The Pumpkin Problem

by Beth Byers

  I frowned and then said, “How did he die?”

  Simon didn’t want to answer, but I knew he couldn’t see why not to. Someone else would tell me eventually. “He was stabbed with your pumpkin carving tools. Az washed them and left them on the window ledge by the diner.”

  I flinched as I didn’t like that one little bit. The pumpkin carving tool was a saw with a jagged edge and sharp tip. What a terrible, terrible way to die. I am sure I paled, but Simon said. “Look, Rose. The murderer used what was handy. If it hadn’t been those, it would have been something else.”

  Goliath set his head down on my lap and looked up at me through big lashes. Mama Dog pushed her little body against my leg, making me feel the weight and warmth of her. My sweet Daisy, hopped up on the couch next to me and licked my face. Their awareness of my emotions was why I was such a dog woman. Our dog caretaker, Matthew, had brushed their fur and teeth that day. I was sure that he’d played them hard, because they were all drooping a bit.

  I nodded, gently pushing the dogs aside, so I could stand and join them on one of the barstools in the kitchen. Simon crossed to me and kissed my head and then I admitted, “It helps knowing what happened. I can stop wondering about it. I think that perhaps seeing the body with the jack o’ lantern is worse than having seen him as he was when he died. Why would anyone do that?”

  Simon shook his head, but he didn’t answer. It wasn’t something we could answer. A question for the murderer when we…when Simon…found the killer. Simon’s fingers tightened with his hug for a minute and then he released me. “Az said he’d bring chicken noodle soup over for dinner. Jane wants you to take it easy on your wrist and come in if it doesn’t start to feel better.”

  Talking about it made my wrist pulse with pain. It had hurt before, but I hadn’t been paying attention to it. Once all eyes were on my poor bandaged wrist it was far worse. I tried a smile, but I could feel its tightness, and I knew Simon and Mattie knew me far too well for it to work.

  “I’m sure it’ll be fine in a day or two,” I said instead of saying I was fine.

  Simon opened the cupboard and handed me two Tylenol—all I could take while pregnant. He followed it up with a large glass of ice water.

  “What did you find out about what Jerry was up to?” Mattie asked. She had made a pot of coffee and a pot of water for tea. I took my rooibos caffeine free tea with a frown. I wanted that coffee pretty badly, and might indulge except this late, after a nap, would be ineffable stupidity. The coffee would keep me up all night and probably give me heartburn too.

  I frowned as I tried to imagine what had happened. If Jerry had been killed by my tools and near my diner, it must have been while he was delivering the produce. That happened between…what? Before we got there but not by much. We got to the diner around 5:30 am for a 6:00 am opening time. Well, Az and Zee did with someone else as well though who it was varied. So…the delivery must be between 4:30 am and 5:30 am? The murder hadn’t happened right behind the diner. Az would have seen it, of course, when he moved the produce into the kitchens.

  Did the murder happen before or after the delivery? Surely Az would have mentioned that the produce hadn't arrived. Well, maybe not to me? Zee would have handled it, not me. She was the one who ran the diner on a daily basis. I messaged Zee with an old phone of Simon’s while we waited for my new one to arrive

  I was playing with my tea while Simon and Mattie carefully changed the subject. No doubt they were hoping to avoid another pregnant hysterical woman fit. I didn’t blame them, but I also wasn’t letting myself think about who he mattered to. I wasn't saying that if I chatted with Jerry Voe’s mom, I wouldn’t cry with her, because I would. Without hesitation and regardless of what kind of son he was. I would break down and weep at the sheer idea that she’d had her child stolen from her.

  But I could focus on when the murder might have happened without crying. I waited for Zee’s reply and she messaged she was coming over for some soup but that the produce had been delivered.

  So, he must have been killed right after he delivered the produce. Why else would he be in that alleyway if not? I tried to imagine it again. The building for the 2nd Chance Diner was an old brick building with bay windows and it stood alone. It wasn’t one of those connected buildings with shop after shop. But the other side of the alley way was. Those four shops all had their own parking lot in the back and a place for their trash. We kept our dumpster in the alleyway, but no one else did. There wasn’t any reason for anyone but one of us to be in that alleyway. Often, however, we set our trash in the back of the building and walked it around at the end of the day. Especially if the orders were flying and we were busy.

