Lethal Suds

by Sophia Barton

  “I’m still not signing the divorce papers, Abigail. Whatever is happening, whatever your aunt and your mother are feeding you, I won’t let them ruin everything we’ve built.”

  Abigail didn’t usually cuss, but she was strongly tempted. She wanted Kevin to leave her alone, and she didn’t know how to make that happen. No matter how many times she talked to him, how many times she explained that she never wanted to see him again, he just didn’t get the message.

  “Leave her alone,” Roger said.

  Abigail sighed. It wasn’t going to end well. She was grateful for Roger trying to shield her, but he didn’t know Kevin.

  Kevin turned his attention to Roger. He looked at him as if he were an insect on the sidewalk, something he was about to kill. “And you are?” he asked. His voice was cold.

  It made Abigail wince. She could too easily remember when they’d fought, when she hadn’t wanted to do what Kevin pushed for, when he’d talked to her that way.

  “The owner.”

  Kevin looked around. “I’m not surprised.”

  Roger blinked, then frowned. “Unless you’re here to buy a book, you should leave.”

  “I’d be more than happy to.” Kevin turned to Abigail.” Come on. We need to talk.”

  “We don’t need to do anything. We’ve already talked. If you want to say anything else to me, you can do it through my lawyer.”

  Abigail refused to look at Roger. He had to know what was happening by now, but thankfully, he wasn’t asking questions—yet. It was bound to happen, but she would deal with it when it did. She didn’t want anyone to know about Kevin, but Kevin was making that impossible. She knew that after today, half the town would know, if not because Roger told them because someone else noticed Kevin in the store. He wasn’t inconspicuous. He looked out of place in town, with his expensive suit and even more expensive watch. He didn’t belong, not even as a tourist, and Abigail should have realized that sooner. He didn’t belong with her, either.

  She sucked in a breath. She already knew it wouldn’t help, but she had to try one last time. “I need you to leave me alone. I am not getting back with you. I never planned to after I found out what you did. You won’t change my mind, no matter what you say. Just give up, Kevin. Sign the divorce papers. Refusing to sign them to have me talk to you won’t help. If anything, it’s making me hate you even more, and I don’t think that’s what you want.”

  Kevin opened his mouth—to say what, Abigail didn’t know, but she could guess. Before he could say the words, though, the door opened again, and they all turned to see Chief Holden walk into the bookstore.

  Abigail winced. Having the chief of police and her soon-to-be ex-husband in the same room was the last thing she needed right now.

  Chief Holden looked around. “What is going on?” he asked, his voice hard and uncompromising. It was tempting to tell him that Kevin was harassing her and getting him arrested, but she knew better. Kevin would be out of the police station in minutes, and he would rain hell on the town and Chief Holden.

  She forced herself to smile. “Everything is fine.”

  Chief Holden stared for a bit longer, clearly not believing her. Abigail was relieved when he finally nodded and turned his attention to Roger. “Mr. Wade?”

  Roger looked wary. “Why aren’t you calling me Roger?”

  “Because I can’t,” Chief Holden answered, his voice softer.

  “What is going on here?” Kevin asked, interjecting himself into a conversation that had nothing to do with him. That, too, wasn’t a surprise.

  Chief Holden turned his attention back to Kevin. “And you are?”

  “Kevin Miller. Abigail’s husband.”

  “Ex-husband,” Abigail added. “You should go, Kevin.” She didn’t care what Chief Holden thought, but she didn’t want Kevin to cling to her any more than he already had.

  Chief Holden arched a brow. “Well, Mr. Miller, since Ms. Kinsman doesn’t want to talk to you, I think you should go.”

  “I’m not done with her.”

  Chief Holden’s expression hardened. “You are. Unless you want to talk to him, Ms. Kinsman?”

  Abigail shook her head. “I never want to see him again if that’s at all possible.”

  Kevin looked like his head was about to explode, but he knew better than to be pushy. Chief Holden might just be a small-town chief of police, but he was still the local authority.

