by Tonya Kappes
“Too?” she asked and put the bark on the table. She pointed for me to sit down.
“Otis, he always came in to get you a weekly treat and the other day,” I just realized it was the last time I talked to Otis alive, “when I offered to give him some Santa Kisses for you, he said that he’d been diagnosed as diabetic.”
“That’s news to me.” She fidgeted with the placemat in front of her. “Maybe he took your desserts to church. You know I couldn’t keep him out of that place.” She laughed. “That man would spend all day there on Sundays. I swear, I’m sure he’s holding hand with the Lord as we speak.”
“All day?” I questioned. Otis and I went to the same church along with all the people in Honey Springs. I never recalled anything going on there all day.
“Mm hmm. He loved all the activities. You know me, I don’t go to church. But Otis, he was always talking about it. Helping the elderly in the church always made me chuckle because we are the elderly.” She shrugged. “But every Sunday night, he’d Uber over here with some sort of amazing dinner.”
“Uber? Otis knows about Uber?” I asked and really couldn’t believe he was so hip.
“He did that a lot. He said he’d be able to have a beer with me since he wasn’t driving. Not that he ever had a beer, but I did.” She winked. “I’m going to miss that man. I made a big pitcher of sweet tea, would you like a glass?”
“No thank you. I just wanted to come by and tell you how sorry I am.” I wanted to tell her that Otis really loved and cared for her, but something told me that Otis kept some sort of big secret from her.
That wasn’t what I’d call love. What was Otis hiding?
We headed back toward the door. The TV in the family room was on and I noticed the photos hanging on the wall.
“Are these your family members?” I asked and loved looking at Otis in them. He looked so happy.
“They are. I’m truly loved. Look at him.” She pointed to Otis. “He loved being with my family. I can’t understand why he didn’t have any of his own. My son took to him like a duck takes to water.”
“I didn’t know you had a son.” I could see how happy everyone looked in the pictures.
“He lives in Tennessee. He’s on his way here now to be with me. Isn’t that sweet?” She frowned. “I just can’t believe he’s gone,” her voice cracked and she teared up.
The knock at the door caused her to gulp back a deep breath.
“Now I wonder who that could be?” She opened the door. “Spencer Shepard. Do come in.”
“I was just leaving.” I pointed to the door when Spencer gave me the what-did-I-tell-you look. He wasn’t amused with my presence.
“Why not stay and you two can enjoy the sweet treat you brought me,” Juanita offered.
“I’ve got to get back to the coffeehouse.” I gave Juanita a hug. “If you need anything, you let me know.”
“I will. And tell your aunt Maxi that Otis really did just love her. He thought she was a hoot and a half.” She squeezed me.
“Everyone thinks that.” I made my way around Spencer as I felt his eye bore into me.
“Isn’t that Roxy such a nice girl. So caring.” I heard Juanita say when I was walking back to my car.
“Caring,” Spencer said flatly.
Just as I thought I’d made it out to my car safely, Spencer was standing next to the passenger door gesturing for me to unlock it.
“I’m sure if I ask you what you’re doing here, you’d say it was a humanitarian visit.” He blew air from his mouth into his hands before vigorously rubbing them together.
“Humanitarian visit?” I laughed and turned the engine over, adjusting the vents to point to him. “I came here to offer my friendship and condolences.”
“You didn’t ask her any questions?” he asked.
“No. I don’t think she knows he was murdered.” I looked up at her standing at the glass storm door watching us.
“That’s why I’m here.” He looked at her too. “I’m worried how she’s going to take it.”
“Her son is coming in from out of town so I’m sure she’ll have some support.” I let out a heavy sigh.
“What?” He groaned. “That was an I-have-an-idea sigh that I’ve heard come out of you during my other investigations.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything.” I scooted in the driver’s seat to face him. “Every week Otis came in for special cookies for Juanita. At least that’s what he told me. He’d brag on how much she loved them. This week he was a little more distant and said he didn’t want any more cookies because he was diabetic.”
“I thought you said he got the cookies for Juanita.” Spencer caught on quick.
“It is what I said. So when I asked him about Juanita, he seemed confused and danced around the answer. It struck me as odd, so I just brushed it off. Everyone has an off day. But when I tried to give her some of the Christmas coffee bean bark and she said that she was diabetic.” My brows furrowed.
“So he meant that she’d been diagnosed as diabetic.” Spencer shrugged. “His words got mixed up.”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “Initially I thought that but then she followed up saying she’d been diabetic all her life.”
“Huh.” Spencer wasn’t going to tell me what he was thinking. This was the part that I didn’t like about him when he was investigating a case.
“That’s all you’re going to say?” I asked. “You’re not going to say that you think it’s weird too?”
“I don’t think that it means he’s dead because of it.” He put his hand on the handle. “Maybe the pastries he’s been getting from you were for him but he didn’t want everyone to know his business and maybe he did just get diagnosed with diabetes.”
He opened the door and got out.
“Just a reminder,” he bent down and looked at me letting the cold air whip in. “This is now a homicide and you need to stay far away from it and his shop.”
He didn’t even give me time to protest before he slammed the door and walked back up to Juanita’s house.
