Sweet Taffy and Murder: Sweet Taffy Cozy Mysteries Book #1 (10 page)

Austin glanced around the tastefully ornate lobby. “It is beautiful, isn’t it? My brother drew up the designs for the renovations. This was our first big project in Abandon.”

She glanced past him toward windows into the dining room and saw another man watching them. She didn’t recognize him, but she was pretty sure that was Mr. Davenport seated at the other end of the table. And the large-bellied older fellow looked faintly familiar.

Austin saw her staring. “You’re new to town, would you like to meet Mayor Gifford?”

So that was the man with the belly. “No, thank you. I was just on my way home.” She tried to move toward the main doors.

“You haven’t introduced yourself. Officially.” He winked.

He must know who she was though. He just liked to play flirtatious games.

“Taffy Belair.”

He smiled. “Charmed.”

Then he dropped his smile. “I’m overdoing it aren’t I? I lay it on a bit thick, I know. It’s having to talk to all these business men and bureaucrats.” He shrugged and let his blue eyes latch onto hers. They seemed to be looking for understanding. “I really am sorry about the other day in the parking lot. It’s a new car, and well, I’m a boy with a new toy, what can I say?”

His charming smile returned. “Let me buy you dinner tonight?”

“Thanks, but I have plans.”

He looked genuinely disappointed. “Another time then?”

The man who had been watching them from the table stood up now and started to head over toward them.

“I think your friends are wondering where you are,” Taffy said.

Austin glanced over his shoulder. “That’s just my brother, Mick. Don’t worry about him.” He wasn’t as tall or broad-shouldered as Austin, but he was cute and looked sort of friendly. And a little concerned.

“Austin, you’re needed at the table,” Mick said from the doorway of the dining room.

“Chill out, Mick,” Austin snapped over his shoulder. To Taffy he sighed dramatically and said, “Duty calls.”

He gave her a final longing look. “We’ll meet again, I’m sure.”

As Taffy was walking back up the resort driveway, toward her car, a police cruiser turned in to the resort. Thinking it was Maria, she waved. As the cruiser drew closer, she saw Lieutenant Gravely behind the wheel. He slowed to a stop and rolled down his window. Smiling, he tipped his hat, but he didn’t remove his sunglasses.

“Miss Belair. What brings you here?”

She didn’t think she should admit she’d just been to see Swain, especially if Gravely was here to question him, as Maria had hinted he would, and yet she couldn’t really lie, in case Swain mentioned he’d seen her.

“I was just wandering around, checking out the resort, the pool, the docks.” She hoped that would cover her ‘random’ encounter with Swain. “It’s a lovely place.”

“One of the jewels of the town, thanks to the Vallee brothers’ investment in the renovations. It will help put our little town on the map again.”

Gravely took off his sunglasses, revealing warm brown eyes.

“I hear we have you to thank for the reopening of the Harken case.”

“Oh, well. I—” Was he as irritated about it as Maria had been?

“It’s created a lot of extra work for us, but I don’t mind. I wanted to thank you actually. Janet’s death had always seemed suspicious to me. She was a special woman. She kind of reminded me of my mom, God rest her soul.”

“You lost your mom, too?”

With those words, Taffy felt a lump form at the base of her throat. She tried to ignore it as she listened to Allan Gravely.

“When I was about ten years old.” He looked down at his hands resting on the steering wheel. “My dad left when I was just a baby. Then it was just my mom and me… But the cancer finally got her.”

Taffy felt her heart crack just a little.

“That’s when my uncle—Chief Green—took me in and raised me. It’s because of him I became a police officer.” He fingered the badge pinned to his breast pocket. Then he reached into the pocket and pulled out a small handkerchief. He used it to clean his sunglasses.

Taffy didn’t want to appear nosy, but she had to ask, “Has anything new turned up with Janet’s case?”

“We have a few leads. We’re making some progress.”

He didn’t seem to want to share that progress. He glanced in the rearview. Another car was turning into the resort driveway. He slipped on his sunglasses.

Taffy said, “Let me know if I can do anything to help.”

He nodded and smiled. “You’ve done enough, thanks. You have yourself a nice day, Miss Belair.”

The police cruiser started to creep forward.

“You, too, Lieutenant.”

Taffy carried on up the road, wondering who else Gravely had already talked to.

Taffy couldn’t find her little spaghetti-strap slip dress to wear to the party. She was sure she’d packed it. But since Ethan wasn’t coming now, it didn’t matter too much. Instead she slipped in to jeans, brown suede boots, and a low-cut top with lace trim.

