Sour Apple and Animosity Read online

  She wouldn’t say that the night before had been perfect, but overall she had been happy with it. Daniel had been kind and helpful, like always. While he was normally quiet and somewhat stoic towards people in town, he had started opening up to the group. She was also pleased with how things had improved between her and her brother.

  Not so very long ago, Leo had been willing to believe that she was a murderer and was going to lock her up. Of course, most of this was fueled by injured feelings when Lydia was left enough money in their uncle’s will to open up her shop and fulfill her dream. Leo thought that he hadn’t been left anything, but it turned out that Uncle Edgar had orchestrated that Leo and Suzanne should reconnect. He knew that Leo was satisfied with his career as a detective, but Uncle Edgar might have hoped to push him in the right direction romantically.

  The only hiccup was how Trina was dealing with being around couples. It was funny because there had been several times when Carl had stood her up, and she had been alone with a group of couples, and this hadn’t bothered her as much as last night. Lydia promised that they would have one of their usual girl’s nights soon.

  “Is everything all right, boss?” Kelsey asked.

  Lydia smiled at her employee, who was waiting by the door. Kelsey was about to be a senior in high school but was loyal and mature beyond her years.

  “I was just thinking that when I eventually have my house warming party, I should invite more people than I did for my house sale dinner last night,” said Lydia. “I think if I want to add to the guest list, I’ll have to invite everyone from here.”

  “I’d love to go,” Kelsey said. “And I’m sure the other employees would too. We’d all be interested to see what flavors of taffy you have in your secret stash – maybe you have something exotic that you don’t want to show to the public.”

  “I have been sharing most of my flavors these days, but I do keep creating more. And I did just work on a sour apple flavor that I think people with love. I’ll show everyone how to make it today.”

  Kelsey looked enthusiastic as they entered and began making the arrangements for the shop to open. Another employee, Mona, joined them before they flipped the sign from “closed” to “open.”

  “Sorry I’m late,” Mona said a little sheepishly. “Annette made this huge breakfast with eggs and waffles and fruit, and I thought it would be rude if I didn’t eat some of it.”

  “It’s fine,” Lydia said. “It’s not quite time to open, and I hadn’t started showing how to make the new flavor. But it sounds like things are going well with you staying at Annette’s.”

  A big smile formed on Mona’s face. “It’s pretty great. I’ve been on my own for a while, but now it feels like I have a mom again.”

  Lydia found herself smiling too. Though the reason for Mona needing a place to stay for a few weeks was unpleasant, she was pleased by the result. Annette was an older employee at Doherty’s Taffy and Trinkets who crocheted handmade sea creature toys to sell. Annette and Mona were always friendly with one another at work, but now they seemed to have become great friends as they became temporary roommates. Annette had been having empty nest syndrome ever since her daughter’s family had moved out of her house once theirs had finished being constructed out of town. Meanwhile, Mona had been feeling alone since she lost her father and had even tried working for a psychic fortune-teller to feel less alone.

  “I’m glad that it’s working out,” Lydia said. “Even if I am jealous about that breakfast.”

  “Yeah. I just had a piece of toast,” said Kelsey. “But that’s also why I am excited to try the sour apple taffy. Can we make it now?”

  “Sour apple?” Mona repeated. “That sounds amazing. I like candy that has a little kick to it.”

  “We can make it right now. It’s not as difficult as some of our other flavors because we don’t have to combine different types of taffy together for the final product. But I will show you how I came up with the flavoring to make it just sour enough and to get it that special green color.”

  Lydia took them quickly through the steps they were already familiar with in making the sugary taffy mixture, and then they added the new flavoring. Lydia explained how she started with Granny Smith apples as her inspiration and then adjusted the tanginess and tartness to the perfect taste.

  As they moved the candy mixture onto the taffy pulling machine and watched it work, Kelsey asked as they were waiting, “So, when is your party going to be?”

  “A party?” asked Mona.

  “A house warming party,” Kelsey explained. “Before you came in she told me that she was going to invite us all.”

  “That’s true,” Lydia agreed. “But before I have the party, I need to find my new home. And I’ll need to unpack and set it up. And I’ll probably do some decorating because Suzanne offered to help. Maybe I’ll do a little more with the décor than have a plethora of dog beds around the house for Sunny to lie on.”

  Then, Lydia heard her phone ringing. She asked the others to keep an eye on the taffy as she took off her plastic gloves to answer the call.

  Seeing it was Suzanne, she remarked to her employees, “Maybe my move might be sooner than I thought. Suzanne might have a tip for me already.”

  However, when she heard the voice on the other end of the call, she knew that this was not a house-hunting tip and that something was very wrong. Suzanne sounded frantic but was whispering as if she was afraid to make too much noise. It made it difficult to understand what she was saying, but Lydia tried to cling to every word.

