Brownie Points for Murder

by Nicole Ellis

  29

  The police arrived first and the ambulance soon afterward. The twinkling lights on Willowby Island and serene water view were obscured by the flashing emergency lights that lit up the condominium’s parking lot.

  A police officer I’d never seen before interviewed me near the main door to the condo building. As I watched, the ambulance crew pulled a blanket over Elliott’s body, shielding him from the prying eyes of the burgeoning crowd. I shivered and pulled the wool blanket they’d given me closer against my body. My little black dress had turned gray from construction dust, and the thin material was no match for the nighttime temperatures.

  “Jill!” A familiar voice called to me from the street. I turned and saw Adam striding across the parking lot. Tears formed in my eyes.

  “Sir, you need to stay behind the yellow tape,” a police officer said.

  Adam pointed at me. “That’s my wife. I need to be with her.” He ignored the police officer and pushed the crime scene tape aside. When he reached me, he pulled me against his chest. My tears fell freely as the horror of the evening hit me. I had almost died.

  “I’m so sorry I missed our dinner date. This is all my fault,” Adam said softly in my ear. I snuggled closer.

  “How did you know where I was?” I asked.

  “Tomàs called me as soon as they told him you were involved. My flight had just arrived at Sea-Tac, and I broke the speed limit the whole way home.” His face was etched with worry. I shivered again underneath the blanket, and he wrapped his jacket around my shoulders.

  “Officer, is my wife almost done? She’s had quite a scare tonight, and I’d like to take her home.”

  “Yes, just a few more questions.” The officer finished his interview and warned me they would need me to come down to the station for more questions the next day.

  We walked over to Adam’s car, and he helped me into the passenger seat, turning on the heater to warm me up.

  “Wait,” I said. “My purse. And the gerbils. I left my purse in a unit on the third floor.” We both looked up at the window directly above Elliott’s body.

  He nodded. “I’ll ask if I can get your purse.” He started to walk away and then turned back to me with his eyebrows raised. “Wait, gerbils? Did you say gerbils?”

  “Yes, the gerbils from Mikey’s classroom. I had them in their travel container in my purse. When Elliott forced me to drop my purse, the lid on their carrier must have popped open. If it hadn’t been for the gerbils escaping and causing a distraction, I may never have gotten away from Elliott.” The thought was sobering and, for the first time in my life, I felt something other than revulsion for a rodent. “Can you try to find the two gerbils?” He nodded again, tears in his eyes.

  He walked away and conferred with the police standing guard by the yellow tape. Another officer met him at the door to the condo building, and they disappeared inside. Exhausted, I leaned into the heated leather seats and soon fell asleep.

  A knocking on my window woke me up. I glanced at the clock and saw that it had been almost an hour. Adam smiled at me and held up both my purse and the gerbils’ travel carrier. I had never been so happy to see two rat-like creatures squirming around in a carrier before. He placed the gerbils safely in the back seat and took me home.

  30

  Four weeks later, the memory of Mr. Westen’s murder and the confrontation at the condo building had faded, but I still suffered from flashbacks. However, life moved on, and now our family had something more important to focus on.

  I looked down into the cornflower-blue eyes of the newborn baby girl I held in my arms. “Desi, she’s beautiful.” I snuggled the warm bundle close to me. This was the first time since Lina’s birth the week before that I’d been able to hold her as she’d been in the neonatal intensive care unit due to some breathing troubles.

  Desi beamed. “We get to take her home in a few days. The doctors think the jaundice will be completely gone by then,” she said. “All of those mind-numbing days on bed rest were worth it to have her safely here with us now.” Tears shone in the corners of her eyes, and I knew she was remembering Ariana.

  I handed Lina back to Desi, and she made a soft cooing sound as she pressed against her mother’s curves. I gave Desi a quick hug. “I’m so happy for you and Tomàs. She’s perfect. It won’t be long until she’ll be playing with the other kids.” I looked over at Ella. She sat nicely in her stroller, but I knew she itched to practice the inchworm crawl she’d recently learned.

  “I told my dad that I want to quit the Boathouse and work full-time at the BeansTalk Café,” said Desi.

  “Really?” I raised my eyebrows. “How did he take it?”

  “He seemed a little disappointed but took it well. It was almost as though he expected it. You didn’t happen to mention it to him, did you?” She looked pointedly at me.

