Peaches and Scream

by Chelsea Thomas

  I nodded. “So… What are the facts?”

  “Beth was murdered at our farmhouse. There was a tarot card spread laid out in front of her when she died. The door to the bakeshop was locked from the outside when we found her.”

  I sighed. “It’s a real mystery.”

  “Hold on,” said Miss May. “I’m not done with the facts. “Big Jim abandoned his children when they were infants. Big Jim was also likely in the military in his youth. He may have learned how to reverse pick a lock in training camp just like KP. But how do we piece all this together?”

  The waiter brought out a plate of hush puppies and set it down on the table. We each grabbed one and popped it in our mouths without saying a word. I had another hush puppy then got back to thinking.

  “OK. Here’s an important detail,” I said. “Jim did not fully abandon his children.”

  Teeny scrunched up her face. “He didn’t?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t think so. He came back to Pine Grove. When did he return to town, Miss May?”

  Miss May shrugged. “A few years ago?”

  “OK. So he disappeared when Michael, Jonathan, and Beth were children. They’re all grown up now. So that means he was gone for at least thirty or forty years. Then he showed up a few years ago back in Pine Grove. What does that tell you?”

  Teeny nibbled on a hush puppy. “I don’t know. It sounds to me like he missed his hometown.”

  “It sounds to me like he was filled with regret,” I said. “Big Jim abandoned his children, yes. We know that. He disappeared. But then he reappeared… maybe to try and make things right?”

  “That makes sense,” Miss May said. “Where you going with this? How does this lead to motive?”

  “I’m trying to think about the whole scenario from the perspective of the children. Michael, Jonathan, and Beth were babies when their dad left. Being abandoned leaves you with psychological trauma. It’s no wonder Beth grew up to have such faith in mystical arts like psychic readings and tarot cards. She had no sense of security at home. She had no father.”

  Teeny shook her head. “Those three kids are so strange. Growing up in that house must have been difficult.”

  I pointed at Teeny. “And that’s the point I’m trying to make. These three fatherless children grew up in a sad, lonely home. The environment was probably tumultuous. I doubt the three of them got along. And Beth was a pariah. She was in and out of mental facilities. Her house was a disaster. I bet her brothers resented all the attention and care she demanded, as a kid and as an adult. Plus, her stints at Five Pines must have been expensive, and we know the brothers had money problems. They tried to get cash out of Salazar. They had overdue bills at their house. And they couldn’t couldn’t pay the funeral home after Beth’s service. Maybe Beth had a life insurance policy, or maybe they just wanted her out of the way so they could stop being financially responsible for her.”

  “So are you saying…” Teeny waited for me to continue.

  I nodded. “I think the Jenkins brothers teamed up and killed their sister.”

  “But I thought Big Jim was the killer,” said Teeny.

  “I don’t think he would return to his home town, possibly to reunite with his estranged children, just to murder his daughter a few years later,” I said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  Miss May chuckled. “Chelsea! You’re stealing the show on this investigation. And I just thought of another detail that supports your theory.”

  Teeny leaned forward. “What is it?”

  Miss May raised her eyebrows. “We got this clue all the way in the beginning of the investigation. But we missed it. We had everything we needed early on.”

  Teeny threw a hush puppy at Miss May. “Out with it. Now.”

  “OK,” said Miss May. “I want the two of you to think back to the first time we visited the brothers at their home. There was an important piece of information there that we’ve been missing.”

  I closed my eyes and thought about that day. I thought about how one of the brothers had pulled on a gun on us, and I’d dismissed his hostility as too obvious. In retrospect, that had been foolish. “I mean, we were held at gunpoint, that should’ve been a sign…” I said.

  “But that’s not the clue,” Miss May prodded.

  Then it hit me. I opened my eyes. “Oh my goodness. The dry-cleaning.”

  “The dry-cleaning,” said Miss May.

  “The dry-cleaning?” Teeny said.

