Serving Up Suspects

by Emmie Lyn

I stopped and raised my eyebrows at Lily. I pushed my sunglasses to the top of my head and said, “I’m confused. Her husband lives next door? Hasn’t Judith been living with Sue Ellen for the past month or so?”

  “Uh-huh. But you know they’ve been going through some ups and downs.” Lily grinned and jabbed me.

  Yeah, but I didn’t know they could still borrow a cup of wine from each other. “Isn’t that awkward?” I said, but Lily didn’t seem to hear me.

  “We’d better catch up to Maggie,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned, Barry has suspect branded on his forehead.”

  Maggie, with her long legs and unwavering goal, reached Barry first.

  Barry closed his mailbox and greeted us with a curious smile. “What’s going on over there?” He pointed with the pile of flyers clutched in his hand. “At Sue Ellen’s house? I know she likes to do everything with a big bang, but the police and fire department? Isn’t that over the top security even for her?”

  I pushed in front of Maggie. “Barry, right?” I held my hand out to shake his and gave him my name.

  Barry’s head dipped a fraction of an inch as he took my hand. “Do I know you?”

  “I’m sure you’ve seen me working at the Little Dog Diner.”

  Barry squinted then tapped his head with the heel of his hand. “That’s it. I’m not used to seeing you away from the diner. I have to tell you that I love your clam chowder and the blueberry pie. Best anywhere.” He patted his stomach with a greedy but funny gesture. “I try not to indulge too often,” he said. “But I left room for your desserts at the auction tonight. I’ve been looking forward to viewing the finished quilt. Judith has raved about it since she came up with the idea.”

  “You and Judith talk a lot?” Lily asked.

  Barry tucked his mail under his arm and leaned against his mailbox. “You sound surprised. Does everyone in town think we have knives out for each other? Is that the gossip around Misty Harbor?” He shook his head in disbelief. “Of course, the way people talk, it would be. Just because we aren’t living together at the moment, doesn’t mean we’ve become incommunicado. Actually, ever since Judith moved in with Sue Ellen, we’ve been communicating better and see each other regularly. I guess we just needed a little space.”

  TMI I thought, but maybe he was just a chatty guy. His gaze returned to the commotion in Sue Ellen’s driveway. His forehead wrinkled. “What happened?”

  “Listen, Barry. There’s been an accident.”

  “Oh, no,” he said straightening up and grabbing the mail slipping from under his arm. “Poor Sue Ellen.”

  I softened my voice to ease the blow of what I had to tell him. “It’s Judith.”

  He gasped and his hand flew to cover his mouth as, dropping the mail, he began to run toward Sue Ellen’s house.

  With one giant step, Maggie blocked Barry’s path. She put her hand on his shoulder in a consoling manner and cut to the chase.

  “She’s dead, Barry. Sorry to hit you with the news, but it’s better than finding out over there.”

  We all turned as we heard a white-draped stretcher crunch across the driveway. I can’t say what went on in anyone else’s mind as we watched it get loaded it into an unmarked van, but a flood of sadness hit me.

  Barry’s face lost all its color and his breath came in rapid gasps. “Dead?” he said, his voice rising in shock. “Did she fall? I know she was concerned about hanging the quilt.”

  Lily and I let Maggie continue to run the show. “The police will figure out what happened,” she said. With her arm around Barry’s shoulder, she turned him back toward his driveway. “There’s a lot of commotion over there. Did you see or hear anything unusual earlier?”

  Barry’s head moved back and forth at a snail’s pace to indicate no. “I just got home from the library. Research for my upcoming talk at the historical society took all afternoon. Plus, Judith planned to have me present information about the history of quilts tonight, too. It was supposed to be a surprise.”

  As Barry walked and talked, the van drove away. I said, “Barry, is there anyone we can call for you? Some family member or friend to be with you right now?” I wanted Maggie to wind up this talk with Barry since he had no information to offer, and he had an alibi. Maybe someone else could be with him in his time of need. Time was ticking away, and we had to question other neighbors.

  Barry said, “No, I think I want to be alone.”

