Plum Deadly (19 page)

“We can at least publish a letter to the editor,” Ryan said. “The electric company shouldn’t get away with this. They had a big rate increase earlier this year.”

Aunt Clara promised to write the letter. She offered Garrett pie and coffee. He smiled and took a seat.

Now that Ryan wasn’t the enemy, Maggie told him about their walk home with Frank, their surprise visit from Albert Mann, and seeing Mark Beck in the backseat of the car.

“The lawyer had enough nerve to come in this morning like it was nothing?” Ryan asked.

“He didn’t know I’d seen him in the car,” Maggie said. “He didn’t think he’d done anything wrong anyway. He made it clear this morning that Mann is going to get this property, one way or another. To him, it’s only another business deal.”

“So you think he could be involved in what happened to Lou?” Ryan was eager to get to the heart of the story again. “People like that can go to extremes to get what they want.”

“I don’t know. I thought about it again when I saw the
wires out back. They were definitely cut.” She showed him the picture she’d taken with her cell phone.

“You still think Lou was killed to cover up what he planned to announce?”

“I think so—although murder still seems a far cry from sending in spies and cutting electric wires,” Maggie said.

“Your insurance should cover what the electric company wants for repairing that,” Garrett said.

Aunt Clara brought out Popular Peach pie for both men and Maggie got them a cup of coffee.

Sheepishly, Aunt Clara said, “That might not be possible.”

“What might not be possible?” Maggie asked.

“I don’t think I remembered to renew the insurance for the shop,” Aunt Clara said. “I’m pretty sure I renewed the insurance on the house. I’m not so sure about the pie shop.”

Maggie frowned. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take a look at it later.”

Aunt Clara sat down with them. “I’m sorry. I remember thinking that nothing ever happens here, so why pay so much money to protect the shop? I guess I should have realized that’s why your uncle always carried insurance on Pie in the Sky.”

Ryan changed the subject. “The question is, can we prove Albert Mann and his cronies are responsible for the electric wires? If so, we could get Frank in on this, after what you told me happened last night.”

Maggie shrugged. “I don’t know. We can’t prove who did it. Mark was here, but I didn’t see him go in back and cut the wires. You know that’s what Frank will say.”

“Maybe the police could help anyway.” Garrett slurped some coffee and ate another piece of pie.

“How?” Maggie asked.

“Albert Mann was there trying to intimidate you into selling the property last night.” Garrett wiped his lips with his napkin. “The police might be able to expand on that after they hear about the vandalism. Maybe offer you some protection. You could even sue for damages, if you can prove Mann’s involvement.”

Ryan looked at Maggie. “It’s worth a try. Maybe they could check into some things that would be hard for us to find. There might be fingerprints on the electric box, or they could see if Mark had a text or phone call from Albert telling him to cut the wires.”

“Okay. I’m game, I guess.” She smiled at him. “Can you take some time and come with me?”

“I think we should all go.” Aunt Clara glanced at her watch. “We won’t have many other customers today after the outage. It’s already four thirty. Let’s lock up and go down there. We can straighten up here before we go home.”

It seemed like a good plan. Frank was even at the police station when they arrived. He showed them into his office after shaking hands with Garrett. It seemed the two had known each other for a while.

“What can I do for you?” Frank asked when they were all seated at his desk.

Since Frank knew Garrett, it was silently decided that Ryan’s father should tell him about their theory. Frank listened and nodded as he doodled on a pad of paper.

When Garrett was finished, Frank said, “I can tell you’ve
thought this out and I know it seems to make sense, but it’s unlikely that Albert Mann would go to such lengths to get the property. I know he and his friends have been annoying. Doing something more physical probably isn’t on the roster.”

“Did the mayor call you about last night?” Maggie wondered if that was why he was refusing to look into the problem.

“No. I told you, I’m not worried about that. What you’re talking about is more than a hard sales pitch. I need more proof before I can do anything investigate it. Was there a threat from this lawyer or from Mann himself that something of this nature would happen if you didn’t agree to sell?”

“No,” Aunt Clara responded. “Albert’s always been a perfect, though annoying, gentleman. And Mark has always been a polite customer.”

Frank shrugged. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do.”

Garrett wasn’t happy with that. “While we’re here, anything new on the Goldberg killing?”

“No. We’re not making much headway, sad to say. I still think our best bet for finding Louis Goldberg’s killer is sticking to the announcement he planned to make, revealing the thief at the bank. NYPD is going over his business records, including his laptop from the bank. Once they get back with us, we should have a better idea of what happened that brought him down here.”

“Well, we appreciate you hearing us out anyway, Frank.” Garrett got up and shook his hand. “You’ve seen for yourself that Mann is trying to push Mrs. Lowder into selling her
property. I hope you won’t wait too long to look into that problem.”

“As far as I know, there’s no proof Mr. Mann has done anything except offer money for the property. If you have evidence to the contrary, I’ll be glad to look at it. Or if Mann gets physical with Mrs. Lowder. Otherwise, my hands are tied legally. You know how it is.”

Garrett agreed that he understood. Maggie tried to be the first one out of Frank’s cramped office. Before she could get out, he asked her to stay for an extra moment without the others.

“Don’t say anything without a lawyer,” Ryan whispered as he left.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

Frank closed the door behind the others. He asked Maggie to sit down again.

“I’d rather stand, if you don’t mind.”

He nodded and sat down behind his desk. He opened a file on his desk. “Look, Maggie, there’s been more information about your friend being poisoned. We know now where the poison came from.” Frank gave back her cell phone. “We won’t need this anymore. I’m sorry this has been so hard on you and your aunt. Sometimes it’s hard to find the truth.”

Maggie was really happy with that development, though she tried to keep her expression blank as she put the phone into her pocket.

