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

  “Good idea.” Flora took Lord James from Ivy and placed him on her lap.

  “You can give details once he’s distracted,” Ivy whispered.

  Lord James raised his gaze and met hers. He was trying to make a point and prove that he didn’t plan to get distracted, but Flora scratched his head and he quickly gave up. Seconds later, he jumped out of Flora’s lap and ran into the rest of the house. I didn’t mind that Team Gossip brought him with them, but he was like a nosy kid: you never know which room he’d sneak into.

  Still, they always used him as a distraction. If I went to supervise him, they’d use the chance to look at my stuff. The dog was less dangerous than the four of them.

  Kicking them out would’ve been useless because they’d have come back in sooner or later, so I invited them to some drinks and took out the cookies they’d taken to the police station. They were pleased to see them and suggested organizing coffee hours at my home because it was very comfortable and much more modern than any of theirs.

  Even though they’d imposed their company on me, at least they updated me with some of their findings. They were even ahead of Nathan in some areas. They’d chased after Parrish’s and Brittany’s legal advisors and talked to them. Despite confidentiality agreements with their clients, they’d distracted some, chatted with others, and they’d finally managed to read Parrish’s most recent will.

  “We’ve even talked to Phillip,” Flora explained. “He wasn’t too eager to talk with us, but he knew about the new will.”

  Ivy laughed to herself with her classic hey, hey, hey. “We can make everyone talk.”

  “I still want him to explain many details,” Aunt Agnes said. “He was in town and near the hotel during the crime. What was he doing there?”

  “And did he want to get anywhere near Parrish?” Aunt Etta said. “He was included in the new will.”

  “Was he after the inheritance?” Ivy said.

  The others nodded and chatted amongst them. Aunt Agnes and Flora thought that Phillip was dumb, but he hadn’t killed Parrish to inherit. If he was after the money, he could’ve done it years before or years later. Ivy thought that maybe the possibility of losing the money could’ve made him act impulsively and murder his own family. Aunt Etta was living in her own world, and she kept talking about the legal advisors’ offices.

  After talking to Phillip, they’d approached Brittany and questioned her. They’d discovered that her romance with Vincent had lasted for much longer than any of us had assumed: they’d been lovers since before she’d dated Parrish and since before Vincent had dated me. They wanted her to catch an old and rich husband and keep much of his wealth after his death. Parrish met all their requirements: he was old, he owned businesses with hundreds of workers, and he had many homes and manors.

  Brittany had managed to get an introduction to Parrish during a charity fundraiser. She and Vincent had planned her behavior to catch the old man: she’d measured her words to seem less flirty, she’d learned about all his hobbies, and she’d played hard to get. Parrish had had no options: he’d assumed that he’d conquered Brittany with his personality rather than his wallet.

  Brittany had suggested Parrish the week-long trip to Greensea to soften him up and to give him the chance to propose. It had been Vincent’s plan all along. He’d followed them everywhere in New York, but he couldn’t move to a small town for a few days without a reason. He needed to move freely around a hotel, and the easiest way to do so was flirting with someone who worked at the largest hotel in town: me. He’d even considered April, but she was far more explosive and less predictable than me. I was a stable and foreseeable choice, my house was closer to the hotel, and I was an easier catch.

  It explained his sudden interest in Greensea and the way he’d shown an interest in me.

  And I had been dumb enough to fall for him.

  Vincent had been eager to date me. Too eager. He’d met me at my favorite cafe in New York. I’d been trying to describe my favorite coffee with a dash of chocolate and cinnamon, but a waiter had insisted that they didn’t prepare that kind of beverages. I’d drunk it for months at the same cafe, but he’d been headstrong. Vincent had approached him, taken him aside, and convinced him to ask someone else about my drink. He’d been incredible: handsome, confident, and very persuasive. He’d joined me at my table and it had seemed natural, but it had been a plot designed by him.

  He’d moved our relationship faster than I’d expected, but he’d been so eager to go steady that I’d let his looks and confidence blind my better judgment. I’d sometimes noticed small details that hadn’t been quite right about him. I’d had bad hunches, I’d noticed anomalies in his facial expressions, and I’d been stupid enough to ignore everything that my brain had noticed.

