by Tonya Kappes
“You buy your fresh produce from him?” he asked and reached for one of the crisps.
“I do,” I said and watched as TJ looked over the crisp.
Spencer glanced over at us, I caught his eye, giving him a nod. We’d been in this situation a few months ago when I found another body of a local woman.
He walked over to us with his notebook in his hand, a pen in the other. Pepper jumped to his feet. He really liked Spencer. Spencer squatted down, putting the pen and notebook in one hand and rubbed down Pepper’s wiry silver fur with the other.
“Ladies, TJ,” he greeted us with a low voice and stood back up.
“Sheriff.” TJ took the toothpick back out of his mouth and put it in the front pocket of his bibs. “Heart attack?”
“I’m sorry to say that it looks like a homicide.” The words stabbed my heart as they left Spencer’s mouth.
Tears welled up in my eyes. My throat caught a frog in it. No amount of swallowing was going to get rid of it. My nostrils flared as I tried to bite back crying.
“You mean to tell me that someone killed Fred?” TJ reached for a crisp and stuck it in his mouth. His appetite was not too bothered by the death of his neighbor.
“It appears that way, TJ.” Spencer drew his eyes down to me. “Can I talk to you first, Roxy?”
“Sure.” I nodded.
TJ took the plate from me before I followed Spencer to a spot a little ways from where Fred’s body was found. Pepper followed and laid down by my feet.
There was a small puddle of fresh blood. I tried not to look.
“What exactly happened here?” he asked.
The other members of the department worked around the crime scene collecting what looked to be evidence and taking all sorts of pictures. Another man had tied some of the crime scene tape around the trunk of one of the apple trees and walked in front of it as he marked off the crime scene.
“I’d forgotten to pay Fred for my apples I’d gotten from the Farmer’s Market, so I drove out here to give him the money and some of the crisps I’d made with his apples. I saw Louise’s car in the lot. Naturally I went into the shop he has in the barn and they weren’t there.” My lip curled in at the thought of what happened next. “Pepper took off toward the orchard, so I thought I’d find them here. It was then that I found Louise standing over his body,” I gulped, “holding the knife.”
He ran his hand through his hair.
“You know this doesn’t look good.” He tilted his head.
“Yeah. The fight I saw between them at the market and how he came to Pet Palace to confront her over coming on his property.” I grimaced.
“Did she say anything to you before we got here?” Spencer slightly frowned.
“No. She was visibly upset.” I nodded, imagining how she must’ve felt when she found him. “I know how bad it looks, but you can’t possibly think Louise did this. She’s much smaller than him.”
“We’ll see.” Spencer wrote in his notebook. I stood there while he did. He looked up and motioned for Louise to join us.
Louise fidgeted with her finger. She brushed down her clothes, tucked back her hair and even rocked back and forth on her heels.
“Are you okay?” Spencer asked.
She shot him a withering glance. “Okay? No I’m not okay. It’s not every day you happen upon a dead body. Especially one you know.”
“Why were you here?” he asked her a very good question, the answer to which I was even interested in.
“I was going to settle our argument once and for all.” Her chin thrust down with a definitive nod.
Spencer and I both looked at each other.
“Oh you know what I mean. I didn’t come here to kill anyone and I didn’t.” She protested our looks. “I might as well tell ya.” She huffed. “Bertie, Fred’s chicken was from Pet Palace. It took me a long time to place her, but Fred took her. He also informed me she’s some type of rare chicken and the eggs can sell for hundreds of dollars to the finest restaurants.” The muscles in her jaw quivered. “I let him adopt Bertie. Not the eggs that she laid. And it ain’t like she can’t lay more.”
“Bertie had eggs before Fred adopted her?” Spencer asked.
“She did. She had six eggs.” Her brows rose. “That’s six hundred dollars that I could possibly get for Pet Palace. I need the money. Funds are low and I have to pay Jeremy somehow. Shoot.” She scuffed the toe of her shoe in the gravel. “I don’t even know how Fred found out.”
