by Misty Simon
“Monty said you’re down on your luck and here for a fresh start. It’s a good town, even if we do have a smidge of trouble now and again.”
Understatement of the year. But if Burton bought it, and had already checked up on him and found him okay, then that was one less thing I had to explain. I’d take my blessings where I could get them at this point.
“So what’s up?”
Burton lost his smile as he stared at me. “Katie wants to file a restraining order against you for stalking her and assaulting her in Gina’s coffeehouse.”
I about came out of my chair before Max put a restraining hand on me.
“I wouldn’t call Katie nearly making Tallie bald and spitting at her a crime against Katie,” Max said. “Gina and I couldn’t get her to stop. I had to physically pull her off Tallie.” Max kept his hand on my arm.
Burton’s trusty little notepad came out. He licked his finger and turned to a fresh page. “And you were involved how?”
Max cleared his throat. “I was in the coffeehouse when I saw Katie go after Tallie. I tried to stop it as quickly and peacefully as possible.”
“Katie says you threw her down on the ground after forcibly carrying her from the store. She says she will have bruises tomorrow to show for it.”
“Yeah. If she uses that cosmetology degree and paints them on,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Care to share with the class, Tallie? Don’t be shy now.” Burton’s bushy gray eyebrow went up, and I bit my lip.
“There’s no way she has bruises. You want to put a restraining order on me, then I’d like to return the favor. I don’t want her within a hundred feet of me. She’s crazy and there’s something more going on with her story than she said. Those knots around her wrist were barely tight the night in the coffeehouse. She could have gotten out of them herself. And I’m not even sure she was really knocked out when I came in.”
“What do you mean, there’s more to her story?” Burton’s pen poised over his notebook.
I wasn’t sure if I should plunge in now that I’d started. Could this get me into more trouble? Shouldn’t I just stick to what I knew?
But Burton was looking intently at me and I couldn’t back down now.
“I know I yanked tape off her mouth, but she could have slapped that on herself. And the way those ropes were tied, it’s very possible she put them there herself. She could have tied a slipknot and jerked it tight with her teeth. I don’t remember what kind of knot it was since I was trying to get her free, but I do remember thinking she could have gotten free on her own. And she kept saying she didn’t know Waldo, but now I’ve seen her at his house, and both she and Waldo asked if I was jealous of them.”
“Are you?” Burton asked.
It took all I had left not to scream. “For the last time, I am not jealous. I left that bastard first, and if he wants to set up with Katie, let him. No skin off my nose.” Although that wouldn’t be entirely true if the tax thing came true and we owed a lot of money. Then I was sure I’d hear it from Katie about how I was sucking Waldo dry of money.
“And what do you think that has to do with Waldo being out back of the Bean and Katie being inside?”
The opening I was hoping for had just arrived! “See, I did Waldo’s laundry after the incident. There were no drag marks on his pants at all. And when I went searching through the pockets to make sure nothing went in the washer that shouldn’t have, I found this.” I produced the receipt for dinner with Darla from my back pocket. Now if only he’d go for it.
“Isn’t that the same receipt you told me you found in your car?” He eyed the slim piece of paper skeptically as he used two fingers to take it from me.
Quick, quick, quick, something brilliant . . . “I was afraid if I told you how I’d really found it, you would be angry. But you’re angry and gunning for me anyway, so what do I have to lose? I also figured that if I left it with Waldo he would destroy it, because it’s evidence that he was with Darla two days before she was killed.”
“The baked potato again? It’s not exactly foolproof evidence, since I can’t ask Darla about it.” To say the skepticism was thick in the room was an understatement. I turned to Max, but he was no help as he shrugged his shoulders.
“But you could ask the maître d’, or ask Waldo, for heaven’s sake.”
“I’m not asking him anything more than I have to at the minute. He’s not only a suspect, he’s also a victim. That’s a tricky line, Tallie.”
I deflated against the back of my chair. Of course, Waldo would stick with the victim line, especially if it would throw off more suspicion on him being Darla’s killer. Maybe Darla had known about the secret stash of money the government and I were looking for, and that’s why she’d threatened him. Time to bring out the second piece of evidence, though I didn’t know if it was going to go as well as the first.
“I also have this, if you’re interested.” I stood and pulled out the invoice from my pocket, then waited for the yelling to begin.
“What have you been doing?” Burton yelled.
“Let me explain: I was cleaning Darla’s house and trying to pick out an outfit for her to be buried in as Darren asked, when I saw this in her closet.” That wasn’t entirely untrue. I just didn’t specify which closet or the fact that it was hidden. Here, I had to be very careful. “I saw this shipping receipt like it and it’s the same kind of paper. So I think Darla wrote the threat to Waldo. It might explain how he got out there and was stunned.” I sat down again and waited for him to go at me again.
The lecture didn’t come. He just dragged a hand from his receding hairline to his chin and shook his head. “You sure you don’t just want to do my job for me? Looks like you have more than I do.”
