Read Murder at the Blue Plate Café (A Blue Plate Café Mystery) Online
Authors: Judy Alter
Tags: #Mystery & Crime
Murder at the Blue Plate Café (A Blue Plate Café Mystery) (15 page)
David announced he wanted another drink, something stronger than wine this time.
“I have bourbon at the house,” I said, and then I remembered to call
Marj
and ask her to close. I gave no reason, per Rick’s demands, but just said I wouldn’t be back after all. She took it completely the wrong way, giggled, and said, “Have fun, sweetie. You deserve it.”
Yeah, I thought, fun. I promised David that drink as soon as we were allowed to leave. And I’d have to cobble together something for us to eat, since the café was closing.
Finally, Rick and Tom came out. “Shot in the back with what looks like a .38 Special. Lots of times, that’s a lady’s gun.”
We both stole a look at Tom, but he was stoic and finally said, “Only a coward shoots someone in the back.”
“Too true,” Rick said. “I’ve already got a list of people to talk to, but let’s begin with you two. How did you happen to come here? What’s the whole story?”
I gave him every bit of detail until I thought he’d yawn—how David had come out from Dallas to help me and eat some good café food, how Donna had called and been frantic because she couldn’t find Irv and her car was in the shop so she couldn’t go looking and she begged me to look for him, starting with the B & B, and how David kindly offered to go with me.
At that point, I let David take over the story of sneaking into the house, finding Irv, calling Rick. Every once in a while he’d look at me for confirmation, and I’d nod my head.
“And how are you involved in this, sir?” Rick asked, distantly polite.
I think David caught the drift, though it passed right over Tom’s head. “I’m Kate’s former employer and now, it looks like I’m her lawyer—on a variety of fronts. But I’m not a criminal defense lawyer. I just came down to help her with the suit from the mayor.”
Rick’s look softened a little. “Well, thank you for that. At this point, I don’t think Kate needs a lawyer. She’d have slight reason to kill Irv
Litman
, and with you as her alibi there’s no problem.”
I was a bit indignant that Rick thought even for an instant that I needed a lawyer, but I kept my mouth firmly shut.
“I’m puzzled,” Tom said. “As far as I know, Donna’s car is not in the garage.”
Rick wanted to get on with business. “Okay, you two can go. Bryson, I’m going to have to talk to your wife and probably get a search warrant for the house and car—depends on what Doc Mason says, but I think I know what he’ll say. Obviously you can’t be part of that. Why don’t we go back, get your car, and let you do some patrol. I’ll wait here for Doc Mason.” Then he stopped and seemed to rethink things. “Bryson, first you’ll have to go home to tell your wife. Stay with her as long as she needs you.”
I swear Tom breathed a sigh of relief. Inside, he must have been twisted in knots, hoping Donna wasn’t involved
Rick turned to me. “Kate, can you and Mr.
Clinkscales
take him to his car, so I can stay with the body and talk to Doc Mason?”
“Sure.”
And so we parted, David and I drove Tom to get his car, and I asked if he wanted us to follow him home to be sure the children were okay.
Almost pitifully he asked, “Do you want to come in and talk to Donna too?”
I shook my head. “Now’s not the time. I’ll see her tomorrow. And, Tom, I’m sorry you have to do this.”
He nodded glumly and finally said, “I hope the kids are in bed, but I think that’s too much to hope for. I’ll tell Jess the trip to the humane society is off for tomorrow.”
“Oh, no!” I cried. “She’s found the perfect dog that she wants. David and I will take her—and Henry.
“I wanted to go with my children to look at dogs,” he said like a disappointed child himself.
“I was going to call you, Tom. We can all go. David just wants to drive the back roads of East Texas and apparently Jess found a puppy online that she wants. But I’d have called. Honest.”
“Well, with what’s happened tonight I don’t think there’s any way I can go, so I’ll be grateful if you’d take the kids, even Ava if she’ll go.” Then he asked again, “Sure you won’t come in? I need help here.”
I knew he dreaded the coming confrontation, but there was no way that I was getting involved in the scene that was going to follow when Donna heard of Irv’s death—hysterics were probably the least of it. I predicted a disabling migraine, and suddenly I ached for Jess. I should take her home with me. Resolutely, I said, “I’m sure” to Tom and then, to David, “Let’s go back to the back porch.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
I improvised a marinara sauce out of canned tomatoes, a bit of tomato puree, wine, fresh herbs—thank you, Steve
Millican
—and garlic and shallots and then tossed it over penne with fresh grated Parmesan. If someone ever asked me what things were always in my refrigerator, Parmesan would be one of them. No salad makings, so I fixed a quick antipasto tray of meat, cheese, olives, gherkins and some marinated artichokes I had impulsively picked up at the H-E-B in Canton. We took our dinner to the porch, with tray tables—Gram’s left from our childhood and the few occasions we were allowed dinner in front of the TV. David forgot the bourbon and opened another bottle of chardonnay.
