A Baked Ham (14 page)

“I’m game if you are, but I hope
you’re going to share a little with me, too, when I’m finished telling all that
I know.”

“I might, but I’m not making any
promises.”

“Then we’ll give you coffee, but
I can’t guarantee that you’ll get any pie,” I said.

“Don’t pay any attention to
her.
 
She can’t threaten you with that,”
Greg said.
 
“I made that pie myself, and
I’ll share it with anyone I care to.”

I grinned at the sheriff.
 
“Okay, you caught me.
 
I was bluffing.
 
You can have some pie, whether you tell my
anything or not.”

Greg patted my shoulder and
smiled as he walked into the kitchen to start the coffee.
 
“Now, where should I begin?”

“Knowing you, you’ve got a list
of suspects around here somewhere.”

“As a matter of fact, I do.
 
Should I text it to your phone?”

The sheriff shook his head.
 
“Let’s do this the old-fashioned way.
 
You talk, I’ll listen and take notes, and if
I need you to elaborate on anything, I’ll ask a few questions.”

“Have it your way,” I said, “but
I’m still going to refer to my list.”

“Be my guest,” he said as he
settled in on the couch.

I called up the picture of our
whiteboard on my phone, and then I got started.

“Mostly, we’ve just got the
obvious,” I said.
 
“I’m sure you’ve
already looked at the people on our list yourself.”

“Indulge me,” he said.

“Fred Hitchings is first up.
 
He wanted that lead bad enough to taste it.”

“Do you think that he’d actually kill
Benny to get a role?” the sheriff asked.

“You should talk to him about it
and hear him,” I said.
 
“The man’s a
little crazy when it comes to acting.
 
Are you going to let me get through this, or are you going to quiz me on
every motive I give you?”

“I’ll try to restrain myself
until you’re finished,” he said with a wry grin.

“Sandra Hall is next.
 
We believe she might have had a brief fling
with Benny that went bad fast.
 
Next is
her boyfriend, Marcus Jackson.
 
He’s a
personal trainer and the man has a very bad temper.
 
Garret Wilkes, the director, had some real
issues with Benny on and off the stage.
 
Benny was dating Amanda Lark before he dumped her recently, and she took
it harder than she’s letting on, and finally, we have Vern Jeffries, Benny’s
former business partner.
 
There are
rumors all over town that Benny cheated him out of a great deal of money, and
Moose and I both figure he’s a good candidate to be the killer.”

“You’re logic is sound, but you
can cross his name off your list,” the sheriff said.
 
“Vern didn’t do it.”

I couldn’t believe the sheriff
was telling me that.
 
Vern had been high
on our list, and his alibi had been nonexistent.
 
“How can you say that?
 
He has no alibi.
 
The man told Moose and me that he was in his
office sitting at his desk working alone all night.”

“That’s right.
 
One of my officers was driving past on his
rounds during the time of the murder, and Vern was there both times my officer
looked in.
 
There’s no way he had time to
get to the theater, kill Benny, and get back to his desk in time.”

“How sure are you of that as an
alibi?” I asked, reluctant to give up such a good suspect.

“As sure as I need to be.”

“Okay, thanks for sharing that,”
I said.
 
“Any other tidbits you might
have for us?”

“Well, I have photos from the
crime scene, but I’m not sure you’ll want to see them,” the sheriff said.
 
“Some of them are pretty graphic.”

“I’ll take a quick peek, if you
don’t mind,” I said as I steeled myself for what I was about to see.
 
The photos of Benny I quickly passed over, as
well as the bloody trophy that had been used to kill him.
 
There was blood encrusted on the engravings,
as well as on the elegantly plain handles.
 
Someone must have really walloped him with that thing.
 
I suddenly couldn’t take it anymore, and I
pushed the photos back to the sheriff.

“Thanks.
 
Is there anything else I should know about?”

“No, that’s about it.
 
Victoria, you’ve done fairly well on your
own.
 
You and Moose have been quite
thorough.”

“But what about the note?” I
asked.

“I have a hunch that you’re not
far off.
 
Wherever
it came from, it’s not good.”

“Do you agree with me, then?
 
That note
has
to mean that Moose and I have already talked to whoever killed Benny.
 
Why else would anyone leave me such an
over-the-top warning?”

“Chances are you are right, but
that’s still a mighty big list of suspects you’ve got.
 
You have to watch your back all of the time
if you’re going to pursue this.”
 
He
closed up his notebook and stood.
 
“Tell
your husband that I had to leave,” the sheriff said.

“You’re not staying for pie?”

“Thanks, but I’d better not,” he
said.

“Greg won’t be happy about that,”
I said.

“Happy about what?” my husband
asked as he walked into the living room.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t stay,”
the sheriff said.

Greg frowned broadly.
 
“Are you telling me that this town can’t live
without you for five minutes?
 
Come on,
Sheriff, I won’t take no for an answer.”

My husband could be pretty
persuasive when he wanted to, but I could see that the sheriff was still
uncertain.
 

I decided that it was time that I
spoke up.
 
“No more talk about the murder
investigation if you stay.
 
