Mysteries of Treasure Cove Cozy Mystery Boxed Set

by Meredith Potts

  “No,” David said.

  Trevor breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Instead, we have new suspicions to address,” I said.

  Trevor threw out his arms. “What are you talking about?”

  “Have you ever threatened Chuck Tillman?” I asked.

  Trevor scoffed. “Where would you get that idea?”

  “He seems awfully afraid of you,” I said.

  “What he should be afraid of is spending the rest of his life in jail,” Trevor said.

  “Do you think he killed Mark?” I said.

  “He sure had reason to,” Trevor said.

  “Do you have any evidence that points to Chuck being the killer?” I asked.

  “It’s your job to get evidence,” Trevor said.

  David snickered. “You sound like your wife.” He corrected himself. “I mean, your estranged wife.”

  “Barbara’s a smart woman,” Trevor said.

  “She might also be a murderer,” David said.

  Trevor shook his head. “I don’t believe that for a second.”

  “You’re pretty defensive of a woman that you can’t wait to divorce,” David said.

  “Despite what happened in our marriage, I know Barbara well enough to say that she isn’t a killer,” Trevor said.

  “What if I told you she’s not as defensive of you?” David asked.

  Trevor’s eyes widened. “Did she say something bad about me?”

  “Would that change your opinion of her? Or are you still going to defend your estranged wife?” David said.

  “What did she say about me?” Trevor snapped.

  “She didn’t come to your defense, that’s for sure,” David said.

  Trevor gritted his teeth. “That’s disappointing.”

  “Maybe it’s more than that,” David said. “Perhaps it’s very telling.”

  Trevor scowled. “Don’t go reading into things.”

  “I don’t have to read very far. I mean, Mark Wilcox’s affair with your wife destroyed your marriage. If that’s not a killer motive for murder, I don’t know what is,” David said.

  “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I didn’t kill Mark,” Trevor barked.

  “It would be a lot easier to believe you if you weren’t so quick to snap at me. Or if you had an alibi for the time of the murder,” David said.

  “I don’t care how easy it is to believe. It’s the truth,” Trevor said.

  “Unfortunately, you have no way of proving that,” David said.

  “So what, are you going to arrest me?” Trevor asked.

  David became tightlipped.

  “That’s what I thought,” Trevor said. “We both know you don’t have any evidence against me. Otherwise you would have dragged me away in cuffs already.”

  David remained quiet.

  “Since you’ve got nothing on me, I’m out of here,” Trevor said.

  David made sure to get the last word in. “Don’t even think about leaving town.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  No matter how much David tried, he couldn’t ignore his frustration any longer. There were very few things that he hated more than being told off by a suspect. Especially when that suspect had a valid point. Despite the mounting suspicions that we had against Trevor, there was no concrete evidence in our possession that conclusively proved he had committed the murder.

  In addition to hitting a wall with the suspects, what was left of our patience was rapidly eroding. In light of that, and the fact that it was our normal dinner time, it seemed like it was a good time to take a break.

  Since we were near the outskirts of town already, Treasures of the Cove Café was the logical spot to grab a bite of food from.

  As David’s car pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, I realized that I would need to wait a little longer before I got some food in my stomach.

  For a reason that was completely unknown to me, Gavin Zeller was dancing in the middle of the parking lot.

  David turned to me from the driver’s seat of his car. “What do you think that’s about?”

  I replied from the passenger seat, “I have no clue.”

  “That makes two of us,” he said. “We should probably go check it out.”

  “You first,” I said.

  David got out of his car. I followed behind him.

  “Gavin. What’s going on?” David asked.

  Gavin was a rotund, brown-haired, round-faced, forty-seven-year-old. Nine years of heavy drinking had bloated his formerly athletic body. He finally hit rock bottom two years ago and sobered up. But by then, the damage had been done to his figure. Sure, he could always diet, but he didn’t seem to have any inclination to do so.

  The size of his belly wasn’t the only thing that had changed over the last fifteen years. His entire life had been a roller coaster of ups and downs, starting with his eighteen-million-dollar lottery jackpot win a decade and a half ago. Unfortunately, Gavin began spending money like crazy. He also married a shameless gold digger of a woman who went on a spending spree of her own with his winnings.

  When all was said and done, it only took four years for Gavin to burn through all of his money. To add insult to injury, the second the money dried up, his gold digger wife filed for divorce. From there, the heavy drinking began. He ended up having to take a low-level job at a restaurant in order to pay his bills.

  After that, Gavin could have turned into nothing more than a cautionary tale. But in the last couple of years, he had started to turn his life around. In addition to getting sober, he also got a new job counseling professional athletes about being wise with their money.

  When he first told me about the job, I couldn’t believe it. Only in America could a person who blew through all of his money make a living telling people how to be smart about their finances.

  That said, even though Gavin was back on his feet again, I still couldn’t believe that he managed to spend all those millions. If I caught him in a moment of brutal honesty, he’d probably admit that he was still in disbelief about it also.

