Red, White, and Blue Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  Chapter Eleven

  “Allie, these cherry cobblers look wonderful,” Lucy said as she helped me carry the pies and cobblers into the kitchen at Henry’s.

  “Thanks, Lucy,” I said and set the last cobbler down on the counter. I turned and saw Charles Allen standing in front of the stove flipping eggs with a spatula. He was watching me and I smiled at him. He rolled his eyes and looked away. Charles didn’t like me.

  “Did Thad and Sarah get to the airport all right today?” Lucy asked as we headed out to the dining room at Henry’s.

  “Yes, they’re gone and I miss them already.”

  “You poor thing. Maybe they’ll get to come back soon and spend some time with you.”

  I nodded, but I knew the truth. It would be months before that happened. We sat down at a booth and picked up a menu from the corner of the table and looked it over. I had promised Lucy I would buy her breakfast.

  “I think I’m going to get an omelet today,” I said.

  “Are you? I’ve been thinking about pancakes,” she said, looking the menu over. “I ran into Dave Jones at the grocery store yesterday. I asked him how he was and it took all I had not to ask him about Anita Towers. You’d be proud of me though, I didn’t say a word.”

  I had filled her in on everything I knew about the murder case and she knew I thought that Dave and Anita had been seeing each other.

  “Just hearing that makes me proud of you,” I said. “I think I’m going with the vegetarian omelet. I haven’t been getting enough vegetables lately.”

  “I’m going to go with the tall stack of pancakes. Don’t judge, I haven’t had pancakes in forever.” I grinned but didn’t say a word and set the menu down on the edge of the table. When the waitress came by, we gave her our orders and I took a sip of my glass of water. And then I spotted someone across the room. “Lucy, look over there.” I made a motion with my head in the direction I was looking.

  She followed my gaze and her eyes went wide. She turned back to me. “What do you know?”

  I nodded. “I’d like to know what he knows,” I said. Sitting on the other side of the room, digging into a huge banana split was Anita’s son, Mike.

  “It’s a little early for ice cream.” She laid her menu on top of mine.

  “Why don’t we go over and say hello?”

  She nodded. We both got up and went over to his table. “Hello, Mike,” I said. “That banana split sure looks good.”

  He looked up at me and narrowed his eyes. “Do I know you?”

  I chuckled and sat down in the booth across from him without being invited and Lucy scooted in next to me. “What’s the matter with you? We met at your Aunt Julie’s house. I’m Allie McSwain, and this is Lucy Gray,” I said, holding my hand out to shake.

  He stared at me and didn’t make a move to shake my hand. “Yeah, I remember, but why would I care?”

  This kid was a tough one. “I guess you wouldn’t, but I just wanted to stop by and tell you again how sorry I was to hear about your mother’s death.”

  He scowled. “And?”

  I glanced at Lucy. “And we’re sorry to hear about your mother’s death,” Lucy said, pronouncing each word slowly as if he might have had a problem understanding the words I’d spoken.

  He rolled his eyes. “Great. Now get out of my booth.”

  This kid just made you want to give him a squeeze. Around the neck. “Mike, I really am sorry to hear about what happened to your mom. It was horrible, and I can’t imagine what you must be going through, losing a parent so young.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me again. “Look, we weren’t that close. Not that it’s any of your business. Why would you care?”

  I nodded. “I care because she was a human being, and so are you. And maybe that’s the only reason I do care. What do you think about that?”

  He snorted. “I think you’re stupid for caring about people.”

  I wasn’t going to be put off. “Well, I guess you can think I’m stupid if you want to, but that isn’t going to stop me from caring about people.”

  He took a bite of his ice cream and then shoved the spoon back into the mound of chocolate ice cream. “I don’t care what you do, or what you think. And I don’t care what you care about. Why are you sitting in my booth? That’s what I want to know.”

  I shrugged and glanced at Lucy. “I just thought it might be good for you to know that somebody cared.”

  He gritted his teeth together and closed his eyes for a moment. “I hated my mother. I don’t care that she’s dead. Who cares? She wasn’t an important person. She didn’t do anything important with her life. So who cares that she’s dead?” He opened his eyes and glared at me.

  “You don’t have to do something important to be a person that’s valued,” Lucy told him quietly.

  He looked away, shutting his eyes again. “That’s stupid.” When he opened his eyes, there were tears in them, but none fell. “Do I have to call the manager to get rid of you two?”

  “No, you don’t have to call the manager. But can I give you my card?” I dug into my purse and grabbed one of the business cards I had made up when I was writing a grief blog after my husband had died. I slid it across the table. “My husband was killed by a drunk driver eight years ago, and my kids were about your age when he died. I know what it’s like to go through this sort of thing.”

  He stared at the card but didn’t pick it up. “Can I just eat my ice cream in peace?”

  I nodded. “I guess you can. But if you ever want to talk about anything, anything at all, my phone number is on that card.”

  “I don’t have a thing to say,” he said and glared at me.

  I nodded. “All right. But Mike, there’s one thing that I do know. I know that someday you are going to care that she was murdered the way she was. It’s something called maturing, and as you grow older, you’ll have more insight into things. You’ll also have more regrets.”

