Pawsitively Deadly (Silver Springs Cozy Mystery Series Book 1)

by Ginny Gold

  “Well, here it is,” she says coldly, not how she meant to start—or restart—their relationship when she needs his help.

  “Wow. You still look just like Clem. You know she’s dating my brother now?”

  Maggie wonders why that’s the first thing he tells her. “Yeah, I heard.” She tries her best to make her voice sound friendlier but she fails miserably. Even to her own ears she sounds curmudgeonly.

  “What brings you back to town after all these years?” Detective Stevens asks.

  Maggie consciously doesn’t widen her eyes in surprise. “My parents’ death.”

  His smile disappears and his eyes soften even further. “Right. Sorry. I remember getting the call. I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t make sense.”

  “Can we talk about it somewhere?” Maggie asks.

  “Yeah. Of course. Come back to my office.” Detective Stevens waves his arm for Maggie to follow and she walks around the desk and down the hall. He holds the door to his office open and points to a chair where Maggie should sit. She does, and he walks around to the other side of his desk and sits across from her.

  “Was it really suicide?” Maggie asks. She knows what she thinks about their deaths already but she wants to hear it from Detective Stevens.

  He can’t meet her eyes. “All the signs point to suicide.” He glances at her face before he asks, “Clem didn’t tell you everything we found?”

  Maggie shakes her head and wonders who Clem is trying to protect by keeping details from her.

  “There was a note. We had forensics check for any handwriting anomalies, anything that would have indicated it was forced. But nothing came up.”

  Maggie already knew about the note. “So a note is all you’re going on?” Maggie asks, anger rising in her chest that he would jump to conclusions so quickly. She knows she would with anyone else, but not her parents.

  Detective Stevens shakes his head. “Your parents were in their car. In the garage. It was still running. The lights were off. Like they didn’t want to be found.”

  “Who made the call?” Maggie asks. If the car’s lights were off, she wonders who would have even known they were in there.

  “Leah Scott.”

  Maggie thinks back to her conversation with Leah at The Last Page yesterday. She remembers Leah telling her she found them. But if there were no signs, how did she know to look for them?

  “How’d she know?” Maggie slips her tablet out of her handbag and asks, “May I?”

  “Take notes? Of course. You’re a PI now, right?”

  Maggie nods. “For years.”

  “So you’re not really just here on personal business.” Detective Stevens leans forward and clasps his hands together on his desk.

  “No. I’m looking into their death.”

  Detective Stevens pauses before he continues. “Well, let me make this easier for you.” He turns behind him and opens a drawer of a filing cabinet. When he turns back around, he holds a folder in Maggie’s direction. “My olive branch. I know I wasn’t the nicest person to you in high school. But that was a lifetime ago. I’d like to make it up to you. The department has your back. There were unanswered questions but enough evidence to call it suicide. We couldn’t spend more time on the case, and I apologize for that. If you need anything, let me know.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Maggie is dumbfounded. She can’t believe her eyes or her ears. Detective Daniel Stevens is admitting that his department didn’t follow through because they came to the easy conclusion of suicide? And he’s willing to make it right? That, and his history with Maggie.

  “Wow . . . I don’t know what to say,” Maggie squeaks out and takes the offered folder.

  “I want to make up for past wrongs. All the way back to high school.”

  Detective Stevens holds Maggie’s gaze and she knows he’s waiting to hear something redeeming. But she has nothing to offer. He was part of the reason she left and never came back. Until now.

  “We all make mistakes,” she says quietly, the best she can do. “Thanks for this.” She waves the folder in the air. “I’ll call with any questions.”

  “Why don’t we do dinner tomorrow? With Denis and Clem? We’ll take you both out. We can talk about any new leads you might have.”

  Maggie is skeptical that he’s approaching this with only remorse. She can’t imagine that after all these years he still feels badly about how he treated her in high school. But she decides to let him take her to a dinner. She nods.

