Beachside Murder (A Team Gossip Cozy Mystery Book 1) Page 7

  Now I just had to go back home, burn the sheets, and call a cleaning company to disinfect the entire house.

  Overreacting, you say?

  No; burning down the house would’ve been overreacting. Burning the sheets was merely hygienic. And therapeutic. It saved me a fortune in therapy.

  Chapter 15

  “This is the longest day in the world.” April yawned and gave me a lazy nod. She sat at a table at the cafe and gestured around her so that I checked the room. It was still the breakfast shift, but only a couple of customers were eating downstairs. They weren’t ordering much from room service either.

  I sat with her and tried not to think about our misfortunes. Parrish had died, and everything was going downhill. Nobody wanted to eat at the restaurant in case the murder had been an accident, and nobody wanted to get too close to us in case we were a magnet for misfortune.

  The Sand & Sea was very expensive to run. We had a high mortgage, and Antoine, the chef, earned a fortune. Paying him so much made sense as long as we had enough customers. Otherwise, we might not be able to keep the restaurant open. If the restaurant shut down, the hotel would no longer offer a delicate gastronomic experience, and we’d lose even more customers. Greensea had many tourists, but also a lot of competition. If we lost our popularity because of a murder, we wouldn’t regain it easily.

  April felt sorry for me, but, in a way she loved to have a relaxed shift. She was capable of being positive even in the worst situation.

  “No advances in the investigation?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Nathan is still trying to contact Parrish’s family.”

  I was going to explain everything that he’d told me, but she held a hand up in the air, palm out.

  “Don’t talk about him, will you?” she said. “Can you believe that he didn’t tell me about Vincent? I had to hear about it second-hand, instead of getting it from him. He wanted to keep you all for himself instead of letting me cheer you up. And he even bought our favorite instant chocolate brand and didn’t make any for me!”

  “Didn’t he tell you?”

  It didn’t sound like Nathan. He had no reason to leave April aside or to spend time alone with me.

  April shrugged. “He might’ve texted me, but I didn’t read it until much later.”

  “Might?” I asked. That sounded much more like April.

  “Okay, he texted me, and my phone didn’t recognize his number so he ended up in my ignore list.”

  So Nathan wasn’t using any manipulative tricks to be alone with me. Why wasn’t I happy about it? I should’ve been relieved, but I somehow liked the idea of Nathan being interested in me. I wasn’t ready for another boyfriend, but it’s always good to know that you’re not invisible.

  Otherwise, I was back to asking myself, Will Vincent be the last man who shows an interest in me?

  I know it sounds silly, but when you’re down, you keep asking yourself stupid questions.

  So much thinking about people’s intentions was giving me a headache, and I didn’t have any aspirins at home. Time for me to go to the pharmacy.

  Chapter 16

  “I want some of these, but with a strawberry flavor.” Ivy pointed at one of the boxes of pills on the pharmacy counter. She wore a dress with green flowers and a large straw sun hat. She was smiling broadly; she was definitely up to something.

  The pharmacist, a tall and grey-haired man with sunken cheeks, rolled his eyes and leaned both hands on the counter. “I’ve told you that I don’t manufacture mints. I can’t choose their taste, and they always have a mint taste.”

  Ivy gestured at Aunt Agnes and Aunt Etta, who were looking at the showcase shelves that covered the walls. They quickly joined their friend and kept asking questions and pestering the pharmacist.

  My aunt and her friends had gone to the pharmacy to waste some time and annoy the pharmacist while buying innocuous medical supplies. They’d left Flora outside in the sun, wearing her yellow flowery dress, orange sunglasses and a matching scarf. All four of them liked to wear similar clothes every single day to look more like a team. A terrifying senior team that always achieved whatever they wanted.

  I’d planned to buy some jelly beans made of fruit juice and vitamins. Now that Vincent and I had broken up, I wanted to give my immune system a boost. And besides, pharmacy jelly beans tasted much better than their supermarket counterparts.

  I preferred to look at some of the shelves instead of greeting my aunt and her friends. They were entertained, and it was much more fun to watch them when they were in their natural habitat and didn’t have any witnesses.

