A Bad Egg: The Classic Diner Mystery Part 3

After Cal was gone and Moose and I started down the path that skirted the lake, I asked, "What on earth did you ever do for Cal?"

"That's between us, young lady. What happened to you holding your tongue back there?"

I laughed. "Come on, Moose. We both knew that wasn't going to happen. He really laid it all out there, didn't he? It's clear he feels beholden to you."

"Cal just had a bit of bad luck in the past."

"Why do I have the feeling that it's not as simple as all of that?" I asked.

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about," Moose said as he added a quick wink. "Now, do you have any ideas about how we should approach the grieving fiancee?"

"Well, it's going to be hard to commiserate with her, since she's probably the only person around here who's all that sorry to see something happen to Gordon."

"Maybe so, but she must have seen something in him to agree to marry the man," Moose said.

"We can offer our sympathies and go from there," I said.

"I suppose that it's as good a plan as any," my grandfather said.

We never had the chance to implement it, though.

We were about to round a corner when I heard a single voice speaking. It was a woman, and she sounded extremely upset. "I don't know. He wouldn't tell me. No, I don't think he was bluffing. He had something he said would bury me. Yes, I know. It was a poor choice of words, but that's what he told me. No, I can't come back until I find out. Good bye."

I tried to pull Moose back as the conversation ended, but we didn't quite manage it. A rather plain woman in her thirties came down the path, and before she spotted us, there was a dark frown on her lips. She was well dressed, a little too nice for a hike around the lake, and her hair was expensively styled. Before she spotted us, I took a gamble and said to my grandfather, "I'm telling you, we're lost. I have no idea where she is."

Jessie Blackstone and I made eye contact, and I did my best to smile at her as I said, "Are you by any chance Jessie? My grandfather and I had just about given up all hope of finding you out here."

"I'm Jessie Blackstone," she said a little warily. "Why were you looking for me?"

"We knew Gordon," Moose said. "We wanted to come by and offer you our condolences."

"Thank you," she said automatically, though it did nothing to alleviate her scowl. "Excuse me for being so abrupt, but who exactly are you?"

"Forgive me," I said as I stepped forward and offered her my hand. "I'm Victoria Nelson, and this is my grandfather, Moose."

She started to reach out her hand automatically before she heard my name, but as I said it, Jessie pulled it back as though we were a pair of vipers. "You own that awful diner," she said.

"I wouldn't call it awful," Moose said, using his most charming smile. "We prefer to call it quaint, if you don't mind."

"It's where that woman works, though," she said.

"Which woman are you referring to?" I asked, though I knew full well who she meant.

"Gordon's ex-wife, Ellen. She wouldn't let him see his own children. Can you imagine anyone being so cruel?"

"Hang on a second," I said, trying to keep my voice calm. "You don't know the entire situation. Gordon left her high and dry to raise two kids all alone. You can't really blame her for not welcoming him back to town with open arms, can you?"

"I understand that sometimes people have differences in a marriage, but when Gordon first told me about his children, I could barely believe it. He a.s.sured me that when he left, he did his best to stay in their lives, but she wouldn't allow it."

"Let me guess. You're the one who insisted that he come back to Jasper Fork and fight for them, aren't you?"

Jessie nodded a little uncertainly. "It was the right thing to do. I could never have married him without at least meeting his children. What kind of man doesn't see his own offspring?"

"Was trying to get custody your idea as well?" Moose asked.

"He needed to be a part of their lives, and we could afford to give them the very best things," Jessie said. "Don't they deserve that much, after what they'd been through?"

"They don't deserve losing their mother," I said, and I could barely contain my feelings. Ellen was the greatest mother in the world as far as I was concerned, putting the welfare of her children above her own every step of the way.

"Of course they don't," Jessie said, and I believed her. "It was never my intention for us to seek full custody."

"Ellen believed otherwise," I said.

Jessie frowned. "I told Gordon that it was a foolish strategy, but he believed that if we threatened to seek full custody, Ellen would be more compliant about allowing us into their lives."

"I don't suppose any of it matters now," I said.

Jessie looked off toward the lake. "No, I suppose that it doesn't. Have the police found her yet?"

"Ellen?" Moose asked. "How did you know that they were looking for her?"

"Sheriff Croft came here and spoke to me," Jessie said. "Naturally, I told him about the argument Gordon had last night in Ellen's home, and he left in search of your waitress."

"Where were you when it happened?" I asked her.

Jessie looked away again before she spoke. "I don't suppose we should be talking about it, since it's part of an ongoing murder investigation."

"What would it hurt for you to give us your alibi?" Moose asked. "It might make things easier for you if we could eliminate you as a suspect right off the bat."

Jessie looked startled by the thought that Moose and I would be involved in searching for Gordon Murphy's killer. "What possible business is it of yours?"

"My grandfather and I have been known to help the police out from time to time," I said. I wasn't exactly sure that Sheriff Croft would put it that way, but it was still true.

"I didn't realize that either one of you had any official status," Jessie said.

"It's more of an informal thing," I said.

Jessie shook her head. "Then I'll deal with the sheriff directly. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm afraid that this tragedy has taken quite a toll on me."

As she headed past us on the path, Moose and I turned to follow her. We took a dozen steps nearly in tandem when Jessie whirled around and faced us. "Are you honestly going to follow me?" There was real anger in her expression, and I was glad that Moose was with me, despite the fact that I had at least twenty pounds on this woman.

"It's the only way back to the inn," I said.

