Pies, Lies and Murder

by Patti Benning

  The next morning Moira checked the newspaper while she made coffee. The police didn’t share much, other than that they had one suspect currently in custody.

  She wondered for a moment if she should call police and tell them what Linette had said about Austin, however she didn’t know how they would take her interference. She didn't know the police here, and she didn’t know the locals. She didn't want them to think that she was trying to interfere in the case. No, it would be best to let them handle it on their own. It was their job, after all.

  "I think we need to decide what we are going to do," David said when they all sat down for breakfast. "The cabin is already paid for, and we already have the time off of work. I understand if you want to go home; it’s hard to imagine going back to our happy little family vacation after what happened yesterday, but I think that we should give it a try. Going back won’t change what happened.”

  “I'm okay with staying," Candice said. "What do you think, Mom?"

  "I’ll let you two decide," Moira said. “The police said that we should stay in case they need to question us again, but they already have someone in custody, so I don’t know if it still matters. If we do stay, it will be hard not to feel guilty about having a good time, but David is right; us going home won't change anything. And honestly, I don’t think being home would make me feel any better."

  "If you don’t mind, then let’s stay," David said. “I want to keep doing more research on the Dunkers. I saw something about them in an article from the local news online, but I didn’t have time to read it. Something seems off about all of this to me. When I was in the library yesterday, everyone who came in was gossiping about Jillian Dunker. That’s normal, of course, but the weird thing was, everyone seemed to recognize the Dunkers’ name. Even in a town this size, that has got to be unusual, especially when they moved away a couple of years ago.”

  “That does seem odd,” Moira said. “I wish that I had decent phone service up here. I want to look them up myself.”

  “We can all go back to the library later today,” David said. “But first, we should do something fun together. This is supposed to be a family vacation, after all.”

  “Mom, didn’t you say that the Dunkers mentioned something about a park with a waterfall and some hiking paths?” Candice said. “We should go do that. I bet we could bring the dogs, and I’ve never seen a real waterfall.”

  "That sounds good to me," Moira said. "We can pack some food and have a nice little picnic for lunch."

  "All right," David said. "I’ll start on the sandwiches if the two of you want to get the stuff together for the dogs."

  While David drove them to the little park, Moira’s thoughts drifted back to young woman’s death. Something had been bothering her about them, and she finally realized what it was.

  “David, if Jillian was killed by an ex, like you and the police seem to think, then why was their house ransacked? It’s something that I was thinking of earlier, but I didn’t really realize how odd it seemed until just now.”

  Her husband considered this for a moment, never taking his eyes off of the road. “You have a good point. I’m not sure. Maybe the killer was so angry that he just started throwing stuff around randomly, and he wasn’t actually looking for anything.”

  “She was killed in the living room, though. Why would an angry ex kill her and then tear through the house if he wasn’t looking for something?”

  “Someone who is unbalanced enough to kill might not be thinking clearly. I doubt we will ever know what went through the killer’s mind.”

  "It just doesn’t make sense to me. If someone was willing to break in to a house and commit a murder, they must have had a good reason. What on earth could the killer have expected to find that would make the risk of going to prison for the rest of his life worth it?”

  Neither David nor Candice had an answer to that.

  The park was easy enough to find. There were only a couple of other cars in the parking lot when they got there. Moira was glad that it didn’t appear to be too busy, but then she wondered if the murders had scared away most of the people that had been staying in town. Thinking back, it did seem that the street that their cottage was on had seemed less busy than usual.

  She and Candice got Maverick and Keeva out of the car while David strapped on the large hiking backpack in which they had packed their lunch and the water for the dogs.

  They paused at the entrance to the trails to look over the map and plot their course. The shortest route to the waterfall was just over two miles, a decent hike, but not long enough that they would be exhausted by the end of it.

  She walked Maverick, and Candice took Keeva’s leash. The younger woman and the wolfhound walked out in front of them. Candice called back occasionally to identify various species of native birds. It made Moira smile. Years and years ago, her daughter had been part of a youth camping group, and by the looks of things, she had remembered quite a bit of the information.

  It took almost an hour to reach the waterfall. It was well worth the hike. The water cascaded down a twenty-foot cliff, and formed a pool at the bottom. There was a shallow cave behind the waterfall, and at the top was a lookout and a picnic table. They had the area to themselves. Between the exercise, the fresh air, and the beauty of the place, Moira found herself almost forgetting about the murder. She was glad that they had decided to stay.

  After they polished off the sandwiches, the three of them took the dogs and went to explore the shallow cave behind the waterfall. Keeva and Maverick chased sticks into the pool, and Candice waded in to join them.

