by J. J. Cook
“Me too.”
He swallowed the remark that he might have made about Doug. It sounded too much like jealousy. He certainly wasn’t jealous. “Your parents seem nice.”
“My dad is,” she shot back, still stinging from his rejection of her because she was part of the Carson family.
“What about your mother?” He walked right into that one.
“She’s a Carson.” Stella shrugged. “You know how they are.”
John opened the driver’s side door of the Cherokee for her. “I’m sorry, Stella. It’s just that—”
“Save it. Thanks for your help. Did you notice the black paint on the side of the truck? I’d say someone got up close for that. I got a picture of it before the truck went down.”
His mouth tightened. She could make him angrier than any woman alive, though he’d die before he admitted it. “I saw it. The chief will want that. I’ll see you back in town.”
Stella ignored him as he slammed the door and stalked off.
She took her father and Doug back to the Sweet Pepper Café. Ricky Senior got her a hot cup of coffee to go—Ricky Junior had made it back before her and told him what was going on.
“I’ll be back to get you guys in a little while,” she told her parents.
“Stella, are you in trouble?” Barbara looked concerned.
“No. Chief Rogers has a few questions. That’s all.”
“I offered to go with her,” Sean complained. “She turned me down.”
“Stella—”
Stella grabbed some sugar for her coffee. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
Town hall was on Main Street near the single stoplight going in and out of town. It was both the home of Sweet Pepper’s daily functions and the police station. Given her relationship with Chief Rogers, Stella was glad there was a separate firehouse and it was a few miles away.
Rogers was waiting for her in the conference room. He had a satisfied look on his weather-beaten face—like a cat that has a mouse under his paw and is thinking about what fun he’s going to have next.
“Ms. Griffin.”
“Chief Rogers.”
Stella took a seat at the long shiny table. It was only her, Chief Rogers, and John. They didn’t really need a whole conference room. Why hadn’t they gone into his office? Was he trying to intimidate her?
“I suppose Captain Trump already filled you in about everything since he is the liaison between our departments.”
“Only at the barest level,” she replied. “What happened to Deputy Chum?”
“He was murdered. Someone shot him in the side of the head and he lost control of his vehicle before he drove off the side of a mountain.”
Stella shook her head in frustration. “I could see that for myself. Do you have any suspects?”
Rogers was noncommittal. “He was a good man. He served the community all of his life. He deserved a better ending.”
“And you think I’m involved somehow?” It was in his tone and the way he looked at her. “Is that why I’m here?”
“I never said anything like that.”
“You know about my meeting with Chum. I might have been the last person to see him alive. He told me he was leaving Sweet Pepper right away. He was afraid for his life—with good reason, I guess.”
She didn’t trust Chief Rogers, despite Walt telling her he was a good man. He was Walt’s protégé, the man he’d chosen to take his place when he retired. She didn’t care.
He wasn’t too young to know what had really happened to Eric. He could be working for one of those people Chum had warned her about, the people he was afraid of.
Rogers looked up from the piece of paper he was writing on and smirked at her. “He wasn’t a firefighter, Ms. Griffin. And, as far as I can tell, the two of you weren’t exactly friends. What did you talk about that was so important? Why was he afraid for his life?”
John seemed to be listening intently, but hadn’t spoken or even glanced at her. She knew he was careful around his superior. He rarely did anything that would upset Chief Rogers and jeopardize his future plans to run the police department.
Stella wondered who’d told Rogers that Chum was at the firehouse. She hoped, if she strung him along a little, she might get more details. “I didn’t say it was important.”
“Don’t play games with me! You may be right about being the last person to see him alive. That could make you a person of interest in his murder.”
It was Stella’s turn to smirk. “That’s a stretch, even for you.”
Her brain was running through the list of everyone at the firehouse who knew she was there with Chum. There was only Tagger and Ricky.
She didn’t think Ricky would say anything to Chief Rogers. On the other hand, Rogers and Tagger were friends. She wouldn’t put it past the police chief to use that friendship to his advantage.
“Maybe. It all depends on what he told you.” The chief tapped his pen on the desk.
“Okay.” She sat back in her chair and fought the urge to get up and walk out. “I’ll play. Chum and I weren’t exactly friends. He told me he was leaving town and we talked about my grandmother, Abigail Carson. I’m assuming you know all about the first time Deputy Chum and I met.”
His pale blue eyes were almost hidden beneath his mostly closed eyelids as he listened to her. “Why don’t you tell us about it?”
Stella described her first meeting with Chum, when he’d thought she was the ghost of her dead grandmother. “He never gave me that speeding ticket. He took off like something was after him. I didn’t know why, until he told me later.”
“And that was?”
“It seems Abigail’s death was his first homicide investigation—the first time he’d ever seen a dead person outside a coffin, as he put it. That’s what we talked about, Chief Rogers. What was it that you thought he said to me?”
Even though he still seemed angry, Rogers’s posture relaxed a little.
