Fish Fry and a Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  I cut a piece of cornbread and brought it with the clam chowder to Sarah. “Here we are. Let me get your iced tea.”

  “Thanks, Rainey,” she said.

  I wondered about what Zack had said about Sarah. It had never set well with me that she hadn’t reported her husband missing. And then there was the insurance money and a planned move across the country. I was suspicious of her and I thought Cade was, too, although he sometimes didn’t let me in on what he was thinking about a case.

  “And here’s the iced tea,” I said and set the glass down in front of her. “Is there anything else I can get you?”

  She shook her head. “No, this is fine. Hey Rainey, guess what I did yesterday?”

  “What?” I asked, picking up the dishcloth again. Her eyes were lit up. She was happy about something.

  “I gave my notice at school. I have a contract that I have to finish up but come June, I’m free as a bird,” she said and giggled like a schoolgirl.

  “Really? Well, that is great news! I bet you’re counting the days.”

  “Ninety-three,” she said and laughed. “I can hardly believe it! Granny was just wrong about me. I am not cut out to be a teacher, and I am going to do what I’ve always wanted to do. I can’t wait!”

  “Wow, so are you going to move to Massachusetts to be near your family?”

  She nodded. “Yes. I’ve been thinking of all the things I need to do before I leave. I think I’m going to get rid of just about everything I own. I’ll probably try to sell my furniture and most anything that’s of any value. I can’t see moving across the country and taking everything with me. I can buy new furniture and whatever I need once I get there.”

  “Well, that is exciting news, Sarah. I’m really happy for you. Will you be selling your home, too?”

  “Yes, I’m putting it up for sale sometime in May. That way hopefully I won’t have to wait too long after my last day of work to be able to move.

  “I bet a place right on the lake will go fast,” I said.

  “I’m pretty sure it will. To be honest, I think I’ll only get enough money out of it to pay off the mortgage, but that’s fine. All the legal stuff should be done by then and I’ll have the money from the life insurance and what’s in Rob’s bank account, so it will be fine.” She picked up her glass of tea and took a sip.

  “Are you sure? I would think a house out at the lake would sell for a lot,” I said, leaning on the counter.

  “Oh, I know it will,” she said with a wave of her hand. “But we took out a second on our mortgage a couple of years ago. Unfortunately we owe the bank quite a lot. But, Rob had to have it. He wanted to pay off the credit cards and then he had to buy all that expensive fishing equipment.” She shook her head. “He never was good with money. He liked to spend. I did not think it was a good idea to put all that debt on the house, but there’s not much that can be done about it now.”

  “Really? I guess fishing equipment can get expensive?” I didn’t pay a lot of attention to how much the equipment Cade used cost. I knew Cade loved it and appreciated expensive items, but I wasn’t sure what he actually spent on it. I had bought him a fly-fishing rod for Christmas, and it had been more expensive than I realized it would be, but how much equipment could one man need?

  “Well, it is when you buy everything new that comes out. He always had to have the newest of everything.” She rolled her eyes and took a bite of her clam chowder. “Now this is what I’m talking about. Sam’s clam chowder is the best.”

  “I wonder if you could sell some of his equipment? If it’s top of the line stuff, seems like you could get some money out of it,” I suggested.

  She nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. I’m going to try to sell some of it online.”

  “Sarah, is some of his equipment missing?” I asked. It occurred to me that if she thought he was on a fishing trip, then he should have taken the best of his collection with him. Wouldn’t she have noticed if he had left it all behind?

  She stopped, her spoon halfway to her mouth. Her eyes went to mine. “You know, I never thought about that. I didn’t notice. How silly of me.”

  That was odd. Here she had been so sure he was out fishing, and yet she hadn’t noticed if he bothered to take his equipment with him?

  “Seems like he’d take the best of the best with him if he was going to be a pro-angler,” I said lightly.

  She put her spoon down. “He has so much equipment, I seriously wouldn’t be able to tell if he took any of it with him or not.” She smiled, but it seemed kind of nervous to me.

  “I guess I could see that.” I couldn’t. If my husband had disappeared, and I thought there was a chance he was out fishing, I’d go over every piece of equipment he owned and try to figure out if he had taken some of it with him. Because if he wasn’t actually fishing, then there was a reason to worry. And Sarah hadn’t worried.

  She stared at me. “Look, I suppose you might think that I’m uncaring, but in my mind, I thought he was fishing and that he’d be back soon enough. I do care about my husband.”

  “Of course you do,” I said looking at her levelly. I probably didn’t sound like I thought so. In fact, I was pretty sure that I didn’t sound like I thought that at all and I was pretty sure she didn’t care.

  She nodded. “Look, if that detective wants to talk to someone, he might try talking to Rob’s uncle Barron. He came to my house three days ago asking for money. I told him I didn’t have any.”

