The Barrell, Bats and Bubble Gum

by N. L. Cameron

  I studied her in the glare of the overhead lamp. That was the second reference in one morning to Sheriff Mills and his less-than-exemplary policing skills. If he wouldn’t or couldn’t investigate these strange incidents, someone else should.

  Chapter 2

  Viki’s remarks haunted me all the way back to the inn. Something weird was definitely going on, even if it didn’t have anything to do with Max’s death. I never could let go of a mystery once I encountered it, and this one was no different.

  I got back to the inn around five o’clock to find Camille Hayes, the cook, setting up the dining room for dinner. Ever since her smashing success at the Christmas party two months ago, I’d let her continue her own catering work out of the inn’s kitchen. She was never happier and so much more cooperative with everything I wanted her to do, I wondered why I took so long to come up with the idea.

  I only made her keep detailed records of the money she spent on supplies for her catering jobs so she didn’t cost me too much, and she happily did that, too. As long as she got the credit and earned the profit from running her own business, she was happy as a clam.

  She even smiled at me when I came in. I surveyed the table set with fine china and bright polished silver. “There are only ten places, Camille, but we have eleven guests. Where’s the other place?”

  “Mr. Van Steamburg told me he wouldn’t stay for dinner,” she replied. “He said he’s going into town later, and he would pick up a bite at the diner.”

  “That’s odd. He didn’t mention it to me. He should get a refund for the money he spent on meals. I better go up to his room and talk to him about it.”

  “He’s not in his room,” Camille told me. “He left.”

  My head whipped around. “Left! What do you mean?”

  “He came downstairs about half an hour ago. You weren’t back yet. He told me not to set a place for him for dinner, and he set off that way, across the parking lot toward town.”

  I gazed through the window in the direction she pointed. “That is weird.”

  “He wouldn’t stop ranting about Max and the sheriff and his car and everything. He’s mad as a hornet, and I don’t blame him.”

  I drifted out of the dining room, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Fisk. Who in his right mind would turn down a gourmet meal he paid a lot of money for to eat at the DoubleDown Diner? Fisk presented such a curious figure, I couldn’t help wondering if he had some other reason for going into town.

  I could understand guests driving into town in their cars, but Fisk had to walk. The twelve-mile trip would take him hours, and he couldn’t expect much more than the basics when he got to Marty Tucker’s diner.

  I couldn’t stand around dwelling on Fisk, though. I had work to do, and I did it for the rest of the evening. I checked guests in and out. I worked on my website design and typed out testimonials from satisfied customers. I loaded pictures from my digital camera onto my hard drive to add to the site.

  Working on the inn’s web presence always gave me a massive surge of energy. I never loved a job as much as this in my life, and I wound up working on it until much later than I usually stayed up.

  My eyelids started to feel gluey around eleven-forty-five before I finally admitted to myself I needed some sleep. I saved all my work and got off the computer. I set the laptop on my desk and kicked off my shoes when I heard the front door open out in the hall.

  In the blink of an eye, I snapped wide awake. Who could be sneaking in or out of the Barrell Inn at this time of night? I looked out my apartment window to see a short rotund figure standing on the front porch. It was Fisk.

  He tilted his head back to gaze up at the sky. He wore the same dirty brown trench coat I saw on him before, but in the dark, it looked black. As I crouched behind the casement, the wind swept off the mountains, caught the coat’s tails, and whipped them out on either side. They flapped under his arms, exactly like the wings of a huge bat.

  In front of my eyes, he took a black wad of something out of his pocket and pulled a fleece balaclava over his head. It completely obscured his features so no one would know who he was. Then he set off on a bee line for town.

  My heart raced in my chest. So, Fisk was the mysterious lurker, and here he was, headed into town not fifteen minutes before midnight. What was he up to? Why was he doing everything possible to cover his identity under that mask?

  Okay, so it was cold and windy out there at night. Any reasonable person would want to stay warm, but any reasonable person would be in bed right now, not haunting Heather’s Forge in the middle of the night.

