by K. J. Emrick
Death by Chocolate Cake
A Moonlight Bay Psychic Mystery Short Read 5
K. J. Emrick
Kathryn De Winter
First published in Australia by South Coast Publishing, July 2017. Copyright K.J. Emrick and Kathryn De Winter (2017)
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This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and locations portrayed in this book and the names herein are fictitious. Any similarity to or identification with the locations, names, characters or history of any person, product or entity is entirely coincidental and unintentional.
- From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.
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Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
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Chapter 1
Miranda laughed as she reached for her wine glass. “I love how the view from your house is almost exactly the same as the view from mine. Our town is just that small, isn’t it?”
Jack Travis, tall and handsome detective of the Moonlight Bay Police Department, smiled at her with his fierce blue eyes. “Yup, we both get to see the lighthouse, just from different angles. Say, before you start swigging that wine back, Miranda, I was about to make a toast.”
Over the past few weeks she and Jack had been seeing a lot of each other. There had been a lot of walks on the beaches of Moonlight Bay, a lot of snuggling on his couch or hers, and a lot of talking.
Of course, they had a lot to talk about.
Miranda found that she felt almost as comfortable in Jack’s home as she did at her uncle’s huge manor house, nicknamed Ragged Rest. Through his open window she could see the green expanse of Jack’s back yard, and past that was the uninterrupted view of the deep waters of Moonlight Bay. She could see and hear the waves lapping heartily at the sand. A breeze came in to playfully stir the edges of her long, deep red hair. Here in this moment, Miranda felt truly content.
In truth, she had never thought that she would settle in Moonlight Bay. She had lived in Melbourne for years and considered herself a city girl. But, when her book writing career had taken off, the time had come to move on from there. There had been more to it, of course. People had begun to find out that she was psychic when her best friend had died and begun haunting her in spirit. It had brought her the wrong kind of attention.
So, when the opportunity had presented itself to move here to the tiny community of Moonlight Bay out on Australia’s coastline, she’d readily accepted. She’d tried to keep her psychic abilities a secret out here but that became increasingly difficult when she seemed to get mixed up in every murder that had happened in Moonlight Bay since she’d moved here. Her friends—her living friends—Sapphire Moon-Flower and Jean-Paul Devereux both knew her secret, but until now it had only been those two.
Now, Jack Travis knew her secret, too.
Well most of it. But perhaps the uncovering of her psychic abilities and the unwanted attention she had received in the city had not been such a bad thing after all. It had been the catalyst for her moving out to Moonlight Bay to the old family home. She guessed that was just how things work sometimes; something you thought was bad turned out to be the one thing that set you going in the right direction.
In the quiet of the gently cooling evening, the only other sounds besides the crashing of the waves were the gentle snores of Butter. Miranda’s golden retriever was happily chasing rabbits in his sleep again. When Miranda’s visits had become a regular thing, Jack had happily dedicated the exclusive use of a giant pillow to Butter, and the sleepy pooch always dug it out the moment he set paw in Jack’s home. Miranda was glad for that. She didn’t know if she could ever be with Jack Travis if he wasn’t a dog person.
“Oops,” Miranda said, just a second before the wine glass would have touched her lips. She’d nearly forgotten Jack’s toast. “Sorry. What were you going to say?”
He smiled, and lifted his glass. “I was just going to congratulate us both on our two-month anniversary.”
“Do people ordinarily celebrate their two-month anniversary?” Miranda asked playfully, cocking her head to one side.
“Does it matter what other people ordinarily do?” Jack asked in return. “You formally agreed to go out with me two months ago. I think that’s worth celebrating.”
Miranda laughed and held her arm out straight and high, the wine swirling dangerously close to the rim. “To two months together, then.”
Miranda twisted a little on the couch where they were sitting, bringing herself close enough to kiss him without any danger of spilling their drinks.
“Oh,” Kyle said from the far side of the room, “how I wish I had a party horn to blow for the occasion.”
Still enjoying Jack’s wonderful lips on hers, Miranda allowed her eyes to flick harshly over his shoulder just long enough to give Kyle a good dark look. Just because he was a ghost did not give him the right to ruin moments like this for her.
“Ooh, sor-ry!” Kyle said with a comical snarkiness that Miranda chose to ignore entirely.
Butter lifted his head off the pillow long enough to whuff at Kyle. Doggie-speak for ‘shut up.’
“You too?” Kyle moaned.
