A Fatal Visit (A Harbor Cove Cozy Mystery Book 1) (9 page)

Chapter Twelve

Chicken boiled in a pot on the stove, filling the kitchen with its aroma. Clue lay under the table at Skyler’s feet. Walking over to the stove, she dipped a wooden spoon into the pot and blew on the liquid that came out on it before tasting.

“Hmm. Not yet.”

It had become a ritual on a Sunday night. Skyler would prepare food and freeze it to eat on the nights she’d been working all day. She sat back down at the table, her open laptop.
Ladyfingers
, she mused. Her mother was still convinced that it was Dustin who had killed Chase. Apparently she’d woken Nichole up with a phone call (Skyler herself was far too heavy a sleeper to have been woken) explaining how she’d solved it, and how she could link it directly back to Dustin. Skyler, however, was simply not convinced. As Nichole had said, Dustin lacked any kind of motive. Aubrey seemed the far likelier suspect.

“Ladyfingers. What does that mean?” She sighed and tapped at her laptop keys absently. “Am I just being ridiculous, Clue?”
You’re talking to the dog again, so probably
, a small part of her brain said.

Picking up the printed pictures, she shuffled through them. She came back to the blurred one, and Clue barked.

“What is it, girl? Something in this picture?”
You’re not just ridiculous; you’ve actually gone mad.
She examined the picture. At the edge of it there was a woman’s hand. “Lady’s finger!” On the finger was a ring, and it looked to be an engagement ring. “And it was Aubrey that pushed past me...” She chewed on the information, and Clue sat up, watching her. A spark hit her brain and her eyes widened. “Did Chase propose? If Aubrey said yes…”

Clue stood up and shuffled toward the back door, and then she started pacing back and forth.

“I’ll let you out in a minute, girl. Calm down.” The dog whined.

Momma Avery looked behind her and then shook her head. She could have sworn she’d heard footsteps. It was late; her book club had run over because everyone had been excited about a new release they’d just finished. Because she’d wanted to be home quicker, she’d taken a shortcut across a small park.

The streetlamps were in disrepair, and the pools of light along the path were irregular. She walked between the occasionally flickering circles of orange. It was difficult to tell if the rustles in the bushes were caused by the wind or by something else. Momma Avery quickened her pace. The wind blew some errant leaves across the path. Reaching the edge of the park, she took a deep breath.
You’re just being silly, Mary Beth.
She took a step toward the sidewalk.

A hand covered her mouth and she was dragged backward. She kicked, she screamed. Cold metal pressed against her temple: the barrel of a gun.

Skyler connected Chase’s phone to her laptop and began to flick through the photos again. Her eyes landed on a picture that she had seen before, of Chase and Aubrey with Charlotte, but the higher resolution of the laptop revealed something she hadn’t noticed previously. Reflected in a window behind them, taking the picture, was a familiar face with long blond hair and blue eyes. As she clicked to zoom in on the face, Clue began to growl and bark repeatedly.

Glass shattered at the sound of a gunshot, and Skyler dove behind the stove. A hand pushed through the ruined window and reached for the dead bolt of the door. Clue jumped and attempted to bite it, but the door had already opened. Bryson Everett Myers was pulling his hand away from the angry Newfoundland, who he pushed away with a vicious grimace. He entered the room, pulling Momma Avery behind him. In one hand he held a pistol.

Footsteps pounded along the corridor, and Nichole appeared in the kitchen doorway. Clocking Bryson’s gun, she held her hands up. With effort, she kept her gaze trained on Bryson and away from Skyler.

Her voice had a hint of a quaver when she spoke. “What’s going on? What are you doing, Bryson?”

“Shut up. Sit down.” Nichole did as instructed.

He pushed Momma Avery into a chair as well. Skyler, clutching her phone, set it to voice record.

“Where’s the other one?” he demanded in a low grumble.

“She’s working late at the office. Big story. Or something like that…I think.”

Momma Avery clutched at Nichole, weeping as tears streamed from her eyes. “I was wrong. I was wrong…. I put all my faith in him, for nothing.” She sobbed, burying her head in her hands.

Nichole looked up, scorn on her face. “You killed him. Your own brother? Why?”

“
I
loved her. And Chase was taking her away.” He spat out his brother’s name. “He’d already had his chance.” He paused, waving the gun in the air. “You know what it’s like being from a millionaire family? You
never
know if someone likes you or just wants your money. When I dressed like a bum, people took me for who I was…people like Aubrey… and people like you, Mary Beth.” He cast his eyes to her, but she refused to look at him.

Grabbing her chin, he turned her to face him and bent down to her. “It could have all been different, you know. But you and these
little girls
wouldn’t stop meddling. Wouldn’t stop talking to people, like they talked to Aubrey in the park. So I
had
to play up to it. Act like poor little Bryson needed your help. I mean, how else would I have found out what you were up to?” He thrust Momma Avery’s face away from him. “I just need to get rid of the people who are so hell-bent on revealing all of our secrets, just like I got rid of Chase.
Then
we can be together. Aubrey will realize what I have done for her.”

Silence fell in the kitchen. Skyler’s phone chose that moment to inform everyone of its low battery. Everyone started, and Bryson’s gun fired, the shot skimming past Momma Avery’s ear and shattering another window behind her head. Bryson aimed the gun toward Skyler.

“Come out—AAAH!” He screamed in pain, as Clue had sprung out from under the kitchen table and sunk her teeth into the hand holding the gun. He dropped it, and it skittered across the floor.

