by Emmie Lyn
“Something like that. He was hoping that might solve his problem. It was his idea to transfer money to an account in my name, so he didn’t lose everything if things went off the rails. I was only trying to help, but now I’m afraid whoever killed Ray might be after me next.” She dropped her face into her hands. “I don’t know what to do. I’m sure the police will want to question me, right?” When Lily looked up at me, her eyes were filled with a heartbreaking mixture of fear and sadness.
I had to tell her the truth. “AJ was adamant about needing to talk to you. He knows about the money transfer, too. But you have an alibi, Lily. You were with me the whole time.”
She quirked her eyebrows and then said, disheartened, “Until I ran out the front door after we found Ray’s body.”
I gave her snarky grin. “Right. Thanks for leaving me with that mess, but in hindsight, you did the right thing.” I tapped my nails on the arm of the chair, trying to come up with a plan. “First, we need to find out who was at the fake funeral. Maybe someone there followed Ray to the diner while we were upstairs. Someone who saw how upset you were and figured they could frame you.”
That idea put some color back in her cheeks, and Lily smiled at me. “You really are my best friend, but I don’t want to put you in danger, too.”
“Danger and Dani do not go together. I’ll look danger right in the eye and shoo it away.”
Lily laughed, which helped to lighten the whole difficult situation. The way I saw it, if I didn’t help Lily, who would? “So, you know Ray’s family and friends better than I do. Any suspects you can think of?”
“Well, his sister wasn’t happy about us getting back together. She wanted a part of the business, and she always resented everything about me.”
“Okay, anyone else?”
Lily tapped her finger against her lips. “You know that Ray owns the Two Wilde Funeral Home building, but you probably didn’t know that the two brothers, Frank and Nick, have been trying to buy it from him for, like, forever. I never heard that it was moving forward.”
“Speaking of them, why did they ever agree to this fake funeral? The whole idea was such a strange thing, and wouldn’t it be a blemish on their business?”
“Good question. I never asked Ray about that.” A smirk grew on her face. “I’d say we need to make a visit to Frank and Nick with some questions of our own and see how uncomfortable they are. Since I have a real funeral to plan, a visit won’t even look suspicious.”
“You’re taking Ray’s death really well, Lil. Considering you were thinking about a reconciliation, I thought you’d be more upset.”
“Part of me already saw him as dead because of the whole fake funeral thing and reality hasn’t hit me yet, I guess. My feelings for Ray have been all over the place.” She gazed out at the ocean before she spoke again. “I wouldn’t say this to anyone but you, Dani, but in a way, it’s easier for me with Ray dead. I don’t have to wonder whether I want to try to repair our difficult relationship … or wonder if he would cheat on me again if we did get back together.”
“I understand completely and no matter what, Lil, you’ll come through this one way or another.” I stood up and stretched my arms over my head, twisting my back from side to side to loosen up the stiff muscles. “Now, I’m going into Rose’s kitchen to whip up a big batch of blueberry coffee cake. It never hurts to have a tasty bribe when popping in unexpectedly on possible murder suspects. And while I’m taking care of that, you’d better head over to the police station and get AJ off your trail. There’s plenty for him to dig into around Ray’s business dealings instead of worrying about whether you smashed Ray over the head.”
All was good; I had my best friend back. As we headed into the cool house, arm in arm, a little voice in my head said, I hope nothing else comes along to spoil my life.
Then we heard voices and I stopped Lily from going any farther. “Who’s Rose talking to?” I asked.
We could hear the faint murmur of Rose’s voice and a deeper, male voice. Pip’s nails clicked on the tiles as she dashed over and jumped on my legs. I picked her up. Rose had changed her pink bow to purple, her favorite color, but Pip didn’t seem to care as she licked my chin.
“There you two are.” Rose followed Pip’s route with Detective AJ Crenshaw four steps behind.
“Look who dropped by,” she said with a roll of her eyes, which only Lily and I could see. “Dani and Lily just finished lunch. Do you want to sit in my living room to talk with the girls? I can make some iced tea in two shakes of a lemon. They’ve had an extremely difficult morning so I’m sure you won’t upset them anymore, Detective.”
