Deadly Sweet Tooth

by Kaye George

  “Who else?”

  “Me, for one.”

  “Fran was jealous of you? What did you do?”

  Lily gave a pfft from the corner of her mouth. “I didn’t do anything except show up. I was just interested in dancing. Len latches onto every new female and I was the latest at the time.”

  “And you caught his roving eye?”

  “Yes, he started hanging around me and sort of pestering me.”

  “Was he harassing you?”

  “I guess.” Lily shrugged. “He started bringing me flowers and making sure I had whatever I wanted to drink. Which was water. But he kept offering other things. I tried to ignore him, but he and Fran were in charge.” She screwed her delicate mouth to the side.

  “And Fran was jealous, I assume.”

  “Was she ever! At the cast party after one of the shows, she grabbed me and took me outside, practically threw me to the ground, and told me to never come back to the theater.”

  “That’s…pretty violent.”

  Lily tossed her head and smiled. “I’m glad she’s gone. Now I can dance in the musical productions again.”

  Chapter 20

  “Sh!” Tally hissed. “Not so loud.” She glanced around her salesroom and dropped her whisper lower. “Those customers looked at you when you said you’re glad Fran is gone.”

  Lily frowned, but kept her voice down. “Well, I am.”

  “We all are, but it’s not a good thing to say out loud in public.” Tally knew Lily was young, but she was smart. She had good potential. She didn’t want her making horrible mistakes right now.

  Lily regained her usual smile and, with a lightness in her step, crossed the floor to help the family of four who were standing by one of the tables heaped with baked treats.

  The rest of the day sped by in a blur of candy making, candy selling, and cleanup toward the end of the day.

  When Tally got home, exhausted from the busy day, she sank onto the couch and switched on the afternoon news she had recorded. Nigel immediately jumped up beside her onto the couch cushions with a thunk, and started pawing her arm with his velvet touch.

  “I know. I need to feed you.” Tally hoisted herself up, half paying attention to the news. She made her way into the kitchen and scooped kibble into Nigel’s food bowl, then freshened his water. He turned his big eyes up at her. Tally thought he was expressing gratitude, if cats did that. Had his breed, Maine coon, been crossed with a puppy somehow?

  “You’re welcome,” she said, smiling at him.

  He started crunching his meal. He made it sound delicious, she thought, as she smiled down on him.

  The news announcer’s voice drifted in from the living room. “…arrest is based on forensic evidence, the police chief said. What that evidence is, was not disclosed.”

  Tally whipped into the living room in time to see Len Abraham, handcuffed, being taken into the jail. A sweatshirt was pulled over his head, but the cameraman managed to get a shot of Len’s face, alternately scowling and sneering. The coverage of that story seemed to be over.

  Tally dialed Jackson’s cell number, not knowing if he would answer or not.

  “Tally?” Yes, he was taking her call. That was a good sign.

  “Is my dad off the hook?”

  “No one is off the hook.”

  “But you just arrested Len.”

  “That was a couple of hours ago. But yes, we did detain him.”

  “He’s still in jail?”

  “For now. He’s refusing to talk to us until a lawyer gets here.”

  So was her dad off the hook or not? “What’s the forensic evidence? Can you tell me that?”

  “The chief is going to do a press conference at ten. I can’t tell you anything before that.”

  “Thanks, Jackson. At least there’s hope.”

  His voice grew low and grave. “Tally, this isn’t over. Don’t open the champagne yet.”

  Still, when she finished the call, her whole body felt lighter, floaty.

  She noticed she had a text from Allen. Curious, she opened it. He was telling her he would be back in town tomorrow! She felt even lighter now. She had to tell her mom and dad all about this.

  When she went to see her parents a bit later, she breezed into their hotel room. “Did you hear?” she chirped.

  “We did,” her mother said from the bed, where she lay propped up with a pile of pillows. “Len is being questioned. That’s what the news report said.”

