by Beck,Jessica
We walked up the steps to the grill, a pair of converted boxcars that served as the town diner. Trish Granger, the owner and a dear friend of mine, greeted us at the door. “I can’t believe it’s already getting cold out, can you?”
“Well, it is October,” I said, “and besides, we like it.”
“I do, too, but it just seemed to come too early this year.”
“I don’t know. I was under the impression that it always came right after September,” Jake said with a grin.
“You know something? You’re pretty funny for a cop,” she told him, smiling back at us.
“Maybe, but I’m not a cop anymore,” Jake said.
“So you say.” Trish looked around the nearly empty diner. “Take your pick of seats. I’ll be there in a second. Would you like a pair of sweet teas, or do you want hot chocolate instead?”
I knew she was making a joke about the cold, but I’d already had a cup of hot cocoa, and generally one per day was my limit. “Tea sounds great,” I said.
Jake held up two fingers. “Sounds good to me.”
“We can order now, if it’s easier,” I said, wanting to get Jake alone so he could tell me what Ray had said to him earlier.
“I like it,” Trish said with a grin. “It saves me the steps.”
“Two burger plates with fries, all the way, please,” I said.
“Make that double for me,” Jake said with a grin.
“You seriously want two plates apiece?” Trish asked.
“No, you’re right. After all, I want to be able to walk out, not be carried out on a handcart. Two plates, one apiece,” Jake said.
Trish just chuckled softly as she turned to give the order to the kitchen. “Like I said, you’re a funny guy. Hang on one second.”
We waited until she placed our orders in back, and then she got us two glasses of sweet tea, without the lemon in either one, which she knew was our preference. “You might as well take these with you, since you’re headed that way anyway.”
I laughed. “I believe I’ve created a monster, haven’t I?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it will catch on, and I won’t have to leave the register all day.”
“You’d get bored in an hour,” I told her. Trish loved mingling among her customers, trading quips and comments with the clientele as she refilled countless glasses of tea and cups of coffee.
“Chances are it wouldn’t even take that long,” she said.
After we were settled and I’d sipped my tea to make sure it was just as sweet as ever, I looked at Jake. “Okay. You’ve stalled long enough. Talk to me.”
“Suzanne, I’ve got a job.”
Chapter 12
“Excuse me? I wasn’t aware that you’d applied for one. Are you going back to the state police?” I knew that Jake had grown bored with his lack of a career, but his announcement threw me for a loop. Would it mean that he’d be forced to leave April Springs again? I hated the thought of coming home and finding the cottage empty, but if he needed a job to feel fulfilled, I wasn’t about to stand in his way. “You know that I support you completely, but I’m going to hate having you gone.”
“Hey, take it easy,” he said softly as he reached across the table and rubbed my shoulder gently. “I’m not going anywhere, Suzanne.”
“I just assumed you’d be leaving town again for work,” I said. “What is there here in April Springs to challenge you?”
“I’m working for Ray Blake,” he explained. “I handled this poorly. Should I go back and start over?”
“I wish you would,” I said.
“When I saw Ray,” Jake said, “he was a real mess. They had to shave part of the back of his head to stitch him up. Somebody smacked him pretty hard with what must have been a rock, and it left a jagged cut. Apparently that’s why he’s got amnesia. Ray claims the last thing he remembers is his conversation with George Morris last night. The next thing he knew, he was wandering around Viewmont Avenue this morning, dazed and confused.”
“Is he saying that he never even saw Tom last night?”
“That’s the thing. He claims that he has no idea what happened after he spoke with George.”
“Do you believe him?” I asked him.
“I do. If he’s lying, he’s good enough at it to fool me,” Jake said, “and I’ve had a lot of skilled liars cross my path in my life.”
“What exactly does he expect you to do about his situation?” I asked my husband.
“He wants me to recreate his movements from making that phone call to the mayor to being found on the road this morning.”
“Isn’t that a job for the police?”
“Not even close,” Jake said. Was there a twinkle in his eyes as he said it? He was excited about doing this, something I hadn’t seen in him for a while. “Stephen has got it in his mind that Tom’s death was an accident and that Ray’s amnesia is just a coincidence.”
“You don’t believe that for a second, do you?”
“Suzanne, I was a cop too long to swallow that. The only thing going against Chief Grant is his inexperience. Given time and enough practice, he’s going to be a fine chief, but right now, he needs a little seasoning.”
“How is he supposed to get it without active time on the job?” I asked Jake.
“That’s the point, but the truth is, Ray is afraid that he might have had something to do with Tom’s death,” Jake told me, lowering his voice.
“Is that possible?” I asked him, softening my tone as well.
“Well, I’m not ready to rule it out,” Jake said.
“Isn’t he afraid of what you’ll find when you start digging?”
“I think he’s more frightened that he’ll never know the truth. I’ve never been a fan of the man, but I admire the way he’s handling this. I know I’ve made fun of him in the past for his zealous behavior, but he really does want the truth, no matter what it might mean for him.”
