Kiwi Lime Surprise Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy - Book 40 (Donut Hole Cozy Mystery)

by Susan Gillard

  If she couldn’t follow through without the help of the police –

  The soft ‘schick’ of the sliding door opening chased her thoughts away.

  Warm air gushed through the opening. The curtain trembled, and a heavy object thunked onto the floor.

  Someone had entered the room. Someone or something, since the curtains hadn’t been drawn back all the way.

  The door slid shut again and the warmth cut off.

  Heather let two beats pass, then grappled with the switch on her beside lamp.

  Light flooded their hotel room. Amy groaned and threw up her arm. “What are you doing?”

  “Keep your feet up,” Heather said. She scrambled around in the sheets and to the end of the bed. She peered over the base board and sucked in a breath.

  “What’s wrong?” Amy sat upright. “Heather, what’s wrong?”

  “Someone just slipped a boa constrictor into our room. Call 911,” she said.

  “Are you kidding?” Amy squeaked.

  “I wish,” Heather said.

  The snake slithered between their beds, fat trunk undulating toward the bedside table.

  “I’m going to pass out,” Amy said. “Oh my heavens, I’m going to pass out.”

  “Don’t pass out,” Heather replied. “Forget 911. I need you to drive.”

  “What?!”

  Heather grabbed her cell off the table, tucked it into the pocket of her PJ pants, then stood up on her mattress. “Get up, Ames. Whoever put that in here is out there. I’ll bet my bottom donut they’re the murderer.”

  Amy shot upright on the mattress.

  “Follow me,” Heather said. She jumped off her bed and beside the snake’s tail, then dashed to the door. She opened it and rushed out onto the porch.

  Amy thumped up behind her, squeaking under her breath with every step. “Horrible,” she said.

  “Shush,” Heather said. She shut the door to keep the snake inside, then cocked her ear toward the road.

  A car engine turned over and failed.

  “Quick!” She took off toward the garden gate, passed the swimming pool and rushed up to the fence.

  The car started outside.

  Heather opened the gate and sprinted out onto the sidewalk. Her heels protested at the contact with rough concrete.

  “There,” Heather said and pointed.

  Tires squealed, and a silver Kia peeled out of the parking spot across the road.

  “I’ve got the keys,” Amy said.

  They ran for the van. Gosh, would they make it in time? They had to follow that Kia or they’d lose sight of the murderer – the same one who’d just tried to kill them via boa constrictor.

  Heather opened the passenger door and got in. Ames zipped on her seatbelt, then rammed the keys into the ignition.

  “Ready?”

  “Just go,” Heather said. The Kia took a right at the end of the road.

  Ames’ started the van, then mimicked the Kia and streaked down the street. They had to make this work. They had to catch this person before it was too late.

  The van screeched around the corner, smoke rising from the tires, but Ames didn’t flinch. Her pro driving skills hadn’t faded after all these years. In fact, Heather’s bestie grinned from ear to ear, hair spiked up on one side from where she’d pressed her head into the pillow.

  Heather scrambled her cell out of her pocket and dialed 911.

  Chapter 16

  “911, what is your emergency?”

  “Hi there,” she said and pressed the phone to her ear. She grabbed the armrest on her door with the other as Ames’ squealed around another corner. “This is Heather Shepherd.”

  “What is your emergency, ma’am?”

  “I’m calling from the Palm Beach Horizon Hotel,” she said. “Someone just put a snake in my room.”

  “Could you repeat that, ma’am?”

  Heather couldn’t tell Ames’ to slow down or can the shrieking tires around corners. “I said, there’s a snake in my room. A boa constrictor. Someone just put it there.”

  The operator went quiet for a minute. “I’m going to dispatch a police car to your location,” she said.

  “Great, and listen, could you get hold of Detective Smith at the Key West Police Department? Tell him to go directly to Exotic Eric’s Animal Farm. I’ll meet him there.”

  Once again, the 911 operator stalled.

