COZY MYSTERY: Lemon Pie Murder Series (Lemon Mystery Murder)

by Lorrie Bannett

  “Make sure that you have read them their Miranda rights and once you are done, the next thing would be to escort them to the cars and drive them here. The media wants an exclusive as soon as we make an arrest. But even though we promised them something, I don’t think it’s a good idea. We do not want to alert the killer since they would flee once they realize that we are on to them.

  “Once I am in a position to negotiate with the suspects, we will make sure that we are able to stay in touch and release them on condition that they lure the killer on a lighter sentence. And if this happens, we catch them both and put an end to this nightmare. That is my entire plan for the moment. So if you happen to have something that we can use, please, be my guest.”

  Nobody seemed to utter a word. And just like that, it seemed as though they had their game plan all sorted out. The police officers on that case looked as though they were all tired from doing rounds trying to solve that case. But that said, it also seemed as though everything was going to work out rather perfectly and all that they needed to do was keep on pushing.

  As far as Agent Morris was concerned, all she ever wanted was to take a vacation as soon as the case was solved which was more or less an amazing thing indeed. She also figured that she ought to enjoy life more since she almost lost it in a blast that no one saw coming. And that was such an important lesson that she knew she had to take heed to.

  Ever since the police officers were bombed because of the case that the special unit was trying to solve, something had changed for sure. From the look of things, it did seem as though agent Morris wasn’t the only one who was having guilty feelings. It was the whole special unit that was handling that case and it didn’t take that long for Agent Morris to realize just that.

  She really wanted to get everything all sorted out by stopping whatever it was that she was doing and addressing her team. But it didn’t seem like something that she would consider as she was still feeling responsible for the deaths. But after continuing with her speech for a while, it seemed as though it was about that time that she just came clean with her feelings and air them out.

  “I need all of you to listen to me very carefully. I know you all feel responsible for these attacks. But you aren’t. If there is anyone to blame here, it’s me. But enough of the blame games. We still have a killer and a terrorist out there that needs catching. And that said, I will need for all of you to make sure that you are in a position to fight the feeling and get to the point where you need to focus.”

  There was silence in the room, up until agent Moore said something.

  “You are right. But you shouldn’t also feel guilty. You weren’t the person who detonated that bomb that killed the corps. It’s the guy we are trying to catch. So in as much as you are telling us to stop blaming ourselves, I think you should also consider doing the same. And we will have a very easy time getting the bastard and putting an end to his killing spree. We have everything we need to catch him.”

  Everyone agreed with Agent Moore.

  ***

  Agent Morris, even though she was dead sure that she had already closed this case, something was still barging her. Ever since Agent McCartney had showed her the photos of the mercenary who apparently was supposed to be the same man, it seemed as though it was rather difficult for her to avoid thinking about it.

  Just how many killers were there? And if there are more than two, does it mean that they are dealing with a professional organization, perhaps a terrorist group? At that moment, it was rather too difficult to tell. But that said, Agent Morris wasn’t going to let this mystery eat up her head as a suspense. And since she had some free time in the office before calling it a day, it seemed as though she had some time to entertain some mystery solving in her head.

  So, some men were bought to do some killing of a rich person. And then they want to frame a police officer in order to slow the whole process. But then again, they make the mistake of sending a different person knowing that the police would suspect that they are an organization. Or did they do it intentionally? At that moment, it seemed as though it was difficult for them to say. But either way, it was something that they knew had to be done.

  What could this mean to the case? Well at that moment, it seemed impossible to even think about the case since they didn’t have any evidence to support any damn thing that she was thinking about. In fact, it was nothing but a wild goose chase and so she decided to stop thinking about it.

  Agent Morris then kicked back and closed her eyes, trying to relax and ensure that she was reserving as much strength as possible before embarking on the case. The team had taken a couple of minutes’ worth of a break to ensure that they had rested enough before converging in the address room.

  Those agents who had been on the field making sure that they were getting to solve the problem had already come back and were more than sure that they had all of the evidence to put this investigation away once and for all.

  The ringing in her ear had finally subsided and Agent Morris thought she would never make the mistake of taking her ears for granted ever again. But at that moment, it seemed as though the most important thing for her to do would have been to just kick back and make sure that she was able to stay focused.

  It was funny how she had never made a point of visiting Mrs. Jones’ grave like she always made it customary as far as her murder cases were concerned. She looked at her watch for a minute and sighed. It was time to back to the address room and see just what they were to do about the case. But she swore that she would find some time to go and see her, get to pay her respects and all.

