A Deadly Slice of Lime: A Key West Culinary Cozy - Book 6 (2 page)

 It
had been a long day at the shop. Tiara manned the front counter while Marilyn
and Kelcie whipped up Key Lime pies, strawberries with Key Lime filling, tarts,
cupcakes, puff pastries and even Key Lime cream cakes, gearing up for what
promised to be a busy weekend. Marilyn had just settled in on her favorite back
patio lounger, with a glass of Merlot and her latest novel, when she heard an
all-too familiar voice speaking to her from the other side of the trees that
separated her house from that of her crazy neighbor, Tim Eckels.

“She
left with a man,” Tim said, trying to be mysterious.

Marilyn
sighed. After a hard day’s work, all she wanted to do was relax with a good
book. She had neither the time, nor the patience, to deal with her omnipresent
and insufferably strange neighbor.

“I
know, Tim, it’s nothing to worry about,” she called out, hoping he’d catch her
tone and go away. No such luck, he stepped through the trees.

“He
was an older man, and they left together,” he blinked at her owlishly from
behind his coke bottle lenses.

“I’m
aware of that,” Marilyn sighed, rapidly losing what little patience that she
might have had. “Tiara met her father here because they have a dinner date, not
that it’s any of your business,” she looked at the pale, doughy man with utter
annoyance. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m busy,” she said, opening her book and
pointedly ignoring him.

Tim
stood, staring at her for a couple of minutes, but when she refused to
acknowledge his existence, he turned and made his way back through the trees
muttering something that sounded like, “Yes, I mind, I mind very much.”

Marilyn
tried to take her mind off of the thought that Tiara was out with her father by
immersing herself in the book, and it actually ended up working well enough
that the sun set without her noticing it. When it got too dark to see the
words on the page, shivering a bit, she closed her book,
picked her wine glass up by the stem, and headed inside. Fluffy, the sweet grey
tabby that Tiara had rescued, met her at the door, twining between her ankles,
begging shamelessly for affection, which Marilyn gladly gave. She set her book
and glass down on the kitchen counter, and picked up the purring feline,
burying her face in the downy fur on the top of Fluffy’s head. Carrying her
through the kitchen, she happened to glance down, and saw with dismay that
she’d been so distracted when she came home, that she’d forgotten to refill the
cat’s bowl.

“Oh,
poor kitty,” she cooed to the animal thrumming with pleasure in her arms.
“That’s why you were trying so hard to get my attention.” Setting Fluffy down
next to the bowl, she reached for the jar of dry food in the cubby above and
refilled the bowl, also taking the time to empty the water bowl into the sink
and refill it with fresh, cool water for good measure. “There you go, pretty
kitty,” she sang out, scratching the contented creature between the ears as she
began to crunch the little brown pellets.

Seeing
the empty top tray of the organizer that rested atop the kitchen desk, Marilyn
realized that she had also forgotten to check the mail when she came home.
Shaking her head at her absent-mindedness, she went out the front door and down
the porch steps to the mailbox, hoping desperately that she wouldn’t encounter
Tim Eckels again, she was in no mood to be polite. A sizable stack of mail
awaited her and she began flipping through it on her way back into the house.
Plopping down on the couch, she continued to sort, tossing junk mail into a
pile to be recycled, putting personal mail on the coffee table, and bills on
the couch next to her. She saw an official-looking letter, and noticed that the
return address included the name of a local law firm. Using the mahogany
handled letter opener that she’d bought at a souvenir stand when she’d first
moved to Key West, she slit open the envelope and unfolded the contents.

She
read the letter once, twice and a third time, just to make certain that she was
interpreting it correctly, and her mouth fell open in shock. Elizabeth Melman
was suing her for four million dollars. Her heart sunk. Four million dollars
would bankrupt her – she’d lose everything that she’d worked so hard to
achieve. Marilyn’s head spun with the implications of the lawsuit. An elderly
woman had fallen, and she could potentially be rendered penniless because of
it.

“I
knew it,” Tiara muttered, shaking her head as she read the letter from
Elizabeth Melman’s attorney. “She was faking – she’s just doing this for the
money. I’m glad that I took pictures of the dry floor, the dry ceiling and the
sunny day outside while she was lying there on the floor.”

