Sweet Hide and Seek (A Sweet Cove Mystery Book 9)

by J A Whiting

  “Which would be expected.” Karl had his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. “Dad only used the car in the morning that day.”

  The Roselands and Mr. Finch moved slowly around the garage with the cats padding softly about sniffing everywhere. As they walked by the car, Jenna and Finch discreetly placed their hands on the metal trying to pick up on any sensations.

  A man’s voice called out a hello and they all turned to see a tall, well-dressed young man with dark hair walking up the driveway. He gave Cora a hug and nodded to the group as his mother introduced her son, Roman. He smiled and shook hands with the Roselands and Mr. Finch. “Mom said she’d asked some private investigators to look into Dad’s disappearance. I wasn’t expecting five of you.” Roman looked down at the cats. “Cats, too, huh?”

  “We’re really not private investigators.” Angie corrected the man. “We’re strictly volunteers and we never charge for our services. We have some experience so we help out when we’re able.”

  Karl had a smirk on his face and Courtney glared at him.

  “Well, it’s nice of you to come by.” Roman nodded. “I know mom appreciates any help. We all do.”

  “Roman works downtown. He’s an insurance agent.” Cora had her hand on her son’s arm.

  “I can only stay for a few minutes. I need to get back to the office, but I wanted to swing by to see if there was anything I could help with.”

  “Shall we go back inside for a few minutes, then?” Angie smiled. “We can go over some things before you need to get back to work.”

  “Glad to.” Roman followed his mother to the door that led to the kitchen where everyone took seats at the large farm table that stood in front of huge glass windows that looked out over the yard. The snow flurries had stopped and the sun was trying to peek out from behind the whitish-gray clouds.

  Angie asked Roman to give an account of his day on the date his father went missing and the young man told them how he’d gone kayaking on the nearby river with a young woman he was dating at the time. Afterwards they went for lunch and then he returned home to his apartment to do some paperwork. His mother called him in the evening asking if he knew where his father was.

  “Had you spoken to you father that day?” Jenna asked.

  “No. I spoke to him by phone the previous Friday about going to a baseball game the next week. My agency had some tickets that weren’t going to be used and they offered them to me.”

  Courtney was making notes again. “That was the last time you talked to him?”

  “It was.” Roman let out the smallest of sighs.

  “Did you get any sense that something was bothering your father?” Angie questioned.

  “No. He was his usual self. There was no clue to indicate what would happen on Sunday.”

  Angie smiled. “Can you tell us what your father was like?”

  Roman looked out of the window. “Dad was hard working. He liked to run, lifted some weights, nothing like a gym rat or anything, just to keep fit. Dad didn’t go out much. He worked and he came home. He and mom were married for twenty-four years.”

  Something picked at Angie and she looked at Karl and Roman. “How would you both describe your relationship with your father?”

  Roman glanced over at Karl and answered first. “We got along fine. Dad worked a ton. He wasn’t one of those dads who was always playing sports with his kids or treating their kids like a best friend. I thought of Dad as sort of an old-fashioned kind of father, engaged in his work, supportive of the family, expected us kids to do well in school and become good members of the community.”

  Angie asked another question. “Did you go on vacations together?”

  Roman replied again. “We’d take a hike together sometimes or go to the beach for a long weekend. Dad was careful with money. He thought kids should be out playing with other kids in the neighborhood, riding bikes, playing pick-up games, not having things organized for them.”

  “How about you, Karl?” Angie looked over at the youngest brother. “How would you describe your relationship with your father?”

  “The same as Roman did.” Karl gave a lazy shrug. “Nothing much to add.”

  Angie took a quick look at her sisters and Mr. Finch and everyone seemed satisfied that they’d done what they could for the day and that it was time to go home.

  Cora told her sons that she was returning to Sweet Cove for a few days and that they should call her if they needed anything.

  The family piled into the van and Cora followed behind in her own car as they made their way to the highway for the hour-long trip back to Sweet Cove.

