by Lilly York
“Buy me a coffee?”
She tilted her head. “What happened to the southern gentleman routine?”
He grinned. “If I remember correctly, you bribed me to do this water tank gig with free coffee for a month. I’m just getting what is coming to me.”
“Oh yeah. I kinda forgot about that.” She laughed. “Good thing you didn’t.”
“Like I’m going to forget something like free coffee? I don’t think so.”
She led him back to her shop and poured him a cup of regular joe. He took a drink. “Mmm, this tastes good.”
Embry interrupted. “Mom, my ice cream is in the walk in. I’d like to check it. Do you mind unlocking it for me?” She had placed her homemade ice cream in the freezer for tomorrow’s contest and needed to make sure it had set up correctly.
“Oh, sure. Steve, I’ll be right back.”
She grabbed her keys and led Embry to the walk-in the city rented for the event. The lock was dangling from the handle, open. “I could have sworn I locked this before I closed it up yesterday afternoon.”
She pulled the door open and she and Embry each took turns looking from the contents of the freezer to one another, screaming in rotation. Mr. Rune was sitting on a bin of pistachio ice cream, his face was covered with frost. Even his eye lashes had crystals in them. His eyes were wide and looked like glass. His mouth fully open, as if Mr. Rune died at the very moment his scream came to life.
The first words to pop into Willow’s head were, “Earl Rune had to die.”
Chapter 3
Willow studied the scene in front of her as Embry ran for Steve, who happened to still be sipping his coffee in the shop. Mr. Rune’s briefcase was lying open and various papers were strewn about the freezer floor. She was careful not to touch anything as she bent closer to get a better view. She heard Steve approach from behind her.
“You’re just a magnet for murder, aren’t you?”
“Me? I didn’t do anything.” She wrinkled her brow. “Besides, how do you know he was murdered? Maybe he was wanting a scoop of pistachio ice cream.”
He ignored the first part of her comment and tossed her a wry look. “What else would it be? Do you think he went for a walk and accidently froze to death in the walk in freezer?”
She faked being offended. “Fine. It’s murder. I don’t see his manuscript. He had it when he left the coffee shop last night. And those are the same clothes he was wearing so I’m assuming he didn’t get too far after leaving here.”
Steve stepped closer to the frozen screaming corpse. “Mr. Rune, what were you doing in the walk in freezer?”
Willow added to his question. “And who put you in here then secured the door with an unlocked lock?”
“There was no lock?”
“Well, there was a lock. It was just loosely hanging on the fixture. Like someone was interrupted and unable to finish locking the door.”
Steve stepped outside to view the door handle. “We’ll need to try and get some prints from this door.” He studied her for a moment. “Who besides you had access to the key?”
“I keep the key on my keyring. No one has asked me for them.” She turned from clue searching to scrutinizing Steve’s face. “Hey, come on. You don’t think I killed him, do you?”
“Of course not. You don’t have a motive, do you?”
She put her hands on her hips. “No, I don’t.”
“Well, good. Then you don’t have anything to worry about, then do ya?”
Willow walked around outside the trailer looking for anything that might give any indication what Mr. Rune was doing in the parking lot behind her shop. It wasn’t as if there was anything of interest back there. Just a place where she and her employees parked their cars, some overgrown weeds growing through the cracks of the asphalt, and the dumpster. She tapped herself on the forehead. “The dumpster.”
She peered over the edge, looking for anything out of place. “Nothing. I see nothing but our normal trash.”
She turned toward Steve then caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. A cup. A cup sitting on the ledge of the window. “Steve, over here.”
She heard him talking to another police officer and probably the coroner. Talk about putting a damper on today’s ice cream festival.
“What did you find?” His voice interrupted her dwelling on the ramifications of a murder, today of all days.
“I found his coffee from last night. He always takes one to go.” She pointed at the cup. “See, that’s his initials and it still has most of the coffee in it. And it would appear he set it there on purpose, like he needed to have his hands free to do something else.” She looked around. “But, what?”
