Six Sweets Under, page 20
“What baby?” I asked, even more baffled now.
Mrs. Lawrence didn’t seem to hear me. The other customers had come over to the display case with Angie, and her attention flicked their way.
She grabbed her credit card and tapped it to pay for the chocolates. “We’ll say no more about it. Thank you so much, dear.”
I remembered to slide her receipt into the bag just before she grabbed it off the counter and sailed out of the shop.
I stared after her, dumbfounded. “A baby? What baby?”
“Sorry?” Angie said.
I realized I’d spoken out loud without meaning to.
“Nothing,” I said quickly, not wanting to share the strange conversation with the other customers.
Instead, I retreated to the kitchen, where I sent a text to Dizzy.
People have been saying the strangest things to me about my breakup with Justin, I wrote.
I knew Dizzy would be busy with work, so I didn’t expect a response right away. I got busy myself, and managed to sooth my confused brain by making more chocolates.
An hour or so later, my phone rang with the ringtone I’d assigned to Dizzy. I quickly washed smears of chocolate from my hands and grabbed the device.
“What kind of strange things have people been saying?” Dizzy asked after we’d exchanged brief greetings.
I filled her in on my baffling conversation with Mrs. Lawrence.
“Okay, that really is strange,” Dizzy said.
“And a few days ago, another woman told me I should consider dyeing my hair, and she suggested that Justin and I might still be together if I were blond.”
“Oh, right. Sawyer mentioned that one.”
“He did?” I said with surprise. “When?”
“This morning. I ran into him at Gathering Grounds and he brought it up. He was pretty ticked off that someone had said that to you, and he wanted to make sure you weren’t upset about it. I told him you probably weren’t, since you hadn’t even mentioned it to me.”
“There’s been so much going on lately that I forgot all about it until my conversation with Mrs. Lawrence.”
“Well, this is one mystery you can leave to me. I’ll figure out what’s going on.”
“Thanks, Dizzy.”
We ended the call and I got back to work.
Lolly showed up later, as I was cleaning the kitchen.
“How’s your day been?” I asked as I washed down the countertops.
“Busy but good,” Lolly replied. “I just finished my volunteer shift at the thrift shop. We had a steady stream of customers.”
“That’s definitely good.”
The local thrift shop was a community venture. It was run by volunteers and the profits were donated to local charities.
“How’s everything with the chocolates?” Lolly asked, surveying the tray of bonbons and truffles I had ready for refilling the display case in the morning.
“I’m keeping up with demand, but I’m glad you’re here. I have a couple of potential new flavors I’d like you to try.”
“Your grandfather will be sorry he didn’t come with me,” Lolly said with a smile.
“There’s no need for him to be disappointed. I’ll send some of the new flavors home with you.”
Lolly happily sampled the test batches. She loved the apple cider caramels as they were, but agreed that the pumpkin cheesecake truffles could use an extra punch of flavor. Otherwise, she wholeheartedly agreed that adding them to our product line for the fall would be a good idea.
“I’ll make another test batch of the pumpkin ones tomorrow,” I said. “Hopefully, I can get them right.”
“You will, sweetheart.” Lolly gave me a hug. “You’re a truly talented chocolatier.”
I hugged her back. “Thank you, Lolly. That means so much coming from you.”
I tucked most of the remaining test chocolates into a small paper bag for Lolly to take to Pops.
“I missed a lot of local news while I was living in LA,” I said as I packed the chocolates. “Dizzy mentioned that there’s been break-ins and other thefts on and off over the years.”
“That’s true.”
“We know Archie stole Pops’s scooter, but I’m wondering how many other thefts he might have been responsible for in recent times.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he was behind a whole lot of them,” Lolly said. “A couple of young men were arrested a few years back, but many of the crimes are still unsolved.”
“Do you know who any of the victims have been in the unsolved cases?”
Lolly thought for a moment. “Sometimes it’s the summer homes that are hit, when they’re unoccupied. It’s usually things like television sets that get taken, and other electronics that people leave behind. Sometimes year-round homes get hit too, though, usually more on the outskirts of town. It seems like more items are taken in those cases, probably simply because there’s more to take. People don’t tend to leave jewelry and such behind at their summer homes when they leave at the end of the season.”
“And a lot of jewelry has gone missing?” I wanted to tell Lolly about what I’d seen at Archie’s place, but aside from Sawyer wanting to keep things quiet, I wasn’t sure that she’d be too impressed to know that Dizzy and I had gone poking around in search of clues.