  I couldn’t let this discovery slip. I had to find out what he was doing and why, and the only way to do that was to follow him. I stuck my feet in my shoes and pulled on my coat, but the minute I got outside, I wished I had a balaclava to put on, too. The wind nipped my nose and made my eyes run, but I couldn’t let Fisk get away.

  I hurried down the road. I couldn’t follow him in my car, so I hovered behind him until he got far enough ahead I could make a dash to keep him in sight.

  I followed him all the way to town, and then the really strange antics started. Just as Viki said, he went first to the graveyard. He hunted between the graves and even stopped to crouch near one of them. I hid behind a tree where I could get a decent glimpse of what he was doing, but he didn’t deface or disturb the grave in any way. That was one mystery solved.

  Next, he went to the alley behind the diner. He lifted metal trash cans aside and peered under them, but other than that, I couldn’t see any reason for his being there. After that, he strode at a rapid pace between several buildings, but he didn’t stop.

  At one point, he took a large sheet of paper out of his pocket and inspected it. He clicked on a hand flashlight to see the large page. It looked to me like a map of the town. Then he clicked the light off again and folded it away.

  I followed him all night long. He hiked into the mountains. That guy must have been incredibly strong, and I wished more than once I could go home to my own bed. I didn’t dare let him out of my sight, though. The sky lightened before he came back to town. He hung around the abandoned garage for five minutes before he made his way back to the inn.

  I was never so happy to see the Barrell Inn when I finally set my foot on the hollow front porch. I almost collapsed on the step when the door flew open. Levi Stokes barged out and leveled me with his piercing eyes. “Where have you been? The whole inn is in an uproar.”

  I sank into the nearest wicker chair in the sleepy sunshine. “I’m glad you’re here, because I want to talk to you about something.”

  He cocked his head to one side. “I hope it’s about that interview you had this morning with Charlie Burgess, the young guy who applied for the gardener position. Please tell me that’s what you want to talk to me about.”

  My head shot up. “Oh, no! I forgot all about his interview.”

  He nodded. “I thought so. I don’t even want to ask where you were or what you were doing.”

  “Come on, Levi. It’s just an interview, and I have something more important to discuss with you right now.”

  “What could be more important than hiring a new gardener to take over for Nathaniel? How long do you expect me to fill in? I already have a job. I don’t need another one. I’m doing you a favor by filling in, and you keep missing these interviews. Charlie’s a good guy. I just got finished talking to him for more than two hours while he waited for you to show up, but he couldn’t wait any longer so he left. He’ll be a good gardener. All you have do is interview him.”

  “I’m sorry. I’ll call him and reschedule. Now can we talk about something else?”

  His eyes smoldered down at me. “What is it? What do you want to talk to me about?”

  “I followed Fisk Van Steamburg into town last night. He’s the one who’s been lurking around at all hours giving people the shivers.”

  He went stiff and cold. “Don’t tell me. I don’t even want to know.”

 
I pretended not to hear him. “Viki Morgan told me…”

  “I don’t want to know what Viki Morgan told you. That woman couldn’t hold a civil conversation with a garden snail if her life depended on it.”

  I bit back a smile. “She said there might be some connection between Fisk hunting around town and Max Nash’s death.”

  “I heard Max Nash’s death was an accident. I heard the sheriff isn’t even bothering to investigate it. Max choked on a piece of gum.”

  I nodded. “I heard that, too, but don’t you think it’s a little beyond coincidence that he turned up dead, just when some strange person is lurking around the town in the small hours?”

  He closed his eyes. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I don’t like where this conversation is going at all.”

  “Fisk was the person who found Max dead, and he heard Sheriff Mills say the crime scene didn’t sit right with him. He feels there’s something wrong, but he can’t investigate without more evidence. Someone has to investigate, and when I saw Fisk leave the inn last night, I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.”

  He set his fists on his hips. “Is this conversation going somewhere?”

