Cast Iron Cover-Up (The Cast Iron Cooking Mysteries Book 3) (9 page)

Chapter 16: Pat

U
nfortunately, the four college kids ate and left the Iron before I had a chance to speak with any of them again. Hopefully Annie had been able to find something else out, but I wouldn’t be able to catch up with her until we had a lull.

Unfortunately, for the rest of the day, there were no lulls.

“Hey, Pat, I can work some overtime if you need me to hang around and help out,” Skip told me a few minutes before we were set to close.

“Thanks, but I think we have everything under control.”

“I really don’t mind,” he insisted.

This was clearly about more than just helping us out at the store. “What’s going on, Skip?”

“Nothing.”

From his dour expression, I could tell that wasn’t entirely true. “Come on. Are you short on cash at the moment?”

Skip looked uncomfortable, but finally, he admitted, “Kind of. I’m saving up to buy a welding rig, but I’m not having much luck.”

“I didn’t know you could weld.”

“I can’t,” he said with a grin, “but when has the lack of knowledge ever stopped me from doing something in the past?”

“Do you honestly believe that it’s something you can just pick up?” I asked him. “I think that might be a dangerous way to learn.”

“I can read a book first, and if I have any questions, I can always ask Kilmer Jacks. He’s a crackerjack welder.”

Kilmer came into the Iron most days, more often for Annie’s food than what I had to offer up front. He was a large man, with wild brown hair and a full beard. “Have you asked him about your plans?”

“Why would I do that? I don’t even have any welding stuff yet.”

“I mean to teach you before you get your own equipment. He still teaches adult education classes at the community college, doesn’t he?”

“I have no idea, but I can’t see myself doing that. That’s just for old people. No disrespect intended,” he added hastily.

Did he really think of me as being all that much older than he was? I might have had twelve years on him, but I hadn’t realized that made me ancient in his eyes. “Why don’t you take the class first to see if you enjoy doing it? If you can’t afford that, I’ll be glad to pay your tuition myself.”

“I couldn’t let you do that,” he said. “Besides, those classes probably are pretty cheap.”

I grinned at him. “Why do you think I offered to pay? Seriously, if you take the class, maybe you can weld something for me at the Iron someday.”

“Like what?” he asked, returning my smile.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure that I’ll think of something. Go on and make the call.”

“Okay. Thanks.” A minute later, he came back, grinning broadly. “You were right. He’s teaching a class, and it starts this week. It’s just thirty bucks, plus supplies, so I can cover that myself.”

“I really don’t mind,” I said.

“I know, but this way, if I ever do have to weld something for you, I can charge you full price for the job,” he said, smiling.

I had to laugh. The young man had an entrepreneurial spirit that just wouldn’t die. “Fair enough. Did you finish restocking the canned goods section?”

“No, but I’m on it right now, so consider it done,” he said.

Skip finished up in record time, and soon enough, the doors were both locked and the Iron was closed for the day. I’d done most of my work earlier, since we hadn’t had any customers toward the end, so I had the deposit ready when I walked back to the grill, where I found Annie scrubbing the iron griddle with a stone of some sort. “Need a hand with anything back here?” I asked her.

“No, I’m good. How did you manage to finish up so early?”

“It was easy. I cheated,” I replied with a smile.

“I would have done that myself, but people kept coming in and demanding that I feed them,” she answered.

“Don’t you just hate when that happens?”

“What was your conversation with Skip about?” she asked me. “He seemed pretty animated, so I bet it wasn’t about work.”

“He wants to learn how to weld,” I said.

Annie laughed. “That boy is going to be dangerous someday with the amount of knowledge he acquires on a monthly basis.”

“I’d rather think of him as being well rounded. It helps me sleep better at night,” I said. “Did you happen to get anything out of our group of suspects while they were back here having a meal?”

“Yes, and I’ve been dying to catch you up to speed on what I found out. Gretchen and Henry both spotted someone watching them from the woods. She saw someone wearing glasses, but Henry didn’t. Who do we know who’s attached to this investigation and wears glasses?”

