Mail Truck Murder

I open the door to the Wickworth Motel and walk though the small town with my cup of coffee. The downtown is small and simple with it's few buildings. I drink down my cup and walk into the book store.

"Hello, how may I help you," the lady at the desk of the store with a book herself asked while looking up, "Oh, a new visitor to the town. My name is Sandra, what is yours."

I reach out to shake her hand, "Delilah," I respond, "Do you sell coffee here? I just had one at the motel but it was one of those small cups."

"No, but there is a coffee shop just a little bit down that also sells chocolate," she informed me while sitting back down to look at her book again. I browed the shelves for a murder mystery novel and walked down to the chocolate/coffee shop after my purchase. I step in and browse the chocolate. My eyes land on the chocolate cigar sticks and I point to one. The man at the counter smiles and sets it into a cute little package with a bow.

"Any coffee, milk, or water to make those go down a little bit easier?" he asks while ringing them up.

"Yes, a cup of mocha please. A water too because I guess I should hydrate and not just drink nothing but coffee."

He snorts a bit, "Right, coming up," he types on the cash register and starts on my drinks. "My name is Evan by the way," he informs me while handing me the package and cups.

"Great! thanks Evan," I reply.

"Going to read that book in here? Did you get it from the book store?" he wondered.

"Yeah, I wanted to read a bit while drinking coffee. Enjoy the quiet of the small town," I let him know.

"Got in there right as it opened at 8:30 then huh?"

"Yeah, first customer of the day. Can't buy any books around here after 3pm though I see."

"Yeah nothing here is open all day, well I need to go back to the kitchen and make some more chocolate in a bit, so hope you will be alright here by yourself. If any other customers come in just go ahead and give them the coffee from this pot and then give me a yell," he nodded to the pot and disappeared behind the door before I could reply back. I sat there and read for a while until someone finally came in at about 9:30. I poured them a cup like Evan had told me to and then went back to find Evan working on treats.

"You finally have a customer," I informed him.

"Great, I will get right to them," he walked out of the kitchen and went to them.

"Yes, I am here for coffee of course, but also to let you know there is a dead body in the middle of downtown," the man raised his eyebrows.

"A what, Cashel?" Evan looked shocked back.

"Yeah, my mail truck was all covered in blood when I got there. I am freaking out. I don't want to go down for this," he freaked.

"Just go back and explain to the sheriff everything, maybe he will understand. Looks too guilty not telling them first instead of the local coffee shop owner," Evan advised.

"Right, I guess I better go now before it all gets worse," I watched Cashel the mailman walk out in a hurry to call the sheriff of the town. I looked down at the mystery that I was reading called Mail Murder about someone getting ran over by a mail truck and quickly stashed it into my bag. I didn't want it to look like I got an idea from my morning read, especially as an outsider of the town. It was too freaky like a bad jinx.

"Where are you going? To look at that body?" he asked me.

"I believe I may need a different book that is not a murder mystery now," I informed and walked back to the book store. The store had the closed sign our front. I looked around and found Sandra by the body. I walked over to her.

"Ah yes, the new lady," she tsked.

"New lady?" I asked.

"Yeah, she was going to buy a space here in town to open up a club," she explained.

"What was her name? Where was she from?" I asked.

"Her name was Henna. I believe from Chicago or some town around there," Sandra explained while I heard sirens and walked away from the gruesome scene. We walked back into the store for me to buy another book, and when I was leaving I saw Cashel get escorted away in handcuffs.

"I swear, someone stole the keys to the truck," he pleaded. I turned back around to ask Sandra about the mailman.

"Do you believe he did it?" I asked.

"No way! Cash has plenty of well... cash. He has been the mailman just so that our town can have someone deliver. Not because he needs the job," she shook her head. The police headed over to me.

"Care to come in for questioning?" they asked me.

"I didn't see anything," I responded to them.

"Are you sure?" he asked suspiciously.

"Don't you already have your guy?" I asked.

"Not so sure yet. The other officers automatically said it was him, but I don't. My name is Willie by the way," he nodded and walked into the coffee shop to talk to Evan.

"Pay no mind to him," Sandra popped back up beside me, "He is suspicious of people from out of town. Probably wonders why they are visiting here instead of the beach or Disney World."

"I really enjoy quiet small towns," I replied, "I actually want to move to one. I grew up in the city, and even though it is a place that is supposed to be home, it really has never felt like home."

"Be sure you won't miss the energetic life then," she advised, "There was going to be more night life, but not with Henna gone now."

"What do you think happened?" I dove in a bit more out of curiosity.