  I slowed down and called over Maggie’s shoulder. “I wonder if Sue Ellen is done with Detective Crenshaw yet. We should check how she’s doing.”

  “You know,” Barry said, turning to us. “Judith told me that Sue Ellen hinted about how she had overstayed her welcome. She was thinking about moving back home with me.”

  “I’m sure Detective Crenshaw will be interested in that information when he interviews you since everyone in the vicinity will be questioned.” Maggie made no attempt to hide that her comment included Barry.

  “All I can say about that is, I’m sure glad I wasn’t home. You know, since Judith and I have had some ups and downs, and being the husband never is a good thing in a situation like this.” Barry gathered up his mail that had scattered around his mailbox, tucked it under his arm and with his head bowed and shoulders sagging, he walked up the stone path to his house.

  “What do you think he was implying with that comment about Sue Ellen wanting Judith to move?” I asked Maggie.

  “A not-so-subtle hint that, with Judith dead, Sue Ellen got what she wanted,” Maggie continued her fast pace making Lily and me jog to keep up.

  “But Sue Ellen wouldn’t hire you if she murdered Judith, would she?” I asked Maggie after we were closer to the scene of the crime.

  “You never know what motivates someone,” Maggie replied. “I stopped trying to figure that part out a long time ago."

  “You know,” Lily said, “I never got the impression that Sue Ellen wanted Judith to move, but I did sense tension between those two sometimes. I wonder if what Barry said is true, but it was kept all hush-hush. Sue Ellen has her reputation to maintain.”

  “Reputation?” Maggie asked, turning to look at Lily.

  “Yeah. Sue Ellen is all about her image and how she does so much for others. She would never actually kick Judith out but she might make life difficult for her so she would want to move out.”

  “Or kill her?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. That seems kind of harsh and she did act genuinely surprised, shocked, and upset with the turn of events,” Lily replied. “Sue Ellen tends to be an open book when it comes to her emotions.”

  “Here she comes now.” Maggie strode away from us. “Sue Ellen.”

  “Can you believe it?” Sue Ellen sputtered, her face as red as her Cadillac and fists clenched like she was ready to punch someone or something.

  “Believe what, Sue Ellen?” I asked, imagining the worst. Did they find another body? Had Detective Crenshaw accused her of murdering Judith in her own house and hiding the body in the Persian rug?

  “They impounded all the desserts. Every. Single. One. It’s a total loss and I’m sending a bill to the police department. Now, let’s go talk to Barry. That scoundrel lives next door, and I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him. He kept following Judith around, whispering in her ear that I wasn’t trustworthy. Me? Not trustworthy? He’s the one who cleaned out their bank account when she told him she needed space. That scheme left her close to penniless. I hope that detective questions him before he manages to weasel his way out of this atrocity!”

  I glanced at Lily and assumed her shocked expression mirrored my own. Who was telling the truth? Or, had Judith, in her quiet way, gotten caught between two neighbors obviously at war with each other?

  Chapter Seven

  Before Sue Ellen managed to stomp more than a few feet across her driveway to the grieving Barry, Maggie pulled on her arm and Sue Ellen ground to a halt. “Slow down, Sue Ellen. We already talked to Barry, and he has an alibi. Or so he says, a
nd don’t worry, I’ll check it out. What about the flower and champagne delivery people?”

  “Oh.” Sue Ellen made an attempt to get her temper under control by fluffing the hair on the back of her head until it stood on end. “I never considered them.” She reached into her giant leather bag and pulled out a red notebook. “Let me see,” she said as she thumbed through the pages. “Here we go—flower delivery at five, champagne delivery at five fifteen, and desserts at five thirty.” She closed her book and looked at Maggie. “Does that help?”

  “It’s a start. And when was Judith supposed to be here? We need to know the overlap.”

  “Judith was here for the entire afternoon. Hanging that quilt had turned into a nightmare along with all the other little details—finding platters for the desserts, unpacking champagne glasses, moving the furniture, and sprucing up the powder room.”

  “Sprucing up the powder room?” Lily asked. “How do you even do that?”

  Sue Ellen waved her hand dismissively. “A few flowers, scented soap, new towels. Like I said, Judith obsessed over every single detail.”

