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

by Dianne Harman

  A few minutes later, after Doc, Liz, and their dogs were gone, Kelly and Mike got in his car to go to the Veterans of Foreign Wars building across town.

  “Well, Mike, what do you think? Did you find anything they had to say useful?”

  “All of it, but I just don’t know what I’m going to do with it.”

  “I want to see that retreat center where Jacquie’s daughter is living,” Kelly said. “Roger Babowal mentioned the argument he heard between Jacquie and her daughter, and that seemed to be at the heart of it. I also thought I’d go back to Jacquie’s house tomorrow after I close Kelly’s. Maybe her assistant has returned, and she might know something that would be of help.”

  “Kelly, normally I’d ask you not to do either of those two things, but given what I’m dealing with, I probably could use your input. Just be careful.”

  “Thanks for that rare vote of confidence in my abilities, and I really mean it. What’s on your agenda for tomorrow?”

  “I need to call my friend, the Beverly Hills police chief I mentioned to you. I’d like him to find out everything he can about Deke Cannon, and what the rumors are about the film Jacquie was going to be in and all of the people connected with it. If it’s determined that she was murdered, at least I can say we’re investigating several people of interest.”

  “Maybe by this time tomorrow we’ll know something definite.”

  “I sure hope so,” Mike said, “because if we don’t, I may be flipping hamburgers at the local fast food burger joint pretty soon.”

  “I’m going to pretend I didn’t even hear that,” Kelly said.

  CHAPTER 15

  The parking lot of the Veterans of Foreign Wars was almost full when Kelly and Mike arrived and they had a hard time finding a place to park. Kelly didn’t know if that was a bad thing or a good thing. On one hand, she hoped everyone had come to hear Mike give a speech, but a small little voice in the back of her head said maybe it was because of Jacquie Morton’s death and what Mike’s opponent, Rich Monroe, was probably going to have to say about it.

  They walked into the building and were immediately greeted by a distinguished looking older man wearing a white uniform shirt, a cap, and American flag shoulder patches. “Sheriff Reynolds, all of us here at the VFW are looking forward to hearing from you. My name’s Scott Nichols, and I’m the Post Commander.” He shook Mike’s hand and turned to Kelly. “You must be Mrs. Reynolds. Thank you for coming tonight.”

  “Thanks for having us,” Mike said. “Where would you like us to sit?”

  “Sheriff, you’ll be up on the stage with Rich Monroe. I’ll be in between both of you, and I’ll introduce you. Mrs. Reynolds, I reserved a seat for you in the front row. I trust that’s all right.”

  “That’s fine, thank you,” she said.

  “Sheriff, Mrs. Reynolds, I’d like to introduce you to some of our members before we get started. I expect Chief Monroe to be here shortly, and we’ll get started as soon as he arrives. As you may have noticed, a number of our members are a little older and don’t like to stay up too late, so we try to start our meetings promptly.”

  The next twenty minutes were spent in introductions, shaking hands, and what’s commonly called in politics, ‘working the room.’ They heard a commotion at the door and saw Chief Monroe enter with two of his uniformed deputies. Scott Nichols walked over to the chief, greeted him, then walked back to where Mike was standing. “Chief Monroe is here. Let’s get started. You can sit in the chair on the right side of the stage.”

  “Good luck, sweetheart,” Kelly said to Mike as he turned and walked up the steps to the stage. She took her seat and watched Chief Monroe walk up on the stage and shake Mike’s hand.

  “Please, everyone, take a seat,” the Post Commander said. “We’re about to hear from the two candidates in the upcoming election for Beaver County Sheriff. When they’ve finished giving their talks, we’ll have our usual business meeting, but I didn’t want to be the one responsible for these lawmen being tired tomorrow. Who knows how many bad guys they’ll have to catch, and I didn’t want to be the one responsible for either of them missing a bad guy.” Everyone laughed.

