Fish Fry and a Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  “That’s a shame. Kids can be cruel. I’m sure it wasn’t much of a riot for Yvonne,” I said, hoping she’d get the hint that I didn’t want to talk to her. I went to the refrigerator and pulled out the trout Sam had offered.

  “I bet his wife killed him,” Georgia said when I didn’t say anything more.

  “Yvonne’s mom?” I asked, confused.

  She snorted. “No. The guy they just found.”

  “Why do you think that?” Ron asked, rinsing a stockpot beneath the faucet.

  “Because she was at the bar one night after she and her husband had a big fight. Can you imagine that? A second grade teacher at the bar?” she said and snorted again. “That would go over real well with the kids’ parents if they knew. Anyway, she was mad at him and she said he was a tightwad and wouldn’t give her any of the money his parents left him. She thought she deserved some of it for putting up with him.”

  I glanced at her. I didn’t want to show interest in what she was saying because that would keep her in the kitchen longer. I had given up on making nice with her. She was rarely anything but hateful to me.

  “Why does that make you think she killed her husband?” Sam asked, relieving me of the need to ask.

  “Because she said she was going to get her hands on that money, one way or another. Me and a couple other ladies had gathered around her and she was really tying one on. She said it might take her a little time, but she’d do it. She’d have that money to open a nail salon.”

  I turned to look at her. I couldn’t help it; I needed to know. “Did she say how she intended to get the money?” I asked.

  “Nope. But she said one day in the not too distant future, she’d be a rich woman. I thought she was just going to find a way to get the money out of the bank, like order a second ATM card or something. But no, she killed him instead. Not a bad idea if she had life insurance on him too. Something like that would really pay off.”

  It was all I could do to keep from staring openmouthed at her. Sarah had said she was using the insurance money she was going to collect from Rob’s death to start her business. And a second ATM card? Cade needed to get the videos from the bank as soon as he could.

  “That’s a real shame,” Sam said and glanced at me.

  I stared back at him. “I can’t imagine someone killing over money,” I said and went back to mixing the fish batter. “What a terrible person that would be, if that’s what happened.”

  “Money is the root of all evil,” Ron said and began rinsing the sink out.

  “The love of money is the root of all evil,” I corrected. “That’s from the bible and I have to say, I think I just might believe it.”

  He chuckled. “I think I might believe it, too.”

  I took down a plate from the cupboard, thinking things over. Maybe Sarah hadn’t ordered a new ATM card. Maybe Rob’s wallet hadn’t been lost at the bottom of the lake at all and she had the wallet and his card. It would be easy to pull that money out of the ATM if she had his wallet. If she drove around to different ATMs, she might make it look like Rob was indeed traveling around Idaho and nearby states, enjoying an extended fishing trip. But she had to know that all banks have cameras. Unless a camera happened to go on the fritz, there would be footage. And even if one camera wasn’t working, she had said there had been multiple withdrawals from different banks. Several of those cameras had to have caught whoever was withdrawing money from Rob’s account.

  But that made me wonder. Had she found a way to fool the cameras? Would she know how to block the cameras? Was it even possible? I didn’t think so, but I didn’t know enough about bank cameras to know for sure. That left a disguise. Could she have covered her face somehow? But Rob and his brothers were tall, and she wasn’t anywhere near that tall, so it would be obvious it wasn’t him. Unless she had teamed up with a man that had a similar build and resembled Rob.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Okay Maggie, you’re my secret weapon,” I whispered as I let her out of the car. I hooked the leash to her collar, and we headed into the feed store. The sky was gray and there was a chilly breeze blowing, so I hurried as quickly as I dared on the icy sidewalk.

  Maggie was all eyes and ears as we headed inside the feed store. “Be a good girl,” I said, putting one hand on her shoulders as she got wind of the guinea pigs. Her ears went forward and her nose twitched and I tightened my grip on the leash.

  Zack’s assistant looked up from the case of horse brushes he was unpacking in the nearest aisle. “That’s a nice looking hound dog there,” he said. “I bet she’d tree a bear in no time.”

  “Thanks. I think she’s pretty, too, but I have no idea about treeing bears. She’s a city dog,” I said and allowed Maggie to go to him. “She loves people.”

  “I see that,” he said as Maggie went to him, wagging her tail. Her nose twitched back and forth and her body got into the action as she tried to control her excitement at getting to meet someone new. He let her sniff his hand, then bent over and he rubbed her head with both hands. “What a good girl.”

  “Careful or she’ll jump on you,” I warned and moved closer to Maggie.

  “That’s okay. I’ve got three dogs and they’re all big ones. I can take it,” he said as he rubbed her back. When he straightened up, Maggie took that as an invitation to give him love, and stood on her back feet, placing both paws on his chest.

  I grinned. “I told you. She loves people. I thought I’d bring her in so she can pick out her own food,” I said and pulled Maggie off of him.

  He laughed. “That may not be a good idea. She’ll pick treats instead of food.”

