Dune House Cozy Mystery Boxed Set 2

by Cindy Bell

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. We just found her like this. I checked for a pulse and breathing, but she’s gone, Jason.” One of the medics looked at Jason and shook his head sullenly to confirm that she had passed away.

  “Are you okay?” Jason met her eyes with concern. “You should sit down.”

  “I’m okay. I just can’t believe that this happened. Do you think someone killed her?” Jason’s attention returned to the body. He crouched down beside it and began looking it over.

  “Hmm, I don’t see a mark on her. At least not visible.” Jason peered more closely at the body.

  “Looks like she might have just fallen off the end of the pier into the water. Poor woman.” Kirk shook his head. “It’s a shame.”

  “Is that what you really think?” Suzie frowned and crossed her arms. “I find it hard to believe that she would just slip. Why would she have been so close to the edge? Even if she fell in, why didn’t she swim to shore?”

  “She had all of her clothes on. Plus the water is very deep at the end of the pier.” Jason sighed as he looked out over the water. “People, especially tourists, have no idea how powerful the waves and the pull of the ocean can be. She probably panicked. It was dark, she was scared, she might have even swum in the wrong direction. I’ve seen it before.”

  “Yes, there’s no evidence of physical harm, her clothes aren’t torn that I can see. No visible head injury. Jason’s right. She likely plunged in and was too shocked or disoriented to get to shore. We’ll get the medical examiner to do an autopsy of course, but at the moment this is considered an accidental death.” Kirk shoved his hands into his pockets and growled under his breath. “The media is going to love this. After that meeting yesterday and now this, it’s going to be a circus.”

  “First we need to get in touch with her family, then we’ll worry about the media.” Jason looked up at the crowd of people that began to gather. The other officers kept them back. “What’s Mary doing?”

  “She was keeping everyone away. We don’t want photographs of Priscilla ending up splashed across the internet.”

  “Good thinking, Suzie. Thank you.” Jason gritted his teeth. “I’m sorry to do this to you when you’ve had such a shock, but I do need to ask you a few questions.”

  “Of course.” Suzie nodded.

  “Do you have any idea what she was up to last night? Did she mention anything to you?” Jason looked back out over the water.

  “I suggested that she should have dinner at Cheney’s. She wanted to be seen by the community. I thought Cheney’s was a good place.” Suzie frowned. “I’m not sure if she made it there or not.”

  “Did she mention if she was meeting anyone?”

  “No, I’m sorry. It was just a brief conversation. Like I said, I don’t even know if she went there.”

  “Well, let’s find out.” Jason nodded to Kirk. “See if you can get hold of any of the employees that were working last night. Let’s find out if she might have had a reaction to something, or maybe she had too much to drink.”

  “Okay, I’ll do that now.” Kirk walked away while dialing a number on his cell phone. Mary made her way back to Suzie and Jason. Suzie wrapped an arm around Mary’s shoulders.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I think so, Suzie. I just can’t believe that she’s dead.”

  “It’s a shock to everyone.” Jason took off his hat and ran his hand back through his hair. “I’m not sure how she could have ended up here. Mary, did you notice anything strange about her yesterday?”

  “No, she seemed fine to me.”

  Kirk walked back towards them, his features shadowed. “According to a member of the staff at Cheney’s, Ms. Kane had quite a bit to drink. Then as she left the restaurant she stumbled. I got the time of departure.”

  “Wow. Maybe she was so drunk that she took the wrong path. She probably thought she was headed back to Dune House and instead she was on the pier. It must have been too late once she fell into the water. She was too drunk to keep her head above water.” Jason clucked his tongue.

  Suzie and Mary stepped away as the two continued to discuss the death. Mary looked over at her.

  “What is it, Suzie?”

  “Hmm?”

  “I know that look.”

  Suzie sighed. “I just don’t think it could be true.”

  “What isn’t true?”

