In Cold Chocolate

by Dorothy St. James

  “I’m not sure. Maybe she found out from Cassidy?” Althea said. “Now that we know that Florence visited Cassidy’s house on a regular basis, he might have told her.”

  “And why did Cassidy know? Did he see her out with her lover? Was she sloppy?”

  Althea shook her head. Clearly, she was stalling.

  “Just tell me,” I said. “Who was Harriett’s lover?”

  “Cassidy,” she croaked.

  I nearly choked on my tongue. “Cassidy? Harriett and Cassidy? Ewww!”

  “I know, right?” Althea said.

  “Hello!” a man wearing a large straw hat called out from a few hundred yards away. He waved.

  “But-but why?” I sputtered.

  Althea nudged my shoulder with hers and then raised her hand. “Good morning, Bailey,” she called to the man who was fast approaching us.

  “Good morning,” he said. I noticed again how Bailey Grassi was about the same height as Althea, which wasn’t very tall. Today he was dressed in tan Bermuda shorts and a white linen shirt. Like us, his feet were bare. “Beautiful morning, isn’t it? I still can’t believe how lucky I am to be living on the beach. We get to enjoy all of this”—he made a broad gesture with his arms—“every day.”

  “It’s a blessing,” Althea agreed. Her smile grew wider.

  I looked at Bailey. His grin looked about as goofy as Althea’s as they continued to stare at each other. If they’d been cartoons, I believe their eyes would have turned into springing hearts by now.

  I cleared my throat to remind them that I was standing there too.

  “I heard you’ve been asking around about Cassidy Jones,” Bailey said as he glanced over at me.

  “Not anymore,” I confessed.

  “Oh,” Bailey seemed disappointed. “I hated how he died. Shot like a dog. I attended his funeral Saturday.”

  “Detective Gibbons mentioned that he saw you there,” I said. “Decent thing for you to do for him.”

  He nodded as his gaze traveled back to Althea. “I haven’t been in the house for very long,” he said. “And with starting up the new restaurant, I haven’t been home hardly at all. How are the sea turtles faring?”

  “We’ve lost another nest,” Althea whispered. The sparkly hearts disappeared from her eyes.

  “I hope it wasn’t because of my porch lights.” He sounded alarmed. “Ever since that night, I’ve made a point to keep my lights turned off.”

  “We suspect someone stole the eggs out of the nest,” I said since I knew it still pained Althea to talk about it. “Your lights had nothing to do with it.”

  His brows remained lowered with concern. He took Althea’s hand in his. “I’d like to help. I could keep a late-night vigil on the beach. I could hold a banquet as a fundraiser for your organization. What do you think?”

  Althea gave his hand a squeeze before releasing it. “A fundraiser would be nice,” she said without much enthusiasm.

  “Wonderful. Perhaps we could talk more about this over lunch some day this week?”

  When she didn’t answer right away, I gave her shoulder a little nudge and said, “Wow, that sounds like a great idea. Althea’s favorite restaurant for lunch on the island is the Dog-Eared Café.”

  Althea gaped at me. But I didn’t feel the least bit guilty about what I’d done. For the past several months, she’d been trying to set me up on a date. Why shouldn’t I return the favor?

  Althea sputtered. I smiled. So did Bailey.

  “How about tomorrow?” he asked.

  Althea sputtered some more.

  I said, “You and I had plans to have lunch tomorrow, but we can have lunch anytime.” I gently gave her shoulder another nudge. Although she appeared shocked now, I was sure she’d thank me later.

  She looked at me. I could tell by the way the corners of her eyes crinkled that she finally realized I’d served her a little payback for her past machinations. “I’d love to meet you for lunch, Bailey,” she said while still looking at me. “The Camellia Beach Turtle Watch Program is always on the lookout for new donors.”

  Once the two of them had finished making plans and exchanging phone numbers, I started to say goodbye so Althea and I could continue our beach walk. I was eager to hear more about how Harriett had fallen under Cassidy’s spell. If I believed in magic, which I didn’t, I would think Cassidy had been some kind of evil wizard.