“That
was obviously a smart thing to do, sweetie,” Marilyn nodded, thankful for her
daughter’s intuition and quick thinking. “I guess I’ll have to get an
attorney,” she sighed, thinking of the expense.

“Maybe
not just yet,” Tiara mused, perusing the letter. “This says that the
preliminary hearing isn’t until 60 days from the date of the accident, which
was three days ago. She must’ve filed the lawsuit while she was in the
Emergency Room,” she grimaced, disgusted. “I say that we do some poking around
and see what Elizabeth Melman is all about. If we can somehow prove that she
was faking it, we may be able to get her attorney to drop the case, and not
have to even bother going to court.”

“That
would be a relief,” her mother nodded. “Let me do some research – I’ll see what
I can find out.”

“You
mean you’re actually going to interact with a computer?” Tiara teased, knowing
her mother’s extreme aversion to using technology.

“Desperate
situations call for desperate measures, my dear,” Marilyn replied dryly. “Don’t
you have somewhere to be?” she raised her eyebrows, then looked at the door
leading out of her office.

“As
a matter of fact, Dad is taking me on a charter fishing trip this afternoon,”
her daughter sobered. “I told him that I’d be ready around one o’clock, is that
okay?”

“Of
course,” came the automatic reply, followed by an attempt at a smile. “Kelcie
and I should be done with baking in an hour or so, and the afternoon traffic on
a Tuesday isn’t typically that bad, so I’m sure that we can handle it,” her
mother assured her, trying to sound upbeat. “Besides, if I have to sit up at
the front counter, I can use the computer up there to do some poking around,
and kill two birds with one stone.”

“You’re
sure that you won’t need me?” Tiara asked again.

“Nope,
we’ll manage sweetie,” Marilyn insisted, wondering why her daughter now seemed
a bit sad.

“It’s
just…I want to go fishing with Dad, but I’m afraid it’s going to be awkward,”
she admitted finally. “Like…I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to him. He’s
really just a stranger, so part of me really doesn’t want to go,” she confessed.

Sensing
her daughter’s rare insecurity, she got out of her desk chair and wrapped her
in a warm hug. “It’s going to be okay, honey, it really is. You’re a strong,
confident, charming young woman – of course your dad wants to get to know you.
Don’t let what happened between us cloud your perspective of him, he may be an
entirely different person now. Besides, you two always managed to get along
well, even when he and I were fighting like cats and dogs. Let him love you
however he knows how, and show him what a wonderful person you are,” Marilyn
advised, brushing a stray wisp of hair from Tiara’s eyes.

“You
won’t be upset?” she asked.

Her
mother gave her a genuine smile this time. “No, honey, I won’t be upset. Having
your father in your life isn’t something that’s going to harm my relationship
with you. I love you more than anything, and nothing is going to change that,”
she assured her daughter, seeing a measure of relief in the young woman’s eyes.
“Now scoot on out of here and let me get my work done,” she said, taking Tiara
by the shoulders and marching her out the door.

“Okay,
okay,” she grumbled, laughing at her mother’s antics, which she knew were for
her benefit. “But let me know if you find out anything good about Ms. Melman.”

“You
got it,” Marilyn assured her, heading back toward the kitchen as her daughter
readied the display cases and front counter for opening.

**

Tiara
left at noon to go home and get ready for the excursion with her father, and
Marilyn watched her leave, feeling a bit melancholy. Her marriage had failed,
her daughter was grown and accomplished and amazing, and when she landed her
dream job, which, with her qualifications would most likely be sooner rather
than later, Marilyn would be alone. While she knew and embraced the fact that
this was the nature of life and parenting, she was definitely not looking
forward to the day that she would have to watch her only little bird fly away
from the nest.

Shaking
herself out of her reverie, she switched on the computer beside the cash register,
and took out a notepad on which to make notes if she discovered anything of
interest about Elizabeth Melman. When she connected to the internet, she put
the elderly woman’s name into the search bar and hit enter. Multiple entries
popped up, and she scrolled through, looking for verification that the
Elizabeth Melman in the various listings was the same woman who had fallen in
her store last week. She was so absorbed in her task that it didn’t even
register with her when the bells over the door jangled to let her know that
someone had come in the door, so she was startled when she heard a familiar
male voice quietly say, “Hello Marilyn.”

