Home Sweet Homicide: A Cozy Mystery (A Gemma Stone Murder Mystery Book 5)

by Willow Monroe

  “Wow,” Gemma said softly.

  “Yeah, wow,” Holly echoed.

  “What’s out here?” Gemma wondered aloud, heading for the door on the other side of the kitchen.

  It led to a pantry, laundry room combination with another door that led out to a spacious two car garage. Gemma stuck her head out into the vast space and looked around. Shelving lined the walls and the concrete floor was spotless. A lone hand truck, the kind used to move appliances, stood off to one side of the door. Beside that, one of the oversized, orange Langstrom Real Estate signs was propped against a wall. Evidently Peggy had been a previous realtor.

  “Let’s go upstairs,” Holly said. “Katie is probably up there.”

  Gemma reluctantly followed her best friend up the wide, carpeted staircase. There were three doors on the right and one set of double doors on the left, just like downstairs. Holly was already checking out the rooms on the right. “Bedroom,” she said. “Good sized, too. Bathroom and, yep, another bedroom.”

  “So, that’s two bedrooms and one full bath so far,” Gemma noted.

  “And I’ll bet this is the master suite,” Holly said, pushing the double doors wide open.

  Neither of them had ever seen such luxury. The room was huge, filled with natural light from bay windows on one end and sliding glass doors that opened out to a small balcony on the wall next to that. The pale gold walls seemed to almost glow. A vaulted ceiling made the room seem even larger. A cozy sitting area filled one end of the room, facing a huge television.

  Hearing Holly gasp, Gemma followed her into the master bath. It looked like a spa with a large glassed in shower, double sinks on what looked like antique dressers and a soaker tub as well.

  Back in the bedroom, Gemma could not take her eyes off of the massive bed that sat in the center of the room. She’d never seen a bed so big. It had four thick posts and an intricately carved headboard.

  “I wonder where Katie is.” Holly said, sliding the door open and stepping out onto the balcony.

  “She’ll turn up,” Gemma said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  Upon closer inspection, the gold colored comforter was rumpled as if the bed had been made hastily, leaving the tangled sheets underneath. Katie was probably on her cell phone right now giving he owners a dressing down for leaving it like this.

  “Wow, you could make some babies on this bed,” Gemma teased, when Holly came back inside.

  “Shut up,” Holly said but when Gemma lay back on the bed, she noted that Holly was grinning from ear to ear. “I’m going to check out the closet.”

  “Yes, sir,” Gemma called after her. Rumpled or not, this silk comforter was heavenly. “This bed would be just about perfect for making babies. Lots of babies.”

  Gemma heard Holly gasp. Either that closet was massive or she was really disappointed.

  “Oh, no,” Holly half moaned, half whimpered.

  “Is it that bad?” Gemma asked, sliding easily off the bed and heading toward the closet.

  “Oh, God, no,” Holly moaned, louder this time and turned to face Gemma, as white as a ghost.

  “Holly, what is it?” Gemma asked, all laughter and teasing gone.

  “It’s... She’s...” Holly stammered and pushed past Gemma out into the bedroom, pulling her phone out of her purse at the same time.

  Gemma stepped into the closet. It was as big as she would have expected with dark wood organizers lining the walls. But right in the middle of the space, hanging from a metal rod by a short length of orange cord, was Katie Mack. She was naked except for a lacy red bra and matching panties, her head twisted at an unnatural angle. All Gemma could think about was that the hair spilling down over her face was blonde, not dark like she remembered.

  Evidently there was only one red Mercedes in town.

  Chapter Three

  “I called 911,” Holly reported.

  “Do you think it was suicide?” Gemma asked, turning toward her friend.

  “Looks like it,” Gemma said. “But why here?”

  “I don’t know and I don’t care. Let’s get out of here,” Holly said in a shaky voice.

  “Fine by me,” Gemma said.

  They practically ran down the stairs and out the front door as if being chased by a ghost.

