Pineapple Puppies

by Amy Vansant

  Chapter Twenty

  With Mina’s direction, Charlotte walked through the back door, located at the end of the hall she’d just been in. Someone could have sneaked in the back door and up the stairs unseen while Mina was talking to the girls in the kitchen. It would have been fairly easy.

  The question was, who would think to do that? Who would hear he’s alive screamed from the house and think, well then, I should probably run up the back steps and brain him with a rabbit?

  Maybe it was someone already in the hallway? Maybe someone heard that he’d fallen as Mina was telling the girls and gone up to see. Maybe, finding him supine, they’d grabbed the rabbit in an opportunistic fit of anger and…thunk.

  Well, according to the autopsy report, thunk thunk.

  Charlotte spotted a turquoise blue bike leaning against the side of a long row of stalls. She found a young man in the third stall down, cherry-picking lumps of horse dung from the hay bedding inside.

  “Todd?”

  The boy looked up. He was a muscular kid, built thick with a floppy mop of yellow hair that hung over his eyes. He wasn’t bad-looking, with high cheekbones and a square jaw, but he had a crooked nose and a collection of tattoos that suggested he probably hadn’t made a lot of plans beyond his immediate future.

  “Yeah?”

  “Were you here the day they found Mr. Miller?”

  He stopped picking and leaned on the pitchfork. “Boy, you get right to the point.”

  “If I was getting right to the point I’d just ask you if you killed him.”

  Todd barked a laugh. “You’re funny. You sayin’ he was murdered?”

  “No, we’re just making sure all the bases are covered.”

  “You a cop?”

  “Not exactly. I’m a private investigator.”

  “Oh yeah? Who hired you?”

  “Mina.”

  Todd nodded and returned to mucking the stall. “Well, I didn’t kill him.”

  “Were you here the day he died?”

  “Yeah, but not when it happened. I worked that morning and was long gone by the time they found the old man.”

  “Did you see anyone that morning?”

  Todd stopped working again and leaned the apple-picker against the wall. He walked out of the stall and pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket. Eyeing Charlotte, he lit one.

  “How old are you?”

  She scowled. “Does that matter?”

  “Not to me.” He leered and paused to be sure she’d caught his meaning.

  So subtle. She stared at him until he shrugged and continued.

  “Lyndsey lives above the stalls here. I saw her first thing that morning. Sometimes we have coffee.”

  He smirked and waggled his eyebrows.

  Charlotte did her best not to react to his transparent bragging. “Do you and Lyndsey have coffee every morning?”

  He shrugged. “If she needs coffee. Sometimes we have it more than once. She likes caffeine.”

  Okay. Enough of this.

  Charlotte decided to change the implied subject. Any affair Todd and Lyndsey might or might not be having probably had nothing to do with what happened to Miller. Killing him wouldn’t do anything for them. In fact, killing him could lose them both their jobs.

  “Did you see the twins that morning?”

  Todd took a drag of his cigarette and nodded. “Yeah. They had a show that day. They were all here at four o’clock in the morning braiding the horses and shining their boots and all that fancy crap they do.”

  “So the three of them went to a show?”

  “Took the two thoroughbreds. Lyndsey drives the trailer.”

  “Were you here when they got back?”

  He shook his head. “Nah. I usually finish up my stuff by one.”

  “How did you find out about Miller?”

  “One of the landscapers told me when I got here the next day. Then I read about it in the paper like everyone else.”

  “Is the landscaper here?”

  “No. Today’s not their day.” Todd looked up at the house. “Did I hear the puppies? Did they find them?”

  Charlotte nodded. “They’re back.”

  “So who took them? That’s who killed the old man, right?”

  “Maybe.”

  Charlotte pulled one of her cards from the pocket on the back of her phone case.

  “This is my card. Let me know if you hear anything that might be useful.”

  Todd pinched the card between his thumb and forefinger and held her gaze. “Sure. I’ll give you a ring.”

  Ick.

  “Yep.” She let go of the card and turned to head back to the house.