I promise.”

He looked at me closely, and then
the sheriff said, “Okay, if you’re sure you have enough pie to spare.”

“Sheriff, that’s the great thing
about pie.
 
If we run out, I can always
make more,” Greg said with a grin.

“Okay, then.
 
Thank you.”

The three of us spent a pleasant
fifteen minutes over pie and coffee, and I found myself enjoying the sheriff’s
company.
 
When we weren’t clashing over a
murder investigation, he could be a pretty good guy.
 
After he told us a funny story about
arresting the same woman for speeding three times in the same night, he stood
and stretched.
 
“Greg, that pie was so
good, it should be illegal.”

 
“I hope it never is,” I said, “because I love
it, too.”

My husband smiled.
 
“I appreciate the fact that you both enjoyed
it so much.”

As Sheriff Croft was leaving, he
said, “Be careful, Victoria.”

“Do you mean that you aren’t even
going to ask her to stop?” Greg asked him with a grin.

The sheriff turned to me as he
asked, “Would it do any good?”

“What do you think?” I asked,
smiling broadly.

“That’s why I asked you to be
careful.
 
Let me know if anything else
happens.
 
And remember, it doesn’t have
to be this dramatic.
 
If anything out of
the ordinary happens, I want to hear about it, okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

After the police cruiser was
gone, I said, “He’s really not such a bad guy, is he?”

“You both want the same thing,”
Greg said.
 
“You just go about it
differently.”

“All I really care about is that
one of us finds out who killed Benny.
 
It
doesn’t matter to me if he does it, or Moose and I do.
 
I hate the stories that are spreading around
town about my grandparents.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll crack this
case.
 
I know it.”

“I wish I had
your
confidence in me,” I said.

“You don’t need it,
Victoria.
 
I’ve got enough for both of
us.”

Later, after Greg was asleep,
rest still eluded me.
 
Moose and I had
obviously gotten to someone, but who?
 
I
would have been a lot happier if I had a single clue that definitively pointed
to who killed Benny, but for now, all I had were a handful of educated guesses.

Hopefully tomorrow would bring
something a little more concrete.

Oh, no.
 
I’d forgotten to call Moose after Greg and I
had found the note pinned to the door!
 
I
thought about waiting until tomorrow, but if he got wind of what happened
before I could tell him, I’d never hear the end of it.

I got out of bed, slipped on my
robe, grabbed my phone, and then I tiptoed downstairs.

Chapter 9

“Did I wake you?” I asked Moose
as he picked up on the second ring.
 
There was a sleepiness in his voice that I instantly recognized, and I
suddenly regretted calling him so late.

“No, I’m mostly still awake.
 
I’ve been reading the latest Gresham novel,
and I can’t put it down.
 
I had fun
tonight, Victoria.”

“So did I,” I said.
 
“Something happened when Greg and I got home,
though.”

The softness left his voice
immediately.
 
“What happened?”

“Someone took an ice pick, dipped
it in red paint, and then they stuck it into our door jamb,” I said.
 
“There was a note pinned to the wood that
said, BACK OFF.”

“So, we got to somebody today,”
Moose said, clearly pleased.
 
He must
have realized that the tone in his voice wasn’t entirely appropriate.
 
“I didn’t mean to sound so pleased that you
were threatened tonight, Victoria; you know that, don’t you?”

“Don’t worry about it.
 
I had the exact same reaction, though Greg
and the sheriff weren’t nearly as pleased by it.”

“You called the sheriff?” Moose
asked.

“Yes.
 
Why?
 
Don’t
you think I should have?”

“Of course, it was the right
thing to do.
 
I suppose he wanted to know
what we’ve been up to.
 
Did you tell
him?”

“Every fact, suspicion, and
supposition,” I said.
 
“That’s our
policy, remember?
 
Never hold anything
back from the police.”

“Yes, I stand by it, too.
 
You did the right thing.
 
What did he have to say?”

“He told me that we were doing a
good job, and he also let me know that we could drop Vern Jeffries from our
list of suspects.
 
One of his deputies
spotted him at his desk twice within a short amount of time when Benny was
murdered.
 
The sheriff was pretty certain
that Vern couldn’t have done it.”

“Then we’ll strike him from our
list,” Moose said.
 
“That still leaves us
with quite a few suspects.
 
Did he offer
any other insights?”

“He told me to be careful, but he
didn’t tell me to stop digging,” I said.

“I’m sure he realized that it
would have been useless.
 
So, where does
this leave us?”

“If you’re up for it, we should
push even harder tomorrow.
 
With Martha
filling in for me at the diner, we can start pestering people as soon as you
get there.”

“Sorry, but it’s going to have to
be after eleven.”

“Why not bright and early?” I
asked.

“I have a doctor’s appointment,”
Moose said.

I suddenly felt an icy fist grab
my heart.
 
“What’s wrong?”

He read my tone of voice
beautifully.
 
“Nothing, child.
 
Don’t worry about me.
 
At my age, going to the doctor is routine.”

“You’re not lying to me, are
you?” I asked.
 
I couldn’t imagine my
world without my grandfather in it.