Daley Buzz Cozy Mystery Boxed Set

by Meredith Potts

  I couldn’t help but notice how quickly Michael had gone on the defensive. During my time investigating cases, I had learned that panic was traditionally the domain of the guilty. Or at least the suspicious.

  David tried to calm Michael down before this conversation spiraled out of control.

  “I didn’t say that you did,” David replied.

  Michael squinted. “Why do you think that I might have valuable information, then?”

  “Because you’re Allison’s husband,” David said.

  Michael nodded. “Oh. Right.” He took a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m just still in shock.”

  “That’s why we’ll take this really slow,” David said.

  “What do you want to know?” Michael asked.

  “Let’s start with this morning,” David said.

  “You mean when I found her body?” Michael asked.

  “Exactly. Walk us through it all,” David said.

  “Well, I got up this morning and headed out for a jog,” Michael replied.

  “Did Allison go with you?” David asked.

  Michael shook his head. “No. She was still asleep.”

  “Does that mean you went out jogging alone, then?” David asked.

  Michael nodded. “Yeah. I like to run by myself. That way I can go at my own pace and be alone with my thoughts.”

  “Okay. And how long did your jog last?” David replied.

  “About an hour,” Michael said.

  “Then what?” David asked.

  “I came back to the boat,” Michael said. “That’s when I spotted Allison on the deck…” He trailed off and lowered his head.

  “Take your time, Mr. Gordon. Deep breaths,” David replied.

  Michael took a moment to pull himself together.

  “When you arrived back at the boat, was Allison already dead?” David asked.

  Michael nodded. “She was on her back with the arrow…” He trailed off again as he became choked up.

  “Sticking out of her chest?” David asked.

  Michael grimaced. “Yes.”

  “Mr. Gordon, I’m very sorry to make you go through this, but it’s really important,” David said.

  Michael exhaled. “I understand.”

  “What happened next?” David asked.

  “I rushed over to her, but it was no use. She was dead,” Michael said.

  “Is that when you called nine-one-one?”

  “Uh-huh. A few minutes later, the paramedics arrived. Then, shortly after that, a police squad car pulled up.”

  “While you were waiting for emergency personnel to arrive, did you happen to see anyone suspicious around?”

  Michael shook his head. “No. I didn’t see anyone at all.”

  A discouraged look came to David’s face. “How about noises? Did you hear anything strange?”

  “I’m afraid not.” Michael began to get antsy. “Look, are we done here? Just being around here creeps me out.”

  David grimaced. “I’m afraid I can’t let you leave yet.”

  Michael squinted. “Why not?”

  “Because I have a few more questions for you.”

  “Like what?”

  “For example, was Allison having problems with anyone?”

  Michael tensed up. “Uh…”

  Michael’s tongue also didn’t seem to be doing him any favors. In addition, his hesitation acted as a gigantic red flag.

  David had a hunch about what was making Michael so tense. “Mr. Gordon, how was your marriage?”

  “Allison and I were doing great,” Michael replied.

  David stared him down. “Really?”

  “Yes,” Michael replied. “Didn’t you hear me?”

  “I did. It’s more that I’m having trouble believing you.”

  “Why?”

  “If you and your wife were doing great, then why did you hesitate so much in answering my question?”

  “Allison has been having some family problems.”

  “With your family?” I asked.

  Michael reluctantly nodded.

  “Was your daughter not getting along with her?” I asked.

  “My ex-wife was the real problem,” Michael replied.

  As a father, Michael understandably wanted to shift the focus off of his daughter. But I wasn’t ready to focus on his ex-wife quite yet.

  “Your daughter wasn’t having any problems with Allison, then?” I asked.

  Michael’s eyebrows knitted. “You don’t really think Kaitlin might have had something to do with this, do you?”

  “It’s too early to say. But it’s no secret that stepchildren and stepparents are notorious for not getting along,” I replied.

  Michael became very defensive. “Kaitlin is a good girl.”

  “You’ll have to excuse us if we don’t just take your word for that. Your opinion isn’t exactly unbiased,” I said.

  Michael gritted his teeth. “Why don’t you leave Kaitlin alone?”

  David shook his head. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I did that.”

  “Fine. Waste your time. But if you want to find my wife’s killer, there are far more important people you should be talking to,” Michael said.

  “Like your ex-wife?” David asked.

  Michael nodded. “Exactly.”

  “All right. I’ll bite. What reason do you have for believing that your ex-wife might have done this?” David asked.

  “Are you kidding? Deanna hated Allison’s guts. She viewed Allison as nothing more than a shameless homewrecker,” Michael said.

  “That’s motive.”

  Michael nodded. “A whole lot of motive.”

  “I can’t deny that,” David said. “But there’s a more important thing to consider. Do you think your ex-wife is capable of committing murder?”

  Michael shrugged. “I honestly have no idea what that woman is capable of.”

  “It sounds like you and your ex-wife don’t get along very well,” David said.

  “Do you know a lot of exes who are on good terms with each other?” Michael deadpanned.

  David shook his head.

