Honeysuckle Homicide (Trash-to-Treasure Crafting Mystery) (13 page)

After Claire Ann dropped me off at my house, I jumped in my car and headed for town. I wanted to check something out. Maybe it would lead to nothing, but I still was curious.

I thought about th
e day I’d bumped into Ross coming out of Luke Lexington’s office. I thought about meeting Darcy and then my thoughts turned to Connie. She had appeared out of nowhere. She was kind of strange like that. Why had she been standing around? That was when it hit me—she had probably been working at Coco’s at the time.

I wondered what the owner of Coco’s thought about the murders. It had to be a little distressing working so close to the crime scene. I wondered if she had seen anything unusual. They might have a security camera at the store. Would it have caught anything strange?

I’d met the owner of Coco’s a couple times. Her name was Liz Yates and she’d lived in Honeysuckle all her life. She was nice and I wondered if she would tell me anything if I went to talk to her. There was only one way to find out. I had to make sure I went at a time when Connie wasn’t there. Since she had worked this morning I figured it was a safe bet that she wouldn’t be there now. I decided to hop in the Mustang and stop in Coco’s for a quick visit.

I parked in front of the store. Apprehension set in as I worried if Connie would really be there. Why did I let that woman freak me out so much? I stepped into the store and was relieved when I didn’t see her. I spotted the owner at the back of the store. She waved and continued helping the other customer
. I hoped they wouldn’t be too long so that I would get a chance to talk with her.

In the meantime I would look around the store. At least now I
didn’t have Connie following me around. I picked up a few items and kept glancing at the back of the store to see if they were finished.

I wandered around the store a little longer and finally the customer walked to the register and paid for the item. Finally I would get my chance to talk to the owner. Liz walked over to me. I was sure she had noticed that I was staring her way.

“Is there something I can help you with?”

She was so nice
. I had never bought anything but she still treated me like any other customer.

“I was just looking around,” I said.

She must have noticed the pause in my voice. She nodded. “Well, if you need help let me know.”

I looked around the shop more. For some reason I couldn’t quite think of what to ask Liz. How would I approach the topic? Should I just burst out
with the questions? Liz looked my way again and offered a smile. I figured this was my chance. I had to ask now. I stepped closer to her. “It’s been a little crazy around Honeysuckle lately, huh?” I said. That wasn’t the best way to ask, but at least it was out there now.

She stared at me for a moment and the
n nodded. “It has been stressful.” She knew what I was talking about.

I had to have a reason for wanting to see the security tapes. I couldn’t just come out and ask for them. Surely the police had already looked into that.
“I hope they catch the killers soon,” I said. I wondered if she suspected me of the murders too. If she did she hadn’t acted like it yet. I moved closer to the counter where she was busy placing price tags on items.

“Did you happen to notice anything that day?” I asked.

She frowned. “I’m afraid not. I was in the back of the store working. Connie was here and had just come back from her break.”

So Connie didn’t have an alibi for the time of the murder.

Now I really needed to see those security tapes. But what would that really show me? I already knew that Connie had been out there during the murders.

“You know, my friend lost her wallet right at that time.”

She quirked a brow. “Really?”

I nodded. “Yes, it was right out here in front of your store.”

Okay, that excuse sounded really lame. I wouldn’t blame her for not believing me.

“Did you happen to notice if anyone lost a wallet? I wondered i
f someone turned it in.” Yeah, Liz probably wondered why I would be asking this question now. “She just now realized that she’d lost it.” The more I talked the worse it sounded.

Liz
stared at me for a moment as if she didn’t believe me in the least.

“Someone may have taken it from her purse while she was in here.”

Liz continued to stare at me. “Well, that’s terrible.”

I nodded. “Yes, it is. Do you think you have security footage of someone who may have taken it?”

“You know, that happened to be the day the police looked at the tapes for the murderer. But nothing was recorded. The camera didn’t work that day.”

My face probably showed my disappointment.

“You’re in luck though because I just happened to get the tapes to work. I called the police so they can take a look but they haven’t showed up yet.”

This really was my lucky day.

“If you’ll give me a second I can pull them up on my iPad.”

I nodded. “Of course.”

I was bursting with excitement. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but it was a start. And I was going to get to see the footage before the police. That would probably make Kent upset, but did he really need to know that I’d seen them before him?

Liz walked into the back area, leaving me alone at the counter. I hoped that Connie didn’t show up. I really didn’t want to deal with her.
Plus I wouldn’t be able to explain why I was looking at the security footage.

Liz returned with her iPad.
“Here it is,” she said, motioning for me to step closer. I moved over beside her and waited while she pulled up the footage. My heart rate increased as I waited to see what would happen.

The footage started by showing Connie leaving the store. She turned to the right in the direction of Luke’s office. It was probably about twenty minutes before the murder had occurred. That would have given her plenty of time to commit the crime.

“I don’t see anyone walk in front of the store,” Liz said.

At that time Connie came back into the store. I watched her behavior, but honestly she wasn’t acting any stranger than she always did.

“Oh, wait, there you are,” Liz said, pointing at the screen.

I had forgotten that the footage would show me looking in the window, practically drooling. It was slightly embarrassing. So the tape hadn’t shown me anything that I hadn’t known before. Well, other than
that Connie didn’t have an alibi. I wished that there had been more to go on.