  More often than not, Agent Howard would volunteer to go with her and she would swear that the dead victims spoke to her. Little did she know that one day she was going to visit a victim alone and that the victim would be Agent Howard. All of the things that were happening still didn’t make any sense. But that said, Agent Morris wasn’t going to quit at all.

  The commander also seemed a little bit jumpy of late and for a moment, Agent Morris thought that maybe it had something to do with the fact that the media was starting to paint him as an incompetent man altogether. But that wasn’t going to be the case at all since the commander had been through worse and she figured that the media wasn’t the problem.

  At the end of the day, the only important thing that seemed to matter in the end was the fact that it seemed as though they were making progress and that was what ought to concern her, not how weird the commander was behaving at the time.

  The most important thing about also trying to find a reason to hang in there. On the surface, it seemed as though Agent Morris was somewhat of an unbreakable woman. But inside, she really needed to take off and mend the shuttered heart. At one point, one of her friends who was a psychiatrist once told her that no matter how badass one might be, if they aren’t careful, then all the stress will always catch up with them eventually.

  It was very important that she made that visit as soon as possible for her own sake and that was what she was going to do in the end. She immediately wound up all of her work for the day and off she went.

  Chapter 4:

  -The crime scene-

  The following day, Agent Morris made sure that she had created some time to visit Mrs. Jones’ grave. The grave was situated among the special area secluded for the rich and famous and needless to say, it was spick and span.

  The grave had plenty of flowers, some withered while some were still fresh, reminding Agent Morris that Mrs. Jones was loved by so many people. It even got Agent Morris to wonder if in her death, people would mind her grave, given that she wasn’t even a fraction as rich and famous as the lemon pie lady was. But she immediately put off the thought of death as soon as possible since she almost died a couple of days back and the incident was as traumatizing as it could get.

  She got there, put her rose on the epitaph and just watched quietly. That was Agent Morris’ way of paying her respect. She had also brought a bottle of brandy for Agent Howard who
wasn’t buried far away from where Mrs. Jones was laid to rest.

  The wind was still blowing a little, throwing her hair all over the place for a moment to the point that she tied it up into a ponytail and adjusted her sunglasses for a bit before maintaining her gaze. Sometimes Agent Morris felt stupid doing this. But as long as it gave her solace, then she opted to do it for as long as possible.

  “It’s Agent Morris, right?” a timid voice piped from behind her, making Agent Morris to turn almost immediately.

  There stood a pretty thirteen-year-old girl with large green eyes, neatly coiffured terracotta hair that was straightened and locked into a long ponytail. She also had freckles and looked too darn pretty. Agent Morris smiled at her before responding.

  “Yes it is. I have come to pay my respects to her. I didn’t know her personally but she seemed like a nice person.”

  “Oh yes, my grandmother was such a darling, which beats me why someone would want her dead. We still don’t understand it. You are working on the case right?”

  “Yes I am. And I am glad to tell you that we have a breakthrough. We already have two prime suspects that we are preparing to arrest. All we are doing is wait for the judge to process our warrants and we are good to go.”

  The teenage girl smiled, her freckled cheeks turning red. She was very pretty. And even though she was way too young, Agent Morris could see a lot of resemblance with her grandmother. She then took a step forward and placed her flower on the epitaph, next to the one that Agent Morris had put there and they both stood there, looking at the neat grave and saying nothing.

  And the good thing about the moment that they both shared was that neither of them felt awkward at any given point. As a matter of fact, it seemed as though they enjoyed doing it together. And for a moment, Agent Morris smiled and took the little girl’s hand, squeezing it as gently as possible.

  “You know, before all of this, I wanted to be a doctor when I grew up. Now, I look at you and what you do to keep the city safe. And all I want to be is an agent.”

  Agent Morris smiled. For the first time ever, someone actually admitted that she was a source of inspiration in her life – something she thought she was never going to become judging by how her family reacted when she defiantly joined the force.

  “You know what little one? You can be anything that you want to be. The only thing that you have to do is put your mind into it. So if you want to be an agent like me? Then you need to start working out and reading very hard because this job doesn’t require brawn alone, but lots of brain. You don’t strike me as a dumb you know.”

  They chuckled a little. Agent Morris also took that opportunity to squeeze her little hand once more. She wanted the little girl to feel as secure as possible. And as she did that, Agent Morris made sure that she was looking her straight in the eyes.

  “Do you think I will ever become a better agent like you?”

