by Lyndsey Cole
“Besides the fact that he left you stranded last night? That doesn’t put him high on my list of good date qualities.”
“There is that,” her eyes widened, “but isn’t he about the most handsome guy in Catfish Cove?”
“Yes, he’s easy on the eyes, but what else do you know about him? Did he ever tell you why he’s really here in town?”
Camilla’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me he’s a murderer. My radar can’t be that bad.”
“No, I don’t think it’s that bad, but he is involved, one way or another.” Annie bit her tongue before giving too much information to Camilla about Dusty. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if his undercover work became common knowledge.
Camilla whispered in Annie’s ear, “He did tell me he’s been keeping an eye on Christy. He thinks she might be involved in some sort of scam.”
Annie’s eyes darted to Camilla’s before searching the room for Jason. Their eyes met, his expression questioning Annie about what was going on with Camilla.
Chapter 17
Annie flopped onto Jason’s comfy couch the second the door closed behind Leona, the last one to leave. “The day has only started and I’m already exhausted from the intrusions.”
Jason put the last of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and pressed start. “So, a nice lazy day? Just you and me?”
Roxy whined. “And Roxy,” Jason said as he filled a bowl with her food. “We could take a walk along the Lake Trail.”
Annie didn’t budge.
“Or not.” Jason sat next to Annie.
“That’s actually a good idea,” she said. “Fresh air and some exercise will wake me up. Let’s go.”
Jason handed Annie her fleece and he pulled on a warm sweatshirt. Roxy waited by the door, dancing with impatience.
“I should check on Smokey first. He’s independent, especially with his cat door, but I should make sure he’s okay.”
Annie made a quick detour into her apartment to find everything quiet and Smokey content on the couch. She filled his water and food bowls before hurrying back outside with Jason and Roxy.
They walked arm in arm along the Lake Trail. No talking, just the crunch of their feet on the path.
Annie noticed Thelma Dodd sitting in her rocker on her porch that overlooked the lake. She waved.
“Let’s visit Thelma. I don’t visit often enough and she’ll be thrilled to hear the news about our engagement.”
“Doesn’t she always want help with her crossword puzzle?” Jason reminded Annie.
“Maybe you can distract her with your charm.”
Thelma was already at the door by the time they followed the narrow path that led to her kitchen entryway. “Come in. Come in. It’s wonderful to have some company on this beautiful morning. And you have your dog, too. Let me get some biscuits for her.”
Thelma’s cane thumped on the linoleum and her cupboard door squeaked open. Roxy’s ears perked up at the sound of the dog bones. She sat patiently, watching Thelma return.
“Here you go.” Roxy, very gently, took the dog bone from Thelma’s fingers. “What a sweet girl.” She turned her attention to Annie and Jason. “Do you have time for some hot tea?”
“That would be perfect,” Annie said.
“The kettle’s still hot. Help yourself and come join me on the porch.” Thelma slowly made her way back to her chair and settled down next to her table and newspaper.
Annie and Jason followed with their tea.
“Now, what news do you have for me?” Thelma asked, looking at Annie and resting her hand on Roxy’s head.
“Well,” Annie smiled, “I do have a bit of news.” She looked at Jason. “We’re engaged as of last night.” Her face broke into a grin from ear to ear.
Thelma clapped her hands together. “Wonderful. Just wonderful. It’s about time young man.” She looked at Jason over the top of her glasses. “You didn’t want to let this young lady get away, now did you?”
“No, I wasn’t going to let that happen.” Jason reached for Annie’s hand.
Annie looked at the view from Thelma’s porch. “Have you been seeing lots of people on the Lake Trail?”
“Not too many. I always see you and your dog and I see that new detective in town. She walks the trail all the time.”
Annie’s ears perked up. “Detective Christy Crank? Do you know her?”
Thelma pulled her white cardigan sweater tighter around her shoulders and fumbled with the buttons, closing them right up to her chin. “I only know her from her picture in the Catfish Cove Chronicle when she got hired. She’s a cute little thing. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I don’t understand how she could be a detective. The world has changed since I was young, that’s for sure.”
