Pumpkins in Paradise (Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mystery Book 1) (9 page)

Tj decided to take the long way around back to the house in order to clear her mind before the mayhem of making dinner and doing homework took over her evening
. The clouds had taken on a bright red glow as the sun set behind the distant mountain. Tj loved the smell of the forest after a rain. Damp earth mingled with the scent of pine and wood rose. Trout Creek, a seasonal tributary from the mountain peaks into the icy lake, had surpassed it boundaries, spilling its excess into the meadow beyond. Tj knew that during heavy runoff the campground and stables had a tendency to flood. The campground was closed for the season, but Tj changed direction and headed toward the barn, which was located across the highway from the rest of the resort.

As she neared the large wooden building she noticed local veterinarian Rosalie Tyler’s truck out front
. Shasta, one of the resort’s larger mares, was due to foal any day and Rosalie had been keeping a close eye on her. Increasing her pace to a jog, Tj paused in front of the open door. Her father stood with his back to her. Mike wasn’t what you’d refer to as handsome in a conventional way. He was tall, although not as tall as her grandfather, with broad shoulders and a slightly thickening waistline. His brown hair was peppered with gray and thinning on the top. The dark lashes framing his blue eyes had faded a bit over the years, but the sparkle of merriment that accompanied each of his warm, inviting smiles was as bright and childlike as ever.

Rosalie stood next to Mike at the edge of the stall on the end
. Tj suspected Dr. Tyler’s relationship with her dad was a bit more than a friendship, even though both insisted it wasn’t. Rosalie shifted so that the two stood face-to-face. Mike lifted his hand and gently touched her cheek. As he leaned in closer, Tj thought he might kiss her, but she said something Tj couldn’t hear and he laughed and lowered his hand to his side. He turned and looked toward the stall behind him, and for the first time Tj noticed a small figure lying on the straw beyond them. Mike turned and knelt down, speaking gently to the animal.

“Shasta,” Tj said aloud.

“Oh, hey, Tj.” Rosalie turned to greet her.

“My God, what happened?
” Rosalie had the worst black eye Tj had ever seen.

“I’m afraid I had a run in with my friend here.
” Rosalie nodded toward a newborn calf lying on the straw, a cast on one leg. He was drinking from the bottle her dad was holding.

“He kicked you?”

“I’ll say. I was on my way home Saturday night when I passed the grazing meadow the ranchers from the valley use during the summer months. Guess they were rounding up the livestock before the storm hit, but in all the confusion this little guy broke his leg and was left behind.”

“Intentionally?”

“No, I don’t think so. Poor little thing was mostly hidden by the tall grass. I might not have noticed him myself if it weren’t for the coyotes. They were dancing around, yipping and howling, so I slowed down to take a look and saw the little guy lying on the ground.”

“How’d you manage to talk a pack of coyotes out of their dinner?
” Tj knew that a lone coyote usually wouldn’t attack a human, but a pack defending their evening meal?

“Luckily I’d just come from town, where I’d splurged and bought the sweetest-looking steaks you’ve ever seen
. Huge, thick ones that looked like they’d melt in your mouth once grilled. I have to admit I actually hesitated for a second, but the poor calf was crying and thrashing around and the coyotes were drooling as they glared at it, so I grabbed my bag out of the truck and tossed those steaks as hard as I could into the forest.”

“Oh, no.
” Tj laughed.

“Then I grabbed that baby best as I could, but he was thrashing around so much that he got me right in the eye
. But I managed to get him into the back of my truck and take off before the coyotes came back for dessert.”

“That’s so ironic.
” Tj giggled. “You fed the coyotes your beef steaks in order to save a future beefsteak.”

“I’ll tell you what,” Rosalie said, laughing along with her, “after sacrificing what amounted to two-hundred-dollars’ worth of steak, getting a black eye, and spending half the night patching up that calf, that’s one little heifer that’s going to die of old age.”

“I told Rosalie he could bunk in with the horses,” her dad added.

“I kept him in the clinic for the first forty-eight hours, but I don’t really have room to keep him for the long haul,” Rosalie explained.

“He’s adorable.” Tj walked into the stall and bent down to pet the little guy.

“Yeah, he’s a charmer
. That first night, once I got him patched up and fed, he put his head in my lap and drifted off to sleep. I wanted to take him home, but I figured I didn’t really have room in my little apartment.”

Tj could picture Rosalie sitting on the floor of her clinic with a baby calf in her lap
. Knowing the vet, she’d probably sung him to sleep. If she wasn’t careful, the little guy was going to end up thinking he was a lap dog.

