Last Chance for Murder (Lisa Chance Cozy Mysteries Book 1)

by Estelle Richards

  Inside the church was cool and dark, with a fluorescent light leading down a side hallway. The hallway led to a room where the smell of years of coffee service had permeated the walls. Eight-foot tables had been folded and moved to the side of the room, and folding chairs were lined up in rows.

  A couple dozen people were in the room, some sitting and waiting, others standing around chatting in small groups. Lisa felt an itch of doubt. This was not where she expected Mrs. Robert to go at night. What kind of murderer met an accomplice at a church meeting?

  She started to move toward the door, but a speaker stood at the front of the room and called for everyone to have a seat and get the meeting started. Someone closed the door and cut off the escape route. Lisa sat down instead, hoping the back row would allow her to observe in relative obscurity.

  As people filtered toward the chairs, many with foam cups of coffee in hand, she realized what was happening. She’d wandered into an addiction recovery meeting. She hunched down and tried to make herself invisible.

  The speaker welcomed everyone and led the group in an opening prayer. Lisa turned and eyed the door. No, getting up and leaving would draw everyone’s attention. She would stay and slip out at the end.

  A man sat down next to her. She felt his presence more than saw him, as she didn’t want to turn her head and make eye contact with him. She faced the front and pretended to be rapt as a series of people got up to speak.

  She actually was rapt when Mrs. Robert got up.

  She went through the opening preamble and then got to the meat of it. “Just over a year ago, I met the love of my life. I’d been single a long time. My parents had just recently passed, and left me an inheritance. I was lonely but coping. And then Robert walked into my life. He wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met. He looked at me, and it felt like the first time anyone had ever truly seen me. Like, seen the real me inside.”

  She stopped and dabbed her eyes as tears leaked out.

  “We got married. We were happy. At least, I thought we were. And then he disappeared. I started drinking to dull the pain.”

  She sobbed into a hanky for a moment before going on.

  “I tried to clean up my act, get sober. I hired a private detective. It took months for me to find him, and when I did, I found him with another woman. Some blonde bimbo.”

  Lisa ground her teeth, resenting being referred to as a bimbo even by a loon like this at some anonymous meeting.

  “She lured him to his death, and that’s when my drinking really got out of hand again. He’s gone, and knowing I’ll never see him again…” Her breath caught. “I don’t know how to get through that knowledge without a drink. I drank this morning.”

  She hung her head a moment.

  “I don’t know how to do it alone.”

  Mrs. Robert stepped down and was given pats of comfort as she went back to her chair.

  The rest of the meeting went by in a blur. As the last speaker adjourned the meeting, Lisa was already up out of her chair and ready to leave.

  A hand fell heavy on her shoulder. She looked up and blanched at seeing Chief Gerrold’s disapproving face.

  “Uh, hi,” she stammered.

  “We need to talk.” He gripped her shoulder and steered her toward the door. “Outside.”

  They went out to the parking lot, avoiding the knots of smokers orbiting around tiny orange suns. Chief Gerrold moved them around the corner of the building where the smell of cigarette smoke was a trace memory in the air and the crickets played their diligent chorus.

  He rounded on her. “Do you have a drinking problem?”

  “Um, what?”

  “If you’re a problem drinker and are here looking for help, then I should be welcoming you. Are you?”

  Lisa scuffed her foot on the pavement. It felt wrong to lie about something like that when she’d seen what a terrible effect alcoholism had on people and families.

  “That’s what I thought. Coming here to spy on people is a gross breach. It’s a shame I can’t arrest you for it. If meetings stop being safe places for people in recovery because of gawkers like you—”

  “I’m not a gawker.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  She shrank from his anger. “I was following a suspect. I thought she might be meeting an accomplice.”

  “A suspect? In what? The murder?” His voice rose.

  “It’s always the husband or wife!” Lisa said, her voice quavering. “Why aren’t you investigating her? You heard how she felt about him leaving!”

  “That is none of your business.”

  “I think it is my business, since I’m a suspect even though I barely knew the man.”

  “Like I said before—”

  “Wait a minute, are you investigating her? Why else would you be here?” Lisa stopped as the truth dawned on her and she remembered what he said about spies and gawkers not being welcome in recovery meetings. “Because you’re a problem drinker, too.”

  He crossed his arms and glared down at her.

  Another chunk of truth fell on her head. “The murder was a week ago. And this is a weekly meeting. That’s why you’re not investigating her; you’re her alibi for the time of death!”

  “What do you know about the time of death?”

  “Toby — I mean Officer Baldwin — asked me where I was between eleven and one that night.” The words barely out of her mouth, Lisa realized her mistake.

  “You listen to me. You need to get in your car and go home. Stay out of my investigation.” The chief pointed a finger at Lisa. “And if I hear of you harassing anyone in this meeting again, I will find something to charge you with.”

  Chapter 20

  After feeding the kittens their early morning bottle, Lisa dug through the folder of paperwork from the sale of the Folly, looking for the lawyer’s phone number. Two of the kittens fell asleep right away after their feeding, but the third stood and sniffed the air. Lisa scooped him up and laid him on her lap while she got out her phone and dialed Jim Johnson’s number.