Then she cut the Jell-O into squares. She layered orange, green, yellow, and purple cubes together in a glass bowl and covered it with plastic wrap. She set it on the passenger seat of her car.

The address Ellie had given her led to a ranch-style house in a small subdivision a few blocks up from the main street of town. She could hear the bass thump of music as soon as she got out of her car. The door was open, so she pushed her way into the fray.

She recognized a lot of faces from work, but most of the partygoers looked like Ellie’s friends from high school, and they acted as if they hadn’t changed much since then. They guzzled beer and slammed shots, dirty-danced in the living room, and generally hooted and hollered their enthusiasm for having been let out on Saturday night without any leashes. Taffy normally loved a good party, but there was something rather regressed about this scene.

Ellie was in the kitchen pouring out more veggie dip and cheese doodles. She squealed when she saw Taffy and her Jell-O bowl. She reached under the plastic wrap, pinched a purple cube, and tossed it between her lips. “Delish! Just set it here.” She gave Taffy an appraising look, her eyes locking on her feet for another squeal. “Love those boots!” Then she grabbed Taffy’s hand and, glancing at her forehead, said, “Come on. I’ll get you those samples.”

Taffy’s pimple was effectively concealed with makeup, but with Ellie’s firm grip, she had no choice but to trail her new friend through the crowded living room with the plastic-covered furniture and down a hall with shag carpeting. Ellie pushed through a door marked with a big E.

Taffy’s gaze skimmed over a bookshelf full of knickknacks and baskets overflowing with sunglasses. Next to the basket was a pickle jar full of marbles like Janet’s, one of pennies, and another full of keys. There was a basket full of scarves, another of gloves, and it didn’t look like any matched, as if Ellie collected odd ones lost by strangers. There were stacks of old
Archie
comics and digests,
Star Wars
paraphernalia, along with
Oprah
and
Martha Steward Living
magazines. Taffy could hardly see past all the
stuff.

She was surveying the collection of stuffed animals and wondering about a green stain on the yellow chenille bedspread when one of the posters caught her eye.

“Oh. My. God.” She crossed over to the wall to look more closely. Ellie stopped digging in a jar full of creams and mini–perfume bottles and scooted up beside her.

“Did you just love Sons of Insanity, too?” She clapped her pudgy hands together. “I knew we had a lot in common. I just adored them for, like, all of middle school. My friends thought I was nuts, but I had the biggest crush on the lead singer.”

Taffy stared at the group of five shaggy musicians. The one in the middle looked pouty as he focused his intense baby-blue gaze at the camera. She almost reached out to touch her father’s young cheek. This was the first band he’d been in. Part of the Seattle grunge scene. Back when he’d first met her mother.

“That’s my dad,” said Taffy quietly, trying to conjure up murky memories of her parents together.

“Whaaat?” said Ellie.

“Yep, he’s my dad. Not that he was ever much of one.” Taffy touched the edge of the poster.

“Get! Out!” Ellie, who’d already drunk several plastic cups of beer from the keg she’d ordered, actually punched her in the arm, and Taffy nearly lost her balance. She rubbed her bicep, which would likely end up bruised. She hadn’t realized Ellie was so strong.

“It’s true. But this picture was taken a long time ago, Ellie. He’s not like that anymore.”

“But you
actually know
Dillon Archer? Like, for real?”

Taffy nodded. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention it to anyone.”

She didn’t know if Ellie heard her while she prattled on. “So I googled this fan site, and there’s a rumor going around that the band’s getting back together. Is it true? You must know if it’s true or not. Is it? ”

Taffy stared at the group of musicians on the poster. Her father looked genuinely happy back then. Not fake-happy for the cameras the way he was now.

“No. Why would they?”

Ellie looked dejected. She sat back on the edge of the chenille bedspread and guzzled back the last of her beer.

“What’s that?” Taffy cocked her ear, picking up a familiar sound. A wailing siren.

Through the window, they saw a police cruiser go speeding by.

Ellie ran to the living room and then the front lawn. Everyone was staring after the police cruiser, which was quickly followed by one more.

“What’s happening?”

Vanilla Boy—Clint—shrugged. “No idea.”

Someone else said, “Anthony Herbert’s place is down that way.”

Another person from work said, “I heard the police searched his house this afternoon.”

“Who wants to go check it out?” A toffee elf named Tom climbed into his pickup truck. Several others climbed in with him.

“Let’s go!” Ellie said, turning to Taffy.

“You’re drunk. You can’t drive.”

“But you can,” Ellie passed her the keys.

