Peanut Butter Chocolate & Murder_An Oceanside Cozy Mystery Book 32 Read online

  “Then, why didn’t he show up?” Bernadette asked sadly, before taking a deep breath. “I don’t want to focus on this all night. Could we enjoy some of your donuts and talk about fun things? Has anyone read any good books lately?”

  Heather was about to answer when her phone started to ring. She excused herself to answer it and immediately recognized Ryan’s voice.

  “I’m sorry to bother you on your night off,” he said after they greeted each other. “But I didn’t want to keep you out of the loop either.”

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I’m not going to finish my paperwork tonight. Detective Peters and I were called to a crime scene. A man was shot in a parking lot. We’re still trying to identify him.”

  “That’s terrible,” said Heather. “I mean about the murder. Not about the paperwork. Though, I bet that is annoying too.”

  “If you and Amy don’t want to come to the crime scene tonight, I’ll understand,” Ryan said.

  “It’s all right,” Heather said. “If the crime scene is outside, I’m sure you could use all the help you can get.”

  She didn’t want to voice an eerie thought that had entered her head, but now there was another reason why she wanted to see the victim.

  Heather told herself she was glad that she opted to indulge more in donuts than in wine that night, and told her friends that she would have to leave.

  “That’s all right,” Bernadette said. “At least I know you have a good reason for having to go. It’s not that you don’t want to spend time with me.”

  “And we certainly do want to spend time with you,” said Eva.

  “We’d like to carry on with our girls’ night,” said Leila. “Or women’s night.”

  “And maybe you can give us some suggestions for the book club at the senior center, dear,” said Eva.

  Bernadette seemed like she was in good company, so Heather didn’t feel too guilty about leaving her. Eva and Leila lived in the adjoining home, but she told them that they were welcome to stay at her house as long as they wanted. They would just have to put up with some donut-loving animals.

  As Heather and Amy left the house, Heather transitioned into sleuth-mode. She could tell that their plans for the evening had just become a lot less fun.

  The Crime Scene

  Heather couldn’t help appreciating the irony that she was no longer allowed to park in the parking lot because of the crime. She parked further up the street near a few buildings that included a library, a post office, and a travel agency.

  Amy noticed it too. “When you live in Key West, why would you want to travel away from paradise?”

  Heather nodded, but then said, “I guess sometimes you might want to go someplace that’s different. Sometimes you might want to see snow or forests.”

  “Are you itching to see someplace new?” asked Amy.

  Heather shrugged. “I like it here a lot, but I can’t say that I haven’t thought about what we’ll do when I finish my year-long contract for opening this location. My investor said after that time, I could decide what I want to do. I could let one of the assistants take over running this location, or I could stay here.”

  “Did you make any decisions?”

  “Only that I’m only moving if all my family is involved in the move. That includes you and Jamie again.”

  Amy nodded. “Good. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

  “I think we should focus on the case now though.”

  “Right. Sorry. The travel boutique distracted me.”

  Heather looked at the sign on the door that told the hours.

  “Actually, it’s distracting me too,” Heather admitted. She looked at the other buildings on the street. “We’ll have to figure what the time of death is.”

  “I know that’s important in every case,” said Amy. “But what has you thinking about it now?”

  “The travel agency is only open a few hours every day,” said Heather. “And it’s the weekend. The library and the post office close early.”

  “So?”

  “So, if everything near the parking lot is closed, what was the victim doing here?”

  “Do you think it’s another drug deal?”

  “I think we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves,” said Heather.

  They walked down the street and crossed the crime scene tape to talk to the detectives. Ryan told her that the medical examiner had already removed the body. It was pretty evident that a gunshot wound was the cause of death.

  “When the medical examiner is finished with the autopsy, we should know more about the caliber of weapon that was used to kill him.”

  “Do you know the time of death?” asked Heather.

  “The best estimate right now is between six and eight,” said Ryan. He looked at his wife’s face and said, “Why are you frowning?”

  “Because of the store hours?” offered Amy.

  “The post office and library were listed as closing at five,” said Heather. “So, what was he doing here?”

  “I suppose we’ll have more luck with figuring that out when we discover who the victim is,” said Ryan. “There was no identification on him.”

  “No wallet?” asked Amy.

  “Is it possible that this was a robbery?” asked Heather.

  “That could be the case,” Ryan agreed. “We’re going to trace his vehicle to see if we can identify him.”

  “Good thing the killer didn’t decide to be guilty of grand theft auto too,” said Amy.

  Heather bit her lip. It was still bothering her that she didn’t understand why the victim was there at that time. Maybe the victim didn’t know that these shops would be closed? Maybe he had wanted to mail something and learned that it wasn’t open? But why was the other person in this parking lot too? Could the killer have been in the car with the victim? Were they friends?

  She was voicing these ideas to her companions when Detective Peters joined them. He was a young detective who was always eager to prove himself but wasn’t always confident in his ideas.

  “Maybe he was just stopping here for a little while,” Peters suggested.

