A Gift for Murder

by Capri Montgomery

  She had a feeling he would drop his pants for Megan if she even batted an eye at him. She really was starting to hate that woman. Why did the cute and pretty women always get the hot man?

  She made it her mission to figure out who this girl was and point out all her flaws to let their smart and handsome detective know about the witch’s spell she cast on men. She was not a woman who would lose the man she wanted to another woman without causing damage to the woman who broke up her dream goals. Megan could ask the women before her who tried the same thing because they would educate her on what would happen to her if she put one hand on the good detective on her mind. Goodbye Megan Porter, hello Regal Detective Merck Holmes.

  Merck sauntered over to Megan thinking of how close she came to death’s door, realizing how worried he was about her.

  “We really have to modify your timing, Mean. The last time the murder had been done already but this time you walked right into it.” He shook his head. “Had I, and the other officers, not been outside, had we not heard the two of you screaming then we wouldn’t have kicked in the door and you could be dead.”

  Megan shook her head before nodding her understanding of his words. “I am not psychic so I cannot predict things like this. But I don’t think the guy would have killed us. He looked just as surprised about the dead body as we were. I think he picked the knife up after finding her dead. It’s stupid, but some people pick up the blood laced weapon and hold it in their hand. The prints are on there and the witnesses are still alive to tell.”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “Stupid, I know, but it happens. I don’t think he killed her. He had green eyes, raven and ice hair and an impression on his cheek that looked like somebody wearing a ring hit him hard enough to leave a mark. I noticed even though I was screaming, too.”

  Merck patted her on her knee and then took hold of her hand. “I think I once upon a time loved that about you…your ability to recognize everything and remember it. I hated it, too. Some people don’t want you to see everything.”

  She ran her thumb over the back of his hand. “This, too, is not my fault, you know.”

  He nodded his understanding before pulling his hand away from her so he could write down the description she gave him while she gave it to him again. He was amazed how she saw it all, yet the woman with her said she saw nothing. The man had a knife in his hand, yet Heather Bishop said it was a gun. Had it been a gun the man could have shot them both dead.

  As every cop knew, eye witnesses were not always the best thing to have because they could never agree one hundred percent on what they all thought they saw. They usually could agree on the weapon, though. A gun looked nothing like a knife. Given the fact that they found the used knife just outside the hall in the back of one of the three exit doors verified the weapon of choice.

  Megan was right, though, because only an idiot would pick up the murder weapon. They all should know not to do it, yet, somebody always did. Guilty or not, when they got the prints back they would arrest the guy under suspicion of murder.

  Merck had officer Landers take Megan home. She had navigated to the spa on her battery operated tricycle and he knew it was out back but he didn’t want her risking getting home when the man she saw standing over a dead body with a knife was still out there. He arranged for her tricycle to be delivered to her place tonight.

  “I finished up the interrogation for you but she didn’t have much help to give. And she had the evil eye pinned to Megan the entire time so be careful of that for her.”

  “Thanks Jessie. I am going to keep an eye on her because I don’t trust that woman. She teetered her description of the assailant like a seesaw drifted by the tumultuous storm wind. And of course, she changed to say she couldn’t see him. Then she said she couldn’t remember him but she did see him. She gave so many different answers fast. She was much faster to alter each answer to give a new answer faster than she opened her mouth the first time.” She was clearly a liar but why she was fibbing was still a mystery to him.

  “I got a clear definition from Megan and nothing clear from that woman over there. My trust in her was nonexistent before she opened her mouth and now it is pretty much at the bottom of the abyss after conversing with her.”

  Merck knew it would be difficult to sort this morning’s events out clearly before he had a chance to sit down and assess all of the notes in all of the written statements. The one think he was questioning now was why were there were two murders in less than a week? Actually why was it the two murders in the same spa at all? He had a feeling that there was something more than just the first murder to the crime wave going on in this spa. Something told him that the first murder and this one might be related.

  The first person’s murder was a man who just happened to be the janitor at this spa. But this murder was a woman who just happened to be a patron of the spa, not anybody who worked there. So what was she doing there so early when it was closed in the first place? How did she get in? Does she have a key that Heather didn’t know about, pick the lock, or just happen to be coming up to the door at the wrong time and got pushed into the building from behind? If the attack started from outside why was it still locked with the alarm on in the front? Those ladies had told him that the door was locked. Megan had said that Heather had to fish through her shoulder-pack for her own keys because she didn’t have some ready before getting to the door. So both women could say that the door was locked.

  Megan had also assured him that she did observe the click of a lock as Heather finished turning the key. Megan’s recount on the event and the order in which things happened would help him get things into perspective and would definitely help him solve yet another murder in Seaside and Oceans spa. If they ended up with one more murder in this same spa he would have to start chopping this up to something different. Three murders in the same spa within less than a week wasn’t a usual in Forest Springs. This murder had more questions than the other guy’s murder had. Unfortunately he didn’t have any answers for any of the questions inspired by everything that had happened since they found the first man dead, frozen on top of that, and defrosting in the steam room. Something was not right and he would just have to keep investigating as always to figure it out.