“Rubbernecking field trip!” whooped Ellie as she pushed Taffy toward the Aveo. Nolan and some girl in a tight tank dress climbed in with them.

They pulled over a few blocks down and stood around the driveway of a two-story white stucco house with green trim.

Maria was standing outside by the police car. She saw Taffy in the crowd and waved her forward. She leaned in close to explain.

“Those letters led us to some incriminating documents at his office. And he couldn’t properly account for his whereabouts the night Janet died. We got a warrant to search his house, and we found several items of clothing belonging to Janet Harken. But the real clincher was finding one of Janet’s hairs on his bowling ball.”

Taffy couldn’t believe her suspicions had proven true.

The chief and Lieutenant Gravely emerged from the front door with Herbert between them. He wasn’t handcuffed, as he seemed to be cooperating, though he was arguing.

“I didn’t do it. I’m innocent. Let me call Davenport.”

Maria turned back to Taffy. “We’ll need to do a more thorough search of the Harken house.”

“I already told you to come by anytime. I thought maybe you had been there last night.”

Gravely pushed his way in front of Taffy.

Bossily, he said, “All civilians should be behind the line.”

“Relax, Gravely. She’s the one who gave us the tip.”

Taffy said. “Don’t worry about it.” She stepped back amongst the rest of the onlookers.

Maria opened the back door of the cruiser so Herbert could get in.

Taffy turned to Ellie, “Come on, let’s go back to the party.”

“Wait, I just wanna see Allan push Herbie’s head down as he gets in the car.”

Taffy watched Ellie watching Gravely guide Herbert into the backseat of the patrol car. She looked all doe-eyed.

“You’re on a first name basis with Lieutenant Gravely?”

Ellie looked at her. “Duh. He’s like head over heels for me.”

Taffy looked back at Gravely who was straightening his belt and hat before climbing into the driver’s seat of his cruiser. It all seemed like posturing, and when he winked at Ellie, Taffy wondered if it was all for her.

“What about your crush on Clint?”

Ellie grinned drunkenly. “May the best man win.”

“Show’s over now, folks,” Maria said, returning to her car.

Taffy caught a glimpse of Anthony Herbert in the back of Gravely’s car. He stared at her through the glass, his grimace tight and blaming.

After the police cars drove off, everyone made their way back to Ellie's. The music was still blaring. The keg was still half full. While some people chatted about the recent arrest, most just got back to dancing and drinking. Taffy was tempted to join in and pound back a few shots, but she felt a bit shaky. She told Ellie she wasn’t feeling well. Ellie sent her home with a napkin full of mini–cocktail sausages and potato chips.

On Sunday morning, Ethan called to say he was coming over with a surprise for Taffy.

When his pickup truck rolled to a stop in her driveway, she watched him remove a large box from the truck bed and carry it up the front steps.

“Are you moving in?”

He squinted up at her standing in the doorway.

“Yeah, this is my sleep apnea machine.”

He pushed past her standing in the doorway. “’Scuse me, gotta get this to the kitchen.”

“You’re planning to sleep in the
kitchen
?”

As he shuffled past her, she caught a whiff of a delicious fragrance. Dark, spicy, sweet, but also slightly bitter.

“When’s your birthday, Taffy?”

“Is that a trick question?” She followed him down the hall.

“Let’s pretend it’s today.” He set the box on the table. “Happy Birthday.”

The box was unmarked, and something clanged as it came to rest on the table. She peeked inside.

“What is it?”

He looked disappointed that she couldn’t tell just by looking.

“It’s a coffee machine. Custom designed. A simpler version than mine.”

That
was the smell. Coffee beans. She smiled, and then she frowned.

“Does it come with a barista?”

“Only for a day. I’m going to teach you how to make your own coffee.”

Taffy rested her hip against the kitchen table and sighed. “So you’re
not
moving in. If you were, you could just make it for me.”

“Or you could make it for me.”

Taffy wasn’t used to making things for anybody.

She said, “I was just joking about moving in, you know.”

“I know. And it’s a good thing because I don’t believe in sex before marriage.”

Taffy’s eyes widened.

“Joking, joking. Like the sleep apnea, though I do think I snore on occasion.”

“Are you flirting with me?”

“Just a little.” He winked. “But don’t get too excited. I’m here to do something really serious.” He started unpacking the box.

Taffy examined the paraphernalia he was setting on the table. “Do you really think I can learn?”

Ethan nodded. “I have a feeling you have a whole bunch of hidden talents.”

“What should I do?”

