Author: R A Wallace
Date: 2019-02-22 05:00:00+00:00

Murder with Jammin’T
A Teaberry Farm Bed & Breakfast Cozy Mystery

R. A. Wallace

2019

Author’s Note

This is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, dialogue, places, and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.  Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Material in this book is not intended as a substitute for legal or medical advice from qualified professionals. The author has no connection to any software or website mentioned.

© 2019 R. A. Wallace. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter One

The contents of the upended purse made a series of loud clattering noises as they hit the hard wood surface. It was a sign of her frustration that she would dump everything on her dining room table. At this point, she had no idea where else she should look. Gina picked through the items one by one. There were her car keys, of course. She picked up her small change bag and began adding the loose coins that had collected in the bottom of the purse. She found a tube of lipstick that she thought she’d thrown away several years ago.

She pitched some of the items and returned the rest to her purse. The missing cell phone wasn’t there. Frustrated, Gina sank heavily onto one of the dining room chairs. It was no use. The thing was gone. She tried thinking back to the last time she had used it. She wasn’t sure, but she thought it had been the day before. It was, wasn’t it? No. That couldn’t be right. She worked in the office yesterday for part of the day. Then she’d gone out with the girls for dinner before the movie at the clubhouse.

Gina shook her head in dismay. Phones were expensive. She hoped she didn’t have to buy a new one. She glanced over at the clock and realized that she was late. She needed to work in the office to cover for Leslie when the full-time receptionist left for lunch. She stood as quickly as possible and grabbed her purse. It was too cold to take her golf cart to the office this time of year. She used her car for the short drive instead.

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” Gina said as she entered the office.

“I was starting to get worried.” Leslie stood from her desk and went over to the door where they kept a coat rack. She pulled her short puffer jacket on over her slender form then returned to her desk to pick up her purse.

“Well, I’m here now. You can take a few more minutes to make up for it.” Gina went over to the small desk in the corner of the large office. She didn’t typically sit at Leslie’s desk. There was a smaller one for her to use when she was there. She stowed her purse in the large bottom drawer and checked the desk for notes. She didn’t find any.

“It’s been a quiet morning so far,” Leslie said to explain the lack of notes on Gina’s desk.

“Let’s hope it stays that way,” Gina said. “Have a good lunch.”

She watched through the window as Leslie walked away from the building toward the adjacent parking lot. It occurred to her again that she had been in the office yesterday for part of the day. Maybe she left her phone somewhere in the office? Gina began moving some of the things on her desk and opening drawers. She was looking in the last drawer when the front door opened. She looked up to find one of the other residents stepping into the office.

Gina watched as Sam Whittaker stepped just inside the door then took multiple steps to turn around without losing his balance. He reached out and pushed the door closed behind him before turning to face Gina.

“Sam! What brings you in?” Gina smiled a greeting. She knew it wasn’t the time of the month when any of the residents were expected to submit money. Sam typically paid on the very day his rent was due.

“Hello, Gina.” Sam took a few steps into the office and sat down on a chair. “I was wondering if anyone reported finding an ebook reader?”

Gina doubted it. There hadn’t been a note on her desk. Still, ebook readers, like cell phones, were expensive and many of their residents were on a budget. She pushed herself up from her desk and went over to Leslie’s desk. She didn’t find any notes about a missing ebook reader conspicuously located on the other woman’s desk either. There was a signup sheet for the upcoming cruise that some of the residents were planning to take together. Gina’s name was on it and she was happy to see that several others had added their name since the last time she checked.

“It doesn’t look like it.” Gina could tell it wasn’t the answer he was hoping to hear.

“I can ask Leslie when she gets back from lunch, just to make sure.” She returned to her desk.

Sam rubbed his hands together in front of him. The fingers were gnarled with age and he had difficulty working with anything small at this point. The ebook reader that he lost was special to him. His granddaughter had it all configured to make it easier for him to use. He’d gotten used to reading with it.

Gina watched the dismay cross Sam’s face. She understood his frustration. She shared it with the loss of her phone.

“I know this is a stupid question, but where did you lose it?” Gina asked. Even as she said it, she knew how annoying it was.

“That’s just the thing.” Sam unzipped his jacket. “I’m not really sure that I did lose it.”

Gina didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean?”

“I’m wondering if someone stole it?”

“I’m sure that’s not it.” Even as she said it, she wondered about her phone.

“I’ve looked everywhere.” Sam lifted his hands in frustration.

Gina was about to respond when the door opened again. The woman that entered was a little older than Gina.

“Hello, Joan. What brings you in?” Gina didn’t know Joan that well. Joan had only been living at the retirement community for the past year.

Joan didn’t take a seat. She went over to Gina’s desk.

“Someone stole my wedding ring!” Joan said.

Gina glanced over at Sam. Joan turned to look at him also.

Sam gave a helpless shrug.

“Maybe it was the same person who took my ebook reader,” he said.

Gina wanted to argue, but she was also missing her phone.

“I want you to call the police,” Joan turned back to Gina.

“If someone has stolen something, you should call the police,” Gina pointed out. “You’re the victim.”

Joan pointed at Sam. “There must be a thief here. They’re stealing from all of us.”

Gina reached for the phone on the desk, grumbling to herself as she did so. If someone hadn’t stolen her cell phone, she would have been able to use it to call the police.

***

Erica stepped into the office at the retirement community and nodded to the young blonde sitting behind the desk. She recognized her from the times she had been at the retirement community before, but she didn’t remember the woman’s name.

“I’m Officer Henley. This is Officer Stevens. We got a call about some stolen items?”

“Thank you both for coming. I’m Leslie, but I wasn’t here when you were called. The part-time receptionist…” Leslie looked over Jerry’s shoulder. “Oh, there she is.”

Jerry moved to open the door for the woman following them inside. She smiled her thanks as she stepped into the office.

“Oh, I remember you.” Gina pointed at Erica. “You must have had your baby.”

Erica smiled. “Yes, ma’am. Twins, actually.”

“Oh, my. That is a handful.” Gina moved over to her desk.

“You called us about some thefts here?” Jerry moved farther into the office.

“Yes.” Gina glanced over at Leslie. The younger woman was frowning.

“Do you want to give us their villa numbers so we can go speak with them?” Jerry suggested.

Gina nodded her agreement and turned back to Leslie. “Can you get those for me?”

“Can you tell me what kind of thefts we’re talking about?” Erica asked.

Gina and Leslie watched as the officers walked away from the building toward the parking lot after giving them the villa numbers and explaining the loss of the ring and ebook reader.

“I’m glad you found my phone. I would have felt like an idiot.” She had explained the situation to the younger woman when Leslie had returned from lunch. Leslie had immediately opened her desk drawer and pulled out Gina’s phone. Gina had accidentally left it on Leslie’s desk the previous day.

“If I had known it was yours, I would have told you before I left for lunch, sorry.”

Gina looked out the window again to see where the officers were. She saw the officers wave to some of the residents as the group power walked past them. As the officers reached the car, they stopped and turned.

Erica stared at the office for a moment before she climbed into the driver’s side of the patrol car.

“I guess I shouldn’t complain.” Erica reached for her seatbelt.

“Not as exciting as searching for a murderer.” Jerry agreed as he fastened his seat belt. “But part of the job.”

“Yeah, but finding something as small as a wedding ring might be tough.”

***

“Come again?” Rhys asked.

He stood to the right of Holly at the Jammin’T in the kitchen where she was working at the grill. No one from the restaurant side could see him. Tyler sent Rhys and Ian to the kitchen when they arrived for lunch. They were off duty, but the three men had become friends and Tyler asked them to speak with Holly as a favor. Tyler was hoping they’d be able to put his sister’s mind at ease.

“I said, Buttercup is missing,” Holly repeated.

“You named one of the cows?” Ian managed to stop himself from smiling. He knew that she was very sensitive, especially when it came to animals. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

“Don’t be silly.” Holly flipped the grilled cheese sandwich with her spatula. “I named all of the cows. You can’t just name one. The other cows would feel left out.”

This time, Ian couldn’t stop the smile. Fortunately, Holly turned away to plate some food.

“You’re sure one of them is missing?” Rhys wondered how you could tell them apart.

“Of course, I’m sure. And it’s Buttercup.” Holly paused to look at them. She wasn’t sure they were understanding the problem. “What if she’s hurt, or lost, somewhere?”

“How long has she been missing?” Rhys reached for his front pocket from habit but pulled his hand away empty. He wasn’t in his uniform yet and he didn’t keep the small notepad when wearing street clothes. He and Ian were working the afternoon turn.

“She was there the day before when I went out to check on them all. Last night when I went out to check on them and take care of the horses, she was missing.” Holly turned to pull out a basket of fries.

Ian and Rhys shared a look.

“Livestock can be expensive,” Ian said. “We’ll need to get a statement from you, but you might want to wait until after you get home tonight to check again.”

Holly nodded at both of them. “Okay, thanks. But she really is missing. Will you come out to the farm tonight?”

They both assured her that they would before going back out to the restaurant and taking a seat. Tyler stopped and flipped their cups over.

“Do you think you guys can help?” Tyler filled both cups.

“We promised to stop tonight.” Rhys looked over at the board to see the specials. They both told Tyler they’d take the special of the day.

“I appreciate it, guys. She’s driving herself crazy with worry over that cow. I’d like to know for sure if it’s really missing before I have to tell Cy about it.” Tyler nodded and moved away from their table toward the kitchen.

“I’ve got that.” Tyler took the large plastic bin of dirty plates that one of the other servers had just filled. “I’m going that way.”

Lynn flashed a grateful smile to the young man as she wiped down the table. “Thanks.”

Chapter Two

The early morning chill was on the threshold of tolerance. Tyler knew that he’d be warm once he began carting the delivery items to their proper location in the diner, but it was still too cold to walk outside with just a shirt on. Wishing for warmer weather wasn’t going to make it so. He pulled on a thin jacket. Taking the gloves from the pockets, he pulled those on also as he went outside to speak to the truck driver of the food service company. He needed to get some of the delivery into the freezer right away and get the rest of it to Holly.

“I’ll take the frozen stuff first, if you don’t mind.” Tyler stopped at the rear of the truck. He didn’t recognize the driver. He hadn’t made any of their deliveries before, but the man did have a name stitched on the front of his jacket. It said Aaron.

The driver peered into the back of his truck.

“Not much of that for you today.” Aaron pulled out an electronic tablet and thrust it toward Tyler. “You need to sign with your finger.”

Tyler began pulling off his gloves. “What do you mean there isn’t a lot of frozen food?”

Aaron pointed to the rear of his truck. “Just what I said. Not much of that for you today.”

Tyler stopped and stared down at the hand truck now loaded up with boxes. Based on the printed information on the boxes, the contents weren’t going to help them with what they normally listed for the special for the day.

“Maybe it’s still in the back of your truck.” He tried to move around the driver to look inside the truck, but the driver didn’t move.

Tyler pointed to the rear of the truck. “What else do you have in there for us?”

Aaron shrugged. “Not much more than this. There are some paper products in there with your name on them.” He pushed the tablet toward Tyler again with the screen loaded for Tyler to sign.

Tyler took the tablet. He cancelled out of the signature window and scrolled through the list of supplies in the order.

“This list is correct. You should have a ton more stuff. I especially need the frozen goods right now.” He wasn’t going to sign the delivery order as being accepted until he saw every box on the list with his own eyes.

“Buddy, that ain’t going to happen.” Aaron put his hand on the folded part of the knit cap he wore on his head and pushed it up and down to scratch his forehead with it.

“Then I’m not signing this.” Tyler shoved the tablet back toward Aaron. He pointed at the hand truck. “Bring that in and I’ll unload it. I want to see what’s there.” Tyler turned to walk into the diner.

“I need your signature before I’ll bring the food into the diner.”

Tyler turned back to the driver. “Buddy, that ain’t going to happen. I’m not paying for a bunch of stuff I’m not getting. I want to know exactly what’s on your truck.” He motioned toward the hand truck and the back door of the diner.

The driver hesitated, swiveling his head between the hand truck and the diner. Finally, he set the tablet on the top box on the hand truck. He tilted the hand truck and looked at Tyler.

“I’ll prop the door open for you.” Tyler pulled the door open then used his foot to kick the doorstop in place. He walked quickly through the kitchen and stopped at the grill.

Holly glanced up from what she was doing, a question in her eyes.

“He doesn’t have what we need for today’s lunch special. You’re going to need to think of something else.” Tyler watched his sister’s eyes widen. He knew it wasn’t in fear. She was thrilled with the challenge.

“What are you going to do about the missing part of the order?” Holly plated the breakfast order she was working on and placed it on the shelf in front of her. She saw Lynn glance toward the window. On Lynn’s side of the wall, she could see everything that Holly placed on the shelf. Holly plated the second part of the order and set it on the shelf next to the first.

“I’ll have to call them and find out where it is. I’m not paying them for something we didn’t receive.” Tyler watched as Lynn finished topping off some coffee cups. She then moved over to the window and took the two plates. She was keeping up with the orders for now, but Tyler needed to get things straightened out and get back on the floor to help Lynn.

Tyler pulled out his phone and scrolled through the list of contacts. When he found the right number, he pressed dial. Nothing happened. Just what he needed. His phone wasn’t working. Again. Tyler looked at the rear door of the restaurant and watched the driver push the hand truck in before offloading the boxes. The driver then went back outside.

“What did they say?” Holly called to him.

“What? Oh, nothing. My phone won’t work.”

“Use mine,” she suggested as she plated another order.

Lynn opened the door to the kitchen. “Tyler, I need some help out here.”

“Buddy, I need a signature.” The driver was standing at the rear entrance with an empty hand truck. There were two stacks of boxes.

Tyler pointed his phone at the driver. “I told you, I’m not signing for anything I didn’t get!”

Lynn shared a look with Holly, then went back out on the floor.

“I can’t leave without a signature,” Aaron insisted.

“I’m not signing until I talk to headquarters.” Tyler stared the other man down.

Aaron shook his head. “Fine. I’m getting a cup of coffee. You have ten minutes, and I’m out of here.”

Tyler turned and pulled Holly’s phone from her back pocket. He pulled his own phone back out to get the number. It wouldn’t even turn on this time. Tyler shoved it back into his pocket and searched the Internet for the company name. Within moments, he got an answer. It wasn’t the one he wanted. Tyler explained that most of the order wasn’t on the truck. When he was done with the call, he disconnected. He took two steps to reach Holly and put the phone in her back pocket.

“What did they say?” Holly cracked more eggs onto the grill.

“They said it was on the truck when he left. They’re going to call him and confirm what I’m saying we received. They’ll edit the order from their end and push the revisions down to his tablet so I can sign.”

Tyler rubbed his hand over his chin. “I need to get back out there. At least you’ll have help in here soon when the rest of the kitchen staff clocks in. Do you have ideas for the lunch special? People are probably going to be switching over from breakfast orders to lunch orders any minute.”

Holly grinned.

When Tyler left the kitchen, he stopped at the board first to erase what was there and write the new option. He hoped everyone liked it. The daily specials had been in place since the early days of Bert and Betty running the diner.

Tyler caught Lynn’s eye. She finished setting two orders on a table before walking over to join him.

“We have to change the special for today.” Tyler watched Lynn’s eyes dart to the board before widening.

“That sounds… different.” Her gray and black mid-length hair was pulled back in a tail. She stuck a pencil behind one ear. Lynn looked over at the driver.

Tyler followed her gaze. The driver had a cup of coffee in front of him. He was arguing into his phone about the order.

“Do you think anyone will complain?” Tyler asked.

“About the special? Nah. Bert and Betty only offered the same thing all the time because it was easier on them toward the end. Before that, when they were younger, they used to change it up all the time.”

Tyler managed a smile. “Good to know, thanks. If I haven’t said it within the last five minutes, thanks for all the guidance you’ve given us. It’s been great having someone here who knew the routine from before.”

Lynn gave out a quick laugh. “With them moving to Florida permanently now, I guess I’m all you’ve got. After over a decade with them, I definitely know the routine. I think the changes you’ve been making are fine. You don’t want to change everything all at once. But a little here and there is okay.” Lynn shot off to take care of another order.

Tyler walked over to the driver. He was no longer talking on his phone. He was staring at it.

Aaron looked up when Tyler approached him. He held out the tablet.

Tyler took the tablet without speaking. He scrolled through the list of supplies, then nodded before handing the tablet back to the driver.

Aaron pulled up the signature page and handed it back. Tyler signed, then turned on his heel and walked away. He saw a familiar face enter the door.

“Hey, Patty. I’m going to need to stop next door and see you at some point today. My phone isn’t working again.”

Patty took a seat at the counter. “Yeah, not a problem. I’ll be there. Hey, can you get me a coffee and a muffin?”

“If you can work your magic on my phone, I’ll give you two muffins.” Tyler quickly packaged the coffee and muffins to go.

“Thanks. Like I said, I’ll be at the shop next door whenever you can make it in.”

Tyler watched his business neighbor leave the diner. It was great having a phone store right next door. He crossed over to the other end of the counter.

“You two order yet?” Tyler asked.

Cy turned to Casey.

Casey pointed to the board. “That new special looks interesting. I’ll give it a try.”

Cy nodded his agreement. “What’s this about a missing cow? The message Holly left on my phone last night wasn’t clear.”

“Looks like we have one. The police stopped out last night and made a report.” Tyler gave a rueful smile. “Sorry. I have no idea what could have happened to a cow or how it might have gone missing.”

Cy watched Tyler leave to place their order before turning to Casey, a thoughtful look on his face.

“How did she even know one was missing?” Casey held a section of the newspaper in front of him, his coffee in the other hand.

“You know Holly with animals. She named them all.” Cy scratched his chin. “I can’t say I’ve heard of any cattle rustling activity in our parts. You?”

“No, but it wouldn’t surprise me. A full-grown cow could fetch a decent price.”

Chapter Three

Cy left the diner and drove the short distance to his farm. It was the same farm where Holly and Tyler now lived. They had been caring for his animals on a daily basis so that he didn’t have to while they rented his old farm house. Since his marriage to Jill Swindell, he’d been spending most of his time at the twins’ farm.

He still stopped out at the farm periodically to check on the animals. As he walked toward the barn, he tried to think back to the last time he had been here. Maybe he hadn’t been stopping as often as he should. It was just that the animals seemed to be in good hands with the two youngsters.

He stepped into the barn and checked on the horses. Just as he expected, the stalls were practically spotless. He could tell that Holly had been out caring for them before she’d gone to work at the diner the first thing in the morning. The tack was all hanging precisely where it should be. The feed supply was stowed away the way it should be. The horses’ coats looked shiny. From everything he could see, they were being extremely well cared for. Just as he had suspected.

He went outside and behind the barn to look out over the field. There were cows dotting the large expanse here and there. It was a typical sight. He wondered if he would have ever noticed being short one cow in a field of many. They were all the same breed. To most people, they probably all looked exactly the same. Cy stood and tried counting but it was a large field and, like many places in Pennsylvania, the land was not perfectly flat. Maybe there was one cow missing. Maybe not. He’d have to take Holly’s word for it. Unless he went out into the field to do a headcount, there was no way to tell for sure.

Cy glanced back at his truck. He’d rather not have to deal with it. He could just climb into his truck and drive to the twins’ farm. Let Holly and Tyler handle it. They were doing a great job taking care of the farm. He leaned against the fence, clasped his hands together and stared down at them.

Maybe it was time to sell the place. If he was losing stock for whatever reason, that was a big deal. One he needed to handle personally. Raising his head back up, he narrowed his eyes and looked across the field. There was no other way. He pushed himself away from the fence and went back to the barn. After a few minutes, he was driving the four wheeler through the gate into the field. He was going to have to do a manual count up close. It was the only way.

***

Tyler glanced at the clock on the wall. They had another hour before closing time and he had yet to hear back from the food supply company on why he’d been shorted supplies or what they planned to do about it. He had hoped they’d send out the missing items the first thing the following morning. Now he wasn’t so sure that was going to happen.

The elevated level of voices caused him to turn and look across the diner. Lynn was trying to get his attention. The man at the table doing all the yelling had his back toward Tyler. Tyler couldn’t ever remember seeing the older woman flustered as she was now. He quickly moved across to see what the problem was.

“Take it back to the kitchen. This is slop!”

The look that Lynn shot Tyler was a mix of surprise and discomfort. Having a screaming customer at Jammin’T was not something she was used to.

“Can I help?” Tyler reached Lynn’s side and looked down at the customer. He was around five ten, had dark hair, and his face was flushed with anger. “Lefty? What are you doing here?”

“Getting a bad meal, obviously. How can you even serve this slop?” Lefty demanded.

Tyler looked down at the plate. It was the special that Holly had come up with. It looked great to Tyler.

“I’m sorry that you don’t like it. Everyone else who ordered it today raved about it.” In fact, everyone had been so happy, Tyler had planned to make it a regular special. “We can take it back to the kitchen and get something else for you if you’d rather.”

Left stood and slammed the chair into the table. “I don’t want any more food if this is what you have to offer.” He pointed toward Holly in the kitchen. “She shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near that kitchen.”

Tyler told himself to remain calm, but he knew it wasn’t going to work. The other man could say anything he wanted to about him. Talking that way about Holly wasn’t acceptable.

“Perhaps you’ll be happier eating somewhere else,” Tyler said evenly. Although the other man had two inches on him, Tyler knew he outweighed Lefty.

“I’m calling the inspection board. Someone needs to check this place out and see what you’ve been serving to your customers.” Lefty took several steps toward the door, then stopped and turned back to Tyler. He pointed toward the kitchen again. “And they need to get her out of that kitchen!”

Tyler took a step forward. Lynn reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him. Tyler watched Lefty stalk out the door. He turned to Lynn. Her eyes darted around the diner. Tyler became aware that everyone in the diner was watching him. He raised his hands, palms facing out.

“Sorry everyone. Just a difference of opinion.” He flashed Lynn a quick look.

She nodded once and managed a smile. “I’ll clean this table up.”

“I’ll take the plate, thanks.” Tyler picked up the meal and turned to go to the kitchen. His attention was drawn to the front door when it opened again. This time, the person that walked through was a welcome sight.

Ian Riordin walked over to the counter. He was not in uniform. Tyler stopped when he reached Ian.

Ian pointed at the door. “Was there someone in here causing a problem?”

Tyler nodded down at the plate. “Said he didn’t like the food.”

“The man doesn’t have any taste. That stuff was crazy good. I stopped in to get a takeout order before you close so I can have it for dinner tonight, too.”

Now that was more like it. Tyler knew there wasn’t anything wrong with the food. Ian was right. Lefty Leftwich didn’t have any taste and he was always that way.

“I’ll let Holly know and have it right out for you.” Tyler left the other plate in the kitchen, placed the order for Ian and went back out to the counter.

“It’ll just be minute or two.” Tyler reached for a rag behind the counter and began wiping it. “What, no sidekick today?”

“Rhys has the day off.” Ian took a seat at the counter. “Bad day?”

Tyler huffed out a laugh. “Aside from the missing cow, part of our supply order was missing in action this morning, my phone quit working, and we had an irate customer. First one we’ve had here. He actually criticized Holly’s cooking.”

