A Ghostly Affair: A cozy mystery series (Death by Chocolate Book 3) (8 page)

The last person Maxine expected to see in her shop was Jake Jones scowling at her as she took around a plate of samples for a new chocolate they were thinking of putting into production, caramel apple cream. So far it was drawing mixed results.

Although she’d been in the corner of the shop when he walked in it felt as if his eyes were burning laser holes into her back. She shuddered slightly. Now, who was letting their imagination get the best of her? She turned to face him, defiantly, aware all eyes in the crowded shop were on them, waiting to see what would happen next.

She gave a quick head toss and squared her shoulders slightly before heading back to the counter. “Can I help you?” she asked sweetly.

“You can call off your dog,” he ground out. Anger emanating from him in waves, turned him into an angry caricature of himself, features twisted and ugly.

Her eye brow arched in question. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Oh come off it. Your boyfriend has already questioned me twice. I’ve been pulled over by the police and I’m not the only one. Every single protestor with me has been pulled over. One of them got a ticket for littering. Littering!” he thundered.

She gave a small shrug. “I don’t know why you’re telling me this. I don’t have any control over what the police do.”

“Cut the crap,” he said angrily. “I had nothing to do with what happened at the Art Gallery.”

“Then I’m sure you have nothing to worry about Mr. Jones. The police have questioned you, you’ve told them the truth,” here she smiled sardonically. “I really don’t see what the problem is.

His eyes narrowed and his answer hissed out. “You know exactly what’s going on. Harassing my followers helps no one.”

“And as I said, I don’t have anything to do with who the police do or don’t question,” she said firmly. “I can’t help you.”

“OK, you wanted to know more about what I was doing, give me a chance to show you.”

Her heart thudded with excitement but she did her best not to show it. “What do you mean?”

“Come with me and I’ll show you why we want this development stopped.” Passion darkened his eyes.

“You really expect me to drop everything and go somewhere alone with you?”

“Bring whoever you want to,” he said passionately. “I have nothing to hide.”

“OK,” she said. “But I’m a little busy right now.”

“I can come back after you’re closed,” he said immediately.

“And you want me to tromp around in the dark somewhere with you?” Disbelief colored her tone.

“I want you to give me a chance to tell you my side. I think when you realize what we’re fighting against you’ll agree.”

Something she seriously doubted but she wasn’t going to tell him so. Instead she gave him a short nod. “I’ll be here. But I won’t be alone.”

He smiled, his features softening. “I’d expect nothing less. I look forward to it.” He turned, exiting as quickly as he’d come and there was the sound of a good dozen drawn breaths being released, hers included.

“You’re going to tell Patrick aren’t you?” Jane asked her pointedly as Mr. Jake Jones exited the shop.

“Of course,” she said, more than a little distracted as she re-arranged the display of chocolates at the front counter.

“If you don’t I will,” Jane said pointedly.

At least she was speaking in a low tone so that only Maxine could hear her. While no one had made any comments to Maxine directly she knew they’d all been watching and as the rising buzz of conversation indicated, were now talking. She didn’t want to add fuel to the fire.

Heath was just as determined. “He’s on the cop’s radar for a reason. Don’t mess around.”

But Patrick wanted her to stay as far away from Jake Jones as possible. And Maxine had never liked being told what to do. So she decided to meet with Jake Jones in her shop after it was closed. After all, what could go wrong?

She told herself that as she waited for him, having sent home all her staff. A fresh pot of coffee curled its’ aromatic smell of a rich, dark roast mixed with a hint of chocolate and a tinge of raspberry, through the air.

The smell of the heady brew took the edge of her nerves but didn’t entirely make them disappear. Nerves weren’t necessarily a bad thing.

After all it didn’t hurt to be on guard. And whatever else happened, she had no intention of leaving this shop with Jake Jones tonight.

She looked at her iPhone again. She’d downloaded an app today to record everything while they met. Now she put a plate of the brookies he’d enjoyed the other day out.

