Catch of the Dead (A Hooked & Cooked Cozy Mystery Series Book 5)

by Lyndsey Cole

Nellie woofed, always ready for anything.

  Hannah’s mind raced with possibilities as she drove with her mother sitting silently, staring out the window. Of course, the scene that screamed at her the loudest was that her mother murdered Adele. But she had to know for sure. She pulled into the marina parking lot.

  “Why are you taking me here? Is this some kind of torture? Make me relive my horrible crime?” Joanna’s eyes were wild and she picked at the sleeve of her shirt.

  Hannah turned sideways in her car to face her mother head-on. “Listen to me, Mom. You just told me you don’t remember what happened. Let’s walk down the beach. Try to remember everything that comes back into your memory up until you argued with Adele.”

  “I don’t want to. I only want to think about spending time with you and Ruby and getting to know sweet Olivia better. I don’t want to relive that night.”

  “Don’t you understand? Unless you know exactly what happened, you’ll never be able to move on. It’s all in the details.” Hannah got out of her car and walked around to her mother’s side. “Let’s go.”

  Hannah waited next to the open door. Joanna stared straight ahead toward the ocean. “I remember looking out at that view when I walked down here. So peaceful.”

  Gently, Hannah held her mother’s elbow and helped her to stand. Together, they walked away from the marina to the beach.

  “Close your eyes and listen to the surf,” Hannah suggested. “Tell me what you feel and hear.”

  Joanna closed her eyes, trusting her daughter to guide her. “The breeze is warm on my face.” She reached around and braided her loose hair to keep it out of her face. “I had to braid my hair that night, too. The wind kept blowing it all around.”

  Hannah put her arm around Joanna’s waist. She matched her stride with her mother’s.

  “I hear birds. Are there seagulls flying over us?”

  “Yes. There are always gulls flying over the beach.”

  “I didn’t hear birds that night, only the crash of the waves on the beach. It wasn’t too loud, just a nice steady rhythm. I felt at peace.”

  They walked another hundred feet in silence.

  “Until—” Joanna said. Her body tensed under Hannah’s arm.

  “What happened, Mom?”

  “She started yelling at me. I didn’t even know she was standing by her mostly-washed-away mermaid sculpture.” Joanna stopped and put her hands over her ears. “It was awful. I didn’t want to hear what she said. And then—”

  “What did Adele do, Mom? Did she attack you?”

  “I closed my eyes. I didn’t even want to see her but she jabbed me with something.”

  Hannah’s heart raced. Would her mother remember hitting Adele with a shovel? Was this a terrible mistake, bringing her back to this horrible memory? Forcing her to relive it?

  Joanna suddenly reached both hands out in front of herself. “I grabbed the end to try to make her stop.”

  Hannah held her breath.

  “When I opened my eyes, I was holding a shovel and Adele was lying on the sand.”

  “Dead?”

  “I didn’t wait to find out. I dropped the shovel. I panicked and ran back up the beach like I told you before. Back to the cottage.”

  Hannah put her hands on her mother’s shoulders. “Was Adele lying in the sand face up or face down?”

  Joanna closed her eyes again. She covered her bowed head with her hands. “She was face down.” Her eyes opened. She stared at her daughter. “That doesn’t make any sense, Hannah. How could she have landed face down if she was facing me? I wouldn’t have been able to hit her in the back of the head.”

  Joanna hugged Hannah with a grip so tight she yelped. “I can hardly breathe,” Hannah managed to get out.

  “How did you know to make me relive that horrible night?”

  Hannah sucked in a deep lungful of sweet oxygen. “A hunch. I didn’t know what you would remember but there were too many people on the beach early Saturday morning besides you. Everyone had a slightly different version of events, but one person kept adding bits to the story. Always suggesting someone else as the potential murderer.”

  “Hannah!”

  Nellie woofed and loped toward Jack.

  “Why in tarnation did you have us come all the way down here? I’m an old man. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

  Hannah smiled. Jack’s curmudgeon talk didn’t upset her anymore. She suspected he was after a compliment and she happily gave it. “That’ll be the day. You’re in better shape than the rest of us.”

