Killer Colada: a Danger Cove Cocktail Mystery (2 page)

I shifted in my seat and waved a hand in front of Ruby's glazed eyes. "What? What's going on?"

Ruby was silent for a while, lost in her own thoughts. "Tim Baxtor…" she started, then trailed off again.

I waited for her to carry on, but she didn't, so I turned to look at the house again, giving her a moment to collect herself.

Ruby finally sprang to attention, unbuckling her seat belt and almost springing out of the car like a caged cougar with the promise of freedom. "I've got to check on Pandora."

Confused, I followed her up the path. Judging by Ruby's expression, this Tim Baxtor person seemed like bad news.

Ruby knocked on the partially open door. "Hello? Pandora? Are you there?"

No reply.

Ruby pushed the door open further. It creaked ominously as it swung an arc, hitting the wall behind. "Pandora?" She stepped into a large hallway with a worn and slightly grubby oatmeal-colored carpet. "Pandora? Are you okay?"

We were still met with silence.

Ruby glanced at me. "Something's wrong."

"Do you think that guy has done something to Pandora?" I asked again.

She flapped a hand to silence me and rushed to the first door on the right, which was closed. She pushed it open so hard she almost fell flat on her face with the momentum. I glanced around. It was a living room with two old, faded floral sofas opposite each other. There were photos of a beautiful young blonde woman in frames on every available surface.

Ruby turned and bumped into me, then rushed to the room opposite, swinging the door open. "Pandora? Where are you?"

Before I had time to have a look over her shoulder, she was off again, heading toward an archway that led to the kitchen at the back of the house.

"Oh no!" Ruby's hands flew to her cheeks, and she stopped in her tracks by the fridge. "Pandora!"

I stepped through the archway and saw what she was looking at.

A very thin, petite woman was slumped over a teak dining table, bent over from the waist, her forehead resting on the table.

Ruby was frozen to the spot, so I ran toward Pandora. I'd learned first aid when I was volunteering at a Thai hospital after the horrific Tsunami in 2004, so I pressed my fingertips to her neck, feeling for a pulse. There wasn't one, but her skin was still warm. Gently, I lifted Pandora's torso so I could get a better look. Her eyes were wide open in a death stare. She wasn't breathing. There was a syringe with a small amount of liquid still inside stuck in the vein at her elbow. A glass vial was on the table, and under her chair was an empty plastic syringe wrapper.

"Call 9-1-1," I shouted, which seemed to spur Ruby into action.

She fumbled in her bag to pull out her cell phone, speaking into it in short, sharp bursts.

I maneuvered Pandora onto her back on the floor, kneeling next to her to perform CPR, the chair she'd been sitting on clattering down beside us. Placing one hand over the center of her chest and the other on top, I used my upper body weight to perform chest compressions. There were still no signs of life, so using a head tilt, I gently lifted her chin to open her airway. She wasn't breathing. I gave one mouth-to-mouth rescue breath, pinching her nostrils shut. Her chest didn't rise, so I gave another, then resumed chest compressions, arms aching, adrenaline coursing wildly through me, before going through another cycle of breathing.

When I saw two paramedics rush into the room, I finally sat back onto my heels and blew away a braid of hair that had become plastered to my forehead with sweat. I told them how we'd found her and what medical intervention I'd done, and they took over.

"Poor Pandora." Ruby shook her head while the paramedics worked on her.

I hugged Ruby toward me and watched until they stopped, knowing any further attempts to revive her were futile. Finally, they stood. One of them spoke into his radio while I wondered what had happened to Pandora. A drug overdose? Was she diabetic and miscalculated her insulin? No, that couldn't be right since the needle was in her vein. Whatever it was, I hoped it was quick and painless for her.

My gaze caught on the two tumbler glasses sitting on top of the table next to the glass vial. One was half full of clear liquid. Another, in front of where Pandora's head had been resting, was empty, but the remnants of the same liquid coated the glass. An almost empty bottle of white rum stood in the middle of the table.

"Police are on their way," one of the paramedics said to us as they packed away their equipment.

"Police." Ruby nodded vaguely, then sniffed. "It was Tim. I know it. Tim Baxtor killed her. He was just here."

