Powdered Peril

by Jessica Beck

  She shivered for a few seconds, and then Grace said, “Then I’ll deal with it, and do my best to move on. At least then I’d know one way or the other. Sometimes I think it’s the mystery of it that’s tearing me up so bad.”

  “Then let’s go find out who did it,” I said.

  * * *

  As we left Donut Hearts, I asked, “It’s your call. Who would you like to tackle first?”

  She pointed down the street to the hardware store. “I know that neither one of us is a big fan of Burt Gentry, but there’s no use putting it off. We need to speak with Leah, and she just happens to be the closest one of our suspects.”

  I looked around at the casual shoppers on Springs Drive and realized that though my work was finished for the day, quite a few shops were still open for business. It wouldn’t do to have too big an audience when Grace and I spoke with Leah, though. I didn’t want to have to censor my questions, and more important, I didn’t want Leah filtering her replies just because of who might be standing close by. Public opinion could turn on a dime sometimes in our little town, and if Leah was innocent, we would be putting her in a position where she’d have to defend herself to everyone who walked into the hardware store, whether she was the murderer or not.

  “You know what? I’m worried that the hardware store might be crowded at this time of day. We could always wait outside for her to take her break,” I said.

  Grace shook her head. “I understand why you’re worried, but honestly, if we delay this for even ten minutes, I might lose my nerve. Let’s go, Suzanne. We can worry about the consequences later.”

  “If you’re sure, then I’m ready.”

  “Lead on,” she said.

  * * *

  “Good afternoon,” Leah Gentry said automatically when we walked into the hardware store, even adding a smile as she said it. But that vanished quickly enough when she realized who we were. At least there weren’t too many customers nearby to listen in on our conversation.

  “Got a second?” I asked, trying to be as upbeat as I could. I wanted to do my best to put her at ease. It might be the only way we’d get anything out of her.

  Leah looked as though she wanted to turn and run away, but it was clear that she had a job to do, so she really didn’t have much of a choice. “Actually, I’m kind of busy right now,” she said.

  I looked around and saw that the front was nearly empty. I decided not to point that out to her, though. “This won’t take long. We just want to speak with you about Peter Morgan.”

  “Would you keep your voice down?” Leah asked, looking toward the back where her uncle’s office was located.

  “Burt doesn’t know that you were seeing Peter Morgan, does he?” I asked. So far, Grace was keeping quiet. I just hoped she’d be able to stick to it and not butt in.

  It was a direct hit. “My personal life isn’t anybody’s business but my own,” she said, a little too defiantly for my taste.

  “It might have been before, but a man’s been murdered, one you were known to be seen with around town. I think your uncle might find that interesting in and of itself.”

  I started for the office, but Leah put a hand on my arm. “You can’t do that.”

  “Sure I can,” I answered, keeping my voice cheery. “Leah, there’s something you need to understand. I’m talking to someone here today. It’s your choice. Is it going to be you, or your uncle?”

  “You need to focus on your friend there. She was the one dating him,” Leah said as she pointed to Grace.

  “We’ve already discussed that,” Grace said. I could tell she wanted to say more, but she kept her cool, something I was very grateful for.

  “Last chance,” I said as I pulled away from her and started for the back.

  Leah glanced at the clock on the wall, and then said, “Meet me by your shop in ten minutes. I’m due for a break then, and we can talk in private.”

  “You’re not trying to get rid of us, are you?” I asked.

  She sounded frustrated as she explained, “I’ll talk to you both, but it’s going to be on my terms.”

  I thought about pushing her a little harder, but then I decided that it wasn’t that important to me to win every battle. “You’ve got ten minutes. In eleven, I’m coming back here, and you won’t be happy with the way I act, trust me.”

  She gave me a wicked look for a split second as Grace and I walked out, but I didn’t care. I’d gotten under her skin and had found a pressure point I could use to get her to talk to me, and I was going to make use of it. It might not make me popular with her, but I couldn’t worry about that at the moment.

  Grace and I waited outside by Donut Hearts, and as I looked at my watch every thirty seconds, Grace said, “Don’t worry. She’ll be here.”

  I was beginning to have second thoughts about leaving Leah at the hardware store, so Grace’s encouragement was welcome. “What makes you so sure?”

  “She puts on a brave front, but she’s afraid of Burt, and I doubt she’d welcome any new source of irritation between them if she can help it.”

  “What do you know about it?” I asked as I watched a handful of birds fly in and out of a nearby maple tree. Was there a nest there? From the air traffic, I wondered if there was more than one.

  “Let’s just say that I’ve heard that he doesn’t approve of the way she conducts her personal life. I’m not exactly his biggest fan, but even I don’t blame the man. He’s worked hard to build up the family business, and he doesn’t want any scandals threatening it. I’m willing to bet that Leah’s going to do everything in her power to appease him now that her actions have bitten her on the tail.”

  I looked at my watch again, and saw that Leah had one more minute left on my deadline.

  I started walking toward the hardware store, and Grace looked perplexed. “Is her time really up?”

  “She’s got one minute,” I explained, “but I plan to cross that threshold the second the clock runs out on her,” I said.

