The Smoking Bun (Apple Orchard Cozy Mystery Book 10) by Chelsea Thomas

Author:Chelsea Thomas [Thomas, Chelsea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-02T16:00:00+00:00

27

Fine as Frog Hair

After Amy left, Miss May, Teeny, and I decided to go over to Petey’s apartment for a quick conversation.

We needed to find out why Petey had created a flyer to hire Buck’s replacement before Buck died. And we needed to ease our way into the conversation so Petey wouldn’t feel threatened. Just like Amy had said. All we had to do was calm him down and he might open up.

So Miss May and I nominated Teeny to take the lead.

Teeny protested the whole drive over to Petey’s place. “I’m not the lead investigator here. I’m Jenna. You do the talking, May. You’re Mr. Flowers.”

“If you’re Jenna, who am I?” I asked.

“You’re right,” said Teeny. “Miss May, you’re Mr. Flowers. Chelsea is Jenna. And I’m no one. I’m their cat Mr. Piggy. Mr. Piggy doesn’t question suspects.”

Miss May smiled wide. “You’re not Mr. Piggy. You’re a valuable member of the team. Besides, you mentored Petey. Remember when he was just a slacker kid scraping gum off the tables at your restaurant? You helped him become the restauranteur he is today. He trusts you. You’ve got to lead the way.”

“Miss May is right. We need that trust,” I said. “I think if Petey did something wrong… he might open up and confess to you. But he wouldn’t confess anything to either of us. Probably wouldn’t even tell us if he had a hangnail.”

“But I feel bad,” said Teeny. “Petey was a mediocre employee. He was never thorough with the gum scraping. But he’s a good kid. Good head, good heart. Sure, he left my restaurant and opened up a competing spot. But I don’t want the kid to go to jail. I’m sure whatever Petey did to Buck, Buck deserved it. Even though Buck was a… sweet, polite gentleman.”

“Good catch,” I said, noting Teeny’s dedication to her ‘compliment Buck’ game.

“Thank you.” Teeny sat up tall. “I loved wonderful, handsome Buck.”

We rounded the corner and stopped in front of a little apartment building beside Pine Grove’s town hall. The two-story building contained four apartments. It had white vinyl siding and forest green trim. And several American flags hung in a neat row from the second story banister.

“These apartments are adorable,” said Miss May. “Pine Grove needs more apartments. What if I want to downsize one day?”

“You’re going to downsize from a hundred acre farm to a miniscule apartment?” I asked.

Miss May sighed. “Who are we kidding? I love that farm. I want to be buried there.”

“Speaking of which,” said Teeny, “any word on that disembodied foot Steve dug up on the orchard?”

“Wayne says he’s working on it, but I don’t know what that means,” I said. “Which apartment belongs to Petey?”

“Top left,” said Miss May.

I climbed out of the car with a deep breath. “Let’s see if he’s home.”

Petey opened the door wearing gym shorts and a tattered T-shirt. He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was matted with grease.

“Hi.” He didn’t manage to open his eyes all the way when he spoke.

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