  True, Gemma didn’t like Katie Mack. No one really did except maybe Mitch and, evidently, Ross, but she felt bad that the woman’s life had come to such a sad end. Hanging herself in the closet of an empty house? How lonely she must have been to choose that way to end her life.

  Gemma and Holly had only been on the porch for a few moments when sirens began to wail in the distance.

  “I told them she was already dead,” Holly whispered, leaning against the railing and taking deep breaths of air. “They didn’t have to use sirens.”

  “You know those guys. This is probably the most excitement they’ve had since Peggy set that house on fire with her cigarette,” Gemma said lightly, rubbing Holly’s shoulder.

  Two black and white squad cars screeched to a stop and officers in uniform hopped out. Both of them were young, barely out of the academy, Gemma guessed. For some reason their hats looked like they were too big for their heads. Their name tags just above their badges identified them as Officers Milken and Bailor.

  “She’s upstairs in the master bedroom closet,” Gemma told them.

  Bailor waited with them on the porch while Officer Milken dashed into the house. Transmissions crackled over the radio clipped to Bailor’s belt. It was distracting, but he seemed not to notice. Gemma could think of nothing to say to him so she just concentrated on Holly.

  Milken was back within minutes. He was as white as a ghost and breathless. Gemma figured it was the first time he’d seen a suicide. “She’s definitely dead.”

  Didn’t take a genius to figure that one out.

  “I called the coroner and homicide,” he said.

  “Why homicide?” Gemma asked, her thoughts immediately going to Ross.

  He was the only homicide detective in their small town. Gemma hoped it was his day off and he wouldn’t get the call. Surely someone else filled in when he was not working. The last thing she wanted to do was come face to face with Ross after finding his girlfriend hanging in a closet.

  “She died alone in an empty house. Just standard procedure, ma’am,” Officer Bailor explained gently.

  Before she could respond, the coroner’s van rumbled down the street and pulled into the driveway behind Katie’s Mercedes. Somehow her red car didn’t look as brilliant as it had before. Across the street, a crowd had gathered. The two officers left Holly and Gemma standing on the porch and sauntered in that direction.

  “Homicide?” Holly asked.

  “I’m sure it’s just what he said, standard procedure,” Gemma told her friend. “They’ll figure it out soon enough.”

  “I want to go home,” Holly said, sounding like a little girl.

  “I’m sure they’ll need to get a statement from us. Then we’ll go.”

  “I’m going to call Mitch.”

  “Okay,” Gemma said, watching tall, thin Dr. Biggs open the doors at the back of the van and pull out a gurney. A black body bag was folded neatly in the center. Gemma turned away and tried to block Holly’s view of that sad sight.

  Dr. Biggs spoke briefly with one of the young police officers and then strode past them with merely a nod, his face grim. Gemma wondered how in the world he came to work every day.

  More police cars arrived, pretty much blocking the street. Gypsy Hill didn’t really have a forensics unit, just a couple of guys who had been on the force a long time and had taken an interest in that sort of thing. One of them had been a former science teacher at the high school. They seemed unsure, as if waiting for further instructions.

  Milken and Bailor were already busy questioning the crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle, scribbling frantically in their little notebooks. Gemma wanted to be anywhere but here and she turned to ask if Holly was f
eeling the same way. Holly was on the phone, probably talking to Mitch. He would also be here soon if he wasn’t already on his way.

  A familiar deep voice brought a flush of heat to Gemma’s face and she turned slowly to see Detective Ross Ferguson standing at the foot of the steps talking to officers. His tone was clipped, almost harsh. He was even more handsome than she remembered with his thick, inky black hair curling over his forehead and those dark brown eyes. That Italian heritage showed so strongly. He was dressed in his usual suit and tie which only emphasized his physique.

  “I’ll go see what the coroner thinks,” Gemma heard him say.

  She watched him climb the steps. He paused at the top and took a deep breath, looking around. Then his eyes locked on hers. His hesitated, acted like he wanted to say something. His expression was almost unreadable except for that muscle twitching in his jaw. Then he was all business again and heading inside the house.