  The Post Commander introduced Chief Monroe who stood up and walked over to the microphone. “Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you. I won’t bore you with my accomplishments or those of my department. They’re well documented on the flyer that my deputies are passing out. I simply want to tell you several things. I am committed to winning this election, because it’s time for a change in Beaver County. Quite frankly, we need a new sheriff.

  “The reason I’m running is for the same reason that nothing is happening in the Jacquie Morton death case. Do we know if she was murdered? No. Do we know if it was the result of natural causes? No. Let me tell you one thing. If she was murdered, and I happen to think she was, none of us is safe from harm, because there is a murderer at large in our county. Does that make you feel you elected the right man to be sheriff in the last election? I certainly hope not, because my family and I sure don’t feel safe right now, and we won’t until the murderer is caught.

  “I pledge to you if I was your county sheriff, I would be doing everything in my power to find out whether or not a murder has been committed. I certainly wouldn’t be attending a Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting to talk about an upcoming election. That election pales in the face of a possible murder.”

  He turned and faced Mike. “Mr. Reynolds, can you, with certainty, tell the people here tonight that they are safe, and that a murderer isn’t on the loose in our county?”

  Kelly knew Mike well enough to know how angry he was, but she also knew she was probably the only one to spot the signs. She had no idea how he was going to handle this ugly attack on his ability to carry out his job as the sheriff of Beaver County.

  Mike walked over to the podium and looked out at the audience. The room was quiet, waiting for his response. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you, and Chief Monroe, thank you for bringing up what’s on the mind of everyone here. Was Jacquie Monroe murdered or did she die from an inadvertent fall over the cliff? That is the question on everyone’s mind, and none more so than mine, but while I have thought about nothing else since her death was discovered, I also have an obligation not to rush into making a judgment that could mean an innocent person is charged with something he or she did not do. That’s happened before in our county, and I don’t want to see it ever happen again.”

  It was an obvious reference to when Chief Monroe had arrested a young man for raping a schoolgirl, only to find out that the girl and several of her friends had concocted a false story to get back at the young man who had refused to attend a Sadie Hawkins Day dance with her. The chief looked at Mike and glowered at him.

  Mike continued to speak. “My department and I feel confident we will soon be able to make a determination about what happened to Jacquie Morton, but rest assured, when we do, an innocent person will not be arrested. By the way, so we don’t waste the taxpayer’s money, the men in my department are working on this case as we speak, rather than passing out election brochures for me. Let me get back to the subject of Jacquie Morton’s death. If it was an accident that resulted in a fatal fall, that is a tragedy, and simply one of those unexplainable things that sometimes happen to good people.

  “However, if her death is determined to be a homicide, I promise that the guilty party will be arrested immediately. My department already has created a list of several persons of interest, and we are looking into their whereabouts on the night she died. Believe me, we are leaving nothing to chance, but we certainly will never act in a rash manner just to make headlines. I wish I could stay and talk with you at length. I even considered cancelling tonight’s talk, given the events of yesterday, but I felt I owed it to you to tell you personally that each and every one of you can go to sleep tonight knowing your sheriff is doing what you elected me to do, and that’s make determinations based on
fact, not attention-grabbing headlines. Again, thank you for inviting me to speak with you this evening.”

  He concluded his talk and came down the steps, nodding to Kelly who stood up and joined him, as they walked over to the door and out to their car. They heard footsteps behind them and then a voice said, “Sheriff, can you spare a minute? I have something I’d like to tell you.”

  They turned and saw a man who looked to be in his sixties walking towards them. “Yes, what is it?” Mike asked.

  “Sheriff, I’ve been an admirer of yours for a long time, and I think you’re a very fair and honest man. If you find out that Jacquie Morton was murdered, you might want to take a look at her ex-husband, Deke Cannon, and here’s why. My son served in the Army with Deke, and not many people know that Deke was given a dishonorable discharge. People never think that about a football hero, but there was talk he’d killed some innocent villagers during his tour in Afghanistan.

