The Case of the Missing Elf: a Melanie Hart Mystery (Melanie Hart Cozy Mysteries Book 2) (15 page)

With Ginger charged with setting up our interview with Agnes, I revisited the gardening stories a second time to be sure I hadn’t missed anything important. Only one additional name popped out at me. But I could see no reason for Valerie Farmer to murder Scroggins or Porter.

True, her husband had worked with Scroggins in Santa’s Cabin. But she had no ties to Porter that I could imagine. What could she possibly have to do with a drifter like Porter? I closed down the computer satisfied that with Agnes Plummer I had discovered our most significant lead.

There remained one other person worth checking, I reminded myself. I’d asked Melanie to scope out Harold Sparks. With Wendy’s claim that her cousin and Sparks had failed to get along, I felt he should be interviewed.

But with Ginger overseeing the cabin this year, it had probably been unfair of me to expect her to track him down. Ginger was busy. She had her hands full. I would take over the assignment and find out what I could.

For now, I thought, I needed to tend to my real job. Sighing, I fished out the overnight obituaries and keyed the information into my computer. Then, I made our daily calls to our routine news sources.

I phoned the Weaver County Sheriff. He filled me in on a couple of arrest warrants they’d served yesterday. I entered those details into the computer, thanked the man, and rang off. That was the bulk of my duties until tomorrow when my Porter murder story would come out.

I’d little more than returned to sorting through press releases when a voice addressed me, “Are you Melanie Hart?”

Glancing up, I found a surly teenager staring down at me. “I am. And you are?”

“Jeremy Plummer.”

Good grief, this was our dear little Jeremy? Medium height. Dark wary eyes. Flushed face. He looked as though there were a dozen places he’d rather be. But I couldn’t believe my good fortune that he’d wandered my way. “Look, Jeremy, this isn’t a good place to talk. How about we head for Howies? I’ll buy you whatever you want.” I figured a growing boy would almost never turn down food

“I guess we could do that,” he said.

After donning my parka, I trooped out of our offices with the dour teenager trailing behind me. When we reached my car, I asked,  “So what brought you my way?”

“Mom called me. Said you and Ms Black wanted to talk to her. She was nervous. Kinda upset. So I thought maybe I should have a little chat with you first.”

“Does she have something to hide? Is that why she’s nervous?”

“See, there you go. Trying to make something out of nothing. You be careful with my mom. I don’t want her scared. She hasn’t done anything, see?”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No, but she’s had a tough life. I don’t want you  pushing her into a corner just to sell some lousy newspapers..”

“That’s  not my agenda, here. Besides, I think you’re over reacting. We’re not the police, Jeremy. We’re not going to arrest her.”

“Hey, I know you and Gossford are like this.” He held up his right hand with two of  his fingers wrapped around each other.

“So what are your afraid of?”

“I talked to Porter. He told me all about the questions you’d asked. How you kept pressing him for answers.”

“And that’s a problem?”

“It is if you try to pin his murder on my mother.”

“Why would I do that?”

“How do I know? I don’t run in your world. But I know about reporters. They like to stick their noses where they don’t belong.” He folded his arms over his chest.

“How old are you?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“It’s just that you seem awfully self assured for your age.”

He smirked. “I might be.”

I wondered what Jeremy had seen during his contact with Scroggins and Porter? And even more importantly, I wondered what he’d done? It took a great deal of nerve for a boy of his age to step up and confront an adult. Especially, when he believed that adult might be a threat to him or to someone he loved.

“Look,” he said, as we neared Howies, “how about we order in the drive through?”

“Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?”

“If any of my friends are at Howies just now, then... yeah.”

“Okay, we can do that. We’ll finish this little chat in the car. The location doesn’t matter to me.”

Moving through the drive through, Jeremy surprised me, ordering only a milkshake. I opted for coffee. After we hit the second window and picked up our order, I headed for the city park. There, I pulled into the parking lot in front of a small pond. Ducks bobbed on its surface which was slate gray on this overcast day. I switched off the ignition.

Glancing about us, I noticed that absolutely no one could be seen in any direction. And I congratulated myself. I was now alone with a young, strong, teenage male, who, for all I knew, could be a burglar
— or worse.

At any rate, he certainly looked strong enough to have bashed Porter over the head and killed him. He could also have picked up information on foxgloves from his mother. And he’d been known to hang around Scroggins.

Well done, Melanie
, I thought.

But  here I was. I figured if anything bad came down, I could always save myself by blowing the horn. At least, I thought, it should startle the ducks.

“So,” I said, “what drove you to my office today?”

Jeremy shifted in his seat and gave me a worried glance. “I don’t want you hassling my mom.”

“And?”

He fell silent.

I waited. Watched the ducks.

“So what if she was seeing Scroggins?” he finally blurted out.

I turned my head and studied him. “Who? Your mother?”

He nodded.

“And you think I’d make something evil out of that?”

“I just think it’s her business if she was having sex with the dude. I thought I’d tell you so she didn’t have to.”

“Oh.”

“But that doesn’t mean she killed him… or Porter, either.”

“I never said she did.”

“I don’t want you getting the wrong idea, that’s all. Or making her feel guilty for something she didn’t do. She feels bad enough already.”

“Yes, I think I understand.” I paused for a sip of coffee. “What about her relationship with Porter?”

