Tragic Toppings (22 page)

“I have an idea,” Grace said.

“Let’s hear it.”

“You could tell folks you are friends with Penny. It’s true.”

I considered that approach, and then said, “It is, and I mean to keep it that way. It’s bad enough that I’m going after her mother. I’m not going to drag our friendship into it, too.”

“It was just a thought.”

“Then keep thinking,” I said with a smile.

She pulled up in front of Friendly’s, the name of the combination establishment, and said, “Let’s just ask someone and see where that gets us.”

We walked into the store together, and I was preparing my story when I spotted Gina herself sitting at the luncheonette counter alone. I motioned to Grace to browse around while I had a conversation with Penny’s mother by myself. It might go over a lot better if she didn’t feel as though we were tag-teaming her.

Grace appeared to get it all with one look, and she changed tracks and started searching through postcards on the desk by the mail clerk’s window.

“Excuse me, is this seat taken?” I asked.

“No, it’s free,” she said, so I slid next to her. I pretended to study her for a moment, and then I said, “I know you. Penny and I are friends. You’re her mother, aren’t you?”

That brought a smile to Gina’s face. She was stoutly built, had short dirty-blond hair, and wore thick glasses. From the looks of her, I had no trouble seeing her hoisting Tim’s body into the air, but I had to banish that thought. I had to keep an open mind as we spoke, or I’d tip my hand; I just knew it.

“Are you a nurse, too?” she asked me.

I could lie, or I could tell the truth. Since Penny would find out about this conversation sooner or later, I decided to come clean with her from the very beginning. “No, ma’am. I run Donut Hearts.”

“Penny’s mentioned you,” she acknowledged. “It’s Suzanne, right?”

“Suzanne Hart,” I said as I offered her my hand.

“What brings you to our little hamlet?” she asked.

It was time to decide how I was going to pursue my line of questioning, and I didn’t have a great deal of time to consider it before I answered.

Finally, I came to the conclusion that when all else fails, tell the truth, so I did.

“Actually, I’m here looking for you.”

Gina looked surprised by that response. “Me? Whatever for?”

“I was good friends with Tim Leander,” I said softly. Just because I was about to ask her some potentially embarrassing questions, there was no reason for her neighbors to hear our conversation.

Gina paled significantly at the mention of his name. “Sure, I knew Tim, but then again, I know a lot of people.”

“I understand you were closer to him than that.” I hated pinning her down like that, but what choice did I really have?

Gina looked flustered, but she was saved, at least for the moment, by a young woman wearing an apron who approached us from the kitchen. She slid a plate in front of Gina, and then asked, “Are you okay?” As she did, she gave me one wicked look.

“I’m fine, Chrystal,” she said. “This is Suzanne. She’s a friend of my daughter’s.”

“What can I get you, Suzanne?” the waitress asked, though it was clear she wasn’t all that interested in serving me at all.

There was a club sandwich in front of Gina that looked delicious. “I believe I’ll have one of those.”

“And what about your friend?” Chrystal asked.

“My friend?” What was she talking about? Had she put Grace and me together so quickly?

“The woman you came in with,” Chrystal said as she pointed to Grace, who was doing her best to make herself invisible.

“Would you like a club sandwich, too?” I turned around and asked Grace. “You can join us.”

“I just need to buy these postcards first,” Grace said as she grabbed a few at random.

Chrystal said, “You can pay with your meal.”

Grace sat beside me, and away from Gina.

Gina said, “I’d really like to have my lunch in peace. Can we discuss this later?”

“How about after we finish?” I asked. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have a lot of time.”

“I was thinking more like next week,” Gina replied.

I didn’t doubt for one second that she wanted to postpone it as long as she could. I tried to smile as I said, “Don’t worry; it won’t take long. We can do it right now, if you’d rather go ahead and get it over with.” I said the last bit a little louder than I needed to.

“After lunch,” she said firmly.

Gina ate her club sandwich without any conversation, and our sandwiches arrived while she was still eating. It was good, but none of us wanted to linger over our meals.

“Where should we talk?” I asked Gina as I paid for the sandwiches. I’d offered to get hers as well, but she’d declined.

