Chapter 29

Dear Sophie,

I bought some things at an antiques store today and overheard the saleswoman tell someone that she loves grandmillenials like me! Should I be offended? Does that mean I look old?

Uncertain in Charleston, South Carolina

 

Dear Uncertain,

Were you buying chintz? Items for a blue and white room? Crystal? Some millennials have tired of midcentury modern and are styling their homes with items their grandmothers enjoyed. They gravitate to wallpaper, flowers, gallery walls, and vintage decor!

Sophie

I wouldn’t have called it seedy. Not at all. But it was more industrial with car repair shops and the like.

“There it is!” Nina pointed ahead and to the left. A tiny hole-in-the-wall place called Sweet Jimmy’s.

I pulled into a parking spot, and we got out of the car. Both of us sniffed the delicious air.

“I don’t think he was jerking us around. It’s gotta be good if it smells like this.”

I had to agree. “Why didn’t we know about this place?”

Nina pulled open the door and cold air wafted out. The interior could have used better lighting. The chairs were cheap molded plastic and the tables looked like faux wood with tops that were easy to wipe clean.

A pleasant-looking redheaded man in an apron that needed washing called out, “What can I get cha?”

“Are you Sweet Jimmy?” I asked.

“That’s me. Couldn’t decide whether to call it Jimmy’s Revenge or Sweet Jimmy’s.”

“What was the revenge for?” asked Nina.

“For firing me from my boring old desk job.” He held out his arms. “She ain’t much, but I love her.”

The door swung open, the bright sun hurting our eyes.

“Hey, Jimmy!” Jordan ambled in. “I see you found the place.”

“I can’t recall you ladies eating here before,” said Sweet Jimmy. “I’ll bring you over a Jimmy’s sampler. Pick a table.”

As we selected a table, I recognized Colin’s Uncle Terry seated at a table in the back. His eyes met mine and I gave him a nod and a smile. He stared at me. I wondered if he remembered me or was trying to place me.

We sat down and Sweet Jimmy immediately brought us a huge board of meat. Bowls of barbecue sauce were surrounded by sausages, ribs, sliced brisket, and mounds of pulled pork. I had never seen anything like it. But he wasn’t finished. He added a basket of fresh-from-the-fryer hush puppies, butter, and individual bowls of red cabbage coleslaw along with forks and knives for three. Wiping his hands on a towel, he asked, “Iced tea or bottled water?”

We didn’t wait for our beverages to be delivered. The aroma was too tempting. We wiped our hands on the sanitary towelettes that came with our meal. Jordan, who was wearing a long-sleeve shirt, rolled back the sleeves and dug in. It definitely wasn’t the right place for anyone prim and proper who was afraid to pick up their food. But that simple act revealed a pale spot on his arm in the shape of a watch. Had he sold his Rolex to pay off the big debt he supposedly owed someone?

“How did you find this place?” I bit into a rib and savored the smoky flavor.

“Amazing, isn’t it? A chef I know told me about Jimmy. I always wanted to have a restaurant.” He looked around and said in a softer voice, “Not like this. A big one with brass fixtures and a long shiny bar. Jimmy says he can manage by keeping his menu basic. Only two drink selections, no deviations from the menu. No desserts. No employees. That’s how he keeps his costs down. He’s considering beer, though. Alcohol is a moneymaker.”

“Someone told me that you tried twice.” I sipped my tea, which was brewed, not from powder. Jimmy might be smart about keeping his costs down, but he didn’t skimp on ingredients. The place was rustic at best, but I didn’t think anyone in Old Town could beat Sweet Jimmy for flavor.

“Yeah, old Orson took a chance on me twice. But restaurants are a tough business. And very expensive if you want to do it right. I’m not like Jimmy. I have no interest in starting a smoker at four in the morning every day.”

“What are you doing now?”

I marveled at how innocently Nina managed to ask that question.

Jordan helped himself to another rib. Holding it in his fingers, he said, “I was not lucky enough to inherit a valuable business from someone.” He looked at me over the rib.