“Charlie jealous?
” Tj asked, referring to Rosalie’s dog.

“I didn’t introduce them
. Charlie tends to be a bit territorial, and I figured Bruiser wouldn’t be in the clinic long enough to bother getting them used to each other.”

“Bruiser?”

“After the huge bruise he left on my face, the name fit.”

Tj smiled as the little guy slurped the remainder of his dinner
. “When I saw your truck, I thought maybe Shasta had dropped her foals.”

“Should be anytime
. My guess is that Bruiser will have a couple of nursery mates within the next forty-eight hours. We should keep a close eye on her, but I think she’ll do fine.”

“I talked to security. He should be popping a head in every hour or so,” her dad informed her
. “They have instructions to call my cell if it looks like she’s going into labor.”

One of the advantages of living on a resort was the twenty-four-hour security guard who kept an eye on the cabins, campground,
restaurant, general store, and other shops in the cozy village.

“I guess I’ll head back to the house and start dinner
. Care to join us?” Tj asked Rosalie.

“That’d be nice
. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a visit with Ben and the girls.”

After Tj got the girls off to bed she made a fire in the living room and tried to relax. She knew she needed to try to get some sleep, but her mind was racing and she couldn’t seem to get it to quiet down. For one thing, as she’d suspected, it looked like Zachary hadn’t died of natural causes. Doc texted earlier in the day to inform her that though he wouldn’t have the detailed toxicology report back until the following day, preliminary reports indicated his death appeared to be related to the large amount of sedatives he’d ingested. Doc notified the sheriff, who had changed the official cause of death to apparent suicide. When Tj mentioned the empty glass to Doc, he had had it dusted for fingerprints. Unfortunately the only prints had been smudged.

The whole thing made no sense
. Assuming the alcohol came from Zachary’s missing bottle, why would someone drink from it, then leave the empty glass on the table next to his chair? And why would Zachary open the bottle after all these years and not drink from it? And even stranger yet, why would Zachary commit suicide? Doc had cautioned her that while the overdose could have been accidental, the amount of the sedative in his system seemed to indicate a deliberate act. Tj thought about everything she’d learned about Zachary the past couple of days. His friendship with Jeff; his business relationship with Glen; his possession of a necklace that at one point must have belonged to a woman who was a member of an obscure religious group she had never heard of until meeting Maude and Millie. Maybe she’d never really known him at all.

“Hey, honey
.” Her dad came into the room on his way to the kitchen. “Something on your mind?”

“Actually, yes.
” Tj hated to bother her dad, but she was anxious and confused and really needed input from someone she trusted. “Do you have a minute?”

“I always have a minute for you.
” Mike sat down on the sofa next to her. “What’s up?”

“When I was at Zachary’s I noticed a glass on the table next to where I found his body that smelled like it contained alcohol
. I found that odd since Zachary didn’t drink, so I asked Doc to take a closer look at the body. Apparently he died from the effect of a large amount of a sedative. The sheriff believes he committed suicide.”

“And you don’t think he did?”

“I don’t know. I’m finding it hard to believe, despite what Doc said. He really wasn’t the type to do something like that. At least I don’t think he was.”

Mike paused to consider what Tj had told him
. “Don’t get me wrong, I barely knew the man, but from the outside he seems to be exactly the type to commit suicide: aged recluse in ill health with deep emotional scars and no family or worldly connections. Honestly, honey, he’s almost textbook.”

“I know that’s how it looks from the outside,” Tj admitted
. “But there was more to Zachary than met the eye. For one thing, he wasn’t crazy, like most people thought. Something happened to him a long time ago. Something life altering, for which he felt deep remorse. I got the impression that he considered his life of solitude to be some sort of penance for whatever occurred. Maybe on the surface that makes him even more of a candidate for taking his own life, but Zachary wanted to live. He wanted to make amends for his sins.”

“Make amends how?”

Tj shrugged. “I think he felt his suffering served as some sort of restitution. The thing is…” Tj hesitated. “When I saw him last week, he seemed sort of—” Tj searched for the right word—“happy. As if a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders.”

Mike took Tj’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze
. “You know how that sounds,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, I do.
” She looked her dad in the eye as a single tear slid down her cheek. “You’re probably right. I know the evidence points toward a man who simply didn’t want to go on living.” Tj fought back her tears. “It’s just that…”

Mike waited while Tj gathered her thoughts.

