“I know you will,” I said.
We got to Susan’s place twenty minutes later. Driving up to it, it was hard to believe that there was even a house there. The raised grass slope seen from the road gave no indication that there was a home under there, with the exception of a single vent pipe coming up out of the grass. Susan’s house was a tad on the odd side, and that was saying something for Jasper Fork. As we walked around, the house itself came into view, buried under the grass berm as though it had grown into the ground instead of out of it. A full array of windows faced out onto the woods. Her builder had taken advantage of the sloped hillside to tuck the house into the ground. I would feel like a mole living there, but it must have suited her, because she’d had it built especially for her after her first divorce. We didn’t have to knock on the door to find Susan, though.
She was out front, tending to a roaring fire going in a fifty-five gallon drum. There were branches burning inside, a few beefier logs, and a stack of paper on top.
“What are you burning?” Moose asked her as we approached.
“Just some old papers I don’t need anymore,” she said as she threw the last handful into the flames. I noticed that there was a gas can on its side sitting nearby.
“It looks like you gave your fire a little help,” I said.
“What can I say? I’ve always loved a good blaze. I’ve been meaning to do this for weeks, so when I got back home this afternoon, I decided it was the perfect time to do it. What brings you two out this way? I don’t get a lot of visitors.” Her face was smudged with ash, and as we spoke, she rubbed a gloved hand across her cheek, leaving another gray streak.
“Did you hear about Barry Jackson?” I asked.
She frowned. “What about him? What’s that man been up to this time? Every time I leave that man alone, he seems to have a knack for getting himself into trouble.”
“There was a fire, Susan,” Moose said.
Susan looked at my grandfather as though he were an idiot. “And it will still be going until I get everything burned that I want to get rid of,” she said as she pointed to the blaze. “What’s that got to do with my boyfriend?”
“I don’t mean here,” Moose said. “I’m talking about at the bakery.”
Susan frowned. “I imagine that could happen occasionally when you’re dealing with ovens and high temperatures,” she said, clearly troubled by the news. “I should call Barry and make sure that he’s okay.”
That was the second time it had happened that day. She reached for her cell phone, but I stopped her. “You’re not going to be able to reach him. I’m afraid that he didn’t make it.”
Susan studied me with a puzzled expression on her face, and then she turned to Moose for confirmation. “Is it true?”
“I’m sorry, but it is,” my grandfather said, and Susan Proctor collapsed where she stood.
Moose grabbed her and kept her from hitting the ground as her voice filled the air with loud cries and sobs. There was obviously no use trying to talk to her at that point. “Let’s get you inside,” Moose said as he half led and half carried her to the house. There was a sofa placed just inside to take full advantage of the broad windows, and my grandfather eased her down onto it. She’d have a tough time cleaning out the smoky smell from the couch where she touched it, but I knew that wasn’t an issue at the moment.
“What happened to him?” she asked between sobs as she looked at us in turn.
“We don’t know the entire story yet,” I said.
“But it was arson,” Moose added, something I hadn’t thought she’d needed to hear yet.
“Are you saying that someone killed him on purpose?” she wailed, and then she was off on another set of hysterics.
“Is there anybody we can call for you?” I asked her softly. The woman was falling apart before our very eyes.
“My…my…sister,” Susan said shakily.
I knew Elizabeth, but I didn’t know her phone number. “What’s her number?”
Susan handed me her phone as she said, “Just hit 3 on the speed dial.”
I did so, and Elizabeth came on the line. “Hey, it’s Victoria Nelson. Your sister needs you.”
“I’m almost there,” Elizabeth said. “I just heard what happened. I was going to call her and tell her over the phone, but I didn’t want her alone when she found out. Are you there with her now?”
“Yes, my grandfather and I came by,” I said, conveniently neglecting to mention that we’d come there to interrogate her.
“Bless you. Give me two minutes and I’ll be there.”
After I hung up, I said, “She’ll be here in two minutes.”
“Victoria, can you stay with her until Elizabeth gets here?”
“Sure,” I said, puzzled by my grandfather’s request. “What are you going to do?”
“I have to see about that fire,” he said.
“Just let it burn,” Susan whimpered.
“Victoria, we can’t take a chance of letting it burn out of control,” Moose said as he tried to disengage from her grip.
Susan wasn’t having it, though. “Moose, you can’t leave me.”
My grandfather looked unhappy about it, but he turned to me and said, “If I can’t do it, you need to go put out that fire yourself.”
It took me a second to realize that Moose wasn’t just playing fire warden and that he wasn’t worried about the fire itself. He was concerned that what might be evidence was burning up right in front of us!
“I’m on it,” I said as I stood and headed for the door.
“Don’t go, either. I need you both!” Susan shouted.
“You’ll be fine,” Moose said. “Go,” he said to me, and he didn’t have to tell me again.
There was a garden hose near the barrel, and I opened the nozzle as I pointed it toward the fire.
Nothing came out.
I ran back along the hose looking for the faucet, and when I found it, I turned it on and raced back to the fire.
