Thirty-Four and a Half Predicaments: Rose Gardner Mystery #7 (30 page)

She pursed her mouth and shook her head. “Sad, sad tale.”

“It is,” I agreed. “I know you get a lot of people in here, but do you maybe happen to remember the other customers who were in here with me? One was a tall, lanky guy, maybe late fifties? He looked really familiar.”

She nodded with a smile. “Ed Barlow. He works at the courthouse. He comes over for a cupcake every afternoon on his break.”

“I know him,” Neely Kate added. “He works in probate.”

“There were also two women. A young woman in her twenties.”

She shook her head. “I don’t remember her.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why are you asking?”

I gave her a tight smile. “I’ll tell you in a minute.” I didn’t want to prejudice her recollection. “What about the middle-aged woman? Maybe in her late forties. She sat at one of the tables in the back while you rang me up. I think her name was Marta.”

“Marta Gray. She works down at the dry cleaners.”

I gave Neely Kate a questioning glance, but she just shook her head. “Don’t know her.”

I gave her a look of disbelief. Most days it seemed like she knew all twenty-four thousand residents in the county. I turned my attention back to Dena. “She didn’t seem very happy that day.”

“She’s a bit cranky at times,” Dena said. “But her husband is good for nothing and her teenage boys aren’t much better.”

“Do you know if she worked at Atchison Manufacturing?” I asked.

Dena scrunched her nose. “I don’t know. She’s kind of young, but I guess she could have started there right out of high school.”

I turned to Neely Kate and pulled her away from the counter before I whispered, “Didn’t Gloria say the other office girl was let go because Ima Jean thought Henry was having an affair with Dora? What if Marta set the fire and then put the note on my truck to scare me off after she heard me askin’ about it?”

Neely Kate made a face. “That’s a lot of maybes…and where would Beverly fit in?”

“Maybe Beverly’s not part of it at all. For all we know, she could just be Dirk’s old girlfriend or wife.”

Neely Kate looked dubious.

Dena rested her elbows on the case, squinting at me. “What’s going on, Rose?”

I walked back over to her. “Someone left a threatening note on my truck the day I was in here. I’m trying to figure out who it was.”

Dena shook her head. “There’s no way it could be Marta. She doesn’t have it in her. Besides, why would she do such a thing?”

“There’s only one way to find out.” I glanced over at Dena. “What does Marta usually get?”

Neely Kate put her hand on her hip, giving me a disapproving glare. “You’re gonna take her cupcakes and then accuse her of arson?”

Dena gasped. “What?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m gonna be more subtle than that.”

Dena made a face. “I don’t know, Rose. I don’t think I want any part of this.”

“I won’t outright accuse her. Neely Kate and I will take her cupcakes and introduce ourselves as new business neighbors from the landscaping office. I’ll just ask her where she used to work.”

“That might actually work.” Neely Kate sounded impressed.

Dena grabbed a box. “I’ll go along with this as long as you promise not to be mean to her. That poor woman has had a hard life.”

“I’m gonna be as sweet as your cupcakes,” I said, holding up my hand. “I’m just gonna ask her a few questions.”

Dena handed me the box. “Vanilla bean. Two of ’em. She loves them. And if I find out you were mean to her, I’ll ban you from gettin’ anything from here again.”

“I promise we’ll be nice. I’m just ruling her out.” I paid for the baked goods and Neely Kate and I headed toward the dry cleaners.

“Which one of us should start?” Neely Kate asked.

“How about we just act like we’re really introducing ourselves for no reason and wing it.” I gave her a grin. “We’ve done pretty well so far.”

She smiled. “We have, haven’t we?”

No one was in the dry cleaners when we entered, but the woman I’d seen in the bakery walked up to the counter. “Can I help you?”

Neely Kate gave her a bright smile. “Hi! I’m Neely Kate and this is Rose. We just opened RBW Landscaping.” She held out the box. “We brought you some cupcakes from Dena’s to say hi.”

She took the box and looked down at it before glancing back up at Neely Kate. “I’m not the owner. I just work here.”

