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Murder to Go (The Heights Bed and Breakfast Cozy Mystery Series Book 1)

Page 3

by Susan D. Baker


  “I’ve had enough of this, I need to start dinner,” David grumbled.

  Carolyn nodded. “David, I wanted to get to know you, too. I thought by living together we would grow closer.”

  Karl growled. “Thanks for making me look like a fool in front of the kids. I guess I’m just a bumbling, useless chef you need to take care of.”

  Just then, a loud knock came from the front door. Sarah opened it to find Detective Gillespie waiting outside.

  Babs Gillespie sauntered in.

  “What do you want?” Karl snapped.

  Babs frowned at Karl as she announced. “I’m sorry, Karl, but I’m here to arrest you for the murder of Paul Tenboom and Monica Rorschach.”

  “What?” Carolyn cried. “What proof do you have?”

  Babs approached Karl. “We found your response to Porky’s review of your restaurant. You wrote back to him in the comments. You wrote you would kill him if you saw him in your restaurant again. You must have been very upset when you saw him the past couple of days eating your food at The Heights.”

  “I didn’t really mean I would kill him. I just didn’t want him to come back to my restaurant,” Karl exclaimed.

  Babs reached into her side pocket and drew out a folded paper. After unfolding it, she announced to the family. “This is the actual comment, ‘I will kill you if I see you in my restaurant again. I will force you to eat your words.’ That’s what you wrote, right?”

  “I wrote it,” Karl admitted. “I was really upset but I never intended to do anything to him. I just wanted to let him know who he was hurting with his reviews.”

  “And that was years ago,” Carolyn reminded the detective.

  Babs folded the paper and tucked it back into her pocket. “It shows he had a motive, and he intended to seek revenge, and you definitely made him eat his words.”

  “There must be thousands of threats like that in the comments on Porky’s blog,” Carolyn countered.

  “Karl is the only one of them who followed through with them. I guess Monica was collateral damage.” Babs took hold of Karl’s elbow and turned him around. “Karl Jacobson, you’re under arrest for the murder of Paul Tenboom and Monica Rorschach. You have the right to remain silent.”

  Carolyn looked around in a panic, but the others stared at the scene in horror. “You can’t do this!”

  Babs turned on her. “Please calm down. If you don't stop interfering in my arrest, I'll have to charge you with obstruction of justice. You can see him after we process him. I can let you know when you can come down to the station.”

  Carolyn stared at her. This couldn’t be happening. “Please, Detective. I didn’t mean to interfere. I just want to help my husband.”

  “You can help him by hiring him a good lawyer,” Babs suggested. “He’ll have a bail hearing in the morning, but capital murder suspects don’t get bail for any amount of money you could afford. You would have to mortgage this whole building to get him out of jail.”

  “You have the wrong man, Detective,” Carolyn objected.

  “You can get in touch with me at the station to find out how the case is shaping up.” Babs turned toward the door. “Take my advice, get yourself a lawyer.”

  Chapter 4

  The rising sun’s rays woke Carolyn early the next morning. She had stayed up all night reading over Porky’s blog, hoping to find someone who might have had the opportunity to kill Porky and Monica by the beach. She rose and threw on a bathrobe and headed into the kitchen.

  Sarah was cooking on the small stovetop. There was a smell of bacon mixed with the aroma of coffee, but neither soothed Carolyn as she sat down at the breakfast table. She buried her face in her hands. “How could this happen? Karl would never kill anybody. There must be something we can do to clear his name.”

  Sarah patted and rubbed her mother’s back.

  Carolyn brushed her tears aside with her sleeve and sat up straight. “I can’t fall apart like this. I’m just over tired. I have to pull myself together.”

  “Let me make you some breakfast, Mom.” Sarah walked to the stove and cracked an egg into the frying pan. The egg sizzled as it hit the surface. Carolyn didn’t realize how hungry she was until her daughter placed a plate of bacon and eggs under her nose.

  “Half and half in your coffee, right Mom?” Sarah asked as she slid the cup in front of her mother.

