Killed on Blueberry Hill

by Sharon Farrow

  “You physically attacked Porter hours before he died. And you made no bones about how much you hated him.”

  “I’m not the only one.” Ryan threw himself down on the glider rocker across from me. “His sister Cara couldn’t stand him. Let the police go after her. Or his stepmother, who didn’t get much of anything from his dad’s will. Maybe Jacqueline is the timid little mouse who finally roared.” He grinned.

  “You need to take this seriously, Ryan. To the police it looks like you had a vendetta against Porter. The EMS guy at the fairground told them you appeared happy when you learned he was dead.”

  This sobered him. “Damn.”

  “Even worse, they know you have access to vials of insulin. And I had no idea your mother was diabetic. When the police told me, it came as a shock. You never mentioned it.”

  He waved his hand. “Why should I? I don’t see how my mother’s diabetes has anything to do with you.”

  This made me even sadder. “I’ve told you everything about my family, including my dad’s heart problems. People about to get married do tell each other about their families.”

  “Fine. My mother was diagnosed with diabetes when she was fifty-one. Are you happy?”

  “Tie me kangaroo down,” Minnie sang out.

  I counted to ten, trying to keep my composure. “There seem to be other things you haven’t told me about.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like why you were seen at a gas station in Valparaiso, Indiana, on Tuesday morning.”

  I knew Ryan well enough to recognize when he was rattled. “What are you talking about? I was in Muskegon about to go out on Josh’s boat.”

  “Are you sticking with that story?”

  Minnie whistled, then added, “Peeky boo, I see you.”

  His tanned cheeks grew flushed. “It’s not a story.”

  “Natasha and Old Man Bowman visited my booth at the fairground Wednesday evening. They’d taken a day trip to Chicago on Tuesday. He told me that he’d seen you at the gas station around seven thirty that morning. He even said hello to you, but you ignored him.”

  “You believe that kook? Old Man Bowman is off his rocker, and you know it. The man spends half his time hunting for Bigfoot, the other half doing God knows what with that Russian beauty queen.”

  “Natasha saw you, too. And she’s not crazy.”

  “Isn’t she?”

  “Give it up, Ryan. Old Man Bowman also described Josh. And we both know Josh is a distinctive-looking guy. So why were you in Indiana instead of up north?”

  Ryan began rocking the glider. “I can’t believe I’m being cross-examined like this. You’re worse than the police.”

  “And you’re lying to me. I don’t know why. Have you lied about all your fishing trips? If so, what have you been doing every other month when I thought you were out on the lake in Josh’s boat?”

  He remained silent.

  “Can you fly?” Minnie murmured.

  I took a deep breath. “Fine. Keep lying. Say nothing. Pretend everyone but you is crazy. Only I suggest you come up with a better story when Detective Trejo and Chief Hitchcock question you. Otherwise, you may be arrested.”

  Ryan brought the rocker to a standstill. “If you must know, Josh and I weren’t fishing. We went to Indiana Grand instead.”

  “Indiana Grand? What’s that?”

  “Indiana Grand Racing and Casino. It’s in Shelbyville, about thirty miles south of Indianapolis.”

  I wondered if I had misheard him. “You’ve spent the past three days gambling in Indiana?”

  “Yeah. Josh and I need to blow off steam once in a while, and gambling relaxes us.”

  “Fishing’s not relaxing?”

  “We do that, too. But some of our trips are spent at the casinos in Indiana.”

  I was confused. “Why Indiana? There are casinos a lot closer to home here in Michigan.”

  “Because we’d rather not run into people we know. The point of the trip is to get away and relax. And don’t act like we’re doing something illegal or shocking. Going to the casinos is fun. It’s a welcome break. Josh and I bust our backs most of the year working on our farms. Why shouldn’t we spend a few days at the dice tables or playing blackjack? Do you have a problem with that?”

  “Where’s the owl?” Minnie murmured.

  “Ryan, I don’t care if you become a blackjack dealer. What I care about is that you’ve been lying to me for months about these trips. Is this why you turn off your phone when you’re gone? Are you afraid I’d hear all the noise and know you weren’t out on the lake?”

