by Tonya Kappes
My eyes popped and I looked at Finn. He reacted to my shock by smiling. He was right. If Viola was in trouble, it wouldn’t be beneath her to make an insurance claim. But she wasn’t a killer. Was she?
Katy pulled out a file that was two inches thick.
“Of course, this remains confidential.”
She gave Finn a look.
“Of course.” Finn’s brows formed a V as he took the file.
“You can see here that Viola has had this policy with us,” Katy Lee put her hand on her chest, “for years.”
She walked back over and sat down next to Finn on the couch. She was practically sitting in his lap. She sucked in a deep breath, letting a grin travel across her lips. She wasn’t fooling me. She was taking a nice long whiff of Finn’s smell.
“She keeps large policies on the merchandise. Especially this one.” She plucked a piece of paper from the stack. “This diamond in her store is worth every bit of two million dollars.” She smacked the paper down on Finn’s lap. “I tried to tell her and my daddy tried to tell her not to keep such a big piece of jewelry in the shop, especially in Cottonwood.” She smacked his arm and giggled. “Because we all know no one in this Podunk town is going to buy it.” She jerked around to me with a stunned look on her face. “Oh my God. Did they steal the diamond?”
“I had Wyatt take Viola’s statement and inventory. I don’t know yet. We’re just trying to see if there’s a reason she would break into her own shop.” I took the picture Katy Lee had and snapped a quick picture of it with my phone.
“She didn’t own the shop.” Poppa appeared in the back of the insurance office and stared over at us. “Who owned it?”
I smacked my hands together. “Do you have the building owner’s insurance?” I asked.
“We do…ohmyGod!” Katy Lee’s words ran together. “And the owner had approached us about selling and said that he wasn’t going to sell it to Viola White.”
“Who is it?” Suddenly things were looking up; maybe I had my real first suspect.
“Ronald Walton.” It was like Katy Lee was talking in slow motion. “He said that he wasn’t going to renew the renter’s contract.”
Suddenly things weren’t looking good for Viola White. I had just discovered a good reason for her to kill Doc Walton.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“I didn’t think Viola White killed Doc Walton,” I said, looking over at Finn, who was hunkered over a plate of the roast beef special from Ben’s. “But I’m not so sure anymore.”
“I’m not saying she did.” He swiveled his counter stool toward me. “Stranger things have happened.”
“I hope you two figure out this crime spree quickly.” Ben filled up Finn’s cup and mine with Coke. “I’m so sick of hearing about it. I’ll be glad to get back to hearing the women gossip about each other.”
Ben didn’t wait to hear a response. He hurried over to greet a couple of people coming in the door.
“I sent in the photos of the tire tracks to a state expert to get an idea on what type of tire and car the tracks might belong to.” Finn looked ahead and took a bite.
“That’s good,” I replied. “I plan on taking them over to Luke to see what his opinion is.”
“Have you gotten any more of the evidence reports back?” he asked.
“Not yet. I had Wyatt log and send in most of it.” I took a drink.
“What did you have him send off?” he asked.
“The prints we picked up from the scene, though they could turn out to be from patients or Toots. Different blood samples that might not be Doc Walton’s. DNA testing from the teeth marks,” I rambled, sopping up the juices from the leftover gravy on my plate with one of Ben’s homemade biscuits. “I even bagged and had Wyatt send the glove Doc Walton was wearing to the crime lab, hoping someone’s DNA might be there from the struggle.”
He nodded his head in approval.
“You showed our entire hand back there at the insurance office.” I couldn’t believe he told Katy Lee everything.
“I believe in being up front with people. That’s the only way I’ve found that gets people to talk.” He ate the last bite of his roast.
He took his napkin out of his lap and stuck it on top of his plate. On a fly-by, Ben grabbed it, throwing it into the bucket of dirty dishes at the end of the counter.
“Everyone is going to know about it at Euchre tonight because everyone talks.” I followed his lead and put my napkin on my empty plate.
“We shall see.” He smiled. “That’s not always a bad thing. It gets people talking and sometimes you might hear something very important to the investigation, when they have no idea how important it is so when we ask them direct questions they leave the details out.” He jabbed the counter with his finger. “I have a feeling the smallest of details is going to help us solve the crimes.”
He sounded eerily like my Poppa.
“I’ll let you know.” I took a ten-dollar bill out of my pocket and stuck it on the counter before I got up. “It’s time for me to face them. Or you could go for me.” I grinned, letting my guard down a little bit. “They would love to see you rather than me. You have charmed them all with your city slicker ways.”
“Nah.” His eyes squinted when he smiled back at me. “I just follow your saying.”
“Saying?” I asked.
“I’ve heard you say you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. We shall see.” He reached around and pulled his wallet out, pulling out a ten-dollar bill and sticking it next to mine on the counter.
I couldn’t help but notice a picture in the plastic part where the license was supposed to go of a very pretty brunette with sparkling teeth like his and her arm snug around Finn’s waist, both of them standing on what looked to be a beach, crystal blue water behind them.
