Creamy Pumpkin Killer Read online

  “So, the Becketts know yet another individual potentially connected to a murder,” Art Solinsky mused nastily. “Why am I not surprised?”

  “Oh! I’m not connected to a murder in any way. I just happened to hear a woman screaming and called 911,” Thomas gulped, looking helplessly at Chas.

  “Solinsky, you can say what you’d like about me, but I’ll have to ask you to keep any comments about my wife to yourself, for your own safety,” Chas nailed the detective with a steely glance.

  “That a threat, Beckett?” Solinsky hitched up his polyester pants from where they had slipped below his belly.

  “I don’t make threats, Solinsky,” was the reply.

  “I really don’t have anything to do with this,” Thomas repeated, seeming uncomfortable with the obvious conflict between the two men. “Would it be okay if I just…?” he started to move away.

  “Pipe down and stay put, pipsqueak. I’m not done with you yet,” Solinsky barked.

  “Uh, okay,” Thomas looked terrified.

  Chas opened his mouth to say something to Thomas, but Solinsky butted in before he could.

  “I don’t need your help out here,” Solinsky dismissed Chas. “I’m just going to finish interviewing. Why don’t you make yourself useful inside? You can deal with the creepy undertaker and his minion when they get here.”

  Chas left without saying another word, happy that Solinsky wasn’t inside, hindering the processing of the scene. A uniformed officer met him in the foyer of the upscale two-story house.

  “What have we got?” Chas asked.

  “Looks like a burglary gone bad. Husband and wife were both bound. Husband was shot once, in the head. Safe is open, some jewelry is missing. The wife is pretty shaken up,” the cop reported.

  “Where is the wife?” Chas frowned. “Was she shot too?”

  “Nope, not a scratch. Just the husband. She’s sitting in the kitchen staring at a cup of tea.”

  “And Solinsky is out here with a dog walker?” Chas exclaimed in disbelief.

  “Not my call,” the officer shrugged.

  “I’m going to go speak with the wife. What’s her name?”

  “Alison. Alison Edmunds.”

  “Okay, I’m going to talk to Ms. Edmunds. Let me know when the coroner gets here?”

  “Sure thing,” the cop nodded.

  “I appreciate it,” Chas said, moving in the direction in which the officer had pointed.

  ***

  Alison Edmunds was a thin, mousy-haired woman who huddled miserably at her kitchen table, her bony hands wrapped around a mug of tea.

  “Alison?” Chas said softly, sitting down across the table. When she looked up, her huge hazel eyes red rimmed, he continued.

  “My name is Chas Beckett, and I’m with the Calgon Police Department. Can I talk with you for a minute?”

  She nodded.

  “I’m very sorry for your loss. I know that this is very painful for you, but can you start at the beginning and tell me what happened?” Chas pulled a notebook out of the pocket of his blazer.

  Alison stared at the table, dropping her hands away from her cup and wrapping them around her midsection. When she spoke, her voice was soft and high pitched, almost childlike.

  “We were in bed watching TV because we’d both started the day really early. I guess I must’ve fallen asleep because I jolted awake and saw this really tall, dark figure towering over the bed. He had a gun, and he told us to turn over on our stomachs so that he could tie us up, or he’d kill us.”

  Chas interrupted her with a question. “Do you remember what his voice sounded like? Was there anything distinctive about it?”

  “It was deep and scary. Kind of raspy, like maybe he was a smoker or something.”

  “Okay, good. When you say he was tall… how tall do you mean? Was he over six feet?”

  Alison nodded. “Dale, my husband, is just under six feet, and this guy was at least five or six inches taller than Dale,” her voice broke when she said her husband’s name the second time, and she pressed her fist against her mouth, fighting for control.

  “Okay, what happened next?” Chas prompted gently, after giving her a few seconds to pull herself together.

  “We both rolled onto our stomachs, and he made us turn our faces toward the wall on the left, so that we wouldn’t see what he looked like, and…” just as Alison was about to continue, the uniformed officer that Chas had met in the foyer came in.

