Lattes, Ladyfingers, and Lies: A Cape Bay Cafe Mystery Book 4

by Lin, Harper

  “He was? How did he seem? Was he acting normal?”

  “I think so. You talked to him more than I did though.”

  “I did?”

  “Yeah. He came in with some of his coworkers around mid-afternoon. You made his latte.”

  I thought for a second and realized it was the guy who’d hovered while I made his latte. “The creepy guy?”

  “Creepy?” Sammy laughed.

  “Well, maybe not creepy, per se, but I don’t know, a little too enthusiastic?”

  “Yeah, Alex can be a lot.”

  “Like how?”

  Sammy raised an eyebrow. “Why? Do you think he was involved with Georgina’s death? I thought you thought Dean did it.”

  “I do, but Dean told me he thought Alex did it. That’s actually partly what made me suspicious of Dean. He was really insistent that I investigate Alex because he said the police weren’t going to.”

  “What makes him think it was Alex?” Rhonda asked.

  “He said he was the jealous type. If he couldn’t have Georgina, no one would.” I watched Sammy as I spoke to see her reaction. She made a face like she was confused or thinking. “Do you know him well enough to know if that sounds like him?”

  “Well…” she said slowly. “Like I said, he can be a lot, but…”

  I waited for her to put her thoughts together.

  Rhonda didn’t. “Spit it out!”

  “Well, they broke up kind of a while ago.”

  “That doesn’t mean he was over her.”

  “I know, I just—I hadn’t heard her talk about him too much lately. I know back when they were together, things could get pretty intense—”

  “Intense like how?” I interrupted.

  “They fought, I think. But I think that’s why they broke up. They were fighting all the time.”

  It was the reason a lot of couples broke up. But one party of a lot of couples didn’t end up dead a few months later. “Did he ever get violent?”

  Sammy shook her head quickly. “No. Not that I ever heard. They both had strong personalities, and I think they clashed sometimes. Maybe a lot of times.”

  Nothing Sammy said really conflicted with what Dean had said. She didn’t make Alex out to be a killer though. Of course, Sammy gave everybody the benefit of the doubt. If she was on a jury, she’d probably want DNA evidence, eyewitnesses, video footage, and testimony from the defendant’s mother that the man on trial was her son before she’d convict anyone because there was always a possibility of mistaken identity. I wondered if maybe I needed to look into Alex a little more—not that I wasn’t still suspicious of Dean.

  I noticed Rhonda staring at me. “What?” I asked.

  “Just trying to figure out if you suspect Alex now.”

  “I…” I hesitated, not even sure of what I thought. “It would be premature to rule anyone out.”

  Rhonda laughed. “You sound like you’re on a detective show. You’ve been watching them to pick up tips on how to investigate a murder, haven’t you?”

  “Nooo,” I replied, drawing the word out and putting a faux-innocent look on my face. Then I laughed. “No, I’m kidding. But I’ve probably watched enough of them in my life to have picked up a thing or two without even trying.”

  “You don’t fool me,” Rhonda said with her eyes narrowed but twinkling. “I know you’re studying.”

  Sammy giggled, Rhonda laughed, then I covered my mouth to keep my own laugh from coming out. All we needed was to kick off another giggle fit.

  Hysterical laughter averted, Rhonda brought the conversation back to my investigation of Georgina’s murder. “When are you getting back out there to do some interrogating?”

  “I don’t interrogate.”

  “Fran’s too kind and polite to interrogate,” Sammy said. “She ‘talks to’ or ‘has a chat with.’”

  “Like my kids’ teachers do with me when one of the boys hasn’t been doing his homework,” Rhonda said.

  “Exactly!” Sammy laughed.

  Rhonda laughed with her and looked quickly over at me in a way that made me laugh. “But seriously, when are you getting back to investigating? You have a romantic Italian vacation to leave for in less than a week. You need to get a move on.”

  “I was thinking I’d try to track down Dean again tomorrow morning before I come in here.”

