by Paula Lester
He tapped his chin again and then adjusted his tri-corner hat. “I’ve never done so before,” he said finally. “I have an uneasy feeling some of the deceased I might come across could be dead because of—” He trailed off as his eyes focused on Paige. “Well, I don’t think they’d want to talk to me, lass.”
Paige shivered and again tried to push the reality of Captain McDougall’s actions during his life out of her thoughts.
“But I’ll try. For you.” He crossed his arms. “How shall I know this man?”
Paige pulled the phone out again and typed Cash Conway’s name into the search engine. She found a nice, clear picture of the smiling man and showed it to the pirate ghost, who studied it for thirty seconds before nodding once. “One moment,” he said and then closed his eyes.
Paige backed quietly away and sat down. Casper jumped on her lap, turned in a circle twice, and lay down. Silence fell over the room except for the ticking of Paige’s alarm clock. The ghost floated gently above the logbook as though the air currents in the room moved him by their whims.
After a few minutes, the captain slowly opened his eyes. Paige looked at him questioningly, but he shook his head. “I couldn’t talk with your murdered actor,” he said. “But I did get a bit of . . . what have I heard you call it? A vibe. I got a vibe that he was stinkin’ drunk when he died.”
Paige winced as she considered that information.
“I’m sorry I can’t be of more help, lass.” McDougall’s face did look regretful.
Paige smiled. “It’s okay. Thank you for trying.” She got up and went to the refrigerator to see what she could make for dinner. Then she had a thought. “Hey, how about we watch a movie this evening?”
The captain’s face became animated, and he clasped his hands together, flashing the rings he wore on every finger. “I believe I’d enjoy that.”
Paige pulled a frozen meal out and got it going in the microwave. Then she crossed to the small TV/DVD combo Scott and Sarah had given her. A stack of DVDs sat on top of the player, and she bent down to find the one she wanted. “Aha!” She pulled it out and waved it in the air triumphantly. “I have the perfect one for your first movie experience.”
“What is it, lass?” The captain was so excited his braids swayed as he bounced happily.
Paige grinned while she opened the DVD case and put the disc in the player. Over her shoulder, she said, “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Chapter 10
On Sunday morning, Paige woke up with a plan fully formed in her mind. She called Lucy and asked to meet her at Just Baked in an hour.
“Can’t go a day without my coffee and muffins, dear?” Lucy chuckled.
“Well, no, I can’t. But that’s not why I want you to come. I need some special help.” Paige knew her friend would understand when she used that word and emphasized it.
“Ah. I see. I’ll be there in an hour.”
Paige ate breakfast quickly. She shared a little scrambled egg with Casper, who purred his thanks while he devoured it without chewing.
She met Lucy at the back door of the bakery, and they went inside together.
“Now what’s all this about?” Lucy asked kindly.
“I was thinking about how you have a talent for potions. I know you’re a Truth Sniffer, but it’s so hard to maneuver you into a position to ask Jordan many specific questions. Plus, I’m sure Scott told him not to talk about the Cash Conway case with anyone.”
Lucy nodded, still looking puzzled.
“So, I was wondering if you might know a recipe for a truth serum. We could get Jordan to eat something spiked with it and then just have a normal conversation with him.”
Interest sparked in Lucy’s eyes, and she picked up where Paige left off. “And he wouldn’t be able to lie.” Pursing her lips, she crossed the room, unlocked a filing cabinet, rooted around in a manila folder, and finally pulled out a recipe card. Holding it in the air triumphantly, she said, “I think this will work with a few modifications. It’s a potion for getting a loved one to speak their true feelings to you. With a little extra toadstool and a pinch of sage, it should expand to general truth-telling.”
“Sounds great. How long does it take to make?”
“About an hour, I guess. And I’ll make an apple pie to add it to at the same time.”
“I’ll help you,” Paige said. “If you make me some coffee.”
Lucy grinned and crossed to the coffeepot. Soon, the two women were mixing, slicing, and simmering. The kitchen was warm and smelled like sage and cinnamon, and Paige felt pleasant and happy.
