Mint Fudge & Murder Read online

  “Are you talking about me?” he asked.

  “Sharing the information you told me about Mac Dugan,” Ryan explained.

  Peters nodded. He was a young detective and seemed very pleased that he had already been able to provide a clue in the case.

  “He’s a bit of a local legend,” said Peters. “The S.A.N.D. Castle contest on the island is getting bigger every year. Both with the amount of people involved in the competition, news coverage and the size of the entries. There are several categories. This is the first official year that some sand castles need to be big enough for someone to stay in. However, last year Mac build a giant one that people could walk into, and it inspired the category. He always built very elaborate designs. And he won most years in whatever category he entered.”

  “So, it is unlikely that he made a mistake that would have resulted in him getting buried,” Heather agreed.

  “He could be a little gruff, but he was a nice guy. One year he made a castle that was reminiscent of the middle school. He made little sand people to look like the students, and they really looked like him,” Peters said, getting a little misty-eyed. “He’s going to be missed.”

  “Then, we’ll just have to do everything we can to make sure that his killer is brought to justice,” Heather said. “Now what is it that we can do right now?”

  “We’ve already taken pictures and tried to account for footprints in the sand. The victim wore a size eleven shoe, which is a very common size for men.”

  “You could tell this because his feet were poking out of the sand?” Amy asked, looking pale.

  Ryan nodded. “As well as the shoes inside the house. He had several pairs, so we’ll be looking to see if they all match what we found.”

  “Unfortunately, any prints made inside the tent are ruined now,” said Peters. “From the castle falling. Maybe that was part of his plan.”

  “We’re going to be spending a lot of time inside the tent going through the sand and uncovering the body for the medical examiner,” Ryan said. “We’ve done a quick sweep of his house, but perhaps you could do a more thorough check?”

  “We’d be happy to,” Heather said.

  “Yeah. Happy not to do anything too close to the dead body,” Amy agreed.

  “Maybe we can get a jumpstart on finding a motive for this crime,” Heather said.

  Ryan thanked them for their help. He made sure that the private investigators had gloves, which Heather always carried in her purse now in case she had to handle evidence, and then he and Peters returned to the tent.

  Heather and Amy headed towards the victim’s house.

  “Well, I’m feeling more awake now,” Amy said. “I don’t think there’s any chance I’ll be falling asleep on the victim’s couch.”

  “Good,” Heather said. “Because it sounds like this is going to be a tricky case.”

  The Victim’s House

  “Wow. Peters wasn’t lying,” Amy said. “Mac Dugan was talented.”

  Heather nodded in agreement. As they entered the victim’s house, they saw pictures of his sandcastle entries through the years. There didn’t appear to be any photographs of family, but there were dozens of sand sculptures. There was a sand castle that had windows in the shape of seahorses, a fairy tale themed castle with characters from the stories carved into the walls, and there was the middle school inspired castle that Peters had mentioned. The largest photo displayed the biggest castle. Mac Dugan was sitting inside the castle in a lawn chair with a fake crown on his head.

  “These sculptures are amazing,” Heather agreed.

  “It makes me glad I didn’t enter,” Amy said, pretending to adjust her collar out of nerves. “There’s no way I could have created something like that.”

  “You would have made something that was completely your own design, and it would have been great,” Heather said. “But I think this giant castle competition would be very tricky.”

  “Do you think the competition could be the motive for his murder?” Amy asked. She pointed to Mac Dugan’s awards that were on another wall. “Maybe someone else wanted to win for a change?”

  “It’s possible,” Heather said. “Especially if there is a prize of some sort.”

  “Another reason it’s good I didn’t enter. I don’t want someone trying to kill me.”

  Heather continued down the hallway and opened a closet. There was a pile of shoes kept in a basket that were all size eleven. There was also a vest from the local hardware store with “Mac” written on a nametag.

  “That must be where he worked,” Heather said.

  Amy looked at the shoes. “If the shoe fits. They’re all elevens.”

  Heather nodded, and they continued searching the house. Most of it was tidy, but the exception was his office. The desk looked disheveled and askew.

  “Do you think that’s the victim having a messy work environment? Or someone pawing through this stuff?” Amy asked.

  Heather moved closer to inspect it and then pointed at the pencil holder that was on its side. “He decorated that pencil holder himself by adding the shells.”

  “That’s a pretty cute idea. Maybe I should do more shell-work,” Amy said.

  “What I meant was that if he put effort into making it, then he probably uses it. Unless he was in a real hurry, I can’t see him letting the holder stay on its side and have the pens and pencils strewn across the desk.”

  “Which means it’s possible that someone else was going through his things. Maybe even the killer,” Amy said with a shudder.

  Heather began to examine a long box on top of the desk. It had a hasp on it so a combination lock could be attached to keep it secured.

  “What’s in the box?” asked Amy.

  Not wanting to let the suspense build up, Heather opened it right away. Inside they found nothing. It was completely empty.

  “Well, that was dramatic,” Amy said sarcastically.

  “I wonder,” Heather said. “Did Mac remove what was in here? Or, if there really was an intruder, did he take the contents?”

