by Lyndsey Cole
9
Greta Grayley opened her door quickly after Mia knocked once. It was a little eerie since Mia’s knuckles were still ready to give a polite couple of additional taps on the door. She almost ended up tapping Greta on the nose.
“I saw you approaching,” Greta said.
Through the door, Annie wondered?
Mia dropped her arm and looked at Annie.
Annie nudged her mother with her elbow.
“How are you holding up, Greta?” Mia asked.
Was she going to make them stand on the porch or would she invite them inside?
Greta opened the door wider and stood to one side. “You can come in.” Lucky wound his body around her legs.
“We brought blueberry muffins for you.” Mia’s voice sounded artificially cheerful to Annie.
“I suppose you want to talk about Brian.” A cold wind blew through Annie’s hair. A loud thud as Greta closed the door behind Mia and Annie made it feel like they were trapped in her house. Wow, was her timing just a coincidence or was there something unusual about Greta Grayley?
“Did Leona make them?”
“Yes, but she has realized she needs to wear her glasses so she doesn’t keep mixing up ingredients,” Annie explained. Of course, just because she saw glasses on the counter Annie wasn’t sure at all if Leona always wore them. That wasn’t information that Greta needed.
Mia gave her a confused sideways glance. Annie shrugged one shoulder, letting her mother know that she’d explain later.
“Well, I hope that takes care of the problem.” Greta took the box, untied the orange ribbon, and looked inside. “Six muffins to replace a whole cake?” Her voice dripped with disgust. “Is Leona playing tricks on me for some reason?”
Annie reached out to touch Greta’s arm in a friendly gesture but Greta moved away. “No, of course not. Leona would never do anything like that. She has just been a stubborn fool and doesn’t want to admit she needs reading glasses.”
Mia covered her mouth when a fake cough snuck out. “Is that what’s been going on? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought I could deal with it and let her keep her dignity at the same time. But back to the current situation.” Annie looked back at Greta. “You’ll get a new cake, too. It wasn’t ready when we left.” Well, that was true. She didn’t need to tell Greta that it wasn’t even started. She’d get her cake. Sometime.
“I suppose you want tea or something while you’re here?” Greta asked with about as much enthusiasm as a mouse eyeing a piece of cheese . . . in a trap.
“Greta. We can leave if you don’t want company,” Mia said.
“Are you here to grill me about Brian? About how he broke my heart twenty years ago and now I got my revenge? Isn’t that what everyone in town is whispering—crazy Greta finally got even?”
Both Annie’s and Mia’s mouths dropped open. “Of course not,” they both said at the same time. People probably were whispering that but it wasn’t what Annie believed.
“We thought you might want some support. We don’t think you killed Brian,” Annie said for both of them. “We want to find out who did.”
“Oh.” At that revelation all the emotion and anger drained from her voice. “I thought you were like everyone else that showed up today.”
Mia reached her hand out toward Greta and she didn’t shrink away this time. “How about I make tea for us and you can tell us what happened last night. If you want to.”
Greta nodded. She turned and led the way to the kitchen in the back of the house. The kitchen was still spotless and the table was cleared of the plates, napkins, and forks set for two from the night before.
Mia filled the teakettle with water and turned on the burner. “Cups?” she asked Greta.
Greta put three cups and an assortment of teas on the table next to the box of blueberry muffins.
“May I?” Annie pulled out one of the kitchen table chairs.
Greta nodded and she sat across from Annie.
“I didn’t kill Brian,” she stated as if that question needed to be cleared up even before it was asked.
“I believe you, Greta. Can you tell me anything unusual that happened last night? Did you remember any other details?”
Greta sat with her elbows on the table and her chin nested on her upturned palms. Her eyes were glued to the center of the table, as if she was looking at some sort of vision. “Everything was completely unusual and confusing. I didn’t know what to think after Brian called me.” She tilted her head and looked at Annie. “I didn’t want to see him again.”
The teakettle shrieked, piercing the quiet with a sharp stab of noise. Greta flinched. “Everything makes me jumpy today.”
