Ladle to the Grave (A Soup Lover's Mystery Book 4) (25 page)

S
OPHIE STOOD AS
rigid as a stone carving, flanked by Lucky and Sage. Sage reached out to hold Sophie’s hand, but she pulled away. They stood with Nate watching the men dig. Nate had called in reinforcements from Lincoln Falls, and technicians waited next to their van as the men dug. A chill wind blew down from the top of the hillside. Lucky shivered in her light jacket. Clouds had gathered, threatening rain, after what had begun as a warm spring day.

One of the men shouted and Nate walked toward the group. He looked down at the cavity they had unearthed and nodded once. The other two men rested on their shovels. One wiped perspiration from his forehead. Nate beckoned to the technicians to approach.

Sophie walked toward them. Her legs moved stiffly. Nate turned toward her and warned her off.

“I don’t think you should see this, Sophie.”

Sophie, with a sudden burst of energy, avoided Nate’s arm and ducked around him. She halted at the edge of the shallow grave the workers had uncovered. Lucky rushed forward with Sage following. The skeleton was curled in a fetal position, its legs drawn up as if sleeping. Remnants of clothing still clung to the bones. Sophie covered her mouth and turned away. She leaned over and gagged. Sage stepped close to her but Sophie stood and pushed him away. She ran down the hillside. Sage called out to her as she ran but she didn’t stop. Lucky watched helplessly as Sophie climbed into their car and drove away.

Sage, halfway down the hill, came to a sudden stop, watching as Sophie sped away. Lucky caught up with him.

“I don’t know what to do.” He turned to her. “What should I do, Lucky?”

She shook her head. “I’ll drive you back. She’s probably heading to your apartment. Or if not yet, she will be. Best to leave her alone for a bit.”

Sage turned back and looked up at the hillside where the technicians were gathered around the base of the blackened trunk of the tree. He sighed heavily. “Why did Rick have to tell her?”

“She didn’t leave him much choice. I think he was just exhausted from keeping the secret his whole life.”

*   *   *

S
AGE DIDN’T SAY
a word on the ride back to town. Lucky pulled up in front of their apartment on Chestnut. Sage jumped out and ran up the stairs. Three minutes later he returned, shaking his head, and climbed back into the car.

“She’s not there. And I don’t think she’s been back. Where would she go, Lucky?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we should check my place. She has an emergency key. She might be hiding out there.”

“Okay. I can’t put myself in her shoes, but why is she driving away the people closest to her?” he blurted out in frustration.

Lucky thought a moment before she answered. “Shame. I think that might be a big part of it. She’s spent her whole life recovering from being the poor kid in town, in her mind, looked down on and made fun of. She’s made a success of her life and now this has pulled the rug out from under her. That’s just part of it, though. Maybe the bigger part is the fantasy she had to keep alive all these years. That everything would have been different if her father had returned. Their lives would have changed for the better—hers, her mother’s, all of them. Instead . . .”

“Instead, the secret ate away at them.”

“If what Rick said is true, that none of them ever asked what happened to their father, then somehow, they must have known. They knew not to ask or say a word. And Rick was forced to keep it to himself. What a terrible burden to bear.”

Lucky pulled up to her apartment building. “Wait here. I’ll run up and check.”

“I’ll make some calls,” Sage said, pulling out his cell phone. “Maybe one of her friends has heard from her.”

Lucky ran up the stairs of her building and rushed into the vestibule. Greta’s door opened a crack and she peeked out. Lucky called out to her, but Greta slammed the door before Lucky could reach it. Frustrated, Lucky rushed up the stairs to her front door and unlocked it. Somehow the theft of the photo didn’t seem so important. Not now. Not with the worry over Sophie. She called out Sophie’s name. The apartment was completely still. She quickly checked each of the rooms, the living room, closets, bath, kitchen and bedroom. No Sophie. She hadn’t really expected that Sophie would come here, but she had to check nonetheless.

Sage looked up hopefully as Lucky returned to the car. Lucky shook her head negatively.

“No luck, Sage. Sorry.” He was just dropping his cell phone into his pocket. “Were you able to reach anyone?”

