by Misty Simon
“Yes,” he whispered.
“And Jenna was tired of being snubbed and not getting her due because Ronda had wanted you to marry someone better. In fact, she had thought you’d marry Chrissy and you’d all be one big family. She liked you that much. But then Chrissy thwarted her plan and you married Jenna within months. Jenna, who always felt second-best. Jenna, who can be supernice as long as she’s getting what she wants, but watch out if she is crossed.”
“Yes.”
“That’s enough, Tallie,” Burton said. He stood next to Nathan and put a hand on his shoulder. “Son, I’m going to have to take you in for questioning, but we’ll get this sorted out. As far as things go, you’re not in too much trouble, but I’m going to need you to be honest with us. First, though, I need you to tell me where your wife is.”
“She’s downstairs in the car, waiting for me to come out with all the money she saw in the floor one time when she was visiting me for lunch. She wanted everything. And when Hoagie had to tell us that the store was being given to a relative, he promised things would work out okay. He said he’d make sure I was paid handsomely, if he had to make up the difference himself. I told him it wasn’t necessary, that I was willing to work for an honest wage, but Jenna wasn’t having any of it. She told me that she’d hit Ronda with the can that night because the woman had told her she hated her. That when she saw Jenna keying her car, Ronda yelled at her to jump off a bridge and make my life easier for one minute. Jenna grabbed a can of varnish from out of the back seat of the car and hit her hard in the head.”
“And when you found out, you told Hoagie, who had already made plans to disappear because he didn’t want his sister-in-law to find them,” Burton offered. “And he knew just where to find a body that could double as his in a fire that investigators would think the firebug set. And because Ronda was killed before the will could be changed, the store would still be yours outright.”
“Yes.”
Bingo.
* * *
“Did you really know or were you guessing?” Burton asked as I sat across from him in his office. Hoagie was seated in the chair next to me and Nathan was down the hall in a room with Jenna for the time being. He’d been given a chance to convince her to tell the truth. I didn’t think she’d actually take it, but I was very thankful that Burton had given it to him.
“The pieces were all there. She was angry that night at bingo and she kept dropping hints that she would be in the midst of a life change coming up soon and wouldn’t need my job anymore. Hoagie was the kind of person who would do anything he could to protect his children—he said so himself—and Nathan was just like one of his.”
“She’s right,” Hoagie said. “I didn’t want to get into all of this, but I knew if Jenna went to jail for murder, Nathan was going to be hurt, and I just couldn’t see doing that to him, not if there was an easy fix. I knew how to vanish, and I thought I might be able to do it again and save everyone the trouble of finding out what had really happened.”
“So what will you do now?” Burton twirled his pen around his fingers like a baton majorette.
“Well, with the body back at the right funeral home and my wife gone, I guess I could start again anywhere.” He shrugged. “I liked it here, but maybe it’s time for me to go.”
“Or you could tell your children that you’re not really dead and live the rest of your life with them and helping out Nathan. He really seemed lost without you when he was running the store alone. It’s possible that without Jenna around to demand things, he’d be happy to stay in the status quo.”
Getting up to pace, Hoagie did two turns around the room. “I did have an offer from a big box store that I could entertain. I’d give the kids their inheritance and Nathan and I could start a woodworking shop. The boy is a whiz with furniture, and without the noose of the store, we’d be able to do whatever we wanted. No one knows about all that cash except you guys, and the kids would think they’d gotten so much more because they’d expected to get nothing at all.”
“I like it.” I grabbed his hand. “And I’ll put in the first order for a new chest of drawers for my walk-in closet.”
Hoagie laughed, then Burton walked him out to the front.
I took a pen from Burton’s cup on his desk and tried to get it to flip end over end on my fingers, but I was too clumsy.
“It takes practice,” he said when I groaned and threw the thing back into the cup.
“Yeah, well, that’s not a priority right now. I’m just happy the killer is caught and going to jail.”
“Now, if you could just hand me the arsonist on a platter to ring in the New Year, I’d be a happy man.”
I touched the side of my nose. “I’m working on something even as we speak.”
