Football is Murder (Bee's Bakehouse Cozy Mysteries Book 4) (Bee's Bakehouse Mysteries) (8 page)

“What are you doing?”

Melanie’s loud voice in the darkness made her start with fright. Jessie clutched her chest. Her heart pounded so hard that she was convinced she could hear it.

Melanie laughed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Jessie took several deep breaths. She was wide awake now, her body surging with adrenaline. “It’s okay. I heard something and came to look.”

“Who’s that?” Melanie whispered, looking past her out the window.

“My neighbor. He seems to have hit his gateway. At least that’s what it sounded like. Did you hear it?”

Melanie shrugged. “I could have. I don’t know. Maybe that’s what woke me, because I heard you walk past my door.”

Jessie shook her head. “Unbelievable. I’d understand it if it was a narrow space. But my whole house would fit in the gap between the two pillars. He must have had a hell of a lot to drink tonight in order to do that. Hey, what time is it?”

“I don’t know,” Melanie whispered. “Want me to find out?”

“Nah,” Jessie said. “It’s not important.”

She took one last glance out the window before fixing the drape in place.

“I’m going back to bed. Sorry if I woke you.”

Melanie shook her head. “No, it’s fine. My sleep’s been light lately. A feather dropping would probably wake me some nights.”

Jessie felt better now that she’d heard that. She walked across to the door and closed it behind them once Melanie had followed her through.

“You know, we’re just lucky that he hit his own gate and not mine,” she said.

Melanie stopped abruptly, sending Jessie colliding into her.

“Why’d you do that?” Jessie half-laughed.

“You said he was drunk.”

Jessie could just about make out her cousin’s profile in the darkness. “Yeah. I was assuming. But what other explanation could there be?” She tried to swallow her irritation at her neighbor. What business of hers was it what he drank?

“Jessie, I don’t think that’s it.”

“How do you know?” Jessie asked, confused. “I thought you hadn’t met him yet.”

Melanie turned and walked back toward the living room. She flung the door open and marched across the room. Toby rushed after her, barking at her heels.

“I haven’t.”

“So?”

When they reached the window, Melanie turned around to face her with an excited look on her face. “Think about it. The car is facing your home. He’s across the street, which means he’s just driven away from his home. He’s on the way out, not on the way back in.”

Jessie stared openmouthed. Of course! How had she missed that?

“So unless he was drinking alone at home…” Melanie said. “But then why would he go out at whatever o’clock in the morning it is? I know it must be pretty late—I got carried away and stayed up reading my book until after midnight.”

Jessie clasped her hands together and then unclasped them. Something about this was seriously rattling her. She looked up and found Melanie staring at her.

“What is it?” Melanie asked.

Jessie shook her head. “It sounds crazy, but there was a murder near here a few nights ago. It was the night I moved in and I fell asleep on the couch that night I was so tired. I hadn’t closed the drapes and the light from his headlights woke me up that night too.”

Melanie didn’t say anything.

“There’s more. That guy—the guy across the street? He’s a football player. Not only did he play on the same team as the murder victim, but they were old friends. Until they fought a couple of months ago.”

Jessie stopped talking. Just saying everything aloud had made the pieces fit together in her brain. She rushed through the house and into her bedroom, where she picked her phone up off the nightstand. She found the chief’s number in her contacts and hit dial.

He answered after two rings. “Jessie,” he said calmly, sounding not the least bit surprised that she was calling him in the middle of the night.

She pulled the phone away from her ear and glanced at the display. 3.17 to be exact.

“Chief Daly, I’m sorry for waking you.”

He tutted. “I’m used to it by now. Anyways I was up late looking over the case file. What is it?”

She gasped as the excitement and fear and nerves began to crescendo. Had she cracked this thing? “My neighbor, Chad Denver. I woke up and heard something. It looks like he’s crashed into his gate on the way out of his home. Just now.”

She waited, hoping the chief wouldn’t tell her to quit daydreaming and get back to sleep. He didn’t.

“Really?” he said soberly. “And is he still there now?”

