Snowflake Bay Cozy Mysteries Boxset 1

by C Farren

  You learn something new every day.

  “Benedict says he missed you,” said Wren, sitting down at the table.

  Cedric’s face went bright red. “I liked it here. It felt like I wasn’t pressured into meeting a woman and getting married. When I was here, I could just sit and have a drink.”

  This was a trait of Cedric she liked. So he had a fun side after all. What had happened? Benedict said he’s been ill.

  “Shall we eat?” Wren asked, her stomach rumbling. “I’ve not eaten anything since breakfast.”

  “They have this bacon burger/chicken burger combo here with onion rings that’s to die for,” said Cedric. “You have to try it.”

  Wren smiled. “Sounds delicious.”

  GARRETT’S HOUSE WAS a large, purpose-built building on the edge of town. It looked new, maybe twenty years old. It had three levels and a giant garage that could fit three cars. It was surrounded by acres of land, perfectly manicured grass with the occasional fir tree. It was quite stunning.

  They must have quite a bit of money.

  Fiona knocked on the large white door. A dog barked inside. After a while a drunken woman answered.

  “Katie Knowles?” Fiona asked.

  “I’m not buying anything,” Katie said, her voice slurred. She was wearing obscene amounts of make-up. She looked like a clown. “Go away.” She slammed the door.

  How rude.

  Fiona knocked again. Katie ignored her.

  “Well that went well,” Fiona mumbled.

  BENEDICT SMILED AT Cedric as he brought them their drinks. Cedric’s mouth quirked in what Wren could only approximate was a smile in return. It was like he was embarrassed.

  “How you keeping, Ceddy?” Benedict asked.

  “I’m fine,” Cedric answered stiffly. “Doing well.”

  “Keep it up,” said Benedict, giving Wren a wink as he walked away.

  She took a sip of her drink, some cocktail that Benedict had recommended called a “A Fruity Tuck.” It was delicious.

  “I’m afraid I have some bad news,” said Cedric. He took a sip of his cocktail and spat it out. “That’s horrid.”

  “Is it about your brother?” Wren asked.

  “He was in a skiing accident in the Dolomites and can’t make it,” he explained with a hint of sadness. “He’s going to be fine, but he has three broken ribs and a fractured pelvis. He’s staying in a hospital in Italy for the foreseeable future.”

  “Oh. Right. I’m sure my dad’s trial won’t be for a while anyway. These kinds of things can take ages to get to court.”

  “I hope so.”

  She gulped down the rest of her drink, feeling hope leave her once again. Cedric’s brother would’ve gotten her father off the burglary charges. What if Jackson didn’t recover in time for the trial? Reba was a competent lawyer, but she wasn’t a shark.

  When the meal was served, all conversation died down. Wren didn’t know what else to say. She just wanted to get out of there and find out how Fiona got on with Katie. The angel was a force to be reckoned with. She could make anybody talk.

  Maybe she’d been an interrogator or something before she died.

  “I know I put you off the other night,” Cedric admitted. He was cutting up his burger into small pieces. It was weird. He did the same on their date the other night, like a mother cutting up dinner for a child. “I got embarrassed and then I started to be rude and I started talking about marriage and...”

  “It’s fine,” said Wren. “It wasn’t the best evening ever, but it certainly wasn’t the worst.”

  “I think our second date is going a lot better than I’d hoped,” said Cedric. He smiled at her. There was a bit of lettuce stuck in his teeth. “What do you think?”

  Oh no, he thinks this is a date.

  “This isn’t a date,” Wren stated. “I’m sorry if you think that.”

  Cedric gave a fake laugh. “I was just joking, trying to lighten the mood. You seemed so upset when I told you about my brother’s accident.”

  “Did you even contact your brother? Has he even had an accident? Or is this all just a pretense to get me to go out with you again?” Cedric stared at her, not flinching. He wasn’t giving anything away. “I can check you know. A lot of people know your brother in town. I’m sure one of them will tell me the truth.”

