Marshmallows and Murder

by Christy Murphy

  She sped off without answering.

  I followed the signs in the hospital to the emergency waiting room. From down the hall, I was able to spot Mom and Wenling talking to Al. His bald head towered over two small Asian women made them easy to single out.

  Al saw me and waved. They turned as I approached and waved back. "I'm going to check on Sheila in the cafeteria. I'll be a few minutes," he said. "Call me if you hear anything while I'm gone."

  Al left. Wenling held up her finger before I could talk and she watched him walk away. "Okay, he can't hear," she whispered. "Guess what we found out?"

  "I found out something, too," I said.

  "Al and Shelia are a couple!" Wenling said.

  "No!" I said. Sheila was the waitress at the diner, and I never got a romantic vibe off the two of them ever.

  "It's true," Mom said. "She was with him the night of the murder."

  "Like all night," Wenling added.

  Mom gave Wenling a light slap on the shoulder. "Wen!"

  "But it's true. And it's a good thing they got together or he wouldn't have an alibi," she said.

  "Or they may be in love," I said.

  "They've been a couple for almost a year now, and they kept it hidden! Can you believe it? They had me fooled," she said.

  "But they've argued like a married couple for years," Mom said.

  "Don't pretend like you knew all along. You always do that!" Wenling said.

  "I mentioned that they would make a good couple at the Christmas party," Mom said.

  Wenling frowned. "But that's not the same thing as knowing they were a couple."

  "It's closer than you ever guessed," Mom said.

  Wenling pretended like she didn't hear Mom. "Didn't you say you found out something?" she asked changing the subject.

  With all the gossip, I'd almost forgot. "I saw Morgan crying in the parking lot. She said this is all her fault."

  "Because she killed Wayne Boggs?" Wenling asked.

  "She didn't say," I said. "She drove off without explaining herself. She just told me to tell Hannah that's she's sorry. That's if Hannah lives."

  As if on cue a doctor emerged from the double doors to the emergency room. Mom and Wenling rushed up to him, but it turned out he had news of someone else. A few minutes later someone came out with news about Hannah. Mom texted Al Hannah was awake, and we went into her room to see her.

  "They said I had visitors," she said. "You're the ones who called this in?"

  "Al, our mayor did," Mom said.

  "That's right we were on the phone," she said. "I feel so stupid. Does anyone else know?"

  Mom avoided the question. "The doctors say you're going to be okay," she said taking a seat next to Hannah's bed.

  "I have to undergo some type of evaluation," she said.

  "That's probably for the best," Wenling said. "You don't have to come back and get your stomach pumped again."

  Wenling's directness made my eyes widen. I worried Hannah would be offended, but instead Hannah said, "That's for sure."

  She paused and then continued. "I thought I hated him, but once he was gone, I just–"

  "Grief is hard," Mom said.

  "So you're here to find out who really killed them," Hannah said.

  "Did you do it?" Wenling blurted out.

  Hannah shook her head. "Although, I look pretty guilty. You know being the spouse and threatening to kill him and all."

  Wenling agreed.

  "Who do you think did it?" Mom asked.

  "That loan shark of a partner of his," Hannah said.

  "Was he a real loan shark?" Wenling asked.

  "I don't know if that's what they call them these days, but he was definitely connected to some no good people, and the rates on that loan weren’t good either. I'm letting him tear the business apart and sell it for pieces just to get out from under that loan. Now I'm thinking, he knew I'd do this, and that's why he had them taken out."

  "Is that what you tried to off yourself?" Wenling asked.

  Hannah shook her head no. "I feel so stupid."

  Mom stopped Wenling from saying anything. The three of us waited in silence. I'd always felt a need to fill silences. They made me feel awkward, but Mom told me that silence gave people the opportunity to talk. And if you really wanted to hear what someone said, you'd wait. Silence gave space for the truth.

  "I thought he was having an affair," she said. "Like someone besides me would hook up with that old beast of a man." She shook her head. "And I did it in the worst way."

  Hannah sniffled a few tears. Mom comforted her, and she continued.

