by Pam Moll
“This is all so terrible,” Bales said.
“Who would do this?” Chris asked, his arms folded across his chest.
Aurora had a concerned look on her face as she twiddled with the strap of her apron. I moved toward her and gave my friend a hug in an attempt to diffuse the worried look on her face.
“Don’t worry, the Palma County detectives are all over this,” I said.
“Hmmp,” Granny said. “That does little good in getting this settled once and for all. What can we do to help?”
“We can’t go sticking our noses in everyone’s business. We need to let them do their jobs.” I said this in front of my crew, but deep down I needed help from Granny and Aurora.
The front door chimed, and several young couples came in the shop. “Bales and Chris, why don’t you go help them? Make sure to offer the bake goods half price at this hour. And if you don’t mind, can I get a sandwich please? I missed dinner tonight.”
The two left to help the customers, leaving Granny, Aurora and me sitting in the kitchen. “Can we plan an emergency meeting at Granny’s house tomorrow?” I trusted these two women in front of me more than anyone else in Bay Isles. “If we are to find out who did this, I’ll need your help.”
Granny narrowed her eyes at me. “I thought you said we were letting the police handle this.”
I nodded toward my other two employees and whispered, “I need your help, but don’t want everyone in Bay Isles to know.”
“You need to be careful, my dear,” Granny whispered back, placing her hand on mine. “If you would have shown up at Erica’s house a few minutes earlier … well, I shudder to think of you in danger, sweetie.”
“I’ll be fine,” I said. But as I thought about it, how dangerous was this person? I figured one murderer and another attempt at murder meant he was dangerous indeed, assuming both Jim’s death and Erica’s injury were related. The police had said that nothing was disturbed at her house, so it wasn’t a random burglary.
“You know who’s behind this, don’t you?” Granny asked.
“I have an idea and a few suspects I need to eliminate to narrow down my list,” I answered. I was far from the truth, with only a handful of clues. Good clues. Some I hesitated to share with anyone yet, including Deputy Drew.
“That’s my girl. Oh, and your Aunt Tammera called me a few minutes ago with an update,” Granny said with a wry smile.
“You knew?” I couldn’t hide anything from the McFadden side of the family.
“Of course, dear. I talk to all my daughters regularly.”
“What was her message?” I asked, also wondering if she knew about my mom’s surprise visit.
“She said yes to your first question, no to the second, and …” Granny frowned. “Oh, what was the last thing? Hmmm …”
Her forehead folded into a creased frown and her eyes rolled up and down, as if trying to remember something. Her fingers tapped on the arm of the chair. “Oh dear,” Granny shrugged.
“What was the last thing?” I chewed on my tongue to stop me from saying anything more smart-alecky. I was grateful that she could help, but I needed all of Aunt Tammera’s information.
“Well, anyway. I’ll let you know when she calls back, dear. She had some Holiday Gala at the museum and said she’d call me tomorrow.” The frown formed again but then her eyes twinkled as if the memory was almost right there. “Please keep in mind, sweetie, that my memory is a bit shoddy these days. So, if I remember two out of the three things, well, that’s good. And if it’s going to get you all bent out of shape, you might want to take your own messages next time.”
I wanted to check my messages on my cell, but realized I had no charge. I guess it could wait.
“I just knew Erica had nothing to do with Jim’s death,” Aurora said. “But who would do this?”
“Have you checked out Mayor Clawson?” Granny whispered under her breath.
“The mayor?” I knew he had fished with Jim Grist. In fact, half of Bay Isles' fishermen had at one time or another.
“Yes. Seems he was really upset about the fishing contest. He felt his son and his partner should have won, and Jim broke the rules. But no one could prove it.”
“I hardly think cheating in a fishing tournament would be a motive …” I stopped. “…especially premeditated murder.” Mayor Clawson was a large sturdy man with a deep tan that set off his silver locks. If he gained ten more pounds, wore wire-rimmed glasses, and grew a snow-white beard, he could double for Santa.