  Pam huffed behind her father. She put her hands on her thighs until her breathing returned to normal. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Why am I here, Hannah? It better be good. Did you find some important evidence?”

  Hannah glanced at her mother. “Another piece to the puzzle…hopefully it will lead you to the last piece.”

  Pam frowned. “It better be good. I was just about to have a late lunch when Dad called.”

  Hannah winked at Jack. She suspected that Pam wouldn’t have rushed to the beach if Hannah called, but she did take her father seriously. “I have a theory that there is a strong possibility of the existence of another shovel. The murder weapon.”

  “I already have the murder weapon. Adele’s blood is all over Rory’s shovel,” Pam said without even trying to hide her annoyance.

  “My mother argued with Adele just before she was killed. Adele jabbed her with a shovel. I think it was her own shovel that she used. Where is it?”

  Pam clenched her jaw. “That doesn’t make sense. How do you know?”

  “Watch this.” Hannah pretended to jab Joanna with a shovel. “How did you grab the shovel, Mom?”

  Joanna closed her eyes, reached her hands out, and grabbed an imaginary shovel handle.

  “Use your imagination for a minute, Pam. While my mother tugged on the handle with her eyes closed, Adele fell to the ground, face down. Adele didn’t let go until she fell, which had to be after someone hit her from behind with a different shovel.” Hannah flopped on the sand to demonstrate Adele’s prone position at Pam’s feet.

  “This is a new twist on the facts surrounding Adele’s murder. But what evidence is there to support your mother’s story?” Pam turned toward Joanna, “No offense, Mrs. Holiday, but you’ve just admitted to being here and struggling with Adele. Without a witness, it’s your word against, well, someone who can’t testify.”

  Hannah interrupted. “Find another shovel, Pam. Rory’s is accounted for. Adele didn’t hit herself over the back of her own head. There has to be another shovel.”

  “Possibly.” Her eyes darted around the scene.

  “Did you see anyone else, Mrs. Holiday?” Pam asked. “Anyone for me to focus on to corroborate your story?”

  “It was dark still, and I had my eyes closed until I saw Adele on the ground. I turned and ran.”

  “I’ll follow you back to your place, Hannah. I want to see those photos you said you have, and I have a few more questions for your father,” Pam said.

  Hannah could only hope that Pam was trying to reconstruct the murder as she had described it. If Joanna’s memory was accurate, a big if, finding another shovel made sense and it would clear her mother’s name.

  The alternative was not anything Hannah even wanted to consider.

  Hannah and her mother drove toward the cottages.

  “You never actually answered Pam’s question, Mom.”

  Joanna turned her head to face her daughter. “What question? I answered everything.”

  “You said it was dark but you didn’t say whether you did or didn’t see anyone else near Adele.” Hannah’s eyes stayed on the road but she heard a short intake of air from her mother. “Did you see anyone else? Yes or no.”

  Silence.

  “You did, didn’t you? You saw someone.”

  Silence.

  Hannah pulled in next to her father’s rental car. When she opened her door, she could see that so
meone had packed most of her parents’ belongings in the back.

  “You and Dad are planning to leave that soon, huh?” Hannah looked over the top of her car toward her mother.

  “As soon as possible.”

  “You both had me fooled except for one mistake. You said Adele was face down in the sand and Dad told me she was face up. How could that be?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Joanna started to walk away but Luke was approaching and she froze.

  “Where have you been, Joanna? I told you to stay away from Hannah. She twists everything to her advantage.”

  “Dad. When you saw Adele, how did she look?”

  “Don’t answer, Luke. Hannah is trying to trap you into saying something.” Joanna’s voice was filled with desperation.

  “You do think I killed Adele. I can’t believe it.” Luke looked at Hannah. “When I saw Adele, she was crumpled in the sand. Her blond hair was all bloody. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.” His eyes filled to the brim and his voice quivered. “I picked her up and moved her away from the waves. I thought she’d like to lie next to her mermaid, looking at the stars instead of her beautiful face smashed into the sand.”

