Murder in the Elfth Degree: A Camellia Cove Cozy Mystery Book 2 (A Camellia Cove Mystery)

by Jessica Preston

  Kim sighed. “At least Aaron knows now that Simon was messing around with his female students. Like you say, he could have been doing it with a lot of different girls, and that narrows the field of potential suspects. One of them could have got their feelings hurt and killed him. A high school girl would have fit in perfectly in that crowd at the mall.”

  “None of Simon’s girlfriends would have killed him,” Betts countered. “He was the kindest, gentlest lover you can imagine. He never hurt anybody, and he never preyed on any of his students. He never did anything anybody didn’t want him to do. You can take my word on that.”

  Kim grimaced and turned away. “I don’t need to know the details.”

  Betts rounded on her and seized her hand. “You have to believe me, Kim. Simon wasn’t some sleazy pedophile. He was some kind of god who made young girls’ dreams come true. He was everything a girl could wish for in a lover. He knew how to make a girl melt into a puddle of pleasure.”

  Kim stiffened. “Listen, Betts. Simon might have been some kind of god to you. He might have been some kind of god to other girls in high school chemistry, too. But don’t you see how that makes him a target for everybody else in the world? If one of those girls didn’t get upset or mad, one of their mothers or fathers could have found out what Simon was doing. They could have taken the law into their own hands and killed him to stop him from messing around with anybody else’s daughter. Or some high school boy got jealous of Simon and killed him to stop him messing around with that boy’s dream girl. Anybody could have killed him.”

  Betts hesitated. “I didn’t think of it like that.”

  “What Simon did with you and everybody else was highly illegal,” Kim went on. “In the eyes of the law, it was rape, pure and simple. That sort of thing gets a lot of people very, very mad—murderously mad. Even one of the girls who supposedly loved him could have realized after she graduated and grew up how Simon took advantage of her when she was young and vulnerable, and that would be that. She waited until she caught him alone in the bathroom, and she killed him.”

  Betts shook her head. “I don’t see how anybody could do that to another human being.”

  Kim went back to her chair and sipped her cocoa. Winslow jumped up into her lap and made a nest for himself in the hollow between her legs. “Whoever killed Simon hated him with a passion. Suffocation is probably the worst way a person can die, and this killer planned to kill Simon in the most gruesome way possible. The killer had deep, torturous feelings of rage and revenge to tie his hands behind his back and put a plastic bag over his head. I wouldn’t be surprised if the killer stood there and watched Simon struggling to breathe inside the plastic bag.”

  Betts cringed. “I can’t think about it.”

  “We have to think about it,” Kim replied. “We have to think about every disgusting detail so we can figure out who killed him. It’s the only way we can prove you’re innocent.”

  “But who could have done that?” Betts asked. “Whoever killed him must have been a man. People would have noticed a woman going into the men’s bathroom.”

  Kim nodded. “That’s one thing that doesn’t make sense. The other thing is how the killer could kill him and then get back out to the mall without being caught. Let’s say the killer did stay in the bathroom and watch until he or she knew for certain that Simon was dead. The killer would have had to high tail it out of there and get back into the crowd before anybody else came into the bathroom. That doesn’t give much time before Timothy Hawkins found him in the stall.”

  Betts leaned forward. “You’re gonna help me solve this crime, aren’t you, Kim? I’m no good at this sort of thing.”

  “I know you’re not.” Kim set her cup down again. “But you don’t have to worry about that. I’m going to help you, and we’re going to clear your name.”

  Chapter 4

  Kim stacked cookies from the baking tray into boxes and set them aside. She checked the timer on another batch in the oven and went to wash up the dishes. She cast a quick glance toward the front window. Betts sat at a table with a cup of coffee and a Chocolate Cherry Bomb at her elbow. She stared out the window at the flowering cherry trees lining the sidewalk outside the bakery. No bright pink blossoms decorated the sky now. Naked black branches raked the grey sky.

