Pop Goes the Murder

by Kristi Abbott

  I sighed. “Does it sound even crazier to say that I have no idea? I mentioned Sunny being here to Antoine and he reacted in a really strange way and then wouldn’t explain.”

  “It’s no crazier than anything else I’ve heard around here. Did you know that Joyce Lawrence rigged the voting on what color to make the school basketball uniform because that color blue made her son’s eyes pop more?”

  “Really?” I was momentarily distracted by the mental picture of Joyce sneaking ballot boxes around.

  “Hand to God,” Dario said, raising his right one. “See you tomorrow?”

  “You bet. Thank you so much for your help. You’ve been amazing.”

  “Just you wait, Rebecca. I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeves for you.” He blew me a kiss and left.

  As if the man ever wore sleeves on a shirt. It would be a crime to cover up those particular guns, but still . . .

  * * *

  At about six thirty I was heading out the back door with bags of garbage for the Dumpster in the alleyway. I bounced down the stairs with my load of refuse and nearly bounced up to the roof when a voice behind me said, “Can we talk, Rebecca?”

  I squealed and whirled around. Lucy. Lucy was lurking by my back stairs.

  “Lucy! You darn near made me wet my pants. What the hell are you doing?” What was it with women lurking by my back stairs? Was I suddenly in a Gordon Lightfoot song?

  “I was, uh, hoping we could talk.” She glanced up and down the alley. “In private.”

  I walked the rest of the way to the Dumpster, got rid of my garbage, brushed off my hands and turned back to her. “Do you want to come in?”

  She nodded.

  I walked up the stairs and gestured for her to come into my kitchen. I hadn’t forgotten the way Lucy and the rest of the crew had turned their backs on me when they first arrived in Grand Lake. I got it. Really, I did. It still stung, though. I shut the door behind us and leaned against it. “What’s up?”

  “There are some items missing from Melanie’s room,” she blurted.

  I froze. “What kind of items?”

  She pulled a pad of paper out of her purse and read from it. “Two of our smaller handheld video cameras, a tripod, some lights.”

  “You made a list?” I put on a kettle for tea. I always thought better with a warm drink in my hands.

  She shrugged and sat down at the kitchen table. “Melanie always did inventory when we moved stuff from one place to another. Equipment gets smaller and smaller, but it’s still expensive. It’s easy to leave something behind or misplace it.” She paused. “She also said it deterred people from helping themselves. Everyone knew she did the inventory. Everyone knew that if they took something, it wouldn’t go unnoticed.”

  “When did the things go missing? Do you know?” I asked.

  Lucy twisted the list in her hands. “Most of them went missing between landing in Cleveland and checking into our hotel. She did an inventory that night, the night she . . . her last night. She circled the missing items in red.”

  “No one else has mentioned this. How come?” I put the loose tea in the infuser and put that into a china pot.

  “I don’t think they know. I don’t think she had a chance to tell anyone.” She twisted the piece of paper harder. “At least, not all of us.”

  The water boiled and I poured it into the pot. “What do you mean?” I asked, gathering mugs and a pitcher of cream and some honey to set on the table.

  “Melanie could be harsh, but she was usually fair. She’d always give a person a chance to, you know, come clean. I heard her do it one time when she didn’t know I could hear. She took the person aside and asked if they’d maybe forgotten to return a piece of equipment and if they wanted to make sure to return it then,” Lucy said.

  “So whoever she thought stole the equipment might have known she’d discovered missing items on the inventory?” I sat down across from her.

  “Exactly.” Her list was basically origami by this point, she’d twisted it so much. “So what if that person didn’t want to return the missing items? What if that person decided to shut Melanie up?”

  “Wouldn’t the items be missed anyway?” Eventually the crew would need the items that were missing.

  “Eventually, but who knows how long that would take without Melanie doing inventory? Days? Weeks? A month, even?” She bit her lip.