Her
heart leapt to her throat, and her stomach roiled dangerously within her when
she looked up and saw the athletic and tanned form of her ex-husband standing
on the other side of the counter. Hot color flushed her cheeks as she battled
the firestorm of feelings that rose up inside at the mere sight of the man who
had been her life and her love and had ultimately betrayed her in the worst way
possible.

“Daniel,”
she acknowledged his presence, his name sounding foreign on her lips. She was
trying very hard to maintain a neutral expression, despite her extreme
displeasure with the fact that he had just popped in on her with no notice or
invitation. “Tiara said she was meeting you at the marina at one o’clock,” she
said, making a Herculean effort to keep overtones of accusation from her voice.

He
nodded, his blue eyes fixed upon his ex-wife with an expression in them that
she couldn’t quite identify. “I know. I just…I wanted to come by to see you.
Things didn’t end well between us and I…” he began.

Marilyn
put up a hand to silence him. His very presence was a painful reminder of her
shattered illusions, and she refused to rip the scab from those very old
wounds. “Don’t,” she commanded softly. “What happened, happened,” she said
slowly, averting her eyes so that he wouldn’t see her anguish – she wouldn’t
give him the satisfaction. “Rehashing things won’t change anything, and frankly,
I don’t want to get into it,” she set her jaw, feeling stronger, and met his
gaze head on. She’d never had boundaries when they were married, and it felt
better than good to be able to assert some with him now.

“Patricia
and I ended things right after you and I got divorced,” he said, ignoring her
request.

“Look,”
she interrupted, leveling him with a glare. “I don’t care, okay? I have no
interest in hearing about the demise of your love affair. You chose to cheat on
me, you chose to not break up with her after I found out about it, and things
didn’t work out for you. Sorry, Daniel, you won’t see me shedding any tears for
your broken heart,” she spat bitterly. “Why on earth would you come here to
tell me that? Are you some kind of sadist or something, because that’s pretty
cruel.”

“No,
I don’t want your pity Marilyn,” he replied, jaw muscles twitching. “I’m
telling you this because I’m trying to apologize. I regretted the choices that
I made, but you ran away before I could even talk to you about it,” he accused.
“At least own your part in what happened between us,” his eyes narrowed just
the way that they used to when he tried to control and manipulate her every
move.

“My
part? My part?” Marilyn was furious. “You were a vicious, tight-fisted control
freak who made me feel like I never did anything right. You cheated on me and
destroyed what few shreds of self-esteem that I had left, and you have the
colossal nerve to tell me to own “my part” of the torturous mess that was our
relationship?? You’ve got a lot of nerve, Daniel,” she shook her head in
disgust. “Apparently some things never change.”

“Marilyn,”
he uttered angrily, his teeth clenched in a way that brought back far too many
memories of painful, belittling fights.

“Get
out of my shop, Daniel,” her tone was quietly ferocious. “And if you ever
darken my doorstep again, I’ll call the police,” she promised, seething.

A
vein down the center of her ex-husband’s forehead throbbed as he stared at her,
shocked to the core that she had actually stood up to him. He looked as though
he was about to say something, then thought better of it, turning on his heel
and stalking out the front door, daring to act offended. Marilyn took a deep
breath and let it out with a shudder of relief after he’d gone, wrapping her arms
around her middle and willing herself not to cry.

“Ms.
Hayes…are you okay?” she heard Kelcie ask softly from the doorway to the
kitchen.

Marilyn
turned around, having forgotten that the young woman was in the back putting
finishing touches on a batch of tarts. “Yes, Kelcie, I’m fine,” she nodded,
sounding shaken. “I’m sorry that you had to hear that,” she said quietly.

“Sounds
to me like divorcing that guy was probably a really good idea,” she observed,
wide-eyed.

“In
more ways than one, sweetie,” her boss mused, staring blankly at the door
through which her ex had just left.