  “Exactly,” Michael said. “Speaking of, you should also talk to Allison’s ex-boyfriend.”

  “Peter Skelton?” David replied.

  Michael nodded.

  Peter wasn’t just Allison’s ex-boyfriend. He also owned Skelton’s Sporting Goods. That made him Michael’s chief business rival in town. At one point, they were allegedly romantic rivals as well. When combined, that added up to a highly combustible mix.

  “Peter couldn’t believe that Allison left him for me. And let me tell you, Peter did not take the breakup well,” Michael said.

  Another question popped into my mind. “What about Allison’s job? Can you think of anyone she might have been having problems with at her work? Her boss, maybe?”

  “As far as I know, she got along well with her boss,” Michael said. “Tyler O’Connell, meanwhile, is a different story.”

  “Why is that?” David asked.

  “Allison recently got promoted to assistant manager at Treasure Cove Hunting and Fishing. That did not sit well with Tyler. Especially since Tyler thought he was a shoo-in for that promotion.”

  David pulled out a pad of paper from his pocket and scribbled some notes down. “By the sound of it, Allison was having all sorts of problems in her life.”

  “I wish that weren’t the case.” Michael exhaled. “Although, right now, I wish a lot of things weren’t the case.”

  It would be easy to let my emotions get the best of me, but I resisted and kept my focus on the investigation. “Can you think of anyone else who had a reason to want Allison dead?” I asked.

  Michael shook his head. “No.” His voice cracked as he tried to make an exit from the conversation. “Are we all done here? I’d really like some time alone to mourn.”

  Up until that point, David and I had let Michael indulge in various conversational tangents. That would not be the case any longer. Mi
chael could have one foot out of the conversation all he wanted. The other foot wasn’t going anywhere.

  David waggled his pointer finger back and forth. “Not quite.”

  Michael shrugged. “What more do you want from me?”

  “You’ve spent a lot of time pointing the finger of blame elsewhere, but we’re not nearly done with you yet,” David said.

  Michael scrunched his nose. “I don’t understand why.”

  “With all the drama that was going on in Allison’s life, I find it hard to believe that you two weren’t having any problems,” David said.

  “I already told you, we were doing just fine,” Michael replied.

  David stared him down. “Really?”

  Michael became increasingly agitated. “How many times are you going to make me repeat myself?”

  I spoke up. “Until we’re convinced that you are telling the truth.”

  Michael scowled. “Are you calling me a liar?”

  I shook my head. “I’m not calling you anything. I just want to get to the bottom of this.”

  Michael groaned. “I’ve already told you everything I know.”

  “I’m more concerned with what Allison told me,” I said.

  Michael threw out his arms. “What are you talking about?”

  “When Allison came into Daley Buzz yesterday, she told me that she was having problems with all facets of her life. Even her relationship with you,” I said.

  Michael’s face stiffened up.

  “Would you care to revise your statement, Mr. Gordon?” David asked.

  A sense of panic entered Michael’s voice as he replied, “Look. I know what you’re thinking—”

  David cut him off. “Mr. Gordon, I wouldn’t make any assumptions if I were you.”

  “Why not?” Michael asked. “That’s what you’re doing with me. The husband is always the primary suspect in a case like this. Don’t you think I’ve watched enough detective shows on TV to know that?”

  “You shouldn’t believe everything you see on TV,” David said.

  “Does that mean you’re going to tell me that I’m not your primary suspect in this case?” Michael replied.

  David kept an even keel. “Mr. Gordon, instead of putting labels on everything, why don’t you just answer some simple questions for us?”

  Michael raised his voice. “I already told you, I had nothing to do with Allison’s death.”

  “Then you have nothing to worry about,” David said. “Now, what problems were you and Allison having?”

  “I wouldn’t call them problems.”

  “What would you call them?”

  “Look. Every couple has some minor disagreements.”

  “Fine. So what were you disagreeing about?” David replied.

  Michael shrugged. “A little bit of this and a little bit of that. It was nothing major.”

  “Can you be more specific?” David asked.

  Michael groaned. “It was nothing worth murdering her over.”

  “We’ll be the judge of that,” David said.

  Michael threw out his arms. “Why don’t you believe me?”

  “Give me a reason to. I mean, look at it from my side. You were having disagreements with your wife, you are eager to throw other people under the bus, and you have no one to verify your alibi for the time of the murder—”

  Michael cut David off. “What if I did have someone to verify my alibi?”

  “Honestly, I’d be rather confused. After all, you told us you were jogging alone this morning,” David replied.

  Michael exhaled. “That’s not entirely true.”

  David folded his arms. “Mr. Gordon, what haven’t you told us?”

  “I wasn’t alone this morning. And I wasn’t jogging,” Michael replied.

  David’s eyebrows rose. “Where were you, then? And who were you with?”

  “I was having breakfast with someone,” Michael said.

  “Does this person have a name?” David asked.

  Michael grimaced. “Do I really have to tell you their name?”

  “Only if you want me to believe your story,” David said.

  Michael sighed. “All right. Her name is Julie Adams.”

