Caramel Apple & Murder: An Oceanside Cozy Mystery - Book 6 Read online

  She pet Dave’s soft white fur who began twitching his leg with appreciation. She frowned as she thought about what they knew about the case, and what they didn't know. They knew that the victim had been killed viciously and that he had been left by the side of a bike trail where he would be seen. They didn't know who would want to hurt Walker Collins so badly or what the meaning of the location was. Then, there was another puzzling piece of this case.

  “Of course,” Heather said. “The strangest bit of all about this case is Detective Smith’s behavior. I’ve never seen him be anything but thorough and capable. I can’t understand why he’d walk away in the middle of processing a scene or interviewing witnesses.”

  "There might be something going on in his personal life that is unrelated to any police work," Ryan suggested.

  “It’s possible,” Heather said. “But if you could have seen his face at the police station when he was looking at those case files, I think you’d believe that something was up.”

  “I don’t see how it could be related to what happened today though,” Ryan said.

  “I guess you’re right,” Heather said. “And maybe we should try and get some sleep. It was a long day today, and tomorrow I'll have to train Janae how to work in the shop, as well as try to solve this case if Detective Smith lets us."

  Dave was happy with this course of action and promptly fell asleep. Heather and Ryan were just getting ready to begin their slumber as well when the phone rang.

  “Hello?” Heather said, sleepily.

  “This is Detective Smith,” the voice said, getting directly to the point. “I can’t pretend I don’t need any help in this matter anymore.”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I would like you, your partner, and Detective Shepherd to assist me with a case,” he said. “Or rather, two cases.”

  “We’d be happy to help,” Heather said. “Do you want us to help right this very minute this late at night?”

  “Let’s meet in the morning. Breakfast if you like.”

  “I’ll bring donuts,” she said.

  “Get some sleep. We’ll need our wits about us,” he said. “I’m afraid there’s a serial killer in our midst.”

  After that, Heather thought it was unlikely that she would get any sleep at all that night.

  Hot Breakfast and Cold Case

  “I said I’d bring donuts,” Heather said as she was admitted to Detective Smith’s dining room. It had been laid out with a huge spread of food that was dwarfing the selection of donuts she had brought.

  “Wow,” Amy said. “Are you trying to impress us or something?”

  “I had to keep moving,” Detective Smith said, dismissively. “I was cooking while I was thinking. I’ve been trying to get a handle on this case.”

  “Let’s get down to business then,” Ryan said.

  Heather, Ryan, and Amy took seats at the table. They still each took a donut but enjoyed the omelets, waffles, and sausage that Detective Smith had prepared.

  Detective Smith wasn't enjoying any of the food. He was having a liquid meal of coffee. Heather sensed that he had been subsisting on only coffee for a long while now. He also looked like he had been up all night.

  Before Detective Smith could begin, there was a knock at the door.

  “That must be Peters,” he said.

  He was proved right, and his partner soon joined them at the table with a jug of milk in his hands.

  “I’ve never been to your house before,” Peters was saying. "I know customarily you should bring a gift. I know you mentioned your wife was out of town, so I didn't think you would want flowers. Then I thought of bringing wine. But it's so early that I thought that might be in bad taste. And so, I thought I should bring another beverage, and well, milk seemed like something good to go with breakfast."

  Heather saved him from his awkwardness by asking for a glass of milk so that she could dip her donuts into, and Peters gratefully poured a glass full.

  “It’s a shame your wife is away,” Amy said. “We’ve been wanting to meet her. And I’m sure she’s been wanting to meet us after hearing all the wonderful stories you must have told about our assistance. But this does make me more impressed to know that you did all this cooking without any help.”

  “I did provide some milk,” Peters said.

  “Maryann is visiting her sister. I think she’s looking at houses too. She wants to move north after I retire. Probably Pennsylvania,” Detective Smith said.

  "Moving from Florida to Pennsylvania after retirement," Amy commented. "That sounds backward."

  “I’m just glad she’s out of the house,” Detective Smith said. “I was trying to crack a cold case from two years ago that I was never able to solve. In all honesty, I felt like I couldn’t retire until I knew that it was wrapped up. I felt like I was letting the victim down if I gave up on it.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about it?” Detective Peters asked.

  “It was from before we became partners,” Detective Smith said. “I should have told you, but I thought I could do it on my own. I regret that now. Especially with… Well, you all eat up. We need to be strong today. I need to get something.”

  Heather poked at her food, feeling a sense of dread build up in her. However, Amy and Peters were content to follow the instructions. They were complimenting how much they enjoyed the meal until Detective Smith entered the room. He brought with him a crime scene photo and then no one wanted to eat anymore at all.

  “This was Karen Kass,” Detective Smith explained of the picture. “She was a nurse who was found murdered on a jogging path. Actually, it was the jogging path that my last partner used to exercise on.”

  "We met him," Amy remembered. "When we were here on vacation before we moved here. He had a big mustache."

