Plum Deadly (21 page)

“Maybe you remember the things you want to remember, like everyone else,” Maggie said with a smile. “You were lucky anyway. Nothing bad happened. You won’t be able to use it to pay for the electric wires being cut, but at least no one was hurt. It could’ve been much worse. I’ll call first thing tomorrow and get a new policy. I’ll also check to make sure the other shops have up-to-date policies.”

“You’re such a help.” Aunt Clara hugged her. “I’m glad you came home and were able to help me sort through everything. I should be right as rain before you have to leave again.”

Maggie gazed at her dear face, losing all her doubts about taking Claudia’s offer. “I’m not going to take the job. I’m staying here and helping you run Pie in the Sky.”

“Nonsense! Just because I’m a little scattered and behind? That’s no reason not to live your own life, Maggie Grady. Don’t use that as an excuse not to get back in there and fight for what you want.”

Maggie considered her words. “It’s not an excuse and this is my life now, Aunt Clara. This is what I want to do—for you and for me.”

Tears crept into Aunt Clara’s green eyes. “I wanted to hear that from you before I gave you this.”

“What’s this?” Maggie looked at the legal documents she’d given her. “Partnership? Are you sure that’s what you want?”

“I’m sure. I’ve spent more time running Pie in the Sky with a partner than without. If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right.”

“Okay.” Maggie signed the papers that made her half owner of the pie shop. “I guess that’s it, partner.”

The two women hugged, then Aunt Clara said it was too late to celebrate anymore that night. “We have to get up early, you know. Those pies don’t make themselves.”

Maggie turned off the lights downstairs and locked both doors. She was tired, but she knew sleeping would be hard with all the questions running around inside her head. Too bad there weren’t a few more answers.

• • •

M
aggie was getting
used to staying up half the night going through her mother’s treasure trove of clothes and personal items. It helped her think.

She finally sorted all the clothes into two piles, one for washing and one for dry-cleaning. She’d start that project in the morning.

She found a wonderful old locket with an enameled rose on the front and a picture of her mother as a child in one frame, her grandmother in the other.

It was comforting thinking back to the women in her life. Her grandmother had been a professor of economics at Duke, one of the first female professors to teach there.

Maggie knew she didn’t have the right temperament to teach. But since becoming an adult, she had thought occasionally about having a child or two of her own.

The man who would be part of that equation had always remained faceless. She’d never been serious enough about any man to consider him suitable for the task.

Was Ryan that man?

She shook herself and yawned. She must be overtired. She hadn’t known him long enough to even think about that.

What she knew about him, she definitely liked. It was a start.

She finally turned off the light and went to sleep, dreaming about pie and spilling hot coffee on customers.

• • •

P
rofessor Simpson was
their first customer the next morning. He came in with a colleague right after Maggie got off the phone with the insurance company.

She breathed a sigh of relief knowing the pie shop was covered again. The same agent who’d worked with Uncle Fred was still at the insurance agency. He was glad to be involved with the shop again.

The professor was all smiles, very courtly with his much younger friend. The lady couldn’t have been more than twenty. She seemed very shy and sweet.

It made Maggie smile to see them together. She wondered if, despite the age difference, they were having a romantic relationship.
Funny how it is when you have a special person in your own life. Romance is always on your mind.

Garrett brought them a few copies of revised
Durham Weekly,
fresh off the press. He apologized for botching the first article about Lou’s death.

Maggie read the article between cutting slices of pie and pouring coffee. There was a huge difference between what Ryan had written and what his father had done.

Still, she was in a forgiving mood. She assured Garrett that everything was fine. She was over her initial anger and disappointment. That had only been because she’d thought Ryan had written about her that way. Once she’d learned it wasn’t him, she’d felt a lot better. It was nice that some people would read the new story and possibly see her in a different light.

“I hope we’ve got that settled now.” Garrett winked at her. “I’d like to pay my respects to your aunt before I go.”

Maggie wasn’t surprised. Maggie had noticed he seemed to like her aunt. “She’s in the kitchen. I’m sure she’ll be glad to see you.”

It amazed Maggie that she could see something of Ryan in the article about Lou and the other stories that filled the paper. He had a lighter, sometimes almost whimsical style compared to his father’s terse, dry one. She’d never known a writer before and hadn’t realized there was so much personality in the words they wrote.

Ryan came into the pie shop. She smiled and waved at him as she freshened Professor Simpson’s coffee. He didn’t look her way, as though his mind was miles away. Maggie went to meet him with a coffee cup. She wanted to thank him for the story he’d written.

The shop was packed with students studying for exams when he came in. Other patrons were enjoying their Chocoholic Cream pie, the flavor of the day. Maggie had already helped Aunt Clara make a dozen of them.

“I met Sarge finally,” Ryan told her in the kitchen area where he’d dragged her away from listening ears. He looked surprised to see his father there, continuing with his news anyway. “You’re never going to believe who Lou spoke to before he died.”

W
ho?” Maggie put
on gloves to take pie shells out of the hot oven for Aunt Clara to fill. Her aunt was mixing chocolate pie filling and had Garrett whipping cream. He was wearing one of her green aprons.

“Stan Isleb,” Ryan announced with a flourish. He nodded to his father.

Maggie shrugged, disappointed with those results. “Well, Stan
was
his brother-in-law and he worked with him. It might be odd if he hadn’t spoken to him.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Ryan continued in an excited voice. “Guess where he was?”

“Stan or Lou?”

“Maggie!”

“All right.” She closed the oven door. “Where was one or both of them?”

“They were both right here in Durham.”

She had to agree that was a surprise. Aunt Clara even put down her whipped cream bag that Garrett was filling. She used it to make the rosettes on top of the cold chocolate pie.

