The Milburn Big Box Set

by Nancy McGovern

  “I suppose you want to see Harvey,” he said. “Well, you can’t. This isn’t the hospital. You can’t spend the night here, either, Nora. Go home. His lawyer and I have spoken, and we’ll be discussing whether he can be granted bail tomorrow.” His eyes shifted away as he said it, and fixed on his nails.

  Nora itched to tell him what she knew - that Harvey didn’t do it. But if she told the sheriff, the coroner would surely lose his job. She couldn’t have that on her conscience.

  “Please, Sheriff,” Nora begged instead. “Just a few minutes with Harvey? Come on. You know he isn’t some criminal mastermind. This was all just a tragic accident. Really bad luck.”

  Sheriff Ellerton rubbed his face with his hand. “Yeah. Really bad luck. You can say that again.” He stretched. “Look, I’m heading home now. If Deputy Sanders happens to let you meet Harvey for a few minutes, I guess I can’t do anything about it. I know he’s a fan of those chocolate cakes of yours. So maybe you could trade favors. I won’t know a thing about it, of course.” He tapped the side of his nose. Then, patting Nora on the shoulder, Sheriff Ellerton headed home.

  *****

  Fifteen minutes later, after having made a promise of the biggest, best chocolate cake she could bake, Nora was being escorted to the cell where Harvey was kept. Nervously approaching the steel bars, Nora reminded herself to be strong for Harvey’s sake. She had to keep a cool head and sort this out. He’d suffer a little bit for the next two days, but it would be worth it when she finally caught the killer.

  “Here we are. Five minutes,” Deputy Sanders said, looking over his shoulder as though he were afraid the sheriff would walk in. “Okay?” He jangled the keys in his hands.

  “Five minutes,” Nora agreed. She stood still as Deputy Sanders let her in. Harvey was lying flat on his back on a bench on the far side of the cell. Nora’s stomach churned with anxiety. Harvey’s face looked whitewashed, his eyes looked haunted. Her usually cheerful, joking husband had entirely vanished, leaving a pale stranger in his wake.

  Harvey sat up and cracked a smile. “They put you in here, too?” he asked. “What’s the charge? Being too hot for humankind?” He winked at her.

  Nora did the last thing she’d expected she would do. She burst into tears.

  “Oh, hey, sweetheart.” Harvey looked shocked. He put an arm around her and kissed her cheek. “Come on now, it’s alright. It’s alright.”

  “No. It’s not alright.” Nora shook her head. Harvey was crushed. She’d never seen him look so unhappy before, not once in their thirty-plus years of being married. He was feeling guilty and sad because he thought he’d killed Fred. He was feeling afraid of prison and of never seeing his family again. He was feeling terrified, actually. She could see it written on his face, all of it. But that wasn’t what had made her cry. It was the simple fact that despite everything he was feeling, Harvey’s first instinct on seeing Nora was to want to comfort her.

  “I love you,” Nora said, hugging him as tight as she could. “I love you and it’s all going to be ok. It is. We’re going to come out of this stronger than ever, Harvey.”

  “Sure we are.” Harvey hugged her back and patted her head. She could tell that he didn’t believe a word of it.

  “No.” Nora pulled away and looked at him fiercely. “No. You stay strong. Okay, Harvey? I’m going to get you out of here, one way or another. I promise you.”

  “Nora...” Harvey hesitated. “Look, my lawyer and I talked, and it isn’t looking good for me. Three eyewitnesses. He suggested I plead guilty. Now, we’ll talk about—”

  “I don’t want to hear it!” Nora exclaimed.

  “Okay. I understand. It’s a lot to bear right now. Let’s just focus on getting through it one day at a time.” Harvey’s voice remained strong, even though his eyes were anguished.

  “No. I mean it, Harvey.” Nora was torn. It would have been easy, so easy, to give him just the slightest hint of what she knew. But what if doing that meant that the entire case got derailed and dragged on even longer, with Harvey just rotting behind bars in the meanwhile? Or what if the killer got wind somehow? If a chocolate cake could tempt Deputy Sanders to let her see Harvey, the killer could surely bribe one of the other prisoners here into telling what he’d overheard. Over her shoulder, Nora could see other prisoners clearly interested in their conversation. Nora took a deep breath. She couldn’t tell Harvey. Not here. She shook her head and focused on a point on his chin. Leaning forward, she gave it an affectionate kiss.

