Ice Cream Corpse

by Stacey Alabaster

  Since Sue had moved in a couple of months earlier, I had tried to keep this part of my life from her. The part of my life where I get involved with murder mysteries, that is. I liked having Sue as a roommate that I could just come home to and cook with and talk about boyfriends and work. Nothing else. Nothing too serious. As far as I knew, she knew nothing abut my secret other life. But first she’d been asking all those questions about Athena and now I was acting crazy. I was going to have to come up with some reason why I’d just dropped the package like it was full of asbestos.

  “Maybe I’ll just go read it in my room,” I said with a little laugh as I picked it up off the floor. “It might be private.”

  “Okay, then. Good luck with that,” she said, sounding skeptical.

  I steadied myself before I tore open the packaging. It had been sealed with about six miles of packing tape. It was like they didn’t actually want me to be able to open it.

  There were photos inside, of Pippa and I talking to Jack, and of me talking with Andy, at the pool that day. And a separate photo of Lolly and Marcello. I took in a sharp breath. The ice cream killer had been watching us all this time.

  I gulped and picked up the letter that was buried amongst the photos.

  If you don’t stop, Miss Robison, you’ll be the next one to find herself inside a freezer.

  It was the hottest day of the heat wave so far. The early morning clouds had lied to me and now they had parted to let the sun out in full force. But I kept my cool. I knelt down and tried to steady my hand. If we were going to do this, then we had to actually advertise and let people know what we were selling. We had just received our first delivery of ice cream from Pure Gelatosphere.

  “Ice Cream Sandwiches… $2.50.”

  I dropped the chalk and stood back to make sure my writing didn’t look like a child had done it.

  Pippa let out a whistle. She was wearing an apron over the top of her denim cut-offs. “So, we’re undercutting Blake’s prices then?”

  I placed the chalk back in my own apron pocket. “Well, we’re not using all organic products. We can afford to charge less, and we probably should.”

  “Are you okay?” Pippa asked as I stumbled back inside the bakery. “Oh my goodness, it’s your head, isn’t it? I knew we should have gone to the hospital!”

  I shook my head and stepped through the door for some relief from the sun at least.

  “I received a package this morning.”

  “So, what’s the big deal?” She crossed her arms.

  “Pippa, it contained a letter. Written by the same person who wrote those letters from Harry and Rocky.” I gulped. “Only this time, he or she is not pretending to be anyone else. Whoever it is, Pippa, they killed Rocky and Harry. And they promised that if I don’t back off, I’m going to be next.”

  We pulled up at the house where I had hit my head three days earlier. I still had a large, swollen bump that I was trying to ignore.

  “It can’t just be a coincidence that Missus Hutchinson’s grandson is Jack…” Pippa whispered to me. “We need to knock on the door and ask her about him.”

  I didn’t like being back at the scene of my fall. I was starting to get dizzy again just looking at the red bricks. Was that a blood stain? I shook my head. Pippa was right. We needed to find out who the ice cream killer was and if it was Jack, then it seemed safer to ask his grandma before confronting him personally.

  After all, Jack was a big guy. He could be dangerous. Pippa, Lolly, and I had already been threatened; this ice cream killer wasn’t messing around.

  I heard a loud gasp coming from the seat besides me.

  “There he is!” Pippa said, pointing to a large, young guy holding a hose and watering the lawn at the side of the house. “Oh, goodness, I didn’t expect him to actually be here!”

  She gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth.

  “What are you doing?” I hissed. “You need to be driving! We need to get out of here!” I started to climb out of the car. I would switch seats with her and drive us if she refused to budge.

  “Wait, Rachael!” Pippa whispered, pulling me back into the truck. She was pointing to something behind the bushes. And her entire arm was shaking violently.

  “What is it?” I stopped. We hadn’t noticed the vehicle when we’d arrived because we were too focused on the house. It had been parked behind the bushes on the lawn so it was in the shade. No one would want a black car in direct sunlight on the hottest day of the year.