  After a short break, they packed everything up and began the trek back. By the time they got back to the cottage, Moira thought that she might be ready for a nap. Either that, or dinner — the sandwiches hadn’t been very filling, and she was already hungry again after all of the activity at the waterfall.

  She was just about to ask David if he wouldn’t mind putting their visit to the library off until tomorrow when she ran right into Maverick. He had frozen mid-stride. His ears were erect, and she saw the hackles rise on his back. He was staring down the trail from them. Keeva, who was next to David, was looking in the same direction with equal interest. Moira felt Candice stumble to a halt behind her just as the German shepherd began to growl.

  CHAPTER NINE

  * * *

  “What is it? There are bears up here, aren’t there?” Candice whispered.

  “I hope that’s not what it is.” Moira stroked Maverick’s head, trying to calm him down. “What is it, buddy?”

  “Listen, I think I can hear people talking,” David said in a low voice.

  Moira realized that David was right. There were voices coming from ahead of them. She relaxed. Maverick was probably just surprised to find someone else on the trail; it had been a while since they had passed anyone, and she herself could almost have forgotten that they weren’t the only ones there.

  She focused on the voices again, just as someone began to shout. It was a man’s voice, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying.

  The three of them traded glances. “We might as well just keep going,” Candice said. “It’s going to be even weirder if they come around the corner and see us standing here.”

  “While I’m not really a fan of walking into what sounds like a nasty argument, especially with Jillian’s murder still unsolved, you’re right. Unless we want to turn around, we don’t have much of a choice.”

  Moira tightened her grip on Maverick’s leash as they began to walk forward again. She knew that her tension probably wasn’t helping, but she wished that Maverick would stop grumbling like that. It was making her nervous.

  As they drew nearer to the curve in the path, she began being able to make out some of the words. She was embarrassed for whoever it was — she certainly wouldn’t want an argument like this to be witnessed by strangers.

  “I just need to know where you were that night!” the woman said. “Why is that so hard for y
ou?”

  “I already told you, Celia, I was at home.”

  “No, you weren’t! Your car wasn’t there, and you weren’t answering my calls. Why are you lying to me?”

  “I’m not lying. I was home, and my car’s in the shop, remember? I’m done talking about this. “

  “Austin, that’s not good enough for me. I know you knew her! I —”

  “Are you accusing me of murder, Celia?” the man’s voice was suddenly low and dangerous. “Just shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” The woman didn’t get a chance to respond, because that was when Moira, Candice, and David came around the curve.

  Moira recognized the young man from the grocery store immediately. The bruise on his face looked even worse today. He fell silent at the sight of the three of them and the two large dogs.

  “What are you looking at?” the man snapped as they passed by.

  “Sorry, he’s had a rough day.” Celia give them apologetic smile and laid her hand on his arm. Her lips were tight, though, and Moira noticed the way that her fingers dug into Austin’s arm. Moira forced herself to keep her mouth shut. Nothing that she would say could possibly help the situation.

  Once they were safely out of earshot, she turned to her husband. “David – “

  “I know,” he said. He had a grim look on his face. “I’ll call the police when we get back to the car.”

  “We can’t leave them alone out here,” Moira said. “What if he hurts her?”

  “If she thought she was in danger, wouldn’t she have said something to us?” he asked.

  “She might not if she thought it would upset him,” Moira said. “We should go back and make sure she’s okay.”

  “It’s too late to go back,” Candice put in. “They walked away after we left. Didn’t you hear them? They would notice if we were following them, and anyway they would probably just be annoyed at us.”

  Moira didn’t like it, but she knew her daughter was right. She quickened her pace, knowing that the sooner they got back to the parking lot and the weak cell phone signal that they got there, the sooner the police would know about Austin. She wished that she had listened to her gut and had told them everything after Linette first pointed him out to her in the store. If this poor girl got hurt because she didn’t speak up, she would never forgive herself.

  CHAPTER TEN

  * * *

  David made the call to the police when they got back to the car. Moira listened as he explained about the argument that they had just witnessed, and expressed his concerns about the woman’s safety, especially in light of the accusations she had been making against Austin.

  “What did they say?” she asked when he hung up.

  “They are going to contact the rangers and ask them to keep an eye on the situation,” he said. “Other than that, they didn’t tell me much.”

  She sighed, but knew that there wasn’t much else that they could do. She hated feeling so helpless. If Austin was the one who had killed the Dunkers’ daughter, then Celia’s life very well might be in danger.