  “Last week’s mints tasted too strong,” Aunt Agnes said. “I want them softer. Don’t you have tasteless mints?”

  “They wouldn’t be called mints, then,” the pharmacist said. “I always tell you, and you always ignore what I say. Can’t you go to another pharmacy? Or wait until I retire? Please? It would make my life so much happier.”

  “And do you have fake tanning lotions?” Aunt Etta either hadn’t listened to him or didn’t care. “We’re planning to go on a cruise and I don’t want to expose my skin to the sun, but I don’t want to be pale when we come back.”

  “And anti-cellulite lotions?” Aunt Agnes added. “We can’t wear our swimming costumes with imperfect figures, can we?”

  “Too many details,” the pharmacist said. “Can you keep the extra details to yourselves? I don’t need any mental images of anyone wearing swimming costumes.”

  Ivy let out a loud laugh that sounded, Hey, hey, hey. “I’m trying to jump onto the thong bandwagon, but they’re too tight and uncomfortable. Do you have more comfortable versions?” She looked at the others with mischief.

  The pharmacist was a saint. He’d known my aunt’s friends for most of his life, and he’d always had a few minutes to spend with them. He took a deep breath and acted as though Ivy wasn’t trying to scandalize him.

  Flora hurried into the store, covering the side of her face with a large sun hat. “They’re coming!” she told them. “Hide, quick!”

  All four of them walked behind one set of shelves and got ready for whatever was going on.

  “Ladies,” the pharmacist complained. “You can’t do this. I don’t mind that you gossip, but you can’t use my shop as your news source.”

  “Hush!” Aunt Agnes said. “You’ll give us away.”

  The pharmacist smiled to himself, but he tried to hide it. Deep down, he didn’t mind that my aunt and her friends used his pharmacy and him, but he complained nevertheless. “If they catch you, it’s your doing.”

  “Yes, yes,” Aunt Agnes said. “We know how it works. Now bait them and make sure that they say something interesting.”

  “Or we’ll promote the competition to all our friends.” Ivy chuckled with her own joke. “And pharmacies need seniors to avoid bankruptcy.”

  All four women popped their heads out of the sides of the shelves to watch the door. They were worse than kids at times, and the crime was making them even worse.

  “Meghan!” Aunt Etta said. “What are you doing there? They won’t talk if they see you! Either join us or leave, but don’t spoil our mission.”

  “Our surveillance mission,” Ivy said.

  I could’ve complained or ignored them, but I didn’t want to start a war with any of them. I ran behind the shelves and stared at the door.

  Nathan entered seconds later, followed by the inspector that my aunt’s friends called Joshua Poole. They were both serious-faced and approached the counter to speak with the pharmacist. The pharmacist glanced in our direction to make sure that we weren’t missing any details.

  The inspector asked if he’d sold any sleeping pills.

  “Well, not exactly…” the pharmacist said. “I’ve sold several veterinary drugs, and they contain barbiturates. This was on Monday morning, so it’s before your crime.” He took out a sheet of paper with the name of the drug.

  “I see that you’re well-informed,” Na
than said with an amused grin. “I can’t imagine how everyone knows exactly how everything happened.”

  “Lend me your hearing aids,” Ivy whispered at Flora.

  “No,” Flora said. “I want to hear too.”

  “We’ll hear better if you lend them to one of us.”

  “I don’t care. I want to hear myself.”

  “Hush,” Aunt Etta said. “Nathan will hear us.”

  Nathan looked slightly confused and he turned to look at the shelves. We hid again.

  Whew. It had been close.

  The inspector continued asking a questions to the pharmacist, and the pharmacist provided the name of the doctor who had authorized the sale of the medicine. My aunt and her friends smiled broadly with every word the men said: they were going to have first-hand information about the crime and about everything that happened in town.

  “Let’s recap.” Nathan finally turned his back to us and focused once more on the conversation. “William Parrish overdosed on pentobarbital. Forensics have confirmed the cause of the death, and we positively know that it has the same active ingredient as the veterinary drugs sold here less than a week before the crime. We’re still awaiting results to know if the beer contained the same substance, but I’d guess it does.” He turned again to us and winked at me.

