Maybe he was tempted by her open offer, but Darryl frowned and shook his head. “I don’t think so, Ellen. If you want to talk, we can do it right here, but I’m not planning on letting you manipulate me any longer.”
“Manipulate you? I don’t manipulate anyone,” Ellen said, half laughing as she tried to brush off the comment. “Seriously, Darryl, I think we can work this out? I’ll even stop asking to move to Seattle.”
Darryl didn’t have a chance to answer because a man came running around the corner, panting and whimpering as he ran. Claire was unhappy to see it was Jeff Sinclair, the scrawny reporter who had written that horrible news article about her. When his eyes lit on Darryl, he half-sobbed in relief, pulling up behind the police officer.
“Please! You have to protect me!” he said, whimpering while watching the corner he’d just come around. He looked a bit disheveled and had the beginnings of a black eye.
“Protect you from what?” Darryl said, clearly concerned. “What did you do now, Jeff?”
“From them!” Jeff cried, pointing. When they all looked. Captain Karl was standing there, huffing and puffing from running but looking determined. Behind him was his huge deckhand, Beast. The man didn’t look nearly as winded as his Captain, and fully capable of running for another mile.
Chapter 25
“There you are…you little…weasel!” Karl said, stopping and leaning down with his hands on his knees and trying to catch his breath. “You won’t be getting away from me!”
Claire froze, suddenly terrified at seeing the object of her worry standing right in front of her. Despite some people telling her they didn’t think it had been Captain Karl doing any of the killing, there wasn’t any proof to the contrary. This, coupled with the fact the man had threatened her, had resulted in her subconscious holding onto the fact that he might still be the killer.
It didn’t help that his huge deckhand was behind him, a man who looked perfectly capable of breaking any of them in half. Karl took a menacing step forward before he even noticed the others nearby, but when it registered he pulled up, taking them all in before his eyes settled on Claire. “You!? What are you doing here, eh? Causing me more trouble most likely! I’ll deal with you soon enough, but first I need to take care of this trespasser!”
He resumed his forward momentum, almost oblivious to Darryl as Jeff cringed, and looked around wildly until the stocky police officer stepped in his way, putting a finger in his chest. “Now, hold on, Karl. Just hold on! Calm down and tell me what’s going on here?”
Once again, Karl stopped and locked eyes with the police officer, though he didn’t look like he cared whether Darryl was wearing a badge or not. Pointing over his shoulder at Jeff, he gave a ferocious scowl as he spoke. “This little sneak was creeping round my ship! Poking through my cabin and doing who knows what! I caught him and punched him right in the face, but he got away. Beast and I ran after him, and I’m going to teach him not to put a foot on my ship ever again, eh!?”
“I was just looking for evidence!” the skinny man cried, standing behind Darryl. “The press has a right to know!”
Darryl grimaced, not looking away from Karl in case the man lunged, but clearly unhappy. “Jeff, were you on Captain Karl’s ship?”
Jeff paused, blinking before looking at the back of Darryl’s head nervously. “Uh, yeah. Look, I was just looking for-“
Darryl cut him off, shaking his head. “You can’t go around trespassing on someone’s ship. That’s just like breaking into someone’s home. It’s against the law. At the very least, you’re under arrest so don’t go anywhere.”
Jeff’s face got a green cast to it, which was very uncomplimentary to the slowly developing black eye. Captain Karl just growled, clenching his fists. “No need for that! I won’t press charges if you just give him to me for a minute.”
Darryl shook his head, frowning at the enraged Captain. “You know that’s not going to happen. Just step back and let me handle this.”
They continued to talk with Scott and Claire standing there, watching the heated exchange. Claire had almost forgotten about Ellen, but suddenly realized that she and the man she suspected of murdering Dexter were there, in the same place. Her eyes, almost as if in slow motion tracked over to the blonde, watching as a clearly nervous Ellen was looking at the sailor.
Except she wasn’t looking at Karl. She was looking at Beast, standing behind the craggy old captain. The huge man who everyone had been ignoring looked panicky, his eyes tracking back and forth between Ellen and Darryl and Claire quickly saw Ellen give a subtle shake of her head, trying to signal him to calm down.
Claire gasped, putting her hand up over her mouth, staring wide-eyed at Beast. He was the one that Ellen had been seeing over at Hazelton! Everyone stopped at the sudden sound, turning to stare at her.
“Scott! Darryl! It wasn’t Captain Karl that Ellen was seeing, it was Beast! He must have killed Dexter!”
It didn’t matter that it was all supposition. It was a pure leap of logic, but it all fit. Still, if Beast had just stood there and played stupid, it would have all gone a different way. However, that’s not what he did. The sudden accusation fed directly into the huge man’s fear and he finished his transition into full panic mode. Bellowing, he lunged forward, knocking Captain Karl into Darryl as he charged off, running for all he was worth.
Scott took off after him after a moment’s hesitation while Jeff stood there, gapping and blinking like a deer in the headlights. Ellen just screamed, startled at the sudden violence.
Claire was terrified as she watched Scott run off. He wasn’t a small man, but Beast was every bit as intimidating as his name suggested and she didn’t know what Scott would do if he caught the man. Thankfully, Darryl righted himself, yelling after Scott to stop. Claire wasn’t sure if he was going to listen, but after the second time, he did, then trotted back even as Beast disappeared into an alley between brightly colored shops.
