Mistletoe and Mayhem (Port Danby Cozy Mystery Book 3)

Home > Other > Mistletoe and Mayhem (Port Danby Cozy Mystery Book 3) > Page 15
Mistletoe and Mayhem (Port Danby Cozy Mystery Book 3) Page 15

by London Lovett


  I decided to take a stroll around the shop to free my mind and, who was I kidding, procrastinate a few more minutes before starting paperwork. I walked to the big bay window where Ryder’s magical display was slowly shrinking and drying. Even in its slightly deteriorated state, it was wonderful. I could have kicked myself for immediately confessing that Ryder had done the whole thing. Naturally, I didn’t feel right taking even an ounce of credit, but at the same time, it might have been better to keep it to myself. At least until after the judging. Fortunately, Ryder took it in stride and didn’t seem too disappointed in losing.

  As I spun away from the window display, something popped into my head about that day. Tyler was helping Yolanda. I could recognize him because of the pungent sports cream he’d applied to his sore muscle. The night before, I saw Taylor and knew it was him because of the lack of medicinal smell. I had seen Randall Dayton three times. The first time in the diner, I didn’t notice any tobacco smell. Although I wished I had. It might have stopped Lola from even sharing a slice of pie with him. Then Lola complained that he smelled like smoke on their date. In the Corner Market, with the blonde, no tobacco smell. But last night with Kate, it was back.

  Just maybe Randall Dayton could be in two places at once. I rushed back to my computer and spent the next few minutes typing in keywords and combing through the pages. I found the article about Big Bob Construction losing its license. As I read further, there was a mention of Bob’s sons, Randall and Scott. I typed in both their names, and bingo, I found what I needed. Randall and Scott Dayton were identical twins. Randall followed in his father’s footsteps and went into construction, but Scott had gone to Hollywood to try his luck in show business. It seemed he was mostly a commercial actor. One thing was for sure, the two brothers were as closely matched as Franki’s boys. Only Randall and Scott were easy to tell apart because one smelled like tobacco and one did not. I wasn’t completely sure which one was the smoker, but at this point, it didn’t matter.

  I stared down at the paperwork on my desk. It could wait. But the new information I had for Detective Briggs couldn’t. I walked out to the sidewalk and stared down Harbor Lane. Detective Briggs’ car was not parked out front. The black and white patrol car was gone too. Maybe Briggs had figured things out and he was already heading out to the site to find Dayton.

  After I’d helped out on the murder case for Marian Fitch, Briggs had given me his direct line. I dialed the number and was disappointed that it went straight to voicemail. I left him a quick message to call me but didn’t want to provide details over the phone. I hoped it wouldn’t be long until he listened to his messages. It was Sunday and, in truth, I didn’t know all that much about Briggs’ social life, except that he rode a motorcycle and he didn’t like crowds. It was possible he had been out late Saturday night, and he’d decided to unplug from work for the morning. And just exactly what was he doing out so late on Saturday night? I had to squash that thought right away before it led my imagination astray.

  I was thoroughly disappointed that I couldn’t reach him. So thoroughly that I was sure I couldn’t possibly concentrate on paperwork. I decided to walk down to Franki’s for breakfast while I waited for him to call me back.

  Chapter 34

  An angry looking storm loomed out over the ocean. The gulls that usually huddled on the pier in the morning waiting patiently for food crumbs and fish bits had moved inland. The birds always knew when it was time to clear the coastline for a storm. It was no wonder Kingston had tucked his beak back under his wing when I invited him along for the morning.

  I could feel this one coming in my bones as well. The clouds were tall, reaching far up into the atmosphere, and they carried with them that dark, ominous glow of thunder, lightning and sheets of rain. The morning air was cold but not quite frigid enough for snow. That meant the blanket of snow on the town would be turned to mushy ice.

  The depressingly gray sky, the eerie quiet left behind from the weekend’s event and my sense that I had discovered the name of the murderer sent an odd chill through me that had nothing to do with the temperature.

