by Tonya Kappes
Poppa stood at the door. I hurried over and looked out, forcing my mouth to stay shut. There were too many people around for me to risk talking to him.
“Chef Mundy.” Poppa nodded toward a small black car. “He was here. He was leaving with a suitcase.”
I tried to get the license plate number of the car, but Danny Shane walked past the front door with a ladder in his hands and blocked my view.
Malina Woody was behind the inn’s desk. She grew up in Cottonwood and was what you’d call an old maid at the ripe old age of thirty-three. Mama was worried sick I was going to be a Malina Woody. She was a reader. I remembered going to the library when I was younger and seeing her there with her nose stuck in a book. She still walked down the street with a book in her face.
“Malina, y’all having some work done?” Saying her name got her to look up.
“I think we had some gingerbread lattice coming off and a few other things. Mr. Shane’s been here the past couple of days fixing it for Nanette,” she replied, flipping a page of the book she was reading.
“Did you get your hair highlighted?” I asked, wanting to get a little friendlier.
“I did, and a cut.” She smiled and twirled around. Her long stringy brown hair had been cut into an asymmetrical bob that was completely out of her norm. “Do you like?”
“I do like.” I really did. Those fancy haircuts weren’t for me, nor did it fit my style of just throwing my hair up in a ponytail. I envied how cute she looked. It was a wonder Finn had found me remotely attractive since I rarely fixed my hair or wore makeup.
“I got it done down at Tiny Tina’s.” She smiled. “The only bad thing about having this kind of cut is that I have to go back every four weeks to trim it up or it won’t lay right. Between me and you, I’m going to ask Nanette for a raise.”
“Maybe I can help you,” I suggested, knowing I probably couldn’t and that Nanette really didn’t want me around here asking questions.
After all, who wants the sheriff’s department in their place of business twenty-four seven? The quicker we get this solved, the quicker she can have the inn back with no interruptions.
“I need a little information, and if you help, I’ll be sure to tell Nanette how valuable you really are, because I can tell that you are smart and very observant.”
“I was about to go clean room four, so you can follow me up if you’d like.” She perked up even more. “Does this have to do with that man who was killed in room three?”
“It sure does. I’d love to follow you up.” I leaned back a smidge and looked into Nanette’s office. Her head was glued to the computer monitor. The coast was clear.
I waited for Malina at the bottom of the steps and followed her to the second floor where the rooms were.
“Room four, hmm.” I played nonchalant. “I thought the inn’s rooms were full.”
“They are. Well,” she stopped at the top of the steps and looked at me, “they were until a couple of minutes ago. This is his room.”
“His room?” I asked, probing for some answers.
“That chef that Ben fired was staying here in room four.” She pulled a key out of the cleaning bin she’d carried up with her and opened the door. She flipped on the light. “He had an open reservation and had pre-paid for a couple of weeks. He threw his key on the desk and said ‘I’m out.’”
“You didn’t know he was leaving early?” I asked, following her into the room.
It was a disaster.
“No. He didn’t even ask for a refund either.” Her brow cocked. “And it looks like he was in a hurry too.”
The room was destroyed. The bed sheets were tossed on the floor. The trash can was overflowing. Dirty wet towels were strewn from the bathroom into the suite. The desk had crumpled-up pieces of paper on the top and on the floor around it.
“Malina.” I put my hand out when she reached down to get the comforter and the rest of the bed covers off the floor. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave everything here and not touch anything.”
“Huh?” Her head jerked back.
“Think about it.” I was about to plant a new suspect in her mind, knowing she’d head straight downstairs and gossip a little. The gossip would make its rounds, and by the time it circled Cottonwood, Mama’s name would be old hat. “Chef Mundy had a chip on his shoulder from getting fired.”
I set my police bag down on the only clear spot on the floor next to the desk.
“Are you saying that he could’ve killed that fancy food critic? Because he was so nice. I couldn’t imagine him wanting to do anything like that. He flirted a little with me.” She tilted her head like Duke did when I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk or wanted a treat.
I wanted to pat her on her head and say good girl, but I refrained.
“You are one smart cookie, Kenni-bug.” Poppa rocked back on his heels.
“I’m not saying anything,” I said to her, because I didn’t want her to misquote me, but whatever it was she heard was perfect. “But you might be right. And I can’t let any evidence be thrown out or cleaned.”
“This is unbelievable.” Her voice was hushed. “He didn’t seem like a killer when we talked in the kitchen. I mean...” She hesitated before she looked at me with a thin grin. “What can I do to help?”
“Not a thing. You just give me the key and your phone number in case I need to get a statement about your interaction with him, and I’ll be sure to tell Nanette,” I answered.
I held my hand out. She dropped the key in it. I put it in my pocket and then took out my phone. She rattled off her number and I put it in my contacts before she rushed out of the room and down the hall.
I walked over to the door and peeked around the door jamb, watching Malina’s back end disappear down the steps. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly called Betty Murphy at the department.
“Betty, it’s Kenni.” She did some umm-hmms on the other end. “I need you to get ahold of the judge and get me a search warrant for the entire Tattered Cover Books and Inn. And pronto.”
