by Beth Byers
“Nothing,” I told her.
“Liam’s a wuss, we can take him,” Zee replied.
“Oh that’s nice,” Liam muttered from the porch.
I gasped and squeaked.
He stood, getting off an old wooden rocking chair that looked like it might have crossed the plains and then said, “I wouldn’t have thought that Simon’s murder-solving girlfriend would be so…girlie.”
“I’m just a good guesser,” I said. “Simon does all the real police work.”
“I never thought it was you, anyway,” he said. He rubbed his belly and a look of pain crossed his face as he stepped off of the porch and into the overgrown grass. “Simon probably just said that stuff about you to make it seem like you were a better catch.”
Chapter Ten
“Where have you been?” Zee asked Liam. “We’ve been worried about you.”
Liam scowled and then said, “Returning back to high school days when Bobby pushed me around and I hated myself for letting it happen.”
I glanced at Zee and then back to Liam. “Because of the burgers?”
“Look, no one understands. I can’t eat gluten, dairy, or red meat. I came all this way and I’ve spent the last 2 days on the toilet. I missed the bachelor party. Guess how often this one was cleaned in the last decade or two? Not once. When I’m not dying on the toilet, I’m vomiting over the side of the porch.”
Zee scowled at Liam and said, “You’ve been up here since…”
“Since about 90 minutes after that freaking bacon burger and chocolate milkshake, I’ve been dying. Death on the toilet. That’s going to be my obituary.”
“Simon’s been worried,” I said, trying for gentle. “He’s been trying to get ahold of you.”
“Yeah. Well,” Liam pushed his hand through his hair and said, “I forgot my phone charger. I’d have called for someone to bring me some pepto.”
“He even had the police calling around to the hotels,” Zee said.
“Did he?” Liam’s voice cracked a little bit and then he said, “See this is why Simon’s still my friend. I wouldn’t have cared if I never saw Bobby again. Or Brent, not that he showed. Simon, though, he’s worth traveling for.”
“We’ll go get you some pepto,” I said. “Simon really wants to see you.”
He sighed and then said, “I’m feeling better now. I was going to come down for the rehearsal dinner.”
“Why don’t you grab some pepto and swing by The 2nd Chance Diner. I promise, we have some good gluten-free, dairy free food.”
“I can’t eat eggs either.”
“How about a nice green salad with balsamic dressing? Or some grilled chicken with rice?”
Liam sighed and nodded as Zee asked, “So have you been up here by yourself all this time?”
Liam nodded and cursed. “I’m excited to see Si get married but what a waste. Do you know how much vacation I get? Not enough.”
“I used to work at a bank,” I told him. “You should consider a diner job. It’s better.”
Liam scowled at me so ferociously I winced. “A diner? There’s a good retirement in that?”
“If you aren’t stupid,” Zee told him.
He winced a little and then said, “I need good health insurance, my digestive system is not right.”
Zee didn’t even bother to argue further. “We’re glad you’re ok.”
I went back to the car and got inside while Zee talked to Liam for another minute or two. When she got into the car I said, “He’s creepy too.”
“He always was,” Zee told me as she started her car and backed into deep grass. “If ever there was a serial killer cabin, it’s that one. Carver might need to come up here with human body dogs.”
“Oh don’t,” I said, covering my ears. “I don’t want to hear about it. It’s going to give me nightmares on my wedding night.”
Zee laughed and sped up, risking her car to get us out of there faster. As soon as we had cell service again, I messaged Simon.
Me: We lived. We found Liam. His alibi is that he had the runs. He’s on his way back to town without a phone charger.
Simon called me rather than replying. “You hunted up a possible murderer before our wedding? Are you testing fate?”
“I didn’t know where we were going,” I said, trying for innocence.
“Please,” Simon said, “You know Zee way better than that.”
“Um, I love you?”
“Yeah you do,” he said. “You better show up alive and unharmed at the rehearsal dinner.”
