by Jessica Beck
I looked at George and asked, “Is it always like this?”
“I swear, some days I don’t even want to leave the office.”
I grabbed a paper cup and filled it to the brim with more coffee. “Here you go. Refills are on the house, for you and everyone else.”
He nodded. “Thanks for that.” Before he stood, George leaned toward me and whispered, “Suzanne, I meant what I said.”
“I know you did,” I answered. “And I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”
George stood, steadying himself as he did, and then walked out with his coffee. I felt a little responsible, at least by proxy, for his new position, since my mother had steamrollered him into it, but I had to admit, it was good for him, and there was no doubt in my mind that George was going to be exactly what we needed in April Springs.
* * *
It was finally eleven, but I hadn’t heard from Grace yet. I was getting worried as I locked the front door, but when my cell phone rang, I grabbed it quickly, hoping to hear what was going on with her. I didn’t even look at my caller ID when I answered it.
“Grace? Are you okay?”
“It’s me. What’s wrong with Grace?” Jake asked.
“Jake, it’s great to hear your voice. How are you? How’s the case going?”
“Not great,” he admitted. “It feels like everyone in town wanted this guy dead, and I’m having a tough time narrowing my suspect list down to one page. How does one man make so many enemies in one lifetime?”
I knew a little bit about the case he was working on. “He owned half the town, right?”
“More like most of the county,” Jake admitted.
“There you go,” I answered. “Money can cause more problems than it solves.”
“Suzanne, answer my question. What happened to Grace?”
I took a deep breath, and then I asked, “I don’t suppose there’s any way we can postpone this conversation to another day, is there?”
I heard him laugh, but there wasn’t a lot of joy in it. “Do I really even need to answer that question?”
“No, I know you. You’ll find out in a few minutes if you don’t hear it from me, so I might as well tell you myself. Someone killed Peter Morgan by the Boxcar Grill, and Chief Martin’s been questioning Grace about it all morning.”
There was enough silence on the other end of the line that I began to worry that we’d lost our connection. “Jake? Are you still there?”
“I’m here,” he answered.
“You got awfully quiet,” I said.
“I was just considering the possibilities,” he replied, and I could hear the state police investigator in his voice. “Do you need me there? I might be able to pull a few strings and get out of this case if you want me there with you.”
“It’s sweet of you to offer, but for now, maybe you should just stay right where you are.”
After another long pause, he replied cautiously, “The more I think about it, the more I believe you just might be right.”
I was sensing a trend here that I didn’t like. “Jake, you don’t think Grace actually killed him, do you?”
“Suzanne, I don’t have any of the facts about the case. How could I have an opinion?”
“Because you know Grace,” I answered. “What’s your gut tell you?”
“That I don’t have enough information. I know that you love Grace like a sister, and I’m just about as fond of her myself, but you know my theory. Given a hard enough push, anyone can commit murder. Anyone.”
I knew on a rational level that Jake felt that way, but I didn’t want him to be a cop right now; I wanted him to be my boyfriend. “Okay, stop being an investigator and start being the man who loves me. Now, what do you think?”
“She didn’t do it, and I’ll do everything in my power to help you prove just that,” he answered without even hesitating.
“That’s better,” I said.
“You know what I said before was true as well, though, right?”
I grinned, and I was certain that he had to be able to hear it in my voice. “Let’s not spoil the moment, okay?”
He laughed genuinely, a sound I’d grown to love. “Got it. Call me if you uncover anything, and Suzanne, do me a favor, okay?”
“What’s that?”
“Somebody killed Peter, and they aren’t going to be pleased when the two of you start poking around into what happened.”
“What makes you think we’re going to investigate?” I asked as innocently as I could manage.
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe based on your past behavior?” he asked, and I could almost hear the smile in his voice.
“I never go looking for trouble,” I said, trying to defend myself.
“But it still manages to find you, doesn’t it? I meant what I said. Don’t take any chances with this. It could get bad in a hurry.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll be careful,” I said.
“Good. It took me too long to get you into my life. I’d hate to start over now.”
“That makes two of us,” I said.
I was about to add something else when I saw Grace walking up to the donut shop. “Grace is here. I’ve got to go.”
“’Bye,” I heard him say as I shut my phone.
I was finally going to hear what Grace had been through, and maybe we could come up with a plan together to clear her name.
CHAPTER 5
“Grace, are you okay?” I asked as I threw the door open and let her in. She looked like she was about to cry, and from the look of her reddened eyes, I imagined that she’d shed more than a few tears already today.
“I’m managing, and that’s the most I can hope for, right?” she asked as she stepped into the shop.
I locked the door behind her just as Nan came out front.
“I thought we closed at eleven,” Nan said as she spied Grace, and it wouldn’t be too hard to see that something was wrong. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You’re fine,” I said. I needed some time alone with Grace, so I added, “Why don’t you go ahead and take off? I’ll finish the dishes, balance the register, and then I’m getting out of here myself.”