  “Beckett, sorry to interrupt, but Timothy Eckels just arrived.”

  “Thank you, tell him to go ahead and get started. I’ll join him shortly.”

  “Will do. Just a head’s up… Solinsky was a bit rough with him on his way in.”

  Chas grimaced. Timothy Eckels was the best coroner he’d ever seen. The mild-mannered, extremely introverted man had helped solve quite a few homicides in and around Calgon, so Solinsky had made it his life’s mission to bully him.

  “I’ll take care of it. Thanks.”

  ***

  Fiona McCamish, assistant to Timothy Eckels, both in his position as Calgon County Coroner, and in his function as Calgon’s only mortician, had decided that she needed to do something to get in shape. The attractive twentysomething wasn’t even remotely athletic, but she had a cupcake habit, and if she wanted to keep it, she was going to have to do something to make her feel less guilty about it.

  Dressed in yoga pants and a sports bra, she sat down on what felt like a paper-thin yoga mat, and started a yoga video. She figured that yoga was mostly like stretching, and she did that every time that she got out of bed, so how hard could it be? It started out fun… the whole breathing and posing thing, but just when Fiona thought she might have mastered the poses, the lithe instructor stood on one foot, arms above her head. Fiona, who, despite a natural grace, was not known for her balance, nearly fell over, and ended up using a wall for balance. It was a great relief when the doorbell rang, interrupting her workout.

  She answered the door after peeking through the peephole and seeing her boss and neighbor. The two of them carpooled together every day, and it worked out well for both of them. Fiona was never late, and didn’t have to worry about owning a car.

  “Hey Boss Man, what brings you over here after dark?” she asked, dabbing at her face with a towel.

  “Good gracious! You need to put clothing on,” Tim sputtered, averting his eyes.

  “This is workout gear, Timmy. There’s nothing naughty about it,” Fiona sighed.

  “Don’t call me that,” Tim muttered. “You need to get dressed, we have a crime scene,” he told her, looking anywhere but in her direction. “Hurry please, I’ll wait in the car.”

  “You can wait in here if you’d like,” Fiona smirked. She loved nothing more than pushing her timid boss’s buttons and making him squirm.

  “I’ll be fine in the car. Please don’t dawdle,” he turned and scurried down the sidewalk.

  “I can just go like this,” she called after him, suppressing a grin.

  “You may not,” he called back, not turning around.

  While Fiona lived to torment her boss in the hopes that someday he might notice her as a female with thoughts and feelings rather than just a super-efficient piece of office equipment, she really enjoyed working beside him at crime scenes, so she dressed quickly. The man was brilliant, and she wanted to be just like him someday, which is why she had badgered him into hiring her in the first place. In less than five minutes, she was suited up and in the passenger seat as Tim did the speed limit, heading to the scene.

  “Oh great, Solinsky’s here already,” Fiona muttered when she saw the incompetent and obnoxious detective haranguing a terrified young man at the house where they’d gone to examine the body.

  “Perhaps if you don’t engage him, he’ll leave us to our job and ignore us,” Tim suggested, grabbing his bag from the back of the hearse, while Fiona picked up the camera.

  “I’ll believe that when I see it,” she grumbled.
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br />   “I have no idea what takes you so long to get to a crime scene, Eckels,” Solinsky called out, looking at his watch with exaggerated annoyance.

  Tim ignored him and headed toward the house, but Solinsky stepped away from his witness, directly into the coroner’s path.

  “What’s your hurry now? You got things to plot with Beckett to try to make me look bad?” Solinsky invaded Tim’s enormous bubble of personal space, and while he didn’t show outward signs of distress, Fiona knew that the detective’s aggressive proximity had to be driving him crazy.

  “You don’t need us for that,” Fiona snickered, taking Tim by the arm and steering him away from the brutish man.

  “You can be fired, young lady,” Solinsky muttered.

  “Look in the mirror when you say that, Sunshine,” Fiona shot back.

  “You shouldn’t speak to him that way,” Tim murmured, brushing her hand from his arm.