“What kind of a guy was he, Kate?”
“Hmmm. Hard. I don’t really know. I wrote him off as Dallas slick, and Tom thought he was having an affair with Donna, but
Litman
bought him lunch one day recently and said he never poached on another man’s territory. His relationship with Donna was strictly business. I suspect she wanted more out of it. Donna is, well, ambitious and, I hate to say it, greedy. She wants more out of life than being the wife of a small-town hardware store owner and the mother of his children. She wants the life I had in Dallas.” There, it was out!
He looked long and hard at me. “I didn’t know anything about your life outside the office.”
“That’s just as well,” I said, and we sat in silence some more.
Then David muttered, “I guess none of us are what we appear to others in the workaday world.”
I wasn’t going to push that one.
Just then, a flashlight showed coming up the drive. I braced for Rick, but it was Steve
Millican
. He halted at the porch steps. “Oh, I see you have company.”
Pretty obvious, Steve. “Steve, this is my former boss from Dallas, David
Clinkscales
. David, Steve
Millican
. He owns the wonderful nursery across the street, and he’s really helped me with Gram’s garden. He’s also responsible for the herbs in your marinara sauce.”
David stood, and the two shook hands. “I’m impressed by the sauce, don’t know if it’s your herbs or Kate’s cooking, but I’ll have to wander by and take something home to the wife. She’s a gardener.”
“I hope you’ll do that,” Steve said with grave courtesy. “I guess this isn’t a good time to ask if I can join you. You two talking business?”
“Yes,” I said, maybe too quickly. “About the mayor’s lawsuit.”
He looked David straight in the eye. “I hope you can help Kate. She doesn’t deserve to lose the business, and the mayor sure doesn’t deserve to get it through a lawsuit.”
“I don’t think that will happen,” David said. “You can quote me. Call me the hotshot lawyer from Dallas. That’ll scare them.”
“David!”
He looked at me. “Psychological tricks of the trade, Kate.”
Steve said goodnight, and when he and his flashlight were well out of sight and earshot, David chuckled. “Looks to me like life in small-town Texas is much more exciting than Dallas. At least for you. You’ve got, far as I can tell, two suitors, you’re being sued, you’re now involved in a murder investigation. What’s next, Kate? Arson?”
I shuddered. “I hope not. But I don’t really have two suitors. Neither one is serious.” I blushed as I said it and was glad for the darkness. “Rick doesn’t like Steve, from way back in Dallas, so I know he’ll question him about the murder. And poor Steve didn’t do it. I think he’s trying to leave his past behind him.”
“Like you?”
“His past was, I gather, a lot worse.” I didn’t feel like going into the details.
I had just finished the prep for breakfast the next morning, when Rick came in. I waved a coffee cup at him, but he shook his head and, coming closer, asked, “Talk to you outside?”
Not what I was ready for at seven in the morning, but I dutifully followed him to the porch of the restaurant. He gestured and I sat on a bench, feeling like a schoolchild being told what to do.
“I wanted to warn you first. I’m going to ask for a search warrant for your sister’s house and property. Doc Mason confirmed that it was a .38 bullet in the back, so he was shot without confronting his murderer. Bad way for anyone to die. Doc says he’d guess he’d only been dead about four hours at the most—autopsy will have to confirm that.”
I shuddered. “So Donna’s your prime suspect?”
He looked genuinely sad. “I’m afraid so. I’m going to talk to Steve
Millican
, just because of his background and acquaintances, but I don’t think he’s involved. I’d suspect Tom, but he was with me. So who does that leave with any reason to kill
Litman
?”
“But how does that fit with Gram’s death and the mayor’s poisoning?”
He sat down next to me, elbows on his knees, hands clenched in front of him. “It doesn’t, unless your sister is someone you really really don’t know. I think those may be just coincidences.”
My voice came out like steel. “I don’t believe in coincidences like that, and I won’t accept that. It’s all related. In a small town like this, it has to be?”
Rick sighed. “Did you ever watch ‘Murder She Wrote’? How did so many murders happen in that small town? I know you believe all these things are related, and I’ve done my best to get to the bottom of it, but I just haven’t found anything in those two cases that indicates foul play.”
“Should I hire a private detective?” I was now as distant as he could be.
