Vintage Teaberry Malice

by R A Wallace

  When he’d finally gotten the results, Jerry sat back in his seat. He used a small office that had probably once been a closet of some sort to do his computer work. The room was small, but completely isolated, and it gave Jerry the silence he needed to concentrate whenever he was working on anything related to information technology.

  Jerry rubbed at his eyes. They now had a match. Oddly, the name wasn’t Alex Milner. It was Alex Durant. He picked up the paper that had spit out on his printer with everything he’d discovered and headed into the main office area.

  Erica was working at her desk but looked up when Jerry entered. He nodded, indicating that he had what they needed. He handed the print out to Erica, figuring it would take less time for her to read it than it would for him to explain it.

  Erica got to the bottom of the page and looked up at Jerry quizzically. “So that’s why we couldn’t find him in the system? His name isn’t Milner?”

  Jerry perched on the edge of a nearby desk. “Makes you wonder why he’d lie about that to the office?”

  Erica spun a pen around in one hand while rubbing her belly with the other and considered it. One of the twins was going to be either a kicker in football or a soccer player. “Maybe he figured being a Milner pulled more weight?”

  Jerry looked at Erica with raised brows.

  “Think about it. She didn’t have children. Is he technically family if he’s just somewhere in her husband’s tree?” Erica asked.

  “Yeah, I think he is. Family is family,” Jerry said slowly.

  That’s how he’d view it. But what about the courts? He was thinking about a recent case where the victim scammed women into falling in love with him, so he could get their property. That scammer had spent a lot of time studying inheritance laws before he’d targeted one of the Swindell twins.

  “Maybe a judge wouldn’t agree with that though if it came to money?” Erica asked.

  “Technically, her will would determine where any money actually goes. But if she didn’t have one…” Jerry shrugged. “That’s for lawyers and judges to figure out. We have enough to pull him in.”

  Erica nodded but didn’t move. “Let’s do it.”

  Jerry stood and held out his hands, then pulled Erica from her chair. “Do you think she knew his real name?” Jerry asked, referring to Alice Durant.

  Erica shrugged. “Hopefully. Otherwise, he was lying to her too. We’ll find out soon.”

  ***

  The young man sitting in the small room didn’t know what to do with his hands. He put them out in front of him on the metal table and clasped them together, but they were shaking. Then he took them off the table and hid them under his legs. His legs were bouncing nervously though, so putting his hands under them didn’t help anything. He then set them on top of his legs and tried wiping the perspiration from his palms.

  Erica and Jerry watched him carefully from the other side of the mirror. He was a slight young man who wore his fine, dark blond hair a little on the long side. The wispy hairs on his upper lip were more wishful thinking than mustache. He hadn’t put up much of a fight when they’d found him at his home address. He’d denied all knowledge of anything before they’d even explained why they were there.

  On the way to the police station, he’d admitted that he knew of Alice Durant. Fifteen minutes into their questioning, he’d agreed that he was there and that something bad had happened, but that it hadn’t been his fault. That was when he’d lawyered up. Erica and Jerry had been waiting for the court appointed lawyer to show ever since. They weren’t surprised when they heard a tap on their door informing them that she had.

  Jerry and Erica went out to the main office to complete the paperwork they could while they waited for the lawyer to speak to Alex Durant. It didn’t take long for the lawyer to ask for them to return. Jerry and Erica took a seat at the metal table across from Alex and his lawyer, Sandy McCutchen. She was a no-nonsense woman in her late thirties.

  “My client would like to know what’s on the table,” Sandy said.

  Erica looked over at Jerry. Was it really going to be this easy?

  Jerry shrugged.

  ***

  Erica and Jerry returned to the retirement community later in the day. They’d promised Gina that they would follow up with her on what they’d found. She was working in the office when they got there. After explaining what they could, they watched Gina shake her head with sadness.

  “What I don’t understand is why he thought he could convince her to give him money,” Erica said.

  “It’s pretty common, actually. We’ve even had classes here about it, to try to help the residents understand the prevalence of these kind of scams. I mean, it sounds like this guy was actually related to her, but many aren’t,” Gina said.

  “This happens often here?” Erica asked.

  Gina shrugged. “It happens everywhere with the elderly. It’s not uncommon for scammers to call and pretend that they’re your grandchildren and they need money.”

  Jerry nodded. He was familiar with a lot of those kind of scams. “In this case, he actually was in the family tree but didn’t know himself until this past year. He found an old family bible that showed one Alice Milner had married into the Durant family. Alex was a cousin of Mr. Durant many times removed. He used the Internet to track her down and was thrilled to discover that she was living nearby.”

  “Why did he kill her then if he wanted to get money from her?” Gina asked.

  “He claims he didn’t mean to. He’d been here a few times trying to act like a loving member of the family who was temporarily down on his luck so that he could convince her to give him money. He said that Alice was just so stubborn and mean toward him. He snapped and killed her, but then wondered if maybe he would inherit anyway. He believes that he’s the only family she has in the area.”

