East Pender Boxed Set: Cozy Mystery Series Bundle of Books 1-14

by Leona Fox

  “Can I help you?” he asked, examining each woman in turn.

  “Uh, we're looking for a Mary Speed?” Ellen said, and the man stared at her for a few moments, then sniffed.

  “What is this about?”

  “I'm sorry, but this is Mary Speed's house, yes?” Ellen asked, puzzled as to what this man was doing here. There was an eerie tension and something didn't seem quite right.

  “It is. Now, what is your business here?” he repeated, his words having a threatening tone.

  “We have some news about her nephew, may we come in? It's better if we talk to her in person.”

  For a moment neither woman was sure this man actually would let them in, but it gave them a chance to think as they began piecing together the state of Gary's life. Somewhat surprisingly the man stepped aside and allowed them to enter the house.

  “And who might you be?” Ellen asked.

  “I'm Henry, I'm Mary's caregiver,” he said as he showed them into the front room.

  “You won't get much out of her. I don't know what you're here about but she barely registers anything.”

  “Then we won't even know what Gary came to see her about,” Ellen said.

  Henry snorted. “I don't know what news you have about him but it's not anything she'd want to hear even if she was able to do anything about it. That man was a waste of space. He was Mary's only living relative and could he be bothered to visit her often? No. If you ask me that's one of the reasons she is the way she is. Everyone she loved abandoned her, everyone was selfish. Especially Gary. He only comes back when he needs money or when he gets himself into trouble. He takes, takes, takes and never gives anything back. It just makes me sad to see this woman like this when all she needed was somebody to care for her and things could have been so much different. He always does this. Comes back for money or something else. I bet he's left hasn't he? Good riddance to him. He likes to play the victim all the time but he never has sympathy for Mary when she's the one who’s really suffered. Does he ever think of her? No, he just runs away to West Callow all the time.

  You know he never even sent her a birthday card this year? Can you imagine that? Her only nephew and he doesn't bother to do something as simple as that? Even last Christmas it was only me here with her. He said he was going to come, oh yes, he always says he's going to come, but he never does. He's so ungrateful, and after everything she's done for him.”

  Henry simmered with rage and the more he spoke the more his blood boiled, to the point where Ellen and Kelly glanced at each other nervously. Upon becoming aware of this, Henry asked them what the matter was.

  “Gary is dead, he was murdered,” Ellen said, and the color drained from Henry's face.

  His face went through a mixture of expressions until it settled on one of stark realization as his diatribe against Gary put him under suspicion. Ellen watched him carefully for any revelations, but he was a guarded man and his face betrayed nothing.

  “Could you tell us anything more?” Ellen asked, but Henry had a grave look on his face.

  “I should...I should wait. I assume the police will be getting involved?” he said.

  “We work with the police,” Kelly replied.

  “I'm not going to be saying anything until I am with the police,” he said, and then ushered Kelly and Ellen out of the house. Their morning sojourn had not been as productive as Ellen had liked but Kelly seemed upbeat about it.

  “Well, that was certainly a surprise but it seems as though we have our first suspect,” she said.

  “I'm not so sure,” Ellen said, remaining unconvinced.

  “Come on, are you kidding me? The way he spoke about Gary...you can't deny there was some animosity there.”

  “Oh, animosity sure, but did you hear the way he talked about him? He spoke about Gary as though he were still alive. The news came as a shock to him.”

  “He could have been lying, he could have planned for that. I wouldn't be so quick to rule him out just yet. There's definitely more to that story. Why did he only want to talk to the police? He must be hiding something. And, more to the point, why would Gary need to come and do repairs in Mary's house if Henry was there? He looked as though he could take care of most things.”

  Kelly was right, Ellen thought, there was more there than met the eye, and while she didn't think Henry was the murderer there were still questions that lingered about the whole situation. She knew one thing for sure, though. They definitely would have to speak to Henry again.

  Chapter 3

  Ellen was in the cafe when Andy walked in. At first she was pleased to see him, as always, but from the look on his face she knew it was a visit for business, not pleasure. He looked tired and his hair was out of place. One side of his collar was upturned as well. When he approached she fixed his collar and stroked the side of his cheek before kissing him.

  “I needed that,” he said, smiling, and Ellen returned the gesture.

  “You look exhausted, case not going well?”

  “About as well as they ever go,” he said, and put in an order for some coffee and a cake.

  Ellen walked behind the counter and started making his drink, chatting as they went, updating him on their visit to Mary's house.

  “We met her caregiver, Henry, he's a big man, lots of anger.”

  “Think he could have done it?”

  “Kelly does...I'm not so sure, but either way he didn't seem sad when he heard Gary died. There's certainly no love lost there.”

  “Well, I'm really struggling,” Andy said as Ellen walked from behind the counter and the two of them went to a table in the corner.

  From just one sip of his coffee and a large bite of cake he relaxed and looked a hundred times better. Ellen watched on, feeling the love for him swell inside her. All she wanted was for him to be content and happy and while it pained her to see him like this it only made her want to care for him more. Furthermore, one thing she definitely loved about him was the fact he invested himself so emotionally in his cases. It was one of the things that made him such a good, determined cop, even though sometimes it did cause him to invest too much of himself.

