A Bad Egg: The Classic Diner Mystery Part 16

"You and I have a closeness that your father and I could never manage. How do you think he feels when he sees us getting along so grandly?" Moose asked.

"He knows that I love him, too," I said defiantly.

"No one doubts that," Moose said. "I shouldn't have said anything. It's not your fault. It's who you are."

"Wow, thanks for that," I said sarcastically. Did I really show more fondness for my grandfather than my own dad?

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. Forget it."

"I would if I could," I said as Moose pulled up in front of the diner.

I left him to park the truck. I had some thinking to do.

To my delight, my father was at the diner with my mother having a bite to eat. I walked straight to him, put my arms around him, and hugged him tightly. After our embrace, I pulled back a little so that I could look him straight in the eye. "You know how much I love you, don't you?"

He looked startled by the question, but he nodded and smiled. "Of course I do. I love you, too."

"Hey, how about me?" Mom asked.

I hugged her as well. "I love you both. Equally."

"That's always nice to hear, but what brought that on?" Mom asked.

"I just wanted to make sure you both knew how I felt," I said.

"Well, we do," Dad said.

Moose came back in, blew a kiss to his wife, and then headed straight to his son. To the surprise of everyone there, he hugged him just as I had. "I don't say it nearly enough, but I love you, Son, and I'm proud of the man that you've become."

Dad was thoroughly confused now. "Okay, am I dying or something? Is there something that you two aren't telling me?"

"We've just been dealing with a lot of family intrigue with Gordon Murphy's murder," I said. "It's made us both realize again how much our family means to us."

"Hey, where's my hug?" Greg asked from the kitchen. "It's not fair. I'm the one slaving away over a hot griddle, and yet no one is showing me any love."

"I'll correct that immediately, then," I said with a smile as I walked to the door between the kitchen and the dining room and hugged him as well.

"Excuse me," Jack Kiley said, "but if you're all through with your hugfest, I could use a refill on my sweet tea."

"So, you're not interested in a hug to go along with it?" Moose asked him with a smile.

"No offense, but not from you," Jack answered.

"None taken. I don't blame you a bit, but it appears that we've used up our portion of hugs for today. You'll have to take a rain-check."

"That I'll do, but I'd still like the tea."

"Coming right up," Jenny said.

"I'll take care of it." I grabbed the pitcher of tea and refilled Jack's gla.s.s. "Don't go anywhere. I need to talk to you."

Jack looked at me and grinned. "Am I in trouble?"

"No, I just want to ask you a few questions. Give me a second, okay?"

"Okay," he said.

I walked over to Jenny and said, "You can take off, Jenny, if you'd like the rest of the night off."

Jenny smiled at me. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine."

"I'm sure that you are, but it's hard to do this job all day without more of a break than you're getting. Take advantage of my offer and go home. You can sleep in tomorrow, too. Ellen's going to work until eleven, if that's okay with you."

"Are you sure that she doesn't mind?"

"Just between us," I said in a quiet voice, "I think being with her parents around the clock might be driving her a little stir crazy."

"I can respect that," Jenny said. As she took her ap.r.o.n off, she said, "If you're sure you can handle things here, I gratefully accept. I'm not afraid to admit it. I really am beat. Victoria, I have a whole new respect for you after what I've been through today."

"We all play an important part in keeping The Charming Moose running smoothly," I said, "but thanks for the thought."

"See you tomorrow." She paused, and then Jenny added, "If Ellen changes her mind once she gets here, I'm just a telephone call away, okay?"

"Okay, and thanks again for stepping in, Jenny."

"It's been my pleasure. Your grandmother is fun to work with."

"She has her charms, doesn't she?"

"That's one way to put it," Jenny said. I saw her stop and say something to Martha on her way out, something that caused my grandmother to smile. Jenny was like that, spreading smiles wherever she went, and I knew yet again that we were lucky to have her.

"Well, we're taking off," Dad said as he and Mom approached. They were on their way out the door when my father pulled me aside. "Are you okay, kiddo?"

He hadn't called me that since I was child, with the exception of a few times when I'd been in some serious trouble.

That's how I knew that he was really worried about me.

"I'm great, Dad."

"What really brought on that hug?" he asked quite seriously.

"I don't always tell you how much you mean to me," I said. "I know that I spend a great deal of my free time with Moose, but that doesn't mean that I love you any less."

