A Ghost for Christmas (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 1)

by Winters, J. D.

  But he was a detective himself, down in Santa Barbara. The more McKnight’s questions bit into my hide, the more I felt the urge to call Nolan and tell him to come up here. I needed him.

  But I couldn’t need him. It wouldn’t work. I’d tried it, I knew the score. He wasn’t for me. I had some doubts that he would ever be for any woman. He just had too many issue rolling around inside that handsome head of his.

  “You okay?” I asked Bebe as we met up in the lobby.

  She gave me that quick, dark-eyed smile she was known for and nodded reassuringly. “I’m fine. They told you it was…that he was…”

  “A homicide, yes.” I squeezed her hand. “I hope they weren’t too hard on you.”

  She waved that away, but her eyes were misting and she had to swallow before she spoke again. “Oh Mele, I’m so sorry about all this…”

  That was all she got out before I grabbed her and pulled her around the corner from the elevator. Adrian was coming our way, scowling like a man ready to hit something.

  “It’s Adrian,” I whispered to her. “Do we want to talk to him?”

  She shook her head with emphasis and we stayed where we were, out of sight, but it turned out, not out of hearing.

  “Thanks for coming in.” Detective McKnight’s voice came to us loud and clear.

  “Oh yeah. I was coming in anyway.” His tone was abrupt and belligerent. “What I want to know is, how long is this so called investigation going to take? When can we get the will read and nail some things down? The longer it takes, the more time that bitch has to steal me blind.”

  “You know Adrian, you’d have a better chance of making demands if your alibi had checked out. Since that didn’t happen, I don’t think you’ve got much of a leg…..”

  The voice faded and then disappeared completely once a door slammed shut. We looked at each other.

  “Is he talking about Caroline?” I whispered.

  She shrugged. “I think so. Oh, poor Caroline!”

  “Should we warn her?”

  She thought for a moment. “Listen, I told her we’d come by and keep her company for awhile this afternoon. Maybe we could talk to her about this then.”

  I nodded and we started out toward the car again.

  “Poor thing. She needs a lot of hand-holding. She and Kyle were having plenty of problems, but she never thought it would come to this. She has to make a lot of decisions and she wants some back up.”

  “Okay,” I said willingly enough. “I’m a backup queen. Just let me know what she needs and I’ll be there.”

  Bebe stopped dead and looked at me, her eyes luminous. “You sweetheart,” she said, her voice rough with emotion. “Here you are, visiting me to get over a broken heart and a feeling of rejection, and we haven’t had a moment to deal with that. All we’re doing is reacting to Kyle’s…. passing. I’m sorry, sweetie,” she added, patting my cheek and then giving me a hug. “We need to get this taken care of so we can get back to what really matters.”

  She was implying that I was what really mattered, and I can’t deny that I loved hearing that from her. In many ways, as my mother’s sister, she’d always been sort of a surrogate parent in my mind—even if no one else saw it that way. She was right about why I’d come. And we hadn’t dealt with that at all. And yet—I had to admit, the murder and all that came with it had fascinated me as much as anything. Maybe this was better. Maybe letting my own ego, my own pain, float off into the ocean, would leave me time to learn to help others.

  Yuck. That sort of thinking usually just made me want to puke. I was not a do-gooder and would never be one. But that didn’t mean that I didn’t care about Bebe—and her friend as well. Caroline was in a mess, caught between a hard place and a rock, so to speak, and I would help. Sure. I would do as much as I could. Just as long as no one got too maudlin about it.

  Chapter Seven

  We decided to take a bike ride up to the winery and see if Caroline was in. We changed, pulling on biking shorts and I got my bike off my car where it still rested, waiting to be put away. Bebe had a few phone calls to make so I wandered out into the back yard to wait for her. It was early December but everything was blooming like crazy. Whatever Bebe and her crew did, they did it right.

  Suddenly the black cat came out from a sunny area where he’d been resting. He was a beautiful creature, thick fur, green eyes, and a sweet little meow that wasn’t as annoying as my last cat had been.