  “No. No.” Cedric looked away. “He contacted me. He heard about it from one of the locals while he was on holiday. He was going to fly straight back until he skied over the edge of that cliff.”

  Wren was fed up. The meal had started out so well. She’d even started to like him after discovering he had a fondness for drag. She had to face the fact that any dinner she had with Cedric would end up turning sour, no matter what.

  “Thank your brother for me,” said Wren, calming down. There was an awful smell wafting over from Cedric. “It was a nice offer.”

  “I’ve ruined things again,” Cedric admitted.

  “Maybe we both ruined it, though it was mainly you.”

  Cedric stood, looking panicked. “I have to use the bathroom. I’ll see you later. Maybe?”

  Before she could reply he had run off to the bathroom so fast he knocked his chair over and almost rugby tackled a drag queen. How very odd.

  Did he soil himself?

  “What is that smell?” Fiona asked.

  “Never mind that,” said Wren. She hadn’t noticed the angel arrive. Had she walked in or flitted in? “Cedric’s brother has had a skiing accident. He won’t be able to be Dad’s lawyer.”

  “Katie slammed the door in my face,” said Fiona. She sounded disappointed. “I think she was drunk.”

  Fiona picked a leftover fry from off Cedric’s plate. “We’ve both had a very productive day it seems.”

  It would do no good to sit there and moan about their lack of success. They had to be proactive if they wanted to find Garrett’s murderer.

  Chapter 18

  Wren knocked loudly on Katie’s front door. She wanted to have the authority of a police officer or a debt collector. It would make Katie listen.

  Katie opened the door a minute later.

  “Are you trying to break my door?” Katie complained. She had a fizzing drink in her hand. It looked like Alka-Seltzer. “Go away!”

  “My father is being accused of killing your husband and I know he didn’t do it,” said Wren quickly, hoping Katie wouldn’t slam the door in her face. “Please. Talk to me. Help me find out who did it.”

  Katie sighed and put a hand to her head. “I have a hangover. Or I’m still drunk. Or both. I don’t feel like talking. I just want to be alone.”

  “Please.”

  The woman stepped aside to let them come in. Wren was in for a shock. The inside of the house was immaculate, with marble flooring and oak paneled walls. Replicas of famous paintings hung on the wall and there was an even a crystal chandelier.

  “How rich are you?” Wren asked.

  I didn’t mean to say that out loud.

  “Garrett’s father won the Lotto,” Katie explained, leading them towards the lounge area. She was unsteady on her feet. “Fifty million or something. He left it all to my husband when he died. He was a stingy man so there was more or less the whole lot left when he carked it.” Katie looked suddenly sad. “I haven’t thought about Garrett Senior in a long time. I miss him.”

  She laughed again, all melancholic memories of her father-in-law forgotten, and sat down on a sleek white corner sofa. Wren and Fiona joined her, staring in awe around the room. There was another chandelier above them, sparkling like diamonds under the sun. The fireplace was marble. She felt like she was in a royal palace.

  “What do you want to know?” Katie asked. She took some pills out of her snakeskin purse and swallowed them. They looked like the exact same bottle of laxatives that Fiona had found in the coffee shop. That woman is going to be rushing off to the John very, very soon. “I’m busy. I was supposed to be hosting a dinner party tonight. I won’t be having
that now, will I? I was looking forward to it.” She sighed and rubbed at her head. “I have a headache coming on.”

  “I spoke to Jordan,” said Wren. “He told me about the DNA test.”

  “Pillow talk?”

  “No. No. He...He needed someone to talk to, and I was there. You know he’s sleeping at the coffee shop?”

  “He won’t even look at me. He called me a slut and said I ruined his life and now he might have cancer because I wasn’t truthful with him.” She smiled sadly. “He’s right. I am a slut and I did ruin his life. I should have told him long ago about his biological father. I should have told Garrett. It’s just the lie was just easier to maintain, and I didn’t want them to look at me like they hated me, like Garrett Senior looked at me when he found out.”

  There was a portrait of the family on the wall above the fireplace. It was huge, dominating the wall. Jordan appeared to be about ten, and Katie had her original nose. The three of them looked so happy.