“You can, of course. Why don’t you talk to that David
Clinkscales
?”
I listened for sarcasm, but I didn’t detect any. “I guess I will.” Then I, well I guess I remembered my manners. “Thank you for talking to me first. Let me know what’s happening, please. And if you find anything, please let me know.”
“Kate,” he was almost pleading now, “please don’t do anything by yourself. There’s definitely something wrong here, and I don’t want you hurt.” He put his hand over mine and then removed it quickly as the first breakfast customers came up the stairs. “Gotta go.” A moment later he was up and striding off the porch.
“Come back for breakfast,” I called, and he turned and waved.
I messed up one order after another, until Benny said, “Why don’t you let me deliver orders. It’s slow, so I can do it and cook.” He had no idea of course what had happened, but I knew the buzz would start soon. “You handle the cash register,” Benny said.
I wasn’t much better at that, miscounting change, overcharging another man who instead of angry was solicitous. “You okay this morning, Kate? That isn’t like you.” This was after he protested his bill.
The woman behind him said, “She’s not okay. Haven’t you heard? That Irv
Litman
guy from Dallas, her sister’s friend, was found dead last night.”
His jaw dropped, and I thought, “Here we go.” I knew full well the emphasis the woman had put on the word “friend.” The Wheeler gossip mill was gearing up.
A bit later, Gram said, “Hang in there, Kate. You’re the only one who can make this right. Don’t abandon me now.”
I wanted to shout, “Don’t you abandon me!” but I just bit my lip.
David came in about ten, casually dressed and looking well rested. I wanted to kick him, because I obviously hadn’t slept well, and it showed.
“You okay this morning?” he asked as he sat in that damn infamous corner table. Why couldn’t he have picked someplace else?
“No, I’m not. You want coffee?”
“Whoa!” He put his hands out. “Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m here to help.”
I collapsed, sinking into a chair at his table. “I know. I’m upset. I’m confused. I…”
He got up and went to get himself a cup of coffee. When he sat down, he asked, “You heard from your sister or her husband?”
I shook my head. “Gossips all over town, though. Irv’s death is no secret. Rick was here. He’s going to search Donna’s house.”
“Well, that’s where we should start. Can I have some breakfast first? Eggs, bacon, hash browns, and wheat toast, please.” Then, looking at me, “Have you eaten?”
I shook my head.
“Double that order.”
I picked at my food, but I did eat some. David wolfed his down like he hadn’t eaten in three days. When he finished, he said, “Let’s go. Ditch your apron.”
“Saturday’s a busy day,” I protested.
“How many sisters you got? Besides, we’re going to the shelter to look at that dog.”
I told Benny I was leaving. There was one other waitress there, young and inexperienced, but I hoped she could handle things.
Donna was neither hysterical with grief nor down with a migraine. She was fighting furious. “This town killed him,” she yelled. “Like he was nothing, and he was a good man. I’m gonna find out who did this! And now that blasted Rick Samuels tells me he’s got to search my house. Why my house? Why would I kill the man I loved?”
I cringed and saw, with great regret, that Ava, Henry, and Jess were all peering around the door into the kitchen. David stood quiet and still, so I asked, “Um, where’s Tom?”
“Gone to his precious hardware store, where else?” She threw a coffee cup at a cabinet where it shattered, leaving a trail of old, dark coffee and a bit of grounds.
“Mrs. Bryson…er, Donna…may I call you Donna?” David spoke softly, his voice calm.
“Who are you?” she demanded. “And why are you here with my sister? We don’t need strangers right now.” She spat out the words.
“Donna, this is David
Clinkscales
, the lawyer I worked with in Dallas. He came down this weekend to help me with the mayor’s suit against the café.”
“A lawyer? You think I need one?” That same harsh tone. No wonder Tom had gone to the hardware store. He probably figured all that would happen here is he’d get yelled at. And he was sure right.
David’s voice continued to be calm. “Yes, you probably do. But not me. I’m not a criminal defense lawyer.”
Those words—”criminal defense”—seemed to make an impact, and she stared at him wide-eyed.
“But I have a bit of advice.”
“Yeah? So let’s hear it!” Again that awful, angry tone.
“Calm down. For one thing, your children are listening, and this is hardly fair to them. For another, anger gets you in deeper. If you’re angry when Rick Samuels gets here with his search warrant, you’ll just antagonize him and make an enemy. And believe me, you want the chief of police on your side. You’ve just lost a business partner”—David emphasized those words, glossing over her earlier declaration of love—”and you’re understandably upset. But reason helps, not anger.”