  “What do you think was in there?” Amy asked.

  “Because it’s by the desk like this, I’d guess it was important paperwork.”

  “Like maybe his will?” suggested Amy.

  Heather nodded, accepting the possibility. What she really wanted to find was something to indicate who had emptied the box. She thought it had to contain something. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have such a prime location on the desk.

  She peered around the desk and searched the rest of the room. A low search yielded results. She pointed at something on the floor.

  “Look. I think it’s a lock.”

  “I think you found something the police overlooked,” Amy said, impressed.

  Heather used a gloved hand to select a pencil. She used it to lift the combination lock up off the ground. It was badly banged up and broken.

  “I think we have our answer about whether someone broke into the house or not,” said Heather. “The thief had to break the lock in order to get what was inside the box.”

  “Maybe we’ll get lucky, and he’ll have left fingerprints on it.”

  “I think he wore gloves,” Heather said as she looked closer at the lock.

  “Why? Because he was a clever thief?”

  “Because I can see a few black threads stuck to the lock,” Heather explained. “But maybe we’ll be able to match it to the killer’s gloves when we have a suspect.”

  “Good idea,” Amy said.

  “If he wore gloves and targeted this room specifically, it appears that he was looking for something,” Heather said. “What was in that box that was worth killing for?”

  That question plagued Heather all afternoon. After she and Amy reported their findings to Ryan, he thanked them and told them to spend time with their guests. It was still going to be a while before he finished with the medical examiner and all the sand. Without any obvious suspects found in their search, Ryan wanted to be completely certa
in that this was a murder before they began questioning people.

  Everyone was pretty sure that this would be ruled a homicide, but Heather understood the need for it to be deemed officially.

  She went to a dog beach with her friends that afternoon, but couldn’t help looking at the sand differently. It could be used to make beautiful works of art and to hide dead bodies. It wasn’t just something to walk across.

  Though she didn’t explain the whole scenario to her daughter, Heather did tell Lilly about the sandcastle competition. Lilly was feeling inspired and started building her own castle creations. Their dog Dave was helping by enthusiastically digging holes. Lilly proclaimed it would be the moat. Their kitten Cupcake was also helping in her own way. She was crouching in the sand, looking for crabs. Lilly said that this was protecting her kingdom from monsters.

  Heather enjoyed watching Lilly and the pets play. She also liked seeing her friends happy on the beach. Josh and Josie were swimming in the water. Amy and Jamie were walking along the water’s edge, hand in hand.

  The sun was shining, and the breeze was cool. However, Heather kept thinking about the case. It would be hard to proceed without knowing how the victim was killed, and yet she couldn’t help thinking about how something had been stolen from his office.

  Lilly called her over to help her work on the towers, and Heather happily came over to assist. However, as she picked up the handheld plastic shovel, she couldn’t help wishing that Ryan call her with a new development. She didn’t like the idea of a killer running free around town - not with her loved ones so close by.

  Morning Catchup

  Ryan kissed his wife as she handed him a cup of coffee.

  “This is late for you,” Heather commented. “I already sent Lilly to school.”

  “It was a very late night,” he said, yawning. He shook his head and took a big sip of his hot drink.

  “Uh oh,” Heather teased. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told Amy yesterday: no falling asleep at crime scenes.”

  Ryan chuckled. “I don’t think it’s that bad. But it did take us a long time to process the scene.”

  “And what did you find out?” Heather asked, sitting down at their kitchen table and gesturing for Ryan to join her.

  “We confirmed that the victim was Mac Dugan. The medical examiner is still conducting the autopsy so that he will be able to give us a better time of death than that it happened the night before we found him.”

  “Does he have an idea for the cause of death?”

  Ryan nodded. “He was hit on the back of the head with a large object. His best guess right now is that it was a shovel.”

  “I bet Mac Dugan had several of them if he was doing so much building in the sand.”

  “We did find a few,” Ryan agreed as he continued to drink from his mug. “We’ll test them for traces of blood. If one of them is the murder weapon, they were cleaned off.”

  “A shovel makes sense for the weapon though,” Heather said, thoughtfully. “The killer could have hit the victim and then continued swinging to bring the castle down.”

  Ryan started to respond but ended up yawning again. Heather brought the coffeepot over to refill his cup and handed him a donut.

  “You might need this,” she said.

  He thanked her and began eating. “I’m sure I’ll be all right once I start moving. But Peters and I do have a lot to do today.”

  “Will you send those threads I found on the lock to the lab?”

  “Yes. We did send them, and we’re waiting on the results. That was a good find.”

  “But I wish we could find out what was in the box.”

  “Peters and I are going to look into whether Mac Dugan made a will or not,” said Ryan. “It is a possibility that is what was locked up on his desk. Maybe the recipient of his money decided to speed up his inheritance.”

  “Does Mac Dugan have any family in the area?”

  “No. It doesn’t appear so. He never married or had any children.”

  Heather nodded. “We didn’t see any signs of his family in his house.”