Now the Mayor’s son, Todd, on the other hand, I had been seen behind Gator’s Bait and Tackle the night before the murder. Could he have been upset over the fishing tournament loss?
“If he was upset and hit him on the head or something, that’s more an act of …” Granny rubbed her chin. “…that’s a crime of passion. Since this guy was poisoned, someone had to plan it. And the killer left him on the beach like a bloated mackerel to make it look like an accident.”
Granny Dee surprised me. She couldn’t remember what Aunt Tammera had told her ten minutes ago about Jim and Erica, but she could remember murder motives.
She must have seen my quizzical expression, because she added, “I’ve watched a lot of Murder She Wrote episodes.”
I nodded. “Well, whoever did this hasn’t lived here very long.”
“Why?” Aurora asked.
“For one, they didn’t know the tides,” I blurted out.
“We didn’t find the body, so explain?” Granny said very interested.
“I will tomorrow when we meet. I’m tired and I still need to go meet Drew at the station for a statement. Bring your list of suspects and motives, and I don’t care if it’s Santa ringing the bell at the marina. We need to gather everything we have. We can’t rest until this person is caught. And we need to find out soon, before it puts a damper on our Holly Fest.”
I left them to think about that and headed toward the front of the café. I greeted a few customers and did what I loved best—I made a few lattes. My gingerbread, eggnog and chai flavors are all spice based and make a fantastic combination, that is, if my customer wanted a taste of the holidays in one cup. The secret ingredients made a winner of a drink.
“Do you want a surprise?” I asked the young lady who was still milling over the chalkboard menu of drinks.
“Yes, surprise me. I’d like a cold one, please.” Her eyes twinkled as she smiled at her friends.
“Are you allergic to anything? And do you like raspberry?” I loved to experiment, and this drink I had in mind was one I had made for my staff and friends from time to time.
After we discussed the drink, I went to work and made a combination of white mocha, raspberry, and eggnog. The concoction tastes amazing together and made for a great holiday feel. Served in a clear glass, it came out frosty red and white striped and had the sweetness of the iced white chocolate, a bit of tart from the raspberry syrup and the beloved taste of eggnog.
“This is delicious,” the customer proclaimed. “Thank you.”
I resumed my drifting about the café, talking to customers and making a few drinks. This was fun, and I was getting paid.
After wolfing down a sandwich and stalling for thirty minutes, it was time to make my way to the Palma County Sheriff’s Department. Aurora said she’d watch Snickers until I returned.
I caught Aurora before I left. “Come with me,” I said. She followed me into the office, and once we were alone I asked, “Hey, you don’t know a Missy who works at the Grille, do you?”
“Hmm,” Aurora scratched her chin. “You don’t mean Mistletoe?”
“Mistletoe? Is that a girl’s name? Is she a bartender at the Tiki Hut on Friday nights?”
“Yes. She was born on Christmas, like you. She’s a lot older though. I think she’s …”
“I don’t care about her age,” I interrupted. “Do you know how I can talk to her before Friday night?”
“I can check and leave you a text,” Aurora said as she
bent over a large shopping bag on the office floor.
“Here.” She pulled a blue top out of the Macy’s shopping bag.
“What’s this?” I asked, puzzled.
“Consider it my early Christmas gift to you.”
“I can’t take your shirt!”
“Yes, you can. You can return it if you like or keep it. You’re going to see Drew, right?
“It’s not a dinner date, it’s a witness statement. And besides what’s wrong with my …,” I looked down and saw a brown colored shirt over black leggings and stopped talking.
“This is a Free People cold shoulder top. Besides, with your eyes, you’ll look great in cosmic blue,” she bubbled.
“Cosmic what?”
“Just shut up and put on the blue top,” she said as she closed the door to the tiny office.
I did as instructed, and I had to say that the blouse fit perfectly. While I straightened the top, Aurora took off her high-heeled black half boots and said, “Give me your ballet flats.”
