Janet McNulty - Mellow Summers 03 - An Apple a Day Keeps Murder Away (2 page)

“Here’s my card,” said the man handing me his business card, “Now, I want you to go straight home and stay there.”

“I didn’t catch your name,” I said.

“Calvin Jeffers,” he replied.

“How did you know I was in there?”

“Tiny called me.”

Well, this was news. Tiny knew a lawyer personally. And a damned good one at that.

“Long time ago he saved my life.
I’ve owed him ever since. And don’t worry about payment. That’s been taken care of.”

Next thing I knew the air got knocked out of me.
I stumbled back a bit as I stabilized myself. Jackie had me in a death grip as she hugged me. “Mel, you’re all right!”

“Yeah,” I said.
“Where’s Greg?”

“Tiny had to tie him up,” said Jackie.

“What?”

“Well,” said Jackie, “When you went missing, Greg started tearing up the town looking for you.
When he learned you were being held by the police, he nearly stormed the station.

“Tiny had to do something.
He had a hard enough time getting you bailed out. I don’t think he could have gotten him out too.”

“I’ll leave you two girls alone,” said Calvin, “Take her straight home.
And, Mel, if the police come around asking questions do not answer them. Call me instead.”

Calvin left us on the sidewalk.
I found myself wanting to know what Tiny saved him from to make them best buds. Jackie grabbed my arm and steered me to her car. She helped me into the passenger seat. She even buckled my seatbelt for me and made me feel like an infant.

“Mel, you look horrible,” said Jackie as she got in the car.
She put it into gear and pulled out of the parking lot.

She kept
the movement of the car steady since I was still a good shade of green. Within twenty minutes we had arrived at the apartment. Jackie helped me out of the car and into the building. She plopped me on the couch and put a blanket on me.

“Mel,” said Jackie with worry in her voice, “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “I can’t remember anything. I’m going to take a shower.”

Since I was still a bit unstable on my feet, Jackie helped me in and out of the shower.
The last thing she needed was for me to fall and hit my head. Especially since I had been missing the last two days.

Once cleaned up, Jackie put me in a pair of pajamas.
Her message was quite clear: I wasn’t going anywhere. Now that she had me back home, she was keeping me home. I couldn’t blame her. I must have given her a heart attack the entire time I had been gone.

“I’m going to rest,” I said.
I still felt a bit woozy.

“OK,” said Jackie.
She handed me some pillows and tucked me in on the couch. Her mothering of me began to concern me. Had I worried her that much?

I curled up on the couch and instantly fell asleep.
The first moment of peace I’d had since waking up in that motel room.

I
awoke to whispering voices around me. Slowly, I opened my eyes and glanced around. Jackie and Greg sat in the kitchen talking in hushed voices. I couldn’t make out anything they said.

“Well, there you are sleepy head.”

I jumped. I knew that voice. Rachel. She sat in the chair across from me with her arms folded.

“Mel,” Jackie came into the living room followed by Greg.
“What’s wrong?”

“As though they couldn’t guess,” said Rachel.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her.

“Who are you talking to?” asked Greg, concerned.

“Me, dummy,” said Rachel.

“They can’t see you, Rachel,” I informed her.

A light bulb went off in her head as she remembered that she had to allow them to see and hear her.
Instantly, she materialized out of thin air. “I’m back!”

Somehow, that little outburst didn’t encourage them.

“You,” said Greg, “I thought you had gone.”

“I did,” replied Rachel, “And now I’m back.”

“Why?” asked Greg.

“I heard Mel had gotten into trouble. Murder suspect. Now that is quite an accomplishment.”

“Must have heard it on the spirit hotline,” muttered Jackie
in a sarcastic tone.

“Something like that,” said Rachel.
“We have all sorts of things that we communicate on: Ghoster, Haunted-Space, and Spiritbook.”

“What?”

“Hey, you living people have your social networking sites and we ghosts have ours,” said Rachel.

