Peach Pies and Alibis (6 page)

“I can’t wait until Vaughn brings me my new Jeep,” she told Chewy as she struggled
up one of Havenwood’s many hills. “You’re going to love riding in it, boy.”

But Chewy didn’t seem to mind his cozy bike basket one bit. Tongue lolling, he sniffed
the air and grinned, relishing the mixture of honeysuckle, tree sap, and pine needles
coming from the woods lining the road.

Now he was surrounded by the scent of the peach and vanilla roses that climbed up
the porch columns and onto the roof. Ella Mae had always found the blooms’ heady perfume
relaxing, and now it had lulled her dog to sleep. Looking away from her cookbooks
for a moment, she scratched Chewy’s white tummy. She then wrote down the weekly specials,
pleased with her selections.

“Here’s the lineup,” she told the napping terrier. “The savory selections will be
zucchini pie and a roasted red pepper and goat cheese tart. For this week’s side,
I’ll offer a cucumber salad. And for dessert, we’ll have white nectarine pie topped
with a cinnamon sugar lattice crust as well as a strawberry cream cheese tart.”

Chewy whined and rolled over, repositioning himself until he resembled a brown and
white comma, his black nose inches away from his back paws. He sighed once, almost
wistfully, and then fell silent again.

“You’re right. Summer’s almost over. I should make a pie that says farewell to the
heat and humidity. How about a lemon icebox pie with a graham cracker crust?”

Slowly opening his eyes, Chewy yawned and stretched.

Ella Mae made a few more notes and sipped her cappuccino, watching the sky change
from a weak blue to a strange yellowish pink. It was the kind of sky that typically
foreshadowed a snowstorm. But this was August, and Havenwood was lucky to get a decent
rain at the end of summer, let alone snow.

A cool breeze stirred the magnolia tree in the front yard, pulling petals loose and
sending them spiraling onto the grass. Without warning, rain began to fall, even though
there wasn’t a cloud in sight.

Ella Mae closed her notebook and walked to the edge of the porch, confused by the
sky’s odd hue and the sudden precipitation. She put a hand out and a few drops fell
onto her palm. Light as kisses, the sprinkles felt cold as frost on her skin. A mist
curled across the ground, carrying tiny sparkles of silver dew.

The shop phone rang and Ella Mae reluctantly withdrew her hand from the peculiar rain
and went inside to answer it.

“Are you done with your dough balls?” her aunt Cecilia asked. Known to most as Sissy,
she ran the Havenwood School for the Arts. Sissy was prone to wearing pastel-colored
tops and skirts made of gauzy, loose materials. She had a flair for the dramatic and
often enunciated particular words for no apparent reason. “Because Verena and I would
love to take you to lunch. Someone should cook for
you
for a change.”

Ella Mae smiled at the thought. “I can’t today, Aunt Sissy. I bought a car and the
owner’s driving it to me within the hour. How about supper?”

Sissy paused. “Okay, but what are your plans for the rest of your day off? You’re
not going to
work
anymore, are you?”

“No. I was going to take a drive in my new Jeep. Maybe swing by the bookstore. I need
to catch up on my reading. The only thing on my nightstand are a stack of
Cook’s Illustrated
magazines.”

“You don’t want your job to define you,” Sissy said. “Life is meaningless without
art, music, and books—the things that infuse our days with
color
. I like the idea of your getting out on the open road. You could use sun on your
face and some wind in your hair, honey.”

Ella Mae heard the sound of car doors shutting. “I don’t think I’ll see much sun today,
Aunt Sissy. Not with this weird rain.” She walked to the large window containing the
rotating display case and peered outside. “I need to run. The couple who sold me the
Jeep is here.”

“Call me later!” Sissy trilled and hung up.

Vaughn and Lynn Sherman knocked on the pie shop’s door. They were each carrying a
cooler. Lynn immediately put hers down to pet Chewy. He barked a few times to show
her that he was on guard duty, but then quickly changed his tune. Wagging his tail,
he jumped up, put his paws on her thighs, and licked her hand.

“Chewy! Down!” Ella Mae scolded the terrier and hurried to invite the Shermans inside.
“Sorry about my dog. He’s not fully trained yet.”

“He’s adorable,” Lynn said. “And Vaughn’s not fully trained yet either, but I still
love him.”

“Lucky for me,” Vaughn said, stepping into the shop. “We have your cheese delivery
and the keys and title to your Jeep.”

