by Jessica Beck
“I know you are, but we can’t just stand around out in the open and gab where anyone might overhear us. Come on inside.”
I glanced around and saw that there wasn’t another soul within a hundred yards of us, but I decided not to comment on that. I did as she asked, and the moment I stepped inside the gently used clothing shop, the door slammed behind me and Gabby slid the massive deadbolt into place.
“You never know who might be lurking out there,” she said.
I studied the woman I’d known for most of my life, and I’d never seen her looking so haggard. Her eyes were usually sharp and keen, ready to pick out the slightest flaw with joy, but there was none of that in her expression now. She was a woman clearly haunted by the loss of someone close to her. “How are you holding up?” I asked her.
“I’m a wreck,” she said. “I still can’t believe that someone killed Jude.”
“I know that you two were close,” I said, “closer than most aunts and nephews.”
“Maybe we knew each other a little too well,” Gabby said sadly.
“What do you mean?”
“Jude knew exactly which buttons of mine to push to get a reaction from me, and I knew the same thing about him. Suzanne, we had a major blowout fight last night about him changing his ways, and I’m afraid we both said things that we shouldn’t have.”
“I’m sure that in the end, he knew that you loved him,” I said.
“I hope you’re right, but my immediate problem is that we weren’t alone when we were bickering. I’m sure some ‘helpful’ eyewitnesses have already told the police chief about our fight. Do you think he’s going to arrest me for murder?”
So, that was the reason Gabby was hiding in her shop. It wasn’t just out of mourning, though I was certain she was doing her share of that as well. She was actually afraid of being thrown in jail for her nephew’s murder. “Gabby, I’m sure that nobody thinks you killed Jude.”
She laughed with clear scorn. “Suzanne, you’re not that naïve. We both know how folks in this town can circle like sharks when they sense blood in the water.”
“That’s not always true,” I said. “There are a lot of people who believe in you.”
“I wish I could agree with you, but we both know that I don’t go out of my way to make close friends. I’m afraid I could count them all on one hand besides you.”
I tried to hide my surprise. Did she really consider us close friends? Sure, we usually got along okay, but she’d never been to my home on a social visit, and I’d certainly never been to hers when I didn’t have a pressing reason in the past, say murder. “If it means anything, I don’t think you killed Jude.”
“I appreciate that, but I need more than that from you. I’m desperate. Suzanne, you’ve got to find his killer.”
I was already planning to do just that, but it might not be smart to tell her that. “I’ll do what I can.”
That’s when she smiled for the first time since I’d first seen her that day. “I knew I could count on you. If there’s anything that I can do to help you, let me know.”
“Well, for starters, you can answer a few questions.”
“Fire away.”
I had to tread lightly. Gabby had a well-deserved reputation for having a temper, and I’d seen it firsthand myself more than once over the years. “When did you last see Jude?”
“Last night around eight,” she said.
“Where were you, at your place?”
She scowled a little. “No, we were in front of the grocery store. I saw him drinking out of a bottle hidden by a brown paper bag, and I scolded him for drinking in public.”
“How did he react to that?”
“How do you think? He started ranting and raving about how he wasn’t a kid anymore, and that he could do what he wanted when he wanted. He also said something that puzzled me at the time.”
“What was that?”
Gabby frowned as she explained, “He told me that he’d go wherever he wanted to, and talk to anybody he darn well pleased, and there was nothing that all of April Springs could do about it. I had no idea what he was talking about, and I suspected that he was more than a little drunk.”
I’d have to ask the police chief if Jude had been drunk at the time of his murder, and find out the exact level of his intoxication. It might help establish just how vulnerable he’d been to attack. “So, what did you do?”
“I came here to the shop and brooded about it for a few hours, and then I must have fallen asleep at my desk. I went home so we could continue our conversation, but Jude never showed up. I fell asleep on the couch again while I was waiting, and I didn’t wake up until Chief Martin knocked on my door. Let me tell you, that’s the worst way to wake up that you could imagine.” Gabby wrung her hands together a little, and then she said, “We need to wrap this conversation up. I have to go to the funeral home to start making arrangements. What a nightmare that’s going to be.”
I thought for one second about volunteering to go with her, but I was pretty sure that wouldn’t help me find Jude’s killer. “Is there someone you can call to go with you?”
“Margaret’s on her way,” she said, referring to one of her oldest friends. “Is there anything else that I can do to help?”
“I hate to ask, but I need to see his room at your place,” I asked softly, waiting for the backlash from my request.
I kept waiting for Gabby to explode, but she surprised me by handing me her keys. “The police chief has already inspected it, so I doubt you’ll find anything, but his room was in the attic. You’re welcome to dig around in it all that you want.”
“He stayed in the attic?” I asked, a little surprised by the arrangement. Attics might be perfectly fine living spaces in most places, but in the South, they tended to be hot and stuffy, suitable for storage and not much else.
