Jake laughed. “Of course not.” That was ridiculous, wasn’t it?
Ed chuckled and looked down at his feet. “Yeah, I guess that’s silly. But if not Morgan, then who?”
“That’s what we are trying to find out. Do you know of anyone that might have wanted Prudence dead?”
Ed looked up at Jake and scrunched his wrinkled face while he thought for a minute. “No. Not really. I mean, she wasn’t the easiest woman to get along with but I don’t think that’s a reason to kill someone. If t’were, someone woulda killed her a long time ago. ”
“How were the two of you getting along?”
Ed’s eyes went wide. “Hey, what are you tryin’ ta say?”
Jake held up his hands. “These are standard questions, Ed,” he said in a soothing voice. “I don’t mean anything by them … I have to ask.”
“Oh, okay then. We got along fine. Fightin’ like most couples at times.”
“What did you fight about?”
Ed swatted the air with his hand. “We argued about selling this place. Eli Stark wants to knock it down and build condo’s. I say take the money and enjoy it in our golden years, but Prudence wouldn’t hear of it. It was an on-going battle but nothing I’d kill her over, if that’s what cha’ thinkin’.” Ed looked up pointedly at Jake. “Besides, I was over at Cutty Marina when it happened. You can double check with them if you want.”
Jake scratched a note in his notebook. “Ed, do you know why Prudence was in the woods that morning?”
“That twan’t unusual. She did it every morning like clockwork; went for a walk down Shore Road, got a coffee at the cafe, then cut through the woods to get back home.”
“So anyone would have known she would be there at that time of the morning?”
Ed looked at Jake, nodding slowly. “Yep, I guess so. But why would someone want to kill her?”
“That’s what I intend to find out.”
Jake motioned to the box on the table. “I need you to sign for this. You should probably make sure everything is there.”
Ed stared at the box for a few seconds before slowly reaching over to pick it up. Jake could see his eyes filling with tears as he opened the lid. Ed did seem truly upset about his wife’s death, but he’d seen many killers that were good actors. He couldn’t cross him off the suspect list yet.
Lifting the lid of the small cardboard box, Ed reached in and took the items out one by one, laying them on the floor beside his chair.
Shirt, pants, shoes, wrist watch, socks. Ed pushed the rest of the items around in the box then jerked his head up to look at Jake.
“What’s going on here?”
Jake wrinkled his brow. “Huh? What do you mean?”
“Everything’s not here.”
Jake got up crossing over to look in the box. “What’s missing?”
“Pru’s scarf. She always wore it. It had orange sunflowers on it.”
Jake remembered the anonymous tip about the scarf buried in Morgan’s garden.
“And her necklace.”
“Necklace? What did it look like?”
“It was the letter ‘P’, for Prudence. In script. Darn thing was 18K gold. I gave it to her for her birthday. Cost me a pretty penny.”
“Are you sure she had it on that day?”
Ed nodded. “She wore it every day, wouldn’t leave the house without it.” Ed narrowed his eyes at Jake, his face turning cloudy. “Do you think someone at the station stole it?”
Jake took a step back. “I’ll surely check,” he said in his best soothing voice which seemed to calm Ed down a bit. “But if they aren’t at the station, and you don’t have them here, there’s only one possible explanation.”
“What’s that?”
“The killer has them.”
Chapter Seventeen
Fiona ripped open the door to Sticks and Stones. Inside Morgan looked over at her expectantly, her brow creasing when she noticed Fiona’s distress.
“What’s the matter?”
“Oh, nothing … well it’s that damned Jake Cooper,” she said storming into the shop and handing Morgan a tea from the cafe.
“What about him?”
“He showed up at Ed’s and told me to stay out of police business!” Fiona’s voice rose along with her anger as she paced the small shop.
“Come on, Fi, I’m sure he didn’t mean it the way you are taking it.” Morgan said soothingly while she searched her herb rack.
Fiona let out a sigh. Brushing the hair from her forehead she whirled to face Morgan.
