A Gift for Murder

by Capri Montgomery

  Megan had to say that she understood his words but she still wanted him to know this is not what she wanted. She also understood his plan because she really was sitting here even when she took a break from cleaning thinking of who dated Sterling and all the things she had seen while she was there, and heard too. Basically, she was thinking the same thing that he was, and it was true that it could have been anybody. Most of the women that were sitting there actually went to that spa almost religiously. No one could say that they were there that night, the night before last, or any night before that. While she was there in the spa that day with the detective talking with her, before, after and during, she was piecing the postures in the room where all the women were sitting and their lack of communication with each other together and figuring out as she went. None of them trusted each other but if they could send each other or talk to each other the clear themselves are being guilty in this crime they would do it. And since they seem to be taking a look at her as the woman they needed to avoid, or friend, to get her to tell them about what the detective here was doing she was going to do one up from what they wanted by doing something they definitely didn’t want her to do. She was going to do what she didn’t want to do in the first place. She was going to figure it out and figure them out. She was going to find L hold possibly could have wanted to murder of them and, the why, the hell they got him to look into a freezer in the first place and stay calm while they smothered him with to a knockout cloth and how they got him into the trees are an out into the steam room. As they said she had this thing for solving things and mostly they said murder. Whenever the cops were investigating the murder they always used to say that she came up with something that helped them figure it out. Of course she never really did try to come up with something help them figure it out but in this case she was going to help them figure it out. And this was not just because she liked being closer to Merck. This was because someone had actually killed this man in the spa and they would let anybody fall for their actions. Sales since they were looking at her like a possible threat she was going to become the possible threat. As mark a distilled and he knew she was going to keep her mind working those wheels turning. Any yeah he was right she was even issue did a really want to answers now she did. She wanted to know the classic who done it and she wanted to know it sooner rather than later.

  It was clear to her that mark wasn’t so upset about her abilities anymore and that he what will come her help if he needed it. And while she was not planning to go hunting for the killer she knew just with the whole history of her life she always seemed to search for the answers to anything and everything. She might not like that gift, she might even call it a curse, but she had developed a talent for solving things and there was no reason that she should just keep her talents out of the stratosphere.

  She had a gift in on this she was going to use it. And since mark had said that she could contact and not just with information on which she knew but also want any time she felt threatened she would take them up on that. To ban as he offers said that had to count for something.

  Megan sat there comfortably with Merck. Feeling relaxed in his company probably should have felt outlandish, but it didn’t. It really was nice that she could be herself with somebody without them getting her down or looking down on her because of her gift, as they called it. He seemed to be a little more respectful of her the state. Of course there had been decades since she last saw him. Life had changed and some of his change seemed to be honestly not because of fate. He grew up and opened his eyes what was right, and was for him. Peer pressure could not control him now.

  Megan had to remind herself once again do not get a crush on for this guy. They could be friends. They can’t be joint conversationalist on this murder. But she could not start to like and again in any way other than he’s a cop, a skill detective actually, and she wish just the normal average since the fourth time café owner. Yes she wanted to have liked the normal life and the normal standing in life. She did not however want to think of being an investigator like Merck was. He deserves any award that he got for anything that he did and she really just wanted to be normal. That on this case with the way the women have been treating her and the things that she we’re sure she had felt in seen the monks then she was not going to stand back. Is something came to her she was going the use of to figure out what actually happened. And on that note to herself she told herself go back to that spot, talk to the owner, and find out who this Sterling died really was. Two other women that were there at the spa were clearly in to the man, however, if people assumed that this guy had a thing for any woman that can actually give him a little bit more wealth than what he had been a janitor how many women did he do that with? Was he into any other workers there? Maybe, maybe not because if they were workers there like he was the weapon had the kind of money that you would want to gain from having the fear with them. But she had also asked the same question of that the janitor blackmail any of these women? These are the man was an affair with a woman who was on the married, had an outstanding view of the people in the city and would not have light having their view tarnished by such a scandal. Somebody who had that’s larger of the threats hovering over them would probably go with giving money as fast but then the person who was getting the money to want more. At some point whoever is paying the person would decide to end it, or more likely end them. Of course she still had a lot of investigating for staff to do is figure out that that were the case and if it were possible that there was an affair actually even in place. Women may have a gossip; they knew how to tell lies, that sometimes they can barely have the truth. She could see, and here, the connotations there and that some of the women really were having an affair with him but that did not mean it was an unknown Welcome affair so much that they would have had to tell him to keep his mouth shut. He was single both of the women that she knew of what actually single as well so maybe not them. They did have really high ranks in the city some know if they were anything about the money and it wouldn’t be China hide something from a spouse but maybe it would be China hide something from everybody else in the city. But that was still a long way to go out to you must’ve done it because you were having an intimate relationship with him and you don’t want anybody to know about it. If they really did love him would they have been so willing to kill him? She was not sure that it was clear that mark didn’t really have a whole game on the subject either otherwise he probably would have talked more about it. She did know she had to get back to that spa and ask the right person the right question, and maybe she got lucky she could ask a few of the other people who worked with this guy or around this guy because none of them work directly with them anything they knew about him, the relationships he had, his honesty and what possibly could have worried anybody who knew him.