“What happened when Fred asked you about it?” Spencer continued to write down everything Louise was saying.
“The first time he saw me on the boardwalk. I was taking a new pet to The Bean Hive for the week,” she started.
“What day was that?” he asked.
“Last Monday. I take all the animals to Roxy,” she pointed to me, “on Monday. And he was taking her some fruit.”
“That’s right,” I agreed when Spencer looked over at me. “I get fruit deliveries on Monday, except when the Farmer’s Market opens, which was yesterday.”
I wanted to make sure they were very clear on the timeline. I had a niggling suspicion that Spencer was already suspecting Louise as the killer and I just couldn’t imagine that.
“What did he say to you when he saw you on the boardwalk?” Spencer turned back to Louise.
“He said that he’d heard that Bertie had laid eggs. I didn’t deny it. That’s when he insisted the eggs were rightfully his because he adopted Bertie.” The more she told the story, the further up her shoulders got to her ears and the stress hung on her face. “I wasn’t about to give him the eggs. The adoption papers strictly say Bertie. Nothing was mentioned about eggs. I told him to keep her in the coop and she’d produce more.”
“What kind of chicken is Bertie?” Spencer asked.
“She’s a rare Ayam Cemani.” The breed rolled off her tongue.
“And how do you spell that?” Spencer looked at her from underneath his brows.
While Louise gave Spencer the correct spelling, I typed it into my phone. I’d never heard of such a thing, even in all my years in being a lawyer—granted that was in the city. But if this was some sort of rare bird, then maybe the real killer (because I refused to believe Louise would ever hurt someone) knew about the bird.
“They can fetch up to twenty-five hundred dollars.” Louise nodded.
That got Spencer’s attention.
“I thought you said a few hundred dollars?” He flipped back through his little notebook to see what he’d written down earlier.
“I said the eggs, not the actual bird. And that’s what I told Fred. He’s lucky I didn’t know what kind of chicken she was when I let him adopt her.” Her right brow arched. “I’d probably have done one of those online auctions to get more money for Pet Palace.”
“When was the next time you saw him?” Spencer decided to move on to the next confrontation.
We all shuffled into the shade. The afternoon sun was at its hottest and was beating down on the orchard.
“He showed up at Pet Palace when I wasn’t there. Jeremy said that Fred was demanding to see the eggs.” She held her hand over her brows to shield the sun as she twisted to look at the officers walking around and collecting whatever evidence they could find. “Jeremy told him he didn’t know what he was talking about, which he didn’t because I didn’t tell anyone since I wasn’t really sure on how to get rid of the eggs.”
“Where are the eggs now?” Spencer asked.
“They are at my house. I dared Fred to come there.” Her eyes narrowed. “Not that I’d kill him,” she tried to save herself. “The next time I saw him was yesterday at the market. I didn’t think he’d say anything, but he did under his breath. I just couldn’t take it anymore. Especially after he sic’d his lawyer on me.”
Spencer’s head jerked up and he looked at her.
“He had a lawyer?” he asked.
“Yep. Going to sue me.” She gulped. She brought her hand to her mouth. “Oh g
oodness. All of this does make me look guilty. I swear I didn’t kill him. You do believe me, don’t you?”
Interesting that Spencer didn’t answer her.
“Take me to today,” he suggested.
“The lawyer scared me. If he sued me, Pet Palace would definitely go under. So, I was going to come out here and try to make a deal. I’d give him half the eggs and call it good, but,” her voice faded and her eyes slid over to the spot where Fred’s body was found, “it looked like someone else had different plans for him.”
“Just tell me what happened today.” Spencer shifted his weight to his left hip.
“When I couldn’t find him in his orchard shop in his barn, I figured he was pulling apples. I walked back here and when I saw him lying on the ground, I immediately bent down to feel for a pulse. That’s when I saw the knife. I picked it up and that’s when Roxy called my name.” She looked at me.
