CHAPTER 3
Roxie, the long-time waitress at Kelly’s Koffee Shop, and Madison, who worked there when she wasn’t attending classes at the cosmetology school in Sunset Bay, were waiting by the front door of Kelly’s Koffee Shop when Kelly parked her minivan in her usual spot.
The coffee shop was located on the pier that jutted out into Cedar Bay. Kelly’s grandparents had originally built it and Kelly and her husband took over when her parents retired. After her husband, Mark, had died at an early age of cancer, Kelly had run it by herself. It had supported Kelly and her children through the years and she still felt as attached to it as she had when her grandmother had lovingly and with a great deal of patience, taught her how to cook at the coffee shop. She let Rebel out and he bounded along the pier to where the two employees were standing, hoping for an ear scratch. They both bent down and obliged.
“So, is it true Jeff Black was murdered last night?” Roxie asked as Kelly opened the door of the coffee shop.
“Good grief! How did you find out? It hasn’t even been twelve hours,” Kelly said.
“Kelly, you know the drums start beating in this town the minute something really good or really bad happens. Someone told someone and it went from there. Do you know what happened? Any truth to the rumor that you were the one who found him?”
“I don’t know anything other than yes, I found him when I went out there to deliver a chocolate cake he’d ordered. Beyond that, you’ll have to ask Mike. He never came home last night, so I’m hoping he found out something. Come on, this will probably be a busy morning. I’ll bet half the town will stop by to gossip about what happened to Jeff.”
A few minutes later, Charlie, the fry cook and son of Chief Many Trees, opened the coffee shop door and hurried over to her. Charlie still resented the United States government for taking away his tribe’s ancient land. Sullen and angry as always, he was dressed in jeans and a blue denim shirt and wore a large green turquoise cluster bracelet with a matching pendant. The lines around his mouth were deeply etched from constantly scowling. “Kelly, we heard that Jeff Black was murdered last night and that you were the one who found him. Everyone on the reservation hopes it’s true. Now maybe that land our tribe fought so hard to keep from being developed will stay as it is. You know we consider that land to be sacred because our ancient burial grounds are on it. Is it true? Is Jeff Black really dead?”
“Yes, Charlie, it’s true and I don’t know what’s going to happen to that land. We can talk later, but right now I expect we’ll have a big crowd this morning, so I need you to get in the kitchen and set up for the onslaught. We open in thirty minutes and I want everyone to be ready.”
Several hours later she was filling up a small coffee pot from the large commercial coffee urn in the kitchen when Roxie stuck her head in the kitchen. “Kelly, Mike’s here. He asked if you could come out and talk to him for a minute and you better take a cup of coffee with you. From the looks of him, he could use a lot of coffee and some food as well.”
Kelly walked over to the booth where Mike was sitting and put a cup of steaming hot coffee in front of him with two cubes of sugar and a little cream, just the way he liked it. “Mike, I was worried when I woke up this morning and you weren’t there. What have you found out?”
“It was a long night, Kelly. Marcy’s sister’s telephone number was in Jeff’s contacts list on his computer. I called her and she told me she had the number of the hotel where Marcy was staying in Portland and would call her. That surprised me because I thought Jeff had told you she was going to stay with her sister. Anyway, I would have preferred to tell Marcy in person, but I was afraid she’d hear it on the news before I could get there. Her sister called me back a little later and told me Marcy had taken it well and would be coming back today to Cedar Bay to make the necessary funeral arrangements.
“I also found Brandon’s contact information. He’s living in a dormitory at Oregon State. I called the resident adviser at the dormitory and told him I was on my way to Corvallis to tell Brandon about his father. Fortunately traffic was light and I was able to get there in an hour and a half. Telling a young man his father has been murdered when only a few months ago the woman he loved was also murdered is pretty high on my list of things I never want to do again.”
“Oh Mike, that must have been horrible for you, but there’s no question you did the right thing,” she said, putting her hand on his arm and patting it.
