Northwest Cozy Mysteries #1 Read online

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  Promptly at five that afternoon, DeeDee swung through the motion-activated entrance gates leading to Marlene Palmer’s large two-story Pacific Northwest style home. The house itself was hidden from the road around a bend in the driveway, and when she rounded the bend, she saw an imposing building with stone-facing. There were steps with sculpted pillars on either side leading up to a heavy mahogany front door. It was situated right on the waterfront, and the large yard filled with late spring flowers provided a riot of color in the early evening light.

  DeeDee checked her lipstick in the rear-view mirror and then smoothed her skirt as she walked up the steps. The door swung open before DeeDee had even knocked, answered by a maid who had evidently been waiting for her.

  “This way, ma’am,” the maid said, leading DeeDee down a hallway, and into the library where Marlene was sitting behind a large desk. Marlene rose when DeeDee entered and greeted her warmly. Although they’d only exchanged pleasantries during DeeDee’s time at the museum, Marlene had always made a point of knowing who the docents were and greeting them by name. Despite her eccentricities, Marlene was a respected employer who treated her staff well, both paid and volunteers alike.

  “It’s good to see you, DeeDee,” Marlene said. “Thank you for coming over.” She motioned for DeeDee to take a seat. “You’re looking well, my dear, less tired than I remember. I hope life is treating you better these days.”

  “It is, Marlene, and thank you for thinking of me for this event. I’m very excited to be a part of it.”

  Marlene nodded and after a little small talk about a few people at the museum, they got down to the business of discussing the menu.

  “I was thinking of serving baked Copper River salmon, Marlene, because that variety of salmon is only available for a short period of time, and it’s so in demand. I can get it for the party from Pike’s Place Market.”

  “Are you sure?” Marlene’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t want any old salmon if you can’t get the really good Copper River salmon.”

  Even though the fish was extremely popular and sometimes hard to find, DeeDee had been shopping at the fish market at Pike’s Place for years, and she knew almost all of the employees. She was confident there wouldn’t be a problem. “I’m sure, Marlene. The salmon would be served on a rice pilaf with a sweet mustard dill sauce drizzled on top.”

  Marlene nodded and smiled, which DeeDee took as permission to continue. “I thought the salad would be a creamy yogurt cucumber red onion salad with fresh herbs. I’m also thinking that a vegetable side of roasted asparagus with shaved Parmesan would go well with it. I believe a hot fudge sundae with crushed oreo cookies, chocolate covered espresso beans, whipped cream, and a cherry would be a nice finish.”

  Marlene raised an eyebrow. “And the appetizers?”

  “How do you feel about different kinds of melon slices wrapped with prosciutto, mini-shrimp pizzas, and an antipasto platter?”

  Marlene contemplated DeeDee’s appetizer proposal for a moment and then said, “That would cater to a wide range of tastes as well as provide choices for people who are counting calories. Good choice, and the price, DeeDee?”

  “I charge $450 for twelve people plus the cost of the food, Marlene, and I require a $250 advance to cover my initial outlay. The remainder is due on the day of the party, and I’ll provide all the receipts for the food at that time.” DeeDee held her breath for Marlene’s response, but Marlene didn’t bat an eye.

  “Very well, my dear. I’ll have my accountant mail you a check for the deposit tomorrow. Let me call my maid and she can take you to the kitchen and introduce you to our cook, Michelle, and she can show you the kitchen, so you’ll know what to expect when you come for the party. Feel free to use whatever you need.” A tinkle came from the small brass bell that Marlene lifted off her desk, and the maid reappeared almost instantly. DeeDee wondered if she’d been waiting in the hall the whole time she and Marlene had been talking.

  DeeDee thanked Marlene and followed the maid through a maze of halls until they arrived at a large chef’s kitchen overlooking the back yard. If DeeDee had been concerned about using the kitchen in Marlene’s house in case her new kitchen at the office park wasn’t ready in time, she needn’t have been. Marlene’s kitchen was perfect for entertaining. The large stove with four ovens, together with the large refrigerator in the kitchen, and an additional one in the garage, would easily allow DeeDee to cook some of the dishes in the kitchen as well as prepare some of them ahead of time.

