by Jessica Beck
My stepfather added quickly, “It wasn’t during my tenure, either. I was just a deputy when it happened; Port’s death didn’t even cross my desk.”
“Nobody’s blaming you,” Jake told him softly. “Do you remember many details about exactly how he died? We might need to have his body exhumed so tests can be run on his remains.”
“Sadly, that’s not going to happen. He was cremated,” Phillip answered.
“How do you happen to know that?” I asked.
The former sheriff shook his head. “His sister asked permission to spread his ashes at the park, and when the sheriff refused, she did it anyway. Sheriff Guthrie wanted to arrest her, but we talked him out of it. He never liked the woman, and it showed.”
“Was it possible that it was because he suspected that she killed her brother?” I offered.
“No, she stood Guthrie up for the prom to go with somebody else, and he held a grudge every day after it.”
“Wow, that’s a long time to be mad at someone,” I said.
“That’s just the kind of man he was,” Phillip said.
“Regardless, we should talk to him,” Jake said.
“If we can find him,” Phillip said.
“He’s not dead, too, is he?” I asked.
“No, but the last I heard, he was in a motorhome, driving across the country, seeing America. I don’t even think he has a permanent address anymore.”
“So he’s out,” Jake said. “How about his files? They may give us some insight into what really happened.”
“Those are all in storage,” Phillip said, “but I doubt they’ll do you any good. Everyone thought it was an accident at the time, so I doubt that even the most basic report was ever filed.”
“That’s just plain bad police work,” Jake said, and then he realized that Phillip had a relationship with the man he’d just criticized. “Sorry.”
“It’s true enough,” Phillip admitted. “I cleaned up more than one mess Guthrie left behind for me, so there was never any love lost there between the two of us.”
“How exactly did Benjamin Port die?” I asked. “Was he really poisoned? You never said.”
“At the time, we thought that he got accidental food poisoning,” Phillip said. “There was an opened homemade canned chicken found at his house, so nobody thought two things about it.”
Jake was really unhappy now. “We can’t prove anything, though. There’s literally no evidence left. The body’s gone, no report of any substance was made, and we can’t even determine if the cause of death cited was accurate. It might have been poison, but it could have been something else entirely, despite what that note said.” He looked at Phillip as he asked, “Who was your medical examiner back then? Is he gone, too?”
“No, as a matter of fact, he’s living in Union Square. Doc Nance retired years ago, but the last I heard, he was still alive and kicking.”
“I need to speak with him as soon as possible,” Jake said. “Suzanne, would you care to go for a ride with me? We can grab lunch while we’re there.”
“Sure; I’m wide open,” I said.
Phillip coughed. “Jake, do you mind if I tag along, too?”
“This wasn’t your fault, Phillip,” Jake said.
“Maybe not, but I still need to know what happened.”
Jake looked at me for a moment and raised one eyebrow. I shrugged, and he replied, “Why not? The more the merrier. Let’s go.”
“What about the note?” I asked.
“I’m taking a copy of it with us,” Jake said. “Maybe the doctor will have some insight into what really happened.”
“I hope so,” I said. “I didn’t know Benjamin Port, but I still hope we can find justice for the man, even if it is fifteen years too late.”
“The important thing to remember is that there’s no statute of limitations on murder,” Jake said gravely, and I knew that my husband had finally found something challenging enough for his particular set of skills as a law enforcement officer.
“Hey, Doc. Do you have a second?” Phillip Martin asked the older man sitting on a bench in the park in Union Square. Though I knew that he was retired, the physician still wore a shirt and tie, as though he’d just left his office. He had a five-pound bag of black-oil sunflower seeds beside him, and from the littered shells all around him, it appeared that he’d been feeding the local wildlife for quite some time.
“Phillip, what are you doing here? I haven’t seen you in ages.” The doctor looked past the former sheriff and studied my husband and me for a few seconds before he followed that up. “Who are your friends?”
“I’d like you to meet my stepdaughter, Suzanne, and her husband, Jake. He’s the new sheriff for April Springs.”
“Pleased to meet you both,” the retired doctor said. “My name’s William Nance.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Nance,” Jake said as he offered his hand. “We were wondering if we could ask you about something that happened while you were practicing medicine in April Springs fifteen years ago.”
Nance looked a little confused by Jake’s request, and he turned to my stepfather. “What’s going on, Phillip? Am I in some kind of trouble?”
“Not at all,” Phillip reassured him. “We’re just looking for some information. Do you remember Benjamin Port?”
The doctor frowned the moment he heard the name. “Of course I do. He was a bit of a cad in life, as I remember. He died of suspected accidental food poisoning. What about him?”
“New evidence has just come to our attention that his death might not have been accidental after all,” Jake explained.
The doctor’s face went ashen. “I knew it,” he whispered.
“Knew what?” I asked.
“I told the coroner at the time that we needed an autopsy, but he refused, and I didn’t have the power to overrule him. Why the state sees fit to elect coroners like county clerks is beyond me. The man was a mortician, not a physician. I can’t help but wonder how many murderers went free because of his incompetence.”
