Freezer I'll Shoot (A Vintage Kitchen Mystery)

by Hamilton, Victoria

  But then he came home one day, ranting that he had found out Urban was making a secret deal to buy the marina on the Canadian side of the island, as well as some land on the US side near it. He was furious. She overheard him arguing on the phone with Urban one evening, and making a time to meet down at the marina. She left to go to her darts club evening, and was out until one or two in the morning, since the league went for drinks at the Ice House, and it ran late, as it often did on league night.

  “When I heard about the murder . . .” She shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. She shivered, despite the warm evening air that flooded in the open back door. “I wondered. But I convinced myself it couldn’t be true. I mean, we had our problems, and he wasn’t always kind . . . In fact, he wasn’t the man I married, or at least . . .” She trailed off on a sigh. “He wasn’t the guy I remembered from high school.”

  She cried a bit, then continued. When she finally confronted him just that day, he broke down and told her the truth, saying he did it all for them. He found out that Urban had no intention of going through with the dredging of their marina and harbor, because he was going to put all his money and energy into the one he would soon privately own and the other he would be building. Once he was done, the Ferry Queene would only have to stop at Urban’s new marinas. It would have ruined Will.

  “That’s what he said to me, too,” Jaymie said to Zack. “It would break him, financially. I think he tried to work it out with Urban, but Urb probably taunted Will with his plans. That’s the kind of guy he was.”

  “Anyway, he told me this evening that he then stole the wheelbarrow from one of Robin’s leaching bed digs,” Barb continued, “stowed it, then had the discussion with Urban, asking for a late-night meeting at the marina to hash it out.” She shook her head and sighed. “He says . . . He said that Urb got physical. He said Urb hit him, and he had to kill him in self-defense. But . . . I knew that wasn’t true! Why would he have stolen the wheelbarrow beforehand? And the ice pick . . . He pocketed that the night of Urban’s confrontation with Garnet outside of the Ice House.”

  “Really?” Jaymie cried. “How did he do that?”

  “We were there having dinner that night,” Barb said. “We saw it all. I think Will managed to manipulate Urb somehow so he confronted Garnet about that stupid sail.”

  Zack narrowed his eyes. “Okay, I’m just guessing at this, but when Garnet left the bar to go after Urb, maybe he left the ice pick on the bar? That has to be when Will got it.”

  “He really planned ahead,” Jaymie mused. “He meant to implicate Garnet.”

  “Will never really liked Garnet. He . . . he thought the guy was shady,” Barb said, tears welling up in her eyes.

  “Is that why he left the body in my backyard?” Jaymie asked. “He wasn’t too clear on that.”

  “It wasn’t your backyard, I think, that he intended. It was Garnet’s.”

  “Zack, it was Will who called the restaurant all evening, in between all the other stuff he was doing. He told me so.”

  Zack nodded. “We’ve ordered the phone records, but don’t have them yet. I just yesterday set a team investigating Urban’s business dealings, because I just had a feeling that had something to do with his death. In another day or so, if this hadn’t happened, we would have had Will in for questioning.”

  “Detective!” one young officer said, coming into the kitchen. “I think we have something.” He held up a cell phone. “This is one of those prepaid phones, like, a disposable, practically.”

  “Is it yours?” Zack asked Barb.

  She shook her head, looking mystified. “No. I have mine in my purse, and Will had a dark blue cell phone. I’ve never seen that one in my life.”

  “Where’d you find it?” Zack asked.

  “Desk in the spare room with some loan papers.”

  “I’ll bet it’s the phone the calls to the restaurant came from,” Jaymie said. Hoppy begged to come up, and she cuddled her little dog on her lap, hugging him close.

  “Maybe,” the detective said. “Bag it, Trewent.” The officer nodded and went back to his work.

  “I tried to tell him it wouldn’t do any good to pin the blame on me,” Jaymie sniffed. “As if you’d believe it!”

  The detective suppressed a smile, but Jaymie caught it. Barb’s smothered sob sobered them both.

  “He went off the deep end,” Barb said. “I’m so sorry for all the harm he caused! I wish I’d turned him in, but until tonight I only had suspicions!”

