by Kaye George
On the main street, she paused when a newspaper headline in a metal dispenser caught her eye.
murder of mystery man in motel 11
She frowned. Did she know where Motel 11 was? This must be the homicide that had kept Jackson busy last night. Homicides weren’t daily occurrences in this town, so it had to be the same one.
Tally put her money into the slot of the machine and pulled out today’s edition of the Fredericksburg Standard. The article was short and without many details, except that a man had been found beaten to death in the room he was renting at the Motel 11, at the edge of town, that he had paid cash for the room and no one there knew who he was, and that a pair of crutches found in the room were thought to be the murder weapon.
Crutches again! They were popping up all over the place, Tally thought. There had been that onlooker using them when they had been admiring the Bella’s Baskets window display. A window display that was later wrecked by…a man on crutches. They knew about that because Walter Wright had been beaten by that thief with those crutches. Did that same person kill this man at the motel? And was he the same person injured in the bad wreck that Raul’s cousin was involved in? The injured motorist, they’d said, had maybe broken his leg.
She wandered down the sidewalk, reading the article a second time, trying to squeeze more details out of the few, sparse words. When she passed Bella’s Baskets, Yolanda ran out to flag Tally down.
“Tally, did you hear?”
Tally looked up from the newspaper.
“Come in here for a sec. You have to hear this. Raul’s cousin found a dead guy.”
“This dead guy?” Tally showed her the headline. “The one in the motel?”
Yolanda squinted at the paper. “I think it must be.”
Tally followed Yolanda into the shop where Raul was on a ladder, getting baskets from a high cupboard.
“Raul, tell her,” Yolanda said.
“About Mateo?”
Yolanda nodded and Raul jumped down from the ladder, bubbling and eager to spread his news. “My cousin lost his job driving trucks for that warehouse when he was in a wreck, so he started delivering pizzas, and yesterday he got a call for a delivery to that motel out there, the cheap, crummy one.”
“Motel Eleven?” Tally asked.
“That’s the one.” Raul’s dark eyes gleamed with the importance and excitement of his news. “So he goes to the door for the room number they gave him and he smells something terrible. He pushes the door open an inch. Doesn’t even go in. Gets the manager and the manager calls the cops. Then, when the cops come, they make him stay in the office and miss the rest of his shift. That one policeman was there. The one that’s your friend, Ms. Tally.”
“Detective Rogers?”
He nodded. “That one. So they just ask Mateo some questions and send him away, after waiting all that time. He doesn’t even know there’s a dead guy in there until he sees it on the news last night.” He had talked so rapidly he was panting, breathless. “But he told me how bad it smelled. And dead bodies don’t smell good, right?”
In this weather, it wouldn’t take too long for a stench to build up. Tally felt like invisible lines were being drawn, cords that were being tightened between all these events, but she couldn’t tell what they meant. Or even where they were. Going from? Going to? All of these elements had to be connected, though.
After she left Yolanda’s shop and before she entered her own, she called Jackson from the sidewalk to see if he could have dinner tonight. Maybe he could tell her what was going on. She leaned against the warm outside wall of her shop, beside the display window, out of the way of foot traffic, to call. He didn’t answer his phone so she texted him, hoping to hear back before dinnertime.
It would soon be time to open. Dorella Diggs and Molly were inside. Lily came in from the back as Tally entered the front door, setting off the chime. Molly looked up from inspecting Dorella’s left hand. Tally caught a flash of sparkle and brightened. Dorella was engaged!
“Look what Ira got her,” Molly said, holding up Dorella’s hand as if she couldn’t do it herself.
No, it wasn’t an engagement ring. Unless he bought it way too small, since it was on her pinkie.
Tally came close and looked as Lily joined them. The stone was as large as it could be for a pinkie ring, and a brilliant pink.
“What is it?” Tally asked. “Do you know what the stone is?”
“Ira said it’s a pink sapphire,” Dorella said. “I looked it up. I think it’s worth a lot of money.”
“What does Ira do, again?” asked Lily, tilting her head, looking skeptical.
“He’s the new fire chief’s son,” Dorella said. “He…works for him. I think. Sorta. He does odd jobs for the department. He does the crime watch, too.”
“I think his daddy is overpaying him,” Lily said, tying on her smock and setting up the cash drawer. She chose a lilac one from the pegs that held the pink and lilac aprons.
Dorella shrugged. “I think Ira just likes me.” She held her hand up and twisted her wrist so the stone caught the daylight streaming in from the front windows and splayed bright spots of reflection across the walls and ceiling.
“I wouldn’t mind if Howie gave me one like that,” Molly said, a wistful smile on her face. She ran her left hand through her short, dark hair, maybe wishing there was a ring on one of her fingers, Tally thought.