  Would covering up the theft of some video equipment be sufficient motive to kill someone? “Did everyone know about the inventory?”

  “We did the inventory together sometimes, Melanie and me. I’d come to her room before we started shooting and we’d go over the list.” Lucy wiped at her cheek with the back of her hand. “I so wish I had that last night, but I was tired. I just wanted to lie down in bed and watch bad TV.”

  It all made sense, but I had one more question. “I’m still not sure what you want me to do about it, Lucy.” I poured tea for both of us.

  “I want you to call that sheriff guy, the one you’re all buddy-buddy with. Tell him about it and get him to figure out who took the stuff.” She added cream to her tea.

  “Why don’t you call him yourself?” It was pretty easy to get hold of Dan. The Sheriff’s Department didn’t exactly keep their phone number unlisted.

  She returned to twisting her list. I’d heard of people making shivs out of twisted paper. I really hoped she wasn’t intending on stabbing me. “I don’t want the crew to know. I don’t want anyone to think I turned them in. Plus . . .”

  “Plus what?”

  “They kind of think of him as the enemy, what with him arresting Antoine and all and being your friend. I don’t want them to think I’m, you know, consorting.”

  I could see that. “Okay. I’ll call him.”

  * * *

  He answered on the second ring. “What’s up, Bec?”

  I filled him in on the situation.

  He said, “Your sister isn’t going to be pleased. She made meatloaf.”

  “Tell her it reheats really well and that you’ll take it on a sandwich tomorrow.”

  “I doubt that will make her any happier, but I’ll tell her and I’ll be at your shop in ten minutes.”

  Approximately twenty minutes after that, Dan was calling Judge Romero for a search warrant and then calling Huerta to move out the troops. They had a search to do, but not before Dan banned me from being there as he walked to the back door.

  “What? I don’t get to watch? Why not?” I felt like the only kid not being invited to the birthday party.

  “First of all, this is official police business. There is no reason for you to be there.” Dan knocked his hat back on his head.

  “Are you forgetting that I’m the one who clued you in?” I followed behind him.

  He turned to me. “To be really fair, I’m pretty sure it was Lucy who clued me in.”

  “Through me!” I protested.

  “Bec, that’s like giving the phone credit when you get good news, which brings me to my next point. Haley is about to start chewing wallpaper off the walls. She’s antsy. Go keep her happy so I can focus on doing my job. She’s not so bad during the day. She expects both of us to be gone then. Evenings and nights? Not so much.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. “Fine. I’ll go home. It’s not like my cell phone doesn’t work at the hotel, though. Just saying.”

  “Just hearing. Just trying to explain to you that rational explanations on this one aren’t going to cut it. She’s spent nearly nine months growing a human being inside her own body. We’re about to launch into the scariest part of the whole process, a part she’s been preparing for the whole nine months. Humor her a little. Humor me. Go make a bowl of popcorn and watch an old movie with your sister while I work and, I might add, maybe find some clues to clear that ex-husband of yours that you’re so damn convinced didn�
��t kill his assistant.” And with that he walked out the door.

  * * *

  Despite Lucy and Dan going out the back door of my shop, the media caught on to the action. Or they followed the cars from the Sheriff’s Department. Or they simply materialized from the ground like some kind of creepy insect infestation. However they figured it out, they were at the hotel in full force. Instead of watching an old movie, Haley and I drank hot chocolate and watched news coverage of the search at the hotel. We probably had a better view than if we’d been on the scene, plus we were warm. It had dropped down into the thirties for the night and the reporters were all making white puffs of steam with each breath.

  On the television, a brown-haired man sitting warm and cozy behind a desk said, “There are a lot of hidden dangers in hotels, aren’t there, Lisa?”

  The screen switched to the face of a dark-haired woman with a pale oval face. A breeze blew her hair across her face. She struggled to control the strands as she held her mike. “Yes, there are, Kurt. We did a report not long ago on some of those dangers.” I took an ever-so-slight malicious pleasure in how red her nose was. It looked like her eyes might be watering, too.

