After a long day of serving customers in the Starlight Cafe, there was nothing quite like winding down with my best friends. Waffle and Sue. If only Gran could have joined us, the evening would’ve been perfect.
The air was nippy, but I wanted Waffle to get a little bit of exercise out in my tiny front yard before we retired for the evening.
Sue and I sat on my front steps, clutching a mug of hot chocolate each between our palms.
“Thanks for stopping by, Sue,” I said. “I hope I’m not keeping you from the family.”
“Don’t be silly.” Sue took a languid sip of her hot chocolate. “Sometimes, you’re my island, Milly.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just that life gets awfully busy with a practice and a husband, and two adorable and growing young girls,” Sue said. “It’s nice to stop by a quiet part of town and take a breath at the end of the day.”
“Well, feel free to drop by my island any time you like.”
Sue lifted her mug in salute to that. “Say, have you met your new neighbors?”
“No,” I said. “It’s been quiet over there.” The pink house next door was dark. “I’m not sure whether they’ve fully moved in yet, but I saw a guy over there with blond hair earlier in the week. It beats the noise from the other side.” I gestured to the green house, another carbon copy of my tiny home, to my right.
That house was always filled with sound and music. Two young men stayed there, Jonas and James, though they’d introduced themselves to me as the Jay brothers. Their grandmother, Wanda, stopped by once in a while and quieted them down. The music and shouting would stop for a week and then resume shortly after.
“It doesn’t seem too noisy over there,” Sue said, peering over at the green house. “The lights are on and everything.”
“That’s because Wanda’s visiting,” I replied.
Sue nodded. “Makes sense. Nobody gets on Wanda’s bad side.”
“Oh?”
“She’s infamous. Ask Gran. One of the chief gossips in town, and one of the very few women to own a boat and stay out of the Boaters group. Real strength of spirit.”
“Or she’s secretly a witch who puts spells on people,” I said. “I have no idea how she gets those guys to quiet down for as long as she does. I’m assuming only magic could stop the partying.”
Sue grinned. “Anti-partying?”
“You know me,” I said. “I’d much rather sit at home with Waffle, a glass of wine, and a good book.”
Sue and I fell silent, appreciating the slowly sinking sun, and Waffles explorations around the border of the yard. He hadn’t tried digging his way out in all the time we’d been together, but he was more than happy to dig holes in the middle of the yard. Holes that were easy to forget about. The resulting twisted ankles were memorable, however.
“How are things going with your murder case?” Sue asked, making sure to keep her voice down, as she took another sip of her hot chocolate.
“I think we’d better go inside to talk about it,” I said. “It’s beyond cold now. We’re just lucky there’s no wind tonight.” I rose, offering to take Sue’s empty mug.
A door slammed next door, and Waffle spooked and hopped over to us. I helped him onto the porch and opened the door for him.
“You there!” The voice had come from the front yard of the green house. “Hello?”
“Uh oh,” Sue said. “Speaking of the spell caster. Here she comes.”
Wanda tottered toward the fence that separated my yard from the Jay brothers’. She beckoned to me, crooking a gnarled finger, her ice-white hair curled tight against her scalp. Bright brown eyes, sharp as an eagles, held my gaze, and she held a folded newspaper underneath one arm, ready for swatting flies or irritating people.
“Come on, now. Come down here, Miss Pepper. I don’t have all night and it’s colder than a witch’s behind out here.”
I walked down to the fence, joined by an intrigued Sue.
“Good evening, Wanda,” I said. “I told you, you can call me Milly.”
“Why, yes, I can. I choose not to. I think there’s something proper about calling a young lady such as yourself by her last name,” Wanda said.
“But, Wanda,” I started.
“Do you know?” Wanda asked, cutting right across my complaint.
“Know?” I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “I’d like to think I know some things, but it’s all about perspective.”
Wanda produced a paper from underneath her arm, unfolded it, and held it out to me. “The Star Lake Gazette,” she said, “has run a hit piece on you. It’s such terrible journalism, I don’t know how they get away with it.”
“May I see that?” Sue asked.
Wanda handed it over.
My cheeks heated, though the embarrassment did nothing to save me from the rapidly dropping temperature that had come with the purpling of the sky.
I peered over Sue’s shoulder and read the article in the fading light.
Local Woman Involved in Two Murder Case—When will Police Act?
A local woman in Star Lake, cafe owner, Milly Pepper, has been present at two major crime scenes in recent history which has left many of the locals in town with questions.
“I don’t get it. If she’s been at both locations, why wouldn’t they investigate her, specifically? Why does the town have to wonder about her motives? If the police say she didn’t do it, fine, but they haven’t said that, and now we’re all stuck waiting for them to come out with the truth.” Sentiments from local baker, Elijah Hanson, were echoed by others we talked to on the matter.
“I fear for my kids. If this woman, who is new to town by the way, is at the—”
I couldn’t read any more of it.
It was too mortifying. Did people really think I was involved in this? I got that it seemed suspicious, but to write an entire newspaper article about it?
“Don’t let it get to you, Miss Pepper.” Wanda reached out and caught my hand. She gave it a squeeze. “That newspaper has been going downhill ever since Martha Pikins took over, and this is the result. They’ve run out of news to publish, so they’re turning themselves into a gossip rag instead.”
“Thanks,” I said.
Still, it wasn’t great to read about myself in the paper.
“Idiots,” Sue hissed. “They really think they can write stuff like this? Milly, you should open a case against them. This is defamation. It has to be.”
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it, Sue. It doesn’t change anything.” Though, that was a lie, and I knew it. It changed a lot. I had struggled over the past months to gather more customers and get the people of Star Lake to trust me, even though I was Frank’s daughter.
This would set the cafe back.
“Thanks for letting me know, Wanda,” I said.
“Yes, of course. Now, you have a good night. Try not to let this silliness bother you too much.” Wanda took the newspaper back from Sue then made for the front of the small green house. She stamped her feet up the steps and entered the home, shushing the Jay brothers who were inside.
“Milly, this is so dumb.”
“I know,” I said. “But there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m not going to stress about it now. The best thing I can do is figure out who actually committed the crime.” Apparently, leaving it to Detective Freedman would only worsen things. The townsfolk didn’t trust him either.
I headed for the house, Sue following close on my heels, and entered. I would deal with all of this nonsense tomorrow. For now, I wanted to stay in with my dearest bunny, Waffle, and forget about this for the night.