Sealed with a Kill (7 page)
Read Sealed with a Kill Online
Authors: Lucy Lawrence
“Chief Barker has brought Rupert Morse in for questioning in the murder of Harvey Lester,” they said together.
A crash sounded from the break room, and they spun around to see Tenley standing in the doorway.
“Tenley!” Brenna jumped from her seat and hurried across the room. Tenley’s long denim skirt sported coffee stains where it had splashed her. A broken mug lay in shards on the floor as the dark coffee pooled in the doorway.
“My father is being questioned by the police?” Tenley asked. “Harvey Lester has been murdered? I don’t understand.”
Brenna grabbed a dish towel and placed it on the mess. Then she handed Tenley a wad of paper towels to dab at her skirt.
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier,” Brenna said. “And I wasn’t sure if you already knew, but now I’m guessing that you didn’t.”
“Know what?”
“Harvey Lester was shot dead in the woods,” Ella said.
Tenley gasped, and Marie gave Ella a sharp elbow to the ribs. “Way to soft-pedal it, Sis.”
“What?” Ella asked. “It’s the truth, isn’t it?”
Brenna gave them both a stern look.
“You remember the leaf peepers I took around the lake this morning?” Brenna asked, and Tenley nodded. She still clutched the wad of paper towels but had made no move to blot her skirt. “Well, when we rounded the far bend that leads farther into the woods, one of them spotted a hand poking out of a pile of leaves.”
Tenley’s blue eyes went wide and she covered her mouth with her hand.
“I checked to make sure he was dead,” Brenna said. She only blanched a little when she added, “He was, so we called the police, and Chief Barker and the state crime lab came out.”
“We identified him,” Marie added.
“We?” Ella groused. “You mean me.”
“I helped,” Marie protested.
“Enough, you two,” Brenna said, cutting off what was undoubtedly going to be another squabble between the elderly siblings.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Tenley asked Brenna.
“You were in such a hurry,” Brenna said. “I really didn’t get the chance.”
“I did run out pretty quickly. I had a sudden appointment,” Tenley said with a nod. “Sorry about that. I just can’t believe this. Who would kill Uncle Harvey?”
“Well, the police seem to think your father had a pretty good motive,” Ella said.
“But that’s ridiculous,” Tenley said. “My father would never harm Uncle Harvey.”
“Well, they must have some questions for him,” Marie said in a much gentler tone. “They were bringing him in as we were leaving.”
Tenley dropped the wad of paper towels on the counter and stepped over the spilled coffee.
“Brenna, would you . . . ?” she asked, but Brenna interrupted with, “Of course, go!”
The Porter twins and Brenna watched Tenley race out the front door and across the town green toward the police station. The wind was blowing, and stray leaves pelted her as the wind tossed her long blond hair around her face.
“Poor thing.” Ella
tsk
ed. “Her own father a murderer.”
tsk
ed. “Her own father a murderer.”
Brenna gave her a narrow-eyed glance. “Don’t start. He is innocent until proven guilty. We don’t know anything more than that.”
Ella gave her a dubious look but said nothing more.
She and Marie stored their purses in a cupboard in the break room. Marie went to sweep up the shards from the mug while Ella cleaned up the spilled coffee. Obviously, they were planning to stay and help Brenna whether she wanted them to or not.
“I wonder if Lydia Lester knows yet?” Marie asked.
“You’d think the chief would tell her first,” Ella said. “I mean, if her husband’s business partner . . .”
“Don’t start spreading any rumors about Mr. Morse,” Brenna interrupted. “You have no idea why Chief Barker wants to talk to him.”
The sisters exchanged a glance, and despite her better judgment, Brenna was sucked in.
“What do you know?” she asked.
They gave her matching self-satisfied smiles. When it came to gossip, the elderly twins were more cutthroat than dueling bidders on eBay. Brenna knew she was going to have to pony up some dirt if she wanted the skinny on Lester and Morse.
