Mystic Falls

by Vickie McKeehan

  “Ham for me,” Lando answered. “Heavy on the cheese and meat.”

  Gemma rolled her eyes. “I’ll take a veggie, whatever you have on hand, mushrooms, onions, spinach, no cheese.”

  “You got it.”

  As everyone got comfortable around the table, Lando caught them up to date on the latest developments. “That’s why I can’t stay. Sorry.”

  “No, sit down for a minute. Might as well eat while it’s hot,” Gemma coaxed. “A few more minutes won’t matter.”

  After shoveling in a few forkfuls of fluffy egg, they all came up with varying opinions about Rance McIntire. When it came Lianne’s turn, she ventured to add a new tidbit of her own that she’d been reluctant to share. “Were any of you aware that Collette had purchased the building next to the candy shop?”

  Gemma dropped her fork. “What? No way. Why? How do you know that?”

  “An estate lawyer came to see me this morning by the name of Alex Kedderson. I hadn’t even unpacked yet when he showed up on my doorstep.”

  “Huh,” Gemma grunted. “That’s interesting. Kedderson working on a Saturday? He was Gram’s attorney too. But in a small town like this…I guess…how many lawyers are there? Weird though that he did the same thing with me after her funeral, showing up with her will in hand, a briefcase full of documents, willing to tell me what I owned, what I needed to do while going over the process of what would happen next.”

  “But that’s typical. That’s his job,” Luke pointed out.

  “Well, this guy sits me down at the kitchen table and took out Collette’s will, along with a whole bunch of other papers that said she left her house to me. She left me Rudy, her horse, some personal items and furnishings, and a long list of the usual household stuff. But then it got interesting when he dropped this bombshell. When he told me that I now owned half interest in a piece of property Collette had bought a few weeks before her death, I thought of your grandmother and the conversation we had about how she died, and why she was a target.”

  Gemma was barely able to swallow the bite of omelet she’d just put in her mouth. “So if Collette owned half of the building next to the store, who owned the other half? Vince Ballard?”

  “Good guess, but no. The other half was owned by Marnie Hightower.”

  Gemma’s mouth fell open. She glanced around the table at the others until her eyes stopped on Lando. “Good grief. Lianne might’ve just found that critical link you’ve been looking for that connects all the victims to something other than the book club.”

  “I racked my brain over this,” Lando admitted. “Could it be that simple? A dispute over a building?”

  Lianne folded her napkin. “No idea, but apparently last Christmas, Collette and Marnie decided to go into business together. Their plan was to open up a bookstore with a wine-tasting room in the back. They began looking at locations and finally settled on the one downtown, next to the Coyote Chocolate Company. According to Kedderson, they thought it’d be a perfect location. That was the middle of January. After several back and forth negotiations, they got it at an excellent price. Natalie Henwick was the realtor of record.”

  “Who was the seller?” Lando asked.

  “Some guy named Buddy Swinton. But that’s not all. Kedderson conveniently produced an offer letter for that same piece of property.”

  Luke shook his head. “That’s sounds way too convenient…and fishy. Could Kedderson be working with…who made the offer?”

  “Some company named Marshall Montalvo.”

  Gemma bit her lip. “That’s not a company. It’s a guy, the richest man in the county. Marshall is his first name.”

  “Whoever he is, he’s willing to pay me fifty thousand dollars for my interest in the building. I don’t know if Marnie’s family’s been approached yet or not, but I’m sure this Montalvo doesn’t want to own just half a building.”

  “I don’t suppose it’s a coincidence that as soon as Gram was in the ground, Kedderson showed up with an offer letter from Marshall Montalvo for a hundred grand if I’d sell him the shop.”

  “That’s just it,” Lianne began. “Kedderson gave me the impression that I should liquidate that property and sell as soon as possible so that I could get on with my life. He even suggested he might have a buyer for the house. He didn’t think Coyote Wells was the right place for me.”

  “He said that?” Luke asked, slinging his arm around a worried Lianne. “Don’t let Kedderson intimidate you. If you want to stay here, we’ll make sure he doesn’t scare you into leaving.”