  “He shouldn’t speak to us that way,” she retorted. “He’s mean to you, I’m mean to him. That’s how it works and nothing you can say will change that. I’ve never shied away from a bully and I don’t intend to start now.”

  “I’m more than capable of fighting my own battles, I just don’t choose to. He’s not worth the emotional energy that I would need to expend,” Tim blinked at her, pushing his thick, horn-rimmed glasses up his nose with his forefinger.

  “Good, then let’s forget about him and go see the body,” Fiona said, marching onward.

  “You the coroner?” a uniformed officer asked, when they got to the door.

  “Yes, why?”

  “Chas Beckett is questioning a witness inside. He wanted me to let him know when you arrived.”

  “Thank goodness there’s someone here with half a brain,” Fiona arched an eyebrow. “No offense, Officer.”

  “None taken. Let me go see if he wants to talk to you before you do your thing.”

  ***

  Chas glanced at his notes thus far and decided that it was time to recap what Alison Edmunds had said, so that he could go to the actual scene and talk with Timothy Eckels before Solinsky intervened.

  “So, he tied both of you up, stole the contents of your safe and some of your jewelry. He didn’t shoot you because you listened to his directions and kept your eyes closed, but after your husband opened his eyes, he shot him, is that correct?” he asked.

  Alison nodded and choked out a yes.

  “Okay, thank you, Alison. I know this has been an awful night for you, so that’s where we’ll leave it for now. I’ll come back in the morning and talk with you a bit more, okay?” Chas asked kindly, noting the black circles under her eyes.

  “Yes, thank you.”

  ***

  “Have you spoken with the wife?” Timothy Eckels asked Chas, when the private investigator joined him in the Edmunds’s bedroom.

  “Yes.”

  “And could she hear you?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “That means that whoever fired the gun must’ve used a silencer, because if they hadn’t, at that range, the wife’s ears would be ringing so profoundly that it would render her temporarily hard of hearing,” Tim mused.

  “Makes sense,” Chas agreed. “Why would they use a silencer when there’s very little traffic out here? This place is pretty remote,” he asked, thinking aloud.

  “Perhaps the young man who is being accosted by the detective might have something to do with it?” the coroner asked.

  “No, he was only out here because he walks my wife’s dogs. We live a couple of miles up the road from here, and there aren’t any other houses in between this place and ours,” Chas explained.

  “A swab of his hands might be useful nonetheless,” Tim shrugged.

  “Good point,” Chas nodded. “Anything stand out to you from the scene?”

  “One has to wonder why the perpetrator would leave a living witness.”

  “I was wondering that too. I’m coming back tomorrow to question the wife again. We’ll see if her versions line up.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  * * *

  “Trouble seems to follow you like a hungry dog, Miss Missy,” Beulah shook her head as she rinsed a frosting bowl.

  “It is strange,” Missy agreed, shaking cinnamon on top of a batch of creamy pumpkin cupcakes. They’d gone over so well the previous day that she and Beulah had made double the amount that morning. “I think that it’s just because Chas used to be a detective. He hears about all of the awful things that happen in town, and somehow, we end up getting involved.”

  “They say curiosity kills the cat, you know,” Beulah gave Missy a pointed look.

  “Good thing I have nine lives then,” she joked. “I just can’t help it, Beulah. Whenever someone is in trouble, I just want to help. Like poor Thomas. He was out there innocently walking Toffee and Bitsy, and now he’s being mistreated by that nasty Detective Solinsky. If someone doesn’t step in and help, he could get in trouble for something that he didn’t even do.”

  “S’cuse me for saying so, Miss Missy, but you don’t know that young man at all. If anyone should be doing some investigating, it needs to be Mr. Chas. The man knows what he’s doing, you should leave him to it,” Beulah warned sternly. “Besides, we got to get that order together for the book club ladies, and that’s gonna take some time,” she looked up at the clock on the wall.

  “What would I do without you, Beulah?” Missy grinned at her cantankerous, but well-meaning employee.

  “Lord willing, we’ll never have to know the answer to that. Now, I’m gonna wash my hands and start putting the finishing touches on those cupcakes for the ladies, so you can take them over to the library.”