Rose held her arm out and more or less herded us like kids into her enormous living room—a subtle reminder of her wealth and influence in town. Maybe that was her understated way of telling AJ to be nice to us.
Rose was not a woman to be messed with. She had roots that went back generations, maybe even to the Mayflower, and more real estate in her name than anyone else in town. She usually liked to fly under the radar, but if she needed to remind the detective about her influence in order to protect Lily or me, she wouldn’t hesitate.
I wanted to hug her, but that would have to wait until AJ left.
Rose fluttered around like a mother hen, a bossy hen who wanted everything her way. She told each of us where to sit, choosing the softest, lowest chair for AJ, which made him sink below both Lily and me on the firmer loveseat. I chuckled to myself at her deviousness.
“I’ll be right back,” she said in a singsong voice that almost made me gag. I hoped she wasn’t slathering the fake charm on too thick.
AJ shifted around on the soft cushion, but the more he moved, the more it swallowed up his lower half. His knees were at least six inches higher than his butt, and he looked really uncomfortable. He opened a notebook and clicked a ballpoint pen. “Tell me exactly what happened this morning,” he said, trying to insert some authority into his voice.
“Where should we start?” I asked. “From the moment I got out of bed?” With Lily’s leg crammed next to mine, I couldn’t miss her slight jiggle.
“That won’t be necessary, Danielle. How about starting with you walking into the diner.”
I shifted forward like I had an exciting story to tell. I guess in a way, I did, except for the ending. “Well, after the shock of seeing Ray alive at his fake funeral,” I glanced quickly at Lily, “we left the funeral home and drove to the Little Dog Diner. I grabbed a bottle of my blueberry cordial thinking, if what we’d just witnessed wasn’t a good reason to have a sip at ten in the morning, well then, I had no idea what would warrant it.”
AJ stuck his pen behind his ear. “Blueberry cordial, huh? Was Ray in the diner then?”
“Of course not! As far as we knew, he was still at the funeral home. We were the first ones out of there when Ray rose up from the dead, or so it seemed.” I pointed at AJ. “Maybe you should be asking Frank and Nick Wilde why on earth they ever agreed to that foolish stunt.”
“Thank you for the suggestion, Danielle, but I’m here to talk to the two of you. You were in the diner with your drink of blueberry cordial. When did Ray arrive?” He pulled his pen out of his hair like some sort of magician.
“You’ve got that wrong, AJ.”
He raised his eyebrows. “That’s what you just told me.”
“No, I said I grabbed a bottle of blueberry cordial, but I never said we drank it in the diner.”
“Where did you drink it?” The frustration in his voice indicated he was just about to boil over. I had to admit, this was kind of fun.
“We went upstairs to my apartment. I live on the second floor of Rose’s historic building. You know, above the Blueberry Bay Grapevine.” Of course, he knew. Everyone in town knew I worked at the diner and lived above Rose’s office. “We had a drink and changed out of those awful black outfits we’d been wearing for Ray’s fake funeral.” I turned to Lily. “It’s kind of ironic, but now you’ll have to plan a real funeral
for him.”
“Danielle?” AJ said to get my attention. “You called in the emergency. When did you find Ray’s body?”
“After Lily and I changed, Ray texted Lily to meet her at the diner.” I shrugged. “Who knows what that was about, but she said she would meet him, so together we went downstairs.”
“You two stayed together the whole time?”
I was sure he thought he had me in some sort of lie. “We stayed together until after we discovered Ray’s body. Remember? I told you I went outside to throw up in the bushes and when I came back inside, Lily was gone.”
AJ finally decided he had something worthwhile to scribble in his notebook.
Rose returned with a tray of iced tea and set it on the table between his chair and our loveseat. “Here you go, AJ.” She handed him a glass that was dripping with condensation.
It slipped through his fingers and soaked his, well, you can imagine! It was all I could do to keep from laughing. Rose, calmly, wiped his pants. I had to excuse myself to go to the bathroom, tugging Lily along with me.
