Tea & Temptation: A 2nd Chance Diner Cozy Mystery

by Beth Byers

  Jane tucked her hair behind her ear and I said, “Didn’t you go to a poison conference in New York City? It’s a funny thing for a small town doctor to attend.”

  Jane sighed and then said, “Yes, I went to it. I figured padding my resume wouldn’t be a bad thing and let’s be real here—Silver Falls has had a streak of poisonings. It’s, apparently, the small town murder weapon of choice. A little dash of cyanide in your coffee, a little bit of insulin here, a little bit of antifreeze there.”

  My head cocked and Jane flushed.

  “Antifreeze, huh?”

  Simon shook his head as Zee and I pulled out our phones and immediately googled what anti-freezing poisoning looked like. I gasped as I read the symptoms. If Margaret had been given enough of it, and considering the length of the grand tea experience, she could have easily been killed with antifreeze. In fact, I’d seen those in real life. Margaret was almost a textbook case of what it might have been. I gasped as I saw a list of instances of poisoning. People did this all the time. All the time.

  “Simon,” I gasped. “You better never cheat on me. I’ve learned too many ways to slaughter you.”

  My gasp made my lungs hurt but the breathing treatment Simon had dragged me to kept me from breaking into another round of coughing.

  Simon slid his arm around my waist, entirely unafraid of my threat.

  “This is horrible,” Simon said. “How did they get it in her tea?”

  “She gave each of us little teacups with personal matching teapots. It’s part of the charm. Goodness sakes! It would have been so easy if you knew which one to put it in. All you’d really need…is to know which cup she had. Josephine was in and out of the tearoom and the kitchens. It would have been easy.”

  So easy.

  Chapter 5

  “What is this?” Carver demanded as he came into The 2nd Chance Diner the next day. Simon and I were there for breakfast but not work, and we’d invited Josephine to come over and join us. She’d left her B&B with her daughter, so she could have a break.

  “Breakfast,” Zee snarled at him, kissing his cheek. “Did you want some waffles?”

  “You all need to keep out of this case,” Carver said. “Except, for maybe you Simon.”

  “We’re just having breakfast,” I said innocently. More I rasped.

  Carver caught the sound of my voice and said, “You weren’t sounding so bad last weekend. You need to take it easy, Rose.”

  “He’s right, Rosie luv,” Az, my cook, said as he delivered our plates. He handed me a cup of tea I hadn’t ordered and said, “You drink this until it’s done and take one to go.”

  I looked down at the plate in front of me, and Az shrugged when my gaze met his. I’d ordered waffles, he’d brought me a bowl of fruit and a bowl of oatmeal.

  “Karma,” I muttered to Simon. I had to take the prank with at least as much grace as Simon did since he was my usual victim. Given the way he was chuckling into my shoulder, Simon was enjoying this enough for both of us. I took a bite of the fruit, seeing that Az had picked through it for me leaving out the bananas and oranges.

  Even Zee smirked as I ate my oatmeal. They had made those red, white, and blue waffles today, and it might be killing me a little bit. Ever since I bought the diner, and we’d started playing with waffles recipes, they’d become my favorite thing. A mixture of flours, spices, and milk. They were the perfect canvas for a variety of sweet and savory toppings, though, we edged towards the sweet ones at The 2nd Chance Diner. There was a place in Portland that served liege waffles with jalapeño, bacon, and cheddar cheese, and I hadn’t been prepared for how good that would be.

  I sighed into my oatmeal and tried to remember how off I’d been. Oatmeal was a good choice. It was good for your heart, wouldn’t give me a sugar crash, and Az always added nuts to give it extra protein. I needed to finish up healing and a crappy diet wasn’t going to get me back to long walks on the beach. As trite as those might be, I lived in a beach town and long walks on the beach was one of the perks. Assuming you could breathe through it.

