A Killer Cake (10 page)

“I just brewed a fresh batch,” Mom said with
a smile. “Come on in, and I’ll pour you some.”

Sheriff Croft rubbed his hands together to
ward off the chill, and then he smiled. “I don’t mind if I do.”

We went inside, and Mom started flipping on
all of the overhead lights. I wondered when she’d had time to make
coffee, but then I realized that she’d had to come back outside
once she got the soap, water, and the rag, so she must have flipped
the coffee pot on as she’d walked past it. I grabbed three cups,
but Mom shook her head. “None for me. I get jumpy when I start
drinking caffeine this early. I’m going to go into the kitchen and
get things started. Cleaning off all of that paint put me a little
behind.”

“That’s fine,” I said, and then I returned
one of the cups to the stack. I grabbed the pot, topped off two
cups, and then delivered them to the counter where the sheriff was
sitting.

He took a sip, and then smiled. “That’s
awfully good.”

“Have you been up all night?” I asked.

“Do I look that rough?” he responded. “I got
up an hour ago, but it’s true that I was up late last night. The
work of a county sheriff never seems to get finished, and the lines
between days and nights sometimes blur together more than I’d
like.”

I decided to cut the man a little slack. I
had an inkling of how hard he worked, but I was certain that,
overall, I didn’t have any idea what the entire scope of his
responsibilities were.

“So, who have you and your grandfather been
speaking to about Roy Thompson?” he asked after another sip.

“Well, we did have a little luck,” I
admitted. “But first, tell me what happened when you spoke with
Loretta Jenkins. Do you think she’s telling the truth about Roy
being her father?”

“As a matter of fact, I couldn’t find her,
though it wasn’t from lack of trying. She wasn’t at her apartment,
and I didn’t have any luck tracking that cell phone number down,
either. Are you sure that she gave you the right number?”

“I’m positive,” I said. “Honest, I didn’t
just make her up. Greg and Martha saw her, too.”

“I’m not doubting that someone came in here
claiming to be Roy’s daughter, but I can’t do anything about her
until I actually see the woman myself. If she comes back here
today, give me a call, would you?”

“Of course,” I said. That was odd. Where was
Loretta all of a sudden?

“So, who’s the next name on your list?” he
asked after he took another sip.

“We’re also looking at the mayor from Molly’s
Corners,” I said.

The sheriff looked startled to hear that
name. “Hank Mullins? Why in the world would he kill Roy
Thompson?”

“They had a business deal that went bad,” I
said.

“And you know that how, exactly?” he asked,
and then he quickly changed his mind. “Forget I asked. I’m not at
all sure that I want to know. How much would it take for Hank to
kill him? From what I’ve heard, the man’s richer than most.”

“He claimed that it was pocket change for
him, but we don’t believe him.”

The sheriff shrugged. “I’ll look into it.
Thanks for the tip.”

“Do you have
anything
that you can
share with me?” I asked. “After all, I just spilled my guts to
you.”

He shook his head. “Sorry, but I’m really not
ready to share yet.”

“Maybe not, but our deal still stands,
Sheriff. Come noon, Moose and I are free of our promise.”

“I wanted to talk to you about that,” Sheriff
Croft said hesitantly, and I didn’t like the tone of his voice.

“Hang on one second. Don’t try to renege. We
had a deal.”

“I know that, and I’m not going back on my
word. I just wish the two of you would give me more time before you
tackle those four. I’ve got a hunch that one of them is about to
crack.”

“That’s easy, then,” I said.

“I don’t like how quickly you agreed to my
request,” the sheriff said, and then he took another sip of his
coffee.

“I didn’t agree to anything,” I countered.
“Just tell me who you think is going to confess, and we’ll go after
the other three the second it hits twelve o’clock noon.”

“That’s not going to happen, Victoria,”
Sheriff Croft said with a frown just as Mom came back out
front.

He stood, laid a dollar by his cup, and said,
“That’s some mighty fine coffee, Melinda. Thank you kindly.”

“That’s why we’re here,” she said with a
smile, and the sheriff left.

