The Turkey Tussle

Chapter 1 DanaLate Morning, Monday, November 2nd The outside air was crisp but not cold as we finished our walk and reached the bakery. Jef cooed in his stroller. He knew he was about to see his mama. When I pulled the door open, the smell of fresh baked bread wafted outside to tease my nose. I held the door back with my hip and pushed the stroller inside in a practiced move. Jef’s mother was edging her way between tables in the tiny dine-in area, holding a coffee pot aloft, as she refilled the cups of a table full of older women. Four well-dressed ladies had pushed two of the small, two-person tables together and were arrayed around the setup drinking coffee and eating cupcakes and muffins. After a year and a half in the area, I recognized all of them from around the village and I knew most of them by name. They were most of the group of women I’d heard Faye refer to jokingly as the ‘Matriarchs of Morelville’. All eyes turned to us as we entered. I rolled the stroller over close to the two tables the women had pushed together to share and said hello to Hannah and the group. Hannah smiled down at her son and then back at me and asked, “What brings you two out today?” “It’s just so nice out. I thought we’d take a walk before the weather turns so nasty we can’t do it anymore.” “Bring that baby on over here,” Bridget Novak commanded. “That boy needs a taste of this caramel apple cupcake his Mama foisted upon me. I swear she’s trying to make me bigger than I already am.” She patted her ample belly. I looked at Hannah. She gave me another smile and a toss of her head so I wheeled the baby around the other side of the table to Bridget. “Not too much now Mrs. Novak,” I said. “He’ll be having his lunch in a little bit.” She flipped a dismissive hand at me and started lifting Jef out of his seat as she cooed to him in a grandmother’s voice, “Let’s just get this coat off of you little man. Your mama is keeping it plenty warm in here and you won’t be needing it.” She pulled Jef into her lap and took off his coat and hat while he eyed her cupcake hungrily. “How old is he?” Selma Morrison asked. “He’ll be one in January,” I answered, before Hannah could. “Ladies, I’m so sorry to interrupt your get together. We just needed to get out of the house.” Lucy Sharpe stopped watching Bridget’s interaction with Jef long enough to respond to my apology. “Oh dear, you’re not interrupting anything at all. We were just having a nice little outing and some conversation in a place where we could all sit and talk peace without having to hear the men folk around here trying to talk and argue over each other like they do over at the restaurant.” I smiled inwardly at the idea of any conversation that the women in the gathering were having as being peaceful but I kept my thoughts to myself. They all meant well and I was aware of that. “We were actually just talking about what a huge success this year’s fall Festival was,” Selma said. “I think we have you or you and your Mama, that is, to thank for a large part of that.” “Me? No it wasn’t just me or even just us. We can’t possibly take more than a little credit. Everyone, including most of you,” I scanned around the group, “helped to make it successful this year after the fiasco we had last year.” I thought back to the death of old man Purcell and shook my head ruefully as I thought about the fact that a large part of the crowd in attendance this year, especially for the haunted house, was probably there out of nothing more than morbid curiosity to try and get a glimpse of where Purcell was murdered at the previous festival. Instead of bringing all of that up, to the ladies I said, “We did have an all new haunt this year and people seemed to enjoy it.” “Enjoy?” Bridget responded a little too loud, making Jef jump in her lap. She steadied him and fed him another bite of the sweet cake in front of them before she continued, “I just don’t get the attraction of those things! I’d be scared out of my wits.” The women around the tables laughed and nodded. “True; I don’t think my heart or my bladder could take it,” Selma said. “Well, all of that aside, the community center coffers are overflowing,” Lucy put in, “and that’s a good thing. The past year’s been a struggle, what with trying to come up with all of the necessary funds to keep the place going after our biggest moneymaker got closed down last year.” She shook her head and then took a sip from her tea cup. Hannah noticed she was getting low and asked her if she wanted a refill too. “No dear. This will do for now, but thank you.” “Is he walking yet?” Selma asked Hannah, interrupting, as she held a hand out toward Jef. “No; not yet. He...what do you call it? Cruises? He pulls himself up and walks holding on. Sometimes he’ll stand up on his own and stand there for just a little bit but he hasn’t tried taking steps without holding on to something yet.” “It won’t be long,” I told the ladies. “He’s ready. He’ll surprise us real soon, I’m sure.” Lucy reached over to him and wiped some icing off his chin as she said, “And then you won’t be able to keep up with him.” Jef rewarded her confidence in him by reaching out with a sticky, icing and caramel covered hand to grasp hers. Hannah moved fast but Bridget had already caught his arm up by the time she reached out for him. “Here,” she said to the older woman, “let me just take him into the restroom for a minute and get him cleaned up before he finger paints on you...on all of you.” She whisked him up out of Bridget’s lap like he weighed nothing and carried him toward the little restroom my dad and Jesse Crane had put in for customers to keep Hannah and her little shop all nice and legal. “Pull up a chair and join us,” Lucy