Murder Served Cold (2 page)

The corners of Jade’s mouth crept up. “That’s during work. You should see him out of the uniform.”

I grinned. “Is he a dancing-on-the-table type of guy?”

“Nah. More laid-back.”

“And you know this because…”

“Because he’s one of the first people I met when I moved to Red Palm. We’re friends, that’s it.”

I didn’t press her for more information and reverted the conversation back to its original topic. “Aren’t you curious why it happened?”

“Rodger Becker’s no pushover. Our meeting today? That was nothing compared to how he’s treated people in the past. It’s pretty obvious why it happened.”

“All right,” I conceded. “But don’t you want to know who did it? It’ll be an adventure. How many opportunities like this come around?”

“They don’t — for good reason.” Jade slipped on her tennis shoes and ran in place.

I heard a thumping sound on the floor a couple seconds later.

Jade rolled her eyes. “Not again. Miss Taryn Horn will make her presence known in three...two...”

Someone pounded on the front door and Jade jogged over to answer it to reveal a woman in her early sixties wearing a sunhat and a flowery tank top. Her lips were pursed.

“You were running again.” Taryn folded her arms.

“Exercise is good for you,” said Jade earnestly.

“Hearing an elephant clomp across my ceiling isn’t good for my anxiety.”

“Come on, she wasn’t clomping across the ceiling,” I chimed in. I shot Jade a wry smile. “She was staying in place.”

“Keep your feet moving outside.” Taryn climbed down the steps. Her stomps sounded much more like an elephant than Jade’s light jogging.

I glanced at the kitchen counter. A stack of bills loomed in my vision. “Tell you what. I’ll help you get more customers and you can help me solve the crime only if you want to. I’ll going to help you either way.”

“Fair enough. What are your ideas?”

I pulled out my phone. “How’s your social media?”

The crime scene had been cleared by the time we returned to the area. Sitting on a bench across from A Scoop of Sunshine, I gestured to a teenage girl going into the ice cream shop. “She’s your girl.”

Jade lowered her sunglasses. “I don’t understand.”

“It doesn’t have to be her exactly, just someone like her.” She was wearing short shorts and a tank top, and was carrying a large purse. Her clothes screamed money and popularity. “If you get her to let all her friends know about your shop, you’ll get an influx of teenagers coming in on a Friday night.”

“I need every night — and day — to increase.”

“That’s why we’ll target the older crowd in the afternoon. It’s all about spreading the word. Once a few people do it, everyone does it.” I hesitated. “Also, should you have taken the day off when you’re struggling?”

“Today was my day off,” Jade explained. “I went in to make sure I had things sorted out.”

“Got it. After you offer the girl free ice cream for a year if she gets a hundred people to show up on Friday night, I want you to make nice with Taryn. I want her to bring people to the shop.”

Jade glared at me. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Strike a bargain. Tell her you won’t run in place if she brings a crowd tomorrow afternoon. Also, we’ll run a competition every day. The winner gets a gift card to Scoop.”

“Those sound like good ideas,” Jade admitted. “Except for Taryn.”

“Trust me on this. If you gain Taryn’s trust, you’ll gain access to an entire demographic you didn’t have before. You always go on about all the parties she holds and how she knows everyone in town.”

The popular girl exited the shop with a cup of chocolate ice cream.

“She’s alone,” I urged. “This is your best chance — normally it takes forever to get someone like her to notice you. You’ve got her undivided attention.”

Jade caught up with the popular girl as my phone rang. I answered it automatically, and it wasn’t until I heard Kevin McLean’s voice that I realized what I had done. I groaned inwardly.
 

“Ruby, I’m on my way and there’s nothing you can do to stop me,” said Kevin’s worried voice.

I hadn’t done anything to stop him. I had no intention of stopping him, because it was just as well that we discussed my decision in person. Not that we hadn’t last night, but you had to allow some time for the news to sink in. “All right.”

“I’ll be there by seven tonight.”

“You don’t want to check in to a hotel and talk in the morning?” I asked, crossing my fingers. Just because I’d agreed that we should talk didn’t mean I wanted to right away.

“No.”

I uncrossed my fingers. “Meet me at Jade’s shop. I’ll send you the directions.”

Jade returned with a large smile spread across her face and I said goodbye to Kevin.

“It worked!” she exclaimed. “Friday night will be a turning point for Scoop.”

We walked inside the shop and paused. Tim Becker was cleaning the counter.

“Tim, your shift is over,” said Jade. “You can go home.”

The shop’s manager, Rebecca White, shook her head. “That’s what I told him.”

Jade pulled him aside and I talked with Rebecca so Tim wouldn’t think I was listening and feel uncomfortable.

“You like the ice cream business?” I asked.

Rebecca had a pinched nose, eyes set slightly too far apart, and flat ears, but it was her bright eyes, warm smile, and caring attitude that stood out to me.

“Used to be in frozen yogurt. Great experience, and I met some wonderful people. You can’t beat this view, though.” She glanced out the window to the ocean.

I agreed. Nothing beat seeing the crashing waves from your place of work.

“I can’t believe what happened earlier,” Rebecca continued. “It’s terrible.”

“Do you know Rodger well?”

“Everyone knows Rodger. I can’t say I’m surprised by what happened. It goes to show how your past catches up with you.” She smiled. “You’re holding up pretty good.”

