The Chocolate Moose Motive: A Chocoholic Mystery (9 page)

For a moment I thought Chip was going to land on the floor in the middle of the fire tools, but Joe—the natural athlete—caught him and kept him upright.

The whole thing made such a crash that I thought Chip must have been injured. I guess Sissy did, too, because she gasped out a question. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m okay. Sorry to be so clumsy.”

Sissy stepped forward and took Chip’s arm. She led him into the dining room and turned her back to Joe, the state trooper, and me.

If she was looking for privacy, of course she didn’t get it. She and Chip were just around fifteen feet from us, and we could hear every word they said.

“Now listen, Chip. You were Buzz’s best friend, as well as his cousin, and I know you were important to him. I want to be friends with you. Friends! But this is not a good time.”

“Sissy…”

“I’m not kidding, Chip. The Warner Pier gossip mill has me down as a murderess, thanks to Helen and Ace. Now Ace is trying to get custody of Johnny. The last thing I need is for
people to think I’ve taken up with my husband’s cousin and best friend just five months after he died.”

“Come on, Sissy. No one who knows you could—”

“Most people don’t know me personally. They go by what they hear. Don’t be naive, Chip! Maybe we could see each other, as friends, a year or two down the road, after Ace and I have settled our problems. After the cops—please God!—have arrested some tramp or other for Buzz’s murder, then we can be friends again. But right now, please get out of my life!”

She stalked back into the living room and dropped into a chair—not the couch. Sissy wasn’t giving Chip a chance to sit beside her.

Even after that, Chip argued that his only goal was to protect Sissy. She ignored him, and Joe told him he’d better leave. He finally did.

After Chip was out the door, Joe made a feeble joke. “That guy doesn’t seem to speak English very well.”

Sissy held her head in her hands. “He’s unbelievable. He has a reputation among his friends as quite a ladies’ man. I guess no woman ever turned him down before.”

“Well, you’ve got witnesses,” I said.

“I might need them.” Sissy shot a glance at the state cop, now sitting quietly in a chair against the wall.

“Did you ever go out with him?”

“No! I’ve never been alone with him in my life. Unless he came by to see Buzz and had to wait on him or something. Now he’s bringing me flowers?”

“Maybe he thinks he has to make a move before anybody else does,” I said.

“Nobody has shown any interest in me.” Sissy shook her head. “I’ve always tried to be nice to Chip because Buzz liked him. When Ace sent Buzz away to military school, Chip was
there, too. He was a year ahead of Buzz, and I guess he really helped him out. Stood up for him. But Chip’s never been my favorite person. He sucks up to Ace too much.”

I handed coffee around then, and we waited. After about a half hour, another car came. This one edged past the cars sitting in the lane and went around to the back, where Joe and I and our visitors normally park.

Joe looked out the kitchen window. “It’s Hogan,” he said. “They must be nearly finished down at the beach.”

Hogan came in and accepted a cup of coffee; then he sat down opposite Sissy.

“I know you’re exhausted,” he said, “but I have to get a preliminary statement. Then you can go home.”

Sissy looked relieved. I took myself off to the dining room, but Hogan didn’t tell me to go into another part of the house, so I didn’t. Joe kept his seat near Sissy. Though he doesn’t do criminal law, Sissy had consulted him. I could almost see him thinking he’d better stick with her, even if his status was informal.

Hogan’s questions weren’t onerous. He just got Sissy to tell her story. There was no way I couldn’t hear the interview.

Sissy said she’d received a text message from Helen Ferguson at about seven thirty p.m. She showed her cell phone to Hogan, and he read the message out loud.

“‘Sissy! I’ve stumbled across something crazy about Ace. It ought to stop him trying to take Johnny away from you. You need to know this! Meet me at Beech Tree Beach at ten o’clock, and I’ll tell you. Don’t bring anybody. If Ace finds out I’ve blabbed, I’ll be in trouble.’”

Hogan put the phone down on the coffee table. “I’ll have to keep your phone for a while, Sissy. Had you ever received a text message from Helen before?”

