Beachside Murder (A Team Gossip Cozy Mystery Book 1) Page 14

  I should’ve rejoiced in her misfortune. I should’ve told her that she deserved everything that came her way.

  Why did I feel bad? Why did I feel any kind of empathy towards her?

  I didn’t try to cheer her up, though. Derek was down and barely raised his gaze from the floor. He deserved everyone’s attentions more than Brittany. He wasn’t a model employee, but he tried very hard. He felt awful whenever someone rudely got rid of him. Lucky that he always recovered equally quickly.

  Chapter 36

  The following days kept everyone very busy. The Sand & Sea regained some of its former glory thanks to Team Gossip and several discounts that we ran to attract new customers. They took it upon themselves to get more people to stay at the hotel and eat at the restaurant. They’d brought their friends and acquaintances, and they’d even advertised us at local art shows, book clubs, and even painting lessons. They were turning the Sand & Sea into a murder mystery and encouraging their senior friends to help us find the culprit.

  Adam and Sean, Parrish’s nephews, dined at the restaurant a couple of days. Tina, who always reminded me of Vincent’s infidelity, sat with them for a while. She was dating Adam since over a year ago. I wouldn’t have guessed it, though: she’d been flirty towards Vincent only a few weeks before.

  Everyone loved Antoine’s food and congratulated us for the restaurant. Several tourists took pictures at the table where Parrish had died, but they preferred not to eat near it. I barely saw April during those days, and Antoine didn’t throw any of his diva tantrums.

  Everything was going well.

  As we were closing the restaurant, I caught Tina talking with someone on her phone. “I can’t do it,” she said.

  Whoever she was speaking to must’ve insisted.

  “I really can’t,” she insisted. “They’d know.”

  My stomach contracted. She was hiding something, and it wasn’t any good for my family’s business.

  She noticed me and quickly hanged up. She greeted me and hurried away.

  I didn’t know what she was up to, but I would find out.

  Chapter 37

  “Calm down,” April told me. “The restaurant was full yesterday. Your grandfather won’t lose everything, and neither will you.” She put on a bright yellow sweater. A nearby waiter who walked past lost his focus and almost bumped onto a wall.

  April had tried to cheer me up since the murder, but we were only getting temporary results. As soon as we slowed down our special offers and Team Gossip found something more fun to do, everyone would stop dining at the restaurant. We couldn’t keep the Sand & Sea open if our regulars didn’t return.

  “We might have to sell out,” I said. “I don’t know how to tell Pops, but the numbers aren’t working.”

  April told me not to worry and said that I was taking everything too seriously. She considered Brittany as guilty as I did, but she trusted the police’s ability to prove it. To her, our lives were close to being perfect again. Instead of worrying about the Sand & Sea, she said that I should be more worried about my inability to find proper boyfriends. Team Gossip had told her everything about Vincent, and she was fairly worried for my self-esteem.

  “We need to find you a man,” she said. “If everyone in town gets to know you as the girl who dates criminals, none of the good catches will ever get anywhere near you.”

  Had she talked to Nathan? She sounded just like him.

  “Where’s your mystery jogger?” April insisted. “Seen any of his sexiness around?”

  Ugh. How could she think about my sexy jogger if we were having trouble at the Sand & Sea?

  “I’m not in the mood for joggers,” I said. “I’ve been unlucky enough with Vincent.”

  I’d been really unlucky with Vincent, but perhaps everyone was right and I needed another attempt. I was unlikely to run into another man like him. And besides, I’d run into Vincent everywhere during the first few days; it had been his plan all along. I rarely saw the jogger, and he didn’t make eye contact or attempt to talk to me. If he’d been interested in meeting me, he’d have approached me directly or made my life easier.

  Perhaps it was time for me to meet someone new.

  But I wasn’t going to tell anyone. If April or Nathan learned about it, Team Gossip would trap my mystery jogger and interrogate him in case he was just another of my bad choices.