  Much to my chagrin, Bailey started to walk with us. “I still can’t believe there was a murder right here on the beach. While I barely knew him, Cassidy seemed like a normal guy,” he said as he scratched the back of his neck. “I would have never guessed he was bringing a different woman to his home every night. That’s so nineteen-sixties.” He wrinkled his nose as he said it. “But then again, I work nights. So I would have never seen any of that going on.” He checked his watch. “When would be a good time for me to come by to visit your shop, Penn? I’m still very interested in selling your chocolates through my restaurant and in my online boutique.”

  It was now my turn to sputter. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of letting anyone else sell my family’s chocolates.

  “I’ll bring you by the Chocolate Box after our lunch tomorrow,” Althea said as she nudged my shoulder. “That should fit your schedule, right?”

  “It does,” I had no choice but to admit.

  “Two dates with two beautiful women in the same day. I’m a lucky guy. Until tomorrow, then.” Bailey whistled a happy tune as he walked in one direction down the beach and we walked in the other.

  “Do you think he could be the island’s next Cassidy Jones?” I joked as soon as I was sure he couldn’t hear us.

  Althea playfully swatted my arm. “He’s nothing like Cassidy.”

  “And you like him,” I teased.

  She acted as if she hadn’t heard me. The waves lapping at shore were the only sound we heard for several minutes.

  “Look,” Althea said suddenly, “if your mysterious Muumuu Woman was married but fooling around with Cassidy—like Harriett—that means that when we found her at his side, she was in the wrong place. Someone who is cheating will use a lie that puts them far away from the scene of the crime. She’d tell her husband that she had a business meeting or was running errands off the island. The flaw in those lies is that being found on the beach would put her at the wrong place and expose her.”

  “Why wouldn’t she just tell her husband she was taking a walk on the beach?” I had to hurry to catch up to her. “Taking a walk on the beach—like we’re doing now—would be the easiest lie to defend if someone saw her.”

  “No, you’re wrong. That lie carries too much of a risk. For one thing, her bored husband might invite himself along on the walk. Or he might try to catch up to her as she strolled along the beach, but she’s not walking the beach is she? That would be a disaster.”

  “I suppose,” I said. “Granny Mae says I should wait for her to come to me. But that’s going to take too long. How do I get Harriett to tell me her name?”

  “You don’t. Harriett and this mystery woman are probably girlfriends. In the South, girlfriends keep each other’s secrets. We keep them to the grave.”

  “Well then I’ll simply have to hope Ethel and the town’s gossips can come through for me and ferret out Muumuu Woman’s name for me.”

  “I hope you’re not putting yourself into a difficult situation by trying to find her,” Althea said as she walked with a determined gait.

  “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m not asking questions about Cassidy’s murder. At least not publicly anymore. It’s too dangerous,” I said.

  We’d both stopped at a small mound of sand marked off with stakes and orange caution tape.

  “This is the next nest scheduled to hatch. They could emerge sometime in the next three to five days.” Althea placed her slender hands on her hips and frowned at the mound. “I checked yesterday. The eggs are still in there, thank goodness. It was such an honor to be named t
he island’s turtle lady. But now I’m thinking the town should have picked someone else. Nothing like this ever happened to Harriett or even to Jody.”

  “You don’t think—?” I started to ask. But the idea that had popped into my head was simply too crazy to voice.

  “What?” Althea kept her eyes trained on the mound of sand. She sounded tired and irritated. My heart hurt for her.

  “You don’t think they’ll hatch tonight, do you? I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it tonight,” I said even though what I was really wondering was whether Jody, angry that she’d been kicked off the turtle watch team, had decided to make Althea look bad by digging up the island’s nests and stealing the eggs. I didn’t say any of that because certainly it couldn’t be true. No one, not even Jody, would sacrifice the next generation of sea turtles out of spite.

