No Grater Danger

by Victoria Hamilton

  Cover

  No Grater Danger

  Vintage cookware enthusiast Jaymie Leighton is thrilled at the prospect of meeting an elderly descendant of her town’s founding father, not least because she’s known to possess an enviably large collection of antique spice graters. But the curmudgeonly woman also has substantial real estate holdings, and at the moment she’s engaged in a fierce battle with a property developer who wants her to sell off her old buildings in the name of progress. When Jaymie goes to visit the woman and discovers that there’s been an attempt on her life, she polishes up her sleuthing skills to find out who was behind the foul deed.

  Her first instinct is to suspect the developer, but as she digs deeper into the case she learns that her older new friend has purportedly been the victim of numerous criminal acts—all of which point to different suspects. Unsure if the stories are true or simply the confused ramblings of a senior citizen, Jaymie sifts through the clues hoping to expose the culprit, but she knows that if she keeps stirring up trouble, she’ll be next on the would-be killer’s list . . .

  Title Page

  Copyright

  No Grater Danger

  Victoria Hamilton

  Beyond the Page Books

  are published by

  Beyond the Page Publishing

  www.beyondthepagepub.com

  Copyright © 2018 by Donna Lea Simpson.

  Cover design and illustration by Dar Albert, Wicked Smart Designs.

  ISBN: 978-1-946069-75-7

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without the express written permission of both the copyright holder and the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  From Jaymie’s Vintage Kitchen

  Books by Victoria Hamilton

  About the Author

  One

  JAYMIE LEIGHTON MÜLLER hugged her stepdaughter, Jocie, closely to her knees as the ferry from Heartbreak Island to Queensville chugged up to the dock. Jocie, a little little person, as she called herself, held the leash of Jaymie’s dog, her three-legged Yorkie-Poo Hoppy, and talked to him. Jocie had been nervous about the ferry ride—their summer trip out to the Leighton cottage after Jaymie and Jakob Müller’s wedding in June had been scary for her when a storm came up—so Jaymie reasoned that having Hoppy to look after this time would focus her attention. It had worked.

  “No, Hoppy, you can’t go to the edge of the boat,” Jocie said, in her calmest tone, with the slightest charming lisp. Today, her blonde hair up in a ponytail, she was wearing her favorite outfit: pink jeans with a pale blue T-shirt and a pink jean jacket altered by her Oma to fit her tiny, stocky frame and short arms. Hoppy had a matching collar and leash, in pink vinyl! “We’re going to stay right here, nice and safe, by the benches with Mama Jaymie.”

  Jaymie felt the little thrill of happiness she always got when Jocie called her by the name she had settled on . . . for now. She had announced it in solemn tones the first day of their family portion of the honeymoon; she’d call her Mama Jaymie, with the provision that she might shorten it at some point. Whether that meant she’d take to calling her Jaymie or Mama had been left unsaid. They had been out to the cottage to clean it preparatory to closing it up for the season, after having rented it out all summer except for the couple of weeks reserved for Jaymie’s parents, Alan and Joy, to use it.

  It was mid-October; a week ago she, Jakob and Jocie had been in Canada to visit her Grandma Leighton and celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with her, along with her parents. Becca and her newish husband, Kevin, were on their much-delayed honeymoon in the UK, but had Skyped in, and together they made plans to gather in Queensville for Christmas. Grandma Leighton had enjoyed her visit there in December the year before, when she had stayed at the Queensville Inn and visited with old friends from her youth, so they were going to repeat that adventure over Christmas this year.

  So far the warm weather had held, but that could change any day. In Michigan in autumn you could go from having the air conditioner on to snow on the ground in twenty-four hours. The ferry slowed and the captain expertly brought it alongside the dock beyond the marina, where a few last die-hard sailors still had their boats in slips, even though it was fall.

  “Do you see now, Jocie? The ferry is nothing to be afraid of. The captain is very experienced; even on that stormy crossing he kept us safe, right?”

  Jocie nodded, but she was too intent on keeping Hoppy calm—not that the little dog needed any such help, since he had been over to the island and back on the ferry dozens of times—and talking to him in soothing tones. They waited until the captain gave the all clear to disembark. Jaymie picked up Hoppy to carry off the boat and had Jocie hold on to the railing as they walked along the passenger gangplank.

  Jaymie and Jocie held the leash between their clasped hands as they walked down the wharf toward the shops that lined the marina, a collection of old and tired stores constructed of weathered gray wood that leaned against each other for support. There was a bait and tackle shop alongside a feed and tack store and a couple of other boarded-up shops that had been empty as long as Jaymie could remember.

  Some folks were clustered outside the bait and tackle shop and voices were raised, signs of a squabble. Jaymie tried to steer Jocie and Hoppy around the cluster, but a group broke away to chatter among themselves, blocking their passage. In the center of the main group one man, a tall silver-haired fellow dressed in robin’s egg blue pants, white loafers, a pastel plaid shirt, and with a sunshine yellow knit sweater draped over his shoulders, berated an elderly woman. She faced him with a fierce expression on her deeply lined face.

