Debut Cozy Mystery Box Set 2

by Dianne Harman

  “This is Lucy. I must be busy right now, so do me a favor and leave a short message. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks!”

  Brigid hung up and waited. I’ll give her a moment and try again. Maybe she can’t find her phone, Brigid thought. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d thought she had her cell phone with her only to discover that she’d left it in another part of the house. After a few moments she hit redial and held the phone up to her ear. Once again, after six rings the voicemail picked up.

  “This is Lucy. I must be busy right now, so do me a favor and leave a short message. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks!”

  “Hi Lucy. It’s Brigid. We were just worried about you, since you aren’t at the book club meeting. Hope everything’s okay. Let us know if you need anything.”

  Brigid ended the call and returned to the front of the store where the other book club members were assembled. She walked up behind Fiona and slipped the phone into her sister’s hand. “No answer. I left her a voicemail. Hopefully she’ll call back or show up soon,” she whispered. Lucy was always on time. Even back when they were in school together, she was never tardy. It was odd for her to not at least call.

  “I guess I might as well start the meeting. Keep an eye out for her, will you?” It was obvious Fiona was worried, and the last thing she wanted to do was start the meeting, but she had no choice.

  “Okay everyone, we’ll go ahead and get started. Lucy’s probably just running late with a guest who showed up and wanted to stay at the B & B. I’m sure she’ll show up soon.” She kept glancing towards the door, hoping her friend would walk through it. Everyone else was looking over at the door from time to time, too.

  The group began discussing the book they’d been reading. The consensus was that although they’d enjoyed it, it felt as though it was lacking something, something they couldn’t quite put their finger on. An hour went by and still Lucy hadn’t shown up.

  “I bet Lucy will have an idea what the book needs. She’s always so good at that,” Betty said. Everyone agreed.

  “I can’t believe she hasn’t shown up yet,” said Margo. “Has anyone tried calling her?”

  “I did earlier,” Brigid said. “The call went to voicemail.”

  “I’ll see if I can get through,” Margo said, pulling her cell phone out of her purse and putting it on speaker. Everyone waited with bated breath for their friend to answer. They listened as the phone rang and went to voicemail.

  They started talking about what could be taking her so long and why she hadn’t bothered to call. Missy leaned over and whispered to Brigid “Do you think Lucy’s all right?”

  “I’m not sure,” Brigid answered honestly. “I’ve never known her to not show up for something. She’s the most organized person I’ve ever known.”

  “I’m worried,” Missy began, “she mentioned something earlier…” She let her sentence trail off.

  “What?” pried Brigid.

  “I don’t know if I should say anything. Lucy didn’t say it was a secret, but that doesn’t mean I should be talking about her business.” Missy looked conflicted. “Maybe we should drive over to the B & B. You know, see if she’s there and if she’s all right.”

  “I agree,” Brigid said. “That’s better than sitting here just wondering.” She stood up and walked over to Fiona. “Missy and I are going over to the B & B to check on Lucy. We’ve sat here worrying long enough.”

  Fiona nodded. “Call me and let me know what you find out,” she said. Brigid put her hand on her sister’s shoulder and squeezed it.

  Missy whispered to Jordan what she and Brigid were going to do. He wasn’t happy about them going over to the B & B by themselves in case there was a problem, but agreed that it was probably better if her friends checked on her, rather than her priest.

  The two women left the book store and got into Brigid’s car. It wasn’t very far to the B & B. Missy spent the time chewing on her nails.

  “Maybe she just forgot about the book club,” Brigid said, trying to console Missy. Although she was trying to stay positive for Missy’s sake, she was starting to get a bad feeling.

  “She could have,” Missy said, but she clearly wasn’t buying it. “Looks like there are a couple of cars in the lot.”

  Brigid pulled into the lot and looked around the outside of the B & B. There were lights on throughout the house, giving it the appearance of someone being home. Both women got out of the car and Missy told Brigid to go to the side door that led into the kitchen. Missy knew Lucy preferred that her friends come to the side door. The front door of the B & B was the door the guests were asked to use.

