Trouble at TeaFest

by R A Wallace

  Dan rested his chin lightly on Megan’s head. “Did I mention I like kids?” Dan asked with a smile.

  Megan grinned. “Maybe once or twice. Maybe I should clear my name before we get started on that.”

  That sobered Dan up quickly. “How are you planning on doing that?”

  Megan explained to Dan about the pictures on Jason’s laptop.

  Dan shook his head in disgust. “That sounds sick.”

  “I’m going to start with the women that I know about. Erica said that Lauren was one of the people that Jason photographed, apparently also without her knowledge. I’m going to talk to Lauren first thing tomorrow and see if she knew anything about Jason Malone or what her impressions of him were. Then I’ll check with the others also.”

  Dan nodded. “Okay, so you’re just going to talk to the women involved. That doesn’t sound too dangerous.”

  Megan nodded and pulled out her phone to check the time. “We should get going. Do you mind if we take your truck? I don’t feel like driving.”

  They were quiet for the short drive to the police station in town. Megan was thinking about what she should say in her statement. She had hoped that planning it all in her head would help to keep her calm. As she walked up the steps to enter the police station, her stomach rolled in apprehension and she realized that she’d just been deluding herself.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Monday morning Megan rose even earlier than usual. Emma popped one green eye open and stretched on her side of the bed. Megan thought Emma might go back to sleep, but Emma was apparently spurred on by the prospect of food. She made it to the kitchen before Megan.

  Megan looked at the clock. It was only five. She’d need to find something to do before going to Lauren’s. Her guests had gone through quite a lot of the jam this past weekend and it had been her last jar of peach jam anyway.

  Taking a bag of frozen peaches out of the freezer from last year’s crop, Megan emptied the bag into a heavy pot on the stove and turned it on low. She’d found it easier over the years to make jam when it was convenient, rather than when the fruit was ripe. Freezing it allowed her to do that.

  She cleaned and froze the fruit in different amounts as needed for different recipes. She used four cups of peaches for the jam so she took out the bag with that amount written on the label. She left the peaches on the stove and turned on the coffee pot before refilling Emma’s bowls.

  Waiting for the coffee to finish brewing, she pulled out her large canning pot to sanitize the jars and filled it with hot water. Putting it on the stove, she set the heat to high. She took some empty jars from her cupboard, put them into the sink, and began filling the sink with hot, soapy water. She’d wash the jars before putting them into the hot water in the canning pot. Thankfully, the coffee was done at that point and Megan drank a cup while waiting for the peaches to thaw on the stove.

  By the time she was done with the jam, had cleaned the kitchen, taken a shower and dressed, it was late enough to go to Lauren’s.

  Megan was greeted at the door by Lauren’s mother-in-law, Bev. Megan had always been very fond of her and now was a good example of why. Without saying a word, Bev reached out and wrapped Megan in a warm hug.

  “How’re you holding up, sweetie?” Bev asked.

  “I’m okay,” Megan answered.

  Bev pulled back and studied Megan’s face. Apparently satisfied with what she saw, she nodded just as Mia and Noah appeared on either side of her.

  “Grandma Bev, you said we could play a game,” Noah said, pulling his grandmother’s arm.

  Bev smiled at Megan and followed her grandchildren. “She’s in the kitchen,” Bev said over her shoulder.

  Megan found Lauren baking wedding cookies. She knew that Lauren often baked them in advance and then froze them. She assumed there must be another wedding coming up this weekend.

  “How did you do at the TeaFest this weekend?” Megan asked.

  “I’ll tell you about that in a minute. How are you doing? That’s the important question,” Lauren said.

  “I’m okay. I can’t say that I slept much last night, but I feel like I’m doing something about it today, so that helps,” Megan said.

  “What are you doing about it today?” Lauren asked.

  Megan told Lauren what she could about finding Jason’s body and then explained about the pictures that Jason had on his laptop.

