Eve Lloyd's A Deadline Cozy Mystery - Books 1 to 5

by Sonia Parin

  “How are you holding up?” she asked.

  Jill shrugged. “All right, I suppose.” She looked over her shoulder toward the hallway. “How long do we have to sit here for?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “They’ve been up there for a while now.”

  Eve nodded. “Collecting evidence.” Had she missed Jack’s entrance? She didn’t think so. Whenever he came near her, her body went into alert.

  Jill leaned forward. “Should we... maybe... get our stories straight?”

  “What’s there to get straight? We came together, so we’re each other’s alibi.”

  “Alibi?” Jill’s face tightened. “I didn’t realize we needed an alibi. I just came along for the ride and... Okay, I wanted to see Abby’s secret stash of X-rated DVDs.”

  “I told you there aren’t any. I don’t know where you got that idea from—”

  Jill gave a brisk shake of her head and nudged it in the direction of the hallway. “Police,” she mimed.

  Eve shifted and saw the police officer standing by the door. Experience had taught her to be careful what she said in front of people because anything she said could be misconstrued and tied in to the...

  Murder.

  Again? How could this be? When had the island become the centre of criminal activity?

  The front door opened.

  Eve tugged at a stray lock of hair. Her heart gave a little skip. Excitement bloomed inside her.

  Jack.

  She heard his long exhalation first. A sigh that spoke volumes.

  Yes, she’d once again crash landed right in the thick of it.

  “Hello, Eve. Jill.”

  Curling her fingers around the armrests, Eve slid to the edge of her seat. “Jack.”

  He motioned for her to remain seated.

  She nodded. Yes, she would do as told and co-operate fully. “What brings you here?”

  Jack’s eyebrows lifted. “You need to ask?” He strode over to her, his gaze skating around her face. “Are you all right?”

  “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?” Silly question. At the rate she was going, she’d become a veteran witness in no time.

  She glanced over his shoulder and saw Detective Mason Lars stride by. At least now she knew how this would play out. Jack would be present during her questioning, but he wouldn’t be directly involved. That task would fall on Detective Mason Lars.

  He glanced her way and nodded.

  It said a lot when a local detective acknowledged your presence.

  Jack joined him. Eve supposed they needed to run through their standard tactics, just to be sure.

  She hoped she remembered everything that had happened. She hadn’t been thinking about it. In fact, she’d tried her best to erase most of it from her mind.

  “You should talk to Jill first.” Put her out of her misery, Eve thought making a point of checking her watch. They hadn’t been waiting that long, but she couldn’t see any reason why they should be forced to remain here longer than they had to.

  Jack motioned for her to follow. They strode over to the dining room and then through to the kitchen where Jack drew out a chair for her.

  Detective Mason Lars cleared his throat.

  Knowing the drill, she asked, “From the top?”

  “From the moment you arrived,” Mason Lars said.

  “I opened the bedroom door and found a naked man on the bed with his hands cuffed to the bed post.” The fact she cut to the chase without mentioning being at the café and only ordering coffee before coming to Abby’s place said a lot about her state of mind. She wanted this to be over and done with. She wanted to go home and bake cookies and think about swashbuckling heroes. Anything to take her mind off the dead man lying on the bed with his hands cuffed...

  “Can you tell us what you were doing here?”

  “I promised Abby Larkin I’d keep an eye out on the place. She owns the house, but she’s selling it.”

  The detective wrote something on his notepad.

  “She doesn’t live here,” Eve continued, “Abby’s already moved to the city. But I doubt she’ll be able to help you.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “She doesn’t live on the island. She moved away—” She stopped. If she said any more, she’d have to explain the reasons why Abby had moved and she didn’t want to betray her friend’s inability to find a boyfriend on the island. Eve decided that, in her place, it wasn’t something she would want spread around.

  “She’s not the type to get into any sort of trouble,” Eve added. Then again, that would give her the perfect cover. “She had nothing to do with this. If she’d been on the island, we would have known.” Eve chuckled. “I can’t imagine her sneaking back in the dead of night in a rowboat.” Eve tapped her chin and wondered how long it took for a body to start feeling cold. He must have been killed in the dead of night.

  “How often have you been checking on the house?”

  “About once a week.”

  “So you last came here last week.”

  Eve shifted in her chair. It didn’t go unnoticed.

  Mason Lars held her gaze for long moments. Eve looked up at Jack who stood nearby and then back to Mason Lars. While Jack’s broad shoulders narrowed down to slim hips, Mason Lars’s thick neck defined the rest of his body. Solid. Stocky.

  “Actually... I dropped by yesterday. I’ve been thinking about going into business and turning the place into an inn—” She frowned and wondered why she’d told them that. Nerves?

  “Yesterday,” Mason Lars prompted her.

  “Yes.”

  Eve sent her mind wandering because anything was better than thinking about the man upstairs.

  If she wanted to turn this house into an inn, the kitchen could easily be upgraded with a new stove...

  She’d have to add a new workbench.

  She wondered what else she’d have to do to bring the kitchen up to standard, at the same time Eve prayed the detective wouldn’t ask why she’d returned so soon.