  From the front passenger seat, Courtney let out a groan. “Guess what? As we were leaving the Connors’s house, someone asked me out.”

  Jenna smiled at her youngest sister. “Roman?”

  “Guess again.” Courtney scowled.

  Mr. Finch chuckled. “I saw Mr. Karl staring at you more than once. Perhaps opposites attract, Miss Courtney?”

  “Not in this case, they don’t.”

  “I think you should go out with him.” Ellie grinned. “He might reveal some important information to you.”

  Courtney flicked her eyes to Ellie. “I’ll tell Karl you’re attracted to his bad boy ways and would love to date him, and then you can interrogate him about his father. Shall I give him your number?” she teased.

  “You know,” Jenna smiled at Courtney, “I’m sure Rufus wouldn’t mind if you went out with Karl as long as it was in the spirit of doing good.”

  “Maybe he wouldn’t mind,” Courtney said. “But I sure would.”

  Turning the conversation back to the case, Angie asked, “So what were everyone’s impressions?”

  “It sounds like Richard Connors was sort of uptight.” Courtney offered her opinion. “You heard Cora say that Richard liked things in order. That she wanted things to be neat for when he returned. I think that’s kind of weird. Maybe Richard was obsessive-compulsive.”

  “That’s a good idea.” Angie nodded. “That goes along with his thing of only wearing deck shoes all the time.”

  “And he seemed to keep tight control of the money,” Ellie said. “I also got the impression that the man really wasn’t that close to his sons. From what they said, he maybe didn’t spend much time with them.”

  Jenna and Mr. Finch looked at each other.

  Jenna spoke first. “When I touched the desk and the car, I had the strange sensation that Richard wasn’t as wonderful as his wife and son claimed. I felt something I can’t really describe, but something was off.” She looked at Mr. Finch for confirmation.

  Euclid rested across Finch’s lap and listened as the older man gave his opinion.

  “I think Miss Jenna is on to something.” Finch nodded solemnly. “I suspect that Mr. Richard may be a more complicated man that what we’ve heard so far.”

  Euclid let out a hiss and Mr. Finch gently stroked the large boy’s orange fur. “I believe Euclid agrees with us. I also believe it would be prudent to start looking into the life of Richard Connors. We may find out some things about him that have not yet come to light.” Finch narrowed his eyes. “In fact, I would bet on it.”

  10

  The Roselands, Mr. Finch, the two cats, and Cora entered the foyer of the Victorian to find Orla O’Brien and Mel Abel sitting at the dining room table playing cards with Courtney’s boyfriend, Rufus, Jenna’s fiancé, Tom, and Chief Martin. There were two bowls of popcorn on the table along with a bottle of wine and five glasses. When the entourage arrived in the foyer, the five card players looked up and greeted them.

  Chief Martin had texted Angie to ask when the group would be returning home as he had some information to share with them. Since the sisters and Finch were running late, the chief was enlisted to play.

  “I came to see if you wanted to go to dinner.” Holding his cards in his hands, Rufus, a recent transplant to Sweet Cove from England, smiled at the pretty honey-blonde who walked to his seat and hugged him.
“I called a bunch of times,” he said. “You didn’t answer your phone.”

  “I had it turned off,” Courtney told Rufus.

  “I told him you went out on business.” Tom nodded and stood up to greet Jenna. “You were all gone longer than we thought so we decided to join in the card game.”

  Orla eyed Jenna. “Was it a fruitful visit?”

  Euclid and Circe had jumped up to their usual perch on top of the dining room cabinet and stared down at Orla.

  Jenna stood behind Tom’s chair with her arms wrapped around his shoulders wondering what Orla knew about their journey to Mill City since no one told the guests where they were going when they left the house. “It was a good day.”

  Mel held his cards in one hand and used his other to push a handful of popcorn into his mouth. He wiped his fingers on a napkin as he chewed. “I’ve decided,” he announced in his booming voice, “that the best part of traveling is meeting new people.”

