Candy Cane Killer

by Kate Bell

  “I’ll stay with you,” I said.

  Mama had her hand covering her mouth as she made her way back to her house. Poor thing. Daddy had passed quietly in his sleep from a heart attack. She had put on a happy face in front of people, but it had been devastatingly painful for her after more than thirty years of marriage, but at least it hadn’t been violent, like this.

  Tom’s right hand was clenched in a fist, and I leaned in closer to take a look. I blinked my eyes. It was a broken candy cane. Another wave of nausea passed over me and I held my breath, willing it to pass. I was getting tired of seeing dead bodies and blood.

  Alec stood up, and we waited for the police. Within five minutes, three sheriff’s deputies, and an ambulance arrived. Alec went and introduced himself to the first deputy out of a cruiser.

  The EMT’s hurried over to where Tom was laying and knelt beside him and began examining him.

  “Well, Allie Hamilton,” one officer said to me with a big smile. “How have you been? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you around these parts.”

  It took me a minute before I recognized Elmer Jones, and I had to suppress a shudder. We had briefly dated in our junior year of high school, but had broken up because he wanted more than I was willing to give.

  I gave him a brief smile. “Hello, Elmer.”

  “I didn’t know you were back in town,” he said amiably.

  “Just visiting my mama for Christmas,” I said, looking away. I had no desire to talk to him and I wished he would just attend to Tom.

  “Well, I hope to see a lot of you while you’re here. Me and Amy got a divorce last year. Seems she wanted more freedom or something like that. You never can tell with some women these days. Maybe I could persuade you to stay here in Goose Bay instead of going back North?”

  He had a big grin on his face and the absurdity of what he was saying was getting on my nerves. A man had just been murdered here.

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” I said, trying not to roll my eyes at him. “My home is in Maine.”

  Elmer hadn’t aged well. He was balding and had a beer belly. I couldn’t blame Amy for needing her freedom. Elmer’s personality alone would do it for me.

  Alec looked at me quizzically from where he stood, talking to the other sheriff’s deputy, and I shrugged my shoulders.

  “Well, what do we have here?” Elmer asked, finally kneeling down beside the body. He grunted and groaned as he got down and I wondered if he would be able to stand back up.

  “There’s a lot of blood, so possibly a gunshot or knife wound,” Alec said, having walked back over to us.

  Elmer turned to Alec. “I think I can handle this,” he said curtly.

  “Oh, of course,” Alec said and glanced at me, questioning.

  “Deputy John over there can take your statement,” he said, nodding to a deputy.

  “Hey, John McGinty!” I exclaimed. “I haven’t seen you in ages!”

  “Hey, Allie,” he said, bashfully. I went over and gave him a hug, even though I could tell it made him uncomfortable.

  “Alec, This is John McGinty. I went to high school with him, and John, this is my boyfriend Alec Blanchard. Alec is a detective in Maine,” I said, introducing them.

  They shook hands, and I was relieved John was on the scene and that we wouldn’t have to deal with Elmer. John had been the class nerd and was shy beyond belief. I had always wondered why he chose a job in law enforcement since it would require him to have so much contact with people. He took us to the side and we gave him our statement. We didn’t have much to say since we didn’t really see much of anything.

  “Why don’t you come next door and talk to my daughter Jennifer? She’s the one who found the body, but I have to warn you, she’s pretty hysterical right now.”

  “I’ll watch out for hysteria,” he said, smiling.

  We started toward Mama’s house, but Alec stayed behind. I looked at him, questioning. He nodded at me, and I went on with John to the house. I hoped Alec didn’t get into trouble with Elmer, but I knew Alec would get the investigation done right.

  --3--

  Jennifer sat on the sofa with Mama, both of them sobbing in each other’s arms. It broke my heart to see them like that. Thad and Sarah sat on either side of them, patting their shoulders.

  “Jennifer,” I said gently. “Officer McGinty would like to have a word with you.”

  Jennifer looked up at me, and then over to John. She wiped her eyes with the tissue she had in her hand, and said, “Yes?”

