Snowflake Bay Cozy Mysteries Boxset 1

by C Farren

  “No, said Wren. She turned to Sheriff Fisher and pointed at him. “I think you threatened him. I think you killed Garrett.”

  Chapter 26

  To say Wren regretted her words the moment they came out of her mouth was an understatement, but it was too late now. The cat was out of the bag. She only hoped her friendship with Keegan could survive this.

  “Do you want to leave before you make a bigger fool of yourself?” the sheriff asked calmly. She was at least thankful for that. “Think about this.”

  “I think you found out that Jordan was your son, and you confronted Garrett about it,” Wren accused. “When he told you the story Katie had told him you killed him in an angry rage.”

  Every deputy turned to look at her. Deputy Stark even dropped the cream eclair he was eating. Fiona bit her lip. Keegan looked from Wren to his father and back again, so totally stunned he couldn’t speak.

  “You think Jordan is my son?” asked the sheriff.

  The center of attention was not an easy place to be. Wren wanted the world to crumble around her.

  I’ve gone and done it now...

  “Wren?” Keegan asked. “What do you know?”

  She looked at him, and then back towards his father. “I’m sorry. I never should have said anything. Forget I ever brought it up.”

  “This is not something I’m ever likely to forget,” said the sheriff. He stalked up to her, one hand in his pocket, the other idly stroking his gun. He looked like he wanted to use it. “Explain yourself before I think up some reason to arrest you.”

  “I’m listening too,” Keegan added, looking at her like he didn’t know her any more. “Wren?”

  “I noticed when I found you watching Katie’s house that you were in love with her. Katie claimed she had a one-night stand with someone but she didn’t know who it was because they were both wearing masks. I thought she was lying. The only person who could’ve gotten to Dad to blackmail him was someone in this station. I put two and two together. Sheriff Fisher is Jordan’s father. He killed Garrett. He threatened my father to make him confess to the murder.”

  “What proof do you have?” demanded the sheriff.

  “None. Just my gut.”

  The sheriff ordered everyone out. The deputies, including Fiona as well, made a swift exit. Wren felt cornered. She wished she could take it back but it was too late. She had to suffer the consequences of her actions.

  “Sit down,” the sheriff ordered. His tone was firm. “Both of you.”

  “Is Jordan my brother?” Keegan asked.

  “Does Jordan look black to you?” his father asked him.

  “He is quite tanned. I always thought he used tanning booths or something but...”

  The sheriff walked up to his son and put his hands on his shoulders. Wren waited patiently for her turn.

  “Jordan is not my son,” the sheriff stated.

  “Did you have an affair with Katie?” Keegan asked. He was staring at his father like he was a stranger, and it tore Wren apart. She’d caused this. “Is that why Mom left?”

  Keegan’s mother had left the family when he was a toddler. They hadn’t seen her since. Growing up without a mother had been hard on him.

  “Your mom left because she couldn’t cope as a mother,” said the sheriff. “I have never slept with Katie. I never would sleep with Katie. Your mother was the first and last woman I ever slept with.” The sheriff took a deep breath. “Son...I’m gay.”

  This was the last thing Wren was expecting. Keegan appeared too deep in shock to even reply.

  “Did you hear what I said?” the sheriff asked.

  Keegan nodded. “How long have you known? Why didn’t you tell me when I came out?”

  “I’m the master of denial. I only admitted it to myself when someone I’d loved for a long time kissed me and told me they loved me.”

  “You weren’t in love with Katie,” said Wren. The truth was obvious. “You were in love with her husband. You were in love with Garrett.”

  Sheriff Fisher sat down on the edge of his desk. He was crying. Wren pulled a Kleenex out of her pocket and passed it to him. He smiled.

  “Were you and Garrett seeing each other?” Wren asked.

  “For nearly two years,” the sheriff admitted. He laughed, almost like the burden of revealing the truth healed him. “We’d finally gotten to the stage where we wanted it all out in the open. We were sick of lying and sneaking around when all we wanted was to be together. So, we planned to bring all the family together and tell them at the same time. We knew it was going to be hard but we had to do it. We couldn’t live a lie any longer.”

