I squinted. “Are you just saying that? Or are you being serious?”
“I’m dead serious. If your father and I had the money, we would pick up and move there tomorrow.”
My eyes widened. “Wow. I never thought I’d hear those words coming out of your mouth. After all, you’ve been telling me for years that you’d never leave Treasure Cove.”
“I know. But we’re living in a much different Treasure Cove than the one I raised you in.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
My mother became wistful. “If only we could go back to the good old days.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Instead, things appear to be getting crazier and crazier.”
“Exactly.”
“That said, despite all the twists and turns that life has taken in the last few years, our entire family lives here. So it’s surprising to hear that you would be willing to pull up stakes and settle down in Maui.”
“You could always come and visit,” my mom said.
“I suppose,” I said.
“Honestly, though, it doesn’t matter what I would do in some dream scenario where your father and I were rich,” my mom said. “In reality, Maui is way out of our price range.”
“I understand. It turns out it isn’t cheap to live in a tropical paradise.”
“It sure isn’t.”
My mother stared off into the distance. “We can dream, though, can’t we?”
I nodded. “We sure can. About a lot of things. The hard part is figuring out how to make those dreams come true.”
“If you figure out the answer to that one, be sure to let me know.”
“I will,” I said. “Although, I wouldn’t hold your breath.”
Chapter Six
The next day, Shannon and Kelly both came into Daley Buzz at the same time as usual, but Ryan did not. At first, I wondered if he was just running late. But when an additional half hour went by without any sign of him, I started to get a very bad feeling in my gut.
Instead of letting myself get all worked up, I grabbed my phone and called him.
Unfortunately, Ryan didn’t answer.
I left a quick voicemail and then shot him a text message as well.
When five minutes went by without a reply, I decided to call his workplace.
That proved to be a fruitless endeavor, as the receptionist who answered the phone informed me that Ryan hadn’t arrived at the office yet.
At that point, it was getting harder not to freak out.
Before I jumped to any crazy conclusions, I knew there was one more thing I could do.
I left Daley Buzz, got into my car, and drove over to his house to check up on him.
Thankfully, Treasure Cove was a small town so traffic was practically nonexistent on my drive to the Northwest side of town. It took me only seven minutes to arrive at Park Street.
As I pulled up in front of his blue Victorian-style home, I saw Ryan’s sedan parked in the driveway. Normally, that would have made me feel relieved. Instead, I was as tense as ever.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the terrible feeling in my gut was starting to make me queasy.
I parked my car, got out, and headed up to the front door.
That was when I noticed something very curious. Ryan’s door was cracked open a little.
As my brow furrowed, I yelled out for my friend, “Ryan.”
I also knocked on the door, but I received no response.
So, I waited a moment and called out a second time, “Ryan.”
Once again, I didn’t have any success.
I then took four steps to the right and peered into Ryan’s living room window.
That was when I saw something that made my jaw drop.
It was suddenly clear why Ryan hadn’t answered any of my messages.
He was on the floor in the living room, completely motionless.
***
I darted inside Ryan’s house and scrambled into the living room. Unfortunately, just as I suspected, Ryan had no pulse.
I couldn’t believe it. He was gone. He was really dead. But that wasn’t all. The bloody wound in his back made it all-too-clear that his death wasn’t from natural causes. At first glance, it looked like a knife wound. Ironically, as my eyes scanned the living room, I didn’t see a knife anywhere.
I knew what I had to do. A call to David was in order.
As I went to reach for my phone, however, my muscles didn’t cooperate.
In addition, I suddenly felt my heart racing.
Instead of giving in to panic, I did my best to calm down.
Luckily, I was able to take a few deep breaths, which helped me compose myself.
From there, I was able to pull myself together long enough to grab my phone and call my husband.
Chapter Seven
When I told David what I had discovered, he jumped into his car and sped over to Park Street. While I waited for him to arrive, a new thought entered my head. Ryan’s daughter, Nicole, was not inside the house. So, where was she? Had she stayed over at a friend’s house last night? If so, she didn’t know about her father’s murder yet. This was going to break her heart. But someone was going to have to tell her what happened.
Before I was able to think about Nicole any further, David arrived at the Davidson house. He was followed shortly after by the forensics team.
As the forensics team began to go over the crime scene, David pulled me aside to try and comfort me. But before I could say a word, I needed to step outside. It was just too heartbreaking being inside Ryan’s home any longer. In addition, I had a weak stomach, which was starting to act up on me. That meant getting some fresh air was crucial.
Thankfully, rushing out to the front porch and taking a few deep breaths was enough to calm my stomach down. My nerves, however, remained completely rattled. That said, I welcomed the fresh air. But it was going to take more than some deep breaths to hold myself together. Even so, I knew that I needed to find a way to avoid completely falling apart.
