Cast Iron Motive (The Cast Iron Cooking Mysteries Book 4) (10 page)

“I’d offer to make you something tonight, but I have a feeling that we’ll be eating leftovers the entire time that we’re here,” Annie said as she picked up her plate and made her way back into the kitchen.

As we followed her with ours, Della said, “Don’t worry about this spread. All of it will save nicely. I’d be honored if you’d make something for us tonight.”

I’d seen the fire pit near the water the night before, and I had to admit, it would be the perfect spot to spend a few hours tending a fire, especially given the chill in the air. “Why not?” I asked my sister. “It could be fun.”

“Really?” Annie asked me, clearly wanting to know if I was willing to put our investigation on hold while she cooked outdoors.

I nodded in agreement as I echoed, “Really.” Since we were fresh out of ideas, it might be a nice experience to share.

“Let’s do it, then. What sounds good to you, Aunt Della?” she asked.

“Oh, whatever you’d like to make would be delightful.”

“I do my best. How about you, Pat?”

I thought about all of my sister’s specialties, and then I finally came up with something I knew would be a hit. “You haven’t made ribs in a while.”

“I make them every week at the Iron,” she reminded me.

“Maybe so, but usually they’re all gone by the time I get around to eating,” I replied. “I haven’t had one of your ribs for months.”

“Poor thing. I hadn’t realized that you’d been so deprived.”

“Well, now you know,” I said with a grin.

“Ribs it is. Della, do you have any charcoal on hand?”

“No, and I’m afraid that I’m out of firewood as well, though Davis has offered some to me if I’m ever in need.”

“Tell you what. Why don’t I make enough food for all four of us?” Annie suggested. “We’ll cook the food with charcoal and then eat by the campfire.”

“It sounds wonderful to me. Shall I go to the store for you?” Della volunteered.

“We’ll be happy to do that ourselves,” I replied before Annie could answer. While we were out shopping, maybe we could get in a little more sleuthing along the way. If nothing else, we could discuss what the next day might bring, since it appeared that the active part of our investigation was over for the moment. That was the problem with everything that Della had told us so far. There was no way to prove or disprove that everything that had happened to her hadn’t been just one string of coincidences.

“Would you like some help cleaning up before we go?” my sister asked.

“Would you mind? I don’t really need any, but I’d love the company.”

I was about to suggest to Annie that we didn’t have that much time, but she answered before I had a chance to comment. “It would be fun, wouldn’t it, Pat?”

“Sure,” I said, knowing from my twin sister’s tone of voice that the fight was over before the bell had even rung.

As we worked at clearing the table, Annie asked her, “Tell us what it was like growing up with Mom.”

“She was the sweetest sister I could have ever asked for,” Della said.

I knew for a fact that Mom, though normally tranquil, could still have a temper. “Come on, she wasn’t all sunshine and light. You must have fought about a few things.”

“Just Gregory Nance,” she said promptly.

“Was he a high school sweetheart, by any chance?” Annie asked her.

“More like grade school,” Della answered with a laugh. “I was two years older than your mother, and Greg was in class with her. She had a crush on him, but he set his sights for me instead. It was uncomfortable, to say the least, when Greg asked your mother if I had a boyfriend, and if not, did he have a chance? We didn’t speak for three weeks, until Greg got a crush on another girl, Linda Perkins, and it all blew over. Other than that, she was my best friend growing up. We used to laugh about the oddest things that no one else found even remotely amusing.”

It sounded as though she was describing Annie and me. I wasn’t sure if it made me happy or sad, since Mom had died with a rift between them. I couldn’t imagine turning my back on Annie, no matter what the circumstances. Then again, we’d shared a womb at the same time, so maybe we were different. Then again, maybe not.

“Excuse me,” I said, suddenly not wanting to have anything to do with this particular conversation. “I need a little fresh air.”

I walked out onto the front porch and sat on the top step.

In less than a minute, Annie came out and joined me. In a soft voice, she asked, “Pat, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said.

She sat down beside me anyway. “Don’t lie to me, little brother. What’s wrong?”

“Annie, promise me that won’t ever happen to us,” I said, the words just spilling out of me. “I couldn’t bear the thought of not having you around.”

“I swear,” she said as she put an arm around me. “Like it or not, you’re going to have me around forever, Pat. I can’t imagine my life without you in it, and I know that you feel the same way about me.”

“I’m sure that’s what Mom and Della thought at one time, too.”

To her credit, Annie didn’t answer right away. “Yes, no doubt you’re right, but we’re not like that, and you know it.”

