A Deadly Inside Scoop

by Abby Collette

  We headed to the ice cream shop and made plans to get together to work on what questions we’d ask her and set a time to follow her. We weren’t sure what shift she worked, but Maisie said she’d try to find out. I didn’t know how she was planning to do that.

  There wasn’t much to do at the ice cream shop to get ready for the day. We’d had no more than ten customers trickle in the day after opening and after my social media blast. And although after I’d counted up sales for the third day of operation and found we’d had about seventeen people come in altogether, I hadn’t done anything to get more people coming through the door.

  Not long after we pulled up, PopPop pulled up behind us. I smiled and waved, waiting for him to get out of his car.

  “Morning again,” I said. “You hanging out with us today?”

  “If you’ll have me,” he said.

  “PopPop,” I said. “It’s still your store.”

  He laughed. “It’s our store.”

  I let the three of us into the side door and Felice was there waiting.

  “Hey, little sugar,” I said. I stooped down and kissed her on her forehead. “You been wondering where I was?”

  She blinked her eyes at me and meowed.

  “I’m here now,” I said, standing up. “You can go sit on your throne now if you want.”

  With that, she turned around, her tail dragging low to the floor, and sashayed out to the front to take her place on the window seat.

  “I wonder what Rivkah is up to,” PopPop said, and glanced toward the back stairs.

  “I’m sure she’s getting ready to go over to the restaurant,” I said.

  “Maybe I’ll just pop up and say hello,” he said, his eyes lingering.

  Maisie and I smiled at each other.

  My mother breezed in just as PopPop headed up the steps. “Hi. Morning. Morning,” she said with her usual energy. So different than when I’d seen her two hours ago.

  “Hi again, Mommy,” I said.

  “Today is the day,” she said. “It’s going to be nice out. Like forty degrees. It’s ice cream weather.”

  I chuckled. That was the same thing I had thought.

  “Cleveland’s the only place where people think forty degrees is good weather,” PopPop said, coming back around the corner.

  “I thought you were visiting with Rivkah,” I said.

  “She’s ready to leave. Go over to her restaurant,” he said. “I’m going to drive her.”

  “It’s three doors down, PopPop,” I said.

  “When you get to be our age,” he said, putting his hat back on his head, “you like to go for rides.”

  “I’m surprised you drove,” I said. “You always walk down here.”

  “Lately,” he said, “I’ve needed the car.”

  I wasn’t sure what that meant. He and my mother had been cryptic lately, so I didn’t ask.

  “Mom,” I said, turning back to her. “Tell me again why you’re here. I thought you had an appointment.”

  “Because you said you had to get ready for the events the shop is doing over at the college,” she said. “I didn’t want you getting bogged down.”

  Oh yeah . . . I had told her all the things I had to do. Most of them I hadn’t needed to do, I just told her I did to answer her questions about my being out and about so early.

  “I’ll go out front,” my mother said. “PopPop, when you get back from frolicking with Rivkah, you can help out.”

  “I’ve got help coming in,” I said, wondering if I needed to remind her of my hired help.

  PopPop got back about an hour after he’d left and sat on his bench. Maisie left right after twelve o’clock with a conspiratorial wink and an Arnold Schwarzenegger–accented, “I’ll be back.” We’d had maybe five customers when my father came through the door.

  “Surprise!” my mother said. “I told him you needed help.”

  Guess I do need to remind her I have hired help.

  “Hi, Daddy,” I said, going around the counter to give him a hug.

  “Hey, Pumpkin,” he said.

  He was dressed in black jogging pants, a light gray Crewse Creamery sweatshirt and a matching gray baseball cap, and Nike tennis shoes.

  “Don’t you look cute?” I said.

  “Thank you,” he said, and squeezed me tight. “You been busy today?” He stretched his neck, looking around the store.

  “Busy as it has been so far.”

  He squinted. “And that means what?”

  I shrugged. “Five or six customers.”

  “That’s better than the first day,” he said.

  “One customer is better than the first day,” I said. “But it’s been picking up a little in the evenings.”

  “That means I got here just in time.”

  “Yep,” I said, not mentioning my help, who would be in shortly. “And I appreciate you coming.”

  “I love coming to help out in the shop,” he said. “Reminds me of when I was little and my mother was here.”

  “I’ve never known you to come help out.”

  “Well, when you were little, I was trying to build my practice, and then when Aunt Jack took it over—”

  “I know,” I said, putting up a hand to stop him, “there is no getting along with Aunt Jack.”

  “No, there isn’t,” he said, and chuckled. “I’m wondering how that man she found on the internet is faring. I bet he’s pulling his hair out by now.”

  I laughed.

  “So should I put on an apron or something?” Daddy said, looking around.

  “That’s up to you.” I nodded. “But I think Mommy just wants you here.”

  “She’s worried about me.” He glanced toward the front of the store.

  “I’m worried about you, too,” I said.

  “My two girls.” He shook his head. “I’m supposed to be taking care of you so you don’t have to worry about anything. Especially me.”

