Maddie's Gift of Mystery (A Rockcrest Cove Cozy Mystery Book 5) (3 page)

“That was some ceremony,” Maddie offered.

“Yes, it was,” a tall, blond girl agreed.

“Especially the speech Maria made.”

“Well, that’s Maria. She loves the attention.”

“Is that so? Were she and Jimmy that close?”

“I never really saw them together, but Jimmy was close to everybody, you know.”

“Look at her,” Maddie said, trying to direct the comments toward Maria. “She looks like she’s in her element right now.”

The girl studied Maria for a moment. “Perhaps. She does seem a bit happier than usual, but she’s probably just trying to put on a good face. It’s a pretty sad loss for all of us. I guess we all have to deal with it in different ways.”

“I suppose so,” Maddie agreed, not entirely convinced that was what she was seeing.

Maddie left the mortuary before the interment so that she could meet up with Eleanor and Chief Willis for lunch. She already had developed her suspicions about who might be responsible for Jimmy’s death. It was unfortunate, but so far the only one who had raised even the slightest suspicion in the case was this young girl, Maria, and even that was just a hunch. She needed to know more about the interactions these students had with each other. And even with that knowledge, she couldn’t be sure that it was someone at school at all. In fact, it could very well be someone from some other aspect of Jimmy’s life.

They met at the local diner on Main Street, just a short walk from her bakery. It was the perfect time of day, as there wasn’t much going on. It was just after two in the afternoon, so the lunch crowd had already made their way back to work and it was too early for the dinner rush to start. They had the place pretty much to themselves, so they could talk relatively freely without fear of being overheard.

“Well, I must admit,” Maddie started, “that when you came into my shop the other morning, I didn’t expect I would be taking you up on your offer this soon.”

Willis gave her a generous smile. “To be honest, I wish we had more time to become acquainted before getting into something like this.”

“I agree,” Eleanor chimed in.

“So,” Willis said, turning his attention to Eleanor. “I take it you think that we’re looking at the wrong suspect.”

“Absolutely,” Eleanor said adamantly. “I know those two, and there is no way either one would hurt the other.”

“It’s my understanding that they were kind of competitors though, weren’t they?”

“If you want to reason that way,” Eleanor said, “all of my students should be arrested. I always encourage a friendly competition in my classes.”

“Nevertheless,” he said, “they spent quite a bit of time together at the party on the night he died.”

“Yes.”

“They left together.”

“Yes.”

“Alone?”

“Yes.”

Willis began to flip through his pages of notes. “It’s my understanding that Emily was the last person to see him alive.”

“That we know of,” Eleanor added. “She said she left him at his home alone. He’d had a little too much to drink, so she set him up on his couch and left.”

“Hmmm.” Willis was thinking out loud. He looked again at his notes. “Yes, she said she left him at about one o’clock in the morning.”

“That’s right.”

“And then where did she go?”

“She went home. Her roommate can account for that.”

“Yes. Her roommate said Emily got home around one thirty.”

“So, if you have all of that information, then why is she suspect in this case?”

Willis reared back in his chair and eyed the two women carefully before he spoke. “Because we got the coroner’s report back, and it placed his time of death at around one in the morning—right about the same time that Emily said she left him alone.”

Both women sat there in stunned silence.

“And as far as we know, she was the last person to see him alive, and his body was found with Emily’s locket in his hand.”

“Let me see that,” Eleanor said, taking the report from his hands.

She studied the words on the paper for herself and reread everything Willis had just stated. “I don’t believe this,” she said, handing the file to Maddie.

“I’m sorry, ladies, but as far as I can tell, Emily places herself there at the time of his death. And others also saw her with him that same night. All the pieces fit, and unless you can serve me up another suspect, I don’t know what else we can do.”

He seemed sincerely apologetic.

“Except,” Maddie interjected, “according to this report, the cause of death was by suffocation.”

“And?”

“Well, you’ve seen Emily. She’s about half the size of Jimmy on a good day. Do you really think it could be physically possible to restrain him while smothering him at the same time? Even if he had been drinking as much as he had been, he was an athlete. He could’ve easily overpowered her.”

Willis was a pretty astute man and was not about to say anything until he knew which direction the conversation was taking. “What are you trying to say?”

“Isn’t it possible that someone could have been waiting in his house when Emily brought him home?”

“I suppose that’s possible, but I’ve seen no evidence of that. There’s no sign of forced entry or anything like that. And according to Emily, he was in no condition to let anyone in the house.”

