Kelly's Koffee Shop (A Cedar Bay Cozy Mystey Book 1) (12 page)

“I don’t know how she
could not know. The smell alone would have alerted her that something was going
on. If Brandon knew, I find it hard to believe that Marcy didn’t, but it really
doesn’t make any difference. The ranch is solely in his name. The only thing
she’s done is live on a property where marijuana was being grown and that’s not
a crime. If she did know, I imagine she’s going to spend a lot of sleepless
nights thinking about the damage the crop that was grown on her husband’s ranch
might have done to a lot of people. Brandon remembered a dinner conversation
one evening between his mother and Amber. They were talking about the fact that
marijuana was being legalized in so many states and they both were very opposed
to marijuana becoming legal.”

“Well, if she said that,
you wouldn’t think she knew about what was being grown on the property.”

“Aah, Kelly. One of the
reasons I love you is that you like to believe people are basically good. Think
about it. Money buys a lot of nice things and Marcy likes nice things,
particularly jewelry. Just because she said that to Amber doesn’t mean she
didn’t know about it. It may have been a lot easier to look the other way and
take the things the money from the crops could get her. Anyway, that’s what’s
happening out at the ranch. I have one more troubling thing to tell you.”

“Swell. I’m not sure I can
take much more. Okay, tell me what it is.”

“I got a call from Seth
Morrison, the computer guy. Chris took his computer into the shop Saturday,
before the funeral. He told Chris it was frozen and he couldn’t get it to work.
Seth told him he couldn’t look at it right then because he had several others
he had to fix first. He finally was able to get to it yesterday afternoon. He
decided to see if the problem was on the hard drive. When he opened the hard
drive he found a number of child pornography sites on it. He pulled up a couple
and given Amber’s death, thought I should know. This, coupled with what I’d
already found out about his previous activities makes Chris a suspect in my
book.”

“Great. The list just
keeps growing. Can you arrest him for something like having child pornography
on his computer?”

“Technically I could since
Seth told me he found some child pornography on it, but I’ve decided not to
arrest him. I’d rather hold off and see if he’s Amber’s killer. So that makes
three suspects, Jeff, Doc and Chris. And I’d have to add Brandon to that list.
We don’t know for sure that he didn’t kill her. That makes four suspects. To
change the subject, have you ever been on Chris’s boat?”

“No, why?”

“If Chris killed Amber,
he’d have to get her body in the water without being seen. I can’t believe
someone wouldn’t have seen him if he just dropped her overboard from his boat.
The autopsy showed she was murdered early in the morning. I wonder if he has a
rowboat.”

“If he did it, do you
think he used a rowboat to dispose of Amber’s body? I remember talking to him a
few months ago, kidding him about how he stayed in such good shape because his
boat was too small to have much exercise equipment on board. He mentioned
something about rowing every morning when he got up. Said it was the best
exercise he’d ever found, plus he liked the peace and quiet on the water early
in the morning.”

“Hmm. That would certainly
be one way to dispose of a body. Think I need to pay him a visit and take a
look at his boating set up.”

“Mike, I know you didn’t
say it, but are you thinking that if Chris is the killer, he’s also Amber’s
mystery man? I guess I can answer my own question. If he’s the mystery man and
the father of her child, can you imagine what the townspeople would have
thought? If Amber had lived they probably would have rallied around Brandon if
it turned out Brandon was the father. But Chris? I think they’d have his head
on a platter. Having Amber’s English teacher and the football coach father her
child when everyone knows that she and Brandon were very serious about each
other? Tongues would wag for months over that one.

“And if that’s true, Chris
would have a powerful motive for killing Amber,” Kelly said. “He’s already been
fired from one school district for putting pictures of himself and an underage
girl on a child pornography site. If nothing else, he would have been fired by
our school district for having sex with a minor. Good grief, what a mess. And
we’re still no closer to finding out who did it. I wonder who else has a
motive? Got anyone in mind?”