  “You don’t give a damn about this town anymore, do you, Lois?” he shouted, flinging his hands up in the air. “All you care about is your rotting empty buildings and this smelly bait shop. Who would want to eat ice cream sitting next to a place that sells worms?”

  “Fergus, that ain’t fair!” said Trip Findley, Jaymie’s behind-the-house neighbor in Queensville. “Lois Perry is a founding member of the Queensville Heritage Society. She’s been looking out for this town longer than you’ve been alive, for cripes sake!”

  “I don’t need you to stand up for me, Trip, much as I appreciate it,” Miss Perr
y said. Petite and hunched, with tightly curled gray hair, wearing a wool coat over a dress despite the warm weather, and low-wedge heels, the elderly woman put both hands on the head of her cane and stood firm. She was a frail figure, all the more interesting for being the tiniest among a crowd of taller, younger folk.

  “It’s gotta be said, Lois,” Trip stated to the woman, then turned back to his opponent. “You been gone for years, Fergus. Lois cares about this town, but she has a right to do what she wants with her own property, don’t she?”

  Jon Hastings, a paunchy fellow in overalls and a red T-shirt bearing an image of a worm on a hook, his hair a shock of greasy gray locks standing straight up from his head, stepped forward. “Now, Trip, Fergus is trying to make things better,” he said. “I understand where he’s coming from.” He turned to the older woman, towering over her. “And Miss Perry, you know we got your back. We’ve been renting the bait shop for fifteen years, and you’ve always been fair to us. We can work something out, though, if you want to go along with Fergus here and sell the land. It would rest your mind. Woman your age shouldn’t have to fuss over property in her golden years.”

  “I don’t need your support, Jon,” the tall man said to the overall-clad fellow, who was joined by a plump woman in matching overalls and bait shop T-shirt, her blonde hair teased into a high hair-sprayed pouf.

  “Jon’s just trying to help, Fergus,” she said, hands on her hips.

  “I know that, I know. I’m just frustrated. Thanks, Jon, sincerely,” the fellow said, thrusting one hand through his silvery hair, then patting it down.

  Jaymie tried to move on with Jocie, but the little girl was interested and hung back, watching and listening. Adults’ conversations always fascinated her, and something about the elderly woman, so tiny and so fierce, drew her attention.

  Still leaning heavily on her cane, the elderly woman squinted in the autumn sunshine and glared up at the tall man, ignoring the couple in overalls. “The bait shop and the feed store have been here for fifty years,” she said, her voice crackling with tension but loud and authoritative, with a husky tone Jaymie’s Grandma Leighton had always called a whiskey voice. “They employ Queensville folk; they serve Queensville folk. You say you want to develop the empty shops, but I’ve heard that before! Empty shops, empty promises.” She banged the cane on the wood plank walkway. “I told you before, I’ll rent you the empty shops, but I won’t sell them, or the land that goes with them!”

  Jaymie recognized others in the group as members of the heritage committee. She had missed a few meetings and it seemed something was up. Now she was interested, too. She picked up Hoppy in one arm and still held on to Jocie’s hand, but sidled over to Haskell Lockland, head of the heritage committee. “What’s going on, Haskell?”

  He leaned toward her to speak in a murmur. “You know Miss Lois Perry, right? She owns these dockside buildings.”

  “I’ve heard the name, but I’ve never met her.” Besides owning the dockside shops, Miss Perry was notorious locally for being a recluse and for having the most magnificent home on Winding Woods Lane, a street in an exclusive historic enclave north of the village of Queensville, but still officially part of it. Jaymie also knew of her as the cousin of Mrs. Martha Stubbs, born Martha Perry, an elderly friend and coconspirator of Jaymie’s from past murder investigations. Jaymie had a habit of finding dead bodies and then discovering who killed the person. Mrs. Stubbs, an avid mystery reader, was sometimes instrumental in figuring out the solution.

  “And that fellow is Fergus Baird of Baird Construction,” Haskell continued, pointing to the man dressed in Easter egg colors. “He was born and raised here, but went off to university and didn’t come back until a few years ago when he settled in Wolverhampton. He owns a construction and development company. They built that new plaza in Wolverhampton with the medical clinic in it. He wants to buy the dockside shops and develop them, but Miss Perry doesn’t want to sell.”

  “That’s her right.”

  “Sure, but there’s more to it,” Haskell said impatiently. “Baird has promised to develop tourist-friendly shops that will give a better image to those coming off the ferry and coming over on boats than a smelly old bait shop and a feed store, for crying out loud!” Haskell straightened. “Can you imagine a sweet shop, a tea shop, and a boutique? That could be folks’ first impression of Queensville instead of the odor from the bait shop.”

  “Haskell, I’ve passed by here hundreds of times and I’ve never smelled the bait shop. What you’re smelling, if anything, is the St. Clair River on a hot day!”

  He shrugged. “I just wish she’d sell. She’s holding back progress.”