  “What made you tell your husband such a lie?” Fiona asked crossly.

  “I didn’t know he wasn’t Jordan’s father,” Katie admitted. She appeared to be gradually sobering up. Her words were less slurred, though her hands still shook a little. “Not at first. When Jordan was two he had a serious fall and hit his head. He lost a lot of blood. I donated mine for a transfusion, but not before I found out that my son and husband had different blood types. It meant he couldn’t possibly be Jordan’s biological father.”

  “You had an affair,” Fiona accused her.

  Wren nudged Fiona. She was being judgmental. If they wanted Katie to open up, then they had to stay neutral.

  “I had an affair,” Katie admitted. She genuinely looked ashamed of her actions. “I wasn’t proud of myself, but it happened, and I couldn’t take it back. I wouldn’t take it back. That affair gave me Jordan, and he made my life complete. Do you know what it was like growing up in the foster system? I had no one. I was so desperate for someone to love me and I finally had it. Well, there was a husband before Garrett, but I divorced him because he got on my nerves.”

  “Who did you have an affair with?” Wren asked.

  “It was after Garrett’s mother died and Garrett Senior moved in with us.” Katie looked away. “That man was like a father to me. I genuinely loved him. He made me feel part of the family. For someone who’d never had that it was a dream come true.”

  Could Garrett Senior be Jordan’s father?

  That didn’t make sense. The DNA test would have caught that.

  “After his mom’s funeral service, Garrett and I went out drinking. There was this Venice carnival night at my favorite nightclub. Everyone wore masks. It was fun. Garrett and I had a little argument, and he left me at the nightclub. As the night wore on I got a bit tipsy. I even thought I saw my odious ex-husband at one point, but I scared him off.” She looked away guiltily. “I hooked up with a guy in the public bathroom. I wish I knew what they looked like, but we were wearing masks.”

  Wren believed her. She genuinely didn’t know whom she’d had that rendezvous with. She couldn’t imagine how awful that must be. Jordan’s father could be anyone. Jordan could have served his father at the coffee shop dozens of times and not even known. Katie must have thought the man she slept with was the man walking past her on the street, or standing in line behind her at the coffee shop.

  “Garrett Senior caught me sneaking back in that night,” Katie went on. “He saw the look on my face and he knew. He just knew. He was never the same with me after that.”

  “Did you kill your husband?” Wren asked calmly.

  “I loved him,” Katie stated, her left eye twitching. “If anything, he had reason to kill me. I was the one who cheated and spent all his money and shouted at him all the time.”

  “Where we you at the time of the murder?” Fiona asked.

  “I was here. Jordan was upstairs, sulking. I drank a bit. Watched some TV. Drank a bit more. Went to bed. Woke up and drank a bit more.” Katie laughed. “I think I passed out after that.”

  Wren nodded. “Can anyone corroborate that you were here?”

  “I ordered a meal at about eleven. It came at half past. The Italian place in town really does a wonderful vegan spaghetti Bolognese.”

  “Perhaps you killed him because he threatened to leave you and you didn’t want to be on your own,” Fiona suggested.

  “I just told you I was here all night,” Katie snapped. “I was picking out wallpaper samples! I wanted to change the décor in the spare room. Garrett loved his lavender.” She smirked. “Stupid color.”

  “Or perhaps you wanted your husband’s money all to yourself.” Fiona’s smugness rubbed Wren up the wrong way. She’d never seen this unpleasant side of the angel before. “There must be millions of that Lotto money left that he inherited from his father.” Katie was about to interrupt but Fiona continued. “Or perhaps you didn’t want your husband to find out who the real father of Jordan was and you killed him to shut him up. Or maybe he did know who the real father was and you killed him to keep him quiet. Or maybe...”

  “Stop it!” Katie cried. “Just stop it!”

  Fiona had the decency to look ashamed. Wren needed to have a word with her later.

  “Sorry about that,” said Wren. “She’s overeager. She doesn’t want Wick to go to jail for something he didn’t do.”

