Sapphire Beach Cozy Mystery Collection

by Angela K Ryan

  “That could be him. Would he have been able to see Allister and Paige from where he was sitting?”

  “He was seated at the far end of the bar, so yes, he could easily have seen them. But honestly, I don’t know if he left at the same time as Paige and Allister. I went out back to get another keg for the bartender but got sidetracked with a phone call. When I returned, all three were gone, so I can’t say if they left together.”

  This information kept Jerry on the top of Connie’s list. Between what Jessica, Ruby, Mary Ann, and Gallagher all said, Connie was more inclined to believe Paige than Jerry at this point.

  Gallagher finished off his water with one last long sip and stood to leave. “I’d better get over there,” he said, pointing to his restaurant across the street.

  Connie loved the exotic feel his thatched roof gave to her view.

  “By the way, thanks for the invite to the fireworks on the Fourth of July, but I’ll have to take a rain check. It’ll be a madhouse at my restaurant.”

  “I figured that. I just wanted you and Penelope to know you are both welcome. Hopefully, we can all do something together after hours another time.”

  “Definitely.”

  Connie watched Gallagher cross the street and climb the wooden stairs that led into his restaurant, then returned to the table to work on more earrings.

  The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday were slow, undoubtedly due to the sporadic thunder showers that pelted the area. Connie was glad she insisted that Grace take the day off. Although she would have enjoyed the company, there wouldn’t have been much for Grace to do besides people watch with Connie. As soon as the dark clouds rolled in, like clockwork, folks would scurry out of the shops and off the beach, racing to their cars for cover. Connie lost more than a couple of customers to the sound of crashing thunder that seemed to precede the violent rainstorms.

  On Wednesday afternoon, she queued up a few days’ worth of social media posts on various outlets, including a slew posts advertising a Fourth of July sale she decided to have at the last minute, in hopes of drawing into her store some of the crowd that would be at the beach for the festivities the following day.

  Connie glanced at the clouds in the distance slowly rolling in and decided to take Ginger for a walk before it began to rain. Since she planned to stay within view of the store in case any customers came around, she didn’t bother hanging a sign to indicate that she would return shortly.

  Connie locked the door, and she and Ginger strolled down the street in the direction of the beach. As they were turning around to come back, Emily, the owner of Friendly Scoops, was sitting on a bench in front of her store and motioned for Connie to come over.

  Connie glanced back at Just Jewelry, then at Emily. If she went over, she wouldn’t be able to see if any customers were looking for her. But then again, it had been so slow all day. A short delay shouldn’t hurt.

  Ginger was her usual charming self, hopping onto the bench between the two women and lapping up the attention that Emily gave her. Connie and Emily chatted for a few minutes about all things Sapphire Beach before Connie excused herself to get back to the shop.

  As they got close to the store, Ginger slowed her pace and raised her ears. Connie pulled her along, but the dog resisted. She picked her up, but something felt off kilter. When Connie inserted her key in the lock, she discovered the reason. The door was unlocked. What on earth? She remembered locking it with one-hundred-percent certainty. Connie hadn’t enabled the alarm, since she wasn’t going far, but she definitely locked the door.

  Connie cautiously peeked her head inside, but the store appeared to be empty and her merchandise was all intact.

  Burglars didn’t usually come in the middle of the day, anyway.

  Connie started toward the checkout area, located in the middle of the store, to inspect the cash register when she heard a noise out back.

  As she grabbed a pair of pliers from her jewelry-making tool kit, she didn’t know if she was more afraid for her own safety, or that her pliers would once again become a lethal weapon as she tiptoed toward the back of the store.

  Before any harm could be done, a man and a woman casually wandered out.

  It was her landlord, Mickey Miranda, and his wife, Susan.

  Susan let out a loud squeal when she saw Connie’s pliers raised above her head while Mickey jumped in front of his wife.