  “Hi beautiful,” I said. “Bebe calls you Sami, doesn't she?”

  His head jerked around as though he’d suddenly received a call from another planet, and he bounded off into the high grass.

  “Okay, then,” I murmured. “Be like that.”

  I bent to smell a full, beautiful white rose with a creamy pink center and when I looked up, there was Aunty Jane, frowning at me sternly, and then speaking in the familiar pidgin of the islands.

  “Mele, you goin’ walk on da Menehunes!”

  “Oh!” I looked down where I’d stumbled against the edges and sure enough, there seemed to be small shelters built like tiny houses for the leprechaun–like mythical people of the Hawaiian islands.

  “Oh no. I’m sorry.”

  I leaned down and lifted a large leaf that seemed to be forming a roof to make sure I hadn’t hurt anything.

  “I don’t see anything in here,” I said, then looked up again. Aunty Jane was gone. There wasn’t a sign of her. My heart jumped. I looked around the garden again. How could the woman have disappeared so quickly?

  And when I looked down at the little houses again, I realized they were nothing more than leaves piled against an edging brick. Just a few seconds before they had looked like a small village. Was that all the power of suggestion? Or… or what?

  The woman looked so much like so many women I’d known growing up in Hawaii that she was a comfort—and at the same time, a puzzle. And how did she know my name, anyway?

  “Mele! Oh, there you are.”

  This time it was Bebe, wheeling her bike out and beginning to adjust her helmet. I walked slowly toward her, wondering if I wanted to bring up what had just happened. Maybe not yet. Maybe I should just lay low and keep my eyes open for the time being.

  “Let’s go,” she said, looking happy to be setting off on an adventure, no matter how limited it might be.

  The climb was a tough one, uphill all the way, and I kept up pretty well at first.

  “Caroline and I used to ride every day,” Bebe told me as we went. “She was serious about it for awhile. She even competed in some statewide races. Time trials, mostly.”

  “No kidding,” I gasped as I fought for breath.

  “Yes, she’s very much the modern athletic woman. She was quite the champion in high school in lots of things, including track.”

  “I was in chess club,” I reminded her, pulling over to the side to rest for a minute, but it hadn’t escaped me that Caroline was a strong, active woman who probably had the strength to have hit Kyle with a rock if she wanted to. Hmmm.

  Bebe was laughing at my previous retort and she pulled over beside me. “You were a wonderful swimmer,” she countered. “I remember going to watch you swim at some sort of meet in Kaneohe once. You won your race.”

  “I remember that,” I admitted. I also remembered that she came to watch me because my father hadn’t shown up like he promised and I wasn’t going to have a ride home without her. Ah yes. Sweet memories.

  A car came shooting down the road from the direction of the Madronna Winery, a small blue SUV. We both stopped and watched it go by.

  “That’s Adrian,” Bebe said. “Let’s hope he’s getting out of town for the duration.”

  I laughed. “Not a fan, huh?”

  “Not a bit. I have no doubt he’ll stay, though. Just to make Caroline’s life miserable.”

  “He’ll stay at least until the reading of the will,” I predicted. “Do you think there’s a chance he did it?”

  I didn’t have to name what �
��it” was. Kyle’s murder was all everyone in the area was thinking about and I had no doubt.

  Bebe shrugged. “I hate to speculate,” she said lightly. “But I do know he’d been here trying to get money from his father for some investment he wanted to get into. Some friend buying a dance club in Malibu or something crazy like that. Kyle wanted no part of it. They had some pretty fierce and pretty public arguments about it, with Adrian getting particularly nasty at times. And I’m sure the police have heard about it by now.”

  “Hmm.”

  I looked out over the valley. I saw a flash of color and realized it was Ginny Genera, running through the vineyards. She made me smile and I told Bebe about meeting her when I first arrived.

  “She’s a peach,” Bebe said. “One of my favorites of the neighborhood.”

