Confectionately Dead

by Kathleen Suzette

  They both looked perplexed. “No, we don’t know why she would have been here at all,” Angela said.

  “She wasn’t here decorating for you?” Ethan asked, his eyebrows knit together.

  Phil shook his head. “No. She did offer to help, but so did a lot of people. I told her we would have a decorating party on Saturday, and we’d buy everyone pizza as thanks for helping out, but I don’t know why she’d be here today.”

  “Why would the front door be left unlocked?” Ethan asked.

  There were more perplexed looks from Angela and Phil. “I don’t know why it would be unlocked. It shouldn’t have been. Did she fall down the stairs?” Phil glanced back at Ellie’s body.

  Ethan nodded. “Mia was bringing some decorations by and she found her. The door was unlocked.”

  “I’m sorry you had to be the one to find her,” Angela said to me and reached out and gave my arm a squeeze.

  I smiled grimly. “Thanks. It was a shock.”

  We all turned to look when we heard heavy footsteps coming from the foyer. Josh Tate walked through the ballroom entrance and stopped in his tracks, looking in our direction. Then he nodded at Phil and crossed the room, joining us. He wore heavy soled work boots and coveralls. Josh was a local handyman, and I knew him from when he had done some work on my parent’s house. We had sprung a leak in some pipes in the basement and he had fixed it when the regular plumber was unavailable.

  “Phil, Angela,” he said, and then he glanced at Ethan and me.

  “Josh, do you know why the front door would be left unlocked?” Phil asked him. Then he turned back to Ethan. “Josh does gardening and maintenance at both of the party houses. We had him fix a light up in the attic yesterday.”

  Josh’s face went white at the question. “The door was open?”

  “Yes, the door was open and the lights were off when Mia stopped by to drop off some ornaments,” Ethan said.

  Josh looked decidedly uncomfortable as he dodged Ethan’s gaze. He rubbed his hands on his coveralls and looked at Phil. “I didn’t leave the door unlocked. I was here working on the light when my wife called. She was having an emergency—she’s pregnant, and she thought she was going into labor, and I had to go. She’s only six months along,” he said. “I thought I locked the door, but when I got to the hospital in South Lake Tahoe, when I thought about it, I wasn’t sure if I actually had. I ran out of here so fast. We didn’t get home until two in the morning and I was beat. I didn’t know for sure if I had left it unlocked, and at that hour, I decided to wait until morning to check on it.”

  “And was it unlocked when you checked this morning?” Ethan asked. He had a notebook out and was furiously jotting down what Josh was saying.

  He snorted and shook his head. “No. I slept in until after eight and I completely forgot to check. It was late when we got home. I just remembered it a while ago and that’s why I’m here now. When I saw all the police out front, I came inside to see what was going on.”

  Phil scowled. “You left the door unlocked? Anything could have happened here. And look what did happen!”

  “Hey, it’s not my fault. If you had a pregnant wife that was going into labor, you’d have done the same thing. I don’t even know for sure if I did leave it unlocked. How do you know whether someone broke in or not? I figured I must have locked it.”

  “Well you figured wrong, didn’t you?” Phil asked. His nostrils flared and his cheeks turned red.

  Angela looked perplexed at her husband’s anger. “Now, Phil, let’s not get upset. We don’t know for sure what happened yet.” She put a hand on his arm to steady him.

  Phil sighed and looked at Ethan. “Now what does this mean? Am I responsible for someone wandering into my ballroom and falling down the stairs?”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Ethan cautioned. “Let’s find out all the details first.”

  Josh snorted. “Well, I’m not going to be responsible for someone wandering in here and fooling around and getting themselves killed. Anyone with any sense wouldn’t have come in here on their own,” he said.

  Ethan turned to Josh. “I’ll need the time you arrived and the time you left.”

  Josh filled him in on everything he had done when he arrived the previous day. I wasn’t sure what to make of his attitude. Sure, his wife was having an emergency, and he had been in a hurry to leave and he had probably left the door unlocked. But now there was a dead body in the house he had left unlocked. If I had been in his shoes, I would feel terrible and would be more concerned with someone dying than trying to defend myself.

