Double Mocha Murder: A 2nd Chance Diner Cozy Mystery

by Beth Byers

  Simon nodded and then shook his head down at me.

  “Oh just take off her cuffs and let’s go home, Sy,” Jane said.

  Simon dropped a kiss on my head before he took off the handcuffs. He didn’t take us home until we all repeated the same story. There was no crime scene tape. Zee had a key. We didn’t find anything worthwhile. Then Simon took us all home, dropping Maddie, then Jane, then took me home.

  We pulled into the driveway of his house just as the clock turned to 3:00 am. Simon took me by the hand, led me back inside the house and said into my hair as we snuggled up, “I knew that falling in love with someone who was friends with Zee would be endless trouble.”

  I surprised myself by giggling into my pillow. Mama Dog licked my nose and then my cheek and I admitted, “Should I have told you I was leaving?”

  Simon’s snore was his answer, and I decided to take that as a no. I cuddled into my pillows and let sleep take me. Even though it was so late, the diner was not open tomorrow and I only had to get up to get a massage.

  TWELVE

  I watched Professor Pretty walk into the spa and then glanced over at Maddie. We were sitting in the parking lot outside of the Trade Winds Spa. Maddie had picked me up and my feet were bare and pressed against the dash of her car.

  “You think he’s here alone?” I asked Maddie.

  “He seemed pretty chummy with that chick last night,” Maddie said. “Maybe she’s already here or coming in a minute. Professor Pretty is a great name for him. He’s too old for me, and I’d still date him.”

  I stretched out my legs. We were early for our appointment, but Maddie had swung by the bakery near her house to get chocolate croissants and coffee. We were eating in her car as we waited for our appointment.

  “The scheduling lady said something about another couple taking the early slot. I bet Professor Pretty gets up at 5:00am every day, jogs, and then eats something with nuts. I bet he and Stevie are the first appointment.”

  “Why nuts?”

  “I just think healthy types eat a lot of nuts…and kale…and avocado.”

  Maddie laughed as she licked the chocolate off of her hand and then admitted, “I dated a really healthy type once. He did eat a lot of nuts. They were in everything. Either nuts or tofu. Sometimes both.”

  “See,” I said as I popped the last of my croissant anatomy mouth. “I know these things.”

  “I never had so much gas as I did when I dated him,” Maddie confessed. “I ate too much roughage. That stuff’ll clean you right out.”

  I laughed until I cried and then I followed Maddie into the spa. The changing room was unisex but they had curtained areas for privacy. Wooden lockers held white fluffy robes and slippers. I changed quickly when I noticed that a locker was hanging open. I considered who I saw coming into the spa and dared to take a glance. I expected to see a tweed jacket wide enough for those muscled shoulders. But what I found was a leather bag, strappy sandals, and skinny jeans.

  My conscience fought with my curiosity and lost and I flipped the bag open. The wallet was there on the top. I hesitated before I pulled it out. The plastic part held her identification and I read it over. Stevie Lyman. Age 47. Weight 125. Mmmm, I wasn’t sure I believed that, but it hardly mattered. The picture showed longer hair. I couldn’t read the rest of it clearly, so I pulled it out and a couple of more cards fell to my feet.

  I gasped as I saw identification that showed Stevie’s face and Jayla’s name. Oh, I thought, suddenly realizing how the money had been moved through the bank. But who had signed for Frank? Professor Pretty?

  I frowned as I tapped my finger against the identification considering taking it. Instead I grabbed my phone, took a picture of it, and messaged it to Simon. I…something about this was bothering me. I messaged the picture to Zee too and then I put it back into the wallet, returned the wallet to the bag, and then closed the door to the locker that Stevie was using. I left the locker door the same as I’d found it. Mostly closed but with a little opening. Just enough to let you see inside.

  “You ready, Rose?” Maddie’s voice yanked me out of my thoughts. Something was up with all of this. I didn’t like it one bit. I felt…well…it was too easy.

