by Raven Snow
Rowen didn’t know how to feel about that. She had never been a huge fan of Julia Martinez, lead correspondent at Channel 2. She had always had shaky journalistic ethics, ambushing Rowen’s family for interviews in the past and the like. Not so long ago, Rowen had uncovered her affair with Mr. Hawthorne. That had rather tarnished her reputation and felt a bit like revenge. Maybe that should have put them on more even footing. It didn’t really. Rowen still couldn’t shake a general dislike for the woman. Benji seemed to sense as much and stopped talking her up. Once everything had been brought into the apartment, he loaded up with the Greensmiths and went to help them with Rose’s things.
Ben’s home was quite a bit more impressive than Benji’s (not that that was saying much). Ben lived in a cute split-level cabin on the edge of a woodsy part of town. Rowen had never been there. She had dated Ben back in high school, but back then he had still been living with his then insufferable mother. His mother had softened quite a bit recently. She had really warmed up to Rose even. Still, Rowen was glad she wouldn’t have to deal with her. She was sure Rose would like this sort of lifestyle a lot. Rose was a quiet, thoughtful woman. It would do her good to have so much space all to herself.
“I suppose it’s all right,” said Aunt Lydia, making her third lap of the house after bringing in a single box.
“It’s nice,” said Rose, frowning at her mother.
“It’s nicer than my new place,” Willow added. Benji winced.
“It’s a cute house,” Margo agreed on her way by with a box. She carried it into the bedroom where David was putting the drawers back in a dresser. That gave Rowen an idea. She waited for Margo to head back out then went in with her own box.
“Hey, David,” she said, once they were completely alone.
David looked up from struggling with the bottom drawer. “Hey,” he said, forcing a smile before turning back to with the drawer.
“What’s going on with you and Margo?” Rowen came right out with it. There wasn’t enough time to beat around the bush. If Margo spotted them talking, she would be more annoyed than ever.
David turned to face her, his eyebrows raised. “What do you mean?”
Rowen glanced back at the door. She made sure no one was in the hallway or about to head their way. She drew closer to David. “I overheard you earlier. There’s something you want to tell everyone, but Margo doesn’t want you to, right?”
David sighed. “I guess. I mean, I don’t really see the point in dragging it out, but she still wants me to wait. I couldn’t really tell you why.”
“It’s just her nature,” said Rowen, suddenly optimistic he was going to spill whatever this secret was. “She likes to avoid problems. What is the problem anyway?”
“It’s not really her problem.” David gave a shrug. “It’s my fault. The family business isn’t going well.”
That caught Rowen a bit by surprise. It probably shouldn’t have, but it did. She hadn’t expected that to be the problem here. It seemed like something Eric would have heard about and shared with her already. “Margo said you were doing well.”
“Did she?” The corner of David’s mouth quirked into a sad sort of smile. “Well, she would I guess. I’m not sure if she really believes that or if she’s just trying to make me sound better than I am.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter either way, I guess. I dunno. I’m not terrible at it, but I’m not as good as my parents were. They had certain financial expectations for this year, and well, I’m not exactly meeting them.”
“Did your parents give you some sort of ultimatum or something?” Rowen hadn’t heard any mention of that from Eric. As far as she knew, he was still, technically, part of the family business.
“More or less.” David glanced at the door again. They still had their privacy, but he looked pretty ashamed, like he had wanted to share this but was feeling embarrassed now that he had. “They’re thinking about selling the company now.”
“What about Eric?” Rowen asked immediately.
David winced and nodded. “Yeah, that’s the thing. They don’t think he’s that invested in the business anymore. I mean, he’s moved here, changed his name, started up a new business of his own. Two actually. Neither of which are thriving.”
“Hey.” That was cutting a little close to home. “We do okay.”
“It’s not exactly up to the standards of our parents.”
“Then why didn’t they say something to Eric?”
“Because he’s happy,” said David, as if that should be exceedingly obvious. “He’s happy with his choices. They’ve been here. They see the appeal. They’ve seen him when he was away from this place. His heart isn’t in the work anymore. His heart is here.”
“Why didn’t you say anything to Eric then?” Rowen wasn’t ready to let this one slide. This definitely seemed like something her husband should be involved in.
David looked away, his expression suddenly a bit sheepish. “Yeah, that’s sort of the thing. I kept meaning to mention all of this to him. I mean, I feel like he deserves to know and all that. I was just…”
“Embarrassed,” Rowen concluded for him when he trailed off and couldn’t say it himself. “You were embarrassed and thought you could fix things.”
“More or less.” David shrugged. “There’s not much I can do about it now except apologize. To be fair, I really didn’t think he was interested in inheriting the business either. I didn’t want to drag him away from this because he felt obligated to continue the family business or something.”
“You really should have said something.” Rowen wasn’t sure it was her place to get mad at him over it, but she couldn’t help feeling a bit annoyed. “And now Margo doesn’t want you to say anything? Why?”
Again, David shrugged. “She’s embarrassed, I guess. She was really enjoying herself traveling around the world and stuff. She spent a lot of money and, I dunno, guess she’s embarrassed about that too.”
