by Tabitha Tate
What did he mean about the shop doing well financially? Beth was almost sure he was lying, trying to cover his tracks.
Beth grilled him a little more. “Aunt Genie told me you have developed a bit of a gambling habit.”
Olivia snorted sarcastically and placed her arm of Bernard’s shoulder to comfort him. “Bernard doesn’t gamble. That is the excuse he used to give your mother when he came to see me; he would tell her he had a poker night with the boys.”
Olivia looked like a smart woman; she took care of her appearance and she was well spoken. She exuded an air of confidence, the kind that women develop after years of practice at getting weak-minded men who acceded to their every whim.
Beth wondered what on earth she saw in Bernard. Perhaps the dating pool became so small once you hit your sixties that anything with a heartbeat would do. Or perhaps a more plausible explanation was that Olivia was after Bernard’s money. The problem was that in reality he didn’t have any.
Beth was desperate; she didn’t want to let Bernard and Olivia in on all that she knew but she would have to try and find out if they were hiding anything.
“Bernard, I am convinced that Mom’s death was not suicide… Now can you think of anything that she might have done or said in the days leading up to her death, anything that may give us a clue as to who could have murdered her?”
Bernard’s hand was trembling. “Are you sure that your mother’s death was murder and not suicide, Elizabeth? I just can’t imagine anyone wanting to harm her.” Beth nodded solemnly. She didn’t have proof but her gut told her she was right.
“Well I don’t know, she seemed a little distracted in the days before her death. She had a lot of deliveries to get through and I do recall Sheriff Hunter coming round the day before her death…Yes that’s right, I saw them arguing out on the front lawn the day before Mary-Ellen died. I had just gotten back from the post office and I was surprised to find your mother at home. The sheriff was in a terrible mood—he thundered out of here, barely even greeted me. Your mother told me that he had come to see her about the blackmail letters she had been getting, but now that I think of it, they could have been arguing about something else.”
Sheriff Hunter’s name sure seemed to be coming up a lot. Beth wondered what they had argued about the day before her mother died. She wondered if she could trust Bernard—after all he had been sleeping with Olivia behind her mother’s back.
Beth sipped the last of her tea and looked over at Bernard, who was a pale, trembling mess. Olivia on the other hand looked fine. She didn’t seem surprised to hear that Mary-Ellen’s death was not a suicide.
“One more thing, can the two of you tell me where you were last Tuesday afternoon?”
Olivia gave Beth an icy stare. “I was out riding my bike with Bernard. Isn’t that right, honey?” Bernard looked at her bobbing head and nodded his head in agreement.
“Yes, we took a ride out to the top of Lavender Hill. Olivia has been helping me get back into shape.”
“Did anyone see you out at Lavender Hill?” asked Beth.
“I’m not sure, I can’t remember seeing anyone,” replied Olivia. How convenient.
“One last thing, I have been trying to trace someone by the name of P. Pots; you don’t perhaps know where I might find them?”
Olivia answered her. “I know a Piper Pots. She is Betty Mitchel’s niece. She has been staying with her since last November when her mother died.”
This was getting weirder by the minute. Beth decided that she needed to talk to Sheriff Hunter and Piper Pots. She wasn’t sure how to go about it without raising the sheriff’s suspicions but perhaps Chase would be able to give her some advice.
Beth left Bernard and Olivia in the kitchen and headed out to her car. It was late afternoon and Hannah would have closed the shop by now to do the afternoon deliveries. She needed to talk to Chase about what she had learned before going to see the sheriff, so she decided to take the scenic route back to Millie’s for a stroll on the beach. A long walk on the beach sounded like a good idea, the perfect opportunity to collect her thoughts.
Chapter 6
The sight of Chase Crawford and his German Shepherd Lola sitting on the top step of the entrance to her cottage gave Beth reason to pause. He looked casual in a pair of faded denim jeans, a blue-and-red plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow and a pair of tan leather cowboy boots. Beth pulled up to the cottage, checked her makeup in the mirror and fluffed her hair before getting out of the car. Beth was still dressed in the same jeans and shirt she had been wearing when she saw him earlier that morning.
Chase stood up at the sight of her driving up to the cottage. He was chewing absentmindedly on a piece of sweet grass plucked from the large pot next to the stairs. His dark blue pickup truck was parked in the driveway. The sight of him made her heart pound in her chest and her palms became sweaty. Stop it, she told herself sternly, you are acting like a lovesick school girl. You don’t have time for distractions!
“Afternoon, pretty lady, I hope you don’t mind me stopping by.”
“What can I do for you,” replied Beth and hurried up the stairs, fumbling with the key to the front door of the guest cottage.
“I have been thinking about you all day. I have been worried about you, scared you might get yourself into trouble. Lola and I thought we could come around and go over the case with you, help you piece together all the information you have at hand,” replied Chase.
