Murder & The Movie Star: A Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery - Book 12

by Dianne Harman

  “I come from a big family, Jose, and we always take care of our own. Even though most of my family lives in Southern California, some of them don’t live far from Cedar Bay. When you get to the point where you need help, let me know, and I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thank you, Maizie. I’m sure things will work out, but right now I sure don’t know how.”

  “None of us ever does, Jose. Sometimes we just have to trust there’s a higher power helping us. I believe in that higher power, and you need to as well. I have to get back inside. Ms. Morton’s daughter, Kim, is coming over in a little while. She called this morning and told her mother she wanted to talk to her. I want to make sure everything is ready for her. Do you mind if I tell Ms. Morton about Serena? I know how much she likes you.”

  “No, there’s no reason to keep it a secret.”

  “I’ll be praying for you and your family, Jose. I’ll see you next week, and those flowers are beautiful. Thank you, again, and please tell Serena how sorry I am.”

  Jose finished up in the back yard, and as he was walking along the sidewalk to the front yard he thought of what he had seen being taken out of the wall safe and also the piles of cash that were in the safe.

  If I had those jewels and that money it migh not keep Serena from dying, but it sure would solve a lot of my problems. I could hire someone to take care of her and even keep our family together here in the United States. I wonder what I’d have to do to get into that safe. Whatever it is, it would be worth it if it helped Serena, and Ms. Morton’s so rich, she could afford to just buy more jewelry, and I doubt if she’d even miss the money.

  On the drive to the next job on his route for that day he thought of how wonderful it would be if he could get the jewels and the money he’d seen. He finally came to the conclusion that even if something bad had to happen to Jacquie, if it meant Serena’s time on earth was more comfortable, it would be worth it. He doubted the higher power Maizie talked about would approve, but a man had to do what a man had to do to take care of his family.

  CHAPTER 8

  Kim Morton walked back to her small cabin after taking a shower in the communal bathhouse at the retreat center Guru Dev had built in the foothills near Cedar Bay.

  She replayed in her mind the conversation she’d had with her mother, Jacquie Morton, the last time she’d visited her at her home. Kim had gone there to see if she would be willing to give Kim an advance on her inheritance, so she could help Guru Dev, but that hadn’t worked out at all. Her mother had insisted she leave the retreat center and live with her in the home she owned in Cedar Bay. She told Kim if she didn’t leave Guru Dev and the retreat center there was a good chance she’d cut her out of her will entirely, instead of giving her an advance on her inheritance.

  Kim really didn’t care about her mother’s money, her status as a movie star, or even the perks that having a famous movie star for a mother had given her when she lived in Beverly Hills. She’d been told a number of times that she should get an agent, because with her perfect figure, flawless complexion, and natural ash blonde hair, she was stunningly beautiful and turned heads wherever she went.

  Kim was always surprised when people told her how beautiful she was. How she looked or how others perceived her was completely unimportant to her. She was far more interested in living a private life and working on her inner spirituality, and for her that meant living at the retreat center and renouncing the earthly comforts her mother’s success in life had afforded her.

  Kim walked over to the large building where the morning devotionals were held, took her place on her meditation cushion, and closed her eyes. Usually she could clear her mind and achieve something close to the peace of mind Guru Dev spoke of in his weekly talks, but not this morning. Try as she might, her mind remained a jumble of thoughts, mainly about her mother.

  She couldn’t understand why her mother was being so selfish about her money. Kim was an only child, her mother was divorced, and from what she knew, her mother didn’t have a romantic interest in anyone. It didn’t seem fair for her to have that much money and not give some of it to Kim.

  She and Guru Dev had talked many times about building more retreat centers. He was becoming increasingly popular, had developed a large following, and many of his followers wanted to make his retreat center their permanent home. As wonderful as it sounded, he didn’t have the money to make it happen.

  The young woman dressed in a loose white tunic and pants, which all of the devotees at the retreat center wore, who was sitting next to Guru Dev, rang a small bell indicating that the morning devotional had ended. Kim felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into the smiling face of Guru Dev.

  “Kim, I would like to talk to you. Please come to my quarters.”

  She stood up and followed him to the small cabin where he lived. It was the dwelling of an ascetic, someone who had renounced most earthly things. There were only two rooms plus a bathroom. In one room, there was a large bookcase filled with spiritual writings, a sound system for the chants he liked to listen to when he was doing his daily yoga practice, a yoga mat, and a black zafu, or meditation cushion, which looked like it had been used a lot.

  In the second room was a single bed with a sheet and a blanket. There was no bedspread or pillow. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a table Guru Dev had made into an altar with pictures of his guru, as well as a string of the mala beads he used when he was meditating. Fresh flowers and lit candles were also on the altar. He lived a spartan life and ate his meals with the others in the communal dining hall.

  He handed a second zafu to Kim and indicated she was to sit on it while they talked. “So, tell me, my child, how did the talk go with your mother?” he asked.