  Long before I reached the diner, I’d decided firmly on one of Franki’s yogurt parfaits for breakfast. Her parfait was a whispery light concoction of vanilla honey yogurt, berries and Franki’s homemade pecan granola. After the very irresponsible dinner of mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and caramel cake, I needed to eat something nutritious or risk feeling like a soft potato myself. I could almost feel the heavy starches weighing me down as I walked through the diner parking lot.

  Most of the town had been out late last night, and there were only a few cars and one work truck in the parking lot. I didn’t give the work truck a second glance as I walked past it until the diner door opened and Randall Dayton walked out. Or was it Scott? Or was I totally wrong about all of it?

  Dayton was alone. He had just finished a phone call as he stepped off the curb to walk around to the driver’s side of the truck. Rude jerk that he was, he took a moment to look me up and down. Then he pulled the keys from his pocket.

  I didn’t know if it was the way he’d so brazenly looked at me or if it was the way he’d treated Lola but my anger made me blurt out the words before I could give them careful thought.

  “I must be seeing double,” I said with a forced laugh.

  He stopped halfway along the driver’s side and turned back to me, his dark brow arched in suspicion. The work truck led me to believe that I was talking to Randall. There was no tobacco smell.

  “Excuse me?” The harsh way he said the words should have given me pause, but I forged right ahead.

  “It’s just that I’ve been seeing you so much this weekend. It’s almost as if there are two of you. Identical twins, I assume.”

  His face grew red with agitation. He glanced around, it seemed to make sure no one could hear me exposing the truth. His angry scowl shot across the street to the Port Danby Police Station. There were still no cars out front.

  “You’re that woman who was snooping around at the murder scene.”

  “So you were there watching? Interesting. Well, have a good day.” I tried to walk past him but quickly found I’d made a terrible mistake in taunting a murderer.

  It took me a stunned second to realize that he had wrapped his hand around my arm. He smothered my scream with his other ice cold hand. My moment of extreme terror was cut short by a sharp pain in my head. A layer of darkness swept over me.

  My eyes opened and my head thudded with pain. My first thoughts were to climb out of bed and go down the hallway to the medicine cabinet for aspirin, but when my bottom was suddenly launched into the air before smacking a car seat, my aching head cleared and the terror returned.

  I reached instinctively for the door handle, even knowing full well that we were racing along Highway 48 at full speed. The handle was locked. I frantically rubbed my fingers over the window button, not knowing what I would do once I got it open. But it seemed I wouldn’t need to decide that either. The window was locked.

  “Don’t know why they put child safety buttons on a work truck. This is the first time I’ve ever had to use them.” Randall Dayton stared straight ahead. From the side he had a jutting forehead and chin that made him look horribly mean. And, it seemed that he wasn’t just mean but a murderer. Apparently Dash had good instincts when it came to judging people. He’d sensed something was wrong with Dayton right away.

  I’d been knocked unconscious long enough for him to push me into his truck and head for the highway. I reached up and winced as my fingers grazed the tender lump on the back of my head. “Ouch, what did you hit me with?”

  Dayton lifted his hand from the steering wheel and curled it into a menacing fist. “I’m an amateur boxer. You went down even faster than Ruxley.”

  The sky darkened with the impending storm, and the first drop of icy rain plinked off the windshield of his truck. He took a sharp left. The truck tires left the ground for a second as we flew onto the road that l
ed to Beacon Cliffs. My captor didn’t bother to belt me in, and I had to grab the edge of the seat to keep from being pitched into the dashboard.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  He stared ahead and drove with one arm casually draped over the steering wheel as if he was just taking a drive in the country.

  “You won’t get away with this. Detective Briggs was expecting me this morning.” I kept my voice steady, not wanting him to know that I was scared to death. “He’ll come looking for me.”

  Dayton looked over at me. He had a truly unlikable, cold face. What on earth was Lola thinking? “I doubt he’ll come straight to Beacon Cliffs. Seems to me I’ve got more than enough time to get rid of his nosy little assistant long before he figures out you’re missing.”