Beth wasn’t sure of his intentions. The thought that he was there to try and determine how much she knew did cross her mind. And she was tempted to decline his offer, but something inside her told her to trust him. His husky voice was filled with natural warmth which made her feel safe. She wasn’t sure if it was her head or her heart talking but she decided to listen. I was planning on talking to him about the sheriff anyway, she reasoned to herself.
“Okay, I’ll let you in on one condition.”
Chase smiled. “What’s that?”
“You tell me how you knew where I was staying.”
Chased laughed and the dimples on his cheeks sprang to life. “You forget that I do this for a living. I’m not known as the best private investigator around these parts for nothing.” Beth raised her brow at him questioningly, which made him burst out laughing.
“Okay. Okay. You got me, I had lunch at the diner. Allison told me all about you, from your shoe size to your favorite food—seafood linguine apparently. Allison spoke to Millie yesterday and she mentioned that you were staying out here in her guest cottage.”
Chase held the door for her and stepped into the cottage after Lola. They went into the kitchen and Beth offered him a cup of coffee. Once they were seated with two steaming mugs in front of them, Beth got straight down to business.
“So before I tell you what I know, you better tell me everything you know. You didn’t tell me everything this morning, I could see it in your eyes. You can tell a lot from a man’s eyes, you know.”
Chase sipped his coffee and smiled at her from across the table. “You could say the same thing about a woman’s eyes… I can tell that you are dying to share news about your mother’s case.”
Beth was not going to let him charm her into telling him everything she knew without first finding out what he knew. “No you don’t, Mr. Crawford, I’m not telling you anything until you tell me what you know.”
“You drive a hard bargain, Elizabeth Andrews,” replied Chase.
“Why don’t you fill me in on what you know while I make us some dinner,” replied Beth. Chase nodded excitedly. “How does roast chicken with potato salad and grilled vegetables sound?”
“I’m a bachelor, so anything that is not a TV dinner or takeout sounds great to me.”
Beth got started on dinner and Chase got started on telling her everything he knew. “I didn’t tell you the whole story this morning, Beth. Sheriff Hunter is involved in a really big case at the moment. He is trying to catch a gang of drug smuggler
s operating in the Bay area. He has been conducting an undercover sting operation for the last few months; my connections at the police department have told me that he is pretty close to making an arrest. His investigation is at a very sensitive stage and he can’t risk having anything go wrong.”
Beth looked up from peeling onions. “What did this have to do with Mom? I know that she was working with your mother and that the two of them were supplying medical marijuana to the elderly residents in the Bay area. Surely Sheriff Hunter wasn’t going to arrest them though?”
Chase laughed. “No, old Walt found out about their little operation a few months back, gave them both a stern warning and turned a blind eye. He knew they were still running their operation but seeing as they weren’t really selling it, just giving it away he left it at that.”
Beth was surprised. Giving it away? Where on earth was Mom getting all the money? This could possibly explain why she was broke!
Chase continued, “Well that was until your mother started getting letters in the mail; someone was threatening her. They wanted her to sell the flower shop and threatened to report her to the police. What they didn’t realize was that she wasn’t afraid of the police finding out about her little side business because they already knew!”
Beth placed the spiced chicken and roasting vegetables in the oven and started on the potato salad. “Do you know who the blackmailer was?”
“I have my suspicions but no concrete evidence. Jack Reynolds was my prime suspect. Slippery character, can’t get much intel on him.”
Beth gasped. “He was managing my mother’s financial affairs, why would he try and blackmail her if he knew she didn’t have any money?”
“That was the part that didn’t make much sense to me either. All my investigations indicated that the flower shop was in trouble and your mother had no money left but she didn’t act like a woman who was under financial stress. According to Mom she was planning on opening another shop and she certainly wasn’t counting her pennies.”
“Yes I heard about her plans for a second flower shop from Bernard too but I wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth. If she told your mother then perhaps she really was planning to expand the business. Where is all her money then?”
Chase was deep in thought. “Perhaps Bernard knew more than he was letting on. Maybe there is something we are missing here. What if he was interested in the property itself? A shop on the main road is worth a fair sum of money, even more if a big developer is planning a new development. I think you should look into Bernard in a little more detail. You will also need to try and find out if there are any new developments planned on the main road.”
Beth placed the salad in the fridge and turned to Chase. “Shall we take a walk on the beach? We have another forty minutes before dinner will be ready.”
“Sounds great. Nothing like a walk on the beach to clear the cobwebs,” replied Chase and got up from the table.
The sky was a misty shade of pink, orange and blue. The sun, a glowing orange ball, sank into the distant horizon, gently swallowed by the calmness of the ocean. It was a cool summer evening and the sound of waves rolling onto the sand was the only sound that could be heard.
“I love the beach,” Beth said as she walked, admiring the beauty around them. Lola ran out front, chasing the gulls and sniffing at bits of driftwood and seaweed that had washed up on the shore.
“Yeah, I like it too. Can’t imagine going back to the big city,” replied Chase.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, happy to be in each other’s company, each one going over the discussion in the kitchen, trying to make sense of it all.
Chase turned to Beth. “Well…I told you what I know, now you have to return the favor.”