  “I am not going to be held responsible for his actions,” Phil said when Josh had finished giving Ethan the details. “It isn’t my fault he left the door unlocked.”

  Angela looked distinctly uncomfortable at her husband’s response to the situation. “Phil, let’s just see what Ethan and the other officers find out.”

  Josh looked up at the ceiling, rolling his shoulders. “It’s not my fault someone wandered in here and died. Who is it, anyway?”

  “Ellie Adams,” Ethan said. “Do you know her?”

  He chuckled. “Sure I do. She stiffed me on a job I did at her house. She had no business being in here. If she tripped and fell, that’s on her.”

  Ethan’s jaw tightened, and I knew Josh’s attitude was wearing on his nerves. I slipped away from the small group and made my way toward the kitchen to see if there was anything interesting in there. If Ellie had just wandered into the party house and decided to decorate on her own, it didn’t make sense. Who wandered into an empty house and began decorating?

  I pushed open the swinging door that led to the kitchen and looked around. The kitchen was your standard issue commercial kitchen done in stainless steel. It was clean and orderly. The last event held here was almost a month earlier when one of the local churches had held a Thanksgiving dinner for the less fortunate. Their own church building was too small to hold everyone, which included anyone that didn’t have a place to go for the holiday.

  I pulled the refrigerator door open, but it was empty. Why would Ellie stop in and decorate? Laura said she hadn’t come home last night. Had she died yesterday or this morning? And how had the lights been turned off if she had had an accident? It was impossible. I closed the refrigerator door and took a step back, knocking something with my boot. I looked down as it rolled across the floor. Stooping down, I picked up a small red glass ball ornament like the kind you would put toward the top of the Christmas tree. The ones that were on the floor near Ellie’s body were larger versions of this one. I held it up. The only Christmas decorations in the ballroom was the greenery someone had begun to hang at the top of the stairs and the ornaments near Ellie’s body.

  Chapter Five

  I stood on my parent’s porch and took a deep breath. I could have just walked in, but I was trying to gather myself. I had left Ethan at the party house, trying to sort out what had happened to poor Ellie. He wouldn’t be home until late tonight and I didn’t want to be alone. My parent’s little dog, Millie, came to the other side of the door and sniffed around. When she began scratching at the door and whining, I pushed it open.

  She yelped and then stood on her hind legs. “Hi, Millie,” I said, leaning over and scratching her ears as she danced around my feet and jumped up on my leg. Millie was a schnauzer and chihuahua mix and was an older girl with a graying muzzle. She had belonged to a former neighbor but was now happily living with my parents.

  “I thought I heard someone out here,” Mom said, appearing from the kitchen. “You’re just in time for supper.”

  I brightened at the mention of food. I hadn’t thought I was hungry, but the smell of something wonderful emanating from the kitchen reminded me that I was. It had been a long day, and I was suddenly famished.

  “It smells good. What did you make?” I asked and followed her to the kitchen.

  “Chicken and dumplings. I made a salad, too,” she said.

  “My favorite
,” I said. “Hi Dad.” I gave my father a hug and smiled at my sister. She was doing her best to look happy and failing at it.

  “Hi Punkin,” he said as I kissed his cheek. In fitting with the Halloween theme of the town, Dad had called me Punkin, and Christy Goblin for as long as I could remember. “You’re just in time.”

  “So, what brings you to our neck of the woods, Mia?” Mom asked as she passed the salad to my sister.

  I removed my coat and hung it on the back of my chair. “I just wanted to stop in and say hello,” I said, picking up the tureen of chicken and dumplings. “It feels like I haven’t been here in ages.”

  Dad inspected my face. “Are you sure you’re okay? You look a little peaked. Is your mother working you too hard down at the candy store?” He chuckled and took a sip from his glass of milk.

  “I’m not peaked,” I said, ladling some of the delicious soup into my bowl. Chicken and dumplings were one of my favorite comfort foods and I was glad I had picked tonight to drop by.

