Mangroves and Murder: An Enchanted Coast Magical Mystery

by Maher Tegan

  "That was quick," Sheena said, her tone as perky as her persona. "Some people take forever in there, and I have no clue what they're doing. How long does it take to take off your clothes and put on a robe?"

  I assumed that was a rhetorical question, so I decided to use the time it took us to get to the spa to ask a few questions. "Does Sandra always come here by herself? Oh, and do you know when they got here?"

  She shook her head as she led me down the hallway toward another set of double doors. "No, she was here yesterday with her sister-in-law, or at least I assume that's who it was. They share the last name, but the woman was wearing a rock big enough to choke a horse on her finger. I’m not sure when they checked in, but she had her first spa service day before yesterday."

  "She's alone today, though?" It would be much easier to draw her into conversation if she was in there by herself.

  Sheena pushed a door open and held it so that I could step through in front of her. I was a little surprised at what I saw. For some reason, I'd expected to walk into another hallway, but it opened into a large foyer that had two doors on each wall that led to what I assumed were rooms that offered various types of pampering.

  She led me to the door on the wall opposite the one we’d just come through. "The sauna’s in here. You’ll go through a small locker room, then straight ahead until you see the pool. Hang a left as soon as you go into the pool area, then hang another left. That's where you'll find her."

  "Thanks a ton, Sheena," I said as she turned to leave.

  She waved a delicate hand at me. "No worries at all. Anything to help Amber and Dax, and if I'm honest, to put it to the Council." Her face lit up like she'd remembered something. "Oh, Sandra has a little Maltese that she couldn't stop talking about yesterday. That might be a good icebreaker."

  That was helpful. "Thanks! I was wondering how I was gonna do that, seeing as how I haven't attended very many ten-grand-a-plate charity events in the last few months." I winked at her, and she laughed.

  “Neither have I, dahling. I've simply been too busy on my yacht." She pulled off a passable elitist accent, and I made a note to hang out with her more often. I had a feeling she could be one of my people.

  I pulled in a deep breath as I put my hand on the door and threw a wish out to the universe for luck. I had a feeling I was going to need it.

  Chapter 11

  For some reason, I'd expected Sandra Keller to be late middle age and have a little bit of padding. I'd also pictured her as a bottle blonde, though I have no idea why. Instead, she was a slim woman with chestnut hair artfully highlighted and cut in a shoulder length shag that was currently clipped back from her face and off her neck.

  She glanced up from the gardening magazine she was reading—another surprise—and I was startled at the friendliness reflected in her dark eyes. This was the total opposite of the woman I'd been expecting, at least in appearance.

  The room was about ten feet by eight and had acacia wood benches lining three of the walls. I slipped out of my robe and hung it from a hook on the empty wall, then made sure my towel was secure before I took a seat on the bench at a ninety-degree angle from her.

  "Hi," I said, returning her smile while keeping in mind that she’d just lost her husband. "Is it hot in here, or is it just me?"

  I'd found that corny jokes were often a great icebreaker, and it appeared that it had worked.

  She fanned her face with the magazine. Her smile turned to a grin. "Boy, is it ever. I slipped in here because I thought it was a little reading nook, but then they tried to cook me alive. You’d think for what they charge for this joint, they’d be able to afford AC in all the rooms."

  The amusement on her face faded into a combination of sadness and guilt. I knew how she felt. She'd lost somebody she cared about — or at least I assumed she’d cared about him — and she felt bad about experiencing a moment of happiness. Rather than let her dwell on it, I kept talking, keeping in mind that she didn't know me, and I wasn't supposed to know her.

  "How are you likin' this place?" I asked. "What all have you done so far?" The resort had so many different amenities that you could stay for a week and never hit all of them.

  She closed the magazine and scooted a little closer to me so that we could talk without raising our voices. "I love it, or at least I did up until yesterday. That doesn't have anything to do with the resort though, or at least I don't think it does."