Before long, the women stood admiring a nice, warm apple pie. “What was that secret ingredient you put in the filling?” Paige asked, giving the pie an extra sniff.
“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret. There,” Lucy said. “If he eats a big piece of this, he won’t be able to tell a lie for at least a while. How are you going to get the pie into him?”
Paige winced. “That’s the weak part of my plan. I guess I’ll just show up at his motel room and hand it to him.”
Lucy winced too. “Okay. And what will be the reason you give him for doing that? And how will you finagle your way into his room so you can watch him eat pie and then question him?”
“I don’t know yet. I’m going to have to play that part by ear. And I might have to eat pie too, so hopefully Jordan doesn’t ask me any questions that I don’t want to answer truthfully.” Paige wrinkled her nose at the thought.
Lucy appeared sympathetic. “Good luck. I have to get home and help Candy with her school project. She put it off until the last minute, and now she’s desperate.”
Paige picked up the pie and headed out the back door with Lucy. The two women got into their cars, waved at each other, and pulled out of the lot.
Paige drove straight to the Dry Dock Motel. She looked for Jordan’s Jeep and found it sitting outside room 17. Carrying the pie, she marched up to the door before she had time to lose her nerve. She knocked and then stood rehearsing in her mind what to say: “Hi, Jordan. Lucy had an extra pie left over and didn’t want it to get stale waiting for the shop to open tomorrow. She asked me to drop it off to you on the way to my brother’s house. Oh, hey, do you mind if I come in for a few minutes? I was hoping to pick your brain about acting.”
She nodded to herself, figuring that would work fine. Then she worried for a second that she had knocked on the wrong door. It wasn’t like the Jeep had to be parked directly in front of the room he’d rented. Or maybe he’d walked somewhere to get breakfast or something.
But then the door opened, and Jordan stood there, causing a momentary flood of relief to flow through her. He was wearing shorts and a baseball shirt. His expression registered surprise when he saw her. “Hey,” he said, a question in his voice.
“Hi. Um. Lucy asked me to bring this over.” She held the pie higher between them.
A female voice drifted through the doorway, “Who is it?”
As Jordan turned to look toward the person who’d spoken from within his hotel room, the door bounced open enough for Paige to see her. It was the sexy blond woman who’d come into the shop looking for Jordan that first day the treasure hunters had started arriving in Comfort Cove. She’d wanted Jordan to go to the beach bar with her and Cash.
All that flew through Paige’s head in a flash, but it was shoved out of her mind almost immediately by the fact that the woman was wearing a skin-tight V-neck shirt, a short skirt, and a set of handcuffs. Paige dragged her eyes back to Jordan’s face, which had drained of color. He grabbed the door and dragged it toward himself again, blocking Paige’s view of the beautiful woman. “Um . . . we’re just . . . um,” Jordan stammered, his eyes darting to and fro. Then he spoke several words in a rush, as though he’d just thought of what to say. “She and I are rehearsing. Going over lines. It helps if we really get into the scene the way it’ll be done on set. You know, to get into character.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” Paige felt
color rise in her face. She should not have barged into Jordan’s space. Now she’d seen something she got the distinct feeling she was not supposed to have seen. “Sorry to bother you,” she mumbled. “See you tomorrow.”
Paige fled back to her Oldsmobile. She heard the motel door snap shut behind her. She put the key in the ignition, and it wasn’t until she went to put the car into reverse that she realized she still had the apple pie in her hand. And she hadn’t explained at all to Jordan why she was there.
She groaned and put the pie on the passenger seat. That had been a total bust. Of course, maybe she had gained some information from it. What was the gorgeous woman doing in handcuffs—but apparently quite happy—in Jordan Rake’s room?
Paige mulled it over while she drove to her brother’s house. Sunday brunch with them had become a tradition since she’d gotten home from Portofino. Though, every week, she wished for bacon.
