She put the potatoes in the water to boil, then leaned back against the counter and glanced at the clock. An hour and a half until they were supposed to start eating. She was tempted to take another cinnamon roll because her stomach was growling, but at the same time she wanted to be hungry for the meal. Nothing was better than sitting down at a full Thanksgiving spread with an empty stomach. She was fully prepared to eat her weight in turkey today.
Deciding to distract herself from her hunger, Lilah began telling Margie about her encounter with Beth the day before. Her friend listened as she worked. Her face remained unreadable until Lilah finished her story.
“What do you think?” she asked. “Is it better to lease the perfect building for a couple of years, or buy a building that isn’t as good, but at least would be ours?”
“How long a lease did she decide to offer you?” Margie asked. “If it’s just a two-year lease, it probably isn’t going to be worth the time and effort it would take to relocate to another location. But if it’s, say, five years, that might be more realistic.”
There was that word again. Realistic. Was she really so bad at being realistic?
“I don’t know,” she said. “She told me she’d have to think about it. I guess Pete left the sandwich shop in a lot of debt that she wasn’t expecting, and she needs to pay it off before she can get it up and running again.”
Suddenly she remembered Randall telling her that he had a letter to Beth from her deceased father. How could she have forgotten that? She made a mental note to tell Beth as soon as possible.
“If it’s for five or more years and you think it’s a good idea, then I don’t see anything wrong with accepting her offer of a lease,” Margie said. She bustled over to the oven and pulled it open to stick a meat thermometer into the turkey.
“It might be a better idea than buying,” Lilah said, picking up her train of thought from the previous evening. “It would be less money up front, for one, and if the cookie shop fails, well, it’s probably easier to get out of a lease than it is to sell a storefront in a tiny town like this.”
“I’m happy to support whatever decision you make,” her friend told her with a smile. “Here, can you set the stuffing on the counter? I need room on the stove to begin sautéeing the green beans.”
Lilah obliged, setting the huge pot of homemade stuffing on the counter next to the paper towel roll. It smelled amazing. She had always been a fan of stuffing, and as she had discovered last year, Margie made the best stuffing around.
She turned her back on the pot, telling herself that she didn’t have too much longer to wait before eating. She was just reaching for a fork to test the boiling potatoes when she heard a loud crash behind her. Both she and Margie jumped. Lilah looked around with horror to see that the pot of stuffing had fallen and spilled across the floor. Jacob, Margie’s grandson, was standing next to it with a strip of paper towel in his hand and a stricken look on his face.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to, Lexi told me to get paper towels because she spilled something and my elbow bumped it and it fell…”
“It’s all right, dear,” Margie said, recovering much more quickly than Lilah. “You go give your sister the paper towels, then come back here to help me clean up.”
“I shouldn’t have put it so close to the edge,” Lilah said, staring sadly at the spilled stuffing.
“This isn’t anyone’s fault,” her friend said firmly. “Accidents happen.”
“Do you have the ingredients to make more?”
“No, I used up everything in that batch.” The older woman heaved a sigh. “I’ll have to see if someone can go out and get some pre-made stuffing mix.”
“I can do it,” Lilah said. Despite her friend’s kind words, she felt that a large portion of the blame should rest on her own shoulders. She should have made more room elsewhere on the counter, and not set the pot on the edge right by the paper towels.
“Are you sure? You know what, I’ll send Eliza with you. You two should get to know each other better, and besides, she mentioned that she wanted to pick up a bottle of wine and some sparkling juice for the kids before the meal. I’m sure she won’t mind going out.”
Lilah winced. The idea of spending even a short amount of time alone in the car with a woman who so clearly disliked and mistrusted her wasn’t appealing, but she was reluctant to tell Margie how she felt about her daughter-in-law. Besides, it was her fault the first batch of stuffing had been ruined. She wasn’t about to make even more trouble for the woman who had been so kind to her.
“All right,” she told Margie. “I’ll go wash up and grab my car. Write down whatever you think you’ll need, and I’ll be happy to go and pick it up.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
* * *
Eliza climbed into Lilah’s car in icy silence. Neither of them was happy with this arrangement, but it was hard to say no to Margie when she wanted something, especially when the older woman always made so many sacrifices for everyone else. Lilah had no doubt in her mind that her friend fully knew that the two women would rather be anywhere but in the same car together. This was Reid all over again; Margie was determined to throw the two of them together until they got over their differences and started to like each other.
While she had to admit that she was beginning to see Reid’s more positive attributes, Lilah seriously doubted that it would be as easy to change her mind about Eliza, simply because the woman was not inclined to like her. At least Eliza seemed to agree with her about one thing: the less talking there was on this trip, the better. She didn’t say a word as Lilah pulled out of the driveway. It wasn’t until they had turned toward town that either spoke.
“Do you mind if I stop somewhere really quickly?” Lilah asked. They were about to pass the diner, and she had suddenly remembered Randall’s note. She wanted to be able to give it to Beth the next time she saw her.
“Whatever you want,” Eliza murmured, gazing out the window.
