“That’s ‘cuz you’re a nice person. You would never do it, so you can’t imagine anybody else doing it. You wouldn’t kill anybody, either, and yet, there are people in the world who will kill for their own reasons. I’m glad you’re not one of them, or I wouldn’t be able to ask you out to coffee with me tomorrow.”
I perked up my ears. “Coffee—tomorrow?”
“The DoubleDown Diner. Ten o’clock.”
I beamed at him. “You got it. I’ll be there.”
Chapter 8
I slid into the booth opposite Levi and shrugged out of my coat. “So, here we are.”
He smiled. “Here we are. What are you having?”
“I thought we were here for coffee.”
“Coffee, or whatever you want. Have you had breakfast?”
“Of course. I’m almost ready for lunch. What are you having?”
“I had breakfast, too. I went to Charlie’s for breakfast.”
“Is he all moved into the cottage?”
Levi nodded. “Him and all his stuff. All he’s got to move yet are the wife and kids.”
I gazed out the window. “The inn won’t be the same with kids around the property. I hope you got rid of all that pot.”
“The inn property is clean as a whistle. It’s the safest place in the world for a bunch of kids, and Charlie’s kids can take care of themselves in the woods. You don’t have to worry about them.”
“I’m not worried. I’m just excited to meet them. They’re going to be a great addition to the place.”
“Are you still happy with Charlie as a gardener?”
“I couldn’t be happier.”
“Then why do you look so glum? Come on and spill it.”
I eyed him sidelong. “Is that what you invited me here for—so you could interrogate me?”
“I’m not interrogating. I’m just asking. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see something’s bothering you. I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I didn’t try to figure out what it was.”
“All right. When you put it like that, I guess I have to tell you. I know you’re not going to be happy about it, but what the heck. It’s this case, the case of Max Nash’s death. I’m puzzled, and I can’t figure out what’s going on with it.”
He shook his head and looked out the window.
“I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say I shouldn’t get involved in this, that I should leave well enough alone. I’ve heard it all from you before.”
“You’ve heard it all from me before, but you still won’t do it. You’ve got to keep on poking around until you get in enough trouble that I have to come and bail you out. Isn’t that how it goes?”
“Come on, Levi. That only happened once. That’s no reason it would happen again. I’m just thinking and having a look around. I’m not doing anything.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Of course, I’m sure. You quit following Fisk, and I haven’t followed him since you took over for me.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure about that?”
I squirmed in my seat. “I couldn’t have followed Fisk without realizing it, could I have?”
He refused to look at me.
“Come on, Levi. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“I don’t have any sense of adventure. I gave that up and replaced it with what I like to call horse sense. I grew up and learned it’s better to come home safe at the end of each day than to go running after ghosts and phantoms.”
“Fisk isn’t a ghost or a phantom. He’s a man, and he’s doing some very strange things. Maybe he’s in some kind of trouble.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Just the way he’s acting. He keeps looking over his shoulder for someone following him.”
Levi snorted. “Yeah. Me.”
“Aren’t you the least bit curious to investigate Max’s death? Don’t tell me you believe that nonsense about him choking on his gum.”
“I don’t believe anything. If Sheriff Mills says he choked, I’m quite ready to believe it. I don’t want to think about Max’s death at all, and when I do, I choose to believe he choked. You should do the same thing. You would sleep better at night.”
“I don’t believe you. You’re just as curious about Max’s death as I am. You just don’t want to admit it.”
He did his best to cover a smirk. “And why do you say I’m curious about it? Why would I be curious about a guy choking on his bubble gum.”
“He didn’t choke on his bubble gum, and you know it,” I shot back. “If he had, it would have been stuck so far down his throat the sheriff wouldn’t have found it still in his mouth. It would have been out of sight, and the sheriff never would have known he choked if he hadn’t done an autopsy. He and that incompetent Dr. Brock, who styles himself a medical examiner, probably would have ruled Max’s death another cardiac arrest, just like my aunt Beatrice.”
Levi put his head on one side and studied me through this long diatribe. The least trace of a smile touched his lips. “Are you finished yet?”
“I can’t let this go,” I told him, “and I don’t see how you can let it go, either, when so much points to foul play.”
He shook his head again, but before he could answer, the diner kitchen door smashed back on its hinges. It hit the wall behind it, bounced off, and would have swung shut again if Marty Tucker hadn’t barreled out and caught it before it winged him in the face.
He pushed his way out of the kitchen and came to rest on the checkout counter behind our booth. He propped one hand next to the register and hung his head with a heavy sigh. He cast a glance around the diner and shook his head when he caught me watching him. “Sorry. It’s been one of those weeks.”
I cocked my head to study him. “Are you okay, Marty? You don’t seem like yourself these days.”
He stood up straight and shook himself, but that didn’t make him look any better. His mustache drooped around his mouth. “I’m just tired lately, you know? I keep wondering if that strange phantom is gonna come and get me one of these nights.”
He sidled around the counter and took his place behind the register. He turned his attention to some customers wanting to pay, but when he took their bill, his hands shook. That wasn’t like Marty. He was always so solid and steady.