“I can’t imagine what went through your mind last night.” Annie took a tactic of trying to lead Greta through her evening instead of asking direct questions. If she could get her started at the beginning, maybe Greta could describe more of what actually happened from her perspective.
Mia filled the teacups on the table with hot water and sat between Greta and Annie.
Greta didn’t move to take her tea. She sat and stared into space as if she was mentally miles away.
Annie tried again. “Did Brian tell you he was going to come over to visit?”
Greta’s eyes blinked multiple times. Was she clearing some kind of memory? “Brian? Yes. He did ask if he could stop by. But I hung up without giving him an answer.” After she dropped a teabag into her hot water, she curled her finger through the teacup’s handle but didn’t lift it to her lips.
“Why do you think he decided to walk over last night then?”
“Maybe he saw Cody here.”
Annie had just taken a sip of her hot tea and almost spit it out in Greta’s direction. Instead she choked and managed to keep it in. “Cody? Brian’s brother? What was he doing here?”
“It was my birthday, remember?”
Okay, this conversation just took a turn into weird territory. “Yes, I remember.” And it was also Halloween. “You bought a cake for your birthday.” That was probably the wrong thing to bring up since the cake was inedible. “Were you expecting Cody to share a piece of your birthday cake?”
“He always stopped by on my birthday. Ever since, you know. Well, maybe you don’t know. You were younger than the rest of us when Brian left town.” She sighed and finally sipped her tea. “Cody is the one that broke the news to me that Brian left town twenty years ago. He apologized for his brother’s behavior and we struck up a friendship. Well, it was more of a relationship based on our mutual disappointment with Brian.”
Annie let those words sink in. Cody and Greta maintained a relationship for these past twenty years based on Brian’s bad behavior? Brian’s own brother seemed to have held a grudge against him. How did he feel with Brian showing up in town to stir up old resentments?
A loud knock on the door made all three heads turn toward the front door. The knock meant business and suggested it expected a response immediately.
Greta frowned and shook her head. “People have been bothering me all day. I’ll be right back.”
The door squeaked on its hinges.
“Did you tell Detective Crank I was here last night?” Cody Springer’s voice demanded.
Annie looked at Mia and whispered behind her cupped hand. “This doesn’t sound good. He must not know we’re here.”
“We walked, remember? Our car isn’t parked out front,” Mia whispered back.
“And awkward for Christy. She came to the party with Cody. I wonder how he slipped away to come over to visit Greta.” Annie leaned as far as possible to look toward the front door, but she couldn’t see anything. She felt her mother’s hand grab her arm and pull her back.
Greta’s voice was too soft to understand her words and then the door closed.
Annie picked up her cup and tried to act normal.
Greta sat in her chair. “Well, I suppose you heard Cody’s question. He doesn’t want me to tell Detecti
ve Crank, his girlfriend,” she rolled her eyes, “about his visit last night. What should I do?”
“How long was he here?” Annie asked.
“He didn’t even come in the house. He only wanted to make sure I knew Brian was in town so I wasn’t shocked if he just showed up on my doorstep.”
“And what time was that when he stopped over here, Greta? In relation to when you stumbled on Brian’s body.” Annie wondered if Cody and his brother had an argument that ended badly. Very badly.
“That’s the thing—” Greta stood and walked to the kitchen window that overlooked the shared yard between her house and Kitty Brown’s. “I talked to Cody maybe ten or fifteen minutes before I found Brian on the grass. And it was Cody’s Jeep that roared down the street when I first went out the kitchen door.”
“You think Cody killed his brother?”
“I don’t know what to think. He was right here, well, in my yard, when Brian was attacked. And he told me many times what a jerk he thought his brother was. But, murder?” Her question came out in a flat monotone and when she turned to face Annie and Mia, her shoulders drooped and she sniffled.
“If it wasn’t Cody, who was it?” Greta asked without expecting a reply.
10
“Wow . . . just wow,” was all that came from Annie’s mouth when she and Mia finally left Greta’s house.