“It’s beautiful,” Tally said, thinking it was kind of mean for Lily to be so unenthusiastic, and so critical of Ira. But Tally was thinking the same thoughts, too. Ira Mann didn’t seem to have a job that she could see. She had heard the past fire chiefs of the town didn’t make an overly robust amount of money, so they often had another job, too. The new chief, Armand Mann, had bought a local ranch, but did so much volunteer work, Tally assumed he was wealthy enough he didn’t have to worry about making a living. She knew that Dorella had to work for everything she got, when her biggest desire was to spend time on her art. She was a talented potter, but, like almost all artistic endeavors, making pots didn’t bring in a lot of money. She was currently working at Burger Kitchen and Tally’s place, as well as another part-time job, doing home health care for a family with an elderly relative on the weekends, relieving the regular weekday caregiver. She wondered how this pair got along, the entitled playboy and the hardworking young woman. And if it would continue long enough for him to put a real engagement ring on her left hand.
8
Lily’s bad mood continued and she even snapped at a customer who said she thought their products were unhealthy.
“They’re candy,” Lily said with a sneer. “How healthy can candy be? Go to a grocery store if you want vegetables.”
After the customer left, without buying anything, Tally took Lily to the kitchen. She led her to the upholstered chair Tally had put in the corner to use for breaks and ordered her to sit. She wondered if there was trouble between her and Raul already. As far as Tally knew, they had just started noticing each other.
Before she started asking the young woman what was wrong, Lily volunteered.
“I really like Amy. We’ve always gotten along well. I thought it would be easy living with her.” She sat slumped in the chair, looking dejected and small.
“But it’s not?” Lily hadn’t been living with her cousin for very long, Tally knew.
Lily looked miserable. “I don’t know if it’s her or me. Ever since I started seeing Raul, she’s been making fun of me.”
“How do you mean?”
“She says things like, ‘You’re not going to wear that, are you?’ And ‘Maybe you should get a new hairdresser,’ right after I got my last cut.”
Tally thought Lily always looked darling. Was Amy jealous? “She wasn’t that way before you started seeing Raul?”
“No. Never.”
“Is she seeing anyone?”
Lily’s eyes flew wide open and she sat straight up. “That’s it. She was. She was dating the same guy she dated ever since high school. They broke up.”
“At the same time she started being hard to get along with?”
“Yes.” Lily jumped up from the cushy chair. “I’m so stupid. I should have figured that out.”
“She’s jealous,” Tally said. “You have a boyfriend and she doesn’t. Do you think that’s bothering her?”
“Yes, she’s jealous. That’s it. And I’ve been so upset wondering why we’re not getting along. I’m sorry I’ve been so nasty today.”
“Not all that nasty. Just…”
“Yeah, I was. I’ll apologize to Dorella.”
“So everything is okay between you and Raul?”
Lily widened her large brown eyes. “I think so. We just don’t know how it’ll go, so we’re taking it slow.”
Tally nodded in approval. “That’s a very good idea. I approve wholeheartedly.”
Lily grew more serious. “That means a lot to me. It really does. I think I could get so I like Raul very much.”
Wednesday evening, closing time at the shop, finally arrived, after a hard day with, for some reason, a slew of difficult customers, in addition to the drama with Dorella and Lily. That calmed down eventually and they worked together in a tacit truce. However, a couple of the customers argued with Tally about her ingredients, not believing they contained what she said they did. They were essentially calling Tally a liar and it got her back up. It was all she could do to keep smiling at them as they left without buying anything. One young woman insisted on tasting everything in the whole shop. She had gotten about a quarter of the way through the wares before Tally caught on and told her to leave the store if she couldn’t make up her mind by now. Tally had lost her smile for that one. Yet another problem arose when a patron bought a bag full of individual candies, left them in her car for two hours, she said, then returned and wanted replacement or a refund because the chocolate had all melted. No. Just no. No refund and definitely no smile. Her head was splitting by then as she polished the glass cases so they would gleam in the morning.
Tally felt her tension headache lifting as she walked to meet Jackson for dinner, having left Molly and Lily to clean up and close up. Molly had made the correct change all day, but Tally should probably still sit down with her again to make sure she was doing okay.
* * * *
They both started on queso and chips with a light, crisp white wine for Tally and beer for Jackson. He asked the server to come back later for their orders, signaling a leisurely evening, to Tally’s delight. She could sit in this patio, under the small white sparkle lights strung above, feeling the zephyr like a cool breath on her cheek, and basking in the company of Detective Jackson Rogers. His gray eyes were dark in the twilight, almost black. She felt the headache float away with a sigh of relief.
“How’s your friend Yolanda doing?” he asked. “Is she back together with Kevin?” He’d been her sounding board when they had their recent problems.
“I think so. I think they’ll be okay. I’m not so sure about her sister, though.”
“Oh? What’s going on there?”
“The Bellas aren’t comfortable with their daughter being gay.”
Jackson shook his head. “I gathered that. Violetta is such a sweet kid. That’s a shame. Maybe they just need some time to adjust.”
“I hope you’re right.” Tally hoped so, too, but wasn’t optimistic about the chances of their father accepting his gay daughter and Eden, the love of Violetta’s life. The young women lived in Dallas, hours away by car, so could easily avoid having to deal with the elder Bellas for at least the near future.
“Anyway,” Tally said, “Yolanda’s place is all repaired from the damage.”