“Why were you suspicious of the death at the time?” I asked him. Jake and Phillip both looked at me oddly for speaking out of turn, but I hadn’t been able to help myself.
“Well, there were too many folks who seemed to be relieved when he died, for one thing. For another, I had someone snoop around his home, and they couldn’t find another single canned chicken, or anything else home preserved there, for that matter. It all seemed suspicious to me.”
“How did you manage to get someone to look around inside his place if everyone else thought it was an accident?” Phillip asked him.
The doctor shrugged. “Ben’s cleaning lady took care of my place, too. I asked her to check things out when she went back to clean for one last time, and she was happy to help. She was probably one of the few folks in April Springs who actually liked the man.”
“You weren’t a fan of him yourself?” I asked.
“Not particularly, but that didn’t mean that I wanted someone to get away with killing him. It kept gnawing at me that I could have done more, and by the time I finally decided to act, it was too late. He was cremated, and that was that.”
Phillip looked surprised by the statement. “Did you tell Sheriff Guthrie about your suspicions?”
“In my defense, I tried to, but he refused to listen.”
My stepfather looked truly concerned by this news. “You could have come to me, Will,” he said softly.
“Phillip, if you started digging into what happened to Benjamin Port, Guthrie might have fired you, and I knew that you were next in line for his job. I couldn’t do that to you, or the town of April Springs. You were a good sheriff, which was a fresh breeze after enduring Guthrie’s reign.”
Phillip Martin just shrugged. I knew how much being sheriff had meant to him, but I still believed that he’d have given it all up to catch a killer. It sounded as though he’d never had a chance to make that decision for himself, though.
“Do you happen to know who might have wanted him dead or what might have actually killed him if it wasn’t bad chicken?” I asked.
“To answer your second question first, all I can say with any degree of certainty is that it was some kind of poison. I just didn’t think that it was botulism. As to who might have done it, you’re talking to the wrong person. Like I said, we really weren’t that close.”
“Is your former housekeeper still around, by any chance?” Jake asked him.
“No, the last I heard she moved to Sarasota to be near her grandchildren. If you really want to know anything about Benjamin Port, my advice would be to speak with Gabby Williams.”
Gabby owned the business beside mine, a gently used clothing store named ReNEWed with only the most upscale offerings for her clientele. “Gabby? Why would she know anything about him?”
Doc Nance looked a little uncomfortable with my question. He shrugged without speaking, but Jake wasn’t going to let him get away with that.
“It might be important, so we really do need to know,” Jake said.
After a few moments of hesitation, the doctor said, “Well, I hate to spread rumors about her, but the scuttlebutt around town was that they were keeping company. You know, romantically.”
So Gabby Williams was once again connected to a possible murder victim. From past experience, I knew that she wouldn’t be an easy person to interview, but I had the feeling that if there was any information behind the scenes, Gabby would have been privy to it.
“Is there anything else you’d like to add?” Phillip asked the doctor.
“Just make this right if you can. I don’t have many regrets from my career as a physician, but the way I handled Benjamin Port’s death is surely one of them.”
“We’ll do our best,” Jake said as he offered a comforting pat on the man’s shoulder.
Once we left the doctor to his birds, chipmunks, and squirrels, I asked Jake, “Would you like me to speak with Gabby for you?”
“Thanks, but I can handle her by myself,” he said.
I wasn’t at all sure that was true, but I wasn’t going to challenge him on it. “Fair enough. Do we have to rush straight back to town, though?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Well, Napoli’s is just down the street, and I haven’t had any of the DeAngelis girls’ food for ages.”
“What are you talking about, Suzanne? We ate there last month,” Jake protested.
“Are you trying to make my point for me?” I asked him with a smile. “A month feels like forever for going without some of their pasta. Come on, it won’t take long, and we have to eat, anyway.”
“What do you think, Phillip?” Jake asked, deferring to my stepfather.
“I could eat,” he said with a smile. “There’s one condition, though.”
“What’s that?” Jake asked him.
“Nobody reports back to Dot about what I plan to have for lunch.”
“Sorry, but you know that’s a promise I can’t make,” I said. Even in jest, I wasn’t about to swear to keep anything from my mother, no matter how nicely someone might ask.
“Fine. Tell her. I’m still going to eat like there’s no tomorrow.”
“I’ll be right there with you,” I agreed. “What about you, Jake?”
“I can see that protesting isn’t going to do me any good, so I might as well give in and enjoy myself. Sure, why not.”
“You could always wait for us out in the car if you’d rather not go in,” I said with a grin of my own.
“No, I’d better not do that. After all, somebody needs to keep an eye on the two of you,” he said with a hint of laughter in his voice.
Just because we were on an investigation didn’t mean that we couldn’t eat well, and I for one was looking forward to sampling more of Napoli’s fine Italian cuisine.
Chapter 4
“What a nice surprise,” Maria DeAngelis, one of Anita’s beautiful daughters, said when we walked into Napoli’s. It was where Jake and I had had our first date, though I’d been there a ton before he came into my life. Anita and her daughters offered the best Italian food I’d ever eaten, and it was always a temptation to overeat whenever I was there. “Momma’s going to be so pleased you came.”
