At that point, I decided I took a seat on the porch as well. While David was sitting to Nicole’s left, I plopped down to the right of her. I hoped that having us on either side of her would bring her some comfort.
It didn’t quite work out that way.
Nicole’s facial expression completely changed. Gone was her sorrow. It was replaced by smoldering anger.
Thankfully, Nicole wasn’t mad at David or me.
Instead, her scorn was directed elsewhere. “I’ll bet Megan did this.”
“What makes you think that your stepmother was behind this?” I asked.
“I knew she was trouble from the moment she came into my father’s life. I could never figure out what my dad saw in her. So, when they split up, it came as no surprise to me.”
“Nicole, don’t get me wrong. You have made your personal feelings about Megan quite clear. But if you can put those emotions aside for a moment, I was asking if you had any reason to suspect her of murder?”
Nicole gave me a blank stare. “Weren’t you listening to me? Megan is serious trouble.”
“You mentioned that already.”
“So why did you ask me that question?”
“Because in order to solve a murder, you need proof,” I said. “Do you have any evidence that Megan did something wrong?”
“I don’t need any.”
“Maybe not. But David and I do. So if you saw anything suspicious last night…or in the days leading up to this tragedy, please tell me.”
“I don’t have any specific evidence. I just know deep in my heart that Megan is bad news.”
“I’m afraid David and I are going to need more to work with than just that.”
“You shouldn’t have to look very far. Megan and my father were in the middle of a heated divorce.”
“I know,” I said.
“Then you know that Megan was fighting my father tooth and nail over every little detail,” Nicole said.
“I’m aware.”
“You have to go talk to her.”
“We will.”
“Good. She can’t get away with this,” Nicole said.
“Have you considered that someone else might be responsible for your father’s death?” I asked.
“Like who?” Nicole asked.
“I was hoping you could answer that for me. Does anyone come to mind?” I asked.
Nicole searched her thoughts. “Actually, a few people.”
“Who?” David asked.
“For one, there’s Scott Schlosser,” Nicole said.
“The owner of Treasure Cove Landscaping?” David asked.
Nicole nodded. “Scott and my dad have been huge rivals over the years.”
“Trust me, we’ll definitely be paying Scott a visit,” I said. “But before we do, can you think of anyone else who was having problems with your dad?”
Nicole didn’t have trouble coming up with a response. “Owen Gilroy.”
My eyebrows rose. “Your dad’s business partner?”
Nicole nodded.
“Why him?” I asked.
“Owen has been wanting to sell the company.”
“Let me guess. Your father wasn’t interested in unloading the business?”
Nicole shook her head. “Not in the least. And since Owen and my father were fifty-fifty partners, no sale could take place without my dad’s approval.”
“Interesting,” I said. I then moved on to my next question. “Does anyone else come to mind?”
Nicole became pensive again. “No.”
“All right.”
Nicole shivered. “Are we done talking about this now? It’s so disturbing.”
“Right. Of course. We’ll stop talking about it then.”
“Good.”
Nicole looked at the house. “I have to get out of here.” She got up and began walking away.
“Where are you going to go?”
“I just want to get far away from here.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I understand why you’d feel that way. But if you’re going to leave here, do you at least have someone you can stay with?”
“I’m sure my friend Veronica will let me crash at her place.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of relatives,” I said.
Nicole shook her head. “I don’t have any family members in town. My closest living relatives are my grandparents, but they are in some retirement community in Arizona.”
“Oh.”
“Like I said, I’ll just call my friend Veronica to come and pick me up. I’m sure she’ll say yes. After all, I stayed at her place last night,” Nicole said.
“All right,” I said.
***
Nicole placed a quick call to her friend, who agreed to drive over and pick her up.
While Nicole waited for Veronica to arrive, David went back inside the house to speak with the medical examiner. Meanwhile, I stayed outside with Nicole.
I was glad that I did. Especially when I saw Nicole losing her grip on her emotions again.
“This still doesn’t make any sense,” Nicole said. “For someone to kill my father. It’s just…” She trailed off again.
“I know. It’s unconscionable.”
She took a deep breath. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“Let David and I investigate.”
“I meant, how am I supposed to carry on—without either of my parents?”
“I wish I had an easy answer for you.”
“Are you kidding? I don’t think anything is going to be easy ever again.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No. At the moment, I don’t know much of anything. Except that life doesn’t make any sense.”
“That may change in the future.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
“Let’s not look too far ahead into the future,” I said.
“You’re right. It’s just that I’m so…” She couldn’t finish her sentence.
“You don’t have to explain yourself. Just try to hold yourself together,” I said.
I gave her another hug.
