Murder on Aisle Three

by Patti Benning

  “Maybe if you were one of the caregivers, but all you do there is cook. I don’t think there’s any sort of conflict there. Have you talked about it with him?”

  She sighed. “No. I don’t want him to think I’m getting ahead of myself. I like him a lot, but like I said, we’ve only been out a couple of times.”

  “Don’t over-think everything,” Alicia said, giving her a playful nudge. “You worry too much. Just have fun and enjoy your new opportunities. Now, don’t you have a low sodium dinner you have to go make?”

  Autumn checked her phone. Her friend was right; it was time to go. She had just enough time to drop Frankie off, and then get to work.

  “I’ll see you later,” she said, giving Alicia a quick, one-armed hug. “Thanks for talking.”

  “Any time. That’s what best friends are for, isn’t it?”

  CHAPTER THREE

  * * *

  Asheville Meadows was one of the better nursing homes in the state. It was a smaller facility, and the staff worked hard to make sure that the residents got the individual care that they needed. It was also one of the oldest privately-owned facilities in the state. She knew this because her uncle had done extensive research before he decided to move himself and her aunt into the building.

  While the staff did all that they could to keep the residents happy and healthy, it didn't make it any easier when Autumn saw many of the people that she had grown to know over the past few weeks sitting alone at every meal. She was always saddened when she thought about how many people rarely – if ever – got visits from their families. Being cared for by strangers just wasn't the same thing as being able to sit across the table from your own flesh and blood and tell them about your day.

  This wasn’t the case with her aunt and uncle, who she had seen a couple of times every week even before she started working there. Her Uncle Albert was a war veteran who had lost a leg during his time in the service. After her Aunt Lucinda had suffered a stroke that had taken most of her mobility, he had been unable to care for her. Both of them had moved into the care facility, and Autumn was thankful that they had been able to stay together.

  “Look who it is,” her uncle said as she walked into the nursing home that evening. He rose from his seat by the fireplace, moving with practiced ease on his crutches over to the door to give her a hug.

  “It’s nice to see you, Uncle Al,” she said. “How are you?”

  “Wonderful. Your aunt and I were just having a chat — well, it was a mostly one-sided conversation, but she agrees, I can tell — about how nice of a job you’ve been doing here. I’ve actually been looking forward to dinners, imagine that.”

  “Oh, come on,” she said as she walked with him back to the circle of chairs set up in the common area. “The previous chef wasn’t bad at all. I ate here pretty often too, you know.”

  “I know,” he said. “He was a good guy, and I’m sorry he’s gone. Maybe I just like knowing that I’m eating food cooked by my own niece. Not much beats family cooking.”

  “I’ll give you that,” she said. She leaned down to give her aunt a kiss on the cheek. “How are you doing, Aunt Lucy?” Her aunt gave her a lopsided smile and a thumbs-up with her good hand.

  "Your aunt has been making wonderful progress with her physical therapy. I've been waiting all day to tell you. The doctor came by, and he said that he thinks there's a good chance that she’ll regain most of the range of motion in her limbs."

  "That's wonderful," she said. "How long will it take? Will she be able to speak again?"

  "Well, he said it could take quite a while. Her therapy schedule is ongoing, with no end in sight. He said all of her progress will be in very small increments, but he's hoping it will be steady. He was more reluctant to mention anything about her speech, but I think she's been doing better lately."

  He smiled down at his wife, such a loving expression that Autumn felt a lump form in her throat. She wanted that sort of relationship one day. She wanted someone to look at her with that same pure expression of love, even if she couldn't walk or talk.

  Autumn straightened up, clearing her throat. “Well, I’d better get to work. Dinner won’t cook itself. I’ll sit down with the two of you if I get the chance once everyone’s eating.”

  Although the nursing home had a large, industrial kitchen, many of its appliances were older. She had gradually gotten used to the various quirks the stove and ovens had, and had learned early on to make sure the dishwasher was tightly shut. Cleaning up a flooded floor was not on her to-do list; not for today, and not any day.

  Dinner that evening would be baked tilapia fillets, green beans with almond slivers, and roasted potatoes with garlic. The meals were all planned out a month in advance, and each resident got a copy of the menu. She had helped Nick come up with January’s menu at the end of December, and had enjoyed it more than she had thought she would. With her hours at the grocery store, she had only been able to make dinners, so the rest of the staff at Asheville Meadows had been scrambling to make the rest of the meals themselves. Soon, she would be able to devote all of her time to this place, and the thought made her smile.

  She hummed to herself as she preheated the ovens and double-checked the instructions for the evening’s meal. Cooking for thirty people had taken some getting used to. It was a far cry from the family holiday meals that she was used to making. She always made a few extra servings, just in case someone’s family member showed up unannounced, or a plate got knocked off a table. So far, she hadn’t come up short on any of the meals, but she lived in constant anxiety that one day she wouldn’t make enough food for everybody.

