Cast Iron Will (The Cast Iron Cooking Mysteries Book 1)

by Jessica Beck

  “She is,” I said as I pointed back to her grill, where she was working. “I’ve got the feeling you’re not here to shop. What is this about?”

  “My name is G. Robert Benton III, and I need fifteen uninterrupted minutes of your time,” he said as he handed me a heavily embossed business card that described him as an attorney at law.

  “I’d like a pony, myself,” I said, “but I don’t think either one of us is going to get what we’re wishing for, at least not at this very second.”

  He looked confused by my reply. “I assure you, it’s important.”

  “Mr. Benton, we close in eight minutes,” I said. “After that, Annie and I need another fifteen to button things up for the day. If you’d like to come back in half an hour, we might be able to help you, but until then, we won’t be able to cooperate.”

  “Don’t you want to know what brings me here?” he asked.

  “I figure you’ll get around to it sooner or later, but at the moment, unless you have a warrant for our arrests, we’re willing to wait to find out.”

  He looked truly puzzled by my response. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”

  “See you then,” I said as I turned back inside. He was right about one thing: I was dying to know why he was at the Iron looking for my twin and me, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of hearing me ask. I hadn’t been joking; Annie and I had a great deal to do, and we didn’t need any interruptions unless the situation was clearly more dire than it was being presented by the attorney.

  I waited to tell my twin sister what had happened until we’d shooed our last customer out through the front door. Edith had left her station at two as was her regular routine, but Skip was still there, looking at the register anxiously every chance he got. After the front door was dead bolted and the signs were all flipped over to show the world that we were finished for the day, I started counting the money in the till as the register ran its report. I had my tally before the machine quit chugging out its numbers, and Skip began to edge closer and closer, as though it were a predator he was too afraid to approach.

  “How’s it look, Pat?” he finally asked.

  “Too soon to tell just yet,” I replied, trying to keep my voice calm and level. I surely hoped that he’d been right. The last thing I wanted to deal with was Virgil’s righteous indignation if I had to tell him that we’d made a mistake after all.

  The register finally stopped, and I scanned the tape for the day’s cash balance line, the only one that I cared about at the moment.

  It matched the physical tally to the dime.

  I grinned at Skip and gave him two thumbs up.

  “Wow, that’s a relief,” he said, and then he quickly amended, “Not that I wasn’t sure before.”

  “I agree, it’s good having official confirmation,” I said with a smile. “Now get out of here.”

  “Yes, sir. Happy to.”

  After I made out our daily deposit slip and put the cash and receipts in the zippered bag we used, I glanced at my watch and saw that we had seven minutes before the attorney was due back.

  It was time to catch my sister up on what had happened, what I’d found outside, and what was to come.

  CHAPTER 9: ANNIE

  “So that’s where things stand right now,” Pat said as he finished telling me about what had happened from his end of things during the afternoon.

  “Let me see that note again,” I said as I reached out my hand.

  “Be careful, Annie. We shouldn’t get any fingerprints on it,” Pat replied.

  “I’m pretty sure that you aren’t doing it any good wrapping it up in your bandana like that,” I countered. “Hang on a second. I’ve got an idea.” I went behind my counter and pulled out a baggie I used for leftovers sometimes. “Put it in here if you want to take good care of it.”

  “That’s a good idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “That’s why there are two of us,” I answered. He gently worked the note from his bandana into the baggie, and I sealed it shut. After that, I studied it a little more closely than I’d been able to before. “This isn’t just plain paper.”

  “I noticed that, too. Do you have any idea where it might have come from? Because I’m stumped.”

  “I’m not sure, either,” I said. “And you’re sure you didn’t get a good look at our lurker?”

  “Annie, I’m not any happier about it than you are. I might have missed the pivotal clue that would have solved this case.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Pat,” I said as I gently touched my brother’s shoulder. “I know how dense those woods can be. I keep telling you that we should buy the lot and turn it into an overflow parking lot.”

  He laughed at me. “That sounds kind of ironic coming from a nature-lover like you.”

  “I didn’t say that we should clear-cut it. I’d just like to have enough space for all of our customers to be able to park when they want to pay us a visit. We could make it into a park if we did it right.”

  “Where are we going to get the money to buy it?” he asked me. “How many offers have we already made to Molly?”

  “I’m pretty sure you could persuade her to sell if you put your mind to it.” My brother was hopelessly in love with his ex-girlfriend, and everyone in town knew it, with one notable exception. Molly acted as though she had no idea, and I had a feeling that she reciprocated his emotions, but Pat had warned me sternly not to meddle, and he’d used a tone of voice that I knew better than to defy. They’d just have to muddle their own way out of it, or not. I was mum on the subject.

  “It’s not going to happen, no matter how much all of Maple Crest might want it to,” Pat replied. “We’ll be fine the way things stand.”

  “If you say so,” I said. “Did you have any idea that so many people would want to see Chester come to harm? Because I know that I didn’t.”

  “I’d hate for someone to make a list of the folks who’d want to see something bad happen to me,” Pat said a little tentatively. “Wouldn’t you?”

