Thyme to Kill

by Tegan Maher

  He frowned. “What? How do you know that?”

  “Because my dog knocked her purse off the stand, and when I was putting everything back inside of it,” I shrugged, “I sort of found it.”

  “Do you have it on you now?”

  I shook my head. “I left it right where it was so she wouldn’t know, just in case you couldn’t get here before she left.”

  He shook his head. “This is the mayor’s wife we’re talking about. He’ll have my badge if I don’t do this exactly by the book.”

  “Which is exactly why I told you to bring the warrant. You did, right?”

  He nodded and pulled it out of his shirt pocket. “Yes, I did.”

  The screen door squeaked open, and Dee poked her head in. “Sheriff! What are you doing here?”

  He caught my gaze and held it for a couple seconds, and I could read the indecision there. Finally, he sighed and pulled out the warrant. “I need to search the house again.”

  “Actually,” I said, giving the back of Naomi’s head a scorching look through the glass, “he only needs to search her purse.”

  I motioned toward it with my chin, and Howie picked it up, looking at the sheriff once more before he did. Gabe gave him a curt nod as he snapped on a pair of gloves, then unzipped it while Howie held it. He pulled in a deep breath and released it when he saw the necklace. His shoulders slumped.

  Naomi had swiveled in her chair to see what was going on, and bolted inside when she saw him holding her purse “What do you think you’re doing?” she snapped, taking the few steps across the room to reach Gabe. She tried to snatch it out of Howie’s hands, but he held tight. “That’s mine!”

  “Naomi, stop,” the sheriff commanded. “Let go of the purse and step away from Howie.”

  Naomi turned and glared at Gabe. “I am the mayor’s wife,” she hissed.

  The sheriff put his hands up in front of him like he was negotiating a hostage stand-off. “I know who you are, ma’am. Please do as I say.”

  “I will have your badge for this.” She reached for her purse again, but Howie held it out of her reach.

  The sheriff glanced at me before turning his gaze back to Naomi. “Maybe so, but there’s something in there that I need to get a better look at.”

  “You had no right to go through my purse,” she said, her face a menacing sneer as she looked at me.

  Dee frowned as she walked over to Howie. “What’s in there? May I see?”

  Gabe nodded at Howie. “Let her look.”

  “This is Fiona’s,” she said, glancing in the purse. She started to reach for it, but Howie shook his head and pulled it back. Dee turned toward Naomi. “Why do you have Fiona’s necklace?”

  Naomi’s face shifted through multiple emotions, all too fast to completely read, before she lifted her chin and pointed an accusing finger at me. “Because she must have put it there to set me up.”

  Dee shook her head, gaze coming up to meet Naomi’s. “Then why didn’t you just let the sheriff see inside your purse? If you had nothing to hide, there shouldn’t have been a problem.”

  Naomi stepped toward Gabe, eyes imploring. “William. He must have done it and hid the evidence in my purse.”

  The sheriff snorted. “Why would he do it?”

  She glanced at me, then at Dee before looking back at the sheriff. “Because they were having an affair. They must have had a spat or something. You know how Fiona could be. He must have been driven into a blind rage and killed her.”

  Absolute silence reigned for a couple of seconds while everybody absorbed that.

  My mind flipped back to the tension between Naomi and her husband my first night in town, then to his behavior the night they came into the bar. He’d been drowning his grief, not trying to wash away the stress of the campaign.

  Everything clicked into place. She’d sent the text the night they’d been over planning the party and hidden the phone in Dee’s drawer afterward. The worst part of it is that if Bear hadn’t knocked over her purse, she’d have gotten away with it.

  Dee asked, “So why would he frame you? Why not get rid of the necklace?”

  Naomi shrugged, answering Dee’s questions. “I don’t know, other than you’ve seen how he is with me. Maybe he wants to see me gone. Maybe he wants to see me suffer.”

  Dee’s face softened as she gazed down at the necklace.

  I wondered if she was buying into Naomi’s sob story. I glanced at the sheriff.

