Jam Up and Jelly Fright

by Donna Walo Clancy

  “There were other things in the envelope also. Passbooks for several savings accounts and other legal papers that I didn’t look over. My guess is that the attorney that Anthony hired to carry out his wishes got in touch with Isabella to tell her what was in the new will and she didn’t like what she heard.”

  “But, do you have any proof that Isabella may be involved?”

  “No, not yet,” Tabby answered. “But, I’m working on it.”

  El came to the table, and they placed their order.

  “Jen and Bea came into the flower shop today. They were taking a walk in the fresh air and getting Jen out of the house for a short while. She still tires easily, but Bea says she’s getting better and better every day,” Greg said, smiling. “She wants to go over the books when I get back from Larsen on Sunday.”

  “I hope Alex didn’t clean out all her accounts,” Tabby said, woefully.

  “We’ll know soon just how much damage he did to her business. If he transferred money to other accounts that were just in his name, we may never recover it,” Greg stated. “What are your plans for Sunday?”

  “I’m going out to the Pelton farmhouse and move the Halloween decorations to the snack bar at the drive-in. We need to start working on setting up the new haunted house location,” Tabby answered.

  “I don’t want you going out there by yourself,” Greg said firmly. “Can’t it wait until the following Sunday when I can go with you?”

  “It will be okay. Isabella has left to take Anthony’s body back home, and besides, I told her I was going to get the things off her property this Sunday. She doesn’t want anyone around, and I would rather do it while she’s gone,” Tabby insisted.

  “You promise you’ll go right to the farmhouse and nowhere else on the property? No searching the cornfields by yourself, okay?”

  “I promise; the farmhouse and gone,” Tabby said, crossing her heart with her finger.

  “You’ll call me when you get home?”

  “You sound like my mother,” Tabby teased.

  “No, I don’t. It’s just when you get wrapped up in a mystery, you lose all concept of safety, and I worry about you,” Greg said, grabbing for her hand.

  “I promise; I’ll use my brain and think before I act,” Tabby confirmed.

  “Where have I heard that before?” Greg sighed.

  El brought their supper and the rest of the evening was spent talking about their shop windows for the contest and the haunt-a-thon. Tabby was thrilled that Jen had offered to help her with the haunted house, even if it was only for short periods of time until she got her strength back.

  They returned to Tabby’s apartment after supper and sat on the couch with the two cats and watched some television. The couple was enjoying an old movie when Ghost stirred and stared at the back door to the apartment. A soft knocking sounded on the door, and Greg got up to see who was there this time of night. He looked through the peephole, and a young man was standing on the landing looking around nervously.

  “Tabby, is this Gage?” he asked quietly.

  “It is Gage,” she said, looking through the peephole and opening the door to let him in.

  “Hurry, close the door,” he pleaded.

  “Where have you been? Is someone following you?” Tabby asked.

  “I’ve been hiding. Today at school I was walking with some of my friends to class. A black car came out of nowhere and tried to run us down. We all managed to jump out of the way and luckily no one got hurt. My friends laughed it off as a stupid driver, but later that afternoon I saw the car again, parked on campus, watching me.”

  “I bet it’s the same black sedan that’s been following me,” Tabby said.

  “I couldn’t see in the car because the windows are tinted,” Gage stated.

  “Did the attorney call Isabella and tell her that the will had been changed?” Tabby asked.

  “Yeah, but how did you know that?”

  “That’s why they are after you. They probably want your copy of the will, but if you are dead, they would have one of their bought judges revert the property back to Isabella.,” Tabby reasoned.

  “So, what am I supposed to do? Hide the rest of my life? Geez, I’m only twenty years old. I didn’t ask for the stupid farm in the first place.”

  “But your dad thought he owed it to you. It was the last and only thing he could do for you, giving you that property,” Tabby told the young man.

  “You obviously can’t go home, and they will be watching this place,” Greg stated. “You should come to my house and hide out there. It is secure, and you should be safe there. You definitely can’t go back to school right now and endanger your friend's lives.”

  “Man, this so sucks,” Gage said, scuffing his feet.

  Tabby walked to the front window of the apartment that looked out over Main Street, scanning both directions to see if anyone was around. The street was quiet.

  “I don’t see the black car anywhere. If I turn off the lights and just use the light of the television, I’m sure I can pass the coat rack off as Greg while you guys sneak out the back door. Make sure Gage ducks down on the floor in case you pass the sedan somewhere on the street.”

  “Too funny,” Gage snickered.

  Tabby turned off the lights and draped a long coat over the spindles off the rack. The large wooden ball on the top would pass as a head in the dark. Placing the arms of the coat over her shoulders, she rolled the coat rack around like she was dancing with her boyfriend.

  Even Greg was laughing as she pranced around. He grabbed his coat, gave her a kiss, and stood at the back door waiting for Tabby to get in place in front of the window.

  “Make sure you lock up right after we leave and I’ll see you tomorrow at some point.”

  Tabby walked over to the window along the wall, pushing the coat rack in front of her so that it would be seen first in the light of the television. She grabbed an arm of the coat and gave the coat rack a hug.

