Real Estate and Murder (A Port Grace Cozy Mystery Book 1) (5 page)

S
he sat
with her father in silence for a few minutes, facts and clues swirling in her head.

“I need to make a phone call,” she told Bill.

She retreated once again to her father’s bedroom and called Chief Harris on the personal number he’d given her a few days before. She felt a little awkward about it.

“Georgia, what a pleasant surprise,” said Cooper.

“I would have called the office, but I assumed you’d be at home by now.”

“That’s what I gave you the number for.”

“Right,” said Georgia, hating the awkwardness in her voice. “I’ve got quite a bit to tell you.”

She launched into the story about her conversation with Cynthia, her suspicion that Cynthia had indeed had an affair with Bruce but was still smitten, her conclusion that Victoria would have the most motive if she’d found out, Ryan’s discovery that Cynthia and Delia had lied about knowing each other, and her latest conversation with her father.

“What do you make of it all?” she said, a little out of breath.

“I think Ryan could be onto something about Delia hiring her secret boyfriend to get Bruce out of the way so she could get his job,” said Cooper. “If Bruce had a thing for Delia, it would be easier for her to let her boyfriend get close to Bruce. But none of this explains her alibi. We need to question all three of them again and see if any of them left the bar for any amount of time. If we find out one woman went missing for a bit that night, I think we will have found our killer.”

“Can I tag along for the interviews?”

“Sure. We’ll get started tomorrow,” said Cooper.

“Great! Thanks Ch—Cooper. Got to run. I’ll—”

“Wait!” Cooper cleared his throat. “Uh, Georgia, maybe tomorrow, after the interviews…”

Georgia felt a slight flutter in her stomach. It had been a long time since she’d been asked out on a date.

“Maybe you’d want to get dinner with me,” said Cooper, and Georgia was flattered to hear the nervous hope in his voice. “I know a really great Italian place in the next town over.”

Georgia bit her lip, hesitating. Was it really a good idea to go on a date with the Port Grace police chief she was casually working with? She would be returning to New York as soon as she found a new manager. Why start something if it couldn’t last?

Because I need to have some fun,
she thought.

“What time should I be ready?”

G
eorgia woke
up in her father’s spare bedroom with a slight hangover from a great night with Ryan and her father: watching the
Godfather
, eating pizza, and talking about anything and everything. She figured she must have fallen asleep downstairs on the couch, because the last thing she remembered was having a ludicrous argument with Ryan about the differences between turtles and tortoises. Ryan must have carried her up here, because her father couldn’t do that anymore. The thought made her smile.

She lay on her back in bed, glad it was Saturday and she didn’t have to go into the office. She got a little giddy when she remembered her date with Cooper, and suddenly she couldn’t lie still.

She went downstairs wearing the clothes from the night before. Mittens jumped up on the counter to greet her as she started making coffee. With the coffee maker bubbling and steaming, Georgia opened a can of cat food for Mittens, who thanked her by purring as she did a figure eight through Georgia’s legs on her way to the food.

Georgia nearly had breakfast ready by the time her father came downstairs.

“Wow. Smells great in here,” said Bill through a yawn. “What are you making?”

“Omelets with peppers and spinach, bacon, and strawberry pancakes. It’ll be ready in a minute. Go ahead and sit down.”

Bill eagerly obeyed and said, “Sounds great! I haven’t had a big Saturday morning breakfast in ages. I’m happy to give Rosy the weekends off, but I sure do miss her cooking. She leaves me leftovers, of course, but not breakfast food. It doesn’t keep.”

“Yeah, well, I know how much you love your breakfast,” said Georgia as she set a full plate in front of him.

Bill rubbed his hands together in delight as he looked down at the plate, but just before he could reach out and grab a piece of bacon, Mittens flew up on the table and snatched both pieces out from under his fingers.

“Hey!” said Bill.

Georgia yelled at Mittens, but she leapt off the table and streaked out of the patio door Georgia had left cracked open to let in the fresh sea air.

“The cat just stole my bacon!” said Bill, a mixture of outrage and bitter disappointment on his face as he pointed to the place Mittens had vanished.

He looked at Georgia with big, sad eyes, like a child who did not understand why he had been punished, and Georgia couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“It’s not funny, Georgia!”

“Don’t worry, Daddy!” said Georgia through her laughter. “I’ve got more bacon.”

She put two more pieces on his plate. He picked one up and took a bite.

He chuckled and said, “I guess it was a little funny.”

