A Novel Death: a Danger Cove Bookshop Mystery (Danger Cove Mysteries Book 10) (16 page)

Dangerous Reads was dark and quiet, and I unlocked the new back door so Adam and I could wait inside for Detective Marshall. I walked out to the main floor and flipped on the lights in a couple of the alcoves so the store would feel more welcoming.

"This would be a good time to tell the detective about Gibson and Astra," Adam said, leaning against the doorjamb. He crossed his arms, and his brow furrowed. "Gibson was at the book signing. And Astra too."

I had thought about that. Just because they were nice didn't mean that one of them wasn't hiding something. Or rather, they were definitely hiding something. But I didn't think it was a murder.

"I know they were acting a little suspiciously, but they had reasons for their strange behavior. Gibson was trying to talk some reason into Cal, and Astra just wanted to see her daughter up close," I said.

A soft knock sounded at the front of the store, and I stepped out of the alcove where Adam and I were standing. But instead of Detective Marshall's scowling mug, it was Cecilia Evers. She saw me and smiled and waved.

"Ah, that's Cecilia," I said.

Adam leaned out and looked.

"Are you going to let her in?"

I hurried to the front of the store and unlocked the door.

"Hi, I'm sorry to bother you after hours," she said, stepping into the dimly lit bookshop. "You're Meri, right? I got the message at the school this afternoon, but it was my first day back, and I didn't get a chance to call you. I was driving by and saw the lights on, so I thought I'd just stop in."

"Oh, thank you," I said.

"Dr. Whitaker, hello," Cecilia said, smiling at Adam. "What are you doing here?"

Adam, who had been several feet away, stepped forward and took Cecilia's outstretched hand. He appeared at a loss for words for a moment. "We were out to dinner…"

He didn't seem to know how to sum up how we had ended up in the bookstore, looking at the woman we'd just been talking about. He looked to me.

"I am so glad you came over," I said. "I know you're probably wondering why I wanted to talk with you."

Cecilia gave me a small smile, and the strong resemblance to Astra made me catch my breath. There would be no need for a DNA test.

"I'm assuming it's about my uncle's death," she said.

"Yes…" I looked to Adam for support, but he didn't seem to have any ideas either. "The investigation… Uh, well."

I had a purpose in calling her, but with Cecilia in front of me, smiling patiently and looking so much like her birth mother, my mind was misfiring.

"Did you talk with the police after the shooting?" Adam asked.

Cecilia tilted her head, and her expression changed from polite to confused. "No. I wasn't here. I only came by for a few minutes on my way to the school theater."

From behind me I heard the rattle of the front door and turned to see Gibson and Astra on the sidewalk. Gibson raised a hand and waved, and Adam stepped forward to let them in.

"Hi, uh, we were driving by and saw Cecilia's car," Gibson said, ushering Astra into the store in front of him.

Cecilia took his hand and smiled. "I was on my way to Aunt Pippa's house, and I saw the lights on here, so I stopped to talk to Meri."

Her gaze fell on Astra, who was hanging back behind Gibson.

"Have we met before?" Cecilia asked, her smile returning. "You look so familiar."

Before Astra could answer, a loud, sharp noise filled the store as the front plateglass window exploded.

The first shot was followed quickly by another, this one a louder crack. By that time, I was on the ground, Adam on top of me. When I looked up, my ears ringing, I saw Astra lying on the ground near where she'd been standing. Gibson had tackled Cecilia, and they were several feet away behind a bookcase that sheltered them from the front of the store.

A car's tires squealed in the street, and I heard a car alarm in the distance. The hardwood floors sparkled as if covered in glitter, and slowly it dawned on my shocked brain that it was a layer of shards of glass. And the plate glass window at the front of the bookshop was gone, except for a ragged edge along the top.

Adam grabbed me and kept me on the ground.

"Don't get up," he said.

I hadn't even realized that I was struggling to stand. My brain was still in a rage-induced fugue state.

"I'm calling 9-1-1," Adam said, pinning me to the ground. "Is anyone hit?"

Gib and Cecilia reported, but I didn't hear anything from Astra right away.

"Astra?" I called out. "Are you okay?"

She sat up, behind the display of new releases, where Cal's book had been stacked in a pyramid that Katya had spent a good hour getting just right. Now the books were scattered around the floor near Astra.

"I'm not hurt," she said.

My anger was immediate, and it was raw. Someone just shot my bookstore. My grandmother's bookshop. It was as if someone had attacked my childhood.

I listened to the sound of Adam's steady and strong voice calling in the details to the dispatcher, his arm still keeping me on the ground next to him. In the distance, I heard sirens approaching. For the third time in less than two weeks. It was not a sound I had ever associated with Danger Cove, and I was starting to hate it.

