A Killer Cake (20 page)

“What’s your point?” Moose asked.

“If he cared that little about giving me
something while he was still alive, why on earth would the man name
me in his will?”

“So, are you saying that you didn’t know this
was coming?”

“I didn’t have a clue. The first thing I
thought when Paul told me about it was that he’d been drinking.
Then I figured it was some kind of joke, but it’s finally starting
to sink in. I’m not going to spend a penny until I know it’s mine,
though.”

So it was Paul, was it? I’d have to give
Rebecca a heads-up about Kelly’s interest. “Have you heard about
Loretta’s intentions to take the estate to court?”

She nodded unhappily. “She made that point
loud and clear when she came by the office this morning before Paul
got here. I have half a mind just to give her my share and be done
with it.”

“What’s keeping you from doing exactly that?”
Moose asked a little pointedly. Had his attitude about Kelly
changed already?

“If Mr. Thompson had wanted her to have it,
he would have left it to her. As it is, I’m not about to go against
a dead man’s wishes.”

“But he was changing his will,” I said.
“Maybe he was going to correct that omission.”

“Not according to Paul. I suppose I could
turn my share over to the charity Mr. Thompson named, but really, I
have no one’s word but Paul’s that that was his intention. At this
point, I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m sure you’ll make the right decision,” I
said before Moose could supply a comment of his own.

Paul Gray came back in, and he clearly wasn’t
very happy about the results of his telephone call. “I just got a
call from Rebecca.”

“Was she asking you out to lunch?” I
asked.

“That would have been preferable. As a matter
of fact, she just informed me that she’s agreed to represent
Loretta Jenkins.” Paul turned to Kelly and added, “I’m afraid that
it’s not going to be as easy as we thought it would be.”

“I’m in no hurry. Are you sure I still have a
job?”

Paul nodded. “I’m the executor of the estate,
and I’ll need help here on this end. I see no reason not to
continue your employment here at your present salary for the
foreseeable future, but only if you’re interested.”

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” she
said.

Paul turned back to us and said, “If you
don’t mind, we’ve got a great deal of work to do here, and I don’t
have much time. Unfortunately, I have a full caseload back in
Charlotte, so I’m going to have to squeeze every minute of my time
here if this is going to work.”

“We understand,” I said, though Moose didn’t
look all that pleased about being ushered out of the office.

Once we were outside, I said, “You were
pretty tough on Kelly in there. What happened to change your mind
about her?”

“I finally realized that I was letting my
emotions rule my behavior. You’re right, Victoria. Kelly went from
an innocent bystander to a prime witness in my eyes when I found
out how much she was inheriting from Roy’s estate.”

“Then you don’t buy her claim that she didn’t
know about the will beforehand?”

He shook his head. “Roy depended on her; that
much is clear. How hard would it be for her to find out what he’d
done in his will?”

“I’m still not convinced,” I said.

“Hang on a second. You were the one who kept
insisting that she was a suspect.”

“I still think she might have done it,” I
admitted, “but I have no problem believing that it’s possible that
Roy kept this from her. I think our other suspects should still be
in the running as well. After all, Asher and Sylvia had every
reason to believe that he would inherit the bulk of the estate, and
Mayor Mullins and James Manchester had their own reasons to want to
see the man dead, too.”

“Okay, I can see that. This case is driving
me crazy.”

“Me, too. Let’s go back to the diner. At
least the world makes sense there.”

“I wonder about that, but it’s better than
hanging around here.”

We never made it to the diner, though.

A police car pulled us over before we could
get there.

As I saw the flashing lights, I asked my
grandfather, “What did you just do?”

“Nothing,” he said in protest. “I was driving
the speed limit, and everything about this truck is up to
code.”

“Well, clearly you did something,” I said as
he pulled off into a parking spot.

The police car followed us in, and as I saw
the officer get out, I said, “Great. Sheriff Croft is about to add
a little insult to injury.”

As the sheriff approached the truck, Moose
hung his head out the window. “I didn’t do anything wrong, and I’ll
fight it in court to prove it.”

