2 A Deadly Beef by Jessica Beck Read Free Book Online Page B

not here."
    After
we both got out of the truck, Moose pointed to a car parked in the far corner
of the grocery store’s parking lot and said, "Besides, his yellow
Honda’s still here, and that means he hasn’t gone home yet."
    I
hadn’t realized that the car belonged to Dave.  "Moose, even
if he’s buried somewhere in the back of the store, how are we going to
get his attention?  Are we supposed to just start pounding on the front
door?"
    "That
works for me," my grandfather said as he proceeded to do exactly what
I’d just described. 
    "Not
so loud.  You’re going to get us arrested for disturbing the
peace," I said as I put a hand on my grandfather’s arm.
    "Well,
at least we’ll get his attention," Moose said.  With a bit of
irritation in his voice, he added, "Has the man gone completely
deaf?"
    Moose
was about to start pounding again, and I was considering letting him go at it
full-force, when I looked into the darkened store and saw Dave walking toward
us.
    "Here
he comes," I said.
    "It’s
about time."
    As he
opened the front door, Dave said, "Sorry folks, but we’re
closed.  If you need something for the diner, I can get it for you first
thing tomorrow morning."
    "Thanks
for the offer, but we’re stocked up just fine," Moose said. 
"Dave, we need to talk to you."
    The
grocery store manager clearly wasn’t pleased with my grandfather’s
request.  "Can it wait?  I’m beat, and I have to be back
here at six tomorrow morning."  He glanced at me and added,
"Come on, Victoria.  You’re the only one in Jasper Fork who
keeps the kind of crazy hours that I do.  Cut me some slack."
    "Don’t
worry.  This won’t take a minute," Moose said as he stepped
inside past Dave, though I’d been considering backing down and doing as
the man had asked.  After all, he was right.  Nobody knew the toll
the hours we worked had on us, and the grocery store owner had managed to find
the perfect way to get my sympathy. 
    On the
other hand, my grandfather wasn’t about to wait a single second longer to
interrogate a suspect than he had to.
    "Sorry
about this," I said as I stepped in after Moose, and Dave just kind of
shrugged as he locked the front door back and followed us into his empty store.
    I
suppose that it was the best I could hope for, given the circumstances.
    It was
kind of eerie walking through the grocery after everyone else was gone. 
Items on the shelves cast odd shadows in the emergency lighting, which gave
everything a strange red glow.  I normally thought of grocery stores as
warm and inviting places, offering my favorite things, but there was something
darkly ominous about the place in the near darkness, and the haunting quality
of the emptiness surrounding us.
    I
followed Moose to the only real light in the place, the single light bulb
coming from Dave’s office, and as we entered the cramped space, it felt
as though the illumination offered safety somehow from the aisles. 
    My
imagination was definitely getting the better of me.
    Dave
eased down into his familiar battered leather chair and put his feet up on the
old gray metal desk in front of him.  Putting his hands behind his head,
he asked us, "Okay, I’m listening.  What’s so important
that it can’t wait until tomorrow?"
    "We
want to talk to you about Wally Bain," Moose said.
    Dave
frowned at the mere mention of the man’s name.  "That was a
real shame what happened to him in his own barn, wasn’t it?  It
feels like nobody’s ever really safe anymore."
    "We
understand that you two had a pretty public argument recently," I said.
    Dave
shot a quick glance in my direction.  "Victoria, I shouldn’t
have to explain it to you.  The produce he was sending me lately
wasn’t worth having."  He sat up for a second as he followed
up his statement by asking, "Unless he gave you better merchandise than I
got.  Was he holding out on me, Victoria?"
    "No,
the produce he’d been bringing us lately was definitely not up to his