Jessie darted through the house to where a bemused-looking Melanie still stood beside the window. “Yes,” she said, breathlessly. “What do you think he’s up to?”

The chief sighed. “I have no idea, Jessie. But you’re right. It does seem strange. I’ll check it out.”

“Okay,” she breathed, relieved.

“Jessie?” he said sharply.

“Yes?”

He cleared his throat. “Where are you now?”

“In my house. With Melanie.”

“Okay. That’s good. You stay there now.”

Jessie’s eyes widened at the sound of an engine revving. Seconds later, the lights moved across the room and it was dark again, as the SUV sped off in the direction of the town.

“He’s getting away,” she cried.

“Oh, I’ll catch up with him,” Chief Daly said softly. “Which way did he go?”

* * *

It was a long night. Jessie had returned to bed, but she was soon back in the living room staring out the window. Toby ran happy circles around her ankles. Before long, Melanie had joined them.

“Couldn’t sleep,” she said quickly, just as Jessie was about to apologize for waking her again.

Jessie didn’t want to know what time it was—she could tell from the dark blue sky that it was getting closer and closer to dawn. She needed to be up in just a few short hours to go set up the café. But how was she supposed to sleep knowing the chief had gone out in search of her neighbor?

She wouldn’t relax until she heard from him. Sure, he was tough. But if her neighbor had something to hide? She hoped the chief had woken Pete Kendall or Officer Stanley to join him. Or maybe it had all turned out to be a big nothing and the real killer was still out there.

“It hasn’t been that long,” Melanie smiled, moving slowly through the room and sitting on the couch.

Jessie hadn’t turned on the lights in case her neighbor came back before the police had intercepted him. She didn’t want him to suspect that she had seen him leave.

“Earth to Jessie?” Melanie laughed.

Jessie shook her head and smiled. “Just thinking through the possibilities.”

“Nothing’s changed with you then? Still as much of a worrier as ever?”

“I guess,” Jessie admitted. “It’s just if anything happens to Chief Daly—”

“Nothing’s going to happen to the chief,” Melanie laughed. “
I
know that, and you know him far better than me. The guy is tough as they come, even though he likes to hide behind that laidback gentleman vibe he’s got going.”

“You’re right,” Jessie whispered. “Oh, I hope they catch him.” She hugged a pillow to her chest, feeling the nighttime chill start to cut through her t-shirt.

“They will.”

They lapsed into silence again.

Just as Jessie felt her eyelids start to droop, her phone buzzed on the kitchen bench.

“Maybe that’s him,” she blurted, dashing for the kitchen and scaring a sleeping Toby in the process.

Sure enough, the chief’s name was flashing on her screen.

“Hello,” she whispered.

“We got him. I’ll call later.” There was none of the chief’s usual calm.

Jessie put the phone down and turned to Melanie. “All I know is they’ve got him. The chief didn’t say any more. Must be in the middle of something.”

That was all Jessie needed to know, though. Now that her mind was at ease, she felt the tiredness she’d been fighting seep through her body. She picked up Toby and shuffled through the house to her bedroom.

* * *

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

It seemed like no time at all since Jessie had climbed into bed exhausted. That was because barely two hours had passed since she had—it had been close to dawn when went back to bed and it was just after five now. All she wanted to do was roll over and trap herself within the comforter. Instead, she threw the covers off and jumped out of bed before she could talk herself out of it.

There was too much to do at the café. She had no time for a lie-in.

Especially not when she was helping the chief with a case in her spare time. She smiled as the events of the previous night came back to her. The phone call from the chief. This was one day where she didn’t want to dawdle around.

* * *

Less than fifteen minutes later, Jessie was closing the front door behind her. It felt strange not to have Toby’s leash in her hand, but she didn’t mind. It was nice for him to have company during the day. She walked him at least once a day, but she still felt bad having to tie him up outside the café while she worked.

“Rules are rules,” she muttered to herself as she passed Chad's house at an even more rapid pace than usual.

She walked on, not allowing herself to think about the case. She’d focus on it once all of the morning’s prep work at the café was finished. All the same, she had to fight to keep her focus on the café and not on her neighbor’s involvement in Johnny Cooper's murder.