“May have been, but it sure didn’t make it any easier. I called Marcy’s sister back this morning and she told me Brandon was going to drive home to help Marcy make the funeral arrangements. Her sister is also going to drive here and stay with Marcy for a couple of days.”
The swinging doors of the kitchen opened and Charlie came through them and walked over to where Mike was sitting. “So, is it true that the man who tried to defile our sacred tribal land is dead? Sure hope so. He was an evil man. Serves him right. The tribe’s thinking about having a smoke dance ceremony out at the reservation to celebrate his death.”
Roxie walked out from the kitchen and put a plate in front of Mike with a big slice of the daily special, the breakfast tart, and the coffee shop’s famous caramel coffee rolls.
“Thanks, Roxie. I was thinking about that tart on the way over here. It’s one of my favorites. I mean, who can resist a tart with cheese, eggs, and bacon in it? And caramel rolls. This man is going to leave here a lot happier than when he came in, believe me.”
He turned back to Charlie. “Charlie, the decision to allow the hotel and spa to be built was made by the County Supervisors. Jeff had the right to build it on his land, even if it had been the tribe’s a long time ago.”
“Just because some politicians say it’s okay, doesn’t make it right. In fact, the Great Spirit knows it’s wrong. That’s probably why Jeff Black is dead. The Great Spirit took care of something the politicians screwed up.”
“Do you know anything about who might have killed him?” Mike asked.
A snide smile replaced his customary scowl and he said, “Nope, but I’d like to shake the hand of the man or woman who did it.”
“Charlie, think I better come out to the reservation and talk to you and your dad. The two of you might know something that could help me in the investigation.”
“Sure. I’ll tell Dad. Look forward to it. Might even get Lisa Many Horses to make you some of her famous fry bread. People drive for miles to get it. Kelly won’t let me make it here.” He turned and walked back into the kitchen. Kelly and Mike exchanged knowing looks and Mike shook his head.
“Kelly, I don’t know where to begin. There are probably more people who wanted to see Jeff dead than people who wanted to see him alive. I have an appointment with Lem Bates at 1:00 this afternoon. He was Jeff’s attorney and maybe Jeff told him something that might help me with the investigation. Anyway, it’s a place to start. Right now I’m going home and try to get a little sleep. See you tonight.” He walked over to the door and retrieved his signature white Stetson hat from the coat rack. He bent down for a moment to scratch Rebel’s ears, and then he stood up, opened the door, and walked down the pier to his sheriff’s car.
“Kelly, you don’t think the tribe had anything to do with the murder do you?” Roxie asked.
“I have no idea. Oh swell, here comes Chief Many Trees right now, your favorite customer.”
“You saw him first. You get him,” Roxie said. “Some days I just can’t deal with him and today’s one of those days.
The chief stood just inside the door and motioned to Kelly. She walked over to him. He was wearing a silver wrist cuff with a large piece of jade inlaid in it, a jade and silver ring, as well as jade points on his bolo tie. “Chief, you can take any of the empty tables. I’ll be with you in a minute to get your order.”
“Not here to eat,” the chief said in a gruff angry voice. “We’re having a special tribal council meeting tonight. Tribe’s pretty nervous about what’s going to happen to the Black pr
operty now that Jeff Black is dead. Some people want to have a celebration, but I thought I better call a meeting before somebody goes and does something stupid. Was wondering if you could bring us some of those special bacon chocolate chip cookies you make.”
“Sure. I have some in the freezer. How many do you want?”
“Well, we’ve got nine members on the tribal council, so a couple of dozen should do it.” He looked at the sweet roll dripping with caramel sauce that Roxie was serving to a customer. “If you’ve got any of those sweet rolls left over, bring those too.”
“Okay. I’ll probably be there about three this afternoon. I’ve never been on the reservation. Where should I go when I get there?”
“You’ll see some buildings at the end of the road. I’ll be watching for you. See you then.”
