by Maisy Morgan
“Kristin?” Mary asked.
The woman looked down at her with a perplexed expression. “Sorry, do I know you?” she asked.
“No, not really,” Mary said uncomfortably. “I just saw you… at the Brooks Day event.”
“Oh!” Kristin said, looking a bit uncomfortable now. “Yes… that was… quite a day… um… are you two ready to, uh… order?”
“Yeah, I’ll have the shepherd’s pie,” Mary said.
“Doughnut burger for me,” Tripp said.
“Seriously, Tripp? We’re eating cookies after this,” Mary scorned.
“What? I want to try it. It sounds weird,” he said, laughing, and Mary consented to letting him order the strange menu item that turned out to literally be just a burger that had a glazed doughnut cut in two being used for the bun.
When Kristin dropped the food down in front of them, she lingered for a minute. “You know… I don’t know if you heard about Josiah or not…” she said, fiddling with a pen she now held in her hand. “But I really regret what I did.”
Mary looked up at the woman a bit scornfully. “Yeah, I would regret it too. Why did you decide to out him like that all of a sudden?”
“I don’t even know why,” she admitted. “I was just ready for people to know what kind of person he really was back then. The affair happened a little less than twenty years ago, or rather, it started about that long ago. It went on for about six or seven years.”
“Whoa,” Tripp said, and Kristin blushed.
“Sorry, I probably shouldn’t be talking about that in front of him,” she said.
“It’s okay,” Mary said. “Officer Preston is leading up the investigation on his murder. Oh, please tell me you know about that already. I really don’t want to have spilled the beans twice in one day.”
“Yeah, I heard,” Kristin said drearily. “About an hour ago, so you might want to be careful because word is just now getting around about what happened to Josiah. I guess I’m all paranoid now. I’m worried that the stupid video I made might have been what got him killed. You don’t think someone went after him because of that, do you? Do you think that video could have made someone angry enough to do it?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure,” Mary said. “It was quite shocking, and I’m sure there are a lot of people in town who really looked up to Pastor Josiah and were probably deeply troubled by it. It might have prompted someone to take action.”
“Do you think his wife might have…?” Kristin’s voice trailed off. “I should have gone to her all those years ago when we cut it off. Or just not followed through with anything with him in the first place. I was still bitter, honestly. I guess my younger self was stupid enough to think that he would one day leave Jenna for me. Jenna was the love of his life though. I’ve been harboring some bitter feelings for a long time, and I came across all those old pictures of the two of us together a few weeks ago and decided I wanted to ruin his life by showing everybody what a creep he had been. I didn’t really care how it made me look.”
“You got your heart broken, didn’t you?” Mary asked.
“That doesn’t really excuse my behavior though, now does it?” Kristin asked hoping for reassurance. “Especially if it turns out what I did is why someone decided to go after Josiah. I should have known back then that he wasn’t really interested in me. It was the alcohol. He was a major alcoholic back in those days.”
“Seriously?” Mary asked.
“Yeah, it went on a lot longer than Jenna thinks it did; he and I used to go drinking all the time, and he would always go too far with it,” Kristin said. “But he got clean a few years after our breakup. Guess Jenna helped him through it. I wish she and I hadn’t gotten into it at our book club last week… maybe I wouldn’t have done it…”
“You two are in a book club together?” Tripp asked with amusement.
“Yeah…” Kristin said. “I had just found those pictures that day, and I hadn’t really made up my mind what I was going to do with them. We’ve been reading Mere Christianity and got into discussion about the sexual morality chapter, and I caught her snobby-self glancing at me the whole time.”
“I thought Jenna didn’t know about the affair until the Brooks Day event.” Mary stated.
“She didn’t,” Kristin said with a sigh. “But I have a bit of a reputation around here about living with my boyfriends. Basically, I called Jenna out for staring at me, and she decided she was going to snip back and start scorning me for my life choices or whatever. I got so ticked off at her that I went home and made the slideshow and the video that afternoon and decided then and there that I was going to let Jenna and the whole town know about what happened between Josiah and me all those years ago. I regret it now. That wasn’t the way I should have handled it.” Kristin shook herself off a bit. “Well, I’m sure you two don’t want to sit here and talk to me about all this. Enjoy your lunch.”
She walked off, her shoulders slumped. Tripp huffed. “I don’t know if she really regrets it,” Tripp said.
“What makes you think that?” Mary asked.
“I don’t know. I mean, she basically just admitted that she set out to try to destroy the guy, and that’s exactly what happened,” Tripp said. “Do you really think that it’s just a coincidence that Pastor Josiah was killed the same day that Kristin showed the whole town that little slide show of hers? I doubt it.”
“We’ll see what Officer Preston comes up with during his investigation,” Mary said and then took a bite of the shepherd’s pie. “This is really good. I think I might have a new favorite place to eat.”
“I’m just tired of pizza,” Tripp said, picking up his doughnut burger and taking a bite. He made a face that looked like a mixture of satisfaction and utter confusion.
“Good?” Mary asked.
“I really don’t know,” he said, stunned and laughing slightly. “It’s really weird.”