  “Great. I assume you’re staying with Clem?” Maggie nods again. “We’ll pick you up at seven.”

  This is Maggie’s second invitation to what she presumes is a date this afternoon. Both seemingly out of the blue. Both by men she didn’t expect this from. Will Drew Kent be next? She certainly wouldn’t say no to him—for his good looks and to ask him more about how he knew her mother.

  Detective Stevens leads Maggie back out to the front of the police station and she lets herself out. In her car, she checks her phone for any messages. She doesn’t expect to hear from Garth or Trista, but with everything else that’s happened today she wouldn’t be surprised if a new person has left her a message.

  But there’s nothing. She turns her car on and drives back to Clem’s house. She has a few hours before Bingo and settles down at the kitchen table with the file.

  Maggie reviews all of Detective Stevens’ notes, photos and interviews from his short investigation. As she reads through it all, she does have to admit it looks like suicide.

  A note was found on the steering wheel and is included in the folder. Maggie knows without a doubt that her mother wrote it, just like Clem knew when she saw it. She can’t tell whether her mother was forced to write it or not, but from the report there is no indication of coercion.

  Her parents’ car was found running in the garage, just like Detective Stevens told her. Both of Maggie’s parents were already dead by the time they were found and the car was nearly out of fuel. No windows or doors had been left open to the outside for ventilation so carbon monoxide poisoning would have been inevitable.

  Maggie flips through the interview notes to find Leah Scott’s statement. Maggie learns that Leah was expecting her parents for dinner that night and when they didn’t show she went to their house to check on them. She started in the house, letting herself in since the house was never locked, and finally ended up in the garage when she heard the car running. Her statement makes it clear that the fumes were overwhelming and she immediately opened the garage door to the driveway.

  But she was too late.

  Leah’s fingerprints weren’t found on anything in the garage other than the car door handles and the electronic garage door opener. Maggie didn’t think she was a suspect after she spoke with her yesterday, and her mother confirmed that it couldn’t have been her last night on her phone call, but she still finds it reassuring to see that there is no implicating evidence.

  At four thirty, Maggie decides to take a break and go to Two Sisters before Clem closes at five. If she’s lucky, maybe her mother will call with a little more information that could prove invaluable.

  All of the animals are inside when she leaves and she finds a parking spot on Main Street just in front of Two Sisters. Inside, Maggie finds Clem talking to a customer so she goes in and browses, not wanting to interrupt.

  “Maggie, you remember Denis Stevens,” Clem says by way of introduction.

  Maggie does remember him. He was three years older so they didn’t interact much, but she never liked him simply because he was Daniel’s brother. Guilt by association.

  “Maggie, good to see you,” Denis says with a smile. “Clem was telling me you were in town. How have you been?”

  Maggie can’t think of a single time she actually spoke to Denis so she finds it amusing that he’s so friendly with her now. Maybe he and Clem are more serious than Maggie realizes and he wants to get in Maggie’s good graces since she’s the only family Clem has anymore.

&
nbsp; “I’ve been . . . good. I . . . um . . . talked to your brother today—”

  “Yeah, he told me we’re all having dinner tomorrow,” Denis interrupts.

  “We are?” Clem asks, shooting a glance at Maggie. “Really?”

  Maggie nods. “We’re getting picked up at seven,” Maggie tells her.

  “I’ve gotta run,” Denis says, planting a kiss on Clem’s cheek. “I’ll see you later?” Clem nods, a blush covering her makeup free cheeks. “And I’ll see you tomorrow night.” He points a friendly finger in Maggie’s direction. She smiles halfheartedly, totally unsure about this double date.

  When the front door closes behind Denis, Clem locks it and turns to Maggie. “Dinner with Daniel? Have I died and gone . . . somewhere?”

  Maggie laughs shyly. “I didn’t think I’d see the day either. But he was really helpful with getting access to the case file for Mom and Dad’s death—murder,” she quickly corrects herself. “I think he felt bad about it.”