“But think about this,” Mia said. “With Greta and Cody at her front door talking, someone else could have come from Kitty’s house without being seen by Greta.”
“If Cody didn’t swing around to the back yard before he roared away in his Jeep. I wonder if Cody disappeared in such a rush because he and Christy had a disagreement.
“Are they more than friends?”
“That was my impression,” Annie answered as they arrived back at their cars in the parking lot behind the Cove’s Corner building. “I’m going to swing by Thelma’s house. She remembered Brian had taken Greta to the senior prom and I’m hoping she can fill in some more details on their past. She has trouble with her short term memory but her memories from the past are still pretty sharp.”
“And then we’ll all meet up at your house to compare notes?”
“Sure. You can call Leona and have her bring something for us to eat.” Annie opened her car door.
“Wait a minute. What’s this about Leona and reading glasses?” Mia asked before Annie had time to get in her car.
Annie exhaled sharply. “She’s been mixing up ingredients. I had to throw a whole batch of chocolate cupcakes away yesterday that tasted like salt, and Greta’s birthday cake tasted the same. Her excuse was that someone moved the sugar and salt around and she accidently grabbed the wrong container.”
“That could be the explanation. She’s been crazy busy with Halloween baking.”
“Mom, don’t make excuses for her, too. Have you watched when she tries to read a recipe? She holds it out like this.” Annie held her arm as far away as possible and squinted as she pretended to read something at that distance. “She needs to have her eyes tested but she’s too vain.”
“Huh. I hadn’t noticed. What are we going to do?”
“I did see a pair of glasses tucked behind her mixing bowl this morning, so I think she might be wearing glasses when she’s alone in the café. Don’t say anything.”
Mia held her hands up as a stop sign to Annie. “Not me. That will only make it worse and I don’t want her to bite my head off. I’ll go in to see if she needs any help, and don’t worry about food tonight. We’ll show up with something.”
“Perfect.” Annie drove home to Cobblestone Cottage and an empty driveway. She couldn’t visit Thelma without bringing Roxy along.
She dropped her tote on the table next to a folded piece of paper. Jason’s note made Annie smile—Had to run some errands. Hope you’re here when I get home. I have a surprise! :)
A surprise? As long as it didn’t involve a costume, it had to be better than the surprise from last night.
“Come on, Roxy,” Annie called. “Get your walking shoes on.”
Roxy looked at Annie and wagged her tail. She ran to the porch door and whined.
“Let me run to the bathroom and I’ll be right with you.” When she returned, she rummaged in her tote for the chocolate covered almonds her mother bought. “I’ll share these with Thelma.”
They walked into the late afternoon. The sun was sinking, leaving streaks of color across the horizon. “What a beautiful sky, Roxy.” Annie stopped to enjoy the scene but Roxy had other plans. She put her nose to the ground and dashed up the Lake Trail, cutting Annie’s enjoyment short.
The brisk walk was refreshing. By the time Annie and Roxy turned around, they were both ready for a short visit with Thelma. Thelma waved when they came into her view and Roxy was up the path to Thelma’s kitchen door before Annie could blink.
“How nice of you to stop in for a visit,” Thelma called from her living room as soon as Annie opened the door. Roxy had already zoomed to Thelma’s side.
“The water is hot if you want any tea.”
“No. I’m all set but I’ll pour some for you if you want,” Annie said.
“I’ve still got a half cup here.”
Annie offered Thelma some chocolate covered almonds and Thelma offered Roxy a dog bone from the jar next to her chair. “There you go. You have impeccable manners, Roxy.”
Roxy took the bone gently and lay down at Thelma’s feet to eat it.
“Are these from the Sweet Bites shop?” Thelma asked before she popped one of the delicacies into her mouth.
“Yes, as a matter of fact. It’s a sweet place.” Annie grinned at her attempt at a pun.
Thelma chuckled, too. “So, what did you wear to the Halloween party?”