  “Michelle, please let Mrs. Palmer know that I’ll be here the day of the party at two in the afternoon with my helper, Susie,” DeeDee said before she left. Michelle nodded, and escorted her to the door.

  Back in the privacy of her car, DeeDee did a happy dance in the driver’s seat. This event could put Deelish on the map, and she was going to make sure it was a night everyone would remember.

  CHAPTER 11

  Matt Benson stared at the acrylic painting on the easel in front of him, trying to figure out what wasn’t working. The scene was of boats and the San Juan Islands, his signature type of work, but it didn’t live up to his standards of excellence.

  He often wondered if that was part of the problem. The critical acclaim his work had received didn’t translate into any sort of commercial success. Lately he’d begun to wonder if he should start churning out paint-by-numbers instead. He knew if he was unable to gain any traction or sell part of his growing backlog soon, he would have to face up to the real world, the one where he had to do something to earn money so he could eat and pay rent. With a bank balance of less than a hundred dollars and shrinking, the life of a starving artist was not quite as appealing when starvation was a real possibility.

  He glanced at the copy of the Seattle Times on the table beside him. Ever since he’d seen the article about the dinner party that his nemesis and former sister-in-law, Lisa Sanders, would be attending, his work had suffered. It hadn’t always been that way. Only a few short months earlier, things were a lot different.

  “Come and see us soon, you promise?” Lisa had kissed them both and waved goodbye to Matt and his wife after they’d visited Lisa and Shane for the weekend. Matt’s wife, Lisa’s sister, Estelle, had died not long after that in a fatal traffic accident. Estelle was simply an innocent victim who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, killed because a drunk driver had decided to cut across three lanes of traffic without signaling. The driver had been on his way home from an office party and was still alive, unhurt, and awaiting trial. As for Estelle, she became just another tragic statistic.

  “I’ll never forgive myself,” Matt had sobbed at the funeral. Lisa and the rest of Estelle’s family seemed to agree, and when he’d contacted Lisa afterwards, it was apparent she didn’t want anything more to do with him.

  “My sister called me from the car that night, Matt. She was crying and upset after your argument. She said she was leaving you. I don’t know what happened to make her get in the car, but you could have stopped her. Estelle and her unborn baby never had a chance. I know you loved her, Matt, but I will never forgive you.”

  Matt understood that Lisa was mourning the loss of her sister, but he’d lost the love of his life. What Lisa didn’t know was that he and Estelle had argued after he’d found out she’d been having an affair.

  “Please, tell me, Estelle,” Matt had sobbed as his wife packed her bags. “Tell me if the baby is mine.”

  Estelle was crying too, soft silent tears, as she kissed him goodbye. “I’m sorry Matt,” she’d sobbed as mascara ran down her cheeks. “I don’t know.”

  Matt didn’t care if Lisa found out about Estelle’s affair, or that the baby may not have been his. He knew he hadn’t been the husband of the century, and part of him felt Lisa was probably right. He could have stopped Estelle from driving the night she died. What he was having trouble with was the fact that Lisa had deliberately set out to ruin his career from the moment Estelle had died. When three o
f his exhibitions were canceled in quick succession, he’d called Lisa, demanding to know if she had anything to do with it. He knew she was well-connected to members of the art world and could influence other gallery owners with a phone call. She moved in a tight-knit circle of people who stuck together, and Matt, who had once been on the edge of that circle, was now nowhere near being a part of it.

  “It’s nothing personal, Matt,” Lisa had insisted when he went to her Pioneer Square Art Gallery to confront her. “Your work is just not in vogue right now, and clearly the other gallery owners agree with my assessment. Maybe you should listen to everyone’s constructive criticism. Your ship has sailed,” Lisa said cruelly. “Your pieces are old, passé, and there’s no market for them. I’m running a business here, Matt, not a charity. Believe me when I say I’m being kind to you by telling you the truth. Maybe I should have done it a long time ago, when Estelle was alive. My judgment was clouded by personal issues then, but I assure you, they’re not now.”