“No, but I left messages. I didn’t say why. I just asked them to give me a call. Maybe she’ll come home before I have to explain. Let’s get back to the restaurant. If Sophie’s looking for us, she may come there when she calms down.”

“I certainly hope so.” Lucky turned the key in the ignition. “I’m going to drive around the corner to the Spoonful. I want my car parked someplace where I can keep an eye on it.”

It was close to lunchtime when they reached the Spoonful. Janie and Meg stared silently at Lucky as she took over the counter. Lucky was certain they had already heard of all the activity on the mountainside and the body the police were digging for. They knew immediately this wasn’t the moment to be asking for any explanations. Lucky shook her head slightly to warn them not to talk about anything just yet.

Jack glanced up briefly and caught Lucky’s eye. She gave him a nod and held a finger to her lips. Jack would know they could talk later.

*   *   *

B
Y THE TIME
Lucky had a chance to take a break, it was growing dark. Sophie had not returned. Lucky peeked through the hatch and caught Sage’s eye. He had been quiet all day, but Lucky knew he was calling Sophie’s cell and their home number every chance he had. And he was growing more anxious by the minute.

“Nothing?” Lucky asked quietly. Sage shook his head and slammed a pan on the work counter. He hung his head.

Lucky pushed through the swinging door into the kitchen. She sat on a stool next to him. “Why don’t you take off? She may be at home already but just not answering the phone. This had to be unbelievably tough for her today.”

“I know. I’m sure it was. I just need to talk to her. I need to know she’s okay.”

“Go home. She’s either there or will be soon.”

Sage nodded. He grabbed his jacket from the hook and left through the back door without another word.

The restaurant had emptied out when she returned to the counter. Janie and Meg had gathered all the dishes and carried them into the kitchen.

“We’re getting ready to go, Lucky. Are you okay?”

“Sure, you two go ahead,” she replied. “Jack and I can handle everything.”

Janie hesitated. “I guess they found him? Was it real bad?”

Lucky nodded. “For Sophie it was. She . . . uh, she took off. We haven’t been able to find her.”

“She’s probably hiding out somewhere,” Meg volunteered.

“That’s my guess too. She’ll come home when she’s ready.”

“Good night,” the girls said in unison and left through the swinging door to the corridor. Lucky heard the back door slam. Jack was sitting by the front window, staring out at the street.

Lucky loaded the dishwasher and turned it on. Then she bagged up the last of the trash to unload in the Dumpster behind the restaurant. She turned off all the lights except for one small lamp and joined Jack at the table.

“Can I get you a beer?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, thanks. Just don’t feel like it.”

She didn’t know what she could say to lighten his mood. She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “I know you’re really down, Jack.”

He nodded. “The worst of it is being here all day and knowing that people are looking at me and thinking that I’m to blame.”

Lucky wasn’t sure there wasn’t some truth in what Jack was saying. “Don’t assume that at all.” She contradicted him. “You don’t know what they’re thinking. Most of them probably didn’t even know Agnes, much less have an opinion of you or what happened.”

“I appreciate that, my girl. It’s not true, but I appreciate that anyway.”

“Jack, I’m being honest here. I really don’t think you made any mistakes. I think somebody intended to harm Agnes. Somebody, in spite of what Cordelia claims, might have tampered with that cauldron or the wine at the ceremony.”

Jack looked up. “You think Cordelia might have done it deliberately?”

Lucky shrugged. “I can’t imagine why. What possible reason could she have? And if Emily is to be believed, none of the other women seemed to have any connection to Agnes. There was something I found out from Emily, if it’s true, that is. Emily thinks it was actually supposed to be Greta who drank the wine first.”

“Hmm. If that’s the case . . . then your theory about Agnes goes right out the window.”

“I know. Agnes apparently prepared the altar and Emily thought maybe that’s why Agnes thought she was to be the first to drink the wine. Maybe just a mix-up.”

“So it could just as well have been one of the other women.”