Jackson took a swing of beer and a scoop of queso before starting a new topic. “You asked me to watch out for Mrs. Gerg, with Walter Wright moving in. I’m sending a car down her street a couple of times a day. It’s strange not to see her walking all over the town like she usually does.”
Tally laughed. “Yes, looking for garage and yard sale junk to bring to me. I’m okay with that, just worried about why he’s moved in with her and what his…intentions, I guess, are. She’s so naïve.”
“Maybe not as much as you think she is. And Walter does need some help until his leg is better.”
“That reminds me. You know the dead guy in the motel?”
Jackson put on a wary face. “What about him?”
“I know you can’t tell me any details about his murder, but I wonder if he had anything to do with the wreck you told me about.”
“You mean the one with the truck that was delivering your things from the plastic storage place?”
Tally sat back. “That truck had our plastics in it?”
“Yes, it was coming from the warehouse. The driver fell asleep at the wheel. He admitted it at the scene.”
“But ours were delivered. Are you sure that wreck had our plastics on it? We got them and put them on display the very next day.”
“The company sent out another truck that night, a smaller one, just for your order, since it was so close by. I think they put the rest of the cargo on another large truck and drove that the next day to wherever they were going. I think the shipment was ending up in Dallas.”
“So, the man injured in the crash, the one who was sent to the hospital with a broken leg?”
Jackson got that wary look again. “What about him?”
“Is he the man who beat up Walter Wright? Someone beat Mr. Wright with a crutch when he tried to catch the crippled guy stealing the things from the window.”
“We think so,” he said slowly.
“I’m pretty sure I saw him. He was hanging around the next morning. We were all looking at the nice display. We were so happy with it until we noticed that the plastics were starting to melt in the sun coming through the glass window.”
“And someone was there, with you, on crutches, at that time?”
“Yes. A whole crowd gathered and he was one of them. He seemed so interested in the window. He even ran into Lily and almost knocked her over. I think he was concentrating on the display and didn’t look where he was going.”
“That was probably him, then.” Jackson nodded.
“And you haven’t found him?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“I saw them take some DNA from the broken glass. Does it match the dead guy’s?”
“It takes quite a while for the results to come back, but the ‘dead guy,’ as you call him, did have a cut on his hand.”
“So, if he smashed the window and cut his hand, he probably has the rocks that were inside the plastic.”
“No, actually. He didn’t. And it’s jade,” Jackson said. “Very high quality jade.”
“You had your uncle look at it?”
“Didn’t have to. We had a jeweler here tell us. It’s Burmese, he’s certain.”
Tally frowned. “So it actually is what we were talking about? It’s Burmese and it comes from Myanmar?”
“Yes, people still call the jade Burmese Jade, mostly. I’ve heard it referred to as Myanmar Jade, too. It’s the same thing.” He grimaced and looked down. “It’s also called Blood Jade.”
“That sounds…awful. Like blood diamonds?”
“Yes, just like that. The people in that nation are being robbed of their jade, getting almost nothing out of it. The countryside is being ruined. People die when the mined mountains collapse on them. A lot of the mining is just plain illegal, besides being immoral.”
“How did it end up here? In Fredericksburg? Inside our compostable plastic?”
“That is a very good question.”
“Not legally, then.”
“Most definitely not.”
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They ordered, ate a slow meal, and finished by sharing a dessert. The specter of the illegal gemstones receded and Tally had a wonderful evening. Jackson’s work didn’t even interrupt him, for once. There wasn’t a single phone call or text for either one of them.
Later, at home with Nigel in her lap, though, she was again bothered by the Blood Jade Jackson had talked about. If it was mined illegally, was it being shipped the same way? Smuggled? Is that why it was hidden inside the candies? But how did it get there? Was that a mistake? Had a shipment meant for someone else gone to Yolanda? If the smugglers knew that Tally and Yolanda were involved, were they in danger?
Nigel gave her a direct look and blinked.
“You mean it might not be a mistake? It might have been meant to go to Bella’s Baskets?”
He lifted a paw, licked it, and started grooming one ear.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Yolanda wasn’t receiving smuggled goods, Nige.”
He paused, then started on the other ear.
“Jackson’s not telling me everything. I know that. I sure wonder what he is holding back on. I don’t see how any of this should be secret. If he does know where our thief is, he should announce that to the world. That’s big news.” Tally shook her head. “I don’t understand what’s going on at all.”
9
Thursday morning, Raul was so quiet that Yolanda wondered if he was sick. She asked him twice if he was feeling okay and he said he was fine both times. The third time he snapped out the word. “Fine!” She knew she shouldn’t ask him again, but clearly something was wrong.
They had several orders come in first thing in the morning, one for an older woman’s birthday party—the giver of the gift basket wouldn’t say how old the recipient was, but said she liked gardening and embroidery; another for the local garden club; and a third for a church luncheon, small baskets for centerpieces on over a dozen tables.
Her doctor had phoned in some new allergy pills for her when Yolanda told her they weren’t working. These seemed much better. Her nose was completely clear. It was a good morning for Yolanda! She wished Raul felt as happy as she did.