My heart suddenly dropped, and I sucked in a quick breath.
“Are you okay, Kenni-bug?” Poppa came to my side.
“So this sweetness to all the ladies is all an act?” I asked, figuring out Finn’s game.
“You gotta do what you gotta do to solve the crime, right, Sheriff?” He stood up, winked, and walked out.
“Thanks, Ben,” I shouted, a little more loudly than I should’ve, but Finn set me on fire.
I nearly knocked over the town troubadour and his stupid guitar when I rushed out of Ben’s.
I’d been starting to fall for his bullcrap act, just like all the other women in town. With each step to the Wagoneer the madder I got at myself for letting my guard down a little bit.
“I’m so stupid!” I screamed and slammed the door at the same time, hoping the slam drowned out my anger.
“You were listening to your heart.” Poppa sat next to me. “You have a little something for that boy.”
“No. I don’t.” My knuckles turned white as my hands gripped the wheel.
“Don’t tell me that.”
Poppa held onto the door when I turned left off of Main Street, taking a quick right on the town branch.
“I don’t have a thing for Finn.” I rolled my eyes. “He is going to march right on out of here after we solve the murder, so I can’t let myself fall for that perfect smile.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Poppa’s ghost looked a little scared when I brought the car to an abrupt stop right in front of Tibbie Bell’s house, flinging us both forward. “You need to cool off. Maybe a little something with this guy is what you need.”
I jerked the keys out of the ignition.
“Are you kidding me?” I looked over at him. Through the passenger window I could see Lulu and Ruby standing on Tibbie’s covered front porch waiting for someone to open the door, their hands loaded down with food. “First off, no way, and secondly, I don’t need advice from my Poppa’s ghost on my love life.”
I didn’t bother waiting for a response from him. I jumped out of the Wagoneer and grabbed my extra clothes I kept in a duffle bag. I made it to the front steps just in time for Tibbie to open the door and let everyone in.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Everyone else had already arrived at Tibbie’s for the Euchre game and was mingling around the food. Since I had already eaten supper, I figured I’d just go straight to the desserts after I changed into civilian clothes. It felt good to pull my hair out of its ponytail and let it hang down. I took the pin off my uniform and pinned it on my sweatshirt. I didn’t want to lose it.
Maybe being here at our Euchre circle, I could put the crimes and the ghost of my Poppa in the back of my mind. Sometimes when I didn’t think so hard, things would just naturally come to me. I hoped this was one of those times.
Just a couple hours with my friends was probably all I needed to feel normal again. What I wouldn’t give to go back to forty-eight hours ago when everything was boring.
“Kenni, I’m so glad to see you,” Lulu said when I walked into the room where the dessert table was located. She was peeling the Saran Wrap off of the glass plate of chess bars. “I’ve got an extra plate of chess bars in my car for that handsome cop that’s helping you. Don’t forget to remind me to give them to you.” She pulled her shoulder up to her ears and winked before she rushed off to talk to a few of the other ladies.
I forwent the chess bars, only because Finn had made a remark about them and I didn’t want to think of him, and went straight for the peanut butter brownies. One bite and I knew who had made them. Mama.
“I’m glad to see you are eating.” Mama’s voice escalated. “From the looks of you in that towel, I was afraid you weren’t.”
I shoved the rest of the brownie in my mouth and turned around, but not without glancing around the room to see if Dr. Houston was there yet. I still wanted to talk to her about our little conversation earlier in the day and see if she’d changed her mind on giving me some names of her clients that had partials and a chipped tooth.
“I’m eating,” I said, my voice muffled with chipmunk cheeks. A few pieces of brownie flew out of my mouth. Not to my surprise, Mama scowled, muttering something about manners, and threw her hand out in front of me, a pink and lime green bag dangling from her grip. I tossed my head back. “What’s that?” I asked, reluctant to take it.
Anything from my mama always came with a price. I had learned that lesson a long time ago.
“Towels.” The bag swayed back and forth like a pendulum, waiting for me to grab it so it could chop off my hand. “I knew you wouldn’t run out and get your own, so I went to Lulu’s Boutique and bought you a few.”
“But not without words!” Lulu yelled from one of the card tables set up in the room across the hall.
“Words?” My brows knitted.
“It’s nothing.” Mama giggled.
I grabbed the bag and opened it. There were four towels separately rolled and tied with a pink and lime green bow. I pulled one out and sat the bag next to my feet before uncurling it.
I had to admit, I liked the heavy cotton and the length was far longer than I was used to. I jerked the corner up to get a look at the monogram, only it wasn’t monogram.
“‘No holes?’” I asked, reading the words.
“It doesn’t have any.”
Mama reached around me and grabbed one of Lulu’s chess bars.
“Clever, Mama.” My lip quivered as I tried not to smile. From what I could recall, this was the first time in a long time Mama had tried to make a joke.
“See.” She reached out and placed her warm hand on my arm. “I can be witty.”
“Funny, not witty.” I patted her hand, a peace offering for the night.
“And if you just so happen to have an overnight guest,” her voice escalated, “he will have a towel to use.”
