by Esme Addison
A look of skepticism crossed Alex’s face. "But that means Stephanie would have to know that Randy had purchased tea from Botanika, and she would have added deadly nightshade berries to the leaves.”
“Right.” Aunt Lidia pursed her lips. “Motive and opportunity.”
Lidia’s shoulders slumped. “It does seem unlikely, doesn’t it.”
Alex bit her lower lip, unsure of how to respond. Lidia was right: she was the most obvious suspect.
“Although, Stephanie won’t get all of the money if they sell the company,” Lidia continued after some thought. “Edwin Kenley was Randy’s business partner. I assume he’d get around half. And I’ve heard around town that Edwin wanted to sell, while Randy refused.” She raised her mug to her lips. “Edwin had a very minor stroke a couple of years ago and has wanted to retire since then.”
Alex added his name to her list. “Do you know anything about him?”
“Edwin? Nothing much. He keeps to himself. We’ve never socialized.”
“But he had reason to kill Randy, too. Randy refused to sell Bay Realty and Edwin wanted out. When we’re talking about tens of millions of dollars …” Alex shook her head.
“Apparently the Carolina Shipping Company was very interested in buying the business as well.” Lidia rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “That’s Bronson Bellamy’s company.”
Alex wrote the name on her pad. “Bellamy. Any relation to Pepper?”
Lidia nodded. “Bronson is her father. And he’s also our mayor.” She made a face. “Like all things Bellamy, the CSC has dreams of world domination,” she said with a smirk. “Bay Realty would be a nice addition to the portfolio.”
“Does Pepper have anything to do with the CSC?” Alex asked.
“No, Pepper has never worked for her father. But Bronson buys her lots of nice things that she can’t afford on a small-town journalist’s salary.” Lidia squinted at the notebook. “What else do you have on there? Any other suspects?”
“Yes.” Alex turned the page so that her aunt could read it. “Tegan Wesley. She wanted to buy Bay Realty’s land, and apparently there was a dispute—”
“No.”
A gust of strong wind hit her from out of nowhere, and Alex nearly fell off her seat. She grabbed the edge of the counter top, catching herself just in time. “What was that?” The windows were all shut.
Now Lidia rose, her anger on full display. “Stay away from Tegan Wesley. If she catches you asking around about her—” Lidia lifted her plate and mug. “Alex, don’t meddle in this. You’re only going to make a bad situation much, much worse.” She set her dishes in the sink. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to rest.” With that, she swept out of the room.
Alex tapped her finger thoughtfully on the paper. A few days ago, her aunt’s sudden outburst might have upset her, but now she saw it for what it was: fear. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks, Athena,” she whispered, and circled the name Tegan Wesley.
She had just become suspect number one.
Chapter Eight
Minka and Alex opened Botanika on Tuesday and prepared for the worst. Alex envisioned hordes of nosy people crowding the shop aisles, wanting to know exactly how Lidia had poisoned Randy Bennett. Minka’s posture was ramrod straight as she unlocked the front door, almost as if she were steadying herself for a battle. But half an hour into the opening, no one had entered the shop.
There were no shelves to straighten or floors to sweep. No product to restock. They stood with their backs pressed against the counter and watched the door. Plenty of people walked past the windows, and many even lingered to peer inside. But no one entered.
“This is a joke,” Minka sulked. “We may as well close until the trial’s over.”
“It’s only been half an hour,” Alex said, glancing at the clock on the wall. But she worried that even loyal customers had become afraid to shop there. “How about if I go grab us some coffees? I need another eight hours of sleep or several cups of coffee before I’ll feel functional today.”
Minka agreed, and Alex hurried outside. Yes, she wanted a cup of coffee—desperately. More importantly, now was about the time that Jack would be in Coffee O’Clock, and she wanted to speak with him about the suspects on her list. Had he even considered them? As she rounded the corner of First and Main, she saw him, annoyingly handsome, opening the red door to the coffee shop. He saw her and paused. “Hello, Alex.”