  “Finding his work uniform was also helpful,” Ryan said. “It made it easier for us to track down his employer. We’re going to talk to them today and see if there were any issues. Maybe he had a feud with a customer or coworker.”

  “Good idea to check that out,” Heather agreed. “Someone who went to the hardware store could have easy access to a shovel and use it as the murder weapon.”

  Ryan drank the rest of his coffee quickly and then asked. “What’s your plan for the rest of the day?”

  “Jamie planned on showing off his dog grooming business today, so he’s going to take care of the guests,” Heather said, finishing her own coffee. “I thought after breakfast, Amy and I would have a talk with the woman in charge of the sandcastle competition. We could see if Mac Dugan’s entry had something to do with his death.”

  Ryan agreed with her plan for the day and started to get ready to leave.

  “Wait,” Heather said. “There’s one more thing. Not murder-related. Josh chose the restaurant he wants to take us all to. He’s going to make reservations today. It’s called The Milburn.”

  “We’ve never been there,” Ryan said. “Isn’t it supposed to be very fancy?”

  “That’s why we’ve never been there,” Heather said with a laugh. “But it should be something new and different.”

  “I’m confident Josh knows how to pick a place with good food,” Ryan said.

  Heather saw him out the door, but then saw two of her friends approaching. Eva and Leila lived next door and often visited to chat and enjoy some donuts.

  Heather waved and invited them inside. The two women happily joined her at her kitchen table where Heather set out some Mint Fudge Donuts. Dave and Cupcake ran into the room. They loved seeing Eva and Leila and knew that their arrival usually meant that there would be donut treats for them.

  Eva pet the animals and then focused on the snacks. “These are so delicious.”

  “Hot fudge!” Leila agreed, taking another bite of hers.

  Dave and Cupcake began dancing, and Heather handed them each a small bit of a donut.

  “So, how have things been with you, dear?” asked Eva. “Are you enjoying Josh and Josie’s visit?”

  “They’re not driving Amy crazy with their wedding plans, are they?” asked Leila.

  “No,” said Heather. “Amy has decided not to obsess over wanting a proposal from Jamie. Josh and Josie also haven’t made many decisions about the wedding yet.”

  “That’s quite all right,” Eva said. “They did just get engaged. They have plenty of time to decide on what they want for their wedding.”

  “They did decide on where we should go for their engagement party dinner though,” said Heather. “They want both of you to come along. And Eva, they said to please bring Vincent.”

  Eva smiled. “I’m sure my beau would love to join us. He’ll probably start planning the perfect bowtie to wear as soon as I tell him.”

  “It’s going to adults only,” Heather said. “Lilly is going to sleep over her friend Chelsea’s house.”

  “What is the restaurant?” Leila asked.

  “It’s called The Milburn.”

  “Oh, dear,” said Eva. “That’s an incredibly fancy restaurant.”

  Leila frowned. “And will everyone else be part of a couple that goes?”

  “I suppose so,” said Heather. “Ryan and I, Josh and Josie, Amy and Jamie.”

  “That would make me a ninth wheel,” Leila said.

  “I don’t have to invite Vincent,” Eva said quickly.

  “No. I wouldn’t want you not to bring him because of me,” said Leila. “I just hadn’t realized how everyone was pairing off.”

  “Why don’t you invite someone too?” Heather suggested. “I’m sure Josh would be fine with it.”

  “I wouldn’t know who to invite,” Leila said.

  “What about Vernon?” asked Eva.r />
  Leila rolled her eyes. “I know Vincent’s twin seems to have become infatuated with me, but I am not interested.”

  “Is there someone else at the senior center?” asked Heather.

  Leila shrugged.

  “Well, we can think on this,” Heather said. “Maybe there is someone you’d like to bring as another friend. And if not, it should still be a fun time. We’re all friends even if some of us are in couples.”

  The two women nodded and started talking about how nice the restaurant would be. After their visit, Heather hurried to start investigating.

  S.A.N.D. Castle Competition

  “Thank you for seeing us,” Heather said.

  She and Amy had just entered the small office of Missy Egan who ran the sandcastle competition. It appeared to be an office space that was shared between different annual events on the island, but it was currently in sandcastle mode.

  “I was happy to talk to you,” Missy said, as she showed them to some seats by her desk. “When you said you were private investigators, I was intrigued. Are you here because of a sabotage complaint? We haven’t had that before, but we’ve never had investigators hired either. Usually, it’s complaints about spying.”

  Heather and Amy exchanged a look.

  “If neither of us wants to tell her, we should determine it with a round of rock, paper, scissors,” said Amy.

  Heather sighed and faced the event coordinator. “I’m afraid we’re not here for any of those reasons. We’re investigating a murder.”

  “A murder?” Missy asked. “How can that relate to this competition?”

  “We’re not certain that it does,” Heather admitted. “But we do know that the victim was one of your contestants. He was building his castle when he was killed.”

  The blood drained from her face. “One of our contestants is dead?”

  Heather nodded. “Mac Dugan.”

  Missy let out a little cry and then covered her mouth. “I’m sorry. But this news is terribly upsetting.”