  “Why did you come back so soon?”

  “Pardon?”

  The detective exchanged a look with Jack. Eve had seen him doing it a few times before as if pleading with him to rein in his girlfriend.

  “Two visits in one week. You must have had a reason.”

  She brushed her hand across her wrist. “Well... I... I thought I’d lost something... A bracelet.” She wasn’t under oath, so strictly speaking she hadn’t lied. Details, Eve reminded herself, made for a convincing cover-up. What sort of bracelet would she wear? Should she describe it?

  She noticed Jack uncrossed his arms and slipped his hands inside his pockets. Was he trying to remember if he’d ever seen Eve wearing a bracelet?

  She’d have some explaining to do, if not now then later.

  Eve nibbled the edge of her lip. She didn’t want to put Jack on the spot. If he had to choose between her and abiding by his code of ethics, she knew he’d do his duty.

  Mason Lars nodded. “That’ll be all for today, Ms. Lloyd.”

  Her lips parted, mostly in surprise. “Is that all you want to know?”

  “You didn’t know the victim and you’ve never seen him before.”

  She nodded.

  “Then that’s all for today.”

  Eve made a beeline for her car, Jill trailing behind her. She pressed her cell to her ear. “Abby. It’s Eve. I’m afraid I have some unexpected... bad news for you.” Eve climbed into her SUV and sat back and gave her friend the heads-up. “The police will no doubt be in touch with you shortly, but I thought you might want to know and be ready.” She drew in a deep breath and filled Abby in on what had happened.

  “In my house? A dead body? A naked dead body. But how? Why? I’ve never done anything to anyone...”

  Eve remembered Abby telling her she’d never even incurred a parking infringement or been caught speeding. “If I knew that, I’d be setting myself up as a private investigator and charging huge fe
es.”

  “How did they even get in?”

  They?

  Of course, there had to have been more than one person otherwise how would the man have ended up handcuffed to the bed post...

  “I didn’t see any signs of a break-in. Is there anyone else who might have a key?”

  “The realtor, of course.”

  And anyone who worked at the realtor’s office.

  Eve smacked the side of her head.

  No. No. No.

  She wasn’t going to think about it. And she was definitely not getting involved.

  The police would handle the matter. Unfortunately, she’d already played her part by finding the body.

  Eve wished she hadn’t.

  “What about your neighbors? Do you share your house key with them?”

  “No point. They only use the houses on weekends. It never felt right or practical to exchange keys.”

  “How about spare keys? Did you maybe—” Which part of no didn’t she get?

  Stop right now, Eve.

  She had no business snooping around.

  “What?”

  “Did you maybe have a spare key in the bookstore? You know, in one of the drawers.” Eve thought of the young girls working at the Tinkerbelle’s. Samantha Beckett had worked there for a year and since Mira would remain behind the scene, she’d employed another sales clerk, Aubrey Leeds.

  “I did, but I took it with me when I sold the store to Mira. It’s the key I gave the realtor. And... And you have my key.”

  “I’m not sure I like the hesitation in your voice.”

  “Well, what do I really know about you?” Abby gave a nervous laughter. “Sorry, this is... This is dreadful. A dead body. In my house. Who’ll buy it now? I can’t think straight. There are so many questions ricocheting inside my head. What do I do? How did they even get in? Is there any damage to the place?”

  Eve knew she’d been thorough. The house hadn’t been broken into. So, if they hadn’t forced their way in...

  The key must have come from somewhere... Someone else.

  “By the way, I didn’t tell them about the handcuffs.”

  “Oh, that’s a relief... Not.”

  “I didn’t think you’d want it to be public knowledge.”

  “But they’re not even mine.”

  “So you say.”

  “What do you mean? Don’t you believe me?”

  “Abby. What proof do you have they’re not yours?”

  “Doesn’t my word count for anything?”

  Eve slumped her head back. “Not in a murder investigation.”

  Eve scanned her ingredients and checked off her mental list. When she’d returned home, Mira had still been inside her writing cave and wasn’t likely to emerge anytime soon. She looked up at Jill who sat on a stool watching her. “They didn’t ask you anything?”

  “For the umpteenth time, no. Why are you surprised? I didn’t even get to see the body. You made sure of that.”

  “You should be thanking me. That’s not the sort of mental image you want floating around in your mind.”

  “Still, there’s no need for you to be so protective. I’m not easily shocked.”

  Eve turned her attention to measuring her ingredients and deciding what sort of nuts she’d put into her cookies.

  “Can I help?”

  Eve drummed her fingers on the counter. “You could cut up the chocolate.” She set her bowl in place and tossed in the butter and sugar. With her sleeves rolled up, she got to work mixing the ingredients to a creamy consistency.

  “You obviously didn’t recognize him, otherwise you would have said something.”

  Eve added the vanilla extract to the sugar and butter mix and then one egg at a time, beating thoroughly.

  “I guess you’re still shaken from the experience.”

  Eve sighed. “I’d rather not talk about it. I’ve decided to stay right out of it this time. Let the police do their job. They don’t need me.”

