Murder in Death's Door County (26 page)

Donovan’s eyebrows shot up, “Lizzy fell
in a pit! This is a story I must hear!”

“What must you hear?” Lizzy joined us at
that exact moment. Donovan made all of the introductions, which Lizzy took in
stride. “So, you are the blonde we kept seeing?”

“Yep. Marcos had asked me to kind of
keep an eye on you. He knew what had happened to Harry, so he went into hiding
while the gang regrouped. Between myself and Donovan, I think we had our hands
full keeping you two safe.” I bristled a little bit at that comment, but I
suppose she had a point. Lizzy and I did seem to attract trouble.

Donovan directed us towards a table and
left to grab us all drinks and food. I got up to join them, and he motioned me
down, “Let Marcos and Diana tell you their story.” I smiled and nodded.

So, Marcos and Diana put all of the pieces
of the story together for me. Marcos started first, “About six years ago, the
FBI called me in for a special project. They had a lead on the head of an
International Crime Organization, but they couldn’t pin him down. The guy was
based out of the U.S., hence the FBI’s involvement, but he could easily move
around. He was like a chameleon.”

“Has anyone ever seen him?”

“Had, you mean. He passed away a few
years ago.” Marcos gave a little laugh, “I had forgotten how much you liked to
interrupt with questions.”

“Sorry.” Embarrassed at my faux pas, I
looked down.

“Hey, Annie, don’t worry about it. I’m
just joking with you. I felt bad when you were interviewing me. I knew I had to
pretend to be one way, it really… ach, it doesn’t matter anymore. Anyway, yeah,
this guy was hard to catch. And, he had his grubby paws in everything! So, they
wanted me to go deep undercover. Originally, Diana wasn’t supposed to come up
with me, but I pitched a fit. I told them I wouldn’t come up, that all of the
contacts and connections I had made would be nothing, because I needed to have
Diana with me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to see her for a year otherwise. So,
we moved up here.

“For the first couple of years, they had
me do little crimes to ‘prove’ myself to the group. Then, about two years ago,
they invited me on as the head of their Gems Division.”

“Did you actually steal the jewels?”

“No, underlings did that part. Actually,
Harry was one of our best mules.”

“But what I don’t get is, why the book?
I mean, weren’t you trying to keep a low profile?”

“That’s just it, with Harry’s business,
it seemed like a reasonable project to start. That way, his frequent trips up
here would be explained. But then, Harry got killed and you got blamed. And I
went into hiding.”

“Wait a minute! Are you the one who got
me off the hook when Chad Dupah was questioning me?”

“I can’t stand that guy. You seemed like
too nice a kid to get questioned by that jerk.”

“Thanks, but how did you know I was even
at the police station?”

“Donovan told me. Back when I first went
deep undercover, we had set up a complicated (but fast) method of
communication. I could tell he was starting to have feelings for you even then.”

“He was?” At that moment, the subject of
the conversation came back laden with a tray of drinks and a plate of
appetizers.

“Did I miss anything?” Donovan asked. I
looked over at Marcos, who winked at me.

“Okay, so why was Harry killed then?”

“My guess is he had done something to
displease ‘Her Majesty’.”

“Her Majesty?”

“I’m sorry, I meant Cindy. When she took
over from her father, right after he made me head of jewel thefts, she changed
quite a few things. She started making us more visible. Harry felt
uncomfortable about it. He also felt uneasy about his business being used by
this side business. He had business partners to deal with and worried that
there could be problems. As it turns out, he was right.

“On that ill-fated Saturday night, Cindy
crept up to his room after her shift at the Lighthouse. She was just going to
talk to him, try to keep him with the organization. But he was insistent on
leaving. So, she left, but she didn’t leave the building. She stayed in the
shadows until Harry drew his bath. After he got in the tub, she tried to reason
with him again. However, this time she brought hardware with her.”

“A gun?”

Marcos nodded. “Poor guy didn’t have a
chance. And, of course, you happened upon the body.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Diana had been following Cindy.”

“Diana?”

“Yeah, she’s been a huge help on this
case. She couldn’t really get a regular job up here. Since I was undercover and
all, she bided her time making inroads with the more delicate aspects of the
organization. She’s been my eyes and ears. Thanks, honey.”

“Don’t mention it, babe.” Marcos kissed
Diana soundly, then Diana took over the story.

