Cozy Creek

by K M Morgan

  Next on the list was Lily Foster. She was Adam’s pregnant wife and Ryan’s mistress. The question was, whose baby was she having? What if it was Ryan’s love child, but he refused to acknowledge it or lend any support? After all, Ryan appeared to have moved on romantically. At the party last night, he was with a new woman. If that wasn’t tough enough for Lily to stomach, Ryan’s new squeeze was Lily’s former best friend. Was Lily’s heartbreak enough to kill over?

  Then there was Ryan’s girlfriend, Olivia Ellerby. She had already endured the heartbreak of her boyfriend having an affair with her former best friend. On top of that, Olivia found out last night that Lily was pregnant. It must have occurred to Olivia that the child may belong to her cheating boyfriend. To add further fuel to the fire, Olivia could see that Lily still had feelings for Ryan. The only thing worse than being cheated on once was having it happen again. Was she determined to make sure that wouldn’t happen?

  Sasha Irwin was also on the list of suspects. Her story was a little cloudier. All Chloe knew was that Ryan had threatened her at the party last night. He said that he wouldn’t hesitate to release pictures he had of her and ruin her reputation if he had to. For a children’s show host like Sasha, reputation was everything. Chloe didn’t know the specifics of what the pictures were of, or how much Ryan was blackmailing Sasha for, but having her livelihood threatened was not to be taken lightly. The question was did Sasha take it deadly serious?

  Finally, there was Eric Voss. To Chloe, the man was nothing but one, big mystery. With all the outstanding questions Chloe was juggling, that was saying a lot. What Chloe had to go on was that Ryan Foster’s face went completely white at the party last night when his girlfriend told him Eric was coming for him. On the street, Chloe got to witness Eric and his greasy hair slamming Ryan against a car door and threatening him. Without even knowing what their beef was about, Chloe knew Eric had no problem getting violent. Had Eric gotten murderous?

  So much was up in the air. Given that, Chloe knew it was time to get down to business.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chloe’s first stop was the scene of the crime. She wanted to see if maybe the police had overlooked anything. Maybe she’d be able to find a clue that the cops hadn’t picked up on. It was a longshot, but she was willing to try anything to get a break in this case.

  She also decided not to go this one alone. Chloe brought her corgi with her. Rufus had a knack for poking around. She always caught him sticking his nose anywhere it could fit, whether it belonged there or not. Rufus may have been a corgi instead of a bloodhound, but he didn’t let that stop him from leaving no inch of Ryan Foster’s front yard un-sniffed.

  The police had already cleared the scene by the time Chloe had arrived, but they had locked both the front door to Ryan’s house and the door to the garage before they left. That gave Chloe and Rufus limited options to work with. After all, Chloe wasn’t about to try to pick the lock or break into the place in hopes of finding a clue. Of course, there was nothing wrong with checking the driveway or Ryan’s trash can.

  After a few minutes of searching, neither Chloe nor Rufus were able to turn up anything out of the ordinary. It looked like the police had bagged up all there was to find. The problem was that evidence all pointed to Paige being guilty. Chloe’s head couldn’t help but picture the worst case scenario.

  As far as the police were concerned, this had the makings of a slam dunk case. They had the murder weapon and had dusted the whole joint for prints. Chloe secretly wished that the forensics lab would get a positive ID from all that dusting. She knew someone else’s fingerprints would come up. Then, when the real killers’ prints were identified, Paige would be exonerated.

  The likelihood of that happening was slim to none. A killer that took the time to frame Paige by using a golf club, just like the murder weapon in her play, would no doubt have been smart enough to wipe the prints off of the club. With no prints, getting a conviction would be difficult, but not impossible. Sure, the police wouldn’t have a confession from Paige, but they would have the phone call placing her at the scene shortly before the murder.

  A case like this had a number of loose ends, which ultimately would leave Paige’s fate in the hands of a jury. The problem was, juries were notoriously unpredictable. They made mistakes, and Chloe couldn’t let that happen with Paige.

  At the same time, without any hard evidence of her own to point the finger at someone else, Chloe knew that in order to prove Paige’s innocence, she’d have to get the real killer to confess to the crime. That meant it was time to start confronting suspects.

  Or, maybe not.

  Just as Chloe was about to lead Rufus down the driveway back to her car, he got a scent of something.

  “What is it, boy?” she asked.

  Rufus then darted to the side of the garage. He stopped in a very deliberate spot.

  Chloe looked down and saw something glistening in the grass. On closer inspection, she saw that it was a pearl earring. Not a pair, mind you, but one stray earring.

  Chloe grabbed a tissue from her purse and picked the earring up with the tissue to not get her own prints on the item. It was a nice earring, but nothing too flashy. The kind of earring that could be bought at any mall jewelry or department store for under a hundred dollars.

  What was more fascinating to her was the fact that it was just sitting there in the grass beside the garage. How could the police have missed a clue like this? There were a dozen cops on the scene here earlier. It’s not like this earring was in an out of the way place. It was hiding in plain sight. Obviously she was happy that Rufus found it, but there did appear to be something odd about the discovery.