  Nathan knew we were watching, and he was enjoying their lack of privacy.

  My cheeks burned in embarrassment. I wasn’t like my aunt or her friends; I didn’t eavesdrop. This had all been an accident. A very enlightening accident, but an accident nevertheless.

  I’d somehow joined the dark side, and there was no going back. I liked to spy on detectives.

  As the detectives walked out, all five of us ran towards the door and walked several feet behind the detectives so that they didn’t notice us. I couldn’t hear their conversation because there was too much noise on the street.

  “Would you like my hearing aids, dear?” Flora asked me.

  “Oh, so you lend them to her, but not to me, do you?” Ivy said.

  “Yes,” Flora said. “Because she’ll tell me every detail instead of bartering them for house chores.”

  “I don’t―” Ivy stopped mid-sentence. “Okay, maybe sometimes.”

  “She’s always making Flora walk Lord James,” Aunt Agnes said.

  Before I realized, I’d borrowed Flora’s hearing aids and I was listening to the conversation between Nathan and his boss. It had to be wrong, but I didn’t care. The crime had affected my family’s resort, and I wanted to know everything about it. The sooner the police solved it, the sooner our lives would go back to normal.

  “We’ve got Carlo Russo,” the inspector said. “He’s ours as soon as we prove that he’s bought the drugs.”

  Nathan shook his head and dug both hands in his pockets. “I doubt it. Nobody’s dumb enough to poison someone after a fight. If he’d bought the drugs before the argument, he should’ve approached him, congratulated him for a fair victory, and left.”

  “That’s twisted.”

  Nathan shrugged. “It’s what I’d do. I’d have accused Brittany if she hadn’t been engaged to him.”

  “What about the funny business between Brittany and the other witness?” the inspector asked.

  Ugh. The other witness was Vincent. I didn’t want to think that he’d played a part in the crime. He was selfish and slept around, but he was no murderer. However, Brittany could have wanted to leave Parrish. Knowing him, he wouldn’t have taken the loss well. She could’ve been trying to get rid of Parrish to avoid breaking up with such a powerful man.

  “And don’t forget the family.” Nathan glanced back to check that we were following them. He’d known it all along. “They were going to lose a fortune once Parrish married.”

  “But they aren’t half as guilty as Carlo Russo. He has a motive, we’ll see him in the pharmacy’s security footage, and he lacks an alibi. Not to mention that he approached Parrish at around the time when he took the deadly dose.”

  “Want to close the case so soon?” Nathan said.

  “Don’t you?” the inspector replied.

  “Barbiturates?” Aunt Agnes said loudly. She was doing it on purpose to get the detectives’ attentions. “Marilyn Monroe committed suicide with barbiturates, didn’t she?”

  “Someone’s been surfing the Internet too much,” Ivy said with a broad grin. “That’s why you keep signing up to senior computer classes, isn’t it?” She laughed with her classic hey, hey, hey.

  “Brittany did it,” Flora said, “because Parrish was very rich, and she was with him for the money.”

  “He wasn’t rich enough for mom and dad,” Ivy said, “and once he made money, he didn’t look at you again, eh?” She always enjoyed torturing her sister with her past love life.

  “He didn’t look at me because mom and dad were very rude,” Flora said. “They could’ve been softer, and now I’d be a wealthy widow.”

  Ivy clapped excitedly. “Oooh! And you’d get us young and handsome boyfriends, wouldn’t you?”

  “You wouldn’t be a widow if Brittany killed him,” Aunt Agnes said. “You’d have to stand him and hear him talk about his own greatness.”

  “Ugh.” Flora shook her head. “He’d be the widower, then. I’d have died of boredom.”

  “Meghan,” Aunt Etta said out of nowhere. “Are you interested in my nephew, or should we help you find a rich and handsome boyfriend?”