They finished breakfast in peace, but Mittens was not done with her hijinks for the day. The mischievous tabby was in top form.

After breakfast, Georgia walked down the road to her own home to change into shorts and a T-shirt. When she returned, she heard the showering running upstairs and settled in with a paperback on the living room couch. She’d only gotten a few pages in, however, when her father screamed from the shower.

Georgia shot up from the couch and was halfway up the stairs before Bill yelled, “Get out of here, you crazy feline!”

Georgia went to one knee on the stairs, clutching the bannister in a fit of hysterical giggles.

“Drop that! Quit it! I thought cats hated water.”

Georgia made it to the master bathroom just as Mittens began yowling and chattering in protest and Bill started yelling, “Take that! Don’t like that, do you, kitty? Get out of here.”

“Dad?” said Georgia, rapping on the bathroom door.

“Georgia! Thank goodness. Come get this nutty cat! She’s jumped in my shower, and every time I throw her out, she just comes right back in.”

“I’m not coming in there while you’re in the shower,” said Georgia.

“Georgia, she’s playing with the soap. She’s gotten it all slippery in here. I’m going to slip and bust a hip if you don’t get in here.”

“Daddy, you are not that old!”

“I am when it’s convenient to me.”

Georgia laughed and said, “Don’t I know it. Put a towel on and I’ll come in and get her.”

There was some shuffling and thumping and meowing, and then Bill said, “All right, I’m decent. Hurry up.”

When Georgia opened the door, Mittens ran up to her and yowled as if to say, “Look what he did, Mother!”

Mittens was soaked, and lines of blue, half foamy shampoo ran all down her back.

“You squirted her with shampoo?” said Georgia, one eyebrow raised and a hand on her hip.

“She wouldn’t get out,” said Bill with a shrug.

Once Georgia had rinsed Mittens off, she called Cooper. When he answered, she heard sirens and the blare of horns.

“Where are you?”

“The middle of the highway,” said Cooper loudly enough to make Georgia flinch. “A semi flipped over just outside town, took out a sedan with it. Flat-screens went all over the road, and it turns out they’re stolen merchandise.”

“Oh my God!”

“Yeah. It’s a mess.”

“So, I guess that means the interviews will have to wait.”

“Looks like it. But don’t worry. Our date is still on, come hell or high water.”

Despite her disappointment about the interviews, Georgia felt herself blush.

“I’ll be waiting.”

“Great! Sorry, but I have to go.”

With her day now free, Georgia and Bill went sailing on Bill’s boat for most of the day, eating a packed lunch out on open sea. Georgia returned to her own house feeling refreshed and excited for her date, despite her apprehensions. With Mittens safely settled on her scratching post, Georgia got ready for her date.

She had just finished her makeup and was about to put on the amethyst and diamond earrings that matched her dark purple silk blouse when the doorbell rang.

“Ryan! What’s up?” said Georgia when she answered the door.

“Got a call for a big job today back in New York,” said Ryan. “I’m going to have to head back tomorrow, so I wanted to come over to say goodbye and…maybe talk about a few things. Maybe over dinner?”

Georgia bit her lip. “Oh, Ryan, I’d love to, but I already have plans. Cooper, I mean Chief Harris, is going to be here in just a few minutes actually.”

“You have plans with Harris?”

“He asked me out to dinner yesterday. I really can’t blow him off.”

“Oh, yeah, of course not,” said Ryan, shoving his hands into his trench coat pockets. “Well, see you later, doll face.”

Georgia hugged Ryan and said, “I’ll be back in New York soon. We’ll talk then.”

“Sure.”

Georgia couldn’t help but notice that he walked away without his usual confident swagger.

“
T
urns
out the guy was linked to an FBI case,” said Cooper, closing his menu. “The feds are coming to pick him up tomorrow.”

“Wow,” said Georgia in between sips of her wine. “So, you’re even more of a hotshot now, right?”

Cooper laughed, his smile bright enough to hold Georgia’s full attention. The date was going unexpectedly well so far. He’d been right on time and had brought her a bouquet of daffodils he’d picked from his mother’s garden. “You should have heard the inquisition I got when I went over to get them,” he’d told her with a laugh. The restaurant was intimate and cozy, but bright, and the smells coming from the kitchen were to die for.

“Nah. The FBI guy I talked to still treated me like a dumb cop from the boonies, but that’s to be expected. Enough about work. What are you going to order?”

