Murder & The Movie Star: A Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery - Book 12

by Dianne Harman

  CHAPTER 17

  Early the next morning, Kelly shook her head in disbelief as she got out of her minivan with Rebel and walked over to the front door of the coffee shop. Five people were already standing in front of it, waiting to go in, although officially it wasn’t supposed to open until 7:00 a.m., which was still an hour away. She smiled, greeted everyone, and prepared for the day to be just as busy as it had been the day before. Fortunately, the people who were waiting were all regular customers, so she let them in early, and they knew enough to stay out of the staff’s way while they started the coffee and got things ready for the day.

  Around ten that morning, Kelly realized that Charlie was acting more surly than usual. He was never going to win an award for having an optimistic warm personality, but if possible, today he seemed to be even colder and more withdrawn than he usually was. She walked into the kitchen and said, “Charlie, I’ve noticed you seem pretty angry this morning. Want to talk about it?”

  He looked at her while he made several sandwiches at the same time and said, “I’m okay, but the more time goes by, the angrier I get thinkin’ about what happened. Don’t seem fair that a beautiful, wonderful woman like Jacquie Morton had to die. She wasn’t all that old.”

  Kelly looked at him closely and realized he was almost on the verge of tears. “I think everyone feels bad about it, Charlie, so you’re not alone. Sounds like you might have had some special feelings for her.”

  “Yeah, me and a lot of other people. You know, we built a movie theater out at the reservation with some of the money we get because of the casino that was built on the reservation. The theater isn’t open to the general public, just to members of our tribe, and every Thursday night we show a Jacquie Morton movie. She was my favorite actress, and it wasn’t only me, she was a lot of other people’s favorite, too.”

  “How’s that casino working out, Charlie? I know your father was very much against having one built on the reservation, but he also told me he was sure when he died the tribe would agree to build it, because so many of the members wanted the money they would get if it was built. Do you think it’s helped the members of your tribe?”

  “Overall, I’d have to say yes. You know, each member of the tribe gets a monthly allotment from the casino, and believe me, it’s a lot of money. Matter of fact, I don’t ever have to work again, but I kind of like being the cook here. That money from the casino’s allowed us to build our own medical center and school on the reservation, so that’s a plus.

  “The minus is that because of the large amount of money each member gets every month, some of them don’t want to work, and a lot of the kids aren’t going to college, even though the tribe will pay for their education. Also, anytime you put together that much money and idle people, drugs and alcohol will soon follow, and we’ve sure got problems with those. We’ve hired a couple of counselors who specialize in substance abuse and domestic violence, which also happens a lot on the reservation, so it ain’t all roses with that money.”

  “That’s pretty much what your dad was afraid of, and yet he didn’t like how poor the members of his tribe were. It’s kind of a catch-22 thing, I guess.”

  “That it is, Kelly, that it is.” He paused for a moment, looking out at the diners from his position behind the pass-through window. “There’s that screenwriter that was with Ms. Morton when they had lunch here the other day. Wonder what’s going to happen to him now that she won’t be starring in the movie?”

  Kelly looked out the window and saw Molly seating Mickey Sloan. From the lack of attention the other diners were paying to him, it looked like no one recognized him. She realized famous movie actresses were a lot more visible than screenwriters.

  “I better get back out there,” she said. “Every table is filled, and Molly and Roxie aren’t going to be happy with me if I stay in here much longer. I suppose the only thing I can say about Jacquie Morton is that you’re not alone in grieving over her death.”

  Kelly took a couple of orders from the counter at the pass-through window and delivered them to customers. When she walked by Mickey’s table, she stopped and said, “Hello, Mr. Sloan. It’s good to see you. I’ve been wondering what’s going to happen to the film you and Jacquie were working on. I know my cook is devastated about her death, because every Thursday they showed one of her films at the theater on the reservation outside of town.”

