Mail Order Mystery: A Brides of Beckham Book (Chance City Series Book One)

by Robin Deeter

  “What’s going on?” Daniel pressed.

  Cy put on his investigator face. “I said that I need to talk to Sly. If I’d have wanted to talk to you about it, I’d have said so.”

  Daniel’s eyebrows rose. “Fine.”

  He preceded Cy into their dining room.

  Cy’s Aunt Bonnie, an attractive, middle-aged redhead with blue eyes said, “Good morning, Cy. It’s good to see you.”

  Cy kissed her cheek. “It’s good to see you, too, Aunt Bonnie. Hi, Uncle David.”

  David nodded. “Hello, Cy.”

  Cy said, “Sly, can I talk to you?”

  Sly smiled. “Sure. What’s going on?”

  “In private?” Cy asked.

  “Oh. Ok.” Sly put down his fork and got up. “Is the den ok?”

  Cy nodded. “Yeah. That’ll be fine.”

  When Daniel would have followed, Cy stopped him with a look. Daniel frowned but stayed put. Sly led the way through their big parlor out into a hallway and across it into a nicely appointed den. Cy closed the door.

  Sly asked, “Why so secretive?”

  Cy hated this part of his job, the part when he had to break people’s hearts with such terrible news about their loved ones. “Why don’t we sit down?”

  Hesitantly, Sly sat in an overstuffed chair while Cy sat in the chair opposite. Cy anxiously rubbed his hands along his thighs and blew out a breath.

  “Sly, I’m here about Catherine,” Cy said. “Brock came out to the house a little while ago. I’m so sorry to have to tell you this, but she was ... she’s …dead. Someone murdered her last night.”

  Sly’s face went blank and he paled. He froze, unable to move as he took in what Cy had just told him. Then his hands tightened on the arms of his chair until his knuckles turned white and his face contorted with pain. His black eyes blazed with fury and an anguished cry burst forth from him.

  “I’m so sorry, Sly. So sorry,” Cy said.

  Sly doubled over and let out a louder scream. Daniel and his parents burst into the den as Sly stood up and punched a bookcase with a glass front. His fist smashed through the glass, sending tiny razor-like shards flying through the air.

  David grabbed hold of Sly before he could hit it again.

  “What the hell did you tell him?” Daniel demanded of Cy, his blue eyes full of fire.

  Cy was on his feet by that point. “Catherine is dead.”

  Daniel inhaled sharply and took a step back.

  “Who did it?” Sly yelled. “Who did it? I’m going to kill them! I’ll make them wish they’d never been born!”

  Cy said, “I don’t know yet, Sly. I’m going to start the investigation right now.”

  “I’m coming with you. I have to see her,” Sly said.

  “No, Sly,” Cy said. “You can’t. I’m so sorry, but you can’t.”

  Sly’s world shattered and he wanted to die and be with Catherine. His sweet, beautiful Catherine. “Why would someone hurt her? She was so shy and good and—” Sly broke off into a guttural groan. “You find out who did it, Cy. If you do nothing else for me, do that and then tell me so I can make them pay.”

  As much as Cy wanted to give the guilty party to Sly, he couldn’t. “Sly, I’ll find out who did it and they’ll pay, but not by your hand. Catherine wouldn’t want that for you.”

  Sly dug into his trouser pocket and pulled out his pocketknife. With swift, sure movements, he hacked off his hair, and then threw the mass of hair and the knife across the room. Tears streaming down his face, he fled the room, ripped open the front door, and took off running.

  “I’ll go with him,” Daniel said, hurrying after his twin.

  * * *

  Cy circled Catherine’s body, making sure to stay out of the pool of blood that had spread underneath her. He had Brock take the pictures he wanted and then told the coroner, Connor Richards, that he and his assistant, Jared Boyer, could remove the body. Cy barely kept his rage at bay so he could do his job.

  As Connor and Jared did their part, Cy looked around the study and had Brock take more photos. The large, ornate desk was in disarray and a section of books had been removed from one of the bookcases and set on the desk. The windows were all locked, which meant the killer had gone out another way, or they were still in the house. Cy still hadn’t ruled out that one of family or servants was the robber or the killer.