“Remember,” I mocked him and threw the car into drive. “Yeah. I also remember that you needed me the last two times you had a homicide.”
I gripped the wheel so tightly my hands were hurting by the time I made it to the satellite hospital site on the outskirts of town. It was a two-story, fully functioning unit that was part of the larger University Hospital in Lexington. It mainly served cases that weren’t long-term care or people they wanted to keep an eye on, like Loretta.
“I don’t want no Jell-o. Makes me feel like I’m on a diet or something.” Loretta’s voice echoed down the hall. “If you saw a dead man, you’d have passed out too. Now get these needles out of me and let me go home. Right this instant!”
I didn’t even have to ask the nurse’s station where she was because they all came running out of the room followed up by one of those plastic puke pans flying after them. The nurses scattered every which way.
“I told you to git!” She flung her finger out and pointed to me. Her mouth formed an O. “Roxy, I’m sorry. I thought you were one of them nurses.” She pushed herself up with her fists and scooted up on the pillow. “I can’t believe they won’t let me go home.”
“Well, maybe these will make you feel better.” I handed her the box of bark I’d brought from the shop. “Made just this morning. And since you didn’t get to come in for your jolt of coffee, it has French roast beans in it.”
“Gimme,” she wiggled her hands in front of her. She tore the box open and put a piece in her mouth. She mumbled, “It’s not so bad in here when I came to, but now I’m fine. I just want to go home and get a shower. People coming in and out and me looking like this.”
“You look great,” I lied for good reason.
Her short hair was plastered to her head. The blue hospital gown was not as fancy or attractive as her designer clothes, but her Cherokee natural glow that she claimed she got from her DNA had simply faded overnight.
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br /> “Mmm, these are delicious.” She closed her eyes. Her shoulders relaxed. “Now, tell me what’s been going on. Who was it under that tree?”
“Otis Peavler.” The chair legs screeched as I scooted it up to her bed. “And I hate to tell you this, but he was murdered.”
“Murdered?” She choked down the rest of the bark in her mouth. “Water,” she gasped and pointed to the plastic, pale yellow water pitcher.
Quickly I got one of the Styrofoam cups and filled it, rushing over to her before she really did need to be here. After she calmed down, she laid the back of her head on the pillow.
“I just can’t believe it. Who on earth wants to ruin me?” she cried out.
“Ruin you?” I wasn’t following her.
“You can’t tell me that there isn’t someone who wants me to look bad now that I’m the president of the beautification committee and putting a dead body under my tree is a good way to get back at me.” She completely took Otis’s death and twisted it around to be about her.
Typical Loretta.
“Loretta! You’re a genius.” I clapped my hands together and jumped up.
“I know.” She tipped her chin in the air. “You’re just now figuring that out?”
“You take care of yourself.” I waved bye to her.
“Wait! Leaving so soon?” Loretta screamed after me. “Nurse! Nurse! Call my doctor! I need to get out of here!” Her voice trailed all the way to the elevator.
I grabbed my phone out of my bag with one hand and continued to push the down button in the elevator like it was going to make it go faster. Nothing went fast in Honey Springs.
“Patrick.” I gasped after he answered his phone. “Whoever killed Otis Peavler wanted everyone to know.”
“What are you talking about?” Patrick sounded a little annoyed. “Don’t tell me that you’re investigating?”
“Okay, I won’t tell you but I do think whoever did kill him put him under the tree for a dramatic effect because whoever did it, wants everyone in Honey Springs to know that Otis wasn’t the model citizen everyone thought he was.” I hurried out into the parking lot to my car.
“Roxanne,” he meant business, “I’m asking you to stop and take a breath. I’ve picked up your tree for the cabin and I’ll bring take out from the Watershed.”
“Oh la-la, you’re really trying to get me to stop snooping around by bribing me with a fancy steak dinner.” I loved the Watershed and he knew it.
It was a very fancy restaurant on the opposite end of the boardwalk. The floating restaurant was so romantic and they even offered boat cruises with dinners that topped the romance department.
“Not true. I just figured we’d have a good time for our very first of many Christmas tree decoratings.” He made a warm glow take up space in my chest. “Good food and the start of a tradition with the woman I love sounds like a perfect evening.”
“So you don’t want to talk about Otis?” I teased before we hung up, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t stop thinking and analyzing all of Juanita’s words.
“I’ve changed my mind. We will decorate your tree and then go out to the Watershed.” He knew me all too well and knew if he had me out of the house and among people the likelihood of me talking the whole night about Otis was rare.
Six
“I’m telling you something isn’t right.” I motioned for Patrick to scoot the tree over a little bit more in the small family room of the cabin. “Otis kept secrets from Juanita, but I’m not sure what they are.”
Even the classic Christmas tunes Patrick was playing on Spotify, though they made me my heart sing, weren’t keeping my mind from the fact that someone had killed Otis.
“Why do you think that?” he asked and walked backward on his knees, jerking the tree stand a little more to the left. “A hunch?”
“Not so much a hunch, but the fact that she’s been a diabetic and he told me the cookies and treats were for her. Why would he even tell me a lie when I wouldn’t care? Unless he was trying to make himself feel better.” My head teetered from left to right. “A little more back toward the right.”
