Black Cat Weekly #46

Chapter 6

byDetective Eve Jennings wound her way through the shelves lined with expensive wines and inviting gourmet snacks until she came to the door leading to the basement of the Pop-A-Cork Shoppe. Heading down the stairs, she was greeted by a floor littered with broken bottles and torn-open boxes.

“Eve,” came a voice from across the room, “thanks for getting here so quickly.”

Eve recognized the voice as that of her longtime friend and the shop’s owner, Justine Lefleur, but as the obviously shaken woman approached, the detective was momentarily surprised by her appearance. Justine’s long auburn hair had been replaced by a spikey platinum do.

Before Eve could comment, Justine said, “Everything was fine when I got here this morning, but when I came down around noon to get a case of merlot for a customer, I found this.” She gestured at the soggy mess. “The only things missing were a couple of bottles of my best cabernet sauvignon.”

“What time did you arrive this morning?” said Eve.

“Around 9:30.” Justine touched her hair lightly. “I had an early-morning appointment at the salon. Thought I’d change my look a bit.”

Eve just nodded.

“I keep the door to the basement locked and open it only for deliveries. I came in that way this morning to grab a carton of Belgian chocolates for a display.”

“Does anyone else have a key to the basement door?” said Eve, wondering why someone would vandalize a storeroom and steal two bottles of wine.

“Well, let’s see,” said Justine. “Mr. Culross, who owns the building, has a master key. Then there’s Fred Johnson. He’s done some remodeling for me and needed a key to get in after store hours.”

“Anyone else?”

Justine furrowed her brow. “Oh, yes, Marsha hasn’t returned her key yet.”

“Returned?”

“I’m afraid I had to let her go last week,” Justine said hesitantly. “She’s a lovely girl, but spent more time on her cell phone than with our customers.”

“Did Mr. Culross or Mr. Johnson have any reason to be angry with you?”

“Mr. Culross has been trying to get me to give up my lease to the property. He wants to turn the building into condos. I’m afraid I haven’t been very cooperative.”

“What about Fred Johnson?”

Justine’s face flushed a bit red. “Well, Fred and I have had a little disagreement about his latest project. I wasn’t satisfied with the work and have withheld payment.”

Eve started up the stairs. “It looks like I’ll need to talk with the trio of key holders.”

Eve found that eliminating Jackson Culross involved nothing more than a phone call to his office. Culross’ assistant informed her that his boss had been out of town on business for the last week.

When Justine told her that Fred Johnson’s work had been unsatisfactory because the handyman had been “hitting the bottle,” she was suspicious. But Johnson’s wife told her that he had been rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy the previous night.

Eve’s last stop was Marsha Turner’s apartment, where she introduced herself and stated the reason for her visit.

Inviting the detective into the apartment, the sweat-shirted young woman said, “I don’t know what I can do to help you. I haven’t been to the shop for over a week.”

Eve sat down on an overstuffed couch. “Can you think of anyone who might want to cause trouble for Ms. Lefleur?”

“Just between you and me,” said the young woman, “I’m sure there are lots of people who’d like to put that bottle blonde in her place. Justine Lefleur…I’ll bet that not even her real name. Sounds French, but—”

Eve stood up abruptly. “It’s too bad you won’t be able to toast your victory with one of those wonderful wines you liberated from Justine’s shop, but the state prison frowns on its inmates imbibing alcohol.”

Solution

SolutionWhen Marsha called Justine a “bottle blonde,” Eve knew the former employee had vandalized the store and stolen the wine since Marsha could have known Justine had changed her hair color only if she had seen her boss come through the storeroom that morning. Marsha confessed that she had let herself into the storeroom, then hidden as Justine passed through and done the damage before letting herself out with many bottles of expensive wine.