A Deadly Slice of Lime: A Key West Culinary Cozy - Book 6

by Summer Prescott

  A shadow fell across her lounger, and she opened her eyes to see Tim standing beside her, pushing his thick glasses up his nose with an index finger.

  “They were here again,” he said, gazing down at her as though she were a bug under a microscope.

  “Who was here again, Tim?” she asked out of habit, knowing full well that she might be about to hear a story about the meter reader, the paperboy, or the landscapers that kept her yard neat and tidy.

  “The two men that brought her home,” he proclaimed somberly, still peering down at her. Marilyn swung her feet over the side of the lounger closest to him and sat up. Almost every time that Tim talked about “she” or “her,” he was referring to Tiara, who apparently fascinated him, much to her mother’s consternation.

  “When? When were they here?” she asked, urgently. Suddenly he had her full attention.

  “Yesterday afternoon. They yelled a lot,” he blinked several times and pushed his glasses up again.

  Marilyn’s heart sped up and her stomach churned with the potential implications of that statement. “Could you hear what they were yelling about, Tim?” she asked.

  He shook his head exactly once. “No, but the one who had given her a ride before, pushed the other one,” he smiled eerily.

  “Did they fight?”

  “I don’t know,” he blinked at her, his eyes huge behind his lenses.

  “You don’t know?” she repeated, frustrated at his lack of elaboration. Tim had been a mortician prior to moving to Florida, and she had a feeling that the paunchy, fussy little man dealt much better with the dead than the living.

  “I was looking for my cat,” he said, with a shrug and turned to go. He always seemed to be looking for his cat, a creature that Marilyn had never actually seen in all the months that he’d lived there.

  “Did you find him?” she asked, giving up, but trying to keep the conversation going, just in case he remembered something else.

  “Who?” Tim cocked his head at a strange angle.

  “The cat,” now it was Marilyn’s turn to blink.

  “Oh. No,” he said and disappeared through the trees.

  She sat and stared into the trees absently for a time, sipping her wine and thinking. The fact that Daniel and Brad had an altercation in front of her house, when neither of them was supposed to be there, raised some alarms for Marilyn. The thought that Tiara was with someone who had potentially killed another human being, filled her with dread, but she couldn’t figure out how to get her daughter away from Daniel. She jumped, splashing a bit of wine into her lap, when she heard her name called out from behind her chair.

  “Hi,” Bernard raised a hand in greeting. “Sorry to startle you,” he said, seeing her trying to blot her pant legs with a cocktail napkin that she’d had on the side table next to her chair. “The side gate was open, so….”

  “No need to apologize, I was just…preoccupied,” she said, staring into her wine glass like a crystal ball. “Wine?” she asked.

  “Uh…no, thanks. I’m on duty,” he replied. “Do you need to go take care of that?” he motioned to the splotches of wine on her pants.

  “No,” she shook her head. “I’ll just wash them in cold and they’ll be like new.” Her replies were wooden, and she felt a strange sort of numbness that made it difficult to think.

  “May I?” the detective asked, indicating an empty patio chair across from her.

  “Of course. Please,” she felt terrible for being so distant, but her world had been rocked in some major ways today.

  “Thanks. I stopped by the shop before I came out here, so I’m assuming that you know why I’m here…” he began, after taking a seat.

  “My guess would be that you’re investigating the murder of my ex’s traveling companion, Brad. Is that about right?” she asked, sipping her wine.

  “Yeah, exactly that,” Bernard pulled out a notebook and a pen. “Anything you can tell me that might be relevant?”

  Marilyn told him about the conversation that she’d just had with Tim, and about Daniel’s hunting knife. He nodded, took notes, and asked for clarification on a couple of items.

  “Do you know why your ex-husband chose to come to Key West?” he asked.

  “Tiara said that he was just vacationing, but I suspect that he wanted to reconnect with her. Hopefully it was that, and not anything nefarious,” she murmured sadly.