Kyle Hunter didn’t have to be here. Tall and lanky with a hazy blue aura surrounding his spiritual form, he was invisible to anyone but Miranda. He was a ghost and he could go wherever he wanted to. In fact, after tonight, she was going to have to lay down some ground rules for her dead friend. It was all well and good that other than the few stray ghosts they encountered here in Moonlight Bay it was only Miranda who could see and hear Kyle. Fine. She completely understood not wanting to be all alone. For some reason his spirit had not moved on after death, and he needed a friend.
&
nbsp; At the same time, she was not going to have him interrupting her more… private moments with Jack.
When the kiss ended, Jack settled back on the couch, oblivious to the other person in the room “I’ve got to tell you,” he said, “I really think two months with you is worth celebrating. I really like being with you, Miranda.”
“I feel the same, Jack. It means a lot that I could open up to you about… you know, my abilities. I always worry that people will run for the hills when they find out about all of that.”
“Oh?” he teased. “Do you tell all your dates about what you can do?”
She chuckled and sipped at her wine. “Only the ones I plan on spending the night with.”
That brought a goofy smile to his lips. Good. A girl needed to know that she could, um, get a rise out of the man she was dating.
As Miranda smiled back at him she tried her very hardest to ignore Kyle, who was ridiculously humming the Wedding March. Yes. After today, ground rules.
“How is it that someone like you has never gotten married before?” Jack asked.
“Erm…” The question took her by surprise as it came from out of the blue. She felt herself blushing, and hoped she could blame it on the wine.
“Oh, hey,” he laughed. “I didn’t mean to pry. I figured after telling me you can communicate with ghosts and sometimes you get messages from the great beyond, the topic of being single would be easy for you.”
She flicked her eyes over at Kyle again. She hadn’t told Jack about him yet, and now the omission seemed like a big fat lie. She’d been meaning to but just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Jack had overheard a partial conversation between herself and Sapphire a few weeks ago when Kyle’s name had been mentioned. Miranda had fully intended to tell Jack all about him when they’d gone to dinner the next night but she found herself chickening out. She wasn’t sure why. When he had asked once again who Kyle was she’d made up a story to cover it but she didn’t feel good about it and the more time that went by without her telling Jack about him the harder it got.
Then again, he had yet to tell her everything about his own past, either. There was something that had happened to him in the past, and she sensed that its scar ran deep. As if that justified her silence.
He’d told her that he used to work at a police department in the Northern Territory, and that he wasn’t exactly welcome back there, but that was where his tale had ended. She was burning with curiosity to know the rest of it but it was his story to tell, and he would do it in his own time.
Just like she would, one day, introduce Jack to Kyle.
“It’s fine,” she said to Jack at last. “Um, to answer your question, I guess I’ve never found the right man for marriage. Someone who would accept me for who I am.”
“Hmm. Interesting. And who are you, Miranda Wylder?”
She laughed softly. “Well. I am a crime novelist. A psychic/medium. A woman who wants to find the love of her life.”
“Are you still looking?” he asked.
With stars in her eyes, she leaned in closer to him again. “Maybe.”
She liked it that he didn’t flinch or turn away from her whenever she mentioned her psychic abilities. She wasn’t used to being accepted for what she was. It let her know that maybe, yes maybe, she had found exactly what she was waiting for in this man, Jack Travis.
Somewhere in the middle of their embrace, the doorbell rang.
“I can just ignore it,” Jack whispered against her cheek.
“Oh, no,” Kyle said, comically waving his hands, “don’t get up. I’ll just go answer it instead.”
“Don’t be silly,” Miranda said over Kyle’s ludicrous suggestion, “who could possibly need to see you?”
She’d meant it for Kyle, but of course with her lips right next to Jack’s ear, he thought she was talking to him. “Well,” he said, “it is my house.”
“Er, right. Yeah.” Miranda was liking the feel of his fingers running through her hair. “I only meant, um, that it’s late and if anyone needed you they’d call first, right?”
She opened her eyes to see him looking at her oddly. “You know sometimes you’re a little strange, right?”
The doorbell rang again, saving Miranda from having to explain how she’d really been talking to her ghost friend who’d been hanging out with them, unseen, all evening.
Playfully kissing the tip of her nose Jack got his feet and went to answer the door. Butter lifted his head up off the pillow to watch him go by, then tucked his head back under his paws, and went back to his dreams.