“Because we’re twins?” I asked her.

“That, and because our lives are so intertwined that I can’t conceive of any circumstances that would split us up like that. Face it, Pat. We’re stuck with each other, whether we like it or not.”

I hugged her awkwardly for a moment, and then, to my surprise, I felt a tear trickling down my cheek. “Thanks. I needed that.”

“You know, we don’t have to talk about the past if it makes you so uncomfortable.”

“No, it’s fine. Really. I just started imagining my life without you in it. It was a gray and dreary place indeed.”

“That’s because I spread sunshine wherever I go,” she said with a laugh. Annie stood and reached down to take my hand. “Now let’s go back inside. I’m sure Della is worried that we’ve taken off on her.”

“We can’t do that, can we?” I suddenly didn’t want to be in Gateway Lake, no matter how selfish that might make me. My sister and I were putting our lives in danger for a woman who was practically a stranger to us. She hadn’t been a stranger to Mom, though. They’d shared their earlier lives together, and something, my father, had torn them apart.

Then again, if nothing else, we owed it to our late mother to figure out what was happening and try to stop it if we could.

“I don’t really need to answer that, do I?” Annie asked.

“No, I understand why we’re here.” As we walked back inside, I said, “Sorry about that. I don’t know what got into me.”

“It’s okay. You’re entitled to show a little emotion every now and then. Just don’t make a habit of it, okay?”

I laughed at her as I saluted. “I’ll do my best.”

“That’s better,” she said. “Now let’s go finish cleaning up so we can make another big mess.”

“That’s the story of our lives, isn’t it?”

Chapter 12: Annie

“T
his is going to be fun, Pat.”

“That’s because you love cooking,” my brother said to me. “What am I supposed to be doing while you’re making magic with cast iron?”

“First of all, thanks for the compliment, and secondly, you can tend the fire and keep me company. Once we have the coals going, I can do a quick seasoning on the Dutch oven, and then we’ll be ready to cook. This is going to take the rest of the afternoon and evening, I’m afraid.”

“Well, we really didn’t have any plans going forward anyway, so why not enjoy the water view? How can Della afford to live on the lake like this?”

“She told me last night that she got the place at a foreclosure sale,” I said.

“When did that conversation happen?” he asked me.

“We were upstairs getting ready for bed when I was wondering the same thing. Evidently the place was falling apart, but she dug in and turned it into something pretty wonderful. It must be great living on the water like this.”

“Need I remind you that you live on a body of water yourself?” Pat asked.

“That’s a pond, not a lake,” I said. “It’s completely different.”

“Completely, or just a little?” he asked me with a grin.

“Completely,” I confirmed. “The pond is tiny, but it’s all mine. On the other hand, the lake is really a large span of water, but she shares it with countless other people. All kinds of interesting things happen here.”

“I don’t know. I kind of like your place better,” he said.

“Coming from a city boy like you, that’s a real compliment. You’re not sorry I got the cabin in the woods and you’re stuck in town, are you?”

“Are you kidding? I’d go crazy living out in the sticks like you do.”

“And your apartment above the Iron would drive me nuts as well. I guess we’re both suited for our lifestyles, aren’t we?”

“It sounds like it to me. Do you mind making ribs this evening?” he asked.

“No, they’re easier than a lot of things I make with cast iron,” I said. “It will give us plenty of time to speculate about Della’s situation a little more.”

“It seems as though that’s all that we’ve been doing, speculating,” he said as I drove toward the supermarket. We had supplies to acquire before we could get started with prepping the cast iron and then cooking the meal.

“Do you honestly believe we’ve covered all that we need to discuss?” I asked him.

“Of course not, but it’s feeling like circular logic to me. I just wish there was something more active that we could do.”

I knew that our approach was frustrating to him. Shoot, it was aggravating me as well, but all we could do was ask questions, snoop around, look for clues, and try to figure out what was going on. We couldn’t make people talk to us, and so far, our results had been mixed at best.

I wasn’t about to give up, though.

There was too much at stake.

“Do you need some kind of a list?” Pat asked me as I pulled into the grocery store parking lot. It had been easy enough to find, given Della’s directions and the small size of the town.

I tapped my forehead. “Nope, it’s all up here.”

“That’s a scary thought,” he said with a smile, and I was happy to see it. This case had thrown Pat off from the very start, and for some reason, dealing with Aunt Della had been much harder for him than it had been for me. I knew that I needed to make concessions to my brother’s sensitivities without letting him know that I was doing it. I knew that Pat liked to think of himself as a man’s man, and while I didn’t think him having emotions precluded him from being called that, he might. It was up to me to support him in any way that I could, as long as it didn’t jeopardize our investigation.