  “Do you really think that Burt will be able to tell us anything if Leah won’t talk to us?” Grace asked.

  “I don’t know, but I’m not letting Leah get away with lying to me like that. If I have to take Burt’s abuse, so be it, but I meant what I said. Someone’s going to answer for her behavior. I demand satisfaction.”

  “Get in line,” Grace said.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” I said, sorry for my choice of words. It had to be hard for Grace to do what we were doing, especially without complaint.

  She shook her head briefly. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I’ll try to keep quiet, but I can’t make any promises.”

  “I don’t blame you a bit. Let’s keep poking around and see what we come up with.”

  I took a deep breath, checked my watch one last time, and saw that Leah’s deadline had officially passed.

  Was she still in the hardware store, or had she skipped out the back way to avoid us completely?

  CHAPTER 6

  Burt was at the register reading a magazine about guns when we walked into the hardware store, and he didn’t look all that surprised to see us.

  “Where’s Leah?” I asked.

  “Why do you want to see her?” Burt asked, not even trying to be cordial.

  “We have some unfinished business to discuss,” I replied.

  “Sorry, but she’s gone,” he said as he turned his attention back to the magazine. It was pretty clear that he wasn’t sorry about it at all.

  “She was supposed to meet us in front of the donut shop twelve minutes ago,” I said. “Do you know if that’s where she’s headed?”

  “Nope,” Burt answered.

  What was going on here? Was she honestly leaving me to talk to her uncle? What did she have to hide that was so bad she’d incur Burt’s wrath and lecturing? “Does that mean you don’t know where she is, or are you saying that she’s not going to meet us?”

  Burt finally put his magazine down. “Suzanne, she’s not here. That’s rea
lly all that matters when it comes down to it, isn’t it? Was there something else that I could help you with?”

  I’d threatened to talk to Burt about his niece if she skipped out on me, but it had been an idle threat, or so I’d thought. I had no choice now, though. I had to follow through. “We’re looking into the murder of Peter Morgan,” I said, “and I just found out that your niece has been dating him in secret on the side.”

  Burt shook his head. “It never was much of a real secret.” He glanced at Grace as he added, “I’m sorry about that, but I didn’t have anything to do with her stepping out with him.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Grace said.

  “No, but it was my niece’s doing, and she knows better than to act that way. She was raised better.”

  “We really do need to talk to her,” I pushed.

  “Like I said, I can’t do anything about that,” Burt said.

  “Well, if she won’t talk to me, I’m guessing the police chief is going to want to have a word with her.” I wasn’t sure if Chief Martin knew about Leah’s relationship with Peter, but if he didn’t know at the moment, he was going to find out pretty quickly from me.

  He shrugged. “What can I say? He can look for her all he wants to, but she’s gone,” he said. “I’m not exactly sure what I can do about that.”

  “Could you at least tell us where she might have gone?” Grace asked. “Please? It’s important.”

  He pushed back a little from his seat. “Ladies, she needed a break from April Springs, and truth be told, I’m not exactly sure when she’ll be coming back, and I’ll tell the police chief the same thing if he comes by to ask about her.”

  “You sent her away, didn’t you?” I asked, the hunch strong in my gut. “You didn’t want your niece answering any of my questions, did you?”

  Burt just smiled for a brief moment, and then he went back to his magazine, dismissing us completely. What was so fascinating about handguns and rifles to him, anyway? If Peter had been shot, I might consider it a clue, but anyone could have hit him in the back of the head with a piece of wood.

  This was worse than useless. We left the hardware store, and for some odd reason, Grace was smiling. She held up her hand for silence as she dug into her purse, found a notepad, and jotted something down. When she was finished, she looked up at me. “I don’t think we’re going to need Burt’s cooperation after all.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  She showed me her pad, which now had three telephone numbers written on it.

  “What’s that?”

  Grace explained, “While you were talking to Burt, I was memorizing the numbers displayed on the phone that was sitting on the counter in front of him.”

  That was news to me. No wonder she’d been so quiet at the end of the conversation. “I didn’t know anything was displayed there. How on earth did you remember all three numbers?”

  “That was what I was chanting to myself until I could write them all down. I hope they’re right.”

  I nodded. “I’m sure they are. I’m just not certain they’ll do us any good. He could have just as easily called three customers for all we know.”

  “Maybe, but I’m willing to bet that one of them gives us a clue as to where Leah is. Should I dial them up and see?”

  I stopped Grace just as she pulled her cell phone from her purse. “Hang on a second. You don’t want to do that.”

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “What if you’re right and one of those numbers can tell us where Leah is? Do you really want your name and number displayed on one of those phones?”

  She frowned as she put her phone away. “You’ve got a point, but what are we going to do? I haven’t seen a pay telephone in donkey years, so it’s going to be hard to call these numbers without them knowing who we are.”

  “I’m sure we’ll think of something,” I said.

  “I’ve got it,” Grace answered after ten seconds. “We’ll give them to Jake and have him check them out for us.”

  “I’m not sure that we should do that just yet. I’m not about to drag Jake into this without more reason than that. He’s got a case of his own he’s trying to solve, remember? We’re going to have to find another way to check these out.”

