Teaberry Class Reunion

by R A Wallace

  Linda felt the heat in her face. “Actually, we just started talking to each other very recently.” Linda explained that they hadn’t spoken since high school because Amos had teased Linda about being a Jane Austen fan.

  Claire frowned. “That’s right! I remember that now.” She started laughing. “I wasn’t in class with the two of you, but I remember you were pretty upset about it at the time.”

  Linda shook her head. “Funny how things like that mattered to us back then.”

  “We were stupid kids,” Claire pointed out amiably as she paused to look at a tree. Shaking her head, she continued walking.

  Linda smiled to herself. “That’s pretty much what Amos said when he apologized.”

  Claire looked at Linda. “Is it serious?”

  Linda looked at Claire quickly and felt her face redden again. She wondered why Claire thought it was important. “We were just dancing last night. That’s all.”

  “Well, we don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Claire stopped. “Do you want to split up?”

  Linda stopped and looked at the last few rows and shrugged. “Sure.” She figured one row was as good as another. “I’ll go this way.”

  Claire gave a half wave and continued walking.

  Linda watched Claire go past several rows to the very end of the lot, then begin down a row. Linda chose another several rows down and began her own search. Claire was right about one thing. The trees here didn’t look as though they’d been picked over. Some of them must have been here for quite some time and were much larger than what she’d had in mind. Maybe they needed to start closer to the beginning after all, where there were some smaller trees that had been planted more recently.

  After walking down a second full row, Linda shook her head and decided to go in search of Claire. Maybe Claire was interested in a large tree, but Linda wasn’t. She could stay with Claire until she found one at this end of the lot, then go back to the beginning to find her own.

  Linda rounded an end and turned to walk down another row in her search for Claire. She saw movement down at the far end and assumed it must be Claire. They hadn’t seen anyone else this far out on the lot. Linda started to wave but wasn’t certain if the person at the other end was facing her or walking away. She stopped for just a moment as she saw one smaller tree that must have been planted more recently to fill in a gap. It looked very promising.

  Linda looked up again and realized that the person at the other end was Claire, and she could tell that Claire was walking toward her. Linda waved, then noticed that Claire stopped at her end and motioned to Linda to join her. Linda shrugged and began walking. At least she was getting some good exercise.

  As she drew closer to Claire, she raised her voice and pointed behind her. “I found a nice one down there.”

  Claire began walking toward her. They met up in the middle of the row. That was when they saw the blood.

  ***

  Megan sat on her couch with her feet tucked underneath her. Her knitting was beside her, but her mind was too preoccupied with her thoughts to keep track of the stitches. Although her guests had spent much of their time with Mayor Reynolds and her husband, Matthias, Megan and Dan had enjoyed having them. They’d left earlier in the day and Megan had already washed all of the sheets and restored the rooms to their normal state. She and Dan had had a nice quiet dinner together after.

  Megan stared at the fire. Dan was now outside in the barn, working on one of his projects. She knew it was a Christmas present for her. For the life of her, she hadn’t yet thought of a suitable gift for Dan. She wondered what that meant. Dan had seemed to have no problems thinking up endless projects to make for her. She hadn’t been able to come up with one single thing to give to him in return. Why was that?

  Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. She glanced over at the clock. Who could be here at this time on a Sunday night? Frowning as a million possibilities flew through her mind, all of them bad, she quickly moved to answer the door. Finding Linda Spelling on her doorstep hadn’t been one of the possibilities she’d imagined, but she could tell that the other woman was very upset.

  “Linda? Are you alright?” Megan reached out and pulled the other woman into the warmth of the house. She shut the door and turned to look at Linda.

  Linda was staring aimlessly into the hallway.

  Megan reached for Linda’s coat. “Let me help you with this.” After removing Linda’s coat, she led her back to the living room.

  “Take a seat here.” Megan sat at the other end of the couch. “Are you okay?”

