“You didn’t hear anything about him? I gather he wasn’t married?”
“No. But I never heard any gossip about why not. He just wasn’t…” She shrugged. “I mean, he was kind of geeky, right? Not someone women chased after. So, if he didn’t have his eye on anyone…” She shrugged. “Lots of perfectly good guys stay single.”
“Was he involved in anything? 4H? Block Watch?”
“Not that I know of. He was a lawyer. They’re always busy.”
Erin nodded.
“I saw him with some out-of-towners last week,” Bella commented. “He must take on files from outside of Bald Eagle Falls too.”
“Really? Who did you see him with?”
“I didn’t know them. Like I said, they had to be from out of town. A man and a woman. They didn’t act like they were too happy. Maybe they got sued.”
Erin nodded slowly as she flattened cookie balls onto trays. “It might be a good idea for the police to look into who he was seeing last week.”
“I’m sure they’re already doing that,” Bella said. “They’ve got all of his electronics and his planner and everything. They’ll be talking to everyone, won’t they?”
“Yes. Of course. But they might not know that he had this fight with these out-of-towners.”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly a fight. Just… a heated discussion.”
“It just doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, Charley’s right; she didn’t have any motive to kill him. Unless someone can show that he had changed his mind about allowing the bakery to open. The one person who was negatively affected by the opening is me.”
“But you didn’t do it. So someone else must have a motive too. Maybe he screwed up on some file. Made someone lose a bunch of money.”
“Yeah. That’s a possibility.” Erin sighed. Again, something for the police to investigate. Not something that she could find out on her own. “How does it work? Do most people get a lawyer in Bald Eagle Falls? Or go to the city?”
“Probably depends how big a thing it is,” Bella said. “If it’s just like a will or selling your house, why go to someone in the city for that? But if it was something big, you might want to go to a lawyer in the city to be sure. Or if it was something really specialized.”
Erin nodded. Clementine had used a local lawyer. Angela Plaint had.
“What if a lawyer had two clients whose interests conflicted?” Erin mused. “That could happen a lot in a little town like this.”
“I don’t know. I guess they’d tell you.”
“They’d have to, wouldn’t they? They’d be in big trouble if they played clients off against each other or told confidential things about one to another.”
Bella nodded vigorously. “That would be really bad.”
“I wish I knew more. It’s making me really anxious to think that there’s someone out there trying to set me up. Somebody violent.”
One of the first customers into the store was Melissa. Erin was surprised to see Melissa and Mary Lou together. Not because they weren’t good friends, but because Melissa had been hanging out more with Charley lately, and Mary Lou had been more solitary since Roger’s arrest. Erin couldn’t understand why people were shunning Mary Lou. It wasn’t her fault that Roger had gone off the rails. She’d been the best wife and mother she could be, but she could only spread herself so thin, and she couldn’t monitor her ill husband twenty-four hours a day while trying to work to support the family and to take the boys to their various activities. She had done the best she could to get Roger the help that he needed before things had gotten so bad, but all of the professionals had said that he was fine. Erin was glad to see Mary Lou and Melissa together again.
“Morning ladies,” Erin greeted. “Good to see you.”
“I wanted to see how you were doing,” Melissa said in a long, sympathetic drawl. “It must have been so awful for you, finding Don Inglethorpe like that. Just shocking!”
Erin nodded. Melissa did some admin work at the police department, and sometimes revealed a little more than she ought to.
“It was pretty horrible,” Erin agreed. “I hope they’re making good progress in figuring out who did it.”
“Don’t like being the prime suspect in another murder?” Melissa teased.
Mary Lou gave her a reproachful look. “Melissa! Really.”
Melissa covered her mouth as if she were embarrassed, but Erin suspected she was enjoying the reaction. She loved to dramatize and be right at the heart of the action. That was, Erin was sure, the reason she liked to work for the police department. It gave her immediate access to anything exciting going on in town.
“I didn’t mean to upset you,” she told Erin. “I just meant, it’s an awful predicament you’re in, and if it was me, I’d want to solve the case and prove my innocence as soon as I could too.”
“What did you want today?” Erin asked, turning her attention to the display case. She wasn’t going to give Melissa’s attention-getting behavior any mind until the woman started giving up some information. “Cookies for the church exchange?”
“Oh, I almost forgot all about that!” Mary Lou said, her eyes getting big. She would normally have made her own batch of cookies, but it had apparently fallen off her radar. It was less than twenty-four hours before the exchange, so time was quickly running out. “Oh, dear… yes, I think I’m going to have to go with bought cookies this year. I really don’t see any way around it.” She looked at Erin. “I always make my own. I have every year. But this year…”
“You’ve had a hard time,” Erin said. “Give yourself a break. These were made fresh today. It isn’t like they’re packaged cookies from the grocery store.”
“Store-bought are perfectly acceptable,” Melissa agreed, though she had a bit of a smirk that told them both that she had already made or had plans to make her own.
“What would you like?” Erin asked Mary Lou. She helped her to pick out what she would like to take to the exchange.
