It wasn’t quite that simple, but Martha agreed to fill in for me. Fifteen minutes later, after Moose and I grabbed a bite to eat while we were waiting for my grandmother to show up, we were ready to start investigating based on the information that we’d just uncovered. We had a bit of a head start on the police, but there wasn’t any time to squander. Still, we’d had to eat, and I knew that I sleuthed better on a full stomach than one that growled, and that went triple for my grandfather.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t even know where to start,” Moose said as we finally left the diner. “In all the cases we’ve investigated together up until now, we’ve never had so much information from the very beginning, Victoria. It’s almost an embarrassment of riches.”
“I know,” I answered as we got into my grandfather’s truck. “Who knew Barry Jackson would have ever inspired so many people to want to see him dead?”
“I have a feeling only one of them hated him that much,” Moose said. “The question is, which one?”
“I don’t know, but we’d better get started before the sheriff finds that stash.”
“It won’t be that hard, since we left everything out on the desk and the door to the office ajar,” Moose said.
I looked at my grandfather. “Is that a hint of disapproval I hear in your voice?”
“We should have made it at least a little bit of a challenge for him,” he said.
“That wasn’t our deal,” I said with a smile. “We did the right thing, and you know it.”
“I suppose so,” he said. “So, which of our suspects should we tackle first?”
“I’d say we go talk to Cliff Pearson first,” I said.
“Any reason in particular?”
“I believe that note threatening Barry’s life is a pretty compelling reason,” I said.
“I’m not so sure,” Moose said, “but he’s as good a place to start as any.”
Moose did a U-turn and headed out toward Briar Falls. I looked at my grandfather and asked, “Do you know something that I don’t?”
“From what I hear around town, Cliff can be found most days at Starlight Bowling,” Moose said. “It’s in Briar Falls, so if we’re going to have a chat with him, that’s where we should start looking.”
“I’m not talking about that,” I said. “I mean the fact that you’re not so sure about him possibly being guilty of the murder.”
“Think about it, Victoria. From the note we found, it’s clear that Barry owed him money.”
“So?”
“How’s Cliff going to get it back now?” Moose asked.
“That’s a fair question,” I said. “Should we start with someone else, then?”
“We can probably talk ourselves out of every one of our suspects if we try hard enough,” Moose said as he continued to drive. “Let’s just speak with as many as we can find, and then see where we stand. Besides, the bowling alley isn’t all that far away.”
“You’ve convinced me,” I said.
We discussed several ways of approaching Cliff on the drive to Briar Falls, but by the time we got to the bowling alley, my grandfather and I hadn’t been able to come up with anything all that original.
“Let’s just wing it, shall we?” Moose asked.
“Fine by me, as long as I’m following your lead,” I replied. My grandfather was good at extemporizing, and I always enjoyed watching him spin one of his webs, even when we were tracking down a killer.
The bowling alley was hopping with senior citizens when we got there, and I knew there had to be some kind of league play going on. They were all clustered at one end of the alleys, and I watched as two older men high-fived after one bowled a strike. It made me smile to see that they were both grinning like teenagers.
On the other end of the lanes, one man bowled alone. It was Cliff Pearson. I started toward him when Moose touched my shoulder lightly. “Hang on a second. He’s almost finished,” my grandfather said as he pointed to the overhead scoreboard. It was the last frame, and Cliff had already broken two hundred. I couldn’t have done that the last time I’d bowled if I’d added up the scores of all three of my games.
We both watched as Cliff bowled again, collecting a strike himself as the pins all danced to the floor, but there was no joy or even acknowledgment on his face. It was as though he was required to throw so many balls a day, and the outcomes couldn’t have been less important to him.
As he finished and started changing his shoes, Moose nodded to me and we approached him.
“Nice game,” Moose said as Cliff saw us.
“Yeah. Not bad,” Cliff said. “Are you here to bowl? You need to go to the desk over there.”
“Actually, we’re here to talk to you. Did you hear about what happened in Jasper Fork this morning?”
“No, but then again, I’m not big on the local news,” Cliff said as he went back to tying his shoes.
“You might be interested in this. Someone burned the town’s only bakery to the ground,” my grandfather explained.
It may have been my imagination, but that information caused Cliff to pause for a moment before he finished his task. “That’s too bad. I suppose you’ll have to go somewhere else for your cupcakes now.”
“Don’t pretend that you don’t know who we’re talking about,” Moose said, the nice tones now gone from his voice. “We know for a fact that you’re out a lot more than access to baked goods. You’re never getting your money back from Barry Jackson now.”
“What money are you talking about?” Cliff asked. His tone of voice now matched Moose’s, and the two men were clearly done with their feigned pleasantries. “You need to be careful, old man.”
Moose started to say something, and I was pretty sure that it would be inflammatory, so I decided that it was time for me to chime in. “We just want to know how you expect to recoup your investment now.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cliff snapped as he shot a finger at the man behind the counter. I hadn’t noticed him before, but I did as he walked toward us. He was a big guy, a real bruiser, and the black eye he sported told me that he wasn’t a stranger to physical confrontation.