  As the ovens heated up, she cut the redskin potatoes into wedges and tossed them lightly in olive oil and seasonings before spreading them out in a shallow dish. They would take the longest to cook, so she wanted to make sure they got in the oven first. After they were done, she began to lay the tilapia fillets out on the baking sheets, carefully seasoning both sides of each one. With over thirty fillets, this step took her a while to complete. It would have been easier to use frozen, pre-cooked foods that just had to be heated up, but that wasn’t what Asheville Meadows was all about. Nick wanted it to be more than just a care facility; he wanted it to be a home away from home for the residents, and that included having home-cooked meals as often as they could.

  Once the potatoes and fish were cooking, she turned her attention to the green beans. They were fresh, not frozen, but thankfully one of the other staff members had already snapped the ends off and washed them in preparation for the dinner. All she had to do was toss them in a pan with low-sodium butter, add the slivered almonds and garlic, and make sure they didn’t burn. By now, the kitchen was full of the scents of dinner, and she was starting to feel hungry herself. She hoped she would have time to sit down and eat with her aunt and uncle, but it all depended on how long dessert took to get in the oven.

  “I came in to say hi, but you look busy. Maybe I should come back later?”

  She spun around to see Nicolas Holt standing in the kitchen’s doorway. “Oh, hi.”

  “Did I startle you?” he asked, chuckling. “Sorry. Next time I’ll cough or something.”

  “I was just engrossed with these green beans,” she said. “I’m still working on the whole timing thing. If I start them too soon, they’ll be done before the potatoes are and will get cold.”

  “You look like you’re doing fine to me,” he said. “I’m just here to grab some plates. Shila had to leave early unexpectedly, so I’m going to help set up for dinner.”

  “Oh, I hope everything’s all right.”

  “Me too. She didn’t give me much information, but whatever was going on, it seemed important.” He opened one of the cupboards and began pulling out plates. “Do you have plans after this? I was thinking of catching a movie at the theater later this evening. Do you want to come?”

  “I’d love to, but I have to be up early to open the grocery store,” she said. “Sorry. Maybe we can get t
ogether over the weekend.”

  “Sure. I’ll give you a call on Saturday and we can figure it out.”

  She watched as he carried the stack of plates out to the dining area, already looking forward to whatever they would do that weekend. It was nice to date a guy that she got butterflies around, though it made her feel more self-conscious at work. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about dating her boss, but she supposed it could be worse. Besides, she had technically been a volunteer when they went on their first date, and not an employee. That had to count for something, didn’t it?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  * * *

  Autumn tried to feel excited about going in to work the next morning, but it was difficult. After a perfect dinner the night before, all she really wanted was to go back to the nursing home and do what she loved doing. She had been fine working a job that she felt neutral about for years, but now, once she had gotten a taste of something different, she wanted more.

  Just a couple more weeks, she reminded herself. Then the bittersweet day of Green River Grocery’s closing would be here, and she would be free to focus on her new job.

  “I'll see you later, Frankie.” She paused to toss a couple of cookies into the other room to distract the dog as she left. “I'll come back between shifts,” she called as she slipped out the door.

  It was another nice morning, unseasonably warm and with a perfectly clear sky. In fact, it was warm enough that some of the snow was beginning to melt; something Autumn discovered when she stepped into a puddle of slush by her car door.

  Shaking her boots off as she got into the car, she started the engine and let the vehicle warm up as she checked her phone for messages. She had spent the past hour wondering if Jed would call and ask her not to come in, but she hadn't heard from him. She wondered how the tour with the buyer had gone. For his sake, she hoped the sale would go quickly and he would get what he was asking. Losing the store had to be tough for him.

  A couple of minutes later, she pulled into the parking lot. The store was still closed up and dark, which meant that Jed wasn't there yet. For all she knew, he wouldn't be coming in at all that day. She very well might have to hold on to her curiosity a while longer.

  She got out of the car and sorted through her keys as she walked up to the door. Inserting the key in the lock, she turned it and then frowned. It hadn't felt right, as if the lock hadn't been engaged. Had Jed forgotten to lock it? That had never happened once in all the years she had worked there. Asheville might be a small town, but there was still crime.

  As she pushed the door open, she looked around the store, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of theft. If someone had robbed them, it would add insult to injury for poor Jed.

  The front half of the store looked like it always did, and she relaxed slightly as she walked toward the back, where she turned on the lights and hung her coat and purse up. She checked the tack board to see if Jed had left any notes, then pinned her name tag to her shirt. It was time to get to work.

  She left the back room and started toward the register to count out the morning’s cash when she saw something on the floor a couple of aisles away. A few cans looked like they had rolled across the floor, and were laying on their sides.

