A Yuletide Wallop Read online

  “Lived in town his entire life,” Lightening said with a nod. “He and I went to school together, you know?”

  “I didn’t know that,” Josie said shaking her head. He was still clearly teetering on the edge of telling his story. Verny and Cookie had sat down at the round table with him. Josie was standing waiting on the coffee to finish brewing. She was happy to spend the day reminiscing about Al, knowing that all of them had more than one great story about the man. At least, she, Cookie and Verny had great stories about him. Lightening on the other hand had a story, but maybe not what you would call a great one.

  “The question is why was he killed?” Cookie asked. The wheels were turning in her head, trying to find connections and reasons for everything. Cookie believed that like baking the world should follow a precise process that when upset, it could ruin everything.

  “We don’t know that he was,” Josie insisted. She didn’t like that everyone was jumping on the murder bandwagon.

  “So, if we can all agree for the sake of conversation, that he was murdered. Why?” Cookie said musing over the possibilities. She wanted to get to the bottom of things.

  “If you must know,” Lightening started, he was already annoyed that he hadn’t been asked to tell his story. As happy as he was to tell stories uninvited, he loved it even better when a story was requested. Josie understood why, it must not be much fun to always be talking and rarely feel like anyone was listening or wanted to listen. “Al and I were good friends all through school – one might even call us best friends.”

  “You and Al?” Cookie asked skeptically. They were all so accustomed to Lightning's general disdain for the man it was hard to imagine them ever being on friendly terms.

  “Yes, who else would I be talking about?” Lightening asked annoyed. “We went our separate ways after high school. He went to trade school and I went to study history and live the life of an academic.” He sounded wistful as he spoke, as if he were reliving his youth through talking about it. “When I returned from school, Al was struggling to get on his feet. I wasn’t doing too much better. I had been hired by the high school and I was living off a meager teacher’s salary. Trade school changed Al, he had gotten into some bad habits, gambling and drinking. He barely even looked like himself. He and Dotty were on the outs, he had no job, and I felt for the man. I really did.” Lightening paused with a sigh. “I was a fool. I lent him money – a lot of money – to get back on his feet. Enough to pay off his debts to his bookie and help him buy some equipment to start up his plumbing business. I never saw a penny of it back and he didn’t use a penny of it for what he was meant to. It was almost my entire savings, but friends are meant to be there for each other.”

  “Al was a gambler?” Josie asked, trying to imagine the sweet old man gambling and drinking. It sounded like another lifetime. It was another lifetime.

  “And a drunk,” Al reiterated. “He took the money, which was meant to be a loan and spent it all on more gambling and drink. I guess he tried to clean up his act after Dotty threatened to leave him. Went to AA, got a job and worked to pay off his debts. They’ve been fine ever since then. He even tried to make amends with me once, but I just couldn’t do it,” Lightening said with a grimace. “If he were really sorry for his actions, he would’ve paid back every cent or used it the right way in the first place.”

  “You’d never have guessed it from knowing him now,” Cookie said sadly. “Your falling out was over money?” She asked him.

  “It was a substantial amount,” Lightening defended himself. “It wasn’t just the money. It was the principal of the thing. I felt like a fool, betrayed by a man I once would have proudly called my brother.” They felt pity for Lightening. Verny and Cookie both looked a little guilty. They had always assumed the two men had fallen out over something stupid or because of something that Lightening had done. He had the more difficult countenance.

  “I’m sorry, Lightening,” Verny said with sincerity. “I never knew.”

  “I’m glad that he grew up and pulled himself up by the bootstraps, but I just never brought myself to forgive him. He had just done too much and too little all at the same time,” Lightening said with a shrug. It didn’t sound like he regretted holding his grudge. None of the three women could fault him, they all had their own grudges they tended to hold onto...not that they benefited from them.

  “If that’s truly his past, then maybe it finally caught up with him?” Cookie suggested. “He might have fallen back into gambling or got in with the wrong people?”