  If that was how the day had gone down, then the body could have been undisturbed until we’d taken the time to put the trash in the dumpster. So, I would have been the first one to see it. Maybe we hadn’t even filled our trashcans at the mid-morning point when I’d walked past the alleyway and been distracted by what I’d seen.

  Ok, so if the murder happened during delivery time, why would he be in the alleyway? Maybe he parked in front of the diner and rolled the food over on a hand truck? That made sense. At that time of the morning, Jerry Voe would have paused his delivery truck in front of the diner, rolled the produce to the back, and then been walking back to the truck. Why hadn’t the hand truck been there when I’d found the body?

  I recalled the scene and was certain it had just been the body, the dumpster, and the pumpkin. What happened to the produce delivery truck itself? Someone must have moved it. The killer?

  “Were there prints on the weapon?” I asked cutting into a conversation about the price of gas these days. I hadn’t been paying much attention to what Mattie and Simon were talking about, but I could see that they were startled by my question.

  Simon shook his head, frowning. “Rose, I don’t want you involved in this. I know you’re good at figuring the puzzles out, but…”

  “I don’t want to be involved,” I told him honestly. “I have no desire to do that. It’s just the reason he’d have been outside of our diner was to deliver produce. Was the time of death around 4:30 am to 5:30 am?”

  Simon scowled at me, but he nodded.

  “He’s 2nd Chance’s produce guy, so if so…Simon…Jerry must have been delivering our produce when he died. And it must have happened after the produce was delivered because we got ours. What happened to the hand truck and the delivery truck? Someone must have moved them. If Henry was out of town does that mean that Jerry was delivering alone? Or did he have a partner? Either way, who but the murderer would have moved that delivery truck? And why if not to delay the discovery of what had happened?”

  Were they trying to delay it or hide it entirely? What if they hadn’t been able to get rid of the body and hoped to disguise it until they could get rid of it later that day? Was that why someone had used a pumpkin to hide the body? Why not just use the dumpster?

  I could see the inner cop take over Simon as he processed what I’d said. He’d have noticed the discrepancy, but he’d been distracted by telling Jerry Voe’s mom that her son was dead. I understood it. I was glad that wasn’t my job—just the thought of it made my eyes burn.

  I messaged Zee again asking if the truck had been there in front of the diner when they’d arrived, but I was sure it hadn’t been. They’d have looked for the driver. They’d have tried to figure out why it had been left, and they’d have discovered the grisly scene that would plague my nightmares.

  She responded. No, the delivery truck hadn’t been there.

  “Why the pumpkin?”

  Simon stared at me. I was sure he was wondering the same thing, but he hadn’t asked the question of me. Maybe to avoid my tears. Maybe because he didn’t want me involved. Whatever the reason, the pumpkin was a problem.

  Az arrived, placed a massive pot of chicken noodle soup on the stove, set down a few loaves of homemade bread and kissed Mattie.

  “Marry this one,” I told Mattie, �
��The scent of that soup is enough to convince any woman.”

  Mattie laughed at me and then squatted down to say hello to our flock of dogs. In addition to Goliath, my great Dane, we had two near-full bred basset hounds, and 4 long-haired Dachshunds. Simon and I had met over the basket of basset hound puppies and each adopted one. Later, I’d saved Mama dog and her three sweet puppies from a fire, and finally, Goliath had saved me during one of Silver Falls’ too many murder cases.

  Zee and Carver arrived next and the group of us sat down to our table.

  “What’s this about the delivery truck?” Carver asked, ignoring Simon’s irritated glance.

  I explained my theory that the killer must have moved it, and Carver rose from the table to call one of the on-duty police officers to look for it.

  We ate and every time the murder was brought up, Simon changed the subject. Zee finally snorted meanly and said, “Rose is pregnant not stupid. Her mind works, and it’ll pick at this problem. Give her the details and she can wonder at it while she does mommy stuff.”

