Hot Tea and Cold Murder: A Red Pine Falls Cozy Mystery (Red Pine Falls Cozy Mysteries Book 1)

by Angela C Blackmoore

  Gabe snapped his fingers as his face brightened. “Wait, no, they don’t kill you right away. They can kill you quickly, but not immediately. Probably a few days, even. Craig was too much of a baby to sit in his fancy house and take it like a man. He had to have gone to the clinic!”

  Abby blinked and then grinned. There was something they could do after all. “Ha! To the clinic!”

  Even Becky had a hopeful look on her face as all three of them stood up. They waved goodbye to Mr. Martinez who grinned at their exuberance. He had no idea what it was for, but he was pleased to see them all in a better mood than when they’d come in. That was the reason for Butter’s, after all. To make people happy.

  Cheerio sensed their excitement as they climbed back into Gabe’s truck and barked happily, wiggling and licking Becky’s face as she got into the back. Abby turned and grinned, reaching back and scratching her dog. “At least no one can shoot at me at the clinic!” Abby said.

  “Oh, jackrabbits, Abby! Don’t jinx it!” Becky complained as Gabe pulled out onto Main Street.

  Chapter 27

  The clinic only took about five minutes to get to and they gave the receptionist an awful scare when they stormed into the lobby. Abby slapped her hands down on the counter, leaning forward in her exuberance.

  “Is the doctor in?” Abby asked.

  “Um, yes. The doctor is in,” She answered uncertainly, giving Abby a rather wide-eyed look. The woman was used to emergencies, but rarely did people come in excited and happy like this. It made for a confusing moment for the young lady. “Is there an emergency?”

  “Yes! I mean, no. There is not a medical emergency, but yes there is an emergency. We need to speak with him if we can.”

  At that moment the same young doctor that it treated Abby earlier for her gunshot wound came out of the back rooms with his eyebrow raised at the commotion. “Is everything okay, Erica?”

  The receptionist turned to the doctor, uncertain what to say but finally just ended up pointing at Abby. “They say there’s some emergency, but it’s not medical.”

  The young doctor looked uncertain, but also a little intrigued. “Do we have any patients right now? I was just doing paperwork, and I wouldn’t mind a break.” He was just about to say more, but when his eyes settled on Gabe, he smiled in recognition. “Gabe? Is that you? What the heck dragged you out of your forest, you old sasquatch hunter?”

  Gabe grinned, stepping forward and shaking the doctor’s hand warmly. It was clear the two knew each other, and Abby hoped it meant they had a chance to get some information out of the man. “Sorry Charlie, we got a little excited on our way over here. It’s about Craig Malcolm.”

  The doctor frowned. “You know I can’t talk about patients or cases. Doubly so for something the police are investigating.”

  Gabe spread his hands. “Well, I do understand, but the sheriff asked me to look into some of this since mushrooms are kind of my specialty. I promise if I ask anything that’s too confidential just tell me and I’ll back off. I think we’re just looking for general information.”

  Charlie continued to frown for a few more moments before deciding that being interrupted from paperwork was worth the risk and gestured for the three of them to follow him. They passed by a few examination rooms before filing into a small conference room with several seats and a small table.

  Sitting, the young man gave Gabe a skeptical look. “Okay, Gabe, I’m willing to listen to your questions but this better not get me in trouble with the sheriff. I make no promises on what I can talk about, and if he gets word I even entertained speaking to you about it, he’ll roast me. The only reason you’re even in this room is because of all the trouble you got me out of in college.”

  Gabe grinned and gave his friend a thumbs up. “That’s the Charlie I remember, always a rebel.”

  Becky looked at Abby and quirked her eyebrow. “Isn’t this like nepotism or something?”

  “Cronyism,” Abby returned. “Definitely, cronyism. They’d have to be related for nepotism, I think.” She looked curiously at the two men. “You’re not related, are you?”

