Their conversations centered around the upcoming holiday. Both had windows to decorate to compete in the Main Street Window Display Contest. Tabby would not give away any of her secrets of how she was going to decorate her store or her windows. She was going to win this year and that meant beating Greg’s business window, too.
They also discussed needing a new place for the haunted house since Isabella reneged on Anthony’s offer of letting them use the Pelton farmhouse. This might be the first year that the town might not have two haunted houses for their Halloween celebration.
The only other place that Tabby had thought of possibly using was the snack bar at the now defunct Whipper Will Drive-In. The illegal sale of the property had been stalled in the court system so long that when the case was finally settled and the property was returned to the Swanson family, it was too late for the drive-in to open this summer. The buildings were still standing on the property.
Greg dropped Tabby off at her apartment. He had an early flower pick-up in Larsen and didn’t want to be up late into the night. Tabby fed her fur babies and started making the two batches of jelly that needed to be delivered in the morning to the Whipper Will Diner.
The cats were tearing up and down the hallway between the living room and the bedroom. Tabby heard a loud crash from the far end of the hall. One of the cats had jumped up on her dresser and slid on the linen, taking the linen and everything else that was on the top of the dresser straight to the floor. The tops had come off all the perfume bottles and the liquids mingled together forming a puddle on the wood floor.
“Bad cats,” Tabby yelled as they took off up the hallway to hide in the spare bedroom. “Geez, it stinks in here.”
Tabby walked over to open the window. As she pushed it up, a white piece of paper caught her eye. Pushing the window up as far as it would go she saw that the screen had been cut and a white envelope had been pushed through the hole. She set the envelope on the bed and headed for the back door to her apartment.
Standing on the porch, she reached over the railing in the direction of her bedroom window. She could just reach the lower corner of the screen where it had been cut. Anyone even a little bit taller than Tabby would have had no problem reaching the window.
Returning to her bedroom, she sat down on the bed and picked up the envelope. She flipped it over in her hands, but there were no exterior markings on it.
Then she remembered that Greg had seen a figure at her back door. Could this have been what the person was doing? Was he leaving this in her window so that no one else would find it? She carefully opened the envelope.
Tabby pulled out the folded papers and three driver’s licenses fell out at the same time. She noticed that all three were for male drivers and had all expired in the seventies or early eighties. Each of the men were around the same age, thirty to forty, and all the licenses had been issued in Massachusetts. She set them down and turned her attention to the folded papers.
One paper was a map of the Pelton cornfield. There were red dots littering the hand-drawn map which gave the old farmhouse as the center starting point. Tabby assumed that the map was showing where Anthony had found the bones. Two of the red dots had a small skull drawn next to them.
The enclosed letter was from Anthony Capri. He wanted Tabby’s help to find out what had happened in his cornfield, but he was too afraid to go public asking for said help. He feared for his life and for his wife’s life.
He knew Tabby trusted Sheriff Puckett, but he claimed he couldn’t take the chance of bringing in the law when he didn’t know himself who he was dealing with. He had a gut feeling the mob was involved and knew that they had many law officials in their pockets.
He had found the enclosed licenses, along with many other wallets and personal items in a secret room in the old farmhouse. Anthony was sick to his stomach with the thought that all these men might be the corpses in his cornfield.
He was traveling to Boston to research the history of the property and would return on Saturday. He asked her to keep a watch over Isabella for him while he was gone. He knew he might endanger her for involving her in this matter and he apologized. The letter was signed, “I trust you explicitly, Anthony Capri.”
At the bottom of the page was a line that caught Tabby’s attention. “Look behind, look around, but don’t forget to look inside.”
Tabby set down the letter and sat there thinking. Suddenly, she remembered that her jelly was still on the stovetop. She ran for the kitchen, but it was too late. The jelly was scorched on the bottom and would have to be thrown away. Putting the pot to soak, Tabby decided to get up early in the morning to remake a new batch.
She showered, got in her favorite sweats, and pulled out her laptop to see what she could find out about the men who were pictured on the licenses before she turned them over to the sheriff in the morning.
Two of the three men had last lived in Springfield, Massachusetts; the third in Dorchester, a suburb of Boston. Alex Martinelli was from Springfield. Tabby wondered what his tie might have been to the Pelton farm and if he knew about the bodies that were buried in the cornfield. Just how were Alex and Isabella tied together?
Tabby was beginning to believe that Isabella was not as innocent and as weak as she pretended to be. She slipped up and used the Peletroni name in her conversation the morning she left the apartment. Tabby’s next step was to find out more about Mrs. Isabella Capri.
She set the apartment alarm and went to bed. The cats were still hiding in the spare bedroom. Tabby knew when she woke up in the morning the cats would be snuggled up next to her legs and everything would be back to normal.
CHAPTER 10
* * *
Tabby woke up early the next morning to cook and replace the second batch of jelly that she had burned the night before. She would open the store at its normal time, wait for Janice to come in, deliver the jelly to the diner, and then drive out to talk to Isabella. While the jelly cooked, Tabby made copies of everything in the envelope.
Janice was more than happy to man the store for the morning while Tabby ran errands.