  “You do look peaked,” Christy said, suddenly looking interested.

  I sighed. “I am not peaked, but if you must know, when I dropped off that box of ornaments at the party house for you Mom, the front door was unlocked. I went inside to leave the decorations and Ellie Adams was there. She was dead.”

  “What?” Mom exclaimed. “What happened to her?”

  “Oh no,” Dad said. “Did she have an accident?”

  “It looked like it at first. Like maybe she fell down the stairs. But the lights were off and if she fell down those stairs, she was not getting up to turn the lights off.”

  “How awful,” Christy said. “You don’t suppose she might have fallen in the dark, do you? Maybe she didn’t want to turn the lights on and alert anyone that she was in there when she shouldn’t have been?”

  “I guess she could have, but those steps are so steep, it wouldn’t be very smart to climb them in the dark,” I said. “I don’t think anyone would try navigating steep stairs in the dark if they weren’t very familiar with them.”

  “Does Laura know?” Mom asked.

  “Ethan was going to talk to her when I left. I feel bad. She was in the candy store earlier today,” I said and took a bite of the tasty goodness that is my mother’s chicken and dumplings.

  “Ellie and Laura were a couple of years ahead of me in school. They fought like cats and dogs back then,” Mom said, reaching for the chicken and dumplings.

  “Really? I always thought twins had some special bond or something. What did they fight over?” I asked.

  “Everything. They were both pretty girls and back then you didn’t see twins as often as you do these days, so they were popular in school. We had another set of twins, Elizabeth and Mary Johnson, but they were fraternal twins and they didn’t look that much alike. Ellie and Laura got all the attention for being identical, but it seemed like Laura was a little jealous of her sister. Ellie was just more outgoing while Laura was quieter.”

  “Really?” I asked, surprised. “I can’t imagine Laura being quiet.”

  “That’s true,” Mom said. “She does seem to have outgrown that trait. But back then, she was shy.”

  “I remember the Bostwick twins,” Dad said, smiling. “Every boy in class wanted to date one of those girls. Everyone thought there was something special about them because they were identical twins.”

  “Did you date either of them, Dad?” Christy asked.

  He chuckled. “No, your mother was the only girl I had my eye on.” He winked at her and Christy and I rolled our eyes.

  “Good thing. I wouldn’t want either of them to be my mother,” I said. “Did you spend much time around either of them after you got out of school?”

  He shook his head. “Not much. I’d see them around town from time to time, or they’d come into the candy shop. I know Ellie was married to Chris Adams, but they got divorced a few years ago.”

  “It was a bitter divorce,” Mom said. “Ellie once told me that she knew she had made a mistake in marrying him almost immediately, and wanted to divorce him, but she found out she was pregnant and so she stayed. Back then, people didn’t get divorced as easily as they do these days.”

  “Did she say what made her think she had made a mistake?” I asked.

  “No, she just said she was sorry she had married him. I guess after her daughter was grown, she decided she’d had enough, and she left him.”

  “Does Ethan think she was murdered?” Dad asked as he ladled soup into his bowl.

  “Yes, that’s what he thinks. He’ll have to investigate, of course. We really need to keep all of this to ourselves though.”

  Christy nodded. “Poor thing. Poor Laura. Her twin is dead, and she’s left all alone.”

  “That’s what I was thinking. Earlier today she said she could get along without her, but I think it will be a different story now that she’s dead,” I said.

  “We’ll have to drop by and see how she’s doing in a few days,” Mom said.

  “Yes, we need to do that.” I looked at my sister as she helped herself to the salad. “How are you doing, Christy?”

  She sighed. “Okay, I guess. I talked to John earlier, and he says he’s confused.”

  “Confused?” Dad snorted. “What’s to be confused about? He’s married and married people work through their problems.”

  “So maybe that’s good news?” I asked, ignoring Dad’s comment. “Maybe he’s reconsidering.”