  “I’m not that wimpy,” Lianne fired back. “I don’t mind going up against a lawyer or a bigwig if either of them had anything to do with Collette’s murder.”

  Lando shoved away from the table and got to his feet so he had room to pace. “I don’t think this is a coincidence. No way. Kedderson working for old Montalvo is a big red flag for me. The old guy certainly has enough dough to hire two killers to do his dirty work for him and use Kedderson out front to push both of you into taking his offer. I bet neither one counted on Gemma staying in town to keep Marissa’s shop going.”

  “Whoa,” Luke stated. “Are we ready to say Marshall Montalvo was involved in these murders? That guy has some major bucks floating around the county. Not to mention the fact he owns most of the town. Rumors have it he owns at least fifty properties. And he’s been a generous benefactor to the clinic in the past.”

  Gemma bit her lip. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this but before we go jumping to conclusions, why would a wealthy guy like Montalvo murder three women over two storefronts right next to each other? What’s so special about my chocolate shop or a former pizza place? Buddy Swinton closed down his dad’s business ages ago because he couldn’t make it work.”

  “Something I’m sure would mortify Roland Swinton if he were alive today,” Lando concluded.

  “Mr. Swinton was one of my grandparents’ oldest and dearest friends,” Gemma continued. “They met while trying to start their businesses in town around the same time. Which makes me wonder what’s so special about those two properties?”

  Zeb pushed his plate aside and weighed in. “What exactly puts those shops in the spotlight? Yesterday someone tried to attack you. Why? For what reason? To scare you off maybe? I keep going back to the history of Roland’s shop. One of the reasons Buddy and Suzanne have had so much trouble in their marriage is because Buddy kept promising Suzanne he’d let her open up a resale shop at that location. It never happened because Buddy went through his inheritance from Roland within a year. Suzanne complained bitterly about Buddy’s gambling losses, losses that occurred at Montalvo’s casino. Buddy dropped thousands of dollars over a short period of time. Before either one of them knew what was happening, Buddy had gone through Roland’s money until there was nothing left to keep the pizza place going and no money for Suzanne to open her shop. To this day they still squabble about it.”

  Luke scratched his chin. “Let’s not forget Buddy had a major financial downturn after the mortgage crisis and never recovered. He and Suzanne got their house foreclosed on. They’re still living in Gray Wind Trailer Park because of it. Everybody knows they’re hurting for money. And Buddy’s been spending the last couple of years trying to unload the properties he inherited from his dad. It’s no secret, he’s been peddling them to Montalvo, practically begging the guy to take them off his hands before each one goes into foreclosure.”

  “That’s exactly my point,” Gemma stated. “So why wouldn’t Montalvo snap up the property when it was offered? He had plenty of chances. It doesn’t make sense that he’d want it back just because Collette and Marnie own it now enough to kill for it. All Montalvo had to do was wait until it went into foreclosure and snap it up at half the value.”

  Luke nodded. “Maybe you just answered your own question. Montalvo tries to play the waiting game, waits out Buddy until the building goes into a foreclosure sale, but then along comes Collette and Marnie, spoiling the whole plan.”
>
  “But why?” Lianne asked. “Why kill my sister over a piece of property? No offense, but I’ve seen that building. It looks like a rat trap.”

  “No rats that I know of,” Gemma said with disdain. “But maybe something else is in both shops that none of us know anything about.”

  Lando leaned back on the bar, crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s not a bad angle. But then, I was just in your shop yesterday and there’s really no hidey holes to speak of. Plus, if Montalvo was trying to get to something inside the shops, he could’ve just broken in on any given night and be done with it. Like you said before, that pizza place has been vacant for years. There’s nothing there.”

  Luke attempted to lighten the mood. “It’s a shame Buddy never got the hang of making pizza the way old Roland did. That man made the best Italian pie within a hundred miles of here. Poor Buddy struggled with making the dough the same way his dad did, kind of like what Gemma’s going through with the chocolate shop.”