  “I agree with you.” Orla considered which of her cards to play. “It is one of the most enjoyable things about visiting new places.”

  “That young man of yours is a real card shark,” Mel informed Courtney. “I’m only glad we aren’t playing for money.”

  Rufus smiled, enjoying the praise, and took a card from the pile in the center of the table.

  “Don’t feed his ego, Mr. Abel.” Courtney smiled. “His head will swell and he won’t be able to fit through the doorway.”

  Mel threw back his head and let out a belly-laugh. “You’re a lucky young man, Mr. Englishman. A woman who is attractive, smart, and funny.”

  Rufus looked up at Courtney and then at Mel. “How do you know she’s smart?”

  “I see it in her eyes.” Mel tossed down one of his cards.

  “Now whose head is swelling?” Rufus teased his girlfriend.

  Seconds later, the card game ended with groans from all of the players except Rufus who cackled with delight.

  “I can’t believe he won again.” Mel moaned and threw down his cards in defeat.

  Chief Martin stood and made eye contact with Angie and she nodded and the two of them went down the hall to the kitchen.

  Ellie announced to the guests, “I’ll set the buffet table with the evening refreshments. It’ll just be a few minutes.” She hurried down the hall to the kitchen.

  Mel collected the playing cards into a pile. “I’ll go freshen up and be back to enjoy the refreshments. Back in a flash.”

  Ellie and Mr. Finch headed to the kitchen where Angie and the chief waited for them before they started the discussion of the case of the missing man.

  The chief pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and placed it on the kitchen island. “That’s the name and number of the psychic that the Mill City police called in to consult on Richard Connor’s case.”

  Angie poured tea and coffee for Chief Martin and Mr. Finch and then she helped Ellie prepare the platters and baskets with cookies, blueberry crumble cake, date squares, and fruit salad.

  “Did the police officers in Mill City tell you what the psychic had to say?” Finch took a sip of the hot tea.

  “They told me some of the things.” The chief added some cream to his coffee. “The psychic was kind of cryptic about the man. He said that it was difficult to get a handle on Connors, but claimed that he felt the man was alive and perhaps, had left of his own accord.”

  “Really?” Angie brought the men a small plate with a few sweets for them to nibble on. “Alive, huh?”

  “The police had the same feeling about Connors. There was absolutely no evidence of foul play that they could find. They sort of threw up their hands thinking that the case had lots of characteristics of a man just taking off.” Chief Martin shrugged. “You can’t force someone to go home. You can’t force someone to stay at home either.”

  “Why would the man leave home like that?” Finch pondered what the motivation might be.

  The chief tossed out some ideas. “Mid-life crisis? Boredom? Another woman? Maybe he had some vague feeling that he hadn’t enjoyed life enough?”

  Angie filled containers with coffee, decaf coffee, and a third one with hot water for tea and placed them on the rolling beverage cart. “I know his doctor said Connors was healthy, but what if the man had been to a specialist and received bad news about his health. That might have made him run off.”

  “But,” Chief Martin said, “There would have been an insurance payment made to the specialist and the police would have found out who he had seen.”

  “Unless, Connors paid cash and bypassed insurance.” One of Angie’s eyebrows went up.

  “My buddy in Mill City also told me something interesting.”

  All eyes turned to the chief.

  “Apparently, the psychic just recently got in touch with the police and said he’d like to come in and talk to them again about Richard Connors.”

  “The psychic has some new information?” Angie looked hopeful.

  “So it seems. I think you’ll have to talk to the psychic after he meets with the police. Depending on the information, the police may ask him not to reveal his new ideas to anyone else.”

  “That’s understandable.” Ellie placed the bowl of fruit on the rolling cart.

  “What do you think?” Angie asked her sister. “Do you have any feelings or intuition about the case?”