As soon as the door was closed, we both fell against the door with tears streaming down our cheeks we were laughing so hard. “Did you see his face?” I managed to ask. “I thought he was going to pull out his gun and shoot Rose.”
“Or you.” Lily grabbed the hand towel and wiped the tears off her cheeks. “Oh, man. I couldn’t have planned that any better. We’d better get back out there and finish the story so he can get some dry pants on.”
Solemnly, we walked back to the living room and sat across from AJ. Pages from his notebook were spread across the coffee table. Apparently, his pants weren’t the only thing that got soaked.
“Lily?” AJ asked as if nothing embarrassing had just happened. “Where did you go after Danielle went outside to throw up?”
I squeezed her hand to transfer some confidence. “Tell him, Lily. Tell him how you were afraid your life might be in danger.”
“Danielle! Don’t coach her. I want Lily to tell me what happened.”
“Sorry. It’s just that this has been extremely difficult for Lily.”
“When I saw Ray on the floor, I panicked. I ran out the front door, got in my car, and drove around. Ray had told me that he had some shady clients and my first thought was that someone followed him and, well, killed him. I was afraid they might come after me next.” Lily wiped a tear from her eye.
Good acting, I thought; or was it real?
“Because of the money transfer?” AJ asked.
“That’s what I was thinking.”
AJ closed his notebook and carefully gathered all the wet pages from the coffee table. “Do you know who that client was?”
Lily shook her head. “I wish I did. It would be easier to protect myself.”
I wrapped my arm around her trembling shoulders. For all her bravado she was really scared which made me scared for her. And angry.
Pip jumped into my lap. Now I had Pip and Lily to protect.
What were friends for?
Chapter Eight
Tuesday morning rolled around with me snug in Rose’s luxurious guest room. She’d turned my old bedroom into a library, but I didn’t miss it as this room had a better view. She made it clear that I wasn’t going to stay alone in my apartment so close to a murder scene. The smell of the sea drifted through the open window.
Gazing out the window, across the bay at the bobbing sailboats and morning lobstermen checking their traps, I vowed to myself to dig into this crazy, mixed-up murder. The Little Dog Diner was my future, and I didn’t plan to sit still until it was up and running again serving breakfast sandwiches and coffee cake to all the locals.
By the time I padded downstairs, I found Rose nestled on the love seat. It was no surprise to find her there since her routine was up and at ‘em by four-thirty to watch the sun rise over Blueberry Bay while enjoying a strong cup of hazelnut coffee.
“How did you sleep?” she asked me when I shuffled in at the more normal hour of seven.
Pip, curled up in Rose’s lap, was the vision of contentment. She lifted her head and did a funny twitch with her lips, which almost looked like a smile. It hadn’t taken her long to make herself right at home.
I wandered to the front window to get my dose of the view. “Your guest room has the best bed I’ve ever slept in and the quiet here is like a soft down comforter. With the steady sound of the waves coming around the point, I drifted off to sleep and slept better than I have in a long time.”
“That is a benefit of this spot. Nothing like a steady rhythm to soothe and calm your mind.” She held up her mug towards me. “There’s coffee in the kitchen, and you can get me a refill while you’re at it. Or, if you’re hungry we could get breakfast.”
I stayed put in front of the window letting my eyes feast on the view. “Do you ever get tired of this?” I asked Rose, ignoring, for the moment, her beverage and food suggestion.
“Never. Having the ocean as a reminder of something bigger, more powerful, and constant is what keeps me humble. I start my day with that view and know that no matter what happens, the ocean will always be there to bring beauty into my life. It’s why I could never move away from this spot.”
“Unlike my mother,” I said. I wasn’t exactly upset, but I never did understand my mother’s need to get away from Blueberry Bay.
“We all make the choices that work for us, Dani. Are you happy here?”
I turned around and sat on the sofa with Rose, folding my legs under me. “I’m like you. I love this town, this bay, everything here, and because of all that, I have to make sure nothing happens to Lily. I’m worried about her.”