“Hey, she didn’t sleep around, and don’t you dare say she did.”

“I’m not saying anything. If you claim she didn’t, she didn’t. But what about you? What was your relationship to Scroggins?”

A puzzled expression slipped over the kid’s face. “Me?”

“I’ve heard you ran errands for the man.”

“Oh, that.” Jeremy nodded and took a sip of his milkshake. “That’s true.”

“Can you tell me what kind of errands they were?”

He set the shake down. “I just did whatever he asked me to do.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, I don’t know. He’d send me to the post office or the bank or even sometimes to the grocery store. I never knew what I’d be doing on any day. I think he used me to make himself feel big, important. He loved lording it over me. But nothing I did was big time. It was all just little stuff, see? And none of it was dirty.”

“But he paid you?”

“Sure. I don’t work for free, now do I?”

“Porter said Scroggins planned to come into a windfall of cash. Do you know anything about that?”

“Not the details, but they both talked like this was the big one, the one they’d been waiting for all their lives.”

“But you didn’t get to share in the windfall?”

“Nope. I was only the gofer.”

“The gopher?”

He nodded. “I went for things. Ran errands. Was the hired help.”

I couldn’t help wondering how Jeremy felt about that. Had he resented his menial role? Had he sought revenge? Or had the money come in, and had Jeremy found a way to make off with it? Is that why Scroggins had died?

Leaning forward, I fired up my car. Justified or not, I suddenly decided I’d spent quite enough time alone with this young man.

~~~

Although I suggested to drop Jeremy off at school, he said he’d rather get out at the intersection of Pine and Grant Streets. Heaven only knew what he intended to do there. The area contained a collection of medium-sized houses I didn’t know if it was near his home or not.

I watched him in my rearview mirror as I drove away. But he didn’t take a single step from where I’d deposited him. I felt slightly guilty over not having convinced him to get himself back inside the classroom.

Then, I reminded myself that I was neither his mother nor a school truant officer. Still, even though I didn’t entirely trust him, I felt something for him. After all, he had stepped up to protect his mother. Maybe, if the young man was innocent of the deaths of Scroggins and Porter, I’d talk to Dad. He might be able to come up with some odd jobs for Jeremy to do at the newspaper. If there were a way to give the young man a leg up, someone should do so before it was too late. But first I had to rule him out as the murderer.

~~~

When I returned to our office, I found Betty seated behind the reception desk. “Ginger’s been trying to reach you.”

“Right, thanks.” I scurried to my office and gave the beauty shop a call.

“Where the blazes have you been? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for at least twenty minutes.”

“I had an errand to run.”

“Do you never take your cell phone with you?”

“Rarely. When I’m out and about I like to  roam free.

“You have to be the only person in the world who steps out without their cell phone.”

I chuckled. “It keeps nosy government agencies confused. For all they know, I never leave my office.”

“You’re certifiably weird.”

“Am I? Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

“Ha, ha.”

Actually, I always carried my cell  phone with me. I just turned the ringer off and ignored the vibrator. I preferred living life without constant interruptions from every Dick, Tom, and Harry who thought they’d die if they didn’t connect with me that very second. To my mind, if the message was important, people would call again
—
and at a time that would better fit my schedule.

“Anyway, what can I do for you?” I asked.

“Agnes has agreed to meet with us. I decided it would be better to talk to her outside of the Cabin.”

“That sounds reasonable.”

“’You can hook up with us at four at my place. I scheduled the session for after school. That way I can use Toby to babysit at the cabin.”

“That’s fine.”

“See you there, then?”

“You bet.”

I thought about but dismissed the idea of filling Ginger in on my session with Jeremy. There’d be plenty of time after our bout with Agnes to bring Ginger up to speed with what I’d learned today.

After replacing the receiver, I grabbed the phone book and looked up the phone number for our only big box store. Harold Sparks was employed as general manager there. His position as head of one of Cloverton’s largest employers made him a big man around town.

“Lester,” I said when we’d connected. “How are you?”

Sometimes, I had to pussyfoot around large retail players, many of whom were among our best advertisers. But not so with Lester. His store was so well known he didn’t need to bother advertising in our small town newspaper. All Sparks had to do was let the company’s national television buys drive shoppers into his box. And I suspected, people would flock there even without the TV ads, but then what did I know?

“What do I owe the pleasure of your call to, Melanie?”

He might not have to advertise with us, but he was smart enough to know we carried some influence in town. He always mentioned having read one of our stories  or another. Intelligent move.

“I’ve heard some rumbles about you and Scroggins mixing it up last Christmas.”

“Where in the world did you pick up on that old story. You’re not after something to put in the paper, are you?”

I managed to bite back a laugh. “Of course not.. It’s just that Ginger’s got her hands full with the cabin this year, and I thought if I could pick your brain for any advice that might give her a leg up, I would.”

“Ugh. That job’s a nightmare. I’m glad to be rid of it. I thought it might be a little easier with Scroggins out of the mix.”

“You really didn’t like him, did you?”

“Melanie, you’re sure this isn’t for attribution? You’re not intending to embarrass me in the newspaper or trying to pin a murder wrap on me? I disliked the guy but I didn’t kill him.”

“I know that. I’m just after a little seasoned information. I’m even willing to buy you lunch. How does that sound?”

“I think I’m clear, but let me check my calendar.”

“Take your time.”