Chocolate Peppermint & Murder: An Oceanside Cozy Mystery - Book 13

by Susan Gillard

  “It’s much easier than solving this case,” Heather sighed.

  “Don’t get down on yourself,” Amy said. “If you look at it the right way, we already solved the first part of the case.”

  “What do you mean?”

  "Harmony hired us to find Stone, and we did," Amy said with a smile.

  “But we found his body and discovered he was murdered,” Heather responded.

  Amy stopped smiling. “I didn’t say we were done with the case. I just said we solved the first part.”

  “Right. Sorry,” Heather said.

  Dave tried to move closer to the pretty Miss Marshmallow, and she promptly hid behind Amy. Heather gave him some love instead and started petting his ears.

  “I just feel like we have so little to go on for this case,” Heather admitted. “All we really know is that Stone Hendricks was killed sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning.”

  “And that people took him seriously with a name like Stone,” Amy couldn’t resist saying.

  "Stone didn't have any real money to leave anybody, and he was young enough that he didn't write out a will. The family angle also doesn't seem likely because they live far away," Heather said, recapping what Ryan had learned. "They said they didn't really know what he was up to for years."

  “When Ryan was talking to his family about Stone’s background, did he find out if Stone was his given name at birth?” Amy asked.

  “Ryan didn’t mention it. I don’t know if he asked,” Heather said.

  “What sort of investigator is he?” Amy teased.

  “He’s been working hard trying to find a reason why someone would want Stone dead. But so far, no one knows of any fights or feuds with him on the island. Peters has been digging into Stone’s past to see if there is something there that could be a motive for his murder, but hasn’t found anything yet.”

  “Did the detectives have any luck talking with Beatrice?” Amy asked.

  “After she was informed that Stone was murdered, she tried to do her neighborly duty and remember more about the women that she saw coming to his house, but it’s still rather vague,” Heather said. “She remembers a woman with dark red hair who seemed older than Stone. A blonde woman with big glasses. And a woman with brown hair and bangs.”

  “A blonde, a brunette and a redhead?” Amy asked. “This sounds like the setup to a joke.”

  “But in this case, the punchline is murder,” Heather said.

  “I think my sense of humor is rubbing off on you.” Amy grinned.

  “It might be,” Heather admitted.

  “So, what do we do now?”

  “I’ll accept the jokes as they come. And for the case, I think we should talk to more of Stone's coworkers to see if they knew any more about his life."

  Dave barked.

  “After we finish this walk, of course!” Heather said.

  The Instructor and her Incense

  Heather started tracking down the other instructors who taught at Harmony's studio. Two of them were sisters and had been out of town at their parent's home for the holidays. They had left before Stone went missing, so Heather didn't think they were involved with his murder. She was able to talk to them on the phone, but neither had wanted to speak ill of the dead, and they hadn't given her any useful information.

  Heather was sincerely hoping that the last instructor would be able to shed some light on the crime. Linda Line welcomed Heather and Amy into her home.

  She had short hair pulled back in a headband and was dressed like she was ready to work out.

  "I hope I'll be able to help," Linda said. "I can't believe Stone is dead. He was so young and healthy. I expected him to be around for a while. But I guess murder doesn't have a lot to do with your health.”

  She invited them into her living room where there were seats for them all to sit down on. Amy made a face as a whiff of something struck her nostrils. She quickly tried to cover it by taking out her tablet to take notes.

  “That’s quite a strong smell,” Amy commented.

  “I like to have some incense burning in my home,” Linda said.

  “It’s strong-smelling incense,” Amy said.

  “It’s called patchouli,” Linda said. “Do you like it?”

  “Well, it’s pretty strong,” Amy said. “Much stronger than that lavender in the studio.”

  “Yes. The lavender is meant to be lighter and soothing,” Linda agreed.

  “Is it incense there too that makes it stink? I mean, smell.”

  "Actually, the studio smells like lavender because we use lavender oil on the yoga mats when we clean them," said Linda. We do it after every class."

  “That sounds like a nice touch,” Heather said. “But I’d like to talk about Stone Hendricks now if we can.”

  “Sure,” Linda said. “A lot of people are going to be broken hearted now that he’s gone.”

  “He was a popular instructor?” Heather asked.

  Linda nodded. “Especially with certain ladies.”

  “Was he dating people in his yoga class?” Heather asked.

  “I think so,” Linda said. “I tried not to get involved in, so I don’t know many details. But I know many of the women in his classes were falling for him, and I think he acted on it.”

  “Do you think any of them could have hurt him?” asked Heather.

  Linda shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought everyone loved him, but somebody had to kill him.”

  “Do you know of anyone else that would want to hurt him?”

  “No,” Linda said. “He didn’t tell us much about his background before he came to the island, and it seemed like he was pretty well liked here.”

  Heather nodded. It seemed that Stone hadn’t told everyone about his drinking problem before he moved.

  “So, the only motive that you can think of for someone to kill him was because of a romantic reason?” asked Heather.

  “There are some different personalities in the classes,” Linda said, thoughtfully. “If there was enough jealousy felt at the time, then it’s possible someone could have snapped.”