  She looked into his large kind brown eyes and said, “Not well, Guru Dev. She doesn’t really have a spiritual side, and doesn’t understand why I’m living here, rather than with her. She told me when I reject her lifestyle it’s as if she’s had a slap in the face from me. The movie star,” Kim said bitterly, “is a very difficult, self-centered woman. She’s used to getting her way, and as a matter of fact, she made a veiled threat that if I didn’t leave your retreat center and live with her, she would disinherit me.”

  “I am so sorry, my child. I don’t know where else to turn. Although I’ve increased my fees when I conduct meditation or yoga groups, they still are not enough to pay for the new retreat centers we’ve dreamed and talked about. Do you think it would help if I talked with your mother?”

  “No. She thinks anything to do with yoga or meditation is ridiculous, and I would never put you in a position where you had to defend what you believe in and teach. I wouldn’t submit you to that. Give me a few more days. I’ll try and think of something.”

  “Thank you, my child. Right now, your mother is my only hope. I have several students who have means, and they have offered to help me, but I need more than they have offered to pay me in order to build the centers. I still want you to work with me when we do build them. I have great faith that they will be built. We just need to find a way to do it.”

  He stood up, the white robe and turban he always wore accenting his olive complexion. Guru Dev smiled at her, “Don’t worry, child. We will make this happen.”

  As she walked back to her cabin, Kim’s mind was churning. Her mother had made it very clear to her she was not going to give Kim an early inheritance, and she was certain if Guru Dev ever tried to set up a meeting with her, it would be a disaster. It seemed the only way she could give Guru Dev the money he needed was if she inherited it, and for that to happen, her mother, the famous movie star, Jacquie Morton, would have to be dead.

  As much as Kim didn’t like what she was thinking, it might be the only thing that would work. It went against all of her spiritual training, but she remembered reading something once about the ends justifying the means. Maybe this was one of those times. She wasn’t happy with her decision, but she didn’t see an alternative.

  CHAPTER
9

  Every time Deke Cannon got ready to go to work at the restaurant where he was a waiter he got angry all over again thinking about the way his life had turned out. He’d had it all for a while. Deke was the starting quarterback for one of the most prestigious professional football teams on the West Coast, and he was married to Jacquie Morton, one of, if not the, most highly paid movie stars in Hollywood. The fact that she was also extremely beautiful had been an added plus. His life was split between football practices, games, and red carpet entrances to important events with Jacquie by his side.

  The press called them the perfect family. Although Jacquie had a daughter, Kim, who had been born out of wedlock, she’d never revealed the identity of the man who had fathered her child. Rumor had it that even Kim didn’t know who her biological father was. Kim was seven when Deke and Jacquie got married. Kim had adored her stepfather, and Deke felt the same way about her. For several years, it had been an idyllic existence, then things began to fall apart.

  Deke was in the Super Bowl, getting ready to throw a pass to his wide receiver and never saw the sack coming. Unfortunately, his body was in an unnatural position as he looked around for his receiver, and the crushing violent tackle by the three hundred-fifty-pound defensive lineman took him completely by surprise. When he woke up several hours later he found himself in a hospital room surrounded by nurses, doctors, his agent, and several members of his team. The doctor had asked everyone to leave the room. He didn’t want them to be there when he told Deke he would never play football again, and he was certain the star pro football player wasn’t going to take it well. The doctor had told Deke his leg had been broken in several places, and his hip had been shattered. He’d said Deke would be in the hospital for several weeks and then transferred to a rehabilitation center that specialized in helping people who needed to relearn how to walk.

  When Jacquie had been told, she’d flown in from Italy where she was filming a new movie and blithely assured him that if he couldn’t play football anymore it was no big deal, she’d help him find work in the movie industry, and so she did. With Deke’s rugged good looks, muscular physique, and deep blue eyes, everyone was sure he’d be the next big star. What no one had even considered was whether or not Deke could act. He couldn’t, and it was very apparent to everyone, including Deke, after he’d been in three movies, that any thoughts he’d had of having acting as a second career, much less being a star, were totally unfounded.

  Jacquie was at the height of her career and didn’t have the time or the desire to support a husband whose life was pretty much over when he was just thirty-two. She’d told him what a loser he was, and she was sorry she’d ever married him. She divorced him and never looked back. Because of his well-known name, his agent had been able get parts for him in several porn movies, but as much as he would have liked the money, that wasn’t how he wanted to be remembered, and he told his agent he wouldn’t act in porn movies.

  He remembered all the letters he’d gotten from young men who were football fans of his, and he was sure their parents would not approve of their son’s idol going into that profession. His agent had told Deke that was as good as he was going to get, considering how he’d bombed out of the legitimate movie industry because of his bad acting. He explained to Deke that if he wouldn’t take those roles, he couldn’t do anything more for him, and he would no longer be Deke’s agent.

  A few days earlier, Deke had been in a supermarket buying groceries when he’d seen a picture of Jacquie on the cover of a celebrity gossip newspaper. While he waited in the checkout line he’d idly leafed through it and read the interview a reporter had done with her. He was stunned to see where she’d said that she’d made a huge mistake when she married Deke, because he turned out to be such a loser.