  His arms were crossed in front of his chest, a hard frown creasing his brow. “While that’s a fine story you’ve created there, Naomi, we all know that the mayor was in a town council meeting for most of that morning, starting while Fiona was alive, as can be attested to by witnesses, and ending long after her body was found.”

  Naomi’s gaze fell on me. “Then she had to have put the necklace in my purse. You found the phone here, so it makes sense the necklace had been here at one point, too.”

  “You’re the one who put it here after sending me a threatening text,” I snarled.

  Naomi laughed. “Why would I send you a threatening text, and why would I hide Fiona’s phone here?”

  The sheriff pulled an evidence bag out of his pocket, then pulled the necklace from the purse and dropped it inside. Handing it to Howie, he pulled the gloves off with a snap and stuffed them in his pocket. “Turn around please, Naomi.”

  She shook her head. “You don’t have to do this, Gabe.”

  “You have the right to remain silent,” he said as he stepped around behind her, pulling one of her arms to her back as he pulled out his cuffs and put one of the bracelets around that wrist.

  “You don’t understand,” Naomi begged. “I didn’t mean to kill her. I just wanted her to stop seeing my husband.”

  “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law,” the sheriff continued as he pulled her other arm back and secured the cuff around that wrist.

  “This can’t be happening,” Naomi kept saying. “I’m the mayor’s wife!”

  “You have the right to an attorney.”

  Naomi struggled. “Fiona just laughed at me. She told me Bill—she always called him Bill, not William—loved her, and then ordered me out of that dump she called a café.”

  Dee looked horrified as she watched the woman become more and more unhinged. “You know what she was like. You understand, don’t you?” Naomi implored Dee.

  Dee glanced at me before looking back at Naomi. “No. I don’t. Fiona could be awful, that’s true, but she didn’t deserve to die for it.”

  Naomi shook her head. “It was an accident. I got so angry at her, at all the things she was saying that I couldn’t think straight. Before I even knew what I was doing, I had picked up the rolling pin and cracked her with it.”

  Dee stood there, unmoving as the Gabe nudged Naomi out of our house.

  “I’ll need you ladies to come down and make a statement,” he called over his shoulder.

  “Will do,” I said with a wave as I shut the door. I could still hear Naomi out there rambling away. I leaned against the door and faced Dee. “I’m sorry about Naomi.”

  Dee gave a slight nod. “I should have known she was too good to be true.”

  Bear came trotting down from Dee’s room. He sat on Dee’s foot and gazed up at her, resting his body against her leg. “So how did you know that necklace was in Naomi’s purse?” She leaned down and scratched Bear behind the ear.

  I stared down at Bear and smiled. “To be honest, I couldn’t have done it without him. He was sniffing at her purse and knocked it down. I scrambled to clean it all up and that’s when I saw it.”

  “Yeah,” Dee said, collapsing down onto the couch, “but you saved me. If it weren’t for you two, she’d have gotten away with it. Thanks to you guys, I have a future again.”

  I smiled. “What are friends for?”

  Chapter 27

  IT HAD BEEN A WEEK since the news of Naomi Clark’s arrest had circulated through the to
wn. The mayor wasn’t going to seek re-election, Naomi was locked up with no bail, and the sheriff had publicly exonerated Dee. And she’d not only kept the cake deal with the auxiliary but had gotten four more commissions, too.

  I had decided, with Dee’s help and Scout’s cooking expertise, to host a barbecue at the lodge to celebrate Dee’s innocence and to get to know the town’s people better. After all, I was going to be living there for the foreseeable future, so it was time to start carving my niche.

  Some people were sitting on lawn chairs they’d brought with them, watching their kids run around the yard, others were sitting on blankets in the shade of the trees, enjoying the view and each other, and others were just milling around, talking to their neighbors and friends, while some preferred to go inside where they helped Dee or just looked around the old lodge. It amazed me how many people had made it.

  I said as much to Dee, and she laughed. “Are you kidding me?” she said. “There’s nowhere else anyone would rather be. Getting firsthand knowledge about everything that had gone on, and whatever may happen at the party itself, was far better than waiting for tomorrow’s gossip.”