  Clem heads back to her office but stops in her tracks when the phone booth rings. Both women walk quickly toward it and Maggie picks it up after the second ring.

  “Mom?” she asks.

  “Hi Maggie. How’s it going?” her mother asks casually.

  “Um . . . fine,” she answers hesitantly. “I was hoping you’d call. I talked to someone else today about your murder and wanted to know what you thought about Drew Kent.”

  “That hunk? I hope you got his number.” Maggie blushes and Clem leans in closer so she can hear both sides of the conversation. “Because he wasn’t responsible for our deaths. But he’s single and good looking.”

  “Yes, yes he is. But how do you know he didn’t kill you?” Maggie asks. So far she’s only taken her mother at her word but now she feels like she’s being given the run around. Every new clue she receives leads to more dead ends. She needs more details to confidently cross Drew off her list.

  “Because he’s always been on our side.”

  Maggie pauses and meets Clem’s eyes. Clem raises her shoulders to tell Maggie she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

  “What do you mean, your side? Ginger Rae told me he was stalking you.”

  “Stalking me? That’s ridiculous. She knows just as well as I do—well, never mind about that for now. I’m sure you’ll find out sooner or later. But I really can’t elaborate. Who else is on your suspect list?”

  Maggie sighs. Of course her mother won’t answer her question. That would make her job too easy.

  “No one,” Maggie says. “Can you think of anyone else?” Maggie asks, desperate for another lead.

  Her mother pauses before answering. “I really can’t. I’m sorry. But I can tell you this. We didn’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning. We were dead before we were ever in the garage.”

  CHAPTER 16

  As soon as the words are out of her mother’s mouth, the line goes dead and Maggie is left standing in the phone booth with Clem.

  “What did she mean that Ginger Rae knows as well as she does? Knows what?” Clem asks, panic creeping into her voice.

  Maggie shakes her head and puts the receiver back. “I don’t know. I don’t have a single clue what she’s talking about.”

  “And they didn’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning? Of course they did. The police did an autopsy.” Clem leads the way out of the phone booth.

  “Did they?” Maggie asks. She can’t remember reading any autopsy report in the file, though she hasn’t finished looking everything over either.

  “I mean, wouldn’t they?” Clem asks, her voice full of doubt.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t finished reviewing the file Daniel gave me.”

  “Well what are you waiting for?” Clem waves her hands around furiously, trying to push Maggie out of the store with her movements.

  “I don’t know if it will even help. Mom’s calls just make me more confused every time I talk to her. Maybe I should start asking for Dad. He might offer more straightforward answers.”

  Clem harrumphs and heads to her office. “I have to finish some things up before I go to Denis’. You can let yourself out?”

  “Sure. See you tomorrow.” Maggie goes out the unlocked back door and walks around to the front where her car is parked. She sits in the driver’s seat, thinking about everything she just learned—or everything she didn’t just learn—and knows she is on her own with this one. Her mother’s answers are too cryptic to make any sense. Detective Stevens didn’t do a complete investigation because suicide was the easy answer. And there seems to have been something bigger going on that no one will tell Maggie about.

  She decides to call it a day with the investigation and enjoy a quick dinner before Bingo.

  ***

  Maggie isn’t sure if she should wait outside the community center for any of the four people she’s promised to meet or go inside and find a table. She waits a few minutes, but when no one she knows walks by, she decides that maybe they’re already inside.

  She makes her way into the large hall just across from the front door and is immediately struck with how popular Bingo is. Her assumption that it’s only for old people doesn’t hold true in Silver Springs. There are young adults with small children all the way up to retirees and seniors.

  Ginger Rae stands and waves from across the room, making a great show of getting Maggie’s attention. Maggie makes her way to their table where Josh is already sitting with the three women.

  Josh stands and pulls out the chair next to his. Maggie thinks it’s a little over the top but lets him push her in.

  “I’m glad you made it,” he says, sliding his chair a little closer to hers.

  “Of course. I said I’d be here.”