“Not half as happy as I am to be here,” I said. “You know my stepfather.”
“Of course. Phillip, Jake, it’s nice to see you both as well. Let me show you to a table.”
We entered the dining area, and I marveled again at how the family had taken a location in a strip mall and made it into such a nice restaurant. The décor was upscale, but it could have been a shack for all I cared. The food was what mattered, and it was the best.
After we placed our orders, Maria disappeared into the kitchen, and not twenty seconds later, the matriarch of the clan came bustling out. While all of her daughters were lovely, Anita was hands down the most beautiful of all. I saw Jake and Phillip both grin when they saw her approaching, and honestly, who could blame them? The important thing to me was that she was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside, and I liked to think that it showed. With a figure that was voluptuous and a mane of black hair that seemed to shimmer in the light, Anita was truly a vision. She leaned down to hug me the moment she got to our table, and I felt myself overwhelmed. I laughed a little when I noticed that the two men I was with look disappointed when Anita failed to extend the same greeting to them.
“How is life in April Springs?” she asked.
“It’s fine, but there’s just one thing wrong with it.”
Anita frowned before she spoke. “What’s that?”
“There’s no Napoli’s there,” I answered with a smile.
She laughed heartily. “I’d need more daughters to manage that. If there’s anything you need special, even if it’s not on the menu, don’t be afraid to ask.”
With that, she vanished back into the kitchen.
Jake looked at me and smiled after she was gone. “I thought she was going to smother you there for a second.”
“Either one of you would have gladly traded places with me, so don’t bother denying it.”
Phillip smiled. “Who’s denying it? I love it here.”
“Should we talk about our game plan for when we get back home?” Jake asked.
“I don’t see why not,” Phillip answered.
Personally, I wanted to focus on my upcoming meal, but it appeared that I was being outvoted. “Go on.”
“What’s wrong, Suzanne?” he asked me.
“I wasn’t sure that I was going to be involved in this case,” I said.
“I don’t see how it would hurt if you and Phillip worked around the edges of my official investigation. You both have resources that I lack, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.” He turned to the former sheriff and asked, “What do you say? Do you want to help?”
Phillip said with a frown, “I’ll do whatever I can with background and research, but Dot doesn’t like me actively investigating crime.”
“Don’t you miss it, even just a little?” Jake asked him.
“Not usually,” he said. “Anyway, digging into the past is a lot safer.”
“Maybe not this time,” Jake said. “If a murder was really committed, the killer might try to cover their tracks in the present to keep everything they’ve done from coming to light now.”
“I think I’ll be safe enough taking my chances at least that much,” Phillip said.
“Excellent,” Jake said with a smile. “When we get back, I’d love it if you could dig around and see who exactly was supposed to put notes into that time capsule originally. Also, any other information about it, including newspaper articles and photos, would be helpful.”
“I can gladly handle that,” Phillip said.
“What would you like me to do?” I asked.
Jake frowned for a moment before he spoke. “Suzanne, once Phillip gets me a list of names, you can help fill in any background information you have on our po
tential suspects.”
It wasn’t much of a request at all. “Are you sure you don’t want me to approach Gabby for you?”
He looked startled by my suggestion. “I’m sure. Like I said before, I can handle the interview myself.”
Knowing Gabby, I doubted that he could. It wasn’t a reflection on Jake’s abilities, but more about Gabby’s reluctance to talk to anyone she didn’t know extremely well. I had a hunch that he’d need my help with her, but I didn’t think it was polite to mention it. “Good enough.”
Phillip looked over at me, the surprise clear in his expression. “Really, Suzanne?”
“I can take orders when I’m asked to.”
“Since when?” he asked softly.
I smiled at him. “We may have had a few run-ins in our past, but there’s a new sheriff in town now, and I plan on cooperating with him as much as I can.”
The retired sheriff just chuckled, and I decided to let it go myself. “So, what’s Momma going to do with her newfound riches?” A cache of wealth had been uncovered at one of her renovation projects, and I was wondering what my mother had in mind for the windfall.
“She’s going to sit on it for now,” Phillip said. “At least that’s what she keeps telling me. Knowing your mother, I have the feeling that she already has plans for it.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me in the least,” I said.
Jake was about to say something when Maria came back carrying a tray full of delightful goodies. She slid the ravioli in front of me, and I took in the beauty of the dish before I took my first bite. A bountiful portion of pasta squares was bathed in the richest tomato and meat sauce that could be imagined. “I’m sorry, but I think there’s been some kind of mistake. I asked for the luncheon-size plate,” I told Maria.
“According to my mother, that’s what this is,” she answered with a smile.
My companions had equally full plates, Jake’s with spaghetti and meatballs, Phillip’s with chicken Parmesan. I had no idea how anyone could manage to investigate after the meals we were about to consume, but since I didn’t have an immediate assignment, that wasn’t my problem.
