Ice Cold Murder

by Kate Bell

  She thumbed through the stack and pulled one out. “Here it is. And look, he was in my class in second grade.”

  She handed the picture to me and I scanned the faces. He was five faces down from Jennifer, smiling for all he was worth, wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses that were sliding down his nose.

  “Are you sure he graduated a year before you?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Now that I think about it, I think when he went into fifth grade he skipped into sixth. He was always smart.”

  “That’s odd,” I said, sitting down on her bed. “His mother said he flunked out of college. She mentioned that he had some emotional problems and was going to get some therapy, but I would think a really smart kid would still excel in academics.”

  “College is hard, Mom. You don’t know. It’s different than when you went,” she insisted.

  This was coming from my overly sensitive child. Although not a social misfit by any stretch of the imagination, she had found school harder than her outgoing older brother. “Okay, I get it. I really do.”

  “Do you think he killed Mrs. Rose?” she asked me soberly.

  “I don’t know. Being odd doesn’t make someone a murderer. Tell me, knowing what you know about him and how he was in school, do you think he would be capable or murder?”

  She shook her head without hesitation. “No. I really don’t. Now Billy Green … I would totally suspect him. He hasn’t been around, has he? That kid was creepy weird.”

  “I do not know a Billy Green, so no, not that I’m aware of,” I said and got up. I handed her back the picture. “Do you remember Jackie and Me?”

  She turned to me. “I haven’t thought of that show in years! I loved that show!” She started humming the theme song. “I wish I could remember the words. I need to look up an episode on YouTube for old times’ sake.”

  “Did Mrs. Rose have those characters in her classroom? I thought by the second grade you had outgrown that show,” I said.

  She thought about it for a minute. “I don’t really remember. I think I’m getting old.”

  “Well, if you’re old, I’m ancient,” I said and stood up and headed back into the kitchen. My laptop was on the kitchen table and I opened it up.

  Jennifer followed me back into the kitchen. “What are you doing?” she asked. “You’ve got dishes to do.”

  “I’m looking up requirements to get a license to bake and sell things from my kitchen. And you, my sweet, sweet daughter, have dishes to do. You volunteered, remember?” I said, opening Google.

  “I didn’t volunteer. You’re putting words into my mouth,” she said.

  “Get to work, or no money. Now,” I said, giving her the evil eye.

  She sighed. “So much for a weekend off. How much are you going to pay me?”

  “I’m keeping that a secret for now,” I said. I was inwardly crossing my fingers, hoping the city requirements wouldn’t be too harsh.

  “You need to print up business cards, and flyers and get your new blog up. I don’t know why you’re wasting so much time,” she complained, as she finished emptying the dishwasher.

  “Yes, I know. I swear, I am going to do it,” I said. “Oh! Good news! I’m going to be known as a cottage food seller.”

  “Yay,” Jennifer said. “You should bake bread. I love bread and the restaurant sets a bread basket on the table, no matter what you’re going to order.”

  I gasped. “You are so smart. I might ask Cynthia about that.”

  “I know,” she said.

  I wasn’t sure where she got her smart mouth from. It couldn’t be from me.

  --17--

  “I need sugar, butter, flour, cream cheese, and any and everything associated with baking ingredients,” I said, looking over my list. Alec and I were at Shaw’s Market and I was stocking up. I had gone through my kitchen cupboards and tossed anything that I didn’t absolutely need to make room for more baking supplies.

  “It seems to me that you have more than enough baking supplies at your house,” Alec said. I had given him the task of pushing the buggy so my hands would be free to fill said buggy.

  “No. You can never have enough baking supplies. You should know this by now,” I said, picking up a ten pound sack of sugar. I contemplated getting a second one, but I wasn’t sure I’d have room to store it, even with the extra room I had made.

  Alec snickered. “You’d think I’d know this by now, wouldn’t you? You’re a bake-a-holic.”

  “I prefer to call myself the baking queen, thank you very much. Oh, and I have an inspection tomorrow. I can’t believe they arranged to do it so quickly, but the inspector is the cousin of one of Lucy’s friends and Lucy pulled some strings for me,” I told him.

  “Wow, that was fast,” he said. “Do you think you’ll pass?”

  I turned and gave him the evil eye. “Of course I’m going to pass. I’ve had Jennifer in there scrubbing my kitchen down like she was Cinderella herself. You can eat off my kitchen floors right now.”

  “Poor Jennifer,” he murmured.

  “Do you think there’s a chance I won’t pass?” I asked him, suddenly terrified I wouldn’t. How humiliating would it be to have to tell Cynthia that I couldn’t bring desserts down to the restaurant because I couldn’t pass the health inspection?

  “I’m sure you’ll do fine. Other than a few dirty dishes in the sink, your kitchen is always spotless,” he said.

  “Yeah. I’ve been leaving dirty dishes lately. What’s up with that? It’s so unlike me. Well, now I’ve got Jennifer to serve me so I can leave all the dirty dishes I want on the weekends.”

  “You’re nuts,” he said and looked over my shoulder. I turned to see what he was looking at and Richard Rose was standing at the far end of the aisle we were in, looking over the cooking oils.