  “Well, Priscilla getting drunk and walking off the pier. She was so put together. She actually came across as rather warm to me. She also didn’t seem like someone who would be so reckless.”

  “You may be right. People hide their addictions well though.”

  “But she didn’t even ask for wine at dinner.” Suzie narrowed her eyes. “It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

  “I’m sure if something is suspicious about it, Jason will figure it out.”

  “I hope so.”

  Chapter 5

  By the time Suzie and Mary got back to Dune House there was no sign of the guests. They had missed breakfast, but there were no angry notes left behind. Suzie stood beside the kitchen counter and tried to think of what to do next. She was so shocked by the discovery that she couldn’t get her thoughts straight. Mary leaned against the counter beside her.

  “We should see that Neil is okay and make sure he knows about Priscilla’s death,” Suzie said. Mary bit into her bottom lip. “Don’t you think he should know?”

  “Yes. And I would hate for him to come to us about something before he’s been informed,” Mary said. “I wonder how he will take it. We should see him together. Is that okay?”

  “Yes, let’s just get it done, the longer we let it go the harder it will be.” As they walked down the hall towards Neil’s room Suzie tried to think of how to break the news. At Neil’s room she knocked on the door. Mary grimaced as they waited for him to open the door. After a few moments, Suzie knocked again. Again there was no response.

  “Maybe he’s already out for the day?”

  “Maybe.” Suzie frowned. She turned away from the door and looked straight at Priscilla’s room. “What about her things, Mary? I think we should get them together for her family.”

  “Oh, how horrible this is going to be for them. To think one night of too much drinking took her life.”

  “I don’t know,” Suzie said. “I still don’t think that’s what happened. Maybe I am just too paranoid, but it all seems rather strange to me.”

  “Hopefully we’ll know the truth eventually.” Mary turned the knob on the door. “It’s locked.” She reached into her pocket for the keys that she always carried with her. She slid the key into the lock.

  “Wait.” Suzie touched her arm. “Let’s just be careful when we go in. Maybe this was an accident, but something tells me that it might not have been. Jason may not need to search the room now, but if anything changes there might be evidence in here that they will need to recover.”

  “Good thinking.” Mary opened the door. Right away the bird began to squawk. Mary walked over to the cage and lifted the cover. The bird hopped from ledge to ledge and bobbed its head anxiously. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Mary clucked her tongue. “Poor birdie.”

  “Look at this.” Suzie picked up a ream of paperwork that was on the top of the dresser. “Looks like she was working hard.” She started to open the folder.

  “No don’t. Like you said, let’s leave everything just the way it is, just in case there’s a problem. Other than the bird of course, we’re going to have to keep her with us until someone claims her.”

  “I’ll check for any dirty linen.” Suzie opened the hamper in the closet. She was surprised to find it empty. She checked the shelf in the closet for the stack of three towels they always made sure was in each room. There was nothing on the shelf. Suzie opened the door to the small bathroom in the room and looked around. There were no towels in there either. “Did you put towels in this room, Mary?” Suzie asked as she stepped out of the bathroom.


  “Yes, of course.”

  “Well, they’re not here now. They’re not in the hamper either.”

  “Maybe she left them in the main bathroom?” Mary said referring to the large shared guest bathroom for the floor. It had a larger shower and a bathtub.

  “Maybe. I’ll go check.”

  Suzie left Mary in the room and walked down the hall to the shared bathroom for the floor. When she reached the linen closet beside it she realized that the carpet beneath her feet was soaked. She frowned as she tried to track down where the water came from. The rest of the hallway was dry. The patch of carpet between the linen closet and the bathroom was wet. She opened the door to the bathroom and found puddles of water on the tiled floor. The towel rack was empty. Mary met her outside the door.

  “What went on here?”

  “It looks like one of the guests took a shower and didn’t have a towel. They must have stood in front of the linen closet to find one,” Suzie said.

  Mary opened the door to the linen closet. “Hm. It does look like a few towels are missing.”