  Lauren looked up at Megan in horror. “Are you kidding me? He followed us around? And took pictures of us so he could look at them?”

  Megan nodded. “Pretty creepy, huh?”

  Lauren shook her head and shuddered. “Creepy is right. I never did like that man, but I could never figure out why. So what are you doing today that has to do with Jason?”

  “You know I’m a prime suspect, right?” Megan asked.

  Lauren stopped moving and stared at Megan. “You have got to be kidding me! Erica knows better than that, doesn’t she?” Lauren asked indignantly.

  Megan shook her head. “Erica is just doing her job. I’d rather have her looking into it than someone who doesn’t know me at all.”

  Lauren looked at her cousin with concern etched across her beautiful face. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  “Well, it is and I’d rather deal with it.” Megan leaned against the counter and crossed her arms. “What do you know about Jason Malone?”

  “Obviously, that he was a creep,” Lauren muttered, before shaking her head to clear it. Megan needed help. Lauren took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s see. He moved here sometime after you were married, right? I don’t know where he came from before that. Mayor Vance may know. She seems to know a lot about everyone.”

  “Good point.” Excellent point actually, Megan thought. She made a mental note to add Mayor Vance to her list of people to speak with.

  “I mean, I know that he was a photographer before he came here. But I don’t know where he came from or what kind of work that he did.” Lauren looked up at Megan and shrugged. “I’m sorry. I’m not much help.” She tore off some parchment paper and lined a cookie sheet, then began filling it with perfectly shaped raw cookies.

  “That’s okay. Speaking to Mayor Vance was a good idea,” Megan said.

  She glanced around and saw that the coffee pot was empty and it didn’t look like it had been used this morning.

  “Wait! I did see something at the TeaFest,” Lauren said excitedly.

  Megan looked back at her cousin. “Involving Jason?”

  “Yes, Jack Delaney attacked him practically. I mean, they didn’t actually throw any punches or anything but it got pretty heated. Jack kept yelling at Jason to stay away from his woman.”

  Megan’s eyebrows went up. “What did Jason do?”

  “Not much. He looked like he wanted to run away. He just kept saying that he was a photographer and he was supposed to take pictures.” Lauren took a tray of cookies from the oven and put another tray in.

  “I guess I’ll add Jack Delaney to my list of people to speak to,” Megan said.

  “Are you sure that’s wise? He was pretty angry.” Lauren set the full tray aside, grabbed an empty bowl and started mixing ingredients into it.

  “I need to find out who else had motive to kill Jason Malone. Besides me,” Megan said.

  “Good point.”

  Megan watched Lauren take a drink from a coffee mug. She glanced back at the empty pot. “What are you drinking?”

  Lauren looked up as she began mixing another batch of cookie dough. “Teaberry tea. Do you want some?” She watched Megan’s eyes grow bigger. “What?”

  Megan glanced down at Lauren’s stomach and back up at her cousin’s face. Lauren’s face blanched white.

  “You only drink that when you’re…” Megan said in hushed tones.

  “Don’t you say it!” Lauren pointed her mixing spoon at Megan, scattering raw cookie dough everywhere. “Don’t even think it!”

  Megan watched Lauren’s legs begin to wobble and she
scrambled to pull a chair over to her cousin. She got to Lauren just in time for her to fall into the chair and drop her face into her hands.

  “I wondered why my stomach was upset,” she said between her fingers. “I thought it was just all the excitement from the weekend.”

  Megan rubbed her cousin’s back. “This is good news, right?”

  Lauren looked up at her and sighed. “I guess. I mean, Justin and I haven’t really been trying for another one but we didn’t do anything to ensure that we never had any more either.”

  “Then we need to celebrate,” Megan said with a grin.

  “I can’t believe I’m going to be as big as a barn again,” Lauren frowned.

  “You always look so cute when you’re pregnant,” Megan said.

