“I’m glad to see you brought back my stool,” I said to him as I walked down the length of the bar.
“Well, where else would I bring it?I go to work, home or here.And work won’t let me drink.I don’t want to drink at home, so that leaves here.”He waved his hands out to his sides.
He wasn’t totally joking about his life.According to both Dave and Brandy, he did actually have a wife and kids, though they seemed to be mythical creatures.Sometimes I wondered if anybody had actually seen this family of his.But every day after work, he came here before going home, and he did talk about his wife, if not necessarily with any affection.
I paused next to his stool, then took a seat beside him.
“Hey.Do you know Peanut’s brother, Cheddar?”I couldn’t really believe I was saying that sentence.
“Of course I do.”He took a sip of his beer.“Why do you ask?”
“How did Peanut and Cheddar get along?”
“They hated each other,” George said matter-of-factly.“Everyone knows that.”
“Not everyone.I didn’t even know that our town had people named Peanut and Cheddar until the past two days.Do you think Cheddar could’ve, you know, pushed Peanut over the cliff?”
George thought about that for a moment.Then he nodded.“Yeah.I think he probably could’ve done it.Except… Cheddar wasn’t at the festival.”
“How do you know that?”
“He’s a lobster fisherman.I know for a fact he was out on his boat yesterday.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I went down to the docks after the festival to get some lobster for my family, and he was down there on his boat with a huge haul of fresh lobster.He had to have been pulling traps all day for that many of those suckers.”
“Are you sure they were fresh?Maybe he had some in coolers.”
George leaned away from me, looking indignant.“Are you questioning a Mainer’s knowledge on how fresh a lobster is?”
I feigned an apologetic look.“No.No.Of course not.Forgive me.But seriously, did you say anything to him about his brother’s death?”
George shook his head.“Weren’t my place.”
“You didn’t think he would want to know?”
“I figured he’d rather have my cold hard cash more than any news I had.”
I stared at George for a second, not quite sure how to react.But from the sounds of the relationship the two brothers had, that was probably the truth.
“Thanks, George.”I waved to Brandy.“Give our friend a beer on the house.”
“Thanks, Sophie,” George grinned.“I’ll take a free beer for town dirt any time.”
Good to know.
As I drove, I considered what I had learned.It didn’t seem like a possibility that Cheddar had any involvement in his brother’s death, although it seemed that was just because he hadn’t had the opportunity.Jimmy and George seemed to think he was capable of it, but he did have an alibi.I had no way of tying anything with Peanut’s death to Nick either.So, I had to accept that he was just an unlikable guy, but probably not involved in Peanut’s death.Who apparently was also an unlikable guy.
That bothered me because I took pride in the accuracy of my intuition.But I had to admit it seemed to be off this time.I didn’t think there was any explanation other than Peanut had an unfortunate accident.It sounded like his years of drinking had finally caught up to him.
It irked me that people were saying Jack was a killer, but even that would eventually blow over.So, it was time to just visit with my parents, and apparently—according to my mother—work on being nicer to Cameron, and just let this mystery go.
As I reached the road that led up to the inn, I saw flashing lights.I pulled into the parking lot and saw an ambulance and several police cars.
So much for letting the mystery go.Now I might have a new one on my hands.Hopefully not one that involved any of the people that I loved.
I parked and jumped out of my car, scanning the faces scattered around the lawn, watching the emergency crew.I spotted Oliver and Henry standing with my parents.They all looked to be in varying degrees of shock and dismay, but unharmed.
