Murder in Maine
A Margot Durand Cozy Mystery
Danielle Collins
Fairfield Publishing
Copyright © 2017 Fairfield Publishing
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.
This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Contents
Message to Readers
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Thank You!
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Chapter 1
“Margot?”
Margot blinked the sleep from her eyes. She hadn’t seen the clock when she answered the phone, but now she clearly made out the numbers. 2:30 am.
Who was calling her at 2:30 in the morning?
“Who—who is this?” She cleared her throat to push the scratchiness away.
“Margot, it’s me. It’s Dexter.”
Suddenly, her mind cleared and her focus sharpened. “Dexter? What’s wrong? Why are you calling me a two in the morning?”
“Sorry,” he said, his voice sounding tired and filled with regret. “I…I need a favor.”
Of all the calls she could have gotten at two in the morning, one from her former bakery assistant Dexter Ross was the last one she would have expected. He had been gone for over four months now and she’d all but given up hope on him ever returning to the quiet town of North Bank, Virginia, and back to his position at her bakery.
She licked dry lips. “What’s wrong?”
The line was so silent she wondered if he’d hung up, but then he spoke again. “I can’t get into all of this over the phone. It isn’t safe, but…” He hesitated.
“Dex,” she said, using her boyfriend Adam’s nickname for the young man, “Whatever it is, you should know that I’ll do it if I can. To help you.”
“I need you to come to Maine.”
She blinked. Maine? What was in Maine?
“I’ll explain everything when you get here, but do you think you can do that? I know it’s a lot to ask.” He sounded hesitant.
Margot’s mind rushed through all of the things she’d have to figure out in order to make a trip like this.
“I think I can do it.”
“Yeah?” He sounded so hopeful.
“Yes. I hired a new assistant—” She paused as she heard his sad sigh. “—and I think she’ll be able to handle things for a while. I will need at least a day to make arrangements, though.”
“I figured. That’ll be fine.”
“Dexter, are you okay?”
He was silent again for a long time before he finally said, “I will be once you’re here. Sorry I woke you.” Then he hung up.
For a moment, Margot stared at her phone. Had that really happened? Had he really called, or had it all been a wild dream?
She pressed the unlock button and cringed at the bright light from the screen. But there, under her call log, was an unknown number. It had happened and Dexter had asked for her help. More than that, he’d asked her to come to Maine.
It was a strange request. She hadn’t known where he was in the United States—or elsewhere—since he left North Bank, but she’d never expected him to be so close. And yet it was still far. She’d have to pack, book a plane ticket, figure out the bakery schedule, and—
Sighing, she flopped back down and stared at the darkened ceiling. She would have a lot to do between now and leaving in a day.
Margot’s mind filled in the image of her new hire, Julia Hageman. She was unconventional, to say the least, but she was a godsend. With her spiky black hair in an adorable pixie cut and her dogged determination to go above and beyond what Margot asked, she would do well with the shop. Then again, she barely knew the recipes and the reality that she would be handling the whole shop seemed daunting at best. If only Margot knew how long she would be gone for.
Closing her eyes, she thought of Dexter and the fact that she cared for him like a little brother. While she only had a sister who lived in California, she could relate to those who felt attached to people they met and took in. She’d done that with Dexter.
He’d come into her kitchen as an employee only to leave as a brother.
Sighing, she began to recite recipes from memory. She knew from experience that soon she would be fast asleep again. And that was good because she’d need all the rest she could get tonight since tomorrow would be an extremely long day.
“He what? And you’re going where?” Adam Eastwood leaned toward Margot in the cluttered kitchen filled with used pots and pans, flour spotting the surface of the metal countertops.
With his height and good looks, Adam represented the Eastwood name well. He always managed to get her heart fluttering too. Though, after a case they had recently solved, the truth that he’d been about to propose to her had stilted them for a few weeks. It had been difficult to know how to proceed after she’d all but told him she wasn’t ready for that.
Though there was something about Adam that made him unstoppable. It made him a wonderful detective, but also a good boyfriend. He wasn’t deterred by her refusal because he knew it didn’t stem from a place of her not wanting to marry him, but more from doubt that the timing wasn’t right.
All of these thoughts fluttered through her mind, but they cleared out at the thought of Dexter’s predicament. “He needs my help.”
“Yet he wouldn’t say why or what this was about.” Adam looked frustrated.
“No, but I don’t think he wanted to be…compromised.”
“In what way?”
“Since we were on the phone.”
Adam frowned. “He thought someone was listening?”
“I just got that feeling. He sent me an email with more information this morning.”