It was too late, though. The wood in the barrel was still burning brightly, but the papers on top had been burned beyond any hope of recognition.
Whatever Susan had really been burning was now gone forever.
Once Elizabeth arrived, we were quickly ushered out of the house.
Moose looked hopefully at me as he asked, “Were you able to save anything?”
“The papers were all burned completely by the time I got the faucet turned on,” I admitted.
“It wasn’t already turned on?” he asked me. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. Why is that important?”
“Victoria, you’ve had enough fires yourself to know that you always make sure you have a ready source of water handy in case things get out of control. She had the hose nearby, but it was anything but ready. What was she burning?”
“Maybe that’s not what was so important about the fire after all,” I said as I got a sudden idea.
“What do you mean?”
“Moose, what if her having that fire was just an excuse?”
“I don’t follow you,” my grandfather said.
“Hear me out. If she started the fire at the bakery earlier, she most likely would still smell of smoke, and trust me, it’s a tough scent to get out of your hair. Susan might have purposely set this fire to cover any traces of the smell from the earlier fire.”
Moose thought about it, and then he nodded. “That’s good thinking, Victoria.”
“So, where does that leave us?”
“It’s still way too early to say,” he said as he reached for his phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“After my conversation with Edgar Croft earlier, I’m letting him know what happened with Susan right away.”
“Is that how it’s going to go from here on out?” I asked my grandfather.
“Maybe it should be,” Moose said. “Victoria, I have to tell him about this.”
“Agreed,” I said. “Does that mean
that you’re going to tell him about what we found hidden in Barry’s outdoor office, too?”
My grandfather paused, and then he nodded. “You’re right. I should have told him about that earlier. To be honest with you, I’m kind of surprised that he hasn’t found it yet without our help.”
Moose made the call, and after an awfully brief conversation, he hung up.
“What did he say about Susan?” I asked. “I noticed that you didn’t tell him anything about the clues that we found earlier at Barry’s.”
“He’s on his way, and he even thanked me for the tip, if you can believe that. You’re right; I didn’t say anything about Barry’s shed. Maybe we can tell him together.”
“Do you think we should hang around here and wait for him?” I asked.
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.” Moose looked down into the barrel, and then he added, “Who knows? Maybe his crack team will be able to find something in this mess. All I know for sure is that we won’t be able to.”
“So, what should we do now if we’re not going to hang around?” I asked.
Moose sniffed the air, and then he smelled his shirt. “I’ll tell you one thing. We’ve got to do something about the way we both smell.”
I smelled my shirt as well, and the distinct aroma of the fire hit me. “You’re right. We can’t go around investigating an arson case when we both smell like smoke. Why don’t you drop me off at my place so I can shower and change clothes, and then you can go home and do the same?”
He frowned as he nodded. “We probably need to, though we can’t really spare the time.”
“I don’t think we have much choice,” I said. “I know we’re losing the element of surprise the longer we wait to talk to all of our suspects, but there’s really nothing that we can do about that.”
Moose shrugged. “I guess that it was bound to happen sooner or later. The sheriff’s going to be tracking the rest of our suspects down before we can get to them, so we’ll just have to do the best that we can.”
“At least Rob Bester won’t be hard to find,” I told Moose after he picked me up at the house. It had felt good washing the smoke off me, even if most of it had just been in my imagination. At least that’s what I’d thought until I’d stripped down and stepped into the shower. As I shampooed my hair, the smell of the fire was strong, and it took a few rinses to get most of it out. Some of it would take a few days to finally leave. Did that make Susan brilliant in disguising her part in the fire, or was it just a coincidence? I wasn’t ready to name her a killer yet, but if it had been a cover-up, she’d done a brilliant job of it.
“If he’s at work,” Moose said.
“Why wouldn’t he be?”
“Victoria, that fire was right beside his building. What are the chances that his customers could get in there even if they wanted new tires?”
“I would think they’d come back,” I said. “Tire shopping usually isn’t that urgent.”
“On the contrary, I’ve rarely shopped for tires when I didn’t absolutely have to have them.”
“I wouldn’t know. Greg takes care of our cars, from tires to windshield wiper fluid to everything else in between.”
“That’s kind of sexist, isn’t it?” Moose asked with a grin.
“Seriously? You can’t honestly be asking me that.”
“Why not?”
“Moose, in case you’ve forgotten, I own the diner, and I run it every day. My husband works for me as a fry cook, and he has no problem with me being in charge. Besides, he enjoys keeping up with the cars, so why shouldn’t I let him?”
“Take it easy. I didn’t mean to step on any toes.”
“You didn’t,” I told him with a grin. “Besides, we both know who really runs your family.”
“Funny, I like to think of it as a democracy,” Moose said.
“You might like to think of it that way, but we both know that it’s a benevolent dictatorship, with your wife in charge when it comes to the things that really matter.”