“That’s when I called you,” I finished up the rest of the story.
“You. . .you believe me right?” Louise looked alarmed.
“Of course I do.” Spencer looked very sympathetic. “I’ll be in touch.”
“I’ll talk to you later.” I ran a hand down Louise’s arm.
She nodded. A tear fell down her face. She quickly wiped it away and darted off toward her car.
I let out a deep sigh of relief to hear Spencer say he believed her. My phone chirped a text. It was from Aunt Maxi. She reminded me of the Beautification Committee meeting in the afternoon that I’d completely forgotten about.
“Well? What do you think happened?” I asked, wondering if he had any more ideas.
“Not sure. But everything points to her.” He made a few notes in his little notebook.
“But you said you believed her.” I reminded him.
“To an extent I believe her. I don’t think she wanted to harm anyone nor do I think there was any sort of premeditation.” He shrugged.
“You really think she killed him?” My brows drew together.
“I’m not saying that either. I want to go see Jeremy about the confrontation between him and Fred.” Spencer flipped his notebook shut. “Listen, I know Louise is a good friend of yours, but I don’t want you to go sniffing around where you shouldn’t be. Please, leave this to me and my department.”
“Are you referring to Alexis Roarke?” I asked about the last murder investigation in Honey Springs when it just so happened that I’d done a little sleuthing on my own and found the killer.
“Yes.” He looked at me with big eyes.
“I stumble across things. What can I say?” I wasn’t about to promise anything. “Besides, I’m not snooping when people talk to me. I can’t close my ears when people are talking in the coffeehouse.”
“Good point. Just don’t go looking for answers.” His voice was stern. “Got it?”
I stood silent because I didn’t want to lie.
“How is your mother?” He changed the subject and walked me and Pepper back to our car.
“Mom,” I gasped. I’d completely forgotten about her being in town. “I’m not sure. I better check on her.” I gave him a wave, pulled my phone out of my back pocket and patted for Pepper to get into the car.
Seven
On our way back to the boardwalk, Pepper stood on the armrest of the passenger side door with his head stuck out of the window. My mind wandered all over the place. I’d had no idea Pet Palace was running low on donations. There were some people on the Beautification Committee that I could talk to about Pet Palace because they also volunteered there. Maybe they’d heard something.
I’d also tried to call my mom, but she still didn’t answer so I used the opportunity to call Patrick.
“Hey there.” The sound of his voice put a smile on my face.
“I’m so glad you answered.” Suddenly my eyes teared. The emotion of what happened to Fred was bubbling up in my throat. “Fred Hill is dead.”
“Really?” Patrick said not in a questionable way, but a shocked sort of tone. “That’s terrible.”
“That’s not the bad part. He was murdered.” The words left my mouth and my stomach dropped.
“My gosh, by who?” he asked.
“Not sure. Louise Carlton found him before I found her standing over his body with the knife in her hand.” I gulped back more tears.
“Don’t tell me that you were there before Spencer.” There was silence. “Roxy.”
“You told me not to tell you,” I simply stated. “I went out there because I realized I never paid for the apples we’d gotten from the Farmer’s Market and that’s when I found Louise standing over him.”
“Did they arrest her?”
“Arrest who?” I asked.
“Louise?”
“No. She didn’t kill him.” How could he possibly think that? “She was out there to make peace with him. It’s a long story.”
“Why don’t you tell me over dinner on the lake and some fishing tonight?” he asked. My heart jumped. Some alone time was probably exactly what I needed. “Your mom said she’d love it if that’s what you wanted to do.”
“My mom?” There went our alone time.
“Yeah. She called me this morning and asked me to take her to a car rental place so she could rent a car.”
“She called you and not me?” I asked.
“She said you were busy with work and she didn’t want to bother you.” He made her sound like a saint, which she wasn’t. “She’s going to be an awesome mother-in-law.”
I ignored his comment. He’d yet to get to know her.
“Did she say where she was going today because I’ve called her a few times and she’s not answered,” I said trying to be cordial.
