Sweet Avengers (A Sweet Cove Mystery Book 18)

by J A Whiting

“It sure would.”

  “Did Dorrie leave anything behind? Do you think she’ll stop back to pick up some things she left here?”

  “I doubt it. She seemed pretty determined to be someplace else.”

  “Do you live in the building?”

  “Third floor.”

  “Did you know Dorrie’s brother, Jim?”

  “A little. We’d shoot the breeze sometimes. Do you know Jim died? Got murdered in Boston.”

  “We heard that. It’s very sad,” Angie said.

  “He was just a young guy.” The balding man shook his head. “But he played it fast and loose and that’s the chance you take.”

  “Jim had some run-ins with the police?”

  “You could put it that way. The guy couldn’t stay out of mischief. He hung around with some bad eggs and it got him into trouble. Well, I’m on my way out. Gonna meet some buddies. Nice talkin’ to you.”

  “What do you want to do now?” Jenna asked her sister. “Do you still think there’s something we missed here?”

  Angie took in a deep breath. “Yes. Let’s go see if there’s a backdoor. I’d like to peek in the windows of Dorrie’s apartment.”

  “Oh, gosh. Now we’ll get arrested for burglary.” Jenna reluctantly followed Angie around to the back of the building.

  “Oh, look.” Angie smiled. “There’s a porch running off the back of Dorrie’s apartment.” She climbed the steps and went from window to window trying to see inside.

  “Can you see anything?”

  “It sure looks like she left in a hurry. There are some papers on the floor, a few dishes on the counter. Most of the furniture was left behind.” As Angie moved to look in through the glass in the door, her foot bumped a trash can and she stared at it for a moment before lifting the lid.

  “Jenna, come up here. There’s a bunch of stuff in the trash.”

  With a groan, Jenna climbed the steps. “Now we’re dumpster diving?”

  “It’s only a trash can.” Angie lifted out some papers and began to sort through them.

  “What do you expect to find?”

  “I don’t know.” Angie moved more of the contents to the floor of the deck. “Will you look through these bills?”

  “What if I say no?” Jenna kidded.

  “Then I’ll ask you do something worse.” Angie reached into the bottom of the can and pulled out two photo albums. “Dorrie tossed out these photos.” Sitting down on the deck, she started turning the pages. “Here are some old pictures. It looks like some of them are from high school. Here’s Dorrie, and there’s Jim.”

  Jenna looked over her sister’s shoulder.

  Angie flipped the pages.

  “Hold it,” Jenna told her. “That looks like Pete, the driver who hit Mom. It seems like Dorrie, Jim, and Pete have known one another for a long time.”

  Angie leaned close to the page she had just turned.

  “Want a magnifying glass?” Jenna chuckled.

  “Look.” Angie jabbed her finger at one of the pictures. “This person.”

  “Which one?”

  “This young woman. She’s standing next to Dorrie. They seem to be in their late teens.”

  “Do you recognize her?” Jenna asked.

  “She looks just like….” Angie’s eyes were laser-focused on the photo.

  “Like who?”

  Angie’s heart was pounding when she looked up. “She looks just like Kris Banes, Sue-Ellen’s niece, the woman who talked to me in the bake shop the other day.”

  “She warned you about two people from Hamlet,” Jenna said.

  Angie nodded. “It seems Kris Banes knew Dorrie and Jim Appleton from way back.”

  When Jenna made eye contact with her sister, she had her hand on her hip and a serious expression on her face. “Well, well, that’s a very interesting connection, isn’t it?”

  23

  The family was in the kitchen preparing dinner and the evening snack tray for the bed and breakfast guests. Josh, Tom, and Mr. Finch worked on the ingredients for a big pot of chili.

  “It’s always better to make the chili early in the day,” Finch pointed out. “Then the seasoning flavors have time to mingle. But this will come out just fine.”

  Angie put Gigi in her highchair so she could watch her mother prepare some batter. Gigi had a small spoon in her hand and was beating the highchair tray with it.