  If Stevie stole the money and had a history with Frank, she was an obvious choice for the killer. Where was the weapon? The silencer? Now that Simon and Carver knew where to look, how long would it take to find those things? Hopefully she’d been smart enough to get rid of them permanently. Which was a terrible thing to think, I told myself. If Stevie had killed, she needed to be caught and punished.

  “Yeah,” I told Maddie, “I’m ready.”

  I felt sick as I followed Maddie to the central room of the spa. There was tea to drink there and bowls of fresh fruit. Prepared mimosas were waiting for us. There was a set up where you could make a little parfait of greek yogurt and fruit or lean back into an oversized lounge chair. I’d put my phone into the pocket of my robe, and Simon had messaged me that he was on his way.

  I had to admit that comforted me as I looked up and found Professor Pretty making parfaits for himself and Stevie. She was bouncing her foot, leaning back in her oversized chair. She seemed to not have a care in the world until she said, “We should consider giving up on this vacation.”

  Professor Pretty adjusted his robe, causing the locker keys attached to his robe to jingle and then leaned down to drop a kiss on Stevie’s forehead.

  “Don’t worry so much,” he told her. “The police here will find who hurt Jayla and Frank. We…well…Stevie…we don’t have to pretend to mourn them. They were our colleagues not our siblings.”

  She smiled up at him, but it wasn’t a real smile. I watched as I sipped the glass Maddie handed to me. I felt a little bit like they were putting on a play for me and weren’t quite selling it. Of course…they didn’t know I’d seen that fake identification. They didn’t know what I knew, so maybe they weren’t trying as hard as they should have.

  “I should be more excited about getting a massage,” Stevie said projecting loud enough for me and Maddie too. Stevie then turned to me and said, “I wouldn’t have thought of coming here except your friends discussed you getting one while I was on the chocolate tour.”

  I didn’t remember that but I had been pretty out of it that evening.

  “What were you guys doing at Jayla’s apartment anyway?” Stevie’s gaze was a bit smug. “In the middle of the night. What do you have to do with what happened to Jayla and Frank?”

  I narrowed my gaze at that. They couldn’t push this off on us. Stevie was the one who’d used fake identification to get Jayla’s money from the bank. If one of us was suspicious, it was her! Stealing that much money was certainly a way to go to jail. Why would Jayla steal the money that was mostly hers? Obviously, that crime had been planned to look like Jayla had done it, but…did they not know that banks videoed their premise?

  So…maybe they didn’t realize that and thought they could get away with the theft never realizing they’d be the first suspect for the murder?

  If Stevie had stolen the money but not killed Jayla and Frank, who had? If I’d taken that much money from someone who was murdered so soon after I had, you could be sure I’d have fled the town. Why were they still here?

  “My friend is an amateur sleuth,” I told them. “Zee tends to drag us along whenever she’s on one of her adventures. Whether it be trying to solve crime or bungee jumping.”

  Maddie snorted, but I figured it was just a matter of time before Zee decided to get me to bungee jump. Or zip line. Or go spelunking. So I wasn’t quite lying.

  “What did she think she’d find at the apartment?” Professor Pretty asked as he took a bite of his yogurt parfait. He sounded like a professor questioning his undergrad not a man who was bothered by the death of his friends.

  I shrugged and then said, “You never can tell with Zee. Her mind is a mystery.”

  The text messages were coming in fast, but I couldn’t read them and talk to t
he others. Professor Pretty was still making me feel like my answers weren’t quite good enough and Stevie seemed bothered by all of it.

  “Zee’s a riot,” Maddie told the other two. “She does stuff half the time just to see if she can get us to join her, I swear.”

  I smiled as though I agreed. I was pretty sure Zee had known she’d find nothing at that apartment. She had been playing games with Carver and the rest of us were her accessories.

  “Didn’t I read something about you being involved in a murder investigation around here too?” Professor Pretty asked. He crossed his leg and his calf escaped his robe. It was just weird, I thought, to be sitting around with people wearing only robes. That man…maybe…was wearing boxers with that robe, and I was seeing the long line of his leg. He was barely covered, and I couldn’t help but think he was part of all this. I guessed I should be happy that he couldn’t hide a weapon that easily in his robe.

  “I’m mostly Zee’s flunky,” I said, not lying a bit. “She’s so feisty she pulls everyone else in her wake.”

  Maddie’s gaze widened on me, as I blinked a little stupidly at Professor Pretty.

  “Somehow I doubt that,” he said charmingly.

  I needed him to believe me, I thought. I needed him to not find my suspicious so I said, “You know before I helped Zee out at the diner, I worked in a call center for years and years.”

  I knew what people thought of call center employees, and I wasn’t mistaken to see him dismiss me immediately. The fool. Maddie pressed her lips together and then took a sip of her mimosa as she watched the byplay between myself and the Reed College folks.

  “That’s not how I read what happened with that pie contest murder I read about,” Professor Pretty said. He was trying to charm me again, but it didn’t reach his eyes. I didn’t like this one bit. “The police credited you with figuring out that the murder weapon was muffins…”

  I shrugged and then said, “It was really just a lucky…”

  My comment was cut off as the door to the waiting room opened. I wasn’t surprised to see Simon set into the room. He was followed by Carver and they crossed to Stevie asking her to join them in another room.

  She paled as Simon leaned down and gently spoke to her. I’d heard that tone of voice from him before, and it was the kindest one he had. He didn’t like arresting people for murder and theft. He knew her life was going to be over, everything she worked for sabotaged with greed. It would bother him for weeks. One of the many reasons, I thought, that I loved him.

  “What’s this about?” Professor Pretty asked.

  Carver said, “Just a moment.”

  He stepped back, letting Simon take the lead in leading Stevie out of the room. She was trying to crack jokes and flirt, but they were falling flat. I had to wonder how many times she’d been able to flirt her way out of trouble. This wasn’t a traffic ticket, I wanted to say, but that would have been mean.

  “What’s going on?” Professor Pretty asked again.

  Carver gave Professor Pretty a nasty look and then said, “That’s confidential.”

  Professor Pretty looked to me like I’d know and I shrugged because I obviously couldn’t answer, and Maddie had no idea. Carver shot me a look and left and I glanced at Maddie.

  “Do you think they’re…accusing her of murder?” Professor Pretty seemed to be incapable of processing the idea, but I wasn’t sure I believed him. “Stevie wouldn’t hurt anyone. Especially Frank. She was…well…she was fond of Frank. Very fond.”

  I blinked and then asked, “But you two are here together.”

  Professor Pretty smiled condescendingly at me and then said, “Well…we are consenting adults. That doesn’t require…love. Or even jealousy.”

  Ew, I thought. Ew! How many of these professors had slept with each other? They worked together! Maybe I was projecting the family attitude of The 2nd Chance Diner but I felt like my male co-workers were more siblings than potential bed partners. Ew again!

  I glanced at Maddie to see what she thought but her expression was as baffled as my own. Maybe we were just too small-town for these folks?

  An awkward silence fell after Professor Pretty mocked me and Maddie without saying a word, and we waited for Stevie to either come back or for the staff to come get us. They never did and I finally said, “Excuse me for a moment.”

  Professor Pretty was reading a thick leather book, slowing sipping coffee from his porcelain teacup, and didn’t even look up as I stepped out.

  I arrived just in time to see Simon gently put cuffs on Stevie, placing her arms behind her back. She’d gotten dressed at some point, and I could hear her say, “No, no, no. This isn’t…”

  Simon’s gaze met mine, and I flinched for him. I could see how much he hated what he was doing. Simon—like many police officers—didn’t become a cop to catch bad guys. He became a cop to help people. He led Stevie from the spa as Carver went back into the waiting room and got Professor Pretty to go change.

  I watched as they passed and Professor Pretty said to me, “I guess you’re better at figuring things out than you thought.”

  Why would he think that? Anything could have brought the police after Stevie. Maybe because I had been text messaging in the waiting room and then the cops had shown up? But there wasn’t any proof that I was messaging them and not my mom or Zee or a hundred other people. I frowned, scratching my brow.

  Was it in poor taste to still get my massage? I decided no when I realized that they were counting on the money and, like all of us in Silver Falls, we lived for the busier season. These folks needed the money and tips as much as my staff over at The 2nd Chance Diner.

  The diner was closed, I didn’t know where Zee was, Simon was busy catching Stevie for theft and probably murder, and I didn’t have anything else to do but get a massage. I crawled onto the massage table next to Maddie and said, “I can’t believe it.”

  THIRTEEN

  I walked into the diner to meet Zee for dinner. We were using the ingredients there to make something…wholesome. I think I felt let down after finding the killer. It was just that…Simon and Carver had searched Stevie’s bags and found the murder weapon. She couldn’t have been that stupid, could she?

  It just…bugged me. Maybe because it was so stupid. Too stupid. How many times did I have to tell myself it was ridiculously stupid before someone else noticed? You’d think that Stevie would have been smart enough to know the bank would have filmed that theft. She’d have been caught for it. And then…then…she’d killed Frank and Jayla. Stevie had been the obvious suspect even before the theft. And she kept the weapon? There was a waterfall into an ocean not 10 minutes from the Tidesman.

  For the love of goodness, Stevie was a professor at a preeminent college. It didn’t add up.

  Carver arrived as I slammed around the kitchen. He was followed by Az, Simon, Maddie, and Jane. I started olive oil in a pan to warm as Az joined me.

  “What are we making?”

  “Something my mom would make,” I said. I sighed as I cooked and Az said, “I got this.”

  I didn’t even bother turning to see what he was making. I didn’t care. I…I…just didn’t know. I was bothered mostly that no one else cared as much as I did.

  I crossed to the dining room and sat down next to Simon, laying my head on his shoulder.

  “Yet again,” Zee told Carver as I snuggled into Simon’s side, “My girl figured it out before your boy.”

  I’d have flinched at that…but I was distracted. Professor Pretty was walking down the street with an ice cream cone. I frowned and nodded towards him. My friends paused their conversation to stare as Peter Perkins.

  “Is that for real?” Maddie gasped. “They were…lovers. She’s sitting in a jail cell, he’s having ice cream?”

  “Did Stevie confess?” Simon shook his head and then said, “We got her on stealing the money. It was her and Frank who wire transferred it out.”

  I rubbed the space between my eyebrows and thought about
that.

  “Her fingerprints were on the gun,” Simon said. “When I told her that…she seemed shocked.”

  “Was it too late for gunpowder residue?”

  Simon nodded and then said, “But fingerprints, the theft, the gun with her things.”

  He sounded as hesitant as I felt. Especially with Professor Pretty eating ice cream.

  “He’s just a jerk,” Zee said. “It was obvious that he thinks he’s…pretty special. The professor is the type to write an article about murder and psychology and use this as a case study.”

  Carver cleared his throat and then said, “You were the one spending time with him at his place.”

  The look on Carver’s face had everyone but Zee wincing. She pretended to not notice at all. I saw her lips twitched, and I knew she liked his jealousy. The minx.

  “Is he the economics professor?” I asked referring to Professor Pretty.

  “He’s into human behavior,” Zee said. “Love, hate, apathy, manipulation, the sacrifices we make for each other. Sometimes for people we don’t even care about.”

  “So is Stevie his boss too?”

  Zee shrugged and I nuzzled back into Simon’s shoulder.

  “Why?” Jane frowned and then asked, “Do you think he was the killer instead of Stevie?”

  I scratched my nose. The most likely reason to kill Jayla and Frank was to cover up the theft or perhaps the relationship between Frank and Stevie. If Stevie truly loved Frank…perhaps she was driven mad with jealousy…

  “Frank helped to steal the money from Jayla?”

  Simon nodded and said, “You could see his face clearly. They also take fingerprints for those type of transactions, but they only need one fingerprint. It was his.”

  I sighed and then said, “I guess I just credit professors of psychology with too much…common sense. Maybe Stevie was just so…above the world with her ivy tower…she really thought we wouldn’t realize…”

  “It would have taken longer for the theft to be found,” Carver said, “If she hadn’t killed Jayla and Frank.”