“I realize Zachary was an old man in both mental and physical pain, and I can understand how he might have come to that decision.” Tj took a deep breath as her emotions bubbled to the surface. “But if he did kill himself, I feel so angry at him. I know it sounds selfish, and that in and of itself makes me feel bad, but he had to have known how hard this would be for me.”

Mike stopped to consider what Tj had just said
. “Maybe he didn’t commit suicide. Maybe your first instinct was correct. It could have been an accident. You knew the man better than anyone. If your instinct is telling you he didn’t overdose intentionally, then maybe you should believe it in spite of what the evidence shows.”

“Maybe
. I really want to believe Zachary wouldn’t take his own life, but Doc thought the amount of drug in his system points more toward a suicide than an accidental overdose. Maybe Doc’s right. Maybe I didn’t know Zachary at all.”

Mike handed Tj a box of tissue and waited as she dried her eyes
. “When you were six, or maybe it was seven, you befriended that old man who used to hang out in the campground.”

“Mr. Marbles,” Tj supplied
. Mr. Marbles wasn’t his real name, but everyone used to say the man’s problem was he was a few marbles short of a set, so Tj, who had taken the comment literally, gave him the bag of marbles she’d been collecting. Everyone started calling him Mr. Marbles from that point on.

“That’s right, Mr. Marbles
. Anyway, we had a rash of thefts in the cabins that started at about the same time that Mr. Marbles showed up and everyone was convinced he was responsible, even though we had no proof. He made a likely suspect, but you kept insisting that even though Mr. Marbles sometimes asked the campers for a handout and wasn’t beyond pilfering a half-eaten sandwich left out on a picnic table, he would never steal money or jewelry from our guests.”

“And no one believed me,” Tj remembered
.

“Not even me,” Mike admitted
. “But in the end it turned out that you were right. The culprit was one of our own employees, who tried to frame Mr. Marbles by stashing a diamond necklace in his knapsack. Luckily there was a witness who saw what happened, and we arrested the right man. My point is, sometimes you have to believe what you know in your heart to be true, no matter what the evidence points to.”

Tj thought about what her dad was telling her
. He was right. Zachary wouldn’t kill himself. Something had happened on Friday night. Something unexplainable. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew it was up to her to find out the truth.

Tj woke early the next morning despite the fact that she’d gotten little sleep. Pulling on an old pair of sweats, she decided to go for a run before she had to get the girls up for school. Tj had been a runner all her life, and most times when life got complicated, she would slip on her favorite worn Nikes and take to the trails winding along the beach and through the forest that bordered the resort.

Calling Echo to her side, she exited the house and settled into a slow jog toward the trail heading north, away from the resort
. There was something soothing about the steady rhythm of her own feet hitting the dirt. Early morning, just as the sky began to lighten and the forest to wake, had always been Tj’s favorite time of the day. The cool mountain air ensured a deserted beach and time to reflect and recharge.

The path narrowed as it wound through the dense aspen grove
. Three days of pouring rain had knocked many of the golden leaves to the ground, creating a carpet of orange and yellow. When Tj was a child she used to play in the grove, imagining it was a wonderful fairyland with golden rain. Fall was Tj’s favorite time of year. The crowds were gone and the lake was quiet as the days grew shorter and the air crisper.

As the trail steepened, she changed direction and headed toward the beach
. The path opened to a view of the lake and the marina, nestled tranquilly in a small cove. Between the old log boathouse, which was set all the way to the left, and the recently remodeled dock, which reached out into the lake to the right, were over a hundred buoys. During the summer boats of all shapes and sizes were moored to them, but as the season came to a close only a few lonely sailboats remained.

Her pace slowed as she jogged along the white sand, trying to focus on the steady rhythm of her own breathing as thoughts of Zachary’s death pushed into her mind
. During the long hours of the night she’d gone over everything time and time again. Was it possible Zachary had committed suicide, or had his overdose been nothing more than a fatal miscalculation? And what about the fact that there was an empty glass on the table next to him, but the toxicology report had proved he hadn’t taken a single sip of liquor? The whole thing made no sense. Had something been going on that she had been too preoccupied to notice? Not that anyone would blame her; with the arrival of her sisters, she’d had her own issues to deal with. Still, she’d been Zachary’s friend. His only friend, or so she’d thought.

Tj glanced at her watch
. She really ought to head back. Picking up the pace as the trail curved back toward the forest beyond the beach, she focused on her breathing. Over the years she’d found that the more her lungs burned and her legs quivered, the quieter her mind became. The trail grew steeper as it wound its way through the forest, eventually bringing Tj back to the edge of the resort.