She was avoiding me and I knew it. She didn’t want to be alone with me to answer my questions of where she’d been the past couple of years. Yes. Couple of years. Not to mention how I had to text her because she wouldn’t answer her phone calls because after I told her I was going to stop practicing law to open a coffee shop in Honey Springs, she’d nearly lost it on me.
“She said she had a few errands to run. That’s all. So what about tonight?” he asked.
“Yeah. Dinner and fishing is fine.” What happened to my plan of me getting to know him and not him getting to know my mother. I groaned. “I’ve got my Beautification Committee right now at All About The Details. After that I’m going back to the coffeehouse to finish up the rest of the day. What time did you tell Mom for tonight?”
“How about seven at my house?” he questioned.
“Perfect.” I grinned to myself and pulled into the parking lot of the boardwalk.
When Mom found out that the house that Patrick owned was Aunt Maxi’s house when I was a teenager and visited her, she’d see why I fell in love with Honey Springs. After all, she hates Honey Springs and I couldn’t help but think that was the source of all our issues.
Boats were coming in and out of marina, the boat dock and boat shop located underneath the pier. There were hundreds of boat slips where boaters stored their boats during the off season. Many of them rented cabins on the lake for the summer or actually owned a cabin. The people I’d bought my cabin from were summer citizens, as we liked to call them.
People were walking all along the boardwalk enjoying the summer day. Laughter filled the holler of the lake and bounced off the limestone walls as children and adults were jumping in and swimming. For a few minutes Pepper and I stopped and watched. It put a big smile on my face and brought back a lot of fond memories of when I was the same age as the kids.
All the shops looked to be busy. The first shop on the boardwalk was Wild and Whimsy Antiques. I’d gotten a lot of the items for the coffeehouse in there. All of my china cups and some of the older antique pieces came from there. The owners, Bev and Dan Teagarden, were always on the lookout for the perfect item for the coffeehouse. The Honey Comb Salon was next to the antique shop.
I peeked my head in to get my friend Crissy Lane’s attention.
Her lips were flapping a mile a minute while she snipped and curled her client’s hair.
“Hey, girl! I’m looking forward to tonight,” she called over the chatter of the gossip going on in there with all the women in the chairs.
“I can’t make it.” I frowned. “But Leslie wants to go, so go talk to her.”
“Whatever.” Crissy waved her scissors in the air and snarled.
“Be nice. She’s trying.” Leslie had thought she was too big for her britches when she first came back to lay her mom to rest. She’d not grown up in Honey Springs, but she was giving it a go now so it was time for us to move on and let her in.
“Fine.” Crissy looked at me with a flat look.
I laughed and headed on back down the boardwalk. The fries from Buzz In and Out Diner smelled so good. Pepper even stuck his nose up to the window of the diner.
“I’m hungry too,” I said to Pepper as we passed. “But we’ve got to get to the meeting.”
With no more dilly-dallying we quickly made our way down to All About the Details. It was the only event planning store in Honey Springs. They not only planned events, but they also hosted them in the shop. It was the biggest shop on the boardwalk. Of course it had to be if it hosted weddings. With the backdrop of Lake Honey Springs, it was a perfect wedding spot.
“Roxy!” Aunt Maxi was standing in the front, waving her arms above her head. Her hair was standing up, hairsprayed to high-heaven. She wore a floral printed caftan over a pair of white skinny jeans and white tank top. A color beaded necklace around her neck. “Over here!”
I waved and smiled, taking a step forward but abruptly stopped when someone else called my name.
“Roxanne! You-whoooo!” My mother stood on the opposite side of the room, drumming her fingers in the air. When she noticed that I saw her, she waved me over.
“Roxy! Here!” Aunt Maxi’s words were louder and much harder than they were earlier. “I’ve got your normal spot!” Aunt Maxi pointed.
“Here, Roxanne!” Mom straightened her shoulders as she glared at Aunt Maxi.