  Once Brock was done with the pictures, Cy started going through the desk, looking at various papers that were of little consequence—nothing that someone would kill over. Then he went through each of the books on the desk and those on the bookcase, shaking them to see if anything fell out. Nothing did.

  Frustration fueled his determination to find the killer. Striding from the study, he went down the hall to the drawing room where the family and guards were gathered.

  “One of you knows what the killer is after, and you better come out with it right now. Catherine caught whoever was in that study last night by surprise. An innocent woman lost her life over something, and I know dang well it wasn’t that jewelry. If it had been there wouldn’t have been anyone here last night. Now, what is so important that someone would kill for it?” he practically shouted.

  Loren, an attractive man with graying brown hair and blue eyes, flinched, but remained silent.

  Carly, pale and drawn, said, “I don’t know. I wish I did. When you find out who did this, I want them killed. Just shoot them, Cyrus.”

  “Carly,” Jillian Branson admonished her.

  Carly glared at her mother. “Don’t take that tone with me, Mom. Catherine didn’t deserve what happened to her. I love her and I’m going to miss her so much.”

  Cy looked at the four guards assembled along with the family. “None of you heard anything?”

  They all answered in the negative.

  Cy snorted in derision. “If it were up to me, I’d fire every one of you. Why weren’t one of you on patrol at night? Pathetic.” While the guards all bristled, Cy turned back to Carly. “If I were you, I’d invest in a couple of attack dogs who would do a better job than all four of them put together.”

  Dane said, “Now, listen here—”

  “No, you listen!” Cy said. “I want to see all of your bank records. I have a feeling one of you were paid to look the other way and help whoever wanted to get in here.”

  The guards were all offended, but Cy didn’t care.

  “If you don’t have anything to hide, you’ll be forthcoming about your accounts,” Cy said. “As for the rest of you, I’m going to be going through your papers with a fine-tooth comb.”

  Loren said, “You can’t do that. You have no grounds, and you’ll make a mess of them.”

  “Your dead daughter and the robbery are my probable cause, and Judge Smythe will sign a warrant if I ask him,” Cy said. “It seems to me that you would be more worried about finding Catherine’s murderer than whether some papers get messed up.”

  “Of course I want the murderer found,” Loren said.

  Cy said, “You got a funny way of showing it. It seems like Carly’s the only one who’s really grieving. There’s got to be something these people are after and I just know that one of you is involved. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The killer is able to get in and out of the house easily and without alerting the guards. That means that the person is familiar with the house.”

  Dane asked, “Then why’d they knock us out the night of the robbery?”

  “You’re dumber than a box of rocks,” Cy said. “I already told you. It was a staged robbery and I’ll bet that those jewels are somewhere safe and that one of you knows where they are.”

  Jillian shifted in her chair a little. Cy pounced on the telltale sign of discomfort.

  “Where are they, Jillian?”

  She jumped at Cy’s question. “How would I know?”

  His gaze sharpened on her. “Are they in your room somewhere? If I went through your room, would I find them?”

  Color suffused her face. “N
o!”

  Deciding to completely shake her up, Cy left the room and started up the main staircase. Jillian was hot on his trail.

  “Don’t you dare go in my room! You’re violating my privacy!” She mounted the stairs as quickly as her dress allowed.

  Cy never stopped. He reached the top of the stairs. “Which room is yours?”

  “I’m not going to tell you! You have no business in it,” Jillian said.

  “I do if you’re hiding that jewelry,” he said.

  The rest of the family had followed them and now stood a short distance away.

  Jillian made a frantic hand gesture. “I’m not hiding anything!”

  “Then you’ll have no problem showing me your room,” Cy insisted. “You and Loren sleep in separate rooms.”

  Loren flushed. “Many people do that.”

  Cy chuckled. “I guess the honeymoon was over a while back, huh?”

  He started opening doors while Jillian and the rest followed him, yelling at him. Cy kept going as if they weren’t there. When he reached the third door on the left, Jillian tried to physically restrain him. Cy calmly moved her out of the way and entered the room.

