A Killer Margarita (Nikki Sands'/Wine Lover's Mystery Series)

by Michele Scott

  “I agree, but I can help them help her find that justice,” Nikki replied, irritated.

  “But you don’t need to. They are quite capable of doing their job without you.”

  “All I want to do is tell them what I saw last night. I’m sure it was her creepy boyfriend that did this to her, especially after that argument they had.”

  “You’re probably right, and we weren’t the only ones to witness that argument,” he said. “Let’s not even broach the fact that I was kicking the crap out of that asshole. I don’t think that’s important for the police to hear as we both know I had nothing to do with what happened to the girl, and neither do you. We were, um, preoccupied.”

  “Derek!”

  “Okay. I’m not getting through to you. Hear me out. We are in Mexico. The police do things differently down here in Mexico, and you found the body…” She started to interrupt him, but he held up his hand. “And, we were in the same restaurant as she was last night. And, she was rude to you when you tried to help her, and I was not nice to her boyfriend at all and vice versa, so I think it best to keep our noses out of this one and going back to enjoying our vacation.”

  “I just don’t feel right about it. And I can’t believe that just because she made a flippant remark to me while storming out on her boyfriend that the police would find it sufficient reason to suspect me of murder. Or you. And, we were busy last night.”

  He crossed his arms. “Right. Except, there was no one else in our room for dessert. That makes us each other’s alibi.” His eyes darkened as he looked past her.

  “Excuse me, señora?”

  Derek wrapped an arm tightly over her shoulder as she turned to face a forty-something dark-haired, dark-eyed, Hispanic man wearing a red polo shirt and khaki pants. He looked more like a tourist than a detective, which Nikki felt certain he was.

  “Yes?”

  He reached his hand out to Derek and then to her. “Hello. My name is Hector Martinez and I am a detective with the police here in Puerto Vallarta. I understand you found the body?”

  Derek’s hand clamped down on her shoulder.

  “I did.”

  “What can you tell me?”

  Nikki started telling him about what had happened the evening before with Villa Man and his entourage.

  “So this man she was with, he was rude and yelling at her?” Martinez asked.

  Derek and Nikki both nodded. “They were with that other couple standing over there. Nikki indicated Tattoo Timmy and the girl. “They can probably tell you more about what they were arguing about than we could. I mean, we were just seated near them at a dinner table and they were drinking a lot. There was another couple there, too. But again I think their friends over there can tell you more.” Derek looked down and then away for a few seconds. He sighed. “You know what, there is more that you should know.”

  Nikki flinched under his arm.

  “Yes?” the detective said.

  “Last night, the man the dead girl was with got out of hand. He insulted my wife, and some of the other women. He was loud and arrogant, and… well, when he insulted my wife who had followed the girl out—she had stepped outside because it looked like they had gotten into a pretty heated argument. My wife wanted to help her. Anyway, when the man she was with did that, I punched him.”

  “You hit the woman’s boyfriend?” Martinez asked.

  “Yes, I did.”

  And, here Nikki thought he wanted to keep this quiet. She’d definitely married an honest man.

  “What happened after that?” Martinez asked.

  “The guy who I had argued with, he and his friend—the one standing over there took off. My wife and I went back to our hotel. I’m not sure what happened to the others. They all seemed to go their own way.”

  Martinez stared at Derek for a moment. Nikki knew that look. She knew that she’d had that look before when wondering if someone was being honest with her.”

  “You and your wife went back to the hotel. You fight with the dead woman’s boyfriend, and your wife found her this morning. Seems kind of coincidental.” Martinez crossed his arms in front of him. “You didn’t know either of them from before?”

  Derek shook his head. “No. I just didn’t like the way he was acting and being. I found it irritating. We were trying to enjoy our evening out. He was rude to not only the servers at the restaurant, but also to the patrons. I didn’t kill the girl, and I know my wife didn’t either. If anything, we felt sorry for her.”

  Martinez nodded and then looked back at Nikki. “What happened to the girl? Do you know where she went?”

  Nikki told him about wanting to help her, and that while offering her help, the girl basically took off.

  “You saw her get into a car?” he asked.

  “No. I didn’t exactly see her get into the car. I asked her if she wanted some help. She insisted that she was fine. I then wound up distracted when I heard some commotion coming from just inside. I turned to see what was going on, and realized that my husband and the man she was with were in an altercation. By the time that I turned back, all I could see were the taillights of a car pulling out of the drive.”

  “Did you see what kind of car that it was?”

  “No. Dark. That’s all I know.”

  “Okay. And, the others that they were with? What did they look like?” he asked.

  “There is that couple over there. As we suggested, I’m sure they know much more about the situation than we do.” Nikki nodded her head toward the tattoo couple. “And there was a Hispanic couple. They looked like they were well off. They were both dressed nicely, and the woman wore a large diamond ring. They really didn’t look like they fit in with the crowd,” Nikki said.

  Martinez frowned. “They left, too?”

  “The woman walked out when the girl, the one I found…” Nikki swallowed hard. “The girl was kind of giving the Hispanic man a lap dance and this seemed to upset the woman who I am sure was his his wife. She walked out and he followed her. We didn’t see them again.”

