“See you,” Sam said, and then he left.
“I feel bad for him,” I said after he was gone.
“He’s a big boy, Victoria. He knew what he was doing when he called Cliff Pearson. I feel for him, too, but we can’t take on his problems, or anyone else’s. We’ve got enough of our own, don’t you think?”
I nodded, and then I heard yelling coming from inside the diner. “What do you suppose that’s all about?”
“I don’t know, but there’s only one way to find out,” my grandfather said as he pulled the door open and we walked inside.
The last two women on earth I would have expected to be in The Charming Moose were there. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I was sure that I could come up with an odder pair than the ones we found screaming at each other, but it was still a pretty odd couple. Sandy Hardesty and Susan Proctor, the two most recent women in Barry Jackson’s life, were standing toe-to-toe yelling at each other at the tops of their lungs. Martha stood helplessly by watching them, and Greg looked relieved when we showed up.
“What’s going on here?” I asked as I took my life into my own hands by stepping between them.
“Ask her,” Susan yelled at me. “She’s the one who started it.”
“Me? What did I do?” Sandy asked loudly. “You’re the one who interrupted my meal.” The women were two studies in contrasts. Susan was in her mid-thirties, a lovely wisp of a redhead with pale, almost luminescent skin, whereas Sandy was easily ten years younger, a tall curvy blonde with warm blue eyes. How had Barry Jackson managed to attract these women? Personally, I didn’t see it, and I thought each woman could do much better than they’d done choosing Barry.
I looked around and saw that they were attracting quite a bit of attention from our customers. “If you two can’t keep your voices down, I’m going to have to ask you both to take this outside.”
“Why should I leave?” Susan asked. “She’s the one who started it.”
“And I’m going to finish it, too,” Sandy replied with fierce determination.
“Okay, ladies, let’s go,” Moose said as he gently put a hand on each shoulder. As he started walking them toward the door, I raced ahead and opened it for them.
Once we were all outside, Moose asked, “Now, what seems to be the problem?”
Sandy pointed to Susan. “Ask her. She stole Barry from me, and now he’s dead, so he’ll never get the chance to realize what a mistake he made and come back to me.”
“He could have lived a thousand years, and that still never would have happened,” Susan said. “He got tired of being with a girl, so he decided what he needed was a woman in his life.”
“An old woman at that,” Sandy said snidely.
“At least I had more to offer him than a few curves and a girl’s naiveté.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sandy asked her.
“Look it up. It’s in the dictionary.”
“I know the definition of the word, you old hag,” Sandy said.
“Then why did you ask me?” Susan asked. “You know what? I’m done with you. Suddenly I’ve lost my appetite.”
“Go on and go, then. It’s not like anybody’s going to miss you.”
Susan stared at her a moment, and then she started to walk off. On the spur of the moment, I called out, “Wait up, Susan. I’d like to chat with you a second.”
I glanced back at Moose as I hurried to catch up to Susan and pointed him in Sandy’s direction. Maybe he’d be able to get something out of her, if there was anything there in that shallow puddle of a girl.
“What do you want, Victoria?” Susan asked me impatiently. “I have to get to work.”
“This will just take a second,” I said.
“Go on, then,” she said reluctantly.
“When Moose and I told you what happened to Barry, you had a pretty decent fire going.”
“So what?” she asked.
“Were you burning anything more than branches and old paper?”
Susan looked at me oddly. “What business could that possibly be of yours?”
“I just found it curious, that’s all,” I said.
“That’s going to get you into trouble someday, you know that, don’t you?”
“What’s that?”
“Your curiosity.”
“Aren’t you going to answer my question?” I asked her as she turned and walked away.
Evidently not.
Well, that had turned out to be a big bust.
Hopefully Moose was having more luck with Sandy.
When I got back to where I’d left them, I realized that the answer to that was probably not, since Sandy was gone, too.
“Well, at least we both struck out,” I said as I rejoined my grandfather.
“What are you talking about?”
“Moose, don’t try to tell me that you got more out of Sandy than I got out of Susan.”
“Which was?” he asked.
“Nothing. Zilch. Nada.”
“Then I managed to do a little better than you did,” Moose said smugly.
“Tell me what you got,” I asked.
“Sandy dropped a real bombshell before she left.”
“What did she say, Moose?”
“She told me that a woman in Parker Ridge is claiming that she’s pregnant with Barry’s child. How’s that for new information?”
“You’re not serious,” I said.
“I don’t think Sandy was lying to me,” Moose said. “This could change everything.”
“No kidding,” I replied. “Who is this mystery woman?”
“That’s where it gets a little sticky,” Moose said. “It’s Natalie Dixon.”
I had a sinking feeling in my gut. “Don’t tell me she’s related to Holly Dixon.”
“I won’t, but it’s true nonetheless. Natalie is the judge’s granddaughter.”
“We have to talk to her, Moose,” I said.
“Don’t you think I know that? Natalie could be our chief suspect now.”
I looked hard at my grandfather. “I’m not talking about Natalie, and you know it.”
