Ax to Grind

by Tonya Kappes

  “Lonnie came by and was all crazy saying he was going to do someone in for trying to kill his wife, but it’s been real quiet after I sent him off. He also wanted to get her car towed, but I told him that it’s part of the crime scene and to leave it.” Finn pulled the cup up to his lips. He stared at me over the lid. “I guess before it gets crazy this morning I should probably apologize for last night before all this took place.”

  “Apologize?” I played stupid, but he cocked his head to the side with a you-know-what-I’m-talking-about face. “Oh, you mean?” I gestured between the two of us and let out a nervous giggle. “Pfft.” I waved my hand at him. “No apology necessary.”

  “Yeah, it’s my fault and ridiculous that you and I...” He shrugged. “I mean, election season is coming up. It might sway people’s vote.”

  “Exactly,” I said.

  “Good. Now that we got that out of the way.” He let out a sigh of relief. “What’s our plan?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that.” And you, I wanted to add, but the discussion was now dropped, so it was time to put it out of my head. Cecily’s words were stuck in my head, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t un-hear them. “Two times I heard Cecily say ‘over my dead body’ to two different people.”

  “Who did she say it to?” Finn asked. He folded his arms across his chest and leaned against my Jeep.

  “Darby Gray, the owner of the Inn, and Ruby Smith, the executor of the estate.” I gazed at him, giving him a fake smile. “I just can’t imagine what could be in that manuscript that would cause someone to kill.”

  “Yeah. I know we have to find that manuscript. Even if it is contracted to go to a publisher. If there are secrets in there about people here in Cottonwood and they know about it, those could be more suspects for us to look into.” He looked toward the antique shop.

  “Plus, I know why someone wanted to kill Paige,” I said. “She worked for Beryle as her housekeeper when Beryle lived here. I can’t help but wonder if the killer thinks she knows something and wanted to keep her silent.”

  “That would be a good reason.” He pushed off the Jeep when Ruby’s DeVille sedan pulled up behind us. “And another reason to find the manuscript.”

  “I’m going to head over to the library at some point and see if I can get some more information on Beryle Stone and her life. All I’m going on right now is what everyone is saying about how nice she was. If there’s a tell-all, then maybe she wasn’t so nice.” I spoke quickly before Ruby got to us. “Then I’m heading to the hospital to see if Paige is awake and give Lonnie a shoulder of support and a fair warning to leave this investigation up to us.” My chest lifted with a deep breath to prepare myself for the wrath of Ruby Smith.

  I was glad to see her because it saved me a trip to track her down. I looked at my watch. It was still a little early for her to be here. The doors said the shop opened at nine a.m. but that meant ten or eleven a.m. on Ruby time.

  “What in blue blazes is going on around here?” Ruby asked as she got out of her car, a cardboard coffee cup in her hand.

  “I was hoping you could tell me.” I stepped up, Finn taking a stand behind me and Duke next to me.

  “Kenni Lowry, you’ve done gone and lost your marbles. I don’t know what you are talking about.” She pointed to the police tape. “What is all this?”

  “Last night someone killed Cecily Hoover over there next to your shop, and Paige Lemar was found nearly dead inside,” I said in a stern voice.

  Ruby’s face froze, her jaw clenched and eyes fixed. She charged toward her shop.

  “Where are you going?” I rushed next to her.

  “I’m going inside my shop to see if anything was stolen.” She threw her cup on the ground, the lid popped off and spilled steaming coffee on the concrete. Her arms pumped.

  “You can’t go in there right now.” I hurried in front of her and tried to beat her to the door, but her spry nature beat me.

  But she didn’t beat Poppa.

  Poppa ghosted himself at the back door of Ruby’s Antiques and hollered for Duke. Duke stood between the door and Ruby. He was a big softy, but by the way he ran over to Poppa, Ruby pulled back.

  “Paige isn’t awake, but the doctors were saying her vitals look like she’s going to be okay and they will try to start waking her up.” Poppa gave me some news I could be excited about.

