by Jessica Beck
“We’re also looking at the mayor from Molly’s Corners,” I said.
The sheriff looked startled to hear that name. “Hank Mullins? Why in the world would he kill Roy Thompson?”
“They had a business deal that went bad,” I said.
“And you know that how, exactly?” he asked, and then he quickly changed his mind. “Forget I asked. I’m not at all sure that I want to know. How much would it take for Hank to kill him? From what I’ve heard, the man’s richer than most.”
“He claimed that it was pocket change for him, but we don’t believe him.”
The sheriff shrugged. “I’ll look into it. Thanks for the tip.”
“Do you have anything that you can share with me?” I asked. “After all, I just spilled my guts to you.”
He shook his head. “Sorry, but I’m really not ready to share yet.”
“Maybe not, but our deal still stands, Sheriff. Come noon, Moose and I are free of our promise.”
“I wanted to talk to you about that,” Sheriff Croft said hesitantly, and I didn’t like the tone of his voice.
“Hang on one second. Don’t try to renege. We had a deal.”
“I know that, and I’m not going back on my word. I just wish the two of you would give me more time before you tackle those four. I’ve got a hunch that one of them is about to crack.”
“That’s easy, then,” I said.
“I don’t like how quickly you agreed to my request,” the sheriff said, and then he took another sip of his coffee.
“I didn’t agree to anything,” I countered. “Just tell me who you think is going to confess, and we’ll go after the other three the second it hits twelve o’clock noon.”
“That’s not going to happen, Victoria,” Sheriff Croft said with a frown just as Mom came back out front.
He stood, laid a dollar by his cup, and said, “That’s some mighty fine coffee, Melinda. Thank you kindly.”
“That’s why we’re here,” she said with a smile, and the sheriff left.
“What was that all about?” my mother asked me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Young lady, I know that expression. What did he just say to you?”
I finally admitted, “The sheriff came by to ask us for too big a favor, and I had to turn him down.”
“That explains the frown,” Mom said. “Are you sure you didn’t have any choice?”
“No,” I said flatly. “He prides himself on his word being his bond just as much as we do, and he’s not about to break it. Maybe next time he won’t be so quick to promise something that he might regret later, but for right now, our deal stands.”
“I’m not happy when you and your grandfather are at odds with the police,” Mom said as she took the sheriff’s cup and put it in a plastic tub behind the counter.
“I’m not all that fond of it myself, but I really didn’t have much choice. Every hour that Roy Thompson’s murder goes unsolved is another hour folks might think that we were responsible for it. We can’t stay in business if we don’t have any customers, and if people around here begin to believe that we poisoned that cake ourselves, there won’t be a diner much longer.”
“I know you’re doing what you have to for The Charming Moose,” Mom said as she lightly touched my arm. “Did I hear someone mention something happening at noon?”
“You did,” I said. “Moose is asking Martha to cover for me then so we can continue our investigation, but I’ll be here this morning for my regular shift.”
The front door opened, and our early morning waitress, Ellen Hightower, came in, looking more disheveled than normal. “Sorry I’m late, but my car wouldn’t start. I’m afraid that it’s on its last legs.”
“Is it really that serious?” I asked her. We depended on Ellen to see us through our breakfast and lunch times, and if she couldn’t get to the diner, she wouldn’t do us much good.
“Don’t worry; Wayne at the car repair place is going to look at it for me today. I think he’s kind of sweet on me, so he promised me that the bill wouldn’t be too bad.”
“I didn’t know the two of you were going out,” I said.
“We’re not, but that doesn’t keep him from asking.”
“You really should go out with him,” Mom said as she smiled. My mother believed that everyone should have someone in their lives, and she wasn’t shy about sharing her opinion. “He’s really cute.”
Ellen blushed a little. “I know, but with my kids, it’s tough to make time to actually have a personal life of my own.”
