your boyfriend convinced Heather is guilty?” Jason asked. “He’s known her since she was a little girl. How could he believe her capable of something so heinous?”
“You know what Adam will say,” Jenny said with exasperation. “He’s just doing his job.”
“I’m going to talk to him about Tiffany. She can’t be ruled out as a suspect.”
“You’re Heather’s lawyer,” Jenny said with a nod. “You can talk to Adam in an official capacity. He will have to listen to you.”
Groups of people were walking toward the town hall when they entered Pelican Cove.
“I forgot all about the meeting tonight,” Jenny said. “You are coming, right?”
She held up her hand guessing Jason was about to say no.
“It will be fun, if nothing else.”
Betty Sue sat on the stage near the front of the hall. John Newbury, her estranged husband, sat next to her. Ada Newbury sat in a corner seat, glaring at the crowd. Barb Norton stood behind the podium, calling the meeting to order. Heather stood at the back with a clipboard in her hand.
The Magnolias occupied the second row. They had saved room for Jenny and Jason.
“Thank you for coming,” Barb began. “We need to raise a united voice against drugs in Pelican Cove. Thank you for signing the petition. I am sure it’s going to help quash this whole thing.”
“Why are we here then?” someone shouted from the crowd.
“I want to make sure every opinion is heard,” Barb said pompously. “Although I am acting in the interest of the town, I’m no autocrat. And we want to tell the Newburys what we are thinking and what our concerns are.”
An old woman sitting in the first row struggled to her feet, leaning heavily on a walking stick.
“I hear this marivana is going to help my knees. Is that true?”
“That’s right,” John Newbury spoke. “Marijuana helps in pain relief. We are going to grow high grade cannabis that will be processed into pills you can take for your arthritis.”
“Where are you going to sell this?” another woman asked.
“We have leased a shop on Main Street,” John replied.
“Main Street is where our kids hang out,” a man said. “Minor kids. This dispensary as you call it is a bad influence on them.”
Another man piped up from the crowd.
“What about ground water? I hear growing marijuana can contaminate ground water resources.”
People started talking among themselves. Barb Norton tried to get their attention.
“One at a time, please.”
“We don’t want Pelican Cove to become a drug hangout,” one man roared.
“You want to teach our kids it’s okay to take drugs?” another woman demanded. “What kind of example are you setting for them?”
“You are just doing this to fill your pockets,” an old woman quavered.
John Newbury stood up to answer them. Someone threw a rotten tomato at him. An egg or two followed. Barb Norton tried in vain to get everyone to behave. Someone pelted her with popcorn.
The meeting pretty much derailed after that.
“That’s just your regular town hall meeting,” Star laughed.
“I don’t feel like cooking tonight. Let’s just order in some pizza from Mama Rosa’s.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Star said. “Will you get my favorite?”
“Chicken, jalapeno and pineapple, I know,” Jenny assured her aunt. “Jimmy’s started liking it too.”
Star scrunched up her face at the mention of Jimmy.
“I’ve been thinking,” she said. “I haven’t spent much time with Jimmy lately.”
“He’s just feeling left out,” Jenny said.
“Jimmy’s not the kind to throw money around,” Star said.
Jenny knew what she was implying. Jimmy Parsons had a bunch of cottages he rented to tourists. He didn’t have any other job. Jimmy wasn’t rolling in money. It hadn’t mattered to Star.
“Why don’t you do something simple?” Jenny suggested. “The weather’s warming up. Go for a picnic on the beach. I can make up a basket for you.”
“That sounds romantic,” Star sighed. “You think that will make him smile?”
“You just need to convince him he’s special. He’s gonna love it.”
“Okay then,” Star said happily. “I know the perfect place for a picnic.”
“Do you need any talking points?” Jenny asked saucily.
“I don’t, kid,” Star said, rolling her eyes. “And I won’t mention Frank at the picnic.”
Chapter 14
The Magnolias were all quiet for a change. Betty Sue sipped her coffee and went on knitting furiously. Molly’s head was buried in a book. Heather’s eyes were rimmed with red. Petunia sat staring at them, crumpling a tissue in her hands. Star walked up the café steps, holding a few canvases.
“I’m taking these to the gallery,” she told Jenny. “They are from my plein air session with Frank.”
Jenny tipped her head at the women and gave her aunt a pleading look.
“What’s the matter, Betty Sue?” Star boomed.
“I just got back from the police station,” Heather said, blowing her nose in a tissue. “They wanted to question me again.”
“What?” Jenny exclaimed. “I thought they had found other suspects.”