“Oh, no,” Moose said. “Don’t even say it. My wife is still pretty upset with me that Holly came by the diner to see me.”
“How about if I talk to Martha for you?” I offered. My grandmother might not kill me if I told her the news.
“No,” Moose said as he took a gulp of air. “I’ll do it.”
It was one of the most courageous things I’d ever seen him do, and I’d watched him tackle an armed murderer before, so that was saying something.
“Do you want me to at least go in with you?” I offered.
“Tell you what. Why don’t you go relieve her at the register and send her out here to me.”
“Are you thinking she won’t yell at you in public?” I asked him.
“Victoria, I’ve never known any set of circumstances that would keep your grandmother from doing anything she had a mind to do when she was angry. I just don’t want anyone else to witness it if I can help it.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.”
He gave me a weak grin. “As a matter of fact, I’m not, so you’d better go get her before I lose my nerve.”
I touched his shoulder lightly. “Good luck.”
“I’m afraid that I’m going to need it.”
I waited to approach Martha inside until Gabriel Broome paid for his meal. Gabe nodded to me as he walked past, and my grandmother smiled brightly at me. “Victoria, I thought you already left when you didn’t come straight back in.” She looked behind me as she added, “Where’s your grandfather? Isn’t he with you?”
“He needs to talk to you outside,” I said gently.
A frown creased her face. “What’s he done now?”
“It’s not so much what he’s done as it is what he’s about to do,” I said.
“I don’t like the sound of that. Maybe you’d better tell me yourself.”
“I would, honestly,
but he wants to do it himself.”
She took a step toward the door, and then she turned back to me. “Aren’t you coming?”
“No, ma’am. I’m going to watch the front until you get back.”
“Very well.” She walked outside grimly, and I took up my usual position behind the register. As I stood there, I reached up and patted the wooden moose my grandfather had carved for me when I’d been a little girl. He was the diner’s mascot, and I hoped that the luck he gave us extended to my grandfather outside.
He was going to need it.
Three minutes later, they walked back in together, though there was a noticeable distance between them. “Is everything okay?” I asked them.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” my grandmother asked with a forced smile.
“No reason at all,” I said quickly.
Moose shook his head, a clear signal that I should drop that particular line of questioning, but I didn’t see how I could do it. Normally I did my best to stay out of the personal lives of my family, but this was directly related to a murder Moose and I were investigating, so I didn’t feel as though I had any choice. “Martha, we have to do this.”
“I know that, dear,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that I have to like it, though, does it?”
“If it helps, I’m going to be right there the entire time,” I offered.
She patted my hand. “Don’t you worry another second about it. Why do you think I agreed to let your grandfather go in the first place? Just keep an eye on him, okay?”
“I promise,” I said as I kissed her cheek.
“Nobody needs to watch me, because I’m not going to do anything I shouldn’t do, okay?”
Martha turned and looked at him for a moment, and Moose quieted right down. She was the only person I’d ever met who could intimidate my grandfather into silence. It was a skill I wish I had myself sometimes, but I was pretty sure that if he were asked, Moose would say that he’d like the same ability to shut me up as well.
“Let’s go, Victoria,” Moose said.
“Can’t it wait until we’ve had lunch?” I asked. I was really getting hungry now, and Parker Ridge was a good forty-minute drive away.
“We can pick something up along the way,” Moose said. It was clear that he wanted to get out of there before Martha could change her mind.
“Nonsense,” she said. “It won’t take ten minutes, Moose. I know how intent you are on investigating this murder, but you both have to eat.”
“Fine,” he said as he pointed to a nearby booth. “Go ahead and sit down, Victoria. I’ll go back to the kitchen and talk to Greg.” Almost as an afterthought, he turned to Martha and asked, “Can I get something for you as well?”
“Thank you, but I’ll eat later,” she replied. There was just a hint of frost in it, but it was still enough to make my grandfather shiver a little.
Once he was gone, I spotted a slight smile on my grandmother’s face. “I doubt that you’re willing to admit it, but you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Martha said, and the smile quickly disappeared.
“Okay. Got it. I understand.”
As my grandmother turned to go back to the register, she said softly to me, “Our men aren’t always as clever as they think they are.”
“To be fair, neither are we,” I said with a smile of my own.
“Of course you’re right,” Martha said as she returned to my station and started cashing out patrons. I knew that my grandmother was not a big fan of Judge Dixon, not after her suspicion that the two of them had dated before she’d married Moose. Still, she was a rational woman, so there’s no doubt in my mind that she knew the validity of our need to talk to the judge before we went off in search of her granddaughter. It was the right thing to do, especially if we ever wanted help from Judge Dixon in the future. Moose and I would have to tread lightly not to upset anyone we were about to question, but we couldn’t just ignore what Sandy had told Moose. If Natalie was indeed carrying Barry’s child, we needed to find out where she’d been the morning of the arson and murder.