  “Why aren’t you at work?” I could just imagine the hospital putting him on leave or something until everything was resolved.

  “I took off to talk to that detective.” He blew out a breath. “But the lawyer I retained couldn’t do it until day after tomorrow. He’s in court or something until then.” He looked at me. “Guess I’ll have to call off again.”

  I chewed on my bottom lip, clicked my nails and looked at him.

  “What is it, Pumpkin?” he said. “I know when you start that annoying clicking of your nails, something is up.”

  “Is that annoying?” I said, and looked down at my hand.

  “You want to ask me something?” he said instead of answering my question.

  “I do,” I said. “But I’m scared of the answer.”

  “Scared? Why?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t ever have to be afraid to ask me anything. Go ahead. Ask me.” He took my hand and held it.

  “Why did you tell me that you’d come from work that night when I found the body? You weren’t dressed for work.”

  He looked down at his clothes like they were the ones he’d had on and they could give him answers. There was a confused look on his face.

  “I—I was at work,” he said.

  “Daddy,” I said, disappointment written into my face. “I’ve never seen you go to work looking like that. Sweat pants. Boots.”

  “Oh,” he chuckled. “That’s because I don’t usually see my patients at a snowy, muddy sports camp.” He must’ve noticed the puzzled look in my eyes. “James wanted me to see one of his patients. I went to meet James and he took one look at me in my tailored suit and said that wouldn’t do. Not where we were going. Those were James’s clothes you saw me in. He gave them to me to wear.”

  I could’ve fallen on the floor with relief. My brother James
and a whole sports team were my daddy’s alibi.

  “Did you tell the detective that yet?” I asked.

  “No, by the time he asked me that question I had decided not to answer anything else. I told him I’d wait to get a lawyer,” he said. “You were there that night, you didn’t hear me?”

  “I didn’t hear the whole thing, I guess,” I said. “I came in after you had started talking and I left before you finished. I don’t remember hearing that part.” I thought about it. “Although, with all the blood that had drained from my head listening to that conversation, I might have been there but missed it.”

  He shook his head. “You shouldn’t eavesdrop.”

  “Yeah. I’m learning that.” I looked at him and smiled. “So, Daddy, this is good. Why do you even have to go in to speak to him about this? Tell your lawyer to tell him your alibi.”

  “Oh, no.” My father shook his head. “You don’t understand. There is still a time discrepancy. I’m not out of the woods.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked. “You said you were with James.”

  “You asked why I had been dressed like that,” he said. “And that was why. But it seems like from the timeline that detective gave, it puts me close enough to home to have been around when it happened.”

  “Were you around?”

  “I was, I guess,” he said, and huffed. “After I left the sports camp, I stopped by the cemetery to see Ma. Ailbhe had told me that man was in town and it made me think about her. I wanted to go and talk to her.”

  My grandmother was buried in Evergreen Hill Cemetery. Not five minutes from where Stephen Bayard was found.

  That wasn’t good.

  “How long did you stay there?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “A good while. I pulled one of my vinyl chairs out of the trunk of my car. And I sat and had a long chat with her.”

  “Did you tell the detective that? Because I’m sure there are security cameras for him to look at to prove where you were.”

  “I don’t know how much movement they get at a cemetery, Win. Or theft. Probably no need for video cameras at a place like that.”

  All that despair I’d felt when I heard the police detective questioning my father came crashing down on me again. I started trembling and my mouth went dry. My father must have seen all the grief that had started to envelop me.

  “Aww, Pumpkin. It’s going to be okay,” he said, and wrapped his arms around me. “I didn’t do it. And they don’t have any evidence that I did.”

  “People get railroaded,” I said, remembering Lew’s words.

  “They do, but I won’t.” He pulled me tighter into his bear hug. “I’m sorry you have to go through this. That man caused us so much grief in life, and now he’s trying to do the same thing to us in death. But I won’t let that happen.”

  chapter

  THIRTY-ONE

  Ohio has three big cities situated at the top, bottom and in the middle of it. Nearly everything in between is farmland.

  Chagrin Falls, albeit a suburb of the city that is home to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, was on the outskirts of Cleveland and just a hop, skip and jump away from its rural areas. Wycliffe was set right beyond the village’s boundaries. About a twenty-minute drive. Beyond it was cornfields.

  The university was expansive, expensive and all about academia. The alumni were active and the surrounding community supportive. There were always endowments for new, modern buildings that comingled with the finely weathered structures still standing from the school’s inception in 1902. The university had various graduate colleges within the school, including one of the state’s ten law schools and a school of pharmacy.

  Clara Blackwell’s office was at the back of campus, a little fact I was unaware of when I had Maisie park at the front. She had insisted on driving me out so we could finish discussing plans on how to get information from Danny and Glynis. Our conversation didn’t get that far after I told her that my father was hiring a lawyer. That was all she could talk about the rest of the way out.

  It had taken me a good ten minutes to find Clara’s office, stopping to ask for directions three or four times. Two of my brothers had attended the institution, but the only thing I could manage after their matriculation was how to find the dorm room buildings.