“No! In fact, back when I saw Helen occasionally—before Buzz died—when Ace and I were still speaking—she told me she didn’t know how to use the text feature of her phone. She was sort of proud about it.”

“Yeah, us old folks don’t trust technology. Did you have any doubt that the message was from Helen?”

“Not really. Of course, she’d used the one bait I couldn’t resist. I’d do anything to get rid of Ace’s threat to take Johnny away from me.”

“I understand.”

“I talked to my grandmother, and we agreed that I should go. Helen was in a position to know a lot about Ace, and I couldn’t miss a chance at learning something that would help me end this custody battle. So I gave Johnny his bath and read him a story. He went off to sleep long before I left the house.”

“When did you leave?”

“About nine fifteen.”

“What time did you get to the beach?”

“Maybe ten minutes to ten. Helen’s car was in the parking lot. I guess it’s still there.”

“We towed it,” Hogan said. “Did you go straight down to the beach?”

“I went straight to the stairs. Since Helen’s car was there, I thought she was, too.” Sissy took two deep breaths before she went on. “I stopped at the top of the stairs and called to her. Then I flashed my flashlight around. Helen was lying in the sand at the foot of the stairs.”

“Did you go down to her?”

“Oh, yes! I thought maybe I could help her. But I couldn’t find a pulse. And her hand was limp when I touched it. When I saw the angle of her head”—Sissy held a tissue to her mouth and blinked rapidly—“I was careful not to move her.”

“Did you call the cops right away?”

“I tried. But my cell phone didn’t have any service, so I thought of Lee and Joe.”

“How did you know where they live?”

“Somebody told me. Lee? Maybe Lee mentioned it. Or somebody told me they lived right across Lake Shore Drive from the Garretts. Dick Garrett brought a big fish out for my grandmother to mount.”

“There are houses closer to the beach. Did you think of going to one of them?”

“I was afraid to. I mean—well, I was scared.”

“Why? Did you think Helen hadn’t had an accident?”

“I didn’t know what had happened to her. I guess I was scared because—well, partly it was all this gossip, I guess. You know, people thinking I killed Buzz. And here I’d found a body. I didn’t want it all to get started again.”

“I can understand that, Sissy. I can understand that fear making you run away, maybe denying you’d found Mrs. Ferguson’s body. But why would that make you afraid to go to the closest house?”

Sissy’s head drooped. “You’ll think it was stupid.”

“Try me.”

“I know it was just my imagination running away with me.”

“Try me.”

Sissy sighed again and looked at Joe. He nodded encouragingly.

She burst out suddenly. “I thought there was somebody on the beach!”

Hogan blinked solemnly. “Well, it’s a public beach.”

“I know! But this guy just stood there. I thought he was watching me.”

“Did you speak? Call out?”

“Yes. I yelled, ‘Help!’ But he didn’t come toward me. He sort of faded into the trees over on the left. I got scared! I dropped Helen’s hand, and I ran back up the stairs, and I jumped in the car and locked the doors.”

Her face looked agonized. “And now I’m not even sure there was anybody there! But after that, I was afraid to go to a strange house. I came here because I didn’t think Joe and Lee were likely to kill me! I ran off and left poor Helen lying there because I was scared, and maybe I could have helped her!”

I wanted to give Sissy a big Texas hug and tell her not to blame herself. That must have been a terrifying experience. Who could have been there, lurking in the dark? I wondered if Hogan and his crew had found any trace of the person. Or had it been Sissy’s imagination? At any rate, she didn’t need to feel guilty about running for help.

Hogan nodded reassuringly. “At that point, Sissy, I’m sure there was nothing to be done for Helen, so you don’t need to beat yourself up over leaving her.”

She reached for a tissue. “I know. I’m sure she was already dead. I just hate to admit I was such a coward.”

“Running away from a man who hangs back in the shadows—after you’ve just found a body—doesn’t seem cowardly to me. It sounds smart.”

“But I wasn’t sure there was anybody there.” She looked at Hogan. “Did you find any tracks?”

