A Killer Cake

by Jessica Beck

  Moose looked genuinely surprised by that. “Do you honestly think that she could have killed her boss?”

  “Why not? Could you have worked for that man for seven days, let alone seven years, without entertaining thoughts of killing him?” I asked.

  “Nothing that I’d ever follow up on,” Moose said.

  “How do we know what Kelly’s motivation might have been? If she did it, I’m sure that she had her reasons.”

  “It just doesn’t make sense, though. She could have poisoned him any day of the week,” Moose protested.

  “Sure, but then the suspicion of his murder would fall directly on her. Think about how much more clever it was to wait until lots of other people had a chance to do it as well.”

  “Victoria, do we have any reason to believe that she had anything to gain by basically killing her golden goose? Without Roy, Kelly is bound to be out of a job soon.”

  I nodded. “Sure, but what I really want to know is if she’s mentioned by name in the man’s will. They worked closely together for seven years, and Roy wasn’t all that close with anyone else. What if he left her enough so that she could afford to retire? It might not be a fortune in most people’s eyes, but it could be motive enough for her.”

  “I’m getting tired of guessing. We need to get our hands on that will,” Moose said.

  “We can always ask Rebecca to look into it, but there’s a good chance that it hasn’t been filed yet, so there’s no way for us to know.”

  “Was she his attorney?” Moose asked.

  “I have no idea, but if it’s been filed, she might be able to find out who his beneficiaries are.”

  “Then call her, Victoria. Knowing what he wrote in that will could go a long way toward figuring out who killed him.”

  “It’s worth a shot,” I said as I took out my phone and dialed Rebecca’s number.

  Fortunately, she picked up on the first ring. “Hey, it’s me,” I said. “Do you have a second?”

  “Just about that,” Rebecca said.

  She sounded stressed out, and I hated to bother her. “This can wait. Just call me when you get a chance.”

  “No, I can talk, just not for long. What’s up?”

  “Moose and I are trying to find out if Roy Thompson’s will has been filed with the probate court yet. Do you happen to know anything about it?”

  “I heard rumors that he used an attorney in Charlotte, but when he files the paperwork, he’ll have to do it in our county.”

  “Can you ask around and see if it’s been submitted yet?”

  “I’m due there myself on another matter in a few minutes,” Rebecca said. “I’ll call you if I find anything out. Sorry, but I really do have to run.”

  “Go,” I said. “And thanks.”

  Unfortunately, she’d already hung up by the time I’d gotten my thanks out.

  “She doesn’t know, but she’s going to look into it,” I told Moose as I put my cell phone away.

  “Rebecca’s a good friend to have,” Moose said.

  “For more reasons than her connections at the courthouse,” I agreed.

  “So, is that it for our list of suspects?” Moose asked.

  “Well, unless there’s yet another mystery partner that we don’t know about, that just about covers it. It’s enough, though, don’t you think? We have six pretty viable suspects, and any one of them could have killed Roy Thompson.”

  “So, we’re pretty sure that it’s one of the following people: Sylvia Jones, Roy’s ex-wife; Asher, his estranged son; Loretta Jenkins, his illegitimate daughter; James Manchester and Hank Mullins, two of his scorned business partners; and finally, Kelly Raven, his secretary/receptionist. Does that about sum it up?”

  “That’s all that we know about,” I said. “If Sheriff Croft has other names on his list, we don’t know about them.”

  “If he does, he can deal with them himself. We already have more than we can handle with the names that we’ve got.”

  “So, the only people we’ve been able to eliminate so far without a doubt are the one ex-con we had as a suspect and our town’s best barber. The rest of our suspects are supposedly honest and upright citizens. One of them’s a mayor, for goodness sakes.”

  “That doesn’t make him honest or upright,” Moose said with a grin.

  “I already know your opinion of politicians,” I said with a laugh. “We can’t let that influence us one way or the other, though.”