Miranda gave her dog a nice pat on the head before following Jack to the front entryway. When he opened the door, they found a short man in a brown overcoat standing there with a sour look on his face. It was no one that Miranda remembered ever seeing before.
Standing this close to Jack, she could almost feel the change in his demeanor. His back tensed. His hands curled tighter. His entire body language became wary, like he was expecting the worst.
“Jack,” the little sour man said, “I’ve got some bad news.”
Apparently the worst was yet to come.
The man’s voice was gravelly, like he’d carried a two-pack a day cigarette habit for the last twenty years. His expression was sad, but his eyes were intense.
“Bad news,” Jack sighed. “When have you ever come to my door with anything but bad news? What is it this time?”
The man on Jack’s doorstep crossed his arms. “It’s Anya Westfield, Jack. She’s dead.”
Chapter 2
Time slowed to a stop for Miranda. She didn’t know who this Anya person was, but it was obvious that Jack did. The information that she had died had an immediate effect on him. For a moment his expression changed to stone, and in his eyes she could see the flash of memories that must be parading through his mind.
Then he noticed Miranda watching him. He cleared his throat and tried to look unconcerned. “Come in, Marvin. Your timing is horrible as always.”
The three of them went to the kitchen, and Jack motioned for Marvin to sit while he set the kettle on the stove to boil. Miranda took a seat too, waiting for the explanations to start.
When Jack came back from the counter he stood behind her chair, putting his hands on her shoulders. She liked the way it felt but she had the impression he was doing it as much to get support from her as for any other reason.
“Miranda, this is Marvin Locke,” he said. “We’ve known each other for a long time. Although, I did not know you were in Moonlight Bay.”
“I came right here after it happened, Jack,” Marvin said to him, shrugging apologetically. “I knew you would want to know.”
“When did it happen? When did she die?”
Jack had reverted to his police officer mode, hiding behind facts and questions to distance himself from the news that Marvin had brought him. That told Miranda, whoever this Anya was, she had meant a lot to Jack.
Now her curiosity was boiling over.
“Today,” Marvin answered Jack’s question. “This morning.”
Jack nodded. “And how did she die?”
“That I don’t know, exactly.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t think it was natural causes. I think somebody killed her.”
Miranda felt Jack’s hands flex on her arms. “That’s sad news, Marvin. Thing is, I don’t know what it has to do with me. Not anymore. She’s still up in the Northern Territory. I’m here now.”
The Northern Territory? Miranda remembered Jack saying that he’d been part of a police force in the Northern Territory. This was the part of his past that he didn’t want to talk about.
And now, a girl from that past was dead.
Marvin was staring at him oddly. “You didn’t know?”
The kettle began to whistle on the stove and Jack stalked off to collect cups from the cabinet along with a jar of Nescafe instant coffee. “Didn’t I know what?”
“She died at home, but she’s
been living in Raven’s Falls, not the Northern Territory.”
The spoon Jack had been using to stir one of the coffee cups froze in place as he turned a hard stare on Marvin. Miranda could understand why. Raven’s Falls was a town just two hours away from Moonlight Bay. Whoever this Anya woman was, she had been living very close by when she died.
“So,” he said after a moment, “she wasn’t with you anymore?”
“No.” There was a touch of sadness in Marvin’s voice as he admitted that. “It’s been years since we broke up. She was with a guy called Thomas Crowe. I didn’t like the man, but Anya certainly did.”
At the end of the kitchen table, Kyle had been watching the conversation back and forth like a spectator at a tennis match. “Um, Miranda? I’m lost.”
“Me, too,” she whispered back. Then in a louder voice, she said, “Jack? Can you tell me what’s going on here? Should I just go?”
“Please stay,” he said, in a way that told her that he really meant it.
Marvin accepted the cup of coffee when it was handed to him. “Jack dated Anya years ago. When he worked in the Northern Territory. After she left Jack, she dated me.”
“She didn’t leave me,” Jack stated flatly. “She cheated on me, with you. I told her to leave. She did. With you.”
“I know, I know.” It sounded like Marvin wanted to say more, but instead he just shrugged. “Anyway, it was over between us a long time ago, too, and she’s been with Thomas Crowe ever since. Jack, we need to put our differences aside. For Anya’s sake.”
“You’re wasting your time,” Jack told him. “Finish your coffee. Then leave.”
“Don’t be such an arrogant yobbo! You always were thick headed, Jack, but I thought you’d get over it for Anya’s sake.”