The jelly was dropped off at the diner and Tabby decided to get herself a caramel coffee at The Tilted Coffee Cup. It was strange not to see Gladys on the first stool that time of morning. Donald, her husband, was in his normal place eating his breakfast not bothered by the fact that his wife wasn’t allowed in there anymore.
He waved and smiled at Tabby and went back to eating. She was glad that he wasn’t mad at her for his wife’s expulsion from the coffee house. She really liked Donald Twittle as much as she disliked Gladys Twittle. She grabbed her coffee and drove out of town towards the Pelton farm, or should she say the Peletroni farm?
Tabby pulled up to the house and got out and knocked on the door. No one answered. She knocked again yelling out that it was Tabby who was on the other side of the door. Still no answer. She walked around the house peering into the first-floor windows. If anyone saw her, she would say that she was worried about Anthony’s wife as he had asked Tabby to keep an eye on her. There was no sign of Isabella that Tabby could see unless the woman was hiding on the second floor and just not answering the door.
With no one around, Tabby decided to go poke around in the barn to see if she could find the hidden skulls. She knew the sheriff had looked around, but she had to ease her own curiosity by searching for herself. Walking directly to the hay bales, Tabby checked behind the bales where Anthony supposedly hid them, around the bales, and then she even climbed to the top of the piled-up bales looking for the skulls.
Then she remembered the last line of Anthony’s letter; behind, around, and inside. She pushed the top hay bales around and in a hollow square formed by the bales themselves, she found the two skulls. She pulled them out of their hiding place and climbed down to the barn floor.
Checking out the door to make sure no one was around, she took the skulls and placed them in her car trunk wrapping each one carefully in beach towels she kept in there f
or summer swimming. She heard a vehicle coming up the dirt road. Slamming the trunk closed, she had just enough time to climb up on the trunk lid like she had been waiting there for someone to come home.
A dark blue sedan pulled up next to Tabby’s car. Isabella was glaring at her through the car window. She opened it and waved the young woman over to her car.
“What are you doing here, Tabby?” she demanded.
“Anthony asked me to check on you to make sure you were all right,” Tabby answered honestly.
After all, he had asked her to do that so Tabby wasn’t lying.
“I appreciate that you are trying to keep your word to my deceased husband, yes? But I am fine and do not need anyone to check on me,” Isabella said, softening her attitude slightly.
“I also wanted to tell you that I would be clearing the decorations out of the old farmhouse this coming weekend and then I will return the keys that Anthony entrusted me with,” Tabby stated.
“Have you found somewhere new?”
“No, we haven’t, but we are working on it. The problem is there is just not a lot of old buildings around Whipper Will Junction,” Tabby explained.
“I’m sorry you are having such problems, but my Anthony should have discussed it with me first before he offered the use of our property,” Isabella said, her attitude returning.
Tabby decided to go for it all. She wanted to catch Isabella off guard.
“Were you afraid that someone else would find bones while walking the property?” Tabby asked, staring her down.
Tabby could tell that her directness had taken Isabella back a notch. It took the woman a few seconds to compose herself and find an answer to Tabby’s question.
“My husband was not right in the mind. He loved his horror stories and sometimes he had trouble telling the difference between reality and his written words,” Isabella claimed. “There were no bones except in my dearly departed Anthony’s mind.”
Tabby knew different as she had Anthony’s evidence hidden in her trunk. Either Isabella was a great actress or she truly did not know about the bones her husband had found. Tabby couldn’t tell which it was.
“Just leave the keys in my mailbox, yes?” Isabella requested. “I am leaving to bury my husband and want this place locked up and no one on my property for any reason.”
“That’s nice,” Tabby said, looking in the open window of the widow’s car. “Is Mr. Capri being buried with his family?”
“He has no family except for me. He will be buried in our private plot in Hingham as soon as they give me his body back,” Isabella replied, disgusted. “I do not understand why they are holding my Anthony.”
“He was murdered,” Tabby answered. “Don’t you want to know who killed your husband?”
“He was not murdered as you say; his heart stopped. There were no gun shots or knife wounds on his body. Why would you say this?” Isabella demanded.
How did she know that tidbit of information? No gun or knife wounds?
“He was young, seemed to be in good shape, and his death just doesn’t make any sense,” Tabby answered. “He died right after he found the so-called non-existent bones in the cornfield. The whole situation seems suspicious.”
“Garbage, all garbage,” Isabella insisted furiously. “Finish your business on my property and do not check on me again. Good day!”
“I’m sorry for your loss, Mrs. Capri. Anthony seemed like a nice man and I won’t bother you again even though I made a promise to him,” Tabby stated.
She drove away under the watchful eye of Isabella. Tabby went straight to Sheriff Puckett’s office with the skulls to prove Anthony wasn’t as crazy as his wife claimed. She also gave him the envelope that had been slid through the bedroom screen. He was going to get a warrant to search the cornfield where the red marks had been drawn on the map. If there was one bone in that area, there had to others.