“He did! And he called me Red. You know how I hate that.”
Her sister’s laughter only made Fiona angrier. She stood in the middle of the room, her feet planted firmly apart, glaring at Morgan.
“Sorry,” Morgan said covering her mouth with her hand, “but you’re acting like a child. Are you sure there isn’t something else going on?”
Fiona thought about her sister’s words as she took a sip of her latte. She did seem to get unusually angry at Jake. But that was because the man was annoying. What else could it be? Her brow furrowed as she remembered the warm tingle in her lower stomach when she had turned around to find herself practically in his arms.
“Here drink some of this.” Morgan took the latte from Fiona’s hand replacing it with a cup of herbal tea.
Fiona opened her mouth to protest, but Morgan raised her hand.
“Shush. This will help calm you. You can have the latte back later. Now tell me what you found out from Ed.”
Fiona felt her stomach drop. She leaned against the counter while Morgan went back behind it and took a seat.
“I’m sorry, Morgan. I didn’t really get any good information from him. He chased me out of there. Almost shot me, for crying out loud!”
“He did, why?” Morgan’s ice blue eyes were as big as plates.
“Well, it might have been because I asked him where he was when Prudence was strangled.” Fiona said sheepishly.
Morgan nodded. “Let me guess … you did that with your usual lack of tact?”
Fiona grimaced. “Yeah. That’s when he chased me out with his shotgun. I literally ran into Jake on the way out.”
Morgan blew out a breath and pulled her long ebony hair back off her neck. “Well, if Jake was there after you, maybe he got something useful from Ed.”
“Maybe. I still don’t know if I trust him. Why do you think he’ll be so helpful to us? Don’t tell me you have the hots for him?” Fiona stared at Morgan wondering why her stomach was twisted in knots waiting for her answer. Must be this tea, she thought, looking down into the cup.
“No. I almost wish I was. But since Luke … well … I just haven’t felt …” Morgan turned and looked out the window. Fiona’s heart ripped apart at the sadness on her sister’s face.
Luke Hunter had been Morgan’s high school sweetheart. They’d been a perfect couple from high school through their mid-twenties. Everyone assume they would get married, but then Luke felt the need to join the military to fight in the Middle East and he’d left Morgan back here with a broken heart.
Fiona wished her sister could move on, but part of her was glad that it wasn’t going to be with Jake Cooper. Which she convinced herself was because she didn’t quite trust him yet.
Morgan’s eyes narrowed in on something she saw out the window. “Hey, is that Belladonna?”
Fiona came over to the window, looking in the direction of Morgan’s gaze. She saw a white blur streak by. “I don’t know. Is it? What would she be doing here?”
“I have no idea. She does seem to keep turning up here, though. I’ll have to talk to Jolene about it. I’m worried Belladonna could get hurt coming all the way from our house with the traffic and all.”
Fiona’s stomach clenched picturing Belladonna dodging traffic on the busy main road. Their house was about a mile away. Was that a long way for a cat to go?
“Unless she comes down the Marginal Way,” Fiona said. The Marginal Way was a footpa
th that went along the ocean’s edge. The scenic route followed the cliffs from Perkins Cove where their house was to the center of Noquitt and was very popular with tourists. Belladonna could easily follow it to Sticks and Stones which was about midway on the path without ever seeing a car.
“Maybe. I hope so.” Morgan opened the window wider, and stuck her head out. “Belladonna! Bella!”
“Meoooow.”
“Oh, I guess that is her,” Fiona said opening the door. The cat shot inside, then looked at the sisters innocently.
“Mew.” She used a quiet, kitten like voice that would melt even the coldest heart. Fiona figured it was on purpose so as to avoid getting yelled at. She narrowed her eyes at the cat who proceeded to purr up at her and rub her head against her ankles.
The girls looked at each other shaking their heads.
“Well, at least she’s safe in here now.” Fiona watched Belladonna curl up in a sunny spot, marveling at how the cat could drop off to sleep in a second.