  While Chloe was caught up thinking about the earring, Rufus wasn’t done making discoveries yet.

  “What is it now?” she asked.

  The little guy began sniffing around again before finally getting the scent of something new. He wound around the side of the house towards the backyard. Chloe followed him, eager to find out what had caught her pup’s attention.

  As they made their way around the side of the house, Rufus picked up the pace. She followed suit, knowing he must be on to something big. When they rounded the corner to the backyard, Rufus started barking.

  Much to Chloe’s surprise, she saw Ryan Foster’s girlfriend, Olivia Ellerby, exiting the back door to the house. Just as Olivia was closing the door, she spotted Chloe and Rufus.

  “What are you doing here?” Chloe asked.

  Olivia’s face went white. She didn’t respond, but rather took off running, darting into the backyard of Ryan’s neighbor.

  “Why are you running? I just want to talk to you,” Chloe continued.

  Olivia didn’t listen. Instead, she booked it to the street behind Ryan’s house.

  Chloe and Rufus gave chase. They went through the backyard of the neighbor, then their front yard.

  By that point, Olivia was just reaching her car, which was parked on the sidewalk in front of the neighbor’s house.

  Olivia pulled out her keys to open her car door, but Rufus and Chloe caught up with her before she had the chance to get in. Rufus barked furiously as Chloe stared Olivia down.

  “You look like you’re in a hurry to get out of here,” Chloe said.

  Olivia sneered. “Very perceptive.”

  “What were you even doing here?”

  Olivia was defiant. “Leave me alone. I don’t have to talk to you.”

  “Fine. I’ll just call the police then and tell them you broke into Ryan’s house.”

  Olivia couldn’t wait to get out of the conversation. She put her key in the driver’s side door to her car.

  Suddenly, Rufus uncharacteristically snarled. He looked ready to pounce at Olivia. Rufus wasn’t big enough to cause any major damage, but no one wanted to get bitten by a dog, no matter how large or small the wound was.

  Chloe was still trying to get over her shock. She’d never seen her dog behave this way.

  Olivi
a had her own plans. She reached into her purse and pulled out a can of pepper spray.

  “You get that dog to back off. I’ll spray both him and you if I have to,” Olivia threatened.

  Chloe shortened her corgi’s leash.

  “Rufus, down boy. I’ll take care of this,” she insisted.

  Rufus obeyed and backed down.

  Chloe then turned her attention back to Olivia.

  “All right, you got what you wanted. Now put the pepper spray down,” Chloe said.

  “What do you think I am, crazy?” Olivia replied.

  Apparently, she didn’t realize the irony of that statement. Chloe was happy to point it out to her. “You tell me. You’re the one with the pepper spray.”

  “This is for my protection.”

  “You don’t need it. I’m not here to hurt you.”

  That answer set off a number of questions in Olivia’s head. “Why are you here anyway? What are you doing skulking around Ryan’s house?”

  “It’s funny that you would ask that. I was just looking around. I didn’t break into the place like you did.”

  “You don’t know how wrong you are. I didn’t break in. I have a set of keys to this house.”

  “That still doesn’t explain what you were doing here.”

  “That’s none of your business. This conversation is over.”

  Olivia then turned and opened her car door. In doing so, she took her eyes off Chloe. That gave Chloe just long enough to pull her own can of pepper spray out of her purse.

  “Not so fast,” Chloe said.

  Olivia turned and realized she wasn’t the only one with spray. She stopped dead in her tracks.

  “Crafty. But I thought you said you weren’t here to hurt me,” Olivia replied.

  “I’m not. I’m here to get answers.”

  “About what?”

  “About the murder of your boyfriend.”

  Olivia was quick to play dumb. “I don’t know anything about that.”

  “Maybe not, but you sure don’t seem broken up about it. That seems pretty strange, considering he was your boyfriend.”

  “We all grieve in our own way.”

  “Is this how you grieve, by sneaking in the back door of his house, then running away as quickly as possible the moment someone spots you? Because that just makes you look guilty.”

  “Are you accusing me of murder now?” Olivia asked.

  “I’m just pointing out the facts. Like how I saw you and Ryan getting into a heated argument after you left the party last night. Or how you found out just a few hours before the murder that your boyfriend had gotten another woman pregnant.”

  Olivia narrowed her eyes and gave her a death stare. “How dare you bring that up?”

  Chloe didn’t back down. “I know hearing that must have put you into a rage. You know, scorned women have been known to do some crazy things.”

  “I didn’t do it. I didn’t kill him.”

  “Let’s say I believe you. What were you doing in his house just now then?”

  “I was getting something that I left behind last night.”

  “So you were here last night then?” Chloe asked.

  Olivia was quick to revise her statement. “I meant, before leaving for the party.”

  “What did you leave behind that was so important that you had to get it today?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  Chloe zeroed in on Olivia’s ears. It was just as she thought.

  “Is it a pearl earring?” Chloe asked.

  Olivia’s eyes opened wide.

  Chloe continued. She reached into her purse and pulled out the earring Rufus found in the grass. “This earring?”