“The kitchen’s already clean,” she reported. “All I have out here yet to be washed are the trays and a few mugs.”
“I can easily take care of the rest myself. You did great work, Nan,” I said. “You deserve a bonus for what you did today.”
She looked pleased by the praise. “Please, it was nothing. I’ll see you in the morning.” Nan pulled off her apron, then nodded to Grace as she left, but I wasn’t certain my best friend had even seen her.
Once the door was locked, Grace looked at the large front window open to all of Springs Drive.
“What are you going to do about that?”
I honestly hadn’t given it much thought, though I knew that I should. “I’m working on it.”
Grace nodded absently. “Could we talk in back, Suzanne?” she asked. “It’s so public out here, I feel as though I’m on display.”
“Absolutely.”
As we walked toward the kitchen, I saw her looking at the leftover donuts. “Grace, have you had anything to eat today?”
“There wasn’t a chance,” she admitted.
“Then let’s grab you some donuts and coffee. Would you like anything in particular?”
“I’m so hungry, I’m not all that picky,” she said, and then must have realized how it sounded. “You know what I meant.”
“No apologies needed,” I said as I grabbed her three donuts and a large mug of coffee. Grace was usually a very careful eater, limiting herself to a single donut on rare occasions, but I knew that she could use a boost right now, and I happened to sell them in my shop. I carried her donuts in back, and we took up the stools I kept there for the rare occasions I had company in the kitchen of the donut shop.
I waited until she’d eaten two donuts, and then asked, “How bad was it?”
She sat there in si
lence for ten seconds, and then admitted, “Honestly, it’s all a blur right now. I can’t believe Peter’s gone, but it’s even worse having folks think that I had something to do with it.”
“No one thinks that, Grace,” I said, doing my best to reassure her.
“What did I say last night? Don’t lie to me, Suzanne. Just about everyone who isn’t in this room right now thinks so.”
I ticked off on my fingers as I said, “I know George believes you, I’m certain Momma does, and Jake even offered to drop the case he’s working on and come here to help us find the real killer.”
“Wow, that’s sweet of him. Okay, I have three allies in the town I grew up in. That’s better than I hoped.”
“You have more than that,” I said. “Just wait. You’ll be amazed by how many people are going to be willing to support you.”
“And even more surprised by how many want to stick a knife in my back the second I turn around,” she added.
“Hey, don’t dwell on the negative. I need you at your best if we’re going to find whoever killed Peter.”
“That’s the real reason that I’m here. Are you sure you don’t mind helping me?” she asked.
“Grace, I would do anything for you; you should know that.” I loved that we were finally going to do something about this. Peter had been dead less than twenty-four hours, but I felt as though we’d been fighting the stigma of his murder for weeks. “We need to make a plan first, and then we can get started. First off, do you have any ideas about who might want to see Peter dead?”
She looked saddened by the question. “That’s just it. I don’t get it. I can’t think of anyone who would want to kill him.”
I looked into Grace’s eyes, and it seemed as though she honestly believed it. I knew that Peter could be charming when it suited his purposes, but I also realized that there had to be a great many people who weren’t all that fond of him. “This is important. I know how you felt about him, but you need to look at this as objectively as you can.”
“Where do I even start?” she asked. The tears started for a second, but she quickly stopped, wiping her eyes as she looked at me.
“Well, you said you found out he was seeing Leah Gentry. I’d say she’s as good as anyone to consider as a possible suspect.”
Grace didn’t even pause to think before she spoke. “Leah might be a snake, but I can’t see her killing him. I can’t imagine anyone hating him enough to do it.”
We weren’t getting anywhere. “Grace, maybe I should do this on my own. I’ve got the feeling that your heart’s not in it. I understand completely, but if you want me to investigate, I can’t keep worrying about how you’re going to react to every suggestion I make. We have to both treat this as dispassionately as we can.”
“I can do that, Suzanne,” she insisted.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not so sure that you can.” They were tough words to say, but we had to hash this out right now before I was going to get myself involved in another murder investigation. It was just too risky to do it halfway, so unless I had free rein, with a little help from my friends, I wasn’t sure I could do it.
“Leah could have killed him,” Grace said with a nod. “Especially if she thought he was dumping her for me. I know most folks think she’s harmless, but she’s pretty tough, too. If he broke her heart, she might want to see him dead.”
“Okay,” I said. “That’s good. Now, who else do we have?”
Grace took time to ponder my question now, and after a full minute, she said, “Suzanne, I’m not a big fan of gossip and rumors, but I’ve heard talk behind my back about Peter when we were with some of his so-called friends. It turned out that he wasn’t the angel I might have made him out to be in my mind.”
“I’m listening,” I said, and I grabbed a pen and an old order pad.
The first thing I did was jot Leah’s name down, and beside it I wrote “Scorned Love.”
