Small Town Murder

by Patti Benning

  “Wow. I… can I have time to think about it?”

  “Of course. Just let me know what you decide. I think you would be a good match for the position, but if you would rather work somewhere else, I completely understand.”

  She fell silent, looking at her menu as an excuse to be alone with her thoughts for a few minutes. The job offer had come as a complete surprise. Why had he done it? She really didn’t have any experience in a professional kitchen, other than the volunteer work that she had done for the past week. He was going out on a limb for her, and he didn’t even know her that well. Was he offering her the job because he thought she would be good at it, or because he was interested in her? It was a lot to think about, and she wanted to talk it over with Alicia first before deciding.

  Deciding to turn the conversation away from herself, she asked Nick about his job. “What made you decide to start working there? Did you move to town for the position?”

  “Well, like I said, I’ve seen the way that some of these places are run. My own grandmother was in one that wasn’t great. A lot of these people, well, they don’t really have anyone else in their lives. This is the end of the road for them, and if I can make the last months or years a little bit better, I’m happy to do so. It may not be what I thought I would want to do when I was a kid, but I’m happy here, and I don’t think I would want to do anything else now. And yes, I moved to town for the job. The position opened up just as I was wanting to move. It was like it was meant to be.”

  “I think it’s wonderful when people are passionate about their jobs,” she said. As she spoke, she realized that she had never worked a job that she was passionate about. She liked the grocery store, but she wasn’t crazy about the work itself. Working as a cook at the assisted living home, while it might not be the glamorous restaurant she had imagined as a child, she would be doing something that she actively enjoyed. She shook her head, not wanting to decide on the spot either way. She would go home and talk to Alicia about it, and come back to it later. Nick didn’t seem in a big rush to hire someone before the end of the year, so she wouldn’t be in a hurry either.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  * * *

  As Christmas got closer, she had less and less time to think about Nick and his offer. She saw him in passing when she was at the assisted living home, but both of them had their hands full doing their jobs. Christmas season was prime time for visiting, and there was a seemingly endless stream of people who were anxious to make sure that their family members were being taken care of. She often had to make extra for dinner, just to accommodate all of the guests. She was glad that they were visiting their families, but it certainly made more work for her and everybody else.

  She woke up earlier than usual on Christmas morning, filled with excitement even though it had been many years since she had woken up as a child to run downstairs and find gifts under the Christmas tree. She had always loved this holiday, though, and was looking forward to even her own small celebrations.

  She got out of bed, putting on her favorite soft bathrobe and walking downstairs to let Frankie outside. Snow had fallen overnight, but the sky was clear now, and the fresh snow in the backyard glittered. After Frankie was done, Autumn gave her her breakfast – which was the best present in the world as far as the dog was concerned – and made herself a cup of coffee, to which she added a dash of peppermint extract in addition to the usual sugar and milk. Feeling content, she walked back into the living room and sipped her coffee while she listened to Christmas carols on the radio. At nine, she picked up the phone and called her mother, who lived half a continent away.

  “Merry Christmas, Mom,” she said.

  “Merry Christmas, Autumn. How are you doing? I hope you aren’t spending the day alone. I’m going to try to fly out to visit next year.”

  “I’ll be spending the evening with Uncle Albert and Aunt Lucy,” she told her mother. “I might stop and visit Alicia later today. For now, it’s just me and Frankie, but that’s okay.”

  “I miss you so much, sweetie. We have to have Christmas together one of these years. I love you.”

  “I love you too, Mom. We’ll see each other soon. It’s been too long already.”

  After getting off the phone with her mother, she called her sister and had a similar conversation. Michelle put her three-year-old daughter on the line, and Autumn chatted with her niece for a few minutes.

  “She loves the gift you sent her,” her sister said, taking the phone back. “Thank you, Autumn. You have got to come and visit sometime.”

  “I will,” Autumn promised. “Once things settle down here, I will drive out there for the weekend.”

  Feeling the first spark of loneliness that she had felt since waking up, she said her goodbyes and hung up. How had her family ended up so far apart? She missed them all. Once upon a time, they had been close, but now they were all so focused on their own lives that they hardly seemed to have time for each other.

  Deciding it was time for her own Christmas celebration, she put down her mug of coffee and knelt by the small tree that she had set up in the corner by the fireplace. There were a couple of presents that she had wrapped herself the night before. Two of them were for Frankie. She called the dog over and unwrapped the gifts, giving her a new squeaker toy and a couple of treats from the new package that she had bought. Then she turned to the small gift that she bought for herself; a pair of socks with Cairn terriers on them. It wasn’t much, but she wasn’t comfortable spending her own money on an extravagant gift for herself, especially not when her own financial situation was in such dire straits.