He stood up when he noticed I smiled at the perfect spot for the tree. He walked over and stood behind me. He wrapped his loving arms around me and rested his chin on my shoulder.
“That’s a beautifully shaped tree and perfect for people to see when they are coming down the road.” I loved going light site-seeing during Christmas and I was especially looking forward to it this year.
“Let’s put the lights on,” his words tickled my ear.
“Oh, the box is in my car.” I’d brought back the box with the extra ornaments I’d used to decorate the coffeehouse tree and the Teagardens had also given me another box that was just odd and ends.
While Patrick went back out the get the boxes, I gave Sassy and Pepper some kibble so they could eat before we left for the Watershed. Patrick still thought he could take me out of the house and get Otis off my mind.
“Do these lights work?” Patrick asked when he brought in the boxes.
“Yes. Aren’t they neat?” There were several strands of glass snowmen that had little blue lights in them. “The Teagardens said they got them from an estate sale where the elderly lady loved Christmas. The other box is filled with snowmen ornaments and I thought I’d just use them here since I’m dying for more snow.”
“Roxy, people around here will kill you if they hear you say that,” he joked and used the outlet strip to plug in the lights before I strung them around the tree.
He was so particular with how I did the electrical stuff around here since we’d just recently changed out the old knob and tube wiring. Instead of letting him dig into the walls, I had him replace what he could and he wasn’t happy with that. He wanted to do the whole house and put up all sorts of smoke detectors.
Sassy and Pepper happily gobbled up their food. I sang out the words to the music while Patrick hummed along, passing the lights around the tree to each other before we ran out of the strings.
With full bellies, Pepper and Sassy curled up on the couches in the family room with the wood stove emitting warm heat.
“This is pretty spectacular.” Patrick looked at me, the Christmas lights casting a glow around his face. “Me, you, them, the holidays.”
“A year ago if someone would’ve told me that I’d be this happy, I’d never have thought so.” I hung up the last ornament on the tree and walked over to get the angel. “Will you do the honor of putting the angel on the tree?”
“Is this going to be another tradition in the making?” He eyed me.
“I think there’s going to be so many traditions for us, that we’re going to so blissfully happy people will puke when they see us.” I handed him the angel and in return he gave me a kiss.
“We don’t have to go to the Watershed.” He stuck the angel on top of the tree and pulled me toward him. “I’m not all that hungry and I’d hate to disturb the dogs.”
“I do have some leftover quiches in the freezer that’d only take a few minutes to pop in the oven.” I teased back.
“And I did bring that extra bottle of wine.” His clasped hands cradled my back. He leaned his head to the side and looked out the window. “The roads could be getting treacherous with all the snow.”
“All the snow?” I laughed because there was just the dusting.
“Mm hmm.” He nodded, pulling me into him was his answer.
Seven
“That wasn’t easy.” I fastened my seatbelt after I’d gotten Sassy and Pepper into the car without waking Patrick up.
One bottle of wine turned into three and we ended eating up everything I’d had in the freezer before we just passed out from a food coma. It was the most fun night I’d had in a long time, not that we didn’t have a lot of fun times. Until a couple of weeks ago my mom had been living with me until she’d found herself the perfect Cape Cod in town.
Recently she’d just gotten her real estate license and in a tourist town li
ke Honey Springs, most people were looking to purchase or rent starting in the spring, not so much the middle of winter or this close to Christmas. That’s why she was able to help out in the Christmas booth.
Patrick’s day off was today and I didn’t want to wake him since I still had to go to work by four-thirty. He’d worked so hard over the past couple of weeks to get Christmas In The Park ready by erecting all the booths, running the electric, setting the lights up and the trees, he deserved to sleep in before the big Christmas Pawrade. That’s why I took Sassy and Pepper with me.
It didn’t dawn on me how Felix would react when Sassy came into the coffeehouse until he went crazy and climbed the Christmas tree in fear.
“She’s a good girl. I know her size intimidates you, but you’ll love her.” I’d parted the branches and tried to reason with the cat, but his claws dug into the trunk told me he wasn’t budging and I wasn’t going to be able to plug in the tree lights.
“We’ll let him be.” I patted a very curious Sassy on the head and headed back to the kitchen to get the treats ready to take down to Camey before her guests would be wide awake and want their coffee.
I grabbed my apron and put my phone in the front pocket in case Patrick called. I didn’t want to miss his good morning greeting.
While the carafes of the Christmas Harvest blend coffee brewed as well as some decaf and dark French roast, and more Santa Kisses were baking in the oven as well as heating up the usual seasonal items like the pumpkin muffins, honey Christmas cake slices, I knew the Pralines Liqueur Cake would be a hit today at the coffeehouse and the Cocoon. There was something about pecans that we loved in the south and this was the perfect cake to warm up with in this weather.
I quickly put the pecans in the processor and got those chopped while I combined the yellow cake mix (instead of flour), eggs, water, vanilla pudding, and oil. While those ingredients were mixing in the mixer, I greased up several Bundt cake pans and filled the bottoms of them with the pecans.