Cast Iron Suspicion Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: Pat

  Chapter 2: Annie

  Chapter 3: Pat

  Chapter 4: Annie

  Chapter 5: Pat

  Chapter 6: Annie

  Chapter 7: Pat

  Chapter 8: Annie

  Chapter 9: Pat

  Chapter 10: Annie

  Chapter 11: Pat

  Chapter 12: Annie

  Chapter 13: Pat

  Chapter 14: Annie

  Chapter 15: Pat

  Chapter 16: Annie

  Chapter 17: Pat

  Chapter 18: Annie

  Chapter 19: Pat

  Chapter 20: Annie

  Chapter 21: Pat

  Chapter 22: Annie

  Chapter 23: Pat

  Recipes

  Other Books by Jessica Beck

  JESSICA BECK

  CAST IRON SUSPICION

  THE Fifth CAST IRON COOKING MYSTERY

  Cast Iron Suspicion

  Copyright © 2016 by Jessica Beck All rights reserved.

  First Edition: October 2016

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Recipes included in this book are to be recreated at the reader’s own risk. The author is not responsible for any damage, medical or otherwise, created as a result of reproducing these recipes. It is the responsibility of the reader to ensure that none of the ingredients are detrimental to their health, and the author will not be held liable in any way for any problems that might arise from following the included recipes.

  This one, as usual, is for P and E, my reasons why.

  When Annie’s ex-boyfriend, Timothy Roberts, is found dead in his burned-out cabin, she is considered a suspect by the whole town, particularly since Timothy dumped her not that long ago. The victim’s current girlfriend, Jenna Lance, is missing, so the twins, Pat and Annie Marsh, start digging into the man’s life, and his death, in an effort to figure out who might have done it. Is Jenna a killer on the run? Is Timothy’s no-good brother to blame? Or did one of his clients decide to write him off permanently as a bad debt? As the twins struggle to figure out who closed the books on the accountant and balanced his books forever, they end up uncovering more secrets than they ever expected to find.

  Chapter 1: Pat

  Our homecoming wasn’t nearly as joyous as my twin sister, Annie, and I had hoped for after being away from Maple Crest for a few days visiting our Aunt Della. As we pulled into the Cast Iron Store and Grill parking lot after a long and tiring drive, we were surprised to find Jenna Lance and Timothy Roberts sitting together on the front porch waiting for us. My initial reaction was one of pleasant surprise, but then I noticed the dire expressions on both their faces. Why did they both look so grim? I’d started dating Jenna at the same time Annie had begun to see Timothy, and I had high expectations for both relationships.

  Unfortunately, those expectations were about to die.

  “Pat, we need to talk,” Jenna told me solemnly as I got out of Annie’s car to greet her. I’d heard that tone of voice from a woman before, though not from her, and I knew without much doubt what it meant. Whatever we’d once had was clearly about to come to a sudden and abrupt end.

  “Annie, that’s why I’m here, too,” Timothy added. They both looked as though someone dear to them had just died.

  “Do you mind taking a walk with me?” Jenna asked me. She clearly wanted some privacy to dump me, but I was in no mood to make it any easier for her.

  “The truth of the matter is that I’m kind of beat. I don’t feel much like taking a walk at the moment,” I said. It was an accurate statement, but the real reason I didn’t want to have a chat that very second was that I wasn’t all that excited about the prospect of being discarded like yesterday’s newspaper. “Can I take a rain check? How about if we talk tomorrow instead?”

  “No, I’m sorry, but this can’t wait. It needs to be right now,” she said firmly.

  Apparently I wasn’t going to get even the slightest reprieve. I was in no particular mood to be let down easy, though. “Jenna, if you’re going to dump me, just go ahead and do it. It’s not as though Annie hasn’t seen it happen to me before.” Granted, the last time it had happened had been in seventh grade, so this would be a new experience for me to go through it as an adult.

  “Is that why you’re here with her?” Annie asked Timothy in disbelief. “Are you breaking up with me, too?”

  Annie had clearly been caught off guard by this development as well. Why had the two of them chosen to end their relationships with us immediately upon our return to Maple Crest, and together, at that? There was only one reason I could think of, and I didn’t much care for it. “Hang on a second,” I said. “You two aren’t ditching us so that you can be together, are you?” I asked them.

  Timothy’s face turned instantly red, and Jenna wouldn’t even look in my direction.

  Apparently I’d scored a direct hit.

  “Seriously? You’ve got to be kidding me! How long ago did this happen? Pat and I haven’t been gone that long,” Annie said angrily.

  “When you know something isn’t right, and when something is, time isn’t that much of a factor,” Timothy said softly, clearly trying to calm her down. That was a big mistake, but I wasn’t in the mood to help him out with my sister.

  “And you’re saying that we weren’t right?” Annie asked fiercely. “That wasn’t your attitude just before we left town, or do I need to remind you?”