  “I don’t think so,” Lightening admitted. “He might have been in deep when we were young, but I doubt he got back into it. He worked hard to get out of the mess he made.”

  “A lot of people work hard to get out of their messes and then find themselves right back in the middle of it,” Verny said and she spoke from experience. Her own ex-husband had some of the same vices as Al had when he was young.

  “That can be true of a lot of people,” Cookie agreed. Josie nodded in agreement as well. “I mean, poor Dotty, I can’t imagine her having to go through that when they were young, and if he did fall back into his old ways. That must be terrible.”

  “It’s always the wife,” Verny said taking a mug from Josie. She passed out mugs to the rest of the group sitting at the table and sat down in the empty chair with her own mug of coffee. Josie rolled her eyes at the accusation.

  “Dotty is just as sweet as Al, you know that,” Josie retorted.

  “I’m telling you, it’s always the wife,” Verny insisted.

  “Are you getting that from all your soap operas?” Josie teased Verny. She was always in the middle of watching some soap opera that had been on air for longer than any show should be. “You should turn off the TV sometimes, you know?”

  “Maybe Al was seeing someone on the side,” Lightening conjectured. Josie groaned in annoyance, now that he had joined in on the wild theories. “Well, Verny’s not totally wrong, if it’s not the wife, it’s the mistress.”

  “Why would Al be seeing anyone other than Dotty? They have been together forever,” Josie replied, not that she was one to talk about the sanctity of marriage considering her own failed one.

  “They were high school sweethearts, but that Dotty isn’t as sweet as you think she is,” Lightening said with a chuckle. “She had a mean streak back then and I’ll bet you she has one still.” He leaned back as if he had just played a winning hand at poker.

  “And who might Al be seeing in this wild fantasy of yours?” Josie asked. Her face flushed at the memory of the implicating interaction she had seen between Al and Margie. She still hadn’t told anyone about it. If it did happen to be murder, she would let Gideon or Abel know what she saw, just in case it was anything more. Even Josie couldn’t deny there would be motive there.

  “What about Karen, the grocer?” Cookie conjectured wildly.

  “No, she and Tim are back on again,” Verny said shaking her head. “You know how those two are.” She rolled her eyes. Cookie sighed in annoyance.

  “Maybe he was seeing someone from outside of town?” She suggested.

  “Bah,” Lightening exclaimed. “There’s no way Al would ever even look in the direction of someone from outside of town. That’s for sure.”

  “This is Dotty you guys are talking about,” Josie said, begging for the subject to be changed.

  “When Dotty, Al and I were in school together the pair of them took a break for a little while. She was mad at him for something or other and told him to get lost,” Lightening started on one of his stories. This time, Josie wasn’t sure she actually wanted to hear it. “About a month passed and Al was heartbroken, but he knew he had blown it for real this time. A little while later he started going with Margie.”

  “Margie?” Josie asked stunned by the information.

  “Yeah, Margie,” Lightening nodded, annoyed that his story had been interrupted. “Dotty had made it clear to Al that they were over, that he had no chance of winn
ing her back. She had even started going with some football player at the school. Once she found out that Al was with Margie, she decided it was time for them to be back together.”

  “Well, sometimes you don’t know a good thing until it’s gone,” Verny said, which earned her another glare from Lightening. “Sorry,” she said putting her hands up in surrender.

  “If you could refrain,” he said with a huff. “Anyway, she dropped the football player and he dropped Margie. She was broken up about it, had a crush on Al since they were little. That wasn’t the worst of it though,” he added before he could get interrupted again. “Dotty was convinced that Margie had tried to steal Al away from her. It didn’t matter that they were split at the time, or that Al had asked Margie out. Dotty hated Margie and never gave up the opportunity to make sure she knew it.