I shrugged helplessly. “I’m sorry. I kept meaning to give them to you, but you wouldn’t listen and you kept telling me you were going to pin me with this no matter what.” There were other reasons, but that one worked as good as any other. Like Darla’s secret room and secret identity, but I was not ’fessing up to that. I’d lead him to it somehow if I ever figured out a way to get him to think of it himself.
“I guess I’ll have to take this back to the station and perhaps lean on Waldo more than I thought.”
“And don’t forget Katie. She might have seen Darla and Waldo together and that’s why she pretended to be tied up. Darla could have promised her money if she’d keep her mouth shut.”
I had been thinking about that since the confrontation in the Bean. Katie had never really looked scared except for when it was apparent I was going to rip the tape off her lips. The more I thought about it, the more it felt like the whole thing had been staged. There had been no lights on in the Bean when I’d entered, so Katie could have watched me approach and been quick to tie herself up, wanting to get caught and knowing Waldo was out in the alleyway. But why would she want to get caught? She could have just left with no one the wiser. And perhaps she would have, if I hadn’t come in at that moment.
Honestly, though, this was a matter for the police. Burton could handle it.
“I’ll have another talk with her, but again, we have the victim thing. I talked to the others in the shop and they agree with you, but I have to investigate fully before I dismiss her claim. She says you assaulted her and so did your boyfriend here. Not to mention you’re already in trouble for enough other things that I just don’t have time to list, young lady.”
A blush warmed my chest. Max was not my boyfriend and I did not need the reminder.
“She might not be a victim at all, she might just be playing one. And what if she had something to do with Waldo’s stunning? Hell, she could have stunned him herself, then run in and tied herself up.”
“I highly doubt that.”
In the face of Burton’s skepticism, I gained steam.
“No, it could make perfect sense. She stuns Waldo because he isn’t returning her affection, or something, and then realizes she made a huge mistake in doing it, so
pretends to be a victim. What better way to throw suspicion off herself?”
“Have you been watching the Crime Channel again?” Burton stuck his notepad in his pocket and I deflated with the action. He wasn’t taking me seriously and probably wouldn’t look into Katie at all. I was left holding the bag, yet again.
“Fine, Burton. Don’t take me seriously. But I bet when you figure all this out, things are going to come to light that you hadn’t realized.” I turned to Max, scooping up the plate of cookies. Burton wasn’t getting any now. “Let’s go, unless you have things you want to say about me being crazy too?”
“Nope, not me.” Max raised his hands in the air in surrender, and I stalked out of the parlor.
“Get me that restraining order,” I called over my shoulder before stuffing a snickerdoodle into my mouth. I needed thinking food and this was better than nothing.
Max followed. “I think you’re smart to get that restraining order now. I wasn’t kidding that Katie was saying awful things. What if she killed Darla because she thought she was seeing Waldo? She could come after you next.”
Yikes, I hadn’t thought of that. Now I really wanted that restraining order. If Katie was a killer and I had pissed her off today, there could be graver consequences than I had considered.
“I’ll come with you to the station to fill out the restraining-order paperwork, Burton,” I said as I walked back into the room to find the chief of police right where I’d left him. “If you think of any other questions, I can answer them while we’re there.”
“That’s the first agreeable thing you’ve said this whole time,” he said.
Max snickered and I elbowed him. He might have been silent the whole time he’d been sitting there, but I had been far too aware of him. I could use the time at the station to rid myself of those thoughts.
* * *
After leaving the station, I never broke stride, or looked back to see if Max had followed. As I filled out the restraining order, I’d told Burton that maybe he should be also looking into Darla’s past. It had been the best I could come up with, but vague enough to not get myself into more trouble. At least not at the moment.
I headed directly for the Bean. Do not pass Go. Do not collect the 200 dollars, which I had a feeling would be a mere atom in the amount of debt I’d be racking up when the tax bill came. Even more if I was tagged with the embezzlement too.
My stomach heaved at the prospect, but I kept it in check as I walked through the front door of the coffeehouse and drew in a deep breath. Someday I would love to own my own tea shop. It wouldn’t smell quite like this and would offer less in the way of food, but it would still be mine. And I could run it as I saw fit, with nary a dead body in sight.
“Tallie, I was just going to call you.” Gina smiled, but her tone was strained as color streaked her cheeks.
“What’s up?”
Gina kept smiling even though it looked like it was about to break her face. “Why don’t you come on back? I have something you might want to see.”
Strange, but okay. Gina’s behavior was totally out of whack, so I hustled along, not wanting my friend’s face to actually shatter under the strain of whatever was bugging her.
Once I got within arm’s length of Gina, the woman dragged me into the kitchen, then shoved me onto a stool.
“What on earth is going on and why are you all agitated? What could have happened within the last thirty minutes?”
“You know Ellen, that woman from the auxiliary thing?”
“Yes.”
“Well, she was telling some of her friends that maybe you were the one who tried to kill Darla because you’d had enough of working for a living and wanted another man to take care of you. She thinks you want Darren and are seducing him, and that’s why he sent you flowers. Because you weren’t only cleaning his drawers, but perhaps in them too.”
I saw red. I had not actually believed that euphemism was true. But now I knew that if you got angry enough, you really could have red tinge around your vision. “She what?”