“I will! I don’t want to miss out on the ceviche and lavender rice,” Simon groaned at the pretend menu for the night and I added, “Liam is heading to the diner. You’re welcome.” I hung up before he could yell at me. I turned to Zee and said, “I need blueberry extreme waffles and my mom is going to the diner. But I also needed to avoid catching Liam’s attention. Maybe he didn’t kill Brent…”
“Are we buying the ‘I didn’t have a phone charger and I got bullied into a burger defense’?”
I shrugged and said, “I’m sure the boys will find real evidence.”
She laughed and then said, “Call your mom and have her get waffles. I’ll drop you at your house.”
* * * * *
We rehearsed the wedding in Zee’s yard. The tent wasn’t there, so I assumed we weren’t getting married at Zee’s. I did, however, track Joyce down on the side of the house to ask her, “It’s not here right?”
“The wedding?” Joyce asked and then laughed merrily. “As if I would pay Zee a bribe to use this place. No dear.”
“Oh good. Is it a surprise?”
“At this point, I think it should be.”
I considered and then decided that might actually be the best plan. I would be so happy about getting married that I’d be able to overlook any place that wasn’t what I wanted.
We started to round the house when I saw Carver pull Simon aside. I grabbed Joyce’s arm and covered her mouth.
“We’ve got his bank records coming. There were some weird deposits,” Carver said to Simon. “We should have a better idea of what this Brent guy was up to. He had to live somehow.”
“Collecting soda cans and returning them?” Simon muttered. “He was unrecognizable when I saw his body.”
“He was dead, bloody, and bearded and you hadn’t seen him in years. Of course he was.”
I turned to Joyce and saw that both Justin and Liam were standing behind us. I jumped and then smiled at them. “Hi guys,” I said brightly and louder than I needed to. “Are you working with Joyce on the secret wedding spot?”
“Does she really think we’ll buy that?” Liam asked Justin. “This is probably how she supposedly figured out all those killers. She just eavesdropped. Simon tells stories about her being so smart to make himself look like he got a good catch.”
“I did get a good catch,” Simon said, his hand settling on my waist. “The only thing confusing about Rose is her love for me. Shall we go practice this thing? I understand we have ceviche.”
“Ceviche?” Liam groaned. “I’d have thought that you knew better than that after our conversation. Your future wife is heartless.”
“Liam Oswald,” Joyce cut in, “You will apologize at once. This dinner isn’t about you. If you can’t eat the food, don’t. Feed yourself like a grown man.”
“Rose is joking, Liam,” Simon started to say and Liam muttered, “It’s not funny to mock my issues.”
“There isn’t gluten or dairy or red meat in ceviche,” I told him.
“She’s teasing me, buddy. Not you. My tastes in food drive my flavor-obsessed fiancé crazy.”
* * * * *
“Wake up, wake up,” Joyce called from the doorway.
I slowly opened my eyes and met Daisy’s grumpy gaze. She groaned and grunted and then stood up, walking down Simon’s chest. He grunted. “Daisy,” he moaned. “Ouch. Geez, dog. Daisy has to go, Rose.”
“You love her.”
; “Not right now.”
“Wake up!” Joyce called again.
“Mom!”
“Look, we’re going to have breakfast,” Joyce said. “They’re all on the way to the diner I’ve talked to everyone. Justin, Hank, Jane. I sent Marvin up to get Liam.”
“We are?” I asked.
“Carver wants to. He has some…ideas. He wants this case wrapped up. He said that he knows something.”
I sat up slowly and said, “That sounds like bull crap to me. Did Justin have an alibi?”
“His was as weak as Liam’s. Said he went for a walk on the beach. Didn’t run into anyone at all let alone someone who knew him.”
I dressed and told Simon. “Carver just wants to know who will show up. The biggest suspects are Liam and Justin. What do they have going on in their lives? Tell me about them.”
Simon said, “Justin is from Seattle. He has a few kids from a marriage that went south. I know that he doesn’t see them as often as he’d like. He said something about child support.”