  “Well, this is nice,” he said, looking around at the ornate canopy bed and other fine furnishings.

  “Get out of here!” Jillian practically screamed.

  Loren moved towards Cy. “You’re upsetting my family after the death of our little girl! Get out of here or I’ll have the guards remove you.”

  Cy stopped his progress with a dangerous look. “If I were you, I’d stand down and let me do my job. If any of those guards so much as looks cross-eyed at me, they’ll regret it.”

  With that, he strode to the bed, pulled down the covers, and picked up one of the pillows, inhaling deeply.

  “Your perfume is very nice, Jillian,” he remarked.

  He repeated the procedure with the other pillow and then sniffed the comforter thoroughly. Leaving the bed, he walked right up to Loren and sniffed him.

  “Get away from me,” Loren said, backing up. “What kind of investigator are you? Going around sniffing things like one of your dogs.”

  “I’m the kind of investigator that just uncovered the fact that your wife is having an affair. That’s not your cologne on Jillian’s sheets,” Cy said.

  Loren and Carly turned to Jillian, who stood open-mouthed.

  “He’s crazy! I’m not having an affair!” Her bluster was obviously fake.

  “Mom! How could you?”

  Loren’s face turned purple. “You lying whore! Who is it?”

  Fury entered Jillian’s expression. “Why do you care? You don’t think that I know how often you go to the Chowhound? You don’t think I know that you’re sleeping with those strumpets? You stopped paying me any attention years ago. Why shouldn’t I have a little fun, too?”

  “Ah, now we’re getting somewhere,” Cy said. “Let me guess. Your companion threatened to tell your dirty little secret unless you paid him? Only Loren here controls the finances and you couldn’t get your hands on any money without his knowing. So you gave your lover the combination of the safe and let him steal the jewels.”

  Jillian shook her head. “No, you’re wrong. I did nothing of the sort.”

  Cy said, “Again, that caused problems because they couldn’t sell the jewelry. But they can break it up and sell the jewels separately. I’m charging you as an accessory to the robbery and possibly to the murder of your daughter, Catherine Branson.”

  Jillian turned whiter than a sheet. “Arrested? You can’t arrest me. I’ve done nothing wrong except sleep with another man. That’s not punishable by law.”

  Cy took out his handcuffs and jingled them a little. “No, but helping someone break and enter and commit robbery is illegal.”

  “I didn’t help them!”

  Cy jumped on her gaff. “Them? Them who?”

  Loren grabbed Jillian and shook her. “What have you done? What did you do?”

  Cy and Carly separated them. Jillian broke down and sat on a chair, weeping loudly. Cy took out his handkerchief and gave it to her.

  “Jillian, I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.” His soft tone was such a complete turnaround that Carly and Loren almost gaped at him.

  Jillian pressed the handkerchief to her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’ve been seeing Gerard for about four months. He approached me at one of our parties and seduced me.”

  Loren harrumphed. “Seems like it didn’t take much!”

  She glared at him. “Which you would have known if you’d shown any interest in me, but I’m not young and ripe enough for you anymore. So you turned to whores. Why would I want you to touch me after knowing where your … where you’ve been?”

  Cy said, “You can argue about that later. Gerard who?”

  Jillian confessed that her lover was Gerard Barrett, a man who was supposed to be in Chance City on business, but who would be leaving at the end of the summer. She’d fallen in love with him and had planned to leave Loren for him. Gerard had convinced her that they should steal the family jewels and run away. They’d sell the valuables a little at a time and be set for the rest of their lives.

  Unfortunately, Cy had heard this kind of story a lot. Lonely rich woman seduced by a man who showered her with attention and good sex and then blackmailed her once she’d fallen for him.

  Carly couldn’t bear to hear any more and left the room, a sob catching in her throat. She stumbled down the hall to her room and locked the door behind her.

  Cy liked Carly. She was a good woman who worked hard for Chance City and she didn’t deserve the mess that had just fallen into her lap. His face set in grim lines, Cy turned back to interrogating Jillian, writing down everything, no matter how inconsequential it seemed.

