Banana Fudge Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 50 Read online

  “Did he get along with the staff here?”

  “Yes. He got along with everyone. If you met him, you must have realized this.”

  Heather nodded. Phillip had seemed like a person that was liked by everyone he met, and yet someone had murdered him so that couldn’t truly be the case.

  “Then again, he was an older man,” Mousier Johnson said, thinking aloud. “Maybe he made an enemy when he was younger.”

  There was food for thought there, but Mousier Johnson did not have anything more concrete to add. They thanked him for talking with them.

  “We’ll have to talk to your employees and see if they know anything more about when Phillip left,” Heather said.

  “Of course, of course,” Mousier Johnson said. “But before you speak to them, please have something to eat.”

  He snapped, and the waiter returned to present them with an appetizer tray. Part of Heather wished that all for all her interviews she would be offered fine food, the other part of her wished for more tangible answers about what had happened to the victim.

  Chapter 8

  Though Mousier Johnson had been confused as to their original purpose for meeting with him, he had gone out of his way to help them, both by offering them a spread of food and answering their questions as best as he could. However, his staff was not as cooperative. The four employees who they met with in the break room were eyeing them suspiciously, especially Amy who was typing up the notes.

  Whenever a question was asked, they looked at the floor, at the ceiling, and anywhere except back at Heather.

  “I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble,” Heather said. “We just want to find out what happened to Phillip.”

  “This is weird,” the young waiter who had helped them at their table the night before said. “You were at the restaurant when Phillip was, and then he winds up dead. Now you’re asking questions about what happened. How do we know you didn’t have anything to do with it?”

  Heather was glad he finally spoke up, even with an accusation like that. Now she knew why they were so quiet. Having the knowledge about their hesitancy would allow her to overcome it. After all, her table of friends didn’t have anything to do with the disappearance. Now she would just have to convince them.

  She looked at the four employees who were eyeing her back. The young waiter was named James. He was biting his nails nervously, waiting to see if he got in trouble for what he had just asked.

  Another familiar face was the dark-haired man who had served them when Mousier Johnson snapped. His name was Pierre, and he looked bored by this whole ordeal. The other two employees they had just seen in passing – passing their table by on the night that they had lost their waiter and were trying to attract someone else’s attention. An overweight Bruce stood next to the fidgety Eileen.

  “I agree it’s a weird situation,” Heather said. “But it was strange for us too. We were just expecting to have dinner, and not investigate a crime. However, investigating things is what we do. The man with the badge at our table yesterday is Detective Shepherd. And Amy and I are both private investigators. Our proximity to the crime is part of why we were called in that night.”

  “There have been dirty cops before,” the young waiter James said. “That could be your cover.”

  “You were all there last night,” Heather said. “Did any of us leave our table long enough to drive away and commit the murder?”

  The employees looked to one another. They couldn’t reach a firm opinion but started to feel more reassured.

  “We’re just not sure why anyone would want to hurt Phillip,” Bruce said.

  Pierre agreed. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “He was so nice,” Eileen said.

  “He was the one who trained me,” James said. “He was very friendly and got along well with the guests.”

  “And he was an old man,” Pierre said. “I don’t see why someone would want to beat him to death.”

  “You seem to know some of the details about his murder,” Heather commented.

  “Mousier Johnson told us when we came in today,” Eileen said.

  “He was just repeating what was in the paper,” Pierre said. “It said that he was hit on the head down the street. Was is a robbery?”

  “Did Phillip have anything worth stealing?” she asked.

  “He had a really expensive watch,” James said. “He didn’t wear it all the time because he didn’t want it to get ruined at work. But it was new and really extravagant.”

  Heather remembered Phillip wearing a watch the night he served them, but she didn’t recognize its worth that night. She was sure that Ryan would have noticed it too and would have realized it was missing when he saw the body. However, she made a mental note double check that nothing had been stolen from the victim.

  “Did he have a lot of money?” Heather asked.

  “If he worked here, I don’t see how, ” Pierre said.

  “That’s true,” Bruce agreed. “The tips are all right, but not amazing.”

  “I think he had some money,” Eileen said. “He lent me some money to get a tow truck when my car died. When I told him I would pay him back, he didn’t seem very concerned about it.”

  “That doesn’t prove he had money,” Pierre said. “He was just an old man who was trying to be chivalrous.”

  “Maybe,” Eileen said.

  “He did have that nice watch,” James said again. “And fancy cufflinks. I didn’t know cufflinks were still a thing, but he had nice ones.”

  Then Heather asked. “Did any of you notice any strange behavior from Phillip?”

  They all shook their heads.