“Wonderful.” Ella Mae smiled. “Let me put those coolers in the walk-in.”

But Vaughn and Lynn insisted on toting them to the kitchen. After Ella Mae put the
cheese away, she offered the Shermans coffee.

“We can’t stay,” Lynn said with genuine regret. “I’d love nothing more than to spend
an hour in this kitchen. It has such a magical feel to it, but we’re driving into
Atlanta today to have lunch with Vaughn’s mother.”

Vaughn looked sheepish. “My mama can be a bit of a battle ax. Folks call her General
Sherman for good reason.”

Laughing, Ella Mae handed him a check and thanked the couple for bringing both the
Jeep and the cheese.

“Oh, and I expect you’ll be hearing from Maurelle today too,” Lynn said on her way
out the door. “I hope she works out. She seems like a lovely girl who’s been through
an awful lot for someone so young. I’d say she’s about due for a lucky break.”

“I understand that feeling,” Ella Mae mumbled to herself as the Shermans drove away.
She then jiggled the car keys in her hand and glanced at Chewy. “Wanna go for a drive,
boy? We’ve worked enough for one day.”

Chewy performed several high leaps and then chased his tail.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Ella Mae locked up the pie shop and untied Chewy’s leash.
They walked through the rain, Chewy stopping more than once to shake his coat, as
if the cold drops bothered him. Once he was settled in the passenger seat, Ella Mae
hopped into the Jeep and started the
engine. She didn’t even have the chance to pull away from the curb when her cell phone
rang.

She glanced at the caller ID. It was her aunt Dee.

“Are you busy?” Dee asked in her low and musical voice. Dee crafted metal sculptures
for people who’d lost beloved pets. After reviewing photographs and talking to the
owners about the character traits of the deceased animal, Dee would create a likeliness
so similar to the actual pet that anyone fortunate enough to view one of her pieces
half expected the sculpture to spring to life.

“I was just leaving work,” Ella Mae said. “I finally got a car and I thought I’d take
it for a spin. What are you up to?”

“Well, I wanted to see if you’d like to come with me to drop off my latest sculpture.
Melissa Carlisle’s rabbit died a few weeks ago, and since she’s a friend, I put this
project ahead of my others,” Dee said. “I thought you might like to meet her because
she makes her own honey and you’re always on the lookout for fresh, local ingredients.
You’ve probably already seen her at the farmer’s market. She has a stall there.”

Ella Mae was tempted. “Where does Ms. Carlisle live?”

“Close to Havenwood Mountain Park.”

Dee was the most reclusive of the four LeFaye sisters. Valuing her privacy above all
else, she lived on the outskirts of town, where she worked in her studio and cared
for a dozen rescue cats and dogs. Over the summer, Ella Mae had spied on her aunt
while she was finishing one of her sculptures and had seen a wave of shimmering light
flowing from Dee’s body into the heart of the metal dog. At first, Ella Mae thought
it was a hallucination. It winked out so quickly that she doubted it had been there
in the first place, but when she examined the dog’s eyes later on, the tiniest spark
of light was dancing within its steel pupils.

It was an amazing sight, but Ella Mae still felt guilty
about witnessing Dee’s gift in action without asking her permission.

“Sure, I’d love to meet you at Ms. Carlisle’s,” she told her aunt and jotted down
directions.

Despite the rain, Ella Mae cracked the Jeep’s windows open. She wanted to invite the
outside in during her inaugural drive, and as she moved through the downtown business
district toward the residential area to the west of the lake, the rain swirled around
them in curlicues of glimmering silver.

The Jeep climbed the curvy roads winding through the blue green hills with ease. Chewy
stuck his whole head out of the window, his ears perked into eager triangles and his
nose quivering in excitement as he tried to capture every new scent. Ella Mae also
drew in deep breaths, savoring the rain-infused mountain air.

“How did I grow up here and not realize that Havenwood is so beautiful?” Ella Mae
asked Chewy as she turned down a secluded driveway and pulled up in front of a modest
cabin.

Chewy ignored her. Having spotted Dee, he barked a chipper greeting and pawed at the
window in hopes of escape.

Dee, who’d been sitting in her car, got out and walked to Chewy’s side of the Jeep.
“Hello, Charleston Chew.” She reached in and caressed his head. Normally, Chewy would
be leaping like crazy to get more attention, but Dee was always able to calm and soothe
him. He sat on his haunches and gave her a gentlemanly kiss on the back of her hand.
“Can you be patient for a moment?” she asked the terrier. “After we see Melissa, and
if the rain stops, we’ll take you to the park. All right?”