“Jewelry and small electronics have been some of the items stolen the most, I believe.”
“All things that are probably easy to fence,” I said.
“But you asked about the victims. Sheryl and John Wagner had their house broken into last fall. Same with Delilah Robinson and Ellen McKellar up at Snowflake Canyon. I believe Oliver Nieminen’s cottage got hit late last year. That was probably shortly before you came home.”
“Really?” I mentally placed an asterisk next to Oliver’s name on my suspect list. If he’d gone searching for his stolen property at Archie’s cabin, maybe that could have led to a deadly confrontation.
Lolly continued, cutting off my thoughts. “Rachel Stephanopoulos had her home broken into, but I think that was a couple of years ago now. Oh, and a few months ago, during the latest rash of break-ins, one of the houses hit belonged to that nice young woman who owns the soap shop.”
“Maria Vasquez?”
“That’s her,” Lolly said with a nod. “She was a few years behind you in school, wasn’t she?”
“Yes,” I replied as I added another asterisk to the suspect list in my head, this time next to Maria’s name.
“Anyway, hopefully the truth about Archie and his death will come out before long.”
“Hopefully,” I echoed. “Pops needs to have his name cleared.”
Lolly patted my arm. “I have faith that will happen. Now, I’d better run.” She picked up the bag of chocolates. “I’ll take these to your grandfather.”
“Thank you,” I called as she left the kitchen.
Once alone, I stood in the middle of the room, thinking.
Maybe it was time to see if I could poke holes in Oliver’s alibi.
As for Maria, I needed to find out if she even had one.
I didn’t feel like I was getting any closer to identifying Archie’s real killer, but I couldn’t give up. Not until I knew my grandfather was completely clear of suspicion.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Later in the afternoon, when I was at home playing with my cats, Dizzy texted to ask me to meet her for dinner. She’d done some sleuthing and had information to share with me. I was ready to burst from curiosity, but since she was still at work, she only had time to arrange to meet me at the local pub. I’d have to wait to find out what she wanted to tell me.
In the early evening, I headed to the pub on foot. The Oar and Anchor was located toward the eastern end of Giethoorn Avenue. The timber-frame building was white with brown timbers that were so dark they were nearly black. The proprietors, Mr. and Mrs. Appleton, lived in the two-story apartment over the pub. Their son, Jonathon, had been a year ahead of Dizzy, Sawyer, and me in school. He’d left Larch Haven for college and now lived in Houston, where he worked for NASA. He was often referred to as Larch Haven’s own rocket scientist.
When I arrived at the pub, the sun was only just beginning to sink in the sky, but the lighting was dim inside the establishment, as it always seemed to be. The two front windows let in the waning daylight, but it didn’t reach the back of the pub. The dark wood of the floors, the bar, and the beams overhead probably added to the dimness, but they also gave the place plenty of character. The padded seats of the booths that lined the walls were dark red, and dozens of framed photos lined the walls. Most captured moments from local events over the years. A few featured minor celebrities who had visited Larch Haven and the pub.
I wasn’t surprised to find that the place was quite busy. Business tended to be brisk at all eateries during the tourist season, and the Oar and Anchor was popular with locals as well as visitors. I scanned the large room for any sign of Dizzy but didn’t spot her, so I claimed one of the two remaining free booths and texted her to let her know I’d arrived. She sent an immediate response, letting me know that she was only a minute or two away.
Noise behind me caught my attention. I leaned slightly out of the booth and turned to look. It appeared as though there was a party going on in the back room. Colorful helium balloons hovered by the ceiling. A young couple carrying wrapped presents entered the pub and headed straight for the back room. As I watched, Carmen greeted them with hugs and a huge smile.
“I can’t believe my sister managed to keep this a secret from me!” she exclaimed before pulling the new arrivals farther into the room and out of my line of sight.
I faced forward in my seat again, in time to see Dizzy coming into the pub. I waved to get her attention. She spotted me and hurried over, sliding into the seat across from me. We barely had a chance to say hello to each other when Nikki, one of the waitresses, appeared by our booth.
Dizzy and I were both familiar with the menu, so we ordered right away, Dizzy requesting a mushroom burger while I asked for the fish tacos. I also ordered one of the mocktails from the drinks menu, but Dizzy asked for a Bellini.