  Hannah carefully watched her father’s face. If anyone could read it, she was the one, and what she saw and what she heard felt like he was speaking from his heart. But she wasn’t sure any more about her mother’s version of events.

  Pam stood listening to Luke’s explanation. “Don’t any of you leave this town.” She held her hands out. “Give me your keys for now and stay in your cottage until I get back.”

  Luke handed over his keys, put his arm around Joanna’s shoulders, and the two walked slowly to Something’s Fishy.

  25

  Hannah called Nellie and together they drove to the library. She wanted to catch Karla while she was there volunteering. Hannah didn’t know which Karla she’d find—the friendly, chatty Karla, or the angry, leave-me-alone one. Karla had shown both sides to Hannah.

  Fortunately, the library was mostly empty and Karla was in the last stack, shelving books.

  “Got a minute?” Hannah asked.

  “Not really.” Karla held a pile of books and methodically found the proper place for them, trying her hardest to ignore Hannah.

  “Okay, then. I’ll ask you about Adele’s murder right here, then, if that’s how you want to play the game.”

  Karla’s eyes widened. “I’ll take my break and we can stand outside. Five minutes is all I have.”

  “That’s enough time.”

  Karla placed the pile of books back on the cart and told Monica she’d be outside for her break.

  Once outside, she put her hands on her hips and faced Hannah. “What is it now? Every time I think I’ve seen the last of you, you pop up like a great white shark’s fin ten feet from shore.”

  Hannah ignored responding to the comment but did like the image. “When my father gave you a ride early Saturday morning, did he give you anything?”

  “Like what? Why would he give me anything?”

  “Can I look in your bag?” Hannah pointed to a large satchel with a ton of pockets that Karla had slung over her chest.

  Karla clamped her arm tight against her bag. “No.”

  Hannah counted to five. “Okay. Did my father give you something to wipe your hands on?”

  “Oh, yeah, he did. Does he want it back?” Karla unzipped a pocket on the front of her bag and pulled out a handkerchief that had once been white. It had the initials LH embroidered on one corner. “I was planning to wash it first. I fell in the sand and used it to wipe my hands. I guess he didn’t want me to get all the sand in his car.”

  Hannah took the handkerchief and noticed stains that could certainly be blood.

  “Listen, I know what you’re thinking, but those stains were already there when he handed it to me. Your father was weird, and as soon as I closed the door, I wished I never got in the car with him.”

  “Weird, how?” Hannah asked.

  “All the talk about Adele, like he was talking about someone in the past. And his voice was shaky. I don’t know. It was creepy. After I found her body in the morning, I thought of him and wondered, you know, did he kill her?”

  “I don’t think he did,” Hannah replied with only the tiniest shred of doubt at this point.

  “Of course you’d say that. He’s your father.” Karla started to walk back into the library. “Oh, I almost forgot. I’ve got something in the trunk of my car and I’m sick of hauling it around. I don’t know what to do with it.”

  Hannah’s ears perked up. She followed Karla to an old Honda Civic parked in front of the library and waited for Karla to jiggle her key in the lock until the trunk popped up.

  “Moe asked me to take this the morning after we found Adele dead.”

  Hannah looked into the trunk. A shovel lay inside. “Is this Moe’s shovel?”

  Karla shrugged. “With this A on the handle, I’m guessing it was Adele’s shovel.”

  “Adele’s? Why would Moe have her shovel?”

  Karla shrugged as if she couldn’t care one grain of sand less. “A memento of their relationship?”

  Hannah took it out and transferred it to her car along with her father’s handkerchief.

  “I’ve got to get back to work. Monica’s kind of strict about my break time and I definitely don’t want to get on her bad side.” Karla rolled her eyes as if she and Hannah were somehow now buddies or something.

  Hannah sat in her car and sent a text to Jack: I’m at the library. Just talked to Karla. I have Adele’s shovel. Let Pam know.

  Jack texted back: be careful.