  I turned to Teeny. “Remember the first time we encountered Jonathan and Michael? Jonathan came home with suits fresh from the dry-cleaner. They were black funeral suits.”

  Teeny threw up her hands. “So what? Their sister had just been murdered. They needed to look good for the funeral.”

  “Beth had only been murdered one night prior,” I said. “I’ve never had dry-cleaning ready in under twelve hours. Have you? Has anyone?”

  Teeny gasped. “Michael and Jonathan got their funeral suits dry-cleaned before Beth died. Because they knew she was about to die… Because they were going to kill her.”

  “That’s right,” Miss May said.

  “I just got goosebumps,” said Teeny.

  “Me too,” I said.

  Miss May nodded. “So did I.”

  I took a deep breath and exhaled. “So what do we do now?”

  Miss May slid out of the booth and stood up. “Now we go find those brothers before they kill someone else.”

  47

  Mission, Impossible

  Our mission: to go to Michael and Jonathan’s home and extract a confession for the murder of their sister, Beth.

  Our vehicle: Teeny’s hot pink convertible. Because why not?

  I rode in the backseat and fidgeted nervously. I twiddled my thumbs, I twirled my hair, I scratched my ears…until I shoved my hands into my pockets and discovered a handful of cashews. And if you’re wondering, yes, I did eat a bunch of loose cashews from my jacket pocket. I wasn’t hungry, but I needed something to do to calm my nerves.

  Teeny parked the car about a block away from the brothers’ house so that we could retain the element of surprise. “Are you girls ready?”

  Miss May set her jaw. “I’m ready. If we’re right and these two are guilty, we get to have another peach party to celebrate the conclusion of another successful investigation.”

  “Can Peach come?” Teeny asked, referring to her aptly named sister. “She missed the last one and she’s all worked up.”

  “Of course,” Miss May said.

  “I like the sound of that,” I said, shoving more cashews into my mouth.

  “Where did you get cashews?” Teeny asked.

  “My pocket.” I mumbled with my mouth full. “They’re just OK.”

  “Oh Chelsea. How old do you think those are?” Miss May asked.

  “It’s not polite to ask a cashew its age,” I said. “Let’s just say old enough.”

  The three of us let out a simultaneous burst of nervous laughter. I rolled my shoulders to loosen up and tried to relax. Teeny looked back at me. “Are you getting limber in case you need to use your martial arts skills?”

  I sighed. “I suppose. Although I hope these brothers roll over without a fight. They seem docile enough, don’t they?”

  “Not at all,” said Miss May, “They seem like they have a lot of fight in them. And don’t forget, we’re here because we suspect they killed their own sister.”

  I hung my head. “Oh yeah. So are we just going to walk in there and say, ‘We know Big Jim is your dad and we suspect you killed your sister because you’re all messed up from when he left you and you’re also broke?’”

  Miss May shook her head. “We’ll sort that out when we get in there.”

  “Yeah. We’ll play it by our ears.” Teeny yanked on both her ear lobes at the same time.

  “I think the expression is, ‘we’ll play it by ear,’” I said.

  “Well I want to use both my ears,” said Teeny. “That’s how they do it in Br
itain.”

  “Are you two ready?” Miss May opened her door and stuck a leg out onto the pavement. “I’ll do the talking. Try to keep things peaceful. I’ve already got the recorder running on my phone to capture the confession.”

  I nodded. “Let’s go.”

  The three of us walked down the street in a small triangle formation with Miss May at the front. We held our heads high and walked with long, powerful steps. At least Miss May and Teeny did. I tripped over my own feet two times between the car and the house. Just getting out my pre-accusation jitters.

  When we arrived at Michael and Jonathan’s house there wasn’t a single light on in the entire home. And there were no cars in the driveway. Miss May ran her tongue along the inside of her cheek, thinking. “They’re not home. Or they’re pretending they’re not home.”

  “What should we do now?” Teeny asked. “A little more breaking and entering? Chelsea’s pretty good at climbing trees and flopping onto roofs.”