  “I wonder why they pulled him in now,” Tally’s dad said. “They didn’t go after him at first, so why now?”

  “I heard the phrase forensic evidence on TV,” Tally said.

  “Fingerprints or DNA, I suppose,” Nancy said, weariness in her voice.

  Tally took a seat in the chair and set her purse on the floor. Her mother, in spite of acting weary, looked better. “Mom, your color is good. Do you feel better?”

  “I do.” Nancy sounded surprised when she said it. “I think I’m on the mend.”

  Bob hovered over her, punching the pillows. “It looks like we’ll be able to get out of here on time for our next gig,” he said to Tally.

  She didn’t say anything, but thought, If the police let you leave.

  “By the way, I called Jackson,” she said.

  “Jackson?” her father asked.

  “The detective. He said the chief is going to announce what the evidence is on the ten o’clock news.”

  “I have time to get dessert,” Tally’s father said. “Are you hungry, sweetie?” he asked Tally.

  “For dessert? Sure.”

  After he left, Tally asked her mother if she needed anything.

  “I’m doing so much better every day. I wanted to go for a walk outside this morning, breathe some real air, but your father thought I should give it one more day.”

  “Why don’t you get up for a while tonight? Right now? I can help you.”

  Tally wasn’t very big, but her mother wasn’t, either. And she wasn’t an invalid. She had the strong legs of a dancer, after all.

  “Yes, I’ll do that.”

  “It will be good to go gradually, right? A little bit tonight before you try for a longer period tomorrow.” Tally stood beside the bed while her mother swung her legs onto the floor and sat up.

  “Whoa!” Nancy reeled back.

  Tally caught her arm. “Dizzy?”

  “I’ll say.”

  Tally put her hand behind her mother’s shoulder to support her. “Go slow. Sit for a minute.”

  Nancy took her time getting up from the edge of the bed. “I have been using the restroom, you know. But I want to walk around a little now and then sit in an actual chair.”

  It was too bad the room only had one. Tally and Nancy opened the outside door and stepped onto the balcony. A gust of wind caught Nancy’s robe and she clutched it tight to her body. They watched traffic go past for a few minutes, then spied Bob’s rental car returning.

  “Look at you,” he said, mounting the steps and walking toward them on the balcony with a white box held in both hands.

  “What did you get?” Tally asked.

  “Cheesecake. Cherry cheesecake.”

  Tally knew it was her mom’s favorite. They took it inside and each devoured a piece off the paper plates with the plastic forks that Bob had picked up a few days ago.

  “Oh look,” Nancy said. “It’s ten.”

  Bob switched on the small television that sat on the dresser, as the broadcaster was announcing an upcoming important report on progress in the Frances Abraham case.

  “The Frances Abraham case,” Bob repeated. “Poor Fran. Get on with it,” he said to the TV.

  The picture soon displayed the police chief, standing behind a podium that sprouted microphones.

  “We have made an
arrest today in the Frances Abraham case, based on new forensic evidence.”

  Yes, Tally thought, I already knew that. Tell us what it is.

  “A piece of evidence revealed a new set of fingerprints upon further processing. Leonard Abraham was detained for questioning and is now being held without bail, pending investigation.”

  A reporter shouted out, “Is he the killer?”

  Another one yelled, “Do you have the right person now?”

  A few more called out similar things.

  The police chief, unflustered, remained silent until they finished and grew quiet. Then he proceeded.

  “At this time, we believe we may have the killer in custody. If new details come to light, we will announce them at that time. For now, we’re concentrating on Mr. Abraham and believe, as I said, I repeat, that we may have the killer in custody.”

  He turned abruptly and left with the reporters shouting more questions at his departing back.

  “Fingerprints, huh?” Bob said. “I wonder why they think that makes a difference. Mine were on the platter. If his are, too, so what?” He had been sitting beside Tally on the bed and now got up and started pacing.

  “It must be more than that, Bob,” Nancy said.

  He paced faster. “You know what, poppet? I’m going to take a walk.”

