Death to the Highest Bidder: A Jill Andrews Cozy Mystery #2

by Nicole Ellis

  As soon as my head hit the pillow, I conked out. If Adam came to bed sometime during the night, I wasn’t aware of it.

  2

  I stumbled downstairs early the next morning, following the scent of brewing coffee. The kids were still asleep in their rooms, and I didn’t hear anyone downstairs.

  “Adam?” I called out. There was no answer.

  Entering the kitchen, I noticed a sticky note on the coffee pot. “I set the timer on the coffee pot for you. I hope you have a wonderful day. I’m off to Dallas. I’ll call you when I get in. Love you.”

  I tossed the note on the counter and poured myself a cup of coffee. When the sleep haze cleared, I realized the sink was scrubbed out and the floor shone from a recent steam mopping. The dining room table had been cleared of crumbs, and even the toaster and refrigerator had been wiped down. He must have been up for hours last night cleaning. I’d never loved my husband more.

  After downing two cups of coffee, I woke up the kids and miraculously got them out of the house by a quarter to nine. The Busy Bees preschool started at nine, and I wasn’t going to have Mikey be late and give Nancy another reason to be mad at me.

  Mikey trudged along behind me as I pushed Ella’s stroller down the hill. The day was shaping up nicely, and the weatherman had forecasted temperatures in the mid-seventies. On Puget Sound, boats sailed across the dark blue waters. The ferry to Willowby Island blew its horn to warn away a speed boat that crossed in front of it. What was wrong with those boaters? I certainly wouldn’t want to play chicken with a huge car ferry. I stopped for a moment to see if the speed boat would make it to safety, and Mikey crashed into me.

  “Mom! Come on, we have to go.” He tugged at the hand not holding the stroller.

  “Sorry, honey.” I cast a glance back at the ferry, which had narrowly averted the smaller boat. Mikey tugged at me again, and I forced myself to stay focused on getting to school on time.

  When we were about a block away from the preschool, another mother and son came into view. She was half dragging, half carrying him toward the school. Although I couldn’t remember seeing him before, the boy was about Mikey’s age and obviously didn’t want to go to class.

  We arrived at the door to Busy Bees at the same time. I held the door open for her, and she deposited her kid in the entry while she signed him in on the computer.

  While I waited for the computer, Mikey tried to get past him and the boy lashed out and kicked him in the leg.

  “Ow,” Mikey cried out. He started to topple over, but I grabbed him by the arm in time to keep him from hitting the ground. The kid who’d kicked him thrashed around on the floor screaming in one of the best temper tantrums I’d ever seen. Tears streamed down his face and into his dark curly hair.

  The boy’s mother turned around at the sound of Mikey’s cry. Her face blanched when she saw him rubbing his leg. “Oh my gosh, did he kick you?”

  Mikey stared at her wide-eyed. I nodded and moved Ella safely out of the angry child’s reach.

  “Daniel! Stop that.” The woman turned to me. “I’m so sorry. I’ll have a talk with him.” She sounded like she was going to break into tears herself. I tried to be calm about it as I’d been that parent before, but I still didn’t like having my son hurt. She picked her little boy up and carried him into the classroom, with him screaming the whole way.

  “Is he in your class?” I whispered to Mikey.

  “Yeah.” His eyes were downcast. “Yesterday on the playground, he bit Anthony.”

  Hmm. Anthony was Mikey’s cousin, Desi’s son. I’d have to ask her if they’d had other problems with Daniel.

  I hugged him. “Sorry, honey. If he does anything to you or your friends, make sure to tell the teacher, ok? He’s probably just having a hard time with something, like you were a couple months ago with your dad being gone a lot. Remember?”

  He nodded solemnly. “Ok, Mommy. Can I go in now?”

  I hugged him again and nudged him gently. “Go.”

  He ran off toward his classroom.

  I signed my son in to school and tried to jet out of there before Nancy could catch me and find something else to change about the auction.

  I was wrangling the stroller through the door when she tapped me on the shoulder. I sighed inwardly and turned to face her. Silently, I wished for Ella to start screaming so I could make an excuse to get out of there, but instead, she gave me a look like I was crazy and stuck her thumb in her mouth. Thanks, kid.