  The inspector turned around with an angry expression that bordered on rage. He shook a forefinger in the air. “Again? I’ve told you to leave and let the police take care of everything.” His head turned redder as he grew angrier.

  Nathan remained a few feet behind him and looked at us.

  “Joshua!” Ivy said once more. She knew it wasn’t his name, but she was going to continue using it until he gave up. And he would eventually give up. “How nice to see you here. We were breathing some fresh air and we hadn’t even noticed you. How’s your father? I haven’t seen Raymond in months.”

  “He isn’t my father!” The inspector turned to Nathan. “Barton! Tell them to go home and to forget about me. And about the case! This is intolerable; we run onto them every minute.”

  “Why do you deny your roots, Joshua?” Aunt Etta said sadly.

  “He’s such an ungrateful son.” Aunt Agnes sounded disapproving. If I hadn’t known her any better, I would’ve believed what she was saying. “After everything that your father has done for you.”

  “Barton!” the inspector barked. He turned to Nathan, but Nathan had sneaked away before anyone made him join the war. “This can’t continue, ladies. Act your age, stay at home, look after your health, and please stop bothering me.”

  “I’m saddened by this,” Flora said to the others. “Raymond, his father, is one of the kindest souls I’ve ever met.”

  The inspector let out a long, drawn-out sigh.

  My aunt and her friends looked at each other with mischief. They’d won.

  Chapter 17

  “What do you mean, ‘Vincent is gone’?” I asked.

  “He’s gone. Disappeared. Nobody has heard of him for days.” April sat on one of the cafe tables and crossed her legs. We didn’t have any customers, so I didn’t complain.

  I couldn’t believe my own ears. We had a crime investigation going on, someone had poisoned a man, and Vincent had had an affair with Brittany. I’d never considered him guilty, but he wasn’t bright: considering his love life, he could’ve killed Parrish to keep Brittany for himself.

  Vincent had rented a room at a known hotel in town, but he’d left two days before and nobody had seen him. The police had tried to contact him in New York, but he wasn’t there either.

  “Nathan wants to chat with you again,” April said with an amused grin. “He’s using Vincent as an excuse to see you. What are you giving him? He can’t spend two days without seeing you!”

  “Does he plan to accuse Vincent?” I asked. I knew that Vincent hadn’t done it; I’
d spent long enough with him to know that he wasn’t a murderer. I’d also expected him not to cheat, but I would’ve seen something strange in him if he’d been planning to murder someone, wouldn’t I?

  “I’d like him to kick him out of town,” she said. “Vincent is a pest, and he’s better off gone. And besides, Nathan might’ve made him disappear so that you don’t have to talk to him.”

  “April!” I complained.

  April moved her leg back and forth. She was enjoying things. “Haven’t you thought that Vincent might be rotting in a hole in the ground, and that you might end up accused of murder?”

  What was that question about?

  “Vincent isn’t dead,” I said. “He’s gone. He’s humiliated, he’s been caught in bed with Brittany, and he prefers to avoid everyone’s serious and judgmental stares.”

  “You say that,” April said. “But remember that Nathan’s trained to kill, that he’s overprotective towards you, and that Vincent hurt you. Tell me: will he fight Vincent if they run onto each other?”

  I wasn’t sure. In fact, I wasn’t sure about anything. What if Nathan had fought Vincent? What if he’d kicked him out of town? I couldn’t think of Nathan hurting anyone, but people sometimes lost control when someone hurts their friends and relatives.

  April grinned at me. “See? Now you’ll have lots to think about when you go and chat to him.”

  Chapter 18

  “Miss Croft at last.” The inspector gestured at me to enter his office and to sit down beside Brittany. “Please come in and sit down. We were just getting started.”

  The inspector’s desk was empty aside from an open file in front of him, a pencil pot, and a long name sign that said, Inspector Douglas Shaw.

  So he wasn’t Joshua Poole after all.

  He’d summoned both of us, and he was planning to interrogate us in depth. Brittany was tense and uncomfortable beside me, and she barely looked at me out of embarrassment. If she was having such a bad time, she could’ve thought twice before doing anything with Vincent.