by T. G. Hanson
Slipping on her old worn out house shoes, she shuffled towards the kitchen, thinking that this morning, ordinary coffee would not do the job. Only the special blend coffee she saved for just these types of mornings would push the cobwebs from her brain. It was her favorite, but because she had to order it off the internet, she liked to save it for days she needed an extra boost. Today, it appeared, was one of those days.
She felt tired this morning after not having slept well. Not long after going to bed Chewy had woken her with a series of barks. The little dog was jumping up and down in front of the dog gate that blocked the doorway to the rest of the house.
She had crawled out of bed, checked out both the front and back door, but found nothing out of order. Returning to the room she picked up Chewy and crawled back into the bed. Seconds later she was asleep, but only to wake up at every little sound for the rest of the night.
On her way to the kitchen she stopped and gazed at the room box. One last touch, a few body parts outside the backdoor in the alley, and the scene would be ready for tonight's event. But, coffee first, body parts second.
She looked down to see Chewy turning circles at her feet. “Okay girl, let’s go outside but we need to make it a quick one this morning.” Smiling at the dog, Meg opened the back door letting Chewy outside.
A few minutes later, coffee in hand, Meg sat down at her desk allowing the wonderful aroma to drift upward into her face. She loved the smell as much as the taste and it helped to clear her head.
“Well that's odd” she said aloud. One of the miniature clay hands and a leg were missing. “I could swear they were there last night.” Looking around on the floor she decided they must have fallen off the table and rolled under a piece of furniture. Either that or Chewy had found a few interesting new toys while Meg was working last night.
She glanced at her watch and realized there was no time to hunt for the missing parts or she would be even later for work. Oh, well, when you're talking parts, what's a missing leg and hand. It might even make the presentation a bit more interesting, she thought. Letting Chewy back inside she packed up the miniature scene in a box, then headed off to shower and dress for the day.
******
The water from the shower was warm and helped to soothe her sore back muscles. Bending over a table for hours on end, does not do my back any good.
As she showered, her thoughts drifted to earlier times, her old life, and how one single incident had changed it forever. Sometimes, she worried that her past would catch up with her. Then she would push the thoughts away and instead, think of how fortunate she was now. Not to mention, how much safer she was here in Mystic Pines. Only one person knew she was here, the family attorney, Humphrey.
Humphrey, had seen to it that she could purchase the diner and her house in her new name, then sealed the documents. He was also the one who encouraged her to follow through with her plans of leaving. She hoped her trust in him had not been misplaced.
“Just stop it Meg, I know he would never betray my trust. Be thankful for what I have here and now. A nice home, a thriving business and friends. There is no reason for Steve to come looking for me in this little town. I’m safe.”
Washing her hair, she thought back to when she first opened the diner on that Monday morning. It had cost her a lot of sweet tea and pie, but when all the regulars showed up, it was worth it. I still remember their faces when I explained my idea about the Mystery Dinner’s. She laughed out loud thinking about how excited they got.
A huge success, the first Mystery Dinner was packed with hardly a seat left in the diner. That Nyla Hanson, she had the murder figured out before any of the others. I’m going to have to step up my game to keep her guessing.
Climbing reluctantly out of the shower, she dressed for the day in a pair of jeans, a light-colored t-shirt and the new, very expensive tennis shoes she had just purchased. With the amount of walking and standing she did, she figured they cost less than a trip to the podiatrist. She didn’t have to worry about money, but she wasn’t one to put on airs about it and the less attention she brought to herself, in that respect, probably the better. Besides, she thought, I have everything I need. Or at the very least, everything that is important.
******
A few minutes later Meg and Chewy were headed down the street on her old vintage bicycle. Chewy in the basket up front, ears flopping in the breeze, and the mini scene tucked safely in a box on the back rack.
She had been given the cast-off bike by Helen Bells, one of the widow’s book club members, who could no longer manage to peddle and steer at the same time. With a bit of sanding, some paint, and a couple of wire baskets found on the Internet, she had a fun mode of travel.
While she liked to walk to work most days, she did find that on the hotter Texas days, the bike was faster and assured she wasn't a sweaty mess by the time she arrived at the diner. Being able to walk most everyplace in town, she had not seen the need to buy a car. If she had the need to go outside of town, her friend Lynn was always up for a shopping trip and would drive.
Today, she had decided on the bike because she had to take both the miniature scene and Chewy with her to the diner. It would be late when she left work and Chewy was only good for so many hours alone, before she found very inventive ways of getting into the treat cabinet. Plus, balancing both dog and the miniature, were next too impossible. Chewy did not know the meaning of the words “slow down” and at some point, Meg, or the miniature, would surely have hit the sidewalk before making it to the diner.
Meg had taken the time to call the diner earlier to let Randy the cook know that she was running behind schedule. She did however, need to prepare for tonight by writing up the presentation for the scene of the crime and that would take her several hours. And no doubt Daisy, the young girl she had hired to help at the bookstore, would have some major problem that Meg would have to sort out.