  "He'd had a heart attack while I was a trade show, and he said that someone had come by the house and the door was left open and saw him," she said. "I thought that sounded crazy, and I said that he was hiding that he wasn't alone. He'd almost died, and I was interrogating him about some crazy affair I'd cooked up in my head.”

  Mom and I exchanged a look. Could that be what Morgan felt guilty about?

  "What did he tell you about how he was found?" Mom asked.

  "Just what I said," Hannah answered. "He'd been getting ready to go out. He opened the front door to go to the car, and he remembered that he didn't have his phone. So he went back to get it and left the door open. And had a heart attack. He said that's why he didn't call anyone."

  "Did anybody else know what happened that day?" Mom asked.

  "He didn't like to talk about it," she said shaking her head. "I thought it was because he was lying, but maybe it was because he almost died and I didn't seem to care about much besides accusing him of having an affair."

  "What made you think he was having an affair?" Mom asked.

  "Him saying he was working late. Being on his phone all the time. Receipts from places that he normally wouldn't go. He bought new clothes. Tried to lose some weight. Stuff like that."

  "Did he try to lose weight before the heart attack or after?" Mom asked.

  "Before, but now I think that maybe he sensed his health was bad," Hannah said. “Although after his heart attack, all of that stopped."

  "Maybe it's because he broke up with him," Wenling said.

  Hannah's attention shot to Wenling. "What do you mean?" she asked.

  Mom glared at Wenling, but it looked like the cat was out of the bag.

  Wenling glared back at Mom. "Maybe she'll feel less guilty if she knows."

  "Knows what?" Hannah asked.

  "We don't know for sure," Mom said, "but my daughter saw Morgan crying in the parking lot saying that all of this was her fault and to tell you that she was sorry."

  "It couldn't have been Morgan," she said. "She's kind of ditzy, but she's way too good-looking and young. Plus she's easily confused. It's hard to know what she's talking about half the time."

  "But did she know any of the details about how Wayne died?"

  "No one at work knew. Not even Austin, and he practically runs the place. Why?"

  "Because Morgan told us that she thought that Wayne had died of a heart attack, because he'd had one before," Mom said.

  "Well they all visited him in the hospital. They knew about the heart attack–" Hannah started, but Mom shook her head.

  "She knew about the phone not being near him. She said the paramedics found him on the floor of the kitchen and said that she guessed he couldn't get to the phone in the bedroom," Mom explained. "When she was telling me the story, in my mind I thought she was talking as if she'd been there, but then she added that a neighbor found him just in time."

  "He never told me he was in the kitchen," she said. "He made it sound like he collapsed just inside the house, but his mobile was in the bedroom. Right on the charger. That lying cheating..." Hannah swore under her breath and then added. "I thought I'd been stupid, but now I've really been stupid."

  "It's not a bad thing to want to believe the best about somebody after they've died," Mom said.

  "That's a really kind thing to say, but I feel like a darned fool," Hannah
said.

  "But you didn't die," Wenling said. "And now you know you're right. Being right always makes me feel better."

  Hannah laughed. "I do like being right. I really do," she said.

  Al and a sheepish Sheila entered the room. We all talked about Hannah's recovery for a while and then left together.

  "So it's the business partner. He had him taken out," Al said.

  "Maybe," Mom said, "but we still have to prove it."

  Dinner and Denouement

  Mom called on our way in and told him to have the ladies from the San Fernando readers' group meet us at the Lucky Dragon to tell us what they found out.

  "Where have you been?" Jennifer asked as we entered the kitchen from the back door.

  "We've been working on the case," Wenling said.

  "Did you want to look over the supply orders?” Jennifer asked.

  "I'm sure it's fine," Wenling said.

  It wasn't like Wenling to not want to look over every detail of the Lucky Dragon's business, but lately it seems like she didn't care.

  "Is everything okay, Mom?" Jennifer asked.

  "We'll meet you in the dining room," Mom said as she led the two of us to the closed section of the restaurant.

