by Peggy Dulle
“I wonder why?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Sally was killed in a fire in her home about a year ago.”
“Six months before Danielle came up here.”
“That’s about right.” He made some notes in the file. “Well, I don’t see anything broken, just bruised and sore. I’m a little concerned about your head but you don’t appear to have a concussion. I’ll give you a stronger pain killer and something to help you sleep at night.”
I thought about Shelby. “Thanks. My dog was in the accident with me. Could you give me something for her? She’s not complaining but she’s walking slowly.”
“Let’s bring her in and make sure she doesn’t have any broken bones. Sometimes dogs will break a bone and not even let you know. They have a pretty high tolerance for pain.”
He pushed a button on the wall and a woman answered. “Yes, Doctor?”
“Would you bring in this woman’s dog? I’d like to check her out, too.”
“I’ll bring her right in.”
Shelby walked in a few seconds later. As soon as she saw me she barked and wagged her tail.
The doctor laughed. “Well, those two parts work well.” He bent down and examined Shelby. Then he looked up at me. “She seems fine. But I’ll give you a mild coated aspirin to give her, too.”
“Thanks, I really appreciate it. You’re the local doctor, vet and coroner. That must keep you busy.”
He smiled and nodded. “It does.”
“Although in a town this small, you probably don’t have much coroner’s work.”
“Not really.”
“Was there anything unusual about Sally’s death?”
The doctor stood and looked at me. “Danielle asked me that same question.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I’ll tell you the same thing I told her. Sally died from smoke inhalation.”
“Was she found in her bed?”
“No, on the floor of the dining room.”
“So she probably got out of bed when the fire started.”
“Probably.”
“Did she have any other marks on her?”
“Such as?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Something that would have made her pass out in the dining room before she inhaled the smoke.”
“Actually, she did. She had a contusion on the back of her head.”
“How would have that happened?”
“We figured she was asleep when the fire started. By the time she woke up, the house was probably engulfed in flames. There would have been boards coming down everywhere. One of them probably hit her on the back of the head and she passed out. Then the smoke got into her lungs and she died.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Better that way than fully conscious and dying from smoke inhalation.”
“I suppose.”
He handed me a prescription. “You can get this at the local pharmacy downtown.”
“Can they fill the one for Shelby, too?”
“You can get that over the counter.”
“Thanks, Doc.”
“You’re welcome.” He turned back before he left the room. “Now that you’re here, are you going to stay for the festival?”
I chuckled. It was that déjà vu thing again. “Yes, I’ll probably stick around a few days.”
“Great, I’ll see you at the fairgrounds. Let me know if any of your pains or aches get worse.”
“Okay, Doc.”
I dressed back in my clothes, wondering about Danielle and Sally. I remembered from an old episode of “Law and Order” that fires are only caused by three things: an accident, for the insurance money, or to cover up another crime. Which was the real cause of Sally’s fire?
Chapter 6
When Shelby and I came out of the doctor’s office, Bill put down the magazine and came toward me. “Are you ready for lunch?”
I held up the prescription. “Drugs first, then food.”
Bill laughed. “Okay. But the pharmacy is on the other side of town.”
I cringed. “How far?”
“Another eight blocks down the road.”
I shook my head. “Oh, no. I couldn’t do that. Do you have your tow truck close?”
“No, but Kate’s car is back at the motel. You can use it while you’re in town. She’s grounded, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” I put my hand on his arm. “Thanks, Bill.”
We walked back to the inn. Sitting in front of the office was a red mustang with the license plate “KATESRD.” I pointed to the plate. “Kate’s ride?”
He shrugged. “I spoil her.”
“She seems like a good kid.”
“She usually is.”
“Except that sneaking out at night thing.”
Bill’s brows furrowed together. “Yeah, there is that.”
“Do you think she’s learned her lesson?”
“Who knows? I hope so.” Then he smiled. “I put an alarm on her window, so she can’t sneak out that way anymore.”
“I like a dad that’s prepared.”
“I just know my kid. It’ll take getting caught a few times before she gets the message.”
“Does she know about the alarm?”
“Oh, no. What fun would that be?” He winked at me. “Let’s go get you some drugs and then food.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Bill opened the door and pulled the seat forward for Shelby to get into the backseat. Then he held the door while I slowly got into the car. It was low to the ground and I wasn’t looking forward to getting out again. As he drove down the street, I looked around. It really was a nice little town. All the businesses seemed newly painted and remodeled, the streets were clean and the light poles decorated for the festival with red, white, and blue banners. A few minutes later we pulled into the parking lot of the drugstore. Instead of parking, Bill drove around to the back.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
He glanced up at the building. “We have a drive-up window for the pharmacy.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“I thought you would appreciate it. Maybe the drugs will take effect before you have to climb out of this car again.”
“That would be great.” Actually, I felt worse. All that pulling, prodding, and pushing by the doctor made my muscles feel like they were on fire. At least I didn’t have a headache – yet.