  “Although the Army couldn’t prosecute him for it, because they couldn’t prove it, they did give him a dishonorable discharge. Just thought you might not know about it, because his publicity people were very careful to see that it was kept out of the media and never saw the light of day. Everyone knew when he went into the Army that he was going to play pro ball when he was discharged, so they wanted to keep his reputation as lily white as possible.”

  “Thank you, sir, I didn’t know that. My department is looking at everyone who had a connection to Jacquie Morton, and as a matter of fact, I’m going to have the police chief in Beverly Hills check out Deke. When I talk to him, I’ll see if he knows anything about the dishonorable discharge. I really appreciate you telling me about it.”

  “Happy if I could be of service. Good luck in the campaign, but if what I saw in that room tonight is any indication, I wouldn’t worry. You’ll be a shoe-in.”

  “Wish I shared your optimism my friend, but thanks. I appreciate it.”

  When they were in the car, and the man had walked back into the Veterans of Foreign Wars building, Kelly turned to Mike and said, “You gave a brilliant speech. It was a perfect response to what that horrible man was insinuating. I’d be willing to bet you have the respect and vote of everyone who was in the room.”

  “Smoke and mirrors, babe. If I can’t solve this within a couple of days, that speech won’t be worth the paper I wrote it on, and I know it will come back to haunt me in the days leading up to the election. I have to find out if Jacquie Morton was murdered and if she was, who did it.”

  “You will, Mike, don’t worry. You will.” In her mind, she changed the word ‘you’ to ‘we,’ but felt it might be a good thing to keep it to herself as her own little secret. She spent the rest of the drive home figuring out how she was going to help Mike, the man she loved and adored, and who obviously had a tough political fight on his hands, which had been ratcheted up several notches because of the death of Jacquie Morton.

  CHAPTER 16

  The following morning when he got to the station, the first thing Mike did was call his friend, the chief of police in Beverly Hills, Ron Jacobs. A few minutes later Mike heard him say, “Mike, I can’t say this call is unexpected. I assume it’s regarding Jacquie Morton. Would I be right?”

  “That you would be, Ron. I have a couple of favors to ask of you.”

  “Shoot. I’ll see what I can do.”

  “I’d like to know what you can tell me about Deke Cannon, her ex-husband, as well as the rumors on the street about her new movie, The Triangle. Anything you can tell me about the people associated with it would be very helpful to me, and if you know anything about her daughter, Kim Morton, I’d like information on her as well.”

  “Let me see what I can find out. When do you want it?” he asked.

  “Like yesterday. You see, Ron, here’s the deal. I’m running for re-election as the sheriff of Beaver County, and I’ve got an opponent who is really making a big deal out of Jacquie Morton’s death. Plus, the local residents are getting nervous, and I can’t say I blame them. The coroner is still running some tests, but so far, we don’t have anything that specifically indicates she was murdered. There were no signs of foul play on her body, but it’s hard for me to believe she walked that far out of her house, in the dark, and then just stepped off the edge of a cliff and fell to her death. Something I haven’t mentioned is that her wall safe was cleaned out. Doesn’t pass the smell test, if you know what I mean.”

  “I do, and I’ll see what I can come up with. Why don’t you give me your cell number? I can probably get back to you with something in a couple of hours.”

  “Thanks, Ron. I’m not sure how I’ll be ever be able to return the favor, but try and think of something.”

  “That’s not going to be a problem. What I’m thinking is that Oregon has some pretty good rivers for trout fishing, and I know you’re a fisherman as am I. Might ask you for a little help in that area,” he said laughing

  “Consider it done whenever you want, and Ron, thanks. I knew I was going to owe you, and that’s okay.” He ended the call, thankful that at least it felt like something was being done on the case.

  Mike was going over some reports of work his deputies had just completed when his cell phone rang two hours later. He recognized the area code as that of Beverly Hills. “Ron, I’m hoping this means you found out something,” Mike said.