“Well I have only just started looking into things and I don’t know nearly as much as you but I did find out a few things today.”
Beth proceeded to tell Chase everything she had learnt starting with the meeting with Jack Reynolds and the financial records of Scent with Love which appeared to support Jack’s statement about the business being in financial trouble. Beth also told him about Bernard’s affair and his revelation that he had seen her mother arguing with Sheriff Hunter the day before she died.
Chase didn’t seem surprised to hear about Bernard’s affair but he was interested in Jack Reynolds and the black financial ledger.
“I wonder if Jack has been stealing from the flower shop. How do we know that the information in the black ledger is real? What if he gave you fake records to make you think that the shop was in financial trouble?”
Beth hadn’t thought of that, but suddenly that seemed like a real possibility. “You know what, I wouldn’t put it past him. He did mention that I should look at selling the shop. He even gave me the number of a realtor,” replied Beth.
Chase sucked in air between his lips and whistled as he breathed out. “Now that is interesting; you will need to find out who was doing the books. Do you know who your mother’s accountant was?”
“No,” replied Beth, “I hadn’t even though of going into that up until now. I was so intent on selling the shop that I never even considered looking into things like that. I am sure Hannah would know.”
“You will need to get hold of them first thing tomorrow; we need to take a long hard look at Jack. I am not sure how he is involved but my instinct tells me that he has something to do with all of this.”
They reached the pier and turned to walk back towards the cottage, following the footsteps they had left in the sand.
Beth was glad that Chase had come; he really seemed to know what he was doing. It helped to have someone who had connections in the police department on her side. Who knows how long it would have taken her to figure out that Sheriff Hunter was investigating a gang of drug smugglers and that he already knew about her mother’s illegal pot business? Something was still bothering her about the sheriff though. She turned to Chase.
“Do you know anything about a woman called Piper Pots?”
A look of annoyance crossed his handsome face and his lips became pursed, pulled into a tight thin line. He thought for a moment, carefully considering his response. “I shouldn’t really be telling you this but seeing as you know so much already, I’ll have to fill you in. But you can’t tell anyone…” Beth nodded.
“Walt has a large sting operation planned for tomorrow night. There is a large shipment of drugs coming into the harbor and he plans to strike while the gang is busy offloading. He has good information that the gang leader will be there. Piper is an undercover police officer. She has managed to form a relationship with the leader of the gang, who goes by the name Big Al. Piper is posing as a university biochemistry graduate who specializes in genetically modified marijuana plants. She has been supplying them with genetically modified seedlings that grow under almost any conditions, producing high quality marijuana ready for market within weeks. Big Al adores her; she has managed to infiltrate the gang and has been collecting intelligence for Sheriff Hunter.”
Beth could barely believe what she was hearing—a highly sophisticated drug cartel operating out of Bartholomew Bay sounded bizarre. Considering the location and all the fishing boats coming in and out of the harbor it did seem like the perfect place to run an operation like that. Now that she knew that Piper Pots was an undercover police officer, she wondered why her mother had been paying her large sums of money via the flower shop. Was she a dirty cop? Perhaps she was the mystery blackmailer.
Beth decided that she would need to try and find out more about Piper and look into why the sheriff was arguing with her mother the day before her death.
Chapter 7
When Beth got to the shop, she found Hannah working on a large floral arrangement. White lilies nestled among light pink and white roses.
“Morning, you’re in early,” she said as she hurried in and went straight to the kitchen. She was glad to find that the kettle had just boiled because she was dying for her morning caffeine fix.
Chase had stayed long after dinner and they had finished an entire bottle of red wine as they chatted into the early hours of the morning. He had told her how he had moved to Bartholomew Bay to take over his father’s business after he had suffered a stroke. Beth had talked to him about her life in Boston and her plans to get back there as soon as her mother’s affairs had been finalized. She had told him a lot about herself but she had not mentioned her failed relationship with her boss Andrew.
“Who ordered that?” asked Beth.
“Mrs. Blackwood,” replied Hannah as she placed the final lily in the vase.
Beth looked at the vase and became annoyed. “We need to stop using those vases. I can’t see the point of continuing to use the second-hand vases Mom collected. I know it was her hobby but I feel that it is just too expensive to manage. We can’t afford it; it is just impractical to deliver flowers and collect the vases afterwards. I know Mom thought it was a good way to get repeat orders but I feel that there are better marketing options which I will look into.”
Hannah looked like she was about to argue but thought better of it and nodded her head in agreement. “I’ll put these in a standard white vase before I deliver it this afternoon.”
Beth swept the floor, put out a new window display, placed buckets of fresh flowers at the entrance and recorded the previous day’s sales.
“That reminds me, Hannah…do you know the name of the accounting firm Mom used to manage the books?”
Hannah thought for a minute and hurried to the back of the shop. She came back a few minutes later with a black business card. The words ‘Jean Fisher, Accounting Services’ were written in gold lettering on the front, next to a logo depicting the letters J and F in black at the center of a gold circle.