  “Please, Lisa, could you take just a few pieces and put them in the gallery shop on consignment?” Matt was desperate, and he wasn’t too proud to beg.

  “This conversation is over. Shut the door on your way out, and don’t come back here again, Matt.”

  At the time, Matt had respected Lisa’s wishes and quietly left the gallery. He’d been shocked by her coldness toward him, but seeing her now, lauded in the Seattle Times as one of the art world stars who would be in attendance at Marlene Palmer’s swanky dinner party to celebrate the new wave of Seattle artists, changed his shock into anger. He was no longer welcome in the tightly knit art world, and he blamed that on Lisa.

  He kicked the easel in front of him with such violence that it caused the canvas on it to go crashing to the floor. For good measure, he picked up the canvas and flung it across the room. If Lisa had her way, he’d soon be working at some art store, stretching canvases for customers.

  She needs to be taken down a peg or two, Matt thought, biting his fingernails. He reached over and lit a cigarette, blowing smoke rings which floated into the air in front of him before evaporating.

  “That’s what Lisa Sanders needs,” Matt said to himself, “to disappear in a puff of smoke. That’ll teach her to take someone’s fate into her hands and ruin them. I want to see how she likes it when the tables are turned.”

  Inhaling on his cigarette, Matt recalled a conversation he and several other artists had after an anatomy class several years earlier. For some reason the talk had turned to killing someone without signs of any trauma to the body.

  Maybe if Lisa wasn’t around anymore, and someone else took over the gallery, they’d want to show my paintings, Matt thought. He wasn’t proud of it, but the idea just wouldn’t go away. Sometimes you had to make your own luck, and this was one of those times.

  The corners of Matt’s mouth turned up and he spoke aloud to the empty room. His mind was made up. “Guess who’s coming to dinner.”

  CHAPTER 12

  The dinner at Marlene Palmer’s house was a night to remember all right, but not for the reasons DeeDee had hoped. Everything had been going so well, until Lisa Sanders was found dead just before dessert was served. Lisa had been fine one minute, and the next thing they all knew, Marlene had discovered Lisa’s body off to the side of the patio.

  When the police and paramedics arrived at the scene, the gravity of the situation became clear to everyone. The dinner party guests who’d been drinking in the drawing room became very sober as the police began to interview them one by one. When Jake walked into the room, DeeDee had never been so relieved to see anyone in her life. After they had a brief conversation with Jake’s friend Dan Hewson, the Chief of Police, Jake led DeeDee over to a small couch in the hall.

  “You’re shaking, DeeDee,” Jake said, taking off his coat and placing it across her shoulders. “I think you’re somewhat in shock.”

  Jake sat down beside her, wrapping one arm around her, and pulling her close. DeeDee leaned her head into Jake’s shoulder, stealing his warmth and appreciating his manly smell. In a few moments, her body relaxed, and Jake spoke again in a low voice.

  “Lisa’s body was being taken out as I arrived, and I had a word with one of the guys from the coroner’s office. He knows me from some cases I’ve worked on. I wanted to see if he could tell me anything.”

  DeeDee lifted her head and looked at Jake. “Do they have any idea what happened?”

  Jake shook his head. “Just like the chief said, there was nothing suspicious. There were no signs of physical violence to Lisa’s body, but from what the chief and I noticed, we think she was probably suffocated. We’ll know for sure when the coroner’s finished his examination.”

  “Oh, Jake, that’s horrible. I saw her just a few minutes before Marlene found her,” DeeDee said, describing the scene she’d witnessed through the window with Lisa arguing on the phone while she was in the back yard. “I didn’t want her to think I was snooping, so I looked away. Shortly after that Marlene went outside and…found her. I think Susie and I would have heard something if Lisa had been attacked.”

  Just then a police officer appeared in front of them, and started to speak. “Mrs. Wilson? I believe you spoke to the chief already.”

  DeeDee nodded.