Claire was happy to see that Scott actually looked relieved, giving a wide-eyed look at her as he arrived back at the small group. Everyone was standing, watching the place where Beast had disappeared in various states of shock. Even Ellen seemed upset though she also had a healthy amount of worry.
Especially when Darryl turned to look at her. “Is it true?” he asked, his eyes hard as flint. “No more lies, Ellen. Tell the truth.”
She stared at him, trembling slightly and Claire was certain she would just start lying, but to her surprise, she looked down at her feet and nodded. “Yes. Yes, but I had no idea he…was going to do what he did.”
“You mean kill Dexter?” Darryl pressed, stepping toward Ellen almost threateningly.
She gasped, flinching from Darryl’s gaze but not turning away. Instead, she nodded. “Yes. Yes, that. I just…just wanted to scare Dexter. He was going to stop. Said he didn’t want to see me anymore so I was hoping Albert would just, you know, beat him up. I never expected him to do more than that.”
“Well, he did more than that, Ellen,” Darryl said. “He killed a man because of your games.” He snorted as he reached for his radio to call everything in, turning his back on the crying woman. “I’ll figure out what to charge you with later.”
Ellen erupted into sobs and ran toward her car, driving away as quickly as she came. Claire had gone to stand by Scott, watching the whole interchange without breathing. She couldn’t believe everything that had happened, but she knew one thing.
It was finally all over.
Captain Karl stood silently, watching everyone but after a few moments, he threw his hands in the air, making a disgusted sound as he turned and stalked off. “Vat the heck is going on? You people are all crazy! Stay away from me and my ship! Stay away!”
Chapter 26
Claire sat at the table with Scott in his cozy home, drinking some coffee as the sun set, the last bit of sunlight dancing across the waves in orange bands of light. It was a beautiful sight, and they watched the seagulls dive and turn over the fa
r-off beach as their white feathers turned pink from the last bit of the day’s sunlight. She smiled as Scott sat down next to her.
“I hear they caught Beast,” Scott said, sipping at his own cup. “He was trying to sign onto a merchant marine ship headed overseas.”
Claire let out a deep breath, relief rushing through her, as Scott continued.
“Darryl said Beast punched a few police officers before they got him wrestled down. Not smart. Cops tend not to take that kind of thing lightly.”
At last, at long last, some peace. She had been terrified of Beast coming back, targeting her for outing him, but apparently the man had just been intent on running. Maybe now she could return to her cottage and live a quiet life, working in the bakery. “Oh, that’s good news. I was getting really sick and tired of looking over my shoulder.”
“Having any second thoughts about living here?” Scott asked tentatively.
Claire gave him a long, considering look before reaching out and taking his hand. “No. No, I think that there are things here very much worth my time.”
Scott smiled boyishly, which always made Claire’s knees melt just a little. Even in her forties, she was pleased to see she could still have that kind of reaction.
“He also told me they discovered the murder weapon. Some big claw hammer they found in his apartment along with a bloody freezer. Dexter’s blood was everywhere. From what they could piece together, he had found Dexter before he could even leave town, thumped him over the head, and then kept him in a freezer trying to figure out how to dispose of the body. They think that when Captain Karl and Ben got in that fight, it gave him the idea to try to frame Ben.”
“I just don’t understand why anyone would do that. It’s terrible.” The murder, the freezer, the frame up. All of it.
Scott nodded. “I don’t think we can. Not for something like that. Some people are just violent. Still, quite an adventure! We did end up figuring it out in the end, though I’d never mention that around Darryl if I were you. He’s still steamed we got involved in all of this.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I don’t plan on doing this kind of thing ever again. Being threatened by a crazy ship captain, run off the road, and having a killer stalking me was enough. I’m done!”
“Amen to that,” Scott said, holding his coffee cup out for Claire to clink.
They sat in a comfortable silence like that for several minutes, just enjoying each other’s company. Claire enjoyed it, wondering how long her happiness would last.
It didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to worry about forever. Today she was going to be happy with whatever the day brought her way.
She was sure that it couldn’t be anything more exciting than the past few weeks. She was looking forward to just enjoying working in the bakery and exploring her new relationship with Scott. Maybe even learning a little jewelry work from Molly.
Author’s Notes
Thank you for continuing your adventure at Brightwater Bay! Just when it seems that things are calming down, you’ll discover all sorts of new things happening, so please come back and visit us again.
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Love cozy mysteries? Here’s Brightwater Bay Cozy Mysteries – Angela C Blackmoore, Carolyn L Dean, and Beth Byers
A Little Taste of Murder (book 1 in the Anthology Three Carols of Cozy Christmas Murder)
A Tiny Dash of Death (book 2 January 2018)
Books by Angela C Blackmoore – Red Pine Falls Cozy Mysteries
Hot Tea and Cold Murder
Cold Murder and Dark Secrets
Dark Secrets and Dead Reckoning
Cheerio and the Caves of Gold (Red Pine Falls Short Story)
Dead Reckoning and Murderous Intent
Murderous Intent and Deadly Desires
Deadly Desires and Killer Instincts
Winter Storms and Deadly Thorns (will be in the Anthology Three Carols of Cozy Christmas Murder)
Cheerio and the Day of Dread (December 2017)
A Tiny Dash of Death Page 11