  “He could be a little slow sometimes,” Bruce said. “Sometimes he would just stop and stand in a corner for a few minutes. But I thought that was because he was older. Maybe he needed a break.”

  “And he’d go outside sometimes,” said Eileen. “But Pierre does too.”

  Pierre shook his head. “But he’s not a smoker. I offered him a light before, and he said he never liked the smoke. He probably wanted fresh air or something.”

  “Did he ever drive his car away when he would go outside on these breaks?” Heather asked.

  The employees agreed it was possible. Phillip would normally park around the side of the building so they wouldn’t have seen if the car was missing. Someone had seen him coming from the direction of his car before, but that didn’t mean he had left with it.

  On days when it was very busy, they all agreed that they were so occupied with their own tables that they didn’t notice what he did. No one was quite sure what time Phillip had left the night he was killed.

  “I should have been paying attention to the time,” James said. “Phillip kept checking it that night. I saw him look at his watch several times.”

  Heather remembered Phillip checking his watch before he left their table. Maybe the time he went to search the side of the road wasn’t random. Maybe he wanted to be there at a specific time. Heather ran through potential scenarios in her head but decided she needed more information on the victim. What was he up to that night?

  Chapter 9

  “He worked at a restaurant known for its food, and he had rice cakes in his work locker?” Amy asked, incredulously. “That would be like if I only ate celery when I was at Donut Delights. What would be the point of being there?”

  “Besides seeing me?” Heather teased.

  Ryan looked at the rice cakes as well. “Maybe he was watching his weight? He wanted to keep in shape for health reasons? Or to impress the ladies?”

  They were at Ryan’s desk at the police station. Heather and Amy had brought in what they found in Phillip’s work locker, and Ryan was sharing what they had discovered in Phillip’s car.

  Besides the rice cakes, in Phillip’s locker, they had found a second set of work clothes, a small notepad, and some mints. It hardly seemed like anything there would relate to his murder.

  Ryan had found some more interesting items
in the car and on Phillip Ruth’s person. The watch had not been stolen. Neither had the few hundred dollars found in his wallet.

  “That seems like a lot of money to come from tips that night,” Amy commented.

  “Did he not like using banks?” Heather asked aloud. “Or was he a wealthy man?”

  “He did use a bank,” Ryan said. “There aren’t any unusual deposits. He receives a social security check and his paychecks from the restaurant. But there is something funny about withdrawals.”

  “Where does the money go?” Heather asked.

  “Did he spend it all on rice cakes?” Amy asked.

  “There are a few automatic payments that go through every month,” Ryan said. “Mortgage, electricity, cable.”

  “What’s weird about that?” asked Heather.

  “Well, besides those payments, there are no other withdrawals. There were no payments for food or at stores. And no cash withdrawals either.”

  “Could that be normal for a waiter?” Heather asked. “Maybe he lived off of his tips if they were cash?”

  “Until a few months ago, he still made withdrawals and card payments. However, the last thing he bought was from a hearing device company.”

  “So suddenly he could hear again, and he didn’t need as much money?” Amy asked. “How does that make sense?”

  “It doesn’t,” Ryan said. “At least not yet. That’s why I said it was weird.”

  “Did you find anything else interesting?”

  “The other things in his car look like normal items a person would have: a spare tire, a jacket, and water bottle. Besides the money, his wallet contained his identification, some cards, and a picture.”

  He showed them the small portrait that was in Phillip’s wallet. It was of an older woman with perfectly styled hair and a large necklace. She looked very glamorous and knew how to smile for the camera.

  “She’s beautiful,” Heather said. “Do you think Phillip knew her? Or was she some sort of model?”

  “Or both,” Amy suggested.

  “There’s no name or anything to go on right now,” Ryan said. “But if we find her, we could ask her about her connection to the victim.”

  “How could we find so many clues and not find any more answers?” Heather wondered. “We still don’t have any idea what Phillip Ruth was looking for, or who killed him. So far there isn’t any motive.”

  “I know,” Amy said, picking up Phillip’s notepad. “Don’t you wish for once someone would write down If I’m murdered I’m pretty sure it was Person X who did it.”

  Heather nodded and then exclaimed “Wait a minute! The notebook.”

  “What about it?”

  “Phillip didn’t write down customers’ orders. He remembered them.”

  “That’s right,” Amy said. “I was really impressed by it.”

  “So why did he have a notebook?”

  “Maybe he wrote down the orders after he left the table,” Ryan said. “So he wouldn’t forget later.”

  They opened the notebook and were only more confused.

  “Do you think this is shorthand for French cuisine?” Amy asked.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Heather said. “These don’t look like orders to me.”