  He avoided my gaze. “I thought it was easier that way. No need to make you and Sara suspicious.”

  Sara was Josh’s wife. “Josh is lying to her, too?”

  “You’re making too a big deal about this. Look, Sara is tight with the family finances. She doesn’t even want Josh to buy a lottery ticket. If she knew he spent a few days at the casinos, she’d make his life miserable. Besides, we only do that half the time. The rest of our trips we do go fishing.”

  “So you say.”

  “You think I’m lying?”

  I stared back at him. “Can you blame me?”

  “You’re just spoiling for a fight, aren’t you?”

  “No. I’m trying to get at the truth!” I looked down at my hands, trying to compose myself. “Did you owe Porter Gale money?”

  “I can speak,” Minnie said. Only it was Ryan I wanted to hear from, not her.

  Instead he sat rigid and silent. “Where did you hear that?” he said finally.

  “Someone in the O’Neill family told me.” If I said it was Courtney, Ryan would dismiss anything repeated by a fourteen-year-old girl.

  “Was it Cara?” he asked. “I should have known he’d tell his sister.”

  Then it was true. “Does it matter who said it? Why did you borrow money from Porter? And from Eric Gale as well. Two years ago, your father decided to give his inheritance to you and your brothers. All of you received large amounts of cash and your own acres at Zellar Orchards. Why would you need to borrow money from anyone? Particularly a person you disliked as much as Porter Gale.”

  “It’s complicated. And it doesn’t concern you.”

  “You wanted me to fly to Las Vegas tomorrow and marry you. Would it have concerned me once I was your wife? Or were you going to keep me in the dark?”

  “I’ve been dealing with this on my own, Marlee. The last thing I need is you hassling me about it. And maybe it’s time for you to be more honest. You don’t want to marry me, do you? You’ve already tried to postpone the wedding. Why? I treat you like a queen.”

  I gave him a disbelieving look. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Damn straight, I’m serious. Are you bored with me? Is that it? Or is there someone else? I wouldn’t be surprised if your old high school boyfriend Max has won you back. The way he always calls you ‘marzipan’ and acts so sweet around you.”

  “I’ve told you a hundred times, Max and I are just friends.”

  “Maybe it isn’t Max.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “It could be the sheriff’s deputy you met last month. The one with the curly hair. Are you going to tell me that you and he are just friends, too?”

  As if she knew I needed support, Minnie hopped over to me and I placed her back on my shoulder. “No, I won’t tell you that. Kit and I have become more than friends.”

  Wearing a shocked expression, Ryan jumped to his feet. “I knew it! I knew there had to be another man to make you so reluctant to marry me. Only I couldn’t believe you’d be this dishonest. How dare you accuse me of lying when you’ve been cheating with another man all along? And while wearing my engagement ring! You’re disgusting.” He began to pace.

  “No one has been cheating, Ryan. Nothing romantic ever transpired between Kit and me.” I hesitated. “Not until tonight when I kissed him.”

  He whirled about to glare at me. “You kissed him?”

  “We kissed each other.
Nothing else happened. Before this, we were only friends, but—” I hesitated.

  “But?” he spat at me.

  “But I liked him. I also suspected his feelings were growing for me. I was right.” Minnie made kissing noises in my ear. I stroked her feathers, hoping to quiet her.

  “Are you in love with him?”

  I shook my head. “Of course not. I don’t know him well enough to be in love with him.”

  “But you don’t love me any longer.” There was anger—and pain—in his voice.

  “I do love you, Ryan. But you loved your first wife and it didn’t matter. The marriage fell apart. I’ve been having second thoughts about us for months. You know that. We’re too different to make this work. I can’t believe you don’t see that as well.”

  “What I see is a woman who lied to me. Who deceived me with another man.”

  “That’s not true! Until our kiss tonight, Kit and I have been as proper as Amish teenagers. And less than an hour later, I’m telling you all about it. So I refuse to sit here and play the scarlet woman just to make you feel better about your own lies.”