  For once, Lady Luck was smiling on me. She brought up the subject right off the bat, so I didn't have to worry about finding a tactful way to broach it myself.

  I tucked the top of my towel in a little better. I wasn't particularly modest, but I also didn't want to flash a woman I’d just met, especially when I was trying to pull information from her.

  "I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience. If you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

  Her lips tilted up a little in a sad smile, and a shadow crossed her face. "Unless you just got here, I'm sure you've heard about it. My husband was murdered yesterday by a man who cheated him in the casino."

  I didn't have to fake my frown, though it was for a different reason than she would assume. I hated that she thought Jackson had cheated her husband, both for his sake and for ours.

  "I'm really sorry to hear that," I replied. "I did hear about it, and it was awful."

  That much wasn't a lie, and if she truly loved her husband, my heart went out to her. Now I had to figure out how to be nosy without appearing to be nosy. Fortunately, I'd been raised a Southern girl. Digging information out of people that they didn't want to share was genetic. Now I just needed to figure out what I wanted to ask. I wished I'd put a little more thought into that before I’d come, but I hadn’t exactly had time to organize a list of interview questions.

  "It is awful." She plucked at the edge of her towel as her chin wobbled, and her eyes filled with tears. "He was over the top and full of life. My parents didn't like that I'd marry him, but I didn't give two hoots what they thought. They expected me to end up with some stick-in-the-mud banker or Wall Street guy, but that's just not how I wanted to spend my life. Marty stole my heart from the moment we met. The goofy man even took my name because he didn’t want me to have to go through the hassle of changing mine. With the company, I’d have to change a ton of documents."

  I didn't detect a trace of insincerity in her tone or her words. "It sounds like you found a rare one. I have a really good guy too, and I'm lucky to have found him. I kissed several frogs before I finally found a prince." I felt a little bad because I was trying to bond with her via shared experience, but I wasn't lying to her. Also, my gut was already telling me that she wasn't the one who’d killed him. That meant I was gonna have to dig a little deeper.

  “How did they figure out who did it?” I asked. It was a money question for me, literally. I wanted to know if she was the one who’d bought the Council and slipped the noose around Jackson’s neck.

  She adjusted her robe and set the magazine on the bench beside her. “My brother Xavier saw them in the little boat together. Fortunately, the guy was still here, so they were able to arrest him. From what I understand, there’s no doubt he’s the killer, and the Council is taking him today. I guess I got lucky that Xavier happened to be on the beach yesterday morning.”

  Yeah, lucky. The more I talked to her, the more I was convinced she was just caught in somebody else’s net.

  "Do you have somebody here so that you're not alone?" I was hoping she'd say yes and again felt a little push of guilt because my motives weren't exactly pure. I needed another suspect, and she'd already said her family didn't like him. Sheena had told me she was here with a woman who was likely her sister-in-law, so I had to wonder if they were there as a family. Maybe there was more than one Keller who was unhappy enough with the marriage to want Marty out of the picture, especially given the amount of money in question.

  She nodded and wiped a knuckle under her eye to wipe away a tear. "Yeah, my brother and siste
r-in-law are here, and Marty's best friend came with us, too."

  I swung my legs on the bench, trying to think of a way to ask her if any of them could've killed him without coming out and putting it just like that. Again, my upbringing came to the rescue. "That’s good, then. I'm sure once they got to know him, they were all just as fond of Marty as you were, so at least you have some shoulders to cry on. We all need that when the world turns things upside down."

  One corner of her mouth quirked up in a wry smile. "I wouldn't go so far as to say they were fond of him. Well, Bobby is. They've been friends for several years, but Xavier — that's my brother — isn't much of a fan. Like my parents, he's convinced I married beneath my station, which I did, but I'm not a commodity. I have my own money, and it's mine to do with as I please. If I want to marry a man I love and share it with him, that's my business."

  A spark of rebellion shone in her eyes, and I didn't doubt for a moment that she meant it.

