by Lyndsey Cole
“What crooked art gallery owners? Are you talking about Max and Vincent? Max wasn’t crooked, but I wouldn’t put anything past Vincent.”
Roy shook his head. “Don’t play cute and innocent with me. You know exactly what I’m talking about. I know what you’ve been up to these past two years. What I don’t understand, is why you bothered to bring your drama back to Catfish Cove.” He turned and walked out.
Martha pulled Annie into her soft embrace, running her hand over Annie’s hair. “Hon, don’t worry about what that decrepit old fool said. We’ll help you. Right, Leona?”
“Right.”
A third voice chimed in. “Count me in too.” Annie, Leona and Martha turned to see Mia leaning in the doorway with her arms crossed and a Cheshire cat smile on her face. “I found some interesting information. Where can we talk?”
Leona went back to her big fridge, pulled out a container of chili and said, “Let’s go, I have a plan.”
The four women squeezed into Leona’s mustang and they drove around a bit to be sure they weren’t being followed. “I hate to act a little paranoid, but better safe than sorry.” Leona checked her rear view mirror one last time, decided the coast was clear, and pulled into Annie’s apartment.
Annie climbed out last. “No one will ever notice your bright yellow mustang parked here, will they?” she asked Leona with a half grin and one eyebrow cocked.
Leona remained quiet. “I do know what I’m doing. Get everyone inside, close the curtains and get me the keys to the main house so I can pull my car into the garage.”
Once Leona was satisfied that no one was spying on them, she checked Annie’s fridge for something to drink. “Glad your priorities are straight,” she said as she held up the bottle of wine and four beers that Detective Jaffrey left the night before. “Did anyone remember to carry the chili inside?” She looked at the three faces staring blankly at her. “Alright, I’ll bring it in.”
Annie found four wine glasses, some boxes of assorted crackers and sliced the rest of her cheese. “We can start on this while we wait for the chili.”
Leona stomped back inside but she wasn’t alone. “Look who I found wandering around outside. Should we tie him up and torture him until he tells us his secrets?”
Martha fanned herself. “Oh, hon, that sounds like the most fun I could imagine participating in for quite some time. Can I go first? I know you three must think I’m over the hill, but I still have a few tricks up these sleeves. And, detective, we’ll drop the formalities and call you Neil. That’s such a nice name that your mother chose for you.”
The dimple formed on Neil’s cheek. “Wait a minute before anyone starts anything. I wasn’t lurking, I was waiting for Annie to get home. There’s no car outside. Did you all walk here?” He glanced from one to the other, pausing the longest when his eyes met Annie’s.
Leona clapped her hands. “See, hiding the car in the garage worked. Now, let’s get this chili warmed up.” She picked up the last glass of wine.
Annie handed a beer to Neil. “I’m not sure if you’ve met everyone. That’s my mom, Mia, sitting with my kitty, Martha from the Fabric Stash across from our café, and you know Leona.”
He cracked his beer open and tipped the bottle to each person. “My pleasure to meet you. I don’t want to intrude, but I have some information I wanted to share with Annie, then I’ll be out of your hair.”
Martha took Neil by the arm and pulled him to the couch. “Not so fast, hon. Sit here next to me so we can have a little chat. So, tell me something, hon, are you married?”
Neil’s face went from pale to bright red before he could blink an eye. He took a long pull on his beer to hide his embarrassment, looking around for someone to help him out.
Martha continued, “Because Catfish Cove sure needs some new blood, especially some as handsome as yours. And I won’t mention any names, but I happen to be an expert on these things and I could point you in the right direction for some good catches around here. I’d put myself on that list, but I might be just a tad too old for you. Maybe you have an older brother?” She patted his thigh. “Listen to me, rattling off and not giving you a chance to answer my question. Go ahead.” Martha gazed at Neil with her hand resting high up on his thigh, giving him her full and undivided attention.
“Well, I, um, what was the question?” He tried to scooch over a little, away from Martha, but she had him blocked in between herself and the arm of the couch.