  “Had he ever come to visit his daughter before now?” Bernard asked gently. “I don’t mean to pry, but it could be relevant,” he explained.

  Marilyn shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “No, he never bothered. When we moved to Florida, it seemed like it was mostly “out of sight, out of mind” with Daniel, and honestly, I was okay with that. He didn’t have a very positive impact on our lives before we left,” she remarked.

  “I see,” the detective nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, well, if you think of anything else that might be helpful, you know how to get in touch with me,” he said, standing to go.

  “Speed dial,” she nodded with a faint, wry smile. “Thanks for dropping by,” she added.

  “All in a day’s work,” was his casual reply. “Take care, Marilyn.”

  She raised her glass in farewell and went back to staring into space.

  Chapter 10

  Marilyn was never one to sit idle for very long, and unanswered questions always seemed to fester in the back of her mind, driving her to action, which explained why she was now pulling her car into a parking space at the marina. Tiara had described the boat that she had been on with her father and Brad in great detail when she came home, so Marilyn intended to have a word with the captain to see if he had witnessed anything out of the ordinary. She wanted to know, not only what kind of person Brad was, but what kind of person Daniel seemed to be, from an objective stranger’s point of view. It didn’t take her long to spot the charter boat with a wooden deck and purple and red detailing, and she made a beeline for Island Girl, hoping to run into the captain.

  “Hello?” she called, standing on the dock and trying to peer into the vessel’s darkened interior. She moved further down the dock, toward the bow of the boat and called out again. “Hello? Anybody home?”

  “Good morning, ma’am, can I help you with something?” a grizzled man who looked to be in his mid-sixties came trotting down the dock toward her with a smile. He was dressed like a fisherman, so she hoped that he might know who owned and operated the charter boat.

  “I’m looking for the captain of this boat,” she said, gesturing toward Island Girl with a smile.

  “Well, what a lucky thing,” he chuckled. “You found him. Captain Bob Jensen at your service,” he stuck out a calloused hand in greeting, but his grip was gentle.

  “Nice to meet you, Captain Bob, I’m Marilyn,” she introduced herself. “Do you have a few minutes?”

  “I have all the time in the world, pretty lady,” he grinned. “Are you looking to book a trip?”

  “Uh, no, actually, I just wanted to talk with you for a bit,” she admitted.

  “Well now, I’ve found that some of the best conversations take place over a hot cuppa joe – would you care for some?” he invited.

  “Absolutely,” Marilyn nodded happily, having left the house this morning without first firing up the coffee pot.

  “Follow me then,” he commanded, and led the way to the tiny charter office on the shore.

  “So, what can I do for you?” Bob asked, after placing a steaming mug of strong black coffee in front of each of them.

  “Well, I don’t know if you remember or not, but last week, you took two men and a young woman out for a fishing trip. The young woman was tall and blonde, and…”

  “And quite a looker,” the captain nodded, then grimaced. “Yeah, I remember that trip.” He looked closely at her, eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t happen to be from that same outfit, would ya?” he asked suspiciously.

  “Outfit?” Marilyn was puzzled. “I’m afraid I don’t understand…�
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  “That blasted company of theirs. The one that’s trying to buy me out for pennies on the dollar,” he slammed his mug down on the formica table top.

  Light dawned in her mind. “Wait…do you mean to tell me that the reason those two men were down here was because of some sort of business?” she asked, her heart pounding.

  “What’s it to you, anyway?” the captain was wary now.

  Marilyn had nothing to lose by being honest. “I’m worried, Captain Bob. That lovely young woman is my daughter, and now one of the men is dead, and I’m concerned for her safety,” she confessed, hoping that her story would prompt the man to open up about what had happened on the fishing trip.

  “Dead, you say?” he leaned forward. She nodded. “Which one? And how?” he asked gravely.

  “Well, Brad, the one that was killed, had his…throat cut,” she found it difficult to even say those words. “The other man, the blond one, is my daughter’s father.”

  “Your husband?” Captain Bob seemed surprised.

