Chocolate With A Side Of Murder

by Meredith Potts

Every weekday before heading off to work, she stopped by the coffee shop to grab a large vanilla latte.

  “Good morning,” I said.

  She did not share my enthusiasm. My friend looked like she hadn’t entirely woken up yet.

  “More like a groggy morning. It will feel good to get a latte in me,” Shannon replied.

  Her eyes were filled with concern, which made me believe that far more was going on than just a lack of caffeine in her system.

  We were close enough friends that I didn’t feel like I had to make random small talk with her before diving into deeper water.

  “Why do I get the feeling that you’re having more than just a latte craving?” I reached out to her. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  Shannon arched her eyebrows. “Caffeine first, problem-solving later.”

  By the sound of her response, my hunch had been right. Before I pressed further, I began making her latte. When I had finished preparing her favorite drink, I returned to the issue at hand.

  “So you are having problems, then?” I asked.

  She took a sip of her latte. “Is it that obvious?”

  “Kind of.”

  “It’s uncanny how you always know when something is wrong.”

  “That isn’t as important to me as figuring out how to fix the problem. Do you want to talk about it?”

  Shannon let out a sigh. “You don’t want to hear my problems.”

  “Shannon, what do you think friends are for?”

  “To listen to each other’s problems.”

  “Exactly. Now, I don’t know if I can make you feel better, but I’d like to try.”

  She gave me a warm smile. “You’re such a good friend.”

  I gave her a smile of my own. “So are you. Now, let’s see if I can help. What’s the problem?”

  She took a deep breath. “Joe Marlowe wants to go out with me.”

  My face filled with confusion. “How is that a problem? You’ve been waiting for a man to come into your life.”

  Her eyes widened. “Isn’t that the truth?” She took a deep breath. “The problem is that Gavin Zeller wants to get back together with me.”

  Oh dear.

  There was a name that I never thought I would hear again. Gavin was her no-good ex-boyfriend. Of course, she had a much different opinion of him at first. When they began dating, Gavin had been charming and gainfully employed. All that changed after he had a skiing accident at Lake Tahoe where he dislocated his knee.

  Understandably, he was in a lot of pain, so the doctor at the hospital gave him some painkillers. The problem was when his prescription ran out, Gavin was hooked on the high they gave him. He begged his primary physician to prescribe more.

  The longer he took the pills, the more he became addicted to them. If only I could tell you that he had found a way to cut the painkillers out of his life. In truth, things only snowballed from there. I will spare you the dubious details, but suffice it to say that Gavin reached a point where he was so addicted to his meds that he was willing to sacrifice his job, his relationship, and whatever else it took to get his hands on more pills.

  I didn’t normally take an aggressive stand when it came to other people’s lives, but this was the rare exception. “Gavin Zeller? The same guy who stole money from you to feed his painkiller addiction?”

  Shannon was quick to argue with me. “Only he’s not the addict I once knew. He has changed.”

  “Don’t believe everything an addict tells you.”

  “I know it’s hard to believe, but he has cleaned up his act.”

  I folded my arms. “You’re right. That is hard to believe.”

  Shannon gazed at me with clear eyes. “Sabrina, you know I’m not a glutton for punishment. When I broke up with Gavin, I had no intention of ever speaking to him again, much less take him back. But if you saw how much he has changed, it would blow your mind. It’s like he’s a completely different man.”

  “Did he tell you how he had managed to get himself together?”

  “Apparently, he has been seeing this hypnotherapist—”

  “Hypnotherapist?”

  At first, I thought she was joking. As I stared deep into her eyes, it became clear that she wasn’t kidding. Although she did appear to be in a hurry to change the topic of the conversation.

  “We can talk more about how he cleaned up his act later. The important thing is that he did kick his addiction.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “How does hypnotherapy change a person’s personality?”

  Shannon shrugged. “The sessions work wonders, apparently.”

  I remained critical of her simple explanation. But, seeing how uncomfortable my questions were making her, I didn’t force the issue anymore.

  “So you’ve found your way into a love triangle, huh?” I asked.

  Her eyes widened. “Pretty crazy, isn’t it?”

  I had a bigger question on my mind. “Do you know who you’re going to pick?”

  She bit the corner of her lip. “I don’t have a clue. I mean, a week ago, I couldn’t even get shot in this town, much less get a date. Now there are two men who want to be with me.”

  She wasn’t kidding. It was amazing what a sense of irony that life had sometimes. It had been nearly five months since Shannon’s last date. Yet now look at her. What a difficult situation to be placed in.

  My heart went out to her. “That has got to be a lot to deal with.”

  Shannon groaned. “Too much.”

  “Are you leaning toward one guy more than another?”

  Shannon grimaced. “I’m leaning toward paying Miss Terri a visit.”

  I bit the corner of my lip. “Who is Miss Terri?”

  “You know? Miss Terri, the spiritual adviser.”

  It was hard not to keep from bursting into laughter. If only Shannon had been joking. Even though I realized she was being completely serious, I wasn’t able to keep a straight face. Instead, I chuckled.