  “We’re just trying to comfort Josephine, Carver,” I said, pulling out a chair for him next to me. “It isn’t like I don’t know too well what it’s like to lose someone at one of your events. She needs a friend. When that happens…”

  Josephine’s eyes shone with tears as she said, “It makes you feel like everyone thinks you killed them. Melina Payton canceled her tea today as though it was me who poisoned Mrs. Longman.”

  “Melina Payton only didn’t show so she could say she didn’t,” Zee said as she refilled our coffee and gave Carver a cup.

  “Exactly,” Josephine said shrilly. “She’s probably telling everyone to cancel. I do ok, but I can’t have…I can’t…I won’t recover from a season lost…” She sniffed and one of the tears she’d been holding back rolled down her cheek.

  I shot Zee a look that I hoped told her to shut up, though, I was sure she’d ignore it, and then I handed Josephine a napkin. “No one who knows you would think, even for a second, that you’d kill one of your customers.”

  “It…it…it…isn’t that I…I…I…” Josephine’s tears were so heavy she was gasping along with stuttering. “It’s that I did it accidentally.” She ended in a wail, and I understood immediately. If they couldn’t find the real killer, no one would feel safe eating Josephine’s perfect food. They’d never know when she slipped up again. “It’s worse. I had a scare last year. It was my meds that were messed up, but I was forgetting things and Melina knows all about it. She’ll be telling everyone that I did it on accident. That maybe they need to be putting me in a home or something.”

  I gasped and stared at Zee who seemed unsurprised. “But…you’re…like? What? Mid-50s?”

  Josephine nodded, another tear slipping down her face as she stared down at her plateful of grilled veggies and eggs and then she muttered, “It won’t matter after a while. Gossip takes a life of it’s own. Even if I don’t end up in a facility, I’ll lose my business.”

  “But you are too young for a home or a facility!”

  Josephine’s glance said that she agreed entirely, but all she said was, “I scared my kids a lot when I started losing the ability to form words. Suddenly, they could see this future of a slow decline where they spent all their time taking care of me. I…and then the B&B—that’s my business. They don't want to do it. They weren’t even that happy when I cashed in my savings to buy it.”

  “And now,” Zee inserted, “That crazy Longman family will probably try to take it from you.”

  It was clear that Josephine hadn’t even thought of that.

  “They won’t take it from her,” I scolded Zee shooting her a look. The look of stark terror that crossed Josephine’s face was straight out of a horror movie. “Josephine didn’t kill Margaret. One of them did. It’s just a matter of Carver and Simon figuring out which one and getting the evidence. No one is taking Josephine’s business, and it won’t suffer from this. We won’t let it.”

  “But maybe.” Zee tucked one of her strands of hair behind her ear and went to refill the coffee a table over, looking back as she said, “Always be booked solid when Melina calls for a reservation.”

  I laughed at that taking on a tinge of Zee’s wickedness until the cough struck me down. Simon grabbed my inhaler and waited. I had taken it that morning, and didn’t want to overdose. I knew Simon agreed only in theory. When I wasn’t gasping for breath, he was all for me taking regular doses. When I was coughing, he was saying things like, “What’s one extra dose?”

  Jane would be lecturing us both, if she saw him trying to push that inhaler on me, but I just waited until the coughing stopped and took in a shallow breath, testing the limits of my lungs, before I shoved the inhaler aside for a sip of tea.

  “Maybe you should take it,” Simon said under his breath.

  I shook my head. I didn’t like the way it tasted, how it made me jittery, and I didn’t want to get addicted to it. Or whatever the reason
you needed to limit your doses. I didn’t want whatever the side effect was. I hadn’t even asked. If it didn’t sound too bad, I didn’t want to know and let Simon’s justifications get me to be dumb.

  My coughing fit was well timed for Josephine. She got to take the time to gather her control, and the shine was back to her eyes but any other signs of tears were absent. She smiled at me, and it was just a little weak, but she was able to fake it with the best of them.

  Just like me and my lungs, fake it until they calm down and before Simon loses it

  “Why don’t you all think I killed her?” Josephine asked as she shoved her eggs around her plate.