The sheriff smiled. “Take it easy, Moose. I
just needed to get your attention. We need to have a little
chat.”

Moose was still aggravated; I could see it in
his posture. Before he could say something we’d all regret, I said
softly, “Take it easy. This could be good for us if we don’t blow
it.”

He eased up a little, and by the time the
sheriff was at the truck window, my grandfather had managed to calm
himself down. “What’s up?”

“Why don’t we chat at the diner? I could use
some coffee.”

“That sounds great. We’ll see you there,” I
said.

“Why didn’t he just wait until we got there
ourselves?” Moose asked me as he pulled away. “Did he have to pull
me over like that on Main Street?”

“He didn’t have to, but then again, he had no
idea we were heading back to The Charming Moose,” I said. “What’s
going on? Do you have any idea?”

“Not a clue,” Moose said. “I guess we’re
going to find out pretty soon, though.”

We parked at the diner, and the police
cruiser did as well. I was happy to see that it was a decent
distance away. As we all walked in together, Martha started to say
something, but Moose just waved to her, and she stayed away. We
captured a booth, and Ellen came over after I nodded in her
direction.

“What can I get you?” she asked.

“Three coffees,” I said.

“Is that it?”

“For now,” I said. After the cups were turned
over and filled, Ellen stepped back to wait on her other customers,
but I noticed that she never got very far away from us.

“What’s going on, Sheriff?” I asked.

“You tell me. I saw you leaving Roy
Thompson’s office, and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing
what happened there.”

I put a hand lightly on Moose’s arm, and he
got the hint that I wanted to tell this myself. “We’d be delighted.
After we bring you up to date, would you mind sharing a little with
us as well? We’re not asking for anything confidential. Right,
Moose?”

“Right,” was all that my grandfather said,
and I was proud of him for letting me take the lead.

“Sounds good,” the sheriff said as he took a
sip of his coffee.

“Okay, here goes. Roy Thompson was about to
change his will to give everything he had to charity, cutting out
everyone in his life. He never had the chance to follow through,
though. Someone killed him before he could make any changes.”

The sheriff looked surprised to learn what
we’d found out so quickly, but he didn’t comment; he just nodded as
he took another sip of coffee. “ What exactly did the original will
say?” he asked after a moment’s thought.

“It splits everything down the middle,
fifty-fifty, between Asher and Kelly Raven.”

Sheriff Croft nearly spit his coffee out when
I said the secretary’s name. “You’re kidding me.”

“No, we heard it from the attorney handling
the will himself. There’s a twist, though.”

“What’s that?”

“Loretta Jenkins is contesting the will.
Rebecca’s acting as her attorney, so this isn’t going to be
resolved anytime soon.”

“Maybe that’s for the best,” the sheriff said
as he took another sip. Was that a grin hiding behind his mug?

“You don’t look all that unhappy about the
situation,” I said. “Or is that just my imagination?”

“Well, we could all use more time, am I
right?” he replied.

“We’ve only been able to eliminate two
suspects so far, the only ex-convict in the bunch and our
barber.”

“So, you know about Chris. I was wondering if
you’d figure that out. You did good work there,” Sheriff Croft
said. “I’m grateful for the information.”

“Like Victoria said earlier, we could use a
little more of that ourselves. Can you help us out?”

The sheriff considered that, and then he
finally said in a soft voice, “This is not for public consumption
yet, so I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it to yourselves, but maybe
I can help you a little there. I can at least eliminate one of your
suspects for you.”

“Which one?” Moose asked eagerly. I knew that
he was just as frustrated as I was about our lack of progress
lately.

“We know for a fact that Barry Wilkins didn’t
kill him,” the sheriff said, looking pleased with himself.

I’m afraid that our reaction wasn’t very
satisfying to him, since I had no idea who he was talking about.
“Barry who?” I asked.

“You didn’t know about him?” the sheriff
asked, clearly perplexed by our reactions, or lack thereof.

“Barry Wilkins. He and Roy Thompson had a
pretty bad blow-out in Laurel Landing the day before the murder.
Barry threatened openly to kill him.”

“Did he lose money, too?” Moose asked.

