Cody got up and padded over to Missy. She rubbed the dog’s head.
“The police don’t think you’re a suspect?” Kelly asked.
“Why would they?” Missy shot back.
“Oh, come on, Kelly,” Olivia Oakley said.
Noreen folded her arms. “Really, Kelly?”
Kelly shrugged. “I’m not saying you should be. But you found him, which means you’re likely from a statistical point of view to be the killer, right?”
“Oh, shut up,” Noreen said. “You are such an ass.”
“What?” Kelly looked around the room. “I’m not saying she did it. I’m just saying the police should view her as a suspect. Maybe the primary suspect. If they aren’t, well that goes back to what we were talking about before. They need better people at that precinct, I think. There has been a spate of theft recently and what have they done about it?”
“They brought Tyler in,” Missy said, immediately regretting bringing him up.
“Yes.” Kelly smiled. “Tyler.”
Missy felt her face grow warm. All eyes were on her. It was a small town, so everybody knew everything about everybody else. Her history with Tyler was common knowledge.
“How did Switzer die?” one of the newer ladies asked, a middle-aged woman named Ellie. Missy didn’t know anything about her except that she had two boys just out of the college.
“He was strangled.”
There were several groans and cries of disbelief, and then a dozen separate conversations started. So much for her introductory speech. Missy didn’t wait for everyone to stop talking. Instead she just raised her voice.
“If anybody needs any help, or supplies, I’ll be at the front table this morning. Remember, we have the gym till one o’clock, then we have to call it day.”
Bev immediately raised her hand. She was seventy if she was a day and had been Missy’s first grade teacher many moons ago.
“Hi, Bev.”
“Missy, I’m totally blocked.”
Missy didn’t understand and thought she was referring to her bowels. “I’m sorry?”
Bev held her hands over her scrapbooking supplies and made circles in the air. “I have scrapbooker’s block. You know, like writer’s block? I don’t know what to do! Maybe someone can help me?”
Diane threw her head back and looked to the heavens. She was ten years younger than Bev but looked twenty years younger. That face of hers had gone under the knife more than once.
Diane sighed. “You’ve known for a month we were scrapbooking today. You weren’t able to think of anything in all that time?”
Bev scowled. “What’s it to you? I didn’t ask for your help.”
“Everybody here came to work on their own projects, and now you’re imposing on their—”
“Bev, how about I help you?” Missy said, cutting Diane off. These two argued all the time and more often than not, it led to the rest of the group taking sides. If she had to help Bev for a few minutes in the beginning, it was worth it to avoid the bickering.
“Oh, thanks, Missy. You’re really sweet.”
Everybody got started. While Missy walked over to Bev’s table, Noreen shot her a sympathetic look.
“Okay, Bev, what are you thinking?”
“Well, I don’t know. I’ve got all these pictures here.” She opened a suitcase stuffed with old Polaroids. “They’re of my grandchildren so I was thinking…”
Chapter Eight
“Did Tyler ask you about your parents?”
Missy had finally finished with Bev and just started laying out her first page. She looked up from her work to find Diane hovering next to her.
“What about my parents?”
Diane slid onto the bench across from her. “Everybody knows your father and Switzer came to blows one time.”
Everybody except Missy, that was. She stole a glance at Noreen, who was pretending not to listen.
“Came to blows?” Missy asked.
“Yes, over that business they were going to start. Didn’t you know?”
Missy didn’t feel like playing games with Diane this morning. “Who could have done that to Mr. Switzer?”
“Albert Switzer.” Diane shook her head. “He made the worst mistake a man can. He married the wrong woman.”
“They were married a long time.”
“Yes, and she cheated on him a long time too.”
“Really?” Missy hadn’t known.
“Yes, with that attorney she’s with now. What a vain man he is. He has a new car every three years, and did you know he used to be a bodybuilder?”
“No, I had no idea.” Missy pretended to be thinking about her page. She’d brought covers of her favorite old paperbacks—the ones she had more than one copy of—and was going to do a section about her favorite books. She was trying to appear nonchalant. “Did Switzer have any enemies?”
“You mean other than your father?” Diane asked, shaking her head. “No. He was a kind man. Too kind, in fact. Let that woman walk all over him.”
Diane went back to her table. Missy wasn’t sure why she’d even come over to talk, other than to be a nuisance. Noreen just shook her head.
So there was more to the story about her father and Switzer. A lot more, apparently. But with Dad long gone, that only left Mom. And even if Switzer had done something horrible to their family, she just couldn’t see Mom killing him. Like Tyler had said, Mom didn’t have a mean bone in her body.
But still, there was more to this story and Missy figured it wouldn’t hurt to get the details. She stood and walked outside.
***
“Missy, dear. How are you?”
“Hey, Mom. How’s it going?” Missy walked away from the school so that anybody coming out wouldn’t be able to hear her.
“Good, dear. I just heard about Albert Switzer. I can’t believe it.”
“Yes. It was awful.”
