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

by Nicole Ellis

  She followed me into the living room where my parents, Adam’s parents, and Desi sat on the couches chatting.

  “You know Desi, but these are my parents, Ann and John, and my husband’s parents, Lincoln and Beth.”

  Dorinda flashed them a smile.

  “Everyone, this is Dorinda. She and her son Daniel are new in town. She’s a part owner of Ericksville Espresso, which is where Desi gets the coffee beans for the café from.”

  Beth’s mouth formed into an O. I could tell her mind was full of questions about the other co-owner of the company, but she recovered smoothly. “Oh, yes, and I believe Desi buys your beans for the Boathouse too. It’s nice to meet you, Dorinda.”

  Someone rang the doorbell, and I left them to answer it. A few of Mikey’s friends and their parents stood there, holding out gifts. I smiled at them and led them into the house.

  “Mikey, time to come down here!” I shouted up the stairs. It was fine for him to play in his room with a couple of kids, but I didn’t want ten kids up there breaking stuff and getting into trouble.

  The boys clopped down the stairs. Daniel seemed to be getting along with them well—until he saw the other kids. Then, he became shy, hanging on his mother. When everyone was there, I announced that we’d be playing some games. With Adam’s help, we herded the kids over to one hall where I’d pinned a picture of a Ninja Turtle sans mask.

  I clapped my hands. “Ok, we’re going to blindfold you and spin you around and have each of you try to pin the mask on the Turtle.” I nodded to Adam, who put a bandanna around the first boy’s eyes and spun him around. As the boy tottered sideways from dizziness, Adam handed him the mask and pointed him in the right direction. The group cheered as he applied the mask around the turtle’s neck.

  Daniel went next but grew so dizzy that he bumped into one of the other kids.

  “Hey, watch it,” the boy said. He pushed Daniel back toward the picture.

  Daniel stopped in place and ripped off his blindfold. He glared at the kid who’d pushed him.

  “Boys, please don’t push your friends,” Adam reprimanded.

  “He’s always running into us on purpose though,” the pusher whined.

  “It was an accident.” Daniel folded his arms over his chest. The whole group backed away from him a few steps.

  His mom noticed and rushed over to the group. “Hey, Daniel, why don’t you come sit with me for a few minutes.”

  “Fine. I don’t want to be here anyway.”

  I thought I saw some tears form in the corners of his eyes. It must be difficult to be the new kid in town. “I think it was an accident,” I said loudly to the children. All eyes turned to me while Daniel and his mom exited to where the other adults were gathered in the living room and kitchen. “Let’s finish up this game, and then I’ve got something else planned.”

  The boys grumbled a little but obeyed. I shot a glance at my parents. They sat on couches opposite from each other, each chatting with another adult. I hadn’t seen them exhibit any animosity toward each other, but their marital separation still made me nervous about what was to come in the future. I didn’t like the idea of not having them together at family events.

  We finished up the other game, a balloon toss in the backyard, and then I announced it was time for Mikey to open his presents.

  “Yay!” he shouted, running back into the house. His friends trailed behind him, along with the few parents who had gone outside to watch the balloon game. Daniel had stayed inside with his mom.

  Mikey opened his presents and was surprisingly polite about everything, even when he received two of the same toy. Afterward, we gathered around the dining room table to sing “Happy Birthday” to him. Dorinda nudged her son to join the other children, who were kneeling around the coffee table eating cake. She sat down next to me on a kitchen stool.

  “Whew. Who would have thought a children’s party would be a minefield of activities.” She scooped up a piece of cake and popped it in her mouth, as if starving for a comforting carbohydrate.

  “Sorry.” I felt guilty that Daniel wasn’t having more fun. The boys seemed wary of him, though, and rightfully so if he’d been antagonistic toward them at school. I shot a glance at the kids. Daniel didn’t have a spot around the coffee table, but he sat near them and was laughing about something alongside the other boys. “He seems to be doing ok now.”

