Hot Chocolate and Homicide

by Cindy Bell

  “I know.” He rested his head against hers for a moment. “But the first twenty-four hours of a murder investigation are crucial. I can’t miss any of them. Any chance you have any coffee left?”

  “Sure.” Charlotte smiled as she stepped back around the counter. “I’ll make you up a thermos to take with you.”

  While she busied herself preparing the thermos, Ally focused in on Luke. She wanted to be supportive, but she also wanted him to be healthy, and she could tell from the exhaustion in his expression that he was pushing himself far too hard.

  “Do you have any leads, yet? Anything promising? What about the son-in-law?”

  “I can’t really talk about that.” He furrowed a brow. “What do you know about the son-in-law?”

  “Nothing really, just some rumors that were flying through here earlier. Nothing concrete.” She frowned. “I wish I knew so you could solve this and get some rest.”

  “I hope that it goes fast. Not just for my sake, but for her family’s. She has a daughter, and grandchildren, but apparently the farm workers on the property are also like a second family to her. Many of them have been working there for years. Of course, what makes things a little more complicated is that she had a tendency to hire ex-cons.”

  “What?” Ally’s voice rose with surprise. “I had no idea she did that.”

  “Yes.” Luke nodded as Charlotte returned to them with a thermos of coffee for him. “She spearheaded a few charitable programs for people transitioning from prison. They didn’t take off very well around here. I don’t know that much about her, but I do know that she had a special passion for reformed criminals.”

  “Reformed?” Ally swallowed hard. “What if one of them wasn’t so reformed?”

  “That’s what I have to figure out.” He took the thermos from Charlotte. “Thanks so much for this. I really appreciate it.”

  “Anytime, Luke, you know that.” Charlotte patted his shoulder, her eyes lingered on his for a moment. “I’m proud of you, you know. You work very hard out there each day. I already know you’ll do your best on this case, but I feel I should warn you, since you didn’t grow up here, this kind of case is going to be very difficult. People will all have an opinion about it. Gladys lived here so long that she wasn’t just a resident, she was a part of the town itself, and everyone will think they can claim ownership of her somehow. Just keep in mind that tongues wag faster than a hummingbird’s wings in a small town, and not all of them spout accurate information.”

  “Thanks for the warning, Charlotte. I’ll keep it in mind. And thanks again for the coffee.” He kissed Ally on the cheek, then turned towards the door.

  “Be careful, Luke.” Ally watched him step out through the door. He glanced back and gave her a light wink. She wanted to be reassured by it, but she wasn’t. As she walked back to the door and locked it, she had to fight the urge to stop him from leaving. Something about the investigation already had her on edge, but she didn’t know what just yet. When she turned back to her grandmother, she found her standing in the middle of the shop, her eyes dazed and lips slightly parted.

  “Mee-Maw? Are you okay?” She walked over to her and slipped her arms around her.

  “You know, I was right.” She rested her head against Ally’s,

  “About what?” She stroked her grandmother’s hair.

  “Gladys will never get old. She’ll never have the chance. It’s just hard to imagine someone as strong as that, simply being gone. And to find out that someone did this to her, that it wasn’t just some freak accident that nothing could explain, it just makes it that much harder to endure.”

  “You’re right, Mee-Maw.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “She will be missed by the whole town.”

  “And especially her daughter, Bernice.” She pulled away from Ally and headed towards the kitchen. “I’m going to put together some chocolates to take to her tomorrow. It’s best that we take the time to visit her and express our condolences.”

  “Good idea.” Ally watched her grandmother until she disappeared into the kitchen, then set about cleaning up the rest of the shop. In all of the chaos and Valentine’s Day excitement, she’d lost track of what really mattered. She still had the people she loved. Not everyone was going to be so lucky this holiday. As she closed down the cash register she considered what might have happened to Gladys. Obviously, someone wanted her dead. The only possibility that she could think of was the big corporation that wanted to buy her farm. She’d heard of companies bullying people through financial pressure, and other legal means, but would a company really go so far as to eliminate the owner of a small dairy farm?

