by Jessica Beck
“No it’s not. I don’t want to be the one who’s responsible if you put cherry filling in the lemon-filled donuts tomorrow. I’ve got some errands to run in the morning, but I’ll be at the shop at eleven-thirty, okay? We can pick up where we left off.”
“That sounds great, if you’re sure you don’t mind,” I said. I was beat, even though the hour was early for just about anyone else. To be fair, though, they didn’t have to get up when I did, either.
She dropped me off at my Jeep, and I followed her home. As Grace turned into her driveway, I beeped my horn once and headed on to the cottage Momma and I shared. I was looking forward to a quick conversation on the phone with Jake, and then an abbreviated night’s sleep.
I had the perfect plan, but I never got to use it.
Momma was standing by the front door, and from the expression on her face, we were about to have a conversation that I was nearly positive I wasn’t going to enjoy.
“Young lady, what exactly have you been up to this evening?” she asked the second my foot hit the first step.
“You’re going to have to be little more specific than that, Momma. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
She didn’t crack a smile at that, a bad sign. “I just spoke with Phillip on the telephone. What were you thinking?”
“Was he honestly that upset Grace and I were at James’s cabin? I didn’t think he had a huge problem with it at the time.”
Momma frowned as she somehow managed to look down on me, a neat trick since we were both on the porch and I was a good half a foot taller than she was. “I’m talking about the journal, Suzanne.”
So Officer Grant had ratted me out after all. He was going to get a stale donut the next time he came into the shop. “He actually called you about that?”
“What would you rather have had him do, arrest you?”
“Momma, I gave it right back,” I protested.
“Suzanne Hart, I will not tolerate this kind of behavior. You stepped over the line, and you need to make this right with Phillip, and I mean right now. I will not have you stealing evidence in a murder investigation, not to mention interfering with my relationship with your actions, do you understand?”
“James was my friend. I have a right to find out what happened to him, especially after the way we left things. Momma, I yelled at him, and the next thing I heard about him, he was dead. There’s no way that I can make it right with him now, but I have to do everything in my power to try to find his killer.”
Her voice softened, and she stroked my cheek gently for a moment, something she’d done when I’d been upset as a little girl. It still managed to have a calming influence on me. “I understand all of that, and I know that you’re in some pain. That still doesn’t change the fact that you were wrong this evening.”
I considered her words for a few moments, and then I nodded in agreement. “You’re right. I was wrong.”
Momma looked hard into my eyes. “Are you just trying to placate me?”
“No, ma’am.” I grabbed my cell phone and dialed the chief’s number.
He picked up on the first ring and barked out, “Martin.”
“Chief, this is Suzanne. I’m sorry I didn’t give you the journal right away. I guess I kind of panicked when you walked into the cabin, so I was afraid to tell you that I had it, but that’s no excuse. I was wrong to do it, and I sincerely apologize.”
“Did you tamper with it in any way?”
Boy, was I glad that I’d left Trish’s number right where I’d found it. “No, sir. I give you my word.”
There was a long pause on his end of the line, and then he finally said, “That’s good enough for me, then. Just promise me one thing. If you find anything else, let me know about it right away, okay? Slipping it into the mailbox was a bad way to handle it. The second I pulled it out of the box I knew what you must have done.”
So then Officer Grant hadn’t betrayed me after all. That was good to know, and made me feel a little better about things. And then the ramifications of the chief’s words hit me. “Does that mean that you approve of my digging?”
“Hang on a second. I never said anything like that, but I know you too well to believe you’re going to just drop this on your own unless I lock you up. Just don’t get in my way, or make my life any harder than it already is, okay?”
“Is that just on the professional front, or elsewhere, too?”
“Consider it a blanket request,” he said. There was another pause, and he added the next bit so softy I nearly missed it. “If it’s any consolation, I just found out that James died almost instantly. The skewer pierced his heart from the front, and he was most likely dead before he hit the ground. I am sorry about your loss. I know that the two of you were close.”
“Thank you for that,” I said, and then hung up.
“There, was that so bad?” Momma asked me.
“It wasn’t good,” I said, “but you were right. It had to be done.” The chief hadn’t mentioned Trish’s name, so I knew that he hadn’t found it yet.
“What’s the occasion?” Momma asked. “You look lovely tonight.”
“Grace and I decided to get dressed up for a change,” I said, “but don’t get used to it. I’m going to change in just a second back into jeans.”
“I’m glad I got to see it, then.”
As tired as I was, I couldn’t go to sleep yet. “Momma, after I put on some jeans and a T-shirt, I have to go out for a little while. I’m not all that hungry, since I had a really late lunch. Do you mind?”
“We’re having leftovers, so you can eat whenever you’d like. You aren’t digging into James’s death more after that telephone call, are you?”
“When I saw Trish this afternoon, she was upset. I’m worried about her, so I thought I’d go by her place to check on her.” It was tied into the case in a few ways, both from her earlier reaction and also from her telephone number showing up in James’s journal, but I didn’t have to add that to my explanation. The main purpose was to see how my friend was doing.