Annie sipped her tea, cradling the mug in her hands for extra warmth. “When did you last see her?”
“Not for the last couple of nights. I think it was the night before Halloween. Yes, that’s it. She was in a big hurry and she kept looking over her shoulder. There was someone else behind her but he was quite far back.”
“He?”
“Oh, I’m not sure. It could have been a she, I guess. I don’t think they were together.” Thelma picked up her paper. “Now, maybe you two could help me with a couple of these clues for my crossword puzzle.” She looked at Jason and Annie over her reading glasses. “Are you ready?”
They nodded.
“Okay, this one has me stumped even though I feel like the answer is right at the tip of my tongue. A six letter word ending with N that is deadly.” She pursed her lips. “My brain is stuck on venom or toxin but those are only five letters.”
Annie hesitantly said, “Poison?”
“Of course!” Thelma erased something she had already written and scribbled the new word on the puzzle. “I always work with a pencil so I can fix my mistakes.”
Jason leaned back and crossed his legs. “What other clues do you have? This sounds like an interesting puzzle.”
“It’s the Halloween puzzle. I’m a little behind,” she added. “Let’s see, how about an eight letter word that means murder?”
Annie was starting to feel uneasy with the talk about poison and murder but Jason enjoyed the mind challenge.
“Any letters yet?” Jason asked.
Thelma shook her head.
Jason counted on his fingers. “Massacre would fit.”
Annie blurted out, “Homicide,” at the same moment.
“Yes!” Thelma exclaimed. “You’re good at this Annie. I’ll write homicide in for now and see if it fits with the rest of the words.” She filled in the squares and read the next clue. “Well, this one is easy, a red body fluid has to be blood and it fits with the ‘o’ in homicide. I wonder who thinks up this stuff. This puzzle is kind of gory.” She set her newspaper on the table. “I’ll work more on it later, I want to sit and watch the world go by for a while.”
Annie stood. “Thanks for the tea, Thelma. Don’t get up, we’ll let ourselves out.”
“Stop in anytime, you two. And congratulations. Young love.” Her eyes glazed over and Annie imagined Thelma’s mind drifting to some pleasant memory from her past.
Annie carried the empty cups to the sink and rinsed them. Jason opened the door for Annie and Roxy, pulling it closed behind them with barely a sound to disturb Thelma.
“Interesting crossword puzzle. Your brain jumped to the right words immediately,” Jason commented to Annie before he wrapped his arm around her shoulder as they headed down the path to the Lake Trail.
“Well, yeah, poison, homicide, blood—that’s pretty much what happened right here on Halloween eve. I’m glad she didn’t keep going; my skin was starting to crawl.”
Their strides matched perfectly as they settled into a fast pace. Roxy sniffed and darted every which way, exploring off the trail.
“Okay, I’ll bite. What are you thinking?” Jason asked.
“I’m still wondering if Eddie’s body was checked for poison. It would have bee
n easy for someone working at the Catfish Cove Pub to slip something in his drink. He spent a lot of time hanging out at the bar, apparently annoying everyone there. Lots of details about Eddie and Christy don’t match up depending on whose version of the story you hear, but there was at least one thing everyone did have in common.” She stopped walking. “No one was particularly fond of Eddie.”
Jason nodded in agreement. “I can’t argue with that statement, but if he was poisoned, how did he get to the Cove’s Corner parking lot to meet Christy?”
“I did some research. There are slow acting poisons.” Annie watched her feet as she walked.
“But how could the murderer time the poison so Eddie could get to his meeting with Christy?”
She stopped and turned toward Jason, shrugging her shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe that was just a convenient plus for the murderer.”
Annie called Roxy and turned around, heading back to Jason’s house.
“It’s an interesting theory, for sure. What do you plan to do next?”
“Make a visit to Tyler.”