“Fine, don’t tell me,” she said.
She tried to play it cool, as if she didn’t care. She’d done this dance with the sisters before, after all. The racks of specialty papers needed straightening, so she led the way to the wall where she began to neaten the racks.
The two sisters followed, as Brenna knew they would, and the three of them worked silently. It was a test of wills to see who would crack first.
The only sound in the shop besides the shuffling of paper was the ticktock of the wall clock, marking the minutes since Tenley had left, since her father had been brought in for questioning, since Brenna had found the body.
“Oh, all right,” she said. She shoved the last handful of paper into the rack. “I give. What do you want to know?”
Marie and Ella exchanged an awkward high five. First they missed each other’s hands completely, and then Ella tried to make up for it with a little too much oomph, causing Marie to wince when their hands smacked. Brenna shook her head.
Ella turned to face her and said, “First tell us what’s going on between you and Nate Williams.”
Chapter 7
“No!” Marie cried. “That’s not what we want to know. We want to know what’s happening between her and Dom Cappicola.”
“No, we don’t.”
“Yes, we do,” Marie insisted. “I mean, Nate is handsome and all, but Dom is positively magnetic.”
“He’s a mobster,” Ella protested.
“Actually, he is trying to turn the family business legit,” Brenna said, feeling the need to defend her friend.
“See?” Marie said. “Now, I know you went on a date with him a few months ago, and I’ve seen you meet him for coffee at the Willow House, so are you dating?”
“No,” Brenna said. “We’re just friends.”
She didn’t feel the need to add the information that Dom would like to be more than friends and that she would happily date him if it weren’t for the fact that she had a deadend crush on Nate. No, that humiliating information was not for public consumption.
“Excuse me,” Ella said. “Who was the one who climbed into the van with the dead body? Oh, yeah, that would be me. I get to ask the questions.”
“Marie already asked, and I answered,” Brenna said. “Now tell me what you know.”
Ella looked ready to balk, but Marie chimed in, “I still think you should date Dom.”
Brenna gave her a dark look.
“Okay, okay,” she said. Marie walked across the room and sat at the worktable. Brenna took the seat across from her while Ella sat on her right.
“Now, we got this from a very reliable source,” Marie said.
“Polly Evans, the cashier at the grocery store, heard it from Bonnie Jeffries at the post office,” Ella said.
“Who heard it from Tyler Markham, who works in the accounting department at Lester and Morse,” Marie added.
“There has been talk at the company that Lester wanted out,” Ella concluded.
Brenna waited, but they said nothing further. “That’s it?”
“I think that’s a lot,” Ella huffed.
“Absolutely,” Marie said. “If Harvey Lester wanted out, and Rupert Morse couldn’t afford to buy him out, then maybe Rupert got desperate.”
“And murdered him,” Ella said.
“Or hired someone to murder him,” Marie said.
“You should ask that boyfriend of yours, the mobster,” Ella said. “Maybe he knows the triggerman.”
Brenna had to fight to keep her eyes from rolling back into her head. “He’s not my boyfriend and he doesn’t know any triggermen.”
The twins gave her the same dubious look.
“Well, at least I don’t think he knows any,” she said.
The door opened and Brenna put on her greet-the-customer face, but it slipped away when she took in a pale, red-eyed Tenley.
The twins hopped up from their seats.
“I’ll make some tea,” Ella said.
“I’ll get some cookies,” Marie offered.
In a rare showing of compassion and tact, they left Brenna alone with Tenley to comfort her. Brenna had no doubt that they had their ears pressed to the door, but still she appreciated that they’d vacated the area.
“Are you okay?” she asked as Tenley collapsed into one of the chairs at the table.
“Let’s just say that today has not been one of my best,” she said. “Uncle Harvey is dead, they’ve taken my father in for questioning, and I . . .”
Tenley’s voice broke and Brenna draped her arm around her shoulders. She wondered what Tenley had been about to say but she didn’t want to grill her.