He set the bag of beans on the counter. “You can start by grinding these up.”

“With what, my teeth?”

He pulled out a small gadget with a lid and a plug. “Better use this.”

Within minutes the most delicious scent filled the kitchen.

Taffy said, “You missed all the commotion last night. The cops came for Herbert.”

“I heard.”

Did that mean he’d been talking to Maria? Taffy wondered if it was before or after his important meeting, but she didn’t want to appear jealous or nosy by prying.

“They were nice about it. They didn’t handcuff him or anything.”

“Poor Herbert.” Ethan dropped the ground beans into a special filter.

“
Poor
Herbert? Even you thought he had a chip on his shoulder. Maybe this is how he knocked it off.”

“I’d just never peg him for a murderer. What could he have against Janet?”

“Apparently he’d been romantically involved with Janet before this ‘floozy’ Gillian sailed into town.”

Ethan grinned when she said the word ‘floozy.’

“So?” He adjusted the flow of the drip.

“Lover’s quarrel? Crime of passion? They’d been seen fighting less than a month before she died.”

“Janet was passionate about causes, but she was also pretty levelheaded. And Anthony Herbert a Casanova? Can’t see that playing out.” He was shaking his head.

“You were friends with her. She never said anything?”

“Nope.”

“Guess that proves everyone has their secrets.”

“You sure you’re not just seeing what you want to see?”

“If the police see it the same way now, I don’t see how that matters. At least you can rest easy knowing the killer’s been caught.”

“I guess.”

Ethan walked her through the making of two carafes of coffee so that Taffy could really feel confident about the process, and then he withdrew two stainless-steel travel mugs from the bottom of the box and filled them with the fresh brew.

“I have a great idea.”

He turned to Taffy, handing her one of the mugs.

Then he suggested doing something Taffy had never considered before.

“Hiking? For real?”

Ethan’s coffee tasted divine. It practically had magical qualities, but she was sure it lacked the power to turn her into an outdoorsy person. “I don’t know…”

“The fresh air would be good for you, and you still haven’t been to the state park. It’s beautiful. I want to show it to you.”

“But I don’t have the right shoes.”

“I bet there’s some here.” He hopped up from the kitchen table and headed toward the closet.

“You’re kidding, right? You want me to wear a dead woman’s shoes?”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “You have to stop saying stuff like that. They’re just shoes. Just imagine that you got them from a secondhand store.”

Taffy made a face. “I have never in my life worn a pair of secondhand shoes.”

He retrieved a pair of tan hiking boots with red laces from the hall closet. “Here, these are perfect. Looks like they’ve hardly been worn.”

“They have mud on the soles. I’ll try those sneakers instead.” She pointed to a pair of clean, barely worn Nikes.

Ethan pulled them out and then surprised Taffy by kneeling down and slipping them on her feet. Then he got up from his knees and rifled around in Janet’s closet for a coat.

Taffy grimaced. “I think I’ll wear my own coat, thanks.”

Shoes were one thing, but wrapping a dead woman’s coat around her shoulders seemed just a little too close for comfort.

“Not that leathery pink number?” Ethan said, shaking his head. “I might have an extra fleece pullover in my truck.”

Ethan’s jacket was huge on Taffy, but it was super cozy. The sleeves were long enough to serve as mittens.

After parking in the visitor’s lot of the Castle Rock State Park, Ethan picked a trail on the map. “This one’s about an hour. Think you can handle it?”

Taffy wiggled her toes in her borrowed shoes and nodded. “Lead on, McCoy.”

They walked in silence for several minutes. Ethan picked up a small stick and tapped at some of the trees as they passed. Taffy chose a stick, too, and picked at its bark, trying to reveal its smooth inner core. Her mind was on Janet, Herbert being driven away by Gravely, and her meeting with Randall Swain on the boat. Even though the police now had their suspect, Taffy was still curious about what Swain might tell her about the bowling club. She intended to keep her Monday meeting with him

Following her thoughts, she asked Ethan, “Have you heard of something called the MBC?”

“Hmm?” Ethan was distracted watching a squirrel climb up a tree.

“The MBC. I think it’s some sort of club Janet belonged to. A bowling club. I asked Randall Swain about it.”

Ethan snapped his stick in two and tossed it into the trees.

“You went to see Swain?”

“I thought he might have something more to say about the night Janet died. This was before things went down with Herbert, of course.”

“Right, back when you were still in search of a murderer to fit the crime.”

Taffy stuck her stick in the knot of a tree. “I can’t believe you’re giving me such a hard time about this. I bet you think I’ve been sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong, don’t you?”

