Last Chance for Murder (Lisa Chance Cozy Mysteries Book 1)

by Estelle Richards

“Yeah. They did kind of make the outfit, though.”

  He sized her up. “Oh, really? I don’t know. I guess I’m a little biased about footwear that might have saved your life, but I kind of like these.”

  “You haven’t seen the heels yet, buster.”

  “I’ll hold my judgment, then.”

  Nero’s was still packed, the late dining crowd laughing and chattering over the delicious food. When they walked in, Nero rushed to the front to greet them.

  “Bella, bellissima! I’m so glad you are ok.” He exchanged cheek-kissing greetings with Lisa.

  “Sorry for running out, Nero. Let me settle the bill.”

  “I wouldn’t think of it. But I have something for you. Wait here just uno momento.” He winked and nodded before bustling to the back of the house.

  Lisa looked at Dr. Morris and shrugged.

  Nero came back with a bag in each hand. “Here,” he said, presenting the first bag. “You will find your meal wrapped up to go.”

  “Oh, Nero, you didn’t have to do that!”

  “I like to feed people,” he said, brushing off her protest. He hoisted the second bag. “And here you will find a pair of shoes most unsuitable for wearing in a restaurant kitchen.”

  She took the second bag and slipped her feet into the cute high heels. Nero held open the bag and let her toss the borrowed clogs in.

  “Thank you,” she said to Nero.

  “Don’t thank me too much. I couldn’t hold your table; too many reservations. But you take this home and eat some spaghettini with lemon.” He winked. “Don’t worry, there’s enough for two.”

  Lisa looked at Dr. Morris. “Are you hungry? Because I could eat a horse.”

  He grinned. “I’m pretty sure he said spaghettini with lemon, not horse, but ok.”

  “Do you want to come to my mom’s house and eat some pasta and see the kittens?”

  “That’s the best offer I’ve had all night.”

  *

  The spaghettini with lemon was just as fabulous as Lisa had dreamed. At Dr. Morris’s insistence, they heated it up a little in the oven before digging in.

  “Mmm,” Lisa said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “Mmm. Maybe a third one. Mmm. That was good.”

  “Excellent,” Dr. Morris agreed. “But I believe I was promised kittens.”

  “Right! Yes, kittens. Um, here’s the thing.” Lisa hesitated a moment before plowing on. “They’re in my bedroom.”

  “I know.”

  “And it’s nighttime, and we’re two single people, alone together, and I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.” She blushed. “You know what I mean?”

  He nodded, his face serious. “You don’t see me that way. It’s fine.”

  “What? No! I mean, yes, I kind of do see you that way.”

  His eyebrows rose.

  She blushed even harder, feeling like she’d suddenly been flung back in time to the seventh grade.

  “I just… I’m not a moving fast kind of girl. Until very recently, I was with my high school boyfriend. I don’t really know how to, uh…” She gestured back and forth between them. “I’m not smooth,” she finished.

  “I’m not exactly smooth either,” he said. “I mean, you’ve heard my voicemail messages, right?”

  She laughed. “Ok, good. Let’s go see some kittens.”

  Up in her room, the three kittens were awake and stalking each other around their enclosure like miniature hunting panthers. When the light came on, they froze, but then one of them noticed his brother frozen and pounced, and a rolling ball of play-fighting ensued.

  Dr. Morris laughed at their antics. “They look like some very healthy little guys,” he said.

  “They’re like this all the time. Except when they’re sleeping. And they sleep a lot.”

  “That’s a good thing. Kittens this age need a lot of sleep to grow, and a lot of play to learn. They seem good on socializing with each other, but how are they with humans? Do you hold them a lot? Part of fostering kittens is socializing them so they’re easy to place in homes.”

  “Easy, Mr. Brochure, I read the materials you gave me. Are the kittens good with humans?” She reached down and picked up the nearest fluffy bundle and set the kitten on her lap. “Yes, they’re good with humans.”

  The kitten on her lap pounced forward to bat at one of the buttons on her blouse. She brought a hand up slowly, let him sniff her fingers, and scratched behind his ears.

