Cut to the Corpse (22 page)

“Don’t worry,” Brenna said. “I’m sure Jake will tell him, too.”

“I hope so,” Tara fretted. “I tried to go visit, but they won’t let me see him.”

“Does he have an attorney?”

“I have our family attorney representing him right now,” Tyler said. “They are calling in their best criminal litigator.”

“I just can’t believe this is happening,” Tara said. “I’d rather they arrested me. I want to go sit with the Haywoods, but I’m afraid they’ll blame me.”

“They have no reason to blame you for anything, sweetie,” Tiffany said. She wrapped an arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “None of this is your fault.”

“If Jake hadn’t started dating me, none of this—” Tara broke off with a sob, but Brenna interrupted her, “You don’t know that. We don’t know who killed Clue or why, and until we do, we can’t go assigning blame. The only truly guilty party is the killer.”

Tara gave her a weepy nod.

Brenna’s cell phone chimed in her purse.

“Excuse me,” she said as she fished it out of her bag. She didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello.”

“Brenna Miller?” a low voice asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“It’s Chief Barker. Could you come to the station at your earliest convenience, say, in fifteen minutes?”

“Um, sure,” she said. “I’ll be right there.”

“Good,” he said. He hung up before she had a chance to ask him what this was about, but judging by his tone it wasn’t good.

“I have to go,” she said to Tara. “How about I talk to the Haywoods? I’ll let them know how you feel and find out if there is any news about Jake.”

“Will you?”

“Absolutely,” Brenna said. “You eat something and get cleaned up and I’ll call as soon as I can.”

“Oh, thank you, Brenna.” Tara gave her a bone crusher of a hug.

Brenna left the suite, trying to suck in enough air to get her lungs to reinflate.

She used her cell phone to give Tenley an update and then headed over to the jail. She could see several news vans parked out front and Ed Johnson holding court amidst a swarm of journalists.

She decided it might be better to enter stage right. She circled the building and used the back entrance, the one the police used, to enter the building.

She kept her head high and tried to appear as if she knew where she was going. She knew from living in Boston that the people who stuck out were the ones who gawked or looked obviously lost.

The small station was abuzz. Phones were ringing, voices were loud, and everyone appeared to be in motion. Except for two people, who were sitting on a bench outside the chief’s glass windowed office, John and Margie Haywood.

John was wearing his navy blue coveralls from the garage with his name embroidered over the left breast pocket in cursive. The knees were worn and the hems a little frayed, bespeaking the fact that John earned his living with manual labor.

Margie must have been at work at the elementary school already, as she was wearing a long, denim skirt with a medical scrubs shirt that had tiny kittens playing with balls of yarn all over it. She had on white tennis shoes and clutched her purse in her lap, much like a doctor would carry his black bag. Brenna would have laid odds that her purse was full of tissues, hand sanitizer, and lollipops.

Both of the Haywoods looked to be in shock. John was silently staring at the opposite wall, while Margie gently tapped her fingers on top of her bag, as if marking the seconds as they passed.

“Hi, Margie, John,” Brenna greeted them as she approached.

“Oh, hello, Brenna,” Margie said. “John, you remember Brenna Miller, she works over at the paper store.”

“Jeep, 2003, had some brake work done a few months back,” he said. “How’re they holding up?”

“Fine, just fine,” Brenna said. “Jake did a great job on them.”

“He’s a good mechanic,” John said. His eyes skimmed past Brenna’s to go back to staring at the wall.

“He is good,” Brenna agreed. “And not just as a mechanic, but he’s a good person as well.”

Margie’s eyes watered up and she patted Brenna’s hand. “Thank you.”

“I just saw Tara,” Brenna said. Neither John nor Margie said anything, so she continued, “She’d like to come and be with you, and wait for Jake, but she doesn’t want to intrude.”

John and Margie exchanged a look.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea with the press and all,” John said. He glanced quickly at his wife as if deferring to her, and she nodded in agreement.

“I don’t want her here,” Margie said. Her lips, usually parted in a warm smile, were thin with anger.

Brenna’s eyes widened. She wasn’t sure what she had expected but it wasn’t this tightly controlled rage.

“Maybe it’s harsh of me,” Margie continued, “but I do blame her. Jake was never in any trouble before she came around. Even when Clue tried to talk him into something foolish, Jake said no. He’s a good boy, and now he’s being arrested for a crime he didn’t commit and it’s all because of her.”

“Now, Margie,” John cut in, his voice soothing, but she snapped, “No! I’m not going to change my mind. He’s better off without her. In fact, he’s better off in jail if it keeps him away from her. She’s trouble and I knew it the minute I laid my eyes upon her.”

John watched helplessly while Margie fished a tissue out of her bag to dab her eyes.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Brenna said.

Margie sniffed and dabbed her eyes again. Her voice wavered when she said, “No, I’m sorry, dear. I had no reason to take that tone with you. I just wish Jake had never gotten tangled up in this mess.”

“That’s understandable,” Brenna said. She was relieved to see a glimpse of the old Margie shine through her grief. Brenna couldn’t imagine how awful it must be to have a son arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. She supposed she’d have a hard time not blaming everyone around him as well.

The door to the office swung open and Chief Barker stepped out. His gray eyebrows went up a couple of notches when he took in Brenna.

“Can we see him?” Margie asked. Her voice was high-pitched and hopeful.

“I’m sorry, Margie,” he said. “Not just yet. He’s had some breakfast, however, so don’t you worry about him.”

“You let him know we’re here, though, didn’t you?” John asked.

“He knows,” Chief Barker said. “Brenna, nice of you to stop by. Could you step into my office?”

