by Tonya Kappes
“Corine, this is my Bernadette. Why don’t you sit down and let me get you something?” Mom flung the towel off her shoulder and waved at me to move, gesturing for the woman to sit down in my spot like I was ten years old.
“Honey, you stay right there. I can’t thank you enough for the friendship you’ve given Peaches. Her daddy and I are beside ourselves with everything going on, but she insists you’re helping her.” The woman’s eyes were riddled with sadness, and that’s when I recognized Peaches had her mother’s eyes.
“Can’t I get you something?” my mom insisted.
“I’ve got a to-go order already called in.” she told Mom.
“Let me go check on it then.” Mom hurried right back to the kitchen where I had no doubt she’d emerge victoriously with the order in her possession.
“I stopped by Peaches’s shop, but China said Peaches had taken the day off.” I lied again. Boy, I was going to have to say extra prayers of forgiveness tonight from all the falsehoods I’ve been spreading around like sprinkles on a cake.
“We just got out of our meeting with Tim Crouse before he took her down to the sheriff’s department, where that awful woman sheriff is going to keep asking Peaches the same questions over and over again.” Corine did finally sit down on the open stool next to me.
In a whip of an eye, my dad had poured her a cup of coffee and topped mine off.
“Thank you.” Her Southern sweetness poured out of her mouth, and it reminded me of Peaches. The Peaches I knew, not the number one murder suspect.
“I really hope things get cleared up, and the real killer is caught.” I considered the idea of telling her what I’d heard at the gas station, but as rumors spread around the town, I wasn’t sure if she’d already heard. So, I kept my mouth shut.
“We are desperate for people to come forward with any information. My sweet Peaches has taken to the bottle again over this boy, and she just doesn’t remember her whereabouts or going to the post office.” Her lashes rapidly opened and closed with each blink. Stress deepened her crow’s feet.
“I have a quick question.” There I was, back in the middle of things when I should just leave well enough alone now that I was on suspension from my job. “Did you know Simon well?”
She drew back with a curious look.
“I did. Or at least I thought I did,” she said.
“What about his relationship with Nick Kirby?” I asked.
“His business partner?” she asked for confirmation.
“Yes.” I picked up my cup and took a sip so it appeared as casual conversation.
“I think they were good friends. He stopped by the house to see if Peaches was okay after he found out what happened to Simon.”
“Don’t you think that’s odd that he’d stop by to check on Peaches? I mean, it does seem odd since she and Simon weren’t dating. In fact, they didn’t even like each other from what Peaches had told me.” Nothing Nick was doing made sense.
“He and Peaches were always close, even after Simon broke it off with her. Nick had stopped by Peaches’s apartment to check on her since he knew she’d started drinking again.” Corine slowly shook her head. “I’m still not sure why she started to drink.”
“Maybe her business. I mean, when you’re financially in trouble, it’s a lot of added stress.” I noticed her visibly tense up when I mentioned how I’d heard about Tranquility Wellness having some money issues. Then I wanted to offer her some hope, so I continued, “Look at me. I just got put on suspension from the post office, and I really want a drink.”
“Dear.” She laid a flat palm on my back. “I’m so sorry. I would offer some sort of help, but I fear I’m in no shape to give anyone anything. Not even my own daughter.”
“I’m fine.” I assured her and got off the subject of money. “Where is Peaches staying?”
“She’s staying with us until we can get this mess cleared up. I’m picking up food now to give me some time before I need to pick her up at the department.” She bit the edge of her lip. “I do hope they don’t arrest her.”
“Me too.” I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t think they could arrest her on what they had, though I’m sure people have been arrested with much less evidence against them. “I’d like to stop by and see her. Talk to her now that I have some free time to help on my hands.”
“She’d love that. I’d love that. She says that you’re the only one who can help her.” Corine’s attention turned to my mom and the to-go bags Mom set in front of her.
“It’s on the house,” Mom told her in a matter-of-fact, don’t-try-to-argue-with-me way.
“You and your family are a blessing, Barbara.” Corine reached out and grabbed my mom’s hand. There was some sort of bond there I was unaware of. She let go and reached into her bag where she pulled out a pen and piece of paper, scribbling down their address. “You can stop by anytime this afternoon.”
“Thank you, I will.” I slipped the piece of paper into the pocket of my blue mail carrier uniform shorts. We said our goodbyes.
“I feel bad for her.” My mom shook her head. “You and I both know what it’s like to do anything for your child.”
“Yes, we do,” I whispered and watched Corine leave the diner before I turned back around to finish the biscuits and chocolate gravy. “How do you know her?”
“Elks club.” Mom nodded, then headed down the counter to help another customer, who’d just sat down.
Mom left me alone to finish the food while she walked around the diner and greeted customers, asking if their food was good and about the service they were receiving. Mom ran a tight ship, but fair, and every one of her employees loved to work for her.
“You better get off now. You can’t be late since I called in my favor.” She took my plate and my coffee cup.
“What favor?” I asked, but she moved on down the line, ignoring me. “What favor?” I asked my dad.
He laughed and gave me a hug goodbye, not saying a word.