She pictured Patrick rolling his eyes. “You can’t solve everything with chocolate Maxine.”

Maybe not, but it didn’t hurt to try. She hadn’t told Grandma Ellie what she was up to. Only that she was meeting with a friend tonight after the shop closed and wouldn’t be home until a little later.

She could hear him at the door. A shiver of fear passed through her as she opened it. He stood before her, a small smile on his face and a briefcase in his hand. Six feet four, with a well-muscled physique that a leather jacket, t-shirt stretched tight across his chest and jeans that fit as if they had been poured on, did nothing to hide.

“Are you going to invite me in,” he said. “Or are you afraid I’ll bite?”

She stood aside to let him pass.

“What? You trust me enough to meet me on your own?”

“A short meeting,” she said sharply. “To hear what you have to say. My friends think I should stay well away from and leave it to the police.”

“And yet here we are.”

“As I said,” she said sharply. “I wanted to hear your side and I had a feeling something might be lost if you were talking to the police.”

“I appreciate that,” he said quietly. “I give you my word, you will be safe with me.” As he said it she felt as if there was a wave of peace emanating from him.

“I thought we could talk about it here,” she said gesturing to a table with a coffee pot already set out waiting, along with a plate of brookies.

“OK, but I may need more space to show you all my maps.”

“Tell me first,” she said.

He gave her a quizzical look. Then, as if making a decision, he sighed. “OK, then, I’ll give you the condensed version and we’ll go from there.”

He sat down at the table. “My people have lived on these lands since long before the white men arrived. We had a culture of story tellers, of hunters and fishers. Brave men, warriors. But times have changed. We have had to learn the white men’s ways, to adapt. Some of us have done this by turning away from our culture, some by embracing it.

Until recently I was one of the former. I couldn’t wait to get away from here and go to university. I wanted to help people but not just Indians. And if I got paid well in the process then all the better. My brother Matt took over the role of Chief and native leader.

It was what he wanted, what I wanted. I barely came home to visit. But then my mother got cancer, my favorite uncle had a blood disease. It seemed so unfair.” He looked at her, his eyes slate-green mixed with flecks of copper and filled with passion. “I started taking courses on biology, on the human body but still I turned away from traditional Indian healing….”

His eyes filled with tears. Despite herself, Maxine felt moved. “I still don’t see-“

“I kept studying modern medicine. It’s done miracles for many people. I still want to be a doctor.” He looked at her with an intensity she found unnerving. “But more and more I realize it’s not the whole answer. I’ve come back to participate in healing circles with my mother, gone through a healing ceremony with my uncle. And for the last two summers I’ve been studying native plants, first in the Amazon and this year in North America. We’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what we’ve got, of what still waits to be discovered.”

Maxine could see why he had people willing to follow him blindly. She could also picture Tanya’s tear-stained face, see the damage that had been done at the museum. Without thinking her hand moved to the bump on her head, still giving her headaches.

“That’s all good,” she said. “But why now, why AZK Developments?”

“If I’d realized there was even a consideration they’d be developing there I’d have been home far sooner,” he said passionately. “But I believed my brother cared as much about our people and the environment as I do.”

“And now you’ve got reason to believe he doesn’t?”

“The proof is there for everyone to see,” he said bitterly. “He’s sold out to the developers.”

Maxine shook her head. “You may believe that Mr. Jones. On some level you may even be right. But the development was done legally with an environmental assessment, land use and building permits. You can’t expect them to stop it now, get rid of the houses already built.”

He looked at her with a burning intensity she found unnerving. “I’ll leave the houses there alone. But I’ll stop any further development.”

She shook her head. “I don’t see how. They’ve got all the legal-“

“I’ll prove my brother took bribes from AZK developments, I’ll show why this development is wrong. For my people, for yours. It should never have happened.”

She shook her head. “You’re delusional.”