  I took a plate of burgers over to one of the picnic tables in the middle of the yard, chatting with a few people as I did. Everyone was welcoming, and curious about the lodge, and I’d given them a tour. Dee and I, and sometimes Scout, had worked together to finish the kitchen and two of the bedrooms, complete with fresh paint.

  Only six more bedrooms to go. We had even taken down the animal heads that had adorned the living room and dusted and cleaned up the antler chandeliers. Having critters stare at me while I was trying to watch TV just freaked me out, but the local men’s clubs were happy to divvy them up. We still had to strip and refinish the wood floors, but it was a start.

  I walked back over to Scout, who had been put in charge of all things grill related by Dee, and grabbed a plate of hot dogs he had just finished up. He gave me a lopsided grin.

  “What?” I asked with a small chuckle.

  He shrugged as he rolled a bratwurst over on the grill. “I’m just happy to be here, is all.”

  “Me too,” I said and smiled even bigger when I realized I meant it. “I have Dee, and you, and even a dog.”

  “We make a good team,” Scout said with a wink. “Though I’m not sure what the dog contributes.”

  I laughed. “Comic relief.”

  Maisie popped in beside him. “That looks delicious,” she said, then pretended to feel his bicep. She winked at me. “And the meat looks pretty good, too.”

  I rolled my eyes and Scout gave me a curious look. “What?” he asked.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I said.

  “You keep saying that, but never give me a chance to decide for myself.”

  Maisie cackled. Wait ’til later tonight, and I’ll introduce myself.”

  “No!” I exclaimed, then realized he’d think I was talking to him. “I mean, no, I don’t. But I promise I will.”

  As I made a second trip back to the picnic table with the plate of dogs, my step seemed lighter, and I noticed that I couldn’t stop smiling. It was a great feeling.

  Dee stepped up beside me and put down a tray of deviled eggs. “In case I haven’t said so, or even if I have since it bears repeating, thank you. For all you’ve done for me. For always being someone I can count on and turn to.” She shrugged. “For everything.”

  I put my arm around her. “That’s what friends do.”

  She leaned her head on my shoulder. “Well I want to do something in return. I’ve decided to take some of the money Fiona left me and put it into this place, if you don’t mind. I could be an investing partner, so to speak. I think this place has a lot of potential, and I really think it would make a great bed and breakfast, maybe even with a small restaurant that people could come to for lunch and dinner.”

  I opened my mouth to say something, but she held up a hand. “Don’t give me an answer just yet. Think about it. If you’re interested, we can hammer out the details.” She waggled her brows at me. “But if you think you’re rooting me out of that kitchen regardless of whether you take me up on it, you’ve got another thing coming, girlfriend. You’re stuck with me.”

  I grinned and hip-checked her. “Back atcha, girl. Scout was just saying what a great team we make, and I couldn’t agree more.”

  Dee threw her arms around my neck. “This will be awesome, you’ll see.”

  I sighed as a sense of peace settled over me. I had no doubt we could make this place great again. Maybe even better than it ever had been.

  A throat cleared behind me. “Am I interrupting?”

  I smiled as I released Dee and turned around to face Gabe, who was wearing jeans, cowboy boots, a baseball hat with the Broncos logo, and a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up. I couldn’t remember ever seeing him out of his uniform. “Having a good time?”

  He looked around and nodded. “You really outdid yourselves.”

  Dee beamed. “Just happy that I have my life back, and what better way to celebrate?”

  He motioned toward the kids and the dog running around the yard. “You know,” he said, “that’s some mutt you’ve got there.”

  Dee chuckled. “He is pretty great, isn’t he?”

  “The way I see it, he played a major hand in helping solve this case, whether he meant to or not.”

  I had to agree. “If he hadn’t knocked Naomi’s purse down, I don’t know that any of us would have found that missing necklace.”

  “Yeah. It was some stroke of luck,” Dee said. “To think, if he hadn’t smelled it in there, or whatever, I might be in jail right now.”

  “So how’s the mayor doing?” Dee asked. “I heard he isn’t going to run for re-election.”

