Death by Committee

by Alexis Morgan

  That didn’t make any sense. Why would a woman making a quick getaway waste time packing up twelve quilts. If nothing else, they’d be bulky and take up a lot of room in a car. “But why would she do that?”

  For the first time, there was a hint of temper in Glenda’s eyes. “In the right shop, they would sell for a lot of money. Each one was special for some reason, and it’s left several of us scrambling to replace them.”

  Abby cringed as she realized which quilt Glenda had lost. “That’s why you’re having to replicate the one you made for your niece.”

  A nod was her only answer.

  “I’m so sorry. Has anyone heard from Julie since all of this happened? If she had friends here in town, you’d think she would’ve been in contact with someone.”

  Louise sighed. “Not that we’ve heard. I see Troy once in a while. He lives near me, and sometimes he’s out working in the yard when I take my walk in the morning. From what I’ve heard, he keeps hoping she’ll come to her senses and return home. I feel bad pestering him about her, though. He just seems so sad whenever her name gets mentioned, and none of this is his fault.”

  “He’s so good to help his neighbors, and he’s always the first one to volunteer for projects at his church. I know people have tried to help him out since this happened.” Jean paused to look around at the other ladies. “Do you think I should take him another one of my tuna casseroles?”

  Abby ignored the memory of Tripp’s thoughts on that particular dish and said, “I’m sure he’d appreciate knowing that you’re thinking of him.”

  While Jean beamed in response, Glenda frowned. “That’s got me to thinking, Abby. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to approach Troy one more time about the quilts?”

  Before Abby could say that she didn’t want to do that, Glenda kept talking. “I know he’s already said he doesn’t know anything about them several times, but that was weeks and weeks ago. Maybe he’s finally heard from Julie by now or at least has found out where she is.”

  Louise took the ball and ran with it. “What a great idea, Glenda. Even if he doesn’t want to talk to her, we could contact her ourselves. Abby, if you mentioned that you’d only recently found out about the calendar project, surely he’d understand why you’re bringing it up again.”

  She so didn’t want to do that, but what would it hurt? If it meant possibly getting back even a few of the quilts, it would be worth a few minutes of her time. She could always pass by his house on the pretext of walking Zeke.

  “Fine. No promises, but I’ll try.”

  “That’s all anyone can do.” Then Glenda glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner. “Would you look at the time? We should help Abby clean up and then head out. I have a couple of stops to make on the way home.”

  All three women were up and moving before Abby could protest. “Just leave everything. I can take care of it after you’re gone.”

  Too late. They grabbed everything and headed right for the kitchen. Maybe they were hoping for one last peek at Tripp. She doubted they were going to have much luck, considering the lawnmower had shut off some time ago. Still, who was she to crush their hopes?

  As they filed out of the house, making sure that Jean made it down the steps safely with her walker, Abby continued to ponder the mystery of the lost quilts. Had they reported the theft, which is what it was, to the authorities? It was a shame if they hadn’t, because maybe the police could have tracked down Julie Tolbert and gotten at least some of them back.

  She had to wonder which one had Aunt Sybil had decided to feature in the calendar. There was no way to know, since the ladies had decided to keep their choices secret even from each other. But if she could somehow prove it was the one she and Sybil had made together, that someone else had had it . . . well, that would be something else that maybe Gage would find interesting.

  Chapter Twelve

  Waiting for Tripp to show up on her doorstep to have the dreaded talk about Frank Jeffries felt a lot like the one time in middle school when she’d been sent to detention after class. She’d gotten into a debate with one of her teachers regarding the Vietnam War, and the old witch didn’t much like it when Abby had proved her wrong on several points.

  Looking back, she’d no doubt embarrassed the woman in front of the other students, but that didn’t excuse the woman from retaliating by kicking her out of class with no warning. She’d never been in trouble before, and the sense of dread while she waited to speak to the vice principal had left her almost physically ill.

  To make matters worse, her mother had been called to come pick up Abby afterward. Considering her mom had to take off work, it had been a really long ride home. Nothing like being a captive audience in the car with a pissed-off parent to make for an unpleasant drive. She’d ended up having to write an apology to the teacher, not that she’d meant a single word in the entire note. All things considered, she still hated that woman.

  Today’s situation wasn’t quite the same. Regardless, she was willing to bet that Tripp wasn’t going to believe the confrontation at the grocery store hadn’t been her fault any more than her mother had believed Abby had been the innocent one that day in school.

  Well, she wasn’t going to cower inside the house. Picking up her book, she grabbed a soft drink out of the fridge and headed outside to enjoy the warm afternoon sun. For one long moment, she thought about dragging her favorite chair down off the porch and around to the front of the house. If Tripp was determined to yell at her, he might be less likely to do so where anyone driving by could see him being a big bully.

  However, that was cowardly on her part. If he wanted to yell, so be it. She’d done nothing wrong or particularly stupid this time. She’d make her position on the subject perfectly clear to him and then get on with her day. Her plans made, she settled back in the chair and opened the book to the last page she’d read. Fifteen minutes later and thoroughly disgusted, she closed the book and tossed it on the floor at her feet. Thank goodness there wasn’t going to be a pop quiz on what she’d just read because she would’ve failed that test. It was impossible to concentrate on words on a page when her mind insisted on going in so many other directions.

