Chapter 12
“Did you just lie to your daughter?” Bernard Cortland quirked a disapproving eyebrow in her direction.
“I had to,” she shook her head, feeling like a heel, but knowing that what she had done was necessary. “Tiara will sound much more convincing when she speaks to Paige if she believes what I told her. Especially if she thinks that whatever she finds out will be helping me as well as her friend,” Marilyn explained.
“And how does she know Paige?” his mood shifted a bit.
“They went to high school together.”
“I thought you told me earlier today that Silvia was Joseph’s mistress. And what did you mean when you mentioned funds and accounts?”
“Well,” Marilyn chewed her lower lip, thinking. “Silvia is drop-dead gorgeous, no pun intended, and that’s why Cynthia naturally thought that her husband was having an affair with her. It totally makes sense, a well-kept woman like Cynthia would never want to think that her husband giving her up for a plain, mousy girl like Paige.”
“What basis do you have for thinking that Paige was having the affair?” the detective surveyed her carefully, intrigued.
“She wasn’t, that’s an entirely different situation that will lead to the actual killer. When I showed up at Silvia’s door earlier tonight, I blindsided her with a question. I asked her if she had been sleeping with Joseph. She was literally stunned into silence, and the expression on her face told me everything I needed to know. Her reaction was akin to horror. Apparently she considered the thought of having an affair with Joseph Hernandez to be repulsive to the extreme,” Marilyn explained.
“So what does that have to do with Paige? And why would Paige have any information about what was going on?
“When I came out of Joseph’s office and back into the kitchen, I noticed that his brother, Juan, and Paige were standing inappropriately close to each other, and when I confronted Silvia with my pie, they were exchanging secretive little glances…you know, communicating without words?” The detective nodded curtly to show that he was still following her train of thought.
“So anyway, although Paige was having an affair with Joseph, she clearly had ended up falling for Joseph’s brother, it showed in the way that she looked at him. According to Cynthia, Joseph’s wife, the brothers have always been competitive with each other, despite Juan’s tendency to work as little as possible in order to get by, so Joseph would probably never share his complete financial picture with his brother, for fear that Juan would use the information to steal from him.”
“So you think that Paige was able to use her…influence to get the financial information and give it to Juan?”
“Exactly,” she nodded, relieved that he was tracking.
“And Paige and Juan were the ones who framed you?”
“I think that when Tiara went to Joseph’s store to deliver my pie, it was actually Juan who had answered the door, and I’m betting that, at that point, Joseph was already dead, so she provided them with the perfect opportunity to cast suspicion in my direction.”
“There she goes,” Marilyn observed triumphantly, starting her car. Seeing Paige drive off in a bit of a hurry was exactly the confirmation she needed to know that her theory had been correct. She waited until the young woman was a reasonable distance ahead, then pulled out behind her.
“You’re not following her, this is way out of line,” Bernard dictated, reaching for his phone.
“I know where she’s going, and I’m going to hang back far enough that she’ll never notice, besides, she’s not even thinking about being followed, she’s concentrating on what will happen if she doesn’t get to her destination in time. Please, Bernard, this is important,” she implored, not straying from her course an inch.
“Just so we’re clear, I’ve identified a potential suspect and commandeered your car, got it?” the detective growled.
Marilyn nodded, her full attention on Paige’s car. “We’re headed to the marina, I’ll bet you anything that Paige and Juan are going to try and run.”
“I’m going to make a phone call, and then you’re going to tell me everything you know,” Cortland instructed, hitting speed dial.
Marilyn listened to his end of the conversation, relieved that he was calling in backup and instructing them to go to the marina.
“Ok, now tell me why you think that Juan and Paige will be headed to the marina to run?” he asked after hanging up.
“Joseph isn’t a benevolent kind of guy, so, when he saw the handwriting on the wall as far as his marriage to Cynthia, he probably kept his money very creatively hidden. And, because he was a skinflint, he would want to cut his wife out of the financial picture as much as possible, which would require some tricky maneuvering on his part,” she explained.
“There’s a fair bit of conjecture going on here,” the detective observed dryly.
“Any yet, here Paige is, heading straight for the marina,” she shot back.
