Cozy Creek

by K M Morgan

  Amanda waggled her pointer finger at Betty. “Mom, way to jump into the distant future. Chloe and Dylan aren’t even engaged yet—”

  “I’m sure that will happen soon enough,” Betty said.

  “Mom, how about you ease up on the engagement talk?” Amanda asked.

  Betty threw out her arms. “What? We’re all thinking it. I’m just the only one with the guts to say it out loud.”

  “Grandma, I don’t think this is the time or the place to speculate about that,” Chloe said.

  Dylan took Chloe’s hand. “It’s okay,” he said.

  Chloe turned to her boyfriend. “It is?”

  Dylan nodded. “There’s nothing wrong with people expressing their hopes and dreams for the future.”

  “In that case, when are you going to make those dreams a reality?” Betty asked. “I’m not getting any younger here.”

  Amanda’s eyebrows rose. “Mom, what’s gotten into you tonight? Have you forgotten all your manners?”

  “What can I say? This is what happens when I go without pie for too long,” Betty joked.

  “In that case, I’d say it’s time for some pie,” Amanda replied.

  Chapter Two

  As expected, the pie was delicious. It wasn’t surprising then when the Cook family made quick work of the dessert. Eating pie wasn’t the only enjoyable part of the evening, however. Overall, Chloe had a blast. But eventually, the hour grew late. Considering how both Chloe and Dylan had work in the morning, they said their goodbyes and headed on their way.

  While the party had been incredibly upbeat and full of laughter, the drive home was very quiet. Even though Chloe didn’t mind silence, she became concerned about why Dylan was keeping to himself.

  “I’m sorry that my grandma dove into marriage talk tonight,” Chloe said.

  “You don’t have to apologize. You’re not responsible for your grandma’s actions,” Dylan said.

  “I just figured I’d apologize since my grandma clearly won’t.”

  Dylan’s eyes widened. “She certainly won’t. She made her opinion on that matter very clear.”

  “Which is exactly why I decided to apologize on her behalf. I mean, you went over to my parents’ house for a party, not to be put on the spot about marriage.”

  “Honestly, it wasn’t a big deal.”

  “It wasn’t?”

  Dylan shook his head. “Not in the least.”

  “Oh. Okay.” Chloe then squinted. “In that case, I’m really confused.”

  Dylan shrugged. “About what?”

  “Why were you so quiet when we got into the car?”

  “I’m just tired. It has been a long week at work. I’m just desperate to get some sleep.”

  “I hear you. Sometimes, life is just exhausting.”

  “It really is.”

  “The one bright spot is that the more tired I am, the quicker I crash out when my head hits the pillow.”

  “I hope that’s exactly what will happen to me tonight.”

  Chloe bit the corner of her lip before continuing, “Not to belabor the point, but you really weren’t thrown off by the marriage talk then?”

  “Not at all.”

  “How refreshing,” Chloe said.

  “You sound surprised.”

  “Let me put it this way. My last boyfriend practically broke out into hives when he even heard the word marriage.”

  “It’s safe to say I’m different than your last boyfriend.”

  “You sure are,” Chloe said. “In fact, you’re different than any man I’ve ever dated.”

  “And you’re much different than any woman I’ve ever been with,” Dylan said.

  Chloe’s nose scrunched. “Did you mean that in a good way or a bad way?”

  Dylan smiled. “Are you kidding? You are an amazing woman. I feel so blessed that I get to build a life with you.”

  Chloe’s face reddened. “Talk about making me blush.”

  “I’m just being honest.”

  “I know you are. And I’m happy you feel that way. I’m just not used to hearing you be so expressive with your emotions.”

  “What can I say? Romance is in the air.”

  Chloe took on a playful tone as she replied, “I wonder why?”

  “Let’s just say that your father got the ball rolling. He made a great toast.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Chloe said. “I still can’t believe my parents have been married for forty years.”

  “It’s an incredible feat, that’s for sure,” Dylan said. “Not to mention, something to strive for. I can’t help but think about what my life will be like forty years from now.”

  Chloe stared out into the distance. “I wish I could think that far ahead.”

  “What’s stopping you?” Dylan asked.

  “Isn’t it obvious? Things haven’t exactly been normal around here lately.”

  “True. But perhaps things have finally calmed down for good.”

  Chloe took a deep breath. “I hope you’re right.”

  Chapter Three

  That night, Chloe slept like a rock. When she woke up the next morning, she felt completely refreshed. She also had quite an amazing dream. Not surprisingly, it involved Dylan. And why wouldn’t it? She loved him. And he felt the same way about her. Without a doubt, this was the best relationship of her entire life.

  Chloe could have easily spent the entire morning thinking about Dylan, but she had work to do. So, she made herself a cup of coffee, got dressed, and headed over to Emily Hightower’s two-story colonial home on Taffy Avenue.