A few minutes later, I downed several pills and gave a couple to Shelby, too. Bill drove us back to the inn, so I could let Shelby lie down for a while. When I opened the door to the room, she took a few bites of food, drank some water and then lay down on the floor. She obviously didn’t have the energy to get on the bed. I petted her on the head. “I’ll see you in a little while, girl.”
She leaned up, licked my face, closed her eyes, and went to sleep. It looked inviting. My pills had started to make me drowsy, too. But my stomach growled and it needed food. Maybe I’d take a nap after lunch.
Bill drove us to Diane’s Diner in the center of town. It was decorated in a 50’s motif. Large cardboard records hung from the ceiling and the waitresses were dressed in poodle skirts and white shirts. Bill walked to a booth in the back and I followed. I raised my eyebrows at him. “Your usual table?”
“Yep.” He grinned. “One of the luxuries of living in a small town.”
“I like small towns.” I pointed toward the street. “Yours is very neat and clean, too.”
“That’s because of the festival. Two weeks before it begins they start painting buildings, cleaning up the street, and generally making everything look clean and new. It’s our only tourist season and we try to attract as many people as we can.”
A waitress in a pink skirt came over. She smiled at Bill. “Your usual, Bill?”
“Yep,” he nodded, then added, “please.”
She started to hand me a menu, but I held up my hand. “What do you usually have, Bill?”
“Chili burger, frie
s and a Coke.”
“Make mine the same, but a Diet Coke.”
The waitress smiled. “Good choice.” Then she left.
“So, Bill, tell me about the eating contests.”
“Okay. The festivities start tomorrow. Each day there is a different eating contest. The preliminary trials are at three and then the final events are at seven in the evening. During the day there’s a carnival, booths, and lots of food to eat.”
“What eating contests are there?”
“Monday is hotdogs, Tuesday is BBQ ribs, Wednesday is French fries, Thursday is cheese pizza, Friday is hot chili peppers, and then the final event is on Saturday. That’s when the apple pot contest is.”
“That’s a lot of food. Does everyone participate in every event?”
“Some of them do, but usually they specialize in just one of the events. Everyone does the apple pot contest on Saturday.”
“Are there prizes?”
“Of course, trophies and money are awarded to the top three eaters in each contest. The apple pot contest on Saturday has the largest cash award and is televised, so everyone is here for that. But the streets will start to fill up tomorrow. Clainsworth has a population of around twelve thousand. By Saturday there will be three times that number of people here.”
“Wow, I never thought eating contests were that big.”
“As I said, it’s our main source of income for the town, so we play it up big.”
Our sodas finally arrived and we sipped them while Bill kept talking. “We’ve been having the festival for over twenty years. Before that there was a huge lumber mill and mining operation that kept the town going. Now we just have the festival.”
“And it brings in enough money for the entire year?”
“Yes. Everyone in town has some kind of booth, and they take the proceeds at the end of the festival and divide it up among the town’s people. I usually get a check for almost a hundred thousand dollars.”
“Wow! That’s more than I make in two years.”
“Maybe you should move to Clainsworth, get a booth, and a check.”
“That’s unbelievable.”
“Wait until you see how many people come to this festival. You won’t be able to walk on Main Street by Thursday.”
The waitress brought our food and the chiliburger was fabulous. For dessert, we ordered apple pots. It tasted exactly like the one I ate at the pizza parlor and the napkins boasted the same recipe. But this time I got my own.
When we finished our apple pots, Bill handed me his empty pot. “Now you’ve got a set of three and working your way towards eight.”
“Why eight?”
“I don’t know. That’s just what we tell people. I guess we figure most tables hold eight people, so you’ll need at least that many so each guest can have their own.”
I turned the apple pots over in my hand. They were identical to the one I got at the pizza parlor. “Are all the apple pots exactly the same?”
“Mostly. But there are several other kinds that get sold at the festival, more elaborate than these. There are even some with gold inlaid in them. Those are really expensive. I don’t have any of them, but I have about twenty of these.”
“It’s all about what’s inside rather than what it looks like, as far as I’m concerned. And these do just fine.”
“That’s my thinking too. But some people come each year just to see what new apple pots are available.”
All of a sudden the food and the drugs hit me. I was really exhausted. “Bill, can you take me back to the hotel? I’d like to take a nap.”
“Sure. Do you want to drive yourself and I’ll get the car later this week from you?”
“Not today. I think the drugs are finally kicking in and I don’t want to drive.”
“Okay, I’ll take you and I can leave the car at the inn. Then when you get up you’ll have a way to get around town.”
“Thanks.”
As we walked down the aisle, Bill spotted his brother, Jimmy, sitting with several other officers. They nodded at each other and Jimmy motioned for us to come over.
We walked over to their table. Everyone nodded at each other and Jimmy pointed to me. “This is Liza Wilcox, the woman I told you about. She’s a friend of Danielle Slammers and is here looking into her murder.”
