“Sabrina, you and David need to come over here right now,” Daphne Alford said.
My friend’s voice cracked as she spoke to me on the phone.
A wave of anxiety washed over me as I listened to her.
“Why? What’s going on?” I asked.
“It’s an emergency,” she said. “Come quick.”
“We will. But can you at least tell me what’s going on?”
“William’s brother is trying to break down our front door. He’s drunk, angry, and out for revenge.”
I grimaced. “That’s awful.”
“It’s more than that. It’s terrifying. That’s why you and David need to come quick.”
“Okay. We’ll be right there,” I said.
***
I got off the phone, ran into the living room, and spoke with my husband. After relaying to him what Daphne had just told me, David grabbed his car keys, his police badge, and his gun, and then headed to the front door.
Luckily, our eleven-year-old daughter Jessica was at a friend’s house that evening. That meant I didn’t have to frantically call my mother to drive over here and watch her.
I rushed out to the driveway with my husband and hopped into his car. We then booked it over to Daphne’s house.
While we made our way over to Cherry Drive, I said a quick little prayer to myself. I also counted my blessings that we lived in a small town like Treasure Cove where traffic was nonexistent.
At the speed David was driving, it would only take seven or eight minutes to get to Daphne’s house.
That said, during times of crisis, every second mattered.
David quickly radioed dispatch to request backup. He then looked over at me and asked, “Did Daphne tell you what started all this?”
“William and Eric Alford have been having problems for a while,” I said.
“What kind of problems?”
“According to what Daphne told me a few days ago, Eric has been hitting the bottle pretty hard lately. To the point where it has really affected his work.”
David’s eyes widened. “I’m sure that has been especially disturbing for William to see. Considering how he’s not just Eric’s brother, but also his boss.”
William owned an advertising agency in Treasure Cove.
I nodded. “When I talked to Daphne last week, she told me William was agonizing over whether to fire Eric.”
David’s eyebrows rose. “Wait. He was thinking about canning his own brother?”
“I know William didn’t want to go through with it—”
“But maybe Eric’s behavior forced his brother’s hand.”
“It’s certainly looking that way.”
“It sure is.” David exhaled. “There’s nothing quite as nasty as family drama, is there?”
I grimaced. “This is more than just drama. From what I gathered on the phone, this has turned into a matter of life and death.”
“That’s why I hope everyone is still alive when we get there.”
The conversation topic switched suddenly as David turned onto Maple Street with more speed than I was comfortable with.
“Be careful,” I said.
“After everything you just told me, it’s pretty clear that we need to get over there as fast as we can,” David said.
“True. But if you’re not careful, we might not get over there at all.”
“Don’t worry—”
“Honey, I think it’s foolish of you to tell me not to worry.”
“I meant that you don’t have to worry about your safety. I will get us there in one piece,” he said. “This isn’t the first time I’ve rushed over to someone’s house to break up a violent confrontation.”
I winced. “It sure isn’t…unfortunately.”
David groaned. “Yeah. It turns out you can call Treasure Cove a lot of things, but boring isn’t one of them.”
Chapter Two
When David and I reached Daphne’s house, Eric Alford was pounding on the front door, trying to get his brother to come outside. While Eric’s belligerence was far from a welcome sight, things could have been much worse.
I felt relieved that we had arrived before the situation had a chance to spiral completely out of control. But if life had taught me anything, it was that things could change in an instant.
David was quite aware of that possibility. That was why he turned to me the moment after he parked in the driveway.
“Do me a favor,” he said. “Stay in the car. If things get really nasty, I don’t want you to be in the crossfire.”
“Okay,” I said.
I instinctively reached into my purse and put my hand on the can of pepper spray that I always kept with me. Even though I was theoretically out of the line of fire, I wanted to be safe rather than sorry.
As David opened his car door, I looked over at him. “Be careful.”
David nodded at me and then slowly approached the house.
Anticipating the worst, David drew his gun while he yelled at Eric Alford. “My name is Detective David Carlson. I’m with the Treasure Cove Police Department. Put your hands up and step away from the door.”
Eric looked over his shoulder at David.
Instead of following David’s orders, Eric snarled and turned his attention back to the front door of the house.
“William. You punk! I can’t believe you called the police on me. You’re going to pay for this,” Eric yelled.
David hated when his orders were ignored. He raised the volume of his voice as he called out to Eric again. “I’m only going to say this one more time. Back away from the door with your hands up.”
Eric whirled around and barked at David. “Why don’t you leave me alone? This is between me and my brother.”
David shook his head. “Not anymore, it isn’t—”
“Why are you pointing a gun at me?” Eric asked. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“That’s not what I heard. There have been reports of drunk and disorderly behavior. Not to mention threats.”
“Hey, I’m not the bad guy here.”
