A Killer Cake

by Jessica Beck

  “I’ll do my best,” I said. Moose nodded in agreement, so I got my cell phone out.

  “Sheriff, I need a favor,” I said, not trying to soften my end of our conversation. I wanted them to know that, at that moment, I was on their side.

  “I don’t have time to do anything for you,” he said gruffly. “I’ve been trying to track this Loretta Jenkins down all over Laurel Landing, and so far, I’m coming up empty.”

  “You’re still in town?”

  “I am, for what little good it’s doing me,” he said.

  “What if I could promise you an interview with her in the next five minutes?” I asked.

  “Go on, I’m listening.”

  “Loretta’s worried about her outstanding parking and traffic tickets,” I said. “She’s afraid if she speaks with you, you’ll arrest her on the spot.”

  “What does she expect me to do, tear them all up if she cooperates with my investigation? I’m not making a deal like that with anybody, Victoria, and frankly, I’m surprised that you’d even ask me to.”

  “You don’t understand. She doesn’t expect you to make them go away. She just doesn’t want you to lock her up because of them.”

  “I don’t care one bit about any of that,” he said. “I’m trying to solve a murder here. I won’t get rid of the tickets for her, but I won’t arrest her because of them, either.”

  “We have your word on that?” I asked, and then held the phone out so that everyone could hear his response.

  “You do.”

  “That’s good enough for me,” I said. “We’re in back of Al’s Tires right now. Do you know where it is?”

  “I’m two minutes away. Don’t any of you go anywhere.”

  He hung up, and I turned to Loretta. “I held my phone away from my ear. Did you hear that? He gave his word.”

  “We heard,” Steve said. “Now I just hope that his word is good.”

  “I guarantee that it is,” I said.

  “Then you’d better hope he keeps his promise,” Steve said.

  “I won’t tolerate threats against my family,” Moose said coolly.

  “I wasn’t threatening you,” Steve said. “I’m not like that anymore.”

  “What changed?” I asked.

  “I stopped drinking. I was a mean drunk, and I got what I deserved. I’m putting that all behind me now, with Loretta’s help. If I’m a little defensive and act a little tough, that’s just what prison does to you.”

  Sheriff Croft showed up less than two minutes later as he pulled up in back of the tire shop. As he got out of his cruiser, he nodded to Moose and me, and then focused on Loretta. “You’re a hard woman to track down.”

  “She didn’t do anything wrong,” Steve said.

  The sheriff glanced at him, and apparently he knew in a heartbeat that Steve had spent some time behind bars. “Who are you, and why is it any of your business?” he asked, his voice flat and without inflection of any kind.

  “I’m her boyfriend,” Steve said.

  “Congratulations. Now, wait over there with them until we’re finished.”

  It was pretty clear that Steve didn’t like being ordered around, and I was afraid for a second that we might have an ugly incident on our hands, but after a moment’s hesitation, he did as he was ordered.

  “This guy’s got an attitude problem,” Steve mumbled as he approached us.

  There was nothing that I could say to that, so I decided to keep my mouth shut. Besides, I wanted to hear the sheriff interview Loretta Jenkins. Who knew? Maybe I could pick up a tip or two along the way.

  “Let me get this straight. You claim to be Roy Thompson’s illegitimate daughter, is that right?” the sheriff asked.

  “I am,” Loretta answered simply.

  “Can you prove it?”

  “My mother told me that it was the truth, and I have no reason to doubt her,” Loretta said a little defensively.

  The sheriff smiled slightly, but then he quickly buried it. “I understand how you must feel, but I’m looking for something a little more concrete than that.”

  “What do you want, a birth certificate or something? I can tell you right now that my mother left that entry blank.”

  “I was thinking more along the lines of a DNA test,” Sheriff Croft said.

  “I’d be happy to submit to one,” Loretta said. “Bring it on.”

  The sheriff jotted something down in his notebook, and then he asked, “Tell me the last time you spoke with the victim.”