  Az carefully looked down at his bowl, not a peep coming from that dark-chocolate honeyed voice while Mattie pressed her lips together to hold back a smile. Carver continued to eat, dunking his buttered bread in his soup and taking a large bite.

  “You drag her in every time,” Simon told Zee. The accusation said Simon hadn’t forgiven or forgotten even if he loved her like I did.

  “Even I’m not stupid enough to bring her out and about when she’s a lumbering behemoth,” Zee said idly ignoring Simon’s unstated censure.

  “Whoa,” I said. “I only barely lumber.”

  “Your feet are two sizes too big. You’re like the grinch’s heart but the opposite. You should drink more fluids. Flush that buildup out. It’s a disgrace.”

  “It’s normal for women to have swollen feet while they’re pregnant,” Simon told Zee, shooting to my defense. “Rose is perfect. Carrying and growing a child is beautiful.”

  I wasn’t, however, bothered. Zee was my best friend, but I knew her for the prickly wench that she was and I’d long since become inured to her little jabs. She was right, it was harder for me to get around. She might have used colorful language, but Simon knew she was right too. He had to haul me up more than once when I was trying to figure out my differentiated center of gravity.

  “It’s normal for women to do a lot of things while they’re pregnant,” Zee shot back, “Like work, interact with their friends, walk places alone, even—and this might sound crazy to you—use their brains.” Zee shot me a humor-filled yet mean look when she said, “Even if they’re hormonal psychopaths.”

  I took an easy bite of my soup. I wasn’t bothered by that truth. I had lost it earlier that day and looking back made me wince a little bit.

  “Quit picking on Simon, Zee,” Az suggested easily. “He knows he can’t hold back Rose. It’s why he’s got that crazy look in his eyes. He was just hoping that no one else would be murdered.”

  “Hear, hear,” I said. “I was hoping the same thing.”

  “We all were,” Carver said. “This is long past ridiculous. So many people thinking murder is the answer.”

  “Murder is never the answer,” Simon said, “Unless you try to drag Rose into danger while she’s growing a baby, extra-emotional, and having a little more trouble getting around.”

  Zee’s answer was a mean snort and rolling her eyes at Simon’s threat.

  CHAPTER 5

  “You should go into the adoption center today,” Simon told me the following morning.

  I was dressing for the day and my shirt was half over my face as he spoke, so he didn’t see my scowl. I was dressing in my new uniform: pregnant woman leggings, a long t-shirt, slip-on shoes. This was what I was being brought to. I’d woken with a craving for bacon and waffles, so I just smiled at him. I didn’t want him worrying about me, and I knew he wanted to keep me from Zee and her bad influence.

  “I’ll stop by there for sure. I haven’t checked in with Shane in a while, and we still have that mean little chihuahua. It’s been too long. There has to be something we can do,” I said once again. “Maybe we could look into making some sort of reserve for unadoptable dogs and quit wasting the space at the center. It’s not like anyone is going to come in, meet a sweet little puppy and think, ‘No, I’ll take this tiny rat-like dog who I have to sign a waiver before I meet since it bites.’”

  Simon and I had discussed that darned chihuahua more times than I could count. Possibly more than baby names which I really felt was saying something. Someone had surrendered the little beast after being terrible, terrible dog owners. The dog had learned to not trust people. Not even a little bit. He had bitten me, personally, at least four times. I was prepared for the bites and looking to avoid them and he’d still gotten me.

  Simon eyed me as I slipped my shoes on and made him a thermos of coffee while I made myself a large tea. I had learned to love tea after messing up my lungs, but I didn’t like the option of not having coffee. Being caffeine free while pregnant was crappy. I didn’t miss the wine so much. But the sushi and the coffee was horrible.

  I made Simon a breakfast sandwich. He watched me move through the kitchen, sipping my tea, and noting that I wasn’t making something for myself. I knew he had to head over to Lincoln City and didn’t have time to have breakfast at the diner, but I wasn’t so constricted. His mouth tightened as I handed him his food.