“What happened to your order?” Ian watched Holly working at the grill through the open window. She placed a large to-go bag on the counter that separated her from the kitchen side.

Tyler went over to retrieve it and set it down in front of Ian. “I have no idea. The company hasn’t called me back about it yet.”

Ian handed Tyler some money and stood to go. “Tomorrow is another day, my friend.”

Tyler returned Ian’s smile. “That it is.”

Ian held up his bag to get Holly’s attention. He could tell she was still upset about whatever the irate customer must have said.

“This is true ambrosia here,” he called to her. He was rewarded with the quick flash of a smile before it was gone. He knew she was the sensitive type. He hoped she wouldn’t dwell on the negative comment for long.

***

Rhys looked down at the exam results. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was looking at, but he thought they were pretty good numbers. Pretty great, actually.

“I don’t understand the comment the teacher made.” He looked up at Ava and Bella.

“I guess I didn’t do as well on the standardized test at the high school as expected. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken it.” Bella drew her brows together. Rhys could tell she was upset. It was the first time he’d ever seen Bella question her brain.

“But the numbers look really high to me,” Rhys said stubbornly. “Why would the teacher write a note criticizing your efforts?”

“The teacher thought that Bella wasn’t as focused on the test as she should have been,” Ava said quietly. She could tell that the scores Bella had received had upset her. She would have expected Bella to do better also. Perhaps she had been overwhelmed by a test that was designed for students several grades above her.

Bella didn’t respond. Rhys studied Bella for a moment before setting the test results down. He patted the couch next to him.

“Sit down here, honey.” Rhys draped his arm across the back of the couch behind Bella. “Something happened to mess you up. I can tell. I mean, I may not understand what all the numbers stand for on the results, but I know you aren’t happy with them. Tell me what happened.”

Bella shrugged and remained mute.

Rhys rubbed his other hand across his face. Maybe he should check the library for books on how to raise teenage girls. He was pretty sure he wasn’t doing well at the moment. He glanced over at Ava. She looked just as confused as he was. He tried to think back to the day of the test.

“Did something happen on the day of the test?” He watched Bella glance at him quickly. He wondered what he had seen in her eyes for just a brief moment. “Something did, didn’t it? Bella, you know you can tell us anything, right?”

Bella reached for the exam results. She started folding the pages together. “It isn’t important. I can take the test again.”

Rhys shared another look with Ava. He was on to something. He just didn’t know what it was yet.

“Bella, what happened on the day of the test? You seemed fine to me when I saw you. Wasn’t that around the time I stopped to talk to you about your mom?” Rhys watched as Bella’s hands went still.

“You stopped to talk to Bella about me?” Ava looked between the two of them. Bella wouldn’t meet her eyes. Rhys gave her a confused look.

“Yeah, you know. Just before I proposed. I wanted to talk to Bella first and ask if she was okay with us the way we were.”

“Oh.” Ava looked over at Bella as it dawned on her. “Oh!” Ava repeated as she stood. She went over to the couch to sit on the other side of her daughter. She put her arms around Bella and drew her in for a hug. Bella rested her head on her mother’s shoulder.

“What? What am I missing?” Rhys was so going to get some parenting books from the library.

“Did you actually tell her you were going to propose? Or, did you tell her things would stay the same as they were? You know, when we weren’t getting married.” Ava gave Rhys a look over Bella’s head.

Rhys had no idea. He’d been too nervous at the time. He thought he’d explained himself well. If he hadn’t, it meant that he’d upset Bella just before her big test. He glanced down at the results in Bella’s hands. She had rolled them into a tube and was holding on to them tightly.

“Ah, honey.” Rhys gently pulled the results from Bella’s hands before she accidentally ruined them. “I’m sorry. This is my fault, isn’t it?”

“It’s okay. I should have known better.”

Rhys smiled. “You’re only thirteen. You can’t possibly know how much I’ll mess up yet. Wait till you’re eighteen and we’ll compare notes again.”

Bella lifted her head to look at him. He was happy to see that she managed a smile.

“Are you sure you can take the test again?” he asked.

“Yeah. It was probably a good thing that I didn’t do as well as I should have.”

Now he was confused again. “Why is that?”

“They give scholarships for the highest scores. I’m not ready to go to college yet. The money should go to someone who is.” Bella held her hand out for the scores. “I’ll put those away.”

Rhys watched Bella leave the room before turning to Ava.

“Sometimes, I wonder which one of us is the adult here.”

Ava gave a rueful smile. She knew the feeling.

Chapter Four

It should have been an easy day at the diner. The part of the order that hadn’t arrived yesterday as expected had shown up without explanation this morning. It allowed Holly to run the regular special without having to dream up a new one. Not that she had minded yesterday, of course. It had been fun to create something on the fly as she had. She wouldn’t mind doing it more often. Everyone had seemed to enjoy it.

Well, almost everyone. Holly frowned. She had no idea why Lefty Leftwich was in Teaberry or why he would have attacked her cooking in the way that he had. She hadn’t been able to hear the entire conversation, but she could tell from their body language that something was wrong with the food. At least, Lefty thought something was wrong with the food. Holly tried to remember the last time she’d seen him. She wasn’t even sure what state they were in at the time. It was yet another county fair that her parents had dragged them to with their food truck. Lefty had been there working one of the rides.

No one else had been complaining about the special Holly had made. Ian had even come for a second time yesterday to take an order of the special home. That had to mean it was good. Right? Holly looked through the window into the restaurant side. It was almost quitting time for the day. Most of the waitstaff had already left. There weren’t nearly as many customers now as there had been all day. She liked that they closed at three. It meant being up very early to open for the breakfast crowd, but having the evening to herself was amazing. It allowed her to spend more time with the animals at the farm.

The diner had been as busy today as it always was. They seemed to be doing a good business since she and Tyler had begun working there. That had to mean something too. People wouldn’t come to eat there if they didn’t like her cooking. She just wished she knew more about how Bert and Betty were doing. She saw that Tyler was coming toward the kitchen with another tub of dirty dishes. She looked at him anxiously as he crossed the diner. When he passed through the swing door and into the kitchen, she turned from the grill.

“Have you heard anything else about the fire?”

Tyler dropped the tub of dishes on a counter. Danny Ortega was just finishing up the last batch. Danny stopped to listen to Tyler’s response too.

“From what I’ve heard, it’s pretty much a total loss. What didn’t burn has all kinds of damage.”

“But, they’re okay, right?” Holly had grown fond of the older couple. They had been very helpful getting her and Tyler started with the diner. Bert was a little brusque, of course, but she knew he was hiding a heart of gold with his taciturn ways. She still couldn’t believe that their house had burned down but that was what they had been hearing at the diner all day.

“That’s what they’re saying, yes.”

“Have they figured out how the fire started?” Danny asked.

Holly knew that Danny had worked for Bert and Betty also. She saw Tyler shake his head.

“Not that anyone is saying yet.” Tyler glanced at the clock.

Holly looked through the window into the restaurant. “Rhys and Ian are here. Maybe they know something?”

Tyler went back through the swing door onto the floor.

“Hey, have you guys heard anything new about Bert and Betty’s house?” Tyler stopped in front of the two officers. They were both in uniform.

Rhys and Ian shared a look.

“Tyler Jankowicz? We need you to come with us.” Ian’s face clearly showed that he wasn’t enjoying himself.

A loud clatter in the kitchen was followed by a blur erupting through the swing door. Holly positioned herself in front of her brother, her hands on her hips.

“Ian Riordin, you should be ashamed of yourself. This is not funny!” Holly looked from one man to the other. What she saw made her heart sink to her stomach. They weren’t kidding. She turned to her brother. “What is this about?”

Tyler looked from Ian to Rhys. “I have no idea. What are you guys doing?”

“We need to ask you some questions down at the station.” Rhys didn’t look any happier than Ian.

“About what?” Tyler shook his head in confusion.

Neither man answered at first. Finally, Ian spoke to Holly, making an effort to gentle his voice.

“He may be awhile. In the meantime, you should get him a lawyer.”

“What? Why?” Holly watched in horror as the men led Tyler to the door. Tyler twisted around.

“Holly, it’ll be okay.” He stopped and looked at Ian and Rhys. “You guys are scaring her. This isn’t fair. It’s my job to take care of her.”

Rhys opened the door and the three men stepped through.

Holly stood helplessly staring through the windows of the diner as Tyler was put into the back seat of the police car. She hadn’t noticed that Lynn and Danny had walked over to stand next to her.

“You do as they say, Holly.” Lynn placed her hand on the young girl’s arm and looked around at the other waitstaff. “We’ll close everything up here. You go find Jennifer Parker.”

***

Megan finished cleaning the kitchen after dinner then picked up her computer and a mug of hot decaf tea from the kitchen table. She carried them into the living room and set them down. After putting more wood on the fire, she sat on one end of the couch with her legs crossed and opened her computer. She had been spending more time working on web sites. She was happy for the income, but she also enjoyed the work. In addition to some material that Jessilyn had given her for the town web site, Megan was also working on adding more material to the web pages that gave a history of Teaberry.

She had interviewed an older gentleman who knew a great deal about the history of the town to originally create the pages. She thought that it might be time to revisit him and add more content. Based on the web server statistics, the history pages received a lot of visits. It made sense to add more content. Maybe she shouldn’t restrict her research to just Ward. Perhaps others might have interesting stories about Teaberry to share. Some might even have photos.

Emma hopped up onto the couch and curled up next to Megan. Megan scrolled through the web page she had recently been working on and read what she had written. With her free hand, she rubbed Emma’s ears. She was rewarded with a loud purring. The sound of the doorbell surprised her. The anxious young girl she found on the other side of the door surprised her even more. She could tell that Holly had been crying. She pulled her into the house.

“Are you hurt?” Megan couldn’t see any obvious signs of trauma.

Holly didn’t seem to register Megan’s question.

“They’ve arrested Tyler.”

Megan led Holly back to the living room and waved to the couch.

“Who arrested Tyler and why?” Megan sat on the other end of the couch.

Emma lightly jumped into Holly’s lap. Fresh tears threatened to spill over.

“I don’t know why. It was Rhys and Ian. I can’t believe they did that to him.” Holly wrapped her arms around Emma and hugged the black cat.

Megan realized that getting information was going to be difficult.

“Okay. Let’s start at the beginning. Where was Tyler when they arrested him?”

“At the diner.” Holly used her sleeve to wipe at her eyes then pulled Emma even closer.

“You were there at the time?”

Holly nodded. She and Tyler were always there together.

“Then you were there when Rhys and Ian were. What did they say?”

“They said it had to do with the fire at Bert and Betty’s house.”

Megan sat straighter. She hadn’t been into town and hadn’t heard about the fire. The police thought Tyler had something to do with that?

“Was anyone hurt?”

Holly shook her head again. “Not that I heard.”

“What did you do after Tyler left with the police officers?”

“They told me to get Jennifer. She said she would represent him.”

That was a start. Megan looked at the frightened young girl hugging Emma.

“Do you want to stay here tonight? You could sleep in one of the guest rooms upstairs. It wouldn’t be a problem at all.”

Holly seemed to consider it for a moment, then shook her head.

“I should take care of the animals at Cy’s farm.”

“Okay. If you change your mind, it’s not a problem.”

“Will you help Tyler?”

Megan had no idea what was going on with Tyler or how she might help.

“I can’t promise anything. You know that, right? I’m sure Jennifer has everything under control. You were smart to go to her.”

Holly gave Emma another hug before setting her on the couch. She stood and wrapped her arms around herself.

“But you’ll try, right?” Holly looked hopeful.

Megan hesitated for only a brief moment. “Yes.”

Holly thought the road looked darker than usual as she drove to the farm. She spent a long time in the barn with the horses. It soothed her to brush their silky coats. She finally went into the house and sat staring at her phone, wondering when she might hear word of her brother. It was nearly midnight by the time she went to her room to lie on her bed. She never saw the lights of the vehicle as it pulled into her driveway. A moment later, the lights were switched off.

Chapter Five

He would have sworn he hadn’t slept at all during the night but the pounding on the truck window startled him awake. Ian reached for his gun. It took him another moment to realize that it wasn’t there because he wasn’t on duty. He rubbed his hand across his face then lowered his window. The young girl standing next to his truck was holding a cup of hot coffee. He couldn’t remember ever being so happy to see the hot, black liquid.

“Thanks.” Ian didn’t care how hot it was. He quickly took a drink.

“Did you spend the whole night here?” Holly couldn’t believe the man hadn’t frozen to death.

Ian motioned with his head for Holly to take a step back so he could open his door and get out.

“Your brother made me promise.” Ian climbed slowly from the truck. At thirty six, he was hardly ready for retirement but his joints were stiff from being in his truck for much of the night. He had kept warm by running the truck periodically, but it had still been a long night.

“I need to feed the animals.” Holly turned and walked toward the barn. She didn’t know what else to say to the man. She couldn’t believe he would make that kind of sacrifice for the sister of a friend.

Ian followed Holly to the barn. He figured it was warmer inside the building and he wanted to talk to Holly anyway. There were a lot of questions and few answers about what had been going on with everyone involved with the diner lately.

Holly took a scoop of feed along with a brush and slipped into the first stall. She spoke in soothing tones to the beautiful animal inside as she refilled the bucket in the stall.

Ian stood outside the stall and watched her with the horse. She checked the water then set the scoop down.

“Did you grow up with animals?” He knew a little about their past. He wanted to hear more.

Holly began brushing the horse. It was more to soothe her nerves than anything else. “They were at every county fair we worked at.”

“How many county fairs were there?”

Holly made a face. “I lost count by the time I was five. Our parents traveled back and forth over the entire country my whole life.”

“What made you decide to move to Teaberry?” Ian loved his adoptive town but often wondered how anyone else on the planet managed to find their way to the small community.

“Tyler got a job here working with guys that own the Station Pub & Grill. Then I started working at the diner and Tyler shifted over to work with me.”

Ian backed away from the stall as Holly slipped out. He watched her return to the feed and get another scoop before going to the next stall.

“You took over for Bert when he had his heart trouble?” Ian posed it in the form of a question but he already knew the answer.

“Yeah. Bert and Betty have been very good to us.” Holly began brushing the second horse. “Why do they think Tyler had anything to do with Bert and Betty’s house burning down?”

Ian and Rhys had discussed how much to tell her. “They found his gloves at the scene.”

Holly stopped moving. “That’s not possible. There must be some mistake.”

Ian had hoped it was a mistake too. It wasn’t. “Tyler identified the gloves as being his.”

Holly stared at him for a moment before returning to her task. Her brush strokes were slow and consistent, but he could see the trembling in her hand.

Ian looked around the barn. He knew it was Cy Douglass’s place and that Tyler and Holly were just renting. It looked like they were doing a good job maintaining things though. Ian looked over at the tack hanging on the wall. Everything was well cared for. The barn was clean. A piece of paper on the floor next to the tack wall caught his eye. With everything else so neat, it was out of place. He walked over to pick it up. He was about to set it on a shelf when his eyes caught some of the words. He stopped and read the note. His brow furrowed in dismay.

“What’s this?” he asked as he walked over to the stall.

Holly looked up. “What does it say?”

“It says that you sold a cow.” Ian watched Holly’s reaction. She looked confused. “The description of the cow matches the one you told us was missing.”

Holly left the stall and joined Ian. He showed her the note. She shook her head slowly.

“I’ve never seen that before.” Holly turned troubled blue eyes to Ian. “Ian, what’s happening to us?”

Ian was wondering the same thing.

***

The shower he’d taken as soon as Jennifer had finished speaking with him had helped. She had gotten him released as early as possible, but the whole ordeal was longer than he would have liked. Tyler pushed open the back door of the diner and entered the kitchen feeling almost human. Though she had her back toward him when he entered, Holly must have been watching for him. She left the grill for a moment and hugged him before turning back to her work.

“Is everything okay here?” Tyler looked from Holly to Danny. Danny nodded once and turned back to the dishes. Holly didn’t answer.

“Holly?”

She explained the note that Ian had found in the barn.

“What is going on?” Tyler dragged his fingers through his hair.

Holly plated another order and set it in the window. Lynn appeared a moment later to pick it up. She smiled at Tyler.

“Good to see you back.”

Tyler managed a smile. “Good to be here.” He looked out on the floor. The diner was busy. He needed to get to work. “We’ll figure this out later.”

Tyler went through the swing door and grabbed a coffee pot. He refilled cups and took orders allowing the routine to push away thoughts of what had happened. It was nearing lunchtime when he saw Casey enter the diner. He took his customary seat at the counter. It wasn’t long before Cy followed him in. Tyler grabbed a fresh pot of coffee and went over to get their order.

“You okay?” Cy watched Tyler fill his coffee cup.

“I’ve had better days.” He explained the note that Ian had found in the barn. “Cy, I swear to you, we have no idea where that note came from.”

Cy picked up his coffee cup. “Something strange is going on for sure.”

“What have they learned about the fire?” Casey reached for his cup.

Tyler shook his head. “If they know anything, they haven’t told me. I have no idea how my gloves got there either.”

Tyler saw Casey’s eyes look past him. He expected to see two police officers when he turned around. What he saw was even worse.

“Becca?” He had no idea what to say to her.

“Could I have a cup of tea?” She pointed to the other end of the counter before moving toward the empty seat.

Tyler flashed Casey and Cy a look before going to the other side of the counter. He grabbed the pot of hot water and filled a small pot. After setting several tea bags on the side of a plate, he carried it all to Becca.

“Listen, I need to tell you something.” He wasn’t looking forward to the conversation.

“About the fire? I heard. Are you alright?”

“Becca, the police think I did it.” Tyler didn’t want to mislead her. She deserved the truth about how messed up his life was at the moment.

“I know that. They’re just a little confused right now. They’ll figure out the truth soon enough.” Becca opened a tea bag and poured hot water into a cup. “I was thinking. What are you doing on Sunday?”

“Sunday?” He was confused.

“Yeah. You know. Your day off.”

Aside from staying out of jail, he had no idea. His face must have relayed his confusion.

“I was thinking we could take that drive to the state park that you talked about,” Becca said.

Tyler was dumbfounded.

“The one that you read about in the book you checked out from the library,” she added.

He knew which one she meant. He just couldn’t believe that she’d want anything to do with him.

He managed a one-word answer. “Yeah.”

Becca smiled. “Good. I know where it is so I’ll pick you up.”

Tyler thought about the strange things that had been happening lately. Becca was right. Taking a break from it sounded like a great idea.

Chapter Six

It was a chilly afternoon, but the sun warmed the inside of her car as she drove the short distance to the restaurant in front of the retirement community. Helen parked the car as close to the entrance as possible then went around to the passenger side. After taking the walker from the back seat, she opened the passenger door to help her friend get out of the car.

“It was so nice of you to offer to do this.” Joyce pushed herself up from the seat and grabbed onto the handles of the walker.

“I’m hoping you’ll do the same for me if I ever need my knee operated on.” Helen made sure that Joyce made it to the entrance then moved quickly ahead of her to open the door. They saw a group of friends already gathered in one corner of the restaurant with several tables pushed together to accommodate them all. Empty chairs waited for Helen and Joyce.

“There they are.” Ann moved her purse from the chair next to her and held on to the chair as Joyce lowered herself into it.

Sam stood up as quickly as he could and took Joyce’s walker from Helen. He folded it up and leaned it against the wall out of the way.

“It’s my fault we’re late,” Joyce said. “I was tearing the house apart trying to find something.”

“I know how that feels.” Sam sat back down. “I spent hours looking for my ebook reader.”

“At least yours was worth the effort.” Joyce picked up her menu and adjusted her glasses. “I can’t believe I lost my playing cards.”

“At least you can read your menu,” Carl said from across the table. “I misplaced my reading glasses.” He lifted the pair from his nose. “These are old ones. I can’t see a thing with them.”

“It must be something in the water lately.” Helen lowered her menu. “We all seem to be losing things.”

“What did you lose?” Ann asked.

Helen shook her head. “It’s silly, really. Just a stack of envelopes. I can’t imagine where I may have hidden them.”

“Someplace safe,” Carl joked.

“They’re so safe wherever they are, I may never find them,” Helen agreed.

“At least you can still drive your car,” Willie said loudly from the far end of the table. “I lost my keys.”

“Now I feel guilty,” Ann said. “I was complaining that I lost my bingo chips.”

“Now, that is serious. I couldn’t do without bingo,” Sam said.

“I don’t feel so bad now,” Joyce said. “I thought I was the only one losing things.”

***

“And you have no idea how your gloves got there?” Becca asked.

Tyler had been asking himself that very question ever since the police had shown them to him.

“I have no idea. I can’t even remember the last time I wore them.”

“How is Holly taking all of this?” Becca slowed the car to make a turn.

“She isn’t saying much but that isn’t a good thing with her. Usually, I can’t get her to stop talking.”

“As bad as it all seems now, it could be a lot worse, you know.” Becca pulled into the long drive to the state park.

Tyler knew exactly what she meant. “I’m just so glad that Bert and Betty weren’t hurt.”

“Exactly. Everything else will straighten itself out. You’ll see.”

Tyler turned to look at her. “Anyway, thanks for this.”

“For what?” Becca took the turn to the scenic road through the park.

Tyler laughed. “I don’t know. Being in public with me. You could have run the other way and I wouldn’t have blamed you.”

“What kind of friend does that?”

“Smart ones.” Tyler turned toward her. “Listen, I don’t know what’s going to happen with any of this. Just know that I won’t hold it against you if you do stop talking to me.”

Becca shot him a look before turning her focus back to the road.

“You need to stop talking like that. Besides, you’re missing the best part of the tour.”

Tyler looked around. The scenery was beautiful, even at this time of the year. “What part is that?”

“The commentary.”

He laughed again. “You have a commentary to go with the tour?”

“Of course. I’m a librarian. We know all kinds of trivia about things.”

“Like what?”

“Did you know that a lot of the work completed on the parks during the depression in the early nineteen hundreds was done by the CCC?” Becca asked.

“The Civilian Conservation Corps? I’d like to hear about that.” Tyler settled back in his seat and prepared to listen to the commentary.

***

Holly carried the box from the spare bedroom down to the first floor. After setting it on the coffee table, she sat down on the couch and opened the top of the box. Although she had brought the box with them each time they had moved, she hadn’t looked inside it for a long time. She wasn’t sure why she never wanted to. Maybe it was the memories that she knew it held.

The box contained many smaller boxes full of loose photos and a photo album holding a collection of them. They were all pictures taken throughout the years starting from the time that Tyler was born. Actually, it was even before then. There were pictures of her parents on their wedding day. Those were the ones in the photo album. She opened to the first page and looked at the young version of her parents.

Holly had often wondered if her parents had been the ones to create the album. She doubted it. All of the photos taken after that day were just thrown together into the box. Her parents had lived like nomads and they’d dragged their children along with them. Holly had never known a real home until they’d moved to Teaberry.

She lifted out a stack of pictures and began sifting through them. They were in no particular order in the box. Though the most current had been tossed on the top without care, some had worked their way to other parts of the box as her parents had transported it across the country in search of another event with their food truck. Consequently, the photos were somewhat grouped together by layer over time but not exactly.

