Pepper, the Highlander & the Dead Guy

6

The town of Willow Lake was buzzing with the news, not of the dead guy found in the woods, but of the male cover models that had taken up residence at Willow Lake Lodge and that Ian Macgregor the hunk of all male cover models was now owner and would be using the place for photo shoots.

I hurried to one of the back booths with my laptop tucked under my arm as soon as I entered the Star Diner. Once a week I meet my mom for breakfast here and we’d talk about everything and anything. I love the easy relationship I have with her. She doesn’t bug me about finding a nice guy and getting married. She lets me be me and cheers me on in whatever I decide to do. She is a free spirit and I often wondered how she and my dad ever got together, he being a more by-the-rules kind of guy.

“Heard you met the top hunk himself and he already has his eye on you,” Zelda said, placing a fat, white teapot and mug in front of me; the decaf tea bag hanging off the side. Tea is my addiction and decaf at that.

Willow Lake could spread news faster than any social media or news network. Zelda must have been the fifth person to say that to me since getting out of my old Ram pickup parked right in front of the diner. It was as if people had been lying in wait to pounce on me. I had set them straight just as I was about to do with Zelda.

Zelda laughed and waved off my rebuke before I could even make it. “Don’t bother, I take whatever your brothers say with a grain of salt. Besides, I figured you’d be more interested in the dead guy than the hunk.”

I smiled. “You know me well, Zelda.”

“You’re a lot like your dad, always needing to solve mysteries. So what’s with the dead guy?” She plopped herself down in the red vinyl seat opposite me.

Zelda had been friends with my dad since they were kids and had gone through school together. After her husband Harry died about twenty years ago, Zelda bought the diner. It had been a good investment for her. While it could use some updating, the food was still wonderful. If there was something Zelda knew well it was how to cook a delicious, old-fashioned, home-cooked meal. It was what kept people coming back.

I shared with her what I knew so far.

“A Scottish brogue, you say?” Zelda asked, scrunching her brow.

“Did someone with a brogue stop in here?” I asked anxiously.

“It’s possible.” Zelda turned and gave a shout. “Lara come here a minute.”

Lara had been with Zelda since she opened the place. She had to be seventy by now, but she didn’t look a day over fifty. She had been a health and exercise nut all her life and it had paid off. She had even got Zelda to add a healthy section to her menu, and it sold well.

“Didn’t you speak with a guy that had a Scottish brogue the other day?” Zelda asked.

“Yeah, I did.” Lara pointed to me. “He was in here for breakfast and had a map spread out in front of him. I teased him about how no one uses maps anymore and he told me that when GPS fails in your car and phone, a map is the only thing left. He then asked if I could point him to Willow Lake Lodge. I gave him directions and told him that the turn off was a short distance from your place… Skunk Hollow.” Lara laughed. “I remember when your aunt named her place. I tried to talk her out of the name, but she insisted that no one would turn down her driveway with a name like that.”

“Did he happen to ask anything about Skunk Hollow?” I asked.

“You know I was thinking about that after he left. When I mentioned Skunk Hollow, he asked if that was Effie Owens place and I told him it had been but that her niece Pepper owned it now. I thought it odd that he didn’t know where Willow Lake Lodge was, but he knew who had owned Skunk Hollow.”

“And you didn’t tell me about this?” Zelda asked. “You tell me everything.”

“I got busy and forgot all about it. I would have remembered eventually,” Lara said.

“The sheriff’s going to want to talk to you,” Zelda said before I could.

“Why?” Lara’s eyes turned wide. “Sweet Lord, don’t tell me he’s the man who was murdered in the woods.”

Zelda nodded and Lara blessed herself.

“Did he mention his name or pay with a credit card?” I asked.

Lara shook her head. “No, he paid cash and left me a nice tip.”

“Come on, I’ll give Warren a call and you can tell him about it,” Zelda said, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket and walked around the counter and gave a shove to the swinging door to the back office.