“Let’s go to my house.”

“Is it far?” I asked.

“I’m just across the road and down the block. It’s close enough that we can walk.”

“That sounds good.”

Gina looked at Grace and asked me, “Does she have to come, too?”

I was saved from answering when Grace spoke up. “Not at all. Find me when you’re ready to leave, Suzanne.”

After Grace left, Gina seemed more comfortable.

Outside, the air was getting a bit chilly, and I pulled my jacket a little closer.

As Gina and I walked to her house, we talked. “Have you known Penny long?” she asked.

“For a few years now,” I admitted. “I’m a big fan of hers.”

I saw Gina smile. “So am I.”

“I would hope so.” I hated pushing this woman into talking about something she’d rather forget, but I had no choice. “Gina, I don’t want to cause you any more pain than I have to, but we need to talk about Tim.”

“I’ve already spoken with the police,” she said. It appeared that our chief of police was on the ball after all. “Do I really have to go over it all again?”

“It would help me understand more about what happened to him,” I said. “I can’t make you talk to me, but put yourself in my place. I’m the one who found his body, and he was close enough to my front porch to give me nightmares.” That much was true. Every time I closed my eyes, a brief flash of Tim clouded my dreams before I managed to fall asleep. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to wipe that vision out and replace it with one of him smiling and laughing as he worked on one project or another.

“I understand,” she said finally. “How can I help you?”

“When did you find out he was dating more women than just you?”

“The day after you found him,” she said sadly. “I was with Penny near your shop, as a matter of fact. She tried to get my mind off it by pulling me into a used clothing shop near your donut stand.”

I didn’t mind her calling my store a “stand,” but I knew Gabby would have a fit if she heard her place referred to as a used clothing store. She was very proud of the reputation she’d built up over the years, and Gabby wasn’t very shy about defending it if she felt she needed to. More importantly, Gina’s story matched what I knew to be true personally. I’d overheard her and her daughter discussing Tim’s murder, but she had no way of knowing that I’d been there. That gave her a point for honesty.

“You must have been shocked when you found out he was seeing other women.”

“That doesn’t begin to express how I felt,” Gina said, her footsteps suddenly slowing on the sidewalk. “I thought we were in love. I was, at any rate.”

“Didn’t he tell you about anyone else?” Tim Leander as a player still didn’t fit my image of the man.

“He made a few casual references to going out with other women, but I had the feeling at the time that he was just trying to get me jealous.”

I chose my next words carefully. “And did it work?”

Gina nodded slightly. “Sure, I took the bait. I wanted him all to myself. I’m not afraid to admit it. But I didn’t kill him, Suzanne.”

She’d shown a flash of anger when she’d said it, which she’d quickly brought under control, but I’d seen it, and wouldn’t forget it. I wouldn’t have guessed the woman I’d been talking to moments before would be capable of a surge of jealousy, but I would have been wrong. Gina must have realized how it must have sounded to me. She continued, “I would have broken up with him if I’d had the chance, but I never would have hurt him, not like that.”

“Not under normal circumstances, but you were angry. You just admitted it.”

To my surprise, she smiled. “Suzanne, I was angry, not homicidal. I’ve had my heart broken before, and it could easily happen again. If you’re not willing to put yourself out there, how will you ever find love again?”

It was a lesson I was glad Jake had learned, and Momma was struggling to master. I’d been burned by Max, but I mostly blamed him, not all men, as a general rule.

“Are you going to the service tomorrow?” I asked, wondering what her answer would be.

“I was going to miss it,” she admitted, “But the more I think about it, I believe that would be a mistake. I need some closure, and this will be the only way I’m going to have any chance of getting it. You’ll be there, won’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. “He was my friend.”

Gina nodded, as though the words gave her some comfort. “And in the end, I believe that he was mine, too. Would I have liked for things to have been different between us? Of course I would, but there’s nothing anyone can do about that now. He’s gone, and I’m not about to lose my last chance to say good-bye to him.”

Gina stopped walking and pointed to a nice ranch house with flowers hanging from the front porch. “This is my place. I’d invite you in, but I’ve got a thousand things to do. We’re finished, aren’t we?”

