Margot Durand Cozy Mystery Boxed Set: Books 4 - 6

by Danielle Collins

  “And then you just forgot where it went?” Margot asked, her tone even.

  “Yes,” he said with a chuckle. “It was a small thing and for a while, I thought I’d thrown it out. I had put it in an envelope and put it somewhere in my desk. It was entirely possible I’d tossed it with old papers.”

  “But you didn't?” Adam asked.

  “Nope.” He grinned.

  “You found it, didn’t you?” Margot guessed.

  Bentley nodded and pushed himself up from his chair. Margot was happy to see that he was moving much more independently. His back had to be healing well then, something she was immensely happy for. She was also happy to see that the complex’s helpers, part of the senior living bonus, had done a good job fixing Bentley’s place up. There were several things that would need to be replaced, but Bentley had assured her that he’d already ordered a few things online and things would be back to normal in no time.

  “Here,” he said, handing it over to Margot, who leaned close to Adam so they could both look inside the small white envelope.

  A dull gold coin was revealed between the white paper and Margot met Adam’s eyes. “I wonder if it’s real.”

  “One things for sure, if you take it to anyone to verify and it is real, chances are the news will get wind of this.”

  “I had a similar thought. I was going to ask Margot to take care of it for me until we could get the rest of this sorted out.”

  Adam feigned hurt. “You’d give it to the baker over the police detective?”

  “I trust Margot.” He didn’t say it in a way that made it sound like he didn’t trust Adam, just that it was a fact.

  “I’d be honored. I’ve got a good idea where I could keep it safely for the next few days until all of this is settled. At least I hope it will be settled by then.”

  “Good. Consider it in your keeping for now.”

  “I don’t think we should tell Harrison that you found it. At least not yet.”

  “I’m thinking the same thing,” Adam agreed.

  “Whatever you two decide,” Bentley said.

  Margot’s thoughts flew to Harrison and what Dexter had found on him. Could it be as simple as that? He needed money and he was doing whatever he could to get it? But that seemed odd. Maybe the only reason Bentley wasn’t dead was because he didn’t know where the coin was? Was this whole thing an elaborate scheme to retrieve a potentially valuable coin? Just one?

  She had some research to do and a few calls to make. Things were coming together, yet there was still a lot left to be discovered. Was Harrison really a cold-blooded killer? If so, was he the one who killed Nils? And why would he do that? It seemed to point to a third party, but who else could be involved? Had she and Adam been wrong about Sean? Was he in this or was there someone else they hadn’t yet discovered?

  Head pounding with the possibilities, she took the coin and hid it in her purse. She’d put it in a safe place as soon as she could get to her bakery.

  Chapter 11

  “What are you thinking?” Adam asked when they left Bentley’s.

  “That Harrison, or something to do with Harrison, is the catalyst for all of this. It’s obviously not Bentley, but I suppose it could be Tony’s death that started it all.”

  “I was thinking that too. A good motivation is money—or the need of it—and Harrison certainly fits that bill. But did Tony die and then this was all put into motion or was Tony’s death part of all of this? I lean toward it being something to do with Harrison…”

  “Oh!” Margot pulled her phone back out. “Speaking of him, I got a call from Dexter while we were in with Bentley. Let me call him back.”

  Margot pressed the call button and waited for Dexter to pick up. She looked around, surveying the quiet courtyard of the senior living complex. Bentley had been here for as long as she’d known him and she’d come to see this place as familiar. Each apartment, though not large, was just big enough to give the residents enough room. The beauty of the complex was that it gave seniors the ability to live on their own but with the added bonus of staff help for those who needed it. They even had a nurse on staff should any emergencies arrive.

  “Hey, Margot,” Dexter said, the call finally connecting.

  “Just calling you back. Sorry, I was at Bentley’s.”

  “No problem! I’ve got some news for you—and Adam. I assume he’s with you?”

  “Yes, one moment.” She gestured to Adam for them to get into the car. “You’re on speaker and Adam’s here. Go ahead, Dexter.”

  “Hey, Adam, you’re not going to believe this.”

  “What?” Adam said, his brow furrowing.

  “I was finally able to hac—er, get through to who was sending those emails to Harrison.”

  “The ones demanding money?” Margot asked. “But how?”

  “Why don’t you skip ahead to their contents and we’ll discuss how later.” Adam shot a glance at Margot, but directed his attention toward the phone.

  “Right, well, it links back through a few different places, but its home location is Maryland. Adam, it’s Mars.”

  Margot watched as Adam’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait. What?”

  “I know, seems impossible, but it’s definitely from the Mars network. I recognized it immediately.”

  “Got it.” Adam leaned back in his seat. “Send this over to Withers at the station, you’ve got his contact info right, Dex?”

  “Yep.”

  “Thanks, kid.”

  “You got it.”

  The line went dead and Margot looked to Adam for an explanation. “Who is Mars? And how does Dexter know about him? What is going on?”

  Adam shook his head. “You remember our last case here? And the drug lord involved?”

  “You mean the one with Victor Carow?”

  “The very same.”

  “I know he was bad news. What does that have to do with this Mars fellow?”