Simon shook his head and said, “Liam’s a mid-level manager at a bank. He doesn’t have kids. I don't think he has a pet.”
“He’s probably allergic,” I said and then felt bad. It wasn’t the poor guy’s fault that he was so delicate. I guess I just didn't like that he was a bit of a whiner and that he’d lashed out at me yesterday. “I’m a jerk. I don’t like that he yelled at me about the ceviche when I didn’t get hot waffles, so y’all could have your private conversations over salad and grilled chicken.”
Simon set down his t-shirt and crossed to me, taking my face between his hands and leaning in close to whisper, “He didn’t like the chicken. Said Az overcooked it, and you should find a new cook.”
I gasped, my gaze narrowed on Simon. “Az is a waffle genius! He can cook like 10 orders at once. He’s…like the greatest restaurant cook known to mankind.”
“I know, babe,” Simon said, laughing as he put on his Silver Falls, OR t-shirt.
“That’s it! Liam did it.”
Simon drove down to the diner while I tapped my finger against the car door.
“What?”
I shook my head.
“No really.”
I shook my head again.
“Rosemary soon-to-be Banks.”
I grinned wickedly and said, “I never said I was changing my name!”
“I don’t care what you call yourself,” Simon answered, taking my hand. “Tell me.”
“I think I know who did it,” I told Simon carefully. I didn’t want to be right. It was just a guess based off of the little information I had on them. Unlike Carver, I didn’t need evidence. It was just my instincts had started screaming as I thought about my own life and the people who mattered to me.
He took the exit for Silver Falls from our home and travelled the few blocks to the diner. Before he got out of the car, he turned to me and said, “Do you have any evidence?”
I shook my head.
“Can you get them to confess?”
I shrugged.
“Can you make them think you have evidence?”
I paused long enough that Simon nodded and said, “Try.”
Chapter Eleven
We’d closed The 2nd Chance Diner to the public once again. Az was cooking with Roxy serving when we showed up. I saw the rest of my staff through the window. They were interspersed with helping to feed the guests and enjoying the occasion. The sign on the door indicated that The 2nd Chance Diner would be closed due to a wedding in the family. I smiled at it and then stepped through the door. Jane and Hank were there with their kids. My mom was there. Carver and several of the police force were there as well with their families. I smiled at Joyce and Marvin and looked around again making sure I saw who I needed to see.
Simon’s friends were there. Bobby, Liam, and Justin were sitting together while Mattie had taken a seat as far from Bobby as she could get. I took a mimosa and walked to the front of the diner. A second later, Az let out a piercing whistle and I raised my glass when I had everyone’s attention.
“Thank you all for coming to celebrate our wedding with us. For a girl whose entire family, before moving to Silver Falls, consisted of one person, I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Hear, hear,” Az called. I winked at him and then turned back to the others.
“It’s funny,” I said, “the creating of families. We see Simon’s birth family. His sweet cousin and her husband. We see the brotherhood of his youth. And those who matter most to us now. Our chosen family.”
My gaze surveyed them again and I saw Carver reading a message on his phone. He looked up from it to me and nodded once before showing it to Zee.
“For such a powerful brotherhood from your teen years,” I told Simon. “It’s interesting that you’re all bachelors now, except for Hank of course.”
“You can’t tie these bulls down,” Bobby called. “Woot, woot! Simon, you dog, giving up the battle and picking up a ball and chain.”
I pretended to laugh and then said, “Funny that no one loves you, Bobby. Big business man from Hong Kong and couldn’t get into Mattie’s bed over her Jamaican diner chef. You’d think that would be an easy pick.”
Bobby’s ears turned red and I spoke over him. “And Liam…mid-level manager job. No wife. Bullied by the same jerk who pushed you around as a kid and you can’t even stress eat milkshakes. I couldn’t live your life.”
Liam jerked with each of my comments and my mother hissed, “Rose!”
“You see. One of you three killed Brent. Now, I believe you when I hear that Brent was a jerk.”