  “Perfect. These are done now, so I’ll restock the cases up front,” Missy replied, loading trays to take with her to the display cases.

  She had just set the last cupcake in place when an arrival caused the bells over the door to jangle.

  “Hi, Thomas,” Missy greeted the dog walker with a warm smile. “How are you feeling after all that excitement last night?”

  “That was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Thomas was wide-eyed. “I heard a woman screaming, so I called 911, and the next thing I knew, this really mean detective with bad breath was all up in my face. I’ve never been in trouble in my life, Mrs. Beckett. I’ve never even had a speeding ticket.”

  “I’m sure it’ll all blow over soon. In the meantime… how about drowning your sorrows in a double fudge cupcake?” she offered.

  “It can’t hurt,” the young man grinned, taking a seat.

  “Coffee, too?” Missy asked, plating the cupcake.

  “Oh, I don’t drink coffee. Do you have milk?”

  “Of course we do. Lots of folks like their cupcakes with milk. Coming right up.”

  Missy set the cupcake and the milk in front of Thomas, and when she looked up, she saw Beulah watching the two of them and shaking her head, muttering.

  “I’ll still walk your dogs if you want me to,” Thomas offered, munching happily on his cupcake. “I just won’t take them past that house,” he shuddered.

  “That would be great, Thomas. Just let me check with my husband to make sure that it won’t be a conflict of interest, since he’s investigating that case.”

  His face fell. “Oh. I hadn’t even thought of that. It’s just so crazy that I got all wrapped up in all of this just by trying to do the right thing and calling 911.”

  “I know, it’s awful, but hang in there. Chas will get it all figured out before you know it,” Missy assured him.

  Thomas’s pocket buzzed, and he took out his phone. “Oh geez. There’s an emergency at the clinic where I volunteer, so I have to go. Thanks for the cupcake and milk, it was delicious. What do I owe you?” he reached for his wallet.

  “It’s on the house. You get going, an animal needs help,” Missy shooed him away.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Beckett, I feel much better now.”

  “Good. Take care, Thomas,
” she waved as he disappeared into the Florida sunshine.

  “Mm, mm, mm,” Beulah came out of the kitchen, hands on hips, her mouth pursed.

  “He’s a nice young man, Beulah,” Missy insisted gently.

  “You might’ve just fed double fudge and milk to a cold-blooded killer,” the older woman raised an eyebrow.

  “Well then, I guess I’ll be the safe one, won’t I?” Missy challenged, amused. “Is the book club order ready?”

  “Yes, ma’am. And I’ll be helping you load it into your car in case any murderers happen to be lurking about in the parking lot.”

  Missy laughed outright at that. “Beulah, I think you’ve been watching too many movies.”

  “Nope, no way. I watch true crime stories. I know how these people think. They act as nice as can be, and then they kill you. You just ask Mr. Chas, he’ll tell you,” she replied stubbornly.

  “I’ll be sure to do that,” Missy chuckled. “Let’s get those cupcakes loaded up. Are you going to feel comfortable being here alone while I’m gone?”

  “Oh ma’am, ain’t nobody gonna get the best of old Beulah,” she cackled heartily. “I been on this earth too long to let some crazed killer take me out of commission. No sir, I’m going in my time, not anybody else’s.”

  “Good to know,” Missy nodded with a smile, and headed back to the kitchen, where her boxed order was ready to go out the door.

  CHAPTER SIX

  * * *

  “There are holes all over this case,” Spencer Bengal proclaimed, dropping the preliminary forensics report on his boss’s desk.

  “Oh?” Chas raised his eyebrows. “I’ve had my suspicions, but it’ll be nice to see what the science has to say,” he reached for the report. “Give me the highlights.”

  “No fingerprints were found at the scene, other than those of the victim and his wife. There was no sign of forced entry on any of the doors and windows, and the wife couldn’t give an exact inventory of her jewelry, so she didn’t really know what was missing. None of the electronics or other high-end articles were taken. None of the missing items that could be identified have shown up in pawn shops.”