“And I’m right. In your heart of hearts you know that. If you want me to show you what I’m talking about call this number.” He tossed a business card on the table. “Right now I think we’ve covered as much ground as possible tonight. I’ll wait for your call. Just don’t take too long.”

He left leaving more questions than answers.

In the real world figuring out who dunnit was sometimes a lot harder than the average cozy. Maxine would have sworn Jake Jones was the perfect villain. Now she wasn’t so sure. Where did the brother fit in? And what did Tanya know?

She invited herself over to Tanya’s’ who was in a blue funk. Her tiny, and Maxine did mean tiny, apartment had clothes swirled on the floor, dirty dishes on the counter and an unmade bed. Perhaps more alarmingly, Maxine could see an empty bottle of vodka. Tanya herself was listless and down.

“I’ll clean it up in a bit,” she’d said waving away Maxine’s efforts. “I just, I need some time,” she said blue eyes filled with tears.

“This is nuts,” Maxine said. “You’re my friend and you need help. You can stay with me for a few days.” Rail thin, Maxine could feel her bones, sharp beneath the thin top Tanya wore, and it scared her.

But Tanya only cried harder. “You don’t have to help me. I can look after myself.”

“Usually that’s true,” Maxine said, her own eyes filling with tears. “But everyone needs a friend sometimes. And I’m not leaving you here alone.”

She left the clothes on the floor and went to Tanya’s walk-in closet.

Leave it to Tanya she thought, to find the one bachelor in the city the size of a shoe box, but with its’ own walk-in closet. If Maxine hadn’t seen it for herself she wouldn’t have known it existed.

Now she quickly pulled jeans and an assortment of sweaters and shirts from the racks along with some flats and one pair of black heels. She couldn’t see Tanya needing anything too fancy for the next week but Tanya had been known to surprise her before.  Her hand reached out, grabbing a simple, yet elegant black dress from the racks. Done.

Tanya was half-heartedly putting shoes on. “It’s not necessary you know. The grief counsellor told me it would take a while. It’s all part of the process…”

Maxine wanted to tell her exactly what the grief counsellor was full of, but bit her tongue. This was not the best of times to pick an argument. Instead she said, “it doesn’t mean you have to go through it alone. You’re staying with me for a few days and that’s final.”

Fortunately Tanya hadn’t put up a fight. In no time at all, Maxine had her installed in her own small apartment. As she heated up some home-made minestrone soup and buns they talked. Or she talked, Tanya listened.

“So,” she said in summary, “Jake Jones is convinced AZK bribed the Indians, specifically his brother to look the other way. And maybe someone in the Environment Ministry as well. Some people will do anything to avoid reality.”

But Tanya, to her surprise, wasn’t leaping to Zak’s defense. Instead her long, tapered fingers twisted a napkin, worrying it until it started to disintegrate beneath her fingers.

“I do know he met with Matt. I mean we had dinner together.”

“Matt?”

“Jake Jones brother. He’s a nice guy. And funny. He had us all in stitches at times throughout the dinner. And his girlfriend was a sweetheart too. She reminded me of me when I was….younger. She’s done some modelling as well as competed in the First Nation games as a runner I think.” Tanya fell silent here and Maxine didn’t want to push her.

She also didn’t want to leave her alone and she had a cake delivery to make that night. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t see Tanya being ready or able to face the world and help her with the cake. Instead she enlisted the help of Grandma Ellie with a frantic text.

HELP!

Not exactly subtle but she was hoping Grandma Ellie had it on her and could read it if she did. She’d recently decided she needed to join the modern world and get a cell phone. The salesman had fitted her with a ‘seniors’ special’. Something Maxine hadn’t known existed but was apparently a simplified smart phone with a limited number of uses and a screen which displayed letters in a larger size than most.

“Readable,” as her Grandma Ellie had said. Clearly it was because within minutes she was knocking on Maxine’s door. She was peering over Maxine’s shoulder even as she answered the door.

“Grandma Ellie, it’s good to see you!”

“And you too, darling. I brought some cinnamon rolls. Oh, is that you, Tanya?” She peered around behind Maxine.