  “Are you sure he didn't say anything else to you? Anything, no matter how little?”

  “Nope, there was nothing to suggest any information. I'm sorry.”

  “This is such an odd one,” Andy said, then grimaced and hung his head.

  He pinched the bridge of his nose, too. Ellen reached over and squeezed his arm, and this gesture seemed to breathe life into Andy, who visibly relaxed.

  “The problem is we're finding it hard to find suspects because no one we've spoken to actually knows him! A few have seen him around, maybe had a brief conversation like you, but nothing that would precipitate murder.”

  “Unless we've been wrong and it wasn't someone he knew who killed him. If it was just a random act of murder then--”

  “Then we're in even deeper trouble than we are now,” Andy said, exhaling deeply and leaning back in his chair.

  The cake was half-eaten and the coffee cup half-empty. Andy wiped some crumbs away from his lips, “The stab wounds suggest the victim knew the killer. All my training and experience points to that, as does yours. We can't just ignore that. With so little information we're going to have to trust our instincts on this.”

  “Your instincts? What about all the facts and the logic, officer?” she said teasingly, knowing his penchant for working through a case methodically.

  “I suppose it's your bad influence corrupting me,” he said, shooting a wicked smile back at her.

  It pleased her to see him smile and that he still was able to relax, even when faced with a case of this difficulty. When his phone rang he answered it and immediately stood up.

  “Come on,” he said.

  “What is it?”

  “After closer inspection we found a key to his hotel room and I sent some men down there to search it. They just called. They haven't found much but what they have found could be use
ful.”

  He was about to leave but just before he did he glanced back down at the rest of the cake sitting on the plate, with a big hand he picked it up and shoved it in his mouth.

  “Waste not want not,” he said, although given that his mouth was stuffed with cake his words came out muffled and unintelligible.

  Gary had been staying in a small hotel owned by Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan. They were a nice couple and seemed very saddened by the murder, although when questioned they admitted they didn't speak to the deceased that often as he kept to himself. But a lot of their guests were private people so they didn't think that was anything out of the ordinary. He had had no visitors and there was nothing strange about his comings and goings, as far as they could tell. Ellen and Andy went up to his room, which had little in the way of personal possessions. The officers were there waiting for them. While they gave Andy the initial report Ellen glanced around the room to see if she could see anything that would help them piece together the case.

  Andy called her over to a box the officers had found. They opened it and looked inside. The box was fairly large. It would have been uncomfortable to carry daily, so it was evidently something that meant a great deal to him and he wanted by his side. It was made from wood, crafted well, and although there was a lock on it the box was not sealed shut. Inside there was a seemingly random assortment of items. The first thing Andy picked out was a movie ticket. He shook his head.

  “This isn't going to help us.” However, upon looking at the ticket again he noticed it was from a while ago.

  “Why would he have kept this ticket?” he wondered aloud, as he and Ellen looked at the other items in the box. There was another ticket, this time to a river boat tour, and other items that pointed to only one thing – they were mementos of a relationship.

  “Looks like he had another reason to visit here other than helping out his aunt with repairs,” Andy said.

  “And where there's love there's passion...” Ellen replied, knowing that many crimes were caused by feelings that sprung from the heart.

  Unfortunately, this box was a little disheartening for Ellen since its random collection of items suggested perhaps there was no greater significance to the Napoleon figurine after all. Yet it did reap a great reward as, soon enough, they found a sketch of Gary buried at the bottom of the box and it was signed by Diana. Since there were only three Dianas in town and two of them were soaring in through their seventies, it was a simple process of elimination to go to her shop run by the third one.

  Diana Malone never would have won any beauty pageants and for most of her life had been considered rather plain by most people, but she was by no means unattractive. It seemed from the box that she and Gary had shared some intimate feelings. She owned a small store that sold craft supplies and when Andy and Ellen walked in they were the only people in the store, aside from her. Diana greeted them cordially. Ellen and Andy knew her in passing but neither of them had spent a great deal of time with her. From the moment they went in Ellen watched her like a hawk, trying to see if Diana showed any signs of guilt or remorse.

  “Did you hear the news about the murder?” Andy asked.

  Diana nodded, but she didn't seem visibly upset, although it was difficult to tell if this was a sign of guilt. Losing a loved one is difficult and the grieving process threw normal behavior patterns into chaos.

  “We're trying to find out as much as we can about him. Someone said they thought they saw the two of you together occasionally?”

  “Occasionally, yes,” she said, smiling sadly, “we dated for a while but it...it didn't work out.”

  From the way she spoke and averted her gaze from them, both Ellen and Andy got the sense she didn't want to go into specifics.

  “It's funny really, he was a man who most people found impossible to like, but I found it impossible not to love him.” There was a sadness about her but also a tinge of bitterness to her words as well.

  “May I ask why people found it difficult to like him? I met him the other night and he seemed pleasant enough to speak to, and he obviously takes the time to come and tend to his aunt,” Ellen said.

