Small Town Murder

by Patti Benning

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  SMALL TOWN MURDER

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  Small Town

  Murder

  Asheville Cozy Mysteries

  Book One

  By

  Patti Benning

  Copyright 2018 Summer Prescott Books

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  **This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.

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  SMALL TOWN

  MURDER

  Asheville Cozy Mysteries

  Book One

  CHAPTER ONE

  * * *

  Autumn Roth pulled the smoking pan out of the oven, letting it drop onto the stovetop along with the dishtowel that she had used as a makeshift oven mitt. “Ow, ow, ow,” she said, dancing over to the sink and thrusting her hand under the cold water.

  “This is all your fault, Frankie, for chewing up the real oven mitt,” she said, looking down at her dog. The little terrier was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor, her stumpy tail wagging happily at all of the commotion. Her wiry blonde fur stuck out in all directions, making her look as if she had just licked an electrical outlet. She didn’t look the slightest bit ashamed of herself, which wasn’t surprising. The terrier lived for mischief.

  Autumn turned off the water and dried her hands on a clean towel. She eyed the mess on the pan. The steaks themselves looked fine, but the foil was still smoking from where the grease had caught fire. She had been trying to save herself some cleaning, and instead had almost caught her house on fire.

  “Well, at least flame-roasted steak sounds fancy,” she said. “Brandon probably won’t even notice. And the pasta salad turned out well. Now all that’s left is the dinner rolls — and dessert, of course.”

  She continued chatting to Frankie as she pulled the frozen dinner rolls out and began to line them up on a clean pan. She had always been a chatterbox, and that wasn’t something that she could just turn off when she was alone. At least having the dog there made her feel a little bit less crazy.

  The dinner that evening was important to her, and she wasn’t about to let the near-disaster with the steaks get her down. She and Brandon had been seeing each other for exactly a year. Ever since he had told her that he just wanted a quiet meal at home together for their anniversary, her dreams had been filled with the sound of wedding bells. He knew she didn’t want a public proposal. This evening together at her house would be the perfect time for the two of them to get engaged.

  In her mid-thirties, Autumn felt the pressure as her biological clock ran toward its expiration date. She wanted kids and a husband, the whole shebang. Watching her niece and nephew grow up had only made her want that life all the more. Brandon might not be the fairytale prince she had dreamed of as a child, but he was kind and responsible, and most importantly, he was interested in her.

  Autumn opened the oven to let it air out, then opened the kitchen window a crack to help her house clear of smoke. She checked the clock, then left the kitchen with Frankie at her heels. He would be here soon, and she wanted to freshen up.

  She had just finished primping her hair in the bathroom when she heard a knock at the door. Frankie took off like a bolt of lightning, barking frantically. Autumn hurried back into the kitchen and unlocked the door, welcoming Brandon in over the yapping.

  “Settle down, Frankie,” she said, exasperated. “You know who it is. Sorry, I swear she’ll get used to you eventually.”

  “It’s okay,” Brandon said as he pushed the door shut behind him. “How are you doing?”

  “Great,” she said, beaming at him. “I visited my aunt and uncle earlier, and they’re both doing well. I spent the afternoon cooking for our dinner tonight.”

  “I told you not to go to any trouble,” he said. “I just want to talk.”

  “It’s no trouble. You know I love cooking. Here, let me take your coat.”

  She brushed the snow off of it and hung it up in the little closet by the door. While he took his boots off, she cracked open the oven to check on the rolls. They were almost done.

  “Go ahead and sit down, I’ll bring the food out.”

  “Autumn, I —”

  “It’s getting cold. I put the steaks in too early, I should have cooked them last. Go on, sit down.”

  He vanished into the other room while she bustled around, putting the steaks on plates and taking the bowl of pasta salad out of the fridge. She carried the food out to the dining room, then returned to the kitchen for the bottle of wine she had bought earlier that day. She checked the rolls once more, but they still weren’t ready. She would just have to remember to get them out in a few minutes.

  At last, she sat down at the table across from Brandon. Smiling at him, she poured herself a glass of wine and passed the bottle to him. He put it down on the table.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I told you not to go to all of this trouble,” he said.

