by Kate Bell
I leaned my head back in the chair and closed my eyes. My mind went back to those months after Thaddeus had passed away. There had been so much anger and confusion. How could something that horrible have happened to him? I swore I would not live through it. I could not live through it. The pain was unimaginable. If I hadn’t had two kids that I needed to help get through the same thing I was trying to get through, I doubt I would have made it.
It was hard for me to get past Dick Bowen’s behavior. Even if they were getting a divorce, he had all that history with her as well as two children. How was it possible for him not to feel something? He was a peculiar person and a suspicious one in my mind. I wanted to shake him and make him act decently for his sons’ sakes.
I got up and wandered into the backroom of the florist shop. There was a table with a sink in it that the employees worked on when they made up arrangements and more large refrigerators with glass doors. I went to a shelf area that had supplies. Tapes, tissue paper, ribbons, and vases. I began searching through everything, hoping to find something. Anything.
“I don’t think anything will be in here,” Lucy said, following my lead.
I pulled out a bin with assorted wired ribbons and began searching. My hand hit on something solid and I pulled it out. A phone in a rhinestone case appeared. I turned and held it up to Lucy. “Is this her phone?”
She nodded, a perplexed look on her face. “Yes,” she said. Then she said, “Oh, you know what? Diana was putting some arrangements together for the bazaar on the day she died. She was using some of those ribbons. I bet she got a call, and then just laid the phone down without thinking and forgot about it. She was always doing things like that.”
“Do you have a charger? It’s dead,” I said.
“I think there’s one in her office,” she said and we headed back.
I plugged the phone in and we waited until it had enough juice to turn it on.
Lucy looked at me wide-eyed. “Do you think it has something on there that will tell us who the murderer is?”
“I certainly hope so,” I said and pushed the power button. The phone sprang to life and I was thankful that Diana hadn’t used a password to protect it. I searched through her texts, but they were mostly from her family, with a few from what appeared to be business contacts. Lucy looked over my shoulder as I searched.
“Nothing unusual about the texts,” Lucy announced with a hint of relief in her voice.
“Nope, nothing there,” I confirmed. I wondered where the incriminating texts Dick had mentioned were. I searched through phone calls and there were several missed calls from the same number. Then I saw an outbound call to my number, and I flipped through the list faster.
“Hey, go back. That’s your house phone number, isn’t it?” she said, trying to take the phone from me.
“Oh, it is, isn’t it?” I said, trying to sound surprised.
“Why did she call you? It’s the day she died,” she asked, looking at me.
“She wanted to check on when I was going to get to the bazaar,” I said. Yes, I lied. And I wasn’t sure why. What did it matter if Diana had called me? I had been over and over the call and I still had no idea what she wanted.
I scrolled through the list and there were the usual calls made and received. Most to family, some to Lucy and others to business contacts. But there was the one that kept appearing and I wondered about what Mr. Winters had said. Had Bob Payne and Diana rekindled their romance? I didn’t know, but maybe Alec would find the phone useful.
“Do you know what her code would be for voicemail? Maybe she saved some messages,” I said.
Lucy shook her head. “I hate this. All of this.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” I said, giving her arm a squeeze. “I’m going to give the phone to Alec if that’s okay. Maybe he will see something here that we’ve missed.”
“Okay. He has more experience in all of this. I bet he can figure something out. I just want her murderer found. And soon,” she said.
I looked at her and saw tears forming in her eyes. I put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. What a terrible mess this was.
I headed to the front of the shop and the front door swung open. Mary Payne walked in and stopped when she saw Lucy and me.
“Hello, Mary,” Lucy said, trying to sound happy. “How are you today?”
Mary smiled. “I’m fine, Lucy. Allie. I just stopped in to see what kind of fall arrangements you have.”
“I made up some fresh ones this morning,” Lucy said, motioning toward the refrigerated display case. “I can make up whatever you want if you don’t see anything you like.”
Mary went to the display case and peered in through the glass. “Is Dick going to keep the flower shop open with Diana gone?” she asked without looking at Lucy.
“I don’t think he’s made up his mind,” Lucy answered.
“Are you celebrating a special occasion?” I asked Mary, slipping Diana’s phone into my purse.
She turned and smiled at me. “Let’s just say my son and I are celebrating something personal.” Then she opened the display case door and picked up a vase of orange and red daisies, chrysanthemums, and roses.
“That sounds like fun,” I said. I turned to Lucy, and she shrugged.
Diana’s phone vibrated, reminding me I needed to get it over to Alec. “I’ve got to get going ladies. I’ll see you around.”
“Goodbye, Allie,” Mary said.
“I’ll talk to you later,” Lucy said.
I headed out the door, hoping Alec was free to talk.
Chapter Fifteen
I saw Alec up ahead of me on the running trail and I put it into high gear to catch up with him. My lungs ached in the cold air as I tried to catch up. Jennifer had come home the previous afternoon, and I never got around to telling Alec I had Diana’s phone.
As I got closer, Alec looked over his shoulder. I was pretty sure my breathing sounded like an approaching freight train. He slowed down to let me catch up.
“Hey,” he said when I was beside him.