She found Steve grinning at her. “You’ve become quite the little deductive detective, haven’t you?”
“I wonder who he was helping.” She turned in a circle. “He had to have been lured back here. He wouldn’t have come back this way on his own. There wouldn’t have been a reason to. And, it must have been someone he trusted. Huxley wasn’t a person to go out of his way to help someone he didn’t know. He was really introverted.” She added. “And shy.”
“You sound like you knew him pretty well.”
“No, not really. I just observed him. Since I added the coffee line, he has been coming in almost every day to write. I just watched him interact with people. He never initiated contact. He was pleasant, but, standoffish. Aloof, yet approachable. If that makes sense.”
“I can appreciate that. I’ve heard writers are a pretty secluded bunch.” He bagged the cup. Coffee and all and handed it over to one of his officers. “We’ll try and clear the crime scene as soon as we can.” He started to walk away. “If you think of anyone, anyone at all in your observations of Mr. Rune that might be a suspect, let me know.”
“Oh my goodness. I almost forgot.” She told him about Clyde’s interaction with Huxley then his weird behavior after returning to the coffee shop. “I had no idea what to make of what he said. I just wrote it off. Perhaps I shouldn’t have.”
Steve wrote down Willow’s statement, as if interviewing a witness. Which, technically, she was. Just as he was finishing up, they both heard a commotion and turned toward the back door of the shop. Gloria was running toward the walk in freezer.
“No, it can’t be Huxley. It can’t be him.” She was yelling as she ran. A police officer stopped her before she could contaminate the crime scene.
Willow looked at Steve. “I didn’t even know she knew Mr. Rune.”
Chapter 4
Willow took Gloria by the arm. “Come in and sit down. I had no idea you were that close to Mr. Rune.” She poured her a cup of hot tea.
Gloria’s eyes widened. “I’m not close to him. Why would you think that?”
“From your reaction. I can understand being upset, he was a customer of ours. You almost seemed like you were in shock like you’d lost your best friend or something. I would have guessed you knew him really well.”
“No, I didn’t.” She sipped her tea. “I just love his books. I mean, I’ve read everything he has written and it’s such a tragedy to lose someone so talented.” Gloria looked up. “Have you read Murder at Midnight? It’s the best book ever.”
Willow shook her head. “You certainly didn’t act like a star struck fan. I have never even seen you wait on him.”
“Oh, I was too nervous to wait on him. I just worshipped from afar.”
Gloria was fairly new to both her job and to the little town of Turtle. Willow didn’t know her that well. “You moved here from out east, didn’t you? Was it New Jersey?”
Gloria stared for just a moment before answering. “Yes, I did. I wanted a fresh start in life.”
Willow wondered what she needed a fresh start from but didn’t question her on that subject. “In your “worshipping from afar” did you ever notice anyone threatening Mr. Rune? Anyone who had anything against him? Anyone that wanted to hurt him?”
“Not that I noticed. But,
I could look on Facebook for you and see if anyone threatened him there. Sometimes Facebook can get pretty heated.”
Steve returned from outside and joined them.
Willow raised her eyebrows and spoke to Gloria. “Do you think you’re okay enough to return to work? Or would you rather go home?”
She glanced between Steve and Willow. “I’d like to go home, if that is all right?”
Willow nodded. “Sure, go ahead. I’m sure we’ll be okay.” Although she highly doubted it as there was already a large group of people gathered trying to get inside. Most probably looking for gossip, but as Willow had previously experienced, some would buy something to justify their quest. Thankfully, Embry worked hard enough for two people.
Willow watched as Gloria gathered her things and left through the back door. She thought back to the evening before. Huxley left right at 9 pm. It was just dark outside and karaoke was starting. She looked at her posted schedule. Gloria clocked out at 8:30. Surely she would have been gone by 9, right?