  “The dinner party you had planned for the weekend after Garrett died,” said Garrett. “I thought that was Katie’s idea.”

  “It was,” said the sheriff. “But Garrett and I were going to hijack it with our announcement.”

  Rob and Garrett been so close to getting their happy ever after. No wonder Garrett had been so ecstatic when he talked about the dinner party, even with a bleeding nose.

  Life is so unfair.

  “I’m so sorry you had to go through this alone,” said Keegan.

  Father and son hugged, but all Wren could think about now was Katie. Now she had even more of a reason to want her husband dead.

  “Did Katie know about you and Garrett?” Wren asked him.

  “You know Katie,” said the sheriff. He wiped at his eyes. “If she knew she’d make a scene about it. That woman revels in drama.”

  “You shouldn’t be worried about her. She took out a secret life insurance policy on Garrett worth a million dollars. They were almost bankrupt. If that isn’t reason alone to want him dead, then knowing her husband is gay and about to divorce her surely will.”

  It all made sense. It all fitted together!

  “How do you know all this?” Sheriff Fisher asked.

  “I’m better at detective work than even I imagined,” Wren revealed enigmatically.

  She refused to give away her sources. Maureen could be critical if this went to court. Plus, she didn’t want the killer, if indeed it was Katie, to find out. There might be another murder otherwise.

  “Are you absolutely sure she didn’t know?” Keegan asked. He was looking worried now. “This is important.”

  “I honestly don’t know,” said the sheriff. “We were careful.”

  Wren picked apart every last word of her conversations with Katie. There had to be a clue in there.

  Then it hit her. “She did say something derogatory about his favorite color being lavender. Wasn’t that a thing in the fifties related to communism or something?”

  The sheriff nodded. “The government persecuted homosexuals, saying they were a threat to national security. It was called the ‘Lavender Scare.’ Garrett and I talked about it once at the Metropolitan, late at night.”

  Wren grimaced. It was like something out of Nazi Germany. How could her own country do something so awful?

  “Maybe Katie turned up to see Garrett and overheard it,” Keegan suggested.

  “You really think she killed Garrett?” the sheriff asked.

  “If her husband dies, she gets a million dollars.” Wren started to pace, putting it all together. It made more sense than the sheriff being the killer. “If Garrett divorces her, she gets virtually nothing because the family are almost broke. I think she did it, but it’s up to you, Sheriff.”

  He nodded. “Let’s go and arrest her.”

  THEY FOUND KATIE FACE down, floating on the surface of her pool. She was dead.

  Chapter 27

  “I killed my husband.

  We were almost out of money. I loved my lifestyle and I was afraid of losing that. When you grow up with nothing, you learn to cling on to what you have with everything in your power.

  I thought I could kill my husband and cash in his life insurance check without consequences, but I felt remorse. Deep remorse. It wasn’t until Garrett was actually dead that I realized how much I loved him and
couldn’t live without him. I’d made a grave mistake.

  Tell my son I love him.

  Love, Katie”

  They’d found the note on a lounger at the side of the pool. It was written on a piece of expensive paper. There was a silver pen resting by it, Katie’s name written on its side.

  “It doesn’t mention Garrett leaving her for me,” said the sheriff, rereading the note again through a plastic evidence bag. “So she didn’t know after all.”

  Wren shook her head. “No. She knew.” She mentally went over that conversation again, really thinking about the expression on Katie’s face as she said the word ‘lavender.’ “She definitely knew. I know it in my gut.”

  “Then you would’ve thought that she’d use her suicide note to vent about it,” said Keegan. “She wasn’t the type to keep quiet when she could cause a scene.”

  “This isn’t suicide,” said Wren. “Someone murdered her and made it look like suicide.” The sheriff seemed unduly upset. “Did you see anybody come to her house? You were still keeping an eye on her, right?”