  The kitten let out a loud purr.

  “Healthy and well-socialized,” Dr. Morris said approvingly.

  “I can’t imagine having any trouble finding homes for them,” Lisa said. “They’re just so adorable.”

  “May I?”

  She nodded. Dr. Morris reached into the enclosure and picked up another kitten. In moments, that kitten was purring like a little motor, too. He stroked the kitten’s fur with a little smile on his face.

  The third kitten stalked across the enclosure and attempted to climb the side to get to them.

  “Ok, ok, I know you don’t want to be left out,” Lisa said.

  She reached in and grabbed him. He immediately pounced on his brother and started a play fight in her lap.

  “Oops, too much.” She put them both in the enclosure again, where they continued their antics.

  Dr. Morris put the third kitten in with his brothers, where he immediately jumped in and started rolling around with them.

  Lisa laughed, watching the kittens play. “Oh, Larry, stop that,” she scolded. “Leave Moe alone.”

  Dr. Morris started, looking at her in surprise. “You named a kitten after me?”

  “What? No. What are you talking about? Name a kitten Dr. Morris?”

  “Not Dr. Morris. Mo,” he said. “You called the kitten Mo.”

  “As a matter of fact, the kittens are named after the Three Stooges. And if you recall correctly, I’ve only ever called you Dr. Morris.”

  He looked embarrassed. “Allow me to correct that. Please, will you call me Mo?”

  She shook his hand. “Mo. Nice to meet you, Mo. Wait. Mo Morris? Really?”

  He looked away. “Mo is a nickname, short for Morris. My first name is Florian.”

  “Florian? Florian Morris.” She chewed on the name for a moment, letting the feel of it roll around in her mind’s ear.

  “In middle school, they used to call me Floor-More, particularly when the class bully tripped me. He liked to trip me a lot. Every day.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “Kids can be terrible.”

  “It’s ok. It’s actually part of the reason I ended up becoming a vet. I used to spend my afternoons helping out at the animal shelter. It was just easier than being around people.”

  He met her eye for a second, then looked down at the kittens again. “You could say little guys like these changed the course of my life. And now they’ve brought me to you, maybe changing it again.”

  She put her hand on his. “Kinda makes you love kittens, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah.”

  She looked around the room, suddenly aware again that she had a man in her bedroom. “Um, Mo? Can we go back downstairs?”

  “Sure, of course.”

  They hustled down the stairs and sat on Penny’s couch, a foot and a half apart like kids nervously sitting on a parent’s couch before a school dance.

  “Would you like to have dinner with me?” Mo said.

  “I thought we just had dinner. Wow, some appetite you have,” Lisa teased.

  “I’m trying to ask you out on a date.”

  “In that case, yes, I would love to have dinner with you.”

  “Good, then.”

  “Good, then.”

  They sat there awkwardly for another moment.

  “Ok, this is going to sound silly,” she said.

  “Go ahead.”

  “You kind of saved my life tonight. And in the movies, when the guy saves the girl’s life, usually they end up kissing.”

  “Are you
saying you’d like to kiss me?”

  “I might be saying I’d like you to kiss me,” she said.

  Mo’s smile lit up his whole face.

  “I guess that’s a yes?” she said.

  “That’s a yes.”

  He put his hand in her hair and very gently tilted her head and grazed her lips with his. They were warm and soft. She shivered all over as he pulled her closer and kissed her more firmly. After a moment, she broke away and put her head on his shoulder. He snuggled her close as she inhaled his scent, so warm and masculine.

  “It was a lucky chance, meeting you,” he whispered. “Lucky Lisa Chance.”

  “I feel like the lucky one,” she whispered into his neck.

  They kissed again. He smelled and tasted wonderful.

  “I should go,” he said at last. “But dinner? This week?”

  “Yes, definitely. When?”

  “Not Friday. Saturday is too far away. What about Tuesday?”

  She laughed. “A Tuesday night dinner date? Yes, I love it.”

