“Stella Jane would like you to come down to the station.”
“Station?” Grady’s brows furrowed.
“Is she okay?” I butted in.
“She’s fine. Piddy Satterly isn’t fine.” It didn’t go unnoticed the side-eye she gave Iris Peabody.
“Huh? I just saw her at the football game, and she looked okay to me.” I made the comment, but when I really thought about it, I’d only seen her and Elton walk in.
“Why is Stella Jane at the station?” Grady asked.
“We brought her in for questioning about someone overhearing her and Piddy fighting at the bookstore.” Angela turned to walk out with Grady following her.
“Since when is it a crime to have an argument these days?” Iris snorted.
“Since Piddy Satterly died at the hospital.” Angela’s eyes darkened. “I suggest you stay in town, Iris, just in case Piddy’s autopsy report comes back suspicious.”
Chapter 10
To say Angela’s news dulled the mood would be an understatement. The news of Piddy Satterly’s death traveled fast, and it took no time for the crowd at the diner to switch from the big football game win to the topic of death.
The rumors were flying. Then the thought of a murderer being among us set in.
“She said suspicious.” I gnawed on every word Angela had said when she had asked Grady to come to the station.
“You don’t think Grady is a suspect or anything, do you?” Julia bounced Clara up and down to get the crying baby to settle, only it was way past Clara’s bedtime, and Julia refused to leave the diner until Grady came back.
“No. Why on earth would he want Piddy dead?” I asked and watched as Bobby Peters came through the diner door and took a seat with a few of his work buddies in one of the booths.
“I don’t know.” Julia’s brows were knitted with worry.
“What about Iris?” Julia asked, with Iris nowhere in sight. “She did go into the bookstore after it closed when we were walking to the game.” It was a reminder I didn’t need.
Iris did tell me the feeling went away, which was something I thought was strange when she said it, but I wasn’t about to tell anyone what she’d said.
“No. I saw Piddy come into the football game with my own eyes, and she looked fine.” At least from where I was sitting. Granted my eyes weren’t the best at night, but she did seem to look okay.
“Maybe she had a heart attack.” Julia gasped when she saw Grady come in. She hurried over.
“You think it was a heart attack?” Mom asked and continued to work herself silly behind the counter. Even though the diner was technically closed by the hours posted on the door, she kept the coffee brewing.
It was a time of crisis if one of our own community members was dead, even if she wasn’t the most popular.
“Where is she?” Elton Satterly busted through the door.
“Who?” My dad slowly got up from the stool. “Calm down, Elton.” Dad made his way through the crowd, but Elton continued to scan over top of everyone in search of who he was looking for.
“Stella Jane Clark and Iris Peabody, both of whom would want my wife dead.” All of the sudden his eyes caught Bobby Peters, and he took off like a jet with his hands fisted, about to give Bobby Peters a good licking.
“Now, Elton, we don’t want no problems here.” My dad was like a breeze as Elton practically walked through him to get clear to the other side of the diner.
“Oh, there’s not a problem, Barry. I’m going to give him a dose of reality. He poisoned my wife,” Elton snarled.
“I did no such thing.” Bobby Peters stood up and stuck his chest out. “I’ve not talked to your wife in years.”
“Not according to Piddy on her deathbed.” Elton stopped in his tracks, jutted out a finger, and pointed directly at Bobby. “She said you stopped by after the book signing. You had something to say about that trashy book. She died of some sort of poison, and I think you gave it to her.”
“Now listen here, Elton. I did no such thing. She and I had a discussion, and I never gave her nothing.” Bobby’s jaw tensed, and his eyes grew when his answer wasn’t good enough to stop Elton.
Elton began his charge across the diner like a buffalo.
“Mom, call Angela.”
“I’m going to kill you.” Elton gnashed his teeth and continued to curl his fingers in and out of his palm like he was priming them for a good grip to sock Bobby Peters right in the mouth.
Which he did, but luckily, the sheriff’s department was practically across the street, and Angela was there in no time, though the men with Bobby Peters had already restrained Elton.
“What on earth is going on?” I tried to talk to Grady, but he shuffled Julia and Clara out of there so fast my head was spinning.
Angela had dragged Elton out to the sidewalk and told Bobby Peters to stay put until she talked to him, but not before Stella Jane Clark rushed in, trying to go unnoticed while the crowd still had their attention on the fight.
“I’ll be right back,” I told my mom and headed straight back to the steps leading up to the apartment.
“You scared me.” Stella held her hand up to her chest and jumped around when my foot landed on the last step.
“I wanted to talk to you about Piddy Satterly and my son.” I wasn’t about to let Stella Jane think she could come to Sugar Creek Gap, create a storm, and blow on out in the morning without giving some answers.
“I’m sorry. I’m waiting on the attorney for my publisher to get here before I answer any more questions. And your son told me to say that.” She pushed the key into the lock and twisted the handle.
I rushed over and stuck the toe of my shoe in the threshold of the door before she could shut it all the way.
“No, ma’am, you aren’t getting off that easy. If you don’t think you’re a suspect in Piddy’s case. . .” I continued to fuss at her while she pushed on the door with all her might. “If you don’t want to talk to me, then get your stuff and get out of this apartment.”
“You can’t do that.” She opened the door. “I don’t have any place to go.”
“Then I guess you’re going to let me in.” I stepped my other foot in the door and let out a sigh of relief when I realized I was standing in the apartment.
“I’m not going to talk to you.” Stella Jane turned and walked into the apartment.
“First, we need to discuss this little book matter. Grady already told you at the early lunch how you’ve hurt a few people in this town. Piddy being one of them. It was also noted you’d made a phone call this afternoon where you had mentioned you weren’t too fond of Piddy.”
Those were the words that made her pause and knocked her in the brain that she just might be a suspect.
“I also saw you in the bookstore when she closed it, which gave you time to slip her poison.” I had no idea where I was going with this, but I knew when I went to the funeral home in the morning during my second loop, I’d be able to pick the brain of Jigs Baker or Barron Long, whichever was there when I delivered the Saturday mail. Since it was the weekend, I wasn’t sure who was working. They switched off.