  He looked at Abigail, glaring. “We’ll talk. No matter how much you run, you know we’ll have to talk.”

  Abigail pressed her lips together and kept her mouth shut. Answering Kevin and telling him he was wrong wouldn’t help. Instead, she waited, only relaxing when he was out the door, slamming it behind him. “Thank you,” she told Chief Holden.

  He nodded at her, then turned his attention back to Roger. “Mr. Wade. I’m sorry to tell you that you’re under arrest for the murder of Randall Mersen.”

  Abigail’s jaw just about hit the floor.

  She couldn’t look away. She’d been the one to tell Chief Holden about Martha and Roger, but she hadn’t expected this to happen. From the looks of it, neither had Roger.

  “Chief Holden. I swear to you that I didn’t do anything. I didn’t kill Randall. I was with Martha that night, and I didn’t leave the house. I don’t—I was planning on selling to Randall. We needed the money to get away, to leave town. Why would I have killed him?”

  “You’re leaving town?” Abigail asked.

  “We were planning to, Martha and I.” Roger snapped his mouth shut.

  “We’ll talk more at the station,” Chief Holden said. His voice was uncompromising, but not unkind. “Come on. Don’t make me call the deputies.”

  Roger hesitated and looked around. “What about the shop? I have to close.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Abigail promised. It was the least she could do.

  From the looks of it, Chief Holden wasn’t happy with her volunteering, but she didn’t care. She probably ought to thank him for getting Kevin to leave, but right now, she couldn’t think about anything that wasn’t Roger.

  She looked at Roger. “I know how to close the shop. Go with Chief Holden. I’m sure this is just a mistake and that you’ll be free to go soon.”

  Roger swallowed heavily. “If you’re sure. I can call someone else, though.”

  Abigail suspected he would call Martha, but it wasn’t the best thing to do right now. “I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry about this, Roger. Worry about calling a lawyer and getting out of this.”

  Chief Holden’s expression turned cold, but it was gone in a flash. Was he angry that she’d suggested Roger call a lawyer? She’d been married to one for a long time. It was instinct, even though Kevin wasn’t a criminal attorney.

  Roger looked like he wanted to protest, but they both knew better. He couldn’t say anything, not to Chief Holden, who’d come to arrest him for murder. Abigail hoped everything would be okay. She also hoped there were good lawyers in town. If there weren’t, she might have to call some of Kevin’s friends, and she wasn’t looking forward to that. She probably shouldn’t get involved, but she felt guilty. She didn’t know if Chief Holden was arresting Roger because of what she’d told him, but just in case, she wanted to help. She might have felt it was her duty to tell Chief Holden about the affair, but it didn’t mean she believed that Roger and Martha had anything to do with this.

  Roger finally agreed to follow Chief Holden, which was a relief. So far, the people around town didn’t seem to have noticed something was happening, but they were bound to, and it would be a mess. The sooner Roger followed Chief Holden to the station, the better it would be for him and his business.

  Abigail looked away when Chief Holden handcuffed Roger. She hated what she’d done. She should have investigated more. She shouldn’t have talked to Chief Holden, not when the result was this.

  But she didn’t know why he was arresting Roger or what kind of proof he had. Maybe it had nothing to do wi
th the affair Roger and Martha had going on. Maybe it had nothing to do with Abigail. Abigail didn’t think the chances of that were high, though. Arresting Roger for murder had to be something that made sense, otherwise, Chief Holden wouldn’t do it.

  Right?

  She watched Chief Holden and the deputies waiting outside guide Roger away. People were starting to notice, and they were gaping and pointing. Abigail hated it, so she turned around and focused on closing the shop. It was pretty much the same as when she closed her aunt’s soap shop, so she was done quickly.

  When she stepped out, she found Chief Holden still there, talking to someone. Roger and the deputies were gone, though, and Abigail was surprised. She’d thought Chief Holden would want to go with Roger and talk to him right away, but instead, he was chatting as if nothing had happened. She scowled at him on her way back to her own shop, and she was surprised when a few minutes before she got there, she heard him call her name.