  Gabe raised a brow. “No. He figures it would be tough sell, you know, since his wife confessed to murdering his mistress. Besides, he only got into politics because it’s what his family and Naomi wanted. He never wanted that. He just wanted to find a woman to love and be loved by and live a normal life. He says he can’t stay here. Too many memories. So he thinks, once his term is over, he’ll move out of the town, maybe even out of the state.”

  He took a big bite of his burger, then popped an egg in his mouth as we watched the kids play.

  “What about you?” he asked me. “Are you planning to stay?”

  Dee hip-checked me. “Yes, she’s staying. No matter how much she may regret moving here.”

  I laughed as I glanced at her. “Nah. If it weren’t for this town, my decision to come here, I never would have met you,” My gaze moved to Gabe, then to Scout and across the crowd. “And right now, I can’t imagine my life without any of you.”

  “Ah.” Dee’s eyes looked a little shinier than they had before. “That is so sweet. And just so you know, I feel the exact same way about you. You know, Scout’s right. The three of us, we make one heck of a team.”

  I glanced at Bear. “Yes, we do.”

  Dee walked to the picnic table and grabbed two red cups, filling them both with lemonade before returning and handing one to me. She held her glass up in a toasting gesture. “To no regrets, to looking forward, and to an amazing friend and business partner.”

  I clunked my glass into hers. “Hear, hear. And to Mercy Lodge and all the possibilities it holds for us.”

  “To Mercy Lodge,” Dee agreed. We turned and surveyed all the people.

  I had to smile. As many flaws as this town seemed to have, and as different as it seemed compared to what I was used to, for the first time in my life I felt really content. Like I was finally home. My gaze found Scout, who was watching me. I lifted my glass in salute, and he smiled and tilted his head in response.

  Yep. There was no place else I’d rather be. This was definitely the start of the next, and hopefully best, chapter of my life, surrounded by good friends and endless possibilities.

  Thank you!

  I’VE PUT A LOT OF LOVE into this novel, as I d
o with all of them, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. All of my other books contain a little bit of magic along with the humor, but this one was going to be different. This one wasn’t going to have any magic or witches or ghosts, so imagine my surprise when Miss Maisie made an appearance! So, welcome to the Haunted Lodge Mystery Series. Book 2, Shot Cross Buns, will be out in April of 2019, and I’ve included a sneak peek of the unedited first chapter, so keep reading! Oh, and if you wouldn’t mind leaving a review to help others decide if this is right for them, I’d appreciate it.

  I’ve included the first chapter of Shot Cross Buns, Book 2 in the Haunted Lodge series, next. It’s available for preorder and will release in early April of 2019. If you’re looking for something to read while you wait, I’m also including the first chapter of Sweet Murder, Book 1 of 8 in my witches of Keyhole Lake series.

  Happy Reading,

  Tegan ☺

  Shot Cross Buns

  Chapter One

  I STEPPED OUT ONTO the porch of my cabin and stretched my arms over my head, pulling in a deep breath of clean country air. The sky was clear, the birds were chirping, and the weather was perfect for a jog. Or as perfect as it could be for such masochism. Let’s be clear—I run so I can eat cheesecake, not because I enjoy it, though it is a good time to think. Bear, a Leonberger I’d adopted shortly after moving to Mercy, fell in time beside me, tongue lolling.

  I’d moved to Mercy from Florida a couple of months ago, and was still adjusting to the slower pace and eccentric synergy of life in a small town. Leaving a big city and coming to a small, rural community had been a bit of a test, but I was managing. Despite the vast differences—or maybe because of them—the place was beginning to grow on me. It felt like home. I was glad to trade the rat race for gossipy neighbors, though a couple all-night carry-out places would have been nice.

  I focused on building a breathing rhythm—three steps to inhale, four steps to exhale—as I jogged past the run-down lodge I’d purchased with the lion’s portion of my divorce settlement. It wasn’t the grand place I’d been expecting, but it was going to be. Granted, it needed a lot of work but I didn’t mind that, especially considering I had plenty of new friends to help me.