“No,” I protested.
She pushed me in a chair and her dark eyes flared at me. She bent down and tugged at my shoes.
“All right. All right,” I said. “But you’re a half size smaller than me.”
“It will be fine for an hour. Take your flats with you if you want. I have a pair of Keds in my car.”
I nodded. I had a stop to make before coming back to the café, and I had a feeling I should wear my flats in case I needed to run.
Coffee, the most important meal of the day.
~ Anonymous
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
When I came out of the office with Aurora, Granny took a look at my updated outfit and nodded her approval.
Why was I stalling to go to the police station?
I placed my empty sandwich plate in the sink, grabbed my backpack off the counter, and made my way to the front door with Granny following closely at my borrowed heels. She held a cup of flour as she waddled, without a cane, behind me.
“I’m just saying be careful what you tell them. I know you have a good idea about Jim’s murderer, and before Erica was injured you were her ticket to exoneration,” Granny said.
She watched way too many police shows. But she was right, I had enough clues in my notebook and a good idea what needed to be done to clear Erica, me, or any of my baristas of the murder of Jim Grist. I had a few more people to talk to, and then I would tell Drew everything.
Speaking of handsome Drew, I heard Snickers bark and a familiar voice. I stopped abruptly and turned to take my backpack to the office. I collided with Granny. She tossed a half cup of the flour on my cosmic blue shirt and my face. I stepped back, inhaling flour fumes, only to collide with Deputy Drew, whose face was now inches from mine.
“Yikes,” Granny yelped.
Instinctively, Drew grabbed my waist to keep me from falling back into Granny. We were so close. All I had to do was lean in and we’d be close enough to be kissing. But I didn’t. We held in that position for a few seconds, a fiery energy linking us together.
“Now look at this mess!” Granny’s shrill voice interrupted our moment.
I felt my cheeks burn red under a coating of flour.
“You guys look cozy,” Aurora said, coming up behind us.
I jumped away from Drew and turned to face Aurora and Granny. Aurora grinned at me. She looked between Drew and me like she thought she’d almost interrupted us about to smooch. Were we?
I turned to stare at him. I was pretty sure that wasn’t a happy smile on his face. I glared back at Aurora.
“Sorry, I sent Deputy Drew back here. He said he needed to talk to you,” Aurora said with a shrug. Did she just wink at me?
“I was just on my way to the police station for a statement,” I said to Drew.
“Can we talk here?” he asked
“Sure, what’s up,” I managed to say.
Aurora returned to the front of the café while Granny scurried about cleaning up the flour. She stopped and asked, “Are you here on official police business, or is this a social call?” Granny stared at Drew as he brushed flour from his shirt.
“Granny, you know he doesn’t make social calls in uniform,” I said snidely.
“Then what can we do for you, deputy?” Granny snorted.
“You can call me Drew,” he said, trying to smile, but not quite there. “I need to talk to you,” he said, turning his attention to me.
“What’s up?” I asked nervously.
“You weren’t snooping around at Jim’s house, were you?” Drew asked.
I averted my eyes. What? He sure was direct and to the point. I glanced at Granny, but she kept her head down sweeping.
“Snooping? Do you think I would hang around a dead guy’s house? I already said I didn’t know the guy.” I needed to hand my backpack to Granny because it contained my notebook and all my snooping notes.
“We were checking out your mint garden theory. You had a point about the mint the other day. And some elderly lady in Jim’s neighborhood said I had been the second person to ask about a mint garden. I just thought you’d be the one asking, even though she couldn’t remember the woman very well. She said the lady was older and married.” He looked me up and down.
I felt proud of Connie not blowing my cover. Sweet lady. I’ll have to take her cupcakes when this is all over.
“Mint garden?” I asked, not looking him in the eye.
“Mo, I don’t know what you have brewing, and I don’t want to know, just so you’re not snooping around in my case.”
