A Fatal Collection

by Mary Ellen Hughes

  “So you really liked the veggie?” he asked.

  “Loved it. And the nut bread. Where do you get that?”

  “There’s a great bakery … ” he began, and was soon off on the tale of its discovery along with his many after-hours experiments with various meat and vegetable combinations. “I eat a lot of trial-and-error dinners,” he said, smiling by that point. “Some of them not so great. But the good ones go on my menus.”

  He talked about the sauces he mixed up, tweaking recipes he sometimes found online or in one of his many cookbooks. He’d moved on to salads when a man in green scrubs stepped into the room.

  “Brian Greer?” he asked, and both Brian and Callie jumped up from their seats.

  The surgeon introduced himself. He’d just worked on Elvin, and, looking serious, he talked about multiple fractures, severe head injury, and a drug-induced coma. “Necessary until the brain swelling goes down. The next several hours—or days—will be critical. We’ll just have to watch and wait.”

  “Can we see him?” Brian asked.

  The surgeon nodded. “Through the IC window only, for now. An aide will come get you in a few minutes,” he promised. He then shook their hands and left.

  “How did this happen?” Brian asked, running a hand through his hair. “What was Elvin doing riding an ATV in the woods in the middle of the night?”

  “He’d stolen it,” a voice answered, and Callie turned to see that Jonathan Harman had stepped into the waiting room. “From Duane Fletcher,” he added. He waited a moment as they dealt with the shock of his news before asking, “How’s he doing?”

  Callie shared what they’d been told by the surgeon. “How do you know Elvin stole the ATV?” she asked.

  “It was on the local news,” Jonathan said. “That’s how I learned he was here. Elvin was supposed to come by and finish some work today.” He held out a hand to Brian and introduced himself. “You’re Greer, right?”

  Brian nodded and shook Harman’s hand, but he looked numb from his news. “Stole it? Elvin doesn’t do things like that.”

  Jonathan shrugged. “You might know better than me. But that’s what they said. I assume it came from the police report.”

  “Elvin doesn’t even have a driver’s license,” Brian said, “though I guess that wouldn’t be his biggest concern. I suppose those things are fairly easy to handle?”

  “Probably,” Jonathan agreed. “He did talk a little about wanting to try things like that.”

  “ATVs?” Callie asked.

  “Those and other sport vehicles like mopeds, go-karts, jet skis. He might have been lucky not to have chosen a jet ski. Who knows but that he might have drowned before anyone got to him.”

  “That just sounds so unlike Elvin,” Brian said, still grappling with the news.

  Callie thought of her last encounter with the man, outside Stitches Thru Time. His last word to her, out of the blue, was “Why?” One word didn’t tell her much, but she did remember the anxiety that had flashed across his face. Tabitha would say it was premonition. Was it just coincidence?

  An aide came to invite the three of them back to the ICU, and they followed the woman, Callie bracing herself for what they might see through the visitors’ window. It was as distressing as she expected. Elvin was barely recognizable under the bandages, slings, and IVs.

  Brian let out a small groan, and she squeezed his hand. Jonathan, she saw, did the same to Brian’s shoulder before moving over to her side. After a few minutes, Jonathan asked if she intended to open her shop and if so, did she need a ride back? With a shock, Callie realized she’d forgotten all about getting back to House of Melody for its Sunday afternoon hours.

  “Brian, will you be staying?” she asked.

  Brian looked over at her and then at Jonathan. He’d obviously heard Jonathan’s offer of a ride. “No,” he said. “I need to open up the café. I can take you back, unless you’d rather … ”

  “Actually, if you two are leaving,” Jonathan said, “I think I’ll hang around. I don’t have businesses to attend to. I can let you know if there’s any change.”

  “That’d be great, Jonathan,” Callie said and Brian nodded. They left then, quietly, and a glance back by Callie saw Jonathan watching them and giving an encouraging thumbs-up. But it was going to be a gray afternoon.