  “Stay strong, okay?” Nora said. “For me. Don’t beat yourself up - not for the next few days. Just take it easy in here.”

  “Okay,” Harvey said.

  “Promise?” Nora asked.

  Harvey pressed his lips together. “I’ll try,” he managed.

  “Promise?” Nora pressed.

  “How are the girls?” Harvey asked. “Is Grace okay? Tell her not to stress out too much. A stressed out mama is not good for the baby.”

  “The girls are fine. I’m taking care of them. But you’re not promising me that you’ll take care of yourself,” Nora pointed out.

  Harvey ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what to feel, Nora. It all just happened so suddenly. I thought life didn’t really have any surprises left for me. Boy, was I wrong.”

  Nora took a breath and held his hand. “I understand.”

  “I killed a man,” Harvey said in wonder. “I still can’t believe I killed a man.”

  Nora bit her lip.

  “The lawyer said that we’ll be able to plead down to involuntary manslaughter and the sentences can be as low as 3 years for that. On the other hand...” Harvey took a breath. “If they think it’s 3rd degree murder, the sentences can be as much as 20 years.” He looked green.

  “Oh, Harvey...”

  “You know, I don’t care. I really don’t,” Harvey said. “If that’s what happens then maybe I deserve it. I’ve had a good life. I just…there were so many things I put off, you know? I thought when I retired we’d go on long vacations together, maybe rent an RV and just drive all over Europe or something. I thought I’d get in touch with some of my distant relatives, folks I’ve never talked to before. I thought I’d finally start painting like I always wanted.” Harvey shook his head. “Well, I guess I can still take up painting. Just not open-air painting.”

  Suddenly, Nora didn’t really care about the consequences. She had to let Harvey know. She just had to. She opened her mouth to speak, but heard a jangling of keys behind her.

  “Alright, time’s up,” a voice said.

  Deputy Sanders was back.

  “Stay strong, sweetheart.” Nora kissed Harvey and wished that all her love and strength would flow into his body.

  “I will. But you take care of yourself, too. OK? Go home and get some sleep now. You’ve done all you could tonight,” Harvey said.

  Nora nodded. “Stay safe. I’ll see you again…very soon.”

  Harvey squeezed her hand as though he were trying to draw strength from it and then, with a wan smile, he let her go. He leaned back against the wall and let his head fall back. Nora winced as she saw the exhaustion lining his face. Soon, she vowed to herself. Soon she would have him out of there and, then, she’d never take him for granted again. She’d cherish every minute of their life together for the rest of time.

  As she stepped out with Deputy Sanders, she felt miserable. She tried to smile and wave at Harvey as she moved through the door, but the second he was out of sight, her shoulders drooped. Deputy Sanders gave her a pitying look.

  “I’m sorry for what happened,” he said. “Nobody could have predicted it.”

  “I know.” Nora sighed. “We certainly didn’t imagine a simple dinner would lead to…all this.”

  “Yeah. You never can tell, can you? If you’d asked me a few months ago, I’d have said that Eddie Shaw would be the one to kill Fred.” Deputy Sanders shrugged. “We had him in here for the night to cool off after he took a swing at Fred, too.
”

  Nora stopped in her tracks and stared at Deputy Sanders. “Eddie Shaw? Who’s that?”

  Deputy Sanders grinned. “Local drunk. Well, Fred definitely had a hand in that. See, Eddie’s grandma had a nice little plot of land that Eddie was planning to quit his job and retire on. But it seems Fred swooped in, bought the land at a fraction of the price and left little Eddie in the dust. Eddie didn’t find out till after the funeral that the land had been sold. He sure didn’t appreciate it. He started drinking a lot. Eddie didn’t quit his job in the end - he got chucked out of it. So he had a pretty big grudge against Fred Bailey.”

  “I’m sure he did.” Nora could barely breathe. “So when did he take that swing at Fred?”

