by Lynn Cahoon
South Cove had three emergency vehicles—two fire trucks and an ambulance—beside the two patrol cars Greg’s deputies used. And they were all parked on the edge of the road. We climbed out of the truck.
Greg shot a glance back at me. “You may want to stay here, just in case.”
“Whatever.” I shook my head and followed him into the crowd. I may not be able to cross the police barrier, but I wasn’t waiting in the truck like a good girl. I paused next to Bill, who was covered with ash and water. His face was black from the soot.
He glanced at me and then scanned the area until he saw Greg. “Finally,” he muttered.
“What happened?” I asked Bill as Greg walked up to Toby, who was flanked by the EMTs.
“We had a practice burn this morning. I figured Barry just wanted to get this property cleared and if he called it a training exercise, the city would pay for the removal and cleanup.” He cleared his throat. “This is his place.”
“Yeah, Greg told me that.” I was watching the men gathered around the front of the partially burned building. “But what happened? Why is the ambulance here?”
“Barry set up the fire, and then he just disappeared. We thought it was because he wanted us to problem solve as a team. By the time we realized he was trapped in the building, it was too late.” Bill ran his fingers through his graying hair. “I can’t believe I’m still volunteering after all these years. Maybe Mary is right and I need to hang up my fireman’s hat.”
“I’m sure you do a great job,” I started to say. Then Bill’s words hit me. I glanced over at the group standing outside the charcoaled building and my stomach flipped as I realized why they weren’t going inside. I knew the answer before I even asked the question. “Barry was in the house?”
“Barn, but yeah. He got caught in the fire.” Bill must have seen my arm shaking because he grabbed hold and steadied me. “I’m sorry, Jill. Barry’s dead.”
Chapter 3
Greg tucked me into Toby’s car and sent me back to town with my barista. Toby needed to be available for emergencies and I just needed to get out of there. I hadn’t liked Barry one bit, but to die like that? It made me queasy. Once I got home, I curled up on the couch and turned on the television for the next several hours. I wasn’t surprised to see my aunt walk through the door at about eight with a couple of takeout bags from Diamond Lille’s.
Emma sat at attention to greet Aunt Jackie. It was almost like the dog knew she was fragile. Aunt Jackie ignored her and narrowed her eyes at me instead. “I figured you’d be here wallowing. No use crying over Barry. The man was worthless.”
“I wasn’t crying over him.” I pulled the afghan closer, shuddering at the memory. “It’s just a horrible way to die. You should have seen that building.”
“Mary sent me pictures. I guess Bill took some shots before he left. He’s pretty torn up too. Mary said he hated Barry, but I guess Bill feels guilty or something.” My aunt nodded toward the kitchen. “Come help me set up dinner. I’m starving.”
“I’m not sure I can eat.” My aunt was right. Barry wasn’t anything to me, but still, I felt affected by his death. Not sad, but shocked. I followed her into the kitchen and slumped into a chair at the table.
My aunt continued to unpack the bags like she hadn’t heard me. “Lille says she’s going to be watching our booth at the festival to make sure we don’t overstep our boundaries. No chips, no food—just desserts, coffee drinks, and the normal things we sell out of the store.”
“What does she think, we’re going to start flipping burgers and selling hotdogs in a booth?” I pulled one of the containers toward me and opened it. A grilled ham and cheese sandwich, heavy on the ham, with melted provolone on the sourdough bread. And I knew there would be Dijon mustard smeared on the bread. I picked up the offering and took a bite. Heavenly. I wiped my mouth. “That woman needs to get a life. She’s so busy making sure no one is getting one over on her she can’t have any time or brainpower to have any fun.”
My aunt let me rant until the sandwich was finished. Then she smiled and got up to pour herself another cup of coffee. “There, you look better with some color in your cheeks.”
I glanced at the empty container. I’d even eaten the dill pickle spear. But to be fair, Lille’s did have quality pickles. “You got me off track so I’d eat.”
