Kelly's Koffee Shop (A Cedar Bay Cozy Mystey Book 1) (16 page)

“Kelly, do me a favor. If
you decide to do it, and I don’t think it’s a good idea, have Mike go with you.
Might be a whole lot safer for you to have someone with you who has a gun.
Remember, if it’s Chris, he’s already murdered once, so a second murder would
probably seem much easier to him. Promise?”

“Okay,” she said as she
mentally crossed her fingers. “Doc, one other thing. Seems like a shame to
waste your medical knowledge. Do you know much about alcohol abuse?”

“Of course. Like any
doctor, a number of my patients were alcoholics. I’m very familiar with
addiction. Why?”

“You know Madison, the
young woman who replaced Amber at the coffee shop? The one I just told you I’ve
pretty much eliminated as a suspect? Well, her father drinks too much and has
even hit her when he’s drunk. I was wondering if you could do something. I know
you want to stay off the grid, but maybe it’s time you became active in our
town. Maybe you could do some counselling at the church or work with the psychologist
in town as a volunteer. For some reason, I think maybe you could help him.”

“Let me think about it. I
kind of like my privacy, but I admit I am getting a little bored. Before you
go, I need to give Rebel a treat.” As soon as he heard the word ‘treat,’ Rebel
got up and followed Doc into the kitchen. Kelly didn’t even try to stop him.
She was mentally planning how she was going to handle what might happen in the
next hour.

“I’ll see you tomorrow and
I’ll think about how I might be able to help Madison’s father, but one of the
main things in dealing with an alcoholic is getting them to admit they need
help. Doesn’t sound like he’s quite there yet.”

She kissed him on the
cheek. “Doc, I knew you didn’t do it. I just need to find out who did do it and
right now I think we both know who that person is.”

As soon as Kelly pulled
out of the driveway, Doc called Mike. “Sheriff, this is Doc. I’m concerned that
Kelly is going to do something really dangerous. She’s been at my place for the
last hour and told me everything she knows and I shared some things with her
that I hadn’t told her before. She and I are both pretty sure we know who the
killer is and I’m afraid she’s going to confront him by herself. She promised
me she’d take you with her, but I’ve been around people long enough to know
when they’re lying to me, and I can almost guarantee you that she lied to me
about that.”

“Why was Kelly out at your
place?” Mike asked in an angry tone of voice.

“She didn’t think I was
the killer and hoped her intuition was right. She told me she’d decided to
confront me with what she knew and see what I said.”

“That woman is driving me
nuts,” he said in an exasperated voice. “Okay, I’ll wait until she gets home
and talk to her about it.”

“Hate to butt in, Sheriff,
but I don’t think I’d do that if I were you. I have a feeling there’s no time
to waste. I like Kelly and I want to help. How about if I meet you at your
office as soon as I can get there? I’ll fill you in then. I don’t want to waste
any more time on the phone. See you in a few minutes.”

Before leaving to meet
Mike, Doc walked into his bedroom and took his Glock nine millimeter pistol
from the nightstand drawer where he kept it. He hadn’t told Kelly, but even
though he couldn’t swim, and wasn’t allowed to participate in any type of
sport, his parents had insisted he become a crack marksman. They believed in
the Second Amendment and had been lifelong members of the National Rifle
Association. He tucked the pistol in his belt under the Pendleton shirt he
wore. No one would be able to see it.

Rebel was so well-trained it was rare
that Kelly ever put him on a leash unless it was some place that absolutely
required it. She parked her minivan in its usual place not far from the coffee
shop. She opened the door for Rebel and he jumped out and started towards the
coffee shop. As usual, he was off leash.

“Not tonight, Rebel. This
way.” She motioned with her hand and walked down the marina gangway, the only
sounds coming from the happy hour crowd at the yacht club. When she got to the
bottom of the gangway, she was almost knocked into the water by a young man who
rushed past her and ran up the gangway. She stood for a moment, trying to get
her balance back then she looked back up the gangway to see if she knew who he
was.

