Pelican Cove Cozy Mystery Series Box Set 1
Page 57
Jenny shook her head.
“I don’t know why he came back. He must have missed her. Maybe he wanted to keep his ear to the ground, see what the police found out about her.”
“Did you tell the girl’s mother about this?”
“Of course not!” Jenny said indignantly. “I know this is just a theory.”
“We still need to talk to the police about it.”
“You think Adam will listen to me?”
“You need to tell them about the girl in the photo. I think it’s a possible line of investigation. Let the police decide what they want to do with it. You don’t want to be accused of hiding relevant information.”
They crossed the street and entered the police station two doors down. Nora greeted Jenny with a smile. She pointed at Adam’s door.
Adam sat with his leg propped up, immersed in a mountain of files.
“Why do we need paperwork?” he scowled at them.
Jenny and Jason sat down without waiting for an invitation. Adam gave Jenny a warm smile. A secret message passed between them. Jenny knew he wouldn’t cut her any slack though.
She began her story. Adam warded her off almost immediately.
“You think this girl, Emily Turner, has been lying in your garden all these years? Isn’t that a leap of faith?”
“I tracked down most of the missing women from the region,” Jenny explained. “Some came back, some were found dead. There were very few who are still reported missing.”
“So there are more than one?”
“What about the locket?” Jenny asked him.
“I think you are mistaken. I’m not eager to go down to these Turners and disturb them.”
“I met the woman,” Jenny said soberly. “She’s hungry for any information about her daughter.”
“She could have lied to you,” Adam mused. “Maybe they knew the girl was seeing Keith. He was slightly older, right? And he was a junkie. They might not have approved of him.”
“So you agree there’s some connection?” Jenny asked.
“I don’t know, Jenny,” Adam sighed. “It’s hardly relevant now. Keith is dead.”
“Exactly. And we don’t know how he died.”
Adam cleared his throat.
“Actually, we might. We think he took his own life. It will probably be ruled as accident or suicide.”
“Keith didn’t seem depressed to me,” Jenny objected.
“Doesn’t matter what you think,” Adam snapped. “The case is almost closed now.”
“Does that mean Jenny is not a suspect?” Jason asked.
“Yes. That’s good news for you, Jenny. You can let go of this now.”
“What about Mrs. Bones? What if she is Emily Turner?”
“We are still waiting on reports.”
“There are so many tests you can do now. The Turners need some closure.”
“Don’t tell me how to do my job, Jenny,” Adam said patiently.
“Why is he never receptive to my ideas?” Jenny complained to Jason as they walked out. “You want to come eat lunch with me?”
“Sorry Jenny, I’m meeting Kandy for lunch.”
“Hot date, huh?” Jenny kidded.
She couldn’t explain the green eyed monster that had suddenly reared its head.
“It’s a working lunch,” Jason laughed. “I need some help on one of my cases. Turns out it’s Kandy’s area of expertise.”
“That’s convenient.”
Jason peered at Jenny’s face.
“Are you alright, Jenny? You look a bit pale.”
“I’m fine,” she assured Jason and headed back to the café.
Jenny thought about Keith as a boy living in Pelican Cove. He must have had some friends. Adam and Jason were both in the same age group but they didn’t remember Keith. Jenny was glad to see Captain Charlie sitting at a table in the café.
“Taking a breather,” he told her. “I thought I would eat my lunch here today.”
Captain Charlie was one of Jenny’s regulars. He ate breakfast and lunch at the café everyday but he almost always got his order to go.
Captain Charlie smacked his lips as he sprinkled some Old Bay seasoning on his sandwich.
“Can I ask you something, Captain Charlie?” Jenny asked, sitting down in front of him. “Do you remember Keith Bennet? He lived at Seaview with his family.”
“Lily’s son?” Captain Charlie asked. “He didn’t live here more than a year. Went off to college the year after Lily moved here.”
“Did he have any friends? Who did he hang out with?”
“Was a loner,” Captain Charlie said, scratching his head. “Roamed around on the bluffs by himself. Took pity on him and offered him a job but he said no.”
“He was a lazy bum then?”
“You could say that,” Captain Charlie nodded. “That’s why I was surprised when he got himself a girl.”
Jenny’s ears pricked up. “Girl?”
“Pretty chit too, although I’m willing to bet she was a lot younger than him. Wasn’t from around here.”
“Did you know her name?” Jenny asked eagerly.
Captain Charlie shook his head.
“Saw them in the dark a few times, taking a boat out or sitting on that beach in front of your house.”
“Would you recognize her if I showed you a photo?”
“It was a long time ago. My memory’s not what it used to be.”
“Aren’t you hungry yet, Jenny?” Petunia called from the kitchen. “Time to close up.”
Jenny munched on chicken salad as she went over all the facts again.
“What are you frowning about?” Petunia asked.
“Nothing. Did we use up all the salad?”
Jenny trudged to the seafood market on her way home. Chris was checking out packages at a counter, dressed in a formal shirt and trousers.
“Going somewhere?”
