I heard chairs scrape against the floor in the front of the cafe. It sounded like Moira and Trevor were getting ready to leave. I did a quick survey of the place and hurried to the front. I poured a coffee in a to go cup for Jules and put a lid on top. This late in the day I would gave her a decaf even though I thought she would need the boost of caffeine today.
Moira picked up her back pack. Trevor stood behind her watching, inching forward. I thought he would help her put the pack over her shoulder but he just stood and shoved his hands in his pockets. His indecision was cute but a girl liked a guy who took the initiative at being a gentleman. I couldn’t gauge whether or not Moira was romantically interested in Trevor anymore, but I hoped their relationship could at least remain friendly, whatever happened.
I walked them to the door, unlocked it to let them out then locked it again. I did a quick clean of their table and put their mugs in the sink, rinsing them first so they wouldn’t stain. I didn’t want to stop the dishwasher cycle to put them in now. I’d add them in the morning after I emptied it.
With everything clean, I grabbed the coffee for Jules, a bottle of water, and left the Cabana making sure I locked the door behind me.
My first stop was to check on Jules. Moira and Trevor stood in front of the newspaper. A frown marred Moira’s pretty face. Trevor rubbed his chin.
“Something wrong, guys?” I asked.
Moira pointed to the sign. “I’ve never seen her put a sign like that up especially when I was coming for my shift after school.”
Moira had been helping out at the newspaper, not quite extra credit for school but hands on experience working in a newspaper environment however small. It would still look good on college applications and if she wanted to get into journalism.
I couldn’t tell them exactly what had happened at Reva’s so I said, “Jules wasn’t feeling well so she wanted to rest in the back. I’m checking on her.”
“She didn’t mention anything this morning when I popped in before school,” Moira said.
“It came on suddenly.” Not a lie so I didn’t feel the least bit guilty. I dug in my purse for the keys to the store. “Coming in?”
Moira backed away. “If she’s not feeling well I’ll come back tomorrow and let her rest.”
Trevor shoved the notebook they’d been writing in deeper into Moira’s back pack. Moira looked at Trevor with a scheming look. I wondered about it but didn’t say anything. I couldn’t force them to go into the newspaper and Moira was volunteering to work. Jules would probably need her tomorrow morning if she couldn’t get the rest of the paper together for the morning edition. The paper wasn’t huge but she still had to sift through the submissions for the secret admirer column, arrange the ads that local businesses had paid for. There was also the occasional pseudo news story.
“Okay, I’ll tell her you came by.”
“Thanks. Can you tell her I’ll drop by before school to see if she needs help?”
“Sure.”
If she needed help I could stop by later. It’s not like my fiancé was here for me to hang out with. I sounded like a whiny hiney. Do all newly engaged women bellyache about not being with their men? I hoped not. It was time to give myself a pep talk. Now listen, I took care of myself all these years without a man…well except for my father. But I was really getting tired of my pity party. So what if Eli was gone for a few days. Surely I could manage. I was a woman running her own business and keeping two crazy aunts in line. My aunts alone could drive any stable person to a bottle of hooch. I chuckled and felt better about myself.
The two teenagers hurried away and disappeared around a corner making me wonder what they were up to. They acted strange, guilty almost. Guilty of what I had no idea. I hadn’t seen them do anything out of the ordinary. If I solved the mystery of Mildred I would pay more attention to those young whippersnappers. Good grief, I sounded like Toe.
I pushed the door open with a shoulder, the coffee almost burning my fingers now. I should have put a sleeve on the cup. The lights were still dim in the front of the store. I walked through the aisles to the back. Jules was still stretched out on the sofa. She looked like she was deep in sleep. I hated to wake her. Maybe I would just leave the coffee, check out Mildred’s house and come back to check on her again.
About to put the coffee on a table and leave I stopped when Jules stirred. Her painful groan made me smile. She couldn’t handle a lot of alcohol and I was sure the moonshine was super strong. I half wanted to try it myself but I didn’t want to have the kind of headache I was sure Jules was going to have. This was something I could tease her about mercilessly for years to come.
She sat up slowly, pushing herself to a sitting position with her arm. She pinched her nose and squeezed her eyes shut then opened them to slits.
“Hey, how are you feeling?”
“What was in that syrup? I think it killed me. Am I dead right now?”
I chuckled. I couldn’t help it. “Sorry for laughing but you should see yourself right now. You’re not dead. It was moonshine.”
“My head is on the verge of exploding.”
I jumped to turn off the office light. “Hopefully it won’t. I brought you a coffee. And a bottle of water. Drink the water first.”
I cracked the lid of the water and handed the bottle to her. She took a big gulp and sighed.
“That helps,” she said and took another gulp. “No more alcohol for me for a while. At least the headache is just under the surface not quite full blown yet.”
