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

by Jessica Preston

  She looked back over her shoulder one more time and saw Betts grinning from ear to ear at the scene. The two friends might not be enjoying the food themselves, but the sight of so much happiness rubbed off on them, and they enjoyed themselves, too. The high stone hall with its colorful banners and bows of holly and evergreen branches filled the air with holiday cheer.

  A group of burly men hooked their arms over each other’s shoulders and started capering around in a ring in front of the door. The other guests stood back and bellowed with laughter. Then they started clapping and whistling in time to the capering. Kim and Betts weren’t going anywhere any time soon.

  All of sudden, the smile evaporated from Betts’s face. Kim followed her gaze and spotted Tanya on the other side of the hall. She glared at the two friends with a wicked glint in her eye. Betts gripped Kim’s arm so tight she winced in pain. “Let’s get out of here, Kim. I don’t want to stay any longer.”

  Chapter 5

  Tanya stalked across the hall and stopped right in front of Kim’s table. “What are you doing here?”

  Kim swallowed hard. “I’m providing the cookies and cakes and drinks.” She waved her hand at her table. “See?”

  “You shouldn’t be here,” Tanya snapped. “Get out.”

  Kim nodded toward the revelers. “I’ve been waiting for twenty minutes for a chance to leave. I do have better things to do than to stand around here and watch a bunch of drunks make fools of themselves.”

  Tanya smacked her lips. “I’ll speak to James about this. He shouldn’t have hired you for this job. He never would have given it to you if he’d know you were involved in that business at the mall.”

  Kim had to pry Betts’s fingers off her arm before her fingernails drew blood. “I wasn’t involved in that business at the mall. I was standing there minding my own business.”

  A peep escaped from Betts. Tanya opened her mouth to say something nasty, but Kim interrupted. “And Betts wasn’t involved in that business at the mall, either. If you hadn’t called her in at the last minute to take the place of your missing elf, she never would have been there in the first place. You should be thanking her for helping you out of a jam instead of accusing her of murder.”

  Tanya turned on Kim with a snarl. “So you think she wasn’t involved, do you? Well, I happen to have it on perfectly good authority that your beloved friend was spotted coming out of the men’s bathroom right after Simon Cox was killed.”

  Kim frowned. “Who told you that? Who’s your very good authority?”

  Tanya’s mouth twisted up into something obscene. Kim stared in horror at her face. Then she realized Tanya was trying to smile. “Wouldn’t you like to know!”

  Kim crossed her arms in front of her chest. “If anybody really saw Betts coming out of the men’s bathroom, they better get down to the police station and tell that to Detective Sergeant Aaron Walker. That’s material evidence in a homicide investigation, and whoever told you that would be withholding evidence—if it was true.”

  “It is true,” Tanya replied. “I have a witness who saw your friend go into the bathroom, and when she came out, Simon Cox was dead.”

  “If that’s true,” Kim returned, “how come no one said anything about a woman going into the men’s bathroom? Don’t you think someone would have noticed that?”

  Tanya threw back her shoulders. “Don't you see? She was in disguise so no one would recognize her.”

  Kim burst out laughing. “Of course she was in disguise. She was dressed like an elf.”

  Tanya narrowed her eyes at Kim. “Are you trying to insult me? If she was dressed like an elf, every man and his dog in that mall would have recognized her. She was disguised as a man so no one could tell it was her.”

  “Then how did your witness recognize her?” Kim asked. “Or maybe you are the witness. Maybe you want us to believe you saw Betts got into that bathroom.”

  Tanya waved her hand. “It wasn’t me, but it was someone I trust implicitly. And by the way, I want to thank you for your suggestion. I’ll tell Detective Walker about this. I think he’ll find it very useful information.” She pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and turned away with her forefinger poised over the screen.

  Kim let out a ragged breath. The guys doing the Riverdance Polka by the door collapsed in a loose ring of gasping, laughing, sweating bodies, and Kim saw a glimmer of daylight on the other side of the group. She grabbed Betts and made a bee line for the door.

