The Death Card: A Liz Lucas Cozy Mystery Read online

  THE DEATH CARD

  By

  Dianne Harman

  (A Liz Lucas Cozy Mystery Series - Book 3)

  Copyright © 2015 Dianne Harman

  www.dianneharman.com

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form without written permission except for the use of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Website, Interior & Cover design by Vivek Rajan Vivek

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1514851425

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I thank you, my loyal readers, for making both the Cedar Bay and the Liz Lucas Cozy Mystery Series so successful. Because of you I have been designated as an “All-Star” author by Amazon based on book sales. I have also been named one of their most popular authors for the last six months. Woo hoo! None of this would have happened without you!

  Many of you have emailed me to say how much you enjoy my books, as well as asking when the next book in a series is going to be published. Trust me, it makes my day! Through your suggestions I’ve become a much better author. I always appreciate reviews, and I’d love to hear from you about this book or any of my other books. Feel free to email me at: [email protected].

  I can’t thank Vivek Rajan enough for his amazing covers and ability to effortlessly do the formatting that’s required in publishing a book. Kudos for awesome work, Vivek! As busy as he is, to do a turn-around in twenty-four hours for something that would probably take me weeks, is really appreciated.

  Among the blessings I count is the support I get from my family and friends. I am very lucky! And as always, many thanks to my best friend, my husband Tom, the fearless critic of my books, who always stops what he’s doing to read the latest chapter I put on his desk. He suggests changes, better methods, and spots errors I’ve missed. He makes me look good!

  And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention, Kelly, my new six month old puppy. I’ve been thinking about writing a book from a puppy’s perspective – kind of like, well, what would happen if I pulled on that thread on the bottom of the couch? Honest, Dianne, I didn’t mean to eat the bottom part of the couch. If you didn’t want me to eat it, you should have told me! Uh huh! There are still areas in Kelly’s training that have room for improvement!

  Enjoy the book!

  Newsletter

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  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  Recipes!

  ABOUT DIANNE

  CHAPTER 1

  Liz Lucas, the owner of the Red Cedar Lodge and Spa, was sitting next to one of the large floor to ceiling windows in the great room of the lodge. Where she was sitting provided her with a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean and the rugged Northern California coastline. Sunset was just beginning as the sun started its slow descent over the ocean, making the colors of the sky gradually turn from a soft pink to a deep blue. It was her favorite time of the day, a time when she could take a moment to relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the lodge.

  The guests staying in the nearby cottages would be arriving shortly to enjoy the sunset along with the wine and cheese that she and Emily had set out for them in the great room. Liz and Emily had almost finished the preparations for tonight’s family style dinner of grilled salmon served over a bed of spinach with béarnaise sauce, accompanied by a rice pilaf. She smiled thinking how the salmon dinner with its beautiful eye appealing presentation would soon generate numerous compliments from the hungry guests. Her grilled salmon dinner was the signature dish of the lodge and had even been written up by a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle who had spent time at the spa.

  The reporter had given the spa a five star rating and written in glowing terms about the lodge’s camp dog, Brandy Boy. The ringing of her cell phone interrupted her reverie, and she glanced at the screen to see if she knew who was calling.

  Oh swell, just what I need. A call from Seth Williams, the police chief of Red Cedar, and one of the most obnoxious lecherous men it’s ever been my poor misfortune to know. So much for the peace and calmness of the moment. He’ll probably want to tell me about the Victoria’s Secret catalogue he got in the mail, and how he’s partial to black lace or ask me if I’ve decided to accept his standing invitation to have dinner with him. Yuck.

  She sighed and answered the phone. “Good evening, Seth.”

  The man on the other end of the phone didn’t sound like the Seth she’d always known. The obnoxious lecherous man she knew was gone, and in his place was a man who sounded absolutely terrified.

  “Liz, I need to talk to ya’. Would it be all right if I come out to yer’ place right now?”

  “What’s wrong, Seth? You sound different. Is everything all right?”

  “No it’s not. Can’t talk over the phone. I’ll tell ya’ when I get there. I need yer’ help.”

  “Fine. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  Ten minutes later there was a knock on the front door of the lodge. Winston, Liz’s ninety pound boxer, looked up from his oversized dog bed when he heard the knock. Liz motioned that everything was okay and for him to lie back down. She walked over to the door and opened it. Standing in the doorway was the obese chief of police, his uniform shirt stained as usual after his regular morning breakfast at Gertie’s Diner. He was twisting the rim of his hat in his hands and clasping it so tightly she could see the whites of his knuckles.

  “Seth, come in. What’s wrong? You don’t look very good.”

  “Liz, Leroy’s dead. Been murdered right smack dab in his office at the police station.”

  “Oh no! Seth, that’s terrible. Please, let’s go downstairs to my living quarters and talk. The guests will be arriving momentarily for dinner, and I don’t want them to be upset by this news.”