She went on to explain what had happened. The story was getting a little easier to tell, the more she told it. But it still left her with a sick feeling in her stomach.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” Mom said. “Why didn’t you call me yesterday?”
“It was just a crazy day. By the time I sat down to relax, it was already pretty late.” Mom was usually in bed before nine. Missy hadn’t wanted to wake her up.
“You know you can call me whenever you need, Melissa,” Mom said. “I wish you had, because I’ll bet everybody’s asking you about Daddy, aren’t they?”
“Yes, Mom. That’s why I was calling, actually. What happened between them?”
Mom took a deep breath. “Your father and Albert worked at the factory together for a number of years and became work friends. Not like you and Noreen are friends. They were more acquaintances that recognized each had something to offer the other. They were both good with their hands, your father more so than Albert, and Albert was good at talking to people. At first they liked the work at the factory but after a few years they both tired of it. In the course of their job they had plenty of opportunities to speak to one another of their mutual frustration. I think they both looked into the future and saw the same thing. They could work at the factory for the rest of their lives and live comfortably, or they could strike out on their own. By the time they were thirty-five, they were both ready for the latter.
“They came up with a plan to start their own business. A smaller machine shop that would handle custom jobs. I was so happy for your father. Other than when you were born, it was the happiest time of his life. Merely the idea of walking his own path made him a different person. He was energized, full of life, and brimming with hope. You remember your father, normally he was very low-key, reserved, and was inclined to see the glass half-empty out of fear of getting his hopes up.
“They agreed they had to quit their jobs on the same day. They even drew up a contract on it, if you can believe it. Your father was a man of his word. On the agreed-upon day, he walked right into his manager’s office and told him he
was leaving to start his own company. He left out the details about Albert joining him.
“He discovered that afternoon that Albert had a change of heart at the proverbial eleventh hour. Instead of quitting that day, he’d called out claiming he was sick. Your father drove over to confront him about it, but Albert’s now ex-wife, Loretta, wouldn’t let him in to talk to Albert. She told him to stay away from her husband. She accused him of putting these ridiculous thoughts into Albert’s head and tricking him into doing something really stupid.
“Without Albert’s half of the money, Dad didn’t have enough capital to get the venture off the ground. He quickly realized he had no options. Out of high school he’d gone to work straightaway at the factory and had no other skills. He could have taken a number of other jobs, but all of them would have required him to start at the bottom. At thirty-five he wasn’t ready to do that.
“But as it turns out he was forced to. Your father swallowed his pride and went back to the factory the next day. He was worried about mortgage and the little girl about to enter high school. He’d always wanted you to go to college and worried that if he had to start over we might not have enough money to support you in your education.”
Missy’s eyes filled with tears. She made sure to keep her back to the school. That way if anybody came outside they wouldn’t be able to see her crying.
Mom continued. “He went back to his manager and begged. Pleaded. Even offered to take a pay cut. But the manager refused him. It had only been a day, but the man claimed to have already filled the spot. There were always people begging for a nice job at the factory. It was the biggest employer in the county back then, so ownership could be picky.
“It was such a blow to your father. I can still remember what he said when he got home that day. He said he was utterly replaceable. The words were like daggers in my heart, I loved him so much. He said Loretta had been right. He’d been foolish to think he could run a successful business, when the factory was able to fill his position in less than twenty-four hours. Your father was absolutely devastated.”
Missy had a hard time speaking through the tears. “I knew Dad had lost his job, but you guys never…I never realized how hard it had been for him. Was I that self-absorbed?”
“No, dear.” Her mother’s voice was warm and sweet. “We didn’t want you to worry so we didn’t voice our concerns around you. We wanted you to have a normal childhood, and you were just starting high school, we just wanted you to be happy.”
“Mom…I don’t know what to say.”
Her Mom was quiet for a stretch. “Your father was really devastated. He was never quite the same after that. He lost most of his self-confidence and honestly he never recovered from it. I think that was the beginning.”
“I knew Dad wasn’t himself but God I never realized how bad he felt…” Missy was doing everything she could to keep it together, when she just wanted to drop the phone and fall to her knees. How did she not know this about her own father? It didn’t matter that they’d purposely kept it from her. She had lived in the same house with the man.
She should have known. Or at least suspected. She should have talked to him. Done something to help.
“Your father didn’t want you to worry, Missy. He got to a point where he didn’t care if he was depressed, he just wanted to make sure you were happy.” Mom’s voice grew thick. “I should have forced him to try more therapy. Different therapy. Medicine. Anything. But he was so stubborn. He wanted to face the problem himself, he always said.”
Missy tried to pull it together. Dad was long gone now. Nothing could be done about it at this point. Right now she was the prime suspect in the murder of Albert Switzer.
“Why did Albert back out of the deal?”
“It was Loretta. She didn’t care for your father. She didn’t think he could be successful. Albert couldn’t convince her, and Albert always did what Loretta wanted even though she was horrible to him.”
“What happened between Dad and Albert after?”