  “Mind if I keep him for myself, then?” April said with a wide grin.

  I swear that my best friend’s a witch. She reads minds.

  “No, you can’t keep anyone,” I said. “He’s mine and mine alone.”

  “But he doesn’t let you catch him,” April teased. “What if he isn’t interested?”

  “And what if he is?” I said.

  “You’re such a bad friend,” April said with a wide grin. “He might be the man of my life.”

  Okay, that was enough teasing for now. I wasn’t going to outright marry my mystery runner and have five kids with him, but he might be suitable boyfriend material. For now. I needed time to get to know him.

  I changed topics and April told me about Team Gossip’s latest updates. They hadn’t told her as much as they’d told me, but she was convinced that Brittany was behind the crime. She tried to avoid criticizing Vincent too much or linking him with the crime – if he was the murderer, I’d feel really stupid for falling for him.

  Nobody could prove Brittany’s implication yet. She’d had everything planned for months, and she might’ve seduced Vincent as part of her strategy. Maybe Vincent was just a pawn in her hands, and she was actually a cold-blooded murderer. She hadn’t inherited much money from Parrish, but she hadn’t been aware of the new will until after the murder. She’d also looked horrible after discovering the open safe, but what if she was hiding incriminating material?

  “You couldn’t stop the crime, you know?” April told me. “You couldn’t predict it was going to happen.”

  I couldn’t, but I could try to solve the crime sooner. If Brittany had something to do with the murder, I wanted her to pay for it. I was going to find out whatever she was hiding.

  Okay, I might’ve wanted her to pay too for stealing my boyfriend. She’d opened my eyes and let me see the real Vincent, but I was still slightly resentful. Just slightly.

  Chapter 38

  “Bahamas or Sicily?” Pops showed me two travel guides and a map with several pins and post-it notes. He’d tried not to worry about the resort, so he’d focused on planning a long holiday somewhere. He was taking the murder and our losses much better than me. He was a seasoned businessman, and it showed.

  “Either is fine.” I didn’t pay much attention to his travel plans. I’d hoped to catch him in his office and to talk about the crime and about our future. I really didn’t want to talk about tourism.

  “Don’t worry about the hotel or the restaurant,” Pops told me. “We’ll struggle for a while, we’ll have bad press for a few months, but people will come back soon. And if they don’t, we can always sell out. I’ll finally retire and get a rest. You can find a job, where you’ll be paid according to your skills instead of the pittance I’m paying you.”

  “You’re paying me well,” I said. “And I don’t want to go anywhere.”

  He let out a long, drawn-out sigh. The murder and the subsequent investigation wasn’t easy for him either, but he wanted to act as though it didn’t hurt him. Everything he’d built in the previous years was at stake. He’d invested his sweat and energy, hoping to leave a legacy that would benefit both Greensea and his descendants. Now, he might not leave anything for us.

  His gaze got lost somewhere ahead of him. “We haven’t talked much since that awful day,” he said. “But you’re taking this much better than me. You’re a fighter. You’ll do well even if things don’t turn out well for the restaurant and the hotel.”

  “Are things going so badly?” I asked. I knew the numbers and I had a bad feeling about our situation, but I didn’t want anyone else to tell me that
things were as bad as I thought.

  He nodded. “I want to keep this open for a while so that everyone keeps their jobs, but we’ll have to sell within a few months if we don’t recover. We’ll tell them within a couple of weeks so they can look for new jobs.”

  I gulped. It was as bad as I’d thought. “Don’t we have any hope?”

  He looked down and ran his hand along his armchair’s leather armrest. “I’m old, Meghan. I should’ve retired many years ago, but I’m very glad to have bought this place. I’ve been able to see you grow, study, and get ready for this job, and I’ve seen how you work with the employees. You’re inexperienced at managing a hotel, but you’re a natural.” He let out a sad chuckle. “You even handle Tony better than I do. And he always tries to behave towards me.”

