A Mold For Murder

by Myers, Tim

  “We weren’t fighting,” Ross said. Though his voice sounded calm on the outside, there was a dangerous undertone to it that unnerved me more than Barry Hill’s earlier threats. “We were talking about our future.”

  “From what I understand, Connie Brown wasn’t all that fond of revisiting her past.”

  “You heard wrong,” Ross said. “We were working it out. And now somebody’s robbed me of that chance. I’m going to find out who killed her.”

  “And then what are you going to do?” I asked.

  “I’m going to handle it,” he said simply, “so stay out of my way.”

  “Somehow I don’t think you’re going to arrest your suspect once you’re sure,” I said. “You’ve got something a little more personal in mind, don’t you?”

  “I’m finished talking to you,” he said. “It would be a lot healthier for you if you minded your own business from now on.”

  And then he was gone.

  I couldn’t exactly make him stay. He’d given me some things to think about, but how much of it would Molly listen to from me?

  I was about to find out.

  NINE

  I watched as Barry Hill sped off with a squeal of rubber. Molly must have spanked him pretty hard. It was time to share my suspicions with her, and see if I could get anything out of her.

  “You’ve got a real gift for ticking people off, Ben,” she said as I rounded the corner. Molly was leaning against her patrol car, which was parked beside my Miata. Mom was always happy to have her visit the soap shop—even before she’d started dating Jeff—but she’d been afraid that a squad car parked in the customer lot might give our patrons the wrong idea.

  “You’re kidding. He was mad at me?” I asked, barely able to contain my grin.

  “I don’t how you manage to do it.”

  “What can I say? It’s a gift. What did Mr. Hill have to say for himself?”

  Molly shook her head. “I’m not telling you that. This is an ongoing police investigation, Ben, not story time at nursery school.”

  “Hey, I remember you used to make up great stories,” I said.

  “That was a long time ago. I’d watch your step if I were you. That man hates you.”

  “I wish I could say that he’s the only one, but unfortunately, he’s not alone,” I said as I leaned against the Miata. “Your officer Ross has a pretty healthy dislike for me, too. He was out front lurking in the bushes a little while ago, watching my confrontation with Barry Hill. When I called him on it, he made up some lame excuse about spotting a wallet in the bushes, and then he threatened me and told me to butt out of his business.”

  “What exactly did he say to you?”

  I thought about it a second, then admitted, “It was nothing I could quote, but the way he acted toward me was pretty menacing.”

  “I’ll speak with him,” Molly said after a brief sigh. “Something came up in my conversation with Barry Hill. It turns out there’s more to this situation than either one of us was aware of. Ben, we need to talk about Diana.”

  “What did he say about her?” I asked. “He’s lying, Molly. Diana never talked to Connie.”

  “How did you know that was what he told me?”

  She had me there. “I just assumed as much, since he tried to pass the same lie off to me right before you showed up.”

  Molly stared at me a full five seconds, then said, “How do you know he’s lying, Ben?”

  “Don’t you think Diana would have told me about it? She was shocked when she found out who the contessa really was. I was standing right there, and so were you.”

  “Ben, it’s not as simple as all that. You need to prepare yourself for some really bad news that might be coming.”

  “You’re not actually going to arrest her, are you? Molly, you’re way off on this. Let’s go talk to Barry Hill together. I know he’ll break down and admit he’s lying if we push him a little more.”

  “I can’t just take off and follow your whims,” she said. “There are proper procedures I have to adhere to. Don’t worry, I’ll try to get some corroboration from someone else about Diana’s secret meeting with Connie before I do anything about it, but I’m going to find out the truth, no matter who it hurts.”

  “Fine, if you won’t talk to him again, then I’ll just have to go myself.”

  “He hates you, Ben; you realize that, don’t you?”

  I shrugged. “If he’s going to try to pin this murder on Diana, the feeling’s mutual.”

