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

by Dianne Harman

  “What do you know about the gardener?” Kelly asked, thinking of what Roger Babowal had told her regarding the gardener looking in the window for longer that he thought was appropriate.

  “I’ve always found Juan to be a very nice young man. One time he and I were talking about food, and he told me his wife, Serena, made the best tamales he’d ever tasted. He asked me if I would like to go to their home and join them for lunch some Sunday after church. We all attended the same church, well, Ms. Morton didn’t go to church, but I did. Anyway, I went to their home for lunch and he was right. The tamales were fabulous. I’d met his wife and three daughters at church, but I hadn’t talked very much to them before I went to their home. There was so much love and happiness in that home, even if they didn’t have many material things by a lot of people’s standards.

  “I really feel sorry for all of them what with Serena being diagnosed with ALS,” Maizie said as she stood up. “I hope what I’ve told you helps. I spoke with Ms. Morton’s attorney a little while ago, and he asked me to make a list of the things in the house I thought were valuable. He said he’s trying to get an idea of the value of Ms. Morton’s estate, so he can begin to probate it.”

  “I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me and answer my questions. If you don’t mind, I have one more. Do you know if Kim is the sole beneficiary of Jacquie’s estate? You mentioned you thought she was her only heir.”

  “I don’t know for sure. The attorney didn’t say anything to me about that. Ms. Morton may have changed her trust, but I don’t think so, although she threatened Kim that she might cut her out of her estate if she didn’t leave that seedy commune. Ms. Morton’s attorney’s office is in Los Angeles, and unless he flew up here when I was in Portland, and she created a new trust, which I think is very doubtful, yes, I think Kim would still be the sole beneficiary.”

  “Again, thank you so much, Maizie. Here’s my phone number. If you think of anything you feel might be important, please call me. I’ll leave you to your list making. What are you going to do now?” Kelly asked as they walked to the front door.

  “My daughter wants me to move to Portland and live near her family. Ms. Morton paid me very well over the years, and I’ve saved most of it, so I really don’t have to work. I think I’ll probably buy a condominium or a small house and settle near them.”

  “I wish you well,” Kelly said as she smiled at Maizie and walked out the front door.

  CHAPTER 19

  Kelly had almost reached her minivan when she heard a voice say, “Kelly, do you have a minute?”

  She looked over and saw Roger Babowal waving to her from his backyard and motioning to her. “Be right there,” she said as she walked over to where he was standing with his dog, Rusty, at his side.

  “Sorry to bother you. I’m glad I saw you, because I’ve been wondering if I should call you. You saved me the trouble.”

  “Did you remember something more about Jacquie Morton or the night she died?” Kelly asked.

  “It may be absolutely nothing, but I thought it was odd. The night she died I remember seeing a black Mercedes pulling into the driveway of the house on the other side of Jacquie Morton’s house. I know a screenwriter who was working on the script for her new movie and a woman who was going to be in the movie, are living in that house, so a Mercedes in the driveway wouldn’t be all that strange. But here’s what I think is interesting. I take Rusty out for a walk very early in the morning, like around 4:30 or so. It’s a curse of old age thing. I just can’t sleep in like I used to. Sorry, I’m digressing. Anyway, when we went out that morning, the car was gone. It was still there when I took Rusty out for his last visit to the yard the evening before, so I thought it was odd that someone would leave either really late or really early.”

  “I agree. I know this is a long shot, but when the car pulled into the driveway, did you happen to see who got out of it?” Kelly asked.

  “I did, and I thought he looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. You know, one of those things that drives you nuts when you can’t remember it, and then you wake up at 3:00 a.m. and bingo, there’s the answer. Well, here’s the answer. Chris, my wife, was out of town when the Oscars were on television a couple of months ago, and she made me promise I’d tape the show for her, which I did. We both kind of forgot about it, and recently I remembered and reminded her that I’d taped it for her. She watched the show several nights ago. I was reading a book, and I glanced at the show from time to time, although they don’t interest me much. Isn’t really my thing, but I’m pretty sure the guy I saw getting out of the car at the screenwriter’s house was a director who’d been nominated for an Oscar but didn’t win.”