In her first handful, she found mostly recent pictures taken not long before her parents had passed away. She held one up and touched her parents’ faces gently with her fingertips. She had never wanted the nomadic life of her parents. Though they had trouble giving her the stability that she craved, they had never wavered in their love for their children.

The first stack didn’t contain the pictures she was looking for so she set it aside and lifted out another layer. These were mostly of Holly in her teen years. It was the period she was looking for so she carefully examined each one. Finally, she found what she was looking for.

It was a group shot taken at one of the county fairs. Holly had fond memories of the beautiful state. It wasn’t just the scenery that had attracted her. She managed to make several friends that summer. Their families had ended up following a similar circuit of events. She’d been able to see the same group of teens multiple times.

She’d gotten close with one girl in particular, partly because their names had been so similar. Halle was the same age as Holly. Though they were both five years younger than Tyler, Halle had developed a crush on her friend’s older brother. She stood next to him in the photo Holly held now. For his part, Tyler had managed to ignore the teen adulation. He had been aware of the young girl’s feelings but had been sensitive to the age difference.

Holly’s eyes shifted to the rest of the group. One of them hadn’t had the chivalrous restraint that her brother had. Leonard Leftwich, known as Lefty by everyone he encountered, had preyed on the young girls he met while working the rides at the events. Although Holly had never been taken in by his tactics, several of the other girls she had met over the years had.

Holly wondered again why he had shown up in Teaberry. There were no local events to attract him. Perhaps he no longer worked the event circuit. Either way, she doubted that his presence was a good sign. Over the years, she had met thousands of people in her travels. She’d learned that a few seemed to act like magnets for bad things to happen around them. Lefty Leftwich was definitely one of those people.

Chapter Seven

He scooped up his keys and wallet from the dresser and pocketed them. He was about to walk out of the bedroom when the reflection in the mirror caught his eye. Turning, he walked over to the rocking chair he had placed there the evening before. It was the first project he had finished in anticipation of the new nursery. He had already selected the wood for the crib and would begin working on it next.

He pushed on the back of the rocker and watched it swing in motion for several moments, a large smile on his face. It had turned out better than he would ever have imagined. He supposed it was because he had put so much love into it. He still couldn’t believe they were expecting a baby. Mindful of the time, he reluctantly left the bedroom and walked down the hall toward the kitchen. He stopped when he found Megan in the living room instead.

“Are you warm enough in here?” Dan checked the fire. It looked like it had enough wood on it for now.

“Fine, thanks.” Megan set aside her laptop.

“I need to get to work.” Dan bent down and kissed her forehead.

“Did you call your sister-in-law back?”

He frowned. He’d already forgotten about that.

“Yeah. We played phone tag for a while. I finally caught her last night.”

Megan knew that was pretty common with LeAnn.

“What did she want?”

“She said she needed help with something. I told her I’d stop by when I could.” He pulled out his phone and made a note of it. He’d forget if he didn’t.

“Is it something I can do so you don’t have to?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. As usual, she didn’t give me any details.”

“Well, let me know.” Megan pulled the laptop toward her again.

“What do you have planned today?”

“I was thinking I might stop and see Bert and Betty.” She looked up at Dan.

“Yeah? Tell them I said hello. Do you know when they’re planning to move to Florida?”

“No, but I’m assuming the fire slowed them down a bit. They’ll need to handle everything with that first, right?”

“You’d think. Love you. Gotta go.” He bent and kissed her again.

Megan logged back into the web server and read what she had written about the town of Teaberry. Now that she thought of it, the Jammin’T was pretty historic. Bert and Betty had opened it over forty years ago. Maybe she should add a blurb about that? She could get some quotes from Bert and Betty before they relocate.

She finished making the changes she had planned, then closed the laptop again. She had no idea what Bert and Betty’s plans were and she didn’t want to miss speaking with them before they left town. They might have some clues about the fire at their house.

***

She looked at the kitchen in dismay. The fire department had cleared them to enter some portions of the house to retrieve anything they might want to keep. There hadn’t been anything she particularly wanted, but curiosity had compelled her to look. Betty turned around and looked at her husband.

Bert looked as dismayed as she felt. He’d lost a few pounds since he stopped working at the Jammin’T. They were both trying to live a healthier lifestyle. He was shorter than Betty by a couple of inches. His bald head was pale. He never spent much time in the sun. The Jammin’T had been the focus of their lives. It had been a difficult transition when they’d left after Bert’s heart problems, but now they were looking forward to the future.

“It’s not all bad,” she pointed out. Her frizzy hair, which she kept colored with an unusual shade in the red family, was covered with a kerchief. She had expected to encounter soot and filth after both the fire and the firefighters had done their thing. Her imagination hadn’t even been close to the damage they had found.

“Yeah, we weren’t hurt.” Bert held out a gnarled hand covered in black hair.

Betty reached for it and clasped it in her own. She leaned over and kissed him above a bushy eyebrow.

“That’s right. And, we hardly lost anything. Not anything of value, anyway.”

“Except the resale,” he pointed out.

She sighed. “There is that. We’ll have to see what happens.”

“Hello?”

Bert turned when he heard the voice. “In here!”

Betty couldn’t remember the name of the insurance adjuster they’d spoken to on the phone.

“I thought the insurance adjuster was a man?” she asked.

“Maybe they sent a different insurance adjuster?” Bert said.

Betty smiled when she saw the young girl that appeared.

“Megan. Have you come to see the damage?” Betty waved vaguely with her arm to encompass the house.

“I’m so sorry about the fire.” Megan took in their appearance. Both looked tired, but otherwise okay. In comparison, the house hadn’t fared as well.

“It’s mostly smoke damage here, as you can see, but then there’s all the water damage too from when they put the fire out.” Bert’s eyes surveyed the kitchen.

“The fire department got here really fast. We were lucky about that,” Betty added.

“And you weren’t hurt. That’s the important part,” Megan reminded them. “Everything else can be replaced.”

“Actually, we can’t complain about that,” Betty said. “We had almost everything packed up to go to Florida.”

Bert chuckled. “Yeah, the insurance company will probably think we started the fire ourselves. We’d already taken out everything we wanted.”

“That would be our luck,” Betty agreed. “They’ll charge us with some sort of crime.”

Megan was surprised that neither one of them mentioned Tyler.

“Did you know about the police bringing Tyler in for questioning?” Megan asked.

“Wasn’t that just foolishness?” Betty said, a touch of impatience in her voice. “We told them that boy didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“They did find his gloves here,” Megan pointed out.

Betty huffed out a breath and she crossed her arms. “There was that.”

“Still. We hope they find out what really happened, and soon.” Bert rubbed his bald head.

“Is the fire department certain that this was arson?”

“Naw. Not yet, anyway. They haven’t said anything like that. They were still investigating as far as we know.” Bert looked at Betty for agreement.

Betty made a face. “No one seems to know anything. That’s why we’re here. The insurance company is sending someone out to meet us.”

“Are you still planning to leave soon?” Megan hadn’t heard any details about their plans.

“Today, actually.” Betty straightened her back. “We were all packed up and ready to go. We figure we might as well just do it.”

“Can’t stay here anyway,” Bert said with a nod.

“We figure we’ll meet with the adjuster and see what he has to say. Then we’ll leave sometime later today,” Betty said.

“Depending on when they clear us to go,” Bert agreed. “We might not get very far today, but the sooner we get on the road, the sooner we’ll be in sunny Florida.”

Betty laughed. “I heard with the El Nino, it’s been pretty cold down there some days too.”

Megan smiled. “My parents say it keeps going up and down but it’s still better than snow.” She asked them a few more questions and was about to leave when they heard another voice.

“Hello?”

“That must be the adjuster now.” Bert motioned toward the front of the house. “In here!”

“I won’t keep you then. I hope you have an uneventful trip.” Megan nodded to the man she passed on the way out. She hoped for their sakes that the results of his inspection were in their favor. She was sure they could use some good news.

***

Tyler scowled at the phone in his hand. He thought that Patty had the thing fixed. The phone seemed to work just fine as long as it was in her hands. It was whenever he tried to use it that the thing refused to function. Shaking his head, he stuffed it back into his pocket. He’d have to stop next door to the Jammin’T again as soon as he had a chance tomorrow. He went down the hall and poked his head into the kitchen.

“I’m going to go out and check on the animals.”

Holly nodded agreement as she rinsed a dish in the sink.

Tyler thought about their day as he pulled on a jacket and headed out for the barn. It had been a busy Monday. He wasn’t going to complain. With all of the problems they’d been having lately, he was happy to see that business wasn’t falling off because of it. He knew that news traveled fast in small towns. He was certain that everyone had heard about the police taking him in for questioning about the fire at Bert and Betty’s. He had been upset at first when Rhys and Ian had come to take him in. He couldn’t believe that the two guys he’d gotten along with so well would do that to him. It was only after he had time to think about it that he realized he was better off in the hands of friends.

The noise in the driveway caught his attention. He stepped out of the barn and watched as a police cruiser pulled into the drive. Rhys and Ian got out. Once again, the fact that they were in uniform registered with his mind. It wasn’t something he had ever paid attention to before. They didn’t look around when they walked away from their cruiser. They both made a beeline for Tyler.

“We’re going to need you to come in and answer some more questions.” Ian removed his reflective sunglasses.

Tyler could see the look of uncertainty in Ian’s eyes.

“I told you everything I know about the fire, I swear it. I wasn’t anywhere near their house.” Tyler was vaguely aware of Holly running from the house toward the barn. He wanted to tell her that she shouldn’t be outside without a coat, but Rhys interrupted his train of thought.

“We’re not here because of the fire. There’s been another incident.” Rhys said.

Tyler’s eyes widened as he stared at Rhys. “What now?”

“A vehicle tried to run Bert and Betty off the road when they left for Florida earlier today. According to them, the vehicle matched the description of yours.” Ian glanced at Holly. She had placed her hand on her brother’s arm. “Tyler will need to come with us. We’ll talk about it downtown.”

“You can’t take him again. This isn’t fair. We haven’t done anything.” Holly’s voice got louder with each word that she spoke.

“I’m sorry.” Ian’s voice was gentle when he spoke to Holly. The hand that he placed on Tyler’s shoulder was firm.

Rhys put a hand on Tyler’s other shoulder. They led him to the police car.

“Holly! It will be alright. Call Jennifer for me, okay?” Tyler called to his sister as they guided him into the back of the police cruiser.

Chapter Eight

Giselle glanced at the time. It had been a slow Tuesday at Togs so far but she knew that the high school had just let out. It wasn’t uncommon for some of the students to trickle in as they walked home from school. Few bought things when they did, but it was also common for them to return on another day with a parent who came prepared with a plastic card.

Giselle looked up at the door when the bells rang. Just as she hoped, a young girl stepped inside. It was one that she had seen before. Giselle knew from past experience that this one had her own plastic card and she wasn’t afraid to use it when she found something she liked. Giselle offered a friendly smile from behind the counter.

“Let me know if you need any help.”

Julia looked over the shirt she was holding up and gave a noncommittal smile to the older woman before returning the shirt to the rack. She walked around the circular rack and pulled out another one. It didn’t pass muster either and was quickly returned. Undeterred, Julia moved on to the next rack. This one held slacks. Julia eyed them with suspicion before running her hand quickly across the fabric. She gave a subtle shake of her head and moved on to the next rack.

Giselle kept an eye on the young girl as she worked her way from rack to rack. So far, she didn’t seemed to like anything she encountered. That bothered Giselle because she knew that the girl was always dressed in something attractive and stylish. The problem was, she rarely bought anything from Togs. She wondered why that was. The bells on the door drew her attention away from the young shopper.

Her heart sank when she saw who had stepped inside. Here was another difficult customer to please. She’d managed to find something for Megan the last time she’d stopped in. She wasn’t sure if she could do it again. Giselle began running ideas through her head. She didn’t like any of them.

Megan stepped up to the counter. “Hey, I was wondering what you had for maternity clothes.”

Giselle’s face brightened. “I hadn’t heard. Congratulations.”

Megan smiled. “Thanks.” She looked around the shop. It had always intimidated her. “I have no idea where to begin.”

“You aren’t showing yet,” Giselle said. “At least, not under your coat.”

“As soon as it warms up and I put the coat away, things will be different.”

The bells on the door rang again. The young girl had left and Giselle had been distracted from watching her. She frowned.

Megan glanced behind her toward the door. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been having problems with thefts lately. I’ve been trying to watch everyone more closely when they’re in the shop.” Giselle stepped to the other side of the counter.

“I can’t imagine she would have stolen anything. She looked like she could afford it.”

“Well, that’s the thing. They never look like what you might expect. There are a lot of different reasons why they take things. Some of them are very sad reasons.”

“I guess.” Megan followed Giselle as she walked toward the maternity section.

“Here are a few things you might consider.” Giselle held up two different tops and explained the differences between each including the advantages and disadvantages of each of the differences.

Megan shook her head when Giselle was done.

“I had a feeling this was going to be complicated.”

Giselle laughed. “It really isn’t. The important things are that you are comfortable and like what you are wearing.”

Megan looked at the rack of clothes in front of her and frowned. The good news was, she still had time before she really needed to buy anything. If she were smart, she’d drag her cousin along and have Lauren pick everything out. The thought made her smile.

Giselle hung the shirts back up and automatically began adjusting each of the hangers so the clothes weren’t jammed together. “When you first stopped in, I wondered if you were working on a puzzle.”

Megan thought about the fire. “I was glad to hear that Bert and Betty were leaving for Florida yesterday.”

Giselle looked up from her task. “Haven’t you heard? Someone tried running them off the road shortly after they left.”

“Seriously? Are they alright? Did they catch the person?”

Giselle shrugged. “All I know is, they took Tyler from Jammin’T in for questioning.”

***

The front door to the diner was locked but it was only a little after three. Megan knew that there would still be staff inside cleaning up. She tried tapping on the door. There was movement inside, but no one came to the door. She banged harder. Finally, she saw Lynn on the other side of the glass. The look on Lynn’s face went from trepidation to relief. Megan heard the lock flip just before the door opened.

“There you are. Holly and Tyler were just talking about you.”

“Where are they?”

Lynn pointed to the kitchen. Megan quickly passed through the swing door and into the other side. She saw Holly cleaning the grill. Tyler was nearby, dealing with some dirty towels. Both abandoned their tasks when they saw her.

“What happened?” Megan asked.

“I have no idea,” Tyler said in a tired voice.

“I heard the police questioned you again?”

“They did,” he confirmed. “They took me in last night. Kept me for hours.”

“Why?” She knew they had to have a good reason.

“According to Bert and Betty, the truck that tried to run them off the road looked like mine.”

Megan had to admit, that was a pretty good reason.

“Have you had any luck trying to find anything out?” Holly asked. “Anything at all?”

“I’ve only spoken with two people so far, and they weren’t able to give me any information that might help,” Megan said.

Holly still looked hopeful. “Who?”

Megan made a face. “Bert and Betty. It was before someone tried to run them off the road, though. At that point, they still believed Tyler was innocent.”

Holly’s eyes widened. “They really think Tyler is doing this now?”

“I don’t know.” Megan turned to Tyler. “Were they at the police station?”

“No. Not when I was there. I got the impression from Rhys and Ian that they high-tailed it to Florida right after they contacted the police. After everything that has been happening, Bert and Betty probably couldn’t wait to get away from here.” He frowned. “Can’t say that I blame them.”

“Rhys and Ian have the case?” Megan asked.

Tyler rubbed the back of his neck. “No, I guess it’s been shifted over to Erica and Jerry.”

Megan considered the significance. Given that Jerry and Erica typically handled murder cases, the police were obviously taking the situation with Bert and Betty very seriously.

“Megan, you have to help us. I don’t understand what’s going on.” The tears in Holly’s eyes were threatening to spill over.

“Were you able to account for your whereabouts at the time of the incident with Bert and Betty on the road?” She mentally crossed her fingers.

“I was out driving around, testing my phone. I was having trouble with it, especially getting a signal. I was trying to figure out what the pattern was. I can get the signal in some places but not everywhere.” Tyler pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes. “I should have just stayed home.”

“No one was with you? No one saw you?”

He shook his head. “No one saw me that I know of. I was alone. There’s no reason for anyone to believe me.”

***

“I don’t believe it,” Becca said adamantly.

Linda pointed down at the proof in Becca’s hands.

“You’re holding a photo of your guy with another girl and a letter telling you to stay away from him.”

“Tyler wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t string two girls along.”

Linda hoped for her young friend that she was right.

“Then how do you explain all of this?” Linda asked gently.

Becca looked around the library. “I have no idea. I was sorting through the books that needed to be reshelved. I found this note with the photo inside one of them.”

“Which book?” Linda asked curiously.

“You think it makes a difference?” Becca set the note and photo down on the counter.

“I was just wondering,” Linda said. “Maybe whoever had it checked out…”

“Oh, that does make sense.” Becca turned the terminal toward her and logged in. She quickly keyed in the book. Her look of hope turned into a frown.

“No luck?” Linda guessed.

“No. It hasn’t been checked out in a while. Whoever stuck these inside must have just pulled it from the shelf and left it here for me to find.” Becca shoulders drooped. She looked over at Linda. “It was a good idea though, thanks.”

Chapter Nine

By the time the afternoon shift came around, the police station was usually a beehive of action. Those on the day shift were either headed home or wishing that they were. The afternoon shift was headed in to begin their workday. Ian was one of the people working his way into the building on Tuesday afternoon. He paused at the front desk to talk to Martha, just as he usually did.

“Afternoon, Martha.”

“Ian. How’s that young girl of yours?”

“Must be teething. Last night it was my favorite slippers.” Ian rested his hand on the counter.

“I’m sure it’s just a phase,” Martha said with an understanding smile.

“I hope she passes through it before she starts on my furniture.” He moved away from the counter when he saw Rhys coming toward them.

“Rhys. How’s that young girl of yours?” Martha asked.

Rhys stopped when he reached Ian.

“Bella will probably run the world someday if I could manage to stop getting in her way.”

“At least she didn’t chew your favorite slippers to bits and then hurl it up all over the floor,” Ian said as he saluted Martha and began walking away.

“There is that,” Rhys agreed as he followed Ian into the hall that led to the main office area.

Ian listened to the sound of their footsteps as they worked their way down the hall. Periodically, they passed other officers or staff on their way to somewhere else. When they reached the main office, they found Erica and Jerry looking at the computer on Jerry’s desk. Erica straightened when she saw them enter. She tapped Jerry’s shoulder with the back of her hand. He spun his chair around to face them, a ball point pen held between his two hands.

“What have you got?” Rhys asked as he leaned against his desk.

“Not much,” Erica said with an irritated tone in her voice.

Rhys and Ian shared a look as Ian took a seat at another desk.

“I thought Tyler gave you permission to access his phone records so you could track his geolocation during the time in question?” Ian asked.

“For all the good that did.” Erica nodded toward Jerry.

“His phone was nonfunctional. It didn’t give us any data.” Jerry twisted the pen in his fingers.

Rhys wiped his hand across his chin. “He was hoping that his attempts to call out would have been trackable.”

“They weren’t. Nothing was. The phone company says they have no idea where the phone was during that period.” Erica walked over to her own desk and leaned against it. “I hear you two are headed back out to the retirement community.”

“You know more than we do,” Rhys answered.

Ian logged into the computer on his desk and pulled up his email. He turned to Rhys and pointed at his monitor.

“Looks like we’re headed there now.” Ian logged out of his system and stood.

“Catch you later,” Rhys said as he followed Ian out.

“I’m calling shotgun,” Ian said as they reached the car.

Rhys smiled and headed for the driver’s side. The ride didn’t take long. They checked into the office first. The blonde behind the desk introduced herself as Leslie. Rhys tried to hide his smile when she held on to Ian’s hand before passing over the map of the villas.

“Didn’t think she was going to let you come with me,” Rhys said as they returned to the cruiser.

“I had to count my fingers to make sure they were all still there when she was done.” Ian looked at the map and pointed. “Turn there.”

The woman that answered the door raised her hand to her throat when she saw them.

“Wow. Two officers for one spatula?”

“Ma’am?” Rhys said.

“Sorry. Come in, please. My name is Josie. Josie Klingerman.” She backed up into the open living space to make room for them.

Ian noted the white carpeting. He glanced down at his boots.

“I think we should stay here,” Ian said as he pointed to the tile at the front door.

“Very thoughtful of you,” Josie said as she took a seat at the dining room table. It was next to the entrance.

Rhys pulled out his notepad. “You’re saying that we were called here for a missing spatula?”

Josie gave a wry smile. “I know. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? The thing is, it’s not just any spatula. It’s part of a special set that I was given when I retired.”

Josie could tell neither man understood the significance.

“I was a cook in the Teaberry school system for many years. The set that I was given was on the expensive side. I don’t use it everyday like a regular spatula.”

“Yes, ma’am. I understand.” Rhys asked for a description and dutifully wrote everything down. When she produced the rest of the set, he finally appreciated what she meant.

When they were finished with Josie Klingerman, they left her villa and checked the map for the next one. It was within walking distance. The man that opened the door introduced himself as Willie. Again, Rhys and Ian remained at the door entrance.

“Sir, are you certain that you didn’t just misplace your keys?” Ian asked loudly. He could tell by the volume that the other man used when speaking that he had difficulty hearing. He didn’t want to offend the older gentleman with his question, but he knew his own parents had been misplacing things a lot lately.

Willie threw both hands up in the air. “I know what you’re asking. There are days when I could lose my head if it weren’t attached. But that’s exactly why I know it’s missing.”

Rhys and Ian shared a look.

“Sir?” Rhys said politely.

Willie held up one hand and nodded. With his other hand, he pulled something from his pocket.

Rhys and Ian watched as the man pushed a button on the device. A loud beeping could be heard across the room.

Willie pointed at it. “That’s my remote for the television. My granddaughter bought me this. She’s a smart one, that girl. She’s the one who set it all up for me too.”

Ian was impressed. “You have tracking devices on your keys?” He glanced across the room again. “And your remote?”

“And other things, too,” Willie agreed as he pocketed the device.

“And when you check for your car keys?” Rhys began.

“They aren’t anywhere around,” Willie finished with a nod.

“That’s pretty slick,” Ian said with genuine admiration.

After speaking with Willie and the rest of the names on their list, Ian and Rhys left the retirement community and drove back toward town.

Ian ran through the list of items they’d been told were missing.

“What do a spatula, car keys, playing cards, reading glasses, bingo chips, an ebook reader, a wedding ring, and a stack of envelopes have in common?”

Rhys had no idea. “You forgot the missing cow.”

“Yeah. About that. What did you think about the note I found?”

It wasn’t the first time Ian had asked him that.

“Things are sure looking bad for Tyler and Holly right now.”

Ian agreed. “So far, Tyler has been tied to two attempts at murder and Holly is looking good for theft.”

“Yeah.” Rhys expelled a breath. “What I don’t get is the thing with Bert and Betty. Why would they want to hurt either of them?”

Ian looked out the passenger window. He’d been thinking a lot about that too. He didn’t like the answer he’d come up with.

“They seemed like they were really fitting in around here,” Ian said quietly.

Rhys thought so too.

***

Megan followed Jerry back to the main office area of the police station. Erica looked up from the notes she’d taken.