Why hadn’t I figured out some clever way to explain the situation? Or at least a good comeback. It was odd that Orson had left the store to me, there was no way around that. “No one was more surprised than I.”

“What did you do in between restaurants?” Nina slathered butter on a hush puppy.

“I’ve worked in gyms and driven an Uber. Did some construction when I was younger. I’ve been a softball coach, too, which I hope will come in handy when my kids are a little older. Julie doesn’t have any interest in it. She’s all about ballet, which is new to me. I now know how to plié.”

Jordan surprised me. He had a certain charm. I could see why Stella would have fallen for him. “Were you at Orson and Wanda’s engagement party?” I watched him carefully.

He didn’t seem perturbed by my question. “That was an awful thing. You know, I’ve seen some people at the gym who are not in shape to do certain things, like bench press. And you watch them, thinking this is not going to end well. But Orson just collapsed. It should have been a happy day for him, and he just fell over in front of everybody. I sure did not see that coming.”

He sounded so innocent, but I noticed that he didn’t mention the fact that Orson was murdered. “You say that as though you liked Orson.”

Jordan wiped off his fingers. “Orson and I had a weird relationship. I think he wanted Stella to be happy and he knew that she loved me. So he tried to help us financially. He didn’t like that I wasn’t somebody. You know what I mean? I wasn’t a guy with a great future. I wasn’t a doctor or on track to be the mayor. He wanted to do what he could to make our future bright. And I respect him for that. I don’t, however, understand why he didn’t leave his entire estate to Stella. She deserved it.”

I finished my pulled pork. “Does Jimmy deliver?”

Jordan laughed. “I wish. I’ve been trying to talk him into getting a barbecue mobile. Wouldn’t that be great? He could drive into Old Town, park, and be sold out in an hour.”

“Did Orson know about you and Joan?” Nina didn’t look at him when she asked.

But Jordan took note and paused before he answered, as if he was trying to think of the right thing to say. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you were having an affair with another woman.”

“Come on. That’s just rumor. Silliness. You know how it is around here. Something like that gets started and then it grows.”

I couldn’t help noticing that he was watching our reaction to his blatant lies. “You did a good job of hiding it from Stella.”

He leaned toward me and said defensively, “You can’t prove it.”

I gave him my best are-you-kidding look. “People saw you. Joan talked about it. So did Tripp Fogarty.”

Jordan paled. A sad sigh escaped him, and he rubbed his forehead. “I never imagined that getting involved with Joan would lead to so many problems. I’m trying to convince Stella that it was meaningless. It was! But I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me. She claims if I hadn’t been seeing Joan, she never would have become a suspect in Joan’s death.” He leaned his head down, as if inspecting his plate. “She’s right, you know. She would have just been a bystander. Another person in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He brightened up. “Like you guys. No one hauled you down to the police station and treated you like a criminal, but you were there.”

“Who would have wanted to kill Joan?” I picked at a piece of pulled pork on the board.

“I don’t know. Maybe she was seeing another guy that I didn’t know about? Maybe she had dumped some guy and he was mad at her?”

“Do you know of another man in her life?” I asked.

“No. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t one.”

“Nor does it mean there was one. Joan was at the engagement party, too.” I left it at that to see where he would go with it.

“Oh man!” Jordan rubbed his forehead again. “That was a nightmare. Can you even imagine it? What were the odds of that? I was doing my level best to keep away from Joan, but she kept coming up to me to talk.”

“Were you angry with Joan?” asked Nina. “She must have realized that Orson was your father-in-law.”

“Of course I was ticked off with her. She knew exactly what kind of position she was putting me in by coming to that party. She didn’t have to be there, you know? I think she did it on purpose to put me on the spot.”

He had the most to gain from Joan’s death. I was surprised that he admitted as much as he had.

At that moment, Colin’s uncle Terry finished his meal and stood up to leave. As he walked by our table, he gave me a nod. I smiled back at him.