  If Parrish hadn’t died, Vincent had planned to get my money too by convincing me to sell the shares grandma had left me, and then taking the money and running away.

  “Don’t worry,” Flora said. “Your aunt also fell for several idiots during her youth, and she’s outgrown it quite well.”

  Aunt Agnes pursed her lips together. She was annoyed, but she was trying not to show it.

  “It only caused her a couple of premature wrinkles,” Ivy said, “but she’s fine.”

  They were trying to distract me to hide their sources. They did it very often, but it wasn’t going to work. Not this time.

  “How did Brittany tell you everything?” I asked.

  “She wanted to prove that Vincent wasn’t the mastermind behind their plan,” Aunt Agnes said. “And egos are the easiest way to get people to talk.”

  “If only cops knew half of what we know…” Ivy laughed to herself.

  Lord James ran into the room with one of my favorite slippers in his mouth. He was chewing it and destroying it.

  “No, Lord James!” I tried to take the slipper from his mouth, but he dodged me and ran between my legs.

  Team Gossip laughed and tried to catch him too, but this was a game for them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d plotted this with Lord James to avoid revealing their tricks. They took Lord James with them and left, excusing themselves for breaking my slipper and promising to make more cookies for Nathan and me.

  Chapter 34

  “Your taste in men is even worse than I’d thought.” Nathan chuckled to himself and dropped onto my couch. He was enjoying the tale of Vincent and Brittany, and he was even in the mood to joke about it. “So Vincent wasn’t just cheating on you; he was using you as an excuse to supervise Brittany’s operations, and he was going to rob you everything you had in the bank. I don’t want to make fun of your heartbreak, but didn’t you suspect anything? Even if it was just a tiny, tiny something?” He sat up and leaned his torso forward to get closer to where I was seated.

  “Shut up.” I threw a pillow at him, and he blocked it with his arms.

  “You’ll have to do much better,” he said. “This is too much fun to shut up. I might’ve dated a few easy and empty-headed girlfriends, but this is too much.” He almost sounded excited that Vincent hadn’t felt anything towards me. No annoyance, no regrets, and lots of relief. I wanted to think that he was interested in me, and that Vincent had intimidated him with his looks. Nathan was now the person with the best-looking romances.

  With Team Gossip’s help, the police now considered Brittany and Vincent their prime suspects. Nobody had been able to find Vincent for days, and they wanted to find him before taking action. Otherwise, approaching Brittany would only scare him away.

  “Why didn’t Aunt Etta tell me everything about it?” he continued. “This is too much fun to keep secret.”

  He could be really selfish at times.

  I raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Okay, okay,” he said. “I’m just trying to be a good friend. I’ll break Vincent’s nose if I ever see him again, and you can bet that I’ll perform background checks on whatever boyfriend you end up choosing. I’m even scared of flirting with you, considering your t
rack record. If you ever show an interest in me again, it might mean that I’m much worse than I’d imagined. You don’t like me, do you?” His voice was playful, teasing.

  I wasn’t annoyed, but did he need to remind me of everything I’d done wrong with Vincent? I’d just wanted a normal boyfriend, and Vincent had seemed busy and stable enough. Most men I met were too focused on having fun, and I’d wanted some seriousness in my life.

  “No, I don’t like you.” I faked some annoyance. I’d felt dumb and used after learning everything about Vincent, but Nathan was making me realize that it was just a silly situation that could’ve happened to anyone. “I don’t like you at all, and you’re about five sentences away from getting kicked out of my house.”

  “Five sentences?” Nathan sat closer to me. His arm brushed against mine, sending an electric shock through my body. He must’ve felt it too, because he froze for an instant.

  He didn’t freeze for long enough to forget that he was teasing me. “That makes one sentence,” he said. “Are you sure that you don’t find me attractive at all?” He ran the tip of a finger along my hand, and he wrapped his other hand around my waist.

  My heart accelerated, and a bolt of electricity traveled through my body.