“If it’s true, if Emily remembered it correctly. And if that’s correct, as soon as the first person had a bad reaction, the rest would have known something was wrong with the wine, so no one would take a chance and drink it. Besides, whatever was mulled, it was done at Cordelia’s house, and only she and her husband live there. And Cecily swore to me that she didn’t stop anywhere or leave the basket unattended after she picked it up from you.”

“That lands it smack on my doorstep again, doesn’t it?”

“Jack, they believe there was a toxin of some sort involved. We don’t know what it was, not yet. We don’t know if it came from the wine. We don’t know if Agnes was on medication. But we do know she had a heart attack. That’s what killed her. What she drank might not even have had a chance to get into her system.”

“Lucky, my girl, some toxins from plants can act right away. Not all, of course. Sometimes the effects take a while. They’ll just have to figure out exactly what it was and where it came from.”

“Right. If the wine is found to be safe, then it had to come from somewhere else. It didn’t come from your herbs.” Lucky continued, “Jack, we’ll find an explanation, I just know we will, and you’ll be vindicated. Just be patient. In the meantime, I don’t want to see you suffering about this.”

The phone in the kitchen began to ring. She looked at Jack quizzically. “Are you waiting for a phone call?”

“Not me,” he replied.

Lucky jumped up and hurried into the kitchen, catching the phone on the third ring. It was Sage.

“She’s not here. I can’t find her. I’ve called everyone I can think of and no one’s heard from her. Not even Nate.” Lucky heard panic in Sage’s voice. “I’ve borrowed my neighbor’s car. I’m going out to look for her.”

L
UCKY DROVE UP
and down the streets of Snowflake, starting at her own apartment on Maple. She couldn’t imagine where Sophie would be. She’d like to think Sophie would seek her out, especially under these circumstances. She couldn’t begin to imagine the range of feelings Sophie must be going through. To yearn for a father who had disappeared and then to learn he had been dead all along, killed by her own mother. And then to actually see what was left of her father’s body in the ground. It must have been horrifying for her. She must have been completely overwhelmed.

Sophie undoubtedly had friends outside of Snowflake, but no one she had ever mentioned as being significant. There were work friends at the Resort but again, no one Sophie had ever mentioned being particularly close to. As far as Lucky knew, everyone truly important in Sophie’s life was right here in Snowflake—herself, Sage and Jack.

Would she have gone to the Resort? Taken a room to hide out in? That was a possibility. When she completed her circuit of the town and was sure that Sophie hadn’t left her car on a side street, she drove the few miles up the mountain to the Resort. She entered through the stone pillars and made a circuit of the parking lot. She was sure that Sage would be making the same kind of circuit. Employee parking spaces were at the far end. If Sophie had come here, she might have parked in her regular spot. Lucky drove to the very back of the area. Several cars were parked in front of signs that stated “Staff Only,” but Sophie’s, or rather Sage’s, car wasn’t one of them. Frustrated and exhausted, she made another circuit of the lot, to no avail. Wherever Sophie was, it wasn’t here, and she would have had to drive in order to arrive at the Resort. Lucky leaned her head against the steering wheel.
Sophie, where did you go?

She turned the car around and headed out of the lot, steering back toward town. When she reached Broadway, a thought came to her. It was the last place she would have thought to look, but upon reflection, it made perfect sense. She turned left, passing the Spoonful. The blue and yellow neon sign shone in the front window and a small lamp illuminated the vases of forsythia blooms. She knew now where Sophie had to be.

Lucky reached the road that led to Sophie’s mother’s house. She passed by the narrow road that gave access to the property where they had unearthed her father’s body earlier in the day and continued on. Sophie might have driven around for a while, but Lucky was sure this was where she would have ended up. She pulled into the drive that led up to the house. Her headlights illuminated Sophie’s car, half hidden among the trees. She turned off her engine and reached into the glove compartment for a flashlight. She smelled wood smoke as she made her way quietly up to the front porch. A flickering light shone through the front windows. Inside, Sophie sat cross-legged in front of the hearth. A board creaked beneath her foot and Sophie’s head turned quickly toward the window. Lucky walked to the door and called out, “It’s me, Sophie.”