  Stinging rain lashed their faces as soon as they got out of the house. Kim hauled Betts over to the car and threw her into the passenger seat. She jumped behind the wheel and slammed the door, but she didn’t start the engine. She rounded on her friend.

  “Tell me the truth, Betts,” she exclaimed. “When was the last time you saw Simon Cox?”

  Betts eyes flew open. “What are you talking about? I told you before I hadn’t seen him since high school.”

  “I know what you told me before,” Kim shot back. “I’m asking you now when was the last time you saw him. Come on. I don’t have time to mess around. Did you see him the day he died? Did you sneak into the men’s bathroom to see him?”

  Betts’s jaw dropped. “Kim! How can you ask me that? I thought you were on my side.”

  Kim grabbed Betts by both shoulders and gave her a good hard shake. “Stop playing games, or I’ll turn my back on you and you can fight the law on your own. Didn’t you hear what Tanya just said? Someone saw you go into the men’s bathroom at the mall right before Simon died. Are you telling me you passed up a perfectly good opportunity to shag him one more time for the sake of auld lang syne? Come on. Admit it!”

  Betts’s eyes welled up with tears. “You have to believe me, Kim. If you don’t believe in me, I’ve got nothing left and I might as well turn myself in right now. I swear to you I never went near the men’s bathroom at the mall, not the day Simon died or any other time. How could I disguise myself as a man to kill Simon and then get back to your table in time to talk to you and then go change into my elf costume? I would have to be in multiple places as once.”

  Kim glared at her.

  Betts dropped her eyes to her hands in her lap and sniffed. Rain drops trickled out of her hair and down her cheeks, and her limp hair drooped around her face. “Don’t turn your back on me now, Kim. I can’t stand it.”

  Kim fixed her with one last hard stare. Then she sighed and leaned against the steering wheel. “You’re right. You couldn’t have killed him. I saw you go into the women’s bathroom myself. You didn’t have time to disguise yourself as a man and then hurry back to my table to make yourself look innocent. I should have remembered that.”

  Betts’s head shot up and a light came on in her face. “So you believe me?”

  Kim nodded, but she couldn’t look at her friend. She started the motor, and they drove back to Pembrooke in silence. She parked in front of her own house and leaned back in her seat.

  “What are we going to do now?” Betts asked.

  Kim stared through the front windshield at nothing. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

  They got out of the car, and Kim popped open the back door to take her stuff into the house. At that moment, a cheerful male voice greeted them from the dusky twilight. “Out for a ride in the countryside?”

  They turned around, and Aaron Walker strolled up to them. He smiled at Kim and Betts, but as soon as she saw him, Betts spun around on her heel and hurried way without saying good-bye. Aaron gazed after her. Then he turned to Kim. “Was it something I said?”

  Kim sighed and bent over the trunk of her car. She fished the last of her stuff out of the back and Aaron followed her inside. “Betts is a mess right now with this murder hanging over her head.”

  Aaron peered at her. “And what about you? Are you a mess right now with this murder hanging over her head?”

  Kim shook her head. “I don’t know what to think anymore. I just made the mistake of accusing her of being somewhere she couldn’t
possibly have been when Simon died. The least thing makes me start to suspect her.”

  “Maybe that’s because her involvement in his death is suspicious,” Aaron replied. “I suspect her, too. You can forgive yourself for suspecting her.”

  “That’s just the thing,” Kim replied. “I don’t suspect her. Even if she wasn’t my best friend for the last twenty years and the most harmless person I’ve ever met, she couldn’t have killed Simon. There wasn’t time.”

  “Something must have made you suspect her, though,” Aaron pointed out. “What was it?”

  “We just bumped into Tanya Morris at the Tingle family reunion,” Kim began.

  “What was she doing there?” Aaron asked. “She’s not a Tingle.”

