Jam Up and Jelly Fright

by Donna Walo Clancy

  Ma’am. I’m only six years older than him.

  “You just be extra careful, and I’ll find out what I can for you, okay?” Tabby insisted.

  She let Gage out the back door. He disappeared into the dark of the night. Tabby was concerned for him. She knew Isabella’s temper and had been on the opposing end of it more than once. Could she be capable of murder? Tabby wasn’t sure, one way or the other.

  She didn’t want to say anything to Gage, but she believed that Isabella would stop at nothing to protect her name and her family’s name; it was instilled in her being to do so. It would not be in her best interest to have an illegitimate child of Anthony’s wandering around the town of Whipper Will Junction, especially when Gage looked so much like Anthony and people could put two and two together and come up with father and son.

  Tabby would secretly tell a few people in town who she could trust to keep a watch over Gage. Sheriff Puckett would be one of the first ones she would relay the entire story to as he might want to talk to Gage about his dad.

  As she finished locking up the shop, her mind wandered back to the fact that it was a holiday. This was the first year that she could remember her and Jen not sharing a picnic on the town green celebrating Labor Day. But at least her best friend was safe and on the road to recovery. Next year, she would make sure they had their picnic together, no matter what.

  Things had changed since Tabby opened her shop. Her time used to be her own, and now it was centered around running Jellies, Jams, and Weddings. This was her future, and she knew that, but she also knew that she had to have a life besides work so she wouldn’t suffer from burnout. There had to be a way to balance things so she could have a happy medium and not lose herself and her personal life in the process.

  Marmalade crawled up the side of her leg and broke her out of thinking trance. She had to finish what she was doing because she would already be late meeting Greg. They were going to have dinner and talk to Judy and Tom, the owners of the diner, about Bea keeping her job.

  She alarmed the shop, fed her fur babies, and left for the diner. As she walked, she had a funny feeling she was being watched. She couldn’t shake the feeling, so she walked faster out of fear. As she reached the diner door, a dark sedan raced past her up Main Street.

  I knew someone was watching me. Shake it off, woman; they’re gone.

  Greg was waiting just inside the door for her. He saw the sedan go racing by and demanded to know what was going on. She told him she didn’t know, but she felt like she was being followed from when she left the shop.

  “Is there ever going to be a day when I don’t have to worry about you?” Greg asked, frustrated.

  “I don’t know. It’s just who I am I guess,” Tabby answered, smiling, “Let’s eat, I’m starving.”

  They took their regular booth near the back. Things had slowed down considerably with all the tourists returning home to get the kids ready for the beginning of the new school year. The diner was more than half empty. It was also a holiday, and a lot of families had cookouts as a last hurrah to the end of the summer.

  Judy came to take their order as they had let most of the staff take the day off for the holiday. Tabby started to explain Bea’s situation to her boss, but Judy cut her off saying Sheriff Puckett had already been in to talk to her and her husband to explain the situation. She assured Tabby that Bea would still have her job when she got back from Larsen with her daughter.

  They were also giving Bea the month of September off, with pay, so she could stay with Jen and help her at the bookstore until Jen was ready to run it herself again. Judy also told them that Jen was being released for the hospital on Wednesday and returning home.

  She reached in and gave Tabby and Greg big hugs.

  “That’s for being heroes and saving Jen. Supper is on the diner tonight,” Judy said smiling, walking away to put in their order.

  Tabby and Greg said thank you and enjoyed a quiet meal together. They decided to go apple picking the following Sunday and would invite Bea and Jen to go with them.

  Tabby admitted to Greg about her fear of the shop taking over her life. He told her that he felt the same way at times and that they would have to make the best of their days off together and spend the time with friends and family. Tabby liked that idea vowing never to lose touch with Jen again after almost losing her. Their discussion changed over to Halloween.

  Saturday was the start of Halloween on Main Street decorating. The stores had the month of September to decorate their front windows. The first Saturday in October was the judging. No one knew who the four judges were that would decide the winners of the window display contest. They had all day to individually walk around Main Street and view the windows and then would meet at five in the evening at a secret location to discuss who the winners would be.

  Tabby still wouldn’t even give a hint as to what her window was going to look like. Greg admitted he had purchased a bride and groom skeleton set and was going to decorate the window with dyed black roses and a stunning Halloween wedding display. He taunted Tabby saying his window was going to be tough to beat. She just smiled.

  Later that night, after Greg had walked her home and she was lying in bed, she realized where she had seen the black sedan before. It was the same car that had been speeding down the dirt road away from the Capri log cabin. Subconsciously, she had noted the small blue sticker on the back bumper of the vehicle. Why were they following her? Was this Isabella’s doing? She fell asleep while deep in thought.

  The next morning Thelma returned to work from her mini vacation. Her and Janice stayed at the shop while Tabby ran to the town hall to get the information that she needed on the Pelton property.

  Tabby went to the town clerk’s office in search of her friend, Bertha Knowles. She had been the town clerk for over fifty years and knew everyone in and everything about Whipper Will Junction. Unlike Gladys Twittle, who was The Town Mouth, Bertha kept everything she knew to herself; and she knew a lot. The elderly woman was sitting at her desk, buried behind volumes of open ledgers.