CHAPTER 4
About fifteen miles north of Cedar Bay, Kelly turned onto the dirt road leading to the reservation. In the distance she saw a ramshackle cluster of mobile homes, old cars, and a couple of dilapidated buildings. Chief Many Trees had told her that once there were nearly four hundred members of the tribe living in the surrounding area, but now there were less than sixty. He’d explained to her that the tribe was losing most of the younger members to jobs in the cities. Several of them had received scholarships to universities and once they had their degree, they had no desire to return to the reservation with its very limited opportunities.
Chief Many Trees heard her car as she approached and walked out of one of the buildings, motioning for her to park in front of it. He walked over to her car and said, “Can I help you bring in the stuff?”
“Absolutely, just let me pop the trunk so you can get the cookies and caramel rolls out. Do you have any objection to Rebel coming in with me?”
“No. We’ve got a lot of dogs here on the reservation, although I think they’re all pretty much mutts, but doesn’t matter, they’re still good dogs.”
She followed him into the nondescript forlorn looking building. The chief noticed Kelly looking around and said, “We don’t have much money and as I told you, the tribe is getting smaller every year.” The room had minimal furniture and was cold and uninviting. Nine fold up chairs had been placed in a circle near the center of the room. He looked around, put up his hands as if he was surrendering, and said, “Sometimes I think maybe we should accept the deal offered to us by those people who keep coming here from Las Vegas. They want to build a casino on the reservation. They tell us it would be very popular because it’s close to the ocean and it’s in a tourist area. If we accepted their offer they said all the tribal members would probably become millionaires.”
“Why hasn’t the tribe agreed to it?” Kelly asked, her eyes sweeping the bare room.
“Probably because I’m the chief and I’m against it. We have enough trouble with alcohol and domestic abuse on the reservation. I’m not sure it would do our tribe any good if we got rich and then added another thing that could cause problems for our members – gambling, plus it would just provide more money for the members to buy alcohol. I think the tribe should stick to our traditional old ways and not get involved in gambling. When I’m gone it will probably happen. A lot of the members of the tribe are for it.”
“If they’re in favor of building a casino here on the reservation, why were they so opposed to Jeff building a hotel and spa on his property at Jade Cove? It seems to me they’re kind of like the same thing. Both would attract a lot of tourists and I thought that was one of the reasons your tribe was against it.”
“Yes and no. You see, Jeff’s land is located on our ancient tribal burial grounds. Many years ago, the Bureau of Land Management took that land away from us and gave us this land in return for it. A few years ago the BLM decided to sell some of the land they had previously taken from us. My son, Charlie, and some of the other members of the tribe still resent it. Anyway, the tribe had some money from reparations the government gave us years ago as well as money some of the members had earned when they worked with the miners at Jade Cove. By the way, a lot of our members continued to find jade there after the big mining company no longer found it profitable to maintain their mining operation at Jade Cove.
“When the BLM decided to sell the land, they held an open Internet auction for the property. The bidding was to close at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday. Naturally we bid on the land and were practically guaranteed that we could get our ancient burial grounds back. At two minutes before 5:00 p.m. on the last day of the auction, Jeff Black bid one hundred dollars more than we had bid. We had two minutes to submit a larger bid, but it required the approval of the tribal council and being Friday, many of them had gone off the reservation to Cedar Bay and Sunset Bay. We don’t sell alcohol on the reservation, but on the weekends a lot of our members go to those two towns to get it. Anyway, I couldn’t get a majority of our tribal council together to authorize a higher bid and I couldn’t do it without their approval, so we lost the land to Jeff Black. To say that members of the tribe have hated him ever since that day would be an understatement. Before he bought the land, we used to have access to Jade Cove, but when it became his, we couldn’t even get to the beach to mine the jade.”
“Well, I can understand your dislike for Jeff Black. It seems like kind of a dirty trick and an underhanded thing for Jeff to have done.”
