Snow Cold Case_A Mystic Snow Globe Romantic Mystery

by M. Z. Andrews

Mitch blinked, breaking their eye contact. He slid his hand away from hers and sat back in his chair. “The dress was Felicia’s?”

  Johanna winced. “Yes.”

  Two fat tears slid down his cheeks and as he sniffled, he looked out the window next to their table. “You found Felicia’s wedding dress. Wow, that’s a lot,” he admitted, his head bobbing in silence.

  “I know,” she agreed quietly. “I went there with the full intention of telling you. I’m sorry that I lied. It’s just that when I got there and saw it was the poor man I’d nearly knocked unconscious in the park…”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “No, I understand.” He pulled a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wiped his nose. “I tried finding the dress, you know. For her parents. I thought her mother might like to have it. The place she usually took our dry cleaning didn’t have it. I tried a few other places in the neighborhood, but none of them had it either. I guess I didn’t try hard enough.”

  She looked around the coffee shop uneasily. A few eyes were looking their way. Whispering. Making up stories about what was unfolding at their table. Johanna was sure someone thought she’d broken up with him. It was what she would have thought if she had witnessed the scene herself and didn’t know better. No one would ever guess the truth about what was happening, though. Johanna never would have guessed she would be in this situation before she’d left for her walk last Thursday.

  She cleared her throat and looked at him again. “There’s more,” she said uneasily.

  He looked at her with his brows knitted together. “More?”

  With her lips melded into her teeth, she nodded.

  He sucked in a deep breath and then let it out slowly. “Okay. I’m ready to hear more.”

  “When I found out from the seamstress who the dress belonged to, she also told me something that I don’t think you or Felicia’s parents, or the police, knew.”

  He tipped his head sideways, listening keenly.

  “She went to pick the dress up on the day of your wedding rehearsal.”

  He looked shocked. “She did! Well, then, why didn’t she? Why was it still there?”

  “Because as she was trying it on one last time, the zipper broke,” explained Johanna. “And the seamstress told her it wouldn’t take long to fix, but then Felicia got a text message from a client.”

  Mitch’s head jerked back. “What?”

  “Yeah. Apparently, it was a new client. He asked for her by name, and the commission on the sale would have been big enough to pay for your entire wedding and your honeymoon, so she decided to take the property showing.”

  Mitch’s body language changed then. He sat up and his body grew more rigid. “She decided to take the showing on the day of our wedding rehearsal?”

  “From what I’ve heard about Felicia, she was kind of a workaholic. Maybe that’s not so crazy?”

  His eyes scanned the table as he thought about it. “Maybe not so crazy,” he finally agreed. “But she’d told me that morning that she had so many errands to run. She wanted to get luggage for the honeymoon and she had to get cash from the ATM. She had to get her nails and her hair done and pick up her dress. Her list was endless.”

  “I know,” whispered Johanna. “But her plan also included showing that property, because she left and she never came back for the dress.”

  “But the police asked the company she worked for if she had any appointments scheduled for the day. They said she didn’t.”

  “That’s what they told me, too,” Johanna agreed.

  “You went to see her employer?!”

  “Yeah, well, the seamstress didn’t have a full name. Just a first initial, a last name, and a phone number. I called the number and the person with that number told us—I mean, me”—she swallowed hard—“that the person who had last had her number had been a realtor for Four Seasons Realty.”

  “Which was Felicia’s employer,” he filled in.

  “Right. So, I went there and talked to some people she used to work with, and none of them mentioned she was showing a house or an apartment that day.”

  His mouth gaped open. “Is that why her body was found on the other end of Manhattan?”

  “It’s what I’m guessing,” said Johanna sadly as she caught Mitch’s defeated look. “Now, it’s possible that I have an overactive imagination because I’m a mystery writer and because I twist situations to explain my murders all the time, but I feel like now I need to know if that showing she did before she died had anything to do with her death.”

  Mitch swiped his handkerchief across his eyes without unfolding it. “I always thought the mugging was a cover-up. It made absolutely no sense for her to have been in that park the day of our wedding rehearsal.”