  “Like he was enjoying the view?” Amy asked. “I guess you can see the ocean from here, but there are lots of better spots on the island.”

  “Or he could have been reading in his car,” said Peters.

  “Why do you say that?” asked Heather.

  Peters walked closer to the car and shined his flashlight inside so they could see better. The car was relatively clean, but it wasn’t empty. There was something on the passenger seat: two flowers. One was a red rose, and one was yellow.

  Heather sighed. “I think I know who the victim is.”

  “You can tell that from the book?” Peters asked.

  “His name is Henry,” said Heather. “And he was supposed to go on a date with Bernadette tonight.”

  Baking and Bernadette

  “You’re doing a great job,” Heather made sure she said.

  Truthfully, she was proud of her assistants in the kitchen. They had taken her “discover the ingredients” challenge to heart and had figured out what made up the Peanut Butter Chocolate Donut. Their skills in the kitchen were showcased even more when they offered their theories on how she had achieved the creamy peanut butter consistency of the cake base.

  However, she was also distracted by the case. Whenever she was working a murder case, it always occupied part of her attention until it was solved. However, because this case was related to Bernadette, it was distracting her even more than usual. She didn’t like thinking that Bernadette’s potential soul mate had died that night. She also didn’t like thinking that the man Bernadette cared for might have been up to something that led to his murder.

  She wasn’t looking forward to telling Bernadette any more than she already had. Bernadette had seemed so sad when she told her why her date hadn’t shown up that night.

  Ryan asked her to come to the station that morning to tell them what she k
new about Henry. Heather was planning on joining them. She wanted to support her friend and be a part of the investigation.

  “Are we right, boss?” Digby asked.

  Heather smiled at her four assistants, giving them her full attention. Digby was sampling another donut. Nina was looking nervously at her fingers, hoping they were right. Luz and Janae were smiling at Heather and waiting for her answer.

  “You all did even better than I thought when I said figure out what was a part of it.”

  “We figured you didn’t mean just to tell you it was peanut butter and chocolate,” Nina said.

  “And you figured everything out except for one thing,” said Heather.

  “A secret ingredient?” asked Luz.

  “Just a little change. I use cashew flour instead of regular flour.”

  Her assistants all looked duly impressed. She showed the subtle differences in her recipe, and they baked up a batch of the Peanut Butter Chocolate Donuts.

  Heather checked her watch. It was time for her to head to the station. She packed up a few of the donuts to bring with her and made sure that her assistants were set for the rest of the day.

  She drove over to the station and saw Amy waiting for her.

  “Tell me you have some good news for today,” said Amy.

  “I have some donuts,” said Heather.

  “That will have to do,” Amy said. “I have a feeling today is going to be hard. We’ll have to talk to a sad friend about her dead date.”

  “In addition to the emotional drama, we don’t have much information about the victim or the crime so far,” Heather said, frowning. “I think this is going to be a tough case.”

  They entered the station and greeted the detectives and Chief Chet. However, even Chief Chet’s gushing about how the new donut flavor was and listening to the fun that his daughter Chelsea had with Lilly, couldn’t distract them from the knowledge that Bernadette would arrive any minute.

  When Bernadette did enter, she looked so sad that Heather wasn’t quite sure what to do. She did the first thing that came to mind and draped an arm around her friend.

  Chief Chet took the remaining donuts and told the investigators to take over the case. Ryan led them into the interrogation room but told them it was so that they would have enough room to talk and not that Bernadette was a suspect.

  Ryan, Peters, and Amy sat on one side of the table. Bernadette patted Heather’s arm, and then they both took their seats as well.

  “Thanks for being a good friend. I don’t know how I’m supposed to act in this situation,” she admitted. “I feel very sad, but I guess I didn’t actually know him too well. I feel like I did because of our conversations, but we didn’t actually meet. I wasn’t sure whether I should wear black or not. I feel like I’m in mourning, but do I have a right to be? Maybe I’m in mourning for the loss of a happy possibility. I kept debating it, but then I realized I already wore my black dress yesterday. I didn’t have another fully black outfit.”

  “We’re sorry that we need to question you,” Heather said. “But we don’t know much of anything about the man right now.”

  “I understand,” Bernadette said, putting on a brave face. “I’ll tell you what I can. His name was Henry Don, and he seemed like a very nice man.”

  Detective Peters made a note of the name and then turned to his partner. “Now that we know the name, I think I’ll confirm his identity. Check his license and stuff. We should alert his next of kin as soon as possible. That is if you think that you’ll be all right here.”

  Ryan nodded. “I think we’ve got it covered.”

  “He has good backup,” Amy joked.

  “And I don’t like that we haven’t been able to contact his next of kin about his death,” said Ryan. “That’s a good idea, partner.”

  Peters smiled at the compliment and left the room. Bernadette turned to the remaining investigators. “Henry didn’t have any family in town. He’s a widower and didn’t have any children. I think he had some extended family up north. Very far north. He said they were in Maine.”