  “Ms. Kinsman?”

  She stopped. She wanted to ignore him, but she couldn’t. He was the chief of police, after all. She turned around, but she didn’t smile at him. “Yes?”

  “Are you all right?”

  Abigail blinked, wondering what he was referring to. “Well, I’d be better if you hadn’t arrested Roger, but I’m fine.”

  “That’s not what I meant. Your ex-husband?”

  That made more sense. “Kevin has been bothering me, yes, but it’s nothing new.”

  Chief Holden frowned. “What do you mean by bothering you?”

  Abigail waved his words away. “Nothing as bad as whatever you’re thinking about. He hasn’t signed the divorce papers so far, and he’s refusing to do so. He’s also showed up at the house and here, but that’s it. He hasn’t hurt me.”

  “From the sound of it, he’s hurting you more by not signing those papers.”

  Abigail crossed her arms over her chest. “Maybe, but it’s not your job to go after him for that. Thank you for telling him to leave, but you didn’t have to.”

  “He was disturbing you.”

  Abigail hesitated. She didn’t know if Chief Holden would answer, but she had to ask. “Why did you arrest Roger?”

  Chief Holden hesitated. “You know I can’t talk about this.”

  “I know. I’m not asking for details. I’m just asking if what I told you was the basis of the arrest.”

  “In part.” Abigail looked away, and Chief Holden continued. “It wasn’t only that, though. This information helped. It gave Roger one more motive to kill Randall. It’s not the only reason, though, and I already had enough of them to suspect him before you came to me. It wasn’t your fault. You don’t have to blame yourself.”

  “How can I not? What I told you pushed you to arrest him, which means I shouldn’t have talked to you, especially since I don’t think he did it.”

  Chief Holden frowned. “You don’t?”

  Abigail shrugged. “I know I don’t have all the information you have. I’m not the chief of police or one of your deputies. I don’t know if you made the wrong choice, but I truly don’t think he’s the killer.”

  “As you said, you don’t have all the information and all the reasons Roger might have wanted to kill Randall.”

  Abigail snorted. “I know the bookstore is in debt. I know Randall wanted to buy it and that Roger wasn’t happy about it. I also know that eventually, Roger would have had to sell, and begrudgingly so.”

  If Chief Holden was surprised at what she was saying, he didn’t show it. “You do seem to be better informed than I thought,” he admitted.

  “I thought he might have done it before. I don’t anymore.”

  “That’s because you know him. You don’t want to believe he did anything.”

  “You heard him. He said he was going to sell to Randall and that he and Martha would use the money to go away. Why would he have ruined all of that? They had plans. They would have been happy together after they left Randall behind. If everyone killed the people they hated, half the population would be gone, and the other half would be a killer.”

  Chief Holden shook his head. “I understand what you’re saying, but you don’t know everything that’s going on.”

  Abigail believed that. Even though she’d done her best to poke around, she had no doubt the chief of police could get information better and easier than she could, if anything because he had a badge.

  She watched him walk away, wondering what was next for Roger and Martha.

  And what was next for her.

  Abigail should have known getting rid of Kevin wouldn’t be that easy. She’d hoped Chief Holden had been enough to send him running, but instead, she found him fighting with Aunt Charlotte when she walked into the soap shop.

  Aunt Charlotte was yelling at him to get out, and Kevin was yelling at her to keep her nose where it belonged, which didn’t make Abigail—and Aunt Charlotte from the sound of it—happy. When he called her an old goat, Abigail had to intervene.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, putting herself between Kevin and Aunt Charlotte. Kevin had never been violent, but she wouldn’t put it past him to become just that right now. He was capable of things she’d never thought he would be capable of after all.

  “Are you okay?” she asked Aunt Charlotte when they both stopped yelling.

  “I want him out of the shop. I told him that, but he won’t leave,” Aunt Charlotte snapped.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”

  “I don’t want you to fight with him or to have to see him.”

  “And I need you to stop fighting with him. I’ll take care of it. Go to the backroom, check on the curing soap. I think we’re going to have to restock the shelves soon.”