  “Who is she?” Katie asked. She was starting to become hostile again, which Wren didn’t want. They’d have to leave soon. “I’ve never seen her before. What does she have to do with any of this?”

  Wren looked at Fiona, unsure what to say.

  A small dog scampered in and leaped upon Katie’s lap. It was some sort of Pomeranian. It looked like a giant ball of dust and fluff with eyes. It yapped a few times before Katie took a small bag of treats from her purse and fed him what appeared to be tiny buttons of dry beef.

  “Jordan has cut me out of my life, and my husband is dead,” said Katie piteously. “This little one is all I have left.”

  Wren and Fiona left her to her grief. It felt wrong to intrude when she was so clearly having such a bad time. Besides, Wren had all the information she needed for now. Katie didn’t kill her husband.

  Probably.

  When they were outside Wren turned to Fiona. “Why were you so hostile?”

  “That woman cheated on her husband,” Fiona replied. “I was taught that cheating was a sin. This so-called modern society embraces sin. I don’t like it.”

  “I’d say she’s paid the price for her sin.”

  “She had a man she loved and who loved her and she almost blew it by fornicating in a public bathroom! It’s disgusting. I never would’ve cheated on my husband like that, and I had offers, believe me. I was away from my husband and I was lonely and I had offers and I could have...” Fiona looked away. “Anyway, I’ve said too much. I’m not supposed to talk about my past. Let’s just go home for now. I’m tired and angry and I just want to get away from all these awful people.”

  Fiona flitted away, leaving Wren standing there, gob smacked.

  FIONA FOUND HERSELF in Wren’s back garden. Gracie and her two cat friends were chasing each other around, having a whale of a time. She didn’t know how cats kept up that levels of energy day by day. Being an angel was draining.

  “How could I have revealed so much about myself?” she asked the cats. “Juniper will be so angry with me.”

  I’m angry at myself.

  Fiona headed back to her apartment in Golden. She needed a little time away from this situation with Wren and the murder. It was too much, too emotional. Maybe tomorrow she could be less judgmental about the people they were interviewing.

  “No,” she said defiantly. “I have a right to an opinion. If I think Katie Knowles was a selfish jezebel, then she’s a selfish jezebel.”

  How could Katie be like that? She had everything. She had a husband and money and a house to live in. Back when Fiona died, all she had was a top bunk bed at the army barr
acks in East London. Her husband and infant son were in another country. She was being paid peanuts. She felt out of place and lonely. But she didn’t complain. She was doing her duty as a nurse and a human being. She was proud of it.

  I need Brock.

  She tried to flit away but it wouldn’t work. All her flitting allocations must have been used up. “Looks like it’s just you and me,” she told Gracie, who was now sitting at her feet, looking up at her with a confused expression. The other cats were sat on the table under the gazebo, watching her warily, unsure. “Am I being too judgmental? Or do I just have standards?”

  A hand grasped her shoulder. Fiona screamed.

  “Sorry,” muttered Cedric. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Fiona pushed him onto the grass. “Stay away from me!”

  “I was just checking on Wren,” said Cedric, pulling himself to his feet. “We didn’t have a very good time this afternoon and I wanted to give her a gift to say I’m sorry.” He held out a box of chocolates so big you could park a car in it. “Here. Give this to her.”

  “Oh. You must be Cedric. You startled me.” She took the box of chocolates from him. “Thank you.”

  “You’re very beautiful. Your hair shines like an angel.”

  Fiona blushed. “You flatter me.”

  He smiled and walked away. Fiona watched him leave, making sure he was out of sight before she ripped open the box of chocolates and started eating them. They were very good, and more than enough to make her feel better again. It didn’t hurt to be flattered by a man either.

  What was Wren complaining about? Cedric is so nice!

  Chapter 19

  There was a police car parked across the road from Katie’s house. Sheriff Fisher was sitting in the driver’s seat, watching her with scorn. Wren marched over to him and got in the passenger side. The inside was like an ice box. Did he never turn the heating on?