5 A Bad Egg (8 page)

Ten minutes
later, I looked up from the cash register to see Jessie Blackwell walk into the
diner. I was surprised to see her after the confrontation Moose and I had with
her the day before at The Harbor Inn.

Putting on my
best smile, I said, “Sit anywhere you’d like.”

“Actually, I
came by to talk to you,” Jessie said a little uncertainly. “Do you have a
second?” She glanced around and saw that Ellen was waiting tables. “And if we
could speak outside, I’d greatly appreciate it.”

I wasn’t sure
how much latitude I was going to give the woman, but then again, if she decided
to hole up at the inn, I might never get the opportunity to speak with her
again while she was still in town. “That would be fine. Give me one second, and
I’ll meet you on the bench out front.”

“Thank you so
much,” she said, the relief obvious on her face.

“Ellen, can
you cover the register for a few minutes?”

“What is
she
doing here?” Ellen asked me.

“She wants to
talk, and I can’t afford not to hear what she has to say. You want us to find
out who killed Gordon, don’t you?”

“Of course I
do.”

“Then I need
to do this. Are you going to be okay?”

“I’ll be
fine,” she said as she nodded.

“Good,” I
said as I squeezed her hand. “I shouldn’t be long.”

“If it helps
me and the people I love get out from under this mess, take all the time that
you need.”

I walked out
and found Jessie pacing up and down in front of the bench. She obviously had
something on her mind. “What can I do for you?” I asked.

It startled
her, and I doubted that the woman had even noticed me coming out of the diner.
“First of all, I owe you an apology. I snapped a little when you showed up on
the path yesterday. I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that Gordon
was really gone, and then there you and your grandfather were, confronting me
out of the blue.

“Jessie, how
did you and Gordon get along?” I asked gently.

“We were
engaged to be married,” she said, the words rushing out of her in a well-rehearsed
tone of voice.

“You didn’t
answer my question.”

“Gordon was
an interesting man,” she said after a moment’s reflection. “We didn’t always
see eye-to-eye, but I genuinely cared for him.”

“Can you say
the same about his feelings for you?”

It was a dangerous
thing for me to say, but I wanted to see how she’d react. That might tell me
more than the answer to any question I could ask.

Instead of
blowing up, she just shrugged. “Now you sound like my father. He never trusted
Gordon’s motives. In fact, Daddy insisted that Gordon sign a prenup.”

“And did he?”

“He hadn’t
yet, but he promised to do it once we got back,” she said.

I didn’t put
any stock in the dead man’s promise. Gordon had evidently given up on the
battle, but he hadn’t conceded the war, as far as I was concerned. “Are you and
your father close?” I asked.

“Not that
much since Gordon came into my life, but we still talk once a week. As a matter
of fact, I was speaking with him not a minute before you and Moose showed up on
the path.”

It was time
to probe a little deeper. “We didn’t mean to, but Moose and I overheard part of
that conversation.”

That earned
me a sharp look from her. “What exactly did you overhear?”

“You said
something about not thinking that he was bluffing, and that someone promised to
bury you. Were you talking about Gordon?”

“I’d rather
not explain,” she said. “You’re taking it all out of context.”

“Then give me
a little background,” I said. “We’ll do our best to help you.”

“Why would
you say that you’d do that?” she asked. “It’s common knowledge how you feel
about your waitress.”

“We
all
want to find out who killed Gordon,
don’t we?”

“Of course we
do,” she said dismissively. “I got the impression yesterday that you wouldn’t
be all that upset if I’d been the one who killed him, though.”

“That’s not
true,” I said, stretching the truth a little. “While it’s true that Ellen’s a
part of our family, we just want to know the truth.”

Jessie shook
her head. “The truth isn’t always that easy to uncover, is it?”

“Well, all we
can do is keep digging until we find it,” I said. From Jessie’s demeanor, and
the words she’d used, I decided to play a hunch. “Jessie, were you afraid of
him?”

She looked as
though I’d caught her for a split second, but then she quickly composed herself
again. “Nonsense. We were engaged to be married. I cared very deeply for him.”