“If you wait until they’re all gone, you’ll miss out on too many opportunities,” Mom said. “Tell you what. Go ahead and make a date with the man, and I’ll provide the babysitting services, free of charge.”
“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Ellen said.
“You didn’t ask. I volunteered, remember? Come on. What do you have to lose? Like the man said, you don’t have anything to fear but fear itself.”
“FDR wasn’t talking about dating when he said that,” I reminded my mother. Somebody had to rein her in.
“Well, it applies to this just the same.” She turned to Ellen and asked, “When’s the last time you went out on a real date?”
“There hasn’t been anyone since Luke left me,” she said. “I wouldn’t even know how to go about it. What am I supposed to do, ask him out?”
“You could do it if you wanted to, but I have a hunch that if you just smile at him, he’ll ask you again.”
“I don’t know,” Ellen said, but I could see the hint of a smile as she ducked her head down.
“Just don’t close any doors. That’s all I ask,” Mom said as the diner’s front door opened and a handful of construction men came in, laughing and teasing each other about something.
As Ellen greeted them and followed them to their table, I told my mother, “You never give up, do you?”
“What? Can’t a gal do a friend a favor? Ellen deserves some happiness in her life.”
“How can you be so sure that Wayne can deliver it?” I asked her.
“Come on. He’s a sweetheart, and you know it. They belong together; they just don’t realize it yet.”
“You are a romantic through and through, aren’t you?” I asked.
“I don’t deny it, and what’s more, I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said. “If I hadn’t gone after your father, you wouldn’t be here today, so I wouldn’t knock my romantic tendencies if I were you, Victoria.”
“Funny, I always thought that Dad was the one who pursued you,” I said.
“He thinks so, too, so let’s keep this just between us.”
Ellen approached with the orders, and Mom took them from her with a smile. As she walked back into the kitchen, she started humming, and it took me a second to figure out what the song was. Then I finally got it. Love Is in the Air. I wasn’t sure how appropriate it was, but I had to give my mother credit. When it came to romance, she never gave up.
The rest of my first shift was relatively uneventful, and I for one was happy about it. The investigation was just getting fully underway, but I was already beginning to resent the time it was taking away from my shifts at the diner. I had the wackiest schedule imaginable, on from six to eight, eleven to four, and five to seven, but it suited me, and it disrupted my entire life when it didn’t work out that way.
I got home after my first shift in plenty of time to make my husband some breakfast, and we even managed to enjoy a little hot chocolate afterwards in our backyard enjoying our new propane fire-pit before we both had to go in to work. It was with some reluctance that we went to the diner just before eleven, and if I’d known what Moose was planning to do, I might have skipped my middle shift entirely.
Unfortunately, though, I didn’t have the gift of foresight, so when Greg and I walked into the diner a little before eleven, my grandfather jumped on me before I even had the chance to take off my coat.
Chapte
r 8
“It’s about time you two showed up,” Moose said as he ambushed me from behind the register. Greg looked bemused by it all, but he didn’t say a word.
“I’m not due in for another two minutes,” I said as I took my coat off. “Besides, we promised the sheriff that we wouldn’t start our investigation until noon, so we’ve got another hour. What’s the rush, anyway? Martha’s not even here yet.”
“She’s in the kitchen chatting with your mother,” Moose said. “I heard about the little bit of excitement you had around here earlier.”
“Has she been telling you about Ellen and Wayne?” I asked.
“No. What are you talking about, girl?”
“Mom is playing matchmaker again,” I said.
“I’m talking about someone marking up our diner,” Moose said. “There aren’t many ways to read a bloody X on the window, are there?”
“So, you don’t think that it’s random, either?” I asked, relieved that at least one person agreed with me.
“How could it be? We started investigating a murder, and the next thing you know, someone’s targeting us.”
“There’s another explanation, you know,” Greg said.
“I’d like to hear what it might be,” Moose said. “And don’t give me any nonsense about it being random teens, because I don’t believe it.”