  Ally was still lost in thought when she stepped out to the back of the shop to put out the trash. In the dim light of the evening the eaves of surrounding buildings cast long shadows against the pavement. She barely noticed them as she carried the bag of trash to the dumpster. It wasn’t until one of those shadows moved that something in the back of her mind recognized there was no logical explanation for the shadow of an inanimate object to be moving. She spun on her heel, just as a man stepped up behind her. She raised her hands in front of her face, ready to defend and strike in the same moment.

  “S-sorry,” the man stuttered. “I didn’t mean to s-sneak up on you.”

  “Who are you?” She lowered her hands just enough to see him. He wasn’t an intimidating figure. He had a petite frame, and was thin to the point of appearing frail.

  “Marlo,” he mumbled his name. “You don’t know me. No one around here does.” He shifted from one foot to the other. “I never really leave the farm.”

  “The farm? What farm?” She studied him as her fear continued to diminish. He didn’t seem to be there to cause her any harm. “Bloomdale farm?” She locked eyes with him.

  “Yes, that’s it.” He cleared his throat. “Your boyfriend, he’s a detective, right?”

  “How did you know that?” She folded her arms across her chest.

  “Never mind.” He cleared his throat again. Then shuffled his feet. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He turned and started to walk away.

  “Wait, Marlo! Why do you want to know about Luke?” She took a step towards him, but he broke into a run. Within seconds he had disappeared into the nearby woods. He might appear harmless, but she wasn’t about to chase him through the woods in the dark. As she made her way back into the shop, her mind was left unsettled.

  Chapter 4

  When Ally arrived home, she was relieved to be greeted by her two favorite friends. Arnold, a pot-bellied pig who had been her grandmother’s pet for many years, and Peaches, her cat, who had been her best friend for as long as she’d had her. Both brought a sense of cheerfulness back into her mind as she crouched down to say hello to them. Arnold snorted into her palm, nuzzling her skin as if he could sense that something was wrong. Peaches wound her way through Ally’s leg and rubbed her body against the curve of her knee, also in an attempt to comfort her.

  “Yes, it was a difficult day, guys.” She sighed as she looked into their eyes. “I’m not sure that tomorrow will be any better.” She straightened up and took a step forward. The moment she did, both animals bolted towards the kitchen. Arnold tried to knock Peaches out of the way to get there first, but Peaches jumped up onto a small table near the kitchen door and flung herself into the air to sail right over him. She landed on her feet right next to her food dish as Arnold lumbered in behind her.

  “Ah, hungry are you?” Ally grinned. It didn’t matter how often she fed them both they were always eager to eat. She thought it was interesting how they could be such different animals with different personalities, but they still had a few things in common. After she filled their dishes, she opened the refrigerator to look at her own choices. Her stomach rumbled with hunger. She realized she had left her lunch at the shop, and hadn’t eaten anything more than a few bites of chocolate since breakfast. As she rummaged for something that looked good to her, she wondered how she could be hungry
and yet not want to eat anything. In the end she settled on some ice cream and a banana. It wasn’t exactly healthy, but traumatic days required emergency comfort food.

  Once Ally was on the couch, Peaches jumped up and curled up on a cushion beside her. Arnold sprawled out on the floor by her feet. One of the best parts about coming home to the cottage she’d spent the second half of her childhood in, was that she was never alone. Not only was she surrounded by loving pets, but she was also surrounded by wonderful memories of living with her grandmother. She flipped on the news as she ate her ice cream. Gladys Bloomdale’s death was the main story. That didn’t surprise her, as even though the town of Blue River was a small one, many of the local farms supplied other nearby towns as well, and so were known throughout the area. The reporter who spoke about Gladys indicated that there had been foul play involved in the woman’s death. The camera panned over the farm. It was still daylight, so she guessed the footage had been recorded earlier. It didn’t show the damaged quad bike, but did show the area near the shed that was roped off with bright yellow police tape. As she watched, her heart lurched. There was Marlo, not far off from the police tape. He seemed to be staring at someone off camera. When he noticed he was being filmed, he ducked out of view.