  Ellie and Courtney placed cookies, chocolates, fresh fruit, chocolate banana muffins, and homemade granola bars on a large tray. The carafes of coffee and tea were already on the pushcart along with water and lemonade to be taken into the dining room.

  Libby was sitting in her baby walker chewing on a teething ring while Jenna prepared homemade biscuits and slipped a baking sheet into the oven.

  The cats were watching the activity from their usual perch on top of the refrigerator.

  Angie and Jenna had been reporting on their visit to Revere while everyone worked on their tasks in the kitchen.

  “Well, now we know the first name of the driver,” Josh said. “Progress is being made.”

  Tom added, “And we know there is a link going way back between Dorrie, Jim, Pete, and Kris. The picture Angie found in the trashcan shows they knew one another when they were teens.”

  “We have some suspects,” Finch summarized. “There’s Pete, the driver. There’s Jim who was at the scene of the accident and got close to Elizabeth when she was lying in the road. Someone was the architect of the plan and there are several suspects who might be the ones who put together the plan. I would put Lindsey Adams, the nurse, on that list, too. She has lied to Jenna and Angie and she isn’t forthcoming enough. It seems she might be trying to hide things.”

  “There are the two people that Kris Banes told Angie about,” Courtney said. “Marjorie Falcon and Bradford Antul. We ran into Marjorie the other day when we were in Hamlet. She’s a weird mix of grumpy, imperious, and sort of entitled and arrogant. We don’t know anything about Antul yet.”

  “And that brings us to Kris Banes,” Jenna said as she knelt down to play with Libby.

  “I immediately picked up on her being a paranormal,” Angie told them. “That’s a skill of mine that’s really showing improvement. I notice that sometimes I feel something from a person, but my mind isn’t yet skilled enough to understand what I’m feeling.”

  “You’ll get there, Miss Angie,” Finch said with encouragement. “That will prove to be a valuable skill.”

  Courtney said, “Except with those paranormals who can hide the fact that they’re paranormal so nobody knows they have talents.”

  “But those people are rare,” Ellie remembered. “Most people with paranormal powers are unable to hide themselves from others with similar powers.”

  “Did you get the feeling that Kris Banes could hide who she is?” Jenna asked her twin.

  Angie set the whisk on the table. “I don’t know. I only felt that she had abilities.”

  Courtney said, “I think we should make an appointment with Detective Owen to see the security tapes again. Maybe if we go through the films really slowly we’ll make out more faces.”

  “I think we should do that.” Angie nodded.

  “Let’s get back to that picture of the teens Angie found,” Jenna suggested. “If Pete, Jim, Dorrie, and Kris were childhood friends, it could link them in Mom’s death.”

  Angie said, “Although, Dorrie seemed very nervous when we spoke with her. She was looking over her shoulder like she was expecting someone to rush up and attack her. Maybe she wasn’t in on Mom’s accident at all. She might have been afraid that Pete, the driver, would come after her since he killed her brother. Jim Appleton could have confided some important information to his sister, thereby putting her at risk.”

  “Kris Banes should go on the suspect list.” Ellie was pushing the rolling cart with the early evening snacks and drinks out of the kitchen. “There’s something that picks at me when you discuss her.”

  “Why do
n’t the four us talk to Kris,” Angie suggested. “We can ask her to tell us more about Antul and Falcon.”

  Jack Ford came into the kitchen from the backdoor. “That sounds like a legal firm. Antul and Falcon.” He hung his light jacket on a hook in the back hall.

  “They’re two people we were warned about who live in Hamlet,” Finch explained. “Miss Ellie is in the dining room.”

  Jack went down the hall to find his girlfriend.

  Josh said, “The chili is ready, but we’d like it to simmer for an hour.”

  Angie put a cake in the oven and set the timer.

  “I have an idea,” Courtney told the group. “Let’s all go outside and practice our skills.”

  “It’s nice out,” Jenna said. “Libby and Gigi can bounce around the patio in their baby walkers while we do some practicing.”

  Everyone, including Ellie who was reluctant to use her skills, and the cats went outside together.

  “How are you going to do this?” Josh asked while settling into an Adirondack chair with a cold drink.