“Is that so?”
“My brother is the scumbag who fired me.”
“A lot of people get fired,” David said. “But very few of them show up at their old boss’s house trying to break the door down. Even if that boss happens to be their brother.”
“I just want to talk to him,” Eric said.
“I find that hard to believe.”
Eric glared. “I don’t care what you believe.”
“All right. That’s it. I gave you a chance to explain yourself. Put your hands up. Now!” David demanded.
Eric reluctantly put his hands up.
David then went over and handcuffed him while I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
***
Unfortunately, I didn’t stay relaxed for long. While David searched Eric’s jacket and pants for a weapon, he discovered something else entirely.
David grabbed a small clear baggie from the back pocket of Eric’s pants. Inside the baggie was a white powdery substance.
“Well what do we have here?” David asked.
Eric played dumb. “I don’t know what that is.”
“Really? Because it sure looks like cocaine.”
Eric’s eyes widened. “I don’t know how that got there.”
“You don’t know how a bag of cocaine got into your pants?” David scoffed. “You’re either the biggest liar I’ve ever met, or you’re doped up beyond belief.”
A look of panic came to Eric’s eyes. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
“Nice try, Eric. But you have a lot of explaining to do. And you’re staring down some serious jail time,” David said. “This amount of cocaine carries a minimum five-year sentence.”
Chapter Three
When a number of squad cars arrived at the house a few minutes later, David loaded Eric into the back of one of them. A police deputy then drove Eric to the station to be booked on charges of drug possess
ion, drunk and disorderly conduct, and harassment.
With Eric no longer posing a threat, Daphne and William felt safe enough to answer their door.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Daphne said.
“Trust me. None is necessary. I’m just relieved that I got here in time to stop Eric from breaking your door down.”
William exhaled. “I still can’t believe that things came to this.”
“My heart goes out to you. What a disaster, being threatened by your own brother,” David said.
William winced. “I knew Eric had problems, but I didn’t realize he was this unhinged.”
“Drugs will do that to you. Same with too much alcohol. Together, they make for a combustible mix,” David said.
William nodded. “You can say that again.”
“I’d prefer not to,” David said.
“And I’d prefer to get the old Eric back. The sweet little brother I once had,” William said. “I don’t even recognize this maniac he has turned into.”
Daphne leaned over and gave William a hug. “I’m so sorry.”
He held her tight.
She continued. “But at least it’s over now.”
William pulled back from the hug and nodded. “Yeah. For the moment.” He threw out his arms. “But what do we do now?”
“You aren’t going to have to worry about Eric for a while. He’ll be in jail for at least five years. Most likely longer,” David said.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad he will be off the streets. I was talking more in the larger sense. The fact is, after what he did tonight, things will never be the same between us,” William said.
“I know,” Daphne said. “But maybe he’ll clean up his act while he’s in jail.” She looked at David. “That could happen, right?”
“That’s a possibility,” David said.
Daphne stared deep into David’s eyes. “But let me guess. You think the possibility of that occurring is slim.”
I spoke up. “With a situation like this, you have to hope for the best.”
“David. Sabrina. You can be honest with us,” Daphne said.
David took a deep breath before replying, “The odds are that Eric will never go back to being the same man you once knew.”
William grimaced. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
“Speaking of fear. I know it’s a terrible time to have to think about this. But you might want to think about getting a restraining order against your brother,” David said.
“You’re right. It is a terrible thing to have to think about,” William said. “But it’s probably a good idea.”
I nodded. “It’s important that you do everything in your power to stay safe.”
“Absolutely,” Daphne said. “And thanks to you two, we can go to bed tonight knowing that we won’t have to worry about Eric for a while.”
Chapter Four
David and I spoke with Daphne and William a little longer. Then David headed over to the police station to fill out some paperwork regarding Eric’s arrest.
A few hours later, when it was time to go to bed, I plopped my head down on my pillow, assuming that my exhaustion level would make it easy for me to nod off to sleep. Instead, I found that my thoughts were still racing like crazy.
I tossed and turned a little until David made a deadpan remark. “Not quite the relaxing day you had planned, huh?”
“There’s an understatement for you,” I said. “But sometimes that’s just the way that life goes.”
He scoffed. “Sometimes?”
“Okay. Most times. It’s actually shocking how rarely life goes according to plan.”
“I know what you mean. Life can start taking it easy on us anytime now.”
“I just need to keep telling myself that things aren’t always this crazy.”
“It’s a good thing too,” David said. “If our lives were always this nuts, I would have had a heart attack by now.”
“Same here.”
“That said, given the circumstances, things could have turned out much worse tonight.”
I nodded. “True.”
“Imagine if we had gotten there just a little later.”
“I’d prefer not to go down that road.”
