Teaberry for Two

by R A Wallace

  In many cases, the people in the pictures were looking away from her. She hadn’t gotten their permission to post the photos. That’s why she hadn’t cared if they were facing the camera or not. She’d really just been testing the lighting for when the actual event took place. Of course, after Phil’s death, the announcement had been postponed a couple of days.

  She looked through the images of Ross and the mayor congratulating him for being the winning bidder and selected the best one from the group. After making some edits to crop them out and remove other people in the background, Megan posted the picture on the town web site along with the text that had been approved.

  Once she had published the changes to the town web site, she closed that out. She then started developing a skeleton web site for the business incubator that she would flesh out over time as she received more information from Ross. She wanted to add some of the text that he had sent her and also wondered about photos that she might add. She didn’t think she had one of just Ross. She went back to her memory chip from her camera and started looking at the pictures again.

  She realized immediately what had been tickling her brain when she looked at the images again. There was Ross standing directly next to Phil Porter. They both had their backs to the camera. They were almost exactly the same height and from the back they looked like the same weight. Phil had carried several extra pounds, but they had all been in his stomach.

  The hair of both men was dark with some gray and both wore it short. From the back, they looked nearly identical. Megan sat back in her chair. Could it really be that simple? Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a car in the drive.

  A moment later, Caitlyn rounded the corner of the house. “Hey, here you are,” Caitlyn said as she dropped into a chair.

  Megan returned her smile. “What brings you here?”

  “I just wanted to touch base with you. I wondered if maybe I might have some of the puzzle pieces you’ve been looking for.” Caitlyn explained about her day first and the apparent break-in of the building.

  “The police think someone broke in, but they don’t know what they were up to?” Megan asked.

  Caitlyn nodded her head in agreement. “Correct. They checked it all out but didn’t find anything.”

  Megan thought about it for a moment then her gaze dropped back down to her notebook. She looked at the picture of Ross and Phil again. “This whole thing has been confusing. I’m starting to think maybe it had something to do with Ross.”

  Caitlyn leaned back in her chair. “The story I wanted to tell you about Ross is even stranger. Actually, I guess it’s about Ross and Jax.” Caitlyn explained about the situation with Jax before he’d moved back to Teaberry and the woman who had claimed Jax had harassed her.

  “But Ross supported Jax?” That didn’t surprise Megan. Ross seemed like a good guy. “I agree with your mom and Ross. That doesn’t sound like Jax. I can’t imagine him behaving in that way.”

  Caitlyn snorted. “That’s for sure. He’s never called anyone princess.”

  Megan looked at Caitlyn in shock. “Wait, what about a princess?”

  “That’s what the woman said. That Jax had made inappropriate suggestions and that he kept calling her princess.” Caitlyn watched Megan’s face. “What?”

  Megan looked at the hummingbird feeder. “I need to call Erica.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  When Susan first warned Ross that he should be prepared for a game of quoits when they went to Megan and Dan’s farm for a party, he had no idea what she was referring to. The way she’d pronounced it, it started with the letter K and rhymed with waits. He’d never heard of it before and had to look the game up. As he prepared himself to throw another metal ring, he was glad that he had taken the time to do that. He and his partner, Susan, were currently winning. Who knew she could be so competitive?

  Susan cheered as his ring encircled the pin. Seth and Jessilyn groaned as their hopes for winning were dashed. Ross laughed as they all moved aside to allow four more people to start another game.

  “I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this game before,” Ross said.

  “Quit rubbing it in,” Seth said as he watched Caro and Tom pair off against Barbara and Matthias. Farther away, another game was just beginning between Bev and Vince and Justin and Ethan, Tom’s grandson. Jerry, Madison, Jennifer, and Trina were watching them play and waiting to take their turn.

  Dan had set the quoits games up in an area beyond the stone patio. The stone patio held the grill and several tables and chairs under canopy tents. Coolers were nearby with plenty of drink options. Doug and Dan were working at the grill with Brad’s assistance. Children were standing near the paddock petting the donkeys through the fence. Henry had wisely chosen to stay in the coop with the hens.

  Megan, Erica, Lauren, and Caitlyn were on the porch. Three of them hadn’t yet heard the final story behind the death of Phil Porter. They were waiting for Erica to tell the story.

  “So, Megan was right? Phil Porter had never been the target?” Caitlyn asked.

  “No, it was Ross McMann. But Phil Porter happened to be there. He was killed from behind. From what Parker Lavigne has said, he thought he’d killed Ross. He was totally thrown when he finally came back here that night and found Ross alive.”

  “I thought Ross said that Stan Jiblonski had texted him and that’s why he showed up and found Phil?” Lauren asked.

  Erica nodded. “Parker lured Ross there using a burner phone. When Parker snuck up on a man resembling Ross from behind, he killed him. It never occurred to him that he’d killed another man. He’d been unable to look Ross in the eye to kill him.”

  “Wait. I thought Ross said that Parker texted Ross to tell him he’d be late that night?” Megan asked with a frown.

  “He did, but Parker sent that text for an alibi of sorts,” Erica explained. “He wanted to be able to say that he didn’t know anything had happened to Ross and use that as proof.”

  Megan thought back and nodded. “Parker was acting strange when he got back that night. He was unusually quiet.”

