by Jessica Beck
It might be the end of me someday, but it wasn’t as though I had any choice.
“Where should we go now?” Grace asked me.
“Do we have any choice? We can’t speak to Hilda until we get it cleared through Jake, but he didn’t say anything about us talking to Hillary Mast.”
“Could that be because he doesn’t know about her ties to the case?” Grace asked me with a grin.
“No comment,” I said in reply, and we headed over to the town hall to speak with someone new.
Hillary was in her office, though there weren’t any elections scheduled for the next several months. As the head of the board of elections, she was the only person in her department who worked full time, so she had her own little fiefdom during off-election times.
“What brings you two by, not that I’m not pleased to have the company?” she asked as Grace and I came into her office. “I was just about to shut down for the day, but I’d be happy to help in any way that I can.” She looked at me a moment before she added, “Suzanne, are you thinking about running for mayor?”
The question nearly shocked me into silence. After I took a minute to catch my breath, I asked, “Me? No. Of course not. I think George is doing a wonderful job.”
“I agree, but since your mother once considered running for the office, I thought you might be interested yourself. It’s not as outlandish an idea as you make it seem. You are very well liked in April Springs.”
“I’d vote for you,” Grace said with a grin.
“Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I’m not running for anything,” I said. “Hillary, have you heard about what happened today?”
“Yes, I got the good news not more than an hour ago.” She looked truly pleased about learning that Benjamin Port had been murdered instead of dying by accident.
“How is murder in any way good news?” Grace asked her.
With her expression tempered, she said, “I’m truly sorry that poor Benjamin is dead, but it happened fifteen years ago, and until today, I thought that I’d been the one who’d killed him, no matter how inadvertently. Learning that he was intentionally poisoned may not mean much to anyone else, but it’s done wonders for me.” She hesitated before adding, “I understand that it might make me sound callous, but he’s been gone so long. You can’t imagine the guilt I’ve felt over what I believed really happened to him.”
“Just out of curiosity, why did you give him canned chicken in the first place?” I asked. “Were you two dating?”
She looked a little sheepish as she admitted, “We’d just started going out, and I planned to serve it for dinner. It was supposed to be a surprise, but you can imagine my shock when I found him in his apartment with Hilda. Apparently Ben had been juggling at least three of us at the same time. Who knows how many other women he was seeing on the side.”
“What did you do when you found Hilda there?” I asked softly.
“I wish I could say that I made a scene, but I was so stunned that I left the chicken on the counter and crept back out of his place before either one of them even knew that I was there.”
“How did you happen to get inside in the first place?” Grace asked.
“Oh, everyone knew that Ben never locked either front door of his apartment. He found it to be a matter of pride that he could leave his place wide open. No doubt he did it so he wouldn’t have to keep letting his lady friends in. I was through with him from that moment on, but I still felt tremendous guilt knowing that my gift had killed him. I must say, discovering the truth has taken fifteen hard years of dread off my shoulders.”
It appeared that Hillary had been guilty of nothing more than bad judgment when it came to men, something that could be said of nearly every woman I’d ever met at one time or another in her life, and that included myself. There was just one more question I had to ask her. “By the way, where were you twenty minutes ago?”
She looked puzzled by my question. “Why, I was right here at my post, the same place I always am when I’m working. I’ve been going over our voting records for the county and culling the recently deceased from our lists to ensure that there is no chance of fraud. Why do you ask?”
“So, you weren’t anywhere near Karen Harris’s home?” Grace asked her.
“Karen? No. Why do you ask?” She got a sudden look of dread on her face. “Has something happened to her?”
“Just a broken window,” Grace answered.
“Why would anyone break her window?” Hillary asked. “That woman has been jumping at shadows for years. I’ll bet she imagined some kind of conspiracy directed toward her. Ever since she was forced into retirement, she’s been as jittery as a turkey on the day before Thanksgiving.”
That might explain the way Karen had panicked and fled town on the premise that Hillary or Hilda might be after her. “It’s not important,” I said. “Sorry to have bothered you.”
“It’s no bother at all,” Hillary said. “I’ve enjoyed having the company. It happens so little around here this time of year.”
Grace headed for the outside door once we left Hillary’s office, but I put a hand on her shoulder to hold her back. “Since we’re already in the building, why don’t we speak with Jan Kerber?”
“What can the Register of Deeds possibly tell us? Was she seeing Benjamin Port, too? Honestly, where did the man find the energy?”
“I don’t think she was one of his paramours, but she was an assistant in the register’s office when the time capsule was first sealed, so she might be able to tell us who had access to it before they buried it.”
“That’s good thinking,” Grace said. “Gosh, Suzanne, have you ever thought about becoming an amateur sleuth?”
“Maybe as a hobby, but we both know that donuts are my real true love,” I answered with a smile, adding hastily, “Besides my husband, I mean. So, what do you think? Is it worth a shot?”
“Why not? We’ve got nothing but time,” Grace said. “Let’s go across the hall and ask her.”