  Okay, okay, okay. I did feel attracted to him. But who wouldn’t? He was physically perfect, incredibly-looking, and he always had something weird to say.

  “Your pulse’s accelerating,” he teased, “so you’re clearly attracted to me.” He let out a loud laugh and sat back in his place. He raised four fingers in the air and pointed at them with the other hand, signaling that he’d said four sentences.

  Ugh, I sometimes hated him. Hated him as in I’d have married him right there if he hadn’t been so annoyingly unpredictable. If I showed an interest in him, he’d either act overprotective or tell me that he wasn’t Vincent. I was fairly sure that he felt jealous and insecure about Vincent, but he didn’t want to show it.

  When I’d expected all romanticism to have died with Nathan’s joke, I caught him staring at me. He was interested, he was worried that he’d made a wrong move, and he was working hard not to lower his gaze like whenever he was interested in a woman.

  One of the perks of having him as one of my oldest friends was that I could read him like a book.

  He was interested in me.

  Attack, Meghan! Kiss him! He likes you, you like him, and you’re both young and single.

  No, no, no. This wasn’t the time for it.

  Take initiative! This is the 21st Century! Kiss him! He’s begging for a kiss!

  I ignored the voice in my head and focused on the depth of his intense eyes. He gulped slowly; he was as nervous as I was.

  My heart leaped inside my chest, and all blood rose to my forehead. My cheeks burned.

  This wasn’t just the gaze of a man who was interested in me, but of much more than that. He was my friend; I could trust him. I could’ve submerged myself in his gaze for the rest of my life, and it wouldn’t have been a wasted life.

  You’re boring. No wonder that you’re single.

  He noticed my reaction and smiled, glancing down at the couch beside him. He adjusted his position to sit a couple of inches closer to me. I hadn’t wanted to get closer to men after Vincent, but Nathan was different.

  His eyes went from my eyes to my mouth, and then back to the couch.

  How do you ever get close to one of your best friends? And what if something went wrong? I didn’t want to lose him as a friend, but now that we’d started the eye-based romance, we couldn’t stop.

  “Kiss her!” a familiar voice shouted from the garden.

  I knew that voice. Ivy.

  A shadow crossed Nathan’s face, and he scanned the room around us to look for the source.

  Outside one of my living room windows, Team Gossip and Lord James were staring at us without any sign of embarrassment.

  Ivy waved at us cheerfully and gave us two thumbs up. Lord James barked in agreement.

  Nathan groaned and pushed himself several feet away from me, almost to the other end of the couch.

  “Don’t be so boring!” Flora complained.

  “You’re not in a Regency film!” Aunt Agnes said.

  “Oh, what a pretty couple you make!” Aunt Etta clasped both hands by her face and said, Awww!

  Nathan sighed in annoyance, but I think he was as relieved as I was. I wasn’t ready to lose him as a friend, and I hoped that he wasn’t ready to lose me either.

  There was no point in fighting against Team Gossip. If I closed the curtains, they’d find a different way to spy on us. I walked over to the window and opened it.

  “Come here to cheer Meghan up, have you, Nathaniel?” Ivy laughed mischievously to herself with her classic hey, hey, hey.

  “Meghan needs all the support she can get,” Aunt Etta explained. She hadn’t realized that her friends were having fun at our expense.

  “The Sand & Sea was enough for her,” Aunt Agnes said, “but this tale about Vincent…”

  Nathan had left the couch and joined me by the window. His hand brushed gently against mine and he glanced at me seductively.

  “Nathaniel is better boyfriend material, don’t you think?” Flora asked them.

  “Yes, but he’s too grumpy with us,” Aunt Etta said. “He doesn’t want us to learn anything about his personal life.”

  “That’s because you keep―” Nathan began, but the others cut him.

  “And what about his attitude at the police station?” Aunt Agnes said. “Joshua is much nicer to us.”

  “Because he doesn’t know you like I―” Nathan tried again.

  “And why doesn’t he give us any information about the case?” Flora said. “We’re much better at advancing the investigation. We should be getting details before they do.”