“It’s not like that,” she explained quickly. “When Jude first came to live with me, he wouldn’t use the bedroom I gave him, choosing to sleep on the couch downstairs instead. I told him that it wouldn’t do, and when I looked for him the next day, I found him sleeping up there. I fixed it up, even added a little portable air conditioner for one of the dormer windows. It was nice, but more importantly, it was as far as he could get away from me and still be in the house.” She looked a little wistful at that moment. “He was a tough kid, and he had a stubborn streak a mile wide. Maybe that’s why I loved him so much. He was a lot like his aunt Gabby.”
I was again on dangerous ground here. I knew that I couldn’t agree with her, but I couldn’t exactly contradict her, either, at least not with a straight face. “Thanks for trusting me,” I said instead.
“Suzanne, there are days when you’re about the only person in this town that I do trust.” She managed a faint smile as she added, “Then again, there are other days when I don’t trust you much either.”
“I understand that,” I said.
“When you’re finished searching his room, just leave the keys on the kitchen table. I’ve got another set of my own.”
“Will do,” I said as I glanced at my watch. “Well, I’d better get out of here if I’m going to make any headway on what happened to Jude.”
“We know what happened to him,” Gabby said grimly. “I just want to know who did it.”
“Don’t you want to know why, too?” I asked.
“Why can come later. For now, I just need to know who was responsible for ending his life. I know that Jude wasn’t always smiling and pleasant to be around, but he was the last bit of family that I had left, and I need to make sure that his murder doesn’t go unsolved.”
“I’ll do everything that I can,” I said, feeling the weight of the responsibility she was putting on my shoulders.
“Just make sure that your best is good enough,” Gabby said.
It felt odd going into Gabby’s house without her even if I was using a key and I had her permission. The place was much like her shop; everything there was elegant, if slightly
used. The entire downstairs had a Victorian parlor feel to it, a style that I wasn’t a big fan of myself, but it must have suited her. I headed straight to the attic once I got inside, not wanting to snoop around in Gabby’s life at all while I was there. As I climbed the stairs, I wondered just what I might find there.
The place was nice, which was quite a surprise for me. Calling it an attic didn’t do the space justice; it was more like a loft, nicely furnished and stylish in its own right. Gabby’s touch was everywhere, but she’d clearly allowed Jude some discretion in his decorations. It gave me chills knowing that the man who had stayed there had been alive just the day before, but I tried to bury that knowledge. I was certain that the police chief and his team had done a thorough job of examining the room, but I also knew that it was impossible to find every secret someone might have hidden. I started with the small desk, going through the drawers thoroughly. There was nothing telling there, or in the closet, or even under the bed. I was about to give up when I noticed a book on the nightstand that looked out of place with everything else that I’d expected to see. It was a collection of love sonnets, something that I thought neither Gabby nor her nephew would choose for light reading. I picked it up, turned it spine-side up, and flipped through the pages, hoping something would flutter to the floor.
Nothing did.
I was about to put it back when I opened the front cover to see if there was any identification there. Maybe an inscription or a library stamp would tell me where it had come from, but I couldn’t see a thing. On an impulse, I pulled the front flap to one side, and I still almost missed the name written inside.
In a very feminine hand, the name Lisa Grambling was written, along with a date that was less than two weeks old. How had a married woman’s book come to be found in a murdered man’s bedroom? Was there a connection between them that nobody knew about? I decided to take the book with me and ask Lisa that question myself. If the police chief had found it, I was sure that he would have spoken with her about it by now, so it wasn’t as though I was removing a valuable clue. I wasn’t even taking something that belonged to Jude, so there was no reason to tell Gabby about it, either.
At least that was how I was going to justify it to myself.
Tucking the book under my arm, I made my way downstairs. Doing as Gabby had asked, I left the keys and headed out the door. Had it locked behind me? I turned to try the knob when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
“Drop whatever it is you just stole, and put your hands up in the air.”
Chapter 8
“Not funny,” I said as I turned around to see my best friend, Grace, standing there smiling at me. She’d changed out of her suit into a nice pair of jeans and a sporty little blouse. We could wear the exact same clothes, but I knew that they’d look better on her than they would on me. If she hadn’t been such a good friend, I might even have been a little jealous about it. “How did you find me?”
“That Jeep of yours isn’t exactly inconspicuous,” she said. “I took off a little early to help you.”
“How did you know that I’d be at Gabby’s place?” I asked as we walked off the porch together.
“I didn’t. I was driving by and I saw your Jeep. I tried the doorknob, but it was locked, so I was about to knock when I peeked through the glass and saw you coming down the stairs. Sorry if I startled you.”
“I knew that you were there all along,” I said with a grin.
“Liar,” she answered good-naturedly.
“Fine, you got me.”
“So, what did you find inside?”
I looked around and noticed that one of Gabby’s neighbors was watching us through his blinds. It was Thad Belmont, a gossip worse than any woman in town. He probably thought we were burglarizing the place, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he were calling the police even as he watched us. “Let’s do this someplace else, shall we?”