Adam’s frown deepened and he ran a hand through his short-cropped, dark hair. “I don’t like the sound of this.”
“He’s in trouble, Adam.”
“Exactly.” His hazel eyes poured into hers with concern. “I don’t want you rushing off and getting into trouble.”
She could tell by his expression that he was thinking of the past cases they had ended up investigating together. The most recent one had come close to home when she and Adam had found a dead body washed up on the beach of a small island in the middle of the Potomac River. Since then, life had calmed down, but with Dexter’s call, it was looking as if that could change any moment now.
“Maybe I can take some time off to come up there with you.”
She smiled, knowing that Adam only wanted to help her.
“Don’t you think he would have called you if he could?”
Adam’s nose scrunched up. “You’re probably right.”
“Besides,” Margot said with a sweet smile, “maybe we’re making a mountain out of a mole hill and he’s just met a girl he really likes.”
Adam shook h
is head. They both knew it couldn’t be something as simple as that due to the history Dexter seemed to have—the one that Margot knew next to nothing about.
“Who needs dating advice?” a bright, cherry voice said from the doorway.
“Not me,” Adam said, grinning at Julia. Ever since Margot had hired the young woman, she and Adam had started to rib each other without mercy.
“Are you sure about that, old man?” Julia said with a smirk.
Adam laughed and looked down at Margot. “You seriously going to keep this young ruffian on staff?”
Margot sighed dramatically. “I just don’t seem to have a choice.”
“Hey!” Julia made a fake scowl at Margot. “You love me and you know it.”
It was true, though Margot felt like she was betraying Dexter a little. Yet she did enjoy having the vivacious and hilarious woman on staff.
“All right, you two.” Margot’s hands went to her hips. “You—” She pointed at Adam. “—out. And you—” She pointed and Julia. “—in.”
Julia stuck out her tongue at Adam as she passed him and he chuckled, shooting Margot a look that she could easily read. It said, Good choice on hiring this one.
“So, you’re leaving me.” Julia pouted and crossed her arms over her clean apron. They had finished the baking early that morning and Margot had informed the woman that she would be in charge for the rest of the week.
“You can handle it.” Margot opened the refrigerator to see what ingredients they were running low on.
“Can I ask where you’re going?”
Margot straighten and met Julia’s curious gaze. “I’m going to help out a friend.”
“Are they in some kind of trouble?”
“In a manner of speaking. Well, actually, I’m not sure.”
“Kinda sounds…sketchy.” Julia’s petite nose wrinkled.
“The person who has asked me to come is a dear friend and I would trust him with my life.”
“Adam’s got some competition, huh?” Julia said with a laugh.
“Not that kind of friend,” Margot said, shaking her head. “He’s more like a younger brother.”
“Is he cute?” Julia looked genuinely interested.
“I thought you said Ryan was taking you on a date this weekend.”
Julia immediately deflated at the mention of her ex-boyfriend and father of her son Nick. She had insisted that their breakup was a good thing and yet she couldn’t seem to say no when he came around asking for a date…or cash.
“I took your advice to heart.”
“Oh?” It was Margot’s turn to look inquisitive.
“Yeah. I mean, you had said to look back at the last five times he came around and to really think through those times. I did…and you were right. Each time, he asked me for something. Mostly cash. But it was every time. Then I thought about the fact that I was never happy when he was around.” She let out a big sigh. “As much as I want Nick to have a father, I just don’t think that Ryan is a good example for him. I told him I didn’t want to see him.”
“Good for you.”
“You think so?” She looked up eagerly at Margot.
“Yes. You don't need him in your life if all he does is take from you.”
Julia nodded. “I agree. So, is he cute?”
Margot laughed, rolling her eyes. “Actually, yes, he is cute.”
“Oh, then he’s what? Too old for me? Too young?”
“No, he’s about the right age but,” Margot sighed. “I don’t think he’s ready to let anyone in right now.”
“Ah. Got it. Emotionally unavailable.”
Emotionally and physically, Margot wanted to say, thinking about him asking her to come up to Maine. But it was likely that the less people knew where she was going the better.
Though, as her assistant went about cleaning up the kitchen, she couldn’t help but think she and Dexter would get along…should he ever decide to come back.
Maybe, just maybe, she could convince him to do just that.
Chapter 2
Margot felt the bite of wind, sharp and cold, against any exposed skin. It was mostly her face and fingers exposed to the elements, but even that little exposure was enough to make her regret not bringing gloves and a thicker scarf.
Fall in Maine was feeling more like winter, but Margot should have expected that. She’d checked ahead and knew it was going to be colder than North Bank, but maybe she had underestimated.