When I stopped writing, Grace said, “Well, Peter’s brother, Bryan, has to go on our list. The two of them never got along, that was no secret, but there was more animosity between them than I realized at first. Bryan confronted Peter once when we were out on a date in Hickory, and I thought the two of them were going to come to blows in the street, it got so bad.”
That was interesting. “Were they fighting about anything in particular?”
“From what I could tell, it was all about money,” Grace admitted.
I kept waiting for her to add more, and after a minute of silence, she said, “When their grandfather died, Peter was the executor for the estate. Bryan claimed that Peter used that as an excuse to gut the inheritance of everything valuable, and then split the little bit that was left with him. It was supposed to be over two hundred thousand dollars when all was said and done.”
That kind of money would make a good motive for murder in a great many people’s eyes. “Was there any truth to it?”
Grace just shrugged. “Peter admitted to me later that he took more than his share, but only after his brother threatened to take him to court over a new truck their grandfather had just bought. Bryan thought Peter should pay it off, and then sign it over to him, but Peter wouldn’t do it.”
“Why would he, if it was part of the estate?”
“From the way it was explained to me, it didn’t make any sense to me, either, but that’s what Peter told me, and at the time, I believed him.”
I added Bryan Morgan’s name to our list, and put “Money and Bad Blood” after it.
“Who else should we add?” I asked.
“Honestly, Suzanne, there’s no one else I can think of,” she said as she drained her coffee. “I’m getting more. Would you like some?”
“No thanks, I’m good.”
Grace went up front to refill her mug, and I started thinking about motives folks had for murder in general. Unfortunately, I’d run across a few cases in the past, and it all seemed to boil down to a handful of reasons like love, greed, and envy. The list didn’t cover everything, but it was a good place to start.
When Grace came back into the kitchen, I asked, “I’ve been curious about something for quite a while. What exactly did Peter do for a living?”
“He said he was in investments, but I could never really pin him down beyond that. Whenever I tried, he always said that he liked to keep his business life separate from his personal life, and like a fool, I trusted him.”
That was interesting. “Did he work alone, or did he have a partner? I know he was out of town on business quite a bit lately.”
Grace looked as though she wanted to cry again, but she held back her tears, and I was proud of her for the way she was handling my line of questioning. I knew that it had to be tough on her, but I couldn’t pull any punches just because she was my friend. Especially not because of that.
“I’m beginning to wonder if that was true at all,” she finally admitted. “There’s a good chance he was just using it as an excuse to see someone else without having to constantly lie to me about what he was doing and where he was going. I’m beginning to wonder if there was anything he told me that was true.”
I hated being in a position to defend a man I hadn’t liked, but he hadn’t been completely rotten. “No matter what else he did, he clearly cared about you,” I said.
“Do you believe that?”
“I do,” I said. “Peter may not have been perfect, but he showed excellent taste when he started going out with you.”
“Why doesn’t that give me any comfort?” she asked.
“Give it time; it might offer you some somewhere down the road. Now, let’s focus on my last question. Did he have a business partner?”
“I’m not sure you could call him that, but Peter did talk to a man named Henry Lincoln quite a bit on the phone, and it always sounded like it was business to me.”
“Do you happen to know where he lives?” I asked as I jotted his name down on our list.
“Union Square, I think,” she said.
She nodded. “I’m ready.”
“Okay, but we need to clear something up first. You need to hold back and not say anything when I’m interviewing these people. I need for them to not suspect that I’m grilling them, and besides, you might be able to pick up on something I miss if you stay neutral.”
“I’m not going to do anything to rile anyone up,” she said.
“I hope not. Remember, if any one of them senses that we’re actively investigating Peter’s murder and not just being friendly and chatting with them about someone we all knew, we’re not going to get a thing out of them.” Grace frowned a little, so I added, “Are you sure that this isn’t going to be too tough on you?” The last thing I wanted to do was put my friend through something that might not be productive at all, and just end up causing her even more pain.
“I’m sure,” she said. “I hate the way that Peter was treating me behind my back, but I cared for him, maybe even loved him before I found out the truth. Suzanne, I need to figure out what happened to him, and why.” She hesitated for a moment, and then added, “To be honest with you, in a way, I feel responsible for what happened to him.”
I was shocked to hear her say that. “Just because you broke up with him? He was cheating on you, Grace. You need to remember that. Nothing that happened to that man was your fault.”
Grace shook her head, and then took a moment before she spoke. “If I’d handled things better with him he might not have gotten drunk and put himself in a position where he was vulnerable to being attacked.”
“You had every right to end your relationship with him,” I said, doing my best to reassure her. “You know that, don’t you?”
“On one level, I suppose I do. But in my heart, I can’t really be sure until I find out why Peter was murdered. If it’s not because of me, I can let it go.”
“And if we discover that your worst fears are true and it was directly related to your breakup? What happens then?”