  Gemma sank down into the closest wicker chair, her knees trembling. There were so many emotions coursing through her that she couldn’t even start to sort them out. One thing she knew for sure, she definitely wasn’t over her feelings for Ross Ferguson, no matter what he’d been doing these last two months.

  Before she could think much further about that, Mitch arrived, his attention solely on Holly. “Have you given a statement?” he wanted to know.

  Holly shook her head. “No one has talked to us much.”

  “Okay, good. I’m sure it’s a simple suicide, but I want to be there with you when you talk to the police,” he added.

  Holly snuggled into his arms looking as if she felt safe, looking like she was at home there. Gemma felt more alone than she had in weeks and hugged herself, slowly rocking back and forth.

  Ross stepped back out onto the porch, hesitated again, and this time headed in her direction.

  “Gemma, good to see you again,” he said.

  She nodded, unable to speak, wanting to say a dozen things, ask a thousand questions.

  “Um, they’re going to want to get a statement from you guys for the record,” he began. “And another detective will be contacting you with any more questions.”

  “For a suicide?” Mitch said.

  “It wasn’t suicide,” Ross said quietly. “It was murder.”

  Chapter Four

  “Oh, no,” Holly gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. She inched closer to Mitch who held her even tighter.

  “Murder,” Gemma whispered standing to face Ross. “Are you sure?”

  “The coroner found bruises on her neck inconsistent with hanging. It looks like she was just hung there to make it look like a suicide,” Ross explained.

  “Why can’t we give our statements to you?” Holly asked.

  It was clear to Gemma that she wanted to get past this, move on as quickly as she could. Gemma felt pretty much the same way.

  Ross stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked away. There was that muscle twitching in his jaw again, a sure sign he was agitated about something. Gemma had no idea how close he and Katie had been during the past two months. Only as close as Katie would have allowed, for sure. She used men to get what she wanted and then tossed them aside.

  Was he hurting? Devastated at her loss? He didn’t appear to be but then Ross was a cop all the way to the bone.

  Gemma’s first instinct was to comfort him but she held back. She caught a whiff of his scent, rich like coffee and slightly woodsy. It reminded her of the times they had been together.

  “I won’t be able to work this case,” Ross finally said. “I was...close...to the victim.”

  The way he said it made Gemma think that he wasn’t that close at all, but she had seen him leave her house with Katie Mack on Valentine’s Day. More than one person had told her they’d seen them together around town, out to dinner or at the movies. Knowing Katie, she wouldn’t have let Ross go until she was finished with him.

  “Someone from Harrisonburg PD is coming, then?” Mitch asked.

  Ross nodded. “Probably. I don’t like handing over my cases to someone else, but I don’t have any choice. I’ve already contacted the Chief. They’ll send someone down within the hour.”

  Over Ross’s shoulder, Gemma saw the gurney being rolled across the porch and carefully moved down the steps to the coroner’s van. The body bag was no longer folded up. At the same time, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and saw Nick Leonard dodging through traffic and around the every growing crowd of people as he headed in their direction.

  This was the first time she’d seen him since he’d broken up with her on Valentine’s Day as well. Gemma had been dreading the moment when she ran into one of them or saw them with someone else. Now here she was, face to face with both of them at the same time under almost unbearable circumstances.

  Nick bounded up onto the porch and headed in their direction, his boyishly handsome face filled with concern. His gaze flicked from Gemma to Ross and then to Holly and Mitch.

  “Gemma, are you okay?” he asked, only a little breathless.

  His dark brown hair was windblown and he wore his usual outfit of khakis and a dress shirt. He reached out as if to touch her, then seemed to think better of it. Instead, he grabbed his trusty pen and notepad out of his back pocket.

  Gemma nodded. “I’m okay.”