  My head hurt but it had cleared completely. I was thinking straighter. I discretely reached into my coat pocket. My shoulders dropped in despair when I found that it was empty.

  “I dumped your phone back on the highway.”

  I had definitely pushed my nose out too far this time. Briggs would lecture me for taking such a chance. That thought made my throat tighten. What if he never got the chance to lecture me? Dayton had already killed one person, seemingly without an ounce of regret.

  “You killed Chad Ruxley because he caused your family terrible grief. I understand that. But I haven’t done anything to you.”

  “Nope, you haven’t, and if you had kept your nose out of things and not uncovered the truth about my twin brother, you wouldn’t have opened your big mouth this morning and you’d be sitting in that diner right now enjoying a plate of pancakes.”

  I scooted back and faced out the side window. “I was going to order a yogurt parfait. And two murders will just mean double the prison sentence.” I turned back to him. “For each of you, since you are both going to be charged with the murder of Chad Ruxley. I take it you’re the builder.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  The punch of adrenaline had me convinced I could somehow talk my way out of getting killed. Or maybe it was just helping me avoid thinking about my inevitable fate.

  “I guess it was your brother who took my friend, Lola, out on a date to secure you an alibi. Obviously, he is far more charming than you because she enjoyed the date.”

  “We both do just fine with the ladies.”

  “Can’t imagine how,” I sneered back. I decided to get all the details I could in case I was lucky enough to survive this. It seemed I really was a detective at heart. “I guess this whole thing was planned. The Holiday Light Flotilla is an annual event, so you knew exactly where Chad Ruxley’s boat would be this weekend. How did you manage to line up your work timetable with the flotilla?”

  “Easy enough. I told the clients that I couldn’t start until the end of November. That way I knew we’d still be in town for the boat show. Scott came into town last week, but we made sure never to be in the same place at the same time. So no one, not even my crew, knew he was around. Your friend smiled at me in the diner. I knew I’d found my alibi.”

  I really needed to talk to Lola about her indiscriminate flirting. I only hoped I would get that chance.

  I grasped the edge of the seat as Dayton pulled the truck off onto an unpaved stretch of road, or, to be more precise, a cleared section of forest. A lush evergreen forest acted like a natural wall between the exclusive neighborhood of Beacon Cliffs and the treacherously steep cliffs along the coast. It seemed we were heading into the forest and away from any chance of being seen.

  That earlier punch of adrenaline started feeling more like a punch in the stomach. I felt slightly nauseous as it occurred to me we were heading toward the highly insufficient safety fence constructed to keep people from slipping over the side of the cliffs to the jagged rocks below.

  “You won’t get away with this, you monster.”

  “I think I will. You are the only person who knows about my brother being in town. We had this planned down to every last detail. It’s taken a few years to get things lined up, but there was no way that plumber was going to get away with destroying our family. I’d planned on rowing out to his boat to strangle him but then luck went my way. I spotted his ex-wife with the singers and I noticed they’d left all their gear unattended. It was easy enough to grab her phone to text Ruxley. There was an extra piece of ribbon in the bag and I took it, deciding I’d found the perfect person to frame.”

  “Maybe if your dad had run his business properly, with safety rules followed, none of it would have happened.”

  I knew I was tossing gasoline on a fire, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted Dayton to know that Ruxley had done the right thing and that he didn’t deserve to die. Just as I wanted Dayton to know that he was a wretched human being.

  “Like you, Ruxley was sticking his nose in other people’s business. He deserved what he got.” His hands tightened on the steering wheel as he spoke. A chill went through me as I pictured those same hands pulling the ribbon tight around Ruxley’s neck. Would he do the same to me?

  “My brother has a part as an extra on a movie set just two hours away. It’s one of those disaster movies with a big crowd on the streets watching as their town is destroyed by meteors. His name is on the roster, but it was easy enough for him to slip away unnoticed. He came into town just for the date I’d arranged with your friend. He left a few hours later and was back on the set the next morning. So our alibis are tight, and your life is, unfortunately, going to be cut short.”