  “Sue Ellen? We found something.” Detective Crenshaw strode toward us. “You need to come back inside.”

  “You did?” Sue Ellen’s hand went to her throat. “What is it? The murder weapon?”

  Detective Crenshaw didn’t give us a clue, just took Sue Ellen by the elbow, guiding her toward her house. We weren’t invited, but we weren’t told to stay behind either, so I followed. With a wave of my hand, I beckoned for Lily and Maggie to keep up. If AJ tried to stop us, I was prepared to insist that Sue Ellen needed our moral support. After all, Maggie was working for Sue Ellen now and she couldn’t hide that fact from the detective forever.

  The massive front door stood ajar as AJ stepped to the side allowing Sue Ellen to enter first. He glanced behind her and nodded to Lily and me. “I’ve got questions for you, too, so come on in.” He thrust his hand in front of Maggie though. “You can wait outside.”

  “Oh, she’s working for me and I need her,” Sue Ellen said, taking control of the situation without any help from me.

  AJ’s eyes narrowed on Maggie. “That was quick. Chasing ambulances now, are you?”

  Maggie, to her credit, ignored the insult and smiled at AJ. “Nothing of the sort, detective. Don’t worry, I won’t interfere with your investigation.”

  “Or anything else.” His eyes blazed when he threw that warning Maggie’s way.

  Ouch, I thought. I had to wonder what happened last month. I tried to recall a snippet of the story Lily had told me, but nothing came to mind that justified AJ’s antagonism. Whatever it was had turned AJ into an iceberg that Maggie was trying her hardest to thaw. Maggie probably made a big mistake by accepting Sue Ellen’s job offer if she had even a smidgen of hope it would lead to a date with AJ. I’d known the detective long enough to recognize the wall he’d thrown up around himself. Good luck to Maggie if she thought batting her eyelashes at him would tear it down.

  Maggie stood next to Sue Ellen with a comforting hand on the small of her back. It was either a kind and reassuring gesture on her part, or, an attempt to needle AJ and show him that she was involved whether he liked it or not.

  In any case, AJ turned his back to her and spoke to Lily and me. “Before I get to Sue Ellen, I want you to come with me and take another look at the scene of the crime.”

  Lily and I exchanged a look, no doubt she, too, was thinking, “Not again.” I for one had had enough of murder scenes, especially when the victim was someone I’d served coffee and a pastry to that very morning. Nevertheless, I didn’t see any way out of it, so we followed AJ through the spacious entryway, under a gilded archway, and into the now infamous living room. The mere act of stepping onto the marble floor, made my skin prickle with chills.

  “Look around carefully,” AJ said. “Do you see any details that you may have skipped over earlier?”

  Even though I would rather have been scrubbing the floor in the Little Dog Diner, anything really than helping solve a heinous crime, I took a deep breath and gave the room a cursory glance. “I’ve already told you, AJ, I’d never been in this room before today so I’m not sure what to even look for.”

  “I know,” he said, “but give it your best shot. You never know what you’ll come up with that could help us crack this case.”

  To humor him, because I doubted I had anything more to offer, I did scan the room from one corner to the other, taking in paintings, curtains, and nick-knacks; items that, to tell the truth, I hadn’t noticed earlier. But that didn’t seem important as everything that caught my eye appeared to fit in a room that was over the top opulent. The last object I noticed, the one I tried to avoid, was the Persian rug where Judith had been hidden. It was completely unrolled but one edge was flipped upside-down. I stepped closer to the rug. “What are those dark smudges?” I asked, but I should have known.

  “Blood.” Maggie said, with the confidence of someone who had seen too many bloodstains. “Blood dries to a dark color like that.”

  “But it’s on the outside, not inside where Judith’s body was rolled up.” I crouched and reached toward the smudge.

  “Don’t touch anything!” AJ yelled as he grabbed my arm.

  Like a swarm of bees, all the investigators in the room surrounded me. “It kind of blends in with the colors of the rug. How did you even notice that?” AJ asked.