She stared at us for a few seconds more, shook her head, and then she stormed on, doing her best to ignore us.

I touched Moose's arm to hold him back a little, but he just shrugged, so we walked on together.

When Jessie got back to open ground, her pace increased, and she was soon stomping off toward the safety of her hotel.

"She's a little touchy about her alibi, isn't she?" Moose asked. "I thought for a second there that she was going to push us both off the path straight into the lake."

"I understand her being a little on edge," I said. "After all, someone just killed her fiance."

"Was it me, or did she not seem too upset about who might have done it?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"She didn't show much grief, as far as I'm concerned. She was angry, and more than a little defensive, but not grieving. And what about that telephone call we overheard? I wonder who she could have been talking to."

"I don't have a clue," Moose said as he scratched his chin. "We need to keep an eye on her. I'm automatically suspicious of anyone who refuses to share their alibis with us, aren't you?"

"Not everyone has one," I said.

"No, but she sidestepped the question the second she heard it. I've got a hunch that she's hiding something."

"Do you think she killed him?" I asked my grandfather.

"It's something we can't rule out, but I have to wonder about something. If she is guilty, what made her get rid of him right here and now? She's really the only one who's been a part of Gordon's life lately, so why kill him once he's back in a town where he made a great many enemies?"

"That's the answer to your question right there," I said.

"I don't follow you," Moose answered.

"What better place to b.u.mp him off than someplace where there are half a dozen other viable suspects? If she planned it that way, she's absolutely brilliant."

"And if she didn't?"

"Then she's pretty gutsy, or maybe she's just an innocent bystander." I hesitated, and then I added, "The only time I bought her completely was when she was talking about Ellen's kids. I've got a hunch that she was sincere about that, and Gordon knew it. His kids were a deal-breaker for her, and he must have really wanted her money. Why else would he risk coming back here after all of these years not knowing what he was going to face?"

"Knowing Gordon, the potential profit had to outweigh the danger."

I was about to reply when I looked up and saw that Cal was walking toward us, along with a pair of husky men wearing sharp-looking suits.

None of them were smiling, and I had to wonder if this was more bad news for us.

Chapter 5.

"I'm afraid you two are going to have to leave the premises," Cal said as he reached us first. "We can't have you walking the grounds upsetting our guests."

"Who exactly has been complaining about us?" Moose asked. He was clearly in no mood to comply with exiting the property without a fight.

"This is private property, sir," one of the men said, clearly from the security team. "We don't need to provide any information other than that. Now, if you'll tell us what you're driving, we'll be happy to escort you to your vehicle."

"What if we came by for lunch?" I asked as I pointed to the restaurant.

"I'm sorry, but that's not going to work. We're booked for the foreseeable future."

Moose looked at Cal, who seemed to shrug for just a second. It was clear that this wasn't his idea, but there was nothing he could do about it, especially since he'd been the one who'd told us where we'd find Jessie in the first place. "We're truly sorry," he said, though it was clear by his tone that he was doing his best to match his companions' tone.

"No worries," Moose said with a grin that was clearly artificial. At least it was clear to me. "We're off, then. No hard feelings."

No one responded to that, so my grandfather and I walked back to his truck with an escort. As I started to get in the pa.s.senger side, I looked over at the restaurant and saw one of the drapes flutter. Someone had been watching the entire procession, and I had a good hunch who that might be. Well, at least we'd given Jessie a show to go along with her meal.

As we pulled out of the parking lot, I said, "Wow, that was fast, wasn't it? They didn't waste any time getting rid of us."

Moose just shrugged. "When there's that kind of money involved, I'm pretty sure the hotel staff is ready to do just about anything that they're called on to do."

"Still, you gave up pretty easily," I said with a grin. "What happened, did their sheer numbers intimidate you into backing down?"

"Yeah, that was it entirely," Moose said, matching my smile. "I knew that we weren't going to get anything else out of Jessie today, so it was important that no one had to actually throw us off the property. This way we're free to come back and speak with her again later."

"Do you honestly think that's going to happen?"

"You never know," Moose said. "Who should we tackle next?"

"I say we go by the garage and have a little chat with Wayne," I said. "It sounds as though he had a few reasons of his own to take a pipe to the back of Gordon Murphy's head. Not only did the man punch his lights out, but he did it in front of his girlfriend. I've got the feeling that more than Wayne's pride was hurt by that blow."

"Do you think it was enough to make him kill Gordon?" Moose asked.

"If he thought he was defending Ellen, it might be," I said.

"Then by all means, let's go speak with him while the sheriff's occupied with his search for Ellen."

"Surely he's found her by now," I said.

"That depends entirely on how good she is at hiding," Moose replied.

"I still can't believe that she'd just run off like that."

"Fight or flight is pretty ingrained in all of us," my grandfather answered.

"I just hope that she didn't do both," I answered as we pulled into the auto shop's parking lot.

It was time to talk to the owner and see if he might have had something to do with Gordon Murphy's murder.

"Wayne, do you have a second?" Moose asked him as we walked into the office.

"For you? Always," the mechanic said.

Moose whistled softly under his breath when he saw the mechanic's face. "Gordon caught you pretty good last night, didn't he?"

Wayne frowned as he touched his black eye. He winced a little as he did, and then he looked straight at Moose and said, "I've never been much of a fighter, and that's a fact. Before this happened, the last time I raised a hand in anger was in seventh grade, and that didn't end all that well for me either, truth be told. The man hit me before I was ready, but that's not much of an excuse, is it?"