  But if not Jody, who was stealing the island’s eggs?

  Chapter Nineteen

  For a small town with everyone watching everyone else’s business, I was shocked at the lack of eyewitnesses for anything important lately. It seemed as if scores of islanders had seen Florence going in and out of Cassidy’s home. It seemed as if scores of islanders had also seen Fletcher Grimbal slap fighting it out with Cassidy. But no one had witnessed Cassidy’s murder? No one (save for Harriett) had seen Muumuu Woman or had a clue as to her identity? No one had seen the thief walking off with my salted sea turtles? And no had seen Althea’s turtle egg thief?

  It was maddening. I needed an eyewitness.

  “I don’t know why we didn’t think of this right away,” Althea said excitedly after we’d finished the turtle survey. She joined me as we walked down Main Street toward the marshy backside of the island. It was still quiet. Shops were dark. A few cars drove past as residents made their way into Charleston for an early start to the work week. Soon more cars would be on the road. But since it wasn’t yet eight o’clock, the streets felt empty. Peaceful. Safe.

  Althea and I parted ways at West America Street. She went toward the Chocolate Box to have breakfast with her mother while I headed in the opposite direction down East America Street toward the hardware store.

  On the way, I passed a fish store. Water lapped at the two shrimp boats that were tied up at the dock attached to the elevated shop that overlooked the Camellia River. The briny smell of seafood filled the air. Shrimpers shouted commands as they tossed baskets filled with their fresh catch to the dock. Men on the dock ran in and out of the metal building through a large set of double doors as they carried the baskets inside. On those trawlers, the day had started hours before the sunrise and wouldn’t end until well after dark.

  Across the street from the fish store sat the island’s post office. While the main office hadn’t yet opened, lights were on inside. The island was starting to wake up.

  Next door to the post office was my destination. The small hardware store, owned by one of Sunset Development’s smaller competitors, opened at seven every weekday morning to serve the needs of subcontractors who liked to get started on the endless stream of projects on the shabby island where it seemed impossible to keep up with the rust and rot that plagued even the newest structures.

  I was reaching for the glass door when a prickling at the back of my neck made me pause. I looked around. Was someone out there watching me?

  “I’m not asking anymore questions,” I shouted just in case someone was lurking in the shadows of the thick maritime forest, someone who wanted to do me harm.

  The blaring bright lights of the hardware store immediately made me feel safe. The young man manning the front counter cheerfully pointed the way to the aisle where they kept the security cameras. There were about a dozen contractors moving through the store. Many were heading toward the back where they kept the lumber. No one seemed the least bit interested in me or in what I was doing.

  I had just started reading the specs of the different cameras the store offered for sale, when someone standing behind me cleared his throat. Thinking I was blocking the aisle, I moved closer to the display shelves. I had two camera boxes in my hand at the time, and was trying to decide between the smaller more expensive model and the cheaper, bigger one.

  The man leaned his arm on the shelf above the security cameras right next to me. “You should have called me,” he said.

  My head jerked in his direction so quickly, I nearly dropped both boxes. “Harley, don’t do that. You scared me half-to-death.”

  He threw held his hands out in front of him as if trying to protect his face. A heartbeat later he lowered his hands and smiled. “Hey, you didn’t try to break my nose like you did the last time I startled you. I think we must be making progress with our relationship.”

  “Bust a guy’s nose once you and never live it down.”

  “Look, we wouldn’t be having this conversation if you’d taken me along with you this morning. I thought we all agreed yesterday that you wouldn’t go out alone, not until this business with Cassidy Jones was resolved and done with.”

  “I didn’t go out alone. I went with Althea on her turtle patrol, and then we parted ways a block before the hardware store, which is two blocks from the Chocolate Box. It’s not as if I’m hiking across the island with a target painted on my back.”

  “Not a target, but it’s still a risk. I saw Althea as she went to have breakfast with her mom. She’s the one who told me where I could find you.” His steady gaze warmed my cheeks. “I would have felt better if you’d called me. You know I would have joined you and Althea on the turtle patrol. And I would have walked you here as well.”