  “Tomorrow? You don’t think you’ll be able to talk to him today? Or Alex?” Sammy sounded concerned.

  I felt for her. Georgina had been her friend, and I suspected she felt like she might have missed a warning sign, either when Georgina talked about arguing with Dean, or maybe even before that, when she talked about arguing with Alex.

  “Well, I’ll be here all afternoon, but I might be able to go talk to Dean again right after I close up.” I paused, remembering that it had been unusual to see the lights on down at Howard Jewelers at closing time. I’d have to track him down at home or something. Of course, he’d asked me to look into the case, so he shouldn’t be surprised to hear from me. Maybe I could call over to the shop during the day and make arrangements to see him.

  “Just go this afternoon.” Rhonda interrupted my thoughts.

  “I can’t just leave the café unattended! And don’t suggest just closing it down for a few hours like you did for the team-building shopping spree you want us to take. I definitely can’t shut it down twice in a week.”

  “No, don’t shut it down. Why would you shut it down?”

  “Because no one will be here if I leave? Sammy’s due to leave soon. I can’t ask her to stay.”

  Rhonda looked at me like I was hopelessly confused. “But I’m here. I can stay a while if I have to. The boys can either wait to eat or fix something themselves. They’re not infants.”

  “The boys?” Sammy asked. “Where’s Dan?”

  Rhonda waved her hand dismissively at the mention of her husband. “Oh, he’s one of the boys. When it comes to the cooking and cleaning, I lump him in with them.” She rolled her eyes dramatically then gave me and Sammy a pointed look, apparently ready to dole out some life advice. “Don’t ever let yourself get outnumbered. Three of them and one of me. Why couldn’t I have had just one girl? Then we’d at least be even.”

  I waited a few seconds to let her have her moment, then tried to bring the conversation back around to Rhonda manning the café for the afternoon. “Are you sure you don’t mind if I go out for a little while?” Now that I potentially had a way of doing it, I was a little excited about the prospect of digging into the new information I’d gotten from Sammy.

  “Yeah, absolutely! It’ll be good practice for the next couple weeks. Ease me into it before I’m really on my own.”

  “You won’t be on your own!” Sammy said. “I’ll be here!”

  “You can’t be here all the time!” Rhonda retorted.

  “Well, I’m not going to leave you here alone if you don’t feel like you can handle it!”

  “Are you saying you don’t think I can handle it?” Rhonda asked. I could tell that she was messing with Sammy, but by the look on Sammy’s face, I didn’t think Sammy could.

  “No! I just mean sometimes, it gets really busy, and it’s hard for one person to handle, and I don’t want you to think I’m going to abandon you!”

  “Sammy, I’m joking,” Rhonda said, and a look of relief came across Sammy’s face. “I know you’d never leave me here to struggle.” She turned to me. “But you—you should go find Alex. Or Dean. Or anyone else who’s ever been known to argue with Georgina. I’ll stay here with the two of them”—she nodded at Diane and Sabine, who were huddled over their normal lattes, seeming to be trying to keep their conversation as private and quiet as we had—“and whoever else comes in. If things get hectic, I’ll turn on the bat signal, and you can come rescue me.”

  I looked at Sammy, who shrugged. “If you say so.” I went to the back to take off my apron.

  Chapter 8

  Ten minutes later, I stood outside of Howard Je
welers for the second time in two days, after having only been inside maybe twice before in my lifetime. I vaguely remembered coming once with my mom when I was in high school when she wanted to get a ring resized, and I felt like I’d been there another time, but I wasn’t sure. It was funny how a place could be as familiar a part of the landscape as Howard Jewelers was to me without actually me having all that much direct experience with it.