“Carter Hayes,” I said. “That’s kind of creepy, isn’t it? Do you think he was there watching the girls?”

“No, and eww, by the way. Thanks for putting that thought into my head. I think he was more interested in what they were looking for.”

“How could he possibly know what they were up to?” I asked her.

“I don’t know. He could have seen something, or maybe he overheard them talking. If he was lingering on my land, you’d better believe that I’m going to find out what he was up to.”

“We can track him down as soon as we make our bank deposit, if you’re free this evening,” I said. It was my subtle way of asking her if she was going to try to find Timothy so she could patch things up with him, but I wasn’t about to just come right out and ask her.

“I don’t have any plans whatsoever,” Annie said.

“Are you sure?”

She knew what I’d been getting at. “Patrick, I’m the last person on earth he wants to talk to right now.”

“Maybe that’s the best reason of all to find him and clear things up,” I urged her gently. “The longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be.”

“What can I say to him right now, though? I still believe that he’s a viable suspect, no matter how unlikely it might be, so I can’t mend what’s broken until I can face him and tell him that I no longer think he’s potentially a killer. Until then, I’m going to avoid him as much as I can.”

“Does that really sound like solid logic to you, Annie?”

“It doesn’t matter how it sounds. It’s what I’m doing.”

I could tell that I wasn’t getting anything else out of my twin sister. “Did you learn anything else from the group?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe. The more I think about it, the more I feel as though it’s probably not important,” Annie said after some hesitation.

“Why don’t you tell me, and then I can decide for myself,” I said.

“Fine. Peggy claimed that she nearly hit a truck as she left the dig site after finding Bones’s body. She claimed that she had to slam on her brakes to keep from hitting the other vehicle.”

“Did she happen to see who was driving?”

“No, but she did a good job describing the truck. It was gray, and it had the word ‘lumber’ on a bumper sticker.”

“As in ‘Lumberjacks Do It In The Woods’?”

“Maybe, but she wasn’t sure,” Annie said.

I couldn’t just let it go, no matter how much my sister might want me to. “That means that Timothy was out at his land much earlier than we thought before.”

“Not necessarily. There’s one more thing,” Annie said.

“What’s that?”

“I’ve been giving it some serious thought, and I believe that there’s a slight possibility that two or more of them could have been working together,” she said softly.

“Why do you think that?”

“Henry is clearly close to Peggy. If he thought she killed Bones, he might get rid of the body in order to protect her. It’s also pretty clear that Marty is infatuated with Gretchen, though I don’t know if she feels that way about him. She seems to be playing both men off each other, something that Peggy spotted easily enough. The same logic works for Gretchen and Marty as it does for Henry and Peggy.”

“The women could be covering for the men too, you know,” I pointed out.

“I know that,” Annie said.

“That means we have six suspects at the moment, and a variety of combinations,” I said. As I ticked off fingers, I added the names aloud, “Henry, Marty, Gretchen, Peggy, Carter, and Timothy. I’m sorry about adding his name, but like you just said yourself, it has to be there until we can eliminate him from our list.”

“I don’t know about you, but I still don’t have a clue as to which one of them might have done it,” Annie said, “Though some of them are less likely than the rest. I can’t see Timothy killing anyone, and Henry doesn’t seem the type, either. Marty is too easy as a choice, and so is Carter. Could Gretchen or Peggy have done it? It’s possible, but I have a hard time believing a woman could use a pickaxe like that.”

“I wish I shared your doubts, but if one of them were threatened, defending themselves is a possibility we have to take into account, and that’s even if we eliminate greed as a factor.”

“Do you think Bones actually found the money?” Annie asked me.

“I don’t know, but we have to assume that it’s possible. Greed is an awfully powerful motive. Someone, especially if they were broke, might not be able to quell their impulse to steal the money, even if it meant assaulting, and ultimately killing, the young man who uncovered it.”