  David’s eyes widened. “No wonder you’ve been lying to us. The truth is far more incendiary.”

  “This isn’t what it looks like—” Michael started to say.

  David didn’t let him finish. “How long have you been cheating on Allison?”

  “I haven’t—”

  David cut Michael off again. “Don’t you think it’s time that you start telling the truth? You lie to us about where you were this morning. You insist that you and your wife weren’t having any problems in your relationship. Then you tell us that you were having breakfast with some other woman. You can’t honestly expect me to believe that you haven’t been cheating on your wife. If you and this Julie woman were truly just friends, you wouldn’t have been so secretive about her in the first place.”

  Michael lowered his head. “All right. Fine. I admit it. I’ve been cheating on Allison. But I didn’t kill my wife.”

  David scoffed. “I have less reason to believe that than ever. If Allison knew that you were cheating on her, she could have taken you to the cleaners in divorce court. By the time she was done with you, maybe she would have owned this boat.”

  Michael shook his head vehemently. “No. You’re looking at this all wrong. The fact that I was willing to tell you about Julie just proves that I’m innocent.”

  David’s head was practically spinning. “That’s some awfully twisted logic. Explain this, then—if you’re not guilty, then why did you lie to us about where you were this morning?”

  Michael stared down at the dock. “Because I knew that admitting that I was having an affair would make me look bad.”

  “You were right. Things look awful for you right now,” David said.

  “That may be the case, but I was with Julie this morning,” Michael replied.

  David pulled his phone out of his pocket. “There’s one simple way to settle this right now. What’s Julie’s number?”

  Panic came to Michael’s face. “Wait. You’re going to call her?”

  “What’s the matter? Are you worried that she won’t confirm your alibi?” David replied.

  Michael shook his head. “No.”

  “All right. Then what’s her number?” David asked.

  Michael stared deep into David’s eyes. When he realized that David wasn’t going to back down, he finally shared Julie’s number.

  Michael had lied so much throughout the interview that it was hard to believe him now. If Julie wasn’t able to confirm his alibi then Michael would be in a world of trouble. He was clouded in an overwhelming amount of suspicion.

  So imagine my surprise when David called Julie and she actually verified Michael’s story.

  I had to stop my jaw from hitting the floor.

  I was in such disbelief that I briefly flirted with the idea that Michael had convinced his mistress to falsely corroborate his alibi just to cover his tracks.

  I could not dismiss that possibility. After all, things like that had occurred in the past.

  I had no idea if that was the case here. But even if it was, there was no hard evidence to support that theory.

  Suddenly, David and I were put in a tough position. Despite all of our suspicions about Michael, David had no choice but to let Michael go.

  Chapter Nine

  Just because Michael Gordon had an alibi for the time of the murder didn’t mean that the rest of the suspects did. And thanks to Michael’s eagerness to point the finger of blame elsewhere, David and I had no shortage of suspicious characters to interview.

  Even though I was eager to interview the rest of the suspects, I wasn’t ready to leave the marina quite yet. Especially since an idea came to me. It involved paying a visit to an old acquaintance—retired police detective Jack Pritchard.

  It had been fourteen months since
I had spoken with him. Ironically, back then, I was in the heat of investigating my sister’s murder. Since Jack lived on his boat full-time, there was a chance that he might have seen or heard something suspicious this morning.

  Unfortunately, as I walked over to an adjacent dock where Jack’s thirty-foot-long boat was anchored, I saw no sign of the portly retiree.

  According to the wiry old man who stood at the bow of the ship, there was a good reason for that.

  “Jack sold me this boat five months ago,” the man said.

  I was deflated. “Oh. Do you know where he is now?”

  “He told me he was moving to Hawaii.”

  My eyes lit up. “Wow.”

  “I know. Talk about living the dream,” the man said. “Anyway, I need to be heading off to the fish market right now.”

  David held his pointer finger up. “Actually, Sir, before you go, we have a question to ask you.”

  The man squinted. “What sort of question?”

  “There was a murder at this marina this morning.”

  The man’s jaw dropped. “Are you yanking my chain?”

  David shook his head. “Unfortunately not. Did you happen to see or hear anything suspicious?”

  “No. I’ve been out fishing since five o’clock. I just pulled back into the marina.”

  ***

  So much for being able to dig up a lead. The old man wasn’t the only one who was unable to provide David and me with information. A half dozen deputies made their rounds of the marina, in hopes of finding a boat owner who had witnessed the murder. None of those deputies were able to turn up any useful information.

  It was hard not to get a little discouraged by that news.

  David groaned. “So much for catching a break.”

  I didn’t respond.

  Although, with so many suspects left to interview, there was still plenty of opportunity to get lucky.

  “All right. It’s time to head out. These suspects aren’t going to question themselves,” David said.

  David began to walk back to his car.

  I did not follow him. Instead, I stared out at the water.

  A few moments passed before David noticed that I hadn’t joined him.

  He turned around with a confused look on his face. “You coming?”

  I pulled my head out of the clouds. “Uh…yeah.”