I don’t recognize him.
Wonder if he’s from around here. I didn’t see his face, but from the way he
walks and carries himself, he looks like he’s probably in his early 20’s.
Rebel stood next to her,
guard hairs standing on end. She reached down and petted him.

“Hey, boy, easy. I’m
okay.” She heard a low rumbling sound coming from his chest. He stood next to
her, looking at the back of the young man as he hurried into the parking lot.
That’s
so strange. Rebel’s never done that before. Wonder what’s up with him.

“Come on Rebel. We’ve got
work to do.” She walked by several boats tied up to the floating dock, and had
just turned down a finger of the dock that led to Chris’s boat when Rebel
stopped, blocking her path. He pushed at her legs with his strong body, making
her back up and turn towards the second finger of the dock. He walked down it
to the third boat and began growling again. Kelly had no choice but to follow
him. “Rebel, what are you doing?” she whispered. “I don’t want to be seen.”

It was as if she hadn’t
even spoken. Rebel jumped onto the gunwale of the boat, continuing to growl. He
looked back at her. “You want me to get on the boat? Is that what this is
about?” she asked.

Kelly remembered his early
days as a drug dog.
I wonder if he smells something on the boat. Maybe I
should call Mike. Right! He’d tell me to get off the boat before someone shoots
both of us and he probably wouldn’t be too far wrong.

She looked through the
boat’s open glass door and didn’t see anyone inside. Lights were on, but it
appeared to be empty.
That’s strange
, she thought.
Chris told me
there were only a few people living on their boats and this must be one, but
why would someone leave their boat unlocked with the door to the cabin open and
the lights on?
 She remembered almost being shoved in the water by a young
man as he was running up the gangway.
Maybe this is his boat, but
I
wonder why he had to leave in such a hurry.

She and Rebel stepped
inside the empty cabin of the boat
.
Rebel sniffed, growled, and then walked
over to the side of the boat where a long bench was covered with upholstered
pillows so it could be used for seating with storage underneath the seat. Rebel
turned and looked up at Kelly expectantly. “Okay, I’ll open it, but then we
need to get out of here. Deal?”

She removed the two
cream-colored pillows from the top of the bench seat and pulled up on the
handle. When it swung open, she gasped and staggered back in shock. She
couldn’t believe what she’d just seen in the storage compartment. She was completely
unnerved. Screwing up her courage, she looked inside again. Sure enough, there
it was, a larger than life blown up nude photograph of Amber looking back at
her with a large smile. She felt sick to her stomach
. Child, we never knew
you
, she thought.

The interior of the
storage bench contained some type of white powder residue and what looked like
marijuana packaged in small baggies. Rebel continued to growl.
I’ve got to
call Mike. Why would an erotic nude photograph of Amber be in here?

Rebel suddenly barked
aggressively and turned toward the open glass door of the boat. She followed
his gaze and saw a large shadow immediately turn into the young man she’d seen
a few minutes earlier on the gangway. Rebel stood between her and the man.

“What are you and that dog
doing in here? You’re trespassing. I’m tempted to call the sheriff.”

Kelly took a long look at
the young man in front of her. He had sea green eyes which were dilated and
red-rimmed. Oily sandy hair, badly in need of being washed, hung down below his
ears. From the looks of him he hadn’t shaved for several days. “I wish you
would call the sheriff, but first I’d like to know why you have a photograph of
Amber.”

“She was a friend of mine.
How do you know her?” he asked.

“She was my godchild and
she worked for me.”

“Oh, yeah. She talked
about you. You must be Kelly, the one who owns the coffee shop.”

“I am and you are…”

“Name’s Derek.”

She could tell by his body
mannerisms and blinking eyes that he was under the influence of drugs. She
couldn’t figure out why he would have Amber’s picture and why Amber had never
mentioned him if he was someone important enough to her that she’d allowed him
to take a suggestive photograph of her in the nude.