  “Oh no, not for years now. We divorced when my daughter was small,” she explained hurriedly. “So you can see why I’m worried.” He nodded slowly. “Did anything strange happen on the fishing trip? I’m just trying to wrap my mind around this whole thing.”

  “Aye, I gotcha,” the captain sighed. “Well, I don’t know if it means anything, but it was obvious that Brad had more than a passing interest in your precious girl. He stuck to her like glue the whole trip. She made it quite clear that she had no interest, she’s feisty that one,” he smiled grimly, remembering. “But just the same, he and the father nearly came to blows over it. I stepped in and told him that it was my boat and my rules and that he wasn’t to even be on the same side of Island Girl as the young lass. If she was starboard, he was to be on the port side, and so on. He minded his P’s and Q’s after that, but it seemed to me that there was some bad blood between the two men, just the same,” he explained.

  “Do you know what happened after they got off of the boat?” Marilyn asked, wide-eyed.

  “They went their separate ways as far as I could tell. We brought Island Girl back in early, because the mood was soured, and that brings bad luck for fishing anyway,” he shrugged.

  “So, you said something about the two guys being here on business…what’s that all about?” she asked, wrapping her hands around her mug of coffee and taking a sip, trying to sound casual.

  “That ex-husband of yours is a broker, and the one who got killed is his client. They came down here to try to badger me out of my business, but they weren’t willing to pay me a decent price. Seemed like they were trying to steal it,” the captain grumbled. “I spent my whole life on boats. I’ve made a decent living, and soon I’d like to retire, but I’m not gonna give away everything that I worked so hard for, ya know?”

  “I know exactly how you feel,” Marilyn nodded, and before she could stop herself, she told him about her current situation with Litigation Lizzie and how she could potentially lose everything. It felt so good to finally talk to someone who listened with a sympathetic ear.

  Draining her coffee cup, Marilyn giggled apologetically. “I’m sorry, I guess I just talked your ear off. Thank you for being such a patient listener, I hope I didn’t bore you to tears,” she smiled, a little embarrassed about having prattled on about her troubles to a total stranger.

  “Nonsense, we small business owners have to stick together, now don’t we?” he replied graciously. “Tell you what…if you and that young lady of yours would like to take a charter trip sometime, you just bring me one of those lime pies and we’ll call it even,” he offered.

  “That’s so sweet,” Marilyn exclaimed, touched. “Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today,” she shook his hand and headed for the door.

  “Anytime, pretty lady, anytime,” he smiled and waved as she exited.

  Chapter 11

  After her enlightening chat with Captain Bob, Marilyn was more worried than ever. She wondered why Daniel hadn’t told Tiara that Brad was his client, and was concerned that now she had two accounts, one from Tim and one from Bob, of Daniel getting into arguments with Brad. Was it possible that he had killed his client? And why had he felt the need to deceive his own daughter? These were the thoughts that were chasing each other round and round in her head as she drove to Litigation Lizzie’s neighborhood. Instead of parking on the street in front of the house, she parked in an easement behind the property, just inside a garage that belonged to a vacant home nearly half a block away, cringing at the thought of the creepy crawly critters that the old building must be harboring.

  Trying to keep her wayward thoughts in check and focus on her surveillance, Marilyn was bored to tears until just after eleven o’clock, when she saw the back door of Lizzie’s house open, and the old biddy herself wandered out, carrying a full basket of laundry. She recorded the woman coming down the steps easily, and bending over again and again to reach into the basket and fasten her whites to the clothesline with clothespins. When Lizzie went back inside, Marilyn figured that she’d gained some valuable evidence and could call it quits for the day. She had no idea that when she pulled stealthily out of the garage and exited the alleyway, another car pulled in to take her place.

  When she got back to the pie shop, Tiara was in the office on the main computer, and Kelcie manned the front counter. Greeting her assistant with a smile, Marilyn headed back to the office to talk to her daughter. She stood, without speaking, in the doorway for a moment, watching her daughter work.

