| |
One hour later, Maddie, Trixie and Suzanne sat on stools in their coffee truck.
“Why didn’t you tell me not to look inside that can?” Suzanne grumbled, sipping on a double latte.
“I think I did,” Maddie said mildly, sticking a straw in a desperately needed iced mocha.
“Mrrow,” Trixie agreed.
Once Suzanne had finished screaming, she’d run a few steps down the alley before realizing she’d left Maddie and Trixie behind. They got out of there as fast as possible, Maddie dialing the sheriff’s office as they ran to the apparent safety of the town square.
Maddie hadn’t been sure whether they should have entered the café instead and broken the bad news to Claudine, but she thought a law enforcement officer would be more skilled at it.
After being told to stay at their coffee truck, Maddie and Suzanne watched a sheriff’s vehicle arrive at the café.
Maddie had tried to keep her mind on making beverages for their customers. Suzanne, too, seemed to have difficulty ringing up the correct orders.
“I wonder if Detective Edgewater will be in charge of the investigation,” Suzanne pondered, after taking a big gulp of her latte.
“I hope so,” Maddie replied. So far, he had been the only detective they’d dealt with, apart from his nephew Detective Rawson, when Maddie had taken part in a big barista competition where one of the judges had been murdered.
“Maybe you’d better get a vanilla cappuccino ready for him, just in case,” Suzanne suggested.
“Good idea.” One taste of Maddie’s cappuccino, and the detective had been hooked.
“Speak of the ...” Suzanne took another hit of her latte.
A portly man in his sixties, with gray hair more salt than pepper, approached the truck. He was dressed in plain clothes – a worn brown suit with a white shirt, and navy tie slightly askew at the neck.
“I can’t believe you two found a dead body – again,” he greeted them.
“I know,” Suzanne said glumly. “And I was the one to find her – Veronica.” She shuddered, then gulped down her latte.
“I’m sorry,” he replied, whipping out an old-fashioned notebook that peeked out of the top pocket of his suit jacket. “What were you two doing in that alley?” He looked disapproving.
“Vanilla cappuccino?” Maddie asked hopefully, trying to direct his attention away from their earlier activities.
“Mrrow,” Trixie added, as if she approved of the idea.
“Hello, Trixie.” His face broke into a reluctant smile.
“Mrrow,” Trixie replied in greeting, sitting up straight on her stool.
“Okay, a vanilla cappuccino sounds good.” He handed some cash to Suzanne.
Maddie focused on making his coffee as he started asking them questions.
“Why were you behind Claudine’s café?” he asked, his pencil at the ready to jot down their answers.
“We were going to the salad shop,” Suzanne replied.
“And you went that way?” His eyebrow flickered.
“We didn’t want to run into Claudine,” Maddie said, handing him his beverage.
“We thought if we walked past her front entrance, she might accost us, like she did the other day.” Suzanne frowned.
“Ah.” He wrote down something. “And why did she confront you then?”
“Because she’d set up a stand next to us,” Suzanne answered. “Which she’s not supposed to do.”
“Mrrow!” Trixie added.
“And she upset Trixie,” Maddie said, feeling a little guilty at doing so. She wondered if Detective Edgewater was susceptible to Trixie’s feelings, like the mayor had been.
“I’d heard about that.” He nodded. “Okay, so why did you dig around in her trash cans?”
“We didn’t!” Suzanne’s voice was indignant. “The lid was out of place compared to the other cans all lined up, so I peeked inside because I was curious.” She grimaced and sank down on her stool.
“And then we called the sheriff’s department,” Maddie added.
“How did she ... die?” Suzanne asked.
“It looks like she was hit over the head with a heavy object,” he replied. “We won’t know more until after the autopsy.”
“Oh.” Suzanne looked like she was sorry she’d asked.
“Did you know the victim—” he looked at a page in his notebook “—Veronica Darin?”
“No.”
“Not really.”
“Which is it?” he asked.
“We didn’t really know her,” Maddie said, “but we’d spoken to her a couple of times.”
“What did you think about her?” he asked curiously.
“I don’t think you want to know,” Suzanne told him.
“Mrrow!”
“I don’t think Trixie liked her, either,” Maddie said.
“And she’s a pretty good judge of character,” Suzanne added loyally.
“Mrrow.” Trixie looked pleased at the praise.
The detective’s mouth edged up in a smile.
“Do you know anyone else who had a run in with the victim?”
“Claudine,” Suzanne answered instantly.
“Suzanne!” Maddie hissed.
“Well, she did,” Suzanne replied. “Veronica was setting up her illegal iced coffee stand yesterday and Claudine rushed over and screeched at her to pull it down.”
“Is that so?” he asked thoughtfully.
“We were out there too,” Maddie felt dutybound to say. “We’d just told her that she needed to have permission to put up a stand here, and that’s when Claudine told her to take it down.”
“Anyone else have a grudge against her, as far as you know?” he continued.
“We’ve heard some things,” Maddie said cautiously. “She didn’t sound like a nice person when she lived here a long time ago.”
“Apparently she went to high school here,” Suzanne commented.
