Calamity @ the Carwash (Parson's Cove Mysteries) (18 page)

I rinsed the glass out and was just
about to turn away when I saw the backdoor open and someone coming out. By now,
the rain had started and whoever it was had his jacket pulled over his head.
Right then there was a flash of lightning but he was moving too fast and I
couldn’t see his face. I was quite sure it was a man though. The kitchen light
remained on so I assumed that Jeff had company. Probably another fisherman,
telling tall tales and drinking beer. 

The Krueger house behind me has become
quite notorious over the past few years. First, there was a murder and then,
about a year ago last winter, thieves used it as a storage place for stolen
antiques. I guess an empty house is an invitation for crooks, especially when
it’s secluded. I am the only one who can see if anything is going on there.
There are high hedges on both sides of the yard and no houses across from it.

Mr. Krueger and my father were friends
many years ago. Well, they were friends as long as both their gardens did well.
If either man had a crop failure, they were not on speaking terms. If Mr.
Krueger’s tomatoes were bigger or redder than my father’s were, my father went
to bed for a week. Mrs. Krueger was the town gossip but my mother was probably
the most cantankerous woman in Parson’s Cove so you can imagine their
relationship. As soon as Linda Krueger finished school, she moved away from
Parson’s Cove and after her parents died, she decided to rent the house instead
of selling it. For one thing, no one would ever buy it but in the summer, we do
have quite a few tourists in town. Our lake is teeming with fish and there are
a few nice beaches. If it weren’t for the tourists, I would be bankrupt. Not
that I get many customers during the week but on the weekend, the place is
buzzing. 

I listened to the rain pattering on the
roof, the thunder rumbling somewhere in the distance and the purr of seven
cats. It didn’t take long to drift back to sleep. When I awoke, the sky was
gray and the wind was howling around the corners of the house.

Flori came into the shop the moment that
I unlocked the front door. She carried a large brown bag with a few spots of
grease showing here and there.

“Did you hear the latest?” she said, as
she plunked the bag down on the counter.

“I don’t think so. What’s it about?”

“Calvin Koots is suing the Retirement
Home.”

“What? Why?”

“Because they told him he can’t take the
bus to the city again. Well, Mr. Kinney didn’t but the board members want him
out.”

“Well, that’s just plain crazy. It’s
obvious that he hates being a senior-sitter and they sure can’t stand him. Did
he have a contract?”

“Apparently but Jake says there’s a
probation period so he doesn’t stand a chance of winning.”

“Is he so poor that he can’t make the
payments on his taxi?”

“Jake says he’s always throwing money
around like it’s going out of style. He likes to brag and pay for everyone’s
coffee at the café so he can’t be all that broke.”

“Charlie says Calvin does a lot of
running around during the night. I wonder what he’s up to, Flori.”

“I don’t know, Mabel, but I do know one
thing – it’s none of our business. Right?”

When she said ‘right?’ she looked me
square in the eye.

“In other words,” I said. “You don’t
want me running around in the middle of the night following Calvin Koots.
Right?”

“Right. Now, can we have some coffee?
You don’t even have it on yet.”

“I’m behind this morning. That storm
woke me up last night. Or, the cats did. I’m not sure which is to blame but I
did lose some sleep. By the way, remember I told you that there was a young
fellow renting Krueger’s house? Well, he had company last night and they didn’t
leave until after three. I sure hope that when his wife comes they don’t have
wild parties all night long.”

Flori shook her head. “I’m so glad we
don’t live by one of those rental houses. In fact, I’ll be glad when all these
tourists pack up and go home.”

“Don’t say that. If it weren’t for them,
I’d be eating at the soup kitchen and sleeping on a park bench.”

“Oh Mabel, you know I’d never let you
sleep on a park bench.” She proceeded to hug the stuffing out of me. When I
started to gasp for breath, she squeezed a little harder and said, “And, I mean
it about not following Calvin Koots in the dark.”

About four, several customers came into
the store. All of them were tourists and although they were interested in some
of the souvenirs, they seemed more curious about the murder.

An elderly couple dressed as though they
were on an African safari, was the first to broach the subject.

“We hear you had a terrible murder here
several days ago,” the lady said. “Isn’t it shocking when such crimes
infiltrate small towns? We’ve never been here before but we read about Mr.
Bernstein in the papers and we thought we’d check it out. Do they have any
suspects yet?”

“No,” I replied. “However, we’re making
sure our doors are locked and some are getting guard dogs. I hear there are a
lot of unsavory characters running around in the streets at night.”

Their eyes bulged. “You know this? Why
doesn’t the sheriff do something about it?”

I glanced around the room and lowered my
voice, “Well, between you and me, the sheriff isn’t as young as he used to be.
He’s ready to retire and in my opinion, is just counting the days until he gets
his pension.”

They both gasped. “That’s terrible,” the
old man said. “Your lives could be in danger.”

“Have any tourists been attacked?” she
asked.

“Not yet,” I said. “And, I’ll tell you,
it’s not good for business. I might have to declare bankruptcy if I don’t start
selling something. When everyone is living in fear, they don’t want to spend
much money. My only consolation is that we have a really good soup kitchen in
town for the down-and-outers.”

The two walked away whispering as they
walked down each aisle.

“Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Langside,” I
said as I accepted their credit card about ten minutes later. “That will be
$87.59.”

Mrs. Langside reached over and patted my
arm. “I hope everything works out for you, my dear. We mentioned your
predicament to your other customers and they’ve agreed to help you out.
Unfortunately, we’ve decided we won’t spend the weekend in Parson’s Cove after
all, but perhaps we’ll return some other time.” She gave me a knowing look.
“You know, when it’s safer. It is a lovely little place and I hope the sheriff
will change his ways and get down to solving this crime. Thank you again.”