  Gavin’s past aside, in the present, he was beside himself with excitement. “You won’t believe it,” he said.

  “I don’t know about that. After everything I’ve seen in the last few days, it’ll be hard to surprise me,” David said.

  “A Hollywood producer wants to turn my life into a TV show,” Gavin said.

  David’s jaw dropped.

  “I know, right?” Gavin said. “Isn’t this amazing.”

  “That’s one word for it,” I muttered.

  “That’s great news. Congratulations,” David said.

  Gavin stared at me. “Sabrina, aren’t you going to congratulate me?”

  “Of course. Congrats,” I said.

  “You don’t sound very enthusiastic. What are you, jealous?” Gavin asked.

  “No. That’s not it at all,” I said.

  “Then why do you look more concerned than happy?” Gavin said.

  “Because I think you should be careful,” I said.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to blow through the money from this TV deal,” Gavin said. “I’ve learned my lesson.”

  “I wasn’t talking about that,” I said. “But I’m glad you’re going to be wiser with your money from now on.”

  “Of course. It was bad enough blowing eighteen million dollars once.” He got a faraway look in his eyes. “I still can’t believe I…” He groaned. “I was so stupid.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad,” I said.

  “It’s not your fault. I’m the one who went on the spending spree,” Gavin said. “Ironically, me burning through all that money is what got this producer’s attention in the first place. He has all kinds of ideas for where to take the series.”

  “That’s exactly what you should be careful about,” I said.

  I wasn’t just being paranoid. I had dealt with Hollywood before. Fifteen years ago, a producer bought up my life rights and tur
ned them into a detective TV show. At first, it seemed like a dream come true. Then the producer made changes to the show to sensationalize the plot, adding car chases and standoffs at gunpoint.

  If the show wasn’t based directly on my life, I wouldn’t have cared. But the series was supposed to be telling my life story, and I didn’t appreciate having the events of my life rewritten like that. Not that the producer cared. He even changed the name of the main character of the show to Victoria Sassy.

  That last change actually ended up doing me a favor in a way. With the sleuth’s name changed, I was able to retain relative anonymity, at least to the larger world. Sure a select number of people in Treasure Cove knew that the series was about me, but I never became a household name. In addition, since the TV series went off the air eight years ago, the show rarely got mentioned in every day conversation. This was one of the rare exceptions.

  “Sabrina, I know you didn’t have the best experience with Hollywood,” Gavin said.

  “That’s putting it lightly,” I said.

  “But my situation is different,” Gavin said.

  “Why? Because you don’t think this producer is going to mess with your life story?”

  “No. He probably will.”

  My eyes widened. “And you’re okay with that?”

  “Honestly, I just care about the money.”

  “Are you serious?”

  Gavin nodded. “This producer can do whatever he wants with my story. The only story I care about is me not having to live paycheck to paycheck anymore.”

  “I wish I could say I was that laidback,” I replied.

  “Sabrina, do you know what it was like, having to go into a restaurant every day to work some lousy job, knowing you flushed eighteen-million-dollars down the drain? Or how it feels to counsel professional athletes about how to manage their multi-million dollar paychecks?” Gavin asked.

  “I have no clue,” I said.

  “Let me tell you something. Humble pie tastes awful. I never want to eat it again. And now I won’t have to,” Gavin said.

  “You certainly won’t. Congratulations. I hope the TV series becomes a big success,” I said.

  “Thanks,” Gavin said. “Anyway, it’s time for me to go and celebrate. Woohoo.”

  Gavin then jumped into his car and drove away.

  Chapter Fourteen

  When I walked through the front doors of Treasures of the Cove Café, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Home Away From Home Cooking, the restaurant that used to occupy this space. I missed the old restaurant so much, but they ended up closing their doors a few years ago. Not without a fight, though.

  They had tried their best to stay afloat, but they just didn’t have enough customers to keep the place open. The problem was that the location of the restaurant was on the outskirts of town. A lot of people didn’t want to drive that far for a meal. That was a real shame. No restaurant in town did comfort food quite like Home Away From Home Cooking.

  Treasures of the Cove Café, meanwhile, was a fusion restaurant. The chef believed in putting new twists on things. The results of his culinary experiments were mixed, at best. But he benefitted from being the new restaurant in town. How long the novelty would last, I wasn’t sure.

  Unlike most of the customers at the restaurant that night, we weren’t there because of the novelty factor. We chose the restaurant because it was the only eatery for miles. So while I knew the food would be better at Shannon’s Sandwich Shop, that was clear across town. My stomach couldn’t wait that long for dinner.

  David and I headed straight to the bar area, as we knew that we could get faster service there than sitting down at a table.

  While there was a lot to discuss, we ended up sitting silently after placing our orders. We were running on fumes and needed some protein before we could tackle any meaty conversational topics.

  Thankfully, our food came pretty quickly.

