Marriage and Murder (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Book 4) (9 page)

“How goes the Jesse Allen case? Come
up with any new information today?” Kelly asked when Mike joined her in the
kitchen after changing out of his uniform.

“I did, but I’m just not
sure what to make of it. First of all, I told you that Jesse was in debt, but I
had no idea how bad it was. From going through his records yesterday and today,
I found out he owed over $300,000. That’s a lot of money to pay back, and on
top of that it looks like The Crush has been losing money every month for the
last year or so. I’m amazed he could even keep the doors open. He owned the
building, so he didn’t have to pay rent to a landlord, but I’m surprised his
creditors didn’t try to close him down. The only thing I can figure out is that
any money he got in he shuffled around, first paying one creditor, and then
another.”

“Poor guy. That must have
been horrible for him. He was so passionate about his wine and so
knowledgeable. It’s a shame he couldn’t make a go of it. Now I feel guilty about
his having brought us all the wine for our wedding and then he gave it to us at
cost.”

“I’ve been thinking the
same thing. Normally I’d think suicide in a case where someone was that deeply
in debt, but if he had commited suicide, the gun would have been in his hand
and it wasn’t, so I can rule that out.”

“I would too, but like you
said, there was definitely no gun in his hand.” She opened the oven door and put
the salmon they were going to have for dinner in it.

“Remember how I said last
night that I was going to contact the local paper and television station and
ask for help?”

“Yes.”

“Well, the newspaper is
probably just being delivered now, but the television station interviewed me on
their noon broadcast. Part of the interview was how people could get in touch
with me if they had information regarding the murder. This afternoon I got an
anonymous call from a male individual. Usually anyone who calls with
information in a murder case wants to remain anonymous, and this person told me
he’d been driving by the rear of The Crush a little before the approximate time
of the murder. I asked him if he’d noticed anything unusual. He told me he’d
seen someone going into The Crush, but when I asked him if he could tell me if it
was a man or a woman, he said no.”

“That’s interesting. What
do you make of it?”

“I don’t know. It could
have just been a customer who saw Jesse going in and thought he was open for
business. On the other hand, it could have been the killer. I asked him if the
person he’d seen was small or large and if there was any kind of physical
description he could give me. He said he wasn’t paying that much attention,
just that he’d noticed someone walking into the store. It doesn’t really give
me much information, but the fact that someone went into the store so close to
the time of the murder might mean something.”

“Have you established
where the people who are on your list of possible suspects were at the time of
murder?”

“No. That’s what I’m going
to do tomorrow. By the way, Roxie called me and said to tell you that she’d
locked up and gotten everything ready for tomorrow. I asked her why you hadn’t
locked up, and she said you had an errand you had to run and that you never
returned to the coffee shop after you left today. Is this something I should
know about?” he asked, looking closely at her with an almost suspicious look on
his face.

“No, not really,” she
said, quickly turning her back on him while she made the salad.

“Well, since we’re married
I think it would be nice if we trusted each other enough to tell the other one
where we were when one of our business associates had to do something for us
because we weren’t available to do it. Something the spouse had always been
able to do before. Seems to me that would kind of be an important thing to do
in our marriage. What do you think?”

Lady barked, indicating
she was ready for dinner.
Saved by the bark,
Kelly thought, sending a
silent thank you to Lady. “Okay, girl, I know it’s dinner time for you and
Rebel. Give me just a minute.”

As she poured some dog
food into their dog dishes, she heard Mike say “This is Sheriff Mike,” into his
cell phone. Mike listened intently to what was being said. “I appreciate your
call, sir, and if you can think of anything else, please don’t hesitate to call
me again.”

“What was that all about?”
she asked.

“The newspaper I told you
about was delivered a little while ago, and the article about Jesse and my call
for help to the community was on the front page. The man who just called said
he was walking by The Crush on his way home from church, and he heard loud
voices coming from inside the store. He said it sounded like people were
arguing, but he couldn’t tell whether it was a man’s voice or a woman’s voice.”

“That would certainly fit
in with the time frame of the murder. It almost had to be Jesse, but I wonder
who he was arguing with.”

“If I, and I repeat the
word I, knew, I could probably solve the case. Now back to what we were
discussing before the phone call. I won’t force it, but I would like to know
where you were this afternoon. Kelly, I love you, and I worry about you.
Sometimes you go off half-cocked, and it could be dangerous for you. All of my
instincts tell me your absence from the coffee shop was one of those times.
Would I be right?”

“All right Mike, you got
me. You’re probably not going to be too happy about what I did, but you have to
believe me when I tell you I was just trying to help you.” She told him about
calling Dave, the AA meeting, following Richard Larson, and finally researching
him on the Internet.

