Page 30 of Merry Murder Season
Carrie sighed and shook her head. “Sorry to barge in on you. Especially on your day off, but Chris wanted to tell you something. Well, she wanted to tell Greg, but she’s concerned about how he’lltake the news.”
“Chris? What’s going on?” I felt my body tense, but I stayed leaning back, looking more comfortable than I felt. I didn’t want to scare her any more than she already was.
“Greg will throw me into jail if I tell him this. I don’t think I’d do good in jail. Chip went to jail once when we were young. He was a bit of a partierbefore he got sober and, well, drinking never worked in his favor.” Chris stared at her coffee. “I hated visiting him there. I thought everyone was watching me.”
“Chris, Greg’s not going to throw you in jail. Unless you killed Chip.” I paused, trying to gauge what Chris might be trying to tell us. “Didyou kill him?”
“Oh, heavens no. We were going to get married again. We were in a good place. I promise.” She started crying and Beth ran to get the tissue box from the bathroom. “He did love me. I know what people say, buthe’d changed.”
Carrie rolled her eyes and pushed the box closer when Beth set it on the table. “Just tell them what you told me.”
“I think this was a mistake.” Chris was sobbing now.
“Chris, it’s fine. You’re safe here. What’s going on?” Beth rubbed the woman’s shoulderas she talked.
“Chip was involved in something bad. Something illegal. He had been before, but he swore to me it was over. Then, as I was cleaning out his office, I found a notebook hidden in his desk. One of the drawers has a false bottom. He used to store money and, well, pictures in there. Pictures I’d rather not have anyone else look at. We were just playing around, but the pictures would be embarrassing.” She stopped talking and started nibbling at the coffee cake. Her face was bright red. “Of course, I was a lot younger and a lot stupider when I lethim take them.”
“Okay.” I didn’t think some racy pictures had Chris so freaked out. “What did you find inthe notebook?”
She dug into her purse, pulling out what must have been the notebook she’d found. “He kept a journal. Some of the pages are people who had a bar tab and owed him money. He’d get paid, then he’d let them run a tab again.” She opened the book and looked for a page. “Then there was this. I don’t know what it means, but it looks like Chip was holding on to something for someone. Several someones.”
I took the book and scanned the page. I turned back and found a bar tab page to compare. It listed the person’s name, the date of the tab, and a running total. It also showed dates where they’d been asked to pay and the result. Some just had cut-off written at the bottom, but most had a paid-in-full note, and then a new tab had been started, usually just a few days after the other billhad been paid.
The page Chris had pointed out had a lot of the same details. But it was all in code. Initials versus names. Drop-off date, storage fee, and initials for the other person. The description of the items just said parcel or four parcelswith dates they were picked up. From what I could see, the “storage fee” was always paid in advance for a certain period. Then a set of initials ended the line. This was more of a tracking than a running charge page. I flipped through several more and found two more pages like this. There were probably more. It reminded me of when my mom used to do layaway for my newschool clothes.
I met Chris’s gaze. “Did Chip ever say anything about the building having a safe ora hidden room?”
Chris shook her head. “No, and I thought I knew everything about the building. We always talked about turning the top floor into hotel rooms with a prohibition-age feel. Maybe even a brothel room. People pay big bucks for experience stays. We just needed to save enough money for the remodel. We had plans for the future.”
Carrie pulled Chris into a hug as she fell apart again. I flipped through the journal. Maybe Greg would know more about what was going on. All I knew was that Chip was hiding something for someone. Which was next to nothing.
But could that have been what got him killed? What was he storing? At least it was a clue. “Can I givethis to Greg?”
Chris nodded as Carrie helped her stand. Coffee klatch was over.
“Chris wanted to get this to you as soon as she found it,” Carrie said as she gathered Chris’s things. “She wants Greg to find out who didthis to Chip.”
“Could you not mention the pictures? I’ll turn over the money, but I’m going to burn the pictures as soon as I get home.” Chris grabbed my arm as Carrie walked her tothe front door.
“Chris, I must tell him, but he will be discreet. Just don’t burn them until you talk to Greg.” I followed them to the front door. If I were her, I would have burned them as soon as I found the photos. But then, I would never have let anyone take compromising shots. Probably not even when I was young and stupid.
After they left, I returned to the kitchen, where Beth was still flipping through the journal. “I guess we need to walk into town today and deliverthat to Greg.”
Beth closed the book and started cleaning off the table. “I’m always amazed at how different my life is compared to other people. Then I am truly grateful that I don’t have to deal with those issues. What was Chris thinking? If Chip hadn’t kept his word and kept the pictures to himself, it could have turned out bad for her. I can’t even think of all the problems she could have had. Being embarrassed when she told us about them would have only beenthe beginning.”
“She was young. And in love. People do strange things when they think they are in love.”
Beth shook her head. “Maybe, but I’m glad I didn’t fall in love until I was older. Even now, with our problems, I’m wondering if joining our lives will be worth it. But our issues won’t haunt me for years later.”
We decided to wander through the Castle even though Beth had visited when she’d come for our wedding. She wanted to take the second, longer tour. Since I’d never taken anything but the first tour, I was excited to go along. Then we would grab some lunch and end our day, weather permitting, reading on the beach. Greg had said he’d be home for dinner. Especially since both Beth and I would be at the book club meetingtomorrow night.
I grabbed Emma’s leash to take her with us on our walk to town. Greg didn’t mind if she was in the station. In fact, I was pretty sure that when we left Emma with Toby when we went on vacation, she spent most of her day there with her guardian. I gently placed the journal in a plastic bag and then tucked it in my purse. Hopefully, this would be the clue that Greg was looking for. And Beth could attest that this clue had come to me. I hadn’t gonelooking for it.
Unlike the research I’d done on the building that clearly stated that it had a secret room where the money and bootlegged booze were hidden from the authorities. I’d send him those articleslater tonight.
As we strolled up the hill, I was surprised that more decorations had been put out in yards and on the houses-turned-businesses that lined the street. The parking lot was nearly full and people were walking into town, excitedly chatting about what they were buying for gifts.
“I wonder if we should be open seven days a week during the holiday season,” I murmured as a group of women who were clearly together went into the first business after the parking lot.