“So Stan was here, in Durham, before Lou died?” Maggie said.

“Yes. He didn’t come here because Lou died.”

“And why was he here?” Aunt Clara asked.

“Sorry.” Ryan’s smile faded. “I don’t know that yet. It’s very interesting, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Maggie agreed. “Why would Stan have been here
before
Lou died?”

“How can we find out the answer to that question?” Aunt Clara added.

“I’m not sure about that.” Ryan glanced at his father.

“Don’t look at me.” Garrett finished filling the whipped cream bag. “I never did that kind of digging for a story when I wrote the paper. I think you should leave that part to the police. You can always point them in the right direction. That’s what I used to do.”

“We could ask Stan what he was doing here,” Aunt Clara suggested.

“After his behavior at the hotel, I’m not planning to ask him anything,” Maggie said.

“I don’t mind asking him. We’ll have to be careful, if
we’re considering him a person of interest,” Ryan cautioned. “We don’t want to spook him and have him run back to New York. That could mean all our work would be for nothing. It would be a lot harder getting NYPD to listen to us.”

“Maybe we could sneak into his hotel room and look through his drawers.” Aunt Clara blushed then went on. “Well, not his drawers. That would be too personal and I doubt he keeps any information there. Maybe his file cabinets.”

Garrett chuckled. “Clara, you’re getting a little racy!”

Maggie smiled. “I think you mean his laptop. He’s bound to have one with him. Or at least his assistant has one.”

“Where does this leave Albert Mann in the equation?” Aunt Clara asked.

“He’s probably not involved at all.” Ryan shrugged.

“That’s hard to believe.” Aunt Clara shook her head and started putting rosettes on the pies.

Maggie agreed with Ryan. Despite Albert Mann seeming ruthless enough to do whatever was needed to take the property, she didn’t believe he was involved in Lou’s death. Long hours of thinking about him had made up her mind about it.

She could see why Aunt Clara would want him to be the killer. Frank had made it clear he couldn’t do anything to stop Mann’s harassment. It was scary, even if it wasn’t life threatening. If he’d killed Lou, he’d go away for a long time. No more harassment.

Maggie didn’t think that was going to happen. Maybe there was some other way to convince Albert Mann that they were serious about not selling the property. It might help if
he knew Maggie was a full partner now. Like Angela, he seemed to be basing a lot of his assumptions on Aunt Clara being alone.

“I think we may be barking up the wrong tree on that one,” Ryan said. “I’ve looked through everything I could find on Mann Development. I’m sure they want this property. On the other hand, Mann has got so much going on right now that it seems to me that he could wait without much effort. I couldn’t find any evidence that he needs the money from the medical office building project. I think he might be a sore loser. But not a killer.”

Maggie added, “He’s in a different spot from the person who took money from the bank and doesn’t want anyone to know he did it. Once that person’s name is revealed, his career will be over and his life will be ruined.”

Ryan nodded. “You’re thinking Stan Isleb, aren’t you? That’s what I’m thinking.”

“Why else would he be here before Lou had a chance to have his press conference? Jane likely told Stan about Lou looking to find the real thief. He probably wanted to talk shim out of it.” Maggie sliced pie. “Lou might even have confronted him with it. Who knows? Maybe he thought he could convince Stan to turn himself in. Once Stan knew he was going to be found out, he had to kill Lou before the press conference.”

“Makes sense to me.” Aunt Clara shrugged. “I still wish it was Albert Mann, though. I’d rather see him behind bars where he can’t keep pestering us.”

Maggie frowned, glad that they had a suspect, but uncertain how to proceed. “How are we going to get proof that
Stan was here, had access to the arsenic, and gave it to Lou? How can we get Frank to check those things out?”

“We can’t,” Ryan said. “We need something else. Stan being here before Lou was killed is circumstantial. The cell phone records might help, but I don’t want my friend to lose his job. That’s what would happen if the police got their hands on these records. We have to find something that will make them research the cell phone records on their own.”

“Something like what?” Maggie glanced out the door to see how her customers were doing.

“We might be able to convince the desk clerk at the hotel to confirm that Stan has been there for longer than he told you,” Ryan said. “It would be a start anyway.”

“Or you could ask him,” Aunt Clara said again.

“I have to go freshen coffee and tea,” Maggie said. “I’ll be right back.”

“I have to go anyway.” Ryan stopped her. “I have a meeting with the mayor. He wants to talk about his reelection. Can you have lunch with me?”

“Not unless you want to eat pie,” Maggie replied. “We’re still really busy after being closed. How about dinner?”

“Sounds good.” He looked at Aunt Clara. “You should come too, Clara.”

“I don’t think I should.” Her aunt frowned. “You two go on. I’ve got a good book waiting for me at home.”

Garrett stepped close to Aunt Clara. “I’d consider it an honor if you’d allow me to take you out for dinner. We could go out by ourselves, you know. I don’t think we need anyone’s permission to do so.”

Aunt Clara was sweet in her acceptance. “That would be wonderful, Garrett. Thank you for asking me.”

“Okay.” Ryan smiled and lightly kissed Maggie goodbye. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

She calculated the time between closing the pie shop at six and going home to get dressed. “That should work. See you then.”

Garrett said his goodbyes and apologized again for the newspaper article. “I’ll also pick you up at seven, Clara, if that’s all right?”

“That would be fine.” Aunt Clara’s face was flushed—Maggie couldn’t tell if it was from the heat from the oven or the idea of a date with Garrett.

Ryan and Garrett left together. Maggie filled her customers’ tea and coffee requests and rang up a few whole pie sales.