  Chapter Five

  Guilty Born

  Megan needed a morning out and walking out her front door to go across the roadway to see what knew skirts were in the retro shop seemed like a grand idea. She realized she had enough clothes to cover the eras constantly circling like the earth but another skirt couldn’t hurt. She was mostly the buyer of dresses but a skirt was fun too.

  1970s miniskirts went well with knee high boots and thigh high boots. A skaters skirt went well with yachts sneakers and roller skates. She didn’t still have a pair of skates but she could rock sneakers and designer tights. What better place locally could give her a mix of one of a kind Hollywood glamour and one of a kind 1950s poodle skirts. Just because she didn’t wear everything didn’t mean she couldn’t like looking at it.

  She needed a break. While she was always the stay at home, or work and volunteer type, sometimes, leaving the walls around her gave her a breath of fresh air and inspired more café design ideas.

  She was walking along watching the city wake up with people. Some were headed to the bagel shop, others to the barbershop but the movement was always heading toward spending money. Megan would be sure to leave her save more, spend
less, mantra off her napkins. They could spend as much as they wanted, if not more, at her café. Their spending money at her café would help her pay bills and build a good and healthy savings account. A strong savings account would help leave emergency funds for her to use. Everybody knew that every café, every store, every business everywhere had good days, bad days, bad weeks and bad months. When things got rough having a savings she could use to ease the load of stress sure to come with those bad times was a blessing. A hard earned blessing.

  Yes she was sure, mostly sure anyway, that she could make Sweet Sensations work. She had ideas for a different name of her café, again, but what had been started was not going to be changed. Signs were not cheap and neither were the fees for changing it now. There was nothing wrong with her café name. People who loved simply sweet and great treats to take to work, home to a park or just to sit at a table in the café and settle down for a while just might find her café name cozy and comforting.

  Megan had even thought of adding in a decoratively classy magazine rack for the people who wanted to do more than computer work to catch up on stocks, world news, fashion, entertainment and even city updates. She was sure a couple of the free deliveries given to restaurants and bed and breakfast establishments would be left at her door post once she opened. It never would fail for any new business to get a stack because the more they gave out free the more the paper would be seen. The more the paper was seen would make the increased ad fee prove to be worth it to any place selling anything in this city and beyond.

  “Money talks. Lack of money walks,” Gloria Gains had said a long while ago and Megan could agree with that. The more readers to the magazine brought money to businesses that weren’t known of in the city or farther away. The less papers read meant the ad buyer wouldn’t see a reason to spend a dime on the paper’s ad space.

  Life was a numbers game. Rich got richer, poor got poorer and the heart of a great business could be turned over in a heartbeat. She had seen the death of a town happen before. People would move to the states with viable jobs even if they loved their current home, neighborhood or state of living environment.

  Megan knew that the free papers in her café would get her at least one free ad a week or, a month, depending on the size of the ad Yes, she had idea, but she knew she would have to buy ad space in major papers too. There was more to the world than just Forest Springs. People heard about the festivals here, but also about waterfalls and trails and forest sleepovers for the average nature lover and the ones for the epic camp through the woods lover. The next state up had a vast display of winter games and autumn games and with one great ad that hit the other states and cities, too, people could find out about the great food and things to do to bring them here.

  Megan was sure she picked the right spot here. It wasn’t the super rich spot but it was the average person spot. The person who liked to shop a little, eat a little and let the love of nature bring them a smile to their heart no matter how dark the clouds in their life were. She had learned through the years about what was important and what wasn’t. She had skirted all around the world but she would guess she was comfortable…not superfluously happy. But looking at the spa thing she wasn’t sure she would reach more than comfortable here. Though, if she could reach comfortable, that would be great. If she could stop thinking about Merck, that would be better. The man was a heartbreaker and she knew that firsthand, he was still s ingle, but so was she so she couldn’t hold that against him.