  “Where’s the jewelry?” Cy asked her.

  Jillian walked silently to her walk-in closet and retrieved a large fine leather suitcase. She put it on the bed and opened it. She took out several velvet pouches.

  “Almost all of it is here. I gave the Duchess’ diamond necklace and earrings to Gerard,” she said. “We were going to leave next Friday night.”

  “Where were you going to meet?” Cy said.

  “I was to meet them behind our stable at midnight,” she said.

  Cy said, “You’re still going to meet them. Not a word about this to anyone. I’ll make sure Carly knows not to say anything.”

  Jillian shook her head. “I can’t! I’ll never be able to pull it off now.”

  “You have a choice. Either help me catch these guys or I’ll put you in jail as an accessory,” Cy said.

  Jillian swallowed hard.

  Loren stepped towards her. “You’ll dang well do it, or I’ll start divorce proceedings.”

  Jillian sneered at him. “You’d be doing me a favor. I’ll do it, if only to get revenge on Gerard for double-crossing me. I don’t know the name of Gerard’s partner. He never told me. He just said that he worked with him because he knew where to sell the jewels.”

  “Good,” Cy said. “Remember. Not a word to anyone about this. That’ll solve that, but it still doesn’t tell us who killed Catherine. I know that there’s something else that someone is after. Do you have any important documents that someone wants?”

  Loren said, “No. Everything is just ledgers and investment records. Nothing shocking or meaningful to anyone but us.” His face crumbled. “Why would anyone kill our little girl?”

  He covered his face as a sob rose from his chest. Shaking his head, Loren left the room and Cy didn’t pursue him.

  “Jillian, I’ll be going over all of your papers. There might be something there,” Cy said. I’m also going to post a few of my own guards here. I don’t know where you found these guys, but except for Eli, they’re worthless. I’ll let Carly know that they’ll be coming over. I’ll be back this afternoon with the new guards.”

  Jillian nodded meekly, beyond caring at the moment. Cy decided to have their head hous
ekeeper send for the doctor to come see the family. It might be good for Jillian to have a sedative. He left her bedroom and backtracked to the one Carly had said was hers when he’d been searching for Jillian’s.

  Carly answered his knock, her eyes and nose red.

  “I’m going to come back this afternoon with some decent guards. Keep Eli, but fire the rest,” Cy said. “I still haven’t ruled out that they’re in on things. Ok?”

  Carly wrapped her arms around herself. Cy might get on her nerves sometimes, but she trusted his professional judgment. “All right.”

  Cy put a hand on her shoulder. “We’re gonna figure this out, Carly. I’ll find Catherine’s killer and bring them to justice. I’m so sorry.”

  Carly said, “Thank you.”

  He nodded and left out the backdoor.

  Chapter 12

  From the Bransons, Cy went straight to the Chowhound in search of his friend Hector. The Mexican was a multitalented man, one of his skills being a topnotch guard. Sandy greeted him with one of her usual naughty quips, giving him a much-needed excuse to smile. It didn’t last long, though.

  “You look like something the dog drug under the porch. What’s wrong?” she asked, concern in her eyes.

  Cy rubbed his forehead in an attempt to ease the throbbing in his head. “I’m working on Catherine Branson’s murder.”

  Sandy’s expression turned grim and she shook her head. “Such a shame. She was a nice girl.”

  “Yeah. Have you seen Hector lately? I have a job for him.”

  Her smile returned. “You’re in luck. He’s with Tina at the moment.”

  Cy chuckled. “I’ll wait. I don’t want to miss him. This is important.”

  “In the meantime, you can have some lunch. Chicken pot pie today,” Sandy informed him.

  “Sounds great.”

  Cy was almost finished with his meal when Hector Ruiz came sauntering into the barroom from the doorway that led back to the private rooms. He spotted Cy and broke into a broad grin.

  “Hola, my friend! It’s good to see you.”

  He clapped Cy’s back and sat on the stool next to him.

  Cy returned the gregarious man’s smile. “It’s good to see you, too. Where’ve you been hiding?”