“Is your mom with him?” Brenna asked.
“Yes, Tricia Morse is trying to work her charm on Chief Barker. It’s not really taking,” Tenley said. “My sister Carrie is with them.”
“She’s the oldest, the bossy one, right?” Brenna asked. Tenley gave her a small smile.
“Yeah, she was telling my father not to lawyer up. Apparently, she watches a lot of court TV and feels that she is adequate legal counsel at this juncture.”
Brenna felt her lips twitch. She tried to swallow it, truly she did, but the laugh escaped and she was powerless to stop it. Tenley took one look at her and a chuckle erupted from her as well.
It was probably part hysterics from finding a body on Brenna’s part and part hysterics at having the body belong to a longtime family friend on Tenley’s part, but whatever the reason, they laughed until the Porter sisters reappeared with tea and cookies and gave them reproachful stares.
“Sorry,” Tenley snorted. “I’m just a teeny bit hysterical.”
“Well, I should think so,” Ella said. “A Morse, a member of Morse Point’s founding family, suspected of murder, well, it’s unconscionable.”
Tenley abruptly sobered up. “My father didn’t murder anyone. I’ve heard the rumors that Uncle Harvey wanted out, but you know my father. He’s the straightest arrow I’ve ever known. He and Uncle Harvey would have worked something out. I’m sure of it.”
Marie and Ella were silent. Brenna didn’t know what to say. In the past few months, two people that she never would have thought were capable of murder had done just that. She was beginning to think you never really knew what a person was capable of when they became desperate.
As if their silence condemned her father, Tenley turned pleading eyes to Brenna. “You’ll help me, won’t you?”
“Of course,” Brenna said. “I’ll do anything to help. I can watch the shop while you and your family get through this, and I can bake you up some comfort food. I’m known for my baked goods, after all.”
Tenley gave her a watery smile. “Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of you helping me find Uncle Harvey’s killer.”
“Oh.” Brenna blew out a surprised breath. “Okay.”
“Oh, thank you, Brenna,” Tenley cried and reached across the table to lock her in a tight hug.
“I wonder how Dom is going to feel about you putting yourself at risk again,” Marie said to Brenna.
“Never mind him; what about Nate?” Ella asked. “He is going to forbid it.”
Brenna let go of Tenley and raised her eyebrows. “I don’t see where either one of them has any say in the matter.”
Marie and Ella exchanged a glance. It was a sneaky look and before Brenna could say buttinsky, the two of them shot out of their chairs and headed for the door, leaving nothing behind but the scent of Chanel No. 5 and the sound of the jangling bells hanging on the door.
“That can’t be good,” Tenley said.
Brenna was driving back to her cabin when her cell phone chimed in her purse. She pulled into the lot and fished it out. The number was Dom Cappicola’s. Hmm.
“Hello,” she answered.
“Please tell me that I heard wrong and that you did not find a body in the woods this morning,” Dom said. His deep voice was made even richer, as it was laced with concern, and Brenna wished not for the first time that she was free to like him as much as she was pretty sure he liked her.
Out of habit, she glanced up at Nate’s cabin and was surprised to find him standing on the porch with Hank. He raised his hand in greeting and began striding across the lawn toward her.
“Brenna, are you there?” Dom’s voice buzzed in her ear.
“Okay, I won’t tell you,” she said, forcing her attention back to the conversation at hand.
“Oh, man, at least tell me you’re not a suspect,” he said.
“I’m not!” she said. “Isn’t that great?”
“But . . .” he prompted.
Brenna glanced up. Nate was halfway here. She needed to wrap this up.
Speaking very fast in the hope that he couldn’t catch every word, she said, “But Tenley’s father is a suspect, and she’s asked me to help her find the real killer. Okay, I’m driving into a tunnel now—gotta go, bye.”
She closed her phone and shut it down in case he tried to call back. She would call him later and explain everything in more detail, but for now she had her landlord, who was frowning at her, to deal with.
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