  “Agreed, though it’s true that the man’s been acting strangely when it comes to us.”

  “Who knows? Maybe he acts that way around everybody.”

  “I doubt he’d get reelected if he did,” my grandfather said.

  “Our list is the best we can manage to come up with at the moment given the information we have,” I said as we neared the diner. “For now, I just want to finish my shift, and then go home and have a fire with my husband.”

  Moose looked up at the sky. “You’ll have to have it in your fireplace inside. It’s going to rain before you get off work.”

  I looked up, and while there were a few dark clouds in the sky, I had no idea what the weather might bring. “How can you be so sure? Are you basing that on just a few clouds?”

  “That, and the fact that my leg is killing me. Whenever it hurts like this, it’s going to either rain or snow, and I don’t think it’s cold enough for snowflakes. It will still be chilly, but it’s going to be rain when it hits the ground.”

  “You sound pretty sure of yourself,” I said as my grandfather parked the truck in the back of the parking area we all used.

  “I’ll bet you ten to one that I’m right. You pick the stakes.”

  “No, thanks,” I said. “I know you wouldn’t be that bold if you weren’t sure.”

  Before we made it to the front door, the first raindrops hit us both.

  We dashed inside together, and I looked at my grandfather, who couldn’t stop grinning.

  “What’s so amusing?” Martha asked when she saw her husband’s face.

  “Nothing much. I just love being right; do you know what I mean?”

  Martha grinned. “We all know what you mean, Moose. Did you have any luck with your investigation?”

  “It’s too soon to tell,” I said. I kissed her cheek, and then I said, “Thanks for watching the front for me.”

  “It was my pleasure,” she said.

  I smiled at Jenny as I walked past her, and Greg was happy to see me when I came back into the kitchen.

  “Hey there,” he said with a smile. “I missed you. Are we having a fire outside tonight?”

  “I’d love to, but Moose just made it rain.”

  Greg looked puzzled by my statement. “I knew that he could do a remarkable number of things, but I didn’t realize that he was all that proficient at rain dances.”

  “Well, maybe he didn’t cause it, but he surely did predict it. I’m afraid we’re going to miss our outdoor fire tonight.”

  “There will plenty of time for that later,” Greg said as he hugged me. “After all, we’ve got the rest of our lives.”

  “Maybe so, but I wanted one tonight,” I said.

  “Then we’ll light up the fireplace and snuggle under a blanket together. How does that sound?” my husband asked.

  “Like we should close up now and avoid the rush,” I replied with a grin.

  He laughed, and then my husband released me. “Patience is a virtue, my love.”

  “I know. I just don’t feel all that virtuous at the moment.”

  I made my way back out front, and I found that Jenny had her hands full with our dinner customers. I jumped in and started helping out, glad that our diner’s business hadn’t completely blown away with Roy Thompson’s death.

  I did notice that not many folks were having dessert, though.

  Chapter 13

  “Is it too late to be calling?” Rebecca asked when I answered the phone at home later that night. “I kind of got distracted, and to be honest,
I forgot all about calling you.”

  “That’s okay. It’s not even nine o’clock yet.” Since I had to be at the diner before six just about every morning, I had to get to bed at a decent hour so I could get my beauty sleep. Otherwise, I tended to get kind of grumpy, and nobody was a fan of that, least of all our early morning customers.

  “Okay. I’ll make it quick. I just got back from having drinks with Roy Thompson’s Charlotte attorney, a man named Paul Gray. He was at the courthouse at the same time I was there, and I happened to overhear what he was talking about, and we had a nice little chat.”

  “Is he attractive?” I asked instantly.

  “Oh, yes. I didn’t mind the assignment you gave me at all. There’s a problem, though. He’s just getting out of a long-term relationship.”

  “Don’t let that stop you,” I said with a laugh. “But what happened to the last guy you were dating? You didn’t even want to tell me his name because you were afraid that it might jinx it.”

