The sheriff frowned, interrupting. Instead of anger in his voice, now he sounded thoughtful. “That’s not quite right, Miss Northridge. Samantha is from this town. The reason that Buck left was he was spending a bit too much time with a sixteen-year-old. Damned idiot. We investigated, but her family shuffled her out of town pretty quick. It wasn’t for her good, either. They just didn’t want to have anything to do with her anymore.”
Abby looked grimly at the sheriff. “Is her last name Clawson?”
The man nodded slowly. “Mighty fine detective work, ma’am, but what’s that got to do with Craig’s murder? Just because she used to live here doesn’t mean anything.”
“But what if she’s good at brewing? And knows how to identify mushrooms as we saw when we went to Clapshaw Road,” Abby said, turning to Gabe. “Remember when Buck looked at her to help him sort the mushrooms. It didn’t look like he knew hardly anything, but she did. And they were going to take some poisonous mushrooms up to sell at the university. That mean’s she’s got experience with both kinds.”
“How do you know she’s good at brewing?” Gabe asked. “That girl doesn’t speak to anyone.”
“Because she told me she bought brewing equipment to make beer when I was over at Calamities Books. I was there looking for books on mushrooms, and she was there when Doreen told me about the… the class.” Abby trailed off, and everyone was looking at her with surprise except for the sheriff. He was giving her a surprised and thoughtful look. She had no clue what he thought until he spoke again.
“God Dammit,” He said, almost angrily. “Did you just solve my case?”
Abby wasn’t listening. She was busy dialing a number on her phone and holding it up to her ear, but after a few moments when no one picked up, she stood with a panicked look on her face.
“What’s wrong, Abby?” Gabe asked in alarm.
“We’ve got to go back to my Grandmother’s place!” she exclaimed, turning toward the door. “Oh, my God! We’ve got to go now!”
“Slow down, Mrs. Morgan. Why do we have to go to your Grandmother’s home?” The sheriff asked, alert at the clear note of panic in Abby’s voice.
Abby whirled on the man. “Because Samantha Greene dropped a bottle of wine off at my house a few days ago. My grandmother said she and Mr. Wilberson were going to drink it for happy hour!”
“Oh, jackrabbits!” Becky yelled as they all moved.
Chapter 29
The trip back to the Morgan house seemed to take twenty times longer than it had ever taken before, even when Abby was out for her morning jog. Despite her perception, Gabe’s truck, led by the sheriff’s cruiser, rattled across the old bridge and up the small road in record time. They stopped in front of the old house and met the sheriff at the front door.
“Permission to enter your house?” The sheriff asked with his hand already turning the knob.
“Yes!” Abby said in exasperation. “Just go!”
The sheriff pulled the old screen door aside and pushed in on the front door, calling into the house as he went. “Hello! The House. Sheriff Pearson here! Hello!”
There was no answer, and Abby became even more anxious. Becky put her arms around Abby’s shoulder and gave her a hug. “It’ll be okay. Even if they drank some, there’s no way it would affect them so fast.”
The sheriff looked through the living room and kitchen, but no one was there until Gabe pointed out the back doors. “I think I see someone out on the porch.”
Abby was the first to the door and moved out onto the expansive porch quickly. She could see two figures sitting in the seats facing the falls a few yards away. Two gray heads poked up from the lounge chairs, and in between was a table holding a bottle of wine and two empty glasses.
Abby panicked. They’d already drank from the bottle, and despite Becky’s assurance, there was no telling what Samantha had really put in the wine. There was every possibility it was not mushrooms. It could’ve been something else she’d put in the wine in hopes of a quick death. Her mind was spinning with all sorts of possibilities.
She lurched toward them, desperate and fearful. She’d just found this home, and now it was going to be taken away from her. The first time she’d been comfortable since Danny died, then it was just about to all disappear.
Racing forward, she desperately clutched the back of Hazel’s chair and shook her grandmother. “Grandma! Grandma, please, don’t be dead,” She said as tears streamed down her face. The old woman was sitting there with her eyes closed. It was too late and Abby’s heart sunk in her chest.
“Jesus horse flies!” yelled a voice from right next to her. Mr. Wilberson had sat bolt upright and was giving her a wild look. “What in the sam hills? What are you trying to do? Give us a heart attack?” It was the most words that she’d ever heard out of his mouth, and for a second she just stared dumbly at him.
Abby jumped almost as high as Mr. Wilberson when she realized that Hazel was moving under her hand. She turned to find her grandmother blinking and looking at her with bleary eyes, apparently confused. “Abby? What’s wrong dear? Are you ok?”
“Yes, I'm all right, but did you drink any of the wine?” Abby asked desperately. “Tell me you didn’t drink any.”
Gabe, Becky, and the sheriff had all come up at that point. Sheriff Pearson had carefully picked up one of the wineglasses and was looking into it. “Still dry.” He picked up the open bottle next and looked at it through the dark glass. “Still looks full, thank goodness.”