  “I hope so.” She put down her fork to stare at her son. “It’s been a tough year—for both of us.” She sighed. “Buying Ericksville Espresso was supposed to be a new start for us, but now it’s like we’re being punished. The business is leaking money, and we’ll probably lose clients with Louis’s death.” She looked at her son again. “Things need to start getting better soon.”

  “I’m sure things will get better. When the police find out who killed Louis, you’ll be able to move on with the business, right?”

  “I don’t know. Sandy Mahoney is making my life miserable. She’s convinced the police that I was doing something illegal or inappropriate with the business’s finances.”

  I stared at her. “I thought you said she was taking too much money out of the business.”

  She pushed uneaten cake across her plate, trailing crumbs behind her fork. “She is, but I’m the new guy in town. She’s telling everyone it’s me who is killing the business.”

  I chewed on a bite of cake. The icing tasted overly sweet. Probably more my perception of it than Desi’s cake-baking skills. Dorinda was the new person in town and, as much as I liked her and wanted to help her, how did I know she was telling me the truth about the goings-on at Ericksville Espresso?

  I stood, dumping my paper cake plate into the garbage can I’d set up in the dining room. I put my hand on Dorinda’s shoulder and squeezed it. “I’m sure it will all work out, ok?”

  “Thanks, Jill.” She picked up her plate and put it in the garbage too, before checking her watch. “Daniel and I had better go. We’re supposed to have an early dinner with his grandparents tonight. They’re going to take him camping for a few days.”

  “That sounds fun. I hope he has a good time. Will you still be around?”

  “Yeah. Until this whole mess at work is cleared up, I’m not going anywhere.” She frowned slightly. “Thanks so much for the lovely party. I hope Mikey likes his gift.”

  “I’m sure he will.” I smiled at her and watched as she collected her son and her belongings. They were the first of the guests to leave, but the others followed soon afterward.

  Before Brenda left with her girls, she pulled me aside. “You didn’t say anything to the police about the peanut extract, right?”

  “No, of course not. Why do you ask?” I put down the icing-soiled napkins I’d cleared from the table.

  “The police were at my house again, asking me more questions about the chocolates.” Her face crumpled, and she looked near tears. “Brad has requested an expedited custody hearing because he’s thinking about accepting that out-of-state job and moving next month. If that happens, I’m sure it will come up in the court proceedings that I’m suspected of killing Louis Mahoney. What kind of fit mother is a murder suspect?” Tears slid out now, and she swiped furiously at them with the back of her hand.

  My head hurt. I’d have thought the police would have solved Louis’s murder by now. All I could do was pat her arm and try to console her.

  Dara and Sara bopped up to their mom, amped up on sugar from too much cake and ice cream.

  “Can we go to the park on the way home?” Sara asked.

  “Sure,” Brenda said, hugging them close to her body. “And we’ll stop by McDonald’s afterwards for Happy Meals. Sound good?”

  They nodded.

  “Thank you for the nice party,” she said, her voice artificially cheerful. “The girls enjoyed themselves.”

  I walked them to the door. “Thank you for the gift and for coming. And, Brenda, if there’s anything I can do, please let me know.”

  “I will.” Her voi
ce caught with emotion, and she rushed the girls to the sidewalk.

  My mother stacked up paper plates and cups while my father attempted to sweep up cake crumbs off the table. I stopped them. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll take care of it. I know you wanted to see your friends this evening.”

  They exchanged glances. “Are you sure?” Mom asked.

  “Of course. Go.” I smiled at them, and they reluctantly gathered up their belongings and left.

  Soon, only Adam, Mikey, Ella, and I remained.

  “It looks like a tornado went through the house,” Adam calmly observed.

  “No kidding.” I liked throwing big birthday parties for Mikey, but I absolutely hated the clean-up. I surveyed the ruins. “Maybe I should have let Mom help.” Thinking about my mom brought back the worries I’d had about how her separation from Dad would affect us as a family. They’d seemed happy enough being together in the same room, but what if things turned ugly between them?

  “Maybe,” he said. “But I think it will be ok.” He tilted his head to the side. “Are you feeling ok?”