“You’re a good friend,” she said. “Go on.”
I felt bad about misleading her even a little, but if I told Momma all of the reasons I wanted to see my friend, I was afraid it would just start another round of squabbles, and I wasn’t in the mood for that right now. I left the house, got into my Jeep, and drove straight to Trish’s house by the lake. I thought about calling her first to let her know that I was on my way, but if I did that, I knew that there was a good chance she wouldn’t see me. Better to show up and make her turn me away in person, if she thought she could manage to do that. I had to see just how involved Trish was in this murder, and preferably before Chief Martin showed up on her doorstep.
* * *
It wasn’t a very long drive, but it might as well have been in a different county. Trish had inherited a place on the lake from her grandfather. It was nothing grand—just barely more than a cottage—but it was right on the water, and as much as I loved the park just outside my bedroom window, I still envied her the view she had from her back deck.
I knocked a few times, but she didn’t answer.
Was she there and ducking me, or could she be at the Boxcar? I knew that she was off tonight, but maybe she’d decided to stay and work. It might be tough being alone out here.
On a whim, I decided to check out the back deck to take in the view before I left. There was a full moon tonight, and I wanted to see the light dancing on the water.
As I climbed the steps so I could look at the lake, she said from the shadows, “Hello, Suzanne.”
To my credit, I didn’t pass out from fright, but I had to admit that I was a little shaky for a second. “I didn’t mean to barge in on you like this, but we need to talk.”
“Grab a chair and sit down,” she said as she patted the deck chair near her. It was nicely lit back there with double shots of moonlight from the sky and also from the lake, and I had no trouble seeing her now that I knew sh
e was there. Trish’s ever-present ponytail was undone, and her blond locks cascaded around her face. She was wrapped in a blanket, and handed one to me as I sat with her. “It can get chilly out here at night, even in the summer.”
I took it and draped it across my shoulders. “Thanks.”
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? James came back home with me last week for the first time, and he fell in love with it instantly.”
“You two were dating, weren’t you?” I asked.
I could see her nod slightly, and after a moment, she said, “It was brand-new, and we didn’t want to tell anybody in case we jinxed it. He was having trouble getting Rebecca Link to accept the fact that they weren’t together anymore, but he didn’t want to rub it in her face by showing me off around town, so we kept it quiet.”
“And you didn’t have a problem with that?” I asked.
“Suzanne, you know how long I’ve wanted a good man in my life. Of course I wanted to tell you and everybody else in April Springs, but having him was more important than telling anyone about it. How did you guess? Did my crying at the diner this afternoon give me away?”
“I knew that you were upset, but I couldn’t be positive it was because of the close relationship you had with James. I thought it might be because it happened so near to your diner, but then I found your personal telephone number in the back of James’s journal.”
“What were you doing with that?” she asked, a bit of ire jumping into her voice.
There was no way to sugarcoat this. “I’ve been trying to find his killer ever since I heard what happened to him. Grace is helping, too, and we’re doing everything in our power to solve this quickly.”
“I want to help you, too,” she said as she started to get up out of her chair.
“Trish, sit back down. As much as I appreciate the offer, I’m not sure what you can do at the moment. If I need you, I’ll be sure and ask.”
She hesitated, and then asked softly, “Suzanne, if you’re not here to ask for my help, why are you at my place long past your bedtime? You don’t think I killed him, do you?”
“Of course not,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean that people won’t be asking you questions, especially when they find out the two of you were dating.”
“Are you going to tell anyone about it?” she asked nervously.
“They won’t hear it from me, and you shouldn’t even have to ask, but you know how people in April Springs can be. Do you have an alibi for this morning? Were you at the diner the entire time?”
“No, I slipped out the back door to see James,” she admitted.
That wasn’t good news, but we still might have an out. “What time was that?”
“A little before eleven,” she said.
“When were you back behind the register?”
“It couldn’t have been more than five minutes later.”
“Are you absolutely certain about the time?” I asked.
“Of course I am. It couldn’t have been later than one or two minutes after eleven that I was back, and the time stamps on the receipts will show that I was at the register by then. We each have a different code when we sign in so I know who to blame if something goes wrong.” And then she got it. “I still can’t believe that you’re asking me for my alibi.”
“It’s not so much for me, but I want you to be sure when Chief Martin comes by here. It won’t take him long to find your phone number in the back of that journal. James didn’t exactly hide it. I’m guessing he’ll be out here tonight, so I can’t stay. He’s already upset with me, but I promise that it’s not going to stop me from digging into this. I can’t believe how James and I left things. I yelled at him about that stupid smoke from his fire pit getting into my donut shop, can you believe it? That’s the memory I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life.”
“Actually, he thought it was kind of funny,” Trish said softly.
“What? Did he say something to you about it?”
Again she nodded. “James said that he was going to build a bonfire next time just to egg you on. Suzanne, he cared about you. That little spat you had didn’t bother him at all.”