  I was thinking, how did they miss it? This was their job after all. “When you spend as much time as I do removing food spills from my clothes, I see stuff like this.” I took a closer look and then shook my head at AJ. “I don’t think it’s blood. I think it’s chocolate, and I think it’s fresh.”

  I could tell from the way AJ’s jaw contorted that he wasn’t sure whether to believe me or not. After all, I didn’t have the credentials that said I was a pro at this. “You sure about that?” he asked, giving a sarcastic grin to his colleagues. Why was he so ready to knock down my theory? Since I knew I was right.

  “With the goodies you carried into the kitchen, maybe you or Lily smeared that on the rug when you decided to unroll it.” AJ straightened and stretched his back to work the kinks out.

  I clamped my mouth closed before I blurted out the wrong thing. Lily was not so discreet. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard today. Every single dessert we delivered was in unopened boxes.”

  “Which your men have impounded,” Sue Ellen added for emphasis.

  AJ picked up a Little Dog Diner bag from the floor near a big potted philodendron. “So, maybe this plant ate a couple of chocolate covered brownies?”

  Sue Ellen gasped. Her hand flew to cover her mouth. “I brought those here for Judith so she could sample them before the auction.”

  “Oh, you’re telling me that Judith helped herself to a brownie and then rolled herself up in your Persian rug?” AJ’s face was inches away from Sue Ellen’s. Sue Ellen backed up.

  “I had a corner of one, too. Before I left to pick up extra drinks. Judith was going to get water and seltzer for those who didn’t want champagne, but she wasn’t happy with the way the quilt was hanging. I said stay, fix the quilt, and I’ll do the shopping.”

  Someone in the room dropped a pen. The ping echoed from one corner to the other in the silence after Sue Ellen’s explanation. She had been here with Judith. She ate a brownie and could have smeared chocolate on the outside of the rug.

  The wall stopped Sue Ellen’s backward movement. Slowly, she slid to the floor.

  AJ followed until he stood above Sue Ellen. “That’s interesting, Sue Ellen,” he said, staring down at her. “And I’m curious why you didn’t mention that to me earlier?”

  “You’re looking for Judith’s murderer. I didn’t think what I did was important.” Her voice, though barely above a whisper, reverberated in the deathly silence of her fancy room.

  “And, what else have you thought wasn’t important for me to know, Sue Ellen?” AJ stretched an arm out and pointed hi
s finger down at her like a bird dog zeroing in on its target and refusing to budge.

  Sue Ellen’s face, which had paled as she realized she had possibly implicated herself, now turned a frightening, ghostly white. She gulped and barely got out the words, “Something is missing from my glass top display case.”

  Without moving my head, I glanced at Lily and Maggie to see their reactions. Frozen in place, just like I was.

  AJ leaned one hand on the wall above Sue Ellen, effectively caging her in. “Something is missing? Missing as in stolen?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, her voice quivering, almost on the verge of tears

  “Valuable?”

  Sue Ellen nodded. She glanced at Maggie. “I thought, or at least hoped, that Maggie could find it before word spread through town.”

  Now AJ crouched in front of Sue Ellen so we couldn’t see her face. “What’s missing?”

  “A gold coin. It was in my display case but not in plain sight.” She let out a dreadful sigh. “I know I should have kept it in a safe deposit box, but I liked having it here with me. My father always kept it in the display case, and I couldn’t bear to move it.” She sniffled and just beyond AJ’s head I could see her rub her cheek with her shoulder. “Judith moved her valuable Venus sculpture out of the living room, and she suggested that I move my coins before the auction. Maybe she moved them, but if she did, she never told me.”

  Maggie went to Sue Ellen and crouched down next to her. Lily and I followed suit, walking from behind AJ to the wall, declaring ourselves members of Sue Ellen’s posse.

  Maggie put her hand on Sue Ellen’s knee. “Sue Ellen, don’t worry. I’ll help you get your treasure back.”

  I didn’t miss the piercing glare that passed from AJ to Maggie. I had to agree. Why would she promise that? And was Sue Ellen’s explanation about the brownies for real or her attempt to shift the focus away from herself? I made two mental check marks—one next to Barry’s name until his alibi checked out and, as much as I hated the idea of it, one next to Sue Ellen’s name.