  “You’re comparing a romance with another man with me not telling you about my casino trips!”

  “I want a cashew,” Minnie piped up.

  “Let’s get the semantics right. You lied about your gambling trips.” I stood up. “And you won’t tell me why you went to Eric and Porter Gale for money. Do you have a gambling problem? Is that why you borrowed money from them? This past June I learned you had a drug problem when you were a teenager. Is gambling another addiction I don’t know about?”

  “Don’t deflect the conversation away from you and your curly-haired boyfriend. Is he waiting for me to leave? He’ll probably move right in, won’t he? I’m betting that a man who works for the sheriff’s department doesn’t pull in a big salary. He’ll enjoy living on the beach in this old house you’re so attached to.” Ryan stomped over to his duffel bag and picked it up.

  I followed him. “Speaking of my house, why have you been pushing me to sell it?”

  “Are you kidding me? You’re going to bring up the house at a moment like this?”

  “Kiss for Mommy,” Minnie said in my ear.

  “To be clear, you brought it up first. Like you’ve been bringing up the subject of selling it ever since we became engaged. Why was it important for me to sell the house? You’d already claimed your Zellar inheritance. We didn’t need the money.” I gave him a long look. “Except if you borrowed from the Gales, you did need money.”

  “You know I don’t want to live in the village. My home is at the orchards, where I’ve always intended to build us a house. We don’t need this white elephant you’re living in. Although given the color, I should call it a blue elephant.” He shook his head at me. “But you won’t give it up, will you? Even though you didn’t live here for the ten years you worked in New York. I think you’re holding on to this house just to spite me.”

  “What?”

  Minnie echoed my own disbelief by adding, “Wassup?”

  “You heard me.”

  “This house belongs to the Jacobs, and it’s meant to be passed on to a Jacob when the time comes. I’m sick of your indifference to my family and our traditions when you spend every waking moment with the Zellar clan. There are cults less tight-knit than the Zellars!”

  “Leave my family out of this. This rickety old house is why you’re second-guessing our marriage. It’s not your deputy boyfriend at all. You want to break up with me because I asked you to do the smart thing and sell it.”

  I took a step back as something dawned on me. “I was told that you borrowed money from Eric Gale last autumn. Several months later, you proposed to me.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “You borrowed more money from Porter this spring,” I continued. “For months, you’ve hounded me to sell the house. Now you want us to get married ASAP. But is it because you can’t wait to start our life together? Or because, as my husband, everything I own would become yours? Including this house.”

  “You think I’m marrying you to get the house?” Ryan asked in a hoarse voice, which meant he was now quite upset. However, so was I.

  “I think you need money. Maybe the money you borrowed from the Gales wasn’t enough. But if you were looking for another source of money, my beachfront property is a great place to start. I bet you’ve already looked into the current market price for it, too.”

  “How low will you stoop to get out of our engagement?” Ryan shook his head at me. “Sure, I’ve asked a Realtor about it. After all, once we were married, the house would have been half mine. Why shouldn’t I learn its value? And it is valuable, Marlee. We could list it tomorrow for one million one hundred and ninety-five thousand dollars! That’s a fortune for people like us. And you want to keep it? You’re either stupid or the most obstinate woman I know.”

  I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. “You never loved me at all. You only wanted to get your hands on the money if I sold it.”

  “Do you hear yourself? Making crazy things up because you want to break off the engagement. I never thought you’d sink so low.”

  “Tacky, tacky, tacky,” Minnie repeated.

  “And I never thought our relationship would end like this.” I pulled off my engagement ring. “Take your ring back. And please go.”

  With shock in his eyes, Ryan stared at me for a tense moment before snatching the ring from my fingers. A moment later, he was gone.

  Tears rolled down my cheeks. “What do you think of all that?” I whispered to the bird nestled on my shoulder.

