Couldn’t find the woman who would have him. And no family. Did that make him feel like he’d have nothing to lose if he got caught for committing a heinous crime? I touched the Mace in my pocket again, in case my questions brought out the same anger he’d shown toward Frosty.
“You and the mayor were having a pretty heated discussion in Brew Ha-Ha yesterday,” I said.
“I kind of lost it, and I owe you coffee shop folks an apology for that.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded. “I haven’t always liked how Mayor Frost has done business. The way this whole factory idea came out of the blue is suspicious, if nothing else. He didn’t even talk to the township officials. The first any of us heard about it was when one of the township supervisors called me up after he saw it posted on the city council meeting agenda. And come to find out, Frost had talked to my neighbor about selling a couple of months ago.”
“The mayor talked to them?” I hadn’t heard that part before.
“That’s right. I found that out after the meeting Tuesday night. That’s why I was so irked. That’s not the way a mayor should do business.”
I knew more about the duties of elected officials at the national level, and not as much at the local level.
“Those factory folks should have gone to the whole council with their proposal, and then taken it from there. There’s something fishy about the way Frost went about it, but I haven’t gotten to the bottom of it yet.”
Easterly might think my next question was out of turn, but I asked it anyway. “I understand you went to see the mayor at his office yesterday afternoon.”
“I needed to apologize for acting like a damn fool in the coffee shop. I wasn’t sorry for everything thing I said, but I was sorry I yelled at him like that.”
“And he was okay with that?” I wanted to add, and still alive when you left?
“As far as I know. He was acting a little peculiar, distracted-like. All he said was, ‘Thanks for stopping by. We’ll talk about it some more later on.’ It seemed like he was expecting someone else any minute.”
I nodded. Was that someone Rosalie Gorman, the one who’d reportedly pushed her way into the mayor’s office and slammed the door shut behind her? Stormin’ Gorman.
“Did he talk to you about it later?” I said.
“Nope, he never got the chance.”
9
I drove back to the shops mulling over Marvin Easterly’s words. I was confident what he’d told me was true, but also questioned if he had told me the whole story. Considering how passionately opposed he was to the factory going up next to his property, and the words he had thrown at Mayor Frost, would he have let himself be dismissed so easily?
Had it been me, I would’ve been too curious to leave without learning who the mayor was expecting. It may have been Gorman, but there were other possibilities. Easterly suspected Frost had been involved in some underhanded activities. If I were him I’d have hung around a while to see who showed up. Just in case it was a party he suspected was in cahoots with Frost. It’d have given him some proof to support his beliefs.
Easterly might very well have done just that. Then after the person left, he may have gone back into the mayor’s office and confronted him. A disagreement could have escalated into a physical fight. One that ended in the worst way possible, before Frosty “got the chance” to talk to him again. I’d witnessed how strong Easterly was when I saw him toting heavy milk cans with ease.
It hadn’t been a completely satisfying discussion with Marvin Easterly, but it was heads above the ones I’d had with Rosalie Gorman and Harley Creighton. They’d both taken an offensive approach when they visited me, putting me on the defense, instead of the other way around.
When I got back into town I noticed there were several parking spots on the street in front of our shops, a sign that shopping was slowing down for the day. I opted to park in one of them, leaving the prime ones open for our customers.
Erin was talking to a couple at the front serving counter of Brew Ha-Ha and sipping on a drink from a mug. I nodded and smiled as I walked by. Pinky was sitting at a back table typing away on her laptop. “Still at it?” I said.
“Yeah, I’d rather get my ordering done here. It’s too boring to do it all by myself at home. How was your errand?” She winked at me when she asked.
“Fine, with details to follow.” I couldn’t say much with customers in the shop. I slipped off my coat and headed into my shop to hang it up. Curio Find’s door opened and a man came in. I threw my coat on the stool behind the counter.
“Hello, can I help you with anything?”
He studied me with eyes the shade of cornflower blue. And the more he stared, the more I thought I should know him, but couldn’t place him. A former classmate, maybe? He looked like he was close to my age, of average height, and with pleasing facial features. “Camryn Brooks?”
It hit me who he resembled right after I said, “Yes.”
He nodded and said, “I’m Jason Frost.”
I closed the gap between us and extended my arm. “Oh, Jason, I’m so sorry for your loss, for everything you’re going through.”
He pulled his gloves off and shook my hand. “Thanks. It’s been a big shock.”
“Would you like to go sit down, have a cup of something hot?” I waved in the direction of Brew-Ha-Ha. “We can make you just about any kind of coffee, tea blend, or chocolate you can think of.”
He pursed his lips, looking like he was going to say no then lifted a shoulder and nodded. “Well I guess a hot chocolate does sound good right about now. And you have a few minutes to talk?”
He must have been here about his father because he’d never visited Curio Finds before. “Sure.”
Erin lifted her eyebrows when Jason and I came through the archway, no doubt curious who he was. “Erin, would you be so kind to make a hot chocolate for Jason here. We’ll be at a table.”