  He would be sure to check in on Megan before he went home because he would need to make sure she was okay in her place. He had a really bad feeling about today’s events, and those feelings screamed to him that he needed to watch over Megan even more than he already planned to do in the first place.

  Chapter Nine

  It All Falls Down

  Megan couldn’t believe that she was going to Sterling’s rushed funeral. The medical examiner had already done the autopsy so he no longer needed to keep the body colder than a piece of turkey. Sterling died in a freezer, kind of anyway. The drug used to at least knock him out so he’d stay in the freezer, in large doses, ingested, could be the full cause of death. The freezer could have just been a good hiding place for a while. Merck had opened up an ounce about the murder but it was still clear to Megan that he wanted her to stay out of it. Staying out of it hadn’t been something she was granted the gift of doing. She wanted out but something, or somebody, kept sucking her back in. The women seemed to think she could talk that fable of a handsome detective lover into leaving them alone. As if. She wasn’t having anything with Merck, not even dinner.

  She also wasn’t thrilled to be at this stupid funeral either. This was rushed, for sure, but nothing said swift funeral like a whole lot of money. Megan wasn’t a funeral home expert but she knew Angle’s Passing was the top of the line, most expensive funeral home in the entire state, let alone the city. It had been noted in the papers that they had prices that could soar higher than a concert grand piano purchase. Megan only knew about the cost of the concert grand because she was searching for a black baby grand piano hoping to get back into some kind of music. When she thought she would have time for that with the café she had absolutely no idea. She looked, consider
ed and then almost decided to buy a beautiful grand instead of baby grand. God help whoever planned to get that beast up a flight of narrow stairs though. Whilst looking at piano options she found a concert grand, a Steinway and Sons Model D for one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars. Yeah…beautiful, but she was not that kind of rich. She wasn’t any kind of rich.

  Megan figured the women must have really cherished Sterling, or they were trying to spend enough to make them look innocent. The ladies he loved shagging wanted to come together with haste to give the man a funeral. Megan had asked if his family would rather do this paying of the funeral and be here for the funeral. He apparently had a family in the country who just might want to pay their last respects. Megan couldn’t say they bought the most expensive package but she was fairly sure they didn’t buy the least expensive either. It was clear to her, too, that the brothers who grew up with him cross country cared nothing about him to give money or even come to the funeral. She had asked, after all, if they were involved.

  “No. His brother, both of them actually, said he could rot in the hell he deserved to be in. Just throw him down in a trench and let him rot. That’s what Houston, his oldest brother said. I tried his youngest brother, Felix, and he said about the same thing, just with more expletives.” Kevin Morgan, the funeral planner, said. “Apparently he slept with both of their wives in their mother’s house. He lived in the attic that had been converted into a bedroom when the boys were young for the oldest. The oldest and youngest grew up and moved out. Bought their own homes too. But Sterling had been sleeping with Houston’s wife up there. When his mother caught them she was angry and with both of the boys coming in the house while the argument was raging I can imagine the youngest would never have expected his wife to rant about Sterling claiming her only special star.

  “His mother kicked him out and his brothers shut him out of everything. They are highly respected and valued amongst all in their small southern Florida town. Nobody would hire Sterling or rent to him so he left. The ladies are all paying.” Kevin nodded when he had approached her in the market. “Even the one who hadn’t slept with him before is paying.” He had stared at her inquisitively like he was expecting her to pay for flowers or something but Megan was not putting her money in on this shindig. She didn’t know the man and even if she did she couldn’t pay for his funeral. Kevin had raved about them buying the best of caskets before mentioning the thousands it cost. “They are even paying for the headstone. I guess you will…”

  “Not be there,” she had quickly said before excusing herself to walk away.

  Megan was not going and she had already committed herself to that, until she got her mail out of her box. The card in the mailbox had been in an envelope but it was not stamped, which told her someone dropped it in her box themselves. She had opened the envelope to see the expertly typed postcard sized warning. ‘Be there or kiss your café goodbye. Everything can burn down.’

  Megan was so angry over the message. She had called Merck but he didn’t answer his phone. She left the standard ‘I need to show you this,’ message. He didn’t call back so she called again and left another message in full detail. Since she never heard back from him she stuck the card in a Ziploc sandwich bag and put it in her purse. Merck was bound to show up at the funeral. At least she thought that was what detectives did to gauge the suspects again; and what better place to find the suspects together than at a funeral they all paid for?

  Megan had dressed in her navy blue lace, pleated dress. It fell just under an inch above her knee but it fit the funeral better than her midnight black dress because that dress was for a formal cocktail party and not fitting for a funeral. This dress that she chose to wear covered all the parts a classy lady wanted to have covered. If Merck were really there he would see her and like what he saw.

  “A funeral is not a place to pick up a man,” she had reminded herself, yet, she still was getting on her tricycle to go.