  “It’s really important. Tell him it’s got to do with the murder of Daphne Wilder,” Heather said. She hung up before she got an answer. She had to trust that the guy would do his job and put the call through.

  “How do you know we’re headed to the animal farm?” Amy asked, and cruised down the street.

  The silver Kia took a left up ahead at a tremendous speed.

  “General direction and it’s the only place that makes sense,” Heather said. “The animals all come from there. The murderer had access to the place.”

  “Right,” Ames said and followed the Kia at the corner. The car had already disappeared. She drove on, regardless, now that she had their end destination. “We’ve lost him,” she said.

  “Keep going. Right to the animal farm. Don’t stop, Ames,” Heather said.

  The van sped along toward another cross section.

  “You were saying?”

  “The murderer has access to the animals at the animal farm late at night. Given what we know now, after our chat with Lenny the creep, that narrows our suspect list down to –”

  “Two people,” Amy finished.

  “No,” Heather replied and shook her head. “Three. Three people.”

  Ames turned left on the corner, easy in her confidence behind the wheel. “Three? So, Jared Brown, Exotic Eric Richards and – uh, who’s the third? I’m stumped.”

  “Eric’s wife. Brittney,” Heather said.

  Amy chewed her lip and didn’t say a word. She focused on the road but slowed down a little.

  “Brittney who showed off the marine animals outside the aquarium.”

  “It was a fish in a bowl,” Amy said. “That classifies as marine?”

  “Apparently,” Heather replied. “Brittney who had access to the store any time she wanted. Who hovered around in the background and didn’t say a darn word. She was so suspicious all along. Why didn’t I see this before?”

  “See what?”

  “That she was a suspect. If I’d taken notice of it if I hadn’t been so blinded by the palms and heat and desperation to solve a case that wasn’t mine –”

  “Don’t start that again,” Amy said and switched on her indicator. They entered the road which led up to Exotic Eric’s Animal Farm.

  “I should’ve investigated her from the start,” Heather said. “I bet if I had I would’ve uncovered something of note.”

  “Why would she want to kill Daphne?” Amy asked.

  Heather mulled that one over, gaze on the buildings shrouded in darkness. A few of the lamps on the right side of the road had shorted out. “I don’t know,” Heather said. “I seriously – I just don’t know. That’s what we need to find out.”

  “The Taser?”

  “It’s right here,” Heather said and clicked open the glove compartment. She’d kept it in the car in case of attacks from wandering tourists. She’d heard such strange rumors about the folks in Key West. Boy, had they been right.

  “I don’t think we should go in there. We don’t know it’s actually her,” Amy said. She parked outside the animal farm, three spaces down from the silver Kia. “It could be Exotic Eric.”

  “He drives a black pickup,” Heather said. “And Jared doesn’t have a car. It’s got to be her. And I need to find out why.”

  Heather’s cell buzzed in her lap. She unclipped her seatbelt, then lifted it and swiped her thumb across the green phone icon.

  “Shepherd,” she said.

  “Mrs. Shepherd, this is Detective Smith. I just received a message from you.” He said the word ‘message’ as if it dripped poison. “Can
you explain to me why you’re summoning me in the middle of the night?”

  “Because I know who the murderer is,” Heather said. “And she’s at Exotic Eric’s Animal Farm, right now. I suggest you get here before she leaves.”

  “I – Mrs. Shepherd, you can’t interfere in a police investigation –”

  “It’s too late for that,” Heather said. “She slipped a snake into my bedroom this evening, and we followed her here. Hurry up.” She hung up before he could launch into another series of disappointment.

  “Now what?” Amy asked, and unhooked her seatbelt too.

  “Now,” Heather said, and shoved the cell into the glove compartment. She took out the Taser and clicked off the safety.

  “Oh goodness, I hope the end of your sentence doesn’t make me wish I was back in the hotel room with that snake,” Amy said.

  “Now, we make sure she doesn’t run off.”

  “And you’re convinced this is Brittney? I mean, she’d have to be pretty strong to carry a big tank of jellyfish through the garden at the hotel,” Amy said.