  They stood up. She hated to see him go.

  “Your jacket,” she said, remembering that she was still wearing it. She slipped it off and gave it to him.

  “You were so cute in it.”

  “I don’t want you to be cold.”

  They kissed again.

  Keys jingled in the front door and they jumped apart.

  “My mother,” Lisa stage whispered, pointing at the front door.

  “I’m going to go,” Mo said.

  “Right.”

  “Tuesday night, don’t forget.”

  She laughed in delight. How could she possibly forget? She was already going through possible outfits in her mind.

  “See you then,” she said, sneaking in one last kiss before he left.

  Chapter 31

  Lisa stood on the sidewalk outside the real estate agency, scanning the street for Toby’s police cruiser. After dodging her mother the night before, she was even more skittish about explaining all that had happened with Brett. Her plan was to push the harder-to-explain parts on her cousin. That plan wouldn’t work if Toby didn’t show up. Already her delivery to the real estate office was late. She’d pushed it to after the other deliveries to leave time for the difficult conversation.

  What was Penny going to think about her golden boy, her protégé, the guy she tried to fob off on her daughter as a blind date, being a killer? Would she yell? Would she cry? Would she find a way to blame her daughter?

  A car turned the corner and slowly approached. Lisa squinted to see who it was. Toby! Finally. He parked in the red zone and got out of the car.

  “Hey, cuz.”

  “You’re late,” Lisa said, tapping her wrist.

  “It’s just a hair past a freckle,” he said, tapping his own bare wrist.

  “Come on. I don’t want her coffee to get cold.”

  They went into the real estate office bearing coffees and muffins. Tess was at the reception desk, staring down at her phone. Lisa brought her a latte and got a brief smile in return.

  “Is she in?” Lisa said, indicating Penny’s office.

  “What? Yeah.”

  “Um, has she seen the paper?”

  Tess glanced up at her in confusion. “Paper? Like a listing?”

  “No, the newspaper.”

  “Oh. I don’t know.” Tess went back to her phone.

  Lisa sighed. “I guess we’re going in blind.”

  She tapped on her mother’s office door, hesitating a spare second before going in. She led with the coffee held out in front of her.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  Penny had the newspaper spread out on her desk. Brett’s mugshot was on the front page. Penny glanced up and accepted the coffee, and took a sip before returning her gaze to the story of the murders.

  “This says Brett killed that man. Two men. The lawyer, too.”

  “I know.”

  “What am I supposed to do?”

  “Come on, Mom, you don’t need him. Or if you need someone, you can hire someone else. He’s just a salesman.”

  Penny looked at her. “What am I supposed to do about the reputation of this business? It’s right here!” She poked a finger into the newsprint. “He used Baldwin-Chance Mountain Realty to launder the money he stole from the dead men. My name, my business, dragged through the mud like that. I can’t believe this.”

  “Mom, nobody will blame you for what Brett did. Or the business.”

  Penny laughed a bitter laugh. “You’ve been gone from small-town life a long time, haven’t you? Of course they’ll blame me. Or at least associate it. I might as well close the business.”

  “That’s not true. Toby, tell her it’s not true.”

  “It’s not true?” Toby said.

  “Some help you are,” Lisa whispered to him. “Tell her something useful.”

  “Um,” Toby said. “At least your daughter isn’t the killer.”

  “Oh, yes, that’s a big help,” Penny said, laying on the sarcasm.

  “Mom, come on,” Lisa said. “Don’t do that. So you took a chance on someone and it didn’t turn out the way you planned. It hurts. I understand. But you have to move on.”

  “I can’t tell if you’re talking about Brett or about your father now.”

  “I could be talking about Dylan,” Lisa said.

  Penny sighed. “Do you have any of those muffins? I could use a Good Morning about now.”

  Lisa handed her a muffin, then took one herself. “Me, too.”

  “Why you?” Penny said.

  “I guess I expected things would feel different now. I solved the murder, and I’m not under suspicion any more, and I kissed Dr. Morris, but I still have problems.”

  “You kissed the town veterinarian?”

