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

by Jessica Beck

  Lydia seemed to dismiss me as she turned to her brother and said in idle speculation, “I can’t believe Bryson and Julia.”

  “I know,” Franklin said, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye to be sure that I was listening. Apparently they were putting on a show for me. I only wished that I had popcorn to make their performances more enjoyable. “Chester must have felt betrayed by both of them.”

  “Bryson only dated her to get under our brother’s skin. He’d been beaten too many times in business. It must have killed him when Chester snatched up another new property right under his nose yet again. From what I hear, when he’s drinking, he loses his mind, so I’m not sure why anyone’s surprised by what he might have done.”

  “Julia’s no prize, either,” Franklin said as he switched the conversation to their former sister-in-law. Lydia was almost plausible in her behavior, but she’d clearly been the one who’d gotten all the acting talent in their family. Franklin had overpracticed his part so much that he might as well have been reading his lines off cue cards. “She told him that she still loved him, and he just laughed at her. She must have wanted to kill him with her bare hands on the spot. The woman’s been on medication for years, but I’m not sure that it’s helped her any.”

  I’d put their burgers on the grill top after they’d decided on their orders, and it was time to flip them both over. After I did just that, I took two slices of cheddar and laid them on top of the cooked portions so the cheese could melt as the burgers finished cooking. I thought the show might be over, but apparently I was wrong.

  “You know who else hated Chester?” Lydia asked her brother.

  “Who?”

  “Harper Gentry,” she said.

  “I thought they were dating,” Franklin said, trying—and failing miserably—to convey a sense of surprise as he spoke.

  “Didn’t I tell you? He broke up with her the night before he died,” Lydia said. “He told me in confidence that the girl was positively unstable! Poor Chester. Who knew there would be so many reasons people would want to harm him?”

  I kept ignoring them as I lightly brushed some butter on each bun half before placing them on the grill to toast a little before their burgers were ready to be served.

  “It just goes to prove that nobody loves you like your family does,” Franklin said. Honestly, his acting was getting worse by the minute.

  Lydia reached out and patted her brother’s arm. “At least we honestly cared about him.”

  “We can both take comfort in that fact,” he said.

  I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take before I burst out laughing, but thankfully, their cheeseburgers were finally ready. I slid the patties between their respective buns, plated them, and then pivoted and delivered them to the brother and sister. “There you go.”

  Franklin lifted the top bun as some of the melted cheese clung to it. “This thing doesn’t have anything on it.”

  “You didn’t ask for any condiments,” I said with a smile as I presented him with the check.

  “Just eat it,” Lydia said tiredly.

  “Fine,” he replied, and then he reached for the catsup and slathered it all over my perfect burger. He might as well have been eating shoe leather for all that he’d be able to taste it after he was finished with it. I used Angus beef, the best I could find, but in this case, it was all for naught.

  Lydia eschewed the catsup, though, and took a bite of exactly what I’d prepared for her. “Hey, that’s really tasty,” she said, as though she had the right to be amazed that my food wasn’t entirely dreck.

  “I don’t know. It’s just like every other burger I’ve ever had,” her brother replied.

  I grabbed another squeeze bottle filled with catsup and put it near his plate. “Maybe you just need more of this.”

  “No, it’s fine,” he said. The idiot hadn’t even realized that I’d been making fun of him. Honestly, that took some of the joy out of it.

  He wolfed his burger down in four bites, while his sister ate hers slowly and carefully. Franklin’s frustration and impatience with her were apparent after he’d finished his meal. “Aren’t you finished yet?”

  “I like to taste my food,” she said primly.

  He sat there another three minutes, sighing every ten seconds as his sister continued to eat. Finally, she must have grown tired of his attention. Pushing away a plate with a third of her burger still on it, she smiled at me and said, “That was delightful. Thank you.”

  “Come back any time,” I said with a smile and an invitation that I didn’t mean. It was what I told every customer, no matter how their dining experience had been. If Lydia and Franklin wanted to feed me what I was almost certain was false information, then they were going to have to pay us for the privilege.

  I’d seen Pat watching the brother-and-sister act the entire time they’d been in our store, and he nearly sprinted for the cash register in front to take their money when they approached. After they were gone, barely stopping at the tip jar to put a few pennies and nickels in spare change in, my twin hurried back to me.

  “What was that all about?”

  “They came by for a late lunch,” I said as I added a shrug.

  “That’s garbage and you know it,” my brother replied. “I heard some of what they were saying, and it had nothing to do with our cuisine.”

  “If you already heard them, why are you asking me now?”

  “I just got bits and pieces of it,” Pat acknowledged. “Our pesky customers kept interrupting my attempts to eavesdrop.” He added the last bit with a grin, something I quickly reciprocated.

  “You didn’t miss much. You’re right, by the way. They didn’t come by for the food. Franklin must have used an entire bottle of catsup on his burger. It’s amazing he could taste anything but tomatoes, sugar, and salt at all.”