She looked up to see Steve studying her. “You have an idea?”
“No, more a concern. Something isn’t sitting right with Gloria. Something about her story isn’t adding up.”
“You want to take a ride with me? I’m going to head over to the Rune residence.”
“You’d let me do that?”
“My thinking is if I let you go with me it’ll keep you from breaking and entering.” He grinned showing that dimple, lighting up her own smile. “Am I right?”
“Yeah, great idea. Let me grab my purse.” She turned to Janie. “I’ll be back in a little while. I’ve got to run an errand.”
Just as Steve parked across the street from Huxley’s house, a hooded trespasser ran out the side door and through the back yard, climbed the fence and disappeared through the neighbor’s back yard.
“Someone beat us here.” He called in what little description he had then approached the door which was still open. He turned to Willow. “You stay here while I make sure it’s clear.” The look he gave her said he was serious.
She waited until he gave the all clear then started in on the room with the side door, the kitchen. The room was nice and neat. No trash in the can. No dirty dishes. Nothing out of place. He had cans of soup lined up like little toy soldiers in one cupboard. The refrigerator held some half and half, a block of cheddar cheese, and some yogurt. On the counter was a fruit basket with a few apples and a few oranges. She couldn’t find a single sweet in the place. Not even a hidden stash of chocolate pushed back where no one could see it. Who lives like this?
Willow opened a bottom cupboard. “Oh my goodness. Look what I found.”
Steve appeared in the doorway a few seconds later. “What did you find?”
Willow held out a green container with a domed lid for him to view.
“I don’t get it. You’ll have to explain.”
“It’s a lettuce keeper. My mom used to have one and our lettuce never went bad. Do you know how fast lettuce goes bad? Sometimes before I can use it. Seriously. These things are amazing.”
Steve gave her a bewildered look. “Willow, what does this have to do with the case?”
“Oh. It doesn’t. I just forgot all about this and when I saw it, I kind of got excited.”
He shook his head. “Over lettuce.” He turned and called out. “I’ll be in the office looking for clues. Quit touching stuff. Your fingerprints will be all over this place. Or at least put on the gloves I gave you.” He disappeared around the corner.
Willow moved on to the bedroom and tried to maintain focus. Rune’s top dresser drawer was hanging open and the contents were a mess, like someone had been rummaging through the drawer. Probably the person they just interrupted. What in the world were they doing in his underwear?
She opened the nightstand drawer and pulled out a leather bound book. The first line read, “She followed me to this little town and this is probably where I breath my last.”
“Steve, I found something.”
He looked around the corner of the door way. “For real this time?”
She held up the diary. “You’re going to want to read this.” She held it out to him. “Thankfully our intruder friend didn’t find this before we did or we may have never seen it.”
He read some of the first page. “Huh, sounds like he has a stalker. Wonder who she is?”
Willow shook her head. “I have no idea. If she follows him to the coffee shop I’ve never seen her.”
Steve stood. “I found something too. Come on.” He motioned for her to follow him.
“All right fearless leader. Lead on.”
He knelt in front of the fire place. “Look at this.” He had separated a few pieces of burned papers from the ashes. One of them was obviously the top of a title page. The title and author had white out underneath and Murder Beneath was the new title and Huxley Rune was the new author.
“Huh. So, first, why did someone destroy this and second, why did he white out his own name? I can understand the title, perhaps he changed his mind about that, but his name? That makes no sense.” She looked at each of the remaining pieces and shook her head. “There are no answers here. Just more questions.”
She put the pieces into the plastic bag Steve gave her then heard car doors.
Willow was about to leave when she noticed the woodwork lining the fireplace. She ran her hand along the same beautiful book shelves she’d seen at the craft fair. She was certain this was Vick’s work. The style and quality were exactly the same. She’d have to ask him how he knew Mr. Rune.
“Come on. The team is here to finish up. We can get going.” He met the police officers at the door. “You are not going to steal from a dead man, are you?”