  “It wasn’t any trouble,” she said. “I wanted to do this. For us. Can you believe it’s already been a year?”

  He sighed. “This is exactly what I wanted to avoid.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Autumn, I told you I didn’t want to do anything for our anniversary. All I was going to do tonight was stop by, so we could talk. I didn’t know you were going to make such a big production out of all of this. It’s just making it harder.”

  She felt her stomach twist, but she forced herself to keep smiling. “Making what harder?”

  “I don’t think we should see each other anymore, Autumn. We can be friends, but that’s it. That’s all I want.”

  Autumn was floored. She had been expecting for him to propose, not… this. Things had been
going well, hadn’t they? They had fun together, they never argued, they liked the same things. She had thought that he was as happy as she was.

  “Brandon, I —”

  “No, let me keep talking,” he said, interrupting her. “I want to say this before you get mad at me. I know it’s cliché, but this has nothing to do with you. It’s me. I’m just not ready for a committed relationship like this. I know that you want more, but I don’t. It isn’t fair to you if I keep leading you on. I care about you enough that I want you to be free to go and find someone who is really right for you.”

  She stared at him, trying to gather her emotions and thoughts before she spoke. She did not want to cry. Not in front of him.

  “Okay,” she managed at last. “I think you should go now. I need some time by myself.”

  “Are you going to be okay? I don’t want to leave you here alone if you’re upset.”

  “Please, just go.”

  He got up slowly, looking at her with concern in his eyes. When she ignored him, he pushed his chair in and walked into the kitchen. She heard the closet door open and shut, then stomping as he put on his boots. A moment later, the front door shut behind him, and she was alone at last. She closed her eyes. She had never been more shocked in her life. Just when she had thought things were going so well, he had broken up with her. How could she have been so wrong?

  The scent of something burning made her open her eyes again. The dinner rolls. She had forgotten all about them. She rushed into the kitchen and took the pan out of the oven. The rolls were blackened and smoking. Just like her relationship, they were trash.

  CHAPTER TWO

  * * *

  Autumn spent the rest of the evening feeling sorry for herself. Her emotions were still too raw for her to take comfort in telling anyone. Brandon had been a part of her life for a year. Now, he was just… gone. Even the coming Christmas festivities seemed dampened now that she knew that she would be spending the holiday alone.

  Well, maybe not alone, but without the man who she thought would be the love of her life. She knew her aunt and uncle would be glad to have her over for Christmas dinner, and although spending the evening in an assisted living home might not be what she had planned on, at least she would be spending it with people who cared about her.

  She didn’t feel any better the next morning, but she didn’t feel any worse either. As she got ready for work, she wondered if maybe she hadn’t been as invested in her relationship with Brandon as she had thought. Her heart was still heavy, but most of her thoughts seemed centered around the knowledge that her dream of marriage and raising a family would be put on hold for even longer, rather than focused on the new Brandon-shaped hole in her life.

  “What if he was right?” she asked Frankie as she brushed her teeth. “Maybe we really weren’t right for each other, and he’s the only one that could see it. I was so blinded by everything that I wanted that I didn’t stop to think that he might not be the one that I wanted it with.”

  Despite her words, she didn’t feel much better as she left the house for Green River Grocery, the store that she managed. Located along the river for which it had been named – which was usually more of a muddy brown than green – the tiny store had been there for longer than she had been alive. If she had been willing to move, maybe she’d have been doing something more meaningful with her life but she loved Asheville. She had lived there for almost ten years, and even though almost nothing had gone as she had planned, the town had become her home.

  “Good morning, Jeb,” she said as she pushed through the familiar doors, glad to be out of the cold. It was snowing lightly outside, and if the forecast was right, the snowfall would only get heavier toward evening. It was a good thing that she didn’t live too far away. Her little two-door car couldn’t handle the slick, icy roads very well.

  “Is it just me, or are you looking down?” the store’s owner asked.