  I squirmed a little. Somehow she always managed to get things out of me. “I may have mentioned to your mother that you were thinking about making the jump to full-time. But I didn’t tell your father, I swear!”

  Desi smiled. “You tell my mother anything, you are basically telling my father. She couldn’t keep a secret to save her life.”

  “I’m sorry.” My face reddened. “I didn’t know.”

  “Don’t be sorry. It takes Dad awhile to get used to an idea, and he’s always been so intent on having his kids involved with the business. Adam was always focused on his law career. Neither Will nor Sarah were ever interested in the family business, plus they both ended up living out of the area. I was my dad’s last chance, but I think he respects how hard I’ve worked to make the BeansTalk a success.”

  “How is everything going with the lease on the BeansTalk?”

  “I think it’s going to be ok. Anna Westen pushed the town council to designate the building as a historical landmark. While my business will be grandfathered in, the laws will prohibit the building from being torn down or structurally changed. Thank God the property sale Samuel Westen put in motion was never finalized before his death. I hate to say it, but Elliott Elkins did the town of Ericksville a big favor.”

  Not that I condoned murder, but I had to agree. Samuel Westen had brought misery to everything he touched. I nodded my head. “I’m thankful the property below me isn’t going to be subdivided into a million small lots. Anna said she’s thinking of renting out the house to tourists. That should be interesting, but not nearly as bad as all that construction and noise from a subdivision.”

  Ella fussed in her stroller, and I pushed it back and forth a few times before checking my watch.

  “Desi, I’ve got to go. It’s almost time to pick up Mikey at preschool. Is Tomàs getting Anthony, or do you want me to get him?”

  “No, I’m picking him up tonight. I’m anxious to get things back to normal. Besides, I think this little girl is ready for a nice nap.” She walked over to the nurse and let her know she’d be back later.

  In Desi’s arms, Lina’s eyes were closed and her little rosebud lips puffed lightly with every breath. Desi kissed her daughter and gently set her down in her incubator, whispering to her that she’d be back to see her in a few hours. Lina relaxed into the bed, and Desi followed me out of the room.

  31

  In the parking garage, we parted ways but met up outside the preschool.

  “I forgot to ask, how is the auction planning going?” Desi asked, her eyes twinkling.

  I groaned. “Thanks for the reminder. Nancy is micromanaging everything. Every day, I regret offering to host the event at the Boathouse. Beth is about to kill me. She says Nancy is even worse than a bridezilla.”

  Nancy pounced on me as soon I arrived at the preschool. “Jill, just the person I wanted to see. I saw from your latest auction committee report that you plan to use white tablecloths. Doesn’t white seem a little passé to you? Blue is popular this year, and I think we should use blue,” Nancy said, seemingly in one breath.

  I’d explained this to her several times already.
“We don’t have blue tablecloths in-house. If we want to use blue tablecloths, we’d need to rent them. I thought you wanted to keep on a budget for this?”

  “Humph.” Nancy said. “What kind of event center doesn’t have several colors of tablecloths?”

  I counted to ten but was still fuming. In as calm a voice as I could muster, I said, “Nancy, we can talk about this later. Right now, I need to pick up my son. We have some plans that we can’t miss.”

  I pushed past her and Desi followed, leaving Nancy standing alone at the door, her mouth hanging open.

  As we waited for our kids to get their backpacks ready to go home, Desi pointed to the table housing the gerbils. “Isn’t that a different terrarium than before? I don’t remember the castle or the glass structure being so large.”

  I blushed. “It was a gift from us to the school. In a way, those little buggers saved my life.”

  “Why, Jill Andrews, don’t tell me you like gerbils now,” she said innocently. “Pretty soon you’re going to be volunteering to take them home every weekend and school break.”

  I shuddered at the thought. “That’s never going to happen.”

  “As if we would let your family take the gerbils home again. I don’t feel like they are safe with the Andrews family after their close call with death last time,” Nancy said, coming up behind Desi.

  Desi rolled her eyes at me, and I stifled a laugh.

  “That’s probably a good plan, Nancy.” Who knew all I had to do to forever get out of gerbil care was to let them loose in a construction site while someone tried to kill me? It was almost worth it. Almost.

  After waving goodbye to Desi and Anthony in the parking lot, the kids and I drove down to the beach.

  “We’re going to the playground,” Mikey said.

  “Yes, but we’re going to do something else first.”

  “What?” Mikey asked.

