by Cat Chandler
Nicki walked over to the long counter and set her purse down. She smiled at Jake when he came through the double doors. “How did the diner get off the delivery schedules?”
“I guess they got a call from Gordon, since he pays the bills.”
Matt frowned. “That was fast for a guy who hasn’t shown up here since his client was murdered.”
Jake winced and hunched his shoulders. “Didn’t surprise me any. Eddie always said Gordon was the most organized person he knew. And like you said, he hasn’t been around, so he didn’t know we were planning to reopen.” He looked past Matt and nodded. “Well, I guess he can hear all about it now. He just pulled up.”
Nicki turned around and walked closer to the front window as Gordon Twill exited his small, very practical compact car. Short and lean, the bookkeeper had jet black hair and narrow shoulders. He carefully locked his car before walking toward the front door, carrying a thick book that Nicki thought was an old-school day planner. She stepped back quickly to stand next to Matt, who grinned at her.
“Nothing like grilled meat for breakfast.”
She shook her head at Jake’s snort of laughter and pressed a quick elbow into Matt’s side. “Remember what Maxie told you and behave.”
“No promises,” Matt whispered back just as the door opened and Gordon Twill stepped inside.
The short man, dressed in a pair of khaki pants that had clearly been pressed, and a neat tan shirt with a collar, stopped short at the sight of three people staring at him.
He rubbed his free hand against the side of his pant leg before politely inclining his head at Nicki. “Ms. Connors?”
Nicki stepped forward, her hand out in the traditional greeting of an offered handshake. “Mr. Twill. And please call me Nicki.”
“Gordon,” came the automatic response as the bookkeeper's gaze jumped to Matt.
“This is Matt Dillon. He’s the editor of an on-line magazine and a good friend.”
Matt stepped forward and held out his hand. “A very good friend.”
As Gordon reluctantly shook hands, Nicki made a mental note to talk to Matt about sounding as if he were her protector. She appreciated his concern, but she didn’t need one, and was getting a little exasperated that he clearly thought she did.
Deciding to take charge of the interview before Gordon flew off in fear from Matt’s unblinking stare, she pointed to the nearest table. “Shall we sit and be comfortable while we talk?” She smiled at Matt. “Maybe Jake could show you how to make coffee in the machine over on the counter?”
Her editor rolled his eyes at her blatant hint for a little privacy with the bookkeeper, but nodded anyway. “What do you take in your coffee, Gordon?”
“Just a teaspoon of sugar and a dollop of cream. Thank you.”
“Sure.”
Matt strolled off and Nicki could almost hear him asking himself what in the world a “dollop” was.
Deciding to start with her newest piece of information, Nicki gave Gordon a friendly smile. “I’m glad to finally meet you, Gordon. Maxie told me you’ve been Eddie Parker’s bookkeeper since he opened his diner.”
The slightly built man sat ramrod straight in his seat across the table from her. “That’s right. Jake and I both have been with the diner from the very start.”
Thinking all that was missing to complete the picture Gordon Twill made with his rigid posture and straight-ahead-stare, was the glare from a low-hanging overhead light and a pair of handcuffs, Nicki tried to keep her voice and smile as casual as she could manage.
“Speaking of Jake, he just told us you’d canceled the scheduled deliveries from the vendors?”
Gordon nodded. “That’s right. No use in getting more food that will never be used. Those expenses can add up very fast, and there won’t be any more money coming in. Until the assets are sold, of course.”
“Of course,” Nicki agreed. The bookkeeper wasn’t acting too upset over his longtime client’s demise.
“Well, it may have been a little premature since we’re opening the diner again.”
Gordon’s head jerked back. “Who made that decision?”
“Maxie did, for the most part. But quite a few of her friends are helping out. And Jake says the whole staff will be back too.”
“The whole staff? Including Roberta?”
Nicki tilted her head to one side. “You sound surprised?”
He cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair. “Well… that is, I would have thought as his girlfriend and his longtime employee, she’d be too upset to return to work this soon.”
As his longtime bookkeeper and someone who’s known Eddie most of his life, I would have said the same about you, Nicki thought, but she kept that to herself.
The bookkeeper cleared his throat again and glanced around the room. “There are other problems with keeping the diner open.” At Nicki’s questioning look, he slanted his head toward the kitchen. “Only Eddie knew what went into that hamburger mix of his that made it so special.”
“Nicki’s managed to duplicate it,” Matt said, setting a cup of coffee in front of Gordon. He didn’t stay around for a response but headed back to the counter while Gordon stared into the black cup of coffee in front of him.
“You duplicated the mix?” he repeated slowly.
“Yes, I did. Or at least close to it.” Nicki smiled. “It’s difficult to exactly match something that good. Eddie certainly made an exceptional hamburger.”
Gordon ignored her and looked around the room again. “It isn’t just the hamburger mixture, but it’s also the inspections.”
“What inspections?”
He was back to sitting on the edge of his chair with his back stiff and his chin tilted upward. “The fire inspection is in a couple of days, and Eddie’s the only one who’s ever done that walk-through with the county inspector. There’s also a health department and a building inspection. They aren’t due for several months, but given what happened here, I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t an unscheduled visit from either one very soon.” His head bobbed up and down. “I mean, there was a dead body in the freezer.”
“I emptied the freezer and scrubbed every inch of it,” Jake called out from the seat he’d taken at the counter. “I called the county health inspector and asked him what I should do, and then did exactly what he said.”
Matt was back at their table and carrying a bowl of sugar and a basket filled with small plastic cups of creamer. “I wasn’t sure what a dollop was.” He set them both in front of the bookkeeper before retreating again to take a seat next to Jake at the counter.
“I’m sure it will be fine,” Nicki said before abruptly switching gears. “Roberta told us that you were here at the dinner the day Eddie was killed.”
She pretended not to notice that Gordon’s hand resting on the table jerked in response.
“Roberta said that?”
Nodding, Nicki kept her gaze on his face. “Was she wrong?”
“No. No. I was here.” He sighed and ran a hand through his neatly combed hair and then immediately patted it back into place. “The chief already asked me all about that.”
“Oh, good.” Nicki added additional wattage to her smile and leaned slightly forward. “Then it shouldn’t be any trouble to tell me what you told the chief.”
“Why should I do that?”
She smiled. “Because the chief said I was a consultant on this case.” She reached for her cell phone and held it up. “I can call the chief and you can talk to him about it, if you’d like?”
Gordon stared at her hand as if she was holding a deadly snake rather than a phone. “No. No. I’m sure it’s fine.” He picked up a cup of the creamer and peeled back the lid. “What was your question?”
Nicki had been certain the bookkeeper wouldn’t like talking to the chief. She set her phone on the table and folded her hands in front of her. “You were at the diner the day your client was killed?”
“Just for a short while. I stopp
ed by in the early afternoon to drop off a few checks for Eddie to sign.” He peered down his nose at Nicki. “I believe one of them was for that friend of yours? To do the completely unnecessary website for the diner.”
“I’ll let Jenna know she can expect a check soon,” Nicki said, sidestepping his comment about the website. She didn’t want to get into a debate with the man. “Did you stay and have a hamburger?”
“No.” Gordon looked horrified. “I don’t eat that way. I was only here fifteen minutes or so. I had an engagement that evening.”
She nodded her understanding. “Running your own business does call for a lot of late hours, doesn’t it?”
He cleared his throat, which seemed to be an odd habit of his. “Yes, it can. But as it happens, my engagement that evening was social, not professional.”
“You had a date?”
His back stiffened even more. “It is the common way for single people to interact with each other, and yes, I had a date. We had dinner at Mario’s. I arrived back at my house around ten p.m. Is that a thorough enough explanation for you?”