  He looked up and saw us and headed in our direction. “Alec, Allie,” he said, nodding at us when he got to us. “I haven’t heard much on the investigation. Do either of you know what’s going on?”

  “It’s still in preliminary investigation mode,” Alec said. “I’m sure someone will be contacting you soon either for more information, or to keep you up to date.”

  “Oh. Okay,” Richard said, nodding. “You know, Hilda’s getting out of control. She waits for me to get home from work, standing out on the landing of her apartment. She screams at me. Calls me a murderer. The whole neighborhood can hear her.”

  “Wow,” I said.

  “That could be a problem,” Alec said. “I know things aren’t good between the two of you, but have you tried talking to her when she isn’t quite so charged up?”

  Richard chuckled. “That would be never. She’s nuts. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I went to a lawyer and started the process to evict her.”

  “Oh?” Alec said. “Are you sure you want to do that so soon after Iris’s death? She’s grieving.”

  “I don’t have a choice. She’s making my life miserable. If she would just shut up and stay in her apartment, I wouldn’t even consider doing it. But I can’t live like this,” he said. His jaw tightened. “I did not murder my wife. I loved my wife. I may have made some mistakes, but I loved her.” I could see his eyes getting moist as he spoke.

  “Richard, we know that. Death is a horrible thing that adds a lot more tension to situations that are already difficult,” I said. I glanced at Alec. The fighting between these two might make either of them snap and we’d have another murder on our hands.

  “You need to remember that she might not be stable right now due to the stress of losing her daughter and try to keep your distance,” Alec advised. “Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. You don’t want to do anything you might regret.”

  “You really don’t want to do that,” I agreed.

  “You don’t know what this is like,” he said, clenching his hands into fists at his side. “I just want to mourn my wife in peace.”

  “If you’d like, I’ll have a talk with her. Maybe I can get her to settl
e down and leave you alone,” Alec offered.

  “That’s a great idea,” I said. “I think she’ll listen to you, Alec.”

  “I’d appreciate it,” Richard said. “But I still want her out. The sooner she’s out of my life, the better. She was nothing but a curse for our entire marriage. I never should have let her move into that apartment, but Iris insisted. She felt sorry for her even after all she had done to her as a child. That’s what I loved about Iris, her sense of empathy for others. But it also caused us a lot of trouble when she couldn’t say no.”

  “Understood,” Alec said. “But would you consider allowing her to stay longer so she can find a place to live? If she promises to leave you alone?”

  Richard sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I really don’t want that. Maybe I’d consider it if she promised to be out by a set date. But if she says one cross word to me, it’s over and I’m having her evicted.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Alec said.

  “Do you think she’s been drinking?” I asked.

  “I think so. I haven’t gotten close enough to smell her, but her words are slurred sometimes. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if she was.”

  “I’ll see if I can get her to agree to leave you alone,” Alec said.

  “I’d appreciate that,” he said.

  “I do have a question for you, Richard,” Alec said. “When we brought Iris’s things from her classroom to you, there was a journal she kept that detailed her day-to-day activities in the classroom. It had comments about students and her thoughts on them and their behavior and other things that happened in her classroom. Did she keep one every year?”

  He nodded. “She did. She loved doing that. She said it helped her to gain insight into the children and their personalities, as well as helped her remember the highlights of her year.”

  “Would you allow me to read the journal from her first year?” Alec asked. “I’d like to have a look at that one.”

  I studied Alec. What did he have in mind?

  “Her first year? Why?” he asked, puzzled.

  “Just call it an investigator’s intuition,” Alec said.

  “Sure. You can have it as long as I get it back. I’ve been reading over the one from this year,” he said and his eyes teared up again. “I’ll have to look for it, but as long as I get it back, it’s no problem.”

  “Great. I’ll stop by tomorrow and have a talk with Hilda,” Alec said.

  “Okay. I think I know exactly where the older journals are. I’ll have it for you,” he said.

  We said our good byes and we watched him turn the corner of the aisle we were in.

  When he was out of sight, I turned to Alec. “You want to see what she had to say about Josh?”

  “I do. Also, I’m wondering what she might have had to say about a certain nosy parent of a little red-headed girl named Jennifer. I bet she has a lot to say about her,” he said with a grin.

  I gasped. “I bet she said I was a darling mother. What else would there be to say?”

  “That she was nosey and bossy,” he said.

  I gasped again. The nerve!

  “Oh, look. They have brown sugar. You need some of that, don’t you?” he asked, turning away so I couldn’t see him smiling.

  “I most certainly do. And vanilla, lots of vanilla. But I am not nosey,” I said. “That’s a vicious rumor started by someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”

  “Will you make me a pear tart? I like pear tarts,” he said.

  “I’ll make you something all right,” I muttered. “Hey, when do you test for your PI license?”

  “In a couple of days,” he said and pushed the buggy down the aisle.

  “I want to take a test to be your assistant,” I said. “I can get a license for that, can’t I?”

  “No, you just get to bake. That’s your job now. And write a blog. That’s it,” he said as we headed for the produce department.

  I sighed. “That’s so unfair. I think we need to go out on a real date and soon. It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve done that.”