“Detective Frazier,” she replied coolly.
He waited for her to walk up the steps. “How are you doing?”
The sincerity of his question caught her off guard. “Do you want the truth? Or do you want me to be polite?”
He smiled a little at that. “It’s your answer, so you get to choose.”
When they walked inside, Alex instantly felt curious stares. She tried to ignore them, but whispering followed. She caught fragments of sentences: “… niece …” “… poison …” “… tea …” She tugged at her clothing as the discomfort crawled over her body.
“I’m not doing too well, Jack,” she said softly. “I think you’ve made a rush to judgment with my aunt and overlooked some major suspects.”
“I understand,” he replied. “But the evidence is pretty clear to me. There were poisonous berries in the tea Lidia gave the victim. How do you explain that?”
“Easy. Someone planted those berries.”
Jack cocked his head at her. “Come on, now. Who would do that?”
“Exactly. That’s the question you need to ask.”
He didn’t respond, because it was Alex’s turn to place her order. She had become friendly with the barista, a college-age African American woman named Celeste with long, silky black hair and a flawless complexion similar in color to the latte she’d just poured. A few freckles covered the bridge of her nose. She turned sympathetically toward Alex. “How are you holding up?”
“Everyone knows, don’t they?” Alex sighed and lowered her voice, conscious of Jack waiting in line behind her. “I’ve been better, but thanks for asking. How are your courses going?”
Celeste was in her last semester of a two-year MBA program at Bellamy College. She groaned at the question. “I’ve got another group project, which means I’ve got to babysit my teammates and make sure they’re working.”
Alex knew all about Celeste’s classmates, many of whom were more interested in socializing than studying. “One day, they’ll regret all the slacking off they did,” she said.
She winked. “I figure its good practice for when I’m their boss.”
Celeste was wearing a necklace of hand-painted beads in shades of purple flecked with gold. As Celeste reached for a coffee cup, Alex said, “That is a stunning piece of jewelry.”
She had often admired Celeste’s effortless understated style. She was the kind of person who wore simple, elegant clothes paired with funky jewelry and barely any makeup to accent her pretty features.
Celeste’s hazel eyes brightened at the compliment, and she touched a hand to her throat. “Thank you. It was a gift.”
“Lucky boy. Am I right?”
Celeste laughed, and when she moved, Alex caught a hint of her perfume. After her lesson with her aunt, Alex enjoyed breaking down perfumes into their notes and trying to identify them. The scent Celeste wore was elegant and subtle, like her. A top note of something floral … honeysuckle. The middle note was fruity—probably red apple—and the bottom note? Sweet and woodsy, it reminded Alex of fresh hay she’d smelled the last time she’d gone pumpkin picking.
“Not lucky boy, lucky man,” she corrected with a grin. “Not like these college boys around here.”
“Anyone I know?” Alex asked, but Celeste shook her head, suddenly busy fiddling with paper cups. “Someone in your MBA program?”
“Definitely not. He’s older. I just wish we saw each other more. All he does is work.”
Alex was getting the feeling there was much Celeste wasn’t telling her about her new friend. “Is it seri
ous?”
“Could be. We’ll see. He wants to keep things quiet … he says it’s because of his position in town. People will talk.”
“Oh.” Alex wasn’t sure what to say. Sounded like her boyfriend was hiding something, and she hoped it wasn’t a wife. Celeste was too nice a girl to be mixed up with a cheater, which is what her mystery guy sounded like, but Alex didn’t feel comfortable giving her more advice. She wasn’t her mother or even a friend. She was just a customer at the coffee shop.
Alex said her goodbyes, then stood off to the side to wait for Jack to order his black coffee. No bagel this time. When his drink was ready, he waved her over into a quiet corner, away from prying eyes.
“This is such a small town, you have to stay out of earshot,” he explained. “Otherwise everything you say will end up on Pepper Bellamy’s gossip blog.”
A surge of gratitude flooded her chest at that small, considerate gesture. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. I don’t want to be quoted, either.”