  Heather ran her fingers over the cool, black plastic. “I’m sure.” It was the only explanation that made sense, since Jared had been in love and didn’t have a car, and Exotic Eric had an alibi for the night of the murder.

  She opened her car door and slipped out into the balmy evening.

  Amy muttered under her breath and followed her.

  Chapter 17

  “You need to stay out here, Mrs. Shepherd.” Detective Smith spoke in those clipped off tones and drew his weapon from his holster.

  His partner, a young Latina man with an admirable mustache, did the same. He nodded first to Heather then to Amy.

  “Tell me you knew it was her,” Heather whispered, still clutching the Taser. Ames stood beside her, both of them leaning against the hood of the van. They’d kept their gazes glued to the front of Exotic Eric’s for the last five minutes.

  Detective Smith didn’t give Heather her answer. He strode up to the front door of the building, his partner right on his tail then tried the handle. The door swung inward – no alarm, no bell to chime their presence into the consciousness of the murderer.

  They disappeared inside. The door clicked shut behind them.

  “I guess that’s it,” Amy said and shrugged. “All that speed racing for nothing.”

  “Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it,” Heather replied.

  Ames had taken courses in professional stunt driving or whatever it was called. She could probably give Alexander Rossi a run for his money. Or a drive for it. Heather couldn’t concentrate on that with the cops inside.

  They’d insisted that Heather and Amy leave, but Heather had refused. She’d come all this way, and she wasn’t technically breaking any laws just by parking outside the animal farm.

  “Let’s just leave,” Amy said. “They’ve got the murderer, now. And there’s no way –”

  The front door of the building burst open, and Brittney Richards sped out onto the sidewalk, breathing like a winded – uh, boa constrictor? The woman glanced, left, right, then spotted Heather and Ames and turned pale as a sheet.

  “Y-you.”

  Heather raised the Taser and aimed it at the woman – she’d attached the cartridge to fire at range. “Don’t think of moving,” she said.

  “Listen, it’s not what you think. I’m not a bad person. I didn’t want you to get hurt,” Brittney said and trembled from head to toe, her pale hair bobbling in a fountain ponytail atop her head.

  “That must be why you slipped a snake into my room,” Heather said. “Or was that just a parting gift?”

  “If you’d just stayed out of this I wouldn’t have had to do that.” She reached up to scratch her forehead.

  Heather shifted the Taser. “I said don’t move. I’ve used this before, and I will not hesitate to use it again.”

  “I’m not moving,” she said. “You don’t want to let this happen. I’m a victim in all of this.”

  “Ames, go inside and fetch the police officers, please,” Heather said.

  Amy gave the murderer a wide berth. She disappeared inside the building without a backward glance.

  “You don’t want me to be arrested,” Brittney continued. “You’ve got to understand. I couldn’t let her have him too.”

  “What are you talking about?” Heather couldn’t crush the real intrigue which circled her mind. She’d sought the motivation for the murder the entire week and had come up blank.

  Brittney licked her lips. The flickering light from the only working lamppost in the street lit up the side of her face. The other half remained in shadow.

  “What are you talking about, Brittney?” Heather asked, and softened her tone.

  “That woman, Daphne, everywhere she went men fell in love with her. First was our darn assistant, Jared,” she said.

  “So you knew about their relationship,” Heather replied.

  “Of course I knew. Eric’s obtuse when it comes to that kind of thing,” Brittney said. “And then that little cow managed to make Lenny fall in love with her. And then she set her eyes on Eric.”

  “You’re sure about that?”

  “I’m positive. She used to hang around here and stare at him. At the store. He couldn’t figure out why but I knew the truth. She was going to steal my husband, just like Kara tried to.”

  Ice rushed through Heather’s veins. “Kara,” she repeated.

  “That’s right. Lenny’s wife.”

  “You killed her too,” Heather said.