Chapter 18
Jason checked the time. “I can’t go with you, is that okay?”
“To be honest, I like it better. No offense, but Tyler will be more open with me if I’m alone. And, you know,” she held up her left hand so the sun glinted off her ring, “there’s no need for that tiny jealous streak of yours to pop up anymore.”
Jason’s mouth fell open. “Jealous?”
Annie bumped her shoulder into Jason’s side. “Yes, jealous.”
He wrapped his arms around her and mumbled into her sweet smelling hair. “You’re right. I couldn’t help it whenever I saw the two of you talking together.”
“He’ll always be one of my best friends. You’re okay with that, aren’t you?” Annie looked into Jason’s eyes.
“Yes, and Leona is my best friend. After you,” he quickly added.
“Fair enough.” Annie kept her arm looped through Jason’s as they turned up the path to his house.
Annie sighed gratefully as she drove past the Black Cat Café. She was thankful that Leona didn’t need her help at the café since Mia and Martha both insisted they could cover for Annie to give her a day off. Of course, they expected her to be spending the time with Jason, but what they didn’t know wouldn’t upset them.
The police station was quiet when Annie entered. She nodded to the woman on duty and explained that she needed to talk to the police chief as soon as possible.
“Go ahead down the hall, last door on the left.”
Annie was puzzling to herself how she would bring up the subject of poison without Tyler laughing her right out of his office when she overheard him say the word poison. Who was he talking to? His office door was ajar so she poked her head around the corner before knocking and disturbing him.
Tyler sat hunched over his desk, completely engrossed on the telephone, nodding but saying nothing. He scribbled in the pad open in front of him before saying a quick thanks and hanging up. His chair creaked as his weight shifted backward and he leaned into his hands laced behind his head.
Annie pushed the door enough to squeeze inside. “Busy?” she asked.
Tyler’s eyes focused on Annie, and the faraway look in his eyes cleared when he registered her presence. “Yes, but come on in.”
She made herself comfortable in the only unoccupied chair. Two other chairs were pushed up against the wall holding stacks of manila folders.
“It’s always like that on the weekend. All those files will be put away tomorrow. I can never keep up with the paperwork.” He leaned forward with both elbows on his desk and his chin resting on his overlapping fingers. “What can I do for you, Annie?”
She decided there was no beating around the bush with her latest thought about Eddie’s murder. “Is there any chance Eddie was poisoned?”
Tyler’s hands dropped onto his desk, his eyes narrowed and his face leaned as close as possible toward Annie. “Poison? Why would you ask that?”
She held her hands up, palms toward Tyler. “Just a crazy thought I had when I was sitting at the pub the other night, and then again today something came up in a crossword puzzle. I had to ask.”
Tyler grinned and leaned back in his chair. “So, you didn’t find a vial of poison on the beach or anything like that?”
“No, nothing that obvious. Did you?”
“No, that would make my job way to easy. I like a challenge. Let’s start with the pub. What happened there?”
“They were serving a drink called Poison Punch.”
He raised his eyebrows.
Annie continued. “It got me thinking how easy it would have been for someone working behind the bar to serve an actual poisoned drink to a customer. Especially someone like Eddie who hung out at the bar annoying everyone.”
“Annoying people isn’t exactly a reason to murder them. The owner could ask him to leave, or call us and say he was disturbing the peace. And the crossword puzzle? I can’t wait to hear how that ties in.”
Annie stood up. “Never mind. If you aren’t going to take me seriously, I’m not going to sit here so you can make fun of me.”
Tyler stood up, reaching the door before Annie could. He shut it and gently pushed her back to the chair. “Sorry. I’m all ears and,” he made an X across his chest, “no laughing. Promise.”
She sat back down and Tyler returned to his chair. “I was helping Thelma Dodd with her crossword puzzle and the answers were poison and homicide. I know all this sounds crazy and it’s only a theory but why not check it out?”
Tyler pursed his lips. “Just before you walked in, I got a call from the coroner’s lab. He found traces of arsenic in Eddie’s body.”
