A SEASON OF MURDER

by Patti Benning

  Moira hesitated, then said, “Can I come in? I think we should talk about this.”

  “Well…” The other woman bit her lip. “All right, but only because I'm sick of people thinking I did something I didn't do. I’m sick of your husband following me around, and the police questioning me, and all the sideways looks I’ve been getting from my neighbors. I just want to be left alone.”

  Moira followed the other woman inside, realizing that things weren’t going at all how she had planned.

  “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

  Remembering with the other woman had mentioned something about adding poison to her husband’s food, she said, “Thanks, but I’m all set.”

  Mrs. Nowak gestured at the kitchen table. “Well, sit down. I guess I might as well talk to you as anyone. I don’t appreciate your husband following me around and taking those photos without my knowledge. That's not right, whatever his job is. How did it feel when you realized someone had been watching you? Can you imagine how I felt when I found all of the photos of me my husband had? If he hadn’t had your husband’s business card with them, I might always have wondered who took them. That's just… creepy. I felt so violated.”

  “So, you decided to do the exact same thing to David and me?” the deli owner asked. “How does that make things right? He's a licensed professional doing his job. When you did it, it was just stalking.”

  “Well, maybe I didn't do the right thing, but you try being in my shoes. Imagine if you found the stash of photos the night before your husband died. You’d be little bit messed up in the head, too, wouldn't you? I was dealing with two huge shocks at once. I’m still feeling so many different things… I don’t know whether I’m more angry or sad.”

  “You said you were adding something to his food,” the deli owner said. “It's not like he was falsely accusing you.”

  “He is lactose intolerant. I was just adding some milk,” the woman said. “I wasn’t poisoning him, not really. It just gave him indigestion.”

  Moira frowned. “You really weren’t trying to kill him?”

  “No,” the other woman said. “Look, I added some dairy to his meals on the evenings I knew he was going to go out to meet with his mistress. He might have been cheating on me, but I sure wasn’t going to let him enjoy it. Still, I would never have killed him. I still cared about the idiot.”

  The other woman looked away, crossing her arms. Moira sighed. She didn’t really want to get drawn into the murder case, but it seemed inevitable.

  “If he was seeing another woman, do you think that she might be the one who killed him?”

  “Maybe. I mentioned it to that detective who questioned me. I don’t know if he ever did anything with that information or not.”

  “Do you have any idea why he might have been at the reindeer farm?”

  “I don’t know. You’d be better off asking the woman he was seeing.”

  “What’s her name?”

  The other woman shrugged, looking away. “I never learned it. All I knew was that he kept leaving without telling me where he was going. I think she must have been involved with some animal rights protest group. I found some odd flyers in his briefcase. He’d come back at the most ungodly hours of the night with his clothes rumpled and his hair a mess. Whatever he was doing, he seemed to enjoy it a lot more than the time he spent with me.” She sniffed. Moira decided that she probably wasn’t going to get much more out of the woman.

  “Are you done stalking my husband and me?” she asked, rising from her seat.

  “If he’s done taking pictures of me,” the woman grumbled. “I want to be left alone.”

  “No more pictures,” Moira said. “I promise.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  * * *

  Moira woke up bright and early the next morning in preparation for her daughter's arrival. The house was already clean, but she wanted to get breakfast cooked and on the table by the time Candice and Eli got there. She left David asleep in bed and went to the kitchen, letting the dogs outside before starting the coffee machine. It was hard to believe that Christmas was so close. How had the year gone by so fast?

  After her first cup of coffee, she checked the clock, then decided that it was time to get to work. Candice and Eli had left early that morning, and would be arriving in less than an hour. After breakfast, Moira and her daughter were planning to go out and get some last-minute shopping done. The earlier they got to the stores, the better. Moira knew for a fact that everything would be packed.

  Hardly able to contain her excitement, she placed the frying pan on the stove and started the maple bacon. As the meat started to sizzle, she mixed the batter for pancakes, adding a couple of drops of vanilla and a handful of fresh blueberries.

  Cooking helped to settle her mind. She still hadn't told David about what had happened the day before. Maybe she shouldn't have confronted Mrs. Nowak alone, but she had just been so angry that the woman had dared to follow her and her husband around. She also hadn't asked David about what she had found on his computer. She kept telling herself it wasn’t a big deal. After all, he had lived much of his life alone, and was used to making decisions without consulting anyone. She trusted him, even if he didn't always tell her what he was doing, but it didn’t stop her from being curious.

  Thinking about her and David made her think of Mr. and Mrs. Nowak’s relationship. By the sound of it, it had been a troubled one. Mrs. Nowak had poisoned her husband – granted, only with dairy products – because she had been convinced he had been having an affair. Had he really been seeing someone else, or was he involved in something even darker? Something that had gotten him killed?