  She walked into the kitchen where Emily was putting the final touches on the dinner and said, “Emily, you’re going to have to take over for a few minutes. I’ll be downstairs if you need me. You know what to do. Thanks.”

  Liz motioned for Winston to follow her and walked downstairs. Seth was standing inside her living room, waiting for her. “Seth, sit down. Let me get you a glass of water. Tell me everything. Do you know how it happened?”

  The fat sheriff plopped down on a chair and began to talk. “It bein’ Sunday, nobody else was at the station other than Leroy. I’d been out all day ticketin’ speeders. That’s always a good day to get ‘em. When I finished writin’ the last ticket for the day, I went back to the station to see if anything had happened during the day I needed to know about. Leroy works on Sundays, and I expected him to be there. When I went inside the station it was real quiet. Couldn’t figure out w
here he was cuz I’d seen his car in the place where he always parks. City could probably make a lot of money by sellin’ the drillin’ rights to that parking space to an oil company given the amount of oil his car drips on the ground. Anyway, I yelled out for him and didn’t get no answer, so I walked down the hall to his office.”

  “No one else is at the station on Sundays?” Liz asked.

  “Nah. Figure I can save some money for the city by not havin’ any support staff work on Sundays. Any calls come in they’re automatically transferred to me. Anyway, I opened the door to his office, and there he was, jes’ sittin’ in his chair like usual. His head was tilted back, and his mouth was wide open, like he was asleep and snorin’, ‘ceptin’ he was dead. Had a great big ‘ol bullet hole right in the middle of his chest. Don’t know fer sure, but judgin’ from the size of that hole in him, my guess is he got shot with a .45. I didn’t know what to do, so I called ya’. I’m afraid people’ll think I did it.”

  “Seth, why did you call me, and why would people think you were the one who killed him?”

  “Well, Leroy and me ain’t been gettin’ along too well lately. Had a coupla arguments that people might’ve heard. Had one over at Gertie’s the other day, and ya’ know what a rumor mill that place is. Ya’ know I’m up for election in a few months. Leroy’s been feelin’ his oats lately and talkin’ trash ‘bout how maybe he should be the chief of police. Tol’ me he was thinkin’ of runnin’ against me. Can you believe that? After all I’ve done for him? Anyway, that’s what we was arguin’ ‘bout.”

  “In that case I suppose you could be considered a suspect. But why did you come out here and tell me?”

  “I know you been seein’ that big shot criminal defense lawyer from Frisco. Thought maybe he could help me. Also, ya’ been pretty good lately at solvin’ a coupla murders happened ‘round here. Ya’ got lucky when the mayor’s wife was murdered in one of the cottages here at the spa, and ya’ also got lucky when ya’ found out who killed Mark, that kid who was workin’ fer ya’. Thought maybe ya’ could help me find out who killed Leroy.”

  “You’re right, Seth. I do have a good friend who’s a criminal defense attorney in San Francisco. His name is Roger Langley. Let me call him and see what he has to say about this. He’s the expert in these kinds of situations.”

  She picked up her phone and clicked on Roger’s number while Seth continued to turn his hat around in his big beefy hands. She could see the perspiration on his face and the big wet spots under the arms of his uniform shirt.

  “Hi Roger. It’s Liz. I need to pick your brain about something that’s happened here in Red Cedar. Got a minute?”

  “Of course, sweetheart. I always have time for you and, if I don’t, I’ll make time. What’s up?”

  She told him about Seth and asked if he had any advice. “Yes. Let me talk to him.” She walked over to Seth and handed the phone to him.

  “Roger wants to talk to you. I’m putting it on speakerphone.”

  “It’s Seth, Roger. Liz told ya’ ‘bout what’s happened. I didn’t know what to do, then I ‘membered ya’ were some hotshot lawyer who handled things like this. I don’t know if I need to lawyer up, but thought ya’ might be able to tell me what to do.”

  “First of all, does anyone else know about Leroy’s death?”

  “Nah. There weren’t nobody at the station, bein’ Sunday and all. Blood looked pretty fresh so I think it probably happened jes’ a little while ago.”

  “Listen to me. First of all, you need to call the county sheriff. At some point you’ll probably be considered a suspect, so you won’t be able to handle the investigation because of a conflict of interest. He’ll be the one who will have to handle it. Might as well ask him to do it now, plus it will look good for you down the road. It will show you’re not trying to cover anything up. Did Leroy have any enemies? Can you think of anyone who would want to see Leroy dead? Do you have an alibi for the last few hours? Did you touch anything in his office?”

  “Ya’ asked if Leroy had any enemies. Most people seemed to like Leroy, but he’s had a coupla people who didn’t like him.”

  “I’m sure we all have a couple of people who don’t like us. Who didn’t like Leroy?”

  “His ex-wife for one. She sure couldn’t stand him. Had a little problem with his alimony from time to time ‘cuz he liked to play the ponies, if you know what I mean. An alibi? Yeah, I got one, but jes’ as soon not have to go into it,” he said abashedly.