  The police officer continued, “I’d like to formally ask you a few additional questions. It shouldn’t take long. We can contact you later for further information if we decide that’s necessary. Follow me please, ma’am.”

  The officer led DeeDee down the hallway. Jake came with them, clasping DeeDee’s hand with a firm grip. The policeman led them into the library where DeeDee had met Marlene to discuss the dinner party three weeks earlier. It had been made into a temporary interview area, and several police officers and dinner party guests were also in the room. A woman was crying inconsolably while a female police officer tried to comfort her. A tall handsome man DeeDee recognized from a newspaper article as Shane Conklin, the man Lisa Sanders had been seeing, stood by the window in silence, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He looked bereft, broken, and DeeDee’s heart went out to him. Shane was led away as the police officer told DeeDee to take a seat in a chair by one of the bookcases. Jake stood at her side.

  “I’d like to go over the menu with you, Mrs. Wilson, and the ingredients of the dishes that the guests were served. Please tell me exactly what was served and how it was prepared.”

  DeeDee started off by telling him about her conversation with Marlene, in this very room, regarding the menu choices. “I have all of the receipts for the food here, and you can see where I bought everything.” DeeDee confirmed that as far as she was aware, there were no peanuts or nuts in any of the ingredients for the dishes which might have caused Lisa to suffer an allergic reaction.

  “Did you see Ms. Sanders during the evening?” the officer asked her, referring to his list of questions.

  DeeDee told him about the scene with Lisa on the phone, just as she’d described it to Jake. “I wasn’t able to hear what she was saying,” DeeDee said. “I only saw her for a moment or two, but her voice was raised, and she seemed upset.”

  The officer looked straight at DeeDee and said, “It seems like you may have been the last person to see Ms. Sanders alive, Mrs. Wilson. You indicated she seemed to be angry when she was talking on the phone, yet you didn’t think you should go outside and see what the problem was?”

  DeeDee was shocked by the officer’s insinuation. Her heart was racing, and her chest pounded as she replied. “Are you serious, officer? It never occurred to me that Lisa was in any danger, or of course I would have gone out there, but if I was to intervene every time I heard someone having an argument on the phone, well I…”

  “I think that’s enough, officer,” Jake said, stepping forward. He looked at the police officer with an icy stare. “You can see that Mrs. Wilson is very upset.” Jake paused while they observed Georgia Dunne being escorted from the room. “Your line of questioning is misleading, irrelevant, and
if you wish to pursue it further, Mrs. Wilson will require that a lawyer be present. Now if you will excuse us, I’m going to take Mrs. Wilson home.”

  DeeDee stood up and handed a Deelish business card to the officer. “Here is my contact information if you have any further questions for me.” She gave the officer an angry look, turned on her heel and walked in silence with Jake back down the hall.

  “Thank you,” DeeDee whispered when they were out of earshot of the police officer. “I thought he was accusing me of something.”

  “No problem, that’s what I’m here for,” Jake said, pulling her close.

  “Susie!” DeeDee remembered, pulling away. “I need to make sure Susie’s okay.”

  “You wait here, and I’ll go find her. Don’t move, and don’t speak to anyone until I come back,” Jake said, walking quickly towards the kitchen. DeeDee watched him go, grateful that he’d come, because she knew she would have been a mess otherwise. When Jake returned, he told her that Susie’s parents had been called, and they’d taken her home. The other guests, whose police interviews had been completed, were also starting to leave.

  “I’ll drive you home,” Jake said as he led her outside. “Rob, my assistant, and I will get your car in the morning.”

  DeeDee started to protest about how she needed to clean up the kitchen, but Jake shot her a warning look, and she decided not to argue. Things were going well between them, and the last thing she needed right now was to be the cause of their first argument.

  “I can’t believe it,” DeeDee said in the car as they drove down the driveway. “Who would want Lisa dead? Everyone seemed to really like her.” DeeDee reached in her purse for a tissue and dabbed her eyes. “You saw how upset the guests were. I thought I recognized Shane Conklin standing by the window. I saw his picture in a newspaper article about the dinner party. Poor man, he looked devastated.”