  “We’re meeting someone here.”

  “Who are we meeting?” Mikey shielded his face from the sun and gazed across the parking lot.

  “Me, silly.” Adam grabbed his son from behind and lifted him up to face him. “You and Ella, and Mommy and I are going to have some fish and chips and play on the beach for awhile.”

  Adam set Mikey back down on the ground, and Mikey bounced around in front of us gleefully. “I want fish and chips! Two pieces of fish, no four pieces, no, one million pieces of fish.”

  I met Adam’s eyes over the kids’ heads, and we both grinned.

  After wading through the hordes of tourists in line at Elmer’s Sea of Fish, we finally got our order and sat down at a picnic table outside the restaurant. Mikey munched away happily on his fish and chips before running off to the nearby playground. Ella alternated between crunching on banana puffs and sucking on fries. The hot summer sun beat down on us, warming away winter’s chill.

  Adam tipped his head back and smiled. “It seems like weeks since I’ve seen the sun.”

  “It has been weeks. Adam, the long hours aren’t letting up. You haven’t been home before nine for a long time.”

  “I know, and I wanted to talk with you about it.”

  “Ok, so let’s talk.” I hoped it wouldn’t turn into an argument and ruin the small amount of family time we had.

  “So you know how I’ve been working long hours to make partner?”

  “Yes.” I started getting excited. Was he getting close to making partner? Would the long hours and frequent travel soon be a thing of the past?

  “Well, they’re talking about making me partner very soon,” Adam said. “But I wanted to talk with you first.” His face had sobered, and he stared at me solemnly. My heart dropped. Did they want us to move? I’d grown to love Ericksville and our life here.

  “What is it?” I was afraid I already knew what he was going to say.

  “How would you feel about me going into solo practice? I was thinking about setting up an office in downtown Ericksville. Maybe even in one of the office spaces in the new condo building if they ever get everything worked out with it.”

  That was most definitely not what I had expected Adam to say. For a minute, I stared off toward where Mikey played on the playground, although I could barely see him through my hazy vision.

  “Jill? Did you hear what I said?”

  “Yes, sorry.” I didn’t know what to say. “But you’ve been working so hard to make partner all these years. And you’re so close.”

  Adam sighed. “I realized that the long hours and frequent travel were never going to end. If I made partner, I’d probably have to work just as many long hours in addition to attending firm social commitments on a regular basis.” His gaze turned to Ella and then out to Mikey, who waved at us from the top of the slide. “I’m not sure it’s worth it.”

  My mind churned. How would we afford the loss of Adam’s income while he built up clientele? After my near-death experience at the condo building, I’d called Gena to tell her I couldn’t take a job that required so many hours and out-of-town travel. My marketing position for the condos had gone out the window with Elliott’s death. I mentally assessed our bank accounts and expenses. Our emergency fund should last us for almost a year with no additional income if we cut out the frills. That should give Adam time to get some paying clients. And I could get some kind of job to help out.

  I stopped for a moment. Now that Desi had officially told her parents she was quitting, Beth would be all over me to take over her job at the Boathouse. As much as I’d wanted to hate it, I knew it was the perfect job for me. I’d assisted Beth with a wedding the week before and helping to plan and execute the event had been extremely satisfying to me. I knew she’d be eager to watch the kids whenever needed.

  “Ok,” I said slowly.

  “Ok, what?”

  “I think you should do it. Open up your own law office.” Visions of dinners as a family, shared nighttime feedings, and evenings spent with my husband careened through my mind.

  Adam came around the picnic table and held out his hand to me. I stood in front of him, and he pulled me into his embrace for a long kiss.

  I knew the future wasn’t going to be easy, but this was a step in the right direction, and together we’d taken on any challenges life threw at us. Nothing could be worse than the last two months, right?

  Thank you for reading the first Jill Andrews Cozy Mystery. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review.

  Jill Andrews Cozy Mysteries

  Brownie Points for Murder - Book #1

  Death to the Highest Bidder - Book #2 (coming soon)

  A Deadly Pair O’Docks - Book #3 (coming soon)

  Stuck With S’More Death - Book #4 (coming soon)

  Murderous Mummy Wars - Book #5 (coming soon)

  A Killer Christmas Party - Book #6 (coming soon)

  Acknowledgments

  Cover by: Magic Owl Design

  Editing by: Kristen Tate, The Blue Garret

  LaVerne Clark Editing