When she got in the house, Scott and Sarah were just setting the table. “Hey, you’re right on time,” her brother said. “Grab that chickpea salad, will you?”
Paige picked up the bowl he’d gestured to on her way through to the dining room. They chatted about the weather and sports for a while, but Paige was itching to talk about something meatier as she gazed at the food longingly, wishing for the same thing food-wise.
Finally, she couldn’t stand it for another second. She sent what she hoped was a piercing look toward Scott. “How’s the Conway investigation going?”
He glanced at her but quickly shifted his eyes back to the sweet potato on his fork. “Fine,” he said, stuffing a big bite in his mouth.
Paige narrowed her eyes, aware that he was trying to use a full mouth as an excuse not to elaborate. “Really? You have some suspects, then?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to talk about an active investigation with you,” he said after swallowing.
Paige glared at him, and he met her gaze. “Just don’t trust Jordan too much, okay?”
Paige widened her eyes. “Aha! So Jordan is your main suspect, right?”
Scott sighed and moved food around the plate with his fork. “I didn’t say that,” he grumbled.
“So, why shouldn’t I trust him?” Paige knew she was pushing, but she didn’t care. He was her brother. “Why do you think he’s the murderer?”
Scott set the fork down and leaned his elbows on the table. “Fine. I’ll tell you a little, but it doesn’t go past this room.”
Paige nodded eagerly and leaned forward on her own elbows to be sure she heard everything.
“Conway and his girlfriend, Vanessa Flowers, were seen by several eyewitnesses arguing at the beach bar the evening before he died. Net News ran a story earlier that day suggesting Flowers was cheating on Conway.”
Paige grabbed her phone and punched in the Net News address and then scrolled until she found the story. There, at the top of the piece, which had Jane’s byline, was a picture of the woman she’d just seen in Jordan’s room—the one who had come by the bookstore the day Cash was killed and asked Jordan to meet them at the beach.
Scott was talking again, so she had to put the phone down and focus on him. “Some witnesses also say that Rake and Flowers were at the bar for a while after Conway stormed out. They saw Rake and Flowers leave together.”
Paige chewed her lip for a second, thinking. “So . . . you think Jordan took Vanessa to wherever she was staying, dropped her off, and went back out to find and kill Cash? To get rid of him so he could have Vanessa? Or maybe as some grand gesture to protect her honor?”
Scott shrugged. “There are definitely possible motives there. But I’m not making any moves until I get a report back from forensics.”
Sarah put an arm around Scott’s shoulders. “You’re doing a great job, honey. It’s good you’re being careful on your first big case since the promotion. Especially when this is so high-profile.” She looked at Paige. “The story is all over the national news outlets. Comfort Cove is famous.”
Paige rolled her eyes. “Great thing to be famous for.” She pushed her chair back and grabbed her plate and glass. “Brunch was great,” she said. “I have to get back and feed Casper or he’ll start to eat books.”
After they’d cleaned up and the siblings hugged goodbye, Sarah walked Paige out to the Oldsmobile. Paige filled her sister-in-law in on the morning’s pie debacle. She opened the car door and turned back. “I just wish I knew for sure whether Jordan could be trusted.”
Sarah patted her arm. “I’ll sleep on it again tonight,” she promised. “I’ll come by in the morning and let you know if anything comes of it.”
Paige thanked her, got in the car, and backed out of the driveway. As she drove back toward Beachside Books, thoughts swirled around in her mind like leaves in a windstorm.
Jordan had the motive to kill Cash, but Lucy said he was telling the truth when he said he didn’t. And Paige believed him. But she also knew he was lying about something. What was he hiding? And if he hadn’t killed Cash Conway, there was another killer on the loose in Comfort Cove. Who was it, and was Cash’s murder a one-off job or were there others in the killer’s crosshairs?
Maybe Scott was right. Perhaps she should leave the murder-solving to the professionals. After the fiasco at the motel, she wouldn’t be surprised if Jordan just quit.
