by Dale Mayer
“After I got hurt, he took the picks out ice fishing and chucked them. He should have chucked them into the lake. Instead, he tossed them both into the mess of ivy on the far side of the trail. He didn’t even think about it after that, at least not for a while. He came home. I got my leg treated, and we moved on. He did go look for them later but only found one. Still, you don’t get over death and loss fast. You don’t get over anything that devastating in any way that is fast enough. We haven’t been the same since.”
“Did Frank have anything to do with your sister’s or your father’s deaths?”
He shook his head. “No, but he helped me clean up everything because we didn’t know what else to do. Frank was always good with his hands. No matter what Mr. Burns thought of him, Frank made beautiful tools. But, like you, he wanted me to go to the police. And I wouldn’t do it. I thought Jude’s money was a good solution when I got enough from him to build the big greenhouse on top of Mom and Dad and Henrietta, so they’d be even more hidden, but Jude was bound to get caught too. I was always afraid of the damage he could do to me and my brother over that blackmail, making us accessories to Jude’s dad’s murder. I figured I could get Jude into more trouble at the time, but his money has allowed him to skate through so much.” He shoved his fists even deeper into his pockets.
“I get that, and, at this point,” Doreen said, “the best thing you can do is turn yourself in.”
“I know,” he said. “I heard the rumors that you got a hold of that weasel Jude Burns. Is that correct? I sure hope it is. I hope you throw him in jail and toss away the key.”
“It’ll take a while to prove everything, but it looks like he had three people killed, including his father, and forged a will in order to steal everything from his sisters.”
“People are just greedy,” Fred said, “and my dad? Well, he had a horrible temper.”
“I’m so sorry.”
He nodded and headed out the back door again. “I’m heading down to the police station right now.”
She walked with him to the door. “Please do,” she said. “I’m not sure how to make it any easier on you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I’m ready to face whatever it is they want to throw at me.” He looked at her and said, “I knew that, once you were on the case, you would never let it go. So I might as well confess and make it easier on myself.”
With that, he headed out around her house to the driveway. Doreen raced to the front door to see him get into his car and drive away. She phoned Mack immediately and told him what was happening.
“Good,” he said, “that should tie up another one.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Where are you?”
“I’m down at Jude’s place with a warrant. We’re looking for the will that was supposedly in this desk. I talked to the cleaning lady too, and she says it’s here, but I can’t get the damn drawers open.”
“Can I come?” Doreen cried out. “Please, please, please.”
“Fine,” Mack said, “but you look at the desk to see if you can find the secret drawers, and that’s it.”
“I’m on my way.” Doreen loaded up her menagerie and headed to the beautiful house on Abbott. The gates were open, and cops were all over the place. She walked up to the front steps, and the guard cop looked at her, groaned, and said, “Really? Your animals too?”
She shrugged. “They’re part of my think tank.” And she walked into the home office, looked at the desk, and smiled. “You know something? I think I do know this one.”
“How would you know that?” Mack asked.
“Just one of my many talks with Scott,” she said, “but I better see first.” She sat down at the desk, studied it for a long moment, and felt along the side where she thought the secret drawer might be. But instead, she found a tiny indent along the back. She pressed that, and a drawer popped out.
Mack dove for it and pulled out the will. He unrolled it while everyone crowded around him. “It’s dated two days before his death, all signed, nice and legal.” He looked at it and laughed. “He changed it and left everything to his daughters.”
Doreen looked up at Mack and smiled. “Justice is served.”
Epilogue
Friday Morning …
It had been two days since Doreen had been at Ed Burns’s house. She’d kept her head low and had stayed out of sight since then. It was Friday morning, and she was back at Millicent’s place. Millicent hadn’t stopped talking since Doreen had arrived to weed, but that was okay. Doreen was more than happy to listen while Millicent reminisced about the Jude and Ed Burns family drama and then about Frank and Fred Darbunkle.
“Who knew Fred would have gone down like that and talked to the cops? I know they let him go back to his home to say goodbye to his brother,” Millicent said. “And, for that, I’m happy. But it makes you wonder just what kind of charges he’ll face.”
“I don’t know,” Doreen said. “I’m sure they’ll exhume all three bodies to corroborate his accounting of his family’s deaths. After that I don’t know.”
“You, my dear, are an absolute marvel,” Millicent said.
“Not at all,” Doreen said. “Who knew I would find out all this just from finding one ice pick in the ivy?”
Millicent chuckled. “Did I ever tell you about the jewels I found?”
Doreen sat back on her haunches. “Jewels? Where?”
“They were in the juniper,” Millicent said. “It was years and years ago. I never did find out who they belonged to.”
“Did you ask Mack to find out?”
“Mack wasn’t even an officer back then. Not sure I have mentioned them to him since he joined law enforcement, now that I think about it.” She frowned. “You know what? I’ll see if I can find them.”
“Especially if you want to find who they belong to,” Doreen said. “It might take time to find the owners.”
Millicent looked at Doreen and smiled. “Not with you, my dear. You are so darn fast. I’ll go take a look now because I want you to have the jewels, and I want you to find out who they belong to.”
“Oh, but …” Doreen started.
However, it was too late. Millicent was gone.
Doreen laughed. Apparently she now had a new cold case.
This concludes Book 9 of Lovely Lethal Gardens: Ice Pick in the Ivy.
Read about Jewels in the Juniper: Lovely Lethal Gardens, Book 10
Lovely Lethal Gardens:
Jewels in the Juniper
(Book #10)
A new cozy mystery series from USA Today best-selling author Dale Mayer. Follow gardener and amateur sleuth Doreen Montgomery—and her amusing and mostly lovable cat, dog, and parrot—as they catch murderers and solve crimes in lovely Kelowna, British Columbia.
Riches to rags. … Chaos is still present. … Memories are fading, … but not for everyone!
The problem with notoriety is unfair expectations. When Mack’s mother, Millicent Moreau, requests Doreen’s help with a small problem she’s kept hidden for decades, Doreen feels obligated to help. And what harm could it do, after all? Worst-case scenario? It’ll annoy Mack, but that’s something she does on a regular basis anyway.
But when Millicent’s “small problem” turns out to involve a failed marriage, a bag of jewels from a jewelry store that mysteriously burned down decades ago, possible insurance fraud, and maybe even a case of murder, … Doreen will admit that she’s in way over her head.
With her trusty trio of furry and feathered cohorts, she brings an old case into the present—and finds it’s more current than ever …
Find Book 10 here!
To find out more visit Dale Mayer’s website.
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Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Ice Pick in the Ivy: Lovely Lethal Gardens, Book 9! If you enjoyed the book, please take a moment and leave a short review here.
Dear reader,
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Cheers,
Dale Mayer
About the Author
Dale Mayer is a USA Today bestselling author best known for her Psychic Visions and Family Blood Ties series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Second Chances, SKIN), her thrillers will keep you guessing (By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It’s a Dog’s Life and Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy series).
She honors the stories that come to her – and some of them are crazy and break all the rules and cross multiple genres!
To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series. All her books are available in print and ebook format.
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ICE PICK IN THE IVY: LOVELY LETHAL GARDENS, BOOK 9
Dale Mayer
Valley Publishing
Copyright © 2020
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN-13: 978-1-773362-67-0
Kindle Edition
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