I sighed. “I want to help, so I can’t guarantee I won’t interfere”
Drew narrowed his eyes at me. “Tell me you aren’t talking to suspects. And you’re not hiding anything from me?”
What could I say to distract him? “Well I know I’m not hiding a secret garden out back.” I pointed to the far end of the kitchen toward the back door, where the exit to the boardwalk led.
I suppose it was an instinctive ploy, for when Drew turned to look, I passed my backpack to Granny.
She took it and turned toward the front of the café. Luckily, Drew hadn’t noticed the exchange.
When he turned back he said, “Uh-huh. I just wanted to make sure this neighbor hadn’t seen you at Jim’s house asking around.”
I folded my arms and glared at him. The effect might have been more intimidating if it hadn’t been for all the flour on my face. I probably looked like Casper the Friendly Ghost.
“Can I have a look around?” he asked.
Granny had returned to the kitchen sans my backpack, which was now probably being tossed in Aurora’s car. I felt guilty, for I had nothing to hide, but my clues in my notepad would look suspicious. And besides, I still had a few unanswered questions I want to investigate on my own. I had a theory, or more of a hunch at this point, but I still didn’t want Deputy Drew Powell and his team to intercept my hunches.
“You don’t have a warrant, as far as I can tell,” Granny said. “This is Mo’s business, and if you come in here with allegations about poisons hidden here, it could cost her customers and close the café down in a New York minute.”
Something flickered across his face. Curiosity? Anger?
“We don’t intend to cause any harm to her business, Mrs. McFadden.”
“Dee, dear,” Granny panted Drew’s hand. “Call me Dee.”
He turned to me. “Mo, it wouldn’t hurt to have a look. And we can have a warrant here in an hour.” He flushed from the collar of his Palma County Sheriff shirt to the top of his hairline when he mentioned the warrant.
I looked at Granny for advice. I was well aware of Deputy Drew’s eyes on me instead, but I couldn’t look at him. My cheeks were burning again, but this time I felt guilty.
Drew raised an eyebrow at me.
I grinned at the rose-colored officer and said, “Let me clean my face and we can talk.”
While in the café bathroom, I looked in the mirror and did a double take. I took
stock of my appearance in the mirror. Never had I looked so fair and fragile. My pale skin had almost a porcelain quality, and, well the flour hadn’t helped the look. While my ginger hair was blown-dried tame, the tendrils were wavy. Dark circles were gathering under each eye.
I was tired and needed my bed. My brain was in a pre-caffeinated fog. What did handsome Drew want to talk to me about here? Were these the questions he said he had to ask me before when he
wanted to meet at my apartment?
I scrubbed my face, starting with removing the flour around my eyes. I looked at my reflection. “Great now I look like a reverse raccoon.”
I ran a brush through my hair and walked out of the bathroom. Drew sat stone-faced and silent at a table, arms crossed. Well, this is going to be fun, I thought.
Aurora seemed to be dancing a nervous little jig as she approached the table. Granny moved behind the counter and watched from a safe distance.
“Do you want a latte?” I asked, as Aurora place a cup of coffee in front of me.
He nodded. Aurora smiled brightly at him, and before turning she winked at me.
“You know my partner, Deputy Ted, is very anxious to solve this case. He’s retiring at the end of the year,” Drew said.
“I get it. He wants to solve it before he retires. Who wouldn’t want to leave a clean desk behind when he hangs up the badge?” I swirled my stir stick in my cup, mixing up the cinnamon floating on the top.
“Exactly.”
“But there seems to be a lot of people who may have wanted Jim dead,” I said, looking him in
those clear, blue eyes.
“But you need to stay out of it, Mo.” He looked concerned. “You’ll wind up in more trouble.”
“From what you’re not saying to me, it looks like I’m already in trouble. I’m a murder suspect, right?” I asked. “I don’t know how it can get worse than that.”
“I’m just saying, you don’t need to be poking your nose around in our investigation.”
“You’re not denying I’m a suspect?”
