Caffe Latte & Murder_An Oceanside Cozy Mystery Book 30

by Susan Gillard

  “Who found him?” asked Amy.

  “The maid,” Ryan said. “She was hired to come in today and clean up. She arrived around noon and began cleaning. She expected to see Devon Davidson and looked for him. She found him here.”

  “Did the medical examiner have an estimated time of death?” Heather asked. “I’m guessing it was before noon.”

  “It was last night,” Ryan said, nodding. “His guess right now is between one and three a.m.”

  Detective Peters entered the room and smiled when he saw the other investigators. He was a young detective who was always eager to prove himself. He was enthusiastic about solving cases but sometimes doubted his instincts. However, working with Ryan, Heather and Amy was boosting his confidence. Together they had put many murderers behind bars.

  “Did you find anything?” Ryan asked.

  “There’s so much here from the party last night that it’s hard to tell what’s a clue and what’s garbage,” Detective Peters admitted. “However, the maid has calmed down. She’s willing to tell us more about her employer.”

  “That’s great news,” Ryan said. “We’ll be with her in just a moment.”

  Detective Peters nodded and headed out of the room. Ryan turned to his wife.

  “You didn’t happen to bring any donuts with you?” he asked.

  “Do you know your wife at all?” Amy teased.

  “I have some Caffè Latte Donuts in the car,” Heather said.

  “I think they might help keep the woman calm enough to give us more information about the victim,” Ryan said.

  “Of course,” Heather said. “I’d like to know everything we can about the victim. Because right now I’m not sure why a party guest would want to kill the host.”

  “Maybe he didn’t order enough food?” Amy joked.

  The Maid

  “I didn’t kill him,” the maid said. “I don’t want you to think I killed him.”

  “Why would we think that?” Heather asked. She was wondering to herself what state the maid had been in before if this was her being calm. Maybe Ryan had to deal with hysterics when she first told him about the time she arrived.

  “Because I found the body,” she said. “You might think that I killed him because I was in the room with his dead body. But it was like I said before, I expected to see Devon, and when I didn’t, I went looking for him. I’ve brought him aspirin and ginger ale after a party before. But I never brought him anything that would hurt him. I wouldn’t do that.”

  “It’s all right,” Heather said. “Why don’t we start at the beginning. What’s your name?”

  “I’m Millie. I’m from Cheery Maids. I’ve been cleaning Devon Davidson’s house for about three years now.”

  Heather introduced herself and Amy and then introduced the Caffè Latte Donuts. Millie stared at the snacks.

  “I don’t understand why you brought me donuts,” Millie said. “I love donuts. Is this some sort of last meal?”

  “Donuts would definitely be my last meal,” Amy said. “Both by choice and because I eat them so much, it’s often that it’s the last thing I ate.”

  “This isn’t a last meal,” Heather said. “We thought you had a hard day and you might like something to eat. I made these donuts myself.”

  Millie still eyed them suspiciously but picked one up. She sniffed it and her mouth watered. However, she still wavered about eating it.

  “You should eat one too.”

  “You don’t need to tell me twice,” Amy said. She grabbed a donut and took a bite. Millie followed suit and smiled. Detective Peters edged into the room and subtly grabbed a donut too.

  “This is really good,” Millie said. “I didn’t realize how hungry I was. I think I’ve been in a state of shock. And then I was so worried that you’d think I killed him.”

  “Did you have a good relationship with your boss?” Heather asked.

  “I suppose so. He told me to call him Devon. He trusted me to check on and clean his house when he wasn’t here, and he tipped well when I had to clean up after his parties.”

  “So, he definitely did have a party last night,” Heather said. “And it was planned?”

  Millie nodded and picked up another donut. “Devon had at least one big party every spring. He loved having people over and letting them have a good time. I know he planned on having this party because he told me about the clean-up in the morning. That’s also why I was looking for him this morning. I was afraid he might not be feeling well after the party. I suppose part of me was really worried. I thought there was a chance that he might be dead from the craziness of the party or from drinking. I never expected to see all that blood. I called the police right away. But then I was afraid that you’d think I was involved.”

  “The fact that you keep bringing up how you were afraid that we'd think you’re involved makes me think that you’re involved,” Amy said.

  Heather nudged her friend with her elbow. “Is it only because you found the body that you’re worried?” she asked.

  “Were you mentioned in his will?” Detective Peters asked, hiding his half-eaten donut behind his back to look more impressive.

  “I have no idea,” Millie said. “I don’t see why I would be. I was only his maid. He probably left it to some family or to charity. But because of the safe, I thought you might suspect me.”

  “What’s that about the safe?” Ryan asked.

  “There were marks on it,” Millie said. “So, I assumed that there was some sort of robbery. Or maybe just an attempted one.”

  “I’ll take a look at the safe,” Peters said. He walked away to look at it, licking the frosting from his fingers.

  “So, you think the motive for his murder was a robbery?” Heather asked.

  Millie nodded. “I don’t know much of his personal life, but he seemed like such a nice guy. I don’t know who would want to hurt him. It had to be a stranger who wanted his money.”