  “Why would he ask you for money?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “He was always trying to get money from Rob. He thought he was entitled to it. I told Rob not to give him any, but Rob had a soft heart and he would give him money most of the time.”

  “What kind of money are we talking about? Twenty or thirty dollars? Or thousands?”

  “Gosh no. Not thousands. I wouldn’t stand for that. But he’d give him a hundred dollars. Maybe two hundred. When I told Barron I didn’t have any money, he got mad. He told me it belonged to him and I owed it to him. Can you believe that? I think he’d been drinking. He has a history, you know.”

  “I’ve heard that. It sounds like maybe he had some problems managing his finances, but why would you think he killed Rob?” I asked.

  “Because when I told him I wasn’t giving him any money, he got mad. He said his money had been frozen, and he didn’t have money to pay his rent.”

  “His money was frozen? What does that mean?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know, but he asked me for a thousand dollars. No way was I giving him that kind of money just so he could spend it on booze. What do I care about whether he had the money to pay his rent? He lives at that old dilapidated boardinghouse across town, so it’s not like his rent could be a thousand dollars. He just wanted money to blow if you ask me. He can ask Rob’s brothers to pay his bills because I’m sure not going to do it.”

  I shrugged. “I guess you wouldn’t care about whether he had the money to pay his rent.”

  “You’re darn right,” she said and took another bite of the clam chowder. “This is wonderful. Sam is a terrific cook.”

  “I’ll let him know you said so. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get this place cleaned up,” I said as I saw the elderly gentleman approach the cash register to pay for his meal.

  “Hi Mr. Pemberton,” I said and went to ring him up.

  I wasn’t convinced that either Zack or Sarah was innocent of Rob’s murder. Even Barron and Kyle had a reason. I hoped Cade came up with the murderer soon. We had until June before Sarah would move to Massachusetts. I was reasonably sure it wouldn’t take that long to figure out who the killer was, but an extradition would complicate things.

  And that was when what Sarah said came to me. Barron’s money had been frozen.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I was thankful that we had a short day at the diner. I needed to speak to Barron. I tried calling Cade, but he didn’t answer. I knew Barron lived at the boardinghouse and I decided
I’d take a drive over there and see if he was around. I couldn’t imagine the rent had to be terribly expensive at the boardinghouse and I wondered if he was telling the truth about needing money for rent. But maybe he was completely out of money and intended to spend the thousand dollars he told Sarah he needed to pay more than rent.

  Sue Hester had owned the boardinghouse, but when she got into some trouble a few months earlier, her niece and her husband took it over. Sue had told me she didn’t have any family, and for a time, it looked like the city would shut down the boardinghouse due to the owner abandoning the property. In a stroke of good fortune, her niece appeared the day before all of the boarders were going to have to vacate the premises. Most of the boarders were either completely alone in the world or made so little money that the boardinghouse was all they could afford.

  I was pleased to see that the new owners were taking some pride in the place and had given the boardinghouse a facelift. I hoped they were doing the same with the inside. Sue had allowed it to become fairly dilapidated in recent years.

  When I pulled up to the boardinghouse, there was only one car out front, but that didn’t surprise me. Most of the residents didn’t own cars. They relied on the goodwill of others in the community or rode the local bus. The bus was fine for weekdays, but it didn’t operate on the weekends.

  I parked my car and then headed up the steps. I shivered when a memory of the last time I had been here crossed my mind. I hoped things had turned around here and that the residents were happy with the new owners.

  I pushed open the front door and peered inside. The same worn carpet lined the foyer and hallway, but I could smell the faint scent of fresh paint. The cobwebs were missing as well as the coat of dust from the furniture and stairway. It was a definite improvement.

  “Hi Harry,” I said when I ran into Harry Adams in the hallway.

  He stopped and looked at me, squinting his eyes, and then he snorted. “Hi yourself.”

  He shuffled on his way and I headed to the kitchen doorway. “Hi Annie,” I said to the new proprietor.

  She turned around and smiled when she saw me. “Hi Rainey. How are you?”

  “Great. How are things going here? I noticed the new paint and gardening you all did outside. It looks great.” By gardening, I meant that they had removed all the dead bushes that had lined the fence out front.

  She grinned. “Thanks! We barely got the painting done before the weather turned. When it gets a little warmer, I told Gerald we need to put a new roof on the place. It leaks in some of the rooms upstairs. Thankfully they’re empty right now.”

  “That sounds like a job. I sure am glad you all are getting this place turned around,” I said. “It’s good for the residents as well as the community.”

  “It has been quite a job, I’ll tell you,” she said and chuckled. “We’ve started painting in some of the rooms, but it’s going to take a while to get the entire inside done. Poor Gerald thinks I’m going to work him to death.” She chuckled again.