“Don’t take it as criticism. Believe me, I know there’s an underbelly to this town, and I’m all for exposing it, but what I don’t understand is, why have you been going to so much trouble when you don’t plan on sticking around for long?”

Taffy shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans. Because they were so tight, only the tips of her fingers fit.

“I don’t know. It’s like a puzzle with missing pieces. I want to figure it out.”

He grabbed a low branch and used it to hoist himself up onto the wide flat surface of an old-growth tree trunk. Then he reached down and offered Taffy his hand.

“Is it Janet’s puzzle you’re trying to figure out, or your own?”

She looked up at him. Sunlight slanted through the firs and cedars and glanced off his dark hair, making some of the strands look reddish.

Did she have her own puzzle to figure out?

Taking her fingers out of her pockets, she reached up. Her hand was engulfed in Ethan’s large, warm grip. He lifted her with one arm. She scurried with her feet up the side of the trunk, but Ethan took most of her weight, and she felt as if she’d been picked up like a toy and set down in a make-believe world. The forest air was so crisp and clean it almost made her head hurt.

From their perch on the trunk, Ethan pointed. They were on the upside of a forested hill. Down at the bottom was a lake, which glittered silvery blue through the straight, dark tree trunks. Some of the trees reached high where they stood, but others, closer to the lakeshore down the hill, were much lower, and Taffy could see some of the highest branches, even some tops.

“Look there,” said Ethan.

“Where?” Taffy scanned the area he pointed to. “I don’t see anything.”

He pulled out a pair of birding binoculars. “There’s a nest over there. See it?”

She peered through the small lenses. The forest disappeared in a blur until she focused properly. She saw a nest. Inside it, a fledgling.

“Oh!” It opened its wings, as if to stretch, but then it sort of wobbled to the edge of the nest, its bobbing head looking over. And then its whole body dropped away. Taffy gasped in alarm, trying to track its fall, but she lost her aim on it. She pulled the binoculars away.

“Oh, no. Do you think it made it?”

Ethan was smiling. “Can’t be sure unless we scour the forest floor down there. But let’s choose to remain optimistic, shall we?”

Taffy handed back the binoculars. Ethan jumped down off the trunk and then held out his arms for Taffy.

“Go on, jump.”

She felt a bit like the bird in the nest, though she only had about three feet to jump. She leapt, landing on the needle-packed patch of earth next to Ethan. He steadied her landing. Gripping his forearms, she looked up into his green eyes.

He held her gaze, and she was preparing herself for a kiss, but then he stepped back and said,

“Come on, I want to show you another part of the park.”

They hiked for about half an hour. Taffy couldn’t remember the last time she’d spent so much time in nature. Did downhill skiing count? That time she and her friends went to Aspen, they spent a lot of time up on the mountain, though admittedly most of it in the après ski lounge flaunting their sporty fashion ensembles. Taffy didn’t think she’d ever inhaled this much high quality oxygen in one sitting. It made her brain feel funny.

On the far edge of the small lake, they crossed a bog by boardwalk and came to a dead-looking part of the forest.

“We had a fire here about five years ago. The state was going to sell off this chunk of the park to developers, but a bunch of us protested and got the park to keep it. It’s slowly beginning to re-grow.”

Between the spindly charred trunks, Taffy noticed leafy green bushes and reeds.

“So you’re not a fan of development?”

“There’s so little land left. Not just for people to enjoy, but for animals to inhabit, and even just for trees to grow so we have enough oxygen.”

“I feel like I’m OD-ing on oxygen,” giggled Taffy in her slightly snorting way.

Ethan didn’t laugh along with her though. He looked a bit sad. “Our views of progress are so short sighted. Who needs more big-box stores, casinos, and skyscrapers?”

“Sometimes in New York you see birds’ nests on building ledges. Doesn’t look quite right though. And they’re mostly just pigeons anyway.”

“Do you know what kind of bird you just saw in that nest?”

“No idea.” Bird-watching was for nerds where Taffy came from.

“A marbled murrelet. There are fewer and fewer of them every year. Not just that species, but all kinds.”

“Are you trying to turn me into a tree hugger?”

Taffy sidled up to him as they walked on, and she let her arm brush against his. She’d easily convert to an Ethan-hugger, but he still wasn’t making any moves on her.

“I’m not trying to turn you into anything,” he said, facing her with his open, warm gaze. “I like you just the way you are.”

But he didn’t seem to like her well enough to ask her out on a proper date or give her a proper kiss. At least not yet.