“My cake killed Roy Thompson. Maybe someone marked the diner as a place where no one should take a chance eating.”
I rubbed my husband’s shoulder in support. “That’s nonsense, Greg. Nobody blames you for what happened to Roy.”
“It’s hard to tell just how many folks around here believe it, Victoria.”
“It’s true, my boy,” Moose said. “You were the wronged party here.”
“Well, it didn’t work out too well for Roy, either, did it?”
I was about to say something when my mother came out of the kitchen. She smiled at my husband the second she saw him. “There you are. The kitchen’s all yours. I wasn’t sure you were coming today, Greg.”
“Have I ever let you down, Mom?” he asked, and she smiled broadly. It had taken her some time and persuasion to get him from Mrs. Nelson to Melinda, and even longer to modify that to Mom, but she’d finally managed to do it. The funny thing was that Dad was still Mr. Nelson to him, and I doubted that there was anything that would ever change that. I didn’t know how my father felt about it, but if he minded the formal honorific, he never said anything about it, at least not in my presence.
“And I know that you never will,” she said as she patted his cheek gently. After greeting Greg, Mom turned to her father-in-law. “Moose, will you leave the poor girl alone? I heard her tell the sheriff this morning that you couldn’t start digging until noon, and you shouldn’t be tempting her to start early.”
“Melinda,” he said with a smile, “why don’t you worry about romance and leave murder to me?”
She shook her head and laughed. “I see someone’s been talking behind my back.”
“And in front of it, as well,” I said.
“Are you all talking about me?” Ellen asked as she cleaned a nearby table.
“Whatever gave you that idea?” I asked with a smile.
She just laughed it off, waved the rag in the air, and then she went back to cleaning.
“Since you’re here now, I’m off,” Mom said, and kissed my cheek as she went past me.
“None for me?” Moose asked her with that devilish grin of his.
“I know I shouldn’t encourage you, but I can’t seem to help myself,” she said as she kissed his cheek as well.
After my mother was gone, Moose turned to me. “So, what do you say? If we start interviewing folks now, we can get an hour’s jump on things.”
“I say no, and I shouldn’t have to tell you the reason why,” I said, scolding him a little with my tone of voice.
If it bothered him in the least, he didn’t show it. “Fine, but I still think it’s a bad idea to just sit around here and wait.”
“Maybe so, but we gave our word,” I said, and then I instantly regretted it.
Moose must have seen something in my face. “What’s wrong, Victoria?”
“I have no idea how we’re going to keep our promise now,” I said as I pointed over his shoulder.
We weren’t going after any of our suspects, but one of them was about to walk right into our diner, and I wasn’t sure just how much we could talk about until noon came around.
“Kelly, I’m surprised to see you here. Have you ever even been to the diner?”
As she walked in, I could have sworn I saw Asher outside on the sidewalk, but when I looked back, whoever had been there was gone now. If it had been Asher, had he had the same idea to come in to talk to us about his father’s murder? I hoped that he’d come back after Kelly was gone. I wanted to speak to both of them, and doing it at the diner was much preferred, since it was on our home turf.
Kelly shook her head. “Actually, I’m allergic to so many things, it’s nearly impossible for me to find something to eat out anywhere I go. It’s quite lovely,” Roy Thompson’s secretary/receptionist said as she looked around.
The Charming Moose could be called many things, but I wasn’t sure that ‘lovely’ was one of them. Sure, we had our own eclectic charm, and the jukebox in the corner gave us a little color, but I knew what we had. It was a place to come when you wanted to feel as though you were home, surrounded by friendly people, heavenly aromas, and food that made you feel as though you’d never left your childhood home. Some folks called it a hole, some a dive, but I didn’t mind. I knew better than most what it was, and I loved it because of that, not in spite of it.
“Thank you for your kind words,” I said. “If you didn’t come by for the food, what can we do for you?”
“Well, I do drink coffee,” she said with a smile.