When she looked up, Melissa was practically bursting, she wanted so badly to spill whatever news she had about the murder.
“And what would you like today, Melissa? Are you looking for something for breakfast? Dinner? You said you already have your cookies for the exchange tomorrow.”
“Oh,” Melissa looked impatiently over the baked goods on display in the case. “Maybe some of those cheesy pizza crusts for supper. They look awfully good. And a muffin for breakfast. Double chocolate.”
Erin wasn’t sure how Melissa could eat things like double chocolate muffins for breakfast and extra cheesy pizza for dinner and still maintain her figure.
“They’ve requested all of Don Inglethorpe’s files for the investigation,” Melissa confided, leaning closer but not actually lowering her voice.
“Have they? Do they think it was one of his clients, then? Something to do with one of his cases?”
“They’ve asked for everything, not just Trenton Plaint’s trust. I don’t think they know what it was about.”
“At least they believe it wasn’t you,” Mary Lou said.
Erin nodded. “I hope Terry knows me at least that well by now. I hate it when he gets all suspicious.”
“Well, I don’t think you need to worry about that now,” Mary Lou said in her most soothing voice. She gave Erin a smile that was just a little bit sad. Erin had her man looking out for her, but Mary Lou had lost hers. She’d lost him by degrees over the past few years, ever since he had lost an investment with Angela Plaint and tried to take his own life.
“Thanks.” Erin gave a nod, but what she really wanted was to take Mary Lou by the hand and give her a squeeze and to tell her that everything was going to work out okay. And not just because that was what Mary Lou wanted to hear. She really did want things to get better for Mary Lou, but she had no idea how it would come out in the end.
“So, they haven’t got the files yet?” Bella asked. “They’ve just asked for them?”
Melissa nodded. “Things take tim
e. It’s not all instantaneous like on TV, with warrants being granted at all hours of the night and police breaking down doors and grabbing files like it’s a home invasion. They ask, and it takes time for the law office to respond, and they want to photocopy everything before it’s out their doors, then the police have to actually go through every box and every piece of paper and decide whether it’s anything that’s helpful to their investigation or not. That’s slow, tedious work, let me tell you.” Melissa gave a little sigh, as if she had done it many a time and knew how very taxing it could be. In reality, she’d probably just transcribed a report of the police department’s search of a file, not something that was very difficult at all.
“I hope they figure it out quickly,” Erin said, “I don’t like the idea of the killer wandering around Bald Eagle Falls free.”
“It doesn’t mean anyone else is in danger,” Mary Lou put in. “There’s no hint that anyone else was an intended target. Whatever Mr. Inglethorpe got himself into, there’s no reason to think that any of the rest of us need to be concerned for our safety.”
“Except for me,” Erin said. “I was intentionally framed as his killer, so they must have something against me too.”
“Must be someone who wants to open a third bakery,” Melissa laughed. “Kill two birds—or businesses—with one stone.”
Erin thought about that, but there didn’t seem to be any merit to it. What was the benefit to anyone of closing down the two existing bakeries? Maybe it was someone who wanted to open a bakery for their own, but they must have kept their dream to themselves up until that point, because Erin hadn’t heard any rumor of anyone else who wanted to open a bakery. Not unless Bella or Vic wanted to break out on their own. Erin looked over at Bella.
“You’re not planning on starting up your own place any time soon, are you?”
Bella laughed, showing her even white teeth. “No, it’s going to be a while before I’ve got the capital to open up my own business. And when I do, I don’t know that it’s going to be a bakery. And I need to get my degree first.”
Erin shrugged at Melissa. “Nope, doesn’t look like it. Unless you have a suspect.”
“No, not me. I’ll leave that job to the guys.”
Chapter Sixteen
E
rin headed over to The Book Nook to pick up her trays from Naomi. It was hot, as always, but she took a deep breath of the warm, muggy air and sighed. It smelled like home. She might not like the heat, but on a clear summer day, she could almost see herself as a child, walking to the river with her father to paddle in the water and pick up rocks. It had been a long time ago, but it was a happy memory of her early childhood, and she didn’t have many of those.
So Erin just stood there and breathed and pictured it and felt the warm, happy feelings she’d had then. As she stood there, she saw a couple of people down the street who must have just had a fender bender. Both had stopped in the middle of the road and were getting out to inspect the damage and to talk to each other. Erin didn’t recognize the cars or either driver.
The woman was blond, maybe around Erin’s age, late twenties or early thirties. She wore a camouflage hat with her hair in a ponytail out the back, an army green t-shirt, and camouflage cargo pants with lots of pockets that made her look broader than she was.
The heavyset man wore a black t-shirt and blue jeans, a black cap turned around backward, and sunglasses which he had pushed up onto his head in order to glare at the woman who had rear-ended him. Erin couldn’t hear their words, but their body language said it all. They were both confrontational, both of them sure that they were in the right and ready to defend their opinions to the end. Neither one was ready to back down. Physical violence seemed a very real possibility.