  Jaymie was exhausted, but her nerves were frayed like the raveled edge of a piece of silk. She hugged Hoppy to her, burying her nose in his fur, sniffing deeply the outdoor scents of their evening’s adventure.

  Zack had been glancing at her for a few minutes, then finally said, “Jaymie, we’re going to be at this for a long time. Why don’t you go back to Rose Tree Cottage, and I’ll see you in the morning.”

  She nodded. “I have a lot more to tell you,” she said. “Lots that I’ve guessed, and some that Will told me.”

  “It would help if you wrote it down, just to keep it all clear.”

  “Okay.” She stood, and reached out her free hand to Barb, touching her shoulder. “Will you be all right? I’ll stay, if you need someone.”

  The woman took in a deep breath. “I’m going to be okay. My mom was coming over tomorrow anyway, and I’ll get through tonight. Thank you, Jaymie. I’ll never forget hearing Hoppy, and your voice saying everything was okay. I’ll never forget it!” Her eyes teared up and she stood, reaching out and hugging Jaymie and Hoppy, who licked her face.

  The cottage was welcoming. She hadn’t seen Garnet since the incident, but it was too late to go over. She’d see him the next day, and thank him for his part in her rescue. Zack told her that Hoppy found Garnet, thanks to his autopilot familiarity with the Redmonds, and when Garnet saw Hoppy off leash and alone, he felt something was up, and followed the excited little dog. He saw Zack on his way—the detective’s cottage was not far up the road from the Redmonds—and asked him to follow. That was how they came upon the scene, and saw Will, with the gun, just as Jaymie had dived into the bushes near the Lindsay home.

  Jaymie gave Hoppy a handful of treats; he deserved that and much, much more for virtually saving her life. She made a cup of tea and sat, clipboard in hand, at the kitchen table, trying to organize her thoughts.

  She was pretty sure Will did not know the truth about Ruby and Garnet, but he thought there was something suspicious there, enough that he managed to imply, in anonymous phone calls, that he would expose them if Garnet didn’t meet him. Of course, all he’d wanted was to get Garnet out and alone at an important time, to be able to throw suspicion on the restaurant owner in Urban’s murder. Had he used that same technique the night Ruby almost died?

  Garnet and Ruby would have a lot to clear up with Zack, but that was none of her business. A tap at the back door startled her. Hoppy barked. She got up, and was surprised to see Ruby waiting on the back deck. Hoppy went crazy, of course, as she let her neighbor in. Ruby tossed Hoppy a treat from her shorts pocket.

  The two women stood staring at each other for a long moment. “Do you want a cup of tea?” Jaymie asked, not sure what to say. They retired to the front porch with their tea. It was late, close to midnight, and everything was silent but for the breeze that tossed the tops of the pines across the road.

  “I’m so happy you’re okay,” Ruby said, her voice quiet in the still night. Hoppy jumped up with her and snuggled close, snuffling at her pocket, where the treats lived.

  “I’m grateful Garnet did what he did,” Jaymie said, fervent in her gratitude.

  “We knew something was up. Hoppy wouldn’t have been off leash like that if there wasn’t something wrong.” There was silence for a few minutes; then Ruby started talking. “I grew up in Montreal, Canada. Such a beautiful city; sometimes I dream I�
��m back there.”

  “What’s your real name?”

  “I don’t tell anyone that. There is no good reason to endanger anyone else. I am Ruby Redmond.”

  “Is it really that dangerous?”

  Ruby sighed. “Yes. I got married young to an associate of my father’s, and I saw them both murdered by a rival, first my husband, and then my father. I testified, and that sealed my fate. I can never go back to Montreal.”

  They were silent, as Jaymie digested the strange truth of the case. “How did you meet Garnet?”

  “He was a cop once, and then private security. My father hired him to look after me ten years ago, after Laurent’s death. Laurent was my husband; I was going to leave him anyway, divorce him. I just couldn’t handle the violence anymore, the corruption. When Garnet came on board as my bodyguard, he was so different from Laurent. I’ll never know why my father hired someone from outside to look after me, but once Pop was killed, I knew I had to get out. I testified against the men who killed my father, but then left.”