  Gina shook her head. “Alice had a will. She left everything to the retirement community.”

  Erica and Jerry left the office and walked back to their car.

  “Sounds like this one is all wrapped up,” Jerry said.

  “And in record time,” Erica agreed. “Wish they were all this easy.”

  Chapter Eight

  The patina on the old copper kettle was amazing, Daryl thought as he held it up and turned it around. He could tell that it was hand hammered. He was certain this item wouldn’t last long before someone snapped it up. He twisted his body to move farther into the row of items. The store was beyond full at this point. People from the community had been dropping off items hoping that Vintage Teaberry would handle the transaction for them on the weekend of the community sale. Although those residents of Teaberry were supportive of the community sale and wanted to participate, either their schedules or their living circumstances didn’t allow them to run their own sale at home.

  Daryl lifted another item and examined it closely. It never ceased to amaze him what treasures from the past were hidden away, waiting to be rediscovered at some future time. He heard Leah working her way through another aisle of items. They had set up temporary shelving units inside their shop. Those shelves were now crammed full and Daryl knew there were still items in the back of the store waiting to be displayed. Many of those items would be placed on tables out on the sidewalk in front of the shop on the days of the sale.

  Leah was amazed at Daryl’s solution for displaying some of the quilts. In addition to hanging them in strategic folds all along the walls of the shop, he had also lofted some of them. They were now artistically suspended from the ceiling in some places. She was reaching for another box to set the contents out for display when she heard the bells ring indicating that someone had entered the store.

  “Daryl? Can you get out of wherever you are?” Leah asked. She wasn’t certain she could move from where she was very quickly. She might cause some sort of domino effect and knock everything down around her.

  “I think so,” came the muffled reply. Daryl emerged a few moments later to find a beautiful blonde in
her sixties and one of Daryl’s favorite customers.

  “Caro! I was just thinking of you.” Daryl had been impressed with Caro the first time he’d met her.

  She had transported her furnishings from her former home to a small Country French style rental home in Teaberry and didn’t technically need any additional furnishings. However, she’d told Daryl that antiquing was one of her first loves and she often stopped in to see their new acquisitions.

  Daryl held up a finger signaling to Caro to wait, then he bravely pressed his way back into the aisle he had just vacated. He found the items he had been examining and carried them back out to Caro.

  “Oh, my. Those are lovely,” Caro murmured as she pictured them in her dining room. “The color of the pattern is perfect.”

  “I thought you’d like them.” Daryl continued his examination of the sconces now that he had them out in better lighting. “I’m not finding any issues with them.”

  “Well, I don’t know if I should be happy that I found something immediately upon entering the store or sad that it means I don’t have to spend hours looking for them,” Caro said with a smile.

  “Never fear, you can always stay and look around. I’ll get these ready for you to take with you,” Daryl said as he went in the direction of the cash register. “Leah is here if you have any questions while I’m gone.”

  “Hello, Caro,” Leah said from the other side of a high row of shelves crammed with items.

  Caro returned the greeting. “I’ll bet you’re going to be happy when the community sale is over and you get your shop space back.”

  Leah popped out of the end of an aisle. “In a way, yes. But it has been a lot of fun looking at everything. I feel like we’re in our own little world here, completely surrounded by antiques.”

  Caro began browsing and was quickly immersed in her own little world. She paused long enough to greet the twins, Jill and Janice Swindell, from Tea & Thyme when they arrived.

  “Oh, you weren’t kidding,” Jill said to her sister.

  “I don’t know how they’re going to squeeze one more thing in here,” Janice said as she looked around.

  “Hello, you two,” Leah said as she came out from another aisle. “What can I help you with?”

  Leah knew that the twins already had two housefuls of their own antiques. In addition to all of the family heirlooms passed down and currently residing at their own family farm, Jill had recently married Cy Douglass, who had his own family farm. The three of them were now living at the Swindell farm and had yet to make a decision about Cy’s.

  “We were thinking we could help you actually,” Jill said.

  Janice nodded in agreement. “We don’t have much room in our shop, but we can take a few things anyway and display them at our place for you.”

  “To help free up some space in here,” Jill explained.

  “Oh, that would be lovely,” Leah said as she quickly ran some ideas through her head. “Let me go touch base with Daryl and we’ll see what we can do. Be right back.”

  Jill and Janice began looking around the shop as they waited. Vintage Teaberry was twice as large as Tea & Thyme in terms of physical space. The Sprouse’s actually rented the equivalent of two shop spaces. Jill saw something that caught her eye and motioned to Janice to check it out. Hearing the bells ring on the door, both women turned to watch a man enter the shop.

  Based on the look on his face, Jill assumed that he didn’t like what he saw. He began examining the items in the shop as he worked his way closer to the twins. Once he reached them, he made several comments under his breath that neither woman could make out. Finally, he pointed at something and turned to them, his upper lip curled in distaste.

  “The prices here are much too high. I would never pay this much for this item,” he said.

