Deathly Ever After Read online

  “This might actually happen, Frankie,” she said to her dog. The terrier looked up from where she had been snuffling under one of the remaining shelves and wagged her tail. “Too bad health codes won’t allow you to come to work with me. But this place is actually closer than the nursing home is, so it will be easy for me to run home and let you out on busy days.”

  She blinked, realizing that she was beginning to think of the restaurant as something that would definitely happen, instead of a possibility. She had to take a few steps back and force herself to remember how much had to go right for everything to work out as she was imagining. There was still Jed’s voicemail to worry about, and the murder of the person who had previously been interested in the building.

  Those thoughts brought her back to reality, and she checked her watch, realizing that she was supposed to meet Alicia soon. “Come on, it’s time to go,” she said to the dog. Frankie trotted over, and Autumn clipped the leash to her collar then led the way into the back where she shut off most of the lights. She left one light on, hoping that the soft glow coming from inside the building might deter any future vandals.

  She and Frankie left the building, Autumn pausing to lock it up behind them before walking to her car. Her hand was on the door handle before she noticed that something was off. She froze for a second, then took half a step back, looking down.

  Her tires were flat. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she walked around the car. All four tires were completely flat, and in the pale film of dried road salt on the back window, a warning had been messily written.

  Stay away unless you want to end up in the garbage too.

  After making her second call to the police in as many days, Autumn waited in the parking lot by her car, shifting from foot to foot in the cold. Frankie was shivering, and eventually she ended up picking the little dog up and holding her close. She didn’t want to touch the car in case she destroyed fingerprints that the police might be able to use to track down whoever had done this. She had no doubt in her mind that it had been the killer. Who else would leave a warning like that? She was terrified that he had been brazen enough to slash her tires in broad daylight in an empty parking lot in the middle of town. Someone must have seen him, though she knew anyone driving past would be hard pressed to remember details about someone they had seen in passing for no more than a few seconds. She wasn’t holding out hope that any witnesses could help.

  This time, when the police arrived, it was only one cruiser with the lights and siren off. Holding a squirming Frankie, she told the officer what she had been doing there, and what she had found when she came out. He took photos of the car and called a tow truck for her, but told her that beyond that, there wasn’t much he could do other than to provide a police report for her insurance.

  Feeling very miserable, Autumn called Alicia. “I need a ride,” she said. “I’ll explain everything when we get to the coffee shop.”

  Chapter Eight

  Even though Autumn could tell she was bursting to ask what was going on, Alicia managed to wait until the two of them were sitting at their regular table in the coffee shop with Frankie waiting in the car to begin pelting her with questions. Autumn took a sip of her salted caramel latte and closed her eyes, letting her best friend’s voice wash over her as she gathered her thoughts.

  “I guess I should start from the beginning of the story,” she said at last. “I’ll get to the part about my car soon, but all of this started with the message Jed left me earlier today.”

  She played the voicemail for Alicia, watching her friend’s face wrinkle in confusion. When it ended, she put her phone in her pocket and leaned forward.

  “What do you think?” she asked, wanting to get Alicia’s opinions before voicing her own.

  “It sounds like he’s in some sort of trouble,” the other woman said immediately. “Either there was a family emergency, or something else is going on.”

  “That’s exactly what I thought. But why would he be in trouble? It’s Jed. He’s one of the nicest guys I know.”

  Alicia frowned. “Well, the body was found on his property, and it was someone he knew. The police always look at people the victims knew personally first, don’t they? Maybe they found some evidence that Jed was involved in his death, and Jed is skipping town before they can arrest him.”

  “You’re saying you think he might actually be involved in Dennis’s death?”

  “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t know him as well as you do. I’m just saying that by the sound of the voicemail, he’s in trouble and he knows it.”

  Frowning, Autumn sipped her coffee. She knew Jed. He was a good guy. She couldn’t imagine him killing someone, or even knowing about a murder and being okay with it. But arguing with Alicia wouldn’t do any good, and she could understand her friend’s point of view. Alicia didn’t know him as well, and if Autumn forced herself to take a step back and look at everything from the perspective of someone who was nearly a stranger, she could see how the message and his actions might make him look guilty.

  “Let’s move on,” she said as she put her cup of coffee down. Alicia nodded, and Autumn leaned forward to tell her the rest of the story.

  “What did the police say?” her friend asked once she had gotten to the part where she found her tires slashed outside of the Green River Grocery.

  “They sent an officer out, but he didn’t do much besides ask me some questions and tell me he’d get me a police report for my insurance. I thought they might dust for fingerprints or something, but he didn’t.”

