Six Feet Under

by Tonya Kappes

  “You are doing a good job.” Poppa stood next to me, looking into my bowl of batter. “How do you think Jolee is doing?”

  “Jolee,” I gasped. I’d completely lost track of time and Jolee.

  I looked around and she was standing outside waving her phone at me.

  “Are you going to put the batter in the pans?” The instructor had walked over when she noticed I’d become distracted. “You’ll need two pans. The batter makes two cakes. Fill each of them halfway. After you do that, you will bake them for about twenty minutes.”

  “Oh, okay.” I picked up the bowl and added the batter to each pan like she’d instructed.

  Jolee ran into the room. “What are you doing?” she whispered, leaning her face into mine. “I’ve got the information. Let’s go.”

  “What about my cakes?” I asked.

  “Seriously?” Her eyes popped open, and her mouth fell. “I can bake you a cake.” She put the tip of her finger in my batter and stuck it in her mouth before I could bat it away. “Mmm.” Her lips flattened together. “Not bad. But I have a better tasting trick.” She tugged on my arm. “Let’s go.”

  “But I have twenty minutes and I paid for the class.” I was surprised how much I enjoyed the class.

  “I’ve got the information you wanted about you-know-who.” She gave me a flat look.

  “Another twenty minutes isn’t going to clear Mama any quicker nor bring Frank back to the living.” I opened the oven and put my two pans in side by side.

  “I’m going to get the car.” She held her hands out for my keys.

  “Fine.” I took the towel off my shoulder that I’d been using to clean up batter and threw it on my counter space. “You’re going to teach me how to bake a cake?”

  “Swear.” She criss-crossed her finger over her heart. “Let’s go.”

  I took one last look in the oven at my cakes before I followed out behind her.

  “I really enjoyed that,” I said once we got back in the Jeep.

  “Fine.” She huffed. “I got the information you wanted and I guess it’s not going anywhere. So I’ll go back to the boutique and buy my clothes and you go back and finish your cakes.”

  It sounded like a plan to me. It’d actually taken my mind off the investigation, but not for long. When I went back to my workstation, no one seemed to have noticed that I’d left. No one except for Poppa. His big nose was stuck in everyone else’s batter.

  “This just takes the cake,” Poppa boasted. “Literally. You’re a sheriff, not a baker.”

  I busied myself by checking the timer, flipping the oven light on and off to see my two cakes, and reading through the manual I’d paid a mint for.

  “You’re supposed to be trying to get your mama off the hook, not learning how to bake her a cake you can put a file in when she goes to jail.” Poppa fumed in front of me.

  I shooed him off and jerked the oven door open when the buzzer dinged.

  The instructor walked over. She looked at the stick and peel nametag they’d given us. She bent down and looked into the oven.

  “Kenni, those look nice and golden on top.” Joy bubbled on her face and shone in her eyes. “Class,” she smacked her hands together. “I love when a student pays attention. Look at Kenni’s cakes. They’re a nice golden brown and cooked throughout.” She took a toothpick from my workstation and stuck it in the middle. “If it wasn’t cooked, there would be some soggy batter on the toothpick.”

  Other class participants’ timers dinged and they were busy checking their cakes.

  “Everyone will put their finished cakes on the cake rake. They need to cool for ten minutes.” She looked at her watch. “Our time is up for today. I’ll see you back here tomorrow where we’re going to learn some basic decorating tips.”

  “Finally.” Poppa did a little jig. “Let’s get back to Cottonwood where we can help your mama.”

  Jolee had the Wagoneer pulled up to the curb. I motioned for her to scoot over to the passenger side.

  “I enjoyed spying.” Jolee rubbed her hands together vigorously. “It was so dangerous.”

  “Dangerous?” I jerked my head to look at her.

  “Well, no, not really, but my adrenaline was running high. It was great,” she squealed. “I can see why you love it so much.”

  I pulled out of the mall parking lot and headed back out of town toward Cottonwood.