Why didn’t I
believe her? “Do you have any idea who might want to see harm come to Gordon?”
I asked.

“I believe
the police have a list of suspects long enough to satisfy anyone,” she said.
Again, it was a strict avoidance of answering my direct question. Had this
woman been an attorney in another life, or did she always play things cagey?

“But do you
know anyone who might have done it?”

“No,” she
said, one of the few direct answers I’d gotten out of her.

It was time
to try a different line of questioning. “How long are you staying in town?”

“The sheriff
has asked me to stay a few more days, and I’ve decided to indulge him. Daddy
has offered me his lawyers, but I told him I’d be fine on my own.”

I didn’t
doubt that for one moment. I was certain that the woman could handle herself in
any interrogation, if the way she acted with me was any indication. There was
no need to shield her from the police.

“Now, if
you’ll excuse me, I have several places still to visit,” she said.

I couldn’t
just let her get away. I hadn’t even had a chance to ask her about her alibi
yet, but there was clearly not going to be time to do that now. “May we visit
you at The Harbor later? I know that my grandfather would love to speak with
you, and I’m sure that he’d be appreciative to hear your apology personally.”
It was the only ploy I could come up with to ensure that we had access to her
again once we narrowed our line of questions for her.

“Of course,”
she said. “Just call first, would you? I
hate
to be caught off-guard.”

“We will. I
promise.”

“Excellent.”
She glanced back into the diner, and then Jessie asked me, “Do you think I
should say something to Ellen? Things were said between us before Gordon died, and
I now regret getting involved in their domestic issues.”

“I’m not sure
how receptive she would be to an apology just now,” I said honestly. I didn’t
want to put Ellen through anything she didn’t have to endure while so much was
going on. “Don’t get me wrong. She has a good heart, but this has all thrown
her for a real loop.”

“I understand
how she feels,” Jessie said. “Would you mind conveying my apologies to her
directly, then? She might be a little more receptive hearing it from you.
Please?”

“I’ll tell
her,” I said, not at all sure how it would go over with Ellen. Still, it was
the least I could do. I believed that Jessie was sincere about at least that
much, and that she regretted the trouble she and Gordon had caused Ellen since
they’d come to town.

“That’s all
that I can ask,” Jessie said, and then she walked away.

I went back
into the diner, took a deep breath, and decided that the longer I put it off,
the worse it was going to be.

I needed to
convey Jessie’s message, no matter how unpleasant Ellen’s reaction might be.

As I walked
inside, I looked back over my shoulder. Jessie was heading toward a nice car,
but that wasn’t what caught my eye.

Wayne, my
favorite mechanic and Ellen’s current boyfriend, sat up in the car he was
driving after she passed him, and as soon as Jessie pulled out of the parking
lot, he was right behind her.

What was the
man up to?

I didn’t
know, but I was going to make it a point to find out the next time I had a
chance to talk to him. That was all we needed, more people trying to solve
Gordon’s murder and getting in our way. Moose and I had it covered, and at
least we had some experience investigating.

All Wayne
would do was mess things up.

Chapter 8

“Is she
gone?” Ellen asked me as I walked back into the diner.

“She just left,”
I said. “Do you have a second?”

Ellen
surveyed the tables, checked the order window, and then nodded. “We’re in the
middle of a lull. What did she have to say?”

“Among other
things, she wanted to apologize to you,” I said.

Ellen’s gaze
flared, and her face flushed a little. “What happened? Was she too afraid to
face me herself? Why did she send you to apologize to me?”

“She asked me
if she should speak with you directly, but I wasn’t sure that it was all that
good an idea. I offered to tell you myself, and if that was the wrong decision,
you shouldn’t hold it against her.”

“Are you
actually on
her
side, Victoria?”
Ellen asked loudly enough to get the attention of our diners. Great. I’d been
trying to avoid a scene, and now I was the direct cause of one.

