Dead in the Water: A fun and fast-paced private investigator cozy mystery/beach read (Maggie PI Mysteries Book 5)

by Rose Pressey

  “No, not really,” I said.

  “Well, that’s neither here nor there right now.”

  “Okay, okay, Let’s go.” I opened the door and stepped into the office space.

  Immediately upon entering we came into the sitting area. A few chairs sat and end tables around the space against the walls. A desk sat in the corner, but no one was there. I guessed the receptionist was on a break or busy with someone else. There was no noise in the office. No one was talking.

  “Where could everyone be?” I asked.

  “Maybe she went back into the lawyers’ office,” Dorothy whispered.

  A small hallway led down the middle of the space. I assumed that the office rooms were on each side of the hallway.

  “We’ll just wait here a little bit longer and hopefully she’ll return,” I said.

  “I hope she does, because otherwise I’m just going to have to sit down and start reading some of those old People magazines.” Dorothy pointed. “I never figured out what happened to Brad and Angelina.”

  Chapter 9

  “Hello? Is anyone here?” I called out.

  There was no answer.

  “Do you think I should look for someone?”

  Dorothy shrugged her shoulders. I peeked down the hallway and noticed that one of the doors was slightly ajar.

  “Maybe I should check in there,” I whispered.

  “I guess it couldn’t hurt,” she said.

  Inching down the hallway, Dorothy and I eased toward the door with our bodies pressed close to the wall. The only sound was Dorothy’s breathing in my ear. I wasn’t sure exactly why we were doing this. We might be sneaking up on someone. Sneaking up on someone was the last thing we needed to do.

  Once we reached the door, I motioned for Dorothy to stop. I showed Dorothy three fingers, indicating that I would count to three and then ease the door open just a bit. Dorothy nodded. I counted down silently to three using my fingers. When I was finished, I made contact with the door, pushing it just a bit, but it barely moved.

  Since no noise came from the room, I assumed it was empty. I peeked around the corner and saw absolutely no one.

  “I think this room is empty,” I whispered.

  I pushed the door open just a bit more, but then I caught sight of an arm. Someone was sitting in the big leather chair behind the desk in the middle of the room. Bookshelves with legal books lined the walls to the left and right. The chair was turned around so that the person was facing the big window on the back wall.

  “Excuse me. I didn’t mean to bother you, but no one is out front,” I said.

  The person didn’t answer. Only the arm wearing a gray suit jacket was visible.

  “I’m getting a bad feeling about this, Dorothy,” I said.

  “I have to admit something doesn’t seem right,” Dorothy said.

  “I should go in and check on him.”

  Dorothy and I exchanged a glance. Apprehension took over as I pushed the door open the rest of the way. The man remained still and didn’t say a word. The more I moved into the room toward him the more anxious I became. Dorothy was right behind me. I knew this because she was holding onto the back of my shirt.

  When I reached the desk, I said again, “Excuse me, sir?”

  Still there was no answer. I knew I was in big trouble. Well, actually this man might be in big trouble too. I looked around the side of the leather chair and caught a complete view of the man in the chair. Dorothy screamed. My lungs felt as if they had been completely deflated. I didn’t speak or make any noise for that matter. That was okay though because Dorothy was making enough noise for both of us.

  I grabbed Dorothy. “You have to calm down.”

  The man was slumped over to the left. His head was down and there was clearly blood on the front of his chest.

  “I have to check and see if he’s still alive,” I said. “We need to call for help right away. Maybe we can save him.”

  “Please be careful, Maggie,” Dorothy said. “I’m scared.”

  I didn’t want to admit out loud that I was scared too. I couldn’t believe this was the second body I’d found in two days. This was crazy. I moved closer to the man and touched his neck to check for a pulse. There was absolutely nothing. And with the amount of blood on the front of his chest I knew there was no way he was still alive. Nonetheless, Dorothy and I had to render aid. Just in case. Though I didn’t want to touch the body anymore because I didn’t want to disturb the evidence. I moved away from the him.