Erin inched closer, wanting to hear what was being said. Normally, little dings in Bald Eagle Falls didn’t require any kind of police intervention. People apologized, traded insurance information, and went on with their lives. There were occasional bumps along the way, but no one was ever so confrontational.
As Erin got closer, she could see movement from the nearby shops as well. People pushing back curtains and opening windows to hear what was being said. People coming out of the stores and standing around trying to look natural, as if they were waiting for the bus or making a phone call. But all eyes and ears were on the man and woman.
Erin wasn’t sure how close she could get to them. She didn’t want them to think that she was somehow involved in the accident and bring her into the argument. Then she heard barking, and saw Terry approaching them from the other direction, K9 straining against the collar Terry was holding on to.
“Let’s take a step back and cool things off,” Terry suggested. “Everybody just take a deep breath. Looks like we just had a little accident?” He inspected the bumper of the man’s car. “It doesn’t look like there’s very much damage.”
“You should arrest her for reckless driving,” the man growled. “There are what, two stop lights in this town, and she rear-ends me? She’s a menace.”
The woman was chewing a wad of gum. At least, Erin hoped that it was gum and not tobacco. She couldn’t understand anyone chewing tobacco, but especially a woman. The blond woman was calm, her face was like a mask. She observed everything around her, completely detached emotionally. The man could rant and scream and threaten all he liked, and the woman would just keep chewing her gum and looking at him.
“Ma’am, you’re the driver of the station wagon?” Terry asked.
“Yep.”
“You were following too close.”
She shrugged. “Apparently.”
“Have the two of you exchanged insurance information?”
“She rammed me!” the man ranted. “She did it intentionally!”
“Do the two of you know each other?”
“No.” He muttered something under his breath that Erin didn’t hear, but suspected was along the lines of “thank goodness.”
“And you think that someone you don’t know would intentionally ram your car?”
“Yes! Obviously, because she did.”
“I see. And why would she do that? Was there something that happened earlier? Something that escalated?”
“No, she just came out of nowhere and rammed my car.”
“Okay. If you would come over here, sir, I’m going to ask you to fill out an accident reporting form.”
He skillfully separated the two potential fighters, herding the man to the sidewalk where he could start filling out paperwork. The woman stayed where she was, watching them, chewing her gum like a cow chewing its cud.
Once Terry got the man going on his paperwork, he returned to the woman. “I’ll need you to fill out your report as well. Anything to say? Did you ram him intentionally?”
“Why would I do that?”
Terry shrugged. “People’s stories can be pretty outlandish when they’re upset. You also need to fill out a form. Do you have your insurance papers?”
She walked over to her car with Terry and in a couple of minutes, had handed him whatever she had in the car. He copied down the information he needed and handed the papers back. He approached the man’s car.
“Insurance papers in the glove box?” he asked.
“Stay away from my car!” The man came immediately to life. “I haven’t given you permission to search!”
Terry stopped. He raised his brows. “I wasn’t going to search it, I was just asking you about your insurance papers. Would you like to get them out for me?”
“Just get back.”
Terry took a couple of steps back from the car. The man relaxed. He sat down in the driver’s seat of his car and reached for the glove box, then looked over his shoulder at Terry, hesitating.
“Maybe I overreacted about all this.”
“Maybe you did.”
“If there isn’t really any damage, maybe we could just each go our separate directions and forget about it.”
“No, at this point the police
department is involved, and I would like to see the proper paperwork filed. So, if you would get your insurance papers, please.”
“I just realized I left them at home.”
Terry continued to gaze at the glove box. “Why don’t you just check? Maybe you have an old document in there that has the policy number on it. Then we can call the agent to confirm it is still valid.”
“No, no. There’s nothing in there. I just got this car. All of my insurance papers are at home.”
“You need to provide proof of insurance.”
“I’ll call my agent, okay? He’ll confirm it to you. Fax or scan you a copy. Then we can get on our way. If you really think you need to go through with this. I think we can just chalk it up as lesson learned and be on our way.”
“Do you have proof of valid registration?”
“I have my plate and stickers.”
“But no registration papers?”
“Uh, no. Not here.”
“You sure you don’t want to check the glove box?”
“No. They’re not in there. Give me a ticket, if the plates aren’t enough.”
Erin leaned against a power pole, getting tired of standing in one place. But she didn’t want to make any movement to draw attention to herself. She kept waiting for Terry to insist on searching the car or at least seeing what was in the glove box, but it became apparent that he didn’t have enough cause to insist on it.
“If you’ll finish your statement and track down a copy of your insurance for me then, please. I’ll take a look at your driver’s license while you’re doing that.”
The man sighed and pulled his wallet out of the back pocket of his pants. He slid out his driver’s license and handed it to Terry, then went back to writing out his witness statement.
The woman was writing her statement and had given no sign that she was listening to the rest of the conversation going on between Terry and the male driver. But when neither of them was talking, she looked up, scanning the area. She met Erin’s eyes, then looked away again, deciding Erin wasn’t anyone important. She continued to chew.
Sour Cherry Turnover Page 8