“You heard me. Now get yourself calmed down enough to hear the rest.”
“I don’t think I can handle any more. I have to clean that woman’s house tomorrow and now I might want to spit in her shampoo.”
Gina snickered.
I held back for about two seconds, but couldn’t help myself. I laughed too. “All right—I won’t actually do anything like that, but it’s tempting.”
“The question is why. Why would she say something like that?”
“I have no idea. I always thought we were on perfectly good master-and-servant terms. Especially since she treats me like I’m invisible. So the only thing different here is that I got flowers from Darren and now she’s made me a slut.” I took a few moments to think about it as Gina stared at me.
“Do you think she’s the one who wanted Darren and thinks I’m taking him out from under her?” That would be ridiculous, but what other explanation could there be?
“It would make sense in a weird, rich-people way. I don’t get how half of them stay with their husbands.”
“Anyway,” I continued, “I’m not looking for any more trouble. I think Burton will have a fit if I bring him anything else.” I said the words, but inside I was dying to know why Ellen assumed I was cleaning more than Darren’s house. And even if I had—not ever going to happen, but worth following the train of thought—why would it be any of Ellen’s business? She and Darla had never been friends, ever.
Gina raised an eyebrow as she looked over my shoulder. I didn’t have to ask who was striding in behind me. Just the tread of Max’s shoes was enough to give him away. And since when did I know a man simply by the way he walked? I needed to slow my roll, or I was going to get into something I might not be able to get back out of. I had enough of that already.
“Can I talk with you for a moment, Tallie?” Max said in his deep voice, which did things it shouldn’t, like awaken parts of me that shouldn’t just be dormant but dead like roadkill.
I put on my best fake smile and turned to him. “Sure.” I turned back to Gina and dropped the smile to plead with my eyes for her to get me out of this. Gina just smiled back, the brat.
“I’ll bring you two some lattes. It’s quiet in here so you can take the booth over there if you want.”
Max was already heading in the direction of Gina’s nod, so I had little choice but to follow.
“So who’s this society dame who thinks you’re sleeping with the dead woman’s husband?” he asked as he slid into one side of the booth.
“How long were you standing in the shop before your shoes announced you?”
“I wasn’t standing there at all. Monty got the call from Ellen about Darren’s flowers when I was standing at his counter. I could hear her from across the room berating him for allowing his business to cater to home wreckers.”
My God, what had I done in a previous life to deserve all this crap at once? And if that woman lusted over Darren, I couldn’t imagine what she would think about the prime specimen sitting across from her.
I immediately bit the inside of my cheek at that thought. It would only get me into more trouble.
“It’s just Ellen. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Apparently, the bouquet you brought me this morning from Darren set her off. I don’t know why.”
“She might be someone to look at then. If she knew Waldo went to dinner with Darla and she had interest in Darla’s husband, there could be a very strange love square there we shouldn’t dismiss.”
“Ellen’s alibi for that morning is her husband. I can’t imagine she’d kill Darla for her husband when she already has one of her own. What would she have gained?”
“People do a lot of stuff in the name of passion, Tallie.”
Why did he have to say my name in a way that made me think of hot drinks and hot nights? I hadn’t thought of those things in almost three years.
“And how would that connect with Waldo and the
money?” I asked, wanting to get back on topic and out of my thoughts.
“It doesn’t have to all be connected, you know.”
“We haven’t had many unexplained deaths, especially by mysterious and violent means, in the last few years that I know of, so this is different enough that maybe it was someone else. Someone Burton doesn’t know.” Which immediately led my thoughts back to how I’d come up with a way to get Burton to think of the Darla/Marla thing on his own.
“Or maybe Katie wanted Waldo and Ellen wanted Darren and they were working together.”
Like I needed one more person to worry about.
Gina joined us after a moment. I gave her the rundown from the station.
“And then he kept asking if I knew anything else.” I stirred a pumpkin-flavored straw in my mocha. Of course I did know more, I just wasn’t telling.
Hopefully, I’d led Burton down the right path when I mentioned that perhaps he should take a look into Darla’s past. I had been very convincing, if I did say so myself, when I said I didn’t remember Darla coming onto the scene until after Waldo and I had married. I also mentioned she seemed to have no family, but had supposedly gone to one of the best schools in the area.
Hopefully, it was enough to get Burton looking in the right direction. If it wasn’t, then at least I had tried.
There was a bit of a lull in the Bean There with it being two in the afternoon. The early birds had left and the after-work crowd hadn’t yet shown up, so Gina and I sat in the main part of the Bean, talking. Max had gone out to take a call from Monty, but I knew he was watching through the front window because I hadn’t taken my eyes off him the whole time.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not telling me or Burton everything you know?” Gina got up to wipe down the counter with a purple rag.
“Can you keep a secret?” I asked, leaning in close and looking away from Max.
Gina leaned in closer until we were nose to nose. “Of course I can.”
“So can I,” a deep voice said from the front door.
I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms. When had his phone call ended? Shouldn’t he be out playing Spreadsheets and Numbers? It was an irrational thought, but I was feeling irrational with the shitstorm that was swirling around in my previously boring life.