  Connie lowered the pliers and breathed a sigh of relief. “You guys scared me half to death. What are you doing in here?” She hoped Mickey’s surprise visit wasn’t connected to Allister’s death, or to the fact that her pliers were used as a murder weapon. If that were the case, Connie defending herself with pliers probably didn’t bode well.

  Mickey ran his hand through his hair. “Connie, I was so worried about you after what happened at the pier last week. Susan and I were visiting our daughter in New Jersey. We just flew home this morning and heard what happened. When nobody was here in the middle of the day, I figured something must be wrong and let myself in.”

  After Connie explained where she had been, Susan left Connie and Mickey to talk while she browsed the Fair Trade section, stopping to read the biographies of the artisans.

  But Mickey didn’t give Connie a chance to say anything. Shifting nervously, he blurted out, “I assume you heard about the murder that took place by the pier. I just wanted you to know that the police are doing everything they can to catch the killer, and they don’t believe that anyone in the area is in danger. I wanted to reassure you, after everything that happened with Natasha, that you are safe in your own shop.” Natasha was the shop’s previous tenant who had disappeared without a trace. Connie was instrumental in uncovering what happened to her.

  Connie felt her shoulders relax. Mickey didn’t think she was a jinx. He wasn’t looking to throw her out of his building. He was genuinely concerned for her safety.

  Susan held up a necklace made by one of Connie’s Kenyan artisans. “Is the Fourth of July sale in effect yet?”

  Connie assured her that it was, and Susan brought the necklace to the circular checkout counter.

  It occurred to Connie that since Mickey had just spoken to the police about the investigation, maybe he knew something. “Do you know if the police are close to making an arrest?” she asked, wrapping Susan’s necklace and placing it in a bag.

  “As of late this morning, they were not. But Detective Josh Miller told me that the preliminary autopsy report was back, and it confirmed that the time of death was indeed around 11:00 PM, as the police initially suspected.” Mickey puffed out his chest. “He didn’t want to give that information, but I told him that I have tenants who work nearby and wanted to be sure they weren’t in any danger.”

  “You take good care of us, Mickey. It’s nice to know you have our backs.”

  He waved at her and winked as they were leaving, and Connie couldn’t help but laugh.

  What started out as a boring day turned unexpectedly, and unnecessarily, eventful.

  Chapter 11

  On the morning of the Fourth of July, Connie awoke before her phone alarm sounded, eager for a busy day in the shop and a fun evening with friends watching fireworks on the beach after hours.

  “Come on, Ginger, I hope you’ll do okay with the noise and the crowds today,” Connie said as she nudged the dog into her Jetta. She thought of leaving Ginger behind, further away from the noisy fireworks, but with the traffic to and from the beach, which was sure to make Sapphire Beach Boulevard nearly impassible, she feared she wouldn’t be able to get home in the afternoon to walk and feed her.

  Connie glanced up at Palm Paradise as she exited the underground parking garage and thought of her balcony overlooking the beach, where she and her friends could have enjoyed a prime view of the fireworks. She was somewhat disappointed at not being able to watch the festivities from her balcony, but at least she would be in the middle of the action. Maybe another year.

  She took a right on Sapphire Beach Boulevard and swu
ng by Sweet Dreams, the only bakery in town, to pick up the pastry order for her gathering that evening, then stopped at Publix for a few extra cases of water. It was sure to be a scorcher. With the necessary supplies loaded into her backseat, Connie doubled back down the boulevard, arriving at her shop well before traffic could slow her down.

  In all the years Connie visited her Aunt Concetta, she had never spent a Fourth of July in Sapphire Beach. In fact, since it was so hot this time of year, Concetta often would spend the month of July in Boston. So, she wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, especially in terms of traffic in her store.

  Grace, who fortunately insisted on working that day, even though Thursday was supposed to be one of her days off, arrived in the shop shortly after Connie.