“I urged your father to talk to the man, but he wouldn’t. He just said he’d never be able to trust Albert again. He was probably right to think that, but I still held out hope. Your father needed that business venture to work. So when he wouldn’t do anything…I took matters into my own hands.”
“Mom?” Her voice had taken on an ominous tone, one Missy had never heard before. “What do you mean?”
Mom laughed. It came out sounding forced. “I drove over to their house and confronted them both. I said some things in the heat of the moment that I normally wouldn’t say, and I lost control.”
What did that mean? Missy hated to pry because she could tell reliving this pained her mother. But she had to know.
“What happened?”
Mom sighed. “You have to understand, Missy, that we were in dire straits. Daddy hadn’t found another job yet and the mortgage was due. I just…lost my head.”
She couldn’t imagine Mom losing her head. She didn’t do that. Ever.
“What did you say to Loretta?”
Mom hesitated before answering. “I said I was going to kill her.”
“Wow.”
“And next thing I knew my hands were around her throat.”
As in, she tried to strangle Loretta? “Oh my God. Was it one of those moments where you didn’t know what came over you?”
Mom started crying. “Oh no, Missy. I knew exactly what came over me. I’d watched my husband lose his way. My little girl’s education was in jeopardy. We were going to lose our house, everything your father had worked so hard for. I was ready to kill that woman, believe me.”
But she couldn’t believe it. Mom wasn’t like that. She was the sweetest woman on the earth.
“What happened?”
“Albert managed to separate us but not before the damage was done. She actually filed a lawsuit against me. Aggravated assault.”
“Oh my God! I remember that one day…I asked where you were going and you must have slipped. You said you had to speak to an attorney.”
“Yes, that was the time.”
“Loretta eventually dropped the lawsuit.”
“Wow, that was nice of her.”
“It wasn’t her being nice, dear. That woman didn’t want it getting out that she and her husband had practically ruined us. She agreed to drop the suit but kept a restraining order in place against me for a year.”
A restraining order? Against Mom? This was unreal.
“Mom, I can’t believe I never knew this.”
“We kept it from you, dear.” She had stopped crying. “So don’t feel badly about it. This is the way it’s supposed to be. Parents protect their children.”
“And Dad was never the same?”
“No, dear.” Mom went quiet again for a moment. “I think your father held on till you had made it through college. When that was done, he felt like he could…you know.”
They talked for a few more minutes, but Missy couldn’t stop thinking about the repercussions of what she’d just learned. Mom had motive to kill Albert Switzer, and the police had to know about all of this.
Chapter Nine
Missy composed herself before going back inside.
An hour in, once everybody had gotten settled and the small talk had died down, Missy glued her last paperback cover into place on her first page and eyeballed the layout. Something was missing, but she couldn't figure out what. Oh well, she'd come back to it later. For now she had to ask some questions and it was the perfect time. Carly was alone for the moment at the other table.
Missy put her glue down and got up. Carly perked up as she came over and proudly displayed her work.
"Check it out, Miss! I used that pattern you shared last time."
Carly had used the pattern to develop a collage of coffee mug pictures. The woman had three children, a loving husband, and rescued labradors in her spare time, but for the past three months she'd focused solely on creating pages displaying her love of coffee.<
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Missy smiled. "Looks great, Car!"
Carly patted the long bench next to her. "Have a seat, let's talk, girl."
Missy did. These benches for grade schoolers were a little too narrow for her admittedly large derriere but she made it work. Missy put her back against the table. This way she could talk away from anybody else that came to sit down. She kept her voice low.
"Crazy about Switzer, isn't it?" Missy said.
Carly nodded as she turned back to her scrapbook. She flipped to an empty page and began holding up more pictures of coffee mugs, trying to put them together. Missy thought several of them were duplicates but couldn't be sure.
"You live right up the road," Missy said. "Did you see anything unusual yesterday?"
Carly frowned. "I was busy at my place. We had a lot of traffic for our garage sale, so there were tons of cars in and out and going by. If there was anything unusual, I probably would have missed it."
Missy tried to remain upbeat. "No strange people stopped by your place?"
Carly gave her a knowing look. "The Garrettys stopped by."
Missy tried not to laugh. "Other than the Garrettys?"
Carly shook her head no. "Between me and you, my money is on Cooper Meritt being the killer."
Missy did a double-take. What did the forty-year-old divorced father of two have to do with Albert Switzer?
"Why do you say that?"
"Didn't you know?" Carly said, without expanding on the topic.
"Know what?"
Carly stopped what she was doing. "He was fired from the factory last week, apparently after Switzer complained about him."
Missy needed to keep herself in the loop more. "Why?"
"I'm not sure exactly. I heard Cooper was cheating on his time sheets."
Missy wasn't surprised to hear that. Though he'd been a few years ahead of her in school, Cooper Merritt had been notorious for finding a way to cheat on every single test. He spent more time trying to get the questions and answers before exams than he would have spent just studying for the tests. Missy made a mental note to give him a call, though she'd have to come up with a reason why. She couldn't just pop in to interrogate him.
Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries Boxset Page 4