  Erline, on Maggie’s other side, pulls a water bottle out of the cloth water bottle carrier that’s slung over her chair and places it close to Maggie. “Just in case you’re thirsty, honey,” she says and winks.

  Maggie smiles and responds, “No thanks, I’m good. I brought some water too.” She pulls her own water bottle out of her handbag.

  “Oh, this isn’t water.” Erline exchanges a glance with Winona and they burst into hysterical laughter reminiscent of teenagers giggling over a boy. “This is wine.”

  Maggie laughs along with them, though not as wholeheartedly. “Well, I guess I could have a little.”

  As if on cue, Winona and Ginger Rae bring their wine-filled water bottles out of their carries and take a sip. Josh surprises Maggie and places a fourth one on the table.

  “I told you I’d bring the drinks,” he says with a smile.

  “You think we like Bingo just for the fun of it?” Ginger Rae asks Maggie, a mischievous glint in her eye.

  “We come so we can try not to get caught,” Erline says, laughter bubbling up from her chest again.

  Maggie can’t help but begin to enjoy herself. She leans toward Josh and asks, “Did you know this was going to happen?”

  “I had a pretty good idea once I sat down. These women are always up to no good.”

  Just before Maggie can launch into an actual conversation with Josh—about anything but the antique clock he’s after—Drew Kent joins them at their table. “Evening,” he says and everyone nods or speaks their own greeting.

  Maggie watches Ginger Rae closely to see how she interacts with him. After learning from her mother that Drew was not a stalker and Ginger Rae knew that, Maggie wants to figure out what might have led her to lie about him.

  But Ginger Rae keeps her conversation safely in the area of Erline and Winona so Maggie and Josh are left to talk to Drew.

  “Sorry about earlier,” Drew says to Maggie, across Josh who is sitting between them. “I was busy with the lunch crowd and had to get back to work.”

  “Sure. No problem,” Maggie says, not wanting to get into it in public.

  “You two know each other?” Josh asks, sliding a bit closer to Maggie and placing his arm possessively on the back of her chair.

  “Just met t
oday,” Drew says calmly and Maggie is glad he spoke so quickly so she could remain silent and slowly disentangle herself from Josh’s arm.

  “I had lunch at the brewery,” Maggie explains, leaning forward so there’s no chance of Josh touching her accidentally or otherwise. She is drawn to Drew’s good looks and doesn’t want him to think that she and Josh are an item. They aren’t. She barely knows him.

  Their conversation is interrupted by an elderly man speaking into a microphone on the stage. He has all of his Bingo paraphernalia in place and quickly begins the first game.

  The game progresses quickly and it’s clear to Maggie that it’s taken very seriously by everyone in the room. Despite Erline’s claim that they only come to try not to get caught drinking wine, all three women are enraptured by their cards and every number that is called. There is minimal chatter in the entire room until someone across the hall shouts, “BINGO!”

  Maggie starts to push all of her pieces off her card but Erline quickly puts her hand over Maggie’s to stop her. “There are always plenty of mistakes. Don’t clear your card yet.”

  Maggie leans back and finds Josh’s arm again on the back of her chair. She doesn’t find it as uncomfortable as earlier but still wonders what Drew thinks of the two of them.

  To Maggie’s surprise, the potential winner has made a mistake and the game continues without starting over. After only two more numbers are called, another person shouts Bingo and the whole process repeats itself. Only this time there is not mistake and everyone must begin again.

  As the evening continues, everyone becomes more talkative and Maggie finds herself interested in Josh’s life. “Clem tells me that you’ve never married,” he says, opening the conversation to a personal area she doesn’t talk much about.

  “That’s right.”

  “And no kids?” he asks.

  Maggie shakes her head. “What about you? Marriages? Kids?”

  “Divorced once. Years ago. We were both surprised it lasted as long as it did. But then, we married when we were too young to know what we really wanted.” He shrugs and places a chip on his Bingo board.