“Yeah, that was just one of the sneaky tricks he pulled on us. He accused us of rustling his cattle, then we found out he was growing marijuana on his land. A few of our young people were buying it from one of his guards on the property. We’re pretty sure Jeff knew and allowed it.”
“Well, maybe that fire on his property awhile back was a good thing if it destroyed the supply, although he claimed he was growing it for medicinal purposes.”
The chief laughed bitterly. “He may have said that, but our reservation butts up to the back of his property on this side of the highway. Some of the members told me they saw trucks going in and out of that property all day and night and they sure didn’t look like they were any kind of medical trucks. Heard that the people who drove the trucks were all Mexicans, probably members of some drug cartel. I think it’s a good thing he’s dead. He was an evil man.”
“Well, that may be so, but nobody deserves to be murdered.”
“Kelly, that’s a matter of opinion. And trust me, your opinion would definitely be in the minority around here. Now what do I owe you?”
He paid her and they walked out to her van. She stopped for a moment, looking at some of the mobile homes which were badly in need of repair and practically falling apart. Those, along with the unpaved parking area and the abandoned cars, meant just one thing to Kelly, poverty.
“Chief, it’s none of my business, but are you sure you’re doing the right thing by not building the casino on the reservation? It seems to me that the tribal members sure could use the extra money. I’ve heard that some tribes that have built casinos on their reservations have been able to build schools and medical facilities as well as bring in psychologists to help the members deal with issues involving alcohol and spousal abuse. All of those benefits were paid for with the profits from the casino.”
“Kelly, there are nights I don’t sleep because I’m thinking the same thing. My time is coming to an end here on Mother Earth and I’ll soon be with the Great Spirit. When I’m gone, I’m sure that will happen and you can judge if it was the right decision. Thanks for bringing me the cookies and caramel rolls.”
“Chief, seems to me I remember some Native American saying about not knowing what another man is going through until you walk in his moccasins. Don’t think I’d want to be walking in yours right now. You’re bearing a heavy burden. See you at the coffee shop and tell Charlie hello for me. Come on, Rebel,” she said. Rebel was busy playing tag with some newfound four-legged friends, but he came immediately when she called.
As she was opening the door of her minivan for Rebel, a thought occurred to her. She turned around and said, “Chief, you mentioned that alcoh
ol isn’t sold on the reservation. Are guns allowed?”
“No. Many years ago the Tribal Council decided that nothing good would come from having guns on the reservation, particularly when we have such a problem with alcohol abuse. We have a strict policy that no firearms are allowed on the reservation. If one is found in the possession of a tribal member, that person is banished from the tribe and not allowed to live on the reservation. Why do you ask?”
“Jeff Black was killed by a gun.”
“Well, I guess that puts the members of our tribe in the clear.”
She waved goodbye and headed down the dirt road to the highway. Maybe yes, maybe no. I’m sure if a member of the tribe wanted to get a gun, he could, but it probably does eliminate a lot of the tribal members.
CHAPTER 5
“Rebel, we’re going to pass right by the lane where Doc lives. Think we’ll pay him a visit. I haven’t really had a chance to talk to him about his volunteer work at the clinic and I’m curious how it’s going. Anyway, he usually has a little filet mignon treat for you. What do you think?”
Kelly could swear Rebel understood everything she said to him, which was one reason why she talked to him a lot. When he heard the words “Doc” and “filet mignon,” his short little tail wagged in anticipation and he pawed at the seat upholstery, indicating he would be thrilled to go see Doc and hopefully get a few pieces of filet mignon.
Doc had moved to Cedar Bay three years earlier and purchased a small ranchette a few miles out of town. He kept to himself and no one knew much about him other than he ate lunch, Monday through Friday, at Kelly’s Koffee Shop. Kelly was one of the few people Doc was friendly with and he had a reputation among the townspeople of being a loner, a man who wanted to isolate himself from people and more or less live off the grid.
Murder at Jade Cove (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Book 2) Page 2