  My confusion was replaced quickly with clarity. The poor stooge had apparently trusted his brother to leave town as planned. Only it seemed the very attractive Kate Yardley hadn’t been part of the plan.

  Dayton pulled the truck between some trees and stopped a good twenty yards from the fencing that separated me from a terrible death on sharp rocks. My time was running short. Since he outweighed me by a good hundred pounds, it seemed my best bet was to throw him off mentally. And he had just provided me with exactly what I needed to destroy his cocky confidence. He was sure that once he was rid of me, he would get away with murder.

  “It’s a shame your brother is a smoker. He should follow your example.”

  He cast a suspicious glower at me. “What are you talking about?”

  “The reason I was snooping around the murder scene is because Detective Briggs calls me to assist. I have hyperosmia, which, in layman’s terms, means I can smell a pine needle from ten feet away. I can detect the slightest odor on clothing and on murder ribbons. Like the smell of fresh cut lumber or the pungent scent of adhesive used in construction.”

  His expression darkened. I was getting to him, only it seemed I was just pushing myself into greater danger. But I hadn’t delivered the final blow.

  “You’re bluffing.”

  “Am I?” I even managed a fake grin. “Those pieces of evidence will point Detective Briggs in the right direction, even after I’m gone.” I only wished I’d found out what the adhesive smell was before this morning. Then I could have let Briggs know. At least my evil captor didn’t know the truth. “Of course, I didn’t really need a super power nose to smell tobacco on your brother’s clothing because it’s such a strong, foul smell. Anyone can detect it. Even in cold weather, like last night on the pier when I saw your brother out with one of the local women.”

  Dayton’s thick forehead and heavy brow had dropped so low over his eyes, I could barely see them. What I could see plainly was the deep red color of anger rising up above the collar of his shirt.

  Heavy rain drops began to pelt the windshield. The first flashes of lightning were followed by gusts of wind.

  “What are you talking about? My brother left town Thursday night.” His fists curled, and I questioned whether I should continue. His confidence had been erased. It seemed I’d genuinely thrown him off his game, but at the same time, his entire body was tense with anger.

  I’d gone this far, and I had nothing to lose.

  “No, he didn’t. In fact, I was in the market on S
aturday afternoon. You two just missed each other by an hour.”

  His mouth stretched into a thin angry line. It was obvious he remembered seeing me at the store. He fished around in his coat for his phone and pulled it out. I could hear the light ring of the phone on the other side followed by a recorded message.

  “Hey, it’s me. Call me back as soon as you get this.” He shoved the phone back into his pocket. “You might be the only person that noticed there were two of us. Either way, you’re going head first over that cliff.” He climbed out of the truck.

  I lunged over the console, fell into the driver’s seat and grabbed for the door handle. I pushed the door open and jumped out into the cold, wet wind. I didn’t get more than three steps before he had me in his grasp again.

  Chapter 35

  It was hard to see anything in the blinding rain. The storm had moved in quickly, and it wasted no time in wreaking havoc on the shoreline. I kept my face averted from the onslaught of icy rain as Dayton pulled me along toward the cliffs. His boot hit a jutting tree root. He stumbled forward but managed to keep a firm grasp on my arm. Even through the thick layers of my coat and sweater, I could feel his fingers leaving a bruise.

  The near stumble made one thing clear. Dayton couldn’t see any better than me in the storm. In that regard, at least, we were at an equal disadvantage. It was my only chance.

  I kept my bleary gaze glued to the ground to look for an opportunity. Then, after a morning that had gone horribly wrong, a sprinkle of luck came my way. We came to a thick, knotted tree root just as Dayton’s phone rang in his pocket. I was sure he would ignore it, but he yanked it out, ready to lay into his brother for messing up the plan. “Is that you?” he barked into the phone. “Where are you?”

  Dayton was temporarily distracted by the phone call. I whipped my arm free and shoved him hard with both hands. The heels of his boots got caught on the jutting tree root and his arms flailed in the air as he fell backward. As badly I would have liked to see the man fall hard as a stone on his backside, I raced off into the trees.

 

‹ Prev