  The side window that the brick had been thrown through was still boarded up, and the sign in the door still said, “Closed,” as I expected it would for at least a few more days. Even after the police declared that the shop was no longer a crime scene—which the crime scene tape over the door and the plywood in the window told me they hadn’t—Dean would have to have the glass in the window and the display case replaced and probably the carpet as well. Then he’d probably have to jump through some hoops for the insurance company—putting bars over those giant plate-glass windows, I guessed—before he could restock the cases and reopen. I didn’t envy him.

  I didn’t see any signs of life inside the shop, so I went around the back in hopes that Dean’s car would be there again. It was. I pushed the buzzer and looked up into the camera again. He answered the door more quickly this time.

  “Hi Fran!” He smiled. He looked better today. He wore a striped button-down shirt tucked into black pants, and his hair was slicked back. “I didn’t expect to see you so soon! You haven’t changed your mind about helping me, have you?”

  “No, I haven’t changed my mind about helping Georgina.” I wanted to leave no doubt in his mind that I was doing this for her, not for him.

  “Great,” he said without noticing the distinction. “Do you have news for me? Did you talk to her ex-boyfriend?”

  He looked at me expectantly and seemed to realize that he hadn’t invited me in, and perhaps it was rude not to when you were asking someone to solve the murder of one of your employees. “Do you want to come in? So we can talk in private?” He glanced around the deserted back alley like someone might have been lurking, hoping to overhear something important. It seemed to me like the behavior of someone with a guilty conscience.

  “That would be great.” I tried to sound as friendly and personable as I could.

  Dean stepped aside and held the door open for me. The back room of the jewelry store was neater than it had been the day before. The boxes were stacked more neatly and seemed to have some sort of organization to them. I sat down on the couch under the stairs. It had been cleaned off except for a pillow and blanket piled up at one end. I wondered if Dean had slept there the night before. He must be pretty brave to sleep there the night after a murder and robbery. Brave or guilty.

  Dean pulled a rolling chair over so it faced where I sat on the couch and planted himself down on it. It bounced a little as it adjusted to his weight. “So did you talk to her ex? What do you think? Did you see what I mean about him being possessive?” He leaned forward as he fired his questions at me.

  “No, I haven’t talked to him yet.”

  Dean leaned back with something that might have been a scowl on his face. “You haven’t? Then what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be out talking to him?”

  “I think he’s at work, Dean. He works an office job, right?”

  He relaxed a little. “Yeah, I think he does. Some kind of internet start-up or something.”

  “An internet start-up? Here? In Cape Bay?” Cape Bay was one of the last places I would have expected someone to locate their start-up. Somewhere without internet was about the only place I could imagine being less likely.

  “Isn’t the point of the internet that you can work from anywhere?”

  “I guess so.” I started to tell Dean I had some more questions for him, but he spoke before I could get anything out.

  “Yeah, they’re in an office up above one of the shops here on Main Street. I can’t remember which one it is, but I’m sure you can find out.”

  “It shouldn’t be too hard—”

  “I don’t know for sure, but I think he rented that space so it would be easier to keep an eye on her when she was working. They only moved in a couple of months ago. It was definitely after the break-up. You know, he came in here a couple of times a week, bothering her. It was as if he couldn’t let her go, like he just had to be near her. He was always in her space too, getting close to her. Even when she’d try to walk away, he’d follow her.”

  “Had he been in recently?” I asked quickly before he had the chance to start talking again.

  Dean froze for a second. “Uh, no, I don’t think so. But I mean, I’m not here all the time, so there were lots of times he could have come by without me seeing him.”

  “Did Georgina mention him coming in?”

  “Uh, no, but she knew how I felt about it. She probably didn’t mention it because she knew I didn’t like it.”

  “Did you ever see him get violent with her?”

  “No, but why would he do that if I was right there? I mean, that’s just asking for trouble, isn’t it?”

  He puffed out his chest and tried to make himself look bigger than he actually was. He wasn’t exactly small, but he wasn’t a big man either. He struck me as the kind of guy who worked out enough to say that he did but not nearly enough to give him an impressive physique. I wasn’t sure that the muscles he did have were enough to scare much of anyone out of fighting him, even if they were the tall and skinny type I seemed to remember Alex being. Of course, I didn’t want to fight him or anyone else, so I wasn’t really sure I was a great judge of whether a grown man would be afraid to fight Dean.