“I was wondering what you could tell me about the whole embezzlement case,” Frank continued. “If you could take a moment and write down exactly what happened and the people you think could be involved, I’d appreciate it.”

“May I send you an email?” She was conscious of the people waiting for her and not sure this was something she should do until she had a chance to think about it.

“Sure.” He reached to hand her his card. “Whatever you can tell me could help.”

Maggie already had one of his cards but she took it anyway. “I’ll try to come up with something.”

“This doesn’t mean I want you and your friends out there to go around trying to figure out what happened to Mr. Goldberg. People get hurt that way.”

She couldn’t promise to stop since she had no intention of it. She smiled and said, “Thanks for the warning.”

“I know that’s what you’ve been up to,” he continued as she opened the door to leave. “You can be arrested for obstruction of justice, you know.”

Maggie closed the door between them.

Ryan, his father, and Aunt Clara were all waiting outside. They hurried out of the police station together, the other three waiting eagerly for Maggie to tell them what Frank had said to her.

She told them what Frank had said and what he’d asked for.

“Does this mean we’re giving up trying to figure out who killed Lou?” Ryan asked.

“Of course she’s not,” Aunt Clara said. “He was a close friend. We’re still going to sort it all out.”

Aunt Clara and Maggie agreed to meet Ryan and Garrett at the Bombay Grill in an hour after they’d finished cleaning up and closing the pie shop.

Despite their rocky start, Aunt Clara and Garrett
seemed to be getting along very well on the way back from the police station, walking in front of Maggie and Ryan, talking about everything under the sun.

“It looks like nothing spoiled in the fridge while the power was out.” Aunt Clara changed the subject, ignoring her niece’s teasing about her and Garrett when they were alone.

“You can’t sidetrack me after the way you almost threw me into Ryan’s arms,” Maggie said. “You and Garrett have a lot in common. You both opened businesses at about the same time. You’re both alone now.”

“Have you had a chance to look into that insurance policy for the shop yet?”

“I get it. You want to talk about my boyfriend, but you don’t want to talk about
your
boyfriend. Unfortunately, you don’t have a choice. If you meddle in someone else’s life, you have to expect the same in yours.”

“I haven’t kept up with things the way I should have,” Aunt Clara continued on her own subject. “When your uncle died, everything changed.”

Maggie hugged her, despite wearing plastic gloves, forgetting her teasing. “I’m so sorry. You should’ve told me.”

“It wasn’t like it happened all at one time,” Aunt Clara explained. “It was more like a slide, I suppose. I kept making pies and running the shop. Everything else slid away from me.”

“Well, we won’t let that happen again.”

“What if the bank wants you to come back when they figure out you weren’t the thief ?”

“I don’t care,” Maggie said. “I’m not leaving again.”

“Don’t be silly, honey. You have your own life to lead, your own dreams to follow.”

“I followed my own dreams already and look where it got me.” Maggie squirted cleaner on a tabletop and rubbed a cloth over it. “I’m going to find a new dream right here, Aunt Clara. I don’t need to go anywhere else.”

As if the universe was trying to test her resolve, Maggie’s cell phone rang. It was her old friend Claudia Liggette with a job offer.

• • •

T
his is a
fabulous opportunity,” Claudia gushed. “Pack your bags and get here as soon as you can.”

“I don’t think I’m interested.” Maggie cleaned another tabletop as she glanced at Aunt Clara, the cell phone on speaker.

“Of course you’re interested. I got your email. No one sends a pathetic email like that if they aren’t desperate for a job. I’m telling you—this is the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Claudia had promised the same thing about the bank job when she’d convinced Maggie to take it ten years ago. She’d been right, of course, but Maggie was looking for something different now. At least she was pretty sure she was looking for something different.

“Things have changed,” Maggie said.

“I know. I heard about Lou Goldberg. What a tragedy that was, huh? I know his sister. She said he was in some trouble. Who knew it would kill him?”

Maggie frowned. “When did she tell you he was in trouble?”

“One—maybe two—weeks ago.” Claudia paused and shifted gears. “Never mind them. This is your ticket home. You could be back on top with this one.”

“Did she say what Lou’s problem was?” Maggie persisted.

“Are you listening to me? I’m offering you the job of a lifetime and all you’re asking me is questions about the dead man who fired you.”

“I know—”

“Take a day,” Claudia finally said. “Twenty-four hours. It won’t wait for longer than that. Think it over. I’ll call you back. This is it, kid.”

Maggie could imagine Claudia shaking her mane of tawny blond hair, huge gold earrings flying around her heavily made-up face. She was a headhunter with good contacts around the world. She was also a good friend.

As she put her phone back into her pocket, the life she’d had flashed before her.

Instead of talking quietly with potential bank customers in exotic, elegant surroundings, she was wearing plastic gloves and cleaning tables in her aunt’s pie shop. She was only in her thirties. She’d be a fool not to take Claudia’s offer.

“What did she say?” Aunt Clara had taken off her apron and was heading for the front door.

Maggie put away her cleaning supplies and made sure the back door was locked. “She has a job for me.”

“How did it sound?” Clara asked in an excited voice. “This could be your chance, honey. You shouldn’t let it pass you by.”

“I don’t think so.” Maggie turned off the lights in the shop. “I don’t think I want that life again.”

“If this is about me,” Aunt Clara walked out of the shop, “don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I always have been.”

Maggie looked at her aunt in the glow from the overhead light. She was five-foot-nothing, with a big smile and her weird fringe of red hair around her impish face. She’d seen pictures of her aunt when she was younger. Clara had been a pretty girl with soft features and flowing red hair.

Maggie knew her aunt would never be fine again running the pie shop on her own. Either she had to stay and help her or she had to convince her to sell the property and retire. There seemed to be no other way. The decision had to be made now.