  Olivia looked at the earring with great interest. “Where did you get that?”

  Chloe put the earring back in her purse. “It was in the grass just outside the garage.”

  Olivia felt her left and right ears. Olivia’s left ear had a pearl earring on it while her right ear had nothing on it.

  Olivia stammered. “It must have dropped when I came in today.”

  Chloe offered another explanation. “Or when you came here last night.”

  Olivia shook her head, vehemently denying that accusation. “No. That’s not true.”

  “You still haven’t told me what you came here for today. I’m guessing it’s this earring. You probably searched the whole house for it when it was right outside the garage.”

  “No, that’s not it. I uh…left my favorite bracelet here.”

  Chloe saw a bracelet on Olivia’s wrist, but it was far from flashy. Granted, it could be a family heirloom, but it could also just as likely be the first item she could think of to deflect the attention away from her missing earring.

  There was one way for Chloe to find out for sure. “What would make you want this bracelet so much that you couldn’t wait an extra day or two until the case is closed to retrieve it? More importantly, how do I know this business with your bracelet isn’t just a cover story to distract from the earring I found?”

  “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

  Olivia’s combative attitude wasn’t making it easy to believe she was innocent. She couldn’t look any more desperate to get out of this conversation.

  Knowing that she needed a confession from the real killer, Chloe tried to calm her down a little.

  “Can’t we just talk this over?”

  The answer was a clear no. By that point, Olivia was completely fed up. She got a crazy look in her eyes. “I have nothing else to say to you. I’ll spray you if I have to. You and your dog both. Don’t make me do it.”

  Chloe didn’t have much of a choice. It was clear that Olivia wasn’t going to volunteer any more information, and Chloe didn’t have the leverage to draw it out of her.

  Given that, Chloe reluctantly let Olivia get in her car and drive away.

  Rufus began barking again as Olivia’s car sped down the street.

  “I know, Rufus. That’s not how I wanted that to end either.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  As Chloe walked back to her car with Rufus, she was a bundle of frustration. What an explosive way to kick off an investigation. Chloe had to take a few deep breaths to keep her heart from beating out of her chest. Just as she started calming down, her phone rang.

  The sound of her ring tone startled her. She was still so wound up from her confrontation with Olivia that her phone was enough to give her an abrupt jolt back to reality.

  Chloe composed herself, then pulled her phone out of her purse. When she checked the caller ID on her screen, she saw that the call was coming from Paige. Chloe got a burst of adrenaline. Maybe her friend had found a lead.

  Chloe answered the phone.

  “Please tell me you have some good news,” Chloe said.

  “I was just about to say the same thing to you,” Paige replied, over the phone.

  Chloe sighed. “Uh-oh. Has the Internet not been treating you well?”

  Paige sounded concerned. “Chloe, are you okay? You don’t sound so good.”

  “I feel even worse.”

  “What happened?”

  “I just got a little reminder of why you should never get on the bad side of a murder suspect.”

  “Are you okay?” Paige asked again.

  “Thankfully, things didn’t get too out of control,” Chloe replied.

  “Take care of yourself out there. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “Let’s just say it could have been a lot worse.” Chloe then switched gears. “Now, what about you? How is the Internet sleuthing going?”

  “Good news. I got the stuff you asked for. I’m going to text you the addresses and frequent hangouts of the other suspects.”

  Chloe was relieved. “That’s just what I needed to hear. On that note, did you happen to find out what’s in those career-ruining pictures of Sasha Irwin that’s worth blackmailing her over?”

  “No. Every photo I’ve found of her
on the Internet is as tame as could be. She is a children’s show host after all.”

  “Ryan Foster must have only had those photos in print form.” Chloe exhaled. “How about Eric Voss, did you get anything on him?”

  “He was a co-worker of Ryan Foster’s at Roy’s Ribeye Restaurant. Other than that, I just have his address.”

  “At least it’s a start. Keep digging.”

  “I will.”

  “All right. It’s time to get back to work.”

  “Be careful out there,” Paige insisted.

  “Don’t worry. I can take care of myself,” Chloe said.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chloe vowed to take a different approach with the next suspect. Things had gotten out of hand in a hurry with Olivia Ellerby. And while Chloe was able to leave the confrontation unscathed, she also wasn’t able to get nearly as much information out of Olivia as she wanted.

  There was a time for coming on like a battering ram, and a time for finesse. Chloe was ready to give the other approach a go, at least for now. With that new game plan, she decided to drop Rufus off at home.

  For a stumpy little guy, Rufus sure seemed to put a scare into Olivia. Chloe knew her dog had plenty of bark, but she didn’t want to see him bite anyone. That would create more problems than it would solve. If Rufus attacked someone, any chance of Chloe being able to solve this case would get lost in the shuffle of having to keep her dog from being taken away by animal control.

  It was admirable that Rufus was loyal to Chloe, but she didn’t want to put the little guy in harm’s way. Chloe would be inconsolable if anything happened to him. After all, Chloe was dealing with murder suspects. If they didn’t care about human life, why would they care about a dog’s life?