“Should I grab a buggy?” Pat asked me as we walked into the store.

“It might not be a bad idea,” I said.

As he started to retrieve one of the green wired buggies from the queue, someone else was bringing one back into the store. “Would you like this one?” Henrietta Long asked me as she approached.

“Thanks, but Pat’s grabbing one. Fancy running into you here.”

“Gateway Lake isn’t all that big,” she said with a warm smile. “That’s why it helps to get along with everyone. You never know when you’ll see them again.”

“I can’t imagine you have any problems with that,” I said to her.

“You’d be surprised,” Henrietta said. In a lower voice, she added, “Some folks weren’t all that happy with the job that Della and I did with the Winter Wonderland festivities.”

“Funny, I thought it was a real success,” Pat said as he joined us.

“Oh, a good time was had by all, there’s no doubt about that, but the expenses were much more than we anticipated. I’m afraid that neither Della nor I are very good at business, though we know how to throw a party. We’ve been letting a few folks know that we aren’t going to clear as much as we’d first hoped to soften the blow, but word is getting around town, and I have a feeling that things might get ugly. It’s not just the financial paucity, though. I’ve already had complaints today about how Della handled things during the festivities.”

“I thought you two worked together on everything?” I asked her. “Why would they single Della out?”

“Well, we were co-chairs, that’s for sure, but we couldn’t both do everything. I handled the finances mostly, while Della dealt with parade routes, booth allocations, and things like that. Not that her name wasn’t on the bank account too, or that I didn’t tweak a placement or two, but folks seem to be more upset with your aunt than they are with me. I do my best to defend her, but you know how people can be.”

“Who in particular is unhappy about Della?” Pat asked.

“Oh, I don’t feel right naming names,” Henrietta said.

“We won’t tell anyone that you told us,” I reassured her. Pat and I needed information, and we were running into more dead ends than usual. Any enlightenment Henrietta could provide would be most appreciated.

“Well, I don’t want to spread rumors, but Chief Cameron has been unhappy with her since she laughed at his dinner invitation. The man is positively obsessed with making her suffer some of the humiliation he felt from her rejection. Add Davis to the mix, who clearly has his sights set on her but is making no progress whatsoever, and you have the potential for things to get ugly there.”

“So, these men really are infatuated with my aunt,” Pat said.

“Oh, absolutely,” Henrietta said. “Della has always been a looker, but she has an aura around her that most men our age find irresistible.”

I smiled at the thought of grown men acting like teenagers trying to get the pretty girl’s attention, until I remembered that a woman had been murdered. “What about Cheryl Simmons?”

“What about her? I don’t know if any of the men had a crush on her too or not.”

“Do you have any idea who might want to kill her?” Pat asked.

“No, it’s baffling to me.”

“Della believes that whoever killed Cheryl has been trying to kill her, too,” I said.

Henrietta frowned. “Really? That possibility never crossed my mind. My lands, what is this world coming to?”

“You said earlier that people weren’t happy with our aunt,” I reminded Henrietta, who seemed a little scatterbrained.

“Did I?” she asked.

“Yes, you did. So far, you’ve mentioned the police chief and the mayor. Who does that leave, the candlestick maker?”

I’d been trying to be funny, but clearly Henrietta didn’t get it. “I don’t believe we have one of those in town, unless I’m mistaken.” The puzzled look on her face amused me, but this wasn’t the time or the place to smile.

“What I’m asking you is who else is upset with her? Is it Serena Jefferson, or perhaps Gary White by any chance?” Those names kept popping up in our investigation, and I was certain she was going to mention one of them.

She managed to surprise me, though. “No, the only other person I can think of offhand is Latham Gregg.”

This was a new name to me. “Pardon me?”

“Latham,” she said as she pointed in the direction of a man overseeing the cashiers at the checkout lines. He was in his late fifties, with a full head of snowy-white hair and a belly that would make him the perfect candidate to play Santa around Christmastime. “He runs this place, though I heard he might lose his job, all because of Della.”

“What could our aunt possibly have to do with him being fired?” Pat asked.

“Didn’t you know? Latham was supposed to sponsor the festivities, but at the last minute, Della canceled his participation out of nowhere. It was a real black mark against the store, and the owner is threatening to get rid of him because of it.”

“Why did Della change her mind?” I asked her.

“I only wish that I knew. You’ll have to ask her. When I tried to talk some sense into her, she refused to give me an answer that made any kind of sense at all. We were counting on that money to break even. Honestly, I don’t know what we’re going to do now.” She lowered her voice again as she said, “Shhh. Here he comes.”