  “Hello, Tabby,” Bertha said, looking over the rim of her glasses and smiling. “Are you working on another mystery?”

  “As a matter of fact, I am. I need some information on the old Pelton place. You know, the history of who owned the property, say over the last seventy-five years,” Tabby replied. “I need the exact names on the registered deeds, please.”

  “I can get to it this afternoon. Right now, I am looking up things they need for the selectmen’s meeting tonight. Can you come back tomorrow morning?” Bertha requested.

  “I sure can, and I really appreciate your help, Bertha,” Tabby said, laying a box of the clerk’s favorite chocolates from the local candy shop, Chocolate Motion, on the desk next to the ledgers.

  “Bribery will get you everywhere,” she beamed, picking up the chocolates.

  “See you in the morning and thank you,” Tabby said, chuckling as she exited out the door.

  She returned to the shop and picked up the pile of mail that had just been delivered. Sitting at the work table, she started sifting through it. Two different envelopes caught her eye. One was postmarked Lakeville, Florida, and the other Whipper Will Junction.

  The manilla envelope from Florida had a little jingle to it when she picked it up. Opening it and dumping the contents onto the table she was pleasantly surprised it was from the Swanson Family Trust. It contained a set of keys to the snack bar at the deserted drive-in and a letter giving Tabby permission to use the property for the haunted house while it was still in the Swanson family possession. Her phone call asking for help had worked.

  Her mind raced with a million new ideas. They could set up the haunted house like a working concession stand only run by dead people. Skeletons could be the workers, wormy food and gross snacks could be set up on the serving counters. A mummy could be popping out of the popcorn warmer. They could call it Drive-In of the Dead.

  She pulled out her key chain and sn
apped on the set of keys so as not to lose them and then turned her attention to the second envelope mailed locally. It was a thick envelope which required extra postage. She opened it up and gasped. A Last Will and Testament for Anthony Capri, dated one week before he was murdered, along with several bank passbooks had been sent to Tabby.

  A letter from Anthony Capri reinforced what he had told Tabby in person; he was afraid something was going to happen to him. He knew that he could trust Tabby to get the enclosed documents to the right people. Isabella could not get her hands on the legal papers because they would conveniently disappear as she was no longer named in his will after what she said and did to Gage and what she admitted to Anthony while they were arguing.

  Yes, he knew about his son. Anthony saw him in town in August when Gage first arrived for school and started working at the market. He knew immediately that he was his son and called his one and only true love, Angelina Salmeri, to verify the fact. She told him his son had come to Whipper Will Junction to get to know his father.

  The farm deed was in Anthony’s name only, and he wanted it to go to his son. Isabella could return home to her family near Boston where she already owned a house passed down to her from her grandfather. She really didn’t want to be at the farm anyway; she preferred the city life.

  The bank savings books had been changed to Gage’s name to help hire attorneys to keep the current will intact as he knew Isabella and her family would fight it all the way through the courts to keep the land. Anthony’s attorney would be in touch with Gage in the event of his father’s death.

  He thanked Tabby for being a good and trusted friend. If he did die, he knew Gage would be in good hands. Tabby knew what she had to do. She had to get the documents to Sheriff Puckett. He’d know what to do with them.

  Tabby wondered what Isabella admitted to Anthony that made him change his mind so drastically. It had to be something to do with the bones, but what?

  The bell on the door signaled that someone entered the shop. As Tabby was collecting the mail to put it in her inbox on her desk, the sheriff entered the back room to get his daily cup of coffee.

  “Are you staying out of trouble?” he asked, chuckling while filling his travel cup.

  “As a matter of fact…”

  “I knew it; that was a really dumb question to ask you. I do have some information for you. We are still waiting for the warrant to search the property. Some judge has filed paperwork in Boston to block the issue of the warrant, and we can’t figure out why.”

  “Have you got the coroner’s report back yet on Anthony?” Tabby inquired.

  “Yes, they found a needle puncture wound behind his right ear, and he died from poisoning. Sound like someone we know?”

  “Alex Keyes, or rather Alexander, a.k.a. Poison Man Martinelli. But, how is he related to Anthony and did he even kill him?” Tabby pondered out loud.

  “We haven’t had much luck on identifying the two skulls. We have a specialist reconstructing the facial features to see if we can match the license pictures to them. We did run the license names, and they were all henchmen that worked for the Salmeri family back in the early nineties. They each disappeared suddenly and have never been accounted for.”

  “Did you say the Salmeri family?” Tabby asked surprised.

  “Why? Does that name mean something to you?” Sheriff Puckett asked.

  Tabby handed him the envelope she had received in the mail.

  “This just came in today’s mail. I was going to bring it to your office later. I really don’t know what to do with the documents, and I think they would be safer in your possession than here at the shop. Anthony’s letter will explain everything. He had an affair with an Angelina Salmeri which produced a son. A twenty-year-old son named Gage Salmeri who just moved to town for school and is living and working with the MacAveys.”

  “Unbelievable,” the sheriff stated. “You are always one step ahead of me.”

  “Just lucky, I guess,” Tabby answered, smiling.