“Yes.” Detective Edgewater nodded. “Anything else?”
Maddie and Suzanne looked at each other indecisively.
“W-e-l-l,” Suzanne started. “I think she did some awful things to the other students at high school,” Suzanne said.
“That was a long time ago.” Detective Edgewater frowned. “Thirty-two years, give or take.”
“Yes.”
He sighed and put his notebook away. Then he picked up his cappuccino and took a sip.
“Excellent as usual, Maddie.” He smiled briefly. “Now, if you hear anything about this matter, let me know. But that’s all. Let the sheriff’s department deal with it. And we will.”
“Okay.” Suzanne nodded.
“Yes,” Maddie agreed.
Trixie didn’t say anything, she just sat demurely on her stool.
“Hmm.” The detective didn’t look convinced. He took another sip of his drink, then departed.
A loud growling sound made Maddie freeze.
“What’s that?” she frowned.
“My stomach.” Suzanne looked embarrassed as she held a hand to her tummy. “I’m starving. We missed lunch because of what happened. I can’t believe I’m hungry after seeing ... Veronica, but I am.”
“Why don’t we go get something to eat?”
“Do you think the salad shop will deliver? I really don’t want to go near Claudine’s café again today.”
“Good thinking.” Maddie nodded.
Suzanne fished out her phone and dialed the salad shop.
“Yes!” She snapped her fingers. “Two power salads coming right up!”
Maddie and Suzanne exchanged grins, before suddenly becoming swamped by a deluge of customers, all talking about the murder.
Everyone seemed to think it was terrible that another murder had been committed in sleepy Estherville, but none of them seemed sorry Veronica was dead.
“Maybe the whole town was in on it,” Suzanne whispered out of the side of her mouth as their last customer departed.
“I know.” Maddie nodded, her stomach now grumbling. She checked her watch. “How long ago did you order the salads?”
“Sorry it took so long. Everyone came into the shop at once, talking about the murder.” A teenage delivery boy rushed up to the truck. “Two power salads and two quinoa coconut cacao cookies.”
“Thanks.” Suzanne handed him some cash.
He waved to Trixie, a big grin on his face as he spied her, then hurried back across the square.
“Quinoa coconut cacao cookies?” Maddie crinkled her brow.
“I figured we deserved a treat, and the shop only has healthy stuff.” Suzanne opened her brown paper bag, plucking out a cookie and biting into it. “Mmm.” She closed her eyes as she savored the bite. “Not bad for healthy stuff.”
“Mrrow?” Trixie asked.
“Do you want some lunch, Trix?” Maddie pulled open a drawer and grabbed a bag of dry food, shaking brown crunchy pellets into a bowl for her familiar.
“Mrrow!” Trixie investigated the bowl and started crunching.
Maddie opened her container and forked up a mouthful of salad greens. “How much do I owe you for lunch?” she asked.
“My treat.” Suzanne waved a hand, munching on her own leaves. “It’s nice for healthy food, but I don’t think anything can beat one of those Seattle burgers.”
“They were the best,” Maddie reminisced.
“We’ll have to go there again – soon.” Suzanne’s face lit up at the thought.
“Definitely!”
After she finished her salad, Maddie nibbled on her cookie. It was definitely tasty, despite being healthy. Ever since she and Suzanne had catered for the organic vegan self-help retreat, she’d been more adventurous with healthy, unusual foods.
“Hmm.” Suzanne stared at her half-eaten cookie. “Maybe I could make a health ball version of this.”
“Isn’t that copying?” Maddie frowned.
“Huh. Maybe.” Suzanne wrinkled her nose. “I might have to do some experimenting and see what I can come up with that’s totally original and not copying.”
“Good idea,” Maddie replied with a little smile.
“Although,” Suzanne continued, “I might have to put my experimenting to one side for now. I’ll be over at your place tonight for the full moon, and we also have to find out who killed Veronica.”
“No, we don’t,” Maddie replied. “You heard what Detective Edgewater said. We should stay out of it. And I think he might have a point.”
“You do?” Suzanne stared at her, disappointment written on her face.
“Yes.” Maddie nodded. “I don’t think I heard one nice thing said about Veronica. We’ve personally heard from three women who had a grudge against her. How many more people did Veronica betray in some way? I really don’t think we should get involved.”
“Trixie?” Suzanne turned to the cat, but the Persian was busy nosing about in her bowl for the last of the kibble. Suzanne pouted.
“I can understand if you want to find out who did it because you were the one who found her,” Maddie said gently.
“Yes.” Suzanne nodded.
“But do you really want to get mixed up in murder again?”
“But we’re good at it,” Suzanne protested. “We’ve solved what – five murders in the past year so far?”
“Helped solve,” Maddie corrected. “Detective Edgewater seems to know what he’s doing.”
“Sometimes,” Suzanne countered.
“Well, he did say if we heard anything pertaining to Veronica to pass it on to him. So we could do that.”
“Hmm.” Suzanne made it sound very similar to Trixie’s “Broomf!”
“Besides,” Maddie tried to cajole her, “don’t you have Ramon to dream about?”