  “Remind me to say that to you when it’s your turn.” Lauren narrowed her eyes at Megan.

  Chapter Twenty

  Megan left an ecstatic Bev and her much quieter cousin and went back out to her truck. After looking up Jack Delaney on her phone, she called the number that she found. He was hesitant to speak to her but finally agreed to a few minutes if she met him at his next job site. Megan keyed the address into the GPS on her phone and headed in that direction.

  Jack Delaney pulled in just as Megan was arriving at the site. Megan got out of her truck and walked over to the man getting out of his. Although he was a few years behind her in school, she had recognized the name. He was a contractor now. He must be overseeing this job, Megan thought, looking around. It was a new construction for a house on the outside of town. There were workers all over. The framework for the house was up. It looked like they were starting on the roof.

  “Thanks for seeing me,” Megan said when she reached him.

  Jack looked at her curiously. “What’s this all about?”

  Megan had thought about how to approach the subject on her way over. She’d decided that something close to honesty was probably the best. “You heard about Jason Malone?” Megan asked.

  Jack nodded and rolled his eyes. “I just spent an hour at the police station giving a statement. Yes, I heard about it.”

  “What did the police want to talk with you about?” Megan asked.

  Jack shook his head in disgust. “I lost my temper like an idiot and said some things I shouldn’t have at the TeaFest this weekend.”

  “To Jason Malone? What about?” Megan asked.

  Jack narrowed his eyes at her. “What’s this to you?”

  Megan took a deep breath. “They think I’m a suspect. I’d like to know more about Jason Malone. Maybe I can find something that would help the police find the real killer.”

  “I didn’t do it,” Jack said coldly.

  Megan knew she needed to get his cooperation to answer her questions. She shook her head.

  “I didn’t think you did. You’d have to be beyond an idiot. You’d have to be a total moron.” Megan grinned.

  Jack smiled back and relaxed his stance. “Okay. So what do you want to know?”

  “To be honest, the man creeped me out so I always made it a point to stay away from him when I could. Did you know him at all?”

  Jack shook his head as he glanced over at his guys working on the house. “Not really. He was the photographer for a wedding that my girlfriend was in. I mean, I can understand why he’d be taking some pictures of her because of the wedding, but this guy was obsessed with it. And I don’t just mean at the wedding. He started following her around long after the wedding was over. She said she saw him several times when she was out. It was like he was stalking her. It was really freaking her out, you know?”

  Megan nodded. She knew exactly what he meant. She was pretty freaked out to discover he’d been following her too. “You thought it was a pattern of his?”

  Jack shrugged. “Guys talk, you know?” Jack pointed to men working on the house with his chin. “I mean, I didn’t have any evidence or anything but some of the other guys that I’ve worked with have made some comments.”

  “What kind of comments?” Megan asked, glancing over at the men working.

  “That people were afraid to hire him because he seemed to get obsessed with women. It was scary for the women, you know?” Jack said, watching another board being lifted up to the roof. “Listen, I’ve got to get to work. I’ve missed enough time today.”

  Megan smiled. “I understand. Thanks for talking to me.” She watched Jack walk toward the house in progress.

  She hadn’t learned much from Jack. Other than the fact that half the town might be good suspects. But she wasn’t really sure how helpful that information would be to the police. Still, it was information and that’s what she needed. She just needed more of it.

  Megan was sure that once she had more pieces to the puzzle, it would start to make sense. Sometimes people had information and they didn’t even realize it or didn’t understand that it was pertinent. That tiny piece of information they held explained part of the larger puzzle. She just needed to figure out how to get all of those tiny pieces of information.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Just before lunch on Monday Megan called Caitlyn and asked to meet with her, but Caitlyn was out delivering flowers and wouldn’t be back until after lunch. Susan Anderson, Caitlyn’s mom, answered the phone. She asked Megan how she was doing and offered a shoulder to lean on if Megan needed it.