  Tabby, I need your help,” Janice said, peeking through the curtains. “This lady would like to place a rather large order for her shop in Maine. She’d like to talk to you.”

  “I’ll take these papers and look them over. I’ll let you know what I decide to do with them,” the sheriff said. “Be careful and stay out of trouble.”

  He topped off his coffee and went out the front door whistling. Tabby talked to the lady from Maine who placed an order for twelve dozen jars of assorted flavors of jelly to sell in her shop. She was leaving for home in three days and wanted to take them back with her. Most of the requested jellies were ready in stock. A few would have to be made to fill the order, but not many. Tabby promised they would be ready.

  Next, Tabby called Judy, the chairperson of the haunt-a-thon, to tell her about the use of the drive-in snack bar for the haunted house. She was extremely relieved that they had secured a place to use and there would be a haunted house this year as this was one of their biggest money makers for the Children’s Christmas Party in December.

  She grabbed a pad of paper out of the desk drawer and started to jot down notes to be used the following day when she began to decorate the shop for Halloween. Janice was off on Wednesdays, so Tabby had the whole day to transform the shop. Thelma could run the register to leave Tabby free to decorate to her heart’s content.

  There were over a dozen boxes of Halloween items that had been purchased for the picture window and the interior of the store. Chocolate Motion and The Whipper Will Drugstore had already decorated their front windows for the contest. Jellies, Jams, and Weddings would be the third shop on Main Street to be ready for the holiday.

  Tabby was so engrossed in what she was doing that the afternoon passed and she didn’t realize it until Janice poked her head through the curtain to tell her boss it was closing time. They locked up the place, and Tabby retreated to her apartment upstairs to cook the jellies needed for the special order.

  Greg was in Larsen for the evening meeting potential buyers for his grandmother’s Victorian and would not be home until morning when his flower shop opened. Tabby made herself a grilled cheese and ham sandwich with a side of tomato soup and ate while she cooked.

  She filled the required number of jars and went to bed early anticipating the fun time she would have the following day.

  12

  Tabby stood in the middle of her shop looking around. Halloween was her favorite holiday, and she hoped it would show in her decorating skills. She decided to start on the front window first. Reaching in over the partition, she grabbed as many items as she could hold to start emptying the existing display. People waved as they walked by and watched as she crawled in and out of the display area. Finally, the whole area was empty.

  First, she rigged up a line of twinkle lights to various spots on the ceiling above the open space. She ran the cord along the wall, down to the outlet on the front of the partition. Next, she took a staple gun and tacked up a midnight blue cloth for the night sky six inches below the lights so they would shine through the holes that had been punched out representing the stars at night.

  A clear plastic tarp was laid across the floor of the display area. Tabby brought out two bags of white sand which she spread evenly over the clear tarp. Thelma entered the store and snickered.

  “Trying to beat your mother this year, are you?” she asked as she passed by Tabby and took her seat at the register.

  “Yes, I am, and I am going to do it,” Tabby stated defiantly, walking by her into the back room.

  She came out with three buckets of seagrass plants that Greg had special ordered for her. The buckets were set in a triangle in the back corner, and a third bag of sand was emptied over the buckets to make it look like the grass was growing out of the sand.

  “Interesting…” Thelma muttered as Tabby disappeared into the back room again.

  To Thelma’s amusement, Tabby returned with a large wooden pirate’s chest that she was struggling to carry beca
use of it’s weight.

  “Do you seriously think that you are going to lift that big chest over the partition wall?” Thelma asked.

  “I can do it,” Tabby insisted, huffing and puffing as she walked.

  “Yeah, and I’m a multi-millionaire,” the elderly clerk mumbled.

  “I heard that,” Tabby said, just barely making it to the front window before dropping the chest on the floor. “I can do this; just you watch.”

  “You and what army?” Thelma asked nastily.

  Tabby picked up one end of the chest and struggled to maneuver it around to balance on the top of the four-foot partition wall. She moved to the end that was still on the floor and lifted it to push the chest up and over. It slipped off the wall and hit the floor with a loud bang.

  “Like I said; you and what army?” Thelma repeated, picking up the feather duster. “Give it up and call Greg to help you.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” Tabby admitted, surveying the dent that the chest had put in her wooden floor.

  She pulled out her cell phone in defeat and called her boyfriend. He said he would be there in ten minutes. While she waited for her strong, handsome boyfriend to come to the rescue, she brought out the four skeletons that would accompany the chest in the front window.

  Eye patches were put on three of them, and various colored bandanas were tied around their skulls. Two of them had the honor of wearing pirate boots, and two were barefoot losing their boots in the shipwreck. Each had a sword that would be placed at their side once in the window.

  Greg sauntered into the jelly shop checking out the front window display as he entered.

  “I wondered what you wanted the seagrass for,” he said. “Now, it makes sense. Is this the chest you need in the window?”

  “Yes, if you could place it diagonally beside the seagrass with the top open, that would be great,” she answered.

  Greg hoisted the chest and easily set it on the partition top. Tabby held it in place while he jumped into the display area. Placing it where Tabby requested, he hopped back out of the window.