  She looked at her watch, then said, “At least promise me you won’t do anything until this evening.”

  “Why should I wait? If we take too long, he’s going to run. I can feel it in my bones.”

  “Just give me until six, then I’ll go with you, though it’s against my better judgment. Still, if it’s the only way I can keep you from tackling him on your own, I’ll tag along.”

  “I guess I can wait until then.”

  She moved closer to me, but there was nothing inviting about her stance. “Until I come get you, you’re not allowed to even drive past the Lakefront Inn. Do you understand me? If you do, I’ll lock you up for obstruction of justice.”

  “As long as you’ll be here by six,” I said reluctantly, “I won’t go anywhere near him.”

  “You’d better not,” she said.

  “And you’d better not arrest Diana without more than that weasel’s word.”

  “Are you threatening me, Ben?” Her words were cold and precise as she stared at me.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said. “I just don’t think her reputation or her business could survive it. All I’m asking for is that you wait until you have the facts.”

  “That’s what I want, too,” she said, then got into her squad car and drove off.

  I didn’t like what I had to do next, but I really didn’t have any choice. It was time to talk to Diana and see if Barry Hill had been telling the truth. One of them was lying, and I hoped with all my heart it wasn’t Diana. I’d defended her to Molly, but I was putting myself pretty far out on a limb, and I had to be certain that Diana wasn’t right behind me, holding a saw.

  Rufus was ignoring the store’s customers as usual when I walked into Dying To Read. The entire sales counter where Diana usually put bookmarks, postcards, and other announcements about new mysteries was covered with photographic prints.

  He looked up as I approached and nodded. “Be with you in a second, Ben.”

  I was starting to wonder if losing him would be such a blow to Diana’s sales after all. He never seemed to do anything store related.

  “Diana will be out in a minute. I’ve got her using the front door now, so that’s a step in the right direction, right?”

  I lowered my voice. “Where did all your amateur sleuths go? I figured they’d still be hounding her.”

  Rufus grinned. “They’re probably visiting your soap shop of death,” he said. “Man, that was some article. They really lit into you guys.”

  “I’d like to sue them,” I said.

  “Are you kidding me? You can’t buy publicity like that. Your place must be insane.”

  “Not many folks appear to be willing to risk shopping there,” I said.

  “Too bad. Hey, while you’re here, check this out.” He handed his magnifier to me and said, “What does that look like to you?”

  It was an image of my family’s soap shop at the time of the Soap Celebration. There was no doubt in my mind about the timing of the photograph. I could see the balloons and banners clearly out front. “I thought you were running the bookstore when this was going on,” I said.

  “Diana asked me to shut down long enough to snap some pictures for you. She thought it would make a nice present. Boy, was she ever wrong.”

  “So what am I looking for?” I asked as I studied the print. All I saw was the storefront, with people streaming in and out. He’d done some kind of time-lapse photography.

  “Check out this guy,” he said. “Tell me what
’s different about him.”

  “He’s the only one not moving,” I said after I glanced at it for a second.

  “Right on the money. That’s kind of whacked, isn’t it?”

  I was spared from answering when a customer approached. “Excuse me, but I need some help.”

  Rufus barely looked at him. “Sorry, I’m kind of busy right now.”

  The man appeared to consider leaving, then he said, “I’m looking for a book by Fredric Brown, but not a single bookstore I’ve been to has heard of him.”

  That certainly got his attention. “They’ve never heard of The Fabulous Clipjoint? How about The Screaming Mimis? What Mad Universe? What kind of lame places have you been going to?”

  “So, do you have something by him?” he asked hopefully.

  “No mystery novels,” Rufus said, and the man sighed. Then he added, “But we’ve got a killer anthology. Hang on a second.” In a fast pace I’d never seen Rufus use before, he was back with a thick book titled, From These Ashes. “Okay, I’ve got a confession to make. Strictly speaking, these are science fiction stories, but it’s every SF short story he ever wrote. This dude was king of the short-short. Trust me. You’re gonna love it.”