  “I’m fine. Just worrying about my parents.”

  “They seem good together. Give them time to figure things out.”

  “I know, but I can’t help worrying.” I surveyed the mess again. This wouldn’t be fun to clean.

  “I’ll make you a deal,” Adam said, coming up behind me and encircling my waist with his arms. “If you make dinner, I’ll work on getting this cleaned up.”

  I turned around and looked into his face. “Seriously? You’ll do it all?”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, shouldn’t take too long.”

  I had my doubts about that, but I agreed. “Ok, chicken tetrazzini coming right up.”

  Adam gathered stray paper cups and plates and dumped them in the garbage while I readied the dinner ingredients. When I popped the pan of tetrazzini into the oven an hour later, he was almost done cleaning up. I put on a pot of coffee and perched on the edge of a stool. Ella was taking a nap, and Mikey had retreated to his room to play with his new toys. He was surprisingly trustworthy, but I still checked on him every ten minutes or so to make sure he hadn’t gotten into any trouble.

  My husband finished cleaning and plopped himself down on the stool next to mine. “How does it get so messy in such a short amount of time?” he asked in wonder.

  I shrugged. “Ten little boys and girls and their parents can do that to a place.”

  “How about we have the party at the pizza place next time?”

  I laughed. “Good idea.” The coffee finished percolating, and I poured each of us a cup.

  I sat back down, and all the adrenaline I’d had over the last few weeks drained out of my body. The auction was done, and we’d made it through Mikey’s birthday party. Other than my basic work projects, I didn’t have anything else on the horizon.

  “Your friend Dorinda seems nice,” Adam remarked. “I met her at the auction, but we didn’t really have much time to talk until today.”

  “She is.” I still felt uneasy about my doubts about her.

  “But?” His eyes drilled into my face, and I squirmed.

  “But what?” I sipped my coffee to avoid talking to him.

  “You’re acting funny about her.” He stared at me accusingly. “I thought you were friends?”

  “We are.” I set the cup down on the counter. “But with all this stuff going on with Ericksville Espresso, I don’t know what to think.”

  “Jill, spill. What’s going on?”

  I took a deep breath. “After finding Louis’s body, I feel like I have a responsibility to figure out what happened there. And I hate that Brenda is their main suspect.”

  “So? What are you not telling me?”

  “Dorinda claims that Louis’s wife, Sandy, is taking excessive amounts of money out of the business. But Sandy says it’s the other way around—that Dorinda is doing something unethical. I want to believe Dorinda, but what do I really know about her, other than she’s the mom of a kid in Mikey’s class?”

  “True, but you like her, right?”

  “I do.” I wrapped my fingers around the cup’s handle.

  “Well, what do you know about Louis’s wife?”

  “Not much.” I understood his point. I didn’t really know either woman well although I felt a strong bond with Dorinda. But did that mean Sandy was lying?

  Ella cried upstairs, and I pushed myself away from the counter. “Thanks, Adam. I appreciate you trying to help.”

  “No problem.” He put a hand on my arm as I brushed past him. “Honey, I know I’m traveling a lot, but I’m only a phone call away. I want to stay involved in your and the kids’ lives. If something’s bothering you, I want to know.”

  I met his gaze, and a smile formed on my lips. “Thanks. I appreciate it.” I went upstairs to check on Ella, my mind still spinning. Who was telling the truth, Dorinda or Sandy? And did the inner workings of Ericksville Espresso have anything to do with Louis’s murder?

  18

  My parents had taken Mikey for the day, so I only had Ella with me and was free of preschool pick-up responsibilities for the afternoon. I had to work a half day at the Boathouse and then deliver one of the larger auction items. Dorinda had won the large toy plane and wasn’t able to get it home in her car, so I’d told her I would bring it to her in my minivan. If it didn’t fit in there, I’d have to borrow Tomàs’s truck to transport it.

  When I finished work mid-afternoon, I stopped off at the BeansTalk Café to see Desi and grab a cup of coffee before heading over to Dorinda’s house.