After all, an investigation was on deck. Ryan’s killer was out there somewhere. Whoever they were, I couldn’t allow them to get away with this.
Despite my hunger for justice, I found myself at the whim of my emotions once again. The feelings of devastation were still so raw. It was so heart-wrenching for this to have happened to someone like Ryan. Murder was hard enough to grapple with when the deceased was a stranger. But when the victim was a friend, it just turned my entire world upside down.
Normally, in a situation like this, I would be tongue-tied. Instead, I shared my disbelief with David.
“I just talked to Ryan yesterday,” I said.
“I know,” David said.
“And now, he’s gone forever,” I said.
David nodded. “It’s so tragic.”
I stammered as I tried to express myself any further. “It’s just…I don’t know how…I…”
As another wave of shock took hold of me, it became too difficult for me to form a complete sentence.
David wrapped his arms around me. “You don’t have to say a word. I know what you’re thinking.”
I took a deep breath.
David continued. “I’m so sorry about what happened.”
My husband waited a few seconds for me to speak up, but I remained quiet.
David broke the silence. “This really cuts straight to the bone.”
I rested my head on his shoulder without saying a word.
“I wish I could tell you something to make you feel better, but at a time like this, you need more than words,” David said. “Especially since there aren’t any that can accurately describe what a horrible loss this is.”
Once again, words escaped me.
David waited a couple of seconds before replying, “Anyway. Instead of trying to think of the perfect thing to say, I’m just going to tell you that I’m here for you. Just tell me what you need.”
I hugged him tighter and then whispered in his ea
r, “Thanks for trying to cheer me up.”
“Of course,” he said. “Did it work?”
I pulled back from the hug and shook my head. “No. But like you said, there aren’t any words to accurately describe how devastating a loss this is.”
David exhaled. “There really isn’t.”
I narrowed my eyes. “That said, there are plenty of words to describe how I feel about Ryan’s killer.”
“I’ll bet. And I’ll also tell you this. Whoever is responsible for Ryan’s death will be brought to justice. I’m not going to rest until that happens.”
“Neither am I.”
Concern came to his eyes. “Honey, are you sure you don’t want to sit this investigation out?”
“I’m positive,” I said.
He stared deep into my eyes. “All right. In that case, you know what needs to happen next.”
I nodded. “I sure do.”
Chapter Eight
While there was a lot of investigative work to be done, there was also a pressing issue that required my attention first. When a murder occurred in town, David and I always took certain safety precautions. That included heading home, picking my daughter up, and bringing her over to my parents’ house. From there, they would drive an hour out of town to Lake Ashford where David and I owned a cabin.
When they arrived at the cabin, I knew they would be safe. That was just the peace of mind that I needed. And, while sending my family all the way out of town might seem like an extreme reaction to some, there was a very good reason that I insisted on that step being taken.
In the early days of my sleuthing career, my entire family had remained in Treasure Cove during the course of an investigation. Everything changed a few years ago when a murder suspect showed up at the door of my house in the middle of a case to berate me and my husband. If a potential killer pounding on my door wasn’t disturbing enough, my daughter happened to be in the living room at the time. Ultimately, the suspect was not a killer, nor was he looking to cause us any harm. He just wanted to vent his frustrations.
That said, things could have turned out much differently. For example, what if that suspect had truly been a murderer? And what if he had brought a weapon with him?
I still trembled when I thought about the dangerous possibilities. So, after having the daylights scared out of me like that, David and I vowed not to take any chances when it came to our family. We brainstormed the idea of having my family hide out at the cabin and had been vigilant about sticking to our plan ever since.
***
A few minutes later, when Jessica and I arrived at my parents’ place, my mother and father were packing up their car.
While I was eager for my family to hit the road, Jessica had other ideas.
“I don't want to go,” she said.
I tried to be as sympathetic as I could, given the circumstances. After all, I had just woken her up early on a Saturday morning and had driven her over to my parents’ house on a moment’s notice. That was a lot to adjust to.
“Jess, I understand that you’d rather still be in bed right now,” I said. “But—”
“But what?” Jessica asked. She then took a deep breath. “Do I really have to go to the cabin?”
I nodded.
She lowered her head. “It’s not fair.”
“Trust me. You aren’t the only one who wishes things were different. But sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do. That’s just an unfortunate part of life.”
“I deserve to know why you’re sending me away,” she said. “What happened?”
I grimaced. “Honey, I can’t really get into that with you right now.”
“Someone died, didn’t they?”
I winced. “I just told you. I don't want to get into it.”
“When you send me away, it's always because someone has died. You think I don't realize that, but I do.”
Normally, having a smart kid was a good thing. In this case, Jessica was a little too intelligent for her own good. Of course, her stubbornness wasn’t helping any.