“I’m leaning toward the cacciatore.”

“It’s great. They use an arrabiata sauce in theirs, though, so heads up. It’s a little spicy.”

“That’s why I picked it.”

“You like spicy food?”

“Yeah. I was raised on New Mexico’s green chile and red chile peppers.”

“New Mexico, huh?”

“Yeah. My mom was from there.”

She expected him to make a joke about liking girls with a little spice in their blood or to ask if she spoke Spanish.

Instead, he said, “I’ve always thought the west was beautiful. Did you go out there a lot as a kid?”

“For holidays and stuff, yeah,” said Georgia, pleasantly surprised to avoid the old clichés.

“Tell me about it,” said Cooper, settling into a more comfortable, leaned-back position, as if he was preparing to listen to her for hours.

Georgia smiled at him and felt a pleasant warmth growing in her chest. It might have been the wine, but she was pretty sure it was something better.

“
L
ong time
, no see,” said Georgia when she opened the door for Cooper the next morning.

She had to admit, as nice as he’d looked the night before in his button-down and jeans, there was something extra handsome about the way he looked in his blue police uniform. Perhaps it was because it went so well with his eyes.

She felt that same flutter in her chest she’d felt the night before, but she did her best to shove it aside. She couldn’t let it turn into anything serious, and something about him definitely had the potential to do so. Last night, she could tell he’d wanted to kiss her good night, and a part of her had screamed just to let it happen, but the logical, put-together business woman side of her had won out in the end. The date had been nice, wonderful in fact, but Cooper Harris needed to stay a friend. Nothing could come of it.

“Hello, Georgia,” he said with an easy grin. “You ready to wrangle some confessions out of our suspects?”

“Always,” said Georgia. “But why such an early start? And on a Sunday?”

“Because a cop doesn’t have to adhere to typical business hours, and catching people on a Sunday morning, when they are usually at their most relaxed, is the best way to throw them off balance, especially if they’re lying.”

“All right. If you say so. Who are we interviewing first?”

“Delia,” said Cooper. “Since we can’t totally prove Cynthia and Bruce were having an affair, Delia has the most clear-cut motive: the job position.”

“So, do I get to ride up front and play with the siren, or do I have to sit in the back?” said Georgia, eyeing Cooper’s police cruiser in the drive.

“Definitely up front,” said Cooper, giving her his arm. “I love having an excuse to play with the siren.”

He opened the door for her and showed her the switch to turn on the siren. Georgia flipped it on right there in the driveway and kept it on until Cooper said, “We’re coming up on her neighborhood now. It would be best if she didn’t hear us coming. We want to catch her off guard.”

Delia lived in a cute little subdivision with a community center and pool. Her house looked like a something from a fairy tale. It was a small, two-story wooden home painted sky blue with a dark blue shingled roof and a bright red door.

“Looks like she has company,” said Cooper.

Three cars took up all the space on the short drive, so Cooper parked the cruiser on the street.

Georgia and Cooper walked up the short drive together, and Cooper rang the bell. They heard the chime faintly behind the door, but no one came. Georgia knocked after a minute or so, and still no one came.

“That’s weird. Do you think one of the cars belongs to the mystery—” Georgia looked around as she talked only to find that Cooper was making his way around the house, following the line of bushes circling it. She trotted off after him.

In the back of the house was a little yard surrounded by a chest-high, black iron fence woven with ivy. What they saw on the other side made Georgia’s heartbeat quicken. Delia, Cynthia, and Victoria all sat at a patio table laden with mimosas, muffins, tea, coffee, sausage balls, and other finger foods. As Georgia stood frozen, watching, Cynthia and Delia laughed at something Victoria had just said.

“I never could hold a tune,” said Cynthia, setting off another round of laughter.

“Good morning, ladies,” said Cooper, approaching the gate in the fence.

All three women made little noises of shock. Cynthia jumped and knocked over a tea cup.

“I’m sorry to startle you,” said Cooper. “We tried the door, but no one answered.”

“Chief Harris,” said Delia, getting up and flashing a perfectly white, but rather stiff, smile, “what on earth brings you here? And Miss Mason, what a surprise. Would you like to join us for brunch?”

Georgia couldn’t answer. Her brain was zipping at a dizzying speed, making the connections and putting it all together. She’d solved it! And all she could do was mutely follow Cooper through the gate. Her excitement had caught the words in her throat.