  Chloe’s appointment wasn’t until nine o’clock, but she liked to arrive a few minutes early. Part of that was because she strongly valued punctuality. In addition, by giving herself a little extra time to work with, she could go over in her head everything that she wanted to say during her meeting. After all, even though Emily was one of Chloe’s friendlier customers, the primary goal of this appointment was still to sell cosmetics. Preferably, as many as possible. Especially if she could get Emily to purchase a few items from the new line of moisturizing creams that Crissy’s Cosmetics had just released. The saleswoman who was able to sell the most tubes of moisturizer by the end of the month would receive a nice bonus.

  With that in mind, Chloe grabbed her work bag from the passenger seat of her car and approached Emily’s red front door. As she reached the front porch, however, Chloe noticed something curious. Emily’s front door was cracked open slightly.

  Suddenly, cosmetics were the last thing on Chloe’s mind. Instead, she got a terrible feeling in her gut. Even though Chatham was generally known as a safe town, it wasn’t the sort of place where people left their doors unlocked, much less open. Given all the strange occurrences that had taken place in Cape Cod over the last year, it would have been easy for Chloe to immediately assume the worst. She tried to avoid jumping to any conclusions until she got some more information.

  Chloe rang the doorbell and calmy said, “Hello.”

  She then waited a few seconds for any sort of a response. Unfortunately, she didn’t hear a peep inside the house.

  Chloe then closed her hand into a fist and knocked on the door.

  “Emily. It’s Chloe Cook,” she said.

  Once more, Chloe received no response.

  Chloe raised her voice as she called out again, “Emily, are you there?”

  When Chloe didn’t get any sort of response, it became difficult for her not to panic. Just as she began to get a queasy feeling in her stomach, she reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. She dialed Emily’s number, desperately hoping that her friend would answer the call.

  Instead, a very peculiar thing happened. Chloe heard a phone ringing inside Emily’s living room. Unfortunately, no one answered the phone.

  At that point, Chloe refused to stand on the porch any longer. Something was wrong. She could sense it. And she was determined to get to the bottom of it.

  That said, she wasn’t about to rush
into Emily’s home unprepared. Before she took further action, Chloe reached into her purse and grabbed the can of pepper spray that she always carried around.

  Chloe then pushed the door open with her shoe and walked into Emily’s living room. That was when she spotted Emily Hightower’s body on the ground with a stab wound in her chest.

  Chapter Four

  Chloe immediately darted over to Emily’s body, but it was too late. She was already dead. As a matter of fact, her body was as stiff as a board.

  As Chloe’s emotions swelled, she broke into tears. She could have easily cried her eyes out, but she had to find a way to hold herself together.

  After all, Emily clearly hadn’t died from natural causes. All signs were pointing to her death being the result of a murder. If that was the case, it meant that her killer was on the loose. Before Chloe got ahead of herself and began theorizing about who could be responsible for this, there was something she needed to do. Chloe dialed 9-1-1 on her phone and spoke with an emergency dispatcher.

  A few minutes later, police arrived on the scene. Detective Todd Thicke was the first member of law enforcement to show up. He was followed shortly after by a forensics team and the medical examiner. The forensics team quickly mobilized and began scouring the scene for any clues or fingerprints. Not to mention, the murder weapon. While the cause of death was clearly a stab wound, Chloe hadn’t seen a knife at the scene.

  While the forensics team was busy going over the crime scene, the medical examiner focused his attention on Emily’s corpse.

  For a moment, Detective Thicke joined the examiner. Once Thicke finished taking a brief look at the scene and the corpse, he left the house and joined Chloe on the front lawn.

  “Ms. Cook. I understand you’re the one who discovered the body,” Detective Thicke said.

  Chloe took a deep breath before responding. “Unfortunately.”

  “In that case, I need to ask you some questions.”

  Chloe looked deep into Thicke’s eyes. “I know what you are probably thinking. What was I even doing here?”

  Thicke nodded. “That thought did cross my mind.”

  “I had an appointment scheduled with Emily. I wanted to introduce her to our new line of moisturizers.”

  “And you just happened to stumble upon her body?”

  Chloe nodded.

  “Talk about bad luck,” Thicke said.

  “It’s safe to say that Emily Hightower had much worse luck than I did.”

  “You’re right.”

  “I can’t believe someone would do something like this to her.” A fire came to Chloe’s eyes. “Whoever is responsible for this needs to pay for their actions.”

  “I agree.”

  “I’m serious. I want Emily’s killer to spend the rest of their life behind bars.”

  “Trust me. I know you’re serious,” Thicke said. “Which is why I need to ask you a very important question.”

  “What is it?”

  “Were you planning on doing some investigating of your own?”

  Emily’s muscles tightened up. The detective’s question put her in a really difficult spot. She wanted to tell him the truth, but she was worried about how he would react to her statement. After all, Thicke had warned her a number of times in the past to leave the detective work to the professionals. That said, Chloe’s amateur sleuthing had produced some amazing results. It was clear that she had a knack for investigating. Would Thicke finally admit that, or would he remain stubborn?

  “I was going to poke my head around a little,” Chloe said.

  “Even if I warned you to stay away from this case?” Thicke asked.

  “Look. Whether you’re willing to admit it or not, I think I could be a big help here. That is, if you let me,” Chloe said.

  As Thicke stared deep into Chloe’s eyes, she knew it was the moment of truth. The question became, would she have to do things the hard way?