Kelly looked past him and
saw a small dinghy side-tied to his boat. Suddenly, it was like dominoes were
tumbling one over the other in her brain. She knew who had killed Amber and
why. It wasn’t Chris after all; it was this young man standing in front of her.
She put her hand in her pocket and secretly turned on the small recorder she’d
put there earlier to record her expected conversation with Chris.

“You’re the one who killed
Amber, aren’t you?” she blurted out.

He walked over to the
drawer next to the pull-out dining table and took a pistol from it. When he
turned back he said, “Keep that dog next to you. Looks like I’m going to have
to do the same thing to you I did to Amber, but you know that, don’t you?” He
pointed the gun at them. “If you or the dog tries anything, I’ll shoot you.
I’ve got a silencer on this gun, so it won’t make any noise. Just don’t try
anything.”

She gave Rebel the stay
command. “Why did you kill Amber? How did you meet her?”

“Might as well tell you
since you won’t be around to tell anyone else. I finished college in January
and decided to take a few months off. My aunt said I could live on her boat for
awhile. Gets lonesome out here all by myself.  I like to read and one day when
I was at the bookstore her mother owns I met her. We talked and I asked her to
come out to the boat some time. She came that afternoon. Turns out she was hot,
I mean really hot. I had her in bed in less than an hour. We had us quite a
little affair going on for several weeks. Got her to pose in the nude for me
while I took some photos. That was a couple of months ago.

“Yeah, I killed her. Dumb
kid went and got herself knocked up. Thought I was the father. She came to my
boat early one morning to tell me she was pregnant and asked me if I’d marry
her. Like I’d marry anybody! Got some big plans I’m makin’ and she wasn’t a
part of them. Gonna miss her.”

“I’ll bet you are. Who’s
your aunt?”

“Dottie Jones.”

“You’re Dottie’s nephew?”
she said, trying to reconcile this drugged-up young man with the warm,
conservative woman she knew as Dottie.

“Yeah. My mom’s her
sister.”

Of course Dottie would
have found the blue ribbon on the gangway. It was probably just a few feet from
his boat. Amber gave it to Derek and he probably lost it while he was stoned.
It all makes sense.

“
You almost knocked me into
the water a little while ago. Where were you going so fast?”

“Met a man when I first
came here that comes by once a week to sell me some things I need. His stuff is
some of the best I’ve ever had and it keeps me stoked, if you know what I mean.
Looked at my watch and realized I was going to miss him if I didn’t hurry.
Didn’t have time for niceties. It was important that I see him so I could make
a buy.”

“I see. Derek, I can
understand why you didn’t want to marry Amber, but why did you have to kill
her? Couldn’t you just have left town? Was she in love with you?”

“Yeah, dumb little twit
told me she loved me every time she came out here. Even though she knew I
wasn’t the kind to settle down with a wife and a baby, I think she had this
fantasy that we’d be the perfect family. Kind of a thing where we’d all sing
kumbaya. We did a lot of drugs when we first got together, but the last few
weeks, she pretty much stopped. Guess it was because she knew she was pregnant.
Probably heard that drugs aren’t real good for a baby’s health.”

Drugs? Hot? Nude photos?
Amber? This is a side of her I never saw and I hope her parents and everyone
else never hear about it.

“Weren’t you afraid
someone would find out about you?”

“How could they? She sure
wasn’t going to tell people about me, her being so pure and the town sweetheart
along with that boyfriend of hers. She told me about him and he sounded like a
real wuss. He may have been the star of the football team, but she told me I
was a lot more of a man than he was. Sex with Amber was good. I’m going to miss
that.”

“How did you kill her?”

“It was easy. She told me
she was pregnant and was sure it was my baby. I told her how happy I was about
it and that we should get married as soon as possible. I told her we needed to
spend a little time together, if you know what I mean, and celebrate our baby.
The rest was easy. While she was in bed, I told her I had to go to the head. I
got one of my weights and put it behind my back. I kissed her and then hit her
on the head with it as hard as I could. She didn’t know anything from then on.
I didn’t want to shoot her because there’d be blood on the boat and my aunt is
a real clean freak.”