  Liz was watching the police chief and noticed how he squirmed when Roger had asked about an alibi. I honestly don’t think Seth would murder anyone. He’s far more interested in writing speeding tickets for tourists than he is in killing someone, but this sure isn’t going to look good for him.

  “Listen to me Seth, if you’ve got an alibi, you better give it to me no matter what it is. It just might save your bacon.”

  Seth paused for a long time and then turned away from Liz and whispered into the phone, “I was havin’ a tarot card readin’ at Madame Dika’s place near the edge of town.”

  “You mean to tell me you were there earlier today? Seth, you seem like the last person in the world to do something like that. Will she vouch for you?”

  “Don’t like to talk ‘bout it much. Don’t know if she’d vouch fer me. She likes to keep her readins’ real low key. Fer some reason she’s ‘fraid of the law. Took her a long time to let me get a readin’. Don’t think she’d like gettin’ a lot of publicity ‘bout ‘em.”

  “Well,” Roger said, “we’ll cross that bridge if and when we need to. Back to my other questions. Did you touch anything?”

  “Nah. I jes’ called Liz from my cell phone and high-tailed it outta there. Don’t much like the sight of blood.”

  “What about your own personal gun? What kind of a pistol do you carry in your duties as chief of police?”

  “I usually carry a .45. It’s a big gun, and I like it cuz’ it’ll stop a bull elephant if need be, but I got’s me a little problem with that dang gun.”

  “What do you mean you’ve got a little problem?”

  “Well, you see I was out at Madame Dika’s last week to get me a special tarot card readin’ ‘bout the election. She don’t allow no firearms inside her place, so I left my .45 in my patrol car. When I came out after gettin’ my readin’ some jerk had stolen my gun.”

  “I still can’t believe you got some tarot readings. Like I said, you’re the last person I’d expect to do that. I guess you never know about people. Anyway, I assume you reported the theft of your gun as soon as you discovered it, right?” Roger asked.

  “Well, that’s the second part of the little problem I gots. Ya’ see it’s sort of embarrassin’ when the chief of police goes and gets his gun stolen. Even more so when it’s stolen while he’s getting’ a readin’ from a tarot card reader while he’s s’posed to be on duty. Makes for bad press, and what with me bein’ up for election and all, I decided not to report it. Thought maybe if I waited a little while the gun might jes’ somehow show up, but now with Leroy apparently gettin’ killed with a .45, it’s probably goin’ to make even worse press for me. That’s one of the reasons I decided to go see Liz and see if she can do anything to make something good out of what’s startin’ to look like a real bad situation for me. That make any sense to you?”

  “I understand the quandary you must have been in when you discovered your gun had been stolen, but to be candid with you, it would have been much better for you if you had immediately reported the gun as stolen. Now let me talk to Liz,” Roger said. Seth handed the phone to her.

  “What do you think we should do now?” she asked.

  “I think you should follow Seth back to the police station. Go into Leroy’s office and see if anything seems unusual. Obviously, look for a murder weapon, pieces of paper, anything the murderer might have left behind. When you’re finished, have Seth call the sheriff and the coroner, and tell them what happened to Leroy. Ask Seth if Leroy was m
arried or had any children.” She turned and looked at Seth.

  “Nah, after Leroy and Donna got divorced he swore he’d never marry again. Had a girlfriend here and there, but nothin’ lately and never had no children I knew ‘bout. If he did, he probably woulda bragged ‘bout it. Matter of fact, he never mentioned havin’ any relatives.”

  “Liz, I don’t think any more time should go by before Seth calls the sheriff. You two need to go down to the station and call the sheriff as soon as you get there. Seth can tell the sheriff you were going to meet him at the police station to see if he could give you some advice about providing special protection for some VIP clients who asked if they could get private protection if they stayed at the spa. Tell Seth if he didn’t do it, and I believe he didn’t, the truth will come out, and the murderer will be found. And Liz, take Winston with you and keep him with you from now on. Whoever wanted to make it look like Seth did it may also be looking to see who he talks to and who’s he’s with from now on.”

  “Thanks, Roger, I’ll call you later.” She ended the call. “Seth, I’ll meet you at the station. I need to tell Emily she may have to handle dinner by herself. Come on Winston, we’re off to the police station.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Leroy knocked on the front door of Madame Dika’s house. There was a sign on it inviting people to come in and wait until it was their turn for a reading. Leroy wasn’t there for a reading. He wanted to see if Madame Dika could tell him something about Seth Williams, the chief of police of Red Cedar. He was considering running against Seth in the upcoming election for police chief and he knew Seth visited Madame Dika with regularity. He hoped that if he could find out something negative about Seth, he could use it in the campaign

  A few moments later the front door was opened by Madame Dika. “Yes, may I help you?” she asked in a heavy foreign accent.

  “My name’s Leroy Moore. I’m the deputy police chief in Red Cedar. May I come in? I’d like to talk to you for a few moments.”

  “What’s it about?” she said in a voice that insinuated there was no way she was going to let him into her home.