“I know you are. She made a bad decision when she took that money from Ray. I don’t know if she fully understands who he was dealing with.”
This comment startled me. “Do you?” Rose knew so much of what went on in Misty Harbor, but did she know the ins and outs of Ray’s real estate business, too?
“I don’t know all the details, but what I do know is that Ray Lemay made too many bad investments, which put him in financial trouble. And when someone is desperate, they do stupid things. I think Ray’s bad choices got him killed.” She reached over and gripped my hand with her strong fingers. “Don’t go doing anything stupid, Dani. Don’t get yourself into trouble or make yourself a target for the bad folks around here.”
Her strength traveled up my arm. The concern in her voice warmed my heart and the last thing I wanted to do was worry Rose. “Actually, my plan is to make an extra rich blueberry coffee cake. I think a sweet offering to the Wilde brothers might help when I go with Lily to discuss the real funeral for Ray.”
What I didn’t tell her was that I hoped to find out more about the fake funeral.
Rose laughed. “Don’t think you can fool me, missy. I wasn’t born yesterday. Your sweet offering is nothing more than a bribe in exchange for answers.” She stretched out her legs, Pip jumped off her lap, and Rose stood up. “Let’s get that coffee and think about how we can help Lily.”
“I expect her to show up any time for coffee and breakfast.”
“Perfect.” Rose led the way into her kitchen, aglow with the morning sun streaming through her windows. A rainbow danced across the floor as light reflected off a crystal hanging in the window. Wind chimes tinkled outside, a dainty reminder of the almost constant ocean breeze, gentle this morning, but capable of changing quickly, just like life.
Rose filled her coffee mug with the last of what was in the pot. “I’ll make a fresh pot since we’re expecting company.”
“Do you mind if I take a quick jog on the beach? It’s just too inviting to ignore.”
Rose shooed me out the door. “Enjoy yourself. Don’t forget that you left a couple changes of clothes here for an unexpected visit. Smart planning ahead.” She grinned at me, especially since it had been Rose’s idea to do this smart planning ahead. She never let me forget anything.
Pip trotted behind me like a little shad
ow. I assumed she was not keen on being left behind or being left alone. That worked for me. “Come on, Pip. The fresh air will do you good, too.”
“Wait a minute.” Rose rushed over and tied a purple tie-dyed bandana around Pip’s neck. “There you go. Now you have your own special running gear, too.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle as I took the stairs two at a time to make a quick change.
With dark blue running shorts and a white tank top on, I sat on the edge of the bed to tie my running shoes. “Ready, Pipster?”
In reply, she rewarded me with a high-pitched yip. I shook my head at the thought that this little pipsqueak understood a lot more than she probably got credit for. She was one smart little terrier, and I thanked my lucky stars that whoever did Ray in, hadn’t hurt this adorable girl.
Once we were outside on the patio, I did a few stretches and lunges to warm up my muscles, then we slow jogged down the wooden steps that led to a narrow strip of beach in front of Sea Breeze. Well, I slow jogged, but Pip raced ahead, barely letting her feet touch the sand on her way to the edge of the water, barking at the waves, but quickly retreating to avoid getting her feet wet.
Seagulls and sandpipers darted ahead of us or took off into the blue sky. I sucked in a lungful of invigorating salty air and let my legs carry me across the sand. “Come on Pip. We should have the beach to ourselves at this time of the morning.”
She raced ahead of me with yips and yaps at the birds that brazenly teased her. They seemed to know that this little dog had no chance of catching them.
My ponytail flapped against my neck with each stride and my immediate world synced into one rhythm—my breathing, my legs, and the waves—as my feet seemed to float down the beach. I let myself focus completely on my motion.
Until Pip sprinted ahead with a different bark that I was unfamiliar with. She meant business.
A hundred yards or so in front of us, a statue-like figure caught my attention. As I drew closer, the person moved from one pose to another. Yoga on the beach? I was intrigued. Pip wasn’t and she was too far ahead of me to catch her before she leaped through the air, hitting the woman hard enough to knock her backwards onto the sand.