Beachside Murder (A Team Gossip Cozy Mystery Book 1) Read online

  “Yes, Megs.” April joined in with a playful grin. “Does it mean that you’re no longer interested in Nathan?”

  “April.” Aunt Agnes had noticed the strategy and decided to defend me. “You can’t be so aggressive with men. You’ll intimidate them.”

  April preferred not to complain or to talk about her own life. The best strategy against my aunt and her friends was to avoid confrontation.

  Ivy stared at the cookies in front of her. “Mind if I take one?” she said.

  I told her to go ahead, but Flora complained that she wasn’t supposed to eat so much sugar. The two sisters started arguing about the consequences of having high blood sugar. Ivy didn’t care about her sister’s or the doctor’s opinions and ate the cookie nevertheless. She only ate one to keep her conscience cleaner and her sister quieter.

  “And how do you know about Meghan’s mysterious jogger?” April said. “We’ve only seen him twice.”

  I hadn’t had the chance to tell anyone about their hearing aids, so it must’ve been shocking for April.

  Ivy laughed to herself but didn’t say a word. Aunt Agnes explained their strategy and April stared at them in awe. She wanted to become like then when she grew older: they were full of life and full of interesting ideas.

  “They’re surprisingly useful,” Flora said. “I can watch TV without anyone hearing me.”

  “And you can use them as directional microphones if you know what you’re doing,” Ivy added.

  “And you learn many interesting facts about our neighbors…” Aunt Agnes said.

  “And we can share them with the world,” Aunt Etta said. “We should start a local newspaper. It would be more interesting than the silly and useless world news that papers bring these days.”

  “The Team Gossip Times,” Aunt Agnes said.

  Team Gossip? That’s the name Nathan had given them. But he’d talked about it with me, not with anyone else.

  “Wait a minute,” I complained. “Are you spying on me?”

  “We may sometimes overhear conversations,” Flora said.

  “― completely accidentally, of course,” Ivy said.

  “And we’re like the doctor,” Aunt Agnes said. “We try to keep our findings confidential.”

  “― except for what we don’t keep confidential,” Ivy continued.

  “We liked Team Gossip,” Aunt Agnes said. “It sounds like a brand.”

  “An expensive and popular brand,” Ivy said.

  “I love it!” April clapped excitedly and clasped her mouth with her hands. “The spying senior neighbors―”

  “― What do you mean with senior,” all four said in unison.

  “I meant retired,” April said.

  The four of them raised their eyebrows with incredulity, but preferred not to pursue the topic any further.

  “We’ll need business cards,” Aunt Agnes said to break the ice.

  “And a logo!” Ivy said excitedly.

  They continued planning their brand, their newspaper, and even considered hiring someone to make a website for their brand. April’s eyes were wide open and she looked from one of them to another, then to another, and to the fourth one. All four of them were a whirlwind, and she wasn’t used to them.

  No wonder that they’d terrified the captain. And Nathan.

  I was somewhat scared too.

  Chapter 24

  I told Nathan about Brittany and how she’d turned pale when someone had broken into her room and emptied the safe shortly after Parrish had been murdered. I hadn’t remembered the scene until recently, and I’d used a trip to Corton to drop by and tell the inspector. Nathan had noticed me and offered to interview me instead.

  “And you didn’t remember this small detail until today?” Nathan walked around his desk and sat on it a few feet away from me. “Do you realize that I can claim that you’ve had something to do with the case?” He was acting like a tough police inspector who wanted to squeeze information from one of the witnesses, but he should’ve smiled less to intimidate me.

  He’d been strange during most of the conversation, a mixture between uncomfortable and overconfident. He swapped from one mood to the other within seconds and looked at my eyes very rarely. I didn’t blame him, though. We sometimes acted like the teens we’d once been and forgot that grown-ups usually require more personal space between them.