  “Go. I need to spend some quality time with my new boyfriend,” she said, laughing.

  “Be safe; love you,” Greg said as he closed the door.

  Tabby pretended to be hugging with the coat rack until she saw Greg’s car disappear up the street. They walked away from the view of the window, and she left the rack in front of the rear door. She set the alarm for the place, turned off the television, and turned on her bedroom light.

  Sometimes, you are just way too clever.

  14

  Tabby called Greg early the next morning to make sure everything went okay through the night. He assured her that they passed no one and got back to his house undetected. Before he left for work, he showed Gage how to use the alarm system and where the video games were.

  “Thanks for looking out for him,” Tabby said. “He’s really scared right now, and I don’t blame him. Isabella scares me, and I’m not in line to take anything away from her.”

  “I think he’ll be safe where he is for now. I told him to stay away from the windows and not to answer the door for anyone. He was also happy because I had just gone food shopping and the fridge was full.”

  “Typical. I’m going to see Bertha at the town hall today to see what she found out about the Pelton farm history. I’ll call and let you know what I find out,” Tabby promised.

  “Okay. Talk at you soon.”

  Two hours later, the store was open and both her employees in place, she left for the town hall. Bertha was sipping on her herbal tea and greeted Tabby with her usual smile.

  “Have I got some interesting information for you,” she said, setting down her tea and pulling out a file folder from her desk drawer.

  “You found something good?” Tabby asked excitedly.

  “It seems the Pelton farm has changed hands several times in the last fifty-five years. I couldn’t find anything past that time period. The first record I could find shows the property was owned by one Salvatore Salmeri. Back in 1971 he suspiciously disappeared without a trace from his house
in Boston. His wife had died five years prior to that. The farm was then bought at auction by an Antonio Peletroni from Boston.”

  “Two family names I am very familiar with,” Tabby replied.

  “The property then changed hands, and the deed was registered in the name of George Pelton. He owned the property up until his death, and Anthony Capri bought the property from the Pelton Trust after George’s wife died.”

  “This gets more interesting by the minute,” Tabby said, smiling.

  “Oh, I’m not done yet. I did some research on the names of the property owners in the old newspaper files downstairs.”

  “And I bet you found out something that you are dying to tell me,” Tabby teased.

  “It seems that your Mr. George Pelton was really George Peletroni. He changed his name and retired to the farm to distance himself from his mob family back in Boston.”

  “Or to hide the fact that they were dumping dead bodies in the cornfields and no one would be the wiser with a different name attached to the property,” Tabby said, thinking out loud.

  “There are bodies buried in the cornfields? Do you know how many ears of corn I have eaten that was grown in those fields? How disgusting,” Bertha claimed, making a face.

  “Me and my big mouth. Bertha, you can’t say anything to anyone. This is an ongoing investigation, and nothing has been proven yet. Promise me you won’t say anything.”

  “You should know better. Do you know how many secrets I know about this town and its people? Nothing ever leaves this desk. I will go to my grave with the things I know,” she insisted.

  “I’m sorry, and you are right; I should have known better,” Tabby said, reaching over to hug her. “You are the best, thank you!”

  “Anything for chocolate,” she yelled.

  Tabby hurried to the sheriff’s office with the new information. He told her that they had been able to identify the men the skulls belonged to. Both had been hired bodyguards for the Salmeri family.

  “It seems there was a real family feud between these two families. I wonder what started it?” Tabby commented. “Power and money had to be factors, I’m sure.”

  “I don’t know, but it seemed pretty intense back then,” the sheriff said.

  “I almost forgot. Gage is hiding out at Greg’s house.”

  “The one here or the one in Larsen?” Puckett asked.

  “The one here. He’s really afraid of Isabella and showed up at my place last night. Greg’s house is alarmed so we figured it would be safe for him to stay there,” Tabby replied.

  Tabby told her trusted friend about the black sedan that followed her and that the same one tried to run down Gage and his friends at school. She informed him she thought it was also the same vehicle that tore off her side mirror at the farm that night. When it passed her on Main Street, she had noticed that it had a small blue square sticker on the back bumper.

  The sheriff put out an APB out on the black sedan with the blue sticker. He told Tabby to be careful and left on a call. Errands done, she returned to her shop. Things were going smoothly, so she retired to her apartment upstairs to do some cooking. While the jelly simmered, she pulled out her laptop to research the two families who were still apparently feuding to this day.

  Isabella was the granddaughter of George Peletroni who moved to Whipper Will Junction, changed his name, and owned Pelton Farms. She married Anthony Capri in an arranged marriage twenty-three years ago. Their wedding was the social function of the year in Boston and well covered by all the newspapers at the time. The Peletronis were the most powerful family south of Boston during that time period. They had their hands into everything; drugs, gambling, prostitution, and laundering money. There was not much on the South Shore that they didn’t own or run.

  It seems that they are still pretty powerful even if they are not that prevalent in the news or society pages anymore.

  The deeper Tabby delved, the more complicated the relationship between the Peletronis and Salmeris became. Newspaper clippings revealed the fact that Salvatore Salmeri had retired right before he disappeared and turned the family business over to his younger son, Roberto, who was married and had a daughter named Angelina.

