“I’ll see you tomorrow and I’ll think about how I might be able to help Madison’s father, but one of the main things in dealing with an alcoholic is getting them to admit they need help. Doesn’t sound like he’s quite there yet.”
She kissed him on the cheek. “Doc, I knew you didn’t do it. I just need to find out who did do it and right now I think we both know who that person is.”
As soon as Kelly pulled out of the driveway, Doc called Mike. “Sheriff, this is Doc. I’m concerned that Kelly is going to do something really dangerous. She’s been at my place for the last hour and told me everything she knows and I shared some things with her that I hadn’t told her before. She and I are both pretty sure we know who the killer is and I’m afraid she’s going to confront him by herself. She promised me she’d take you with her, but I’ve been around people long enough to know when they’re lying to me, and I can almost guarantee you that she lied to me about that.”
“Why was Kelly out at your place?” Mike asked in an angry tone of voice.
“She didn’t think I was the killer and hoped her intuition was right. She told me she’d decided to confront me with what she knew and see what I said.”
“That woman is driving me nuts,” he said in an exasperated voice. “Okay, I’ll wait until she gets home and talk to her about it.”
“Hate to butt in, Sheriff, but I don’t think I’d do that if I were you. I have a feeling there’s no time to waste. I like Kelly and I want to help. How about if I meet you at your office as soon as I can get there? I’ll fill you in then. I don’t want to waste any more time on the phone. See you in a few minutes.”
Before leaving to meet Mike, Doc walked into his bedroom and took his Glock nine millimeter pistol from the nightstand drawer where he kept it. He hadn’t told Kelly, but even though he couldn’t swim, and wasn’t allowed to participate in any type of sport, his parents had insisted he become a crack marksman. They believed in the Second Amendment and had been lifelong members of the National Rifle Association. He tucked the pistol in his belt under the Pendleton shirt he wore. No one would be able to see it.
CHAPTER 22
Rebel was so well-trained it was rare that Kelly ever put him on a leash unless it was some place that absolutely required it. She parked her minivan in its usual place not far from the coffee shop. She opened the door for Rebel and he jumped out and started towards the coffee shop. As usual, he was off leash.
“Not tonight, Rebel. This way.” She motioned with her hand and walked down the marina gangway, the only sounds coming from the happy hour crowd at the yacht club. When she got to the bottom of the gangway, she was almost knocked into the water by a young man who rushed past her and ran up the gangway. She stood for a moment, trying to get her balance back then she looked back up the gangway to see if she knew who he was.
I don’t recognize him. Wonder if he’s from around here. I didn’t see his face, but from the way he walks and carries himself, he looks like he’s probably in his early 20’s. Rebel stood next to her, guard hairs standing on end. She reached down and petted him.
“Hey, boy, easy. I’m okay.” She heard a low rumbling sound coming from his chest. He stood next to her, looking at the back of the young man as he hurried into the parking lot. That’s so strange. Rebel’s never done that before. Wonder what’s up with him.
“Come on Rebel. We’ve got work to do.” She walked by several boats tied up to the floating dock, and had just turned down a finger of the dock that led to Chris’s boat when Rebel stopped, blocking her path. He pushed at her legs with his strong body, making her back up and turn towards the second finger of the dock. He walked down it to the third boat and began growling again. Kelly had no choice but to follow him. “Rebel, what are you doing?” she whispered. “I don’t want to be seen.”
It was as if she hadn’t even spoken. Rebel jumped onto the gunwale of the boat, continuing to growl. He looked back at her. “You want me to get on the boat? Is that what this is about?” she asked.
Kelly remembered his early days as a drug dog. I wonder if he smells something on the boat. Maybe I should call Mike. Right! He’d tell me to get off the boat before someone shoots both of us and he probably wouldn’t be too far wrong.