“Lower your
voice,” I said, and she nodded. “You shouldn’t even have to ask me that
question. I was thinking of you when I volunteered to convey her message, but
if I was wrong, I’m sure she’ll talk directly to you about it. I was just
trying to help.”

Ellen nodded.
“I know you were. I’m sorry I snapped. I can’t help myself. When I think about
Gordon trying to take my children away from me, with that woman’s deep pockets
behind him, it makes me so furious I could scream.”

“You’re going
to want to fight that impulse,” I said, trying my best to smile gently. “We
don’t need any help painting you with the ‘Angry Ex’ brush. Half the town
probably thinks that if you did do it, you were defending your children, and
I’m fairly sure none of them blame you for what happened to Gordon.”

Ellen looked
around the room, and a half dozen folks looked straight down into their plates.
“Do you honestly think that many people in town believe that I’m a murderer?”

“I misspoke,”
I said, realizing how damaging that must have sounded to Ellen. “I’m sure most
of them believe in your innocence.”

“But not all
of them,” Ellen said. “Not by a long shot. I’ve lived in Jasper Fork my entire
life. How could anyone think I was capable of murder?”

“Don’t forget
that plenty of them have believed it of me in the past,” I said, “so don’t feel
like they’re picking on you. Ellen, it’s one of the reasons that Moose and I
are searching for Gordon’s killer. The longer it takes for an arrest to be
made, the worse it’s going to get for you and your family. Trust me on this
one, there are more consequences from being convicted in the court of popular
opinion than any trial.”

“I know
you’ve been in the center of these things before,” Ellen said. “I thought I
understood how you felt, but that was foolish of me. Until I started feeling
the scorn of folks I thought were my friends, I had no idea how crushing the
weight can be.”

It was bad
timing, but Margie Brewer chose that moment to pay her bill. As she handed
Ellen a ten for a five-dollar tab, she said, “Keep the change, and hang in
there. Even if this thing goes to trial, you just need one mother on the jury
to keep your freedom.”

“I didn’t
kill him, Mrs. Brewer,” Ellen said.

“Of course
you didn’t, sweetie,” Margie said as she patted Ellen’s hand, and then she
walked out of The Charming Moose whistling.

“She just
called me a cold-blooded killer, didn’t she?” Ellen asked me.

“Not
exactly,” I said.

“It was close
enough, and you know it. You and Moose need to figure this out, Victoria, and I
mean fast.”

“We’re doing
the best we can,” I said. “Are you sure that you’re all right?”

“I’d be lying
if I said that I wasn’t a little shaky,” Ellen said, “but I’m not going
anywhere. Folks need to see that I’m not hiding in some corner, afraid of what
might happen to me.”

“That’s my
girl,” I said as I squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll figure this out.”

“I hope
you’re right,” she said, and then Malcolm Mason waved his coffee cup in her
direction, and she grabbed a full pot as she headed off in his direction.

As I watched
Ellen flit among our customers, I knew that she was right. Moose and I had to
find the killer, and we had to do it before the town decided collectively that
Ellen had taken that pipe to her ex-husband. I knew that Margie Brewer had been
trying to be supportive, but she’d just confirmed my worst fears. If enough
folks in town believed that Ellen was a killer, there would be no changing
their minds later, even after the real murderer was brought to justice.

“Is Ellen
working today?” Sheriff Croft asked as he walked into the diner a little after
ten. “I thought for sure she’d be home.”

“She wanted
to come in, and I didn’t have the heart to turn her away,” I said. “Is
something wrong? You’re not going to question her here, are you?”

“No, your
friend Rebecca made it clear that I wasn’t supposed to talk to her without
supervision,” the sheriff said with the hint of a smile. “That was smart,
bringing her in on this.”

“She’s never
let me down before,” I said. “If you’re not going to talk to her, why are you
here, then? I know that you’re not a big fan of the diner in general.”

“Nonsense. I
love your pancakes, and you know it.”

“Still, you
don’t eat here very often,” I said.

“That’s
because I know where that will lead. If I want to keep fitting into this uniform,
I have to watch what I eat. Every now and then, though, it’s good to indulge.”