  “A few months ago. I think around Easter. Fred had just won an award of some kind and it was in the paper. Eddie read it and lost his mind. He went around to Fred’s house and screamed and shouted and tried to use his fists. Thing was, Fred overpowered him pretty easily. He sat on his head till we came along to pick Eddie up.” Deputy Sanders shook his head. “Eddie was cursing all the way to the station. Telling me how he was going to make sure Fred got what he deserved. I wonder if he’s heard what happened.”

  “Where do you think he’d go to celebrate if he heard?” Nora asked.

  “Probably The Purple Fox,” Deputy Sanders said. “Milburn’s only got so many bars you can run up a bill at, you know. That’s the only one he hasn’t exhausted his credit with yet.”

  “Thanks, Deputy,” Nora said. “For everything.”

  “You go home and get some sleep now.” Deputy Sanders touched the brim of his hat. “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight.” Nora smiled. “And I won’t forget that chocolate cake, Deputy. I’m going to give you the most chocolate-y, moist cake you ever ate in your life! Believe you me!”

  *****

  Chapter 10

  The Purple Fox

  “Are you sure about this?” Austin looked doubtful. “It’s 3am. The bar’s probably closed by now.”

  “It stays open all night,” Nora corrected him. “It’s on the edge of town, so it exploits a loophole in the ordinances.”

  “Yeah...well…I don’t know what kind of characters you’d find out there this late,” Austin said.

  “Why, Austin.” Nora was charmed. “Are you looking out for me? That’s downright sweet of you, kiddo.”

  Austin colored. “You have to admit, Harvey wouldn’t be too pleased, either, if he found out you were going to some bar full of notorious characters in the middle of the night.”

  “Harvey used to try and boss me around back in the day when he thought I was putting myself in danger.” Nora grinned. “I soon educated him out of it. Now, you can come with me or not. Your choice.”

  Austin took a deep breath and then let out a long sigh. “It’s been a long, long night.” He yawned. “Fine. One last thing and then I’ll go take a nice, long nap. I don’t think my brain can handle too much more of this. Neither can yours.”

  Nora nodded. She, too, felt exhaustion seeping through every pore of her body. But the mental image of Harvey, alone and despairing, seemed to create a roaring fire in her belly. She was sure she wasn’t going to get any leads at the bar, but she still had to try.

  *****

  The Purple Fox stood at the edge of a lake with high reeds around the back. It had the look particular to all unloved establishments - reasonably clean at first glance yet undeniably dingy. Water damage, cracking paint and a window corner that was duct-taped all added to its general air of gloom. Nora and Austin stood under the neon sign with Nora’s hand on the doorknob. Austin gave her a pointed look and said, “It’s not too late to go back.”

  Nora took a deep breath and shook her head. “Let’s do this.”

  *****

  Inside, the bar was almost empty. There was a TV on one wall and the bartender, with a dishcloth draped over his shoulder, was staring up at a football game playing on it. There were shadows huddled in the corners that shifted as Nora and Austin walked in. Nora determinedly refused to make eye contact with any of them.

  She walked up to the bar and sat down. Austin followed suit. The barman looked almost amused at the unusual pair. Reluctantly tearing himself away from the TV, he walked over to them.

  “Well?” he asked, his voice rough. “What’ll you have?”

  “We’re looking for an Eddie Shaw,” Nora said.

  “Never heard of him,” the barman replied.

  Austin pulled a twenty out of his pocket and put it on the counter. “Maybe this will refresh your memory?”

  The barman looked down at it and sneered. “You watch too much TV, kid. A regular customer’s worth hundreds of dollars a month. Not that Eddie Shaw is one, mind you. But, if he was, I certainly wouldn’t sell him out for a measly twenty.”

  “Bribery’s getting expensive these days.” Nora opened her eyes wide. With a smile, she added. “And bribing inspectors, boy, that’s downright criminally expensive. No pun intended. Speaking of which, when’s the last time your bar got a visit from the county food and beverage inspector?”

  “You threatening me?” The barman raised an eyebrow.

  “No, I’m offering my expertise,” Nora said. “I ran a diner for years. I kept everything ship-shape, of course. But, still, nothing like an inspector barging in to make you nervous. You know?”