She slowed as she made her way through the village, which consisted of a general store, an ice cream shop, a bike and ski rental shop, and a single-pump gas station
. If you included the marina and horse stable, Maggie’s Hideaway was the largest resort on Paradise Lake.

Tj loved Maggie’s Hideaway
. She’d gone off to college like most of her friends, but unlike many of them, she’d returned home to Paradise Lake where she intended to live out her life, hopefully with her prince charming, who had yet to make himself known. Although Tj loved her job at the high school, she knew in her heart that one day she’d fulfill her destiny and take over the reins of the resort, the way her dad had taken over from her grandfather. But her dad was young and healthy, affording her plenty of time to do what she loved best, coaching and mentoring Paradise Lake’s youth.

Tj stood on the fifty-yard-line of the high-school football field, watching as the girls on her soccer team did their morning laps. The key to a successful soccer season, Tj knew, was having a team whose fitness and endurance could outlast even their most skilled competitors.

“Carla, you’re running like you have cement blocks stuc
k to your feet,” Tj yelled through a megaphone. “Pick up the pace. And Lucy, you’d get a lot farther if you stopped flaying your arms like a chicken.”

“Tj.
” A familiar voice sounded behind her.

Tj turned and greeted Kyle, her handsome guest
. “What brings you out so early in the morning?”

“I heard there was a flea market in the town square and decided to start the hunt for the obligatory souvenirs for my family
. I parked in the school parking lot and was on my way back to my car when I saw you standing here.”

“It looks like you were successful.” Tj nodded toward the armload of bags he carried.

“Yeah, too successful. The whole thing started off with a gift for my mom and escalated from there.”

Tj laughed as Kyle set his packages on the grass
. “Been there. Brittany you’re lagging this morning,” Tj yelled. “Kick it up a notch. And you’re never going to make starting forward if you don’t build up some endurance, Joanne.”

“Sorry.
” She turned back to Kyle. “The girls think they can take advantage of the fact that I’m distracted.”

“If you need to get back…”

“No, I’m good. The girls should know by now that I know when they’re slacking off whether I’m looking at them or not. So, what did you get? For your mother, that is.”

Kyle reached into a bag and pulled out a beautiful hand-sewn quilt
. “The moment I saw this I knew she’d love it. It was ridiculously expensive, but I couldn’t miss seeing the look on her face when I give it to her.”

The quilt was made up of pieces of fabric in various shapes, sizes, colors, and patterns, puzzled together in such a way as to create the picture of two women sharing a picnic on a grassy knoll near a lake. “It’s beautiful
. It almost looks like someone painted the picture onto the fabric, rather than creating it from bits and pieces of other material.”

“I know,” Kyle agreed
. “It reminded me of a picnic I went on with my parents when I was a kid. After my dad died a couple of years ago my mom got out all the old photo albums and we went through them page by page, reminiscing about the good times we had. When I saw the quilt at the flea market the photo of that special day popped into my head.”

“You’re a really nice son.”

“Yeah, I guess I am. But my mom, well, she’s really special. She’s had a hard couple of years. I know this sounds sappy, but I’d do anything to make her smile the way she did before my dad’s heart attack.”

“Finish the lap you’re on then, take ten,” Tj said, her megaphone lifted to her mouth once more. “Grab your gear and meet back here, ready to scrimmage,” she added. “And Carla—”she turned toward a dark-haired girl walking toward the bleachers, where a group of high school boys were hanging out—“lose the earrings.”

The girl sighed but turned toward the locker room
.

“Maybe I should get something like this for my room.
” Tj turned back toward Kyle, continuing their conversation without losing a beat.

“You live at the resort?
” Kyle asked.

“Yeah
. My mom died three months ago, leaving me custody of my two half-sisters. I was living in town at the time, but I thought it best to move back home with my dad and grandpa, who have been fantastic about helping out.”

“Wow
. It must have been a tough transition.”

“It has been, but we’re all dealing
. I think we’ve actually settled into a comfortable routine, and while I realize the situation is temporary, it’s working for us at the moment. So, not to be nosy, but what else did you get?”

“I can show you this evening if you need to get back,” Kyle offered.

“Nah. The girls usually have a way of stretching their ten into fifteen.”

Kyle shrugged
. “I bought a bunch of used paperbacks for myself and a hand-knitted scarf for my Aunt Susan.” Kyle opened the bag to pull out the scarf. “I found some really cool sports memorabilia for my Uncle Pete, but I already dropped that off in the car. You seem to be into sports; I bet you’d love the autographed photo I found of the Forty-Niners the year they beat the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl in New Orleans.”