* * *
I knew I wasn’t actually working on anything, but I did have an idea. When I got home, I went back through the paperwork Sherman had given me and then called Hoagie. “You have a minute? I’d like to see if you can get me some prices.”
“Sure, come on over. And anything you want is free at this point. I can’t thank you enough.”
“I have to make a stop first, but I’ll be there soon.”
I said goodbye to Max and hustled out the door and down the street. I had a theory, and this one was sounder than the last was. All I had to do was figure out if it was actually true. I was pretty sure I knew who the arsonist was. The kid in the hoodie. Was I sure Zeke was the culprit, and could I prove it?
“Here are those cookies I promised you.” I handed over the plate of snickerdoodles with a flourish when Hal Burton came into the foyer of the retirement home on Keller.
“But my son called to say he was bringing them by this evening.”
“Oh, did he?” I smiled cheekily. “I guess I forgot.”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “I’m sure you did.”
“Oh, yes, that’s me, so forgetful. I hope he’ll deliver them with a smile on his face.”
“Well,” he said gruffly. “Maybe not a smile, but he did hang up chuckling when I told him about trying to get one over on you.”
I could let that pass. The orderly from my first visit came by with a glass of water and avoided all eye contact with me. But I smelled the strong odor of paint thinner again and recognized him from Bertie’s cleanup crew this time. He was the one who’d given me the sullen look. Things were clicking into place. And now that I looked harder at him, he was also the one I’d had a brief glance at as he walked quickly from the Clemenses’ house with his earbuds in and his hoodie on, as if just out for a stroll.
My blood began to sing, but I tried as hard as I could to be calm and cool. “So, do you want to do a little sleuthing for me? Now that you almost got one over on me, how about we get one over on your son? He’ll be floored.”
Hal’s chuckle had a maniacal edge, and I hoped I hadn’t made the wrong decision by letting him in on my mission.
He led me up the stairs to the live-in quarters for the staff and then guarded the door while I stepped into the orderly’s room. Under his bed, I found nothing, and in the closet, nothing again. He had to keep his supply somewhere. If he’d bought a can from Hoagie every single time he used one, Hoagie would have noticed, or at least made a note of it.
So where did he keep it, and how did he get it?
I went back out of the hallway shaking my head, then glanced out the window and noticed the kid walking to the back shed, looking all around him as if making sure he wasn’t being watched.
He opened the old, warped wooden door and stared inside before stepping in quickly and pulling the door shut. Because the latch was on the outside he couldn’t close it all the way or he would risk locking himself in.
And that was precisely what I was hoping for. I watched in fascination as the ruddy glow of a lit cigarette lighter peeked out through the crack in the door.
I called Burton, let him give me his usual greeting and then told him to come on over to the retirement home to pi
ck up his arsonist in the act.
He was there in a flash. I guess I had forgotten to tell him that the arsonist wasn’t actually setting the place on fire, only flicking his lighter, and his father was in no danger. Whoops.
Oh well; everything was fine in the end. And when I went to check on Hoagie making up with his family, they were laughing for the first time in a long time.
Walking back to my penthouse above the dead, I looked forward to spending time with Max in the last few hours before they dropped the wrench downtown. Sherman would pull out his biggest fire truck and the town would hook up the eight-foot wrench. As the final countdown of the year began, they’d slowly winch down the wrench.
Hey, at least we didn’t live in the next town over, where they dropped a pickle. Or the one across the river, where they dropped a bologna. Nope, we just had a wrench, and when it hit the ground, I’d kiss Max and start a whole new year with a bunch of changes in store. But between the two of us, we’d manage it.
And you know how I knew?
Max flipped the light on upstairs and waved at me from the bay window. Mr. Fleefers was on one side, bathing himself, and Peanut had her paws up on the windowsill. I could hear her barking from across the street, the big rascal.
I laughed and laughed. Right there was my world and I knew it.
Don’t miss a single adventure in the
Tallie Graver Mystery series:
CREMAINS OF THE DAY
GROUNDS FOR REMORSE
DECEASED AND DESIST
CARPET DIEM
Available now from
Misty Simon
and Kensington Books
wherever books are sold.