  At least the sound of a nearby door opening and closing gave her something else to focus on. A few seconds later, Tripp rounded the corner headed straight for her. Zeke, who’d been dozing in the shade under a nearby tree, immediately perked right up and headed straight for his buddy. Tripp paused to give the furry traitor a head-to-toe scratching that had the dog’s tail going a million miles an hour.

  Zeke gave himself a thorough shake before heading up onto the porch with Tripp, who took the other chair without waiting for an invitation. Zeke stopped at the top of the steps to look first at her and then at his friend, maybe sensing all was not well between his two favorite people. Rather than pick sides, he erred on the side of caution and immediately retreated to his spot in the shade.

  The corner of Tripp’s mouth quirked up in a hint of a grin. “Smart dog.”

  She couldn’t argue with that assessment. It was tempting to join Zeke down there in the grass, but she suspected Tripp wouldn’t be far behind. Instead of launching right into whatever lecture he’d prepared since they’d last crossed paths, he popped the top on the beer he’d brought with him and took a long drink.

  The suspense was killing her. The vice principal at her middle school had nothing on Tripp when it came to making her squirm. She wasn’t going to make it easy on him, though. To give herself something else to do besides fidget, she reached for her book. He wouldn’t know that she wasn’t really paying attention to the story as she skimmed the pages.

  She’d only gotten as far as the second paragraph when he finally spoke. “Okay, tell me what was going on at the store today.”

  Taking her time, she pretended to finish the page before carefully closing the book and setting it aside. “I did the same thing everyone else did. I bought groceries.”

  If looks could kill,
she’d be splattered all over the backyard right now. For some reason, that improved her mood considerably.

  “You’d been crying, Abby.” He turned to look right at her. “Explain. What. Happened.”

  Although his voice remained calm and quiet, each of those last three words had enough edge in them to cut glass.

  “Fine. You already know that Zeke and I walked past Dolly Cayhill’s house and then stopped to take a look at the farmhouse that she wanted declared a historical building to prevent it from being bulldozed. We were already on our way off the property when Frank Jeffries pulled up. At no point did I tell him who I was or why I was there. I let him think that I’d chased Zeke down after he’d gotten away from me to chase some varmint.”

  In fact, Tripp had planned to snitch to Gage Logan about that. She wasn’t going to ask if he’d carried out that particular threat in case he’d actually forgotten about it.

  “Well, this morning I had an appointment at city hall with Connie Pohler, the mayor’s executive assistant. She was supposed to go over my duties as the new head of the Committee on Senior Affairs here in Snowberry Creek.”

  A big grin flashed across Tripp’s face. “So how did you get roped into that?”

  She let some of her own grumpy feelings on the subject show. “If you must know, I was volunteered. It seems Glenda and her buddies told the mayor that since I’d stepped up to take Aunt Sybil’s position on the quilting guild’s board for the rest of her term, I’d be happy to fill in on this committee, too. The only reason I went to the city council meeting was to accept the plaque the city wanted to present to me honoring Sybil’s service to Snowberry Creek over the years. As it turned out, I accepted a whole lot more than that.”

  His smile faded a just a bit. “You could’ve turned them down.”

  As if it had been that easy. “Do you think I didn’t try? I pointed out that there were a lot of people who already knew a lot more about the subject than I do, but that didn’t fly. The good news is that they have someone else set to take over in the fall when he’s recuperated from hip replacement surgery, so my tenure is only for the short term.”

  He took another drink of his beer, murmuring something that sounded like “sucker.” She couldn’t argue with his assessment of the situation, so she didn’t bother trying.

  “Anyway, when I walked into city hall, Mr. Jeffries was already there, yelling at Connie and anyone else who’d listen to him. I guess he thought that once it was learned that Dolly was dead, his problems with getting permits and stuff would simply go away. The delays are costing him money and making his investors twitchy. Eventually, Mayor McKay came out and invited him into her office. I have no idea what she told him, but from the sound of their voices, it wasn’t a happy conversation.”

  “And how did you end up in the middle of it?”

  “I didn’t. I hung back, out of the way. He was awfully angry, but he made no threatening moves toward anyone as far as I know. If he had, I’m sure the mayor would have notified the police. Considering their headquarters is on the other side of the lobby, they’d have gotten there in a hurry.”

  She let the events play out in her head. “When the mayor came out, she told Connie to take me down the hall to the conference room so we could go over the material about the committee. Unfortunately, she called me by name, and he must have connected the dots at some point. In a town this size, it’s only to be expected that folks would find out the body was found in my backyard, even if they sort of kept my address out of the papers.”

  “So he tore into you at city hall?”

  “No, he was already gone when I got out of my meeting with Connie. I went straight from the meeting to the store.”

  Her temper flared hot and bright. “How the heck was I supposed to know the big jerk needed groceries, too? He stood right there in the middle of the store, blocking my way, and accused me of following him. I’m not sure he believed me when I denied it. Anyway, he was practically yelling by that point, announcing to everybody within hearing that I was the one who’d dug up Dolly’s body in my aunt’s backyard. If there was anyone in the store who didn’t already know that, they did by the time he got done railing at me.”