  I nodded at Lucy and she got to her feet. “Give her a call if you want. She’s great for telling your troubles to,” she said and we headed back over to our table.

  Mike didn’t say anything as we left. We sat down and did our best not to look in his direction again. What I saw when I looked at Mike was somebody that was hurting. Could he possibly have murdered his mother? I didn’t know. I didn’t think so. But it was early in the investigation and Alec would look into it.

  “What do you think about him?” Lucy whispered.

  Before I could answer the waitress brought our coffee and breakfast. When she left, I looked at Lucy. “I think he’s just hurting. I hope he didn’t do anything to hurt his mother, but I think it’s too early to tell right now.”

  “I can’t imagine it. What goes through a person’s head when they kill? Especially when it’s a kid that kills family members?” She shook her head.

  We ate our breakfast, and after a while, Mike got up and left the restaurant through the side door. It was a minute later when I realized he hadn’t paid for his ice cream. I looked at Lucy wide-eyed.

  “What?”

  “Mike just left the restaurant without paying for his ice cream.”

  The waitress came in with a ticket and was headed in the direction of his table. She saw the table was empty and stopped, looking confused. She turned around, and I waved her over. “Were you taking that ticket to the boy that was eating the banana split over there?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, do you think he’s in the restroom?”

  I shook my head. “No, he just ran out the side door.”

  “Are you kidding me?” she asked. “He stuck us with the bill?”

  “Don’t worry about it, I’ll pay for it.”

  Surprise filled her eyes. “Really? Are you sure?”

  I nodded. “The kid’s going through a tough time right now. I’m sure he didn’t even think about it,” I said, knowing that was a lie. Mike knew what he was doing, and it was just a form of rebellion. I didn’t condone what he had done, but I couldn’t
see the restaurant getting stuck for the bill, either.

  “That’s sweet of you,” she said and handed me the ticket. “I really appreciate that.”

  I nodded. “It’s no problem. It’s just a banana split.”

  She nodded. “Well, I certainly do appreciate it. I’ll be here to ring you up when you’re ready,” she said and set our ticket on the table alongside the other one.

  “Somebody needs to have a talk with that kid,” Lucy said when she left.

  “Somebody needs to do something with that kid,” I agreed.

  Chapter Twelve

  The more I thought about everything I knew about Anita and her family, the more I thought it had to have been one of them. Sure, Dave the mailman could have done it. And I wasn’t completely ruling him out yet. It just seemed more likely that it was one of her family members. The thought made me a little ill, but it made sense. They had the most access to her, and from what I gathered, the most bitterness toward her. So why wouldn’t it be one of them?

  Julie Sommers’ husband was a mechanic at the Sandy Harbor Garage, so when I realized my car was overdue for an oil change, I headed down there. I would kill two birds with one stone, pardon the pun.

  “Hi Jack,” I said when I walked through the office door at the garage. “Isn’t it a lovely day? I tell you, summer is just about the best time of year around here.”

  He looked up from where he sat on a stool behind the front counter and smiled. “Hi, Allie. It is a pretty day. In fact, I wish I was down at the beach.” As soon as it was out of his mouth, his eyes got big. “Although, maybe the beach isn’t the best place to be around here.” He smiled now, and it surprised me. Was he taking Anita’s death lightly?

  “I guess sometimes it’s not the best place to be,” I agreed and went to the counter and sat on one of the stools on this side of the counter. “I still can’t get over the fact that the Anita was killed right there while everyone sat around and watched fireworks.” I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I wasn’t there to see it for myself. What a shame.”

  He nodded, turning somber. “Ayuh, it’s a pure shame is what it is. I never would’ve thought I’d see the day when something like that would happen around here. Sandy Harbor has always been a nice little town, but sometimes the tourists can get a bit wild, I guess. That’s my guess on who did it. A tourist.”

  It was always a possibility that a tourist had killed Anita, but it seemed like Jack was talking awfully fast. Nervous much?

  “How are her husband and son doing? Are they still in town?” I hoped they hadn’t left yet. I needed to do some more investigating, and I hadn’t gotten nearly enough information out of the two of them. Never mind that her son would be a tough nut to crack. Pun intended.

  He shook his head. “No, they’re still working on getting the approval to have her body transported across state lines. I told them they oughta just bury her here in the cemetery. She loved this town more than she did Omaha.”

  “Did she?”

  He nodded again. “Sure did. She came down during the summers and occasionally for other holidays, too. She made a trip out to the beach every time she came, even when it was winter.” He shook his head. “She was crazy about the beach.”

  “I guess you don’t get many beaches in Omaha,” I said, glancing at the counter in front of me. It was strewn with hotrod magazines, clipboards with blank forms, and a couple of sets of car keys. The smell of grease came to my nostrils. “How is her son doing?” I looked up at him again.

  He thought about it a moment and then shrugged. “I dunno about that kid. He doesn’t say a lot, and when he does, you wind up wishing he hadn’t said anything at all.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked amicably.

