Murder at Jade Cove (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Book 2) (15 page)

“
Here you are, Kelly. See
you in a couple of days.”

*****

Kelly left the coffee shop
a few minutes after Roxie, Madison, and Charlie had left for the day. “Come on,
Rebel. I need to pay Marcy a visit. I have no idea what I’m going to say, but I
have a hunch I need to go out there.”

A few minutes later when
she turned up the long driveway that led to the ranch house, she saw a large
SUV in the driveway with the words “Lewis Kennels” on it. She quickly stopped,
put the minivan in reverse, and drove back about two hundred feet. She parked
the van in a small clearing off to the side of the driveway. “Rebel, watch the
van. I have a feeling this isn’t going to take too long.”

Kelly opened the van’s
door and walked next to the gravel driveway in the grass, trying to make as
little noise as possible. The back of the house was surrounded by trees which
hid her from view. When she got close to the house she heard raised voices
coming through an open window. She looked around and didn’t see anyone.

That’s got to be Mrs.
Lewis’ SUV. Gabe has a silver colored car and anyway, he wouldn’t be driving
the Lewis Kennels car here. Angie said it was Mrs. Lewis’ business. I’m sure he
wouldn’t normally even have access to her car.

She crouched down under
the window and could clearly hear two raised voices. She listened for several
minutes.

“I’m not stupid. Everyone
knows you’ve been having an affair with my husband. I saw a lawyer yesterday
and started divorce proceedings against him. I don’t want Gabe to get my kennel
business. He’s in such bad financial trouble he’s been begging me to give him
the money I’ve earned from it, but there’s no way I’m going to do that. He may
have told you he loves you, but he just wants your money. Trust me, you’re not
the first. Between bad investments he’s made and the slump in the lumber
industry, he needs money just to meet payroll this week. Bet he didn’t tell you
that because it’s not too romantic.”

“Get out of my house, you
jealous liar. You’re crazy. Gabe’s offered to help me if I have any financial
needs and he wants to talk to Brandon about becoming his partner and building
the hotel and spa my husband was going to build here at Jade Cove before he
died.”

“If you really believe
that, you deserve him, but remember this, he’s a lying, cheating, conniving
business failure who will suck you dry and leave you penniless and out on the
street. Don’t bother to show me to the door. I can find my own way out.” She
slammed the front door shut and ran to her car. Seconds later Kelly heard the
sound of the engine roaring as the Lewis Kennels SUV sped down the driveway,
scattering gravel behind it.  Kelly quickly ran back to where her van was
parked in the small clearing, her heart beating wildly.

It looks for sure like
Marcy is the one who got the money out of the bank, but it sounds like she may
not have given it to Gabe yet. I wonder if she’s going to do it after what Mrs.
Lewis just told her. And if Gabe needs the money to make payroll this week,
something’s probably going to happen pretty soon. Mike needs to know about
this.

“Hi, Kelly. I just made a pot of
coffee. It’s getting cold out and it sounded good. Care to join me?” Mike said,
as she and Rebel came through the front door.

“Sounds great, although
I’m so wound up right now, I’m not sure I need any. I probably should go out to
the retreat center and take a yoga class, but it’s too close to dinner. I’ve
got so much to tell you, I don’t know where to start.”

“Start at the beginning,”
Mike said, handing her a cup of coffee. “That’s usually a good place.”

Kelly told him about Doc’s
conversation with Brandon and her visit to the Black’s ranch. When she
finished, he sat silently, trying to make sense of what she had told him.

“I had an interesting day
as well. Brandon hasn’t been high on my list of suspects, but I wanted to cross
all the t’s and dot all the i’s, so I called the resident adviser at the dorm
where he’s living at Oregon State University. He confirmed that he’d seen
Brandon the afternoon and evening of Jeff’s death. He was studying in his room
in the afternoon and was at dinner that evening. Brandon was definitely in
Corvallis at the time of Jeff’s death. Based on that information, I’ve
eliminated him as a suspect even though he profits from Jeff’s death more than
anyone else. As close as Brandon and Jeff were, I never did see him killing his
dad.”