  The snow along the walkways had all been cleared. Pushed back to the edge, it was dirty and crunchy. Piled up like ice on a snow cone. Certainly not anything satisfactory enough to be used for ice cream. I saw a melting snowman next to the sign in front of Stanton Library, snowboards leaning against the front of the University Center and college kids dressed in colorful parkas, hats and scarfs, and some in just sweatpants and hoodies.

  “Hi, Win,” Clara Blackwell said. Her office was in a small building by itself. A square-shaped one-story, it opened to a lobby with lots of flyers and pamphlets, multicolored upholstered chairs and tables with yearbooks and odd periodicals strewn across them. She stepped out of her office some five minutes after her receptionist announced my arrival.

  “Hi, Clara,” I said, and held up the paper bag that had the two pints of ice cream she’d asked me to bring and gave it a little shake.

  “Oh good!” she said. “C’mon in. I was just finalizing everything with our caterer.” She stood back, holding the door open and gesturing for me to come in. I smiled politely and acknowledged her greeting with one of my own as I stepped inside her office. I turned my gaze to take in the rest of the room, and there, sitting in front of her desk, was Ari Terrain.

  He was the caterer.

  “After you said you’d come by here, Win, and Mr. Terrain wanted to schedule a meeting, I thought it might be good for you two to meet each other.” Her head went back and forth between us as she spoke.

  “Hi, Ari,” I said, trying to sound cheerful, giving a quick wave of my hand. Still a little embarrassed from being caught in his office, I tried not to let that show. After all, even though I’d seen Danny and Glynis together, who in my eyes were a better pair of suspects than Ari, he was someone I still considered a part of this whole murder thing I was trying to figure out.

  I eyed him, trying not to give away what I was thinking, and wondered how he could go around acting normal if he really had done something like that.

  Ari licked his lips and ran fingers over his chin, smoothing down the hair of his beard. He rose from his chair to greet me. His winter jacket was draped over his arm and he was dressed casually in brown slacks and a tan sweater.

  “Hi, Win,” he said.

  “Oh wait,” Clara said, a surprised look on her face. “Do you two already know each other?”

  “Sure we do,” I said, putting the phoniest smile I could muster on my face. “My friend Maisie works at his restaurant. Plus”—I glanced at her—“the business community in the village is close-knit.” I used Mrs. Keller’s words. “We are all acquainted.”

  “Oh,” Clara said, and looked between the two of us. “So, will your friend help out serving at the dinner?”

  I didn’t say anything. I knew how much Maisie disliked Ari and I was sure she wouldn’t want to help him out. I wasn’t even sure she was still working at the restaurant. I couldn’t even remember the last time she’d gone into work.

  “No,” Ari said. “I can’t take my people away from the restaurant. I have a special crew.”

  “Oh, of course,” Clara Blackwell said. “Okay.” She rubbed her hands together and took in a breath. “Ari, you’re going to check out the kitchen and the dining area, correct?”

  “Yes.” He gave her a businesslike, courteous smile. “I would like to do that. If that’s okay.”

  “That’ll be fine,” she said. “And what about you, Win? Would you like to see the area where you’ll be working as well?

  “Sure,” I said.

  My plan was to bring our frozen dessert cart, which I had just
ordered, and set it up there. I didn’t think I would need any of the university’s facilities except for maybe a freezer. But it was my first event and I didn’t want to act as if I didn’t know what the pre-event drill entailed, even if I didn’t. If he needed to see the area, I figured I needed to see it, too.

  Clara signed the contracts while Ari waited in the lobby. She assured me that if we needed anything, especially since it was such short notice, the university would be happy to help out.

  We met back up with Ari, and Clara, in her heels, walked with us over to the banquet facility. We passed by the smaller room where the ice cream social would take place the following week, and she pointed it out to me.

  “And we can use any of the ovens in here?” Ari asked. We stood in the middle of the full-service kitchen. His questions made me think that he’d been hired last minute just like us.

  “As I explained to you earlier, and as I told Win before we left the office, everything we have is at your disposal,” Clara said. “We’re just happy you both could accommodate us on such short notice.”

  Ari walked the area a few more times and I followed suit. Then Clara had to go, and left the two of us alone.

  I didn’t have the same feelings of anger for Ari that Maisie held. But after hearing Mrs. Keller’s story and my best friend thinking he had to have been the one to kill Stephen Bayard, I felt some enmity for him. Before, I hadn’t felt anything for him, and my newfound feelings gave me a little courage. Despite what Lew had warned, I decided to question him. It was the perfect opportunity, and I didn’t think Ari would try to harm me. At least not at the university. Too many people around. I didn’t feel he’d confess anything to me either. But I was hoping he might give me something more to go on.

  Thinking like Maisie, I knew I needed more pieces to the puzzle. Lew had said I had to put all the clues together. This was the perfect opportunity to do that.

  “This is good business for your shop,” Ari said. I knew he was making polite small talk, but that wasn’t the way I wanted to steer the conversation.

  “I heard you were hiring criminals to work at your restaurant,” I said.