  “That kid is just full of vinegar,” he said with a nod. “Has been for years now. When he was a little kid he was all right, but I don’t know, something changed. But I guess a lot of teens go through that, don’t they?”

  I nodded. “You can say that again. Some parents really have it rough when their kids hit their teens. Tell me, Jack, do you have an opinion on what might have happened to Anita? Who might have killed her?”

  He sat back on his stool. “Like I said, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if some tourist did her in. You know, just some random thing. But I suppose the chances of that aren’t great. And I wish I could give you a good answer to that question, but I just can’t. It’s a real shame is what it is.”

  I sighed. “It’s a shame all right. I wish there was somebody that had guilty written all over them. That would make it easier to just round the killer up.”

  “Wouldn’t it, though?” He smiled and nodded.

  “Tell me, Jack, how is Julie doing? Anita’s death must be crushing for her as well. They were so close.”

  His eyes widened. “Close? I dunno who told you that. I’ll be honest and tell you that both Julie and Anita had a lot of issues. They argued a lot.”

  My brow furrowed. “What do you mean? Why would Anita keep coming here if she and Julie didn’t have a close relationship?”

  He hesitated, and then he shook his head. “I dunno. It was always a puzzlement to me. But as soon as Anita would walk in the door, she and Julie would go at it about something or other. It always started out as something like the weather or what they were going to do first when she got here. But it always ended up in an argument about things that happened in the past.”

  “I don’t understand. Why would she come all this way just to argue with her cousin?”

  He chuckled. “Like I said, I’m just as confused about that as you are. It never made any sense to me.”

  I looked at him, trying to put this together. “I guess maybe that’s the way some people communicate.” I’d heard that excuse before, but maybe it was true. Or maybe the issues were so deep-seated that they couldn’t interact any other way.

  His brow furrowed as he thought about it. “Ayuh. I guess so.”

  I wanted more information, but I wasn’t getting it from Jack. Either he didn’t know anything or he was keeping it to himself.

  “Well, I came to get an oil change for my car. Thought I’d stop in and see how you were doing and get that taken care of today.” What he was saying didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Why come all this way if it made you miserable? Unless Anita’s relationship with Dave was really that important to her. And if it was, perhaps her husband had gotten tired of it and killed her over it.

  “I’ll get that written right up for you,” he said, picking up a clipboard with a blank form and filling out the top of it with my name. When he finished with it, he turned the clipboard toward me and handed me a pen. “If I can just get you to fill out the rest, I’ll get to work on your car.”

  “How has business been lately?” I asked as I filled in my address and phone number.

  “Oh, it’s been all right,” he said with a nod. “During the summer people like to travel, and that means either getting their cars in shape to make long trips, or coming to me after they tried to make a long trip and the car couldn’t make it.” He chuckled. “I really hate when the latter happens, but people don’t stop and think about their cars sometimes. They just jump in and take off.”

  I grinned. “That would be people like me. I don’t think much about my car, but I’ve been fortunate that it has held up as well as it has.”

  He nodded. “That’s good. It’d be a real nuisance to get stuck out on a lonely highway somewhere and have to walk back to civilization.”

  I laid the pen down on the clipboard and looked at him. “Oh, don’t say things like that. That would be a nightmare.”

  He chuckled again. “How is Alec doing on the investigation into Anita’s death?”

  I shrugged. “You know, sometimes he tells me things, and other times he doesn’t. That one can be tightlipped when he wants to be. Jack, you said Julie and Anita argued about things from the past. What kind of things?”

  He frowned now. “I suppose I shoul
dn’t say it, but Julie always envied her cousin. You know how short Julie is, and Anita was tall. When she was younger, Anita was a looker. And it always made Julie envious. I don’t know why. I always tell her that she’s perfect just the way she is.” He shook his head. “She never believes me.”

  “That’s a shame,” I said. “Sometimes it’s hard for some women to have confidence in themselves.”

  “Yeah, and Anita was pretty hateful about it. Honestly, I told Julie more than a time or two that she ought it just tell her we were busy and she can’t come to visit. By the time she left from these little visits of hers, Julie just about hated herself and couldn’t stand to look at herself in the mirror.”

  “That’s a shame,” I said. “Why would Julie keep allowing her to come if she was going to treat her that way?”

  He shrugged. “I dunno. But Anita could be really hateful. She’d always remark that Julie got the short end of the stick when it came to looks and height. She thought it was hilarious. It broke Julie’s heart, even though she tried not to let her know.”

  “That’s awful.”

  He nodded. “Julie tried to hide it from me most of the time, but sometimes I would walk in on them in the middle of a conversation and Anita would be putting Julie down. A couple of times I told her that she needed to keep her mouth shut. She didn’t have any business treating my wife that way. The only people that need to worry about what Julie looks like are her and me. And I have always thought she was beautiful.”

  Jack’s words melted my heart. I knew they had been married a long time, and the fact that he still felt that way about her said a lot about him. I nodded. “You’re a good man, Jack.”

  He blushed and looked away. “I wouldn’t say that, but I sure do appreciate her. God gave me a good woman in Julie.”

  “And she got a good man in you.”