An obese older officer who sat next to Jimmy tried to smile but it looked more like a sneer. “My name is Lieutenant Damson. I’m in charge here. And I’m sorry to say that we never could figure out what happened to her. It was probably a vagrant passing through. We never even had a suspect.”
“That’s what Jimmy told me.”
Jimmy leaned toward me. “Did you find out anything yet?”
“It seems that Danielle asked a lot of questions about a woman named Sally.”
Lieutenant Damson laughed loudly and the other officer joined in. All except Jimmy, who seemed confused. He looked at them and said, “What?”
“Crazy Old Sally? She was a nutcase.” The lieutenant slapped the table and laughed harder, then finally continued, “She always called us in the middle of the night to say she heard noises coming from the woods, or the town, or her barn. It was ridiculous the number of false alarms we investigated out at her house.”
The other officers piped in. “I remember once, she called at midnight saying that ghosts were creeping all around the town. She said she could see them sneaking in and out of buildings.” He laughed. “She was just plain crazy.”
They all laughed at Sally and it made my stomach tie up in knots. Maybe she was old, maybe she did see things, but that’s no reason for them to laugh at her. Jimmy looked uncomfortable, too.
Bill tapped me on the shoulder. “Let’s go, Liza.”
I nodded at the men. “It was nice meeting you.”
The lieutenant glared at me. “This is festival week, little lady, so there are a lot of people coming to this town. Since you’re a woman alone, you should be careful. I can’t be held responsible if you find yourself in trouble, especially if you’re planning to poke into things that don’t concern you. And if you’re going to be out at night, make sure you have an escort.” He looked over at Bill. “You can make sure she’s not alone at night, right?”
“Sure, Lieutenant.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Just trying to keep you safe, little lady.” He sneered and said in a patronizing voice that made my skin crawl.
“Thanks.” I turned and stormed out of the diner. I could hear the lieutenant and the officer next to him snickering.
I opened the door and got into the Mustang. Bill got into the driver’s seat. He touched my arm and I jumped. “Sorry about the lieutenant. He’s a little pompous.”
I looked at him. “You think?”
“Well, the gist of his warning was correct. The festival does bring in some unsavory characters and you shouldn’t be wandering around at night.”
“Unsavory characters like to go to eating contests?”
“Well, no. But any festival tends to draw some nasty people. They usually hang out at the carnival, but that doesn’t mean they don’t wander around the town looking for trouble.”
Bill took me back to the hotel, gave me the keys to his daughter’s car, and went back to his garage. I went into the room, took Shelby for a short walk, and then lay down on the bed.
What had I learned so far? Did Danielle come to Clainsworth looking for Sally? Were the two deaths related? Did it have anything to do with the festival? Was I just threatened by Lieutenant Damson? I thought so. Maybe I was on the right trail, even though I had no idea what trail that was!
Chapter 7
I woke up three hours later, stiffer than when I went to bed. The drugs must have worn off. This time I only took one. After a quick shower to wake up again, Shelby and I went for a walk down Main Street. The afternoon was warm with just a slight breeze.
Everything looked new, from the buildings to the sidewalks. Of course, if they had both
ered to fix the potholes in the roads outside of town, maybe my car wouldn’t have ended up in the ditch. I would mention that to Bill next time I saw him as a suggestion for next year.
In the third block down I passed Ida’s Café and then spotted an ice cream parlor, I went in. Nobody should resist ice cream when they’re on vacation. I tied Shelby to a post outside the shop, went in, ordered a triple scoop of chocolate ice cream, and sat down at the counter. The clerk and I were the only people in the shop, so naturally I started up a conversation. I can’t stand the quiet.
“Everything in the town looks so nice.” I always start with a compliment before I get into the real questions, and then end with a compliment. It works with kids and everyone else, too.
The clerk smiled and walked over. “Yes, it does. We’re all getting ready for the festival.”
“I hear there’s quite a crowd that comes.”
“Oh my, yes. By Thursday, I’ll have three other clerks in here to help me. I probably make over ninety percent of my money for the year during the festival week.”
“Wow.” I seemed to be saying that a lot, but it just fit. “Bill told me that he gets a check from the festival committee, do you get one too?”
“Oh, yes. The proceeds are equally divided among the townspeople. Is that what brought you here? The festival?”
“No, not exactly. My friend was killed here last December and I came hoping to find some answers.”
She reached over and touched my hand. “You were a friend of that nice teacher?”
“Yes.” I stuck out my hand. “My name is Liza.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Liza.” She shook my hand. “My name is Jane. It was so sad what happened to your friend.”
“Yes, it was. And they still haven’t found the person who killed her, either.”
“It was probably some vagrant just looking for money.”
That story sure sounded familiar. “Except according to the police, the person who killed her didn’t take the cash in her wallet.”
“That’s strange. You’d think someone looking for money would take the money.”
“That’s what I thought too. Did Danielle come in and have some of your wonderful ice cream?” I said as I licked the side where the chocolate melted down my hand.