  Kim peeked over the counter and noticed the Chocolate Cherry Bomb was still perfectly round. Betts hadn’t touched it, and the sippy lid was still on her paper coffee cup. Betts hadn’t moved since she sat down there an hour and a half ago.

  Winslow hopped up onto the counter and found a place for himself next to the cash register. Kim ran her hand down his back. “You know you’re not supposed to be on the counter.”

  Winslow ignored her. No customers were around the bakery at this time of day, so he had nothing to worry about. He knew how to play Kim to get what he wanted. He licked his chest and spread out the ruff of fur around his neck like a lace frill.

  Kim checked the clock. One thirty-five in the afternoon. The customers petered out around one when they all went back to work. There was no point staying open any longer. She finished the dishes in the sink, and then she went around the counter and bolted the door. She turned the sign around to say Closed and sat down across from Betts at the table. “Your coffee’s getting cold.”

  Betts sighed, but she didn’t take her eyes off the cherry trees. “I can’t stop thinking about Simon. He never deserved to die like that. I only wish there was some way I could make it up to him.”

  “The only thing anybody can do for Simon Cox now is to put his killer behind bars,” Kim replied. “Some girls like you must have loved him, but other people must have hated him. I can understand why someone wanted to kill him.”

  Betts shook her head. “You don’t understand.”

  “Actually I do,” Kim replied. “But that doesn’t matter now. What matters is that we find out who really did kill him.”

  “How are we going to do that?” Betts asked.

  Kim sat back in her chair. “We don’t need to dredge up the past. Simon had a lot of potential enemies, so his past won’t help us narrow down who killed him. We have to focus on the present. The answer to who killed him must be at the mall.”

  Betts turned to look at Kim. “Do you mean we’re going to the mall?”

  “I can’t go now,” Kim replied. “I’ve got the Tingle family reunion later today, and I spent all of yesterday at the police station when I should have been here getting ready for it. I can’t go anywhere until that’s over. But we can work out a few things while we wait.”

  “Like what?” Betts asked.

  “Tanya was right about one thing,” Kim replied. “You’re the only person who was missing from the Christmas program, so one of two things happened. Either the killer murdered Simon beforehand and then hurried out to join the crowd so no one would notice he was gone, or else the killer wasn’t in the crowd at all. He snuck into the bathroom, killed Simon, and then snuck out without anybody knowing he was in the mall at all.”

  “How could he do that?” Betts asked. “You have to go through the mall to get to the bathrooms. It’s the only way in. The killer would have to go through one of the main entrances, walk down the mall to the bathroom hallway, kill Simon, and then walk all the way back. He would have walked all that way in front of you and the storekeepers and all the other vendors with their displays. Someone would have seen him.”

  Kim let her eyes play over the cherry trees. “That’s true.”

  “There were hundreds more people in the mall that day than usual,” Betts went on. “Somebody must have seen something.”

  Kim stood up. “I’ll get all the cookies and cakes and drinks ready for the reunion. Once I have everything ready and delivered to their house, we’ll go find Tanya.”

  Betts stiffened. “What do you want to talk to her for?”

  “She’ll have a roster of all the vendors in the mall that day,” Kim replied. “She’ll have a list of everyone involved i
n the children’s program—all the elves and people in the choir. She’ll have lists of everyone who paid to attend the event. We can check her lists against the security cameras in the mall.”

  Betts frowned. “I don’t want to talk to Tanya. You can, but I’m not going.”

  “Why not?” Kim asked.

  “Didn’t you hear her at the mall?” Betts asked. “The very instant Mrs. Hawkins came out and said Simon was dead, Tanya pointed her finger at me and started ranting about how I was the one who killed him.”

  Kim narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, that was strange. She must have been really upset about the event getting spoiled.”

  Betts pulled her head down between her shoulders. “I don’t care how upset she was. I went to the mall to do her a favor because she got caught short-handed at the last second. I dressed myself up in that ridiculous costume to help her out of a jam, and that’s how she treats me. I never want to see her again as long as I live.”

  Kim smiled. “You did look pretty funny in that costume.”