  After he left, Tally’s mother said, “I don’t think he feels they have any better evidence on Len than they had on him.”

  “I wish we knew more. Jackson said there would be more details. There were, but barely. He didn’t really tell us anything.”

  “Dear, I think I want to lie down now.”

  Tally took her mother’s arm while she walked to the bed. “You look pale.” She wasn’t only pale, she was blinking back tears. “Mom, what’s the matter?”

  Her mother reached for a tissue on the nightstand and dabbed her eyes. “It’s Len. He didn’t kill Fran. Poor Len. I wish I could go to the jail and see him.”

  “Mom! Why do you want to do that? You don’t know he didn’t kill her.”

  “He’s not like that.” She looked up at Tally, her blue eyes wide.

  Tally thought her mother’s eyes might be getting bluer as she grew older. They had always been striking. Now they looked pale and also sorrowful. Why was her mother so upset about Len? She seemed more upset about his arrest than she had been about Fran’s death. Did she have…feelings for Len? “Is there something you’re not telling me? About Len? And you?”

  “Tally, you can see right through me, can’t you?” Nancy gave a rueful smile. “The four of us were very close once upon a time. Very close. Yes, Len and I had a…thing. It didn’t last long, but I’ve always held onto fond memories of that time. He was a sweet, gentle, considerate—”

  “I get it, Mom.” She had to stop her before she said the word lover. Tally didn’t want to picture her mother having a lover. “Anyway, if all they have is fingerprints, they can’t have much. That’s all they had on Dad. They’ll have to let Len go.” Unless, Tally added to herself, he confessed.

  She made sure her mother was comfortable, then waited as she fell asleep. When her father returned, she kissed him good-bye on the evening stubble of his cheek and left for her own house. She didn’t think, until later, that she never mentioned the fact that Allen would be back in town the next day. But maybe she shouldn’t, anyway. She wasn’t exactly sure about that relationship and didn’t know if she would ever be in the future. No sense telling people about something that didn’t exist.

  Chapter 21

  “What do you think, Nigel?” Tally looked into his deep, round blue eyes, lit by the table lamp beside her bed as she readied herself for the night. They almost looked like smaller versions of her mother’s vivid baby blues. Was he trying to understand her? Or was he concentrating on his own thoughts? “Do you think Len could kill his own wife?”

  Nigel broke his gaze and swiveled his neck an impossible number of degrees to lick his back.

  “Yeah, I don’t think he could, either. But why are they holding him? Didn’t they learn with Dad that fingerprints aren’t enough? They must have more to go on than that. How am I going to find out what it is?”

  Lily and Molly were scheduled to work in the morning, Tuesday. Tally cast about for more suspects until very late at night, tossing and turning and annoying Nigel no end.

  Before the shop opened, as she watched Molly working, helping stock the display cases in preparation for opening, she asked herself how much she really knew about her. She remembered, from her recent review of the applications, that Molly lived with her parents. Parents, plural. So her father was probably not Wendell. Unless her present dad was a stepdad?

  She had yet to try to dig further into Molly’s life, as she had the other two, for evidence that she was involved in the past tragedy surrounding Tally’s parents today. At the job interview she remembered Molly saying she had dropped out of college to come home due to a “family situation.” She hadn’t elaborated. Maybe Tally wasn’t a good boss for not finding out what the situation was. She would remedy that right now.

  “Molly, before we open, can I ask you a couple of questions?”

  “Sure.” Molly picked up the tray she had just emptied and came to where Tally stood, near the kitchen door. She was eager, Tally knew, and friendly, but had such poor judgment.

  “I feel bad that I haven’t asked after your family. I know that something necessitated your dropping out of college and I’d like to check, now that you’ve worked here for a while. Is this job right for you? Is it helping out with your situation?”

  “Oh, yes, tons.” Molly, much shorter than Tally, looked up at her with a wide smile. “Mom might be ready to go back to work in a month or so, but in the meantime, this extra income has been a lifesaver.”