  She shrugged. “I doubt it. I just think he’s not sure who’s going to make his dinner and do his laundry, and that’s what’s giving him pause right now.”

  “He should have already been doing both yours and his laundry and cooking at least some of the time,” I pointed out. “Tell me you don’t do it all on top of a full-time job.”

  She shook her head. “Not John. His mother spoiled him, and he expected the same from me.”

  “Really?” I asked. I hadn’t realized John wasn’t much into household chores.

  She nodded. “He doesn’t do much around the house. He doesn’t do much in the yard either, if you want to know the truth.” She sighed and stared at her bowl.

  I had always liked John, but now that Christy was opening up about her marriage, I might reconsider. I couldn’t understand a man that wouldn’t do at least some of the chores around the house when his wife worked too.

  “Well, maybe some counseling will help him to see that he needs to help out with the house,” Mom suggested.

  “I don’t think he’s going to do anything to save our marriage,” Christy said sadly. “I really don’t. The sooner I get used to that, the better.” She took a big bite of a dumpling and looked away.

  As much as I worried about my sister and what she was going through, I wondered if I had even known my brother-in-law. It seemed out of character for him to suddenly decide he wanted a divorce. And now it seemed that the work share had been inequitable in the marriage. I didn’t think I could deal with that. It wasn’t that I thought everything should be split down the middle, it was just that if one partner was stuck doing all the dirty work, then that partner was bound to feel resentful at some point.

  “Things will work out,” Mom whispered.

  Christy nodded, but there were tears in her eyes and it broke my heart. Watching my sister go through this was going to be painful.

  Chapter Six

  It was two days later when Mom and I stopped in to see Laura. Knowing she had a sweet tooth and loved my mother’s fudge, I put some in a gift box to take to her.

  Laura and Ellie lived in a large old house that looked like it had been built at the turn of the previous century. It was a rambling two-story wood structure, and although it wasn’t actually a Victorian, it had similar features with its two balconies and wrap-around porch.

  We waited for Laura to come to the door after knocking. The day had turned cloudy and there was a chill in the air. I hoped it wouldn’t storm. When the door swung open, Laura gasped, then smiled. �
�Well, Mia, Ann, how nice to see you.” She glanced away and then looked back at us.

  “Good morning, Laura,” Mom said. “We heard about Ellie and we thought we’d drop by to tell you how sorry we are. She’ll be greatly missed.”

  “I’m so sorry for your loss, Laura,” I added.

  She gave a curt nod of her head and stood back. “Would you like to come in a minute?”

  “Yes,” I said, and we followed her into the living room.

  Laura’s house was large and spacious with dark hardwood floors and faded oriental rugs strewn about the room. The furniture was old and threadbare in spots, but it seemed to fit the house. We sat on the loveseat, across from Laura. The coffee table was made of dark walnut and had scuffs and dings in it, but it was a solid piece of furniture that had withstood the test of time.

  “I think I’m still in shock,” Laura said, nodding and looking down at her hands folded in her lap. “One doesn’t expect to get news like that.” She was dressed in a housecoat and her hair was slipping from its bun.

  “No, of course not,” Mom said. “I’m so sorry this happened. Ellie was such a sweet woman. I’ll miss seeing her come into the candy store and chatting with her.”

  She wrinkled her nose then nodded. “She was sweet. She once bought nine boxes of girl scout cookies because the girls were standing in a freezing rain in front of the grocery store. She felt sorry for them. Of course, yours truly ended up eating nearly every cookie. Ellie didn’t have much of a sweet tooth. She only went into the candy store to buy my favorite candy for me. That’s why I’ve always carried a bit more weight than she did.” She chuckled sadly.

  “That was a very sweet thing for her to do,” I said. “We brought you some fudge.” I held out the gift box to her.

  Her eyes lit up. “Well, isn’t that sweet of you? You know how I love your mother’s fudge. It’s truly the best I’ve ever had. My mother used to make fudge, but it could never compare to yours, Ann.” She turned to my mother and smiled.

  “Thank you, Laura. I enjoy making it as much as you enjoy eating it.”