  Linda shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m just so tired. I just spent most of the day at the police station.”

  Megan’s eyes opened wide as her mind began processing new possibilities. “Is everyone okay?”

  Linda brought a tissue up to her eyes and wiped at them. “They think I killed him.”

  “Who?”

  “Clay Freemont.” Linda wiped at her eyes again then looked at Megan. She could see the confusion on her face. “Clay Freemont was the one.”

  Megan raised her brows. The one? “Oh, you mean the one you stole from your friend?”

  Linda nodded. She explained to Megan that Claire had returned to Teaberry to live and that they had made up. She also explained the class reunion and that Clay was there along with Claire and Linda. And that Linda and Claire had gone to find Christmas trees the morning after the reunion. That was when they’d found his body.

  Megan leaned back in the couch. “What makes them think you did it?”

  Linda rubbed at her forehead. “Actually, they aren’t sure if I did it, if Claire did it, or if we did it together.”

  “What do you think?” Megan asked.

  Linda pulled her hand away from her forehead and stared at Megan. “What do you mean?”

  “Do you think Claire did it?”

  “No, I…” Linda stopped, her face showing her confusion. “I don’t think so, no.” The Claire she had known as a girl would never have killed anyone.

  “How well do you know her?”

  “We were friends.” Linda shook her head. “We were best friends, back when we went to school.”

  Megan softened her voice. “That was several decades ago. People change.”

  Linda sighed and began rubbing her forehead again. “I know. But now that we’ve been talking again, it’s like all of those years just melted away. We were friends again.”

  Megan looked over at the fire as she considered it. “Looking at it from the view of the police, were you with Claire at all times at the tree farm?”

  Linda’s eyes opened wider as the implication sank in. “No. We split up.”

  “Whose idea was that?”

  “I don’t know.” Linda frowned as she tried to remember. “It was Claire’s. I mean, I guess it was mine initially. But Claire was the one who suggested it at that point.”

  “Okay. Did you split up right away? Or, did you walk together for a while?”

  “We walked together for a bit. We were talking for a while.”

  “What did you talk about?”

  Linda felt the heat in her face. “She wanted to know about Amos.”

  Megan drew her brows together. “What about Amos?”

  Linda bit her lip. “I was dancing with Amos at the class reunion. Claire wanted to know about that and if we’d been seeing each other.”

  Interesting, Megan thought. “Okay, then what?”

  “We decided to go to the far end of the lot and work our way backwards toward the front. We figured most people didn’t make it all the way to the end.”

  Megan nodded. “Whose idea was that?”

  Linda could feel herself getting agitated. She took a deep breath to calm herself as she tried to think back. “I don’t know. I guess it was Claire’s. It made sense at the time, though.”

  An ember shot out from the fire. Megan went over to sweep it back into the fire. She turned and looked at Linda.
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  Linda shook her head. “I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong. Neither one of us did it.”

  Megan nodded slowly. “Okay. What are you hoping I can do?”

  “If we didn’t kill him, someone else did. But right now, the police are looking at us. I need you to find the killer. Please? I don’t know what will happen if you don’t.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  He stepped back to examine his work. The murder board was light on information for the moment, but he’d only just begun filling in what they had learned since the body had been discovered the previous day. Jerry put his marker down and turned when he saw Rhys enter the room.

  “You got it?” Jerry asked as he looked at the print out in Rhys’s hand.

  “Yeah. Looks like you were right. According to the phone records, they were definitely in communication prior to finding the body.” Rhys handed Jerry a copy and continued scanning his own.

  Jerry focused on the short period just before the women said they’d arrived at the tree farm. “They texted each other about their estimated time of arrival.”

  Rhys looked up. “They wanted to make sure they got there at the same time.”

  Jerry nodded slowly. “Yeah, but that’s pretty normal. Could mean anything and it wouldn’t explain how they’d know they could find a hatchet there to kill the man.”

