Marriage and Murder (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Book 4) Page 6

  “Doc, it looks like you’ve put some of the paintings you inherited from your family on the walls here in your office. This is the first time I’ve been in your office, and I want to tell you I think it looks great. I love the warm pale yellow paint. It’s very soothing and comforting.”

  “I read somewhere that if patients feel at ease in a doctor’s office, they heal a lot faster. There’s nothing worse for a patient than to sit in some sterile doctor’s office with austere white walls and nothing to welcome them. They’re already nervous about having a problem serious enough to require a visit to the doctor’s office, so no sense making it worse for them.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. I bet your patients love your office, well as much as anyone’s going to love going to a doctor’s office. Here’s the care package I promised you – two chicken and bean burritos with some of my own favorite bacon chocolate chip cookies from the secret stash I keep in the freezer. I also brought a treat for Lucky, and I have enough for Lady as well. Don’t think she’d be very happy about Lucky getting a treat if she didn’t.” She handed him the casserole dish with the burritos and divided up the rest of the chicken for the two dogs.

  “This looks delicious, Kelly, thank you so much, and Lucky thanks you too.”

  “My pleasure. Can’t let my best customer starve! You don’t seem like your usual self today, Doc. What’s wrong?”

  “Sorry, I didn’t realize it was that apparent. Even though I said I wasn’t going to call Mike about it, something’s telling me I probably should. Since you’re here, I’ll tell you if you promise you won’t do anything with the information other than tell Mike.”

  “I promise,” she said, mentally crossing her fingers behind her back just in case.

  “Jesse Allen’s mother was in here this morning. Poor thing is taking the loss of her son pretty hard. There’s no reason to tell you why she came to see me, that’s confidential and not important to what I’m going to tell you, but what isn’t confidential is what she told me. She said she hadn’t been fully honest with Mike when he called her this morning. She asked me if I would give him a message for her. I said I’d be happy to, as you and Mike were good friends of mine. I told her I’d been best man at his recent wedding where Jesse had provided the wine.”

  “What did she tell you, and what did she tell Mike?” Kelly asked.

  “It isn’t so much what she told Mike, it’s more about what she didn’t tell him.”

  “Like what?”

  “Last night she was looking for anything that would help her sleep and she remembered that Celia had some sleeping pills she’d gotten from me some time ago because of her chronic problems with insomnia. Celia wasn’t home at the time, so she couldn’t ask her where they were. She looked in the medicine cabinet in Celia’s bathroom and couldn’t find them, but then she remembered Celia saying something about keeping them handy next to her bed. She told me she opened the drawer of Celia’s nightstand and didn’t see them. She was sure Celia had told her they were in the drawer, so she took it completely out of the nightstand. At the very back of the drawer were the pills.”

  “That doesn’t sound so unusual.”

  “No, it wasn’t. What was unusual was the gun that was taped to the underneath side of the drawer. She told me the only way anyone could see the gun was if the drawer was completely removed from the nightstand.”

  “What does Mrs. Allen think?”

  “She doesn’t know what to think. When Mike called her this morning and asked her if she’d noticed anything unusual about Jesse or anything else, she’d told him no. She told me she felt guilty for not telling him about the gun she’d discovered, and asked if I would tell Mike about it. She said she was too emotionally distraught to call him.”

  “Did she give you any indication why Celia would have a gun taped to the underneath side of her nightstand drawer?”

  “No. She said she couldn’t imagine why Celia had the gun. The only thing she could think of was that Celia had been married to a policeman who died quite a few years ago. That’s when she moved in with her mother. Mrs. Allen wonders if the gun was his, and Celia keeps it there as a remembrance of him.”

  “I think that’s very strange, Doc, but I wonder if this gun might provide some link to Jesse’s death. Did she say what kind of a gun it was?”