  Marlo. The name stood out in her mind. Was he one of the ex-cons that Gladys had hired? She guessed that he might be, maybe that was why he was camera shy. What had he wanted when he came to her tonight? Why had he asked about Luke? Her stomach churned as she wondered if she might have been in more danger than she realized. She calmed it with another spoon of ice cream.

  As the news shifted to another story she turned the television off and grabbed her laptop. She didn’t have to wait until the next day to test out a few theories that were forming in her mind. The most prominent one was the idea that perhaps the corporation interested in buying Gladys’ dairy farm had somehow caused her death. Of course, it seemed like a stretch to her that some big and wealthy organization would risk murdering someone just for the sake of business. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible, and so far it was the best lead she had.

  Ally did a search on Grainder, the corporation, and discovered that it was heavily invested in dairy production. While she expected it to have other interests, she didn’t find too many.

  Once she’d been through its website and found out some very general information about the business from its self-promoting content, she shifted gears. Instead of searching for the business, she searched for complaints against the business. It didn’t take long to find them. There were hundreds of comments on an assortment of sites. She noticed that many of them came from owners of small businesses. Those owners claimed that they had been forced to sell their companies. Some complained about financial pressure, while others said resources they needed to keep their businesses afloat were cut off or bought off by the larger corporation.

  One complaint in particular indicated that physical intimidation had been used, including several visits to his business, as well as his home, and a sense of being followed. She was shocked by that and wondered if it might just be one person who exaggerated his experience with the company. She clicked on a link that led to a site he’d created to try to stand up against the corporation. On this site she found even more stories of physical intimidation, including one person who insisted that a private detective had been hired to investigate her life. She claimed that he was investigating rumors of an affair, but he never found any proof. The allegations had still destroyed her marriage, as well as her company, in the process. She ended up selling to the company for far less than her business was worth as she had no other choice.

  Stunned, Ally decided to print out the story. As the printer came to life with clicks and whirring she thought about Gladys speeding on her farm. Was she being followed? Was that why she was going so fast? Maybe the cut brake lines were just an added element that led to the crash. If she thought she had someone to fear, she might have thrown caution to the wind and gone much faster down that hill than she ever had before. She decided she would take the story to Luke the next day. He needed to know exactly what kind of corporation he was dealing with.

  As Ally headed to bed for the evening, memories of Marlo popped up in her mind. Marlo. Was he working with the corporation to intimidate Gladys? Or did he know something that he wanted to tell Luke? She hoped she hadn’t scared off what might be the only real lead. She decided she would visit the farm the next day and see if she could track down Marlo for another conversation, in the daylight. As she finally closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, her mind was still unsettled. Now she understood why Luke didn’t sleep much while working a case. It was very difficult to shut off the mind once it started spinning.

  Charlotte glanced at the clock. It was nearly midnight. She looked back up at the ceiling. She couldn’t fall asleep. She’d been trying since about nine. It was useless to lay in bed and waste hours. She’d already waded through all of her thoughts about Gladys. She couldn’t quite figure out why she was taking the woman’s death so hard. They weren’t close friends. In fact there were many things that she didn’t particularly like about Gladys. She was very bossy, demanding, and had very little sympathy for others. She also wasn’t fond of children. She remembered a moment that she hoped Ally was too young to recall, when she took her then five-year-old granddaughter to visit the dairy farm. Ally wanted to see the cows, and Charlotte got permission from one of the farm hands to bring her out to visit them. Ally was so excited when she ran up to one of the cows. That was when Gladys swooped in on her quad bike.