  Twenty-Four

  That afternoon Callie opened her shop to a steady influx of customers, which she was more than happy to see for reasons beyond possible sales. Keeping busy would help keep her mind off Elvin. Beside worrying about his injuries, there was the fact that he had actually taken Duane’s ATV. It made Elvin a confirmed thief, which was bad enough. But that in turn made him a prime suspect as her burglar, and beyond that, possibly Aunt Mel’s murderer. She hated that last thought and tried her best to reason it away. But too much kept her from completely doing that. She was left only with the hope that when Elvin awoke he would have an explanation for everything.

  From occasional glances out her window, Callie saw that the Keepsake Café was as busy as she was, despite it being past the usual lunch time. Many people were leaving with cold drinks or ice creams in hand as the weather continued warm and sultry. Once she spotted Delia coming out with a tall drink, but she went directly back to Shake It Up! without a glance toward House of Melody, which made Callie sigh. As soon as she got a chance, she would try to make things right between them.

  “My daughter loves anything to do with Broadway musicals,” a tall woman said to her. Her wedge sandals added more inches to her height, and Callie craned her neck to meet the woman’s gaze. “Her birthday is coming up, and—”

  “I think I have something she’d love.” Callie led the way to her shelf of higher-end music boxes. She brought one down that made her customer gasp. The ornately framed shadow box held a scene from Phantom of the Opera, showing Christine in her white dress being transported in the phantom’s boat to his underground lair. When Callie moved the switch, the overture from the musical played. Her customer clapped her hands in delight.

  “It’s perfect! She’ll love it.” The woman didn’t even ask the price but simply followed Callie to the counter to complete the purchase, a satisfied smile on her face.

  About mid-afternoon, Callie was surprised to see Laurie Hart walk in but assumed the toy shop owner wanted to ask about Elvin. Laurie waited patiently until Callie was free to talk, then said, “You heard about Elvin, didn’t you?”

  “I was at the hospital this morning and saw him.” Callie shared what the surgeon had said and about the drug-induced coma.

  Laurie shook her head sadly. “I don’t know what he was thinking. But unfortunately Elvin’s reasoning process isn’t the sharpest.” Her expression turned to disgust. “That creep, Duane, is more upset about his ATV than Elvin’s injuries. I couldn’t stand to listen to him going on and on about it and had to just walk away. Why does he need an ATV anyway? From what I hear he just bought himself a boat. The ATV was probably going to just rust away from non-use.”

  Laurie lifted the lid of one of the music boxes and listened to its tune: “Edelweiss.” “Pretty,” she said, smiling. “Listen,” she said, turning serious again. “We have to pin this guy down before he runs off with the rest of our money. Have you thought any more about supporting an audit on the association books?”

  Callie had probably thought about a million other things lately, but she considered it now. Why not? she asked herself. Aunt Mel had had her suspicions, and her own had grown too. “I’ll back you up,” she said.

  “Great! That will bring us within four votes of a majority! Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. If it settles the debate, one way or another, it’ll be worth the cost.”

  “Absolutely. But I think no one will regret it when they see what it turns up.”

  Laurie seemed more interested in listening to additional music boxes t
han in getting back, so Callie decided to ask for a favor.

  “Would you mind watching my shop for a few minutes? There’s something I need to discuss with Delia in person, and I’m afraid she might disappear if I wait until closing time.”

  “Sure, no problem,” Laurie said. “Bill’s fine without me for a while.”

  “And if something comes up, of course, just call.” Callie patted the phone in her pocket. “I can be back in a flash. Thanks so much!” She hurried off, hoping to catch Delia in a receptive mood and grateful that Laurie asked no questions. This talk would be very personal.

  She waited outside of Shake It Up! until she was sure Delia was alone. Then Callie took a deep breath and headed on in.

  “Oh!” Delia said, looking up from a lower shelf she’d been straightening. “Hi, Callie.” It came out weakly, her usual broad smile appearing forced. “I heard about Elvin from Brian. So heartbreaking.”