  “I got a call last night from the producer, and he told me Lisette Andrews, she’s the one who was with Jacquie and me when we ate here a few days ago, is going to have the lead role in it. At least it’s still going to be made,” he said.

  “I imagine that’s good news for you. What was Jacquie like? I only met her that one time when the three of you came here for lunch,” Kelly said.

  He hesitated. “I don’t know what was up with Jacquie. I worked on a film with her several years ago, and it was like this Jacquie was a completely different person from the Jacquie I worked with then. This Jacquie found something wrong with everything I wrote, and she never would read her lines in front of me. I still don’t understand it, because the next day it was obvious she’d read them, and she’d usually memorized them.”

  “How do you think you’ll like working with Lisette?” Kelly asked.

  “I think I’ll like it, although she and the director have been an item for quite a few months now.” He stopped talking and seemed to be debating whether to tell her something. “Kelly, I understand that your husband is handling the investigation into Jacquie’s death. Is that correct?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “It may be nothing, but yesterday I overheard a phone conversation between Lisette and Teddy James, the director. She had the phone on speaker, because she was putting her hair up in curlers. He was saying something like if anyone asked if he was in the Cedar Bay area the night Jacquie died, to say no. I was in Portland the night Jacquie died, so I didn’t know he’d even been here in Cedar Bay.

  “My nephew is in the Army, and he’s been assigned to a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He was in Portland, had a couple of hours between flights, and I met him at the airport. I hadn’t seen him for several years, and I wasn’t sure when I was going to see him again, so I made a special trip to Portland to see him. After I met with him I stayed overnight in a hotel there and drove back here to Cedar Bay early the next morning. You can imagine how I felt when I turned on the television news that morning at the hotel while I was getting dressed and learned that Jacquie had died.”

  “So, you didn’t know the director spent the night at your house while you were in Portland visiting your nephew?”

  “No, and I don’t know why it would be important, but I do think it’s strange that Lisette didn’t tell me. By the way, Teddy’s scheduled to come in this evening to Cedar Bay. The producer is flying up here, too, and we’re having a meeting about going forward with the movie and how to change the script to accommodate Lisette. We’re also going to discuss who should play the part that previously had been Lisette’s.”

  “Well, it sounds like everything is going forward. I’ll tell Mike what you told me, but I have no idea what it has to do with Jacquie’s death.”

  “Nor do I, but for some reason it bothers me.”

  “Thanks for sharing your concern with me. I see you have a menu and Roxie’s making her way over here. By the way, the chili is really good. I fixed it for my husband recently and he loved it, so I feel pretty confident recommending it.”

  “You’ve sold me,” Mickey said smiling up at her. A moment later Roxie asked if he’d decided what he wanted and he said, “Kelly told me to order the chili, and if that’s what the owner recommends, who am I argue with that?”

  “Good choice,” Roxie said. She wrote it down and walked over to the pass-through window and gave the order to Charlie.

  CHAPTER 18

  After everyone had finally left, and the coffee shop was closed for the day, Kelly spent an hour prepping things for the following day. She hadn’t been able
to make any menu items ahead of time like she usually did, because there hadn’t been any slow times when she could. She knew if tomorrow was anything like today and yesterday, this was probably the only time she’d be able to do it.

  She wondered if Maizie, Jacquie’s assistant, had returned to Jacquie’s house and how, and if, she’d heard about Jacquie’s death. Kelly took Rebel out of the storeroom where he’d been sleeping on the dog bed she kept there for him, and together they drove to Jacquie’s house. When she parked in the circular driveway in front of the house, she thought she saw a movement in the living room window, as if someone was looking out of it. She hoped it was Maizie and that she was home.

  Kelly left Rebel in the car and walked up the steps to the front porch. She pressed the doorbell and heard it chiming. A few moments later a voice said on the other side of the closed door, “May I help you?”

  “Yes. My name is Kelly Reynolds. My husband is Sheriff Mike Reynolds, and he’s investigating the death of Jacquie Morton. Are you Maizie?”