Liz
rewound the footage, probably to watch the stupid look on my face again. She backed up to the spot where Connie had returned. I looked over at Liz. She had a strange look on her face. What had she noticed? She replayed the footage one more time. This time I watched closer. And I noticed what she was looking at. How could I have missed it? Connie looked as if she was hiding something under her shirt. Could it have been the murder weapon? There was no way to know for sure.

What else would she be hiding under her shirt though?

Liz met my gaze and chuckled. “Connie can be a strange character sometimes.”

I nodded. “Yes, I’ve noticed. It looked as if she was hiding something under her shirt.”

Liz shook her head. “I think that was just the angle of the camera.”

How could she say that? There was no way that it was anything other than an object under Connie’s shirt. By the look on Liz’s face I knew that she didn’t believe what she’d just said. I wouldn’t argue with her about it though. Why would she try to cover for Connie?

Maybe Liz didn’t want to admit that one of her employees could be a murderer. I would think she would want to know though. Wouldn’t she want to know who she was working with? I knew I would. Now I wondered if Liz would let the police see the footage or if she would act as if the tapes were still broken.

There was no way that I wouldn’t tell Kent. He would find this tidbit very interesting. Of course I
’d have to explain to him how I had seen the footage before he had. I’d worry about that later though. “You said the police haven’t seen this yet?” I asked.

She shut off the iPad. “No, like I said
, we thought that the camera was broken. But I did call them. I’m sure if they are interested they will come by.”

Liz was definitely acting as if she didn’t want the police to see the footage now. It was too late because I had seen it. And she had been the one to point it out to me. I hadn’t even noticed it at first.

“I’m sure they will find what they need,” she added.

I gave a half-hearted smile.
“Yes, I’m sure they will. Thank you for showing me the footage.”

“I’ll be sure to let you know if anyone turns in the wallet
,” she said.

I furrowed my brow.

“Your friend’s wallet,” she said.

“Oh
, yeah, sure. Thanks. I’m sure she would appreciate that.” My fake story had almost slipped my mind.

I had to figure out what to do with the information I’d just gotten. The bad pa
rt was there was no way to prove what Connie had been carrying under her shirt. I was pretty confident that it had been the murder weapon. I wondered what Connie would say if she saw that footage.

After seeing the footage I decided to go back behind the store once again. I hadn’t been back there since the
Dumpster lid had slammed down on me. I had to get over that fear some time though. My desire to find good junk won over my fear of being locked in the trash bin. I figured I should be more concerned with being locked in, but I’d be the first to admit my thoughts weren’t always rational.

As I neared the Dumpster I spotted a small chair sitting next to it. It looked like a sad, lost little puppy.

Even better, I wouldn’t have to climb in the bin to retrieve it. Since I was still a little nervous I looked around to see if anyone was watching. The alleyway was like a ghost town.

The wooden chair had an upholstered seat. As I inspected it I realized the only reason someone had thrown it out was because the fabric had been ripped. Just in case
, I sat on the chair to see if it would break and I’d land on my butt. Nope. It held me just fine. What a waste. I could replace the fabric and the chair would be good as new.

Before leaving with the chair I peeked over the side of the Dumpster. Scanning the contents
, all I saw were bags of trash and cardboard containers. The best time to find anything at Coco’s was when new shipments arrived. If one of the new items had a little flaw, Liz would toss it. New shipments usually came every two weeks. Was it bad that I already knew the schedule? All was not lost though because I’d found the chair. I backed up from the Dumpster and picked up the chair.

As I turned to leave a rustle caught my attention. I froze on the spot because of course I thought back to the day when I’d been trapped in the Dumpster. Sure
, it had only been a minute I’d been stuck, but it had still been scary.

It was just the wind, I told myself. Except there wasn’t any wind. The air was still and humid. The same rustle came from behind me again. I knew that I had to take a look over my shoulder. It was probably nothing more than a stray cat.

I turned and scanned the area behind the store. Expecting to see a cat, I was shocked to see Julian. She was moving away from the area. All I saw was her back, but I knew it was her. Had she been watching me? And if so, why? What other reason would she have to be behind Coco’s? It could be a coincidence, but after all that had happened, I wouldn’t rule anything out. If she had followed me then I wanted to know why. How long had she followed me? There were too many questions being tossed around in the blender of my confused mind.

I set the chair down and headed in the direction where I’d seen Julian. Behind the shops was an alleyway for the Dumpsters and deliveries, and beyond that was a line of trees and shrubs. On the other side of that was the parking lot for a few more businesses. Julian had crossed through the shrubs and disappeared. When I reached the spot, I looked to the left and to the right. She was nowhere in sight. She must have parked her car there and left because I didn’t think she
’d had time to vanish from sight if she’d been walking.

I gave up and went back to my chair. After picking it up, I headed back to my car. Liz probably saw me walk past the front windows with the chair in my arms. If she’d thrown it away
, though, it was mine for the taking.

Seeing Julian back there had been disturbing. I just couldn’t figure out what she would have been doing. I wanted to think there was a logical explanation. I certainly didn’t want to be paranoid and think the worst. Heck, maybe she’d wanted the chair too and I’d beat
en her to it.

Then again Julian could be
the one who’d closed the lid on me. Why would she do something like that? I didn’t even know her. I suspected Connie of closing the lid on me and I didn’t even know her either. There was no evidence that Julian had intended on closing me in the trash container, so I needed to calm down.

As I walked by Coco’s I avoided looking in. Maybe it was a fear that
Liz would make me return her chair. If she asked I’d give it back, but I hoped that she didn’t ask.