  “A date?” he asked.

  “I want to wear a dress and heels, and I want to wear my pearls.”

  “We went to a funeral. You wore a dress and heels. Isn’t that a date?” he asked innocently.

  I gave him a sideways look. “That is not a date, smarty pants.”

  “Well, I think a date can be arranged,” he said and put one arm around my waist as we walked down the aisle.

  “You’re cute. Did you know that?” I asked.

  “Indeed, I did,” he said. “Don’t forget pears.”

  Pears. I would not forget the pears. Anything for my sweet Baboo.

  --18--

  “You’re going to let me do the talking, right?” Alec asked as we started up the stairs to Hilda’s apartment. He was in front and I was in back. I needed to rethink my strategy. If he slipped and fell back, I was a goner. I needed to be in front so that if I slipped on these steep steps, the chances he’d be able to catch me were pretty good.

  The door swung open before Alec reached the landing.

  “Good morning, Hilda,” Alec said.

  Hilda stood still, staring at Alec.

  “Good morning, Hilda,” I called over Alec’s shoulder.

  Alec stepped onto the landing and I followed close behind.

  “Hilda, may we have a moment of your time?” Alec asked her.

  I smiled for all I was worth, hoping it would help ease things. The look on Hilda’s face said things were not going well for her. Of course I knew this, but I had hoped she would be in a better frame of mind this morning.

  “I suppose,” she said to Alec, then looked over the railing. I wondered if she thought Richard was nearby listening in.

  “Thank you,” Alec said and we followed Hilda into her apartment.

  She swung the door closed behind us and I stopped and stared. The apartment was in stark contrast to how it had looked the two earlier visits I had paid her. There were dirty clothes strewn about the living room floor and it looked like dishes hadn’t been done in days. A plate of dried, half-eaten spaghetti sat on the coffee table and an empty bottle of whiskey sat on an end table.

  I caught Alec looking at the mess sideways, but he didn’t miss a beat. “I’m sorry to disturb you Hilda, but it’s come to my attention that there may be issues between yourself and Richard. I don’t want to stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong, but I’d also like for things to remain civil between the two of you. We really don’t want any trouble.”

  I stood next to Alec and I could see Hilda’s face turn dark red.

  “What Alec is saying is we both understand that after a death in the family, tensions can run high,” I explained quickly.

  “He’s trying to evict me!” she exclaimed. “An old woman with no place to go! He’d throw me out on the street in a heartbeat! Just like that!” She snapped her fingers for emphasis.

  “Hilda, I spoke with Richard. He said you were screaming at him from your apartment. You have to know that’s not going to win you any favors with him, right?” Alec asked.

  Boy, talk about good cop, bad cop. I wanted to be the bad cop, but I didn’t have the heart to do it to someone that had just lost their only child. Apparently Alec had no problem with it.

  “He killed my daughter!” she screamed.

  “We are still investigating this murder. No one has been charged yet,” Alec pointed out. I don’t know where he got his calm from. He seemed to be able to pull it out of his pocket whenever he needed it.

  “If you were doing your job, you would have arrested him by now,” she said, sounding a little steadier.

  Uh oh. Hilda didn’t want to play the incompetent cop card. Alec wasn’t going to put up with that.

  The muscle in Alec’s jaw twitched. “Listen, Hilda, we are doing all we can to solve this case. We appreciate your patience.”

  Hilda closed the short distance between hers
elf and Alec and peered up into his face. “I have no patience when my baby is dead and the killer lives just a few feet away, fancy free, doing whatever he feels like,” she said.

  “Did it ever occur to you that he lost someone he loved, too?” Alec said, not backing down.

  Hilda gasped and took a step back. “If he loved her so much, then why is he running around with Janice Cross?” she asked. Her voice cracked and her eyes filled with tears.

  The muscle in Alec’s jaw went slack. “I’m sorry. I hadn’t heard anything about that. But even if it’s true, it doesn’t mean he killed your daughter. It just means he doesn’t have much in the way of morals, and that’s not a crime.”

  I stood there, shifting from one foot to the other during his exchange, wishing I could be somewhere else. Confrontation was never my strong suit. I’d do it if I felt I had to, but I hated it.

  “No. Not having morals isn’t a crime. If it was, I suspect most of us would be in jail by now,” she whispered.

  “Richard is prepared to allow you to stay for a while longer, giving you time to find a place to live, on the condition that you stop behaving the way you have been. No more screaming at him. No contact at all would be best,” Alec said softly.

  “How long can I stay?” she asked.

  “He didn’t give me an exact time frame, but we can pin him down on it. But one slip up and he’ll evict you.”

  She nodded. “Fine then. I’ll start looking. I don’t want to have to look at him for the rest of my life, anyway,” she said.

  I felt so bad for Hilda. Life hadn’t treated her well, and now it had stolen her only child. I wanted to offer to help her clean the place up, but I knew Alec would frown on that. She needed to get her act together and she needed to take responsibility for herself.

  “We’ll be in touch,” Alec said, and turned for the door. I followed him and I almost had to run to keep up as he took the steep stairs two at a time.

  We walked around the side of Richard’s house and made a beeline for his front door.