She looked through the boat’s open glass door and didn’t see anyone inside. Lights were on, but it appeared to be empty. That’s strange, she thought. Chris told me there were only a few people living on their boats and this must be one, but why would someone leave their boat unlocked with the door to the cabin open and the lights on? She remembered almost being shoved in the water by a young man as he was running up the gangway. Maybe this is his boat, but I wonder why he had to leave in such a hurry.
She and Rebel stepped inside the empty cabin of the boat. Rebel sniffed, growled, and then walked over to the side of the boat where a long bench was covered with upholstered pillows so it could be used for seating with storage underneath the seat. Rebel turned and looked up at Kelly expectantly. “Okay, I’ll open it, but then we need to get out of here. Deal?”
She removed the two cream-colored pillows from the top of the bench seat and pulled up on the handle. When it swung open, she gasped and staggered back in shock. She couldn’t believe what she’d just seen in the storage compartment. She was completely unnerved. Screwing up her courage, she looked inside again. Sure enough, there it was, a larger than life blown up nude photograph of Amber looking back at her with a large smile. She felt sick to her stomach. Child, we never knew you, she thought.
The interior of the storage bench contained some type of white powder residue and what looked like marijuana packaged in small baggies. Rebel continued to growl. I’ve got to call Mike. Why would an erotic nude photograph of Amber be in here?
Rebel suddenly barked aggressively and turned toward the open glass door of the boat. She followed his gaze and saw a large shadow immediately turn into the young man she’d seen a few minutes earlier on the gangway. Rebel stood between her and the man.
“What are you and that dog doing in here? You’re trespassing. I’m tempted to call the sheriff.”
Kelly took a long look at the young man in front of her. He had sea green eyes which were dilated and red-rimmed. Oily sandy hair, badly in need of being washed, hung down below his ears. From the looks of him he hadn’t shaved for several days. “I wish you would call the sheriff, but first I’d like to know why you have a photograph of Amber.”
“She was a friend of mine. How do you know her?” he asked.
“She was my godchild and she worked for me.”
“Oh, yeah. She talked about you. You must be Kelly, the one who owns the coffee shop.”
“I am and you are…”
“Name’s Derek.”
She could tell by his body mannerisms and blinking eyes that he was under the influence of drugs. She couldn’t figure out why he would have Amber’s picture and why Amber had never mentioned him if he was someone important enough to her that she’d allowed him to take a suggestive photograph of her in the nude.
Kelly looked past him and saw a small dinghy side-tied to his boat. Suddenly, it was like dominoes were tumbling one over the other in her brain. She knew who had killed Amber and why. It wasn’t Chris after all; it was this young man standing in front of her. She put her hand in her pocket and secretly turned on the small recorder she’d put there earlier to record her expected conversation with Chris.
“You’re the one who killed Amber, aren’t you?” she blurted out.
He walked over to the drawer next to the pull-out dining table and took a pistol from it. When he turned back he said, “Keep that dog next to you. Looks like I’m going to have to do the same thing to you I did to Amber, but you know that, don’t you?” He pointed the gun at them. “If you or the dog tries anything, I’ll shoot you. I’ve got a silencer on this gun, so it won’t make any noise. Just don’t try anything.”
She gave Rebel the stay command. “Why did you kill Amber? How did you meet
her?”
“Might as well tell you since you won’t be around to tell anyone else. I finished college in January and decided to take a few months off. My aunt said I could live on her boat for awhile. Gets lonesome out here all by myself. I like to read and one day when I was at the bookstore her mother owns I met her. We talked and I asked her to come out to the boat some time. She came that afternoon. Turns out she was hot, I mean really hot. I had her in bed in less than an hour. We had us quite a little affair going on for several weeks. Got her to pose in the nude for me while I took some photos. That was a couple of months ago.
“Yeah, I killed her. Dumb kid went and got herself knocked up. Thought I was the father. She came to my boat early one morning to tell me she was pregnant and asked me if I’d marry her. Like I’d marry anybody! Got some big plans I’m makin’ and she wasn’t a part of them. Gonna miss her.”