“I rarely had to do that when you were a child, but the technique still works.” She pushed around her tuna salad on tomato with a fork. She ate like a bird. I, on the other hand, ate like a grown woman. Or a rhino. It didn’t matter. Tomorrow Emma and I would go for a run on the beach and burn off the calories.
“Thanks for coming over.” I got up and made myself a cup of herbal tea. I had to be awake at the crack of dawn tomorrow for my shift. No way was I ingesting more caffeine. I’d never sleep. “So how was your day with Mary?”
My aunt smiled and told me all about their trip to the city. Where they went, what they ate, who they saw. Then she paused, her eyes wide open. “Oh my, I almost forgot.”
I dunked my tea bag into my cup a few times, stifling a yawn. “Forgot what?”
“I saw that man at the doctor’s office. Well, not my doctor’s office, but in the lobby. He was coming out of the elevator as Mary and I were getting in. He walked right past us and didn’t say a word. Mary thinks he’s a little deaf. I just blame it on a total lack of manners. Some people were just raised by wolves.”
I stretched, knowing I was going to crash soon, but it didn’t do any good to try to hurry along my aunt’s stories. They had their own pacing. “So who did you see?”
“That man, you know, the one who died?” Her eyes narrowed. “I wonder why Barry Gleason was visiting a doctor on the day before he died.”
We chatted a little longer, mostly about Mary and Bill and how he had no business doing something that strenuous. As I thought about the volunteer team we had, I realized a lot of the members were in their late forties. There weren’t a lot of people who wanted to, or could, give up that much time to train and be on call. Toby and Tim both wanted to serve, but with their duties as police deputies, they didn’t have time. As it was, I was constantly switching up Toby’s schedule to accommodate his other jobs’ hours.
Finally, my aunt gave in and cleared up the kitchen. She bagged the containers, and grabbing the trash bag, she gave me a quick hug. “Go to bed. You look like you haven’t slept in a week.”
“Well, between this and worrying about the shop, I’ve been a little upset.” I stood to walk her to the door. “Thanks for bringing dinner.”
“I wanted to check on you anyway.” My aunt was heading out the door. “Roger left me a list of the things that do need to be corrected. I guess the electrician you used a few years ago had some shoddy work habits.”
“Wait, what? Barry was right?” I sagged against the doorframe. My aunt had paused in the driveway to drop the trash off into the garbage can. “How much is that going to cost?”
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Roger laughed at a few of the items and crossed them off our list. The ones that weren’t code violations, that is.” My aunt climbed into her tiny sedan and pulled out of the driveway.
“Get some sleep, she says.” I shut the door and aimed my words to Emma. “Then she tells me we need major electrical work done. How am I supposed to sleep after hearing that?”
Emma woofed, which could have meant Poor Jill. But I’m pretty sure it was actually Can you let me out? I started shutting off lights and headed to the kitchen to wait for my dog so we could go to bed. Barry Gleason wouldn’t be there to close our store down, but I still felt a responsibility to fix the items that Aunt Jackie’s Roger had found in his inspection.
* * * *
Greg showed up at the coffee shop as I was getting off for the second day in a row. “Hey, do you want to try for lunch again? I’m waiting for Doc Ames’s report on the auto
psy and I’m holding off on a more in-depth interview of the guys from the training crew until I at least get Doc’s take, so I’m at a standstill.” He glanced at the empty coffee bar. “Or are you stuck here?”
“Nope, Sasha’s in the back opening the book order that came in yesterday. I can go anytime. Just let me tell her she’s on her own.” I went into the back office and grabbed my purse. “Sasha, I’m out of here. You going to be okay?”
The girl looked like she was lost in thought, staring at a stack of new paperbacks she’d piled on the desk. “What?”
“I’m going to lunch with Greg. Do you need me to stay for a bit?” I considered her reaction and smiled. Maybe this thing with Kyle was more serious than she’d wanted to admit. It appeared my barista was in love.
“No, I’ll come out. Let me grab this last pile of books.” Her breath caught as she hurried to get out front. “Have fun at lunch.”
“If you need help, call Aunt Jackie. She’ll come in early.” I followed her out to the main dining room and headed to Greg who was looking at a sports book. “I can get you a good discount on that if you’re interested.”