  “What are you doing here?” She barked at both of them. Ally was a very shy child at the time, and the anger in Gladys’ voice made her burst instantly into tears. It was a heartbreaking moment for Charlotte to see her granddaughter go from excitement to fear. She held Ally close against her as she asked Gladys what the problem was, and insisted that she had permission to be there.

  “Not from me, you don’t.” She stepped off the quad bike. “Did you bring her out here so she could get hurt and you could sue me and take everything I own?” She huffed as she looked between the two of them. “I’m not about to risk my livelihood so you can have a little meet and greet with a cow. Take her to a petting zoo like normal people. I’m sure they’ll have a cow you can pet. But don’t bring her here.”

  “I’m sorry. I asked for permission, and was told it was fine.”

  “Who? Who did you ask for permission?” Gladys’ eyes flashed.

  In that moment Charlotte realized she was about to get someone fired. So, she did something she rarely did, especially around her granddaughter. She lied.

  “No one. I didn’t think it would be a big deal. I just brought her out here on my own. I’m sorry, Gladys, it won’t happen again.”

  “Good.” She scowled down at Ally. “Take a lesson from this, kid. Don’t go onto other people’s property, got it? It won’t end well for you.”

  Ally trembled as she clung to her grandmother, her pudgy cheeks stained with tears. Charlotte steered her down the path that led back to their car. Even then, Ally had been smart. She insisted that her grandmother explain why she lied. It was a memory that Charlotte preferred to forget, but now it had come, so vivid. After that moment she tended to try and avoid Gladys. But they were still women, running businesses in a small town, where not many other women had been able to do the same. Now and then they ran into each other at functions, and were always pleasant to each other. But Charlotte could never forget the way the woman scowled at Ally. She was certain that she had very little patience for children. Around town it was known that Bernice, Gladys’ daughter was often expected to work long hours on the farm and barely allowed to have a social life. She guessed that it had to be a very difficult life for her.

  When Charlotte finally sat up in bed, she decided that sleep wasn’t really a possibility. She reached for her phone and found the last text that Jeff sent her.

  If you need me, I’ll be there. If you
want to talk, I’m here.

  He’d asked to come over and spend some time with her when he heard the news, but she’d told him she was fine and would rather be alone. Now she wondered if that was the case. She wasn’t the type to try to contact someone so late, but he had said he would be available, and she knew that he was a night owl. He was often still up past one in the morning. After taking a deep breath she typed out a text to him.

  Can’t sleep.

  An instant later he responded.

  Care for a walk under the stars?

  She shivered at the thought of how cold it would be outside. But the idea of sharing that time with Jeff thrilled her. She agreed to the walk, and bundled herself up. Once she was sure she would be warm enough she walked towards the door. When she opened it, Jeff was just arriving. They both lived in Freely Lakes, a retirement community. His apartment was in another building, but it only took a few minutes to walk from one building to the other. He was bundled up, too.

  “We look like we’re ready for an arctic expedition.” He grinned and planted a kiss on her cheek.

  “I’m sorry to bother you so late, I just can’t seem to get my thoughts to settle down.”

  “I understand.” He looped his arm through hers. “It’s never too late to call me, and you’re never a bother.” He patted her hand through her thick glove, then led her down the hall to one of the rear exits of the building. Freely Lakes was situated on a sprawling piece of property that extended further than the eye could see. It was on the border of Freely and was situated far enough from both towns that there wasn’t much light beyond the security lights that spread out from the building itself. Once they’d walked down a path for some time, the sky came alive with vivid stars.

  “Oh Jeff.” She rested her head against the thick sleeve of his jacket. “This was exactly what I needed. How did you know that?”

  “Whenever I can’t sleep, I go for a walk. Something about seeing the stars, breathing the fresh air, always brings things into perspective for me. I realize I’m not much more than a speck when I see the stars spread out above me.”