Annie twisted her mouth and wrinkled her nose. “A skin-tight skeleton costume that glowed in the dark. I covered up with a black blazer, though, so it was mostly the skeleton legs that must have looked ridiculous when I was outside. Jason was a skeleton, too . . . we were Mr. and Mrs. Bones.”
Thelma laughed a deep belly laugh. “I’m sure you were both stunning. And how was the party?”
Annie rolled her eyes and grimaced. “Didn’t you hear about the murder?”
Thelma leaned forward, almost losing her balance and falling off her chair before she caught herself. “That happened at Kitty’s party?”
“Not exactly. It happened between Kitty’s and Greta’s houses.”
“Well that just beats the band. Kitty and Greta both had their eye on Brian who was caught in the middle of those two even twenty years ago.”
What an odd comment and a perspective that Annie never heard before. Leave it to Thelma to ‘see’ this in a new light. “So, it was sort of a teenage love triangle?” Annie asked.
“I guess you could say that. From what I remember when I was teaching those kids, Brian Springer was the heartthrob and both Kitty, the class extrovert, and Greta, the introvert, had a crush on him.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Of course, that was a long time ago, and with Brian gone for all those years that is all meaningless today.”
Was it, Annie wondered? “Greta found Brian’s body. I’m afraid that Detective Crank might have her at the top of the suspect list.”
“You know,” Thelma continued, “Greta was one of my star pupils. I think I’d like to pay her a visit.”
“Thelma Dodd, are you trying to sneak into this murder investigation?” Annie pretended to sound shocked.
“Nothing of the sort. I was only thinking she might need a friendly old face after the shock of what she’s been through.” Thelma sipped her tea and looked at Annie over the top of her mug. Her eyes had a familiar twinkle. The twinkle that Annie knew meant that Thelma was looking forward to some excitement in her life. “Will you give me a ride?”
Annie couldn’t contain the laugh behind the stern look she had pasted on her face. “It would be my pleasure. Do you want to go tonight or tomorrow?”
“My sched
ule is free. Do you think it would be okay to drop in without calling first?”
Annie considered this question. “If we bring food. Wouldn’t that be the neighborly thing to do in a situation like this?”
“Perfect.” Thelma pushed against the arms of her chair until she got herself on her feet and used her walker to head to the kitchen. “My son dropped off a box of deli sandwiches, chips, and pickles. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like you had this planned all along, Thelma. I’ll bring the rest of the chocolate covered almonds and we’ll let Greta provide the drinks. If she invites us in.”
Thelma pointed to a box in the kitchen. “She’ll invite us in. How could anyone turn away a sweet old lady using a walker? Besides, Greta always told me that I was her favorite teacher.”
“You were probably everyone’s favorite teacher. Well, except for Leona. I know she was always afraid you’d call on her when she hadn’t done the homework.”
Thelma chuckled. “Yes, Leona was a special kind of trouble back then, but I won’t share any of those stories.”
“Come on! You can’t just leave me hanging.”
“Sure I can. Ask her yourself if you want to know anything. It’s not for me to share someone else’s embarrassing foibles. Now, help me with my jacket so we can give Greta some support.”
Annie found Thelma’s warm quilted jacket hanging next to the kitchen door. She held it so Thelma could slip her arms in. Annie carried the box of food and helped Thelma down the step from her house.
“Oh. I walked over. You’ll have to wait for me to get my car. It’ll only take a few minutes. I’ll help you to your chair and Roxy can wait here with you.”
“Let’s take my car. It needs to be driven once in a while anyway. At least, that’s what my son tells me when he borrows it.”
“You don’t mind if Roxy rides in the back seat? She’ll leave sand and hair behind.” Annie didn’t want to get Thelma’s pristine sedan dirty.
“It will give my son something to complain about since that has become his main hobby.”
Annie opened the back door and motioned for Roxy to jump inside and helped Thelma into the passenger seat. Once she was settled, Annie handed her the box of food. “I don’t want to put this in the back and tempt Roxy.” She folded the walker and put it in the trunk.
