Dead 'N Breakfast

by Paulette Brewster

  “I’m glad you like it,” she said, smiling and feeling pleased. “So, you don’t have anything else to add to that? I mean about Jenny, not your lunch.”

  He shook his head and kept chewing. When he finally swallowed, he said, “Go ahead and tell me your guess.” Then he took another bite while he waited.

  “I’m wondering if she might be the tipster.”

  His eyes went round, then he nodded. Feeling encouraged she went on.

  “From what I’ve learned, she kept close tabs on Kevin when she was in Boston and had an intense dislike for him, not that he was likeable anyway. I’ve read a lot of articles she’d written about him that sure showed his worst side, things I never knew. I admit I was more than a little surprised to find out he’d been involved in two embezzlement schemes and escaped without a scratch in either of those trials. So, I’d be willing to bet she had plenty more on him than she even wrote about. Who knows, right? On top of that, I talked with her former assistant and it’s pretty obvious she’s got a heck of a temper and it doesn’t take much to rile her. There have been a few times that I’ve seen her run out of patience and decided it might be better to stay on her good side.” She paused a moment to study him before she told him what she was really thinking.

  “What if she got a tip from someone then passed it on or was somehow getting information from the murderer? I won’t go so far as to say that I think she killed Kevin, but if there were two people involved in the murder that might explain the mix up about where the weapon really was.”

  “Good theory but do you have any evidence that points to it?”

  “No. But I think it’s worth considering.” Liz certainly wouldn’t be disappointed if Jenny was innocent. She wished nobody had done the terrible thing, but somebody had.

  She rose from her seat and asked if he’d like a cinnamon roll to go with a fresh cup of coffee.

  He smiled and said, “Sure.”

  She took two from the freezer and popped them into the microwave. The spicy fragrance filled the room, blending with the freshly brewed coffee. Neither said anything while they mulled over their thoughts and nibbled on the gooey dessert.

  Brian broke the silence when he said, “We can guess all night but without access to the information that the investigators have collected, it’s pointless.”

  “I’m not giving up.”

  “Somehow I knew you’d say that.”

  She smiled at him. “That’s it? No more warnings?”

  “Nope.”

  “Thank you.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Friday morning arrived in typical fall fashion, with a bit of foggy haze and a promise of sunshine when it burned off. Liz was as anxious as Myrtie to get hurry home, so she allowed the cow a bit more leeway. She had awakened to find that the drone video had finally arrived in her email but had to put off looking at it till she had time. Getting through the chores was difficult and her visit with Polly hadn’t included the usual chatting time they normally enjoyed. She hoped Polly hadn’t noticed and taken offense.

  Bypassing the urge to make a pot of coffee, she went straight to her computer in the bedroom. Thankfully it opened without any trouble and she grabbed her pen and paper as the video started. The aerial view was wonderful, and she was immediately caught up in a feeling of pride for her community. She studied every detail and paused it when she needed extra time to take it all in. The vendors were busily setting up their tents of differing colors and unloading their wares. She spotted Polly darting under her tent and emerging again as she hauled her coolers and boxes inside. Then the drone flew over the entire lineup of tents, right down the middle of the street. As the video moved from morning to noon, she noticed a lack of shadows due to the sun being directly overhead. The street was crowded with people and Liz paused and repeated a scene in front of her several times in her search for Kevin. After twenty minutes of watching, her enthusiasm began to diminish. Nothing of interest caught her attention. She’d long since laid down her pen and rested her chin in her palm until the drone picked up on some activity between a man and woman in the crowd standing in front of the café. In plain view, she and Kevin stood facing each other, his arms moving about in anger as she backed away. For a moment she panicked, but kept watching the scene play out. It was strange to see her own reaction, to watch the fear and anger surrounding her movements and her attempt to fight back. She looked stronger than she’d felt. Then the video moved away down the sidewalk, looking over the chaotic festival of laughing visitors and children dashing one way and another. Her shoulders slumped in dismay. She had hoped this confrontation would not have been included, but there it was. A sudden need for hot tea made her pause the video and go to the kitchen to calm her nerves with a soothing chamomile drink.