  “Why would you?” I asked since Simon and Carver couldn’t.

  Carver expanded a little when he said, “We need a real motive, Josephine. You don’t have one.”

  “Maybe you just don’t know what it is,” she said, hiccuping a little on the tears she was holding back.

  “You didn’t know the Longmans before they showed up at your B&B. You aren’t their heir. They didn’t catch you selling drugs with your tea or something a criminal would kill over. There’s no reason that you could possibly have for killing Margaret Longman. The motive is the most important piece of a murder investigation.”

  “Do we know for sure it is murder now?” Simon asked. Carver shot him a look but everyone else had their gazes on him.

  “No doubt Zee will know the second I pull in the family for questioning, but yeah…since Jane was able to make an educated guess about the poison, they were able to confirm it pretty quickly. It would have taken quite a bit longer if we were flying blind on what killed her. But Jane’s guess was right on.”

  We were all quiet at that and there was the clink of silverware against plates even though no one really seemed to be eating. I had to force myself to down some of the oatmeal, I needed my energy even more these days.

  I was the only one who finished my breakfast, and I only did it because I knew I needed it. I forced two cups of tea down and took another to go. When we left The 2nd Chance Diner with Josephine she waited until Carver left us and then said, “Keith Longman is back at the B&B.”

  Simon and I looked at each other and then back at Josephine. I raised my brows in question, and she said, “I like Carver. I like you too, Simon. I’m glad you guys work for us and take care of our town. But…”

  Simon cleared his throat and I had to giggle. I just had to.

  “But Rose,” Simon said, “Seems to have a bit of a gift in putting the pieces of a murder together.”

  “Our own Perry Mason,” Josephine said. “Whatever you need from me to help you figure this out, Rose, you have it. You and your boss do too, of course, Simon. But, Rose…you have whatever you need as well.”

  Chapter 6

  I hadn’t taken much notice of the weather when we’d walked from the B&B over to 2nd Chance Diner for breakfast, but it was in my face beautiful when we left the diner. The skies were that perfect shade of blue with the crisp wind that made you happy for a hoodie and a coffee but not so cold you were uncomfortable.

  The Longman children had been requested to be at the police department at 10:00am. Carver had asked Simon to go along as well. He had agreed to be there, but he hadn’t left me yet. I could see the tightness in his eyes as he looked down at me.

  “I don’t want you trying to sleuth this out alone,” he said. I was sure he was probably reliving finding me cuffed to a radiator in a burning house. I didn’t blame him. I had been reliving it all too often myself.

  “I’ll be careful,” I told him. “I can’t leave Zee to it by herself. You’ll have the Longmans, so what will we really be doing? Talking to Keith at Josephine’s?”

  Simon took my face in his hands and leaned down to press his forehead against my own. He said low, just for me, “Do not go anywhere else with Zee. Not without telling me first. Or even to leave the B&B. Rose…don’t….”

  “Don’t get locked in a burning house?” The question had been intended to be light, but I had failed miserably at it. Neither one of us were ready for a joke about that. I wasn’t sure we’d ever be.

  “Don’t get hurt. Please. Don’t go off on your own. Don’t risk yourself. Don’t let Zee drag you somewhere when you know you shouldn’t. Just…don’t.”

  I nodded against the hold he had on my face and said, “The last thing I want is to leave you, Simon. I won’t let someone take away the life we’re making.”

  Simon kissed my forehead and then said, “Rose, baby, I’m sure Margaret would have said the same thing to Keith.”

  I flinched at that. It wasn’t like you volunteered for murder. The killer stole your life and your dreams, your future and all the things you still wanted to do. They took from you and it was never something you could let happen.

  “Josephine offered to teach me how to make her petit fours,” I told Simon. “I don’t have plans to do anything else, I promise.”

  “Don’t leave without telling me,” he said. “And I…installed a tracker on your phone.”

  “Ok,” I said. I pulled my phone from my pocket and tucked it into my bra. “Now you won’t have to worry that it’ll get lost.”