  Miss May pointed toward the front porch. “I don’t think flopping will be required this time. The front window is open a crack.”

  “Let’s do it,” said Teeny, walking toward the front door.

  I caught Teeny by the arm. “Wait… What if this is a trap? What if they’re going to sabotage us?”

  She put her hand on her head. “Good point. You should go first.”

  I looked from Teeny over to Miss May. Seemed like I was going first.

  The front window slid open without making a sound. That time, I did not flop into the house. I climbed in like a verified cat burglar, with grace and elegance. Landed right on my feet. Seriously. I didn’t even slip and fall because of extraneous sweat. It was one of my finest moments.

  I opened the front door and Miss May and Teeny joined me in the foyer. “Good job, Chelsea.” Miss May put her hand on my elbow. She whispered. “Any signs of life?”

  I shook my head. I hadn’t seen anything. “No signs of death, either.”

  “Maybe they just happened to go on vacation,” said Teeny.

  Miss May shrugged. “Let’s look around and see what we can find.”

  We stuck together as we searched the house. The last time we’d been to the house Beth shared with her brother’s, it had been filthy and in disarray. This time, the place was clean. Every room greeted us with spotless surfaces and the smell of bleach hung in the air. Only a few items of clothing hung in the closets and someone had cleaned the refrigerator of all its food. (Teeny found that out when she opened the fridge to look for a snack.) When we had completed the search, we all three sat at the kitchen table.

  “This is so strange,” I said. “The brothers are long gone. The house is spotless. If they’re going on vacation, it’s a permanent vacation to a country with no extradition.”

  Miss May sighed. “It does appear Michael and Jonathan are on the run, as they say.”

  “They did such a good job cleaning this house,” said Teeny. “I wish my staff at Grandma’s would be this thorough with their cleaning. I’m always having to vacuum after they already said they vacuumed. Attention to detail goes a long way.”

  I nodded. “These two have excellent attention to detail. That’s probably how they evaded our suspicion for so long. I mean, even though one of them did pull a gun on us… But they really led us on a wild goose chase with all these different clues. Think about that crime scene. Not a single item was out of place. Everything was so precisely laid out. So meticulous. So many misleading signs.”

  Miss May nodded. “It was premeditated, that’s for sure.” Miss May pulled out her cell phone and started to dial.

  “Who are you calling?” I asked.

  “The police. We have no idea where the brothers are. We don’t have the technology to track them. I think we need to turn this investigation over.”

  Teeny slumped over. “Are you serious? We can’t give up. We never give up.”

  “I’m not giving up. I’m sharing information and asking for help.”

  Miss May pressed her phone to her ear and walked into the front room to talk to the police. Teeny and I sat in shocked silence. Neither of us felt ready to hand this mystery off to the cops. We’d never acquiesced an investigation before, and I wasn’t eager for that to change.

  Miss May charged back into the kitchen a few minutes later, shaking her head. “Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I can’t understand that woman.”

  I stood up. “What happened? You talked to Chief Flanagan?”

  Miss May laughed with incredulity. “Yes. We had a wonderful conversation. I told Flanagan everything we learned. She acted like she knew all the information about Big Jim and the kids he abandoned and the brothers’ debt. She just let me babble for five minutes straight. Then when I finally stopped talking Flanagan laughed at me.”

  Teeny huffed in disbelief. “Excuse me?”

  “Yeah,” said Miss May. “Flanagan said that the Pine Grove Police Department doesn’t have the resources to chase all of our ‘bogus leads.’ She said that if the police investigated everyone we suspected, half the town would be in jail. She forbade me from continuing our investigation and told me we’ll all go to jail for a long time if she caught us trying to solve this murder.”

  “So what now?” I asked.

  Miss May crossed her arms. “Now we try to solve this murder.”

  48

  The Brothers Grim

  Spurred on by Miss May’s newfound conviction, we hurried over to Big Jim’s magic shop. No surprise, his place was also locked up. Teeny suggested we break in, but Miss May refused. The outside of the shop was littered with security cameras. Perched on the corners of the roof, the cameras reminded me of waiting vultures. A large sign on the front door warned, “Fortress Security Systems: Intruders Beware.”

