A Killer Cake (17 page)

“Can you prove it?”

“My mother told me that it was the truth, and
I have no reason to doubt her,” Loretta said a little
defensively.

The sheriff smiled slightly, but then he
quickly buried it. “I understand how you must feel, but I’m looking
for something a little more concrete than that.”

“What do you want, a birth certificate or
something? I can tell you right now that my mother left that entry
blank.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of a DNA
test,” Sheriff Croft said.

“I’d be happy to submit to one,” Loretta
said. “Bring it on.”

The sheriff jotted something down in his
notebook, and then he asked, “Tell me the last time you spoke with
the victim.”

“Could you not call him that?” Loretta asked.
“He was a normal person, just like you or me.”

The sheriff shrugged. “Okay, when did you
talk to Roy?”

“Actually, I never spoke to my father,” she
said.

“If it helps any,” I said from a distance,
“she told us the same thing earlier.”

The sheriff gave me one withering look, and I
shut right up.

“But you were seen near him yesterday at the
celebration,” the sheriff said. “As a matter of fact, we have
visual evidence of it.”

“You don’t have a picture of the two of us
talking,” Loretta said, “because it never happened. I tried to
approach him, but I lost my nerve at the last second.”

“Tell him about the cake,” I said.

Again, I got a dirty look, and I decided to
try to really focus on not saying anything else for the rest of the
interview.

“What about the cake?” Sheriff Croft asked
reluctantly.

“He ate some of it before he sat down,” she
said. “Does that mean anything?”

“I don’t know yet,” he said.

“Am I free to go now?” Loretta asked. “I’ve
told you everything I know.”

“Oh, I have a few more questions,” the
sheriff said with a smile that I doubt he felt. “It’s better to get
these over with right now, don’t you agree?”

She looked at Steve, who nodded in agreement,
though it was clear he was reluctant to agree. “Fine, go on and ask
away,” Loretta said.

Twenty minutes later, Sheriff Croft flipped
his notebook closed. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

“That’s it? We’re finally finished here?”

“Unless something else comes up,” he said. To
my surprise, the sheriff didn’t head for his cruiser, but instead,
he walked directly to Steve.

“Where did you do your time, and what were
you in for?” he asked Steve.

He told him, and then he added, “Sheriff, I
paid my debts. I know where I went wrong, and I’m not about to go
back in. Not for anything.”

“Where were you yesterday between nine and
one?” he asked.

“I was here working,” Steve said. “If you
don’t believe me, feel free to go ask my boss.”

“Will he tell me that you were here the
entire time? What about your lunch break? How long do you get?”

“Yesterday two other guys were out sick, so I
didn’t even get to eat my sandwich until two. I worked on a dozen
cars, right out there in plain sight.”

“We’ll see,” the sheriff said as he closed up
his notebook and then headed into the shop.

“Will your manager back you up on your
alibi?” I asked.

“You bet he will,” Steve said with the first
hint of a grin we’d seen out of him. “He was on my case the entire
time, and I seriously doubt that he went five minutes all day
without yelling at me to hurry up. I was pretty steamed about it at
the time, but it worked out, didn’t it?”

“You have an alibi, but it doesn’t do me any
good,” Loretta said. “I was there when he was murdered.”

“Don’t worry. They’ll clear you,” he said as
he pointed to Moose and me.

I didn’t know when he’d developed so much
confidence in us, but it wasn’t in my best interest to argue him
out of it. “We’ll do our best,” I said.

Loretta clearly looked unhappy about the
close grilling she’d just gotten. “That man thinks I did it. I just
know it,” she said.

“He treats everybody that way. Trust me,
you’re not his only suspect,” I said, trying to reassure her, but
Moose sent me a warning glance that told me I should drop it.

Loretta wasn’t interested in that, though.
“Really? Like who?”

“The police don’t share everything with me,”
I said, and I saw her hopeful expression start to fade.

“That’s what I figured,” she said.

“I have one more question for you myself,” I
said.

Loretta looked as though she were at the end
of her rope. “Give me a break, will you? I’m sick of answering
other people’s questions.”