  “Darn right I did. She hung around our house at the time. It was before we had the farm,” Brittney said. Now that she’d started she couldn’t stop, it seemed. “See, Lenny and Eric were friends way back. They started all kinds of businesses together before Lenny went and got himself a loan from his daddy.”

  “And then?”

  “Then Lenny got rich from the hotel. He stopped speaking to Eric. And that Kara kept coming around instead. I caught them hugging one afternoon after I got home after a shift at the local diner,” Brittney said, and she rammed one fist into her palm. “Hugging in my own house!”

  Hugging wasn’t the worst the woman could’ve witnessed. Heather didn’t tell her that.

  Behind her, the detectives exited the building, Amy in tow. They made no noise.

  “So you killed Kara,” Heather said.

  “Yep. I snuck up on her at the hotel. Stabbed her. And they never found out. Never, not once did they find out. Oh, a detective questioned me but all it took was a little money under the table, and he went away.”

  “I’m going to need the name of that office,” Detective Smith said.

  Brittney hopped and yelped, but didn’t rush off. Perhaps, she’d figured out that it was over. After the admission and all that’d happened in the past week, two murders had been solved.

  “I won’t tell you anything,” Brittney said.

  “That’s all right,” Detective Smith replied. “We got your confession on tape.” He patted the body camera on his uniform. “Mrs. Shepherd, thank you for your help in apprehending the suspect. For now, I’d like you and Miss Givens to wait in your vehicle until we can question you.”

  “No problem,” Heather said, and turned her back on the murderer. Two crimes solved in one night. That had to be some kind of record. Heather couldn’t help but think she’d been in the wrong place at the right time. Or was it the wrong time?

  Heather clambered into the passenger’s seat of the van. Amy got in beside her and heaved a sigh.

  “Well,” she said. “That was eventful.”

  “Isn’t every week?”

  “Yeah, but this week was Florida eventful,” Amy replied. “I’ve heard a lot of good, bad and seriously weird things this state. It seems all of them are true.”

  “Do you know what really bugs me about all of this?” Heather asked.

  “Portuguese Man O’War? That we almost got squeezed to death by an oversized snake? Alligator on the
loose?”

  “You’re just going to keep guessing, aren’t you?”

  “Creepy hotel manager with a crush on his staff member? Rodney Roadkill?”

  The mystery man they hadn’t seen since the day he’d delivered his warning. “No, not any of that.”

  “Then what?” Amy asked.

  Heather leaned her wrists on the dash and directed both index fingers at Exotic Eric’s Animal Farm. “This place. I hope they close this place down and set the animals free. This has got to be against the law.”

  “The detectives have been in here and seen it. They’ll close it down,” Amy said, with confidence.

  Heather focused on Brittney, who’d been forced into a pair of cuffs and read her rights. “I hope so,” she said, at last. “Boy, I really hope so.”

  Chapter 18

  Heather sat on the sofa in her home, one arm around Lilly’s shoulders and the other weighed down by Cupcake’s furry body. They’d practically bowled her over the minute she’d come through the door.

  Ryan entered the living room and brushed off his palms. “Bags are upstairs, I’ve ordered pizzas for all of us, and Dave is sulking in the kitchen. You’d better call him through, love. He’s really out of sorts.”

  “Dave!” Heather yelled.

  “Davey,” Lilly called, since the dog always listened to her, nowadays.

  The pitter patter of paws hurried down the hall. Dave’s nose poked around the door jamb and took a big sniff.

  “Come on, Dave,” Heather said. “I missed you, my boy. Come sit here.”

  Davey barked at her. He entered the living room slowly, tail wagging, but not at the usual top-notch speed which Heather associated with her doggy dearest.

  “This is what happens when you go away,” Ryan said and dropped onto the sofa beside them. He let out a sigh and kicked up his feet on the coffee table. “Everybody starts acting up.”

  “I didn’t,” Lilly said.

  “I caught you eating donut glaze out of the fridge, young lady. We’re still going to discuss that,” Ryan replied, in mock sincerity.

  The front door opened out into the hall, then clicked shut again. “Yoohoo!”