  I laughed before I answered his question. “Why would anyone in the world want to harm me? I spread sunshine wherever I go.”

  He chuckled with me, which had been my goal. Sure, I’d been the one to find Chester’s body and had it pin me to the ground, but it was important that I didn’t forget that Pat had been the one who’d rolled his body off me. It had to have hit him hard, too, and it was worrying me a little that he hadn’t shown more emotion than he had after it had happened. Would he break down in the middle of the night when he was all alone? I couldn’t imagine that situation being any healthier for him than to have it happen when I was around so that I could at least offer him a little comfort. Kathleen knew how close my twin and I were, and I knew that she’d help with Pat if she could, but I wasn’t even sure that my presence would alleviate the situation. My brother and I were what we were, two people who had originated at the exact same moment in time in the exact same place, but in some ways, we were anything but twins.

  “Sis, you really don’t believe that bit about you being all goodness and light, do you?” Pat asked me, though his grin was still present.

  “The way I look at it is that if it helps me sleep at night, why shouldn’t I?” I asked him. “I wonder what this lawyer wants from the two of us. Nobody’s suing us, are they?”

  “It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they were, given the world we live in,” Pat said. “But I don’t think that’s it.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s hard to explain. I guess it was because he didn’t have that look about him,” Pat answered. “He was here on a more puzzling mission, if you ask me. I wasn’t entirely sure that he knew what he was doing here any more than I did.”

  “I suppose we’ll find out soon enough. As a matter of fact, I think I just heard a car pull into the lot, and our regular customers know that when we’re closed, that’s exactly what we mean.”

  Thirty seconds later, there was a seri
es of raps on the front door, and Pat and I went to open it together. When I saw the man standing there, I realized that my brother hadn’t told me that the attorney was kind of cute.

  “Well, if it isn’t my old friend, G. Robert Benton III,” Pat said as he held the door open for him.

  He looked at my brother skeptically, and then he offered me a slight smile as well as his hand. “You must be Analeigh.”

  “Annie is fine,” I said as I smiled at him. The hand I shook was firm, and the other wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. Two pluses for the attorney.

  “You can just call me Rob,” he said, and then he caught himself and put on a more formal air. “Do you both have time for me now?”

  “We have all that you need,” I said as I ushered him inside.

  Pat raised an eyebrow in my direction, and I gave him a look that said he’d better not get cute. Right now, that was my job.

  “What exactly can we do for you, Rob?” Pat asked, and I could see the attorney flinch a little at hearing his first name spoken by my brother. No doubt he’d meant that I could call him by name, but not my brother. Still, he was stuck with it, and I could see from his expression that he was going to accept it as graciously as he could manage.

  “I understand you two found Mr. Davis’s body this morning. Is that correct?”

  “It is,” I said.

  “I’m sorry that you had to go through that,” Rob said sympathetically. “Mr. Davis was a friend of mine, and he spoke highly of the two of you.”

  “What a nice thing to say,” I replied. “Though I can’t imagine why our names would come up in conversation with you. Chester was our customer and our friend, but in the end, we weren’t really all that close.”

  “He begged to differ,” the attorney said. “In fact, I got instructions from him just last night that in case something were to happen to him, I should speak with you both immediately.”

  “Was there anything in particular he wanted you to tell us?” I asked him.

  “I’m not privy to that information, I’m afraid.”

  “Then why exactly are you here?” Pat asked him bluntly as he headed for the front door. “We appreciate you extending your sympathies to us and all that, but it’s been a long day, so if you’ll excuse us…”

  It was clearly an attempt to get rid of the attorney, but Rob was having none of it. Instead of walking toward the door with Pat, which was clearly my brother’s intention, the attorney used the counter up front to rest his briefcase on. When he unlatched it with two sharp clicks, I felt a jolt run through me. It was as though something ominous had just been unleashed into the air, no matter how ridiculous that would have sounded if I’d dared to say it aloud. I’m not saying there were puffs of smoke, or hissing, or even a cloud of despair. I’m just saying that I had the feeling that I wasn’t going to like whatever was about to come out.

  “Chester Davis was under the strong impression last night that someone was going to try to kill him,” the attorney said matter-of-factly. If he’d embellished the news, or played it for what it was worth, I might have dismissed it, but his statement was so mundane that I had no choice but to take it seriously.

  “What exactly did he say?” Pat asked the attorney.

  “I’m sorry, but that’s privileged, even with my client’s demise.”

  “Then I’ll ask you again. If you can’t talk to us, then why are you here?”

  “Before Mr. Davis called me, he informed me that he’d written two letters. Actually, he just wrote one, but he instructed me to make a copy of it without reading it and to deliver both copies to the two of you if anything happened to him. He said that you weren’t always willing to share and that it would make matters easier if I presented you each with a letter of your own.”

  As he handed us our envelopes, I asked, “And you weren’t even tempted to peek while you were making a copy?”

  He smiled, and I could see dimples suddenly appear. Focus, Annie. You can daydream about this man later when you have more time and opportunity.