“And thank you for talking to me.”
They were standing close together now in a small hall that led to restrooms and a kitchen, away from the tables of customers. His blue eyes softened. “You don’t need to thank me, Alex. You’re concerned for your aunt.”
“Great. I’m glad you understand that. Will you hear me out, then?”
“I can promise I’ll listen to your concerns; how’s that?”
She wasn’t going to nitpick. She knew she had a short window in which to make her point. “My aunt had no motive for killing Randy Bennett. What does she gain now that he’s dead? Nothing. However”—Alex lowered her voice even more—“Stephanie Bennett will inherit half of his estate. They were in the middle of a divorce. Maybe she took a shortcut.”
Jack folded back the lid on his coffee cup. “What else?”
“Edwin Kenley,” Alex continued. “The business partner who is now free to sell the company. Or maybe one of the Bellamys. CSC is trying to buy Bennett’s business. Did you know that?”
He shook his head as he scribbled something on his pad, then gestured for her to continue.
“But Bennett wouldn’t sell to them. And then there’s Tegan Wesley, who Randy Bennett had a land dispute with—”
“Tegan Wesley.” Jack frowned. “What kind of land dispute?”
“I’m not—the details weren’t clear.”
“How many years ago?”
“Two.”
“Was a lawsuit ever filed?”
“Not that I could find.”
Jack held up a hand. “Then how can we assume that gives Mrs. Wesley a motive? Maybe they resolved the land dispute amicably.”
Alex folded her arms. “Jack, I think—”
“Please listen.” He went to touch her arm, but stopped himself. “The simplest answer is that Lidia put something in the vic’s tea because she was angry with him. Maybe she didn’t actually intend to kill him, but that’s for a jury to decide. And she also can’t account for her time when Bennett was killed.” He released a deep breath. “Now, if we find compelling evidence to reconsider the case, or discover she has a rock-sold alibi, then yeah. Of course we’ll reassess. But the witnesses who saw your aunt that day in the shop said they’d never seen anything like it. They said it was like the whole place was shaking.”
Alex tried to look unconcerned. “She has a little bit of a temper—”
“And people with hot tempers can find themselves involved in murder investigations. Now,” he said, stopping her as she opened her mouth to argue. “Like I said, I’m committed to getting this right, Alex. If there is concrete evidence we’re overlooking, I need to know. But short of that?” He shook his head. “We’ve got the only person who makes sense.”
She saw from the set of his jaw that he was not going to move off his position, but neither was she. “Then I guess I’ll have to find that concrete evidence for you, won’t I?”
He fought to remain stern, but a small smile escaped. “Again, I respect your concerns. But I hope you’ll trust me when I say that we’re taking this case very seriously and considering all angles. We don’t need citizens to help.”
“Got it.”
Jack’s posture relaxed upon her assurance. “I should get going.” His eyes met hers and held her gaze. “Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow?”
She struggled to keep the bright, phony smile on her face. “Maybe.”
He walked out the door and down the steps, and once he was out of view, she finally exhaled. Jack was kidding himself if he thought she was going to wait for the police to find another suspect. Her father had been a detective, so she knew that once a suspect was arrested, the case was turned over to the prosecutors. The police didn’t look for alternative killers. Jack Frazier had his murderer, and he was going to move on to other matters.
If there is concrete evidence we’re overlooking, I need to know. A killer was loose in town, and Alex was going to find the evidence Jack needed to arrest that person.
Challenge accepted.
* * *
For the remainder of the day, sales at Botanika were discouraging, to say the least. Minka had never experienced such a downturn. “I don’t understand. How can people think my mom would hurt anyone? She’s devoted her life to helping others.”
“You know what else really bothers me?” Alex said. “The person who killed Randy Bennett is somewhere out there, getting away with it.”
Minka’s eyes widened. “You’re right. I’ve been so focused on Mom that I haven’t even stopped to consider that there’s a murderer on the loose in Bellamy Bay.”