There was a limited amount of time before Nanette got word I was up here going through the room. It was more unflattering news for the inn that she’d not welcome. She would want some sort of documentation allowing me to be in this particular room.
I snapped on some gloves and picked up one of the crumbled pieces of paper off the desk. I ran my hand over it to straighten it out and left it on the desk. I did the same thing to a couple more pieces and noticed the handwriting was the same. I’d have to get a handwriting analysis to see if it was Mundy’s, though I suspected it was since all of them were the same writing.
“Chicken pot pie,” I read off the top of one, and then the next, and then the next.
One after the other, the text heading read “chicken pot pie.” He had been making a recipe and it looked as though each one had a different seasoning.
“He’s trying to figure out what your mama puts in her pot pie.” Poppa stood in the door of the bathroom. “He’s got all sorts of ingredients in here. And there’s blood.”
“Blood?” I dropped the piece of paper in my hand.
Before I made it to the bathroom, Nanette pushed the door open.
“Kenni!” She stomped. “Do you have a warrant for this room? Because if you don’t, I’ve got someone who needs to stay here.”
“It’s on the way. And with blood in the tub…” I stood at the bathroom door. There was a deep red blood smear along the bathtub edge. “I’m not moving an inch.”
“Blood?” She gasped and drew her hand up to her chest.
“I’m going to need all the paperwork for Mr. Mundy,” I informed her and clicked on the walkie-talkie. “Betty, I need you to call Finn and tell him that we have another suspect. Tell him to find out anything and everything he can about Chef Mundy from Ben’s.”
&
nbsp; Nanette went back downstairs. I quickly gathered the papers with the recipes and put them in evidence bags. I swept the room, snapping a bunch of photos.
“You know,” Poppa was still studying the blood, “I’m pretty sure the blood on the knives is Mundy’s, because that looks like chicken parts in the tub. He seemed to be cutting up the whole, fresh chicken in the tub and probably cut himself on his own knives. But where did he cook the recipes?” He asked a great question. “If he did cook pot pie, then he might’ve made the one for Frank.”
I took the evidence markers and set them around the room while taking photos. I took some swabs of the blood for evidence along with all the ingredients. I went through the trash.
“There’s not any sort of frozen dinners in here,” I said.
“He’s a chef. He wouldn’t lower his standards to frozen dinners.” Poppa’s eyes darted around the room.
“Mundy would have reason to murder Frank,” I said to Poppa.
“I was thinking the same thing.” Poppa looked out the room door. Apparently, the coast was clear because he kept talking.
I walked over to the door and shut it so no one would think I was talking to myself.
“Jealousy is a very powerful motive.” Poppa referred to the second biggest motive for murder.
“You know, he yelled at Ben at the diner the other day saying he couldn’t work in such loud conditions, but he was making basic things like biscuits and gravy. He shouldn’t have had such a hard time.” I looked around the room to make sure I didn’t miss anything and picked up the mattress, pillows, and towels. “He might’ve been working on a pot pie recipe then and Ben didn’t know it. He could’ve tried to take away Mama’s thunder and when Ben fired him, he killed Frank out of anger at Ben. Though it looked like Mama did it...”
Poppa smacked his hands together.
“As long as he brought down Ben and the diner, he didn’t care who he ran over, including your mama.” Poppa’s eyes lowered. “He was making the pot pie over here and he served it to Frank.”
“Yeah, but if that’s the case…” I hated that I always played the devil’s advocate to Poppa’s ideas. “Why did he leave everything here without trying to clean it up?”
Poppa scratched his chin. “Maybe he saw you downstairs and thought you were there to close in on him.”
Nanette came into the room with the paperwork on Mundy I needed.
I grabbed my phone and called Betty.
“Betty, I need you to plug Mundy Brell into the computer databases and see what you turn up.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Where are you?” Finn asked after I’d gotten back in the car and answered his call.
“I’m at the hotel. Where are you?” I asked.
“Chasing dead-end leads on this handicap sticker case.” He reminded me that I’d completely forgotten to tell him about Mama’s and had even forgotten to ask her about it. “Did you find anything out? Betty called to tell me that I need to check into Mundy.”
“Since you are at a dead end, why don’t I swing by and get you and Duke. I need to head to the lab in Clay’s Ferry.” It would be good to have him ride along with me. Not only to tell him the latest news, but just to be with him since we’d not been able to spend any time alone the past couple of days. “I’ll tell you everything on our way over there.”
“Not the kind of time I really want to spend with you, but I’ll take what I can get since I hear tonight we have a town council meeting to go to,” he said.
“I’ll see y’all in a minute.” Literally in a minute, I’d pulled in the alley behind the department where Duke and Finn were waiting.
“Hi.” Finn opened the back door of the Wagoneer and let Duke jump in before he got in the passenger seat.
“Hi.” I smiled, greeted him back, and leaned over to kiss him. “Pft, pft.” I spit when Duke beat Finn to my kiss and stuck his head between us, licking me right in the mouth. “Hi, buddy,” I baby talked Duke and rubbed his head.
Finn gave up and leaned back in the seat, tugging his seatbelt on.