  Aunt Charlotte looked like she knew what Abigail was doing, but Abigail didn’t care. She didn’t want to fight with Kevin, but she wasn’t about to allow him to fight with Aunt Charlotte.

  She waited until Aunt Charlotte disappeared into the backroom—no doubt listening just behind the door—to turn her attention back to Kevin. “Chief Holden was clear. He told you to leave.”

  Kevin crossed his arms over his chest. “I did. I came here. He told me to leave the bookstore, and I did.”

  Abigail threw her hands in the air. “What do you want from me?”

  “I told you. I want you to come back.”

  “And I told you I don’t. I don’t care how many times you come here and try to talk to me, how many times you threaten not to sign the divorce papers. I’m not coming back, Kevin. Why don’t you go back to Brittany? The two of you seemed to be getting along so well.” Thinking about it still hurt, but less than it had in the beginning. Maybe Abigail was healing. Maybe it was something else. Whatever the case, she didn’t care.

  “She was a mistake,” Kevin said. “I already told you. I shouldn’t have slept with her, but you’d become distant.”

  “So it’s my fault?” Abigail wasn’t surprised. They’d already done this when she’d found out about Kevin’s affair. She’d asked him how he could have done it, and his answer had been to point the finger at her. She’d been angry, and she still was. She had no fault in the fact that Kevin couldn’t keep it in his pants.

  “You have to see that this isn’t for you,” Kevin pushed. “You’re not a small-town girl. You’re a city girl. You always were.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. It’s the opposite. I grew up here, Kevin. I’ve always been a small-town girl, and the only reason I lived in the city was you. You wanted to live there because of your work, and I didn’t protest. I didn’t protest a lot of things I should have talked to you about, and this is the result. I don’t want you in my life anymore. I don’t think I would want you in my life even if you hadn’t cheated on me. We’re not compatible, not anymore. We grew apart, and that’s all right. You have to stop coming after me, please. Move on.”

  “Like you’re moving on?”

  “I’m trying to.” It hadn’t been easy, but she thought
she was doing a good job.

  “Are you cheating on me?”

  Abigail shook her head. She wasn’t surprised that was where Kevin’s thoughts had gone. “I never cheated on you.”

  “Not even now? What about the chief of police?”

  “He’s the chief of police. That’s it. I don’t even know his first name. There’s nothing between us, and there won’t be anything between me and anyone else until the divorce is over. I’m not in the mood for a relationship, Kevin. I don’t care if you go back to her, though. Feel free to do whatever you want as long as you leave me alone.”

  The door opened, and Abigail was both dismayed and happy for the interruption. Her eyes widened when she saw Chief Holden step in, and she wondered what he was doing here. Should he be at the station interrogating Roger?

  “I thought I told you to leave,” he said, looking at Kevin before glancing at Abigail.

  “This is a free country. You told me to leave the bookstore, and I did.”

  Kevin was always snarky when he was angry, and Abigail suspected that wouldn’t go down well with Chief Holden.

  Chief Holden took a moment to answer. “And now, I’m asking you to leave town. You’re disturbing the people who live here, and I can’t let you do that.”

  “I’m talking to my wife.”

  “You’re talking to your ex-wife, and she doesn’t seem to want to talk to you. Leave her alone, don’t come back until you have something important to tell her and she wants to talk to you.”

  “You have no business telling me when to come back or not.”

  “You’re right. I don’t. But if you continue to harass my people, I will arrest you.”

  Kevin laughed. “I’m a lawyer. You think I’m going to get scared?”

  “Maybe not. Maybe you’ll be out of jail in seconds. But you’d still have been arrested, and I doubt the people you left back in the city will be happy about it.”

  That seemed to get Kevin’s attention. Abigail could see he wanted to push, that he wanted to flaunt the fact that he didn’t believe in Chief Holden’s authority. He knew better, though.

  He finally nodded. “I’ll go.” He turned his attention to Abigail. “I’ll be back. We have things to talk about.”