  Amy kept wrinkling her nose at the smell in the room.

  “Do you know which of the women in the class he was seeing?” asked Heather.

  “No,” Linda said. “I know which women were interested in him – all of them.”

  “All of them?” asked Amy. “With a man named Stone?”

  “I don’t get it either,” Linda said. “So many people seemed to fall for his charms. It felt false to me though. He just wanted to be liked.”

  “You didn’t like him?” Heather asked.

  "I didn't dislike him," Linda said. "He was kind, and he knew how to teach, but I don't understand why everyone was fawning over him."

  “Did it make you jealous that so many women liked his class?” Heather asked.

  "Maybe a little," Linda admitted. "But not enough to kill for. As I said, I just don't understand the attraction."

  “He wasn’t your type?” asked Amy.

  Linda shook her head. “I don’t like when I feel like people are trying to manipulate you. Even if it’s for small gains. Just trying to get you to like them. My husband is the complete opposite. He’s very honest, and that’s something I appreciate.”

  “Were you home with your husband on Friday night?” Heather asked.

  “Yes,” Linda said. “We had another couple over for kale salads and drinks. I didn’t know that I would be called in to cover a class on Saturday, so it was a late night. They didn’t leave until after midnight.”

  “You had to cover a class? Was this because Stone was missing?”

  “Yes,” said Linda. “He didn’t show up for his eleven a.m. class. Luckily, I don’t live too far away, so I was able to start the class only a little late. One of the students called me when he wasn’t there on time. She couldn’t get in touch with Harmony.”

  Heather was happy to see that Amy was making a note of this. They should find out why Har
mony couldn’t be reached that morning, to make sure that it wasn’t because she was disposing of Stone Hendrick’s body.

  “But if you’re looking for an alibi, then my husband can vouch for me and say I was home all that night,” said Linda. “He can also tell you how I was not pleased to be called in on my day off. I had a lot of trouble getting out of bed and then needed to hurry.”

  “Who was it that called you to come in?” asked Heather.

  "A woman named Dawn. She can be a little pushy, but I know that these classes help with her back, so she is eager to have them."

  “Was she one of the women who liked Stone Hendricks?” Heather asked.

  Linda nodded. "The ones who fell the hardest were the ones who took his Friday night class. I guess he paid them all special attention in the small group setting. There's Dawn, Kimber, Pauline, and Tiff."

  “But you’re not sure if any of them were actually dating him?”

  “No. Sorry,” Linda said, shaking her head. Then an idea came to her. “Why don’t you check it out for yourselves?”

  "We were hoping to talk to everyone in the Friday night class again now that we know the man we thought was missing has been murdered," Heather said. "We only spoke to a few people briefly and only on the phone from Harmony's contact information."

  “Come by the studio,” Linda insisted. “I’ll be teaching a class today. I’m sure all the people from the Friday night class will be there. They usually like to come to my larger group class too, but I know they’ll be there today. They’ll want to talk about what happened to Stone.”

  “That does sound like a good idea,” Heather said. “And we were meaning to take a class anyway. That’s what started this all.”

  “Yeah. We’d be happy to come,” Amy said. “It won’t smell like patchouli there, will it?”

  Yoga Poses

  Heather and Amy arrived at the yoga studio dressed as if they were only there to take the exercise class and not to ask questions.

  “You’re new,” a woman commented when she saw them. She had brown hair with bangs and was already stretching. She stopped in order to introduce herself. “My name is Kimber.”

  "I'm Heather, and this is Amy."

  Kimber’s eyes narrowed. “Those names sound familiar together. You were those investigators looking for Stone?”

  “Unfortunately, we were also the ones to find him,” Amy said, grimacing at the memory of the hand in the sand.

  "We heard he was murdered," Kimber said. "And you both found his body? Tell me. You don't think he suffered much, do you? I couldn't stand to think he suffered."

  “I think it was over pretty quickly,” Heather said.

  “Such a terrible thing to happen,” said Kimber. “But what are you doing here? Are you going to question us more?”

  Heather didn’t want Kimber to wrap up her mat and leave.

  “Right now, we’re here for the class,” Heather said.

  “You found out an instructor was murdered and that makes you want to immediately learn how to practice yoga?” Kimber asked.

  “Harmony had insisted that we try it,” Heather said quickly, covering.

  “Yes,” said Amy. “She thought that the movement and the breathing would be soothing. It was such a shock finding the body. I haven’t quite gotten over it. I think she wanted to see if she could do anything to help because she was the one who sent us on the search.”

  Kimber nodded. “Yoga is really wonderful for you, and all the instructors here are good. We’ll miss Stone, though.”

  “Of course,” Heather said.

  Linda entered the room with the last few stragglers.

  “All right, everyone. Grab a mat and find a comfortable spot in the room,” Linda said. “We’ll begin in just a moment.”

  Heather and Amy went up to grab some lavender scented mats and had a moment to whisper with Linda.

  "The Friday night class members are on the right side of the room," Linda said.

  “We just met Kimber,” said Heather.

  “The three other women near her are the others,” Linda said. “Dawn is the oldest of them.”