“Hey,” I gasped. “Hold. On.”
He stopped, and I bent over, hands on my knees and tried to catch my breath.
“So uh, how’s that marathon training coming?” he asked with a grin.
I looked up at him. “Swimmingly,” I answered. The truth was, I had been hitting the pie pretty heavily and the running trail not nearly enough. I had put on at least five pounds and I was feeling every ounce of it. But the cold had really set in and eating comfort food was high on my list of things to do. The only way I was going to run a marathon come spring was if someone else was pulling me along after them.
“Looks like it,” he said. “Let’s walk so my muscles don’t get cold.” He started off walking down the path, and I straightened up and trotted along beside him. Those long legs were going to be the death of me.
“Okay, so what have you found out about Diana’s murder?” I asked. We needed to coordinate facts.
He chuckled. “I hardly see where that concerns you. It’s not like you’re sticking your nose in the investigation, right?”
“Of course not!” I insisted. “It’s not my fault information just drops in my lap.”
A dark cloud drifted overhead, and I glanced at it. This close to the coast, storms started up suddenly, and it was too cold to get stuck in one right then. I was too tired to get back to my car very quickly, so I hoped it wouldn’t start raining.
“I’m sure you weren’t actually out snooping around, looking for information, right? You aren’t interrogating anyone, right?”
He was being very pointed in his questioning and I was beginning to resent that. “I swear, I wasn’t interrogating anyone,” I said, raising two fingers in a scout’s salute.
“All right, against my better judgment, I’ll bite,” he said with a sigh.
“It seems that our friend Mayor Bob and Diana once had a much closer relationship than he let on,” I said, feeling smug about
what I knew. I was holding onto the phone as my pièce de résistance.
“Oh? And how close would that be?” he said without interest.
I knew he was trying to play it cool, but I also knew it was all a ruse to make me think he didn’t care.
“They once dated,” I said and took a swig from my water bottle. If he could act like he didn’t care, then I could do the same.
He turned and looked at me as we continued walking. “What do you mean? When? I thought they were both happily married? Or at least Bob is.”
“It was before they were married,” I said, not looking at him. I could play hard to get with information if I had to.
“Allie, tell me when they were dating,” he insisted.
I felt a drop of water hit my nose and I looked skyward. “Well, to be honest, it has been a while. But that’s not the point. The point is that he pretty much lied when he didn’t confess that he had more than a casual business relationship with Diana.”
“Allie?” he said.
“What?” I asked, looking at him.
“When, and how do you know?”
I smiled at him. Now, who was interested? “In the tenth grade they were boyfriend and girlfriend and rumor has it, they were quite the item.” I was embellishing a little.
He sighed heavily. “Seriously? Tenth grade? Gee, do you think it was a bitter breakup and finally, after twenty-five years, he got the chance to exact his revenge?”
“Hey, you don’t need to get snotty about it. It’s not like you found out this information. And besides, he lied when he said it was just a business-acquaintance relationship.”
“I suppose that’s true. But I really can’t imagine he was still holding a grudge. Did you happen to find out who broke up with whom?”
I broke into a slow trot. I didn’t want to waste a workout. “Nope. I did not find that out.”
He trotted those long legs of his and easily caught up to me. “I seriously don’t think this has any bearing on Diana’s murder. But you’re right. He withheld that information.”
“Maybe he’s the paranoid type and thought you would jump to conclusions,” I said.
“Or they really had rekindled the relationship,” he said.
“Well, rumor also has it they were spotted recently at Henry’s Home Cooking Restaurant. Together,” I supplied.
Another drop of water hit my face. The clouds were moving in and it was cold. Not cold enough to turn to snow, but I didn’t relish the thought of getting wet in the cold air. “Maybe we should head back to our cars. I think it’s going to rain.”
Alec was deep in thought and didn’t answer, but turned around with me and we headed back in the direction we had come.
“You know what I think?” I asked, interrupting his thoughts. He looked at me out the corner of his eye but didn’t answer. “I think they were having an affair, and she wanted to end it and he killed her because he didn’t want to stop seeing her.”
“I think you watch too much television,” he said through deep breaths.
“No, I think they rekindled their love for each other and things soured,” I said, slowing to a fast walk.
“That could be, but because her husband wanted a divorce, there was no reason for her to want to break it off with Bob. She was pretty much free to see whom she wanted. And if she was seeing Bob, it would have freed up her husband to swing dance to his heart’s content,” he said, taking a swig from his water bottle.
I sighed. “Fine. Bob wanted to end it because he was afraid his wife would find out. He didn’t want to lose her or the kids,” I said. “When she refused, he killed her. That does make more sense. Either way, he did it. He’s deceptive and I’ve never liked him.”
Alec chuckled. “Why don’t you like him?”
“He has beady eyes. Beady-eyed people are always killers. Plus, one time he stole my parking space at Shaw’s Supermarket.”
He laughed even harder. “You are something else.”
I shrugged. “At least I’m coming up with something. What have you come up with?”
“Allie, would you like to go to dinner with me?”
I looked at him. He had a very serious look on his face. Was he asking me out on a real date? Like a dress-up date? Complete with wine and a good night kiss? Or was I reading too much into it? Maybe he just wanted to discuss the case like we had the last time we went to dinner.