  David, she knew, had been following Mrs. Nowak, not her husband. He wouldn't know who his client had been seeing on the side, or what he had been doing. Something about what the other women had said nagged at her memory. She had mentioned a group of protesters. Where had Moira heard about them before? She didn’t think there had been anything about a protest on the news recently, at least not locally.

  She had so many questions, but all them could wait to be answered until after the holiday. She trusted the police to investigate Mr. Nowak's death, and knew that it wasn’t her place to get involved regardless.

  She focused instead on cooking. With maple bacon, homemade pancakes, real maple syrup, cheesy scrambled eggs, freshly cut fruit, and fresh squeezed orange juice, it would be a meal fit for royalty. She cleaned the house thoroughly the day before, sweeping and vacuuming, and scrubbing the windows to remove all of the dog nose prints that had accumulated over the past couple of weeks. The Christmas tree was set up in the living room, and she and David had put up the outdoor lights. Everything was perfect.

  Moira was just putting the last batch of pancakes in the oven to keep warm when she heard the doorbell ring. David had already gotten up and dressed, and he offered to take over the eggs while she let Candice and Eli in.

  She hurried down the hall and pulled the door open. When she saw her daughter, she brought the younger woman into a hug.

  “I'm so glad you made it,” Moira said. “It wouldn’t be Christmas without you.”

  “I wouldn’t have missed it for anything, Mom,” Candice said. “Thanks for letting us stay here. Since we’re renting the farmhouse to Thelma, we don’t really have anywhere else to stay.”

  “Of course. I told you before, you will always have a room here. Come on in. How was the drive?”

  “Not too bad,” her son-in-law said, coming through the door behind Candice. “Of course, I didn’t drive at all. I guess there are some benefits to having a broken leg.”

  “How have things been going?” Moira asked, glancing at his crutches.

  “Good, most of the time,” Eli said. “I still get some pain sometimes, though. I have to keep doing physical therapy, and strengthening the muscles. The doctor says the bones are pretty much healed by now, but the muscles and tendons are still not in their top shape. Being in a cast for so long and being immobile
wasn't great for me.”

  “At least you’re up and walking around,” Moira said. “That's got to be a relief.”

  “It is pretty nice,” he admitted, smiling at her. “Thanks for having us. I'm looking forward to Christmas with everyone.”

  “Me too.”

  “Once we get settled, I think I’ll go ahead and visit Reggie. Candice said something about the two of you going shopping?”

  “Yes. We’re planning on doing some last-minute gift shopping together.”

  “Okay, then I’ll take a cab to go visit my grandfather, and we can all meet back here for dinner.”

  Candice and Eli got settled in, then joined her and David in the kitchen for breakfast.

  It was wonderful having both of them there. Moira was really looking forward to the next few days. She and her daughter hadn’t always had the best relationship, but no matter what had happened, they had always ended up leaning on each other when things got rough. It was a big change to make, living so far apart, and Moira still wasn’t used to it. No matter how far apart we are, we’ll always be there for each other, she told herself.

  After breakfast, David volunteered to do the dishes. Moira hung back, helping him while Candice and Eli went out front play with the dogs.

  “David,” she said. “There's something I have to ask you.”

  “What is it?” he asked, scrubbing the pan she had cooked bacon in.

  “Are you hiring someone new to help with your private detective agency?” she asked.

  He paused, putting the pan down, and looked at her. “How do you know about that?”

  He didn't ask it accusingly, but rather out of curiosity. She didn't see anything defensive in his posture, and relaxed slightly. She hadn’t really thought that he was hiding something from her, but it had seemed like such a big thing for him to neglect to mention.

  “I stopped at your office because I wanted to confront Mrs. Nowak. I got her address off the computer, and I saw your folder about the interviews. It looked like you were talking to a lot of different people. I was just wondering, because it seems like such a big decision for you to make.”

  “Why did you want to see Mrs. Nowak?” he asked, frowning slightly.

  “We'll talk about that later,” she said. “I'm more curious to hear about what you’re planning.”

  He sighed and put down his dish rag. “I wanted to wait to tell you about this until after the holidays,” he said. “But I'm thinking of selling the agency.”

  She blinked, taking half a step back. She hadn't been expecting this. She was stunned.

  “Why?”

  “Because I want to focus on the brewery, and because every once in a while a case drags me into something I’d rather not be involved in, not when I have you to think about. When I was younger, I enjoyed spending long hours late at night tailing people, and had fun getting more closely involved with potentially dangerous criminals then I should have. Now, I don't want to do that anymore. I want to focus on everything else in my life.”