  The two men gave each of the girls a pained look which made Abby and Becky both laugh. “Can we please get on with this?” Gabe asked. “Or do I have to retreat to my wooded sanctuary? The bears don’t snicker at me, at least.”

  Abby composed her features and waved at him to continue. “Sorry, just trying to categorize things correctly. Don’t mind us.”

  Gabe squinted playfully at Abby before turning back to his friend. “Okay, we know that Gabe died from mushroom poisoning and I’m not going to ask you from what type. By my experience though, it takes a few days for liver failure to set in, so there’s no way he was just poisoned at the festival. Right?”

  Charlie rocked in his chair for a few moments and stared at Gabe as he mulled over the question. It was obvious he wanted to help his friend but didn’t want to break any laws doing it. “Well, yes and no.” Then he stopped talking.

  Gabe waited for his friend to continue but when he didn’t, he chuckled and shook his head. “Okay, Charlie, I know you’re trying to cover yourself, but you can’t just say yes and no, and then stop talking. You’ve got to give me a little more than that.”

  Charlie shrugged and drummed his fingers on the table. “I really don’t have to. Come on, Gabe. You can guess some of it, can’t you?”

  Becky snapped her fingers and then pointed at the young doctor who grinned back at her. “No, wait. This is like charades or something but without all the flailing. I’m good at charades. Do you mean that someone poisoned Craig on more than one day?”

  “That’s an excellent guess,” Charlie answered, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

  Abby and Gabe exchanged glances, excited at a little bit of progress. “So that means whoever poisoned him,” Abby piped in, “either gave him something that he took over several days or was there to feed it to him. And they were also able to give him something the day he died?” She looked at Charlie for confirmation, but the young doctor just returned her gaze with a noncommittal stare.

  Gabe leaned over and elbowed Abby lightly. “He won’t reveal anything. He was always the best at playing poker. Damn him.”

  “And you still owe me a bottle of barenjager,” Charlie said blandly.

  “What’s barenjager?” Becky asked, curious.

  Charlie’s eyes lit up as he leaned excitedly in toward Becky. “Oh? You’ve never had barenjager? I’ll have to introduce you to the Baron!” He said, grinning like a school boy and wiggling his eyebrows.

  Gabe rolled his eyes and laughed. “I can’t believe you still remember that bet, Charlie. Dear lord, you were three sheets to the wind.” He turned toward Becky. “It’s a honey liqueur. Very tasty.”

  Becky looked intrigued as she returned the doctors gaze thoughtfully. “That…does sound interesting.”

  Charlie’s grin seemed to widen as he nodded confidently. “It’s a date then!”

  “Can we please get back to the task at hand?” Abby said in exasperation, looking between the now grinning doctor and Becky. “What can you tell us about the poisoning? Besides that, he took it over several days?”

  Shaking his head ruefully, Charlie answered. “I can’t tell you what we found inside of him. That really would be breaking the law, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t last long in jail with my boyish good looks.”

  “I understand, Charlie,” Gabe said. “I don’t want you to throw your career away. There is one more thing I’d like to ask. Wouldn’t he have come into the hospital earlier? The symptoms can be pretty painful, right?”

  Charlie half shrugged and didn’t look very happy all of a sudden. “Yes, the symptoms are pretty painful and unfortunately can also be mistaken for the flu. I’m not going to tell you if anything like that happened.” The doctor leaned forward and looked pointedly into Gabe’s eyes. “Because nothing like that happened on Friday, the morning before the festival when Doctor Carlson was on duty.”r />
  Gabe, Abby, and Becky looked at each other before nodding and turning back to the doctor. Becky reached her hand out and took the doctor’s hand, shaking it sincerely and looking into his eyes. “Thank you. And I’m going to hold you to that…date” She said and then blushed which was reflected in the young doctor’s face as well.

  “Um, you’re more than welcome, Becky,” Charlie said before letting go of her hand and looking intensely nervous before looking away. “I could never have imagined you doing it, anyway.”