  “Could you not call him that?” Loretta asked. “He was a normal person, just like you or me.”

  The sheriff shrugged. “Okay, when did you talk to Roy?”

  “Actually, I never spoke to my father,” she said.

  “If it helps any,” I said from a distance, “she told us the same thing earlier.”

  The sheriff gave me one withering look, and I shut right up.

  “But you were seen near him yesterday at the celebration,” the sheriff said. “As a matter of fact, we have visual evidence of it.”

  “You don’t have a picture of the two of us talking,” Loretta said, “because it never happened. I tried to approach him, but I lost my nerve at the last second.”

  “Tell him about the cake,” I said.

  Again, I got a dirty look, and I decided to try to really focus on not saying anything else for the rest of the interview.

  “What about the cake?” Sheriff Croft asked reluctantly.

  “He ate some of it before he sat down,” she said. “Does that mean anything?”

  “I don’t know yet,” he said.

  “Am I free to go now?” Loretta asked. “I’ve told you everything I know.”

  “Oh, I have a few more questions,” the sheriff said with a smile that I doubt he felt. “It’s better to get these over with right now, don’t you agree?”

  She looked at Steve, who nodded in agreement, though it was clear he was reluctant to agree. “Fine, go on and ask away,” Loretta said.

  Twenty minutes later, Sheriff Croft flipped his notebook closed. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

  “That’s it? We’re finally finished here?”

  “Unless something else comes up,” he said. To my surprise, the sheriff didn’t head for his cruiser, but instead, he walked directly to Steve.

  “Where did you do your time, and what were you in for?” he asked Steve.

  He told him, and then he added, “Sheriff, I paid my debts. I know where I went wrong, and I’m not about to go back in. Not for anything.”

  “Where were you yesterday between nine and one?” he asked.

  “I was here working,” Steve said. “If you don’t believe me, feel free to go ask my boss.”

  “Will he tell me that you were here the entire time? What about your lunch break? How long do you get?”

  “Yesterday two other guys were out sick, so I didn’t even get to eat my sandwich until two. I worked on a dozen cars, right out there in plain sight.”

  “We’ll see,” the sheriff said as he closed up his notebook and then headed into the shop.

  “Will your manager back you up on your alibi?” I asked.

  “You bet he will,” Steve said with the first hint of a grin we’d seen out of him. “He was on my case the entire time, and I seriously doubt that he went five minutes all day without yelling at me to hurry up. I was pretty steamed about it at the time, but it worked out, didn’t it?”

  “You have an alibi, but it doesn’t do me any good,” Loretta said. “I was there when he was murdered.”

  “Don’t worry. They’ll clear you,” he said as he pointed to Moose and me.

  I didn’t know when he’d developed so much confidence in us, but it wasn’t in my best interest to argue him out of it. “We’ll do our best,” I said.

  Loretta clearly looked unhappy about the close grilling she’d just gotten. “That man thinks I did it. I just know it,” she said.

  “He treats everybody that way.
Trust me, you’re not his only suspect,” I said, trying to reassure her, but Moose sent me a warning glance that told me I should drop it.

  Loretta wasn’t interested in that, though. “Really? Like who?”

  “The police don’t share everything with me,” I said, and I saw her hopeful expression start to fade.

  “That’s what I figured,” she said.

  “I have one more question for you myself,” I said.

  Loretta looked as though she were at the end of her rope. “Give me a break, will you? I’m sick of answering other people’s questions.”

  “Just one,” I said.

  “Fine. What is it?”

  “You had an appointment with your father last night. What was it about?”

  “What makes you think I had an appointment with him?”

  “We saw his schedule,” Moose said.

  “It wasn’t the first one I made,” Loretta said. “I cancelled twice before. I kept losing my nerve, you know?”

  “What did you say it was about when you called?” I asked.