  “Honey, I don’t want this thing with your dad to come between us. Now, I know that we both said some things…” she began, trying to smooth Tiara’s ruffled feathers.

  “It’s fine. We’re fine,” the young woman interrupted, without even bothering to glance up from her computer.

  Marilyn sighed inwardly, knowing that restoring things to their formerly easygoing flow was going to be a challenge. “Did you know that your dad was in the Keys on business?” she asked casually.

  Tiara’s fingers stopped their perpetual clickety-clicking on the keyboard, and she actually raised her eyes to meet her mother’s. “What?” she said quietly, grinding her teeth a bit.

  “I did some checking, an apparently your dad brokers luxury items and businesses for some very wealthy people. Brad was a client of his,” she explained, her daughter taking it all in.

  “Brad was his client?” she repeated.

  “Yeah. The reason that they went charter fishing was because Brad wanted to buy the charter business,” Marilyn nodded, hating to hurt her daughter.

  “You just couldn’t leave it alone, could you?” Tiara said, shaking her head slowly. “You couldn’t let me believe for even a little while that my dad had actually come to the Keys because he wanted to see me, could you?” she blurted, tears welling in her eyes.

  “Honey, I’m sorry. I thought you would want to know,” Marilyn hung her head. “I never meant to hurt you. Looks like I can’t do anything right these days,” she muttered, turning to leave.

  “Mom, wait,” Tiara called out, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I know you meant well, I’m just sad and confused, and I did some checking of my own that makes me think that things are even worse than we may have thought,” she admitted, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

  “Really?” her mother asked. “What did you find?”

  “Come look,” was the response. Marilyn came around behind her daughter and saw that she was looking at a series of photographs simultaneously.

  “What’s this?” she asked, befuddled.

  “See that guy, right there?” Tiara asked. “That’s Brad.” She indicated a middle-aged man in a bar with a drink in his hand, who appeared to be singing or something.

  “Okay, so what’s the issue?” she was still confused.

  “There’s Dad, right there,” her daughter pointed out Daniel, standing behind Brad, with a hand on his shoulder, and in a couple o
f other pictures, where they appeared to be dancing in a group.

  “Well…it’s not unusual to take your client out and schmooze them until the deal goes through,” Marilyn pointed out, wondering what Tiara saw that she didn’t.

  “Yeah, I know,” the young woman nodded. “But do you see this neon sign? That’s the name of the bar. I searched it on the internet, and…” she shook her head, her cheeks reddening.

  “And?” her mother prompted.

  “And…not that there’s anything wrong with this at all, but…it’s a bar for…for people with alternative lifestyles.”

  “Okay…” Marilyn said, not understanding what any of this had to do with their current situation.

  “So…if Brad and Dad are…or were, in a relationship, Dad might’ve been really mad at his client or partner or whatever he was to him, because he flirted with me on the fishing trip. The bad part about that is that, even though I know that Dad would never hurt anyone, this might make him look more guilty,” her tears started anew.

  It was on the tip of Marilyn’s tongue to reply tartly that Daniel had indeed hurt his share of people, two of whom were in this very room, but she refrained, not wanting to cause her daughter anymore pain. Instead, she murmured words of comfort to the scared and sad young woman.

  “Sweetie, one thing you have to realize right now is that what happened was not in any way your fault. We don’t know whose fault it was, but the police will figure that out. As for your dad looking guilty, he either did this or he didn’t, and his lifestyle choices can’t condemn him if there’s no evidence of his guilt. So let’s just let the police do their job and hope for the best, okay?” she said, wrapping her daughter in a warm hug.

  “I’m sorry I was rude to you,” Tiara sobbed on her mother’s shoulder.

  “I know you didn’t mean it, honey. Don’t worry about it,” Marilyn soothed. She held her daughter, glad that things were right between them once again, and smoothed her hair while her sniffles became less frequent. She looked up when she heard a soft knock on the doorframe.