Skyler kicked it behind her and grabbed the pot from the stove. “One move, and its third degree burns to your face.” Bryson sank to the floor and began to cry. Nichole took out her phone and dialed the police. “Mom, there’s a tow rope in the chest in the living room. I think we might need it.”

Former beach bum-come-millionaire Bryson Everett Myers had collapsed into a heap on their floor. He sobbed and mumbled to himself. Tears had streaked her face with lines of mascara, but Momma Avery pulled the ropes tight around his wrists.

Epilogue

Desserts of the World had offered the town’s newest heroes (at least, Dustin had declared them as such) a free meal. They pushed through the door, shaking droplets of water from their umbrellas and hanging their coats on pegs by the door. They took a seat. The whole place was filled with the smell of baking cookies and cakes. Most of the booths were filled with people; the new desert restaurant was proving to be popular. Dustin walked over to their booth to serve them personally.

“And what can I get you three?”

Momma Avery glanced at Nichole and Skyler. “I think we’ve all agreed on chocolate chili cake.” His smile broadened.

“Aubrey Perkins was the key to all this,” Skyler said. “I don’t think we would’ve figured that out without your little clue.”

“I knew he was…a little obsessed with her. But I guess I was too scared to tell you directly. And I didn’t know for certain whether or not he had
actually
done it.” He scratched his head. “Sorry about that.”

“We got there in the end,” Nichole reassured him. “Maybe just a little bit late.”

“I’d best get to making your food! Still new here, and I want to make recurring customers out of you.” He winked and headed back to the kitchen.

“What a pleasant young man,” Momma Avery commented.

Skyler rolled her eyes. Dustin arrived a few moments later with their cake, and they all tucked in.

Between bites, Nichole asked, “So, think you’ll spin a good story out of this?”

Skyler blinked. “I completely forgot I was writing an article.”

Momma Avery and Nichole both began to laugh, and Skyler eventually joined in. They finished their desert and stuck around to enjoy coffee at Dustin’s insistence. The rain outside had quelled, and the sun had broken out from behind the clouds. The door opened, and a familiar face came into the restaurant.

Aubrey walked over to their table. “I have a thank you, which I owe all of you.” She took a moment and breathed in and out. “Chase wasn’t what I needed. But it gives me closure to know that his killer is facing justice. And when Charlotte’s old enough I can tell her that too.” She looked around at them. “I’ve decided that I’m going to get my degree.”

~~~

Momma Avery’s living room felt cold. Picking up the firelighter from its place on the hearth, she set the coals to burning. There was the slight throb of a headache forming in the back of her skull, so she sat down on the couch. A great heaving sigh pushed its way out of her lungs.
I’m exhausted.

She picked up the frame lying on her coffee table, the one that contained a picture of Skyler. The one that had been a gift from Bryson.
When he gave me this, I was overwhelmed. He had nothing, yet he still wanted to show his appreciation. Oh, I’m such a fool.
A few tears dropped down her cheeks and rolled off her chin. The gift tag in her hand was simple, cut out of brown paper, and it had been tied to the gift with twine. Bryson’s handwriting was scratchy; the letters were blocks. Her hands prepared to rip the thing in two, but she refrained.
You can choose to believe this was from a different man, Mary Beth. That this was from a good man.

Another sigh broke through her lips as she clutched the small paper object. After a moment or two, she slotted it inside the picture frame, which she picked up and placed back on the windowsill.

She rose, intending to go upstairs to bed, and a thought struck her that made her wince.

I’m going to have to apologize to Hester Cole
. She shuddered at the very thought.

~~~

Article submitted, Skyler sat back in her desk chair. The sun was setting outside her window, and the occasional fluffy white cloud rolled past it. She changed windows on her laptop screen and began to type a post on her blog.

“A small town was rocked by the death of an out-of-town millionaire, and I found myself embroiled in the mystery. In an attempt to reclaim some semblance of a love life for myself, I found myself sitting in a restaurant across from a man I found incredibly boring. He left to go to the bathroom and came back a shaken mess. I later ran into him again, and he wasn’t quite the person I’d assumed he was—or at least, he wasn’t the person he’d been before he’d seen the body of Chase Myers lying on a bathroom floor.

I’m left thinking about the effect a single person can have on our entire life. Chase’s death had a huge impact on a stranger, on a man he never knew.  My mother’s faith in a trusted friend was totally obliterated, and I found myself doubting my abilities when at every turn it seemed I was making no progress. When the killer was revealed, assumptions were turned on their heads. I think that shows that we only ever really know about a person what they’re willing to show us. I’m reaching at some wider revelation here, but I can’t quite grasp that closing statement that would tie all of my thoughts and feelings together. It seems unfair to say that you can’t put your faith in anyone completely, because as humans we want to be able to do that. Perhaps I’ll simply leave it at this: don’t be blinded by assumptions. Learn and grow, and don’t be limited by them.

The philosophizing bent of my thoughts is probably evident here, but I guess that’s just the frame of mind I’m in. Back to regular blog posting soon. Keep reaching for the truth, blog readers.

-Skyler.”

She hit publish and stood.
What’s next, Harbor Cove?

~~~

Find out what Skyler discovers in book 2 of The Harbor Cove Mysteries! Coming Soon!

To find out when Emily Page has new books available and to get exclusive free ebooks sign up here:
http://bit.ly/1GopnOL