Sapphire Beach Cozy Mystery Collection

by Angela K Ryan

  As Connie worked, Ginger settled into a comfy spot on the plush, white area rug under the glass coffee table by the couch and only stirred to follow Connie out back when she went to grab more boxes of jewelry.

  After unpacking the last box, Connie sat on the couch with a bottle of water. Ginger lazily lifted her head, then went back to sleep, apparently deciding it wasn't worth the effort to hop onto the couch.

  "So, you shed your white-and-chestnut-colored fur all over my shop, then ignore me?" she teased the dog.

  Connie had to laugh at Ginger's token tail-wag.

  The sound of the door chime pulled Connie's attention away from her four-legged friend. It was Zach, and he looked more tired than she felt.

  "Hi, Zach. It's good to see you." She couldn't help but wonder if his unexpected visit was a social call or connected to police business. She found herself hoping it was the former. She started to get up, but he motioned for her not to bother and took a seat in the armchair facing her.

  "It looks fantastic in here," he said, craning his neck to look around the store. His eyes settled on a painting of Sapphire Beach with a parasailer floating across the blue sky, which was temporarily leaning against a wall. Zach had given it to Connie as a memento the night before she went home to Boston, before he knew she had made the decision to relocate to Sapphire Beach.

  She followed his gaze over to the picture. "I was thinking of hanging it over there," she said, pointing to the driftwood accent wall. "I think the colors will really pop against the gray wood."

  "It'll look fantastic there," he said with a wide grin. "That's kind of why I stopped by," he continued.

  “To visit your painting?” she said, grinning.

  "Very funny. No, I was wondering if I could take you parasailing if you'd still like to go. I remember you saying it was on your bucket list when we talked in January, so I was hoping you might like to go with me."

  Connie was surprised he remembered that from their conversation. It had only been three months, but it felt like ages ago.

  "I know it's a busy time for you, but I don't imagine it will be less busy once the store opens," he added.

  He was right. Life would always be busy, and she had promised herself she would take the time to slow down and enjoy life. And it seemed like that should include getting to know Zach. "That sounds like fun. I'd love to."

  "Great. Are you free next Sunday? I have the day off."

  "Next Sunday is perfect."

  "Would early afternoon work?" Zach asked. "I usually go to a later Mass, so I can sleep in."

  Connie was pleasantly surprised that he attended Mass. She hadn't seen him there in January, but she had gone to an earlier Mass the Sunday she was in town.

  "Sounds good. I will probably see you there."

  "Great," he said. "I'll look for you."

  He stood up to leave, and Connie walked him to the door.

  "By the way," Connie asked, "did the information I found bring about any leads in Natasha's disappearance?"

  He shook his head. "I usually don’t work Saturdays, but I spent today looking into a few things. So far nothing solid. Besides Natasha's ledger, there isn't anything that points to Tracy embezzling money."

  "That's too bad," Connie said. "I was really hoping for some answers, for her daughter's sake."

  "Me, too. It's definitely a sad one," he said.

  Chapter 6

  Zach left as Brittany was coming in. He stopped to hold the door for her and nodded as she went past him.

  "See you soon," Zach said, waving at Connie on his way out. Then he entered the police vehicle parked in front of Connie’s store.

  "I hope everything is okay," Brittany said, gesturing toward the police car as Zach pulled away. "Why were the police here?"

  "There's nothing to worry about. Zach just stopped by to see how the store was coming along," she said, not wanting to overshare.

  "Steve called and asked if I could come by to finish a few projects. Is now a good time to work on that punch list?"

  "Your timing is perfect. I also have some pictures I'd love you to hang. Oh, and the movers left a few scratches on the wall over there that need to be repaired," Connie said, pointing to a wall near the table.

  "No problem. I'll have this all done in no time," Brittany said.

  Connie sat at the table and observed as Brittany touched up the wall. Then she showed her where the pictures should be hung.