“I had an open house this morning. It went well.”
Chris seemed eager to talk to her.
“I’ve let my realtor business slide. I’m going to ramp it up again. Molly won’t have to worry about her job if I make good money.”
Jenny wondered if Chris was putting the cart before the horse but she stayed quiet.
“Money always helps,” she said lamely.
“What can I get you, Jenny?” Chris asked.
Jenny asked for her usual order, a pound of shelled and deveined shrimp and rockfish steaks. She ordered three guessing Jimmy Parsons would be joining them for dinner.
“Did you talk to Heather?” Chris asked. “How is she taking this?”
“She will be fine, Chris,” Jenny said diplomatically.
“I still care for her, you know,” Chris said. “I want her to be happy.”
“Give it time,” Jenny advised. “Things will sort themselves out.”
Star and Jimmy Parsons were sitting out on the patio overlooking the garden.
“Are you ready to move in permanently?” Jenny asked her aunt.
“Let’s wait for a while,” Star said. “I’ll feel better once they get to the bottom of this mystery.”
She tipped her head at the garden and Jenny understood what she was referring to. Once again, Jenny told her what she had found out.
“So that boy you met killed this young girl. But who killed him?”
“I’ve thought about it dozens of times. My head’s pounding right now.”
“You ladies need to do something fun for a change,” Jimmy spoke up. “How about some board games?”
“There’s just the three of us,” Jenny complained.
“We can fix that,” Star smiled broadly.
She went in and placed a few calls. A couple of cars drew up outside. Molly and Chris came in followed by Adam. Tank bounded in on his heels.
Jenny greeted the dog with open arms.
“Tank! You’re just the tonic I needed.”
Tank showed his appreciation by licking her face down.
“You’re not mad at me?” Jenny murmured.
“You can be a pain, Jenny,” Adam said, taking his hands in hers. “But there’s always some logic in what you say.”
“Does that mean …”
“What did I tell you?” Adam raised his eyebrows. “You’re just going to drink some wine, eat junk food and have a good time with your friends.”
“Keith didn’t have any friends. Captain Charlie told me he was a loner.”
“You talked to Captain Charlie about Keith Bennet?” Adam shook his head in wonder. “You’re a dynamo, Jenny.”
The bell rang and a delivery guy from Mama Rosa’s brought in big boxes of pizza and salad.
“Olives and artichokes!” Jenny exclaimed. “That’s my favorite.”
She looked up into Adam’s eyes and smiled adoringly.
“You remembered.”
“Of course I did,” he said, chucking her under the chin.
Jenny took a sip of her wine and settled against Adam on her new couch. He placed his arm around her.
Seaview rang with the laughter of friends. The roses and gardenias bloomed in the garden and for a few hours, everyone forgot about the gruesome events that had taken place at that house.
Chapter 15
The Magnolias sat sipping their morning coffee on the deck of the Boardwalk Café, sampling the pumpkin bread Jenny had baked that day.
“Not too sweet,” Betty Sue remarked, licking her lips. “I like that.”
“It’s got a kick,” Molly said. “It’s a bit different from the pumpkin spice I’m used to.”
“I’m trying out a special blend,” Jenny told them. “I’m thinking of selling this pumpkin bread during the read-a-thon.”
“That glaze makes it super yum,” Heather said, wiping some crumbs from her mouth.
“So are we all going to volunteer to read for this event?” Star asked. “I’m not sure what we are supposed to do exactly.”
“It’s not complicated,” Jenny stressed. “Just go sit there, pick up your favorite book and read.”
“What if Betty Sue and I want to read the same book?”
“Two people can read the same book, but you can’t read the same book twice.”
Star made a face.
“Don’t make it more difficult.”
“I’m not,” Jenny laughed. “You’ll catch on when the time comes. I’m hoping to put in at least a couple of hours every day. I would do more but I have to take care of the concession stand too.”
“I’m reading as much as they allow me to,” Molly declared.
“Me too,” Betty Sue nodded. “I used to read a lot when I was a child.”
Betty Sue’s face changed as she thought about old times.
“Lily and I both read a lot. We swapped books all the time.”
“Any news about Keith?” Heather asked Jenny.
“The police are saying he took his own life,” Jenny said stonily.
“And you don’t agree, I guess?” Heather quipped. “Why not?”
“It’s just a hunch.”
“You were wondering why he came here,” Molly mused. “Maybe it was sort of like a last wish. He wanted to see his old town and his old home, a place where he must have been happy.”
“That makes sense,” Star agreed. “Poor guy.”
“I say he wasn’t in his senses,” Betty Sue said hoarsely. “He was lost in some drug induced stupor. He didn’t realize what he was doing.”
Jason called Jenny at the café that afternoon. He had never done that before.
“Are you winding up over there?”
“I’ll be done in about thirty minutes. Why?”
“Come to my office. I have some news.”
Jenny rushed through her chores and walked down the street to Jason’s office, taking some of her pumpkin bread for him.
She couldn’t wait to learn why he had summoned her so urgently.
“Quick, tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Jason said. “Just some new developments.”