  “I know it didn’t. That’s why I plan on going to talk to the people at her realty company again this afternoon. I feel like you and Mr. and Mrs. Marshall deserve to know who Felicia showed that house to the day that she died.”

  His face suddenly hardened. He wiped his nose and sat up straight. “Well, I’ll tell you one thing. I am most certainly not going to let you go alone.”

  Johanna gave him a crooked grin. “I wasn’t telling you all that to make you go with me. I can do that by myself. I told you because I didn’t want to get to know you better and have everything we talked about be based on a lie. You needed to understand the real reason I came to your office yesterday morning.”

  “I appreciate that,” he said quietly. “But I’m going with you. I’ve already spent the last six years wondering what really happened to Felicia. If there’s a person out there who knows what happened to her and can give Dawn, Gene, and me the answers and the closure we need, then I’ll go to the ends of the Earth to get that. Just like I know you’d do the same for James.”

  “I would,” agreed Johanna in little more than a whisper. “When do you want to go?”

  He stood up and pulled his coat off the back of his chair. “The realty company is only a few blocks from here. I don’t have any meetings scheduled until this afternoon. I say we go now. That is, if you’re up for it?”

  “It’s where I was headed when we were done with breakfast,” she admitted.

  He tugged his coat on and added a pair of black leather gloves. “You can finish that cheese bagel on the way. I’m not really hungry anymore, anyway. I’m sure Rocky won’t mind finishing mine for me. Will you, fella?” Mitch shoved his bagel in Rocky’s direction.

  Rocky looked up at him with big grateful brown eyes and gave him a gruff sounding “Woof!” as if to say, I got you, buddy.

  Mitch smiled and held a hand out for Johanna to go first. “Lead the way.”

  19

  Johanna cupped her mittened hands and peered inside Four Seasons Realty’s darkened window. “I don’t see anyone.”

  Mitch pulled back his sleeve and looked down at the white gold watch on his wrist. “It’s not even eight yet. We’re early.”

  Johanna turned and leaned her butt against the glass door while Rocky huddled against her side. Together they watched Mitch pace the sidewalk. “Well, their sign says they open at eight. You’d think someone would be here any minute.”

  “Wouldn’t you think it’s good business to open earlier than your posted times?” he said with a bit of annoyance coloring his voice.

  Johanna blew out her breath and looked down at Rocky. This was all her fault. Mitch had finally packed away his feelings about Felicia’s death and now she’d helped to unpack them. She felt horrible about it.

  He stopped pacing then and stared at her. She felt his eyes burning a hole through her, forcing her to look up.

  “What?” she asked quietly.

  “Thank you,” he said. His eyes were serious and his expression somber. He looked like a man who had just had his heart ripped wide open.

  “Thank you?”

  “For everything you’ve done, Johanna. You didn’t have to take that dress to the dry cleaners to find out who it belonged to. You didn’t have to go al
l the way out to Brooklyn just to talk to Felicia’s parents. You didn’t have to come and see me yesterday, and you most certainly didn’t have to tell me the truth today. I know you’re a self-proclaimed non-people person. I get that. I know how hard it is to put yourself out there after the kind of loss that we’ve endured, but you did, because you have a big heart. So for of all of that, thank you.”

  She felt her cheeks warming despite the biting cold. Her heart felt swollen and vulnerable in her chest. His blue eyes that burrowed holes in her forced her to look away.

  “You’re welcome,” she whispered. “I just hope we get the answers you want.”

  “Me too,” he agreed, throwing an arm over her shoulder in a side hug right in front of the realty company’s front door.

  Johanna sank into the scratchy warmth of Mitch’s wool trench coat and let herself indulge in the familiar sandalwood scent of his cologne as he squeezed her shoulder tightly. Aside from her father and her brother-in-law, Johanna couldn’t remember the last time a man had hugged her. Even though it was only a side hug, she realized it felt good to be hugged.

  Then she felt him lean his head on hers.

