Murder by Nature (Organic Tropical Mystery Series)

by Lynn Ambers

  “D67 and M41 you two follow with a time lapse of 5 minutes apart and then 10 minutes. The two racing boats are slowing down so just be ready as back up,” Barns said.

  “Roger that,” all units radioed back.

  “Proceed, over and out,” Barns replied.

  Mathew powered the boat and away we went around the island. It took a few minutes to get to the other side. The fed boat and the target boat were in view and they were both stopped in the Florida Bay area. We puttered as far north of the small island we were near, so we still looked like we were just relaxing.

  We dropped anchor and went inside to the front of the boat with the binoculars. Mathew was looking through the binoculars and reporting what he saw.

  “Okay so the feds are talking from their boat to the suspects on the other boat. The feds are talking some more. The guys on the boat are putting their hands up. The feds are talking and proceeding to get on the boat. The feds have jumped on. The two men look like they are being walked to the front of the boat by one fed. They are sitting them down. The three more feds are jumping on the boat. They look like they are searching the boat.”

  “Wow, that’s great it looks like they are putting up without a fight,” I said.

  “Yeah, I can’t believe it. I wonder if that means they have nothing to hide. They might have already done the drop, damn it!” Mathew said.

  “Well don’t give up yet.” I said.” Do you want some iced coffee?”

  “Yeah, that’s sounds good,” Mathew said.

  “Two iced coffee’s coming up,” I said. I shuffled towards the galley and got out everything for making vanilla iced coffees with coconut milk.

  When I was done making the iced coffees, I went back to the front of the boat and handed Matt his iced coffee.

  “Thank you,” he said. We sat sipping our coffees and just relaxed for a bit. Suddenly Barns came on the radio.

  “All units, you can head in. Illegal weapons have been found on board and we are hauling them in. No drugs have been found yet, but we will continue to search the boat. Thank you for your help with this operation. D67 if you can just follow us in for safety, we would appreciate it. Everyone else is dismissed.”

  “Roger that,” came from D67’s guy.

  “Roger that,” everyone else said including Mathew.

  We smiled at each other, Mathew and I hugged.

  “Mission accomplished.”

  Chapter Forty

  “I’ve got some interesting news?” Mathew said over the phone.

  “How about come over here. I still have a lot of work to do, but I can take a break,” I said.

  “Okay, because they have found something this weekend when we were helping the DEA. This is not something I really want to discuss on the telephone.” Mathew said.

  “Yes, come over. I am anxious to hear what happened,” I said.

  “Okay, I’ll be over in about an hour,” he said.

  “Okay, sounds great,” I said.

  I continued to get things done on the farm. The greenhouses needed attending to. I heard Mathew’s cop cruiser door shut. I walked out of the greenhouse to wave to him to come inside. I was working on gathering some lettuce.

  “So, what was the final on the sting operation,” I said.

  “Okay so the boat the Feds raided the guys who we thought were running cocaine, but it turns out they are running prescription drugs underground to undermine the corporations they are making them for.”

  “So, we found not much in terms of drugs on the boat, but we did found syringes, go figure. I don’t know what syringes and prescription drugs have to do with each other, but the syringes look very similar to the one found by Valerie, they are manufactured in Spain which is unusual,” Mathew said. “We also found a vial of a substance that is being tested and compared to Valerie’s autopsy. Possibly the sodium nitrate and nitrite.

  “Really,” I said with my eyes bugging out in hope.

  “Yes, now there is no way to say for sure. The syringes must go to the lab, and we will try to make a match-up. We know that these guys have a middleman here on the keys to pass the drugs onto. We are going to try to make them talk, but we don’t know. My suspicion is that they know something about Valerie,” he said.

  “How so?” I said.

  “Because I was taking a look at the pictures the guys took of the inside of the boat, and I saw a picture of Valerie,” Mathew said.

  “No way,” I said.

  “Yes, so now we can open Valerie’s case as a murder committed by someone other than David. He is not out of the woods yet. He could be a conspirator,” he said.

  “Wow, so I think we are getting closer to the murderers. Who knows, maybe those two guys you caught did it. I find it hard to believe David had anything to do with this, but I know you have to do your job,” I said.

  “Yeah, but why would they kill Valerie, though. They are just no nothing drug smugglers. There must be others involved. I want to know who they are working for,” he said.

  “Yes, whoever that person is, may know who killed Valerie,” I said.

  “We are looking into all of this. I hope to come up with answers soon, so we can let David out of jail,” he said.

  “Oh my god, that would be so great,” I said. I hugged Mathew again. I quickly retracted realizing we had been doing this a lot lately. Mathew was just smiling. Maybe Angela was right about initiating the physical. What was I thinking? Do I like Mathew? Have I been blind all this time?

  “I have to find concrete evidence and as soon as I can, I will let him out. I just don’t know how his fingerprints got on the syringe. He is not off the hook yet,” Mathew said.

  I felt real hope for the first time in a long time.

  “Why do people murder these days. Why can’t people just walk away?” I said.

  “Murder is just in some people’s nature, just like being really kind is in other’s nature. It is up to us as civilized human beings to decide which natural part of us to override and which one to control,” Matt said.