  “I’ll be curious to see how much jewelry we sell today,” Grace said, nodding with satisfaction at the store, which was sparkling clean and ready for customers. “I know there will be tons of people downtown, but I’m not sure how many will be in a shopping mood.”

  By 11:00, parking lots were filling up and the downtown streets were bustling with activity. Connie glanced over at Gallagher’s Tropical Shack and was pleased to see that there was already a long stream of customers filing in. Gallagher poured his heart and soul into his restaurant and, in Connie’s humble opinion, he deserved all the success in the world.

  The consistently large volume of customers meant that Connie and Grace were on their feet all day and barely found a moment to sneak out back, one at a time, to wolf down a sandwich. It was a good problem to have, but by the end of the day, Connie desperately needed to get off her feet.

  By the time her friends arrived at 7:30, customers were making their way out of the shops and into restaurants or down to the beach to claim a spot to watch the fireworks that were scheduled to take place at 9:30. She quickly looked over the credit card receipts in her cash register and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of business she did. It was a welcome boost in revenue in the middle of a relatively slow season. And the sale succeeded in drawing lots of traffic into her store. She would certainly be doing this again next year.

  Elyse and Stephanie helped Connie brew some coffee and put the pastry out for her guests on the oak table, which, this evening, felt more like a dining room table than a jewelry-making station. Everyone gathered around, including Emma and Victoria. It was the first time her friends had been together in the shop all at once since her grand opening nearly three months before.

  Although things were far from normal with Zach, he did seem to relax a little. Perhaps he realized that Connie was stepping back to give him the space he apparently needed. The comfortable, easy feeling that Connie had always felt in his presence had greatly diminished, but she tried not to let it bring her down. If Zach only wanted to be friends, she just wished he’d say so. She didn’t want any awkwardness between them to make her or the others uncomfortable. For now, she would try to put it aside and enjoy the evening.

  Fortunately, there was plenty to distract her. Victoria melted Connie’s heart when she looked up at her in her little Fourth of July sundress, complete with red sunglasses and flip flops, asking for a “patry”. Connie scooped the child up onto her lap, where she enjoyed an éclair, the biggest piece of pastry in the box, and proceeded to get more cream and frosting on her hands and face than in her mouth. After Victoria polished off the last bite, Connie brought her out back to clean her up. Once she returned a squeaky-clean Victoria to her parents, Elyse and Josh updated the group on the adoption process.

  “It’s been about three months since we began the process,” Josh said. They had announced their plans to adopt Victoria at that very same table at the grand opening of Just Jewelry in April. “We hired a fantastic attorney who is trying to move things along as quickly as possible. He tells us that if all continues to go smoothly, she should officially be our daughter in another three to six months.”

  “But as far as we’re concerned, she is already our daughter,” Elyse said, kissing the blond little girl’s chubby cheeks. Judging from her grin, Victoria obviously felt the same way.

  But Connie wasn’t so sure that Emma did. She couldn’t help but notice the sense of betrayal in Emma’s eyes as her parents doted on the newest addition to their family.

  Connie and Stephanie went out back to bring out more coffee, and when they returned, Gertrude was asking Josh and Zach about their progress on the murder investigation.

  “I’ve been wondering about the investigation myself,” Connie said, pouring herself another cup. It had been a tiring day on her feet, and she needed a boost of energy to enjoy the fireworks. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about my jewelry-making class.”

  Josh shook his head playfully. “Connie, how is it that you always end up in the middle of our murder investigations?”

  “I think you have it all wrong, my friend. I don’t get in the middle of your investigations; your investigations seem to barge their way into my life. This never happened back home.”

  Elyse put a protective arm around Connie’s shoulders. “Leave her alone. She’s stressed out enough about the fact that her first class ended in murder.”

  “Not to mention that my favorite pliers were used as a murder weapon. I’m counting on you two to get this figured out before people start associating Just Jewelry with homicide,” Connie said.