  “Is your mother okay?”

  “They think she will be. Her chemo will be over in a few weeks and, so far, it looks like it’s working.”

  “She has cancer?”

  “Didn’t I tell you? Yes, she had both breasts removed. Real bummer. But they keep saying they think they got it all.”

  Yes, Tally was a bad boss. She should know something this major about her employee. She felt awful for not being aware that Molly’s mother had cancer. “I’m very happy to hear that.”

  “Yeah, thanks. I just wish my dad could go back to work.”

  “Does he have cancer, too?”

  “No, he has this bad back. He’s on disability and everything. He probably can’t ever work again.”

  “What did he do?” She should have found this out, too.

  “Auto mechanic. That’s how I met Howie. He worked with my dad before the accident.”

  “Howie?”

  “We’re dating. He picks me up sometimes from here.”

  Yes, she had mentioned him once before, Tally remembered. She herself had met Howie and remembered him as a strong, compact, short guy with dark hair and a talent for fixing cars. Tally recalled one more thing Molly had said in her interview, that she had dropped out of college to help out the family. “Do you plan on going back to college when your mom starts back to work?”

  Molly frowned, looking down. “I don’t really know. I’ve tried to talk to Mom about it, but she doesn’t answer me.”

  “Maybe it would be better to have both incomes?” Tally didn’t know how she felt about that. Molly wasn’t the best employee in the world, but she would have trouble letting her go, mostly because she hated firing people. She hadn’t been able to fire Greer without rehiring her, after all. If Molly left on her own, though…well, Tally would have to go through that grueling interview process again.

  Molly shrugged and went back to getting the shop ready to open.

  There was no reason to think that Molly’s parents were not her original, biological pair. She couldn’t really ask Molly if she had another fat
her who had spent time in prison. She would draw a mental line, for now, through Molly being related to Wendell.

  At noon a text pinged to her phone from Allen, asking her to meet him for dinner after she closed up. She replied that she would be there. After she sent the message, she realized she might have to be with her parents. She pushed it out of her mind.

  That evening, right after she fed Nigel, Mrs. Gerg came by to collect the rent. Tally had lost track, realizing that she had paid rent on the fifteenth the previous two months.

  “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Gerg,” she said, getting her checkbook out of her purse. Mrs. Gerg liked to be paid by check.

  “Don’t think a thing of it, dear.” Mrs. Gerg opened her own purse and started searching. Tally knew what that meant. “I’ve been so busy myself. I had two young couples move into two of my other rentals last week. What a time! All the cleaning and arranging. And paperwork. Oh, my.” Her hand emerged triumphant from her bag. “Here it is!” She held out a massive pile of gold chunks.

  Tally took it, shook it out slightly, and dangled it from her fingertips. Yes, it was another necklace. This one was so bulky Tally wondered if she would be able to wear a coat over it. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Gerg. It’s…very shiny.”

  She wrote the check and Mrs. Gerg left after Nigel gave her legs a rub and she reciprocated by giving his head the same.

  When she went to see her parents, they ordered in pizza and talked about their day while they devoured it.

  Tally told them about the new necklace from Mrs. Gerg, then about a young woman in the shop today who had never heard of any of her products, even Twinkies. After she got started, she had enjoyed showing her each and every one and telling her about them. It was extra-fun when the young woman ended up buying an armful.

  “How are you two doing?” Tally asked.

  “You mother is so much better,” her dad said. “We went outside and walked around the parking lot twice.”

  “Dad, you could take her to a park. It would be prettier.”

  “That’s okay, dear,” her mother said, reaching from her perch on the bed to pat Tally’s knee where she sat on the desk chair, pulled up to the side of the bed. “It was my idea to walk here. Maybe tomorrow I’ll go somewhere else. I do feel, finally, like I’m firmly on the mend.” She fished another slice of pizza from the box on the bed between her and Bob and bit off the corner. “We need to get on the road very soon.”