Calamity @ the Carwash (Parson's Cove Mysteries) (29 page)

“Stale?”

“Don’t sound so disappointed. You know
my muffins are always delicious. Sit down and I’ll start you off with your
coffee. Meanwhile, you get all your thoughts straight so you can tell me
exactly what happened.”

In less than five minutes, we were sitting
facing each other, coffee in hand.

“Okay, Reg. Was I right? Did Erma kill
Bernie?”

“Yes, you were right.” He took a bite of
muffin.

“What about Biscuit? Who killed
Biscuit?”

He swallowed and washed everything down
with a big gulp of coffee.

“Can I finish eating first?”

There were three more muffins on the
plate. He held half of one in his hand.

“Of course, you can.” I picked up the
plate and took it to the back room.

“Hey! I might want more than one muffin,
you know.”

I sat back down again. “And you may have
more than one after you tell me the whole story, Reg.”

Reg laughed. “You’re a tough one, Mabel,
but since you probably did the most work solving the case, I guess you should
get to know all the details.”

“Yes, I think I should. Now, start from
the beginning. What exactly happened the day that Bernie was murdered?”

Reg cleared his throat and took another
drink of coffee.

“I guess we should go back to how Bernie
was involved in all of this. He found out about the drugs and wanted in on it.
You remember he got the wrong pair of boots from Scooter. Jeff told him that he
would let him deal some but he couldn’t interfere with the thing they had going
at the nursing home. Bernie found a few teenagers who wanted to try it out so
he’d meet them behind the carwash.”

“So, there was a reason for going there
besides washing the hub caps on his car.”

“Yep. It was mostly to deal a few drugs.
So happened that one night Erma spotted him down at the beach with Jeff and a
couple of kids. She started questioning Melanie about Bernie so it didn’t take
long to put everything together. I think she was getting a little bored now
that Murray was home all the time. She wanted to travel but all he wanted to do
was to go fishing or sit all day at the café so she decided to have some
excitement on her own; in addition to making some cash. She used Biscuit as an
excuse to walk down to the Krueger house to see Jeff. Bernie’s car was parked
on the street and wouldn’t you know it – you were right, Mabel, that old dog
went crazy when he smelled those tires. Bernie heard the dog barking and saw
Erma trying to pull the dog away so he went out. Of course, he’d just filled
the hollow in his boots with drugs so Biscuit attacked his foot. He ripped the
boot apart and drugs flew all over. This got Bernie into a rage so he grabbed
the nearest weapon, which happened to be a brick off that old pile, and he went
at Biscuit. When he was finished Biscuit was dead and Erma was terrified to
think what Murray would say.”

“What about Biscuit? She didn’t feel
anything for the dog?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Doesn’t seem
like it. She always thought Murray cared more for the old dog than for her
anyway.”

“Well, I’m beginning to see why. What
did they decide to do?”

“Bernie told her to hide the brick and he’d
hide the dog. She would tell Murray that the dog ran off and she didn’t know
where he went.”   

“So he threw the dog in the field, not
thinking that anyone would find the poor animal right away.”

He nodded. “It wasn’t long and those
boys found Biscuit. They knew whose dog it was, so took him to Murray’s house.”

“Murray said that Erma was starting to
give him drugs before Biscuit was killed though. Why would she do that?”

“She claims she would never have hurt
him but I think she was hoping that if she gave Murray enough drugs for a long
period of time, he might eventually take his own life or be so drugged up that
he’d have some sort of accident.”

“You’re right. Murray said those pills
gave him suicidal thoughts. But why did Erma kill Bernie?”

“She was so mad that he threw the dog in the field
and didn’t bury him someplace so no one would find him. Don’t forget, there
wasn’t much time between Bernie killing Biscuit and Erma killing Bernie. Two
hours at the most. She hid the brick by a tree. She was going to throw it into
the lake but there were some boats close by so she couldn’t. While Murray was
mourning his dog and wondering why the dog would ever leave Erma’s side, she
ran out to throw the brick in the lake. When she got down there, she saw
Melanie and Bernie fighting. As soon as Melanie ran away, she went after
Bernie. He was still struggling to get out of the water; otherwise, she
probably wouldn’t have been able to hit him like that.”  

“Where did they find Erma anyway? Did she get all
the way to Chicago?”

He laughed. “Wouldn’t you know, all the flights were
booked but when she finally got one, her plane was delayed so she never even
got out of the Airport. Captain Maxymowich and his gang picked her up with no
incident. Apparently, she did claim her innocence at the beginning but when she
realized they knew Dr. Fritz hadn’t prescribed any drugs for Murray, she broke
down and confessed. Good work, Mabel.”

I smiled. “We owe all of that to Charlie, Reg. He’s
the one who woke me up at three in the morning and told me to get over there.
If it weren’t for him, Erma would be in Chicago now. Of course, Sammy and
Biscuit have to get some credit too. After all, if it weren’t for their good
sense of smell, we might not have realized where those drugs were hiding. Too
bad we can’t give a posthumous award to Biscuit.”

“Maybe we could get something made up for Murray.
You know a plaque with Biscuit’s name on it. I think he’d really like that. He
doesn’t have too much to live for right now and that would cheer him up. What
do you think, Mabel?”

I was seeing my sheriff in a new light. “I think
that’s a wonderful idea. By the way, what’s happening with Prunella? Did she
ever confess that someone hit her with the frying pan or is she still saying
that she fell and hit her head?”