  “Thank you so much, Roger. I have no idea if it’s relevant, but I agree with you, it does sound odd. I’ll tell my husband, and maybe he can make something of it. You have my number. Please call me if you think of anything else. It may not seem like much to you, but it might be just the thing my husband needs to help him solve the mystery surrounding Jacquie Morton’s death.”

  Kelly reached down and petted Rusty, regretting she’d left Rebel in her minivan. She knew how much he enjoyed interacting with other dogs. A moment later she stood up to leave and had taken a few steps toward her minivan when Roger said in a hesitating voice, “Kelly, there may be something else. I noticed a car driving along the road when I was outside that night, and since we don’t get too many cars here at that time of night, it caught my attention. I looked at it fairly closely when it slowly passed by me. The dome light inside the car was on, you know, kind of like when you’re looking at a map or an address. I’d swear I saw a guy wearing a turban sitting in the passenger seat. I mean, it’s pretty strange to see anyone wearing a turban in this sleepy little town, so that definitely caught my attention. In fact, I think it was a first for me. Cedar Bay is not a tourist attraction for people from other countries. Don’t know if that’ll help your husband, but thought I ought to tell you.”

  Roger looked down at his dog and said, “Rusty, time to go in. We’ve taken up enough of Kelly’s time.” He gave her a slight wave, and the two of them walked in the back door of his house.

  Kelly stood there for a moment, unsure what to make of the latest bit of information Roger Babowal had just given her. A man wearing a turban in front of Jacquie’s home the night she died. The only man I can think of who would be wearing a turban and driving by Jacquie Morton’s house is Guru Dev. Could he have possibly talked to Jacquie or…

  She didn’t like the answer her mind was coming up with and decided it was time to pay a visit the seedy commune, as Jacquie Morton had called it.

  CHAPTER 20

  Guru Dev’s spiritual retreat center, known as The Loving Care Retreat Center, was located about ten miles east of Cedar Bay, and Kelly easily drove to it. She remembered when she and Mike had driven by it several months earlier that there was a large sign with the name of the center on it next to a guard gate. She stopped her minivan at the gate and rolled down her window. A man in a white tunic and pants stepped out of the small building and said, “This is private property. May I help you?”

  “Yes, I’d like to see Kim Morton. My name is Kelly Reynolds. You might tell her it’s regarding her mother.”

  “I’ll be back in a minute. I need to call her and get permission for you to enter the property, but the dog will have to stay in your car.”

  “I understand. Thank you.”

  She watched as the young man talked to someone on his cell phone. After a few minutes, he walked out of the small building and said, “Kim said you can come in. She’ll be waiting for you at the top of the hill. Just follow this road. The main part of the center is up about a mile. You can’t miss it.”

  “Thanks,” Kelly said as she started up the road. A few minutes later she rounded a curve and saw a number of small cottages beyond what appeared to be the main building for the center that the young man had referred to. A young woman was standing next to it and waved to
her. She motioned for Kelly to follow her as she began walking to a small cabin at the far end of the area. Kelly parked in front of it, told Rebel to stay, and got out of her minivan.

  “Hi, you must be Kim. My name is Kelly Reynolds. Thanks for agreeing to see me.”

  “Nice meeting you, Mrs. Reynolds. Let’s go into my cabin. We can talk a little more privately in there.”

  She opened the door and motioned for Kelly to go ahead of her. Kelly walked in and had a hard time believing what she was seeing. She’d read about some children of wealthy parents who had chosen to renounce the material world in which their parents lived, but this was the first time she’d actually experienced it. The room was devoid of anything personal. It had a cot which was about as severe looking as any bed Kelly had ever seen, a meditation pillow, candles, and incense. There were five pegs on the wall where a coat, three white tunics, and a bathrobe hung. There was a one-drawer cabinet in the corner where Kelly assumed Kim kept the few personal items she needed, such as the loose white cotton pants she wore with the matching tunic that completed her outfit. Other than that, the small one-room cabin was bare.

