The Sweet Taste of Murder: An Angel Lake Mystery

by CeeCee James

  “Thought I might check in with my friend, Frank. It’s been a while since I’ve talked with him.”

  “With me with you? You really going to do this?” Elise asked.

  He pulled into the driveway and yanked the emergency brake. “We’re here, aren’t we? Just do me a favor and be like a broken headset.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Silent.”

  Elise rolled her eyes and climbed out of the car. Together, they walked up the driveway.

  The house was in serious disarray. Gray paint peeled from the siding in flakes. Shrubbery in desperate need of water sagged against the house. Elise felt a flicker of panic when the porch groaned under their weight and carefully avoided the rotting boards.

  Brad knocked on the door firmly. A calico cat skittered from behind a bush and ran hell-bent at the noise.

  The face meeting them on the other side of the screen door was anything but friendly.

  “What do you want, Brad?”

  Elise looked up at Brad nervously. He didn’t flinch at Frank’s tone. If anything, he seemed even more self-assured than just a moment earlier.

  “Nothing big. Just some standard questions we’ve been asking a few people in your neighborhood.”

  Frank opened the door an inch, and Brad linked his fingers in the crack. He opened it all the way as Frank took a few steps back.

  “You going to make this quick? I’ve got to get to the gym.” Frank didn’t seem to notice he was clad in tight jeans and bare feet.

  Elise glanced around but there was no gym bag in sight. Her eyes narrowed. She worked hard to mask her look of disbelief.

  Brad’s features relaxed into an easy smile.“This won’t take long.”

  Frank led them back to a dirty kitchen. Elise shrank into herself, afraid to touch anything. Gingerly, she sat in one of the plastic covered chairs at the table with the men.

  Brad started. “So, I heard you had a violent run-in with Cameron?”

  Frank’s face stiffened with anger. “That was years ago. He reached for his gun, and I reacted. It was just a split second, or I would have been dead.” Frank pinched the bridge of his nose. He stared at Elise and Brad. “You hear me? I had my chance to kill him. If I wanted him dead, he’d be gone.”

  “He was the one with the gun? We’re just trying to sort things out here.” Brad’s voice was low and even.

  “Yeah. Him. What, you heard it was me? You think I look like the kind of guy who’d have a gun?”

  Brad didn’t say anything. His gift was in his pauses, which usually prompted the other person to fill in the space.

  “Look, Cameron was a waste of space. Anybody will tell you that. I hated him as much as the next guy. He knocked up my ol’ lady! Still, I didn’t kill him. There ain’t a better man to make acquaintances with ol’Nick though.” Frank cracked his knuckles which subconsciously emphasized his last thought.

  Elise dearly wanted to ask Frank where he was when he left the movie theater. Under the table Brad’s knee softly bumped into her leg, warning her to be still. Swallowing hard, she controlled the urge to reach across the table and squeeze Frank’s throat. Her gaze cut sidewise to Brad. Probably not a good idea in front of a cop. She’d get thrown in jail along with Vi, and then where would they be?

  They’d be trading tater tots and eating crappy food off a plastic tray, that’s where. And in the meantime, Cameron’s killer would still be on the loose.

  This whole thing seemed kind of unfair in the long run.

  Brad laced his fingers on the table before him and leaned forward in a relaxed stance. Frank glanced at him before rolling his own shoulders. “I don’t know why you’re questioning me. I’d say this is harassment. I already had to give my whereabouts.”

  Brad nodded.

  Frank reached for an empty can of coke in front of him and began tinkering with it, denting the sides of the can. “I was at the movies. I gave y’all my ticket stub. The popcorn kid saw me. I know because y’all questioned him already.”

  Brad nodded again.

  The can snapped on the table as the dent popped out. Elise jumped.

  “Are you guys done? I don’t have anything else to say.”

  “Yeah, I think we’re just about done here.” Brad smiled disarmingly. He stood up and nodded at Elise. “You ready?”

  A small sound of dismay shot out of Elise before she nodded. Slowly, she grabbed her purse.