  “Hi, Nancy.” I had a lot of work to do, and I prayed this wouldn’t take long. Who knew what Nancy would come up with next? I was going to scream if she changed the table linens one more time.

  “Jill. I tried to call you yesterday after we met, but you didn’t answer the phone.” Her white-blonde helmet of hair didn’t move as she stared down at me.

  I squirmed. There had indeed been several missed calls from Nancy the day before, but unlike those from Adam, I’d ignored them on purpose. For Mikey’s sake, though, I needed to make nice with the woman, no matter how much I didn’t like her.

  I pasted a fake smile on my face. “Sorry about that. I was really busy yesterday evening. What did you need to talk with me about?”

  “I’m really busy too,” she said snootily. “But I still have time for important things, like my children’s school.”

  I pressed my teeth together so hard they hurt, but it kept me from saying something I’d regret later. I repeated my question. “Well, I’m here now. What did you need?”

  “My brother-in-law, Louis Mahoney, has graciously agreed to donate a basket to the auction from his business, Ericksville Espresso. He and my sister-in-law are donating several bags of coffee beans and an espresso machine.” A smug smile crept across her lips. “I’ve been working hard to get donations and make this auction a success.”

  The implication was that the other parents hadn’t been doing anything. My teeth hurt worse. At this rate, I’d need to make a dentist visit soon.

  “That’s great.” I spoke slowly, as though I were talking to one of the preschoolers. “What do you need from me?”

  “Someone needs to pick up the donation and store it until the auction.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “You do have a storage room at the Boathouse for the auction items, right?”

  I wanted to tell her I’d been collecting them and storing them in my bathtub, but I answered truthfully. “Yes. There’re quite a few items at the Boathouse already. Can you pick it up since it’s coming from your brother-in-law?”

  “I can’t.” She frowned. “My oldest has soccer tonight, and Louis needs it picked up from the warehouse at six o’clock tonight. You’ll need to get it. You know where it is, right?”

  I took a deep breath. It probably wasn’t worth arguing over. Besides, I often passed the Ericksville Espresso warehouse and was curious about what it looked like inside.

  “Sure, I know where it is. Does he know I’m coming to pick it up?”

  “Yes. But please be there at six because he wants to leave work right after that. He and my sister-in-law have dinner plans.”

  “I’ll be there. Anything else?” I pushed Ella toward the door and awkwardly tried to open it with one hand while using my free hand to thread the stroller through the narrow opening.

  “No, that’s it for now.” She spun around and headed back to the classrooms, not even offering to open the door for me.

  That figured. The door tried to squish us several times, but I finally maneuvered the stroller outside. I let the door slam shut behind me and took a deep breath, trying to eradicate the stress I always experienced after dealing with Nancy. The sunlight hit Ella’s eyes, and she screamed like a vampire caught in daylight. I leaned over and kissed the baby-soft skin on her forehead, whispering to her, “Now you scream? You couldn’t have done that earlier?”

  I swear she grinned at me as I flipped the purple flowered stroller cover down to shield her eyes from the sun. My watch read nine twenty. The incident with the angry l
ittle boy and the conversation with Nancy had used up all the padding I’d built into my morning schedule. No time for a stop at Elmer’s Sea of Fish for an espresso. I’d have to make do with the Boathouse’s coffee, which was actually quite good. Beth and my father-in-law, Lincoln, were pretty flexible with my schedule at the Boathouse, but I wanted to get there before nine thirty or I wouldn’t have time to finish everything I needed to do before it was time to pick up Mikey. Luckily, my in-laws were happy to have Ella there while I worked.

  We headed straight down the hill to the waterfront, passing by the condo project on Sunset Avenue. The burned-out portions of the structure hadn’t been rebuilt yet. As happened every time I passed the location, I couldn’t help but look up at the empty third floor windows and shudder, remembering my close call with death there. I never wanted to go through anything like that again.

