Murder to Go (The Heights Bed and Breakfast Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) (4 page)

“Karl
is the only one of them who followed through with them. I guess Monica was
collateral damage.”
Babs took hold of Karl’s
elbow and turned him around. “Karl Jacobson, you’re under arrest for the murder
of Paul Tenboom and Monica Rorschach. You have the right to remain silent.”

Carolyn
looked around in a panic, but the others stared at the scene in horror. “You
can’t do this!”

Babs
turned on her. “Please calm down.
If you don't
stop interfering in my arrest, I'll have to charge you with obstruction of
justice. You can see him after we process him. I can let you know when you can
come down to the station.”

Carolyn
stared at her. This couldn’t be happening. “Please, Detective. I didn’t mean to
interfere. I just want to help my husband.”

“You
can help him by hiring
him a good lawyer,” Babs suggested.
“He’ll have a bail hearing in the morning, but capital murder suspects don’t
get bail for any amount of money you could afford. You would have to mortgage
this whole building to get him out of jail.”

“You
have the wrong man, Detective,” Carolyn objected.

“You
can get in touch with me at the station to find out how the case is shaping
up.” Babs turned toward the door. “Take my advice, get yourself a lawyer.”

The rising
sun’s rays woke Carolyn early the next morning. She had stayed up all night
reading over Porky’s blog, hoping to find someone who might have had the
opportunity to kill Porky and Monica by the beach. She rose and threw on a
bathrobe and headed into the kitchen.

Sarah
was cooking on the small stovetop. There was a smell of bacon mixed with the
aroma of coffee, but neither soothed Carolyn as she sat down at the breakfast
table. She buried her face in her hands. “How could this happen? Karl would
never kill anybody. There must be something we can do to clear his name.”

Sarah
patted and rubbed her mother’s back.

Carolyn
brushed her tears aside with her sleeve and sat up straight. “I can’t fall
apart like this. I’m just over tired. I have to pull myself together.”

“Let
me make you some breakfast, Mom.” Sarah walked to the stove and cracked an egg
into the frying pan. The egg sizzled as it hit the surface. Carolyn didn’t
realize how hungry she was until her daughter placed a plate of bacon and eggs
under her nose.

“Half
and half in your coffee, right Mom?” Sarah asked as she slid the cup in front
of her mother.

“Yes,
I’ll add the sugar.” Carolyn told her as she scooped out a spoonful from the
sugar bowl in the center of the table.

“What
can we do, Mom?” Sarah asked as she sat down at the table with her own
breakfast. She took a bite of her bacon before continuing, “I guess we’ll just
have to wait for the police to finish their investigation. They’ll turn up something
that proves Dad is innocent. This is one big misunderstanding.”

Carolyn
slapped her hands down on her thighs. “I'm not putting my trust in the
Evergreen Cove Police Department. No way! They probably couldn't find their way
out of the donut shop.”

Sarah
cringed. “Don’t talk like that, Mom. You saw that Detective Gillespie. She’s a
sharp cookie. I'll bet she's never set foot in a donut shop.”

Carolyn
snorted. “She’s just the one I would be most concerned about. I’m not sitting
around waiting for Babs Gillespie to prove your father innocent. If she thought
he was innocent, she would have avoided arresting him in the first place. No,
I'm not going to wait. I'm going to do something.”

“What
are you going to do?” Sarah asked. “You can’t solve this case.”

Carolyn
paused. “I can’t sit around wringing my hands. That’s the last thing I'm going
to do.
I might not solve it but I will prove
your father’s innocence.”

All
of a sudden, David stormed in. “I should have known something like this was
going to happen. We’re ruined.”

Sarah
whirled around. “David! What’s the matter?”

“All
the guests are leaving,” he cried. “They’ve all canceled the rest of their
stays. Someone wrote a review of The Heights with a link to today’s news
article about the murder.”

