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

look at me.  “Victoria, don’t you think I’m capable of dealing with him myself?”
    “Sure you are, but let’s not jump the gun.  Maybe this is about something else entirely.”
    “Granddaughter, do you believe that for one second?”
    I had to admit, “No, but there’s a chance, isn’t there?  If we go into this meeting as though we did nothing wrong, we won’t blow whatever chance we have to keep at it.”
    “I don’t like keeping my head down,” Moose said, one of the biggest understatements I’d ever heard him utter in his life.
    “I’m not that big a fan of it either, but it doesn’t do us any good if we go in there protesting before we find out what this is all about.  We both need to hold our tongues until we hear what the man has to say.”
    Moose grinned at me.  “I can do it if you can.”
    “You don’t think that I can keep my mouth shut if I want to?”
    “I think you probably can.  I’ve just never seen the circumstances where you felt as though you needed to.”
    I wanted to protest, but I couldn’t.  I laughed as I said, “You got me.  Come on.  Let’s quit guessing and go find out what’s up.”
     

Chapter 6
     
    “There you are,” Sheriff Croft said when we walked into the diner a few minutes later.
    “You wanted to see us?” I asked.
    “I thought you might like to know that you can have your diner back early,” he said as he handed me my keys back.  He’d taken them the night before, promising to return them when he and his staff finished investigating the murder scene, but he’d led me to believe that I wouldn’t be getting them back any time soon.
    “You’re really done with the place?” I asked as I glanced at my watch.  It was just a little after ten, and Moose and I had two more people left to interview.
    “Why do I get the sense that you’re not happy about this?” the sheriff asked.  “I kept two men here all night examining the place from top to bottom.  I thought I was doing you a favor.”
    “You did,” Moose said as he took my keys for me.  “Great job, Sheriff.  Did you find anything while you were searching the place?”
    “Nothing that I’m ready to share with you,” he said, and then studied us both for a second or two before adding, “Should I ask you the same question?”
    “We’ve barely had time to scratch the surface,” I said.  “You didn’t rush getting the diner back to us just so we couldn’t investigate, did you?”
    “Would I do that?” he asked with a grin.  “Anyway, the place is yours.”
    “Would you at least tell us what killed him?” Moose asked softly.
    I thought for a second that he wasn’t going to answer, but after a brief moment, the sheriff said, “Somebody hit him the back of the head with a roll of frozen hamburger.”
    “Wow, that must have taken a pretty good swing,” I said, trying not to imagine what had happened, but failing miserably.  It couldn’t have been the most pleasant way to die. 
    “You’d be surprised how delicate the human skull is,” the sheriff said.
    “Well, at least the killer had to be pretty tall to do it,” I said.
    Moose and the sheriff both looked at me oddly, so I added quickly, “It just makes sense, doesn’t it?  Howard Lance wasn’t a short man by any means, so if someone hit him in the head, they had to be pretty tall themselves, wouldn’t they?”
    The sheriff shook his head, so I asked, “Why are you acting that way?  Am I wrong?”
    “Ordinarily I’d say no, but the thing is, from the angle of impact, Howard must have been leaning over to tie a loose shoelace when he got clobbered.  I’m sorry to say that anyone could have done it.”
    “That’s too bad,” I said.
    “What, the fact that someone murdered him, or that the circumstances haven’t eliminated anyone?” he asked.
    I was about to answer when his radio went off.  He answered it, and I glanced at Moose, who was grinning at me.  I’d have to ask him what that was about