  After the customer was gone—his purchase clutched tightly to his chest—Diana came out of the back room. She looked furtively around the room, as if expecting to be mobbed.

  “I thought I heard voices,” she said as she joined us up front.

  Rufus laughed. “They say that’s the first step toward insanity. You’d better watch out—you’re catching it, Boss.”

  “Don’t let him kid you,” I said. “He just made a sale, and from the look of it, it was a nice one.”

  Rufus blew it off. “No big deal. At least the guy had some taste.” He gestured to the photographic array spread out on the counter. “I was just showing Ben the photos I took at the book signing.”

  “Which one?” Diana asked as she leaned over the counter to look. “These are all of Where There’s Soap.”

  Rufus said, “Okay, maybe I should have said the attempted signing. It’s tough to do one without an author. You know, it’s the soap thing.”

  Diana looked a little embarrassed. “Sorry about that, Ben. I thought it would be a nice keepsake of your celebration.”

  “I appreciate the thought,” I said. “Listen, we need to talk.”

  Rufus said, “Woo, woo, woo. That can’t be good.”

  “In private,” I added.

  “Come on, Ben, we can chat in my office.”

  “Spoilsport,” Rufus said. As I walked back with Diana, he asked, “Hey, do you want any of these shots?”

  Why not? “Sure, I’ll take them. Thanks.”

  “No problem,” he said, a phrase I hated. “I’ll have them ready for you when you leave.” And then he went back to studying the pictures in front of him.

  As Diana and I walked back to her office, I said, “I can’t believe he doesn’t use a digital camera with all the pictures he takes.”

  “You’d think so, wouldn’t you, but he says that digital images lack soul.”

  I scratched my chin. “His processing bill must be more than he makes here.”

  “Don’t worry about him. His girlfriend’s dad owns the camera shop, and he gets his prints for nearly nothing. That’s why I’m afraid I’m going to lose him.”

  “He does seem to know his authors,” I said as we walked into her office. “I guess that counts for something.”

  Diana sat behind her desk and asked, “So what’s so urgent, Ben?”

  Now that it was time to have our conversation, I wasn’t in any mood to talk. “You know what? Let’s forget about it for now. It can wait,” I said.

  “Ben, you can ask me anything. You know that. Go ahead, let’s get this over with.”

  I bit my lip, then blurted out, “There’s a witness who saw you talking to Connie Brown the night before she was murdered.”

  I kept waiting for Diana to deny it, but instead, there was only silence.

  “Diana? Is it true?”

  “Yes and no,” she said as she frowned down at her desktop.

  “How can it be both?”

  Diana blew out a puff of breath, then said, “It’s true that I talked to her at the bed-and-breakfast the night before the event, but I didn’t know who she was. She told me she needed to meet me in person before she would allow me to handle her signing. Believe me, I’ve had stranger requests from authors than that.”

  “So what did she say once you got there?”

  Diana considered it a moment, then said, “Nothing much, really. It kind of surprised me how quiet she was when I showed up.”

  “I also heard you were arguing with her.”

  “That’s a lie,” Diana snapped. “We barely spoke. Whoever your source is got it wrong. Is there anything else?”

  “Nothing I can think of at the moment,” I said. “I’m sorry I brought it up. You just never told me you went over there, that’s all. It caught me off guard.”

  “I don’t always tell you everything I do, Ben. Does that surprise you?”

  There was a real bite to her words, and I couldn’t help myself. I fired right back. “It shouldn’t, should it? We don’t owe each other anything.”

  That stung her, and maybe I’d wanted it to a little. She hadn’t been completely honest with me, and if there was one thing that was important in a relationship for me, it was trust.

  Diana stood, and I could see the pain in her eyes. “Ben, I didn’t mean to keep it from you. It just didn’t seem all that important before the murder, and afterward I was afraid it made me look guilty. Do you forgive me?”