  “You can see that I’ve chosen not to be a part of the world that my mother lived in,” Kim said. “I met Guru Dev, he’s the head of The Loving Care Retreat Center, at a yoga class several years ago. I became his disciple, and when he opened this center, I came here to live and study with him. He’s absolutely the most wonderful human being I’ve ever met. I’d heard of mystics who had special powers, but I wasn’t sure I believed it. After meeting Guru Dev and studying with him, I definitely believe some people have certain types of extraordinary powers, and he’s one of them. He knows exactly what I’m thinking without me ever saying anything,” she said smiling.

  “I’ve heard the same thing,” Kelly said, “but like you, I’ve not met anyone who has those powers. From the looks of this center, it seems that there are a number of people who have come here to study with him.”

  “Yes. Presently he has sixty-three disciples living here. He’s developed quite a reputation, and every day he turns down people, because there’s no room for any more people to live here at the center. As a matter of fact, he was recently written up in one of the top yoga and meditation magazines as being the number one leader in his field. You can imagine how many people have tried to come here just from that magazine article alone.”

  “You must be one of the lucky ones, because you seem to have discovered him before the rest of that community did,” Kelly said.

  “I consider myself to be the luckiest person in the world. To study yoga and meditation with him is all I ever want to do. He has made me the second in command here at the center. There are so many people who want to study with him that Guru Dev and I are constantly discussing ways we can expand this center and even build more, but money is always a problem,” Kim said.

  Privately Kelly wondered if the reason Guru Dev had made Kim second in command was because of who her mother was. It was well-known that Jacquie Morton had been one of the wealthiest actresses in the movie industry. Kelly liked the young woman and sincerely hoped for her sake that Guru Dev was honorable and not a fraud. She knew Mike was going to talk to the Beverly Hills police chief today, and she assumed he’d ask the chief what he knew about the spiritual leader.

  Kim motioned for Kelly to sit on the cot while she gracefully lowered herself onto her meditation pillow in one fluid movement. Kelly wished she could do something like that, but she knew at her age it took a bit more flexibility than she had to get up and down like that from the floor, and it certainly didn’t happen in one graceful movement like Kim was able to do.

  “My husband is Sheriff Mike Reynolds. I believe he’s the one who told you about the death of your mother. I’d like to express my condolences. Losing a mother is not an easy thing. The reason I’m here is that my husband is in a very contested election in his race for re-election as the sheriff of Beaver County. I’m trying to take a little of the pressure off of him and see if I can find out anything from the people who knew your mother that might help him determine the circumstances surrounding her death. I’m not in law enforcement, I’m just a woman trying to help her husband. If you can think of anything that might be relevant to your mother’s death, I’d really appreciate it.”

  “I don’t know anything about how she died,” Kim said. “I’d visited her a few days before she was found dead. The next thing I knew was when I got the phone call from your husband about her death. Because of my involvement with Guru Dev, my mother and I were not particularly close the last few years.”

  “I understand there’s going to be a large funeral in Los Angeles for her,” Kelly said. “I believe I read in the paper that her agent feels it’s imperative to hold one in order to give her fans a chance to publicly mourn her death. Will you be attending it?”

  “I have absolutely no desire to go and be subjected to the world I’ve chosen to distance myself from, but Guru Dev is insistent that I attend her funeral. He doesn’t want to draw attention to the retreat center, and he’s afraid if I don’t go to the funeral, the retreat center could become the target of bad publicity. He thinks the media might write that The Loving Care Retreat Center is some sort of a cult, that I was being held against my will here, and that the cult prevented me from attending my mother’s funeral.”