Not put off in the least by Gordon’s stiffly delivered response, Nicki filed the information away and moved on. “Did you know Eddie had an appointment that evening?”
“No. Since it obviously didn’t involve me, why should I?”
“Did you have any other appointments with Eddie?”
Gordon made a show of opening the book he’d brought with him. Even from across the table Nicki could see it was indeed a day planner. She could also see that most of the pages Gordon flipped through were empty.
“No,” the bookkeeper finally said. “No other appointments.” He carefully closed the book and looked up. “But then we rarely made appointments. I had a standing meeting with Eddie once a month, to go over his accounts. Other than that, I usually stopped by for a few minutes whenever I had something which needed his signature.”
“Like the checks?”
“Yes. Like the checks.”
Nicki thought it over for a moment. “Did you pay all of Eddie’s bills?”
“Yes. I paid the bills, kept track of the expenses, prepared the paperwork for his taxes,” Gordon said. “The standard duties for a bookkeeper.”
“His personal bills and taxes too?”
“Yes, those too. And there was nothing unusual about any of it, Ms. Connors. No large expenses, no unexplained income or payments. Nothing out of the ordinary at all. Not for this year, or last year, or the year before that. And I won’t divulge anything else about his personal finances.”
Hoping to catch him by surprise, she jumped to another topic. “Do you know who will inherit the diner?”
Gordon frowned. “His nephew, I guess. But Eddie told me that a long time ago.” He took a sip of his coffee then set the cup down and reached for the sugar bowl. “I’m not the executor, which wouldn’t be proper since I would be paying the bills and probably much of the final settlements. And I’ve never actually seen a copy of his will. I told the chief that I thought he must have kept it in his safe in the office, or maybe somewhere in his apartment. He never told me where it was. All I know is that he mentioned his nephew, although I’ve certainly never met the man. And I have no idea whether or not Eddie’d even seen him in the last decade or two.”
“Did you know that Eddie collected stamps?” Nicki asked, trying for another dramatic switch in topics.
“Yes. You couldn’t be around him for more than an hour without him telling you all about it. And I know he had a valuable stamp of some sort.” He started to rise. “If there’s nothing else?”
“That valuable stamp is missing, “Nicki said quietly, sticking to referring to the sheet as a single stamp, the way Gordon had.
“You’re jumping to conclusions,” the bookkeeper said. He was now standing next to the table, his appointment book clutched to his chest. “The chief told me it hadn’t yet been found in the apartment. But from what Roberta said, the place was a complete mess. So it may turn up soon.”
Nicki stood as well. “One more question, Gordon.” She smiled when he hesitated before nodding at her. “Did you know about Eddie’s wine cellar?”
“You mean his basement with wine racks around the walls?” Gordon lifted his thin shoulders up and down. “I know that’s why he bought this building. He wanted a basement where he could store wine. I was also down there once.” He shuddered slightly. “It was dark and very dusty. Now, I really do have other business I need to see to.”
She held out her hand again. “Thank you for your time, Gordon. I’m sorry we met under such horrible circumstances.”
Gordon slowly reached out and gave her hand one quick shake. “Yes. Well. Be sure to tell Ms. Lindstrom that I’ll have her check in the mail in just a few days. I know the two of you are friends.”
Matt walked over to stand by Nicki as the bookkeeper made his way out the door.
“Eddie’s bookkeeper has a couple of serious issues.”
Nicki tipped her head back and looked up at him. “Most numbers guys aren’t very good with people.” She grinned. “Kind of like engineers.”
“Former engineer. And there’s always an exception. No, I was talking about him having the hots for Roberta.”
Startled, Nicki had a sudden coughing fit. “Why do you say that?”
Matt shrugged. “Just going by the look on his face when you mentioned her name.” He rubbed the side of his jaw. “Didn’t the murder board say Roberta left work early that day because she had a date?”