  "I told your group they can sit on your side," Jennifer called out to us as we left.

  Wenling said something to her daughter in Chinese. Jennifer responded back in kind. Something was up, but we didn't have time to talk about it. The ladies from the group were waiting for us.

  "What did you find out?" Mom asked.

  "Carol, the girl who works the whack-a-mole booth, is a big fan of Sue Grafton," Laverne said.

  "That's me. This is the coolest mystery readers club ever!" Carol said.

  "But our amateur crime solving stuff is top secret," Mom said.

  Carol gave a solemn nod.

  "Did anyone see Wayne Boggs the night of the murder?" Mom asked.

  "We all did," Carol said. "He was there to collect the receipts and bank with Mr. Morris."

  "Which one was Mr. Morris again?" one of the readers asked.

  "He's Wayne's partner. The one in the fancy suit. Once they became partners Wayne started wearing suits and tried to get us to call him Mr. Boggs. But we already knew him as Wayne."

  "Was it the norm for them to come together the night of the fair to collect the money?” Mom asked.

  "Pretty much," Carol said.

  "But tell her what was unusual," Rebecca said.

  "It's kind of gossipy," Carol began.

  Wenling leaned in extra close as Carol continued. "When I went to the parking lot after closing, guess who was getting into Mr. Morris's Tesla with him."

  "Morgan," Mom guessed.

  Everyone turned to Mom.

  "Turns out, she might've been having an affair with Wayne until his heart attack," Wenling piped in eager to share the gossip.

  A collective "ooh" came from the group.

  "But if both the mistress and the partner were seen leaving the scene of the crime together, that takes them both off the suspect list," Jerri said.

  "That leaves the spouse," Lacey said.

  "And the mayor," Rebecca added.

  "Turns out," Wenling said, "the mayor was with Sheila from the diner that night. They've been secretly dating for years."

  Another collected "ooh" came from the group.

  "We don't know how long they've been dating," Mom said.

  "Maybe there's a secret baby," Wenling added.

  Mom shook her head no.

  "But we don't know what we don't know," Wenling insisted.

  "Well the secret baby would be too small to kill the carnival company owner," Mom said. Mom didn't like being corrected.

  "So it's Hannah?" Carol asked. "I didn't want it to be Hannah."

  "Me neither," Wenling said.

  "I don't think it's her," Mom said.

  All eyes turned to Mom.

  "Normally, we'd go back to the scene of the crime, but since we don't know exactly where that is, let's assume it happened some where on Main Street not far from the diner," Mom said.

  "Good idea," Wenling said. "We can have Christy do her weird memory thing with the body."

  Mom led everyone out onto the street. As we were walking Carol whispered to Laverne, "what's her weird memory thing?"

  "She has sort of photographic memory that kicks in when things are traumatic," Laverne said.

  "Like when she finds a dead body," Jerri added.

  "That is weird," Carol said. "How many dead bodies has she found?"

  "Six," Lacey said.

  "Are you sure she's just finding them?" Carol asked.

  Wenling turned around and looked at Carol. "Mostly," she said smile.

  We all headed down Main Street toward the mountain. When we walked by the Mocha Muse, I knocked on the window and waved to Dar-Dar to come out with us.

  Seeing the entire crew, he rushed from behind the counter and ran out to meet us.

  "What are we doing?" he asked as he walked next to me. The group crossed the street to get to the diner parking lot.

  "Mom wants to go over the facts of the case near the scene of the crime since we're almost out of suspects."

  He nodded.

  Almost all the carnival booths had been packed away. All that remained was the Ferris wheel which was still disassembled, the tilt-a-whirl and the now-empty dunk tank.

  Mom walked up to the police tape.

  "Mom, don't cross the tape," I warned.

  "I won't," she said looking from the dumpster to across the parking lot. Then she turned back to me. "Close your eyes, kid. Think back to when found the body."

  Even though I felt self conscious, I closed my eyes as instructed. My brain flashed back to that moment in the kitchen. "I set the marshmallows on the counter, and I noticed the door to Al's office was open, and I saw the back of Wayne's head," I said.