  “She’s married to one of their second cousins,” Kim replied. “Anyway, she got really nasty when she saw me and Betts there. She said she saw—or some mysterious, unnamed witness of hers saw—Betts going into the men’s bathroom at the mall before Simon died. She says Betts disguised herself as a man to avoid being recognized.”

  Aaron cocked his head to one side. “Why didn’t she tell me that? If someone saw Betts and recognized her, even through a disguise, they better tell me about it if they know what’s good for ‘em.”

  “Well, exactly.” Kim put the kettle on the stove. “What I want to know is why Tanya is accusing Betts of this murder. I can only imagine she disguised herself to kill Simon or she’s protecting the person who did.”

  Aaron shrugged and settled back on the couch. “None of that takes the suspicion off Betts. She’s the only person on the scene who can’t account for her whereabouts. Tanya has hundreds of people to vouch for her. Betts is going to have to come up with something spectacular to prove she’s innocent.”

  Kim spun around. “So you still don’t believe in her, even after everything we just talked about?”

  “Why should I?” he asked. “I’m investigating her for murder, and you still haven’t shown me one shred of proof to draw suspicion away from her. She had a whopping great motive and the perfect opportunity. No one else had anything close to either of those things. Show me something to make me believe she’s innocent, and I’ll be happy to accept it.”

  “What about my word?” Kim asked. “I know her, and I can tell you right now she didn’t kill him. Doesn’t that mean anything?”

  Aaron smiled. “Not even your word could clear her name. We need evidence, not words.”

  Kim turned her back on him. “I thought there was something real between us, but I can see I was wrong.”

  “Come on, Kim,” he chided. “Don’t bring us into this. What we’ve got going on between us doesn’t have any bearing on this case at all.”

  “Why not?” she asked. “I’m telling you Betts didn’t kill Simon, but you don’t believe me. You say you want evidence to show she didn’t do it, but I’ve already given you tons of evidence that she couldn’t possibly have done it. She couldn’t have disguised herself as man, killed Simon in the men’s bathroom, and then gotten out of her costume to get back to my table when she did. It isn’t humanly possible.”

  “That’s what you say,” Aaron replied.

  Kim shook her head. “I thought you were a reasonable man.”

  “I’m a reasonable cop,” he countered. “I can’t clear Betts on that.”

  Kim didn’t answer. She kept her back to him while she poured tea into the cups. What was she going to do about this man? She couldn’t get near him as long as he thought Betts was a killer. No one in the world had done more for her than Betts. Betts supported her when she was accused of killing Pat Malloy. The least she could do was stand up for Betts now.

  Aaron came up behind her and laid his hands on her shoulders. “Can’t we put this behind us, just for one night? There’s so much more we could be doing than arguing about this case.”

  He tried to fold her into his arms, and Kim sensed her muscles starting to relax into him. How easy it would be to lose herself and forget everything in his embrace. How sweet and soothing his warm kiss and his towering presence would be right now.

  But she had to remember Betts. She had to hold Betts in the forefront of her mind at all times. Betts needed her, and Kim couldn’t let her down. She stiffened against Aaron’s embrace. “I’m sorry. I can’t, not now, not when Betts is in trouble.”

  Aaron reared back and stared at her. “You’re not going to let this case come between us, are you? It has nothing to do with you and me. Let it go, and let’s spend the night together.”

  Kim shook her head and pushed him away. “I can’t stop thinking about it. I owe it to Betts.”

  “Why?” he asked. “You’re not the one accused of murder, and I’m not investigating you. We can still spend time together.”

  Kim took a step back. “I’m the only one who believes she’s innocent. I can’t let her down. I’ve got to prove she’s innocent before I can have anything to do with you.”

  Aaron’s eyes flashed. “This is nuts. We’ve been dating for six months. You know as well as I do that I have to suspect her until she’s cleared. It doesn’t have to get personal between us. This is my job, nothing more.”

  Kim shook her head again. “It’s personal to me. I can’t play both sides of the fence. I have to choose.”