“Sure.” She gave the Haywoods a nod and walked through the door.

The chief’s office looked much the same as it had upon her last visit. A large stuffed trout was mounted on one wall, several photos of the chief holding a string of bass were on another, and beside those were several pictures of the chief with his wife, children, and grandchildren.

If pictures told the whole story, Brenna judged the chief led a very good life.

She took the seat across from his desk. The padding was thin but it had armrests, she put her purse on the floor by her feet and waited for him to speak.

“So, I hear you were out with Jake and Tara last night,” he began.

“Yes, that’s right,” Brenna said. “Chief, is this an official questioning?”

“Do you want it to be?” he asked.

“Meaning?”

“I can arrest you and ask you questions to make it more official, or you can just answer me now as a witness, your call.”

“Witness works,” Brenna said.

“Tell me what happened last night,” he said. “Don’t leave anything out.”

Brenna repeated the events of the evening. She figured Jake had already told him everything they had learned from Valerie Scott and that she was corroborating his story. She knew the chief would be checking with Tenley, Matt, and Nate as well so she tried to keep her account as accurate as possible.

The chief took notes while they spoke. When she mentioned her phone call with Dom Cappicola, he paused to study her face.

“I know the rumors about the Cappicola family,” she said. “But Dom is different. He’s trying to make the family business legitimate.”

Chief Barker gave her a doubtful look and scribbled something in his notebook. Brenna wanted to peek, but she had a feeling it would say something unflattering about her intelligence quotient for befriending a mobster.

When she wound down by telling how she and Nate walked Tara home, the chief sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

“So, what do you not understand about the phrase ‘butt out’?” he asked.

“Are you going to yell at me?” she asked.

“I should,” he said. “But I doubt it would do any good.”

“Probably not,” she agreed. She didn’t like raised voices and was happy to discourage him from yelling.

“I am going to have to warn you, however, if you put one foot near this case again, I will arrest you for obstruction of justice or tampering with evidence, and if I can’t make those stick, I’ll nail you for jaywalking and make sure you stay locked up until the case is closed, am I clear?”

“Crystal,” Brenna said.

“Now go,” he said. “I have work to do.”

“Yes, sir,” Brenna said as she paused before opening the door. “Chief, one thing; did you know Julie Harper is pregnant with Clue’s baby?”

He gave her a dark look and she said, “I found out by accident, I swear.”

He started to stand and she quickly opened the door and stepped through it. “I’ll see myself out, thanks. Bye.”

She shut the door.

The Haywoods were no longer sitting on the bench, and Brenna wondered if they’d finally been allowed to visit their son. How awful. She could only hope that the chief moved quickly on what they’d found out and that Jake got out of jail sooner rather than later.

She went out the back door, checking to see that the coast was clear before she stepped outside. She wound her way around the two squad cars that were parked in the small lot and down the narrow alley until she was three buildings away from the station.

The town green was quiet today. Two mothers were sharing a blanket on the grass while their chubby-legged toddlers tried to catch the butterflies that fluttered overhead. An older couple sitting on a bench shared a newspaper and drank their coffee from paper take-out cups from Stan’s.

Suddenly, Brenna had a craving for one of Stan’s lattes in the worst way. Still, she had left Tenley alone longer than she’d expected. She had better get back to the store before Ella and Marie made her completely crazy.

Maybe she could convince Tenley to take a break by going to get them two of Stan’s frothy masterpieces. The bells on the door handle jangled as she stepped into the shop. She had her sales pitch half figured out when she realized Tenley wasn’t alone.

In fact, it seemed as if half of the town was in the small shop. The Porter sisters were still in attendance, as well as Sarah Buttercomb, Lillian Page, Matt Collins, and Bart Thompson, to name a few.

“I thought I’d throw a little party,” Tenley said in answer to Brenna’s questioning look.

“So, I’m fashionably late?” Brenna asked.

“Indeed,” Tenley said.

“Seriously, what’s going on?” Brenna whispered.

“Ella and Marie started dragging people in off the street to talk about Jake’s arrest,” she said. “It’s not looking good for him.”

“He must have done it.” Ruby from the salon was addressing the group. “I mean, can you imagine finding your bride in bed with your best friend? It would drive even the nicest man to commit murder.”

“No, no, no,” Lillian Page argued. She had a cup of Stan’s in one hand and a cream puff from Sarah’s bakery in the other. “Jake is a good man. He’d never hurt his friend, no matter what he’d done. I can’t imagine how his parents are suffering right now.”

Brenna could have told her, but she wanted to hear what the others had to say. She made her way toward the worktable, where there was a pile of cream puffs and a twelve-pack of Stan’s coffees. Ah, life was worth living again.

“I’ll bet Brenna can tell us more,” Ella Porter announced.

Nuts!
Only the Porter twins could wilt an inch of froth in one breath.

“I really don’t know anything,” Brenna said.

“Aw, come on, Brenna,” Bart Thompson said. “You’re the one who figured out who murdered Mayor Ripley last April; you must have some idea of who killed Clue.”

“Actually, I thought his wife murdered him,” she said. “I only figured out who really killed him by almost getting killed myself.”

“Really?” Bart looked disappointed.

Brenna noticed the rest of the room looked glum, too. Oh for Pete’s sake, they didn’t really think she had it all figured out, did they?

“Well, I guess I’ll just get back to my shop,” Ruby said. “I left Katie Barker under the dryer. She’s going to frizz.”

Was it Brenna’s imagination or was Ruby giving her a once-over that found her wanting?
Hmm.
More people made excuses, and sure enough the shop was cleared out in a matter of minutes.