“What was that all about?” my mother asked
me.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Young lady, I know that expression. What did
he just say to you?”

I finally admitted, “The sheriff came by to
ask us for too big a favor, and I had to turn him down.”

“That explains the frown,” Mom said. “Are you
sure you didn’t have any choice?”

“No,” I said flatly. “He prides himself on
his word being his bond just as much as we do, and he’s not about
to break it. Maybe next time he won’t be so quick to promise
something that he might regret later, but for right now, our deal
stands.”

“I’m not happy when you and your grandfather
are at odds with the police,” Mom said as she took the sheriff’s
cup and put it in a plastic tub behind the counter.

“I’m not all that fond of it myself, but I
really didn’t have much choice. Every hour that Roy Thompson’s
murder goes unsolved is another hour folks might think that we were
responsible for it. We can’t stay in business if we don’t have any
customers, and if people around here begin to believe that we
poisoned that cake ourselves, there won’t be a diner much
longer.”

“I know you’re doing what you have to for The
Charming Moose,” Mom said as she lightly touched my arm. “Did I
hear someone mention something happening at noon?”

“You did,” I said. “Moose is asking Martha to
cover for me then so we can continue our investigation, but I’ll be
here this morning for my regular shift.”

The front door opened, and our early morning
waitress, Ellen Hightower, came in, looking more disheveled than
normal. “Sorry I’m late, but my car wouldn’t start. I’m afraid that
it’s on its last legs.”

“Is it really that serious?” I asked her. We
depended on Ellen to see us through our breakfast and lunch times,
and if she couldn’t get to the diner, she wouldn’t do us much
good.

“Don’t worry; Wayne at the car repair place
is going to look at it for me today. I think he’s kind of sweet on
me, so he promised me that the bill wouldn’t be too bad.”

“I didn’t know the two of you were going
out,” I said.

“We’re not, but that doesn’t keep him from
asking.”

“You really should go out with him,” Mom said
as she smiled. My mother believed that everyone should have someone
in their lives, and she wasn’t shy about sharing her opinion. “He’s
really cute.”

Ellen blushed a little. “I know, but with my
kids, it’s tough to make time to actually have a personal life of
my own.”

“If you wait until they’re all gone, you’ll
miss out on too many opportunities,” Mom said. “Tell you what. Go
ahead and make a date with the man, and I’ll provide the
babysitting services, free of charge.”

“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Ellen
said.

“You didn’t ask. I volunteered, remember?
Come on. What do you have to lose? Like the man said, you don’t
have anything to fear but fear itself.”

“FDR wasn’t talking about dating when he said
that,” I reminded my mother. Somebody had to rein her in.

“Well, it applies to this just the same.” She
turned to Ellen and asked, “When’s the last time you went out on a
real date?”

“There hasn’t been anyone since Luke left
me,” she said. “I wouldn’t even know how to go about it. What am I
supposed to do, ask
him
out?”

“You could do it if you wanted to, but I have
a hunch that if you just smile at him, he’ll ask you again.”

“I don’t know,” Ellen said, but I could see
the hint of a smile as she ducked her head down.

“Just don’t close any doors. That’s all I
ask,” Mom said as the diner’s front door opened and a handful of
construction men came in, laughing and teasing each other about
something.

As Ellen greeted them and followed them to
their table, I told my mother, “You never give up, do you?”

“What? Can’t a gal do a friend a favor? Ellen
deserves some happiness in her life.”

“How can you be so sure that Wayne can
deliver it?” I asked her.

“Come on. He’s a sweetheart, and you know it.
They belong together; they just don’t realize it yet.”

“You are a romantic through and through,
aren’t you?” I asked.

“I don’t deny it, and what’s more, I wouldn’t
have it any other way,” she said. “If I hadn’t gone after your
father, you wouldn’t be here today, so I wouldn’t knock my romantic
tendencies if I were you, Victoria.”

“Funny, I always thought that Dad was the one
who pursued you,” I said.

“He thinks so, too, so let’s keep this just
between us.”