  “Poor Allister,” Gertrude said. “He was a little snooty for my taste, but nobody deserves what happened to him.”

  “His colleagues from the university said he was quite the literature snob,” Grace said. “He would criticize any books that didn’t meet his high standards.”

  Josh and Zach exchanged a humorous glance, both trying unsuccessfully to suppress a smirk.

  “What’s so funny?” Elyse asked.

  Zach took a sip of coffee, then pushed his cup away. “Allister McCue was no literature snob. He may have insulted what he deemed ‘trashy novels’ in public, but we found copies of some pretty sappy stuff hidden in his desk drawer. Whatever he said in front of his colleagues, privately it was a different story. Literally.”

  Gertrude’s eyes flew wide open. “What kind of books did you find in his drawer?” she asked.

  “They couldn’t have been that bad,” Stephanie said.

  “A Professor’s Fantasy. A Campus Affair. I can’t even remember the rest, but they were pretty bad,” Josh said.

  “No way!” Connie said.

  Everyone laughed, including Emma. Even Victoria joined in, apparently not wanting to be left out of all the fun.

  “Well, I guess everyone’s entitled to their secrets,” Connie said. “But I wonder why he made such a big deal about putting the stuff down. Clearly the others in the department didn’t share his disdain for it. They were even talking about a romance novel at the jewelry-making class.”

  Connie looked over at Emma and noticed she wore a sour expression on her face.

  “Is something wrong, Emma?” Connie asked. “Don’t you like your cannoli?”

  She put down the pastry on the paper plate in front of her and pushed it away. “It’s not that. I just don’t understand why Victoria is laughing. She doesn’t even understand why it’s funny. She throws herself into the middle of everything we do.”

  Josh tried to reason with her. “Honey, Victoria is your sister. It’s natural for her to want to do everything we do. You should take it as a compliment.”

  “I liked it better before she came,” Emma said, hitting the table with her hand.

  “You don’t mean that, sweetie,” Gertrude said.

  “I’m sorry, it’s just that she’s always here. She never leaves us alone. I miss the old days when it was just the three of us.”

  Connie’s heart broke when she saw the pain on Elyse’s face.

  Emma looked at Victoria with disdain. “Can I go play with Ginger out back?”

  Elyse nodded. “Go ahead, honey.”

  After Emma was out of earshot, Elyse confided to the others tha
t she didn’t know what to do about Emma. “At first she was so excited about having a little sister, but now she seems over it. I think it’s starting to sink in what a big a change it is for our family. Maybe we didn’t properly prepare her.”

  “You can’t blame yourself, honey. Just give her some time,” Grace said. “She’ll adapt. It’s a tough adjustment at any age.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Elyse said. But she didn’t look convinced.

  After putting aside what was left of the pastry and throwing away the paper dishes and cups, some of the group moved over to the seating area while others lingered at the table.

  When lingering shoppers trickled in here and there, Connie excused herself to wait on them and offered them some pastry after ringing up their purchases. At 9:00, Connie locked up the shop, and the group made their way to the beach.

  “Look, there’s some room over there,” Emma said, pointing to a spot a short distance from the pier, where the festivities would take place.

  “It’s as good a spot as any,” Josh said.

  As they passed underneath the weather-beaten wooden pier, Connie tried not to think of Allister being killed with her pliers in that very spot, but she couldn’t help it. She glanced at the ground, half-hoping to find a clue, but she knew that would be impossible. The tide had come in and out more than a dozen times since last week. Her expression must have given away her thoughts. Josh had walked up alongside her and gave her a knowing glance.

  “Let’s try not to think about it tonight,” he said with a warm smile.

  Connie nodded. “I’ll try.”

  It turned out to be easier than she thought. Excitement floated in the air as people of all ages anxiously anticipated the fireworks display. The air was still hot even though the sun had set, but there was a consistent breeze coming off the Gulf, which made the heat and humidity bearable.