  It went to voicemail. Petting a soft, purring kitten kept her calm as she left a message asking for him to call her as soon as possible.

  The kitten curled up on her lap and kneaded her leg with his needle-sharp claws. She tickled him under the chin and tried calling again.

  Still voicemail.

  She hung up this time and thought for a minute before calling the real estate office. That went to voicemail, too, and Lisa suddenly realized just how early in the morning she was calling people. The window glowed with early morning light, but the sun wasn’t all the way past the horizon yet.

  She snuggled the kitten a minute more, then put him with his brothers and went to get ready for her coffee deliveries.

  The hot water of the shower sluicing down her back helped her relax and think. The killer couldn’t be Mrs. Robert, because she had been at a recovery meeting with the chief of police at the time of death. Even Lisa had to admit, it was a pretty solid alibi.

  Who else had motive to kill Roland? Or Robert. Or John Doe or whatever his name had really been. She made a mental note to call Toby and get the scoop on his real identity.

  Lisa had to admit that she herself technically had a motive, since the man had stolen her money. But that meant that anyone else who’d lost money to him also had a motive. She didn’t think anyone else in town had lost money to him… except for Aunt Olivia.

  Lisa pushed that thought away. She had no reason to suspect her aunt of something so terrible. But what if one of his victims from out of town had tracked him to Moss Creek? If Mrs. Robert could do it, someone else could have, as well. Shampooing her hair, Lisa thought about how she would find out if anyone like that could have done it. Perhaps she could go talk to the clerk at the Lucky Horseshoe and find out if anyone else had been in town that night. Or the night before, just in case they were the type to check out before committing a crime.

  As she got out of the shower, she wondered about the lawyer
himself. Was Jim Johnson in on the swindle? Or was he a genuine lawyer who’d been duped along with her and Olivia and Brett? When he called back, she could try to find that out. If he was in on it, he might have a motive to kill Roland and take the money for himself. She’d have to be careful with him.

  She peeked at the kittens before leaving. They were piled on top of each other, with paws on each other’s faces.

  “You’re like the Three Stooges,” she told them, “Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.”

  *

  Lisa brought a free order of coffee and Good Morning Muffins to the police station. After the run-in with the chief at the meeting the night before, she wasn’t eager to be there, but she felt like a muffin and coffee could improve their attitude toward her. It wasn’t a bribe, she told herself, of course not, it was a goodwill gesture. Nothing wrong with goodwill.

  Toby saw her as she walked in and hurried across the room.

  “What are you doing here?” he hissed.

  “I just wanted to drop off some coffee and some Good Morning Muffins.”

  “Don’t let the chief see you,” he said, hustling her into the break room.

  “Uh, you’re welcome,” she said as he closed the door behind them after taking extra care to look up and down the hall to check for the chief.

  “What did you do?” he said, turning on her with an accusing look.

  “Nothing!” she protested. “Basically nothing. Have a muffin.”

  “Lisa, you can’t just get out of things with delicious muffins. The chief found out I told you things on the coroner’s report.”

  She looked down, feeling guilty.

  “I’m off the case,” he said. “And I got the most epic chewing out of my life this morning.”

  “Sorry. I was just following a lead.”

  “That’s supposed to be my job. Or the department’s job.”

  “I couldn’t sit back and do nothing, you know that.”

  He sighed and took one of the muffins. “All I know is I’m glad I still have my job.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get you in trouble. The chief seemed so unreasonable, and I couldn’t let him keep me from investigating my prime suspect.” She sighed. “Turns out he had a pretty good reason for crossing her off the list.”

  “I love you, cuz, but you should probably get going. See you later, ok?”

  “Yeah, see you.”

  Lisa trudged out of the police station, glum about getting Toby in trouble.

  *

  The kittens were awake when she got home, tumbling over each other and making squeaky little mews at her as she approached with the bottle.

  “Wow, guys, looking alert today,” she told them, picking up the smallest one to feed first.

  He looked at her with bright eyes and attacked the bottle, greedily sucking down his kitten milk.

  “Ready to catch up with your brothers, huh?”

  After feeding them, she watched them climb on each other and play with a piece of yarn.

  “My three little stooges, you’re the best part of my day.”

  Her phone rang. Her mother. She put it on speaker.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “I’ve set up your date with Brett. Saturday night, seven thirty. He’s taking you to Nero’s.”

  Lisa dragged the string in front of a kitten, watching him pounce on it. “Am I meeting him there?”

  “No, he’ll pick you up. What is that noise?”

  “Kittens.”

  “Oh. Make sure you wear something nice. We don’t need any more family scandals.” Penny hung up, leaving Lisa rolling her eyes. Sometimes her mother’s obsession with appearances got to her, and other times it just seemed silly. She wondered if it had been hard for Penny growing up with a sister who was so determined to rebel against the emphasis on proper appearances.

  The thought of her aunt made Lisa uncomfortably aware that she was the last suspect on her list, and she’d been avoiding asking if she had an alibi.