  Especially not a black truck.

  “Jack is the one who’s been following us!” Pippa shouted.

  He was coming right toward us, hose in hand.

  “Even more reason to drive and get the heck out of here!” I yelled.

  Pippa turned the key in the ignition, but it only spluttered and turned over a few times before dying entirely.

  We weren’t going anywhere.

  Pippa glanced over her shoulder to look in the bed of the truck.

  “I’m gonna have to get Marcello to sell this fruit for me after all.”

  Chapter 11

  I was listening to Pippa talk into the phone.

  Jack had climbed into his truck and sped off, glaring at Pippa as he’d left. He hadn’t even stopped to help us. Not that I was complaining. I’d been too worried he was going to wrap that hose around our necks.

  We had tried to explain ourselves to Mrs. Hutchinson, but she just told us that if we didn’t get off her property, she would call the police. She didn’t seem to care that we literally couldn’t do that. The truck engine wouldn’t start. “Then call a tow truck.”

  That was where we were now, in the parking lot of the local mechanic, sitting on the pavement.

  Pippa was on the phone, trying to explain to Marcello how to go about selling the fruit to Levon. Without the truck, Marcello would only be able to bring a small sample, so she was telling him what to pick.

  “Only show him the best produce, not the stuff that I dropped over the side of the truck,” Pippa said. “And explain to Levon that we’ve got five lemon trees and three apple, so there will be no issue with us being able to supply a couple of boxes every week.”

  I could hear Marcello arguing about something.

  “Marcello, don’t take no for an answer!”

  She sighed, having to hang up while Marcello made the actual deal now that he was in the store. “I wish he’d just put me on speaker, though,” Pippa said. “So I could guide him through it. If this truck repair ends up clearing us out, we’re going to need the extra cash.”

  But we just had to sit and wait. For both the truck, and for Marcello to phone back. On my cell phone, of course.

  “But why did Jack just drive off like that?” I asked.

  Pippa shrugged. “He did the same thing the other night when he was tailing us. As soon as there was any danger of us actually spotting him, he sped off, remember?”

  “Hmm.”

  The mechanic exited and found us, shoving his hands into the pockets of his overalls.

  “I’m afraid it’s going to be two thousand dollars to repair the damage to the engine.”

  “I am calling Marcello back right now,” Pippa said, reaching for my phone as we waited for the cab to pick us up. “Yes!” she said, pumping her fist into the air.

  “Good news then?” I asked her, starting to sweat there on the pavement.

  Pippa ended the call and threw the phone back to me. I shook my head as it almost fell on the pavement and cracked the screen. “Marcello said that Levon loved the fruit and he wants to do a weekly order!” She pumped her fist into the air again. “I knew that being a farmer was going to pay off.”

  We told the cab to take us back to the farmhouse.

  “How did you explain it to him?” Pippa asked as she ran inside, eager with excitement to learn every last detail of the exchange. “Did you tell him that we have the evergreen produce? And that we can supply if every week?”

  Marcello nodded. “Yes, I
did exactly what you told me to,” he explained patiently. He did look pretty pleased with himself. “I followed your script exactly. I told him that my wife and I were running a small farm, and…”

  “Hang on, did you explain to him who your wife actually is?” Pippa placed her hands on her hips. “We were in there the other day. I already met him. Did you explain any of that?”

  Marcello thought for a moment, but then shook his head. “No, I didn’t mention who you were, specifically.”

  “Huh.” Pippa looked slightly unimpressed by this. “So Levon didn’t even realize you were my husband?” She turned to me. “It’s kind of interesting that when we were in there the other day, Levon said that he didn’t need any new suppliers. But when Marcello turned up without me, he suddenly needs suppliers.”

  “What are you getting at, exactly?” I asked her.

  She shrugged. “Maybe he thinks women can’t make reliable farmers,” she said.