said. “Thanks; that is, if the others don’t mind?” Selma reached around to the two-seat table behind her and dragged one of the chairs over beside hers without even bothering to get up. “There you go, young lady,” she said. “Have a seat and let us pick your brain for a few minutes. Humor some old women.” Tilting my head and giving her a look, I asked, “What did you want to talk about?” “I’m curious,” she said, “about what your next move is.” I raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure I follow?” “Well, you seem to be involved in so many of the mysterious goings on around the area; I just wondered what you’ve got yourself mixed up in right now?” Her look and her tone were not chastising but curious. Lucy added, “I for one think Mel should just go ahead and put you on the force. Then you could be all official, like.” There were nods around the table. “Oh, no no!” I begged off as I settled into the offered chair. “I’m completely done with investigating crimes.” I rubbed my left thigh self-consciously as I told them, “I’ve tried but I just can’t do the actual leg work...the physical stuff I need to be able to do.” “You’re sure?” Lucy asked as she studied my face. I gave her a half smile and nodded. “I’m Positive. It’s just too much.” “So what will you do instead? I mean, I don’t mean to pry dear, but you hardly seem like the type to lie about and do nothing.” I had to smile and nod at that too. “There’s Jef, of course. I help as much as I can with him...when I can get him away from my Mama and Faye and the Hershbergers...” Marsha Pugh, the oldest member of their group and quiet until then, joined in. “Doesn’t sound to me like you have him all that much then.” She waved a hand back over her shoulder, “His little mommy there is very involved with him too.” “True,” I said as I grinned inwardly at the old woman’s feisty nature, “but she has this shop and then there’s culinary school three nights a week. I do have him some and I’m not complaining at all. Actually,” I said as I watched Hannah and Jef emerge from the restroom, “in the quiet moments, when he’s down for a nap, I’ve been writing again...or, at least, trying to.” “Ooo!” Lucy clapped her hands together. “Have you been writing mysteries?” I just love a good whodunit!” “Uh, well, I tried,” I admitted, “but it seems I’m not cut out for fiction. I’m not much of a storyteller...I suppose because I’ve written too many reports in my lifetime. I’ve just always wanted to write.” “Well how about true crime, then?” Bridget said. “Write up some of your old cases...if you’re allowed to, that is.” Eyes lit up around the table. “Yeah; could you do that?” Marsha asked. “Some of them, yes. The ones that are closed with convictions or maybe even some of the older unsolved ones. I’d actually given some thought to that.” “Cold cases!” Lucy’s excitement was palpable and we all laughed. “One thing I do love about police type work is doing the research,” I said. “There’s a lot of detective work that doesn’t involve leaving your desk. I could research old cases and write those stories up.” As I talked, Hannah came out of the restroom and moved into the open area in front of her counter where she put Jef down on his feet. She held his little hands as he waddled his way over to the display case and peered inside. “He wants a cookie,” Bridget called out. Hannah smiled demurely at her customer and reminded her that he’d already polished off half her cupcake. “So, what case are you going to work on first?” Lucy asked, picking up where we’d left off. “Anything we may have heard of?” Selma asked before I could even frame an answer, “What about local stuff; delving into old crimes from around here?” Lucy nodded her head vigorously. “I’m not just an antiques dealer you know? I’m also the local historian. There’s lots of colorful history you can sink your teeth into from right around here.” “I remember Mama mentioning that you were involved in some of the research on the Old Opera House when they were working on getting it on the National Register.” “Yes, I did help out with that but I’m talking about the lore...the good stuff. Like, during prohibition when all the moonshining started around here and all of the stuff surrounding that.” My heart skipped a beat. “I don’t know that I want to get too involved in digging into the moonshine trade around here. I found out the hard way that it’s still an ongoing concern.” I rubbed along my left leg again. I’d been shot in a firefight and later, after multiple surgeries to remove the bullet fragments and repair my wounds, I’d been abducted by illegal moonshiners and held captive in cramped quarters. I wasn’t up for tangling in all of that mess again. “Hmm,” Lucy said. “Well, there’s always all the fights over oil rights and such. Some of that stuff got downright nasty back in the day.” Bridget leaned across the table then, towards me. “She’s not kidding there. Why, now that I think about it, there was even a murder that was never solved that involved your mother-in-law’s family.” “The Cranes? Over oil?” “No, before that. When she was a Lafferty. A man was murdered back in the seventies right there in the house they lived in.” “At Thanksgiving, with a house full of people,” Lucy added. “I don’t know that it was necessarily over oil though.” I was shocked but definitely interested in hearing more. I felt like I knew all about the Cranes but I didn’t know anything about the Laffertys. Other than Faye’s brother Brian and his family, I’d never met any of them and no one ever talked about them. “What can you tell me about the murder?” Selma started to speak but Hannah waved a hand in the air and then led Jef away from the case and back toward me, shaking her head no, slightly.