  “I’m sure they will turn up in a wet pile in someone’s room.” Suzie shook her head. She knew people had different standards of cleanliness, but she hated the idea of wet towels getting moldy somewhere.

  “I’ll clean this up. Why don’t you take the bird to the front desk? That way she will be ready when someone wants to pick her up and we can keep an eye on her.”

  “Sure.” Suzie walked back to Priscilla’s room. She picked up the birdcage and carried it to the front desk. “Here you go, don’t worry I won’t be long.” She whistled at the bird then walked to the utility closet. She pulled out a wet dry vac that could draw the water out of the carpet. As she carted it out of the closet and down the hall the bird began to flap her wings and shriek a word.

  “What is that you’re saying? Pumpkin?” Suzie raised an eyebrow. The bird shrieked again. The closest word that she could think of was pumpkin. “Okay, well I don’t have any pumpkin.” She shook her head and continued down the hall to the bathroom. Mary finished hanging up some fresh towels in the bathroom and turned to look at Suzie. “Oh perfect, thank you,” Suzie said.

  “No problem. I want to make sure this is all cleaned up before any guests return. This day is already upsetting enough I don’t want any slip and falls.”

  Once the bathroom was cleaned up Suzie was restless. Her mind kept returning to Priscilla and what might have happened to her.

  “You know what I think, Mary?”

  Mary stuck her head out of the kitchen. “What?”

  “I think it’s been far too long since we visited Dr. Rose. In fact we’ve been downright neglectful for not stopping by to check in on our friend.”

  “I think you’re right.” Mary smiled. “We should remedy that with a visit right now.”

  “I agree, Mary. We owe her a serious apology.”

  Mary picked up her purse and followed Suzie out the door. They drove towards the medical examiner’s office. Suzie searched the sidewalks and the cars she passed for Neil but she didn’t see him or his vehicle. When they reached the medical examiner’s office Suzie parked as close to the door as possible. She knew Jason would not appreciate the fact that she was checking up on the case without his knowledge so she wanted to be able to make a quick exit if she needed to. She and Mary hurried inside and were greeted by an empty waiting room. There was no receptionist at the desk. This did not surprise Suzie as Dr. Summer Rose liked to work alone and would often give the office staff the day off if she didn’t think it would be a busy day.

  “Maybe we should go.” Mary glanced around.

  “No, I’m sure she’s in the back, let’s just take a peek.” Suzie walked towards the double doors that led out of the waiting room.

  “Suzie wait, do you think we should go back there?”

  “Dr. Rose?” Suzie stuck her head beyond the double doors. A medicinal scent stung her nose as she took a breath.

  “I’m back here, Suzie.” Her soft voice drifted from behind a second set of double doors. Suzie and Mary walked through both sets of doors to find Summer bent over a clipboard on her desk.

  “Sorry to interrupt.” Suzie paused a good distance from a curtain that she knew was drawn around Priscilla’s body.

  “It’s fine,” Summer said.

  “I got your message.” Jason’s voice drew all of their attention as he walked into the room. His eyes met Summer’s for a long moment as they both smiled at each other. “Suzie, Mary!”

  “We just wanted to say hello to Summer, since we were passing by,” Suzie said quickly before Jason could question why they were there. She didn’t want him to think they were trying to find out information about the death behind his back, even though they were.

  “Really?” Jason said in disbelief. “Well, it’s good that you’re here. I think you might need to hear this.” He looked at Summer.

  “I have to say this is one of my most surprising and frustrating cases.” Summer sighed.

  “An accidental drowning?” Mary raised an eyebrow.

  “I wish,” Summer said. “That’s what it was supposed to be, but there’s a few problems with that assessment.”

  “Was she dead before she went into the water? No water in her lungs?” Suzie asked.

  “Oh, there’s plenty of water in her lungs, but she was definitely dead before she went into the water, for the second time.”