Willow guiltily put the lettuce keeper back in the cupboard. “No, of course not. I was going to offer his heir a few dollars.” She returned his scowl. “Oh come on. It’s not worth more than a few bucks. Think rummage sale prices.” She closed the cabinet door and stomped out of the house.
While driving home, Steve’s phone rang. “Hello, Mrs. Frost. How are you today?” He waited a moment while she explained her problem. “Okay, I’ll be right over. I do have someone with me, is that okay? All right then, we’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Steve looked to Willow. “Sorry about this, but we have to stop by the Frost residence. It seems Mrs. Frost has had a robbery.”
“Oh, I hope it’s not something serious. We seem to be having a crime wave in our little town. First Delonda, now Mr. Rune, and a burglary. What is next?
“I’m sure it’s just a prank. Too many youngsters running around with nothing to do but cause trouble.”
He pulled his truck in front of the little cottage style house and managed to open Willow’s door before she could. She was learning.
Mrs. Frost met them on the front porch. “We have to go to the back yard.” She hobbled down her front steps.
Willow suppressed a chuckle as the short stout woman waddled to her back yard in her slippers and housecoat. Her hair was in pink spongy curlers with a bright pink bandana covering most of the curlers and tied under her chin. She was quite the sight.
“See? They’re all gone.”
Willow was lost. “What is gone?”
“My laundry, that’s what. It’s all gone. I hung it on the line yesterday early evenin’ then I got one of my famous headaches, hurt like the dickens too, and I laid down to rest. Well, I plumb forgot about my unmentionables hanging out on the line. And my best housecoat too. Until this afternoon when I went outside and saw all the clothespins on the ground. Look at em’ all. Do you know how long it took me to hang up all those unmentionables? Do you see how crooked my fingers are from that doggone arthritis?”
She pointed to the wooden fasteners lying on the ground, pretty much directly under the taught rope. “Who would do such a thing? What would they want with my bloomers? Now I’m gonna have to go to the city to buy some more.”
Willow tried to imagi
ne the person who would steal this woman’s underwear. Her mind searched the known world and came up with no one. Not a soul.
Steve seemed to be speechless. Willow elbowed him.
He took out his notepad. “Um, can you describe the items stolen?”
Willow busted out laughing. Mrs. Frost gave her a look that immediately shut her up and caused her eyes to widen.
“Well, I have pink ones. They’re so soft and satiny. I have green and blue ones too. I also hung out my good cotton ones with little pink and blue flowers. There were three of them. Almost all my bloomers were dirty. You get to be my age and, well, accidents happen. You’ll see. My housecoat. It’s yellow with blue birds on it. My sister sent it to me from Idaho for Christmas last year. It has two pockets on the front. I love it cause I can put my hankie and my new cell phone in there. It’s just the bee’s knees. Somebody got themselves the jackpot.”
Steve promised he would be on the lookout for her underwear. How in the world he would do that, Willow had no idea. Perhaps he would have random underwear checks. The thought caused a fit of giggles.
“You can stop now. You really can.”
She held her stomach. “No, I can’t.” Then laughed harder.
With the surprise element of undergarments being stolen, Steve forgot to ask her if she knew where Clyde was. As much as he hated to, after dropping Willow at the shop he headed back to talk to Clyde’s mother, Mrs. Frost.
Chapter 5
Willow jumped behind the counter and started waiting on customers. The line was out the door and half way down the block. Boy, news sure does travel fast.
“Hi, Martha. I didn’t think I’d see you out tonight. How are you?” Willow wanted to reach out with a pair of scissors and cut her hair. One side was always a little longer than the other and it drove Willow crazy.
“Oh, I’m fair to middlin’.”
“That good, huh?” Willow chuckled. Martha had to be the quietest person she knew. She leaned in closer to hear what else she had to say. “By the way, who cuts your hair?” Willow couldn’t resist.