  He said that he looked dumb acting like a bad cop, and sat back down. He updated me about Russo, who could be innocent because he’d had a pet that needed the drug he’d bought from the pharmacist, and he’d had an embarrassing alibi that he hadn’t wanted to share. Nathan didn’t give me any details, but he chuckled to himself and avoided eye contact. It must’ve been funny as well as embarrassing. Nathan couldn’t understand how Russo had acted as if he were guilty, but at least the police had proved that he wasn’t as guilty as he looked.

  I still didn’t know if I’d delayed the investigation or given time to the culprit to disappear by not telling the police about Brittany immediately. What if a murderer roamed freely around town?

  “Don’t worry about the safe.” Nathan sometimes managed to read my mind. “We’d suspected about Brittany and Parrish’s family all along, and we’d been looking for his documents in case he’d taken a secret to his grave. Someone might be after his fortune, but they might also be after his business.”

  Several loud and cheerful voices caught our attentions.

  I knew those voices.

  Nathan stood up and walked to the windows in his office that faced the corridors to see them better. I joined him.

  Team Gossip had entered the police station and were distracting some of the agents outside, asking questions and splitting into different strike groups. Their organization was as perfect as if they’d dedicated their lives to breaking into police stations to make cops go mad.

  “I should’ve imagined it.” Nathan sounded shocked and angry. “I’m dumb, and they’re evil masterminds. They’ve asked me to drive them here to go shopping, and I was gullible enough to do so. Shaw is going to kill me if he sees them here.” He opened the door and headed outside.

  Nathan was very tense, but we had to tip our hats to them. Team Gossip had proved their bravery by going to the police station. If they didn’t get enough news at Greensea, they knew how to get more first-hand information. Nathan was going to get in trouble, but my aunt and her friends only sought to have some fun.

  At our expense.

  A young inspector was trying to keep Team Gossip at bay. He looked scared and tried to tell them not to get close to his desk or enter any of the offices without permission. They were particularly interested in the case files and the captain’s office, but they didn’t mind if they could get information related to other neighbors.

  Flora noticed us walking out of Nathan’s office and quickly blocked our path. “Nathaniel! Meghan!” she said with a broad smile. “How nice to see you here. Is this a date? Are you trying to keep your relationship secret? Why do you have your dates in the police station instead of going to a park or having a picnic?”

  “No!” Nathan and I said simultaneously.

  “This is no date,” I said.

  “It’s related to the murder,” Nathan said.

  “Oh,” she said excitedly, “you’re so cute when you both talk at once. Do you practice? Have you agreed to deny everything? Are you planning to go steady? Will you live in Meghan’s house, or will you look for another home?”

  She kept asking questions, but she wasn’t interested in getting any answers. She mentioned Vincent and said that she didn’t like him or his clothes, and that Nathan had always dated dumb girls who couldn’t even spell their names. She glanced back at the others, but she’d trapped us and didn’t plan to let go of anyone.

  It was a diversion tactic.

  The detectives didn’t dare to kick a group of respectable seniors out of the station. Team Gossip used their image as brittle old ladies in their favor. While Aunt Etta asked a youn
g agent some questions, Ivy looked through the files on his desk. Aunt Agnes had somehow learned enough about computers to use a computer to find whatever they were looking for. They never stopped talking and asking questions, so everyone in the office was too overwhelmed to notice what they were doing.

  Nathan walked past Flora and snatched the files out of Ivy’s hands. “This is not public information,” he said. “And the police station is no library.” He told my aunt to leave the computer and told the young detectives to stand up to his aunt and stop answering questions.

  “Girls,” Ivy said. “I think we’ve confused ourselves again. We’ve come to Nathaniel’s workplace.” She stared at Nathan with a half-grin. “We’re a group of old ladies and our sight and hearing aren’t like they used to be. I would’ve eventually noticed, but these files were just like a good fiction book.”

  “It’s a pity that you don’t make the door signs clearer,” Aunt Agnes joined in. “We would’ve saved you the trouble.”

  “But we can stay around and chat while we’re here,” Aunt Etta said. “It looks like you aren’t having a busy day.”