“Unfortunately, it’s hard not to.”
“I understand. But you need to find a way. If you keep thinking about everything that could have gone wrong, you’ll never be able to sleep.”
“Normally I’d agree with you. But when it comes to tonight, I know I’ll eventually just crash out from sheer exhaustion. It’s tomorrow I’m worried about. And the next day.”
“I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself.”
“Don’t you worry about what might happen next?” I asked.
“Of course I do. I’m only human. But like I said before, I do my best to keep my mind from delving too far into that topic,” he said.
“Because you don’t have a good feeling about the future?”
“Honey, it’s late. You really should try to get some sleep.”
“Why are you avoiding my question?”
“You know I think it’s foolish to try and predict the future.”
“What are your instincts telling you?”
“Are you sure you want to hear this?” he asked.
“You have a bad feeling about what’s to come, don’t you?” I asked.
“Look. I could be wrong,” he said. “It’s happened before.”
“The problem is, I also have a bad feeling in my gut.”
“Sabrina. It’s late. And we’re both exhausted. You have to admit, our instincts aren’t nearly as sharp as they usually are.”
“You could be right.”
“I know this for sure,” he said. “We’re not going to get any answers right now.”
“True,” I said.
He leaned over and gave me a kiss. “Now get some sleep.”
“I’ll try.”
Chapter Five
It took me another thirty minutes, but I eventually nodded off. Once I did crash out, I slept like a rock.
When I woke up in the morning, I immediately turned on the news. Thankfully, nothing earth-shattering had occurred overnight. I breathed a sigh of relief and then went about my normal routine. That included preparing breakfast, getting a jolt of caffeine in my system, and taking our corgi, Sebastian, for a walk.
After that, I drove my daughter to school. Normally after dropping Jessica off, I headed right over to my family’s coffee shop. That morning, I made a quick stop at a local gas station on Elmhurst Road first. Not so much to fill up my tank, but rather to buy a lottery ticket.
Even though I had never come close to winning the jackpot, I still bought a ticket for every multi-million dollar drawing. Some people thought I was a fool for burning a few dollars a week on lotto tickets. They told me the odds of ever winning were ridiculously long. And they were right. Statistically, I had a better chance of getting struck by lightning.
That said, Gavin Zeller had managed to defy those odds a number of years ago. Unfortunately, he ended up blowing through all of his winnings. But that was a different topic altogether.
If I ever struck it rich, I would be more frugal with the money. Of course, I was getting ahead of myself. I needed to win the jackpot first.
By design, I always purchased my lotto tickets from the same gas station that Gavin had gone to years ago. While I waited in line at the mini-mart to purchase my tickets, my mouth began to water when I spotted some pastries in a case at the front counter. Typically, gas station food was something I tried to avoid. But this wasn’t the usual mini-mart fare. There was a label on the pastry case that read: Mitchell’s Bakery.
Talk about delectable. Mitchell’s made the best pastries in town. And apparently, now I didn’t have to drive all the way to their bakery to grab one of their treats.
While it was great that their business was expanding, if I ate one of those pastries, I knew that my waistline would expan
d as well. I mustered as much will power as I could. After all, I was finally back at my goal weight. It had taken a lot of sessions at the gym to get there, so I wasn’t eager to start packing on pounds again. That said, it was difficult not to stare at the pastry case.
As I did my best to fight off a craving, I heard a familiar voice behind me.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Melissa Maxwell said.
I turned around to the see tall, thin, forty-five-year-old approaching me.
“What is?” I asked.
“That everywhere you look, there seems to be a new opportunity to cheat on your diet,” Melissa said.
I chuckled. “I know, right?”
“So are you going to have a chocolate chip muffin? Or a chocolate croissant?” Melissa asked.
“Actually, neither,” I said.
“Let me guess. You’re going to go bold and have a chocolate-glazed donut?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I’m actually here to buy a lottery ticket.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Really?”
I nodded. “Absolutely. How can I turn down a twenty-million-dollar jackpot?”
“Honestly, I think your dollar is better spent on a croissant.”
“Don’t get me wrong. You know how much I love chocolate. But I’m going to spend my dollar on a lottery ticket.”
“In that case, good luck. You’re going to need it.”
“Wait. Aren’t you going to buy a ticket?”
She shook her head. “No. I like guarantees. And the pastries from Mitchell’s are surefire winners.”
“Tell my waistline that.”
“I’ve been ignoring my waistline lately. Well, ever since…” Melissa couldn’t finish her sentence.
It had been a number of months since her brother’s death and she still couldn’t talk about him without getting choked up.
“Do I even need to ask how things are going?” I said.
“They aren’t as bad as they once were,” Melissa said.
“That’s good to hear.”
Mysteries of Treasure Cove Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 29