I faced Levi. “I better get back to the inn. We have that County Commission Annual Meeting, and I have to help Camille prepare. Are you coming back?”
“I’m coming, too. I’m helping Charlie build his famous chicken coop. He says he has a special way of doing it so the chickens have the run of the greenhouse. He says they eat the bugs and fertilize the soil while they scratch and aerate it. I swear I never met anybody like him.” He covered my hand on the bill. “Let me get that.”
I raised my face to his, and I couldn’t stop my eyes shining. “Do you really want to? I don’t mind.”
He took the bill away from me, and the most brilliant smile spread across his face. “I really want to. You’ve got your hands full these days. I want to do something nice for you.”
I got into my coat. “Thanks, Levi. I really appreciate everything you’ve done to help me these last few days, and I really appreciate you recommending Charlie.”
He laughed. “Yeah, you said that already, but if we don’t get back to the inn soon, he’ll have the whole place redecorated. Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
We walked together to the counter, and Levi handed over the bill. Marty’s hands shook then, too. He got our money safely into the till, but after he shut the drawer and gave Levi the receipt, he rubbed his hands together. He knit his fingers, but he couldn’t stop them shaking.
“Thanks for dropping by,” he told Levi.
Levi and I walked out to the parking lot. I glanced at the gas station. Marty hadn’t yet put into action his plan to colonize the station for additional parking. He had, unfortunately, left his dumpster in plain view to attract flies and smell away from his
own premises to blight the station.
I turned my back on the station. Whatever happened to it didn’t concern me. I had my own business to contend with. Once again, Levi was right. I should stick to my knitting and leave well enough alone.
I got into my car when I noticed Levi walking down the street. I rolled down the window to call out, “Do you want a ride? Don’t tell me you’re gonna walk all the way to the inn.”
He shot me a grin. “All right. I’ll take a ride from you. I’m guessing you won’t abduct me and drag me off into the bushes.”
I laughed, and he climbed into the passenger seat. He stole a peek at me under his eyebrows while he buckled his seatbelt. “My mother always told me never to accept rides from strange women.”
“I’m hardly strange to you.”
“Oh, on the contrary,” he joked. “You’re the strangest woman I’ve ever met.”
I revved the engine to hit the Interstate. “I may be strange, but I don’t appreciate insults any more than any other woman.”
He didn’t laugh. “I wasn’t trying to insult you. I meant it as a compliment.”
“Cut it out,” I shot back.
“I mean it, Allie,” he returned. “You’re like no other woman I’ve ever met. I’ve never met a woman so interested in solving mysteries.”
I shot a quick glance his way, but he wasn’t laughing or even smiling. He was deadly serious. “What do you make of Marty acting so strangely? I swear I’ve never seen anything rattle him like that. He’s worried about something. Did you see the way he rubbed his hands together?”
“Maybe Camille finally got something on him he can’t hide from. Maybe the Health Board finally caught up with him. Who knows what bothers a guy like Marty? It could be anything.”
“Did you hear what he said? It started the last few days, and now he’s worried the phantom is gonna get him. Whatever is bothering him, it started at the same time Fisk came to town and Max wound up dead. Maybe Marty knows something. Maybe whatever’s bothering him is involved in this case somehow.”
Levi sat silent for so long I wondered if he ever wanted to talk to me again. He told me to keep my nose out of it, and now I wouldn’t stop talking about the case when I had him trapped in my car where he couldn’t get away.
He gazed out the window at the landscape scrolling by. All at once, he murmured so low I barely heard him, “He’s one of the commission delegates, you know.”
I almost drove off the road spinning around to stare at him. “Who is?”
“Marty Tucker. So is Winnie Macglass.”
“Really? Who are the other delegates?”
“I don’t know them all, but I know a few. There’s Arthur Drilling, Conrad Mills, Roger Powers from NightHawks, and Tom Potter, Eliza’s dad from the hardware store. The other delegates are all from out of town, but it will be some kind of wonderful to have them all in the same room.” He turned to catch my eye. “Don’t you think?”
I gulped hard. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
He turned back to the window. “I’m not thinking anything. I’m just a handyman. I don’t think.”
“You don’t really expect me to believe that, do you? You’ve never been just a handyman, and you’ll never be just a handyman. It doesn’t matter what you do for a job. Whatever it is you’re hiding from, it will always be a part of you, and you will always think.”
He didn’t turn around. “Now who’s throwing insults?”
“I’m not insulting you. I’m saying you’re a thinking man. You’ve got it written all over your face. It’s written there plain as day every time you tell me to mind my own business when I can see you’re just as interested and intrigued by these cases as I am.”
He didn’t say a word. He sat there with the back of his head presented toward me.
“Come on, Levi. When are you gonna spill the beans and tell me who you really are? You know you can trust me.”
He let out a shaky sigh, but he still didn’t turn around. He answered in a small voice I barely recognized. “I really wish I could. If I was going to confide in someone, it would definitely be you, but I can’t do that—not yet, anyway. When I can do it, you’ll be the first to know.”