I was also starting to dislike Detective Marshall, who barreled into the bookshop with his usual bluster a few minutes after the uniformed officers had arrived. He barked orders to the uniformed officers and then stared at me with narrowed and suspicious eyes.

"Again," he said. "Trouble certainly finds you, Miss Sinclair."

"This is not my fault," I said.

He didn't look convinced. "I'm spending way too much of my time at this bookshop," he muttered. "I suppose you think this is related to the murder of Mr. Montague?"

"Well, yes, I do," I said. "I think that his ex-wife may know more about Cal's death than she's letting on."

Detective Marshall gave me a doubtful look but didn't interrupt me for a change.

"Look. I know you think I had something to do with it—"

He held up a hand. "No, the gun cleared you. It wasn't your gun that killed Mr. Montague."

I stared at him in disgust. "How long have you known that?"

"Found out this morning," he said with a casual shrug, like it wasn't my entire future on the line. "But who are these people, and what do they have to do with Mr. Montague's death?"

"They're his family and, uh, friends," I said, unsure whether to explain the entire family tree to the impatient cop. "But what I'm trying to tell you is that Mr. Montague's ex-wife, an avid hunter, and her son, who just lost half of his inheritance, should be questioned."

"I assure you, Miss Sinclair, I have spoken to both of them. David Montague was in Los Angeles at the time of the murder. And his mother was at home. A neighbor confirmed that," he said. "So they have rock-solid alibis."

It was a relief knowing that I was off of Marshall's radar. I'd hate for the detective to take too great an interest in Gibson and Astra, but at least they were in the store when the more recent shooting happened, so they couldn't be blamed for that.

"Could you please check on Pippa Montague's whereabouts tonight?"

"Why would someone want to kill you, Miss Sinclair?"

"I'm not saying someone is trying to kill me. There were five people in the store," I said.

Marshall looked at the others in turn, seeming to check them off the list. Adam was first—no, certainly not the target of a sniper. Everyone liked him, and he had nothing to do with any of the Montagues, except for this unfortunate date he was currently on.

He turned to Cecilia with a nod. "Miss Evers, why are you here tonight?"

"Meri left me a message earlier, and I stopped by on my way to see my aunt."

"Who are you?"

"Gibson Knox," Cecilia said. "He's my boyfriend."

Gib nodded, offered a card to the detective, and then stepped back, taking Cecilia's hand. "I worked with Mr. Montague on his book."

The detective frowned at the card, then looked to Astra. "And you are?"

"Astra Clements," she said, stepping forward.

Detective Marshall froze in place, his eyes wide. A blush crept up his neck, and his mouth opened and then closed without making a sound. After a long moment, he seemed to pull himself together.

"The actress?"

Astra nodded and smiled. "Why, yes."

"I saw you in several movies when I was growing up. I'm a huge fan," Detective Marshall said. He shook her hand with enthusiasm. "It's wonderful to meet you. Are you staying in Danger Cove long?"

Astra blinked and then nodded. "I don't know yet. I may be coming back more often."

"That would be nice," Detective Marshall said, a goofy grin on his face. It looked like Burt was going to have some competition.

"So you'll go up to Craggy Hills Estates and talk with the Montagues?" I asked.

Detective Marshall gave me a pained look. "Miss Sinclair, your suspicions aren't exactly evidence that someone's trying to kill a person in the store. I'll have someone interview them, but our focus right now is on canvassing this area to see if there are witnesses. This could well be a random act."

I frowned and nearly growled at his nonresponse to my concerns. He and the other cops did their jobs efficiently, perhaps because they were so familiar with this particular crime scene. Within an hour, they'd taken photos and measurements, and located two bullets in the bookstore. One round had lodged in a hardback spine of a reference guide to orchids. The other had been stopped by Cal himself—or at least his book. The bullet had penetrated the cover and into the pages, knocking it a good 15 feet from the display. Had the bullet's path been a foot to the right, it very well could have taken out Astra.

Detective Marshall grilled all of us like we were somehow responsible for being shot at and then herded us into the children's section, where we would be out of his way.

"I have a search warrant to look for the missing cell phone," the detective said, handing me the paperwork.

"Great," I said with a sigh. "You're not going to be using that fingerprint dust again, are you?"

"Probably not. Just tell me where Mr. Montague spent his time when he was here, and we'll be gone as soon as we find his phone," he said.

"The break room, mostly. And the alley." I glanced at Cecilia, my stomach sinking with guilt. I pointed out a couple other areas where Cal may have walked through, and the police officers fanned out to search the store. "His coat was way in the back of the closet. If the phone fell out of his pocket, it could be in one of the boxes tucked back in there."

Detective Marshall frowned at me again, then shook his head and walked off to the break room.

Cecilia sat on an upholstered bench next to Astra, and Gibson hovered behind her.