  Brad tucked the chair back under the table. It’s wooden legs screeched on the linoleum. He gave the back of the chair a rat-a-tat-tat with a slap of his hands. “Just one final question.”

  Frank exhaled heavily.

  “Why’d you change your wife’s dental appointment?”

  Frank laughed, revealing silver covering one of his canines. “What? Now I’m some kind of secretary? Why would I do that?”

  Brad smiled. “You tell me.”

  “I didn’t mess with her appointment, dude. You’re barking up the wrong tree. That two-timing chick just bit off more than she could chew. You need to be going after her. Hell. He fired her just the day before. She was the love of my life, but I kicked her out. I don’t have time to be worrying about her precious teeth.”

  “How were you so certain it wasn’t your baby?” Elise interjected. Brad squeezed her shoulder.

  “Army injury, little lady. Can’t have no kids of my own.” The tooth flashed at her again. “Course, everything else works a-ok, if you want to test it out.” He gave her a wink.

  “We’ll be back to talk with you again, Frank. Don’t be making any trips out of town without letting someone know.” Brad gently led Elise out of the kitchen.

  Frank followed them outside and leaned against the front doorway. His white tank top hung loosely around his skinny frame. “Y’all come back anytime, ya hear.” He hawked up a wad of spit into the bushes behind them and slammed the door.

  “Well, that was pleasant,” Elise said as she slid into the front seat of the car.

  “He’s quite the character, that’s for sure. Had a few stints in and out of jail but yet to do anything too terrible to send him to prison. Yet.” Brad turned the ignition and backed out onto the street.

  “He does have a point,” Elise continued. “What good would it be to make an earlier dental appointment?”

  “Puts her at the scene of the crime with no alibi. And with plenty of motive.”

  “So you think he framed her?”

  “Either that or she’s lying and knocked Cameron off herself. All I know is something’s up with those two. But no one’s out-smarted me yet.”

  CHAPTER 25

  “Oh, Lawd. You hear about the town meeting?” Lavina’s voice quaked as it came through the cell phone.

  “Lavina, you keep calling me and I won’t know what to think the next time you text again.”

  “I don’t have time to wait for you to answer a text. My life is in shambles right now.” She groaned loudly. “It’s about the poisoning. They’re probably having this meeting to form a posse to come get me.”

  “What’s going on?” Elise thought back to how Brad said there were rumblings in town. “Are you going?”

  “Darlin', I do not stoop to answer gossip. They’ll just have to have their little meeting without me.” She paused for a second, and then urged, “But you should go.”

  “Me?”

  “I need eyes and ears there, don’t I? Who else am I going to get to do it besides my favorite cat lady? I know how you like to investigate stuff. I’m just thinking of you.”

  “Right.” Elise agreed, rolling her eyes. “That’s so thoughtful of you.”

  * * *

  So that’s how Elise found herself in the third row of a very tightly packed town meeting. Next to her sat the owner of the local garage. To the right was Mabel from the gym.

  Mabel waggled her gray eyebrows and leaned over conspiratorially. “Did I not tell you? I knew that man didn’t off himself. But now we’re in a pickle. Have to deal w
ith a poisoner.”

  The room was already overheated, with more bodies packing in by the minute. Elise fumbled through her purse for her checkbook and fanned it over her face. She nodded in agreement with Mabel, but inside she felt miserable. Was this really going to be about Vi?

  The stout, older police captain meandered slowly to the podium. He grimaced as though his knees hurt, and rifled through a stack of papers that he eventually laid out on the stand. “All right, everyone. I’m calling this town meeting to order.” He looked out at the crowd. “Quiet, everyone. It’s hotter than two goats in a pepper patch in here, so let me get through this. Then we can vet your questions.” He cleared his throat. “I just want to assure everyone we have all of our best men at the department on this case.”

  A man yelled from across the room. “Why are you playing around? It was poison. You have a motive. Why don’t you go after him?”

  Police Captain Stanley looked out into the room. “We are doing this by the law, one step at a time.”