There was something there that he didn’t want her to know.
Did it have to do with the body, maybe Eric’s body, being carried out of the silo fire forty years ago when no one was watching? Had Chum been killed for telling about it, as he’d feared?
She had stumbled on the motive for Eric’s death—thirty million dollars. Now she had to figure out who killed him. Had they killed Eric while he was still in the silo, or later in the car before they took him to the firehouse?
“I guess you’re free to go,” Chief Rogers said. “Sorry to have bothered you.”
“Not a problem.” She got to her feet, sorry that she didn’t get anything more from the conversation. “I hope you have better suspects than me in mind.”
“Chief Griffin has a picture of a long, black paint scratch on the side of Deputy Chum’s truck,” John told Rogers. “Would you like her to email that to you?”
“She can send it to you, John,” Chief Rogers answered, going through his paperwork as though she was already gone.
It took her a second to find the pictures she’d taken and send them to John’s phone. “Done. See you later.”
Stella left the room but didn’t close the door. She waited, pretending she was looking up something on her phone. She figured she could always claim that she thought there might be another photo she hadn’t sent.
“Did you really think she was involved in this?” John asked.
“Nah. I like to rattle her cage now and again. I don’t suppose you know what’s keeping her here?”
“Not me. Not anymore.”
There was a small pause. Stella was about to walk away when Chief Rogers spoke. “See if you can find anyone who was traveling along that stretch of road yesterday about the time Chum left town, huh? Maybe we’ll get lucky and someone saw what happened.”
“Sure thing. I don’t know if you heard or n
ot yet, Stella’s parents are both in town.”
“Barbara Carson? After all these years? Well, ain’t that a kick in the teeth. Looks like Marty has some competition besides Stella for the old man’s money. If Barbara comes back to Sweet Pepper to stay, he’s gonna find himself out in the cold.”
Stella moved quickly away from the door when she heard the sounds of a chair moving. She ducked into a small, empty office as John walked out of the room and left the building.
• • •
Stella’s parents had left the café with Doug in the rental car. Ricky Junior said they were headed back toward the cabin.
Saying a little prayer that Eric wouldn’t open the door for them and then find other tricks to play on her ex-boyfriend, Stella took the Cherokee and quickly followed them.
She only had a few minutes to get to the firehouse before practice at ten. She hoped it was enough time to convince Doug that it would be better to stay somewhere else. Maybe he could stay in Sevierville. There were nice hotels there.
She was relieved to see the rental car at the firehouse on the corner before she turned to go to the cabin. She let out a sigh of relief.
It wasn’t so much that she cared if Doug got scared and left Sweet Pepper—she didn’t want her parents to get upset about her living with a ghost. She also didn’t want any new ghost stories about the cabin getting around now that she knew how Bob felt about Eric.
The rain had slacked off to a fine drizzle. Sean was busy talking to the volunteers already assembled for practice in front of the firehouse. He was in his element—talking about his life’s work, and his daughter.
Scheduled practices went on no matter what the weather. The volunteers would have to fight fires and be a part of search and rescue no matter how wet, cold, hot, or dry it was. Besides, with volunteers trying to find time for practice between their jobs and families, they had to stay on schedule.
Barbara had been given a lawn chair in the open garage bay beside Tagger to watch the practice. They’d be dry there.
Stella didn’t see her ex anywhere. She parked the Cherokee in the back of the firehouse and walked through the kitchen. He wasn’t there either. “Where’s Doug?”
Her fears of Eric doing something terrible to him shot to the forefront of her mind again.
“I’m not sure.” Barbara smiled at Tagger. “Excuse us, Mr. Tagger.”
She took her daughter’s arm in a firm grip and walked behind the engine with her. “Stella, you could at least treat Doug with some respect. There’s no reason to be mean to him.”
“Mom—” She stopped and shook her head. “I don’t even know what to say. How could you bring him down here with you? I thought you knew how I felt.”
“I thought you might want to see him again. It’s been a year. I can’t believe you’re going to let one stupid mistake mess things up between you. I should never have encouraged you to come down here.”
“I don’t think this has anything to do with coming to Sweet Pepper.”
“Of course it does! Out of sight is out of mind. If you’d stayed in Chicago, the two of you would’ve already patched things up. Doug’s parents are devastated too, you know. We always planned for the two of you to marry someday.”
“Mom—”
“I think you still love him, but you can be as stubborn as your father.”
“I don’t love him anymore, Mom. I know you and Dad are good friends with Doug’s parents. I know we grew up together. But we aren’t ever going to be together again. I’ll never trust him. I’ll never love him again.”
Stella hadn’t realized that she’d spoken so loudly. Everyone was in the bay, watching and listening. She looked around, uncomfortably, for a moment and then addressed the situation.
“Okay. Everyone knows about my love life now. Let’s see if we can get some practice in with the hoses, shall we?”
There were a few giggles and some whispering, but everyone started taking out the hoses and getting ready for practice.
