A Fishy Dish (A Hooked & Cooked Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) (9 page)

“Jack?”

“Hmm?”

“Could you take a look at this drawing I found?”

His eyes opened. He turned his hand, palm up.

Hannah slid the paper onto Jack’s hand.

He stared at the drawing, twisted his mouth one way, then the other before he squinted. “It looks a tiny bit like Matt White but a female version.”

Hannah smiled. She leaned close to Jack. “Sean Payne made this drawing last night when we were all at The Chowder House. Samantha noticed this woman there, too, and she thinks it
is
Matt’s sister, Jan.”

Jack whistled. “I’ll be a son of a gun. Why would she come back after all these years?”

“Samantha filled me in a bit more about her job.” She glanced at the space between the curtain and the floor to be sure no one was lurking outside and she skootched her chair as close to the hospital bed as possible. “She’s working for Jan, never met her in person, but got hired to keep an eye on Sally when she started working for Gavin Abbott at The Chowder House.”

“That makes sense. Jan left town after a huge spectacle with Gavin. The details were sealed up tighter than a bank vault, and if the rumors were even close to being accurate, Jan got the contents of that bank vault in a settlement.”

“If she’s in town, she could be a suspect in Gavin’s murder.”

“Are you going to tell Pam?”

“Tell me
what
?”

Hannah twisted around.

She felt heat rise from her neck all the way to her forehead.

This was awkward, to say the least.

“Tell me what?” Pam repeated, a little less friendly. She snatched the paper from Jack’s fingers.

Caught red handed. Hannah slumped in her chair. This getting Pam to like her wasn’t headed down the right road. At all.

“Who
is
this?”

“Hello Pam. I’m not dead.” Jack made a feeble attempt at changing the subject, or at the least, lightening the mood.

“The doctor already filled me in on your condition.” She shook the paper in Hannah’s face. “Well?”

“It’s only a theory. I—” she decided to leave Samantha out of the equation, “I think it could be Matt White’s sister; back in town for the vigil tonight for Sally.”

Pam stood with one hand on her hip and the other holding the paper up by one corner. “Where did this come from?”

Uh oh, another tricky explanation. “Sean Payne sketched it last night at The Chowder House. Before all the drama started.”

“He
gave
the drawing to you?” The wrinkles in Pam’s forehead deepened as she looked over the top of her glasses at Hannah. “It’s my understanding that he forgot it on the table where he was sitting alone and it was gone when he returned to get it.”

“Oh. I guess it sort of fell into my lap when—”

Pam put her hands up. “Stop right there before you make a complete idiot of yourself.”

“Could you hand me my water?” Jack asked his daughter.

Pam glared at him but did hold his water glass so he could sip through the straw. “I can’t believe you scared me half to death, and when I arrive, not knowing what I’d find here, you’re plotting with
her
.” Pam’s finger jabbed in Hannah’s direction. “Behind my back.”

Pam liking Hannah was so not going to happen over their shared concern for Jack. As a matter of fact, it probably set the whole possibility back a decade, at least.

“If I had this last night,” she jiggled the drawing for emphasis. “I would have known who she was when she was questioned outside The Chowder House. The name, Janice Jones, she gave didn’t ring a bell at the time. You’re gonna help me find this Janice Jones, Ms. Holiday. She described a man at the scene of the crime that matched Matt White’s description. With this new information about her, it means she identified her own brother in the back of The Chowder House at the time of the murder. She wasn’t some random person from the restaurant, but a possible suspect with a motive. A big motive.”

Hannah sat in the chair, stunned into silence. Apparently it wasn’t Chef Belair who saw Matt White. Where was he? Pam must be completely shook up from worrying about Jack to let her wall down enough to share
that
much information.

“At the vigil tonight,” Pam continued. “Your eyes will be working for
me
. Got it? And your lips are sealed.”

Hannah nodded. “What about Chef Belair?”

“He’s free. For now.”

Hannah nodded. “What about Sally?”

“Sally White? What about her? Are you going to tell me you saw
her
in town, too?” Pam’s voice was one decibel below complete hysteria.

“No,” Hannah managed to squeak out. “Samantha Featherstone thinks Sally could be in town.”

“That old lady who’s pretending to be a private investigator?” Pam snorted. “I did some research on her and it might do you some good to look into
her
background before you get too chummy.”

Hannah looked at Jack, hoping for some details about that comment.

He shrugged.

Hannah stood up and reached for her drawing.

Pam pulled the paper out of Hannah’s reach, folded it carefully and tucked it in her own pocket. “I don’t think so. This is evidence now.”

Jack shooed Hannah away. “Thanks for checking on me. Skedaddle now so I can get some rest.” He winked.

Pam turned her back to Hannah. Her method of dismissal.

Hannah checked the signs in the hallway and found her way to the waiting room. Samantha was in a deep conversation with another hospital visitor as she beckoned Hannah to join them.

“I’ve got a coffee here for you, too, my dear.” Samantha reached under her chair for Hannah’s coffee. “And guess who I have the pleasure of chatting with?”

Hannah smiled at the woman sitting on the other side of Samantha. She wasn’t feeling particularly social, especially after the treatment she received from Deputy Pam Larson. She wanted to leave the hospital smells and sounds, and fill her lungs with the salty ocean air instead.

Samantha’s voice brought her away from her beach vision.

“This is Essie Holmes, Leah White’s next door neighbor.” Samantha patted Essie’s knee. “Leah and Essie walk together
every
morning.”