  I had a curried chicken burrito while David had a bacon, egg, and avocado burger. Much to my surprise, my burrito was amazing. I wasn’t sure how much of that was because of the specific meal itself, and how much of it was the fact that I was hungry like a wolf.

  Desperation had a way of toying with expectations. By the time I took a bite of my food, I was so hungry that a granola bar probably would have tasted like a culinary delight. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise then that the burrito tasted marvelous in comparison.

  That was actually an apt metaphor for the situation David and I were in. After all, so much of life was about expectations.

  When this case began, we both had high expectations about being able to identify the killer, sooner rather than later. Yet now here we were, as stumped as could be. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot we could do to improve our situation. We were stuck playing the waiting game, hoping for a new piece of evidence to turn up. Or for one of the suspects to make a misstep.

  A few minutes later, the protein from our meals gave us a jolt of energy, and we began to discuss the events of the day.

  “What a crazy day,” David said.

  “Are you talking about Gavin’s TV deal, or this case?” I asked.

  “Both,” he said. “But let’s focus on the investigation right now.”

  “It’s definitely one of the weirdest investigations I’ve ever been a part of,” I said.

  “And that’s saying a lot.”

  “True,” I said. “Treasure Cove does seem to specialize in oddball behavior.”

  David chuckled. “What a thing to be known for.”

  “Hey, that’s not the only thing our town is known for. We do have an amazing beach. Don’t you forget that.”

  He scoffed. “Are you kidding? It’s been so long since I went to the beach that I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to swim in the ocean.”

  “It’s settled then. When this case is over, I’m taking you to the beach.”

  “If this case ever ends, you mean.”

  “Hey, don’t get negative on me,” I said.

  “Sorry. It has just been a long day. A long week, really.”

  “Keep your chin up.”

  “I’m just being honest. If I can’t do that with you, who can I do it with?”

  “You don’t have to sugarcoat anything for me. I know what we’re up against,” I said.

  “Then you shouldn’t be surprised that my chin isn’t up right now,” he said.

  “It’s more that you’re usually the level-headed one. I’m not used to being the one who has to rally our optimism.”

  “I hear you. But nothing is going as planned today. So why should this be any different?”

  I exhaled. “I guess you’re right.”

  He could see that my spirit was sagging.

  “I didn’t mean to bring you down. Today has just been so frustrating,” he said.

  “It kind of makes you wonder what tomorrow will bring.”

  “Don’t you mean, it makes you afraid of tomorrow?”

  “You never know. By this time tomorrow, we just might have cracked this.”

  He shrugged. “Anything is possible. Today has certainly proven that.”

  I looked at him. “Do you know what you need?”

  “A winning lottery ticket,” David said.

  “Other than that?” I asked.

  “A Hawaiian vacation.”

  “I was going to say dessert.”

  “That isn’t quite in the same ballpark as a Hawaiian vacation.”

  “No. But unlike your aloha dreams, which require both money and planning, cake is just a short drive away,” I said. “So what do you say, are you up for some dessert?”

  “How can I say no to that?” he said.

  ***

  After dinner, David and I headed over to Mitchell’s, which was a bakery on Maple Street. We ended up splitting a piece of layer cake. Now there was something that was timelessly delicious.

  David and I made quick work of the cake. Before I knew it, our plate was empty. I ne
ver thought I’d say this, but the cake was almost too scrumptious for its own good. I could have easily ordered a second piece, but I resisted.

  After all, just because I was investigating a case didn’t mean that I had a license to make a complete mockery of my diet. As it was, my waistline would have something to say about the cake I just ate. Besides, this wasn’t like my younger days when I could cheat on my diet a little and not have it affect me on the scale the next morning.

  Weight issues aside, the sugar rush from the cake buoyed my spirit enough for me to be able to focus on the case again. David, meanwhile, wanted to do more than just talk about the investigation.

  He got up from the table. “You ready to go?”

  “I guess that means you’re itching to head back out there,” I said.

  His nose wrinkled. “I was actually going to ask if you want to head on home.”

  My eyes widened. “Oh. Are you ready to call it a night?”

  David grimaced. “It’s not that I want to. It’s more that we’re fresh out of leads.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. I can’t disagree with that.”

  He stared at me. “Unless you have a better idea of what to do next.”

  I winced. “Unfortunately, no.”

  “All right. Home it is,” David said. “We can get some sleep and stare this case down with fresh eyes in the morning.”

  “Sounds good.”

  David held his pointer finger up. “Actually, before we head out, I have to do one more thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Go to the restroom.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  While David headed off to the men’s room, I remained at the table. I let my mind wander. But maybe I let my thoughts drift a little too much.

  Normally, I had a keen awareness of my surroundings. But right then, my head was so deep in the clouds that I didn’t see Wally Tuttle approaching. Thankfully, Wally was one of my friends and not a suspect in this case, or I could have been in real trouble.

  “You look like you could use a vacation,” Wally said.