“Um,” I said because I’m that smooth.
“If you want to,” he said quickly. “I mean if you don’t have any other plans.”
“No,” I answered. “I don’t have any other plans. Where do you want to go?”
“How about Antonio’s over in Portland on Friday?” he asked. He sounded kind of shy when he said it and I wondered if it had been a while since he had asked someone out on a real date.
“I would love to,” I found myself saying. He had to mean a real date. Antonio’s was a nice, dress-up place. He wouldn’t take me there if he didn’t think it was a real date. I don’t think.
“Good. That’s good,” he said.
“Do you mean, friends, going out to dinner sort of evening, or a real date sort of evening?” I blurted out. I didn’t want to misread this and embarrass myself.
He slowed down and looked at me. “I mean, a real date. If you want, I mean.”
I nodded. “Yes. A real date would be nice,” I said.
“Okay then, we’ll go on a real date.”
“Oh, and one other thing,” I said. “Well, actually, two other things.”
“What?” he asked, turning toward me again.
I came to a stop and fished into my jacket pocket and pulled Diana’s phone out. “The missing phone.” I handed it to him. He looked at it wide-eyed.
“Where did you get it?”
“At Diana’s flower shop. She dropped it into a bin of ribbon,” I said.
He turned it on and looked at it. “I guess it would be pointless to ask you whether you looked at the texts?”
“It would be pointless,” I said, nodding. “None of the texts looked interesting. I don’t have the code to listen to saved voicemails. There’s a phone number that called her frequently, but she never called it.”
He flipped through the phone numbers. Then he looked up at me. “You know, this could be considered tampering with evidence. You should have brought me the phone without looking at anything.”
“What? All I did was look through the texts and phone numbers. I didn’t tamper with anything!” I thought he should be a little more grateful.
“Were there any texts from Bob Payne talking about an affair like her husband said he saw?” he asked.
“I didn’t see any. She could have deleted them though.”
“What’s the second thing you discovered?” he asked.
I put my hands on my hips and stared at him. He really needed to change his attitude.
“Come on, Allie, what’s the other thing you discovered?” he said a little nicer.
I sighed loudly. “It’s a credit card statement. She stayed in Bangor on September 29th and went to a bar and Target. Lucy said Diana told her she was going to visit her mother in Ball Harbor, and the statement was hidden beneath a desk drawer organizer.” I pulled the statement out of my pocket and handed it to him.
He unfolded it and looked it over. “Very nice. I’ll have someone look into this.”
“Oh, finally you’re going to approve of something I do in this investigation?”
“Look, Allie, it’s not that I don’t appreciate it. It’s just that I can’t have you getting involved. I shouldn’t be allowing you to go with me when I question people. I’m letting my personal feelings get involved,” he said.
I stared at him. He had personal feelings about me. “It’s okay. I’m not talking to anyone about the investigation. I haven’t told Lucy much of anything. I mean, she was with me when I found the phone and the credit card statement, but she won’t say a word. Don’t worry about it.”
�
�I am worried about it. I need to be, anyway. Look, I’ll take these down to the station and investigate everything on them. I do appreciate it. But do you think you could stop? I mean, really? Stop it,” he said.
I nodded. But I wasn’t all that sure I could stop investigating. “So, are we still going out?” I asked.
He grinned at me. “Of course we are. I can’t wait.”
“Me either,” I said.
We finished our run in near silence. Things had suddenly gotten awkward. I didn’t care. We would have plenty to talk about on our date.
“I’ll see you on Friday,” he said as we parted ways.
I swallowed hard. I hadn’t been on a date since before I was married. I was going to have to consult with Lucy on this.
Chapter Sixteen
“Lucy, I need your help. He wants me to go out on a real date with him!” I whispered into my phone. I glanced around at the other customers in the Cup and Bean coffee shop, but no one seemed particularly interested in me. The line was nearly to the back of the coffee shop, and I was at the end of it.
“What?” Lucy shrieked into the phone. I glanced around the coffee shop. I was sure everyone could hear her.
“Ssh,” I whispered.
“You’re going on a date? With Alec? Oh, you go, girl!” she said at a lower decibel level. “Where is he taking you?”
“Yes, and I need help. I have no idea how to get ready for a date these days,” I said, shuffling forward as the line moved. “He said Antonio’s in Portland.”
“Allie, you know I would love to help you, but with Diana gone, I’ve been putting in extra hours down here at the flower shop. I don’t know what’s going to happen with it. Her boys are still in school and can’t help out,” she said.
I sighed. I really needed help with this. “What should I wear?” I asked her. “I mean, what if I’m reading too much into it?” I whispered the last part. I didn’t want anyone to know my business.
“Allie, it’s a date. A real, honest to goodness date. Relax and enjoy it!”
I swallowed. Did I want to go out on a date? I still missed my husband. Would I feel like I was betraying him? What if I cried on the date because I felt badly about betraying Thaddeus? And what about the kids? Jennifer had nearly freaked out when I had dinner with Alec last week. She would lose it for sure when she found out it was a real date. I had so many questions and no answers.