  “Don’t get used to it. This was the only time I’ll let you do it. And you can’t tell anyone.” I pointed my finger at her. “Not even Ben.”

  “I took some great photos of Mundy’s file.” She pulled her phone out of her purse. “Here’s what they say.” She used her finger to swipe the photos.

  “Did you get his address?” I asked, knowing that I was going to make an unannounced visit.

  “I got that, but the most interesting thing was his background check.” She swiped her fingers apart on the screen making the photo bigger. “He was arrested a few years ago for disturbing the peace at the Culinary Institute in New York City. He was arrested in a class where the professor, Frank Von Lee, had used some sort of egg that was endangered. Apparently Mundy is an environmentalist and protested.”

  “Not much of one since he slaughtered the chicken for the pot pie recipe.” I thought about how I could get my hands on Frank Von Lee’s class list. It wasn’t like I could tell Finn to get one and check out the others in the class.

  “I didn’t say he wasn’t a meat eater, just an environmentalist.” Jolee spent the next few minutes scrolling through the phone. “Here is his last known address.”

  She read it off to me. I wasn’t familiar with the area.

  “Can you text me the photos?” I asked.

  “Sure will.” Jolee tapped, swiped, and punched on the phone. A few seconds later my phone chirped with texts one after the other. “There ya go. What’s next?”

  “I’m going to drop you off at the office and I’ve got to go to my parents’. I told my mama I’d come for supper. After that, Finn is stopping by for a drink.” The Jeep rattled back across the Cottonwood county line. I was really excited for the late-night cocktail. “Have you heard of any sort of Botox ring going around?”

  “Kenni, you make it sound like some drug ring.” Jolee laughed. She stopped when she saw I wasn’t joking.

  “Have you seen my mama?” I asked. “Her face is so botched up from a Botox party that I’m not even sure if it’s going to go back to normal.”

  “So she didn’t get the black eye from Frank?” Jolee asked.

  “You heard she and Frank got into a fight?” I asked.

  “You know Cottonwood,” she said. “Anyways, you have to be invited to one of those parties, and from what I hear they don’t give you much notice.”

  “If you get invited, will you call me?” I asked.

  “Sure. I think Katy Lee had an invite from someone that she sold insurance to. I’ll check into it.” Her words were music to my ears.

  I could get at least one case solved while Finn worked on Mama’s. Well, Frank’s. I couldn’t help but wonder what Finn was doing differently than I’d done. It’d be interesting to see.

  I slowed down the Wagoneer when we got into the city limits. In no time we’d gone through the three stoplights in town and turned down the alley behind the department.

  Jolee checked her phone.

  “We made it back just in time for me to go get the Meals on Wheels.” She put her hand on the handle of the door. “Listen, I know that you aren’t going back to the office.” Her eyes shifted out the window and towards the office door. “I know that if I follow you, which I won’t, you’re going to go find Mundy.”

  “What if I am?” I asked.

  “Then I’d tell you to be careful.” She reached over and we hugged. “I’ve got a newfound respect for your job since I went undercover.
” She winked and got out of the car.

  “Actually, I only have a few minutes before I told Mama I’d be there. So I’m going to head down to the library and look a little bit more into Frank Von Lee’s background. Maybe something will jump out at me.” I waved bye and she shut the door.

  Before I went into the library I called Finn.

  “How’s it going?” I asked.

  “You know. People calling all day about the investigation. Betty ran Mundy’s background,” he said. “I went to his house to see him. He said he knew Frank from school but no way did he kill him. He said that he didn’t know that Frank was even coming to Ben’s when he called Ben for a job.”

  Right. Liar, I thought.

  “Anyways, I’m going to do more digging on him. He’s a strange dude,” Finn said.

  “Are we still on for tonight?” I asked.

  “Yes, we are. I can’t wait. See you soon.” With that we hung up.