Neely Kate leaned forward and cupped her hand around her mouth and said in a stage whisper, “It’s okay. I’m just an employee too.”

She smiled. “I’m Marta.”

She looked so grateful, I didn’t believe for a minute she’d left those nasty notes on my truck, but we might as well finish what we’d started. “Don’t let Neely Kate fool you, I couldn’t run the place without her.”

Neely Kate gave her a sly grin. “I abandoned the courthouse to run her books. I’m not sure you can get a worse job than working in the personal property department.”

“You never worked at the DMV,” I said. “That’s the worst job ever.”

“What about you, Marta?” Neely Kate asked. “You have any previous crummy jobs?”

“Well, I’ve worked here for a long time. About twelve years. Before that I worked at a nursin’ home.” She grimaced. “Nothing like wipin’ old people’s butts and cleaning up their poop all day.”

Neely Kate made a face. “You definitely have a point.”

“Did you work anywhere before that?” I asked.

“I worked at the Burger Shack when I was in high school.” She lowered her voice. “Which is why I don’t eat there anymore. The things they did with their hamburger meat…”

She didn’t finish and I didn’t want her to. As it stood, I wasn’t sure I wanted to eat there anymore either.

“That’s it?” Neely Kate asked.

“Ain’t it enough?” Marta laughed. She opened the box and held it out. “You girls want a cupcake?”

I felt guilty for even considering the possibility she could be capable of something so devious. “You keep ’em. We got them for you.”

Tears filled her eyes. “I was havin’ the worst day and you girls just made it better.”

Neely Kate leaned over and grabbed her hand. “We’re just down the street if you ever need someone to talk to, you hear?”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

The bell on the door dinged again and a man walked in, his arms stacked with garments.

Neely Kate waved and headed for the door. “We’ll see you later, Marta.”

We walked out onto the sidewalk. “Now what?” Neely Kate asked. “We’re back to square one.”

I let out a loud sigh. Other than meeting someone new who looked like she needed a friend, we’d learned nothing.

“Rose,” Neely Kate hissed. “Could that be Merv?” She pointed to a man lurking outside the landscaping office.

We were a good fifty feet away, but there was no mistaking his bulky frame and perpetual scowl. “Oh, crap.”

She grabbed my arm. “Come on.” The she dragged me over to an office space, pushed open the door, and pulled me into the small reception area. I didn’t even have time to look at the sign.

“Hey, Ebola girl!” a familiar man’s voice exclaimed. “I knew you couldn’t stay away from me.”

I spun around to see Carter Hale, the attorney who’d helped Neely Kate in the ER waiting room back in December, after she’d insinuated she had Ebola. He was standing in a short hallway, a smug smile on his face. His secretary stared at us from behind her desk like we were Martians.

Neely Kate put her hands on her hips. “Not likely, Carter Hale.”

“Then to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

She lifted her chin. “Rose is a co-owner of the landscaping business across the street, and we’re makin’ the rounds and saying hi to all our new neighbors. We just took cupcakes to Marta at the dry cleaners.”

He held out his hands. “So where are mine?”

She made a face, then looked out the window. “I ate them.”

He walked over next to her. “Whatcha lookin’ at?”

“Nothin’.”

“Is ‘Nothin’’ the name of that beefy guy hanging around outside your office?”

Carter Hale was too perceptive by half.

She scowled at him.

“Do I need to call Henryetta’s boys in blue?” he asked, but there was a sparkle in his eye. “Officer Sprout might run over faster if you tried dangling one of those cupcakes you’re not offering me.”

“There’s no need for that,” I said. “He’s harmless.” Or he would be if we kept avoiding him.

Neely Kate stepped back from the window, but Carter kept looking out of it. “So what’s your plan?”

“We’ll sell you on our services,” Neely Kate said, flashing him a cheesy smile. “Then you can write us a big fat check.”

“That’d be like selling a fishing pole to a camel in the desert,” Carter laughed, still watching out the window. “I live in a condo and my office has no green space.”

“Lucky for you, we have a plan for everyone,” Neely Kate countered.

