Cast Iron Suspicion (The Cast Iron Cooking Mysteries Book 5)

by Jessica Beck

  I couldn’t blame Jenna for feeling that way about Timothy’s brother. I knew that Annie had heard a few stories herself, but nothing like she must have been made aware of.

  “We’ll talk to him again,” Annie said. “What about Robin?”

  Jenna shrugged. “It’s an old story, isn’t it? She was secretly in love with Timothy, but he thought of her more like a little sister. I knew that it killed her inside whenever she saw us together, so I tried to downplay our relationship whenever she was around.”

  “Could she have killed him?” I asked her.

  Jenna looked startled by the idea. “I don’t know. There’s a great deal going on behind those eyes. Maybe. I don’t know; right now I seem to be jumping at shadows.”

  “What’s that?” Annie asked suddenly as she pointed toward the fire. “That looks like a greeting card.”

  “Oh, I tossed in a few old pieces of mine to keep the fire going,” Jenna said, and then she took the poker and moved the burning papers around until the card was obliterated by flames.

  “Gotcha,” Annie said.

  Jenna’s cell phone rang, and after she checked the number, she said, “Sorry, but I’ve got to take this. One of Hannah Lee’s guinea pigs has a cold again, and she’s worried sick about her. Luna is prone to infections, and that girl loves her critters more than some folks care for their children. Not that I can blame her; they’re cute little rascals, full of all kinds of personality quirks.”

  As she took the call, Annie and I waved good-bye and headed back to my sister’s car.

  “Did you see that card?” my sister asked me once we were back inside.

  “No, I wouldn’t even have noticed it if you hadn’t spotted it. What did it say?”

  “I couldn’t tell,” she replied, “but I could swear something was written on it in Timothy’s handwriting. Wouldn’t she want a keepsake of her dead love? Why burn it the day his body was found?”

  “Maybe it’s too painful for her to keep around,” I suggested.

  “Maybe,” Annie said with a frown.

  It was a good thing she was paying more attention to her driving than she was to me.

  Somebody suddenly jumped out in front of her car, and if Annie hadn’t been alert, we might have had another fatality in Maple Crest within twenty-four hours of the last one.

  Chapter 10: Annie

  I couldn’t believe it when Robin Jenkins jumped in front of my Subaru. Luckily I wasn’t looking at Pat at the time, or things might have ended very differently. I slammed on my brakes, and then I rolled down my window. “Have you lost your mind? I could have killed you!”

  “Somebody’s following me!” Robin said, nearly out of breath as she kept glancing behind her. “You’ve got to help me!”

  I pulled the car off to the side of the road, parked it, and then Pat and I got out. We both looked up and down the residential road, but no one was in sight. “I don’t see anyone,” Pat said.

  “I’m telling you, they were there!” Robin was clearly distraught, but was it because of her imagination, or had someone really been following her? “It’s the truth. You’ve got to believe me!”

  “Settle down,” I told her, lowering my voice and hoping that she’d catch a little of my calmness. “Take a deep breath, and then tell us all about it.”

  Robin took several breaths before she spoke again, and I was glad to see that she finally managed to calm herself down. “Sorry. It’s just really unsettling.”

  “Tell us exactly what happened,” Pat said gently.

  “I was out for my evening walk—it’s something I do every night, rain or shine—when I had a feeling that someone was following me. I tried to glance back over my shoulder to see if anyone was there, but they were too fast for me, and I never caught sight of them. I heard their footsteps, though, and when I went around a corner, they sped up.”

  Pat said, “Hang on a second. Which direction were you coming from when you flagged us down?”

  “I was coming from back that way,” she said as she pointed over her shoulder, toward Jenna’s place.

  “I’ll be right back,” Pat said as he strode off in that direction.

  “Do you want me to come with you?” I asked him.

  “No. Stay here with Robin.” He must have seen the dour expression on my face, because he quickly added, “If you don’t mind.”

  “No, I’m happy to do it,” I said, trying to sound cheerier than I felt.

  Two minutes later, Pat rejoined us. “Whoever was back there is gone now.” I was glad he’d phrased it that way. It gave some credibility to Robin’s story, and I was certain that it made her feel as though we believed her.

  I wasn’t sure how Pat felt, but the jury was still out as far as I was concerned. Still, if someone had been following her, it was reason enough to be so upset. I tried to put myself in her shoes and knew that I would have been rattled, too, given the circumstances.

  “Robin, do you have any idea why someone would be following you?” I asked her.

  “It has to have something to do with what happened to Timothy, don’t you think? Why else would someone want to stalk me? I bet this ties in with what I saw at the office this afternoon.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked her.