  “It is,” Callie said. “But I didn’t come to talk about Elvin right now. I might have only a couple minutes,” she said, glancing out the window. “So I’ll have to get right to it.”

  Delia didn’t look exactly open and eager to hear anything, but at least she wasn’t stopping her. So Callie plunged in.

  “Duane and I are not seeing each other. What you saw last night—the two of us sitting together—was totally unplanned. I’d come to the diner to meet with Karl Eggers’s nephew, and it didn’t go well. Duane just happened to be there and came over to commiserate. That’s all there was to it.”

  “Oh!” Delia’s face reddened. “It really was none of my business—”

  “I wanted you to understand. How you feel or don’t feel about Duane is none of my business, but it’s important to me that we’re good.”

  “Of course we are!” Delia cried, her eyes filling. “I never for a moment thought anything negative toward you, Callie. It was just … I was caught by surprise last night, and I behaved very stupidly.”

  “I probably would have done the same. If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure Duane never caught on.”

  “Men!” Delia grinned ruefully. “They never do, do they?” She reached out to give Callie a hug. “Thank you for coming to tell me this. You’re Mel’s niece, for sure.” She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and laughingly said, “So, tell me about this date with Karl’s nephew!”

  “No date,” Callie said, laughing along with her. “More of an attempt at smooth talk that quickly morphed into an arm wrestle.”

  “Sounds like fun!”

  “He actually suggested splitting my shop down the middle—half music boxes, half model trains. Wouldn’t that be a combination!”

  “Oh!” Delia shrieked. “What would you call it? House of Musical Trains? Customers wouldn’t know what to expect! Can you imagine trying to run a half-and-half shop like that? If he’s anything like Karl, what a delightful partnership that would be!”

  “More like penance for all my sins. But he seemed to think it was perfectly reasonable. Or maybe he hoped I’d wear down after six months of such togetherness and hand the whole thing over to him.”

  “If you lasted even that long.”

  Delia thankfully having returned to her usual self, Callie said she’d better return to her own shop. “Laurie Hart agreed to stay and watch it, but I should let her get back.”

  “She was here a little while ago,” Delia said, walking Callie to the door. “She wanted me to agree to an audit on Duane’s bookkeeping. I told her I couldn’t do that.”

  Callie nodded but didn’t mention that she had. It might have to come out later, but if things turned out the way Laurie expected, Delia could be looking at Duane a little differently by then. Callie just hoped it wouldn’t hurt too much.

  •

  Late that afternoon, Jonathan called. He was still at the hospital.

  “There’s been no change,” he reported.

  “You’ve been there all this time?”

  “I had some paperwork in my car, so the time passed quickly. A couple of people I knew came by, so that helped. I just thought I’d let you know in case you or Greer were thinking of coming to visit tonight. The doctors say nothing’s likely to change very soon.”

  “That’s helpful to know. I’ll pass it on to Brian. It was really nice of you to hang around, Jonathan.”

  “Well, I felt sorry for the guy. I got to know him a little while he was working for me. Sounds like he was managing the best he could under difficult circumstances. We can only hope if—uh—when he comes out of this that things won’t be even harder for him.”

  “I spoke to Elvin very briefly the day before he was hurt. He mentioned that you’d invited him indoors to take a break and cool off.”

  “Right. The heat was pretty grueling for that kind of work.”

  “The last thing he said to me was one word: ‘why?’ Nothing we’d said had led up to that, so I didn’t know what he meant. But I wondered if it had something to do with the job he was doing at your place. Would that make any sense?”

  Jonathan seemed to be mulling it over. After several moments, he said, “I can’t think of anything he’d be referring to. I told you how he’d talked about his interest in ATVs and jet skis. I had no idea at the time, of course, what he intended to do, but I might have said something like ‘not worth the money’ or ‘they can be treacherous.’ I don’t remember exactly. That’s all that comes to mind.”