“I thought you’d be in heaven or something,” said Jackie.

“If that’s where I was, that isn’t what we call it,” said Rachel. “Look the names are different in the spirit world. And who needs Hell when you living folk are good at making your own here?

“But enough of this philosophy stuff. Mel, here has a problem, I received word about it and thought I’d help.
After all, she helped me when I needed it.

“So, what do you remember?”
She directed that last bit at me.

“Nothing,” I replied.

“Well, that narrows it down,” said Rachel. “So, I guess the roles have reversed. Now, you’re the one with amnesia. Sucks don’t it.”

Rachel turned to Jackie and Greg.
“OK you two fork it over.”

“What?”

“Information. Come on, I can only do so much,” said Rachel.

“Mel went missing two days ago,” said Jackie, “We found her car parked in front of the Candle
Shoppe, but no Mel. No one saw her when she got off of work.”

“And you remember nothing,” Rachel said to me.

“I woke up in a sleazy motel covered in blood and holding a knife,” I said. “Other than that, nothing.”

“How did you feel when you woke up?” asked Rachel.

“Dizzy,” I replied.

“Drugged,” said Rachel.
“Sander’s Motel I bet.”

“How’d you know?”

“It’s the crappiest place in town,” replied Rachel. “So what do the cops know?”

“Nothing,” said Greg.

“Sounds about right,” said Rachel. “They never managed to solve my murder. I doubt they’ll be able to solve this one. What have you done so far?”

“Nothing,” I said, “I was told by my lawyer and Detective Shorts to keep a low profile.”

“Sounds about right,” said Rachel, “Well, it’s a good thing you know a ghost.” She popped out of the room leaving us alone.

“We’re screwed,” Greg commented.
Jackie swatted him across the shoulder and pointed at me. “But not that badly,” he added.

Sorry, pal, but the damage’s been done.
Besides, I began to think that I was screwed as well.

Just then Tiny walked in.
He carried a basket in his hands. “I found this outside your door,” he said.

I thought we had agreed to keep the door locked,” I said the Jackie.

“Locked doors don’t keep me out,” said Tiny. He handed me the basket. “It has your name on it.”

Puzzled, I took the basket.
Inside were about five apples and a note. I opened the note. It was written in magazine cut out letters. It read:

They say an apple a day will keep the doctor away.

“What is it?” asked Jackie when she noticed the troubled expression on my face.

I handed her the note.
She read it and got the same puzzled expression.

Tiny snatched the note.
“Do you know what his means?”

I shook my head.

“What happened to you?” asked Tiny.

This was probably the twentieth time I’d been asked that.
Now I really wished I knew. “I don’t know.”

“She can’t remember,” said Jackie.

“We searched everywhere for you,” said Tiny. “My gang and I almost tore the town apart. But we couldn’t find you.”

“She turned up at Sander’s Motel,” said Greg.

“Sander’s Motel!” Tiny whipped out his cell phone. “Sombrero, go to Sander’s Motel. That’s where Mel was found. You and the boys go have a chat with the manager.” He flipped his phone closed. “That’s a bad place,” he said to us, “Even my boys and I don’t go there. They’re more of a pay by the hour place.”

“What should I do about that note?” I asked.
It didn’t say who it was from.

“Toss it,” said Greg.

“We should give it to the cops,” I said.

Tiny’s brow twitched.
He hated dealing with the police.

“Calvin said I should cooperate with them fully,” I said.

Tiny opened his cell and dialed a number. “Calvin? Tiny. Someone sent Mel a note….No, it’s in cutouts from a magazine….See ya.” He closed his phone again. “He’ll be right over.”

Calvin showed up soon after hanging up with Tiny.
I wondered if he floored it to get here. He seemed very interested in the note. We had put it back in the basket of apples.

“Where is it?” he asked as he came in.