“Just one,” I said.

“Fine. What is it?”

“You had an appointment with your father last
night. What was it about?”

“What makes you think I had an appointment
with him?”

“We saw his schedule,” Moose said.

“It wasn’t the first one I made,” Loretta
said. “I cancelled twice before. I kept losing my nerve, you
know?”

“What did you say it was about when you
called?” I asked.

“I made something up, okay? What does it
matter now? The man’s dead. He’s kept the last appointment that
he’s ever going to.” Loretta glanced into the tire store and saw
that the sheriff was talking to another man, presumably the owner.
“Listen, I’m not hanging around here so your friend can change his
mind about locking me up.” Loretta started to leave, and then she
glanced back at her boyfriend. “Are you coming, or what?”

“I’ll be right with you,” Steve said, and
then he turned to me. “If you need anything, and I mean anything,
no matter how rough it might be, call me here and leave a message.
I’ll get in touch with you.”

“What exactly are you proposing?” Moose
asked.

“Hey, I can make people cooperate who aren’t
in the mood to change their minds. It could come in handy, and I’m
not squeamish.”

I’d heard enough of that. “Thanks for the
offer, but I think we’ll be fine on our own,” I said.

“Steve, come on,” Loretta barked at him, and
he shrugged.

“There’s no talking to her when she’s like
this,” he said as he trotted after her. Coming into this encounter,
I had been under the impression that Steve was some kind of evil
influence over Loretta, a man who might be capable of taking things
into his own hands, but he said he was trying to change, and I
believed him. It might be easy enough for the homicide to be pinned
on him if he’d been at that fair, but his alibi was solid. Loretta,
on the other hand, was a study in contradictions. She claimed to be
in mourning over her lost father, but that hadn’t affected her
self-preservation instincts one iota. There was a hint of
tenderness in her, but I had a hunch that there was a great deal
more of the pragmatist in her when it came to being suspected of
murder.

Chapter 12

“What do we do now?” I asked Moose after we
left the tire place. The sheriff hadn’t even come back to speak
with us after he confirmed Steve’s alibi. So much for earning a
little gratitude for arranging the meeting with Loretta.

“There’s not much else we can do,” Moose
said. “I say we go ahead and start back toward the diner.”

I stood there thinking about the
possibilities, and then I said, “I think we should head back to
Molly’s Corners instead.”

“Any reason in particular?” he asked me.

“I want to take another swing at the mayor,”
I replied.

Moose grinned at me as he asked, “Do you mean
that figuratively, or are you going to actually punch him?”

“We’re not there yet,” I said. “I’m just
frustrated by the man’s refusal to see us today. We both know that
there was no meeting earlier. He just didn’t want to have to deal
with us.”

“I can’t imagine why not,” Moose said with a
smile. “After all, doesn’t everyone like to be considered a murder
suspect?”

“I know firsthand that it’s not all that
pleasant an experience, but we have a right to talk to him, don’t
we?”

“I don’t know about a right to do it, but it
would be nice if we could have another chat and ask him about his
finances, I’m willing to admit that much. Victoria, do you really
think that it will do us any good? After all, I haven’t met a
politician yet who didn’t think that lying was their fallback
position.”

“You don’t mean that, do you?” I asked.

“No, of course not. I can be cynical at
times, but even I’m not that bad.” As we got into his truck, he
said, “I don’t have anywhere else I need to be if you don’t. Let’s
go see what our mayoral friend is up to.”

“I wouldn’t call him our friend,” I said.

“Neither would I. It was just a figure of
speech.”

When we got to the town hall parking lot in
Molly’s Corners, I spotted a car parked in the lot and veered
toward it.

“Where are you going?” Moose asked.

“This is the mayor’s car,” I said as I
approached. Even though it was a chilly day, when I touched the
hood of the car, it was still warm. The sun didn’t account for it
either, since the day was decidedly overcast. “The hood’s still
warm,” I said.

“So? That just means that he’s been out.”

“I knew I’d seen this car before. Moose, this
is the car that followed us to Laurel Landing. I’m sure of it.”

