A Treacherous Treasure

by Leighann Dobbs

  “So you almost got away with murder,” Claire said.

  Quentin slid his eyes over to Lila. “Yes, and I might’ve gotten away with it, too, if Lila hadn’t had one of her lucid moments yesterday. When she blurted out that she’d seen someone at Elbert’s boat that day, I knew I had to silence her. A shame she’d blurt it out now after all these years, but I couldn’t let her tell anyone … even in her muddled state, if anyone believed her … well, I couldn’t take the chance.”

  “You were very brave, Quentin.” Lila’s eyes shone, and she turned to Dom. “Quentin tried to save Elbert. I saw him diving in Smugglers’ Cove near Elbert’s boat. You know we have a lovely view from that spot in our backyard, don’t you?”

  Dom glanced from Lila to Quentin. “Except you weren’t diving to save Elbert, were you? You were swimming away from the boat. Lila thought she saw you diving, but you’d just set the boat adrift. You took it into the cove, jumped out, and swam ashore. Left the empty boat so it would look like Elbert had taken the boat out and fallen overboard.”

  “That’s right. Smart, wasn’t I? I walked home and got my car then drove back to the cove, pretending like I had just spotted the boat bobbing around out there. I told them I had gone down to the cove crabbing. No one ever goes to Smugglers’ Cove, and there’s no houses around, so I felt fairly certain there would be no witnesses. I’d forgotten the Kuhns had that one little spot in their yard with the view. What are the odds Lila would be out there looking at the cove at exactly that time? All these years I never knew she saw me.”

  “But if she saw you, why did she never report it?” Claire wandered.

  Dom answered for him. “Well, it sounds like she didn’t realize what she saw. She thought Quentin had jumped in to save Elbert. It would be easy to think that if she saw him swimming in the water, especially if he told the cops that he jumped in after he noticed Elbert’s boat was drifting without Elbert in it.”

  “That’s exactly what I did. But I couldn’t take the chance of her bringing attention to that now. Back then no one suspected foul play. Well, no one except Elbert’s widow. But if they started looking into that now in light of Elbert’s obvious murder, it could go bad for me. What if someone studied the timeline and realized the only way I could’ve gotten to Smugglers’ Cove at the time Lila saw me was by boat? Elbert’s boat.”

  “Is that what you saw, Mom?” Jane asked. “Did you see Quentin diving the day Elbert disappeared?”

  “Yes, Janey. I told Daddy when he called from Germany. I was down at the edge of the property, you know with that beautiful view of Smugglers’ Cove, and I saw Elbert’s boat, which was odd, because no one takes their boat in there. It’s just too rocky. Quentin was swimming around it. At first I thought they were just diving for lobster or crab. It wasn’t until later on that we found out Elbert was missing, and then I heard that Quentin had been diving in the water to try to save him. Such a nice man.”

  Claire and Dom exchanged a raised-brow look. Nice man, indeed.

  “Sounds like the perfect cover-up. Acting like the hero as if you were diving to save Elbert. But why kill him and go to such an elaborate ruse, especially since the treasure was virtually worthless?” Claire asked.

  Quentin barked out a laugh. “Virtually worthless? That’s what they all thought. And Elbert had his highfalutin ideas of putting it all in a museum. He was talking crazy, and I couldn’t let him persuade the others, especially since I’d already set it up so that they would think the treasure was worth a lot less than it actually was.”

  “And with it not being worth much, they could be persuaded to put it in the museum a lot easier, since they wouldn’t be losing out on a lot of money to do so,” Dom said.

  “That’s right. My plan almost backfired because of that.” Quentin’s face turned sour. “And to top it all off, Elbert didn’t trust me and insisted on coming to see the collector. Well, I couldn’t let that happen. I had to kill him. Then I took those letters to the collector myself. Those letters were from William Kidd’s brother to his mistress, and they believed they were only worth thousands? Serves them right for being so dumb.”

  “Just what were they worth?” Claire asked.

  “Hundreds of thousands.”

  “So you swindled your friends out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and then killed one of them?” Dom asked.

  Quentin made a face. “Well, when you put it that way, it sounds so harsh. I was just doing what I needed to do to support my family and myself in my old age. I didn’t have money like the others. And I was frugal with it, too, spending it just a little bit at a time so no one would notice and saving most of it so I could be comfortable in my old age.”

  “You almost got away with it, too—”

  “Just what is going on down here?” A nurse in green scrubs stood staring at them, her gaze flicking from Lila to Dom to Claire to Quentin. Claire had been so engrossed in Quentin’s confession that she hadn’t even heard the nurse approaching. Those thick-rubber-soled shoes really muffled any footsteps.