"Victoria, listen to me carefully. I've never resented the relationship you have with my father. Would I like the two of us to be closer? You know what? We're close enough. He loves me, and I love him, as hard as that is for me sometimes. You two are a great deal more similar to each other than either of you are to me."

"And you don't really have a problem with that? Be honest with me," I said.

"I'm just glad that you each found someone who could stand to be around the other one," he said with a big grin, and kissed the tip of my nose, another thing he hadn't done in ages. It made me feel like a little girl again, and I was glad again for who my father was. Moose and I were close, but a girl's father is not easily replaced.

Jack called me over, and as I approached, he said, "As much as I love eating here, I have to get back to work." He pushed the plate away and smiled. "That's the best lasagna I've ever had in my life. Who made it?"

"That's one of Greg's specialties," I said. "It's one of my favorites, too, but honestly, he's so good, my list of favorites is a mile long."

"I understand completely. Now, what is this all about?"

I took the seat beside him and said, "This won't take a minute. Have the police spoken to you about the day of the murder?"

Jack frowned. "Sure, of course they did. They wanted to know if I'd seen anything suspicious that day. I told them no, and they went away."

"That's the only thing they asked you?" I asked.

"The deputy seemed to have something else on his mind," Jack said. "Besides, what else could he have asked me?"

"Do you sell pipe like the one that was used to kill Gordon?"

Jack just shrugged. "Sure, but it's not like I'm the only supplier. I sell a great many things at the hardware store in the course of a day."

"Any pipe that day, though?" I asked.

"No, I don't think so. One of the guys might have rung something up while I was helping someone else, but I don't believe anyone sold pipe."

That brought out a new thought. "Would you know every customer who came into the hardware store that morning and afternoon?"

"Yes," he said, and there was no room for debate.

"Really? You just said someone else might have sold some pipe while you were away from the register. How can you be so sure?"

"Because I might not make every sale, but I know who shops in my store," he said, and I didn't doubt it for one second. Jack prided himself on his personal touch with customers, and I'd experienced it myself on more than one occasion.

"Okay, good. Did any of these people come into the hardware store the day of the murder?" I named our complete suspect list, including Ellen.

Jack stretched his neck a little as though it helped him think. "Robert was there getting some caulk, and Mitch.e.l.l came by to have a key made. That's it."

"And you're certain neither bought any pipe?"

"Positive," he said.

"Let me ask you one more thing. Is there a chance that one of them stole it?"

That clearly didn't make Jack happy at all. "I lose some every month to theft, I know that, but we do what we can. I can't say for sure that no one took a length of pipe if he shoved it down his pants."

"Do you keep a good inventory of things like that?"

Jack shook his head. "Not good enough. Our numbers are a little sketchy on things like that. Sorry I couldn't help."

I smiled at him as I grabbed his check. "You helped me a great deal. Lunch is on the house."

"I wasn't looking for a free meal," Jack protested.

"That's why it's so much fun to give you one," I said.

"Victoria, the City's been using that alley to store some construction materials. They cleaned it up after the murder looking for clues, but that pipe shouldn't have been that hard to find. Whoever got it didn't have to take one step into my hardware store."

"Maybe not, but if it's all I've got, I'm going to use it. Thanks again."

"At least let me leave a tip," Jack said.

"I can't stop you," I said with a smile, and then I tore up his check.

Moose walked over after Jack left. "What was that all about?"

"You could have come over," I said.

"I didn't want to cramp your style. Did Jack help any?"

"He told me that Robert and Mitch.e.l.l shopped in his store the day of the murder, that he couldn't account for every pipe he had in inventory, but most important of all, he said that the alley was full of construction materials at the time of the murder, so the murder weapon most likely came from there."

"It was still worth a shot checking," Moose said.

"But probably just another dead end," I answered.

"Hey, we take leads where we get them," my grandfather said. "At least we got to tell your father how we felt about him."

"That's true. He doesn't resent our relationship, by the way."

"You came out and asked him?" Moose asked.

"Why not?"

"What did he say, exactly?" Moose wanted to know.

"He was happy that we'd each found someone who could stand us," I said with a grin.

"Well, he's not wrong there."

Chapter 13.

After my folks and Jack left the diner, I told Martha, "You've had a long day. Why don't you and Moose take off and get some rest this evening? I'm going to need you again some tomorrow, if you're willing, and I don't want to completely wear you out today."

"You know that you can call me anytime," Martha said, though I noticed that she didn't try to talk me out of sending her home.

"And I want to be able to keep doing that, but I've got things here covered tonight."