Good, Clean Murder by Traci Tyne Hilton

be calling my lawyers.” He shoved his way
past Jane and left.
    The blubbering man
turned and watched Vargas leave. “What does it mean?” He almost wailed as he
spoke.
    “It means that
we all need to contact our lawyers.” Walker—or Waller—stood up as well. He
nodded at Marjory and moved to the door, not seeming to notice Jane and her
carafe of coffee. “And you, my dear , had better contact your own lawyer,
because the corporate lawyer will do you no good.” He exited less dramatically
than Vargas had done.
    Jane turned to
Marjory.
    Marjory shook her
head. “Drama queens,” she huffed.
    The blubbering man
nodded at her, his mouth agape.
    “You’re the worst
of them, Fitch, I swear. How hard is it to nod your head and agree? We need to
press pause on all corporate decision-making until after the investigation of
the deaths is over and the estate has been settled.” Marjory looked over Jane’s
head at the open library door. “It’s like those men don’t even care that my
husband’s brother and sister-in-law are dead."
    Fitch swallowed
and nodded. He looked to the door but stopped, his eyes glued to Jane. “You’re
that Adler girl,” he said.
    Jane nodded. He
knew her?
    “I managed your dad’s
locations until last year.” The color was slowly returning to Fitch’s cheeks.
    “Ah,” Jane said.
He still didn’t look familiar.
    “Don’t worry about
calling a lawyer.” Marjory’s voice had gone soft. “Those men are bluffing.”
    Fitch nodded.
“Yes. All right. I won’t.”
    If he had been
managing burger restaurants for her father, Jane was certain he didn’t have a
lawyer, or the money to call a lawyer. No wonder he had been reduced to a
blubbering pile by the other men in the room.
    “Go back to work.
Business as usual for you.”
    Fitch nodded.
“Business as usual for building and maintenance.” He exited the library,
leaving Jane and Marjory alone.
    “Well…that didn’t
go as I had hoped.” Marjory stood with her hands clasped behind her back,
facing the window. “Thank you for being available.”
    There was a
softness to Marjory’s words that caught Jane off guard.
    “That’s why I’m
here, ma’am.” It was the truth, as far as it went. Jane was here, right now, to
serve a family in crisis. Or so she kept reminding herself.
    “Please clean up
this mess.” Marjory turned and waved her hand to the food that had hardly been
touched.
    “Yes, ma’am.” Jane
picked up the plates from the small tables scattered around the room and
balanced them with her empty hand. As she headed back to the kitchen she
wondered what conversation she had stumbled onto. Were the suspicious deaths
murder after all, and was someone in that room responsible? She shivered at the
thought. From what she had heard, Fitch had been invited as a yes-man, to agree
with whatever Marjory proposed. The Waller/Walker man and Vargas were
muckety-mucks in the Burger with the Roly-Poly Bun business. Would either of
them have wanted Bob and Pamela dead?
    Would Marjory have
wanted them dead?
    Jane stretched
plastic wrap over the untouched tray of meats. She had enough food to feed
herself, Jake, and Marjory for several lunches, unless the cops came and
arrested Marjory, in which case the meat would last even longer.
    Jane bit her
bottom lip. Marjory was acting like she was in charge of the family business.
Seizing control of the family business seemed like a good motive, but was it
true?
    Jane needed to
find out what role Vargas and Waller/Walker played in the business to
understand what their motives would have been. After stowing all of the food
away in the much fuller side-by-side stainless-steel fridge, Jane trod slowly
back to the library. This wasn’t any of her business, but so long as she was
hearing half conversations through closed doors, it seemed wise to attempt to
understand what was going on. And, in its own way, digging into the suspicious
deaths was sort of like serving a family in crisis. Jane