  “You ran a diner?” The barman looked suddenly interested.

  “The Madness Diner,” Nora said.

  A smile lit up the barman’s face. “That’s Tina’s place, isn’t it? Are you Tina, then?”

  “Nora Nathaniel,” Nora said. “I used to be the chef there for years. Tina was my partner.”

  “No kidding!” The barman looked excited. “Did you retire recently?”

  “A while back.” Nora looked down at her hands. “My arthritis isn’t too bad, but it can’t hold up to the rigors of a chef’s job.”

  “Oh, man, do I feel that. My mom had arthritis.” The barman smiled warmly. “I’m a fan of The Madness Diner, really. I eat there at least twice a week. Mostly the peanut butter bacon pancakes.”

  “Are you kidding? You’re talking to the woman who invented those!” Austin pointed at Nora with a flourish.

  “Who’d have thought you’d walk into my bar at three in the morning!” The barman laughed. “Can I get you a drink? On the house?”

  It wouldn’t exactly be on the house considering he’d pocketed the twenty Austin had laid out, but Nora decided it wasn’t the time to quibble.

  “I’ll have a Sprite, please. And thank you,” Nora said.

  With a smile, the barman filled a glass with ice and soda, added a sprig of mint and a slice of lemon then slid the bubbling drink over to Nora.

  “I’ll have the same.” Austin nodded.

  “For the master chef, it’s on the house. You need to pay.” The barman gave Austin a look. “That’s five dollars.”

  “For a Sprite?!” Austin yelped. “Also you took my—” Nora nudged him hard in the ribs. He fell quiet and nodded. The barman slammed an unopened can in front of him.

  “So, these peanut butter bacon pancakes of yours.” The barman smacked his lips and leaned on the counter. “I’ve tried making them at home but I just never get the flavor right. How do you do it? When I eat at the diner, it’s like the entire pancake is soaked in bacon-y goodness.”

  Nora grinned. Of all the places to meet a bacon enthusiast! “I generally roast a few raw peanuts and crumble them into the batter along with the peanut butter and bacon bits. You have to let the pancake batter sit for a while before you heat up the griddle,” she explained. “That way they get extra fluffy. Also, I generally fry the bacon in the same griddle. Using bacon fat instead of butter for frying the pancakes just saturates them with flavor.”

  “Mmm.” The barman exhaled heavily, a dreamy look coming into his eyes. “I can imagine.”

  “Look, we might have given you the wrong impression before,” Nora said. “We�
�re not hounding Eddie for money or anything. We actually have some news we thought he’d be interested in. You know Fred Bailey?”

  “Do I!” The barman rolled his eyes. “Eddie’s always talking about the guy. Plotting how to kill him, more often than not. I’ve heard the story of Fred’s ill deeds so many times I could write a book about them.”

  “Really?” Nora leaned forward. “What does he say?”

  “The usual sob story,” the barman said. “How he’d be a rich man if it weren’t for Bailey. How he’d be living the life of Riley instead of being stuck in here with me.”

  Nora nodded. This lined up with what Deputy Sanders had told her so far. “I see.”

  “Yeah, you work in a bar long enough, you hear every sob story in the book,” the man explained. “I still get surprised, though. There are just so many different ways a man can be miserable. The only thing they all have in common is the bottles of beer they drink to drown the misery. Oh, well. I guess it’s good for business.”

  “Is Eddie around?” Nora asked. “I’ve got a feeling he’s going to buy your most expensive bottle of champagne when he hears the news I’ve got.”

  “Eddie hasn’t been in tonight,” the barman said “Funny, actually. He’s normally in here from five in the evening till five in the morning. I actually thought you’d maybe come to give me some sad news about him. Poor guy’s got nothing and nobody in this world except us.”

  “No family?” Nora asked.

  The barman shook his head. “Eddie’s wife died when he was still in his 20s. He raised his kids himself. Mind you, I don’t think he did a great job there. He spent his fair share of nights in here even then. I think his grandmother was the one who handled the kids. Then, a couple years ago, his son drowned in a pool after drinking too much. Poor kid.”

  “Poor Eddie, too. He must have been devastated.”