  “I need waffles,” I told him.

  He nodded and then said, “I just need you to be safe, Rose. You and the baby…you’re everything.”

  “The baby is everything to me too,” I told him honestly. “There is no chance I will deliberately put our baby in danger.”

  Simon nodded, wrapped his sandwich in foil and restrained himself—barely—from begging me not to let Zee suck me into her madness. I’d already told him a few times I didn’t want to, and there was no way that Zee was dragging me into her car to roar around town and try to manipulate our way into some possible killer’s home. Nope. Not again.

  Matthew had just arrived to take care of the dogs when I was almost ready to go. He grinned at me. He wasn’t quite special needs, but he didn’t do well with office jobs or steady work, so he strung together a bunch of side-hustles like taking care of our dogs for Simon and I.

  “Just take them for a really long walk,” I told him.

  I got into my car taking Goliath with me. Zee messaged me about when I would arrive at the diner, and I told her I’d be over after I checked in at the adoption center. Then I took a picture of Goliath sitting in the front seat and sent it to Simon before driving down to The 2nd Chance Adoption Center.

  It didn’t take very long to check in there, make sure thing were running well, meet the old lab who’d been brought in after losing his owner. I snuggled him for a long time. The look on his face was sad, and I didn’t blame him one little bit. He’d lost the most important person in his whole world and didn’t even realize what had happened or that he hadn’t been abandoned.

  “Offer a scholarship for him and call around to some of the loving homes we know. He’s not young, and he won’t last for a long time,” I said. “Especially this sad. But maybe someplace like the Michaelson’s. They’re so good with dogs, and their boy might just be the perfect solution for this lab.”

  Shane nodded. She was as upset by the lab’s melancholy given the way he was laying at her feet. “I was thinking of taking him home with me today rather than leaving him here.”

  I nodded. I checked in about her nieces who were young J.J.’s half-sisters and then about the skunk those little girls had adopted when one had been left at the shelter.

  “You know…” Shane stared down at the old lab. “With the scholarship, if it covered vet expenses, my nieces might be a better answer.”

  “That’s fine with me,” I said. “If it gives this old guy some little girls to help him through his mourning. They can have all his expenses paid. Just bring them food and stuff fro
m here. Give them a dog crate, bed, toys, all of it.”

  Shane nodded and said, “I’ll call my sister. I think she’ll be game. She has been wanting to do something to repay you guys…”

  I cut Shane off. Simon and I weren’t paying for the counseling for the little girls after losing their birth dad because we were saints. We were doing it because we didn’t want J.J. to get healthy while his sisters suffered. It was in the best interest of our family, and with my inheritance, the cost wasn’t even a sacrifice.

  I left the adoption center when my stomach started to growl and made my way down to the diner. When I got inside, I walked as normally as possible, but I was too stiff, and Zee’s look told me I had been unsuccessful at disguising my lumbering. I put Goliath in the dog bed in the office and left him with a chew treat and then went back to the dining area.

  “Did they find the delivery truck?” I asked as I made myself a cup of tea and asked Az for some waffles, hash browns, and bacon. Startlingly, I didn’t want the autumn supreme waffle with a pear and apple compote. “Add some jalapeño and cheddar cheese to mine. With regular syrup.”

  Az’s head cocked and he said, “That might be a pretty good specialty waffle when it’s not Halloween.”

  “Let’s test her out,” I said.

  I found a booth and pulled out the notebook I had with me. Zee sat down across from me, taking the notebook. It held my notes on the murder and Zee smirked evilly at me as she realized what I’d written down.

  “I couldn’t help it,” I told her. I sipped my tea and said goodbye to one of our regulars who was leaving.

  “You have an addiction,” Zee told me. Her gaze was triumphant and evil. “Admitting it is the first step.”

  “Even if I admit it,” I shot back, “That doesn’t mean I’m going to try to investigate a murder while also being six months pregnant, without weapon or backup. I nearly died once, and I won’t survive but lose my baby.”

  Zee’s mouth pursed and then she admitted, “Even I think that’s a good call. I just want you to admit that you like the puzzle.”