  Someone else chimed in. “I saw that exterminator down by the town’s well. Do you really think it’s safe to let a suspect work near our water?”

  Cries of outrage rang out around the room.

  “Mr. Nichols has not been arrested for any crime. We are doing our investigation in an orderly manner. Y'all have to be patient.”

  One old man stood up, his cheeks dusky red from the exertion. Sweat popped out on his face as he made his way to the microphone. “Seems to me y'all are doing a lot of talking, and not a lot of action. Since last week, my water’s been running green!”

  “The water has been tested safe.”

  “For how long? Why should we believe you? How do we know when it’s not safe? Just wait for someone else to keel over?”

  The crowd grew rowdier. Stanley looked around for a gavel before resorting to pounding his fist on the podium. “All right! That’s enough.”

  One little girl began crying. From the back of the room, a fight broke out. Two farmers argued. Five more people surged forward toward the microphone.

  “I said that’s enough! Everyone sit back down.” This time, the Captain’s sharply barked words grabbed the attention of the crowd. There was grumbling, but it faded as people began to find their seats.

  Captain Stanley’s dark eyes scowled under bushy eyebrows like bats peeping from a cave. Turning his head slowly, he surveyed the room. “We understand your concern. We’re going to keep you safe.”

  “Like you kept Cameron safe?”

  There were a few shouts of agreement and some snickers, but the voices settled back down.

  The Captain focused on the old man. “And Albert, you can’t be blaming your green water on anything but your own corroded copper pipes. It’s a miracle your place is even standing.”

  There were a few soft chuckles among the crowd. Everyone around Angel Lake knew Albert’s place. He was a man who always looked for a good deal, and he’d scored on a half acre out by the marsh years ago. He’d built a house there, despite everyone advising against it, and brought home a skinny wife. Together, they’d raised four boys up in it.

  Those boys were known to be wild. Half the time they were hanging from the rafters. When the windows broke, Albert had simply taped over them with cardboard.

  Now, his house was gradually sliding downhill as the porch pushed it deeper into the Tennessee mud.

  Albert scowled but relaxed back in his chair with his arms folded in front of his chest. His scowl deepened as his neighbor good-naturedly elbowed him. “You know that’s truth!”

  Captain Stanely continued. “Your kids are safe. Your families are safe. The water facility tests the water every morning, and they’re keeping things secure. Y’all don’t need to be worrying about any of that. Just let it be, and let us get our jobs done.”

  “Now, are there any other questions? Besides the water?” this last remark was shot towards Mr. McGregor, the barber who had just shaken out his list.

  “So you know for sure it was murder?”

  “The toxicity reports show that the victim was indeed poisoned.”

  “What kind of poison?”

  “We’ll answer that at a later time.”

  “Do you know who did it?”

  “We have a few suspects, and our detectives are diligently working on the case. The perpetrator will be caught.” With that, he reshuffled the papers in front of him into something that resembled a stack. With a final smack on the podium, Captain Stanley ended with, “That’s all we have for today. We will keep you informed. In the meantime, be good to each other and quit the damn vigilante mentality. We’ve got enough on our plate without busting up a bunch of yahoos.”

  He stepped down, and the town’s secretary walked to the podium. In a soft voice, she closed with, “Okay, folks. Be sure y'all leave in an orderly fashion. I heard Grandma Babe has some new pies out.”

  People slowly filed out. Elise felt a tap on her shoulder and looked up to see Brad.

  “Can you believe this?” she asked Brad.

  “This is what happens when there is a murder in a small town. No one has nothing else to talk about. Makes investigating kind of hard because everyone is involved in the gossip circle. I never know if what I’m hearing is what they really think, or what Sally down the road told them over barbecue last night.” He rubbed his chin, now clean shaven.

  “You’re going to figure this out. I know you will.”

  “If the Captain will give me some more wiggle room. He might not say it, but he’s about locked his prime suspect down. He nearly has the arrest warrant signed already.”