“He was,” Liam said. “But that doesn’t mean we killed him. How can that even be true? It was probably a homeless person.”
I shrugged and then said, “The thing is…you didn’t come here to celebrate with Simon. You use our wedding and our chapel as a place to give your blackmailer what he deserved.”
Liam gasped, shaking his head frantically.
“You told him to meet you there. You were ready for him. You thought you could get away with killing him because no one knew that you were still talking. No one knew you were sending him money.”
“I wasn’t!” Liam said. “You think you’re so smart, but I wasn’t. You can’t prove it. There’s no evidence. There can’t be.”
“Of course there isn’t. You don’t have anything to lose, do you? A mid-level manager job. No wife. No kids. As much as we’d like the killer to be Bobby he both has an alibi and why would he come back to the U.S.? Anyone who had something to be blackmailed over would just cut off contact to the U.S. and stay out-of country.”
“But…” Liam said. “What?”
The sound of Liam’s huffing was all there was to hear until I slowly turned to Justin. “Except for your Justin. Can’t see your kids? Maybe because you can’t afford child support and blackmail.”
Justin’s ears turned a brilliant red but beyond that his face was expressionless.
“You’re the only one beyond Hank who has something to be lost. Visits with your kids. A crazy ex who would just as soon keep them away from you. Whatever you did, Brent knew about it. Didn’t he? I bet your ex would use what it was as a reason to stop visits.”
“You’re crazy,” Justin said.
“It’s cool,” I told him softly. “You don’t have to confess. They have the evidence coming. You’ll lose a deal or whatever the police would offer you. But, you can hold tight to your lies.” Speaking of lies, that mythical TV deal that every cop show used, my lie about deals was a whopper.
He didn’t move a muscle, didn't make a sound. Didn’t turn to the other guys to see if they were believing this.
“It’s funny isn’t it? You can keep no records. You can pull out cash, wait a few days, send it later. You can go into seventeen different locations and always wear a hat. Or always lie about your name. Maybe even use a fake ID. But I bet you didn’t. I bet, in fact, that you didn’t worry about it. You didn’t plan to kill Brent. No
t all the times you paid him. But then he asked for more money when his sister bailed. And then, he probably took a big hit when pot became legal in Oregon. That illegal business became a lot less profitable. Suddenly you couldn’t see your kids anymore. Suddenly it didn’t matter if you paid or not. You weren’t gonna see your kids. Not while you had to pay Brent and your ex. Who can afford blackmail, child support, and to live?”
“You’re crazy,” Justin said. “I made a bad investment. That’s all. I’m recovering, and I’ll get caught up, and it’ll be fine.”
“Did you know I used to be in banking?” My voice was almost friendly.
“Why would I know that?”
“Did you know that when you send money they keep track of it? Did you know that they have video? Did you know that bank accounts can actually process the other end of a Western Union or Money gram? Do you really think that Brent was careful about getting your blackmail? That he cared if he accepted the cash right into his checking account? Did you know that evidence is coming right now, and you are so screwed?”
Justin shook his head and said, “This is all crap.”
“Did he know about your mom?” Hank suddenly asked. “I suspected that maybe you did something. You just didn’t care. You talked about the life insurance at the funeral. And the new start it would give you after the divorce. Brent knew, didn’t he? Was he there or did he just have proof?”
Justin paled as Hank stood up and said, “A bad case of pneumonia? Blocked airways? A diagnosis before she died, so there was no need for an autopsy.”
Justin suddenly burst from his chair and ran towards the diner door. One of the policemen followed with his partner a few steps behind. We all watched in silence as Justin was arrested.
I sat down suddenly, drained my mimosa and said, “Why do people kill? It ruins everything.”
“His mom was the reason he broke up with his wife,” Liam said. “Justin came down to take care of her and slept with Jenny Morgan. Justin’s wife found out. His mom was the one who told. Justin’s marriage was over and his mom ended it.”