  “Do you know what was kept in the safe?” asked Ryan.

  Millie shook her head. “It was always locked. But I think that’s where he kept his valuables when he had a party. He didn’t seem to mind if things around the house were ruined because he had the money to replace them. Maybe he had good insurance on some pieces too. But I don’t know what was in the safe exactly.”

  “So, you wouldn’t know if anything was missing if we get it open?” asked Heather.

  Millie shook her head.

  “Is anything else missing from the house?” asked Heather. “Was anything else stolen?”

  “It’s hard to tell because everything is still so messy,” said Millie. “And I’m not sure what would be there that’s valuable. Or that’s not irreplaceable. I told you that Devon didn’t mind having strangers over. I’m afraid that’s what killed him.”

  “Did he have trouble with his party guests before?” asked Ryan.

  “Not that I know of,” said Millie. “But he loved big parties. Who knows who could have come inside?”

  “That makes finding a suspect more difficult,” Amy muttered.

  “Oh,” Millie said. “I might be able to help determine if anything is missing. I have some pictures of the house before he came back for the season. I wanted to see if he liked the new placement of the furniture. But we can see if anything that was in the pictures isn’t there now.”

  “That would be helpful,” Ryan said.

  Millie agreed that she would send the pictures as soon as she found them at home.

  “Thank you for all your help,” Heather said.

  “Thank you for believing me that I didn’t kill him,” Millie replied. “I know in mysteries that they often say that the butler did it. I didn’t want you to apply that to the maid.”

  Heather and Amy exchanged a look. Amy was trying not to laugh.

  Then they heard someone yelling at the front door.

  “Who’s that?” Heather asked.

  “Maybe it’s the butler?” suggested Amy. “Come to confess?”


  The Friend

  “Hey! What’s going on here?”

  Heather and Amy followed the detectives to the front door and outside. A young man with a beard and bloodshot eyes was wandering around the front yard and yelling. He stopped when he saw the officers.

  “This is crazy!” he yelled.

  “At least he admits it,” Amy muttered.

  “You finally caved to Brewster? It’s ridiculous. You’re allowed to throw parties in your home. And Devon throws the best parties. Brewster’s just jealous because he doesn’t have any friends.” He turned and yelled down the street. “Do you hear that? You don’t have any friends!”

  “Sir,” Ryan said, moving closer. “This is a crime scene.”

  “I can see that,” he replied. “But I disagree with it. Having a party isn’t a crime.”

  “No,” Ryan said. “But murder is.”

  “Murder?” the man asked. He lost his bravado, and his knees went weak. Detective Peters hurried over to him to keep him upright.

  “What’s your name?” Heather asked.

  “Jack Waverly.”

  “Did you know Devon Davidson well?” Heather asked.

  “He’s my friend. My best friend. I came here on vacation with him. Was he the one who was…” He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

  “We’re sorry to have to inform you of this,” Ryan said. “But, yes. Mr. Davidson was found dead this morning.”

  Heather righted one of the lawn chairs that was on its side. Peters helped the man into the chair. Jack held his face in his hands.

  “I thought the crime scene tape was about a noise violation or something about the party. I had no idea that Devon was dead. Who killed him?” he asked, looking up at the investigators.

  “That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Heather said.

  “Can you think of any reason why the maid should be involved?” Amy asked.

  “The maid?” Jack asked. “No. I don’t know much about her, but Devon always said that she was good at cleaning up after the parties. She took care of the house during the year too.”

  “Just wondering,” Amy said, shrugging.

  “Do you know anyone who would want to hurt Mr. Davidson?” Ryan asked.

  “Devon was so much fun,” Jack said. “Most people loved him. His parties were legendary. And the Key West beach party here was one of the best. Maybe an ex-girlfriend could be annoyed with him. But if you’re looking for the murderer, I don’t think you need to look much farther than next door.”

  “Why is that?” prompted Ryan.

  “Because the only people who didn’t like Devon’s parties were his neighbors. Mr. Brewster especially. At least Katherine tried to play nice. I saw her stop by the party last night. She brought a mini cooler with her and gave Devon some beer. She did ask him to keep the noise down, but she was nice about it. Brewster just yells and threatens.”

  “He’d threatened Mr. Davidson before?” asked Peters. “What did he say?”

  “He said Devon was a menace to the community and that he’d stop him one way or another. That sort of thing,” Jack said. “It’s hard to believe he followed through on it. Brewster has been complaining for years. I guess he just snapped.”

  “Did you see him at the party at all last night?” Heather asked.

  “No,” Jack said. “But I wasn’t there that late. I left around midnight with a girl I met. We decided to get a hotel room because the house was getting too crowded.”

  “And this woman can back up this alibi?” asked Ryan.

  “Of course she can. Her name was Coral. Or Cora. Or Cara.” Jack frowned. “Well, I’m pretty sure I still have her number, and you can talk to her.”

  “We will,” Ryan said.

  “If you saw the other neighbor at the house, then it must have been before midnight,” said Heather.

  “That’s right. Katherine came over pretty early. It was only about nine thirty.”

  “And did she stay at the party?” asked Heather.