  “With Garnet?”

  She nodded. “We fell in love, and got married, just a quickie little ceremony in front of a Justice of the Peace, but it meant all the world to me. Garnet and I went to Florida for a while, but they found us. So we changed our names and came here.”

  “And you thought you’d been found again.”

  Her dark eyes welled. “I was so scared!” she whispered. “I couldn’t take it . . . those phone calls . . . It was like the last time. That evening there was one phone call for me, saying that he ‘knew all my secrets.’ And I knew Garnet was getting weird phone calls, too, but he wouldn’t tell me what the guy was saying! I was so mad, and upset. I argued with Garnet, but he was trying to protect me and wouldn’t tell me what the guy had said. After the murder I began to wonder if the calls were from Urban. Had Garnet met Urban, and . . . and killed him to protect me? It didn’t make sense but I wasn’t thinking rationally.”

  “You were really scared,” Jaymie offered, still trying to come to terms with what this quiet woman had gone through in her life. Whatever ease she now had, in her fifties, she had earned with decades of turmoil and fear.

  “I decided to leave. If Garnet didn’t kill Urban—and I decided it was impossible, because he sure wouldn’t leave the body in the backyard—then maybe there was someone after me, someone who had killed Urban and planted his body there as a warning. I left Garnet a note and took off, down to the marina with just some money and clothes in a bag. And then Will was so nice . . . He invited me to wait for the ferry in his office, and even gave me a cup of herbal tea. I think . . . I think I asked him to tell Garnet I’d left him a note, but I’m not sure. I don’t remember anything else except for some foggy impression of being dumped in the water.”

  If only things hadn’t sped along, Jaymie thought, fueled by Will’s paranoia and her own presence that evening. Ruby had regained consciousness just that day, and she told the cops everything about being drugged in Will’s office. Given another few hours or a day or so, they would have found her bag in the marina office and may have had enough to arrest Will on the charge of attempted murder on Ruby, and probably would have then been able to tie him into Urban’s murder. Zack had been on his trail, but it would have taken a few more days more.

  “Will made those phone calls,” Jaymie said. “I think he thought you and Garnet were . . . I don’t know, fugitives from justice or something.”

  “I know. In retrospect, the caller didn’t make sense, but I was scared out of my mind! We told the police everything right after the murder. I knew if they started to look into our past, there would be questions.”

  After a few moments of silence, Ruby said, “I think the cold water woke me up a little, because I tried to swim, and then tried to get to shore, but all I could do was hang on to a pier.” She shivered. “I could have died. Would have, if not for you!”

  “Well, I could have died if not for you and Garnet. And Hoppy! Actually, Hoppy was the hero in both cases. If he hadn’t been stubborn and made me look in the water, I wouldn’t have found you. And if he hadn’t run off and got Garnet to come after him, Will would have found me in the woods and shot me!”

  “He’s a good little pup,” Ruby said, taking another treat out of her pocket and feeding it to the Yorkie-Poo.

  “So now you know your secret is safe, right?” Jaymie said.

  Ruby nodded. “Only Marg knows, and now you and Valetta.”

  “We won’t say a word.”

  “I think we’d better make sure folks know we’re not brother and sister though. I know there was some gossip about me, and I want to put an end to that, but I just don’t want my past getting around.”

  “I think it’ll be okay.”

  “So, now what, Jaymie?”

  Jaymie looked off into the dark, across the road into the dark pines that lined her road. The island felt peaceful to her again, and she reflected on all the work they had done to make it perfect. “Now I face dinner at Rose Tree Cottage with my family and Daniel’s parents. Thanks to Valetta, I think the cottage is as ready as it’ll ever be. At least I won’t be ashamed of my island home.”

  “When does the big dinner take place?”

  “Day after tomorrow. Then my article comes out in the Howler the very next day. I don’t know which one makes me more nervous.”

  “Good luck, hon,” Ruby said, reaching over to squeeze Jaymie’s hand. “You remember what I said about Daniel. A good man like that is hard to find. I didn’t get mine until I was into my forties.”