“It’s an easy question,” I said.
“That I’m not going to answer,” Cliff said as the hulk approached us.
“I just figured it out,” Moose said as he turned to Cliff. “It was a message, wasn’t it?”
“What are you talking about?” The thug got closer, but Cliff held up one hand, and the man stopped where he stood.
“You wanted everyone else who owed you money to know that you weren’t messing around. How long will it take for word to get around that if your other clients don’t pay up promptly, they might have little fires of their own soon?”
Cliff smiled at that, something that actually bothered me more than his threatening voice earlier. “That’s not bad, actually. There might just be a way to make this pay off in the long run after all.”
“So then, you admit that Barry owed you money?” Moose asked.
“I admit nothing,” Cliff said. “All I’m saying is that hypothetically, the situation might not be a total loss.”
“Where were you this morning around five AM?” I asked him.
“Are you actually asking me for my alibi?” he asked incredulously.
“I am,” I said simply.
Cliff shook his head. “It shouldn’t come as a big surprise to you that I’m not going to answer that either, but just to show you what a nice guy I am, because you’ve been so helpful, I’m going to let you both walk out of here right now of your own free will.”
“And if we choose not to?” Moose asked.
“Then Curtis and three of his friends will be delighted to show you the way,” Cliff said as three other men appeared from the office behind the desk.
“Thanks for the offer, but we know the way out on our own,” I said as I took Moose’s arm.
My grandfather was reluctant to go with me, but I finally manage
d to persuade him that it was time to leave.
Once we were back outside, Moose pulled his arm free. “We didn’t have to leave, Victoria.”
“Are you kidding? I didn’t want to ruin the Senior Bowling League,” I said. “Just think about what a mess you would have made handling all those thugs on your own.”
“I could have stood my ground with them,” Moose said, though he knew just as much as I did that it was a ridiculous premise.
“I’m sure that you could have, but this way you’ll be rested enough to tackle the rest of our suspects.”
“Who did you have in mind next?” he asked me as he started the truck engine.
“I’d like to have a chat with Sandy myself. The last I heard, she was working at the Starlight Diner out on Route 70 near Laurel Landing.”
“Fine,” Moose said. “We can even order some pie while we’re there.”
“You’re not really still hungry after all we had for lunch, are you?” I asked. My grandfather could put it away, but I was still a little surprised that he could eat anything so soon after lunch.
“Pie doesn’t count, Victoria,” Moose said. “There’s always room for that.”
“Fine by me,” I said. “I’m just having sweet tea myself.”
“You say that now, but wait until you see their display case. I’m guessing that you won’t be able to refuse.”
I was indeed a fan of the diner’s desserts, as my waistline attested whenever I went there. “Maybe we could just split a piece.”
He laughed heartily at my suggestion. “Dream on. If you want some pie, you’d better order it yourself, because I’m not about to share.”
“I know that all too well,” I said. Now that my grandfather was in a little better mood, I asked him, “What do you think about Cliff Pearson’s reaction to the news about Barry Jackson?”
Moose hesitated a moment, and then he said, “My first impression was that he didn’t know about the fire until we told him. Did you see him pause when he heard the news?”
“Maybe he was trying to think of something to say,” I said.
“Exactly. If he’d been responsible for it himself, he’s the kind of guy to have a story ready for the cops or anyone else who asked him about it.”
“So, you think he’s innocent?” I asked.
Moose laughed at the suggestion. “Victoria, I doubt that man came out of the womb innocent, but my gut tells me that he didn’t kill Barry Jackson. The money Barry owed him had to mean more to him than a lesson in the pitfalls of not paying to his other customers. Cliff looked genuinely pleased when I suggested that it might be a warning, so I doubt that was his motive. Word is going to get out that Barry wouldn’t or couldn’t pay and that Cliff took steps to punish him, but I doubt that the rumors will be any truer than most of the other gossip we hear.”
“I see your point,” I said, “but I’m not ready to strike his name off our list permanently just yet.”
“We can leave him there as far as I’m concerned too, but in the meantime, I think we should focus on the other suspects on our list. I hope we don’t add too many more names to it in the course of our investigation. We’re already drowning in the possibilities.”
“Who knew that a baker could make that many people angry enough to kill him?”
“I don’t know, but we need to find out before folks start questioning our own involvement in the case,” Moose said.
“You’re right. This is one case we need to solve, and fast.”
Chapter 6
“I don’t see Sandy anywhere, do you?” I asked Moose as we walked into the Starlight Diner in Laurel Landing. The place looked as though it had been scooped up straight from the fifties and brought forward in time. The floor was tiled with alternating black and white linoleum squares, the booths were all covered in shiny red vinyl, and the countertop was stainless steel. A jukebox played in one corner, and the waitresses on duty wore outfits straight from long ago.
“Let’s ask,” Moose said as he approached one of the women waiting on tables.
“Have a seat anywhere you’d like and I’ll be right with you,” she said automatically as my grandfather and I approached her.