  “What did they talk about?” Pat pushed.

  “It’s all basically what we already knew, with a few embellishments,” I said as I started to scrape the griddle section of my range with the stone I used to keep the surface slick and stick free.

  “Like what?” Pat asked. There were only two customers left in the store, and they were both looking at postcards over in Edith’s section, though she’d left the Iron two hours earlier. Skip was there helping them, though, so I could see why Pat wasn’t all that concerned about abandoning the front.

  “They tried to act as though they were having a casual conversation, but it was clear that the entire thing was intended for my ears. According to them, Bryson is a mean drunk, Julia takes medication because she’s crazy, and Harper is unbalanced on her own. Man, that pair gives brothers and sisters a bad name.”

  “Nobody would ever compare us to them,” Pat said, and I hoped that he was right. My brother and I might snip at each other on occasion, but no one could deny the bond we shared that went way beyond our time in the womb.

  I was about to say something in response when his cell phone rang. He must have turned the ringer on recently, because we both kept them set on vibrate during regular business hours. Pat glanced at the number, and then he said as he started to walk up front, “Sorry, Annie, but I have to take this.”

  “Is it Molly?” I asked him.

  “I wish, though I’m afraid that’s never going to happen again,” he answered. “It’s Harper.”

  “I wonder what she wants.”

  “I don’t know, but I have the feeling that I’m about to find out.”

  CHAPTER 19: PAT

  I left Annie inside the Iron while I stepped outside to take Harper’s phone call on the front porch. It wasn’t as though I was trying to hide my conversation from her; I just knew that if I took it in front of her, she’d be interjecting with a great deal of input that I didn’t need. “Hey, Harper.”

  “Pat, I need to speak with you. It’s important. It’s about Chester.”

  “I’d be happy to talk. Why don’t you come by the Iron? Annie and I are still here.”

>   She choked up a little before she replied. “I hope you understand, but I can’t come there, not after what happened to Chester.”

  “I get that. No worries. Annie and I can meet you just about anywhere,” I said. I’d heard conflicting stories about Harper and her relationship with Chester, and I wanted to pin her down on what had really happened between them the night before he’d been murdered.

  “Can’t you come alone?” Harper asked, her voice now barely above a whisper.

  “What’s wrong? Do you have a problem with my sister?” I asked her. Everyone knew that Annie and I were a team in nearly everything that we did, so asking us to split up was counterintuitive to everything we presented to the world.

  “To be honest with you, she asked me some questions at Lydia’s that I wasn’t all that comfortable answering. The truth is that I’ve never felt as at ease around women as I have men. Could you come alone?”

  I hated the idea of excluding Annie, but what choice did I have? “If you insist, but you should know that whatever you tell me, I’ll just end up repeating to her.”

  “Once we have our talk, I don’t care who you tell. How soon can you meet me?”

  I glanced at my watch. “We have five more minutes to keep the Iron open, and after that, we have a few things we need to do before we can leave. How does five o’clock sound to you?”

  “I’d rather it were now, but I suppose I can wait that long.”

  I wasn’t sure how I was going to get Annie to agree to let me go alone, but I’d have to come up with something, or we were going to take a chance of losing some valuable information. “Where would you like to meet up, at your place?”

  “I’d rather it be a little less visible to the world. How about if we go to one of the benches around the lake? There’s one in particular just where the woods meet the water that I’ve always been fond of, and it should be practically deserted at that time of day.”

  I knew the spot. It was the most secluded bench around the lake—in all of the park, as a matter of fact. After dark, it was known as a hangout where teens went to profess their undying love to each other, among other activities, but it should be fairly empty before nightfall. Parsons Lake Park was one of the nicest things our little town had to offer. “Sounds good. I’ll be there at five.”

  “Thank you. I’ll see you soon.”

  When I disconnected the call, Annie was standing at the door, listening in to my side of the conversation. I hadn’t noticed her until I was putting my phone away.

  “So, she wants to get you alone at the most romantic spot in Maple Crest, does she?” my sister asked me.

  “I’m sure she doesn’t have anything like that in mind,” I said.

  “You never know. What I want to know is why you agreed to meet her alone.”

  “What could I do? You made her uncomfortable with your questions at Lydia’s, and she said she felt as though she could trust me more.” I hadn’t meant to couch the information so negatively, but if Annie took offense, she didn’t say anything about it.

  “I didn’t even think that I’d pressed her all that hard,” my sister said. “Either she’s a truly delicate little flower, or she has another reason to get you alone.”

  “I don’t know what it could be. Her request didn’t make me particularly suspicious,” I said.

  “That’s why you’ve got me,” Annie answered. “I’m paranoid enough for the both of us.”

  “Do you honestly think she wants to do me harm? That doesn’t make any sense.” I knew that my twin could overreact at times, but this was crazy, even for her.

  “Let’s think about this rationally. She’s one of our murder suspects, true?”

