Cast Iron Conviction (The Cast Iron Cooking Mysteries Book 2) (14 page)

“No.”

“What?”

“Just no,” I said. “You’re not brushing it off that easily. Tell me what happened.”

“It’s really no big deal. I had a late-night visitor at the cabin, that’s all.”

“Was it Greg?” I asked.

“How did you know?”

“The man’s still in love with you, Annie. Who else would it be?” Answering my own question, I realized that it could have been the killer, but I hadn’t even considered that possibility.

“He was drunk, but I handled him. Rather Kathleen did. He’s either at the hospital getting blood drawn to check his level of intoxication, or he’s in jail. Either way, I’m rid of him.”

“He didn’t do anything to you, did he?”

“Relax, Pat. I stopped him at the door. I’m fine. If that’s not why you’re calling, could it be about your big date?”

“I’ll make you a deal,” I said. “I won’t quiz you about your evening with Timothy if you don’t ask me about mine with Jenna.”

“Sold,” she said quickly. “Was that it?”

“No. You’re not the only one who had a late-night visitor. Betty Murphy was waiting for me when I got back to the Iron.”

“Did she try to hurt you?” Annie asked, the concern clear in her voice.

“Anything but, actually. She had an alibi we didn’t know about for Mitchell’s murder, one the police knew but failed to document.”

“Then we strike her name off our list,” Annie said.

“Once we verify it, we can, but I tend to believe it. It’s too easy to check out. While she was here, she gave me some solid information.”

“Then by all means, let’s hear it,” Annie said. “What did she tell you?”

“Well, we already guessed that either Sally or Harriet was sleeping with Mitchell, maybe both of them, and she confirmed our suspicions.”

“Didn’t we already suspect as much?” Annie sounded impatient, but I could only tell her what I knew one way, so she’d just have to wait.

“Yes, but we didn’t know that Sally was also sleeping with Ollie. She had two reasons to kill Mitchell, and so did Ollie.”

“Interesting,” Annie said, and I knew that she was processing what I’d just told her. “How about Harriet?”

“She had two reasons as well. Besides being spurned, Mitchell extorted money from her father to buy Betty’s engagement ring.”

“Wow, I bet she blew a fuse. It’s hard to see Harriet that way, but if anything would do it, it would be something like that.”

“I know.”

“What about Edith?” she asked me, the hesitancy clear in her voice.

“All Betty knew was there was tension between Edith and Mitchell before the murder, and that it had something to do with family business. I’m planning on speaking with her in the morning.”

“Let me do it, Pat.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“She’s more likely to open up to me,” Annie said, and I knew that it was true. While Edith and I got along just fine, she and my twin sister had a stronger bond.

“Fine.”

“Seriously? You’re going to give in that easily?”

“Hey, when you’re right, you’re right,” I said.

“Wow, I’m impressed. My little brother is growing up.”

“We’re the same age in every way that counts, Annie.”

“Not by the clock,” she said smugly. I might have been younger, but I was far more mature. Well, a little bit more, at any rate.

“So, we have a plan. Tomorrow, we use our new information and see if we can make someone snap. If we need more, will Betty help us?”

“She’s gone, Annie.”

“Gone as in left, or is she dead, too?” My twin’s voice was suddenly shaky as she asked the question.

“I shouldn’t have used that term. Sorry. She left town, and she’s not coming back until the killer is behind bars.”

“Why would she run away if she’s not a suspect?”

“Someone was spying on us as we spoke, and she’s afraid for her life. That’s the real reason she’s running away.”

“Maybe she’s the smartest one of all,” Annie said.

“I’d say probably, but we’ve both got to be here in order to help Kathleen.”

“I know that. While we’re asking questions tomorrow, we should also find out if any of them have alibis for last night. I know we’re digging into Mitchell’s murder, but there’s no reason we can’t ask about Albert as well.”

“There’s one very good reason, and you know it,” I said. “That case is Kathleen’s. Don’t you think we have enough to worry about just trying to solve one murder?”

“I suppose so,” she answered, and then my sister stifled a yawn.

I took the hint, since I was tired as well. “There’s nothing else we can do tonight. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Are your doors locked, Pat?”

“I double-checked. Are yours?”

“I not only locked them, but there are chairs in front of each one as well, with pie tins balancing on top. Nobody’s going to be able to get in without me knowing about it.”

Chapter 19: Annie

“I
t’s good to have you back, Edith. Do you have a second? We need to talk about something before you get started today,” I told our postmistress when she walked into the Iron the next morning. I’d been pretending to be busy cleaning the counter, hoping that she’d show up today. Pat was making himself scarce in back, per my request. He and Skip were going through a new order, unpacking it and shelving everything, but mostly they were just staying out of our way.

“Annie, I’m sorry I left so abruptly yesterday. I hope I didn’t cause you much difficulty.”

“It was fine. Skip stepped up and took over.”

Edith’s nose crinkled a little. “That’s even more reason that I’m sorry,” she said, trying her best to make light of the situation. “He certainly has his own style of filing things.”

“I’m sure that he did the best that he could, given the circumstances,” I replied. I wasn’t about to let her say anything disparaging about her substitute.

“Of course. That was unkind of me. I must thank him for stepping in at the last second.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go overboard about it,” I answered with a grin. “After all, he was well paid for it. We do need to talk about what happened, though.”

“You’re not firing me, are you?” Edith asked, her expression suddenly filled with dread.

“What? No! Of course not. Whatever gave you that idea?”

“Whenever someone has told me that we need to talk in the past, it’s never turned out well for me.”