  Becky watched him for a moment longer and smiled until Abby cleared her throat. “So, we need to find out where Craig Malcolm ate regularly,” She said, looking over at Gabe. “Or, someone who might know.”

  “The sheriff,” they all said in unison.

  “He is so not going to be happy with me,” Abby muttered as they left the clinic.

  Chapter 28

  “You should bring Cheerio in with you,” Gabe said, his voice full of uncertainty as they pulled up to the sheriff’s station.

  “Why?” Abby asked, confused.

  “Because the sheriff likes dogs. I bet he won’t yell at us nearly as much if Cheerio is there with us.” Gabe turned to her with a resigned look on his face. “Because he will be yelling.”

  “We can’t just do nothing,” Abby responded, looking back and forth between Gabe and Becky. Becky looked equally as nervous as Abby felt, but they’d come so far. “Come on! Seriously! We’re here already.”

  Gabe blew out a breath and with a determined look, opened his door which spurred the rest of them to do likewise. This time Abby gestured for Cheerio to follow and he barked happily before bounding down and circling her a few times.

  Abby ruffled his ears before kissing him on the nose. “You’ll protect us, won’t you boy? From the big, evil sheriff?”

  Cheerio barked again and wagged his tail excitedly before following the three friends into the sheriff’s station. One of the deputies was at the front counter, and she looked up pleasantly as they came in.

  “Something I can help you folks with?” The deputy asked, smiling.

  “Is the sheriff in?” Abby asked returning the woman smile.

  “Oh yes, he’s always in or so he likes to tell us. Slackers that we all are,” she said in a chipper tone. Abby liked her immediately. “Let me call back to his office and see if he’s available.”

  The woman picked up the phone and pressed a few buttons while the three of them waited. It wasn’t long before the sheriff came meandering up to the front with a bland look and a raised eyebrow. He stood there sizing them up for a few moments before leaning on the counter and looking down as if tired.

  “I’m almost tempted to tell you three to just turn around and leave because this can’t be good.” He looked back up at Abby and squinted at her from under his bushy eyebrows.

  “What? We just want to talk to you.” Abby responded, meeting the sheriff’s cool stare with pleading eyes.

  He half chuckled and shook his head again. “No, you just want to keep sticking your nose into this business.” He turned his raised eyebrow over to Gabe. “You too, Gabe? I thought you’d have more sense.”

  Gabe shrugged but nodded confidently. All of them remained silent until Cheerio gave a small woof, attracting the sheriff’s attention.

  “At least you have a dog with you. Someone’s got sense.” He pushed a button, and they heard a buzzing coming from the door to the right. “All right, come on back. Let’s see what you got. I hope for your sake you’re not wasting my time.”

  Abby, Becky, and Gabe all followed the sheriff back to his office. Abby tried to push down the feeling that they were truants reporting to the principal’s office, but it was difficult. While not an angry man, the sheriff was just plain intimidating.

  On their way in, the sheriff gestured for Gabe to grab a chair from a desk outside and bring it in with them before leading them into a room that could’ve come out of any TV show. Wooden desk with a few pictures, several filing cabinets, and a few awards mixed in with yet more pictures on the wall. It looked like the sheriff was a fisherman since not a few of the pictures there showed him holding up a fish. Abby couldn’t help but notice he was stone-faced in most of them, rarely smiling.

  Tirelessly, they related everything they had found out to the sheriff. The man just sat, listening to them quietly and not giving a hint at all to what he might be thinking. Toward the end, Abby’s fears grew that what they’d found out wasn’t enough to stave off his ire and she could tell that Gabe and Becky felt the same.

  After they had finished, they all sat in silence while the sheriff stared back at them. Many tense moments later, he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out what looked like a small meat snack. He opened it from the wrapper and then held it up toward Abby with his eyebrow raised. “Is it okay if I apologize to the dog now?”