“We’ll have to look again in the daylight. Now, Sissy, I’d like to keep your car until tomorrow. Joe? Can you and Lee take Sissy home?”

We agreed, of course. We all piled into Joe’s truck, even though we had to sit three abreast. At least nobody had to crane his neck to talk.

“I can’t believe Chief Jones doesn’t think I’m involved in Helen’s death in some way,” Sissy said.

“Lawyers are taught to be cautious, and we try to get that across to our clients,” Joe said. “So I’m going to warn you to be careful when you talk to Hogan again.”

“He doesn’t seem to think I had anything to do with it, Joe.”

“He doesn’t have a cause of death yet.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the medical examiner hasn’t looked at Helen’s body. He should be able to tell if she was really killed by a fall down those stairs, or…” Joe paused. “Or if there was some other factor.”

“What else could have happened?”

“Just as an example, somebody could have killed her elsewhere, then brought her body there and tossed it down the stairs. Somebody could have pushed her down them, then broken her neck manually. Hogan doesn’t even know the time of death yet.”

“Surely she hadn’t been dead very long when I got there. Her hand was warm when I touched it.”

“They’ll have to check the body temperature, the stomach contents. A bunch of stuff. So, Sissy, speaking as your lawyer—sort of—be careful. None of these carefree remarks you tend to make.”

“You mean, like pointing out what a pain in the neck Helen was, and that I thought she was the main source of gossip about me?”

Joe shook a finger. “That never happened. Okay? If someone asks you specifically, don’t lie. But you don’t have to volunteer information.”

“Okay.” Sissy’s voice sounded subdued. “But I sure wonder what Helen wanted to tell me about Ace.”

I wondered about that, too. After all, Ace could be a prime suspect in her death. If he discovered that she had some sort of evidence against him, something that would stop him from getting custody of Johnny—even linking him to Buzz’s death—well, it would sure be logical for him to take steps to shut her up.

It was hard to picture Ace killing his own son.

But it was not impossible. I’d been around detectives enough to know that the people closest to the victim—spouse, parents, brother, sister, friends—are considered the obvious suspects. And certainly Ace and Buzz had apparently been at odds for years. They’d quarreled about Buzz’s career choices, about his marriage to Sissy, probably about other things. Maybe their disagreements had grown from name calling to violence.

Sissy was silent until we neared the turn into Moose Lodge’s drive.

Wildflower had obviously turned on all the lights, because the place was ablaze with electricity. I once again marveled at the view Warner Pier had of Wildflower and Sissy. They were believed to be poverty stricken, but Wildflower’s home was comfortable, if not luxurious, and all those lights had cost a mint to install.

Wildflower had heard us coming, of course, and she was standing on the porch of the larger cabin. And there were two people with her, a man and a woman.

“Oh, damn,” Sissy said. “Nosy and Rosy are there. They can scent trouble a mile away. And if there isn’t any around, they bring it with them.”

Chapter 9

The two people with Wildflower were both short and round, and both had white hair. The woman’s hair was short and wavy, and the man had a bald pate with a fluffy halo.

After Sissy got out of the truck, Joe would have driven off immediately, but Wildflower motioned to us, so we both got out. I recalled Wildflower’s remark about Joe—saying it had been a mistake for Sissy to consult him—so I didn’t know what to expect. She apparently had a very poor opinion of lawyers in general and might even object to Joe in particular.

She hugged Sissy and answered her questions about Johnny. “He’s sleeping like an angel,” she said. “Tiptoe in and take a look.”

She watched Sissy go into the house, then turned to us. “I’d like to introduce our closest neighbors, Roosevelt and Nona Reagan.”

Hmmm. So “Rosy” was the man, and “Nosy” was the wife. We all shook hands and made polite noises. I pulled my jacket around me. July nights can be cool in west Michigan.

Wildflower spoke again. “Thank you for helping Sissy tonight.”

“We weren’t much help,” Joe said. “She may need a criminal
lawyer. Our agency deals only with noncriminal matters. If money is a problem—”