  I pulled out my phone and immediately dialed Jake’s number. It was a habit, I supposed, but I thought it would be better to get him here quickly than to call 911. Thank goodness he picked up on the second ring. I wasn’t looking forward to leaving a voicemail for this. Although now I was dreading having to say the words, “I found another body.” Yes, another one.

  “You have to come to 231 Palm Tree Street immediately,” I yelled.

  Okay, totally not calm. And I’d told Dorothy to calm down. I should follow my own advice.

  “What’s wrong, Maggie?” he asked with panic in his voice.

  “There’s a man dead.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said.

  “Would I kid about something like this? Jake, you have to get here right away.”

  “Have you touched the body?” he asked.

  “Kind of,” I said.

  “What does that mean?” Jake asked.

  “Okay, yes, I touched him. I wanted to make sure he was really dead.”

  “All right, it’s already done now. Just don’t touch anything else. I’m on my way. Maggie, I need you to get out of there, okay? The killer could still be in there.”

  “Right. Get out of here. We’re on it.” I nodded as if he could see me.

  “What do you mean we? Who’s with you? Don’t tell me it’s Dorothy.”

  “Okay, I won’t tell you she’s with me.”

  “Tell Jake I’m just fine.” Dorothy leaned close so that Jake could hear her.

  “Just get out of there now,” Jake said.

  “We’re going,” I said, even though we hadn’t moved an inch.

  Was I willing to take a chance that a killer was still in there just to get one more look around the room? This was just too weird. The thought hit me: where was the neighbor? I’d seen her come in this office building. And now she was nowhere around. Not to mention there was a dead man here. That was highly suspicious. The neighbor had a lot of explaining to do. As soon as I found her I was going to ask her all the questions currently racing through my head.

  After getting off the phone with Jake, I turned to Dorothy and said, “Where did that woman go?”

  Dorothy’s eyes widened as if she’d just remembered that we were in there originally because of that woman.

  “I don’t know,” Dorothy whispered. “Do you think she killed this man?”

  “It certainly seems that way. Maybe she left out the back door after killing him.”

  “We should get out of here,” Dorothy said.

  “You’re right… kind of,” I said.

  “What do you mean, Maggie? What are you going to do now? The killer could be still in here.”

  Now she sounded like Jake. Dorothy grabbed hold of my arm as we headed across the floor toward the door.

  “I’m just glad we’re getting out of here,” Dorothy said. “And that you’re not going to try to investigate anything right now.”

  Dorothy knew me so well.

  As soon as we stepped out into the hallway, I turned to the right, but Dorothy went to the left. We almost tumbled to the floor with that move.

  I turned around and grabbed her. “Dorothy, are you all right?”

  “Maggie, I thought you were getting out of here.” Dorothy gestured.

  “We have to check and see if that woman went out the back door,” I said.

  “Oh, no, that’s too dangerous. And I live dangerously if that tells you anything.” Dorothy placed her hands o
n her hips.

  “Since when do you live dangerously?” I asked.

  She stared at me for just a moment. “There was that time… Okay, I suppose you’re right about that. All right, we’ll take a look quickly and then get out of here. I don’t like the feeling I get in here.”

  “That’s just because there’s a dead man right in that office. Sometimes we have to do things that are a bit unpleasant.”

  “If you say so,” Dorothy said under her breath.

  Dorothy grabbed hold of my arm once again. When we reached the end of the hall there was in fact another door. However, the deadbolt on the door let me know that it was locked. This had me somewhat perplexed and a little terrified at the same time.

  “I sure hope that the killer left through the front door,” Dorothy said.

  “Maybe the killer is the neighbor and she’s still in one of the other offices,” I said. “I still think it was her.”

  “Why would she kill him?”

  “I have no idea, but it seems kind of odd that we saw her walk in right before finding his body and now she’s missing.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” Dorothy said, pulling on my arm.