  Ellie stood holding a large platter. “I’ve felt from the beginning that the man is alive.” Frowning, she added, “But I don’t think he wants to be found.”

  “So you don’t think he’s sending his wife a message by using his credit card?”

  “I hate to say it, but I don’t think he is. I bet Jack will tell Cora that the card information has been compromised and is being used by someone else.” Ellie pushed her hair over her shoulder. “Poor Cora. It would be awful to discover that someone you love has run away from you.”

  “I wonder.” Angie went to the cabinet to get a stack of small dessert plates. “Cora seems slightly insecure. Richard seemed to control the finances and what the family did and Cora gives me the impression that she just went along with whatever Richard wanted.”

  “Mr. Karl is quite defensive,” Mr. Finch noted. “He doesn’t seem to have gotten on well with his father. It would be interesting to look at the young man’s background and perhaps, to sit and talk with him alone, without his mother present.”

  “Karl liked Courtney.” Ellie smiled and pushed the food and beverage cart out of the kitchen. “Maybe he’d open up to her, if she interviewed him by herself.”

  Mr. Finch looked at Angie with a little grin. “It might be a hard-sell to get Miss Courtney to try that.”

  Chief Martin picked up a cookie from the plate. “My friend in Mill City told me that Richard had worked at an appraisal agency, years ago before he started his own business. Some people who knew Richard are still working there and they didn’t exactly sing the man’s praises. It might be worth having a chat with them.”

  “That’s a great idea.” Angie took some flour and sugar from under the cabinet to make some pastry items for the next day’s bake shop inventory. “I’d also like to talk to Cora’s parents if they’re around. I wonder what they thought of Richard. It might help to get some impressions from family members and the couple’s friends.”

  “There is much to do.” Finch nodded.

  “Tomorrow afternoon Jenna, Courtney, and I are taking a ride to the New Hampshire motel where Richard’s credit card was used. We’re going to show some pictures of him to the desk clerk.” Angie told Mr. Finch, “I’m also going to make an appointment with the psychic. Maybe you can arrange your schedule at the candy store so that you can come along to interview the psychic with me?”

  “I’d be glad to join you, Miss Angie. Just let me know when we’re going.”

  Angie mixed ingredients into the stainless steel bowl and prepared a tart pan and some muffin tins while Finch and Chief Martin talked about the weather, world news, and town happenings.
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  As soon as Angie placed the muffin tins into the oven and set the timer, she leaned against the counter. “I can’t stop thinking about the psychic. It’s not that late. Do you think it would be okay to call now and set up a meeting with him?”

  The chief looked up at the wall clock to check the time. “Sure, call. If the man doesn’t want to speak right now, the call can go to his voice messages.”

  Angie hurried to the counter to pick up her phone and leaning down to see the psychic’s number on the piece of paper that the chief had brought along, she pressed the numbers on the screen of her phone to place the call. Just as Angie thought the voice mail was about to come on, someone picked up on the other end so she introduced herself and told the person who she wanted to speak with and why. Mr. Finch and the chief watched Angie’s expression change from concern to shock.

  “I’m very sorry.” Angie ended the call and turned to the two men sitting at the kitchen island. When she reported what the person on the phone had just told her, the looks on Finch’s and the chief’s faces shifted to match Angie’s expression.

  “The psychic is dead.”

  11

  Jenna sat in the driver’s seat of her old car with Courtney beside her and Angie sitting alone in the back.

  “That’s awful about the psychic.” Jenna pulled the car into the middle lane of the highway. “I wonder why he called the police recently and wanted to talk with them about Richard’s case.”

  “He must have found out something about Richard or maybe he had a new idea.” Courtney removed her leather gloves and placed them on the center console. “We’ll never know now.”

  Angie sighed and gave her head a slight shake trying not to fall asleep in the car. She’d been awake all night, her brain buzzing over the psychic’s death and what he might have wanted to talk over with the Mill City police detectives. “Ellie wonders if the psychic didn’t die of natural causes.”