“We’re here to ask you a few more questions,” said Cooper. “In fact, we were going to stop by all three of you lovely ladies’ houses, but you’ve saved us the trouble.”

“We’ve answered all your questions, Chief,” said Victoria. “Yours and hers.” She shot a less-than-friendly look at Georgia. “I just want to be left in peace to mourn my husband.”

“I find that hard to believe,” said Georgia, making all eyes lock on her, “since you killed him.”

Victoria’s mouth gaped open.

“How dare you?” she said just as Cooper pointed a thumb at her and asked Georgia, “She did it?”

“Not just her,” said Georgia, her heart racing as she looked at Cooper. “They’re all in it together!”

Victoria shrieked in outrage and dropped her jaw even farther, Cynthia burst into tears, and Delia looked Georgia right in the eye and said, “Prove it.”

Cooper observed all three women’s reactions, and his hand went to the cuffs on his belt.

“Explain it to me, Georgia,” he said. “How do you know? I have to have probable cause to arrest them.”

“Arrest us?” said Victoria, her blue eyes narrowed in anger. “This is ridiculous. She isn’t even a cop.”

“Please sit down and remain quiet, Mrs. Fowler,” said Cooper, “or I’ll take all of you down to the station right now to finish my questioning.”

“Well, I’d had suspicions for a few days now,” said Georgia, “because three of our best suspects having the same alibi when so many things pointed to them was really fishy to me. But I know for certain now. Casual acquaintances don’t have brunch.”

“Really, you’re basing all this on us having brunch?” said Delia, crossing her arms and raising a skeptical eyebrow.

“Yes, actually,” said Georgia. “See, there’s no other reason for you all to lie about being friends. Victoria claimed she invited you out for drinks on a whim. You, Delia, claimed you barely knew Cynthia, but we found out you went to the same high school and that Cynthia used you as her personal reference to get the secretary job. Why would the three of you lie about something as innocent as being friends unless you were trying to distance yourselves from each other in order to distance yourselves from the crime?”

Cynthia let out a particularly loud sob in response while Delia tried her best to remain stoic and Victoria stammered nonsensically. Georgia zeroed in on Cynthia as the weak link.

“Cynthia, how did they convince you to do it?” said Georgia, her tone sad and sympathetic. “You loved Bruce more than either of them, didn’t you?”

“Yes!” wailed Cynthia. “But he didn’t love me back. He kept saying he was going to leave Victoria, but he never did. And then he cheated on me with Delia!”

“Whoa, hold on,” said Cooper. “Delia was sleeping with him, too? How old was this guy again?”

“Delia didn’t love him, though, did she, Cynthia?” said Georgia.

“No! Neither of them loved him like I did.”

“Delia was just using him to advance her career,” said Georgia, fixing the young blonde with an icy stare.

Delia stared right back with a defiant glare of her own.

“How did you know he had an affair with Delia?” said Cooper.

“It was just a hunch,” said Georgia. “If they all did it together, then Delia’s secret boyfriend wasn’t a hit man. My dad said Bruce had a thing for Delia, and Delia was keen for a higher position in the company. I put two and two together.”

“This is insane. You have no proof,” said Delia, “just the sniffling lies of a ditzy secretary.”

Cynthia’s cry of outrage made a small smile tug at Georgia’s mouth. If she played this right, they would all tear each other apart.

“You just wanted a pay raise, maybe a senior agent position, right, Delia?” said Georgia. “But you just couldn’t stand the fact that Bruce had the gall to cheat on you with someone like Cynthia. But why did you care so much if you were only using him?”

Delia’s jaw worked furiously, and finally she couldn’t hold back the words.

“It was the principle of it!” she said, her eyes wild. “That old fart thought he could sleep with anything with boobs. He thought we were all trash. Well, I’m not trash, and I’m not a cheap fling like
some
people I know.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” said Cynthia, her tears dried up by rage.

“You know what it means.”

After another ear-piercing shriek of rage, Cynthia thrust a polished nail at Delia and said, “She came up with the whole thing! I didn’t want to do it! She put all kinds of nasty stuff in my head.”

“I don’t know what you two are whining about,” said Victoria, her tone venomous. “I was his wife, and he cheated on me with you two tramps!”

“You never understood him! You never loved him!” said Cynthia.

“Hey!” said Delia, pointing at Victoria. “Don’t give me that crap. It was my idea to tell you what was going on. I let you get your revenge.”

“Wait,” said Cooper, shaking his head in disbelief. “You went to the wife and told her you were having an affair with her husband and asked her if she wanted to help you kill him?”