  Megan decided to spend lunch with Dan and texted him. He replied back immediately to meet him at the Jammin’T. At lunch, she explained to him what she’d discussed with Lauren and Jack so far. Dan was happy for Lauren and Justin about baby number three and promised to keep it a secret for now. Lauren planned to tell Justin later in the evening after the other kids had gone to bed. She was planning to make sure he had a relaxing dinner and a glass of wine or two first.

  After a nice lunch with Dan, he walked her back to the florist shop and left her at the door to return to the feed store. Megan passed through the outer area of the shop and found Caitlyn in the rear, just finishing her own lunch.

  Megan explained everything to Caitlyn from her conversation with Erica and the pictures on Jason’s laptop to her discussion with Jack Delaney and everything in between. She left out the part about baby number three, knowing that Lauren would want to tell her friends her own way in her own time.

  Caitlyn listened to Megan, interrupting periodically for clarification. Caitlyn nodded at the end of Megan’s story. “I might have a small piece of the puzzle to add.”

  “Really?” Megan had hoped that she might but also knew that just talking everything over with Caitlyn would be helpful for her to work things out in her own head.

  Caitlyn explained about the shouting that she’d heard in her shop between Jason Malone and Keith Baker.

  “And you couldn’t tell what the argument was about?” Megan asked.

  Caitlyn shook her head. “The only part that I heard clearly was that he wanted Jason to destroy all of the copies of the pictures that he had. He also called Jason a creep, but we already knew that part.”

  “We definitely do now,” Megan said.

  “Maybe you should talk to Jessilyn. She would have interacted with Jason a lot because he took pictures as the town photographer for events,” Caitlyn suggested.

  “That’s a good idea. I’ll have to track down Keith and talk to him also but I might be able to hook up with Jessilyn now. You told all of this to the police, right?” Megan asked.

  “The argument between Keith and Jason? Yes.” Caitlyn got up when she heard the bells on her door. “Make sure you call me later to tell me what you learn!”

  “Okay, I’ll talk to you later. I’ll try to find Jessilyn now.”

  ***

  Jessilyn Brewer loved her job as the Teaberry Events Coordinator most of the time. This particular moment was not one of them. She had been trying to reach the portable toilet company to find out why they hadn’t picked up some of the portable toilets from the TeaFest yet. The toilets were fine where they were when some of the str
eets were blocked off from traffic for the event. Now that those blockades were no longer in place and traffic should be able to resume its normal path, there were some portable toilets in the direct line of traffic. And they were full.

  She’d been calling the number all day and hadn’t gotten an answer yet. She tried again and this time the ringing stopped and she heard a muffled noise on the other end of the phone.

  “Hello?” Jessilyn said. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

  “Who is this?” A groggy voice answered.

  “Jessilyn Brewer. I’m calling about the portable toilets at the TeaFest.”

  “That event is over.” The voice was sounding slightly less groggy now.

  “Yes, I’m aware of that. But the town still needs the toilets removed,” Jessilyn said firmly.

  “Wait, what? They haven’t been removed?” The voice said.

  Jessilyn heard more muffled sounds as though the person had covered his phone with his hand and was speaking to someone else. Then he returned briefly. “A truck will be right there,” the voice said before the line went dead.

  Well, that’s the last time we’re using that company, Jessilyn thought as she heard a knock on her office door. “Come in.”

  Megan entered the office with a smile. She didn’t know Jessilyn well. They hadn’t gone to school together and Jessilyn was about seven years younger than Megan. But she had seen the work that Jessilyn did for the town of Teaberry and had been very impressed with her enthusiasm and professionalism.

  “I was hoping to speak with you for a few minutes, if that’s okay,” Megan said, taking a seat across the desk from Jessilyn.

  Jessilyn’s eyebrows pulled together in confusion for a second but they cleared quickly. “Sure. What can I help with? Is it about your bed and breakfast?”

  “No, actually. It’s about Jason Malone,” Megan said.