  He turned around to his desk and picked up a different print out. “This is everyone that was at the class reunion.” He gave half of the pages to Rhys.

  Rhys nodded. “I’ll meet you back here later in the day and compare notes with whatever we have at that point.” He leafed through the pages. “This is going to take a while to work through all of these names.”

  Jerry nodded. “Who knew so many people would show up for their class reunion?”

  ***

  Megan parked her truck on the street in front of Erica’s house and wondered who else was already visiting. She didn’t recognize the car in the driveway. Not sure if the babies were sleeping and not wanting to wake them if they were, she quickly texted Erica before exiting her truck and walking to the front door. She didn’t know what she expected to find when the door opened, but a smiling Erica wasn’t it.

  “Hey. You look happy.” Megan followed Erica into the house. She took her coat off along the way and draped it over a chair as she got to the living room.

  “Do you know Kaylee? She’s Mayor Reynolds’s granddaughter,” Erica said.

  Megan nodded. “Some of her family stayed with me over the weekend. Matthias and Mayor Reynolds had their family get together on Saturday.”

  “Yeah, Kaylee mentioned that. Anyway, she’s been helping us with the twins. Turns out, she has a lot of babysitting experience.” Erica looked much better than the last time Megan had seen her.

  “Are you getting more sleep?” Megan asked as she took a seat.

  Erica chuckled. “Is it that obvious? Yeah. I just woke up actually. Kaylee watched them while I took a nap.”

  Megan glanced around. “Is Brad here working in his office?”

  “No, he’s in Pittsburgh for a meeting. He’ll be back this afternoon. That’s another reason to thank Kaylee. Brad has actually been getting a little work done.”

  “Is Kaylee planning to be around awhile? Her family seemed to think she needed to get back to college.”

  Erica tilted her head. “She hasn’t said anything to me like that. It sounded more like she’d be able to help us for a while.” Erica narrowed her eyes at Megan. “What’s up?”

  Megan smiled. “I guess you did get some sleep. You’re noticing things again.” She explained the situation with Linda Spelling and Claire Jennings. Just as she was finishing the story, Kaylee came into the room.

  Kaylee motioned to the general area of the nursery. “They’re sleeping now.”

  “Excellent. I can’t thank you enough for your help today,” Erica said.

  Kaylee smiled. “I enjoyed it. They’re so adorable.”

  “You know Megan Parker?” Erica asked as she motioned toward Megan.

  “I know of her. My grandmother and Matthias talk about you a lot,” Kaylee said as she smiled politely at Megan. Then a frown crossed her face.

  Erica narrowed her eyes at Kaylee. “Everything okay?”

  “Yes, I just remembered what my grandmother said about Megan.” Kaylee turned to Megan. “You solve puzzles. I heard about the death at the tree farm. Are you working on that?”

  Megan glanced quickly at Erica then nodded to Kaylee. “I told a friend that I would look into it.”

  Kaylee walked over to a chair and sat down. “I may know something.”

  Erica sat up and turned to Kaylee. “And what’s that?”

  “We went to the tree farm the other day. My grandmother, Matthias, and I went together to pick out a tree before the rest of our family got here.” Kaylee wasn’t sure which woman to focus on as she told her story, but then realized that Erica had just morphed from mom to cop in one second flat. She looked at Erica as she spoke.

  “You saw something?” Erica asked.

  Kaylee nodded. “Might not be anything. But a guy and the lady owner got into a fight.”

  “How do you know it was the lady owner?” Erica asked.

  “She was the one who handled the sale after we picked out our tree,” Kaylee said simply.

  Erica nodded. “Good. Who was the guy?”

  Kaylee shrugged and her eyes shifted over to Megan.

  Megan pulled out her phone. “Linda told me that they were taking pictures at the class reunion. They posted some of them online. I found one of Clay Freemont in case it might help.” She pulled up the photo then stood and handed the phone to Kaylee. It was a group shot. Clay wasn’t the only person in the group, nor was he the only male.