“That’s fine by me,” Grace said. “It’s going to be a little unwieldy driving two cars around. Why don’t you follow me home? I can drop my car off, and we can take your Jeep.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind slumming it with me?” I asked with a smile. Grace got a brand new company car every other year, each model nicer than the last. As she’d climbed the corporate ladder into management, they weren’t afraid to show their satisfaction with the job she was doing.
“I’ll find a way to tough it out,” she said, smiling back at me.
“Good. See you there.” I put the book on the passenger seat and followed Grace home. Once she got out and joined me, I handed her the book.
“Thanks anyway, but I never cared much for love sonnets,” she said as she tried to hand it back to me.
“I’m not giving it to you,” I said as I pulled out of her driveway. “I found it when I searched Jude’s room in the attic.”
“I can’t believe that Gabby let you go through her house.”
“She even gave me her keys. She’s upset about Jude, but I think she’s also worried that Chief Martin might arrest her for his murder.”
After I told her about the scene Gabby and Jude had just hours before he’d been killed, Grace’s smile faded quickly. “This whole thing must be a nightmare for her. Imagine how tough it must be not to be able to make up with her nephew now.”
“She’s in some real pain. I was still surprised when she asked me to help her, not that I wasn’t going to investigate this, anyway.”
“You didn’t tell her that, did you?” Grace asked me.
“Of course not. It’s not like I’m working for anybody. This is just something I feel compelled to do.”
“Is his murder going to affect the wedding?” she asked.
“How could it not? Emily dated Jude not that long ago, and I can’t help wondering if his murder had something to do with the upcoming nuptials.”
“I hope not,” Grace said.
“All I know is that Emily is determined to get married as soon as she can. She says she can’t wait to be Max’s wife.”
“Did you tell her that status was highly overrated?” Grace asked with that wicked little smile of hers.
“No, and you shouldn’t, either. It’s pretty clear that Max is a different person than the man I married.”
“And divorced,” she added.
“That’s true,” I said. I reached over and tapped the book. “You don’t know everything about that book yet. Look inside the flyleaf.”
Grace did as I asked, and I glanced over to see her eyebrows shoot up. “Lisa Grambling? Seriously?”
“Do you have a hard time believing that she and Jude might have been having an affair?” I asked.
“No, Lisa’s always been really flirty, but her husband, Frank, seems like the jealous type to me, and the man’s built like a tank. Was Jude really that crazy?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” I said as I stopped in front of Lisa Grambling’s house. “Let’s go ask her ourselves.”
“This is going to be fun,” Grace said happily.
“Take it easy. We’re investigating a murder, remember?”
“I know, but it’s exciting tracking down a killer, don’t you think?”
“Sometimes a little too much,” I said as I turned off the ignition and opened my car door. “Let’s go see what Lisa has to say about this,” I added as I took the book from Grace.
“Thanks, but I don’t want any of your donuts,” Lisa said after she opened the door. She was a curvy woman with lots of sex appeal, and she wasn’t afraid who knew it. “I’m on a diet.”
“I’m not out peddling donuts door to door,” I said with a smile. “I’d like to talk to you about Jude Williams.”
“What about him?” she said as she started to hint at a frown. “We’re just friends, no matter what anybody else says. He helped me clean out my attic last month, and we struck up a conversation. There’s nothing more to it than that.”
Grace stepped forward and asked, “Lisa, you haven’t heard about what happened
to Jude yet, have you?”
“What are you talking about? The police chief didn’t arrest him for doing something silly, did he? Did it have something to do with me?” She started to go back inside. “I’ll straighten this all out. I’m sure that it’s just a harmless misunderstanding.”
“Lisa, Jude is dead,” I said softly.
“What! He can’t be dead!”.
“I’m afraid it’s true,” Grace added. “I’m sorry. We just assumed that you knew.”
“How did it happen?” she asked me.
“From what we’ve heard, he was hit in the back of the head with an iron bar last night.”
Lisa didn’t want to believe it; that much was clear. I thought it odd that she glanced back inside her house for a second before she spoke again. She was fighting back tears, but she still managed to keep most of her cool. “If you’re telling me the truth, then why are you here?”
“We found this in his room when we searched it a few minutes ago,” I said as I held the book up.
“Let me see that,” she snapped as she tried to grab it out of my hands.
I was ready for her, though, so I pulled it back just in time. “If you don’t mind, we’re going to hold onto that. What we want to know is what it was doing on Jude’s nightstand.”
“I loaned it to him,” she said uncertainly, as though she wasn’t sure that was the final story she was going to stick to. “I want it back now, though. It’s mine.”
“You’ll have to ask Chief Martin for it,” I said. “We were on our way to deliver it to him, but we thought we’d stop by here first and give you a chance to explain its presence yourself.”
“I already told you. Jude and I were friends. There was nothing more to it than that.”
“That doesn’t explain the picture on his cellphone we found,” Grace said. I turned to look at her in shock. Not only hadn’t I found any photos of Lisa or anyone else, I hadn’t even seen his phone.
I turned back to her to explain when I saw her brave face start to crumble. “He told me that he erased all of those,” she said, her voice ragged with tears.