A Witchy Valentine (Harper Grant Mystery Series Book 4)

by D. S. Butler

  “It’s fine,” he said. “I’m glad you called. I’m sorry for being curt earlier. That doesn’t mean I have changed my mind, though. You shouldn’t be interfering in police investigations, but I could have handled things better.”

  It felt good to hear him say that, so good that I regretted I was about to ruin everything between us with my next sentence.

  “Now, don’t get mad, but…”

  “Why is there always a but?” Joe said wearily.

  “It’s about what happened to Laura Carmichael,” I said. “I ran into John Gastineau this afternoon, and I mentioned Laura had been acting strangely. He told me he was going to go and speak to her.”

  I waited for Joe’s response, but he was silent on the other end of the line.

  “It really wasn’t my fault. I just happened to bump into him at the grocery store in Cherrytown.”

  “And is the grocery store in Abbot Cove not good enough for you now?”

  “They don’t stock my favorite brand of sour cream,” I said weakly.

  Joe sighed. “I am not going to argue with you again, Harper. But that doesn’t mean I have changed my mind. You’re not going to get any more information about this case from me, so don’t even try.”

  “Yes,” I said. “I understand, but will you talk to John?”

  “I am sure we will in due course,” Joe said. “Good night, Harper.”

  “Good night.”

  When I pressed the end button on the call, I looked up and smiled at Monty and Grandma Grant.

  I thought it went pretty well considering.

  “No new information to report,” I said to Grandma Grant and Monty. “But at least I know Joe and Chief Wickham will look into John Gastineau now.”

  I didn’t dare go and talk to John myself. It was too late. I was already in Chief Wickham and Joe’s bad books, and I didn’t have a death wish.

  If Monty’s killer had also tried to murder Laura, I was sure the killer wouldn’t hesitate to add me to their hit list.

  The next morning, I went to the diner early, before my shift officially started, and helped Archie arrange the Valentine’s decorations.

  We put up a pretty display of pink hearts in the largest window, along with a cardboard cut-out of Cupid, and set out special heart-covered menus on all the tables.

  Our first customer was Keith Tucker, who ordered bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs and coffee. Old Bob was next to arrive, and he ordered his normal crispy bacon and eggs.

  Then it seemed as though the whole of Abbott Cove turned up for breakfast. We served up a ton of the heart-shaped stacked pancakes as the morning went on, and we were way busier than usual. Archie’s Valentine’s menu had drawn a crowd.

  At nine AM, the door to the diner opened, and Chief Wickham and Joe walked in.

  I bit my lip and clutched the counter.

  I really wanted to go over and ask how Laura was doing, and whether they’d spoken to John yet, but I knew they would see that as interfering.

  After I took their order, I quickly nipped past Archie into the back room.

  “Monty,” I hissed quietly, knowing that Archie was close by. “Chief Wickham and Deputy McGrady are here. We need to find out if they have questioned John yet. It would really help if you and Loretta went over there now and tried to listen in on their conversation.”

  Loretta grinned. “Leave this to me. I’m an expert. I’m always helping Harper out when she is solving mysteries. Follow me, Monty,” she ordered.

  Monty rolled his eyes and gave her a mock salute before following her outside.

  As I left the back room, I almost ran into Archie.

  He staggered backwards. “Is everything all right, Harper?”

  I nodded and plastered a smile on my face. “Absolutely. I’ll just go and check on Chief Wickham’s order.”

  I went back to the counter to collect my order pad and saw a pink envelope beside the cash register. It was addressed to me.

  I felt a thrill of delight as I picked it up. It had to be a Valentine’s card! I flushed with pleasure and glanced over at Joe.

  He wasn’t looking at me. I quickly opened it.

  The card was in shades of blue and pink, and there was a teddy bear on the front, holding a heart. The swirling script said, “I am sweet on you.”

  I opened the card. It was signed: with love from your admirer.

  I grinned.