The next three customers all purchased
something and when it was time to close shop and I’d chased Esther Flynn out, I
added up my sales. I made more in the past hour than I had for the whole week.
And, lucky for me, none of the tourists planned to stay in Parson’s Cove for
the weekend. It was good for my business but the hotel would probably suffer.

“However,” as I explained to Reg later
on that evening on the phone “it’s much easier to solve a murder when the town
isn’t brimming with nosy tourists.”

Chapter
Twenty Seven

“Did you find out anything from
Maxymowich?” I asked after I’d explained my little plan for getting rid of
visitors. As you can well imagine, I did describe things somewhat differently
to Reg. For example, I believe I inserted Captain Maxymowich’s name for Reg’s
name. I know how Flori feels about my lying but sometimes it seems to be a
necessity. Especially when trying to find a killer. A lie seems like such a
lesser sin.

“Not much. He was very careful with his
words. I think there’s more going on than meets the eye, Mabel. I know they’re
trying to find whoever murdered Bernie but somehow, they seem to be
concentrating on other things too.”

“Concentrating on other things? Like
what?”

“Like very discreetly asking questions
about Scooter Macalvey.”

“Really? Do you know what, Reg? Charlie
was talking to me about Scooter. He said Calvin Koots goes there at night. I
don’t trust Calvin one bit. We should try to find out what those two are up
to.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Reg?”

“I think I was told not to get
involved.”

“What do you mean, you were told not to
get involved? Who told you that?”

“Well, Maxymowich suggested that I
concentrate on keeping Parson’s Cove safe by doing more patrolling and watching
out for the tourists.”

“So that’s good, Reg. Why don’t you
patrol in the night and keep your eye on Scooter’s house?”

“I believe he distinctly mentioned ‘day’
patrol. Me and the boys. The big city boys are protecting us by night.”

“Oh posh. I’m going to have another talk
with Charlie. He’ll know what’s going on at night and I know one thing, he
won’t say anything to the Captain unless I tell him to. Even then, he probably
wouldn’t.”

“I don’t know, Mabel. You don’t want
anyone seeing you talking too much to Charlie. We don’t want anything happening
to him. Besides, Maxymowich will know if Charlie starts snooping around that you’re
the one behind it.”

“I’ll be very subtle about it all, don’t
worry.”

Reg snorted. “Mabel, you have no idea
what the word, subtle, means. By the way, the Captain called me today before I
went over.”

“You’re kidding. What did he want? Some
of your input?”

“No, he wanted the brick back. I guess
they’re collecting all the evidence and they didn’t need me to hold onto it
anymore.” He sighed. “Guess my usefulness is finished.”

“Oh for Pete’s sake, Reg, get a grip.
You have to stop feeling sorry for yourself. Have you visited Melanie lately?”

“No, I haven’t visited anyone. What’s
the point? I don’t know what more I can learn from her.”

“Well, I don’t know either but we can’t
just give up. You go and visit her tomorrow because they’ll let you in. I’ll be
stuck at the store all day. At noon, I’ll walk over and talk to Charlie again.”

“I don’t know, Mabel.”

“I know, Reg. We can sit on our butts
and not do anything or we can try. Someone in Parson’s Cove is a murderer and
we have to find that person. We have no choice. Now, let’s do it.”

“If you ever want to go into another
line of work, Mabel, you could always be a motivational speaker.”

I was glad to hear the chuckle in Reg’s
voice. I’m sure I have no idea how these wives keep their husbands motivated to
do anything.

It was ten before it was completely dark
outside. The clouds had rolled away during the day and it was a clear warm
night. It was a quarter moon - not too light out and yet not so dark I couldn’t
see where I was going. At least, in the areas where there were no street lamps.

Maybe Reg had his orders but no one had
ordered me to stay inside after nine p.m. and as long as I called Flori before
I left, I knew she wouldn’t call back. Especially since I told her I was going
to try to get a good night’s sleep after the awful one I’d had the night
before.

“Mabel, don’t worry. I won’t call and I
suggest you take your phone off the hook. You need your sleep because you’ll
have a shopful of tourists tomorrow. Jake said the town is buzzing with them.
They all want to see where Bernie was murdered. I think it’s disgusting, don’t
you?”

“I do but you know human nature.
Everyone is intrigued by a mystery.”

“I know all too well. I’m glad you
aren’t sticking your nose into this one, Mabel.” Before she hung up, she suggested
that I try some warm milk with a bit of cinnamon in it before hitting the sack.
I told her that I’d give it a try.

I’d promised Reg that I would talk to
Charlie the next afternoon but now that I was outside, I thought I might as
well take care of that right way. As my father would say, why put off for
tomorrow what you can do today.

I didn’t want to give anyone the
impression that I was sneaking around; however, I did wear my black jeans with
a black long sleeved shirt and black sandals. The only other shoes I owned were
sneakers and they were so white they almost glowed in the dark.

Charlie was sitting in his usual spot.
He wasn’t wearing his straw hat but everything else was the same.

“Hi, Charlie,” I said and plopped down
beside him. “Are you ready for some adventure?”

I’d never tried this angle with him but
it was worth a try.

“What kind of adventure, Mabel?”

“Well, you said that Calvin Koots visits
Scooter Macalvey at night. I thought that maybe you and I could check it out.
You know, very inconspicuously.”

“Someone else might be there.”

“Someone else at Scooter’s?”

He shook his head. “Someone else is
checking them out, inconspicuously.”

I tried to control myself but somehow
that really tickled my funny bone.

“Why is that so funny, Mabel?”