“What’ve you got?” Erica asked.

Jerry waved to a chair. Megan shook her head.

“I won’t take up your time. I just wanted to touch base with you on one thing.”

Erica set her notes aside. “What might that be?”

“I spoke with Bert and Betty before they left for Florida,” Megan said. She saw the look Erica threw at Jerry.

“Holly and Tyler asked for my help,” Megan said simply.

“What did they say?” Jerry asked.

“It occurred to me that you might think Tyler was trying to kill Bert and Betty for the Jammin’T.”

“The thought had occurred to us,” Erica said with another look at Jerry. “Are you saying you don’t think that’s the case?”

“Why would they?”

Erica reached for her notes, getting ready to review them all again. “People have killed for a lot less.”

“Yeah, but not if they already own it,” Megan pointed out.

Erica looked up from her notes, her hazel eyes narrowed at Megan. “Say again?”

“That’s what Bert and Betty told me. They’ve already signed the Jammin’T over to Tyler and Holly. They already own it.”

Erica pressed her thumbs into her eyes. “And no one else thought to mention that to us?”

Chapter Ten

She was at the point where she jumped every time she heard a sound. She kept expecting the police to walk into the diner and take her brother away again. Holly closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When she opened them, she reached for more eggs and cracked them open over the grill. She hadn’t known what to expect when the diner opened earlier in the morning. She was happy to see it was business as usual. No one in town appeared to be holding the incidents with Bert and Betty against them. Yet.

Lynn came up to the window to take the next order out to the floor. She glanced down in confusion at the plates in front of her.

“Are you sure about this one?” Lynn asked.

Holly glanced back up at the tickets hanging on the line in front of her. She’d gotten the order wrong.

“I’m sorry. Hang on.” Holly reached across and grabbed what she needed to complete the order with French toast.

Lynn stepped over to the side and prepped the coffee maker for the next pot. She noticed they were running low on bags of coffee. She turned and caught Tyler’s eye out on the floor and held up one of the few remaining bags. He nodded from across the restaurant. By the time Lynn returned to Holly, the orders were complete.

“Thanks,” Lynn said as she lifted the plates.

“I’m so sorry,” Holly said quietly.

“Everyone makes mistakes, sweetie. Don’t beat yourself up over it.” Lynn carried the plates over to the table and set them down. “Can I get you anything else?”

Emmet shook his head and looked across the table at Daryl.

“I think we’re good, Lynn. Thanks.” Daryl reached for the syrup.

“Does Leah know you’re eating that?” Emmet said as he watched Daryl pour half of the syrup dispenser onto his French toast.

“No, and you aren’t telling her either.” Daryl set the syrup down in the middle of the table.

“It might cost you,” Emmet warned as he lifted the syrup.

“The good things in life usually do,” Daryl said amiably before taking his first bite. He closed his eyes in appreciation when the first sugary sweetness touched his tongue.

Emmet shook his head. “She’ll probably be able to tell when you’re bouncing off the walls later.”

“That woman can smell sugar from a mile away,” Daryl agreed. “How are things with Jennifer?”

Emmet smiled, the corners of his long gray mustache pulling up at the corners. He wiped his mustache and goatee with the napkin before answering.

“She and Jim have set a date for the wedding.”

“I’ll bet you’re happy about that,” Daryl guessed.

“She found a good man.” Emmet’s attention was momentarily drawn to the front door when someone else entered. He thought about something he had heard and looked back at Daryl. “She’s been busy with whatever’s going on with Bert and Betty lately.”

Daryl looked around and lowered his voice. “Yeah, what is up with that?”

Emmet shrugged. “I have no idea. Jennifer can’t tell me anything, obviously. I heard they’re on their way to Florida though.”

“I heard that too.” Daryl leaned back from the table when he saw Tyler approaching with a pot of coffee.

“Top you off, gentlemen?” Tyler asked, the pot poised above Daryl’s cup.

“You bet,” Daryl said.

Tyler filled the two cups and emptied his pot in the process. He carried the pot back over to the coffee maker. He used the last bag of coffee when he started the next pot, so he headed into the kitchen area to get more.

“How are things going back here?” Tyler asked as he passed through the kitchen.

“Good,” Holly answered. “Everything seems normal so far.”

Tyler liked the sound of that. They could do with a lot of normal right now. He went into the stock room and pulled out a box. It had already been opened on a previous day and there weren’t many bags left inside but it was enough to get them through the day. He emptied the box then flattened it.

“Need anything while I’m back here?” Tyler asked Danny.

Danny looked up from the dishwasher. “I’m good.”

Tyler closed the door to the stock room and carried the box to the back door of the restaurant. He stepped outside into the chilly air and went over to the dumpsters. He lifted the lid to the recyclable dumpster and tossed the flattened box inside. As he turned to go back into the restaurant, something caught his eye on the ground next to the other dumpster. It looked like a shoe, but he knew that couldn’t be right. Wondering what it could be, he walked around to the side of the dumpster. That was when he discovered that the shoe was attached to a body.

Tyler pulled out his phone and tried to dial for help. Nothing happened. Stepping quickly back into the restaurant, he went over to his sister and grabbed her phone from her pocket.

“Don’t go outside, either one of you,” he ordered as he dialed for help.

“Why not?” Holly asked, twisting around to see what he was doing.

Tyler’s eyes locked with Holly’s as he spoke into the phone.

“There’s a body behind the Jammin’T.”

***

Holly didn’t know what to do with herself. Once the police had arrived, they’d closed down the diner. That meant that Holly had nothing to do but wait her turn until the police were ready to question her. They’d been working their way through everyone at the diner before releasing them to leave. She could only imagine the inconvenience to their daily schedule then chastised herself for the thought.

A man had been murdered. A little inconvenience to help find whoever had done it was to be expected. She only hoped that the police didn’t find anything to tie the death to her brother. There was no way he could have had anything to do with it. No way it could be tied to the diner. It had to just be some sort of horrible coincidence. She was certain of that.

She recognized the police officer who approached her when it was her turn to be questioned although he rarely ate in the diner. She knew that he was very health conscious. In the back of her mind, she began formulating new recipes to attract customer’s who would prefer a healthier choice than regular diner fare.

“Miss? Are you okay?” Jerry asked.

Holly jerked herself back to the moment. “Yes. We didn’t have anything to do with this. You know that, right?”

“That’s what we’re trying to determine,” Jerry answered noncommittally. “I need to know about your schedule for the past day. Can you tell me when you left here yesterday and what you did after that?”

Holly thought back and answered him as completely as she could.

“You didn’t go behind the restaurant at any time this morning?” Jerry asked.

Holly shook her head as she wrapped her arms around herself.

“What about the rest of the staff here. Did you see anyone else go out?” Jerry watched the emotions cross the younger woman’s face as she shook her head again. She looked more confused than anything else.

“Is there anything you can tell me?” he asked.

She shook her head again. “It was a normal morning. Tyler and I get here first. I start the grill up and go through my regular routine to prep. Tyler starts prepping out on the floor with coffee cups and silverware, gets the coffee pots going. Before you know it, Lynn and whoever else is scheduled to work out on the floor is here and then Danny comes in.”

“That’s Danny Ortega, the dishwasher?” Jerry confirmed.

This time Holly nodded. “Do you think we’ll be able to re-open the diner today?” She glanced at her grill. She’d turned it off once she realized she wouldn’t be using it for a while.

“Might be a while before we have an answer to that,” Jerry said. He asked her a few more questions before moving on to the next person. When he finished speaking with the dishwasher, he noticed that Erica was just finishing with one of the waitresses. He stepped over to speak with Erica.

“They have a name for the victim yet?” Jerry asked.

Erica looked down at her notes. “Leonard Leftwich.”

Jerry and Erica turned toward Holly when they heard the loud clatter of the mixing bowls that fell from her hands to the floor.

“Lefty?”

Chapter Eleven

He finished typing up his notes and spun around in his chair. Erica was jotting another note on the murder board. At this stage in the investigation, they had precious little information up there. Jerry laced his fingers together and rested his hands on the top of his head as he read the notes out loud.

“Leonard ‘Lefty’ Leftwich the third. Age thirty. Dark brown hair, brown eyes, five ten. Employed periodically as a traveling carnival worker including locations where the current owners of the Jammin’T were also employed.”

Erica stepped back and pointed at another note. “Was last seen in the Jammin’T on this day. Several witnesses watched an altercation between the victim and one of the owners.”

“But he was complaining about the food cooked by the other owner. That gives them both motive,” Jerry pointed out.

“Agreed.”

Jerry rubbed the top of his head with his laced hands. “Seems like a lot of odd things going on with the two of them lately.”

Erica moved back over toward her desk.

“Yeah, what was the thing with the food delivery?”

She picked up her notes and flipped through several pages.

“Here it is. They only received a partial order. The company that shipped it claimed that the entire order was on the truck when it left their facility.” She looked up at Jerry. “According to the company, they even have the weight of the loaded truck to prove it. They have the scales right there at the facility to check before the trucks leave. I was told they don’t want to get hit with any fines for being overweight, especially on some of the smaller roadways in remote areas that have more restrictions.”

“If the supplies were on the truck when it left the facility but didn’t make it to the Jammin’T, what happened to them in between?” Jerry thought out loud.

“And what does the theft of supplies have to do with murder?” Erica added.

“Yeah, the murder of a guy that didn’t have anything to do with the company that delivers the food.” He lowered his hands from his head and sat up in his seat. “He doesn’t, right?”

“Something to check,” she agreed. “I can’t believe there isn’t some tie-in between the murder and everything that’s been going on with those two lately. It can’t all be coincidence, right?”

Jerry swung around in his seat and reached for his keyboard.

“No such thing as coincidence,” he agreed.

***

Megan parked her truck in front of Cy Douglass’s farm house and walked up to the front door. It was obvious that Holly and Tyler were waiting for her. Tyler opened the door before she even reached it. She saw Holly standing a few feet behind him.

“Megan, thanks for coming so quickly,” Tyler said as he led her into the living room. “I’m sorry that we’ve been bothering you so much lately. It’s just that we have no idea what else to do.”

“I understand,” Megan said as she took the seat he indicated. “Tell me about what happened today.”

Megan listened as the two of them shared the story. She asked several questions as they went along. Finally, when they both agreed they had told her everything they remembered involving the death of the man, she sat in silence for a few moments as she considered it all. It was obvious that the information she did have wasn’t enough to make any determinations. She could hear Jerry Stevens’s voice in her head saying, ‘Early days yet.’

“It seems that you two have been having more than your share of problems lately,” she murmured.

Holly let out a frustrated sound of agreement.

“Starting with a missing cow,” Tyler said with a shake of his head. “How weird is that?”

“And you haven’t heard anything else about that?” Megan asked.

“No. We reported it, of course. You know the cost of livestock.”

“It’s up there,” she agreed.

“Then there was part of an order that went missing,” Holly said.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Tyler said. “The company is still insisting they shipped it. At least we didn’t end up paying for something we didn’t receive.”

“Tell me about that incident.” Megan swung her head back and forth as Holly and Tyler jumped in with different parts of the story as they explained it.

“After that, it was the fire at Bert and Betty’s,” Holly said.

“I stopped at their place to talk with them before they left for Florida. They were certain that you didn’t have anything to do with that,” Megan said.

Tyler rubbed the back of his neck. “That was before my truck tried to run them off the road.” He looked over at Holly. “We can’t blame them if they’ve started to wonder.”

“It wasn’t your truck,” Holly said adamantly.

“I know that, but we can’t prove it.” He turned to Megan. “I even gave permission for them to access my phone records. I figured they could track me that way and they’d know that I wasn’t anywhere near Bert and Betty.”

Megan pulled her brows together. “They couldn’t tell?”

Tyler shook his head in disgust. “My phone hasn’t been working. They said there wasn’t any data to corroborate my story.”

“How did you know the victim?” Megan asked.

“We worked at several different places with him over the years,” Tyler explained. “I mean, I wouldn’t say that we were really friends, or anything like that.”

Megan watched Holly make a face.

“You didn’t like him?” Megan asked.

“Not really, no. But you have to know the life and think like a kid.” Holly looked at Tyler. “We were dragged all over the country by our parents. The only friends we had were the ones we were with for that night or for that weekend, you know? Sometimes we got lucky and the event lasted longer. You had a better chance at making a new friend then, but you were still limited to whoever else was at that event.”

It wasn’t something Megan had considered before. It didn’t sound like a life she would have enjoyed.

“And this Lefty, he was at a lot of the events you were at?” Megan asked.

Holly shrugged. “Enough of them. We knew him, that’s for sure.”

“I might have known him better than Holly,” Tyler said. “We were closer in age. That and I didn’t want him anywhere near Holly.” Tyler narrowed his eyes at his sister.

“I didn’t want him anywhere near me either,” she said defensively.

“What was he like?” Megan asked.

“A jerk,” they answered in unison.

A look of guilt crossed Holly’s face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Tyler agreed. “But he really was, you know? He was always chasing after the younger girls.”

Holly looked across the room. “Wait, I have some pictures.” She jumped up and left the room. A few moments later, she returned carrying a box. She sat down on the couch next to Megan.

“I was looking at these just the other day.” Holly pulled out a layer of pictures and began sifting through them. She pulled one out.

“This is me and Tyler when we were younger.” She passed the photo to Megan.

Megan looked at the photo of the two of them. They looked even more alike back then.

“Those were your parents?”

Holly nodded, a wistful look on her face. “They’re both gone now.” She sifted through the pictures again.

“Here is one of a group of us. These are some of the kids we knew because we saw them at more than one event.” Holly leaned over and pointed out some of the kids. “We saw these ones more than once. I got pretty close to this girl here. We ended up seeing each other quite a bit over the years. The others in the group were just there for that event and then we never saw them again.”

Megan studied the photo as Holly continued to sift through others. She could tell that the photo was a little dated because of the clothing and the hair styles.

“Here’s one more.” Holly pointed at a kid a couple of inches taller than Tyler. He had long, dark hair. “That’s Lefty.”

Megan compared the two group photos that Holly had handed her. She could see that some of the kids in them were the same but then several were different between the photos.

“These were taken at two different events?” Megan asked.

“Yes, in two different states.” Holly glanced at the photos and frowned.

“What is it?” Megan asked.

Holly took one of the photos back from Megan and held it out to at Tyler.

“Who is that kid on the end by Lefty?” Holly asked as Tyler took the photo from her hand.

Tyler made a face indicating he was thinking about it.

“He doesn’t look familiar to you?” Holly pressed.

“He was some buddy of Lefty’s.” Tyler shook his head. That was all he could remember. “Why?”

“I swear it’s the guy that delivered the partial order the other day,” Holly said.

Tyler looked at the photo again.

“You could be right.” Tyler closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, there was a look of surprise in them. “You’re right! I remember now. It’s Aaron. The guy’s name is Aaron Sorenson. I swear I didn’t make the connection when I saw him the other day.”

Chapter Twelve

Megan parked her truck in front of the library on Thursday morning and checked her phone for messages. She had texted the information about Aaron Sorenson to Erica when she’d gotten home the night before. Erica’s response was typical. It told her to stay out of trouble. Megan smiled as she exited the truck and walked across the street to the entrance. She found both Linda and Becca at the counter.

“Megan,” Becca said. “Thanks for coming in.”

“I didn’t know you worked in the mornings,” Megan said when she reached the counter.

“Usually, I don’t and I’m not today. I came in to talk to Linda. That was when we decided to call you,” Becca explained.

Megan watched as Becca’s eyes scanned the library before she leaned over the counter to get closer to Megan.

“It’s like this. I’ve been spending time with Tyler,” Becca said quietly.

Megan had been wondering about that. She nodded encouragingly.

“The other day, I found something in one of the books here.” Becca glanced at Linda.

Megan frowned, not making the connection.

“It wasn’t something written in the book. She found something stuck in the pages,” Linda clarified.

“Gotcha.” Megan still wasn’t certain where they were going with the conversation, but both Becca and Linda had helped her with puzzles several times in the past.

Becca pulled out a note and passed it over to Megan.

“Stay away from him.” Megan looked up at Becca after reading the note. “You’re sure this was meant for you and that they’re referring to Tyler?”

Becca placed a photo on the counter and slid it over to Megan.

Megan frowned down at it.

“Well, no chances of misunderstanding that,” Megan murmured.

“I didn’t think so either,” Becca agreed.

“What day did you find this?” Megan asked.

“Tuesday.” Becca glanced at Linda. “We weren’t really sure what to do about it.”

Megan looked at the note again. “Is there any way to narrow down a timeframe that these may have been put into the book?”

“We’re fairly certain it must have been Tuesday,” Becca said.

“Part of the closing routine is to make sure all the books are back on the shelf,” Linda explained as she slid a book over to Megan. “This one was found on the mobile cart we use to move books around the library. Someone put it there without either one of us seeing them.”

Megan made a face indicating her confusion. She pointed at the terminal they use to check books in and out. “You couldn’t just lookup who checked the book out last?”

Becca twisted the terminal monitor around so Megan could read it and showed her the last entry for the book.

“This hasn’t been checked out recently.”

“Someone just used the book to give you a message.” Megan understood now. “There’s no way to track who it was.”

Megan saw Becca and Linda share a look.

“What?” Megan asked.

Becca pointed at the note again. “Look at the note closely.”

Megan did. That was when she noticed it.

“This was done with a real typewriter,” Megan said as she ran her finger over the printed words.

“Exactly,” Linda said. “More specifically, it was a manual typewriter. You can tell by the indentations it left with the letters. It’s not quite as good as a fingerprint left at a scene, but it’s close.”

Megan had read about such cases. “No two are exactly alike?”

Linda smiled like a teacher pleased when a pupil gets a particularly difficult concept.

“Exactly. The differences are dependent on each specific typewriter. If keys aren’t cleaned, sometimes you have a smudgy letter.”

“Like if the ink builds up on the hammer where there is a space, such as how the hole in a o or an e is formed, it can leave a smudge,” Becca added.

Linda nodded. “If you have a fast strike, where the keys move very quickly but don’t collide, the spacing of the letters might be printed closer together.”

Becca pointed at the words on the note. “Sometimes a hammer is bent so one letter might be struck lower or at slight angle.”

“Which means if you found the typewriter, you could match it up to the note. Might be tough to do.” She looked from Becca to Linda. “Find the original typewriter, that is.”

Becca looked deflated. “Yeah, we thought the same thing. We’re also not sure how to figure out where the photo came from. Not unless Tyler knows.”

Megan reached for the picture. “You didn’t ask him?”

Becca shook her head.

“Actually, I may be able to help with that.” Megan narrowed her eyes at the picture. She’d seen the girl in the photo recently but it took her a moment to remember where.

“That’s Holly’s girlfriend. I remember because of the outfit she was wearing. What she’s wearing here is actually the same outfit she was wearing in the group photo I saw.” The same group photo that had Aaron Sorenson in it, Megan thought.

Becca looked relieved. “Well, that’s good to hear. I mean, I didn’t doubt him.”

“I understand. Mind if I take pictures of these with my phone?” Megan asked. At Becca’s nod, she snapped a couple of pictures. She was putting her phone away when a voice spoke from behind her.

“Are you working on another puzzle?” Archie asked.

Megan turned to smile at the elderly man who had helped her with other puzzles in the past.

“I am. Can you help?” Megan asked.

Archie chuckled, his bushy brows dancing with his amusement. “Well, I need a clue. What’s the puzzle this time?”

Megan explained the situation with the diner.

Archie leaned against the counter. “The Jammin’T, eh? I remember when that was first opened. Bert and Betty were a lot younger then, of course.” He shook his head and chuckled. “Weren’t we all.”

He pointed at Megan and Becca. “Of course, you weren’t even born yet.”

“I was but it was too long ago for me to remember,” Linda said. “I was too young at the time.”

“You remember the other diner, don’t you?” Archie asked Linda.

A small frown formed between her eyes. Linda gave a half shake of her head as she tried to remember what Archie referred to.

“I don’t think so, no.”

“What was the name of it?” Becca asked.

“Sorenson’s.” Archie pushed away from the counter.

“You’re sure?” Megan asked. She could hear the surprise in her own voice.

Archie pointed to his bald head with a smile on his face and his bushy eyebrows animated.

“My mind is like a steel trap.” He laughed at himself. “I can remember forty years ago clearly. Just don’t ask me what I had for breakfast.”

Megan thought about what she had learned as she drove to Anderson’s Florist. She found a parking space around the corner and quickly pulled in next to Tea & Thyme. As she walked past the shop, Cy came out and stopped to speak with her.

“Megan, how have you been.”

She smiled a greeting. “Good, thanks. And you?”

“Oh, can’t complain for an old guy. Course, there have been a lot of strange goings on lately.”

Megan nodded her agreement. “Is there anything you can tell me about it?”

Cy rubbed a weathered hand against his chin.

“Nothing good, I’m afraid. I was at the diner when Tyler had his argument with the guy that was killed. I told the police, of course.”

“Of course,” Megan murmured her understanding. She would have done the same thing.

“Not that it was much help to them, I’m sure. Didn’t make much sense to me. I had the same thing the guy was complaining about. I thought it was great. That girl is a fine cook.”

Megan smiled her agreement as he piled more compliments on Holly. She wished him a good day and continued on her way to Caitlyn’s. She found her friend behind the counter working on her computer.

“Hey, stranger.” Caitlyn finished typing then moved away from the computer. “I wondered when you’d get here.”

“Sorry I’m late. Linda called me to the library just as I was leaving the house.”

“Were they able to help with your puzzle?”

“I think so, yes.”

“I might have something useful too,” Caitlyn said. “That’s why I texted you to stop by. I figured you could pass it along to Erica and if she thinks it’s important, they can come and see me.”

“You think the police would be interested?”

“Well, that’s the thing. I didn’t pay any attention to it at first. I don’t even know what made me think of it this morning. Maybe it was because I saw another truck making a delivery when I stopped for gas this morning.”

“You lost me,” Megan said.

“The other day while I was out making my own deliveries, I saw a food truck parked in an odd place,” Caitlyn said.

“Okay.” Megan dragged the word out.

“The thing is, the guy was unloading boxes into his car in the middle of a parking lot, you know?”

“So, not a real delivery.”

“Right. I’m not positive, but the guy that was offloading the boxes may have been the one they showed on the news last night,” Caitlyn said.

Megan raised her eyebrows. She’d seen the news also.

“The victim?”

Caitlyn nodded. “But I wasn’t paying much attention, you know? It didn’t have anything to do with me.” Caitlyn shrugged. “I could be wrong about it.”

Chapter Thirteen

Megan reached across the kitchen table and placed her hand on top of Dan’s.

“You okay?”

Dan pushed away his empty breakfast plate.

“Yeah. Just still thinking about my visit with LeAnn yesterday.”

Megan glanced at his mug. “More coffee?”

Dan pulled his hand out from under hers.

“I’ll get it.” He stood. “How about you? More tea?”

“Sure.” She leaned back in the chair and watched him put the kettle on the burner.

He filled his mug with coffee then walked over to the tea tin.

“You’re sure she isn’t going to change her mind?” Megan asked.

“About moving my brother’s things out of the house before he gets back here?” He shook his head. “She was pretty adamant. She says the marriage is over. No sense pretending otherwise.”

