Cloudy with a Chance of Ghosts (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 4) Read online

  Chapter Seven

  Bebe went out the back door and someone rang at the front door not two minutes later. I was surprised to find Celinda on my front doorstep, looking harried.

  “Celinda! What a surprise.”

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “Come on in. Would you like….?”

  “Nothing, no, thanks. I…I just need to get a few things straight with you and your friend.”

  “Well, Jill’s not here but I’m available.”

  We sat in the living room, each sitting stiffly on the edge of our separate chairs. The tension was thick and we gazed at each other warily. I was on tenterhooks wondering what she was going to say.

  “So,” I began. “Do you know something about Keri’s murder? Do you know who did it?”

  She shrugged and looked annoyed. “I assume the police know what they’re doing. Haven’t they arrested Jagger?”

  “Detained, not arrested.”

  Her hazel eyes narrowed. “Are you sure about that?”

  Actually, I wasn’t, so I ignored her question and moved on. “What can I help you with, Celinda?”

  She bit her lip for a moment, as if assessing what she wanted to say, then she blurted out, “Have you talked to Carlton? I can’t get hold of him. I went to the house, but the guard wouldn’t let me in. He’s not taking phone calls. I tried email and texting, but no replies. I’m at my wit’s end. I have to speak to him.”

  I stared at her, bemused. “Why would you think that I had a special connection to Carlton?”

  “I could see he was…amused by you yesterday. I thought maybe…”

  I was shaking my head. “Nope,” I said. “Sorry. Wrong number.”

  “Oh.” She looked genuinely distressed. “I’ve got to get to him. You know he’s scheduled to announce the winner of the Carlton Group Award on Wednesday. The rumor is…” She winced. “They say it’s going to be Jagger. And that’s just not fair. And now, if it turns out Jagger did kill that Keri woman, giving him the award would be such a huge mistake. I’ve got to talk to Carlton and make him see that.”

  “So you know Jagger pretty well and you’re ready to believe he could have done this awful thing.”

  She blinked and it was clear she wasn’t even thinking along those lines. She just wanted to make sure Jagger didn’t get something she thought she ought to have.

  “Well sure. If the police think so….”

  “But what do you think? What would be his motive?”

  “His motive? Who knows? The guy is sort of free-spirited, you know what I mean? Here today, gone tomorrow. You can’t count on him.”

  “Yes, but why would he kill Keri? What would he gain from that?”

  She blinked again. “I don’t know. Maybe he was doing a favor for Carlton, getting rid of a nuisance. Not that I think Carlton had anything to do with it,” she added quickly.

  “Right.”

  “But to give him an award would be criminal in and of itself,” she declared. “He doesn’t deserve it!”

  I had a feeling I might know where this was going. “Who do you think deserves the award?”

  She flushed. “Listen, I’ve worked harder than anyone to get the Carlton Group organized and off the ground. I was there doing all the grunt work from the beginning. I’m the one who showed Jagger the ropes when he first joined. He didn’t have a clue about marketing his work until I taught him how. And my paintings are selling a hell of a lot better than his. There’s no way he should get that award. Don’t you see that?”

  “And you just want to remind Carlton of all this?”

  “Exactly.”

  I nodded, pretending sympathy. “I might be able to help you,” I said, making it up as I went along. “I’m hoping to have a meeting with Carlton tomorrow. If you like, I could try to let him know that you need to speak to him.” I gave her a smile. “Write down your number for me, just in case.”

  “Oh. Oh that’s great.” She began to rummage in her bag for paper and a pencil.

  “In the meantime, you can help me with something,” I said.

  “What’s that?”

  “You can tell me just what you were doing wandering around in the lower orchard yesterday afternoon when Keri was being killed.”

  She stopped rummaging and stared at me. “I wasn’t the only one,” she said, sounding defensive. “Jagger was down there too. And Marilee.”

  “Marilee?” That was the first I’d heard that.