I showed him the note and the basket with the apples. He used a handkerchief to grab it. He read the note carefully and then placed it and the basket in a plastic bag being very careful not to leave prints. The whole thing seemed pointless to me. We all had already touched it. But I remained silent. Calvin must have known what he was doing.

“I’ll take this to the detective,” said Calvin, “You did the right thing by calling me.”

Calvin picked up the bag and headed for the door. He paused when a thought struck him. “You have no idea who could have sent you this?” he said.

I shook my head.

“Do you have any ex-boyfriends?”

“No,” I replied.

“Girlfriends?”

“No.”

“I have to ask,” Calvin told me when I got testy. “Can you think of anyone who might have sent you this, or would want to see you go away for murder?”

I thought for a bit, but no one came to mind.
I generally tried to be friends with everyone. I couldn’t imagine who would drug me, kidnap me for a couple days, try to frame me for murder, and then send me a basket of apples. “I’m sorry,” I said, “But I can’t think of anyone.”

“How about Jeremy?
” said Greg.

I had forgotten about Jeremy.
Don’t know why. He had stalked me for about a week trying to get me to go out with him. He even got in a fistfight with Greg. Then, he just disappeared. Or at least I hadn’t seen much of him, not that I cared. But I really didn’t think he would be capable of this.

“Jeremy
?” Calvin asked with interest.

“He was some guy a few months back that couldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” I said.

“But he threatened you,” said Greg.

“He threatened you?” asked Calvin.

“He just said that ‘it wasn’t over’ the last time I saw him,” I said. “But I haven’t seen him since.”

“That little twerp disappeared,” grumble Tiny.
“My men and I spent weeks looking for him so that we could have a little chat.”

Calvin gave Tiny a disapproving look.
“Your way of talking to people is going to land you in jail.”

Tiny huffed and flexed his muscles.

“And swearing that she was with you for the past two days when any idiot can clearly see that she wasn’t was stupid,” scolded Calvin. “Such an act could get you arrested on obstruction to justice.”

“The cops would have to catch me first,” said Tiny.

“I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that,” said Calvin. “I will take this to the police,” he held up the bag with the apples, “And you all stay out of trouble. Let the cops handle this one.”

Calvin shut the door behind him.
His footsteps pounded down the corridor as he headed for the stairs.

“Sounds like he knows about your habit of sleuthing,” said Tiny.

I went into the kitchen heading straight for the refrigerator. My stomach grumbled fiercely and I realized that I probably hadn’t eaten much the last few days. I opened it up expecting to find it overflowing with food. Empty. There weren’t even crumbs.

“Jackie,” I called, “Didn’t you go shopping?”

“Uh, I had other things on my mind,” said Jackie. 

“You want food?
I’ll get you food,” said Tiny.

“I have some stuff in my fridge,” said Greg.

“Not that healthy crap,” protested Tiny. “The girl needs real food.”

The smell of
a BBQ wafted through our open window. My neighbor had his grill going on his patio. Tiny smiled in a way that told me I wasn’t going to like his solution to solving my food problem. He went outside and helped himself into my neighbor’s apartment.

My neighbor yelled.
Arguing ensued with a bunch of words that shouldn’t be repeated. Then, it got quiet. Too quiet. I was about to check it out when Tiny came back.

“Guess what,” he said, “We’
re invited to some BBQ. Come on.” Tiny led us into my neighbor’s place. He shakily handed us some plates and told us to help ourselves.

I had just bitten into a juicy burger when a loud banging outside in the hallway caught my attention.
I could tell that it came from the door to my place. Dreading who it could be, I put my food down on a nearby coffee table and went into the corridor. The banging sounded again, this time more insistent.

I peeked around the edge of the doorway.
An old lady in her sixties stood outside my door dressed in a frilly jacket, decorative scarf, and a feather hat. She looked like a walking neon sign. “Aunt Ethel?!”

“Mellow, darling,” greeted my aunt.
“I’ve come for a visit.”

“Oh shit.”