  A war broke out between the two families as they fought over holdings in Boston and on the South Shore. There were many articles accompanied by pictures of dead bodies due to the power struggle between the Peletronis and Salmeris.

  One society page article released the information that Roberto’s daughter, Angelina, was pregnant out of wedlock. This was a disgrace to the family, and she was sent away to a secret place to have the child. The father’s identity was never revealed.

  There was much more to read, but Tabby had to go down to help close the shop. Janice was restocking the jelly wall and humming to herself.

  “A guy dropped off an envelope for you while you were cooking. It’s on the counter next to the register,” she said, opening another case of jelly jars.

  Tabby opened the envelope and read what was written inside.

  “Did you know the person who delivered this?” she asked Janice.

  “No, I’ve never seen him before. Why? Is it something bad?”

  Tabby handed her the paper. On it, printed in large black letters were the words, “MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS OR PAY THE CONSEQUENCES.”

  “Oh. Geez. I should have paid more attention to who delivered it. I’m sorry,” Janice mumbled. “Are you going to call Sheriff Puckett?”

  “Call Sheriff Puckett for what?” Greg asked, coming through the door and hearing the end of their conversation.

  “Tabby received a threat, and me, like a dummy, just let the guy walk right out of here,” Janice lamented.

  “You had no way of knowing, don’t beat yourself up over it,” Tabby offered.

  “What do you mean you got a threat?” Greg asked, sprinting forward and reaching for the paper.

  He read the words and pulled out his cell phone.

  “Sheriff Puckett, please,” he said into the phone.

  Ten minutes later the sheriff walked through the front door of Jellies, Jams, and Weddings. His face was displaying real concern for the reason he was called. In his hand was a clear evidence bag for the envelope and letter.

  “Put it in here,” he instructed, holding out the bag in front of Greg. “Where’s the envelope it came in?”

  Tabby tucked the requested item in the bag with the letter. The sheriff sealed up the evidence bag.

  “Tabby, we have your prints on file. Greg and Janice, you will need to come to the station to be fingerprinted so we can rule you out if there happen to be prints on the evidence.”

  “Do we have to do it now?” Janice asked. “I have a date in less than an hour.”

  “You can come by first thing in the morning,” the sheriff instructed. “You too, Greg; first thing in the morning.”

  “Yes, sir,” Greg replied.

  “Tabby, did you happen to catch the state that issued the plates on that black sedan?” the sheriff asked.

  “No, sorry. The first time it was too dark, and the second time they sped by too fast,” she answered.

  “Okay, it was worth a shot. These people don’t mess around; bodies do disappear,” the sheriff warned.

  “Great and I can identify the guy who dropped off the envelope,” Janice mumbled, putting on her coat.

  “Greg, is Gage still at your house?”

  “I think I have a permanent house guest,” Greg laughed. “And a hungry one at that.”

  “Keep him there as long as you can,” the sheriff directed. “This is getting past the point of serious and I’m worried the boy is going to get hurt.”

  “He’ll stay put; he’s as afraid as you are worried,” Greg stated.

  “See you both in the morning at the station.”

  The sheriff went out the front door, and Tabby locked the door behind him.

  “Bye, boss. I’m heading out,” Janice yelled from the back door and was gone.

 
; “Shall I whip us up some supper? I don’t really feel like going out tonight,” Tabby asked.

  “You’re not taking this very seriously,” Greg said.

  “What do you want me to say? I am not going to step aside and let them hurt a twenty-year-old kid. As soon as I have removed all the Halloween stuff out of the farmhouse, I won’t be involved anymore, except for helping Gage. The sheriff can deal with the bones in the cornfield; it’s his job anyway,” Tabby insisted.

  “Do you mean that?”

  “Yes, I mean that. I have too much on my plate as it is. As soon as I get the decorations out, the Pelton farm will be a place I put on my list to never visit again,” she stated firmly.

  “Good. Let’s close up and go eat,” he said, wishing he could believe what his girlfriend was saying.

  They ate supper in front of the television. Greg had to leave early to go check on his house guest. He wouldn’t see Tabby again for a few days as he would be in Larsen preparing for another open house. He begged her to be careful at the farm on Sunday and told her he still wasn’t happy that she wouldn’t wait until the following week so that he could accompany her.

  He left to the sound of her dead bolting the door.

  15

  Sunday morning arrived, and Tabby was up early knowing she had a lot to get accomplished. Not only was she clearing out the farmhouse, but it would take several trips to the drive-in with items from the library basement storage area as well. She grabbed a coffee at the Tilted Cup and headed to the Pelton farmhouse.

  She unlocked the door and stepped in. Looking around she felt bad that the haunted house wouldn’t be held here as Anthony had wished. He had just started to participate in town functions and was becoming a part of the local community. It was too bad that a little of his spirit hadn’t rubbed off on his wife. At least Isabella wasn’t in the area, so Tabby didn’t have to worry about her popping up out of nowhere and catching her in the act of searching for the hidden room.