"It's really a lovely store, Meri," Cecilia said, giving me a sad smile. "I'm sorry that it was damaged. Is there anything we can do?"

I shook my head. "No, it's okay. I'll sweep up the glass around the window display and get a tarp up for the night. I recently found a good contractor."

At this rate, I was going to have to put him on retainer. I made a mental list of all the chores I'd have to do—call the insurance agent and the contractor. Call Alicia and Burt to let them know we'd be closed until the window was replaced.

"I was really sorry to hear of your grandmother's passing," Cecilia said. "I always enjoyed coming by and browsing the store when she was here. We both loved stories of old Hollywood, and she would always find me the best biographies. That's one of the reasons I was so happy that Uncle Cal was going to start his book tour here."

My heart was in my stomach at her kind words. "Thank you. That means a lot to me."

"I would have loved to see him do his reading here, but I had a theater production at the high school that night," she said.

"But you were here," I said. "You're in some of the photographs."

"Oh yes, I came by the bookstore for a quick hello, but Uncle Cal's publicist said he was running late, and then I had to get back to the high school," Cecilia said.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to hear your uncle read from his book," I said.

"Oh, I did. Before the signing. He spent the afternoon at my house. He was so sweet. Since I had to be at the theater, he came over and read me a chapter from his book. It was just wonderful." She pressed her hands against her heart as she spoke. "He asked me to come to Los Angeles during the next school break so we could spend some time together."

Cecilia must have left before Cal was murdered, or at least before his body was found. That meant she wouldn't have been on the list of attendees who were questioned by the police, leaving that long gap in his schedule on that day. And maybe Cal was trying to work up the nerve to tell her. I glanced over at Astra, who was eyeing the exit.

"Do you think the police need me for anything else? I think I'm going to go back to the bed and breakfast," she said softly. "Nice meeting everyone."

Gibson started to say something, but Astra gave him a sharp shake of her head, and he shut his mouth.

It was too late. Cecilia had already seen their furtive communication and gave them a suspicious look.

"What's going on?"

Astra straightened up. "It's nothing. I should be going."

She started to walk away, and Cecilia caught her arm. "Don't go. Please. Tell me what you wanted to say. Did you know my uncle?"

Astra nodded, and her eyes filled with tears.

"Oh, were you friends?" Cecilia asked.

At that, Astra looked unsure how to answer. Adam put a hand on Gibson's back and propelled him forward. The message was clear: He'd started this family drama, and he needed to take care of it now.

"Ah, Ceci, there's something I needed to…I wanted to tell you about this…" Gibson stammered.

Cecilia shook her head. "I don't understand. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Astra said. "He just wanted to do this somewhere else, in better circumstances."

I looked around the children's section, with the colorful picture books on display and some worn wooden toys on the floor. Well, at least we weren't sitting among the true-crime books, I thought. But I wondered how the juvenile furnishings matched up to the Hallmark moment that Astra had dreamed of.

The setting wasn't going to stop her though. She took a deep breath and took Cecilia's hands.

"I'm your mother," Astra said. "Your biological mother, I mean. I don't want you to think, I mean…I'm not here to take the place of your mother. I'm sure you were close—"

Cecilia's hand rose to her mouth, and her eyes—so much like Astra's—filled with tears.

"Really?"

Astra gave a jerky nod of her head but stayed frozen to the ground.

Cecilia stood up on shaky legs and took a couple steps toward her mother. They were the same height, had the same blond hair, and as they faced each other I felt a lump in my throat thicken.

Astra reached out, and Cecilia launched herself into her mother's arms, and I had to blink away the tears. Gib reached up and wiped his eyes

"How did you—" Cecilia turned to Gibson. "How did you find her?"

Oh boy. Here was the big news. I gripped Adam's hand before I realized what I was doing, and saw Gib take a deep breath.

"There's more to the story," he said. "Ah, Astra?"

Cecilia gave him a teary and expectant smile.

"He found me because he was researching Cal's book, and he figured out that Cal and I had been involved," Astra said. "And he put two and two together."

Cecilia's smile faded. "I don't understand," she said, looking between Astra and Gibson. "You're saying that Uncle Cal—"

Astra nodded. "Yes, he was your father. He arranged to have his sister adopt you."

"Oh," Cecilia said, the realization dawning on her face. She sat back down on the padded bench with a thump. "Oh, it makes so much more sense now."

The confusion was replaced with relief. And that was followed again by confusion.

"Why would he do that? I mean, now I understand why he was always so generous with me and why we had so much in common. And why he split his estate between David and me," she said. "But why wouldn't he tell me?"

Astra gripped her daughter's hands. "I don't know. At first, I think he didn't want to hurt Pippa and David. And if I had to guess, he probably thought he had found an ideal solution. His sister wanted a baby. And he didn't have to give you up."