  I supposed I’d seen enough and considering we didn’t know where this woman was, it was probably best if we waited outside. Dorothy and I had only made it a few steps when I stopped.

  “What’s wrong?” Dorothy asked.

  “What if the killer is waiting outside for us?” I hadn’t thought of that.

  A scream rang out from the room next to us. Then Dorothy shrieked and I almost fell to the floor from all the chaos.

  “Who was that?” Dorothy asked when she finally stopped screaming.

  The scream had come from the room where we’d discovered the lifeless man. We looked to the left and Brigette’s neighbor ran out of the room. She stopped in her tracks when she saw us and then she screamed again. After moving up against the wall I was now frozen. Dorothy was right beside me.

  When the neighbor realized we were watching her she screamed again and then took off for the front of the office. We watched as she bolted outside.

  “Well, I’m not staying here either,” Dorothy said.

  “Me either,” I said.

  Dorothy and I hurried for the front of the office and then rushed outside. Relief washed over me at just being out of that place. Once outside we made eye contact with the woman.

  Chapter 10

  The woman held her hands up in the air. “Please don’t kill me.”

  My eyes widened. Did she actually think that I had killed that man?

  “Don’t kill you? We don’t want you to kill us,” I said.

  Dorothy got even closer to me. “This woman is nuttier than a five-pound fruitcake.”

  The woman stared at us and continued to hold her hands up.

  “You killed that man, just like you killed the other one at my neighbor’s house,” she said.

  “We didn’t kill anyone,” I said.

  “I didn’t kill anyone,” Dorothy said, stepping away from me.

  “Don’t get close to her, Dorothy,” I said, pointing. Dorothy hurried back over toward me. “We didn’t kill anyone. Right, Dorothy?”

  “Right. We didn’t kill anyone,” Dorothy repeated.

  “You were at the scene of both murders,” the neighbor said.

  “How do I know you didn’t kill the man inside this building?” I gestured.

  She gasped as if this was an outrageous accusation. How long would we continue to stare at each other like this? I didn’t know if she was the killer, but I definitely was on guard in case she turned out to be the murderer. It was true though, she had been at the scene of both crimes. I’d seen her go into the office. Where had she been that whole time when Dorothy and I found the body? Had she been cleaning up evidence? I looked her up and down for any sign of blood. Whoever killed the man had to have blood on them.

  I didn’t notice anything, but then she wouldn’t let me get too close. She took a couple steps back as if I was really threatening her. The way she was acting was completely insane. We were the ones who should be scared of her, not the other way around. Sirens sounded in the distance and I couldn’t wait until they arrived.

  Though I wasn’t looking forward to speaking with Jake about this. Two murders in the past two days? That wouldn’t look good. But at least I wasn’t alone. Dorothy was here this time. Dorothy and I could back each other up. Plus, the neighbor looked just as suspicious as me as far as I was concerned.

  Police cars rolled up to the scene with screeching tires, flashing lights, and sirens. Jake was the first one out of his car. He ran toward me. Would he handcuff me this time too?

  “Maggie, what’s going on?” Jake asked.

  I pointed toward the building behind me. “The man is in there. His office is down the hallway, the first door on the right.”

  “Stay here,” he said as he ran for the office door.

  Another police car rolled up and I realized it was Jake’s partner Abby Zahn. She climbed out from her black cruiser and headed toward me. Her dead stare was focused on me. Did she always have to look as if she just stepped off the set of a hair care commercial? Her long blonde hair shone in the bright sunshine.

  “Oh, great, look who it is,” I said out of the corner of my mouth.

  “Well, she does work with Jake,” Dorothy said.

  “Whose side are you on anyway?”

  Dorothy shrugged. I’d tried to avoid eye contact with Abby, but it wasn’t working. She shouldn’t worry about me. Abby needed to speak with the neighbor before she got away.

  “Good afternoon, Maggie,” Abby said.

  “I see you’re finally back at work,” I said.