“Jan, do you have a second?” I asked as we came into the area where everything in town was recorded. Unlike Hillary’s workspace, this one was bustling with assistants and townsfolk registering everything that needed the county government’s official seal of approval. Besides dealing with everything that had to do with property, the office also handled marriage licenses, birth and death certificates, and a handful of other things combined in one place.
“Just that,” she said, clearly harried by her overwhelming amount of work.
“We wanted to talk to you about the time capsule,” I said.
“I heard they found a murder confession inside it,” Jan said. “That’s pretty incredible, don’t you think?”
“We do,” I said. “My assistant, Emma, was supposed to have a drawing included, but we couldn’t find it when we opened the capsule,” I added, trying to make it sound as though I was a part of the official investigation, even though technically I wasn’t. The fact I’d just stated was true enough, though.
“Yes, I vaguely remember something about that. It was a lottery for all the school kids, wasn’t it?”
“That’s right,” I said.
“And it wasn’t there? Are you sure?”
“I’m positive. I helped search the contents myself,” I said. “Someone must have slipped it out when they put the confession inside. You were working in this office back then, weren’t you?”
“Yes. I was just one of a handful of junior assistants, though,” she said. “I never imagined that I’d be running the place myself someday.”
“Do you happen to remember who handled sealing the canister?” Grace asked.
Jan thought about it for a moment, then she frowned. “I don’t have a clue. Sorry, but I didn’t have anything to do with the capsule.”
“Do you know who did?”
“Besides Mrs. Eversome, the register at the time, you mean?” she asked. “No, not really. Oh, I saw the things going into it, but not at the very end.”
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“How did you happen to see the inclusions beforehand?” Grace asked her.
“They were in a big bin in the conference room. It wasn’t like there was anything of great value included. I seem to remember it being in the way before everything was sealed up into the time capsule. Most of us thought it was a bit of nonsense at the time, to be honest with you.”
“So then, anyone could have had access to it?” I asked, disheartened that it hadn’t been kept under lockdown. Of course it wouldn’t have been. That would have made my job way too easy.
“I wouldn’t say that. You needed a special key to get into the room where it was stored, and that was for employees only.”
“Do you happen to have a list of who was on staff at the time?” I asked her.
Jan frowned again. “Not off the top of my head. I can look for it tomorrow, but I’m kind of jammed for time right now. I hope that will be soon enough.”
Grace was about to protest; I could see it in the way she narrowed her gaze. So it was time to step in. “Tomorrow would be fine. Would you call me when you find it?”
“I will,” Jan said as one of her assistants came in with a stack of papers.
“Ma’am, you need to witness these before the end of the day so we can record them,” the young man said.
“I know, Jeffrey.”
“It really can’t wait,” he replied.
“I said that I’d take care of it,” Jan said sweetly, but there was a ring of steel in her voice.
Her assistant got the message and made a hasty retreat.
“Sorry about that. I’ll call you tomorrow, Suzanne.”
“Thanks. We’d appreciate that.”
Once we were outside, Grace asked, “Why did you let her put us off until tomorrow?”
“What choice did we have? You saw how busy she was. Remember, no one is compelled to help us investigate. Since we have no official standing, we have to take what we can get.”
“I still think we could have gotten that list today.”
I grinned at her. “By all means, go back in and try. I don’t mind a bit.”
Grace frowned at the closed door, and then she shrugged. “You’re right. I get too pushy sometimes, and I know it.”
“I’m not complaining. You’re just trying to advance our cause,” I said.
“So, what happens now?”
I looked at my watch. “I’m meeting Jake for dinner soon. We’re going to eat at the Boxcar. I’ve got an idea. Would you care to join us? We can bring him up to date on what we’ve been doing together while we’re eating.”
“Tempting as that sounds, I have a date myself,” she said with a grin. “I trust you to do it. Just bring me up to speed tomorrow. I can’t get free until noon, and I know you close the donut shop at eleven. Is there any way that you’ll be able to wait for me before you start snooping around again?”
“I’ll try to restrain myself until you get back,” I said.
“Good. Don’t bother dropping me off at home. I’ll get Stephen to take me, since his shift is about to end, anyway.”
“Good enough,” I said. “Let’s go find our men.”
When we opened the door to the station, Grace said, “Call me if Jake tells you anything interesting tonight.”
“About life in general, or are you talking about something more specific?” I asked her with a grin.
“Just the case,” Grace said, and then she turned to her boyfriend, who was standing nearby. “I’m ready.”
“What a coincidence. So am I.” He beamed the moment he saw Grace, and I was happy that she finally had someone in her life who cared so deeply about her.
After they were gone, I looked into Jake’s office and saw him frowning as he concentrated on a stack of files on his desk.
It appeared that I might not be getting a timely dinner after all.
Chapter 11
“Is this a bad time? I can always come back later.”