  “Well, maybe he’ll be able to explain it to me himself before too long.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  They hung up, and Callie was distracted from immediately calling Brian by customers coming in. It then slipped her mind altogether until after she’d closed up shop and gone to her cottage. She grabbed her phone, fingers crossed that she’d catch him.

  “Brian!” she said as she heard his voice. “You’re not on your way to the hospital, I hope.”

  “No, still cleaning up here at the café.”

  “Good. Jonathan called a little while ago and said there’s no change in Elvin and doctors don’t expect any for quite a while. It sounds like there’s no use going back tonight, in case you were thinking of it.”

  “I was, but I’m also pretty beat. I wouldn’t mind putting it off. So Harman hung around that long?”

  “Yes. I was surprised, because he barely knows Elvin. I don’t know. Maybe he feels a bit responsible.”

  “Responsible?”

  “Well, perhaps for not talking Elvin out of that sudden interest in sports vehicles? I don’t know. Maybe he’s just a nice guy.”

  “Mmm. Well, thanks for letting me know. I’d better go.”

  Callie hung up, feeling like something had been left unsaid. She rubbed Jagger’s head absently as he nudged her for attention, then realized she was hearing Grandpa Reed’s music box playing softly once again. She hadn’t heard it in a while, and it startled her. What set it off this time?

  She’d just been talking with Brian about Elvin. Did it have something to do with that? Or, she thought, standing up with an impatient shrug and heading for the kitchen, maybe it was simply that a speck of rust dropped off the mechanism and stirred it?

  “If you’re sending messages, Aunt Mel, a text would be a whole lot more helpful!” Callie said into the air. She pulled out her diner leftovers and popped them into the microwave to warm up. “I didn’t hear anything after that long phone chat I had with Hank last night. What was up with that?”

  She punched in the time on the keypad and hit the start button, then looked over at Jagger, who sat watching her from the living room with rounded eyes. Hank, she reminded herself, hadn’t posed any real threat during their chat. She had shut things down the moment they took a wrong turn. So what did that mean, in relation to tonight’s conversation? Since she had no idea, Callie decided that the music box’s playing didn’t mean a thing, and that w
as the end of it.

  Her microwave dinged and she pulled out her steaming meal. Jagger hurried up at that point, his nose quivering.

  “Uh-uh,” she said. “Cats eat cat food and people eat spaghetti and meatballs.” She sat down and proceeded to do just that.

  Twenty-Five

  Tuesday morning, Callie had just finished a conversation on the shop phone when Tabitha arrived, dressed in what Callie at first thought was normal clothing on another one of Tabitha’s “rest” days. Then it struck her that she’d worn a denim mini skirt back in high school just like the one Tabitha had on. A similar tank top as well. Had her own teen years become vintage? A scary thought, but she didn’t have to find out for sure as Tabitha launched into distressing news concerning Laurie and Bill Hart’s shop.

  “A town crew has ripped up the entire sidewalk in front of Kids at Heart. Nobody can get in!”

  “Why did they do that?”

  “Somebody apparently reported that the edge of one section was lifted up and a danger to pedestrians. Our mayor has been scared to death of lawsuits ever since the town lost a ton of money over a sinkhole that opened up a couple of years ago. A guy got hurt along with car damage.”

  “But I’ve walked on that sidewalk more than once and never noticed any problem.”

  “Laurie said one corner was raised maybe an inch from a tree root. And it was over to the side where nobody goes, anyway. She said they’d filled it in themselves with a little grout, just to be safe. They were keeping an eye on it and would have called for a repair themselves if they thought it needed it. And arranged for a much better time, like, maybe a Monday? When the shops are closed? The crew charged in this morning and tore everything up without any warning. Bill and Laurie are tearing their hair out.”

  “How awful. You said somebody reported it?”

  “Yeah, after the sinkhole debacle, Mapleton has a hotline for calling in problems like that.”

  “And they consider an inch of sidewalk rise as an emergency?”

  “Crazy, isn’t it?” Tabitha slipped her colorful, yarn-fringed purse behind the counter.