  “All right. Let’s see what you’ve got,” Thicke said.

  Chloe’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

  Thicke nodded. “Every time I have questioned your abilities, it has backfired on me. So, I’m going to try something different this time. Here’s hoping it pays off.”

  “I think it will.”

  “Besides, all signs are pointing to this case being a handful.”

  “I have a feeling you’re right.”

  “What else are your instincts telling you right now?”

  “Why don’t we discuss that over a slice of pie?”

  Thicke’s forehead wrinkled. “Pie?”

  Chloe threw out her arms. “What? You don’t like pie?”

  “Of course I do. I just don’t see what eating pie has to do with investigating a murder.”

  “Some of my best ideas have come to me while eating a slice of pie.”

  “All right,” Thicke said. “Whatever produces results.”

  Chapter Five

  When it came to pie, one place in Cape Cod was better than all of the rest. In fact, when Chloe had a craving, the same bakery always popped into her mind. That dessert shop was owned by her best friend, Shannon McGraw.

  Shannon didn’t just bake tasty treats. She was also great at giving pep talks. Not to mention, dispensing advice. That morning, however, she seemed preoccupied. Perhaps it was because she had a large catering order to fill that afternoon. Or maybe Shannon was having an off day. If that was the case, it wouldn’t be terribly surprising. After all, it had certainly been quite a peculiar morning.

  Even though Shannon wasn’t her usual self, she still tried to put on a good face for Chloe’s sake.

  “Here you go. A little sugary inspiration,” Shannon said as she served a slice of pie to Thicke and Chloe.

  Thicke took a bite of pie. “It’s definitely sugary.”

  “Not to mention, delicious,” Chloe added.

  “As for inspiration, that’s yet to be determined,” Thicke said.

  “Well, I’ll let you two figure that part out yourself.” Shannon crossed her fingers. “I wish you the best of luck.”

  Shannon took a few steps back toward the cash register.

  Chloe reached out and stopped her. “Shannon, is everything okay?”

  “Of course not. You just told me that a murderer is on the loose,” Shannon said.

  “I meant, is something else going on with you?” Chloe asked.

  Shannon shook her head. “No. I was just really hoping that things would calm down around here for good.”

  “I understand.”

  “Be careful out there, all right?”

  “I will.”

  “Good.”

  Shannon then moved behind the counter while Chloe turned back toward Thicke.

  “You were right about this pie,” Thicke said. “It’s incredible.”

  “It sure is,” Chloe said. “But as much as I’d like to sit around eating pie all day, there’s work to be done. So, let’s get down to it.”

  “All right. Where do you want to start?”

  “How about with some clues?” Chloe asked. “Did the forensics team find anything unusual at the scene?”

  “No.”

  “How about fingerprints?” Chloe asked.

  Thicke shook his head. “They weren’t able to pull any from the doorknob. Or the murder weapon.”

  “That’s unfortunate.”

  Thicke exhaled. “It’s far from ideal.”

  Chloe bit the corner of her lip. “Was the forensics team able to give you any useful information to work with?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  Chloe grimaced. She then switched gears. “How about the medical examiner?”

  “He was only able to give me the cause of death and the time of death.”

  “The cause of death seems to be pretty obvious.”

  Thicke nodded. “She died from the stab wound in her chest.”

  “How about the time of death?”

  “Sometime between nine and ten o’clock l
ast night.”

  Chloe took a deep breath before responding, “I can’t believe her body was on the ground all night.”

  Thicke saw Chloe’s emotions getting the better of her. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder.

  “I’m really sorry about your friend,” he said. “What a sad way for her to die.”

  Chloe wiped her eyes. “To me, the saddest part is that she’s gone in the first place.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “But the fact that she was dead for almost twelve hours before I stumbled upon her corpse is also particularly disturbing.”

  Thicke nodded. “It is troubling that the killer has such a significant head start on us.”

  “That isn’t what I was talking about,” Chloe said. “It just eats me up inside knowing that someone didn’t find her body sooner.”

  “While I understand your concern, the fact is that things could have turned out much worse,” Thicke said. “Imagine if you didn’t have an appointment scheduled with Emily today. Her body could have gone undiscovered for a number of days. Or even longer.”

  Chloe winced. “What a terrifying thought that is.”

  Chloe then stared out into the distance. Before she was able to let her mind drift too far into the clouds, however, Detective Thicke brought her back down to Earth.

  “Look. I know that it has been a very emotional morning for you. It’s heartbreaking to lose a friend. That said, there’s a killer on the loose. And if they are going to be brought to justice, the clock is ticking.”

  Chloe mustered some resolve. “You’re right. I need to find a way to shelve my feelings for now. At this moment, finding the killer needs to be our top priority.”

  “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

  “With that in mind, I think it's pretty telling that Emily’s front door was cracked open when I arrived at her place.”

  “I did find it odd that there were no signs of forced entry.”

  “Really?” Chloe replied. “To me, strange isn’t the right word to describe the situation.”

  “It is if a burglar was behind this,” Thicke said.

  Chloe scoffed. “Come on. Do you really believe this was the work of a burglar?”