Chewy’s tail wagged double-time and Dee smiled. “I like your wheels,” she told Ella
Mae. “Still looks like a mail
truck though. It could use a paint job. A little sign or spot of color to promote
the pie shop.”

“You sound like Sissy,” Ella Mae said. “But I don’t have the money for a car makeover
right now, especially if I’m going to hire a new employee.”

Dee nodded and pointed at a bundle positioned next to the cabin’s front door. “Melissa
isn’t answering her bell. She might have forgotten about our appointment or gone into
the woods to tend to her hives, but I hate to just leave Cadbury on the porch. That
rabbit was her dearest companion for over a decade.”

“I love the name.” Ella Mae grinned and headed up the slick stairs. “Did you try calling
her on the phone?”

“Yes. She didn’t pick up.”

Ella Mae tried to see inside the house, but the front windows were covered with thick
curtains. “Let’s walk around back.”

The rain had become featherlight, and Ella Mae didn’t mind its touch on her hair and
skin. With Dee close behind, she made her way around the tiny cabin, their footfalls
quieted by the worn dirt path.

The two women gazed at the windowless back door. The rear wall only had one window,
and it was too far off the ground to peer through. Dee gave a sigh of disappointment.

“If I could find something to stand on, I might get a glimpse inside.” Ella Mae peeked
inside the tool shed behind the house. Seeing a dirty wood crate, she dragged it across
the lawn and positioned it below the window. Turning to her aunt, she asked, “Do you
want me to do this? It makes us look really nosy.”

“Normally, I’d say no,” Dee said. “But Melissa is…” she trailed off, her gaze moving
nervously over the trees. “Go ahead. Do it.”

Concerned by Dee’s obvious anxiety, Ella Mae hopped onto the crate and stood on her
tiptoes. Stretching until her
chin reached past the sill, she looked into the kitchen and saw a pair of legs on
the linoleum floor. Only the calves and feet were visible, the toes of a pair of tennis
shoes pointing skyward.

“We need to go in,” Ella Mae said, jumping off the crate. “Ms. Carlisle must have
fallen. She’s lying on the floor and isn’t moving.” Hurrying to the back door, she
tried the handle. The door swung inward with a creak of protest.

“Stop!” Dee shouted. Ella Mae was so unaccustomed to hearing her aunt raise her voice
that she instantly obeyed. “I should go first,” Dee said.

Ella Mae followed her down a short corridor decorated with cherry blossom wallpaper
and framed seed packets. Melissa Carlisle had collapsed between the kitchen and the
hall. Her upper body rested on a floral rug while her lower half was sprawled on the
kitchen’s blue linoleum.

“Oh, no,” Dee whispered and knelt down by Melissa’s head. She felt for a pulse, but
Ella Mae knew she wouldn’t find any evidence that blood still flowed through the older
woman’s veins. There was a waxen appearance to Ms. Carlisle’s face, and her mouth
hung open in a lopsided yawn. Her eyes were closed, but her fingers were stuck in
rigid curls. She was gone.

Ella Mae fought the urge to look away. Melissa Carlisle had not had a peaceful death,
and the sight of her, frozen on the floor in a state of agony, was terrifying.

“I’ll call for help,” she told Dee. She pulled her cell phone out of the back pocket
of her khaki shorts, dialed 911, and asked that an ambulance be dispatched to Ms.
Carlisle’s address.

The operator wanted more information. “What’s the nature of the emergency?”

Ella Mae hesitated. “Well…I guess it’s not an emergency anymore. The woman who lives
here, Melissa Carlisle, is dead. We just found her, my aunt and I.”

“I see,” the operator replied emotionlessly and assured her that the paramedics would
arrive shortly.

Pocketing the phone, Ella Mae watched her aunt place a hand on Melissa’s cheek and
whisper a few words over her. They were too low for Ella Mae to hear, but Dee’s tone
was very tender.

“Were you two close?” Ella Mae asked as gently as possible.

Nodding, Dee touched Melissa’s fingers. Clearly troubled by their clawlike shape,
her eyes moved up and down her friend’s body and then drifted toward the kitchen.
She stood up and examined the countertop before peering into the sink. She then opened
the refrigerator.

Ella Mae asked, “What are you looking for?”