  Twenty-three

  SAMMY DOBRINSKIE WAS on Jaymie’s cottage doorstep the next morning, clipboard under his arm, his expression troubled.

  “Sammy! Didn’t expect you this morning,” Jaymie said, holding the screen door open for him. “C’mon in. Do you want to have a coffee down at the new patio?”

  “Uh, sure, okay. I guess it’s real early, isn’t it?” he said, his cheeks reddening. He pushed his lank hair back and clutched his clipboard to his chest.

  Jaymie had on her pajamas, but at least that was, this time of year, a pair of cotton shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt. No bra. “Just go on down, and give me a minute.”

  It took her ten minutes to change, brush her hair and teeth, and assemble a tray of coffee cups, the carafe and milk and sugar. As she descended the lawn, she saw Garnet and Ruby sitting out on their patio, overlooking the joint ravine lot. Garnet waved. Jaymie called out hello, then continued on to the patio. Sammy was pacing, but as he saw her approach, he dashed to pull out a chair for her and help her with the heavy tray. Nice manners, Jaymie thought. He’d do well with girls once he got over his shyness.

  “I’m s-sorry for butting in,” he said, in a rush of words. “I get thinking, and forget how early it is, and then just rush out and do stuff. Sometimes when I realize how early it is, I’m at the doors of a Home Depot that’s not, like, open yet.”

  “It’s okay, Sam. What have you got there?” she asked, and poured a cup of coffee for each of them.

  He laid the clipboard down and showed her the finished sketches of her landscaping. “I had some other ideas, and wanted to show you before we take off. Mom and I are driving down to the school this morning to find a place to rent near the college. We’ll only be staying there overnight, and I know I’ll be seeing you again, to take pictures of the landscaping, but I wanted to get this done.”

  She looked at his sketches, while he added four spoons of sugar and lots of milk to his cup. He had elaborated on the themes he had already introduced, of “living areas” on the cottage property, and they discussed his ideas for a half hour. Some, they decided, were too complex unless the family decided to modernize and expand the cottage, something Jaymie was not in favor of, though it would make the property more rentable. But there were still a couple of ideas she liked very much, including a barbecue and fire pit a
rea, for families to hang out with their kids and toast marshmallows.

  “Do you want to come back tomorrow after I’ve set the whole thing up for a meal . . . I mean, before the family supper? Will you be back in time? I want you to be able to photograph all your hard work in its best setting.”

  He looked relieved and grateful. “I would. I was kinda afraid to ask, after everything that went down. I know you’ve been super busy. But it will look its best if I do it with the area set up for use.”

  “Don’t be silly. I’m really sorry about your dad,” she said, touching his arm briefly, “but it must be good for you and your mom to know who the real culprit is, isn’t it?”

  He nodded. “I, uh, wanted to tell you . . . My mom, when she lied about that night, about being home, and all, and me being at a sleepover . . . I knew she went out. She followed my dad, but lost track of him. She ended up on the Canadian side, thinking he was going to visit some woman there.”

  Jaymie was silent.

  “He, uh . . . He had a girlfriend. But the woman dumped him before he got murdered, from what the cops told us Anyway, that’s all that was; my mom was scared they’d come after me if they knew I was home alone that night.”

  Jaymie knew the rest about the night of the murder, that Will had called Urban to meet him at the marina, where he actually murdered him, stowed him in the office, then, under cover of darkness, moved his body using the wheelbarrow. Will then took the wheelbarrow back to the marina and dumped it in the river.

  “Are you guys keeping the marina?” she asked.

  “Yeah, for now. Mr. Redmond is buying out Mrs. Lindsay’s half, I think, and he and his . . . Uh, Ms. Redmond are going to manage the marina while we’re gone.”

  Jaymie bit her lip, and glanced over at him. “You know, Sammy, that they aren’t really sister and brother.” Garnet and Ruby were fine with folks knowing that much, they just didn’t want her past associations gossiped about.

  He smiled and tossed his lank hair back. “Yeah, I know, but it’s hard to think of them as . . . as a couple, after all these years.” He turned pink again, subject to the same problem with blushing that Jaymie had always had. “Y’know what I mean? I’ll get used to it. Eventually.”