  Martinez didn’t say anything for a moment. His face looked drawn and even dark as if he really did not like what he’d just heard, but Nikki also had the feeling that Martinez believed that neither one of them had anything to do with Dream’s murder. “Okay. Thank you for your time.”

  Derek nodded and Nikki forced a smile. They turned to walk away. “That was pretty painless,” Nikki said.

  But before they could go much farther, the detective called out after them. They turned back around. “Oh Señora and Señor Malveaux, please don’t leave Mexico just yet. I may have more questions.” He smiled and walked toward the tattoo couple.

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Nikki said.

  “Yeah. Me either. I have a feeling—so much for painless.”

  Chapter Six

  “OMG, honey, are you okay? Marco and I just heard from one of the hotel people, and when they said the lady that found the dead person was a dark-haired American woman out jogging, I just knew, just knew that it had to be my Snow White. You and dead people! What the hell is with that?” Simon tossed his arms in the air.

  They were out at poolside. Simon looked to be busy with a mimosa and Marco waded around in the shallow end. “Bellissima, we worry so much about you. Why are you always in trouble?”

  “I know, guys. Thank you. I’ve already had this lecture. And, I am not always in trouble.” She looked into the deep blue eyes of her husband, whom she knew wasn’t exactly happy to be in the position in which they now found themselves.

  He kissed her on the forehead and came to her defense. “Guys, it is what it is. It’ll be fine. The police had a few questions for us and that was that.”

  “Questions?” Simon raised an eyebrow. “What kind of questions? For what? What could they possibly want to know?” He brought the champagne flute to his lips. “Want one, honey? I don’t know what it is down here, but I think the oranges are like fresher or something because the mimosas are super
. Let’s order a round.”

  “It’s okay, guys. I think Nik and I are going to take a walk and it’s getting close to lunchtime. We might head into town.”

  “Oh. Okay,” Simon said.

  “Simon,” Marco warned. “They want a little time. Let them be.”

  “All right. But if you’re going into town, check out the Las Flores art gallery. There is this painting there of tropical flowers and, you know, the whole PV setting, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Hint, hint. ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas,’” he sang. “Oh wait, Christmas passed. Hmm…my birthday is in two months. Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday to Simon.” He held the flute up again and winked at them.

  “We get it,” Derek said.

  “Oh. Well, good. So tell me about the police questions.”

  “It was nothing. Now you two go back to having a good time and we’ll see you later. Maybe you could make some reservations for dinner.”

  “Of course. I heard there is this rocking sushi place. Who would have thought sushi in PV?” Simon said.

  “Plenty of fresh fish, darling,” Marco replied. “Do you not think that in Italy we might sometimes make a Chinese meal?”

  “Sushi is Japanese,” Simon said.

  Marco looked at Nikki and rolled his eyes. “Bellissima understands what I am saying, No?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Okay. Now that I am thoroughly exhausted by my brother…” Derek muttered under his breath and then loudly added, “We’ll be back. Have fun.”

  “Ta-ta, lovebirds,” Simon yelled out, “and watch your step, Snow White.”

  “Ha ha,” Nikki replied. Before Derek could complain about Simon. “He means well.”

  “I don’t want to get into it. Are you hungry?”

  “Maybe a little. I should be, but after this morning it’s kind of hard to stomach anything, plus I’m a mess. I don’t think we need to go anywhere fancy.”

  “Why don’t we walk down to Juanita’s place? I wanted to see how she’s doing today anyway,” he said.

  “That’s funny, because I was heading there this morning, when…” She looked down at her toes sinking into the sand.

  “Great minds think alike,” he said.

  They walked in silence for a while, taking it all in. Nikki was trying hard to forget the morning’s discovery but to no avail. The young woman’s bloated features kept toying with her mind and she felt sick to her stomach.

  “You’re thinking about the dead girl.” Derek interrupted her thoughts.

  “I can’t help it.”

  He squeezed her hand gently. “I know. There’s nothing we can do though.”

  “I don’t understand why. Why anyone kills anyone. I mean, really! What’s the sense? It’s so stupid.”

  “I agree. But honey, you and I both know that there are a lot of sick people in the world and we can’t justify what goes on. It is crazy. All we can do is live our lives with integrity, value, love, all of that. Live as good people—and we do that. You do that. There is nothing that you could have done to save that young woman, Nik. I know how your brain works, and in some strange way you feel guilty, and you shouldn’t. There is no reason.”

  The back of her throat tightened. She knew Derek was right. Yet, she still felt compelled to do more. Maybe it had something to do with being abandoned by her mother at a young age. She knew it was something deep-seated and frankly she really didn’t want to explore it. She just wished that she didn’t always feel so damn guilty for what was wrong with the world and the people in it.

  But with this young woman’s murder there was a little more to it. She couldn’t help but wonder that if she’d ignored her harsh words and angry demeanor toward her last night, and insisted on her getting into a cab, would the woman still be alive? She could not help but ask this question. What had happened to Dream after she walked out of the restaurant last night? Nikki had her suspicions, and she knew by asking herself these kinds of questions that she had already opened herself up to finding the answers. She tried to shove the thought of that away. She definitely didn’t want to upset Derek, and she knew that he was right about the criminal justice system being very different in other countries. Her rational brain agreed that letting the police in Puerto Vallarta conduct their own investigation was the right thing to do. But at the same time, how did she keep the questions she had from popping into her brain?