  I stood up and reached for my bike. “Okay, your pathetic little out-of-shape niece is ready to ride once again.”

  The gates of the winery were wide open and the huge brass lions standing guard on either side of the entry were impressive. Vineyards swept out across the hillside, and though the vines were in winter rest and severely cut back, they stood like an army of potential wine, ready to move into production on orders from the king.

  “Awesome,” I called to Bebe as we rode in. “What a beautiful place.”

  We cruised past the large, barn-like building holding and fermenting the wine in huge stainless steel vats, slowed to a stop in front of the tasting room, which had a sign saying it was closed to the public for at least the rest of the week and put our bikes in a handy rack. Bebe pointed out the view, then the huge stacks of wooden casks used for artisanal and boutique vintages.

  “Just beyond that stack, you see the small cabin at the edge of the pond?” she noted. “That’s where Adrian stays.”

  “Ah.”

  “It drives Caroline crazy that he takes a shortcut through the vats and past the casks,” she added. “It’s actually dangerous, besides being unsanitary. If something ever set off those casks and got them tumbling, it would do a lot of damage and might effect the vats.” She shrugged. “Of course, everything he does pretty much drives her crazy. And vice versa.”

  “Meaning she drives him crazy at the same time?”

  “Exactly.”

  “A match made in heaven.”

  We walked up to the wide stairway to the entrance to the house. A couple of workmen’s trucks were parked out front and workers were beginning to string Christmas lights all around the castle-like building.

  “Oh Caroline,” Bebe murmured more to herself than to me. “Is this really appropriate?”

  “She probably already had this scheduled before yesterday’s events,” I pointed out, but Bebe didn’t answer.

  The huge front doors were wide open and the housekeeper was inside on the long, curving stairway to the upper floors. She waved when she saw Bebe.

  “Mrs. Madronna is out,” she called down. “But she should be back soon.”

  “Funny,” Bebe whispered to me. “I saw her car parked in the usual place.”

  “Maybe she’s cycling too,” I guessed.

  “Why don’t you wait in the study?” the housekeeper suggested from her perch above us. “I’ll have something sent in for you. Wine or iced tea?”

  We picked iced tea—after all, we were going to be riding the cycles again soon and I, for one, needed my wits about me to hope to make it home alive.

  Meanwhile we walked slowly through the house. I used the time to soak it in and be awed. The ceilings were uniformly high as the sky, with chandeliers and long tapestries creating a Tudor vibe.

  “Wow,” I muttered. “Henry the Eighth would have been impressed with this place. It’s so…”

  “Majestic,” Bebe supplied. “Yes it is. It always makes me feel like I should be whispering.”

  “And hiding behind the drapes,” I added.

  We went into the study. Luckily, Bebe felt at home in this cavernous place and she knew her way around. The room was furnished with overstuffed pieces in butter-soft leather and polished wood. Bookshelves lined the interior walls and a row of glass display cases filled the middle area. The outer wall was solid glass, looking out over the valley in panoramic splendor. I ooh’d and aah’d and really was fascinated.

  “The bookcases are filled with ancient and very valuable volumes Kyle found at antique auctions,” Bebe said. “And look here at these display cases. You’ll see all sorts of objects from the Middle Ages in Europe.”

  I started at one end and walked the length of the exhibit. Every case had some different treasure, either ancient civilization artifacts or coronation jewelry or weapons of war.

  “Fascinating. It’s like having a museum in your own home.”

  Bebe was frowning as she stood back with her head to the side, looking over the wooden edge of one of the cases. “That’s funny. Look at this. I think they’ve changed the lids on these since the last time I saw them. I wonder why?”

  I hardly paid any attention to that—I was too overwhelmed by it all. What a place!

  A maid brought in iced tea in tall glasses and we sipped as we stood at the window looking down over the valley.

  “What’s this?” I said as I noticed something set up on a corner piece near the window, covered with a velvet cloth.

  Bebe shook her head. “I don’t remember seeing anything like that here before,” she said.