  Adam sighed. “Mars makes Victor Carow look like a puppy dog.”

  “You’re kidding. How is this possible?”

  “Baltimore has a lot of gang and drug-related things. From what we can tell, Mars came down from New York and basically set up shop in the city and took Maryland for his own. Victor Carow and he are—or I should say were—on good terms, if you can call being rivals good terms. But at the end of the day, Mars was the one calling the shots. He’s got a vast network and has branched out to deals with the local casinos.”

  “Harrison.”

  “Exactly. I would assume Harrison got in trouble owing Mars’ men some major cash. He probably rolled into one of their casinos and, as a relatively wealthy man, they let him. But then they may have given him enough rope to hang himself.”

  “You mean like with racking up debts?”

  “Yes. He may have promised them that he had some way to get the money for them—whether that was from friends or property or other things. We’d have to trace back what he says, but the fact that it’s Mars adds another level to all of this.”

  “What do you mean?” Margot snuck a glance at Bentley’s door, as if somehow knowing that this Mars fellow and his network were involved affected Bentley immediately.

  “It will have to be confirmed, but Nils’ death looks more like a hit than anything else. With this new information, that scenario is likely.”

  Margot leaned back in her seat, piecing it all together. Harrison found himself in debt to Mars so he…what? Went to Tony and Russ and they both died? What happened there?

  “I need to get back to the station to follow up on this. Can I drop you off at the bakery?”

  Feeling the weight of the coin in her purse, she nodded. She needed to get this coin to safety and then reason out what was going on.

  “Yes,” she said, nodding emphatically. “I’ve got some baking to do.”

  Margot pushed her recent creation into the oven when the back door to the kitchen opened and Dexter walked in.

  “Hey, Margot,” he said, stowin
g his leather satchel in his cubby.

  “What are you doing here now?” she said, glancing at the time.

  “I just felt the urge to bake. Mind if I whip something up?”

  “Not at all.” She stood up, setting the timer before looking over at the young man. “Is everything all right?”

  He looked tired, circles under his eyes and with an air of weariness she wasn’t used to seeing. “Yeah,” he said unconvincingly.

  She stared him down and he broke into a grin.

  “You’re good at that.”

  “What?” she asked innocently.

  “Making someone feel like you’re reading their mind.”

  “Hardly,” she said, scraping the extra flour on the counter into her palm. She stepped past Dexter to the trashcan and then stopped to look up at him. “You don’t have to open up to me, Dexter, but I want you to know I’m here for you should you need someone to talk to.”

  “I appreciate that, Margot. I really do. You’ve done so much for me.” His gaze traveled over the kitchen and, before he finished his thought, he took the time to pull an apron on over his head. “I guess there’s just always more to a person than what first meets the eye.”

  “I agree.”

  “I think there’s more behind me than I want.”

  The way he spoke caused Margot to slow to a stop with her cleaning movements. “What do you mean?”

  “There are always things in our lives we aren’t proud of. Some of us have quite the past and while I wouldn’t say that my past is bad…it’s complex.”

  “And it’s coming back? Is that it?”

  “In a manner of speaking, yes.” He looked thoughtfully at her. “I can’t tell you everything. While that may sound like a cop-out, it’s not. What I can tell you is that I am in a bit of a bind.”

  “Are you all right?” she asked quickly.

  “Yes. It’s…” He searched for the words. “…not all bad. Just complicated. I may need to ask for some time off.”

  “Of course,” she said without hesitation. When she’d decided to hire help, she hadn’t expected it to turn out as well as it had with Dexter. Now, the thought that he might be leaving—even for a short period of time—made her sad, not just for the help she’d be missing but the reality that she would miss him too.

  “Thanks, I—” He was cut off by the sound of her phone ringing from the other room.

  “Sorry,” she said, sad to miss this rare opportunity for Dexter’s honesty.

  “It’s all right. I understand. Don’t mind me.” He turned toward the refrigerator to pull out ingredients for whatever he was going to make and Margot rushed to her office.

  “Hello?” she said breathlessly into the phone.

  “You okay?” Adam asked. “I’m not interrupting important baking, am I?

  “My baking is always important,” she said with a grin. “But no. Go ahead.”

  “I just got an interesting call and thought you should hear about it.”

  She was shocked that Adam would want to convey the news to her, knowing that it was now an active investigation, but she had been working more and more alongside him. She wondered if his chief still had the notion that she was like a type of contracted help. Either way, she didn't mind as long as he wanted to share.

  “I got a call from our M.E.”

  She smiled, immediately imaging the man, Martin, who was more than a little goofy. Then again, one had to find some type of humor to cope with so much death.

  “What did he say?”

  “Well, that's the crazy part. First off, he received a report from a friend in the Maryland’s M.E. office who confirmed that Tony’s death was from natural causes.”

  “All right,” she said, puzzling it out. “So his death definitely had nothing to do with this?”

  “Not exactly. I still think it’s important that the neighbor said she saw someone going in there before he died. It might have been natural, but I somehow think Harrison is still involved.”

  “What else did you find out?”

  “How did you know there was more?”