  He laughed and left me outside The 2nd Chance Diner to cross to his car and make his way to the police station. I hoped that someone would confess, and it would be over. We’d have to go back to our lives and leave the B&B behind, but I could stand to work a little less while Zee’s daughter-in-law spent the summer here. I could maybe play with a new cake recipe and chat with Josephine. Let her know she was ok.

  I went with Josephine to the B&B and helped Josephine prep for the next day’s tea. I was sure Zee would show up sooner or later but staying with Josephine felt right. She needed support even if she didn’t really need help running her business. We were pouring cake batter into a sheet pan when Keith Longman stuck his head through the doorway of the kitchen.

  “I…” He stared at us, at me and then at Josephine. “I was hoping I could get something to eat. I know it’s outside of meal hours, but…”

  Josephine was already nodding and wiping her hand on a towel. “Of course, of course, dear. I…”

  “We’re so sorry about your wife,” I told Keith. I knew he wanted something to take away, but I wasn’t that nice. I cleared a spot at the table banking that manners would have him sitting down at it. He looked a little brokenly at the spot at the table, but it didn’t take much more than pulling the chair back for him to get him to sit down.

  He sat down and I poured him a cup of Josephine’s tea. I was happy to see he didn’t even hesitate to drink the tea. Though, we were drinking it, so you would have to assume it was safe in those circumstances.

  I prepped him a sandwich while Josephine put together a plate of sweets for him.

  “Were you married long?” I asked. I knew, of course, from his granddaughter that they weren’t long time married as I had assumed.

  “Um. No.” He cleared his throat, and I could see tears in his gaze, but I didn’t retract my question. I should have, a human would have. Someone with a heart, but I wanted the details about their relationship. “We’ve known each other for years. Year and years, and I loved her all that time.”

  Josephine’s gaze darted to my face, but she didn’t say anything. I was the one who said, “Were you with other people then?”

  He didn’t know what I knew, and I was playing stupid. Josephine seemed kind of shocked. How did she think we learned things if we didn’t play stupid and ask leading questions? It was a skill I’d learned in my call center career. Sometimes, you let the customer trap themselves. Sometimes you let the suspect trap themselves. The easiest way was to pretend to be their friend and a kind ear while you discovered all their secrets.

  “Yes,” he shook his head. “I…I was married when I met her through my wife.”

  Note, I told myself, how he didn’t explain that his first wife was his dead wife’s sister.

  “My first wife and I got married pretty quic
kly. She was expecting at the time. I thought I loved her, but as soon as I met Maggie—I learned what it was to love. We didn’t…it wasn’t…”

  I glanced at Josephine. We could both read into those stutters. He had cheated on Maggie while he was married. Even if he never had sex with Maggie, he abandoned the woman he married in his heart for her sister. Goodness, what a jerk.

  “I…well…Maggie and I…we fought how much we loved each other for a longtime. It was a battle we lost.”

  I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure I had something that was worthwhile. I felt for them if they’d really loved each other for decades which is the way he made it seem. But I also could never, ever justify sleeping with or cheating on your partner. Let alone with her siblings. What a mess.

  “So, who do you think killed Margaret?”

  Keith paled at that and he said, “I’m sure it was an accident.”

  Josephine’s teeth gritted at that, because she would be the one who was responsible for the accident, and Keith didn’t even care what he was implying about Josephine.

  “Please,” I told Keith. “I know you want to believe that no one you cared about killed Margaret, but you are doing her a disservice to pretend that her future and her happiness wasn’t stolen from her.”

  Keith’s gaze narrowed at that. I’m not sure my manipulation would have worked if he hadn’t just lost his wife, but I couldn’t let it go. If he were standing up for her, maybe I could have just given my sympathy, but he wasn’t. He was pretending what happened to Margaret hadn’t happened. She had been murdered. You couldn’t just pretend that didn’t happen.

  “I love Maggie,” he said. He paled as he realized what he said, “I loved her.” Putting it in past tense was enough to break him down a little, and he collapsed into his chair again.