  “Merry Christmas, Frankie,” she said to the dog. “I’m glad you’re here with me.”

  The dog, who was busy tearing up the discarded wrapping paper, didn’t look up, but her tail wagged harder. Autumn smiled. She may not have a loved one to spend the day with, but that didn’t mean that she had to be lonely. She had her dog and herself, and even though they lived hundreds of miles apart, she knew that her family was there for her in spirit.

  A little bit before noon, she got dressed for the day and left the house, making sure Frankie was settled in with her new toy to keep her occupied. She had a bag of gifts for Alicia and Rory, who she was planning to visit before she headed to the assisted living home to start on dinner.

  Her friend gave her a hug when she got to the door and invited her in. Their house already smelled wonderful; Alicia had gotten an early start on Christmas dinner. Her friend offered her a small glass of wine, and they sat in the living room chatting for a good twenty minutes before Autumn excused herself.

  “I should get going,” she said. “I have to get started on dinner. We are eating earlier than usual, and there will be quite a few people there. The staff will be eating the Christmas dinner too, and a lot of relatives will be visiting.”

  “I just love that you’re volunteering there,” Alicia said. “You seem to enjoy it so much. As a plus, you get to see Nick a lot.”

  “I don’t talk to him much while I’m there,” she admitted. “He’s working. I don’t want to distract him.”

  “How have things gone since your date?”

  “Good,” Autumn said. “He’s always very friendly, and he said that he wants to go out again. I told him after the holidays are over would probably be best.”

  “Why do you want to wait so long?”

  “I have just been busy at the store, and working at Asheville Meadows in the evenings, and I’m sure he’s busy himself too. I’ve also been job searching, of course.”

  “You don’t think you’re going to take his offer?”

  “I don’t know,” Autumn said. “I don’t know if he’s offering me the job because he really thinks I would be good at it, or if he’s just doing it because he likes me and wants to do something nice. I don’t want to take it for the wrong reasons, and I don’t want to get him into trouble with the Board of Directors if I’m not up to the task.” She looked at the clock. “I really have to get
going. I don’t think I will decide until after Christmas. We can talk about this more later.”

  It was wonderful to walk into the assisted living home. Nearly every inch of the interior was covered with decorations; there were paper snowflakes that the residents had made, beautiful lights, and two large Christmas trees in the main area. Having been there so much over the past couple of weeks, Autumn had gotten to know many of the residents and staff quite well, and people greeted her warmly when she arrived.

  Just being there made her heart feel glad. She hung her coat and her purse in the office on one of the hooks, then went to find Natalie, who would be helping her make Christmas dinner.

  “There you are,” she said when she found the girl at last. “Are you ready to get started?”

  “Yes, just let me take Mrs. Zimmer to the common room. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

  Autumn hurried to the kitchen, eager to get started. She poured over the menu, making sure she didn’t miss anything. She had already gone over it a couple of times, but wanted to get everything right. Pot roast would be the main course, with fruit salad, homemade bread, and a variety of pies for dessert. They usually served frozen dinner rolls instead of homemade bread, but tonight was special. Everything would be made from scratch. It was going to be a busy day, but she was glad that all of the residents here would be getting a wonderful homemade meal for Christmas.

  She decided to start by preparing vegetables for the pot roast. She was busy peeling carrots when Natalie appeared in the kitchen doorway.

  “Ms. Roth, someone is here to see you.”

  “Who?” she asked, surprised. If it was Nick, he would have just walked into the kitchen.

  “Brandon… I can’t remember his last name. I’m sorry.”

  Brandon was there? What in the world could he want? She hadn’t spoken with him since he had stopped by her house the week before her date with Nick. Hoping that everything was okay, she took off her apron and told Natalie to keep working on the vegetables.

  She found Brandon waiting in the common room. He was holding a bouquet of roses, which he handed over to her when he saw her.

  “They’re beautiful,” she said, “What is this about, Brandon?”

  “I want to apologize. I know our last discussion didn’t go so well. The more I think about it, the surer I am; I made a mistake, Autumn. I know that it will probably take you a while to trust me again, and I want to make it up to you. You are a wonderful person, who I want to be a part of my life for a long time to come.”

  He pulled her into a hug. She returned it, feeling flustered. She opened her eyes, and over Brandon’s shoulder, she saw Nick. He was staring at the two of them, a hurt expression on his face.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  * * *

  She pulled back, out of Brandon’s embrace. She didn’t know if things would go anywhere with Nick, but she wanted to give it a chance. Just one date with him had shown her that there was so much more out there. She cared about Brandon, yes, but things were over between them. He had to accept that.