“Sure thing. You want one, too, Cami?”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
Pinky had closed her laptop and was gathering her things together in the back area. “Pinky, this is Jason Frost.”
She dropped her papers back onto the table then swooped in and gave him a hug before he knew what was happening. “I loved your dad. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.” She was a couple of inches taller than Jason and when she bent over her headband slipped down over her eyes. And in the seconds it took for her to right herself, her face went through a variety of contortions. She often unintentionally provided some comic relief in tense moments.
Even the corners of Jason’s lips lifted. “Thanks.”
“Jason, have a seat. Would you like me to take your coat?” Pinky said.
“That’s all right.” He took it off, hung it on the back of a chair, then sat down. “I’m here to talk to Camryn.”
Pinky’s head bobbed up and down. “Okay.”
Erin delivered steaming mugs, topped with generous mounds of real whipped cream and sprinkles of cinnamon.
“Thank you. Erin, this is Jason Frost.”
Jason visibly tensed, probably expecting another embrace. Instead, Erin laid a gentle hand on his shoulder for just a moment. “So sorry about your dad. I know how hard it must be.” And she did, too. Her father’s death had been very difficult for her. He had rescued her from an orphanage in Vietnam, and provided her and her mother with a good life. She’d always been especially close to him.
“Thank you. All of you. It’s so unreal. My poor cousin is pretty distraught, too. And my aunt doesn’t seem to know how to take it,” Jason said.
“Is that your dad’s sister?” I guessed.
Jason sniffed and nodded. “They’ve had some differences, and I don’t think they were completely resolved.” He gave his head a little shake. “Sorry. I don’t know why I mentioned that. I’m not exactly thinking stra
ight.”
“Of course you aren’t,” Pinky said. “You’re here to talk to Cami, so we’ll get out of your hair.” If it hadn’t been such a long day for her already, I knew she would have hung around.
Erin helped Pinky get her things together and they headed to the front of the shop.
It took Jason a moment before he said, “You found my dad, and maybe you can’t answer this question, but did he look like he suffered?”
Dear Lord, what a question. “Jason, I’ve been thinking about that a lot actually, wondering the same thing. I can tell you my experience as a kid when I got knocked out playing ball one time. I don’t remember feeling any pain at all, until I woke up that is. So if I had to guess, I don’t think he did.”
“So he didn’t have a pained expression on his face?”
“No, he didn’t.” I’d have described the look on Frosty’s face as surprised more than anything else. But there was no reason to share that with Jason.
“Thanks. Knowing that helps a little. My dad was a people lover, not the kind of man you’d think would get killed.”
“I know. The police are investigating, looking at all the evidence, and they’ll figure out who did it.”
Jason nodded. “The police said Dad had just bought a snow globe from you, maybe as a Christmas present, but then it was used to . . .”
“I feel awful about that, too. The scene in the globe was a man standing in front of a cabin with three bears approaching him.”
Jason’s eyes grew misty. “My favorite bedtime story when I was little was ‘The Three Bears.’ If he bought it as a gift, it was probably for me.”
Frosty didn’t want it wrapped, but it may have been a gift. It was best not to get into the sinister aspect of the scene so I smiled a little. “Or he may have gotten it for himself because he was thinking of you.”
He pulled out a hankie and wiped his eyes. “The police said they found a diamond on the floor in his office. No one’s come forward to say they lost it. So the police are wondering if it came from a piece of jewelry Dad was planning to give as a Christmas gift. They think it might have fallen out of its setting and are looking into robbery as a possible motive.”
I nodded. I hadn’t heard that, but I’d wondered the same thing.
“You know about that?” he said.
I would probably get in trouble with Clint, but I pulled out my phone and found the photo I’d taken of the gem. I handed it to Jason. “If it’s a diamond, it’s the largest one I’ve ever seen.”
Jason looked at it and nodded. “The police showed me a photo of it, too, a closer shot. My grandmother had a pendant in the shape of a heart with a large diamond about the same size as that in the center. And there were a number of smaller diamonds around the edge. She willed it to my dad, but I can’t imagine why he would have had it at his office.”
“Could he have been planning to give it to someone for Christmas? Or maybe he was having it cleaned?” I said.
Jason looked down like he was considering the possibilities. “If he was planning to give it to someone outside the family, he would have told me about it. My aunt had expected to inherit it, but my grandmother left it to my dad instead. As I said, my aunt and my dad had some differences, and that was one of the things she was most upset about. She even offered to buy it from him. I suppose it’s possible he decided to give it to her after all. Or to her daughter, my cousin Anne.”
“Your dad must have kept that pendant under lock and key, right?”
“I’d sure think so, but I don’t know where he kept it. This might be hard to believe, but we’ve never talked about it, not since my aunt made a stink about it after my grandma died, and that’s over six years ago now.”
“That’s not hard to believe.” Disputes in families over heirlooms caused problems many people didn’t like to think about, much less talk about.