On the way to the lab, I told Finn about Nanette and how she only wanted to talk to him.
“Before I’d gone to see her, I went to see Ben.” I held the wheel with one hand and pushed Duke back with the other. He finally sat in the backseat. “The diner is hopping. He’s got so much business because people are nosy. Then I found a piece of cardboard in the trash.”
“I think I found it.” Poppa chirped from the back. My eyes drew up to the rearview mirror where I looked back at Poppa. He was sitting right next to Duke with his arm draped around him.
“Go on,” Finn encouraged me when I hesitated.
“And I can’t help but think it looks like it’s off one of those frozen dinners. I got the idea that maybe Mundy, since he still has a key to Ben’s, came to the diner and cooked a frozen pot pie, put the poison in it, and gave it to Frank or left it for Frank to let Frank think it was from Mama.” It was a stretch, but something to consider. “Not to mention, Ben was paying for Mundy to stay at the hotel while Frank was in town so he could be right there for work.”
“Why would Mundy want to kill Frank?” He asked a very good question.
“Tell him about the hotel room.” Poppa bounced in the seat. “You can’t forget Mundy could’ve killed Frank out of anger for Ben firing him and wanted to put Ben out of business.”
“That’s what we need to figure out. You don’t know the half of it.” We were losing daylight hours. The country road between Clay’s Ferry and Cottonwood was winding and trees covered the road like a bridge, only letting the sun through every few feet. “Mundy’s room was a bloody mess. He was in the hotel room making food and there were chicken parts all over the bathroom.” I pointed to the back of the Wagoneer. “That’s why I’m going to see Tom Geary at the lab. I have a bunch of evidence I want tested for sodium fluoroacetate. Grab my bag and get the camera out. You’ll see all the photos I took.”
“This is why Betty called me to check Mundy out.” He was adding everything up in his head.
“Yep.” I gripped the wheel and took a sharp right into the driveway of the brown brick building where the lab was located.
Tom Geary was just locking up when we got there.
“Look at that old geezer,” Poppa joked and ghosted himself out of the Jeep. “If I was still alive, we’d be doing some good investigating together.” Poppa talked to Tom like Tom could hear him.
“Sheriff, what are you doing here?” Tom asked.
“Hi, Tom. This is my deputy, Finn Vincent.” The two men shook hands. “I wanted to drop off some items to be tested for sodium fluoroacetate.” I stuck my key in the keyhole of the back door of the Wagoneer to pull out the evidence bags from Mundy’s hotel room.
“It must be important if you’re personally bringing them.” He took the bags from me.
“Just like her Poppa.” Poppa puffed his chest out.
“You’re just like your Poppa.” Tom looked at me.
“That’s what I hear,” I muttered, trying not to look at Poppa “Do you think you can make these a priority?”
“You know it.” He looked between me and Finn. “Nice to meet you, Deputy.”
“You too.” Finn gave the man-nod back.
“I hope he gets those run fast.” I put the car back in drive and kept one eye on the road and watched Tom go back into the lab with the other.
It was probably too much to hope for, but I really wished he was going back in there to start the tests, but I knew he had a life just like the rest of us.
“What in the world is that smell?” Finn rolled down his window. The odor from the trashbags in the confined car had finally seeped out and stunk up the car.
Duke stuck his head in from the back and put it out Finn’s window.
“Oh!” I started to laugh. “I
totally forgot. The frozen dinner I was talking about, well, I found that piece of cardboard in Ben’s trash. He said that he takes the trash to the dumpster, so I took all the bags out of the dumpster and put them in the back of the Wagoneer.”
“Kenni, you are something else.” Finn leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “Let me guess, we are going to go through them.”
“You are so smart.” I teased and headed the Jeep back down the winding road into Cottonwood.
“Not that I’m grasping for straws to figure out another suspect, but you have to think it’s super weird that Mundy would have all the ingredients in his hotel room that just so happened to be for the recipe Mama was making for Frank.” That was just too much of a coincidence to me.
“We need to find the connection,” Finn said. “I’m sure like every other business, the chef industry is pretty small once you get into it.”
“I think we need to put him on the suspect list too.” I gripped the wheel.
I’d always trusted my gut, and it was telling me Mundy knew Frank. But how? It was definitely something I was going to look into, but I first wanted to get the trash out of my car.
“Now what?” Finn looked at the time on his phone. “We don’t have a lot of time before the meeting.”
“I’m going to take you back to the office to grab your car and go home to go through this trash.”
Going into a council meeting armed with as much information as I could was my best shot. And I was hoping that I’d find something going through the trash. It might’ve been a long shot, but it was worth the effort.
Finn pinched his nose and playfully waved his other hand in front of his face. “Pee-eww. I’ll be over to help.”
“Thank you.” I probably didn’t say it to him enough, but I did appreciate all the time and effort he’d put into the duties of the office. “You really are a great sidekick.”
“Hey now.” Poppa chirped from the back. “I think me and Duke are pretty good too.”
My eyes looked into the rearview mirror. I smiled. Finn turned around in the seat and looked into the back of the Wagoneer. Duke was curled up on the backseat asleep.