  Kaylee pointed to Clay quickly. “This one.”

  Megan showed the image to Erica. Erica lifted an eyebrow at Megan and nodded once.

  “Could you tell what they were arguing about?” Erica asked.

  Kaylee shook her head. “I was too far away. Matthias was having trouble walking around all of the rows. I went on my own for a little bit to see if there were any better trees than the one we’d picked out. The people that were arguing were down one of the rows. Once I saw them, I went back to my grandmother and Matthias.”

  Kaylee looked from Erica to Megan and shrugged. “Sorry, that’s all I know.” She got up from the chair and turned back to Erica. “I can come back later today to help with the babies again. I don’t mind at all.”

  Erica stood and walked her to the front door before returning to Megan. “I’ll let Jerry know about what Kaylee saw. Do you want to peek at the twins? I do it all the time. They look so adorable when they’re sleeping.”

  Megan nodded. For a while when Kaylee was talking about the investigation, Erica had been in serious cop mode, but now Erica the mom was back. Megan wondered again about Caitlyn’s comment. Women change when they have babies. She wondered if Erica would ever go back to work as a cop.

  Chapter Fourteen

  She was grateful when Becca, the part-time librarian, arrived for her shift. Linda had felt like she was going to jump out of her own skin all day. Pleading a headache, she left work an hour earlier than usual and went home. She’d thought that getting away from the library would be helpful, but she discovered that in the silence of her home, thoughts ricocheted around her brain faster than she could process them. It was driving her crazy.

  She began pacing around the house, looking for something to do to occupy her mind. She needed to stop thinking about the death of Clay and the possible ramifications for her own life. What if they arrested her? Even if a trial ultimately proved her innocence, would she be allowed to remain working at the library in the interim? She had no idea what she’d do if she ever lost her job. Being a librarian was all she’d ever wanted to do. Books were her whole world.

  Linda stopped pacing and took a deep breath. Her only hope was that Megan could learn so
mething to help her. She knew that pinning her hopes on the younger girl was unwise, but she had no idea where else she could turn to for help. Her sister, Hilary, would support her, of course, no matter what happened. Linda closed her eyes and tried to will her heart to stop pounding.

  It was no use. She was more frightened than she had ever been in her life. She wished she knew what else she could do to help herself, but she felt so alone. She glanced over at the clock on the wall. Hilary was still working at the hospital. Linda couldn’t think of anyone else to call. She’d have to wait until her sister was off work before she’d have someone to talk to about her fears. As she began pacing again, she thought back to the questions that Megan had asked her.

  ***

  Claire had spent the day in her house in fear that the doorbell would ring, and the police would be there wanting to take her to jail. They’d been so serious when they’d questioned her for hours the previous day. She’d never been in a police station before. She hadn’t known what to expect. Maybe she should have called a lawyer? She hadn’t even considered it until now.

  Who would she even call? She didn’t really know anyone in town anymore, not really. Moving back here was such a mistake. She’d thought that Teaberry would be the one place that would be safe, a place where she could get her life back on track after her divorce. She thought she’d be surrounded by old friends and everything would be okay. She’d be able to spend more time with her mom.

  Claire shook her head. She didn’t want to tell her mother about this situation, not unless it was absolutely necessary. She knew it would frighten her, just as Claire was frightened. But she needed to talk to someone. If not her mother, then who? She’d talked to a lot of different people at the class reunion, but she hadn’t really connected with any of them the way that she had with Linda.

  Claire thought about the questions that the police officer had asked her, over and over. No, she insisted, she didn’t believe that Linda had killed Clay. Why would she? Claire walked back into the living room as the hours with the police officer ran back through her mind, like some sort of old video. She stopped in the middle of the room and looked at the television. She’d tried watching the noon news, but they’d talked about the murder. She had watched, hoping the police had found the actual killer, but the newscaster only gave the briefest of details before moving on to the next story.