It was well past noon, and for a second, I wondered if I had enough time to run home and change before my appointment. I’d also thought about skipping this appointment since I had no idea why I was going. I guessed, even at fifty years old, you still tried to please your parents.
My phone chirped, and it was a text from Monica. She said the postmaster had given her my route for the next two weeks and wanted to make sure I was cool with that. Of course I wasn’t, but I was going to embrace it in hopes this whole messy murder thing was cleared up by then.
Instead, I texted back, asking if she knew what the sheriff’s department and FBI had found out from the cameras.
The text turned into a call.
“Too much to text. Besides, I wanted to make sure you’re okay.” Monica was sweet. She loved working the counter but had visions of getting a route of her own.
The counter could be stressful most days. The customers would get angry about waiting in line. Then the customers would come in wanting to know why they didn’t get a package. Or they’d come in and complain about a package being destroyed in transit when the package was probably in shambles from the journey it’d taken.
“I’m fine. I guess I did too much snooping.” I knew she already knew about my lofty ambitions when it came to crime around Sugar Creek Gap, and she was the first to jump on the bandwagon of helping me. “So, by you calling, I’m assuming you have some information.”
“Peaches is clearly on the footage. Not that they showed it to me, and you keep quiet about me telling you this. I peeked in the window while they were all watching. If they find out, I’ll get fired, and then you won’t have anyone helping you out around here,” she told me.
“Did you see Nick?” I asked and remembered I was talking to someone who thought he was the cat’s meow, so I treaded lightly.
“Yep. He showed up with his bag of tools, and when he found her, he helped her to her feet, and you can see from the front camera that he helped her across the street like he said he did.” Monic
a didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear. “But he was here a little earlier than normal. Like an hour.”
“When did the alarm go off?” I asked.
“That’s the thing. The alarms didn’t go off.” That stopped my heart.
“Then what happened to it?” I didn’t expect her to answer my question, but her statement put a lot more theories into my head.
Who could possibly have turned off the security system at the post office? Was this an inside job? I gulped.
“Monica, have you ever talked to Nick outside of work?” I asked.
“Yeah. I see a lot of people outside of work.” She mentioned it so causally, I wondered what was going through her head.
“I mean, more than just casual?” I asked.
“Bernie, you’re trying to be my mom again.” She was certainly good at pointing that feature out. “But since I know you mean well, we did have a little something.”
“A little something?” I wished she was standing in front of me, and if I’d not gotten suspended from the post office, I’d walk in there and talk to her since I was right next door, getting ready to walk into the doctor’s building.
“Maybe more than a little something.” Monica had a nervous sound to her voice as though she was hesitant to tell me.
“Monica…” I encouraged her in a momlike voice to tell me.
“One Sunday night after one of the summer clogging events, we were hanging out because both of us had one too many. One thing led to another, and he mentioned how it would be our little secret to go into the post office…” She didn’t need to tell me anymore.
“You told him how you had a key to the post office?” I knew she had all the ins and outs on the security code, which not many employees did, including me.
“We went into the post office. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the mail room when one of the big trucks got there from out of state. Nick was long gone.” She literally just told me how Nick had access to not only watch her put in the code, but apparently, she’d fallen asleep and left him alone in there to do whatever he wanted, including taking a look at the security system.
Which, to be honest, was put in by a local company that probably anyone could hack into, including my little sweet granddaughter, Clara.
“I even deleted the film footage of us sneaking in after I came to my druthers and realized it wasn’t smart to have done what we did.” The sound of regret in her voice came through the phone.
I pressed the phone between my shoulder and ear as I signed my name on the clipboard next to where the receptionist sat at the doctor’s office and took a seat, waiting for them to call me back.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Everything Monica did was not only against our company’s rules but also illegal with the government.
“Please don’t tell anyone, Bernie. It took me a couple of weeks to get over it and then Nick.” She stopped talking and sucked in a few audible breaths. I wondered if she was trying to hold back tears. “Nick hasn’t looked at me since then until today.”
I looked up when I heard the door to the patient rooms open, but they called back another person. Just inside the door where patients check out, China was standing there arguing with the nurse. At least, it looked like she was fussy at the nurse.
“Listen, I’ve got to go. I’ll call you back. Don’t say anything.” Monica hung up the phone.
I got up and moved closer to the door so I could see what juicy tidbits China was mad about.
“She needs it now. Not two weeks from now.” I heard China’s voice and leaned on the arm of the chair to get a little closer to the door.
The nurse was very calm and trying to soothe a very upset China. “I understand Peaches is having a very hard time sleeping. It’s not my place to judge where her extra sleeping pills have gone, but we are not able to prescribe her anymore sleeping pills because she had plenty to last her until her next refill.”
“I don’t care. She needs to sleep.” Frustration came off China in waves, only escalating as she talked. “She’s been accused and taken into custody for murder. A murder she didn’t do, and she’s going to be put in a psych ward or drink herself to death if you don’t give me even one pill to help her sleep. Sleep rejuvenates the brain. She needs all the brain power she can get.”