  “Yes, I’ll add the sugar.” Carolyn told her as she scooped out a spoonful from the sugar bowl in the center of the table.

  “What can we do, Mom?” Sarah asked as she sat down at the table with her own breakfast. She took a bite of her bacon before continuing, “I guess we’ll just have to wait for the police to finish their investigation. They’ll turn up something that proves Dad is innocent. This is one big misunderstanding.”

  Carolyn slapped her hands down on her thighs. “I'm not putting my trust in the Evergreen Cove Police Department. No way! They probably couldn't find their way out of the donut shop.”

  Sarah cringed. “Don’t talk like that, Mom. You saw that Detective Gillespie. She’s a sharp cookie. I'll bet she's never set foot in a donut shop.”

  Carolyn snorted. “She’s just the one I would be most concerned about. I’m not sitting around waiting for Babs Gillespie to prove your father innocent. If she thought he was innocent, she would have avoided arresting him in the first place. No, I'm not going to wait. I'm going to do something.”

  “What are you going to do?” Sarah asked. “You can’t solve this case.”

  Carolyn paused. “I can’t sit around wringing my hands. That’s the last thing I'm going to do. I might not solve it but I will prove your father’s innocence.”

  All of a sudden, David stormed in. “I should have known something like this was going to happen. We’re ruined.”

  Sarah whirled around. “David! What’s the matter?”

  “All the guests are leaving,” he cried. “They’ve all canceled the rest of their stays. Someone wrote a review of The Heights with a link to today’s news article about the murder.”

  “Who would do such a hateful thing?” Carolyn asked. “Karl was just taken away last night. He hasn’t been convicted.”

  “I don’t know who it is,” David replied. “One of the guests just told me about it as they were walking out the door. The post is telling people not to come here unless you want a ham sandwich topped with poisonous mayo for lunch.”

  Sarah covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, no!”

  “Someone’s cashing in on the murder,” Carolyn remarked. “We have to find out who wrote that review. I will look it up online right away.”

  David narrowed his eyes at her. “This is all your fault. Our business is ruined, and it’s all because we took you and Karl in. I never wanted you in my house. Now I am being punished for it.”

  “Karl did nothing wrong,” Carolyn shot back. “We all know he’s innocent.”

  “Oh, we do, do we?” David crowed.

  “You should be thanking him. You were probably getting a lot of buzz about having a professional chef in your kitchen,” Carolyn pointed out. “He didn’t have to do anything for you. He wanted to help you two out in the best way he could. That man worked all day for you and this is how you thank him, by coming in here and yelling at me. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

  David jabbed the air with his finger. “Thanking him? The man has single handily destroyed The Heights reputation. No one is going to stay here again. I don’t think we could even sell the B & B if we put it up on the market. Karl is a murderer. I’m not going to put up with someone making me feel that I did something wrong.”

  Carolyn glared at him, but she couldn’t think of a remark nasty enough to counter him.

  “Mom, David is just upset right now. I don’t think any of us slept very well last night.” Sarah placed a hand on her mother’s arm.

  “This isn’t just about your father, I think David and I need some space.” Carolyn concluded.

  She hesita
ted for a fraction of an instant then she spun around on her heel and stomped off to her room. She pulled out the suitcase, tossed it onto the bed and started packing.

  Sarah came to the door, and flew to her mother’s side when she saw her mother packing her suitcase. “Don’t leave, Mom. We’re all on edge here. Let us work it out somehow.”

  Carolyn didn’t look up. “I don’t want to work it out. If that’s the way he feels, maybe it’s better that I stay somewhere else for a while.”

  Sarah tried to grab a hold of her mother’s hands. “Please don’t leave, Mom. Dad has been arrested, and now the B & B is in trouble. I need you right now.”

  David’s voice floated through the door. “Let her leave.”

  Carolyn smiled at her daughter. “You have a husband now, darling, and you two have a business to save.” She pulled her arm out of Sarah’s grasp and zipped her suitcase closed. “You and David have been very generous in sharing your apartment with us. You two should have your apartment back to yourselves. I can take care of myself.”