  Shannon shot me a glare. “Don’t laugh.”

  “It’s hard not to when you mention going to a psychic—”

  “Spiritual advisor.”

  I arched my eyebrows at her. “Seriously?”

  Shannon put her hands on her hips. “Laugh all you want, but I’ve heard people say some amazing things about Miss Terri.”

  “Hey, it’s your money.”

  She exhaled. “I need all the help I can get here.”

  I shook my head. “Hypnotherapy. Psychics. This town sure is something.”

  “You can certainly never accuse Treasure Cove of being boring,” Shannon replied.

  “Suddenly, boring doesn’t seem so bad,” I said.

  Chapter Ten

  Not surprisingly, Shannon’s romantic troubles proved to be too difficult to solve over one latte. Shannon finished her drink then headed off to work.

  I, meanwhile, had some trash to empty. As I made my way back to the dumpster with a full bag of trash in my hand, I soon discovered that the twists and turns of the day were far from over.

  When I opened the door to the back alleyway behind the coffee shop, a horrifying sight awaited me. In front of the dumpster, face down on the ground, was Andrew Stewart’s lifeless body. A bloody gash was at the back of his head.

  I gasped as I dropped the bag of trash that I was holding. My heart began to race like crazy. For a moment, I thought my eyes were betraying me. But when I took a few steps toward my friend’s body, suddenly there was no denying what I saw. It wasn’t just some delusion—Andrew was really there in that alleyway, completely motionless.

  “Andrew!” I yelled.

  I didn’t know why I thought that screaming would make him hear me. Clearly, he was dead. I was just panicked beyond belief. Things like this didn’t happen to me. I had never discovered a dead body before.

  So many questions rushed through my brain. How could this have happened? How did he end up like this? Who could have done something so awful?

  Even crazier was the
fact that I had just seen Andrew alive last night. What had gone on between then and now that had led to this? Granted, Andrew had looked very distressed at the restaurant, but there was no way I would have predicted that this would happen.

  I immediately knew what I had to do.

  ***

  Normally I would have dialed 9-1-1, but with my boyfriend being a police detective, David was the first call that I placed. David arrived on the scene twelve minutes later, followed shortly after by a forensics team, a number of deputies, and the county medical examiner. Soon, the whole area was abuzz with police activity. The forensics team went to work looking to pull fingerprints from the scene. The medical examiner took a look at the body. Police deputies cordoned off the alleyway.

  David pulled me aside, not just to take my statement, but to try to comfort me. That was a tall task. I became very emotional when I explained how I had discovered the body. David wrapped his arms around me, but that was not enough to keep me from getting choked up.

  “I’m so sorry you had to see that,” he said.

  My face was filled with shock. “I’m sorry he’s dead.”

  David exhaled. “That, too. It’s awful what happened to him.”

  My body trembled. “Who would do something like this?”

  While David was sympathetic to the emotions I was grappling with, he was also an investigator who had a very good answer to my question. “Judging by what he said to you last night, I can think of a few people.”

  My eyes were as wide as saucers. “I didn’t mean who had a reason to kill him. Who is actually crazy enough to murder Andrew?”

  As a detective, not only had David learned how to detach his emotions during a case, but he had spent much more time confronted with death. Given that, it should have come as no surprise to me that his reply was very general.

  “We live in a crazy world. One that seems to keep getting more out of control by the moment.”

  “I wish things would go back to how they used to be.”

  “So do I. Unfortunately, from what I have seen, there’s a slim chance of that happening.”

  I groaned as my emotions were on the verge of pouring out again. He pulled me in close once more. I didn’t want him to let me go, even though I knew he had to.

  After all, as tough as it was for him to make the transition, Andrew’s death wasn’t just a terrible loss. It was the beginning of a homicide investigation, which David had to take charge of.

  David took a deep breath then prepared himself to dive into the details of the case. “Sabrina, I know this is a very emotional time for you, but I’m afraid that I have to ask you some questions.”

  I took a deep breath. “Right. Of course.”

  “When you discovered the body, did you see anyone else around?”

  “No. I was the only one in the alley.”

  “Did you hear anything out of the ordinary?”

  “No. I just came outside to throw the trash in the dumpster, spotted the body, and called you.”

  His face tensed up.

  “I’m sorry that I couldn’t be of more help,” I said.

  “You don’t have to apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m just frustrated by the case.”

  “You’re not the only one. This is the most awful thing to have happened since…”

  I couldn’t finish my sentence. It was already an emotional enough time for me without mentioning my sister’s disappearance.

  Besides, I didn’t even need to say Jessica’s name. David already knew where I was going with my statement without me even finishing it.

  “I can’t imagine how hard this is for you,” he said.

  Not wanting to break into tears, I took a few deep breaths to try to calm myself down.

  Seeing how hard it was for me to keep myself together, David rushed to finish things up with me. “Anyway, I don’t have any other questions for you, so you’re free to head on out.”

  I held my hand up. “Actually, before I go, there is one more thing I wanted to tell you.”

  He scrunched his nose. “What is it?”