“No, you’re fine,” Jake said as he looked up from the files he’d been studying. “Wow, it’s amazing how little these entries actually say.”
“Is that from the investigation into Benjamin Port’s death?”
“If you can call it that. I hate to speak ill of one of my predecessors, but I wonder how many murders were written off as accidents or due to natural causes under Sheriff Guthrie. He wasn’t what you’d call a top-notch lawman.”
“Have you stumbled across anything else that might be interesting?”
“Not yet, but it’s early. Besides, we’ve had our hands full with some kid breaking windows around town all afternoon.”
“What? Are you serious?” Could the glass being broken at Karen’s house actually have been a coincidence after all? If so, her paranoia had caused her to run away for nothing.
“I wish I weren’t. Evidently he got suspended from school today, so he decided to have a little fun, if you could call it that. One of my deputies caught him in the act, but not until after he’d busted out four different windows around town.”
“That’s interesting,” I said.
“Not particularly. Were you able to come up with anything on your own?”
“As a matter of fact, I was. Would you like all of the details from the very start, or should I just hit the highlights for now?”
Jake leaned back in his chair and smiled for a moment. “Why don’t you start with the rough outline, and I’ll ask for more details if I need them.”
“Fair enough. After I spoke with Gabby and reported back to you, Grace and I decided to approach Ray Blake to see if he remembered anything about the case. He tried to play hardball with us about insisting that everything we said was on the record, so we left his office and went in search of Karen Harris.”
“Who exactly is she?” Jake asked.
“That’s right. Sometimes I forget that you’re fairly new in town. Karen used to be the town librarian, and when she retired, she came back as a volunteer.”
“If she was going to hang around, why didn’t she just keep her old job?”
“She wasn’t offered the choice,” I explained. “Anyway, we figured that if anyone knew what was going on in town back then, it would be Karen. She wasn’t at the library, though, so we tracked her down at her home. The problem was that when we found her, she was getting ready to leave town for good.”
That caught his attention. “Do you think she may have killed Benjamin Port?”
“No, not really. The reason she was leaving town so quickly was because of two things that happened in the past: she spotted Hillary Mast carrying a canned jar of chicken to Benjamin’s house the day of the murder, and she overheard Hilda Fremont and Ben arguing in public around the same time. Evidently Hilda threatened him.”
“I understand why the argument is suspicious, but we’re going on the assumption that the chicken wasn’t the real cause of death, aren’t we?”
“Actually, we’re just disregarding the idea that the poisoning was an accident,” I corrected him. “The cause of death and the way that it was administered are both still in question.”
Jake laughed a moment. “Suzanne, are you sure you’ve never been a cop?”
“Scout’s honor,” I said. “Anyway, Karen wouldn’t tell us either fact until someone broke one of her windows.”
“So that’s why you were so interested in the glass-breaking delinquent,” Jake said.
“You have to admit that it was an awfully powerful coincidence,” I said. “Since Hilda was already on your list of suspects, we spoke with Hillary Mast at the Board of Elections.”
Jake nodded as he leafed through the files. “As a matter of fact, I saw her name mentioned in here someplace.”
“Did the police actually interview her at the time?” If they had, Hillary hadn’t mentioned it to us when we’d questioned her.
“No, but she was listed as one of Port’s potential romantic interests.”
“Well, that much is true,” I said, relating the story of how she
’d happened upon Benjamin and Hilda together.
“My question is if the chicken were indeed poisoned, why didn’t Hilda suffer as well?”
“Maybe she left before he ate any of it,” I suggested.
“I’ll have to ask her when she gets back,” Jake said, making a quick note.
“Gets back? Where did she go?”
“Evidently she left town this morning to visit her ill sister in Georgia,” Jake said. “She’ll only be gone a few days.”
“Are you sure that she didn’t leave until after we opened the time capsule?”
Jake looked alarmed. “Do you think she’s on the run?”
“I don’t know, but everywhere we turn, it seems as though she was pretty connected to the deceased. Doesn’t it seem odd to you that she’d leave so abruptly the day the confession was unearthed? Who told you that she was gone?” I asked him.
“Trish. I tried to get more information out of her, but she said that was all that she knew.”
I stood. “I need to speak with her myself. Do you mind?”
“Be my guest,” Jake said. “I’ve got an appointment with Judge Hurley in ten minutes anyway, so I can’t go with you.”
“That should be interesting. I might like to tag along with you for that interview myself.”
Jake shook his head. “Sorry. I had a hard enough time convincing him to speak with me in my official capacity. If you show up with me, he’s not going to say a word.”
“Okay, I get that. You speak with him, and I’ll see if I can get anything else out of Trish about Hilda. Should we meet back here later?”
Jake frowned. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take with the judge. Why don’t we both head home when we’re through, and we can take it from there. Was there anything else you wanted to tell me about the case?”
“Just that we also spoke with Jan Kerber. She’s going to round up a list of names of all the folks who had access to the time capsule before they sealed it. We should have it sometime tomorrow.”