“You’re right.
” Tj smiled. “I’d love to see it. I attended that game with my dad. Just the two of us. It was one of the best times of my life.” Tj looked at her watch. “Where are you parked?”

“Blue Honda over there.
” Kyle pointed to a compact near the southern fence.

“I have a few minutes
. I’ll walk you to your car.”

“Okay, cool.”

Tj carried the bag with the quilt and Kyle carried the other bags as they walked toward the car. When Kyle opened the trunk to put the bags inside Tj gasped.

“That bottle
. Where did you get it?” she asked.

Kyle looked in the trunk
. “This bottle?” Kyle picked it up. It looked just like the one that had been in Zachary’s house. Other than the fact that it was now empty, Tj was sure it was the same bottle.

“Lady at the flea market
. Said she’d just bought it over the weekend and I was lucky to happen to come by when I did. It’s from the 1918centennial bottling of McClelland’s Scotch. My grandpa collects old bottles and he loves scotch.” Kyle didn’t seem to notice that Tj had turned completely white. “It’s the perfect gift.”

Tj knew it was possible that the bottle Kyle had bought was not the same one she’d seen in Zachary’s house, but given that it was almost a hundred years old, she sort of doubted it
.

“Are you okay
? You look a little pale.”

She took a deep breath. “I’m fine
. It’s just that—” Tj paused. Should she tell him about the scotch? Kyle seemed like a great guy, but she didn’t really know him. Could Kyle have drugged Zachary and then taken the bottle? It was the only theory that made sense.

“It’s just that,” she started again, “my old boyfriend used to drink that exact brand of scotch
. The bastard dumped me. Guess I’m not as over it as I thought.”

“Any guy who dumped you must be an idiot.”

Tj looked toward the field. “I should get back to the girls. Looks like they kept the ten to ten today. I’ll have to stop by and see the photo later.”

“Sure, any time
. I have some other stuff you might enjoy seeing too.”

“By the way—” Tj turned back toward Kyle after she had taken a few steps— “what did you say the name of the woman who sold you the bottle was?”

“I didn’t say. Actually, I don’t know. She never said and I didn’t think to ask.”

“Can you describe her?”

“She was between fifty-five and sixty, short blond hair that sort of curled under on the end, maybe five foot six and a hundred and fifty pounds. I’m sure one of the regulars can tell you, if you’re really interested.”

Tj shrugged and tried to look nonchalant
. “It’s no big deal. I have a friend who collects glass. I thought he might be interested.” Tj waved one final time and then headed toward the center of the field, where her team was gathering.

She was certain the bottle Kyle had
was Zachary’s. Zachary had died on Friday. Kyle said the woman had indicated she’d just bought the bottle over the weekend. Someone must have drugged Zachary and then taken the bottle. It seemed odd, though, that someone would commit a murder, steal a bottle of scotch from the scene, and then turn around and sell the bottle, creating a trail of sorts right back to him. On the other hand, at the moment Tj couldn’t come up with a better theory as to how the bottle had gotten from Zachary’s house to Kyle’s trunk, unless Kyle actually killed Zachary and lied about buying the bottle to cover up his involvement. Of course, it made no sense that he’d be carrying the bottle around. The other option, that Zachary either killed himself or accidentally overdosed and then someone broke in and stole the bottle, was too farfetched even to consider.

Tj didn’t have time to think about it anymore right now
. She’d have to wait until school was out before she could head over to The Antiquery and ask Helen if she knew who might have sold Kyle the bottle. Helen knew everyone, especially everyone who dealt in antiques. Right after practice she’d need to grab a quick lunch, then prepare for her first choir class.

Tj wasn’t expecting much, but when she walked into room A5 and found that her choir consisted of a half dozen misfits, she knew she was in trouble. Greg had made it perfectly clear that it was her duty not only to supervise the group but to mold and hone them into a functioning body that could perform in a public setting. Given the fact that she had absolutely zero musical background, she had hoped that Greg was wrong in his assessment of the recruits his wife had managed to come up with on such short notice, and this magical choir was already groomed and ready to perform.

“Good afternoon, everyone,” Tj began
. “My name is Coach Jensen. Most of you know me from physical education, but given that we are assembled here to form a choir, I thought we could go around the room and introduce ourselves. I’ll start. Like I said, my name is Coach Jensen, and I am excited to have the opportunity to take on the role of staff adviser for this very special group.”