  “Maybe we can get some coffee,” he called after her.

  Subtle as a sledgehammer.

  She kept walking. As she passed one of the Dutch-doored stalls she felt eyes on her and spotted a face peering at her from inside the barn.

  One of the twins was staring at her. She paused.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi,” said the girl.

  The lack of a sneer led Charlotte to believe it was Gemma.

  “You were here the other day.”

  Charlotte nodded and walked up to lean on the half-door. The horse in the stall glanced at her and then returned to watching its food bucket as if staring at it would make sweet feed appear.

  “Is your sister in there with you?”

  “Payne’s out with some friends.”

  I was right. Gemma.

  “She’s a P.I.,” said a familiar voice.

  Todd walked into view to stand beside Gemma. The girl looked up at him with wide eyes and Charlotte could almost hear her heart pitter-pattering.

  Oh no. Her too? Charlotte wondered if Gemma knew about Todd’s coffee breaks with Lyndsey.

  “I’d like to talk to you about the day Mr. Miller died. Mina said she came down looking for her phone and talked to you and your sister?”

  Gemma nodded.

  Todd lowered his head and said something in Gemma’s ear she couldn’t catch. She glanced at him and shook her head. “Why? I don’t know anything.”

  Todd returned his gaze to Charlotte. “She doesn’t have to talk to you.”

  “No, but I’d appreciate it.”

  “She should talk to a lawyer first.”

  “You didn’t ask for a lawyer.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t have anything to lose.”

  “Well, I’m not a police officer.” Charlotte returned her attention to Gemma. “Do you want to talk to a lawyer?”

  Gemma shook her head. “Mina came down saying Uncle Kimber fell. She was looking for her phone.”

  “Did you talk with her for long?”

  “Payne did. I went back to my room.”

  “You weren’t worried?”

  Gemma shrugged. “She was calling nine-one-one and, I don’t know...she didn’t seem that panicked. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

  “Had he fallen before?”

  “I don’t know. Probably. We hadn’t seen him for a long time. I think he was pretty sick.”

  Charlotte glanced at Todd. He was staring at her with grim concentration. All his bravado had disappeared.

  “One last thing. Is that your room across from the servant stairs?”

  Gemma sighed as if she’d been expecting the question. “Yes. But I don’t use those stairs. Not since I was little. We used to play on them when we were kids. Hide and seek and whatnot. If you went to the top it was so dark people couldn’t see you, but we knew not to go out onto the second floor.”

  “Why? What do the stairs have to do with anything?” asked Todd.

  “They found the murder weapon,” said Gemma.

  Todd’s eyes bulged. “Like a gun or a knife?”

  “A doorstop. Someone hit him with it.”

  Todd whistled, seemingly impressed by something. Charlotte couldn’t imagine what.

  “So your uncle never let you go to the second floor. Even when y
ou were kids?”

  Gemma laughed. “Especially when we were kids. He’s not a big kid person.”

  “So would it be right for me to say Mina was effectively your mother growing up?”

  Gemma nodded. “I guess.”

  “And Lyndsey’s like a big sister?” She glowered at Todd as she asked the question and saw his face twitch with what looked like anger.

  “I guess,” repeated Gemma. “And Uncle Kimber was a little more like a real dad before he got sick. He ate dinner with us sometimes and made us do our homework and stuff. It’s just when he got older we didn’t see him much anymore because it was hard for him to get up and down the stairs.”

  Charlotte nodded and tapped the top of the half-door. “Okay. That’s it. I appreciate you answering my questions.”

  Charlotte started off and then, once out of the pair’s sightline, paused to listen. She heard Gemma’s voice high and Todd’s sounding almost as if he were reprimanding her, but she couldn’t make out the words. She headed back for the house.

  Mina was sitting at the kitchen table when she returned.

  “Did you find anyone?”

  Charlotte nodded. “Gemma and Todd.” She paused. “Are they a thing?”