What could I say to that? I had to let it go. I had to trust him the way I wanted him to trust me. Whatever secret weighed him down, he had to carry it a little longer. I only wished I could help him by lightening his burden.
I pulled up in front of the inn. I wanted to say more, to offer him a lifeline, but he jumped out before I set the parking brake. He hurried across the property toward the grounds. In the distance, I spotted Charlie at work around Glenda’s old greenhouse. In a moment, the two men moved together in their shared work.
I couldn’t watch them. I had to get inside and pick up my own work getting ready for this meeting. The inn would be flooded with big shots from out of town, not to mention some of my closest neighbors and friends from Heather’s Forge.
I wanted to make a good impression. I wanted to blow this meeting out of the water so everybody would know what an exceptional hostess I was and how perfect the inn was for events of this kind. Underneath all that, though, I had to admit a secret motive for looking forward to this meeting.
All the major players in this mystery would be in one place at the same time. All their various idiosyncrasies would come together in one stellar explosion of attitude, innuendo, and competition. Levi strikes again. It would be some kind of wonderful, and I would be Johnny-on-the-Spot to see it all firsthand.
None of that would happen, though, unless I really did blow this meeting out of the water. I got out of my car and slammed the door. I faced the inn and gathered my strength to enter it on my mission of conquest. I would be working on the inn and the case at the same time.
Chapter 9
I shrugged off my coat in my apartment and hung my handbag on the hook behind the door. I had to hurry to help Camille, but when I turned to leave the apartment again, I noticed Pixie on the floor in my living room. That was strange. That cat never came into my quarters. She almost always haunted the stairs or slept in the card room.
I almost walked away when I noticed what she was doing. She held another white and red rag in her claws. She kicked and scratched it the same way she did on the lawn when she played with Charlie.
I bent over. The rag didn’t just look similar to the other piece of fabric she shredded outside. It was the same—exactly the same. A red border stood out clear and distinct along the white edge. I couldn’t mistake it if I tried.
I leaned closer. I tried to take hold of the rag, but Pixie yowled like a banshee. She swiped my hand with her claws and scratched me. I shrieked once before I realized what I was doing. I was trying to take a piece of cloth away from a cat. There must be something like catnip in these things to make her go so crazy for them.
I straightened up when I heard the kitchen door swing open and shut. Camille must be on fire, whizzing back and forth to the dining room the way she did when she got ready for a major event. I should be out there helping her instead of standing here fighting with my cat.
I almost walked away a second time when Pixie launched a mighty assault on her rag. She tore off a large chunk of white fabric and tossed it aside. She spat red threads out of her mouth and sneezed.
I looked again, and this time, I noticed the white satin tag attached to the broken seam. Not only was it bleached white, but perfectly intact except for the spots Pixie ripped it. That rag—whatever it was—was brand new.
I picked up the tag. Yes, the printing stood out clear and fresh on the satin. Acme Commercial Linen. Automotive Shop Towel #88. Then, in different printing below, I read those fateful words, Max’s Garage, Heather’s Forge.
My heart stopped. This rag was no rag at all. It was a brand new, commercial shop towel from Max’s Garage. The cloth Pixie played with in the garden must have come from there, too. How in the world Pixie got hold of them, I would never understand, but the towel g
ave me an idea. The missing piece of the puzzle must be in Max’s Garage.
The question was how was I going to get inside? The sheriff still had the filling station cordoned off. For that matter, how could I get out of preparing for this meeting to go back into town? Camille needed me right now. I couldn’t break away.
Even if I got a chance to go to town to look around the garage, it wouldn’t be right now. I didn’t even have time to clean up Pixie’s mess before I heard the kitchen door again. I had to get control of myself and focus on the task at hand. I dropped the tag and went out to the dining room.
Camille set a big bouquet of flowers in the middle of the buffet table. Rows of chairs lined up across the room for the meeting itself. They faced a platform set up at the far end where microphones and speakers waited for the county commission to come and do its business.
Camille’s eyes flew open when she saw me. “Allie! You’re just the person I’ve been looking for.”
“What can I do to help, Camille?”
“You can run down to the supermarket in Hunterville and get me two packets of cardamom and one of mace. I need them for the cakes, and I don’t have time to order any more before the meeting.”
My pulse quickened. This could be the chance I was looking for to stop by the garage and have a look around, but I didn’t tell Camille that. “I’m happy to do anything to help out, but do I really need to go all the way to Hunterville for that? Isn’t there anywhere we can get your spices in town?”
“I would send you to the diner, but Marty’s been acting strangely lately. I wouldn’t want you to have to get into a long negotiation with him if he decided not to give them to you. Just go straight to Hunterville and come straight back. That’s the easiest way to do it.”
I nodded, deep in thought. “I noticed Marty acting differently when I went to the diner earlier today. What’s wrong with him?”
“I don’t know,” Camille replied, “but I’ve never seen him like this. He’s nervous and twitchy, and do you know something else? He hasn’t placed a bet in over a week.”
The Barrell, Bats and Bubble Gum Page 7