“No mocktail for me, not after the day I had,” Dizzy said as Nikki swept off to get our drinks.
“Uh-oh,” I said. “What was today’s library drama?”
“No drama. Not really. But the place was hopping. We had a parent-tot reading group in the morning, a teen book club in the afternoon, and a constant stream of patrons.” She went on to tell me about a few of those patrons who had taken up a good deal of her time with questions, complaints, and requests for assistance with research.
“Then I shouldn’t have bothered you with my strange conversations,” I said with a pang of guilt.
“No way! I’m glad you told me. I don’t want to be left out of the loop. Besides, it wasn’t hard to track down the source of the strangeness.”
Nikki returned with our drinks, so we paused our conversation. After the waitress had left and Dizzy had taken a long, appreciative sip of her Bellini, she picked up where we’d left off.
“It turns out you’ve fallen victim to the Gossip Grannies,” she said.
I groaned, knowing what that meant. “Delphi and Luella. That can’t be good.”
“It never is.”
“So they’re telling everyone that Justin dumped me because he prefers blondes?” I guessed.
“Um. Not exactly.” Dizzy took another drink.
“It’s worse than that?”
“Are you sure you don’t want any alcohol?” She nudged the drinks menu toward me.
“Just tell me, Diz,” I requested. “Let’s get it over with.”
She didn’t have a chance to do that right away. Nikki returned, bringing our meals. My mouth watered, despite my apprehension over what Dizzy had yet to tell me.
“All right,” she said once Nikki had left. “So, according to Delphi and Luella, Justin dumped you—”
“He didn’t dump me,” I protested. “It was a mutual decision to break up.”
“You and I know that, but do you really expect the Gossip Grannies to stick with the truth?”
“Sorry. Continue.” I picked up one of my fish tacos.
“Their story is that Justin dumped you because he decided he wanted to be a one-woman man.”
I almost choked on my taco. I quickly took a drink of my fruity mocktail. “Excuse me? They think Justin was cheating on me and had an attack of conscience so he decided to go with the other woman?”
“According to them, you were the other woman.”
“That’s ridiculous!” I sputtered. “Justin and I might not have been meant for each other in the end, but he’s a good guy and never would have cheated on me or anyone else.”
“Again, you and I might know that, but Delphi and Luella are telling a different story.”
I sighed, but another bite of my delicious taco tamped down my growing annoyance.
“Unfortunately, that’s not all,” Dizzy said after she’d taken a moment to eat some of her burger.
“Seriously?” I wasn’t sure how much more I could handle.
“Apparently, Justin has a child with this other woman. And you’ll never guess who the other woman is.”
“Considering that she doesn’t exist, you’re probably right about that.” My conversation with Mrs. Lawrence came crashing back to the forefront of my mind. Puzzle pieces clicked together in my head. “Wait. I can guess, after all. Tess Oosterhouse from Passion City. That’s the baby Mrs. Lawrence was talking about.”
“You got it,” Dizzy said.
“That’s completely nuts. Justin and Tess don’t even know each other, let alone have a kid together. How do the Gossip Grannies even come up with this stuff?”
“They’ve got vivid imaginations. You’ve got to give them that,” Dizzy said. “I don’t think they know the difference between fact or fiction, though.”
“With a storyline like that, they should write for Passion City.”
“Right?” Dizzy said. “Although, I suspect some of their stories would be too far-fetched even for the soap opera.”
“And that’s saying something.” I sighed again. “Is that seriously what people believe about me?”
“I doubt it. I don’t even know if Delphi and Luella believe the stories they spin, or if they churn out lies knowingly, just for the fun of it.”
“Even if they don’t believe the rumors they spread, some people obviously do. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been getting the comments I received lately.”
“The Gossip Grannies have a few followers who latch onto everything they say, but for the most part, the people of Larch Haven know full well that Delphi and Luella make things up.”
“I hope that’s true.” After I took another bite of my taco, an unpleasant thought struck me. “Please tell me the Gossip Grannies don’t use the Internet. The last thing I need is for the story to get out online. It’s one thing to have it contained to the town, but if it spreads over social media, and Tess’s and Justin’s names get dragged into it, the tabloids would have a field day.”
“It doesn’t matter what the tabloids say.”
“Maybe not, but they can create a firestorm and I’d really rather not have to deal with that.” I’d seen such things take a toll on other actors.
