The door swung open, and there stood Dora Lee and Stella Jane, both glaring at me.
Chapter 17
“I should’ve known it was you or someone at the salon.” I began to punch in Angela Hafley’s phone number. “Angela, you need to come to the diner right now,” I told her when she answered my call. “I’ll tell you when you get here.” I hung up the phone.
“Why do you want her to come here?” Dora Lee appeared to be nervous. “We don’t need the sheriff.”
“Come with me.” I turned around and proceeded down the hall and back down the steps. I flipped on the diner lights and started a pot of coffee.
It took a few minutes, but eventually the two young women made it down there.
“What’s going on?” Angela waltzed into the diner. She looked at the three of us.
“Tell her.” I pointed to the girls. “These two might’ve killed Piddy. If not, they probably have information on who did.”
“How do you know that?” Angela asked and sat down at the counter next to the girls.
“Because Dora Lee has apparently been funneling all the town’s gossip to Stella Jane that she was getting from the Sugar Creek Gap Nursing Home salon.” I was glad to see that got Angela’s attention.
“That doesn’t mean I killed Piddy,” Dora Lee told Angela.
“No, but it can mean that what you did made a lot of people angry.” It was like Angela was her mother and giving her a good talking-to.
“Wait, I’ve got more information.” This one was going to require a little white lie but nothing that couldn’t’ve happened. “The other day when Stella Jane got into town, my mother offered to let her stay at the apartment. I was carrying something upstairs for my parents when I overheard Stella Jane on the phone talking to someone about getting rid of Piddy.”
“Is that right?” she asked Stella Jane.
“It is, but not like get rid of, get rid of. I was telling my publicist how Piddy was angry at me for writing about the affair, and I couldn’t be signing books with someone so angry at me.” She blinked her big doe eyes, but it was no smoke screen for me. “It might’ve been a little harsh, but I wanted the bookstore to fire her or at least not have her work there while I was there, but they refused.”
“Why did you use real-life situations?” Angela was going down the path that I wanted her to to get some real answers.
“She told me she needed some ideas for a creative writing class. If I’d known she was writing a big romance novel, I’d never have done it,” Dora Lee chimed in, and I believed her, though it still wasn’t right.
“And my creative writing teacher told me it was all good stuff. Then Elsbeth had to go into the nursing home, and her bills were piling up. I knew if what my teacher had told me was true, then maybe I could get a book deal with a nice advance so I could help pay for Elsbeth’s care. Without the book, she would have nothing.” Stella Jane’s story tugged at my heartstrings, but I couldn’t show it.
“That’s why she compiled all the gossip I’d told her.” Dora Lee started to cry. During Dora’s confession, Angela had made a quick phone call and muttered under her breath. “If I’d known the entire town would go crazy, then I’d have never even gossiped.”
“I went over to see Matilda Garrson at the Roasted Bean.” Angela pulled out a small notebook from the pocket of her street coat, as she wasn’t in uniform. “And she mentioned you got coffee before the night book signing. Is that correct?” she asked Stella Jane.
“I did,” she confirmed. “I got Piddy one too. Sorta a peace offering. If you don’t mind, I need to go back upstairs and pack. I have an early flight in the morning.”
The diner door swung open, and a deputy sheriff, in uniform and apparently on duty, walked in.
“You’re not going anywhere.” Angela took in a long inhale. On the exhale, she said, “The poison was disguised in coffee according Jigs Baker’s final autopsy I got back today. The only contents in Piddy’s stomach that was fresh was coffee. I also found a box of opened mothballs in Elsbeth’s closest at Sugar Creek Gap Nursing Home the other morning when we came in to look around.”
“What are you trying to say?” Stella Jane asked.
“I’m saying that in light of all of the information brought to me, I’m going to have to ask you to come down to the station for a statement. There’s no way I’m going to let you leave town.” Angela didn’t shock me that she’d take Stella Jane down to the station. The fact Stella Jane was tied to the coffee and the poison did.
“You think I poisoned her?” Stella Jane started to cry.
“Did you and Piddy get into an argument at the bookstore?” Angela sounded confident, as if she had some witnesses.
“Yes, but. . .”
“Did she ask you why you wrote about her in your book?” Angela didn’t give any sort of time for Stella Jane to even give an explanation.
“Yes, but. . .”
“Did she tell you that she was going to sue you?” Angela continued to pepper her with questions. “And when local lawyer Tim Crouse came into the bookstore to buy a copy of your book, Piddy asked him about a lawsuit against you?”
This was news to me.
“Yes, but. . .”
“Did she also claim she could get other people to jump in on her lawsuit against you and your publisher?” Angela had really gotten some good witnesses.
“Yes, but. . .” Stella was practically doubled over and crying. She was crumbling by the minute.
“And you knew if you got sued, then all your money you earned off a book that you stole from the real-live experiences of others would be gone. Your book would be pulled, and then Elsbeth would have to go into a state-run facility because you couldn’t pay for Sugar Creek Gap Nursing home.” Angela had it all laid out.
“I didn’t. You’ve got to believe me,” she begged over and over. “Bernadette, please, please help me.” She jerked to look at Dora Lee. “Dora, tell her. You told me Bernadette was solving a lot of crimes. Help me. Please,” she begged the entire way out of the door with the deputy.
“Dora Lee, I suggest you better get on home and tell your mom what you’ve done. I’m sure she’s not going to be happy about it,” Angela warned.
Chapter 18
The next morning, my head was in a fog with the lack of sleep I’d gotten. I just couldn’t believe Stella Jane had actually poisoned Piddy. Yes, I understood Piddy wasn’t pleased with Stella Jane for writing about the affair she’d had with Bobby Peters and had threatened to sue, but did Stella Jane really have it in her to kill?
I guessed if something like Elsbeth’s financial situation happened to my parents, I wouldn’t be so sure I wouldn’t kill for them.
There was no need for me to sleep in and deliver the mail to the nursing home so I could talk to Elsbeth, or even the ladies in the salon like I’d thought before the entire scene from last night at the diner, so I got up a little earlier than normal, did my morning routine with the animals, and decided to just go to work.