  “Have a seat, John,” I offered, motioning to a chair across from Jennifer.

  “Can I get you anything to drink?” I asked him.

  “No, thank you,” he replied. “I’m fine.”

  He sat down and turned to Jennifer. “Jennifer, can you tell me what happened? You found the body?” he asked gently.

  She nodded. “Yes. Grandma sent me over with some chicken and dumplings. I knocked on the front door, but no one answered. I remembered going to Mr. Turner’s back door when he didn’t answer the front door when I was a little girl, so I went around the side of the house. He was lying there, on his face. I called to him, but he didn’t move. I touched the side of his neck, and it was cold. Then I noticed some blood on the grass next to him.”

  “What did you do then?” John asked.

  “I screamed. A lot.” She said, nodding again.

  John began scribbling in his notebook and then looked up. “Is there anything else?”

  “Yes,” she said. “There was a plate of gingerbread cookies and candy canes that looked like they had been dropped on the floor of the front porch. Right next to the little table he has there with plants on it. I thought it was kind of weird because the plate was broken like someone had dropped the plate and it had hit the porch really hard.”

  “I see,” he said, making more notes. “Anything else?”

  “No,” she said. “I don’t remember anything else.”

  “Okay, Jennifer, I appreciate your help. If you think of anything, you’ll call me, right? Anything at all.”

  “Yes,” she answered, sniffing.

  He got up from his chair and turned to me. “Here’s my card. Give me a call if you can think of anything. I’m sure someone will be getting in touch with you shortly.”

  I took John’s business card and walked him to the door.

  “I’m sorry you all had to go through this on your visit,” he said. “It’s not pleasant.”

  “Thank you, John. It isn’t the way we had planned on spending Christmas,” I said as I walked him to the door. “Oh, and John?”

  He turned back toward me before leaving the porch. “Yes?”

  “I’m sure Alec will help wherever he can, if you’d like.”

  “Thanks, Allie, I appreciate that. I’ll have a talk with him and I’ll be seeing you around,” he said.

  I went back into the living room and Jennifer was staring out into space. She looked up at me. “This is horrible.”

  “I know, sweetie, I’m sorry you had to see that,” I said.

  Mama got to her feet. “I’ll get you a glass of water, Jennifer.” She motioned for me to follow her into the kitchen, and I followed her.

  She closed the kitchen door behind us. “Allie, that part about the plate of gingerbread men sounds suspicious to me.”

  “Well, Mama, the whole thing is suspicious since Tom was murdered,” I said, trying not to sound like I was humoring her.

  “I know that, but I think that’s a clue to Tom’s murder.”

  “It very well could be. I’m sure Alec will check it out,” I said and went to get a glass out of the cupboard.

  “If I had to guess, I’d say it was Ida Crawford that did it,” she said, coming to stand beside me as I filled the glass with water from the pitcher in the refrigerator.

  “Oh? Why do you say that?” I asked.

  I remembered Ida from when she worked at the phone company. Once a month I went with Mama to the companies that
we made monthly payments to and Ida took the money for the telephone. She had red curly hair that bordered on orange and wore too much makeup. Her lips stood out, being bright red and glossy. Every time she saw me, she would remark that I had red hair just like her. When we left the phone company office, Mama would tell me not to pay her any mind because her red hair wasn’t natural and it wasn’t as pretty as mine.

  “Well, she probably wouldn’t admit it, but she was sweet on Tom. I’ve seen her car parked out front a few times,” she said, nodding her head knowingly. “She still wears too much makeup and that orange hair of hers is even more garish now that she’s getting up there in age. She’s almost six years older than I am, you know.”

  “You don’t say?” I said. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Mama was a might bit jealous.

  “Yes,” she said, lost in thought.

  “How often would you say she stopped by Tom’s house?” I asked.

  “Oh, at least a couple of times a month. Always bringing him something to eat. Mostly sweets because Tom did have quite a sweet tooth.” She sighed sadly. “Poor Tom.”