She stood on the sidewalk at the pickup point waiting for Dexter. She’d messaged the number he’d given her and he’d said he was on his way. A few minutes of cars cycling through and she noticed a large pickup truck coming toward her area of the sidewalk. When it stopped in front of her, she was shocked to realize it was Dexter at the wheel.
He’d grown a beard and was wearing flannel and heavy work boots that thudded when he made the considerable drop to the ground from the elevated cab of the truck.
“Margot!” He crushed her in a hug and she really felt like she was seeing a long-lost brother.
“Dexter. It’s so good to see you.”
“Same here,” he said with an apologetic smile.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
He looked around them as if they were being watched and then met her gaze. “Why don't we get inside until we can get some place where it’s safe to talk?”
There it was again. The word safe. With a tightlipped smile, she nodded.
They drove through what she assumed was the central part of town. A large, stone building that read Davenport Memorial beneath letters that indicated it was the “Bath City Hall” cut an impressive figure. The town seemed to have its own type of charm and reminded her a little of North Bank.
When Dexter turned down a side street and pulled the monstrous truck into a narrow alleyway, she sent him a questioning look.
“I think you’ll like this place. Trust me.”
She did trust him, but he was being so secretive. For someone like herself, who was a natural snoop, she was tempted to demand that he give her more information before she stepped from the truck, but she decided to hold in her questions at least until they were inside.
He grabbed her luggage and she met him at the backdoor. Once they were inside, they made their way up a set of steep steps as the scent of freshly baked bread assaulted her senses. Holding in even more questions, she waited patiently as Dexter unlocked a door to the left of a small landing. There were two other doors. One straight ahead that led to a bathroom and one to the right.
“After you,” he said.
She stepped inside and was greeted with the large open space of a studio apartment. Walking to the windows, she looked out over one of the streets they had passed. It appeared they were on the second floor of a local business. And, if her nose was any indication, that business was—
“A bakery?” she asked.
Dexter looked shocked then laughed, locking the door behind him. “Of course you’d deduce that. The scent of bread, right?”
She smiled. “That and the reflection off the windows across the street.”
“Of course.” He went to the small 1950s style table that sat near the kitchen area—if you could call it that—and opened his laptop. After a few clicks and short, typed-in phrases, he let out a loud breath and stood up.
“Margot, it’s really good to see you.”
The change in his demeanor could only mean one thing. “We’re safe now?”
“Yep.” He nodded. “I’ve got some pretty nifty gadgets that will keep prying eyes and ears from joining the conversation.”
She wanted to ask how, and why, that was necessary, but she had more pressing questions first. “What is going on?”
He motioned to the couch for her to have a seat and then made his way to the portable hot water heater. “Tea?”
“You’re stalling.”
“No. But I am freezing. I still can’t get used to how cold it gets here.”
She accepted his offer for tea and before long, she had a hot cup of English breakfast tea with a dollop of cream.
“Now spill it.”
“All right.” Dexter leaned back from his end of the couch and let out a large sigh. “I suppose you deserve all of the story.”
Her eyebrows rose, wondering what exactly that could entail, but she motioned for him to go on.
“This is going to sound crazy, but I work for, er, worked for the FBI.”
Aside from a slight narrowing of her eyes, Margot gave nothing away. She’d had her suspicions, but she hadn’t had any facts.
“In fact, I got into that job from my time spent with Adam as a kid. He noticed I had potential and he had a few well-connected friends. First thing I know, I’m recruited to the FBI cyber-security task force by the time I was seventeen.”
“How—?”
“Don’t ask me how it’s legal. I think they swung the paperwork like I was doing independent study or something. Either way, I started working for them pretty early on.” He stared into his mug for a moment. “When I hit twenty, I started to ask questions. I wanted to know about my family and Adam’s answers—though carefully selected to shelter me—weren’t enough. I had…skills, so I put them to use.”
Margot was surprised it had taken him that long. Then again, a person had to want to open Pandora’s Box before they began searching for it.
“I wasn’t really shocked by what I discovered, except for the fact that my parents weren’t great people.” He shook his head in disbelief. “It’s a long story, but that made me want to get out—in a bad way. I mean, at first, they were great and I worked remotely from anywhere. Something they thought might cure the urge to leave. But I couldn’t take it. I needed to know more about my roots. I begged and pleaded, but they said I knew too much to just be ‘released into the wild,’ as they put it. Finally, Adam stepped in and got me to come own to North Bank.
Murder in Maine (Margot Durand Cozy Mystery Book 7) Page 1