“I’ll bet you are. Who’s your aunt?”
“Dottie Jones.”
“You’re Dottie’s nephew?” she said, trying to reconcile this drugged-up young man with the warm, conservative woman she knew as Dottie.
“Yeah. My mom’s her sister.”
Of course Dottie would have found the blue ribbon on the gangway. It was probably just a few feet from his boat. Amber gave it to Derek and he probably lost it while he was stoned. It all makes sense.
“You almost knocked me into the water a little while ago. Where were you going so fast?”
“Met a man when I first came here that comes by once a week to sell me some things I need. His stuff is some of the best I’ve ever had and it keeps me stoked, if you know what I mean. Looked at my watch and realized I was going to miss him if I didn’t hurry. Didn’t have time for niceties. It was important that I see him so I could make a buy.”
“I see. Derek, I can understand why you didn’t want to marry Amber, but why did you have to kill her? Couldn’t you just have left town? Was she in love with you?”
“Yeah, dumb little twit told me she loved me every time she came out here. Even though she knew I wasn’t the kind to settle down with a wife and a baby, I think she had this fantasy that we’d be the perfect family. Kind of a thing where we’d all sing kumbaya. We did a lot of drugs when we first got together, but the last few weeks, she pretty much stopped. Guess it was because she knew she was pregnant. Probably heard that drugs aren’t real good for a baby’s health.”
Drugs? Hot? Nude photos? Amber? This is a side of her I never saw and I hope her parents and everyone else never hear about it.
“Weren’t you afraid someone would find out about you?”
“How could they? She sure wasn’t going to tell people about me, her being so pure and the town sweetheart along with that boyfriend of hers. She told me about him and he sounded like a real wuss. He may have been the star of the football team, but she told me I was a lot more of a man than he was. Sex with Amber was good. I’m going to miss that.”
“How did you kill her?”
“It was easy. She told me she was pregnant and was sure it was my baby. I told her how happy I was about it and that we should get married as soon as possible. I told her we needed to spend a little time together, if you know what I mean, and celebrate our baby. The rest was easy. While she was in bed, I told her I had to go to the head. I got one of my weights and put it behind my back. I kissed her and then hit her on the head with it as hard as I could. She didn’t know anything from then on. I didn’t want to shoot her because there’d be blood on the boat and my aunt is a real clean freak.”
“So you put some weights in a burlap bag, tied the weighted bag to her body, and dropped her in the ocean.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much what happened. I put her and the bag that was tied to her in the dinghy and covered her with a tarp. It was early and there’s just a few people around here who live on their boats. I got in the dinghy and motored out a few hundred yards. I looked around and didn’t see anyone. I lifted her out of the boat and eased her into the water on the seaward side of the dinghy, so no one could see what I was doing from shore. After that I came back to the boat, relaxed a little bit with some recreational stuff I have,” he said, winking, “and fell asleep for the rest of the day. Next thing I knew someone was knocking on the door of the boat. It was the sheriff, asking if I knew anything about her death. Told him I didn’t. That’s about it. Think your time to be asking a bunch of dumb questions is about up. If you got any prayers to say or anything like that, might want to do it now. Think I’ll do the dog first so he won’t bark when I kill you.”
Mike, I am so sorry. I should have kept my promise to Doc. I know who did it, but it sure isn’t going to do any good. She bent down and scratched Rebel’s ears, tears in her eyes. “You’ve been a good friend. So long. I love you”
CHAPTER 23
Doc pulled in next to Kelly’s car and turned to Mike. “Do you know which boat Chris owns?”
“Yes. I talked to all the live-aboards the night Amber was found. I remember he was at the end of the floating dock. We’ll go down that first gangway. What’s wrong?”
“Uh, Mike, I’ve never been on a dock before, much less a boat. You see, I’m terrified of being around water. I really don’t feel good about it.”