“Mama.” I tilted my head. I knew she was talking about Finn without her even having to say his name. “Are you kidding?”
“Well, he is a cutie.” Mama shrugged and quickly walked away. She always had to have the last word. “Plus, I can tell by how you look at him that you are a wee bit interested.” She held her finger and thumb an inch apart and up to her eyes before she turned and walked back into the game room.
I grabbed another brownie and stuffed it in my mouth.
A couple of other ladies came into the room and put a few items on small plastic plates. I moved to the side to make more room.
“I wouldn’t pee in her ear if her brain was on fire,” Ruby quipped, before snatching off a pig in a blanket hors d’oeuvre. “After all, she is her mama up one side and down the other.”
“Uh-huh.” Stella from the church circle nodded her head and piled one of everything up on her plate. “I about died when I pulled my cart right on up to the belt and placed my milk on it and heard her voice.”
“And that hair.” Ruby fluffed her bright red hair with the edges of her fingers. “It’s maroon and purple mixed together.”
“I’m telling you—” Stella started before Ruby interrupted her.
“She’s just like that no good mama of hers.”
Ruby nodded her head several times before Stella nodded back.
I wasn’t sure if Stella was being polite by giving Ruby the head nod back; Ruby’s nod was her way of telling Stella this conversation was between them. But we all knew it was Cottonwood gossip and would be spread around like manure.
“Whose voice?” I butted into a conversation I wasn’t even privy to. But I knew Stella and Ruby. They both loved to flap their jaws and a little bit of gossip might do my soul some good.
“Kenni, honey.” Ruby’s face held surprise. “I didn’t see you standing over there. Like you’re hiding or something.”
I smiled. “I’m not hiding.” I reached over and grabbed one of the pigs in a blanket. “Just grabbing some food when I heard you talking about somebody that I can only figure to be Toots Buford.”
It didn’t take a genius to know who had purplish hair around town. Only one person, and that was Toots.
“You can’t take us two old hens seriously.” Stella’s face quivered. The circles around her eyes deepened even more when she tried to smile.
“Who are you calling an old hen?” Ruby jumped around, flipped Stella off, and stomped off into the card table room.
Stella’s neck slowly moved up and down when she swallowed. I was good at reading people, and I was good at making them nervous.
“I’m glad Toots got her job back at Dixon’s Foodtown.” It was a big relief knowing the death of Doc Walton didn’t leave her without a job.
“She sure was rootin’ tootin’ mad and let everyone know how she got fired.” Stella leaned in. “I even found a business card of Dr. Shively in my grocery bag when I got home.” She pulled back, her eyes drawing down, and she tugged on the hem of her cardigan. “I know I didn’t put that business card in my basket.”
“What do you mean fired?”
My mind was still trying to wrap around the first sentence Stella spouted.
“Doc Walton fired her a week ago when she didn’t put away the files like she was supposed to.” Stella shrugged. “Not that I’m gossiping or anything, but you are the sheriff and Doc Walton is dead.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, knowing Toots was the second person at the crime scene, other than Sterling Stinnett.
“Hand to God. Over a week ago.” She threw one hand on her chest and one hand up in the air. “You know I’m a Bible-fearing woman. I would not pack a tale.”
“Oh, yes you would.” Poppa stood behind the dessert table. “I sure would like a piece of your mama’s peanut butter brownies. You know it’s a family recipe straight from my grandmother’s cookbook.”
“You are sure she w
as fired over a week ago?” I wanted to make very sure because this was the first I’d heard of it.
If that was the case, why was she at Doc Walton’s? Had she really come up on him? Was she really the one who killed him and when Stinnett found him, she was hiding? Maybe the tire marks had nothing to do with the murder. I mean, if Toots was mad about the firing, she could’ve confronted him that morning, stabbing him out of malice. Toots wasn’t very strong and the stab wounds weren’t deep. And she did have access to those thermometers. Heck, she could’ve bought thermometers at Foodtown.
Laughter brought me out of my thoughts. Viola White was sitting at one of the Euchre tables with my mom. She was grinning from ear to ear since she and Mama had just taken a trick from their opponents.
I looked back at Stella.
“I’m telling you, she was cussing Doc Walton up one side and down the other about how he fired her because she left out an important client file and he said how if it got into the wrong hands someone’s life would be altered forever.” Stella’s plate teetered, full to the brim, and she kept piling more on.
“Whose file was it?” I asked.
“I have no idea.” She shook her head. “Toots said she wouldn’t tell me, but it would come out soon enough.” Stella shook her finger at me. “Now this is between me and you.”
Slowly I nodded. I couldn’t wait to tell Finn. What did this mean? My heart raced. My nerves were on edge. Not only did Viola have a good motive to kill Doc, now Toots did too.
“I’m starving,” Stella said before she turned and headed back into the card table room, nearly knocking Tibbie over.
“Sorry, Stella,” Tibbie apologized after she rounded the corner so quickly without looking. “Okay, come on,” Tibbie said to me and pointed to the room with all the players, trying to get me in there so I could start my game.