  “There’s nothing to forgive,” I said. I was being too hard on her—I knew that—but I had no idea how to make it up to her. “Listen, I’ve got to go.”

  “What’s the rush?” she asked.

  “I’m meeting someone in half an hour, and I have to get ready.”

  She looked at me intently, so I finally added, “Molly’s going to let me tag along on something about the murder, and if I’m late, she’ll go without me. I want to find the killer as fast as I can, for all our sakes.”

  “That’s what I want, too,” she said.

  I was at her office door when she added, “Call me later, okay? I don’t care how late it is.”

  “I’ll try,” I said as I left her. I knew I should have hugged her and told her everything would be all right, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was a stubborn and pigheaded man, but blast it all, she should have told me.

  I nearly forgot about the photographs as I walked out, but Rufus wouldn’t let me. As he handed me a folder with them in it, he said, “Take it easy on her. She’s had a rough couple of days.”

  “So have I,” I said.

  “The last I heard, nobody’s accused you of murder.”

  “Not recently, anyway,” I said. I knew he meant well. “Thanks for the photos.”

  “My pleasure. I got some good shots of the shop, so if you ever want a print enlarged, I’m your man.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  I grabbed a quick sandwich back at my apartment, but I didn’t taste a single bite of it. I’d botched things up with Diana, and I was going to have to find a way to make things right again between us. For now, though, I had to meet Molly at the soap shop. I was hoping Barry Hill would be a little more cooperative with both of us there ganging up on him.

  It was the best lead I had right now, and I was glad Molly was going with me.

  She was twenty minutes late, and I was just about ready to go without her when Molly pulled up in her pickup truck. It was her off duty vehicle, and it took me a second to recognize her.

  As she stopped in front of me, the passenger door swung open. “Get in.”

  “You’re not in uniform,” I said.

  “Are you coming or not?”

  I slid in, shut the door, and fastened my seat belt as she took off. “So why the civilian clo
thes?” I asked. “Not that I mind you in blue jeans and a blouse.”

  “I’m glad you approve,” she said. “I couldn’t exactly chauffer you around in a squad car dressed in my uniform. Why else did you think I wanted to wait before we went to see Hill?”

  “We have to get one thing clear first,” I said as she drove. “It’s important that you know this isn’t a date. It’s strictly business, no matter how much you’d like it to be otherwise.” It was all I could do to keep a straight face as I said it.

  She laughed, which was the reaction I’d been hoping for. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t confused by your invitation. Besides, I’ve already got a boyfriend.”

  “So I’ve heard.”

  She drove a little longer, then said, “Ben, I’m taking a real chance bringing you along with me tonight. Don’t make me regret it.”

  “I’ll be good.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she said, but added a smile to soften her words. “Let me do the talking once we get there, okay?”

  “You might as well let me out right now then,” I said. “I’m not sure I can keep my mouth shut if I think of something you might be missing.” Before she could react to that, I added, “I’m not saying you will, but I won’t keep quiet if I think I can help.”

  She nodded reluctantly. “Fine. Just let me lead off. Can you promise me that much?”

  “That I can do.”

  As we drove on toward the inn, I wrestled with the idea of telling Molly more of the details about Diana’s meeting with Connie the night before she died. A part of me felt like I owed my allegiance to my current girlfriend, not my former one. But what if Diana had lied to me about more than that? If she’d snapped and killed Connie Brown, did I really want her to go free? My sense of justice was too strong to accept that. I really had no choice. If she’d committed murder, I would do everything in my power to be sure she was properly punished for it, no matter how I felt about her.

  I took a deep breath, then said, “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  “I’m listening,” Molly said, never taking her eyes off the road.

  “It’s about Diana. She admitted to me that she met with Connie Brown the night before the murder. Diana claims she didn’t know who Connie was, and I believe her.”