  “Did you train him to be a police dog?” Ruby jerked around. “You better sic him off me.”

  “I never sicced him on you. Yet.” My eyes drew down on her.

  “Kenni Lowry, don’t you make me call your mama,” she warned and shook her finger at me.

  “This is a murder investigation out here that either ended in your shop or started in your shop. You aren’t going in there for a few hours. Do you understand?” I didn’t give her the opportunity to answer. “Did you hear what I said about Paige Lemar?”

  “How is Paige?” She cleared her throat and lifted her chin in the air.

  “I’m not sure,” I said and noticed her arms at her sides, her thumbs rubbing her forefinger on each hand.

  “I’ve got to go see her.” She twisted around to go back to her car.

  “Not so fast.” I stopped her. “I’d like to know exactly where you were last night.”

  “Do you think I tried to kill Paige?” she asked.

  “You haven’t even mentioned Cecily Hoover,” Finn said to her.

  She looked between Finn and me.

  “I have nothing to say about Cecily Hoover. I don’t know her. I just met her a day or so ago. Besides, I was at my church group meeting last night, and if you don’t believe me, you can ask Stella or anyone else there.” She clasped her hands in front of her. “Now, may I go, Sheriff?”

  “I have a few more questions I’d like you to answer,” I said.

  “Are you arresting me for something I didn’t do?” she asked. “Because that’s what they do in the movies.”

  “I’m not arresting you. I’m simply asking you questions,” I stated.

  “I have a question for you. When can I open my shop?” she asked. “As you know, there are a lot of visitors interested in Beryle’s things.”

  She was dancing around my questions.

  “Why do you think Paige was here with Cecily last night?” I asked.

  “I have no idea. So either arrest me so I can call my lawyer, or let me go so I can go visit with Paige before I have to open up.” Her brows cocked.

  The fall morning sun was starting to rise above the shop’s roof. Ruby’s red hair glistened from the early rays.

  “I’m going to go in and look around your shop one more time before I let you in.” I looked at my watch. “You usually aren’t here this early.”

  “I had things to do.” Her words were clear, concise, and to the point. “May I go see Paige now?”

  “You may, but I will need you to come to the station to answer a few questions.” I didn’t want her to think she was off the hook, because in my book Ruby Smith was a suspect. I just didn’t have the evidence I needed to keep her.

  “Fine.” She shook her head. “I’ll call Betty.”

  She shuffled back to her car. Her car jumped when she threw it in reverse. After she got the car turned around, she sped off.

  “Good boy.” I walked over and rubbed Duke’s head.

  “You’re welcome.” Poppa tugged on the top of his pants and rocked back on the heels of his shoes.

  “Why didn’t you insist on her answering some questions now?” Finn asked.

  “First off, she’s in a bit of a shock. I’ve known Ruby all my life and she’s never at a loss of words. I know she needs to process what’s happened if she didn’t do it, though I’m not sure she didn’t. But I know we have to go with the evidence. Secondly, that’s not how we do things here. I don’t have the evidence to k
eep her because Cecily wasn’t found in the shop. She’s going to see Paige. I don’t think she’d go see Paige if she was the one who tried to kill her.” I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “And Ruby Smith ain’t skipping town.”

  “What do you mean it’s not the way you do things?” He wasn’t satisfied with my answer.

  “I don’t jump on someone right away unless I know for sure. That’s what I mean.” I didn’t like how he questioned me about my tactics, but he was still pretty new and we were just starting to get our groove. “Did you find any more evidence other than the ax?”

  He shook his head. “I did find the inventory sheet from the estate sale on Ruby’s desk, and I went off and checked the items. I tagged them with an evidence marker so you could go in and take a look. I opened the drawers and felt around for any sort of secret compartment that would be able to hide something like a manuscript, but I found nothing. Maybe you can find something. I also bagged up some stray hairs. I took some blood samples from the splatter, dusted for fingerprints and shoe prints, and took a lot of pictures. I also walked around the front of the shop, but there wasn’t anything there.”