  Euclid and Circe jumped up onto a lounge chair and got comfortable.

  “Mr. Finch? What shall we do?” Courtney asked the man. “How can we practice?”

  Finch leaned on his cane and thought about tasks they could do and then he walked over to Josh and said something quietly into his ear.

  Josh smiled and nodded.

  “Josh will think of something that happened to him as a teenager. Something none of you know about,” Finch explained. “You may touch his hand, but you may not ask him any questions. Miss Courtney, you go first. Sense what Josh is thinking, but keep it to yourself. No hints or advice for the others.”

  The cats sat up to watch.

  “This is going to be hard.” Courtney took Josh’s hand and closed her eyes for several minutes, until Finch reported her time was up.

  Ellie went next and did the same thing, then Jenna took her turn, and Angie went last.

  “All right. Let’s see what you all picked up on.” Finch looked at Courtney. “Please tell us what you felt from Josh.”

  “Okay.” Courtney took a deep breath. “I sensed that something happened to you that frightened you. I could feel some fear, but that was it. I didn’t feel anything more.”

  Ellie said, “Your hand felt cold. I could feel some wind blowing around you. I also felt a pang of fear.”

  Jenna looked at Josh. “You were surrounded by people who cared for you. I felt their anxiety and I felt your fear. I had the sensation that you were somehow in mid-air.”

  Josh was being careful not to react to any of what the sisters said.

  Angie was up next.

  “Tell us what you felt, Miss Angie,” Finch encouraged.

  Angie looked deeply into Josh’s eyes. “You were on the edge of a rocky slope. I think it overlooked the sea. It was chilly and windy. There was a slippery spot near the edge. When you stepped on it, you lost your footing and went over the cliff. I felt your fear as you slipped.”

  Josh smiled. “You were all correct. I was with my parents and my brother in California. We’d gone to a new spot for a hike. We came out near some cliffs that looked out over the water. I slipped and fell over. My heart jumped into my mouth. Luckily, there was a ledge just below where we were standing. I only fell three feet down onto the ledge.”

  “You never told me about that.” Angie walked over to her husband, hugged him, and sat on his lap. “Did you get hurt?”

  “Only my pride got hurt. Once I scrambled back up, we all had a good laugh over it. I’d forgotten about it until Mr. Finch asked me to think of something that brought up a strong emotion.”

  “Well done, all of you,” Finch praised the sisters.

  “Angie did the best because she’s connected to Josh,” Courtney told them. “We each need to practice with our husbands or boyfriends so we feel the strong connection between us.”

  “It will have to be later,” Finch said. “Now it’s time for dinner.”

  After dinner, Angie and Jenna took a walk down to the Sweet Cove Museum to Angie’s second shop. She’d left an order form in her tiny office that she needed to call in that evening, then they were going to the shops in the Cove so Jenna could pick up some materials she needed to finish a special order of earrings and a bracelet that she had to ship early in the morning.

  “When is Orla coming back?” Jenna asked.

  “She and Mel will back in a few days.”

  “It makes me nervous that she isn’t around right now.”

  Orla had to travel to New York City for several days and Mel decided to join her.

  “We’ll be okay,” Angie reassured her sister.

  The museum was closed when they arrived so Angie removed the key from her wallet and unlocked the door. As they were heading to her office, Jenna said, “That practice session was pretty fun. Our skills really are getting stronger. Six months ago, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did today.”

  “It’s pretty cool.” Angie flicked her office light on, picked up the order form, and made the call to order the items. “Okay, that’s it. We can go down to the Cove now.”

  The sun was setting as they left the museum and started down to the shops and restaurants in the Cove, a popular spot for tourists and locals alike.

  Jenna was chattering about Libby when Angie suddenly came to a halt and took hold of Jenna’s arm so she could pull her behind a tall tree.

  “What are you doing?” Jenna fussed at the abruptness of her sister’s move.

  A little further behind them was a footbridge spanning the cove where a number of boats were moored to make it quick and easy for pedestrians to get to the southern-most point of the town.