  When the teapot whistled, she brewed the tea, sniffing the aromatic scent. Leaning against the counter she glanced out the window toward the barn where Myrtie and Pearl grazed. In her other world, this would have been a morning of bliss, but she couldn’t slide down that slippery slope of what might have been. She wouldn’t let herself give in to that, not now. Not ever. Turning away from the window she went back to the computer.

  She clicked play for the video to pick up where she’d left off, but she couldn’t seem to focus on the screen because of the implications of what she’d already seen. Her mind refused to let go of it. Then she saw something that brought her straight up in her chair. Toward the end of the video were several views of the parking lot behind the newspaper building. The shadows weren’t an issue here because the area was so open. Standing just outside the back door of the newspaper was Kevin in his navy shirt and khakis talking to Jenny! No, not talking they were having a verbal fight since her arms were flapping about in what seemed to be outrage. He was just as outraged since he was bearing down on her with bare inches between them. Her jumbled thoughts tried to sort through what she was witnessing. She quickly paused the video, leaving Jenny with her arms braced on her hips in a defiant stance. Liz fell back against the chair stunned while she stared at the screen trying to absorb all the implications. Here was the proof that they not only knew each other but were well acquainted, and proof that Jenny had intentionally misled her. If there was more to see she would have to wait until she could process this first. At the moment she needed fresh air to clear her head, but before she even left the room, she heard an email come into her inbox. Curiosity forced to her look at it. A short note with an attachment from Shelly was simply too hard to ignore so she sat down again and opened it.

  “Just an FYI about Mr. Charles.” Inside the attachment was an article with an obituary, stating that her former boss had passed away from a heart attack at the age of seventy while in his jail cell. The date on the paper said September first, nearly a month ago. If not for Shelly, Liz would never have known. She had cut all ties with the company as well as the man who ran it. A part of her felt regret for him and especially the decisions he’d made that had brought him to this end. She never would have guessed he had criminal intent on his mind during all the years she had worked for him. He truly hadn’t seemed like that sort of person. She pushed herself away from the desk, eager to take a walk and submerge herself in the quiet of the outdoors.

  She grabbed a warm jacket from the pantry then slipped it on before heading out the kitchen door, locking it behind her. The crisp air was invigorating as she approached the road trying to decide which way to go, up the road past Brian’s or down the hill toward Polly’s and the covered bridge. Choosing the route past Brian’s, she dug her hands into her pockets for warmth. As she walked along the pasture fence and the large maple trees, her thoughts turned into questions that dashed any hope of clearing her mind. Perhaps Kevin’s purpose for being in Maple Ridge was to meet up with Jenny and the confrontation he’d had with Liz was just an unexpected opportunity for him to threaten her. Had he provoked Jenny so badly that he sparked her temper enough that she might have killed him? If so, then why did she choose Liz’ barn to co
mmit the murder? Perhaps she intended to divert the focus of an investigation toward Liz. And maybe she was also the tipster. The barn location would be the perfect opportunity to point a finger at Liz as the killer. If Jenny gave an anonymous tip to the detective that she knew Kevin and Liz were well acquainted that might be a signal that the tipster had some real facts. And telling the detective about the location of the weapon might have been damaging evidence except that it had been moved. Who had moved it and why? The only answer she could imagine was that there were two people in on the entire scheme, but as far as she knew, Jenny had no friends. She couldn’t even maintain a working relationship with her assistant. Then a new unwanted thought emerged. Robert Hart. All three of them had come from Boston to smalltown Maple Ridge. She let that sit for a while, looking at it from all directions before finally concluding she was just grabbing at straws. She shook her head, knowing it was unfair and she needed to be careful of jumping to conclusions. Instead of unfounded accusations, she ought to give Jenny a chance to explain the scenario on the drone video and then ask some hard questions. Digging into each of her pockets for her phone produced nothing but a pair of gloves and her key. Exasperated, she turned around and walked back to the house at a fast clip. She would call Jenny and set a time to meet.