  “I didn’t watch her last night. I thought she was safe. I... I went home. I didn’t think she was in any danger. Maybe if I stayed I could have saved her.”

  “If it’s any consolation I doubt you would’ve seen anything. This is a really big house. The murderer might have come over the back fence.” She looked around. There was a large tree out the back. “They could’ve climbed up that tree. There’s any number of ways they could’ve sneaked past you.”

  He didn’t appear to be assuaged, but there was nothing she could do about that.

  “If someone was that desperate to kill Katie they might have killed you too,” said Wren.

  “They could’ve tried,” said the sheriff. “I would’ve shot them.”

  She studied the body as it was dragged out of the pool by the deputies. They were wet and miserable and looked like they wished they were anywhere else. Katie’s body was wrinkled and grey. Wren felt sorry for her.

  “Are you okay?” Wren asked.

  Deputy Stark nodded. “It’s too much.”

  She knew how he felt. She’d gone her whole life without seeing a dead body and now she’d seen two in a week.

  “Maybe she didn’t mention Dad and Garrett’s affair in the note because she knew Jordan might read it?” Keegan suggested. Wren nodded, agreeing with him. “She perhaps didn’t want him to know.”

  “I wanted him to know,” said the sheriff. “He needed to know who his father really was.”

  “Did Katie know this?” Keegan asked.

  The sheriff sighed sadly. “Perhaps not. Maybe this was suicide after all. We probably won’t know for sure until we do an autopsy, and even then, we probably won’t be able to tell whether it was suicide or not.”

  “It wasn’t suicide,” said Wren again. “Katie was a brash, waspish woman. She would never kill herself, not in a million years.”

  Keegan and his father both nodded, agreeing with her.

  Maybe there’s something I can do now while waiting for the autopsy results.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” said Wren, covering her mouth. “I’m just going to find the bathroom. I don’t want to contaminate the crime scene.”

  She quickly fled, wishing she didn’t have to lie, but she needed to have a snoop. The police had their ways, and she had her own.

  I need to find an example of Katie’s handwriting.

  She entered the house, still finding herself astonished by its opulence. It was pretty obvious now why the family was broke. Katie had decorated the place like some sort of gauche royal palace. It was elegant but tacky as well.

  Wren crept up the stairs, looking for Katie’s bedroom. The upstairs was even more lavish. She lost count of the numbers of antique cabinets with vases and sculptures. There was a bookshelf filled with self-help books and several more portraits of Katie, all done in different styles from watercolor to Picasso. Some of them were actually quite stunning.

  “What are you doing?” Fiona asked, poking her head from out of a room.

  Wren rolled her eyes. “Snooping. How do you know where to find me? Have you got me tagged like a cat or something?”

  “I always know where to find you. It’s just an angel thing.”

  She followed Fiona into what Wren could only describe as a rich person’s mountain cabin. There was a faux polar bear rug on the floor (she hoped it was fake). It reminded her of the hotel she’d stayed in when visiting Switzerland. It was homely and warm and inviting, but posher and more obnoxious.

  “I’ll assume this is Katie’s bedroom,” said Wren.

  She headed over to the bed, which had a thick wooden frame. There was a luxurious woolen blanket draped over it. There was a small bedside table. One of the drawers was slightly open. She had a peek inside.

  “Look at this,” Wren called, pulling out a small notebook. She opened it and started to read. “This is odd.”

  “What is it?” Fiona asked.

  “Katie is writing a novel.” She sat on the bed and continued to read. “It seems to be about a poor orphan girl who marries a boring man with flatulence problems and then dumps him for a sexy millionaire and...” Wren cringed. “And it’s very filthy. I didn’t even know that position was possible without breaking both your legs.” She read a bit more, enjoying it. It was pure, unadulterated filth. “There’s a bit of Katie in here, and the millionaire sounds like Garrett. I think it may be partly autobiographical.”