  Gemma shot daggers at him with a long deadly stare. “Thanks for bringing that up. Maybe instead of rubbing it in my face you could spend an afternoon tomorrow at my house helping me look for Marissa’s recipes, the ones no one can find.”

  Unoffended, Luke patted her shoulder. “Happy to. Just tell me where to look that you haven’t already searched.”

  “Oh, shut up,” Gemma snapped. “I’m beginning to think finding the recipe cards is a long shot anyway because I suspect maybe Gram tossed them out. That’s the only reason I can come up with for not being able to find them.” She strummed her fingers on the table. “Something else occurs to me though. Why would Montalvo want half a building?”

  “He wouldn’t,” Lianne said. “Which means Marnie’s family has probably already been approached about selling her half. The thing that bothers me is what if I don’t sell to this jerk. Does that mean I’ll end up like Collette? Dead?”

  Luke gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. We won’t let that happen.”

  Gemma traded looks with Lando. “We should find out what’s so special about those properties.”

  “A trip to the tax office on Monday might yield a motive,” Lando suggested.

  “I have a better idea,” Gemma offered. “If we could just locate the rest of Gram’s journals, there might be something in them that we could use. She and Roland were very close after Poppy died. Think about it. If she wrote anything down that might be useful, we’d have some insight into why Montalvo would kill for those buildings.”

  “So instead of recipe cards we’re looking for journals now?” Zeb asked. “Why don’t we just wait for the DNA to come back on that whiskey bottle those two hoodlums drank from and be done with this case? My money’s on Rance McIntire being our guy. Which means Gemma’s vision was dead on.”

  “What two hoodlums?” Lianne wanted to know.

  “You’ve put your foot in it now,” Leia chided Zeb. “Go ahead and explain it to her.”

  Zeb went into the story about what Gemma saw that led them to retrieve the evidence. “Unlike some people in this room, I actually believed in Gemma’s vision.”

  Luke and Lando traded glances. But it was Luke who couldn’t resist a dig. “This is just eating you up, isn’t it, brother? You always did avoid anything to do with Native ceremonies and visions.”

  “Kiss my ass,” Lando growled. “I don’t see you practicing shaman tricks to heal the sick. Last time I checked, you believe in science and medicine, and real drugs like antibiotics to get rid of infections instead of waving around a bunch of sage. Yet, you expect me to rely on some vision to solve a case.”

  “Knock it off, guys,” Gemma warned. “Each of us recognizes our strengths and uses what works. I’m knew at this, but on some level, I do agree with Lando. Good old-fashioned detective work is essential. I saw two killers, but that hasn’t done much to solve this case and put the bad guys where they belong. Now has it? Right now, Lando has Rance McIntire in his sights, but who knows if it will do any good.”

  “Surely you intend to find out more about the guy Gemma saw at the club tonight,” Leia stressed. “That’s like eyewitness testimony or something.”

  “Already on it. Which means I need to get my butt in gear and get back to the station,” Lando stated.

  “Now?” Lianne said. “But it’s almost two in the morning.”

  “I have to strike while Rance McIntire is my number one suspect and busy tonight with Mallory. Should’ve already ran him through the system as it is.”

  “What can we do to help?” Lianne offered. “I’m serious. If I have to go back into that house knowing Collette’s killer is still out there, I want to do something.”

  Lando cocked his head toward Gemma. “Up to now, I’ve wasted a lot of days on this case thinking Ballard was my guy. That’s on me. But that kind of thinking ends tonight. I’ll get these guys because they aren’t as smart as the people in this room. Not even Montalvo, no matter how much money he has.” He turned to Lianne. “Thanks for offering, but this is my job. If I can’t do this then I should turn in my badge.”

  Zeb got to his feet. “I’ll go with you. You could probably use some help running checks on Montalvo. He has a wide range of lowlifes working for him. Casino types that do more harm to my people than good.”

  Lando went around to Gemma and placed a tender kiss on her lips. “Don’t wait up. This could take all night.”