  Megan wanted to check the mail before she pulled off the slope on the sidewalk and while the box was empty the sidewalk no longer was. The tall, dark and long haired man startled her sharply.

  “Sorry, miss. I wanted to see if I could put in an application to work here. I can clean, serve, cashier…all of it.”

  Megan felt her heartbeat settle down. The gentleman was polite, at least. He had dreadlocks down to his behind, but he kept the hair groomed, clean looking and pulled back well so she didn’t think his hair would cause a problem with shedding on somebody’s food or tea. Hairnets were for the kitchen, but she didn’t think the cashier would need one if their hair was restrained.

  He was also standing there groomed like a gentleman of class, style and money even if she could tell it wasn’t designer. The suit fit perfectly. Shined shoes set him out as class to be respected.

  “I am not open yet. I am thinking of adding on some help here. Do you have a resume in your folder there?” She pointed at the black computer binder.

  “Yes, miss.” He dug his fingers into the slot on top and pulled out a perfectly pressed professional piece of resume paper.

  “Jean-Winston Davis?”

  “Yes. My name is a mix of American for a man my mom loved once before she fell in love with a French man. My last name is my American dad’s name but when he found out the French guy was my real father, when I turned seven, he left us…both of us.”

  The look of sorrow in his eyes hurt her. She read over his resume. Most of it was loading for stores back east but his address was listed here now. “I think you might work,” she looked over his experience again. “I am going to do more interviews, but…yeah, you’ll do okay here. I’ll have to talk pay with you later as I am not certain yet. I’m not the basic min wage person so you’ll be over that but I cannot work in fifty an hour for anybody. I do not pay medical. If you are still interested, when would you be available to start?”

  A smile lit up his face. His lips parted exposing white, straight and perfectly in line teeth sparkling bright. If the power ever went off in the café his smile could be the flashlight.

  “I am going back to Jamaica to see my mom and help her with my grandma. Grandma needs surgery. I might just be a month.” He looked worried about his possible job being taken back before fully offered in the first place.

  “Family needs family. You don’t have an accent.”

  He laughed. “I dropped it. The man I grew up with for a while demanded it and everywhere I worked only allowed my dreads if I lost my accent.”

  Megan frowned. “You don’t have to drop it here. You don’t have to change your hair either, just keep it back, sometimes up because of the food. Other than that, I will add you on my new hire list. When you get back call me to meet with me and fill out additional needed government information, get your hours sorted out and your pay information, too. If something happens to hold you on the island,” she pulled her card out of her purse. “Email me to let me know. I will have at least one, or two, people up front part-time, so we’ll see what will fit for you, too, if I get the two in here as well. I know of one for sure, but school comes first for me so she has to okay it with her parents.”

  He looked pleased with that. “I will look forward to seeing you once I am back.”

  “Same here. I hope your grandmother, and your mother, will be okay. Stress is hard on all of you. Having you there is bound to help them both.”

  He thanked her and then waved before practically jogging across the street to a brunet and crystal green eyes woman in an awaiting vehicle. Megan figured that woman was probably his girlfriend taking him to the next city over to get the cross country island connectors.

  Her café was moving along rather fine and that delighted her. Megan put Jean-Winston’s resume in her tricycle back basket and made sure the cover was closed tightly so the fabric didn’t blow up and the resume blow away. Megan got on her tricycle and went to a funeral she didn’t want to be at.

  The land outside the funeral location was pleasant. Lilies and
orchids made a nice line of peace around the corner of the parking lot. Best of all, for her, was the bike rack where she could park. The funeral parlor had a rather large area all to them. The business side, the money side, was off right cattycorner the artistic prepare the body and paint it well building that fit under the main building but went straight through to the main money building. The pay for the casket, the urn, the body prep and the space in the beautifully sit here and say goodbye area. That was the building connected to the parking lot so the people there to observe the funeral would not have to walk too far to get there. The best part was that things were paved so nobody had to park on wet grass to get to the funeral they were there to attend.

  The walk path was design genius. The area had bench to enjoy the smell of nature and be sheltered from the blazing sun. More than that, the three stairs up to the door were dark stone that would be less likely to feature dirt like a typical white concrete porch area would do. The doors were not opened, but they had two men there to open the door for all to enter, and another man, in a tuxedo, inside to walk all inside and point to the sign on the short deep mahogany wood table to document their being there before being shown to their seat. Megan was not able to do any of that because Heather came up and pulled her away from the cordial man who had shown her to the door.

  Heather had told her where they were sitting up front because they wanted to be close to the body. She was sure they hadn’t left her space up front. They had set aside for her a seat farther back since she had never met him. Basically they put her in the back, two rows in, but still the back. Megan didn’t care. She could skirt out of there sooner if she didn’t have to stand in a line to get out.

  She had yet to go sit when a deeply serious voice altered her direction.

  “What are you doing here?” Merck’s tone was sheer anger. “Were you sleeping with him, too?”