Tanya managed a smile for Grandma Ellie.

“I’m so dreadfully sorry for your loss. I did send a card but I haven’t seen you in person since…”

“It’s all right. I mean it wasn’t as if we were married or anything.”

Tanya’s voice sounded strained to Maxine and she wanted to hug her, to tell her it would be all right.

“It doesn’t matter if you were together one day or a lifetime,” Grandma Ellie said softly. “If you loved him it hurts. Come sit over here while I get you a cup of tea and we’ll talk. Or I’ll listen. I’m good at listening.”

“I thought he was the one,” Tanya blurted out. “I thought we were going to get married and live happily ever after.” She pounded the wall in front of her and Maxine looked on with concern.

Grandma Ellie only nodded at her. “You’ve got a cake to deliver. Tanya and I will talk while you’re gone.”

Maxine felt like a third wheel as she left to deliver the cake to Mrs. Birtwhistle’s 50
th
birthday celebration. She was glad Tanya wasn’t on her own and she’d long since learned to trust Grandma Ellie when the going got tough. But that didn’t mean she wanted to be left out of the loop.

As the family of Mrs. Birtwhistle oohed and awed over the cake and she set it up carefully she wondered how she could check out Matt Jones. The internet was good for a lot but somehow she didn’t think she’d find a site detailing bribes collected.

“It’s probably not how they phrase it but let’s check out the band’s website Heather said, fingers flying over the keyboard the next morning. Eagle First Nations had their own website. Why was she surprised? Assuming paperboys didn’t disappear entirely they’d probably have their own website soon.

Matt Jones was a handsome man in his early twenties. He stood out in whatever pictures featured him.

“Which could be good editing,” Heather pointed out.

“No amount of editing could give him that body,” Maxine pointed out while Ally almost drooled. And his face had dimples on each side. The man could be a serious heartbreaker. Beside him in almost every picture was a young woman in her mid-twenties who Maxine would almost guarantee was his girlfriend.

Tanya was right. She was stunning. Maxine felt a pang of guilt thinking about Tanya. She’d been afraid to leave her this morning but Grandma Ellie had told her she’d stay with her and to go. Now she didn’t know which worried her more.

That her friend needed her support and she wasn’t there for her or that Grandma Ellie was having to put all her activities on hold so that she could stay with her. They both agreed Tanya needed them.

“It says here her name is January Stevens. She’s a nurse and also heavily involved with the environment. Quote ‘Our elders worked with the natural trees and plants to heal our people. We need to protect that and honor our culture, our leaders.’

Heather clicked on another link that led to the band’s environmental efforts. It showed several pictures and Maxine felt a jolt when she recognized Travis’s face in several of them.

But what was Travis doing in the Eagle Band First Nation’s website?

“Actually there’s a fair number of non-native or First Nations people in all of the pictures,” Heather pointed out. “A lot of the environmental groups are working with First Nations groups to fight the pipeline and oil and gas tankers in our ocean waters.”

Maxine shuddered at the thought. No matter how safe developers and oil companies said the proposed tankers and pipelines were, Maxine couldn’t help thinking it was a disaster waiting to happen. She looked up as she heard footsteps on the stairs and saw Patrick.

“Jane said it would be OK,” he said. She could see the question in his eyes as her staff seemed to melt away leaving the two of them alone.

She smiled at him, while her heart sped up. Friends, that’s all they were. Friends. OK, so there had been that one night. Notably they hadn’t managed to find another night to practice self-defense since then.

He looked at the website they had up on the computer and groaned. “Maxine, when are you going to let this go? Let the police do their job-“

“Which,” Maxine said hotly, “doesn’t include looking into stolen dogs or accidents involving people I know.”

“You know as well as I do,” he said carefully, “that it’s not that easy. Besides I’ve done some investigating into missing dogs on my own. At $5000 a pop it’s a lucrative business,” he said grimly. “No one’s talking including Wendy. And if no one files a formal complaint we can’t do anything.”