Megan thought about Dan’s brother. She didn’t really know Gabe Parker all that well. He was a few years younger than she and Dan were. He seemed nice enough. But she couldn’t blame LeAnn either.

“I wouldn’t like it if you took off for months, or even longer, to follow the racing circuit. That had to be tough on her for all these years.”

“In his defense, he never wanted to do anything else. She knew that going into the marriage. Of course, they married young. Maybe neither one of them knew what they wanted at that point.”

“Yeah. I’m not saying I know what went on between the two of them. Or that it’s any of my business.” She watched him pour the hot water into her tea mug.

Dan set the mug in front of Megan and sat back down with his coffee.

“I feel the same way. I want to help, but I’m not qualified to play marriage counselor.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked as she dipped the bag up and down in the water.

He shrugged. “What LeAnn asked me to do. She has his stuff all packed. I’m going to pick it up and find another place for him to live. At least he’ll have some place to go when he gets back here.”

“Still. It’s going to be a surprise,” she pointed out.

“Yeah. And not a good one,” he agreed. “But it’s better than not doing anything for him.”

“What made him decide to come back here now?” Megan pulled the tea bag out and set it on Dan’s empty plate before curling her hands around the hot mug.

“I have no idea. Maybe he knows something is up with LeAnn and he’s finally worried about it?” Dan’s face showed the confusion he felt. “Who knows with him. Maybe he’s finally ready to settle down.”

“Only to find it’s too late?” she said.

“Yeah. Anyway, what are you up to today?”

“I think we’re ready for our guests this weekend.”

“May, Lotta, and Nellie, right?”

“Yes. They’ve stayed with me several times before. They enjoy knitting while they visit with each other.” A smile played at her lips.

“Any special needs?” he asked.

“You need to have a good sense of humor,” Megan nodded before blowing on her tea.

“Humor would be good, right about now.” Dan stretched out one long leg. “What about the puzzle?”

“I called Erica last night and explained everything that I’ve learned so far.”

“Did she think it might be helpful?”

Megan made a face. “She seemed to think so. They’re going to follow up on some things today.”

“Maybe they’ll be making an arrest soon.” Dan stood and picked up his plate.

“Maybe.” Megan watched him put his plate in the dishwasher. “I’m sure Tyler and Holly would be happy to hear it.”

“They’ve been having a tough time of it lately.” Dan leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “I need to finish getting ready for work.”

“I’ll probably be going back into town today for a bit.”

“What else do you need to look for if Erica and Jerry think they got the guy?”

“It can’t help to have more information. Besides, they aren’t positive yet. They’re just leaning that way.”

“Be safe,” he said as he left the kitchen.

Megan sipped her tea as she planned her day.

***

Erica finished adding the information that they’d accumulated to the murder board. Some of it was from Megan and some of it was what Erica and Jerry had found on their own. There was a clear pattern developing.

She turned to Jerry when he entered the main office area carrying a print out.

“You got it?”

“Yeah. I ran everything I could under both Aaron Sorenson and Leonard Leftwich with all of his aliases.”

“Any luck?”

He handed her the print out. “Had a hit under Aaron Sorenson.”

Erica read through the first page.

“That’s a storage facility on the edge of town, right?” she asked him.

“Yeah. I got the address if you want to take a ride.”

“The judge signed off on us having access?”

“Yep.”

“How much you want to bet we find some food there that used to be frozen?” Erica asked as she followed him out.

Jerry wouldn’t take the bet. He was glad of it when they stood in front of the storage unit thirty minutes later.

“Looks like we need to pick up one Aaron Sorenson and ask him some serious questions,” Erica said.

“You would think he’d be smarter about what he did with the stolen goods,” Jerry commented with a shake of his head.

“Who knows what goes through the minds of thieves,” Erica pointed out.

***

Giselle felt compelled to check the list again as she waited for someone to arrive at Togs. She hadn’t wanted to call the police at all, but it was getting pretty ridiculous at this point. She couldn’t continue to eat the loss of the income for the items that were now routinely going missing. Something had to be done. She hoped the Teaberry police department knew what that something was. When the officer finally did arrive, she recognized him but didn’t know his name.

“Ma’am? Did you call about a theft?”

Giselle looked at the muscular man in uniform who appeared to be around her age. Although he was wearing a regulation jacket, it was obvious that he worked out. He was maybe a couple of inches taller than she was which put him at five ten. He removed his reflective sunglasses when he entered Togs and tucked them into his shirt pocket. His blue eyes scanned the clothing store.

“Yes, I did. You are?”

“Officer Riordin.” Ian stood in front of her. “Can you describe what is missing?”

“That’s just the thing,” Giselle said. “There are several things missing.”

She turned and picked up the list she’d been examining and handed it to him.

“As you can see, it’s been happening for quite a while now.”

Ian skimmed the list.

“Can I keep this?”

“Yes, it’s a copy.”

Ian looked up from the list.

“Why did you wait so long to report this?” he asked.

Giselle hesitated before answering. Finally, she let out a sigh.

“I was hoping I was wrong.”

Ian raised his brows.

“You’re not sure these items are missing?”

“No, they’re missing alright. It’s mostly just small things, but they add up in price.” Giselle motioned to one of the displays of jewelry and other accessories located in the store. “I was just thinking maybe it was a high school kid. I didn’t want to get them into real trouble, you know? I was hoping I could catch them and speak to them myself.”

Ian thought of a million ways that could have gone wrong for her.

“It’s best to leave the police work to the police,” Ian said sternly.

Giselle straightened her spine.

“I’m aware of that. But sometimes kids make mistakes. They shouldn’t have to pay for it for the rest of their lives.”

Ian looked at the set of her jaw.

“And nice people shouldn’t put themselves in harm’s way when they aren’t trained to handle it,” he pointed out.

“Be that as it may,” Giselle said. “Do you have any suggestions now?”

Ian looked around the shop.

“Where are your cameras?”

“There’s one focused on the cash register,” she pointed out.

“But nowhere else in the store?” Ian looked around again.

“It was never a problem before.” She folded her arms.

He looked back at her. “But it is now.”

She grudgingly nodded agreement.

“Have you noticed any patterns?” he asked.

Giselle tilted her head to the side once.

“That’s what led me to believe it was a school kid. It seems to happen in the afternoons. Maybe sometimes on weekends.”

“Have you noticed a pattern to your customers at those times? Any that seem to be here more often than others?”

Giselle hesitated again then let out a sigh.

Ian pulled out his notepad and began making notes.

Chapter Fourteen

The Jammin’T was winding down from the breakfast crowd and had yet to get hit hard with the Friday lunch crowd. Megan timed her arrival hoping there was enough of a lull to speak with some of the employees.

“There you are,” Tyler greeted her as she entered the diner. “I told the employees that you would be here to speak with them and that they should answer you honestly.”

Tyler waved around the dining area.

“I’ll be out on the floor here if you need me. Lynn is still on the clock. Danny is in the back in the kitchen. They were both here when Aaron and Lefty were here.”

Megan glanced at another waitress on the other side of the room.

Tyler followed her gaze. “Sissy wasn’t here either time, but you’re welcome to speak with her if you’d like.”

“Can you remember any customers that might have been here?” Megan asked as she looked around the diner.

Tyler ran his hand through his short hair as he thought back.

“I think Patty might have been here? I’m not sure. Maybe Casey?”

Megan nodded. It was a start.

“Okay, thanks. I’ll try not to take up too much of anyone’s time.”

“Hey. You’re trying to help me stay out of jail. I appreciate it, really.” Tyler nodded to someone across the room. “Let me know if you need anything.”

Megan watched him take off across the room then went over to the counter. Casey was at one end, Patty was at the other. She went left and sat down next to Casey.

“Can I bother you for a minute?”

Casey set the newspaper down. “Are we working on a puzzle?”

“We are.” She smiled. “Were you here either time when Tyler was arguing with a man?”

“The truck driver was pretty annoyed, but I can’t say they were really arguing. Not from what I saw, anyway.”

“What did you see?”

“The guy came out of the kitchen and sat down a couple of seats away from me at the counter.” Casey made a face. “Not much.”

“That’s not a bad thing. It would probably be way worse for Tyler if you’d seen him in a fist fight with the guy.”

“Good point. I did see the guy hand Tyler something to sign. I assumed it was for the delivery, but I wasn’t paying all the much attention by then.”

“Thanks.” Megan stood and patted his shoulder. “I’ll let you get back to your paper.”

Megan went down to the other end of the counter.

“Hi, Patty? I’m Megan. Megan Parker.”

The other woman turned and looked up at her. Her eyes narrowed when she saw who it was.

“Didn’t it used to be Bennet? You were Josh’s wife, right?”

“Yes,” Megan said quickly. “Mind if I ask you some questions about something you may have seen at the diner?”

Megan watched Patty’s eyes shift up toward Holly in the kitchen. The counter where Patty sat was directly across from Holly’s window where she worked on the other side of the wall.

“It’s okay. Holly and Tyler are the ones who asked me to speak with you.”

“With me?” Patty’s eyebrows raised.

“With anyone who may have witnessed Tyler arguing lately,” Megan clarified.

“Oh, that.” Patty returned her focus to the phone in front of her. “It was nothing.”

“What did you see?”

Patty shrugged. “Not much. I’m telling you, nothing happened.”

“Which argument did you see?” Megan asked.

“I’m telling you, it wasn’t an argument. Some truck driver messed up an order. It happens. Tyler figured it all out. End of story.” Patty pocketed her phone and stood. “Listen, I have to get back to work.”

“Thanks.” Megan watched her walk away but remained where she was. One of the waitresses was headed her way. She figured the staff would know best when they had a moment to spare so she waited for Lynn to come to her.

“Megan, I have a minute if you want to talk to me now,” Lynn said.

“I do, thanks.” Megan turned and sat down at the counter as Lynn went to the other side and faced her.

“Do you want me to get you anything?” Lynn asked. Her hand automatically reached for the rag behind the counter. She began wiping.

“No, thanks. I’m good. Tyler mentioned that you were here the day the driver delivered a partial order?” Megan asked.

“I was, yes.” Lynn’s lowered her voice. “I was also here when the dead guy complained about Holly’s cooking.”

“Yeah, what was up with that?” Megan asked.

“I have no idea. She made it up when the delivery was wrong that one day and it was a real hit. Everyone else raved about it.” Lynn’s voice continued to grow a little louder as she defended Holly.

Megan leaned over and lowered her voice. “I believe you.”

Lynn gave a sheepish smile. “I know you’re on their side. I just didn’t like that man saying those things about Holly’s cooking. I wasn’t sorry that Tyler asked him to leave.”

“Did he leave when Tyler asked him to?”

“Yes. He complained a little, but he left. After he threatened to turn us in for not running the diner properly.” Lynn put her hand on her hip. “As if that would ever happen!”

“Can you think of anything else?” Megan saw Lynn raise her hand. Someone behind her must have signaled for her.

“Not really. I’d better get over there.”

Megan stood when Lynn left and went through the swing door into the kitchen. Holly looked up from her grill, but only gave Megan a nod and a half smile. Megan walked over to the gruff-looking man unloading the dishwasher.

His eyes shot up to the clock on the wall before he nodded to Megan.

“Mind if I take a smoke break while we do this?”

Megan nodded her agreement and followed him out the back door.

“Do you often take breaks back here?” Megan asked as she stood next to him in the alley behind the diner.

“When I can.” He offered her a cigarette. She declined. He lit his and pocketed the pack of cigarettes.

Megan thought about the odds. It could have been Danny who found the body on Tuesday instead of Tyler. She looked over at the dumpster.

“Do you ever take the trash out?” she asked.

Danny blew out a puff of smoke.

“Sometimes, if everyone else is busy.”

“You were here the day the driver delivered only part of the order, right?” Megan took a few steps from where she was standing so she wouldn’t be downwind.

“Yeah. Guy was an idiot.”

“Why do you say that?”

“He knew the order was wrong. You could tell by looking at him. He was just trying to lie his way through it.” Danny flicked the ash from his cigarette.

“What makes you so sure?”

“Everything is electronic now. He had a list of every item that should have been on that truck. Instead of owning up to it, he argued with Tyler like he didn’t know he was missing it.”

“Why do you think he would do that?”

Danny dropped his cigarette and crushed it with his boot.

“Guy probably stole it himself. I have to get back to work.”

Megan quickly followed him back into the restaurant so she wouldn’t be locked out in the alley.

***

The young girl that answered the door smiled as soon as she saw Megan.

“Hello, Bella. Mind if I come in?” She couldn’t believe how much more mature the young girl looked just since the last time she’d seen her. The fact that she was already as tall as Megan helped add to the allusion that she was older than she really was. Megan had waited until school was out before stopping to see Mr. And Mrs. Givens. She knew that Bella would be with them.

“Are you here working on a puzzle?” Bella led Megan into the Givens’s living room.

“I am, yes.”

“Ham, Joni. You remember Megan, right?” Bella asked.

“Of course. You’ve been here before.” Ham waved to a chair. “Have a seat, please.”

“Can we get you anything?” Joni Givens asked.

“No, thank you. I’m fine.” Megan sat in the chair and smiled at the couple. “I’ve come to pick your brains, if you don’t mind.”

“Ho, you might be too late for that,” Ham said with a laugh. He had a blanket covering his legs and was wearing a thick, warm sweater. His hands, spotted with age, were on the arm rests on each side of the chair.

“At least being old comes in handy sometimes,” Joni said. She was also dressed warmly in fleece, even though it was very warm in the room.

Bella, in contrast, was wearing a short-sleeve shirt and jeans. She adjusted the blanket on Ham’s legs, then took a seat by Joni.

“This goes back around forty years or so,” Megan said. “Do you remember any other diners in Teaberry?”

“What’s that?” Ham said.

“Diners,” Joni said loudly. “What other diners used to be here?” Joni brought her hand up to her mouth for a moment then she pointed at Ham.

“What was that other one. You know, the shiny one?”

“Metal?” Ham asked. “The metal one with the lights?”

“Yes, it had bright lights. What did they call those?” Joni asked him.

Ham raised a spotted hand to his bald head and he rubbed. The blanket began to slip from his lap.

“Why, I don’t remember now.” He turned to Bella. “What kind of lights do they use in Las Vegas? They light up the whole town.”

“Neon?” Bella suggested as she jumped up to straighten his blanket before taking her seat again.

Ham waved his hand at her before dropping his hand down to his lap. “That’s right. It was a shiny, metal diner with neon lights. You could probably see them from outer space, there were so many neon lights.”

Bella smiled at his description.

“Sorenson’s,” Joni added.

“Yes.” Ham pointed his finger up. “Sorenson’s Diner. My, that was a long time ago.” He looked at Joni. “Did we ever go there?”

Joni made a face as she tried to remember. “Oh, we only ate there once or twice maybe.” She turned to Bella and Megan. “It wasn’t very good.”

“That’s right,” Ham remembered. “They put all their money into the building, but they had no experience with running a restaurant.”

“It didn’t last,” Joni agreed.

After spending a few more minutes with them, Megan went back out to her truck. She started the engine and let the heater run while she went through the messages on her phone. When she got to the message from Erica, she called her back.

“You arrested Aaron Sorenson?” Megan asked when Erica picked up.

“Yeah. He’s looking pretty good for it.”

Megan wasn’t surprised to hear it. From everything she had learned, he was their best suspect. She explained what she had learned about the diner.

“You think there’s a connection? Maybe Sorenson is jealous that Tyler and Holly have the Jammin’T?”

“You always say there are no such things as coincidences,” Megan reminded her.

“Yeah. We’ll ask him about it. Anyway, thanks for the help. We’ve got it from here.”

Chapter Fifteen

Erica stood in the hallway outside of the small room they were using to question Aaron Sorenson and stared at the door. She didn’t turn around when she heard Jerry walking down the hallway toward her.

“This isn’t how I was hoping to spend my Saturday,” she said.

Jerry stopped next to her and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand.

“Makes two of us.”

“Did what he tell us check out?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

She shook her head. Finally, she turned and headed back toward the main office area.

“Okay, walk me through it.”

Once they reached the area, Erica stood in front of the murder board. Jerry picked up a pile of papers from his desk.

“According to what he told us, he was making deliveries in other parts of the state. I called the companies he told us about and they have him on video.” Jerry shook his head. “He couldn’t have been behind the Jammin’T during the window we’re looking at.”

“We know the victim was killed that morning because the garbage truck went through and emptied out the dumpster.” Erica rubbed the spot between her eyebrows. “There’s no way the driver could have missed a body next to the dumpster.”

“I don’t think he’s our guy,” Jerry said. “Not for the murder anyway.”

“Okay.” Erica looked up at the murder board. “What do we have on him?”

“We got him on the missing items that should have been delivered to the Jammin’T.” Jerry looked up from his papers.

Erica pointed at the timeline they’d drawn on the board.

“The delivery was scheduled for here. Aaron was in the Jammin’T in the morning to make the delivery.” She absently erased a letter in a word and wrote it more clearly.

Jerry leaned back against his desk and watched her work her way through it.

“Later that same day, we have the victim, Leonard ‘Lefty’ Leftwich in the diner making a big scene because he doesn’t like the food.” She turned to look at Jerry.

“Yeah…” Jerry stretched the word out. “The food that Holly had to make in a pinch because she didn’t get the delivery she needed.”

Erica held up a finger. “Right. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“Sorenson and the victim are tied into the delivery theft together somehow. They have to be,” Jerry agreed.

“Sorenson was seen with the victim here.” Erica pointed to the timeline again. “By Caitlyn. They were offloading supplies.”

“The ones we’re assuming ended up in the storage unit,” Jerry added.

“A storage unit that was rented in Aaron Sorenson’s name,” she finished.

Jerry pushed away from his desk and straightened. “Everything points to Aaron Sorenson being involved with the victim.”

“Except he didn’t kill him.” Erica motioned toward the murder board.

“Not if he was somewhere else.” Jerry looked down at the papers in his hands. The ones showing that Aaron Sorenson was somewhere else during the timeframe when the victim was killed and that he had some ironclad witnesses.

Erica let out an exasperated sigh.

“Okay. What else do we have?” she asked.

Jerry tossed the papers back down on his desk. “Aaron Sorenson’s family used to own a diner in Teaberry back in the day. One that competed with Jammin’T. They both started out around the same time some forty years ago.”

“Right. From what Megan learned, Sorenson’s Diner didn’t do well. It closed not long after it opened.”

Jerry tossed out an idea. “Sorenson wants to get back at Jammin’T so he shorts the order?”

Erica nodded agreement on the hypothesis. “We got him to agree that it was his parents who owned Sorenson Diner, so that makes sense.”

“Sorenson was in the photos that Holly and Tyler had from when they were kids,” Jerry said.

“Yeah, I still don’t get how they never mentioned that to us but somehow they tell Megan.”

Jerry gave a half shrug.

Erica swiped across her lips with the palm of her hand.

“Okay, we need to speak with Holly and Tyler some more. Find out what else they didn’t tell us about their childhood with Aaron Sorenson and Lefty Leftwich.”

Jerry motioned in the direction of the room where Aaron Sorenson was waiting.

“If we don’t charge him, we’ll have to let him go.”

“We can’t charge him for murder,” Erica pointed out. “But we can get him for the theft of the delivery.”

“Better than nothing,” he agreed as he turned to gather up the papers from his desk.

“Yeah. Then we just need to figure out who did kill Lefty.”

***

Lotta adjusted her sweater over her long-sleeved cotton shirt in the mirror. The image of the room behind her caught her attention in the mirror and she smiled. It was a lovely room. She turned slowly and looked it over. She’d straightened out the bed to make it easier on Megan. She knew that the young girl would be around to tidy up. Lotta didn’t want to give the impression that her mother hadn’t taught her how to be a good guest. The room was as spotless on the day after her arrival as it had been before.

Giving herself a slight nod of satisfaction, she picked up her knitting bag and went out into the hallway. She found her cousin, Nellie, coming out of her bedroom at the same time. Nellie was also carrying her knitting bag. Lotta paused for a moment but the third bedroom door didn’t open.

“May isn’t ready yet?” Lotta asked.

Nellie waved her hand at the other door. “Oh, you know May. She’ll meet us downstairs in her own time.”

“True.” Lotta loved her sister, but she and May were like night and day. “Do you need help getting down the stairs?”

Nellie put her free hand on the banister. “I have this to hold on to. I’ll be okay.”

“Funny how we’ve changed over the years,” Lotta commented as she walked slowly in front of Nellie. “Getting down the stairs didn’t used to be such an ordeal.”

She heard a soft chuckle behind her.

“True. When we were little, we used to slide down the banister,” Nellie said. “Though, I guess back then we used to hold on to it for dear life too sometimes.”

“When we got close to the bottom and were still sliding too fast,” Lotta agreed. When she reached the bottom step, she turned to check Nellie’s progress. Nellie joined her a moment later and they went into the living room together.

“May! You beat us downstairs.” Lotta took a seat on the couch.

“You two old fogies are slow on your feet,” May said with a smile to show she didn’t mean it. Her smile widened when Megan entered with a tray. “Oh, the tea is here. And what else do we have?”

“I made some snickerdoodle bars. We talked about the recipe the last time you were here.” Megan set the tray down.

“They look yummy,” Nellie said as she rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

“I brought forks in case you didn’t want to eat them with your fingers.” Megan poured the tea and set a cup and saucer next to each of the women.

“That’s the nice thing about being related,” Lotta said. “We can get food on our faces and it doesn’t matter.”

“I’ll save mine and use it as a reward if I get far enough on my knitting today,” Nellie decided.

“Good idea, I will too. Thank you, Megan, this is lovely.” May set her knitting down and picked up her tea cup. “I miss having a fire.”

“It brings back memories,” Lotta said. “I do love sitting in front of one on a cold Saturday afternoon.”

Megan took another seat near the couch and picked up her knitting.

“So, tell us about your most recent puzzle,” Lotta said as her hands moved rhythmically with her needles.

Megan explained the death of Lefty Leftwich and the subsequent arrest of Aaron Sorenson. The ladies were quiet for several moments when she was done speaking.

“I wonder,” May said. She glanced over at Lotta.

“I know what you mean,” Lotta agreed.

Megan looked between the two women. “Wonder what?”

“If you don’t mind me saying, dear. You don’t sound convinced,” Nellie pointed out.

“I don’t?” Megan thought back on the story she had just told them. She had paused several times when she was speaking to think about some of it.

“Well, I can understand. It was all very… tidy. Wouldn’t you say?” May looked at Lotta and Nellie for support. Both women nodded.

Megan had wondered the same thing. Still. “The police seemed pretty convinced when they arrested him.”

“What about the missing cow?” Lotta asked.

Megan frowned. She’d forgotten about the cow.

Chapter Sixteen

Dan leaned back in his chair and laughed with everyone else at the story Lotta had just told. Megan was right, they all had quite the sense of humor.

“I don’t think I can eat one more bite,” Nellie said as she turned to Megan. “It was a wonderful Sunday brunch, thank you.”

“It’s a wonderful ending to our weekend,” May agreed. “I can’t believe it’s over all ready.”

“I’m almost finished with my packing. I only have one or two more things to put away,” Nellie said.