  It was time to steel up her spine and ask the question. She picked up her phone. No, it would be better to ask in person.

  Chapter 21

  Lisa drove down to the gallery.

  Olivia had an easel set up in the front area of the gallery where the light was best. She was painting one of her signature pieces. The torso of the man looked somewhat familiar, as though Lisa should be able to place it if she just looked closely enough. Olivia was presently working on the ears, large basset hound ears that flopped down onto the man’s shoulders and caught the light.

  Lisa took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We need to talk.”

  Olivia put down her brush. “Yes, I suppose we do,” she said. “I knew this was coming, but somehow all the preparation, all the internal rehearsals, can’t really prepare you for something like this.”

  Lisa found herself at a loss for words. She almost didn’t want to ask her aunt about Roland’s death and hear that she had something to do with it. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding, an accident of some sort. Had they been romantically involved once upon a time and gotten back together and gone back to the Folly for a tryst and then there was a terrible accident? It was hard to imagine why they’d go there rather than back to Olivia’s house when she lived alone.

  Olivia turned and faced Lisa. “Go ahead, say what you need to say. Do you have any questions for me?”

  “It’s clear that you knew Roland from somewhere. Now that we know he wasn’t really a Comstock, I know you can’t have known him from Moss Creek. So? How did you know him?”

  Olivia looked puzzled. “Do you really want to ask me about that awful man?”

  “I do. Who was he to you, and why did you run after him? Was he an ex?”

  “Him? An ex? No, of course not.” Olivia looked troubled. “When I was young, I went east to try to get my work into galleries. I met a man who claimed to be a dealer, said he needed cash up front to get my work in front of the best people. After I gave it to him, he disappeared, and I didn’t see him until over twenty years later, when he turned up here calling himself Roland Comstock.”

  Lisa frowned. If Olivia had been conned by the same crook twice, she had an even greater motive to get even with him.

  “Where were you between eleven and one on the night of the murder?” Lisa blurted out.

  “The night of the murder? Why, I suppose I was with Lou, the same as every night.”

  It was Lisa’s turn to be puzzled. “What are you talking about? My dad is your alibi?”

  “Alibi! What are you talking about?”

  “I’m investigating the murder. After the way you took off after Roland, it was obvious you knew him. And then you disappeared for two days and acted so mysterious about where you’d been. I didn’t want to suspect you, but you kept acting suspicious.” Lisa stopped, as her aunt’s words started to sink in. “Wait, what do you mean you were with my dad?”

  “Oh, dear, you mean he hasn’t talked to you?”

  “Talked to me about what?”

  Olivia sighed heavily. “This is what always comes of keeping secrets. I told him. I told him over and over, talk to your daughter, Lou. Lisa deserves to know, Lou. You can’t keep your daughter in the dark, Lou. He was worried about how you would take the news, after that scene in Nero’s with Penny.” She shook her head. “I thought he finally told you everything.”

  “I almost want you to tell me you two killed Roland together, because otherwise… otherwise it sounds like you’re having an affair with my dad. Your brother-in-law.”

  Olivia looked at the unfinished painting. Lisa followed her gaze and realized with a start that the reason she recognized the torso was that it was her dad, wearing his favorite shirt.

  “I’m sorry you’re hearing about it so… inelegantly. But you see, since your parents split up we’ve been spending a lot of time together. I think it’s love.”

  Lisa gaped at her aunt. “Love? You hook up with your sister’s husband and you have the nerve to call that love
? That is ugly.”

  “Lisa, please. It’s not what you think. I had nothing to do with your parents growing apart.”

  “Oh, sure, easy for you to say that. But they were happy,” Lisa yelled, pointing a finger in her aunt’s face. “They were happy together, and something ruined it. Or someone.”

  “That’s not how relationships end.” Olivia sighed. “You should talk to your father. Do you need a hug?” She spread her arms wide, the trailing fringe of the sleeves fluttering.

  “Get away from me!” Lisa ran out of the gallery, tears in her eyes.

  She ran down the block and across the town square and found herself sitting on the curb across from the Folly looking at the beautiful house that should have been hers.

  Homewrecker, she thought. How could she? The thought echoed in her mind and transformed into the angry words being screamed at her in the street the first time she met Mrs. Robert de la Croix. But that was different. She hadn’t actually had an affair with him, but her aunt had.

  She laughed bitterly. At least her aunt wasn’t a murderer.

  Her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID. Her dad. Olivia must have told him about their conversation. She sent the call to voicemail.

  A vehicle pulled up beside her, blocking the view. She put her hand up to shade her eyes so she could ask the driver to move on just a few more feet to one of the many other open parking spaces. The window came down.

  “Are you ok?” Carly’s voice drifted out of the window.

  Lisa stood up and leaned on the open window. “Not really,” she said.

  “Get in.”

  They drove around the block at a speed slow enough that if it had been a weekend night and they had been teenagers they’d have been hassled for cruising.

  “Want to talk about it?” Carly said.

  Lisa opened her mouth, closed it, shrugged. Her dad and aunt having an affair wasn’t a topic of conversation she wanted to open. “Not really. Bad day.”