Chapter Ten
The next few minutes went by in a blur. But it wasn’t due to a lack of activity. There was plenty of commotion. First, Veronica arrived and picked Nicole up. After that, I called Nicole’s grandparents and told them the terrible news about Ryan’s murder. Not surprisingly, some tears were shed.
Nicole’s grandfather then dried his eyes and told me he and his wife were going to drop everything and make their way to Treasure Cove as soon as possible.
Before getting off the phone, I offered my condolences to them once more. From there, I put my phone back into my purse.
Then I looked back at Ryan’s house. It was clear what my next step should be. To check in with David. But my feet felt like they were stuck in cement. In addition, I found myself taking a few deep breaths to calm myself down.
While I was trying to get my emotions under control, David came out of the house, approached me, and saw what a wreck I was.
He put his hand on my shoulder. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I think Nicole is the one you should really be worried about right now,” I said.
“It turns out there is plenty of worry to go around,” he said. “I know this awfully heartbreaking for you as well.”
“It’s more than that. This is absolutely agonizing. And the case is just beginning.”
David exhaled. “What a case this is shaping up to be.”
I stared out into the distance as my thoughts drifted elsewhere. “I feel so awful for Nicole. She’s had such a tough life. Especially considering how young she is.”
David nodded. “To lose both of her parents before her nineteenth birthday—that is something I wouldn’t wish for anyone.”
“If that isn’t bad enough, her father’s killer is still out there somewhere.”
“Unfortunately, the killer also happens to have a pretty decent head start on us.”
<
br /> “By the way, that isn’t even the worst of it,” I said.
He grimaced. “It isn’t?”
I shook my head. “Not even close. I mean, what if Nicole is right? What if her stepmother is behind this?”
David’s eyes widened. “If that’s true, it would be absolutely devastating news.”
“Yes,” I said. “But that’s a big if.”
“We’ll find out soon enough.”
“In the meantime, I don’t suppose the forensics team has been able to discover some sort of case-breaking evidence,” I said.
David shook his head.
I groaned. “Of course not.”
“Did you expect otherwise?”
“No. But it was worth a shot.”
“I guess so.”
“You never know. Not every case has to be excruciatingly difficult. The way I figure it, we’re long overdue for an open and shut investigation.”
“You’re probably right. But that isn’t going to happen this time around.”
My nose crinkled. “How about the forensics team? Did they find anything useful at the scene? Like a fingerprint?”
“There are plenty of fingerprints in the house, but the odds are that they all belong to Ryan and Nicole,” David said. “More importantly, there isn’t a single print on the doorknob—or the body.”
“So your guess is that the killer was wearing gloves when they entered the house?”
David nodded. “Or they wiped the doorknob clean before leaving.”
I took a deep breath. “How about the medical examiner? Did he have anything useful to share?”
“He wasn’t able to give me much to work with. Just an approximate time of death.”
“That’s better than nothing.”
“True,” David said.
“According to the examiner, when did the murder take place?” I asked.
“Between nine and ten o’clock last night.”
“Wow. That means Ryan’s body was sitting there for hours.”
“I’m glad you came over here to check up on him. Otherwise, it could have been there much longer.”
“You’re right,” I said. “Speaking of potential killers, is it any surprise that there’s no shortage of suspects?”
“Of course there isn’t. The universe wouldn’t want this case to be too easy to solve,” he deadpanned.
I took a deep breath. “Since we appear to have our work cut out for us, what do you say we head out and interview our first suspect?”
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
“Good. Because I know exactly who we should start with.”
Chapter Eleven
David and I drove over to the South side of town and turned onto Wheeler Drive. From there, we spotted the red-brick townhome that Megan Davidson was renting. Not only was it much smaller than Ryan Davidson’s house, it was also on a treeless street that was suffering from a distinct lack of charm.
That said, this was still better than living on the East side of town. You see, even a place as small as Treasure Cove had a wrong side of the tracks, and the eastern edge of town definitely fit that bill.
At the same time, while there were worse places for Megan to call home than this red-brick rental unit, she was a woman who was used to finer things in life. So, having to rent a small townhome like this was certainly an adjustment for her. The question became, how was she handling this new change to her lifestyle?
It wouldn’t take long to find out. The full-figured fifty-two-year-old scurried out of her townhome and moved quickly toward her car. The redhead was sure in a hurry. But why? Was she looking to leave town? Or was she just going to run some errands?
David parked his car directly behind Megan’s red sport-utility-vehicle, intentionally blocking her exit route.
Megan responded by throwing out her arms in a huff. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Uh-oh. Talk about getting off to a confrontational start. Now, don’t get me wrong. I already knew this was going to be an awkward conversation. How could it not be? After all, Megan wasn’t just some random stranger. I knew her.