  “What does this have to do with―?”

  “Not to mention that he still hasn’t tried anything with her,” Ivy added.

  “He’s full of inhibitions,” Aunt Etta said.

  “And so is she,” Aunt Agnes said.

  Nathan groaned, told them to mind their own businesses, and asked them to give us some privacy for the first time in their lives. He closed the window and shut the blinds, then sighed in relief.

  “We can’t continue meeting here,” he said. “They’re too dangerous.” He hesitated and struggled between leaning forward for a kiss or running away. He finally compromised with a cold and dumb handshake.

  Really? A handshake?

  Chapter 35

  At the restaurant, Derek had trapped Brittany and didn’t plan to let go of her.

  “Do you like your breakfast?” Derek looked over Brittany’s shoulder as she ate. “The chef let me make some of today’s cupcakes. I’ve added extra frosting to yours.” He was very eager to cheer her up, but he wasn’t succeeding.

  Brittany looked bored and replied something inaudible that sounded close to a sigh. She’d spent the first few days as if she’d had no link to the crime. She’d been after Parrish’s money, but it had been insensitive to show no regrets for recent events.

  She hadn’t been arrested yet, and she probably wouldn’t see it coming. The police were after Vincent too, and they wanted to catch them both at once. In the meantime, she remained at the hotel. Most of us were tired of her condescension and her sudden mood changes. Derek still tried to make her feel at home, but it was useless.

  “Don’t be sad,” Derek insisted. “You’re in a beautiful room in the best hotel in town.”

  She didn’t reply and looked elsewhere.

  “You’re feeling better now, aren’t you?” Derek said.

  Derek wasn’t supposed to leave the kitchens: he was just a temporary assistant. He kept breaking the rules and nobody minded, but Brittany seemed more annoyed than usual. She generally remained polite towards him and tolerated his presence, but she was making it obvious that she didn’t want him nearby. He wasn’t reading the signs.

  “I heard you talk t
o Miss Croft’s friend once,” Derek insisted. “You said that you only liked the old man when he was asleep. You don’t need to be with him anymore.”

  Brittany stared at him sternly. She was about to explode and tell him to mind his own business.

  Time for someone else to take over. I approached them and gestured at Derek to move slightly away from Brittany. Pops wanted employees to make everyone feel at home, but he didn’t want anyone to get too familiar.

  Derek looked at me with an annoyed frown. I hadn’t seen him annoyed before. “What?”

  “Antoine needs some help in the kitchens,” I said. “Why don’t you go and help him?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Okay, but I was talking to Brittany.”

  “You can’t spend your shift talking,” I said. “What will Mr. Truman say?”

  He nodded, grumbled a bit, and headed for the kitchens. Antoine was going to hate me for sending him back, but I couldn’t let him buzz around everyone in the restaurant.

  “Why don’t you tell him to keep away from me?” Brittany’s voice was full of resentment. “He gets on my nerves, always trying to talk to me.”

  Okay: Derek could get annoying at times, but he didn’t do it on purpose. He was very outgoing, very nice with everyone.

  “He tries to cheer everyone up,” I said. “He isn’t trying to offend you.”

  “Well he does,” Brittany said. “If he’s too slow to read the signs, you should take him away so that he stops bothering. I don’t care if he’s retarded. He’s disgusting. I have more than enough problems to tolerate anyone else.” She dried an invisible tear with the back of her hand. “I’ll stay elsewhere if you don’t keep him in check.”

  Was she trying to make me feel bad for her? She’d slept with Vincent, she’d gone after Parrish’s money, and she could be a murderer. In fact, I’d be glad if she was the murderer. She and Vincent had used me and taken me for an idiot, and she was selfish and insensitive.

  “I’m sorry,” she quickly added with a quiet and broken voice. “I’m just nervous. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. I don’t care what people think; I’d planned to take care of Parrish during his last years. What if I was going to get some of his money once he died? Women have married rich men for centuries, and they will keep doing so.” She took out a handkerchief from her purse and dabbed it under her eyes to dry them.