  She paused, feeling the hair on the back of her neck rise. Something wasn't right; between the unlocked door and the cans, she was sure of it.

  Wishing she had something more than her phone in her hand, she slowly approached the aisle with the spilled cans. Images flashed through her mind, most of them of Jed — she expected to see him collapsed and on the floor, possibly from a heart attack. Or worse, what if someone had robbed the store and he had gotten injured trying to stop them?

  “No…” she breathed as she finally rounded the corner. It wasn't Jed lying in the aisle, but rather someone with long blonde hair and a brightly colored coat that she had seen just yesterday.

  “Grace.”

  She hurried forward and knelt next to the young woman, but she could already tell that it was too late. Grace’s neck was at an odd angle, and her eyes were wide and staring. Autumn felt sick as she futilely searched for a pulse.

  “Oh, my goodness,” she breathed. “Please, wake up.”

  It was useless. Grace was dead.

  On the edge of hyperventilating, Autumn stood up. Her phone was still clutched in her hand in an iron grip. She stared at it for a moment, then feeling as if she was moving in a dream, she turned the screen on and dialed the three digits she had never wanted to call again.

  “M-my coworker is dead,” she stammered when the emergency line’s operator answered. “She's here, at the store… Green River Grocery. I found her like this. Please, send someone.”

  Beginning to shiver from the shock of it, she let the hand holding the phone fall to her side. She looked around, suddenly struck by the shocking thought that whoever had done this to Grace might still be there.

  “Jed?” she called out. If Grace had been there, then he must have been there too. She and he were the only ones with keys to the store.

  She felt a sharp stab of worry for her boss. What if he was injured somewhere in the store? She had to go and look for him, but it somehow felt wrong to leave Grace lying in the aisle like that.

  Knowing it was illogical, but acting purely out of emotion, she hurried into the back room and grabbed her coat. She returned to the canned goods aisle and draped it gently over her deceased coworker’s head and shoulders.

  There, she thought. At least she isn't staring up into the lights anymore.

  Taking a deep breath, Autumn began to make her way cautiously from aisle to aisle, looking for Jed, or any sign that he might have been there recently. She had been expecting to find him in much the same condition that Grace was in, so she was surprised when she didn't see any evidence of him being in the building.

  Come to think of it, his car wasn't parked out front, she thought. Grace usually walked to work, but Jed always drove. Unless the killer had stolen his car, that meant that Jed wasn't in the building.

  She breathed a sigh of relief just as she heard the sirens wailing in the distance. The police were almost there. While there wasn't anything they could do to help Grace, they might be able to piece together what had happened at the Green River Grocery to cost the young woman her life.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  * * *

  “Are you all right, ma’am?”

  Autumn stared at the middle-aged police officer who had asked her the question. It took her brain a few moments to process what he had said.

  “I just… I can't believe it. I saw her yesterday. How could this have happened?”

  “I don't know, but that's what we're here for. We'll figure it out.”

  She took a deep breath and shifted her attention back toward the grocery store. It was difficult for her to stop imagining what must have been happening in there. Were they taking photos of her body? Were they dusting for prints? What good would that do them, in such a public place?

  Shivering despite the emergency blanket she had wrapped around her — her coat was still inside covering Grace’s body, and she had no desire to get it back — she turned away from the building just in time to see Jed pull into the parking lot. Even from a distance, she could see the horror-struck look on her boss’s face.

  She started toward his vehicle automatically, and was surprised when the officer who had asked her if she was all right just moments before stepped into her path.

  “I'm sorry, ma’am, but we still need to ask you some questions. You can't leave yet.”

  “I'm not leaving, I just need to see if my boss is all right. My keys are still inside; I'm not going anywhere.”

  He hesitated, but at that moment, someone called out to him and he had to turn away to answer. Autumn hesitated for only an instant before hurrying away. This would be a difficult time for anyone, but for shy, easily embarrassed Jed, this must be a nightmare. She wanted to make sure she was there to help him if he needed it.

>   She reached his vehicle just as he opened his door. Another officer was already there, and seemed to be trying to block his path to the building.

  “It's okay,” Autumn said. “He's my boss.”

  The officer said something into his walker talkie, waiting for the staticky response, then stepped back and waved Jed through the makeshift police barrier.

  The entire parking lot was a mess of police cars and other emergency personnel. It was the biggest thing that had happened in Asheville for a long time, including the chef’s death at the nursing home. His death had been thought to be an accident from the start, and unfortunately the ambulance was a common sight there. It hadn’t gathered anywhere near as much attention as this scene was drawing.

  People were already gathered around the perimeter, trying to get a peek inside the store. Autumn had no idea what sorts of rumors were spreading. By the time she was able to leave, she was sure everyone in town would have a different story about what had happened at Green River Grocery, and none of them right.