She turned the steering wheel a bit too sharply and pulled into the diner’s parking lot. It was closed for the holiday and wouldn’t reopen until Saturday, but Lilah had a key. Randall had mentioned that the letter was in his office. She hoped it would be easy to find. It seemed important to her that Beth get it as soon as possible. Thanksgiving was a holiday that was all about family, and she could imagine how much it would mean to the other woman to read her father’s final words to her at last.
“Do you want to come in? I’m not sure how long this will take,” she said. Eliza hesitated, then nodded. There was a curious glint in her eye that Lilah didn’t like. Did the woman think she was going to steal something?
She unlocked the diner’s front door and the two of them walked inside. The ovens had been off all day, but the restaurant still smelled like fried food. It was odd to be in there without Randall—he was as much a fixture in the diner as the booths or the deep fryer. She wondered for the first time what her boss got up to during the holidays. He wasn’t married and had no children as far as she knew. It was sad to think of him all alone at home during a time when everyone else was with their families.
“I need to get something out of the owner’s office,” she told Eliza. “It’s through the kitchen.” She realized that to an outsider, this probably seemed pretty shady. Still, she knew she wasn’t doing anything wrong. She didn’t like how Eliza’s suspicious gaze made her feel like everything she did was criminal.
The kitchen was dark and silent. It was unsettling to see the restaurant so dead. Lilah flicked the lights on, then opened the door to Randall’s small office, which wasn’t locked. Eliza peered in after her, not bothering to hide her curiosity.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
“Do you remember that man who died last week? He owned the sandwich shop that I was interested in buying.”
Eliza nodded.
“Well, my boss here at the diner knew his family pretty well. The guy, Pete, has a sister named Beth w
ho has been estranged from them since she left for college. Apparently, her father wrote her a letter on his deathbed and gave it to Randall to pass on to her if she ever came back. I’m looking for that letter now, because I might see her later today if Margie has the time to go with me, and I think she should be able to read her father’s last words without having to wait any longer.”
“Oh.” The other woman blinked. It was obviously not at all what she had been expecting. “That’s really nice of you.”
Lilah shrugged. “I just know that if I were in her shoes, I’d want the letter.” She thought of her own strained relationship with her father and felt a wave of guilt. Maybe it was time to put their old disagreements to rest at last.
She didn’t like going through Randall’s things, but he had told her she could give Beth the letter if he wasn’t there. She thought that it would take a long time to search through all of the piles of paper in the office, but she found the letter right inside the second drawer she opened. It was in a yellowed envelope addressed to Beth in a shaky script. It was still sealed, the contents having been untouched for years.
“I’ve got it,” she told Eliza as she slid the letter into her purse. “Let’s —”
“Shh,” the other woman hissed, raising her hand to Lilah off. “I thought I just heard the door open.”
“The diner door?” Lilah whispered. “Are you sure?”
“Well I heard something. A bell jingled.”
“That must have been it,” Lilah said, her heart beginning to beat faster. The diner was closed for the day. No one should be here. Why hadn’t she thought to lock the door behind them when they came in? “I’m going to go see what’s going on.”
She tiptoed over to the swinging door that led from the kitchen to the dining area and pushed it open just the tiniest bit. She pressed her eye to the crack. What she saw made her palms go sweaty. With infinite care, she eased the swinging door shut and turned to Eliza, her eyes wide.
“It’s Andrew,” she whispered. She realized that wouldn’t mean much to the other woman. “He might have had something to do with Pete’s death,” she added.
“What is he doing here?” Eliza hissed back.
“I don’t know. He drinks a lot, from what I’ve heard. He’s also maybe a little bit messed up in the head.”
“So what do we do? Sneak out the back?”
“I can’t just leave a crazy guy in here on his own,” Lilah said. “What if he robbed the place, or tried to make his own fries and burned it down?”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know!” Lilah thought quickly. “Get your cellphone out and dial nine-one-one, but don’t place the call yet. I’m going to go tell him we’re closed and ask him to leave. If he does anything crazy, call the police.”
It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it was the best that either of them had at the moment. Lilah waited until Eliza had the emergency number ready to call, then she pushed open the door and walked out of the kitchen. Andrew, who had been staring blankly at the cash register, looked up when she came out of the kitchen.
“Hi, uh, I’ll have a swiss mushroom burger with two patties, some onion rings, and a large diet soda,” he said. His eyes were bloodshot, and she had the feeling he had been drinking again.
“Sorry, but we’re closed,” she told him, trying to sound as professional as possible.
“Closed?” he blinked at her.
“Yes, we’re closed,” she said firmly. “It’s Thanksgiving.”
“It is?” He ran his hand through hair that didn’t look as if it had been washed in a week. “I just want a burger. Can you make me one anyway? I’ll pay extra?”
“I’m sorry, but no. You have to leave now or we’re going to call the police.” She gestured to Eliza, who held up her cellphone. “They’ll be here in just a few minutes if you try anything.”
The mention of the police seemed to wake him up. He raised his hands and took a step backwards.
“Don’t call the cops, all right? I didn’t know you were closed. If they catch me drunk in public, they’re going to throw me in the drunk tank again. I was brought in just last week; I can’t afford to go again. No one’s gonna pay my bail this time. C’mon, lady, don’t call them. Please?”