“I almost forgot to tell you about that. Melanie’s
brother, Steven, came into the station yesterday and confessed. He’s another
hothead. Once he found out that Melanie wasn’t a murder suspect and that Erma
was arrested, he decided to come forward. He’d wanted Prunella to say that
she’d been wrong when she heard Melanie threatening Bernie’s life. After all,
Prunella’s statement was very damaging.”

“So he planted money and drugs in her
drawer and put drugs in her booze so we’d think she was using. If that were
true, the police would question her statement and probably not accept it,
right?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, we can all give a sigh of relief
now. Parson's Cove is back to normal.”

“Not quite, Mabel.”

“What do you mean, ‘not quite’?”

“I heard via the grapevine that there’s
going to be a wedding coming up soon.”

“A wedding? Reg, you know I don’t know
any of the young people in Parson's Cove anymore. It really doesn’t interest me
too much.”

Reg grinned. “I think this one might.
You know the bride quite well. In fact, she’s a regular customer of yours.”

I couldn’t think of any customer of mine
who would be even eligible for marriage. “Sorry, Reg. It can’t be any of my
customers. You’ll have to tell me.”

“Esther Flynn is marrying some old
bachelor from Betula.”

I don’t remember much of the next ten
minutes. I do remember Reg waving a newspaper in front of me and asking if I
could hear him. Reality did finally click in.

“Well, you’re right. Parson's Cove is
definitely not ever going to be back to normal.”

“Something else. There’s going to be an
election coming up within the next few weeks.”

“There is? Well, since I’ve never voted
in my lifetime, I’m not too concerned. I don’t think it will make any
difference to our small town.”

“I don’t know. Getting a new sheriff
always means a few changes.”

I stared at him. “A new sheriff? Are you
telling me that you are really and truly retiring, Reg Smee?”

He grinned. “I handed in my resignation
two days ago. It’s time for me to spend some time fishing and relaxing before I
settle down in the Parson's Cove Restful Retirement Retreat.”

I reached over and shook his hand.
“Congratulations, Reg. I’m happy for you but I don’t think we will ever have a
sheriff as good as you again.”

“What? Is this the real Mabel Wickles
speaking?”

“I know we’ve had our differences, Reg,
but in the end, we work pretty well together.”

There was a bit of shine to the
sheriff’s eyes. “We do, Mabel. I have to confess I’ll miss our little
adventures.”

“Of course, no one is saying we still
can’t do some investigating once in a while. And, as you pointed out, Sheriff,
when you’re a citizen you don’t even need a search warrant.”

Reg laughed so hard, I had to grab his
cup before it hit the floor. He wiped away a few tears and said, “Mabel, why
don’t you get me another one of your stale muffins?”

“Only as long as you’re sheriff; once
you’re retired, you have to get your own.”

The End

Flori’s Cinnamon Buns

Makes 8 good-sized buns or 6 gargantuan
buns!

Preparation and cook time: 1 hour 45
minutes.

Ingredients:

2 cups of white flour

1 tbsp. ground cinnamon

½ cup fine sugar

½ cup light brown sugar

Pinch of salt

1 cup chopped pecans

1 oz. butter

½ cup butter, melted

¼ oz. yeast

2 oz. maple syrup

1 egg, beaten

½ cup pecans, chopped

½ cup warm milk

Put flour, sugar, and salt in mixing
bowl, blend in butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the
yeast, egg, and milk and mix well until it forms a soft dough. Turn onto
lightly floured surface and knead for ten minutes until smooth and elastic.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel or plastic
wrap. Leave in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Combine the
cinnamon, sugar, and pecans in a food processor until the nuts are finely
ground.

Punch down the dough and knead to remove
the air. Roll on a floured surface to form 9 in. X 12 in. rectangle. Brush the
dough with half the melted butter and sprinkle over the sugar, cinnamon, and
pecans. Roll up the dough tightly, starting at longer edge. Press the edges to
seal, then cut into 8 slices. Grease pan (or pans) with butter. Put buns in
pans, cover, and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Heat oven to 375* F. Bake for 30 minutes
until golden. Remove from oven and place on rack to cool.

Heat the maple syrup, sugar, and
remaining melted butter in a saucepan, stirring. Drizzle the glaze over the
buns and sprinkle with pecans.

Mabel’s Apple Breakfast Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Preparation and cook time: 35 minutes

Bake 15 to 20 minutes in 375*F oven

Ingredients:

1 oz. butter

1 tsp. apple pie spice

1 oz. demerara sugar

2 apples, cored and cubed

1 oz. ground almonds

1 egg 

2 oz. sunflower seeds

1 cup sour cream

2 cups all purpose flour

½ cup butter, melted

2 tsp. baking powder

½ cup brown sugar

Blend butter into flour, sugar, and
almonds until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in sunflower seeds and set
aside as topping. Sift flour and baking powder into mixing bowl. Stir in sugar,
spice, and apple. Mix together egg, sour cream, and melted butter.  Mix the wet
and dry ingredients together and stir lightly. Mixture should be lumpy. Spoon
the mixture into paper lined muffin tins and sprinkle on topping.

Bake until muffins are well risen and
firm.

Flori’s
Chocolate-chocolate Cookies

1 ¼ cups flour

1 ( 4 serving size) chocolate instant
pudding

1 tsp. soda

2 eggs

1 cup margarine, softened

1 (12 oz.) pkg. chocolate chips

¼ cup sugar

1 cup chopped nuts, optional

¾ cup brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix flour with soda. Combine
margarine, sugars, vanilla, and pudding mix in large bowl; beat until smooth
and creamy. Beat in eggs. Add flour mixture. Stir in nuts and chips. Drop by
teaspoonful onto ungreased sheets. 375* for about 8 to 10 minutes. Makes
about 7 dozen small cookies.