  “A few days after Dotty and Al got back together, Dotty decided to add insult to injury.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Margie used to wear her hair in two long braids, everyday. As long as I had known her, she had them in. Until the day that Dotty took a pair of scissors to them and chopped one clean off.” The women gasped in horror, just as Lightening had wanted. Cookie even grasped her own hair in her hands.

  “That’s terrible!” Cooke exclaimed. “Margie didn’t even do anything wrong.”

  “Dotty did things like that all the time,” Lightening said. “She was sweet as a peach, as long as she liked you.”

  “I saw Margie with Al the other day,” Josie blurted out.

  “What?” Verny asked loudly.

  “Well, I’ll be danged,” Lightening said at the same time.

  “Well, I don’t know what I saw,” Josie backtracked immediately regretting saying anything. “I just saw Al give Margie a hug, that’s all. I didn’t think too much of it at the time, I mean it seemed odd, but with that story, I don’t know.”

  “I think you do know,” Cookie retorted. “Clearly Dotty found out that Al and Margie were having an affair and she killed him. Plus, you hear Al the other day, he had mentioned that he had been sleeping on the couch lately.”

  “Even if Al and Margie were having an affair, Dotty doesn’t even have the strength or ability to hit someone hard enough that it would kill them. She’s not exactly a spring chicken,” Verny replied. “And Al had said that, but he also said it was because his back was keeping him awake and he didn’t want to wake Dotty. It was sweet.” She had been on the Dotty track until now, whether she really thought the woman was innocent or if she just wanted to annoy Cookie wasn’t clear.

  “Thank you!” Josie replied. She felt exhausted by the roundabout conversation. “There was nothing going on, Dotty couldn’t and wouldn’t have killed Al,” she reiterated.

  “She could have had someone do it for her,” Cookie suggested. “It’s not that crazy, I mean there are entire television shows about wives snapping and killing their husbands.”

  “I shouldn’t have mentioned it in the first place,” Josie shook her head in annoyance. She had added fuel to the fire whether she had meant to or not.

  “You should tell Gideon or Abel about what you saw,” Verny said seriously.

  “I’m not sure I saw anything,” Josie sighed.

  “Whatever you did see, whether it was something, nothing or everything, they should know. What if it’s true?” Verny asked.

  “What if it’s nothing and I besmirch a good woman’s name and her good marriage?” Josie felt conflicted. “We all know the damage that just a rumor can do.”

  “You know that Gideon and Abel won’t let the information out of their hands. They’ll look into it and if it’s nothing, then it’s nothing.”

  “I guess you're right,” Josie conceded. “Can we make sure we keep this between us then?” She asked.

  “Scouts honor,” Cookie said raising her hand in the Girl Scout salute. Verny responded in kind and Lightening just nodded his agreement.

  Chapter Five

  Usually the Christmas decorations and Santa’s Village dominate the town news cycle after the debut of everyone’s decorations, but this time around every article seemed to be about Al’s murder. Between the elf woman’s statement and the medical examiner's findings, the death had been officially ruled a homicide. One of the few in the recent history of the town. If you went back far enough, it might as well have been the wild west, but since the town got a good scrubbing and cleaned up its act, there had been nothing like it.

  “Did you tell Gideon and Abel what you saw yet?” Verny asked Josie after picking up the paper laying on the doorstep of the Lucky Dill. Josie was fighting with the lock to get the door opened. Every winter the lock seemed to freeze, making it difficult to open in the morning. The previous day had been a wash. They had stayed closed all day and left shortly after finishing their coffees. No one was particularly in the mood to spend time around others, except for Verny who wanted nothing more than to be with Cici.

  “I haven’t had the chance yet,” Josie said pushing against the door with her shoulder. She popped through unexpectedly and nearly toppled onto the floor. “Finally,” she said grateful to be out of the cold outside.

  “You were home all day long,” Verny said not letting Josie off the hook that easy.

  “I wasn’t in the mood,” Josie said, hoping to put it to rest. “I went home and went to bed,” she shrugged.