He chuckled. “And what exactly do your services entail?”

“Not what you’re thinkin’ right now, Carter Hale.”

These two were gonna be the death of me.

“Your goon just got into a car and drove away.” He turned back to face us. “What kind of trouble did you two get into to gain the notice of one of Skeeter Malcolm’s henchmen?”

Oh, crappy doodles.

Thankfully Neely Kate didn’t miss a beat. “I made a bet on some horses and Skeeter’s sent one of his guys to collect.”

“Horses, you say?”

Neely Kate shrugged. “I have a terrible gambling problem. Why, walkin’ in here is proof enough of that.”

Carter laughed. “Fair enough.” He walked over to the desk where his secretary was still staring at us in disbelief. He picked up a couple of business cards and gave one to each of us. “I have a feeling you two might be in need of legal services in the near future. Consider this your get out of jail free card.”

Neely Kate took the card and stared at it before looking back up at him. “Rose’s boyfriend is the assistant district attorney. I think he’s our get out of jail free card.”

His grin wavered. “One can never be too careful.”

What did Carter Hale know?

My cell phone rang and I pulled it out and stared at the screen. “It’s my Aunt Bessie. I need to take this.” Then I walked out onto the sidewalk, leaving Neely Kate behind with Carter. I took a deep breath. I felt like I was gonna throw up. “Hey, Aunt Bessie.”

“Rose, I’m so happy you called! I miss you, girl.”

“I miss you too.”

“But I suspect you missing me isn’t why you called me on a Thursday afternoon at the salon.”

I squared my shoulders. “No, ma’am. It’s not.” Now that I had her on the phone I wondered if I should have driven over to Lafayette County to talk to her face to face. But I didn’t have time to do that right yet, and I couldn’t wait for the truth any longer. “I need to ask you some questions about Dora and Daddy.”

Neely Kate came out of Carter’s office and started gesturing to the front of the building while Carter stood in the doorway with an amused grin on his face. I heard her spouting off something about pots with flowers and vines.

Aunt Bessie was silent for a moment. “I was wondering when you’d start askin’ questions. Especially now that you’re livin’ in her house.”

“Do you know when Dora and Daddy first started seeing each other?”

“I’m not sure.”

“When did Daddy leave Momma?”

“In early October. Right after Dora quit her job.”

“Do you know why she quit?”

“I know she had trouble with her boss. They had a disagreement over something.”

That just confirmed Dirk’s story. And it meant Aunt Bessie wouldn’t know if there was a chance I wasn’t my daddy’s daughter. “When did you find out they were together?”

Aunt Bessie sighed. “Harrison didn’t tell me right away. He had a wife and baby daughter. He was ashamed.”

“That didn’t answer my question, Aunt Bessie.”

“The first I heard of it was in October. When he left your momma.”

My heart sank. “But did he ever tell you anything about their relationship before he moved out?”

“No, Rose. I’m sorry. I understand your need to put the pieces together, but I only know about the two of them after he moved out.”

“Can you tell me that part?”

“Of course.” I heard the smile in her voice. And the regret. “Earl and I first met Dora in the middle of October. We went to the farmhouse to see the two of them. Dora was a lovely woman. So warm and full of life. You’re a lot like her, Rose. And your daddy was so happy after he moved in with her. Happier than I’d ever seen him.”

I sat down on a park bench outside the courthouse and closed my eyes. Neely Kate sat beside me and I glanced up at her in surprise. I didn’t realize she’d walked over. “Did Daddy love me back then?” I asked.

“Oh, Rose. He loved you very much.”

“Yeah, for a few months. Until Dora died.”

“Rose, he loved you after that too. I told you, part of him died with her. He was never the same afterwards.”

Suddenly the significance of that hit me full force. Dora’s death had changed him, yes, but perhaps his transformation also had something to do with the fire. “Did Daddy ever say anything about his job at Atchison Manufacturing?”

“You found out he worked there?” she asked in surprise. “I brought up the factory once in conversation, and he got angry with me and said he’d never talk about the place again.”