“I’m glad. I never really
thought Brandon was the killer, but that still leaves us with several suspects.
It’s almost as if we need to determine who the killer is by process of elimination.”

“Kelly, I think I’ve
mentioned this before. It’s not ‘we’ who need to do this, it’s ‘I’ who needs to
do this. Am I making myself perfectly clear?”

“Of course. I meant you,
it’s just that we’re talking, so the ‘we’ came out.”

“Uh-huh.” Mike raised his
eyebrow and looked at her. “Let me continue,” he said, giving Kelly a dirty
look. “I found out that Bonnie was attending a public hearing on endangered
species at the capitol in Salem the afternoon and evening of Jeff’s death.
Actually, she spoke at the hearing. The meeting lasted into the early evening
hours. Several people confirmed she was there for all of it, so that eliminates
her. Another thing that bothered me about her was that Jeff was killed with a
bullet from a hunting rifle. I never could see Bonnie with a hunting rifle. It
goes against everything she speaks out about. Someone told me she was a strong
advocate for completely outlawing guns. She doesn’t think anyone except those
connected with law enforcement should own one. She’s also against hunting. Sort
of a strange position for her to take given the fact her husband is a hunter
and gun owner, but then again, Bonnie has always been a bit strange. Anyway,
for those reasons, I’ve pretty much eliminated her as a suspect. I know Brandon
or Bonnie could have hired a third party to kill Jeff, but I don’t think so. ”

“Okay, so we, whoops,
sorry Mike, so you still have several suspects. Let’s see, there’s the Indian
angle, Marcy, and Gabe. Is that everyone?”

“You left out Carlos
Delgado. We know he’s a shady drug cartel type of character, but I can’t see
how he would profit from Jeff’s death. If anything, the money he was getting
from Jeff dries up with Jeff’s death. I can’t think of anyone else. The Indian
angle still interests me. I know they can’t have firearms on the reservation,
but as I mentioned before, you can keep a firearm under a blanket in your car
or anywhere else, for that matter. The tribe members are known for being
excellent hunters and I imagine a number of them do have access to rifles. If
one of the members of the tribe did it, I wouldn’t know where to even start
trying to figure out which one it was.”

“I’ve gotten to like Chief
Many Trees,” Kelly said. “I really believe if he thought one of the members of
his tribe had done it, he’d tell you. He cares so much about his tribe. Even
though he hated Jeff for planning on building the hotel and spa on his property
and in his words, ‘defiling the tribe’s ancient burial grounds,’ I think you
should eliminate him based on his opposition to anyone having a gun on the
reservation,” Kelly said.

“Well, if I eliminate him
and the members of his tribe, that leaves me with Marcy and Gabe. Marcy had a
good reason to kill Jeff. He was divorcing her and she was going to lose her
home. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Marcy working or having an occupation to
fall back on. I imagine she was terrified about what the future might hold for
her and what her life was about to become. At her age, sponging off her sister
in Portland wouldn’t seem like a pleasant prospect for a proud and pampered
woman like Marcy. Don’t forget that I asked her if she had a gun and she said
she did.”

“Yes, and a three million
dollar life insurance policy provides a very good motive. That would go a long
way towards keeping the wolf from her door. We know she was having an affair
with Gabe, but I keep coming back to her role as a mother. Remember, I
mentioned early on that I think she’s a very good mother. When Amber was
murdered, she was really there for Brandon.  I was the one who told him Amber
had been killed and she was as supportive as any mother could be. Also, she
knew how close Brandon and Jeff were and how it would hurt Brandon if something
happened to Jeff. And if she is the killer, she had to be thinking about what
would happen to Brandon if she was convicted of being Jeff’s murderer. She
would go to prison for life and Brandon would essentially become an orphan. I
don’t think she would do that to Brandon, but I could be wrong,” Kelly said.