  The article said she’d laughed when she was told by the reporter that he was considering working as a waiter, because that was about the only job he could get. She’d even hinted he’d taken the restaurant job hoping to catch the eye of some producer or director, and they’d give him a chance to try and make another movie. She’d said if they did, it would be a disaster, because some people just couldn’t act, and it was very apparent to anyone who had seen him try, that he was one of them.

  The tabloid article ate at him over the next few days, and every time he thought about it, he became furious all over again. In one of his angry moods he remembered how much Jacquie had loved her jewelry. He remembered telling her early in their relationship that her jewelry took a back seat to her beauty. Deke winced, remembering it. Several times before they were to attend some important event she’d had him open her safe to get certain pieces out when she was running late

  He knew Jacquie was a creature of habit, and Deke was willing to bet she still used the same combination to the wall safe she probably had at her home in Cedar Bay as the one she’d had in her home in Beverly Hills. He idly wondered how she’d feel if all of her jewelry mysteriously disappeared. That might cause her some grief, and no one would ever suspect him because he lived in Southern California. He’d read that she was spending a few months at her home in Oregon, the house Kim had told him about. He figured he could sneak into the house when she was asleep, or perhaps she might even let him in. He could play it by ear and see what happened. Who knew, Jacquie might even have to have a bad accident. The possibilities were endless.

  Deke smiled for the first time in several days, but it was a very cold calculating smile. His young football fans would never associate that smile with the smile the papers had always referred to as his game face smile.

  CHAPTER 10

  The afternoon at Kelly’s Koffee Shop had been particularly hectic when word had gotten out that the well-known movie star who had a home in Cedar Bay had fallen to her death from the cliff outside her home. It was the type of story that had everything – glamour, mystery, and the possibility of murder. When something like that happened, everyone wanted to talk about it, and Kelly’s was always the place the local residents came to do just that. Somebody there might have news, and no one wanted to be the last to know.

  It was later than usual when Kelly and Rebel finally left the coffee shop. She hurried home to let Lady and Skyy out in the back yard. Although Kelly and Mike had put a doggie door in the garage, so the dogs could get out in the back yard when they needed to, she still felt better when she’d actually seen them go outside.

  She checked the crock pot chili she’d started that morning and turned it down to low, not sure when Mike would be able to get home. She was curious what the media had to say about Jacquie’s death and went into the office she and Mike shared to begin her search. Jacquie’s death was all over Twitter and Facebook. References were made to everything anyone could come up with about Jacquie Morton. Kelly had planned on doing a Google search on Jacquie to see what she could find out, but given all the information available on those two sites, she figured it would just be needless repetition.

  People were talking about Jacquie’s new movie, her last movie that had bombed, her ex-husband, and her daughter, although not much was known about her. Cedar Bay was prominent in the discussions and even though not too many people had known where it was, Jacquie’s death had certainly put it on the map. Kelly thought the next day might be one of the busiest days the coffee shop had ever had, because she was certain that along with the regulars, there would probably be a lot of media people who would be traveling to Cedar Bay to cover the entertainment industry’s biggest story of the year. All those out-of-town visitors were going to need to eat. The few hotels and motels in the area always recommended Kelly’s Koffee Shop to their guests, so it was a safe bet that tomorrow would be a very busy day at the coffee shop.

  When she heard the dogs rushing to the door leading to the garage, Kelly knew Mike was home. She walked out of the office and opened it for him. “Well, Sheriff, how bad was the rest of your day?” she asked.

  “I’ve had better. Give me five minutes to change. I’ll meet you in the kitchen,
and yes, you could get me a glass of wine.”

  “I don’t remember asking,” she said grinning.

  “It was unspoken. You know me well enough by now to know that the day a possible murder happens, I can definitely justify a glass of wine before dinner.”

  Five minutes later she handed him a glass of the Rombauer that had been left over from the night before. “Glad you agree that the day also calls for one of my favorites, even if it does cost a little more than what we usually have on hand.” He sat down at the kitchen table and took a sip of his wine. “Ahh, nectar of the gods.”

  Kelly sat down across from him. “What’s happening with the Jacquie Morton case? Did you find out anything?”

  “The coroner said his preliminary examination didn’t show anything that would point to her being murdered, but he’s having a number of tests run, so it’s probably going to take a couple of days to get the results.”

  “It could have been a case of her simply becoming disoriented, losing her balance, and falling off the cliff,” Kelly said.

  “I would agree with you except for one little thing.”

  “And that one little thing being…”

  “The wall safe was wide open and empty. There was a painting on the floor below it leaning against the wall, so I assume the painting usually covered up the wall safe. That speaks of both robbery and murder to me. We have no idea what was in the safe, and her administrative assistant, who might know what was in the safe, is gone for a couple of days.

  “There was a note from her giving Jacquie instructions for her meals. I thought it was kind of interesting that the note was written in really big printed block letters. I have no idea what that means. Her gardener came to work today and mentioned that the granddaughter of Jacquie’s assistant had to have an emergency appendectomy, and she was going to be with her daughter and her family in Portland for two days. She’s supposed to be back shortly.”