“Can I have my latte now?” She held out the teacup for a trade.
Morgan laughed and handed over the latte which Fiona took over to the microwave.
“Don’t forget tomorrow we are going to check out the scene of the crime. So it would be great if you and Jake weren’t at each other’s throats.” Morgan’s blue eyes studied Fiona over the rim of her tea cup.
Fiona felt her heart clench. Morgan was right. She had to trust Jake to help them. It might be Morgan’s only chance. “I know, I just don’t understand why you trust him so much.”
“Why don’t you trust him?”
“I don’t know. Why would he help us? We’re strangers to him.”
“Maybe he just wants to do the right thing. He said he doesn’t trust Overton and doesn’t think the investigation is being run properly.”
“Or maybe Overton has him helping us as a plant. To find out what we know or get some evidence to incriminate you.”
Morgan bit her lower lip. “I don’t think so, I have a gut feeling about Jake Cooper and my gut feelings are usually right.”
Morgan stared at Fiona so long that Fiona started to squirm. “What?”
“I was wondering if maybe your resistance to Jake is something else. How long has it been since you broke up with Kevin?”
Fiona felt her heart jerk at the mention of her ex-fiance. She’d been engaged to Kevin O’Laughlin for four years … until she found him cheating on her two years ago. It had been heart breaking and she’d vowed never to let anyone hurt her like that again.
“What’s that got to do with anything?” She crossed her arms across her chest.
“Maybe nothing. But I’ve seen the way Jake looks at you and I was wondering if maybe the resistance you feel is actually an attraction.”
“What?” Fiona felt her face grow warm. Could Morgan be right? Her sister had an uncanny way of digging to the root of people’s feelings.
Morgan just shrugged and starting grinding some herbs with her pestle.
Fiona felt flustered. She went over to her workbench and fiddled with her jewelers tools. “It’s not.”
“Huh?” Morgan looked up at her.
“An attraction. I mean, I barely know the guy,” Fiona answered.
“Of course,” Morgan said. “Just as long as you guys get along I don’t really care what it is. I saw Overton at the cafe and he made some remark about how I should still be in jail. I really hope Jake can help us find something to put us on the track of the real killer and get Overton off my back.”
Fiona stared down at the necklace she was working on without really seeing it. Her mind was too busy thinking about Overton and why he was so hot to frame Morgan. Maybe if they could figure that out, it would lead them in the direction of the real killer.
She raked her fingers through her red curls and made a vow to give Jake Cooper a chance—for Morgan’s sake and nothing else.
What Morgan had said earlier about her resistance really being attraction was ridiculous. And even if it was true, she had no intention of following through with it … no matter how deep his gray eyes were or how good he smelled.
Chapter Eighteen
The next morning started out unusually hot for mid spring. Fiona dressed in khaki Capri’s, a black tank top and black and white polka-dot Keds for their trip to the woods. Pulling her red curls into a pony tail that sat high on her head and hung halfway down her back, she trotted down to the kitchen to meet Morgan.
Her older sister was already in the kitchen, holding a tea bag in her hand as she watched the microwave heat a cup of water. Her jet black hair hung from a similar pony tail. She had on a similar pair of Keds in navy blue to top off her outfit of denim capris and white tank top.
Fiona looked down at her outfit, then at Morgan. “I guess this is standard crime scene visiting garb.”
Morgan laughed. “I guess so. It seems like it’s going to be hot today so I didn’t want to get overheated.”
Fiona nodded. “Are you ready?”
“Yep. Let’s take my car.” Morgan grabbed her cup.
“Okay, but I need to stop at the cafe and get a latte.”
Five minutes later, Morgan pulled her Toyota up to the pre-arraigned meeting spot at the end of East Frazier Pasture Road. Jake was already there leaning casually against a beat up gold and black Suburban. Fiona tried not to notice that his tee-shirt was just a bit tight against his muscular chest. She gulped down her latte and got out of the car.