“So, can I ask you something?” Mary began, and he nodded. “Want to tell me about this morning? You just… you were pretty upset… and, I’m not really sure why.”
Tripp stopped eating and wiped his face with a napkin. “I’m sorry, Grandma… you’re probably going to think it’s really stupid.”
“Try me,” Mary said.
“Dad used to make these awesome pancakes for me,” he said. “And for some reason I was expecting your pancakes to taste the same, and when they didn’t, I got upset. It wasn’t that they weren’t good, sorry I said they weren’t, but it was then that it hit me: I don’t know how to make them like Dad always did, and I’m not going to get to have them anymore, ever again. At least his exact ones anyway, and it may always be the little things that come up randomly that will make me remember how much I miss him.”
Mary’s heart sank. “That’s what set you off this morning?”
“Yeah, I know, stupid… I’m sorry I took it out on you.”
“Tripp, you just had to tell me,” she said.
“I mean, I was already annoyed about you sending me to my room, but then I got all upset. It was stupid to get mad over something like pancakes,” he said.
“No, it’s not stupid,” she said. “You’ve been through a lot, Tripp. We’re going to get through this, okay?”
He nodded and took another bite of his doughnut burger and finally just pulled the doughnut away from the burger. “Nope, I can’t do it. It’s too weird.”
Mary laughed, and it turned out to be a rather pleasant lunch.
Chapter Eleven
“Okay, so chocolate chip or peanut butter chunk?” Mary asked as she scribbled down notes; they had been taste-testing batches of cookies for the past ten minutes.
“I like the peanut butter one which is really saying something because I’m usually more of a chocolate chip guy, but I’m leaning towards the peanut butter chunk right now,” he said.
“Okay, great!” Mary said just as the oven dinged. “Sounds like the snickerdoodles and the salted caramel cookies are done. Once they have a
chance to cool, we can try those out too.” She pulled the cookies out of the oven and placed them on the cooling rack. Looking up at Tripp, who was seated across the room, she noticed him staring down at his phone. “Who are you texting?” she asked.
“Huh? Oh, Hannah,” he said. “She was just telling me she’s hanging out at the antique shop with her mom today.”
“Do you want to go pop in on them?” Mary said. “You’re welcome to go. It’ll give me time to get another batch of cookies in the oven. Why don’t you take them some of the peanut butter chunk cookies?”
“Okay,” he said, rounding some of them up, and he didn’t waste any time getting out the door. Mary was sure he was eager to get out of the shop for a while. She had been working him hard that morning and ever since they had gotten back from lunch in Senoia. Mary got to work on a fudge recipe and a blondie brownie recipe that she was wanting to try. The fudge she finished and was able to pour onto a pan for it to start cooling and hardening while the brownies were still in the oven. “I hope Tripp has a serious sweet tooth,” she muttered to herself when she heard tapping on the front door of the shop.
She scurried out of the kitchen, expecting to discover that Tripp was back and had merely locked himself out of the shop, but it was actually Officer Preston tapping on the front door. Mary smiled and opened the door, inviting him into the shop. “Looking good,” he said as he looked around at the shop. “You still think you’re going to have everything up and running in time?”
“I certainly hope so,” Mary said. “I’m actually trying out some recipes in the back now.”
Right on que, the oven timer went off, so Mary invited him into the back of the shop, and she quickly pulled the brownies out. “It smells amazing in here,” Preston said while sniffing the air. “I do hope me popping by just might merit a free sample?”
Mary laughed and tossed him one of the chocolate chip cookies. He took a bite and gave her a thumbs up before shoving the rest of it into his mouth. “So, I ran into Kristin today at lunch,” Mary said. “I took Tripp to Senoia, and apparently, she waits tables at the little Irish pub there.”
“Oh, wow, how did that go?” he asked.
“Well, she had heard about Josiah,” Mary said. “And she seems to be pretty upset with herself over the whole video thing. She is worried that it might have caused someone to want to kill him.”
“It could be,” Preston said. “But I don’t want to jump to conclusions too quickly. Did you by chance manage to get anything else out of her?”
“Well, she told me the affair started a little less than twenty years ago and that it went on for seven or eight years. She also told me that Josiah was secretly an alcoholic when they were together,” Mary said.
“No way!” Preston said shockingly.
“You did say he spoke about drinking pretty heavily in his sermons,” Mary said. “That could have been from experience and guilt.”
“I didn’t think about that,” Preston said. “I’m assuming Jenna would have known about the drinking.”
“I guess that’s something you’ll have to ask her,” Mary said. “But Kristin said the two of them would go drinking together a lot and that he would almost always overdo it.”
“Dang. I really didn’t expect that,” Preston said. “Yeah, I should definitely go and talk to Jenna about this. Maybe someone knew about the drinking, found out about the affair, and it just sent them over the edge to learn what an imperfect life their pastor led?”
“Yes, well, I wish I had asked Kristin more questions than what I did,” she admitted. “I just didn’t feel like it was really my place. I was a journalist before, and I did a lot of this sort of thing in the past, but I didn’t want to overstep my bounds.”