Abby breathed a huge sigh of relief. They had made it just in time.
Hazel cleared her throat. “Abby, can you please tell me what’s going on? Why is the sheriff here and why did you wake me up from a nap?”
“Because,” Abby said with relief clear in her voice. “I think we figured out who the killer was. And it was the same person that brought that bottle of wine to our house.”
Hazel quirked an eyebrow. “You mean Samantha Greene?”
Abby shook her head. “No, I mean Samantha Clawson.”
The sheriff picked up the cork and put it back in the bottle before holding the label up to Abby. “Is this the bottle? I’ll have to take it in for testing if that’s ok.”
Abby nodded, thankful to have such a deadly thing moved far away from her and her family. “How long will it take to test the bottle? And more importantly, if it is full of poison, how long will it be before we can open my friend’s café again.”
The sheriff grunted and shrugged. “Well, to be honest since we found no traces of anything in her café, I was getting ready to let her open it back up, anyway. There’s still some paperwork that has to go through the county, but I’ll put a rush to the county labs concerning this wine, so we know for sure. That’ll help. Call it a week?”
Abby looked at her friend Becky and saw a glowing smile grace her lips. Abby could also feel a dawning relief settling over her. It looked like things were turning out just fine. She laughed and gave Becky a warm hug and the two women celebrated the good news.
“Hey, where’s my hug?” Gabe said from beside them. Abby turned and looked into his hazel eyes and deep dimples as he grinned at her. It wasn’t a moment later that she’d wrapped her arms around his neck and felt his strong hands pull against her lower back. It was only then that she realized she hadn’t feel the deadly guilt washing over her for several days. Instead, it just felt good to be surrounded by friends and to be held in a warm, strong embrace.
Yes indeed, things were looking up.
Chapter 30
Abby smoothed out the navy blue apron with ‘Becky’s Café’ on the front and helped seat a few more of the neighbors in the extra seating they’d spread out on the front yard of the Café. There were colored lanterns gracing the tall trees and the delightful murmur of people talking as they ate and socialized, which made Abby smile.
When they had planned the reopening of the restaurant, they had been lucky it was a relatively warm fall day which had translated into a pleasant evening
. Up in the Pacific Northwest, it was always a gamble to plan anything outside, but it had all come together into a wonderful community event. She took a deep breath and blew it out, realizing she felt like she was finally home.
Becky stepped up and gave her a hug, smiling more brightly than Abby had seen in a long time. “This more than makes up for all those weeks being out of business,” Becky said warmly. “I can’t believe all these people came out just for me.”
“Well, I think everyone’s happy for a lot of reasons, but they’re also very happy for you. I think many of them were worried about you and they’re ready to help celebrate your innocence. Besides, it doesn’t hurt that your food is damn good.”
Becky grinned and shrugged. “Good food does tend to heal, doesn’t it?”
They stood there in companionable silence since, at the moment, everyone seemed to have what they needed and were enjoying the barbecue that Becky had decided to put on for the re-opening. They had hired a few of the local teens to help, and it left them with plenty of socializing time. Abby realized that Becky was looking at a particular table and grinned as she watched her friend fidget. Finally, Becky couldn’t take it any longer.
“I think that table needs some water.”
Abby grinned and couldn’t help needle her friend. “You mean the table with that young doctor who just happens to be single and watching you all night?”
“Yes, that is exactly the one, and I am not going to apologize for any of it. As my new employee, you should support your boss’s odd behavior.”
Abby handed Becky a full pitcher of water and shooed her away. She looked over to another table and smiled to herself. Gabe and the sheriff sat and were talking. It seemed the sheriff was big into barbecue since he’d brought his own bib. Cheerio was sitting over next to the two men, handsomely rewarded for the trouble since both of them took delight in handing him bits and pieces. Abby took one more look around and saw that no one needed anything she meandered over and sat.
“Quite an opening,” the sheriff said and put one of the ribs down. I think Callahan’s might have a run for its money. This barbecue is pretty good. You might want to tell Becky she should put it on her menu.”
“I think she’s planning to do just that,” Abby said. “My grandmother invested a little bit of money into the café, and with the new stove and smoker, it might be just the thing she needs. Those ribs are her recipe you’re eating right now.”
“Good thing,” the sheriff said. “All in all, a happy ending to a sad tale but I’m glad we got everything wrapped up.”
“So everything is wrapped up? I take it the labs came back on that wine?” Gabe asked.
The sheriff grunted and pursed his lips. “You could say that. That damned bottle was half-full of mushroom oil to hear the lab geeks say it. We got a warrant to search Buck’s apartment and found everything we needed. Including,” the sheriff said and squinted at Abby, “A thirty-aught-six that belonged to Buck Danson.”
“Oh, I knew it! That little weasel,” Abby said vehemently. “He’s going away for it, isn’t he?”
