A Baked Ham (18 page)

“So, why did you lie to us?”
Moose asked calmly.

“I knew you’d jump to the wrong conclusion
if I told you the truth,” she said harshly.
 
“Besides, neither one of you is a cop.
 
I was under no obligation to tell you the truth.”

“Amanda, you just admitted that
you lied to us when you told us that you weren’t at the theater the night that
Benny was murdered.
 
Are there any more
lies you’d like to clear up while we’re here?” I asked her.

“I don’t like your tone of voice,
Victoria,” Amanda said.

“Then, we’re even, because we
hate being lied to,” Moose said.

“The way that you two nose
around, I figured that you’d be used to it by now,” Amanda said as she turned
away from us.
 
“The main thing I said
still stands.
 
I didn’t kill Benny.
 
It doesn’t matter where I was or what I was
doing as long as that’s the truth, and it is, believe it or not.”

“Help us believe you,” I said.

“Sorry, but that’s not my
problem.”
 
The front door opened, and an
older man leaned out.
 
He didn’t say a
word, but he tapped his wrist twice, even though he wasn’t wearing a watch.

“I’ve got to go,” Amanda
said.
 
“I can’t afford to lose this job.”

Once she was inside, Moose asked,
“Should we go in and keep grilling her?
 
You never even had a chance to ask her if she wrote that note.”

“I doubt it’s her style.
 
If my porch had been set on fire, Amanda
would be my top candidate, but a note seems a little mild for her taste.”

“Even if it were pinned to the
door-jam with a bloody ice pick?” Moose asked.

“It was paint, not blood,
remember?” I asked.

“From the pictures you showed me,
it sure looked like blood.
 
Where do we
go now?
 
We’re burning through our
suspects at a pretty fierce clip.”

“I think we should go back to the
diner for now,” I said.
 
“We need to let
them all stew a little before we question them again.”

“Aren’t you afraid that things
might escalate to something more than a warning if we don’t wrap this up
quickly?” my grandfather asked.

“I’m afraid that it’s a risk
we’re going to have to take,” I said.
 
“There is something that we’re missing; I just know it.
 
I can’t put my finger on it, though.”

“Try not to think about it.
 
That’s the best chance you’ve got that it
will come to you.”

“I really don’t have much choice,
do I?” I asked.
 
“What do you say?
 
Should we go back to The Charming Moose?”

“Why not?” he asked.
 
“I wouldn’t mind grabbing a bite with my
wife.”

“Tell you what.
 
You can have lunch with her, and then I get
to eat with Greg.
 
Is that a deal?”

“It is,” Moose said, and then he
put his arm around me before we got into his truck.
 
“Keep the faith, Victoria.
 
We’ll figure this one out yet.”

“We’d better,” I said.
 
I wasn’t so sure, but having Moose’s
reassurance didn’t hurt matters.

Chapter 11

“We didn’t expect to see you back
so soon,” Martha said happily as we walked back into The Charming Moose.
 
“Have you both already worn your welcomes out
all over town?”

“Just about,” Moose said as he
wrapped his wife up into his arms.
 
“Did
you miss us when we were gone?”

“Well, half of you, anyway,” she
said with a smile.

“I’m not even going to ask which
half you missed,” Moose said as he kissed her soundly.

“Good.
 
I’m not sure that your ego could take
it.
 
I assume the investigation isn’t
going all that well.
 
Am I correct?”

“You are.
 
How did you know?” I asked her.

“You’re back, aren’t you?
 
Don’t worry.
 
You’ll figure this out.”

“I just wish I had your faith in
us,” I said.
 
The pep talks were fine,
but what we really needed was to solve this murder.

“The Charming Moose,” I said as I
answered the phone by the cash register an hour later.
 
We’d had a steady supply of customers, but we
weren’t setting any sales records.
 
Still, it wasn’t the end of the world.
 
I knew that we’d somehow manage to make enough to stay afloat for
another month.
 
At least we had so far.

“This is Amanda Lark,” she said
on the other end of the line, and all thoughts of profits and losses leapt from
my mind.

“Hello, Amanda.
 
What can I do for you?”

“First off, I want to apologize.”

I nearly dropped the telephone as
she said it.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
What was that?”

“I’m sorry.
 
I’ve been on edge since Benny was murdered,
but I had no right to take it out on you, okay.
 
Don’t ask me to say it again, because twice is about all that I can
take.”

“It’s completely understandable,”
I said to her.
 
Maybe Amanda had some
civility in her after all.

“There’s one other thing.
 
I’ve been thinking about our conversation,
and it’s weighing on my mind.
 
I wasn’t
entirely forthcoming with you and your grandfather earlier.”

“How so?” I asked.
 

“Before you jump to any
conclusions, I didn’t lie to you.
 
But
there’s something you probably should know.”

It was fairly clear by her
hesitation that she didn’t want to share this information with me, but if that
was the case, why had she called me in the first place?
 
I decided that I could wait her out if I had
to, so I stayed on the line, though I didn’t add anything to the conversation.

“Victoria, are you still there?”
she asked.

“I’m just waiting to hear what
you’ve got to say,” I said.
 
