A Chili Death: A Classic Diner Mystery (3 page)

“I know a lawyer in Lenoir we could get to look into the legality of this,” my father said.

“We could always call Rebecca,” I chimed in.  I was having second thoughts about not interrupting her conference.  This was, in a very real way, life and death for me and my family.

“Joe, Victoria, there’s no offense intended, but I aim to take this to the top,” Moose said gravely.

“Are you going to call the governor?” Greg asked.  Rumor was that the state’s highest elected official and Moose went way back, but I’d never been able to discover if it were true, or if Moose had just started the rumor himself for his own entertainment.

My grandfather shook his head.  “No, I’m going to need somebody higher in authority than that.  I’m calling Holly Dixon.”

My grandmother immediately bristled beside him.  “There’s no need to do that, and you know it.”

He took her hands in his.  “Martha, I told you a long time ago, there was never anything between Holly and me but simple conversation.  We need her now, and there’s no reason not to call her.”

“I saw what I saw, and I know what I know,” my grandmother said.

“Hang on a second,” Greg said.  “Are we talking about Judge Dixon?”

“Who else could we be discussing?” Moose asked.  “She was Holly to me before she ever dreamed about becoming a judge.”

“She dreamed about being Mrs. Moose Nelson before she ever thought about going to law school,” my grandmother said sharply.  Clearly, she was actually jealous of the woman, even after all of these years.

“Then I won’t call her,” Moose said with a sigh.  “We’ll manage to get through this without her.  I didn’t disrespect you then, and I won’t do it now, Martha.”

My grandmother looked at him a few moments, and then she took his face in her hands and planted a solid kiss on his lips. 

“What was that for?” he asked her.

“For the gesture, and the sentiment.  Now, go ahead and call her.”

Moose looked at her as though she’d just started speaking French.  “Say again?”

“Call Judge Tart.  If she can help us, I’m not above asking for it.”

“Go on,” I said, “Call her before Martha changes her mind.”

He glanced at the portable telephone I was shoving toward him as though it were radioactive, but he refused to take it.  “Let’s all just take a deep breath and think about this for a minute.”

“We don’t have time,” I said.  “If we lose this place, we all know that a part of our family’s going to die with it.”

“You’re right,” Moose said.  “Somebody give me a phone book.”

Instead of answering his request, Martha kissed him once again. 

“I’m not even going to pretend to know what that one was for,” Moose said.

Martha started to tell him when she saw me smiling.  “Ask Victoria.  She knows.”

I grinned.  “I’m guessing it’s because you have to look her number up.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” he asked, still clearly perplexed.

“That’s the point.  You wouldn’t, if you knew it by heart,” I said.

Moose just shook his head.  “I swear, trying to figure out women is a waste of a man’s time and brainpower.”

My mother, Melinda, who had been quiet up until now, said with the hint of a smile, “And we all know that you don’t have that much of either one to spare at the moment.”  She was where I’d gotten my sassy streak, though she didn’t show it all that much anymore.

Greg laughed as he commented, “Take my word for it and give up while you’re still just a little behind, Moose.”

“That’s a fair piece of advice, and I aim to take it,” Moose said as he looked up the judge’s number in our local phone book.  I may not have had any reason to have hope, but I was beginning to believe that we might just have a chance to save the diner after all.  It wasn’t necessarily because of anything that anyone had said, or the plans we were making. 

It was because my family was working on the problem together, and that gave me more encouragement than I could describe. 

At least that was how I felt until Judge Dixon showed up fifteen minutes later.

Martha excused herself as Moose made the call to Judge Dixon, and no one was really all that surprised when she left the diner altogether soon afterward, especially not my grandfather.  We had just two customers at the moment, so I took the opportunity to hang the CLOSED sign on the front door and sent Jenny on her way, though it was still a bit early.  My two regulars were soon gone, so I stayed by the door to let Judge Dixon in when she showed up.   When the judge finally appeared at The Charming Moose, I let her in, and as she stepped inside, she scanned the dining room quickly.  I had to wonder if she was searching for my grandmother.

I smiled at her and said, “Don’t worry.  She’s not here.”

“She?” the judge asked archly, making one word sound more like an accusation than a simple query.  In her late-sixties, the woman was stern and direct, and she wore her gray hair pulled back into a bun so tight it was amazing that she didn’t smile more often just from the pressure alone, but I could see that deep down, she was still quite a lovely woman.

“My grandmother had to leave,” I said,  “but everyone else is in the kitchen.  Would you care to join us there?”

Judge Dixon waved a shooing hand in the air, gesturing for me to lead on.  I didn’t really have a response to that, and besides, she scared me more than a little bit with her judicial air that didn’t need a robe to back it up.

As we walked into the kitchen, I saw Moose’s face soften for just an instant, and I turned to catch a matching glimpse of the judge’s demeanor just before she carefully masked it again.  It was clear that, regardless of the circumstances, she was happy to see my grandfather, even if most of his family was surrounding him at the moment. 

Getting her composure back, she said, “First things first, Moose.  Let’s see that document.”

My grandfather offered it to her as he said, “Thanks for coming, Holly.”

“Of course,” she answered.  The judge studied the document carefully, and then after a few moments of consideration, she said, “I’m afraid it’s all in order, as far as it goes.  This notice appears to be legal and binding.”

“But I bought this land fifty years ago!” Moose protested.  “I paid good money for it.”

If his abrupt tone bothered her in the least, she didn’t show it.  “Do you happen to have the original bill of sale?”

Moose just shrugged.  “Honestly, if I ever did have one, it’s probably long gone by now.  We did business a little differently back then.”

“How about the diner’s safety deposit box?” my father asked.  “Could you have stored it there and forgotten about it, Moose?  When I had to check it once, it was jam full of all kinds of papers.”