“I don’t think you need to worry about that,” Dizzy said, to my relief. “Delphi and Luella have smartphones, and they might be on social media, but I don’t think they have much of a reach outside their own circle. If they did, their other wild rumors would have gained more traction in the past.”
“What about their faithful followers?” I asked with trepidation. “Could they have a greater reach?”
Dizzy’s expression turned skeptical. “I’m not so sure. Their followers are mostly elderly women, and I know for a fact that at least a couple of them don’t know how to use a computer, let alone use the Internet. I’ve had to help some of them with the most basic computer tasks at the library. Mrs. Lawrence barely knows how to use a mouse.”
“I guess that’s comforting,” I said with relief. “Thanks for solving that mystery.”
“You bet, but try to forget about the ridiculous rumors. They’ll die down in time and everyone will forget about them.”
“Hopefully you’re right.”
I decided not to worry about the Gossip Grannies anymore that evening. Dizzy and I polished off our food while chatting about more pleasant subjects. After Nikki cleared away our dinner plates, we shared a decadent slice of Mississippi mudslide cake. We were halfway through the dessert when Nikki came out of the kitchen carrying a birthday cake, candles alight. She carried it into the back room, where a rousing cheer went up. Then the partygoers burst into an enthusiastic rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
“Carmen’s surprise party?” Dizzy asked once the singing finished.
I nodded as I enjoyed another forkful of cake. Thinking about Carmen’s party sent my thoughts traveling in Maria’s direction. As I was about to sink my fork into the cake once again, I paused.
“Hey,” I said, speaking barely above a whisper. “We considered that the Derendorfs might have killed Archie because they thought he was responsible for Lexi’s disappearance.”
“Right,” Dizzy agreed.
“But maybe that could be true of Maria. I was talking to Lolly earlier, and she mentioned that Maria had her cottage broken into a while back.”
Dizzy caught on. “And if she suspected Archie was responsible, she could have gone looking for whatever was stolen.”
“And stumbled upon the you-know-what,” I added.
“And she would have recognized it right away, being Lexi’s best friend.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“Hmm.” Dizzy thought for a moment before speaking again. “Could it have been Maria that we saw running from Archie’s cabin? You got a better look than I did.”
Mrs. Lawrence didn’t seem to hear me. The other customers had come over to the display case with Angie, and her attention flicked their way.
She grabbed her credit card and tapped it to pay for the chocolates. “We’ll say no more about it. Thank you so much, dear.”
I remembered to slide her receipt into the bag just before she grabbed it off the counter and sailed out of the shop.
I stared after her, dumbfounded. “A baby? What baby?”
“Sorry?” Angie said.
I realized I’d spoken out loud without meaning to.
“Nothing,” I said quickly, not wanting to share the strange conversation with the other customers.
Instead, I retreated to the kitchen, where I sent a text to Dizzy.
People have been saying the strangest things to me about my breakup with Justin, I wrote.
I knew Dizzy would be busy with work, so I didn’t expect a response right away. I got busy myself, and managed to sooth my confused brain by making more chocolates.
An hour or so later, my phone rang with the ringtone I’d assigned to Dizzy. I quickly washed smears of chocolate from my hands and grabbed the device.
“What kind of strange things have people been saying?” Dizzy asked after we’d exchanged brief greetings.
I filled her in on my baffling conversation with Mrs. Lawrence.
“Okay, that really is strange,” Dizzy said.
“And a few days ago, another woman told me I should consider dyeing my hair, and she suggested that Justin and I might still be together if I were blond.”
“Oh, right. Sawyer mentioned that one.”
“He did?” I said with surprise. “When?”
“This morning. I ran into him at Gathering Grounds and he brought it up. He was pretty ticked off that someone had said that to you, and he wanted to make sure you weren’t upset about it. I told him you probably weren’t, since you hadn’t even mentioned it to me.”
“There’s been so much going on lately that I forgot all about it until my conversation with Mrs. Lawrence.”
“Well, this is one mystery you can leave to me. I’ll figure out what’s going on.”
“Thanks, Dizzy.”
We ended the call and I got back to work.
Lolly showed up later, as I was cleaning the kitchen.
“How’s your day been?” I asked as I washed down the countertops.
“Busy but good,” Lolly replied. “I just finished my volunteer shift at the thrift shop. We had a steady stream of customers.”
“That’s definitely good.”