“Yup, that’s right, except, of course, for the past few mornings since Matt and Leah haven’t been home. But all those pushy news people are still camped outside on the road. Hoping for a sighting, I guess.” Essie stirred her drink and took a sip. “Such a terrible situation for Leah.” Essie leaned in front of Samantha to get a clear view of Hannah. “I’m not surprised about poor Sally though. She and her dad—” Essie didn’t finish her thought but shook her head back and forth.

“They didn’t get along?” Hannah prodded.

“Ha. That’s putting it mildly. He didn’t let that poor girl do anything on her own. He said it was for her own good so she didn’t end up like his loser sister Jan.”

Hannah caught Samantha’s sideways glance with her eyebrows raised.

“I’m sure that’s the reason Sally took the job at The Chowder House working for that better-than-everyone-else, Gavin Abbott. Sally
had
to know her dad would lose it.” Essie tsk tsked her disapproval. “And now she’s gone and vanished. Of course I suspected Gavin did something to that girl, but now he’s dead and we’ll never know.”

“Unless Sally turns up safe and sound,” Hannah suggested.

“I suppose that could happen, but these cases don’t usually have a happy ending. Of course, I didn’t tell Leah that. I always said, Leah, Sally will walk right through that front door one of these days.”

“And what about Gavin? Did he have a lot of enemies?”

“I don’t know about
enemies
, except for Matt White and maybe Matt’s sister Jan. It was more like people just didn’t
like
the guy. You know, he didn’t fit in with the rest of us.”

“Do you have any idea who might have killed Gavin?”

Essie patted her already perfectly coiffed hair into place and looked up at the ceiling before she lowered her voice. “Well, I hate to start a rumor, but you
did
ask my opinion. Mind you, this is
only
my opinion.”

“Of course,” both Hannah and Samantha responded together.

“
If
I was a bettin’ gal, and I assure you I’m not, I’d put my money on Matt White. He hated Gavin Abbott ever since, well, I don’t know exactly when it started because it’s been for as long as I’ve known Leah. It started even
before
I met her. And those two had that argument at The Chowder House last night.”

“You were there?”

“Oh yes. Everyone in town was there. And I imagine everyone came to the same conclusion I came to about Matt White killing Gavin Abbott. Matt had murder in his eyes, if that’s such a thing. Everyone saw it, same as me. Everyone except for the police,” Essie said with disgust lacing her voice. “I don’t know what they’re waiting for. If Matt gets locked up maybe poor Sally would feel safe enough to come home to her mama.
If
she’s still alive.”

Chapter 11

Essie’s friend arrived to give her a ride home.

Finally.

Rumors were interesting, Hannah told herself, but she was more concerned about finding the truth. Essie Holmes, and all of Hooks Harbor by the tone of her opinion, had Matt White guilty of Gavin Abbott’s murder.

Of course Matt was angry. And worried. And half out of his mind. His daughter was missing. Didn’t anyone else see the bigger picture?

Samantha and Hannah walked through the automatic doors into the late morning sunshine. Hannah shaded the sun from her eyes with her hand.

“That was an eye opener,” Samantha said as she slid behind the steering wheel of Mini May. “How was your visit with Jack?”

“He’ll be fine, but . . .” Hannah hesitated.

“But what? I’m feeling a bad vibration at the moment, Hannah. And it’s not coming from Mini May. What happened?”

“Pam arrived while Jack was looking at the drawing. She took it; snatched it right out of Jack’s hand and gave me the third degree for concealing it. I felt like my teacher in third grade just caught me handing a note to my best friend.”

“That’s an unfortunate turn of events. Did Jack recognize the person in the drawing before his daughter interrupted?”

“He said it looked like a female Matt White. So there is that confirmation of your conclusion about Jan being in town.”

“We have to find her before her presence leaks out. Sean Payne is bound to blow her cover with some ridiculous article before long. The very last person who can know is Matt or there might be another murder in town.”

“Matt will kill her? His own sister?” Hannah’s voice sounded skeptical.

“Or she’ll kill him,” Samantha replied. “At least, that’s the impression I got from the tone in Jan’s information.”

“Can you contact her? Don’t you send her regular updates?”

“I do, but she doesn’t send anything back unless she has information for me. It’s pretty much a one-way correspondence. I suspect she has herself hidden somewhere. And if she’s even still in town, she won’t take any risks until tonight at the vigil.”

“One more thing that Pam said.”

Samantha parked Mini May in the Holiday Hideaway parking lot and Hannah waited for her full attention again.

“Jan is the person who identified Matt leaving The Chowder House at the time of the murder.”

“Pam didn’t question
why
Jan she was there? That’s suspicious, too.”

“Pam didn’t recognize the name—Janice Jones. She did question her, but without knowing who she was at the time and the connection to Gavin and Matt, it didn’t raise any red flags in Pam’s mind. Now that she knows, she’s definitely on the lookout for her.”

Hannah decided not to share that Pam ordered her to help find Jan. For now, she needed to be a bit more careful about what she shared. At least until Hannah discovered more about Samantha’s past. Pam certainly knew how to plant suspicion on someone. Conquer and divide—was that Pam’s intention?

Jerry Sewall’s wholesale fish truck filled up the back loading area of The Fishy Dish.

“This seems like an odd time for a delivery,” Samantha observed.

“You’re right. It’s not the normal day or delivery time,” Hannah replied. “Maybe he stopped to visit with Meg.” Hannah hoped this budding relationship wasn’t going to interfere while Meg was swamped with work.

Hannah heard raised voices as she got closer to the snack bar and Samantha continued toward her cottage.

“Come on, Meg. Help me out. I have this whole order for The Chowder House that I’m stuck with after last night. Gavin was my biggest customer.”

“And you made it very clear that The Fishy Dish is your
smallest
customer. How do you expect me to absorb this much extra fish?”