  “I didn’t think there would be since we were standing out there last night and didn’t see anything.” I swallowed back the images of Finn and me in front of Ben’s last night. “Do you believe that Paige was attacked and Cecily was killed over this supposed manuscript?” I asked.

  “I think that Beryle Stone knew something like Cecily said. That something has to be so telling that someone really didn’t want it to come out.” Finn confirmed what I already knew.

  “That someone also knew that Paige Lemar had worked for Beryle all those years and probably figured Beryle had confided in her. So the killer got Cecily and Paige in the same place. When we heard Duke barking, we came running, and the killer had yet to kill Paige and that’s who we ran off.” I glanced up at the building now that the light of day had come and looked for a security camera I’d not noticed last night.

  “There is a security camera here.” I pointed to it and started to walk back down. I dragged my finger alongside of me and pointed off in the direction of Kim’s Buffet. “The person running away from the scene went that way, so if we have some luck we’ll be able to get a good picture of them.”

  “I’ll get right on that,” Finn said.

  “No, you go home and get some sleep. Mrs. Kim isn’t there yet, and she won’t be until ten. I’ll look around in Ruby’s Antiques and hopefully clear it for her to open, but I’ll keep the alley roped off since it’s still an active case,” I said.

  “I don’t need sleep. I need to catch the killer.” Finn bounced on his toes as if adrenaline was coursing through his veins. “We need to find the killer. Besides, I’m too pumped to try to close my eyes.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “Positive.” He nodded. “Do you want me to go visit the hospital while you stay here and check out the shop and wait for Kim’s Buffet to open?”

  “That’d be great.” It was a relief to have his help. “Can you stress to Lonnie how important it is that he doesn’t do anything to hurt the investigation?”

  “Absolutely, but he was out of his mind this morning.” Finn pulled his keys out of his pocket. “My car is still parked in front of Ben’s. I’ll let you know if Paige is awake.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll keep you posted too,” I said.

  “Is there anyone else you want me to go see? Like Darby?” he asked.

  “No. I need to go talk to her. Say,” I stopped him as he was walking away, “do you know anything about macaw birds?”

  “Nope. Why?” His brows bent in a v shape.

  “Kiwi said something about Beryle being dead and being glad of it.” That made me wonder if Kiwi was repeating something Darby had said, but how do you take a bird’s word for it?

  “Who is Kiwi? And why aren’t they on the suspect list?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure I can question a bird.” My gentle laughter pierced the cold air.

  Finn’s face was so serious that I couldn’t help laughing louder at his confusion.

  “Kiwi is a macaw that lives at the Inn. He repeats a lot, and he just so happened to repeat to me that he was glad Beryle was dead. I did try to question Kiwi, but he couldn’t repeat it again.” I shrugged. “I can’t help but think he’d heard it from Darby, especially since she had that little spat with Cecily at the ceremony yesterday.”

  “Looks like we need to question everyone at the Inn and see if they overheard something.” Finn had good suggestions.

  “That’s a great idea. I’ll get Betty to get a list of Inn guests for us to interview, and I’ll also go see Mrs. Kim about the security camera,” I said.

  “Okay.” Finn faced me. The sun’s morning rays streamed from behind me and made a spotlight on him. “I went through Paige’s car. The only thing I found was her purse.”

  “No cell phone?” I asked.

  “No. And her wallet and cash were still in there,” he said. “That car over there had been here all night so I decided to look through it. It’s a rental from the airport. Paige rented it a couple of weeks ago. There’s a rental agreement and her purse. Nothing missing. I put her personal items in an evidence bag for you to look through, but I didn’t see anything.”

  I nodded. “Good job.” I smiled. I continued to tell him about what mama had said about Paige leaving the meeting, “Mama told me that Paige received a phone call while they were at the church meeting last night and that’s when Paige left. We need to get our hands on her cell.” I bit the edge of my lip.