She returned to her shop. She looked around for Thelma and suddenly remembered that the cashier had asked for the day off. Janice was sitting behind the register looking rather dismayed. She was ready to take her lunch hour as her nerves were frazzled from several mysterious phone calls the shop received while Tabby was gone.
“It was the same voice each time,” Janice started. “He kept saying that he knew the real story and it was important that he talk to you.”
“The real story about what?” Tabby asked. “Did you recognize the voice?”
“No, I didn’t, but it was definitely a male speaking,” Janice stated.
“Why don’t you take a long lunch? Go enjoy the autumn scenery and eat on the gazebo,” Tabby suggested.
“I think I will,” Janice agreed.
Janice quickly exited through the back door which left Tabby to man the shop alone. She kept waiting for the phone to ring, but it never did. Two hours later Janice returned and Tabby went upstairs to cook a couple of batches of her new Apple Butter. The store was slow because of the holiday. Next year, the shop would stay closed. Forty-eight jars later she went down to help Janice close the store.
Going out to take down the open flag, she noticed Gage, the clerk from the grocery store, hanging around the front of the alley next door. He looked down and scuffed his feet when he saw Tabby watching him.
“Hello, Gage,” she said, waving.
He looked at Tabby and then disappeared down the alley. She shook her head and walked back into her shop. Janice was ready to go when she noticed the strange look on Tabby’s face.
“What’s up, boss?”
“What do you know about the three kids staying at the MacAvey’s place for school?” Tabby inquired.
“I’ve met them when I was shopping, but other than that, I don’t know anything about them,” Janice stated. “Why?”
“One of them was standing outside the shop near the alley and when I said hi and waved he took off. His name is Gage.”
“Sorry, I can’t help you. I’m out of here; see you tomorrow,” Janice said, heading for the door.
“Catch you tomorrow,” Tabby replied.
Tabby locked up behind her employee and started to close the register for the day. She was counting the money when a knock sounded on the back door.
“Who’s there?” Tabby asked through the wooden barrier.
“It’s me, Gage. Please open the door; I know who killed Anthony Capri,” he pleaded.
CHAPTER 11
* * *
“Are you alone?” Tabby asked.
“Yes, please let me in before anyone sees me,” Gage begged.
Tabby unlocked the door. Opened it an inch, and looked around. Gage was standing by himself. She opened the door wider and invited him in.
Before he could open his mouth to say anything, she hit him with a question.
“You’ve been calling the shop all day, haven’t you?” she asked.
“Yes, it was me,” he admitted quietly.
“You spooked my clerk with your weird phone calls. Why didn’t you just tell her who you were and leave a number to call back?”
“I don’t want Isabella or any of her goons knowing that I am talking to you,” he answered nervously.
“Isabella has goons?”
“Yes, she does and I think she killed Anthony Capri,” he stated firmly.
“Why would Isabella kill her own husband?” Tabby asked, shocked at the accusation.
“Because Anthony Capri is my father from a former affair that he had while married to Isabella and she is furious about the whole thing.”
“But that had to be a long time ago. How old are you?” Tabby inquired.
“I’m twenty years old and yes, it was a long time ago. Isabella doesn’t care how long ago it was. She has been disgraced and in her family, that is unacceptable. She had to get revenge and she killed my dad.”
“Are you sure that Anthony was your dad?”
“My mother just passed recently and I found the love letters and my birth certificate that she had kept hidden all these years.
The papers proved he was my father. I came here to go to school to be close to him and get to know him better,” Gage said.
“How did Isabella find out?”
“I went to the farm to apply for a job as a field hand that had been posted in the newspaper figuring I could work with my dad. She recognized my last name and asked who my mother was. I told her and she freaked out. I didn’t think she knew about my mom and Anthony being together way back then.”
“I have to admit, you do look a lot like Anthony,” Tabby admitted. “What is your last name?”
“Salmeri; Gage Salmeri. My mother’s name was Angelina Salmeri.”
“And you say Isabella recognized your mother’s name?” Tabby asked.
“I could tell by the face she made. She screamed, “he never told me he had a son. Then, she screamed even louder telling me the job was not available to someone like me and demanded I leave Whipper Will Junction and go back to my trashy mother,” Gage said, his face turning red with anger.
“It does sound like Isabella was furious and knowing how she treats people around town, I can picture her lashing out at you, but why do you think she killed Anthony?”
“As I was walking away, she screamed that someone would pay for this treachery. No one disgraces a member of the Peletroni family and gets away with it; it’s the family way.”
“So, you think she killed Anthony because of you?” Tabby asked.
“Yes, I do. I’m afraid she’s going to come after me next,” Gage insisted, scuffling his foot. “My dad came to see me and told me to avoid Isabella at all costs. He had called my mom, but didn’t know at the time that she had died.”
“Anthony used to do that,” Tabby said, smiling.
“Do what?”
“When he was talking he used to move his foot like you’re doing right now.”
“Really?” Gage asked, smiling. “I’m like my dad?”
“Yes, you are,” Tabby answered. “Do you really think that Isabella will come after you if you don’t leave Whipper Will Junction?”
Bloody Good Marmalade (Jams, Jellies and Murder Book 2) Page 9