  “For a little while,” Jack answered. “But I saw her around ten. I remember because it was right before I met Coral. Or Cara. Or whatever. Because I made a joke about a perfect ten.”

  “She probably won’t be saying the same thing about you if you can’t remember her name,” Amy muttered.

  Jack looked down at the ground.

  “Did anything suspicious happen at the party?” Heather asked.

  “No,” said Jack. “It was just a good time. Maybe Tammy was a little whiny, but otherwise, it was great.”

  “Who is Tammy?” asked Peters.

  “Devon’s girlfriend. She came here with us.”

  “Do you know where she is now?” asked Ryan.

  Jack shook his head. “She was staying with Devon, so I would have expected her to be here. Unless something happened after I left. As I said, she was being whiny.”

  “Were there problems in their relationship?” asked Heather. Significant others were always suspects in murder cases.

  “I don’t think so. Not really,” said Jack. “And I can’t see her killing anybody. If Tammy was unhappy, she complained. She didn’t do anything about it except talk.”

  “You knew her well?” asked Amy.

  Jack shrugged. “They’d been together a few months, so she’s been around.”

  “Mr. Waverly, do you know what the safe in Mr. Davidson’s office contains?” asked Ryan.

  “Sure,” said Jack. “It was mostly paperwork related to the house, but it contained a few thousand dollars of extra spending money.”

  Amy scoffed. “That sounds like a lot of extra spending money to me.”

  “I think there was also one family heirloom in there,” said Jack. “Yeah. It was a ring that belonged to his grandmother. He kept it at the beach house because it was a pearl ring. He would remember what house he kept it at because it was by the water.”

  “It must be nice to have so much money that you need to remember which house you kept your jewels at,” said Amy.

  “Devon was well off,” Jack said, simply.

  “Do you know who inherits his money now?” asked Heather.

  “He doesn’t have immediate family, but he does have some young cousins that he is fond of. I bet it goes to them.”

  “Do you think a will might be inside the safe?” asked Peters.

  “Perhaps,” said Ryan. “Though it does seem like the victim had several houses to choose from for where to keep his important documents.”

  “Must be nice,” said Amy. “Then again, he was murdered. Maybe he didn’t have the best luck.”

  “Do you know the combination to the safe?” Heather asked Jack.

  He shook his head. “Devon probably would have told me if I had asked him, but I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to blab it out when I got drunk.”

  “Thank you for all your help,” Ryan said to Jack. “We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions, but we need to return to processing the scene. Do you need help back to a hotel?”

  “No. I’ll be all right,” Jack said, getting to his feet. “But you better make sure that you make Brewster pay for what he did to my friend.”

  He walked away, and the investigators watched.

  “We might want to have someone stake out this street,” Heather suggested. “If Jack is right, then we want to keep an eye on the neighbors. They might do something to try and cover up their crime. And if he’s wrong, well, we want to make sure that he doesn’t try to seek his own justice against the neighbor.”

  Donut Neighborhood

  Heather felt like she was chomping at the bit to talk to the neighbors. However, she did agree that Ryan and Detective Peters should accompany them on the first interview. This Mr. Brewster might react more favorably to police officers with badges. It was also likely that one of these suspects could be the killer, and it was always better to have back up.

  However, Ryan and Detective Peters needed to finish processing the crime scene before th
ey conducted those interrogations. After all, there might be something at the house that could prove who the killer was. There might be a clue to point to Brewster’s guilt. It would be better to wait and know this information so that they could catch Brewster in a lie.

  Heather and Amy helped look for clues for a while. Amy kept commenting on how most of these clues were actually trash, and Heather had to agree with her. There was definitely DNA evidence that was left behind on the cups and napkins. Heather wondered if any of these could belong to the killer.

  The lab was certainly going to have their work cut out for them going over all this evidence. It seemed like there had to be at least a hundred guests at this party. That was certainly a lot of suspects.

  “I hope it is one of the neighbors,” said Amy. “Otherwise tracking down everyone on the guest list is going to be hard work.”

  “We should definitely track down that Tammy too,” said Heather.

  They looked at the safe and saw that there were some scratches on it just like the maid had described. The locking mechanism didn’t appear to be broken. This could mean several scenarios were possible. The robber might have been unsuccessful. It might be a talented robber who could crack the code without completely breaking the safe, or the scratches could have occurred for another reason. Maybe they were the result of a drunk party game and didn’t have a sinister ulterior motive.

  After doing what they could to search for clues and determining that the murder weapon wasn’t left at the house, Heather and Amy decided to go check on Donut Delights. Ryan promised to call her as soon as he and Peters finished with the scene so that they could talk to the neighbors.

  Heather and Amy returned to the donut shop but took their time walking there so they could discuss the case.

  “We’ve just begun, and there are already several potential motives for murder,” Heather mused.

  Amy nodded. “A neighbor might have snapped because they were mad about the crazy parties and stabbed the guy.”

  “There might have been a robbery, but I suppose we can’t be sure about that until we see what is inside the safe,” said Heather. “And Devon Davidson might still have interrupted an attempted robbery.”