“Victoria was half telling the truth when she said she only knew Cynthia casually from visiting the office,” said Georgia. The picture was getting clearer. “Cynthia and Delia were friends, but for a while they kept their affairs secret from each other, probably at Bruce’s request that they keep the affairs quiet. When they found out about each other, Delia decided to tell Victoria everything out of revenge. That’s when the murder plot formed. Of course, nothing bonds you quite like conspiracy to commit murder. Victoria became part of the group.”

“She was never my friend,” said Cynthia defiantly. “Not really. She’s the one who shot him! I told you she never loved him. She shot him in the chest and didn’t even fl-flinch.”

Cynthia burst into tears again.

“Who bought the gun, Cynthia?” said Georgia.

“Delia.”

“I figured. You are the most resourceful of the bunch, aren’t you, Delia?”

“Bite me,” said Delia.

“You were also smart enough to convince Victoria to pull the trigger,” said Georgia. “That way, if you were caught, Victoria would get the harshest sentence. If the weapon was found, Victoria’s prints would be on it. I doubt it was hard. Victoria had the most to be angry about and the most to gain. Bruce’s life insurance is quite substantial.”

Victoria gaped at Delia, and then her mouth twisted into a snarl. “You bitch!” she screamed, and she flew at Delia, nails out like claws.

The two women went to the ground in a frenzy of hair and nails and high heels. Cooper jumped into the fray and managed to tear them apart.

“They’re just as guilty as me!” said Victoria. “They were both there. Delia bought the gun, and Cynthia was the one who said we needed to let the janitor see us leave and park our cars a block away.”

“I’ve heard enough,” Cooper said. “You are all under arrest.”

Georgia watched with satisfaction as Cooper read them all their rights. He only had one pair of cuffs on his belt and one spare set in his car, which Georgia retrieved, so Cynthia went into the back of the cruiser without cuffs.

“Great work, Georgia,” said Cooper once he had closed the door. “That was amazing, getting them to turn on each other like that.”

“Thanks,” said Georgia with a huge grin.

“I guess this means that, with the mystery solved, you’re going to be heading back to New York soon?” said Cooper, his smile sad.

“Actually, now I’m short a manager, an agent, and a secretary. I think I’m going to have to stick around a bit longer.”

Cooper laughed and said, “Yeah, I suppose that is a dilemma. So, does this mean we could maybe have a few more nights like last night?”

“I think maybe it does.”

“In that case, would you like to do the honor and turn on the siren?” he asked with a wink.

“Definitely.”

On the way to the station, Georgia called Ryan to tell him the good news. She also told him the bad news: she wouldn’t be coming back to New York for a while.

“That’s great work, Georgia,” said Ryan. “I’m proud of you, doll face. I’d like to think you learned it all from me, but I’d be kidding myself.”

After Georgia laughed, Ryan said, “I got a slightly later flight than I had planned. I’m still in town, but I’ll be leaving any minute. You think maybe we could have that talk?”

Georgia bit her lip, uncertain she wanted to have that talk. It might open doors that could threaten their friendship. But she turned to Cooper and said, “Could you drop me off at the Marriot?”

Ryan was outside loading his bags into an airport shuttle car when Georgia got out of the cruiser.

“Didn’t think you were going to make it,” he said, giving her a hug.

“I guess we sort of have to be quick.”

Ryan looked at her with a half-sad smile. “Georgia, I care about you a lot. I don’t want things to be awkward between us, but Sam breaking it off the way she did got me thinking. You’ve always been something more than a friend to me. You’re my North Star, too beautiful and high up for me to reach, but I look to you all the same, for direction, for happiness, for beauty. You…I…” He sighed and adjusted his fedora. “You know where to find me, Georgia.”

Georgia didn’t know what to say. There were tears in her eyes, but still, Cooper was in the back of her mind. She gave Ryan another hug.

B
ack at home
later that day, Bill sat open-mouthed in his easy chair by the end of his daughter’s story.

“I’m so proud of you, hon. Your mom would be, too.”

“Thanks, Dad,” said Georgia. She gave him a hug and said, “So, it looks like we’ll get to spend some more time together.”

Mittens jumped up onto the coffee table and meowed. Bill looked from Mittens to Georgia.

“Does that mean the cat stays, too?”

F
ind
out what is discovered in the next installment of The Port Grace Mysteries! Coming Soon!

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