A Chili Death: A Classic Diner Mystery by Jessica Beck Page B

sheriff said.  “Believe it or not, I’ve been doing this for a long time, a great deal longer than the two of you when you decided to try to solve this case yourselves.  Let me guess.  She wouldn’t give you an answer, would she?”
    “She was about to when you barged in,” Moose said.
    “That’s not entirely the truth,” I said, and my grandfather glared at me. 
    “We don’t know that she wasn’t about to spill it all, Victoria, and you know it.”
    “Do you honestly think that she was going to tell us anything?”
    Moose just shrugged.  “You never know.”
    “Maybe not, but I have a pretty good idea.”
    The sheriff stepped between us.  “I told you that you could dig into this as long as you both stayed out of my way.  What happened to that promise you made?”
    “Hang on,” I said, shifting gears immediately.  “How were we supposed to know what you were up to?  Send us your schedule, and we’ll do our best to avoid you in the future.”
    Moose liked that, and he grinned at me and added a wink.  I didn’t return it, mainly because I was still intent on pinning the sheriff down on his last comment.  We weren’t mind-readers, so how could we have known what he was going to do next?
    “Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” he said.  “Come on, confess.  Where have you been so far?”
    I wasn’t about to answer him right away, but Moose surprised me by telling him the total and unvarnished truth.  “We’ve been to see Francie Humphries, Bob Chastain, Cynthia here, and Hank Brewer.”
    The last name certainly got his attention.  “Are you saying that you’ve talked to Hank today?”
    “No,” Moose admitted grudgingly.  “He took off before we had a chance to corner him.  I take it that Hank’s on your list, too.”
    “He was in the middle of the pack early this morning, but I have to admit, him leaving town at the spur of the moment like that shot him quite a bit closer to the top.”
    “But he’s still behind my family, is that it?” I asked.
    “I’m not ready to release the order of my suspects.  Everyone’s a candidate in my book.”
    “Then you figured out the link between Howard Lance and the rest of us?” I asked.
    “Extortion,” he said simply.
    “He didn’t have a case, you know,” Moose said.  “It was all done fair and legal back when we all bought land from Joshua.  Howard Lance was just trying to rattle our cages a little and get someone to pay up fast before we found out that he was just scamming us.”
    “And did he?” the sheriff asked.  “I heard about the missing deed book, and how several folks don’t have receipts for buying their land.  It could easily be a motive for murder.”
    I had to give Sheriff Croft props for figuring that all out so quickly, doing it without our inside information.  “All we can say for sure is that our family didn’t pay him,” I said.
    “What did the other folks say when you asked them about it?  Were you able to get anyone’s alibi?” the sheriff asked, clearly interested in our answers.
    I went down my list.  “Francie said that she was working on cupcakes in the back by herself, while Bob claimed that he drove to Hickory and back alone without stopping to talk to anyone on the way.  We couldn’t find Hank, and Cynthia won’t tell us anything.  Maybe you can sweat it out of her, but we weren’t having any luck at all when you showed up.”
    “You’ve done some pretty good work,” the sheriff said as he nodded.  “You only missed one other potential suspect, as far as I’m concerned.”
    “I still refuse to believe that a member of my family had anything to do with this mess,” I said.
    “That wasn’t who I was talking about,” he said.
    “So, we’re not suspects?” I asked.
    “I’m not saying that, either.”
    “Then who’s your mystery suspect?” Moose asked.
    It was pretty clear that the sheriff was reluctant to name names, so I asked, “How can we keep from stepping