  “I need you to help me investigate Fisk. I can’t follow him at night and run the inn during the day.”

  “You got that right. You can’t. You’ve been out one night, and already the inn is suffering.”

  “You have to help me, Levi,” I exclaimed. “I need you to help me follow Fisk and find out what he’s up to.”

  He smacked his lips. “You can’t be serious. You can’t expect me to get involved in this cockamamie operation of yours. What’s the use in following him? If you want to know what he’s doing, why don’t you come right out and ask him?”

  “Oh, I couldn’t do that. That would blow our whole cover.”

  He threw up both hands. “Look, Allie. I’ve bent over backward to help you out since Nathaniel got arrested. I’ve worked two jobs around here, and you haven’t made any attempt to hire a replacement gardener. If you can’t run the inn by day and trail Fisk at night, what makes you think I can?”

  I regarded him with my head on one side. “I didn’t think of that.”

  “That’s not the only thing you didn’t think of.”

  He stepped off the porch toward the gardens, but I couldn’t let it go. I jumped out of my chair and caught him by the sleeve. “Please, Levi. I need your help. If Fisk had something to do with Max’s death, we have to find out and alert the sheriff. Sheriff Mills won’t be able to make a move until we do.”

  His shoulders stiffened. “How many times do I have to tell you? It’s not your job to investigate crimes—even if there was a crime to investigate—which there isn’t. It’s Sheriff Mills’ job to determine if Fisk had anything to do with Max’s death, not yours, and since he’s already determined Max choked, there’s nothing more for you to do or say. Your job is running the Barrell Inn, and that’s what you should do. You shouldn’t go running all over these mountains in search of a mystery that isn’t there.”

  “Sheriff Mills only made that determination because he didn’t know a stranger was snooping around town in the dead of night. Maybe if he knew that and some of the other things Fisk is up to, he would be more inclined to investigate.”

  Levi shook his head and looked away, but I couldn’t let it go. “Look, Levi. Everybody in town is worried about the strange figure haunting the streets. Viki spun my head full of all kinds of wild tales about a ghost haunting the graveyard and all kinds of stuff. Now Max is dead, and even Sheriff Mills himself said the case doesn’t sit right. Don’t you think we ought to at least tell him it’s Fisk that’s doing the haunting?”

  “We aren’t doing anything. I’m not part of this.”

  “Max was working on Fisk’s car when he died,” I pointed out. “Maybe Fisk had some motive.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me and let out a long breath. “Are you listening to yourself right now, Allie? If Max was working on Fisk’s car, that’s a pretty strong motive to keep him alive, don’t you think? Fisk has done nothing but complain ever since Max died that now he can’t get his car fixed. Why on Earth would he kill the only man in town who could get him back on the road and on his way to the rest of his life?”

  “Please help me, Levi. Just help me find out what Fisk is up to and I’ll handle the rest. I’ll get in touch with Charlie and get him started here as soon as possible. Then you can have the days free to sleep and follow Fisk at night.”

  He set his jaw in a hard line. “You’re out of your mind. You know that, don’t you?”

  I lowered my eyes to the ground. I couldn’t ask again. If he turned me down now, he would never change his mind.

  He sighed. “All right. I’ll do it, but not because I think Fisk is guilty of anything. I’ll do it to keep you out of trouble.”

  I did my best not to jump up and down. “Thank you, Levi. I won’t forget this.”

  He looked more unhappy than ever. “No, you won’t, because I won’t let you. You’re gonna make this up to me. Do you understand that?”

  I bit back a grin. “I can’t wait.”

  “So, what exactly do you want me to do? Just follow him around and see what he does? It sounds like you already did that.”

  “He’s been out there every night. He might do something different, and I won’t be there to see what it is.”

  He groaned. “I must be out of my mind to go along with this.”

  “You said I was out of my mind, so we must be two of a kind. Just keep him in sight and let me know if he does anything suspicious or out of the ordinary.”

  “Traipsing all over town in the dark is pretty out of the ordinary.”