  Construction had halted at the project when the owner had died, and I’d heard the new owners were trying to get things up and running in the next few months. For now, the whole lot had been encased by a chain-link fence topped by barbed wire. The overall effect was that of an unfinished prison. Not exactly what we wanted for attracting tourists to downtown Ericksville.

  I walked past the ferry dock, Desi’s business—the BeansTalk Café—and the lighthouse park area, which took up several blocks. Everything was picture perfect in the June sun. The blue roof of the Boathouse gleamed in front of us, a familiar sight that always made me feel like I was home.

  I’d grown up in Idaho but hadn’t realized until I moved to Washington how much I hated the claustrophobic feeling of being land-locked. Ericksville was my home now, although I did miss my family back in Couer D’Alene.

  A tantalizing fruity scent hit me upon entering the Boathouse. Desi must be busy baking in the kitchen. She used the large commercial kitchen in the Boathouse to prepare pastries for both her café and for the event center. My stomach grumbled noisily at the thought of one of Desi’s creations and any idea of a diet went out the door behind me.

  Beth heard me come in and met me at the door where I was unbuckling Ella from her seat. “Hi, my sweet girl.” She cuddled Desi’s seven-week-old daughter in her arms. “Desi’s in the kitchen, so I have Lina set up in my office. I’ll just bring Ella in there too, and they can both hang out with Grandma today.”

  I kissed Lina on the head, marveling at how much bigger she’d grown in the last week, although being a preemie, she still fit into some newborn clothes. Then, I set Ella into the Exersaucer my mother-in-law kept in her office.

  “Let me know when you want me to come get her.” Beth didn’t hear me because she was too busy talking to my daughter, who was babbling back at her grandmother in her own language.

  I followed the sugary fruit aroma to the kitchen.

  Desi was whirling around the room, stirring a pot of a bubbling red substance on the stove and turning on the mixer with the next efficient movement.

  “Hey,” I said, raising my voice to be heard over the din.

  While continuing to stir with one hand, she lifted the other over her shoulder to say hi to me. With expertise, she flipped the burner knob off and mixer off. She laid the wooden spoon on a spoon rest, removed the pot from the burner, and turned around.

  “Good morning,” she said cheerily.

  “Cherry Danish?” I nodded to the stove and to the pastry dough on the counter. No canned pie filling or pre-made dough for my sister-in-law’s baked goods. Her commitment to quality ingredients was a huge reason for the success of her café business.

  “Yep.” Desi brushed the flour off her hands into the sink, wiped them on a towel, and picked a raisin bran muffin off a cooling rack. She broke it open and took a bite. “Yum. Want one?”

  “Sure. I can only talk for a few minutes though. I have to get to work on the auction stuff.”

  She laughed and put a plated muffin on the counter for me. “Told you.”

  “I know.” I sat on a barstool and slumped over the plate. “I honestly didn’t think it would be this bad.”

  “Well, if you need help, I can pitch in a little. Remember, I worked on it last year, so I have some experience.”

  “No, you’ve got too much going on.” Desi was only seven weeks postpartum and, with a newborn baby and a booming café business, she had enough to do.

  She shrugged. “I can make time. I know dealing with Nancy isn’t fun.”

  “Yeah. In addition to her insane demands, now she’s got me running errands for her.”

  She scrunched her face up. “Like what?”

  I took a bite of muffin and swallowed. The bran stuck in the back of my throat. “She wants me to pick up a donation from her brother-in-law.” I coughed.

  “And she can’t get it herself, why?” She brought two cups of coffee to the counter and slid one over to me.

  “Apparently she’s too busy. I got a lecture about how much she gives to the school and that other parents need to step up.” The coffee wasn’t that hot, so I swigged some into my mouth to unglue the muffin from my throat.

  “Typical.” Desi perched on the edge of a stool and removed the tie-dye kerchief that covered most of her hair. Her curly auburn locks sprang free and floated down around her shoulders. She bit into her muffin. “I wonder if she has any clue how much work goes into planning the auction.”

  “I doubt it. Anyways, her brother-in-law owns Ericksville Espresso—you’ve seen the warehouse on the east side of town, right? He’s got a couple of espresso stands around the area and sells beans to other local businesses.