  “No.” Nathan gestured at them to leave. “This is where I work, and I can’t allow anyone to roam freely and read our internal reports. And this is the last time I drive you anywhere if you’re planning to use me for one of your plans.” He wasn’t annoyed; he was desperate because he knew his aunt and her friends.

  “Using you for our plans?” Aunt Etta said innocently. “How can you think thus about us?”

  “We’re poor and innocent retirees,” Flora added.

  “And you’re becoming grumpier since you’ve started working here,” Aunt Agnes said.

  “Are you eating enough fiber?” Ivy asked. “Because I have fiber-rich cereals, and you can come and have breakfast at our place whenever you like. A good intestinal health improves your mood.”

  Nathan glanced at each of them incredulously. They’d taken over the police station, and they’d soon take over the world if he didn’t stop them. “Out,” he said. “Now. Don’t make me call the inspector.”

  “Oh,” Ivy said cheerfully. “How’s Joshua?”

  Nathan took a deep breath. His face hardened. He was no longer amused.

  The others hurried Ivy away and told her that Nathan wasn’t in the mood for jokes. I heard her mention fiber and suggestions to improve his diet.

  Those four were going to cause more trouble than any of us had imagined.

  Chapter 25

  “They’ve found the pentobarbital in the hotel,” Aunt Agnes said excitedly as they left the police station. I followed them in case they decided to go back. “Carlo Russo had bought all the pills including the ones with a photo-manipulated prescription, but they were unopened.”

  “He has a ranch and he was planning to use them with his animals,” Ivy added. “I couldn’t get the address, but it must be true if the reports mentioned the ranch.”

  “What about you, Meghan?” Aunt Etta asked. “What have you found out?”

  Whoops. I’d spent a while with Nathan, but I hadn’t gone there to get any information from him. And besides, I wouldn’t tell them even I’d learned something interesting. I’d only left the station so hurriedly to give Nathan and his colleagues the chance to recover and track damages. Team Gossip was becoming unstoppable.

  “She hasn’t found out anything interesting,” Aunt Agnes said with a know-it-all voice. “Even if Nathaniel has told her something, she’s probably spent the time thinking about his square jaw. Can’t you see that they’re both young and single?”

  “Hey!” I complained. “I can chat with Nathan without forgetting everything.”

  “Prove it,” Ivy said.

  I opened my mouth to speak, but―

  It’s a trap!

  “I don’t have anything to share,” I said, grinning broadly at them. I was starting to get used to Team Gossip and their strategies.

  “Your niece is becoming very confrontational,” Aunt Etta told Aunt Agnes. “Almost as uncooperative as my Nathaniel.”

  “We should’ve taken one of the detectives with us,” Flora said. “They’re easy to interrogate once we drill them with hundreds of questions.”

  Ivy laughed loudly. “Did you see their faces? If Nathaniel hadn’t been there, we would’ve read through all their historical archives if we’d wanted to.”

  “Poor things,” Aunt Agnes said. “Did you see how scared they were?”

  They laughed and continued criticizing the younger generations. They claimed that young people those days were very easy to manipulate and scare as long as you acted like a respectable senior. All four of them were becoming even more energetic with their recent extreme missions: the adrenaline of breaking into the police station was knocking decades off them.

  They spoke about Carlo Russo, the former prime suspect whose guilt had disappeared now that the police had found the drugs untouched. Nathan had always considered the man innocent, but procedures had required them to lock him up for a few days. All four ladies seemed pleased that he’d finally returned to the hotel and that nobody wanted to accuse him of killing anyone.

  “He was such a polite and elegant man,” Flora said. “I didn’t want to believe that he was a soulless murderer.”

  “It made us lose hope on humanity,” Aunt Agnes said.

  “He’s rich as well as elegant,” Aunt Etta added.

  “At our age,” Ivy explained, “wealth is included in elegance and looks.” She laughed to herself. “We can’t get too picky about looks, and younger men can’t catch up with us; they lack the energy.”