Marilyn pushed through a red light to keep pace with Paige and noticed Bernard frowning at her blatant disregard of traffic laws, but because traffic was nearly non-existent at this hour, he kept his thoughts to himself, focusing on her explanation.
She continued her explanation after maneuvering through the light without attracting undo attention from the preoccupied driver in front of her. “Also, because of the impending divorce he would most likely do most of the money manipulation at work - a place where he never had to worry about Cynthia popping in unexpectedly. I got the impression that she never wanted to deal with the reality of where Joseph’s money came from, so she stayed away from his shops entirely,” Marilyn forced herself in front of a VW Van.
“If Joseph was smart, which he seems to be…along with being heartless, ruthless and unprincipled,” she digressed bitterly for a moment, “then he’d keep his financial activities hidden from everyone. The only person who might draw him out would be…” she looked pointedly at the detective.
“The woman he was having an affair with,” Bernard finished the sentence for her.
“Exactly,” she nodded. “He would keep his office under lock and key, which meant that no one would have private access to it.”
“So Paige grabbed his epi-pen after one of their trysts? I’m sorry, but that’s far too implausible,” the detective shook his head dismissively.
“I agree,” Marilyn nodded. “It wasn’t Paige who took the epi-pen from the office. I gave Juan the perfect opportunity when I threw Joseph’s papers in the air. Joseph was focused only on those documents, and I stood between him and his brother, so he wouldn’t have caught him in the act.”
“That’s possible,” Cortland agreed reluctantly.
“Right,” Marilyn saw the a directional sign to the marina, and Paige’s turn signal indicated that she was going in. “We’re getting close.”
“So do you think they just ate your pie after Tiara dropped it off?” he asked.
“No, they couldn’t have. I made a revenge pie,” the color rose in Marilyn’s cheeks as she remembered her childish act. “It was filled with all kinds of disgusting ingredients they could never have choked down, and unless they tasted it they would have no clue it wasn’t just another Key Lime pie.”
“So I wonder what happened to it,” Bernard mused. “If we can locate the whole pie, still intact, that would go a long way toward validating your story and exonerating you.”
“I can think of a couple of possibilities…either it was dumped in the trash, in which case, as long as it hasn’t been picked up already, we could retrieve it and test it to prove that there were no nuts in it. Or, Juan may have taken it out and put it in the display case as if it was just another one of their pies,” she proposed.
She looked to Bernard, “My pie could very well be sitting untouched in the display case right now, and if it is, I can identify it, because I emboss the bottom of all of my foil pans with my shop’s logo,” she grinned.
Chapter 13
The marina
was already swarming with red and blue flashing lights when they pulled up. Bernard jumped out, instructing Marilyn to stay put. She mostly complied, getting out in an attempt to see what was going on, but forcing herself to stay near the car. It seemed like forever before Bernard was able to come back, giving her no information and suggesting that she should just head home.
“Not on your life,” was her firm reply. “I’ve been wrongly suspected of a crime, and I’m going to stand here until someone tells me that it’s been solved,” she insisted, crossing her arms stubbornly.
The irascible Detective McNabe was on the scene, and she found out much later that the reason he’d been involved in the first place was because the Feds had been keeping an eye on Joseph Hernandez for quite some time for money laundering and other suspicious activities.
She leaned back against her car and enjoyed watching the oh-so-handsome Bernard Cortland in action. He glanced back at her every now and again, probably trying to make sure she that she wasn’t interrupting police business, or sticking her inquisitive nose somewhere that it didn’t belong, she supposed.
Marilyn called Tiara to tell her about all that had transpired and to apologize for not being entirely honest with her. Thankfully her daughter quickly forgave her for the “constructive lies” and said that she understood completely under the circumstances.
At long last, Marilyn saw Paige and Juan being led in handcuffs to separate police cars, and breathed a long, ragged sigh of relief. Joseph Hernandez may have been a less than exemplary human being, but he hadn’t deserved to die before his time, in such a horrific manner. At least now, she was no longer a suspect. Bernard looked tired but satisfied when he walked back to Marilyn and the thought crossed her mind that even haggard, he was still attractive.
“So,” she said, trying not to seem as smug as she felt.