  “That’s right. For those of you interested in seeing Lisa’s report, ‘Is Your Hotel Hallway Trying to Kill You?’ visit our website: www.News15.com. We have the link posted there,” Kurt said. The link flashed and the camera cut away from Lisa with her unruly hair.

  “Tell the truth,” I said to Haley. “You just wanted me to come over to make hot chocolate, didn’t you?”

  She smiled over the rim of her mug. “It was an added benefit.”

  We sat at opposite ends of the couch with our feet touching together in the middle. An afghan made by our great-aunt Dorothy was spread over our legs. I picked at a strand of yarn. “This thing is coming apart.”

  She sighed. “I know. I don’t know how much longer it will last. It’s not so easy keeping this place together sometimes.”

  My head shot up. I’d never heard her say something like that before. “Do you want to move? Maybe buy someplace newer?” There was a whole set of McMansions set to go in near Orchard and Railroad Avenue. I could see Haley liking someplace crisp and new.

  She looked affronted. “Of course not.” She straightened up a little. “I like keeping it together. I like the connection. I like feeling like I’m part of a line of people, a link in the chain.”

  Was that really how she saw herself? “You are so much more than a link in a chain!”

  “I’m not saying it like it’s a bad thing.” She stopped. “Wait. Something’s happening on the television.”

  Nothing had happened for a really long time, although Haley and I enjoyed watching the various reporters and anchors trying to find something to talk about while they waited for the eight deputies that had gone into the hotel to come out with someone or something.

  “I’ve heard that an arrest has been made,” Lisa said, excitement in her voice.

  The camera panned away from Lisa’s smooth oval face to the front of the hotel. Two officers came out. Between them was another man with his hands cuffed behind his back, his head down. He was a young white man who looked to be a little under six feet tall and was wearing khaki pants and a polo shirt. He kept his face turned from the camera. I craned my head forward as if that would make it easier to see him. “Who is that?” He was definitely not one of Antoine’s crew.

  Haley leaned forward, too. “That’s Derek Wade, Barry and Patti’s son. He’s the night clerk at the hotel. Patti was telling me how great it was for him because it’s so quiet there at night. He can study and get paid for it. He has a room there, too.”

  “I’m guessing his mama’s not so proud now,” I said. Nothing like watching your baby do a perp walk to piss on your parade.

  “I’m guessing she’s on her way down to the station to punch Dan in the nose and then open a can of whoop ass on Derek’s behind.” Haley chuckled. “She’s a force to be reckoned with. Last year at the Valentine’s Day Festival she thought Olive Hicks had said something behind her back and Patti pulled her hair.”

  “Just came up and yanked it?” My hand flew involuntarily to my own curls.

  “Yep. In front of everybody. I think she wanted to start a fight.” Haley grinned. “She almost did.”

  Then Dan was on the screen. “His nose looks fine so far,” I said.

  “It is a nice nose, isn’t it?” Haley smiled at her husband’s face on the screen.

  “You know the only reason it isn’t crooked is that I threw myself between him and Timmy Chandler when Timmy wanted to fight him over a call he didn’t like in a flag football game.” I deserved some credit for Dan’s handsomeness and I intended to get it.

  “I do know that. I remember you were grounded for the rest of the week for fighting, but when you weren’t watching Mom and Dad high-fived each other over having raised a wildcat.” Haley balanced her mug on her tummy.

  I turned to stare at her. Haley almost never brought up Mom and Dad. It’s not like they were a taboo subject. She was living in their house, after all. She just never raised the topic herself and she never brought up little anecdotes like that one. “You never told me that.”

  “Hush,” she said. “Dan’s about to talk.”

  The reporter shoved a giant microphone in Dan’s face. “Sheriff Cooper, is this arrest related to the homicide that occurred at this hotel last week?”

  “No comment.” Dan stared right into the camera. I felt like he was looking into my soul.