  “You say that now. I’ll expect a call early tomorrow morning.”

  She folded in the rest of the ingredients. Gave it all a thorough mix and finally added the chopped chocolate and macadamia nuts. With the dough spread into even shapes on a tray, she adjusted the oven temperature and slid the tray in.

  Muttering a colorful curse, Eve turned.

  “Who could have killed him?”

  Chapter Four

  After a restless night, tossing and turning and swatting at her mental images of a man tied up to the bed, Eve decided to take matters into her own hands.

  She strode up to the bakery, her steps purposeful, her gaze fixed on her destination and nothing... no one else.

  She’d promised herself she wouldn’t even think about the murder and every time she reminded herself, she ended up thinking about it.

  Inside the bakery, she asked to speak to the owner.

  According to Jill who knew everyone on the island, Barbara Lynch had taken over the business from her father who’d since retired. She’d been an accountant looking for a sea change and had happily settled into the routine of running a busy bakery, mostly as a way to fill in time before she decided on her next career move.

  That was precisely what Eve had decided to do that morning. Frustrated by her indecision to settle on something useful to do, she thought she might offer her services and bake cookies, at least until the baker returned from his vacation. She hoped a job would also keep her mind engaged and away from thoughts of a killer on the island...

  Barbara smiled. “And are you qualified?”

  “Yes, I ran my own restaurant in New York and,” she held up a bag, “I baked these for you to try. They’re chocolate chip with macadamia nuts.” She rattled off a list of other flavors she could make.

  Eve watched as Barbara opened the bag. Within a second, her eyes closed and she hummed.

  “Oh yes, it’s in the aroma.” She nibbled on one and sighed. “Yes. Come on through to my office, we’ll work out the details.”

  Half an hour later, Eve skipped out of the bakery, a smile in place. Finally, she had a purpose. She would start the next day and in her spare time she would follow through on her plans for something bigger and better. An inn or a bed and breakfast began to take shape in her mind. She could see herself doing it.

  Checking for traffic before she crossed the road, she saw a car pull up. Jack. Accompanied by Detective Mason Lars. Were they in town to follow up on a lead?

  Eve shook her head and turned in the opposite direction only to stop when Jack called out her name.

  “Didn’t you see me wave?” he asked.

  She brushed a strand of hair back and smiled. “Yes... No, I must have been distracted. Hello, Jack.”

  “Will you be home later today?”

  “You sound official.”

  “We need to ask you a few more questions.”

  She looked up and down the main street, as if her answer depended on what she saw there. “Well... I’m starting a new job tomorrow, so I’ll be doing some running around.”

  “Job? Where?”

  “Right here at the bakery.” Her smile widened. “I’ll be baking cookies and, you’ll be pleased to know, staying right out of trouble.” She tagged on that last bit before he had the chance or reason to reprimand her. “And I’m sure I told you everything I know yesterday. I can’t imagine what else you might want to ask me.”

  The edge of Jack’s lip kicked up. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to hide something. But you wouldn’t do that.”

  Would she?

  Yes, if she didn’t think it would make a difference and telling Jack about finding the handcuffs wouldn’t... surely, it wouldn’t make a difference.

  Then again, it might paint a different picture.

  The clandestine meeting, as she had decided to call it, between the murdered man and his hypothetical lover hadn’t been a single occurrence. The couple might have been meeting regularly at Abby’s house. In whi
ch case, they’d have to live nearby, maybe even on the island. And if they lived on the island, they’d have to have a solid reason for meeting in an unoccupied house.

  Had they been married?

  Married to other people?

  “Is there a point to all this?” she asked.

  “To what?”

  “Harassment. I walked in on a crime scene and I reported it. What else do you want from me?”

  He brushed his hand along her arm. “Are you all right, Eve?”

  “Well, if you must know, I’m slightly on edge. I didn’t sleep well last night. It’s not every day I see something so gruesome.”

  “Do you need to talk about it with someone?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not saying I’ve been scarred for life. It’s just not something one can easily shake off. Who would do something like that?”

  “That’s what we want to find out.”

  “Do you have any suspects?” she asked.

  He lifted an eyebrow.

  Of course, if he had any suspects in mind he wouldn’t tell her.

  Detective Mason Lars strode up to them. “Well?”

  Jack shook his head.

  The detective sighed and pulled out a plastic evidence bag from his pocket. “Have you seen these before?”

  The handcuffs.

  “They’re handcuffs.”

  “And when was the last time you saw a pair like these?”

  Eve knew when she had her back to the wall. “I saw a pair of handcuffs yesterday on a dead body lying on my friend’s bed.”

  “Could you run through exactly what you did when you walked into the bedroom?”

  “We’ve already covered that.”

  “Yes, but we might have missed something.”

  With a nod, she recited the events, stopping only once to check the sequence. “After I called the police, I stepped out of the room and met Jill. We both stood there until the police arrived.”

  “You felt for a pulse.”

  She nodded.

  “Did you touch anything else?”

  “No.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I’m positive.” She knew she sounded defensive but a few minutes before she’d been happily celebrating her new job and for the first time since the day before, not thinking about dead bodies...