The local thrift shop was a community venture. It was run by volunteers and the profits were donated to local charities.
“How’s everything with the chocolates?” Lolly asked, surveying the tray of bonbons and truffles I had ready for refilling the display case in the morning.
“I’m keeping up with demand, but I’m glad you’re here. I have a couple of potential new flavors I’d like you to try.”
“Your grandfather will be sorry he didn’t come with me,” Lolly said with a smile.
“There’s no need for him to be disappointed. I’ll send some of the new flavors home with you.”
Lolly happily sampled the test batches. She loved the apple cider caramels as they were, but agreed that the pumpkin cheesecake truffles could use an extra punch of flavor. Otherwise, she wholeheartedly agreed that adding them to our product line for the fall would be a good idea.
“I’ll make another test batch of the pumpkin ones tomorrow,” I said. “Hopefully, I can get them right.”
“You will, sweetheart.” Lolly gave me a hug. “You’re a truly talented chocolatier.”
I hugged her back. “Thank you, Lolly. That means so much coming from you.”
I tucked most of the remaining test chocolates into a small paper bag for Lolly to take to Pops.
“I missed a lot of local news while I was living in LA,” I said as I packed the chocolates. “Dizzy mentioned that there’s been break-ins and other thefts on and off over the years.”
“That’s true.”
“We know Archie stole Pops’s scooter, but I’m wondering how many other thefts he might have been responsible for in recent times.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he was behind a whole lot of them,” Lolly said. “A couple of young men were arrested a few years back, but many of the crimes are still unsolved.”
“Do you know who any of the victims have been in the unsolved cases?”
Lolly thought for a moment. “Sometimes it’s the summer homes that are hit, when they’re unoccupied. It’s usually things like television sets that get taken, and other electronics that people leave behind. Sometimes year-round homes get hit too, though, usually more on the outskirts of town. It seems like more items are taken in those cases, probably simply because there’s more to take. People don’t tend to leave jewelry and such behind at their summer homes when they leave at the end of the season.”
“And a lot of jewelry has gone missing?” I wanted to tell Lolly about what I’d seen at Archie’s place, but aside from Sawyer wanting to keep things quiet, I wasn’t sure that she’d be too impressed to know that Dizzy and I had gone poking around in search of clues.
“Jewelry and small electronics have been some of the items stolen the most, I believe.”
“All things that are probably easy to fence,” I said.
“But you asked about the victims. Sheryl and John Wagner had their house broken into last fall. Same with Delilah Robinson and Ellen McKellar up at Snowflake Canyon. I believe Oliver Nieminen’s cottage got hit late last year. That was probably shortly before you came home.”
“Really?” I mentally placed an asterisk next to Oliver’s name on my suspect list. If he’d gone searching for his stolen property at Archie’s cabin, maybe that could have led to a deadly confrontation.
Lolly continued, cutting off my thoughts. “Rachel Stephanopoulos had her home broken into, but I think that was a couple of years ago now. Oh, and a few months ago, during the latest rash of break-ins, one of the houses hit belonged to that nice young woman who owns the soap shop.”
“Maria Vasquez?”
“That’s her,” Lolly said with a nod. “She was a few years behind you in school, wasn’t she?”
“Yes,” I replied as I added another asterisk to the suspect list in my head, this time next to Maria’s name.
“Anyway, hopefully the truth about Archie and his death will come out before long.”
“Hopefully,” I echoed. “Pops needs to have his name cleared.”
Lolly patted my arm. “I have faith that will happen. Now, I’d better run.” She picked up the bag of chocolates. “I’ll take these to your grandfather.”
“Thank you,” I called as she left the kitchen.
Once alone, I stood in the middle of the room, thinking.
Maybe it was time to see if I could poke holes in Oliver’s alibi.
As for Maria, I needed to find out if she even had one.
I didn’t feel like I was getting any closer to identifying Archie’s real killer, but I couldn’t give up. Not until I knew my grandfather was completely clear of suspicion.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Later in the afternoon, when I was at home playing with my cats, Dizzy texted to ask me to meet her for dinner. She’d done some sleuthing and had information to share with me. I was ready to burst from curiosity, but since she was still at work, she only had time to arrange to meet me at the local pub. I’d have to wait to find out what she wanted to tell me.