  Diana's expression twisted into a snarl and she gave off a curt laugh. “He only came after her because of the inheritance he was promised and he probably just came to check on how close she is to dying. He never had any love for her or this place. Could never escape his past. And Mary, well, she never knows what's going on anyway. I went to see her once, with him, and she's just lost to the world. He was mean about it, too, said if she had been hooked up to a life support machine he would have told them to cut the power. Somehow he saw her clinging on to life as a personal affront, like she was doing it just to spite him. As I said, he wasn't a very nice man.”

  “And yet you loved him?” Andy said quietly.

  “We don't always get to choose the people we fall in love with. I'm not going to pretend and say he was the perfect man because he was far from it, but we had some good times together. I accepted his faults like he accepted mine. Would my life have been easier if I hadn't have loved him? Probably, but it's too late for those kinds of regrets now. If you'll excuse me, I have to go and call a supplier,” she said, although Ellen suspected there was more to her exit than that because tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.

  “So now we have money and love, this certainly is giving us possibilities,” Ellen said.

  “But it's not actually helping us narrow down anything. What were your impressions of her?” Andy asked.

  “She's hurting, but the way she spoke about him...that's not the way you'd speak of someone you truly loved. I think something might have happened between them, which would put her under suspicion as well.”

  “I'm thinking the same thing. Maybe they had a fight. Maybe he came here to patch things up. There are still too many maybes.”

  “I want to know how much he was set to inherit. Diana already said he was willing to kill Mary. Maybe times got desperate and he thought he would give her a nudge to Heaven.”

  “But Mary isn't dead, and as far as we know there was no attempt on her life,” Andy said, not sure where Ellen was going with this.

  “No, but if Henry knew Gary was planning something, well, he seemed to take his role as caregiver seriously and he's the type to be protective of his patient.”

  On the way to the records office Ellen called Kelly and gave her a quick update, and in turn Kelly gave her an update on Scampy, who she was dog-sitting. In the background Ellen could hear the dog bark playfully. It seemed as though he was having fun with Matthew.

  When they got to the records office Andy flashed his badge at the clerk. The two of them waited patiently as the clerk disappeared through a heavy door, emerging a few minutes later with the will they sought. It was a slim folder but when they cast their eyes over the words they found something startling, something that made Andy's fingers tense around the edge of the paper and Ellen gasp. For the beneficiary of Mary's will was not, in fact, Gary, as Diana had claimed, it was Henry.

  Chapter 4

  Andy and Ellen looked at each other. Neither of them had expected this and it added a new layer to the mystery.

  “If Gary knew about this...” Andy began.

  “Then maybe he would have gone after Henry himself. Could it be that Gary's wounds actually were caused by Henry defending himself?”

  “I don't know, but I've seen both men. Gary wasn't the strongest and Henry, well, I suspect he could have broken Gary in two if he really wanted to do so. Given that he seemed very concerned with his inheritance I can imagine the will would have been something he would have kept an eye on, and if it was taken away from him who knows how irrational he could have become.”

  “It's funny isn't it? After how mysterious this case started off, it all could come down to greed. One of the oldest motivations in the book. But I think it's time I meet this Henry for myself.”

  While Andy spent time getting in contact with Henry, Ellen called Kelly to gi
ve her another update.

  “I'm going to be spending time away from the cafe longer than I thought. Would you mind going there to keep an eye on things? It shouldn't be too busy today but I think just having an extra pair of hands would help the others who are working today. Oh, and feel free to give Scampy a treat as an apology for me not being there.”

  “Honestly, and don't be upset at this, I think he's having too much fun to miss you. Matthew is a natural, it seems.”

  “Well tell him I might make him my go-to guy for looking after Scampy.”

  “I don't have a problem with that. Oh, and by the way, if it turns out Henry did do it then I'm going to have my 'I told you so' ready,” Kelly said. Ellen could imagine her poking her tongue out, and sighed.

  “We'll see. I'll catch up with you later,” she said, and hung up.

  It was good Scampy was having fun with Matthew and Kelly. Ellen felt she had been a little neglectful of her pet recently and vowed to give him a lot of attention later. It was difficult when she had a case like this that meant going around to different places at various times of the day when she knew Scampy needed a strict schedule. It also felt like a long time since she and Kelly had had a good night together where they could talk as friends. She wanted to get an update on Kelly's relationship with Matthew. The two of them seemed extremely happy together and last time they had spoken Ellen had teased Kelly about wedding bells.

  Kelly never had made much noise about wanting to get married, or regretting that she hadn't been married yet. All in all, Kelly was very much a free spirit. So in some ways it was strange to see her in a relationship that was settled. Yet they were a good match for each other and Ellen was curious to see where the future would lead the two of them, and how that would dovetail with her own relationship.

  But there would be time to think about that when she met up with Kelly later. Until then there were more important matters to take care of. Henry came into the police station looking grizzled and gloomy. When he saw Ellen he snarled and she ducked into the interrogation room, where Andy was waiting with a file.