“I’m not saying that this will be painless, but you can’t just walk out on us like that and expect there to be no consequences. What did Pat or I say to you that was so upsetting?”

“Must I?” Edith asked, and suddenly she looked as though she were about to burst into tears. “I thought it was all buried in the past, but it keeps recurring like a bad dream. Will it never stop?”

“Do you know what I’ve discovered to be the best way to deal with a secret?” I asked her.

“What’s that?”

“Expose it the light of day. That way it doesn’t have any power over you anymore.”

“I wish it were that simple, Annie,” she told me.

“Why isn’t it? Is it really that bad?”

“I think so,” she said. “The truth of the matter is that my husband was a thief.” Edith said it as though every syllable caused her pain.

“What do you mean?”

“His business was in trouble, and he took money from my father without his knowledge or consent. If he’d only asked me, I could have gotten it for him, but he was too proud to do that.”

“Not too proud to steal, though,” I said.

“Exactly. The way that I found out was even worse than the actual theft. Mitchell Wells told me all about it, and then he threatened to expose my husband unless I did something for him.”

“I’m almost too afraid to ask what he wanted in return,” I said.

“No, it wasn’t anything of a personal nature. My father was bidding on a project that Mitchell wanted desperately. My job was to sabotage my father’s bid to make sure that he didn’t get it. I worked in his construction company’s office during the summers, so it was something that I could do. I just couldn’t bear the thought of betraying my father. If I didn’t, though, I’d be betraying my husband. No matter what I did, one of the men I cherished most in my life would suffer. It was almost more than I could stand.”

“What did you do?” I asked her, intent on hearing her response. I’d never had an inkling that she’d had so much trouble in her life. To me, she was simply Edith, a woman of a certain age with a vivid zest for life. This was not the person in front of me now, though. As she’d talked about her past, she’d taken on a beaten look of sadness, aging years right before my eyes.

“I was saved from acting by providence alone,” she said. “Someone killed Mitchell before I had to decide, and I was saved from making a choice. After the murder, I asked my husband about his finances, and he broke down and confessed. Together, we went to my father, explained the situation, and worked out a repayment plan. I’m not saying that my father ever fully forgave him, but the two did still manage to get along after that.”

“Did either man know what Mitchell was trying to do to you?” It was a question I had to ask, no matter how hard it might be on her.

“Are you asking me if one of
them
could have done it? That would have been impossible. I never breathed a word of what happened to anyone. My father had a heart attack and died eight months later, and you know when I lost my husband. Besides, on the night of the murder, we were all in Atlanta watching a play. I kept the ticket stubs in my scrapbook. As a matter of fact, I still have them, along with a photo of the three of us in front of the theater. Mitchell wasn’t killed because of my secret, and neither was Albert.”

I took that all in for a moment. “Then why did you overreact the way that you did yesterday?”

“Because I was ashamed! Annie, I didn’t have to commit the act that was being demanded of me, but I’d made up my mind, so if the thought is the deed, then I’m guilty.”

“You were going to protect your husband, weren’t you?” I asked.

“What makes you say that?”

“It’s what I would have done in your place. Your father would have understood.”

“You clearly didn’t know the man. He nearly disinherited me when we told him that my husband had stolen from him. If I’d betrayed him as well, he would never have spoken to me again.” Edith began to weep silently, and I put a hand on her shoulder just as Pat stuck his head out from the back room to see if we were finished. I shook my head, and he dove back inside as though the front were on fire.

“Edith, you did everything in your power to make things right. You’ve got to stop beating yourself up over it.”

“I know you’re right, but it’s hard. Even after both men are gone, I still carry the scars around with me.”

“I’m curious about one thing. If no one else knew your secret, then why did Albert think you might have killed Mitchell?”

“He knew that Mitchell had something on me, but he didn’t know what it was. The man kept browbeating me, and I finally told him he could go bark at the moon, that I wasn’t going to tell him anything. I knew that it wouldn’t satisfy him, but I wasn’t about to expose what had happened so many years ago.”

“Just in case anyone asks, do you happen to have an alibi the night Albert was murdered?”

“Let’s see. I had dinner with Nancy Craig and Margery Fanjoy in Charlotte. We stayed late and caught a movie together, and we didn’t get back to Maple Crest until well after midnight.”

“That should be just fine,” I said. The two women she’d mentioned were beyond reproach, at least in my mind, and at the moment, that was all that counted.

Edith took my hands in hers and said, “Annie, promise you won’t tell anyone what I just told you. It would shatter me if people knew what happened all those years ago.”

“I can make that promise, with two exceptions. Pat needs to know, and so does Kathleen. Edith, you can trust me and my family to take your secret to our graves, but I have to tell them both.”

“I understand. I trust you all. After all, you’re my family now, too.”

I hugged her. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with us until the bitter end.”

She smiled softly, a good sign if ever there was one. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get things ready for my first patron.”

“You’re excused,” I said. “One more thing, Edith.”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me what happened.”

“I should be the one thanking you for understanding,” she said as she disappeared into her domain, the small post office where she was the only ruler.

“What happened with Edith?” Pat asked me softly a minute later when I returned to the back.

“She didn’t do it,” I said.

“That’s it, then? Do you believe her?”

“I do, and you will too, once I bring you up to date. She has alibis for both murders, but I don’t think we’re going to need either one of them.”

“If you say so. To be honest with you, I’m kind of relieved being able to take her name off our list of suspects.”

“You and me both,” I said. “Now it’s down to Ollie, Sally, and Harriet. I’ve got a hunch that one of those three people killed both men.”

“Then let’s get started digging into their pasts, and their presents,” he answered.