  “Hey.” She came over to me and gave me a hug as I approached the counter. It was an off time of day for café business, so it wasn’t too crowded in there. “What’s with the helmet?” She gestured to the child-size aviator’s helmet peeking out of my bag.

  “It goes with the plane I’m taking to Dorinda, but I was worried that if I didn’t put it somewhere obvious to me, I’d forget it in the car.”

  “Ah.” She nodded. “That makes sense. So the plane fit in your minivan?”

  “Yeah, just barely. I had to remove some seats and wedge it in there.”

  “I’m sure Anthony would have loved it, but that thing is gigantic.” She shook her head. “Are you recovered from planning all your own events?”

  “Almost.” I smiled. She was right. Somehow, my day job as an event planner was much easier than planning personal events like the preschool auction or Mikey’s birthday party. I suppose it was because, although I always did my best to exceed client expectations, I didn’t have anything emotionally invested in the success of a client’s wedding or reunion.

  “Thankfully, after I get Dorinda’s plane delivered, I’ll be free of the Busy Bees Preschool Auction.” I nodded toward my car.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, good luck with that. You did such an awesome job this year that Nancy’s definitely going to ask you to help again next year.”

  “There’s no way she can talk me into doing it again. One time was enough. Plus, she was full of complaints about the food and about the Boathouse as a venue. I don’t think she’ll have any interest in having another auction there.”

  Desi brought two cups of coffee over to a small round table and set them on it, sliding one over to me. I dropped my bag on the floor and carefully set Ella’s carrier next to it. Sitting, I sipped the coffee, marveling at how good Ericksville Espresso’s beans tasted, even if I couldn’t discern the subtle flavor nuances.

  She laughed. “Nancy has a way of convincing people to do things they didn’t think they wanted to do.”

  “Well, she’s not going to succeed with me.”

  “She got you to do it in the first place, didn’t she?”

  Desi had a point. I’d accidentally volunteered to manage the auction at the Boathouse, and it had been Nancy who had orchestrated that. I’d have to steer clear of her next year when auction planning time came around again. Not that avoiding her would be a major inconve
nience to me.

  “So how is everything else going?” Desi asked.

  I shrugged. “It’s going.”

  “How’s Brenda? I saw you talking with her yesterday at Mikey’s birthday party. I didn’t want to butt in, but she looked really upset.” She fiddled with her coffee cup. “I hope everything is ok.”

  “The police questioned her again, and her ex-husband is still threatening to take the kids out-of-state. With Louis’s murder unsolved, Brenda’s name can’t be cleared, and it’s not helping her custody case.” I slumped back in my chair. I’d tried my best, but there didn’t seem to be anything I could do to help my friend. Unless …

  “Has Tomàs said anything more to you about the murder investigation?”

  “Not much. He doesn’t want us trying to investigate on our own, and he’s not allowed to talk about his cases to me in detail, so I’ve heard even less about this case than usual.”

  “Do you know if they checked whether Terri, his assistant, has an alibi?”

  “He did say that they don’t think it was an employee who did it, so I guess that rules out Terri.”

  “But not Dorinda or Brenda,” I said slowly. This wasn’t great news.

  “Or his wife. The way she was acting at the auction was nuts. I’ve never seen anyone shoot daggers at another person for so long.” Desi was quiet for a moment, then asked tentatively, “What do we really know about Dorinda?”

  “Not much.” I sipped my coffee, but it was lukewarm and unappealing. “She bought into Ericksville Espresso after her husband died. Her in-laws live in Everton, and she wanted her son to be close to them.”

  “From what I’ve heard about Louis over the years, he was rather pompous. I can’t imagine he’d sell part of his business unless he really needed to.” Desi’s eyes followed a customer as he left his empty mug in the dish bin and walked out the door of the café.

  “That’s the impression I’ve gotten too. But does that mean Dorinda is telling the truth? That Louis and Sandy were having some financial problems? Or did he just want some extra cash?”