  “He was a good man,” Detective Smith said, reminiscing. “I used to call him Wheels because he was so good at maneuvering our squad car around.”

  “I don’t remember the nickname,” Amy said.

  “We wouldn’t have told civilians about it,” Detective Smith said. “He used to call me D.S. because it was both my initials and one of the police rankings in England. We got a chuckle out of that one.”

  “You said he moved to Miami?” Heather asked.

  “Yes. He moved to be closer to his grandchild. But I’d be lying if I said that this case didn’t have anything to do with his wanting a change as well,” Detective Smith said. “He found the body while on his morning run, and he felt like it had been put there for him to find. Unfortunately, we could never solve this one. It weighed heavily on both of us.”

  “Do you still think that the body was deposited there so he would find it?” Ryan asked.

  "I'm not sure," Detective Smith admitted. "It was a theory we were floating at the time. It seemed to make sense. When we got stuck, we even went to talk to my former partner and mentor about it, and he thought it had merit. His name is William Verlander. But I called him Chess. He called me Kid, though I wasn't really all that much younger than him."

  “Hey,” Peters said. “How come we never gave nicknames to each other?”

  “I’m too old for that now,” Detective Smith said. “And in retrospect, it was silly.”

  “I bet I could come up with a good one for you though,” Peters offered.

  “Let’s focus on the case,” Detective Smith.

  “Yes,” said Ryan. “You think the murder of Karen Kass is related to the new murder?”

  "It has to be," Detective Smith said. "There are too many similarities. Both of their throats were slashed, and their fingers were broken postmortem."

  “Thank goodness it was postmortem,” Amy said to herself.

  “And they were both left in public areas by trails where they could be found,” Detective Smith finished.

  “That does seem like a lot of similarities,” Amy said.

  “What about the victims themselves?” Heather asked. “What do they have in common?”

&n
bsp; "I haven't been able to figure that out. And that's why I called everyone in on this case," Detective Smith said. "We need to put our heads together to crack these cases. One victim was a woman, and one was a man. One was a nurse, and one was a bartender. They didn't seem to know each other. They lived on opposite sides of the island. And why was there a two-year gap in between these killings?"

  “We have our work cut out for us with this case,” Heather said.

  Detective Smith pushed the crime scene photos towards them, thinking it would help.

  “If you were going to show us gruesome pictures, why couldn’t we meet at the station?” Amy asked. “Why come to your house and destroy a wonderful meal?”

  “Right,” Detective Smith said. “I invited you here because I thought that this might help.”

  He led them from the dining room into his living room.

  “Well, it’s a good thing your wife is away,” Peters said.

  The entire wall was now covered with photos and notes about the case. Detective Smith had put up all his theories and all potential connections between the crimes.

  “I was trying to solve Karen Kass’s murder this week, but now we have to solve Walker Collins’s too,” he said. “They have to be related. And I can’t help but feel like the killer is taunting me somehow.”

  “The best way to respond to this taunt is to catch him,” Heather said firmly.

  Training Day

  “We’ll start with one of the perks of the job,” Heather said, presenting a Caramel Apple Donut to Janae.

  It had been strange to rush away from Detective Smith’s announcement about how the two murders were connected to Donut Delights, but she had to train Janae how to become an assistant. Heather’s mind was still racing with thoughts about the case, but she forced herself to focus on the shop. Once Janae was trained how to properly create the donuts and interact with customers, it would mean that Heather would have more time for her investigations.

  Janae picked up the donut and smiled from ear to ear.

  “Careful,” Amy said. “Once you try one of these, you’ll be hooked.”

  “That’s why I can’t leave this job,” Digby said. “Ever.”

  “And I followed her across the country,” Amy added.

  “I think I’ll risk it,” Janae said, taking a taste. She nodded. “I am hooked. And I’m glad to be joining the team.”

  “We’re glad you’re here too,” Digby said. “It’s starting to get crazy around here. Both in the shop and filling the online orders. If it weren’t for the sweet smell of donuts, I don’t know how I would have survived it.”

  “Your dramatics are going to scare away the new girl,” Heather said.

  “Nope. I’m not going anywhere.” Then Janae paused and said, “I can’t believe how much your life can change in one day though.”

  Heather nodded. She was surprised how often that seemed true in her life too.

  "Yesterday, my main job was leading bike tours, and my hobby was baking. Today my job is baking, and I'm scared to get back up on the bike because who knows what I'd ride by on this trip," Janae said.

  “You are going to have to get back on your bike soon,” Heather said. “But after we make some donuts.”

  “I take that path several times a week,” Janae said. “And Saturday is my day to lead groups that way.”

  “It’s only you who goes that way on Saturdays?” Heather asked.

  “Well, for the local bike tours,” Janae said.

  “We chose the wrong tour,” Amy grumbled.

  “It’s also strange to think how that man was alive and then was suddenly murdered,” Janae said. “That’s a terrible change.”