  “She said she doesn’t know anything about guns, but she pulled back the tape on the gun, and saw where it was stamped with ‘.38 S&W.’ I know quite a bit about guns, and it sounds to me like it’s a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson, but I couldn’t say for sure without seeing it. As far as a link to Jesse’s death, I don’t see one. It just strikes me as very odd that a woman would have a gun taped to the bottom of her nightstand drawer. I have to say it made me wonder what caliber of gun killed Jesse. You can see why I wasn’t comfortable calling Mike with it. I just didn’t feel it was important enough to call him, but something bothers me about it. Celia was the one who brought her mother to the clinic today, and she seems like a very unsettled and angry woman. I’ve treated her before, and while I’ve always had that impression, today it was even more so.”

  “She may be angry and yes, angry people often kill, but her own brother? I just can’t connect the dots in that scenario.”

  “Nor can I, but as I said, Mrs. Allen asked me to tell Mike, and I promised her I would. Would you tell him for me?”

  “Doc, of course I will. How can you even think I wouldn’t?” Kelly asked in a hurt voice.

  “Just trying to keep you from doing anything Mike wouldn’t be happy about. As I recall, it’s happened before. You can plan on it that I’ll mention it to Mike the next time I see him. Sure would hate for him to hear it from me for the first time a couple of days or weeks from now,” he said with a twinkle in his eye, his meaning clear.

  “You have my word, Doc. I’ll tell him tonight. Speaking of which, I better leave. I need to stop by Ginger’s book shop on the way home, and I don’t want to be late. If there aren’t signs of dinner being prepared, Mike may wonder if he made a mistake last Saturday when he married me. Time for us to go. Lady, come,” she said, standing up and walking over to the door. “You can bring that dish back to the coffee shop when you come for lunch tomorrow. Believe me, there are plenty more where that came from.”

  “Lucky and I are grateful for the care packages, aren’t we Lucky?”

  Lucky voiced his approval with a resounding bark.

  A gun taped to the underneath side of Celia’s nightstand. That’s really strange. Wonder how Jesse and Celia got along. I know Celia’s close with Jesse’s ex-wife, Sydney, but like I told Doc, I can’t connect any dots. Maybe Mike can come up with something.

  CHAPTER 11

  After leaving the clinic, Kelly drove her minivan the short distance to Ginger’s book store, appropriately named The Book Nook. It was located in a quaint little early 20th century brick building with two large bay windows on either side of the front door. Inside the store Ginger had installed cozy window seats next to the bay windows with comfortable red and white checkered cushions. Customers often took several books from the shelves and sat in the window seats while they leafed through the books, deciding which ones to buy. The smell of potpourri and freshly made ginger tea also gave the little shop a warm, inviting ambience along with a fire which was always burning in the fireplace.

  It would really be a shame if Ginger had to close this little shop. It’s one of the most charming shops in Cedar Bay, plus it’s been Ginger’s salvation since Amber died. I’m not sure she could have survived the overwhelming grief and despair she felt after Amber’s murder if she hadn’t had the Book Nook.

  “Kelly, Lady, how wonderful to see you. I understand your blushing bride role didn’t last too long,” Ginger said, giving Kelly a hug and reaching into a jar she kept handy to get a treat for Lady. The Book Nook welcomed dogs, and Ginger kept a large bowl of water just outside the front door for the ones that were thirsty as well as the jar of treats she kept next to
the cash register.

  “I want to thank you again for overseeing the guest book at the wedding. It was a huge help, and as I told you when I asked you to do it, you certainly would have been my maid of honor if Julia couldn’t do it.”

  “No problem. I’m glad she was able to be your maid of honor. With Cash giving you away and Julia there, it was perfect for the circumstances. It really was a lovely wedding, but I was so sorry to hear about Jesse. He loved to read and came in here a lot over the years. I used to call him whenever I got any new books in about wine. I think he singlehandedly bought every book I ever stocked on the subject. We’re all going to miss him. I’m glad you stopped by because I heard something today that Mike should probably be aware of. Why don’t you have a seat over by the window, and I’ll get us some tea.”