  “Brandon, I appreciate the gesture, but you really shouldn’t have come here. I have a job to do, and I have to get back to work. What I said before still stands. I think you were correct when you said that we aren’t right for each other. Maybe we can get a coffee sometime this week and talk about it, but I really do have to go now. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.”

  “That’s it?” he said. “Autumn, I miss you so much. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. Please, give me one more chance. I…”

  Autumn heard a soft whump come from behind her, then heard someone start screaming. She spun around and realized that the sounds had come from the kitchen. Dropping the roses, she rushed forward. She found Natalie beating a fire out of her smoking apron. Her hair was singed, as was her shirtsleeve, and her hand and arm were burned. The oven door was open, and a lighter lay on the floor.

  “Natalie, what happened?” she asked, kneeling beside the younger woman.

  “I don’t know,” Natalie sobbed. “I was trying to get the oven lit – the pilot light must’ve gone out – but when I clicked the lighter on, a huge fireball just exploded. Thank goodness I was using one of those long lighters, or my entire head would be on fire.”

  “We have to get out of the kitchen now,” Autumn said. “Someone go and find Nick I think he’s in his office.”

  No matter what he said, she knew that she would no longer entertain the thought that all of this was a coincidence. Someone is trying to kill whoever cooked in the kitchen at the assisted living home.

  “What happened?”

  She turned to see Brandon standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

  “You should get going. We can deal with this,” she said.

  “No, I want to help,” he said.

  “What’s going on?”

  Nick was there now, standing next to Brandon, gazing at Natalie with concern.

  “Someone fixed the oven so it would explode when someone tried to light it,” Autumn said.

  His eyes widened. “Both of you need to get out of here right now,” he said. “We don’t know if there are other booby-traps in here. I’m going to call the police, but for now, we need to keep everyone out of the kitchen.”

  She helped Natalie into the common area, and one of the other staff members brought an ice pack for her. The sight of the injured young employee brought both residents and staff swarming over, making sure she was okay and asking what had happened.

  Autumn saw a couple of people heading towards the kitchen, their faces curious. She got up and hurried over to the door.

  “No one can go inside,” she said. “I’m sorry, but it may not be safe.”

  Mrs. Zimmer, who was standing by the door with her walker, was frowning.

  “You really have bad luck, don’t you?” she said.

  “It’s not bad luck,” Autumn said. “Someone’s trying to sabotage me.”

  She managed to shoo people away from the door. By now, the common room was full of people. Everyone was talking about what had happened and crowding around Natalie. Feeling frazzled, Autumn took a step toward Natalie, but Brandon beat her there. She saw him ask people to give the young woman space, and offered him a smile from across the room. With Natalie taken care of, she had to find Nick.

  He was in his office, and was just getting off the phone with the police when she found him. “They’re on their way,” he said. “I asked for an ambulance too. I don’t know how hurt Natalie is.”

  “Good. I can’t believe something like this happened again. Who had access to the kitchen today?”

  “Too many people,” he said. “It’s been a crazy day. Natalie helped make lunch with a couple of the other staff members. I don’t know who made breakfast. The door has been open most of the day; Natalie was trying to clean it for you so that it would be nice for Christmas dinner. A couple of the residents were also in there, making Christmas cookies for their families. It could’ve been anyone. I know you’re going to hate to hear this, but are you sure it wasn’t an accident?”

  “How could this have been an accident?”

  “Well, it’s possible that the pilot light just went out. It does happen sometimes, and these ovens are older.”

  “If that was the case, wouldn’t the gas have shut off automatically? There should be a safety valve, shouldn’t there?”

  “There is, but it responds to the metal cooling down after the pilot light goes out. The gas would have kept flowing for a little bit. Like I said, it’s an older system and it isn’t perfect. The fact that the explosion was so small tells me that the valve did work. The gas must have shut off just a few minutes after the pilot light went out.”

  Autumn sighed and took a seat across from him. “So you think that it was an accident, just like the burners being left on and Benson’s EpiPen disappearing?”

  “I don’t know what I think,” he said. “That’s why I called the police. It’s just hard to imag
ine that someone would try to kill the cook on Christmas day. What motive could anyone have to try to kill you and Natalie?”

  Autumn frowned. Something had occurred to her. Natalie had been around each time that something bad had happened. This most recent incident was the least serious; like Nick had said, the emergency shut off valve had worked, and the explosion had been minor. Was it possible that she had done this on purpose to turn suspicion away from herself? If so, did that mean that she had something else planned?

  She shook her head. No, that was ridiculous. Natalie had never given Autumn any reason not to trust her. Besides, why would the young staff member want her out of the kitchen?

  “The police will be here soon,” he said after a moment. “And the ambulance for Natalie. We should talk to them together.”