“But you’re also missing another vital piece of evidence against Emily.”

“What’s that?”

“A motive. What would Emily have to gain from killing him?”

“There are times when the motive is not always evident in the beginning,” Willis stated.” It usually comes out later in the investigation.”

“They were good friends. Had been that way for several years.”

“That’s true.”

“There has to be more to this that we’re missing,” Maddie said, more to herself than to anyone else. “What about that girl, Maria?”

“Oh Maria,” Eleanor started. “A bright student to say the least.”

“I was watching her at the service this morning. She seemed pretty happy to be the center of attention.”

“That’s Maria for you,” Eleanor said. “Sometimes the only reason I think she took up criminal justice was because she could attract attention to herself.”

“So that’s her nature then?”

“Pretty much.”

They left the diner not having come to any real concrete conclusions about what had happened to Jimmy. Maddie had mixed feelings about the young woman, Emily. She was pretty good at assessing people only after a few minutes, and she just didn’t get the feeling that the girl was capable of such a thing, either emotionally or physically. Add to that that there was no real motive for her to do it either. She had nothing to gain whatsoever from Jimmy’s death. On the other hand, she was there at the time of death, and there were no one else that could explain what had happened. This was going to be much more difficult than she had ever thought it would be.

T
he next morning
, Maddie was up early and at work in her bakery. It was unusually busy, but she loved it; it was the time when she got her best thinking done. She hadn’t slept much that night, thinking about poor Emily and the case. She wasn’t usually so invested in someone she didn’t know, and she supposed that much of her concern stemmed from Eleanor’s adamant support of the young girl.

The constant flow of customers kept her mind sharp as she slipped into her routine. She rarely spent any time in the front of the store now, opting to let her employees handle that while she squirreled away in the kitchen making all sorts of delicious delectables. Among the dusting of flour over the counter, the smell of baked pastries, and all the work that had to be done, it was easy to meditate when she didn’t have to have direct interaction with all of those who were around her. The time went by quickly, and before she knew it, the rush was over and the flow of orders began to settle down.

“Astoria,” she said finally, “you keep a lookout for anyone coming in for me, will you?”

The cat looked as if she totally understood what she had asked of her, and she immediately jumped down from her perch on a high counter where she usually sat observing Maddie at work and started to patrol the kitchen.

“I’m going to go to the back and start the clean up.”

Astoria headed into the main storefront and watched the crowd as it continued to dwindle. New customers were still pouring in but at a much slower pace, allowing for the workers to tend to other matters of business: restocking the dispensers, refilling the empty display cases, and organizing the myriad of other activities that most customers knew nothing about.

The room was filled with lots of business people and college students, a direct result of Maddie’s inclusion of free Wi-Fi for her customers. Many had brought in their own laptops or tablets and were busy clicking away or chatting about news items with their companions. A new TV screen was mounted near the ceiling, turned to the most popular station—one of Bailey’s ideas. Maddie hadn’t thought it would amount to much, but she had finally conceded, as the success of it was evident.

Just as Maddie emerged from the back room to assess the flow of traffic, a new crowd of young students entered the door. Many of them were fully engrossed in the latest gossip and were busy chatting about mostly nothing, but they were very excited to do so. The majority of them took a seat at the large center table in the store, but one girl chose to sit by herself in a corner booth, immediately opening up her laptop and peering into it.

At first Maddie didn’t recognize her, but she felt she looked very familiar. She reached for her spectacles that she seemed to rely on more and more these days and looked a little closer. A small gasp escaped her lips, as she realized it was Maria sitting there separate from the rest of the group. That was odd considering how much she had relished in the attention just the day before. Now it looked as if she wanted nothing to do with them.

“Ms. Maddie,” said Amber, one of her workers, “do you mind if we take a break now?”

“Oh, yes, yes. Sure,” she said. “It’s slow enough for me to handle it by myself now. Go ahead.”

The two girls working the counter immediately untied their aprons, poured themselves a cup of coffee, and headed to the office, which now also doubled as a break room for employees.

Maddie turned her attention to Maria sitting all alone at the back table. Her attention had been diverted from what was on her laptop to something on the TV. She was watching with keen interest.

From where she stood behind the counter, it was impossible for Maddie to see what was on the screen, so she took a rag and went out to wipe down tables in the dining area. There was a local news report talking about Jimmy’s murder. Maria seemed to watch in rapt attention.