“Doc, look at it as a learning experience and that you’ll probably be helping Kelly. Remember, you’re the one who called me. Come on, we can’t waste any more time. She’s about ten minutes ahead of us as it is.” He opened the door of Doc’s truck as quietly as he could and took his gun from his holster. He noticed that Doc pulled a gun out from beneath his shirt. “Doc, are you authorized to carry that gun?”
“Yes. I’ve got a permit, but I’ve never done this before.”
“Well just stay behind me and cover my back. Are you a good shot?”
“The best. Believe me, that’s one thing you don’t need to worry about.”
Mike put up his hand. “Stop. Doc, did you hear that? It sounded like a dog bark.”
Doc listened for a moment. “Don’t hear a thing.”
“I must be skittish, but it sounded like Rebel’s bark, although I don’t hear anything now. Come on.”
The only sounds they heard were from the merrymaking at the yacht club and water gently lapping against the sides of the boats. The lights coming from Chris’s boat, Avalon, glowed softly on the water. As they neared Chris’s boat they heard music and Doc whispered, “I think he’s playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. If he wasn’t a suspect, I’d be impressed.”
“Well, don’t be, because he’s definitely a suspect in my book, although I don’t hear any voices coming from his boat and you know how Kelly loves to talk.”
When they reached the side of the boat, they looked in the window. Chris was sitting on his couch reading a book. There was no sign of Kelly or Rebel.
Mike knocked on the side of boat. A moment later Chris opened the glass sliding door at the rear of the boat and said, “Who is it?”
“Chris, it’s Sheriff Mike. I need to talk to you a minute. Mind if I come on board? Have a friend with me. Okay?”
“Sure, Mike.”
Mike looked over at Doc whose face was ashen. Doc whispered to Mike, “I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can. You’ll be fine. The boat’s tied up and nothing’s going to happen to you. Trust me.”
“Mike, why do you have your gun drawn? Am I under arrest for something?” Chris said, laughing. “And your friend has a gun as well. What’s going on?”
“Well, Chris. Why don’t you tell us? Where are Kelly and Rebel?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen either one of them since this morning when I had breakfast at the coffee shop. Care to fill me in? I mean there must be some reason you’re coming onto my boat with guns drawn.”
Mike kept his gun in his hand. “Chris, you’ve become a prime suspect in Amber’s case. Kelly told Doc she thought maybe you’d admit everything to her if she confronted you. He made her promise she wouldn’t do it without
me. She never called me and we have good reason to believe she’s here. Her minivan is parked in its usual place in the lot.”
“Wait a minute, Mike. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Amber was a student of mine and I saw her at the football games and with Brandon. That’s it. She’s never been on my boat and I’ve never seen her outside of class or on the football field. You’re welcome to look around. What is it that makes you think I did it?”
“Later, Chris. Right now we’ve got to find Kelly. If she’s not on your boat, she must be on someone else’s.” He turned to Doc. “Remember when I told you I thought I heard a dog bark. I’ll bet it was Rebel.” He turned back to Chris. “Who else lives on their boat down here?”
“I just remembered I saw Amber down here once. It looked like she was coming out of a boat one row over. I’d completely forgotten about it. At the time I thought it was odd, and that was the end of it.”
“Do you know whose boat it is? Is someone living on it?”
“Yes, someone lives on it, but I don’t know the guy’s name. Think I heard that his aunt owned the boat and he was only going to stay on it for a few months. Do you think she could be there?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. That was definitely the direction I heard the bark coming from. Doc, come on.”
“Wait a minute, I’m coming too,” Chris said. “If I’m a suspect, I’d like to clear my name. I don’t own a gun, but with both of you packing, I probably don’t need one.”
Mike was back on the dock before Chris had finished speaking. Doc was right behind him, more than happy to get off of Chris’s boat. Mike held his finger up to his lips indicating for them to be quiet. He looked over at the row of boats next to Chris’s and he could see lights coming from the third boat down the dock. He motioned for them to follow him.
Kelly's Koffee Shop (A Cedar Bay Cozy Mystey Book 1) Page 12