“When Marcos went into hiding, as I’ve
mentioned, I kept an eye on you both.” Again, Diana gestured to Lizzy and me. “Please
don’t be offended. I felt it was my duty to Marcos. Annie, he felt responsible
for the mess you were in. But he couldn’t tell anybody without jeopardizing
years and years of work.”

“Was that you who sent us the Haunted
House Guided Tour tickets?” This time it was Lizzy who interrupted. “And, who
killed Joyce?”

Diana smiled at her, “It was. I figured
it would be a fun outing for you both and I knew you would be able to give your
‘guard’ the slip. Unfortunately, Joyce had seen too much. Apparently, Cindy
overhead the arrangements you had made to talk to her and got to her first.
They slipped her some arsenic. Well, and blew up her house. But, as you know,
the arsenic killed her before her house got blown up.”

“That’s too bad. I’m sorry that Joyce
paid the price for trying to help us. And about the bodyguards, Donovan,” I
said, turning to Donovan. “I know that the FBI doesn’t give people a guard if
they are just normal people. How did regular old Lizzy and I get a guard?”

Donovan looked at us rather sheepishly, “I
paid for your guards personally.” He ran his fingers through his hair, “I’m
sorry if it seems presumptuous that I did that. I just knew who we were dealing
with, and I was worried about you and Lizzy.”

“Also, how did you find me? Where had
they taken me again? To Washington Island, which is pretty far north?”

“When you got your new phone… well, do
you remember when I was playing with it?” I nodded. “I activated your GPS
function. You’re not mad, are you? I just knew that you and Lizzy would rush
madly into where angels fear to tread.”

“I guess it’s better to be safe than
sorry. And your fears do appear to have been well-founded. So, I’m not mad. Are
you mad, Lizzy?”

“I’m only mad that my drink is dead,”
Lizzy said before she got up to get another cocktail.

“Marcos, isn’t that Ed Peters?” Diana
said, getting up. “Excuse us, please. Honey, we really should go say hi to him.”

“I’m right behind you.” Marcos got up
too, and, suddenly, Donovan and I were alone at the table.

I dimpled as I smiled at him.

“It should be against the law when you
do that,” Donovan said.

“Do what?” I asked innocently. I smiled
a little more.

“Okay, before you drive me completely
distracted. There’s a couple of things I need to talk to you about.”

Here it comes. He’s going to tell me
about the wife he has locked in the attic.

“By the way, Annie, what are your plans
now that the book is definitely defunct?”

“Well, I have that bonus Harry gave me,
so I can pay off some bills and put the rest in the bank. Then I guess I’ll
take Kitty up on her offer of working here at the Lighthouse.”

“So, you’re going to stay up here?”

“I am. What are your plans? I suppose
you have to move to a bigger city for the FBI, especially since your cover is
blown…” I couldn’t help but be sad at that thought. I had really grown to like
Donovan and wanted to see where things would go.

“Actually, much like you, I’ve kind of
fallen in love with Door County.” Somehow, I knew he didn’t really mean Door
County.

“And?”

“And, I’m going to stay too. Maybe I
really will become an insurance agent.” He grinned down at me.

All I could do was smile, before I
remembered, “Hey, you said a ‘couple of things’. What else did you want to
discuss?”

“Cindy Devlin (which was an alias of
Cynthia Tasios) had a bounty on her head, dead or alive.”

“A bounty? And did she really think ‘Cindy’
was an effective alias for ‘Cynthia’? It’s the same name! It’s like saying ‘Jackie’
is an alias for ‘Jacqueline’. She wasn’t really that bright, was she?”

Donovan cleared his throat, and
continued, “Well, it would seem that the reward was significant.”

“How significant?”

“Five hundred thousand dollars.”

“And you are telling me this because…”

“You kind of caught her. I mean Marcos
did a lot of the legwork, but he can’t collect the money anyway. Besides, you
were the one who got the confession out of her, right?”

“Yeah.” I could barely speak. Donovan
took advantage of the situation to give me a kiss that curled my toes. Mmmm… I
think I was falling in love with Door County, too.

You’ve
finished this little cozy mystery. I hope you liked it…

Stop and say Hi to me at http://www.elizabethrosemysteries.com!
I would love to hear from you!

Acknowledgements

Thank you to all of the
wonderful people who helped me with this book in many different ways. Thanks be
to God that I finally got all of the words for this book out of me and into
book form. And, I am grateful for the wonderful support I received while
writing this book, especially from my dearest Bill.