We were quiet for a time then Jason said, “After my mother died, my dad became a bit of a ladies’ man, mainly because so many women were after him.”
“Really?” That came out quickly and didn’t sound very kind. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.”
Jason smiled. “I didn’t take it that way.”
“You’re right, your dad was a people person, and with so many single women out there, I can see why he was so popular.”
“From the little he said about it, I figured he was often juggling a couple of women at a time. Once he let it slip that there was one woman in particular he’d taken out who was overly possessive. She got jealous when other women even looked at him.”
Frosty, a Casanova? And a jealous woman who didn’t like it when other women even looked at him? Maybe something happened that pushed her over the edge. I tried to sound casual when I said, “Oh, who was that?”
“I don’t know. Dad didn’t tell me and wouldn’t say any more about it. It was one of those things he tried to make light of after he’d said it. I think out of respect for Mom, and what she’d meant to both of us.”
“I can understand that.”
Jason stood up and grabbed his coat. “I should get going.”
“Are you staying right here in town?”
He nodded. “My aunt invited me to her house, but she lives in Minnetonka and I’d rather be at Dad’s. My cousin is coming over later so we can spend some time together. Dad was like a father to her, and it seems like she’s taking this harder than anyone, maybe even me.”
“It’s good you have family around, and there are a lot of us who would be happy to help you in any way we can.”
“I appreciate that. My wife, Lea, wanted to come with me, but we decided it’d be better for her to stay home with our kids until things are more settled here. And after I make Dad’s final . . . arrangements.”
• • • • • • • •
After Jason left, I puttered around Curio Finds thinking over the things he had told me. I was surprised he’d shared so much personal information. Hmm. There was a family treasure—his grandmother’s pendant—that his father had inherited and his aunt coveted. The single diamond lying on Frosty’s office floor was, without question, very suspicious. Did the pendant, or another valuable piece of jewelry, have anything to do with what happened to Frosty? And what about the mysterious, possessive woman in his life? Had she found out something about another girlfriend that set her off, and she picked a fight that ended in his death?
I thought of all the times I’d seen Mayor Frost, and couldn’t remember him being out with a woman, even once. Not that we socialized together. But when he walked, he was alone, and when he stopped in at Brew Ha-Ha for his morning coffee on his way to work, he was alone. I wandered into the coffee shop as Erin was ringing up some to-go coffee purchases. After the trio of customers left, I said, “What do you know about Mayor Frost’s love life?”
She pursed her lips then raised her eyebrows. “Ah, nothing. Why are you asking a question like that?”
I relayed what Jason had told me about women pursuing his father, and that one was overly possessive. “So I’m wondering if something happened that triggered a fit of jealousy that got out of hand.”
“Cami, that’s what the police are there for, to figure things like that out. You said Jason told you he doesn’t even know the names of the women Frosty dated.”
“That’s true.” I’d ask Mark if he’d found out any names in his investigative conversations. I glanced up at the clock: nearly a half hour until closing time, and it seemed the shopping action had slowed to a stop. “Erin, feel free to take off.”
“If you’re sure.”
“Yeah, go ahead.” I gave her a hug. “And thanks for coming in. It helped a lot.”
“Hey, it helps me, too. As much as I love being with my kids at school, it’s nice to have some conversations with adults, too.”
“So you consider Pinky and me adults?” I tease
d.
“I was talking about your customers,” she shot back with a smile.
• • • • • • • •
Mark came into Brew Ha-Ha still in uniform as I was ringing out the cash register for the day. “Erin gone already?” he asked about his favorite person.
I nodded. “A few minutes ago. You’re still working, huh?”
He adjusted his duty belt and sat down on a counter stool. “Yeah, lots of OT with this case. We’re trying to talk to just about everyone who had a connection to Mayor Frost. Speaking of which, his son got to Brooks Landing this afternoon and Clint and I had a pretty lengthy conversation with him.”
“Jason actually came by to see me a while ago.”
“Is that right? Was that because you were the first one on the scene?”
That was a gentler way to phrase it. “Yes, poor guy. He was hoping I could tell him his dad didn’t suffer.” We were both quiet a moment as we contemplated that. “Did Jason tell you the mayor had women pursuing him?”
Mark leaned forward and frowned. “Not in so many words. So how did that come up?”
“He mentioned you’d asked about the diamond on the office floor and it came up in the course of our conversation.”
“Between you and me, he said Mayor Frost had a woman who liked him and wanted him all to herself. But Jason didn’t know who it was. We’d be interested in talking to this mystery woman if we can figure out who she is.”
“Definitely. Did you ever see the mayor out on the town with anyone?”
Mark shook his head. “No. That’s why I was a little surprised by the jealous woman story.”
“Mayor Frost was in the public eye, and from what I witnessed when I was in Washington, it seemed like most of the single elected officials kept their relationships as hush-hush as possible. Not because there was anything to be ashamed of, but because it put the other person—and their personal relationship—out there for everyone to watch and make comments about.”
Frosty the Dead Man (A Snow Globe Shop Mystery) Page 10