Daisy was sweet but not the sharpest tool in the shed. She had come to Meg this summer, right after she graduated from High School, asking for a job. Meg had hired her on the spot and while she’d been a decent employee, she was often in her own world it seemed. Meg would have to explain things to her multiple times before the girl got it.
The one thing Meg had to fight Daisy about was the way the girl dressed. It seemed the girl couldn’t decide between the goth look, which Meg hated, and dressing like she was thirty.
One day it would be jeans with holes in them and dyed red hair with black lips and fingernails then the next day it was skin tight leggings with an equally tight crop top cut way too low for a young girl. Plus, the girl changed her hair color like most people changed their socks.
Meg eventually gave up and purchased two uniforms of nice black jeans, a white short sleeve T-Shirt and a red smock. Daisy balked when she saw the uniform but Meg had laid down the law saying “Either you wear the uniform or you find another job. And, no more black makeup either.”
The next day Daisy had come to work wearing the uniform, with normal makeup, but with her hair dyed the same color as the smock. “I thought I’d color coordinate my hair” she had stated. Meg let it go thinking that winning half the battle was better than nothing.
She glanced down at the basket on the front of the bike, “Looks like a busy afternoon for us Chewy”. The little dog bounced her feet inside the basket and wagged her tail at Meg as if she had just been told she would find a bag full of treats waiting for her at the end of their ride.
SIX
Arriving at the diner, Meg dropped the box with the miniature project on the first table she came to, then headed towards the back of the bookstore where she had a gated area for Chewy to spend the day. She set Chewy inside the pen then pointed her finger at her. “Okay girl, you behave yourself while I try and get some work done. Nobody likes a noisy dog.” Then patting her on the head, turned and walked towards the front of the store.
As she passed by the opening to the diner, she noticed a man sitting at one of the ta
bles. He looked up, pushed back a section of greasy hair that had fallen into his face then nodded his head and smiled at her. To Meg the smile looked more like a sneer. Meg didn't like the looks of him at all. He looked to be on the shorter side and was wearing a cheap polyester suite that didn’t quite fit. She didn't know him, but he gave her the willies for sure.
Reaching the register, she asked Daisy, “Do you happen to know that man in the diner?”
“Nope, can't say I've ever seen him before. But, now that you’re here, I could use some help with the register. The machine has eaten the darn tape again!”
Meg shook her head and opened the lid to look at the tape. “Goodness Daisy, how many times have I showed you how to put the role of tape in the machine?”
“Hey, I put it in just like you showed me, hit the button to start it spooling, then the stupid machine just ate the tape.”
Meg pointed to the tape inside, “The problem is that the tape has to come out the front of the machine, not the back. You put it in backwards again.”
Daisy frowned and shuffled her foot on the floor as Meg switched the tape around, spooling it through the machine so that a portion of the tape rolled out the front. “There you go, all ready for the day” said Meg.
With that problem solved, Meg glanced back into the diner and noticed the stranger had left. Glad he’s gone she thought, as she walked back into the kitchen to check on Randy the cook.
She found Randy finishing up the chicken salad for the lunch menu, when she entered the kitchen. It was his specialty and everyone loved it. She could always count on a larger crowd whenever it was on the menu. She picked up a fork and dug out a large bite for herself. “Yum. One of these days you are going to have to tell me how you make this Randy.”
Randy looked up at her and grinned. “Sorry Meg, no can do. My mom swore me to secrecy when she gave me the recipe to use. Why she’d disown me for sure if I was to tell.”
Shaking her finger at him she teased, “Okay, I’ll let it slide for now but one day, you will tell!” she laughed. “By the way, did you know that smarmy looking guy who was in the diner a few minutes ago?”
Randy nodded his head, “Nope sure don’t. Never seen him before. You might ask Trixie though, she served him his coffee.”
Hearing her name, Trixie walked out from the serving area and waved at Meg. “Morning sunshine - did you need me for something?”
Trixie looked like your typical diner waitress. Thin, mid-thirties and had the reddest hair, piled on top of her head, Meg had ever seen. She knew it wasn’t natural but she had yet to decide what colors the woman mixed to get it that color. It was like a cherry red dipped in chocolate she thought. No matter the hair, the customers liked her and she was always ready with a smile or kind word for them. Meg liked her as well.
“Yes, Trix, I was wondering if you might have known the man that was in here just a bit ago? I think you served him some coffee.”
The woman frowned. “You mean creepy guy? Cheap suit and greasy gangster like hair?”
Having poured herself a coffee and taken a drink, Meg just about spit it out from laughing over Trixie’s description of the man. “Umm yep, that would be him.”
Trixie grabbed a rag and started mopping Meg’s coffee up off the counter. “Sorry Hun, can’t say that I’ve had the displeasure of knowing that one, thank goodness.”
Meg stood up to leave thanking Trixie and Randy for covering for her this morning and walked on back to the bookstore.
******
Randy Thorne was a fantastic cook and Meg had been lucky that he agreed to stay on after she took over the diner. Daisy had told her that his wife, on a girls’ night out to Gilley's Bar in Pasadena, had met and run off with some cowboy. That was back in the days of the big Urban Cowboy craze.