That sounded like Margo. “She never let on that anything was wrong when we video chatted with each other.” Rowen wasn’t sure why she hadn’t suspected something sooner. This definitely sounded like something Margo would do and, usually, she was so good at reading people. Maybe it didn’t work quite the same when you were, physically, thousands of miles apart. “Well, you have to tell Eric.”
“I know.”
“Sooner rather than later.”
“I know.”
“I mean, I can tell him myself, but…”
“I’ll tell him,” David said, firmly, turning back to the drawers he was fitting.
Rowen opened her mouth to say something else, but Benji and Willow were heading in with boxes full of clothes. Rowen decided to let it go for now. It would probably sort itself out. David wouldn’t let this go unsaid for much longer.
Right?
Chapter Five
After a long day of moving her cousins, Rowen was exhausted. She was relieved when they were finished. They ordered pizza to Ben’s house and turned on some reality television to watch while they ate and chatted. It was nice to hang out with the family, but Rowen couldn’t wait to get back home. The first thing she would do would be to draw herself a nice, warm bath.
“Don’t forget we have to go down to the station after this,” Ben reminded her, ruining everything.
Apparently, Reverend Byers had been amenable to coming down at night. He wanted to help in whatever way he was able, Ben said. That was nice in theory and all. A woman had been murdered. Still, Rowen wouldn’t have said no to letting it wait a day. Rose and Eric didn’t much like this plan either, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it. Rowen had agreed to help, and she would. Besides, she couldn’t say she wasn’t curious. There was a real chance she had met the murderer.
There weren’t many people still at the police station. It had a skeleton crew at night. Lainswich was a sleepy town. There wasn’t a whole lot that happened between the hours of twelve and six AM. The reverend was parked out front in a junky litt
le car. He got out when he saw Rowen and Ben pull up and stepped out into the parking lot.
It was odd seeing the reverend in plain clothes. In his off time, he wore polo shirts and blue jeans. He still had a very stern face, though. It made Rowen feel on guard and stand a little taller around him.
“Sorry we ran late,” said Ben, even though Rowen wasn’t sure they were late. “It’s my off day, and we were doing some moving.”
The reverend shook his head. “You’re not late,” he assured them. “I just showed up early. This seems important, and I didn’t mind waiting. Worked on next Sunday’s sermon in my car.”
“Well, I appreciate you showing up at this hour.”
“Of course. Like I said, anything I can do to help.” Reverend Byers nodded at Rowen, acknowledging her with a tight-lipped smile.
She did her best to return the smile, unsure of what else to do or say. Ben led the way to the station, and they both followed. He took them to a small room in the back rather than his office. It had a television and a bunch of shelves lined with white boxes. There was a long table and a bunch of chairs in the center of the room.
“Take a seat wherever you like,” said Ben.
Rowen and Reverend Byers sat across from each other near the head of the table next to the television. Ben, meanwhile, set up the television. It appeared to be hooked up as a computer monitor. “Everything is digital these days,” he explained as he clicked through several folders to find the video he was looking for. The recordings weren’t in color and weren’t very high quality. There were three different angles and Ben could expand the one that best covered the buffet table, but it didn’t enhance the image any. He told Rowen to stop him when he got near to where she had spoken to the woman in question and began to fast forward. Rowen watched carefully. There was a lot of getting ready and milling about. She saw herself hugging Grammy. She saw Margo talking a lot with her hands. She watched as they started through the buffet line in an orderly fashion. She watched herself get to the dessert table. “There.”
Ben paused the footage. “Here?” he asked, pointing to the screen.
Rowen nodded. “Back it up a little bit.”
Ben did as he was told. The footage began to play in reverse.
“There! Stop it!” Rowen stood up from her chair and moved a little closer to the screen itself. On the screen, she was in the process of withdrawing her hand from the aluminum foil. “There. She’s right there.” She pointed to a woman standing on the other side of the table. It was difficult to discern much about in the grainy footage. Rowen could see that she was wearing a blouse tucked into an ankle length skirt and her hair was up in a bun. Rowen knew from memory that her hair was gray. She’d had a kind, round face. “That’s her.”
“That’s Beatrice McCarty,” the reverend said immediately. Rowen was actually a bit surprised with how quickly he had identified her.
“You’re sure?” asked Ben, reaching for a pen and notepad.
“I see her every Sunday and Wednesday. She never misses a service,” he explained. “I would recognize her anywhere.”
Ben scribbled down the name. “And do you have any idea why she might do something like this?”
“I’m sure she didn’t,” the reverend said immediately. “She doesn’t have this sort of thing in her. I’ve known the woman for decades now, and this would be extremely out of character for her.”
“Could you say the same for everyone in your congregation?” asked Ben.
“I don’t know them all as well as I know Beatrice there. I would like to say they are all good people, but none of us are inherently and totally good. I can attest to Beatrice’s character at least. She’s not without sin, but she certainly isn’t the sort of person to murder anyone.”