  When she reached the house and unlocked the door, she searched for her phone and found it on the desk. Realizing she didn’t have Jenny’s personal phone number, she called the newspaper office.

  “You’ve reached Maple Ridge Newspaper. This is Jenny Drake. I’m either out of the office or away from my desk. Thank you.”

  Undoubtedly too busy to answer the phone, Liz decided. There was only one thing to do. Liz drove the old truck into town with just one thought on her mind and that was to find Jenny no matter where she might be. She parked in front of the newspaper building which appeared to be empty. Luckily the door was unlocked.

  “Jenny? Anybody here?” Liz stood at the counter, craning her neck to look down the long hallway. “Hello?” she called again.

  A chair scraped across the floor in a back room and Jenny appeared in the hallway. She gave a wave and said, “Come on back here. I’ve got a mess that I’m cleaning up.” Then she disappeared again.

  Liz stepped around the counter and walked down the hall, stopping in a doorway. A large desk sat nearly empty at one end of the room while a huge pile of books and loose papers were piled on the floor beside it.

  “See what I mean. A real mess.” She sat in an old lumpy looking desk chair and pointed to a hard wooden one for Liz to sit in. “What can I do for you? Or did you sense that I needed help?” She gave a lopsided grin. “Just kidding.”

  Liz nearly changed her mind, thinking she was barking up the wrong tree with her preconceived conclusions, but she had questions, not accusations and she intended to get some answers. And there was no point in wasting time with chit-chat, besides, Jenny wasn’t a chit-chat type of person.

  “I won’t keep you too long. Remember the drone footage I asked you about a few days ago?”

  Jenny looked thoughtful for a split second then replied, “I do. Robert’s drone. And I told you I know nothing about it.” She shrugged as if to say, so?

  “Well, he sent me the video and I came across something that caught my attention. I have a few questions I hope you’ll answer for me.”

  “Sure, if I can.” Jenny’s blank expression gave nothing away.

  Liz didn’t hold back anything as she gave a detailed account of what she’d seen in the video behind the newspaper office. The shocked expression on Jenny’s face was mixed with panic. No doubt she hadn’t expected the event would be discovered. She dropped her head into her hands for a few moments to compose herself then looked up at Liz.

  “I know what you’re thinking but I didn’t kill him.”

  Her denial was nearly identical to the words Liz had said to Miles and the detective. She realized that she was putting Jenny in the same position she’d been in when the detective questioned her and that made her squirm in her chair a bit. She admitted to herself that they were both guilty of withholding information, possibly for the same reason. But she had to get some answers and she was prepared to be direct.

  “Detective Morris told me recently that he’d received a couple of anonymous tips. Were you the one who sent them?” Liz watched her closely.

  Jenny stared at her, looking wide-eyed and aghast. “No. It wasn’t me.”

  She said it with such quiet sincerity that Liz couldn’t help but believe her, almost.

  “Look,” Jenny said, “Kevin was bad news for anyone who knew him. I should know.” She let out a long sigh. “Let me explain what happened so you’ll understand.”

  Liz nodded but said nothing.

  “Kevin came to the newspaper office just as I was ready to walk out the front door. He pushed his way inside and shut the door then locked it. He’s very intimidating so you allow him to get the upper hand. And I didn’t. I shouted at him to get out or I’d call the police. He laughed at me like he’d done several times in the past. So, I turned my back and ran down the hallway and out the back door. Of course, he was right behind me and before I knew it, he grabbed my arm and whirled me around. I went ballistic.”

  “He threatened you?” Liz hadn’t thought Kevin was dangerous until he’d confronted her at Market Day.