Mike continued talking.
“So that leaves us with Gabe as the prime suspect. We know he’s in real trouble
with his business. It’s totally dependent on the lumber industry being healthy.
He’s been hit twice with the slowdown in the lumber business. Once from getting
less money for the trees he harvests from his acreage, and secondly, from
diminishing business at his lumber mill. We also know he’s having an affair
with Marcy. Maybe he didn’t have an ulterior motive for having an affair with
Marcy, but given his desperate need for money, I doubt it.

“We know that the two of
them were engaged before he married the Sunset Bay woman, so it wouldn’t be
that strange for them to resume their prior relationship. Happens a lot. The
attraction is still there. Look how many high school lovers reconnect at a
class reunion. What we don’t know is whether he’s seriously in love with Marcy.
Maybe he was getting ready to divorce his wife and marry Marcy. Maybe he hoped
Marcy would get half of the Jade Cove property if she and Jeff got divorced and
he could sell it or subdivide it. It certainly is valuable land.”

“Well, if that’s true, it
all fell apart when Marcy was served with the divorce papers. I remember that
she said she’d told Gabe everything Lem had told her when he served her with
the papers and that would include the information about the life insurance
settlement. Then, don’t forget, they were at the bank and found out she’d been
left out of the will.”

“I haven’t forgotten
that,” Mike said, “but remember, they found out about the will after Jeff’s death.”

“That’s true. So if Gabe
killed Jeff to marry Marcy and get the property, thinking she would inherit it,
that plan fell completely apart when Gabe found out Jeff had left everything to
Brandon. The only thing left that would interest someone in dire financial
straits would be the proceeds from the life insurance policy,” Kelly said.

“Let’s face it, Gabe is
definitely desperate, and from what you overheard, he’s probably going to do
everything he can to get the insurance money from Marcy. I also keep thinking
back to when she told me about Carlos. I wonder how he figures into this. He
said he’d return and when he did, he wanted his money or else. Remember, he was
serious enough about it to have one of his men draw blood from Marcy’s throat
when he held a knife on her. Either way, Marcy could be in danger from Carlos
or in danger from Gabe. I wonder if anyone is at the ranch with her.”

“I don’t think so,” Kelly
said. “When I went out to the ranch this afternoon, I only heard two voices.
Now that I think about it, her sister wasn’t there when I took the cookies to
Marcy Sunday afternoon. She must have just stayed a day or so. Somewhere I
remember hearing that she’s much younger than Marcy and has small children. She
probably had to go home and take care of them.

“What do you say we call
it a night? I need to fix dinner. I brought some chicken pot pies home from the
coffee shop. I thought we’d have those and some cornbread I can reheat. It’s
been a tiring day and I’d prefer to have some leftovers rather than cook a full
meal, if you don’t mind.”

“Kelly, what you call
leftovers everyone else would call some of the best food they’d ever eaten.
Sounds great!”

“Almost forgot the best
part, Mike. I made some caramel sauce today and served it to customers over a
vanilla cake with ice cream. We can finish up with that.”

“Well, woman, quit talking
about it and just do it. This man is starving.”

Forty-five minutes later
Mike sat back and rubbed his stomach. “Kelly, that was fantastic. I’m stuffed
and happy. Think I’ll watch a little TV and then head for bed. How about you?”

“I’m whipped. I’ll clean
up these dishes and join you in a few minutes.”

Mike’s phone rang as he
stood up from the table. “This is Sheriff Mike.” He listened to the voice on
the other end of the phone. “What time did he say he’d be there?” He listened
again and looked at his watch. “On my way, Marcy. See you in a few minutes. If
he gets there before I do, try to stall him.”

“What…” Kelly started to
ask, but Mike held up his hand and punched in a couple of numbers on his phone.

“Rich, need you out at the
Black’s ranch ASAP. No siren. A man from Mexico by the name of Carlos Delgado
is on his way to Marcy’s and he’s probably armed and dangerous. There’s a
turn-out next to the driveway, about two hundred feet back from the ranch
house. Park there and walk up to the house. I’ll meet you there.”

“I’m going with you,
Mike,” Kelly said.

“No, you’re not. I want
you to stay here,” he said as he slammed the front door shut, jumped in his
car, and took off at a high rate of speed.