  “True, but that doesn’t necessarily mean—”

  “Let me finish,” Annie insisted. “Next, she knows that we’re investigating Chester’s murder.”

  “She probably has a clue,” I agreed.

  “Let me ask you something. If Franklin had approached you and asked you to meet him at an isolated spot alone, what would your reaction have been?”

  “I’m not sure,” I replied. “I suppose there’s a chance that I wouldn’t have agreed to it.”

  “You wouldn’t go anywhere near that park if he’d been the one asking, and you know it,” Annie said. “Just because Harper is a woman doesn’t mean that you should take her innocence for granted, or turn your back on her, for that matter. I don’t have to tell you what happened to Chester when he offered someone the back of his head, do I?”

  I remembered that pool of blood by the cast iron pan, and I shuddered a little at the thought. “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”

  “You bet you will, because I’m going with you,” Annie declared.

  “If you come along, she’s not going to say anything,” I insisted.

  “If I don’t, there’s a chance that something bad might happen to you, and I’ve gotten used to having you around, Pat, so I’m not ready to say good-bye just quite yet.”

  I thought about what she was saying, but Harper had presented it as an all-or-nothing scenario.

  While I was still considering how to put my feelings into words, Annie followed up with, “If the roles were reversed, if she’d insisted on speaking with me, would you have agreed to let me go by myself?”

  “That’s different,” I said.

  “How, pray tell, is that?” I knew that look. Annie wasn’t messing around. She really was concerned about my welfare, and she was willing to push me to ensure it.

  “You’re right. I know you’re right. But I still have to go, and it has to be alone.”

  She looked long and hard at me, and then my twin sister nodded. “You’re right.”

  “I’m sorry, I’m not sure that I heard you. What did you just say?”

  “I said that you were right. Don’t act so surprised. It was bound to happen sooner or later.” Annie glanced at her phone. “Let’s close so we can get started finishing up for the day before Kathleen comes back.”

  “Too late,” I said as the sheriff drove up in her cruiser, ready to see Chester’s letter.

  “Where is it?” Kathleen asked a moment after she got out of her official police vehicle.

  “Hi, Sis,” Annie said cordially. “How are you doing?”

  “Save the pleasantries. I’m here for that letter.”

  I looked around, and though I couldn’t see anyone nearby, I knew that the killer could be hiding in the trees next to the store listening to everything we said. I was going to have to rethink using the front porch for privacy, and not just because of what had happened to Chester. “Can we at least take this inside first?”

  “Okay, but I’m not in the mood for any more of your stalling,” Kathleen said with determination.

  Annie raised one eyebrow in my direction after Kathleen walked inside the Iron, but I just shrugged. I knew that we were on delicate ground here and that we both had to watch our steps if we had any hope at all of ensuring domestic harmony in our little family.

  Annie started to produce her copy of the letter, but before Kathleen could grab it, my twin said, “Don’t be upset by what you read here. Chester was close to both of us. He trusted us because he knew us so well. I’d like to first tell you what we’ve been doing since we got this, if you’ll allow it.”

  “Sorry, but my patience is all gone,” Kathleen answered as she plucked Annie’s letter out of her hands.

  “Hey, that’s rude,” Annie protested.

  “File a complaint with the department,” she said as she pulled the letter out of its envelope. Kathleen quickly scanned its contents, pausing at the list of suspects Chester had added as an addendum, and then she returned to the main body of the letter. I wanted to say something, and Annie looked as though she were about to burst from holding it in, but to our credit, we both remained silent until she finished. With a frown, Kathleen stared at the letter for a few moments longer, and then she folded the letter back up, returned it to the envelope that it had come in, and
put it in her back pocket.

  “Hey, that’s mine,” Annie said.

  “Sorry, but I need this.”

  I was suddenly glad that I hadn’t told Kathleen that we had two copies of that letter. Annie clearly didn’t care. She wanted hers back, and I could see that she was about to pursue it when I put a hand on her arm. This wasn’t the battle that we needed to fight, if only I could make Annie see that.

  Was Kathleen disappointed when our sister didn’t put up a fight? Maybe, just a little. After she saw that she wasn’t going to get a rise out of either one of us, she said, “Now tell me what you know. Start from the beginning, and don’t leave anything out, no matter how small or inconsequential it might seem to either one of you.”

  I looked at Annie. “Do you want to start, or should I?”

  “Go ahead,” she said, and I started to bring Kathleen up to date on what we’d been doing. Annie interrupted enough so that it was truly coming from both of us, but if our big sister minded, she didn’t say anything. We told her everything, including the latest suspicions Lydia and Franklin had shared with her at the grill, but I made it a point to leave out my pending conversation with Harper and hoped that Annie would pick up on it and leave it out as well. By the time we were finished, Kathleen whistled softly under her breath. “I have to give you both credit. You’ve been busy.”

  “What could we do, given Chester’s request?” I asked her. “We weren’t trying to step on your toes, but you can see where we had to do something.”