  “Actually, I found out quite a bit. I started with Deke Cannon. He’s working as a waiter in an Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills. Rumor has it that he hopes to be discovered again by an agent or someone in the business. I had one of my men call the restaurant manager, and he confirmed that Deke was working on the night Jacquie Morton died. He was at the restaurant until it closed at midnight. I believe you told me the coroner estimates Jacquie died around ten or so in the evening. I think that effectively eliminates him as a suspect, although we did turn up something about him that I’ve never seen in print.”

  “What was that?” Mike asked.

  “There was some talk, actually they were pretty much rumors, that he killed some innocent villagers during his tour in Afghanistan while he was in the Army. We heard he’d been given a dishonorable discharge, but when we checked with the Department of Army they said they couldn’t locate his file. Stinks if you ask me, but he’s got a rock-solid alibi for where he was at the time of Ms. Morton’s death. As far as his file being lost, it probably has something to do with the fact everyone knew he was going to be a big football star when he got out of the Army.”

  “I agree it stinks, but no use pursuing it if he’s got an alibi. That’s one down. Anything else?”

  “I spent a lot of time with contacts of mine in the entertainment industry. Here’s what it boils down to. Evidently Jacquie’s new picture, The Triangle, was a do or die movie for her as well as pretty much everyone connected with it. After her last movie bombed, this one had to be a hit. The big money men wanted her to play the lead, because they felt she still had drawing power. I understand the director wanted his mistress, Lisette Andrews, to play the lead role, but he was overruled. Everybody associated with the movie was nervous about it, because the rumor is that Jacquie and the screenwriter for the movie weren’t getting along. There was talk she wouldn’t read any of the revisions to the script he’d written, and she pretty much played the diva around both the screenwriter and Lisette.”

  “Do you know who chose the screenwriter?”

  “Yes, the same money men that wanted Jacquie to play the lead. The director’s pretty anxious for a hit as well. Seems like he just missed getting an Oscar and desperately wanted a shot at an Oscar with The Triangle. Looks like a lot of people’s futures were riding on the movie, although what’s going to happen now, no one could say for sure. There’s talk that Lisette Andrews will play the lead, and The Triangle will be made.”

  “What do you know about her?” Mike asked.

  “I’ve met her at a couple of events, and I like her. I hear she really wanted to play the lead in The Triangle
, so she may have had a motive for murdering Jacquie, if, in fact, it turns out she was murdered.”

  “Hmmm. Did you pick up any rumors about Jacquie’s daughter, Kim Morton?”

  “Nothing at all that was negative, Mike. Word is that she and her mother tangled over her decision to live in the retreat center run by a guy from India called Guru Dev. I was curious about him, so I had one of my people do a search on him.”

  “And?” Mike asked.

  “From everything my guy could find out, he said Guru Dev is the real deal. He grew up in a small rural village in India, studied yoga and meditation intensely there, and evidently came to the United States at the urging of several people who had studied with him in India and offered to pay his expenses to come here. He ended up in Beverly Hills and started teaching yoga at a high-priced yoga studio one of them owned which catered to people who work in the movie industry.

  “That’s where Jacquie’s daughter met him. He wanted to set up several retreat centers on the West Coast, and when he found out who her mother was he wondered if Kim could introduce him to some people who might be in a position to help him. She said she’d try, but from what we were able to find out, it doesn’t look like she’s been able to do much in that regard. That’s about it, Mike. I don’t know if any of this helps, but at least you have a little background info. Let me know if I can do anything else.”

  “You’ve done plenty, thanks. Let me know when you’re ready for that fishing trip, and I’ll arrange it.”

  “I’ll hold you to it. Talk to you soon, and when you do find out whether Jacquie Morton died from natural causes or was murdered, I’d appreciate a phone call.”

  “You’ll be at the top of the list,” Mike said as he ended the call.