  “Thank you,” Heather said. “Is there anything else that you can tell us that can shed some light on what happened to him?”

  “He was an architect. I’m not sure how competitive that field is here. He said he worked at a mid-sized firm,” Bernadette said. “Maybe that could be a motive.”

  “Did he mention anything else that could be helpful?” asked Heather. “I guess a man might not mention his enemies while trying to impress a potential date.”

  “Yeah,” Amy said. “I don’t think that would impress me.”

  Bernadette gasped. “Wait. There is something. He mentioned it before in his messages. I felt it was like part of a story. He told me that he thought he had a stalker.”

  “A stalker?” asked Amy. “Like a scary murderous one? That would be a good suspect.”

  “He wasn’t scared at the time, but he mentioned how he felt like he was being followed before and how some of his small possessions would disappear. A book he was reading might be moved. That sort of thing.”

  “No chance he mentioned a name?” asked Amy.

  “No,” Bernadette said. “Unfortunately, not.”

  Ryan tapped his notebook with his pen before he spoke. “I feel a little awkward asking this, but it might help us discover more about Henry Don.”

  “Do you want to see our messages to each other and his profile?” Bernadette asked.

  “Yes,” Ryan said. “It would be helpful.”

  Bernadette nodded. “Of course, you can. It might be a little embarrassing to have you see my attempts at flirting. But if it will assist you in catching the killer, I don’t mind.”

  They asked a few more questions, but Bernadette wasn’t able to provide much more information. Heather gave her a hug before she left.

  She couldn’t help frowning as she watched her friend walk away. She felt sad that Bernadette was never able to go on her date with Henry Don.

  Peters hurried up to the trio of investigators. He looked frazzled.

  “Is everything all right?” Heather asked. “Did you uncover something unpleasant about Henry Don?”

  “I found out something about Henry Don,” said Peters. “That there is no such person as Henry Don!”

  Heather frowned again. What could this mean?

  Henry Don

  “Give me an update on what’s been happening,” Chief Chet said.

  Heather suspected that the police chief had come out of his office to check on the status of the Peanut Butter Chocolate Donuts and not the case. However, they had already eaten the donuts that she brought in that morning. She was also glad that they would be able to go over the facts of the case again.

  After Peters’s announcement about Henry Don not existing, they had all been lost in thought. It would be good to talk to the chief and see if this could jumpstart them into action.

  “Well,” Amy said, trying to recap. “We just found out that our victim is not our victim.”

  “What’s that?” asked Chief Chet.

  “We mean that the name he told his date wasn’t his real name,” Heather said after giving her friend a small smile.

  “That’s right,” Peters explained. “I checked the name Henry Don, and there’s no record of him on the island. There’s some other Henry Dons in the world, but they’re not the same man as our victim. We know what he looked like.”

  “So, what are your plans to trace the man’s identity?” asked Chief Chet.

  “We’ve hit a snag with the car,” Ryan said. “It passed to different owners without the paperwork being done properly. I’m hoping to untangle the mess, but it might take a while.”

  “What about his information on the dating website?” Heather asked. “Can you find out more about him that way?”

  “Bernadette gave us permission to view what she saw on the site,” Ryan said. “So, we can see what this Henry Don said in his profile and what he said to her. However, it doesn’
t tell us everything about him.”

  “Yeah,” Amy said with a snort. “Only what he wanted ladies to know when he was trying to impress them. He probably lied about his age and weight and stuff.”

  “Maybe,” Heather said. “It seems like he lied about his name on his site at least.”

  “Poor Bernadette,” Amy said. “She really liked him. But was the person she liked real?”

  “There is a dead body,” Peters said. “Regardless of how much he lied, he was a real person.”

  “Maybe if he lied about more than his name on these dates, it could have upset some of the women that he went out with,” Heather said, thinking. “Maybe it could have even provided a motive to kill him.”

  “I’ll contact the company and see if they will allow us to access all of Henry Don’s information,” Ryan said. “Then we can see who else he spoke to. And if he used a credit card, we can determine his real name.”

  “That sounds like a good course of action,” Chief Chet said, with a nod.

  “And maybe it will tell us more about his potential stalker too,” said Heather.

  “A stalker? That seems like a strong suspect in the case,” Chief Chet said. “Though I could see myself stalking those Peanut Butter Chocolate Donuts. They are delicious. You don’t happen to have any more, do you?”

  “Not with me,” Heather said. “But I’ll make sure to bring some by the station again real soon.”

  “Excellent,” Chief Chet said, clapping his hands. “Very excellent.”

  He looked at them as if he was expecting them to make good on the promise right away and would head out to fetch the donuts immediately. When they didn’t move, he quickly turned to Ryan.

  “Any other leads?”

  “The medical examiner is going to get back to us today about the type of bullet used to kill the victim,” said Ryan.

  “And we did find some red thread after combing the crime scene,” Peters said. “We’re not completely certain that it came from the killer, but because this happened outside, it couldn’t have been dropped there too long ago.”