If she was older, maybe I would have shared the truth with her. But since she was only ten, I wanted to spare her the disturbing details.
I decided to remain relatively vague. “Look. Something really awful has happened. So, I’m trying to avoid things getting any worse. That’s why I need you to go to the cabin with grandma and grandpa. I’m doing this for your own protection. Do you understand?”
She took a deep breath and then nodded. “How long am I going to have to stay at the cabin?”
“I’m not really sure,” I said.
“It could be a couple of days, you mean?”
“Possibly,” I said. “But look, the minute it’s okay for you to come home, I’ll let grandma and grandpa know. All right?”
“Okay,” she said.
“In the meantime, I just want you to know that your father and I love you very much,” I said.
“I love you too,” Jessica said.
I gave Jessica a big hug and then kissed her on the forehead.
***
After Jessica got into the backseat of my parents’ sedan, I walked over to my mother to say a few quick things to her.
“Thanks again for doing this,” I remarked.
“Of course. Safety is the number one priority,” my mother said. “Speaking of, are you sure that you don’t want to come with us?”
“Mom, you already know the answer to that one, don’t you?” I said.
My mother nodded. “I do. But I just thought I’d ask.”
“You guys take care, all right?”
“Are you kidding? I should be saying that to you,” my mother replied.
“You don’t have to. I give you my word. I’m going to be as careful as I can,” I said.
“Good.”
“I love you,” I said.
“I love you too,” my mother replied.
Chapter Nine
Once Jessica, Elizabeth, and Luke were on their way out of town, I hopped into the driver’s-seat of my car.
After speaking briefly with my husband on the phone, I knew that I needed to get back to Ryan Davidson’s house as soon as possible. Not just because there was a lot of work to do on the case. It turned out that David required my assistance with another matter.
According to my husband, he had placed a call to Nicole Davidson. Upon breaking the news to her about her father’s death, Nicole had rushed back home in a panic. Not surprisingly, Nicole was devastated. David was doing his best to try and comfort her, but he wasn’t having much luck.
Perhaps I would fare better when I arrived. I drove back over to the Northwest side of town to find out.
Now, you might be wondering, why hadn’t I skipped town with my parents and my daughter? Why wasn’t I leaving this entire investigation to my husband? After all, he was a professional detective and I was just a coffee shop manager.
While that was technically true, I happened to have a fair share of investigative experience of my own. In total, over the last twenty years, I had helped David solve dozens of murders. Of course, none of that was by design.
In all honesty, becoming an amateur sleuth was something that I had just stumbled into. It all started when one of my friends was murdered nearly two decades ago. Back then, I was prepared to leave all the investigative work to the professionals. But when the case began to go cold, I knew that I had to take action. I couldn’t let my friend’s murder go unsolved. So, I set out to find the killer myself.
Thanks to my efforts, the killer was eventually apprehended. But that wasn’t all. In the process of investigating the murder, I discovered that I had a knack for solving crimes. Not to mention some great instincts.
As time went on, when more homicides began occurring in town, those instincts came in awfully handy. That said, the Treasure Cove Police Department was not always on board with my amateur sleuthing. Initially, David put up a huge amount of resistance to me getting involved with his casework.
The police chief agreed with him.
I understood where they were coming from. After all, I didn’t love the idea of throwing myself into harm’s way. I just knew how important it was for justice to be served.
Eventually, when it became clear how valuable my instincts truly were to the department, both David and the police chief began to put up far less resistance to me investigating homicides.
These days, when a new murder investigation began, the police department took me on as a consultant.
***
I arrived at Ryan’s place a few minutes later and saw Nicole sitting on the front step of the porch. David sat beside her. I parked my car, got out, and walked toward them.
As I approached, Nicole was shaking her head in disbelief. “This can’t be true.”
I gazed at her with sympathetic eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
Nicole winced. “How could this have happened?”
“We’re going to do our best to find out.”
Nicole exhaled. “I can’t believe it. He’s really gone.”
“I’m having a hard time with this too,” I said.
“First my mom, now my dad. I have no one left.”
Technically, with Ryan’s divorce not officially finalized, Nicole still had a stepmother. But Nicole had never gotten along with Megan. And in a time of crisis like this, Nicole certainly wasn’t going to turn to Megan for comfort.
“I can’t imagine what that’s like, losing both of your parents,” I said.
“It’s devastating. Absolutely…” Nicole couldn’t finish her sentence. Instead, she began breathing really heavily.
David tried to calm her down. “You don’t have to say a word. Just take some deep breaths. We don’t want you to hyperventilate.”
Nicole followed David’s advice and focused on her breathing. After a few seconds, she managed to slow her heart rate down.
Mysteries of Treasure Cove Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 3