“You guys ready?” He pushed himself off the car starting toward them.
“Ready as we’ll ever be.” Morgan said.
The three fell in line walking the short distance to an opening in the woods.
“It’s through here.” Jake gestured to a barely visible path.
As they walked further into the woods, the trees became more dense and Fiona felt the temperature drop a few degrees. They had walked about a quarter mile when they came to an area still marked with yellow crime scene tape. Inside the tape, a large area of leaves and pine needles were disturbed where an obvious struggle had gone on.
Fiona looked around to get her bearings. They were in the deepest part of the woods with no houses visible.
“So Prudence’s house is in that direction.” She pointed to the North.
Jake nodded. “And the cafe is in that direction,” he said pointing West.
Morgan turned in a circle inside the taped off area. “Where did the killer come from?”
Jake shrugged.
“Well, Sticks and Stones must be over there,” Morgan said pointing to the South. “But that morning I was coming from the cafe, so if I killed her, I would have had to walk up the same path Prudence did, strangle her, then run off that way.”
“You wouldn’t have had enough time to do that.” Jake said, “I mean, if the time you say you got to Sticks and Stones is right.”
Fiona glared at Jake. “Of course, it is. We know the exact time she got there. Plus my latte was warm.”
Jake held up his hands. “I know, Red, just saying what a prosecuting lawyer might say.”
Fiona pursed her lips together. Did he just call her Red, again? But instead of getting angry, she just smiled. He was right, of course. They had to consider what a prosecutor might use against them.
“I don’t know how any of that will help us now.” Morgan pushed some of the leaves aside with her foot. “We need to be looking for clues the police might have missed.”
“Speaking of which, I took the box of Prudence’s effects to Ed yesterday and a couple of things were missing. We don’t have them down at the station, so we should be on the lookout for them here. If they aren’t here, then the killer likely has them.”
“What are they?” Fiona looked up at Jake who had his head down, scanning the ground.
“A gold necklace with the letter ‘P’, and a scarf with sunflowers on it.”
Fiona’s heart clenched. She looked over at Morgan. Should they tell him about the scarf? Morgan widened h
er eyes and nodded her head toward Jake. Fiona knew exactly what she meant. They had to tell him.
Fiona cleared her throat and Jake narrowed his eyes at her.
“What?”
“We know where one of those is.”
He raised his eyebrows looking from Morgan to Fiona.
“The scarf … it really was buried in the garden.”
“So the tip was real?”
“I guess so. It just so happened I found it earlier that day, so when you guys came to dig up the garden I had already removed it.”
Jake sighed. “So you tampered with evidence.”
Fiona bit her bottom lip. “Well, technically. But I didn’t know it was evidence when I dug it up … sort of.”
“Sort of?” Jake looked at her incredulously.
“What she means is that she knew it was Prudence’s scarf, but didn’t realize that was what she had been strangled with.”
Jake ran his hands through his short cropped hair. “Do you know how it got there?”
“No idea.”
“I’m going to need to see it. There could be evidence on there.”
“Okay.” Fiona felt her stomach sinking. She hoped she hadn’t done anything to harm Morgan’s case.
“The only problem is that now we can’t really turn it in to the police.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have told you,” Fiona said. “We don’t want you to get into trouble.”
“Now that you do know about it … if you don’t tell the police that could look bad for you,” Morgan added, her blue eyes full of concern.
Jake just shrugged. “Well, what I’m doing now doesn’t look so good, so I guess it really doesn’t matter. Besides, I’m on the side of finding out the truth … I’m not sure what side Overton is on.”
“We don’t have the other item.” Morgan added in a small voice.
“Is there anything else you guys need to tell me?”
Both girls shook their heads.
“Well, just one tiny thing.” Fiona winced at Jake’s look of exasperation.
“What?”
“We talked to Ed’s brother, Josiah, yesterday and he said Ed was planning on buying a boat,” Fiona said. “I wonder if he had a big insurance policy on Prudence?”
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