Town in a Lobster Stew

and knew true summer would probably not arrive in its fullness until mid-June or later — if it arrived at all.

Traffic was heavy as they turned onto the Loop. As they approached the center of town a policeman directed their vehicle toward a parking area located between the opera house and Town Park. They snatched one of the last spots, grabbed their purses, locked up the Jeep, and headed toward Ocean Avenue.

They made a quick tour of the booths and grabbed some hot dogs at a cart set up just outside Town Park. As they settled onto a park bench to eat, Candy watched Wilma Mae and noticed a definite improvement in her demeanor. She was almost chipper today, quipping away with Maggie about knickknacks they’d seen at the flea market and a small silver broach she’d bought at one of the tables. The elderly woman even smiled once or twice. Candy admired her ability to recover so quickly from the gruesome death of her longtime friend and onetime lover.

Abruptly, Wilma Mae turned. “Oh look, here comes that nice baker man,” she said, straightening her back and folding her hands neatly in her lap as Herr Georg walked up to them.

“Ahh, ladies, hello, hello! How are all of you on this fine New England day?”

They spent the next ten minutes chatting with Herr Georg, who regaled them with stories of his latest creations, including a wedding cake he was baking for a wealthy family up from Rhode Island. “Eight tiers!” Herr Georg explained. “It will tower over the wedding party at the reception. It just may be my greatest creation yet!”

After Herr Georg bid them an adieu and walked on, Wilma Mae leaned in close to Candy. “He’s very handsome, isn’t he?”

“Who, Herr Georg? Well, yes, I suppose so.”

“His moustache is particularly elegant,” Wilma Mae said. “Do you know if he’s married?”

“What?” Candy was surprised by Wilma Mae’s questions. “Well, no, I don’t think so. I mean, no, he isn’t.”

Wilma Mae clucked her tongue. “A nice man like that, living alone. Such a shame.”

They were just starting back up Ocean Avenue toward Main Street when Candy’s cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her purse and checked the readout, then flipped the phone open and held it up to her ear. “Hi, Dad. What’s up?”

“Candy,” he said, an urgency in his voice. “Where are you?”

She told him.

“I’m over at the diner with the boys,” he said. “You’d better get up here right away. Something big is happening. You need to hear this.”

Suddenly she felt very worried. “What’s going on, Dad?”

“I don’t know if I should say anything over the phone.” His voice had fallen to a whisper.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake. No one’s listening on our line. Just say it.”

“Well...” He seemed to think it over, then said secretively, “Finn just got word. There’s been a huge discovery, and the police are trying to keep it all hushed up for the moment, but it’s about to break all over town.”

“Dad.” Candy had stopped along the sidewalk, and Maggie and Wilma Mae were staring at her with questioning looks on their face. “Just tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s Charlotte Depew,” Doc said finally. “She’s been murdered.”

Twenty-Eight

Juanita Perez set a steaming cup of hot coffee and a thick slice of fresh-baked apple pie down in front of Candy. “This one’s on the house,” she said quietly, leaning in toward her. “Just let me know if you need anything else.”

She winked, patted Candy on the shoulder, and turned away, practically floating on air as she set off to tend to her other customers.

“Hey, where’d that come from? How’d you rate that?” Doc asked hungrily, nudging her in the side. He was sitting beside her in the corner booth at Duffy’s Main Street Diner. Wilma Mae and Maggie had squeezed into the booth on the opposite side, next to Artie and Bumpy. Finn was off in a corner by the counter, talking quietly to someone on his cell phone.

Mystified, Candy shook her head, staring down at the cup of coffee and the slice of pie on the table before her. “I really don’t know, Dad. I haven’t ordered anything yet.”

“It’s simple,” Bumpy told her as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “You were a judge at the cook-off. She’s letting you know she’s grateful she won.”

“Well, yes, but I wasn’t the only one who made the final decision. And I certainly didn’t expect a free cup of coffee.”

Artie grinned at her. “Hey, enjoy it. It’s probably not your last one. Who knows — maybe there is such a thing as a free lunch.”

He elbowed Bumpy, who gave Candy a wink as Finn walked over to their table, slapping shut his cell phone. “They’re keeping it low-key until today’s events are over,” he informed everyone at the table in a quiet voice meant just for them, “but they’re moving quickly on it. The crime van’s already at the scene.”

“Where did it happen?” Doc asked.

“Upriver. It’s that picnic area about a mile or two from town, with the boat dock.”

“Oh yeah, I know the place,” Artie said. “There’s good fishing from that dock.”

“Yeah, been there a few times myself.” Finn scratched his head. “Caught a pretty-good-sized striped bass there last year. Anyway, some fisherman almost tripped over her body this morning just after dawn. Apparently he thought it was a dead animal at first. Got quite a shock when he realized what it was. According to early reports, she’d been dead several hours.”

“So it happened sometime overnight,” Doc said thoughtfully.

Candy scrunched up her face. “What was she doing out there in the middle of the night?”

Finn shrugged. “That’s what they’re trying to figure out.”

“Meeting someone,” Bumpy surmised.

“Makes sense,” Artie added. “A midnight rendezvous. They argued. Things got out of control. It happens, you know.”

“I know,” Candy said, remembering a similar incident up at Mount Desert Island the previous year.

“A crime of passion, huh?” Finn considered that. “Could be.”

“Except,” Candy said, “she just doesn’t seem like the outdoorsy, midnight-rendezvous type. I had her pegged for a more cerebral, museum-loving, wine-and-cheese, sitting-in-front-of-the-fireplace-reading-a-good-book type.”

“Sometimes love knows no bounds.” Wilma Mae spoke up in a high, clear voice, surprising all of them. “If she found someone she fell for, she would follow him wherever he went, to the highest mountain or the lowest valley, or even to a riverbank. I’ve found love in the strangest of places.”

Everyone sitting around the table fell silent for a moment. It was, Candy thought as she glanced at the faces around her, a somewhat awkward silence. Obviously the conversation had taken a turn the boys were unaccustomed to, and they didn’t know how to respond.

Candy decided it was up to her to get the conversation moving again. And she knew just how to do it. For better or worse, it was time to reveal a few cards in her hand.

She cleared her throat. “Well, I suppose it’s possible she was there for some romantic rendezvous. Or,” she said, trying not to sound too ominous, “maybe she was just involved in something she shouldn’t have been involved in.”

Now that caught everyone’s attention, she thought, slightly amused, as all heads turned in her direction. Maggie’s head had tilted quizzically, while Finn’s expression was stern and Doc’s was concerned. But Bumpy was grinning. “Ooh. Now what’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re not hiding something from us, are you?” Finn added suspiciously. “Remember, we’ve had two