  I was starting to feel lightheaded from the heat and knew I wasn't going to be able to hold out for much longer. Sweat was running into my eyes and pooling underneath me, and my towel was almost soaked through. Why on earth people did this for relaxation, I had no clue. I felt like I was boiling in my own sauce.

  She reached around and pulled a small nylon cooler from the bench beside her, then slid the zipper around and pulled out a bottle of water. "You're looking a little flushed. Drink this before you pass out. You don’t look like you're used to doing this."

  I sighed in relief and took the bottle from her. It was ice cold, and I ran it over my cheeks and forehead before twisting off the lid and taking a long drink. "To be honest, I'm not. This is the first time I've ever done it, and I'm not sure I’m likely to repeat the experience."

  That got a laugh out of her. "I remember my first time. I felt exactly the same way, but then I saw a real difference in my skin and the way I felt. It's a great way to sweat out toxins and get rid of some water weight."

  I raised a brow. "I actually live here in Florida, so I think I sweat enough to get rid of any toxins just walking outside. I could stand to lose the water weight, but I'm not sure this is the way I want to do it. Still, I'll take your word for it."

  I struggled to come up with a way to bring the conversation back around to her family. I really needed her to just come out and say her brother hated her husband enough to kill him, but I was pretty sure that wasn't going to be a thing.

  I decided to come at it from a different angle. "At least you have your sister-in-law. I'm sure she understands following your heart, and if Marty was as great as you say he was, I'm sure she loved him too. Us girls tend to see past all that money stuff."

  I had no idea if that was the truth or not because I'd never been in the situation where I was friends with somebody rich enough to have to worry about that decision, but it sounded good to me.

  She tucked a loose strand of damp hair behind her ear and shrugged. "Bella plays her cards pretty close to the chest. We're friends, but she tends to be a bit of a snob. Just because I have so much more money than she does, she'd never come straight out and say she didn't like him, but she's never gone out of her way to be more than socially friendly to him. The only time she ever spoke up was when I gave Marty the family signet ring as his wedding ring. She felt Xavier should have it, but since I’m the oldest, I inherited it."

  I wondered how that had gone over, but it was obvious she’d stood her ground because Marty had been wearing it in every picture I’d seen him in. Though I already knew, I figured it would be polite to ask. "So, what did Marty do for a living?"

  She tilted her head at me, and a trace of amusement crossed her expression. "He made me happy. That was all I ever asked of him. When we met, he was working eighty hours a week at a dead-end job as a car salesman just to make ends meet. I went in to have my Mercedes serviced, and I met him as I was browsing the inventory while I was waiting."

  "And the rest is history?" I asked, then drained the rest of the water. It felt like I’d gotten all I was going to get from her, and it was a good thing. I was pretty sure I was about ten seconds from death.

  She laughed, and it sounded genuine. "There was a little more to it than that, but yeah. He made me laugh, and he didn't jump all over me trying to sell me anything. In my world, that's rare. He asked me out, and what was supposed to be a coffee date ran on until eleven o'clock that night. He took me to a matinee showing of Casablanca, then we went bowling. For the first time in a long time, the only thing anybody cared about was whether or not I could bowl a strike. It was refreshing, and I loved him for it. And then the rest was history."

  I was surprised to find I actually liked Sandra, and I doubled down on my conviction to catch whoever really killed her husband. She deserved that, and so did Marty.

  I stood and made my way to the door, my legs wobbly. "It's been a pleasure, but I can barely breathe. I have to get back out in the cool. Good luck to you, and I'm really sorry about your husband."

  I pushed through the door and barely made it back to the changing room without falling down because I was so lightheaded. I hadn't noticed it before, but there was a little cooler in the corner of the room stocked with bottles of water and Perrier. I pulled out a bottle of the fizzy stuff and plopped down onto the bench. I'd gotten the information I came for and then some and decided to ask Sheena on the way out where I could find Bella Keller. I had a feeling she'd be much easier for me to crack because I already didn't like her.