  I forced a sad smile. Pops had done as much as he’d been able to do. We’d both tried hard to keep the ship afloat. It was time for us to start manning the lifeboats in case our plans didn’t go well.

  Even if we did find the culprit and we proved that he wasn’t related to us, bad press was difficult to compensate. Our regulars wouldn’t magically return to the restaurant, and neither would many of the locals. We didn’t have many other options.

  Chapter 39

  “Hi Meghan.” Antoine offered me a tray of muffins he was carrying to several of our suites to cheer our guests up. “You look like you need these more than anyone.” He gave me a broad smile.

  Had I ever seen Antoine, the Diva Chef, smile?

  I thanked him and took one. It was soft and had a subtle note of orange. Delicious, as always.

  “I’m not myself lately,” he said. “I’d expected my career to take off after coming here, and I hadn’t expected the low winter season or the crime.”

  “We’re all under a lot of pressure,” I said.

  He nodded and glanced back at the hallway behind him. He looked worried, almost as if he were looking for someone. He quickly focused back on me. “Would you like to help me with the next round of muffins? We’re offering free treats to everyone, and I need extra hands.” His voice was off, insecure. He was hiding something.

  “I’m rather busy right now,” I said, “but I’ll try to join you once I’m done with a couple of things.”

  His eyes showed that he was about to insist, but he stopped himself before saying anything. He hurried downstairs, mumbling something to himself.

  The chef had always acted very strange, but he was even stranger than usual. He was mostly nervous and worried about something I was about to do.

  Was this how people discovered criminals?

  I kept walking along the corridor. My legs sped up on their own, but I didn’t slow down. I reached the elevators. One of them was about to shut its doors, but I saw it clearly: Adam and Tina were holding hands and looking at each other with concern. He kissed her forehead and murmured something to cheer her up. They noticed me and both stepped back and broke eye contact with each other.

  I smiled to myself; they were probably hiding in case I complained that Tina wasn’t working. I didn’t mind; she’d finished her shift a while before and she could do whatever she liked.

  Chapter 40

  Brittany’s door was open, but she didn’t answer my knock. Her silence gave me a bad feeling: she didn’t know it was me, and she had no reason to avoid anyone. I pushed the door open and looked inside.

  A small table by the door had medicine cartons. I didn’t recognize the names, but they were mostly empty. A shiver traveled down my spine.

  I moved into the room silently. My hand instinctively took out my phone; it was the hardest object I had. I held it up, ready to use it as a weapon.

  Instead, I saw her.

  Brittany lay unconscious in her bed. She didn’t react. I ran towards her and tried to wake her up.

  She didn’t move, but she still breathed.

  “Brittany! Brittany!” I didn’t even realize I was shouting her name. “Don’t you dare die in my hotel. Wake up, please. React! I can’t afford another death this year; we’ll go bankrupt.”

  She didn’t react.

  I slapped her face, pulled her arms and tried to make her sit up, but she remained asleep. This was no natural sleep.

  She had more drug cartons on the bedside table, all empty. All of them were based on pentobarbital, the active ingredient that had ended Parrish’s life.

  This couldn’t be happening. Not now, not to Brittany.

  She’d clearly taken a lethal dose, judging by the empty containers.

  I called the hospital, told them about Brittany and asked for an ambulance quickly. The first few minutes were vital to keep her alive. The call taker told me to calm down and reassured me that an ambulance was on its way.

  “But how can I help?” I said. “What can I do to keep her alive? She doesn’t wake up. She doesn’t even react when I shake her.”

  The call taker gave me precise instructions that sounded strange, but I followed them the best I could. My mind was all fuzzy. I remember moving Brittany, but I don’t remember what I did. Everything was like a vision, as if I weren’t there.

  The ambulance arrived minutes later. The medics placed her on a stretcher and took her away.

  I breathed deep and finally relaxed when they took her out through the door. I’d done my best to help, even if she’d committed suicide out of guilt.