  Haley clutched the mug she was holding tighter and winced.

  “Are you Braxton-Hicksing again?” I asked.

  “I said hush.” She waved her hand at me like I was a fly trying to land on the marshmallows in her hot chocolate.

  I hushed again.

  “Can you tell us what the charges are that are being leveled against this young man?” the reporter asked.

  “No comment,” Dan said.

  “Ooh. Scintillating,” I said.

  Haley threw a pillow at me. I guess there’s a reason they’re called throw pillows.

  The rest of the interview continued that way. Dan no commented a few more times and then the reporter turned back to the camera. “There you have it. We cannot at this time confirm whether or not the arrest of what appears to be a hotel employee is any way connected to the murder of Melanie Fitzgerald, assistant to celebrity chef Antoine Belanger.”

  “Thank you, Lisa,” the anchorperson said.

  Haley picked up the remote and clicked the television off.

  I bit back a yawn. “I think it’s bedtime, sis.”

  “Me, too.” She stood and stretched. “Is your phone charged?”

  “Yes.”

  She held her hand out and wiggled her fingers. “Show me.”

  “You’re not a very trusting person, you know.” I handed her the phone.

  She hit a few buttons. “Eighty percent battery power. Very nice. You may go to bed.”

  * * *

  I tried to. I really did. I’d had a long day and would have to be up at five to get to the shop to make the breakfast bars and coffee, but I couldn’t stop tossing and turning. Did Derek’s arrest have any impact on Antoine’s case? Stealing was wrong. Absolutely. But it was a far cry from murder. There’s no way that Melanie’s death was any kind of accident. Most people didn’t carry around modified blow-dryers with them, so having it there would have to be preplanned. I punched my pillow and rolled over. I still didn’t sleep.

  Finally, I did what Dan did for me. I got up, grabbed some blankets and some beers and sat down on the front porch to wait.

  It was nearly two in the morning when he finally came up the walk. “I think it’s past your curfew, young lady.”

  “You’re not the boss of me, old man.” I popped off the top of his beer and handed it to him.


  “You’re right, but if I were I would have told you to do precisely this.” He sat down with a groan.

  “Freeze my ass off on your front porch?” Even Sprocket hadn’t been enough to keep me truly warm.

  “No. Just the beer part.” He let me drape one of the blankets around his shoulders while he opened the bottle and drank.

  “Long night?” I asked.

  He took a second long swallow from the bottle. “Indeed.”

  That sounded interesting. “Care to dish?”

  “Depends. Who am I talking to? My best friend Bec or Antoine Belanger’s ex-, but still somehow helpful, wife?” He turned those clear blue eyes on me and I had a flash of not ever wanting to break the law in Grand Lake. Or at least not in a serious way. Dan could be scary when he felt like it.

  “I can’t be both?”

  He let his head loll back and stretched his neck. “It looks like a pretty fine tightrope line to walk from down here on the ground.”

  “I’ve walked fine lines before. Remember when Timmy dared me to walk along the fence between the Harrisons’ and the Grays’?” Timmy had offended my sensibilities in a number of ways. I realized now that he’d probably been doing it on purpose. At the time, though, there wasn’t a dare he’d throw out that I’d back down from.

  He nodded. “I do. I also remember the sling you had to wear for three weeks.”

  “Yeah, but I made it more than halfway before I fell.” I hadn’t made it the entire way, but farther than anyone else had.

  Dan leaned forward, elbows on knees and let the beer bottle dangle. “We found one of the cameras, a tripod, some lights in the night clerk’s room.”

  I whistled. “That’s pretty ballsy. Did he really think he wouldn’t get caught?”

  “He claims he didn’t think he would get caught because he didn’t actually steal those items. He says that Melanie gave them to him to sell for her. Back-door kind of stuff. According to him, Melanie was planning on saying the items were stolen out of the van somewhere else and collecting the insurance money to replace them later,” he said.