  “I don’t understand. Ross seems like such a nice man. I thought he’d been a mentor to Parker?” Lauren asked as she kept an eye on the children.

  “Yeah, to both Parker and Jax,” Caitlyn said. “Why would he want to kill the man that had given them both so much?”

  “According to Parker, it’s because he didn’t want to share Ross with Jax,” Erica said. “Parker had been Ross’s protégé before Jax had arrived. Then he’d watched as Ross had lavished Jax with that same attention that Parker had once enjoyed. And, not only that, but Ross left his life, and Parker, in Seattle and moved to Teaberry to be with Jax. That was the last straw.”

  “So, Parker had been the one who called the potential customer in Seattle and pretended to be Jax?” Caitlyn asked.

  “He hoped to push Jax out of Ross’s life. It never occurred to him that Ross would defend Jax the way that he did and then move to Teaberry to be with him,” Erica said.

  “I knew it had to be Parker,” Megan said. “He was the one who kept hitting on women here and calling us princess. Besides, he also mentioned the problem Jax had in Seattle. No one else was supposed to know about that.”

  Lauren raised her eyebrows at her cousin. “He hit on you?”

  Megan smiled. “You should have heard Trina describe when he hit on her. She said she was covered in filth and sweat at the time. The way she described it to me was really funny.”

  “Was Parker the one that broke into the empty studio next to my shop?” Caitlyn asked.

  “Yeah, he admitted to that too. He was planning to trash the place just to get back at Ross. You interrupted him,” Erica said as she watched Brad at the grill. “That’s the only shop in the building that didn’t have a security system in place. It was up to the individual tenants to have them installed. The former owner overlooked it. I’m sure Ross McMann will correct that.”

  “Who was the
officer that came to check it out?” Caitlyn asked. “I didn’t recognize him.”

  “He’s fairly new. His name is Rhys Cunningham. He has a military background and worked somewhere else before coming here,” Erica said. “He seems to be doing well so far.”

  “Parker hadn’t left town?” Megan asked.

  Erica nodded in agreement. “He was in the area. We tracked him through his cell phone and credit card charges. He almost seemed relieved when we picked him up.”

  “I do feel bad about Phil Porter though,” Lauren said. “He didn’t even do anything.”

  Megan thought about what Phil’s ex-wife, Carla, had said about Phil. He never got around to doing anything. “I heard that his ex-wife was going to keep the car lot.”

  “She’s going to run the business?” Lauren asked.

  “No, the manager is. Bonnie Fossett has already been doing the job for about two decades. I guess the two women really hit it off,” Megan explained.

  “I heard that Teresa Wilton may have decided not to run for mayor in the future after all,” Lauren said.

  Caitlyn looked at Lauren in surprise. “Really? Why not?”

  “Apparently she decided that the responsibility was more than she had originally thought,” Lauren shrugged. “Being the mayor is a difficult job.”

  Erica sipped some seltzer water. She’d discovered the carbonation really helped. She glanced over at Lauren, who had already begun to show. Erica looked down at her own stomach and wondered how large she was going to get with two of them in there.

  Lauren saw Erica looking down. “Are you okay?”

  “It hasn’t really sunk in yet that we’re having twins,” Erica said. “I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to get around when I’m the size of this house.”

  The other women laughed. “That’s simple. You aren’t,” Lauren said.

  Erica lifted hazel eyes filled with dismay toward her friend. “Tell me you’re joking.”

  Lauren sipped her lemonade and decided to remain silent. She knew Erica would learn to cope when the time came.

  “This is nice. I’m glad you invited everyone,” Caitlyn said as she looked around at everyone having a good time. “Was there a special reason you guys wanted to do this?”

  Lauren started laughing as Megan held up her hand. “We got married.”

  “You did?” Caitlyn said as she reached for Megan’s hand. She was wearing a simple gold band. “Where?”

  “The mayor performed the ceremony at her house. We’re going to announce it when everyone is sitting down with their food,” Megan said as she looked over at Dan, Doug, and Brad. They looked like they were almost done grilling the meat. “Looks like we need to get the rest of the food out.”

  Megan’s Recipe

  Zucchini Lasagna

  1 large zucchini, uncooked, pared

  1 package shredded cheese (2 cups)

  1 jar pasta sauce (approximately 24 ounces or 2 1/2 cups)

  1 pound ground turkey sausage

  Directions

  Brown the ground turkey sausage or other meat. Drain if necessary. Thin slice the zucchini lengthwise. Spray a large cake pan approximately 9x13 with vegetable oil. Coat the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of pasta sauce. Layer with half of the uncooked sliced zucchini (overlapping), all of the meat, enough pasta sauce to cover the meat (about half of remaining), 1/2 of the bag of shredded cheese, the rest of the zucchini, then cover the zucchini with the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle the rest of the shredded cheese on top.

  Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for about 45-50 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking another 10 minutes.

  Notes:

  One jumbo zucchini about the length of the pan thin sliced should be enough or use about three medium zucchini. Thin slice no thicker than 1/8 inch.

  Use shredded mozzarella cheese or a spicy variety.

  Additional vegetables could be added to the lasagna such as thinly sliced or julienned carrots, onions, or swiss chard. Stir fry carrots and onions or other vegetables in small amount of oil for a few minutes first and/or chard until wilted before adding to meat layer.

  Books by R. A. Wallace

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