Slip and Go Die (A Parson's Cove Mystery) (12 page)

“Now, now. Don’t get all carried away, Mabel. You know it’s not Sam or Fritzy.”

I glanced around at the empty shelves. The crooks had even taken all the boxes. The room was quickly cooling down. The frigid air from outdoors was mixing with the warm inside air and forming fog by Reg’s feet.

“You better come back inside if you’re going to keep talking,” I said. “It’s bad enough that I have this furnace to pay for, I don’t need to make it work extra hard.”

Reg stepped back. “I’m on my way. If you think of anything, give me a call. Don’t try to solve this yourself, Mabel. The boys and I will find this creep, if it means checking out every house in Parson’s Cove.” With that, he shut the door.

He wasn’t gone five minutes before the door swung open.

“Oh Mabel, I can’t believe what’s happened to you.”

Flori flew through the room, picked me up off the chair and crushed me to her bosom.

“Who would do such an unspeakable thing? What is this world coming to?”

She let go of me for a moment and held me at arm’s length. Her eyes welled up with tears. She wrapped me in her arms again. If anyone gave out prizes for being the best hugger in the world, Flori would win, hands down.

“Oh, sweetie, this is so terrible.” Now the tears came, in what I call, dollops. There was no point in trying to rush it, Flori stops when she’s ready to stop. Not that this means her well is dry; she can start up again at a moment’s notice.

Before she came to a complete stop, she had to shudder, cough, hiccough and blow her nose.

I smiled at her as I handed her another tissue. “All done now, Flori?”

Her face was flushed. Mascara ran down her cheeks and there were lipstick smears on the tissue. Her auburn eyebrows, however, stood out as brightly as ever. Nothing short of forcing Flori through an automatic carwash could remove those.

“How can you be so calm? This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. Look around. Everything is gone.”

She looked at the empty shelves and let out another shudder although this may have been from the cold.

“Why is it so cold in here?”

I sat back down in my chair. My legs suddenly didn’t want to hold me up.

“Because Reg was here and he left the door open and now you’ve left it open, that’s why.”

“Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry. How thoughtless of me. Of course, it gets cold with the door wide open.” She went over to the door, making sure the storm door was closed and the inside door.

“There,” she said. “It will warm up real quick now, Mabel.”

Flori suddenly realized that my fake calmness was about to fly the coup.

“Oh, let me help you.” She glanced around, went to the window and took down Esther’s scarf. “Here,” she said, “wrap this around your legs. This will keep you warm for now. I’ll turn up the thermostat and make some coffee.”

I reached out to her. “No, don’t turn up the heat.”

She stood at the thermostat. “I have to. You still have it set for the night time. At least, that’s what it must be. This thermostat is in Celsius. I don’t understand Celsius. Do you? Is that why it’s so cold in here?”

“No, you don’t understand. With all of Beulah’s things stolen, I have no money. I don’t need a big fuel bill, Flori. Besides, I’ll have to return the furnace so I might as well not use it too much. With my luck, it will probably break down the minute you turn it up.”

“Oh, pish-posh. Nothing of the sort is going to happen.” She shrugged and turned the thermostat to twenty-five, which happens to be five degrees higher than my usual setting. “And, if it did,” she continued, “Jake and I would look after you. You have nothing at all to worry about.”

“I’m sure Jake would love to look after me.”

She looked at me with a glint in her eye. “Never mind, I have ways of making Jake listen to me.”

“Flori, there is nothing you could do to make Jake change his mind about me. If we were the only people left on this earth, Jake would not, as you so kindly put it, look after me.”

“I have my ways.”

“What ways? For as long as I’ve known you two–Jake always gets his way.”

“I’ll use my body.”

As upset as I was, it was extremely difficult for me to keep a straight face. Of course, she might have a point; Flori did have a lot of body to use.

“Well, let’s not get graphic. You’ve convinced me. I will not worry about my future; you and Jake will provide for me. Even though at this moment Jake has no idea that he might have to, right?”

She grinned. “I already told him to be prepared.”

“Flori, how come you and Jake knew about this? I only discovered it about half an hour ago myself.”

“It’s already the talk of the town. Somebody heard you scream. I think it was the part time girl who works for Mutt. Anyway, she ran into the hardware store, told Mutt and he came over here. He thought someone was trying to kill you. I guess he looked in the window first, saw that everything was gone and ran down to the café.”

“Wow, what a big help he is. Why didn’t he go to tell Reg?”

“He said that you were talking on the phone so he figured that’s what you were doing.”

“So everybody in Parson’s Cove knows what’s happened to me. I wonder if that’s a good thing? I mean, it has to be someone from here who ripped me off. What if it’s someone who has family here? Will they be willing to turn their relative in to the police if they happen to find some of the stolen goods?”

“Of course, they would.”

“If you found some of Beulah’s things at Jacob Junior’s place, would you turn him in?”

“Mabel, what a horrid thing to say. Jacob would never steal from you. He loves you.”

“I know that. This is a hypothetical question. Play along with me. Let’s just say that really happened. Could you turn your own flesh and blood over to the police?”

“Of course, I could. Obeying the Law comes first. You know that, Mabel.”