Lotta stood up. “Oh, look at me.” She held up her hand with the linen napkin clutched in it.

“You’re stealing her linen now, are you?” May asked with a chuckle.

Nellie stood also. “Don’t laugh. It happens to some people.”

“True,” May agreed as she pushed herself to her feet. “My neighbor is that way. She wants to keep everything she touches. She can’t help it, of course. Her doctor says it’s a condition.”

Lotta patted the napkin on the table. “You’re all my witnesses.”

Nellie nodded as she followed Lotta from the room. “We’ll keep you honest.”

“I’ll carry your luggage to your car whenever you’re ready,” Dan reminded them. “Just leave it in your rooms and I’ll take care of it.”

“That would be lovely, thank you,” May said as she followed Nellie.

He listened to them continue talking as they worked their way up the stairs.

“I’ll help you with the dishes before I leave.” He kissed Megan on the forehead before picking up some plates to carry to the kitchen.

Megan followed him carrying more dishes.

“Once I have them in the kitchen, I can deal with them. I know you want to get to LeAnn’s.” She set the dishes down on the counter next to the sink.

“Not really, but I do need to do it.” He glanced at the clock. “As soon as the ladies get on the road, I’ll go.”

***

Dan rang the bell. His father answered the door.

“Dan! What brings you by today?” Todd Parker stepped back to let his son enter the house. “Your mom didn’t tell me you were coming. Kelly!” Todd called to his wife.

A woman in her mid-fifties with dark hair and blue eyes stepped out of the kitchen. She was drying her hands in a towel. She flipped it over her shoulder when she saw her son.

“Dan!” The look in her eyes changed from pleasure to concern. “Megan?”

“She’s okay.” Dan held up both hands. “This is about Gabe.”

“Oh.” Kelly nodded once. The look on her face was now one of acceptance. “We can sit in the living room.”

Dan followed his parents and sat down. “Have you heard from Gabe lately?”

Kelly looked over at her husband. He was an older version of her sons. Todd shook his head.

“We haven’t, no. As you know, that isn’t unusual. Why do you ask?”

“You know he’s coming back to Teaberry, right?” Dan asked.

Kelly made a face. “He’s told us that before. I guess we’re at the point where we’ll believe it when we see it.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Dan let out a sigh. “LeAnn seems to think he’s coming back this time.”

“What makes you say that?” Todd asked.

Dan grimaced. “She wants me to move his stuff out of her house.”

“What?” Kelly said. She covered her mouth with her hand.

Todd shook his head. “You can’t blame her.”

Kelly nodded slowly, her hand still over her mouth. Finally, she lowered her hand.

“Yeah, but she’s forcing Dan to be the bad guy,” Kelly pointed out.

“I don’t know,” Dan said simply. “I don’t know if it will be harder or easier for him this way.”

“Maybe we should let him do it the hard way,” Todd suggested. “Maybe he’d take more responsibility for his marriage that way.”

Dan lifted both hands. “What do you want me to do?”

Kelly waved her hand. “I think you should do what LeAnn asks. That girl has put up with a lot. Her husband hasn’t been around more than five minutes since they’ve been married and that was years ago. She’s stuck with him a lot longer than most women would.”

“She knew he was into racing when she married him,” Todd said. It was a weak argument, but Gabe was his son.

Kelly shot him a look.

Todd nodded his agreement. “I know. You’re right.”

“There’s no happy ending to this story,” Kelly said.

“Okay. So, it’s agreed. I’m going to LeAnn’s now and moving all of Gabe’s stuff out of her house.” Dan looked between his parents.

Kelly and Todd turned to each other. Dan could tell they were having some sort of conversation, even though neither one said a word. Finally, Todd nodded his agreement. Kelly turned back to Dan.

“I’m sorry you’re the one who has to deal with this,” Kelly said.

“Do you think Gabe even knows?” Todd asked as Dan stood.

“I can’t see how. As far as I know, LeAnn hasn’t told him yet.”

“She’s going to wait until he gets here?” Todd asked.

Dan shrugged. “It’s better than telling him on the phone when he’s hundreds of miles away.”

***

LeAnn’s house was small and had only a tiny patch of lawn. As Dan stood on the front porch waiting for her to answer the doorbell, he could see that the paint was peeling on the porch. Part of the railing looked like it had needed fixed for years. He felt guilty when he realized that he’d never checked on her.

It had been hard to remember that his brother was even married, really. LeAnn didn’t attend any of the family functions. Gabe hadn’t either, of course. He’d never been around when there was a family function. For the past several years, Gabe had followed his dream of working on the racing circuit. He moved from town to town on a regular basis, living in a small camper wherever he went. It wasn’t a life that Dan would ever want. He never understood why Gabe would want it either.

LeAnn looked sad when she saw Dan. She didn’t try to hug him or even offer a greeting. She just turned and led him through the small house.

“I packed everything up. I’m not saying it’s the best job ever, but it’s done.” LeAnn pointed to a stack of boxes.

It surprised Dan to see that there were precious few of them. Then it occurred to him. What could there be? His brother had never been around long enough to accumulate anything. He kept his tools with him in his camper. Other than some clothes that he hadn’t worn in years and maybe a few photos from when he was a kid, there wasn’t much else to prove that Gabe Parker had ever lived in the small house.

“LeAnn…” Dan began.

“No.” LeAnn held up both hands. “I don’t want to take the blame for this.”

“I wasn’t going to suggest that,” Dan said gently. “I was going to say, if you ever need to talk about this…”

LeAnn brushed away some moisture from her eyes. “It’s too late for talking.”

“Not if it helps you to heal from this,” Dan said.

LeAnn pushed the hair away from her face. “Your family probably hates me.”

Dan shook his head. “I just spoke with my parents. They wanted me to send their love and tell you that they’re sorry.”

LeAnn shook her head and more tears spilled over. “I’m not sure that makes it easier.”

“Yeah, I know. But I’m sorry too.” Dan pointed to the boxes with his chin. “That’s it?”

“Yeah.” LeAnn looked over at the boxes.

“Do you know when he’s coming back to town?” Dan asked.

LeAnn shook her head sadly. “Who knows with him?”

“Yeah. I guess not.”

LeAnn took in a ragged breath. “Anyway, thanks for this.”

“You know how to get in touch with me if you need me. You know, if he does show up and you want some help, just call me. He might not take the news very well that his marriage is over.”

LeAnn nodded slowly. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t.

***

Ethan opened the back door and let Cooper into the house first. Cooper stopped on the floor rug by the door and waited patiently for Ethan to take off his coat and boots. Ethan then bent and wiped Cooper’s paws on the floor rug. Copper trotted off toward the kitchen and went straight for his bowls.

Ethan followed him into the kitchen but spun around as soon as he got there.

“You two need to warn me,” he said.

Casey laughed. “I was just kissing your mother. We’re married, we’re allowed to do that.”

“You have an impressionable teen in the house,” Ethan joked as he turned back around.

“You should be taking notes so that you know what two happily married people are supposed to look like,” Casey pointed out.

Marcy shook her head at their banter and returned to her work at the sink. She loved listening to the two of them.

Chapter Seventeen

Lauren pulled into her garage and pushed the button to close the garage door behind her. After grabbing her bag, she slipped out of the van and began taking out the trays she had used to transport her baked goods. It was a typical Monday morning event and it didn’t take her long to put everything away so it would be ready to go for the next time.

She let herself into the house, still carrying some of the things from the van. She stopped first in her work kitchen to leave everything there. That was when she realized that her husband’s car hadn’t been in the driveway. Frowning, she glanced at the baby monitor. Had he taken Grace somewhere? He hadn’t mentioned that he planned to do that.

Lauren looked around for a note or something. Finding none, she pulled her phone and checked for text messages. Again, she found nothing. Usually, if there was a change of plans, they let each other know. Growing even more concerned, she turned to leave the kitchen. That was when she heard the song. She stopped, wondering why it sounded so familiar.

She smiled as she looked at the baby monitor. She could hear Megan quietly singing a lullaby. She must be with Grace. Lauren left the kitchen and walked through the house. When she neared the baby’s room, she paused in the hallway and peeked inside. Megan was standing and holding Grace. As she sang the lullaby, she slowly swayed to the music.

Megan must have sensed her presence. She turned to look at her cousin. Lauren could see that Grace’s eyes were closed. Megan carefully placed Grace in the crib then stole quietly from the room. She followed her cousin down the hall.

“Where’s Justin?” Lauren asked when they reached Lauren’s work kitchen.

“He left after I got here. He said he needed to pick up some oil for your van.” Megan took the kettle from the stove and filled it with water before returning it to the stove.

“That’s right. He said something about that at breakfast. I didn’t realize he meant he was going to do it today.” Lauren went over to a cupboard and began pulling out ingredients.

Megan opened the tea tin and pulled out a bag.

“I saw LeAnn when I was driving through town. How is she doing?” Lauren placed the ingredients on the large island in the middle of the room.

Megan frowned. She and Dan hadn’t discussed what to say if anyone asked about Gabe and LeAnn.

Lauren noticed the silence. She stopped what she was doing and looked at Megan.

“Oh,” Lauren said.

“Oh, what?” Megan asked.

“Nothing.” Lauren busied herself with the mixing bowls.

“Well, there must be something.” Megan poured the hot water into a mug over the tea bag.

“I was surprised it lasted as long as it did,” Lauren said with a half shrug.

Megan turned around with the tea mug in her hands.

“Yeah, me too. I don’t think it’s common knowledge yet.”

“I won’t say anything, you know that.” Lauren began adding ingredients to a mixing bowl.

“It’s so sad.” Megan blew on her tea.

“You don’t think they can work it out?”

Megan shrugged. “With Gabe? Who knows what he’s going to do?”

“Hopefully, whatever it is, it’s the right thing.”

“I’m not really sure either one of them knows what that is yet.”

***

Giselle looked over at the police officer.

“Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?” she asked him again.

Ian thought about counting to ten.

“If you would rather let the thief, or thieves, continue to steal from you…” Ian began.

“No, no. I know we have to do something.” Giselle looked at the officer. He was handsome, if you liked the chiseled movie star look. She’d been surprised when he’d showed up at Togs with a plan to catch the thief in the act. She wouldn’t have thought one store would warrant so much attention from a police officer. She was glad that he was taking her problems seriously. She was. She was just feeling a little guilty about what they were planning.

“What if we’re wrong?” she asked.

“We won’t do anything if they aren’t stealing,” Ian said patiently.

“What if we can’t tell and we embarrass them or something?” Giselle wrung her hands together. She couldn’t help it.

“We’ll apologize.” Ian turned and looked at her. She really seemed concerned about her customers. Ian glanced at the clock. “It’s time. Are you sure you’re up for this?”

Giselle took a deep breath, then she nodded quickly. She watched as Ian moved into the back room of the shop. He had checked out the entire shop space and determined where she needed to stand in conjunction with where he was standing so that, between them, they were able to see everywhere in the shop.

She had asked him if she should go into the back room also. That way, a would-be thief would think they could take whatever they wanted. He had explained that the thief would probably avoid being within her range of site and would, instead, probably try taking something from the angle where he could see because they didn’t know he was back there.

Giselle had nodded numbly. Whatever he thought was best. She just wanted to get this all over with. She couldn’t afford to continue losing stock. She just didn’t want to have to confront whoever was taking it. When the bells on the front door rang, she nearly jumped. She forced herself to smile at the young girl who had entered.

“Let me know if you need any help,” Giselle called.

Julia nodded to acknowledge that she’d heard the older woman, then began to browse around the store.

Giselle fussed with some of the clothes on one of the racks for several minutes. She watched the girl from under her lashes as she worked. She was beginning to think that Ian’s idea wasn’t going to work when she heard a small noise from the girl. A silky top had slid from a hanger when the girl had lifted it up to look at it. The top was now on the floor in a pool of fabric.

The girl ducked down out of Giselle’s sight, ostensibly to retrieve the silky top. Giselle crossed the room quickly.

“I’ll take that,” Giselle said.

“Hey!” Julia said as her large purse was pulled from her grasp. “What are you doing? That’s my purse!”

“Are you sure something didn’t accidentally slip into it?” Giselle asked.

“What are you talking about?” Julia looked around the shop for help. There was no one else around. “I’m going to call the police if you don’t give that back.”

Giselle held up the purse. “Then you won’t mind if I look inside.”

“What? Why?” Julia demanded.

“Hold it, hang on.” Ian stepped from the back room.

Julia swung her head from one to the other in confusion.

“What are you doing? What is going on here?” Julia asked, her voice rising with each word. She began backing toward the door.

“Hold on,” Ian said loudly. “This is all just a big misunderstanding.”

Julia pointed to Giselle. “Arrest her. She stole my purse.”

“I did not steal it,” Giselle said. “You stole something from me.”

“That isn’t funny,” Julia said. She waved her arm around the store. “You couldn’t pay me to steal this stuff. All of your clothes are for old ladies. You hardly ever have anything in here that someone my age would want.”

Giselle realized that her mouth was hanging open with her surprise.

“Then why do you come in here?” Giselle sputtered.

Julia crossed her arms. “I keep hoping you’ll come to your senses.” She took a step back and looked at a rack of clothes. Grabbing a pair of slacks, she held it up.

“Look at this. No one my age is going to wear this waistline. I wouldn’t be caught dead in this fabric. And the color!” Julia made a face at the item in her hand. “This color hasn’t been in fashion since I’ve been alive.”

Giselle looked down at the purse in her hand. Her stomach dropped. She held the purse out for the girl to take.

Julia grabbed the bag, opened it, then thrust it back toward Giselle.

“Go ahead, look inside.” Julia said as she crossed her arms.

“Julia,” Ian said. “I’m really sorry about this.”

Giselle turned to Ian. “You know her?”

“She helped us catch a group of high school kids that were breaking into houses recently,” Ian explained. “I didn’t realize this was the high school student you thought was stealing from you.”

Giselle shook her head and handed the purse back to Julia.

“I am so sorry. It’s just that someone keeps taking things from my shop. I can’t afford to keep losing things like this.”

Julia glanced over at Ian. He gave her an apologetic smile.

“It’s okay.” Julia pulled her purse back onto her shoulder. “Like he said, it’s just a misunderstanding.”

Chapter Eighteen

Ian stepped outside of Togs and waited in front of the shop as his partner walked toward him.

“Any luck?” Rhys asked.

Ian pointed back toward the shop.

“We busted someone who wasn’t stealing.”

Rhys looked past Ian into the shop window and saw Giselle talking to a young girl he recognized.

“Better luck next time.” Rhys nodded as someone else approached.

Ian turned to find Megan.

“What brings you two here?” Megan asked as she peered inside Togs.

Ian explained the problem with the recent thefts.

“We think it’s high school kids,” Ian added.

Megan remembered something her guests had been discussing.

“I guess there are all kinds of reasons for why people across age groups take things that don’t belong to them,” Megan said.

“All of them bad,” Rhys agreed.

Megan tucked her hands into her coat pockets.

“Yeah, but sometimes it’s not something they can control. My guests this weekend were telling me about problems some people have. There are extenuating circumstances that might make you reconsider how to handle it.” Megan shrugged. “Just a thought.”

Rhys looked over at Ian with his eyebrows raised.

Ian shook his head. “This has to be kids. It’s only happening at certain times of the day and it’s always when the kids are out of school.”

“Well, I’ll leave this puzzle to you,” Megan said with a smile.

“Speaking of puzzles,” Rhys said.

“Yeah. It’s looking like Erica and Jerry still have one.” Ian gave Megan a sympathetic smile. “It doesn’t look like Aaron Sorenson was anywhere in this area during the window of time for the murder.”

“Seriously?” Megan narrowed her eyes at Ian. “Who are they looking at now?”

Ian looked at Rhys to see if he had any more information, then both men shook their heads.

“No idea. In fact, I’m not sure they know where to look yet.” Rhys tapped Ian on the shoulder. “We have to go.”

“We do?” Ian nodded to Megan.

“Yeah. Call out.” Rhys focused on Megan before walking away. “Be safe.”

***

Although they were now familiar with the layout of the retirement community, they still stopped in the main office to touch base when they reached the campus. They found the resident who worked there part-time in addition to the full-time employee.

The young woman with short blonde hair and stylish glasses greeted them with enthusiasm. Ian nodded a noncommittal greeting then turned his focus to the other woman.

“Ma’am. I understand you called in some more thefts?”

Gina grimaced. “I’m sorry that we seem to be monopolizing your time lately. I just don’t know what else to do when the residents come to me and complain that they’re missing things. I know that none of the items are really worth a lot of money on their own, but in some cases they’re priceless to the people who are missing them.”

“You did the right thing calling us,” Ian assured her.

“We want to get to the bottom of this too,” Rhys agreed.

Gina held out a map. “I circled the villas. There are four more residents who’ve lost things recently.”

Ian nodded when the younger woman sang out a goodbye. He shook his head when he heard her comments to the older woman as they left the office.

“He’s so handsome,” Leslie said.

“Which one?” He heard Gina respond.

“Both of them.”

They parked the police car at the first villa and rang the bell. The woman that answered ushered them in quickly and offered them a drink. Both declined politely.

“I’m so sorry to trouble you with this. I know you have more important things to do than worry about my little problems.” Laura Davidson glanced at their badges. “Are you boys from Teaberry?”

“No, ma’am,” Rhys answered for both of them.

Laura smiled. “I didn’t think so. I don’t recognize your names. I would have if you had family that went to school in Teaberry.”

“You were a school teacher?” Ian asked politely.

“Yes, and that’s why I called you. When I retired, I was presented with a golden apple. That’s what I’m missing,” Laura explained.

Rhys took out his notepad. “How large would you say this apple is?”

Laura waved to the dining room table next to where the men were standing.

“There’s a photo there on the table from when I retired. I thought it would be helpful.”

Ian lifted the photo. “It is, thank you.” He showed it to Rhys. Because of its large size, the woman was holding the apple with both hands in the photo.

“I’m going to assume you don’t carry this around with you?” Rhys asked.

Laura chuckled. “No, I do not. As you can see, it’s rather large and definitely has some heft to it.” She pointed to the standalone bookcase that took up the wall next to her television. “I always kept it over there.”

“Do you know when it went missing?” Ian asked.

Laura gave an apologetic smile. “No, I’m sorry. It was just always there. Until it wasn’t. I first noticed it a couple of days ago.”

Rhys and Ian shared a look.

“I know, I should have said something sooner,” Laura acknowledged. “At first I tried to tell myself that I just misplaced it. Then I convinced myself that it wasn’t important enough to trouble anyone with.”

“But then you did report it,” Ian said.

“Yes. I was speaking with some others at lunch yesterday. It seems many of us are missing things. We all decided we’d better start reporting them.”

Rhys rang the bell at the next address. The gentleman who greeted them at the door managed to exude presence even though both Rhys and Ian towered over him.

Victor Muncie waved them inside and pointed at another resident.

“This is Silas Granger. I’m Victor, thanks for coming.”

“You’re both missing things?” Rhys guessed.

Victor nodded his agreement. “We thought it would save you time if Silas came here to report it,” he explained.

Rhys pulled out his notepad and wrote down the description of the pen set Victor was missing.

“I know it doesn’t seem like much, but it was given to me when I retired,” Victor said.

“He was the superintendent,” Silas added.

“Where did you keep the pen set?” Ian asked.

Silas pointed to a side table. “It was actually in a stand that included a small clock.” Victor held up his hands to demonstrate the size.

Rhys looked over at the other man expectantly.

“I’m missing the remote for my television.” Silas held up his hands. “Before you ask, I’ve looked everywhere for that thing and it even has a locator on it.”

Rhys nodded his head. One of the other residents had explained the short-range wireless feature that helped them to track their commonly misplaced items.

“I know I can just buy a universal replacement for it,” Silas added with a sigh. “But I was used to that one. I already knew the tricks to get it to do what I want.”

Rhys and Ian moved on to the last name on the list given to them by Gina at the main office. It didn’t take them long to speak with the man before they were on their way again. The man described the loss of a paper bill he had kept since he was a young teen for sentimental reasons. On the trip back into town, they discussed the losses of the four people they had spoken with.

“What do a remote control, a pen set, a golden apple, and a sixty-year-old twenty dollar bill have in common?” Ian said out loud.

“None of them are worth much in terms of value,” Rhys pointed out. “Don’t forget the playing cards, a stack of envelopes, an ebook reader, a wedding ring, car keys, reading glasses, a spatula, and bingo chips.”

“All of them were inside someone’s home,” Ian added.

“Yeah. The thief would need to have easy access to them.”

“Which limits us to a common person who had access to each villa. We’re talking other residents, employees of the retirement community who may go from villa to villa for whatever reason, and outside service workers like cable, phone, or whatever.” Ian looked down at his notes.

Rhys slowed for a stop sign. “We asked about any service work they may have had.”

“Each time we’ve been out there,” Ian agreed. “No one mentioned anything.”

“Which narrows it to employees and residents.”

“Except that most claimed none of the staff had been to their villas,” Ian said as he rubbed at his chin.

“Yeah. That leaves us with another resident.”

Chapter Nineteen

After completing some work on web sites the following day, Megan went into town to the Jammin’T. She kept thinking about what Rhys and Ian had told her the previous day. If Aaron Sorenson wasn’t the killer, who was? She decided to return to the diner. It seemed to be the focal point. Technically Bert and Betty had been targeted first. Their house had burned, they’d been run off the road, and the victim had been found at the diner that most still believed was owned by Bert and Betty. Maybe the key to solving the puzzle was with the diner.

Tyler greeted her with a nod from across the diner when she entered. She looked around the diner for people who might have information. One table, in particular, caught her eye. Although she knew that Emmet was a frequent customer at the Jammin’T, it was even better that he was joined today by his daughter.

“Hello, you two. Mind if I sit with you for a moment to ask some questions?” Megan asked.

“You aren’t working on another puzzle, are you?” Emmet asked as he waved to an empty seat at their table.

Megan thanked Tyler for the pot of hot water and tea bag he placed in front of her before heading off with a pot of coffee to continue filling cups around the diner.

“No, I’m still on the murder victim that was found here at the diner.” Megan slipped the teabag into the pot of hot water.

“I thought they had the guy?” Emmet said. He glanced quickly at his daughter, his eyes full of concern.

“I heard that the police are looking elsewhere for that,” Jennifer said. “Apparently, the one they had was somewhere else at the time.”

“They don’t have any other leads?” Emmet asked with another glance toward Jennifer.

Megan could tell that Emmet was worried about the safety of his daughter. It was an emotion she was beginning to understand better each day.

“Dad, they’ll catch whoever it is,” Jennifer said with a direct look at her father.

“Maybe I should walk you back to your office when we’re done here,” Emmet suggested.

Jennifer gave Megan a rueful smile. “If I say no, he’ll do it anyway.”

“There are worse problems to have,” Megan pointed out.

“True, true.” Jennifer picked her coffee cup up and cradled it with both hands, her elbows resting on the table.

“Were either of you here during any of the recent problems they’ve been having at the diner?” Megan asked.

Jennifer shook her head.

Emmet nodded. “I was here when they found the victim.”

“Is there anything you can tell me about that?” Megan asked.