  She nodded. “I actually spoke to Keri, warning her about a steep part of the hill. It looks benign, but when you step out onto it, your feet can shoot out from under you and the next thing you know, you’re hurtling down toward the ocean.”

  She said it with the emotion of one who might have experienced that hurtle herself in the past.

  “I pointed out where it was and she turned back to go another way.”

  “To go where?”

  “To meet someone, I think. I’m not sure, but once she was out of sight, just as I was turning back, I heard her speak to someone else.” She shivered. “I wonder if it was the person who killed her?”

  “Was it a man or a woman?”

  She hesitated. “Well, it sounded like a woman, but it might have been Jagger.”

  “Right.”

  Okay, it was obvious she couldn’t be trusted. “Could it have been Marilee?”

  “I don’t think so. When I saw her, she was headed back up to the house.”

  “Yes, but when was that?”

  She thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I’m not really sure. I didn’t pay much attention to her at the time. I had other things on my mind.”

  We talked a bit more but nothing new came up, and I was glad when she left me to my own thoughts again. The things Bebe had told me about my mother hovered just at the outside of my attention and I didn’t want to deal with all that right now. There would be time to think about that later. Right now, I had a murder to solve.

  Jill was back a few minutes later, truck and all.

  “Problem,” she announced when I went out to meet her. “Jagger isn’t out yet and I really have nowhere to keep these paintings safe. Could we store the whole thing, truck and all, in your car barn?”

  I hesitated, wondering just how safe that would be, but in the end, we didn’t have much choice in the matter. And after all, nobody knew those paintings were in the truck. So even if Celinda wanted to come set them on fire—and I had no evidence that she would ever do anything so evil—she wouldn’t know where they were.

  “Sure,” I said, and helped her maneuver into the parking spot where the truck belonged, then made sure the whole place was locked up tight with a brand new padlock hanging on the door handle.

  “Do you know when they’re going to release him?” I asked as we walked back to the house.

  “No.” Her voice sounded a little shaky. “I thought…. Well, it shouldn’t be too long now. Your guy--Roy--he let me talk to Jagger for a few minutes.” She turned to look at me earnestly. “He swore up and down that he didn’t kill her.”

  I nodded, thinking. “But he would say that, wouldn’t he?”

  Outrage filled her eyes. “I believe him. If you don’t….”

  “No, no.” I put my hand on her arm. “It’s not that I don’t believe him. It’s that we need proof!”

  She calmed down and nodded. We were in front of the house, standing where the sweet peas were blooming like popcorn popping—riotous color all over the place. I loved it out here with the crazy birdhouses, each painted a different color, all up and down the fence.

  “I realize that,” she was saying. “But there’s something you should know.” She leaned next to a birdhouse and grimaced before she went on, painfully. “He didn’t tell the whole truth. Not at first.”

  I stared at her. “What whole truth?”

  “This.” She took a deep breath. “His last encounter with Keri wasn’t quite like what he’d said. She didn’t ask him to hold her purse.”


  I let out a breath. “Good. I never did get that anyway.”

  “He saw her going down to the orchard. She had the notebook in one hand and her purse in the other. She was hurrying and he saw her jam the purse under her arm and push aside branches with her free hand to get into an overgrown area. But at the same time, the purse slipped out from under her arm and fell to the ground, and she didn’t seem to notice it. She just went on.”

  An “ah ha!” light went off in my little brain. “So he went down and picked it up.”

  “Yes. And when he got to the spot, he heard her talking to someone in among the trees, arguing, really, but he couldn’t tell who it was. He did say it sounded like a woman.”

  “So it could have been Celinda or Marilee.”

  “Marilee?”

  I nodded. “I’ve just been talking to Celinda. She told me Marilee was wandering down there in the orchard around the time of the murder. We have to add her to our list. It might have been her.”

  Jill sighed. “Or maybe some other woman we didn’t even know was there.”

  “Possibly. But for now, let’s stick to what we know.”