While Randy acted like he was long over his wife leaving, he still lived in the house they had bought together on Dagger Lane. He hadn’t changed a single thing inside since the day his wife had walked out the door and the small plastic name plate with Kim stamped on it, still hung in the back window of his pickup truck.
Shortly after hiring him, Meg found that she had to have the song Here Comes the Hurt Again, from the movie Urban Cowboy, taken out of the juke box. Every time someone played it Randy would go on a drinking binge and not show up for work the next day. Seemed to her he was a lot happier after the song was removed. She knew she was.
Tall and lanky, Randy had often been told he could pass for the actor, Adrian Brody. Sort of a loner, he preferred staying home most evenings to watch WWE Wrestling on the television or playing around on the computer. Beyond that, you didn’t see him wandering around town much. He just wasn’t what you would call a people person.
******
Picking up the box with the miniature room scene inside, Meg walked back to her office and stopped to give Chewy a little pat on the head. Turning toward her office she took a few steps forward and stopped short, almost dropping the box. Drawers were pulled open and papers littered the floor. A plant that had been sitting on the corner of her desk had been knocked off and was lying on the floor.
Turning her head, she yelled, “Daisy, what in the heck happened back here!”
Catching the tone in Meg’s voice Daisy hurried to the back of the store, took one look in the same direction as Meg and remarked, “Gosh, Meg, how would I know? This is the first time I've been back here since coming in this morning. I came in, hung up my coat and then got right to work on the new books. I had just finished with them and put the tape in the machine when you came in.”
“You did remember to lock up the shop last night when you left, right?”
Daisy frowned at Meg. “Yes. I always double check the lock when I leave. I'm not stupid you know.”
On her way back to the front of the store, she stopped half way and turned towards Meg, “But, now that you mention it, I did see that Henry Means sort of sneaking around the alley when I took the trash out this morning. Why don't you go ask him about it?”
Meg wasn't sure what had happened here or if Henry might have had anything to do with it, but it gave her a bad feeling. It did appear as if someone had been looking for something, but what it was, she had no idea. Not to mention the fact that someone must have broken into the shop.
Not seeing anything missing she decided not to call the Sheriff. The last thing she wanted to do was draw attention to herself, unless it was unavoidable. Right now, she had to get this mess cleaned up and get to work on tonight's presentation.
Meg picked up all the papers, closed all the drawers and tried to get most of the dirt from the plant, off the floor, and back into the pot. Setting the plant back on her desk, she went to get the vacuum cleaner out of the supply closet.
Just as she finished getting all the dirt off the carpet, Meg heard Daisy greeting a customer. Returning the vacuum to the supply closet, she heard the familiar voices of Nyla Hanson and her book club lady friends.
She tried to turn quickly and enter her office unseen. Evidently she hadn’t moved fast enough, because she heard Nyla call out to her, before she reached the door to the office. “Meg, oh Meg honey, could you please be a dear and help us out.”
Darn, today is not the day I want to deal with these ladies. Not that they weren't nice and they were some of her best customers, it was just that she was now way behind schedule and was running out of time to prepare for tonight.
Maybe she thought, it will be something quick and simple they need, and I can get back to work. But then, with Nyla Hanson, nothing was ever simple or quick.
******
Meg had met the widows, as they were known around town, when she had first purchased the bookstore and diner. The ladies, having been friends for many years had formed the “Widows Watch Book Club” a few years back. Regulars at both the diner and bookstore, they would meet up once a week, have lunch at the diner and then cross through to the bookstore, and hold their weekly club meetings.
Around town the group w
as known as the gossip mill and there wasn't a lot that happened in Mystic Pines these ladies didn't know about. Especially their self-proclaimed leader, Nyla Hanson.
Nyla was the top winner of the Wednesday night Mystery Dinners. Her name had reached the top of Meg's list some time ago and had remained there until recently. Next to Meg, she was considered the authority on just about any mystery book you wanted to know about, or so she thought.
Nyla had caught up to Meg and tapped her on the arm, “Meg dear, we ladies had a rather heated discussion on our way here today and we hope you can set us straight.”
“Sure Nyla, I'd be happy to help if I can.”
Pointing at two of the ladies, Nyla continued, “Sue and Myra seem to think that you had a rule about how long a person could remain at the top of the Mystery winners list. I told them that you had no such rule, but they just won't believe me. Could you be a dear and explain to them that I know what I'm talking about?”
Meg snickered to herself as she thought about Nyla's question. She remembered a few months ago, when Nyla had come down with the flu and had to miss one of the Mystery dinners. Her arch enemy, Charles Wadsworth, who owned the Piggly Wiggly Grocery store, had won that night. Only one win below Nyla, he’d knocked her name off the top of the list. Nyla was livid and spent the entire next month trying to convince Meg, that having had the flu, she should have been given special consideration and therefore left at the top of the list, putting Charles second.
Meg smiled at the group, “Now ladies, it’s true that I don't have a formal rule about the list. It's strictly based upon the number of times a person wins.” Then, with an intentional softness to her voice, Meg added, “But Nyla dear, don't you think it would be nice for someone else to have a turn at the top now and then? After all, Giles did win fair and square.”