“I might have stuck it there, but then again, there’s just as much a chance that I used the back of it to write a takeout order down two days later.”

“I believe that it would be prudent on your part to find it,” Judge Dixon said.  As she tapped the paper, she added, “This document could present you with a great deal of trouble.”

“All I can do is look for it,” Moose said.  “Can you suggest anything else we might be able to do to make this mess go away?”

“If I were you, I’d try the courthouse in the morning.  If the sale and property transfer were properly registered there, you should be able to win a court case if it comes to that.”  She added, almost as an afterthought, “I’d have to recuse myself from the case, of course.”

“Of course,” Moose said.  “While you’re here, can I get you a slice of pie?  You used to like cherry, if I remember correctly.”

I know it wasn’t my imagination that time.  She softened, but just around the edges, and only for a moment.  “I’m afraid there’s no time, but thank you for your kind offer.”

After she was gone, I asked Moose, “What exactly was that all about?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Come on, I saw it, and so did everyone else here.  Something happened way back then between the two of you, didn’t it?  I’m willing to bet that it was more than just casual conversation, too.”

“Child, you’re delusional,” Moose said.

“But you didn’t say that she was wrong,” my mother chimed in.

Moose looked as though he wanted to say something, and then he obviously thought better of it.  He rubbed his chin whiskers and then he declared, “I need a shower, a shave, and a good night’s sleep.  We’ll deal with this in the morning.”  As he headed for the door, he turned to his son and daughter-in-law.  “Are you two driving me home, or do I have to walk?”

Once they were gone, I looked at Greg, and found that he was smiling at me.  “What’s so amusing?”

“I don’t know a single other person in all of Jasper Fork with the courage to tackle your grandfather head-on like you just did, and yet you did it without any sense of concern for your safety or wellbeing.  Remind me never to cross you, Victoria.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said with a smile.  “I just asked the man a simple question.”

“Whatever you say.”  Greg looked at the clock.  “Let’s clean up and get out of here.  I’m tired, and I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a long day.  I’m going to cancel the poker game tomorrow night.”

“Don’t you dare,” I said.  “You need your time away from this place, and besides, what are you going to be able to do to help our cause at night?  As a matter of fact, it couldn’t hurt for you to show up and see what your poker buddies have to say.  That’s one of the most influential groups in town, and if we can get them on our side, it couldn’t hurt.”

“You’ve convinced me,” he said with the hint of a smile.  “I’m going after all.”

As we went about our nightly routine of closing, I balanced the cash register and swept the front while Greg took care of cleaning up the kitchen.  The dining room was in good shape when my husband came out to join me, and as we headed home, I couldn’t help wondering if tonight was the beginning of the end for our comfortable and safe little world.

“Come on, open up,” Greg said the next morning as he knocked again and again on the front door.  We were waiting on the courthouse steps, it was two minutes until nine, and my husband and I were there to see if any official records of the land sale between Moose and Joshua Lance existed.  At the same time we were waiting to check the books, Moose and Martha were going to be visiting the bank, hoping to find the original receipt tucked away in the diner’s safety deposit box.  While we were all chasing down leads, Mom was running the grill, and Dad had even taken a little time off from his job to help out up front.

“You know, they aren’t going to open early just because you want them to,” I said to my husband with a half-smile.

“Why couldn’t Judge Dixon have taken care of this last night?” Greg asked.  “She has to have some kind of pull here.”

I tugged my jacket closer, wishing I’d worn a heavier coat when I’d left the house.  We were close enough to the mountains to get their weather sometimes, and this autumn was turning out to be chillier than most.  I loved the explosion of colors the hardwood trees brought with the season, so I was willing to deal with whatever weather we faced, but that didn’t mean I had to embrace it.  On the other hand, my husband didn’t even seem to notice the change in temperature.

“Greg, aren’t you cold?”

“It’s a little brisk,” he admitted as he looked around, “but that’s the way I like it.”

Somehow, seeing him in just a T-shirt and blue jeans made me even colder.

Hank Brewer didn’t even seem to notice us as he approached the courthouse, a scowl plastered to his face.  Hank was a tall and heavyset man with a shock of white hair.  He was a longtime friend of Moose’s, and owned The Clothes Horse just down the block from us. 

“What are you two doing here?” he asked when he finally saw us.  Before I could answer, he did it for me.  As his expression soured even further, he said, “Don’t tell me.  You got a visit from Howard Lance yesterday, too, didn’t you?  Does Moose know about this mess yet?”

“He found out last night,” I said.

“Then I’m surprised that Howard Lance is still walking around today.  I’m tempted to take a swing at him myself, but Moose must want to kill him.”

Behind him, another citizen of Jasper Fork, Cynthia Wilson, came up and joined us.  I’d gone to school with Cynthia’s daughter, Penny.  She must have heard our topic of conversation as she approached.  “I didn’t sleep a wink last night.  I’ve been so worried about this entire mess.”  Cynthia ran A Cut Above, the town beauty parlor.  “I’ve been trying to figure out what to do, but I’m not afraid to admit that I’m in way over my head.  I don’t know what I’ll do if he takes away my business.”

“This is all just unbelievable.  Moose isn’t even sure that he kept his receipt for the original land sale,” I said.

“I lost my papers in a basement flood ten years ago,” Hank said.  “But I know for a fact I registered the sale, so I should be okay.”

“I spoke with my mother in Florida, and she’s certain that she registered too, not that she’s still not as frantic as I am.”  That didn’t surprise me one bit.  Evelyn, and her daughter as well, had an overactive imagination when it came to bad things happening to her, and there wasn’t a conclusion yet that either one of them hadn’t jumped to as far as I knew.