Emmet shook his head. “Not really. I mean, I didn’t see anything that day and I can’t say that I noticed anything out of the ordinary at any other time I’ve been here.”

“You stop by pretty often.” Megan didn’t frequent the diner regularly, but she had often seen Emmet there when she did.

“I stop by for coffee and to talk with old friends. A lot of people do.” He looked at Jennifer. “Or, I meet up with her. But everything seems pretty normal here. The diner runs well with Tyler and Holly. I can’t say that I ever remember anything unexpected.”

“Except the murder the other day,” Jennifer pointed out.

Emmet shrugged again. “The victim was behind the diner. Who’s to say the murder has anything to do with the Jammin’T?”

Good point, Megan thought. Except that the victim was tied to the current owners, both in the past and in the present.

“I’ll let you go now. If you think of anything…” she said as she stood.

“I’ll let you know.” Emmet’s smile reached his eyes. She was reminded that both Emmet and Jennifer were technically somewhere in Dan’s family tree. Dan was never really clear on where. He said that the second cousin three times removed part always confused him.

Megan carried her tea cup over to the counter and sat down next to Casey.

“Mind if I ask some questions?”

Casey lowered his newspaper.

“What are you working on now?”

Megan explained the situation with the murder victim.

Casey was surprised to hear that the police didn’t have the killer yet.

“I’m not sure I can tell you anything I haven’t already though,” he added.

“I was actually wondering if you’d heard anything more about the cow.” It was an odd loose end. She wondered how it fit into the larger puzzle, if it did at all.

Casey’s eyes looked over Megan’s shoulder.

“There’s the man who might know.” He pointed with his chin. Megan turned and saw Cy Douglass approaching.

Cy took a seat on the other side of Casey. He waited until Tyler swooped in with a pot of coffee to speak.

“The missing cow has been found,” Cy said.

Tyler’s hand was poised over the coffee cup. He pulled it away just in time before the coffee cup was overfilled.

“Is it okay?” Tyler asked.

Cy nodded. “Must have just wandered off somehow.”

“What do you mean?” Tyler glanced over at Holly. He knew she was going to be happy.

Cy scratched his chin. “It was over in one of the neighbor’s fields.”

“Ear tag matches?” Casey asked the obvious.

“It does,” Cy agreed.

“How could it have just wandered off?” Tyler wondered out loud.

“Beats me. There aren’t any holes in the fence. I checked,” Cy said.

Tyler looked over at Holly again. She had automatically assumed that Cy would want the same order Casey had placed. Both plates were waiting in the window. He quickly went over and retrieved them.

“I’ll let you two enjoy your lunch,” Megan said as Tyler placed their food in front of them. She moved down to the other end of the counter where Tyler was making fresh coffee.

“Have you spoken with Becca lately?” Megan asked as she placed some money on the counter for her tea.

“Yes. She told me about the note someone made using an old manual typewriter and the picture she found.” Tyler finished with the coffee and turned around to talk to Megan. When he saw Ava standing behind her, he went over to the window by Holly and grabbed the takeout order with Rhys’s name on it.

“Hey, Megan,” Ava said as she placed her money on the counter. She took the bag Tyler handed her. “What’s this about an old manual typewriter?”

Tyler chuckled as he turned to make change in the register. “Hard to believe they’re still around, right?”

“Oh, I still see them in a couple of the places I clean.” Ava took the change from Tyler. She held up the bag. “Thanks for this. He said he really likes some of the new specials you guys have been coming up with.”

“How is Becca doing?” Megan picked up their previous conversation.

Tyler’s gaze scanned the diner. “Good. I mean, I’m glad that she wasn’t scared away with the stupid note. It’s just…”

“Just that you’re still worried,” Megan finished.

“Wouldn’t you be? I was hoping the police had everything figured out. Now I’m hearing that they had to let Aaron go for the murder and they’re starting the investigation all over again.” Tyler nodded to someone across the room to let them know he’d be there momentarily.

“What if they start looking at me for the murder again?” he asked Megan before turning around to grab another coffee pot. “It doesn’t help that my phone isn’t working most of the time. I tried texting her just to check on her and I can’t. It’s like the thing has a mind of its own. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Megan watched a frustrated Tyler walk away with the coffee pot muttering to himself about his phone. She zipped up her jacket thinking that she had a lot of puzzle pieces but none of them appeared to fit together at all. She was beginning to wonder just how many different puzzles there were.

Chapter Twenty

Joyce heard the horn outside of her villa and reached for her walker. After pulling herself up from the couch, she made her way slowly to the front door. She was surprised to find the driver of the minibus waiting for her on the other side of her door.

“I thought you might need some help getting to the van,” the fifty-something man wearing a baseball cap said with a pleasant smile.

“David! How nice. I’m getting around a little better, but I’m still slow as molasses. I feel guilty for holding everyone else up.” Joyce leaned on his arm when they reached the van while he folded her walker.

“Don’t you worry about all that. The town will still be there if we’re a few minutes later.” David helped her into the minibus and stowed her walker.

Joyce could hear murmurs of agreement coming from the van. She smiled her appreciation at the others in the van as she climbed in.

“Thank you for leaving the seat closet to the door for me. It makes it so much easier,” she called to the others.

“David does all the work,” Willie said. “The rest of us just sit in the back and look out the windows.”

Joyce laughed with the others in the van. It held around twenty passengers. Ann was sitting in the seat next to her.

“You’ll be back to running circles around the rest of us in no time,” Ann said.

Joyce nodded her agreement. She was normally very active. “I’m doing a lot better already, it’s true.”

“Where do you want to go today?” Ann asked.

“I need a few things at the grocery store,” Joyce said. “Not too many. I won’t be able to carry much.”

David called from the driver’s seat.

“Don’t you worry about that. When you’re all done shopping, the checkout people at the grocery store can carry it back to the van. I can keep it for you while you’re doing your other shopping and carry it all to your villa when we get back here.”

Joyce thanked him for the offer and felt herself tear up. She was lucky she had so many nice people around her.

“How about you?” she asked her friend.

“I might stop in and see if there are any sales in any of the shops.” Ann pulled at the sleeve of her jacket. “I about have this worn out.”

***

Rhys pulled up to the red light and stopped. “No, I didn’t stop at the diner today. I was working on something at the house. Ava picked the specials up for us today and we had lunch together before I went on shift.”

“How are things going with her business?” Ian asked.

“Great. She’s been adding on new people. A lot of her time is being taken up with management things now.” Rhys accelerated when the light turned green.

Ian pulled out his notes. “Speaking of management, we’re supposed to ask for the manager when we get there.”

“Do you know the manager there?” Rhys asked.

“Nah, you?”

Rhys shook his head as he pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store. He drove around looking for a spot. Just as he found one, another vehicle pulled into the lot.

Ian pointed at the minibus. “Hey, isn’t that the retirement community logo on the side?”

Rhys nodded. They’d been seeing it enough lately to recognize it easily. Rhys and Ian watched as the minibus parked in front of the entrance. The driver exited first, then helped the rest of the passengers out. They all filed into the store, some more quickly than others.

Rhys turned to Ian. Ian nodded without speaking. They both got out of the car and waited while the driver of the minibus parked off to the side of the lot. He stepped out of the vehicle when he saw them approach.

“Can I help you?” David asked.

“We were just wondering,” Rhys said. “How often do you transport the residents to town?”

“There’s a schedule each day. We make regular trips several times during the week,” David explained and gave them the list of times and days.

“Do the same residents come each time?” Ian asked.

David took the ball cap from his head and scratched his head before replacing it.

“No. Well, not in one day and not every day, you know? I mean, they follow their own schedule. Some prefer to go shopping first thing in the mornings, other’s come only in the afternoons, some only go into town once a week, you know?”

“Does the retirement community keep track of which residents go to town each time?” Ian asked.

“Sure. We have to for our records,” David said. “Why do you ask?”

“We’ll get back to you on that,” Rhys said. They both thanked the driver and entered the store. They asked for the manager at the front desk. It took several minutes, but a woman in her forties finally came to the front desk and addressed them.

“Thanks for coming,” she said. She passed over a disc to them. “The surveillance video is on here. You shouldn’t have any problems catching them. The thief was in clear view of the camera when they did it.”

“Thanks.” Ian took the disc and held it up. “Do you have a lot of problems like this?”

“Not really. It helps that we have so many cameras everywhere. Most people are aware of them. In our case, it’s usually the very young who haven’t learned that yet and that’s the case with this one. It was a young kid who couldn’t resist the lure of the candy bar at eye level near the cash register.”

They took the rest of the information and wrote it down before leaving the store.

Rhys stared at the minibus from the retirement community as they walked back to the cruiser.

“The times that the driver gave us. Aren’t some of them when you said Giselle is missing things at Togs?” Rhys asked.

“What do you think the chances are that other shops in Teaberry have been missing things at times when residents of the retirement community come to town?” Ian said as he got into the car. “The smaller shops don’t have the high-tech video security system that the grocery store has.”

“What do you say we check?” Rhys drove the cruiser toward Main Street. “I could use an energy drink.”

One of the twins greeted them as they entered Tea & Thyme. Ian had no idea which one it was. He could never tell them apart.

“Ma’am.” Ian nodded a greeting. The other twin came out of the back room and joined them. “Can we ask if you’ve been having any problems with thefts?”

Rhys watched the twins share a guilty look. “Should we take that as a yes?”

Jill chewed on her lip. “We debated telling you…”

“We didn’t want to get anyone into trouble,” Janice said.

“We were hoping it would stop on its own,” Jill added.

“It’s really only a few small things that have gone missing,” Janice agreed.

Rhys pulled out his notepad and walked over to the counter where they make their energy drinks. He ordered two to go and wrote down the information as they prepared the drinks.

They left Tea & Thyme a few minutes later and went into Olde Tomes next. Tia looked up at them from the comfort of the reading chair she was sitting in.

Tia removed her reading glasses and let them hang by the beaded chain around her neck.

“Well, what brings you two in?”

They walked over to the group of chairs she had set up for her customers. Rhys glanced at the titles of the books on the shelf next to him.

“Which one of these would you recommend for a new parent?” Rhys asked. “Do you have something specific for when you’re having trouble with teenagers?”

Tia looked over at the shelf considering her options. “Your teenager is giving you trouble?”

“No, it’s more the other way around. She seems to know what she’s doing. It’s me that’s making the mistakes.”

Tia laughed as she stood. She pulled a book from a shelf and handed it to him.

Ian looked over at Rhys. “You done shopping now?”

Rhys flipped open the book.

Ian explained their hypothesis about thefts in the smaller shops. Tia was nodding when he finished.

“I can’t say that I’m missing any books,” Tia said. “It’s the small things, you know?” She pointed at a stack of bookmarks. “Like bookmarks.”

“So, nothing expensive?” Ian clarified.

“Right. That’s the thing. At first, I thought I was going crazy. Then I started counting things at the beginning and end of each day.”

“You didn’t think to call the police?” Ian asked.

“For things as insignificant as a bookmark?” Tia shrugged. “I was afraid you would think it was a waste of your time.”

Chapter Twenty-One

He hadn’t told her the exact day he was planning to get back to Teaberry. He’d narrowed it down to an approximate month even though he knew it would be today. He didn’t know why he hadn’t told her. Maybe it was because, deep down, he knew she wasn’t going to be waiting for him. Not this time.

He called her when he was a couple of hours away. He told himself it was because he wanted to make sure she was home. Make sure she wasn’t working. He wasn’t sure what her schedule was. He wasn’t even certain where she was working now.

Gabe slammed the palm of his hand against the steering. It was all his fault. He knew it. But that didn’t make it any easier to accept. Maybe if he talked to her one more time. Maybe she’d change her mind again, just as she had many times in the past. This wasn’t the first time she’d told him it was over. It was the first time he believed her when she said it.

He could hear it over the phone. Not the words, those didn’t matter. It was her voice. When he heard how tired she sounded. Tired of him. Gabe stared at the house where she lived. He wondered what she was doing on the other side of the door. Was she crying? Or had she already shed all the tears she was willing to waste on him.

Shaking his head, he opened the car door and got out. He’d come this far. He wasn’t going to give up now. Gabe climbed the wooden step to the small porch. He noticed the fractured tread dip with his weight. He pounded on the door and called to her, but she refused to open it. Refused to even answer his calls to her. He shouted her name, loud enough for the neighbors to hear as he pounded on the front door. Still, she refused to answer. Finally, he felt someone grab his hand. He turned around, swinging.

“Gabe! Stop it!” Dan said.

Gabe stared at his older brother.

“This is my house!” he shouted.

“Not anymore.” Dan looked as tired as LeAnn had sounded. They stared at each other for several moments.

“Come on.” Dan held Gabe’s arm and pulled.

Gabe looked back at the front door.

“What about my stuff?” he asked numbly.

Dan kept pulling. “There wasn’t much there and I already got it.”

“I want to talk to LeAnn,” Gabe insisted.

“You’re several years too late for that.”

Gabe dug in his heels halfway to his car and refused to budge.

“Why? Does she have someone else? Is she cheating on me?” Gabe demanded.

Dan turned back to the man who looked so much like him on the outside they were almost twins. On the inside, they had nothing in common.

Dan pointed at the house. “What self-respecting man would let her live in that dump?”

Gabe pulled his arm back and swung at Dan. His brother easily deflected it and twisted Gabe around pinning both arms to his sides, just as he used to do when they were kids. It forced Gabe to stare at the house.

“Look at that! It hasn’t been painted, the front step needs replaced, and it needs a new roof. Where were you when that should have been done, Gabe? LeAnn was here all alone, trying to keep it up herself. And what did you do to help? Every few months you called her with another hare-brained idea and told her to send you more money.”

Gabe struggled to free himself, but Dan held on.

“And your family is no better. We left her here all alone because if we could forget she was here, we didn’t have to do anything about it.” Dan pushed his brother away in self-disgust. “I’m no better than you are.”

“She never said she needed anything,” Gabe defended himself. It sounded weak, even to his own ears.

“You need to follow me.” Dan turned and walked back to his truck. He started it up and waited until Gabe had gotten into his own vehicle before pulling away.

Gabe had no idea where Dan was leading him until he pulled into an old lot that had needed repaving a decade ago. Dan got out of his truck and waited for Gabe to join him.

“What are we doing at the old garage?” Gabe looked at the old block building. The sign out front was the same one he remembered as a kid. The place used to be open back then. Gabe could remember stopping here on his bicycle because the insides of cars always pulled at him, drawing him in.

Dan didn’t answer. He walked around the side of the building and took the steps leading to the second story above the garage. Gabe followed closely, leery of the old treads along the way. Dan pulled out a key and unlocked the door.

Gabe followed him in and looked around. What was left of the carpet was filthy. He could see an old linoleum pattern underneath where sections of the carpet were worn away. There were boxes in the middle of the room. It was basically an efficiency. The only separate room was a small bath off to the side.

“What are we doing here?” Gabe asked, even though he had an idea.

“You need a place to live.”

“I have a place to live. With my wife,” Gabe said stubbornly.

Dan looked tired again. “That ship has sailed. What you do from now on is up to you, as long as you leave LeAnn alone.”

Anger infused Gabe’s face with red. “What, you’re taking her side?”

“Someone needs to. I’d say it’s long overdue.” Dan gestured around the tiny space.

“I paid the first month’s rent. The rest is on you.”

Gabe felt the familiar panic rise up. “What do you mean? What am I supposed to do with this place?”

Dan shrugged. “Teaberry hasn’t had a decent garage since this place closed down. Why don’t you use all that experience you’ve gained over the years and do something responsible with it?”

Gabe looked around the small space.

“It takes money to do that. Where am I going to get it?” Gabe asked.

“Man up, brother. LeAnn isn’t going to give you the money for this too. You need to earn that on your own.”

“This is crazy.” Gabe swung his arm in a wide arc around the tiny space. “I need to focus on LeAnn and getting her to let me go home. Not waste my time cleaning this dump up. There’s nothing here for me.”

Dan took a deep breath and locked eyes with his brother.

“Gabe, there’s nothing left at LeAnn’s for you either. You used up all the love she had for you.”

“She’s my wife. I want her back,” Gabe insisted.

Dan shook his head. “If there were anyway that could possibly happen, it will be if you straighten up your act. You need to stand on your own two feet and show her that you can be responsible.” Dan pointed at his brother. “I can tell you right now that won’t happen overnight. It’s going to take time, and a lot of it. And at the end of it all, you might still find that you waited too long to try.”

Gabe felt his stomach churn. “I don’t know how to run a business on my own.”

“You’ll figure it out or you’ll figure out what you need to learn to do it.” Dan rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, stay here or walk away. I don’t care. Whatever you do, it’s your decision. Just don’t blame the rest of us if you fail. This is all on you.”

Dan started to walk away.

“Wait!” Gabe took a step to follow him. “Listen. Thanks for this. I know I didn’t deserve the time it took for you to deal with all of this. I’ll try to do something with it, to make something of myself.”

Dan turned to look at him. “For your sake, brother, I hope so.”

Gabe huffed out a laugh. “You don’t sound convinced.”

“You’re not a kid anymore chasing cars, Gabe. You’re thirty-two. You need to grow up sometime. Now’s as good a time as any. I’m hoping you surprise me. I’m hoping you surprise us all.”

“You just aren’t holding your breath?”

Dan tossed the key over to Gabe. “Good luck.”

Gabe watched his brother walk away.

Chapter Twenty-Two

The new endcap of the aisle was laying in parts and pieces in multiple places. Cole picked up the directions and read through them again, but they didn’t make any more sense the third time around. Finally, he gave up and tossed the instructions into the cart that also held some of the smaller pieces. He stood back and stared at the area where he needed to assemble the new endcap.

He looked over at the next aisle that had an older version of the same thing already in use. It would be easier to follow that example than to try to understand the directions. Grabbing the first upright beam and the cordless screwdriver, he positioned it roughly where he thought it should go.

“You’re going to need to measure the distance between the two beams,” the voice behind him said.

Cole turned to look at Julia.

“Aren’t you?” she was focused on the beam he was holding against the end of the aisle.

Cole turned back to look at the other endcap. The brackets for the shelving unit were fixed. She was right, they would need to be a specific distance apart.

“Yeah, thanks. The instructions were impossible to read.” He set the beam down and went over to the other endcap with the measuring tape.

“What brings you in here?” he asked. He couldn’t imagine Julia needed anything at the feed store.

She didn’t answer him at first. When he realized that she hadn’t spoken, he glanced up from the measuring tape. She looked uncertain. He straightened and focused his attention on her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said quickly.

Too quickly, he thought. He narrowed his eyes at her.

“You aren’t mixed up in anything that’s going to require police intervention again, are you?”

Julia felt the smile on her lips. “Actually, I was almost arrested recently.”

“What?”

She nodded. “It was a mistake. The owner of the shop thought I was shoplifting.”

“What happened?”

“The officer recognized me. They decided that I wasn’t their problem and they let me go.” Julia looked away for a moment, hesitant again.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Cole asked.

Julia took a breath. “She offered me a job.”

“Who did?” Cole was confused.

“The owner of Togs. You know, the clothing store?”

Cole was only vaguely aware of the shop. He’d certainly never been in there.

“When do you start?” he asked. He picked up a marker and measured the distance he needed for the new endcap, making marks for where the new beams will need to be positioned. She still hadn’t answered by the time he was done so he looked up at her again.

She shrugged. “I told her I’d think about it.”

Cole laughed. It was a short, hard sound. “Seriously? The rest of us would do anything to get a job. One falls in your lap and you, what? Hold out for more money?”

Julia frowned and looked away. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Then what?” He positioned the first beam and shot the first screw in to hold it in place.

“I’ve never had a job before. I don’t know how to do it. What if I mess up?” She crossed her arms.

It wasn’t the answer he expected. He realized that she was feeling insecure. He waved at the materials for the endcap.

“You mean, like end up with a shelving unit that doesn’t hold anything because you did it wrong?” Cole asked. “Then you figure out what you did wrong and you fix it. Sometimes, you might even ask for help or hope someone walks by and tells you that you need to measure it first.”

Julia searched his face to see if he was making fun of her.

“Julia, they know we’re kids and we’re just learning. They expect you to make an effort, but they don’t expect you to know everything right off the bat.” He waved at her with the next upright beam before positioning it. “There must be some reason why she offered you a job.”

“She said she liked my advice about clothes for kids our age.”

Cole could see that. One thing the girl could do was dress in nice clothes.

“Okay. So you’re going in with knowledge that she doesn’t have. You’ll help her and she’ll help you.”

“You think so?” she asked.

“I’ve found that as long as I make the effort they expect, then my bosses are willing to give me the chance to prove myself.”

Julia made a face as she considered it.

“Why did they think you were stealing, anyway?” he asked curiously.

She shrugged. “I guess a lot of the stores around here have been having that problem. They figured it was kids doing it.”

***

Rhys pulled into the parking lot of the clubhouse as the retirement community.

“How do you want to handle this?” he asked after turning off the engine.

Ian had been wondering the same thing.

“I guess we just tell the truth and see where they want to go from there.”

They entered the clubhouse and found several of the residents there along with the part-time receptionist, Gina.

“Thanks for gathering everyone together,” Ian said to Gina.

“Not everyone was here. Some took the minibus ride into town,” Gina explained.

Ian looked around at the expectant faces.

“Might be for the best,” he said. He looked over at Rhys.

“We think we have most of the mystery solved for your missing items,” Rhys said.

“I don’t see you carrying anything,” Willie said with a frown. “Does this mean I’m not getting my car keys back?”

“Or my ebook reader?” Sam asked.

“Yeah. If you caught the thief, shouldn’t we be getting our stuff back?” Carl asked. He lifted his reading glasses from his nose. The old pair he’d been using since the other glasses were stolen just weren’t doing it for him.

“Did you arrest anyone?” Laura asked curiously.

“No, ma’am,” Ian said.

“I don’t understand,” Victor said reasonably. “If you know who the thief is, why haven’t you done something about it?”

Rhys looked around the room as the others made noises of agreement.

“We’re thinking that’s up to you,” Rhys said.

“Us?” Gina asked. She looked around the group, her eyes filled with confusion.

“The thing of it is,” Rhys said. “Everything that you reported stolen was taken from your homes.”

“Yeah, so?” Silas said.

“So, you know the person who took them,” Ian pointed out. He watched the group look suspiciously at each other.

“One of us?” Laura asked.

“A resident from your community,” Ian clarified. “Someone that you invited into your homes.”

Rhys listened to the murmurs of confusion.

“Who would do that?” Victor asked.

“And why?” Joyce added.

“Well, we aren’t psychologists,” Rhys said. “But, from what we understand, it happens sometimes.”

“Officers, you’re confusing us.” Victor shook his head in exasperation. “What are you trying not to say?”

Rhys sighed. He shot a look at Ian. Ian shrugged.

“Apparently, there are times when people can’t help themselves from taking things, just to have them. They may not even realize that they’re doing it,” Rhys said.

“It’s a little above our paygrade, but from what we understand, it may be due to something psychological,” Ian explained. “The doctors here can explain it much better than we can.”

“What do we do now?” Gina asked.

“Again, ma’am. That’s up to all of you,” Rhys said. “The shops in town are implementing some new policies to help deter this kind of situation. We’re told they’ll be working with some of the staff from here.”