Sean joined right in, giving pointers to the volunteers from his thirty-plus years of experience with the Chicago Fire Department.
Stella let him have at it. He certainly knew more about what he was doing than she did. She laughed as he goofed around with all the people she’d come to know and envied his ease of handling situations where he didn’t know anyone. Her father was one of those people who had never met a stranger.
It would’ve been much easier for her when she’d come down here if she’d been less reserved. She was more like her mother.
Maybe John was right about Carson blood.
Ricky came late. He’d warned her that the electric dishwasher at the café was broken and they were washing dishes by hand. Banyin came in with a note from her doctor that said she could do normal practice with the group, but shouldn’t go out on any fire calls.
“I can still do communications,” Banyin said cheerfully. “I can help clean up and lots of other things.”
“Okay.” Stella smiled at her and garnered another hug. “Go ahead and change clothes.”
Barbara was impressed. “I never really thought of you as being a fire chief. You were always so against the politics. Yet here you are, handling everything like you were born to it. I think this experience has changed you, honey.”
“I think so too,” Stella agreed.
She pointed out Bert who was working with her father and JC on a two-inch hose that was connected to the old pumper truck. “He’s the mayor’s son. Still in high school and a star athlete. He’s also a great volunteer—when he makes it in.”
“This is quite a band you’ve assembled here.” Sean left the volunteers to practice on their own and joined his wife and daughter. “You’ve done a great job.”
“Thanks, Dad. It’s been a lot of work.”
“I know it’s been tough. You were here alone, the only one with any real-life experience. I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like. Back home, we depend on the new kids learning from the old guys.”
Tagger coughed to get their attention. “I was a volunteer with the first Sweet Pepper Brigade when I got back from Vietnam. I was glad to help out.”
Stella glanced at Tagger, wondering again if he was the one who told Chief Rogers about Chum coming to see her. She wanted to ask him but decided to wait until a time they were alone. She didn’t want to embarrass him. It could have been Ricky who didn’t realize what he was telling Chief Rogers.
Bert had made practice, but Marty, her erstwhile Carson relative, wasn’t there. She’d left him voice mail and texts about practice but he still hadn’t shown up. The only thing she could do was take him off the books and look for someone else.
Speaking of the Carson family.
A big, black Lincoln pulled into the parking lot. It looked as though someone had already told Ben Carson that his daughter was in town.
Chapter 11
“Barbara!”
Ben Carson didn’t even wait for his chauffeur to come around and open the back door for him. He climbed out of the car, his shoulders stooped a little, gray hair thinning. He was a tall man, made spindly by old age.
That didn’t stop him from loping to his daughter’s side. Forty years, and too much that needed explanation, were between them. While they had spoken recently, they hadn’t seen each other for more than forty years.
Everyone stopped to stare at the millionaire and land baron who some said ran Sweet Pepper. No one had ever seen him approach another person this way. Not many had seen him with tears streaming down his face.
He reached his daughter and clutched her to him. “I can’t tell you what it means to see you back home. I wasn’t sure if I’d live to see the day.”
Stella couldn’t help noticing that her mother was not as enthusiastic in her embrace of the old man. Barbara tried to keep her distance—all but impossible with h
er father holding her so tightly.
Sean shook hands with the father-in-law he’d only recently learned about. Barbara had kept her Sweet Pepper roots and family a secret their entire married life. While this had caused some recent consternation between them, they’d gotten through it.
Ben looked at Barbara, wiping tears from his eyes. “My whole family, here together. How long are you staying? I had the housekeeper make up your old room. It will be like old times.”
His daughter had other ideas. “I’m sorry, Dad. But Sean wanted to stay in Pigeon Forge so we could see some sights while we were down here. He’s never been to Tennessee.”
“Oh. Okay. That’s fine,” Ben said. “He can do that from the mansion too, you know. Please, Barbara, don’t deny me this small thing. I’d like to see you under my roof again.”
Stella knew from talking to her mother on the phone that Barbara didn’t feel like she could stay in the house where her mother had died. She couldn’t face the bottom of the long staircase where she’d found her mother’s body.
Barbara didn’t believe her father had killed her mother—at least not anymore. She’d retreated from that accusation. She blamed it on her youth, and the terrible aftermath of her mother’s death. That had been the only way she’d been able to talk to her father again and think about returning to Sweet Pepper.
“Mom, you know you said you wanted to stay with me.” This wasn’t what Stella had wanted at all—unless Doug could be convinced to stay elsewhere. She doubted that since he’d been confident enough to come and see her. “I have plenty of room.”
“Of course.” Ben backed off at once. “If you’d rather stay with Stella, I completely understand. I’ve tried my best to get her to move in with me and Vivian, but she’s stubborn and independent. I wonder where she gets that from?”
Barbara looked relieved. “I want to spend time with you while we’re here, Dad. I need time with Stella too. I hope you understand.”
He hugged her again. “Of course I do. But come for dinner tonight. We can at least eat dinner together, can’t we?”