  I sighed. “Well, I think you should just be glad that you made the sale and that you’ve got a regular income stream,” I said, falling onto the couch. It was too hot to argue.

  “Do you want to see the list of items Levon wants or not?” Marcello asked.

  Pippa hesitated for a moment, still a little put out, but she relented. “I want to see it,” she said, reaching for it.

  At first, she must have only seen the words as items on a list. “Forty lemons per week…I think we can do that. Sixty apples…gosh, that might be a little more difficult.” Then she stopped talking and her face went completely white.

  “What?” I sat up. “Pippa, what is it?”

  “Rachael…the-the handwriting,” she gasped, dropping the letter to the floor.

  Chapter 12

  I picked the letter up off the floor.

  She was right. It was identical to the handwriting in the letters from ‘Harry,’ ‘Rocky,’ and the package I had received that morning.

  “What’s wrong with the handwriting?” Marcello asked, looking from side to side in total confusion about what was going on. “Did I get the wrong list or something?”

  I shook my head. “It belongs to a killer,” I said. “Sorry, Marcello, but you won’t be doing business with that man.”

  “What do you know, Jack?”

  We were back at Mrs. Hutchinson’s house and Jack was bent over, reaching for that hose that he’d dropped earlier. I supposed those lawns weren’t going to keep themselves plush and green.

  He dropped the hose in shock and it wriggled away from him, water spurting all over the ground.

  He backed away. “N-Nothing…” he said, his hands in the air.

  “We know that you have been following us,” I said. “That kind of creeped us out, Jack. I’m sure the cops will be pretty interested in hearing about that.”

  His face turned even more red. “Please, come on. I was just…I wanted to see you again,” he said to Pippa.

  Pippa looked like she felt sorry for him. Far sorrier than I did, anyway. “Jack, I’m a married woman.”

  “I know,” he said, his face falling. “I’m sorry, I should never have followed you.” He turned back to me, seeing as I was the least nice one out of the two of us right now. “Please don’t tell the cops. I won’t do it again. I swear.”

  “What do you know about Rocky Morlock?” I asked him, not willing to let him off the hook that easily.

  “Nothing,” Jack responded quickly. But there was a look on his face that told me otherwise.

  “Really? Because he lived in the same house as your grandma. And he was Harry Daddo’s employer.”

  He stared down at the ground.

  “Jack? What do you know?”

  “Okay, okay, fine. But I didn’t ever mean for anyone to wind up hurt. It just kind of freaked me out to talk about all this.”

  “Talk about all what?“ I asked.

  He glanced around his shoulder. “And I don’t like to talk about it in front of Gran, more than anything. That guy scared her.”

  “Hang on. What guy?”

  “Do we have to talk about this right here on my gran’s driveway?” Jack asked. “She’ll be trying to listen in through the cracks in the window. I don’t want to scare her again.”

  I nodded. “Okay, fine.”

  We walked away from the house and onto the street. I could see Mrs. Hutchinson peering at us though the curtain.

  “There was this guy. He turned up, asking questions. Sort of absentminded, I guess, with long white hair…”

  “Levon?” I asked.

  Jack looked shocked. “You know him?”

  I nodded.

  “He came knocking on the door one day, asking my gran whether she knew what happened to the previous owner. Whether anyone had heard from him, and whether anyone had been asking for him, which was kind of strange.

  “I said something to him, something about Harry, I think.” Jack started to look a little flustered. “Just something like, my friend Harry had gone quiet recently as well, and it was a little strange that they had both taken off at the same time. I said it was a little peculiar, and maybe it was connected somehow.” Jack shrugged. “I didn’t really think it was a big deal, I probably laughed, but this Levon guy got real quiet and serious and told me that it was just a coincidence and I should get over it. He told me if I looked into it any further then I would be sorry. My gran too.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, feeling awful. “That must have been tough.”

  “The next week, we got that letter from Harry,” Jack said. “Well, Andy did.”

