Page 9 of Merry Murder Season
She stormed out of the dart room and Dom turned back and saw me watching. “It was a good game,” I lied. He’d been bad and Lille worse. The more he missed, the madder Lille got and the worseher darts got.
“Lille doesn’t like my new life plan,” Dom said, but he wasn’t watching me. He was staring over my head. I turned to see Chip staring back at him with malice in his eyes. “And neither do a few of my former associates. Good night, Mrs. King. It was a pleasure getting to know you, and thank you for welcoming me to your home for dinner. I haven’t had a family Thanksgiving in years.”
He walked out and Chip started talking to him as soon as he got near. Or yelling at him. The only thing was, I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Someone had just turned up the jukebox, so all I could hear was Queen as the two men leftthe dart room.
There was something going on and I had no idea what it was.
* * *
The next morning, I got a call from Carrie. She and Chris had planned on meeting at the bar to pick up the toys and deliver them to the charity’s office in Bakerstown. I was finishing off the last piece of pumpkin pie. I’d take Emma walking when Beth showed up, so I figured I had a little bit of room in my daily calorie requirements. Okay, maybe not, but whatever. It was the holidays.
“Hey, Carrie, are you already done? Did you take pictures for Darla? She said she’d put an article in next week’s paper.” I put more whipped cream on the pie.
“Where’s Greg? He needs to get down here now. We’re still in town, at the bar.”
“Greg?” Chills went through my body. “What happened?”
“Chip. He’s dead. Chris is freaking out.” She paused. “Can you get someone here? I’ve already called Doc.”
Chapter 4
After Greg talked to Carrie, he grabbed his badge and gun from the office. “I’ll be back. Can you entertain Mom,Jim, and Beth?”
“I can’t go with you,” I said, more of a statement than a question. Of course, Greg didn’t want me there and we had family in town. “I’ll handle it. I guess it’s too much to ask for Chip to have died when a keg fell or from aheart attack.”
“It’s never easy around here.” Greg kissed my cheek. “I’m sure you’ll hear it from the grapevine, so I’ll just tell you what Carrie told me. Chip was in the back room where the safe is located. Chris put the cashbox from the tournament in there last night before she left. They’d already loaded up the toys from the community center. Then she went in to get the cashbox and found Chip tied up to a chair. With duct tape, according to Carrie. She’s very good at giving a calm description of the scene. Must be her attachment to Doc.”
He paused and looked around to make sure no one was listening. “He was used as a target for steel-tip dart practice for a bit, then appears to have been tortured. The killer left himto bleed out.”
“Someone wanted something Chip had.” I met Greg’s look. “Dom’s motorcycle gang was right there. I don’t wantto stereotype…”
“Then don’t. I don’t like the Demon Dogs much. There are way too many stories about them running drugs and other things that I don’t want to even go into. But Dom was a perfect gentleman at dinner the other day. He charmed all the ladies, even with Lille glaring at him through the entire meal.” He glanced at his watch. “Look, I’ve got to go. Take the group out for dinner for me. I’m pretty sure I won’t be back until late.”
I followed him out the door and, after closing it behind me, called out, “Don’t leave me here with Jim and Beth fighting. I’ve never been good at conflict. AndJim hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you. Just have fun. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Maybe someone left their wallet on the floor or a note saying why they killed Chip and I’ll have it tied up before dinner.” He rubbed Emma’s head. “Take care of your mom. I’ll see you assoon as I can.”
Emma and I watched as Greg got into his truck and backed out of the driveway. Across the street, Deek was walking into town. He raised a hand in greeting. He didn’t have a long shift, and Sundays were usually dead, but he’d volunteered to open the shop today. I figured it might give him quiettime to write.
I waved, then went back into the house to face my assignment. Take care of the in-laws. Sometimes marriagewas hard work.
Beth and Amanda were sitting around the kitchen table. I saw Jim sitting outside on the back porch. The table was covered with jars of red, green, blue, and silver paints, baubles, and sparkles. Beth grinned at me. “It’s time to make this year’s King family Christmas decorations. Last year we did door wreaths. We’ve brought paper reindeer to decorate. These will go lovely on the fireplace mantel. We might even find a red sleigh forthem to pull.”
Inwardly, I groaned. I was horrible at crafty things. I didn’t have the talent to make something worth displaying. But this was a family activity. I couldn’t say no. Maybe later, we could head to the beach and collect shells to put in the back of my Santa sleigh. I put on a smile and looked at Emma, who covered her eyes. “Where do we start?”
After a fun—for Amanda and Beth, torture for me—afternoon, we’d voted on having dinner at Diamond Lille’s. The only full-service restaurant in town. It was homey and touristy at the same time and I loved their food. The only problem was the owner, Lille Stanley, hated me. And, after losing to Greg in the tournament, she hated all of us. Well, except Harrold. She adored Harrold. There was a story there, but I’d never heard it. Of course, it wasn’t hard to adore my new uncle. He owned and ran the Train Station, a model train store. He had even built a model of South Cove in the middle of the store. All the kids made a beeline to his store as their first stop when they arrived in town.
He was Santa without the red suit.
As we were seated, I saw Carrie bringing us water. “Hey, how did the delivery go?”
“After a rough start”—Carrie smiled as she looked around the sparsely filled dining room—“we got the toys off to Santa. Greg said he’d let us know when we can take the money. It was a good thing that we counted before we put the money into the safe or we’d be trying to prove what we made. Thank goodness we got the bar’s donation before we left last night. Chip said he wanted to sleep in, so he paid us out of the cash register. Oh, and Lille and Dom made a sizable donation as well.”
“Well, it was a lovely and fun fundraiser,” Beth commented. “And such aworthy cause.”
Carrie blushed. “It was the book club’s idea. The Cove Connection. We meet at Jill’s store every Tuesday night. You should come when you’re in town. I thinkyou’d love it.”
“That’s a great idea.” I turned to Beth. “I have the bookat the house.”