  “You slept all day?” Cookie asked following Verny and Josie inside. Verny jumped and gave Cookie an exasperated look. She had startled them both by arriving late once more.

  “Like you never have,” Josie replied scoffing. She knew that if Cookie didn’t set an alarm she could sleep for days.

  “Yeah, but you haven’t,” Cookie retorted. Josie was always on the move and had gone to bed early and woken up early her whole life. “Are you doing okay?” She asked on a more serious note.

  “I’m fine,” Josie said dismissively. “I’ll be better once you tell me what’s in that Tupperware you’re holding.” It was a large flat tray with a lid over it, but it clearly held something delicious inside.

  “Eclairs today,” Cookie said pulling the lid off and setting them on the counter. “I wanted to make something that would take a long time, didn’t really want to think about anything other than what I was baking, you know?”

  “I wish I had a hobby like that,” Josie sighed. She had gone to bed the previous day with the hope of sleeping so that she wouldn’t have to think about Al, but it had not gone to plan. She mostly just laid in bed thinking of nothing but Al unable to ever actually fall asleep. In fact, Josie had one of the worst night’s sleep of her life.

  “It is nice to do something that takes all your focus,” Cookie agreed. “It’s why I started baking in the first place. It was a much-needed escape for me.”

  “What we were saying before you interrupted,” Verny started, giving Cookie a look. She didn’t want to let Josie get out of telling Gideon or Abel what she had seen. In her mind she had already solved the case and she was certain Dotty had done it. “Is that Josie here still hasn’t told Gideon or Abel that she saw Margie and Al together the day before he died.”

  “I’m just not sure it’s important!” Josie said, her voice an octave higher due to her annoyance with Verny. She had hoped Cookie's interruption would be enough to dissuade her, but she should have known better. Nothing in this world could dissuade the strong headed woman when she made up her mind about something.

  “Let the detectives decide if it’s important or not, that’s their job,” Cookie said in a scolding manner. Josie half hoped that Cookie would be on her side, even though she knew she wouldn’t be.

  “I guess so,” She replied under her breath.

  “What was that?” Verny said loudly.

  “I guess so,” Josie said more clearly this time. “I will tell them.” She agreed, and this time she did mean it. Verny looked at her skeptically.

  “Then go,” she said, as if to call Josie on her bluff, even if she meant it this time. “Go to the stati
on and tell them,” Verny ordered.

  “Tell them what?” Gideon asked. In their bickering they hadn’t notice the two men enter the deli.

  “Jeez!” Josie said after jumping about a foot off the ground. “You scared the daylights out of me.”

  “I hope you don’t say that to all your customers,” Abel joked. “Not exactly a warm welcome.”

  “What where you going to tell us?” Gideon asked, his curiosity was piqued. They had no leads and no idea why anyone might want to kill Al. He was probably the only person in the world that genuinely had no enemies.

  “She saw something the other day that might help with Al’s case,” Verny said giving Josie a look that made her feel like she was a child being scolded by a principal.

  “You did?” Abel asked looking concerned.

  “It might have been nothing,” Josie insisted once again. “A couple days ago I saw Al giving Margie a hug.”

  “A hug?” Gideon asked skeptically.

  “Well, it was a tight hug,” Josie defended herself. She felt foolish for bringing it up at all and angry with Verny for making her. They had convinced her it was something more than what it was and now she felt like an idiot.

  “A tight hug?” Gideon asked looking at Josie like she had grown a second head.

  “I didn’t think anything of it, but then Lightening told us a story about Dotty and Margie and Al and it sounded like there might be some bad blood between them or something. Everyone told me to tell you,” She justified herself as quickly as possible. Gideon still looked skeptical, but Abel looked like he appreciated the information. “I told you it was nothing,” Josie shot at Verny and Cookie.

  “Not necessarily,” Abel said quickly. It was his turn to earn a look from Gideon. “Any lead is something at this point,” he admitted with a shrug.