He sat the book down and took my arm. “I should get a great discount since I’m dating the owner of the place.”
“I hear she’s not so generous with her boy toys.” I turned and waved at Sasha. “See you tomorrow.”
We were just a few feet down the street when Greg spoke again. “The girl looks distracted. Something going on?”
He’s got cop’s eyes. The man saw everything. I put my arm in his and leaned close. “I think she’s in love.”
“Who’s the lucky fellow?” Greg walked me across the street and into Diamond Lille’s.
The smell of fried food layered with cheesy pasta and sweet desserts all mixed together almost knocked me over. I wouldn’t want Lille to know this, but I loved this place. That’s one of the reasons I stayed on her good side. The dishes that came out of Tiny’s kitchen made me happy. And I liked being happy, especially around food. Suddenly, I remembered that Lille’s cook Tiny was another member of South Cove’s volunteer fire fighting crew. I cast a side-eyed look at Greg as Lille led us to a booth near the back.
When we were sitting with iced teas in front of us and our orders taken by Carrie, my favorite waitress, I leaned closer. “Did you plan this?”
“To have lunch with you? Yes, I did plan it. Remember, we were going to yesterday, but the whole date thing got a little messy.” He put his hand on mine. “You never said who Sasha was lusting after.”
“I never said lusting.” I didn’t move from my perch over the table. I didn’t want anyone hearing my question besides Greg. “No, I meant, did you plan to come here because Tiny was part of the training burn yesterday? Is he a suspect?”
“No more than Bill or any other of the guys. Look, I just want to have a quiet meal where we don’t talk about murder or suspects or clues.” He squeezed my hand. “What do you say, can we try to appear normal for an hour?”
“Sorry, I just got carried away.” Now I leaned back and slipped my hand out from under his. I took a long sip of my drink and tried to think of a subject that wouldn’t lead us back to his job or mine, for that matter. “Oh, yeah, Sasha. I’m not totally sure, but she did mention Kyle.”
Greg stirred sugar into his tea. “Well, I hope that’s not true because I know Kyle has a girlfriend in Bakerstown. I ran into them there one day when I had to testify at the courthouse. She works there in the prosecutor’s office. I think she might be prelaw.”
“I don’t believe it. Kyle, South Cove’s version of the tattooed man, has a girlfriend in a justice career? What do they talk about?” When the kid first showed up for his volunteer gig with Antiques by Thomas, he’d had so many visible piercings he probably set off all the alarms at the airport just by walking through the front door. “I guess it’s good to have close connections in the legal field.”
“You date a cop. What do we talk about?” Greg must have anticipated the answer because he held up his hand. “Don’t even go there. Besides, our food is coming.”
Carrie dropped off our lunches. “Have you . . .” A crash in the kitchen interrupted her thought. As she turned toward the sound and headed out of the dining room, she said, “Sorry, enjoy.”
“Aunt Jackie brought over food last night after her shift. She thought I was all upset over being at the scene of the fire yesterday. Am I that easy that all I need is food to make me feel better?” When Greg didn’t answer, I looked up from arranging my french fries. “What?”
“Discretion is the better part of valor. Or something like that. Who said that anyway?” This time it was me who didn’t respond. “Seriously, I’m not even touching that comment. How’s your aunt doing? She seems to have settled into life here in South Cove easy enough. That must have been a hard transition, coming from the city.”
“She seems okay. I think sometimes it’s difficult because of all she left behind. But she has Mary here and they seem to do a lot together.” I dipped a fry into Lille’s special sauce, which looked a lot like her Thousand Island dressing. “And the quote is from Shakespeare. Sometimes your knowledge of literature surprises me, Mr. King.”
“I don’t just read the sports page, darling.” He took a bite of his burger and groaned. “And to broach your other question, there isn’t anything wrong with finding pleasure in food when it’s this good.”
That’s why we got along so well. He got me. I cut my own burger into two halves and took a bite. “Oh, she did say one thing that was strange. And before you go all ‘stop investigating’ on me, I didn’t ask her to tell me this.”
