by Maci Grant
“Mr. Peddle, are you in there?” Blu knocked on the door.
“Maybe we should go.” Maddie frowned. “He hasn’t opened the door for anyone. He didn’t even come to the memorial wall.”
“Mr. Peddle, please. It’s me, Blu. I just want to talk to you. I have someone here who would like to meet you. I’m only here to help.”
Harry nodded at her. “He’ll open it. Just be patient.”
Blu sighed. She hoped that Harry was right. So far his instincts had been pretty good.
A few minutes later the door to the small shop swung open. Mr. Peddle looked quite frail standing in the doorway.
“What is it? There’s nothing that can be done for me.”
“Mr. Peddle, I thought maybe if you could help me to understand a few things, we might be able to prove who really did this to your wife.”
“What does it matter? It won’t bring her back.” He sighed so heavily that his entire body shook. “I’m alone now.”
“It will keep you out of jail, Mr. Peddle.”
He nodded his head and opened the door. “You can come in.”
Chapter 28
Mr. Peddle turned and walked into the shop. Once the three filed in, he locked the door behind them. “Blu, I appreciate all that you’re doing, but really it doesn’t matter—whether I’m in prison or locked away in this empty shop. My life is over. Without Martha, I have nothing.”
“That’s not true. You have your shop and this community—and your reputation.”
Gill hung his head. “No. Just go. I don’t want anything to do with this anymore.”
“But we figured out who killed Martha. Don’t you want to know?”
Gill looked up at her words. He looked at each person who stood before him.
Harry reached up and adjusted his cap.
“Who was it?”
“A woman—Erica Grimes. She is the mother of one of your relatives that also owns an ice cream shop—Jarod Peddle.”
“Jarod’s mother?” Gill shook his head slowly. “No. That’s not possible. She’s a good woman. Why would she come after Martha? We made sure that she was taken care of, we made sure.”
Blu’s eyes widened. “I thought you said you didn’t know Jarod?”
“Oh no, this is all wrong. You have to leave Erica out of this. She didn’t know any better. She couldn’t have killed Martha.”
“But we have evidence that she was involved. She’s been in town for the past few days. She was here when Martha was murdered. She must have been jealous of your love for Martha. She wanted you to be a father to Jarod.” Blu tried to meet his eyes. “Did Martha know about him?”
“A father to Jarod? What are you talking about?” His eyes narrowed. “Are you accusing me of cheating on my wife, Blu? What a horrible thing to think!”
“I don’t understand. If you didn’t cheat on your wife, then why did you give him an ice cream shop? Why did you tell him that his father was dead?”
“His father is dead.”
“No, he’s not!” Harry whipped off his baseball cap and pulled out a gun.
Blu grabbed on to Maddie and pulled her away from the aim of the gun. “Stay back and stay calm,” she whispered and held tightly to Maddie.
“Gill?” The anguish in the older man’s voice was audible, as was the shock.
Blu’s mind raced. Gill and Martha had a son? Was that how all of the other Peddles were connected to him?
“That’s what you always wanted, right? You never wanted me.” Gill Junior glared at him. “I was nothing but a problem.”
“Gill, that’s not true. Your mother and I wanted you—every day of our lives we wanted you. We just didn’t know how to help you. We wanted you to get the best help that you could.”
“Don’t lie to me!” The younger Gill waved the gun through the air. “I don’t want to hear any more lies.”
“Gill, please, this isn’t right. These people did nothing to you. You have to let them go.”
“No. I don’t. They chose to come here—to your palace of lies—so they can stay. Do you know what it’s been like for me? Living in hiding all this time?”
“If I’d known that you were alive I would have done anything to help you. Don’t you know that none of this is your fault?”
Blu squeezed Maddie’s hand and the two exchanged a quick look. They were in a tough situation with the front door locked and the back exit blocked by Gill Junior and the gun.
“Gill, your father didn’t hurt your mother. No matter what you’ve heard.” Blu tried to distract him from Gill Senior. “He’s innocent.”
“He’s not innocent!” Gill roared. “He’s not innocent at all! He did this to me! All of this!”
“Gill. What did you do to your mother?” Gill Senior walked toward him. “What did you do to that sweet woman who did nothing but love you?”
“I didn’t do anything that she didn’t deserve. You both promised to be my family. You said that you’d take care of me, but you didn’t!”
“Gill, we tried to get you help. You needed help. We tried counselors, therapies—even religion. You only seemed to become angrier—your mood swings more violent. Everywhere you went, you left a trail of hurt behind. You abandoned your children, children that didn’t deserve that.”
“Right. Not like me? So what if I didn’t want to be a father?” He glared at Gill Senior. “I didn’t have much of an example.”
“Gill, I tried. Your mother tried too. But you were violent and we were afraid. We waited so long to have a child, maybe too long. If we had been younger—”
“No, you waited, and then you went to the baby store and you bought me. You didn’t know that you couldn’t return broken merchandise, did you?”