  Quentin must have seen the distraction as his chance to escape. He pivoted away from Claire and made a break for it, darting in between an old sofa and a baker’s rack.

  Claire bolted after him. He zigged. He zagged. But then he came to the wall and had to take a sharp right turn. As he pivoted, his knee twisted and gave out. He fell to the floor with a loud yelp.

  “Mr. Crane!” The nurse ran over and crouched next to him. “Well, now you’ve done it. Your leg is not strong enough for that kind of activity. I told you that you shouldn't have missed your doctor’s appointment the other day. Maybe next time you’ll take heed of my words, and your leg will be strong enough for these kinds of shenanigans.”

  “I don’t think there will be a next time.” Zambuco walked up to the group, flashing his badge. “Quentin Crane, you’re under arrest for the murders of Elbert Daniels and Mari Wilkinson.”

  21

  The next morning, Claire and Dom sat at their usual breakfast table in Chowders with Mae, Tom, Alice, Norma, Jane, and, much to Claire’s dismay, Zambuco.

  As she had feared, it appeared Zambuco might become a regular at their breakfasts. But looking across the table at the happy smile on Jane’s flushed face, she couldn’t be upset about it. If Zambuco brought Jane this much happiness, then Claire would have to give him another chance. Jane was a good person, and she clearly saw something in Zambuco—maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

  “I don’t condone murder, but I have to hand it to Quentin. He spent that money judiciously over the years, and no one would’ve suspected he’d come into five hundred thousand dollars back then,” Tom said.

  “Yeah, he set himself up to spend his golden years in a nice place like Greenbriar,” Mae said. “A lot of us won’t be that lucky.”

  “Too bad he’ll probably be spending it in the state penitentiary now,” Zambuco said.

  “I’m just glad my dad wasn’t involved.” Jane shot Claire a sheepish glance.

  “So, you were lurking around trying to find out if your father was involved,” Claire said.

  Jane placed her hand on Claire’s arm. “Yes, and I’m sorry I didn’t fill you in, but when I saw that plaid shirt in the trunk, I immediately thought of my dad. He had a shirt just like that.”

  “Is that why you were at the storage unit that day? Digging up clues?” Dom asked.

  “Yes. I was looking for pictures or anything to prove … I don’t know … that my dad wasn’t involved, I guess. I did find an old photo of him and Elbert, both with the same plaid shirt. Mom said there was a sale at E-Mart on the mainland that year, and they ended up with the same shirt.” Jane took her hand back and dipped her toast in a puddle of egg yolk. “Funny how she can remember little details like that but not what she did yesterday.”

  “You found that box with his journal in the storage locker,” Claire said.

  Jane’s eyes widened. “How did you know about that?”

  Claire sw
allowed the pang of guilt that rose up in her throat. She felt bad for snooping in Jane’s house but consoled herself with the fact that it was for Jane’s own good. “Let’s just say you’re not the only one that avoided telling the truth in this case.”

  “But that box didn’t prove anything. All that was in it was some cryptic journal, old plane tickets, and passports.” Jane scooped some egg white onto her yolk-soaked toast. “But I did find another one of his baseball cards and just found out this morning that it’s worth quite a bit of money.”

  “Baseball cards?” Dom said. “I remember you mentioned he had a collection before. Is that how you came into all this money?”

  “Yes.” Jane glanced from Dom to Claire. “Didn’t I tell you? When Mom’s memory started failing, I knew I’d probably have to put her in some kind of living arrangement. I figured we’d need the money from selling the house, so I started going through her vast accumulation, and I discovered some savings bonds that Dad had bought decades ago. They’d already come to maturity and were no longer earning interest, but I could still cash them in, and it turned out they were worth quite a bit. Along with them was a letter—the bill of sale from his baseball card collection that he sold at auction. He also had the trip he took to the mainland to show them to the collector documented in that box from the storage unit. How else did you think I could afford to put Mom in Greenbriar and buy a new car?”

  “Well, I did wonder …” Claire said. “That actually explains a lot. We thought your father took the trip to the collector with the treasure, but that wasn’t it at all. That trip was to sell his baseball cards.”

  “I’m sorry if I forgot to mention it, Claire.” Jane’s cheeks turned crimson as she glanced sideways at Zambuco. “I’ve been rather distracted this past year.”

  Dom brushed crumbs from the pizzelle cookie he’d had as breakfast from his fingertips. “So, if you were investigating your father’s involvement, then you must have figured out he was involved with the treasure-hunting club.”

  Jane grimaced. “I did, but I didn’t know in what capacity. He wasn’t in the club, according to Ben. But then Mari said something about a silent partner … an investor, and I realized that was my dad.”