“Wendy did file a report,” Maxine exclaimed. “She was upset because the police weren’t doing anything about it.”

“And if she was willing to admit Toto had been dognapped we could do something. But she insists Toto came back on his own. The neighbors say the dog appeared out of nowhere.” He gave a small smile. “The little girl still thinks she should be able to keep him.”

“Aww. I’m sure if they spoke to Wendy she’d be happy to let the little girl visit.”

“Still not helping,” Patrick grumbled. “You wouldn’t be willing to go on record would you?”

“You know I can’t,” she said. “I promised Wendy. If she found out I went behind her back she’d never speak to me again.”

“Maxine.” His voice was a growl but she knew it wasn’t directed at her. It was his frustration.

“Heather has said she knows of four other dogs that have gone missing though in the same neighborhood. She was going to talk to them if she could. I haven’t talked to her since she and Heath checked with neighbors in the area to see if they knew of missing pets.”

He raised his eyebrows. She couldn’t help feeling defensive. “You were the one who told me the police didn’t have the manpower to go after missing pets,” she pointed out as she called Heather over. Heath was out delivering cakes along with Marcus.

But not before Patrick said, “and don’t think I don’t know about your meeting with Jake Jones last night.”

She bristled. “So, it’s a free country. I can talk to whoever I want.”

“Have you been practicing any of the self-defense moves?”

“A few,” she said. “But my head still hurts and I’ve been so busy.”

“So, take a few days off,” he said. “It’ll give you a chance to recuperate. And maybe even some time to practice self-defense.”

“I’ll try,” she said although she wasn’t promising miracles. Until Halloween was officially over it was all hands on deck. And once Halloween was over they’d be busy with Christmas. It was the best of times for a caterer and the worst. It was definitely not a good time to put up your feet and relax.

“Of course,” she said, trying to keep it light. “I might be more likely if you took some time off too.”

“I wish,” he growled. “I’m busier than ever.” His eyes softened and the look he sent her could have melted butter. “Maybe we can take some time off, get to know each other better once this case is over.”

“Perhaps,” she said, her heart speeding up under his light touch.

Before there was any time for the two of them to talk though Heather had joined them. For once Maxine didn’t appreciate her smooth efficiency.

“Give me a minute,” Heather said, fingers flying over the keyboard. “You see, all the dognappings are within five miles of each other. She pointed at a google map with pins in it for each dog. In the center was a large red dot that the others all connected with.

Patrick looked at it with interest. “This is perfect. What’s at the center of the dot?”

Heather shrugged. “Nothing. It backs onto George Dents’ place but I’m pretty sure he’s not our dognapper.”

Patrick sighed heavily. “Convenient as that would be I think I agree with you there. That would’ve been too easy anyway.”

Maxine felt a burst of excitement zip through her. Why or how she didn’t know. But she had a hunch Travis Dent was involved. Proving it though, that might be a harder thing to do.

For now she smiled sweetly at Patrick and promised him she’d let him know if she found out anything.

Once he left she did a google search on Travis Dent. What she expected to come up with she wasn’t sure. A search under Maxine Peters came up with
Au Chocolate
and not much else.

A search under Travis Dent came up with four pictures and none of them resembled the Travis Dent she knew. Since they lived in the US, Australia and Nova Scotia, Canada she was pretty sure Travis didn’t either.

Next she typed in Travis Dent, Victoria and came up with air.

“Try Travis Dent, environment,” Heather said helpfully.

Google provided a few links. One consisted of a link to St. Anthony’s and a picture of Travis getting the Community Service award for his work with the environment group, Field and Streams, in improving fish habitat. It was the type of thing she could see Travis getting involved in.

And then there were the pictures of him with the Eagles First Nation group. Somehow she thought it would be a better idea to talk to someone in Field and Streams.

“Did you ever do up a brochure on
Au Chocolate
showing chocolate and dessert trays that could be ordered in advance?”