Chapter 13
“I hope you’re hungry,” Moose said to me as he walked out a few minutes later carrying two plates barely able to contain enormous hamburgers and generous handfuls of French fries.
“I can’t eat all of that,” I said as I stared at the mound of food on the plate he slid in front of me.
“Then throw out whatever you can’t hold,” Moose said. “I, for one, plan to eat every last bite.”
I glanced over at my grandmother, who was frowning at Moose’s plate. “Martha’s not very happy about your meal selection.”
My grandfather lowered his voice and hid his smile from her as he said, “That’s the beauty of her being angry with me. How much madder do you think she can get? I figured I’d indulge a little while the opportunity existed. After all, there’s no reason not to take advantage of the situation, is there?”
“You’re something else. You know that, don’t you?”
“I sure do,” he said, and then he took a big bite of his burger. “Man, your husband knows how to make a burger, doesn’t he?”
“These aren’t your creations?” I asked as I took a bite.
He shook his head. “No, ma’am. I wasn’t about to intrude on another man’s grill while he was cooking. It’s just not done, you know?”
“Not really,” I said. “Maybe it’s some kind of short-order cook etiquette I don’t know about.”
“You’d better believe it is,” Moose said, and then he took another bite, nearly sighing as he chewed and swallowed.
“If you eat all of that, you’ll never make it to Parker Ridge without falling asleep,” I said after I ate a few of the fries on my plate. Everything was delicious, but I wasn’t really all that surprised. My husband could take just about any ordinary fare and make it into something special.
“If I start to nod off, I’ll let you take the wheel,” he said.
“No thanks. If something happened while I was driving that precious truck of yours, I’d never hear the end of it. After all, you’ve finally got it just the way that you want it.”
“It’s true, but I trust you with my life, Victoria, so why wouldn’t I trust you with my truck?”
“Those are two very different things, and you know it,” I said. A Southern man’s truck was just about sacrosanct in his view, and I’d no sooner drive Greg’s old truck as I would bump him from the grill and try to take over his cooking duties in back.
Some things were simply not done.
Once, long ago when we’d first been married, I’d borrowed my husband’s truck to run to the bank when mine had been low on gas. I had his permission, but what I hadn’t realized at the time was how reluctantly it had been given. There was a short bridge I had to cross before I got to the bank, and I wasn’t used to driving up so high.
I hit one of the concrete posts.
It had kept me from going down into the small creek, and if I’d backed up, it might not have been so bad.
I panicked though, and muscled the truck on through, thinking that was the only way to get it unstuck.
That side panel was never the same, even after Greg had it repaired.
It was the first, and the last, time that I’d ever driven one of his vehicles, a hard-learned lesson.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Moose said as he polished off his burger and took a halfhearted stab at some of the fries still waiting for him. Pushing his plate away, he asked me, “Are you ready to tackle Natalie’s grandmother now?”
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” I said, taking one last bite, but still leaving half the burger on my plate. After all, I couldn’t afford to have both of us going into food comas.
“Then let’s go see the judge,” Moose said as he put our plates and glasses in a nearby bin.
“The judge won’t be free for five or ten minutes,” the uniformed bailiff said
at the courthouse. “You can wait over there.”
“Sure thing, Lenny,” Moose said as we took our seats on an ancient oak bench in the hallway outside the judge’s chambers.
“What do you suppose she’s doing in there right now, deciding a difficult case’s final verdict?” I asked my grandfather softly.
“No, I’m willing to bet that she’s on her lunch hour,” Moose said as he glanced at his watch.
“I’d rather believe that she’s in there weighing her next decision,” I said.
“Suit yourself.”
Four minutes later, the judge’s door opened, and the bailiff walked into her chambers. He came out carrying a tray from the cafeteria a minute later, and Moose grinned at me. “Told you so.”
I started to stick my tongue out at him in jest when Lenny turned to us and said, “You can go in, but you only have three minutes.”
“We’ll take it,” Moose said, and we hurried into the tight room.
Judge Dixon looked surprised to see us. She was still in her robes, and she had an air of competence about her that suppressed most of her attractiveness, but not all of it. She was striking now even at her age, and I had to guess that she’d been lovely all of her life.
“What a surprise,” she said as she looked at us from behind her desk. “What brings you two here? I doubt that it’s a social call, since we just spoke so recently.”
“Trust me, this isn’t for fun, Holly,” Moose said.
Before my grandfather could speak again, she interrupted him. “Moose, you know I don’t stand on principle as a general rule, but if you could address me as judge while I’m robed and in my chambers, I’d greatly appreciate it. It’s not for me. It’s more out of respect for my office. Do you understand?”
“Completely,” Moose said. “Judge, is it true that your granddaughter is pregnant with Barry Jackson’s child?”
Holly was clearly stunned by my grandfather’s question, and I nearly elbowed Moose for his lack of grace. The question had hit her like a fist in the gut.
“That’s absurd on the face of it. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Tell me this instant, what have you heard?” she asked.
A Burned Out Baker: Classic Diner Mystery #7 (The Classic Diner Mysteries) Page 12