“That will
be seven dollars and thirty-four cents,” I added to Kimberly Weems when she
presented her check.

“What?
 
Why should I pay you to hear something that
I’ve got to say?”

“Sorry.
 
I was talking to a customer,” I explained.

“If you’re busy, we can always
talk later,” Amanda said.

“No.
 
Hold on.
 
I’ll get someone else to take over here so we can talk.”
 
I waved to Ellen, our morning and
early-afternoon server, and then I pointed to the phone.

She came over quickly and reached
for the receiver.
 
“Who is it?”

“Sorry, I didn’t make myself very
clear,” I said as I put the phone on my shoulder.
 
“Could you watch the register for a minute?
 
I won’t be long.”

Ellen looked disappointed, but
she nodded her agreement.
 
“Take your
time.”

“Thanks.
 
You’re a lifesaver,” I said as I stepped
away.
 
I’d been meaning to replace the
old phone with one without the cord, but so far, I kept forgetting to do it.

“Amanda, are you still there?” I
asked.

“Yes, but I don’t have long.
 
My boss is going to kill me if he finds out
that I’m using the business phone for a personal call.”

“Go on.
 
You have my full attention.”

“The other night when Benny was
killed, I saw something at the theater that I didn’t tell you about
earlier.
 
I’m still not sure that I know
what it means, but I thought I’d better tell you, just in case the information
is useful.”

“What did you see?” I asked her.

“I’m not sure if anyone told you,
and it’s not like I’m not proud of it myself, but I’d had too much to drink
that night, and after Garret threw me out of the theater, I didn’t go straight
home.
 
As a matter of fact, I doubt that
I could have, even if I’d wanted to.
 
The
liquor must have caught up to me as I was rounding the corner of the building,
and I thought I was going to lose my supper right then and there.
 
I leaned against the building in the shadows
for I don’t know how long, and after a while, things started to get better.
 
I was about to make my way home when a
movement caught my eye, so I stayed in the shadows to see if I could tell who
it was.
 
I was in no mood to talk to
anyone, or let someone else see me the way I was feeling at the time.
 
As I watched, someone popped his head around
from the back.
 
It was just for a moment,
but I saw him, and it won’t do him any good for him to try to deny it.”

“Who was it exactly that you
saw?” I asked.

“Fred Hitchings,” she said
quickly.
 
“He was up to something;
there’s no doubt in my mind.
 
I started
to creep down the alley to see exactly what he was doing, but when I turned the
corner, he was gone, vanished into thin air.”

“Amanda, Fred had several bit
parts in the play before anything ever happened to Benny.
 
It’s perfectly natural that he’d be at the
theater during the opening night of the production.”

“Sure, that explains what he’d be
doing inside, but what was he doing
outside
?
 
And where did he go?
 
I went back the next day, and there are only
four doors he could have ducked into, and one of them was Benny’s dressing
room.”

“What about the other three
doors?” I asked.

“I checked with Harvey Springs,
the janitor there, and he told me that two of the doors were to dressing rooms,
though one was never used, one was to the main corridor in back, and the fourth
was to a storage area where they keep their props and supplies.”

“So, he could have gone through
any of them, and you wouldn’t have known which one he chose,” I said.

“That’s true, but if he killed
Benny, he’d know that door was unlocked.
 
Don’t you see?”

“It’s a possibility,” I said.

“Victoria, what if Benny was
still alive at that point?
 
Fred could
have gone inside to kill him, and I didn’t do a thing about it.
 
In a way, that makes it my fault as much as it
is Fred’s.”

“You can’t blame yourself for
that,” I said.
 
“Amanda, you didn’t swing
that trophy at Benny’s head, did you?”

“No, of course not,” she said
quickly.

“Then you didn’t have anything to
do with it,” I said firmly.
 

“I wish I felt that way,” she
said, “but I can’t let myself off the hook so easily.”

“There are too many ifs right now
to say with any certainty who killed Benny,” I said.
 
“Don’t jump to any conclusions until we find
out exactly what happened.”

“How do I do that?
 
Anyway, I thought it was only fair that you
knew what I saw.
 
If I were you, I’d have
another chat with Fred Hitchings.”

“We plan to,” I said.
 
“Is there anything else that might help us?”

“No, I swear it.
 
That’s all I know.”

“Thanks for calling,” I said as I
started to hang up.

“Find whoever killed him, would
you?”

“We’re doing our best,” I said.

After I hung up the phone, Ellen
said, “Can you take over now?”

“Sorry about that,” I said.
 
“I didn’t mean to be so long.”

“That’s okay.
 
I just hate to keep folks waiting for their
food,” Ellen replied.

“They shouldn’t have to,” I
said.
 
“I’ll help you deliver the
orders.
 
After all, it was my fault you
couldn’t do it in the first place.”

“That would be great,” she
said.
 
“Just leave Fourteen for me,
okay?”

I glanced over and saw Wayne Vincent
sitting there.
 
He and Ellen had been
playing cat and mouse when it came to their mutual crushes, and I wondered if
either one of them would ever do anything about it.
 
“Are you sure?
 
I don’t mind serving Wayne myself,” I said,
trying to hide my smile.