“It might explain Carter’s behavior,” she said. “You know how tightfisted he is. If he saw that kind of silver and gold, he might do anything it took to get it for himself.”

“But Timothy has a good job and makes a nice living,” I reminded her. “He doesn’t need the money, certainly not enough to kill someone for it.”

“There could be more than greed working as his motive,” Annie said. “Bones could have set him off if Timothy found him digging up his land. Can you imagine them not having a confrontation if Timothy somehow discovered what was going on? I don’t like to think about someone I’m dating that way, but I can’t seem to get it out of my mind.”

“Before we talk to Carter, should we tell Kathleen everything that you found out?” I asked my twin.

“Why don’t we wait a bit first,” she suggested.

“How is Kathleen going to react when she discovers that we acted on information we received before we shared it with her?”

“Fine. I’ll call her,” Annie said a bit testily.

“Maybe you’ve got a point. I don’t suppose it would hurt if we waited until
after
we’ve spoken with Carter,” I offered.

“No, you were right the first time. We agreed to play this one by the book. Let me call her before we do anything else.” Annie pulled out her phone, dialed Kathleen’s number, and after a full minute, she put it away, smiling.

“She didn’t pick up,” Annie said happily.

“Why didn’t you leave a voicemail for her?”

“You know what? That never even occurred to me. I’d call her back and do it right now, but I want to leave my line open, in case there’s an emergency or something.”

“I give up. You win,” I said with a grin.

“You’re a smart fellow, aren’t you?” she asked as she patted my cheek. “Now, let’s go make that deposit and then track down Carter Hayes.”

“Should I drive, or should we take your truck?”

“Let me drive,” she said.

“That’s fine by me.” I liked riding around in my sister’s pickup, mostly because I enjoyed the looks she usually got driving it. Most folks expected to see some burly, bearded man behind the wheel, so when they spotted Annie wheeling it expertly around town, it never failed to make me smile. For her and, in particular, the lifestyle she’d chosen for herself, it made perfect sense. After all, living in a cabin out in the middle of the woods required the use of a truck more often than it ever would a car. Besides, she was able to easily handle that treacherous driveway of hers in her truck, something I usually hesitated tackling with my car. Not only our homes but even our modes of transportation helped define us, and I was just fine with living over the Iron instead of being out in the middle of nowhere where Annie preferred.

Chapter 17: Annie

“H
ello, Timothy,” I said as my boyfriend walked up to where I had parked in the bank lot. Pat was inside making his deposit, and it was just my luck that Timothy was there as well.

“Hello,” he said calmly as he walked straight past me to the bank’s front door without a hint of hesitation.

I couldn’t take the silent treatment. I called out, “Do you have a second?”

“Is there anything really left to be said?” he asked as he turned to look at me. I could tell that he was hurt, and it killed me that there was nothing I could do about it.

“I think so. Try to look at it from our position. You came back into town before you admitted earlier, and now we find out that Peggy claims that you nearly ran her over in your truck right after she found Bones’s body. Even you have to admit that it looks fishy.”

“If I were a stranger, sure, but you know me, Annie. I’m not a killer.”

“I’m not saying that you are,” I insisted.

“Maybe not, but you aren’t saying that I’m innocent, either.”

“Why were you at the road near your land, and why were you doing your best to get away from the place? These questions shouldn’t be hard to answer, Timothy.”

“Is that it, then? Have you decided that we aren’t going to work out after all, and you’ve completely given up on us?” The hurt was very real in his voice now.

“No! Of course not! I want to keep seeing you, Timothy.”

“Well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it,” he said as he started toward the bank’s front door again. However, before he went inside, he hesitated at the entry and turned back to me. “Not that it matters, but I didn’t see Peggy driving anywhere yesterday afternoon, and if I nearly ran her down as she claims, wouldn’t I remember it?”

“So, you’re saying that you weren’t there?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he walked inside, nearly running Pat over as he entered the building.