  The door opened and a small woman with white hair drawn up in a bun on top of her head smoothed her hands on the apron she was wearing and said, “Yes I am. Please come in.”

  It was the first time Kelly had been in Jacquie Morton’s house, and as she looked around, she mentally gave whoever had decorated it high marks for having good taste. She was curious who the decorator was and asked Maizie.

  “Ms. Morton flew a decorator up here who she had worked with in Beverly Hills. He knew what she liked and didn’t like. He took a lot of photographs and measurements, and a few weeks later he returned with two trucks driven by his employees filled with furniture and decorative objects. They put it all together in a couple of days. When Jacquie arrived, it was completely finished, down to the silverware in the drawer and flowers in every room, just like Ms. Morton liked. He’s quite an amazing decorator. Everyone who’s anyone in Beverly Hills uses him.”

  “I can see why. It’s very elegant, but at the same time, very warm, and that’s a hard combination to achieve.”

  “May I get you some iced tea, Mrs. Reynolds? I was just going to have some myself.”

  “Yes, that would be wonderful. Thank you.” Kelly followed her into the kitchen, and Maizie gestured for her to have a seat at the kitchen table.

  “Now, what do you want from me?” Maizie asked. “My son’s a sheriff in Arkansas, so I’m assuming you’d like to know what I know about Ms. Morton.”

  “Yes, I would. I have a personal interest in this case, because my husband is running for re-election against an opponent who has been accusing my husband of not doing his job properly as the sheriff of Beaver County. He says he would have determined whether Jacquie’s death was a homicide or an accident within a matter of hours. He’s telling everyone my husband isn’t qualified to be the county sheriff, because so far, he hasn’t been able to determine if Ms. Morton’s death was accidental or the result of some sort of foul play.” She paused and took a sip of her iced tea.

  “I remember the last time my son ran for re-election,” Maizie said. “It was really nasty, so I understand what you’re going through. I have to tell you I’m still somewhat in shock about Ms. Morton’s death. My daughter and her family live in Portland, and that was one reason I agreed to come up here with Ms. Morton. I wanted to be closer to my family, and being this close to Portland gave me a chance to see them from time to time.

  “As a matter of fact, I was there when I learned that she’d died. My granddaughter had to have an emergency appendectomy operation, and Ms. Morton told me to take some time off and go over to Portland, so I could be there with my family. I didn’t know anything about her death until after my granddaughter’s surgery when I heard about it on the television. I knew there was nothing I could do, so I stayed at my daughter’s last night and drove over here this morning.”

  That means she probably has a pretty good alibi, if it’s needed, Kelly thought. “Maizie, can you tell me what Jacquie Morton was like? You probably knew her as well as anyone did. I know she was suffering from macular degeneration. How was that affecting her life?” Kelly asked.

  “I’m surprised you know about her eye condition. Ms. Morton was very careful to hide it. She was really afraid of what was happening to her, and she didn’t know how she was going to make this movie. She knew it would probably be her last.”

  “I understand you had become the person Jacquie relied on for most things, since she was unable to see as well as she once could,” Kelly said.

  “Yes. I was with Ms. Morton when the eye specialist gave her the diagnosis. I remember on the way home telling her we needed to talk about it, and decide how I could best help her. I had been driving her for some time and my job really became one of being her eyes, however and wherever they were needed.”

  “What kinds of things did you do in addition to driving her?”

  “Pretty much anything that involved her having to look at something. I picked out all of her clothes, took her jewelry from the safe, although when I talked to your husband earlier today, he told me there was nothing in the safe when they arrived here at the house after she died. I’m not a law person, but that sure doesn’t sound like she died from an accidental fall. I mean where could the jewelry and cash be?

  “Anyway, back to your question. Every night I would read her the pages from the script that the screenwriter, Mickey Sloan, had given her earlier in the day, and she would memorize them. Those were probably the major things I did for her.”

  “It sounds like your job became a lot more difficult and time consuming as her vision began fading.”