  "What made you think it was Wayne?"

  "I didn't know it was him at the time, but his hair was all wet and greasy like it always is, but from the back I didn't guess it. I'm used to him wearing those short-sleeved white shorts with the cheesy tie like the guy on the office."

  "He does dress like Dwight!" Carol said.

  "Stop interrupting. You'll break her trance," Wenling said.

  "It's not a trance," I said opening my eyes.

  "It looks like one," Wenling said.

  That made me feel a little weird.

  "But a good one," she said. "Close your eyes. Keep going."

  I didn't feel like closing me eyes, but Mom encouraged me.

  Closing my eyes I returned to my visualization and recounted to everyone how I entered the office. Wayne was slumped against the wall. "I called out to wake him, but he didn't turn around," I said. "Then I was going to try to shake him gently awake, but when my hand touched his shoulder, my stomach sank, and I pulled my hand away."

  "Why?" Mom asked.

  "I knew he was dead. His shoulder felt lifeless, and his body didn't even move right when I touched it."

  "Was his body stiff?" Rebecca asked.

  "Yeah," I said, "and kind of cooler and clammier than an alive person."

  Another collective "ooh" escaped the group. I opened my eyes and looked around.

  "What does that mean?" I asked.

  "Rigor mortis," Wenling said.

  "It takes a few hours to set in," Mom clarified. "The other bodies you found were of people who'd died more recently."

  Mom encouraged me to close my eyes again. "Think back, kid. Was he wearing a watch?"

  I closed my eyes and searched my memory. "No watch," I said opening my eyes. "Just one of those black fair t-shirts and dark khakis."

  Mom smiled and turned to Carol. "What time do you remember seeing Wayne alive?"

  "I'm not sure," she said.

  "Talk it through," Mom encouraged. "Was it after closing? What did you do when the fair closed?"

  Carol followed my lead and closed her eyes, too. A m
ove I appreciated. "The fair closed at nine. I turned in my bank bag and receipts to Austin at about nine-thirty and waited for my friend, and then" she paused, her eyes opened, and her expression turned excited. "We saw Wayne as we left. Maybe quarter of ten? We were one of the last ones out."

  "Was Wayne with Mr. Morris?" Mom asked.

  Carol shook her head no. "We took the bus to the parking lot. We were the only ones on it. When we got to the parking lot that's when we saw Mr. Morris's Tesla leave with Morgan."

  Mom nodded and walked away from the dumpster. "The diner and the position of the booths in the parking lot would have made it easier for him to hide what he was doing," Mom said looking around.

  The beeping of a large truck backing down Main Street drew everyone's attention.

  "That'll be for the bigger rides," Carol said.

  "And the dunk tank?" Mom asked.

  "I guess so," she said looking over at the tank. "It's usually packed up earlier.”

  Mom walked closer to the tank. Wenling followed.

  "I'm going to miss that tank," Wenling said.

  Mom stared into the tank.

  "It's kind of sad without the water in it," Wenling said peering into it. "And dirty. I don't remember it being so dirty. There's even a dirty sock in there.

  "That's not a sock," Mom said as she took a step away from the glass.

  "Kid, call DC," Mom instructed. "Nobody touch the tank."

  The ladies rushed gathered around the tank, but kept a safe distance. I dialed DC and told him Mom had urgent news about the case. It surprised me that he hadn't argued. "He'll be right back," I said.

  "I don't see anything," Lacey said.

  "Me neither," Jerri added.

  "At the bottom in the corner," Mom said. "It's Wayne's tie. He was drowned in this tank."

  "There it is!" Jerri said pointing it out to the group. "It's so easy to miss."

  "I guess that's how the killer missed it," Rebecca said.

  "How did you figure that out he died in there?" Carol asked. "That could be someone else's tie."

  Mom smiled.

  "This is my favorite part," Rebecca said.

  Mom turned to Carol, "Was Wayne wearing his white, short-sleeved shirt when you saw him?"

  "I think so. I'm not sure, but I think so," she said.