Blackmoore Sisters 01-Dead Wrong (9 page)

Instead of answering, Ed reached over and grabbed something on the other side of the door. Fiona heard a click. Her heart froze when she realized she was staring down the business end of a shotgun.

She held up both hands, palms out. “Whoa there Ed …”

Ed opened the screen door, advancing toward her. “I said git!”

Fiona backed down the steps, her hands still out in front of her, heart racing like a thoroughbred in the Kentucky Derby.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to upset you.” Fiona cautiously backed toward the direction of her truck. She remembered how Berta had said Ed was “gentle as a lamb”.
Gentle my ass.
With a temper like that, she could picture him easily strangling Prudence in a fit of rage.

Fiona whipped around, ready to break into a run but her escape was blocked when she smacked into a brick wall that she swore hadn’t been there before. At least it felt like a brick wall, but it wasn’t. It was a solid, un-moveable mass of muscle—Jake Cooper.

Fiona’s heart jerked in her chest. Jake put his hands on her waist to steady her and her stomach flip-flopped. Their eyes met just as she put her hand on his chest to push him away and she felt like time stood still.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. Fiona saw something flicker in his gray eyes. Amusement? Annoyance? Or was it something else?

“I … I was just giving my condolences to Ed.” Fiona sputtered.
Why did she feel like a child who got caught doing something wrong?
 

Jake bent down, lowering his voice so that Ed couldn’t hear him.
 

“Listen, Red. I know you’re trying to get information from Ed, but I think it’s best if you leave the interrogation to the experts.”

Fiona’s body tensed. There was nothing she hated more than someone trying to tell her what to do. She squirmed out of Jake’s grip and took a step back.

“I don’t need you telling me what to do. I have every right to extend my condolences to my neighbor.” She stomped off toward her truck, ignoring Ed who was yelling at her not to come back. When she got to the truck, she turned to see Jake staring after her.

“And don’t call me Red.” She yelled over her shoulder as she jumped into the driver’s seat, cranked the engine and sped off.

***

Jake stared after Fiona with an amused smile. She certainly was feisty. He liked that. His arms still tingled from when he had held her and looked down into her blue eyes. He wondered how those eyes could look both tough and vulnerable at the same time.
 

“What do
you
want?”

A voice shook him out of his thoughts and he turned to see Ed pointing the shotgun in his direction.

Jake felt a jolt of adrenalin rush through his veins. He held up his hands.

“Now Ed, put that thing down. I’m here on police business.”

Ed narrowed his eyes at him, then, noticing Jake was in uniform, lowered the gun to his side.

“I brought Prudence’s effects for you,” Jake said solemnly.

“Oh.” Ed lowered his head and Jake got a small box out of his car.

“Can we go inside?”

Ed nodded, leading the way up the steps and into the house.

The living room was simple, but clean. A plaid sofa sat against one wall, a lazy boy on the other. A small T.V. flickered images at the far end of the room. The coffee table held a cardboard pizza box and a bag of chips.
 

Ed motioned for Jake to sit on the couch and he did, gently placing the box on an empty spot on the coffee table in front of him.

Jake’s stomach tightened as he took out his notebook. He always hated this part. You never knew how people were going to react.
 

Jake thought about all the people he’d questioned as a detective in Boston. When he took this job, he figured those days were over, but the small town didn’t have a proper detective so the job fell to him, even if he didn’t have the title.

“I have a few questions to ask you, if you don’t mind.”
 

Ed sat in the chair on the other side of the room, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and surprised Jake with a question of his own.
 

“That Morgan Blackmoore, did she really kill my Prudy?” Ed wrinkled his brow at Jake.

Jake shrugged. “We don’t know. Do
you
think she did it? What would her motive be?”

Ed looked down at the floor. “Well, I don’ rightly know. I’ve known those Blackmoore girls since they were knee high. Morgan’s always been sweet as pie. That redhead though, Fiona … she’s a might bit meddlesome.” He glanced back at the front door and Jake couldn’t help but smile at his description of Fiona.

“I’m afraid I might’a lost my tempah a bit with her, but she was askin’ some personal questions.” Ed turned back to Jake. “Prudy had her differences with the Blackmoore family, but that’s been goin’ on since their grandma was around.”

“There’s no hard evidence that connects Morgan to the murder,” Jake said.

“But that newt?
 
Everyone said they argued in the cafe and Morgan said she’da turn Prudy into a newt.” Ed rubbed his stubble covered chin and narrowed his eyes at Jake. “D’ya think that Morgan really is a witch?”

Jake laughed. “Of course not.”
That was ridiculous, wasn’t it?

Ed chuckled and looked down at his feet. “Yeah, I guess that’s silly. But if not Morgan, then who?”

“That’s what we are trying to find out. Do you know of anyone that might have wanted Prudence dead?”

Ed looked up at Jake and scrunched his wrinkled face while he thought for a minute. “No. Not really. I mean, she wasn’t the easiest woman to get along with but I don’t think that’s a reason to kill someone. If t’were, someone woulda killed her a long time ago. ”

“How were the two of you getting along?”

Ed’s eyes went wide. “Hey, what are you tryin’ ta say?”

Jake held up his hands. “These are standard questions, Ed,” he said in a soothing voice. “I don’t mean anything by them … I have to ask.”

“Oh, okay then. We got along fine. Fightin’ like most couples at times.”

“What did you fight about?”

Ed swatted the air with his hand. “We argued about selling this place. Eli Stark wants to knock it down and build condo’s. I say take the money and enjoy it in our golden years, but Prudence wouldn’t hear of it. It was an on-going battle but nothing I’d kill her over, if that’s what cha’ thinkin’.” Ed looked up pointedly at Jake. “Besides, I was over at Cutty Marina when it happened. You can double check with them if you want.”