“I’m going to tell you one more time, and if you don’t leave after that, I’m going to call the sheriff’s department to remove you.” The nurse was done listening to excuses as to why Peaches didn’t have any more sleeping pills.
Sleeping pills? I literally gasped out loud and then quickly shut my mouth after a few other patients looked at me. She didn’t have sleeping pills because they were used on Simon.
The door of the waiting room opened, knocking me in the head.
“I’m so sorry,” China gushed when she realized she’d hit someone after she’d flung the door open in a fit of rage, but she didn’t actually see who it was. There was a look of shock on her face when she noticed it was me. “Bernadette.” Her mouth flew open, and she knelt down.
I held my hand to my head.
“Are you okay?”
I waved her concern away.
“I’m fine.” I rubbed my head a little.
“Are you sure?” she asked, voice laced with concern.
“Yes.” I nodded, but upon further inspection, I could feel a little knot forming underneath my fingertip. “It’s all good. You okay?”
“No.” Her eyebrows dipped into a frown. “I’m here for Corine, Peaches’s mom. She wants Peaches to sleep, and all her sleeping pills are gone. We don’t know if she took them, sold them, or what, but she needs sleep. I thought I could get a refill on her bottle.” She handed me the bottle. “No such luck.”
I took notice of the name on the bottle. I would check with Vita if Barron, the coroner, had identified exactly what sleeping pills Simon had overdosed on, though we knew someone put bourbon in his mouth to make it look like he drank himself to death after writing a note saying he took the pills with a handle of bourbon, despite there being no bourbon in his system.
“I would offer you any if I had some.” I handed the bottle back to her.
“Thanks, Bernadette. You’ve already been such a big help.” Her look of concern turned to inquisitive. “Are you sick?”
“No. I have a few things I need to discuss with Dr. Hunter.” The door opened again, and this time the nurse looked to make sure she didn’t hit anyone.
“Bernie, you can come on back.” She swiveled her gaze to China.
“I’m leaving.” China put her hands in the air. “I guess I’ll see you at Corine’s soon? She told Peaches you were stopping by.”
“Yes. See you soon.” I nodded and followed the nurse back to where she not only took my weight but told me I’d gained. And just a few minutes ago, I thought my belly seemed a little smaller.
There was nothing that’d sour a mood more than when someone told you that you gained weight.
Grumpy and now with a headful of questions about where Peaches’s sleeping pills disappeared to, though they probably were the ones in Simon’s stomach, I was ready to get out of here before Doctor Hunter even walked in with her fifty-something self, looking put together and the picture of health.
“Hey, Bernie,” Doctor Hunter greeted when she walked in. She had her gray hair flowing behind her. She tucked a strand behind her ear as she opened my chart and took a gander at it.
Though Faith was my age and we’d grown up together, she let her hair grow out gray when she was in her mid-thirties, which was well before it’d become a thing. She rocked it too. With her hip style and bright smile, Faith was able to make a sack dress cute.
“What brings you in?” She sat down next to me in the open chair.
I didn’t sit on the table. There was no sense in messing up the perfectly nice piece of construction paper or whatever it was they had patients sit or lay down on when there was nothing wrong with me.
“I’m here fo
r Barb’s peace of mind.” My words brought a smile to Faith’s face.
“Yeah. She called, and I had to entertain her since I owe her a favor. She let me use the common room at the nursing home under their name for my Botox clinic a few weeks back.” She let out a little snort. “Your parents think I’m doing some sort of back alley makeover scheme when I’m really teaching how to do Botox injections for clients with migraines.” She stood up and grabbed the blood pressure cuff out of the wire basket hanging on the wall and Velcroed it on my bicep. She pumped the ball and talked, cutting off my blood circulation. “I overheard them telling one of the residents how they couldn’t tell what I was doing in there. Top secret doctor stuff.”
“I’m sorry.” I apologized for my overbearing parents.
“No. They are cute and fine. And by the looks of your blood pressure, you are too.” She tilted her head, smiling sweetly and taking the cuff off my arm while looking as cute as she did. “I heard from a certain Barbara that you’re still having menopause issues. Fainting. Dizziness. Bloating, by the looks of the scale.”
She flipped my chart open again, and I could tell she was scanning the page for my weight.
“No matter what I do, I can’t seem to sleep, even when you suggested yoga. I did the knitting thing a few months ago, and that was disastrous.” I was so embarrassed when I’d tried to knit Grady and Julia a baby blanket for Clara along with a few dishrags, and they turned out to be tiny little towels.
“Sometimes those natural things do not work, and we have to go on hormones.” She frowned like she was disappointed in telling me that when we both knew it was coming, and we both knew she was very good at playing up the empathetic doctor thing.
She reached over and plucked a few brochures out of the acrylic wall hangings and handed me a few.
“Thank you. I’ll take a look at these when I get a moment and let you know what I decide.” This was a big decision to go on hormones and one not to be taken lightly.
I’d heard a few things, true or not, but enough to get my attention, about how taking hormones had been linked to cancer and various other diseases. Plus, I’d also heard how once you start, you can’t get off them so easily.