  Chapter 12

  Sheena was sorting though files when I made it back to the front desk. I cleared my throat to get her attention, and a wide smile spread across her face when she saw me.

  "So what'd you think of the sauna?"

  I rolled my eyes. "I hated it. I might come back for massages, but I promise you, unless I'm under threat of death or dismemberment, I'll never step foot in that torture box again."

  She laughed. "I feel the same way. But did you find out anything good? I've been thinking about what you said, and it really pisses me off that somebody's trying to manipulate the system like that. Somebody needs to check the Council before another agency steps in. The faerie community has been unhappy with them for years but have so far held their peace. That's not going to continue much longer, though, because this time they targeted somebody outside the witch population. If it's a merman today, it could just as easily be a faerie tomorrow, and that could end in all-out war."

  I nodded. "Yeah, we're used to it in our world because it's been that way since the beginning. Since Council members are appointed rather than voted in, we don't really have a whole lot of choice. We mostly just work around it by keeping a low profile. Nobody wants to be on the radar."

  She shook her head, her lips pressed together. "That's no way to run a community. Our system follows the old royal bloodline, but major decisions within our community are put to a vote. There's also a governing body that's elected because we have such a large and spread-out population. The royals can't handle all that on their own. The upside is that they serve as a system of checks and balances. If it ever comes to the point that the royals get out of hand, we have somebody else to turn to."

  The fairies had a distinct advantage over a lot of species. Some of them had been alive for thousands of years, so they tended to take the long view of things. They also had a much healthier view of the world and believed that personal responsibility included making decisions that were best for the entire community rather than just themselves. The Witch's Council, on the other hand, operated on a transactional basis. Most of what they did was carefully thought out based on power and money. That was a problem for another day, though.

  "Actually, I did get some good information from Sandra," I said, straightening a stack of flyers on the counter out of nervous energy. "I don't think she did it. For that matter, I don't think she even knows that anything hinky's going on. That leaves Xavier and Bella. Oh, and apparently Marty's best friend Bobby is here, too. I'll talk to him, bu
t he's at the bottom of the list. From what Sandra said, I feel like her brother has the most motive at this point, and he's the one who lied. Do you have any idea where I might find Bella?"

  She huffed a disgusted breath out through her nose and fluttered her hand. "I can tell you exactly where to find her. I'll guarantee she's in the gym. That was all she talked about yesterday morning was how her body is a temple and that she works two hours a day to stay fit." She rolled her eyes. "The hilarious part about that is she was stuffing bonbons in her face the entire time she was getting a pedicure."

  I laughed. "I guess I can't judge. I'd be stuffin' the bonbons in my face, too, but I wouldn't be at the gym the next morning. Thanks for all your help. After I get back from vacation, we need to have a girls’ night."

  Her turquoise eyes lit up in delight. "I'd love that. In fact, I keep meaning to call you on movie night, but I know you work so hard that I don't want to cut into your time off."

  The resort had a full movie theater complete with digital surround sound and reclining leather seats, and on Wednesdays, staff got in free.

  I waved a hand. "Please, interrupt away. You'll be saving me from myself because on the few nights I do have off, I’m usually at home sitting on my butt binge-watching Netflix while eating pizza."

  She stuffed the files in a drawer and smiled. "Nothing wrong with that, but I think we'd have a lot of fun. Good luck with this investigation, and if there's anything else I can do for you, let me know."

  I returned her smile and found that I was looking forward to a night out with her. "Will do. I guess I'm off to the gym to torture myself a little more." If I had to make a list of my top ten least favorite activities, going to the gym would be right at the top. Luckily, I got plenty of exercise running back and forth at the tiki.

  She laughed. "Enjoy yourself. I'm sure you'll find Bella to be a real treat. My massage therapist threatened to quit yesterday afternoon if I made her work with her again. I don't think I've ever met anybody so rude and entitled."