"Maybe someone followed her here, although makes me wonder how they would get a hold of Cashel's keys," she rubbed her chin, "Well, have a good day..." she drifted off the sentence and headed back into her room. I decided to go take a walk to find a better place to read my book. I found a tree area by the water and sat down to read the romance book I picked out. After a bit of reading, I hear wood cutting and looked to see a man sawing to make a bench.

"Oh, hey! Am I bothering your reading?" the man asked.

"No, I am good. Will be nice where there is a bench to sit on out here," I nodded my head to his partially built creation.

"Yeah, I love making wood projects for the town," he replied," My name is Jacob by the way."

"Mine is Delilah," I smiled at him.

"Well looking for romance over there with your romance book?" he asked me.

"Wow, how forward you are," I laughed.

"Oh, my bad. I am not used to talking to too many people a day I guess. Mostly talk to trees and don't always know how to go about that," he responded.

"Yeah, did you hear about the murder from earlier?" I wondered.

"No, been out here all day. Haven't looked at the news. What city?"

"Here." My response made him take his work glasses off.

"Who? What..."

"Someone ran over Henna with a mail truck. Then they took Cashel to the station."

"Oh, I got to go," he left his project and I walked to the diner for lunch. Retro Burgers was the name that greeted me when I walked into the restaurant. I sat down and ordered a burger with some butter asparagus. When I ate, I heard the whispers about Cashel and how the police figured out he had an app on his phone to be able to find his missing keys. I finished up, paid the tab, and walked back to my motel room. I opened the drawer by the bed and in it was keys I had never seen before. They had a little squishy key chain on it of a mini mail truck. Why did the person who did this not take that off? It is too easy to know what they are. Maybe that is the point...

I panicked and picked them up with a towel to not smudge finger prints on them and studied the towel. I pulled out a q-tip from my bag and wiped it around the keys to see if there was anything on them that could indicate where they came from. There was a tiny bit of something brown on the q-tip. I put my nose close without touching it and took a sniff. It was chocolate. I thought about what had happened that morning. Evan said he was in the kitchen making chocolates the whole time, but maybe he could have left without me noticing because of my reading.

I put the keys in a bag with the towel still wrapped around and went to his shop. I looked at the chocolates that were put out for the day and they did look more rushed that the older ones from the day before. "More chocolate for the day?" he asked me while shifting a bit uncomfortably at my presence.

"Yes, those fresh ones look delightful," I pointed to one of the rushed chocolates and he packaged some for me. I sat down with another cup of his coffee and ate. I waited for him to go off to check on something or use the bathroom before I hid the keys in the vase in the middle of the table and walked out hoping the police didn't ping my room as where the keys had been yet. I walked to the food store across the street and pretended to look at nuts and coffee beans while waiting for the police to arrive.

After a bit, the sirens blared and the police slammed into the shop turning tables and looking in the vases to finally find the keys. Evan was escored away while yelling, "I swear I was set up by the new Delilah lady. She is even across the street there!" he pointed at me while I went to buy some pistachios. I later walked into the police station in order to speak to Evan.

"You found the keys, but how did you figure out it was me?" he barked.

"You got too excited and should have taken the time to get all of the chocolate off of your fingers before they transferred to the keys," I shook my head at him.

""You were supposed to be out all day and not know! That stupid Henna and he loud music coming to town ruining my quiet poetry nights!" he slammed his hands on the table.

"No guarantee I would be away from my room all day," I responded, "I mean... Really? Like your poetry is the only type of art that can be in town."

"Maybe if it was painting, but loud music and dancing? No Way!"

"You could have just invested in sound proof walls or something," I replied while I was escorted out by Willie.

"Sorry to put the blame on you like that. Super shocked it was one of our own that did this," Willie apologized.

"All is forgiven. I may be one of your own soon though, because I have decided to stay here and open up shop myself. An art shop sounds like a great idea for me," I beamed at him.

"Well welcome to the town," he shook my hand as I spotted Jacob walking towards me with Cashel at his side, "Want me to build you a house?"

"What fine handiwork that would be!"

"You can stay at Cashel's place so you don't have to pay the motel for several months. He has an extra guest house," he turned to him and Cashel nodded.

"Would be nice for that house to get it's use," he agreed with Jacob.

"That sounds wonderful," I confirmed.

"We will help you get your personal belongings from the hotel," the men followed me out the door to the hotel area. When we walked by downtown I took a last glance at the abandoned coffee and chocolate store, sad that it would no longer be operational in the middle of the quaint, still quiet town.