  A few minutes later when they were seated and had their tea, Kelly asked, “What did you hear and from whom?”

  “You know there are a couple of Alcoholics Anonymous groups that hold their meetings at different locations here in town. A few months ago I was asked by one of the members if I would mind opening up the Book Nook on Monday mornings so a meeting could be held here. Evidently they couldn’t meet any longer at one of the other places they’d been using. I told them I’d be happy to do it. Actually, between you and me, I’d do about anything to bring more people into the store. Anyway, they started meeting here about three months ago. I open up an hour before my regular opening time and spend their meeting time restocking the shelves and doing bookkeeping. They bring the chairs in from around the store and make a circle. There aren’t very many people in the group, perhaps no more than six or eight.”

  “I don’t see how this might be something that would be of interest to Mike.”

  “I’m getting to that. On several occasions I’ve overheard one particular man say really bad things about The Crush.”

  “You’re kidding. What did he say?”

  “I heard him say it was stores like The Crush that caused people to become alcoholics. I’ve also heard him say that all liquor stores should be put out of business, and their owners should be run out of town. A couple of times I even heard him say that the liquor store owners were doing the devil’s work, and God or someone else should take them out, so the stores would permanently close. I really didn’t pay much attention to it. I considered it kind of idle rambling from someone who must be having a difficult time giving up alcohol, however this morning it was different. He was here as usual, but instead of feeling bad about Jesse’s death, I overheard him say he was really happy Jesse had been killed, and how he hoped The Crush would close permanently. I think his exact words were ‘Aren’t you all glad that someone had the courage to kill Jesse Allen? That’s one less man to do the devil’s work.’ It kind of frightened me.”

  “It frightens me as well. Do you have any idea who this man is?”

  “None, and since one of the cornerstones of the Alcoholics Anonymous organization is anonymity, I don’t think anyone would tell me, even if they knew.”

  “Unfortunately, you’re probably right. I’ll tell Mike about it, but I’m not sure how he could find out either. Thanks, Ginger. By the way, I was talking to Luke Monroe earlier today, and he said he was going to talk to Bob about doing some handyman repairs out at the Center.”

  “Thank you. Bob called me earlier and told me Luke had called him. He’s meeting with Luke tomorrow. I didn’t know it was because of you that Luke called Bob, but we really appreciate it, and Bob can sure use the work. We’re going through some tough times, and I don’t know how much longer we can hold on financially.”

  “Glad I could help. You’re good people,” Kelly said as she stood up and gave Ginger a hug. “Time for me to get home and see what I can come up with for dinner tonight. Sometimes I think that might be the only reason why Mike married me. I can almost guarantee you that if I wasn’t a good cook, I wouldn’t be Mrs. Reynolds.”

  “Somehow I doubt that.”

  “I don’t,” Kelly said walking out. “See you soon! Lady, come.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Kelly pulled into the driveway just as Mike and Rebel were getting out of his patrol car. Mike walked over to her van and opened the door for Kelly and Lady, kissing her on the cheek and giving Lady a pat on the head.

  “We’ve got to stop meeting this way,” he said, grinning. “Kind of nice to come home to my wife. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me all day!”

  “Keep talking like that and you might qualify for one of my famous dinners. Actually I think we’ll have Reuben sandwiches tonight. It’s been a stressful couple of days for both of us. A glass of wine, a fire, a Reuben sandwich, and then a piece of that raspberry tart from the wedding reception. Doesn’t that sound divine?”

  “I thought everything got eaten at the reception,” Mike said. “Have you been holding out on me?”

  “Well, I know how much you love that tart, so before the first guest even arrived, I asked Roxie if she’d put two pieces in the refrigerator in the garage.”

  “Smart thinking, but then again, I’ve never heard anyone accuse you of being stupid, but I have to admit, that may be in the realm of downright brilliant thinking.”