  "I don't mean to watch over your shoulder," Connie said, "but I'm so jealous. I have no knack for this kind of stuff at all."

  "It's easier than it looks. Here, let me show you," Brittany said. She offered Connie some tips on measuring and hanging pictures as she worked.

  "You make it look easy. I guarantee I'd have a few extra holes in the wall."

  The young woman laughed. "Nah, it just takes patience and believing in yourself. We have the power within us to do what we think is impossible if we set our mind to it."

  Connie wondered if Brittany had ever been a motivational speaker or life coach. She always seemed to interject some wisdom into the conversation.

  "Maybe, but I think a little talent helps, too. If you saw some of my projects, I think you might agree," she said with a wink.

  "Fair enough," Brittany said, grinning as she hammered. "But I promise, with a little practice you'd be surprised at what you can do."

  "I think I'll just call you for my carpentry needs. It will save us both a lot of grief, since you won't have to fix all my fixes."

  "Actually, you'll have to call Steve. I'm moving back home to be with my boyfriend next month."

  “That’s too bad. I enjoy having a woman carpenter,” Connie said. “But I wish you the best of luck.”

  Brittany had hung all the photos and was about halfway through the rest of the punch list when her phone pinged.

  "It's Steve. He needs me on another project, but I promise to be back to finish up before the grand opening."

  After Brittany left, Connie decided that she and Ginger needed to get outside to stretch their legs and enjoy the beautiful day. The temperature had been averaging in the high eighties, and there wasn't a cloud in the bright blue Florida sky.

  They strolled toward the beach, still packed with tourists and residents, and Connie spotted Gallagher having an early dinner on a bench.

  "Who do we have here?" he said, giving Ginger a scratch behind the ears while she basked in the attention.

  "This is my new BFF named Ginger," she said. "She belonged to my aunt who recently passed away."

  Connie glanced down at Gallagher's meal, which consisted of a large salad with grilled chicken, plenty of greens and sprouts, and a purplish smoothie. "Looks healthy. I wish I had the discipline to eat that well." While Connie more or less chose healthy foods, she had more than her fair share of splurges. "Have you always been this healthy?"

  Gallagher shook his head and laughed. "This is relatively new. I used to be everything but healthy. Too much alcohol and other things that I don't like to think about."

  "I love ice cream and burgers way too much. I can't imagine giving them up."

  "Everybody's got to find their own balance," he said. "I tend to go to extremes in whatever I do, so this is my way of going to a healthy extreme."

  Connie glanced down the street to Gallagher's Tropical Shack. "You don't find it difficult to own a restaurant and bar and not eat the food or drink?" she asked.

  "I'm just grateful to be living my dream. The restaurant has been something I've wanted as long as I can remember, and I have no intention of doing anything to mess it up." There was a sadness in his eyes as he spoke, which she didn't remember seeing when she first met him.

  With Gallagher's encouragement, Connie sat down and shared a little about herself, as well, and the circumstances that led her to open Just Jewelry, while he finished his salad and smoothie. She found him positive and easy to talk to, and she was happy that he was her neighbor.

  Since Gallagher was so fr
iendly, he probably befriended Natasha, as well. She decided to broach the subject delicately, in case they had been friends.

  "I was so sorry to hear what happened to Natasha Orlov," she said. "Did you know her well?"

  His expression transformed from relaxed to serious, and he quickly shook his head. "No, we were just neighbors."

  Still, his restaurant was directly across the street. "It seems strange that a young mother with ties to the area would vanish into thin air. Did you ever see anything suspicious going on in her shop?"

  Gallagher swallowed hard and looked up towards the green and blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. "I couldn't say, but I would leave it alone if I were you." Then he turned and looked intently at Connie. "I wouldn't want to see you getting hurt. Or worse."

  It felt more like concern than a threat, but Connie was taken aback by his strong words and sudden change in demeanor.

  "Maybe you're right," she said.

