Shortbread and Shivers Read online

  Chapter Four

  “Why do you look like you’ve just been dragged through the mud?” Faye asked, scrunching her nose and looking at Nessa.

  Nessa looked down at herself, hoping she didn’t look unkempt.

  Faye laughed and continued, “Not literally. You look like something is bothering you, is what I meant to say.”

  “It’s been a weird last couple of days.” She told Faye about Melanie and Percy and hoped for some words of wisdom to help her through dealing with her at-war neighbors.

  “Percy is back.” Faye shook her head. “I didn’t know.”

  “Were you supposed to?” Nessa asked, wondering why it mattered.

  “Not really, there have been some rumors about where he went, is all.” Faye stuck a handful of straws in the dispenser and reached for the napkins.

  “To his daughter’s, right?” Nessa mused, opening the napkin dispenser for Faye to refill.

  “Depends on who you ask.” Faye chuckled. “But I guess that’s how things go around here.”

  “What do you mean? Why would he lie about where he went?” Nessa asked.

  “Did he tell you where he was?” Faye asked, interested.

  “Well, no. Bizzie told me,” Nessa paused, realizing what she’d said. “I don’t know who to believe about what, but I don’t understand why you’d think he wasn’t at his daughter’s house. What’s the other option?”

  “If you ask Rose over at the Wash and Curl, she’ll tell you that Percy’s lady friend broke up with him and he couldn’t handle it, so he left town under the ruse that he was going to help his daughter.”

  “Was it a bad breakup or something?” Nessa asked, not able to imagine having the desire to leave town after ending a relationship.

  “I don’t know all the details, but from what I hear, it wasn’t pretty. Anyway, none of that is the point. Let’s talk about that fence. I can’t believe she put one up. She’s the one who lives on the corner, right? It must be hard to see when you take that slight turn around to your house.”

  “Yeah. I thought about that, too. It’s going to make that turn more dangerous than it already is.” Nessa pictured her neighborhood and the turn in question. Across the street from their homes was the lake access. There were several docks there that went with each of the houses and a communal area for people who didn’t have direct lake access. It wasn’t a busy area, but even two smaller-sized cars had a hard time passing one another around that turn. Now, with the fence there, it made it next to impossible to see what was coming at you from either side.

  “I’ve only met Melanie a few times, and she seemed nice enough. I have to admit that I’ve never encountered someone so… particular about her plants.”

  Nessa laughed. “Me either. But I’m going to do my best to mind my business. She was staring at me so hard when I was talking to Percy that I thought I might have laser beams start shooting through me.”

  “Doesn’t look like you want to get on her bad side. Next thing you know, she’ll be putting up a fence to keep you out, too.”

  “Maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing,” Nessa joked. “Hey, is it quieter in here today, or is it just me?”

  She looked around, somehow only just realizing there were no customers in the building and none had come in since she’d arrived.

  “It was busy earlier, but things have quieted down quite a bit. I think there’s some event on the lake today. A boat parade or something.”

  “Oh, that’s neat. I didn’t know.”

  “Me either, surprisingly. Ranger told me this morning when he stopped by for breakfast and coffee on his way out.”

  “Where’d he go?” Nessa asked, knowing it was none of her business, but found herself curious, anyway.

  “His brother has a cleaning company, too, up in Maine. He asked if Ranger and his crew could come help. I guess it’s this huge, abandoned mall that someone bought, and they need a full cleanout before they can reopen the place,” Faye explained.

  “Wow. Well, good for him. Did he take Mavery with him?” Nessa asked.

  “Yup. And Clint, too,” Faye said, referring to Mavery’s boyfriend and Nessa’s contractor.

  “Really? I wonder why he didn’t tell me he was leaving.”

  “Was he supposed to do work on your house? I thought things were done for now.”

  “They are. I don’t know why I thought he’d have told me. I told him I probably wouldn’t have more work until the weather warms up.”

  “I think you’re just getting used to being here and being part of things. You’ve made yourself a home, and you consider these people your friends.”

  Nessa knew that was the truth. She and Ranger didn’t have the best relationship after he’d been so sure she’d only come to town to cause trouble, but she still considered him a friend. She didn’t know Mavery all that well, and Clint was only her contractor, but they, too, were her friends.

  “You’re right. They’re my people, and I guess I thought that because I’d have told them I was leaving, they should have told me, too.”

  Nessa frowned, wondering if they thought of her as a friend. Not wanting to get down on herself, she pushed the feeling away and went to the bakery case.

  “Are you having a snack?” Faye asked. “Get me one, too,” she added, not waiting for an answer. “We can sit and enjoy a treat while we wait for customers.”

  Chapter Five

  Home from work, Nessa couldn’t help but notice how the tables had turned. Usually, it was the bakery that was the crazy house with things going on all over the place, but now, it was her neighborhood. She’d barely sat down when she heard a scream come from outside. She desperately wanted to hide in her house and ignore it, but when another scream rang out, this time louder, she knew she had to investigate. Chloe was out with a friend, so it couldn’t have been her.