  But she wasn’t okay. She had no idea whether Nick was dating someone or not but the tension between the three of them was so thick, she could almost see it. Both men she cared about were within arm’s length and she couldn’t bring herself to touch either one of them.

  “I heard it on the scanner at the office,” he explained. “What happened?”

  “Gemma and Holly had an appointment with Katie Mack to look at houses today. They found Katie hanging in the master bedroom closet,” Mitch told him.

  “Suicide?”

  Ross shook his head slowly back and forth. “We’ll have to wait for the full coroner’s report, but he saw bruising that wasn’t consistent with suicide.”

  “Any thoughts?” Nick asked.

  Gemma knew he already had a headline and the first paragraph of his newspaper story in his head.

  “I can’t say anything else. I won’t be handling the case,” Ross told him.

  Nick gave him a quizzical look but said nothing.

  “And you might want to sit on that story until tomorrow,” Ross added.

  “I will,” Nick promised. “I’ll definitely wait until after Biggs does the autopsy.”

  “Excuse me, sir.”

  Both Ross and Nick turned to look at young Officer Milken standing behind them.

  “Sirs,” he amended and Gemma saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed quickly. “I need to get a statement from the ladies.”

  Ross simply turned and walked away. Nick followed.

  “I need to question you separately,” he said, leading Gemma toward the front door. “If you’ll just come with me.”

  “Not in there,” she said, glancing at the horrified look on Holly’s face. “Can we go somewhere else?”

  “Sure,” he said with a little smile. “Let’s just go out by the cruiser.”

  Once they were out in the yard and a bit further away from the house, some of the heaviness eased out of Gemma’s shoulders. She was very aware of people still gathered on the sidewalk watching. She was aware of officers moving around the home, taking pictures and measurements, doing their job. But she was mostly aware of Detective Ross Ferguson sitting in his car, watching everything from a distance.

  This must be the hardest thing he’s ever had to do, Gemma thought.

  “If you’ll just tell me what happened that’s all I need for right now,” Officer Milken said.

  Before she could answer, Officer Bailor breezed by. He glanced at Gemma and then turned to the police officer who was about to take her statement. “You won’t believe what someone just told me.”

  Gemma tried to pretend she wasn’t listening but she desperately wanted to hear what
he said.

  “What?”

  Officer Bailor whispered something to his partner but all Gemma heard was the “early this morning” and “witch”.

  Officer Milken laughed aloud. “Shut up.”

  “That’s what they told me.”

  Milken pushed Bailor aside and turned his attention back to Gemma. “Sorry about that,” he said.

  It took her a moment to get her thoughts together. Her Aunt Maisy had turned up at her house out of the blue that morning. And she’d been dressed like a witch.

  “Miss?”

  “Oh, sorry,” Gemma said shaking off the confusing thoughts. “My friend Holly Blake is getting married soon. She just started house hunting today,” Gemma began.

  “So you had an appointment?” he asked.

  Gemma nodded and opened her mouth to say something else, but he interrupted.

  “Were you on time?”

  “Yes, maybe even a little bit early,” Gemma answered.

  He nodded for her to continue.

  “When we got here the door was unlocked and slightly open.” Gemma paused for a moment, struggling to remember if it was open or not. “We thought Katie was inside waiting for us, but when we called out she didn’t answer.”

  Officer Milken was writing as fast as he could with his stubby pencil. Gemma gave him a moment to catch up.

  “We looked around downstairs and when she didn’t show, we went upstairs looking for her. That’s when we found her hanging in the master bedroom closet,” Gemma finished.

  “Did you touch anything?”

  “We touched lots of things,” Gemma said. “Doorknobs, furniture.”

  “The body?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, when the detective from Harrisonburg gets here, he’ll want to ask you a few more questions. Standard procedure.”

  Gemma nodded.

  “Could I get your name and number?”

  Reaching into her purse, Gemma pulled out a business card and handed it to him.

  He looked at it closely and then turned his attention to Holly, who was still standing at the foot of the steps with Mitch.