  “The one you didn’t want Pippa and I to see?” I asked.

  Jack nodded a little glumly. “I just always thought there was something weird, something creepy, about that letter. I told Andy to just throw it away. I didn’t like that he kept it like that. Levon had already warned me to just forget about the whole thing.”

  “And did you believe that the letter was really from Harry?”

  “I have no idea,” Jack said. “I told you, I didn’t really know Harry that well.”

  “What was Harry acting like at the time?” I asked. “Two years ago?”

  He paused for a moment. “I just remember him saying that he might not have a job for much longer,” Jack said. “Because the ice cream parlor wasn’t doing very good business. But I remember being surprised when they eventually closed, because Rocky, the owner, sold this place to my gran. He should have gotten plenty of money from the sale. It should have been enough for him to keep the ice cream parlor afloat.”

  “Rocky’s business was struggling, but Jack is right. With the money from the sale of the house, he should have been fine.” I shot a look at Pippa out of the corner of my eye. We were back in my car, seeing as Pippa’s truck was at the mechanic’s indefinitely. “So why did he still leave and let Levon take over the lease?”

  Marcello leaned over the front seat and inserted himself into the conversation. We were just driving past Sue’s art gallery. “Maybe that was the problem,” he stated. “Maybe he could afford to keep the store after all, and Levon wasn’t too happy about it.”

  I slammed my foot on the brakes. “Hang on, is that Athena?”

  We chased her into the art gallery.

  “Athena!” I called out. The woman spun around, but it was not Athena, just a woman with blonde curls who looked like her.

  Sue came out of her office, looking worried. “Rachael? What is going on?”

  “Sorry,” I said. “I thought I saw Athena.”

  Sue shook her head. “She’s been missing for three days now.” She let out a little laugh. “That sounded kind of dramatic. I just mean, she hasn’t been seen.”

  But it wasn’t funny. Sue just didn’t realize how serious it was. “No, I think missing might be exactly the right word to use.”

  Sue frowned and shook her head. “What’s going on, Rachael?”

  But I didn’t have time to explain everything to her right then. I looked at Pippa. “Missing? You know what ha
ppens to people who go missing in this town.”

  Pippa’s face looked frozen in fear, but she managed to speak. “They wind up stuffed inside a freezer.”

  “If anything has happened to Athena, I’m not going to forgive myself,” I said, hitting the gas as we headed back into the woods, toward Pure Gelatosphere.

  “Come on, Rach, we can’t blame ourselves. We though she WAS the ice cream killer,” Pippa said. “We thought she was in hiding.”

  I caught Marcello shaking his head in the backseat. “You two are always getting into trouble. One day, it is going to catch up with you. And with me as well. I should have stayed home with Lolly instead of leaving her with the sitter…”

  Pippa looked grave. “Marcello is right. He should have stayed home. Lolly is going to need one parent.”

  “Pippa!” I admonished. “It’s not going to come to that.”

  She shook her head. “You can’t know that for certain, Rach. Our luck has got to run out at some stage.”

  “Do you want me to let you out here?” I asked Marcello. “I can pull over…”

  He sighed and shook his head. “No. You might need my help.”

  It was freezing cold. And dark. I was almost too scared to pull out my phone for its flashlight as we climbed down the spiral staircase.

  “Athena?” I called out. “Are you in here?”

  Marcello had stayed outside to keep guard in case anything happened.

  I jumped when the light switch was flicked on. “We should check the freezers,” Pippa said, nodding toward them. “If she’s in here, that’s where she will be.”

  “Pippa…” What a gruesome thing to say!

  But maybe she was right. I put my phone away and walked slowly, zombie-like, to the display freezers. Were we about to make another discovery?

  I went about the task slowly. I was in no hurry to discover Athena’s frozen body. Just like last time, the first three were empty. Then the forth, and the fifth, and the sixth, and so on…

  “There’s only one left,” Pippa whispered.