“What was that all about?” my brother asked me. “Or do I really want to know?”

“Timothy claims that he didn’t come close to running into Peggy in his truck,” I said.

“Did he at least admit to being on the road around his place around then?”

“At that point, he was finished speaking with me altogether. Maybe for good.”

Pat touched my shoulder lightly. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Annie.”

“Then why do I feel as though I did? Pat, I practically accused him of lying to me.”

“You had a right to ask him about his whereabouts,” Pat said.

“Did I? It’s not like we have any official capacity. I didn’t have to press him so hard for his alibi.”

“That’s what we do, isn’t it?” my brother asked me.

“Maybe this time, we shouldn’t have.”

“Do you honestly believe that?” Pat asked as he stared into my eyes.

“No. Of course not. I just wish he wouldn’t be so defensive about it.”

“There I might have to agree with him,” Pat replied. “I’m not sure how I’d feel if Jenna asked me for an alibi at the time of a murder, particularly if it occurred on my land.”

“Are you actually taking his side over mine? Seriously?”

“Of course not,” he said quickly. “I’m just saying that it’s a delicate situation.” Pat turned back toward the bank.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to have a little chat with him,” Pat said. “This has got to stop.”

I grabbed his arm. “Not a chance.”

“Annie, you have to at least let me try. I might be able to make this better.”

“You could also kill it forever,” I said. “Thanks for the offer, but I’ll handle it.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m positive,” I answered. The last thing I needed at the moment was for my brother to act as an intermediary for me with my once, and hopefully still, boyfriend. “Let’s go.”

“Okay,” he agreed. My twin brother was clearly happy that I’d stopped him from going inside. It was pretty clear that he hadn’t been looking forward to having that particular conversation himself. “Where should we start looking for Carter Hayes?”

“Let’s try his place first,” I said.

“Do you know where he lives?”

“He’s living over Beatrice Masterson’s garage,” I replied.

“How did you happen to know that?”

“I’ve heard her talking about how he’s always late paying his rent whenever she eats at the grill.”

“Then to Beatrice’s we go,” Pat said.

Beatrice Masterson was a member of good standing in the Ladies’ Floral Society. The group of women, most of them of a certain age, was interested in much more than horticulture, though that was the primary function of their organization, at least according to their charter. Though they did all possess rather green thumbs, the women were also there to step in during times of need or duress, whether it be from a death in the family, a newborn baby, or just about anything in between. Beatrice’s landscaping was immaculate, with fall flowers planted in neatly mulched beds and the green lawn cut to within a sixteenth of an inch of its recommended height. There was a detached garage and steps leading up to it from the side, where Carter Hayes now resided. As we walked up to speak with him, I wondered how Beatrice had ever come to allow the man to live there in the first place. I knew that she was a widow on a fixed income, but I was still surprised that she’d chosen Carter to be her boarder.

I knocked on the door, but there was no reply.

“Try again,” Pat said.

I did as he suggested.

Still no reply.

Pat leaned forward and tried the doorknob.

To his surprise, as well as my own, it was unlocked.

“Carter, we’re coming in,” I said as Pat pushed the door open.

What my brother and I found inside managed to surprise us both.

“He’s gone,” Pat said as we both looked around the small room. There was no sign that Carter Hayes had ever even lived there. It took us all of three minutes to determine that after checking the small room that held a bed, a chair, and a desk, as well as a kitchenette and a bathroom that all fit into the same size space as a one-car garage. “You’re sure he lives here, right?”

“As of yesterday he did, but it’s pretty clear that he’s gone now,” I said as I grabbed my phone. “We need to tell Kathleen about this.”

“Hang on a second,” Pat said as he put a hand on my arm. “We haven’t even told Kathleen that Carter is on our list of suspects. Why is she going to care that he’s gone all of a sudden?”

“That’s why we have to bring her up to speed now,” I said. “We have to tell her everything, Pat.”