  “ That is pretty deep there officer, can I come back to earth and temp you to help us with an order for Mrs. Dalefort,” I said.

  “Oh, wow do you hear that. I think it is dispatch calling they need me in town,” he said.

  “Oh, how convenient,” I said.

  “Yeah, I’ll catch you later, we can do lunch or a drink or something soon,” he said smiling and running down the aisle in the greenhouse towards the door. I just shook my head.

  Chapter Forty-One

  I told Mitch I would take the boxes over to Mrs. Dalefort place. She was having another get together and wanted more organic vegetables. I was proud of her. She got her helpers to order online. I was happy customers sometimes did listen to me.

  I was let into the delivery entrance. I asked to speak with Mrs. Dalefort for a couple of questions. They said she was in the sunroom and to go right in. I walked through the house. It was a beauty. I had been there maybe once before. The Dalefort’s were not in my social circle nor was I in theirs, but they certainly had good taste.

  I went into the sunroom and looked around.

  “Mrs. Dalefort,” I called out. No answer. I fell backward and almost fainted at the sight of her. Mrs. Dalefort was tied to a chair with blood coming from her mouth. Her face was red and had fresh bruises on it.

  I ran over to her. I grabbed her arm for a pulse. I also ran my hand in front of her mouth to feel for any breath. Relieved, I felt a weak pulse and breath on my hand. I immediately called for help in the house. I also got out my phone and called 911.

  She had a note attached to her face with her earring. It said, “Keep going or she’ll be dead.” I thought to myself, now I have the concrete evidence there is someone nasty creeping about Marina Key.

  I looked around to see if there were any clues to who was causing all this trouble. The door from the sunroom out to the pool was open slightly. I walked over to the door and looked out. There was a boat in the distance spee
ding away.

  “I have called the police,” I said to one of her helpers as I was coming back into the room not able to look at the gruesome vision. “Let’s maybe get out of here until the cops come.” Everyone agreed and we all went into the hall. The house was abuzz.

  “I will have to phone Mr. Dalefort, said the main house assistant, Robert, “he is on the way from Ft. Lauderdale in the seaplane for the party and oh, I better phone Blake.” Everybody started asking, “What do we do?”

  “Look, just go ahead and keep working as if there is a party tonight. Mr. Dalefort will give everyone further instruction when he calls or gets here,” he said.

  “Okay, that sounds good,” said one of the help. Everybody seemed to be a bit relieved of knowing they had something to focus on.

  I looked around at the different people seeing if there was anybody acting strange. Most of them seemed distraught. I had fairly sure that the killer was not here. This meant one thing. David was almost off the hook.

  I could hear the rush of the police and EMT coming from the front of the house. Thankfully with Marina Key being small it did not take the police long to get to a residence.

  “Felicity, would you look at that,” said Mathew but with slight jest,” at another scene of a crime.

  “Hi Mathew, now do you believe me that there is a murderer on the loose. Something is not right?”

  “I’ll let you know when I take a look, but between the DEA info and this, there is something not right on Marina Key and the Dalefort’s are involved in some way,” he said. He walked by me motioning to the door to the sunroom seeing if that is the room. I nodded. He walked in and stopped in his tracks and then moved toward Mrs. Dalefort.

  The other cops and EMT went into the sunroom. I stayed in the hall. I would have rather left, but I am sure they were going to want to talk to me.

  “Make sure to round up the staff and question everyone about anything they saw,” Mathew instructed his crew.

  “Felicity, I am going to need to question you of course,” he yelled from inside the sunroom.

  “Mathew, I’m thinking a connection here with Valerie?” I said.

  Mathew looked at me and walked over to the EMT’s and started talking with them. They were loading Mrs. Dalefort onto a gurney so they could take her to the hospital for further tests. She was just unconscious but breathing fine. The breathing was a good sign.

  “Mathew,” I said. He stopped talking and glanced at me.

  “Ah, when you have a second, I remembered something.”

  “Okay, I will be out there in a second.”

  “Okay,” I closed the door. Surprisingly, the door opened again.

  “I am listening,” he said.

  “I just heard a speed boat close from here speeding away, not long after I found Mrs. Dalefort?”

  “Shoot really, why did you not say,” he said and started dialing on the phone. I did wish I had said something right away, but this whole situation is getting more shocking.

  “Thank you, We’ll call you if we need anything further.

  “You’re welcome, oh and maybe Blake has some information about this,” I said. I turned around and walked away. I felt him looking at me. It thought maybe this could work out.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  I had to find Blake and talk to him about his mom. He had been missing for a couple of days. He was supposed to show up at the police station and give information to the police to help find out who assaulted her.

  I was doing my morning rounds of turning on the watering system and checking for leaks or anything awry. I also needed to check the integrity of the plants to catch any grubs and bugs that decided to snack on the plants. We use amaranth around the farm, so all the pests gravitate to those plants.

  I thought about all the places that Blake might have gone. He could have easily gone up to their family home in the Carolinas or their main compound in Ohio. I gave a call to Blake’s fishing boat and they said Blake had taken a couple of days off to help his mother and recollect himself. This was totally understandable.