  No longer able to sit still, she lurched up out of her chair to pace the few steps across the porch and back, nearly falling over Tripp’s big feet in the process. “Mr. Jeffries was so upset, and he probably had every right to be, not that any of it was my fault. From what he said, Gage had been by to talk to him about the murder, wanting to know just how mad he’d been at Dolly for interfering with his planned development.”

  Tripp joined her by the railing. Unlike Frank Jeffries, his big presence was comforting rather than scary. “Did he threaten you?”

  The deep growl in Tripp’s voice brought Zeke to his feet. The dog was now at full attention and standing guard.

  “No, not really. He crowded me a bit, but that was all. I was mostly embarrassed by the amount of attention we were getting. He told me to stay away from him and his property.” She managed a small smile. “For what it’s worth, I had already made the decision to avoid him in the future. And I meant what I said, running into him twice today was purely accidental.”

  After a second, Tripp nodded. “I believe you. I would point out that if you’d stayed away from his land in the first place none of this would’ve happened.”

  “Thanks, Mr. Hindsight-Is-Twenty-Twenty. I would’ve never figured that out for myself.”

  “I had a great lecture all planned, but I think you’ve learned your lesson.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and widened her stance. A girl had to use every weapon in her arsenal to stand up against an oversized, overprotective male. “Don’t push it, Tripp. At the risk of sounding like a five-year-old, you’re not the boss of me.”

  He mirrored her stance, pulling it off with far greater success than she had thanks to his superior height. “I want your word that you won’t go poking that cute nose of yours into Gage’s investigation again. It’s already gotten you into enough trouble.”

  “Again, not my boss. Besides, I don’t think Frank Jeffries did it.”

  Tripp tipped his head to one side to stare down at her. “And what brought you to that conclusion, Sherlock?”

  She wasn’t even sure when she’d decided that, but it felt right. “There’s no way that crappy farmhouse would have ended up on the historical register. I doubt it was ever a showcase, and right now it’s on the verge of collapsing in on itself. It was only a matter of time before he would’ve gotten his permits. It might have taken longer than he liked, but it wouldn’t have been worth killing over. Well, unless his investors did pull their funding, but he made it sound as if that hadn’t happened yet.”

  And as long as they didn’t, that left her with no viable suspect. “There has to be someone else, someone with a more compelling reason to have wanted her dead. Did Gage mention who stands to inherit Dolly’s house? Is it the niece?”

  Tripp threw up his hands. “Give it a rest, Abby! For the last time, it’s not your job to figure out who killed that old woman, and every question you ask brings you that much closer to being in the crosshairs of a killer. Do you really think he or she would hesitate to kill again? Even if the first time was an accident, which I don’t believe for a minute, feeling cornered will only make it more likely the killer will strike out again. I don’t want to find you wrapped up in a quilt and buried in a hole someplace.”

  Now there was an image guaranteed to give her nightmares. She didn’t want that either. It was time to shift gears.

  “Just tell me this much. You played pool with Gage last night. Did it sound like he’d made any real progress on the case?”

  “We played pool and drank beer, Abby, at a concrete bunker of a bar out in the boonies with some other former soldiers. Maybe things are different on a girls’ night out, but we were having fun giving each other grief and blowing off steam. The last thing any of us wanted to do was talk about killing
people. That’s the kind of thing we would prefer to keep in the past.”

  That last comment made it clear she’d once again brought back some bad memories for him. Rather than apologize, she changed subjects. “I’m going to order pizza for dinner tonight. Want to split an extra-large?”

  The abrupt change in topics had him staring at her and looking a little confused. Then he asked the all-important, manly question. “That depends. Will it be a proper pizza loaded down with meat?”

  She laughed. “What’s the matter, soldier boy? Afraid of a few veggies?”

  His sneer was perfection. “No, but I like my veggies in a bowl and smothered in bleu cheese dressing, not getting in the way of pepperoni and sausage.”

  “Fine, pepperoni and sausage and two side salads will be my contribution to dinner. You take care of drinks and dessert, which can be store bought as long as it’s packed with sugary goodness . . . and chocolate.”

  The shadows that had darkened his eyes when he mentioned killing people were gone now. “Got it. Meet you out here at about six?”

  “It’s a deal.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Today was the one day Abby would have preferred Zeke to take his good old time wandering down the sidewalk. But instead of stopping to visit each of his favorite bushes and trees along the way, for some mysterious reason he had decided that it was time to take up power walking.

  Tugging on his leash only proved marginally effective at slowing him down. “Darn it, Zeke, I’m in no hurry to get where we’re headed.”

  He just woofed and kept chugging right on down the street, leaving her no choice but to keep up with him as best she could. She’d put off trying to talk to Troy Tolbert for two days, in the futile hope that the ladies would forget they’d even brought it up. She should’ve known better. Glenda had called last night to see if she’d had any success in her assigned mission. Her friend had pretended to believe that Abby had been busy with other things, but her disappointment had still come across the phone line loud and clear.