  Betts glared at her. “Don’t you start up. I have enough problems without you picking at me. Because of Tanya, I had to be questioned by Aaron Walker while I was wearing that costume. I had to be dragged through the police station dressed like a clown with all the officers snickering behind their hands. It was beyond humiliating.”

  Kim couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “I’m sure it was. I’m sorry, Betts. You’re right. Tanya owes you an apology for accusing you of killing Simon.”

  “Maybe she killed him herself,” Betts suggested. “Maybe that’s why she fired off her accusations so fast. Maybe she wanted to throw the blame on someone else, and since I was late getting out to the mall, she saw the chance to blame me.”

  Kim shook her head. “That doesn’t work. I saw her in front of my booth at nine-thirty. If she killed Simon, she would have had to do it before that. And she would have come toward my table from the opposite direction. Instead, she came from the main entrance. You saw her as well as I did. Besides, we still have the problem of her getting into the men’s bathroom without being noticed. I don’t see how any female could have done it. It must have been a man.”

  Betts turned away. “I still don’t want to see Tanya. If you want to ask her about her lists, you can go by yourself.”

  The oven timer when off and Kim went behind the counter to get the cookies out of the oven. She set the baking tray aside and slid the next one into its place. While her back was turned, Winslow tiptoed over the tray and sniffed the cookies.

  Kim ran over to him and tapped him on the nose with her finger. “Get back, you bad kitten.”

  Winslow sneezed and retreated to his spot by the cash register, but he kept his eagle eye on those cookies until Kim closed them up safe and sound in their box. Then he closed his eyes and pretended not to notice her.

  “Do you want to come to the Tingle’s house with me?” Kim asked Betts. “You could get your mind off this case while I set up the refreshment stand. We don’t have to stay for the festivities. We just have to set the refreshments on the table and leave.”

  Betts sighed. “All right. I’ll go. Just don’t expect me to dress up as anything.”

  Kim smiled. “Don’t worry. I don’t want to see you dressed up as anything again as long as I live.”

  She packed the rest of the cookies and the bottles of soda and the cake boxes in the back of her car. Then she loaded the bundles of decorative Pembrooke Bakery napkins and paper plates behind the passenger seat and locked the bakery door.

  She drove to the other side of Camellia Cove, into the swanky part of town where windy streets twisted and climbed into the hills overlooking the coast. The wind picked up and tore the bare tree branches overhead. It knocked the car from side to side, and Kim fought to keep the vehicle on the road.

  Betts peered through the window. “Where are we going?”

  “The Tingles live all the way on top of the pass overlooking the harbor mouth,” Kim replied. “They’re having the biggest family reunion in history up there. They’ve got relatives flying in from all over the world.”

  “And they ordered your cookies? Wow! That’s big.” Betts went back to staring out at the countryside. “I didn’t know you were breaking into the big time.”

  Kim snorted. “Hardly. Like I told you, I’m just dropping off my stuff and leaving. I’m not invited to the party itself. The guests probably won’t even see me among the crowds of servants they’ve got running around up there.”

  Betts sat in silence for a while. When she spoke, she didn’t turn away from the window. “You shouldn’t have stayed at the police station with me yesterday. You had more important things to do. You shouldn’t let your business suffer over this murder case.”

  Kim’s head whipped around and she almost drove off the road. She yanked the steering wheel back into position. “Don’t ever let me hear you talking like that again. You’re my best friend, and you’re in trouble. My business can’t hold a candle to you, and helping you get this murder off your back is the most important thing in the world right now.”

  Betts shook her head. “You know that’s not true.....”

  Kim cut her off. “Stop it! Stop it right now. If I didn’t stick up for you, you would have no one to help you clear your name. We’re gonna solve this thing, and we’re gonna find out who really killed Simon. Look, I got everything done for the reunion, and I’m gonna be there on time, even though I stayed with you at the police station. My business isn’t suffering, but I wouldn’t mind if it did. You need my help. That’s the most important thing in the world to me right now.”

