Penelope wasn’t just any talking cat, of course. She was actually Meg’s grandma, whose soul had been transferred into the body of a cat via a spell. Over the years, Meg had grown accustomed to getting hit up for food before she even had a chance to put her purse down.
Yet, neither Penelope nor her frequent wisecracks were anywhere to be found. As Meg entered her living room, she realized why. Penelope sat on the couch, her mouth nearly watering as she looked at a restaurant menu.
“Hasn’t anyone ever told you drooling is for dogs?” Meg joked.
Penelope hadn’t noticed Meg coming in. Meg’s sudden presence came as a complete shock, which made Penelope nearly jump straight up to the ceiling.
“What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that? You scared me half to death,” Penelope said.
“Sorry about that, grandma,” Meg replied.
“You have to be careful. I only have nine lives to work with here.”
Meg chuckled. “I’ll be more careful next time. So, what’s on the menu?”
Penelope gazed back at the menu in front of her. “Glorious seafood. My mouth has been watering for hours.”
Meg picked up the menu. “Enchanted Seafood, huh? I haven’t been there in years.”
“It’s time we go back. The tuna tartare is tantalizing my taste buds as we speak.”
“I’m pretty sure they don’t allow cats there.”
“Where there’s a witch, there’s a way. One little invisibility spell and they wouldn’t even know I was there.”
“What’s the big deal with Enchanted Seafood anyway? There are four other seafood joints between here and that shack on the pier, most of which are a lot less touristy.”
“Yeah, but they didn’t slide their menu under our door. Besides, it’s not a shack anymore. Enchanted Seafood just revamped their entire menu. Check this tuna out and tell me your taste buds aren’t in heaven,” Penelope said.
Meg took a look at the menu. While Penelope focused on the close-up picture of one of their tuna dishes, Meg’s focus was on the photo of the new storefront that was beside it on the front of the menu.
Penelope took Meg’s silence as a sign that her granddaughter was getting just as wrapped up in the new food selection as she had.
“See, doesn’t it make your mouth water just looking at it?” Penelope asked.
Meg kept staring at the menu with great interest.
“This doesn’t look like the same Enchanted Seafood that I remember,” Meg replied.
“That’s because it’s not. They’re doing this big marketing push because they’ve updated the old place and are opening a new location down the street from The Scraggily Sea Captain,” Penelope explained.
Suddenly, with the look at the new menu and Penelope’s comment, everything clicked in Meg’s mind. The confusion that she’d been carrying around all day evaporated in an instant. It was as if a lightbulb had gone off in her head.
“That’s it,” Meg said.
Penelope was confused. “What are you talking about?”
“Grandma, you’re a genius.”
“Well, you don’t have to tell me twice,” Penelope replied. “Although, what am I a genius about specifically?”
“I think I know who killed Hope Riddle,” Meg declared.
Meg then rushed to the door.
Before she had a chance to leave, Penelope’s rumbling stomach stopped her. “Hey, if you’re going out, would you mind picking me up some tuna tartare? It looks to die for.”
Meg smiled. “Sure thing.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The next day, after doing some additional side sleuthing the night before, Meg headed out with great purpose. She made her way over to the Galloway residence where she waited for David to leave for work. When he exited his house and headed towards his car, she made her move, sneaking up behind him.
“You almost got away with it,” Meg said.
David gasped and whirled around, taken completely by surprise. “What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?”
“The same thing you did to Hope Riddle the night you killed her,” Meg revealed.
David narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Meg didn’t back down. “David, it’s over. I saw the tape.”
David furrowed his brow. “What are you talking about?”
“The security tape from Enchanted Seafood. During their revamp, they added cameras in the front, back, and inside of their restaurant. That’s when I saw you and your wife fighting on the pier shortly before Hope’s murder,” Meg explained.
He was in full denial mode. “No, you’re wrong.”
“It’s right there on the tape. You and Brooke had a big blowout fight. You then went off on your own while your wife took a walk on the beach alone. The question is, where did you go off to when you were supposedly taking a walk with your wife?”