Nicki certainly hadn’t connected those dots, but she could see how the very logical, ex-engineer Matt would. “That would be simple enough to check. How do you feel about having lunch at Mario’s?”
He glanced at his watch. “It’s a little early, but I could eat something.”
“I meant after we paid a visit to Sam. His shop should be open by now. Maxie said he opens at eleven.”
“Nice hours if you can get them,” Matt said. “Okay, Sherlock, let’s go.”
Nicki turned and waved at Jake. “We have another stop to make. Will you be okay here by yourself?”
“I’ve been here by myself a lot of times, so don’t you worry. Mrs. Suzanne is going to be by soon, and we’re going to go over her checklist to be sure everything is ready to open the doors for business again.”
Nicki smiled at his enthusiasm. It was clear that Jake cared a lot about the diner. “Call me if you need anything at all.”
Jake nodded and waved them out the door. Matt also raised his hand in farewell before following Nicki outside. She was standing still, with her face turned up to the sunshine.
“It feels good.” She glanced over only to find his intense stare on her face. “What? Is something wrong?”
He shook his head. “Not a thing.”
Chapter Sixty-Five
Less than ten minutes later Matt maneuvered the SUV into a parking spot along the main square. He rested his hands on the wheel and turned sideways to look at his passenger.
“You’re quiet.”
“Just thinking about what to ask Sam.”
“Uh huh. You got quite a bit out of Gordon Twill.”
Nicki pursed her lips together. “What did you mean when you said Gordon had a couple of social issues? You mentioned his crush on Roberta. What was the other one?”
“I don’t think he could tell a lie if he was tortured into it.” At Nicki’s exasperated look, Matt shrugged. “A guy should know that he can tell a little white lie when it’s necessary. But Gordon didn’t seem to get that gene.”
She had to agree. The bookkeeper could definitely use a lesson or two on how to be friendly, but he didn’t strike Nicki as a liar. She wondered what Chief Turnlow thought about the interview he’d conducted with the man. She’d have to remember to ask him.
“Now I want to know something. Where did you learn to bluff like that?”
Matt’s question brought Nicki right out of her own thoughts. “Bluff? What bluff?”
He laughed. “When you told Gordon that the chief had made you a consultant on this case. That bluff.”
Nicki lifted her nose up a little higher and gave a loud sniff. “I didn’t lie, Mr. Dillon. The chief did say that. When he and I were walking through Eddie’s apartment.” She gave up the pretense of being offended and grinned. “He really did. You can call and ask him if you don’t believe me.”
“Oh, I believe you, Connors.” He opened the car door and put one foot on the ground. “You don’t lie very well either.”
“And I suppose you do?” Nicki hopped out of her side of the car and threw the question over the roof of the SUV.
Matt didn’t say a word as he walked around the car and grabbed her hand to tuck it into the crook of his arm. “That will keep you from jabbing me with one of your fingernails. And to answer your question, yeah. I’m sure I’m a much better liar than you are. But…” he hastily added when her free hand came up and she pointed a slender finger with a well-manicured nail at his chest. “I’ve never seen the point to it, so I don’t bother.”
Nicki lowered her hand. “Good answer, Mr. Dillon.”
“Thank you. Now which way is this gift shop that Sam owns?”
“Around the corner and off one of the shop alleyways.” Nicki and Matt walked companionably side by side. “I’ve been in Tasteful & Tacky several times. It’s a wonderfully cute shop.”
“So is that name.” Matt’s dry tone had Nicki laughing.
It only took two minutes to reach the shop, tucked into the bend of one of the fashionable “alleys” that ran off of the town square. Its most notable features were a snow-white awning and a door painted in a vivid eye-catching orange. A bell over the entrance tinkled softly when they entered the shop that was lined with shelves featuring unique and whimsical table toppers, along with small display items to meet every decorating taste. Sam looked up and smiled from his seat behind a wide counter that spanned the entire back of the shop.