“On the contrary. He wanted to get in on a
deal of Roy’s, and the man flatly refused him. When it took off and
made a small fortune for everyone who invested in it, Barry came
looking for Thompson to get revenge on losing out on so much
money.”

“We never heard a whisper about him,” I
admitted. It wasn’t hard to understand, since the police had a
great many more resources than we did, but it still stung a
little.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. He didn’t do it. He
was in Georgia when Roy was poisoned. Sorry about that.”

“Hey, you’re the pro,” I said. “We’re just
amateurs.”

“Don’t sell what you do short,” the sheriff
said. “I’d be hard-pressed without both of you on my side every now
and then.”

Moose was about to say something, and I was
bracing myself for what might come out of his mouth when the
sheriff’s radio squawked. “Sheriff, there’s been an accident on old
Highway 70 near the fairgrounds. The driver’s hurt pretty bad. From
the look of it, someone ran her off the road on purpose.”

The sheriff stood quickly, and he waved in
our direction as he headed for the door. Fortunately, we could
still hear both sides of the conversation.

“Any ID on the victim?” he asked.

“Yeah, we just got it from the license tag.
It’s a woman named Loretta Jenkins.”

Chapter 15

“How bad is she?” the sheriff asked as he
turned around and walked back over in our direction.

“It’s touch and go right now. The
firefighters on the scene just about have her pried out now, and
the paramedics are standing by.”

“I’ll be right there,” he said, and then
lowered the volume on his radio. “Did you hear all of that?”

“We did,” I said. “I can’t believe someone
tried to kill Loretta. She was just in here this morning.”

“Things happen,” the sheriff said. “This may
or may not be related to what’s happening with Roy Thompson’s
murder.”

“Sheriff, you can’t believe that, can you?” I
asked.

“I try not to jump to conclusions in my line
of work. Anyway, I’ve got to run. I’ll let you know how bad things
are after I get there and assess the situation myself.”

“Forget that,” Moose said. “We’re going with
you.”

“There’s nothing that either one of you can
do at the scene but get in the way,” Sheriff Croft said. “Let the
experts handle this.”

“He’s right, Moose,” I said, and then I
turned to the sheriff. “You promise that you’ll let us know?”

“I will, but it might be a while.”

“That’s fine.”

After he was gone, Moose said, “You gave up
awfully easily just then.”

“We can do more good here than at the wreck
site,” I said as I pulled my phone out.

“Who are you calling?” Moose asked me.

“I thought it might not be a bad idea to see
if any of our suspects are away from their telephones. I know most
folks use cell phones these days, but we can try landlines. The
businessmen both have them, and so does Kelly. Sylvia is old
fashioned enough to have one, too. What do you think?”

“I think you’re brilliant,” he said. “You
call the women, and I’ll call the men.”

“What should we say if we reach any of them?”
I asked.

“Just tell them what happened to Loretta.
That’s enough of a reason to call all of them, don’t you
think?”

“It sounds good to me.”

I called Roy Thompson’s office first, and to
my surprise, Paul Gray answered the telephone himself.

“Hey, Paul. It’s Victoria. May I speak with
Kelly?”

In a gruff voice, he said, “She left here
twenty minutes ago to run some errands for the office, but she
should be back soon.”

“Have her call me the second that she gets
back,” I said, and then I gave him the number at the diner.

“Is it urgent?” he asked.

“Not really, but I’d appreciate a return call
as soon as possible. I have news. Come to think of it, it might
affect you, too.”

“Let’s hear it, then.”

“I’ll tell you, but don’t tell Kelly. I need
to do that myself, okay?”

“That should be fine,” he said after a
moment’s hesitation.

“Somebody just tried to kill Loretta
Jenkins,” I said. “They intentionally ran her car off the road, and
she’s in pretty rough shape right now.”

“Not another one,” the attorney said. “What
is it with this town? Are you
all
bloodthirsty?”

“No, but we have a few bad ones around. I’m
sure you have one or two in Charlotte, as well. If you didn’t,
there wouldn’t be much business for you and your kind, now would
there?”