  “I happened to glance out the window just before I left, and I could swear I saw someone lurking in the bushes. Not only that, but when I went outside to see, whoever it was disappeared! As if that weren’t bad enough, I got ready to leave, but then I realized that I’d left my lunch bag in the kitchenette. I went in to get it, and while I was back there, I noticed a few things that needed to be thrown out of the fridge. By the time I took care of that, I was walking back out front when I heard someone trying the door handle. I yelled and told them we were closed but that I’d be right there, but by the time I unlocked the door and opened it, whoever had been there was gone.” Robin took a deep breath, and then she studied my brother and then me a moment before speaking again. “I know how this sounds. You two must think I’m crazy.”

  “We realize this is a stressful time for you,” Pat said, which wasn’t the most politic way of putting it.

  “I swear, I didn’t imagine it. Someone tested that door trying to get in, and now they are following me around town. What could they possibly want of me? I don’t have any evidence about who killed my boss.”

  “Maybe they think you know something that even you aren’t aware of,” I said.

  I thought the reinforcement of the idea that she wasn’t crazy would be helpful, but it simply set off a completely different wave of paranoia in her. “They’re out to get me now? Am I being set up as the next victim? Should I ask your sister for police protection? I don’t know anything! I swear it!”

  Everything we’d done to try to calm her down was now wasted. If anything, she was more frantic than she had been before. “Robin, would you like a ride home?” I offered her.

  “No. I want to go straight to the police station!”

  It was clearly an order, not a request. I didn’t just want to show up there and catch Kathleen off guard. “Let me call my sister and tell her we’re coming.”

  Pat frowned, but I had no idea what part of our plan of action he wasn’t happy with.

  Robin seemed to have immediate second thoughts about approaching Kathleen. “I’ve changed my mind. I want to go home.”

  “That’s probably for the best,” my brother said calmly.

  “I just can’t face being interrogated by anyone right now,” Robin said as she got into the back seat of my Subaru. At least it was relatively clean back there.

  As Pat and I drove her home, Robin got more and more antsy in back. When we pulled up to her place, I decided to offer our assistance again. “Are you sure you’ll feel comfortable going inside alone now?” I a
sked her.

  “Could you both possibly come in and check under the beds and in the closets for me?” Robin asked meekly. “It’s the only way I’m ever going to be able to get any sleep tonight.”

  “We’ll be glad to,” I said, and then I turned to my brother, who was frowning at me. “Right, Pat?”

  “It sounds like a plan to me,” he said with a shrug.

  As we got out and followed Robin to her front door, Pat tugged on my arm and asked softly, “Annie, what exactly are we going to do if someone is lurking inside? It’s not as though either one of us is armed with anything more than an angry look.”

  “Do you honestly believe we’re going to find anyone inside?” I asked him.

  “No, I’m just asking what our plans are if we do.”

  “We all scream and run away,” I said with a shrug. “I don’t know what to tell you.” What did he want from me? I wasn’t about to start carrying a handgun around in my purse, and a baseball bat wouldn’t fit. I liked our chances anyway, since I didn’t think we’d find anything untoward inside.

  Pat and I searched through every room in the house, with Robin close on our heels the entire way. Once she was satisfied that no one was lurking in the shadows, it was as though I could see a weight being lifted off her shoulders. “Thank you both for doing this.”

  “We were happy to,” Pat said, “but if you see anything else tonight, you really should call the sheriff.”

  “I know. I will. I just couldn’t face her tonight. There’s just one more thing you could do for me, if you wouldn’t mind.”

  Pat looked as though he were about to refuse her request when I stepped in. “What can we do to ease your mind further?”

  “Go by Timothy’s office and make sure everything there is okay. Would you do that for me?”

  “I’m not sure that we should, at least not without a police officer,” I said.

  Pat nodded in agreement. There was only so far we could allow ourselves to be pushed, and Robin had already exceeded the limit.

  “Please? If it’s nothing, no one else but the two of you will know how foolish I’ve been if I’m wrong.”

  “And if you’re right?” I asked her.

  “Feel free to call your sister. This is ridiculous. I’m jumping at shadows everywhere I look. I’m telling you, I can’t stay in this town a moment longer. As soon as the sheriff gives me permission, I’m getting out of Maple Crest, and I’m never coming back. My sister in Virginia has been asking me to move up there for ages, and this is as good a time as any, since I’m out of a job and a killer might be after me. Would you go check on the office right now for me? I can’t bear the thought of someone desecrating Timothy’s space.”

  “We’ll check it out for you,” I said as Pat started shaking his head, ready to refuse her request, no doubt.

  The moment we were outside, I heard the deadbolt lock click into place. Apparently Robin wasn’t taking any chances.

  “Seriously? How much are we expected to indulge that woman?” my brother asked me. “She’s taking advantage of our good natures. The sheriff should be dealing with her fears, not us.”

  “Pat, you saw how frazzled she was,” I explained. “Do you honestly think that throwing her together with Kathleen right now is a good idea? She’s ready to cut and run as it is. What can it hurt for us to swing by Timothy’s office and make sure everything is fine over there?”

  “None, I suppose,” Pat answered. “Is there a chance in the world we’re going to find anything out of order there, either?”

  “I doubt it. Why else do you think I was so willing to check it out?”