  “A thing? You mean dating?” Mina seemed to pale when Charlotte nodded. “No. I hope not—” Mina looked at her, her eyes tilted with worry. “Why? Did you see something?”

  Charlotte shrugged. “No. Just wondering.”

  “I think they’re friends. I mean, she’s always out there with the horses.”

  “Sure. How about him and Lyndsey? Do they get along?”

  Mina shrugged. “I suppose. Why wouldn’t they?”

  “Just asking. Did you see Gemma go into her room when she left you talking to Payne that day?”

  “I didn’t see her go in the room…” Mina put her hand on her stomach. “This is all too much.”

  “I know you don’t want to think about it, but someone went up those back stairs while you were gone. She was near the stairs.”

  Mina collapsed back into her chair and dropped her chin to her chest. “I know. I know.” She looked up at Charlotte, her eyes glistening. “She’s the sweet one.”

  “Mina, let me ask you something. Who inherits the estate? Are the girls in his will? Are you?”

  Mina’s jaw lowered. “I don’t know. I assumed me until you just said that.” She looked down, brow crinkling as if deep in concentration, and then looked up with a shrug. “He might have left them a token amount. Something to cover college or a new car, not that I wouldn’t have provided them with those things.”

  Charlotte remained quiet until Mina noticed her watching.

  “Do you think Gemma killed Kimber for his money?”

  Charlotte shook her head. “She probably went to her room like she said she did. Once in there, anyone could have sneaked down the hall.”

  Mina nodded. “This is a nightmare.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The funeral confirmed what Charlotte had already suspected—Kimber Miller was not a popular man. The only people in attendance were the people who lived in his house and the workers from his property, who probably showed up to curry favor with new management.

  Mina mourned for the rest of them, sobbing loudly twice during the ceremony. Lyndsey and the twins appeared somber, but dry-eyed. Kimber’s ashes sat silent in a bronze urn, unmoved either way.

  Charlotte’s attention drifted as she and the others crossed and uncrossed their legs and shifted from one butt-cheek to the other on the hard wooden church pews. She watched people enter, hoping to spot a shadowy figure lurking nearby, a killer drawn to view the pain his handiwork had caused, but the mystery refused to wrap up that easily.

  The service was blessedly short, as the reverend struggled to find things to say about a man he clearly didn’t know. By all accounts, it seemed Kimber was good at making money and terrible at interpersonal relationships. When asked to speak, Payne did the honors for the twins, but her speech ended up more about the horses Kimber provided than about the man himself, other than a quick memory about him asking them repeatedly to remove their elbows from the table and sit up like ladies. Lyndsey’s remembrance also leaned heavily on the horses and her apartment above the stables. Only Mina remembered him in a light other than that of a distant benefactor. She told a story about Kimber teaching her a song about a drunk monkey when she was a little girl that had made them both laugh. So much so, she felt the need to sing it for the church:

  I went to the county fair

  The birds and beasts were there

  The big baboon by the light of the moon was combing his golden hair

  The monkey he got drunk

  And sat on the elephant’s trunk

  The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees

  And that was the end of the monk, the monk, the monk

  Charlotte heard one of the men Mina had identified as the landscapers repeat the song in Spanish for the others behind her amid a spate of snickering. Lyndsey laughed politely and Payne rolled her eyes at her sister. Mina finished with a final goodbye and a sob and started down the few steps to return to her seat. She appeared a little wobbly, so Lyndsey jumped up to assist her. The girls watched, both turning their heads enough that Charlotte could see their expressions soften. They might not have known their adoptive father very well, but they clearly thought of Mina as their mother.

  Charlotte was finding Kimber to be a bit of an odd duck. He’d been kind enough, or at least willing enough, to accept not only one, but four people into his life. But once in his home, he barely paid attention to any of them. Even Mina, who’d been the only person to spend any time with him during the last few years of his life, had been forced to reach back to childhood to find a happy story, and that was just a song a robot could have been programmed to perform.