  “Leo… need help… after us… a client… please.” Suzanne’s voice got louder when she said, “No!”

  Then there was a loud noise, and the line went dead. Lydia let the phone come down from her ear and stared at it. She was so unnerved that she didn’t know what to do.

  “Is everything okay?” Kelsey asked warily.

  Lydia didn’t respond right away. She called Suzanne back, hoping against hope that this might be some sort of prank that she meant to pull on Leo. Maybe it was an inside joke that she didn’t understand and Suzanne wasn’t really in danger.

  However, when the line went straight to voicemail, she knew that this was not a joke.

  “I don’t think it is okay,” Lydia told her employees. “Can you watch the shop? I need to go to the police station right away.”

  4

  At the Station

  Lydia walked into the police station, trying not to let the panic show on her face. She had hurried over there as fast as she could and headed over to Leo’s desk.

  Leo had a goofy smile on his face as he sipped coffee from a mug. He waved when he saw his sister approach.

  “This is a nice mug, isn’t it? Suzanne got it for me. She said it would brighten up my desk when I set it down,” he said with a chuckle. “It was really nice to have all of us get together like that. We shouldn’t wait for events like an offer on a house to do it again. We should do it again soon. Do you have any of that taffy from last night?”

  “No.”

  “That’s all right. I’m still happy to see you,” Leo teased. “Because I don’t have any open cases that you could be here to steal. That’s right. No murders. Detective Grey and I are just providing support if the summer crowds get unruly.”

  “Leo,” Lydia began, trying to figure out how to break her terrible news.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He stood up and gestured that she could sit in his seat, but she shook her head.

  “Did something happen at the taffy shop?” he asked. “Were you or any of your friends hurt?”

  “I got a call from Suzanne. She must have meant to call you. Our numbers are next to each other in her phone now. She said your name, and she asked for help. I think she said someone was after her. She sounded really upset and scared.”

  Leo took out his phone and immediately made a call. He frowned as evidently his call when straight to voicemail. He tried again with the same result.

  “What
exactly did she say?” Leo asked, trying to remain calm.

  “She was whispering, and it was hard to hear, but she mentioned her client, and she said someone was after her. No. She said the phrase after us. There was a loud noise right before the line went dead. Maybe someone broke her phone.”

  “You shouldn’t worry,” Leo said reverting to a professional manner. “I will look into this and handle it.”

  “It’s too late for me not to worry, and I feel bad that she wasn’t able to contact you directly,” Lydia said.

  “It’s quite possible that you only heard part of the message and it wasn’t one of panic at all. Perhaps the phrase “after us” was out of context,” Leo said. Though Lydia was pretty certain that he was only saying this for her benefit. He looked very tense.

  “She was scared. I want to help.”

  “I can handle this,” Leo reiterated. “I will find her and make sure she is okay. Now, she was supposed to have a meeting this morning.”

  “And a contractor she knew was going to be there,” Lydia reminded him. “Is there a chance you could contact that man?”

  Leo reached for his wallet as he nodded. He started picking through the cards. “She gave me his business card in case I ever needed some work done. I think she also did it because she didn’t want me to be jealous. She wanted me to know that they worked together and were friends, but there was nothing romantic there.”

  He found the number on the business card and called. The phone seemed to ring for a long time, and Leo balled up his other hand out of tension.

  “He’s not picking up?” asked Lydia.

  “No,” Leo agreed, hanging up as it finally went to voicemail. “I think that I should go to where her meeting was supposed to take place. That was most likely where Suzanne and Teddy were.”

  “Maybe the client she mentioned was the person they were supposed to meet.”

  Leo closed his eyes as he tried to remember details from the conversation. “She said it was a house that used to belong to a speakeasy owner.”

  Leo’s partner, Detective Grey, walked over to them at that moment. He was a serious man who looked even grimmer when he saw how worried they looked.

  “Why are you so concerned about Wilbur Wilway?” Detective Grey asked.

  “What?” asked Lydia, not able to place the name when she was so worried about Suzanne.

  “I suppose most people remember him as Suds Wilway. He was the man in town responsible for the big Ocean Point speakeasy. Is that not what you were talking about?”

  “That does sound familiar,” Lydia said. “Do you know a lot about Suds Wilway?”

  “I do like to read about crime from other decades. And about local history,” Detective Grey said.

  “Do you know where he used to live?” Leo asked. “That was where Suzanne was supposed to meet the new heir.”

  “It’s an older house. The speakeasy wasn’t actually there. It was in a different building than where he lived, but I have walked by the house before. It’s near the inlet on Sandover Street.”