“No. I think it will all
come to a head in the next few days. Meanwhile, how about fixing me some
dinner? The county fire chief called me as soon as the fire broke out at three
this morning and I’m whipped. Hate to eat and run, but don’t think I’d be much
company tonight.”

“Kelly,” Mike said when he
finished eating, “I don’t know how you work your magic, but I always feel so
much better when I’m with you, to say nothing of how great my stomach feels.
Who else can make a stuffed pork loin on a moment’s notice with fresh green
beans and a strawberry tart? Ummm. At the moment, this happy man is going home
and sleep. I’ll give you a call tomorrow. Thanks for being here for me.”

“Mike, please believe me
when I say I love making your life easier. And when you’re a cook and someone
loves your food, you just keep wanting to do more for them. Go now, or I might
ask you to stay and as relaxed as you are at the moment, you might just do it.”

“Rebel, we’ve got some work to do.
I’ve got to deliver some breakfast goodies to the yacht club for the meeting
tomorrow morning. As long as I’m going to be at the marina, I’m going to wrap
up the last of the strawberry tart and we’re going to pay someone a visit.”

Ten minutes later she
parked her minivan in the parking lot next to the pier. Adjacent to the pier
was a small marina owned by the county. The marina consisted of a floating dock
and boat slips for approximately thirty boats. Private boat owners leased the
boat slips from the county for a nominal sum. Kelly walked down the gangway
that led to the dock and started looking for Chris’s boat.

From the conversations
she’d had with Chris over the last few months, she had a pretty good idea of
where his boat slip was located. He’d told her he had a 35’ sailboat and that
it had a teak deck which required a lot of upkeep. He’d also mentioned it was
located on the end of the dock. She looked at the row of boats and there, at
the end of the dock, she saw it.

“C’mon Rebel. Let’s
deliver this strawberry tart to Chris.”

She stepped on the boat’s
gunwale, walked around to the rear of the boat, and knocked on the sliding
glass door to let Chris know someone was aboard. She saw him sitting on a
leather couch, reading, and waved to him when he looked up. He walked over to
the sliding door and opened it for them. “Kelly, Rebel, this is a surprise.
Please, come in. What’s the occasion for the visit?”

“Well,” she said. “I had
to deliver a coffee cake and a French toast casserole to the yacht club for
their monthly business meeting tomorrow morning. Since I was coming down here
and I had a leftover piece of one of your favorites in my refrigerator, I
thought I’d drop it off. Here.” She handed him the tart. “Enjoy!”

“Thanks. I’ll have it as a
late dessert. Funny you should mention the yacht club. Every time I walk up the
gangway and see that dilapidated old building they call a yacht club, I have to
laugh to myself. I’m surprised they have enough money to pay you to fix something
for them.”

“Chris, that club has been
around longer than I have. The members pay just enough to keep it open. I’ve
been preparing breakfast snacks for their monthly business meetings for years.
I can’t believe they have much business to discuss. I think it’s more a matter
of having a reason to get together.”

“Well, from the bar
business they do in the evening, I don’t think having a reason to get together
is a problem. Probably a good thing they don’t have a restaurant in there or
I’d hear them all night. As it is, it’s pretty lively around the cocktail
hour.”

“So I hear. By the way, I
have a view of the bay from my house and from the few lights I see on the boats
at night, there must not be many people living on them.”

“That’s true. The marina
holds thirty boats and out of those there are only three or four of us who live
aboard. I love everything about the ocean. I love the smell, the water lapping
against the sides of the boat, and the way the ocean rocks me to sleep at
night. It never fails to work for me. Let me show her to you.”

She followed him while he
showed her how he could convert the kitchen counter into a dining table and the
compactness of the bathroom and his bedroom. It was one of the most tastefully
done interiors she had ever seen. She marveled at how efficient everything was
on the boat.

“Chris, this is beautiful.
You’d mentioned that the teak deck required a lot of upkeep. Looks like the
interior does as well.”