“Is that true, or are you just saying it to spare my feelings?”
I saw the whisper of her smile, oh so fleeting, in the moonlight. “Yeah, that sounds exactly like me.”
“Okay, point taken. Listen, don’t be upset when the chief shows up here. He wants to find out who killed James just as much as anyone else does, including you.”
“I can’t believe that,” she said.
“Don’t sell him short. I know that you cared for James, but the chief takes it personally whenever someone’s murdered in April Springs. There are a great many people looking into this.”
“Just not me,” she said.
It was clear Trish didn’t just want to help me; maybe she even needed it. “Okay, maybe you can help. Off the top of your head, who might have done it?”
“Besides Rebecca? You could talk to Murphy, and there’s always his family in Pinerush.”
“You knew about them?” I asked.
“James thought I had a right to know just how crazy he really was trying to get rid of a fortune,” she said with the hint of another smile. “He told me the whole story out here two nights ago. It was really hard for me to believe that he was that rich, and I thought that he was kidding at first.”
“Why did he come clean with you so quickly?”
“I asked him that, and he said that he wanted me to know that the money was never going to be an issue, that he was happier being a poor blacksmith than he’d ever been as an heir to the Pinerush fortune. I told him that I’d sign any document he asked me to, as long as we could keep seeing each other.”
“I’m so sorry, Trish. I didn’t have any idea that you two were that close. I’m surprised, to be honest with you.”
“It just kind of snuck up on us, to tell the truth. We were just friends, and then one night it was raining and I got a flat tire. I was about to call AAA when James tapped on my window and offered to change my tire. By the time he was finished, he was soaking wet, so we went to his cabin so he could get some dry clothes. Suzanne, he was so gallant. We stayed up talking all night, and by morning the rain had stopped and something had started between us.”
Trish had been looking for her knight in shining armor forever, and clearly James had suddenly fulfilled the role. It was an odd match at first glance, but the more I thought about it, the more I could see how they could be good together. They weren’t exactly opposites, but I could see how there might be enough between them to make them mesh.
“It sounds wonderful,” I said.
“It might have been. We just didn’t have enough time to find out. I have the feeling that I could have fallen in love with him if we’d been given more time, but now I’ll never know. Someone robbed me of that chance, and I’ll do anything I can to help find the killer.”
“Grace and I have come up with all of the suspects you’ve mentioned. Is there anyone else you might want to add?”
“Not offhand,” she said.
As I got up from my seat, I said, “Trish, it’s not good for you to stay out here by yourself when you’re feeling this way. Why don’t you grab a few things and come home with me? Momma and I would be happy to have you at the cottage.”
“You don’t even have to ask her first?” Trish asked.
“I’m sure that my mother would be delighted to have you. I have to warn you, though. I get up pretty early, but you can sleep in as long as you’d like.”
Trish stood as well, and as she folded up the blankets we’d been using, she said, “I appreciate the offer, but I’ll be fine here.”
I took the blanket from her and said, “This isn’t one of those offers that people make but don’t really mean. We would love to have you stay for as long as you like.”
That got me the second hug from Trish that day. “You’re a good friend, Suzanne.”
“So are yo
u. How many times have you stood by me over the years? We both know that they are too many to count. Don’t be one of those people who can give out favors but never take them from anyone else. It’s okay to lean on someone else every now and then.”
“I’ll try, but it goes against my nature. Honestly, if I change my mind later, can I call you?”
“Sure, but try the house phone. I might be asleep, but Momma’s a real night owl these days. I’ll let her know that you might call.”
“Like I said, I probably won’t, but thank you again for the offer.”
“Like I said, any time, day or night.”
As I drove away from the lake house, I wondered if I should have been a little more insistent about her coming back home with me. Momma and I didn’t have a lot of room, but there was always space for our friends in need. I was approaching the intersection to go back home when I spotted the police cruiser trying to turn into the lane that led to Trish’s place. It hadn’t taken Chief Martin as long as I’d guessed to track Trish down. Pulling the wheel of the Jeep over into a driveway just off the road, I killed my lights and waited for the police cruiser to pass me. Once he was around the corner and out of sight, I hit my lights, started my engine, and drove the rest of the way home. I wasn’t sure how the police chief would react if he’d caught me at Trish’s after what had transpired earlier, and I was in no mood to find out.
The rest of the drive home was uneventful, and I was happy when my headlights hit the cottage Momma and I shared.
Momma greeted me gladly when I walked in, as though the earlier exchange had never happened. That was just one of the things I loved about her. When it came to family, she never held a grudge or stewed over anything. The rest of the world might face her lingering wrath, but for me, she was always quick to just let things go.
“I heated up some of that turkey I made last week. I thought we’d make sandwiches.”
“Excellent. Tryptophan is exactly what I need. Turkey always makes me sleepy. By any chance did you save any stuffing?”
Momma laughed. “I know how much you love it on your sandwiches. We’ve even got some cranberry sauce for a side dish.”