“It’s almost five so you should probably call it a day and head home. If you need help later putting the paper together let me know and I’ll help.”
“Thanks. I’ll take you up on that. I haven’t forgotten about a Valentine’s Day celebration either but my brain was a bit muddled today so I don’t have any ideas yet.”
“Understandable. I’ve got nothing yet either and I don’t have moonshine as a reason. Oh and Moira stopped by but she didn’t want to disturb you. She said she would come by tomorrow before school.”
Jules nodded and finished the water then moved onto the coffee. She took a tentative sip and sighed. “This is hitting the spot.”
“It’s decaf so you won’t be up all night.”
“Nice thinking.”
“I’m off to Mildred’s to check out her house. I’m hoping there will be clues there. I can stop by your place on my way back.”
“I should go with you.”
“I’ll be fine. You rest and let that moonshine work its way out of your system.”
“You’re a mother hen today.”
“Guilty. Stay here and I’ll see you in about an hour.”
Jules settled back into the sofa and took a larger drink of her coffee. I hoped a quick survey of Mildred’s place would shed more light on her disappearance. If it didn’t I’d have to start thinking outside the box when it came to the investigation.
CHAPTER SIX
I arrived at Mildred’s house and I was struck by how ordinary it looked. I don’t know what I was expecting to find on the outside of the place. A sign proclaiming there was foul play inside perhaps? But no, it looked like every other house on the street with a few minor differences due to each home owner’s customization of their space. Mildred’s lawn was neat. Nothing adorned the grass and by the front door there were bushes on either side. The path that led up to the door was unremarkable as well. If I was in real estate I’d say the curb appeal could be improved but other than that it looked nice, if plain.
Instead of going right in I wanted to look around outside first. Toe hadn’t checked anything surrounding the house when he arrived so I wanted to make sure there were no signs of someone watching the house or Mildred herself. Even in a small town like Sweet Home you could have peeping Toms.
I walked up the path and veered right to check the back yard. The main floor had a few windows in the back of the house. I paid careful attention to where I was walking. If there was evidence I didn’t want
to disturb it. Eli would never let me live that down if it turned out someone had taken Mildred. As I walked I surveyed the ground and didn’t see any footprints that looked out of place. There were a few spots where the grass looked a little more trampled than the rest of the yard but there were no discernible footprints.
I moved closer to one of the windows. Underneath the sill there was some dirt but that wasn’t disturbed either. I peered inside to see the living room looking as disturbed as Toe said it was. Sofa cushions overturned papers everywhere. I walked over to the next window and examined the ground there. Dead end again. If someone had been watching her, waiting for the perfect time to strike I didn’t think they’d been waiting in the back yard.
I turned around to check out the surrounding houses. Maybe one of the neighbors saw something. Or maybe one of the neighbors took her. It would be easy to spy on a house on the same street you lived on. Most people had binoculars these days.
I hurried around to the front of the house again in case a neighbor saw me skulking around and reported me for trespassing. I shuddered at the thought of being taken to the station. And then having to explain to Eli when he got back from his trip why police had been called to Mildred’s to arrest me.
I peeked over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching. There was nobody outside but that didn’t mean people weren’t huddled behind their curtains peering out at the woman casing Mildred’s house. I reached out my hand and tried the door. Just like Toe said, it was unlocked and opened. Pushing the door open I walked inside and wondered where to start. It felt odd being in someone’s home without them there. The scent of her perfume, Shalamar, still lingered in places, more distinct in some areas than in others as I walked through the place.
The first thing I did was go to the faucet. I turned it on then turned it off again. No leak. So Toe had done a good job there.
The counter had a bowl for fruit with one loan apple in the bottom. The rest of the counter was empty. The kitchen table was a mess of newspapers and dishes. I pulled out my cell phone and scrolled through the contacts to Mildred’s number. After hitting the call button I tilted my head to hear the ringing of her phone. I followed the sound and found it under a napkin beside the congealed half eaten oatmeal. Lily cell phone flashed on the screen. I hit the end button. The oatmeal was obviously cold now but I tried to remember if Toe said it had been warm when he arrived. That would give us a better idea of when she’d disappeared.
Still no neighbors banging on the door wondering what I was doing there so I continued my investigation. I was careful not to touch anything and I watched where I was walking to make sure there was no evidence on the floor that I might trample.
That’s when I noticed there was no evidence at all. Of anyone being there. If Toe had come in with dirty shoes shouldn’t I at least see evidence of that? But there was nothing on the floor to indicate anyone had been there recently. Though the place didn’t smell like lemon and bleach I was pretty sure the floors at least had been cleaned recently. I walked back over to the door and spotted the welcome mat I’d missed when I first came in. It was possible that Toe and whoever else had come in had wiped their feet.