In the early evening, I headed to the pub on foot. The Oar and Anchor was located toward the eastern end of Giethoorn Avenue. The timber-frame building was white with brown timbers that were so dark they were nearly black. The proprietors, Mr. and Mrs. Appleton, lived in the two-story apartment over the pub. Their son, Jonathon, had been a year ahead of Dizzy, Sawyer, and me in school. He’d left Larch Haven for college and now lived in Houston, where he worked for NASA. He was often referred to as Larch Haven’s own rocket scientist.
When I arrived at the pub, the sun was only just beginning to sink in the sky, but the lighting was dim inside the establishment, as it always seemed to be. The two front windows let in the waning daylight, but it didn’t reach the back of the pub. The dark wood of the floors, the bar, and the beams overhead probably added to the dimness, but they also gave the place plenty of character. The padded seats of the booths that lined the walls were dark red, and dozens of framed photos lined the walls. Most captured moments from local events over the years. A few featured minor celebrities who had visited Larch Haven and the pub.
I wasn’t surprised to find that the place was quite busy. Business tended to be brisk at all eateries during the tourist season, and the Oar and Anchor was popular with locals as well as visitors. I scanned the large room for any sign of Dizzy but didn’t spot her, so I claimed one of the two remaining free booths and texted her to let her know I’d arrived. She sent an immediate response, letting me know that she was only a minute or two away.
Noise behind me caught my attention. I leaned slightly out of the booth and turned to look. It appeared as though there was a party going on in the back room. Colorful helium balloons hovered by the ceiling. A young couple carrying wrapped presents entered the pub and headed straight for the back room. As I watched, Carmen greeted them with hugs and a huge smile.
“I can’t believe my sister managed to keep this a secret from me!” she exclaimed before pulling the new arrivals farther into the room and out of my line of sight.
I faced forward in my seat again, in time to see Dizzy coming into the pub. I waved to get her attention. She spotted me and hurried over, sliding into the seat across from me. We barely had a chance to say hello to each other when Nikki, one of the waitresses, appeared by our booth.
Dizzy and I were both familiar with the menu, so we ordered right away, Dizzy requesting a mushroom burger while I asked for the fish tacos. I also ordered one of the mocktails from the drinks menu, but Dizzy asked for a Bellini.
“No mocktail for me, not after the day I had,” Dizzy said as Nikki swept off to get our drinks.
“Uh-oh,” I said. “What was today’s library drama?”
“No drama. Not really. But the place was hopping. We had a parent-tot reading group in the morning, a teen book club in the afternoon, and a constant stream of patrons.” She went on to tell me about a few of those patrons who had taken up a good deal of her time with questions, complaints, and requests for assistance with research.
“Then I shouldn’t have bothered you with my strange conversations,” I said with a pang of guilt.
“No way! I’m glad you told me. I don’t want to be left out of the loop. Besides, it wasn’t hard to track down the source of the strangeness.”
Nikki returned with our drinks, so we paused our conversation. After the waitress had left and Dizzy had taken a long, appreciative sip of her Bellini, she picked up where we’d left off.
“It turns out you’ve fallen victim to the Gossip Grannies,” she said.
I groaned, knowing what that meant. “Delphi and Luella. That can’t be good.”
“It never is.”
“So they’re telling everyone that Justin dumped me because he prefers blondes?” I guessed.
“Um. Not exactly.” Dizzy took another drink.
“It’s worse than that?”
“Are you sure you don’t want any alcohol?” She nudged the drinks menu toward me.
“Just tell me, Diz,” I requested. “Let’s get it over with.”
She didn’t have a chance to do that right away. Nikki returned, bringing our meals. My mouth watered, despite my apprehension over what Dizzy had yet to tell me.
“All right,” she said once Nikki had left. “So, according to Delphi and Luella, Justin dumped you—”
“He didn’t dump me,” I protested. “It was a mutual decision to break up.”
“You and I know that, but do you really expect the Gossip Grannies to stick with the truth?”
“Sorry. Continue.” I picked up one of my fish tacos.
“Their story is that Justin dumped you because he decided he wanted to be a one-woman man.”
I almost choked on my taco. I quickly took a drink of my fruity mocktail. “Excuse me? They think Justin was cheating on me and had an attack of conscience so he decided to go with the other woman?”
“According to them, you were the other woman.”
“That’s ridiculous!” I sputtered. “Justin and I might not have been meant for each other in the end, but he’s a good guy and never would have cheated on me or anyone else.”