  “I bet he does,” I said. “Annie, is Barron Zumbro around?”

  “Sure, I think he’s in his room. It’s room six,” she said. “Would you like to stay for dinner, Rainey? I’m putting a roast on right now.”

  “That’s kind of you to ask Annie, but I don’t think I’ll be staying long, thanks.”

  “Okay, well one day you stop by and we’ll have tea,” she said.

  “I’ll do that,” I said and headed down the hallway. Room six was the same room Silas Mills had stayed in before he died. To be honest, it made me feel a little creeped out that someone was living in there now, but I shook it off. I told myself it didn’t mean a thing.

  I knocked on the door and waited.

  When Barron opened the door, he stared at me wide-eyed. “Well, hello. Rainey, is it? Or Stormy?”

  I smiled and nodded. “It’s Rainey. I hate to intrude Barron, but do you have a moment?” Now that I was here, I wondered if I had made a mistake. Barron was a quiet, older man and I suddenly couldn’t see him doing anything as terrible as killing his nephew.

  “Why certainly, Rainey. Would you like to come in?”

  I had already been in this room and it was small without any place to sit and talk comfortably. Besides that, it would be awkward to be in a man’s bedroom when I barely knew him. “Maybe we could go to the dining room?”

  He hesitated, then nodded. “Of course. It’s gotten awfully cold out there, hasn’t it?” he said as he stepped out and closed the door behind himself.

  We walked to the dining room. There wasn’t much privacy in the dining room, but I didn’t feel comfortable in his room.

  Annie turned to look at us as we passed through the kitchen.

  “I hope you don’t mind, but we were going to borrow the dining room for a few minutes,” I said.

  She smiled. “Not at all. Would you two like some tea? I’ve got a pot made.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” I said. “I’ll get it if you don’t mind.”

  “You do that. I’ve got the cream and sugar,” she said and brought a pitcher and sugar bowl to the table.

  “Would you like to join us, Annie?” I asked. She had just suggested we have tea, and it seemed silly not to ask her. Besides that, I was suddenly unsure of how to ask Barron what I needed to ask. Another person in the room might help create a distraction should I need one.

  “I’d like to, but I’ve got laundry to do. But I promise we will do it soon,” she said and left the room.

  I nodded and took a seat at the table across from Barron. “Let me pour you a cup of tea,” I said. “I told my mother I ran into you a couple of weeks ago and she was so surprised. She said she hadn’t seen you in years.”

  He chuckled. “I tell you, I’ve had it in mind to stop by the flower shop. Now I’m going to have to do it for sure.”

  “I’m sure she’d like that.” I wasn’t sure about that, but I was trying to find a way to ask him what I needed to know. “So Barron, how have you been getting along lately? You’ve been on my mind ever since you told me your nephew died.”

  He shrugged. “I’m doing the best I can. I do miss the boy. But that wife of his is an awful person. I don’t know how he ever put up with her.”

  I looked at him. “Oh? Why do you say that?”

  He gripped the teacup in his hand. “She—” he began and then stopped.

  I looked at him expectantly. “She what?”

  “Forgive me. It’s just that I’ve run into a bit of financial difficulty. It isn’t much, really. But I thought perhaps she could help me out since Rob had his inheritance. Rob would always help me out, you see. He understood what it’s like for an elderly person like myself to make ends meet. It’s not that I can’t take care of myself, you understand, but sometimes I need a little help. But she refused to help me. My money has suddenly been frozen, and I only asked for a small loan to get me through until things could be straightened out.”

  “Oh, didn’t you know?” I asked him.

  “Know what?” he asked and took a sip of his tea.

  “Rob was the only person on the bank account that had the inheritance money, and with his death, the bank froze the account. I would imagine it has to go through probate to be released and that could take months. It very well could be that she simply didn’t have any money to give.” I watched as his face went from surprise to anger.

  “But she can get ahold of the money. She’s his wife,” he said. He clenched his teeth and then after a moment, with some effort, relaxed. “She froze the money.”

  I shook my head. “No. It doesn’t matter that she’s his wife. In fact, because Rob was murdered, I’m sure it will be a complicated drawn-out affair to get the money released.”

  He looked at me, surprised. “Do you really think so?”

  “I do think so. There was a murder, and it’s still unsolved, after all. I don’t think the bank will release that money until they know who killed him.” I didn’t know if that was true or no
t, but I wanted to see his reaction.

  “What about the insurance money? She had insurance on him. I know it was a lot of money. That woman wouldn’t do anything on the cheap if it benefitted herself.”

  I nodded. “I doubt an insurance company is going to release the money until they know who killed Rob. It’s a good thing Sarah has a job as a teacher, otherwise, I think money might be in short supply for her for a while.”

  He looked at me, his face blank. “I didn’t think about that,” he finally said.