  This was getting crazier and crazier. Who was lying? She hoped it wasn’t her mother or father, or Karla or Rory for that matter, which only left one person. And speak of the devil. As Hannah looked up from her phone, Moe was walking toward her car with a determined stride. He turned and took the library steps two at a time.

  Well, well, well. She decided to stay put to see what he did when he came back out. Hannah’s wait lasted as long as it took three cars to drive by.

  Moe marched right over to Hannah’s driver side window and smacked his hand on the glass until she rolled it halfway down. “You’ve got something of mine.”

  “I don’t think so.” She patted her pockets. “Oh, you’re right, you must be referring to this.” She pulled a crumpled up piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Moe. “One of your cigarette butts. You can dispose of it properly.”

  He tossed the paper right back into Hannah’s car. “Karla gave you something and I want it back.” He reached through the open window and put his hand around Hannah’s arm and squeezed. “Get out.”

  Nellie growled but Moe had the door open and pulled Hannah out, slamming it closed before Nellie could follow.

  “You’ve been nothing but a pain in my life and I’m ready to move on. Open the back.”

  Hannah fiddled with her keys, letting them slip through her fingers. She kicked them farther under the car.

  “You think you’re pretty clever, don’t you?”

  Hannah heard the tension rising in Moe’s voice. He looked around. He couldn’t risk opening the back door to climb over the seat with Nellie barking furiously. He couldn’t bend down and reach for the key himself without giving Hannah a chance to get away.

  “I’m wondering one thing, Moe.” She grunted when he twisted her arm behind her back. The shovel lay in plain view with a big A engraved at the top of the handle. “How did you switch Rory’s shovel for Adele’s.”

  “Shut up.” He pushed her down on her knees. “Grab the keys.”

  Hannah reached under her car. “My arm’s not long enough.” She sighed with relief. Someone had to come by soon to hear Nellie barking and help her.

  Moe crouched next to her without letting up his pressure on her arm. If he twisted any more the socket would pull apart, if that was possible. She rubbed her finger on her free hand over Great A
unt Caroline’s ring. It focused her mind away from the pain.

  She had to keep talking. Keep Moe distracted. “Adele criticized your work, didn’t she?” Hannah knew exactly how Adele operated and how she could target someone’s weak spots.

  Moe’s eyes blazed. “She wanted to destroy me. I can’t believe I ever thought I could love someone that was such a narcissist.”

  Hannah suspected that comment was accurate for both Adele and Moe but she decided not to point out that fact at the moment. Obviously, Moe didn’t see his own shortcomings.

  Moe pulled Hannah to her feet. “Come on.” He kept his grip on her arm as tight as a vise as he pulled her down the sidewalk.

  Hannah felt panic rising in her chest. She twisted but he only squeezed harder and kept her moving away from her car. “Where are you taking me?”

  “The tables are turned now, aren’t they? You’ll be my ticket out of this dump of a town.”

  Moe shoved Hannah over the driver seat of his Jeep Wrangler onto the passenger seat, never releasing her arm. He took a deep breath. He had to fumble in his pocket to slip the key out with his left hand and reach over to start the Jeep. It was awkward, to say the least, and in his panicked state, he couldn’t get the Jeep started.

  “You won’t get away, you know.”

  “It was perfect. I found Rory’s shovel and I knew Adele would be sitting with her stupid mermaid.” Moe looked at Hannah. “I bet you didn’t know that she actually fancied that she was a mermaid in another life.” He shook his head. “That should have tipped me off to her personality but, no, I got sucked in by her beauty.”

  “And my mother showed up at the perfect time. You couldn’t have planned it better if you tried,” Hannah said.

  “You know? Adele tried to hit your mother. I should have let them finish each other off but I felt Rory’s shovel in my hand and swung it. Adele went down with one hit. Your mother looked down at Adele’s body and ran off. I guess she never even saw me.”

  “So, in a roundabout way, you protected my mother. Adele might have killed her if you hadn’t been there.”

  Hannah felt Moe’s grip on her arm relax slightly.

  “I guess you’re right. Who knows what Adele would have done?”