  Toby edged toward the door. “And that’s my cue to leave. See you later, cuz. Bye, Aunt Penny.”

  “Ok, that part is pretty great,” Lisa admitted. “But I still don’t have my money back, and I don’t have a location for Lisa’s Last Chance Café, and I don’t know what to do about you and Dad and Aunt Olivia.”

  Penny perked up. “Now there, I can do something to help. Would you like me to start looking for locations for you?”

  Lisa shook her head. “Not really. I guess I’m just kind of stuck on the Folly. It’s been such a big part of my life — even bigger after what happened last night. I just… I don’t want anywhere else.”

  “Oh. I guess I understand. I suppose that’s a little bit of how I feel about Lou. There are other men out there, and certainly some of them have expressed interest, but what could any of them mean to me after what I had with him? After what I lost with him?”

  “I’m sorry, Mom.” Lisa hesitated, then sighed in resignation. “Do you need me to quit being in business with Aunt Olivia?”

  Penny stared off into the distance a long while. Finally, she shook her head. “That wouldn’t be fair to you… for me to ask that. If you really feel that your café will be better with an art gallery, then go ahead.”

  “Really?”

  “But if it’s just about the money, sweetheart, I can give you a loan.”

  “Oh.” Lisa sat back in her chair. She hadn’t considered that possibility before. Would she be better off in business alone, with no worry about fitting the gallery into her plans?

  “Can I think about it?”

  “Of course. In fact, you can take your time to think about it. I’m getting out of here.”

  “You are?”

  “Do you know that I haven’t taken a vacation — a real vacation, not some work weekend in a hotel by some airport listening to over-coiffed motivational speakers — in over a decade? It’s time I remedy that.”

  “Wow. I hate to say it, but what about the business?”

  “With Brett gone, and with Tess being… Tess… I’m going to have to close it.”

  “Oh, Mom!”

  “Not forever. Just a little temporary closure.”

  “
Like a hiatus?”

  “Yes. Like a hiatus.”

  “Where will you go?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll take a cruise. Maybe I should go to Hawaii. I wonder if there’s a cruise to Hawaii. I’m going over to the travel agency right now, and I’m getting a first class ticket to somewhere.”

  Chapter 32

  “I really am sorry about showing your herpes commercial without telling you first,” Carly said while stealing a French fry from Lisa’s tray and dipping it in ranch sauce.

  The two of them were sitting in a booth in Lola’s Burgers and More eating a lunch that Carly had declared ‘baby-mandated’. Carly had already eaten all of her own large order of French fries, and immediately commenced stealing fries and gobbling them up.

  Lisa blew out a breath. “I know you didn’t mean anything bad by it.”

  “Good.” Carly swiped another fry. “And good for you on catching the killer. I saw the article in the paper, but it was mighty short on details. So? Details. Spill.”

  Lisa looked out the window at the semis barreling past on the highway for a moment before answering. “It was actually pretty scary. So, you know how my mother kept trying to set me up on a blind date with her new salesman. It’s like she was obsessed, but here’s the funny thing. He was weirdly obsessed with her, too.”

  “Really?” Carly said, stealing the last French fry. “They didn’t put that part in the paper.”

  “Oh, thank goodness they didn’t! Mom was upset enough that they mentioned the business by name. If they’d gone into that whole thing, I don’t know what she’d have done. Did I tell you she’s closing the business indefinitely while she takes a vacation?”

  “You said she was taking a vacation, but closing the business? Are we talking about the same Penny Baldwin-Chance? She never does things like that. Oh, we should probably get some more fries, sorry.”

  Lisa stood up. “Regular or sweet potato?”

  “Maybe both. Ooh, and some onion rings. Baby could go for some of those, too.”

  “You realize the baby’s only about this big,” Lisa said, laughing.

  “If you don’t monitor what I eat, I won’t monitor what you eat,” Carly said, drawing herself up into a noble pose. “This isn’t as easy as it looks.”

  “Fair enough.” Lisa went to order the fries and onion rings.