Another thought occurred to me though. Maybe whoever had been in here covered their tracks. Maybe they were the ones who had wiped the floor. I was getting ahead of myself. There was still no evidence that anyone had been in here who wasn’t invited. Well, except me that is.
I used the napkin to pick up her phone and press the home button. The screen flashed but there were no missed calls except mine. Had there been no calls since she went missing? Or had someone been here, covered their tracks by cleaning up after themselves, and erased any calls? The phone prompted me for a password. Unless the person knew what Mildred’s password was they couldn’t have gotten into the phone. Unless they had some device that cracked cell phone passwords.
The thoughts kept swirling in my head and I wished again that I could get a hold of Eli. I pulled my phone out, finger hovering over the phone icon to call him but I stopped. If I did finally get a hold of him I didn’t want him to worry. And I didn’t want to have to explain why I had broken into Mildred’s house. I guess it wasn’t breaking in if the door was unlocked but I was still there without consent.
We still didn’t know if she left willingly or not. We didn’t know if she’d expected to leave but if that was the case why did she confirm Toe’s appointment to fix her faucet? I went to the fridge and yanked it open. I scanned the shelves for the milk. I turned the carton to check the expiration date. It was good for two more days and was more than half full. If she’d expected to be gone wouldn’t she have used up as much of it as she could?
My own questions were getting me nowhere and causing more questions. Other than the neglected breakfast there wasn’t much out of the ordinary here. Except the disaster of the living room I’d seen from outside. I still hadn’t made my way in there. Maybe there was a clue as to why the cushions were all over the place.
I walked back to the door to check the lock. I’d been so focused on getting into the house before a neighbor reported me that I hadn’t examined the frame or the lock. I opened the door so I could check the outside frame. I leaned closer to see if there were any scratches around the lock or the door frame. No scratches indicating someone had tried to pick the lock. Of course that might mean that Mildred knew whoever had been there. Let them in willingly unsuspecting of what was to come.
A sliver of worry started in my brain and worked its way down to my stomach. I didn’t like not knowing what happened. The thought that Mildred might be in trouble worried me too. She’d been through a lot and didn’t need something else going wrong in her life. She’d bounced back before but I wondered how often she could do that.
I could talk to the neighbors to find out if they saw anything. I suspected though that if they were busy bodies I would have had one of them at the door by now demanding to know why I was there. Instead, I decided to talk it over with my aunts first. They might have thought of something I hadn’t.
I resumed my search of the place. Did she have a land line? Maybe there were calls on that. I scrolled through my phone to see if I had an entry in there for another number for Mildred. Nothing showed up.
If I were a land line where would I be?
I spun around and headed back to the kitchen. On the wall beside the fridge, at eye level no less, was a cream colored phone. In my defense it was the same color as the wall so I’m not surprised I missed it. It was an old fashioned phone with a cord and everything. No call display. Great. No way to tell if there were missed calls or not.
Disappointed that she didn’t have call display I also noticed there was no answering machine. Of course who had answering machines anymore? I figured since she was a little older she might have gone old school for messages but there was no evidence of that. I reached out to grab the phone, thought about fingerprints then went to the paper towel dispenser on her counter. I ripped off a towel and went back to the phone. Using the paper I picked up the receiver and put it to my ear. The distinct beeping that was slightly different than a regular dial tone told me she had messages. No telling when those calls came in but unless she just left her messages and never listened to them they had to have come in after she disappeared.
With no idea what her password was for her messages I replaced the receiver in its cradle. I could try to guess but that could take me all night. Plus I didn’t want to listen to them without her permission. I was getting nowhere and I still had the rest of her house to explore. I’d been there for half an hour and I was still puttering around in the same few rooms. I needed to check the rest of the place and get back home. Mildred’s house wasn’t overly big but it had a few other rooms that needed searching besides the living room. There was at least one bedroom and the bathroom to check.
Deciding to finish the main floor I made my way back to the living room area. It was messier than I originally thought with cushions from the sofa on the floor
and pillows from the sofa askew as if they’d been thrown haphazardly. There was a top strewn over the back of the sofa. The table was piled with magazines and newspapers. I sat on the couch and picked up one of the papers. It was old, from a few weeks ago. Some of the magazines were even older, dating back months. Not one to buy a lot of magazines, I didn’t see the appeal in keeping them. They took up space and how often did you go back to them really? I’ve heard people say they keep them for a certain article but there were too many other things out there to read to go back to a magazine article you read a year ago. I’d never considered Mildred a hoarder but the pile of old newspapers was odd. Maybe she had them out for company. But wouldn’t she be entertaining people who came over to see her? I put the magazine and newspaper back fighting the urge to tidy the pile on the table. And I wanted to put the cushions back on the sofa but if the police were called in I needed to leave it as I found it.
Expresso Messo: A Cozy Mystery (Sweet Home Mystery Series Book 6) Page 5