  I just smiled at him. “Yeah, probably.”

  Dean hadn’t done much in the conversation so far to put me off my theory that he had killed Georgina. He’d admitted he hadn’t seen Alex around Georgina recently and that he’d never seen him get violent. Neither of those things meant that Alex couldn’t have killed her, but they also didn’t make Alex look like a more likely killer than Dean. At least I knew more or less where to find Alex now since I did want to talk to him, whether he was my prime suspect or not. He might even know something more about the arguments Sammy told me Georgina had been having with Dean, which reminded me that I should ask him about that.

  I made a show of hesitating and looking uncomfortable before asking so that he didn’t think I was grilling him. “Dean? Can I ask you an awkward question?”

  He stared at me for an uncomfortably long few seconds before answering. “I guess so.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

  “I heard that you and Georgina had gotten into some arguments lately. What were those about?”

  “Geez, you sound like the cops!”

  “I do?”

  “Yeah, they were in here again this morning. Apparently, since the damn ring didn’t show up in a pawn shop within twenty-four hours, they think I staged the robbery for the insurance money and killed her in the process.”

  Well, at least my theory wasn’t totally off base. And it sounded as though the police had heard about Georgina and Dean’s arguments too. I wondered if they had also thought of the possibility that Dean had killed Georgina in a rage and then staged the robbery for the insurance claim.

  “What about the arguments, Dean?” I asked quietly. I tried to put concern in my voice and hoped he would interpret it as concern for his continued status as a free citizen.

  He shifted in his chair. The wheels wiggled, shifting him back and forth an inch or so. “We just had some disagreements about how things should work at the store.”

  “It’s your store though, Dean.”

  “I know! That’s why I—” He stopped and shook his head. “I’m happy to take requests from my employees, but I don’t like it when they do things behind my back, that’s all.”

  “Georgina did something behind your back?”

  He got a squirrely look on his face again. “Well, no, I mean, yes. It wasn’t anything really major. I probably would have been fine with it. I just would hav
e liked her to tell me before she went and did it.”

  Even if I couldn’t imagine getting into a shouting match with one of my employees over something at the café, I knew I wouldn’t be happy if one of them went behind my back on something. It was the principle. “What did she do?” I asked, thinking it may be important, or at least relevant, especially if it had something to do with the security protocols.

  “I said it wasn’t anything major. I just wished she’d talked to me about it first.”

  “But what was it?”

  “Nothing important.”

  “It was important enough to you that you argued with her about it.”

  “I overreacted, okay? It wasn’t a big deal.”

  The more he argued about it, the more I was convinced that he was hiding something. A motive for murder? I needed to find another angle to approach it from.

  “Dean, if you want me to help Georgina—help you—you have to help me, especially now that the police are looking at you for her murder. It doesn’t matter how guilty Alex looks if you look guiltier. You have to tell me.”

  Dean squinted as he looked at me. I suspected he was trying to determine if he should trust me. Eventually, he sighed and shook his head. He slumped in his chair a little. “She rearranged some of the jewelry in the displays.”

  Was that all? They got into a screaming match over some rearranged merchandise? Maybe Dean was wound tighter than I thought. Unless… “Did that include the ring that was stolen?”

  “What? No. Um…” He paused for a second and seemed to think. “No, not the ring. The ring’s always been in the back corner it was stolen from. People came in to see it. I wanted them to walk past everything else we had on the way in and out. Get them coming and going, you know? They see everything we sell on the way in, then they see the ring, they want it, but they can’t have it, so, maybe they buy themselves a little something else that’s more in their price range.”

  “Did that happen often?” I had trouble believing all that many people really came in to see the ring, but I wasn’t going to argue.

  He shrugged. “Often enough.”