Annie’s eyes widened in surprise. “Is that what killed him? Not Christy stabbing him or the wound on his head?”
“Probably not. But it does indicate someone had the intention of slowly poisoning him.”
“Why?”
“A bigger cut of the scam money would be my guess.”
“Maybe Eddie double crossed someone in the group and he came to Catfish Cove to beg Christy for help.”
“I don’t do ‘maybes.’ I shouldn’t even be hazarding a guess. But if you came up with the poison theory, someone else might too. Don’t blab it around town and put yourself in danger, Annie.”
She stood up to leave. “One more thing. What about Eddie’s computer? Does Christy know that you know it’s still in her house?”
He shook his head. “I’m still trying to figure that one out. What’s your theory?”
“Honestly?” She twisted her mouth into a grimace and shook her head. “I’ve got nothing.”
They both laughed.
“I think that’s the first time you have ever come up empty of a theory or a feeling.”
Annie walked to her car. She might not have a theory or a feeling about Christy’s plan with Eddie’s computer, but she could certainly try to find one.”
She made a quick stop at the café to pick up a bribe and formulate a plan.
“Hey, where’s your fiancé?” Leona shouted when Annie walked into the café. “You came for more treats to boost your energy levels?”
Annie didn’t mind Leona, Mia and Martha getting a chuckle at her expense. She could go with Leona’s suggestion to avoid telling them her real mission.
Leona already had a box open, filling it with a variety of pumpkin treats—muffins, scones, bread and two single-serve cheesecakes.
“Don’t eat this all in one sitting or you won’t fit in your wedding dress,” Leona teased.
Annie’s eyes narrowed into small dark slits. “What wedding dress?”
Leona doubled over laughing. “Any wedding dress. Don’t worry; I didn’t pick one out for you yet. I thought that would be a good project for tomorrow.”
Annie picked up the box of goodies and dismissed all their laughter with a wave of her hand as she left the café.
“Christy Crank, here I co
me,” Annie said to herself. “If this doesn’t sweeten you up and loosen your tongue, nothing will.”
Two cars were parked in Christy’s driveway. “Well, well, well, my lucky day.” She picked up her box, glad there was plenty for three, and headed to Christy’s front door.
Bella’s and Blue’s barking and jumping on the door made the house shake before Christy pushed them aside and got the door opened.
“Oh, this is a surprise.” Christy looked around Annie as she pulled her inside. “Did you come alone?”
“Just me and some delicious pumpkin treats from the Black Cat Café,” Annie said, holding up the box.
Christy turned her head, looking toward her kitchen but didn’t invite Annie any further into her house. “What are you doing here?”
“Bringing something to go with your coffee. You do have coffee, don’t you?”
Dusty poked his head through the kitchen door. “I’ll get the coffee going. Where are your manners, Christy?”
Christy whispered, “You shouldn’t be here. Drink your coffee and leave.”
Annie walked into the kitchen. She almost dropped the box when she saw Eddie’s computer sitting on Christy’s counter. She pretended to trip to cover herself but she didn’t miss Christy’s eyes dart to the laptop. No time to be bashful, she told herself.
“How did you manage to get Eddie’s computer back?”
“The details aren’t important, just the information we’re finding on it,” Christy quickly replied.
Dusty turned around. “Yeah, we found some great information.”
Annie tried to keep her face neutral, afraid to reveal her worries. Christy turned her back to Annie and pulled a cookie tray out of the oven.
The smell of something roasted filled the kitchen. “What are you cooking?”
Dusty sat behind the computer. “We found Eddie’s roasted pumpkin seed recipe. He was a real addict and kept trying different spices along with the butter and salt. This is his latest.”
Christy slid the hot seeds onto a plate. “Try one. Tell me what you think.”
Annie hesitantly picked up one pumpkin seed, not sure if this was some type of trap. She juggled the seed between her two hands and blew on it. Looking up at the other two she asked, “Aren’t you going to try one?”