“It wasn’t like that! You’ve got things all twisted up in your mind. You were six months old when we adopted you. We were so excited to finally have our son. We wanted you, Gill, we loved you. But we had a responsibility to make sure that you didn’t hurt anyone. The doctors recommended inpatient therapy and we agreed to it—only to help you. When they told us that you’d died during your escape, your mother was heartbroken. So was I. You were our son. You are—” Mr. Peddle’s voice cracked and he shook his head. “Oh, Gill, what have you done?”
Gill’s hand trembled as he held the gun. “That wasn’t it. You just didn’t want me. You threw me away.”
“No, son. It’s your sickness telling you that. It’s your sickness making you think that the people who loved you the most turned you away.”
“You’re wrong. You were supposed to pay too. That’s why I came back here. The plan was for you to be blamed for her death. Then this one started nosing around.” He jerked the gun toward Blu.
Chapter 29
Blu gasped and ducked away from the weapon.
“If it wasn’t for her everything would have happened the way it was supposed to, and you would know what it was like to be locked away. I don’t know how you got out of it, but I’m not going to let you get away with it.”
“He didn’t.” Blu pulled away from Maddie. Maddie clung to her hand but Blu shook it free. “When Martha was found, he didn’t try to get out of it. Your father confessed. I didn’t understand it at the time, but now I do.” Blu looked from the older man to the younger man. “You knew it was him, didn’t you, Gill? You were trying to protect him, weren’t you?”
“I didn’t know how it was possible, but Martha told me that Jarod’s mother came to her—that she knew that Gill Junior was still alive. She thought we knew too, and that we had lied to protect him. But we didn’t know—not until then. When Martha died, I knew it had to be Gill. He tried it once before when he was a teenager. That was when we knew we had to act. He grew up knowing his mother was allergic to blueberries, but he put them in a smoothie and tried to get her to drink it. Why, Gill? Why her?” He met his son’s eyes. “She was the best of all three of us.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know!” Gill shook his head. “I don’t know why
I do the things I do.”
“It’s okay, Gill.” The older man reached out to his son. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. You didn’t know. But now you do. Now you know that you’re holding these innocent women hostage. It’s time to let them go. All of this needs to end.”
Gill Junior stared at his father. For just a moment Blu thought that he would surrender the gun. Instead, he raised it. He pointed it right at his father.
“No, don’t!” Blu lunged toward him. She heard Maddie cry out in warning. Then Gill was on the ground before Blu had a chance to collide with him.
AJ had him pinned to the floor.
Blu moved fast and grabbed the gun from Gill’s hand before he could use it.
“Stay down, Gill, stay down.” Mr. Peddle crouched down beside his son.
Several police officers crammed their way into the ice cream shop. Blu stepped back as she watched Gill take his son’s hand to offer him comfort. She was stunned that the man would be so gentle with the one who had taken Martha from him.
Maddie wrapped an arm around Blu and pulled her close. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. I am. I am now.” Blu hugged her back.
AJ walked over to the two of them as Gill was led away by the officers.
His father followed after them.
“Blu, Maddie, are you hurt?” AJ looked between the two.
“I’m okay.” Maddie nodded.
“We both are, thanks to you. How did you get in?”
“My uncle gave me a key. He wanted me to keep an eye on the ice cream shop during the investigation. When I saw what was happening through the window I came in as quietly as I could—just in time to see you about to tackle a man with a gun.” He raised an eyebrow at Blu. “I’m pretty sure you intended to handle that yourself.”
“I’m glad she didn’t have to.” Maddie sighed and rested her head on Blu’s shoulder. “She might be a great nanny and a talented investigator, but you should have seen her in karate class.”
“Oh?” AJ smiled. “I’d love to hear about that some time.”
“I had coordination issues.” Blu winced as she looked at Maddie. “Are you going to tell all my secrets?”
“Only the funny ones.” Maddie grinned.
Blu sighed and then winked at Maddie. “I guess it’s a small price to pay for our friendship.”
“I’d love to hear everything.” AJ grinned. “How about over dinner?” He met Blu’s eyes.
“Soon, AJ. Soon.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
As AJ walked away Maddie elbowed Blu in the side. “What are you doing? He just saved your life. Have dinner with the man, for crying out loud.”
“Summer doesn’t last forever, Maddie.”
“Maybe not, Blu, but one amazing summer can give you memories to enjoy for the rest of your life.”
Blu thought about the scrapbooks sitting on the shelf in her room. Maybe Maddie was right. Maybe the memories were worth it.
When Blu reached her car she found Mr. Peddle waiting for her.
“Blu, thank you.”
“I’m sorry, Gill. I don’t understand what happened.”
“Martha and I tried to have a child, but it never happened for us. We gave up on the idea. But then an opportunity came up to adopt a baby boy. We jumped at it. We loved Gill—I still do love him. But he had some problems, problems that weren’t his fault. We tried to get him the best help we could. Then one day he threatened Martha. I couldn’t tolerate that, so I sent him to a relative—then another relative and another. He tore through their lives like a tornado, leaving disaster everywhere he went. We just didn’t have any luck.”
“The horseshoe?”