  “I do know of Ericksville Espresso. In fact, I buy the beans for the BeansTalk Café and the Boathouse from them. They have the best flavor profiles of any of the local coffee roasters.” She sniffed the steam coming off the hot liquid. “My favorite beans from them have a deep cherry and chocolate flavor. Can you taste it? Isn’t it amazing? They also have a dark roast that I offer at the café.” She inhaled again before putting her coffee cup down. “Is Louis Mahoney her brother-in-law then?”

  “Yeah. I think he’s married to Nancy’s husband’s sister. Or something like that, I didn’t dig into it. Have you met him, or do you usually deal with a sales rep?” I sipped my coffee more slowly this time, but I couldn’t discern any notes of cherry or chocolate. Desi must have a more sensitive palate than me.

  She laughed. “I have met Louis. He hit on me when I was six months pregnant.”

  “You’re kidding.” I set my cup down and stared at her.

  “Nope. Wish I was.” She scowled and shook her head. “He’ll hit on any woman. His poor wife.”

  “I don’t understand how some guys think that’s ok.”

  “Me neither.” She perked up. “So are you picking the basket up from the warehouse?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Can I come with you? When I met Louis, we were at a coffee bean tasting and I’ve only ever ordered directly from a sales rep or online. I’d love to see the inside of that place.” She rubbed her hands together, and her eyes gleamed. “I bet it’s a treasure trove of beans.”

  I gave her an odd look. Drinking brewed coffee was a big part of my life, but I’d never seen anyone so excited by whole beans.

  “I don’t know. According to Nancy, I have to be there at six o’clock on the dot.” I tapped the counter with my fork for emphasis. “Don’t you have the kids tonight?”

  Desi’s husband, Tomàs, was a police officer with the Ericksville Police Department and often worked night shifts. I’d need to bring my kids with me when I went to pick up the basket, and I didn’t think adding another preschooler in a warehouse full of coffee beans sounded like a good idea. A vision of beans cascading down from a bin and scattering across the floor crossed my mind. Ugh. I’d have to really watch Mikey in there. Hopefully it would be a quick in and out, and we could get home in time for me to make something for dinner.

  “Oh, didn’t Mom ask you?” Desi’s face lit up.

  “Ask what?” I set the fork do
wn on my empty plate. Beth hadn’t said much to me when she’d taken Ella.

  “She and Dad want to take the boys and Ella to the Pizza Palace for dinner. They said they’d keep them overnight, and we can pick them up in the morning before they go to work.

  My eyes widened. “They want to take all three kids?” Mikey loved the Pizza Palace’s arcade and play structure, but the chaotic atmosphere there made me avoid it when at all possible.

  She laughed. “Yep, that’s what they said. Hey, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. We can leave the kids with them, pick up the auction basket from Ericksville Espresso, and then go down to Alistair’s for their Wednesday all-day happy hour. I think we can bring Lina in there as long as we don’t sit at the bar. We can pretend we’re still carefree single women in our twenties.”

  I thought about the pile of work sitting on my desk. Without kids distracting me, I could make a huge dent in it.

  “I don’t know. I’ve got so much to do.”

  She stuck her lower lip out at me. “Please? Just think of the yummy polenta fries and flatbread pizzas we can get.”

  “I’d love to, but I really shouldn’t.” Her suggestion was tempting though. I did love Alistair’s happy hour.

  “You need to get out. Your life can’t be all about the kids. C’mon. Live a little,” she wheedled.

  A grin stretched across my face. She was awfully convincing, and it had been a while since we’d had a girls’ night. “Oh, all right. I’m in.” I picked up our plates and set them in the washing sink behind the counter. “I’ve got to get to work now if I’m going to play tonight, but I’ll meet you here at a quarter to six and we can drive over to the espresso warehouse together.”

  She hooked the handles of our empty coffee cups on her index fingers and set the mugs next to the plates in the sink. “It’s a date.”

  I checked on Beth and the girls. She filled me in on the plan to take the kids for pizza and games. I offered to take Ella back with me to my office, but she shooed me away, saying they were having a great time together. I blew kisses to my daughter and Lina, then reluctantly went back to the salt mines.