  Brigid knocked on the door. They couldn’t see in the window, since the blinds had been drawn. The warm yellow light from inside gave off a soft warm glow. They continued to knock several times, but no one answered.

  “I’ll try the door,” Brigid said. Missy nodded and watched as Brigid put her hand on the knob and twisted. The door swung open. They both saw Lucy lying in the middle of the kitchen floor, not moving. Neither one of them moved or said anything. They simply stared at Lucy’s body in shock.

  Missy was the first to speak. “Lucy?” Her voice wavered as Brigid rushed over to her friend’s side, the shock giving way to action. Her fingers reached for Lucy’s wrist, hoping to find a pulse. When she couldn’t find one there, she moved her fingers to Lucy’s neck. Again, she felt nothing.

  She looked at Missy and said in a shaky voice, “There’s no pulse. Call 911.” She continued to look at her friend and then realized why she hadn’t been able to find a pulse. Lucy was dead.

  With fumbling hands and a trembling voice, Missy called 911. When she ended the call, she called her husband, Jordan, then she and Brigid went outside to wait for Jordan and the sheriff. Since Jordan was much closer to the B & B than the sheriff, he arrived first. Missy rushed into his arms and started sobbing. He held her close for a few moments and then went over to his car and removed a book from a side door pocket.

  “You know what needs to be done, Missy,” Jordan said. She nodded, wiping her eyes and her sniffling nose. Brigid felt like she was in a parallel universe. It was as if she was watching her own body while she followed Jordan and Missy back into the kitchen.

  “God the Father, have mercy on your servant. God the son, have mercy on your servant. God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on your servant. Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on your servant. From all evil, from all sin, from all tribulation, good lord, deliver her.” As he read, Brigid felt hot tears slide down her cheeks.

  While Jordan continued reading the Ministration at the Time of Death from the Book of Common Prayer, they heard sirens blaring as they got closer to the B & B. A sheriff’s car raced up and parked next to the other vehicles in the parking lot.

  “Where is she?” cried Rich as he rushed out of his car. His keys and belt jangled as he hurried into the kitchen. Once he’d entered the kitchen, Sheriff Rich Jennings simply stopped and stared at the scene before him. Lying on the floor was his big sister, the one who had cared for him after their parents had died all those years ago. Now she was gone, too.

  “What happened? Oh Lucy. Lucy.” He fell to his knees as another sheriff’s car pulled up outside. He wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her, but he knew better. He’d seen that a small rag emitting a strong pungent odor had been stuffed in her mouth. He knew she’d been murdered and realized the kitchen was a crime scene. He had to leave everything intact.

  The walls of the kitchen were bathed in blue and red as the lights from emergency vehicles lit up the early evening. “I promise, Lucy. I’m going to find out who did this to you if it’s the last thing I ever do.” Rich was openly sobbing now, slowly losing what control he’d managed to hang onto. A deputy came to his side and helped him outside.

  “We need to do our job right if we’re going to find who did this, sir,” he said as he guided the sheriff outside.

  Deputy Davis stepped into the
kitchen, “Everyone, please step outside. Need to get yer’ statements, and our team needs to document the crime scene.” They followed him outside and around to the front porch. Brigid saw Rich sitting in his patrol car being consoled by the deputy who had pulled him away from his sister’s body.

  “Wait right here,” Deputy Davis said. “Need to make sure the guys showin’ up know what needs to be done.” Jordan nodded as Brigid and Missy stared vacantly off into space. Deputy Davis was back almost immediately. “I’m gonna’ take yer’ statements now.”

  Both women told him what happened at the book club and how everyone was worried about Lucy. They described driving over and knocking on the door. When there was no answer to their knock, they told him how Brigid had opened the door and they found Lucy lying on the floor.