  “Yes, it did,” Maizie said. “As a matter of fact, that’s pretty much all I did. We had someone come in to clean the house as well as a gardener to take care of the outside. I did the cooking, but other than that, my job was to act as her eyes. I felt sorry for her, because the macular degeneration was not curable. She knew it would only get worse, and that’s why she was so intent on making The Triangle movie. She wanted her last movie to be her best, the one people would remember her for.”

  “I can understand that. I only met her once. You probably know that she hired me to cater a meeting she was going to have the morning after she died. Actually, I was the one who found her. Everybody knows about her being a big star, but what was she really like?”

  Maizie took a long sip of her iced tea and looked out the window. She turned back to Kelly and said, “She was a difficult woman. I worked for her for many, many years, and I saw her change from a very happy young woman who wanted nothing more than to be a star, to becoming a star and demanding star treatment from everyone. Really, I think there were only two people who didn’t treat her like a star.”

  “Who would they be?”

  “Her daughter, Kim, and me. For some reason, she felt very comfortable with me, probably because of our long relationship. Kim never cared about being a movie star’s daughter, and she hated it when people fawned all over her just so they could have access to her mother. Kim and her mother were at the opposite extremes of what makes people happy. Rather than money and fame, Kim chose the life of a spiritual seeker. As a matter of fact, she doesn’t live too far away. She’s at Guru Dev’s Loving Care Retreat Center. Unfortunately, her mother could not understand why she was so interested in things like yoga and meditation. They became somewhat estranged because of Kim’s involvement in Guru Dev’s center.”

  “From what you’re telling me, it seems they definitely were miles apart. How would you define their relationship at the time of Jacquie’s death?”

  Maizie twisted her hands in her lap and said very quietly, “It was not good. They had a major argument several days before Ms. Morton died, and when Kim left the house that day she was very angry.” Maizie looked like she wanted to say more, but she stopped talking.

  “Can you tell me what they were arguing about? I know it’s none of my business, but anything you can tell me might help my husband solve the mystery surrounding Jacquie’s
death. If your son, the sheriff, is married, I’m sure his wife would do everything she could to help him, so that’s why I’m trying to help my husband.”

  “Yes, he is married, and yes, she would want to help him.” Maize sighed and took another sip of her iced tea. Her long fingers were wrapped around the glass, and her knuckles were white from gripping it so tightly. That was the only sign Kelly could see that indicated the stress Maizie was obviously under.

  She began to speak. “Kim wanted Ms. Morton to give her an early inheritance. You see, Kim was Ms. Morton’s only child, and she was the heir to Ms. Morton’s sizable fortune. Kim saw no reason why Ms. Morton couldn’t give her a large amount of money now, so she could give it to Guru Dev, and it would allow him to open more yoga and meditation centers. Ms. Morton told Kim that he was a quack, and the only reason he wanted her to live in his seedy commune, those were the words Ms. Morton used, was so he could get Kim to ask her for money.

  “Kim was furious and said something like how would Ms. Morton know what his retreat center was like since she’d never bothered to even go out to it, although Kim had asked her to visit several times. That’s pretty much the nuts and bolts of it. They did not part on good terms, and unless she and Kim spoke while I was gone, those might have been the last words they ever said to each other.”

  “That’s really sad. As a parent, I hate to hear about parents and children who have become estranged. It seems unnatural to me,” Kelly said. “Did they talk about anything else before the argument?”

  “I don’t know. When Kim came, she admired the flowers that our gardener, Jose Hernandez, had planted a few days earlier. I told her and Ms. Morton about how his wife had just been diagnosed with ALS and that it was incurable. I told them how worried he was. They were both sorry because he’s been the gardener here ever since Ms. Morton bought this house. He’d asked me to give the flowers a little extra water, so I left the two of them to go outside. When I heard raised voices, I walked into the house to see what was wrong. That’s when I overheard the conversation I just told you about.”