  Gallagher's shoulders relaxed as he gave Ginger a small piece of chicken and then got up to throw away his empty food container. "I'd better be getting back. It's almost Saturday evening, so the restaurant should be filling up, knock on wood," he said, gently tapping on his own head with his knuckles. He seemed to be back to his congenial self.

  Gallagher sipped on the remainder of his smoothie while they walked together back in the direction of their businesses.

  When she got back to the shop, Connie decided to call it a day. She had plans to meet Elyse and Stephanie for dinner later at Surfside Restaurant on the beach, and she wanted to get a quick workout in at the building's exercise room. for a while went a long way in keeping up with her martial arts skills and releasing a little stress.

  After a cool shower, Connie slipped into a smoky-blue sleeveless dress, perfect for a late March evening in Sapphire Beach, and chose a silver and beige leather-wrapped necklace and matching bracelet, which she had made last year, to accessorize her dress. Then she headed back downtown to Surfside Restaurant, where Elyse and Stephanie were already seated at a prime outdoor table overlooking the beach. As she stepped onto the deck, it was as if she was looking at a canvas with pale blue waters painted against a bright orange sky.

  It was the perfect backdrop for a relaxing evening with friends.

  At the table next to them was a couple with a baby cooing in its carrier. The women couldn't help but stare at the adorable little guy laughing as his father made funny faces at him. They complimented the proud parents and went back to studying their menus.

  Connie noticed a far-away expression on Elyse's face.

  "Are you remembering when Emma was that little?" she said, calling Elyse back to the present moment.

  She shook her head and wiped a tear from her eyes. "Kind of," Elyse said, shifting in her chair. "It's just, I've always wanted to have siblings for Emma, but after she was born, the doctors informed us we couldn't have any more children. Josh and I were devastated but also grateful to have Emma. We had met in high school and married right out of college, so I'd always imagined that we would have a large family."

  Connie squeezed Elyse's hand, and Stephanie got up to give her a hug.

  "I'm so sorry to hear that," Stephanie said. "I never knew."

  "Most of the time, I'm okay. It's just, once in a while..." she trailed off, her eyes settling again on the baby.

  Elyse's revelation set the tone for the evening, and the women spent the rest of the night talking about their own hopes and dreams, some fulfilled, others not.

  Stephanie shared that she, too, had wanted children, but she married in her thirties and soon became aware that her marriage was not going to last. "The infidelity started early, and I wasn't going to bring a child into that situation. I was already too angry, and our home wouldn't have been a healthy environment to raise a child."

  After some words of compassion from Connie and Elyse, she added, "But I do find a lot of fulfillment in my work as a physical therapist. I mostly work with the elderly here in Florida, but at times I also have the chance to help children. I may not have worked full-time if I had a family and, I don't know, it may sound corny, but everything just feels right when I am helping someone regain their mobility and their life along with it."

  As the night wore on, Connie told them that she had a date with Zach the following weekend.

  "What a shocker," Stephanie said, sarcastically.

  Elyse was thrilled at the idea of Connie dating one of her husband's good friends, and they both made Connie promise to keep them posted.

  Eventually, the conversation turned to Natasha's disappearance. Connie told the women that she had talked to Mickey, Gallagher, and Tracy since they last spoke a few days ago, just after she had found the box of evidence. "I just can't stop myself from digging around for more information," she said. "Being in the same shop where Natasha worked makes it hard to avoid thinking about it."

  "That's not exactly surprising to me," Elyse said. "I had a feeling you wouldn't be able to let it go. Then when you found the box under the floorboards, I knew there was no chance of you staying out of it completely."

  "So, what are your thoughts on the case?" Stephanie asked.

  After recapping the gist of her conversation with Tracy, Connie said, "I haven't ruled out the possibility that Natasha confronted Tracy about skimming money from the business and threatened to go to the police. If that happened, Tracy could have killed her and hid the body. But then, just before I left, Tracy tried to throw suspicion on Mickey, claiming that Natasha was behind on rent, and he wanted her out of his building, maybe enough to kill her."