  As we trudged back to the car from the magic shop, it was my turn to feel defeated. “The brothers grim and their deadbeat dad have disappeared on us. Like an illusion in a magic show. Or… like a deadbeat dad. We’re a step behind. How did we let this happen? We’re usually a step ahead.”

  “Chelsea, no,” said Miss May. “Stop thinking like that. I had a moment of doubt back at the brothers’ house and that’s enough doubt for the three of us. We solve murders. That’s what we do. We’ve already completed the hard part of this investigation. We have our top suspects. Now all we have to do is find them.”

  “I like that attitude, May,” said Teeny. “You’re better at this than Mr. Flowers. You’re tall, confident, and driven. You won’t back down. Mr. Flowers backs down all the time. He always needs to go get tea right in the middle of the investigation and sometimes he gets so tired he needs a nap.”

  “Your favorite murder investigation show includes scenes where the lead detective takes naps?” I asked.

  Teeny nodded. “It’s British. British TV takes its time. I like the napping scenes. Sometimes I nap, too.”

  “Enough Mr. Flowers,” said Miss May. “Let’s get back to the farmhouse to regroup. Maybe have some tea. It’s getting late and we need to figure out our next move.”

  Teeny sped over to the farmhouse with a smile on her face. Miss May sat in the front seat with a hard, determined glare. I sat in the back, feeling nervous. I vacillated between wanting more cashews and wondering if those cashews might’ve gone bad. I felt a little queasy.

  My queasiness intensified when we pulled up to the farmhouse and saw Big Jim sitting on the front steps with his head in his hands.

  He stood when he saw us arrive.

  Uh-oh. I definitely felt queasy.

  49

  Don’t Mess Around with Jim

  “That guy looks like Big Jim,” Teeny exclaimed. Dusk was upon us, and Big Jim was partially shrouded in the haze of the evening.

  “That guy is Big Jim, Teeny.” Miss May craned her neck to get a better look at him. Big Jim stood akimbo in the bright glare of Teeny’s headlights. His shadow stretched for miles behind him. His eyes were barely visible. The whole scene gave the feeling that he m
ight just POOF! and disappear in the dusty beams of light.

  “He’s not moving,” Teeny said. “He’s just standing there like a magician in headlights.”

  “We can see that, Teeny.” Miss May grabbed her door handle. “I think we should get out and talk to him.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” I said. “He might be guilty. I mean, I know we decided it was the brothers. But Big Jim has lied to us. And he’s acting shady. I don’t trust him.”

  “You think a father killed his only daughter?” Miss May asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. What if she wasn’t even really his daughter? What if we drew the wrong conclusions? I’m not sure of anything anymore.”

  “Well we’re not gonna get more sure by sitting in the car,” Miss May said.

  Jim called out to us. He held up both his hands up to try to demonstrate that he didn’t mean any harm.

  “What is he saying?” asked Teeny.

  “I couldn’t hear him,” I said.

  “Me neither,” said Miss May. “Put the windows down. Or the top.”

  Teeny nodded and rolled the windows down. She stuck her head out the window and squinted toward Big Jim. “What was that? We couldn’t hear you.”

  “I said I’m sorry,” said Big Jim. “I shouldn’t have lied to you about the tarot cards.”

  Teeny looked back at me and Miss May. “He said —”

  “We can hear him now,” said Miss May. Miss May stuck her head out her window. “Empty your pockets.”

  Big Jim nodded. With slow and cautious movements he turned the pockets of his jean shorts inside out. He wasn’t hiding a weapon anywhere. “Can we talk? I want to help the investigation.”

  “You stay right there,” said Miss May. “We’ll talk like this.”

  “I’m not dangerous,” said Big Jim. “I just showed you. I don’t have a gun or a knife or even any tricks up my sleeve.”