He frowned at me, and then my grandfather
looked at the car again, as though it had its own secrets to share
with us. “Victoria, there must be a thousand cars like this
registered in the state of North Carolina. The only thing
distinctive about it is the fact that we’re looking at it right
now.”

“It could have been him, though. Are you at
least willing to admit that much?”

Moose shrugged. “I suppose so. If it’s true,
what does it mean, though? Why would the mayor refuse to see us,
and then follow us to another town?”

“If he’s guilty of murder, he probably wants
to know what we’re up to in our investigation,” I said.

My grandfather seemed to ponder that for a
few moments, and then he said, “I suppose it’s possible, but even
it if it’s true, how does it help us?”

“Moose, if he’s the killer, we can focus more
of our attention on him.”

My grandfather shook his head. “That’s an
awfully big if, Victoria, and you know it.”

“Maybe so, but he fits the bill as a
potential killer, doesn’t he?”

“So do all of our other suspects,” Moose
reminded me. “I’m not willing to declare him guilty yet and be done
with our investigation without a whole lot more proof.”

“Okay, but I’m planning to keep an eye on
him.”

“I would expect nothing less of you,” Moose
said.

Unfortunately, if the mayor was indeed in his
office, we weren’t going to be able to speak with him, at least not
today.

“If we can’t see him right now, then I’d like
to make an appointment for the first thing tomorrow morning,” I
said when Helen Parsons told us that we weren’t allowed access that
day.

She tapped a few keys on her keyboard, stared
at the screen, and then said, “I’m sorry, but he’s booked up for
the rest of this week and halfway into next. The soonest I can get
you in to see him is next Thursday at four in the afternoon. Shall
I put you down for that time?”

“No, thank you,” I said.

Moose smiled at Helen as we left, but it
didn’t do either one of us a bit of good.

Out in the parking lot, I said, “I’m sorry.
It looks like we came here for nothing.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” my grandfather said.
“In my opinion, it’s more telling that he wouldn’t see us than that
warm car hood.”

I brightened a little. “Does that mean that
he goes to the top of our list?”

“He’s close enough to being there already on
his own,” Moose said. “Why don’t we discuss this on our way back to
the diner?”

“That sounds good to me,” I said.

As we drove, Moose said, “There’s one good
thing about all of this driving. It gives us a chance to talk about
our list of suspects.”

“I don’t know. I kind of enjoy just hanging
out with you,” I said.

“Right back at you,” Moose said. “So, should
we get started?”

I took a deep breath, and then I began
assessing our list of our suspects, and how likely it was who the
killer really was. “First off, we have to seriously consider Sylvia
and her son, Asher. We know that at least one of them was at the
festival, and if we can believe Sylvia, they were together the
whole time.”

“Do we know for a fact that Asher inherits
Roy’s fortune now that he’s dead?” Moose asked.

“I don’t even think
they
know for
sure, but it’s not a bad guess, if Roy believed that Asher was his
only child.”

“And I wouldn’t put it past Sylvia to poison
her ex-husband in order to insure her son’s fortune. Loretta’s
thrown a wrench into those plans, but as far as we know, neither
one of the them knew about her before.”

“As far as we know is right,” I said.
“There’s another reason one of them could have killed Roy. They may
have wanted to knock him off before he could change his will to one
more favorable for Loretta. That gives them another motive.”

“If you look at it another way, it gives
Loretta and Steve a motive as well. We just have Loretta’s word
that she and Roy never spoke, but what if she talked to him and
told him that she was his daughter? If Roy rejected her, she might
kill him out of spite, or pragmatically, before he could write
something formally that she was disinherited. Plus, even if Steve
can prove that he wasn’t anywhere near Jasper Fork, we know for a
fact that Loretta was there.”

“Wow. So we have pretty solid motives, and
opportunities, for three of our suspects,” I said.

“And we’re not even finished yet,” Moose
said. “Let’s not forget the two men with business ties to Roy
Thompson. It doesn’t really matter how rich Mayor Mullins and James
Manchester both might be, nobody likes getting cheated.”