  I moved over toward the dumpster, where a hot-pink-colored earring was on the ground. “While I was waiting for you to show up, I couldn’t help but spot this next to the body.”

  David stared long and hard at the earring. “That’s a good catch.”

  “I can’t help but wonder if it belongs to the killer.”

  “That’s a possibility. It’s not every day you find an earring in a back alley beside a body. Especially when it’s just one earring.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “After all, earrings come in pairs. It kind of makes you wonder where the second earring is.”

  “I would love to be able to ask the owner of the earring that question,” David replied.

  My eyes opened wide. “I might be able to help you with that.”

  “Really? Do you recognize this earring?” he asked.

  “No.”

  Before he became discouraged, I gave him something to work with.

  “That said, there’s only one person I know in town who would wear an earring that gaudy,” I said.

  “Who?” he asked.

  “Andrew’s wife.”

  Chapter Eleven

  While David and his forensics team went over every inch of the alleyway for clues, I was free to return to my normal life. Although the last thing I would call my life those days was normal. If anything, with each breath I took, my life was becoming weirder and weirder.

  I headed back inside the café, but my job was the last thing on my mind. Making lattes took a backseat to trying to get the piercing image of Andrew’s dead body out of my mind. It was a mental scar that would take a lot more than time to heal.

  My emotions were a messy potluck of pain, shock, and intense sadness. From one moment to the next, I went from mourning Andrew’s death to questioning how something this awful ever could have happened. While I was wrestling with a handful of questions, I had a distinct shortage of answers.

  That didn’t stop me from trying to piece together what had happened. Part of that was my natural curiosity. From experience, I knew that without the facts, closure was hard to come by. My sister’s disappearance had taught me that sobering lesson.

  There was something else at play. Whether David realized it or not, during our time dating, I had become familiar with some investigative truths. In addition, I also watched a lot of detective shows on TV. Privately, of course. David and I used to watch police procedurals together, but he spoiled the experience by spending entire episodes critiquing the inaccuracy of the detective work on the show. It also didn’t sit well with David that I was able to figure out who the killer was in each episode more often than he did.

  Don’t tell my mother this, but it turned out that watching TV actually had its benefits. For example, I had learned that when it came to murder, a spouse—especially a jaded one—always darted to the top of the suspect list. A staggering number of murders were committed by a significant other.

  That didn’t mean that was the truth this time, but Andrew certainly had a bitter spouse. In addition to Andrew mentioning that Leah wanted to sell the chocolate shop, the Stewarts also happened to be on their way to divorce court.

  Even so, had Leah Stewart been angry enough with her husband to kill him? Before I could fully mull over the question, my mother pulled me out of my mental fog.

  “Honey, why don’t you go home?” Elizabeth asked.

  “No. I want to stay,” I replied.

  “Why? We have plenty enough people here to cover your work shift. Besides, you just discovered Andrew’s dead body. The last thing you should be doing with your time right now is making cappuccinos.”

  “Mom, thanks for your concern. Really. But I just feel like I need to be here—”

  My mother waved her hand at me dismissively. “That’s nonsense. You’re going home. Your father will drive you.”

  “I think your mother is right,” my stepfather
said. “I don’t see what good it will do for you to hang around here.”

  My emotions began to swell. “I’m not sure that I want to be alone right now. Besides, if I’m back home, I’ll just end up obsessing about what happened. At least here I can distract myself.”

  “I disagree—” my mother began saying.

  “And I respect that, but I’m telling you, being left alone with my thoughts right now would be a disaster.”

  Elizabeth gazed deep into my eyes. All it took was a few seconds for her to realize that my opinion wasn’t going to waver. With all the trauma I had experienced that morning, she decided not to add to it by starting an argument with me.

  “Suit yourself,” she said. In true mom fashion, she was determined to get the last word in on the topic. “But let me know if you change your mind.”

  “I will.”

  It didn’t take long for me to get lost in thought again.

  My mother couldn’t resist the urge to dive into my brain. “What are you thinking about?”

  I pulled my head out of the clouds. “I just can’t make sense of how things came to this. I mean, Leah Stewart—a killer?”

  A pained look came over my mom’s face. “I know it’s crazy to think about, but you said it yourself, you found an ugly pink earring next to Andrew’s body, and Leah is practically the queen of ugly earrings.”

  My stepfather spoke up. “Dear, you seem to have added your own editorial opinion to what Sabrina told you.”

  My mother scoffed. “Are you going to try and tell me that Leah doesn’t own the ugliest earrings on the planet?”

  I shook my head. “I’m still just shocked that Andrew was killed. I mean, I know that sometimes marriages go south, but to resort to murder? Who does that?”

  “I’ll tell you who—crazy people,” my mom said.

  “Clearly you have to be crazy to kill someone,” I replied. “What I meant was, how could things have gotten so out of hand between Leah and Andrew?”

  My mother got a faraway look in her eyes. “Divorce can drive people mad. You may have been too young to remember, but when your father and I were in the middle of our divorce, I experienced a level of anger that I had never felt before in my life.”