  “I’m going to head over there now,” Leo said, starting for the door. Lydia was at his side.

  “I still don’t understand what’s going on,” Detective Grey said as they walked away. “What is happening with the heir?”

  “I just need to find Suzanne,” Leo said. “I’ll let you know if I need backup.”

  Detective Grey seemed to respect his partner’s choice and simply nodded. Lydia raced out of the station as her brother did. She waited for him to remind her to keep her nose out of police business, but he didn’t say anything. He just hurried ahead to his cruiser.

  Lydia headed to her own car. She wasn’t sure that a police warning would have kept her from checking on Suzanne, but since she wasn’t issued one, she was definitely going to head straight to the former Wilway house.

  She arrived at Sandover Street shortly after Leo did. He was looking at the cars in the driveway and on the street. She saw that one was labeled for Teddy Thomas, Contactor and realized that this must be his vehicle. There was a rental car in the driveway and sedan behind it.

  Leo pointed at the sedan. “That’s Suzanne’s car.”

  “So, she was definitely here,” said Lydia.

  “I’m going to check the house,” Leo said. “Stand back.”

  Lydia bit her lip but agreed. He kept a hand on his weapon and checked the front door. He announced that the police were there and that he was coming inside. Then, he entered the building.

  Lydia stayed by the cars, listening intently. She could hear his footsteps moving around the house, which made her think that there were no clear signs of Suzanne.

  She took a step closer to the house, thinking that she hadn’t heard anything to concern her that the house was dangerous. She paused as she saw something in the overgrown bushes next to the house. She hurried toward it to confirm her suspicion. There were two phones there. One was definitely Suzanne’s phone that she had at dinner the night before, but now it looked like it had been smashed.

  “Leo!” Lydia called. “I found something.”

  “Unfortunately, I did too,” Leo said grimly.

  Lydia didn’t hesitate a moment. She needed to see what he was referring to. She walked into the house and immediately saw what had caused his ominous tone. A man’s dead body was lying on the floor.

  5

  Confusing Crime Scene

  Lydia held back a scream. She hadn’t been expecting to walk in on this, but she knew she needed to keep it together to support Leo. The person lying on the floor wasn’t Suzanne, so that was one positive in a terrible situation. Now they just needed to figure out what happened so they could find her.

  “You didn’t find anyone else here, did you?” Lydia asked.

  Leo shook his head. “I searched the house. There are no other people here living or deceased.”

  “Is that Teddy?”

  “Yes. Teddy Thomas. The contractor who was at the meeting.” Leo took a deep breath. “I need to call Detective Grey. This is a murder investigation and a missing persons case.”

  He walked away to notify his partner, but Lydia stayed where she was. She glanced around the room, hoping that she could find something helpful. She tried to look at things besides the body, and she saw a pile of interesting things on a table. It was most likely the antiques that Suzanne must have been bringing to their heir’s attention to use in the design.

  But had she been able to show these antiques to the heir? Was the heir the client that Suzanne had mentioned? Was this heir the person who had killed the contractor? Had this meeting been a trap? Or was the heir a victim in all this too?

  Lydia had too many questions (not the least of which was: where is Suzanne?), but she didn’t have any answers. She stopped focusing on the antiques and looked around the room.

  The house looked like it was in need of repairs, but it had the potential to be a beautiful home again. There were rich wooden fixtures and hardwood floors. There were some handcrafted elements to the design that appeared attached to the walls. There was an ornamental drunken octopus above a bookcase that was holding a bottle in each of its eight tentacles. Each bottle had a letter on it, so it spelled out: Eat, Drink. Beneath the octopus, it also said: Be Merry.

  Lydia thought there was little chance that she would be merry today. She continued scanning the room and saw some small pieces of shattered glass. She thought that it was most likely from the broken phones that she had found outside.

  She still didn’t have a clear picture of what had happened here. She looked down at the body and felt a pang of sorrow that Suzanne’s friend was dead. From what she could see of the wound, it looked to her like he had been shot.

  She tried not to think about whether the weapon could have been turned on Suzanne and focused on what was in Teddy’s hand. It was something made of black cloth.

  She was just trying to formulate what she thought it could be when Leo returned to the room. He started looking aro
und the room the same way she did, but there was panic behind his eyes.

  “Do you think he was shot?” Lydia asked.

  “Most likely,” Leo muttered. “But the medical examiner will be here any minute with Detective Grey.”

  “There’s something in his hand,” Lydia said, pointing. “Do you think it’s a mask?”

  Leo took out a plastic glove and bent down next to the body to examine it. Lydia was so engrossed in discovering if she was right and the implications of a mask that she didn’t notice Detective Grey arrive until he was practically right behind her.