  Cottonwood’s library was located in a small white colonial-style building next to the courthouse. Parking was on the street. The inside of the library smelled exactly as if I’d just opened up a book and stuck my nose inside. That paper smell was always a welcomed scent and brought back fond memories of me getting lost in my fictional worlds when I was a kid and Mama was at her church meetings. Maybe I’d take up more reading since all this time fell into my hands.

  There were three rooms to the library: the children’s room, the fiction room, and the non-fiction room. It wasn’t like they were stuck in the olden times. They had a couple of computers and everything that’d been on microfiche had been digitized into the computer system. That included articles of major magazines. I hoped I could find something, anything on Frank Von Lee.

  “Good afternoon, almost evening,” Marcy Carver greeted me from behind the reference desk as soon as I walked in. “What are you looking for, Kenni?”

  Marcy never aged. It was probably from working in a nice quiet place with no stress, but still, she’d always had the same hairstyle—I’d never seen her without her hair pulled up in a thick top knot on her head. Once I’d asked her about her hair and she told me that if she didn’t pull it back, her hair would spring out all over the place. Her dark skin was smooth milk chocolate and her brown eyes were just as lovely as her.

  “I’ve come to get some information on Frank Von Lee.” I leaned on the counter. “But tell me, how’s your family?”

  “Oh, you know. Wade had them grandkids over for the weekend. They wore me out. I was never so happy to get back to the library.” She blinked and then focused her eyes on me. “But I’ve beat you to the punch.” She walked over to her desk and picked up a stack of papers and magazines. “I too was curious about our visiting celebrity.”

  She pushed the pile across the counter.

  “Edna Easterly came in here earlier today looking for some articles too, but I knew she’d use them in the Chronicle and I’m a little sore at her for printing that picture of your mama. She knows better, so I didn’t give this to her.” She cocked her right brow. “She’s going to have to go to the city to find any information on him.”

  “You are a true friend.” I reached over the counter and patted her on the arm. “Do you mind if I take these back there and read over them?”

  “Not at all.” She winked.

  I picked up the stack and headed over to one of the empty tables with a computer on it. Marcy had already organized the stack starting with the beginning of Frank Von Lee’s career and continuing up until a few weeks ago when it announced he’d made his decision to visit Cottonwood.

  There were several articles about his class and how prestigious it was to be accepted into it. There was only one mention of Mundy, and it was just a class roster that accompanied a photo of the seven students Frank had accepted into the class that year.

  I typed the year of the class into the computer along with Mundy’s name as a search tag and a link to a court document came up. I pulled my phone out and scrolled through the photos Jolee had sent me. The court document on the computer matched the court papers in his file. With a few clicks, I logged into the Kentucky police database that was tied into the national law-enforcement database. With Mundy’s social security number from the file, I was able to plug that into the database and see that Mundy’s record was clean other than the arrest.

  I scrolled through the court papers on the police database. It looked like Mundy was kicked out of the class because he had lashed out at Frank. Instead of Frank Von Lee pressing charges for Mundy’s assault, Frank took out a restraining order against Mundy. An order was re-filed just a couple of weeks ago for a court date in a month.

  “What the hell is that all about?” I whispered, scrolling down a little more to see if there’d been a reason listed for the re-file. “Oh, Mundy, how you lie.”

  There was no reason listed, but I knew that restraining orders were only re-filed if there was a direct threat. With Frank dead, there was sure a direct threat on his life. I knew this was more incriminating that anything Mama did.

  I hit the print button and the printer next to the computer going off was music to my ears. While I waited for it to finish, I wondered about the other people in the class. They’d been witnesses to any sort of disagreement between Mundy and Frank.

  Using the mouse, I clicked on the history button on the screen and scrolled to where I’d seen the class list. I double clicked and brought that page back up. I printed it too.

  After I made sure the printer had printed the papers I wanted, I clicked out of the computer and made sure I cleared the history so no one could go back through and see what I was looking at, though they’d need my passwords. You could never be too careful.