“Well, I appreciate what you did find out,” he said. “You got Kristin to open up to you pretty easily. I can’t believe she shared with you that she knew Josiah had been an alcoholic.”
“I’ve always had a natural gift for getting people to talk,” she said. “It was my job for the longest time.”
“I’m just impressed you got that much out of her without even really trying,” he said. “Maybe you missed your calling? Sounds like you should have been a detective.”
“Well, like I said, I did do a lot of investigative journalism,” Mary reminded him. “It’s a lot of the same thing: learning how to talk to people, piecing together a story. It’s what I do, or rather, did.”
“Hmmm…” he said, thinking for a moment. “You know, I could use a little guidance. I know I’m a detective myself, but honestly, stuff like this only pops up once in a blue moon. I don’t suppose it would hurt to have a second pair of eyes sifting through the case file with me. You interested?”
Mary thought about this for a moment. She had been very busy the past few weeks with getting her shop together in time for the grand opening, but at this point, the shop was nearly ready. Now it would be a lot of just baking and trying out recipes in time for the big day, and that in and of itself would not be too painfully time consuming. She smiled. “You know, I wouldn’t mind looking at the files. Do you want to swing by later tonight, and we can have a peek at the case file together?”
He smiled. “It’s a date.”
“Kind of a weird second date,” she said.
“Oh, you know how it is,” he said. “First date is dinner and a fun activity to get to know each other. On the second date, you’re supposed to solve a murder.”
Mary laughed. “The first date ended at a crime scene, Preston.”
He blushed. “Yeah, not the best first date, huh? This doesn’t sound like too good of a follow up either.”
Mary shook her head, but she smiled. “I think that once this case is behind you, that you and I should go for a more proper date, Preston.”
“Agreed,” he said and reached around for one of her peanut butter chunk cookies. “Do you mind?” he asked, hesitating for a moment.
“Go for it,” she said, laughing. “Tripp said the peanut butter chunks are his favorite so far, but he hasn’t tried my fudge or the blondie brownies yet.”
Preston eyes widened. “Did you say fudge?” he asked while biting into a peanut butter chunk cookie.
“As a matter of fact, I did, but you are going to have to wait on that one. The fudge is still hardening,” she said. “Tell you what, I’ll make sure to put some of the fudge aside for this evening when you come by to work on the case.”
“You are an angel,” he said, holding up the peanut butter chunk cookie. “I’m taking this one for the road. Gotta get back to work on this case.”
“Good luck,” Mary said, walking him out.
She headed back into the kitchen, pulling out some cream cheese. She wanted to try something new with her rainbow cake recipe to try to make the icing taste even better. While everyone had said that the rainbow cake she had made was good, she was all about trying to improve. She got right to work on making the new icing. Before too long, her icing was done, and she was able to get started on another rainbow cake to test it out on.
She was so focused, she had completely lost track of time, and Tripp was at last arriving back from the antique shop. “Did Cindy and Hannah enjoy those cookies you took them?” she asked.
Tripp laughed. “Are you kidding? I’ve never seen two people more excited over cookies in my life. They’re both kind of ridiculous, aren’t they?”
Mary chuckled. “They both do have some pretty big personalities for such tiny people. Cindy has way more energy than I did at her age.”
“They’re really funny,” Tripp said. “Hannah dressed up in a military nurse uniform she got off one of the mannequins and sat in a corner of the shop with her head slumped down. Whenever a customer walked by, she’d make a sudden movement to scare them. Cindy got onto her for it, but it was pretty hilarious.”
Mary nearly snorted at the thought. “She was pretending to be a mannequin?”
“Yeah,” he said, laughing. “She even painted some thick,
white makeup over her eyelids so if someone saw her from the corner of their eye, she looked like a doll. Grandma, it was so funny. It was weird, but she was cracking me up. This one woman screamed and nearly fell over. That’s when we got in trouble though.”
“We?” Mary asked. “Were you a part of this little prank Hannah was doing?”
“Well…I mean, I wasn’t the one scaring everyone, but I was telling people to go check out the dolls in that room,” he said, trying to fight back a mischievous, satisfied smile.
“Sounds like you two got into a little monkey business today at Cindy’s shop,” Mary scorned.
“Just a little,” he said. “And, honestly, I know we kind of got into trouble, but I think Ms. Cindy thought it was really funny too.”
Mary laughed and shook her head. “You know what, how couldn’t she?”
“I think she was just upset because she was worried that Hannah could have damaged the outfit – she said it was an antique,” Tripp explained. “We promised not to do it again, but then Hannah had me help her up onto this antique trundle bed and cover her with a bunch of dolls. Then, we scared her mom when she came walking by!”
Mary snorted. “Tripp!” she exclaimed. “Cindy’s not going to let you and Hannah hang out in her shop anymore if you keep doing stuff like that.”
“Yeah, probably,” Tripp said. “I’ll chill out next time, but Hannah and I were having a lot of fun.”
“I’m glad you two were having fun,” Mary said, trying hard not to laugh too hard at the trouble he had gotten into. “Come on, help me pack up some of the desserts, and we’ll have a taste test after dinner tonight.”
Tripp grinned. “What else have you made today?” he asked.