  “I’m sure they wouldn’t be able to get anything useful,” Alicia said. “It’s been snowing and there’s salt on the roads, which means there’s a lot of slush, so your car’s probably pretty dirty unless you just washed it. Plus, anyone could walk past and touch it in a parking lot, so even if they did manage to lift some finger prints, there would be no way to prove that the person they belong to is the one who slashed your tires. There isn’t a security camera in the parking lot?”

  “No,” Autumn said. “At least, not one that works. There’s one over the door outside the store, but it hasn’t worked for years. I guess there’s not much the police can do, it just makes me mad that someone got away with slashing my tires in broad daylight, and writing a message that is a blatant threat and obviously refers to the murder, without anyone the wiser.”

  “I’m worried about you,” Alicia said. “Even if this has nothing to do with Jed, it must have something to do with the store. Maybe you should stay away from it until all of this is figured out.”

  “I probably should,” she said with a sigh. “It’s frightening for me, too. It makes me hate living alone. Coming home to a dark, empty house late at night with a killer on the loose isn’t exactly my idea of a good time.”

  “Do you want me to stay with you for a few days?”

  She considered it for a second, then shook her head. “Thanks, but no. I don’t want to put you in danger. Plus, I’m not going to go around poking my nose into anything. The message on my car was loud and clear, and I’m listening to it.”

  “Are you going to give up on the Green River Grocery for good?” Alicia asked. “What if the culprit is never caught?”

  “I…” Autumn fell silent for a long moment, thinking. “I don’t want to. I really think it’s the perfect place for a restaurant, and I know Jed will give me a good price on it. He’ll probably sell it for even cheaper now, not that there’s anything good about finding a body in a dumpster. But at the same time, I have to wonder if this is a message from fate or something. What if it’s just not meant to be, and I’m wasting my time? I mean, I’m happy at Asheville Meadows. I love working there, I love the people, and I love being around Nick all the time. What if I’m messing everything up by trying to open a restaurant?”

  “I think you should still go for it once the killer is in prison and you know it’s safe,” her friend said. “I want you to be careful, not to give up on your dreams. Yes, you enjoy working at the nursing home, but is it really something you’d be happy doing for the next thirty years? And is it really the best thing for your relationship with Nick, long-term? I know you’re still getting to know him, but what if you marry him in a couple of years? Then you’ll live with him, and you’ll also be with him at work all day, every day. It’s nice now, but trust me, it’s going to drive you crazy after a while. And you know, you’ll still be welcome at the nursing home even once your restaurant’s a big success. I bet Nick would let you cook there a couple of times a month if you wanted. I’m sure the residents would love having a celebrity chef come in.”

  Autumn laughed. “I don’t think I’m going to make it quite to celebrity status, but that does sound like it could be fun. Thanks, Alicia. I do want this, and I do think I would regret it if I gave up now. I just wish things weren’t so up in the air… and that I didn’t have to worry about death threats just for looking at the place.”

  “You can’t think of anyone who would want to keep you away from the building?”

  “Not really, no. The only person I can think of who might have a motive to keep me in particular away was Dennis, the guy who died. He was about to put an offer in on it, according to Jed. I don’t know of anyone else who’s interested in it.”

  “Maybe it’s not someone who’s interested in it, but rather someone who doesn’t want to see it sold at all,” Alicia suggested.

  “If you’re suggesting Jed again —”

  “Not only him. Are there any old employees who might have, I don’t know, hidden drugs in the walls or something when they worked there? Something where they could get in trouble if someone else finds it before they have a chance to get in there themselves.”

  Autumn thought about Emily doing something
like that and gave a very un-ladylike snort. “No. I can’t think of anyone who would have done that. Drugs in the walls? Really, Alicia? You read too many mysteries.”

  “Well, at least it’s an idea. Whoever’s behind all of this has to have some sort of a motive.” She grinned. “You’ve already been warned away, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have fun coming up with reasons why.”

  Chapter Nine

  Her car was out of the shop with four new tires on it by the time she had to get back to the nursing home to cook dinner. After saying goodbye to Nick and driving home for the evening, she called Jed and left a voicemail, telling him what was going on. Once she hung up and settled down on the couch with her hot cocoa, she realized a flaw in Alicia’s theory that Jed was behind all of this. He had left the voicemail saying he was going to be out of town hours before she had gone to the grocery store and her tires had been slashed. It didn’t make sense to think that he had purposely waited somewhere nearby, guessing that she would go to the Green River Grocery to look around, and then jumped out and slashed her tires to warn her away. First, if he wanted to keep her away from the store, why would he leave her a key? And second, he knew where she worked and where she lived. If he wanted to threaten her, there were much less convoluted ways to do so than waiting around the grocery store in hopes that she would show up and go in, leaving her car unattended outside.