Greg sat his hamburger down. “Am I going to even want to know?”
“I think so. Although I can’t imagine how it would be important to your case.” I glanced toward the kitchen where I could just see Tiny’s head through the warming station. “I still don’t think any of the men on your short list could have killed Barry. I was mad enough at him to spit nails, but killing him? Yeah, that’s a whole ’nother level of angry.”
“So what did your aunt say?” Greg’s question brought me out of my mental wanderings.
“Oh, yeah. She said she ran into Barry at the doctor’s office. Well, not at her doctor, but in the lobby of the building. The whole building is different medical providers. She sees both her primary doctor there and her rheumatologist.” I could see by Greg’s look that he thought I was getting off point again. “Look, that’s all I know. She and Mary were getting in an elevator and Barry came busting out. Aunt Jackie said she called to him, but he didn’t answer. Mary thinks he’s deaf.”
A twist of a smile curved Greg’s lips. “Mary always sees the good in people.”
His phone beeped and he pulled it out to read the text. I could see that the news wasn’t good.
“Crap. I need to run to Bakerstown and see Doc Ames. The autopsy results are in.” He pushed away his half-eaten burger as he put his phone back in his pocket.
“You should finish eating. I know how you get on investigations; you don’t take time for yourself at all. Besides, it seems like a simple report. Barry died in the fire.” I shivered, thinking about how painful that must have been. “Why can’t he just fax it over?”
Greg took cash out of his wallet and set it on the table. Then he stood, kissing me on the top of the head. “Because Barry was already dead when the fire was started. This wasn’t an accident. I’ll call you when I have a chance.”
I watched as he walked out of the restaurant. And then I realized, someone else was also watching Greg leave. Tiny, the cook, stood at the doorway to the kitchen, his face showing no emotion as he watched Greg. Then he glanced my way and flushed. Before I could figure out what that all meant, he disappeared back into the kitchen.
I grabbed my notebook out of my tote and, as I finished my lunch and a few of Greg’s fries, I made notes about
what I knew about Barry Gleason. I’d already talked to Bill, who had to be on Greg’s list of suspects, but wouldn’t be for long. Tiny, one of the other fire fighters who was there that day, was working and there was no way Lille would let me go back into the kitchen. So that left one person I could talk to about Barry’s death. And as long as Darla wasn’t there to protect him, I should be able to find him at the winery. Matt Randall was new to our little town, as he’d arrived as part of our internship program last winter. Not saying it was always the new guy who was guilty, but I wondered what he might have to say about the training incident gone wrong.
I finished my meal and tucked my notes back into my tote. I could walk to the winery, talk to Matt, and then be back at the house by two to let Emma out. I really needed to think about getting a dog door for her, but I wasn’t sure about having her loose in the backyard without me there.
Instead of heading to the winery, though, I turned west and headed to the house. I’d let Emma out, then come back to talk to Matt. The plan set, I walked home, enjoying the midday sunshine as I thought about anyone else who could have wanted Barry dead. The problem with that line of thinking was, I’d have to include everyone in town who he’d “inspected” over the last couple of weeks. I’d wanted to kill him but I knew I didn’t act on that instinct. What if someone with a business he’d threatened did?
But then I went back to the scene of the crime. There were only four people there when Barry died. Barry, Bill, Tiny, and Matt. I was pretty sure Bill hadn’t reacted to a threat to South Cove Bed and Breakfast. He could have just changed the council’s grant of power to the fire chief. Besides, Bill wasn’t the killer type. Which left Tiny and Matt top on my suspect list.
Chapter 4
I’d let Emma out to do her business, grabbed a bottle of water for the walk, and was on my way back to town when I was sidelined by my neighbor. Esmeralda waved me down and quickly crossed the street. She wore her other uniform, a fortune-teller outfit, so I assumed she had reading appointments scheduled for the day. During the week, Esmeralda was South Cove’s police dispatcher, so if I didn’t run into her at home, I usually saw her at the police station when I visited Greg.