“We’d like to sit in Sandy Hardesty’s section, if we could,” Moose said.
She pointed with her pen as she said, “It’s going to be over there by the window, but you’re going to have to wait if she’s the one you want. Sandy’s not officially due to start work for another five minutes.”
“Do you happen to know where she is right now?” I asked. “We’d love a chance to chat with her before she gets too busy.”
She shrugged and pointed outside. “Sandy allows herself one cigarette a day before her shift, but she doesn’t like to be disturbed when she’s back there.”
“Fine, then,” Moose said. “Thanks for the information.”
I hadn’t really wanted pie initially, but my grandfather had gotten me in the mood for a slice. As he headed back for the door, I asked, “Does this mean that we’re not getting pie after all?”
“Not right now,” he said, “but maybe later.”
We went outside and around the building, and there Sandy was, sitting at a worn-out old picnic table in back of the restaurant putting out a cigarette. “What are you two doing here? Don’t you get enough diner food at your place?”
“We wanted to talk to you about Barry Jackson before your shift started,” Moose said.
Sandy frowned, and then she stood. “What about him?”
“We understand you two had a bad breakup recently,” I said.
“I wouldn’t say that it was particularly bad,” she replied, trying her best to feign an air of nonchalance that wasn’t quite convincing. “It was more of a mutual agreement that we’d be better off seeing other people. Why are you asking me about Barry?” Her expression clouded up again. “Did he say something otherwise? Because if he did, the two of us are going to have ourselves a little chat.”
“Relax, Sandy, we didn’t find out about you from him. Well, at least not directly.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sandy asked. “If he’s been spreading rumors that our breakup was anything other than mutual, then he’s lying, and I’ll make sure he shuts his mouth from now on when it comes to me.”
I suddenly realized that she must not have heard about the fire if she was telling us the truth. “Sandy, there’s something that you need to know.”
“Hang on a second,” she said as she pulled out her phone. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this myself right here and now.” I tried to tell her what had happened, but she held a hand up as she waited for an answer that wasn’t ever going to come. After a few moments, Sandy put her phone back in her purse. “He’s not picking up, the little coward.”
“Sandy, he’s not answering because Barry is dead,” Moose said to her.
The waitress looked at my grandfather as though he’d just told her a bad joke in poor taste. “Sure he is. At least he’s going to wish that he was after I get through with him.”
“It’s true,” I said. “There was a fire at the bakery this morning, and they found him inside.”
“No. No. I don’t believe it,” she said softly. “He can’t be.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s true,” I said.
I watched a gamut of emotions run through her, and for a moment I thought she was going to lose it completely, but miraculously, Sandy finally sighed heavily as she said, “That’s tough news to hear. The man wasn’t all that nice to me in the end, but he didn’t deserve to die.” There were no tears or wails of grief from her. It was as though she’d already come to grips with what had happened. Or maybe it was just the end of her acting with us. If she’d set that fire herself, it was entirely possible that this was the way she’d decided to play it when Barry’s body was discovered.
Either way, this woman was cold inside, icier than I could even imagine.
“Aren’t you more upset than that?” Moose asked her.
“You must have loved him at one point not all that long ago.”
Sandy tried not to dwell on my grandfather’s words. “I don’t know if it was ever really love. What does that matter now anyway? He’s gone, and there’s no getting him back now.”
“Sandy, we heard the message you left him on his answering machine,” I said. We needed to crack through that tough façade of hers, and that was the only weapon we had left at our disposal.
“What message? I never left him a message,” she said angrily.
Wow, she was actually going to try to deny it. “It’s no use. We have a recording of it ourselves. Would you like me to play it back for you?”
I showed her my phone and started to dial my home number when she said, “Fine. So I left him a message a while back. I was upset, but I didn’t mean it.”
“It sounded to us on the tape like you did,” Moose said. “Where were you this morning between five and six AM?”
“I was home, alone, in my bed and sound asleep. Where were you?”
“I was with my wife,” Moose said, “but then again, I don’t need an alibi.”
“That’s not what I heard. Everybody’s talking about it. Barry was going to take your diner away from you.”
“It’s not his diner,” I said. “It’s mine.”
“Not for long, from the way I heard it. I suppose you were with your husband this morning.”
“Actually, I was on my way to work for fifteen minutes of that,” I said, realizing that I really didn’t have an airtight alibi of my own.
“Victoria, she doesn’t need to know that,” Moose snapped.
“The whole world’s going to know soon enough,” I said. “Besides, I don’t have anything to hide.”
“Neither do I,” Sandy said. “I didn’t kill him, and I certainly didn’t burn him to death. As a matter of fact, I’m afraid of fire.”
“That’s going to be hard to prove, don’t you think?” Moose asked.
“Not really. When I was a little girl, I went camping with my folks. They were taking a nap, and I found my dad’s lighter. I was playing with it, I dropped it, and the weeds around us caught on fire. I burned half of a national forest down before they could put it out. Ever since, an open flame scares me to death.”
A Burned Out Baker: Classic Diner Mystery #7 (The Classic Diner Mysteries) Page 5