  She should have thought of all of this earlier, when talking to Alicia, but had still been reeling from the shock and fear of seeing the slashed tires and the threatening message on her car. Her friend’s words had put a niggling thread of doubt about Jed into her mind, but now that was gone. There was no logical reason for him to have done the things that he had done if he was the killer… assuming that the killer and the person who had slashed her tires were one and the same. She supposed it was possible they were two different people, and the tire slasher and message writer was just some kid using the story of the body in the dumpster to scare people, but that was a rabbit hole she was too tired to go down. Besides, she had promised herself and Alicia that she wouldn’t stick her nose into anything potentially dangerous. It wasn’t her job to piece all of these clues together, and no matter how much she wanted to, trying to do it on her own would be dangerous.

  Autumn spent the next couple of hours watching television and surfing the internet, glad for the mindless distractions that helped to take her mind off of the Green River Grocery. She went to bed later than usual, knowing that she didn’t have to be at the nursing home until lunch time, and managed to keep from thinking about bodies in dumpsters and messages written on car windows as she drifted off to sleep.

  When she next opened her eyes, it was still dark out, and she couldn’t figure out why her alarm was going off. She was sure she hadn’t set it the night before. Irritated, she blindly groped for her phone and hit the touch screen with her thumb until the alarm went quiet. She put the phone down and rolled over, but had barely shut her eyes before the noise started up again.

  That’s not my alarm. That’s my ringtone, she realized belatedly, sitting up in bed and reaching for her phone again. She saw Alicia’s name on the caller ID and answered it immediately.

  “Hello?” Her mind was slowly becoming more alert, but her voice was still groggy.

  “Autumn, thank goodness I didn’t know if you’d be up yet or not. Did I wake you?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “What time is it?”

  “Just before five. Sorry for waking you, but you have to check the news!”

  “Hold on.” Autumn got out of bed, careful not to disturb the snoring lump that was Frankie. She walked down the hall to the living room, finding the television controls in the dim light filtering in through the curtains from the streetlight outside. “What channel?”

  “The local news. Channel six.”

  She turned on the TV, hitting the number six on the remote and turning the volume down. This early in the morning, everything felt too loud and too bright. She perched on the edge of the couch, staring at the screen. It took her brain a moment to get up to speed enough that it could recognize the building behind the parked fire trucks.

  “Oh my goodness,” she said. “The Green River Grocery is on fire?”

  “It’s not that bad,” Alicia said quickly. “At least, I don’t think it is. The trucks went right past my window, and the sirens woke me up, so I turned on the news to see if it was anything major. I fell back asleep for a bit, but I woke up to the news woman talking about a minor fire at the Green River Grocery. I don’t know if she said anything else while I was asleep, but it only took the firemen a few minutes to put it out. I just thought you’d want to know. I also wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  “I’m fine. But thanks for calling. Did they say what the cause of the fire was?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Autumn bit her lip, wracking her mind as she tried to remember everything she had done when she visited the grocery store the day before. Was there any way she could have done something that might have accidentally started the fire? She was pretty sure she had left everything exactly as it was, other than the one light she had left on to try to discourage vandals. A lot of good that had done.

  “Well, I guess I’ll try calling Jed again to see if he can tell me more about what happened. I’m sure the police would call him to let him know, even though he’s out of town. Or maybe that real estate agent he’s been working with will be able to tell me something, if I can’t get in touch with Jed.”

  “Let me know what you find out,” Alicia said. “I know I don’t have much of a stake in any of this personally, but I’m a curious woman. And Autumn, promise me you won’t go there alone again, okay? If someone set this fire intentionally, there’s no telling what they might try next.”

  “I promise,” Autumn said. “Trust me, I don’t want to get stuffed into a dumpster or burned to a crisp. I’ll be careful.”

  “All right. Sorry for waking you. I’m gonna head back to bed.” She heard her friend fight back a yawn. “Good night.”

  “Good night, Alicia.”

  She ended the call and stared at the television for a few more minutes until the news program switched to something else. She didn’t learn anything new about the fire, but the camera crew did a close up shot of the building, and it didn’t look too damaged. It looked as though the fire had started on the roof. She didn’t know enough about construction or fire to know if there might be a way for a fire to have started there on its own, but when she thought about everything else that had happened at that building over the last few days, she got the feeling that someone had started the fire on purpose.

  She shut off the TV and stood up, rubbing the back of her neck as she yawned. She was glad Alicia had called her, but now she didn’t know if she would be able to get back to sleep. She was about to turn to head for the bedroom when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Jumping slightly, she turned her head toward the window.