  “Okay. Anyway, I guess we should talk to them both. Starting with Marilee.” She sighed. “But why would she agree to talk to us?”

  “I don’t know, but we have to try.” I frowned.

  “Okay boss. What do we do next?”

  I looked at the time and couldn’t believe it was already so late. Bebe hadn’t come back, but then, I’d told her I wouldn’t necessarily be around for dinner, so she probably made other plans.

  “We need to go talk to Marilee.”

  “Okay.”

  “Now if I could only think of a good way of finding out where she lives.”

  Jill whipped a paper out of her bag. “Will this do? I’ve got the addresses of everyone involved in the Art Show.”

  “Genius!” I cried, taking it from her. “You’re worth your weight in…” I couldn’t think of anything valuable enough.

  “Cadbury eggs?” she suggested. “I’ve been snacking on them endlessly ever since Easter came and went. I’m pretty much 90% Cadbury Eggs by now.”

  “There are worse things you could be made of,” I murmured, scanning the list. “Here we go. The Newberry Arms Condominiums on South Shore. Number 231.”

  “Listen, before we do that, I need to go by my coffee shop and see how things are going without me.”

  “Let’s do that, then. We can pick up something to eat on the way.”

  “No need. I’m trying out a new line of paninis. You can help taste test them.”

  “Yummy.”

  And they were. Light and crispy on the outside, melted cheese and warm meat on the inside—really special. I’m sure Jill’s going to have a hit on her hands.

  The only downside of our stop at her coffee shop, Mad For Mocha, was the fact that the newspaper reporter from the art show, Vince Bianchi, was there savoring a huge frappe-chocolata that looked big enough to swim in.

  He saw us enter and he leapt to his feet, eyes bright with the triumph of the hunt.

  “I’ve been looking for you guys everywhere,” he said, beaming at us. “You’ve gotta give me a scoop.”

  “No ice cream here,” Jill quipped, rolling her eyes. She was more liberal with that gesture than I let myself be. “Better go down the street to McConnell’s.”

  “No, not that kind of scoop,” he said, as though he seriously thought she didn’t know. “That’s what we call fresh and unique information on a case being covered by the press.”

  “No kidding.” I could tell that Jill was on the verge of sticking her tongue out at the guy, but I quickly intervened.

  “Listen, Vince. We have no scoops. We know nothing more than you do. In fact, being from the newspaper, you probably know a heck of a lot more.”

  Of course, in reality, I wouldn’t have told him anything if I did have any special or secret information. I mean, why would I? What good would it do anyone else in this world? But having him around did cramp our style and we took too long having our paninis.

  It was almost two hours later when we piled back into my car and started toward Marilee’s. Jill had been trying to get hold of Jagger with no success. Even her call directly to the station house had been shuffled around to no avail. She was complaining about that when we caught sight of Ginny Genera, a chronic marathoner who trained daily in all the byways of our town.

  “Hey, let’s talk to Ginny,” I said. “She knows everything that’s going on around here. Maybe she’ll have some insights.”

  We pulled up beside her and called out greetings. She didn’t stop running, but she made running in place seem effortless. She didn’t look happy to see that Jill was with me and we soon knew why.

  “Okay, here’s the latest I’ve heard,” she said. “Jill, cover your ears if you don’t want to hear this. You’re not going to like it.”

  Jill went pale and swallowed hard. “Go on,” she said bravely.

  “Jagger was released a little after noon.”

  “What?”

  “But get this. The police are trying to track him down again. They now have an eyewitness who says he did it.”

  We both sat in stunned silence.

  “Who is it?” I asked at last.

  Ginny made a face. “Marilee Jeffers. I think you know her.”

  I groaned. “Oh yes. We know her well. She actually claims she saw Jagger do it?”

  Ginny nodded. “So I hear. Of course, she could be lying. She could be covering up for someone else. Who knows?”