“You know Terry Warren?” Jordan squinted at me and sounded surprised.

“I know his nephew, Colin. Terry has been doing some work for Colin, so I’ve seen him around. Is there something wrong with that?”

“No. Not at all. The Warrens aren’t what you’d call high society.” He shrugged it off.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Nina wiped her hands.

“They’re a little rough around the edges is all. It’s not a slight. I don’t come from society people either. The Warrens think they’re tough guys and can be a little coarse is all.”

I shifted the topic to get to what I wanted to know. Leaning toward him, I hoped to give the impression that I was on his side. “Jordan, there have been two murders. You must realize that you’re a suspect in both of them. Who would have wanted to murder Orson or Joan?”

Jordan shifted uncomfortably and rolled down his shirtsleeves, but not before I saw what appeared to be a cut on his arm about two inches down from his elbow. “Stella’s mom was pretty miffed with him. Some people never get over divorce issues. And that woman he dated before Wanda, Audrey somebody, I could tell she was crushed.”

“What about the business? Someone broke in there. What did Orson have that someone might want?”

He shrugged. “Expensive stuff. The inventory in that place is worth a lot of money.”

“Did Orson blackmail people?” asked Nina.

Her question caught me by surprise, and from the look on his face, Jordan, too.

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. No. I’m sure of it. If he’d been that kind of guy, he would have tried to bribe me into doing what he wanted. No. I can’t see that. He had that weird partner, though. Maybe he thought Orson owed him something.”

“Karl?” asked Nina.

“Yeah, that’s him.” Jordan sat up straight. “I did my share of complaining about Orson. I’ll admit that. He had a lot of money, and he could have made our lives easier if he’d helped us out. There were times when Stella and I were scraping by. But the truth is that he was a decent man. A lot of people would be surprised to hear me say that considering the way I complained about him, but he was good to my children, and as angry as I was about the store, I am grateful for that.”

“Did you want the store?” I asked.

Jordan’s eyes opened wide. “Would have been nice. I’m sure we would have been able to sell it for a lot of money.”

He checked his watch. “Ladies, I’m afraid I have to go.”

“Thanks for introducing us to Sweet Jimmy’s. We’ll pick up the tab. You go ahead.”

Nina echoed my thanks while I paid the check.

I met her at the car.

“Hurry! He sat in the car for a few minutes looking at his phone and then he pulled out and turned left like he was going back to Old Town.”

I unlocked the car, and we hopped in.

“He’s driving a white Toyota Prius.”

I groaned. “Great. Not many of those around here.”

She ignored my sarcasm. “Maybe we can catch up to him at the light.”

I drove a little faster than I should have and nearly hit the brakes when Nina screeched, “That’s him! That’s him!”

I tried to hang back a little bit so he wouldn’t notice us. We lived in Old Town, though, so it was only natural that we would be driving in the same direction. Once we were back in Old Town proper, it was more difficult to tail him in the slower traffic.

“He’s turning left,” said Nina. “And his license plate says SAINT. That’s a misnomer if ever there was one!”

I slowed as much as I could. He cruised onto our street and pulled into a parking spot in front of Francie’s house.

“What’s he doing? Is he planning to spy on us?” asked Nina.

There was no alternative but to drive by his car.

“Park already!”

I found an open space and parallel parked into it.

Nina twisted around in her seat. She unfastened her seat belt. “He’s getting out of the car!”

I shifted to see for myself.

“He’s opening the back door. Good heavens! Sophie, Francie is getting in his car. He’s closing the door. Duck so he won’t see us.” Nina slid down in her seat as far as she could.

“Nina, he’s an Uber driver. I bet Francie called an Uber to take her somewhere.”

She turned her head to look at me. “Ohhh. You’re probably right.” Nina returned to a normal sitting position. “What did you think of him?”

“He had some appeal. But he’s a practiced liar.”

“I agree. Not as scummy as I thought he’d be.”

Someone rapped on the back window and we both screamed.