  This was some great evidence that pointed to a tiff between the victim and Mundy that had to be looked into. Was it revenge? I’d think a restraining order wasn’t good for a chef’s reputation, especially from a famous food critic. But more importantly, I felt like this was the solid evidence to clear Mama as the number one suspect.

  The more I dug, the more I read about how Frank Von Lee had really done a number on people’s lives. He really wasn’t a very nice man, but it still didn’t warrant someone killing him. Frank Von Lee either made you rich or poor. Nothing in between. If he came to your restaurant and gave you a great review, you’d made it in the restaurant business. On the other hand, if you got a bad review, from what I read, most of the restaurants went bankrupt. Frank had even been sued by a family by the name of Tooke. It was a big case that was eventually dropped after the owner committed suicide.

  My phone rang.

  “Mama,” I groaned, noticing the little digital time on my phone said I was late.

  “Kenni, can you please come over right now?” She sounded desperate.

  “Right now?” I asked in my hushed library voice. “Why?”

  “I really need you to come now. I don’t want to say it over the phone.” There was an urgency in her voice that really bothered me.

  “I’m on my way,” I said and gathered up the papers. I hung up the phone and stuck it back in my pocket as I made my way to the exit. “Thanks, Marcy. You’re a gem.”

  I put her file back on the counter and headed on out of the door.

  Downtown Cottonwood had a yawning peace as the late afternoon dragged into the early evening. It was the time of day when everyone had left work to make it home in time for supper and every shop in town closed for the night, except for Ben’s, probably where Finn and I would end up later tonight.

  The diner was still hopping. I slowed the Jeep down and noticed through the windows of the diner all the tables were filled and Ben was busy taking orders. It looked like his fears had not come to fruition and that made me happy. Soon he and Jolee would be back to normal. Hopefully the case would be solved and peace would return to our small southern town.

  I pushed the gas and hea
ded on back down Main Street and turned right on Free Row. Duke had been home and it wasn’t fair of me to leave him there when he loved going to my parents’ house.

  “Let’s go, Duke!” I yelled after I opened the door to the house. His back legs flung out from under him when he took the turn at the door too fast, skidding outside. “You’re my crazy dog.”

  He jumped and yelped at the gate, waiting for me to walk over.

  “Let’s go,” I teased my already anxious pup when I opened the gate.

  “Hi, Kenni.” Mrs. Brown waved from her front porch. Riley Titan was screwing a light bulb in her outside porch lamp. “Have you met Riley? He’s very handy.”

  “Hi, Riley.” I greeted them when I walked over. “Yes, Mrs. Brown, I’ve met Riley.”

  “Mrs. Brown heard all the banging I’m doing over at Deputy Vincent’s house and she asked me to come by and look at her light.” He held up the bulb. “Just a bulb out. Easy fix.”

  “It wasn’t the banging that got my attention. It was the yelling.” Mrs. Brown’s chin dipped.

  “Yelling?” I questioned.

  “It’s nothing.” Riley played it off.

  “Nothing, my patookie,” Mrs. Brown said sternly. “Danny Shane has lost his mind.”

  “Oh, really. It’s no big deal. I’m used to big companies and bullying.” Riley shook off Mrs. Brown’s comments. “He heard I’d gotten the job offer from Deputy Vincent and he came to bust my chops. It wasn’t a big deal.”

  “It was a big deal,” Mrs. Brown protested. “He was going to slug you. Then he saw my wooden rolling pin.” She nodded with pride.

  “Rolling pin?” I half laughed. Mrs. Brown swinging around a rolling pin was something I’d like to have seen.

  “You should’ve seen her come to my rescue.” Riley smiled. Mrs. Brown was smitten with him.

  “You didn’t need no rescue.” Mrs. Brown winked.

  “If y’all excuse me. I better get back to work before Deputy Vincent gets home and fires me.” Riley waved on his way back down to Finn’s house.