  “I think you will make a far much better agent than I ever will be. Just believe in yourself little one, and watch everything works out perfectly for you.”

  “Thank you very much for believing in me.”

  “No, thank you for keeping me company when I was feeling very sad and alone. And if you ever need any advice or just want to hang out, call at the station and ask for me.”

  ***

  After having that cute conversation with the little girl, the next thing that she had to do was making sure that she had paid the crime scene a visit just like she had anticipated. Agent wasn’t playing with this case and now that her gut was starting to lead her to a totally different path, she felt as though she didn’t have a choice but to make sure that she had followed it to the end.

  The last thing Agent Morris wanted to have as far as her career was concerned was getting the wrong person behind bars. And even though the evidence was pointing towards the two businessmen, it still bothered her for no reason apparently. As a matter of fact, she wanted to dispute a finding but she figured that it wouldn’t really do her team any good if at all she appeared as though she was disputing with their findings.

  And so she decided to set on a different road while her team members were waiting on the judge.

  The first time she was in the crime scene, it seemed as though every single thing had been put there to confuse the police. Ever since she was framed and was at pains getting herself out, Agent Morris knew better than to take these killers for granted. And the fact that they hadn’t been caught despite the fact that the best agents had been put to work on this case just showed that she was right about them, they were nothing short of bad asses.

  But as the dictums goes, one sometimes has to fight fire with fire. And if these criminals were trying to show her just how much of a badass they were, then Agent Morris was going to have to bring her A-game to the table and make sure that she had given them something to think about. She was going to catch them and even though she didn’t know how, she just knew that it was going to happen.

  And so after a short drive, Agent Morris got there and pulled up in the huge, neat driveway. From the look of things, it seemed as though Mrs. Jones’ ghost was doing the cleaning since there were some trees in the compound and with no one in sight, not even a single leaf was there. And that alone made Agent Morris to freak out just a little bit. She immediately made a point of checking the place out.

  Agent Morris had made sure that everything was under control at the time that she got in. she didn’t want to go into the house, which was an extension of the factory just yet because she knew that agent McCartney and his entire team had done all in their power to make everything work. But this time round, it seemed as though she was looking for something out of the box and so she went around the house for a change.

  The deliberations were right, the killer seemed to be a top notch killer or a hit man of some sort. The job had been done so cleanly and from the look of things, it seemed as though the dagger to the chest was a way of showing mercy since the poor Mrs. Jones died instantly. But that didn’t scrap off the fact that she was a killer that needed to be caught and put behind bars.

  But according to how they had been taught in the military, only one thing seemed to matter the most and that was none other than the fact that they all blunder at one point. And that said, the only thing that would have made more sense would have been to stay on top of their game at all times and keep an eye open.

  Hours went by and Agent Morris kept on searching as hard as possible, hoping that she was going to stumble upon something useful in the end. But as time went on, it seemed as though no clues were ever going to be unveiled as far as they were concerned. And that said, the only thing that would make sense would have been to quit. But something was still compelling her to keep up with the searching.

  It then occurred to her that if the killer had to get in, they had to get out at some point. And without wasting any more time, Agent Morris made sure that she had moved all the way to the fence where she noticed a disturbance and then without wasting any more time, she went on to inspect it. And that was when she saw something that they had been missing all along – a footprint.

  “Gotcha!!!” Agent Morris exclaimed with a naughty smile on her face.

  Chapter 5:

  -The enemy within-

  The discovery of the boot seemed to have given her sleepless nights. The thing was that the police force always had were numbers on each boot and the reason for that was for making surer that they had identified their soldiers in the event that one of them dies in the line of duty and couldn’t be recognized. And that said, the only thing that would have made some sense at that moment would have been to kick back and make sure that she was investigating.

  Her gut instinct was telling her that there was something not right about the situation and now she had dedicated her focus on finding out the bottom. So as soon as she had taken the impressions, Agent Morris decided to take it all back to the lab secretly. The commander wanted for her to come over to the address room so that they c
ould get to talk about how best they were going to address the situation.

  But from the look of things, it seemed as though she had other pressing needs. And so the commander decided to take over. The judge had already approved the warrants and they were prepping themselves before making what could have been the most popularized arrests in recent times.

  But Agent Morris clearly didn’t want to be a part of it. If there was anything she could do to prevent the police force from making the blunder of century, then she was going to do everything in her power to ensure that it never happens. And that explained why she was having such a difficult to approve the arrest of the two suspects who were clearly topping that list. If anything, she wanted to ask for more time so that they could go over virtually every single detail that was holding them back.