"We don't know what's happened yet. You'll need to talk to the officers when they get here," the other one said. "I'm sorry for your loss."

I noticed the rear patio door that led to the garden was open. Suddenly wanting to gulp in some fresh air and get away from the sad sight of Pandora, I grabbed Ruby's hand, which was cold, and pulled her into the garden, being careful not to touch anything else. "Let's wait out here." I guided her into a gray mesh chair around a glass-topped table under an umbrella. "Why do you think it's this Tim person?" I asked Ruby. "Why would he want to hurt Pandora?"

"It's a long story." Ruby bit her lip.

I squeezed her hand.

"About twenty years ago, Pandora's daughter, Jenna, disappeared. I wasn't in town at the time. I was at a yoga retreat in Bali when it happened, and I didn't know Pandora at that time. It was years later when I met her, after she began doing her holistic treatments again, probably ten years ago or so."

I sat down next to Ruby.

"Anyway, Jenna was engaged to Tim Baxtor, but apparently she was having second thoughts about him and had decided to break it off. It was the night of the Danger Cove Fourth of July fair, so most of the people were on the other side of town in Main Street, where various stalls and attractions had been set up and fireworks were going off. Jenna told Pandora she was going to meet Tim and tell him it was over between them. Then she'd catch up with her back at the fair. But Jenna never returned. No one ever saw her again."

I gasped. And before Ruby could say anymore, my worst nightmare appeared.

Detective Lester Marshall. Great.

When I'd found Bob's body, Lester was convinced I'd murdered him to gain access to his fortune. Lester had done everything he could to try to pin it on me, and I'd nearly ended up singing the "Jailhouse Rock" in a hideous orange prison jumpsuit. Now here I was again, at the scene of another death. One that my fingerprints would now be all over.

Uh-oh!

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here." Lester headed toward me with his usual obnoxious swagger. If he were an animal, he'd be a gorilla—short, chunky, thick neck, macho. Maybe just a little less hairy though. "Another suspicious death, and you're in the thick of it again. You're like some kind of death magnet."

See, what did I tell you about the whole death-magnet thing?

He jabbed a stubby finger in my direction with a triumphant gleam in his eye. I could practically hear the cogs of his brain turning as he was working out how to pin this one on me, too, so he could notch up another arrest and get back to reading the paper and drinking coffee.

My stomach lurched up to my throat. "Yes, well, we can explain what we're doing here." I stood up, forcing myself to exude confidence.

He folded his arms in front of his chest, and I noticed a stain of what looked like black-currant jelly on the elbow of his shirt. A few crumbs adhered to his chin. "I can't wait to hear all about it." He raised mocking eyebrows at me.

"Oh, don't be so ridiculous, Detective." Ruby glared at him. "We both arrived and found Pandora like that."

"You don't say?" Lester tilted his head, giving us a
this should be good
expression.

"I
do
say, actually." Ruby's lifted her chin defiantly.

"Well, I'm all ears."

"Um…can I sit down again?" I nodded toward the chair. The adrenaline from trying to save Pandora had worn off, and I was trembling.

Lester pulled out a chair and sat down. He leaned back and resumed his arm-crossing position, giving me the beady eye. "Right. What's your story? How come you turned up at a second suspicious death in the space of two months?"

"We were due for a crystal healing appointment with Pandora at four," Ruby started. "As we pulled up outside, we saw Tim Baxtor leaving the house in a hurry. He looked…I don't know, a bit crazed."

"Crazed?" Lester looked pointedly at me, as if I knew all about being "crazed." "Right. Then what happened?"

"Well, I was in shock at seeing him there, and I was trying to get my head round it for a moment, so we sat in the car for a little while. Oh no!" She threw her head in her hands. "If only we'd gone in sooner, we might've been able to save her. It was my fault."

"It wasn't your fault," I said, rubbing Ruby's back. "You couldn't have known what was going on inside the house." I turned to Lester. "When we rushed inside, we found Pandora in the kitchen. She was slumped over the table, and I couldn't feel a pulse. I managed to get her on the floor and attempted CPR, but she was already dead."

"And you knew she was already dead, how? Did you kill her?"

"Of course not!"