  David finally spoke again when they reached the edge of Bearpaw. “Let’s go out to dinner. Sitting around the cottage for the rest of the evening is just going to put everyone in a bad mood, and I think the library is going to be closed by the time we reach it. How about the Bluegill Steakhouse? We just passed it, I can turn around.”

  Moira knew that he was trying to cheer them up, so she decided to go along with it. “Sure. I am pretty hungry after all of that hiking.”

  “What about the dogs?” Candice asked. “Shouldn’t we drop them off first?”

  “It’s getting pretty cloudy out, and it looked to me like the parking lot was surrounded by trees We can try to get a seat by the window and check on them. I know you two; if we stop at the cottage first, it will take ages for us all to get back in the car.”

  The Bluegill Steakhouse reminded Moira of the Redwood Grill, if the Grill had been built on a lake and featured fresh fish instead of the finest cuts of beef. She felt a sudden surge of homesickness for both the town and her friends. How was Denise doing? She hoped that she was holding up well with Logan still in prison. And how were things going with Martha’s new boyfriend? She hadn’t heard much from either of them, but that was understandable — as far as they knew, she was enjoying a nice summer vacation with her family.

  Once they were seated, Moira, who found herself missing her usual diet of soup and sandwiches every day at the deli, ordered a bowl of French onion soup and a roast beef Panini. She added a glass of the house chardonnay to the order at the last minute, deciding to try her best to relax and enjoy herself. David and Candice both opted for some of the freshly caught fish. Her husband was thrilled to discover that the restaurant sold a locally made craft beer.

  “It’s good, but not as good as some of my drafts,” he said after his first sip. “Maybe I’ll give them my card before we leave.”

  “I just realized that tomorrow is our last full day here,” Candice said. “Let’s all go to the beach together, and go out on the boat again too. Then maybe in the evening we can have dinner at that one lady’s house. She said that she knew some more about the Dunkers, right? She might be able to tell you what you want to know, David.”

  “I’m happy to do all of that. David?”

  “Sure. It sounds like it will be a good last day, though I have to admit that it’s going to be a bit of a relief to be home.”

  They enjoyed a leisurely meal at the restaurant, running outside occasionally to make sure that the dogs were comfortable in the shaded car. It had started to drizzle by the time they were done eating, and it was well on its way to being dark out.

  At the cottage, after David parked, Moira opened the side door to let the dogs out. She was about to slam the door shut when she heard David say from the porch, “Moira, hurry up and get your phone out. We need to call the police. Someone broke in.”

  Moira handed the dogs leashes to her daughter and hurried up to the porch beside David. She saw the splintered wood and the broken doorframe, and felt her pulse quicken.

  “Someone was very determined to get in,” David said. “We’re lucky we weren’t here.”

  “What’s going on?” Candice asked. She began coming up the porch steps, but David shook his head.

  “Candice, you should stay back. We all need to get off the porch. Whoever did this could still be inside, and after what happened at the Dunkers’ cottage, I don’t think we should take any chances.”

  The next half-hour was hectic as the police arrived and the three of them waited while the house was searched. At last, the police announced that it was clear that it should be safe for them to go in.

  “Try to determine if anything was taken,” one of the officers said.

  Moira was shocked to see the mess inside. Whoever had searched the house had taken absolutely no care. Plates and glasses had been thrown on the ground, clothes were scattered everywhere, and even the dogs’ water bowl had been knocked over and spilled. None of the rooms had been spared; even the bathroom cabinet had been ransacked.

  It took them a while to sort through their belongings and figure out what was missing. Surprisingly, none of Moira’s jewelry was missing. The same went for David’s laptop — it was still propped up by their bed where he had left it. Candice, too, reported that nothing of hers had been taken.

  The police looked skeptical when they reported that none of their valuables had been taken. “If you find that something has been taken after you get this mess cleaned up, let us know right away. The sooner that we know about it, the better, and the higher the chance will be that you’ll get your possessions back.”

  “What is the chance that you’ll catch the person who did this?” David asked.

  “Well, since none of your neighbors saw anything, and there aren’t any security cameras on the street, the chance isn’t very high. I’m just being honest here.”

  Moira nodded reluctantly. Even though nothing
had been taken, the break-in still stung.

  “Do you think this had anything to do with what happened next door?” she asked as the officer began to turn away. He hesitated.

  “It’s possible.” His cleared his throat. “I think that you three were very lucky to be gone when this happened.”

  After the police left, the three of them went inside and began cleaning. Moira wished that they didn’t have another day planned there. This trip had been nothing but one disaster after another. She was ready to go home.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN