Murder in the First Edition

by Lauren Elliott

  “He warned me then to leave all this alone when he saw the makeshift board on my wall in the living room or, as he said, I’d end up getting hurt.”

  “He threatened you before?” Serena looked back at the warning on the board and shuddered.

  Addie shook her head. “He denied then that it was a threat. He said he was just laying the cards on the table for me.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I think”—she waved her hand at the board—“he’s just played his ace.”

  Chapter 26

  Serena sat on the book crate, her head in her hands. “This is all getting to be more like a James Bond movie than something that would happen in Greyborne Harbor.”

  “That’s for sure. Ian Fleming wouldn’t even believe this was happening outside of one of his novels.” Addie slouched back in her chair, feet up on her desk, staring at the message on the board. She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and snapped a picture of it, then got up and started erasing the cryptic warning.

  “What are you doing?” Serena shot to her feet. “You have to call Marc and show him this.” Her hand covered the eraser brush clutched in Addie’s.

  “I took a picture of it.” She struggled with her friend for control over the brush.

  “What about prints and all that?”

  “I doubt highly they can get anything off this eraser or a piece of chalk.” Addie jerked the brush from Serena’s hand.

  “You never know. Technology has come a long way.” Serena lunged forward, trying to wrestle the brush from Addie’s grasp. Addie laughed and held it over her head out of Serena’s reach.

  “I give up. If you don’t care, then neither do I.” Serena flopped back down on the box.

  Addie finished wiping the board. “It’s not that I don’t care. It’s just that I’m ninety-nine percent sure it was Jonathan, anyway.”

  “What if you’re wrong, though? You heard Paige. She doesn’t know any of the other people we had on the board, like Patrick or Crystal or Marvin, and any one of them could have been in the store today.”

  “Well, if it were Marvin, he’s a ghost of Christmas present, because he was the fatality in the highway accident the other night.”

  Serena stood up. “You’re kidding. I heard someone died, but I had no idea it was him.”

  Addie reread the message on the photo. This is your last warning!!! “His brakes failed, did you hear that? Marc doesn’t know yet if it was faulty brakes, or if they were cut.”

  “Are you saying he could have been murdered, too?” Serena scowled when Addie just shrugged. She grabbed Addie’s phone and stuck the picture of the threatening message in her face. “What do you think is going to happen to you if the same person who cut Marvin’s brakes left this for you?”

  “I just don’t know.” Addie pushed the phone away from her face. “There’s still a few other suspects on the list, but I’m—”

  “I know. You still think it was Jonathan, but what if Marvin’s accident was a revenge killing. Maybe he was working with Patrick like you suspected before and found out that Patrick double-crossed him. After all, we still think he was the one who beat Patrick up and stuffed him in the closet, even though he won’t say who it was. Maybe he’s known all along and then discovered Marvin was the one who tried to overdose him, too.”

  “Or . . . he was working with Jonathan, and that’s why they met at the Grey Gull Inn. Jonathan didn’t want to split the sixty thousand dollars two ways because half wouldn’t be much of a score, would it?”

  Serena threw her hands up in the air. “Look, Ian Fleming had to stop sometimes, too, and I’m starving. I need to eat before my head explodes with all of this theorizing. Ever since you said Grey Gull Inn, that’s all I can focus on now. Come on, my treat.”

  Addie looked at the board and then at the pleading expression in her friend’s eyes. “You’re right. It is only speculation,” she said, pulling on her coat. “But your offer to treat sounds more like you know Zach is working so you’re counting on getting a big discount.” She playfully nudged Serena and locked the back door behind them.

  * * *

  “Serena, Miss Greyborne, how wonderful to see you. Do you have a reservation?” Bruce glanced down at the list in front of him.

  “No, sorry.” Serena sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “We were just hoping.”

  “Humm.” He reviewed the table diagram. “You’re in luck. I have one table for two in the back, and . . . it’s in Zach’s section.” He grinned at Serena, grabbed two menus, and led them into the dining room.

  Addie paused. Her eyes couldn’t skim the large room fast enough to take in all of the Christmas splendor. Twinkling white fairy lights covered the entire ceiling and hung down like dripping icicles. The lighted wall of windows facing the harbor created the same breathtaking effect. Serena bumped into her, sending her stumbling against a chair. She quickly apologized to the startled diner and, red-faced, slid onto a chair at a table Bruce indicated as theirs.

  Serena thanked him for the table as he filled their water glasses, but as soon as he left, she glared at Addie. “Just once I’d like the chair facing the dining room instead of . . .” She waved her hand at the wall. “Just once.” She pouted.

  Addie picked up her napkin and placed it on her lap. “Haven’t I ever told you about my aversion to sitting with my back to the door?”

  “Why?”

  Addie leaned across the table. “Because when I was little I watched too many old westerns.”

  “So? What does that have to do with always taking the best seat for people watching and leaving me nothing to look at except . . . you?”

  Addie preened her hair and then lowered her voice. “Because you never know who’s going to come through the saloon doors with their guns blazing.”

  “What?” Serena grabbed her napkin off the table and threw it at Addie. “That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  Addie snatched it up and threw it back. “It’s true. In every movie, the good guy sits facing the door.”

  “Does that make me the bad guy?”

  “Of course not. You’re just the poor, unsuspecting sidekick.”

  “You’re using me as a shield. Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Pfftt, just figure out what you want,” Addie scoffed. “I thought you were starving.”

  “I guess in your Wild West scenario, I’d better. This could be my last meal.”

  Addie chuckled, shaking her head, and glanced down at her menu, but a sideward glimpse of the twelve-foot Christmas tree in the far corner stole her attention. It was decked out in soft whites and shades of blues and touched the spirit of the little girl inside her. It made her heart dance in step with the elves she envisioned skipping around the lower tree boughs. This room tonight reminded her that Christmas was pure magic.

  “Addie, earth to Addie.”

  She jerked and looked up. “Zach, hi.”

  “Are you ready to order?” His smile was contagious and Addie beamed back at him.

  “He’s been standing here talking to me for at least five minutes. Where have you been?” Serena whispered across the table.

  Addie glanced back over at the tree. “I was just dancing.”

  Zach cleared his throat, glanced sideways at Serena, wrote down Addie’s order, and left, shaking his head.

  Serena studied Addie. “That is water you’re drinking, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I am not drunk or crazy, if that’s what you’re implying.”

  “Just making sure.” Serena’s eyes didn’t waver off Addie’s as she drummed her fingers on the tabletop.

  Addie spread her hands out over the table. “Okay, when I was little I used to pretend that elves danced around my Christmas tree and I’d join them. It was just a silly childhood memory that came back when I saw the tree, that’s all.”

  “Now it makes sense,” Serena said, and looked in the dire
ction of the tree, her smile quickly changing to an openmouthed stare. “Will you look at who’s here?”

  “Who? Where?” Addie craned her neck to see around another patron.

  “There, directly across from us by the window. Isn’t that Crystal and Patrick?”

  Addie rose slightly in her seat and nodded. “It sure is, and they do look kind of cozy for coworkers, don’t they?”

  “I’d say.” Serena leaned forward, looking sideways at their table. “From where I sit, it looks like her hand is clasping his on the table.”

  “I can’t see from here.” Addie turned her chair a touch. “Nope, still can’t see.”

  “They look happy together, and not in a boss-subordinate kind of way, either.” Serena took a sip of water, her eyes still on Patrick’s table.

  “I wonder what’s up?” Addie stared in the same direction.

  “Maybe since they started working together, they just developed an attraction for each other.” Serena shrugged. “Workplace romances happen all the time.”

  The diners who had been blocking Addie’s view left, giving her a clear line of sight. “Did I tell you what I overheard at the meeting today?”

  Serena shook her head. “We kind of got distracted by the message on the board, remember?”

  Addie repeated the conversation she’d heard between the hospital chairman and the fellow she assumed was from the accounts department.

  “So, Patrick wasn’t lying, then?”

  Addie shrugged. “He showed them the books, and they’re in the red apparently, but Walter, the chairman, said it didn’t make sense because all the books Teresa showed him previously indicated that there was a surplus in the foundation account.”

  “What happened? He just overspent on the bills?”

  “Or maybe she did.” Addie gestured with her head toward Crystal and Patrick’s table. “Some girlfriends can be high maintenance, and she strikes me as being that.”

  Serena toyed with her napkin on the table. “I hope Zach doesn’t think I’m like that.”

  “You? Hardly.” She grinned as Zach set their salads in front of them. “Tell me something, Zach—”

  “Don’t you dare ask him.” Serena slapped at her wrist.

  “Relax, will you?” Addie arched a brow and looked up at him. “See that couple over by the window, the girl with the kind of reddish hair and the mid-thirties, balding guy she’s with?” Zach looked over at the tables by the window. “Any chance that’s your section?”

  “No, sorry, it’s Maria’s. Why?”

  “Does Maria need any help with bussing the tables around theirs by chance?” Addie feigned innocence.

  Obviously not impressed with her acting skills, he peered at her. “What are you two up to?”

  “I think what she’s asking you to do,” Serena’s voiced dropped, “is be a spy.”

  A smile dangled at the corners of his mouth. “What do you want me to find out?”

  “Just whatever it is they’re talking about.” Addie crossed her heart. “That’s all.”

  “Okay, let me get an order out, and I’ll play 007 for you.”

  Addie picked at her salad. “You really have found a great guy there.”

  “I know,” Serena sighed, her eyes fixed on him as he made his way to the kitchen. “He is pretty dreamy.” Her freckles seemed to grow and brighten. For a second, Addie wished she had freckles prominently displayed across her cheeks.

  A few minutes later, Zach returned to their table and whipped out his notepad. “You don’t need that.” Serena looked up at him. “We don’t want to order anything else.”

  “I know, let me play my role, in case they see me talking to you.”

  “Right, then carry on, 007.” Addie pressed her lips tight to stifle a smile.

  His voice lowered. “They’re talking about a trip to the Cayman Islands”—he pretended to write on his pad—“and meeting her sister from Australia.”

  “I remember her telling me that one day.” Addie placed her fork down. “Is that all they talked about?”

  “Yeah”—he glanced over to them—“give me a minute and I’ll see if I can get anything else.”

  Addie slapped the palm of her hand on the table. “That’s what I wanted to show you on the board tonight.”

  “What was?”

  “I was telling you why I suspect Jonathan of not being the guy you all think he is. It was because I found out today that he was in Australia last year.”

  “And that makes him bad? You do know that good people are from and go to Australia, don’t you?”

  “I know that,” Addie huffed in frustration. “It’s just because Marc told me the toxin Teresa ingested was definitely from the blue-ringed octopus.”

  “Okay?”

  Addie sighed. “It’s found in the reefs off the coast of Australia.”

  “But Teresa and he were friends. Why would he kill her?”

  “Ah, he said they were friends, but she blew him off to have drinks and maybe lunch with someone named Amy Miller, according to the DNA results on the lipstick cup.” Her voice lowered. “I’m thinking they weren’t the best of friends, and maybe he planted something in her food before Amy took it in to her.”

  “That means that Jonathan would have been working with this Amy person?”

  Addie nodded smugly. “And the most interesting thing is, Amy Miller is wanted by the FBI on ecoterrorism charges.”

  Serena sputtered her water across the table. “What does that have to do with Teresa and your missing book?”

  “Who knows? Like we said before, it’s all turned rather James Bondish.” She plucked her napkin from her lap and tossed it on the table. “You know it’s funny. Crystal’s sister living in Australia and Jonathan having been there recently, too, could explain why Crystal and he are so friendly with each other.”

  “Do you think he knows her sister, and that’s why they act all chummy with each other?”

  “I’m thinking exactly that”—Addie tapped her fork on the table—“and this Amy Miller could possibly be Crystal’s sister.”

  Serena frowned. “That’s a long shot, but maybe, I guess.”

  “Think about it. He and Crystal have something going on. I thought they might be involved, but when I say it now, it could be the sister he’s actually involved with.”

  “Do you know anything else about the sister?”

  Addie stared down at her half-eaten meal. “No, nothing that stands out except she had just finished her doctorate.”

  “What in?”

  “Crystal didn’t really know. All she said was some nerdy science stuff.”

  “I’d say the sister got the brains in that family.” Serena snickered. “You weren’t kidding when you told me she was self-absorbed. I can’t imagine not knowing what my own sister was studying at university.”

  “I know, weird, right?”

  Serena glanced at the object of their discussion. “Yeah, by the sounds of it, she’s not too bright or worldly, either. I don’t know. I think that theory about her knowing Jonathan through her sister is really a stretch.” She screwed up her face. “Personally, I still think you’re just so bent on finding fault with Jonathan that you’ll grasp at any straws to make him look guilty of something.” Serena pushed her plate away. “Importing toxic fish, in league with ecoterrorists, to knock off what? Some small-town charity coordinator and steal a book that’s not worth all that trouble for. What will you make up about him next?” She leaned forward. “Just face it, Addie. Those facts aren’t connected to what happened here, so look at what we do really know.”

  “Maybe you’re right.” Addie pursed her lips. “This is Greyborne Harbor and not some spy novel.”

  A flush-faced Zach appeared at their table. “I think there may have been a problem between them, but I missed hearing what started it. Now I feel too conspicuous lingering to listen. They look pretty upset with each other.”

  “That’s fine,” Addie smiled, “thanks for trying.�
��

  “Okay, since I’m now retired from the secret service, I’ll see you later.” He squeezed Serena’s shoulder.

  Addie and Serena both snuck glances at Patrick and Crystal’s table. Her face was the shade of her hair, and Patrick’s usually waxy skin now glistened with beads of perspiration. Their body language didn’t quite look as cozy as it had earlier. Her arms were crossed, and his hand thudded on the table. She stood up, grabbed her handbag, and stormed toward the door. Patrick flung his napkin on the table and stomped after her.

  “Wow,” Addie mouthed. “I wish Zach had heard what caused that scene.”

  Serena’s shoulders tensed. “Remember he is supposed to be working, not playing spy. He tried his best.”

  “I know. I wasn’t suggesting he shouldn’t do his job, it’s just too bad he missed what led up to that. But never mind. Are you done? We should head out.”

  * * *

  “Hey, wait up,” Addie called. “You got those huggy things on your feet. My heeled boots don’t do as well on this icy pavement.”

  “I can’t wait. I’m freezing. Grab the back of my coat and skate behind me to the Jeep.”

  Addie reached for Serena’s jacket. Her foot skidded, her arms flailed in the air. Hands grasped her from behind and steadied her upright. “Thanks,” Addie gasped, and turned toward her savior. “Simon?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, thanks to you.” She straightened herself, trying to catch her breath. “What are you doing here besides saving me from slamming into you again?” She brushed hair from her eyes.

  “I’m just going to have dinner with a friend from work.”

  “I see. How nice.” She smiled, hoping it was as demure as she intended it to be and not the needy, aching one hidden beneath. “Well, have a good evening. I hope to see you . . . soon.” A lump rose in the back of her throat. The pretty dark-haired nurse from the hospital appeared at Simon’s side.

  A look of regret flickered through his eyes before he introduced them. “Addie, this is Courtney”—he shoved his hands into his coat pockets—“a friend of mine.” Addie’s eyes went immediately to Courtney’s arm looped through his.