A Sticky Situation (10 page)

Preston had been a fixture in Sugar Grove forever. Like my grandfather he had been born and raised here. When I was a kid I had found him intimidating and had been glad Lowell had replaced him as chief when I was still in elementary school.

Grampa always said Preston meant well but he came off as unnecessarily heavy-handed to most people. I had gotten the impression he enjoyed pointing out wrongdoing. Now I had to wonder if he was just an old grump because he was heartbroken over his marriage breaking up.

I was fairly certain I'd be able to locate Preston in his usual chair at the barbershop. He had far more freckles than hair on his head but he got Gus the barber to give him a trim every couple of days anyway. The days he wasn't getting a trim he sat reading the paper and
looking out the plate glass window onto Main Street. I parked the minivan more carefully than I might have generally done since I could feel him eyeing me, measuring up the distance I'd left from the hydrant on the corner.

“Hope you're not here for a trim. Gus is off for the day,” Preston said, laying his newspaper on the seat next to him.

“Why's the shop open if he won't be here?”

“Because I have a key and he likes me to sit in the front window scaring off the riffraff.” Many years earlier some teenagers from out of town had tried to hold Gus up not realizing the old guy waiting for a trim was armed and always happy to be thought of as dangerous.

In short order three embarrassed kids were in the back of Lowell's cruiser and Preston and Gus were on the evening news. Gus has provided free trims to law enforcement officers ever since and Preston hangs out, keeping an eye on the place.

“I wasn't here for a haircut anyway. I dropped in to see you.”

“What about?” Preston scowled at me. I sat two seats down from him and tried to look earnest and a little desperate.

“Hooliganism. I can't talk to Lowell about it because he's just too close to the family.”

“Somebody in your family is kicking up a bunch of dust?” That got his attention. His ears started swiveling like an old-fashioned satellite dish. He snatched the paper off the chair beside him and patted it with a
gnarled hand. I moved over and lowered my voice to barely above a whisper.

“Hazel's been out joyriding. She wrecked my car and did her best to corrupt a youth while she was at it.”

“She's always been a rip, that woman. Was the kid underage?”

“Nope. That was the only saving grace to the entire incident. We're at our wits' end. I'm afraid she's incorrigible.”

“Every year she manages to get up to some new sort of deviltry.”

“Do you remember the year she led a naked toboggan team down the sled route?”

“Hard to forget a thing like that. The worst part was the way Hazel kept asking if I was gonna frisk her.” Preston shook his head hard, like he was trying to rattle the image out of his eyeballs. “Something about the maple festival brings out the worst in that woman.”

“That's just it. Hazel's shenanigans have got to be the worst thing to ever take place during the festival.” I waited to see if he would take the bait. Preston wasn't a gossip like Myra but he was a born storyteller. Which is why he spent so much time at the barbershop. He had a built-in audience.

“You can take heart in the knowledge she hasn't caused the biggest stir,” he said. I crossed my arms and tipped my head like I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

“I haven't heard of anything worse happening in my lifetime.” And I hadn't either. Spooner was before my time so strictly speaking I was still telling the truth. I
watched, pleased with my work, as Preston leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers together over his rounded gut. It looked like I might be here for a while.

“Maybe not during your lifetime but not long before you added your twig to the Greene family tree there was Spooner Duffy.”

“The guy who just turned up dead in the town hall basement?”

“The very same. I knew he would come to a very bad end.”

“What could he have done for you to expect him to show up under a pile of coal in the cellar of a public building?” Now I was even more concerned that Preston could have been involved from the way he was taking on a gleeful glow.

“He ran off with the earnings from the festival and left a string of broken hearts in his wake.”

“Sounds like there should be a lot of suspects. Too bad he didn't turn up sooner.”

“If we had known he was dead instead of gone I would have taken the investigation in a whole different direction.”

“Was Spooner the only suspect in the robbery?”

“He was the only one missing. And he had a whole lot of reasons to hightail it out of town. Who better to suspect?”

“Lowell says the money wasn't with the body unless it disintegrated. And he sure didn't bury himself.”

“Well, I couldn't have known that at the time.”

“But now that you do know it, if you think back, was
there anyone else you would have questioned more closely?”

“Why all the questions about Spooner? I thought you wanted to pick my brain about your nutty aunt.”

“You brought up Spooner, not me. And I hope everyone ends up being more interested in Spooner than in Hazel.”

“I guess you have a point.”

“So was there someone else you suspected?”

“I did wonder a bit about Jim and Tansey.”

“What about them?”

“It occurred to me at the time that we only had their word for it that they ever actually put the money in Karen's desk drawer.”

“No one else saw them go to the town hall?” That seemed hard to believe.

“Jim, Tansey, and a couple of other people were involved in the final tally of the take. Several people saw the money go into the bank bag but that's the end of it. I never managed to run down any witnesses that saw them going to the town hall or driving away from it either.”

“Downtown Sugar Grove clears out pretty fast at the end of the festival. Everyone from out of town leaves altogether and residents are just happy to get home out of the cold. Just because you didn't find anyone who saw them doesn't mean they made off with the money.”

“It didn't help put them in the clear, though, either. I'm not saying they did it but you did ask if I suspected anyone else at the time.”