  “So, you’re just going to sell it to whoever has the money?”

  “No,” he said. “I still care about it, and the reputation I built. After thinking about it long and hard, I decided to look for a business partner. I’d sell half the business, and put them in charge of the cases, I could step back on if I wanted to. I found a couple of people that seem promising. I’m not planning on taking any more cases myself after Christmas, at least not for a while.”

  Moira couldn't stop staring at him. Why hadn’t he talked to her about any of this? It was so important, and was something that he completely neglected share with her. She was hurt, and surprised, and didn't know what to think about anything.

  “Mom, are you ready to go?” Candice called out.

  “Just a minute, honey,” she shouted back. Focusing her attention on David again, she said, “We'll talk about this more later.”

  “Are you mad?”

  “No…” She shook her head. “I guess I'm just a little bit hurt and confused. I love you. I'll see you later this evening.” She gave him a weak smile, then turned to leave. She had a lot to think about, but right now, she wanted to focus on the outing with her daughter.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  * * *

  “So, where do you want to start?” Candice asked as they climbed into the SUV together.

  “Anywhere you want,” Moira said. “Who do you still need to buy presents for?”

  “David,” Candice said. “And Reggie. You don't think I need to get anything for Martha or Denise, do you?”

  “No,” Moira said. “They're just coming over for dinner. They wouldn’t expect you to get them anything.”

  “Okay. Well, what did you get David?”

  “I haven't gotten him anything yet,” Moira admitted. She frowned. Her idea to get him a new desktop computer was out. It sounded like he wouldn't be needing it anymore.

  “Do you want to go in on something for him together?” her daughter asked.

  “Do you have anything in mind?”

  “No,” her daughter sighed. “Let's just head to town and window shop for a bit.”

  They pulled out of the driveway and turned toward Maple Creek. Moira wracked her brain, trying to come up with a good gift idea for her husband.

  “So, how have you been?” Candice asked after a few minutes of silence.

  “Good… mostly,” Moira said. “To be honest, things keep going wrong.”

  Her daughter raised her eyebrows, and Moira explained everything, telling her about Darrin and Jenny falling ill, the murder, about Mrs. Nowak stalking them, and about her discovery that David was selling half of his business to a stranger.

  “Wow,” Candice said. “Why didn't you tell me any of this?”

  “I knew you were visiting soon, and I thought it would be better to talk to you in person,” Moira said. “Sorry, Candice. I know there's a lot going on. I don’t want to ruin your holiday with all of this.”

  “No, it's okay,” Candice said. “That woman’s going to leave you alone now, right?”

  “I hope so,” Moira said. “I haven’t seen her since I confronted her.”

  “Well, I’m sorry about everything. I wish I could say something helpful. I feel so weird not having known any of this. I miss being involved with everything.”

  “You can’t honestly mean that,” Moira said. “You must be enjoying your nice, peaceful life with Eli.”

  “I mean, I am,” Candice said. “It's just nice to be back here again. It was kind of fun to live in the city at first, but then I started to feel so crowded all the time. I miss having space like this. I miss the wildlife, and the little shops run by people I’ve known all my life. I guess I’m homesick. I haven’t even seen a deer in like, a month.”

  “Maple Creek is a wonderful town,” the deli owner agreed. “Hey, if you want to see deer, I have an idea. I know of a little farm with reindeer that you can pet and feed.”

  “Really?” Candice said. “That would be neat.”

  “Remember when you were little, right after your father left and we were still figuring out all of the divorce stuff? It was Christmastime and you wanted to get your photo taken with Santa and a couple of reindeer, but I told you we didn't have the money. I felt so bad for that. Now, you can finally get to see the reindeer… though no guarantees that Santa will be there.”

  Candice chuckled. “You know, Mom, I really appreciate everything you did back then. Looking back, I can see how hard you tried to make each holiday special, even if we didn’t have much money.”

  “I just hope you were happy,” Moira said. “That’s all I ever wanted.”

  Moira drove them to the Christmas tree and reindeer farm. As she pulled up the long, muddy driveway, she found herself wondering if they were still open for the year.

  She was relieved when she saw that the tent was still set up. She pulled up next to it and saw Chris pop his head out of the flap. He waved, recognizing her vehicle.

&nb
sp; “Did you guys come back for another tree?” he asked as she got out of the car. “Did ya figure you could spruce up another room with a second one?”

  Moira chuckled. “No, I just wanted to show my daughter the reindeer. She’s visiting for the holiday, and we’re spending the day out together.”

  “Well, come on back. You’re more than welcome to visit them.”

  They drove back to the house, and parked in the same spot as before. Moira got out of the car, then looked around and frowned. There were traces of graffiti on the barn, and ripped up papers in the mud.