  I glanced at Jill. She didn’t say anything but she looked more miserable than I’d ever seen her before. I looked back at Ginny and thanked her for the info.

  “We’re on our way over to see Marilee right now,” I said. “Catch up with you later.”

  She waved us off and we headed for the highway.

  “Does she know everybody?” Jill asked in a small, sad voice.

  “Everybody,” I said. “She’s a major resource in this town.”

  “I guess we’re lucky she’s on our side.” She turned and looked at me with tragedy blurring her beautiful blue eyes. “Mele, I’m beginning to lose faith.”

  “In Jagger?”

  She nodded. “If he’s been out all afternoon, where is he? Why doesn’t he call me?”

  I wished with all my heart that I had something I could say that would make her feel better. But right now, I couldn’t think of a thing.

  “We are going to go see Marilee and find out what the heck is going on,” was the best I could do.

  “Shouldn’t we just tell the police that…”

  “What? That we disagree with them? That we think Jagger is innocent? Sure, we can tell them that. Just as soon as we have some proof as backup.”

  “Oh.”

  “And that’s why we have to go have a talk with Marilee. She claims to be an eyewitness to a murder. We have to find out what she knows and see if we can tell if she’s lying. I don’t know what else we can do.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Jill was looking nervous and a bit shaken, as though her world was turning in a way she didn’t trust anymore. I felt so bad for her. Her background was such a contrast to mine. She’d grown up in a happy nuclear family with her mother around and her father very supportive. She had a brother who loved her and sent her funny cards every now and then. She’d had the ideal High School experience, been on swim team and been prom queen one year, won the spelling bee and made honorable mention in the National Merit Scholar Program. The All-American girl. Everybody loved her. And now, suddenly, she was having to face what real life might have in store for her, despite her dreams.

  It made my heart ache for her. I was seriously afraid that she wouldn’t be able to handle it—like I could. I’d grown up hardened by disappointment and regrets. I hated to see her have to go through all that without the tough upbringing that I’d had.

  “It’s so late,” she said, as tho
ugh looking for excuses not to do this. “Don’t you think we ought to call her first?”

  “No.” I hated to get stern with her, but right now I was afraid she needed it. If we were going to have any chance at all of helping Jagger beat this rap, we were going to have to do things we didn’t really want to do. “Then she’ll know we’re coming and we’ll lose the element of surprise.”

  She looked at me and I could see the strength creeping back, the real Jill coming through. Her eyes filled with humor. “The element of surprise. I see. So you think we’ve got that, do you?”

  I had to laugh. “Well, I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever tried to get it, so this is a first for me. We’ll see if it works.”

  “Right.”

  “Oh, now you’re starting to sound skeptical,” I teased. “Keep the faith, baby. I need your support.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m a pillar of strength when it comes to giving support. Help, maybe not so much. But moral support—I’m with you all the way.”

  I grinned at her. “Good enough for me.”

  It took about ten minutes and we found our way through the complex easily, pulling into a small parking lot across a green belt from the building.

  “You are going to do the talking,” Jill told me as we climbed the steps to the front door. “Because I’m not sure what we’re here for. Is this a confrontation?”

  “No!”

  “Good. I’m not good at those.”

  “We’re here for information,” I whispered, reaching out for the door bell.

  We could hear the bells sounding inside, but no one came to the door. We tried again, then I tried the door. It wasn’t locked. We looked at each other, squeamish to walk into a house that way.

  “Faint heart never wins fair lady,” Jill muttered. I think she was talking more to herself than to me. We both took a deep breath and went on into the house.

  “Hello!” I called as we made our way through the living room.

  No answer.

  The lights were on and the place was nice, furnished with elegant upholstery and rich woods. Whatever else Marilee was, she was evidently a woman of taste.

  There was a stairway to the second floor. Lights were on up there as well, and something seemed to draw us there. From the looks of the layout, I assumed we would find two bedrooms and a bath at the top of the stairs.