  Nessa ran outside, trying to pretend that she didn’t care she was in her pajamas and tried listening for it to happen again. From inside the house, she couldn’t tell which direction it had come from. She went a little way down her driveway and looked to her left to see if Melanie and Percy were arguing again but didn’t see them.

  She wondered if she was crazy, not having seen or heard anything when another scream came. Nessa ran toward the noise, ending her search in Percy’s yard. Just on the other side of the fence, near where Percy had a small garden, stood Joy, another one of her neighbors who lived a few houses away. She was screaming her head off, and Nessa ran to her side.

  “What’s wr… Oh! Oh, my gosh!” Nessa exclaimed, seeing Percy mere inches from where they stood. He was face down in the dirt, an expandable hose wrapped around his neck. She knew right away that it was him by his stout physique.

  “What do we do? What do we do?” Joy kept repeating.

  “We step away and call the police,” Nessa said, trying to take control of the situation.

  “Call the police with what?!” Joy shouted. “I don’t have my phone with me!”

  Nessa didn’t have hers either, but she could get to her house easily enough. She ran there, grabbed her cellphone, and dialed 911. By the time she was done and came back outside, she found Joy standing in Melanie’s yard.

  “What’s going on? Joy can’t seem to form a sentence,” Melanie complained, seemingly annoyed.

  “The police are on their way. I was going to stay on the line, but they said someone was right around the corner and would be here in less than two minutes.”

  “Police! What the heck for? I didn’t do anything to any of you people.”

  Nessa wanted to tell Melanie that not everything was about her when she heard sirens coming toward them.

  “Joy just found Percy. He’s…” Nessa began.

  “Dead. Percy is dead!” Joy said, falling to her knees. “I never should have said anything to him. I just know it’s my fault.”

  Nessa took Joy by the hand and led her away from Melanie. “What do you mean it’s your fault?”

  “I came
here to tell him that he has to take his boat off our land. I didn’t want to send Raymond over because they’ve been arguing all day as it is. I thought I was being helpful but now look at me. This is terrible! What have I done?!”

  Nessa didn’t quite know what Joy was talking about. “Percy had his boat on your land?” she asked, turning to look at where Percy’s boat was stored. It was in the same place that it had been when she moved into the house weeks before.

  “You’re going to find out soon, anyway. Raymond and I bought the property across the street.” Joy pointed.

  “Bought it? I didn’t know it was for sale.”

  “Well, it was, and we bought it, and Percy wouldn’t take his boat. He said that until he had proof that it wasn’t shared land, he wouldn’t do anything we asked. I came here to show him proof.”

  Nessa looked in Joy’s empty hands. “What was the proof?”

  “I dropped it when I found him. The police are coming.” Joy shrieked and tried to run off.

  “Ma’am,” Raff, the chief of police, said, walking faster to catch up with her. “Please, stay where you are.”

  As he passed Nessa, he looked at her and kept going. Joy finally stopped, and Nessa walked over to them.

  “Can someone tell me what happened?” Raff asked, looking to Nessa first. Not only had she been the one to call 911, but she’d known Raff for most of her life. He was a close friend of her family’s.

  Seeing that Joy wasn’t going to be any help, Nessa told Raff everything she knew, which wasn’t much.

  “It was my fault. I did this,” Joy said, her voice cracking.

  Nessa gawked at her. Was she seriously confessing to murder right now?

  “Nessa, can you please give Joy and me a moment?” Raff asked.

  She nodded and walked away to let them talk. Joy had said it was her fault several times now, and in most cases, that would mean Raff should lock her up and throw away the key, but Joy wasn’t exactly exuding murderous tendencies. She was in shock and didn’t know what she was saying.

  Nessa didn’t know if she should stick around and wait for someone to talk to her or if she should go home. Something about hanging out near a crime scene didn’t sit well with her, so she decided to look to see who else was around and would have questions. If she knew anything, it was the rumor mill in Lake Wilawalo, and if she could spearhead the situation, she would.

  She looked toward Bizzie’s house and didn’t see her outside. Then she looked at Joy’s house, noticing that Joy’s husband’s car wasn’t there. She couldn’t get Raymond to help with Joy, and she didn’t know his number to call and tell him that she might need his support. Nessa looked back toward Melanie’s and saw her sitting in the typical spot where she always sat, a shiny, blue rocking chair right beside her front door. She was looking across the road at a dock where a man stood watching the action.

  She had nowhere to go other than back to her house to wait for Raff or another officer to show up to talk to her. On her way home, she kept looking around and trying to listen to what was going on around her. Everything seemed so surreal.

  That is until Bizzie’s voice came screeching to a halt in her ears.

  “Nessssssaaaaaaaa.”

  She turned, seeing Bizzie coming in her direction.

  Chapter Six

  “What’s happening? I’ve been gone all day, and I come home to…” she gestured. “Whatever this is.”

  “I was just about to sit down when I heard screaming. I went outside and found Joy.”

  “Oh, no!” Bizzie interrupted. “What happened to Joy? She’s so sweet.”

  “She confessed to murder to start, but before that, she found Percy face down with a garden hose wrapped around his neck.”

  Bizzie nearly choked. “She did what?!”