I had one more question to ask, one that I’d been saving for the end. It was now or never.

“Gina, do you happen to remember where you were the night Tim died?”

She frowned at me a moment before she spoke. “I do, but I can’t prove it. I was here alone, watching an old movie on television.”

I had to push a little harder. “Did you happen to talk to anyone, or did anyone come by? Perhaps you spoke with Penny on the phone.”

She shook her head. “No, I tried to talk to my daughter, but she was working a double shift that night, and no one else came around or called.”

That didn’t match something else I’d been told. Gina started to climb the steps when I said, “Funny, that’s not what I heard. Someone told me that you had a date with Tim that night, and that it came up at the last second.”

“Who on earth told you that?” she asked as she turned to face me.

It was time to put it out there and see what she had to say for herself. “Betsy Hanks said that she had a date with him that night, but he broke it to go out with you, instead.”

Gina wasn’t at all happy about that. “Then Betsy Hanks is a liar as well as a fool. It’s simply not true. Now if you’ll excuse me, I really do need to go.”

Gina was inside before I could say another word.

That was certainly interesting.

One of Tim’s lady friends was lying to me.

But which one?

That was the real question, but unfortunately, at the moment there was no way to prove it either way.

*   *   *

I found Grace sitting in her car on Center Street in front of the hardware/post office/diner when I got back. She was deep into a trashy tabloid magazine when I opened her car door.

“Doing a little light reading?” I asked.

“Hey, I was bored, and this was the best thing I could find, sad to say. As soon as I get home I’m going to stuff a few books under my seat in case it happens again. So, don’t keep me in suspense. What happened with Gina?”

“She denied killing him,” I said simply. “Why don’t you start driving back to April Springs? We can chat on the way back home.”

“That sounds good to me. I’ve had about all I can take of this town, and I’ve got to get to Charlotte for my second lunch of the day.”

“Sorry about that,” I said. “I hope I don’t make you late. This was my fault. We started talking, and I just lost all track of time.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Grace said. “I just ate half my club, so I’ll have a light bite when I get there. My boss will be so impressed with my restraint on her expense account, I might even get a raise. What happened?”

“It’s not good. I want to believe that she’s innocent, but Gina doesn’t have an alibi, and she claims Betsy was lying about her having a date with Tim the night he was murdered.”

Grace took all of that in, and then asked, “Who do we believe?”

“At this point I’m not sure,” I said. “We need to do a little more digging.”

“Oh, good, I like snooping around,” she said. “I’m just sorry I have to bail out on you this afternoon.”

“Don’t worry about it at all. I’ll just tag along with Jake and George while they’re working, if they’ll let me. I’ve been meaning to see how Stu and Orson react under more of Jake’s scrutiny. I’m hoping to pick up some Junior Investigator tips so I can get that merit badge.”

“Good. When you’re finished, you can teach me. Do you have any idea where you can find them?”

“Hang on a second and I’ll find out.”

After a hurried conversation with Jake on the phone, he told me where we could meet, but he couldn’t talk, so he hung up on me rather abruptly.

“What was that about?” Grace asked.

“It sounded as though they were busy, but I got what I wanted. After you drop me off at the donut shop, I’m going to the Boxcar to wait for them. Don’t worry, I’ll bring you up to date as soon as you get back.”

“You’d better,” she said with a smile. “I want pictures, and video, if you can get that for me, too.”

“How about if I just tell you what I find out?”

“That’ll do just fine,” she said.

When we got to Donut Hearts, Grace barely slowed down long enough for me to get out. “Sorry, but I’ve got to run,” she said.

“Drive safely,” I answered as she sped away. I doubted she even heard me.

As I walked toward the Boxcar Grill, Jake pulled into the donut shop parking lot. I pivoted around and started back, expecting to see George as well, but he was alone.

“Sorry, I can’t face another lunch today,” he said. “I hope you already ate.”

“It’s taken care of. Where’s your partner?”

“George insisted that we eat before his physical therapy class, and I just dropped him off there. He’s graduating tomorrow, did you know?”