  Abby narrowed her eyes. Apparently, that was a sore subject for her. She’d been away since an unfortunate incident when she’d been unable to arrest someone. Fear had paralyzed her, and she’d let the perpetrator slip away. I supposed that was all behind her now. I doubted she would have a problem arresting me.

  “What’s going on here?” she asked.

  Dorothy placed her hands on her hips. “Well, obviously there’s a dead man in the office.”

  Abby frowned. “Maggie, I heard this is the second murder that you’ve been involved with in two days.”

  Her voice sounded smug, as if she were somehow happy about this.

  “Not involved with, stumbled upon,” I corrected.

  “Why don’t you start from the beginning and tell me what happened?” Abby said.

  I’d rather not tell her what happened. I wanted to wait for Jake to come out. After all, I’d called him, and as far as I was concerned, this was his investigation. Maybe I wasn’t being fair to Abby, but I sensed a bit of hostility toward me right now. I didn’t appreciate that either.

  “I think you should look to her as a suspect.” I pointed to the neighbor. “She entered the building first. When Dorothy and I came in we didn’t see her. We just found the dead man.”

  Abby looked in the direction of my pointing finger. The neighbor was gone. I scanned the area, searching for her. She was nowhere in sight. Where had she gone? Had she gone to speak with another police officer?

  “I don’t see a woman anywhere around.” Abby lifted one perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

  How had the woman gotten away? Now it looked as if I was just making this up. Thank goodness Jake came back outside. He would believe me. I hoped.

  “Maggie, tell me everything that happened,” Jake said.

  I smirked at Abby. “Gladly.”

  Okay, that was unprofessional, but she’d provoked me.

  I started from the beginning, telling him that Dorothy and I had in fact followed the neighbor. He frowned at that but allowed me to continue my story.

  “Anyway, the woman wasn’t there when we went into the room and found the man. Then we were just about to leave when she popped up out of nowhere.”

  “Yeah, just popped out of nowhere.” Dorothy waved her arms.
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  “I don’t know what she’d been doing,” I said.

  “Then where is she now?” Abby asked.

  “That’s what I’d like to know. Maybe the police need to look for her. The fact that she left is highly suspicious. You believe us, right, Jake?” I asked.

  “Yes, of course, I believe you, Maggie… and Dorothy,” he said.

  Abby scoffed. I wouldn’t say anything about that because after all she did have handcuffs. I didn’t need a repeat of the last incident.

  “So I’m thinking this has to be connected to the other murder. And that means that Brigette has nothing to do with this. I mean, she couldn’t have killed this man if she’s in jail. Plus, I happen to know that he was her lawyer. So maybe somebody had it out for these two people Bridget knows,” I said, feeling kind of proud of my deductions.

  “Just one problem with that.” Abby crossed her arms in front of her slim waist.

  Oh, great. What now?

  “Remember, Maggie? Brigette got out of jail this morning,” Jake said.

  Oh yes, how easily I’d forgotten. That threw a kink in my theory.

  “I suppose that does change things. But as you can see Brigette wasn’t here.” I waved my arm.

  “Maybe Mrs. Whitmore was here and you just didn’t see her,” Abby said.

  A hint of delight filled Abby’s voice. I knew she enjoyed proving me wrong. She’d better relish this moment because it wouldn’t last long. I’d show Abby my extraordinary private detective skills.

  “Then why was the neighbor here?” I crossed my arms in front of me and raised an eyebrow in amused satisfaction.

  “She might have had an appointment with the lawyer,” Abby said.

  Apparently Abby had an answer for everything.

  “Unlikely,” Dorothy said under her breath.

  “I just don’t understand why she would’ve taken off.” I pushed the hair out my eyes.

  “I suppose she was just scared and wanted to get away. We know where she lives so we'll head over there right now,” Jake said.

  Of course, I wasn’t satisfied with this because something didn’t add up and I wasn’t about to give up on finding the killer.