“Again, you and I might know that, but Delphi and Luella are telling a different story.”
I sighed, but another bite of my delicious taco tamped down my growing annoyance.
“Unfortunately, that’s not all,” Dizzy said after she’d taken a moment to eat some of her burger.
“Seriously?” I wasn’t sure how much more I could handle.
“Apparently, Justin has a child with this other woman. And you’ll never guess who the other woman is.”
“Considering that she doesn’t exist, you’re probably right about that.” My conversation with Mrs. Lawrence came crashing back to the forefront of my mind. Puzzle pieces clicked together in my head. “Wait. I can guess, after all. Tess Oosterhouse from Passion City. That’s the baby Mrs. Lawrence was talking about.”
“You got it,” Dizzy said.
“That’s completely nuts. Justin and Tess don’t even know each other, let alone have a kid together. How do the Gossip Grannies even come up with this stuff?”
“They’ve got vivid imaginations. You’ve got to give them that,” Dizzy said. “I don’t think they know the difference between fact or fiction, though.”
“With a storyline like that, they should write for Passion City.”
“Right?” Dizzy said. “Although, I suspect some of their stories would be too far-fetched even for the soap opera.”
“And that’s saying something.” I sighed again. “Is that seriously what people believe about me?”
“I doubt it. I don’t even know if Delphi and Luella believe the stories they spin, or if they churn out lies knowingly, just for the fun of it.”
“Even if they don’t believe the rumors they spread, some people obviously do. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been getting the comments I received lately.”
“The Gossip Grannies have a few followers who latch onto everything they say, but for the most part, the people of Larch Haven know full well that Delphi and Luella make things up.”
“I hope that’s true.” After I took another bite of my taco, an unpleasant thought struck me. “Please tell me the Gossip Grannies don’t use the Internet. The last thing I need is for the story to get out online. It’s one thing to have it contained to the town, but if it spreads over social media, and Tess’s and Justin’s names get dragged into it, the tabloids would have a field day.”
“It doesn’t matter what the tabloids say.”
“Maybe not, but they can create a firestorm and I’d really rather not have to deal with that.” I’d seen such things take a toll on other actors.
“I don’t think you need to worry about that,” Dizzy said, to my relief. “Delphi and Luella have smartphones, and they might be on social media, but I don’t think they have much of a reach outside their own circle. If they did, their other wild rumors would have gained more traction in the past.”
“What about their faithful followers?” I asked with trepidation. “Could they have a greater reach?”
Dizzy’s expression turned skeptical. “I’m not so sure. Their followers are mostly elderly women, and I know for a fact that at least a couple of them don’t know how to use a computer, let alone use the Internet. I’ve had to help some of them with the most basic computer tasks at the library. Mrs. Lawrence barely knows how to use a mouse.”
“I guess that’s comforting,” I said with relief. “Thanks for solving that mystery.”
“You bet, but try to forget about the ridiculous rumors. They’ll die down in time and everyone will forget about them.”
“Hopefully you’re right.”
I decided not to worry about the Gossip Grannies anymore that evening. Dizzy and I polished off our food while chatting about more pleasant subjects. After Nikki cleared away our dinner plates, we shared a decadent slice of Mississippi mudslide cake. We were halfway through the dessert when Nikki came out of the kitchen carrying a birthday cake, candles alight. She carried it into the back room, where a rousing cheer went up. Then the partygoers burst into an enthusiastic rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
“Carmen’s surprise party?” Dizzy asked once the singing finished.
I nodded as I enjoyed another forkful of cake. Thinking about Carmen’s party sent my thoughts traveling in Maria’s direction. As I was about to sink my fork into the cake once again, I paused.
“Hey,” I said, speaking barely above a whisper. “We considered that the Derendorfs might have killed Archie because they thought he was responsible for Lexi’s disappearance.”
“Right,” Dizzy agreed.
“But maybe that could be true of Maria. I was talking to Lolly earlier, and she mentioned that Maria had her cottage broken into a while back.”
Dizzy caught on. “And if she suspected Archie was responsible, she could have gone looking for whatever was stolen.”
“And stumbled upon the you-know-what,” I added.
“And she would have recognized it right away, being Lexi’s best friend.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“Hmm.” Dizzy thought for a moment before speaking again. “Could it have been Maria that we saw running from Archie’s cabin? You got a better look than I did.”