“I know you’re right, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it. Go on and call her, if you’re willing to take the hit. You know she’s not going to be happy about it, right?”

“I still have to take the chance,” I said.

Our older sister answered her phone after seven rings, and when she did, she sounded a little miffed. “What is it, Annie?”

“Carter Hayes is missing,” I said.

“Why should I care about that? I’ve got more important things on my plate right now.”

“Kathleen, Carter is in this up to his eyeballs. He threw the kids off Timothy’s land, claiming that it was his. Also, one of the girls claims that she saw Carter spying on them while they were digging. Finally, Timothy was talking about hiring Carter to help him clear some of his land, so it’s possible Carter knows more than he’s let on so far. After hearing all of that, doesn’t it strike you as odd that he’s missing?”

“Yes, it does,” she said glumly. “How do you know for a fact that he’s missing?”

“We’re at his place right now above Beatrice Masterson’s garage. It’s been cleaned out, top to bottom.”

“You shouldn’t be there, Annie,” Kathleen said severely.

“Why not? We came by to ask him some questions and found his door open,” I said, embellishing the truth a little. It had been unlocked, at any rate. “If it weren’t for us, you wouldn’t even know that his sudden disappearance might be pertinent to the case.” I must have snapped out the last few lines, based on Pat’s expression and Kathleen’s tone when she spoke again.

“Sorry. I’m under a time crunch right now. I didn’t mean to give you a hard time. I’ll have my people look for Carter, but right now, I’m running out of opportunities to keep my main suspects in town. I’m not even certain that I can convince them that they have to stay here overnight again. Without any real evidence against any of them, it’s not going to take much to make me let them go for good, and if I allow that, I have a hunch that we’re
never
going to solve the case.”

“Do you really think one of them killed Bones?” I asked her.

“Well, I’m pretty sure that Timothy didn’t do it, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am,” I said indignantly.

“Hey, take it easy, Annie. We’re on the same team, remember?”

“Sorry. Now it’s my turn to apologize. Carter could have done it,” I suggested.

“I admit that the fact that he’s running away isn’t a good sign. It could mean that Bones found the money, Carter saw it happen, and he confronted him on the spot. They argued, Carter killed him, and then he stole the money. Why
wouldn’t
he run, with that kind of pressure on him?”

“There’s another scenario,” I said.

“I’m listening.”

“What if he saw the real killer murder Bones and steal the money? He could have been found out somehow, and now he’s worried that the murderer is going to come after him next.”

“It’s a possibility,” Kathleen said. “Either way, we need to find him before anyone else does. In the meantime, I’m going to try to sweat these four kids one last time and see if I can break one of them. It’s not the most elegant police work I’ve ever done, but I’m at the end of my rope. I’ve got them separated, and I’m rotating between rooms trying to make something happen.”

“Meanwhile, we still don’t know where Carter is.”

“I’m working with limited manpower here, Annie. What else can I do?”

“Pat and I can look for him ourselves,” I offered.

“No!”

“Kathleen, do you really have any choice? If we find him, we’ll call you before we do anything else. What could that hurt?”

“I can’t even begin to consider the possibilities,” she said with a sigh. “Fine. But if you do get lucky and stumble across him, don’t do anything until you’ve spoken to me first. Can you and your brother agree to at least that much?”

“I can speak for Pat when I say that you have our word.”

He looked at me quizzically, but I didn’t have time to explain what I’d just bound him to. That would have to wait until Kathleen and I were through.

“Don’t make me live to regret this, Annie,” she said.

“Trust me. It will be fine.”

“I hope so, but I’m not going to hold my breath.”

After I hung up, Pat asked, “What did you just promise our big sister? Thanks for speaking for me without asking me first, by the way.”

“I didn’t have any choice. It was the only way she’d agree to let us look for Carter,” I said.

“I’m still waiting to hear what you promised.”

“We can look for him, but we can’t speak with him until we talk to her first. That’s not so bad, is it?”