  "Mickey Miranda, your landlord?" Elyse asked. "I hope it's not him. I'll never forgive myself if I put you in a dangerous situation."

  Connie pretended to be surprised. "You mean you forgot to ask Mickey if he's in the habit of killing his tenants if they are late with the rent?"

  Elyse gave her a sarcastic smile. "I was going to ask, but he offered such a good deal that I figured it would be worth the risk."

  "That's why you're my realtor."

  "Do you really think it could be Mickey?" Stephanie asked. "That would have been a bit extreme on Mickey's part."

  "Natasha's to-do list did say to call Mickey. But I suppose that could be about anything. It's not unusual to call your landlord."

  "What did he say when you talked to him?" Elyse asked.

  "Mickey thinks it was drugs. He said that Victoria's father, Jordan Sugrue, claimed that Natasha had a drug problem, and he suspected she was using again. Mickey said he found a drug needle outside the store. But then, in her diary, Natasha talked about running away from something in her past, so if Jordan was part of what she was trying to escape, he could have been lying to Mickey."

  "Or Mickey could have been lying about finding the drug needle," Stephanie said.

  "Jordan Sugrue," Elyse said. "That name sounds familiar."

  "Maybe Josh mentioned him in connection with the case," Connie suggested.

  "I don't think so. He doesn't usually talk about the details of his cases, and besides, this case has been on the backburner since their leads ran dry last summer," Elyse said. "Even with the new evidence you found, they still don't have anything solid."

  Connie was disappointed to hear that they were no longer actively investigating.

  "You said you talked to your neighbor," Stephanie asked. "Did he say anything interesting?"

  "When I ran into Gallagher McKeon this afternoon and asked him if he ever saw anything suspicious at Natasha's store, he got all weird on me. He is usually super friendly, so I got the feeling he was hiding something."

  "Maybe he was friends with Natasha, and it's hard for him to talk about it," Stephanie said.

  "Except that he specifically said that they weren't friends."

  Elyse let out a deep breath. "Whatever you do next, just be careful. You don't know who you can trust."

  Chapter 7

  Much to Connie's annoyance, at 7:00 on Sunday morning, she was wide awake.
After rolling over and trying to will herself back to sleep for a little while, she decided to go with it and attend an earlier Mass. She had determined to stay away from Just Jewelry for the day, since it would be harder to get a Sunday off once the store opened, and she was ahead of schedule in preparing for the grand opening.

  Inspired by Gallagher's creations, she pulled together some fruit, blended it with vanilla almond milk, and made a smoothie for breakfast. It wasn't quite as good as his, but it did the trick. After taking Ginger for a leisurely walk along Sapphire Beach Boulevard, she got ready and headed to Our Lady, Star of the Sea parish for the 9:00 Mass.

  After taking a seat towards the front of the church, her thoughts drifted to Victoria. She was saying a prayer that the little girl was well cared for, when Elyse slid into the pew and took the seat next to Connie, followed by Emma, Josh, and Gertrude. As Elyse asked in a whispered tone what Connie was doing for the rest of the day, Connie smiled and waved at the others, then told Elyse she was thinking about renting a paddleboard for a couple of hours later that afternoon. "I'm planning to buy one when I have time to research a good board, but for today, I just wanted to get out onto the water."

  "I have an open house after Mass, but I'd be happy to take you this afternoon to where Josh and I bought ours," Elyse said. "You remember Ashley and Travis? They have a little shop where they sell paddleboards and kayaks, and they usually have some great used boards for sale. You can always get a fancier one later, when you have more experience."

  Connie smiled at the mention of Ashley and Travis. They were a young couple from the Boston area who bought Sapphire Beach Boat Rentals and relocated to southwest Florida. When Elyse had taken Connie paddleboarding in January, Elyse had used them to discretely drop the hint to Connie that she should consider keeping Concetta's condo and moving to Sapphire Beach.