“Who
would do such a hateful thing?” Carolyn asked. “Karl was just taken away last
night. He hasn’t been convicted.”

“I
don’t know who it is,” David replied. “One of the guests just told me about it
as they were walking out the door. The post is telling people not to come here
unless you want a ham sandwich topped with poisonous mayo for lunch.”

Sarah
covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, no!”

“Someone’s
cashing in on the murder,” Carolyn remarked. “We have to find out who wrote
that review. I will look it up online right away.”

David
narrowed his eyes at her. “This is all your fault. Our business is ruined, and
it’s all because we took you and Karl in. I never wanted you in my house. Now I
am being punished for it.”

“Karl
did nothing wrong,” Carolyn shot back. “We all know he’s innocent.”

“Oh,
we do, do we?” David crowed.

“You
should be thanking him. You were probably getting a lot of buzz about having a
professional chef in your kitchen,” Carolyn pointed out. “He didn’t have to do
anything for you. He wanted to help you two out in the best way he could.
 
That man worked all day for you and this is
how you thank him, by coming in here and yelling at me. You should be ashamed
of yourself.”

David
jabbed the air with his finger. “Thanking him? The man has single handily
destroyed The Heights reputation. No one is going to stay here again. I don’t
think we could even sell the B & B if we put it up on the market. Karl is a
murderer. I’m not going to put up with someone making me feel that I did
something wrong.”

Carolyn
glared at him, but she couldn’t think of a remark nasty enough to counter him.

“Mom,
David is just upset right now. I don’t think any of us slept very well last
night.” Sarah placed a hand on her mother’s arm.

“This
isn’t just about your father, I think David and I need some space.” Carolyn
concluded.

She
hesitated for a fraction of an instant then she spun around on her heel and
stomped off to her room. She pulled out the suitcase, tossed it onto the bed
and started packing.

Sarah
came to the door, and flew to her mother’s side
when
she saw her mother packing her suitcase. “Don’t leave, Mom. We’re all on edge
here. Let us work it out somehow.”

Carolyn
didn’t look up. “I don’t want to work it out. If that’s the way he feels, maybe
it’s better that I stay somewhere else for a while.”

Sarah
tried to grab a hold of her mother’s hands. “Please don’t leave, Mom. Dad has been
arrested, and now the B & B is in trouble. I need you right now.”

David’s
voice floated through the door. “Let her leave.”

Carolyn
smiled at her daughter. “You have a husband now, darling, and you two have a
business to save.” She pulled her arm out of Sarah’s grasp and zipped her
suitcase closed. “You and David have been very generous in sharing your
apartment with us. You two should have your apartment back to yourselves. I can
take care of myself.”

“But
Mom…” Sarah pleaded.

“I’ll
be staying downtown if you need me,” Carolyn added before walking out of her
room.

“I
think Dad is innocent, too.” Sarah mumbled.

Carolyn
kissed her on the cheek. “I know you do, we just need to prove it.”

“Mrs.
Jacobsen, I just need a credit card for incidentals.” A young blonde girl
behind the desk asked without looking up. Her eyes were locked on her mobile
phone.

Carolyn
had never met this employee of Stan Kipling. She would have to tease Stan about
his hiring practices. Carolyn placed her credit card on the counter.

“Is
Stan around?” Carolyn inquired.

The young
clerk looked up giving her a tight-lipped smile as she ran the card through the
machine. “He’s in the restaurant at the moment. He doesn’t trust anyone to make
dinner as well as he does.”

Carolyn
chuckled. “That sounds familiar.”

“Is
there anything else
I can do for you?” the clerk
asked.

“I’m
an old friend of his,” Carolyn told her. “I just wanted to say hello and let
him know I’m here. If he’s busy, don't disturb him. I'll catch up with him
later.”

The clerk
looked at her credit card. “Carolyn Jacobson. You’re not the food blogger, are
you?”

“Yes,
I am,” Carolyn replied.