  I hadn’t expected Joe to be the romantic, fluffy teddy bear type, but it was quite sweet. I looked over at his table, but he was too busy talking to the Chief to glance my way.

  Even when I took their breakfast order over to them and topped them up with fresh coffee, Joe just smiled and said thanks before continuing his conversation with Chief Wickham.

  He was definitely playing it cool.

  Well, I decided two could play at that game and did my best to act nonchalantly as I served up more stacked pancakes to tables two and six.

  When Joe came up to the counter to pay the check and order a couple of lemon muffins to take out, I couldn’t help grinning.

  “Is everything all right?” he asked me.

  The card was still on the counter, but he didn’t look at it.

  My smile widened. “Everything is great.”

  Still, he didn’t say anything about the card. I guessed it was up to me to make the next move.

  “I didn’t think you were the shy type,” I teased.

  He frowned at me, looking puzzled. “Shy? I’m not.”

  “Well, thank you for the card.”

  Bewildered, he looked at me, and then his gaze traveled down to the counter and focused on the pink and blue card.

  “Oh, you got a Valentine’s card. I… Well, it wasn’t...”

  As Joe was awkwardly trying to explain, I suddenly noticed Keith Tucker sitting in the far corner of the diner beaming at me.

  Oh, no.

  The card was from Keith, and I had just humiliated myself in front of Joe.

  I grabbed the card and stuffed it beneath the counter.

  “I was only joking,” I said briskly. “I just wanted to see if you’d fall for it. You should have seen your face.”

  Joe’s frown deepened.

  So, I quickly changed the subject, hoping my cheeks didn’t look as hot as they felt.

  “So, was John the last person to see Laura?”

  Joe shook his head. “John says he was at home with his wife. He told us he hadn’t had a chance to go and talk to Laura. He appeared to be very upset about what had happened to her.”

  “I suppose he would say that. And are you sure he was with his wife? Maybe she just gave him an alibi because—”

  Joe’s eyes narrowed. “No more interfering, Harper.”

  I sighed. “Okay, fine, but can you at least tell me if Laura is going to be okay?”

  Joe’s expression was solemn when he replied, “I don’t know. She has a very serious head injury. The doctors are hopeful that she will recover, but it’s touch and go at the moment.”

  Chapter 28

  The rest of my shift at the diner zoomed by. We were so busy. We served dish after dish, and there was even a short wait time for a table.

  I’d awkwardly said goodbye to Keith Tucker when he left, cringing with relief when he didn’t mention the card or ask me on a date. He just gave me a knowing wink. He was a nice guy, and I wanted to let him down gently.

  He grinned goofily at me, waving as he left the diner, and almost walked into Mr and Mrs Townsend, who’d arrived for their stacked pancakes and to tell everyone who would listen the secret to a long marriage. They had been married a long time, but I didn’t want to model my romantic life on them.

  Because we were so busy, I stayed after my shift to help Archie. The Valentine’s burgers were incredibly popular, and when poor Monty saw Sarah’s red velvet cake, his eyes practically bulged out of his head.

  It did look amazing.

  I ate a slice while standing up in the kitchen while Monty was in th
e back room because I felt guilty about eating it in front of him.

  Luckily for me, Monty was very easy-going and was prepared to spend time with Loretta while I worked. We needed to regroup and refocus before resuming our investigation. The attack on Laura Carmichael had really shaken me up. It was so vicious and unexpected.

  Jess called into the diner at lunchtime because I had mentioned Sarah was making her special red velvet cake. She told me Grandma Grant was fixing us dinner tonight. That suited me. I wanted to get everybody together so we could go over the information we’d gathered so far. I thought talking through the facts logically would help. There had to be something connecting Laura and Monty. It wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that Monty’s murder and the attack on Laura were separate incidents caused by different assailants, but I doubted it. That would have been a very big coincidence.

  I was exhausted when I finally finished at the diner. I took three slices of the red velvet cake home for desert and got a lift back up the hill with Jess, who’d finished working at the library at the same time as I finished my shift.