Moose smiled at me. “I never denied it for one second. Hey, he’s open after all,” Moose added as he swung into the tire shop’s parking lot. The barricades on the street were all down, though the crime scene where the fire had occurred was clearly roped off with police tape.
As we walked in, we found Rob standing by the front door, and we actually got a bonus as well.
Rob was deep into an intent conversation with Mike Jackson, the late Barry Jackson’s brother, and as far as we knew, his last living relative, and more importantly, his only heir.
Chapter 8
“We’re so sorry for your loss,” I told Mike Jackson as my grandfather and I approached the two men. The overwhelming smell of cologne washed over me as we neared, and I had to wonder which man was wearing enough fragrance to make my allergies kick in. Maybe it was both of them. No matter, I was afraid to get much closer than we already were for fear of breaking out in hives. Besides, I’d just cleaned myself up, and I didn’t want to go around town smelling like men’s cologne. Whatever they were discussing so intently ended abruptly.
“Moose, Victoria,” Rob said. “What brings you by my shop? Are you finally going to break down and get new tires for that truck of yours?”
“If I did that, the tires would be worth more than the truck, and we can’t have that.” Moose turned to Mike and offered a hand. “Sorry about your brother.”
“So am I,” he said. Mike was a run-down, beat-up version of his older brother, and if you’d asked me the week before, I would have said that there was no way that he was younger than Barry. It showed that he’d had a hard life, that was for sure, and it most likely hadn’t gotten any easier with his brother’s recent death.
“It can’t be easy losing someone you were so close to,” I said. “When was the last time you saw him?”
“We shared a drink at the house after he got home from the hospital last night,” Mike said as he looked at me oddly. “Don’t worry. I won’t be pursuing the lawsuit.”
“To tell you the truth, that hadn’t even crossed my mind,” I said, which was true enough.
“You probably couldn’t even if you wanted to, could you?” Moose asked. “After all, it was his word against ours, and now he’s not around to testify.”
“That worked out pretty well for you then, didn’t it?” Mike asked loudly enough for a few of the other customers to notice.
“Let’s all take a deep breath here,” I said. I loved my grandfather dearly, but sometimes I wished that he had a few thoughts that he didn’t feel the need to express so openly. “Mike, it’s important that you know that we didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Barry.” I looked over at the charred remains of the bakery, a sight that was obvious from our position at the tire shop. “What’s going to happen to the space now?”
“Well, as a matter of fact—” Mike started to say when Rob interrupted him.
“Nothing’s in stone yet, Mike, so we don’t want to jinx it, do we?” The tire man didn’t look all that pleased about the subject being brought up, though I still wasn’t sure what he was talking about.
That’s when I got it.
“You’re buying the lot after all, aren’t you?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” Rob asked me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He may have tried to brush me off, but Mike wasn’t about to allow it. “Let her explain,” Mike said to Rob, and then he turned to me. “What are you talking about, Victoria?”
“Barry didn’t tell you about it?” I asked.
“Tell me what?”
“Rob tried to buy the bakery last month so he could expand his tire business, but Barry turned him down cold.”
Mike looked at the tire man with fresh suspicion in his gaze. “Is that true?”
“It’s all one big coincidence,” Rob said as he tried to backpedal as quickly as he could. “Your brother and I just had an informal conversation a few months ago, that’s all there wa
s to it.”
“It was more than that,” I said, recalling the offer sheet we’d found in Barry’s office that he’d torn up. “You made him a written offer, and he tore it into tiny little pieces.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Rob asked as he stared openly at me.
“We found the paper, Rob,” Moose said.
“This changes everything. I need to rethink things, Rob,” Mike said as he abruptly started to leave.
“But we had an agreement,” Rob said angrily.
“Yeah? Try to prove it. I haven’t signed anything yet,” Mike said as he walked away.
Rob wanted to go after him, but he still had to contend with my grandfather and me. “Thanks a lot, you two. What good is an empty lot going to do him? I was going to take it off his hands and expand my showroom, but now I’m not so sure that’s going to happen because of your meddling.”
“Sorry about that,” Moose said, clearly not upset at all. “Where were you when the fire started?”
“I was sitting at home by the fireplace enjoying a cup of coffee. There must have been some kind of plug in the chimney, though, because I got a backdraft and it blew smoke all over my living room. Who knew that as that was happening to me, poor Barry was dealing with a fire of his own?”
It was a convenient time to have a fireplace emergency; that much was certain. “Was anyone there who can confirm that?” I asked him.
“Sadly, since Rita left me, I’m all alone these days,” he said.
“But I saw you at the fire soon after it must have started,” I said.
“Like I said, I found out the bakery was on fire, so I rushed right over here to see if I could help. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to talk some sense into Mike.”
“Why don’t we all go together?” I asked. “Moose and I want to talk to him again ourselves.”
Rob looked at us for a few moments, and he must have seen that we weren’t going to back down. In frustration, he waved a hand in the air as he said, “Forget it. I’ll catch up with him later.”
A Burned Out Baker: Classic Diner Mystery #7 (The Classic Diner Mysteries) Page 7