  “Well, it managed to get jinxed anyway. I’m sorry to say that he didn’t work out,” Rebecca said.

  “Do you have any more details than that that you’re willing to share now that’s over? You know I live vicariously through you.”

  “Then I’d say that you have a sad and lonely life. You have to know that I’d trade you for what you’ve got with Greg any day of the week.”

  “And I’d turn you down every time you asked,” I said. “So, tell me about Paul.”

  “That’s not as important at the moment as what he told me about Roy Thompson’s will,” Rebecca said, “or more significantly, Roy’s plans to change it completely right before he died.”

  “WHAT?” I asked loudly enough to get Greg’s attention.

  “Is anything wrong?” he asked me.

  “No, it’s just Rebecca,” I said in a calmer voice. “Everything’s fine.”

  My dear friend laughed when she heard me say that. “Since when did I become ‘Just Rebecca’?”

  “You know what I mean. What exactly did he tell you?”

  “It was pretty amazing, to be honest with you. It turns out that Paul was heading to Jasper Fork yesterday as Roy Thompson was dying.”

  “Was he making a change that quickly?” I asked.

  “Roy told him that he was completely revamping his will, and Paul even brought two people from his office to witness the changes, along with a notary to make sure things were taken care of immediately.”

  “Did he happen to mention how things were going to change, or is that not a fair question to ask?”

  “Well, I think Paul was trying to impress me a little, so he probably said more than he would have in ordinary circumstances.”

  “Rebecca, did you take advantage of that man for my sake?”

  I could hear the grin in her voice as she answered, “Let’s just say that I was in the mood to be impressed. Would you like to hear what he told me?”

  “You bet I would,” I said. This was getting good.

  “Okay. From what Paul told me, every last dime of Roy’s money was going to go to a foundation for the preservation of historical landmarks. Everyone listed before was getting cut of their inheritance completely. From what I gathered, it’s a pretty substantial amount, too.”

  “I didn’t know that Roy Thompson was that fond of old buildings.”

  “He wasn’t particularly, according to Paul. It was just his way of twisting the knife a little. It’s a shame he never got a chance to do what he wanted to with his money.”

  “So, who gets it all in the old will, the one that’s still valid?”

  “Currently, it’s split right down the middle,” Rebecca said.

  “Between Asher and his mother, right?” I guessed.

  “Well, you got half of it right. Asher is indeed one of the beneficiaries. It’s the other name he mentioned that surprised me.”

  “I give up. It wasn’t his daughter, was it? I didn’t think he even knew about her existence.” That would certainly give Loretta incentive to knock off her old man.

  “No, it wasn’t his child, not unless he adopted Kelly Raven at some point.”

  “Are you telling me that Roy Thompson left half of everything he had to his secretary?” I asked, shocked to learn the new information. “Were they, you know, fooling around or something?”

  “According to what Paul said when he told Kelly the news, she made it quite a point to stress that wasn’t the case at all. He said that she seemed genuinely shocked when she found out.”

  “I bet she won’t turn it down, though,” I said.

  “Do you know something about her that I don’t?” Rebecca asked.

  “It just seems kind of odd, if you know what I mean. Has he already filed the will with the probate court?”

  “I have a hunch that nothing’s going to happen with the estate while the two main beneficiaries are both murder suspects.”

  “How long can the court delay things?” I asked.

  “It depends on how much pressure is applied on it not to process the will.”

  “I have a feeling the sheriff is not going to want to help a murderer collect a big payoff. Moose and I might still have a little time.”

  “I wouldn’t drag my feet, if I were you. Asher’s already making noises about expediting the entire process, and from what Paul said, Kelly’s not fighting him at all.”

  “I wonder what Loretta is going to say when she finds out that she’s being left out in the cold,” I said.

  “Are you going to tell her yourself?” Rebecca asked me. It was clear that she was hesitant about that happening.