  “It is a shame,” I agreed. I took a good look at Mama. Had she been sweet on Tom? I never would have thought it, but if it was true, then I knew she would be even more upset by his death. She was also at a disadvantage to Ida Crawford because she couldn’t bake. Then I remembered that Mama had called me back in the spring and asked me for my recipe for coconut cake. I tried to tell her it wouldn’t do any good for me to give it to her, but she insisted. Mama had not inherited the baking gene from her mother.

  “I hope he didn’t suffer,” she said, and her eyes welled up with tears.

  “I hope not. I think if he hadn’t died rather quickly, he would have yelled and we would have heard him,” I said, hoping to make her feel better. I couldn’t imagine there had been a struggle at all, or we would have heard something.

  “Probably so,” she said, and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

  “Mama, were you sweet on Tom?” I asked. I figured I might as well be straight with it and find out.

  “What?” she asked, blushing a little. “Me? No, not me. You wouldn’t know it, but Tom was a ladies’ man. He liked the ladies a little too much. If you ask me, bingo was nothing more than an excuse to flirt with the other women.”

  Mama sounded a little hurt when she said it. I wondered if he hadn’t felt for her the way she did for him.

  “But you liked him?” I asked gently.

  “Now, Allison Marie, don’t you go spreading rumors. People will be bound to think I had something to do with the murder,” she said. “And I was right here, the whole time. And don’t you look at me with that raised eyebrow. I’m not dead, you know. A woman sometimes likes a gentleman’s company.”

  I smiled, but my heart was hurting for her. Whether Tom returned her admiration was unclear to me, but she had felt something for him and now he was dead.

  “All right, Mama. Maybe you know something that can help John and Alec figure out who killed Tom. He deserves to have his murder solved,” I said and headed back to the living room with the glass of water for Jennifer.

  Thad was peeking out the side window, watching the investigation. He turned when I came back into the room. “I’m going to see if Alec needs any help,” he said.

  “Stay out of the way,” I told him as he left.

  “Here you go Jennifer, nice and cold. It will make you feel better,” I said.

  “Thanks, Mom,” she said, taking it from me. “I just can’t believe this happened. And I had to be the one to find him.”

  “I know, I’m sorry, Jen,” I said, and went to the window Thad had just vacated. The police officers, Alec and Thad stood around the body, as the coroner looked Tom over. This was beginning to become a familiar scene in my life and I didn’t like it one bit.

  --4--

  Mama and Jennifer had gone to lie down in their rooms and I sat with Sarah in the living room, waiting. The girl was obsessed with the Christmas tree, examining every ornament on it, which was fine because it kept her from bothering me. Alec and Thad came back to the house when the coroner took Tom’s body to the morgue.

  “That was wild,” Thad said as he walked in the house. “I’ve never seen a dead body before.”

  “You get used to it,” Alec said. He gave me a lopsided smile when he saw me. “Your friend John seems like a reasonable fellow. But Elmer isn’t quite so friendly.”

  “Yes well, you’re not the first person who’s said that,” I said. “Why don’t we go for a little walk? It’s nice outside and I could use some fresh air.”

  “Sure,” he said.

  I got up from the sofa, gave him a quick kiss, and took his hand. The afternoon sun was receding and there was a slight nip in the air, but it wasn’t terribly cold. I missed being able to go outside during the winter with just a coat on. In Maine, I had to bundle up with a big coat, gloves, earmuffs, and a scarf.

  Alec closed the front gate behind us and we headed past Tom’s house. It looked sadly empty to me now, and I sighed. I could see the unlit Christmas tree peeking out from his front window.

  As we got to the corner of his property, a brown 1983 Cadillac, still in mint condition, pulled up to the front of Tom’s house. Alec and I glanced at each other, then turned around and slowly walked toward the car.