  “I’m willing to admit that I was tempted, but I respected Mr. Davis’s wishes.”

  After we each had our letter, Pat asked without opening his, “Was there anything else?”

  It was clear that the attorney had hoped to learn of the letters’ contents when we opened our envelopes, but it became just as clear that wasn’t going to happen. I was with Pat on that one hundred percent. Rob might be handsome, but this was something else entirely—what, I didn’t know just yet.

  “No, that will be all for now, but we’ll need to speak again soon.” He handed me his business card, since he’d already given Pat one, the same one my brother had shown me when he’d told me about the attorney’s earlier visit. “If you need me in the interim, and I mean for anything, please don’t hesitate to call.”

  “I’m sorry we had to meet in these trying circumstances,” I said as my brother and I walked him to the door and showed him out.

  The man just shrugged. He was about to say something else when my brother closed the door firmly in his face.

  “Was that entirely necessary?” I asked him.

  “I did you a favor. I didn’t want you to embarrass yourself,” Pat said.

  “I’m sure that I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I answered stiffly.

  “Sure, okay, whatever you say,” Pat replied. “I wonder what Chester had to tell us that was so important that he had to communicate with us from beyond the grave.”

  “I guess that there’s only one way to find out,” I said as I ripped my envelope open, unfolded the letter, and began to read.

  CHAPTER 10: CHESTER’S LETTER

  Twins, if you’re reading my letter, then it turns out that I was right. You should know that I take little consolation in that. Thirty-nine is too young to tell the world good-bye, but then again, if I were in my eighties, I’d probably feel the exact same way. I can tell you both that it’s a fact that being right isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I bet you are both dying to know what this is about. The truth of the matter is that I’m not absolutely certain about that myself. Either somebody’s tried to kill me twice already, and is going for “third time’s the charm” tomorrow morning, or I have an extremely overactive imagination. I’m going to have to ask you two to be the judges of that for yourselves. Why you two, you might ask? It came to me an hour ago. There aren’t a great many people in this world that I trust, but you are two of them. While you both have your own idiosyncrasies—and let’s be honest, who doesn’t—I know that I can count on you to dig into this and find out who killed me tomorrow morning, and why. I’m sure I just gave an English major a stroke with that sentence, but who cares? This is real life, and I’m long past caring. That’s the thing, though. I’m not. I know, or at least I greatly suspect, that I won’t learn the outcome of what you are both about to do for me, but it matters to me here and now. That’s all that I can say.

  Find out who killed me, and just as important, why they did it.

  Why would you agree to do this last favor for me while your sister is the sheriff in these parts? I have a high opinion of Kathleen, and as a basic law enforcement officer, she’s the tops. But whoever did this is going to be clever, and I have a hunch that if normal channels are all that are used to catch my soon-to-be killer, someone’s going to quite literally get away with murder.

  Oh, I almost forgot. After I sign off, I’ll list the folks I suspect and why, so you won’t be starting from scratch. Then I’ll give you more details about the attempts on my life so far.

  One last thing about Rob. I’ll be honest with you; I don’t know what to think about the man anymore. Good guy or bad, I can’t say, whether it has something to do with him, or if it’s just this paranoid man letting his imagination run wild.

  In the meantime, happy hunting.

  And be careful.

  Remember, whoever killed me is smarter than the average bear, and I’d hate to think that I was throwing you into the path
of an oncoming freight train. I just mixed metaphors there, didn’t I? Who knows, maybe the bear’s driving the train, or maybe my words are just the ramblings of a man facing his own mortality.

  If this is a false alarm, I’ll tear this letter up tomorrow at lunch and have a good laugh at myself.

  If it’s not, then you two know what to do.

  I’m counting on you both, Annie and Pat.

  Don’t let me down.

  All my very best to you both,

  I’m proud to say, your friend,

  Chester

  As promised, there was another page included in the letter.

  Chester had certainly been thorough. It must have broken his heart to sum up his life by listing the people closest to him who might want to see him dead.

  Let’s see. If I’m listing people who might want to see me dead, there’s no better place to start than my very own brother. Franklin has had a mean streak in him since the day he came out of the womb, and most of his anger in life has seemed to be directed toward me. At least he spared Lydia most of that particular pain. My baby sister and I had very different childhoods, though we grew up in the same home just eleven months apart. Franklin has been jealous of my success his entire life, from our time in school all the way to today. I made better grades, better money, better investments, and was better at just about everything, and I suspect that he never forgave me for surpassing him in every way. He’s so arrogant that he probably still believes that he’s in my will, though I’ve told him a hundred times that I’ve scratched his name out. I lied, though. He’s going to get a piece of everything that I own, twenty-five percent, to be exact. I know he’s going to fuss and fume about even that. There’s no doubt in my mind that he expects it all. You may wonder why I should give him anything. I bought my first land with a loan from our mother and father. They didn’t want me to pay the money back. All they’d asked in return was that someday I would promise to look out for my older brother and younger sister. I wish they’d taken the money, but they wouldn’t hear of it, so this is my way of fulfilling my last obligation, something I admittedly had a tough time doing while I was alive.