Jake scratched a note in his notebook. “Ed, do you know why Prudence was in the woods that morning?”

“That twan’t unusual. She did it every morning like clockwork; went for a walk down Shore Road, got a coffee at the cafe, then cut through the woods to get back home.”

“So anyone would have known she would be there at that time of the morning?”

Ed looked at Jake, nodding slowly. “Yep, I guess so. But why would someone want to kill her?”

“That’s what I intend to find out.”

Jake motioned to the box on the table. “I need you to sign for this. You should probably make sure everything is there.”

Ed stared at the box for a few seconds before slowly reaching over to pick it up. Jake could see his eyes filling with tears as he opened the lid. Ed did seem truly upset about his wife’s death, but he’d seen many killers that were good actors. He couldn’t cross him off the suspect list yet.

Lifting the lid of the small cardboard box, Ed reached in and took the items out one by one, laying them on the floor beside his chair.
 

Shirt, pants, shoes, wrist watch, socks. Ed pushed the rest of the items around in the box then jerked his head up to look at Jake.

“What’s going on here?”

Jake wrinkled his brow. “Huh?
 
What do you mean?”

“Everything’s not here.”

Jake got up crossing over to look in the box. “What’s missing?”

“Pru’s scarf. She always wore it. It had orange sunflowers on it.”

Jake remembered the anonymous tip about the scarf buried in Morgan’s garden.

“And her necklace.”

“Necklace?
 
What did it look like?”

“It was the letter ‘P’, for Prudence. In script. Darn thing was 18K gold. I gave it to her for her birthday. Cost me a pretty penny.”

“Are you sure she had it on that day?”

Ed nodded. “She wore it every day, wouldn’t leave the house without it.” Ed narrowed his eyes at Jake, his face turning cloudy. “Do you think someone at the station stole it?”

Jake took a step back. “I’ll surely check,” he said in his best soothing voice which seemed to calm Ed down a bit. “But if they aren’t at the station, and you don’t have them here, there’s only one possible explanation.”

“What’s that?”

“The killer has them.”

Fiona ripped open the door to
Sticks and Stones
. Inside Morgan looked over at her expectantly, her brow creasing when she noticed Fiona’s distress.

“What’s the matter?”

“Oh, nothing … well it’s that damned Jake Cooper,” she said storming into the shop and handing Morgan a tea from the cafe.

“What about him?”

“He showed up at Ed’s and told me to stay out of police business!” Fiona’s voice rose along with her anger as she paced the small shop.

“Come on, Fi, I’m sure he didn’t mean it the way you are taking it.” Morgan said soothingly while she searched her herb rack.

Fiona let out a sigh. Brushing the hair from her forehead she whirled to face Morgan.
 

“He did! And he called me Red. You know how I hate that.”

Her sister’s laughter only made Fiona angrier. She stood in the middle of the room, her feet planted firmly apart, glaring at Morgan.

“Sorry,” Morgan said covering her mouth with her hand, “but you’re acting like a child. Are you sure there isn’t something else going on?”

Fiona thought about her sister’s words as she took a sip of her latte. She did seem to get unusually angry at Jake. But that was because the man was annoying. What else could it be? Her brow furrowed as she remembered the warm tingle in her lower stomach when she had turned around to find herself practically in his arms.

“Here drink some of this.” Morgan took the latte from Fiona’s hand replacing it with a cup of herbal tea.
 

Fiona opened her mouth to protest, but Morgan raised her hand.

“Shush. This will help calm you. You can have the latte back later. Now tell me what you found out from Ed.”

Fiona felt her stomach drop. She leaned against the counter while Morgan went back behind it and took a seat.
 

“I’m sorry, Morgan. I didn’t really get any good information from him. He chased me out of there. Almost shot me, for crying out loud!”

“He did, why?” Morgan’s ice blue eyes were as big as plates.

“Well, it might have been because I asked him where he was when Prudence was strangled.” Fiona said sheepishly.

Morgan nodded. “Let me guess … you did that with your usual lack of tact?”

Fiona grimaced. “Yeah. That’s when he chased me out with his shotgun. I literally ran into Jake on the way out.”
 

Morgan blew out a breath and pulled her long ebony hair back off her neck. “Well, if Jake was there after you, maybe he got something useful from Ed.”

“Maybe. I still don’t know if I trust him. Why do you think he’ll be so helpful to us? Don’t tell me you have the hots for him?” Fiona stared at Morgan wondering why her stomach was twisted in knots waiting for her answer. Must be this tea, she thought, looking down into the cup.

“No. I almost wish I was. But since Luke … well … I just haven’t felt …” Morgan turned and looked out the window. Fiona’s heart ripped apart at the sadness on her sister’s face.
 

Luke Hunter had been Morgan’s high school sweetheart. They’d been a perfect couple from high school through their mid-twenties. Everyone assume they would get married, but then Luke felt the need to join the military to fight in the Middle East and he’d left Morgan back here with a broken heart.
 

Fiona wished her sister could move on, but part of her was glad that it wasn’t going to be with Jake Cooper. Which she convinced herself was because she didn’t quite trust him yet.

Morgan’s eyes narrowed in on something she saw out the window. “Hey, is that Belladonna?”

Fiona came over to the window, looking in the direction of Morgan’s gaze. She saw a white blur streak by. “I don’t know. Is it? What would she be doing here?”

“I have no idea. She does seem to keep turning up here, though. I’ll have to talk to Jolene about it. I’m worried Belladonna could get hurt coming all the way from our house with the traffic and all.”

Fiona’s stomach clenched picturing Belladonna dodging traffic on the busy main road. Their house was about a mile away.
Was that a long way for a cat to go?