  Brigid had collected herself a bit by the time they were finished giving their statements. “Deputy Davis, do you know what happened to her? There was no blood, and if it wasn’t for her skin coloring, I would have thought she was just asleep.”

  “Not certain, ma’am, but from what I smelled, my guess is chloroform. It’s got a real distinct odor. Smelled it when I got close to her.” He wrinkled his nose. “She was definitely murdered, I can tell ya’ that.”

  Missy’s hand flew to her mouth, and she began to sob again. “Who would want to hurt Lucy?” she cried.

  “Ain’t got no idea, but that’s what we aim to find out,” the deputy said.

  “I need to call my sister,” Brigid said, remembering that the book club was probably still waiting to find out what was going on. She was sure they’d heard the sirens.

  “Okay,” Deputy Davis said. “But don’t leave yet in case I need something else from ya’.” He gave her a half-hearted smile before turning and walking back to join the law enforcement people who were now swarming inside and outside the B & B.

  Brigid took her cell phone out of her purse and called Fiona, who answered on the first ring. “Yes?”

  She walked a few feet away from Missy and Jordan, so Missy wouldn’t have to listen to the description of what they’d found. Devastated, Fiona absorbed the information and started crying as Brigid described the scene.

  Would you let everyone know?” Brigid asked.

  “Of course,” Fiona said before she ended the call.

  CHAPTER 11

  After Brigid finished talking to Fiona, Missy approached her. Missy’s face was lined with worry, and she was wringing her hands. “I don’t know if I should tell Deputy Davis what Lucy told me,” she said.

  “What are you talking about?” Brigid asked in a shaky sounding voice, still lost in her own thoughts. She couldn’t believe something like this could happen in Cottonwood Springs, let alone to one of her friends.

  “Remember what I was telling you earlier? About Lucy being worried?” Missy asked. She picked at her fingernails as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

  “Yes,” Brigid said. “I remember you mentioning it. Why don’t you tell me what it was about, and we can decide together?” Brigid was glad for the distraction, so she could get the image of her friend’s lifeless face out of her mind.

  “Okay,” Missy said, swallowing and clearing her throat. “Lucy had a few things that were worrying her. The first one was her marriage. She told me that she and Henri hadn’t been getting along lately. She said they barely talked and when they did it usually ended up in some sort of an argument.

  “She was afraid he was having an affair because he was always gone. Lately his ‘business trips,’ as he called them, were getting longer and longer. She had no clue why he’d need to go on business trips when he was helping her run the B & B. Whenever she’d asked him about it, he’d just get defensive and leave.”

  “Well, every relationship has its ups and downs,” Brigid said, “but it might not hurt to mention it to Deputy Davis. What else?”

  “The other thing that was worrying her was this Native American guy who spoke to the book club a while back. Evidently Lucy mentioned to him that she had some Native American artifacts from the Ute tribe. After she’d told him, he became very insistent that she should turn them over to the Ute Tribal Council. You know how Lucy was about anything that had belonged to her parents. There was no way she was going to give them up. I guess he emailed her, called her, and even showed up a couple times. She told me she’d thought about getting a restraining order against him, but I’m not sure if she ever did.”

  “If she did, I’m sure the sheriff is aware of it, but I think I’d still bring it up.” Brigid watched as the coroner and his assistant brought a body bag on a gurney out of the house and loaded it in a van. “Anything else?”

  “Yes. A few months ago a couple stayed at the B & B for several days, and Lucy became good friends with them. She said the husband was a prison guard at the Colorado State Penitentiary. They’d talked about a woman Lucy testified against for embezzlement who ended up serving a sentence there.”

  “Really?” Brigid interrupted. “I didn’t know that.” It seemed Lucy had had a lot of things going on behind the scenes she didn’t let very many people in on. Brigid felt like a terrible friend for not knowing any of it. But then again, what could she have done when she was thousands of miles away in Los Angeles?