To her surprise, the lights were already on in the café when she arrived. She hurried inside and through to the kitchen.

“Is everything okay?”

Aunt Bee had her back to the door and was bent over the sink. Jessie rushed across the kitchen, alarmed. Relief flooded through her when she got closer and saw that her aunt was carefully rinsing petals she had picked to make candy flowers.

“What are you doing here so early?”

Aunt Bee spun around. “Charles called me. He thought you might be distracted with the development in the case.” She tsked. “Not that he’d tell me the details or anything.”

“I guess he knows better than to share that information with the town gossip,” Jessie said, jumping well out of her aunt’s reach as she said that.

“Town gossip,” Bee clucked. “I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous.”

“Chief Daly didn’t tell you? Really?”

Bee shook her head. “Believe it or not, Jessie, I didn’t pry either. If the man doesn’t want to share something with me, then I respect that.”

“I know,” Jessie said.

“Anyway, what are you doing here? Charles said you’re the one who found the new information.”

Jessie shrugged and reached for her apron. “We’ve got a lot of prep to do.”

Bee stared at her.

“What?” Jessie protested. “You know this. That’s why we’re both here at crazy o’clock in the morning.”

Bee folded her arms across her chest. “Jessie Henderson. Can you tell me you’re not itching to go to the police department and find out what’s going on?”

Jessie shook her head. “I’m not a cop. I’ll finish prep and then I’ll call the chief. See if I can stop by.”

And she did. Jessie was aware that her first several weeks in Springdale had seen her careening around the town, abandoning her duties in the café. Sure, sometimes that had been necessary—like when she herself had been implicated in a crime. But most of the time? She’d been trying to prove her friends’ innocence. Now it was a perfect stranger. It wasn’t that she felt less involved, but that she was capable of staying on the right side of the line this time.

And that was important. Jessie had been tossing around an idea for some time now. And it would never work if she became known as the woman who breathlessly ran around Springdale freaking out every time there was a break in a case. No, it was better to be clever about it. Her job was in the background, not in interviewing suspects. An observer there to find snippets that the others might have missed.

For now.

Chapter 10

The phone buzzed at nine. Jessie immediately knew who it was, but Aunt Bee was closest. She answered and held the phone out to Jessie.

“He wants to know why you’re not down there.”

Jessie’s hands were heaped full of cups and saucers. “Tell him I had work to do here.”

“Charles, I don’t know what’s gotten into her. It’s odd.” She paused and listened. “Okay. Yes. I’ll tell her.”

Jessie threw her hands up. “Why will nobody accept that I need to put my job first?”

Bee smiled. “Look, dear. It’s nice to have the help. But this is obviously something you’re passionate about. You think I can’t manage things here? I’ve been handling this place—”

“Since I was a kid, I know,” Jessie finished. “I just don’t like piling my work on you.”

“You’re not,” Bee said, pulling off her apron. “That’s the bulk of the rush out of the way. Things will be manageable until at least eleven thirty, and you’ve already got the meat braising on the stove.”

“I’ll be back before then,” Jessie said, quickly washing her hands and untying her apron.

She usually forgot and wandered all over Springdale with her apron on, but she knew better than to go to the police department when she was still wearing it. It wasn’t exactly good advertising for the café.

* * *

Officer Pete Kendall nodded in greeting as she burst through the double doors of the station. He didn’t even bother to ask her why she was there, he simply pointed to the big gray armored door and buzzed her through as soon as she reached it.

Breathless from running all the way there, Jessie slipped into the now-familiar observation room that looked onto the interview room. She took a seat and stared at the window, which looked like a mirror to anyone on the other side.

When she’d first been in the secure area of the station, she had hated every moment of it. By now, she’d been in there so many times that she was used to going through that thick steel door and hearing it lock behind her.

She leaned closer and stared into the interview room. Chad sat across from the chief with a soberly-dressed older man at his side. Jessie wondered why they were at the Springdale PD and not the investigating department over in Rockfield. She also wondered how long they’d been in there and what she’d missed.