“What about Karen? She knew the money was going
to be in her desk and she probably had the opportunity to take it out before Jim got there. Did you ever suspect she could have had anything to do with what happened?” Karen seemed like a nice enough person but the last few months had taught me more than I ever wished to know about how people weren't always what they seemed.

“Karen said Jim was waiting for her on the town hall steps when she arrived at work that Monday morning.”

“It would have been easy enough to come in earlier and then leave again. That way she could have pretended to discover the theft right along with Jim.”

“Karen may have done some things I wished she hadn't and she may have even done some things she wished she hadn't but I can't see her taking the money. And I can't see her killing Spooner for it either. After all, she wrecked our marriage over the guy.”

“You never married again?”

“Take some advice from an old geezer. When you find the right person, don't let him get away, because there may not be anyone who ever comes close to them again.” Preston slumped a little in his chair. Without thinking about it I found myself reaching out and squeezing his hand.

“I'll remember,” I said as I felt him squeeze mine back.

*   *   *

It was easy enough to approach Sarah Gifford Sparkes in a place where she had very little chance of escape. I am certain my grandmother was surprised when I volunteered to
help out in the church nursery at Wednesday evening service. It was a task I had generally avoided ever since I was a teenager.

Grandma mentioned something about what people won't do to avoid their relatives. It was easier to let her think that I was going to the church to avoid Hazel and Jade. I certainly couldn't tell her about the favor I was doing for Tansey.

I knew talking to Sarah at the church was a great idea because she'd have a difficult time not answering my uncomfortable questions if she wanted to encourage me to volunteer again. On my way to the church, I turned over in my mind how to ask my questions. Despite the fact Tansey had called me a snoop, I really wasn't all that great at making people uncomfortable. I preferred to leave things like that to Myra or even Hazel.

By the time I arrived in the church basement Sarah already had her hands full with squawking children. A wailing baby perched on her hip and a toddler with a sippy cup clung to her leg. Three other preschool-aged children chased one another around the small room, leaving a trail of graham cracker crumbs and discarded blocks in their wake.

“Dani, your timing is perfect.” Sarah thrust the crying baby into my arms. I jiggled it up and down and patted it experimentally on the back. It grabbed a fistful of my hair and began to tug. I can't say I enjoyed the pain but at least she had stopped crying.

“Does she always freak out like this?”

“She fusses nonstop every time her mother drops her
off. You can't turn someone away from attending church but I find myself hoping her family would move to another town.” Sarah yawned extravagantly and collapsed into one of the two rockers at the far side of the nursery. “I really appreciate an extra set of hands.”

“I was planning to drive Spring and Hunter in for their youth group anyway. I figured while I was here that you might like some help.”

“I'm surprised you have the time, considering it is sugaring season and the festival preparations are in full swing.”

“There is a bit of extra work to do for the festival now that Tansey is out of commission.”

“I heard she took a tumble at the Stack. Is she still feeling poorly?”

“She isn't quite herself. You know she was friends with the guy whose body was found in the town hall?”

“That's hardly surprising. Spooner was really well-known around town.”

“I never met him but what I keep hearing is that mostly he was friends with all the women. Even ones who were as young as you were at the time he was in town.” I tried to keep my eyes on Sarah and her reaction to the conversation about Spooner but the baby kept moving her head into my line of vision. I couldn't feel irritated though. She really was awfully cute with her big dark eyes and cowlicked hair sticking up all over her head.

“I guess that's right. I know I was crazy about him but at least he was smart enough not to give any
encouragement to the pastor's underage daughter. I was pretty heartbroken at the time but looking back, I'm grateful I didn't get myself into any trouble.”

“Cliff Thompson said Spooner was spotted chasing you around backstage at the opera house at least once.”

“Cliff does love a good story. Spooner was trying to get me to take a message to Theresa Reynolds. She was still Theresa Carter then, of course.” Sarah shot out an arm and grabbed a little boy who held a wooden toy hammer poised above a small girl's head. “I told him I wouldn't and he kept following me around trying to convince me to do it. I ducked backstage to try to lose him but he followed me there, too. I expect that's what Cliff was talking about.”

“What did he want you to tell Theresa?”

“He didn't want me to tell her anything. He asked me to give her a note.” Sarah traded the boy a cracker for the hammer and sent him on his way.

“Did you finally agree to do it?”

“I did. I was so embarrassed by the scene he was causing that I took the note just to quiet him down. Spooner had a real thing for Theresa even though she made it clear she wasn't interested. He just wouldn't leave her alone.”

“You didn't happen to read it, did you? If I had been asked to give another girl a note from a guy I had a crush on I wouldn't have been able to resist the temptation of reading it.” I smiled at her, hoping enough time had gone by that Sarah wouldn't be reluctant to fess up.

“Of course I did. He wanted her to meet him at the
town hall the next night after the festival ended. He said he was doing some painting there after hours and that they'd have the place to themselves.”

“Did you give her the note?”

“You know how when you are a teenager everything seems so important? Almost life or death?”

“I remember.” Sarah was right. When I was a senior in high school, life felt so overwhelming and exciting all at the same time. Everything was suddenly too complicated and every choice felt like it had earth-shattering consequences.

“I did something I was ashamed of. I always looked up to Theresa. She was a couple years older than me, she was prettier than I was, and her family let her do things I never was allowed to do.”