The
clerk’s eyes widened. “In that case, I better tell him you’re here.”

“Don’t
do that,” Carolyn told her. “I’m not here as a food blogger. I’m just a regular
guest. Let him work. I'll track him down later when he isn't so busy.”

“I
loved your review of Petey’s Pizza. I felt the same way about their crust. Like
a cracker.” The young clerk giggled as she handed Carolyn the key to her room.

“I
probably should give them another shot,” Carolyn remarked. “I am getting
hungry.”

“Stan
will definitely want to make something for you. Go unpack and I will let him
know.”

Carolyn
walked to her room and set her suitcase on the dresser. She sat on the end of
her bed with her laptop open on her lap. The neon sign for Stan’s Motel flashed
outside her window and made eerie patterns on her wall. Not even the curtain
blocked out the red and blue light.

She
buried herself in her blog
to erase the memory
of the argument
at The Heights. She had settled
down and knew she should have handled the situation better. Nonetheless, the
time apart should be good.
She wrote her next
blog post and checked her email again, but she couldn’t focus.

She opened
her browser and searched half a dozen sites before she found what she was
looking for. A blog post titled ‘
Murderer
in the kitchen’
. She read halfway through the review of The Heights, but
she had to close her eyes to stop herself from reading the rest of it.

“Oh,
my goodness. It really is awful, isn’t it?”

Her
phone rang. That gave her the excuse she needed to close
her computer. “Oh, hello, sweetie. How are you?”

“You
have to come back home, Mom,” Sarah insisted. “I can’t let you leave like this.
I really loved having you and Dad around, too. I never thought I would want to
live with my parents, but I didn’t realize until after you left how important
it is to me to have you two around. Come back, and we’ll patch things up with
David.”

“I
really appreciate you saying that,” Carolyn replied, “but I’m not coming back
to The Heights until your father is out of jail. I wouldn’t be happy there
without him.”

“How
are you going to do that?” Sarah asked.

“I
may not be a detective,” Carolyn replied. “But I know everyone who Porky
blogged about. I’ve sat in most of these people’s restaurants. I just might be
the most qualified person to solve this case.”

“Do
you have any idea who might have killed Porky?” Sarah asked. “Where will you
begin?”

“I’m
going over to Stan’s restaurant later.” Carolyn replied. “He might have a lead
on who killed him. I’m glad you called. Thank you for letting me know how you
feel.”

“Come
home, Mom,” Sarah told her. “It doesn’t seem right.”

“I
need space, and I need quiet. That's the only reason I'm here.” Carolyn
replied.

“I
know you never really got along with David,” Sarah remarked.

“I
never had any problem with David,” Carolyn countered. “I always thought you
made an excellent choice when you married him. I know it has been stressful
having his in-laws stay in the bedroom next to his. You should have heard what
I used to say to your grandmother whenever she decided to vacation at the
Lake.”

“All
right, Mom,” Sarah told her. “Just let me know when you’re ready to come home.
You’re room is waiting for you whenever you’re ready.”

“Thank
you, sweetie.”

After
Carolyn hung up, she realized that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. She paced
around the room for a while at loose ends. Then she tucked her laptop under her
arm and headed to the restaurant attached to the motel.

The
hostess gave her a booth in the back and Carolyn set up her laptop next to her.
A man with a sweaty baldhead and a greasy apron tied around his waist came
bustling up to the table. “I heard you were sneaking around. You’re not
reviewing me, are you?”

Carolyn
laughed. She got up and gave him a hug. “There you are, Stan. It has been too
long. Still head cook, I see. When are you going to hire someone, you need a
break. Business hasn’t dropped off has it?”

Stan
slid into the booth opposite her. “No, I’m doing pretty well.”

“I’m
glad to hear it,” Carolyn exclaimed. “You’ve been dishing out barbeque since
Karl and I moved to Evergreen Cove. Personally, I still think you are the best
around. You should be a historical landmark in town.”