“Hon, are you married?”
“No, not at the moment?” He acted as if it might be a trick question with a right or wrong answer.
“Good.” Martha rubbed his leg. “That’s all I need to hear. Girls, any questions for our good-looking guest?”
Annie chuckled. “I do. Do you wish you had gone to your motel room instead of coming here?”
“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that. You girls seem like a nice friendly bunch and I don’t think Leona was serious about the torture part. Right?”
Annie shrugged. “She’s famous for her knot tying skills. Probably perfected that when she tied her sheets together to climb out her bedroom window as a teenager. Or so I’ve been told.” Annie winked at her mom who was leaning back, enjoying herself.
The pot of chili started to bubble over and sizzle on the hot burner. Annie took it off the heat, stirred it and got out five bowls. “Everyone ready for my chili? You can be the guinea pigs before we have customers tomorrow paying for this.”
Neil sat on the couch like a deer caught in headlights, not sure if he should stay or make a mad dash for the door.
“There’s plenty for you too, Neil, so don’t run away yet. Now, how about you tell us what important information you couldn’t wait to share while this cools down.”
Everyone sat around the table with their steaming bowls of chili and wine, staring at Neil.
“I got the report back from Tyler about the blood on the awl.” He glanced at everyone around the table. “It doesn’t match Max’s blood but the handle has his fingerprints on it.”
Silence filled the apartment.
Chapter 11
Annie’s hand flew to cover her mouth. “Max must have been defending himself. Maybe he picked up the awl from Danny’s tool box and managed to injure the murderer when they struggled.”
Leona fist pumped the air. “So Danny is off the suspect list?”
“Not exactly.” Neil frowned. “He was at the café, so all we know for sure is his awl isn’t the weapon. We are still searching for the murder weapon and I’m confident it will show up sooner or later. The blood could be anyone’s, perhaps not even connected at all to the murder.”
Annie’s face sagged. “Sounds like a dead end. How does the art gallery fit into all this? Vincent accused me today of having something valuable from Max, but I don’t have a clue what he was talking about.”
“I wish I had more information to give you. The art is what got me involved in the first place and I never imagined it would lead to a murder. If Vincent thinks you have something he wants or you know where it is, he will come after you. Watch out for him.” Neil stuck his spoon into his bowl. “Think this is cool enough to eat yet? My mouth is watering.”
Annie was happy when everyone at the table dug into the chili. “Mom, you’ve been kind of quiet. Everything okay?”
Mia nodded as she stole a glance at Neil. “I’m happy to be here with you. Your chili is the best I’ve ever had. Where did you learn to cook so well? I know you didn’t learn from me.”
Leona chuckled. “It’s my secret recipe. Anyone could follow it and make mouthwatering chili but I guard it with my life. I don’t want everyone to find out how easy chili is to make.” She held up her knife, wielding it like a weapon in case anyone tried to force her to reveal her recipe.
Martha piped in. “Where’s the beef?” She dug around in her bowl. “All I can find in here is a lot of vegetables and some chunks of white stuff.”
“Welcome to vegetarian chili, Martha.
Try it, you might be surprised and find out you like it even more than the meat version,” Annie said.
“Yeah, but what’s this white stuff?” She held up her spoon. “I’m not a big fan of eating something without knowing what it is.”
“It’s tofu. Don’t worry, as far as I know, no one has ever died from eating tofu,” Annie teased.
Martha slowly put the tip of the spoon in her mouth and bit off a small corner of the tofu chunk. She swallowed, smiled, and gave two thumbs up. “Tofu, huh? Not bad. Where has this been all my life?”
“Right in the grocery store next to the sprouts and other soy products. Glad you were brave enough to try it. Pretty daring of you,” Leona teased.
Neil slid his chair back. “Thank you all for feeding me instead of the torture option. I’ll get out of your way so you can talk about me behind my back.” He winked at Martha as he carried his bowl to the sink and rinsed it. “Oh, and it was the first time eating tofu for me too.”