  Jocie tugged on Jaymie’s hand. “Look at her cane!” she whispered.

  Jaymie noticed the cane that Miss Perry was leaning on. It was unusual, dark twisted wood with an enormous silver head shaped like some kind of nut. “It’s amazing!” Jocie had shown great interest in historical items lately, inspired by Jaymie’s love of vintage kitchenalia. They had shared picnics over the summer using some of the vintage picnic baskets Jaymie had collected and no longer used for business, and had tea using the Fire King snack set Jaymie had received as a wedding shower gift. “We should get going, though, honey,” Jaymie whispered.

  Just then an old green pickup truck screeched to a stop in the parking lot by the shops, kicking up a wave of gravel, and Dani Brougham, who owned a riding stable with her new wife, Emma Spangler, flung herself out of the cab. She paused when she saw the crowd, then strode over, greeting Jocie first, crouching down to talk to her as Jaymie let go of her hand so the two could hug. Jocie had been out to the stable last June for a first riding lesson and had enjoyed it somewhat—mostly because of her admiration for Emma’s talents as a rider—but not enough to go back. Dani straightened and asked what was going on; Jaymie answered briefly.

  While Jaymie was distracted it appeared that the discussion had gotten heated. The developer, red-faced, shouted, “You’re so pigheaded, Lois! If you gave a damn about this community you’d sell to me!”

  Trip Findley was about to step forward but Miss Perry swung her cane at Baird and missed. Dani dashed forward and caught the elderly woman as she was about to take a tumble. She steadied the woman, murmuring to her gently, but Miss Perry looked shaken.

  “You’re crazy, old woman,” Baird shouted, backing away. “Best thing that could happen for this town is if you would croak and Morgan inherited. She’d sell these shacks to me in a heartbeat. I could tear them down, build something nice and help this town get back on its feet!”

  Hoppy was barking and squirming, sensing the tension, and Jocie threw her arms around Jaymie’s legs. Did the developer really think that badgering an elderly woman was the way to get Queensville on his side? And that the town needed him to survive? They were doing fine . . . better than fine!

  “Fergus, you’d best get out of here,” Trip said loudly. “Lois don’t need this trouble right now!”

  The developer stormed off past Jaymie and Jocie, heading up the hill in a swirl of fallen autumn leaves. Dani left Miss Perry in the care of the bait shop owners and returned to Jaymie and Jocie.

  “That was uncomfortable,” Jaymie said. “Is Miss Perry going to be okay?”

  “Jon and Bev will take care of her,” Dani replied.

  “Jon and Bev Hastings, right?” Jaymie said. “I’ve seen them around, but we’re just nodding acquaintances.”

  “They’ve owned the bait shop for years. I don’t fish, but I know Jon pretty well. He steps in when Hank, from the feed store, needs a hand. Or a day off.”

  “So they own the business?” Jocie was beginning to get antsy, so Jaymie gave her Hoppy’s leash, and the little girl let him sniff along the hillside where a group of saplings attracted the dog’s attention. Hoppy was a boy dog, but being three-legged—he had lost one of his front legs as a baby by getting it caught in the puppy-mill cage where he was born—meant lifting a leg to pee was not an option. He did the wobbl
y best he could, but still managed to leave his mark at the base of one of the newly planted saplings.

  “The business, yeah, but they rent the actual physical shop from Miss Perry, as does Hank. She owns the buildings and land from the marina shops and north a ways.”

  “All that undeveloped land along the riverbank?”

  Dani nodded, pushing her straight blonde bangs off her high forehead. “At least three, four hundred feet of waterfront.”

  “I always wondered why homes had never been built along there; I guess that’s my answer.”

  “Anyway, Hank would be fine if Miss Perry sells the shops, even if he had to move; his feed shop would be better situated in Wolverhampton anyway. But the bait shop . . . it pretty much has to be by the river, right? If she sells to Baird the Hastings would be out of business.”

  “Odd that they were so conciliatory toward the developer.”

  Dani shrugged. “Jon doesn’t like a fuss,” she said, watching as the crowd broke up. Smaller groups formed, the townsfolk chattering and gossiping, as Jon Hastings and his wife helped the landowner along the marina to a bench so she could rest. “Miss Perry has been good to them. She only takes a fraction in rent compared to what she could take. I know Hank pays a lot more than they do.”

  “I guess it is kind of a tourist industry in a way, isn’t it?” She felt a twinge of worry for the lady; as intrepid as she seemed, she was also elderly and not completely steady on her feet. But it looked like she had people who cared looking out for her; the bait shop owners were solicitous.

  “Yeah, I suppose.” Dani watched with a frown. “I kinda think Miss Perry is being taken advantage of by the Hastings, though. I know she doesn’t want to, but it probably would be best for her to sell the marina property. She’s not getting any younger.”

  “I suppose. We’d better get going. Jocie, come back now!” she called to her daughter. She turned back to her friend. “Say hi to Emma for us, Dani.”