  “Actually, it just looks like gibberish to me,” Amy said.

  “It must be a code of some sort,” Ryan said.

  Heather agreed. The first entry said “C.D. *4682. ZEEZHQ RDBQDSZQX.” The last one said “L.C. *9634” followed by an equally incomprehensible series of letters.

  “It is a code,” Heather said. “But what does it mean?”

  Chapter 10

  “And there’s the last piece,” Lilly said. “Tada! We have a dinosaur.”

  Heather smiled. After watching Lilly’s favorite movie Jurassic Park, they had put together a dinosaur puzzle. The smiling blue stegosauruses looked less scary and a little less impressive than the raptors in the film. However, they were all just happy that they had finished assembling the puzzle and were able to see the dinosaurs.

  Eva and Leila had helped, and Leila has told them about how she once belonged to a puzzle club. However, the other puzzlers didn’t like to chat while they searched for missing pieces, so it wasn’t “the right fit” for her.

  Amy joined them for the evening and had been a little too focused on the pieces. Heather suspected that something was bothering her again.

  Her dog Dave had fallen asleep early. He couldn’t understand why they were at a table without snacks on it and had fallen asleep from boredom. The kitten Cupcake was more interested in the puzzle but had to be kept off the table because she kept batting the pieces. She eventually found a comfortable spot on Amy’s lap.

  Heather was happy to spend time with her loved ones. However, she wished putting the pieces of the case they were investigating was as simple as assembling the pieces of the puzzle. Ryan seemed to be thinking along the same lines as she was. He had come home in time for dinner and dinosaurs. Now it was time for him to announce it was bedtime.

  The parents made sure Lilly was settled into bed and kissed her forehead goodnight. Then they bid goodnight to Eva and Leila who were staying in the living room and were setting up their pillows to go to sleep.

  Ryan and Heather headed into the kitchen where Amy was waiting for them.

  “Do you want to sleep over tonight?” Heather asked.

  “No, I’ll head home,” Amy said. “I thought Jamie and I might meet up, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. He said he had to work late tonight. I’m not sure if that’s true or if he doesn’t want to see me.”

  “Of course it’s true,” Heather said. “You know that he and Geoff can’t resist helping a dog, even if it means that they have to rearrange their schedule.”

  “You’re right,” Amy admitted. “I don’t really think that he’s a liar. I just wish I knew what he was thinking.”

  “I wish I knew what Phillip Ruth was thinking when he wrote this code,” Heather said. “I don’t know if we can break.”

  “I’m sure we can,” Ryan said. “Why don’t you two visit Phillip Ruth’s house tomorrow? Maybe there’s something there that can help with decoding.”

  “I had hoped that taking a night off would help with decoding. I thought an idea might occur when I least suspected it,” Heather said.

  “To be fair,” Amy pointed out. “If you were planning on it coming, then it wasn’t a moment you least expected.”

  “Fair enough,” Heather laughed.

  She was sure that what was written in the notebook was somehow tied to his murder. If Phillip went through the trouble of hiding his notes, then it was something important and something that he wanted to keep a secret. Was the killer listed in those pages?

  “Do we have any suspects yet?” Amy asked.

  “Not really,” Heather said. “Since Pierre was a smoker, he might have snuck out of the restaurant without being noticed that night too. He might have been able to get there first and hide.”

  “But then Phillip would have seen his car,” Ryan pointed out.

  “And it looked like the killer was waiting behind that tree for a decent amount of time,” Heather said. “He’s not a solid suspect. He doesn’t seem to have a motive either. But that’s a problem. So far nobody wanted to kill him.”

  “Unless something in this book tells us something different,” Amy said.

  Heather reread the first entry in the book. “C.D. Asterisk 4682. Something about this seems familiar.”

  “You’re right,” Amy said. “What are things that come in four digit clumps?”

  Heather thought about it. “Not a zip code or area code. Maybe a pin number?”

  “Credit cards,” Ryan said triumphantly. “On bills, they say asterisk and then only list the last four digits so others couldn’t accidentally see the full number.”

  “That makes sense,” Heather said. “Phillip Ruth could have seen guest’s credit card numbers at the restaurant. But why was he
writing them down?”

  “Was he stealing their information?” Amy asked.

  “It’s possible,” Heather said. “But there’s a lot more to the code than just the numbers. ZEEZHQ. And the two letters. Maybe the two letters before the card numbers are initials?”

  “That makes sense,” said Amy. “But who are C.D. and L.C.?”

  “I know a certain someone whose initials are L.C.,” Heather said. “And we know that he doesn’t respect the law or human life.”