“So,” he repeated. “I sent a couple of uniforms over to Joseph’s shop to look for a pie with your logo embossed on the bottom, and they found it in the display case, obviously untouched. We took a sample for the lab as a formality, but Paige started singing like a bird, pointing the finger at Juan when we confronted them so, as of now, you are free to go,”
“Before this evening,” he cleared his throat and Marilyn thought he looked embarrassed, which she found to be highly unusual for the cool, collected lawman. “I’m afraid…I…”
“Thought that I had killed Joseph Hernandez,” she supplied helpfully.
“Yeah…about that,” Bernard had the grace to look contrite.
“No worries, Detective, I get it. With what it looked like, if I were in your shoes, I’d probably have wondered too,” she let him off the hook with a smile, rather enjoying the sight of the typically confident man feeling a bit off of his stride.
“I mean, you seem like a very nice person, and I know that you’re well respected in the community…” he tried to apologize again, but Marilyn held up a hand to stop him, grinning.
“It’s okay, really. I understand. But I might be persuaded to let you make it up to me over dinner,” she offered, shocked at her own boldness.
A slow smile spread across Bernard Cortland’s face as he regarded Marilyn with a new, healthy dose of respect. “Are you asking me out?” he asked, eyebrows raised in surprise.
“That depends,” she was shamelessly flirting now and enjoying every bit of it. A relationship was not in the cards for her, she’d given up on that notion after her divorce, but sitting across the table from this hunk of a man while savoring a nice lobster tail was certainly a thought she’d entertain.
“On what?” he took the bait.
“On whether or not you’d choose to accept the invitation,” she confessed, shrugging and resisting the urge to twirl a strand of hair around her fingers like an enamored school girl.
Bernard chuckled. “Let me look at my schedule for next week. I’ll call you,” he nodded shyly.
Marilyn made a face. “That’s what they all say,” she teased.
“I’m a cop, we can’t lie,” he gave her a crooked smile. “What kind of food do you like?”
“At this point, anything but pie,” she sighed dramatically.
“I’m with you on that one,” he remarked.
From across the parking lot, McNabe barked out his name. “Cortland, ya got a minute?” he yelled, sounding harried, as usual.
“Duty calls…or bellows, as it were,” Bernard said dryly, trotting over to where McNabe stood glaring toward them.
**
Marilyn yawned and stretched, glancing out the window and seeing the bright clear sunshine of another perfect island day. She had slept in, it was a Sunday, the shop didn’t open until noon and she planned to go to the beach after closing. Life was good now that things had finally settled down a bit. Shaking off the cobwebs of sleep, she smelled the distinctly delicious aroma of bacon, and wondered how that was possible. Even if one of the neighbors was cooking this morning, her windows were closed because of the air conditioning, so she shouldn’t have been able to smell it. Pulling a soft robe around her self, she went to investigate the source of the tantalizing scent.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Tiara called out cheerfully, handing her mother a fresh, hot, cup of Costa Rican coffee, prepared just the way that she liked it.
“Hey sweetie,” Marilyn responded with a hug and a delighted smile. “What are you doing up at this hour…and what’s all this?” she asked, gesturing to the frying bacon, toast that had just popped up out of the toaster and the amazing pot of coffee.
“I just thought after your somewhat challenging week, you deserved to have a nice hot breakfast waiting for you on a Sunday morning,” her daughter grinned. “Besides, I realized that we’ve hardly been spending any time together outside of work, so here I am.”
“You’re the best,” Marilyn kissed her on the cheek and headed to the breakfast bar to take a seat. “I’m going to the beach after closing today, care to join me?”
“Thought you might say that, my suit is in my beach bag,” Tiara agreed.
“Perfect! We’ll have a nice slow day at work, then relax together,” her mother replied, savoring her coffee.
“Hmm…the last time we had a nice slow work day, it didn’t go terribly well for us,” her daughter joked, shaking her head.
“So it’ll definitely be better this time,” Marilyn laughed.
“Yup, now…about that really cute cop…”
A letter from the Author
To each and every one of my Amazing readers: I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let me know what you think by leaving a review!
I’ll be releasing another installment in two weeks so to stay in the loop (and to get free books and other fancy stuff) Join my Book club.
Stay Curious,
Summer Prescott
Key Lime Die: A Key West Culinary Cozy - Book 2 Page 6