  “Thank you, Sheriff Mike. Go change clothes and I’ll open the wine.”

  “Will do. I’ll be back shortly.”

  A few minutes later Kelly handed him a glass of wine and said, “I’ve had quite an afternoon. I’ve got a lot to tell you, but you probably do too. You want to go first?”

  “No. I spent the afternoon looking through Jesse’s files. Not much to tell there. Anyway, my mother raised me to be a gentleman, and ladies are always supposed to go first. You’re up.”

  She started by relating her conversation with Luke about the Pellino brothers and their interest in buying the White Cloud Retreat Center. Mike interrupted her, “Was a dollar amount mentioned? That’s some pretty valuable acreage, and I don’t see the Pellino brothers having that kind of money. They sell the bulk of the wines they produce to discount chains. A Mafia connection would make a lot of sense, and there have been rumors that they just might be Family.”

  “If there was a dollar amount, Luke didn’t mention it to me, but that’s not all Luke told me. I haven’t even told you about the veiled threat.” She explained what Luke had heard Dante say to Luca when they were outside the Center and walked past Luke’s slightly broken window.

  “I definitely would consider that a threat if I was Luke. I’d also think with all the people around the Center, it’s probably a pretty safe place, but that hasn’t always been true in the past. Dante and Luca both have very distinctive looking appearances. If they were anywhere near The Crush around the time of the murder, someone would remember them. It probably wouldn’t hurt for me to put something in the newspaper and on TV asking people to call my office if they saw or heard any unusual activity around The Crush in the hours before the murder. I’ll do it tomorrow.”

  “I think that’s an excellent idea, but I have a couple of other things to tell you and…”

  “What do you mean you have a couple of other things to tell me?” Mike said, raising his eyebrows. “I told you it was all right for you to call Luke. I never suggested that you do anything else concerning my investigation.”

  “Doc called and wanted to talk to me. He didn’t think what he had to tell me was important enough to bother you with, then he changed his mind, but I told him I’d tell you and save him the trouble. Evidently Mrs. Allen didn’t tell you everything when you questioned her.”

  “What are you talking about? I had a long conversation with her this morning.”

  “You may have, but she felt guilty that she hadn’t told you about the gun she found in Celia’s nightstand. It was a .38 Smith & Wesson, and it was taped to the underneath side of her nightstand drawer.”

  “What! A gun in the nightstand! No, she definitely did not tell me about it.”

  “That’s what she told Doc. Celia took her in toda
y to see Doc, and Mrs. Allen felt bad she hadn’t told you about finding the gun. She told Doc about it and asked him if he would tell you.”

  “Okay, Kelly, tell me the whole story.”

  When she was finished, he went over to the counter and poured himself another glass of wine. “Want a refill?”

  “No thanks. Mike, why can’t you just go to the Allen home, get the gun, and have a ballistics test run on it to see if it matches the bullet that killed Jesse?”

  “Wish I could, sweetheart, but I’d need a search warrant, and I don’t have enough facts to present to the court to get a search warrant issued. I mean, she had a gun in her bedroom. So what? A lot of people have guns in their bedrooms. No, there’s no way a court would grant a search warrant without a greater showing of probable cause, and there’s not enough here for probable cause.”

  “Too bad. I need to start dinner in a few minutes, but there’s one more thing I need to tell you.”

  “How do these things always seem to happen to you, when I’m the county sheriff, and this is my case? Never mind, even if you knew you probably wouldn’t tell me. I’m beginning to think you’re one of those people who just walks easy on the earth. Is what you’re about to tell me the last thing you found out today? Had a rather busy day, didn’t you, love?”

  “Mike, stop it. I can’t help it, honest, these things just somehow seem to happen to me.”

  When she finished telling him about what Ginger had overheard during the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, he sat back in his chair, turning the wine glass in his hands, deep in thought.

  “So from what you heard today, there could possibly be three suspects, is that right?” he asked.