  I climbed into the front of her car, resting the cake box on my lap, and Monty floated through the back of the car and hovered between the seats.

  “Thanks for the lift. I was planning to walk, but my feet are killing me today.” I stretched them out in the foot well, circling my ankles. Spending all day on my feet made them ache.

  “How is Pete doing?”

  Jess shrugged as she pulled the car away from the curb. “Not too bad. He seems a little brighter, but I’m still worried about him.”

  “Has he been questioned again?”

  Jess shook her head. “No, but they haven’t really kept him up-to-date on developments, though, and he had to learn about Laura’s attack from me.”

  I pulled a face. That can’t have been easy. I didn’t think Pete was particularly close to Laura, but they had spent time together and learning something like that must have been a shock.

  “Do you still think John Gastineau is responsible for all this?” Jess asked as we pulled up outside the cottage.

  “He’s the strongest suspect I have,” I said.

  Jess turned off the engine and turned to me. “It’s a bit of a stretch, though, don’t you think? He is a bit wimpy.”

  I nodded. He certainly seemed to be a bit of a wet blanket when his wife was around, but some people didn’t show their true character in public. And there was something about John I didn’t trust. Ever since he’d been so distraught after Monty died, and yet, when we paid a visit to his house, we found him laughing hysterically at a TV show. Normal people didn’t change their emotional state quite so quickly, and John’s behavior set off alarm bells.

  I scooped up the cake and carried it carefully out of the car.

  We washed up, changed and were ready to head to Grandma Grant’s within twenty minutes.

  “What does Monty think about the possibility of John killing him?” Jess asked just before we left, looking around wildly, searching for Monty, even though she would never be able to see him.

  Monty was hovering by the window. “I wouldn’t say John and I were best buddies, but I can’t think of any reason why he would want to kill me.”

  I relayed the information to Jess, and she frowned. “He’s got a point. What is John’s motive?”

  I hated to admit it, but I didn’t have the first idea.

  I had a strong feeling if I could figure out the connection between Laura and Monty, I would be one step closer to working out John’s motive.

  We walked to Grandma Grant’s, and Jess chatted on about her day at the library while I was only half-listening. My mind was preoccupied with questions… What linked Monty and Laura? Why were they both targeted?

  Grandma Grant had prepared chicken noodle soup, and I could smell it as soon as I opened the front door. My mouth watered.

  Jess and I both called out hello as we removed our coats and then pulled off our boots.

  We wandered into the kitchen, and I put the box of red velvet cake, down on the counter.

  Grandma Grant’s eyes lit up. “Is that what I think it is?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Yes, Sarah’s red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.”

  Grandma Grant smiled. “Excellent.”

  I went to set the table and noticed that Athena stayed curled by the fire. She seemed to be getting used to me again. Although it would be a while before she would trust me enough to curl up on my lap again. I’d have to earn her trust.

  I walked up to Grandma Grant’s cat and knelt down beside her. Athena looked up sharply and then very deliberately turned her back on me.

  I sighed. “Well. You’re not going to make it easy for me, are you? I am sorry, though, Athena.”

  I got no reaction, and I shook my head. I was talking to a cat as though it could understand me. What was wrong with me?

  I stood up and went to finish setting the table.

  Over dinner, I tried to get Jess and Grandma Grant to talk about the case.

  “I have to agree with Jess, Harper,” Grandma Grant said as she dipped her spoon in the chicken noodle soup. “John Gastineau doesn’t sound like a very dangerous man.”

  “What makes you think it’s him?” Monty asked.

  “He just…” I struggled to put it into words. “It’s the way he behaves. Almost too wimpy. Too browbeaten. Like everything he does is an act.”

  Monty shrugged. “Yes, you do have a point.”

  “I think we’re going to need more evidence than that. The police aren’t going to arrest him because he doesn’t act in the way you think he should,” Jess said.