“That was the poisoned food item.” Ben pointed to the plate covered with aluminum foil that Beatrice was standing over. “Do you have any idea who brought that to your little prison potluck?”
The reverend squinted at the screen. He even stood and moved a little closer. “I have no clue. I can certainly ask my congregation if any of them have an idea.”
“We’ll see to that when we do our second round of questioning,” said Ben. He looked at Rowen. “In the meantime, we’ll look into this Beatrice woman.”
“She didn’t do this,” insisted the reverend.
“Even if she didn’t, she might know who did.” Ben tried to be reassuring, but Rowen wasn’t sure that sort of thing worked on a man like Reverend Byers. His face was as stern and sharply lined as ever. “Please don’t approach her about this before we have a chance to question her.”
“I won’t,” said Reverend Byers, and Rowen believed him. He didn’t sound like a man who told many lies.
Ben looked to Rowen again. “And just to be clear, when I say ‘we’ll look into Beatrice,’ what I mean is that my police force and I will. I don’t want you ambushing this woman with questions.”
Rowen should have guessed he meant as much. “Yeah, yeah.”
“I’m serious,” Ben warned.
“I’m sorry, but is there anything else you need from me?” Reverend Byers asked.
Ben nodded. “If you would step into my office for a moment, I would like to get you identifying Beatrice recorded just for the record. It shouldn’t take long, but you can get some coffee in the hall if you like.”
Reverend Byers stood. “I think I’ll take you up on that.” He headed into the hallway, leaving Rowen alone with Ben.
“Do you need me to sign a statement or something?” she asked.
“If you want,” he responded, not sounding too concerned either way. He probably thought this was going to be some sort of dead end. He was probably right. These sorts of things were seldom clear cut. Ben raised his eyebrows suddenly, as if thinking of something. “There is one thing you could do for me, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Go see your grandmother.”
“But the prison isn’t taking-”
“They’re reopening for visitation tomorrow,” Ben interrupted. “We got all the answers we’re going to get for now from the inmates. I really don’t think any of them know anything. Your grandmother might, though. She’s perceptive, right? Like you?”
“She has a tendency to just sort of know things, yeah.”
“Is there a chance she might know who committed this crime?” It was endearing how Ben had more or less warmed up to the idea of the Greensmiths being a bunch of witches. Rowen was glad he didn’t view her and her family as a bunch of phonies looking for attention like others in Lainswich.
“There’s a chance,” said Rowen. “But, I mean, she didn’t see it coming and she was in the same room. I’m not sure she’s going to know who did this. Something has her off her game.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to ask, though. Right?”
“I can talk to her.” Rowen had been wanting to talk to her ASAP anyway.
“I appreciate it,” Ben told her sincerely.
She nodded. “No problem. Am I good to go?”
“Head home and get some rest. You earned it. Thanks for helping with the move today too.”
“No problem.” Rowen gave him a wink on her way out the door. “You’re practically family at this point anyway, right?”
Chapter Six
It was only as Rowen was heading for the prison to visit Grammy that she realized she had completely forgotten to ask Eric whether his brother had talked to him about what was going on or not. By the time she had gotten home, he was already out like a light, passed out on the sofa with the dog. She didn’t have the heart to wake him. He’d done most of the heavy lifting during the moves and deserved some rest.
Apparently, he had felt the same way about her upon waking. Rowen woke to find she had slept in. Eric had already headed to the office, leaving behind a note that said he loved her. She called him upon finding his note to let him know she needed to visit Grammy today. He understood. It wasn’t like they were busy at the office an
yway. The Lainswich Inquirer probably had some work that needed doing, but she could head there after. Rose would call her if she got completely overwhelmed.
So, Rowen called Margo. She let her know where she was going, thinking her cousin would want to come with her after their last visit had been cut short. Margo sounded sleepy but eager to spend some time with Grammy. So, Rowen picked her up, and that’s when it hit her. That really made the drive down awkward. What was she supposed to do, bring up the thing that had had them bickering yesterday? Probably better to wait until they had finished this business with Grammy. That seemed important.
“So, David told me what it was you didn’t want anyone to know.” Darn it. Rowen winced internally. It was like the words had just forced their way out of her mouth. Idiot. She should have waited.
Margo had been fiddling with her phone. Now she looked up, her brows drawn together as she turned to Rowen. “What?”
“Never mind. We’ll talk about it later.” Maybe she could still back out of this.
“No,” insisted Margo, implying that she had heard Rowen after all. “What did David tell you?”
Rowen didn’t like that Margo was playing dumb. So much for saving this argument for later. She came right out with it. “He told me that his parents are thinking of selling the business. He hasn’t been doing well running it, and no one thought to mention that to Eric.” That seemed to more or less cover it.
Instead of addressing any of those problems, Margo shook her head and looked back at the phone. “I told him not to tell anyone yet.”
“Hence the problem.” Rowen gave Margo what she hoped was a particularly incredulous look. She had to remind herself to look back at the road. “Don’t you think you should have encouraged him to say something to his brother? Don’t you think you should have, at least, said something to me?”