  “Just be careful. That McIntire guy and his buddy are dangerous people. That’s a fact.”

  “I told you, I’m always careful.”

  She watched Lando walk out the door with Zeb, a knot of tension roiling in her belly. Without another word to anyone, she gathered up the plates and took them into the kitchen to rinse.

  Leia trailed after her. “You don’t have to clean up.”

  “Sure, I do. You cooked, I clean. Besides, it keeps me from worrying about him.”

  Luke and Lianne came in carrying dirty cups and glasses. It was Lianne who went over to Gemma to help at the sink. “You were the first friend I made here. What did you mean when you said your grandmother’s journals might hold the key to solving this?”

  “I remember a passage she wrote in the one journal I’ve been able to read. I’m pretty sure my grandparents bought the vacant storefront from Montalvo around the same time Roland Swinton did. That’s how long Gram and Poppy had known Roland, almost from the first moment they bought the store. They remained good friends with the Swintons for decades. When Roland’s wife died, they were there to comfort him and get him through the hard times. And I’ve always suspected that when Poppy died, Gram turned to Roland for comfort, if you get my drift. If the bond between these two families were that close, then it stands to reason Gram would’ve written about it and every detail in between. She would’ve verbalized the problems, written down any rumors, and yet stuck to the facts. That information might be huge.”

  “And yet you’ve been unable to find these journals? Why is that?” Luke wondered.

  “That’s just it. Did someone take them the day Gram died? If Montalvo wants those two storefronts bad enough to kill, there has to be a good reason. And it’s gotta be big. My logic is that if Gram kept one journal, there has to be more. And she might have hidden them for a reason.”

  “Makes sense,” Leia added. “We just have to turn the house upside down looking for them because you said they weren’t at the store.”

  “They aren’t there, unless she hid them in the walls. Plus, she didn’t run a business for almost forty years without knowing everything, and I do mean everything there is to know about the other businesses that were nearby. One thing I’ve learned since living in her house. She didn’t throw a lot of stuff away. Those journals have to be there somewhere.”

  Luke nodded. “And what happens if we do find them? Who gets to read what’s in ’em?”

  “If we locate them. I’m not sure how I feel about splitting them up to be dissected. Those are her private thoughts.
But then I remember she was murdered. I think she might understand if we need to scour through them as a group.”

  “Is there any room or area that’s off limits?” Lianne wanted to know.

  “None. But I’ve gone through the garage, the gardening shed, and been all over the grounds already…twice. So, I’d declare those places clear for now. For years Gram kept the recipes in a tin, about yea big.” Gemma held her hands out a foot wide. “If that tin is inside that house, I need a fresh pair of eyes to find it.”

  Luke glanced from face to face around the room. “So when do we start this scavenger hunt?”

  “I’m tired, but I’m too wired to sleep,” Lianne admitted. “Why not do it now?”

  Gemma looked at her friends in astonishment. “You sure? It’s awfully late.”

  “Up to you,” Luke said. “But I’m game now. Tomorrow we can catch up on sleep.”

  Leia turned from the dishwasher. “Why not? I’m in. Lando and Zeb aren’t the only two who can solve this thing.”

  But for all their talk, the house on Peralta Circle was a tougher nut to crack than any of them expected. After hours spent looking behind book shelves and scouring cubby holes and going through closets, all they had to show for their efforts was some old newspaper clippings, old photographs, and some audio tapes on how to speak and write English fluently.

  “Did she have a safety deposit box?” Luke wondered.

  “Already looked in it,” Gemma said, lack of sleep beginning to take its toll. “It’s almost six o’clock. Why don’t you guys just sleep here? There are enough beds.”

  Leia plopped down on the leather sofa in the living room and looked at the mess she’d made removing all the books from the shelves. “Sure. In a couple of hours you’re gonna wake up and see that chaos and wonder, ‘What the hell?’ You’re gonna need help putting all this stuff back the way it was.”

  “I’ll worry about that later. Right now, let’s just get some sleep. I’ll text Lando and Zeb so they’ll know we’re all under one roof.”