Alex reached for her cousin’s hand. “They won’t get away with it. Because I’m not going to allow that to happen.”
She reviewed her list of suspects with Minka. Her cousin was well versed in town chatter and had plenty to say about Stephanie Bennett.
“She’s as phony as they come,” she declared without hesitation. “Don’t get me wrong, she knows how to keep up appearances. She wears designer clothing and she heads all the right committees. But you can’t trust her any further than you can throw her.”
About Edwin Kenley? “All work and no play. I hope he takes vitamin D, because I can’t imagine he ever sees the sun. He’s a workaholic.”
“So he’s suspect number two,” Alex said. “And next is Bronson Bellamy, who wanted to buy Bay Realty—”
Minka burst out laughing. “Oh, I’m sorry. It’s not funny,” she said, continuing to chuckle. “But it would really take the sparkle off Pepper’s sports car if her dad was caught up in a murder.” She wiped at her eyes. “But yes, Bronson Bellamy has dreams of owning everything in town. If he had a real-estate company, he’d grow the family’s influence.”
“Was there any bad blood between Randy and Bronson? I mean, besides Randy’s decision not to sell the company.”
Minka shrugged. “Not that I’ve heard.”
Alex made a note to find out more. She looked at her cousin. “And suspect number four is Tegan Wesley.”
Minka abruptly stopped laughing. “Tegan? Oh no.” She actually glanced behind her shoulder to make sure they were alone in the shop.
“Your mom didn’t like that I added her as a possible suspect, either.”
“No, I wouldn’t think so,” Minka said. “The relationship between our families is complicated, to put it mildly.” She frowned, chewing on her lower lip. “Tegan Wesley. I can’t say that’s impossible. I mean … maybe.”
Now this was interesting. Alex stepped closer and lowered her voice, too. “What do you know about Tegan?”
“Just what I know about all of the Wesleys. That they’re different from us. There’s bad blood. Our families don’t get along. Never have. Mom and Tegan are like oil and water.”
“Is there enough bad blood that Tegan would poison Randy to frame your mom?”
“I don’t know. I’d like to say absolutely not … but it could be her children, too. Dylan or Bryn.”
&nbs
p; “What do you know about them?”
Minka explained that Tegan was the CEO of Wesley, Inc., and had been since her husband died ten years before. Dylan and Bryn both held executive positions within the company. “I don’t know either of them well. I don’t care to know them, either. But they turn up at different events. Highbrow things like gallery showings and black-tie galas.”
“What does the company do?”
Minka sighed, as if the question taxed her. “They buy up companies, do stuff to them, and then sell them. And then I heard they also develop properties—like they buy up whole small towns and city blocks in big cities.”
Alex eyed her skeptically. “Really?” When Minka nodded, she glanced at the clock. It was nearly two, and she hadn’t taken a lunch. “Minka, this has been helpful. Would you mind if I took a break?” She was already untying her apron.
“You’re really going to investigate this, aren’t you?” Minka gripped her cousin’s wrist. “Listen, whatever you do with the Wesleys, you have to be careful. Promise me.”
Alex couldn’t help but grin. “There’s no need to worry. I’m going to introduce myself and ask a few questions, that’s all. Get to know them. What could they possibly do to me?”
But the fear in Minka’s eyes was evident. “They’re dangerous, Alex. You can’t underestimate any of them. Promise me.”
Alex grabbed her handbag and tried not to convey her growing irritation, but she was tired of her family’s secrecy. “Minka, what could they possibly do to me?” She blurted out. “I’ll be safe. I promise.”
Minka hesitated before handing over her car keys. “Here. If you’re hunting down the Wesleys, you’re going to need these.”
* * *
The corporate headquarters was located on the opposite end of town in a five-story structure with mirrored windows. The building wasn’t impressive until she realized that the foundation was perched on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic. Her breath caught when she entered the brightly lit white marble lobby that offered sweeping views of the water and the Bellamy Bay lighthouse.