  “I think that’s probably wise advice. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

  “No, I’m an only child. Actually, my mother had me out of wedlock, and to this day I don’t know the identity of my real father. When my mother was married to Deke Cannon, he wanted to adopt me, but my mother refused. Since they ended up getting divorced, she probably made the right decision. If I’d been his stepdaughter, it would have made it all that much messier. He was always very good to me, and I still talk to him once in a while, although I never let my mother know that.”

  “Kim, I hate to sound crass, and I know this is none of my business, but since you appear to have taken a vow of poverty, and I assume you will be the one to inherit the majority, if not all of your mother’s estate, what do you intend to do with the money?”

  “That’s kind of a no-brainer, Mrs. Reynolds. I’ll give it all to Guru Dev, of course, so he can build more retreat centers.”

  “Kim, again, this is none of my business, but I can’t help asking how you think your mother would feel about that?”

  “Quite frankly, Mrs. Reynolds, Guru Dev is alive, and my mother is dead. When I inherit the money, it will be mine to do with it as I wish. I can see from the look on your face that you’re not sure that’s the right thing for me to do. I’d like to introduce you to Guru Dev, and then you’ll understand why I decided to become his disciple. He’s usually free at this time of day. Come with me, please, and you can meet him in person,” she said as she stood up in one graceful movement.

  CHAPTER 21

  A few minutes later, Kim knocked on the door of a cabin much like the one she lived in and entered when a soft voice said, “Please come in.” Kelly and Kim walked into the cabin, and it was evident to Kelly that Guru Dev was not setting himself apart from his disciples by living in some mansion while they lived spartan lives in their cabins.

  “Guru Dev, this is Mrs. Reynolds. Her husband is the sheriff of Beaver County and he was the one who informed me of my mother’s death. She’s trying to help him by seeing if she can find anything out regarding the circumstances of my mother’s death.”

  Kelly had taken yoga classes on and off at the White Cloud Retreat Center and knew that the proper greeting when meeting someone like Guru Dev was to put one’s hands together in a prayer position above the heart, bow one’s head, and say “Namaste,” which she did. Guru Dev returned the greeting and motioned for them to sit on cushions on the floor. It took Kelly a little longer than it did Kim, but finally they were seated.

  “I understand you are interested in opening more retreat centers like this one, Guru Dev,” Kelly said. “Can you tell me a little
more about your plans?”

  His words came slowly, and it was obvious English was not his native language. He told her about his plans for more retreat centers and how many more people wanted to study with him. Guru Dev spoke factually, and Kelly didn’t detect any signs that he was the least bit egotistical. She could only assume that what he was saying was true. He needed more places to teach the people who wanted to study with him. It was as simple as that.

  He introduced Kelly to a young man named Jonah, who had been in the room with him when they’d arrived. Guru Dev asked Jonah to bring tea to them. A few moments later he returned with a tray carrying a teapot and cups.

  As he passed the tea, Guru Dev said, “We practice veganism here at the center, so no milk products are used. My studies have proven to me that sugar is not a good thing to put into one’s body, so that too is prohibited. We drink our herbal tea without either.”

  “Actually, this is exactly how I like my tea,” Kelly said. “It’s delicious.”

  While they sipped their tea, Guru Dev said, “Mrs. Reynolds, I have told Kim how very sorry I am about her mother. I never met her, although I tried to once. I actually had Jonah drive me to her home. As it turned out, we drove by her house the very night she died.”

  “I didn’t know that. Why did you go there, Guru Dev?” Kim asked, seeming genuinely surprised by his revelation.

  “I didn’t want to put you in the middle of something, Kim. I thought maybe if I spoke directly to your mother, she would loan me money for the retreat centers I want to build. Actually, it was late at night when I made my decision, and I asked Jonah to drive me to her home. When Jonah and I were in front of your mother’s home trying to make sure we had the right house, a fancy looking black car backed out of the driveway of the house next to hers and almost hit our car. The person driving the car drove away really fast and what I would consider to be in a reckless manner. I decided it was a bad omen, and I told Jonah to take me back to the center.”