Grounds for Remorse

by Misty Simon

  Yeah, it wasn’t going to be that soon.

  He walked back out of the parlor and closed the doors behind him. As he stalked toward me, the thunderclouds across his face could have been the forming of a tornado.

  “This had better be good.”

  In answer, I unlocked the doors and dragged him through, then locked them behind me.

  I knew the moment he saw the body.

  “Damn.”

  My dad didn’t swear often, but when he did he always seemed to find the right word the first time.

  “I waited to call the police because I didn’t know how you wanted to handle this. Do you want to make a personal call to Burton while I gather everyone to move the food to another parlor?”

  “Jesus, Tallie. No, we can’t have people eating food that has been around a dead person. Whether or not it’s safe doesn’t matter. That’s not how I run my business.” He rubbed his forehead and paced the powder-blue carpet.

  “Please tell Burton I didn’t touch anything this time. I didn’t even touch her at all. I don’t want to get yelled at again by him.” I hadn’t even checked for a pulse before I’d gone to get my dad.

  “You should have at least checked her pulse, Tallie.”

  One more fail for me. But who was counting?

  My dad did bend down to check her wrist. He jerked his head around to look at me with fear in his eyes. “Call an ambulance now! She’s still got a pulse.” He kept his voice down but the urgency was there. I grabbed for my phone but realized I didn’t have it because of my dad’s rule regarding no cell phones while working.

  Fortunately, there was a phone on a cherrywood credenza along the wall. Grabbing it up, I explained the situation to Suzy while my father spoke softly to the woman on the ground, who had begun to bat her eyes furiously.

  No other part of her moved, though. It was as if her whole body was paralyzed. What on earth had happened between the time I’d left her and finding her on the floor in here? And how had someone locked her in here and also locked themselves out? How had anyone gotten through the lock in the first place?

  Questions for another time.

  “Is she going to be okay?” I held for Suzy to get back on the phone with me and wanted an update when she did.

  “I think so. As long as the ambulance gets here soon. Go meet them at the back entrance, Tallie, and tell your brother to keep everyone contained.”

  Suzy got back on the phone and let me know Burton was on his way and so was an ambulance. I put the phone back in the cradle, then stood there, knowing what I was supposed to do but unable to get started. “Anything else? What are we going to tell everyone?”

  Cupping his forehead, he blew out another breath. “I don’t know how you stumble upon these things over and over again, but I will put in that call to Burton and you call Gina. See if we can at least get some food set up over there. I’ll pay her whatever is necessary.”

  “Um . . .”

  “Just do it, Tallie. I don’t have time for whatever you’re about to say. I have a crisis and a funeral and this whole day has been so far out of the norm that I can’t take anymore. Please just do as I asked.”

  I nodded, knowing Gina was going to have a fit and that I would have to be at my most convincing. The way things were going, though, anything was possible.

  He took his cell phone out of his pocket, and I chose not to nail him for not following his own rules. He stood against the door with his cell phone against his ear while I remained at the credenza to dial Gina at the Bean. I paid attention to what he was saying just in case it became important as I waited for Gina to pick up on her end. I had no idea what I was going to say but desperately hoped something brilliant would come to me before I messed it all up.

  “It’s a great day at the Bean!”

  She sounded happy and like herself again. I was about to ruin that.

  “Gina, Graver’s needs your help.”

  There was a brief pause that I couldn’t interpret.

  She growled, and that was easy enough to interpret. “Isn’t today Craig’s memorial? I’m not even supplying one cruller for that bastard, so don’t ask.”

  Yeah, this was going to be a tough sell. “Um, it’s not that exactly, though your crullers are amazing.”

  “Don’t try icing me up like a freaking cinnamon bun—just spit it out.”

  I rolled my eyes and counted to three. Neither worked to find the right words. “Fine. You asked for it. Craig had a mistress who thought she might have been pregnant, which she wailed in the middle of the ceremony. I hustled her out before she could do anything else, but now I just found her paralyzed and initially unresponsive in the room with the food. The service is over and we have to have something to feed people, but we can’t do it here anymore, and my dad and Jeremy were wondering if you could maybe let us all come over there.” I finally took a breath.

  And was blasted with anger. “I can’t even believe you would ask.”

  “I’m sorry. I really am, and I wouldn’t have if this wasn’t an emergency. My dad asked me to call and you were the one he thought of first. Is there any way? Please?” Maybe that would soften her just a little bit to our plight. I knew what this would cost her, not financially, but emotionally, but we had a need here, and she could feed it.

  “Take it to the firehouse.”

  Or she could throw me out despite the need. I didn’t blame her, but I still had to convince her. “But they aren’t ready for us. I’m sure the floors are dirty. My dad will have a fit if I have to tell him that.”

  “Tallie.”

  “Gina, please.”

  “I don’t want her here. I don’t want any of her friends here, either.”

  “I know that, I do, but I don’t have any other options. What if you go in the back and have Laura serve everyone? It would still be money in your pocket but you wouldn’t have to talk to anyone.”