She looked ready to throw another coffee cup, this time at him. But suddenly she wilted. “I’m scared,” she said, “and I can’t turn to Tom. This is the time I’d turn to Irv, and he’s not here.” Tears welled up in her eyes, and David, bless him, went and put an arm around her shoulders. “I know, but you really should rely on Tom. Don’t alienate him too. If you
were
in love with Irv
Litman
, don’t mention that. You have a fine husband.”
I didn’t wait for her reaction. I went to comfort the children, who were full of questions about whether Mom was going to be arrested, what happened to Irv, would she have left them and their father. I shook my head and told them no one knew the answer to those questions.
“What about that puppy, Aunt Kate. It’s a
Labradoodle
, and it’s already housebroken. It’s so adorable. Want to see?”
I followed her to the computer, where she competently hit this key and then that and pretty soon had the picture of a curly-haired, impish-faced dog on the screen. “Isn’t he cute?”
Henry piped up. “After she found that, I did some research on
Labradoodles
. They’re a cross between a Labrador retriever and a poodle, bred for the poodle’s lack of shedding and the Labrador’s gentle disposition. Poodles are one of the smartest breeds, but Labradors are really good learners—they use them for guide dogs and service dogs. Mom will never let us have a dog.”
Jess was generous. “It’s our dog but Aunt Kate will keep it at her house.”
Ava looked bored.
“Aunt Kate, I’m afraid someone else will take it if we don’t go today.”
I’ve always said actions in haste are soon regretted, but Jess made sense. And I wanted to get out of Wheeler. I certainly didn’t want to be around when Rick searched the Bryson house. “Let me make some phone calls,” I said. I called
Marj
, who was about to go to work, and Tom, who reluctantly gave his blessing, and then I said to David, “Let’s take these kids to Tyler.”
“You’re on,” he said.
As we left, Donna’s parting shot was, “Don’t you dare bring a dog into this house.”
I smiled, gave her a hug, and said, “Calm, remember?”
Ava, not much interested in a dog and probably much more interested in the drama in her home, elected to stay with her mom.
“I think I’ll call and ask Tom to be here when Samuels does his search,” Donna said quietly. A totally different woman from when we’d arrived. The only niggling thought I had was that if she was capable of such extreme mood switches, was she capable of enough anger to murder? I put that thought out of my mind.
We called ahead to the café and ordered cheeseburgers, fries, and Cokes to go. And then we were off to Tyler.
“Don’t anyone drip grease or ketchup or spill Coke in David’s rental car,” I warned severely.
“Yes, mother,” was David’s retort.
It was hot in Texas by now, with little breeze, but it was cloudy so the sun wasn’t quite as unbearable as it could have been. We drove with the windows down, air streaming into the car. The kids loved it, and me? You can’t make my hair more of a mess than it already is. David drove, quietly eying the countryside.
He sighed. “I sometimes really do think I want to chuck it all and come back here.”
“Your wife?” I asked.
Another sigh. “She’d hate it. And I don’t know that we could stand that much togetherness.”
There didn’t seem to be a reply to that. It sure didn’t sound like a happy marriage. Reason number 67 to stay single.
The animal shelter was institutional dingy, with few windows. Even the reception area was lined with cages holding cats and kittens. Jess spotted one calico kitten and pulled me over to it. “Does she look sweet? I think we should save her.”
I pulled her away firmly. “No cats. I have one. Remember? Go tell the lady what dog we came to see.”
She proudly described the dog to the attendant, who said, “You must mean
Huggles
. He’s outside with the larger dogs.”
My heart sank just a bit, but we wandered out, passing roofed cages of large dogs of all breeds. Some barked at us joyfully, others menacingly, and a few hung back whether in shyness or dejection I couldn’t tell.
Huggles
was one of the joyful ones, his tail wagging furiously. His curly coat was a rich golden color, and I wondered if there was some chocolate lab in there as well as golden.
“Isn’t he adorable?” Jess asked, reaching her fingers through the cage to pet him. He licked her hand in ecstasy. “Can we go in the cage?”
“We’ll have to ask.”
David went back to the office and returned with a leash-bearing attendant in tow. “Let me bring him out for you. He’s a good dog, good disposition, already neutered. Make a fine pet. Is it for your children?”
She had assumed we were a family. I shot David an amused look, but he looked rather pleased about the whole thing. “He’s for me,” I said.
“And me,” chimed Jess, while Henry echoed, “Me, too.”
When the attendant let herself into the kennel,
Huggles
began to jump on her, paws on her shoulders, then twisting this way and that. It probably took her three or four minutes to slip the leash over his head, and I said, “I’m having second thoughts.”