Books, Barbecue and Murder

by Lori Woods

  “No one can help me,” Josh said pathetically, shaking his head in despair. “I can’t tell you. I can’t tell anyone.”

  “Can’t tell us what?”

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, his voice breaking and his face crumbling. “I’m very sorry.”

  “Why are you sorry?” Sanchez asked, a prickling fear started forming and he looked at Ben, trying not to display his alarm. Unfortunately, Ben picked up on his mood immediately.

  “No one can help me,” Josh repeated, “and no one can help her.”

  “Help who?” Ben asked urgently.

  “Your friend,” Josh said, rocking himself back and forth slowly.

  Ben and Sanchez looked at each other in alarm before reaching for their phones at the same time. Ben’s came on first, and his face went pale when he saw the notifications. Seven missed calls from Logan.

  * * *

  The sound of a phone vibrating emanated from Karen’s pocket, and she looked down to answer it. Marie looked up to see a strange smile spread across Karen’s face. She quickly looked away when Karen looked up.

  “So, how long have you and Karen worked together?” Marie asked as Karen walked out to the bathroom.

  “About seven years now,” Erica answered, “she’s lived in this town all her life and I thought it might be useful to have some of her contacts.”

  “Did it help?”

  “No, not really. People still went to Salome’s place.”

  “Hey, guys,” Karen walked back in, startling Marie. “I’m sorry, but I need to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Whatever,” Erica shrugged. Karen smiled sweetly and walked out, she turned and winked at Marie as she opened the door. Then, as Marie was still watching, she pulled a key from her pocket and locked the door behind her.

  “What are you doing?” Marie yelled, running up to the door and pulling on it. Locked. She patted her pockets, but her key wasn’t there. Karen laughed gleefully and pulled out a second key. Marie recognized the keychain and her heart stopped.

  “What’s that smell?” Erica asked suddenly, standing up.

  “Smoke,” Marie whispered. “It’s smoke.”

  Karen gave them a two-fingered salute before walking off, whistling as she went.

  “How can that be smoke?” Erica shouted.

  “I think she set fire to your salon, and killed Spooky,” Marie said slowly, turning around to find out what was going on.

  “That’s impossible,” Erica protested, starting to panic.

  “We need to get out,” Marie said when she spotted flames coming from the back of the shop. “do you have your phone?”

  “No, I left it at home,” Erica realized in horror.

  “And she stole mine.”

  “What about the back door?”

  “There’s too much smoke there, I think that’s where the fire is.”

  “Help!” Erica started screaming as she banged on the windows. “Help us! Fire! Fire!”

  “Don’t panic,” Marie whispered to herself. She made her way to the fire extinguisher that Clary kept in the kitchen. She lifted it but was surprised by how light it was. She tried to press the nozzle, but nothing happened. That’s when it occurred to her that they probably shouldn’t have left Karen alone in the café all day. Marie started coughing as the smoke got thicker.

  Grabbing two dish towels off the counter, she made her way back to where Erica’s panicked shouting was dissolving into terrified coughing. She tied a dish towel around her face and handed one to Erica, showing her what to do. It took Erica a while as her movements became more sluggish, and when she was finally finished, she pulled Erica up the stairs.

  “We can try the upstairs window!”

  “Why don’t we just break the window here?”

  Marie shook her head, not wanting to waste time by explaining how Clary had those windows reinforced after an incident involving the neighborhood kids and a football. The smoke was getting thicker and Marie started sweating as the café heated up. A bookstore and a fire weren’t a good combination, and she wished that Clary had opened a fire-resistant hardware café.

  “How could she do this?” Erica choked when they got into the upstairs apartment.

  Marie grabbed the window handle but cursed in pain when something cut her hand. She stepped forward and saw that Karen had nailed the windows shut. Without missing a beat, Erica threw a chair at the window, but it bounced back. Clary must’ve reinforced the upstairs windows too.

  “It’s easy when you’ve done it once,” Marie said in frustration, looking around for another solution. Her eyes landed on the faucets and she opened one and started looking for a bucket.

  “She didn’t burn down the salon,” Erica said tearfully when the tap sputtered and coughed but didn’t release any water.

  “She must’ve switched the water off,” Marie realized in horror. She looked around, running her hands through her hair in panic. She was out of ideas and didn’t know what to do next.

  “I did… I burned it down…”

  * * *

  “Is anyone picking up their phones?” Clary asked again when Logan shook his head and clutched his phone in one hand while steering with the other.

  “No,” he said in frustration.

  “I can’t believe this,” Clary said, trying not to imagine what could be happening at that moment. “We got her. We got everything.”

  “Did you manage to grab enough evidence?” Logan asked anxiously. “Someone might come back and clean that room up.”

  “I did,” Clary shuddered. She’d never forget the sight of that motel room. There were thousands of pictures of her and her friends. Of every person who’d been the center of one of the town’s mysteries. Karen had been watching everyone. There were floor maps of houses, buildings, and businesses. She’d even kept souvenirs of the murders.

  They’d been going through everything when Clary found a wooden structure built to look like Erica’s salon. She hadn’t put the pieces together until Logan showed her what he’d been working on. He’d been tracing TSK’s emails back to the source, and the results had finally come back. Karen was The Secret Keeper.

  Clary grabbed everything she could, and they drove back to town as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the Route 71 Motel was several miles out of town. Even though Logan broke several speeding laws in his haste to get back to the café, the fire truck still beat them there.

  Chapter 10

  A month later, they were all sitting around the barbecue as Marie lovingly turned some ribs around.

  “So,” Logan asked with a smile, “how does it feel to finally be free?”

  “Like I need to go to a therapist,” Marie said resolutely, “but at least we got to redecorate the shop.”