  A woman with short, curly gray hair stepped out of the car and I recognized Mrs. Beale, the county librarian. I had spent many summers as a child at the library, reading as many books as I could so I could win the coveted gold plastic trophy in the reading contest. I had won six of them in my preteen years. Beat out twice by Sadie Beale. Yes, you guessed it. The librarian’s daughter. I still swear she cheated and only skimmed the chapters. Her mother probably gave her the cliff notes version of Are You There, God? It’s me, Margaret when she beat me in the sixth grade.

  She didn’t seem to see us walking toward her, as she made a beeline to Tom’s front gate.

  “Mrs. Beale?” I called out.

  She stopped and turned toward me, giving me a vague look. Then recognition showed on her face. “Allie Hamilton!” she said, using my maiden name. “My goodness, how are you?”

  “Oh, I’m fine,” I said and went to her and gave her a hug. “It’s been far too long.”

  “Are you here visiting for Christmas?” she asked, peering over her gold-rimmed wire framed glasses, just like she had always done when talking to me at the library.

  “Yes, I’m here with my family visiting Mama. And this is my friend, Alec,” I said introducing them.

  Alec shook her hand, with Mrs. Beale looking him over. “He seems very nice,” she said, turning to me.

  “Mrs. Beale, Tom isn’t home. Was he expecting you?” I asked. I didn’t know how to break it to her that he was dead and saying he wasn’t home just seemed nicer.

  “Why yes, we play Uno on Thursday nights. I don’t cook much myself, but he makes me supper, and we keep one another company.” Her face lit up while she told us this.

  Alec and I exchanged a look. I really didn’t want to be the one to have to tell her. Fortunately for me, Alec stepped up and handled it.

  “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Mrs. Beale,” Alec began kindly. “But Tom passed away this afternoon. It was very unexpected.”

  “What?” Mrs. Beale asked, blinking. “What do you mean? I just spoke with him this morning.”

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Beale. It’s been a shock to all of us,” I said, and reached out and squeezed her shoulder.

  She stood and stared at us in disbelief for a few moments. I wanted to say more, but my mind went blank. Then her face clouded over.

  “Are you certain?” she asked quietly.

  I nodded. “Yes, we are. I’m so sorry.”

  “What did he die of?” she asked, and tears welled up in her eyes. “It’s so sudden. I don’t understand this. He was healthy. He went to the gym nearly every morning.”

  I glanced at Alec
.

  “All we really know right now is that he has passed. I’m very sorry for your loss. Do you know if Tom had family in town?” Alec asked. He had a practiced tone, and I had a glimpse into his life as a person that had broken this news far too many times in his life.

  “Oh, yes. He had his daughter. She lives across town on Sylvia Street. But I’m afraid they were estranged. His daughter didn’t like the fact that Tom … well, Tom,” she said and trailed off.

  “Go on,” Alec gently encouraged.

  “Tom dated sometimes. I never did ask him for details, but I heard his wife was in a nursing home for a few years, and he dated other women while she was in there. And Leslie, Leslie Warren is her name, couldn’t abide by her father dating while her mother was still alive. I can’t say as I blame her,” she said sadly.

  “I can see where that would be very difficult for family communication,” I said, nodding.

  “Oh, but Tom and I didn’t date,” she said, looking at me and shaking her head. “I mean, I didn’t start coming over to play Uno cards with him until Jane had been gone for quite sometime. And we’ve never really dated. I never did agree with Tom about seeing other women while his wife was still alive. If that’s what happened, anyway.”

  “Oh, of course,” I said. “I understand.” Only I didn’t. Why would she come over every week to spend time with him and not know something this important about him? Was he a cheater, or not?

  “I’m, well, I’m just so shocked. This is shocking news,” she said, looking at the ground. “So unexpected.”

  “It really is. I’m so sorry,” I said.

  “Well, I suppose I’ll be going now. This is all so shocking,” she absently repeated. She looked so lost, I wanted to say something more, but I wasn’t sure what. I hoped she had someone to share her grief with.

  “I’m sorry,” I said again, and I walked her around the side of her car and opened the door for her. I closed the door and stepped back, and Alec and I watched the car pull away.

  Alec gave me a sideways glance and then took hold of my hand and we continued walking.