  “Oh, yes, more than once. I knew the truth and he discovered that when he read my editorials, so he decided to scare me to death.” She shrugged her shoulders. “And I admit he scared me. Okay, let me back up a bit more. When I was still in Boston covering the fraud case he was involved with, he threatened me with a knife to my throat in the alley behind my office.”

  Liz caught her breath, putting her hand to her own throat.

  “He owned a firm and scammed all of his clients,” Jenny went on, “He wasn’t actually an ‘in-person owner’ because he was a silent owner, a passive ownership.” She waved her hand in the air as if to dismiss detailing what a passive ownership was, then went on again. “He’d carefully chosen a manager who would do his bidding as well as share in the wealth and that manager ended up going to jail for it. Unbelievably, Kevin got off. No jail time for him.”

  Liz saw Jenny clasp her hands together and her body go rigid.

  “I stopped writing the articles after that and decided I needed to find another job in a new location. And that’s when I found the opportunity here in Maple Ridge. It seemed like a remote little town where I could get a fresh start.”

  Watching her, Liz couldn’t help but notice her clenched jaw and unwavering gaze as she finished exposing the details of Kevin’s character.

  “I was proving myself to be a good reporter. After the trial he saw to it that I got fired. He ruined my career, but I didn’t kill him.”

  Jenny’s steely gaze was a bit unnerving, but Liz was sure that reliving fear could do that to a person.

  “Did he have a knife? I mean, when he was here behind this office?” Liz asked. She had to ask or else later she would berate herself for not asking.

  “I don’t know.” Jenny shook her head. “This time his attack was simply words, chilling nonetheless, but I fought back.” She relaxed against her chair as if the air had gone out of her. “And now he’s gone. He’ll never threaten me again. I can’t say I’m sorry about that.”

  Liz restrained herself from instantly getting up and leaving. She felt extremely uncomfortable and wondered what she should do with all this information. She could become a tipster herself. Or she could talk to Brian.

  “All I can say, Liz, is that you didn’t kill him and neither did I. So, who did?”

  “I’m trying to sort it out,” she said, shaking her head. “I appreciate your openness.”

  After Liz left the room, the chill from her visit stayed with her all the way home. Then while sitting in her driveway, she searched for that one elusive piece of evidence to stand out. Jenny had sidestepped the truth from the beginning, but honestly, she couldn’t
fault her for it. She, Liz Marsh, was guilty of the same thing. Neither of them wanted the finger of guilt pointed in their direction. As for Jenny’s explosive nature, it certainly created an important ingredient for serious trouble. And she hadn’t denied that Kevin’s death was almost a relief to her. Now she had far more information to go on than she’d had a few days ago but still no concrete evidence of murder.

  She arrived back at her house with a million thoughts whirling. She’d skipped breakfast so it was best not to skip lunch too. Poor eating habits and a lack of sleep would catch up with her sooner than later. Perhaps she’d heat a bowl of soup from the freezer for now. Later she would cook a nice supper, a roast with all the trimmings which could simmer in the oven while Brian helped her with the chores. Plus, she had plenty of time to bake a Dutch apple pie during the early afternoon.

  The afternoon flew by as she baked the pie and prepared a roast for the oven. On a last minute whim, she put together a batch of homemade biscuits using her mom’s cookbook with all the hints to help her do it right. And no surprise, they turned out perfect.

  By the time Brian knocked at her door the pie was cooling on a rack, the biscuits were staying fresh in a plastic container and the roast was more than half done. The aromas mingled together, creating an atmosphere of delicious warmth, just the way she hoped it would.

  “Come in,” she called she dried the last few dishes in the sink. She rarely used the dishwasher because she discovered that washing them was so calming, almost like therapy.

  “Wow. It smells great in here,” he said, his eyes lit up in expectation. “My mouth is drooling.”

  Liz laughed, but she saw his sincerity. “It should be ready to eat by the time we get back unless there’s something else you have to do.”