The grocery store manager walked over to us and frowned at Henrietta for a moment before offering my brother and me a smile. “Hello, folks. Was there something I could help you with?”

“We’re just here to do a little shopping,” I told him.

“These are Della’s people, Latham,” Henrietta said. “This is Annie, and this is Pat.”

I don’t know why she’d felt the need to make introductions, especially since it was clear that Latham was not all that pleased to learn of our local connections. “Nice to meet you,” he said perfunctorily. “If we can help in any way, be sure to ask one of our associates.”

He started to walk away when Pat said, “We’d love to know the real reason why our aunt cancelled your involvement with Winter Wonderland at the last minute, if you wouldn’t mind sharing the information with us.”

Henrietta’s face went white. “Latham, I don’t know where they heard about that, but I didn’t say a word.” She looked at Pat as though she wanted to choke him on the spot, an emotion I felt myself occasionally. I was surprised that my brother had taken such a direct approach, but since he’d opened that particular can of worms, I had no choice but to chime in myself.

“Believe me, we understand Aunt Della can be difficult at times,” I said, “but anything you could tell us might be useful.”

Henrietta glanced at her watch before the grocery manager could reply. “Is that the time already? I really must be going.”

The woman shot out of there so quickly she could have been on wheels.

“Ask your aunt,” Latham said coldly after Henrietta was gone.

“We will, but right now, we’re asking you,” I said.

“Fine. It’s no secret. I told Della that for the money she was demanding, I expected more of a push from the festival. She told me that I was being ridiculous and that she was doing me a favor by even allowing the store to be a sponsor. I’m not proud of it, but I lost my temper, and I told her she could go howl at the moon if that was the way she felt about it. Della took out our contract and tore it up right in front of me. I knew that I’d made a mistake and let my feelings get the better of me, but when I asked her to reconsider, she flatly refused. She had our store name pulled from every bit of advertising and told me that she’d be refunding my contributions as soon as they balanced the books for the event. When my boss found out, she went ballistic, and if I don’t increase store profits, and quickly, I’m on my way out. That aunt of yours is as stubborn as a mule, if you’ll pardon me for saying so.”

“No need to apologize. It runs in our family,” I said. “You must have been really angry with her.”

“Well, I wasn’t happy with her, if that’s what you’re asking,” Latham said.

“Were you mad enough to kill her?” Pat asked him quietly.

“What? No! Of course not.”

“I’m curious about something. When exactly did all of this happen?” I asked him.

“It was on the morning of the parade,” he admitted. “You wouldn’t believe how quickly she had our store logo removed from the main float, let alone the places it was posted around the town supper.”

“Thanks for talking to us so candidly about it. We’re sorry to keep you,” I said. “I know you must be busy.”

“Yes, I have my hands full at the moment,” he said. “Don’t worry, I won’t hold your aunt’s behavior against you if you don’t hold mine against me,” he said with a sad smile.

“Consider it done,” I said.

Once Latham was back at the registers, Pat asked, “Why did you let him off the hook so easily, Sis?”

“He’s not the one we’re after,” I said.

“How can you be so sure?”

“The first attempt on Della’s life was the plummeting snowman, and that happened the day before the parade,” I said. “That’s long before Latham and our aunt had their blowout fight.”

“What if that part was coincidence, but the rest of it was him trying to get rid of her?” Pat asked me.

“I suppose that it’s possible, but can we really pick and choose the attempts to make them match our theories? I say we keep our eye on him, but he can’t go on our main list.”

“I can live with that,” Pat said. “Man oh man, can you believe that?”

“Which part?”

“Well, we already knew that our aunt had a quick temper, but that seemed downright reckless even for her, cancelling the store’s involvement at the last minute like that. It must have killed their last chance of making a profit,” he answered.

“I don’t know what to tell you. Let’s go shopping.”

In short order, we had charcoal briquettes, barbeque sauce, onions, carrots, green peppers, and olive oil. Going to the meat department, all we needed now were the ribs.

There were none in the display case.

I rang a bell by the window that led into the back, and a pretty young woman in her early twenties came out from the back. She was dressed in a white apron and wore a cute little white hat as well. Her name tag said that she was STACI, with an I. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but certainly not her.

“May I help you?”

“I see you are out of ribs,” I said.

“Pork or beef?” she asked.

“Pork.”

“Full or baby back?”

“Baby back,” I said.

“How many people are you feeding?”

“Four, maybe five,” I said.