“Yep,” the sheriff drawled and took another bite of his ribs. “After we brought them in they all cracked, though I’m pretty sure Samantha had no clue what was going on. You’ll be happy to know that Buck was just trying to scare you, not shoot you. Doesn’t make up for him being an idiot, but at least you know. Truthfully, I’m glad we could get Samantha away from those two brothers. She’s got some mental handicaps, and I don’t think she would’ve done half the things she did on her own.”
“Will she stand trial?” Gabe said between mouthfuls of corn. “I always wondered if she was mentally competent. Did those brothers put her up to killing Craig?”
The sheriff shrugged and fed another tidbit to Cheerio who happily took it out of his hand. “No, as far as that goes, she was behind that part of it. After losing her family, she went a little crazy about Craig wanting to cut that oak tree down. She kept going on and on about not losing any more family since some ancestors are buried under that tree. It just got stuck in her head, and she took action on it. Every time Craig came to Callahan’s for dinner, she just made sure he got an extra special glass of wine. Afterward, when she knew you were poking around, she became scared and that’s when Buck got involved. She didn’t know he’d taken a shot at you.”
“Wow,” Abby said into the silence. “Despite everything, I still feel sorry for her. I hope the courts will take it easy on her.”
“They probably will, especially after my input,” The sheriff answered. “I’ve known about her story for a long time though most people didn’t. She doesn’t look anything like she did when she left so most people didn’t recognize her, but I always ensure I know what’s going on with people like Buck and Dem. Speaking of errant truants,” The sheriff said, switching his steely gaze over to Gabe, “I’ve decided to gloss over some of the things you did and not let your boss know. It occurs to me that I did tell you to keep your eye out for information.”
Gabe visibly deflated and closed his eyes. “Ah, thanks. That’s…a relief. I wasn’t sure how to ask you about that.” Gabe said. Abby patted his strong-arm and squeezed it, happy for her friend. She had actually been deathly worried.
“Once a decade, kid. Once a decade, I’m nice, so don’t push it.” Despite his firm words, Abby thought she saw a hint of a smile underneath his bushy mustache. Secretly, she suspected the old sheriff was a bit of a softy.
Abby was just about to stand up and take care of a table that looked to need cleaning when she heard the radio on the sheriff’s shoulder go off.
“Sheriff? Are you there?”
The sheriff reached up, squeezed the radio, and quirked his chin toward it. “Yep. Go ahead.”
“Sorry to bother you, Sir, but I’m down at the old water treatment plant. One of the engineers was poking around and found something. It’s a body, Sir.”
The sheriff wrinkled his mouth up in distaste and put the rib down he’d been holding. “A body? Fresh?”
“No, sir. It looks like it’s been here for a while, but we did find a jacket with a name tag. It says Morgan on it.”
The sheriff looked up and directly to Abby’s face.
Abby looked back at the sheriff in shock. Morgan? She took a deep breath and blew it out. Morgan. What was going on now? This was her new home. A place she had never thought she’d find again. But it was home, now. And it certainly was not boring.
Becky had come up while they were talking and overheard the sheriff’s radio. “Oh, jackrabbits,” She said from right behind Abby as the sheriff got up to leave. Abby couldn’t agree more.
Authors Notes
You are amazing for reading this book. I happen to live up in the Pacific Northwest and am quite happy to do so. The tall stately pines and good nature of the folks up here are exactly as I describe in the book. Polite. But that doesn’t mean things are boring. I hope you enjoyed this story, because I plan on writing many more about the exciting times Abby will have in Red Pine Falls.
I was inspired to write this Cozy Mystery by a good friend of mine, Carolyn L Dean, who writes an excellent little series set in Oregon as well. Her town, Ravenwood Cove, is set on the coast, and I was enchanted by her characters and setting. So much so I wanted to see if I could match her nostalgia but set inland instead. I am happy with the result, and hope you will be too. In honor of her, I’ve attached the links to her books below. I hope you get a chance to check them out.
Please leave a review. Reviews are very important for writers, not only for honest feedback from readers, but they help tell other readers if my book is worth reading. You would do me a GREAT service by doing so.
Books by Angela C Blackmoore
Hot Tea and Cold Murder
Cold Murder and Dark Secrets (June 2017)
Dark Secrets and Dead Reckoning (July 2017)
Other Authors (Mysteries)
Carolyn L Dean – Ravenwood Cove Mysteries
Bed, Brea
kfast, and Bones
Dune, Dock, and a Deadman
Mistletoe, Moonlight, and Murder
Sea, Sky, and Skeleton
Time, Tide, and Trouble
Sun, Sand, and Secrets
Ceecee James – The Angel Lake Cozy Mysteries
The Sweet Taste of Murder
The Bitter Taste of Betrayal
The Sour Taste of Suspicion
The Honeyed Taste of Deception
Claire Kane – The Menopause Murder Society Mysteries
The Demise of the Lotto Queen
The Revenge of Pooky Poo
Hot Tea and Cold Murder: A Red Pine Falls Cozy Mystery (Red Pine Falls Cozy Mysteries Book 1) Page 14