  “Don’t worry,” Digby assured her. “Amy and the boss will figure out who did it and see that they are caught. It’s becoming a habit for them.”

  “Do you really think you’ll catch him?” Janae asked. “That officer that was so confident and forceful seemed to think so.”

  Heather and Amy exchanged a look, acknowledging the description they would never have used for Detective Peters.

  “But what happened was so terrible,” Janae said. “Something evil did that. Can it be caught?”

  “Yes,” Amy said. “Right after donuts.”

  Heather clapped her hands to indicate that they were getting started. “Exactly,” she said. “I’m going to teach you how to make some of our special donuts and how to do things around the shop like use the register. Then you’ll shadow Digby for the rest of day and see how he does things.”

  “I do things perfectly,” Digby said.

  “It might be a long day,” Amy teased.

  “Let’s get to it,” Heather said.

  They spent the afternoon showing Janae how to make Caramel Apple Donuts, Vanilla Cream Donuts, Chocolate Chocolate Donuts, and several other favorites. Then after showing off her bronze cash register, she left Janae in Digby’s capable hands.

  She and Amy sat down for a moment to share a donut and to share their thoughts on the case.

  “The positive aspect is that you got a new assistant out of all this,” Amy said.

  “The bad news is that we have two unsolved cases to figure out,” said Heather.

  “It is double trouble,” Amy agreed. “What could the two people have in common?”

  “Ryan is going through all of Detective Smith’s original notes to see if he can figure out a connection,” Heather said. “But right now, there’s nothing that seems to link them.”

  “Except that they’re both dead,” said Amy. “Could they have been chosen because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

  “It’s certainly possible,” Heather said. “Both of the bodies looked like they had been moved to the place they were found. But that’s another question. Why were they moved to those places?”

  “There doesn’t seem to be a link between the places either?” Amy asked.

  “Only that they are paths that people could travel by, but aren’t main roads,” said Heather.

  “What about the day they were found?” Amy asked. “Is there a link there?”

  “It’s not the same day either,” Heather said. “And I don’t know why there would be a span of two years between the murders.”

  “So how do we go about solving it?” Amy asked.

  “Well,” Heather said slowly. “I guess the best way is to treat this like any other case. Yes, there are two crimes that seem to be related. But Detective Smith has been trying to solve the first case for two years and has reached a dead end. I think we should focus on the most recent case.”

  “And if it really is the same killer,” Amy said. “When we catch the second killer, we’ll have also caught the first killer because the killers are one and the same.”

  “So, we should look for the murder weapon, the location where the murder actually took place, and who had a reason to kill Walker Collins,” said Heather.

  “Also, who wanted to break all his fingers after he killed the guy?” Amy pointed out. “That’s a crazy detail we can’t overlook.”

  Heather nodded and held back a grimace. That was an important detail to the case, and they would have to figure out its significance.

  “All right,” Heather said. “Let’s go investigate.”

  “Where are we going first?” asked Amy, finishing her second donut.

  “If the main thing we know about Mr. Collins is that he was a bartender, where do you think we should start?” Heather asked.

  “I think we should get a drink,” Amy agreed.

  Bar Chat

  Heather called Ryan to make sure that she was up-to-date on all the information that they had about Walker Collins’s death and to make sure that Lilly was doing all right. Ryan assured her that Lilly was fine. She had been video-chatting with her best friend Nicholas that morning and was now working on a new story at her pink typewriter.

  * * *

  Ryan was going through Detective Smith's meticulous notes on the original
case, trying to find something that had been overlooked. So far, he hadn't come across anything. However, Heather was pleased to hear that Ryan sounded like his old self again.

  Working to make sure justice was served made him feel purposeful again, and he was diving into his task.

  * * *

  He told her that Detectives Smith and Peters were still searching for the location that the recent murder could have taken place currently without success. Heather told him about her plans to visit the bar where Walker Collins worked.

  * * *

  “Be careful,” Ryan said.

  * * *

  “I’m always careful,” Heather said, silently admitting to herself that this was only mostly true.

  * * *

  “Any news?” Amy asked after she hung up.

  * * *

  “Medical examiner finished the autopsy,” Heather reported. "The neck wound was the cause of death, and the murder weapon must be a smooth knife of some sort. He was also killed the night before our bike ride, sometime between nine and midnight."

  * * *

  “How about any good news?” Amy said instead.

  * * *

  Heather shrugged because that was all she had to report. The two friends faced the bar. It was decorated with dark wood and looked like a place that catered more to locals than the many visiting tourists.

  * * *

  They entered and were greeted with a rough voice saying, “What do you want? We don’t serve any Bahama Breezes or Mai-Tais here. We have beer and liquor.”

  * * *

  “Great,” Amy said. “I’ll have a shot of whatever you recommend.”

  * * *

  The wizened man behind the counter smiled maliciously and filled a shot for her. Amy downed it in one gulp and gave him a hard glare back. She could be quite badass when she wanted to be. They had won his respect.