“Yes. This is an old boat.
I don’t think they make them like this anymore. It’s my home and my hobby.
Everything I need is here. I never wanted to be tied to mowing the lawn and all
the other stuff that goes with having a traditional home. I wish I had time to
take her out more. Teaching and coaching as well as all the other obligations I
have at school don’t allow me to have much free time, but occasionally I make
time to take her out for a sail.”

“Chris, your boat is one
of the most inviting homes I’ve ever seen. The dark wood paneling, the leather
couch and chair, everything. Not only is the exterior of the boat beautiful,
the interior is just as beautiful. I couldn’t see the name on the boat when I
walked up. What do you call her?”

“I named her Avalon. Being
an English teacher, I’m a big King Arthur fan. According to Arthurian legend,
it was the island where King Arthur’s sword Excalibur was forged. In the more
modern context, it means a one-of-a-kind woman. Since boats are always referred
to as ‘she,’ I thought the name was perfect for a one-of-a-kind boat.”

“Beautiful. I love it.
Thanks for sharing her story with me. I remember you telling me once that you
rowed every morning. I assume you do it in the dinghy I saw tied to the side of
the boat. Do you go to the same place every morning?”

“Pretty much. I don’t like
to go too far out in the dinghy. It doesn’t have a motor and while I’m pretty
good at rowing, I don’t want to be out in the open ocean in a storm, so I’m
usually within a couple of hundred yards from shore. I go south one day and
north the next to break it up, but with Mother Nature being like she is, no two
days are alike. I’ve seen incredible sights – whales, seals, eagles – and those
are just a few!”

“Well, from the exercise
weights I see over in the corner, it looks like rowing isn’t your only form of
exercise,” Kelly said, a worried look appearing on her face. She started to
walk over to them, remembering that the burlap bag found with Amber’s body had
free weights in it.

Chris picked up on the
change in her attitude, stepped in front of her and said, “Kelly, thanks for
bringing the tart to me. I’d love you to stay and talk, but we both have to get
up early. I’ll see you at the usual time tomorrow,” he said opening the sliding
glass door for her. She and Rebel had no choice but to walk through it.

Well now, that’s
interesting. He’s certainly moved to the top of my suspect list. Free weights,
a dinghy, and a man who could easily row a boat out several hundred yards and
drop a body over the side. Hmmm. Think I better call Mike when I get home.

*****

“Mike, I’m glad you answered. Chris
has just gone to the top of my suspect list.”

“Your suspect list?” he
asked, emphasizing the word “your.” “In case you’ve forgotten, and you seem to
have, I’m the county sheriff and you are the owner of Kelly’s Koffee Shop. What
have you done now?”

“Well, after you left, I
got to thinking.”

He interrupted her.
“That’s dangerous. Whenever you say that, I get nervous.”

She was glad she was
talking to him on the phone because he probably wouldn’t have appreciated the
dirty look she gave him via the phone. “Anyway, I remembered that Chris told me
he got his exercise every morning from rowing his dinghy in the ocean. I had to
deliver a couple of things to the yacht club for their monthly business meeting
tomorrow morning, so I thought I’d take him a leftover piece of strawberry
tart. I know it’s one of his favorites. You know, the one you like so much.”

“Kelly,” he interrupted,
“I’m not interested in the strawberry tart right now. What did you find out?”

“I’m going to overlook the
tone of your voice and chalk it up to your being tired.”

“I’m sorry I snapped and I
am tired. So what did you find out?”

“His boat is beautiful and
I saw the dinghy he owns. He rows it every morning a few hundred yards from
shore. He also had some free weights in a corner of the boat.”

“Free weights? Are you
sure? That’s really interesting. You do remember, don’t you, that Amber’s body
was weighted down with them. And someone who rows every morning probably
wouldn’t attract any attention when they took their boat out. He’s strong
enough he could easily lift her body into his dinghy and then drop it overboard
when he was out of sight. Do you think he had any idea why you were there?”