“There’s still no date for an official court date for twenty-five-year-old Emily Winston, who has been arrested and charged with the murder of her classmate James “Jimmy” Arthur Maxwell II, a twenty-five-year-old law student,” the anchorwoman was saying. “Maxwell was enrolled at the Rockcrest Cove School of Law and was slated to become a third generation lawyer in his family. Young Emily has been released on bail but will be expected to appear in court as soon as a court date has been set. We’ve reached out for comments from Ms. Winston, but no one has been able to ascertain her whereabouts at the present time.”

The screen suddenly switched from a picture of Jimmy with his classmates to scenes taken at his funeral service and interviews with teachers and students who knew him.

Maddie was distracted by Astoria rubbing up against her leg. She looked down just in time to notice Maria stifling a laugh while looking at the TV screen. Her hand was over her mouth and she was trying hard to hold it in, but her impulses got the better of her and she let out a loud burst of laughter as she pointed disrespectfully at the TV screen. She certainly didn’t appear to be as saddened as she had presented herself at the funeral.

Maddie didn’t know what was more offensive, the emotional display she had put on the day before or the blatant disregard for Jimmy today. Distracted again by a customer entering the building, Maddie decided to approach the girl and talk to her as soon as she had dealt with the customer, but by the time she got back to directing her attention to Maria, the young girl had met up with a young man. It was apparently a planned rendezvous, as they both left together.

By the time she was able to break away from her busy job, it was late in the afternoon. One of her first orders of business was to talk again with Chief Willis. To her surprise, she was welcomed once again into his office. This would take some getting used to; she had never been treated so kindly with Chief Connors.

“Ms. MacDougal,” he said, standing to greet her.

“Please, call me Maddie,” she said, smiling brightly at his infectious personality.

“All right, Maddie,” he corrected. “Tell me you have something new to add to the case today.”

“Actually, I believe I do,” she started.

“Really? I was just joking,” he said, turning a little serious.

“I believe I may have another suspect for you to consider: a Maria Carvone.”

Willis pulled over a file sitting on the edge of his desk and looked over a list of names his detectives had collected from somewhere. “Ah, yes. Here she is. One of Jimmy’s classmates.”

“You’ve already spoken to her?” Maddie asked, surprised.

“One of my investigators has, but only briefly. She is on the list of people we will be questioning starting tomorrow morning.”

Willis put down the paper and studied Maddie carefully. “Do you suspect her in any way?” he asked pointedly.

“I’m not sure,” Maddie answered honestly. “It’s just that she seems to be quite an enigma. On the one hand, she seemed to be pretty devastated by Jimmy’s death yesterday, but today she was in my shop laughing at the news report about it. She also seemed to have some sort of rift with Emily.”

“Well, we’ll be paying her a visit tomorrow morning if you’d like to join us,” he invited.

Maddie was nonplussed by the invitation. She would certainly have to get adjusted to the new way of doing things with this new chief. “I’d love to,” she agreed. “And Eleanor too.”

“Hold on a minute,” Willis said, thinking for a minute. “I tell you what. I think she might get suspicious if we bring you in on the interview. So, we’ll be visiting her in the dorms at around nine in the morning. Why don’t you and Eleanor try to talk to her first; she’ll have completely different things to say to you that she may be reluctant to speak about directly with the police.”

Leaving the police department Maddie felt more convinced than ever that Maria knew something about Jimmy’s murder. All the pieces fit. While she didn’t know how to connect the dots just yet, she knew there was a connection somewhere. All she had to do was find it. Turning her car off Main Street and heading toward her home, she pulled out her cell phone and called Eleanor’s number. Putting the phone on speaker as soon as she answered, she started to speak.

“Hi, Ellie.”

“Oh, Maddie. Good to hear from you.”

“Listen, Ellie, are you busy tomorrow morning?”

“No. Schools’ out right now. I’m free as a bird.”

“Great. I want to go and talk to Maria Carvone,” she said, getting right to the point.

“Really? Maria?”

“Yes. I don’t have any real reasons to suspect her, but my curiosity is getting the best of me. I think she knows something.”

“All right.”

“So, I was just talking to Chief Willis. He plans to question her tomorrow morning and suggested that we meet her before that. He seems to feel she’ll have something different to say to us than what she might say to them. Would you like to join me?”

“Sure,” Eleanor said. “What time?”

“They’re going to get to her house at about nine so I think we should drop in around eight. What do you think?”

“I’ll be ready. In fact, I’ll pick you up, because I know exactly where she lives.”

“Will do.”