“Yes it became a symbol for me. It was my way of showing Gill that I was never going to give up hope. I used the profits from this shop to open others for the people he hurt. I thought it was some small way to repay them. I made sure each one had a horseshoe. I wanted Gill to know that I was thinking of him, that he mattered to me.”
Blu placed her hand on Mr. Peddle’s arm as he continued.
“He hurt Erica the most. She thought she was in love. He got her pregnant and left her high and dry. Not long after that, we managed to get him committed for the third time in his life. He escaped one day and we were told he was swept away to his death. I guess Erica found out he was still alive, because he tried to buy the shop we gave to her son. She thought we knew all along. It took Martha some time to convince her that we didn’t.” Gill wiped at his eyes. “We really loved him. Martha would have done anything for him.”
“I know you did, Gill,” said Blu.
“The only comfort I take in all of this is that Martha passed away thinking that she had reunited with him. I’m sure she never knew he put the blueberry sauce in her ice cream.” He shook his head. “Blu, children are beautiful. I love having my shop, I love seeing all the children come and go, but some are broken in ways that can’t be fixed. Gill was one of those children. Yet, somehow I didn’t love him any less.”
“He was lucky to have you. I’m sorry that this happened to you. Is that why you confessed?”
“I knew it had to be Gill when I found out how she died. I figured I only have a little time left, and this was one last way I could help my son, but now I know better. He would have continued to hurt people.” He sighed. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“May I make a suggestion?” Blu met his eyes.
“What is it?” He looked back at her.
“Keep your shop open. Be a little bit of light in every child’s life. Be the good memory that sticks with them forever. You do so much just by doing that.”
“Maybe I will, Blu.” He nodded. “Maybe I will.”
“I don’t know if ever told you this, but I visited your shop once when I was a kid—with my whole family. It has been a beautiful memory for me my entire life—all because of you.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that. I think I’ll spend some time at the memorial wall tonight.”
“I’ll join you, if that’s okay.”
“That would be wonderful.” He smiled.
Blu thought for just a second that she could see a spark of hope in his eyes.
Chapter 30
That night when Blu arrived at the Beach Bum to spend some time at the memorial wall, she was astounded by the large number of photographs that were displayed. Her eyes brimmed with tears the moment she saw Gill, who stood in front of all of them.
She walked up beside him. “Isn’t it amazing?”
“Yes. Yes it is.” He nodded. “I’ve been looking at all of the pictures. The funny thing is, you’d think with all the faces and all the time that’s passed, I wouldn’t remember any of them. But I do. I can even remember what most ordered. These were my happy memories too—our happy memories.” He smiled at the picture of Martha at the top of the wall. “She was the kindest woman in the world. Gill could not have had a better mother.”
Blu wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “You are an amazing man.”
“I hope that I can be without her. You should look at the pictures. There’s one that’s rather familiar to me—a double chocolate peanut butter swirl with sprinkles on top.”
Blu raised an eyebrow. “That sounds delicious.”
“I thought you might think so. Take a look.”
As he walked away, Blu scanned the photographs. She wasn’t sure exactly what she was looking for, but she was intrigued. There were pictures of families, single people, sports teams, and even a group of service dogs who were treated to special ice cream for dogs. Blu thought each picture was lovely, but nothing stood out to her as familiar.
Then she saw it, nestled in the middle of all of the other photographs. It was a picture of her as a child. Her eyes widened at the sight. She had a dab of ice cream on her nose. All at once she remembered the exact order she’d given to Mr. Peddle that day—a double chocolate peanut butter swirl with sprinkles on top. She shook her head and laughed.
“Don’t touch the photographs, Blu.” AJ leaned against the table behind her, with a big grin on his face. “Look with your eyes, not with your hands.”
Blu shot a look over her shoulder at him. “I was just curious about who this photograph might belong to.”
“Why?” AJ looked into her eyes.
Blu returned his gaze. “Do you know who put this picture on the wall?”
He folded his arms across his chest. “Maybe.”
“AJ.”
“Blu.” He grinned.
“Stop teasing me. I want to know.”
“Why?”
“AJ!”
“Okay, okay. It’s my picture. I put it on the wall.”
“What?” Blu stared at him. “How is that possible?”
“Uh, I took a picture. When I was a kid the local newspaper had this contest one summer—to take as many summer photographs as we could. I saw this girl—she was seriously chowing down on her ice cream cone. She had it all over her face. I thought it couldn’t get more summer than that, so I took her picture. I don’t know, it sounds weird now, but at the time I thought she was probably the most beautiful thing about that summer.”
Blu raised an eyebrow. “Are you toying with me, AJ?”
“Huh?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “What’s wrong? It’s just an old picture.”
“Are you telling me that you have no idea who the girl is in that picture?”
“Should I?” He shrugged. “I never saw her again after that summer. I spent the whole time trying to get her attention, but she never gave me a second glance.”
Blu’s heart raced. She looked back at the picture. Was that why AJ was so familiar to her? Could she have remembered him from all those years before?
“Are you okay? You look a little pale.”
“AJ, that’s me.” Blu’s lips quirked upward into a smile. “You took a picture of me.”
AJ laughed and shook his head. “That’s not possible.”