  “It’s too heavy of a burden,” Derek went on. “Okay? I know what you’re thinking. I know how you’re feeling. I’ve been with you long enough now to know, and you’ve just got to let this go. And, no matter what, you are not Mother Teresa. I have proof of that from last night alone.” He smiled suggestively at her.

  She laughed. “Yeah. I don’t think Mother Teresa would have ever been caught with tequila on her neck and chest having some devilishly handsome man lick it off of her.”

  “No. I’m not seeing it. But you, on the other hand…” He nodded. “Oh yeah.”

  They rounded the bend close to the restaurant, beginning to let go of the horrible events from the morning while continuing their verbal foreplay.

  “There’s a tequileria close by. Do you think they might be able to recommend a good tequila for a girl gone wild?” he joked.

  “I don’t…” Nikki stopped in the middle of the sentence.

  “You don’t what?”

  Nikki pointed toward the restaurant. “I don’t think that looks too good.”

  Derek saw it too. “Oh no.”

  They both watched in horror as police escorted a handcuffed Juanita to the front of the restaurant.

  Nikki and Derek sprinted over. Susannah and Guillermo stood in the parking lot, the young woman crying. Her mother was put into the back of a police car. A man dressed in khakis and a polo similar to Detective Martinez spoke with another police officer. He then came over and said something briefly to Susannah and Guillermo. The guitar player walked a few yards away with the officer. To Nikki, this confirmed that he was another detective and was questioning Guillermo. Susannah looked completely distraught. Both Nikki and Derek stood back watching, neither knowing exactly what to do.

  The detective appeared to be quite a bit older than Martinez, maybe close to sixty. He was slightly overweight, with dark eyes, mustache, and a thick head of greying hair. No matter what he looked like, Nikki’s stomach sank as she knew this was definitely not good.

  Nikki approached Susannah. She couldn’t help it; she had to know what was going on. Derek followed. When they reached her, Nikki asked, “What happened?”

  The distraught girl replied, “My mother. They say my mother killed the man. They say she killed the man with a gun.”

  “What?” Derek asked. “What man?”

  “The man that was here last night. The one who called me names. He…he is dead in the back of that car.” She pointed to a silver Cadillac Escalade parked alongside the restaurant. “He was shot by the gun my mother keeps in the kitchen for bandidos.”

  Chapter Seven

  They watched as the police drove away. Neither said anything for a few minutes. Nikki’s mind reeled. She’d wondered where Martinez had been and who the other detective was. In a way, she was relieved that Martinez hadn’t been there. She was sure that he would have recognized them and questioned them as to why they were there. She couldn’t push the thought too far aside that with Villa Man’s murder, Martinez would likely want to talk to them again now that he knew about the fight last night.

  The cops who’d just left hadn’t taken much notice of them. Martinez must have still been investigating Dream’s murder. Were the murders tied together? Both Dream and Villa Man murdered within hours, from what she could tell, likely had to be connected. Maybe they had even been murdered together and dropped in different locations. Maybe they had wound up back together last night and made amends. Then, something went bad. There were a few scenarios running through her mind as to what might have happened last night.

  Nikki shook her head, trying t
o get her thoughts straight. Villa Man hadn’t shown up that morning when the police arrived to investigate Dream’s murder not because he’d killed her but because he, too, had been murdered. A double homicide. And there was just no way she could believe that Juanita had murdered either one of them. No way.

  “Derek?” she whispered.

  He held up a hand. “I know what you’re thinking and as much as I wish I didn’t feel this way, I agree. That woman didn’t kill anyone, and she shouldn’t be going to jail for it. You can bet that Martinez may come looking for us again.”

  She took Derek’s hand. “The thought already crossed my mind. I do find it odd that there was a different detective here than at the hotel, but I can only guess that was the timing. I think you’re right about Martinez. He will come asking more questions. But we told him the truth and I don’t think there is anything else we can say. Although, as you have said things work differently down here. If they really believe that Juanita killed him, then maybe the police won’t come looking for us. But, now they have two murders on their hands. It could be one killer. It could be one scenario. It could be more than one killer, and two completely different scenarios, but just coincidence that they both wound up dead within hours of one another.”

  “Some coincidence,” Derek said.

  “I agree. Come on, we should see what we can do.”

  Nikki glanced at Susannah, who sat at one of the tables, her face in her hands, weeping. Guillermo sat next to her. He looked as distraught as she did as he tried to comfort her.

  The young woman looked up, her eyes red from the tears. “I don’t know what to do.” She shook her head. “Mi madre, no, no, my mom, she did not do this.”

  “No. Juanita would never harm anyone. This is all wrong,” Guillermo said.

  Nikki placed a hand over hers. “Can I ask you some questions? It might help. Sometimes, I’m able to put things together.”

  Susannah frowned and appeared not to understand. Guillermo looked at Nikki and then at Derek.