  She nodded. “Fine, but we need to come up with something quickly. When Leah ran like that, she went to the top of my suspect list; how about you?”

  “She’s definitely gotten my attention.” I hesitated, and then asked, “Was it me, or was Burt a little too happy about his niece’s absence? I got the distinct impression that she left at his request.”

  “You weren’t imagining it,” Grace said. “He was clearly trying to protect her.”

  “From me, or the police?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Make me a copy of those numbers, would you? I’ve got an idea.”

  Grace looked puzzled as she processed my request, but then she jotted them all down and handed the list to me. “You know you’re not going to do any digging without me, right?”

  “Trust me, I’m not trying to cut you out of the loop. I just needed these written on something I can pass along to someone else.”

  “Would you care to share with me exactly who this someone else might be?”

  “I can do better than that,” I said. “You can come along, too.”

  As we parked in front of city hall, Grace asked, “You’re not going to ask George to do it, are you?”

  “No, I told him we weren’t going to involve him unless we had to. As far as I’m concerned, he and Jake are both off our list of resources. I do know someone else who might be able to help us, though.” Instead of going to George’s office upstairs, we made our way down the steps to the Board of Elections.

  If anyone could find out who those numbers belonged to, it had to be Hillary Mast.

  * * *

  “What can I do for you, ladies?” Hillary asked as we walked into her office.

  “We need your help,” I said as I slid the list of numbers across the desk to her. “Is there any way you can tell us who has these phone numbers?”

  She didn’t even glance at the list, but instead kept watching us. “I have to ask you something first. Is this official city business?”

  “No,” I said. “It’s just a favor for two friends.”

  Hillary frowned. “Well, I’m sorry, but I can’t use city computers to help you.”

  I reached for the numbers as I said, “That’s fine. Thanks anyway. We understand.”

  She stopped me before I could retrieve the list. “However, I was about to take my break, and no one tells me what to do when I’m on my own time.” She reached down and brought up a notebook computer, opening it in one fluid motion. After a few moments, Hillary took the list, typed in the first number, and then said, “It will just take a second.”

  Grace looked at me. “I could have done that myself.”

  “But there’s no need to,” Hillary replied. “I’m doing it for you.” She looked at the screen, and then said, “The first number belongs to Cutnip.”

  Why would Leah be talking to someone at the local beauty shop? I kind of doubted that Burt would call them unless he was looking for his new wife, but then again, I knew that Marge wasn’t a big fan of Cutnip’s identical styling results.

  “What else do you have?” I asked.

  Hillary didn’t even have to type in the second number. As she looked at it, she said, “This one came directly from upstairs,” she said, a little surprised.

  “From any telephone in particular?”

  “Unless I’m mistaken, and I know that I’m not, this is the mayor’s direct phone number,” she admitted.

  Was George following up on the case himself, even though I’d asked him not to? Our next stop had to be upstairs so we could ask him, but there was one more number on the list.

  “And how about the last one?”

  Hillary punched the number in, and then said, “Whoever owns it
is in Montview,” she said. “Someone named Ida Belle. Here’s the address,” she said as she copied it down on the back of our original paper.

  As she wrote, I asked, “I’m curious; is there some kind of secret database you can tap into to find those numbers?”

  Hillary laughed. “It’s called a reverse directory. It’s amazing how much information is out there if you just know where to look. Is that all I can do for you?”

  “Thanks, you’ve been a big help,” I said.

  “Posh, it was nothing,” Hillary replied.

  “I wouldn’t say that. It’s good for half a dozen donuts and a big cup of coffee, any time you want to come by to claim it.”

  Hillary laughed. “I’ve been offered a great many bribes over the course of my time here, but I have to admit, never donuts.”

  “More’s the pity,” I said. Then it hit me what she’d just said. “Hey, it’s not a bribe. It’s just the only concrete way I have to thank you for helping us.”

  “In that case, I’ll see you tomorrow morning before work,” Hillary said. She glanced at her watch, and then said, “If I hurry, I’ll still have just enough time to eat lunch.” She looked at each of us in turn, and then added, “All I have is a ham sandwich, but I’d be glad to split it three ways if you’d care to join me.”

  “Thanks for the offer, but we’re in kind of a rush,” I said.

  As we started for the door, she said, “Tell the new mayor I said hello.”

  “What makes you think that’s where we’re going?” Grace asked.

  “Please, ladies, I’d be disappointed in you both if you weren’t planning to see what that telephone call was all about. You are investigating the murder, aren’t you?”

  “We might do a little digging,” I admitted.

  “Well, I sincerely hope that you find Peter’s killer. It’s all rather unpleasant business, isn’t it?”

  “There’s no doubt about it,” I said.

  As we headed up the steps to George’s office, I told Grace, “I’ve never heard anyone refer to murder as unpleasant business before, have you?”

  “It’s a great deal worse than that, isn’t it?” Grace asked. “Suzanne, we need to focus on the fact that we’re doing this for a reason. I hated the way Peter and I left things, and now neither one of us will ever have the opportunity to make it right again between us. I’m not going to let a few roadblocks stop us.”