For a long time Mike looked
at her. “I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe you took such a risk. Honey,
please, please, please don’t do things like that. I’m scared to death
something’s going to happen to you. What if he is the one who murdered Jesse,
and if he’d spotted you, who knows what might have happened? On the other hand,
I have to give you credit for coming up with a pretty ingenuous plan for
finding out the identity of this AA mystery man.”

“See Mike, I’ve been
telling you that you need me. I really can help you.”

“Let me say a couple of
things, and then let’s talk about something else. I want the information you
found out about the guy. I need to establish his whereabouts on the day of the
murder. Secondly, I want you to keep the gun I bought you in your purse, and I
want Lady with you at all times. If you can promise me you’ll do that, I’ll
forget about what you did this afternoon, and I won’t get angry.”

“You have my word.
Remember, it’s not good to eat when you’re angry, and you probably wouldn’t
enjoy dinner if you were. I promise you Mike, Lady and the gun will be with me
from now on, but I don’t know exactly what I should be frightened of.”

“I don’t either, but I
just have a hunch you need to do those two things, and I’ve been in this game
long enough to know that if I have a hunch about something, I better follow it.
Deal?”

“Deal.”

The coffee shop was just as busy as
it had been during the previous two days. People wanted to find out what was
happening in the murder case and commiserate about the crime wave that had descended
on their sleepy little town of Cedar Bay.

I need to take a break
, Kelly thought, walking
into the kitchen to make sure Charlie had things ready for the lunchtime crowd.
She went over to a chair in the corner that was there just for that purpose.
She took her phone out of her purse, wanting to see if Mike had left a message
for her.

No message from Mike, but
this is interesting. There’s a voicemail from Sophie this morning asking me to
call her
.
I wonder what she wants. I probably should go out in front, but first I
think I’ll return her call. I’m curious.

“
Good morning, Sophie, it’s
Kelly Conner, oops, Kelly Reynolds,” she said when Sophie answered her phone. “I
received your message to call you.”

“That was fast. Thank
you,” Sophie said in her soft voice with a heavy French accent. “I’ve been
debating about calling you, because I wanted to tell you a couple of things. I
don’t think very many people knew that Jesse owed money to his creditors. He
was getting panicked about where he could find the money to pay them back. He
told me they were making harassing calls to him day and night. I offered to
loan him the money many times, but he wouldn’t take my money. He told me that
only weak men took money from women. He said I would think the only reason he
was with me was because of my money. I didn’t tell you this, but the morning he
was killed we had a bitter argument over it. I went to see him at the store
after church, and I told him his refusal to accept my offer was affecting our
relationship. I could tell he was getting depressed, and I begged him to take
my money. I have more than I need, but he refused. Now I wonder if someone
killed him over some debt that he owed.” Kelly heard her sobbing softly on the
other end of the phone.

“Do you know if any of his
creditors had ever threatened him? How did he deal with them when they called?
Do you know if he borrowed money from individual people, or was it more that he
owed companies that did business with him?”

“I don’t know, Kelly. He didn’t
like to talk about it. I only found out when I overheard him talking to someone
on the phone a few weeks ago. I asked him about the call, and that was when he
told me he owed a lot of money. I asked him how much, and he told me it was
around $300,000. I asked him if he had been sued or if people had tried to take
his business from him. He said no, because as soon as he received any money, he
would give some of it first to one creditor, then to another. He said it was
getting harder and harder to juggle the money he received. That’s all I know.
Like I said, he didn’t want to talk about it, and he wouldn’t accept my money.”
Kelly heard her sigh and take a deep breath.

She continued, “When I
left The Crush, he told me after the store closed that evening he would come to
my house, and we would have dinner. As I drove away from the rear parking lot
and turned the corner to drive home, I noticed someone going into his store.”

“Did you recognize who it
was?”

“No. I don’t even know if it
was a man or a woman. The only thing I remember is that they were bundled up in
a hat and a coat. That’s all I know.”

“Thanks for calling,
Sophie. I’ll tell Mike. I’m sure he can find out who Jesse’s major creditors
were. How are you doing?”

“Well, to be honest, not
so good. I really cared for him, and I’m so sad now that he’s gone. Several of
my friends here in Portland have been helping me get through this. They are trying
to keep me busy by taking me out to lunch and dinner. My life has not been an
easy one, and I’ve gotten through bad things before. I know I can do it again
this time.

“One of my friends even
volunteered to drive to my home on the coast and oversee a moving company load
up everything in the house. I think I’ll probably put most of the things that
were in the house up for auction. It would be too painful for me to see things
like the art glass that Jesse and I bought together. I’ve called a real estate
agent, and the house will be put up for sale soon. I have to go, someone’s at
that door.
Au revoir,”
she said
as she hung up the phone.