  “She didn’t really talk about it. Once she told me she’d found out this woman was embezzling funds from the ski resort. They’d hired Lucy, through Brandon, to help them look at their books, since she’s always been good with numbers, and they thought something seemed a little strange. Lucy found evidence of the embezzlement and turned it over to Rich. The woman was convicted and sent to prison.

  “Anyway, the guard who stayed here knew exactly who Lucy had been talking about. He told her that the woman had gone before a parole board a while back, and it had been granted. The woman was released from prison,” Missy said with a sigh. “I don’t think any of that is reason enough for someone to commit murder. Lucy felt terrible for being the one who found the evidence and then had to testify against her, but what was she supposed to do? Not turn it in?” Missy’s eyes were wide, as though she were desperate for answers.

  “I agree, it sounds like she didn’t really have much choice in the matter.” A list of possible suspects was beginning to form in Brigid’s mind. Apparently there were a number of people who seemed to have a grudge against Lucy, or at the very least, weren’t her biggest fans. Missy was right, though, none of them seemed to have a strong enough reason to murder a person in cold blood. She knew senseless murders happened every day, but in Cottonwood Springs?

  “Excuse me, ladies.” A deputy approached them, looking barely old enough to be wearing a uniform. His young, kind face seemed out of place under the deputy sheriff’s hat he wore. “Deputy Davis told me to tell you that you were free to go now. He’ll be in touch with you if we need anything else. Do either of you need a ride?”

  “No thanks,” the two women said in unison. The deputy tipped his hat and returned to his colleagues. Brigid couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that something was wrong. The thought of a killer walking around loose in Cottonwood Springs made her shiver. She thought things like that only happened in Los Angles, or big cities, not here in her new little hometown of Cottonwood Springs.

  “Did he say you were free to go?” Jordan asked, standing up from where he’d been sitting on the porch. He hurried down the steps and joined the women on the sidewalk.

  “Yes,” Missy said. “I want to go home, Jordan. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to drive down this street again.” Brigid watched as he wrapped his arm around Missy and led her to their car. He opened the door for her and waited for her to climb in before shutting it, treating her as if she was very fragile, and at the moment, she was.

  As she watched them leave, Brigid thought, I wish I had someone to console me. At that moment, she felt more alone than she’d ever felt in her life. Although she was glad she was no longer married to her ex-husband, there was no denying not having someone aro
und to share things with had left a bit of a void in her life. There were times when she simply wanted someone to hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay. Like now.

  Brigid, Bill never did hold you and tell you everything was going to be okay. You’re fantasizing. Your marriage was never like that and it never would have been like that, a little voice in her head said.

  “Yeah, you’re right, but I wish it had been,” she answered out loud to herself.

  Well, that train left the station a long time ago, Brigid, and you were never on it. There’s no point in wasting your time thinking about how you wish things might have been, the little voice said. Spend that energy thinking about what you can do about Lucy’s murder.

  She wondered how Lucy had felt in that moment when she knew she was going to die? And why wasn’t Henri here at the B & B? Could Henri have done it? If he had been here, she thought there was a good chance Lucy would still be alive. Wherever he was, hopefully he had a good reason for not being around. She realized she was angry at Henri, and regardless of whether that was fair or not, that’s how she felt.

  Brigid walked to her car and got behind the wheel. In the short time since she’d last been in it, her entire world had changed. She turned the key in the ignition and backed out into the street. She found herself heading to her sister’s book store rather than home. It was as if her car had a mind of its own.

  She couldn’t face her house guest feeling like she did right now. She needed to be around someone who had known and loved Lucy like she did, someone who would understand what she was going through, and that person was Fiona.

  Brigid pulled into a parking space directly in front of the book store and noticed that all the cars and trucks that had been there earlier were gone, with the exception of one. It was her brother-in-law’s blue truck, she’d know it anywhere. When she stepped into the store, she heard her sister sobbing softly. Fiona looked up from her husband’s shoulder.