  “That won’t be necessary; there’s nothing wrong with my memory,” Timothy said sternly. That was the wrong thing to do as well, but again, I didn’t say a word. I had my own problems.

  “I still can’t believe this is happening,” I said, having a hard time grasping the concept that our significant others had fallen for each other, and so quickly.

  “When you two left to help your aunt, Timothy and I decided to have dinner together, just to keep each other company while you were gone,” Jenna explained in near tears. I couldn’t blame her. I wasn’t too pleased about the situation, either. “Something clicked between us instantly, and we knew that we belonged together from that moment on. Neither one of us meant to hurt you.”

  “Well, it’s a little too late to start worrying about that now, isn’t it?” Annie asked. “You know what? I don’t see any reason at all to continue this conversation. I’m going home. Pat, I’ll see you in the morning,” my sister added as she stomped off toward her vehicle.

  “Hang on, Annie. Can’t we at least discuss this like adults?” Timothy asked her. “You know as well as I do that we haven’t been dating all that long, and besides, sometimes these things just happen.”

  My twin sister gave him a sour look before she spoke. “I get it, Timothy,” she said. “We’re through. Why in the world would I want to talk about it any more than we already have?”

  “I just don’t want things to be awkward between us going forward,” he said.

  Annie shot him a grin that had no joy in it whatsoever. “Good luck with that, and be sure to let me know how it goes on your end.”

  “So, does that mean that we can’t be friends?” he asked.
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  “What do you think?” she replied. “I don’t know how Pat feels, but I’ve already got plenty of friends. I don’t need any more at the moment, but I’ll keep you in mind if a slot opens up. How does that sound? Friends,” she repeated with a snort of derision.

  “Do you feel that way, too, Pat?” Jenna asked me.

  “I do. I agree with my sister,” I said as I grabbed my bag and pulled out my keys to the Iron. “Thanks for stopping by and letting us know, but there’s no reason to continue this conversation. Your minds are obviously made up. Good luck to you both.” The last bit was thrown in without any real sincerity behind it, and what was more, everyone present knew it.

  “Pat, don’t be that way,” Jenna pled.

  “Sorry, but at the moment, it’s the best I can do.”

  “Come on, Jenna. Let’s go,” Timothy said as he gently took her hand in his. I felt a stab of jealousy at how comfortably he did it, and how readily she accepted the gesture. “I told you this was a bad idea,” he added softly. So that explained why only Timothy’s truck had been in the parking lot when we’d arrived. Naturally the two of them had come together to cut us loose.

  Annie shook her head when she saw the gesture, whether in anger or disgust I couldn’t tell, and she got into her Subaru and drove away. As she left, she kicked up a bit of gravel on the way out, but who could blame her for wanting to get out of there as quickly as she could?

  “Well, at least you were right about it being a bad idea,” I said as I retreated into the store and locked the door behind me. I couldn’t stop them from coming back to the Iron the next day, but I could keep them out for now, and at the moment, that was all that I cared about.

  I had taken four steps inside the Grill when my cell phone rang. I half expected it to be Jenna, a call that I wasn’t about to answer, but it was Annie instead. “Hey, sis.”

  Without preamble, she asked me, “Pat, did you see that coming?”

  “No, I was just as blindsided as you were,” I admitted. “Are you okay?”

  “I was about to ask you the exact same thing,” she said. “Everyone knows that you’re the more sensitive one of us.”

  “Who thinks that?” I asked, though after giving it a moment’s thought, I knew that it was probably true. It wasn’t that my sister didn’t have a heart; it was just that I tended to wear mine on my sleeve, whereas she’d been known to bury her emotions instead of displaying them for the whole world to see.

  “Everybody,” she said. “The real question is what are we going to do about it?”

  “Annie, there’s nothing we can do,” I said. “If they don’t want to be with us, do we really want them in our lives?”

  There was a long pause on the other end before she answered. “No. Of course not. For a second there I had the stupid notion that Timothy was worth fighting for, but you’re right. Even if I got him back, things would never be the same between us again.”

  “Sis, maybe in the long run, this is best for everyone,” I said.

  “In what world could that possibly be true?” she asked me.

  “Think about it. It could have been much worse. What if we’d married them, and then they’d discovered that they belonged together?”

  “Pat, excuse me for saying so, but right now I don’t want to look on the bright side of anything. I just want to wallow a bit, lick my wounds, and then deal with being rejected in my own way. How humiliating.”

  “For which one of us?”

  “I’d have to say both, in equal portions,” she answered. “At least we won’t have to see them together in our store.”

  Was she serious? “Annie, be realistic. We’re just about the only choice they have for buying a great many things without leaving town to do it, not to mention them needing to get their mail. They both have PO boxes here, or did you forget? You know as well as I do that sooner or later they’re going to come in together, so we might as well deal with it now.”

  “I’m putting laxative in their coffees if they try to order anything at my grill,” she said angrily, and then, after a moment, she laughed. “And I’ll be sure to lock the bathroom doors first.”