  “I’m not going to call you every time I step foot out my door.”

  “I wish you would.” I found that hard to believe.

  “You might think you want me to do that, Harley, but you really don’t. You don’t have the time to play babysitter. You have Gavin to take care of. You have a law office to run. You can’t go running off with me just because I need to go somewhere.”

  “Gavin understands.” He nodded toward the tool section where his son was playing with a bright orange power drill. “He wants to help.”

  “What happened to your concern that I was giving him false hope?”

  “There’s no way I can take away the hope you’ve already given him. I’ve talked and talked to him about it. I’ve told him again and again how you might not be able to prove Jody’s innocence, but that boy must have inherited my stubbornness. He won’t listen to a word I say.”

  I gulped. “I am sorry about that.”

  “Your heart was in the right place. I’ll deal with the fallout from whatever happens when it happens. Right now, he’s feeling hopeful, which might be a blessing.”

  I glanced down at the two cameras I was still holding and decided to go with the more expensive camera. I placed the other camera back on the shelf.

  “I do have a plan.” I held up the box for him to see. “Both Hank and Gibbons think my chocolate thief is stealing those turtles as a way to divert me from investigating Cassidy’s murder. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it also mean that if I catch the thief in the act of taking my chocolates that I’ll also catch the killer?”

  Harley thought about it for a long minute, and then nodded. “It is a long shot, but that might be all we have right now. Plus, it couldn’t hurt to beef up security around the shop. I always thought it was too vulnerable when Mabel was running it.”

  I headed toward the front counter to pay for the security camera. Harley followed.

  “There’s something else we do need to talk about,” he said talking quickly, while he waved for Gavin to join us.

  “I know.” He wanted to talk about the kiss. It was sweet. My heart started up with its silly calisthenics. My stomach turned all fluttery. “We can’t ignore it, can we? What happened the previous morning did mean something.”

  “It’s your family,” he said in a burst. He whispered the rest. “Your mother’s family. I got word late last night from a friend of mine who works in your uncle�
�s law office. Edward had his staff working through the weekend so he could file the paperwork with the courts first thing this morning. Your family is contesting the will. Again.”

  “What?” I stopped in the middle of the store and turned toward him. “Can they do that? On what basis? Florence has admitted that she’s my mother.” Saying it aloud still made me feel queasy. Florence Corners could barely stand to look at me without sneering. Clearly the woman was born without a heart, which explained how she could abandon her daughter and never try to make contact with her again. It also explained how she could coldly look me in the eye and tell me to keep our relationship secret. And it explained how she could come back into my life without an apology or teary explanation or hug. “Florence is my mother. And even if that weren’t true, Mabel had named me in her will to inherit the shop.”

  “That’s all true. I’m sorry, Penn. According to my friend, who couldn’t divulge details, some new information has come to light, information that makes the Maybank family think they have legal footing to reinstate the suit. I’ll let you know what it is as soon as I get my hands on the filing. But I wanted to give you a head’s up that this is coming. Today.” He twined his fingers with mine. “And yes, Penn, that kiss did mean something.”

  “The two of you kissed?” Gavin said as he wandered toward us. “Gross!”

  Gavin refused to look at me as the three of us walked the two blocks back to the Chocolate Box. He talked about his mother and what she did every year to help make his first day of school special. “And ice cream,” he was saying as we approached the back steps that led to our apartments. “She always takes me out for ice cream after picking me up from school. And she lets me get whatever topping I want, which she never lets me do any other time. I always get peanut butter cups.”

  While he went on and on about Jody and her skills as a mother, my mind kept swirling around how Jody had warned me that I was going to lose my shop. Had she known that Mabel’s children were planning to contest the will?

  When Gavin and Harley started to go up the steps, I grabbed Harley’s arm. “I need to talk to you for a moment. Alone.”