  “I made something up, okay? What does it matter now? The man’s dead. He’s kept the last appointment that he’s ever going to.” Loretta glanced into the tire store and saw that the sheriff was talking to another man, presumably the owner. “Listen, I’m not hanging around here so your friend can change his mind about locking me up.” Loretta started to leave, and then she glanced back at her boyfriend. “Are you coming, or what?”

  “I’ll be right with you,” Steve said, and then he turned to me. “If you need anything, and I mean anything, no matter how rough it might be, call me here and leave a message. I’ll get in touch with you.”

  “What exactly are you proposing?” Moose asked.

  “Hey, I can make people cooperate who aren’t in the mood to change their minds. It could come in handy, and I’m not squeamish.”

  I’d heard enough of that. “Thanks for the offer, but I think we’ll be fine on our own,” I said.

  “Steve, come on,” Loretta barked at him, and he shrugged.

  “There’s no talking to her when she’s like this,” he said as he trotted after her. Coming into this encounter, I had been under the impression that Steve was some kind of evil influence over Loretta, a man who might be capable of taking things into his own hands, but he said he was trying to change, and I believed him. It might be easy enough for the homicide to be pinned on him if he’d been at that fair, but his alibi was solid. Loretta, on the other hand, was a study in contradictions. She claimed to be in mourning over her lost father, but that hadn’t affected her self-preservation instincts one iota. There was a hint of tenderness in her, but I had a hunch that there was a great deal more of the pragmatist in her when it came to being suspected of murder.

  Chapter 12

  “What do we do now?” I asked Moose after we left the tire place. The sheriff hadn’t even come back to speak with us after he confirmed Steve’s alibi. So much for earning a little gratitude for arranging the meeting with Loretta.

  “There’s not much else we can do,” Moose said. “I say we go ahead and start back toward the diner.”

  I stood there thinking about the possibilities, and then I said, “I think we should head back to Molly’s Corners instead.”

  “Any reason in particular?” he asked me.

  “I want to take another swing at the mayor,” I replied.

  Moose grinned at me as he asked, “Do you mean that figuratively, or are you going to actually punch him?”

  “We’re not there yet,” I said. “I’m just frustrated by the man’s refusal to see us today. We both know that there was no meeting earlier. He just didn’t want to have to deal with us.”

  “I can’t imagine why not,” Moose said with a smile. “After all, doesn’t everyone like to be considered a murder suspect?”

  “I know firsthand that it’s not all that pleasant an experience, but we have a right to talk to him, don’t we?”

  “I don’t know about a right to do it, but it would be nice if we could have another chat and ask him about his finances, I’m willing to admit that much. Victoria, do you really think that it will do us any good? After all, I haven’t met a politician yet who didn’t think that lying was their fallback position.”

  “You don’t mean that, do you?” I asked.

  “No, of course not. I can be cynical at times, but even I’m not that bad.” As we got into his truck, he said, “I don’t have anywhere else I need to be if you don’t. Let’s go see what our mayoral friend is up to.”

  “I wouldn’t call him our friend,” I said.

  “Neither would I. It was just a figure of speech.”

  When we got to the town hall parking lot in Molly’s Corners, I spotted a car parked in the lot and veered toward it.

  “Where are you going?” Moose asked.

  “This is the mayor’s car,” I said as I approached. Even though it was a chilly day, when I touched the hood of the car, it was still warm. The sun didn’t account for it either, since the day was decidedly overcast. “The hood’s still warm,” I said.

  “So? That just means that he’s been out.”

  “I knew I’d seen this car before. Moose, this is the car that followed us to Laurel Landing. I’m sure of it.”

  He frowned at me, and then my grandfather looked at the car again, as though it had its own secrets to share with us. “Victoria, there must be a thousand cars like this registered in the state of North Carolina. The only thing distinctive about it is the fact that we’re looking at it right now.”

  “It could have been him, though. Are you at least willing to admit that much?”

  Moose shrugged. “I suppose so. If it’s true, what does it mean, though? Why would the mayor refuse to see us, and then follow us to another town?”