“Yeah.” The shock of seeing a man stabbed must have dulled my sensitivity. Although I felt horrible for him, so my feelings were still intact. If anything, seeing the attack had made me want to help. I wanted to find the stabber. I wanted to do something. “I want to do something, you know?”

Rebecca laughed softly. “I think most people would want to forget about it and move on.”

“Did you notice anyone running past Scoop? Did anyone come in with an ‘I just stabbed someone’ look?”

She stared at me. “No way.”

I shrugged. It’d been worth a shot. “The stabber must have taken the back — where does the back alley lead to?”

“The street.”

Jade rejoined us as Tim left despondently. “I convinced him to go home,” she said. “I don’t know what good that’ll do, but he has to face his problems sooner or later.”

“Does he need to?” I questioned. “It didn’t look like Tim gets along with his father.”

“They don’t. Never did,” Rebecca confirmed.

“I’m not asking for them to get along. I just can’t have him here all day, because Scoop closes. He won’t be able to hide in here forever,” said Jade.

Rebecca blinked. “Oh! Before I forget, we’re on the last of the cones. We’ll have to order more.”

“Let me check on that. I believe I already did.” Jade went to the back and I took the opportunity to check the alley behind the shop.

It was wide enough for delivery trucks to drive through, with trash dumpsters near each store’s back entrance. Even though I had found Rodger in between Scoop and the next store, I wanted to make sure nothing was left unturned. Where I stood was the path the attacker had taken to escape.

I peeked inside Scoop’s dumpster. It was normal trash: cardboard boxes with images of ice cream cones, plastic bags, and empty ice cream containers. I looked in a couple others and found nothing suspicious.

A breeze swept past me and a flyer flew by my feet. It was for A Scoop of Sunshine, with the hours and the flavor of the month listed on it. Flipping it over, I saw familiar writing scrawled on the back.
Order cones.

“Ruby, wait!” Jade hurried to catch up with me. After finding the flyer, I had convinced Jade to come with me to Rodger’s office building. I wanted to see more of his normal environment, in order to see what he was all about.

I strode inside and the lobby was furnished with brown. Brown everything. Brown chairs, brown desk, brown walls, and I’m positive I saw brown pens in a brown cup. Next to the brown notepad.

They were all different shades of brown and it was tastefully done, but still. Someone loved brown.

Jade caught up to me and I shoved the flyer into her hands. “What are you not telling me?”

Her eyes widened as she scanned the paper. “You think I stabbed Rodger?”

Her complete surprise told me everything I needed to know. My expression softened. “No, but I had to make sure. I found it behind the shop.” I looked at the flyer again and noticed the “a’s” were written differently than how Jade formed hers. “This isn’t your handwriting.”

“No, Rebecca and I have similar writing.” Jade furrowed her eyebrows. “You don’t think she was there? I wouldn’t have thought Rebecca was capable of violence.”

“It doesn’t mean she did it,” I pointed out. “Was she inside during the attack?”

Jade thought. “I didn’t see her inside, but I wasn’t keeping track of her whereabouts.”

“And what were you doing?” I asked.

She shot me a frustrated smile. “Ordering cones. Now, what are we doing here?”

I headed in the direction of Rodger’s office. “I want to see how his employees are taking the news.”

Jade glanced at her jeans and t-shirt. I was dressed similarly. “We won’t blend in!”

I halted. I hadn’t thought of that. “We’ll try anyway. Confidence can get you in anywhere.”

We pressed on and found the door of Rodger Becker’s business. I had seen the office number on the directory in the lobby. His door was wide open and a woman a couple of decades older than me was shuffling papers inside. Her hair was a curly mess, wrapped into a bun and pulled together with a headband. I admired it. I couldn’t get my hair to curl — and stay curled — for the life of me.

“Do you know her?” I whispered to Jade. She shook her head.

The woman looked up. “Can I help you?”

I adopted a somber exterior. It wasn’t hard, considering what I had witnessed earlier. “Did you hear about Rodger?”

She gave me a curt nod. “Of course.”

“It’s terrible, isn’t it?” Jade said.

“Awful. Excuse me.” She continued arranging papers on the desk.

We walked down the hallway. “That was uneventful,” Jade remarked.

“She’s incredibly diligent, on a deadline, or a cold person,” I said.

“Or didn’t want to talk to strangers,” offered Jade.

“Or that.” A phone rang and I gestured to Rodger’s office. “It’s coming from there!”

We stood a safe distance away and listened.

“Rodger Becker’s office, Colleen Byrd speaking...Yes, I’ve got them right here...I’ll have them ready for you...Just a couple people...I’ll do that. See you then.”

I heard footsteps come closer to the hallway and we dashed into the nearest office, which was miraculously open. It had a basic setup of a desk, chairs, and a bookcase. The nameplate on the desk read Ruben Grimes.

“There’s no job description.” I pointed to the nameplate.

“He’s in real estate,” said Jade. “He sells to the mega-rich.”

“And he works here?” The building was a generic office building anyone could rent space in.

Jade shrugged. “I’ve heard he takes privacy seriously.”

“That’s right,” said a deep voice behind us.

I turned around to see a man of average height, with average looks, gripping a baseball bat.

“Whoa!” I exclaimed. “We’ll leave.”

The man relaxed his stance. “Wait, why are you here?”

“I believe it’s my right to say why I’m in a place, or not,” I responded.