Page 11 of Merry Murder Season
“I could go through my old case files from when I was a divorce attorney and see if there’s a correlation between living together and divorcing later. Especially if there’s a statement of religious affiliation in the file.” Maybe this was an interesting idea.
Beth grinned. “Now I’ve got you stuck on a research bug. Maybe you should go back for your PhD. It might keep you from getting involved in Greg’s investigations.”
“Oh, if you solved Greg’s problem with that, you’d be his favorite sister-in-law ever.” We walked in silence for a few minutes. “Beth, do you think that Jim’s overreacting because he lost his first wife?”
“I’ve considered that. She died in a car crash. He was at work and she’d gone to the store for groceries. A drunk driver hit her. The guy had been at the bar for hours and had left just after they cut him off. He was supposed to take a cab, but he had a hide-a-key on his truck. That he remembered. I had just started working at the church when it happened. Jim was devastated.” Beth picked up a shell and then discarded it.
“It doesn’t mean that you should change your life because he’s scared though.” I picked up the shell she’d just thrown away. “Just because something bad could happen doesn’t mean you don’t live your life. Bad things happen all the time. It’s the world we live in.”
“I’m afraid if he lost me, it would break him.”
“He can’t wrap you in bubble wrap.” I tucked the almost perfect shell into my pocket. It would go into my flower bed. I added one shell to the bed every time I went to the beach. Seeing them there reminded me to take in the beauty around me. “And if he keeps trying, he’s going to lose you anyway. You need totell him that.”
As we walked back to the house to drop off Emma and collect Amanda for our sightseeing adventure, I wondered if I’d just blown up Jim and Beth’s engagement. But one thing kept nagging at me. Beth, like me, needed to be seen.
Greg had given up, mostly, trying to change me. He even used my natural curiosity as a way to gather safe information about the case. It wasn’t his fault that the garden paths he sent me on sometimes turned out to be cliff-walking trails, so to speak. In exchange, I’d learned to tell him what I was doing. Even if I thought it might make him mad.
Honesty in not just words but thoughts was important to a relationship. That was one lesson I’dlearned early.
Walking around Solvang later that afternoon, I was surprised to run into Darla Taylor and her boyfriend, Matt. She still didn’t have a ring on herfinger, but I thought it was coming sooner than she expected. Matt had his own demons, and as a guitar player for a traveling band, hewas gone a lot.
“Enjoying the sunny day?”I hugged them.
“With everyone else in a three-state radius,” Matt groused as he stared at the crowded sidewalk and streets.
“It’s Black Friday weekend. What did you expect?” Darla squeezed him toward her. “I think sometimes he was raised by wolves.”
“I was raised by wolves,” he said as he kissed the top of her head. “That’s why you love me.I’m a bad boy.”
“I like my bad boys in my romance books,” Beth admitted. She chuckled at Darla. “The real-life ones aretoo much work.”
“Hey, I resent that remark,” he joked. Then he pointed to the Dutch Girl Ice Cream Shoppe. “Who wants ice cream?”
“I do,” Amanda said. She pulled out a notebook. “Everyone tell me your favorite flavor and we’ll do scoops. But if you want a cone, let me know. I’ll go with you, and you can helpcarry it back.”
“We’ll be here.” Beth dumped her and Amanda’s bags onto a bench and sat, lifting up her feet. “That woman can shop. It’s like she has to make up for all the months she stayed homeduring chemo.”
“I’m glad she had you.” I sat down next to Beth and patted the bench next to me. “Sit and tell me what’sbeen going on.”
Darla laughed. “That’s my line. I’ve got a column to write about crime in South Cove next week and your husband won’t return my calls. I’m sure he’s got the temp lying to me about him beingin the office.”
“He’s been there or on the case since Sunday morning.” I knew Greg did his best to avoid Darla’s calls. As well as anyone from the press. “It’s horrible what happened. What have you heard?”
“Just the rumors. Chip was killed by organized crime when he didn’t pay his dues. He was sleeping with a bad guy’s wife. Or my favorite, Santa did Chris a favor.” Darla sighed after the last one. “I hear she’s broken up about his death. She loved that guy for some reason. Did you know they got married three times? Then he’d cheat on her again and she’d find out and leave him. It was an unhealthy pattern between the two of them. But she still loved him.”
“Love makes you think the bad things aren’t all that bad,” Beth said quietly.
“Well, owning a bar and being out at all times of the night isn’t healthy for any relationship. The winery is bad enough and I don’t get the hard drinkers like they do at Chip’s place. I can’timagine what it would be like if Matt and I decided to have a normal family life.” A tone of wistful ache filledDarla’s words.
“If you have kids, you just bring them along. The winery is like having a restaurant. With music.” I hoped my assessment was on target. Greg had said that the town troublemakers all hung at Chip’s or headed into Bakerstown. He liked it best when they headed out of town. “I wonder what else was happeningat Chip’s Bar.”
“You know that the Demon Dogs had to get permission to shoot in the tournament on Saturday, right? Chip had banned them from the bar last year. But Dominic, Lille’s boyfriend, talked Chip into letting them in for the night.” Darla was such a good source of information. Much of it she couldn’t use in her columns since it wasn’t a direct quote, but she alwayshad the angles.
Her next words shocked me. “I also heard Dominic had been in prison for killing a guy afew years ago.”
Chapter 5
The family and I, without Greg again, ate dinner in town, then Jim dropped me off at the house on their way back to the rental. With Greg still working, Emma and I headed out to the back porch with a notebook. Well, she went to chase rabbits out of her yard. I started writing down what I’d learned about Chip’s death and the people who were at the tournamentSaturday night.