She heard footsteps and the door was opened. Sophie’s face was visible in the firelight. “Don’t say it.”

“I’m not gonna say anything. Except we were worried about you.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Call Sage, right now. He’s worried sick.”

Sophie’s shoulders slumped. “Okay.” She reached into her pocket to retrieve her cell phone and hit a button. Sage picked up immediately.

“I’ll be home in a bit.” She paused. “I’m fine. I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to worry about me . . . Okay.” She clicked off.

“Nice fire.”

“I got so cold after a while.” Sophie returned to the hearth and sat. Lucky clicked off her flashlight and joined her. “It’s not looking good—my big plan for the house and everything. I just thought I’d enjoy my grandfather’s fireplace one last time.

“All these years . . .” Sophie shook her head. “Since I was a kid, I always held out the hope he was coming back. It used to make me crazy how no one would talk about him. Every time I asked questions they’d all get weird and change the subject.” She turned to look at Lucky. Her eyes were still swollen from recent tears. “We were so poor, Lucky. You remember. Other kids used to make fun of me at school, make fun of my clothes. I’d get so angry. I’d think,
You just wait and see. My father’s coming back and everything’s gonna change
. I’d have fantasies that he was in Alaska working on a pipeline or harvesting salmon and making tons of money and when he came back, our luck would change. We’d be rich and nobody could ever make fun of us again.”

Lucky listened in silence. This was everything she had always suspected about Sophie. She had always been her friend and defended her at school.

“And then Rick left, and then my brother Jerry. And then my mom got sick and died. My sister left as soon as I got the job at the Resort. I knew she was just waiting to make sure I had something. I moved out of here and now even my one sister’s gone. The others must have known about my father, but no one would tell me.”

“They wanted to protect you, that’s all.”

Sophie sighed. “Am I crazy? Did I remember a different man? I remember how he used to lift me up and hug me. I remember how he smelled, warm and earthy. Was I just kidding myself? I don’t remember any of the stuff that Rick talked about. I don’t remember him hitting my mom. I swear I never knew any of that.”

“You were a little kid. How old were you then? Four? Five? How could you have known?”

“But kids do know. They know when there’s something wrong in a house. They may not be able to put words to it—they may even think it’s normal; that’s how everybody lives—but they know. What’s wrong with me that I didn’t know?”

The small fire that Sophie had built was turning to embers. “They all did a very good job of protecting you and you needed your fantasies to survive. And you did survive and you built a life for yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back.”

“What a bunch we were. He tainted us all. Maybe that’s the reason my mother got sick. My sister died young too. Jerry’s gone and Rick . . . Well, look at him. He lives in the shadows, can’t connect with anybody, has some crazy tracker business with no license. What kind of a life is that? My father ruined them all somehow.”

“The secret ruined them. You escaped.”

“Did I? How do I know? Maybe I’ll just repeat their history. Maybe . . .” She trailed off.

“Maybe what?”

“Maybe I shouldn’t even think about getting married. Maybe I’d just mess up Sage’s life and whatever family we might have.”

“That’s not gonna happen, Sophie. That’s crazy thinking. You have real love in your life. You’re building a life. And maybe Rick will find his way now too. Think about that. I’m sure he’s never told a soul what happened, what part he played. Can you imagine what that’s done to him all these years?”

“Lucky, that could’ve been Rick in the creek that day. What if they killed his partner, thinking it was him?”

“They?”

“
He
, I mean. That thug from the Resort.”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure Nate will get to the bottom of it.” Lucky decided this wasn’t the time to tell Sophie her suspicions that Eddie’s death might have something to do with Agnes Warner. That was a conversation for another time.

“That would have been some irony, huh? The guy who never wanted to come back gets killed in the very same spot he’s been trying to avoid his whole life.” Sophie pulled her knees up to her chin. “But I’m glad it wasn’t Rick.”

“Come on, Sophie, let’s go. Sage is waiting for you to come home.”

Sophie smiled for the first time. “Home. What a wonderful word.” She sighed and reached for the poker, tamping down the embers until the last of them died.