  I decided to drive by Mrs. Dalefort’s house and see how she was doing. I thought I would bring some flowers. If Blake were there, I could see if I could find out any information from him and urge him to help the police with the case.

  I went to the section of the farm where I grew tropical flowers. I cut the most beautiful bouquet I could find of. I went into the house and found a designer box to put them into.

  I placed foam in the box to stick the flower’s stems into the foam. I wrapped a bow around the box and thought I did not do a half bad job. I referenced pictures on the internet to make sure the bouquet was worthy of the professional flower experts.

  I got cleaned up and headed over to Mrs. Dalefort’s house. I would’ve normally called before going, but if Blake was there, a call might make Blake take off. He seemed as if he didn’t want to be found right now. I needed to find him.

  I drove into the driveway of the Dalefort Estate. The home was beautiful every time I saw it. I saw some movement around the side of the house. I drove up so I could see who it was. Blake was getting into his Range Rover.

  I parked my car to block him from backing up. I ran out of my car with the bouquet.

  “Blake, hi,” I said a bit obnoxiously. I could see him not incredibly happy in the driver seat. He was staring straight ahead. I knocked on the window lightly. He paused for a second and then rolled down the window. He had a weak smile on his face.

  “Hi Felicity, what are you doing here?” he said.

  “I just came by to give your mom some flowers. How is she doing? “I said.

  “She is doing better, thank you,” he said.

  “I feel so bad that she had to go through all that,” I said.

  “Yeah me too. Um, you can knock on the door and she might be up for visitors or Robert will take the flowers and make sure my mom gets them.”

  “Thank you, um how are you doing with all this?” I said.

  “I am very concerned,” he said,” I mean why would anyone want hurt my mother?”

  “Um, Blake is there a reason why you have not gone to the police?” I said.

  “I don’t think that is any of your business, is this why you are coming up on me like this?” he said.

  “No, no, listen,” I said, “I am fairly sure my farm manager is innocent in Valerie’s death. Little details have been mounting and somehow, they are ending back up to you. If you know things to help this case, you have to come clean, unless you’re the one who did it and your hiding something.”

  “I would never hurt Valerie intentionally,” he said.

  “Intentionally, what does that mean?” I said, “Then who would. You can tell me info that you do not want to tell the police. If you don’t want to be involved. You still need to give them a statement since that note attached to your mom was directed to you?”

  “I don’t know anything about her death. I promise.” The only thing I will tell you is that yes, I was in a relationship with her. Yes, we were seeing each other, okay, but we had to do it in secret. I am hurting so bad since she died. She is the only woman I have ever loved. She loved me too,” he finally reveled and took a big exhale.

  “Okay, okay, I am sorry,” I said, “but why would you have to keep your relationship a secret you are two grown adults?”

  “That is something you would have to ask Valerie, but she is not here so we will never know. She would not tell me why either. When you saw us arguing in the parking lot that day, that is what we were arguing about. I was asking why we couldn’t just be out in public as a couple.”

  “What did she say?” I said.

  “She said she could not tell me, I thought maybe she was sleeping with someone in town or more than one person. Maybe she was sleeping with my dad. I don’t know. We never got to finish our conversation. Listen, I must go. I don’t feel good,” he said holding his stomach.

  “Blake, please even just let the police know you do
n’t know anything. This way they won’t think you are hiding something,” I said.

  “Yeah, your right. I just don’t want them digging around where they shouldn’t,” he said.

  “Let them do their job. The process of elimination will help them find the killer,” I said. He tensed up a bit.

  “Okay I will drive over now and give a statement,” he said.

  “That’s a good idea. I promise you will feel better. Quick question? I said.

  “Now what?

  “Do you know a man named Caleb from Puerto Rico?

  Blake tensed again, “No why?” he said.

  “Valerie knew him from childhood. He seems like a genuinely nice man, but I feel there is more to him. You are sure Valerie never mentioned him?” I said.

  “I never heard of him, sorry. If she did, I probably was not paying attention?” he said.

  “Okay, well, I don’t know I am just trying to think of everything I can to try to help the police in finding the murderer. I’ll just go leave these with Rocco. Thanks for talking with me. I hope you feel better soon. I really do.”

  “Thanks. See you around,” he said.

  “K, bye.” I walked out of the way and moved my car so he could back-up. Blake looked sullen in the driver side seat as he drove away.

  I walked up to the front door of Mrs. Dalefort’s house from the driveway and grabbed the big brass pineapple door knocker.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  The Marina Key police station was located a few blocks west of main street. The jail was also in the same building. A small beach and a park were next to the station. There was not a lot of beach space in the keys, so we took advantage when we could.

  I parked in the station parking lot but noticed two Coral Key’s ambulances in front of the station. It was certainly curious as many times the people in the jails were the ones putting other people in the ambulances.

  I walked through a group of people to get a better look at was going on. I came to visit David to see how he was doing and to bring the police officers cookies and donuts from the Marina Bakery now taken over by a new owner. Once I got the cops buttered up, I was able to get some baked goods into David.