  “Shh.” Angie’s eyes were wide as she gestured back to the steps of the bridge.

  At the bottom of the steps, a man and a woman stood engrossed in a conversation. The man had on jeans, a black jacket, and a baseball hat. The woman had a long black ponytail hanging down her back and was wearing sunglasses, jeans, and a bulky sweater.

  “They followed us here from the museum,” Angie told her sister. “When I glanced behind, I noticed them hurry to the steps and act like they were talking.”

  Jenna couldn’t see them from her spot behind the tree. “Who are they?”

  “Lean back and have a look.”

  Jenna gasped and clutched Angie’s hand. “It’s the driver of the car that hit Mom. Who is he with?”

  Angie’s face had clouded. “Sue-Ellen’s niece, Kris Banes.”

  24

  “Call Tom and ask him to come pick us up. Tell him to meet us in front of Lilly’s restaurant.” Angie took out her phone and texted Chief Martin about the driver of the car and Kris Banes following her and Jenna down to the Cove.

  “Tom’s leaving the house right now.”

  Angie took a quick look to the bridge. “They’re gone. They must have noticed us and realized we saw them.”

  “But where did they go?”

  “They either went over the bridge or they went back up to Main Street. Let’s cross over to the restaurant so Tom can see us.”

  “Why do you think they were following us?” Jenna asked her sister’s opinion.

  “I have no idea.” Despite her body being full of adrenaline, Angie shoulders drooped. “Tom said everything was all right at the house, didn’t he?”

  “Yes. Nothing is wrong. The cats have been fussing since we left though.”

  Only a few minutes had passed before Tom pulled over and ushered Jenna and Angie into the vehicle. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine. Just a little rattled,” Jenna admitted.

  “We’ve all got to be on our toes for a while.” Tom turned the car onto Main Street and headed back to the house. “I don’t think walking around alone is a good idea.”

  “Yeah, we need to stay in pairs,” Angie agreed.

  “Or threes or fours,” Tom added as they pulled into the driveway of the Victorian. “I think we should st
ay over here tonight. Josh went to our house to pick up some things we need. We can all be together. Safety in numbers.”

  “Good,” Jenna told her husband.

  When they went inside, Euclid and Circe rushed to meet them, and Chief Martin and most of the family wanted to hear everything that happened down in the Cove.

  “Where’s Courtney?” Angie asked.

  “She went to check on the candy store,” Finch said.

  “I sent a car to pick her up,” the chief reported.

  Just then the door opened. “What’s cookin’?” Courtney asked.

  “Plenty.” Holding Gigi on her lap, Angie gave the youngest Roseland an update. “I don’t know why they’d bother following us around.”

  No one had an answer for that.

  Chief Martin said, “I have patrol cars out looking for Kris Banes and her friend.”

  “We were told his name is Pete,” Jenna said. “We don’t know the last name.”

  “Pete. For a long time, I’ve wanted to know the name of the man who killed Mom.” Courtney’s expression was sad. “Now that I know, it doesn’t make me feel any better.”

  Ellie put her arm around Courtney and hugged.

  After an hour passed, the chief headed home. “Lock everything up. I’ll have a car park in front of the house. It will stay there all night.”

  When the babies were put to bed, Tom and Jenna stayed upstairs to read while the others went to watch a movie in the family room, and as soon as it ended, they all headed to their rooms.

  “I’ll never sleep,” Angie said as she and Josh got into bed.

  “All the doors and windows are locked and the patrol car is out front. We’re safe and sound.” Josh put his arm around Angie and she rested her head on his chest, and they both fell asleep.

  At 2am, Angie woke up with a start, but realized it had been a bad dream that caused her to startle awake. She got out of bed and stretched, went to check on Gigi, and then decided to go down to the kitchen to get a slice of last night’s dessert.

  Euclid and Circe sat at the bottom of the wide staircase.

  “Why are you two awake?” Angie patted the cats and they padded after her to the kitchen. “I know I shouldn’t have a piece of cake in the middle of the night, but it’s been a stressful time and I want it.”