  “I didn’t think of that,” I said. He was probably right. Maggie loved her treats.

  Zack walked around the corner to see what the fuss was in our aisle and stopped when he saw me. His mouth pressed together, then he saw Maggie and smiled. “That’s quite the dog you have there,” he said stiffly. I knew Maggie’s charms would work on him.

  “Thank you,” I said. “She saved my life a few months back. I couldn’t leave her behind at the shelter after that.”

  “How did she do that?” he asked as Maggie went to check him out.

  “A murderer tried to make me his second victim, and she stopped him,” I said.

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “Do you make a habit of chasing down murderers?”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that. “It’s not a habit,” I said feeling defensive. “Look, I just thought I’d stop in and pick up some dog food.” I knew he wouldn’t appreciate me coming around after what had happened when Cade and I were here the last time. That’s why I needed Maggie. She’d smooth things over.

  “Let me show you where that is,” he said and led the way down another aisle.

  Maggie and I followed, but then Maggie caught the scent of the guinea pigs again and jerked the leash in that direction. “Hold on Maggie,” I said. She whimpered and pulled on the leash. I was going to have to get her some obedience lessons if I intended to bring her out in public regularly.

  “Hunting dogs got to hunt,” Zack said, over his shoulder. “Do you need help?”

  “I think I got it,” I said, but I may have sounded more confident that I felt. After a minute or so I got Maggie under control and led her back in the direction of the dog food. I smiled at Zack, but he didn’t respond with a smile of his own as I’d hoped.

  “We’ve got all kinds of dog food. There are some grain free options, or there’s some regular dog food. How old is she?”

  “They said she was about two years old when I got her at the shelter.”

  He nodded. “The grain free options are good. This one is very good I feed my own dogs this one.” He picked up a large bag with the picture of a bird dog on it. “It’s good for working dogs. Are you going to hunt her?”

  I shook my head. “No, I don’t think that will ever happen. I’m an indoors kind of person. Look Maggie, this food is for hunting dogs, I bet you’ll like it,” I said, laying a hand on
her head.

  Zack was all business, avoiding making eye contact with me. “Is this the one you want?”

  “It looks good to me. I think I want to pick up some treats, too,” I said. Zack was tall, like his brothers. Cade had said Rob was about 6’3” and I’d guess Zack was a little taller. If he wore a baseball hat and kept his head down, it was possible the ATM camera wouldn’t be able to get a clear picture of him. It made me wonder.

  He picked up the bag of food and led me further down the aisle and stopped in front of a display. “We’ve got pig ears, rawhide, and all kinds of dog cookies.”

  “Ew, pig ears? Real pig ears? Gross.”

  “Don’t knock them until you try them,” he said without smiling.

  Maggie’s nose started twitching, and she pulled on the leash so she could inspect the dog treats.

  “Now, Maggie, you can’t have those. We have to pay for them,” I warned her.

  “Here Maggie, here’s a cookie,” he said, taking one out of a jar and tossing it to her. Maggie made short work of it and looked at him expectantly. He smiled and tossed her a second cookie. It was impossible for him to be angry with Maggie around. I knew my plan would work.

  “Zack, I wanted to apologize if Cade came on too strong the other day,” I said. It might not have been what Cade would have wanted me to say, but I was hoping to get on Zack’s good side so he might help me out and tell me more about what he might know about what happened to his brother.

  He snorted. “I did not kill my brother. It’s ridiculous if anyone thinks there’s even a possibility of that happening. I don’t know why he thinks I might have done it. Who told him I did? Did someone say I did it? Is that why he’s looking at me?”

  “You know, Zack, I really don’t know.” It was a lie, but I couldn’t tell him his own brother had pointed a finger at him. There was enough trouble in this family. “I’m sure Cade needs to check out all possible leads.” That was true. Just because Charlie Cooper had confirmed he had checked his and Rob’s fishing licenses, didn’t mean a thing. Charlie couldn’t remember exactly when that was. And even if he had done it the day Zack said he had, he still could have killed Rob later that day.

  He gritted his teeth. “I’m telling you, you need to check out Sarah’s story. Who sits by while their husband is gone for months without reporting him? And she had insurance money on him! It’s a waste of time to look at anyone other than her.”

  My idea of talking to Zack and trying to get more information out of him was backfiring. His face was turning red, and he was becoming agitated. I had had visions of him encouraging me to keep looking for his brother’s killer and maybe giving me more clues, but it was now clear that that wasn’t going to happen.

  “Listen, Zack, I totally get where you’re coming from. I feel terrible that Rob died. But I think it’s just procedure for the police to investigate people that are the closest to the victim. They always think that when someone goes missing or is murdered, it’s probably the closest family members, right? I know Cade is doing everything he can to find Rob’s killer and I just know he’s going to get a major lead any day now.”

  “What makes you say that?” he asked, jutting his chin out defensively.