  It turned out that we were both wrong, though.

  When we got to Timothy’s office, we noticed two things that didn’t make any sense.

  The lights were on inside, and the front door was ajar.

  That never could have happened if Robin had closed the office properly. Had she left in such a rush that she’d forgotten to turn off the lights or even close the door behind her, or had someone come along behind her and broken in?

  The real question was if someone else had been there, were they gone now, or were they still inside, looking for something we didn’t know was there?

  I grabbed my cell phone and dialed my sister’s phone number, just in case we needed her.

  It went straight to voicemail.

  “She isn’t picking up. Now what do we do?” I asked.

  “I guess we could always call 911,” Pat suggested.

  We were still trying to decide what to do when we saw the front door open, and Mick Roberts stepped outside, holding a thick file folder in his hand.

  “What do we do now?” I asked Pat, but I was talking to empty air.

  My brother had already jumped out of my car and was hurrying toward Mick.

  I had no choice but to follow.

  What had we just gotten ourselves into?

  Chapter 11: Pat

  “Stop right there,” I commanded. Darkness had fallen swiftly around us, sending the world from light into shadow in the short span of time it had taken us to drive from Robin’s home to Timothy’s former office.

  Mick Roberts did as he was told. “Don’t shoot!” he yelled as he raised his hands in the air.

  Annie joined me, and we approached Timothy’s brother side by side, coming close to a streetlight as we did so. “We weren’t about to do anything that rash. What do you think you’re doing, Mick?” I asked him.

  He looked relieved to see that it was just us, though if he’d known us at all, he might not have been so relaxed about our presence there. “This was my brother’s office. I have every right to be there.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Annie said. “Do you have the sheriff’s permission?”

  “How did you even get in?” I asked quickly as a follow-up. “I doubt Timothy gave you a key.” After hearing the story of their childhood, I was surprised Timothy had ever spoken to the man again. Knowing him though, he’d probably done it out of a sense of obligation to his late father, though I doubted that would have been reason enough for me if I’d been in his shoes.

  “The door was already open and the lights were on,” he said. I wondered about that, especially given Robin’s story, but there was really no way to prove it one way or the other. “It can’t be breaking and entering if I didn’t break anything going inside.”

  Apparently Annie wanted to wipe the smug look off his face. “How about unlawful entry or trespassing?”

  That threat got his attention. “Since neither one of you is a cop, I don’t care what it might be.”

  “Call Kathleen again,” I directed my sister.

  Annie hit redial, and this time, the sheriff picked up immediately. My sister turned on the speakerphone feature so I could hear as well. “What is it, Annie? I kind of have my hands full at the moment. There was a hit-and-run on the edge of town, and we’re canvassing the neighborhoods looking for a dented fender with red paint on it.”

  “Was anybody hurt or killed?” I asked.

  “Is that Pat? Am I on speaker? You know I hate that.”

  “Sorry,” Annie said, but she made no move to change the setting. “What happened?”

  “Nobody’s hurt. It’s property damage only. What’s up?”

  “We just found Mick Roberts leaving Timothy’s office with a folder full of papers in his hand, and we thought you might like to know about it. We’re standing out front with him right now.”

  “They belonged to my brother, so technically, they’re mine,” Mick shouted.

  Kathleen couldn’t make out what he was saying from so far away. “Don’t any of you go anywhere. Stay right where you are.”

  “I can’t promise that. Mick was trying to leave when we got here,” I said.

&nb
sp; “Tell him if he does, he’s going to jail. I’ll come up with a reason to lock him up later, but I doubt it will be too hard to find.”

  Kathleen hung up before Annie or I could respond to the threat. As my twin sister put her phone away, I said, “You heard the sheriff. None of us are going anywhere.”

  “My leg’s cramping,” Mick complained as he knelt down and rubbed it with his free hand. “I need to go inside and sit down.”

  I wasn’t sure that was such a good idea, but Annie beat me with her own response. “Go on in, then. You can sit down, but we’re waiting for the sheriff inside.”

  Mick appeared to consider running despite his claim to have a cramp, but Kathleen’s tone of voice hadn’t had an ounce of nonsense in it, and he knew it. “Fine. I still think this is all crazy.”

  “Indulge us,” Annie said as we followed him back into Timothy’s office.

  Mick stumbled at the entry door and steadied himself by grabbing the doorknob on his way in. Had he really lost his footing, or was he making sure that his fingerprints were added into the mix if Kathleen dusted for prints later? If, as he’d claimed, the front door was already open and the lights had been on when he’d arrived, he would have had no excuse to touch the door earlier. Was it all perfectly innocent, or was Mick lying to us? I had no idea, but I was dying to find out what was so important in that folder.

  I didn’t get a chance to find out, though, at least not right away. Kathleen showed up before I could get Mick to say a word about it.

  “What are you all doing inside?” she asked us, the irritation thick in her voice. “I told you to stay right where you were.”

  “He had a leg cramp,” Annie apologized.