  That was the moment it occurred to her that the hug wasn’t an affectionate hug. It was only him mourning the loss of his fiancée and giving Johanna thanks for her role in helping to solve the mystery of Felicia’s death. Her eyes flashed open and without moving her head, she swiveled them upward, though she couldn’t see his face past the bill of her newsboy cap. She patted the arm he’d wrapped around her shoulder awkwardly. There, there, she thought, unsure of what to say to him.

  The jingle of keys behind them and a man clearing his throat disrupted their moment. “Good morning,” came a jolly man’s voice.

  Mitch’s arm left her shoulder and the two of them swiveled around to see the realty company’s managing broker, Tim Shaw, behind them. “I just need to unlock,” he said, pointing at the door behind them. Then he narrowed his eyes and pointed at them both. “Oh, hey, I recognize you.”

  Johanna was just about to nod and say that, yes, she’d been in the other day, when he said to Mitch, “You were Felicia Marshall’s fiancé.”

  Mitch extended a hand to him. “Yes, great memory. I’m Mitch Connelly.”

  Tim shook it slowly and then glanced over at Johanna. “And weren’t you in the other day looking for Felicia?” He pointed at Mitch. “Are you two…”

  “Together?” asked Mitch. “Oh no. No. We’ve only just met. It’s a long story, but Johanna didn’t know that Felicia had passed when she was in the other day.”

  “Ahh,” said Tim, bobbing his head. “So, was there something I can help you with?”

  “Actually, yes, we have a couple questions about Felicia. Do you have a minute?”

  Tim glanced down at his watch. “I have a few minutes. I do have an appointment at eight thirty, though.”

  “Oh, absolutely, we’ll keep it brief,” Mitch promised.

  “Well, then, come on in. It’ll just take me a minute or two to get the lights on and the heat and coffee going. But you can just have a seat in the lobby.”

  “Do you mind if he comes in?” asked Johanna, pointing at Rocky. “He’ll be good.”

  Tim smiled at Rocky. “Oh, we don’t generally allow pets in the office, but it’s so cold out, I suppose we can make an exception for a friend of Felicia’s.”

  “Rocky and I appreciate that very much.”

  “No problem,” he hollered over his shoulder before scuttling off to get the office opened up.

  Mitch led Johanna to a seat in the somewhat darkened lobby. The only light came from three long rectangular sunbeams pouring in from the windows facing the street. Seconds later, the secretary who had greeted Johanna on her first visit to the office approached. Her purse drooped from the crook of her elbow while she juggled a cup of coffee, a donut, and her keys. Mitch leapt up to open the door for the woman.

  She glanced up sharply but softened when she saw who had flung the door open. “Oh, hello,” she said, practically sang.

  “Good morning,” said Mitch. “Sorry if I scared you. Mr. Shaw is inside opening up. We were just waiting for him.”

  “Oh, no problem,” she said, cracking her gum.

  Another employee filed in seconds later. “Hey, Roz,” said a tall, thin man in a dark suit. His brown hair was so thickly greased over to one side of his head that it shone in the sun as he passed by the window.

  “Hey, Jimmy.”

  Jimmy gave Mitch and Johanna a polite nod before heading back to his office. The lights suddenly came on in the lobby, and Tim Shaw appeared again.

  “Okay! Coffee’s on, I can offer you a cup in a few minutes,” he said, pointing at Mitch and Johanna.

  “We’re good,” Mitch promised him. “We just had a cup.”

  “Alright, then, right this way,” he said and pointed in the direction that Jimmy had just gone. “Good morning, Roz. Good morning, Janet,” he said, nodding at the secretary and Janet Sandborn as she came in the front door.

  As Johanna turned around, she thought she caught a brief glimpse of Janet’s eyes narrowing as the female realtor realized who she was. But neither Johanna nor Janet said anything.

  Inside Tim’s office, Mitch and Johanna took a seat on the pair of chairs in front of his desk. Rocky sat down on the floor next to Johanna.