  “It’s not going to put you in a jam if I do, will it?”

  “If it does, it’s nothing I can’t handle,” she said.

  “But you’d rather I didn’t say anything to her at all. Is that true?” I asked, pushing a little harder.

  “You know what? You have my blessing to tell her anything you want to at all, Victoria. Just don’t let her know how you found out. Will you do that much for me?”

  “I won’t say a word to her about anything. Your friendship is more important to me than any murder case.”

  “I appreciate that,” Rebecca said, “but if you keep my name, and Paul’s, out of it, that will be enough.”

  “Okay, if you’re sure.”

  “I am,” she said as she stifled a yawn. “Listen, I’m beat. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Bye,” I said, “and thanks for going to such extreme lengths to get me that information.”

  “It was my pleasure,” she said, and then, Rebecca added with a laugh, “and I mean every word of it.”

  After we hung up, Greg saw me start to dial another number. “You’re not calling Loretta now, are you?”

  “Were you listening in?”

  “Shamelessly,” he admitted with a grin.

  “No, I thought I’d touch base with Moose before I did anything,” I said.

  “That’s a good plan. What do you think this all means?”

  “Well, I’m certainly going to start looking at Kelly Raven harder than I have been before. I’ll tell you one thing; Moose is not going to like this.”

  “Why not?”

  “He thinks that Kelly is too sweet to get her hands dirty with murder.”

  “With the motivation we know she had now,” Greg said, “it wouldn’t surprise me if she decided to speed up her inheritance and spread a little poison.”

  “I think it’s possible, too.”

  Moose answered on the first ring. “What’s going on, Victoria?”

  “Were you waiting by the phone for me to call, Moose?” I asked with a smile.

  “Well, I’m guessing that Rebecca called you. Do I have to beg, or are you going to share what you learned with me?”

  “No begging required,” I said. After I brought him up to date about my conversation with Rebecca, there was silence on the other end of the line. “Moose? Are you still there?”

  “I’m trying to dig
est everything you just told me. We’ve got two suspects that just went to the head of the line, don’t we?”

  “Three,” I said. “We can’t sell Sylvia short. She could have done it to insure her son of what she must think of as his birthright.”

  “True, but if Roy told Loretta that she wasn’t getting a dime of his money, she could have killed him out of anger instead of greed.”

  “So, the only ones we can eliminate now are the two businessmen who got skewered in their deals with Roy, is that how you see it?” Moose asked.

  “No, they’re still viable, too. This murder might not have anything to do with Roy’s will.”

  “Then what good does it do knowing anything about who Roy was planning to leave his holdings to?”

  “Moose, you know as well as I do that all we can do is collect information at this point. Who knows which particular piece is going to be the one that gives us the answer to the entire puzzle? You’ve got to keep the faith.”

  “It just gets frustrating sometimes, you know what I mean?”

  “Oh, trust me, I know,” I said. “I think that we should wait until morning to tell Loretta about her father’s intentions to write everyone out of his will.”

  “He couldn’t write her out if she was never there to start with,” Moose reminded me.

  “That’s a good point, but I still want to see how she takes the news that she’s not getting a dime of Roy Thompson’s money.”

  “Let’s do it together. I’ll see you when you get off at eight tomorrow morning, and we’ll tackle her first.”

  “That sounds great,” I said, and then hung up the phone.

  “I heard most of that,” Greg said. “Moose is right. The new information really didn’t do you much good at all, did it?”

  “Not yet, but who knows what tomorrow might bring?” I asked.

  My husband hugged me, and then he said, “I don’t know, and as long as I get to spend at least some of it with you, I’m okay with that.”

  “So am I,” I answered.

  It was ten minutes after six in the morning when Loretta Jenkins walked into the diner, looking as though she hadn’t slept an hour the entire night. If I had to guess, I’d say that someone had already told her about her father’s will. I wondered who’d beaten me to it.