  For the first time since I’d adopted her, Minnie had nothing to say.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The following morning I arrived at the church for Porter Gale’s memorial service in a mood as dark as the navy summer dress I wore. No matter how many chilled spoons I had used to reduce the swelling around my eyes, I suspected everyone could see I’d been crying. Attendees might wonder why I appeared to be grieving so much for Porter. I hoped rumors wouldn’t surface of some secret affair I’d had with the dead man. I considered wearing sunglasses, but they didn’t seem appropriate inside the church.

  Trying to remain unobtrusive, I took a seat in an empty back pew, then busied myself with the hymnal. My sudden interest in church music might prevent anyone from speaking with me. I felt talked out after last night.

  As soon as Ryan left, I called Tess, who rushed over like the stalwart best friend she was. The pair of us deconstructed my relationship with Ryan for hours, accompanied by bouts of crying from me and endless sympathy and support from Tess. I also remembered a bottle of wine being consumed at some point—along with an entire box of dark chocolate truffles. At least the wine helped me sleep, but as soon as I woke up I remembered that any future with Ryan was officially over. And that he had probably never loved me.

  It left me in the proper mood to attend a memorial service. I was officially in mourning over the sad end to my relationship with Ryan.

  Pretending to be interested in the lyrics to the hymn “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” I ignored the people who streamed into the church for the eleven o’clock service. Every snatch of conversation I overheard seemed devoid of any reference to Porter. Instead, people talked about the Blueberry Blow Out, the perfect summer weather, and the latest debate about a local biking trail that had been proposed. Curious over whether any of Porter’s family had arrived, I peeked up from my hymnal in time to see Cara and Brody O’Neill walk down the aisle. Dressed in what I would have dubbed their Sunday best, the couple greeted everyone with a sunny smile. Courtney trailed behind, waving at her friends. Their good cheer didn’t surprise me. Porter’s death had made them one of the wealthiest families in Oriole County.

  I scanned the crowded church, but didn’t see Wyatt. Maybe the sheriff’s department or Lucas Hendriksen’s father had been able to convince the teenager to admit Wyatt sold him drugs yesterday. Wyatt might be
in custody. But the rest of the O’Neills appeared in high spirits, so I dismissed that scenario. Wyatt must still be at large.

  Speak of the devil, I thought when Wyatt entered the church with Sloane. With an arm protectively draped over her shoulders, Wyatt led his young aunt to the front pew where the rest of the family, including Jacqueline, sat.

  Despite Wyatt’s solicitude, Sloane appeared calm and dry eyed. Indeed, she looked a lot better than I did. I was glad to see she had recovered from her collapse following Porter’s death. In fact, she seemed to have reverted to her former vivacious and alluring self, outfitted in a flirty black skirt and sleeveless white sweater. However, she had pinned her long blond hair up, which probably signaled the seriousness of the occasion for her. I wasn’t passing judgment. Married only a year, Sloane and Porter had barely known each other before that. No doubt the shocking circumstances of his death had been too much for her. But it looked as if Sloane was already bouncing back. I hoped she had enough sense to make the unsavory Wyatt keep his distance.

  “Could you move over, Marlee?”

  I tore my attention from Wyatt and Sloane. Ryan’s mother looked down at me from the aisle, her normally friendly expression replaced by one far sterner than I was accustomed to. She gestured at the empty pew I sat on.

  With a sinking heart, I scooted over. “Good morning, Mrs. Zellar.”

  “I wouldn’t call it a good morning for Porter’s family members. Or for my son. Not after what you did last night.” She sat beside me.

  An uncomfortable silence followed. “Is Ryan here?” I asked finally.

  “No. He’s at the police station. It appears you told him that Chief Hitchcock wanted to speak with him as soon as he returned.”

  Although grateful that he went to the police before they came for him, I worried at the outcome of his interview with Hitchcock. “Did Ryan send you to talk to me?”

  “Of course not. My son has too much pride. Although you’ve managed to destroy that. Along with breaking his heart.”

  I looked around to make certain our conversation remained private. No one sat in the three rows ahead of us, and our own pew was still empty. “Mrs. Zellar, your son has broken my heart as well. He’s kept too many things from me. Or maybe he hasn’t told you about that.”