  Some growling occurred along with some cursing and some more growling. “Laura didn’t show up again today. I’ll have to deal with her later.” A sigh came across the line. “What about the office over there?” Desperation instead of anger crept into her voice. I wasn’t proud that I was wearing her down, but this had to work.

  “That won’t work.”

  “It’s big enough. It’s got that huge table and the beautiful memorial pieces on the walls. I can bring some stuff over and then get out before anyone else comes in.”

  “Give me a second,” I said, as Jeremy called through the door at my back and my dad moved me to be able to unlock it, let him in, and then immediately lock it again.

  “What is . . . ?” He trailed off as he spotted the woman on the floor.

  “I’ve called the police,” Dad said. “And Tallie is supposed to be talking Gina into letting us have refreshments over there.”

  I put the phone down against my leg and hoped it was enough so Gina couldn’t hear. “Gina can’t do it.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” Jeremy asked, raising an eyebrow.

  I ignored him. “She said she can bring stuff over if you want to put it in the office and have people eat from there. It is a really pretty room, Dad. I think it could work.”

  “And what are we supposed to do about the paramedics coming in? And the way things are around here, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had the police coming in with their investigation tools and cameras, gathering evidence, too,” he answered.

  I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

  Jeremy stuck his hand out to me for the phone receiver. Gina wasn’t going to like it, but we didn’t have time to mess around. Maybe I was willing to do more for this business than I had originally thought. I didn’t have time to explore that particular avenue at the moment as I handed over the receiver.

  “Gina, this is Jeremy.” He listened for a moment. “I understand, but I’d like to propose that we look at this as a business deal and with the added incentive that we’ll talk about compensation afterward over dinner tomorrow. I’ll make both worth yo
ur time.”

  My jaw dropped open. He was trying to entice her with dinner? With him? They were barely speaking to each other. I didn’t think dinner with him was going to turn the no to a yes.

  Shock overtook me when he thanked her and handed the phone back to me.

  “There,” he said to our father. “We’ll head over in five minutes. She’s getting out everything she has and starting pots of coffee. Mama Shirley is at bingo, so I’m going to go over and help her and take Max with me.” He turned to me. “Close your mouth, Tallie. Gina is a businesswoman and knows when to let personal issues slide to be able to provide a service. Now call Max and tell him to meet me over there.” He barked a short laugh. “After all this I think we might actually have to give the guy a paycheck for all he’s done around here in the last twenty-four hours. I doubt he knew what he was getting into when he decided to date you.”

  I was quick to hit the numbers for Max’s cell because I was going over with Max and Jeremy to make sure Gina was really okay with this.

  My dad cut me off before I could connect the call.

  “Tallie, you stay with me and talk with Burton when he gets here. I’ll let the paramedics in. I hear them now.”

  Sure enough, a siren wailed from behind the building.

  With a nod, he turned toward the door, then looked back over his shoulder. “I’ll walk everyone across the street, and then as soon as you’re done giving Burton the facts, get over to the coffeehouse and make sure everyone’s cup is full.”

  He left the room like a battle sergeant. I had my orders so I followed them.

  When Max picked up on his end, I told him what was going on. “Where are you?”

  “In the parlor with a bunch of guests wondering what the heck is going on,” he whispered.

  “Okay. Can you discreetly leave and meet Jeremy at the Bean? He’ll explain everything there.”

  I didn’t give him a chance to answer because my father escorted the paramedics into the parlor and Burton walked in through the double doors right behind them. After a short greeting, Dad left with his eyes narrowed at me over Burton’s shoulder, not locking the doors again.

  Looked like the show was all mine with the man who thought I was always interfering and was frequently irritated with me. This was going to be as much fun as shaving my legs in the dead of winter with no heat in the house.

  With his little notepad in hand, Burton looked me up and down with a sober and stern expression on his face. Right, so this was not going to be easy or pleasant. Not that I’d been expecting that, but sometimes it was nice to be surprised with a different experience every once in awhile.

  “I’ll start off by saying I was nowhere near this when it happened. You can ask anyone and they will tell you I was out in the other parlor attending the memorial for Craig Johnson.”

  “You know, Tallie, I’m hardly ever worried that you actually did it so much as I worry that you’re anywhere close, and that you’ll get involved in things that have nothing to do with you.”

  I couldn’t exactly reassure him there.

  “And don’t even try to tell me that you’re not involved here already. I had a call from Craig’s partner telling me to keep an eye on you and Gina.”

  That rat fink! I wished I had that note with his letterhead with me right now. I’d hand it right over along with the info about the love square at Johnson and Fuller. But it was two floors up, I had no proof about the love square, and the paramedics were working to keep Brenna alive on the floor before taking her to the hospital.

  They put an oxygen mask on her and checked to see if they could get any other response from her rigid body, other than the eye blinks. As far as I could tell, nothing else moved. What had someone done to her?

  I turned away because I couldn’t watch them intubate her and stick a needle in her arm. “I have something for you about that later. At this moment, I think there are more important things to discuss.”

  “Fine. Let’s deal with one thing at a time. Do you know who this is and what the story is?”