  I took pictures of the drug containers and locked the room behind us to avoid contaminating anything with my prints or letting anyone enter or leave it. I ran downstairs to the lobby and told them to keep cleaners and all workers away from the room.

  My hands dialed Nathan’s number before I even realized. I told him about Brittany and he headed to the hospital immediately. He told me to stay in the hotel, to keep out of trouble, and not to trust anyone. His voice sounded scared, almost as if he’d expected Brittany to die.

  Had it been another murder attempt?

  In that case, I wasn’t leaving Brittany alone. I ran outside and convinced the ambulance driver to let me join them. He was reluctant at first because I wasn’t related to her, but I’d seen the drugs, I had the pictures, and I could be of help.

  This wasn’t just a police investigation; we had to keep Brittany safe in case the murderer tried to finish her off.

  Chapter 41

  The wait lasted forever. The doctors had taken Brittany’s stretcher away and nobody had updated me on her situation.

  An eternity later, a nurse walked out and tried to reassure me. “She’s reacted,” she said. “She’s had her stomach pumped, we’ve given her drugs to compensate the effects of the drugs she’s taken, and we’ve taken her to the ICU. We’ve connected her to an artificial kidney to help clean her system.” She produced several sheets of paper. “Now, if you don’t mind helping me fill in the paperwork…”

  I barely knew anything about Brittany. She’d come to our hotel, her fiancé had died, and she’d slept with my ex. Were those the kind of personal details that the hospital needed?

  “I’ll take care of this from now on.” Nathan’s voice saved me from the situation. He introduced himself to the nurse, thanked her for her help, and stared sternly at me, reminding me that he’d told me to stay safe and at the hotel.

  What? Did he expect me to stand aside while he took care of everything?

  After asking to interrogate Brittany and getting a scandalized response from the nurse, Nathan took me aside and stared at me through squinted eyes. This reminded me of when we were kids, April and I got in trouble, and he had to help us get out of it.

  We weren’t kids anymore. I could pull my own weight.

  He continued looking at me through his deep blue eyes. Oh my goodness! He was really handsome when he got angry. “You were going to stay at home.”

  Was I?

  “I don’t remember saying it.” I raised onto my tiptoes and grinned widely at him.

  He let out a low growl. Was it an annoyed growl, or was he attracted to me?

  I bit m
y lower lip. His warm breath reached me. I only had to lean forward and I’d―

  What was I thinking? He was working, and I’d just witnessed another crime!

  We both looked away and broke the magic.

  “I’ll see you this evening.” The corners of Nathan’s lips formed a subtle smile. “Try to rest and not to kill anyone else, will you?” He stretched the tip of one of his fingers to reach my hand, but he stopped himself.

  Chapter 42

  April brought two coffees and sat with me at one of the tables in the cafe. “I’ve added a dash of cinnamon to yours,” she said.

  Cinnamon! It reminded me of the holidays.

  April had been worried about Brittany and the hotel, and she’d finally realized that our situation didn’t look well. She told me that Antoine was very tense and didn’t let anyone enter the kitchens without permission, and that everyone else felt awful for Brittany. Derek was taking it worse than most because he liked Brittany. He dragged his feet everywhere and always looked down, and nobody had been able to cheer him up. She and many others were worried for him.

  “Everyone’s brainstorming ideas to keep the business afloat,” April told me, trying to change topics. “We haven’t come up with anything useful, though.”

  She suggested asking Pops for good references. If we couldn’t save the Sand & Sea, we could always travel and work at the best restaurants in the world. We’d visit new cities and gain new experiences. “And we can also take Nathan with us,” she suggested. “But I won’t take any men with me, because I’m open to meeting foreign guys.”

  We both laughed. I forgot about the crime and the restaurant for a minute, but everything returned to me a while later. I couldn’t give up so soon; I was going to fight to the end. We’d have more than enough time to consider April’s plans once we had no other chances.