  Tim dropped into his desk chair, which squeaked its complaints as it was forced to bear his weight. “So, before we get into whatever it is you two are here to discuss, Mr. Connelly, I know this is late, but I’m so sorry for your loss,” said Tim. His hands were clasped together in front of him on his desk, his potbelly reaching the desk before his elbows could.

  “Thank you,” said Mitch quietly. “I appreciate that.”

  “No, really. Felicia was a wonderful gal. Everyone loved her. Our clients loved her. We were all devastated to lose her.”

  “Thank you.”

  Tim gave Mitch a tight smile. “Now, what can I help you with?” He glanced at both of them curiously.

  Mitch cast a sideways glance at Johanna. She wondered if he wanted her to go first. She swallowed hard. Time to woman up, JoJo. “Right.” She blew out a nervous breath. “Mr. Shaw…”

  “Tim, please.”

  She gave him a nervous smile. “Tim. Something was recently brought to my attention regarding Felicia Marshall’s schedule on the day that she was killed.”

  He looked somewhat interested. “Okay?”

  “I discovered that Felicia had a real estate showing scheduled for the day that she died.”

  Mitch leapt in next. “And I told Ms. Hughes that there was no way that was possible. Felicia told me she’d cleared her work schedule that day as she had so many errands to run to prepare for our wedding, and also your company never disclosed that information to the police or to the family.”

  Tim curled a finger around his top lip and cleared his throat as the pair stared at him. “Hmm. That’s very interesting. I’ll start by saying, unfortunately, that was six years ago. I can’t remember all the things that happened around here six years ago, but I do remember Felicia taking an extended weekend off, plus the entire next week for your wedding and honeymoon. I don’t remember her having a showing that day.”

  Johanna leaned forward. “It was a last-minute thing, from what I understand. She got a text message from a client asking to show her a very expensive property. He specifically requested her by name.”

  Tim shook his head and lifted his hands from his desk. “I mean, it’s absolutely possible that happened. I’m just saying, she didn’t report back to the office that she was showing any property.”

  “The police checked her personal phone records,” said Mitch. “Do you know if they asked for her work phone records?”

  Tim shook his head. “I honestly don’t recall if they did.”

  “Her phone was stolen by the mugger,” said Mitch. “But it would be really helpful to know if she actually got a text message from a cl
ient that day, and if so, to get that number. Is there any way to retrieve those records?”

  “That was from six years ago, Mr. Connelly. I’m not sure how long our phone records go back. But I can most certainly have Roz do a little digging on that.”

  “I would appreciate that,” said Mitch with a curt nod.

  “Are you and Janet the only two who still work here who would have worked with Felicia back then?” asked Johanna.

  Tim had to think about that for a second. He leaned back in his squeaky desk chair and propped up his chubby face with an equally chubby finger. “Jimmy got hired when Dean Klatworthy left. Dean was here when Felicia was here.”

  “I remember Felicia talking about Dean,” said Mitch nodding. “Older gentleman?”

  “Yeah. He left not long after Felicia was killed. I feel like it was just the four of us in the office around the time she was preparing to leave for her wedding. I remember because we literally didn’t have enough agents to cover demand. It was a very busy time for us.”

  “Which might be why someone referred a client to her on her wedding rehearsal day,” suggested Johanna.

  Tim’s brows lifted and he pointed at her. “Exactly!”

  Mitch scratched his chin. “So, does Roz have time today to work on getting Felicia’s cell phone records from that day?”

  Tim nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll get her on that immediately.” Then his eyes narrowed. “So, can I ask what the sudden interest is in this?”

  A deep V formed between Mitch’s brows. “Felicia’s family and I have never been convinced that we knew the whole story about what happened to her. The main question has always been, why was she over in the Meatpacking District? All the errands she had to run were in the Midtown area, and the rehearsal and her parents’ house were in Brooklyn. If we can find out if she really did show a house that day, it might tell us why she was even over there in the first place.”

  “And then we may have to consider whether this was truly a mugging or perhaps something else,” said Johanna sadly.

  Tim’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow. You think it’s possible that she wasn’t mugged after all?”