“Stop and think before you answer. Remember how cute Jacob was when he was a baby? You said that out of all your babies, he was the sweetest. I think you breastfed him until he was five.”

“Oh, I did not. That’s an exaggeration and you know it.”

“But he is the only one who ever remembers your anniversary, right? Plus, he brings you roses when you’re feeling blue.”

Flori’s eyes started to mist over.

“He is a precious boy, isn’t he?” She started dabbing the corner of her eye with her finger and her chin started to quiver.

“Now you can answer: if you found some of Beulah’s things at Jacob’s house, would you immediately phone Reg and tell him?”

Flori thought that over for a moment, straightened her back, held her chin up an inch higher, and answered, “Maybe not immediately. First, I would try to find out why he would do such a thing because, as you know, that’s not in his nature at all. He was always a good boy. I don’t know why you’re picking on him.”

“Flori, I’m not picking on him. This is hypothetical. I told you that.”

“But he would never do such a thing.”

“That’s right. But, guess what? Every mother feels exactly the same way that you do.”

“I doubt that, Mabel. You think Scully’s mother doesn’t still worry about her son?”

“Well, she might worry but she’d still stick up for him no matter what.”

“Okay, so what’s your point? What does that prove, Mabel?”

“That proves that if some young hoodlums took off with all of Beulah’s things, someone is going to cover up for them. That’s what that proves. Parson’s Cove is a small place and you can’t tell me that someone doesn’t know about this.”

“Do you really think that? I can’t imagine anyone from here being so dishonest. And who would steal from you? Everyone in town knows you need that money or you might lose your business. Let’s face it, you could lose everything; you could lose your house and your car, too. You’re in a terrible predicament.”

I didn’t need Flori to remind me. But who would do such a thing to me? Did someone hate me that much? Did someone want me to lose everything? Was that the reason they stole all Beulah’s things? They just wanted to hurt me? Was someone trying to run me out of town? I did know of a few people who might dislike me a great deal but I was sure they wouldn’t go to such lengths as this. Besides, some of the time, some of those people liked me.

I knew of only one person who, when it came right down to the practical details of it all, truly hated me. Esther Flynn.

And, wasn’t she the one who knew someone who wanted to buy all of Beulah’s things? Had Esther’s friend decided to take them without paying for them?

“Flori,” I said, standing up and taking the coffee pot out of her hands. “Don’t bother making coffee; I’m going to close up the shop. There’s not much point in staying open anyway. I’m not in the mood for putting all my old things back out again. I think I’ll go home.”

“But, I don’t know if it’s a good thing for you to be all alone. You’re very vulnerable right now. Besides, I could really use a cup of coffee and I think you could too. Why don’t we sit for awhile and relax?”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I can’t relax. I appreciate your coming over but I really do want to go home. The longer I sit here staring at the bare shelves, the more depressed I get.”

Flori rushed over and put her arms around me.

“Of course, it would make you feel sad. How could I be so thoughtless?” She shook her head as her eyes welled up. “You run home right now. I’ll stay, in case Reg comes back with any news. Would you like that?”

I hugged her. “Thank you. You’re the best friend a person could ever have, Flori Flanders.”

I pulled on my boots and coat. Just before I closed the door, I took one last look around. Flori stood by the cash register, her eyes glistening.

“You run home and curl up with a book,” she said. “That will help take your mind off all this.”

I nodded. Unfortunately, there was only one way I could take my mind off this: I had to face Esther Flynn, eyeball to eyeball. I wrapped her scarf around my neck before I shut the door.

Chapter Fifteen

“How dare you traipse in here and accuse me of stealing all of Beulah’s things! That is totally preposterous and you know it, Mabel.”

Esther’s nostrils were flaring and her eyes were bulging. I watched as her glasses slid down to the tip of her nose. She took no note. She glared at me over the rims.

“Your glasses are going to fall.”

“Never mind my glasses.” She pushed them up anyway. “If you’ve come here to make groundless accusations, you’d better have some attestation. I won’t abide this kind of behavior. I tell you, I’ll go straight to the authorities.”

She pointed her finger down at my very flat chest. Her head shook and her glasses slid down again.

I stretched up to all of my five foot two. Esther towered over me. I should consider lugging my wooden Coke box around with me so that I could at least make a decent stand before my enemies.

“And who, pray tell, are the authorities you would go to, Esther? Reg and his deputies?”

“That’s right. It wouldn’t take long before Sheriff Smee would have you in the hoosegow.”

“Oh, come off your high horse, Esther. You don’t have to start inventing words now, trying to make me look stupid. Besides, you wouldn’t call Reg because you know that you’d have plenty of explaining to do yourself.”

Esther’s head swung back with such force that her glasses flipped on to the floor. She left them. Her cold icy stare was enough to freeze the water in her teakettle, which happened to be simmering on the stove. Her narrow head shook up and down. For one blissful moment, she was speechless.

“That is not a word that I made up.”

“What word?”

“Hoosegow. That’s a real word. It means jail, Mabel. The jail. That’s where you’re going to end up. All you are is a troublemaker and you have been since the day you were born.” She stood back with her hands on her hips, pursing her lips together as if she’d just swallowed a teaspoon of vinegar.