“So you’re acting as a private investigator for him,” I said, trying to take it all in. “I never saw you as a private eye.”
Jake clouded up at that. “I’m not sure that’s what you’d call what I’m doing.”
“Funny, it sounds exactly like that to me. You know what? I think it’s what you were meant to do. You can still investigate and be home with me at night. Plus, you don’t have to take any cases you don’t want to investigate.” I had a sudden thought. “I’ve even got an office for you. If you don’t mind taking Teresa Logan’s place over, you won’t even have to pay me rent.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Jake said hastily. “I’ve agreed to help Ray. Whether I want to do this for a living is another matter entirely.”
“Just think about it, okay?” I asked.
“Sure. Anyway, back to Ray. After we eat, I’m going to check out the top of the waterfall and see if I can find any sign that he was there yesterday.”
“Do you think Ray might have actually been there when Tom went over the edge?” I asked.
“I honestly don’t know, but I figured I’d work my way back from there and see if I can pick up any trace of him in case he was. If that doesn’t work, I’ll have to start wandering around Viewmont Avenue looking for some clue as to where Ray had come from when he was found.”
“I want to go with you to the falls,” I said steadily.
Jake looked at me closely before he replied. “Suzanne, why do I get the feeling that this isn’t just idle curiosity on your part?”
“It’s not. I need to tell you what I’ve been up to since this morning,” I said when I spotted Trish coming toward us, carrying our lunches. “But it’s going to have to wait until after we eat.”
My husband wasn’t pleased about the delay any more than I’d been waiting to hear his news, but food always t
ook precedence. We tried to never let business talk interrupt our meals, so we took fifteen minutes off and enjoyed the food. Trish had recently switched her meat supplier to a local farmer who supplied grain-fed beef, and though her prices had gone up accordingly, I for one was happy to pay the difference. Her burgers, which had been good before, were now works of art in my opinion and Jake’s as well.
After we finished eating, Trish brought us two cups of tea to go unbidden, and the check. We didn’t typically get dessert, and she knew if we wanted it, neither one of us would have been afraid to ask.
Jake’s phone rang, and after he handed Trish a twenty, he said, “Excuse me, ladies. I have to take this.”
After he stepped outside, I walked up front and took the change from Trish. “It’s terrible about Tommy, isn’t it?” she asked. We’d all gone to school together, and it gave me a pang hearing him called Tommy again.
“I know. I still can’t believe it.”
She lowered her voice. “Suzanne, it wasn’t an accident, was it?”
“What makes you say that?” I asked her.
“I’m not sure I should say anything. It’s probably nothing. I just wish you were looking into what happened to him. Then I wouldn’t mind telling you about it.”
“As a matter of fact, George asked me to dig around a little this morning,” I admitted. Normally I liked to keep a low profile when I was investigating what could be murder, but I trusted Trish with my life, and I wasn’t just saying that.
“Why George?” she asked curiously.
“Evidently they were friends,” I said.
“Well, you never know, do you?” Trish asked after whistling softly to herself. “So then I can tell you. I had to come back to the diner three nights ago to get something I forgot when I heard two men arguing in the park. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but after what happened to Tommy, it started to haunt me.”
“Why? Was he one of the people arguing?” I asked, my senses starting to tingle.
“Yes. I can’t be one hundred percent positive, but I’m pretty sure the other one was Mitchell Bloom. They were both in the shadows, so it was hard to be sure, but I’d bet my life that it was him.”
“Mitchell? What were they arguing about?”
“It sounded to me like it was about money,” Trish said. “Mitchell told him that he was going to get what was owed him, or Tommy would regret it.”
“How did Tommy react to that?” I asked, slipping back into calling him by his old name.
“He laughed at him. It infuriated Mitchell, and when Tommy turned his back on him and walked away, I half expected Mitchell to jump him. He didn’t, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, and now I can’t stop thinking about it. Suzanne, could he have pushed Tommy over the edge if he didn’t get what he thought was coming to him?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to do my best to find out,” I said. “Thanks for telling me about it.”
“Honestly, I feel better unloading it onto you. If there’s anything I can do to help, all you have to do is ask. I keep thinking if I’d only said something or stepped in, none of this would have happened.”
I touched her hand lightly. “Trish, you know there’s no way that any of this is your fault, don’t you?”
“I know that logically, but I still can’t shake it emotionally. I keep thinking that if you figure out what really happened to Tommy, I can get past it, no matter what.”
“I’ll do my best,” I said.
As I joined Jake outside, I was surprised to see that, though he was now finished with his phone call, he was currently being cornered by the nosiest citizen of April Springs, and she was clearly bending his ear about something.
Chapter 13
“Hey, Gabby. What’s up?” I asked as I joined my husband and Gabby Williams.