  “There was nothing wrong with the café,” Clary protested. “I loved it, it was perfect.”

  “It was okay, but now that I’ve decorated it, it’s perfect.”

  Clary scoffed and rolled her eyes. Logan chuckled at them and sipped at his drink calmly.

  “So when is the boyfriend coming over?” he teased her, and she made a face at him before turning back to the food.

  “I think they’re the sweetest couple,” Clary said mischievously, “and he’s coming over later with Sanchez. He just has to finish the last of the paperwork to close the case.”

  “What a crazy case,” Logan shook his head. “It’s got to be the strangest one yet.”

  “And I’d just like to remind everyone that I was right all along. I told you guys that Erica burned that place down for the insurance money. Didn’t I? But no one believed me and look what happened.”

  “To be fair,” Clary said slowly, “the murder threw everyone off.”

  “Yeah,” Marie admitted thoughtfully. “I just thought she murdered him because he caught her in the act.”

  “And you’ve accused her of every murder so far,” Logan reminded her. “So you’ll have to excuse us for not believing you at first. You’re the one
who cried wolf all those times.”

  “That’s not my fault, I always thought she had it in her, and I was sort of right.”

  “She didn’t kill Spooky,” Clary reminded her.

  “Yes, yes, I know. That was Josh and Karen.”

  “Karen didn’t kill Spooky,” Logan reminded her.

  “She might as well have. She told him about the fire and encouraged him to do it. That guy was so terrified of her that he would’ve done anything she asked. So, is it really his fault?” Marie reasoned.

  “The motive doesn’t matter,” Logan told her. “He killed a person. But I do think the judge will take everything under consideration. She basically tortured and blackmailed him for years, it makes sense that he snapped. Although it would’ve made more sense if he attacked her.”

  “I don’t think so,” Clary said. “It’s like Stockholm Syndrome. And he thought she was helping him, so he always felt indebted to her. Their father didn’t want anything to do with him after he went to juvie, and she covered for him by saying he enlisted.”

  “Is it bad that I feel sorry for him?” Marie asked guiltily.

  “No,” Clary shook her head. “It’s natural. He should’ve known better, but he was under bad circumstances. I think it would’ve happened eventually, but Karen was jealous of how much time Spooky was spending with her brother.”

  “I thought she told him to do it because he sold Josh drugs,” Logan said in confusion.

  “Well, I guess we’ll never really know. Ben says that Karen won’t talk to them. But they only caught her last week, there’s still a lot of time.”

  “Do you know how Josh is doing?” Clary asked in concern.

  “Yeah, they’re taking him to see a psychiatrist. He basically broke down that night, he couldn’t take the stress. It didn’t help that Erica was shouting at everyone and everything. That poor guy was already spooked.”

  “I bet she’s giving them all sorts of trouble,” Clary chuckled, “and it’s still three months until her trial. I bet they’ll just let her go because she’s so loud.”

  “Probably,” Marie scoffed.

  “Oh well,” Logan sighed in satisfaction and stretched lazily. “Now that the whole TSK thing is over, maybe we’ll get a break from all the drama.”

  “Not a chance,” Marie laughed. “Clary will find something else soon enough.”

  “Hey!”

  “It’s true,” Logan shrugged. “Sorry, Clary, but you do have a nose for trouble. Wait, that reminds me, you still have to tell me why you’re so passionate about solving these mysteries. You promised.”

  “Are you sure you want to hear this?” Clary asked slowly. Marie grimaced, and looked back at the barbecue, her eyes sad. “It’s not a happy story.”

  “I think I can handle it,” Logan said in determination. “I mean, how bad could it be?” Marie winced at his words and shook her head at him.

  “My sister was murdered,” Clary admitted, watching his reaction knowingly. He jerked back slightly and tried not to look shocked, but he failed. “The case went cold, and we still don’t know who did it.”

  “I’m sorry,” Logan said, still looking shocked.

  “The thing is, they could’ve solved it, if people had gotten more involved. If her friends or neighbors had taken the chance to ask around, or look for clues, they could’ve found whoever did it. But there was just nothing the police could do. They had no leads and no suspects. They had suspicions, but they were held back by so much red tape. I promised that I’d never let that happen to anyone else.”

  “Makes sense,” Logan nodded, still at a loss for words.

  “Look, Clary, you broke him.”

  “I warned you,” Clary said with a sad smile.

  “You did indeed, but I was stubborn.”

  “Seems like you’ve got a nose for trouble too,” she teased him, and he nodded sheepishly.

  “We’re done!” Ben called, walking into the courtyard. “The TSK case is finally closed!”

  “And my daughter says that she might forgive you in about ten years or so,” Sanchez teased, walking in with his cooler.

  “How many times do I have to apologize for that?” Clary asked, holding a hand over her eyes in embarrassment.

  “Until she forgives you,” Sanchez shrugged. “Admit it. You’d be mad too. We arrested her in front of everyone and you know quickly gossip travels around here. She’ll forgive you when the rumors die down.”

  “So, never?”

  “Bingo,” Sanchez said with a grin.

  “Don’t worry, you can get your hair done in the city.”

  “Shut up, Logan,” Marie said sullenly. “She was the only one who knew how to do my hair properly. Do you know how hard it is to find a decent stylist? No, you don’t, because you’re making jokes about it.”

  As they started arguing, Clary looked around with a satisfied smile. Karen had played her games for so long and tried to make everyone as unhappy as she was. She had failed. Yes, there were still secrets. There’d always be secrets, but without someone fanning the flames, they’d die naturally or come out on their own.

  Logan noticed that she’d gone silent and gave her a tender smile. She reached out and took his hand in her own. This mystery had been different. She knew that by the end of it all, the town would never be the same, and neither would she. She was just grateful that the change was for the better.

  * * *

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