“And? Was it torture?” Annie asked.
“Almost, I think I’ll try the meat version tomorrow. If you had a dog, I would have snuck the tofu to him. Just kidding, loved the tofu.” He patted Smokey on the way to the door. “See you tomorrow.”
Annie sat back with a satisfied sigh. “That guy’s kind of slick. I’m still trying to figure him out. What do you think, Leona?”
“Besides the drop dead gorgeous part? Well, actually, call me shallow, but I can’t see beyond a handsome face.”
“You’re probably right.” Annie stacked the empty bowls and rinsed everything. “Anyone want a refill?” She held up the wine bottle.
Three glasses were held toward Annie. “Not enough to keep,” she said as she divided the wine between everyone. “Mom, I think it’s your turn to tell us what you discovered,” Annie said after everyone was comfortable on the various seating choices away from the table.
Mia finished her last sip of wine and cleared her throat. “I got curious why Roy brought that sleazy art dealer, Vincent, to our house the day before Max was killed. I didn’t spend any time with him. He gave me the creeps so I poked around in Roy’s desk today and found his journal. Roy is a creature of habit and has always been a little compulsive about keeping track of his daily schedule. Not in a lot of detail, but notes that must be reminders for him of what happened when.” She looked at the others. “When Annie left two years ago, Roy hired a private investigator to find her.”
“I can’t believe the nerve and distrust. I didn’t exactly disappear off the face of the earth, and besides, JC knew where I was. Who did he hire?” Annie asked with a scowl on her face.
Mia shrugged. “I couldn’t find a name in the journal and I didn’t find anything to indicate how he paid the guy.”
“Okay, so he found me, then what? Did he keep stalking me?”
“Yes. From what I could find, he made weekly entries in the journal just saying update from the PI. Right up to the week before you came back here.”
Annie stood up, pacing around the room. “I wonder if Max found out about this and tried to warn me not to trust anyone. What on earth was the PI finding out about me? It’s not like I was leading a particularly exciting and mysterious life.”
Mia said, “Maybe it wasn’t you. It could have been the people around you, Max and Vincent. And the art gallery.”
“Dad is part of that art mess?”
“I don’t know. I wonder if finding you overlapped with discovering something else that he thought you were part of.”
Annie faced Leona, Martha and her mother. “I trust all of you. Let’s keep this information between us and see what else we can uncover. A lot of people will be in town this weekend. Keep your eyes and ears open, especially with that scum bag Vincent around. I’m afraid he’ll be here until he finds what he came for. And since I’m his connection to Max, my guess is he’ll be hanging around Cove’s Corner. It would be helpful to find out what exactly it is he’s after.”
“We’re with you, Annie, until we get to the bottom of this.” Four empty glasses clinked together.
Leona drove Mia and Martha back to Cove’s Corner to get their own cars. Annie cleaned up the dishes before cuddling with Smokey on the sofa. “What are your thoughts? Was Vincent in the café fighting with Max? Or Jake? Or Danny? I wish you could tell me what happened.”
Smokey purred and twitched his tail.
Annie slowly got up from the couch. “This has been a long couple of days but I shouldn’t procrastinate any longer. I’ll be right back after I get the rest of my stuff out of the car.”
Annie struggled back into her apartment with a half dozen framed photographs. “Look what I found, Smokey. I don’t have a clue why these are in my car. Max took my photographs to the gallery for the show. Strange. I may as well hang them here. Is that okay with you?” Smokey always mewed when Annie talked to him, making her feel a little less crazy for bouncing her ideas off her cat.
She set each one around the room to decide which to hang since she only had room for a few. The opening at Max’s art gallery was supposed to be everything about food so this project was outside her comfort zone with her photographs.