  After the service the tiny congregation returned to the house for a catered wake. The workers dug into the abundance of food and Mina collapsed into a chair, looking exhausted. When Charlotte approached her she looked up, her eyes rimmed by dark circles.

  “The food is delicious,” said Charlotte for the sake of making conversation. She’d only tried a deviled egg and then quietly slipped it into the trash when no one was looking. It had relish in it and she hated deviled eggs with relish.

  What is wrong with people?

  “Thank you, I mean, not that I had anything to do with it,” said Mina, smiling weakly. “I’m afraid a lot of it will go to waste.”

  “I don’t know,” mumbled Charlotte watching Todd take a massive helping of chicken salad from a glass bowl. He caught her watching and winked at her.

  At a funeral? Ugh.

  Gemma hovered nearby, handing Todd a napkin once he’d filled his plate. She wasn’t hiding her crush like Lyndsey was. But then, as Lyndsey stood talking to an older gentleman, Charlotte spotted her use a moment of laughter to cast a furtive glance in Todd’s direction.

  Hm. Charlotte wasn’t sure if the look was purposeful or happenstance.

  Lyndsey was an unmarried woman living alone on a farm. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility she’d fallen for the strapping, horn-dog of a farmhand. People wrote steamy books about relationships like that all the time.

  “I feel bad I didn’t cook, but I just couldn’t find the energy,” said Mina at Charlotte’s elbow.

  Charlotte looked down at her. She’d almost forgotten they’d been talking, so enthralled she’d been with the romantic suspense unfolding by the chicken salad.

  “Does Lyndsey have a boyfriend?” she asked.

  Mina scanned the room until she locked on Lyndsey. “She was recently dumped by a boat salesman if I’m keeping them straight in my head. Flashy with his cash and a roving eye from what I remember. She has a tendency to make poor choices when it comes to men. Sets herself up to fail. I tell her these things but she never listens to me.”

  So maybe Todd’s story is true. He’d certainly be a poor choice.


  Mina sighed and turned to Gemma, still slavering at Todd’s elbow. “None of them listen to me. But all three of them were good girls. Are good girls. It hasn’t been easy for any of them.”

  “I know the twins are Mr. Miller’s nieces, but how did Lyndsey come to be here exactly?”

  Mina smiled. “That’s my fault. A woman who worked for Kimber went to jail. I heard through the grapevine her five year-old daughter was on her way to state custody and I insisted we take her in.” Mina chuckled to herself. “I wouldn’t let it go. Kimber finally went along with it to shut me up.”

  “So it wasn’t his idea.”

  Mina laughed. “Oh no, no. He never wanted kids. But he wanted me to be happy. And—”

  “And?”

  “Oh, it seems like a horrible thing to say, especially today, but I think he thought if I had a kid to keep me busy it would keep me here with him. Keep me from dating and wandering off to create a family of my own.”

  “So it wasn’t his idea to adopt any of the girls?”

  “No. The nieces…I mean what can you do when your brother and his wife are killed. You can’t just throw their girls to the wolves.”

  “And he had you to watch over them, too.”

  Mina nodded.

  Charlotte’s attention drew back to the bright yellow circles of whipped yolk calling to her from the deviled eggs and reminded herself about the relish.

  Ruined.

  She scrutinized the crowd, but found things unfolding the way anyone would imagine. The landscapers had clumped in one corner to talk in Spanish. Payne sat in a large stuffed chair tapping away at her phone. Gemma talked to Todd. And Lyndsey—

  “Who’s that man with Lyndsey? I don’t recognize him from the service.”

  Mina took a bite of a tuna fish sandwich, trimmed of its crust. “That’s Kimber’s lawyer. I don’t think he was at the service. He’s here to read the will.”

  Charlotte had been thinking about leaving, but changed her mind.

  “Do you mind if I stay for the reading?”

  Mina shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Charlotte decided to make chit-chat with the rest of the people in the room. The yard crew had little to share. Only one of them spoke English, the oldest of the three, and the only one who brought his wife. He assured her they’d all been as shocked and saddened to hear of Miller’s death as anyone.