  “But Mom…” Sarah pleaded.

  “I’ll be staying downtown if you need me,” Carolyn added before walking out of her room.

  “I think Dad is innocent, too.” Sarah mumbled.

  Carolyn kissed her on the cheek. “I know you do, we just need to prove it.”

  Chapter 5

  “Mrs. Jacobsen, I just need a credit card for incidentals.” A young blonde girl behind the desk asked without looking up. Her eyes were locked on her mobile phone.

  Carolyn had never met this employee of Stan Kipling. She would have to tease Stan about his hiring practices. Carolyn placed her credit card on the counter.

  “Is Stan around?” Carolyn inquired.

  The young clerk looked up giving her a tight-lipped smile as she ran the card through the machine. “He’s in the restaurant at the moment. He doesn’t trust anyone to make dinner as well as he does.”

  Carolyn chuckled. “That sounds familiar.”

  “Is there anything else I can do for you?” the clerk asked.

  “I’m an old friend of his,” Carolyn told her. “I just wanted to say hello and let him know I’m here. If he’s busy, don't disturb him. I'll catch up with him later.”

  The clerk looked at her credit card. “Carolyn Jacobson. You’re not the food blogger, are you?”

  “Yes, I am,” Carolyn replied.

  The clerk’s eyes widened. “In that case, I better tell him you’re here.”

  “Don’t do that,” Carolyn told her. “I’m not here as a food blogger. I’m just a regular guest. Let him work. I'll track him down later when he isn't so busy.”

  “I loved your review of Petey’s Pizza. I felt the same way about their crust. Like a cracker.” The young clerk giggled as she handed Carolyn the key to her room.

  “I probably should give them another shot,” Carolyn remarked. “I am getting hungry.”

  “Stan will definitely want to make something for you. Go unpack and I will let him know.”

  Carolyn walked to her room and set her suitcase on the dresser. She sat on the end of her bed with her laptop open on her lap. The neon sign for Stan’s Motel flashed outside her window and made eerie patterns on her wall. Not even the curtain blocked out the red and blue light.

  She buried herself in her blog to erase the memory of the argument at The Heights. She had settled down and knew she should have handled the situation better. Nonetheless, the time apart should be good. She wrote her next blog post and checked her email again, but she couldn’t focus.

  She opened her browser and searched half a dozen sites before she found what she was looking for. A blog post titled ‘Murderer in the kitchen’. She read halfway through the review of The Heights, but she had to close her eyes to stop herself from reading the rest of it.

  “Oh, my goodness. It really is awful, isn’t it?”

  Her phone rang. That gave her the excuse she needed to close her computer. “Oh, hello, sweetie. How are you?”

  “You have to come back home, Mom,” Sarah insisted. “I can’t let you leave like this. I really loved having you and Dad around, too. I never thought I would want to live with my parents, but I didn’t realize until after you left how important it is to me to have you two around. Come back, and we’ll patch things up with David.”

  “I really appreciate you saying that,” Carolyn replied, “but I’m not coming back to The Heights until your father is out of jail. I wouldn’t be happy there without him.”

  “How are you going to do that?” Sarah asked.

  “I may not be a detective,” Carolyn replied. “But I know everyone who Porky blogged about. I’ve sat in most of these people’s restaurants. I just might be the most qualified person to solve this case.”

  “Do you have any idea who might have killed Porky?” Sarah asked. “Where will you begin?”

  “I’m going over to Stan’s restaurant later.” Carolyn replied. “He might have a lead on who killed him. I’m glad you called. Thank you for letting me know how you feel.”

  “Come home, Mom,” Sarah told her. “It doesn’t seem right.”

  “I need space, and I need quiet. That's the only reason I'm here.” Carolyn replied.

  “I know you never really got along with David,” Sarah remarked.

  “I never had any problem with David,” Carolyn countered. “I always thought you made an excellent choice when you married him. I know it has been stressful having his in-laws stay in the bedroom next to his. You should have heard what I used to say to your grandmother whenever she decided to vacation at the Lake.”