David became openly hostile. “I’m warning you to stop right now.”
“What’s the matter, am I hitting a nerve? You and your wife were fighting about your affair with Hope, weren’t you?”
“That’s none of your business.”
Meg kept pressing on. “After your fight, you went and paid Hope Riddle a visit. The affair was tearing your life apart. It was destroying your marriage; it was ruining everything you had spent twenty years working to build. You had to put an end to it once and for all. So you broke into her house, killed her with the frying pan, and then ransacked the place, trying to make it look like a burglary.”
David got deadly quiet, his eyes full of rage.
“I’m right, aren’t I? You did it, didn’t you? You killed her,” Meg said.
Finally, David couldn’t take it anymore. He erupted in a fury. “Yeah, I did it. I killed her, and you’re next.”
David then lunged at Meg, reaching out to strangle her.
Little did he know that she had cast a super strength spell shortly before arriving. That gave her all the power she needed to stop him cold and throw him to the ground. While David scrambled to get up off the gravel, Connor came out from his hiding place beside the house with his gun drawn.
“Freeze,” Connor said.
David saw the gun pointed at him and knew there was no escape. Faced with that sobering realization, he started to have an emotional breakdown, blurting out his true feelings.
“I was drawn to her because she was a free spirit. She had an open mind and an experimental soul. After spending twenty years married to a woman who cared more about her cats than her husband, that was refreshing. I fell for Hope, hard and fast. Then, just as I told my wife I wanted to leave her, Hope revealed to me that she wasn’t interested in getting tied down to another long-term relationship. She was just getting out of a marriage and wanted to see what the universe had in store for her. It was then that I lost it. I had given up so much to be with Hope--my marriage, my life, everything. Yet, after the sacrifices I’d made for her, she just tossed what we had aside and broke it off. I couldn’t let her get away with that,” David explained.
“It looks like you’re the one who won’t get away with it. Let’s see what good that free spirit of yours does you in jail,” she replied.
Meg then shook her head, completely disgusted.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Take him away, boys,” Connor said.
Two police deputies hauled David away and loaded him into the back of a squad car. That left Meg and Connor with a moment alone together.
As Connor and Meg’s relationship had evolved, so had his reaction to her crack sleuthing abilities. In the beginning, he had a hard time believing the first murder case she’d solved was nothing more than a fluke. After all, he was a hardened, ten-year veteran of the city beat while she was a donut shop manager. With each subsequent case under her belt, her innate detective skills were becoming impossible to ignore.
That didn’t mean some professional detectives didn’t try to chock it all up to luck. That’s
why Connor was so unique. With him, his ego didn’t come first. What mattered most to him was that the case got solved, not that he had to be the one to do the solving. That little distinction made all the difference to Meg, especially as she wanted to relax after cracking a case, not massage a fragile ego.
Much to Meg’s delight, Connor’s ego was nowhere to be found. Instead, he breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t alone. Meg was just as happy for this case to be closed. The sooner they could put this case behind them and return to a sense of normalcy, the better.
Never mind that they’d just lived through the fourth murder within Enchanted Bay city limits in the last seventeen months, or that things most likely never return to the safe and sound days of yore. During times like this, it was important to appreciate the moments of quiet before danger found its way back into town.
“You did it again,” Connor remarked.
She corrected him. “We did it.”
“I’m not one of those guys that can’t give credit where it’s due. Trust me, you deserve all the kudos in the world.”
Meg enjoyed the appreciation, even if she wasn’t entirely comfortable with it. Her family’s secretive nature made her shy away from ever basking in the spotlight for too long, even around her boyfriend. That was true here as well. She found herself deflecting with a joke.
“Let’s just say we’re a crime-fighting team that’s not to be trifled with,” she replied.
“I’ll take that. Although, in that case, who would be the sidekick?”
“Here I thought you were about to make a joke about not wanting to wear spandex.”
“That too.”
She smiled. “Duly noted.”
“Superheroes make some highly questionable clothing choices,” he joked.