Ellen approached with the orders, and Mom
took them from her with a smile. As she walked back into the
kitchen, she started humming, and it took me a second to figure out
what the song was. Then I finally got it.
Love Is in the
Air
. I wasn’t sure how appropriate it was, but I had to give my
mother credit. When it came to romance, she never gave up.

The rest of my first shift was relatively
uneventful, and I for one was happy about it. The investigation was
just getting fully underway, but I was already beginning to resent
the time it was taking away from my shifts at the diner. I had the
wackiest schedule imaginable, on from six to eight, eleven to four,
and five to seven, but it suited me, and it disrupted my entire
life when it didn’t work out that way.

I got home after my first shift in plenty of
time to make my husband some breakfast, and we even managed to
enjoy a little hot chocolate afterwards in our backyard enjoying
our new propane fire-pit before we both had to go in to work. It
was with some reluctance that we went to the diner just before
eleven, and if I’d known what Moose was planning to do, I might
have skipped my middle shift entirely.

Unfortunately, though, I didn’t have the gift
of foresight, so when Greg and I walked into the diner a little
before eleven, my grandfather jumped on me before I even had the
chance to take off my coat.

Chapter 8

“It’s about time you two showed up,” Moose
said as he ambushed me from behind the register. Greg looked
bemused by it all, but he didn’t say a word.

“I’m not due in for another two minutes,” I
said as I took my coat off. “Besides, we promised the sheriff that
we wouldn’t start our investigation until noon, so we’ve got
another hour. What’s the rush, anyway? Martha’s not even here
yet.”

“She’s in the kitchen chatting with your
mother,” Moose said. “I heard about the little bit of excitement
you had around here earlier.”

“Has she been telling you about Ellen and
Wayne?” I asked.

“No. What are you talking about, girl?”

“Mom is playing matchmaker again,” I
said.

“I’m talking about someone marking up our
diner,” Moose said. “There aren’t many ways to read a bloody X on
the window, are there?”

“So, you don’t think that it’s random,
either?” I asked, relieved that at least one person agreed with
me.

“How could it be? We started investigating a
murder, and the next thing you know, someone’s targeting us.”

“There’s another explanation, you know,” Greg
said.

“I’d like to hear what it might be,” Moose
said. “And don’t give me any nonsense about it being random teens,
because I don’t believe it.”

“My cake killed Roy Thompson. Maybe someone
marked the diner as a place where no one should take a chance
eating.”

I rubbed my husband’s shoulder in support.
“That’s nonsense, Greg. Nobody blames you for what happened to
Roy.”

“It’s hard to tell just
how
many folks
around here believe it, Victoria.”

“It’s true, my boy,” Moose said. “You were
the wronged party here.”

“Well, it didn’t work out too well for Roy,
either, did it?”

I was about to say something when my mother
came out of the kitchen. She smiled at my husband the second she
saw him. “There you are. The kitchen’s all yours. I wasn’t sure you
were coming today, Greg.”

“Have I ever let you down, Mom?” he asked,
and she smiled broadly. It had taken her some time and persuasion
to get him from Mrs. Nelson to Melinda, and even longer to modify
that to Mom, but she’d finally managed to do it. The funny thing
was that Dad was still Mr. Nelson to him, and I doubted that there
was anything that would ever change that. I didn’t know how my
father felt about it, but if he minded the formal honorific, he
never said anything about it, at least not in my presence.

“And I know that you never will,” she said as
she patted his cheek gently. After greeting Greg, Mom turned to her
father-in-law. “Moose, will you leave the poor girl alone? I heard
her tell the sheriff this morning that you couldn’t start digging
until noon, and you shouldn’t be tempting her to start early.”

“Melinda,” he said with a smile, “why don’t
you worry about romance and leave murder to me?”

She shook her head and laughed. “I see
someone’s been talking behind my back.”

“And in front of it, as well,” I said.

“Are you all talking about me?” Ellen asked
as she cleaned a nearby table.

“Whatever gave you that idea?” I asked with a
smile.

She just laughed it off, waved the rag in the
air, and then she went back to cleaning.

“Since you’re here now, I’m off,” Mom said,
and kissed my cheek as she went past me.

“None for me?” Moose asked her with that
devilish grin of his.