Jenny put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows.
“What are you waiting for?”
“Ann Davis is in town with her son.”
“Ann Davis as in the woman I bought my house from?”
“That’s the one.”
“Why are they here?”
“They are here for Keith. Other than his father who is in a home, they are his only surviving family.”
“Okay!” Jenny quipped. “So where’s the fire?”
“Why don’t you sit down?” Jason motioned to a chair in front of his desk.
Jenny flopped down and clasped her hands together.
“They are not very happy about the suicide theory. They are at the police station, talking to Adam right now.”
“What do they say then?”
“They believe he was killed, Jenny.”
“And what do they want?”
“I believe they want justice for Keith.”
“Where were they when he was roaming around the country doing drugs?”
“We don’t know anything about that,” Jason sighed.
“You told me yourself. You couldn’t get in touch with Keith.”
“I’m beginning to wonder if I didn’t look hard enough,” Jason said sheepishly.
“What do you mean?”
“All those ads in the paper, those attempts to contact Keith … Ricky Davis took charge of all that. Maybe he lied to me.”
“We never discussed the legalities behind the Seaview deal,” Jenny said. “Was Keith listed as an owner?”
“Old man Davis listed all his grandkids as owners. Rick and Keith were the only living grandchildren. Although Ann was listed as the owner after her husband died, the grandchildren had equal rights to the house.”
“So you needed Keith and Ricky to sign off on the house deal. How did you do that without Keith?”
“Ricky has a power of attorney,” Jason explained. “We tried hard to contact Keith but I always knew there was a way out if he didn’t turn up.”
“Doesn’t sound like they were close though,” Jenny muttered. “Why has Ann made this trip?”
“You can ask her yourself. They want to meet you.”
“Why?”
“I guess we’ll know soon enough,” Jason said as he spotted someone out on the street.
There was a knock on the office door and an old lady tottered in, leaning on a man’s arm. Her snow white hair and craggy face hinted at an advanced age. She looked so frail Jenny thought the slightest puff of wind would blow her away. The widow’s peak on her forehead split it into two equal parts.
Ricky Davis was tall and hefty with bluish gray eyes that bore into hers. He settled his mother into a chair and leaned against a wall himself.
Jason made the introductions.
“You look young,” Ann Davis noted. “When I heard someone was interested in that old pile of dust, I pictured someone older.”
Jenny said nothing.
“You wanted to talk to me?”
“You seem to have quite a reputation in town,” Ricky cut to the chase. “How about using your skills to find what happened to Keith?”
Jenny protested.
“I’m not a professional investigator. I have a lot on my plate right now.”
“Jason says you met him?” Ricky pressed. “Did he look like someone who was planning to take his life?”
Jenny thought for a minute.
“I talked to him a couple of times. Honestly, I can’t tell what his state of mind was. It’s not like I knew him. I had never met him before.”
“Did he say why he was here?”
“Not in so many words,” Jenny said. “Clearly, he wasn’t happy that Seaview had been sold.”
She looked pointedly at Ricky.
“It seems you didn’t e
xactly take his permission before selling me the house?”
“Keith never cared for the house all these years,” Ricky said forcefully. “You think we haven’t wanted to come here? I suggested we clean up the place, spend the summer here. But Keith always wanted to stay away.”
“I guess he doesn’t have good memories about the place.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Ricky said.
“Poor Keith,” Ann finally spoke. “He had a troubled life.”
“Did you know he was a junkie?”
“I don’t like that word,” Ann said softly. “Keith lost his way.”
“He was an ex-addict,” Ricky told them. “Keith had been sober for three years. That’s why I can’t believe he died of an overdose.”
“The police are saying he injected himself.”
“He was very serious about his sobriety,” Ann said. “We sent him to a recovery center a few years ago. He did very well in the program. He turned over a new leaf after that.”
“Couldn’t he have had a relapse? Coming here might have rekindled the past.”
“That’s what you can find out for us,” Ricky pleaded.
“May I ask why you are doing this?” Jenny asked. “I thought you were estranged.”
“He was a bit of a drifter,” Ricky admitted. “He moved from town to town whenever it pleased him. He didn’t always keep in touch with us. But he was the only family I had.”
“The boys were very close growing up,” Ann said, dabbing her eyes with her tissue. “You know I lost one child in the storm? Keith was like my second son. Lily should have never come back here.”
“We drifted apart after Keith moved here,” Ricky nodded. “I spent a lot of years trying to reconnect with him like old times.”
“We lost the real Keith a long time ago,” Ann agreed.
“I just want to find out what happened to my brother,” Ricky said emphatically. “Can you understand that?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Jenny said reluctantly. “But I can’t make any promises.”
“We are staying at the Bayview Inn while we are in town,” Ricky told her. “You can reach us there if you want to.”
Ann Davis was looking exhausted.
“We have been traveling since last night,” Ricky said. “It has taken a toll on my mother.”
“Betty Sue and Heather will take good care of you,” Jenny smiled. “We can meet again tomorrow.”