  Betts couldn’t hide her relief. “Thanks, Kim. You’re a true friend.”

  Kim pursed her lips. “Apparently, I’m not enough of a friend for you to tell you had an affair with Simon in the first place. If you kept it a secret even from me, you must have known there was something wrong with it.”

  The smile vanished from Betts’s face. She turned back to the window and didn’t say another word.

  Kim pulled into the Tingles’ driveway, and Betts’s mouth fell open. She craned her neck to stare up at the giant castle. “Is this....?”

  Kim propped her door open. “Help me carry my cookies, and for the love of God, don’t drop anything. That’s the last thing I need right now.”

  She loaded Betts down with a dozen boxes of cookies and stacked her own arms with the cakes. Then she led the way through the servants’ entrance in the side of the building. A couple dozen chefs crowded the kitchen, and Kim could barely see her way through the clouds of steam and smoke. On the other side, they burst out into the lofty gathering hall lined on either side with trestle tables groaning with every kind of food known to man.

  Kim made her way halfway down the side of the room to one empty table and set her cake boxes down. When she stopped walking, Betts bumped into her from behind, and when Kim spun around to glare at her, Betts dragged her gaze away from the stuffed pig’s head and the candied apples to give her a sheepish grin.

  Kim took her precious cookies out of Betts’s arms and set them on the table. She moved Betts around behind the table and shouted into her ear over the noise in the hall. “Stand here while I go get the drinks. And don’t touch anything!”

  Betts nodded at her with wide eyes, and Kim hurried back to the car. She didn’t trust Betts around her table—or anyone else, for that matter—so she made sure she got everything in one trip. She laced six soda bottles between her fingers and balanced all the plates and napkins in the crook of her elbow. She held the whole precarious pile in place with her chin and hurried back to the hall as fast as she dared.

  Betts stood in the same spot with the same glazed amazement on her face. Too bad she wasn’t staying for the grand event. She would have done all that food justice. If she couldn’t do anything else, Betts McCormick could eat. Man, could she eat!

  Kim set to work laying out her cakes and cookies and drinks and cups. Betts stood in her place behind
her and didn’t move. She just stared at the plum puddings and the fried ice cream and the shish kebabs and the caviar and the smoked ham with pineapple rings and the crispy fried turkey and everything else stacked to the ceiling.

  Kim folded the last of her boxes and tapped them into a pile. She could carry this out to her car with no trouble. She turned to Betts. “Let’s go.”

  At that moment, a throng of babbling revelers flooded the hall. They could only be the honored guests of the Tingle family reunion, because they all wore glittering gowns and crisp evening suits with bow ties and bejeweled cuff links. One man in the back of the crowd even wore a kilt with a long sword stuck into his belt. The guests chatted excitedly and waved their hands at everything and everyone around them.

  The servants and caterers burst into a frenzy of activity. Tuxedoed waiters threaded their way through the guests with trays of food and drink balanced above their heads. A few guests came to the tables and got themselves whatever food struck their fancy.

  No one came near Kim’s table, but she couldn’t see a way through the crowd to the exit. She was just about to grab Betts and make a run for it when the crowd gathered in a tight bunch around the stuffed pig’s head and suddenly burst into song.

  Kim listened to the harmonies rising and falling against the stone walls of the hall, but she couldn’t make out the words. The song repeated a few times before she figured out what they were singing about.

  A boar’s head, as I understand

  Is the rarest dish in all the land.

  Kim glanced over her shoulder at Betts, who shrugged and shook her head in ignorance. Then the company burst into loud “Noels” and fell to mad feasting and revelry. Kim never understood the term revelry until that moment, but these people sure knew how to revel. They ate and drank with gay abandon, and they laughed and talked and shouted back and forth to one another like they just won the lottery.

  Kim kept a keen eye on the door, but the crowd pressed into the room so thickly she couldn’t see a way out. She sighed and settled down to wait until something happened to clear a path to the exit. Maybe the guests would start passing out from too much punch, or maybe they would have to go lie down before their next sally to the feed trough.