Yes,
Kelly thought
, I think
you will get through this. I imagine you’re already looking to the future and
letting go of the past, and who am I to judge? Au revoir. I don’t want to think
that you killed Jesse, but you certainly seem to be letting go of your grief
awfully fast and selling the house and all the contents within it just days
after Jesse’s death. Gives a new meaning to the old slang saying, “Getting out
of Dodge.” Oh well, who knows how any of us would react in that situation?

*****

“Okay, Lady, just a few more minutes,
and we’re out of here for the day,” Kelly said, making sure everything had been
turned off in the kitchen. She was just getting ready to turn off the lights
when she heard the front door to the coffee shop open and saw Celia Parsons
walking in.

“Hi, Celia, I’m closing up
for the day, so I’m afraid I can’t offer you anything. Sorry,” she said,
noticing Celia’s eyes, shining like fiery coals, and her hair, unkempt and
lank, plastered to her scalp.

Good grief. I’m not a
psychologist, but I’d swear this woman looks like she’s become unhinged. I
wonder what’s going on with her,
Kelly thought.

“I didn’t come here to
eat. I came here to get your support for the Historical Society. You don’t have
a sign in the window showing that you’re a member, and I checked and don’t see
where you’ve ever given any money to our organization.”

“That’s true. I don’t have
any extra time to donate to the Society, but I certainly support it. I think
it’s wonderful you’re working hard to preserve the history of Cedar Bay.”

“It’s more than the
history. The Society is about preserving a way of life. We consider what we
have here in Cedar Bay precious, and we have to work hard to keep it that way.
I was really happy that Jeff Black’s son decided not to build that hotel and
spa on his property last year after Jeff was killed. Who knows what would have
happened if the riffraff that works at those places had come here? It’s bad
enough the Planning Commission granted a permit for Sophie Marchant to build
that monstrosity of a house overlooking the bay. Best thing that could happen to
this town is for that eyesore to burn down.”

“Surely, you don’t mean
that. I agree it’s not in keeping with most of the architectural styles here in
Cedar Bay, but I’d hate for anything like that to happen.”

“Well, if it did, it might
keep that woman from ever coming back here. She didn’t fool our members. We
know when someone doesn’t belong here, and we sure don’t need any foreigners
here, particularly some fancy French woman. Maybe it’s a good thing my brother
died. At least she won’t have him as an excuse to stay here in Cedar Bay.”

“I’m sorry, Celia, but I
can’t agree with you. One of the things that has made this town strong and come
together in times of tragedy is because of the diversity we have in this
community. I mean, look at the number of different church denominations we
have. Certainly, you’d have to agree that the townspeople overall get along
well with each other. It’s unreasonable to expect that everyone would think and
believe the same way. No, if someone is an honest citizen who adds to the
community, rather than taking from it, I think there’s a place for that person here
in Cedar Bay. You may not agree, and that’s your right, just like it’s the
right of other people to live as they wish.”

“So are you telling me you
won’t support the Historical Society? Even if you can’t donate your time, you can
donate some of your money. A lot of your customers do, and they’d probably like
to see a sign in your window showing that you support the Historical Society.
Be a shame if something happened to you or this crummy little hole-in-the-wall coffee
shop of yours, considering how long it’s been around,” Celia said in a
threatening tone of voice that was rising in intensity as she spoke.

Lady sensed that something
was wrong and walked over to Kelly, facing Celia, a low growl coming from her
throat. “Lady, hush,” Kelly said. “Celia, it’s been nice talking to you. I have
an appointment, and I don’t want to be late. You’ll have to leave now.”

“Fine. Don’t say I didn’t
warn you,” she said, turning around so quickly her purse flew open, and several
things fell out of it and onto the floor. Kelly stooped down to help her pick them
up.

That’s weird. Her business
card says “Cedar Bay Historical Society – Established in 1907.” I’d swear I’ve
seen something recently that kind of looked like the logo on her card, but for
the life of me I can’t remember what it was or where I saw it.

“Here you are, Celia,” she
said, handing the items she’d picked up to Celia. “I’ll think about what you
said and let you know. Thanks for stopping by. Lady, come.”

Celia strode down the
pier, not bothering to thank Kelly for helping her pick up what she’d spilled
out of her purse.

I can’t think of two
siblings more different from each other. Jesse was one of the nicest people
I’ve ever met, and Celia’s not only one of the most abrasive people I’ve ever
met, I’m beginning to think she’s deranged. Maybe it’s a good thing for Sophie that
she won’t be marrying Jesse. I can’t imagine having a worse sister-in-law.