  “What?” Jason narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “As I expected she drowned, however, when I tested the water in her lungs it was not salt water.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.” Mary frowned.

  “No, it doesn’t. It appears that she drowned elsewhere and ended up in the ocean. Which means that unless she drowned, got up and walked to the ocean, someone moved her body. So, we are at the very least looking at someone moving the body, but judging by some of the bruises that have begun to arise on her skin, it was a homicide.”

  “So, someone drowned her somewhere else and then dumped her in the ocean?” Mary cleared her throat. “That is horrible.”

  “Yes, it is. Unfortunately, because of her being in two different kinds of water for a long time there is little to no DNA evidence remaining on her body, or her clothes.” She gestured to the plastic bag of Priscilla’s clothing. Suzie looked at them through the plastic. She noticed that one of the shoes had a broken heel.

  “Did you notice this, Summer? Her heel is broken.”

  “I did.”

  “Maybe that was why she stumbled out of the restaurant.” Mary snapped her fingers. “She wasn’t drunk, she stumbled because she broke her heel.”

  “Yes that’s possible. Although there was alcohol in her system it was nowhere near the level that would cause severe intoxication. I think we can safely say that she was maybe a little tipsy, but nothing more than that. Also, we are waiting for more results, but preliminary tests show there were no drugs in her system. In fact Priscilla was quite healthy for her age.” Summer sighed as she looked up at Jason. “I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help on this case. That’s why it’s frustrating. Now that we know that it’s likely a murder I’d love to find some evidence, but even her fingernails have been washed clean from being under the water. I have no idea if she attacked the person who killed her. I wish I had more to go on.”

  “Are you able to tell where the water came from?” Jason asked thoughtfully. “Maybe that would give us a clue.”

  “I am getting some tests run on it, which will take time. The best way to tell is to have a sample to compare it to. Pinpointing the exact location is going to be difficult because most of the evidence has been washed away by the extended period of time in the water.”

  “Extended?” Suzie looked over at her. “How long do you think she was in the water?”

  “Oh, at least eight hours. I’m placing the time of death around nine or ten. Maybe a little later, maybe a little earlier.”

  “So, a
while after she left the restaurant,” Jason said. “We are going to need to ramp up our investigation. It’s officially a homicide, which means we’re going to need to search her room, speak to everyone she had contact with, including you Suzie, and Mary.” He patted the curve of Summer’s shoulder. “Thanks for the quick catch on this. We’ve already lost a lot of time.”

  “I wish I could tell you more, Jason,” Summer said.

  “I might have something of interest.” Suzie frowned. “There was someone snooping around Dune House the day that Priscilla checked in.”

  “Who?” Jason turned to face her. “Why am I just hearing about this now?” His voice tightened.

  “Wait a minute, this morning this was an accidental death, nothing more, why would I mention it?” Suzie said defensively.

  “Maybe because I stopped by to specifically check on you?” Jason raised an eyebrow.

  “Look, Maurice is a businessman, I understand why he was upset. I didn’t think too much of it, but now, I don’t want to hold anything back about it.”

  “Maurice Lungdley, the same man that I had to escort out of the community meeting?”

  “Yes. I can’t see him doing this, but I thought you should know.”

  “Thank you, Suzie. I appreciate that.” He sighed. “If you think of anything else, please don’t hesitate to tell me. This entire case is going to turn into a big mess once word gets out that it’s murder. At least I have somewhere to start. Maurice Lungdley.” Jason spun on his heel. “I’d better get over there and find out where he was last night.”

  “Be careful, Jason, he can be temperamental,” Suzie called out.

  “Don’t I know it. Have you seen Neil Runkin? We’ve been trying to get hold of him all morning.” Jason shook his head.

  “He wasn’t at Dune House this morning.”

  “Well, let me know when you do see him. I want to speak to him.”

  “Sure,” Suzie said. Jason paused at the door and looked back at Suzie.