  “Tell me it’s Frank. He doesn’t have an alibi, and he sure has a reason,” Elise was just relieved that no one at the meeting had mentioned Lavina.

  “I told you how I felt about his motive. Something just doesn’t feel right.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like why would he’d be going through with the divorce? He doesn’t have much money.”

  “Maybe, you should look to see if he’s come into any recently.”

  “You must think I’m an idiot. I’ve already raked through his financial records. Something’s off about his motive.”

  “I can’t explain why he does what he does, but I know he hated Cameron, and that kind of anger can make a person do crazy things. And he did have access to the poison.”

  “Yeah, he did. Which does make him the perfect suspect.” Brad turned piercing dark eyes at her. “Or the perfect Patsy.”

  CHAPTER 26

  “I’m just feeling like Ms. Popularity, lately,” Elise mumbled to herself. Two hours ago she’d received a phone call from Crystal, asking if she would be free later in the day for a glass of sweet tea. Highly suspicious, Elise had accepted solely on account of a tinge of humbleness she’d detected in Crystal’s voice.

  Now, with her little Toyota parked next to a Land Rover and Porshe, Elise felt slightly humbled herself. After applying a fresh application of lipstick, she fluffed out her hair. Quickly, she checked her eye makeup in the mirror, telling herself, “Let’s just see what she has to say. And I love a good glass of sweet tea.”

  She’d just made it up the front steps when the door swung open.

  “I heard you pull up. I’m so glad you were able to come over.” Crystal’s face looked gaunt, and her clothing hung on her frame. Elise felt a zing of shock and swallowed hard to avoid reacting.

  “Come in. Come in.” Crystal darted a look outside the door as if someone might be following Elise, and then whirled inside, leaving Elise on the threshold.

  Elise stepped behind her. The house was gorgeous and filled with southern charm. An oak parquet floor stretched out from the entrance, framed at the sides by two white staircases that curved to the second story where they eventually joined together with delicate railing. Above them, a cut glass chandelier glittered.

  Crystal was already far ahead and about to disappear into the formal parlor. Lengthening her steps, Elise made a quick effo
rt to catch up with her.

  In the parlor, a glass pitcher was already set up on a table, its outside dewy with condensation. Two glasses sat next to it with rims adorned with lemon slices. Elise settled into a chair across from Crystal. She waited for Crystal to begin and finally prompted her. “So, what’s going on? Everything okay?”

  Crystal looked up and covered her mouth with a well-manicured hand, the long fuchsia nails identical to the color on her lips. Her brown eyes welled with tears. “Oh, Elise! It just isn’t true!”

  Elise watched, flabbergasted.

  Crystal hunched forward with her shoulders shaking.

  “There, there,” Elise leaned over to pat her arm. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

  “He’s not a murderer!” Crystal blurted.

  Elise sucked in her breath. “Who are you talking about?”

  “Eric!” The word trailed out into a long sob. “My baby!”

  At Crystal’s words, Elise leaned back, blinking. “What’s going on? Why are you saying this?”

  “Officer Carter. He’s been around here asking questions. He wants to know where my baby was the day that evil man died.”

  Elise nodded. “I’m sure it’s just standard questioning. He’s asked just about everyone in town that same question. After all, Cameron had a lot of enemies.” She smiled weakly to lighten the mood.

  Crystal’s face flushed with anger as she looked up. “You think this is funny? This is my baby’s life!”

  Seeing the intensity of her emotion, Elise lowered her voice to a more soothing tone. “What is it you want from me?”

  “I wanted to know—wasn’t it, wasn’t that the day you and Eric got together?”

  Once again, Elise was stunned.

  “Remember?” Crystal’s anger quickly dissipated into a confident smile. “You know when you were looking for a car.”

  “I bought my car long before Cameron’s murder, Crystal.”

  “Didn’t you buy it out here? I’m sure there was more paperwork to sign.”

  Elise shook her head in confusion.

  “Oh, come now. I’m just asking you, to maybe remember. Remember meeting Eric. At your house, I think? He was there with papers for you to sign?”