  Megan stopped lollygagging around daydreaming about nothingness. The sun was out, slightly masked by the fluffy occasional puffy cumulus cloud—the clouds that little kids could see animals playing through the sky in. The wind was soft, cool and pleasantly sharing the smell of fresh flowers all around the city. Today was a good day to be out.

  The beauty of the day was making Megan think she should put a small section of tables outside her shop. She had room on her property here without landing in front of the knit parlor about one store space of land from her space. Megan knew she got lucky because the city man who talked to her about space requirements for her living in the flat over her café, had told her she got the slot before the lady over the shop next to all the other shops on the side she was moving on was trying to buy it first. “You just put in the offer on paper first.” He had laughed. “I would have preferred putting in a new store to attach to both of you all’s shops but I lost the vote on that.” She was glad he did. Who wanted to be jammed next to a store, dance school or anything else? Space was always a good thing. Since that section of land was hers she could put up a gazebo like structure where the people who wanted to eat outside with protection from the damaging sunrays and the day of rain could kind of laze out at the tables outdoors. They had already paved in her side of the stretch and left space for the flowers they had planted in the garden for people to walk around…maybe not around unless they wanted to walk into a stone wall, but it was a work of beauty. She just had to add it all on…add it all up, first. She was not rich and she did not have access to a genie in a bottle to ask for a hand up.

  She still wanted to make her café the best café for sweets in town. They had the bagel shop, the doughnut shop, the hotdog shop and even the chicken shop, but her café could stand alone and be seen for the good parts…the great parts. She could do this.

  When Megan walked into the Retro Squad she could see how beautifully it was kept up. The buzzing shop keeper was moving faster than a warming bee. She had one of the pink poodle skirts on with a black short sleeve buttoned blouse that gave a hint of skin but not too much to be offensive to women coming in with their sons. She had penny loafers on instead of sneakers, and since there was a wall of shoes that matched in various shades. Megan figured they wanted to try to get rid of the shoes. They were all in the size eight section so they probably ordered more than they needed. Each shoe was designed a bit differently but they were all the same type of shoe up there on that wall.

  Her bang with curled up back hair fit the era. “I am Pebbles Robin.” She laughed. “No, that is not just a store name. My mother liked a real life Bamm-Bamm Rubble so she named me Pebbles so I could be like the daughter of the cartoon character who loved the boy she loved. Robin was not his last name. I believe his last name was Rubble. My father’s last name was Robin so that made it easier for my mom to knit up the hats with PBBR on them. My mom has some issues but she’s all about love. Unlucky for me but I have never met another Pebbles Robin so that has to be a good thing.” She shook her head and laughed. “I swear I think my mom is desperately seeking Bamm-Bamm, if not for her, then for me.”

  Megan smiled. The girl’s excitement could lighten the darkest cloud. She had to be at least twenty-two or twenty-tree but not much more. Her mother was probably trying to get her married while the good and single men were still young. It got a lot harder after another decade to find single, reliable men worth courting with. The modern day dating world had changed and she was sure Pebbles’ mom could see that and wanted to find the best solution for her little girl, her only girl. Mother’s sure did keep a lot of life lessons learned on their mind.

  Megan knew about the owner of this store, Pebbles’ mom. She knew she was single now. She had heard the husband left town about a decade ago or something. People here loved to gossip and it was near impossible to go grocery shopping without hearing some city gossip.

  “Anyway. That is enough about me. You look like a Hollywood glam girl or a 70s ‘miniskirt me’ girl. I’ll take you to see both.”

  Megan didn’t have the heart to say she really wasn’t in here to buy anything so she figured she would get at least one thing before she left. Just one, Megan.

  “How about starting with the retro mini dresses that make you look like you are ready to go dancing at a club your mother never wanted you at?”

  Pebbles laughed. “I know that dress. My mom is a hippie, though, so she never tried to control my flair.”

  Pebbles was so busy taking her around to the
dresses that Megan forgot about getting a skirt, and she forgot she told herself just one piece and nothing more. Two mini dresses, two miniskirts and five retro glam dresses was a lot more than her just one plea. She was racking up the bill every single time she found her one of a kind style.

  Sure, your honor, I had enough saved to pay the insurance bill but I’m addicted to great clothes—said no one, seriously, ever. She would check out a few more things and then she had to checkout and go.

  They were having fun and fun was good compared to the spa murder. “If I wear this one,” she held a lime green and white multi sectional dress up. “I will work looking like I’m in Our Man Flint while he worked his spy game and if wear this one,” She held up a dress. “Or I could look like Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” She smiled because she loved that style.