  “So, you did go visit Mari that day when Alice said she saw you?” Dom asked.

  “No, not that day. I went the day before.” Jane turned to Claire. “I didn’t lie to you guys about that. I really wasn’t there on the day you asked about, and I really did leave my umbrella at Greenbriar.”

  “And Quentin took it when he went to kill Mari.” Mae’s voice was unsteady.

  Zambuco nodded. “Yes, and we did find blood on the handle of his cane, so the umbrella wasn’t the murder weapon as we first suspected.”

  Norma rapped the table with her cane. “That’s all well and good, but what I want to know is what’s going to happen to all the money Quentin stole? Does he have to give it back?”

  Zambuco patted his lips with the white paper napkin. “That’s a legal muddle. First they have to prove they were owed the money. Other than Charlie’s journal, which is only an inventory of the equipment, there were no records. No paperwork to even prove they had an agreement. Even the auction house where Quentin sold the letters can’t provide records from that far back.”

  “That’s right,” Claire said. “I Googled it and found a mention of the letters in an old newspaper, but it didn’t say who had owned them. It didn’t even say where they were dug up!”

  “At auction, the seller can remain completely anonymous,” Norma said. “But we all know it was Quentin, and I think he should make restitution.”

  “I’m just glad it wasn’t that nice Diane Randall,” Jane said. “Poor thing just wanted to find out more about her grandfather and ends up being accused of murder!”

  “So, it was her who cleaned out the storage unit, then?” Tom asked.

  Zambuco nodded. “She found the key with a label on it in her grandmother’s things. She said it was full of dirty old equipment.”

  Norma’s eyes narrowed. “No treasure?”

  “Nope.”

  “Harumph,” Norma said. “Well, if she did find treasure, I guess she deserves it after what happened to her grandfather.”

  “That explains the red pebbles we found inside,” Dom said to Claire. “She had them stuck in the treads of her shoes from Greenbriar.”

  “The whole time she was getting treasure-hunting stories from Quentin, she had no idea she was talking to her grandfather’s killer,” Alice said somberly.

  “I wonder why he told her those stories. Seems like he would have rather kept mum about them,” Mae said.

  “Pride and boastfulness,” Claire said. “He didn’t know they were going to dig where he’d buried Elbert, and Diane never mentioned she was Elbert’s granddaughter. She was keeping it close to the vest since she was also trying to figure out what really happened to him. Quentin thought he’d gotten away with murder, and his ego got the best of him.”

  “Then once he heard Elbert’s body had been found, it was too late. He’d already been telling her about their treasure hunts, and it would seem suspicious if he suddenly stopped,” Dom added.

  “Well, I never did like Quentin anyway.” Alice turned her attention to Zambuco. “So, will you be making breakfast with us a regular thing?”

  Zambuco favored Jane with a sickly sweet smile that almost made Claire gag. Even worse, Jane was returning it.

  “You know, I think I might,” Zambuco said.

  “Does that mean Claire and I will be able to consult on the next murder?” Dom asked.

  Zambuco’s smile faded. “You two did do a good job on this case, but consulting on future cases … I wouldn’t count on it.”

  The end.

  * * *

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  A Note From The Author

  Thanks so much for reading, “A Treacherous Treasure”. I hope you liked reading it as much as I loved writing it. If you did, and feel inclined to leave a review, I really would appreciate it.

  This is book three of the Mooseamuck Island Cozy Mystery Series. I plan to write many more books featuring Dom and Claire. I have several other series that I write, too - you can find out more about them on my website http://www.leighanndobbs.com.

  This book has been through many edits with several people and even some software programs, but since nothing is infallible (even the software programs), you might catch a spelling error or mistake and, if you do, I sure would appreciate it if you let me know - you can contact me at: lee@leighanndobbs.com.

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  About the Author

  USA Today best selling Author, Leighann Dobbs, has had a passion for reading since she was old enough to hold a book, but she didn’t put pen to paper until much later in life. After a twenty-year career as a software engineer with a few side trips into selling antiques and making jewelry, she realized you can’t make a living reading books, so she tried her hand at writing them and discovered she had a passion for that, too! She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Bruce, their trusty Chihuahua mix, Mojo, and beautiful rescue cat, Kitty.

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  More Books By Leighann Dobbs:

  Mystic Notch

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  Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series

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  Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series Boxed Set Vol 1 (Books 1-4)

  Or buy the books separately:

  Killer Cupcakes (Book 1)

  Dying For Danish (Book 2)

  Murder, Money and Marzipan (Book 3)

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  Brownies, Bodies & Bad Guys (Book 5)

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