  “Maybe you should just think about doing it instead of actually carrying through with that plan,” I said, relieved that at least a bit of Annie’s ire was dissipating. I was hurt and angry myself, but I could control my emotions better than my twin sister could, at least to the point of not spiking anyone else’s drink with laxative, but I wasn’t sure my sister could say that.

  “I was just kidding,” Annie said a little defensively. “I would never do that.”

  “Because they’d know instantly who did it, or because it would be the wrong thing to do?”

  “Would it be horrible if I said that maybe it was a little bit of both?” she asked me.

  “No, for tonight, that’s fine. How’s this going to affect you two being neighbors?” Timothy had built his new cabin on a large parcel of land next to Annie’s with a windfall of money he’d gotten recently, thanks in good part to us.

  “We’re separated by some pretty thick woods, so I doubt that it’s going to be an issue,” she said. Taking a softer tone, she asked me, “Pat, is there something wrong with us?”

  “No. Of course not. Why would you even ask me that?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. We just got dumped at the same time in front of one another. Does that sound normal to you?”

  “Of course not, but you’ve got to remember that it wasn’t because of anything we did,” I said. “Don’t worry, Annie. We’re going to get through this.”

  “I know, but I still want to take a little time and pout about it before I’m ready to accept it.”

  “Agreed,” I said, and then a groan slipped out.

  “What was that for?”

  “I just realized that by tomorrow morning, everyone in town is going to know that we got dumped side by side,” I said.

  “Including Molly, you mean,” Annie said. Once upon a time, I’d believed that Molly Fennel was the love of my life, but she’d ended up breaking my heart. I still carried a torch for her though, no matter what my current life’s circumstances might be.

  “Yes, even Molly,” I said.

  “It will be okay, Pat,” Annie said. “We’re going to get through this.”

  “Hey, that was the exact same advice I just gave to you,” I pointed out.

  “Yeah, but I said it a lot better than you did,” she said with the hint of a laugh in her voice. “See you in the morning.”

  “Call me if you need to talk later tonight,” I told her.

  “Thanks, but I’m going to annihilate a pint of chocolate ice cream, and then I’m going to bed. I suggest you do the same.”

  “I may substitute something else for the ice cream, but I like the way you think.”

  “Good night, baby brother.”

  “Good night, big sister,” I said. Even if it was only by seven minutes, it was still true that she’d been born first, and Annie often reminded me of it. We were both close to Kathleen—our truly older sister, and the sheriff for our county—but there was a special bond between Annie and me that couldn’t be denied.

  “See you in the morning,” I said.

  “You can count on it,” she replied.

  It took us both a while to deal with what happened, but by the time a month had passed, the wounds had started to heal, and a month after that, Annie and I could see them together without cringing. It didn’t hurt that the couple had been fighting more and more lately, and everyone in town could see that a breakup was imminent.

  But before that could happen, someone up and killed Timothy Roberts at his cabin, and at that instant, everything changed for all of us.

  Chapter 2: Annie

  The night Timothy died, my nightmares had b
een more vivid than I could ever recall them being in my life. One in particular haunted me as I fought to sleep. I dreamed I was sitting waist-deep in an old crone’s cauldron, slowly being boiled alive, when I suddenly awoke to the very real sound of sirens wailing in the distance and the bitter taste of acrid smoke in the air. Something was on fire, and my best guess was that it was nearby! I immediately thought of the woods that surrounded my cabin and how dry the weather had been lately. Had some errant spark lit my land afire? After leaping out of bed, I took a moment to assess the situation before I jumped to any conclusions. True, there was smoke in the air, but it wasn’t close.

  At least not close enough.

  Not yet, anyway. The sirens were in the distance as well.

  Apparently I had a little time before I needed to start panicking.

  I glanced at the clock and saw that it was a little past two in the morning. There was a new moon in the sky that offered little help for night vision, so I flipped on the lights and got dressed quickly, pulling on my boots last and forgoing my usual tennis shoes. In the short amount of time it took me to get dressed, the sirens had grown louder. As I rushed outside, I looked around for any sign that my land was ablaze.

  No flames—or even dancing embers—were within sight of my cabin or my land.

  But the smoke was clearly coming from nearby.

  There was only one other cabin in my part of the woods, so it didn’t take any great leap to realize that Timothy Roberts’s land must be burning, perhaps even his brand-new cabin itself. Though he’d broken up with me a few months earlier and there was still a touch of bitterness in my heart toward him, it was time to put our differences aside and see if there was anything I could do to help.

  Racing through the woods toward his place would have been insanity itself in the darkness that enveloped me. I knew the forest around me better than anyone else alive, but there was just too much underbrush and other obstacles to navigate on foot in the dark. I’d considered putting in a walking path between our cabins when we’d first started dating, but naturally enough, that idea had died along with our budding relationship.