  I stopped and looked at him. “Well, okay. Maybe I don’t know that for sure. I mean, I don’t know what all of his leads are. He doesn’t always share that kind of information with me. But I know Cade, and he’s determined to find the killer.” I was getting in deep and I needed a way out. I reached down and rubbed Maggie’s head.

  He thought this over. “Okay, fine. As long as he’s looking into Sarah’s story, I guess there isn’t much else I can do. I just don’t want her to be overlooked,” he relented. “I know she had to have something to do with his death to be able to sit there for months without worrying about him being gone.”

  I nodded. “You can bet Cade is looking into every clue as well as everyone that was close to Rob.”

  “Did he talk to Charlie Cooper? Did he verify what I said?”

  I hesitated. I didn’t want to give too much away, but I figured if he ran into Charlie, he’d ask him anyway. I nodded. “He sure did. Said he saw you and Rob getting ready to go out on the water.” I smiled.

  He nodded. “Good. As long as Cade knows I wasn’t lying about the fishing license. Let me take this bag of dog food to the front counter for you. It’s heavy. Brian will help you out to your car with it,” he said and headed to the front.

  I sighed and led Maggie after him. A chirping sound came from another aisle and Maggie was off and running. I barely managed to keep hold of her leash as she dragged me along behind her. “Stop, Maggie!” I called.

  I heard laughter from the direction of the front counter. Great. I could use some help instead of laughter. “Come on, Maggie.”

  Maggie scented out the chirping sound in less than a minute. It was a cage full of tiny finches. She bayed at them, causing them to flee to the furthest side of their cage. I put a hand on her muzzle to quiet her down. “Hush, you’re scaring them,” I said. “The poor little things.” Several of the birds flew to higher perches where they turned their heads to get a better look at who had disturbed their day.

  “Sorry little guys,” I apologized and had to half-drag Maggie back to the front counter.

  Zack and Brian were still chuckling when I got there. I stopped and narrowed my eyes at them. “I’m glad this is so amusing.”

  Zack shrugged. “You might reconsider bringing a hunting dog into a place where there are small animals. It’s instinct for her to hunt them down. Good thing they’re in cages or we’d have a disaster on our hands.”

  I bit my lower lip. “Sorry. It didn’t occur to me.” Then I shrugged. The little animals had survived our visit unharmed and Maggie got to go on a short trip.

  And at least Zack had lightened up. He seemed like a nice guy and I really hoped he hadn’t killed his brother. It would make me feel even worse about the fact that Rob had been murdered if he had.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When I left the feed store, I went home to drop off the dog food and Maggie. I needed to get to work. I had promised Sam I would make it in on time since Diane needed to leave for a dentist appointment right after the lunch hour rush. Business had been slow at the diner with the cold weather and I was sure I could handle things by myself.

  “I’ve got to get going,” Diane said. She had slung her big black bag over her shoulder and she had her keys in her hand. “Are you sure you’ll be okay on your own?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got it,” I said, tucking my order book into my apron pocket. “If worse comes to worse, I can have Ron step in and bring drinks to the tables, or clear them. But honestly, I don’t think we’ll have many people this late in the day.”

  “Great, I’ll talk to you later,” she said.

  “See ya,” I said. It was one o’clock and there was one elderly gentleman in the corner, nursing a bowl of clam chowder. Sam’s was only open for breakfast and lunch and we’d lock up as soon as the last customer left. Usually that was some time after 2:30, but it might be a lot earlier today.

  I picked up a dishcloth and wiped down the front counter. It wouldn’t take long to clean up this afternoon. I liked days like this, but I knew Sam would prefer the place to be hopping. The tourist season would pick up soon enough though. The Snake River was a big warm-weather draw.

  The bell over the door jingled, and I looked up as Sarah Zumbro walked through it. She smiled. “Hi Rainey. Boy, it’s quiet in here,” she said, looking around the empty diner. “I guess that means I won’t have to wait to be served.”

  I chuckled. “Icy streets make for a slow day. Would you like a booth?”

  “No, I think I might just have a seat at the counter here and make things easier on you. I’ve been thinking about Sam’s clam chowder. I hope you’re not out.”

  I shook my head. “Nope, we’ve still got some simmering on the stove. I made some cornbread and honey butter earlier. Would you l
ike a piece to go with it?”

  “That sounds good,” she said and took a seat at the counter. “And even though it’s cold, I’d like some iced tea.”

  “You got it,” I said and jotted down her order, then headed back to the kitchen to get her the clam chowder.

  “A customer?” Sam asked hopefully.

  “Yeah, she wants clam chowder. Easy peasy,” I said and got a bowl out for the soup.

  “Good, I can get cleaning the grill. I don’t know if we’ll have anyone else today,” Sam said.

  “Does that mean we’ll close early?” I asked hopefully.

  “Could be,” he said and grinned. Sam was a good boss—low-key and drama free, just the way I liked things. Days like this were nice. They made up for how crazy things could get when the tourist season was in full swing. The Snake River recreation areas were Sparrow’s claim to fame.