“Wow, fashion faux pas. That’s one conversation I never thought I’d be having with my boyfriend. What’s next, talking about shoe sales?”
He stared her down. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Too late. Visions of high heels are already dancing in my head.”
Connor tried to steer the conversation out of the clouds and bring it back down to Earth. “In all seriousness, I’m so glad you’re in my life.”
Meg had a different take. “Really? You’re going back to being serious so soon? Haven’t we spent enough time with doom and his partner-in-crime gloom recently? I say, let’s burn off more steam.”
“No argument here.”
“I hope not. Arguing is overrated anyway.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
She smiled. “A girlfriend can never hear that enough.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Anyway, I just want you to know I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Wait a minute. Does that mean you think I’m the sidekick in this equation?”
She changed the subject. “All I care about is this case is solved.”
He called her out. “That’s a slick little non-answer. I expect that kind of evasion from a suspect, but not from you.”
Meg gazed into his eyes. “Hey, we all have our strong points.”
“I know what yours are.”
“I hope you’re not about to say baking donuts.”
“Now you’re making me hungry,” he said.
“You’re right. All this investigating has worked up a serious appetite.”
“I know exactly what would hit the spot.”
“Please don’t say donuts.”
“But eating donuts is the detective way,” he joked.
She laughed.
“I was just messing around with you. I think we should go get that Chinese food we were talking about yesterday. I have a feeling your fortune cookie will have some good news for you this time.”
Meg found her mind drifting elsewhere. “Mmm, dumplings.”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Connor replied.
She then went back to a loose thread in their conversation. “By the way, you didn’t tell me what my strong point is.”
“That’s easy. You always know how to make me smile, and with a job like mine, I can use all the smiles I can get,” Connor revealed.
Meg gave him a big grin.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
With the killer behind bars, Meg had the closure she was looking for. The same could not be said for her mother. Beth Walton had the peace of mind in knowing her friend’s murderer had been brought to justice, but that didn’t change the fact that she had a Hope Riddle-sized hole in her life. Even more, that was a void that could never truly be filled. She’d never had a friend like Hope before.
It should have been no surprise then that the grieving process was different than with the friends and family members she’d lost in the past. The usual somber affair didn’t seem appropriate in honoring her friend’s memory. Hope was a free spirit, a firecracker, the kind of woman that believed in getting the most out of life.
Given that, Beth decided the best way to say goodbye to her friend was to drive out to the vineyards and do the very wine tasting they’d planned to do before Hope was killed. That’s how Beth and Meg found themselves sitting on the patio of a vineyard staring at the rolling hills lined with rows of grape vines as the sun slowly set in the distance.
Beth looked out wistfully, before tearing up.
“Mom, are you ok?” Meg asked.
Beth wiped her eyes and nodded. “I was just thinking about Hope.”
Meg grimaced. “Maybe coming here wasn’t such a good idea.”
Beth shook her head. “No. It’s what she would have wanted.”
“Ok. Well, just know I’m here for you if you need me.”
“Thanks, dear.” Beth then lifted her glass and switched gears. “I’d like to propose a toast.”
Meg pressed her glass against her mothers. “A toast.”
“To a friend who reminded me that life is meant to be lived, that each day is precious, and that time is something that should never be wasted.”
Meg nodded. “To Hope, rest in peace.”
Beth laughed. “Are you kidding? There’s no rest for the rambunctious. Since you caught her killer, I’ll bet she’s having a ball in the afterlife right now.”
Meg stared up at the sky. “Here’s hoping.”
“Now, in honor of Hope’s spirit, how about another glass of wine?” Beth suggested.
Meg smiled. “You can’t go wrong with cabernet.”
The End.
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Witches Of Enchanted Bay Book Order
Book 1 – The Witches Of Enchanted Bay
Book 2 – Ax To Grind
Book 3 – Killer Twist
Book 4 – A Bewitching Murder
Book 5 – A Riddle Of A Murder
The Witches Of Enchanted Bay: A Riddle Of A Murder (Witches Of Enchanted Bay Cozy Mystery Book 5) Page 8