“I was just telling your husband what a shame it was about Tom Thorndike,” she said. Gabby ran ReNEWed, a gently used clothing shop that offered only the best April Springs had to offer. She was also the self-appointed arbiter of taste and what was right or, in most cases, wrong with our fellow townsfolk.
“I agreed with her, and then I told her that we had an appointment we couldn’t miss,” Jake said, looking as though he were trapped and couldn’t escape.
“That’s right. I nearly forgot all about it. We’d better get going,” I said, and then I smiled at Gabby. “Besides, shouldn’t you be back at your shop?”
“I’ve decided to close early today,” she said. “I like to keep my hours capricious. It keeps my customers on their toes.”
It was pretty clear to me that Gabby didn’t have any competition if she was able to come and go as she pleased without hurting business. I couldn’t afford such a luxury myself. If I didn’t open the donut shop one day, the grocery and even the convenience store had things that might be considered by some a substitute for what I sold at Donut Hearts. I didn’t think so myself, but it was amazing what some people would settle for if it was cheaper and “sort of like the original.” I myself was willing to pay a little more to get a quality product, and I couldn’t understand why others would ever accept something inferior just because it was cheaper. “If it works for you, by all means. Come on, Jake. We’re going to be late.”
“If you had an appointment somewhere, why aren’t you driving?” Gabby asked, looking around the parking lot for my Jeep or Jake’s truck.
“That’s because we have to head back to the cottage first,” I said. “Besides, we’re trying to help the environment. You know, walking is better than driving and all that.”
“Try walking to Raleigh and then get back to me,” Gabby said, citing a place four hours away by car.
“No thanks,” Jake said as I pulled him along. Once we were out of her hearing, Jake added, “Thanks for saving me.”
“Gabby’s harmless,” I replied.
“If that’s true, then why would I rather face an armed killer than deal with her questions?”
“It’s because that’s what you know,” I answered. “I’m assuming our appointment is entirely in your mind.”
“That’s not true. We have an appointment to check out Laurel Falls, remember?”
I smiled, and then I realized that I’d put it off long enough. It was time to tell Jake what I’d agreed to do while he’d been talking to Ray Blake. “Jake, I’m digging into what happened to Tom Thorndike.”
He took it in for a few moments as we walked through the park toward our place before he spoke. “Were you really that close to your ex-boyfriend, Suzanne?”
“I wasn’t, but George was.” I brought my husband up to speed, up to and including our findings at the cottage where Tom had been staying. “I didn’t have any choice, Jake. George needs to know the truth, and I couldn’t just say no to him.”
“I can see that,” my husband said. After a moment, he added, “I’m willing to bet you didn’t exactly fight him on this though, did you?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Suzanne, you have a nose for this kind of thing. I have a hunch that if George hadn’t asked you, you would have still found a way to dig into this.”
I shrugged. “I won’t deny it. If it was an accident, I can live with that, but I take it personally when someone commits murder in April Springs and thinks they can get away with it.”
“That’s Stephen Grant’s job, though, isn’t it?”
I stopped in my tracks four steps from our front porch. “Perhaps, but Stephen thinks it was an accident. Who knows? Maybe he’s right. But I need more proof than his guess. If I’m wrong, what is it going to hurt?”
“You could alienate some of the town by asking them probing questions,” Jake reminded me.
“Please. Some folks get out of bed looking for a fight, so why not give them a reason? Ja
ke, no matter what he may have done with his life, the man still deserves justice. Do you agree?”
“I hate the idea of a murderer getting away with it on general principle just as much as you do,” Jake admitted. “I’m just sorry I can’t drop what I’m doing and help you.”
I softened toward him instantly. “I appreciate the gesture, but you’re going to have your hands full with Ray. Besides, I’ve got George and Grace helping me.”
“I’m not sure how much the mayor can do without being accused of using his office for personal gain, but at least you’ve got Grace. Was she hard to convince?”
“Actually, I haven’t talked to her about it yet,” I answered with a smile.
“And you’re that sure that she’ll say yes? Strike that. If you asked her to help you rob a bank, that woman would ask you when and where and if she should bring the masks.”
“I’m not quite sure she’d go that far, but she likes being my partner in our investigations.”
Jake nodded. “There’s no doubt about that in my mind.”
“I’m ready to check out Laurel Falls if you are. I just need to call Grace first so she can join us.”
“Would you mind holding off on bringing her into this?”
I looked at him oddly. “I suppose I could, but I’m still not completely sure why you’re going up there, too. Isn’t that the last place you’d be hoping to find a clue about Ray’s whereabouts?”
“Of course it is, but hoping and wishing won’t make it so. It just makes sense to have a look around and see if there’s any indication that he was up there with Tom when he died. Besides, I’ll use any excuse to be close to you.”
“That’s sweet of you to say,” I replied, kissing his cheek. “Should you drive, or should I? Do you think your truck can make it?”