“We’ve spoken with the director of the facility. They’ve agreed to coordinate that effort,” Ian added.

“It’s up to you if you want to file charges for your missing items.” Rhys looked at each member of the group.

“I don’t think that’s necessary. Not for me,” Ann said. “I already got new bingo chips anyway.”

“I’ve replaced my playing cards,” Joyce said. “I needed a new deck anyway.”

“I’ve never even used my spatula,” Josie said. “What’s the sense in that? I’ve been saving it in a drawer all these years because it was a gift. That’s silly.”

Victor thought of the pen he never used and nodded. “Me too.”

“Me three,” Laura said. “Who needs a large gold apple taking up space on a shelf.”

“Collecting dust,” Gina agreed.

Everyone laughed. They all turned to look at Rhys and Ian.

“We’re sorry we took up so much of your time,” Willie said.

“You did the right thing,” Rhys insisted. “Because of you, we solved a difficult situation that the shopkeepers in town were having.”

“Hopefully, someone will be getting some help that they need,” Ian said under his breath as they left the clubhouse.

Rhys nodded as they got back into the cruiser. They’d taken the first steps, anyway.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Megan sat in the hard-plastic chair in the waiting room at the police station. She stopped to speak with Rhys and Ian and was told that they were out on a call. Martha assured her that they would be returning to the station soon and could speak with her then. Megan was about to give up when she saw the two men enter. She remained where she was and watched as they stopped at the front desk to speak with Martha. After handing them several notes, she pointed toward Megan and explained that she wanted to see them.

Megan stood when they walked over to join her. Ian motioned for her to follow them. Megan trailed behind them down the busy hallway back to the main office area. Between the two of them, they somehow made the hallway shrink in size. When they reached the office area, Ian tossed his hat down on the desk before taking a seat. Rhys leaned against a desk.

“I’ve been trying to figure out the puzzle of who killed the man behind the diner,” Megan said.

“Erica and Jerry have that one,” Rhys reminded her.

“I know. I decided to start back at the very beginning. Instead of focusing just on the murder, I’m trying to figure out all of the things that went wrong first,” Megan explained.

Ian ran his hand over his head. “Such as?”

“Well, there’s the missing gloves, for one thing. How did Tyler’s gloves end up at Bert and Betty’s when their house burned?”

“Again, we’re not on that case,” Rhys said.

Megan nodded. “There’s the missing food. The part of the delivery that never made it to the Jammin’T and was found in a storage unit paid for by Aaron Sorenson.”

Ian laced his hands and rested them on top of his head. “Also, not our case.”

“Yes, but the missing cow is,” Megan reminded them.

“I thought the cow turned up?” Rhys asked.

“It did,” Megan agreed. “It miraculously showed up at a neighbor’s farm, unharmed.”

“What are you saying?” Ian asked.

Megan shrugged. “No one can explain how it got there. The cow didn’t open the gate at the Douglass farm, walk down the road, and let itself into another gate.”

“Okay.” Ian couldn’t argue the logic. “What are you thinking?”

“The cow also didn’t write a note saying that Holly had sold it.” Megan raised her brows at Ian.

“Yeah. There is that,” he agreed as his eyes shifted to Rhys.

“That one is your case, right?” Megan asked, just to be sure.

Rhys nodded. “Yeah. It was actually Bella’s idea to check at the neighboring farms to see if it was there.”

“When you have a field full of cows and they all look alike, it’s hard to just eyeball it from the paddock,” Ian explained. “The farmers all had to make the effort to identify each one by their tag number.”

“Some of them use radio frequency identification, don’t they?” Megan knew some of the larger farms did, anyway.

“RFID, right,” Ian agreed. “What else did you have in mind with the missing cow case?”

“I wanted to ask you about the note you found,” Megan said.

“The one that claimed Holly sold it?” Ian straightened in his chair and turned around to face his desk. He pulled some folders from his inbox and shuffled through them before keeping one and returning the others. After turning around in his chair again, he flipped open the folder.

“What about it?” Rhys asked.

Megan explained the note and photo that Becca had found.

Ian wiped his hand across his face and left it there for a moment, covering his eyes.

“Yeah, you told us about that but it was just before the murder.” He dropped his hand and looked at Rhys. “We didn’t follow up on it.”

“We figured Erica and Jerry would when they caught the murder,” Rhys reminded him. “And, they probably did.”

Ian pointed at Rhys. “We’ll double check.” He looked back at Megan. “Anyway, what about it?”

“Can you show me the note?” Megan asked as she pulled out her phone.

Ian took the sealed note from the folder. Rhys stepped across and retrieved it, then stood next to Megan and looked over her shoulder.

“Linda and Becca explained that manual typewriters were like fingerprints in a way.” Megan held her phone up with the image she had taken of Becca’s note telling her to stay away.

“Yeah, they’re right about that,” Rhys said comparing the two notes. “And it looks like we have a match.”

“Why am I not surprised,” Ian muttered from across the room. “Everything about this case has been confusing.”

“Who would have an old typewriter and would want to steal a cow?” Rhys asked.

“Technically, they just relocated it,” Megan pointed out.

***

Ward Beecham didn’t try to hide his surprise and delight at finding Megan on his doorstep.

“Come in, please. We didn’t have an appointment, did we?” Ward asked as he led Megan to his living room.

“No, we didn’t. I’m sorry to drop in like this, but I was wondering if I could ask you some questions.” Megan took the seat he indicated and declined his offer of a drink.

“Is this for the town web pages about the history of Teaberry?” Ward settled himself in his favorite chair and looked expectantly at Megan.

She remembered guiltily that she had told him the last time she visited him that she would be back soon to do that.

Ward saw the look cross her face. “Now, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot. I’m sure you have a lot of other material that you need to post.”

“It’s not that,” Megan said truthfully. “I really do want to get more information from you. I’ve noticed that a lot of the visitors to our web site read the information that you’ve already given to me. I want to expand on what we have there. I have started a list of questions to ask you.”

She watched the flush of pleasure fill his cheeks.

“Well, that’s nice to hear,” Ward said with a smile. “It’s something to look forward to. What can I help you with today?”

“I was wondering if you could tell me anything about the history of the Jammin’T. Specifically, I’m interested to know if you’re aware of the history of other diners that opened around the same time.”

Ward steepled his hands together. “Well, there was the Sorenson Diner, of course.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “It didn’t last long.”

“That’s what I heard. Why was that? Do you ever remember hearing any reasons?”

“Oh, I didn’t have to hear about them. I’m an old guy, remember? I was around then.” Ward scrunched his face up in thought. “Hold on.”

Megan watched as he slowly raised himself from the seat and left the room. He returned a few minutes later.

“Sorry it takes so long for me to get around,” Ward said as he sat back down. He opened a yearbook and began passing it over to Megan.

She jumped to her feet and crossed the distance between them to take it.

“Oh,” she said. She looked up at Ward with a wry smile. “Now I see what Ham and Joni Givens meant.”

“It was very shiny, that’s for sure. And the neon lights.” Ward waved his hand at the yearbook. “There were so many, you couldn’t count them all.”

Megan looked at the people in the photo. It had several kids who must have been in the high school at the time. She tried to do the math, but failed because it didn’t match up with what she was seeing.

“Is this you?”

Ward laughed. “No, that’s my kid brother. Anyway, the shiny metal and the neon didn’t really have anything to do with why they failed in business. They just didn’t have a good menu, their servings were too small, and the prices were too high. The Jammin’T was the opposite. After the initial curiosity wore off, no one really went to Sorenson’s anymore.”

Megan turned the page of the yearbook.

“Here’s the Jammin’T.” Megan pointed with her finger at the photo of the building and frowned. “Except it’s not.” She looked up at Ward for an explanation.

“Let me see.” He held out his hands and she stood to pass the yearbook back to him.

“Oh, yes. This photo predates the Jammin’T. Before the diner went in there, the Fenimore’s owned it.”

“Fenimore’s? What did they have?” The Jammin’T had been there as long as Megan had been alive. It had never occurred to her that anything was in the space before it.

“That was back in the day when people still wanted print newspapers. There was more than one in town back then and they competed against each other like you wouldn’t believe. It was all pretty cut-throat back then.”

“Patty Fenimore has the phone store next to the Jammin’T now,” Megan said.

“Yes. Her parents managed to hold on to that small space. They used to have both. The diner space and the small space she has for the phone store.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Megan hadn’t wanted to wait until the next day to continue her search for puzzle pieces but after leaving Ward the previous afternoon and relating everything to Erica that she had learned, it was already too late to continue. She knew that she would have a better chance of speaking to the people who might hold the answers she needed if she waited until the next morning. After seeing Dan off to work, she went over the notes she had made starting from the very beginning with the missing cow. By the time she stood on Vince’s front porch ringing his doorbell, it was a decent hour in the morning.

“Megan, come in. I thought you might be Bev.” Vince looked over Megan’s shoulder before closing his front door just to be sure there wasn’t anyone coming up behind her.

“Are you expecting her?” Megan slipped her coat off and handed it to Vince.

“Yes, any minute now.” Vince hung Megan’s coat up and led her back to the kitchen. “To what do I owe this pleasure? Still working on a puzzle?”

“I am, yes.” Megan climbed onto the high stool next to the large island.

Vince positioned himself on the other side. “Can I tempt you with a muffin or some fruit?”

“No thanks, but they look great. Are those banana wheat germ muffins?” she asked.

“Your recipe, actually. I crave them a few times each month,” Vince said. “Technically, they are healthy,” he added with a smile.

“I was wondering if you have any memories of the Fenimore family?” Megan eyed the muffins. They did look good.

“Patty Fenimore?” Vince reached over to the side of the island and put a kettle of water on the flat stovetop.

“Yes. You went to school with her, didn’t you?”

“We did, yes. Bev, Susan, and I did.”

“What can you tell me?” Megan rested her elbows on the island.

“Well, they had the newspaper, of course. It went out of business at some point. Once the Internet became more popular, things like that seemed to fade away a bit.” Vince turned and took a tin of loose tea from the cupboard. He opened the lid and held it up for Megan to smell.

She smiled. “Very nice.”

“It’s decaf,” he said.

“Even better,” she agreed.

“Goes great with banana muffins,” he said with a grin.

“You twisted my arm,” she laughed.

“Could be the baby talking,” he said with a nod as he measured it out into the tea ball infuser. “Now, let’s see. The Fenimores ended up moving away, if I remember correctly.”

“They did? Do you know why?”

“When the parents lost their newspaper business, they had to move away to get a job.” Vince turned the stove burner off and lifted the kettle.

“Do you know what they’re doing now?” Megan watched as Vince poured the hot water into the tea pot with a steady hand.

“I believe I remember hearing that they were killed in a car accident.” Vince frowned. “Bev might remember more.”

Megan was about to answer when the doorbell rang. She watched Vince’s face light up.

“I tell her to use her key, but she says she likes having me at the door to wait on her.” He held up a finger and left the kitchen.

Megan heard the murmur of their voices as they greeted each other. There was a soft laugh before Vince returned to the kitchen with Bev following behind him.

“I thought that was your truck,” Bev said as she climbed up onto a stool next to Megan.

Vince took out three small plates and set a jumbo-sized muffin on each one. Then he took out three beautiful cups and saucers and filled them with tea.

“Cream or sugar?” he asked.

“No, this is wonderful, thank you.” Megan split the muffin into large chunks and ate one. “Very good. I might start craving these too.”

“You have a free pass to crave anything you want, no matter how bizarre,” Bev agreed as she split her own muffin.

“Do you remember anything about the Fenimores?” Megan asked her.

Bev thought as she chewed. “Not much about the parents, other than the car accident. I didn’t really know them that well.”

“What about Patty?” Megan asked.

Bev looked at Vince. “She majored in writing, didn’t she?”

Vince made a face indicating he wasn’t sure. “I can’t say that I paid much attention to her.” He smiled at Bev.

Bev shook her head but smiled at him to acknowledge the compliment. “Yes, I think that’s correct. She was hoping to get into the field, like her parents were, but she just never made it. From what I remember, I just don’t think it was something she inherited from them, not matter how hard she tried.”

Megan was surprised at how well she felt after the muffin snack with tea. Her next stop was at the florist shop. She knew that Caitlyn’s mother often helped out during the day. She found Susan in the front of the shop, alone.

“Caitlyn is out making deliveries,” Susan said. “How are you feeling these days?”

“I think I’m doing a lot better, thanks. I was actually looking for you.”

“Another puzzle?” Susan crossed her arms and waited for whatever questions Megan had.

“Yes. Can you tell me anything about the Fenimores?”

“Oh. I wasn’t expecting that one.” Susan looked out the large front window of the florist shop as she thought back. She shook her head. “Not really, no. I remember that they moved away for a while. After Patty’s parents died, she moved back.”

Megan waited a moment to see if Susan remembered anything else.

“She has the phone store now, as you know.” Susan propped one elbow on her crossed arm and put her hand under her chin. “From what I remember, she tried a couple of different types of jobs when she returned. None of them were particularly successful though they should have been.”

“What do you mean?”

Susan waved around the florist shop. “You know one of the keys to success in business is location. Think about it. The space she has is very small now, but it’s in a perfect location.”

Susan was right. “That’s true. Why do you think her business attempts failed?”

Susan made a face. “Have you ever spoken to her?”

Megan thought back to her conversation with Patty at the Jammin’T.

“She is a little terse,” Megan said.

“That’s a very polite way of saying it,” Susan agreed.

By the time Megan reached the Jammin’T, the breakfast crowd had cleared but it was still too early for lunch. She was lucky to see Cy having coffee at one of the booths. She slid in to the bench on the other side.

“Mind if I ask some questions?” Megan asked.

“Are you trying to track down the murderer?” Cy asked.

“And the cow thief, actually.”

“You think they’re one and the same?” The look on Cy’s face was skeptical.

“That’s what I’m wondering. We’ll see.” Megan looked around the diner. “You come in here pretty often, don’t you?”

“With Jill working at the Tea & Thyme all day, it gives me something to do,” Cy agreed. “I’m just beginning to enjoy the retired life now that Tyler and Holly are taking care of my farm.”

Megan watched an emotion cloud his eyes.

“Thinking it’s time to give up farming?” Megan asked.

He let out a sigh. “These old bones aren’t getting any younger.”

It looked to her as though he hadn’t quite made up his mind yet. She didn’t want to push him either way.

“Can you tell me if you ever see Patty Fenimore in here?”

Cy automatically glanced over at the wall. Patty’s phone store was on the other side.

“Sure. She comes in all the time.” Cy lowered his voice. “I don’t think she gets a lot of customers over there.”

“Do you know if she was around during any of the recent… problems?”

“You mean, like when they found a dead body behind the diner?” Cy shrugged. “Can’t say that I do.”

Megan watched Cy’s eyebrows pull together. “What?”

“She was in here when Becca was here to see Tyler the one day. I remember because we were all at the counter.” Cy waved over to the counter. “Casey was on one end. Then me. There were a few empty chairs, then Becca. Patty was on the end.”

“Yeah?” Megan prompted.

“I looked down to watch how Tyler was doing with his girl. She came to ask him out on his day off. You know he’s sweet on her, right?” He watched Megan nod. “Patty was looking at Becca too. Except, she was scowling.”

“Did you wonder why?” Megan asked.

“Not really. To be honest, with Patty it’s not that unusual.” Cy made a face as he lifted his coffee cup. “It did seem a little excessive though, even for her.”

Megan thought about what she had learned as she drove to her next stop. The address that Ava gave to Megan on the phone brought her to a small office space on one of the tertiary town streets. It wasn’t one of the main streets right in town, but it was close enough. Megan realized that the rent would be less than it would be for a prime spot on one of the main streets. Yet, it was still conveniently located in town. The logo on the front window was familiar. Megan had designed it for Ava.

“I didn’t know you had a storefront now for your Maid in Teaberry business,” Megan said after greeting Ava.

“I’ve been doing more administrative-type work. It got to the point where I needed something,” Ava explained. “What brings you in?”

“A hunch, actually. Or, maybe you would call it wishful thinking. I’m hoping you have more information about something you said to me recently that might help.”

Ava raised her brows in confusion.

“It was your comment about the old manual typewriters,” Megan said.

The confusion cleared. “You’re working on a puzzle and you’re hoping that’s a clue.”

“Exactly. Can you tell me where you’ve seen them?”

“Well, the Teaberry Times have some. They’re more for decoration, though. I don’t think anyone at the newspaper actually uses them. They’re displayed on shelves with some other old equipment.” Ava tapped her finger on her desk as she thought. “Mr. Peabody had one before he passed away. He used to teach business classes at the high school in the fifties and sixties.”

“Do you know what the family did with it?” Megan asked.

Ava shook her head.

Megan was about to ask another question when Ava’s phone rang.

Ava pointed at her phone. “Oh, Patty Fenimore has one too.” Ava held up a finger as she answered her phone.

Megan waited for the call to end. “You’re sure about that?”

“Yes. I didn’t think about it until my phone rang. I remember seeing it when I went in to have my phone serviced not long ago. She was actually using it at the time.” Ava turned to her computer to enter a service request for the customer who had just called. “I don’t know where she keeps it the rest of the time. I’ve never seen it the other times I was there,” she said as she typed.

Chapter Twenty-Five

It was after three o’clock and the Jammin’T was closed for business for the day. They sat around the diner on the restaurant side, each with a beverage of their choice and some leftover pie.

“I still can’t believe anyone would do all of that,” Holly said for the fourth time. She looked around the room at the people who had come to be her friends since she and Tyler had moved to Teaberry. “Why did she do it?”

Rhys stretched out his long legs. “She just fixated on you. It can’t always be explained.”

Holly turned troubled blue eyes toward him. “But we didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No, you didn’t,” Erica said firmly. “None of this is on you.”

“I still can’t believe she stole a cow,” Cy said.

“Yeah, what was up with that?” Tyler asked.

“It was just a matter of making life difficult for the two of you,” Jerry explained. “She was just trying to get to you any way that she could.”

“She figured if she made it look like you sold one of the cows that Cy would throw you both off the farm,” Ian explained. “That would leave you homeless, the way she felt.”

“Why did she feel homeless?” Holly looked guilty for unintentionally causing anyone to feel that way.

Lynn patted Holly’s arm. “Honey, that’s not on you. Her parents lost their jobs and their homes in Teaberry. Their death was an accident. None of that had anything to do with you. Some of it was before you were even born.”

“Like Rhys said. There’s no way to explain why she blamed the two of you for everything,” Erica said.

“What about Tyler’s gloves?” Cy asked. “The ones that were found at the fire?”

“Patty said she found those in the alleyway behind the diner. Her phone store was next door. She went behind the building all the time,” Ian explained.

Tyler groaned and he covered his eyes for a moment. “I had my gloves for the delivery. I wear them whenever I have to handle the frozen food. When we didn’t get any, I took them off. I must have dropped them back there.”

Holly’s eyes grew wide. “Patty burned down Bert and Betty’s house?”

“No,” Erica said quickly. “We got the results back from that a while ago but didn’t release them to the public. It wasn’t arson. There was a problem with some wiring.”

“Patty just took advantage of the fire and the gloves she found to frame Tyler for it,” Jerry added.

“I still don’t understand how she got the picture of Halle,” Tyler said. “The one she put in the book at the library. I can see Patty writing the note warning Becca to stay away from me. But I just don’t get how she had access to the photos from when we were kids.”

Jimmy turned to Holly and pointed his thumb over his shoulder toward the kitchen. “Don’t you have some old pictures hanging on the cork board back there?”

Holly jumped up. “Oh, that’s right.”

They watched her run to the kitchen. When she returned, she had a photo in her hand.

“This is one of them. Jimmy’s right. I pinned others up there and one is missing.” Holly passed the photo to Erica’s outstretched hand.

“I recognized her from the pictures you showed me at your place,” Megan said. “I knew it was your girlfriend and could tell that the photo was taken at the same time because she had the same clothes on.”

“The one that is missing was a group shot. Halle was standing in between me and Tyler,” Holly said.

“Patty cut out Tyler and Halle and made it look like they were a couple,” Megan said.

“I’m really glad Becca didn’t fall for that,” Tyler muttered.

“We’re really glad the librarians knew so much about manual typewriters,” Erica said.

“The notes for the sale of the cow and the one found at the library match up with the typewriter we found in the phone store next door,” Jerry said.

“Speaking of phones,” Tyler said turning to Jerry. “Any word on mine?”

“She had some sort of blocker in it,” Jerry said. “It was jamming your signal so your phone wasn’t working.”

“I’m an idiot.” Tyler shook his head.

“Why do you say that?” Megan asked.

“It was Patty’s idea that I drive around and try to get a signal on my phone. She knew I wouldn’t be able to do it,” Tyler explained.

“And that you wouldn’t have an alibi for your whereabouts when Bert and Betty were run off the road,” Erica said with a nod. “Clever.”

Holly frowned. “Why would Patty run Bert and Betty off the road?”

“She didn’t,” Ian said. “That was actually Lefty, the murder victim. Lefty and Aaron were also the ones who stole part of the delivery from you. Like Patty, they were just doing it to make your life more difficult.”

“According to Aaron Sorenson, Lefty was jealous of the two of you,” Erica said. “Lefty said you two had it easy growing up. You had your parents and you always got the best jobs at the fairs you worked at.”

Holly made a sound of exasperation. “That’s just because Tyler actually worked. Lefty and Aaron were always goofing off.”

“Why did Patty kill Lefty? You would think she’d be happy that Lefty was helping her make my life more difficult,” Tyler asked, the confusion evident on his face.

“She claims that was her right. The other men were getting in the way,” Erica said.

“She wanted the pleasure all to herself.” Ian finished his pie and pushed the empty plate away.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Holly said with a sigh.

“I never claim to understand the way a murderer thinks,” Erica agreed.

Megan’s Recipe

Banana Wheat Germ Muffins

3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup milk

Line muffin cups with liners. Mash bananas and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and spoon into large muffin cups. Bake in large muffin cups at 375 degrees about 30 minutes or until muffins pass toothpick test. Makes 12 large muffins.

Books by R. A. Wallace

If you enjoy a book, please consider leaving a review.

R. A. Wallace is the author of two cozy mystery series:

Indigo Investigations Cozy Mystery Series

Callie Indigo is struggling to make ends meet with her private detective agency, Indigo Investigations, while juggling the complexities of an extended family and life in general. When she isn’t working a legitimate case, she’s often talked into helping out friends and family. Just when she’s wondering if she’ll ever turn a profit, her life becomes even more complicated with the appearance of Greyson Divine who has the uncanny ability to appear just as Callie is solving a case. Callie has to admit, however, that sometimes Greyson Divine may actually be helpful. This cozy mystery offers a clean read with a female sleuth, friends, and family.

Teaberry Farm Bed & Breakfast Cozy Mystery Series

Megan is the main character in the series but interacts with a wide range of other characters in the fictional town of Teaberry. A difficult first marriage ended in the accidental death of her husband. She supports herself with her bed and breakfast, produce from her farm, and her tech skills as a web developer. Over time, she discovers that the love of her life was in front of her all along. Main characters in the series are multigenerational.