  “So you choose Betts over me? Is that it?” He set his jaw and turned away. “I see how it is.”

  Kim stared at him. “What are you saying I ought to do? Are you saying I ought to choose you and accuse my best friend of murder when I know for a fact that she didn’t do it? I couldn’t do that. You know I couldn’t.”

  Aaron sighed. “I know you couldn’t. You wouldn’t accuse Betts of murder no matter what. That’s what makes you such a good friend to her. I only wish you didn’t have to sacrifice what we have to do it.”

  He started to turn away again, and Kim darted forward and grabbed his hand. “Don’t leave. Don’t let it end like this between us. I don’t want to sacrifice everything we’ve built these the last six months over a murder case.”

  “But that’s exactly what you’re doing, Kim,” he replied. “I’m not doing it. You are. You’re throwing away everything we had between us to side with Betts. Is that what you really want?”

  “Of course I don’t want that,” she cried. “I care about you, and I want to keep building our relationship. But I can’t throw Betts away to do it. It wouldn’t be right. I couldn’t throw either one of you away to keep the other.”

  “And yet,” he replied, “that’s exactly what you’re doing. You have to choose, and you’re choosing Betts. That’s all I really need to know.”

  He walked away. Kim stared at his high, square shoulders getting farther away, and a sob stuck in her throat. It couldn’t end like this. Were all their kisses and loving words come to this? How could she let him walk out of her life forever? But what could she do to stop him? She’d already made the mistake of turning on Betts once. She couldn’t do it again.

  He paused with his hand on the doorknob and looked back at her over his shoulder. His eyes bored into her soul. Her lip quivered, and she gulped back sobs. But she didn’t move or say a word. She regarded him across the room. He smiled and nodded again and walked out.

  Chapter 6

  Betts knocked on Kim’s door the next morning. Kim jerked the door open and stepped out onto the porch. “What’s going on?”

  Kim walked past her down the path. “Get in the car.”

  Betts hurried after her. “Where are we going?”

  Kim fired up the engine and set off toward the expressway. “We’re going back to the scene of the crime.”

  She drove to the mall, but she didn’t park in the parking lot. She cruised around until she found a quiet, middle-income neighborhood nearby. Giant oak trees lined the streets, and kids rode around the streets on their scooters. Kim parked a few blocks away from the mall and shut off the ignition.

  “What are we doing over here?” Betts asked. “We’ll have one beast
of a hike to get to the mall.”

  “That’s the whole point,” Kim replied. “The mall parking lot is empty. We don’t want anybody to know we’re investigating. If we parked right next to the front door, we’d stick out like a sore thumb.”

  They set off across the parking lot, but there was no one for miles around to see them. They came to the main entrance and slipped inside. Besides a few old people doing laps around the upper level, only the shopkeepers occupied the mall. The Christmas music blared louder than ever over the speakers with no one around.

  Betts looked around. “Where is everybody? The place should be packed with Christmas shoppers.”

  “That new movie is opening across town,” Kim replied. “Haven’t you heard of it? It's called Yuletide Mania. Maybe everybody’s going there instead.”

  “So what do you want to do?” Betts asked. “What are we going to find here?”

  Kim jerked her head to one side. “This is where I had my table.” She stood in the same place where she and Betts met the morning of the murder. “And over there is the hall leading to the women’s bathroom.”

  Betts cringed. “Do we really have to do this?”

  “There must be something here that can give us a clue to the murder.” Kim set off for the hall. “Come and show me where you went after you left my table. You went to change into your costume. Did you do that in the bathroom?”

  Betts trotted at her side, and they made their way down the hall to the bathrooms. Betts stopped outside the door. “I didn’t change in there. There isn’t much room in the stalls, and Tanya stores the costumes in the locker room.”

  Kim’s eyes widened. “The locker room?”

  Betts nodded. “Over here.”

  She led the way past the bathroom. On their left they found a door labeled Broom Closet, and beyond that, on the right, another door labeled Locker Room. “I never knew this was here.”