  “I know that. That’s why I need proof.”

  “The masked intruder at Monty’s house is still a mystery,” Grandma Grant said after she slurped the last spoonful of her soup.

  I leaned back in my chair as Jess said she was going to go and plate up the cake ready for dessert.

  I turned to Monty. “What was the intruder actually doing in your house? You said he was at your desk. Was he going through your computer?”

  Monty shook his head. “No, he was going through the drawers, looking through my paperwork.”

  I nodded. “Interesting. Okay,” I sat up straighter, “I have a theory. Hear me out.”

  I took a deep breath and told them my idea. “What if the intruder was looking for some kind of legal paperwork? Monty has told us he helped a lot of people in Cherrytown and gave them free legal advice. Could you give us a list of people you helped, Monty?”

  Monty nodded, and I grabbed the pen and notepad Grandma Grant kept beside the phone.

  Then Grandma Grant said, “It could be that, but he could have been looking for hundreds of things. I mean, Monty only recently bought his house. Perhaps the intruder was looking for the deeds…”

  Grandma Grant’s words brought me back down to earth with a bump. I’d figured it had to do with Monty giving legal advice, but Grandma Grant was right. There were so many other possibilities.

  I nodded. “I guess we won’t know for sure until we know what the intruder was looking for. He didn’t steal any of Monty’s paperwork that night, did he?”

  Grandma Grant and Monty both shook their heads.

  “I don’t think so. I didn’t see anything in his hands as he rushed off. The hooligan,” Grandma Grant said, narrowing her eyes as she remembered how the intruder had sent her flying.

  I looked back at Monty, who was struggling to use the pen to make his list. Although he could interact well with most solid objects now, I saw the delicate task of writing was still very difficult for him.

  I put my hand on the piece of paper.

  “Don’t worry about writing it down,” I told him. “Just give me the names, and I’ll write them.”

  As Monty reeled off the names, I felt fresh disappointment. I didn’t recognize any of them apart from Nigel’s.

  I sighed as I looked at the finished list, disappointed that Laura’s name
wasn’t on it. I had hoped that would be the missing connection.

  I turned to him. “You didn’t help Laura Carmichael out with any legal matters, at all?”

  Monty shook his head, and I sunk lower in my chair. I didn’t think I was ever going to get to the bottom of this.

  “Not for Laura herself, but I did have a quick look at a contract for one of her friends as a favor.”

  I felt a spark of interest. “What friend?”

  “She didn’t tell me. Laura didn’t give me any names. She just asked me to look at a contract for her and work out if it was watertight or whether they had any wiggle room.”

  “What was the contract for?”

  “It was a prenuptial agreement.”

  All the pieces seemed to slot into place in my brain. Of course, how could I have been so stupid?

  I grinned at Monty. “That’s it.”

  Monty frowned. “It is?”

  “What are you talking about, Harper?” Grandma Grant said irritably as Jess came in with the red velvet cake.

  “Who was the prenup for, do you remember?”

  Monty shook his head. “There were no names on the contract. Laura gave me a paper copy to look over, and the names had been blacked out.”

  “Fantastic.”

  Everyone was staring at me as though I were mad.

  “Don’t you see? It could be John. I bet he and his wife had a prenup. Maybe Laura wanted to find out if they could break it. John lives a life of luxury with his wife. He wouldn’t want to lose that.”

  Monty nodded slowly. “From what I remember of the contract, it was very rigid. Both parties would leave the marriage with the assets they put into it.”

  “And what if the new man in Laura’s life was John? His wife was gone for long periods of time. He had the opportunity.”

  Monty rubbed a hand over his face as he tried to digest the information, and Grandma Grant nodded.

  “It’s a possibility,” she conceded. “That means there’s only one thing for it.”

  Monty, Jess and I turned to her expectantly.

  She smiled as she stabbed her fork into the red velvet cake. “We’re going to have to go back to Monty’s house and look for this paperwork.”