“I forgot about this blueberry muffin photo. I’ll set this aside to take to the café.” She left that photo near the door to bring to work. She decided to hang three in her apartment. One was apples, scarves and mittens, another was a watermelon cut in a fancy design and filled with fruit, the last one was a beautiful ceramic bowl filled with eggplant, artichokes and wooden spoons. “Max did a perfect job with the matting and framing. He had an eye for making the colors come alive.”
After the photos were in place, Annie stepped back to admire her work. “My next project will be the shelter dogs and cats. I can’t wait to get started with that one. Maybe Karen will let me dress the animals up a little with hats or sunglasses.” Smokey yawned and walked away, giving Annie the distinct impression that he thought it was a silly idea. “Only if they don’t mind, of course.”
***
Annie’s phone ring burst into her dream. At first the noise became part of her nightmare, a shrieking alarm that she desperately wanted to stop. As she drifted from sleep to foggy awareness and realized it was her phone, she answered, wondering who was calling before the sun was up.
“Annie. I need your help at the café. Someone broke in and dumped out all the chili. I’m coming to pick you up. Bring your camera.”
Chapter 12
With that, Annie’s adrenaline kicked in and pushed any hope of sleep far to the back burner. Glancing at the time—only four thirty—her brain registered it to be early enough to make more chili if Leona had all the needed ingredients.
Pulling on her black jeans and black t-shirt, she quickly poured food into Smokey’s bowl, changed his water, gave a few quick pats to the kitty that purred happily to stay curled up sleeping, and headed for the door as the lights of Leona’s car shone in the window when she turned in. Annie grabbed the blueberry muffin framed photo and her camera and ran out to Leona’s car.
“What happened?”
“I can’t even think about that now. I came in early to give myself plenty of time to get everything perfect, and now I just want to clean up and get another batch of chili going. What are you sticking in the back of my car?”
“A photograph I think will be perfect in the café. When I left New York I had some of my work ready to hang for a show about food at the art gallery. I had a lot of fun with the subject and this one has a black cat curled up around a plate of blueberry muffins.”
“Huh, sounds interesting, but first we need to get back on track for today. I called Mia too. She should be waiting for us. I hope that’s okay with you? You two are patching up your differences?”
“We skirted around the big issue, but I think we’re getting closer. How about you? I don’t want to be in the middle of your sisterly squabbles.”
“You’re right, not fair to you, and if you can work out something with your mom, I should
be able to also. You know, Annie, we both just want what’s best for you.”
Leona swung into the parking lot with the only lights coming from the café—warm and inviting on the outside, but what disaster would Annie find inside? She grabbed her photo and camera and followed Leona, jogging to keep up.
Mia was already hard at work, mopping up the chili disaster. Annie snapped a few photos of the mess before putting her photo in the office to keep it out of the way until they finished cleaning and had time to find a spot to hang it.
Annie filled another bucket with water. “I’ll help my mom with the mess, you can start on another batch of chili.”
The clock ticked the seconds away as the three women worked furiously. Mopping the floor until it was shining as good as new, and cleaning where the chili splashed took Mia and Annie the better part of an hour. Finally, with the last bucket of dirty water dumped and the new chili simmering on the stove, they all sighed with relief.
“That wasn’t so bad with everyone pitching in. Let’s take a ten minute break for some coffee and a blueberry muffin before we make the final push before the doors open at seven,” Leona said as she poured three cups of coffee and sank down into one of the booths. “Annie, bring your photograph out here so we can take a good look and figure out where to hang it.”
As soon as Annie was out of earshot, Leona whispered to her sister. “We need to put the past behind us and get along for Annie’s sake. She’s counting on us now more than ever before.”
Mia nodded. “It’s way past time for that.” She reached out and put her hand on Leona’s. “We both love Annie. I don’t know why I ever felt competition for her love, there’s enough to go around.”
“What are you two whispering about?” Annie saw their hands intertwined and smiled. “Never mind, none of my business.” She held up the photograph. “What do you think?”
“Wow!” Leona exclaimed. “That’s perfect for the café. A black kitty and my signature blueberry muffins. Quite the modern still life. You are extremely talented, Red.”