  “It’s just the holiday blues,” she said, offering him a small smile. Jeb was in his fifties, and had taken over the ownership of Green River Grocery when his father had retired. He was in the store daily, but left most of the management of the employees and helping the customers to her. He was a friendly, but shy man, and preferred stocking goods and taking inventory to interacting with other people.

  He sighed, straightening up from the box of flavored water that he was unpacking. “Well, what I’m about to tell you won’t cheer you up any.”

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Green River Grocery is going out of business,” he said. “We’ve been in the red ever since that One-Stop Supermarket opened up just outside of town.”

  “I’m sure people will start shopping here again,” she said. “This store’s been here since before I was born. It can’t close down.”

  Where would I work? she thought, but didn’t say. If Green River Grocery closed permanently, she wasn’t the only one that would be out of a job.

  “I don’t have a choice,” he said, his eyes sad. “I just can’t afford to keep it open anymore. One-Stop has lower prices, more variety, it’s open longer hours, and it’s only twenty minutes away. I don’t blame people for doing most of their shopping there. I’ve been trying to think of solutions for months, but the simple fact is, if I keep the store open, I’m going to go broke, and I have a family to consider.”

  “When?” she asked, feeling just as stunned and lost as she had the night before.

  “The end of January,” he said. “I was planning on telling everyone after the holidays.”

  “Why are you telling me now?”

  “Most of the other employees other than you are either high schoolers, or retired, and doing this is a part-time job to make some extra cash. You’re the only one that’s paid a salary, and I know this is your main source of income. I wanted to give you extra time to find somewhere else to work before I shut the doors for good.”

  “You want me to keep this from the others?”

  He sighed. “Do what you think is best. You’re better with people than I am. I thought it would be nice for them to enjoy Christmas without worrying, but if you think they should know now, go ahead.”

  She stared at him, feeling anger – true anger – for the first time in a long while. How could he put this on her? This was his store. If he was making the decision to close it, it was his job to tell the people who worked for him. Why did she have to be the one to decide whether to wreck everyone else’s holidays, or let them spend money that they didn’t have?

  “Anyway, I’m just going to finish restocking the flavored water, then I’m going to get out of here. Let me know if you need references for any jobs. You’ve been a great manager, and I’m sure you’ll be great at whatever you do next too.”

  To keep herself from saying something she might regret later, Autumn spent the next half hour on the other side of the store until she saw Jeb leave. In less than twenty-four hours, her life had been completely turned on its head. She was single, and in less than two months, she would be out of a job and her only source of income. Her mother had always told her that bad things came in threes, and she couldn’t help but wonder what would happen next.

  CHAPTER THREE

  * * *

  After her shift, Autumn went to visit the two people who always seemed to make her feel better. Her aunt and uncle lived together at the local assisted living home. After her aunt’s stroke, her uncle, who had lost a leg during his time in the military, had been unable to care for her. Since he wouldn’t have been capable of taking care of her in their home alone, he had decided to move with her into the assisted living home.

  They were both originally from downstate, but had chosen this facility specifically to be near Autumn. She enjoyed their company, and visited them a couple of times every week. Her mother lived across the country, so she was really the only family they had in the area. Neither of them had ever had kids.

  “Autumn, I wasn’t expecting to see you. Come over here, let me give you a h
ug.”

  “Hi, Uncle Albert,” she said, embracing the older man. “I know I was just here yesterday, but I could use the company. How is Aunt Lucy doing?”

  “She’s with the doctor now. They are reviewing her medicines. She should be out in a little bit. Are you going to stay for dinner? I’ll go tell the cook.”

  “Oh, I didn’t call ahead. I don’t want to be a burden.”

  “Nonsense, he always makes extra anyway. You sit down, I’ll be right back.”

  Feeling guilty, Autumn took a seat in the armchair in the common area while her uncle made his way toward the dining room and attached kitchen. She always felt bad when he did something that she could do herself, but at the same time, she knew that he valued what independence he had. Making him sit while she went to talk to the cook would do nothing but insult him.

  “Hi,” she said to the older woman who was sitting a few chairs away. “Mrs. Zimmer, isn’t it?”