  “All right, Mom,” Sarah told her. “Just let me know when you’re ready to come home. You’re room is waiting for you whenever you’re ready.”

  “Thank you, sweetie.”

  After Carolyn hung up, she realized that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. She paced around the room for a while at loose ends. Then she tucked her laptop under her arm and headed to the restaurant attached to the motel.

  The hostess gave her a booth in the back and Carolyn set up her laptop next to her. A man with a sweaty baldhead and a greasy apron tied around his waist came bustling up to the table. “I heard you were sneaking around. You’re not reviewing me, are you?”

  Carolyn laughed. She got up and gave him a hug. “There you are, Stan. It has been too long. Still head cook, I see. When are you going to hire someone, you need a break. Business hasn’t dropped off has it?”

  Stan slid into the booth opposite her. “No, I’m doing pretty well.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Carolyn exclaimed. “You’ve been dishing out barbeque since Karl and I moved to Evergreen Cove. Personally, I still think you are the best around. You should be a historical landmark in town.”

  Stan laughed and ran his hand along his baldhead. “I remember the first time you and Karl came in for dinner. Karl was the first customer to give me suggestions on my barbeque recipe.”

  “He was right though,” Carolyn teased.

  “Still use his recipe,” Stan laughed and waved a waitress over to the booth.

  “Lucy, I have a special plate for Carolyn in the back. Would you please bring it out for me.”

  “Certainly,” The waitress answered, rushing back to the kitchen.

  “Thanks, Stan. I’m famished.”

  Stan eyed her. “I heard about Karl getting arrested for that murder up at The Heights. It’s a rotten shame.”

  “I did want to talk to you about it,” Carolyn admitted. “I can’t say I’m disappointed Porky Tenboom won’t write another nasty review of anyone who ties on an apron. I have been trying to figure out who hated Porky enough to want to kill him. I looked over his food blog and saw a lot of comments from people who wanted him dead, but I know that they were just blowing off steam. Just like Karl.”

  Stan nodded. “I’ll admit that I was going to create a barbeque special in celebration of his murder but thought better of it.”

  Lucy came back
to the booth with a plate of brisket, coleslaw and a big slice of cornbread. Carolyn was overwhelmed with the spicy smell of the barbeque.

  “Thank you, Lucy.” Carolyn beamed at the dish, the waitress smiled and walked away. Carolyn cut into the brisket and took a bite. Her face broke out into a grin. “Your brisket is my favorite and is this fresh baked cornbread?”

  “I put it in the oven as soon as I heard you checked in,” Stan explained as Carolyn nibbled on the slice. “Porky has given me so many nasty reviews I’ve stopped reading them. I only wish I could get my customers to stop reading them, too.”

  “I wish I could have stopped Karl from reading them,” Carolyn remarked. “His comments on the review got him arrested for the murder.”

  Stan’s eyes flew open. “They did? That was a foolish thing to do. The first rule of public relations is don’t respond when someone criticizes you. If Porky wants to bash me, let him go ahead. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity. I should be honored to have him or anybody else review my restaurant.”

  “That’s a very sound policy, Stan,” Carolyn replied. “At least now Porky won’t be reviewing anybody else, and you can be certain you’ll get a good review from me.”

  “I’ll tell you the truth,” Stan went on. “I planned Porky’s murder in my mind a dozen times, but I never had the guts to carry it out. Are you sure Karl didn’t kill him?”

  Carolyn chuckled. “You know Karl. He would never change a recipe, not even to poison someone. His food is the most important thing in the world to him. If he had killed Porky, he would have found some other way to do it. He wouldn’t have put poison in his sandwich.”

  Stan laughed out loud. “You’re right. Too bad the police don’t know Karl the way we do.”

  “My son-in-law heard about this review telling everyone about a murderer cook at The Heights,” Carolyn told him. “Someone is cashing in on the murder.”

  “Do you have any idea who wrote it?” Stan asked.

  “It was Phillip Sawyer,” Carolyn replied. “I didn’t think even he could do something so low, but I guess I was wrong about him.”

 

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