“Then pick a seat, and I’ll fix you right up,” I told her. “If you tell my husband the things that you can have, I’m sure he could come up with something for you to eat.”
“Actually, I’m not really hungry. I was hoping to get a chance to speak with you and Moose about my boss, though.”
I was on the horns of a dilemma now. Did this qualify as going after a suspect in the sheriff’s mind? After all, she’d walked into our place of her own free will. I felt as though I had abided by the sheriff’s demand that we not go after her, but I didn’t want him stopping by before noon and seeing my grandfather and me grilling someone on his forbidden list.
I was still debating the ethical quandary when Moose settled it for the both of us. “There’s nothing we’d like more. Follow me,” he said as he led her to a table away from everyone else. I had no choice but to trail along behind them. I might not believe that we were in the clear one hundred percent with the sheriff, but that didn’t mean that I was going to be left out of the conversation, either. Ethics was one thing, but this was something else entirely.
I grabbed three cups and the coffee pot, and after we were all settled in, Kelly said, “I suppose you think it’s odd that I’m coming to you two, but you were so interested in Mr. Thompson’s murder that I felt as though we all want the same thing, to figure out who killed him. The sheriff was so cold and official when we spoke that it seemed to me as though he was following some kind of script. To be honest with you, the man intimidates the daylights out of me.”
I wasn’t about to say anything bad about Sheriff Croft, and I needed to stop Moose from doing it, either. “He has boundaries and restrictions that we don’t,” I said. “Given his limitation, he’s very good at what he does.”
“Maybe so,” Kelly said, “but there’s a lot more to it than that. I’ve asked around, and I understand now why you two started your investigation. This isn’t the first time you’ve looked for a killer, is it?”
“We’ve been thrown into a few situations in the past,” my grandfather admitted rather humbly. We both knew full well that there was a lot more to it tha
n that. We’d actively tracked murderers before when our motivations had been strong enough. Having a murder victim die after eating a piece of our cake gave us both more than reason enough to dig into what had happened.
“You solved them, though, didn’t you?” she asked.
“We did, one way or another,” I replied. “Is there anything you can add to what you told us yesterday?”
“Oh, there’s lots more I know now,” she said as she dug into her purse and started digging through it. After nearly a full minute, she pulled out the back of a Chinese take-out menu, and I saw that it was nearly covered with notes and names. Kelly appeared to be quite dynamic in her musings, because I saw a host of exclamation marks, bold stars, and heavy outlines marking up the paper.
“May I see that?” I asked, curious about the intensity of her note-taking.
She just laughed. “I’d give it to you, but I’m afraid that you wouldn’t be able to make anything out of it. I tend to ramble when I do this, so without me as a guide, you couldn’t make heads or tails of the whole thing. It’s a lot easier if I just tell you what I found out.”
“I understand,” I said, though that wasn’t quite true. “Go on, and we’ll both try to follow along.”
“Here goes,” she said as she studied the back of the menu. It appeared that, at least at first, she was having trouble herself knowing exactly where to begin. After a few moments though, she nodded, and then the words began tumbling out of her mouth as though she had less than a minute to live. “James Manchester threatened Roy before, around the time someone ran Roy off the road in his car. Are they connected? I think they might be. Sylvia Jones tried to get Roy arrested for domestic violence when they were married, even though I’m positive that it never happened. A long time ago, his son, Asher, threatened him with a .22 caliber pistol when he was sixteen because Roy wouldn’t buy him a Corvette. I found out that Hank Mullins was his mystery partner, and evidently the mayor lost more than he could handle in one of their deals. He’s not nearly as rich as he pretends to be.” She peered at the menu again, and then added, “I was looking through Roy’s calendar, and I saw that he had an appointment that he never told me about last night. It was with someone with the initials L.J., but I’ve gone through all our files, and I can’t find anyone who matched. Roy was awfully good at keeping secrets, and it took me quite a while to uncover all that I found.”