  “Or her phone records.” He cocked a brow. “I’ll work on that.”

  “Great.” I smiled a huge smile and then blushed.

  He peered intently at me as if he was about to say something. My smile melted.

  “What?” I asked and I looked around to see if I’d missed something—his vibe had suddenly turned odd. “Is there something else?”

  “I was just wondering what would’ve happened last night if this didn’t happen.” He laughed out a puff of air through his nose. “Thanks for the coffee.”

  “Nothing would’ve happened. I would’ve made sure.” Poppa drew his fist in the air. I ignored him.

  Finn walked off, leaving me with a tingling pit in the bottom of my stomach.

  Chapter Twelve

  The streaming sun was very deceptive, warming the inside of Ruby’s Antiques even though it was cold outside. Sort of like the store. The outside showed a cute antique shop, but the inside looked like a crime scene.

  Duke wandered around the shop and sniffed all the old furniture like he did every other time we’d been there.

  “Well, anything?” Poppa ghosted next to an old-timey gumball machine. He propped himself up with his elbow on the top of the glass ball that held the gumballs.

  “Not yet.” I continued to not only look at the items Finn had tagged but the items around them. I’d taken a couple of evidence baggies out of my bag and put them in my pocket just in case I found something Finn didn’t. “Have you ever wondered about antiques and their history?”

  “It’s just old furniture to me,” Poppa said. “I was never into old stuff.”

  “Just think about that old dresser over there.” I pointed to a flame Mahoney dresser that had a sign on the top that boasted its credentials. I read, “Civil War era. Entirely handmade furniture, the drawers are hand dovetailed, and the paneled back is rough sawn and hand planed.” I ran my hand along the top of it. “Just think of all the things this piece of furniture has seen. The Civil War.”

  “Too bad it can’t talk like me.” Poppa winked. “Come on, Kenni-bug. What’s going on? You’re getting all sentimental on me.”

  “I don’t know. I just want something to get me on track with who did this. Not to mention this mysterious tell-all manuscript. I wonder if tha
t is really the reason Cecily was murdered or something else.” I looked around and walked back over to one of the items that Finn had tagged.

  It was a double-door tall chest that was lined with cedar. There was a drawer at the bottom of the chest. I pulled it open. There was nothing there. For the next forty minutes I looked at every single piece of furniture that Finn had labeled as evidence from the Beryle estate. I ran my hand along all the seams, nooks, crannies, bolts, and nails to double check there weren’t any hidden compartments, even though Finn had already tried to find something. There wasn’t anything wrong with making sure, especially when there was a murder involved.

  I bent down and looked at the spot where we’d found Paige. There was an evidence marker next to the blood drops where she’d lain. The interesting thing was that she wasn’t even near any of the antiques from the Stone estate. She was clear across the room, up near the front door.

  “The front door is locked,” Poppa noted. “The alarm wasn’t tripped.” He pointed to the small wire.

  I walked the length of the wire that ran up the side the door, over to the corner of the wall, and across the ceiling over to the checkout counter.

  “It looks like Ruby only has an alarm system that’s attached to the front door.” I rubbed my head. “The killer could have called Paige and Cecily just like Finn and I had thought. Paige had to be the first one in, because if she’d seen Cecily outside dead, she wouldn’t’ve come in here.”

  At least I wouldn’t think so.

  “Of course she wouldn’t’ve.” Lonnie Lemar stood in the back of the store in the doorway of the storage room. “Who are you talking to?”

  “Lonnie.” I threw my hands in the air. “I’m talking to myself. I’m sorry to hear about Paige. I’m just glad I found her when I did. How is she?” I asked.

  Though Lonnie and I were currently on opposite sides of the election, he’d still been my deputy for a few years, and I really did love him and Paige. Not that I knew them all that well outside of the job.