  “You said ‘first off,’ which implies there’s a second, am I right?”

  “There’s my girl,” Adam said, the affection obvious in his voice. “You’re right. There is more.”

  The sound of cooking sheets dropping drew her attention out to the kitchen only to see Dexter wrestling them back on to the counter.

  “Well?” she prompted.

  “Everything all right over there?”

  “Yes, Dexter’s just making a mess in my kitchen.”

  “He’s there late.” Adam’s voice held concern.

  “He just needed to bake. I completely understand the urge. Why do you sound worried?”

  “No reason.”

  She didn't exactly believe Adam but let it slide, her curiosity getting the best of her. “So?”

  “Right. Well, it turns out that Russ and Nils were shot with the same gun.”

  “Really?” Margot’s mind whirled with the reality. “Is it a known gun?”

  “Yes and no. The type of gun used is specific to Mars’ men, but ballistics don’t match it to anything we have on file.”

  “But you still think that means Mars’ men are part of all of this?”

  “Yes.” The word hung in the air and Margot wondered what exactly that would mean for all of them.

  “I don’t like where this is going, Adam. I mean—” Her phone buzzed and, without thinking, she pulled back to catch the message flashing at the top of her phone.

  “Margot?”

  “Adam,” she said, her hands immediately beginning to tremble. “Bentley just texted me the word help.”

  Chapter 12

  Bentley had never texted her much, but the reality that he’d done so now and the fact that it was one word and that the word was help sent Margot into a flurry of movement. She was out the door, telling Dexter to pull out her bread once it was done and not offering any more of an explanation.

  She barely remembered the drive to the apartment complex but had half a mind to race up and barge through her friend’s door. Reason took over just in time for Adam to arrive and remind her that rash action was the worst kind of action she could take now.

  “You shouldn’t have come,” he said, his look intense and his hand on his gun holstered at his hip.

  “It’s Bentley,” she insisted, “there was no way I wasn’t going to.”

  “I know. I just worry about your safety is all. Stay behind me,” he said as they walked toward the steps.

  Margot felt her pulse hammering in her veins. Was Bentley all right? Certainly the guard would have heard— Wait.

  “Where is the guard?”

  Adam paused, looking at her. “I found him passed out in his vehicle. I’ve already called for backup and an ambulance, I just didn’t want to worry you further.”

  “Do you think it’s Harrison? Or Mars’ men?”

  “Hard to say. Let’s see if we can peer in through Bentley’s window to get a better handle on the situation.”

  They edged along the building and Margot prayed that none of the other residents would come out of their apartments. It would draw too much attention and possibly endanger Bentley more—depending on his current state. She hoped he was all right, though from his text and the knocked out guard, she wasn’t sure that was as likely now.

  As they reached the top of the stairs, they slipped to Bentley’s window and Adam did a quick peek. He frowned and then peeked again, this time staying just a little longer at the crack in the window then he came back to where she stood on the other side of the door.

  “Well?” she prompted.

  “Not good.”

  Margot felt tears prick her eyes. “Is Bentley…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it.

  “He’s all right for now, but Harrison’s got a gun trained on him.”

  “It just doesn't make sense. Why his old friend? And why now?”

  “That,
I couldn’t tell you, but I need to formulate a plan of action.”

  Margot leaned her head back against the building and thought. They needed to distract Harrison so that Adam could either disarm him or at least get a sight on him. The trick was doing it all without making Harrison force his hand. He wouldn't kill Bentley…would he? Sadly, Margot couldn’t answer that decisively.

  Then an idea popped into her head. “I know what to do.”

  “What?” Adam said, inclining his head to her to better hear her whispered idea.

  “I’ll go in and—”

  “No,” Adam interjected before she could explain.

  “You didn’t even hear what I have to say.”

  “You’re not going in there. I don't need two people in Harrison’s sights.”

  “Listen,” she said, pleading with her eyes, her hand gently resting on his forearm. “You need a distraction and I can be that for you. I’ll go in through the front door, say something about having the coin—or knowing where it is—while you go through Missus Mallord’s house to the patio.”

  Adam’s eyes narrowed, but he remained quiet to hear her out.

  “She’ll let you in; she likes you,” she said, a smile almost slipping onto her lips before the seriousness of the situation weighted it down. “Then, when I see that you are in place, I’ll distract Harrison and you can make your entrance.”

  “There are so many things that could go wrong, Margot. I can’t in good conscience let you do this.”

  She let out a soft sigh. “I understand and I’m not trying to be a hero here. I honestly think it’s our best option. Once the rest of the police force gets here, who knows what will happen? You either go in without warning and he accidentally shoots Bentley, or you warn him and all the sudden he has a hostage—our friend.”

  Adam nodded. “The chief’s going to have my head for this.”

  “I’ll take full responsibility,” she offered, though she knew that was small, if any, consolation.

  “I’m agreeing to this due to the extreme circumstances, but know I don’t like putting you in harm’s way.”

  “I know you don’t,” she said, reaching up and cupping his cheek with her hand. “Now go charm your way into Anita Mallord’s apartment. I’ve got a meeting to interrupt.”