  I was only too glad to be able to help out in the open this time, instead of hiding and not being sure what to reveal and when to reveal it.

  I gave him the rundown on the possible but not probable pregnancy and the affair, Craig’s many women, angry wife, and his habit of giving gifts to so many women I had no idea how he kept them all straight in his mind.

  While I was talking, I made a mental note to ask Monty, the local florist, about how many bouquets Craig picked up on a weekly basis. And there had to be other florists in the area. I wasn’t sure why he came across the river to get them. Maybe he was concerned if he ordered that many flowers in his town that never got delivered to his wife, he’d look suspicious. The information from Monty would give me an idea of how many other women there might be out there.

  But now I had business with Burton. I wasn’t going to try to direct him this time. I knew the score. He would only scoff at me and tell me to mind my own business. Again.

  Once I was done with my monologue, he rubbed his head and then made a few more notes in that little book of his.

  “You know, I was only looking for the info that had to do with this particular incident.”

  “Oops. Sorry.”

  “No, no.” He sighed. “I didn’t have over half of that, so it’s fine.”

  He needed me in on this but he was still going to fight it. I could feel it in my bones.

  “For all the information, I’ll tell you this one thing and then you’re out of it altogether,” he said, his face stern and his voice forceful. “Agreed?”

  I couldn’t agree to that, but I nodded anyway.

  “Craig broke his neck on a fall down the stairs, but we don’t think anyone pushed him because it sounds like he was already dead when he toppled backward. He’d been poisoned.”

  “Poisoned? So Gina’s off the hook?” That would be awesome if it could be that easy. I would still probably try to figure things out, but at least the pressure to save Gina would be off.

  “You weren’t listening. Depending on how the hemlock was administered, it could be long-acting or quick as a breath. In theory, it could have been administered at any time during the day and hit him late that night. The coroner thinks later in the day, but we can’t rule anything out. Not even that it wasn’t given as he stood at the top of the stairs. Because Craig had probably been lying at the bottom for hours, we have to do more tests. So, no, Gina is not off the hook. She could have followed through on her threat to poison his drink. That was her initial threat, wasn’t it?”

  Dammit. I knew that comment from Gina was bound to bite her in the ass. I’d felt it in my gut when she’d uttered the words.

  I still had to try to convince him that she would never do something like that. “And what would get Gina off the hook?”

  “Don’t even ask me that. Leave it in the hands of the professionals, Tallie. I’ll try to give you what I think you need to know. Anything more than that and I might just haul you in for obstruction of justice.”

  He could do it, too, but if anything, he’d just made it even easier for me to commit myself to finding out who this murderer was and bring the person to justice. I was not going to let my friend go down for something she didn’t do, and I knew she hadn’t done it. Not a single doubt in my mind.

  “Well, then, that’s all I have for you,” I said, instead of fighting with him. “I’ll leave you to it and see if I can go help at the Bean for the after-memorial party. Unless you still need me for anything?”

  He barely nodded at me as he used his pen to write more notes. I hadn’t seen any strangle marks when I was standing with the victim earlier, and there wasn’t any blood that I could see. The paralysis really bothered me. Had someone done this to Brenna or was she prone to seizures? Either could be possible, but with the timing, I just couldn’t buy that this wasn’t deliberate, that it wasn’t done by someone after her scene in the parlor. It would be way too much of a coincid
ence for her to randomly fall over at the funeral after announcing she was pregnant. This was not a coincidence.

  We just had to find out how and then who. I’d leave the how up to Burton, but I was about to get elbow deep into the who across the street.

  * * *

  I chose to walk around the block and in through the back door of the Bean. I wanted to be able to scope out the scene before I entered the main room. As far as I knew, whoever had done this had been in the parlor with everyone else and that meant the person could very well be here now, mingling and drinking soda or coffee or tea as if he or she hadn’t just tried to end a life. Or two.

  I definitely hoped that Burton would let me know if Brenna had been pregnant. From the way she and I had left it while she munched on cookies, I had the distinct impression that she hadn’t actually been pregnant but was more looking to make a spectacle for being left alone. However, I would feel much better having my theory confirmed.

  Even without time to properly decorate the Bean, Gina had really pulled things together. The counter was set up to look like a buffet, with a variety of pastries and a coffee urn along with a teapot. Gina was behind the counter beside Jeremy, making hot chocolate and filling sodas as needed.

  My Max wandered through the crowd making sure everyone had everything they needed and that they were comfortable. He was a natural. And if I had any doubt that he owned a part of my heart, the smile he gave me when he noticed me peeking out from around the door jamb would have thrown the notion totally into a tailspin.

  He excused himself from the elderly couple he’d been listening to and made a beeline for me. “Hey, did everything go okay over at the parlor? Your dad said he left you with Burton. I wish I could have been there to help.”

  “It’s okay.” I pecked him on the cheek, wanting to kiss him properly but also knowing that this was not the appropriate place or time for that. But then he backed me around the corner and laid one on me that made me curl my fingers into the front of his shirt.

  He stepped back with a sly smile this time. “So now that we have that out of the way . . . How did it go over there?”