  Jill looked over at her twin. Janice lifted an eyebrow in response. Both women nodded politely and continued browsing. Caro rounded a corner and joined them for a moment.

  “Having a community sale is a wonderful idea, don’t you think?” Caro said with a smile.

  “I’m excited to see how many visitors it brings into the town,” Jill agreed.

  “What sale is that?” the man asked them.

  ***

  Leah helped Daryl wrap Caro’s new sconces as she explained the twin’s offer of space.

  “That’s a great idea,” Daryl said. “I wonder if some of the other shops would agree to us using some of their space to display antiques also. We could still handle the sales so we aren’t burdening them with more work, but it would still allow us to show off some of the things our town has to offer.”

  Daryl decided to make a few phone calls after the two of them discussed which items would work best for the idea. Leah left Daryl already dialing his phone to return to the others. Just as she reached them, she heard the bells on the door and turned to see a man with a long section of hair flapping in the breeze as he walked out the door.

  Leah turned to the other women. “What did he want?”

  The three women exchanged glances.

  “Do you know him?” Jill asked hesitantly.

  Leah narrowed her eyes. “Unfortunately, yes.”

  “He was advising us against buying any of the items you have for sale,” Janice said.

  “He told us that your prices were too high and the quality of what you had was questionable,” Jill said.

  “Among other things,” Janice added with a grim look. “We don’t know enough about your field to contradict him knowledgeably.”

  “But Caro does, and she gave him an earful,” Jill said with a grin.

  “I merely tried to educate him on the error of his thinking,” Caro said politely.

  Chapter Nine

  On the drive home from work Tuesday, Jessilyn’s head was still buzzing. Her day had been spent coordinating the community sale. Keeping track of all of the details would have been difficult enough, but Jessilyn also had to ensure that every home that chose to participate had completed an application. She shook her head as she considered how much more difficult that would have been without Megan’s help. Megan had suggested using a form on the town web site and having residents complete it online. That way, everything was automatically entered into the database and Jessilyn could pull the data she needed from it.

  After changing her clothes, she went next door to get Evan from her neighbor’s house. Cindy Freeman was a teacher at the elementary school. She brought both her son, Logan, and Evan home from school and then watched Evan until Jessilyn got home. Jessilyn let herself though the gate in their shared fence and entered the Freeman’s backyard.

  Usually, the two boys were outside playing until Jessilyn got home. It was common for Jessilyn to hear laughter and the typical sounds of six year old boys having fun. Today, that was not the case. What she did hear sounded more like arguing. Jessilyn found Evan with his back turned toward Logan.

  Evan’s arms were folded in front of him. His shoulders were up in what Jessilyn recognized as a mutinous gesture. She walked around to face her son. His face also looked mutinous. She could see where tears had run down his face which now sported red splotches on each cheek.

  “Evan, what’s wrong?” Jessilyn asked as she crouched down to check him out. Maybe he’d gotten hurt?

  In lieu of an answer, Evan bolted out of the yard toward their own house. Jessilyn looked at Logan in surprise.

  “What happened?” Jessilyn asked Logan.

  Logan shrugged. “Some of the big boys were picking on him in school. I gotta go. Bye.”

  Jessilyn watched Logan run into his own house. She wanted to speak with Cindy but didn’t want to leave Evan alone while she did so. Wondering exactly what had happened, she followed her son to her own house to ask him. She found Evan in his room. He was sitting on his bed and had a sullen look on his face.

  “Evan, tell Mommy what happened in school today.” Jessilyn kept her voice soft and she sat down on the bed next to him.

  His ar
ms came back up to cross his body, but he didn’t respond.

  “Did someone say something to you?” Jessilyn asked.

  Evan shook his head strenuously but still refused to speak. Jessilyn sighed. She needed to get dinner on the table.

  “I’m going to work on dinner. Remember to wash up before you come in to eat.” Jessilyn left Evan alone, hoping that she would have better luck getting him to speak at dinnertime.

  She went to the kitchen and began pulling things from the fridge. She’d planned on grilling something for dinner and already had made the side dishes last night. It was just a matter of grilling the meat. They would eat outside on their nice, new deck that Seth had recently finished for them.

  She was still pulling the cold foods from the fridge and getting out plates and silverware when she heard Seth come into the house. He found her in the kitchen and walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her as she stood at the counter working.

  “How was your day,” Seth asked as he nuzzled her neck.

  “I’m not sure. I thought it was bad until I got home and found out Evan’s was worse,” Jessilyn said with a frown.

  Seth pulled away from Jessilyn and she turned around to face him.

  “Evan had a bad day at school?” Seth asked. “How bad could first grade be?”

  “I don’t know.” Jessilyn tried not to show that she was upset. She failed.

  “Hey, hey,” Seth said as he pulled her toward him. “What could have happened? What did he say?”

  Jessilyn shook her head against Seth’s chest. “He won’t tell me. Logan said some big kids were picking on him.”

  Seth held Jessilyn at arm’s length and looked at her. “Seriously? How does that happen?”