Murder At Tropical Cove Marina (Cozy Mystery) (Sea Cozy Mysteries Book 1) (6 page)

At first I hammered on the door. Then I did calisthenics, trying to keep warm, until I wore myself out and slumped on the freezer’s shelf, next to a crate of broccoli. I was frozen and shivering. An hour must have gone by and I heard a bang and clattering of pots and pans and could make out a few faint voices outside the freezer. I made out, “
Where is she?
” Was that Ethan’s voice or was I hallucinating and hearing things?  I was slowly freezing to death. My teeth were chattering like castanets. All of a sudden, the freezer door opened widely and slammed against a box of tartar sauce on the floor. I gave a little yelp of fear and jumped to my numb feet. It was Ethan! He stood there, framed by the doorway and surrounded by frosty mist, like some Nordic hero from the sagas. I rubbed my eyes and flicked my arm just to make sure that this was not a dream. It wasn’t, so I ran to him and embraced him. “Ethan! It so…oo..oo n..n..nice to..o…o s..s..see you.” My teeth chattered even more vigorously than before, and my body was shaking as if I was suffering from some sort of seizure.

“Are you ok, Maddie?” He crushed me to him before pushing me away to hold me by my upper arms. His gaze passed over my body before stopping at my face. “You’re freezing!” he shouted, as if I wasn’t already aware of the fact. Still holding onto me with one hand, he reached over to a jacket hanging on a hook on the wall. “Here. Put this on. You have to warm up a little.” He started rubbing my arms briskly to get the blood flowing. After a few minutes I started to feel the pins and needles as sensation returned to my limbs.  

“Thanks, Ethan. How did you find me?” I rubbed my hands together while I noticed they had Guz in the corner. His hands were cuffed behind his back.

“My phone rang and the caller ID was displaying your number but when I answered it, you didn’t respond. I said, ‘
Maddie, is that you? Hello can you hear me? Anyone there?’ 
But, uh, you didn’t answer. I kept hearing background noise like banging and clattering of pans. I even thought I heard an angry male voice, and a faint female voice. I couldn’t tell if it was you or not. But, uh, I was very worried for you. I knew that something wasn’t right. I put two and two together. You were at Guz’s place for the meeting and that you might be in some sort of danger. Maddie, you won’t believe this, but Guz confessed everything.”

“Confessed? The murder?”

Ethan said, “Here, let me help you with that.”  He wrapped his hands around mine and squeezed. “Does this help?”

I could feel the warmth of his hand penetrating the chill of my fingers. “Yep, that feels good.”

Ethan continued, “Apparently, Robert was making a little extra cash under the table harvesting stone crab claws for Guz. Guz was having Robert do it illegally though, by catching and keeping any size claws even female-bearing crabs’ claws. I guess Robert came with a bushel the evening of his death and demanded payment for that batch as well as past payments. But Guz was short on the green stuff.” He rubbed his two fingers and thumb back and forth—the obvious sign for money. “As Guz tells it, sales from the Crab House have been declining over the past 6 months, which were taking a toll on Guz. So, uh, Guz didn’t pay Robert for the last 3 shipments. So Robert got upset and threatened to go to the police about Guz’s illegal crabbing activities if he didn’t pay up. But, uh, Guz couldn’t let Robert take him down. Guz knew Robert was going to the Purple Monkey Tiki Bar for some drinks before he headed back to his boat for a few more brewskies.

“Oh, really.” I said.

So, uh, Guz decided it would be better to get rid of Robert someway. So he came up with a plot to kill Robert. He emptied the bottle of teak oil in his bottled beer, which was stowed away in Robert’s boat storage box. Guz knew that he kept the storage unlocked so he had perfect access. Guz also knew that Carol would be sound asleep and wouldn’t hear anything.” 

“So, Guz thought he could get away with the perfect murder, and he was going to let Carol take the blame.” I watched Ethan lead Guz out the restaurant and take him away for what I hoped would be a very long time.

As he walked by me, his gray, empty-looking eyes looked at me sadly, “Lo siento, lo siento, Mad-die.” 

I starred at him coldly; I had nothing to say to him.

I went down to the docks and talked with Carol Clive while she was cleaning and clearing stuff off her boat. She would be leaving this afternoon to head back to Canada so she could plan Robert’s funeral arrangements and be with her family.

“Hi, Maddie, Ethan told me all about your encounter with Guz last night and how and why he killed my husband. Now, I can rest assured and find peace that Robert’s killer was found. It is truly hard to believe that Guz would do such a thing. I will be praying to God so that I am able to forgive Guz for his sin. Mark 11, verse 25 says:
Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.
” She looked at me warmly. “God was with you, Maddie, and kept you safe.”

“Thank you, Carol. God bless you and have a safe trip. Will I see you next year?”

“Yes, most definitely. While I am gone for 6 months, Ms. Johnson is going to make arrangements to put my boat in storage down at Palm Boats and Sails for me. Mr. Albertson said while they had it in storage, they would go ahead and scrape the barnacles and oysters off the hull and give it a new coat of bottom paint. For free. That’s so truly Christian of them, isn’t it? See ya, Maddie and God be with you.”

“Bye,” I waved to her as I headed back to the marina with a tear in my eye. I said to myself, “
I am glad everything turned out ok for her and that they found the real killer.
”

I bumped into Ethan on the way back to the marina; he came to see Dusty and filled him in with the details since I had literally been tied up. Well, locked up, anyway.

“Hey Dad, Do you think I could have a moment or three with Ethan?”

“Sure honey.” My father walked away leaving us alone together.

“Hey Ethan, Do you remember when we were at Ms. Johnson’s trailer and she was reading us our fortunes? Well, I thought it was a bunch of bunk.”

“Yes, Maddie.” Ethan said as he raised his hand to wave at someone behind me. What about it?”

“Remember, Ms. Johnson said that she could sense trouble for me and that I would be in danger. And that someone would rescue me. It’s true, Ethan. I was in danger at Guz’s and you were the one to rescue me.”

“So true, so true, Maddie.”

“Well, I think it has some meaning to it.”

“You do?”

“So that means that you will rekindle a relationship from the past and Ethan, that is…” I hesitated
.

“You know, I can’t agree with you more.” Ethan gazed at someone behind me. A wide smile spread across his tanned face, and he said, “Hi there, Jessica.”

Thanks for reading MURDER AT TROPICAL COVE MARINA.

Don’t miss out on MURDER ON COCONUT ISLAND (Sea Cozy Mysteries Series); Book 2 coming out March 2015

Here is the SURPRISE Florida Style RECIPE

FOR QUICK TO MAKE TANGY-TASTING KEY LIME PIE

INGREDIENTS:

1 can of sweetened condensed milk.

4 large egg yolks beaten.

½ cup of lime juice (from a freshly squeezed lime or lime juice).  If you desire a tangier taste, you can add ¼ cup more lime juice.

Pre-made 9 in. graham cracker crust. Usually found in the baking aisles of stores.

1-2 drops of green food coloring.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
   

1. Combine the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and food coloring together. Mix well.
   

1. Pour into a graham cracker shell.
   

1. Bake in preheated over for 20 minutes. Allow to cool.
   

5. Top with whip crème and decorate with lime slices.

6.  Serve with a cup of coffee.

7.  Enjoy!