“If you leave now, we won’t,” she told him.
He took a step toward the door, then paused and squinted at her. “Hey, didn’t I run into you outside of Talbot’s last week? I remember, ’cause the police picked me up two blocks away saying some lady had called me in for public intoxication. That was you, wasn’t it?”
“You did run into me outside of Talbot’s Sandwiches,” Lilah admitted reluctantly. “But I didn’t call the police on you.”
“Musta been someone else, then,” he said. “I’m goin’, I’m goin’.”
“Wait,” Lilah said. Something occurred to her. “You went to jail that evening? The same night that Pete died?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Lucky that I did, I guess. The police thought I did him in, until I pointed out that I’d been snoozing off my buzz behind bars that entire night.”
With that, he left in a hurry, apparently still concerned that she was going to call the police on him. Lilah gazed after him. If he had been in police custody the night that Pete died, then he couldn’t have killed him. Which meant that his death probably had been a suicide. There would never be any justice for poor Pete.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
* * *
Eliza’s attitude toward Lilah seemed to improve greatly after that. She no longer sat in stony silence in the passenger seat, but talked animatedly about what they had just been through.
“Do you think he really didn’t know it was Thanksgiving?” she asked. “Or was he lying to try to get us to not call the police?”
“I think he was probably honestly confused,” Lilah said. “He didn’t act violent or anything. I shouldn’t have left the door unlocked when we went inside. With my car in the parking lot, he probably didn’t think twice about walking in.”
“Poor guy. It seems like a crappy way to spend Thanksgiving, walking around town drunk like that.”
“Yeah,” Lilah said, looking over at Eliza in surprise. “It does sound pretty miserable.”
Margie’s daughter-in-law seemed like a different person now that she wasn’t glaring at her in suspicion. Maybe they had just gotten off on the wrong foot. After all, Eliza had just been acting out of concern for the older woman. Maybe Lilah just had to prove to her that she wasn’t a bad person.
“Where to now?” the other woman asked.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to swing by the sandwich shop on the off chance that Beth is there,” Lilah said. “It’s on the way to the gas station to the south of town, which is the only convenience-type store that’s going to be open today. I’m sure they have some boxes of cheap stuffing mix. Of course, it won’t be nearly as good as Margie’s.”
“That’s fine with me. The instant stuff only takes like five minutes to cook, anyway, so it’s not like we’re in a big hurry. And I’d kind of like to see the store that you and Margie have been talking so much about.”
Lilah pulled into the parking lot behind the sandwich shop a few minutes later. She wasn’t sure what Beth’s car looked like, but there was a tan station wagon parked right behind the sandwich shop, so someone must be there. She and Eliza walked around to the front and knocked on the door. Sure enough, Pete’s sister appeared a second later. She looked surprised but pleased to see Lilah.
“Come on in,” she said, pushing the door open. “I just got here and started cleaning. I was expecting you to call before coming, but this is fine if you don’t mind a little mess. Is this your business partner?”
“No, this is actually her daughter-in-law, Eliza,” Lilah said. “I’m sorry that we just dropped by like this. We were on our way to the store, and I thought it wouldn’t hurt to see if you were here. I’ve got something for you.”
She pulled the letter out of her purse and
handed it to the other woman, who took it with a confused look.
“What is this?”
“It’s a note from your father,” Lilah told her. “He wrote it before he passed away and gave it to my boss—who was his friend—before he died. It’s for you.”
Beth’s eyes went wide. She looked from the letter to Lilah and back again. “From my father?” she repeated in a tremulous voice. “Thank you so much. Come on in, take a look around…” she said, trailing off vaguely as she walked back toward the kitchen. “I’ll be with you in a few minutes.”
She vanished into the tiny office. Lilah didn’t blame her for wanting privacy to read the letter from her estranged father, though now she and Eliza wouldn’t be able to leave until she came back out without being rude. The two women exchanged a look and Eliza shrugged.
“You might as well show me around,” she said.
Beth reappeared just as Lilah got done giving the other woman the grand tour. Her face was streaked with tears, and she clutched the letter in her hand. Eliza wandered away to look at something on the other side of the kitchen while Lilah and Beth spoke.
“I think you two should leave now,” Beth said. “I’m sorry, it’s just this letter… it showed me what a mistake I’ve made. I need some time alone.”
“I completely understand,” Lilah said. “We’ll get go—”
“Lilah, come look at this,” Eliza interrupted sharply from near the sandwich shop’s back door.
Shooting Beth an apologetic look, Lilah hurried over. She followed Eliza’s gaze. The other woman was staring at a notice taped to the door. Building to be auctioned 12/15 at 3:00 pm. Open for walk through 12/10 and 12/12.
“What does that mean?” Lilah asked. “I don’t understand.”
“This store’s going to be auctioned off,” Eliza hissed. “Look, the bank owns it. She doesn’t. She was lying to you, Lilah. I bet she was going to steal whatever money you put down for the lease and get out of town.”
Killer Maple Cookies: Book 3 in Killer Cookie Cozy Mysteries Page 7