  Heather nodded and then she and Amy went to look for spots to lay down their mats. They selected an area behind where the Friday night women were stretching.

  “I just don’t know what we’re going to do without Stone,” Dawn said. “It won’t be the same.”

  “It’s sad he’s gone, but we’ll be fine,” a blond woman said, pushing up her glasses. “He was a good instructor, but let’s not put him up on a pedestal.”

  “Maybe he deserves to be on a pedestal,” Dawn said. “But he could get up there himself. He was so limber and strong. He could climb anything.”

  “Let’s not talk about this,” a small woman with curly hair. “What happened was too terrible.”

  “Maybe you can forget someone in an instant,” Dawn said. “But I can’t.”

  “You certainly can’t be quiet for an instant,” Kimber muttered.

  Linda stopped the chatter by beginning the class. She put on some relaxing music and told them about how they were going to work at all different levels today and how no one should feel intimidated.

  They settled into their first pose that was a seated position where they had to keep their back straight.

  “Psst,” Amy whispered.

  “What?” Heather asked.

  “There was a mixed reaction to Stone being found murdered, wouldn’t you say?” Amy asked quietly.

  “And did you notice something else?” asked Heather. “The members of the Friday night class bear a striking resemblance to those descriptions that Beatrice gave of who she saw at Stone’s house.”

  Amy’s eyes widened as she realized it. It was true. There was the redheaded woman who was older than Stone, the blonde with glasses, and a brunette with bangs.

  They weren’t able to discuss the case any further at the time though because they all had to be a part of a deep breathing exercise. This later turned into moving to different poses while they continued being conscious of their breath. There were poses where they had both their hands and feet on the ground while they raised their hips in the arm, and ones were they moved their arms in the air while they bent one knee.

  Amy enjoyed when they did the Sphinx Pose because she quietly joked about how Heather was already all-knowing and great with puzzles. Heather wasn't so sure about that. After watching the Friday night classmates talk, she felt certain that some secrets were being kept, but Heather didn't know if any of the women were dating Stone or if they had killed him. Heather also felt out of her element while she transitioned into the different yoga poses. She felt much more comfortable in the kitchen making round donuts than she did in Triangle Pose.

  After the class, Linda assured them that they had done an excellent job.

  “I feel good after that movement,” Amy admitted. “But much more tired than I expected. Any chance we can curl up under blankets and take a nap?”

  “I think we need to track down some suspects,” Heather said.

  "Fine," Amy said after a big dramatic yawn. "Who should we talk to first?"

  “The blonde with glasses didn’t seem too upset today, and we don’t know anything about the woman with curly hair,” Heather said.

  “But Beatrice never mentioned her in her descriptions,” Amy pointed out.

  “And I would like to talk to Kimber some more,” Heather said. “And Dawn definitely acted like she had feelings for Stone.”

  “I believe she did,” Linda said. “But she also loves her yoga classes and doesn’t want them disrupted. Remember I told you how she called me at ten thirty on Saturday because she wanted to make sure the class was happening?”

  “At ten thirty?” Heather asked. “But that’s well before when the class was going to start. Stone could have arrived in the following half hour.”

  “Unless she knew for certain that he wasn’t going to show up,” Amy said.

  “I think we found th
e first person that we want to talk to,” Heather agreed.

  Dawn’s Denial

  “Is it really necessary to talk now?” Dawn asked when they arrived at her house right after she did.

  “We are trying to solve a murder case,” Heather said. “The murder of someone that you said was important to you.”

  “I never said he was important to me,” Dawn said.

  “It sounded like it before,” said Amy.

  "I just meant that he was important to the studio and to all of us there. I didn't mean that he was important to only me." Dawn kept talking. "He was a bright light at the studio, and he will be missed by all."

  “But that does include you?” asked Heather.

  “I suppose so,” Dawn admitted. “And I would like to help, but at a later date. I’d like to take a shower now.”

  “We’ll just take a few minutes of your time,” Heather insisted.

  "It might smell," Dawn said, hesitantly. "I sweat quite a lot during my workouts."

  “That’s all right,” Amy assured her. “After surviving the strong incense that I faced this morning, nothing will phase me.”

  Dawn relented and allowed them to join her inside at her kitchen table. She had a fan blowing to cool them all down. They probably did all make for a stinky trio, but Heather didn’t want to be distracted by that. She wanted to find out what Dawn knew about Stone’s murder.

  "Now I did tell you what I knew about his disappearance before," Dawn said. "I saw him Friday night for the class, and it was a perfectly normal yoga class. And then I came home."

  “Alone?” Heather asked.

  “Of course, I came home alone,” Dawn said. “I don’t know what you’re implying.”

  “We just wanted to know if there was anyone who could back up when you said you were home,” Heather said.

  “Oh,” Dawn said. “I see what you’re getting at. But I couldn’t have had anything to do with Stone’s death. I’m no killer.”

  "When did you first find out about Stone Hendrick’s death?” Heather asked.

  "It wasn't until yesterday. Harmony informed the class what had happened," Dawn said. "And I'm sure that she would back that up and say she gave us that information."