  I hesitated, but what the heck? I didn’t see what harm looking could do. I pulled off the velvet cover and revealed a telescope.

  “Ah hah,” I said. “Even better.”

  “Don’t change anything,” Bebe said, looking worried. “I don’t know if we are supposed to be touching things.”

  I shrugged. “I won’t hurt it.” I pulled a handkerchief out of my biking shorts pocket. “Or leave any fingerprints.” I used the cloth on every part I touched and looked into the lens. “Wow. You can see right down to…” I looked up, frowning, then looked back again. “Right down into your yard,” I said as I stared at it.

  “Really?”

  “Really.” Looking up, I frowned into Bebe’s puzzled look. “I’d say old Kyle was particularly interested in what was going on in your life. Or maybe he just liked watching you work.”

  She flushed and I had a small feeling of dismay. Don’t tell me she was involved with the man, I said to myself, making a wish that it wouldn’t be so.

  “Let me see that,” she said, reaching for it without the handkerchief.

  “Ah ah.” I stopped her in time. “Don’t touch anything without this,” I said, handing her the cloth.

  She stared into the scope, now going pale. “I can’t believe this,” she said softly. “I…do you suppose he sat up here and actually watched what was going on in my house?”

  “Well, in your yard at any rate.”

  “But he could see who was coming and going!”

  “Sure.” I glanced at her, wondering what in particular she had in mind.

  “I can’t believe that. What right did he have to be so snoopy? What an impossible man!”

  She looked again, and then said, “Uh oh.”

  “What?”

  She stared for another moment before she answered. “What the heck is Adrian doing in my front yard?”

  “Really?”

  She gave way and I took a look. Sure enough. Adrian had pulled his car up in front and was now looking for something in Bebe’s yard.

  “That jerk!” she cried, turning on her heel and heading for the front door. “I’m going down there and find out what he thinks he’s doing! What is the fascination with my yard?”

  “Wait for me.” I took a last slug of the tea and ran after her, waving at the housekeeper who was still on the stairs, directing the decorating crew. “Thanks for the refreshment,” I called up to her. “We’ve got to go.”

  Chapter Eight

  Bebe was off like a flash and I was struggling behind. She wasn’t waiting for anyone anymore and soon she was way
ahead. Going downhill was a lot easier than going up at first, but then came the problem of not letting yourself go too fast and get out of control and for the last quarter of a mile, I was terrified. My plan, should my brakes decide not to work, was to run right into that white picket fence and hope to sail over the handle bars, right into those darn begonias. Luckily it didn’t come to that.

  But Adrian was gone by the time I got there and Bebe said he’d taken off just as she came racing in.

  “What was he doing here?” she fretted, pacing back and forth in her little front yard. “He seemed to be looking for something.” She stopped in front of a purple birdhouse and popped open the top to look inside. “Nothing here,” she said, flipping it back down. “I don’t think he was digging exactly. But I definitely got the impression he was looking for something.”

  I looked up and down the yard but nothing seemed to have been disturbed. It was patio style with large slate flagstones interspersed with mossy green growth between them. None of the stones looked as though they’d been pried up. What could he have been looking for?

  “He didn’t pass me, so he didn’t go back up to the winery,” I noted.

  Bebe nodded. “His car was packed full of things. Did you see that?”

  I shook my head. “What sort of things?”

  “Paintings. Art. Vases.” Bebe gave me a significant look. “Expensive items from storage at the winery. I think Adrian is not satisfied to wait around for the reading of the will. He wants to make sure he doesn’t get left in the lurch. He’s taking his share now.”

  I shook my head. “Where’s he taking it to?”

  Bebe thought for a minute, then her eyes lit up.

  “The storage units,” she said. “I’ll bet that’s it. There’s a set of storage units less than a mile from here.” She started to run back to where she’d left her bicycle. “Come on,” she called back at me. “Let’s go see.”

  “Uh, sure,” I said, following once again. “But…can’t we take the car?”

  “No time,” she cried, and she was off again.