"Weren't you listening?" Ruby dropped her hands to her lap. "Usually, when there's no pulse, it means someone is dead."

"We'll see about that. Are you both doctors?"

"Um…no." I clenched and unclenched my fists to try to stop them from shaking.

"Exactly." Lester placed his elbows on the table and leaned forward, keeping eye contact with me.

"It's not us you need to speak to," Ruby said. "It's Tim Baxtor. He was here just before we found her, and Pandora and Tim didn't get along."

Lester turned his attention to Ruby. "Really? And why is that?"

"It's a long story, and an old one."

Lester jerked his head in the direction of the house. "It looks like Pandora's not going anywhere at the moment, so I think we've got time for you to tell me."

Ruby narrowed her eyes at his insensitivity. "Twenty years ago Pandora's daughter, Jenna, disappeared."

"And why is that relevant?" Lester looked bored.

"If you'll let me
finish
, I'll tell you why."

Lester waved a hand for her to continue.

"Tim was engaged to Jenna, but she started having second thoughts about their relationship. She was going to break things off with him, but then she disappeared suddenly and was never heard from again. Detective Ohlsen investigated, and he couldn't find any evidence of foul play, but Pandora always believed Tim Baxtor had killed Jenna."

Lester whistled, looking intrigued. His eyes gleamed with excitement. Knowing him, he was probably thinking how he had a nice open-and-shut case he could tie up before the next round of donuts. "I never heard that story."

"You were probably in diapers when it happened," Ruby said. "Anyway, over the years, I think Bud kept an eye out in case there was ever any trace of Jenna, but nothing happened. She'd just vanished."

"How awful," I said.

"Consequently, Pandora hated Tim and publicly accused him in the past of murdering her daughter," Ruby carried on. "So there's absolutely no way he should have been here.
And
when we saw him practically running away, he looked highly suspicious. He must've somehow killed Pandora to shut her up once and for all."

At that moment the medical examiner, Catherine Cooper, came to the patio doors. She spotted Lester, and a flash of irritation crossed her face. Even she thought he was an ass. She took a breath of what looked like resignation and walked toward us. "Detective." She gave him a curt nod of acknowledgement, then looked between Ruby and me. "I understand one of you found the body and performed CPR?"

"Yes, that was me."

"Can you show me exactly what position she was in when you found her and what you did?"

"Of course." We all followed her into the kitchen, and I explained what we'd seen and what I'd done.

Catherine asked a few questions to clarify and then nodded before kneeling down to examine the body.

Ruby looked away from Pandora's lifeless body.

"What time did you arrive?" Lester asked us.

"Just before four," I said. "That's when our appointment was."

"And tell me again what that therapy thing was?"

"Crystal healing," Ruby said.

"Crystal what?" Lester frowned. "What the hell's that kind of freakery? What's wrong with going to a doctor or pharmacist when you're ill?"

Ruby sighed and looked as if she'd like to batter Lester with a very large, very heavy crystal. "Since Tim Baxtor is a pharmacist, probably a lot."

"So Pandora was a drug addict?" Lester eyed the needle in Pandora's vein.

"Stop jumping to conclusions again, Detective." Ruby sighed. "Pandora was into healthy, holistic treatments. I never knew her to take anything other than herbal remedies for things. She was most definitely not a drug addict."

Catherine sat back on her heels and glanced at the kitchen table. She picked up the empty tumbler with a gloved hand and stared into it with deep concentration before taking a sniff. She picked up the glass vial on the floor and read the label.

"I don't know why you're wasting time talking to us," Ruby said. "You need to get out there and find Tim Baxtor."

Her voice dragged my gaze back to Lester.

"This is my investigation," he said. "So we'll be doing things in my time."

God help us!

"Did Mr. Baxtor leave on foot or by vehicle?"

"On foot."

"And you say he looked agitated and suspicious?"

"Yes, very," Ruby replied.

The cogs in Lester's brain squeaked again for a moment before he said, "Okay, you can go. For now. Don't leave town. I'll need to speak to you again."

Oh, what joy. I can't wait.

Just as Ruby and I walked down the hallway, I heard Catherine's voice, loud and clear, saying, "I won't know the cause of death for certain until I do the postmortem and toxicology, but this stuff is lethal."