  Abby gestured for him to continue, her heart sinking as she realized she was right. They were in trouble. He leaned over and snapped his fingers at Cheerio who trotted happily over to the man and took a treat from his hand. The sheriff petted Cheerio and Abby almost thought she saw a smile under his bushy mustache. Then he straightened up and gave them all a fairly grim look. Or at least grimmer than his usual one.

  “I swear, how often do I have to tell you people to get out of police business. Gabe, I would have thought you would at least know better. Heck, you are a federally trained law enforcement officer. You do know better than this, and tell me how this isn’t going to get back to your boss that you are meddling in an active case?” The sheriff stood up and leaned forward over the desk. “Don’t you think we already know everything you just told me? Seriously, I’m not even going to ask you where you got the information about Craig and his illness. Even though,” He said, giving Gabe a direct look, “you and Charlie went to school together. Don’t think I don’t know that.”

  “But, sheriff,” Abby said with a pained look on her face, but the sheriff just stopped her.

  “No, Mrs. Abby Morgan, no but’s!” The sheriff said, his voice raised and his mustache quivering. “I told you at the ranger station to get your nose out of this. All you’re doing is potentially clouding the issue for the professionals. What happens if you talk to the wrong person and tip them off to something? What happens if you find a piece of evidence and stick your fingers all over it? What happens if you get shot at out in the woods because the wrong person thought you might be getting too close? You getting shot is exactly why you should have stayed out of this!”

  The three of them just sat in front of the sheriff and stayed quiet. Abby looked over at Gabe sadly and realized she might have gotten him in serious trouble. He was stoically staring at his hands, and she suddenly wondered why he’d done it. Why had he risked his career for her? She turned her head back to the sheriff who hadn’t stopped talking, and she realized she missed some of what he’d said.

  “So I’m going to tell you this,” He said, clearly exasperated. “In hopes that you finally decide to leave this alone! I don’t think there’s any way Becky could’ve killed Craig. Right now, the evidence is pointing away from her. You already know that Craig died from mushroom poisoning, but what you don’t know is how much of it was in his system. It was massive, and even if he ate omelets at your café every single morning, which I happen to know he did, you would have to have fed him only poisonous mushrooms in your omelets, and we found too many Chanterelles for that. Besides, there were no hints of any of it on your cooking implements. It would have shown up.”

  Despite the sheriff’s angry voice, Becky looked relieved and collapsed in her chair with relief. “So I didn’t do it? Even by accident?”

  The sheriff wiggled his mustache before answering. “No, Miss Northridge, I don’t think you even did it by accident. We believe he drank something over several days, but someone would’ve had to have brewed up quite a batch. There was just that much in his system.”

  Brewed.

  That word seemed to jar s
omething within Abby’s head, and she tuned out the sheriff as he continued half-talking and half-yelling. Where had she heard that word before? And then things begin to click.

  She turned to Becky excitedly, interrupting the sheriff in his tirade. “Becky! You said something in the bank that I didn’t understand.”

  Becky looked at her a little wild-eyed since the sheriff was looming angrily, flustered at the interruption. “I said a lot of things at the bank. Which one?”

  “The one about the letter. The S’s, you said. You said Susan was the best of the S’s. What did you mean by that?”

  Becky blinked, uncertain where this was all going, but she answered hesitantly. “The S’s are one of the sets of Mabel’s grandkids. Like Mabel named all of her kids with the letter R. Rachel and her husband named all their children with the letter S.”

  The sheriff glowered at Abby, fixing her with a steely glare. “I sure hope you’ve got a good reason for this? This isn’t a joke.”

  Abby held her hands up apologetically to the sheriff. “I know, sheriff. I’m sorry, but something just occurred to me.” She snapped her fingers a few times as she tried to push out the thoughts that were circling in her head like wolves, then her finger stopped on Becky once more. “And you said that Buck and his brother got in trouble in their twenties and left town. Did that have anything to do with a girl? Samantha maybe?”

  Becky frowned, confused and shook her head. “No, Samantha came back with them when they returned from Phoenix six or seven years later. She’s not from here.”