That said, Megan and I were never really friends. During the best of times, we could only really be described as acquaintances. And that was when Ryan and Megan were happily married. Ever since the day that Ryan filed divorce papers, I hadn’t said a word to Megan. That was about to change.
David and I both got out of our car, which prompted a stunning change of expression on Megan’s face.
“Sabrina? David? Why are you here?” Megan asked.
David squinted. “You honestly don’t know?”
Megan shrugged. “If I knew, why would I have asked that question?”
“Maybe for the same reason you are rushing out to your car,” David said.
“Why are you taking that tone with me?” Megan asked. “The reason I’m in a hurry is because I’m running late for my yoga class.”
David stared her down. “Are you telling me the truth?”
Megan shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I really need to get to yoga—”
David waggled his pointer finger. “I’m afraid you’re going to miss your class today.”
“What are you talking about?” Megan asked.
“Megan, I can’t let you leave,” David said.
She stared at him blankly. “You’re not making any sense.”
“Before I allow you to go anywhere, there are some very important questions that you need to answer.”
“What kind of questions?”
“Unpleasant ones about your estranged husband.”
A fire came to Megan’s eyes. “Did Ryan put you up to this?”
David shook his head.
“Then why are you here?” Megan asked.
“Because Ryan is dead.”
Megan’s forehead wrinkled. “What?”
“That’s not all,” David said. “He was murdered.”
Her jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
David nodded. “Unfortunately.”
Megan had trouble forming a complete sentence. Ultimately, she was only able to utter two words. “But…how?”
“We were hoping you could help us with that,” David said.
Even though Megan was still wrestling with a number of different emotions, David’s statement managed to pull her out of her fog. Her shock and introspection was replaced with a different emotion.
“I’m confused,” she said. “Why did you come to me?”
“I think you know the answer to that question,” David said.
She shook her head. “I really don’t.”
“You two were in the middle of a nasty divorce—”
Megan interrupted David. “I don’t want to talk about my divorce.”
“Given the circumstances, I don’t see how that’s possible,” David said.
“You’re not making any sense. My divorce doesn’t have anything to do with what happened to Ryan,” Megan said.
“I’m going to need more information from you before I can believe that,” David said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Megan asked. Her eyes then widened as a hostile expression came to her face. “Wait a minute. You don’t think that I had something to do with Ryan’s death, do you?”
“That’s what we’re here to find out,” David said.
“I can’t believe this.”
“I don’t know why you’re so surprised.”
“I’m not just surprised. I’m completely offended.”
“You shouldn’t be. Like I brought up before, you were in the middle of a bitter divorce. In addition, as we arrived here this morning, you were rushing out to your car. So, you can understand why we would have our suspicions about you.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t understand this at all.”
“Whether it makes sense to you or not doesn’t change the fact that we need answers.”
“Here’s the only answer that matte
rs. I didn’t kill Ryan.”
“I’m afraid we’re going to need more to work with than that.”
Megan got tired of trying to make headway with David. She set her sights on me.
“Sabrina, will you talk some sense into your husband?” Megan asked.
I grimaced. “This isn’t easy for any of us, but this conversation is necessary.”
Megan groaned. “You’re not going to listen to reason either, huh?”
“This doesn’t have to be so contentious,” I said. “If you don’t have anything to hide then you don’t have anything to worry about.”
“I’m not hiding anything,” Megan snapped.
“In that case, just answer David’s questions,” I said.
“This is all just an insane waste of time,” Megan said.
“Megan, were you even listening to me?” I asked. “Because these diversionary tactics aren’t doing you any favors. If anything, they just make things look worse for you.”
“Fine. You want me to answer your questions? What do you want to know?” Megan said.
“You can start by telling us where you were last night,” David said.
“I was here.”
“Doing what?”
“Making dinner, having a glass of wine, reading a romance novel, taking a bath—nothing special,” Megan said.
“Does that mean you were alone then?” David asked.
“Why does that matter?” Megan said.
I spoke up. “Just answer the question.”
“Yes, I was alone,” Megan said.
“That’s unfortunate,” David said.
“Call it whatever you want. But I answered your question. Now, can I go to yoga?” Megan said.
David held his hand up. “Not so fast.”
“This conversation has been anything but fast. Besides, what more do you want from me?” Megan asked.
“It would be nice if you had a verifiable alibi. Unfortunately, you don’t. But what you do have is a killer motive.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I didn’t want Ryan dead.”
David scoffed. “Are you really going to tell me that you never thought about getting revenge on him? You two have been at each other’s throats in divorce court.”
“Has my divorce been pleasant? No. But just because Ryan and I weren’t on the best of terms doesn’t mean that I would do something as crazy as commit murder,” Megan said.
Mysteries of Treasure Cove Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 4