  She closed the book and put it back where she’d found it. The handwriting matched the one from the suicide note, though maybe only an expert could detect any noticeable differences.

  “Writing a novel seems like a big task,” commented Fiona, examining a silver candlestick on a sideboard. “I’m not sure I’d have the patience.”

  Wren opened some more drawers, finding marriage certificates, birth certificates, and notebooks. There was writing in each of them. Mostly it was ideas or character profiles, but a lot of it was prose. It was good prose, even though half of it was explicit love scenes. Katie was a decent writer. There was a letter in the bottom drawer. It was from a publisher.

  “Hey,” said Wren, skimming through the letter. “This says that Katie sold her book to a publisher. They were going to give her an advance of a million dollars to publish it.” She grinned, impressed. “People will pay for filth.” She pulled out another letter, which was even more explosive than the first. “She’s sold the movie rights for five million. Katie was going to be set up for life. She didn’t need to bump off her husband for the money.”

  “Maybe she just did it out of spite,” said Fiona. “Her husband was going to leave her for his best friend.”

  Fiona was right. This didn’t prove one way or another that Katie was innocent. All it proved was that Katie didn’t need to murder Garrett for the life insurance. She could’ve killed him as revenge for planning to leave her. But if that was true then why would she not mention it in the suicide note?

  “I’m confused,” Wren admitted. Half of her was desperate to read more of Katie’s erotic fiction. “This is giving me a headache.”

  “Do you really, truly think my mother didn’t kill herself?” Jordan asked.

  He was standing in the doorway, watching them. She’d been too engrossed in her own thinking to even notice he was there. He looked devastated. The poor man had lost both parents in a matter of days.

  “I’m not sure,” said Wren. She had to stay true to her path. “Yes. I’m sure she didn’t kill herself, and I’m sure she didn’t kill your father.”

  Jordan nodded. “I know you can find out who did this. I trust you.”

  He walked in and kissed her. She felt lightheaded for a moment but didn’t tell him to stop. It was electric.

  “Come over tonight,” he offered. “I don’t think I can be on my own.”

  “I’d be glad to,” said Wren.

  He kissed her again and walked away. Wren almost passed out.


  “Stop being so pathetic,” Fiona hissed. “He just manipulated you. Pretty soon he’ll have you making his bed for him.”

  “I’m not an idiot,” said Wren. “I do know that.”

  She sat back on the bed. Of course, she knew Jordan was manipulating her. She just didn’t care. She was going to further investigate his father’s death anyway. She might as well get something out of it.

  “Anyway,” said Wren, standing up. She had work to do. “I need to talk to Aarna.”

  “Have you considered the possibility that Jordan killed his parents?” asked Fiona.

  “Of course, I have,” said Wren. “Which is why I’m not going to go and see him tonight. I’d be an idiot to spend time alone with him.”

  Have I been too blinded by Jordan’s grief and sexual charisma to remember he was a suspect too?

  AARNA GUPTA LIVED IN a small apartment over the thrift store on Abraham Lincoln Avenue. The windows had colorful red and purple curtains. The girl’s parents owned a fabric store on Main Street. Wren had shopped there on occasion.

  Her door was half open.

  “Something is wrong,” Wren whispered.

  Fiona clutched her hand. “Has the killer gotten to Aarna too?”

  She pushed the door open and they stepped quietly inside. Aarna was lying prostrate on the floor. She didn’t appear to be moving.

  Chapter 28

  Wren tried not to panic as she ran up to Aarna. She took her pulse first, which showed a heartbeat. She turned the girl over and noticed dried vomit all over her purple top. She stunk like booze.

  “She’s drunk,” Wren stated.

  Fiona grinned impishly. “I know just the cure for that. Wait a moment.”

  The angel walked into the kitchen and found a brown mixing bowl. She filled it with cold water from the faucet, walked over to the passed out Aarna, and chucked the liquid all over her.

  “What’s going on?” Aarna screamed, jumping up.

  “We’d like to talk.”