  Nessa slowed down, explaining the actual story to Bizzie, and led her toward her house so they could sit on the porch.

  “Where are we going?” Bizzie asked. “You just finished telling me Percy was killed. Are you sure it’s okay that we just go hang out?”

  “We’re not hanging out. We’re respecting what just happened and not standing on Percy’s doorstep like everyone else is three seconds after he was killed.”

  Bizzie conceded. “Fine, but like… for real. What happened? You always know everything.”

  “I don’t know about that. I told you everything I know. Joy kept saying it was all her fault, and Melanie didn’t seem fazed. Then there was the weirdo I didn’t know watching everything unfold.”

  “The what?!” Bizzie shouted. “You saw someone you didn’t know watching everything, and you didn’t think to tell anyone?”

  Nessa realized her error. “In the middle of everything happening, I guess I didn’t think it was a big deal. I’d been thinking about how everyone knows everything about everyone else in town, and then I was thinking about what Joy said about the land, and I guess I didn’t keep it in the front of my mind. I need to go see if he’s still there,” Nessa said, jumping up and running to the end of her driveway. She went a little further and leaned forward before dashing back to Bizzie.

  “He’s gone!”

  “I’ll walk with you to go tell Raff while you tell me about the land thing you mentioned,” Bizzie said, rising from her chair.

  “All the docks and stuff and that big grassy area. Joy said she and Raymond bought it and that Percy didn’t believe her. That’s why she went to his house. She said she had proof that they bought it and had brought over whatever documents she had to show him.”

  “Is it true?” Bizzie asked.

  “I’m not sure. I only found that out afterward, and by that time, the police were here. It’s weird, though, right? I didn’t know anyone specific owned that land. I thought it belonged to all of us.”

  “I haven’t thought about it in years, but someone did own it a really long time ago. I remember coming here as a kid to visit friends who lived in the area. We’d go out on our boats and jet skis all the time. I remember the lady a little. She used to give us all popsicles.”

  “Well, I guess she decided to sell it.” Nessa shrugged. She looked for Raff, who was still talking to Joy. She tried to get his attention, and he held up a finger.

  “That can’t be. She passed away like two years ago. Something must have happened to it from there.”

  “I have no idea, but Joy said she had proof. I don’t know anything else.”

  “That’s helpful.” Bizzie sighed.

  “You’ve lived here longer than me,” Nessa retorted. “You must know something.”

  “I know that there were fewer issues back when we were part of a homeowners association, and everything had to be perfect. This is definitely not perfect.”

  “See. I didn’t know this was ever part of a homeowners association. Do you know what happened?” Nessa asked.

  “It dissolved over time, I guess. I was never part of the politics, but everyone seemed uninterested in keeping it going except for a select few. They settled all the debts and made sure there were no assets left, and it was over and done with. I know some people still meet up and talk about things in the neighborhood. It’s like they have their own little group, but it’s not official or anything.”

  “Who’s in the group?” Nessa asked.

  “Not a clue, but I can probably find out if you want,” Bizzie said.

  Nessa didn’t know why it mattered, but she told Bizzie to find out for her. Any information was helpful information. It might not have anything to do with Percy’s murder, but she sure wanted to know more about why a piece of land she thought belonged to multiple people in the neighborhood now belonged to only one couple.

  “Do you think Raff is ever going to be done talking?” Nessa asked. “I really think I need to go interrupt him and tell him about the guy I saw.”

  “Yes. Go!” Bizzie said, shooing her away.

  Nessa walked close to Raff and Joy, trying to get his attention. She knew it was probably too late, and she hadn’t r
eally gotten that good of a look at the guy on the dock, anyway, but she thought she should at least let him know there was a stranger nearby. Between what Chloe had told her and this, it had to mean something.

  Chapter Seven

  Nessa came home from work the next day, ready to do some work around her house. She’d done some shopping here and there over the last couple of weeks to pick up things for her house and couldn’t wait to get everything set up. The weather was warmer today than it had been recently, and it inspired her to get outside and work on her patio area. Her pool wasn’t open yet but would be soon, so making sure her patio chairs had comfy cushions and that nice outdoor rugs were placed perfectly was important to her.

  She stepped out her front door, having forgotten something in her Jeep, when she saw a row of signs stuck into the ground across the street. She got closer, seeing that each of them said either NO TRESPASSING or PRIVATE PROPERTY. The signs were along the road across the street on the land that Joy and Raymond had purchased. Nessa didn’t know why she was angry, but she was. She didn’t even really use the dock, but that was partly because it was still chilly out and partly because she didn’t have a boat. But she’d toyed with the idea of getting one, and now, she wasn’t so sure if that would be possible. She didn’t have to enter the water there, but it was about as easy as it could be. That was until it was no longer hers to use.

  Nessa looked around to see if anyone was outside putting up the signs but didn’t spot anyone at first. She turned and saw Melanie standing outside in her own yard with her hands on her hips.

  “Hi, Melanie.” Nessa waved.

  She harrumphed her reply. “I don’t think this is right. What’s with all these signs all of a sudden?”

  “Joy and Raymond bought the land. If it belongs to them now, then they have the right to put up whatever they want.”