  “If he’s guilty of murder, he probably wants to know what we’re up to in our investigation,” I said.

  My grandfather seemed to ponder that for a few moments, and then he said, “I suppose it’s possible, but even it if it’s true, how does it help us?”

  “Moose, if he’s the killer, we can focus more of our attention on him.”

  My grandfather shook his head. “That’s an awfully big if, Victoria, and you know it.”

  “Maybe so, but he fits the bill as a potential killer, doesn’t he?”

  “So do all of our other suspects,” Moose reminded me. “I’m not willing to declare him guilty yet and be done with our investigation without a whole lot more proof.”

  “Okay, but I’m planning to keep an eye on him.”

  “I would expect nothing less of you,” Moose said.

  Unfortunately, if the mayor was indeed in his office, we weren’t going to be able to speak with him, at least not today.

  “If we can’t see him right now, then I’d like to make an appointment for the first thing tomorrow morning,” I said when Helen Parsons told us that we weren’t allowed access that day.

  She tapped a few keys on her keyboard, stared at the screen, and then said, “I’m sorry, but he’s booked up for the rest of this week and halfway into next. The soonest I can get you in to see him is next Thursday at four in the afternoon. Shall I put you down for that time?”

  “No, thank you,” I said.

  Moose smiled at Helen as we left, but it didn’t do either one of us a bit of good.

  Out in the parking lot, I said, “I’m sorry. It looks like we came here for nothing.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” my grandfather said. “In my opinion, it’s more telling that he wouldn’t see us than that warm car hood.”

  I brightened a little. “Does that mean that he goes to the top of our list?”

  “He’s close enough to being there already on his own,” Moose said. “Why don’t we discuss this on our way back to the diner?”

  “That sounds good to me,” I said.

  As we drove, Moose said, “There’s one good thing about all of this driving. It gives us a chance
to talk about our list of suspects.”

  “I don’t know. I kind of enjoy just hanging out with you,” I said.

  “Right back at you,” Moose said. “So, should we get started?”

  I took a deep breath, and then I began assessing our list of our suspects, and how likely it was who the killer really was. “First off, we have to seriously consider Sylvia and her son, Asher. We know that at least one of them was at the festival, and if we can believe Sylvia, they were together the whole time.”

  “Do we know for a fact that Asher inherits Roy’s fortune now that he’s dead?” Moose asked.

  “I don’t even think they know for sure, but it’s not a bad guess, if Roy believed that Asher was his only child.”

  “And I wouldn’t put it past Sylvia to poison her ex-husband in order to insure her son’s fortune. Loretta’s thrown a wrench into those plans, but as far as we know, neither one of the them knew about her before.”

  “As far as we know is right,” I said. “There’s another reason one of them could have killed Roy. They may have wanted to knock him off before he could change his will to one more favorable for Loretta. That gives them another motive.”

  “If you look at it another way, it gives Loretta and Steve a motive as well. We just have Loretta’s word that she and Roy never spoke, but what if she talked to him and told him that she was his daughter? If Roy rejected her, she might kill him out of spite, or pragmatically, before he could write something formally that she was disinherited. Plus, even if Steve can prove that he wasn’t anywhere near Jasper Fork, we know for a fact that Loretta was there.”

  “Wow. So we have pretty solid motives, and opportunities, for three of our suspects,” I said.

  “And we’re not even finished yet,” Moose said. “Let’s not forget the two men with business ties to Roy Thompson. It doesn’t really matter how rich Mayor Mullins and James Manchester both might be, nobody likes getting cheated.”

  “And it sounds as though Roy duped them both,” I added. “We saw how upset James Manchester was at Roy’s office. Let’s not forget that the mayor has been claiming that he could take the hit of losing money, but the sheriff and Kelly both discovered that Mullins doesn’t have nearly as much money as he likes to claim around town. And speaking of Kelly, I have a few suspicions about her myself.”