  “That’s what I mean. If we’re not going to report him, we better know what he’s doing, at least.”

  Levi straightened up. “We can’t report him without something a lot more concrete to report him for. This is still a free country. A man can walk the streets whenever he wants. If he wants to look around the town in the dark, no one can arrest him for that.”

  “We won’t find anything to connect him to Max’s death if we don’t look for it.”

  His head swung up. “He’s not connected to Max’s death. If following him is the best way to convince you of that, I’ll do it. Now go inside and get some sleep. You’re not pulling another all-nighter as long as I’m around. You might fall asleep behind the wheel, and then where would we be?”

  I paused in the middle of turning away. I studied his rugged features the way I did so many times when he said something that struck me the wrong way. “You’re certain of that, aren’t you? Something makes you certain Fisk isn’t connected to Max’s death. What is it?”

  “It’s nothing. It’s just my gut. Now skedaddle. I don’t want to see you out of your room until you’ve got another interview scheduled with Charlie. Understand?”

  I gave him a mock salute and marched up the steps. “Yes, sir.”

  I went to my apartment, and Levi disappeared into the gardens, but I couldn’t get his words out of my mind. He knew something. Even if he had no solid reason to believe Fisk was innocent, something told him so. He’d learned somewhere to trust his gut, and he knew, against all odds, that Fisk had nothing to do with Max’s death.

  If only I had something like that, I wouldn’t spend so much time dwelling on these cases, but maybe it came with practice. Maybe he learned somewhere to listen to that small voice inside him. Would I ever gain that kind of certainty?

  Chapter 3

  I went into my apartment like a good soldier. The minute I put my feet up on the couch, I fell into the deepest sleep I could remember in a long time. I must have been really tired after last night’s escapade.

  I didn’t wake up until after dark, and when I washed my face and combed my hair, I found no one in the public areas around the inn. Everyone had retired to their rooms after dinner. I heard Camille washing dishes in the kitchen but nothing else.

  I wen
t back to my apartment, but when I opened my laptop, I couldn’t concentrate on the website. My mind kept drifting back to the murder case—I mean, the strange death case. Just because Max had gum in his mouth didn’t mean he choked. Did that incompetent Doctor Brock do a full autopsy? Did the sheriff even order one?

  You would think after the botch-up with my aunt’s remains, they would learn a lesson, but I couldn’t trust either of them to conduct a decent investigation into the cause of death. Even I, little old Allie Garrett, knew enough about choking and suffocation to know what to look for in a dead body. I didn’t watch every episode of CSI for nothing. I bet neither the doctor nor the sheriff could say that.

  I fell asleep again around nine o’clock after dwelling on the case for two hours, but I didn’t sleep very well. When the sun peeked over the hill at six-thirty, I heard Fisk run up the porch steps. I stayed in my apartment until he headed upstairs to his room. Then I scampered out to wait for Levi on the porch.

  “Did you find anything?” I asked when he emerged from the forest. “Did you see him do anything?”

  Levi rubbed his eyes. “He didn’t do anything. He hunted around town. He took a walk in the woods along the old mining track. That’s all he did—and he spent a lot of time gazing at the garage. He must really want his car back. He hates it here, and I don’t blame him. Now I’m going to bed. Don’t forget to call Charlie, because we’ve got all those dead leaves to clean out of the storm drains, and I sure won’t be able to do it.”

  I let him walk away into the trees toward the barn where he kept an apartment on the top floor. I wouldn’t tell him for all the tea in China that I already forgot about interviewing Charlie.

  I went back into the inn and dialed the number. I rescheduled Charlie’s interview for the next day. I even told Charlie over the phone I was looking forward to meeting him at last. That should give him some idea how much I wanted to hire him for this job.

  After the phone call, though, I couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t back away from the case of Max’s death. Wouldn’t Sheriff Mills want to know what we found? Wouldn’t he want to know there was some cause to suspect Max didn’t die of accidental choking? Of course, he would.