  “And you can get men our age to do whatever you want!” Flora said.

  “That’s why they’re more tolerable now than 20 years ago!” Ivy laughed in her classic hey, hey, hey.

  They continued teasing each other, joking about men, and commenting on their findings. They would’ve made incredible private investigators.

  The police had looked for fingerprints in Brittany’s room to see if anyone had entered. They’d only found prints from the cleaners, from the people who had stayed in the room, and a mysterious fingerprint that nobody had been able to identify. They were particularly interested in this last mystery.

  “I don’t think it’s the murderer,” Aunt Agnes said. “It’s too obvious. It’s more likely that someone entered the room without permission. Have they looked for signs of Vincent? I’d bet that he’s visited Brittany’s room more than once.”

  “They have,” Ivy said. “This is someone else. It can be a second Vincent we don’t know about, or simply one of Parrish’s friends.”

  “What if the murderer broke into the room and opened the safe?” Flora asked.

  “And only left one fingerprint behind?” Aunt Agnes rolled her eyes. “I doubt it. Whoever entered the room was wearing gloves. They’ve opened the safe and looked through everything. They can’t just have left one fingerprint. They’d have touched many more objects.”

  “Or maybe the investigators aren’t doing their jobs properly,” Ivy said. “Nathan’s love-struck and the captain is scared of getting too close to us. And have you seen the younger detectives? They can’t even control us when we look through their files. How are they going to act at work?”

  “Ivy,” Flora said, “you criticize young professionals too much.”

  “I’m not criticizing them,” Ivy said. “I’m just saying that they’re still too green to find the culprit. If we don’t help them out and pressure them to solve the case soon, they won’t solve anything before the Sand & Sea shuts down.”

  “You four are starting to scare me,” I said. “Nathan is terrified of you, and I can see why.”

  “Why?” Ivy asked innocently.

  “We’re Team Gossip,” Flora added. “What do you expect us to do? Lose our rights to the name?”

  “Or let the investigators do their job?” Aunt Agnes said. “They aren’t fit for the task.”

  They all laughed as if they’d pra
cticed defending their procedures. I wasn’t going to complain, though. The more people who worked on the case, the sooner we’d solve it and find the culprit. My family business wasn’t going to survive for much longer.

  As if their findings hadn’t been enough, they’d discovered even more details about the investigation. The victim’s brothers had died a few years before, but he still had some nephews and a niece. Out of his living family, he was closest to his nephew Phillip, who worked for him. He rarely saw the others, but they sometimes talked over the phone.

  Phillip lacked an alibi and was always stressed out. My aunt’s friends considered him somewhat slow, and the detectives hadn’t liked his contradictions during the interview. He was a suspect since several days before, but they hadn’t accused him formally yet.

  The other relatives had been discarded as suspects. Mary was studying a master’s degree in London, Sean worked in Switzerland, and Adam had recently got a job in New York. They would soon fly to Corton to read Parrish’s will, but the police didn’t link any of them to the case.

  Aunt Agnes had also discovered more information about Phillip and his relationship to the crime. One of the neighbors had seen him in Greensea the day when Parrish had died. He’d walked close to the Sand & Sea several times. The police suspected of him because of Parrish’s upcoming marriage and his presence in the region. He lacked an alibi and had enough motives, so he wasn’t allowed to leave town for a while.

  We reached my car and they entered it. Aunt Agnes, Aunt Etta and Flora sat on the back, and Ivy sat beside me. Nathan was going to thank me for taking them home, but I wasn’t sure if I’d regret it. I didn’t have any secret files in my car, so nothing could go wrong.

  Could it?

  Ugh. I guess it could. This was Team Gossip in all its glory; they always found something interesting to use against everyone.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if Phillip’s done.” Ivy drank from an invisible bottle in the air, meaning that he had drinking problems.

  “He stopped drinking when he started working for Billy-Bob,” Flora explained. “But he hadn’t finished school or gone to college. He was like a large paperweight.”