Chapter 11
The yawns just wouldn’t stop coming, one after the other. Paige had known it was a bad idea to stay up so late, but she’d been writing. The words had been flowing, so she’d been reluctant to quit. She was determined to see her novel through to the end. It didn’t matter much to her that most people she’d told the premise to had given her a strange perplexed look before quickly smoothing their facial muscles out and trying to look interested. Okay, maybe a romance about a beggar and a nun fighting against incredible odds for the right to be together in eighteenth-century England wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But the book was going to get done regardless of how many late nights she had to pull.
Still, her feet were dragging as she descended the attic stairs, using the railing for once so she didn’t stumble. When she saw Jordan standing outside the front door peeking in, she hurried her steps. “You’re early this morning,” she said around another yawn when she opened the door.
“Yeah, I just wanted to be sure there was time for me to tell you I’m sorry I didn’t invite you in when you came to see me yesterday. I should have introduced you to Vanessa.”
Paige dropped her eyes, remembering the pretty woman’s handcuffs. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I shouldn’t have shown up unannounced.” She walked around the end of the checkout counter to unlock the cash register and get ready for the day’s business to begin.
Jordan stayed on the other side of the counter but leaned on it, toward her, and shook his head. “I just felt awkward,” he said.
Paige almost snorted. He felt awkward? How did he think she’d felt?
“Your brother seems to think I killed Cash.” Jordan’s tone was soft but blunt. “I guess I thought you might feel the same way.”
Paige met his eyes. “It’s okay. I did want to talk about the murder, but I totally shouldn’t have stopped by like that.”
Jordan straightened up. “Do you still have that pie?”
A short laugh erupted from Paige’s lips. “Yes. Do you want some?”
“I’ve been thinking about it ever since you drove away with it yesterday. The one Lucy gave me before was the best pie I’ve ever had. I dreamed about it last night and woke up in a puddle of drool.”
Chuckling, Paige nodded. “I’ll get it for you.” She jogged up the stairs, feeling more energetic as her heart pounded with excitement. The pie had truth serum in it. She was going to get the chance to question Jordan about his part in Cash Conway’s murder after all. She grabbed the pie off the counter in her kitchenette, along with a paper plate, a knife, and a fork, and carried them all back downstairs.
Jordan stood at the front count
er and dug into the thick slice of pie Paige served him. “You know,” he said, his mouth full, “Vanessa and I really were running lines. She’s helping me get ready for my play.”
“You’re going to be in a play?” Paige was itching to start asking him questions related to the murder, but she had no idea how long it would take the serum to kick in after he swallowed it.
“Yeah.” He took another big bite of pie. Jordan certainly wasn’t standing on the ceremony of not talking with his mouth full at the moment. Paige was glad. She didn’t have time to waste on him being polite while she was on a strict timetable for the truth serum to work. “That’s why I’m here this summer. I got a part in a play at Wave Crest Theater. It’s the main role, and I have a lot of lines to memorize.” He took another bite. Paige glanced at his plate. He was mowing through the piece fast. The serum must be working by now.
“That’s really nice of her to help you practice,” Paige said as quickly as possible. “She must be a good friend. I remember when she came in here that first day and wanted you to go down to the beach and hang out with her and Cash. Did you go?” Paige paused and then decided, to be sure about the results of the serum, she should ask the most direct questions possible. She added, “Were you and Vanessa together the night of the murder?”
He glanced up at her but then focused right back on his plate. “Yeah,” he answered. “She texted me. Said she and Cash had been fighting and he’d left her at the bar. Wanted me to come be with her. So I went.”
“Because the two of you are friends,” Paige prompted.
Jordan nodded, his mouth downturned as he looked mournfully at the empty plate. “She didn’t want to go back to the hotel room she was sharing with Cash, so I let her stay in mine.” He glanced up again. “I slept on the pull-out couch.” Jordan wiped his mouth with a piece of paper towel Paige handed him. “She’s only in town still because the police asked her to stay while they finish the investigation.”
